Author's Note:

You know, I always wondered what might have happened if Jake had shown up BEFORE the wedding, and not at the happy, lovey-dovey reception right after. Would Bella still have made it down the aisle? Would she still have broken her best friend's heart, this time while he watched? This is my take on the 'Bella realizes she's making a huge mistake in devoting her life to a man who has done nothing but take hers away' alternate universe.

BPOV: Bella gets to the end of the aisle, when she notices Jake sitting with Billy, Sue, and Seth. Havoc ensues.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned the Twilight saga. If I did, it would have ended with Eclipse when Bella kissed Jake in that tent, and after the newborn battle she would have cried over his injured body for different reasons and apologized for being a complete idiot and begged him to give her a chance, even though she doesn't deserve one. Breaking Fail would never have happened, mutants would not have been spawned, and Jacob would not have been delivered a human-vampire consolation prize as an imprint, totally destroying his character arc.

If only.

Don't have a beta, my mistakes are my own! Cheers!

"I can't believe I just did that. Oh my god. I can't believe I just did that!" I panicked, gasping for breath.

"Bella, honey, calm down." Renee was flitting around me, her hands fluttering.

"Calm down?" I was practically hyperventilating. "I just... I just ran out of my own wedding!"

"Well, sweetheart, look on the bright side... At least you came to your senses before the 'I do's." Renee said weakly.

The lace of my wedding dress (not my wedding dress) was sticking to me, and I felt like I was roasting alive. God, why had Alice ordered it so tight?

"Help me." I struggled to reach the sash at the back of the dress. "Please, get me out of this, Mom." I could feel tears collecting in my eyes.

What have I done?

"Okay, hold still, I'm working on this knot... God, who tied this? I thought it was decorative..." I could feel her yanking at the silky ties that laced up the back of my dress, but it only pulled them tighter.

"I need it off, please, I feel like I can't breathe!" Hot tears were slipping over my cheeks.

"Scissors, I need scissors..." Renee dashed from the room, leaving me alone panting in Alice's massive bathroom.

I tugged at the silk ties desperately. Oh god, I can't breathe, I can't breathe!

Suddenly a hot hand braced against my shoulder, and I felt the pressure on my ribs release with a sharp tearing noise.

Jacob turned me gently and cupped my face in his massive palm. I hung my head in shame as he peeled my dress away from my body, too overwhelmed to even blush at the realization that he was seeing me in the white lace honeymoon lingerie that Alice had put me in.

I sobbed as his warm arms snaked around me, pulling a silky robe over my shaking shoulders.

"Shh... Bells it's okay." It was my favorite deep, husky voice, and I absolutely didn't deserve to hear it.

I turned and threw my arms around his neck, blubbering into his collar. "I'm so sorry, Jake."

"For what, honey?" Jake whispered.

I stared up at him through my blurry eyes. He was staring into my face, and I could see only love and concern in his eyes.

He had come back for me. Again. He always came back.

I dropped my face into his neck again, too ashamed to even let him look at me.

"F-For everything!" I clung to his wide shoulders. "For... for going to Italy, for getting mixed up with the Volturi, for not standing up to him when he wouldn't let me see you, for all those awful things I said after the fight with the newborns, for... for even agreeing to marry him in the first place!" I finished wretchedly.

Jake took my face in his hands and studied me. "Bells, what are you---"

"Bella, what is going ON?" Alice stormed into the room. She ducked into a crouch when she noticed Jacob. "You." She spat. "What on earth have you do---" Suddenly she gasped in horror. "What did you do to your dress!?"

"That's not my dress, Alice." I whispered.

"What do you--- Oh." Her face crumpled as she stared off vacantly into the future.

I stepped toward her, begging her to understand. "I'm sorry, Alice. I---I can't. I can't marry him. I can't..." ...Become a vampire.

"Bella, the Volturi---"

"I know." I said quietly. "But... it could be years before they check on me and I want... something else." Someone else. "With... the time I have left."

Alice glared at me, her mouth turned down in a beautiful frown. I saw her eyes glaze over as she searched into my future, looking for indecision.

