Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight!

Thanks so much for your reviews! I'm really glad that everyone likes this story so far. I'm so excited to start this one; I really think y'all will like this chapter!

Well, without further delay, here's chapter three!

On the Streets of Italy
Chapter Three: Crimson and Topaz

I immediately grasped my head, wondering what the hell I could've ran into that would've caused me such pain.

I had just stepped out of the door, so I knew it couldn't have been a wall - or at least, I was pretty sure it wasn't a wall. I opened my eyes, my hands still clenching my head that was throbbing madly, and was met with a pair of stunning, topaz colored eyes, but they were strange, as if they had a bit of red through them as well. I cocked my head, entranced by this man who was also extremely attractive with his messy blonde hair and utterly perfect features.

Yeah, definitely not a wall.

He gazed down at me and inhaled sharply, his eyes becoming tense and wary, uneasy. I wondered what was going on, for he seemed to be very on edge as soon as I looked at him. Was there something wrong with me? Though I knew I made him uncomfortable - I didn't know the reason - I couldn't tear my eyes from him.

He was inhumanly attractive with his eyes a strange mix of red and gold. More gold than red. I don't think anyone would recognize the red in them if they weren't looking as intently as I was. His hair was disheveled, but attractive nonetheless, and a honey blonde in color. It looked thick and lustrous, and I almost reached out and touched it, but stopped myself. He was tall and thin, with lithe muscles that made up his arms.

One thing I didn't notice was that his hands had taken hold on either side of my shoulders and were squeezing ever so lightly. They were strangely cold; I could feel that even through the sleeves of my shirt.

"You okay, darlin'?" He asked me, and his voice had a distinct Southern twang to it that made chills go up and down my spine. I bit my lip and looked down, blushing.

"I'm fine." I said, finding the floor suddenly very interesting.

I felt a slight paranoia well up inside me that I hadn't recognized before. Maybe I wasn't as ready to move on as I thought I was. Sure, I had thought Dr. Cullen was attractive and I wondered if he had sons, but apparently that was just a mental front. In the face of this gorgeous man, who had his hands on my shoulders and his eyes baring down on me, I suddenly felt nervous.

He could hurt me like Mike had. All the men could hurt me like Mike had. But I knew that not every guy was abusive, but it still made me feel cautious, scared. I hated this feeling - I liked to think of myself as a strong, independent woman, without the fetters of an abusive marriage binding me, but I guess I was just as controlled by him overseas as I was in our own house.

I needed to change that.

The man was still looking at me, and immediately there was a change in the set of his eyes. They went from concerned to intense, as if there was something particularly interesting about me. I couldn't imagine what he was seeing that interested him so. I couldn't imagine why I would be the subject of a gaze so intense and interested.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked this and the Southern drawl in his voice was apparent. The way he asked it this time was different than the casual way he had mentioned it before.

"I'm fine…" I told him. His shoulders were wide and tense and I wondered what was making him so rigid in this place. It was strange. "Just a bit clumsy. Sorry I ran into you."

My revelation about my current status had not gone unnoticed by him, apparently. I supposed it was due to me not being able to keep my emotions from reading plain as day across my face.

His eyes were still intensely locked on me, and I found myself trying to move from his gaze. Still, I wondered why he was looking at me like I was so intriguing. It was odd to me. Not even my husband - soon to be ex-husband, I had to remind myself - looked at me like this strange man was in this moment.

"I'm Jasper. Jasper Hale." He said, and I felt my heart flutter at the inflections of his voice.

No, no, no. Don't get your hopes up. I don't need to be hopeful of this…it's just a guy telling you his name. Nothing more. Nothing less. Just that. You aren't in a condition to be thinking about guys in this way.

Not that you could anyway.

My thoughts silenced me for a while, but then I finally found my voice and told him my name, "Bella Swan. Nice to meet you, Jasper."

