Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters. Any original content, however, is probably mine.

A/N: Just a reminder that the four main characters are real people, people that I know, and some of the content contained in later chapters may anger some people. That being said, I did try to keep the characters as close to how Stephenie Meyer wrote them, though I know I could never get them perfect. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to review with criticism or compliments.

Chapter 13 -- Separate Ways

24 Hours Later

Joe, Jessica, and Sarah were standing outside on the still damp grass from the last rainfall, the sun filtering meekly in between the clouds above. The three of them stood in complete silence, no one knowing what to say or how to act. They were just staying in the moment, not knowing where life was going to take them next. Their decisions had been made, and each of them had their own paths to follow. After a few more minutes of no speaking, Sarah couldn't stand it anymore, and she pulled Jessica into a warm hug.

"You have to promise me you'll keep in touch," Sarah whispered as she began to cry.

"Of course!" Jessica replied, perhaps a little too loud, her smile just a little too forced.

Joe stood there for a moment, then he too enveloped Jessica in his own hug. "We'll miss you," he mumbled, not wanting to believe this was really happening.

"Oh, come on," Jessica said, pulling away. "It's not like we'll never see each other again!" They all stood there for several more minutes in comfortable silence, just watching the wind play itself against the trees in the forest, and then Jessica began walking. "Well," she said as she headed into the trees, "I'm gonna go ahead and go."

Joe and Sarah watched as she approached a very bruised, very battered looking Jacob. He was leaning against a tree with an unbelievably large grin on his face for how much pain he looked like he was in. He waved goodbye to Joe and Sarah even though he only met them for the first time that morning, and then he turned, his arm around Jessica's shoulder. As the two of them disappeared into the darkness, Jessica never looked back.

Joe turned towards Sarah, a dark look on his face. "Now for the hard part..."

Sarah laughed forcibly, then gulped. She tried in vain to wipe the tears from her face, but they were continuously replaced by fresh saline, and she let out a strangled sob as they began waking back to the beautiful Cullen house.

Carlisle had given them the morning to say their goodbyes before they were forcibly evicted once more. Carlisle and Esme had both stepped out graciously, but they promised to be back by noon, by which time Joe and Sarah promised to be gone.

The two of them stepped into the conspicuously empty living room and, with a feeling of dread, headed up the stairs together.

Sarah stopped at Edward's door and paused, trying to gather to courage to knock. For split second she chickened out, instead turning around to leave without saying goodbye, but then a melodic voice from inside the room called out "Come in Sarah," and she turned around, shaking, to open the door. Joe could see Edward relaxing on his long sofa inside the room before Sarah closed the door behind her.

"Hi Edward," Sarah exhaled, her voice barely audible.

Edward held out his arms, inviting Sarah into him. Sarah hesitantly crossed the room, but instead of accepting his invitation, she sat on the opposite end of the couch, ignoring his open arms and disappointed expression.

"I assume by now you are aware that Bella has returned," Edward began, reluctantly lowering his arms and turning to face her.

"It's all I've been able to think about lately," she lowly replied.

"I know," Edward grinningly revealed. "Trust me, I know. You're also aware that Carlisle refuses you and your friends to stay in this house for any longer."

Sarah merely nodded, unable to focus on this painful revelation.

"Then..." Edward began, unwilling to finish his necessary sentence, "you know that... this... us... we... can't continue any longer."

Sarah said nothing in reply. There was no need to.

Edward sighed. "Bella is very mad at me. I don't need to read her mind to know that. But she will forgive me. After all, she was in the very same situation at one point in time. She can sympathize with my situation."

"She'll forgive you," Sarah said surely. "Because she loves you."

"Would you forgive me?" Edward asked curiously.

"Yes," Sarah answered slowly, "because I love you."

Edward looked at her with a pained expression, as if he wasn't sure if he could say what he needed to. "And I... love you Sarah. Perhaps in another life, somehow, we could be. But... My heart belongs to Bella."

"But some part of it..." Sarah trailed off, unable to continue.

"Some part of me will always love you," Edward graciously allowed her. "In a different way from the way I love better. In some ways, it's a better love than the love I have for Bella. It's safer, less dangerous. I was always fated to love Bella, but I chose to love you. Perhaps in that way, you will always have a part of me that Bella can't."

Sarah thought about this for a moment, then decided that this was the most she was going to get at the moment, and she was surprised to notice that she was happy to have it.

Edward slowly reached across the sofa, cradling Sarah's face in his hands before drawing her into him, placing his lips gently against hers, then after a few minutes, becoming more powerful in his movements. He became passionate as he caressed her neck, her back, her thighs.

At some point, both of them realized that while they kissed, Sarah had begun to cry, and Edward slowed down, cradling her in his arms, occasionally kissing her tears away, but for the most part, letting her cry out her sorrows. Sarah pulled herself into Edward as far as she could, burying her tear stained face into his shirt, losing herself completely in his smell, trying to absorb as much of him as she could before her time in heaven was up and she was discarded back to the hell of the real world.

Silently, they both knew when it was time for Sarah to leave, and she got up without complaint, her tears long dried. With only a single glance back at the angel sitting on the couch with a look of immense pain on his face, Sarah walked away from her love and her life, shutting the door behind her.

Joe saw Sarah step into Edward's room, closing the door as she entered. Sighing, Joe continued down the hall towards the one room he wanted to go in, but was terrified of what he might find when he did. Cautiously, he approached Jasper's already open door and stopped in the doorframe, looking down at his feet.

"Hi Alice," Joe greeted, looking up only long enough to get his words out, then continued looking down in humiliation.