I knew she'd find none. I'd left the man I'd almost given my life for (countless times, if you count the bikes and the cliff...) at the alter, and there was no going back.

Finally her eyes cleared. She glared at me, then at Jake. Could she see him in my future? Could she even see a future for me at all? Her frown grew.

"Then we're staying. You can do whatever you want, but we're not letting them get to you." Alice promised.

"Letting WHO get to her?" Jacob cut in, looking panicked. "Who wants her now? What is she talking about, Bella?"

A timid knock sounded on the door. "Sweetheart?" Renee peeked around the door, freezing when she saw Jake.

"Who is---who are you?" She snapped, and I cringed at her rudeness.

"Mom, don't you remember Jacob Black?"

Renee's mouth dropped open as Jake stepped up to shake her hand, saying politely, "Nice to see you again, Mrs. Dwyer."

"My goodness..." Renee was staring up at Jacob. How long had it been since she last saw him?

"Yeah, R--Mom? Did you need something?" I asked impatiently.

"Bella, Edward is out here... He'd like to speak to you." She shot a quick look over her shoulder before turning back and whispering, totally ignorant that Edward would hear her anyway, "If you want me to, I'll tell him he's not allowed to see you, you can blame it all on me."

I smiled weakly at her offer. "It's okay. We'll have to talk eventually."

Edward pushed around Renee quickly, still looking perfect in his wedding suit.

My heart broke.

"Alice and--- Jacob, is it? I hardly recognized you, you look so grown up... I think we should wait outside for a few moments..."

As if that would keep things private... Half the wedding guests had supernatural hearing.

Edward indulged my mother's feelings, standing quietly as the three of them filed out of the room, though Jake looked rather reluctant, sending me a worried look over his shoulder as Renee guided him gently away.

"I'm SO sorry, Edward..." I spoke as the door closed quietly behind my mother and my two best friends.

He rushed up to grasp me in a hug. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry... I should never have pressured you into this when you said you didn't want to marry young... We can wait as long as you want, love."

"I don't want to get married, Edward." I whispered.

He smiled confidently, "Bella, in a few more years, I'm sure you'll reconsider. Impatient human hormones, remember?"

I pulled away from him in shame. That was the problem, wasn't it? I'd agreed to marry him so he would have sex with me and change me into a beautiful, strong, immortal vampire. What a pathetic, awful excuse to get married... and he'd encouraged me! He was doing it even now, dangling it in front of me like bait! An incentive to walk down the aisle!

"No, I won't." I shook my head. "I don't want to marry you, Edward... not now... not in a few years." Not ever.

"Bella... What did Jacob do to you? Why is Alice reciting the Bulgarian national anthem backwards in her head?" Edward's eyes narrowed.

"Jacob didn't do anything to me." I bristled at the accusation. Jacob didn't do anything but love me when I absolutely didn't deserve it.

Edward scoffed. "He decides to make an appearance at our wedding, you take one look at him and run, and now I find you together, barely dressed, and you tell me you don't want to get married at all? Tell me what he did. Did he touch you?" He snarled.

"No!" I cried. "God, Edward... This isn't about Jacob!" And, okay, so it was definitely about Jacob, but not completely. I whisper-yelled at him, mindful of Renee's ears. "I just---I can't lie to my parents, I can't give up Charlie and Renee and Phil and... and cooking! Riding a motorcycle, tripping over my own feet, and---and the sun." My sun.

Giving up Jake... wasn't an option. I just simply... couldn't. And marrying Edward, becoming a vampire... I wasn't willing to risk that driving him away for the last time. If I got married, became a vampire... he might not come back for me again.

And I needed him to.

I needed him.

For a while, I'd thought that I could give everything else up easily, but even when I'd thought that... I couldn't leave Jake alone. I should have been able to deal with it, being away from him when he'd run away, but I couldn't. I should have been able to let him go, knowing I'd have to say goodbye forever sometime soon, but I couldn't.

And that's what made the difference, really.

