A/N - Jasper's on a role! After finishing chapter two and submitting it to Jen for her wonderful beta talents, he was already chattering away. He didn't seem to care that I was lying in bed at 1 am, trying to sleep. So again, a chapter up much sooner than I had anticipated. No promises on the next one. As always, reviews are love.

I do not own Jasper or the Twilight saga. That honor belongs to Stephenie Meyer. She just lets us play with them. Any original characters and plot lines are my own, or a part of history.

Chapter 3: Planning

When I arrived back to the boarding house, I found Charles engaged in a light game of poker. From the looks of it, he was winning by a large margin. The other players were too drunk to notice, judging by the empty glasses strewn about the table.

"Charles, a word please." I requested, poking my head into the sitting room.

Charles folded his hand, rising from his chair. "Sorry fellows. I'll resume taking your money later."

Hearty chuckles were at our backs as Charles and I ascended the stairs to my room. It was the one place where we were assured privacy; no one entered the major's room without being sent for. I shut the door firmly, tension rolling off my shoulders.

"What's on your mind Jas?" In closed quarters, Charles and I fell back to childhood nicknames and forgot formalities. It made this war just a little easier for the two of us.

We both settled into chairs on either side of my desk, ready to work through the jumble of thoughts in my head. Charles removed anything breakable, just in case.

"Chas, I went to visit Alicia, Mrs. Meyer and Mrs. Purdue after Mass today. Ever since our talk about the situation here in town, I can't help but to be worried. I feel like we should be doing something about this, not just sitting here."

"What did you tell them?"

"You know me too well," I chuckled wryly, "I encouraged them to go back to Sugarloaf, or even head to Houston if things start to get rough around here. They said they would 'think' about it."

"But…" Charles prompted.

"That's not good enough! Not for me!" I pounded my desk for emphasis, sending pens jumping. "There must be more we can do. I don't like the fact that there are so many women and children left unprotected here. Mr. Perdue is ill, how is he going to help his family?"

"Then we need to evacuate them. We need a plan for getting the women and children to Houston at the first sign of trouble." Charles shrugged, stating the obvious.

"We don't have the staff for that. We barely have the resources for the rounds we're making now. Ideally, I'd have this troop split to cover more ground in a day. I don't see how I can make an evacuation run feasible, unless…" I trailed off, an idea slowly forming in my head. "Charles, where's the most current list of locations? The one I drew up yesterday?"

Charles shuffled through the stacks of paper on my desk before finally pulling out my handwritten list of all the nearby troops. I liked knowing where my closest allies were, not to mention my commanding officers. Once a week, I would use all correspondence between troops and a map of the area to plot out where everyone was. It was tedious work that I could have passed to a lower ranking officer, but I only trusted Charles and myself to do it right.

"What is going through that brain of yours, Whitlock? You are up to something."

"I need to request a meeting with a few generals, see if we can't get a bigger battalion out here, and then see if we can't get an evacuation system lined up. If we play it right, and the Union does attack, we may even be able to smuggle some weaponry out as well. I'd volunteer, no insist, that our troop runs the evacuation. We know the area the best; it would make the most sense." As I spoke, I began drafting out plans, pulling maps in front of me and plotting escape routes.

"Jasper, that's brilliant." Charles breathed, the plan starting to make sense in his mind. "Well, we know why you're the major and I'm not. I never would have thought of this. I was still stuck on not having enough men.

I could feel Charles's confidence growing, he was so sure my rough plan would work. "Easy there. Before we do anything, these plans have to be solid. I'm not presenting them to our company, I'll be presenting them to higher ranked officers. Not every colonel or general on this list agreed with my advancements. They must have no reason to doubt me."

"Yessir." Charles saluted, half mockingly.

I rolled my eyes. "At ease Sergeant. I didn't mean to turn all Major Whitlock on you there."

