A/N: Hey, guys! So, this is a new project. It's a collab with Luna Black Loves Pie (without spaces) (who writes excellent twilight fics, go check them out) and yours truly. Now, if you're someone who's read my past stories, you're probably going "asdfghjkl; TWILIGHT?" Just, trust me, man. It'll be nice. :D

I wanted to expand my boundaries so this is me writing something different. We hope you like it.

Sincerely,

Jess and Steph

Chapter 1: Going Through The Motions

We all deserve to die. For one reason or another. Living is a privilege that must be earned.

So, the fact that out of the seven billion people inhabiting the earth, Jasper Hale was taking up space and breathing air—when he shouldn't have been—was absurd. It was ridiculous, ludicrous, foolish.

But above all, it was wrong.

And Jasper knew it.

As he went through daily life: waking up every morning, working, drinking, sleeping…that fact loomed over him. It made him think about it. This thing called existence, and how trivial and unfair it was.

He, like many others, were living on borrowed time. Time they just didn't deserve.

So why is it that he dedicated his life to saving them?

Jasper woke up, hung-over. But what else was new? He didn't really need to sleep. He just preferred sleeping over the sound of the silence. Groaning, he rolled out of bed, hair suffering from the humidity; looking like a wild beast waiting to be tamed. When he saw his reflection in the mirror, just the thought of the battle ahead made him tired, so he went back to bed.

Oh shit, he thought, the liquor is on the other side of the room.

Prepping himself before hand, he pushed off and rolled across the room. He landed into his kitchen table with a thud. Suppressing a cuss word or two, he reached for the half empty bottle of Hennessey.

It was two fucking inches from his grasp.

Sighing, he got off of the floor and just when he reached for the bottle the doorbell rang.

Every force in the universal really wanted Jasper sober for some reason.

That was a first.

He rushed into the bathroom, and splashed some water on his face. He grabbed the toothpaste and gave his teeth a quick brush. The doorbell rang once again.

"Coming!" he said, but it sounded more like "Crrring." due to the toothpaste still in his mouth.

Now the doorbell was ringing erratically, clearly by someone who was panicking. He knew the sound of panic; he practically ran on it.

He looked through the peep hole just to make sure it wasn't anyone dangerous—Rosalie warned him about dangerous people. Rosalie said a lot—and only saw a young girl. He quickly deduced she was in her mid-twenties, intelligent, and shy.

Oh, and she was dying.

He opened the door, and waited for an explanation. He didn't greet her, he lost all traces of politeness once he got into the business. Saying please or thank you, or hello didn't seem important in matters of life or death.

"Can you fix me?" she asked. She was very straight forward, which he wasn't used to. Most people were either afraid of him, or thought him a joke. But if he was such a hoax, why did they bother coming?

"Can you fix me?" she repeated, fazed by his silence.

He looked at the clock on the wall, almost as if he actually had some appointment. That was a joke, of course.

"If the lord permits, ma'am." he finally drawled, southern accent resurfacing.

Edward Cullen sat in his chair in the living room, reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Despite all of his focus being on the text of the novel, he heard a cough echo through his small apartment.

The sound of that small cough—that harmless cough—was equivalent to the last sound the people of Pompeii must've heard before Mount Vesuvius erupted.

Well, at least to him, anyways. But, what else was new?

He jumped from his spot, not bothering to bookmark his book, and ran to the room. He swung the door open, and looked in concern at the coughing girl in her bed.

"Alice?" He said, "Are you okay?"

She smiled, "Never better."

"Are you sure? Should I make you some soup?" He questioned, not letting his sister's smile fool him as it usually did.

"No, Eddie, I think your soup will just make me feel worse." She chuckled as his face fell.

"You know, Al, you can really be an asshole sometimes." He smiled back at her.

"It's what I'm here for." She replied. He slowly walked out of her room, but felt a force pulling him back. The perpetual forces of what if. He turned back, and leaned into her doorway.

"Alice?"

"Yes, Eddie?"

"I hope you have a magnificent day today."

She raised one of her eyebrows, "Okay…?"

"And for the rest of your life, too." He left it at that, and walked away into the living room. He picked up his book, and tried to pick up his reading. But, it still felt incomplete. It wasn't enough. He briskly walked back to her room.

"Oh, and Alice?" She glared at her pesky older brother.

"What, Edward." She huffed.

"I love you." Alice tilted her head, and squinted her eyes to get a better look at her brother.

"What do you want now?" she questioned, affectionately.

"Nothing. I just…I…I'm not sure. I just feel like I don't say it enough."

"I love you too." She smiled at him, although still slightly confused.

"Alright."

"Mhmm."

"Yeah."

"Ed?"

"Yeah, Alice?"

