Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: Boy, I had a hard time writing this outtake. I rewrote it a few times, but I'm happy with it. It's not very long, but again, I felt it did what it needed to do. I should be working on my new story, but I keep coming up with outtakes for this one. Oh,well. Next outtake will be from Carlisle and Esme's POV.

Design For Life

JPOV

If you had told me that by the time I was forty I would have been divorced twice, I wouldn't have believed you. I certainly never saw myself ending up the way I had, but looking over at my son, I couldn't complain. Well, not too much anyway.

When I'd met my first wife, Alice, I'd thought we would be together forever. Boy, was I wrong. Something I was extremely grateful for. She had been sweet and wonderful, if not a bit spoiled when we had first met. I had been living in Seattle attending college and had become friends with her brother, Edward. He'd introduced me to her, and I had fallen hard.

After graduation, I'd moved to Forks so I could be closer to her. The next few years were spent in the honeymoon phase. We'd never argued, never fought. We had been so sucked up in being in love. I should have known that it wouldn't last.

Shortly after Bella had moved to town, Alice had begun to change. She and Rosalie had begun scheming and talking shit about Bella, and Alice had refused to understand why her brother would get mad at her. We'd had more than a few fights when I'd defended Bella or Edward, and she would play the injured party. But I'd stayed with her. Shows what an idiot I was back then.

We'd gotten married a couple of months after Edward and Bella. Something that had pissed Alice off. As far as she was concerned they had gotten married before us just to spite her. I'd rolled my eyes, but had kept my mouth shut.

Our wedding had been huge, lavish, and completely unnecessary. I would have preferred the kind of wedding Bella and Edward had had, but Alice had insisted on spending thousands of dollars on it.

Shortly, after our marriage we moved to Seattle so that Alice could work with some designer. I was a small town kind of guy, and I had never really been happy living in Seattle. Alice had loved it. Every weekend had been spent being dragged off to some fancy restaurant, or the hottest clubs. It had gotten old real quick, but I'd sucked it up.

Six years later, we had still been in Seattle. I'd hated the school I taught at, and I'd hated Alice for dragging me from one stupid function to the next. I'd grown tired of living in an overly pricey apartment. I had wanted a house and some kids. Apparently, I had been the only one in our marriage ready for that.

"Look, Jasper," Alice had said, after we'd had yet another argument about kids. "I don't want children. I don't like them. I want to focus on me and my career. Not some snotty little brats."

I'd been floored. She'd never told me she didn't want kids, instead saying the time wasn't right. I'd been furious that she had been lying to me all those years. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I'd gotten a call from my Aunt Marge. She'd told me that my dad was dying. He had been diagnosed with mouth and throat cancer, and it had been so far gone, there wasn't much the doctors could do for him. The only thing he'd wanted was for me to come home. There was no way I could deny him.

I'd told Alice that we had to leave Seattle. She'd thrown a fit, but had finally relented after I'd pointed out that I'd sacrificed my happiness to live in Seattle. Being back in my hometown, had brought back so many wonderful memories, and I'd found myself falling in love with it all over again. We'd moved into my dad's house so that I could help him out when I was home. Alice had hated it. Bitched about it from day one and had no respect for my dying father. There had been a time or two where I had come close to smacking her.

Everything had come to an end, when we'd gone to back to Forks to celebrate Emmett's birthday. I'd overheard Alice telling Emmett that she wouldn't be able to make it to his party because she had a job interview in Seattle. We'd had a huge fight, and I'd finally told her it was over.

It had been a messy divorce, but in the end, we'd each walked away with what we had brought into the marriage. I'd gone back to Texas, buried my dad, and had tried to move on. It had been hard. I'd taken to drinking a bit too much, and it hadn't been until Carlisle and Esme had come to visit me, that I had realized just how bad off I was.

They'd always been like a second set of parents to me, but I had figured once Alice and I had divorced, I wouldn't see much of them anymore. I had been wrong. They had still loved me, and still treated me like a member of the family. They'd sat me down and told me how worried about me they were. With their guidance and support, I'd gotten help. There were still days when I needed an AA meeting.

Two years after the divorce, I'd met Sheila at the grocery store. We'd started dating and before I knew it we were married. It had all happened so fast, but I'd loved her. Six months after our wedding, she'd told me she was pregnant. I had been ecstatic. She hadn't been. She'd complained that it had happened too soon, and it would ruin her career. She'd been working her way up the ranks in a law firm that had been near our house.

