Tangle of Thorns
Chapter 5

Their flight had been delayed. Alice was still as stone, curled up on one of the airport seats. Every now and then she let out a tiny, pathetic moan.

Jasper tried comforting her– in every way he knew how– but it seemed like she was just too damn sad. The moment his wall of comfort slipped, even a little– like when a clumsy eight year old had spilled her juice on his head and he'd had to convince the parents he wasn't bothered a bit– Alice fell back into a miserable depression.

He didn't know what to say. Jasper had never been in this sort of situation. He'd never been so scared himself. How could he comfort her when he couldn't even convince himself it was okay?

"Alice," he finally murmured, wrapping his arms around her. "He'll be fine. Trust me."

"How can you know that, though?" she asked, snuggling up to his side– awkward with the chair's arm between them. "I don't know that."

"Just this once let's not worry too much about what your vision says."

Alice whimpered, and then stiffened. Suddenly she shot up in her seat, eyes alight.

"Nous va maintenant commencer l'embarquement pour le vol C116."

We will now begin boarding for flight C116. This was them. Jasper took a deep breath. Time to go.

"Have you noticed?" Esme asked, looking to where Carlisle sat across the room. He turned his head slightly, cocking it to the side almost like a dog, to let her know he was listening. She sighed, continuing, "It's always him. Whenever anything happens that we have to worry about. It's always him... The one I worry about the most anyways."

Carlisle's eyes regarded Esme calmly. She shrugged.

"Because the others have always been able to take care of themselves just fine. But Edward... He's... different, you know. Alice never had parents. And Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie all functioned independently of theirs when they were changed. Edward never did."

Carlisle smiled then, his eyes full of laughter. "And for this reason you feel he needs you the way a four year old would?" His voice was teasing, but not malicious. It never was.

Esme grinned herself, turning to look once more at her son where he lay in the bed beside her. "Well, I like to think so."

Alice was thinking about Edward's future, pressed into the deep airplane seat, staring ahead. Jasper was thinking about Edward's past, and why the hell he hadn't been more involved in it.

He wondered, his whole mind concentrated on the one thing, how it was that he had never gotten to know his brother, for he was that– his brother– even if they never talked. The thing with Edward was, Jasper felt as if they had a relationship without speaking. He didn't have brotherly conversations with Edward the way Emmett did, or the way Jasper did with Emmett, but they were still close. Up until now, that had always seemed like enough. In fact, as he thought about it, he realized that almost every conversation they had ever had that was deeper than the superficial– except maybe one– had been after Bella came along.

Edward wanted to know if Jasper had ever met a human who smelled so fantastic as Bella did to him. Edward wanted to let Jasper know he didn't blame him over losing Bella. Again, Edward wanted Jasper to know he didn't blame him– on this occasion for trying to eat her. And for a final time, Edward didn't want Jasper to think he was angry over his idea to use Bella for bait.

So they didn't talk often. They didn't know each other. Jasper didn't understand what went through Edward's head all the time. They went hunting together– when Emmett went along, too. And they played baseball together– the rest of the family was there, too, yeah. In a way, it didn't matter. Jasper was somehow, he felt, even closer to Edward than he was to Emmett or Rosalie, despite their lack of contact. They didn't need to talk.

He used to, sometimes, when he was upset, or distressed, but didn't want to have a chat about it with Alice or Emmett or whoever, seek out Edward. They didn't chat about it, either. Jasper would just sit on the floor by Edward's piano, leaning his head against the dark wood and listening to the music, neither of them needing any words– except for one time, when they had a brief conversation. But that wasn't how it usually worked. They were more often just silent– except for the music– until someone came home, or entered the room, and the moment just... died.

Anyways, it seemed like that was all he needed from Edward, was his presence, not conversation. The rest didn't matter. At least, that was what Jasper had told himself up til this point.