The man, now identified as Jasper, smiled at me, and the gesture of it was polite and kind, though I noticed that the intensity never left his eyes. I wondered why, and didn't get anywhere. My brain seemed to hit a brick wall the moment he smiled at me. The smoldering effect of his eyes stalled my thoughts and made me inhale shakily, uncertainly.

"Pleasure's all mine, darlin'."

Wow. Way to make a girl lose her breath, huh, Jasper?

I felt a pang in my ribs, and couldn't wait to get hope to pop the first of the pills. Hopefully they would help me feel better - strange, I knew they would. I didn't normally trust doctors, but Dr. Cullen was the one exception. I had only just met him and I trusted him more than any doctor I had met in America. I guessed it was something about his sense of being that drew me in…

"Are you a patient of my father?" Jasper asked, the twang to his voice apparent and attractive, alluring.

"Hm?" I was taken aback. What was he talking about?

"Carlisle Cullen. My father. Is he your doctor?"

My heart stuttered in my chest. My earlier questioning about any cute sons was answered. I quirked a brow, looking at him with a questioning stare. "You're his son? You look so…"

"Young?" Jasper offered with a laugh, "Yeah, I'm adopted."

"Ah…" I said, my eyebrows knitting together in thought, "Well, I guess I am…I patient, that is. I mean, I just got here from America and my friends thought I needed help because my ribs have been bothering me…"

Jasper nodded, not asking me what had caused my medical issues, and smiled, "Well, Carlisle is a great doctor. You shouldn't have any problems with him."

I nodded, blushing the color of a very ripe tomato. The power of his smile was not lost on me, and this man had even more of an effect on me than his handsome father did. I tried to remember my worries about him hurting me, like Mike had, but I couldn't seem to find them, and my logic left me.

Stupid, you know he could hurt you just as bad as Mike did. Maybe worse… The rational portion of my mind chanted in the back of my head.

Despite that annoying little voice in the back of my head, I had a feeling - a very good, confident feeling - that this Jasper wouldn't hurt me. That may have burned me in the past, but I could tell that he wasn't a bad guy. Not like Mike. Even though I had only known him for a few minutes, I could tell in the set of his posture and his caring eyes that he wasn't the kind of man Mike was. In a good way.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Miss Swan."

The way he said Miss Swan was enough to cause shivers to crawl up and down my spine, and for my flesh to pucker and cause goosebumps.

"Nice to meet you, too, Jasper."

Jasper's smile quirked to the side in a smirk that made my heart fly, "Maybe it won't take an injury for me to see you again."

"M-Maybe…"

Flabbergasted wouldn't be an accurate word to describe what I was feeling at the moment.

With another wry and witty smile, he turned and left just as quickly as he had appeared out of no where. I couldn't help but stare after his retreating form with a sense of awe and whimsy. His slender hips captivated my gaze, despite my earlier worries.

I felt the blush start to deepen on my cheeks.

I tried to get him out of my head - the mysteriously beautiful man with the strange, hurt eyes and the inhumanly beautiful face. But I couldn't seem to shake the effect he had on me.

It seemed to take a while before I could gather myself to walk back to the waiting room where Angela and Ben sat, but I managed to do it.

"Everything okay?" Angela said as soon as her eyes met my face.

I nodded and lifted my shirt slightly. I saw Ben glance away, as if I was going to flash him or something. I laughed at that, but the only thing visible were the tightly wrapped bandages around my torso. "Yeah, he bandaged me up pretty good. Said they're only bruised. And he gave me some pills to take - two a day. Told me to come see him when they run out."

Angela smiled, her soft brown eyes kind and caring as well as relieved, "Good."

I returned the smile and looked at Ben, who was still looking away, "You can look, Ben. Nothing explicit happened."

He turned back around, his face as red as a tomato, much like mine would get when I was heavily embarrassed. I wondered if he had always been such a terrible blusher. That made me smile that I wouldn't be the only tomato-faced person here on a daily basis.

