Disclaimer - All recognisable characters belong to their original owners. I do not make a profit from writing this; I simply do it for my own amusement. No copyright infringement intended.

I'm fully aware that there is probably some backup plan that I haven't thought of, but this is fiction, and I'm using creative licensing! :P

PROMPT: Blackout

"And we're breathing in and out," Esme coach, waving her hands through the air as she tried to get a desperate Alice to calm down. Spoiler alert: it wasn't working.

"There's a blackout!" Alice shrieked . "On my wedding day! Which has already been cancelled twice because of a fucking pandemic!" Her voice got more shrill with each scream.

"It could be worse," Bella tried to reason. "Jasper could leave you at the altar."

"Bella!" I chastised, not quite believing that she had said that.

Turning to Alice, I immediately tried to correct the damage. "He's not going to leave you at the altar."

"He might," Bella mumbled, looking down in the dimly lit room to pick at her nails. We'd made do with multiple candles. Thankfully, the wedding was during the day, but it was still early in the morning and so overcast.

Unfortunately, Forks had decided that the rain over the past three days was too much to handle, and the local power station had died, resulting in a town-wide blackout last night. It had come at possibly the worst time as Alice was due to get married in four hours.

The hotel where the wedding and reception were meant to be held had no power and didn't have any generators either. The flowers had started to wilt in the early hours of the morning, and the food couldn't be cooked and kept warm. All in all, things weren't looking good, but that was not something you told a bride hours away from marrying the love of her life.

"What am I going to do?" Alice cried, tears in her eyes as her shoulders slumped. She had been looking forward to this day for three years. The first time the wedding had been cancelled because it was the start of the pandemic. It was scheduled for later in the year in the hopes that the pandemic would be over by then - how optimistic and wrong we were. Jasper and Alice could have gotten married but chose not to, as they wanted their friends and family there for their big day. Lockdown rules had prevented that. So here they were, third time the charm. Or not as the case may be.

"It's going to be okay," Emse said, wrapping her arms around Alice as she looked to Bella and I for support in the darkness.

Conveniently, Bella's phone chose that moment to ring and she excused herself to answer it. I quickly used my phone as a torch to make up for the lack of light.

"You can always reschedule the date," I offered up.

"We can't!" Alice cried. "Jasper's grandmother flew over, especially for this. She might not be here much longer." As morbid as it was, she did have a point. I'd had the pleasure of meeting Grandma Hale at the rehearsal dinner. She was a gaunt woman in a wheelchair with sunken eyes and a sharp jawline. She smoked and drank like it was going out of fashion and wasn't afraid to share her opinions - which were often rude and unwarranted. She'd suffered some chest pain at dinner and had simply smacked her chest, downed a shot of whisky and lit up another cigarette. She was a ticking time bomb.

"She'll outlive all of us," I jokingly said. But part of me believed that.

Bella stuck her head around the door and caught my eye, gesticulating to me with her head. Alice was preoccupied, her head on Esme's shoulder as she cried, and Esme tried her best to comfort her, so I slipped out.

"What's going on?" I asked Bella the second I had the door shut behind me.

"Edward and Jasper have a plan," she told me with a grin. "Jasper is determined to marry Alice today."

I cocked my head to the side as Bella began to explain.

"I can't believe you pulled this off," I told Jasper as Alice's father twirled her around the dance floor.

"Neither can I," he admitted, a smile on his face as he watched his new bride. "I'm just so glad we're finally married." His fingers went to his left hand, and he twirled his silver wedding band around.

I loved watching Jasper and Alice fall in love. I'd been lucky enough to be there from the very beginning, and my God, was it a sight to witness. They were both 21, fresh out of college on a night out. Their eyes had met across the dance floor, and that was quite literally it. Alice took Jasper home and the next day told me she had met her future husband. I laughed. I'm a big enough person to admit I was wrong. They'd been inseparable. It was half a whirlwind romance. After only 6 weeks, they'd moved in together, and after another 6 weeks, they had gotten engaged. They'd remained engaged for nearly 2 years before deciding to get married in 2020. Then COVID struck, which brought us to now.

"I do have to tell you something, though," Jasper said.

"What?" I asked taking a sip of my drink. I really did admire how everyone had pulled together. And the fact that Forks had given Jasper and Alice a reprieve from the rain.

"He's here."

My drink lodged in my throat and I coughed. "Sorry?" I hated how I knew exactly who Jasper was talking about.

"He's here," Jasper repeated.

I turned to face him, determined not to get too angry. It wasn't good for me. "Why?"

"Technically, this is his land. And he offered it to us on the basis that we invite him to the wedding." Fuck. I had forgotten about that little-known secret that was now very public knowledge. Turns out, when you're the love child of the richest man in town, it comes with certain perks.

My blood pressure rose, and I think my face must have reflected my anger because Jasper took a step back from me. So much for my health.

"But just remember that we did this for Alice."

"Jasper," my voice caught in my throat because this could not be happening. "Please tell me that this is a joke, and he's not actually here. He can't be here. You know that."

"Well, he is, and he might be heading straight for you."

I didn't want to turn around. If I did, that means that I'd have to face him. I'd have to see him. And I didn't want to do that. No. Emmett McCarthy was bad news. There was a reason I'd snuck out of his bed at four o'clock in the morning. There was a reason I hadn't returned his calls. There was a reason I hadn't told him I was six months pregnant with his child.

"Well, well, well," a deep voice called. "Look who it is."

Jasper gave me a small smile before darting off, leaving me to face Emmett alone.

I slowly turned and was furious to see him looking so good when I felt very uncomfortable and hot all of a sudden.

"You and I need to have a little chat, Rosie," he said, eyes going down to my bump.

I cursed the blackout, furious that it had happened today. If it had happened on another other day, we wouldn't have had to use Emmett's land for the wedding. Alice and Jasper could have gotten married, and I wouldn't have had to see him. I could have snuck quietly away to my aunt's and given birth before figuring out what to do.

But no. The blackout had to happen. And now I had to explain to Emmett why I'd been avoiding him for the last six months and spending most of my time out of town… Oh. And why I'd hidden my pregnancy from him.