He closed his eyes, leaned his head back into the cushiony seat, thinking of Edward lying around sick back in Forks, unable to move, to talk. Because their easy, natural connection was always in place, he had never really cared too much that he didn't know his brother. He realized now that he might never get a chance to.

"Are... You guys going to be home soon?"

Emmett was a strong guy, not just physically. Sure he'd been a little emotional the last few times Jasper had spoken to him, but it was nothing like this. Emmett's voice was tiny, and terrified.

"Our flight out of Chicago's delayed until much later tonight... Technically tomorrow morning"

"...And?"

Jasper chuckled despite the tense mood of the conversation. "I am quite surprised Alice hasn't just stolen a car and driven us back to Washington, actually... I think she is... scared– of what we might find, when we get back."

Jasper heard his brother's shaky breath. He could picture Emmett, halfway across the country, shivering with worry as he stood at the phone.

"I don't blame her, Jasper. It's... not a pretty sight."

What was he supposed to say to that? Jasper cleared his throat, though he didn't need to.

"We'll be home soon."

It was all he could think of that was even remotely appropriate.

Seth's whimper was quiet. His nose was buried into the ground. The eight pack members who stood around the circle were tense, curious as they saw the images Quil was remembering.

Vampires can't get sick.

Sometimes it was hard to discern one voice from the other within the pack mind. Sometimes it didn't matter who said what.

Obviously, they can.

What Edward has– had– what it did to him; do you think...?

The eight pack members turned their heads, staring at the smoke rising, in the distance, from the chimney of Emily and Sam's home. They didn't need to hear it to know that she was trying to coax various medicines and cough syrups down Embry's throat.

No.

This was the one obvious voice. The only girl. The bitch (not meaning female dog here). Leah.

No, she repeated, shaking her ears. What makes a vampire sick wouldn't make us sick. It would only affect them.

The pack was silent for a moment. Seth was the last to say anything before Quil morphed and the others followed his lead, disappearing to their own homes; others simply remained a beast, rushing into the woods for solace.

Leah's wrong. Remember:

Bella had it, too.

Their flight was soon, kind of... In six hours– at twelve thirty in the morning, for God's sake– they would be boarding their plane, but Alice didn't seem to want to go. She sat stiffly at Jasper's side, her spiky hair unkempt and her clothes wrinkled.

"Jasper..." she whined, and then sat up suddenly. "Oh, God," she said. "Oh, God.."

"Alice," Jasper whispered fiercely in her ear. "What is it? What do you see?"

"Emmett," Alice answered. "And Rose... And Edward. Not even ten minutes from now. They're standing over him... In a hospital room, Jasper."

Jasper leaned away. "I'm sorry, what? Alice, are you sure?"

"Jasper," Alice breathed. "He's... The heart monitor is... beeping. And... I can hear his pulse."

Carlisle had said that he didn't even care. Tomorrow morning, no matter what, he was checking Edward out. He was taking his son home. The other doctors were protesting, but Carlisle's choice was made. "First thing," he had insisted. "Tomorrow morning, he's leaving... There's nothing more to find. He's better. The tests said nothing was wrong. It seems like... some sort of freak occurrence. I can keep a watch on him at home just as well as I could here."

So it was settled then. First thing tomorrow, Edward was going home. Emmett stood at Edward's bedside, worrying about what it would be like. Who would cook for Edward? Who would stay home all the time to watch him, to make sure he was safe? He was relieved when the thought occurred to him that Esme would undoubtedly step in as super mom. He didn't think he could handle having to supervise his own brother. Bella he could handle. She was human. She was fragile. Somehow it still hadn't hit home that Edward was too. He felt like Edward was going to wake up and they would all realize that the heartbeat was just a temporary mistake.

Emmett said all this out loud to Rosalie, who scoffed.

"None of us will have to look after him Emmett. He's nineteen... One hundred and five."

"Seventeen," Emmett corrected. "And human. And breakable."

