Summary: Bella has been in a waking coma for two months, when Jasper, at the urging of Esme, decides to take the opportunity to see how Bella is faring, in order to escape what has been bothering him since September 13th. Eventual Bella/Jasper, set in New Moon.
I am a plagiarizer! Got your attention? Please read the note. (Disclaimer: I'm not, not really.)
Note: I take a huge amount of inspiration from malarial Marie and her BAD MOON RISING series. It's a very well written Jasper/Bella story. If you have read her series, then you'll surely notice some similarities in this story, plot points, to be sure, but very different.
I've been trying to think of a way how to write this story because there's one point in Marie's series that I wanted to explore, to see how it diverges. In a sense, this story is a fanfic of a fanfic. I'm doing my best not to rip her wonderful story off, and at the same time, make it my own. Lastly, this is done in Jasper's POV. I may write some in Bella's, but we'll see.
Without further ado...!
'They are ridiculous, being ridiculous with themselves,' I thought, slowing my rented car down as I passed a sign, entering the city limits. My eyesight barely registered the name of the city: Forks. I passed it so many times now, I knew I was already inForks when I saw that particular tree on the right side of the road.
Eventually, I parked in a crowded parking lot at the local grocery store-less conspicuous than if I had parked in some abandoned lot. No one paid any attention, even though I hadn't been here two months. Someone mayhave noticed, if they were paying attention. Humans usually weren't when they had their own errands to run.
I took a leisure walk toward the road to a nearby park, examining my surroundings for any humans glancing my way-no one was. I disappeared.
Reappearing just within the treeline of the forest to a house I had come to check, I studied for a moment. The truck was in the driveway, the cruiser gone. Sending my feelers out into the house as I leaned against the trunk of a tree, nonchalantly. I was here merely doing Esme's favor. Edward was not himself and had been on the run for a few weeks now, tired of trying to keep himself away from his darling. Detecting no one in the house, I wondered briefly where else she could be. I went to turn around to start finding Bella in town when a glimpse of movement in the house caught my attention, and I stopped, looking again. There she was, passing through the living room's window.
I frowned for a moment, sending out my feelers again and found nothing.
Absolutely nothing. Then she was gone from my sight again, making mesuspect my own imagination.
Then I detect hunger, and saw here again appearing the kitchen's window, helping herself to a snack. Once she chewed on a bar, hunger was replaced with nothing again. I was baffled-I hadn't come across a human who could feel nothingand still be living. Or undead. I quirked an eyebrow for a moment, wondering what I was going to do.
Esme had been right to send me here-what in the world had Edward done to Bella? If this what is what Edward had done that is...
I shook my head, wondering if I should watch Bella, examine her, figure out what was wrong with her. Doubting my own abilities, I sent my feelers out further and found neighbors-anger-love-fear. Nothing broken with myself, only Bella. I sighed, wondering if this is how Edward had doubted himself the first time he met her. How it had frustrated him to figure out just what she was thinking. What wasshe feeling now? Despair? I found nothing. Not even depression. It was as though she was in a waking coma. Yes, that had to be it, even if that was not possible.
I crossed my arms over my chest in concern, furrowing my eyebrows, trying to find someglimmer of emotion in this infuriating human. I still had nothing. Perhaps it would change when her father came home. I stayed where I was to wait for an external distraction to play on Bella's emotions.
The sky darkened when her father pulled into the space next to the truck. I felt apprehension, despair, hope and a sad state of acceptance. This caused me to raise my eyebrow again.
"I'm home, Bells," he called out as he entered the house, putting things away-his gun, keys, and jacket.
"Welcome home," she said without any effort except breathing. To my dismay, I still detected no emotion from her, but from her father-it had the emotion of "I knew it" acceptance. He was disappointed with himself, and felt unqualified. Unqualified to be a father, perhaps, I deduced.
"How'd your day go?" she asked nonconversantaly, as though it was expected of her as a daughter.
"Fine, eat dinner?" he asked, entering the kitchen.
"Yeah," she answered and I narrowed my eyes, I had been standing here since lunch, and she most certainly did not have dinner yet. I studied her again-to my horror, the fact that I had not noticed-it was obvious that she lost weight. Too much weight. The clothes was barely hanging on her body.
