A New Beginning
One
Jasper first noticed the feelings while he, Rosalie and Edward were on a hunt. Jasper had gotten ahead of the other two but came to a halt when he felt astonishment coming from Rosalie. The normally graceful vampire had somehow miscalculated the height of a fallen tree and had stumbled over it. Turning around Jasper watched from a distance as Edward grasped her around the waist and by one of her elbows to steady her.
The action itself wasn't surprising, he'd expect Edward or anyone else in their family to do the same for one another, but the emotions that surrounded it did shock him.
From Edward Jasper felt concern that he wouldn't exactly classify as friendly or brotherly, neither would the tenderness or the thrill that ran through Edward at touching her. The same was true for the emotions that Rosalie felt immediately following her tumble, the delight at Edward's touch, her appreciation for his quick thinking, and the same thrill as Edward. There was also hesitation and caution, an awareness that Jasper was there with them and he could almost feel them bury their emotions beneath an already present secret.
Keeping that encounter in mind Jasper started to pay closer attention to their interactions and their emotions, always mindful that Edward could possibly read his mind. It quickly became apparent that Rosalie and Edward had been carrying on an emotional affair for some time, but for how long Jasper didn't know. He could only assume that it had started some time after the Cullen-Hale family had left Forks and Edward had left Bella.
Painfully aware of this new information Jasper tried to figure out what to do next and he began to wonder if anyone else in their family was aware of what was happening between the two. Obviously Emmett didn't know what was happening between his wife and his brother, if he did there was no doubt in Jasper's mind that Emmett would've confronted them about it. But what about Esme and Carlisle? Or Alice? One by one Jasper discovered the answer to his question. Like Emmett, Esme didn't know what was happening between Rosalie and Edward but Carlisle clearly had some idea and Alice knew exactly what was going on.
But neither Carlisle nor Alice had made any attempt to intervene, to bring it to a halt.
Jasper was pained to discover that both were silently encouraging what was happening, even if it was at Emmett's expense. Confused, Jasper mulled over his discoveries for a week before he finally confronted Alice.
Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, and Edward were all out of the house, at work, running errands, and hunting, leaving Jasper, Alice and Emmett alone. Knowing that Emmett was in the garage working on a car that he'd just bought, Jasper made his way up to the room he shared with Alice where he found her playing with a pack of tarot cards. Pausing in the door frame he watched her, his emotions fluctuating between love and anger.
"How long are you going to stand there?" She asked, not looking up from her cards. When she realized that he hadn't responded she finally looked up at him, curiosity etched onto her perfect pixie features. It was at that moment that Jasper realized that she didn't know that he would be coming to her and vaguely he wondered why her ability hadn't warned her.
It would've made this so much easier.
"Jasper?" She said questioningly, trying again to get a response from him. "What do you need?"
"You really don't know, do you?" Jasper said, pointing out the obvious.
Alice gave a short shake of her head and watched him expectantly. He could tell when she tapped into her precognition to try and find an answer to his strange behavior and could sense her disappointment when she didn't find what she was looking for. Knowing that there was no other way to broach the subject and not knowing how much time they would have to discuss it Jasper shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and got straight to the point.
"Rosalie and Edward."
"What about them?" Alice replied, trying to play dumb but knowing that it wouldn't work. Especially not after the flash of panic that coursed through her the moment she heard their names in the same sentence.
"You know what I'm talking about, this emotional affair their carrying on," Jasper replied, becoming angry.
"Keep your voice down," Alice said. "Or do you want Emmett to hear you."
"Maybe I do," Jasper admitted.
What he didn't tell her was that Emmett had entered the house moments before Jasper confronted Alice about the Rosalie and Edward and that he was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Jasper knew that it was cruel and when he went to confront his wife about what she knew he initially had no intention of Emmett finding out this way, but his brother deserved to know.
"Alice, how long has this been going on?" Jasper asked, feeling an increase in tension from Emmett.
