http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4824721/1/Paved_With_Good_Intentions
http://twilighted.net/viewstory.php?sid=2750
Word Count: 73, 968
Official Description: If you loved someone, how much would you be willing to sacrifice? Bella makes the most difficult decision of her life; now she has to live with the consequences. A Bella/Edward story.
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HMonster4 says: Last spring, I tripped across a lovely story by the name of ‘Paved With Good Intentions.’ The writer, 4Jace, read a story I was writing with ProfMom72, and I got curious, so I gave it a run.
I never looked back.
Those of you that know me, know that a) I am a goofball, and b) I am a raging sap. At the end of the day, I like to believe that love will conquer all, and like fics that inspire, me, give me hope, make me want to believe.
At first blush, Paved With Good Intentions is anything but that. Taking place after Eclipse, it shows us Bella and Edward at a local fair, where they run across a fortune teller by the name of Madame Fontaine. And there in. our story begins:
We sat down at a small table, and she leaned her cheek against her hand as she studied me. Finally she sighed. “If I were telling your future, I would say that a very big decision lies ahead of you. It will not be easy, and you will have to hope that love guides you, and those around you, every step of the way. But I’m not going to tell you your future.”
“You’re not?” I asked, even as I knew that what she was about to say was the real reason that I had stepped inside her tent.
“No,” she answered in her no-nonsense voice. “I’m not. Instead, I’m offering you something that I rarely give to anyone, because it’s much costlier.”
“I don’t have much money,” I replied nervously.
“That’s not what I meant, although I think you will find my fee quite reasonable.” She mentioned a price that was steep but manageable, if I dipped into my savings. She looked at me for another long moment before continuing. “Bella, what would you say if I told you that I could grant you a wish?”
In a plot twist straight out of Big, Bella has the ability to give Edward the one thing he longs for, his humanity back. It’s not something she chooses lightly, for she knows that her ability to give him the normal life he longs for will have far reaching implications for Bella, for the Cullens, and for Edward himself.
For a brief moment, I allowed myself to hope. What it would be like, for Edward to be human with me now? It would mean giving up so much, but if it gave him the one thing he wanted most, wasn’t it worth it?
“Bella,” she said sharply. “You need to focus, because this is important. I can make Edward human, but at a cost. There’s always a cost.”
She had my attention. “Go on,” I said nervously.
Her blue eyes held mine intensely. “Edward will be human, but he will have a life somewhere else. He won’t remember you, or his family. And you won’t remember him.”
And therein, we have our tale. Bella makes the ultimate sacrifice, making the choice that Edward couldn’t make for himself. And in doing so, she turns her world on its end. Without Edward, there is no relationship with the Cullens. No Alice, no Carlisle, no Emmett. She’s lost and confused. She’s set totally adrift without the one thing that always anchored her and provided her love.
After months of desolation, she finds herself in Phoenix, escaping the pain of her memories. There she starts to resume the life she’d put on hold, still hurting from the sacrifice she made. In a combination of odd luck and fact is stranger than fiction, she finds herself face to face with, yeah, well….
Suddenly it was all too much. I had wanted to find him for so long, and now that he was with me, I was overwhelmed. To see him like this, to finally understand that my life was irrevocably changed…he was the same, and yet so intrinsically different. It was like looking at an Escher print and realizing that you had been viewing the image from the wrong angle. The focus had shifted, and the new perspective made me dizzy. I pulled the velvet pouch from his hand almost forcefully, agonized by all that must remain unspoken between us. “Thank you for the ride,” I said brusquely, shoving the rest of my things back into my torn backpack. “I have to go inside now.”
There are so many things I adore about this story. The nobility of Bella, doing what she can to give Edward the options he never had. The confusion and frustration that Edward experiences as he believes he’s fighting a ghost for Bella’s affection. There are so many beautiful, epic, breathtaking moments in this story, I can’t put my finger on one.
This story was intensely personal for Jace – you’ll see in the author’s notes, which makes it all that much more poignant. The concept of love, sacrifice and loss are so strong through this. The woulda coulda shoulda’s run rampant throughout. And at the end, we are faced with a single question: what would you do for the person you love.
As I joked in the beginning, I am a goof and a sap. I like to laugh, I like to joke. I never cry. To paraphrase a great movie….there is no crying in fanfic. I have cried reading one fanfic ever. It was this one, and it was a good cry.
No, it was a fabulous cry. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Thank you 4Jace for sharing your story, your gorgeous words, and your lovely talent.
Kassiah says: *sob* This story is emotional. HMonster4 pressured me into reading it, and I can honestly say that it is totally different from anything else I’ve ever experienced.
A wish gone wrong. Bella isn’t supposed to remember him either, but she does. Would you be able to make the sacrifice that Bella makes for Edward? I don’t know if I could. Paved with Good Intentions is heart-wrenchingly awesome. Read it, but make sure you have an entire box of kleenex nearby.
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