Author's Note: I rewrote this chapter for this Arc because …after some time and self-reflection, I felt like I owed it to the Edward Ending 12-1 in BWAIJ. I heavily revised that ending recently and it made me re-fall in love with their storyline. Also, I realized this ending may never be perfect no matter how many times I try to rewrite. It is what it is. The original Ch 9 is posted in "The Vampire and the Wolf" since it is essential for that story's AU plot line.

Jessica's Happily Ever After?

Sequel to "But Why am I Jessica?"

Chapter 9

[Edward Arc]

"Five Years"

Where am I?

My head shifted around the room in an erratic pattern as I tried to remember.

My thoughts toppled over one another trying to decode what I could last recall happening to me. My concentration on solving the mystery tapered as my attention was narrowing

to the raw ache in my throat. I was parched, dying to quench my thirst. It felt like I had been without water for days. But no, that was wrong. I didn't want water…I want- need to drink blood.

Irrepressible, I burst across the room at an inhumanely impossible speed. I knew what I was. But I had to visually confirm it. I stared at the mirror in front of me. I must have woken up in a nightmare because the face staring back at me is incomprehensible. Reverting to a familiar trick, I pinched my pale, translucent to verify it was mine. The twinge of pain that resulted from the pinch transported me back to waking up in the nurse's office after getting hit in the head in PE. I am more repulsed than captivated by my almost pore-less skin complexion and tamed, wavy hair. When I focused on my eyes… the crimson color reflecting in the mirror taunted me to remind me I was thirsty.

Chaos enslaved my mind. I snarled before smashing the mirror with my fist and breaking down the door to the room and looking for my exit. I couldn't ignore it anymore. I needed to satisfy my desire for blood. Any form of it would do. Any kind. That's a lie. From anyone. Just a drop. Just a taste.

Before I could travel further down the hallway outside of the room, a woman cut off my path. I knew her. I recognized her. Alice. I remembered what she did, but what trumped that abhorrent memory all in the moment was my need to feed. I bulldozed her over on my way to find my reason for being. It was all consuming. The need. The want. The hunger. Everything before didn't matter.

I knew it wouldn't be so easy. Once I stumbled upon my last exit, I had the rest of the Cullen's blocking my way out. Except him. He wasn't here. Where was he?

Blood is more important.

"Out of my way," I growled. "I don't care if I hurt you to get what I want." I began to run at them full force, recalling my strength would outmatch theirs anyways. Two seconds before our imminent collision, they all moved away and Edward was the only obstacle in my path.

I stopped. For a fraction of a second, I wavered. And I knew they counted on this because the next thing I knew, the whole family was on top of me holding me down and I wanted to shred them all into tiny little pieces.

I was prevented from doing this as I heard Edward's voice whisper lightly in my ear while my world faded to black but not my thirst. That was still there.

The days to follow, all I knew was suffering. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. They force fed me animal blood which tasted like skin milk when all you wanted was whole mike. I was Jessica. I was Katie. But now I was battling with this new persona inside of me. She craved blood. She was obsessed with the power that came with being a vampire. But she had to contend with Jessica who hated what was stolen from her and Katie's desire to see her family again. I felt fragmented. Split. All three personalities battled each other within me on a daily basis.

They insisted I was in no state for conversation, so I counted my time passing with my "allotted" meals.

And that's how it remained. For days. Or maybe months. It wasn't fair though because Alice cheated. She was waiting for a vision where she probably talked to a calm Jessica and not an irate one. That would never happen. What she did was inexcusable. Unforgivable. And I had to bide my time until that occurred. At this rate, I could be spending centuries confined in chains.

...

As time passed on, I understood their rational behind their actions. I was a blood thirty monster who was blinded by my primal urge to drink human blood. If I had submitted to that urge and one day turned to the state I am today, I would have never forgiven myself. And on this day with that realization and acceptance, Alice entered my room for the first time. I hadn't seen her since the first day my transformation was complete. For however long I had been in here, I had only been seen by Esme who delivered my "meals".