Realizing that she had no way out and that she was going to have to have this discussion with Jasper whether she liked it or not, Alice sighed and said, "Rosalie came to me a month after we left Forks, Edward came to me a week after that. Neither of them wanted this," she tried to argue. "They didn't mean to develop feelings for one another."
"Did you tell them they needed to put an end to it, before someone got hurt," he asked before amending his question and saying, "before Emmett got hurt."
Alice was quiet for a moment before shaking her head no.
"Why the hell not?" Jasper's Texas accent was starting to come through strongly as his frustration continued to mount.
"Because, from the moment I met Rosalie and Edward I knew what Carlisle knew subconsciously when he found and turned Rose, that they were meant to be together," Alice admitted.
Jasper knew, could feel that Alice wanted him to understand and to simply accept what she was telling him. But he didn't understand and neither did Emmett. Trying to comfort his brother, who became aware of his shifting emotions thanks to Jasper's empathic abilities, he received the silent message that Emmett wanted him to continue, to find answers.
"So you encouraged them," Jasper prompted carefully, not wanting to hurt Emmett anymore than was necessary but still wanting to find the truth for him.
"Yes," she admitted. "But I did urge them to leave."
"Because you knew that I would find out," Jasper forced her to admit. "But when they didn't you told them to be careful around me, didn't you?"
"I did. Jasper, they need to find their way," she said pleadingly, silently begging him to understand. "Fate decided a long time ago that they were meant to be together."
"No matter who gets hurt?" Jasper argued. "It's not just Emmett that will be hurt by this, Bella will be too," he pointed out.
"They'll be fine, eventually."
Shaking his head, angered but trying to maintain control for Emmett sake, Emmett who was already on the brink of exploding, he focused on an old memory. Drawing on the emotion present in the memory Jasper felt a familiar calm descend on him and he was able to gather his thoughts and continue without triggering an explosive response from his brother.
"I'm having a hard time believing any of this," he told her. "If Rose and Edward were meant to be together, why would she turn Emmett? Why would Bella's blood have sang to Edward?"
"They are, trust me. Their road was just a long one to travel," Alice said by way of explanation but it wasn't good enough for Jasper.
"That doesn't answer my questions."
Alice sighed and shook her head. "Just because a human's blood calls out to us doesn't mean we have to answer that call," she replied, annoyance entering her voice. "As for why Rose turned Em, well she had her reasons."
"Which you know," Jasper pointed out.
"Yes," Alice replied, pausing for a moment hoping against hope that Jasper wouldn't push the issue but the look on his face told her that he wasn't about to give up. Looking down at the cards splayed out on the carpet she told him what Rose had told her decades ago. "Rosalie adored her friend Vera's baby boy, Henry. She loved to cradle him and make him laugh. She told me that when she first saw Emmett that she sensed the same innocence from him that had radiated from Henry and that Em's curly hair and dimples reminded her of that baby. She told me that she'd always wanted a baby like Henry, and she found him in Em."
A sudden loud crack ripped through the air and Jasper watched as Alice's eyes widened in surprised and she gasped. "Emmett!" Jasper nodded and Alice's eyes quickly narrowed into a glare as she quickly stood up. "You knew he was there," she accused him and once again Jasper nodded.
Suddenly Emmett appeared right behind Jasper, hurt and anger warring on his face. Keeping his distance his eyes flashed red as he struggled to maintain control. "Alice, how could you?"
"Emmett I didn't mean to hurt you," Alice said, her voice softening as she tried to explain herself.
"If you didn't want to hurt me, then why didn't you tell me," he asked her roughly. "Why didn't Rose tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
Her presence surprised even Jasper. Turning around Jasper and Emmett saw Rosalie and Edward, only just having arrived, standing at the top of the stairs watching the trio. Seeing the look on Emmett's face Rose took a step toward him but stopped when she saw Alice quickly shake her head and mouth the two words she'd been dreading, they know.
"Emmett," Rosalie told him, there was regret in her voice but only Jasper knew it was superficial. "I'm so sorry."
"You're sorry!" Emmett shouted. "You're sorry for what?"