"You need to get a girlfriend."

He made noises of disapproval, then walked away, smiling.

He didn't have time for a girlfriend. Not only was he studying archeology and anthropology down by the university in town, but he also had a job at research and development in that same university. The truth was, most of his time was taken up either getting an education, or doing things to take care of Alice.

Not the Alice you're thinking of. Life wasn't much of a wonderland.

He tried to read the words of Steinbeck, but they seemed to fall short.

Jasper started cleaning blood off of his table, with bleach and a dirty rag that had several mysterious stains from times when he was less than alert. Satisfied with his half-assed job, he tossed the rag into the garbage, deciding that…maybe it was time for a new one, after all.

Done with his hard work, and feeling something resembling a calmness, he finally got around to picking up his booze.

"To a hard day at work!" he yelled to no one in particular, and got ready to take hardy swig.

Then the doorbell rang.

I really need to get that thing removed, he thought as he put the bottle down and trudged to the door.

He looked through the peephole, and saw nothing. Confused, he began to walk back. But then it rang again.

A bit peeved, he walked back and looked through the peephole. Again, there was nothing.

He began to catch on. He mimicked the sound of footsteps, but really stayed in place.

The doorbell rang, but Jasper was quick. He flung the door open, "What do you want?" he questioned, annoyed.

Standing there was a tall, tan, muscular fellow, who looked like he started some shit a few times in his life.

"Hey, man, hey! Are you this guy?" he pointed to a flyer, clearly printed off of the internet.

Jasper realized this boy must be a customer. But he didn't look sick. Quite the contrary, he was brimming with life.

"Yessir, that's yours truly." Jasper answered. Jake held up the flyer to his face just to make sure. The expression was exactly the same. There wasn't any.

"Is all that stuff true? About you healing people, I mean." Jake asked.

Jasper knew what he was now. He was one of those non-believers. But he would come to believe. All in due time.

Jacob saw the look in his eyes, and quickly corrected him, "No, man. I totally believe in faith healers, as well as ghosts, omens, fairies, and…you get the idea. It's just that, there are a lot of fakes out there. And this is something that means a lot to me. Well, not really me specifically, but…"

Jasper figured that this kid talked a lot.

"I'm Jacob, by the by! Jacob Black." He grabbed Jasper's hand and shook it violently.

"Jasper Hale." He replied.

"I know! It says that on the flyer, man!"

Jasper figured that Jacob was also a bit of a douchebag.

Jacob then got a call, which he didn't even look at. He simply knew who it was.

"Well, I have to go. That's my friend calling, he's a bit of a buzz kill. But, I'll be back, eventually. Maybe you can convince me, then." He said.

"Yeah, maybe." Jasper replied.

"Bye, man." And then he was gone.

"…See you later." Jasper said to the empty doorway, still confused at the encounter he just had. Shaking it off, he grabbed his bottle of booze.

He took a nice, long swig.

"At least you'll never confuse me." He said.

Edward came out of the kitchen, holding a sandwich with burnt bread. It was as good as it was going to get. He placed it down on the counter. He walked to his refrigerator to get himself a strawberry smoothie. As he poured himself a glass, he heard the apartment door open.

"HEY MAN. I HEARD YOU NEEDED SOME HELP WITH YOUR WOOD." Immediately, Edward regretted calling his best friend Jacob Black.

"Why must you make everything sound so homoerotic?" Edward said.

"I'm not sure what that word means, man but I think that I make some things sound a bit gay." Jacob replied back.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" Edward asked.

"Yes. I want your babies." Jake said in a matter-of-factly tone.

There was a moment of silence between the two friends, and finally Edward shook his head.

"Just get out. I'll find someone else to watch Alice."

"C'mon, man. Don't make my little man crush change things between Alice and I!" Jacob snorted.

"Alice and me, Jacob."

"Man, why does everything have to be about you?"

Alice walked into the room, unable to rest. The commotion was too loud for anyone to rest.

"Hey, Jake," Alice addressed her brothers self proclaimed BFFL, "hey Ed. Tabbitha and I are going to go to the mall later today."

Jacob wrinkled his nose at the mention of her name, "You're going out with the sea-witch?"

Alice rolled her eyes, and went to grab something from the fridge.

Edward shook his head, then turned to Jake, "You, shut up," he then turned to Alice, "and no. You're not going anywhere. You're sick."

They both turned to him, and whined.

"Now, Eddykins! Is that any way to treat your BFFL?" Jacob said with mock exasperation.

"Self proclaimed." Edward hissed back at the Quilette Native-American in his kitchen.

"A BFFL's a BFFL a BFFL a BFFL," Alice chimed in from the fridge.

"Can both of you just silence yourselves? Just for a few moments? Please?" Edward begged. The house began to slowly silence itself, and then Alice's best friend barged into the door.