How could I walk down the aisle and marry Edward, while Jacob just stood there and watched me as I said goodbye to him forever?

I couldn't.

And what scared me the most was... if I hadn't seen him there, just that second...

I might have done it.

"And with Jacob, you don't have to; is that what you're saying? You don't have to give anything up to be with him because he's human?" Edward said slowly.

"That---That is so unfair, Edward." I breathed. "It's... It's not because he's human. I don't care that he's human or that he's a werewolf any more than I cared that you were a vampire!"

"But you do care." He continued, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You care about not being able to see your family, to eat and sleep and have children and---"

"I do care about those things, Edward." I admitted. "But I cared about you enough that I was willing to give it all up. If it was just about that, about being human, I'd go call up Mike Newton, but---"

"But?" He grasped at the word like a lifeline.

"But I can't give Jacob up." I whispered, tears falling again. "I---I can't. You left me and I fell in love with him and I---just can't. I won't."

"I see." He choked, turning away from me. "You don't... love me anymore?"

"I do." I spoke, and my voice was thick. "I do love you... I just don't love you enough." I don't love you enough to break Jacob's heart again. I don't love you enough to break my own again. To break me again.

"I---Tell me what to do. I'll do anything, I---" A frenzied look came into his amber eyes. "Take off your clothes."

I shook my head sadly at his obvious desperation. Was that Jacob growling? "That won't change anything, Edward..."

In the next second, his hands were stroking over my cheeks, my back, fluttering down the front of my robe. I could feel his cool mouth on my neck.

"Edward, stop..." I begged. That was definitely Jacob growling...

He pulled away from me, his eyes now black with lust. Blood lust? Or another kind?

"I thought this was what you wanted." He growled, his hands gripping at the sash Jacob had tied into a tight knot at my waist.

"Please don't." I whispered.

"Calm down!" I heard Alice shriek from outside. Jake... I moved toward the door automatically.

Edward caught my wrist, begging me with his eyes to stay.

But I couldn't. Not when Jake needed me.

"Let me go." I pleaded.

His eyes pleaded back.

I twisted my arm, and he let it slip easily out of his grasp, pain twisting his perfect face.

I recognized it for what it was.

An acknowledgment of defeat.

A reluctant acceptance.

The part of my heart that was not screaming out to find Jake and wrap my arms around him and never let him be upset again broke into little pieces at the surrender.

For a second I let myself mourn my love for the agonized man in front of me.

Then, as I should have done the night he left me alone in the woods... I let it go.

I threw the door open to find Alice holding Jacob back and Renee hovering anxiously.

Jake was vibrating in his anger.

"Alice." I begged.

She let him go and he dove toward me, falling to his knees and hugging me around the waist. "I---God, Bella..."

"Shh..." I stroked his hair as his shudders subsided. "I'm okay. You're okay."

"I thought---he was trying to---" He choked out.

"He would never." I promised. It was the truth.

As desperate as he'd been, he would never have forced me. There is no honor in taking what does not want to be taken, and (not always to his credit) Edward was nothing but an honorable man. He would not hurt me.

Jake growled.

"He wouldn't." I repeated.

Even if I knew it was impossible, that Edward would never hurt me, Jacob didn't.

Edward would never hurt me. Again. That was his new worst fear.

Wasn't that what had gotten me into this mess? Edward was afraid to get to know me, and his game of hot and cold had peaked my interest. Edward was afraid to be around me, and so I followed him. Edward was afraid to love me, and so, in the typical fashion of my favorite tragic literary romances, I had fallen in love with him. Edward was afraid to kiss me, and it had made him that much more kissable. Edward had been afraid to damn my soul, and so he had refused to change me. Edward had been afraid to expose me to his world, so he had left. Edward had been afraid of the dangers of werewolves, so he had kept me from my best friend. Edward had been afraid to make love to me, to change me, so I had agreed to marry him.

Edward's fear and my ignorance had put me into this mess. Edward's fear and my ignorance had hurt Jacob Black.

So Jacob did not know that Edward would not hurt me.

But I did.