"We're sorry for hurting you," Edward replied, stepping up to stand beside Rosalie and rested a hand on her hip.
Jasper knew almost immediately that that was the worst thing Edward could've done and seconds later he knew it too as Emmett suddenly launched himself at Edward. Slightly shorter and more agile Edward managed to dodge out of the way and tried to restrain his larger brother but Emmett was stronger and pulling away he managed to get Edward by the throat up against a wall that now had a very large dent in it.
While Jasper allowed Rosalie to attempt to intervene he held Alice back and watched the two vampires battle. It wasn't until Carlisle arrived with Esme that the fight finally broke up.
"What the hell is going on here?" Emse demanded as Carlisle managed to gain an iron grip on Emmett and hold him back from attacking Edward again. Meanwhile she watched in astonishment as Rosalie went to Edward instead of her husband. When no one offered an immediate explanation she repeated her question, the tone of her voice indicating that she wanted an answer.
Jasper was the one who spoke up. "Rosalie and Edward are apparently in love," he told her as Alice ripped her arm out of his grip and glared at him. "Alice and Carlisle knew."
"What!" Esme turned to her husband who gave a short nod.
"And they didn't do anything to stop it," Jasper finished. His anger had only grown since his confrontation with Alice. He couldn't understand why she was a willing party to this, why she would be willing to deceive Emmett the way she had.
Holding up her hands Esme closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around what Jasper had just told her. "You're telling me that Rosalie and Edward are having an affair," she said, looking first to Jasper then to her husband for an answer.
"In a manner of speaking, yes, an emotional affair," Carlisle explained.
But Esme was watching Rose and Edward as Carlisle spoke and the looks on their faces told another story. Moving closer to them she subtly inhaled deeply and realized how closely intertwined their scents were. "Is that true?" she asked them, but the look on her face let them both know that she knew otherwise. When neither said anything she continued, "or has something more been going on?"
Rosalie's nod set Emmett off once again and this time Jasper joined Carlisle in holding him back, until he realized that Emmett was simply trying to get away from their adoptive father. Helping Emmett break free he watched as his brother moved toward the stairs, casting one last angry glare at the pair before disappearing in a blur of motion out the door. Glancing back at the rest of their family he took off after his brother.
"We never meant to hurt anyone," Rosalie said once the pair was gone.
Baffled, Esme looked at each one in turn trying to understand what had happened to her family. What she did know was that her husband had kept a major secret from her as had Alice, Rosalie and Edward were apparently having an affair, and Emmett was hurt beyond words.
Shaking her head she wondered how they could ever recover from this.
Standing outside of the Swan home, Angela hesitated a moment before she knocked. Lowering her hand she remained still and thought over the past three days and then over the past month, each thought leading her one step back.
The moment that stood out the clearest was her diagnosis, her doctor pointing at the computer screen with her pen, pointing out the tumor that was growing in her brain and telling her and her parents that because of the location operating to remove it was out of the question. Once that news had settled in her father, ever the pragmatist, had asked the question, how long did she have. Angela didn't want to know, she'd wanted to cover her ears, to start humming Joy to the World as loudly as she could, she wanted to leave the room, to pretend that this wasn't happening. But she didn't, instead she listened as the doctor explained that, at best, Angela had a year.
But no more than a year.
The doctor then went on to explain that she would probably develop seizures and that she was surprised that she hadn't already experienced some. Angela wanted to yell at the doctor and tell her that the headaches that she experienced were already excruciating and that she could barely read anymore due to her blurry vision, weren't those symptoms enough, why did she have to experience seizures too?
The rest of that visit was a blur until they left and her father went to bring the car around. She remembered standing with her mother at the front of the hospital, two feet between them, and as her mother fiddled with the strap of her purse she told Angela that God must have a plan and reminded her that she should trust in that plan. That was the last thing she wanted to hear from her mother. She wanted her mother to be angry. To be sad. To touch her and hold her. But neither of her parents had touched nor really looked at her and when they did look at her it was as if she was already gone.