"Joe," Alice replied curtly. She looked at him with an unreadable expression, but not one of pure anger. She exited the room past him and headed down the hall into her own room, and Joe was saddened to notice that some of the dance seemed to have disappeared from her step.

Jasper stood suddenly, causing Joe to look up at him. "Hi..." Joe said softly, uncertainly.

"Alice forgave me," he said shortly, as if trying to get the courtesies over as quickly as possible. "She says she understands. I do love her, and she knows that. There's another part of me though, a part that neither her nor I have every experienced before, and that part loves you as well."

Joe stepped up to him and wrapped his arms around Jasper's waist, feeling the chill of the vampire's skin beneath the thin shirt he wore.

"I think it makes it easier for her that it was with you," Jasper continued, "another male. That way, she doesn't feel as if she failed, because there was no way she could give me what you could."

"Will you two be... okay?" Joe asked slowly. "The same?"

"We still love each other," Jasper explained, "very, very much. More than we love the other members of our little family. However, now that love is in a different way. Like friends, or, no... Like family. I guess it's the same love we've always had, we just never knew that that's the love we were feeling. Alice just assumed her vision meant that we would be together romantically, but I don't think she interpreted it correctly."

"I want to be with you Jasper," Joe whispered.

Jasper grinned, leaning down so his mouth was next to Joe's ear. "And I with you," he whispered, blowing cold air against Joe's skin, raising goose bumps along his body. "It can't happen though, not with Carlisle."

"Then come with me," Joe pleaded, clutching tighter to Jasper's statuesque body, desperately reaching out to him.

"I'm sorry," Jasper said softly as he lowered himself to a low crouch, bringing his head to chest level on Joe. "My duty must first lie with my family. If there were some way for us to be together with Carlisle's blessing... But we can't."

Jasper smiled and Joe could feel a soft prickling along his body, his sadness drifting away, replaced by a shrill giddiness that filled him up.

"Jasper, stop!" Joe screamed, an unstoppable smile spreading across his lips. "I don't want to be happy without you!"

"Jasper just continued to smile, refusing to allow the pain he felt to seep through. "It's 11:45," he said slowly. "You need to leave." He pulled on Joe's shirt, dragging him down so that their lips met once more, their lips moving together perfectly, their tongues teasing each other as they kissed playfully once more. Slowly, Joe could feel the faux happiness fade as Jasper lost his focus, and he realized that this would be that last kiss he ever got from the most perfect love he would ever be a part of. The kiss turned from playful to passionate and caring, and not nearly long enough.

"Goodbye, Joe," Jasper said as their lips finally broke apart. "Until we meet again."

"Will we?" Joe asked, unable to cry with Jasper controlling his emotions.

"Without a doubt," Jasper responded, standing up again. With one final kiss, Joe turned and walked out the door.

"How did yours go?" Joe asked as he and Sarah stepped out the front door, closing it behind them.

"It was... hard." Sarah said through her tears. "Yours?"

"Hard," Joe replied. "But I think it'll all work out in the end, you know?"

They climbed into Joe's old Bronco and Joe turned the key in the ignition, forcing it to roar into life. Slowly, Joe backed out and directed his car onto the small path that lead away from the Cullen's home and back to the interstate. Along the way they passed a sleek back Mercedes, Carlisle and Esme just barely visible inside the tinted windows. Carlisle looked straight ahead, not allowing himself to look at the humans who very nearly destroyed his entire family, the humans who killed one of his proclaimed daughters, the humans who would never be forgotten in his family. Esme, on the other hand, smiled warmly and waved at them, and the two of them waved back, trying to force smiles for the loving woman.

When they reached the interstate, it was empty except for one other car heading towards them in the distance. As it approached them, Sarah noticed who it was behind the wheel and her sorrow was momentarily forgotten. "Oh my god!" she called out. "That's Stephenie Meyer!"

Joe looked over and confirmed that she was right and his mouth dropped. "I can't believe we just barely missed her!"

"Do you think we'll be in the next book?" Joe asked oddly.

"Maybe," Sarah said distractedly. "That would be cool."

For several hours they continued down the road in silence, driving in shifts. When the sun set and they were halfway home, they stopped at a rest stop, though neither of them expected to sleep that night.

"Hey Joe?" Sarah asked as they laid there in the car. "I just thought of something."

"What?" Joe asked quietly.

"If Carlisle was in Forks, who's with Daisha?"

Joe stopped for a moment, confused. "I don't know. Maybe... Emmett?"

Daisha sat cross legged, breathing deeply, her eyes closed. She forced all of her thoughts into resisting the powerful smell permeating her nostrils. Finally, after several minutes, the smell disappeared, and she opened her eyes to gaze up at her newfound inspiration for her newfound control.

Emmett looked down at her as well, smiling. "That was great! You're doing a lot better. Was it harder to resist that last time? I used real human blood, and it was right under your nose."

"Not really," she replied. "It's easier when I'm not hungry."

Emmett laughed, a large, booming laugh. "You know," he said when he had calmed down, "I wasn't sure how long it would be before I would be able to laugh again. Thanks."

Gently, he pulled her in for another kiss, their ice cold lips crushing each other in passion never before felt by either of them.

Behind them, the Alaskan sun sank lower in the sky.

A/N: Whew. It's finaly done. Thanks so much to everyone who gave me any sort of comment, whether it be criticism or compliment. This was my first attempt at puting my fanfiction online, and I daresay I think it may have been a success. :)

As I said before, this was only part one of Dusk, and part two is coming soon. Personally, I like part two beter. It's filled with oodles more of everything we all love about twilight! So keep your eyes out for that. It will be entitled "Dusk II: Sacrifice," so keep your eyes open!