Rosalie sighed, her beautiful eyes betraying how tense she was. Emmett could see that she was confused, and he knew that she was worried too, though she acted like there was no need for concern. He also saw that she was wildly jealous, maybe even angry with Edward.

Rosalie shut her eyes, clenched her teeth together, breathing in deeply. Her eyelids flew open within just a single second. She shook her head, bending her head down towards their brother.

"He smells so nice," she murmured, trying to distract herself perhaps. "Like ginger and guarana."

Emmett leaned in a little closer to Edward, breathing deeply. "Mhm," he agreed, "And there's something else... Do you smell it? ...Apples, maybe?"

"Yes," Rosalie agreed, her voice vague. "That's it, definitely."

Their faces were inches apart, each of them hovering just above their brother's body. Rosalie glanced up to meet Emmett's gaze and raised an eyebrow. The feel of her eyes on him gave Emmett a thrill, as usual. He moved even closer; their lips so close now, he could almost feel her...

Edward let out a tiny moan and shifted.

Emmett froze. Rosalie bit her lip, glancing down. She looked back to Emmett.

"This is... really weird," he said, and the jealousy, the anger, the resentment didn't disappear from her gaze, but Rosalie laughed and it was a happy sound.

It was all Emmett needed to hear, but that didn't mean he wasn't further overjoyed when she laced her fingers through his and said, dreamily, "Let's... go somewhere... Somewhere... quiet. Private."

He grinned, knowing he looked like an obnoxious goof. "Lead the way, Rose. I'll follow."

His parents were taking Edward home. Just like they said they would. Edward stumbled out of the hospital door, his arms fastened around Carlisle's waist. The black veins were gone, and his skin seemed more colourful (at least, it seemed a little less like a blank sheet of paper). Esme opened the car door, and Carlisle gently helped his son inside.

Edward seemed better, the last the people at the hospital staff saw of him that day. As the dark Mercedes drove off, they thought that he was going to the next best place to the hospital anyways.

With a family like that watching over him, what bad could happen?

Their flight didn't get in till six in the morning, because take off had been (surprise, surprise) delayed. Again. But they had finally arrived. They'd grabbed their luggage and beaten it out of there. Alice had driven like a maniac. It was early afternoon, and Alice ground the car (stolen) to a halt in their driveway, not bothering with the garage. She flew up the steps and into the house.

Jasper followed more slowly, taking the front stairs one by one. He breathed in the smell of the rain and the wet moss on the trees, still inhaling as he reached for the doorknob and stepped inside. His foot stopped over the threshold. His ears strained to hear the pulse coming from upstairs, to pick out that sound above Alice's chatter and Edward's quiet protests. His lungs expelled the air within and then sucked in more.

The scent that filled the house almost knocked Jasper to the ground, so wonderful, so heavenly...

If Jasper had known that humans smelling like this existed in the world, he would have crossed oceans and fire to find them. But Jasper didn't need to do something like that. All he had to do walk up the few stairs between him and that tiny, exhilarating heartbeat. Jasper's muscles were tight, his teeth clenched. He had never struggled this hard against his instincts.

He realized that, actually, the room wasn't filled with the scent. There was only the slightest trace of it, a tiny remaining speck of it on the fabric of the cushions. It didn't matter. Jasper would have detected it in room with a pool full of perfumes. It was fantastic. It was delicious, mouth watering. It was... his own brother.

Jasper turned and rushed out the door. Jasper thought of the feel the wind had made against his face on another night. He thought of Bella's blood spilled across the piano, and Edward following him. Edward assuring him. I understand, Jasper... You know I do.

But Edward didn't understand. He couldn't. He had stayed in that classroom, that first day, for over an hour. He had handled it. The trees flew by. The rain drenched Jasper's clothes, his hair. His feet pounded into the earth, leaving holes that seemed like tiny craters.

He was running away. Again.

It seemed so weak to him, at the time, but he would realize later that it was one of the strongest things he'd ever done.