Title: Goodbye to Yesterday
By: Kristin aka KiaraAlexisKlay
Genre : Crossover, Roswell,
Twilight
Characters: Liz Parker, Edward Cullen; Alice, Jasper, Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett, mentions of Bella, Jacob, POD squad
Disclaimer: Melinda Metz, Jason Katims, and a whole host of networks and producers own
Roswell; Stephanie Meyer and her publishing group own
Twilight and her respective sequels. Title is taken from part of the song
If Today Was Your Last Day as sang by Nickelback on their latest album
Dark Horse.
Rating: Uncertain -- Goes AU after 2nd Season of Roswell; AU set after the third book (i keep forgetting the name) ; kind of angsty
A/n: This is going to be a brief series of ficlets in this Twilight story arc. Dedicated to
alexceasar for the insistence on an Edward/Liz pairing. I realized suddenly why I never quite was as emotionally and mentally involved in the Twilight series....I couldn't stand Bella....or, perhaps, more truthfully, I can't stand a woman who makes her every happiness and existence all stored up in one person/man/thing. I blame Laurell K. Hamilton and Patricia Briggs and Joss Wheadon for all the vulnerable-yet-strong heroines they brought forth for it.
~*~*~
If today was your last day
and tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday
would you live each moment like your last
Leave old pictures in the past
donate ever dime you had
If today was your last day - Nickelback, If Today Was Your Last Day, Dark Horse
~*~*~
"Is he still up there?"
The words were hushed unnecessarily -- the occupants of the house could hear the brush of a butterfly's wing from miles away, and the topic of the conversation wasn't pay much attention to anything these days-- but habit and manners were inbred deeply no matter how many years have passed.
"Do you have to ask?" the reply was snarled back, but the bitterness and anger were not directed at the one who asked the question.
Esme Cullen gave a pained sigh, her mother's heart torn as mixed feelings warred within. Logically, her human mind told her that yes, the situation was unfortunate and highly unpleasant, extremely so, yet it was not the end-of-the-world. But the protective, maternal part, and that darker half of her instincts, screamed to avenge the hurt dealt to her so-called 'middle' child and the un-intentional insult toward her family. Preferably in the most painfully, gruesomely bloody way possible until all the hurt, and the bloodlust, was soothed and satiated.
Her 'daughter' Rosalie glanced her way, the frigid aloofness drawn around her like armor encasing the fragile woman beneath, and Esme cocked an eyebrow in askance. Rosalies plump lips thinned as her jaw tightened and briefly, some of her true nature showed, however fleeting in the warning glow of eyes turned the crimson of old blood.
"He refuses to come down although the keening and sounds of furniture breaking are finished. As we don't have heartbeats or the need to breathe, neither of those are in existence, yet I know he hasn't left the room for the last....oh, two weeks, three days, and twelve hours." The blond beauty allowed herself a moment of hurt and pain for her 'brother' before she drew her usual cloak of hostility about her, though this time it had a more direct target than usual.
"Well, that's good," Esme stated with more confidence than she felt, and Rosalie's sharp glare told her that it was not as hidden as she'd hoped.
"What's good?" Emmett called out.
Both women turned to the familiar presence, and in that moment Rosalie was transformed from Glacial Queen to an almost normal, beautiful young woman in pain and she walked into the strong embrace of her mate, soaking in his essence like a lifeline. Emmett's sturdy frame dwarfed both of the females before him, even Rosalie who was a woman of decent height but compared to Emmett seemed as dainty as Alice or Esme, the shorter members of the family. Esme herself found herself wrapped in a set of comforting arms, and she inhaled that scent that was uniquely her own mates, and she relaxed and leaned back against that solid chest, pain, grief, joy, and sorrow mingling in a tantalizing aroma that both soothed and pained.
"What's good?" Carlisle repeated Emmett's question and the two women exchanged wary glances, debating whether or not it necessary to bring the tension back to the room. With a mental sigh, Esme took an unneeded breath and answered truthfully.
"Well, there's no more furniture breaking, he's still in the room 'alive' for as much as we can be, and the keening has stopped," Esme put a cheerful spin on her summary, and it was the male's turn to sigh. Carlisle gave his 'wife' and companion of a few centuries another squeeze, nuzzling her neck, and resting his temple against hers as his chin dropped to her shouler. Emmett's usual lighthearted features were stony with a hardness most often seen on the face of the woman in his arms.
"He still not come out yet?" he mused, looking into the distance with a scowl, absently rubbing his hands up and down the curve of Rosalie's spin, arms flexing as the direness of the situation didn't settle well on his broad shoulders.
"No," Esme replied, holding tight to Carlisle and wishing for a moment she could just sink into him and never come back up. Emmett rumbled a growl and in a reversal of their normal positions, Rosalie was soothing and trying to calm him down, whispering hushed platitudes against his chest and neck.
"We'll have to bring him up some food if he won't come out on his own soon," Carlisle murmured, a grim sadness befalling the Cullen patriarch.
"He will," Esme whispered, eyes tracking up the stairs where her 'son' was hiding away and hurting....alone. "He must."
~*~*~
"Is this really going to work?"
The lean and lithe honey blonde man stared at his wife with a mix of caution and hope, and the under five feet black haired pixie snorted and gave him a Look that had the bigger of the two averting his eyes in shame at his doubt.
It wasn't that Jasper Hale-Cullen doubted his wife's visions, but after weeks of the emotional turmoil in the Cullen household brought on by Edward's extreme reaction to Be--that
human's rejection after everything that he, and the rest of the Cullen family, had risked and sacrificed, he was more than a little leery of any quick fix but he was more than willing to try.
All those emotions, especially the collective rage and pain, had been driving the empathic soldier wild.
"Of
course it's going to work, silly! I saw it didn't I? And besides, this one is
nothing like
her so there won't be any bad associations with similar personalities....well, beside this one being so much prettier, a real brunette, and a stronger personality than, than
her," Alice babbled, faltering toward the end as the sting of betrayl made itself known.
A wave of peace and calm seemed to seep her pain and hurt for the moment and a grateful smile and a lingering kiss was Jasper's reward for trying to calm his excitable mate. She truly appreciated Jasper's effort, and it was as much for him, as it was for herself, and her family, that she was going to do what she was going to do.
"It's not that I don't trust your visions, Alice....it's just, does he really need another
human to get over the other one? I don't think Edward is going to appreciate this," he warned and Alice sighed, shaking her head and sending her short, spiky black hair swaying with the motion.
"Oh, he won't like it at first....why do you think I took you with me before the vision finished? I didn't need Edward knowing ahead of time and fortifying himself in his mind because he read my mind of what needed to be done. He's too busy pouting and feeling sorry for himself, justifiably so...but still. Just...trust me on this, okay?"
"I always do," the elder rumbled and Alice couldn't resist kissing her soldier once more. For a while she lost herself to the taste and scent of Jasper, but then she stiffened a wave of premonition roiling through her, and she knew the time for stalling was past.
"Alice?"
"We don't have anymore time...we need to act now!"
With the grace and speed of their kind, Alice whirled away with a flash of crimson eyes, and Jasper was quick to follow. He was grateful that Alice couldn't listen in on his thoughts as Edward could. He couldn't help but wonder how one human could rectify the mistakes another had made to one of them. But ever faithful, he followed after and caught up to his saviour, his wife, and hoped that whomever looked after the souls of the Undead would smile upon them this day.
He hoped it wasn't already too late for his hurting brother.
~*~*~
TBC...............................