Posted: 26 April, 2015
A/N 1:
Only one person (over on AO3) guessed who was coming this chapter. Just one! *insert sad face here*. Though I was surprised at the number of people who said Sirius, since it was supposed to be a new connection. But, well, now I feel guilty, because I suppose it was a difficult question, there weren't any clues. So I feel the only thing to do is give imaginary cookies to everyone!
You'll find out who the 'new connections' are as you read this chapter. But fyi, I took some liberties with their characters because … well, 'cause I can. Do I really need a reason? I took some references from book-canon, some from movie-canon, and a bit from fanon too. The rest I just made up. I'm sure you'll all deal.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Alice asked as Jasper returned from the emergency family meeting that had called him away.
Jasper groaned as he swept her up and zoomed to the bedroom where he flopped backwards onto the bed. Alice levered herself up from where she was splayed across him to give an amused but questioning look.
"That good, huh?"
Jasper rubbed at his temples. "I didn't know vampires could get headaches, but I've been proved wrong."
Alice frowned, concerned, and gently tugged his hands away to press a soft kiss to first one temple and then the other. She let her worry drift and focussed instead on calm and serenity and love. Alice knew she'd taken the right tact as Jasper gave a contented sigh and relaxed under her.
Relaxing herself as well, Alice curled into Jasper's solid form, nosing the crook of his neck and inhaling the woodsy cinnamon scent of him. Jasper wrapped one arm around her waist while the other carded through her hair until she melted. If she was a vampire, Alice reflected, she'd be purring.
"So what happened?" Alice murmured.
"I've told you about the Quileutes, right?"
"The kinda-not-really werewolves?"
"Hmm." Jasper twisted a strand of her hair around one finger. "Apparently when you and the girls went out for Bella's birthday last week, a few of the Quileute boys were also out and about. They overheard some comment that made them think Bella intended to be changed."
Alice frowned. "I think I know the comment they mean. But there was no one else in earshot when it was made."
"The wolves have supernatural senses to go with their shifting. Earshot for them's probably a bit farther than you're thinking, darlin'."
"Ah." She remembered the table of muscled, native American-looking boys, and the knocked-over tray. Not an 'elbow in the butterdish' moment from Angela's admirer after all. "Right."
"It was a regular shit-storm of emotions." Jasper winced just remembering. "Anger and rage and disgust from the wolves. A lot of shock from the family. Edward was lit up with horror and betrayal and denial, 'cause apparently he had no clue. Bella, she was shocked at first —apparently Edward hadn't ever mentioned the wolves' existence to her— and then when she realised the direction of the meeting she was all frustrated, heartbroken, desperate and a million other things. Emmet was excited at the idea of her as a sister, and annoyed at the wolves getting in the way. Rose was almost as horrified as Edward, for reasons that aren't mine to share, and also healthily disgusted by the presence of the wolves. Esme was torn between love —she really wants Bella to join the family— and worry about the conflict and tension. Carlisle was the only one on an even keel, but combined with all the other million emotions bombarding me, it was just more fuel to the fire."
"Sounds overwhelming."
"Painfully so. Haven't had to deal with that much emotional volatility since my days training newborns. Even then the emotions tended to be a little narrower in spectrum: anger, bloodlust and the occasional regular lust were about the limits of it. Maybe some confusion thrown in for good measure. Nothing as overwhelming as this morning."
"So what happened?" Alice asked, worried but trying not to be, for the sake of Jasper's calm.
Sensing her efforts, he her pressed a kiss to the top of her head and threaded both hands in her hair, tugging gently, affectionately. "Our treaty with them is basically that we don't bite humans and we stay off their land, and in return they don't attack us or reveal our vampiric nature to the humans."
Alice's heart clenched in sympathy. "Bella."
"Yeah. Apparently she's been meeting with Carlisle, almost talked him around to changing her even, all without Edward realising. 'Course, he does now, and chucked a right fit about it. The arse was pretty smug too that the treaty ruins their plans."
Alice rolled her eyes. "That boy is such a child sometimes."
"I think maybe Carlisle changed him too early," Jasper confided, making Alice snicker. "No, really. He's stuck at the height of teen hormones and moodiness and dramatic angst. Just short of adult maturity. Eternally not-quite-a-man."
"Peter Pan."
"Hmm. To his credit, he was heartily ashamed of his reaction when Bella started crying."
