Satellite Castle by swill122

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5537539/1/Satellite_Castle

Official Description: NM-AU. Rather than let Bella waste her life away, Charlie convinces her to take a seat in a therapist’s chair. This is the story of her emotional, physical, and spiritual journey to her new life and family.

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bsmog says: Imagine, if you will, what might have happened if, after Bella spent three months moping around when Edward left her at the beginning of New Moon, Charlie had suggested Bella put on her big girl knickers and go see a therapist. And then imagine she agrees, instead of lamely suggesting she just needs a girls’ night to snap herself out of three months of life-sucking depression.

An outcome of this trip into the New Moon A-Universe is Satellite Castle by swill122. An exploration into the story of a girl who is hurting, but who realizes she needs to make some changes in her life, Satellite Castle presents a Bella you want to cheer for, surrounded by an accompanying cast of secondary characters you wish replaced the real ones. Swill runs a parallel line that sometimes directly touches canon, then diverges to a tale of discovery and rebuilding.

Through her sessions with Dr. Kris, Bella works around the pain she still feels at losing Edward, the nightmares she still has, but she wants to make an effort to fit back into the life she still has. She must find a way to win back the friends she once had, to patch up her relationship with Charlie, even to fall comfortably back into her relationship with Renee.

Swill’s characterizations of Charlie, Angela, Jessica, Mike Newton, and eventually Jacob lend strength both to the story and to the reader’s wish for Bella to find a way back to something like normalcy for a teenage girl. Charlie is quiet and sometimes abrupt, but lovably so. He’s fatherly in a way that makes me proud right along with him when Bella makes progress, or that makes me feel his pain when she’s struggling.

She gives Angela and Jessica quite a lot more depth than they usually enjoy. I found myself wishing girls like that were around when I was in high school. Jessica is a particular gem; in one of my favorite scenes in Chapter 6 – She is a Zombie, Jessica and Bella go to the movies in a canon attempt at reconciliation. True to canon, Bella asks that they avoid love stories, so Jess picks a zombie flick. Turns out, even Jessica’s pretty witty.

“It was toward the very end when I started to notice the irony of Jessica’s choice. On the screen, the heroine of the story was shrieking, attempting to flee from a hobbling, vacant-eyed zombie. The camera kept cutting back and forth between the two, and I realized both creatures were me. I had always seen myself as the heroine of my own story, waiting to ride off into the sunset with my mythical creature. But my mythical creature left, and though he’d tried so hard to prevent it, I had become a monster—the zombie.

I wondered if Jessica was trying to make a point.” (From Satellite Castle, Ch. 6)

Bella’s voyage of re-discovery wouldn’t be complete without the appearance of Jacob, and before you get all “eeew, Bella and Jake” on me, hear me out. Bella needs a friend, someone strong to fill the void she’s still experiencing every time she thinks of Edward, and Jake fits the bill. When the motorcycles make their debut, it’s not in search of the Edward-producing adrenaline rush.

“…I marveled at the bikers. They rode two abreast, all of them relaxed despite the descending chill and the mist that hung in the air.

That was the feeling I wanted. And I knew just where to get it.” (From Satellite Castle, Ch.

As in canon, Jake agrees to help fix the bikes up, and the banter that ensues in the following chapter as they start their work shines with a glimmer of hope that she might find some comfort in life without Edward. The most recent update is very unique, paralleling a comfortable evening at the Black residence with Bella’s most recent session in therapy talking about the Cullens. It’s a fantastic representation of the complexity of the Cullens’ lives, as well as a stark look at how different those intricacies are from what might be a normal teenage girl’s life.

If you’re looking for a smart, thoughtful, and very well-written account of what might have been in New Moon, check out this thought-provoking tale of friendship and self-healing in Satellite Castle; it won’t let you down!