Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.

"I'm not going to the dentist," Jasper said.

"Why not?" growled Edward. "So you can attack Bella again? No, you know what, if you don't do this you can leave. I won't have a monster in the same house with her."

They glared at each other.

"Edward," Alice said, grasping Jasper's arm, her touch soft and warm, "let me talk to him alone."

"Fine."

Jasper felt disgust rolling in waves from the other male vampire. Disgust, and anger. He felt the same way, and felt like using his emotion-based ability to egg Edward on.

But Alice was pulling against him now, not hard; guiding him out of the kitchen and up the stairs, to their room.

Releasing him, she closed the door as he sat on the bed.

He watched her. She was silent, her little brow creased behind a curtain of short black hair. His gazed dropped lower, traced her shape with his eyes. The conversation with Edward began to melt away. Everything vanished when Alice was in front of him.

For a while, the only thing moving was Jasper's eyes. Then Alice seemed to make a decision--her eyes turned a cryptic shade, and all of a sudden she was strutting towards him, grabbing his face, pressing their lips together.

His pants were almost off when she drew out of his grasp and went over to her desk, where her school pack was.

Astonished, he said, "Alice…?"

"Yes?" she asked sweetly, turning to look at him over her shoulder.

"What are you--get back here."

"No," she said, turning back to her school papers, "I think that we will continue this after you go to the dentist."

Jasper groaned and let himself fall back on their bed. "Not this again."

Alice appeared beside him, perched on his chest. "It's been a month, Jazz." There was no teasing in her voice now; no flirting. Just a quiet, serious cadence, mirrored in her round eyes.

He sighed, "I don't think…" but didn't finish. Her eyes were asking him to go, and it was a plea he couldn't ignore. "All right," he said, staring up at the ceiling, his voice soft, his dread rising.

"Thank you," his wife whispered, planting a kiss on his lips and resting her head on his chest.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night.

School the next day flew by. Jasper was used to watching the minute hand drag around the clock, but that day it was lunchtime far too soon. Another surprise was the fact that his blood lust was not as strong. Normally, the puny humans surrounding him were so tempting that it took all of his will-power to resist attacking one of them.

Alice was waiting for him outside the school.

"Remind me why I'm doing this." Their fingers laced, hands locking together, as they walked to the car.

"You're doing this because you can. You're strong enough."

Doubt flickered across Jasper's face.

"…I couldn't help it," he said. "I didn't mean to attack her…"

"I know; Edward knows too, he's just angry."

"What about me? I'm angry. Angry that I have to go to school, angry that I don't get to spend much time with you, angry that he can read my mind and still be mad at me; he should know that I didn't purposefully do it." His face was hard now, eyebrows scrunched.

"Jasper," Alice said. She stopped him with a kiss.

"That's your answer to everything." Her lips covered a good two thirds of his mouth, muffling the words.

"Is it a good one?"

"Yes."

It was, too. Alice was his answer. As she opened the door to the car, he looped his arms around her waist, stopping her for a moment, and pressed his face into her neck. His words brushed across her skin with his warm breath, "I love you."

They entered the dentist's office, arms linked, Alice leading.

"Your name?"

"Jasper Hale," Alice said for him, "it's his appointment."

The secretary's hands danced across her computer keyboard. "Someone will come out for you."

Alice steered Jasper away from the counter. "This is the part where we sit and wait," she whispered, guiding him to a bench.

Jasper worried. Why had he ever agreed to this? Just the thought of human hands in his mouth made his thirst rise; he couldn't imagine the torture of the warm, blood-filled skin right there, touching him. It had only been a month since Bella… Alice was crazy. He brushed her knee, looking at her with the worry still in his eyes. She squeezed his hand.

"Jasper Hale?"

That was way too fast, Jasper thought. Bella had told him that it always took forever for the dentist (or doctor, as the case may be) to call her name, and that while she waited she could listen to practically an entire CD on her ipod.

As they approached the nurse, the woman started to say something. "Um--"

"I'm coming with him," Alice said, matter of fact.

"Right. Follow me."

"Hello Jasper, I'm Dr. Gibbons."

Jasper looked over at Alice, anxious. His eyes darted from her reassuring smile to the chair sitting in the middle of the room. Dread rushed in his ears. Alice gripped his arm, kept him moving, but there was something in him that wanted to resist.

They stopped by the chair. He looked at her the way a puppy looks up at a person who's abandoning it by the side of the road. She squeezed his hand.

He let her love inspire his own love, let it fill him; then he walked over to the chair.

Alice took a seat by the wall, within his line of sight.

The human bustled around and handed Jasper a cup. "Mouth wash." Jasper raised an eyebrow at Alice, who mimicked what he should do. He copied her, then put the cup on the little ledge.

