Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Stephenie Meyer or the Twilight Saga in any way. This story is written for readers like you. Thank you.

"You…" her voice was hoarse, her throat dryer than mine. I tried frantically to decipher her emotions, but failed miserably.

"Jasper get out," Edward muttered under his breath.

"Let her sort out her emotions," I said, but I think I meant for me to have time to decipher her reaction.

"No, get out," he replied immediately and our gaze didn't break, Bella was staring at me through the mirror and I stared back. Edward's grip tightened on her body, bracing for her to have either a violent or emotional reaction to my presence. She opened her mouth to speak, but Edward glared back at me, "OUT!"

I disappeared within a second, out the window and toward the woods again, hearing Alice and Carlisle hesitate before either silently scolding him for that outburst or not thinking anything at all, but Bella's well being. Before I could get far, Alice was behind me.

"No more running," she protested, jumping in front of me, stopping short so I skid against the ivy covered ground. "Bella's in shock. She can't handle the fact that this happened so quickly. She wanted this, Jazz."

"Alice, I—"

"Don't start with the self-pity, because I don't want to hear it. Bella has wanted this since she discovered who we really were, who we all really are! It's a lot to take in! Every sense is quadrupled or more than the average human feature. She hasn't seen your scars," I flinched away from that and she put a hand on my shoulder. "She doesn't know where you've come from, she doesn't understand the reason behind them. I'm sure that was another reason behind her shock…"

"That's not what I'm talking about," I replied and Alice stopped short. "The Quileute's are already at our door. How are you going to get rid of Charlie? Renee? Phil? Even her friends at school are going to wonder where she is. My involvement in changing her is not the problem. I expect her to be horrified of me, I would be as well if I was put in her place, but Alice…" my voice trailed off and I hesitated.

"What? What could it possibly be that's upsetting you?" Alice asked, frustrated. "Your family isn't abandoning you, I'm not abandoning you! Charlie is easy to deal with; we say she caught the flu from Rosalie or me… We say she's contagious, we say the house is quarantined and eventually we leave. He'll tell the same story to Renee and Phil. Her friends at school will believe anything. The Quileutes will listen to reason. What else could possibly be wrong, Jasper?"

"I don't wish to upset you," I replied, looking away from her. "To worry you, that's not what I—"

"What you what?" she asked louder.

"What I want to do! I don't think anyone has thought of the big picture here, Alice!"

"And what is the big picture, Jasper? Enlighten me," she asked tapping her foot impatiently.

I tilted my chin up, watching her expression as I said two words that would make any vampire cower, "the Volturi."

Her face fell and I nodded. She glanced up at me and then to the left of me back toward the house.

"She's the most well-known girl in Forks. If she leaves without notice… If we pack up and leave and her father gets the police involved…"

"We're wanted," she finished in a daze.

"We bring attention to our coven, our family, the one rule against us," I elaborated.

I thought for a moment of how to get my family out of this mess. It was odd calling them my family when I had only joined them for Alice's sake, only loved them a fraction of how Alice loved them, only fit in a small niche that Alice created for me and now… Now, I was terrified of leaving them, of losing them, and of hurting them like I already had.

Perhaps I could give myself up to the werewolves just as Sam had suggested. Aro would come and look for me, but I would be gone… Still, he wouldn't travel all this way for an empty handed return to Volterra. On the other hand, I could catch them before they arrive in Forks or eve Seattle and I could negotiate my freedom versus my family's. I'd give myself up for my family's well being. Yes… yes! That could work!

"No," Alice muttered, her eyes closing as she shifted back to reality.

"What other choice do we have?" I asked desperately. "I'm not putting you in this kind of danger and I'm not sitting back and watching this panic erupt!"

"You're not leaving either!"

"It's not leaving the situation, it's protecting you! Protecting Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett, Bella and Edward! Protecting our family, isn't that the point of us joining this coven?" I asked furiously. "A family to love and to protect, that's what you've always wanted and that is what I am providing for you, protecting for you!"

"We're not discussing this," Alice immediately answered and she began walking to the house.

"We're not discussing it because it is already done. The future is certain, is it not, love?" My small endearment was quick and harsh.

She stopped and hesitated before turning and looking at me with pained eyes, her emotions ripping a whole through my chest as I watched her gaze shift ahead and she darted back to the mansion.

I turned to walk the other way and started a small human-speed-sprint, which was the equivalent to my jog as I pondered the situation. I caught the scent of a human hiking ten feet away, but didn't even consider what the taste would be like. My instincts were shut down, my mind was jumbled, my chest ached, my body replayed that same atmosphere surrounding Alice just a moment ago.

I winced and tried to think of something else, but it never ended. The pain, the anguish, the loneliness, the helplessness, frustration… it made me twitch, made me fidget, wrack with guilt. I didn't mean to upset her, I meant to appease her in the only way I knew how; sacrificing myself for her family. I never felt worthy enough for her, I never will be worthy enough for her and yet somehow she chose me, but she also chose the admirable Cullen family.

I believed it would be best that she had the Cullens with her rather than me in this situation. I wouldn't be able to face Bella or Edward. Carlisle and Esme's concern for me sickened me. I was the killer here, not the victim! And Alice was convinced that this wasn't my fault. Well whose teeth sank into Bella's skin, huh?

I was sprinting now, over one hundred mph. The wolves that had been following me stopped at the Quileute border and I looked up as I noticed that I would soon be in Seattle. The night fell, the rain poured, but my legs kept moving. I kept running hoping that there was an answer to this, but my mind was too numb to sort the situation out.

Eventually I slowed to an alleyway across from a coffee shop and leaned against the brick wall of the building. I watched the scene erupt in front of me, trying to pick up emotions to settle out the anguish and guilt. Children laughed with their parents and splashed in the puddles. Adults buzzed by in cars, aggravated because of a bad day or lack of sunshine over the past month. Nothing helped.

I tried to imagine how Alice and Edward were coping with Bella's condition. She seemed so calm. How could a newborn be so utterly calm? Although she was completely serene around vampires as a human, maybe that was her ability… I wondered if Edward could decipher her thoughts now… If perhaps she had another ability.

I wondered how Carlisle and Esme were dealing with the Quileutes who were still residing in our living room, I think. Perhaps they were already packing their bags… Perhaps Alice was out looking for me… Perhaps Charlie had already notified police (this thought came to me as a police car zoomed). Perhaps the situation became worse.

Just as I turned to go back a hand gripped my shoulder. "Hello, Jasper."

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