As if she were a ghost.
Her brothers were scared. Scared of her, of the thing in her head that they didn't quite understand. They were afraid that if they touched her they might hurt her and no matter how many time she told them otherwise the fear still remained.
She could understand their fear and even her parents distance, they were all learning to cope in their own ways but it was the reaction of her boyfriend and her closest friends that had hurt the most. When she'd told Ben, and later Jessica and Lauren, their reactions could only be described as disgust and despite her best attempts to reach out to them they hadn't returned any of her calls or emails. It had hurt more than words could describe which was why she had put off telling Bella for as long as possible, despite visiting her nearly catatonic friend on a twice weekly basis.
But this morning she decided that she shouldn't wait anymore, she needed to be honest with Bella. Angela's only hope, no matter how awful it is, was that her friend might not even register what Angela was telling her.
The only way she would find out was by knocking on the door. However just as she was raising her hand once more the door opened and Bella's father nearly collided with her on his way out.
Upon seeing her a smile lit up his tired and worn face, just like it always did whenever she came by, especially when he couldn't find anyone to sit with Bella. The relief on his face almost made Angela sad, because she knew she was only one of two people who still came to visit the sullen girl.
"Hi Cheif Swan," Angela greeted him, stepping out of his way and changing places with him as he stepped out onto the porch and she stepped inside the house.
"Morning Angela," he returned. "Bella's up in her room, I know she'll be happy to see you."
Angela nodded but knew that that wasn't true. Even if Bella did notice her presence she wouldn't be happy once Angela told her about the tumor.
"Well, I have to go," he announced, motioning over his shoulder at his truck. "The fridge is full and uh, make yourself at home."
"Thank you," she replied before wishing him a good day. Watching him get into his truck and pull out of the driveway she closed the door and slipped off her shoes.
Heading up the stairs she made her way to Bella's bedroom and gave a little knock on the door, which was partially open. Entering the room she glanced around and noted that nothing had really changed since the last time she'd visited, the only difference was the small pile of laundry gathered in the corner. Looking at Bella she noted that the girl, who was still propped up against her headboard, hadn't moved since Angela entered the room and probably didn't even know she was there.
Moving toward the laundry pile Angela quickly separated the whites, colors, and darks, gathering up the biggest pile and made her way to the laundry room. She could hear Charlie's voice in her head, telling her that she didn't have to do stuff like that when she visited Bella, but Angela wanted to help in anyway she could. If that involved doing Bella's laundry then so be it.
At the very least it made her feel a little normal.
Once that was done she returned to Bella's bedroom and took a seat on the bed, close to her friend, and rested her hands in her lap. Taking a minute to calm her frayed nerves she turned and started by saying hello, but as usual she didn't get a response. At this point she was used to Bella ignoring her and in the past whenever she would come to visit she would simply talk to her, telling her about her week and what was going on with their friends, but today was different.
She tried to talk to Bella but she couldn't think of anything to say, he mind kept coming back to the real reason for her visit. Letting out with a frustrated sigh she fell silent until the words poured from her uncontrolled.
"I have cancer," she said. "A terminal brain tumor. I'm dying."
Her words seemed to instantly snap Bella from the state she'd been in Since Edward left her nearly two months ago. Looking at Angela, really, truly looking at one of her closest friends she saw how thin she'd become, the dark circles and the lines that had suddenly appeared around her eyes, she saw the strain that came from painful headaches, but most of all she saw her hopeless expression and the fear in her posture. Bella knew that this was no trick to make her snap out of her depression. Angela was sick.
She was more than sick, she was dying.
Angela saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned as Bella moved toward her, watching as she opened her arms and did what no one else, not her parents, her brothers, Ben, or anyone had done since learning of the news, she hugged her. Feeling the tight grip around her arms Angela finally broke down crying and moments later Bella followed. Both girls cried, they cried for everything they'd lost and everything they would never have and they cried for each other.