"Ready to g-go?" Ben stuttered his way along the sentence. I found myself flattered that I could make someone blush like that - it had been a long time since a man was like that in my presence, even though it was my cousin's soon-to-be fiancée.

"Sure."

We walked out of the hospital in better spirits than we had coming into the place. I was glad for that, but also a little unnerved. I felt lighter, as if my soul itself had been freed not completely, but somewhat from the lead weights that tethered it.

I climbed in the backseat, trying to ignore the blatant extra scrutiny from my friends, and tried not to wince when I bent my torso in the wrong way and a sharp stab of pain shot through me. I figured the pills would take care of that. I'd take them as soon as I got to Angela's house.

The rest of the ride was in silence, and idly I wondered if my condition was putting any strife on their relationship. I looked at Angela, and then to Ben who was driving with eyes that felt utterly ancient.

"This is okay, right?" I suddenly spoke up after about twenty minutes of silence, "Me staying with you two…it's not a problem?"

Angela sighed slightly before turning around in her seat, her kind eyes looking at me with utmost conviction. "No, Bella. We've talked about this before…you are not a problem at all. We're glad to help."

The power of her words convinced me, and I relented faster than I started, "Yeah."

Angela grinned brightly, showing her perfect teeth, and then turned back around to find some station on the radio.

It was a stupid question, but I had to ask, "What kind of music do they have here?"

Angela smiled in a friendly manner, "Bunches. It's all in Italian though, so good luck with trying to figure out what they're saying."

I laughed at that as Ben continued to drive. The music playing now was a melodic sound, soothing to my ears and to my ragged soul, like a cold compress placed against a blistered wound.

I hadn't realized that I was drifting to sleep until the car stopped suddenly. I felt the seatbelt strain against my body before I knew what was happening. Opening my eyes, I glanced around, taking in my surroundings.

The house that was in front of my was gigantic, to say the very least. It was easily two stories, and made of red brick that had vines sweeping up and down the sides of it. The doors were of rich mahogany and the fixtures were gold - I could see that from my position in the car. I could tell that Angela and Ben heard my audible gasp, for they turned around, giving me amused looks.

"Something impresses you?"

"The house…it's…"

"My uncle's." Angela said sweetly, her eyes raking over the house. "He left it to me in his will. Lucky to be the favorite niece, I guess."

I smiled at her as I got out of the back of the car. It was dark outside now, and that fact made me smile. I would soon be in a bed, asleep - a peaceful, undisturbed sleep, I hoped. I wouldn't have to worry about being woken up in the middle of the night by Mike…

I tried to ignore the shiver that made its way down my spine at the very thought of his name.

I wondered if he was mad, if he had even woken up yet. It was a very likely possibility. Frankly, I'd be surprised if he was still slumbering away in his house - his house not ours. I was so glad that we would not be owning anything together again.

I shook my head, ignoring the faint feeling of a chill that spilled over me and rose from the car. Angela and Ben helped me with the bags that I had brought with me. I could've carried them myself, but my insistence was met with a disapproving look from Angela and a head shaking back and forth from Ben. I relented and followed the two of them into the house, trying to hide my amazement at the utter beauty of this place.

"You'll be staying on the top floor, Bella," Angela said, motioning to the staircase. "I'll show you to your room."

I blinked several times before following Angela up the stairs.

"You don't need help getting up the stairs, huh?" She asked off-handedly, looking down at me with those compassionate eyes of hers.

"I got it." I said roughly, tired of being treated like a baby. But part of me wanted the special treatment. Part of me wanted to be held, coddled, like a child so I could sob long and hard into the shirt of whoever held me. I wanted to be comforted for my ordeal. The selfish part of me shouted out to me, wanted me to wrap my arms around Angela's slight frame and bury my face there and not leave, not move. I wanted to cry my eyes out to someone who understood, but…

I didn't.

I couldn't.

I was a grown woman now. One who had seen so many more things in her lifetime than anyone my age could even comprehend. One who had been through so much abuse, misuse, and degrading activities that I couldn't just simply cry. I had to deal with it. Lock it away so I could possibly make an effort to deal with it later, when I was alone. I couldn't show anyone just how broken up this had made me.

