Thanks be to EBT and MrsSpaceCowboy for pre-reading.
Jasper Whitlock burrowed his way into Edward and Bella's lives when he was nine. His family had just moved across the street, and Bella had gone over with Alice to introduce themselves. As Bella, Mrs. Whitlock, and Alice sat in the living room, Jasper came stomping down the stairs.
"Mom! Peter flushed my GI Joe down—"
After immediately coming to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, Jasper stared at the little girl who was sitting on his couch and swinging her short legs. He walked over and stood in front of her.
"Hi, I'm Jasper. You're pretty."
Alice stared at him before scrunching up her face in disgust.
From that moment on, Jasper's heart belonged only to Alice Cullen.
The following five years were filled with Jasper following Alice around. She found it extremely annoying, especially when her junior-high popularity began to soar, but Jasper never failed to tell her how beautiful he thought she was, how she was smart enough to be president one day, how she deserved the best the world had to offer.
It took the rumor that Lauren Mallory had asked Jasper to the Sadie Hawkins Dance for Alice to open her eyes and realize what was in front of her. Once she asked him to be her date, Alice and Jasper were inseparable. Bella thought it was adorable. Edward was less than amused.
But one November night, after her shift at the mall, Alice's car hit a pitch of black ice, causing it to skid off the road and hit a tree head on. She was unconscious for four days.
Jasper never left her hospital room.
He read her stories, played her music, and told her how much he loved her. He held her hand, slept in a chair, and ate hospital food. He cried and begged and prayed for her to wake up and open her eyes, and he cried and prayed again when she did.
After her release, Jasper did everything from helping her get caught up on her homework to sending thank-you cards to the doctors and nurses who took care of her. If she needed something, he got it for her. If she spontaneously burst into tears, he held her and cried with her. If she got angry and demanded he leave her alone, he would sit on the porch until it was safe to go back inside.
Edward recognized love when he saw it. Jasper looked at Alice the same way Edward looked at Bella when they were that age. Jasper had the same look on his face four years later when he asked Bella and Edward for Alice's hand in marriage.
And when Alice walked down the aisle.
And again when Alice held Maria for the first time
"Jasper, do you remember what you told me and Edward the day you came to us because you wanted to propose?" Bella asked after she had asked for a moment alone with him.
He nodded as he grasped her hand and squeezed.
"'Mrs. Cullen, I love your daughter more than my own life. There's nothing I wouldn't do for her. She's the reason I'm alive.'"
Bella nodded before squeezing his hand.
"Jasper, you have to promise me you'll take care of my girls," Bella pleaded, tears streaming down her face. "I can't go unless I know they're going to be taken care of."
Jasper leaned over and hugged his mother-in-law, his own tears forcing their way past his eyelashes.
"Mom, nothing will happen to either one of them. I promise you."
As they continued to cry and hug, Bella told Jasper he was a great man and father. She told him the real reason Alice was scared of horses and that she secretly wanted to punch their local Starbucks barista for making eyes at Jasper every time they went in. Bella reminded him that Alice would never be the first to admit she's wrong and to have patience with her pride.
"I love you, Mom. Thank you… Thank you for everything," he said, laying his head on their joined hands as he sobbed.
"I love you, kiddo," she replied.
Once Bella let go of Jasper, she took his face into her hands and whispered.
"Thank you for loving my daughter."
Next: Rosalie.