"Come eat with me Bella, please," he begged of his daughter."I'll order out, anything you want. Pizza, subs, sushi..."
"I ate just before you got home, thanks anyway," she said, reading her book for English.
I clenched my fists, my arms still crossed over my chest. Was this girl insane? I still could not detect any emotions, even while she lied. Humans, while lying, alwayshad some sort of emotion. Even a little white lie. Nothing came out of this girl. Suddenly, I felt a sense of sympathy for Edward, just a small sense of sympathy for what my brother had to go through.
Eventually, she went upstairs to her room. I moved to another part of the forest and hanging on a branch so I could study her. She moved about the room with unnatural slowness, like she barely had the energy to take a step.
First thing first, I decided, was to make her realize that she needed to wake up from this... coma she was in. And smell the food, the concerns and worries that her father obviously had for his daughter. I flickered my eyes to the living room-sensing a deep despair emanating from his form-and watched the girl again.
My phone buzzed, and I answered it without looking, knowing it was Alice.
"It's not going to work, you'll need to do something else," she said, her voice gave away that she was upset. I tried to ignore the irritation over the fact that she had to tell me my plan won't work.
"How is she feeling?" she asked.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her, watching Bella move to her bed.
"Jasper?" she asked, worried. "Why won't you tell me? I can't see what you're going to say." I didn't want to decide to tell anyone, precisely for this reason. I sighed, knowing I couldn't keep this information about her best friend from Alice.
"I can't feel anything," I admitted, my eyes still narrowed, concentrating still on finding a small hint of emotion as she tried to sleep. "Like, she doesn't exist."
"She's... that bad?" she asked, sounding alarmed. "What has Edwarddone to her?" she said venomously. "Wait until I find this idiot and..." she rambled off into what she was going to do to our brother. Meanwhile, I watched Bella sleeping.
NowI could sense her emotions, and it hit me like a wrecking ball hitting Sears Tower, knocking the whole thing down. It left me breathless and I dropped the phone, and by some horrible luck, it crashed onto a rock, shattering into several pieces. I stared at the girl with alarm in my eyes-I felt deep despair and loneliness, sense of betrayal, and depression so deep, I wasn't sure I could find myself to breathe again. I stood there, rock solid as I experienced her negative emotions as tidal waves, unable to move.
Had her exposure to the supernatural so sensitized her to emotions, to thoughts, that they were multiplied? I had not come across any human capable of feeling this deeply. Vampires, yes, and they shook me to the core on occasion, like the state of my house is in ever since we left Forks. I expected that, but a humangirl? I shuddered, and I took a shaky breath, wondering how long I had stood here on the branch, lucky that I had not fallen off and ruin this shirt.
I closed my eyes, wondering how this girl was still living. She might have even contemplated suicide by this point. It was a natural progression for humans, especially hormonal teenaged girls. I glowered, wondering if I should start watching Bella, to make sure she doesn't take her own life.
Something neededto be done. Could I show up at the front door in the morning and say hello? That would certainly shock her out of the state she is in. But, would it provide false hope? Edward certainly made himself clear that he was never going to see Bella again, going as so far to lock himself in the literal depths of ocean for the next 90 years, ascertaining himself to the fact that she would never need to see him again, living her normal, human life. I doubted that he could do that, maybe.
I looked up at the sky with surprise, the sky was getting light, announcing itself exactly how long I had been standing here, rocked by Bella's emotions. In no time at all, her emotions returned to nothing, and soon, she woke up, her expressionless face showed nothing of her terrors as she got ready for the day.
That was too unnatural. Venom pooled in my mouth with rage at Edward for doing this to her. I closed my eyes, sensing the need to hunt to calm myself down, and maybe destroy a few trees.
Sometime later, I found Bella at school, it was more difficult to study what was going on with her, not having the mind reading abilities. I still could not find Bella's emotional signature that all humans uniquely had. I waited until lunch time, and was able to examine her from an angle where I would not be discovered. She was chewing her apple slowly, not aware of her surroundings. her friends barely paid any attention to her, only Angela did. The friend was obviously worried, and frantic of trying to figure out how to help Bella. I saw her opening her mouth a few times to Bella, but lost the courage and went back to her lunch.