I didn't realize why my emotions were fluctuating so. One minute I was being charmed silly by the enigmatic Jasper Hale - a shudder rippled down my spine at the thought of his name - and then next I felt like I wanted to bawl into someone's shirt.

I felt angry all of a sudden, and then chalked it up to lack of sleep. It was rather late, and I had yet to get used to the jet lag that plagued me.

I followed Angela silently up the stairs and around the corner to the last room on the end of the hall.

"Here you go." She said, opening the door and gesturing to the room in front of me with a grand flourish.

I swear my jaw hit the floor.

The room was huge, with shaggy cream colored carpet that set off the beautiful ivory of the walls. There was a large bed to the side, and a series of windows that made up an entire side of the wall, all folded inward like a half of a hexagon. There was a large television on one side, nestled near the couch. The room also had its own bathroom. I looked on in awe and I saw a fireplace right beside the couch. It was like a small apartment rather than a singular room.

"It's…"

"We saved the best room for you, Bells." Ben said. I hadn't even realized he had snuck up on me.

I felt tears well in my eyes. Here it was, stupid emotional changes. I had no clue what was going on. I didn't like it.

Before I knew what I was doing, I launched myself forward, forgetting my resolve, and hugged both Ben and Angela around the neck, pulling them closer to me so I could smell the sweet cotton candy perfume on Angela's clothes and the cologne that coated Ben's collar mix together.

"Thank you…for everything."

Angela moved her hand to stroke my hair and a grinned, fighting back the tears of relief in happiness. The sorrowful feelings were gone now, and all I could feel was joy for my new life.

We stood like that for a while, just holding each other without a care in the world. I didn't realize how long we were there, but after an even lengthier amount of time, Angela pulled away, bringing Ben with her, and said, "It's really late. You need to sleep, Bella."

I looked outside. It had gotten even darker outside and unconsciously I let out a yawn. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

As if sensing that I would be out cold any minute, they both left me alone, and said good night. I repeated the familiar phrase and grinned, feeling the wave of nostalgia crush over me like a comforting blanket. It had been too long since I heard those words uttered with sincerity and love to me, and I was glad, truly happy.

Not even bothering to unpack, I reached into my bag and brought out a pair of old, ratty sweatpants that brought back many memories for me. Good ones, not the terribly horrifying ones of my past, and I smiled. There were grease stains from hanging out with Jacob on the knees of the pants as well as the rear.

I would have to call Jake later, and tell him how I was. That I was safe and happy and on my way to repairing my life.

My heart fluttered at that prospect.

A new life.

I popped two of the pills Dr. Cullen gave me into my mouth and downed them with a swig of water from the sink in the bathroom. I tried to avoid my reflection. The bruises were prominently showing on my cheekbones. I was disgusted at my own reflection and marched over to my bed, shedding my clothes as I went.

Don't pay attention to that…you are away from him. You have a new life…

Those thoughts soothed my heart, and I smiled to myself as I changed into the dirty sweats and a baggy t-shirt I had brought out. I felt kind of bad for wearing such old things to go to sleep in such a lavish bed. The covers were navy blue, and the sheets were pure, pristine white. I smiled to myself and snuggled in the covers. It was the first night in a bed that wasn't stained by my own blood.

Again, a chill raced down my body.

I pushed the memories to the back of my mind and closed my eyes, welcoming sleep.

Instead of granting me instant darkness, behind my lids I was met with the strange red-gold eyes of Jasper Hale.

End Chapter Three.

Sorry it took so long to update! I've been really busy with college life and everything. I'm so sorry it too this long to update. But I hope everyone enjoyed this! I know I enjoyed writing it!

There will be more Jasper, don't you worry! We can't leave his hotness out of this. Lol.

Anyway, please review with your thoughts! I'll love to hear them!

Thanks for reading!