"Alice?"
"I already see you as my sister," Alice said happily, walking away from Jasper and hugging Bella tight, "yes." Bella gave a little smile, satisfied with Alice's answer. The room was quiet for a bit.
Jasper tried to hide his thoughts. He thought of the last book he'd read and the last time he kissed Alice. This worked for a time but when Alice glanced at him during the awkward silence created by her hug to Bella, there was no hiding a small idea that was nagging at the back of his mind.
This is a mistake.
"I vote yes." He blurted out too quickly. Everyone's eyes turned to Jasper in astonishment, "It would be nice not to want to kill you all the time." He followed up softly.
Alice gave him a half smile. He looked down, knowing he couldn't tell even his wife how he really felt: he didn't want Bella to be like them. But he wouldn't suspend Edward's chance at happiness for his own morals, he was not raised in this way. Rosalie spoke next, making Jasper wish he had been just as courageous.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry to both of you for how I've acted and I'm really grateful that you were brave enough to go and save my brother." Bella shook away the god awful memories of that fateful day at the clock tower and the close call with the Volturi, Rosalie continued in a humble whisper, "But this isn't a life I would've chosen for myself. And I wish that there had been someone to vote no for me. So no." Everyone spoke and everyone said yes. In only a few short moments, they all agreed to end the human life of Bella Swan, beginning anew with the immortal Bella Cullen. It was wrong. Jasper knew they all chose wrong.

It was three days before the wedding when Jasper secretly decided to find Cara. The guilt surrounding his execution vote ate away at him like a harsh parasite. He felt he had to correct the mistake. And, unconsciously, it was Alice who helped him along in this quest.
"I had the strangest vision..." She said not two minutes later, walking cautiously into their room, "you were talking to a girl who looked an awful lot like Bella." Jasper felt Alice's ping of envy and smiled a little at her, thinking of her sweetness, "you gave her a wedding invitation."
"It's not Bella, you're right..." Jasper held her shoulders, something he only did when the matter at hand was quite serious, "please, Alice, where was this?" Alice didn't question his motives. She knew him well enough.

"The Salish Ferry, going to Coupeville." Alice looked at him apprehensively. He kissed her excitedly, holding her tight.

"I'll be back soon, Alice," another thankful kiss, "very soon." With that he ran down to the garage, grabbed his car keys and drove away from the Cullen household.

He sped down highways and freeways, getting to the ferry in time for the evening departure for the Salish. He parked his car in the lower level and waited silently. He watched the humans walk sleepily out of their cars and to higher levels. He swallowed, his cravings beginning to overcome him. He closed his eyes tight, trying to focus. He took a few deep breaths and lowered the sun shade from the roof. He took the picture of Cara from the mirror compartment and studied it. Cara and Bella really did look the same. They had light faces and dark hair. They were both very lean and petite next to Edward. Although Cara seemed to have a happiness about her that Bella lacked. Cara looked so natural in Edward's presence, where Bella looked strained, as if she had to keep herself from attacking him. An outside presence tapping on Jasper's window snapped him into reality. It was a ferry safety guard.

"Sir, you have to exit the lower level, we're about to set sail." The man half shouted-half spoke through the glass. Jasper nodded, sucked in a breath and didn't take another until he was in a vacant sitting area facing the bow. He looked at the picture and looked around quickly. Not many humans stayed outside since it was both too cold and too dark. Jasper used this to his advantage and walked along the levels, looking for anyone else willing to brave the cold. There was one adolescent-looking boy on the other side of the lower level who drank quick gulps of a concealed Heineken between glances over his shoulder. There was another woman outside the door of the lower level who stared blankly at a small blue screen, hunched over in a silent conversation. He walked up the stairs to find only one person standing near the railing.

She held a camera to her eye and clicked rhythmically at the passing city. She didn't have the smell of fresh blood as the others did, hers was much sweeter. The wind pressed her clothes to her small body and blew around her long, straightened, red-brown hair sporadically. She had an orange scarf tied loosely around her right wrist, similar to where Edward's bite scar is. Jasper took a breath and approached her slowly.

"The city is beautiful, isn't it?" Cara said calmly. She snapped a few pictures and looked at Jasper, "Hm… I haven't seen you before… you must be one of the recruits." She shrugged and looked back at the city, getting a few more shots.

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked confused.

"You're here to ask me back aren't you?" A few more pictures, "You're trying to pull me back to Italy but I won't go." She turned to him fully and let the camera hang at her neck, "I have a job here now and a small apartment too. I won't be a guard again." She sighed and looked back at the city, Jasper touched her arm lightly.

"I'm not from the Volturi. I want to talk to you about my brother, Edward Cullen." Jasper said slowly, trying to tune into her emotions, he felt nothing from her.

"What could he want with me?" she said slowly. Jasper produced the invitation from his pocket, momentarily forgetting when he took them. She looked at the paper in his hand and took a step back, as if it spewed poison, "I don't want to watch Edward marry someone else."