"ALIICE? ALICE CULLEN? I'M LOOKING FOR ALICE CULLEN? HAS ANYONE SEEN HER? SHE'S A SEXY BEAST!" A small, Filipino girl with the voice of a sports announcer stood in the living room. She held in her hands the keys to a nice car.

Alice smiled and waved, "Hi Tabby."

"Hey girl, hey. So, are you ready to go?" Tabbitha said while looking at her poorly dressed friend.

"Well, obviously not. Edward," She took a moment to glare at him, "doesn't want me to go anywhere today, because I'm sick."

Tabby shrugged, "Oh well. We can just stay here and watch a movie or something. I can make you some soup, if you'd like."

"I'd like that very much," Alice nodded her head.

Edward haughtily huffed, "How come you're going to take soup from her, but not from your own brother?"

Jacob put a hand on his shoulder, and with a valley girl accent said, "It's okay, honey! This is, like, all going to be okay, you know?"

Tabbitha wrinkled her nose and stared at Jake, "Why do you have to be such a douche-bag?"

Jacob cast a glance in her direction, "I was born this way," he flipped his head, in an attempt to flip his hair. Which was short.

Shaking his head and walking out of the door, Edward whispered, "I hate you all."

Before closing the door, he tenderly called back, "Alice, you have an appointment this week, okay?"

"Alright," she called back halfheartedly.

As he walked down the hallway, he thought about what it would be like if things were different. Quickly, he shook the thoughts away. There was no use in dwelling on them. That's not what mom and dad would have wanted.

Jasper was on his second bottle, and had no plans of slowing down. It's not like he had anywhere to be, or anyone to see. It's not like anyone cared. So why should he?

"You know, I need a vacation." He said aloud.

He was an introvert as it is, so seeing two people in the course of a few hours made him a bit weary.

He should have been used to visitors; people coming by to get what they want for themselves. But it was okay, because he always got what he wanted in return. Using is okay if it's a two way street.

Maybe that's why Rosalie stuck around for so long, he thought, not because she actually liked me, or I actually liked her. But we needed each other. We were both lonely.

But then he bit down on his tongue, because he knew the pain would stop his train of thought. Rosalie wasn't coming back.

He looked around at the empty, crappy apartment. And the big walls of the room made him feel so small. There was really no point, was there?

"I miss it." He said. He missed it more than he should have. Being mortal. Because to live forever was basically the same as perpetually dying.

Rosalie warned me, he thought, she said it would get lonely.

But him, being human back then, his primal thought was survival. Nothing else mattered.

He knew there was a way to off himself, Rosalie had spoken about it before. But, of course, she wouldn't tell him. She kept a lot from him.

So, he decided, if he was going to continue existing, he would not be useless. He'd do something that no one was able to do. He'd cure the incurable.

"And I have been! Curing them, I mean." He announced to the empty room. The sound faded back into the silence, which he cringed at. Why did it even have to exist? Silence.

The doorbell rang, and Jasper, surprisingly, didn't mind.

Without even looking through the peephole, he opened the door. Unwelcome company was just that; company.

Of course, Jacob "Douchebag" Black from earlier stood in his doorway. And he wasn't as annoyed as he should have been. In fact, he welcomed him in this time.

"Nice apartment." Jacob snickered, "But, well, I always assumed you'd live in a more mystical place."

But then he saw them. They were stacked on shelves, row after row after row.

"Now, that is top-notch creepy, man. Straight out of a horror movie." Jake said, going closer to one of them, "It's like they're staring at me."

Jasper owned dolls. A lot of them.

"Don't touch that!" he said, and Jake backed away from it, smiling. That was the first time he heard Jasper express any kind of emotion besides boredom. It was nice knowing the guy was human.

"Sorry, man. So, you know why I'm here. Prove it." Jake said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Prove that you're a healer." Jake said.

"But you're not sick." Jasper said, "I can't heal someone who isn't properly sick."

"I know someone who is, though. But I can't trust you until you prove that you're a healer." Jake said.

"Correction, sonny. I'm a faith healer. I can't prove anything. You just have to have faith in the good Lord, and know that he provides." Jasper said, smiling as if sharing a private joke with himself.

Mulling it over, Jake seemed to finally be satisfied with that answer.

"Alright. I'll be back, with a possible patient next time."

"Lookin' forward to it." Jasper said, and bid him farewell.

Interesting. Things are becoming interesting again, Jasper thought. He actually couldn't wait for tomorrow.

That was new.

A/N: Thanks for reading! We worked hard on this. It was definitely out of my comfort zone, so I'm not sure how this went. Feedback would be appreciated.'

We hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Sincerely,

Jess and Steph