There was a squeak as Dr. Gibbons sat down. "Okay, I'm going to lean you back…"

Jasper's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Alice never stopped looking into them. Never had she seemed so far away, and danger so close. And even the danger was worse, because the danger had a name. His name.

The chair stopped, and the dentist leaned in.

"Let's see what we've got in here…" the dentist leaned in, then paused. "Open?"

Jasper continued to stare at Alice.

The dentist laughed, thinking a joke was being made. "Would you be so kind as to open your mouth, so we might begin?"

Jasper did it, but took his time.

"Thank you." The dentist leaned in, mask on, rubber gloves covering his warm hands, and wearing a magnifier piece in his eye-glasses.

An image flashed through Jasper's mind. In it, he threw the old man against the wall, tossed aside the dental tools, crushed the eye glasses beneath his foot, and bit into the warm throat.

Alice stirred. A look of horror crossed her face, and though it was gone in an instant, Jasper noticed. Shame crept into his chest. Doubtless, she'd see the image as a possible future with her ability.

Then the human's hands were inside his mouth, and his eyes glazed as the scent shivered through him, as the warm hands moved around his face. The image of drinking the man's blood flashed through his mind again.

Alice fidgeted, then abruptly stood, stopped, crossed her arms, and began to pace in small circles by her chair.

He calmed himself, focusing on her, thinking of things they did together. Things they would do together.

For the first time that day, a smile that wasn't forced crossed Alice's face.

He would've grinned if there hadn't been hands in his mouth. Which reminded him they were there.

Suddenly, something sharp stabbed the wall of his mouth. Dr. Gibbons was in the midst of an apology--that he'd slipped, or something--but instinct had already taken over.

Jasper's jaw snapped shut.

The dentist stared at Jasper in shock. Alice started forward, then froze, waiting to

see what he'd do.

Jasper's nostrils flared at the contact between his teeth and warm skin--albeit warm skin covered by rubber gloves. Those gloves were really the only thing keeping him from sinking his teeth in; the foreign texture had not been a part of his daydream.

His teeth gripped the hand, and his whole body trembled with the strength it took not to bite.

Then, his eyes darted to Alice, and he let go.

Gibbons was still staring in shock, and Jasper was out of the chair faster than a human eye could blink, leaving Alice to perform damage control.

"Well, you didn't bite him."

Jasper rolled his head over to stare at his wife. "I was about this close, Alice. The gloves stopped me. I failed."

"No you didn't… you're still learning…"

"It was too close, Alice. We have to count it as a loss."

"But it wasn't. You didn't bite him voluntarily. It was just because his tool slipped. You proved that you could control yourself in direct physical contact with a human being."

"But accidents happen all of the time, Alice. This was a prime example--it didn't go according to plan. Life doesn't go according to plan. Edward was right. I'm a monster. And I shouldn't stay in the house with her."

For awhile, Alice did not answer. The silence after his self-defeating words was loud; under normal circumstances, Alice would've protested that he was not a monster, he was just struggling with his instinct, or that if he was a monster she was a monster, and then he would've had to protest that… but she didn't say anything.

"So you're going to leave?"

"What?"

She sighed. "You said you couldn't stay in the house. Does that mean you're going to leave; leave the house, and… me?"

He stared out the window, shocked, not speaking for a moment. Then he found his voice, and turned to her. "Alice… I could never leave you."

"The way you're talking, it sounds like you could."

He gaped.

"I'm trying really hard, Jasper." Without being abrupt, she steered over to the side of the road. Once the vehicle was in park, she put her forehead against the steering wheel, covering her face.

He was out of his seat belt and around to her side, pulling her out, in moments. Lifting her out of the car, he carried her away from the road, the vehicles, and the human eyes, and placed her gently on the ground beside a tree, sitting beside her.

She stared hard into the distance.

"Alice, I love you." He watched her as he spoke. "Those words don't just mean I think you're pretty," he stroked her hair, "or I like your personality, or I like sharing your bed. Those words mean you are very, very important to me. That I value your life above my own, that I could spend all night just gazing at you, that I want to spend eternity--our brand of eternity--with you." She hadn't reacted "Alice," he whispered. "I would never leave you."

She crossed her arms and looked over at him. "You mean it?"

"That's what I meant when I got down on one knee for you."

She looked away again, accepting what he'd said, but he felt the need to add one more thing.

"I'm sorry."

That was it. She smiled, leaning in to him, and reached, her hand grazing his cheek. "You should be," and pulled his face down to her lips.

When after several minutes their mouths drew apart, she said, "So, don't we have something to finish?"

"Here?"

She laughed, and it tickled his insides, as she got to her feet. "With the highway right there? Not my idea of romance."

He swept her into the air, and she circled her arms around his neck, burying her hands in his hair.

"Let's go home," she whispered in his ear, her lips trailing around the rim.