"Where's Edward?" I demanded when she closed the door.

"This isn't about you and him. It's about you and me," she whispered as she glided forward to me. The chains they obtained from the Volturi had done their job well. I hadn't been able to escape once since they tied me up. I suspiciously eyed the key she clenched in her right hand. She was putting her trust in me not to rip out her throat. If I did, she wouldn't have seen that. I smirked at my ability to blindside her if I wished.

"Yeah, I saw that outcome." Alice forced the key in the first lock and my right hand was free. I rubbed it with my chained left hand and contemplated if I should enact what she saw. "You don't do it, Katie."

I pulled back my free hand and slapped her across the face with all the strength I could muster. "You have no right to call me that," I screamed while I watched her body fling across the room like a rag doll. My voice trembled in fury while I waited for more chains to be unlocked. I would destroy Alice for what she destroyed for me. I glared at Alice after she picked herself up off the ground and returned to my side.

"But I do," she quipped when she unlocked the chain wrapped around my right ankle. I sneered in response to dare her to prod me more. To encourage my need to kill her here and now. Yes, they spared me the guilt from killing an innocent human. But Alice wasn't innocent, and I thought I could stomach her death for the rest of eternity. I doubly affirmed it subconsciously when my left foot was free and there was just one more lock to go. My freedom and revenge were in reach with one more twist of a key.

"The tattoo on your wrist. We were supposed to get it together when I came back to visit you in Kansas City during Labor Day weekend." I forgot what it was like to miss a beating heart. If I had one, it would have stilled or rapidly sped up because I didn't understand what Alice was saying. Or did I?

"I had only left you five hours earlier to drive home and then it happened. You were killed by a car that hit you. The paramedics said it was instant. No pain, Katie." I looked up to Alice's face and observed her eyes. They were gold. But when I squinted, they transitioned to a light green shade. Her hair grew out past her shoulders and it was a dark brown instead of black. She had a dimple on her cheek and a faint scar under her bottom lip when I accidentally pushed her into the corner of my bedroom dresser.

"Je...Jenna?" I croaked as I fell back to hit my cot. I barely registered the click marking my freedom.

"I am so sorry," Alice blubbered as she fell to her knees and pressed her cheeks between my knees. "It clicked when I saw your tattoo in the car. All my visions of you in this life and our past. I freaked out, Katie. I imagined losing you again and I reacted without thinking."

My fingers combed through her short, spikey hair as my mind strained not to split into two processing what she told me.

Alice. Was. Jenna.

My Jenna. My older sister.

We were reincarnated here in this world and couldn't recognize each other.

An avalanche of memories collided in my heart and soul as I recalled my time when I believed I was just Katie Smith. I promised myself if I found Jenna in this world, I would leave the Stanley's and start over with her. I dreamed of her. I missed her. I grieved her. But here she was. In front of me the whole time. As my boyfriend's sister.

Seriously, what the fuck.

I once had everything all figured out. I remembered my last life to be a better Jessica Stanley in this life. But here Jenna was, dredging up the past I thought I had let go.

Could our parents be here too? And what about my family in this life, the Stanley's?

"What do you remember, Jenna?" I was surprised I was able to verbalize anything. But I needed to understand what the hell happened. Was there no such thing as an afterlife? Were you just reincarnated in other worlds and possibly tied to souls from your previous life? I couldn't pretend I understood anything anymore. Not with Jenna here and as real as my Katie self.

"Fragments. Pieces. Mostly it focuses on my memory of our time spent together."

"Does the word Twilight ring a bell?" It was a long shot at this point, but I wanted to ask and know how clear her memory of the past was. Alice shook her head and I was left alone in my never-ending conundrum if I ever would reveal the Twilight series to the Cullen's or not. At this point, there was no semblance of the story anymore to go off of. Would it ever benefit them knowing they were characters in a book from my world? I was here and so was Jenna. What concept of reality is there to believe anymore?

