I'm in the early stages of research for a potential timeline and found out that Princesse Helene d'Orleans was the leading candidate as Nicholas II's wife. Now, iotl he ignored his parents' preference and married Alix of Hesse. The future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
My understanding is that Nicholas had to ask his wife twice to marry him and, his parents' choice had the eye of a British prince. Noting the above, are there any other suitable candidates for marriage?
This is actually harder to pull off without ASB that it seems, because Nicky had his heart set on Alix from pretty much the moment he saw her arrive with a retinue of other German princesses and royals for a marriage in St. Pete to one of the members of his family (I forget which one). Nicky was an odd duck, but he was stubborn. People often seem him as a push over and in some ways he was, and he was indecisive and at times meek because daddy beat (mentally) a lot of out of him. But where he and his brothers did rebel was in the affairs of the heart. It was their private sanctuary.
Princesse Helene d'Orleans was a political match, to align Russia and France. And his father favored it, but Nicky cottoned on to the scheme and realized Helene was presented as an alternative to Alix and dug in his heels.
What I truly believe changed the game for everyone was that Alexander III's injury from the train derailment was discovered (after the fact) to be much more serious than first thought and the heir to throne had to get married and stop fooling around with ballerinas (Little Kschessinskaya was brought in to gently ease the pain virginity from Nicky before the life in the Guards would lead him down the "wrong path" of sodomizing some drummer boy or getting busy with *pearls clutched in horror* a Jewish gal or a gypxy). Nicky realized that the time had come for him to marry and that all wanted him to marry and dug in his heels and waited for them to allow him to marry Alix and he out-waited them.
Now... suppose there is no train derailment at Borki. Not saying Alex III lives longer. Doesn't have to. But let's say there is no derailment at Borki. There is no bruise and no kidney trouble for Alex III and that means no one expects the heir to the throne to marry for another five years as compared to OTL. That means the time is on the side of Alex III and his faction and they can wait out Nicky and once he's done with ballerinas, they present him a more "suitable" bride.