So, her friends, on the whole, were ignoring Bella. My fists shook at the injustice, why wasn't anybodytrying to help her now? Angela, bless her, could use some bit of courage, and I smirked, knowing now just what I could do. I gave her some bit of courage she so desperately needed. Angela looked back at Bella again, biting her bottom lip and smiled at her new found courage.
"Bella?" she asked, garnering the attention of other friends. They were puzzled for a moment and then went back to their conversation. Bella looked at Angela, her eyes unfocused. "Do you want to come over to my house and study?"
I injected a bit of desire into Bella, hoping she would say yes. To my dismay, she did the opposite. "No, thank you," she said with a smile, her eyes refocusing, then began eating her apple more quickly.
Her desire grew, and I was floundering about, trying to figure out what kind of desire she was acting on.
I could only hope that she had a positive desire about something, not negative. I waited until she got out of school for the day to find out what this desire, now a growing determination to achieve that desire. I frowned, trying to detect some other emotion accompanying this new determination she now held in her heart. People around her noticed-how could they not? She had been in a coma, and now she looks like she's wide awake, interacting with her surroundings with more feeling, false feelings.
I gritted my teeth, hating this mystery, and hoping I hadn't made a mistake, wishing I hadn't dropped the damn phone, Alice would surely let me know what Bella had decided on... I shook my head. 'No, I need to stop relying so much on her.'
At Bella's house, I resumed my first position on the ground as yesterday, watching the living room as she bustled around the house-cleaning? I watched her, dumbfounded. Why was she cleaning, the very first thing she did after dropping her book bag on the couch? I had to be patient, watching her even dustingthe ceiling. Had she snapped? Her new resolve had solidified more the longer she cleaned. She went upstairs and cleaned that floor as well, even her father's room.
She did her room last, hesitating for a moment then cleaned it as well. New feeling came out-acceptance and longing. I shook my head, wondering if I had sensed it wrong. I hadn't. I ticked things off in my head, she had a desire to do something, and was determined to achieve the goal, then she accepted that she would or would not do it, and longed to have that goal accomplished. No impatience. She looked outside at the sky, and smiled.
I looked up, and only saw cloudy skies, nothing out of ordinary for Forks. I looked back again, waiting for her to start setting out on doing what she really wanted to do. She didn't disappoint-she grabbed her raincoat and keys, nothing else. Not even her purse or cell phone. I looked up again, the sky wasn't raining, but I could sense it-it was going to be downpour not too long from now.
A loud roaring of the truck pulled my attention back to the girl, she was now driving off to the west. I followed without a problem, wondering where she was going. The truck veered southwest, past the reservation. The drive was long, but time passed quickly. In the distance, I sensed the bluffs coming up in the distance, I could smell the ocean in the air and I remembered the area well. There was nothing in this direction but parks.
'Where is she going?' I wondered, watching the truck as I skipped by on the side, in the forest and out of sight. Her feelings changed-apprehension, but the resolve grew even deeper, nothing would change what she was going to do now, short of some sort of external factor changing her course. I hoped I wouldn't be that.
The engine whined as she gunned the truck, watching the edge of the bluff approach, a smile playing on her lips. My eyes widened with terror at the realization of what she was about to commit.
'No!' my mind screamed, running after her truck and grabbed the back fender of the truck-the front wheels teetering on the edge of the cliffs. I lifted it with ease and swung it around 180 degrees, facing the forest again. I dropped it with just enough force to pop two tires, so she wouldn't try the stunt again.
Hope and terror rose up in Bella as she sat there, frozen in her seat, unwilling to look back to see who had stopped the truck. I took a deep breath, trying not to appear toomad at the girl, trying to calm myself down before I faced Bella.
Bella was still not looking back, so I had to be the one to walk up to her. I stopped at the driver's side, looking at Bella's profile. Her hands on the wheel was tight, skin pulled over her knuckles tightly, her face white, and anger began to play on her expression as it also welled up inside her.
She looked at me at last, and surprise filled her-I had been expecting that one. I was no Edward, after all. I smirked wryly at the girl. She opened the door quickly and stumbled out, staring at me with shock.
"About to throw your truck away?" I said, smiling wryly.
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