After Ryan was born, she'd taken time off of work, and had become a loving and doting mother. He was the light of my life. Absolutely beautiful and ours. He was perfect, and we'd fallen into a wonderful routine. Our life had been going so well. Or at least I thought it had been. Shows how naïve I was.

When Ryan was three, I'd come home from work early only to find Sheila in our bed with another man. I'd seen red and murder had been on my mind. But I hadn't killed anyone. I'd just packed up some clothes for Ryan and myself, and had told Sheila she had two hours to get out of my house.

Unlike my divorce with Alice, my divorce with Sheila had gone smoothly. She hadn't even put up a fight when I had asked for sole custody of Ryan. The first few months after the divorce, Ryan had been temperamental, not quite understanding that Mama wasn't going to be living with us anymore. It had pained me to see my son so upset, but we had gotten through it.

"Dad! Dad! Are you coming? Uncle Emmett wants to build a fort in the living room!" my son shouted as he ran into my bedroom.

I could barely contain rolling my eyes. Uncle Emmett was the bane of my existence. Whenever he came for a visit, he always destroyed my house. Ryan did that enough on his own, he certainly didn't need any help from Uncle Emmett.

Uncle Emmett, Aunt Maggie, Uncle Edward, and Aunt Bella, along with Grandma and Pops, and all the cousins had come for a visit. Ryan knew that he wasn't really related to any of them, but as far as we were both concerned they were family. Thankfully, Alice never came to any family functions when Ryan and I visited Forks. She had distanced herself from her family and last I heard, she had moved to New York.

"Dad?"

I turned to look at my son, drinking him in. He'd just turned seven and was growing like a weed. He was the second youngest of cousins, but he held his own. Especially against his cousin Matt. Emmett's son was a force to be reckoned with. The poor kid was the spitting image of Emmett and emulated his dad. He was constantly getting into trouble, and dragging anyone along with him if he could.

"Go on. I'll be there in a second," I told Ryan.

"A second's already passed," he informed me.

I snorted. My kid could be a real smart-ass. I swatted at him and laughed as he danced away, heading for the stairs. A few minutes later, I headed downstairs toward the living room where there was a constant stream of chatter and laughter. I propped myself up against the wall and watched as Emmett and Matt attempted to make a fort out of my couch cushions and blankets.

"Aren't you gonna help?" Emmett asked me, peering out from behind a cushion.

"Nope. You got it handled."

"You're no fun," he pouted.

Maggie rolled her eyes, commenting on what a big kid he was. He didn't even bother to deny it.

Later that evening, we ate barbeque in the backyard and the adults watched as the kids played with water guns. I loved summer, but I especially enjoyed it when we all got together. I was extremely thankful to have the Cullen clan in our lives.

"What's got you all serious?" Esme asked me.

I turned to look at her. "Just thinking how lucky Ryan and I are to have you all."

Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged me. "We're lucky to have both of you as well."

The week passed quickly and Ryan and I were sad to see them leave. But we'd be seeing them in a few weeks when we headed to DisneyLand for our annual summer vacation.

"Hey, Dad?" he asked, as I tucked him into bed.

"Do you think Mom misses me?" he asked quietly.

I took a moment to think about how to answer. Sheila used to visit him every other weekend. She'd moved to Dallas after the divorce, so when she came to town, she'd get a hotel and she and Ryan would stay there for the weekend. But the in the past year she hadn't bothered to make the effort. The last time she'd visited him was four months ago, and he hadn't seemed upset when she didn't show, so I hadn't made a big deal about it.

"I'm sure she does," I told him, running a hand over his curls.

"Then why doesn't she come to visit me anymore?"

I had no answer for that, so I told him that I didn't know. "But if you want, we can call her and see if she can't come for a visit soon."

He shook his head. "No. I don't like it when she visits."

"Why not?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

"We always have to go do boring things and she says mean things about you and says how she wants me to visit her in Dallas."

I didn't know what to say to that. I had done my best not to talk shit about Sheila to him, but I wasn't surprised to hear that she didn't extend me the same curtesy. But I'd be damned if she took my boy to Dallas.

"How about this? If she comes to visit, you can just hang out here around the house with me. That sound okay?"

He nodded. "I like that it's just us," he whispered.

"Me, too, bud. Me, too," I whispered back.

He threw his arms around me and gave me a hard hug. It was moments like that, that made all the heartache and pain and suffering that I'd gone through worth it. I had my boy and a great family. What more could I ask for?

A/n: See? Jasper got his happy ever after, too. It might not involve the love of a good woman, but he's got a fantastic kid.