❝ February, 2014 ❞

"I can't believe you've been alive for the release of every Star Wars movie and you haven't seen any of them." Jacob shakes his head disbelievingly as he presses play on The Phantom Menace, prepared to make Phoebe sit through all six of the previous films before he lets her watch the newest release.

"I slept with Harrison Ford while they were filming one of them," she responds with a shrug of her shoulders. "Isn't that close enough?"

"You pulled Harrison Ford?" Emmett rolls into the den in his heelys, holding two wine glasses filled with bear blood - after the many disasters that occurred whilst Bella was a human, Carlisle got the idea to start keeping a supply of animal blood within the house, so they did not have to worry about hunting quite as often, especially when extreme circumstances arise as they so often did with her. Whilst it is kept in the same bags as human blood, Emmett refuses to drink out of them 'like some common whore' and instead insists on using fancy glasses. "No offense, but why the hell have you settled for Jazzykins?"

"Offense taken!" Jasper shouts from upstairs.

Phoebe laughs, accepting the wine glass he offers her as he takes a seat on the opposite side of the couch before she answers. "Because as good looking as Harry was, he was not the love of my life. Jasper is."

"That's cute. Now give us the real answer," Jacob jokes. "Jasper probably isn't listening any more."

"Yes he is!" Edward snitches from a different part of the house.

"Mind your business, Edison!" Jasper shouts back.

"He wasn't that good in bed," Phoebe admits as the sounds of the boys beginning to fight ensues. "So when he asked about being a vampire, I lied and said the Volturi would be pissed if I changed someone famous."

"Isn't that true though?" Jacob asks, genuinely curious. "They were little bitches over Bella and Renesmee, and literally no one knows who they are, so it makes sense they would throw a fit over a celebrity."

"They only cared about us because Aro misses Carlisle," Emmett explains. "They actually don't give any fucks about celebrities. Just look at how many centuries they've let Anna Hathaway be around."

"WHAT?" Jacob shrieks, his eyes growing comically large as his brain struggles to process the information. "She's a- how- since when-"

Hey, Uncle Jake? Uncle Emmett?" Renesmee asks, tentatively poking her head into the den as Jacob continues to sputter out incoherent sentences.

"Yeah, Ren?"

"I was hoping I could talk to Aunt Phoebe alone."

"Say no more." Emmett immediately obliges, dragging Jacob from the couch with an all too eager grin. "Come on, let's get you a beer before I tell you about the rest of the celebrities. You're really going to lose it when you hear about Robert Pattinson."

As Phoebe pauses the movie no one had been paying the slightest bit of attention to and Renesmee claims Jacob's seat, the sounds of yet another chair breaking can be heard coming from the kitchen.

"You nicknamed my daughter after the Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren?!"

"What can I help you with, Rendezvous?" the older woman asks, genuinely curious. Renesmee normally goes to her mother or any one of the Cullen women for advice - unless she's throwing a party, then she asks the Denali clan first. But even that never requires other people to leave the room before she feels comfortable talking about it, especially considering the fact that everyone can hear everything from any part of the house should they choose to listen in. "Do you need help hiding a body? Fleeing the country?"

"Nothing like that," the young adult giggles, glancing around to ensure her uncles had truly left before continuing. "I was just wondering if I could talk to you about your . . . your umm . . . well, Aunt Rosie calls them 'sexcapades'-"

Phoebe shrieks, not expecting such a word to come out of her mouth. Renesmee jumps, and she immediately feels bad for frightening her. Renesmee is, by all technicalities, a fully grown adult, and it is only normal for her to have questions about certain things. Phoebe simply never thought it would be her who has to answer such questions.

"Are you trying to ask me how many people I've slept with?" Phoebe questions once recovered from the initial shock, her tone far gentler in an attempt to put the nervous girl at ease enough to open up to her.

"Not exactly," Renesmee says, growing relaxed enough to stop picking at a hole in her jeans and actually look at Phoebe now that she knows Phoebe is willing to talk about the topic with her. "My question is more along the lines of how?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know you met Uncle Jazz a long time ago, and you knew then that he was the love of your life, right?" Phoebe nods along, encouraging her to continue. "But then you two weren't together for a while, and you saw other people. How were you able to do it when you knew they weren't meant for you?"

Phoebe offers a sympathetic smile, finally realizing why Renesmee came to her. The boy she has been seeing is leaving for college soon and recently broke things off, suggesting they go their separate ways. While not every vampire in their clans remained single before they met their mate, Phoebe is the only one to have had relationships after meeting hers.