"I understand. I was trying to show you why you don't need to worry so much about being promoted too fast. Jasper, you don't see what everyone else does - a fiery, convincing, logical, intelligent soldier with an uncanny knack of fixing the emotional environment to fit your needs or the needs of the situation. Remember after we met Alicia in the road? We were all tense and tired from the week of surveillance, and yet when we arrived back here, suddenly we were all relaxed and at ease. You can't tell me you didn't have anything to do with this. And how the hell does this troop never have any major fights amongst us? That's just not normal."

I shrugged. I had relaxed before walking in that day and recalled noticing that my troops followed suit. I had thought nothing of it at the time.

"You see, Jas? You have what it takes and they know it."

I mused over what Charles has said, wondering how true it was, if at all. Deciding not to address it directly, I sank deeper into my chair and motioned for Charles to pull his closer. "Lets get down to business. How do I present this to the generals? Assuming of course, that they agree to a meeting."

"We-ell," Charles drawled, thinking. "More troops first. We need to convince the generals that we have legitimate reasons to believe the dammed Yankees are going to the attack the harbor at such a level that our small troop won't be able to handle them."

"I'm just going by my gut here Chas. How do you prove a gut instinct?" Frustrated, I fisted me hair, brushing my bangs roughly out of my eyes.

"You're the major Jasper. You call the shots for us all the time, we've learned to trust your guy. Make them trust it too."

I shook my head, honey blonde curls flopping back in my eyes. Charles wasn't seeing this the way I did. He couldn't differentiate between the ranks, didn't understand why it was so hard to impress a general. He only knew to treat his superiors with respect. He didn't - or wouldn't - remember his days of making a case to a superior. Part of that was my fault, I treated him too much like an equal at times.

"Jasper, listen. You just need to find the reason your gut is telling you that something isn't right. What is it about Galveston that makes you so uneasy?"

I exhaled roughly, "I've been trying to work through that question for the past two weeks. I'm drawing a blank. I can't pinpoint one specific thing. All I know is that Galveston will not be safe for much longer. The fact that this is a port town worries me the most. We've all ready the accounts of the Union creating blockades, preventing anything from coming in or out. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when our number is up.

"The Union is already forming a plan of attack, moving closer to the harbor. I've seen the ships, with my own eyes."

Charles interrupted my monologue, startled. "Whoa! When, how?"

"Early last week. I couldn't sleep, so I went for a ride, out of uniform. The ships were in the distance, barely visible, but clearly Union boats. There's no telling how long they have been there. Colonel Cook hasn't returned my letter yet, so there's no telling how much he is aware of." I found myself massaging my temples, the stress of the situation bearing down on my shoulders.

Colonel Joseph Cook was the commanding officer of the area, the gentleman to whom I reported on a weekly basis. It was he who had stationed my division here in Galveston. When I had discovered the Union ships, I had immediately galloped back to the boarding house and sent an urgent letter to Colonel Cook, detailing all that I had seen. What I hadn't told Charles was that the entire exchange was now being documented in my War Journal. My gut was taking over again, telling me to make sure Galveston wasn't forgotten.

"Damn it man. What are we supposed to do about this? Do we tell the rest of the guys?" Charles looked sick at the prospect. He swallowed heavily, "What do you want me to tell them?"

"Nothing. Not until I have word from the Colonel. I don't want anyone getting over eager and looking for a fight. We won't make a move until we have all the details, and our marching orders. I'm playing this one by the book." I met Charles's worried glance with a hard stare of my own. The last thing I needed was panic amongst the ranks. If Charles couldn't get his emotions in check, nothing positive could come from the entire scenario.

I stood suddenly, the anxiety filling the room becoming too much for me to handle. Stretching my legs, I paced to the bed and back, trying to sort through the multitude of thoughts running through my head. This situation was about to blow up. Fast.

I told you the action was starting soon! Jasper was eager to show more of his personality, and a brief flash of a temper. I can only hope I did him justice. Thank you all for sticking around, and please let me know what you think. Reviews are a joy! ~B