Becoming A Cullen
[I'm sure all the other fan writers out there will agree that reviews are one of the main reasons to keep writing, so thank you, thank you for the reviews! I really appreciate them. Of course, as always, the characters belong to the fab Ms. Meyers. This chapter is short, but dang, it takes me so long to write that I thought I might as well post what I've done so far -- Kelli]
Chapter 7. Pathways
Carlisle Cullen
Alice was so tiny, so frail looking, standing there alone on the back porch. Although she had been with us such as short time I knew better than to think there was anything childlike about the mind behind her face. I refused to repeat what Edward had told me, but it would be wrong to tell her nothing. "I won't go into details," I said. "I'm so sorry, Alice, but it appears that Marie used her position as Jasper's maker and coven leader to severely abuse him."
"Tortured him," Edward was more blunt.
"Oh, no. No!"
Edward, I scolded him.
He turned to me, "As you pointed out, she needs to know. Sugar-coating it won't help."
"Why didn't he ever tell me?"
I exchanged a glance with Edward.
He shrugged. "Why would he?"
Alice's eyes widened in hurt.
I've rarely felt more impatient with my son. Don't be unkind!
Ignoring me, Edward tapped his temple, then said, "Alice, I know exactly what Jasper thinks of you. He'd gnaw off his own arm before he'd do anything to hurt you. He knows what talking about the horrors of his past would do to you."
"It explains something though," Alice hung her head. "Why I keep seeing him doing things I don't understand."
Edward put a hand on her arm. They stared at each other. He said, "Show me."
The way their gifts meshed was remarkable. I quelled my impatience, waiting for their silent communication to end. Alice gave another moan, then threw her arms around Edward. He leaned down and hugged her. "I'm sorry, Alice."
Alice tore herself out of Edward's arms and disappeared into the house.
"What is it? What did she see?"
Edward glanced back at the house. He lowered his voice until it was barely discernable. "Jasper. He's afraid to come back. I wouldn't tell her, but I know he's ashamed of what was done to him, ashamed to tell her. Alice sees him leaving her here. She knows it's because he thinks it's better for her. Alice's visions." Edward swallowed, shook his head. "He doesn't do well alone. Alice doesn't see herself doing much better. She's decided to leave with him."
"No." My protest was involuntary.
"I feel the same way. It's not right that Maria continues to ruin Jasper's life. He deserves better."
"It sounds like you've changed your mind about him."
"While Alice was seeing the future, I kept getting flashes of their past together. Of her visions of Jasper before she found him." Edward hesitated, then said, "He's not the man I thought he was."
I knew what he meant. "Jasper's scars do give you one impression of him, don't they?"
"Thought he liked to fight. Liked to kill. That he sought it out." Edward turned to go into the house. "Alice showed me that since he left Maria, Jasper's only been willing to fight to protect her."
"A peaceable warrior."
"Yes."
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Emmett Cullen
The thing is, I don't know Jasper. Him and Alice have only be with us a couple of weeks. Alice is so bubbly, excited about everything. She's easy to talk to. He's so quiet. The only time he talked to me was when we went hunting together that one time. He never seems to relax when we're home. When he finally agreed to play checkers with me, I beat him easy like ten times in a row. I'm good, but not that good. I know it's because he was distracted. Anytime anyone walked by, anytime anyone spoke, Jasper tensed. His eyes would dart around as if he were afraid that he might be attacked. Not, not afraid, more like he was expecting to be attacked. Weird.
That's what he's like though. Acting like he didn't quite trust us. It was worse when Alice was around the rest of us. He acted like he was her bodyguard and they were in hostile territory. Carlisle said we should cut him some slack because Jasper was brought over during the blood wars down South. Didn't know anything but fighting for most of his life. So he's like a World War II veteran with twitchy nerves. And having his mate in a place that Jasper wasn't sure about made it worse for him.
What I wanted was to ask him about the battles he's been in. How he won all those fights. Have him show me some moves. I mean, you can't ignore all those scars and what they mean. Carlisle won't let me. Says I should wait and let Jasper bring it up, if he wants to.
Then a couple of days ago, Jasper left. Didn't even say goodbye. The strange part was that he'd left Alice behind. I've never heard of that happening before. Mated couples just don't break up. Carlisle just looked sad when I asked about it. He told Rose and me not to ask Alice about it. All Rose and I know is that the Carlisle had a meeting about Jasper and Edward coming to the school, then Jasper got upset and took off.
Late last night, Carlisle called a family meeting and I got voted to go talk to Jasper. I was kind of eager to. Thought maybe I could creep up behind him, test out his reflexes. See his moves first hand.
"It'd upset Jasper if you make him hurt you, Emmett," Alice had said. "Please don't try to sneak up on him."
It annoyed me to hear Alice say that, like I couldn't hold my own against Jasper. Then Carlisle gave me a look. I've seen that look way too many times. Like I was being an idiot. To top it off Edward glared at me. Then Rose whacked me. "Fine. Fine! I won't try to sneak up on him! Geez!"
Then Carlisle handed me a satchel and told me to come back after I gave it to Jasper. He repeated three times that I wasn't to try to force Jasper to come back with me. I was to say hello, pass on Carlisle's message, ask him if there was anything I could do for him, give him the bag and come home. Period.
So here I am. On some empty beach. Waiting while Jasper waded toward me. At least he was easy to track down. And geez, he's a moody little bastard. Worse than Edward. Didn't appreciate my little joke about him being on a boat. Not sure he has any sense of humor at all. Come to think of it, I never have seen him crack more than a polite smile.
When Jasper reached me, he looked, well, bad. He stood in front of me like he was a robot. No expression. No nothing. Like he was empty. I had to ask him to look at me. His black eyes met mine for an instance and then dropped back down to the sand.
On the spur of the moment I asked him to go hunting with me. Not exactly on Carlisle's instruction list, but it felt wrong to leave him alone.
Then I had to push it. Asked him about wrestling. His reaction wasn't exactly what I'd expected. First he growled at me, then he started to laugh. Sounded like he was one step away from hysterical. Like I said. He's weird.
He calmed down after a bit. We hunted. All we found were deer, but it was better than going hungry. Then I was going to hand him the bag with Carlisle's stuff, but then I looked at him. Head to toe. Couldn't help thinking about what Alice would feel if she could see her mate look like this. His clothes and hair were encrusted with salt. No shoes. Clothing ragged around the edges. Worse than most nomads we've run into.
"Jasper, I don't know what you're gonna' do next, but seriously, man, you gotta' do something about your clothes." I shook my head. "No offense, but you look like a bum. That attracts attention from human authorities. Not good."
He shrugged.
I handed him the bag. Again, I overstepped the bounds Carlisle set and said. "After you read this, maybe we could get you cleaned up, get you some new clothes."
"I don't have any money."
I waved a wad of cash under his nose. "Not a problem."
"Carlisle's money?"
Not sure why that mattered. "Carlisle gave Rosie and me a chunk of money when we got married the first time. Rosie manages it for us."
He gave me another one of those looks, like he was hearing something he didn't quite understand. "Is this what Carlisle wants?"
At this point, I realized that I had no idea what the hell he was thinking. "Carlisle told me to give this to you." I handed him the satchel. "Then I was supposed to leave."
He clutched the bag. He was looking at me now. "You're trying to help me? Why?"
"You're family."
His reaction. Geez. It was like I'd hit him. He actually jerked back a step. Stared at me.
"You mean it."
His voice was weird. A tone in it that I didn't understand.
Then Jasper smiled at me.
Like maybe we were friends. Like maybe we could be brothers after all.