Alice called me from the whirling thoughts of my existential crisis. Or is it Jenna? What do we call ourselves?!

"Katie?"

"Jessica and you're Alice. It would be better if we just kept those names here in this world. I am sure you can understand what it's like feeling like two souls inhabit one body." Alice nodded solemnly.

"Can I call you Jess now?" My throat bubbled with a small, carefree laugh and I affirmed that she could with a swift pat on her spiky hair.

"You've just been itching to call me that for so long. I guess I am a sucker for a sibling's term of endearment for me." My voice dropped at the end. I remembered Daniel and how he delighted in calling me "Jessie". I choked out an elongated sob before leaning forward to rest my head on top of Alice's head.

Once again, I was forced to grieve for the loss of a family. I couldn't risk endangering them with the same risk I suffered. Die or become a vampire.

And I knew Alice understood and didn't move an inch as I cried. As time passed and my cascading tears started to let up, I marginally recognized Edward taking Alice's place to comfort me.

...

7 years later.

I kept my promise to myself. I stayed away from my family. To keep them safe. But every once in a rare while I went to visit Forks incognito. Checking in on their lives. Adding some good luck into their lives where I could when the opportunity presented itself. The great snowstorm in 2010. I shoveled the driveway before my parents were up and getting ready for work. Every time I came back, I placed a twenty-dollar bill along Daniel's walking path from school to the house. I made little marks where I could. Just to make their days a little better. A little happier. The grieved but they survived. Just as I always had hoped.

This visit was a little more sentimental for me. Daniel was graduating from high school and he had snagged valedictorian. Just like me.

I arrived first for a private moment observing them. Edward, Alice and the rest of my family would be here shortly for the joyous occasion. We had endowed Daniel a scholarship from a fund set up in Edward's given last name, Masen. It was a bogus scholarship that was just a back end way to give him monetary support. He was going to Yale in the fall and I couldn't be prouder of what he was making of himself. Even as I watched in the shadows.

When I arrived at the house, nobody was home. I assumed I missed the departure by only a few minutes. I ran through my head they probably repeated a similar timing pattern to when I had graduated and gave the valedictorian speech. I wondered if Daniel rode with them or maybe had a girlfriend to take him instead. I snickered when I recalled Edward reading the minds of the girls who had a crush on Daniel in the past. I never allowed him to tell me what Daniel was thinking. I would never dare to breach that privacy for him. And I too wanted to be spared any pain if he ever thought about me when Edward was around to hear it.

I re-entered my blue Cadillac and sped down the road. The need for speed as a vampire was real and exhilarating behind the wheel of a car. The Cadillac screeched to a halt when I spotted a flipped Ford Explorer in the corner of my eye. The stretch of road was a mile until a residential area. I didn't want to be late to the graduation ceremony, but I figured I could miss the beginning semantics of the ceremony and be a good samaritan.

I exited the car swiftly to begin my emergency rescue. I smelt burnt rubber as I approached. The side of the vehicle was smashed in. But there was no other car. Fury trampled through me as I recognized it was a hit and run. How fucked up.

"Hello? I am going to help. Please close your eyes," I announced to the passenger's inside the vehicle. I then smashed my fist through the tinted glass in the driver's side window. It would have been easier to pull the whole door off, but that would have been to abnormal for a girl my size to explain.

The first size hole I created was enough to loop my hand through and open the door. I still hadn't received a verbal response from the people inside. I grew worried over their lack of communication and decided to concentrate harder on my hearing abilities. I could only pick up on a single beating heart that seemed to be slowing in rhythm. I prayed only one person was inside the vehicle.

I flung open the door. Grief snaked up within me and distorted my vision as my eyes raked over the passengers inside.

"Mom? Dad?" Their set expressions triggered my response first. I ran my fingers over each of their wrists to confirm what I already knew.