Jacob buried his face deeper into my stomach.

"Hey." I said softly. "Look at me." I would say anything to appease his fear.

He tipped his head back and my body ached at the sight of his watery eyes. "I wouldn't have just let that happen." Even though I knew it wouldn't. "I would have yelled for you."

He closed his eyes tightly and nodded.

"Mrs. Dwyer, would you come help me break the news to the guests?" I heard Alice ask quietly.

I glanced up to meet my mother's confused eyes. "I'm okay. Go, please."

She allowed the small vampire to pull her away, plainly torn between her desire to stay with me and demand an explanation and to do as I asked and help Alice get rid of all the extraneous people.

"Wait!" I cried.

They stopped, and I saw Alice practically sifting through the future as if to try to figure out whether I'd changed my mind. I cringed. What use was there for false hope, when it would do nothing but disappoint her? "I---Tell Dad I'm okay, please? Tell him---Tell him Jake's here and we're both fine."

Charlie would understand better than Renee. Charlie had seen Jacob piece me back together. Charlie would understand this. Billy would understand this. If no one else, Seth would understand this. Seth had seen Jacob and I kiss on a cold night, in a tent in the mountains.

Alice's mouth drew into a tight line as Renee smiled and nodded.

Jake was still hugging my midsection tightly, whispering words I couldn't hear into my robe.

I brushed a hand through his hair again, and he sighed at the contact.

"I missed your hair." It escaped my mouth before I could stop it.

"I'll grow it longer, if you want." He said immediately.

My heart swelled. I didn't deserve him. I brushed my thumb over his cheek.

"Did you mean what you said?" He whispered.

"Which part?"

"The part when you said you would never marry him. Did you mean that?"

I glanced back at the bathroom I'd left Edward in. There was no reason to cause him more pain.

"Gone." Jake said. "I heard him jump out the window."

Guilt pulsed like acid in my veins. I did not want Edward to feel the way I felt when he had left me. I did not want that pain for anyone. They always told me I was too forgiving...

"Did you mean it?" Jake persisted.

His brow was wrinkled with worry, and without thinking, I smoothed the lines away with my fingers as I breathed, "Yes."

"That you... don't love him enough to give me up?"

"I---Yes."

I felt my legs being swept out from under me, and suddenly I was kneeling too.

"Why?" His breath was hot on my forehead, and I tipped my head back to look at him.

"W—What?" That was not a question I had expected.

"Why don't you love him anymore?"

His hands crept into my hair.

"I----He----"

Jacob was leaning closer now. "He what?"

"Hetried to take you away from me." I blurted. That had really been the nail in the coffin, hadn't it? What right did he have to keep me from the one person who had made me happy while he was gone? From the man everyone (but myself) had known I was in love with?

"When he wouldn't let you see me?" Jake dragged his nose across my cheek.

"When he came back." I whispered into the hot air between our mouths.

And then he was kissing me.

And I was kissing him back.

Again.

His hot lips moved against mine frantically, almost desperately, and---like before--- I fisted my hands in his hair, trying to pull him closer---not like before---and he growled against my mouth.

I welcomed the heat that flooded my body, reveled in it.

He pulled away from my lips to drag his tongue along the line of my jaw. "Jake!"

"I love you I love you I love you..." He whispered it into the corner of my mouth, the hollow beneath my ear, the curve of my collarbone.

I pushed him away from me, grabbing his face between my hands. For a moment his features fell in hurt and rejection, and then I kissed him firmly on his wet lips. I wanted him to know I knew what I was doing, so I stared into his face hard as I whispered back, "I love you."

Now it was my turn to explore. I nipped at his lower lip, let my tongue lap up a bead of salty sweat beneath the line of his jaw, peppered his throat with open-mouthed kisses.

"Bells..." He moaned, his head falling back.

I pounced on the newly exposed space, raking my teeth over his neck. "Mmm..." I hummed happily as I sucked on his feverish skin.

"Shit." He cursed. "Your mom."

I scrambled to my feet, straightening my robe. "How close?"

"Bella?" Renee called.