It was Bella who spoke first, pulling away from her friend she was shaking her head in denial. "There has to be something, something they can do for you," she whispered, unused to using her voice. When Angela shook her head Bella continued to protest. "No, I refuse to believe it. You're not going to die. I won't let you."
Those words, the words she'd been begging to hear from anyone prompted Angela to embrace Bella once more only this time when Bella held her, she still cried but she also murmured words of comfort. Faced with the ugly reality of death Bella had suddenly realized what really mattered and while her heart still ached for Edward she knew that she would survive this, but Angela wouldn't.
"When did you find out?" Bella asked long after Angela's tears had stopped and after a long silence.
"A month ago," Angela replied, reaching for another tissue and massaging her temple. She'd developed one of her bad headaches from crying. Bella, seeing the action immediately asked her if she needed anything. "I could use a Tylenol," Angela admitted.
Getting up from the bed Bella went to the bathroom and found the pain reliever and filled a tiny paper cup with water. Returning she handed them both to Angela who took them with shaking hands and sat back down next to her. Guilt welled up inside of her as she watched Angela swallow the pills and she apologized.
"For what?" Angela asked, wondering why Bella would be sorry.
"For not being a better friend," Bella explained and rushed on when she saw that Angela was about to argue. "No, you should have been able to come to me right after you found out, but I was so wrapped up in myself that you couldn't and I'm sorry for that."
"Bella you were hurting," Angela pointed out. "I don't blame you for that."
"I know you don't, but you were hurting too and I wasn't there for you."
"You're here for me now," Angela said. What Bella had yet to realize was that she was the only one Angela could lean on at that moment, and having her friendship meant the world to her. "That's all that matters."
The pair talked for a long time about Angela's illness, but Angela also wanted Bella to talk about Edward, which Bella did in as much detail as she possibly could without revealing too much information about the Cullens. Surprisingly she felt better after talking to Angela and Angela felt the same way after talking with Bella and by the time late afternoon rolled around they were laughing and joking. While their talk didn't fix much of anything for either of them they did feel as though a burden had been lifted from their shoulders.
Realizing what time it was and knowing that Charlie would be home in an hour Bella decided that she had to do something for her father, who had gone through a lot with her over the last few months. Angela suggested that she make him something for dinner and offered her assistance.
"I can barely boil a pot of water without burning the house down," Bella admitted after she accepted Angela's offer as the pair made their way down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Well I'm not a master chef but I can cook a pretty mean pasta dish," Angela said, following closely behind her. "Spaghetti, raviolis, mac & cheese, oh my brothers love my mac & cheese."
Once they entered the kitchen Bella suggested that Angela take a seat at the table and start her instruction. Sensing that Bella was about to start treating her with kid gloves, just like her parents, she gave Bella a look that told her that she wasn't a piece of fragile glass. The look worked because soon enough Bella was leaning up against the counter watching Angela who was busy shredding cheese and measuring milk while she waited for the water to boil.
"This is for my dad, you know. You've got to let me help," Bella finally protested.
"Fine, you know how to make a salad, right?" Angela asked, comfortable that if Bella happened to nick herself with a knife it wouldn't be the end of the world, unlike burning the house down.
Giving the other girl a mocking glare that said of course I do, Bella went to work on a head of lettuce and while she cut her thumb in the process and created a bigger mess than was probably necessary, Bella was proud to present Angela with an actual salad.
Angela was just finishing up when she and Bella heard Charlie's truck pull up into the driveway. Nervously Bella looked to Angela who gave her, what she hoped was, an encouraging smile.
"It'll be alright," she told Bella, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"You'll stay, won't you? So it won't be as weird," Bella pleaded.
Smiling Angela nodded and said, "If you want me too."
"I do and thank you," Bella replied.
They were just starting to set the table when Charlie entered the kitchen and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his daughter. Seeing the look on her father's face Bella went to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Hey dad."
"Bella," Charlie said, amazed by the transformation she'd undergone in the time he was gone. Looking up at Angela he asked, "how?"
Pulling away from her father she glanced back at Angela and said, "let's just say I needed a wake up call, and I got one."