When Alice walked out of the kitchen and into the living room she turned around on the spot, frowning just slightly. She could feel Jasper nearby. It wasn't even difficult for her to reach out with her mind, sense his presence, but she just couldn't pinpoint it. Having asked the rest of her family where they were back in the previous room, making dinner for Bella, and gotten no answer of any use, she'd been left to feel it out for herself.
On turning back a little way, Alice suddenly noticed the open window and it clicked in her mind; the obviousness of it. With Bella due to arrive with Edward any minute in the house it made perfect sense for Jasper to take himself out of it.
Jasper had been edgy and tense ever since Edward had first set the day on which he would introduce Bella to the rest of them, inviting her into their home and Jasper's safe haven. Being at school was hard enough, despite the Cullens generally keeping their distance from the rest of the student body, but having a human in their home, at such close quarters and with even the slightest chance of being left alone with her… well, Alice couldn't blame him for being anxious about it, given Jasper's comparatively more recent transition to being 'vegetarian' like the rest of the family.
With their purposefully large windows, letting in all the sunlight possible when the Cullens were confined in and around their home, anywhere they wouldn't be seen by other people, it was easy for Alice to lightly step up onto the window sill, balancing for a moment on one leg before delicately ducking under the window frame. Without skipping a beat Alice made her way forward on one of the branches which grew past the window, stepping agilely up the slight incline with her arms stretched out to her sides despite her heightened balance making it completely unnecessary. She could have jumped or flown, if she'd wanted, but walking like this felt like dancing and Alice loved to dance.
Thinking about Jasper twirling her in the middle of the school hallway, her mate seemingly able to block out all of those humans around him when he was looking at her, Alice's thoughts were suddenly completely on Jasper again as she remembered, sensing him more than seeing him just a split second before she even looked up.
Jasper was sat - crouched, really - against the tree, his feet just about fitting on the widest part of the branch where it met the trunk, the areas of bark melding into each other, the patterns on the wood joining seamlessly. Alice could see every detail of it, but that wasn't where her focus was just then. All she cared about was the way Jasper was sat, his back poker-straight and his hands fisted tightly where they rested on his thighs. His eyes were closed, but by the way his breathing relaxed just slightly when she approached meant that he knew Alice was there. Of course he did, the thought allowed Alice to smile just the tiniest smile as she crouched down in front of Jasper.
Alice just waited, then.
"I can't go back in there," Jasper said quietly about twenty seconds later. "Not when she's there."
"Hey," Alice murmured, putting one hand on Jasper's knee. "You're not going to hurt her, Jas. You're not." She shifted her hand and brought the other one there too, gently uncurling Jasper's tightly fisted fingers and letting them grasp her own instead. "Come on. Look at me?" Alice asked him quietly, running her thumb back and forth across the back of Jasper's hand for about a minute while she waited. After so many years of being together, and living even longer before that, they were both just fine with a little waiting and Jasper had done similar for her so many times, when Alice had had some horrible vision of a potential future, one of various possible scenarios, she knew, but that didn't help. Only Jasper holding her, telling her it would be alright, could do that.
Eventually Jasper opened his eyes, the reddish tint slightly more intense than usual, Alice noticed.
"You don't know that," he stated shakily, and Alice squeezed his fingers gently in hers. "Even if you've seen it - And you haven't," Jasper added, giving Alice the slightest of smiles, his eyes knowing, "You still can't know that until I'm in there and we find out whether I'm strong enough," he said, sighing as he dropped his head to look down at his hands instead.
"You are," Alice insisted, her voice calm and steady, almost enough for both of them. When Jasper looked up suddenly, his mouth open to give some answer, some argument, Alice raised her right hand and put her fingers over Jasper's lips, stopping him. "I don't know for certain. I haven't even seen any of the possible outcomes," Alice admitted, keeping her eyes right on Jasper's and still looking right at him and keeping eye contact as she said her next words. "But I know," Alice told him firmly, finally giving her mate a real smile, showing him as well as telling him just how much confidence she had in Jasper.
It took a minute, but eventually Alice felt Jasper's lips stretch into a small smile under her fingers before he lifted one hand to curl his fingers around hers. Jasper moved her hand away from his mouth a little way before turning her hand and kissing each of Alice's knuckles in turn. Jasper then let their hands fall to rest in his lap, their fingers naturally entwining as he did so.
"I still don't know how," Jasper said softly, his eyes still saddened despite some of the tension having left his body, Alice could tell.
Alice just gave Jasper another half smile, still troubled herself because Jasper was hurting, worried. It was how they worked; how their whole family worked.
She leaned forward, raising herself up slightly on her knees to give her the height she needed to reach. Alice kissed her mate, just a light, closed mouthed kiss for a seconds, but she knew it would be enough. Enough, that is, with just three more words - or one, in particular.
"It's called trust."