"I don't want you to watch him get married—I want you to stop him."

There was a long pause, interrupted by an announcement of the PA system.

"We will be arriving in Coupeville in approximately five minutes. Please prepare your cars for exit. Thank you for choosing Coupeville Ferries." They kept each other's gaze for another minute, the invitation still extended to Cara.

"If you're going to explain any of this to me, I'll need a drink." Cara put the lens cap on her camera and walked down the stairs, Jasper followed a moment after.

They drove for a short time until they came to a familiar bar. They were seated before a large stone-brick fireplace. Cara placed the invitation on the table between the two of them.

"A glass of Merlot, please." Cara said to the 13moon employee. He walked away swiftly, they stayed quiet until he returned with the wine and left silently.

"How can you stand to be around the humans?" Jasper asked in a low voice.

"Drinking dulls the senses," she took a sip, her eyes on him, like a suspicious jungle cat, "dead or otherwise." Jasper shook his head a little and looked at the invitation on the table.

"Edward has proposed to a human girl—Bella. She's very nice and we all have nothing against her but she wants to become one of us." She continued to sip, never breaking her stare from the invitation, "But Edward does not want to kill her. And there are werewolves who threaten to bring harm upon my family if we kill her." Jasper retained composure and focused on her emotions again. Still nothing. This unnerved him, "We all know that Edward is making a huge mistake by going through with this, but nothing and no one is able to convince him of this."

"And you believe that I can?" Cara looked at him, pain prevalent in her face.

"I believe that when he sees you… and he remembers the life he had with you… and the life you two can have together… then he can make the right decision. Bella can live a normal life—as humans do. We can stay in our home in peace and you and Edward can be together. No murder. No blood. No war." He watched as she finished her glass and set it next to the invitation, "It would be so simple."

"Hm… war…" The waiter walked in, filled her glass and walked out of earshot, "I am surprised that it is you telling me this. The ex-solider, turned nomad, turned humane vampire." She took another sip, "who knew you might be a closet romantic? I would've though Alice or maybe Esme would come to me with such a request…" Jasper looked at her suspiciously.

"I seem to be the only one who is willing to correct my mistakes."

"I think what you don't know is that Edward and I have seen each other after our change." She took a sip and leaned towards Jasper, "he doesn't love me anymore." She sat back and swirled the wine in her glass, "Even when we were together again, he left me for Bella."

"Because of a misunderstanding. He was not forced to choose. You have to force him. Once he sees that you are made for each other you will be the one marrying him." He slid the card over to her. Cara looked at Jasper and took her last sip of wine, placing it on the table again. She looked at the flames dance in the chilled wind and stood.

"I'm sorry, Jasper, but I think that he's made his choice." She walked around the bench and towards the exit, "Thanks for the drink." Jasper chuckled slightly as she left. Cara walked down to her car to find Jasper leaning against the driver's door, invitation in hand.

"Just think about it." He said, handing her the card.

"You weren't going to let me go home tonight without that thing, were you?" Cara asked.

"Not a chance." Jasper said with a small smile. Cara cracked a smile, rolled her eyes and took it, bumping her hip against his thigh to move him away as she opened the door.

"Good night, Jasper." Cara said softly as Jasper walked towards his car and watched Cara drive off, the invitation next to her in the passenger seat.

...

I've finished this chapter quite early this time around and I'm rather fond of this earliness. This chapter truly... begins the end, unfortunately. I will be posting six chapters this week and next week I will post our final chapter and... that's it. It's quite an astonishing cocktail of emotions finishing a story brings about. I'm rather happy and excited to see people's reactions to the end (which, I wrote well before I even began part two). But, I'm also sad that it will come to a close. But, of course, everything must end, even stories fanfictions. I hope you all enjoyed this story and I hope you continue to read my work when I move onto fictionpress and other fanfictions. I'm so happy that you have all ben reading and sharing your thoughts and truly giving me the strength to keep writing and seek inspiration for other stories. I'm so touched by my readers, thanks so much for your support, I am truly humbled. Anyway, before I get even sappier than I just did, I'll wrap it up by pointing out a few things: the two Washington places mentioned (the ferry and the bar) are real life places. I feel its fair enough to assume that they were open in 2011. So went along with their evening hours on Thursday (since this takes place three days before their wedding: Saturday, August 17, 2011) and went from there. I'm quite pleased with the research I've done. You really should look up 13moons in Coupeville, their outdoor seating area is brilliant. Oh, also, when Cara said she has a job and a home, I imagine her as a photographer for a local magazine which is why she was taking pictures on the boat. She lives either in or around Coupeville, whichever is cloudier. Now, I realized only after I finished that I made Cara drink and drive. I do NOT condone such behavior. And it is in my opinion that in this particular story, they wont feel the effects of alcohol until they've had either quite a few drinks or it has been a few hours (or both, of course). Either way, drinking and driving is very very bad for you and everyone on the roads at the time, don't do it, okay? Until... tomorrow, actually. Cheers!