Dead.

"Daniel?!" The only heart left beating, and it was thinning out. It was giving up.

"Daniel!" I cried as I jumped into the back seat and swept him up in my arms. "No, no, no! Not like this. You had your whole future in front of you. So much to do and become. It's not fair!" I shouted in aguish. Tears began to blur my vision as I shook Daniel to force him to wake up. To get better. I wasn't a doctor, but my ears didn't lie. His injuries were internal, and he was succumbing to them.

And in this moment, I remembered Alice and her decision to choose life for me. It wasn't her decision to make but I understood now why she did it as I lowered my fangs to Daniel's neck. "I love you, kiddo. This isn't the end for you. Just the beginning. I promise," I murmured before I made an irreversible decision that I hoped he wouldn't hate me for all of eternity.

...

8 years later.

My heart swelled with pride as I watched Daniel walk across the graduation stage. He just earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yale. His first of many degrees to come.

Edward laced his fingers through my own before he leaned over and pressed his lips to my cheek. Today, it was just us two in the audience. The rest of our family was setting up the graduation party at home. "We're all proud of him, and they are too." Edward gazed up to the sky and I knew who he meant.

"They could also be here too. Who knows? I can't pretend I understand anything anymore. All I know is, as I live, I want a life full of love. With you. Alice. Daniel. Our family. I love you, Edward."

"I'm glad. Because you're stuck with me for an eternity."

"Maybe," I jabbed. "I could get sick of you."

"I highly doubt that," he promised before leaning in and placing a kiss on my neck. My weakest spot. Damn him.

"Maybe. But you still haven't put a ring on it. So, I am an unshackled woman, technically."

"That's because you insisted we wait," Edward growled while I smirked before raising my finger to my lips to make the universal symbol to be quiet.

"I had things to sort out. Alice and I needed to repair our relationship. Then there was Daniel. I mean, I am in no rush. And it's not like you're a virgin anymore." I winked and I saw a faint glimmer in his golden eyes that had fixated a stare on me.

"Please, Jessica. It would mean a lot to me."

"I know," I sighed. It wasn't a matter of if, but when.

"We're soul mates, right? Isn't that enough?"

"You are enough. But this is for me. It can be just us at a courthouse, if you don't want to make a big deal out of it."

I snorted. "Like our family would ever let us live that down. I'll think about it."

Edward displayed the most adorable pout and I just poked his bottom lip with my finger in amusement. "That's progress, you know?"

What Edward didn't know was that tonight I was popping the question to him. Because he had been patient with me as I healed the different parts of me into one person. He let me have alone time to remind rebuild my relationship with Alice and gave me space to handle Daniel and transition him to this life.

I had put Edward to the side long enough. Daniel was making his way and Alice and I were on the best of terms. Sisters again. It was time for me to give my all to Edward because I was finally capable of doing that. He was the love of my life and he deserved my all. I was so happy to finally give it to him.

We would have our happily ever after. And I had this hope that maybe, just maybe, one day I would see all the family who left before me. If I had Jenna back, all bets were off. I would look for the signs but still live my life. Love. Enjoy what I can. Because that is what life was about.

And it felt so good to say YOLO once Drake's song came out.

Because my name is Jessica Katie Stanley. This is my second chance at life. And I am not taking anything or anyone for granted.

The End.

Authors Note: I feel good I have both option endings out there. I am a big believer in alternate endings because I like to explore potential. I am glad in this version Jessica finds peace and happiness with Edward/Alice/Daniel. And this my friends, is the end for the Arc.

The name for this story "Five years" had multiple meanings for this Arc. If you noticed, the time length of "five years" is a popular line in this story for significant impacts on Katie/Jessica's life.

This Arc contained writing my favorite chapter in JHEA. Thanks for reading and giving this story a chance. Much love to all my fans/readers. You guys rock & I appreciate you taking the time to read this. - Lalaland972