Broken Soul Mended

The story of Jasper and Alice's relationship. From the very start of that fateful day in the Philadelphia diner in 1948, it was a story about how a broken soul was mended, and about how impossible it seemed that two people could fit so perfectly together.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Alice or Jasper, nor any of our beloved Cullens/Hales.

** NOTE: The first part of this chapter is adapted from Jasper and Alice's retelling of their first encounter in chapter 13 of Eclipse, "Newborn", pages 301-302. **

Pennsylvania, 1948

She was a welcome breath of fresh air – a happy, carefree presence in the middle of a chaotic world, cheer that pierced through the misty veil of depression that had plagued him since he'd left Peter and Charlotte behind in Iowa.

He knew it was a woman – he'd never known a man with such a sunny disposition. It was a woman and not a girl, because the feelings she exuded were too complex, too… adult for a child.

Jasper had barely begun to look around, searching for the source of his relief, before a petite young woman jumped down off a high stool at the counter and he knew, he just knew, that she was the one responsible.

Her eyes were a deep gold, darker than any normal human being's eyes should have been. She was smiling as she advanced towards him, eyes fixed onto his with a faint, unidentifiable emotion in them. "You've kept me waiting a long time," she said when she'd finally reached him, waiting in front of him expectantly.

She was expecting him?, Jasper wondered, even as he bowed his head instinctively and murmured, "I'm sorry, ma'am." His mother had taught him manners, even if the lessons had passed a century ago.

Without skipping a beat, she held out her hand and before Jasper had even paused to think about it, he had taken it, recognizing the familiar touch of an immortal's skin on his own – not warm, not cold, but comfortable. She was one of them, and yet he'd never seen one like her, with the strange colour of her eyes, with her happiness, with the way she smiled at him, though she didn't seem to be gathering information – these Yankees weren't as concerned with territory occupation as they were back home. He didn't understand who she was or what she wanted.

"Come, Jasper," she said softly, and he didn't even think to ask how she knew who he was. "Come with me. We need to find them."

And at this point, it was all just so ridiculously confusing and crazy that Jasper just let her pull him back out into the pouring rain, out of the diner with all the humans' pressing concern and worry and fright and into the simple relief of her presence.

"I didn't think you were ever going to show up," she told him as they reached the city limits. "I'm Alice."

"How did you –" Jasper started to ask, when she laughed and twirled around, still holding onto his hand. Surprised, Jasper automatically moved to let her make a full circle, amazed at how natural it seemed to him to have her dancing in his arms.

Alice laughed again, pausing to look at him again. "I can see things most people can't, Jasper. I get visions of the future. When I first woke up, probably about, oh, twenty or so years ago, I guess, the first thing I saw was your face and I just knew your name. I don't know anything about how I got this way, or what my life was like before. I just know what's happening now, and what's going to happen later."

"Your eyes…" Jasper asked, drawing a wondrous thumb beneath her eyes, still trying to figure out how they could be any other colour than crimson. It didn't make sense…

"Yes, I know, I haven't hunted in a while," Alice admitted. "I don't understand, though, why are my eyes so interesting to you?" She looked up questioningly, and Jasper could sense the slight anxiety and confusion in her emotions. "Wait… I don't understand, why are your eyes red? The others aren't…" She paused. "I think… maybe it's our diet that makes it different. I don't drink human blood," she explained, a frown still creasing her features. "I live off animal blood."

"Why?" Jasper asked without thinking – was this the answer to his weariness? Was it really as simple as feeding not on humans, but on animals? He had had no idea that it was even possible – were there others who survived this way – those who weren't interested in battles and killing humans in order to live this bloody half-life?

Alice paused a second, worry creeping into her emotions and her voice as she said uncertainly, "Because the Cullens do. And I don't think it would go over very well with them if I showed up and I wasn't – well…"

"The Cullens?" Jasper asked again, somehow feeling like the stupidest vampire on the planet as his mind raced with the thousands of possibilities – if he could somehow track down these Cullens, if he could somehow get the answers he was so desperate for…

"We'll find them, Jasper," Alice told him reassuringly. "I've seen it. I know that much."

"But who are the Cullens?" Jasper repeated, instinctively settling her lithe body back against his as they sank down to the wet ground. It was absolutely astounding how very little time it took for her to become a part of him, before he was naturally gravitating around her, before the need to keep her close became more than a desire for calm.

Briefly, he recalled Maria, not many years ago, mention something about a large coven up in the North, one that she'd heard were different from the rest of their kind, though in what way, she wasn't certain. She had been worried that they might try to come and take over their territory.

"The Cullens are a family of our kind," Alice replied, resting her head back against his shoulder. "Not so much a coven as a family. They're more tightly bound together than most covens. But they're quite a large coven, I think. There's five. Two are still relatively new, only a decade or so old. Two about as old to this life as I am, and one old one. Centuries old. The old one created all of them."

"Five relatively immature vampires…" Jasper muttered in astonishment – unheard of numbers, even in the South. The closest he could think of would be the Volturi themselves… "And they haven't killed each other off."

"No," Alice confirmed. "They think of each other as relatives, a true family."