"It wasn't easy," she admits, recalling the beginning of her new life over a hundred years ago. "Being a newborn and learning how to be a vampire kept the pain of losing Jasper at bay for a few years. But when it finally hit me, it was a pain worse than any I had ever felt before. I thought he was dead, and it took years for me to finally accept it. Even then, I still couldn't move on. As the decades went on, the pain eventually subsided. It never left completely, but I could be around humans again and keep a job. Staying busy helped a lot-"

Phoebe pauses, noticing Renesmee frowning heavily and realizing she has hardly said any of the things the girl was hoping to hear.

"Eventually, I realized that I did not have to stop living my life simply because one boy was no longer in it. I realized it was okay for me to love and miss Jasper, and to have fun and be with other people as well," she says, skipping to the end of the long story. She conveniently leaves out the part where her memories of her human life slowly fading helped the heartbreak to fade as well. "I'm not saying it'll take you as long to accept that, but don't rush yourself either. There will still be plenty of boys and girls to date whenever you feel ready to start dating again - whether it's days, months, or years from now. And if that boy you've been thinking about really is the love of your life, then the universe will find a way to reunite the two of you. Just don't spend every day waiting for it. Even if you don't want to date anyone that's not him ever again, continue to live your life whether he is in it or not."

Renesmee nods along, and Phoebe wonders if it's only to get her to stop talking or if her misguided advice has actually helped.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Of course." Phoebe braces herself for anything, unsure as to what she'll want to know next but making sure she doesn't shriek in response regardless.

"Are you and Uncle Jazz ever going to get married?"

"Did Alice put you up to that one?"

"Maybe," she admits, her cheeks growing red at being called out. "But everyone is wondering!"

Alice has been quite vocal about her desire to plan another wedding ever since the Cullens moved in, and her desire for it to be Phoebe's and Jasper's wedding instead of another one for Emmett and Rosalie has hardly been a secret.

"If Jasper ever asks, I'm not exactly going to say no," Phoebe finally concedes, hoping that is enough of an answer to appease Alice for the time being.

It is hardly a lie. She would have married the soldier in one of those disgusting medical tents if he had asked her to. She would go to a courthouse today to marry him if he expressed a desire to do so.

"What's stopping you from asking him?"

Phoebe freezes, wondering what exactly is stopping her from doing exactly that. She's heard him say that he wants to marry her one day, and she already knows her own feelings about marrying him.

"I don't know why we don't hang out more," she finally says, quickly clambering to her feet and handing her nearly empty glass of bear blood over. "You're the smartest person in this house, Ratatouille."

Phoebe is up the stairs and bursting into Carlisle's study in only a couple of seconds, causing Jasper, Carlisle, and Garrett to glance up in surprise. Papers are swept into a desk drawer and a velvet box is tucked back into Jasper's pocket in less than the blink of an eye.

"Hello, Phoebe," Carlisle greets her, eyeing her excited smile warily. "Did you hit Edward with your car again?"

"No, but the day's not over yet," she admits, only worrying the three men more as to what could possibly have her so excited. "Can I interrupt whatever is going on here and have a moment alone with my cowboy?"

"Of course," Carlisle agrees. "Garrett and I were just about to go hunting."

"We were? But I thought you just restocked the-" Carlisle stomps on Garrett's foot, causing him to yelp. "Right! We were!"

Carlisle and Garrett leave the room before she can question the blatant lie, though she is far too focused on her own mission to even think twice about what they could possibly be up to.

"What has you so happy, darlin?" Jasper asks, allowing her to take both of his hands in hers and pull him closer as she smiles up at him. She's always happy to see him, so her good mood is hardly a surprise, but he's never felt her excitement so heavily that it practically pulls him into her.

"You." Phoebe answers simply.

Jasper grins and tugs her closer so he can give her a kiss. It's in this moment, when he leans back and grins again, that Phoebe's mind starts to race.

She has no sort of plan. She has no speech. She can't just ask him out of nowhere. She kisses him again, hoping a solution will come to her in those few extra seconds.

Surprisingly, one does. Sort of.

"Marry me."

"What?" Phoebe breathes out, though she heard him perfectly the first time.

"Marry me," Jasper repeats, more sure of himself this time. He lets go of one of her hands to pull the velvet box back out of his pocket and gets down on one knee, smiling up at the most beautifully perfect woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. "I've wanted to ask since the day you came back into my life. I kept waiting for the perfect moment, trying for months to plan the perfect proposal, because you deserve only the best. But things have never exactly gone to plan when it comes to us, and I don't want to waste another second of our forever together by waiting. So, will you, Phoebe Keating, do me the incredible honor of being my wife?"

"Yes!" She shouts, throwing herself into Jasper's arms before he can even slide the diamond ring on her finger. "Yes yes yes!"

They hardly have time to pick themselves up off the floor before all of the Cullens and Denalis - and Jacob - are flooding into the room, pushing to be the first one to congratulate the happy couple.

"I got dibs on best man!" Emmett declares, picking Phoebe up and giving her a hug that would quite literally be bone-crushing for a human. "Welcome to the family, sis!"