"Oh, she didn't," Alice said sighed. "Poor thing."
"Yeah. Of course that created a whole new storm of emotions to add to the mix."
"Poor you." Alice frowned in thought. "So, wait, if the treaty only says 'no biting' … can't Carlisle just collect some of his venom and inject it with a needle instead?"
"Clever loophole," Jasper complimented, fingers still tangling in Alice's hair. "Unfortunately the wording of the treaty's a bit … vague. It's more like 'no biting, hence no killing or turning humans'. It could be interpreted as 'no biting to turn humans'. It could also be 'no biting' and 'no turning', separate conditions."
"Vague enough the wolves would feel justified in whatever stance they prefer to take," Alice guessed.
"Right."
Alice sighed. "So, that's a pickle. What's going to happen now?"
"For the time being, Bella's change is officially on hold until we figure that out. We had to promise the wolves that much, because they were threatening war."
"Shit. That sucks."
Then an unfamiliar voice spoke up from behind. "Now sweet thing," it said, "ain't no one ever told you not to talk about sucking around vampires? That and biting. It's practically a dare."
Alice's head snapped up.
Red eyes, pale skin that shimmered in the light coming in the window…
It was a vampire.
A human-drinking vampire.
A human-drinking vampire that had appeared in her bedroom, out of nowhere, and was possibly intending to make a meal of her!
Alice's heart skipped a beat then began to race. Before she could do more than reach for her wand however, there was a rush of wind and a second strange vampire appeared, a woman. She scowled at the man and smacked him up the back of the head. The impact made a sharp cracking noise and the man yelped.
"Serves you right, you idiot," the woman snapped. "I leave you alone for two seconds to park the car and you barge right on in. What happened to knocking? Where are the manners your momma gave you?"
"I don't even remember my momma!" the man objected.
"Then where are the manners I thought I'd beat in to you?" the woman quickly countered before giving Alice and Jasper and apologetic look. "Sorry about the idiot. We'll just give you two a moment." Then she grabbed the man's ear, twisted till he howled, and dragged him from the bedroom.
"What … the … hell?" Alice turned a flabbergasted look on Jasper, who looked naught but exasperated.
"That was Peter and Charlotte."
Alice's eyes lit in recognition and she let out a gust of breath, slumping in abrupt relief. "Oh thank god! I thought… But what are they doing here?"
"Not sure. Guess we'd better get up and see."
Jasper rolled off the bed to his feet and offered a hand to help her up. They headed for the door when something from the corner of her eye caught Alice's attention. She glanced towards her dresser mirror and stopped, hand rising to trace the rather elegant twists and knots in her hair, realising that Jasper had been doing more than just playing with it as they lay together.
"When did you learn to braid?" Alice asked, delighted, as she grabbed a band from her dresser drawer to tie the ends off so it wouldn't unravel.
Jasper's gaze went distant and he frowned. "I'm not sure. I know I had younger sisters when I was human. Can't remember them, but I've done my research. I think maybe … I learned for them?" His eyes focussed again as he looked upon her. "Like it, darlin'?"
"Love it." She tilted her head this way and that to admire the full effect. She couldn't believe her wild locks actually looked tamed. "You know, I was thinking of chopping my hair off, but—"
"Don't," Jasper blurted out.
Alice raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Jasper looked almost sheepish as he ducked his head. "You'd be beautiful either way," he said softly, "but I like it long."
The moment was ruined a sharp crack —no doubt caused once more by a stone-like hand impacting a stone-like head— and a cry of pain.
"What was that for, woman?" Peter's loud voice demanded. Charlotte's reply was too quiet for Alice to hear, but then Peter said, "But they are sweet enough to rot your teeth!"
The comment was followed by another smack and Charlotte saying, "Ain't got a romantic bone in your body!"
Cheeks a bit pink, Alice remembered their company and their heightened hearing. She also realised that, yes, she and Jasper were a bit sweet sometimes. Jasper meanwhile rolled his eyes and rested a hand at the small of her back as he led them towards their guests.
"You're an arse, Peter," he commented as they entered the living room and took a seat on the couch opposite the other couple.
"Fuck you, I'm a delight. Ow, god dammit!" Peter cursed, rubbing his head. "What now?"
"Language, Peter," Charlotte chided, lowering her hand. The whole interaction had been absentminded, like she'd done it so often she didn't even need to think about it anymore.