"Tell me what you know about these Cullens," Jasper said.

"In time…" Alice answered. "First, I think I'd like to know more about you. You see, I know your name and your face," she began, turning into him. Her lips grazed against his ice skin, sending slight shivers across his body as she continued her one-sided conversation. "I know who we'll find together, I know that wherever you are, I'll be. But I don't know who you are." She sighed, drawing her fingers lightly across the back of his hand. "So, Jasper?"

"You know, Alice," Jasper replied, tracing the perfect outlines of her face. "I think I'm more concerned with finding out who you are." Watching her eyes as they searched his face, he continued, uncertainly, "I mean, I've lived for a hundred years and I have never, never met somebody who – who…" He sighed. "I don't even have the words." He paused, leaning in without a second thought as he touched his lips to hers.

"Don't worry, Jasper," she said softly, her hands sliding up around his neck and his face. "I'm safe. I'm not here to hurt you." She returned his kiss lightly. "Come here."

*~*~*

The rain had stopped, the sun beginning to rise again. For the first time in a long while, Jasper felt no need to move, no need to hide. Maybe because they were far enough into the flooded forest that no human would dare come looking, maybe because he still couldn't hear the starting of the workday traffic on the outskirts of Philadelphia, maybe because he just didn't want to move and break the comfortable silence which had fallen between them many hours before.

The anxiety, confusion and concern had left her long ago, he noticed again as he shifted to look at her. "Alice?" he asked softly. Her dark golden eyes, still so strange to him, were still watching him with the same quiet confidence.

"They're wandering again," Alice whispered, nestling in closer to him. "I don't think I can find out where they're going before they move again." The slight tremble in her voice gave way to the twinge of anxiety again.

Instinctively, Jasper tried to calm her, much like the way he had controlled the armies of newborns back home. He didn't want her upset, he wanted her happy and sunny. He needed to calm her, so that she could calm him.

"What did you do?" she asked suddenly, starting to sit up.

"I… I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I can influence the emotions in an area. You were anxious, so I was trying to calm you. Did it not work?"

"Oh," she replied, settling back down. Sighing, she traced a light finger over the rippled scar tissue on his chest. "What happened to you?"

Jasper didn't speak for a second, concentrating only on the sensation of her fingers on his skin. Finally, he answered, "Newborns."

"Newborn – oh." Alice stopped. "Um, Jasper, we need to move," she said after a moment, sitting up and pulling her wet clothes back on. "There's a group of –" She froze when Jasper did the same, his pupils constricting and springing to his feet as the sweet scent of human blood drifted towards them. "Jasper, no. Jasper…" Her bell-like voice – so much more entrancing than Maria's – took on a sharp edge at that moment and Jasper hesitated, torn between the anger in her voice and the burning, intolerable thirst in his throat. It had been weeks, maybe even a month since he'd last broken down – it was just too irresistible to do anything but attack.

The sounds of a group of teenage boys tromping through the wet undergrowth in the woods broke through just then, and Jasper instinctively crouched, ready to spring the moment they came within his sights.

The weight of Alice's body rattled his concentration for a moment – she had jumped onto his back. "Listen to me, Jasper," she whispered frantically into his ear. "You don't need to live like this. You don't need to kill innocent people to make it stop."

"But I can't stop," he growled through his teeth.

"Yes, you can," she contradicted, smoothing back curls from his face as she kept up the steady stream of talk in an effort to distract him. "You can stop. Listen to me. I know how hard it is. I know it's burning, burning unbearably. It burns for me, too. It gets harder to resist the thirstier we are. But just stop thinking about it. Stop."

"Alice, this is who I am," he spat, still raging the vicious battle between his instinct to feed and his desire not to make her upset. "This is what I was trained to do."

"No, it's not," she repeated, "I can see the future, remember, Jasper? And I know you can do this." The anger that was quickly building was enough to throw him off the hunt for a fraction of a second. "Look at me. Focus on me," she continued fiercely. "Not on them. On me."

He hesitated, the squelching of the boys' boots in the mud getting closer and closer with every passing second. The tantalizing scent wafted over, carried by the wind and he tensed once more. "Alice –"

"I will be very, very angry if you don't control yourself," Alice growled threateningly. "And I will leave."

That was the final straw for Jasper, as panic finally overpowered thirst. No. She couldn't leave. It was ridiculous – he hadn't even known her 24 hours, and what were mere hours to immortals? But somehow she had become a part of him, a reason to keep himself going and he would quite possibly fall to the ground, writhing in agony if she was anything but happy.

Stopping his breathing in order to avoid the scent of the human boys, who had changed direction and were heading due east once more, Jasper managed to spit out, "Then we had better go hunting, Alice, now, for some poor unfortunate non-sentient creatures. I will not be able to stop again."

In a flash, Alice had dropped from his back, kissing his neck as her mood took an immediate swing for happiness – delight, even. "Thank you, Jasper," she chirped.

And as she cheerfully pulled him off into the woods in search of deer, he knew that his existence – for what he had, he could hardly call a life – would never be the same. It had been forever changed.