"Close." Jake whispered, smoothing my hair for me. "It's okay. You look appropriately frazzled for a runaway bride." He waggled his eyebrows.

"You... big jerk!" I smacked his arm.

He grinned. "There's my Bells."

"Bella, sweetheart?"

"Right here Mom."

She scrutinized Jake and I, her eyes sharp and calculating. God, was my mouth as red as his?

"Honey, I think we should go back to Charlie's and talk."

Bella Swan agrees to Renee's proposition even though she can see the hurt in Charlie's eyes and she doesn't know how she'll explain it right to Jacob.

When she goes upstairs, wanting nothing more than to collapse on her bed and sleep for days, Rosalie Hale is waiting for her.

Bella freezes in shock, hand a foot from the light switch.

She and Rosalie stare at each other in the dark.

"Alice tells us you're going to Florida."

"I think I need some time." I manage. "To--- process."

"I think that's a good idea."

This startles me.

"I can't say I like your timing... but I understand your choice. The others will too."

"Will?" I sat down on the edge of my bed.

"Right now their emotions are clouding their rational thinking." She snorted.

"I'm so sorry." I mumbled. "I didn't know I was going to...I didn't plan for this to happen."

"I know." She sighed. "But I'm glad it did. You thought you knew what you were getting yourself into, Bella, but you just can't, it's not possible. I love my brother, but I'm glad you finally made the right choice."

Rosalie turns to go.

"How... is he?" I gasp out at the last second, and then wish I hadn't. What right do I have to ask?

She turns slowly. To my surprise, I see she looks sad. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He's gone now, though."

"Gone where!?" I panic, my mind flashing to the crowded streets of Volterra.

"Denali." She says quickly, picking up on my panic. "Just for a while, I think. He said something about being noble."

Words from long ago filtered back into my mind like water. "I can be noble, Bella. I'm not going to make you choose between us. Just be happy, and you can have whatever part of me you want, or none at all, if that's better. Don't let any debt you feel you owe me influence your decision."

Well that made me feel awful all over again. Why couldn't I have decided this then?

"I didn't want to hurt him." I whispered. "But I just---can't."

She nodded. "Believe me, Bella, I understand. None of us will hold it against you... Not even Edward."

"Still. Tell them I'm sorry." I begged.

"I will." She promised, and turned to leave.

I sank down onto my bed.

"Bella?"

Rose was halfway out the window, sitting primly on the windowsill. "Yeah?"

"Try to have fun in Florida. Go to the beach, enjoy the sun... Flirt with boys, even. Try to be a normal teenager for once." Her voice was wistful.

I would try. If not for me, for her. "I'll come back tan. Well---Sunburned." I amended.

She smiled wanly. "Thanks."

Renee Dwyer does not understand why her daughter insists she tell Jacob Black in person that she's leaving for a while.

Charlie Swan does.

Jacob panics, tearing himself out of my arms with an expression of pain and dawning horror.

"It's only for a while!" I cry.

"How long?" He asks, shaking less.

"I---don't know." I'm ashamed to admit. "I haven't bought a return."

He turns his back on me, and now I start to panic.

"Jake, I just need a break!" I try to explain. "That's all it is."

"From me?" His voice breaks, and I dart around him to grab his hands tightly.

"Not from you. Never from you." I promise him. "Just from... Forks. This whole town is going to be buzzing about the wedding being called off for days and I just--- I can't deal with that right now. Please, please understand." I beg.

"I don't want to lose you again." He whispers, and I feel like a horrible person for the millionth time.

"You won't. Not ever. Tell me what to do, Jake, please, tell me how to make you believe me."

He finally meets my eyes. "Kiss me. Kiss me and come back."

Ten minutes later, Jacob Black stands with a hand over his tingling lips. He watches Bella Swan walk out of his garage and decides that tackling him onto the hood of his Rabbit is the sexiest thing she's ever done.

So there we are! I'm thinking about leaving this guy as a oneshot, but I do have about ten more pages written in this 'universe'. What do you think? Would you care to read more?