Charlotte was tiny and sweet-faced, maybe even shorter than Alice, which was a feat in itself. Her honey-blonde locks were the exact same shade as Jasper's, but she wore hers cropped pixie-short. Peter on the other hand, sprawled out beside Charlotte, had long, dark hair which fell messily around his face. Apart from the hair, he looked strikingly like Jasper: same tall and lanky frame, similar facial structure, even identical clefts in their chins.
Jasper had told Alice enough to know that the resemblances made perfect sense. Peter had always insisted, courtesy of his gift of 'knowing shit', that they were family. After escaping Maria they'd done some research and confirmed it, figuring out just how they were related. Turned out Peter was Jasper's cousin on his father's side, while Charlotte was Jasper's second cousin once-removed via his mother.
Serendipity really, that they'd been brought together.
"The hell were you thinking, Peter?" Jasper continued. "For future reference, our bedroom's strictly off-limits." His tone was commanding, and Alice realised that this was the soldier, the warrior, shining through.
"Aw, 'our bedroom'," Charlotte cooed, looking between the pair. "You're really are serious then? Pete said so, but you know him." She rolled her eyes. "Never can tell when he knows, and when he's just messing with me."
Jasper twined his fingers with Alice who leaned into his shoulder. "Definitely serious," he said. "True mates, even."
Abruptly Charlotte's sweet expression was replaced with a disgruntled look. "And you didn't call? Seriously Jasper, who finds their soul mate and doesn't even let their closest kin know?"
"Give him a break, wifey," Peter said. "He's been too busy enjoying the honeymoon phase. All caught up in his pretty new mate."
Charlotte huffed, but softened. "Well, I suppose… It is real good to see you happy, Jasper," she said earnestly, then elbowed Peter in the ribs. Hard.
Peter grimaced. "Dammit woman!" He sighed and reluctantly muttered, "Well if I gotta talk about feelings … then I guess I'm shooting metaphorical rainbows and puppies and Disneylanders atcha Major."
Alice blinked. "Disneylanders?" she asked no one in particular.
Peter explained, "Folks go there, get high on sugar and shit. Sweetens the blood." He grinned unrepentantly.
Alice faltered, wondering but not daring to ask.
"Don't worry, we keep our chompers off the young'uns. We're on a strictly arsehole diet." Peter faltered, face screwing up in disgust. "I didn't mean that to come out how it sounded."
Charlotte threw her head back as she burst into loud, uninhibited laughter.
Jasper snorted, also looking vastly amused. "What Peter means to say," he explained through a smirk, "is that he and Charlotte prefer to feed on the scum of society: murderers, rapist—"
"The creepy fucks that only visit Disneyland to stare at little kids," Peter added, and Charlotte didn't even react to the swearing, just nodded grimly.
Alice relaxed at that. She wasn't as lily-white as she'd once been. War inevitably changed a person, even stubborn, self-righteous, Gryffindor girl-heroes. The erasure of most of her personality-forming memories probably also had a lot to do with her new perspective.
Alice's way of thinking these days was that, well, if Peter and Charlotte wanted to pick off those sorts of people? More power to them. Though…
"What do you do in between?" she wondered aloud. At the questioning looks, she elaborated, "Between tracking down 'scum'."
Peter grinned and tapped his temple. "It's never come to that. It ain't hard to find them when I just know."
"So," Jasper said, "what brings you two to Forks? You haven't said."
"It was Pete's suggestion," Charlotte said. "I just wanted to catch up and meet your girl. He said there's something more serious going down."
Peter sobered and nodded. "Don't know precisely what, just that I'm supposed to offer my services for some issue right about now." He shrugged.
Alice's breath caught. In a room full of vampires with super-hearing, she might as well have shouted 'Eureka!' She turned to Jasper and said, "The Quileutes!" Alice was sure he could feel how hopeful and excited she suddenly was. "The treaty's between them and the Cullen coven only, right?"
Jasper's understood at once. "Peter's a free agent."
Peter cleared his throat. "Well? You gonna fill me in?"
Charlotte stifled a snicker. She leaned towards Alice and confided, sotto voce, "He loves 'knowing shit' and waving it in everyone's faces, but hates it when he's the one outta the loop for once."
"And the rest of us call it karma," Jasper added, smirking at Peter, who scowled.
"Yeah, you're all fucking hilarious," Peter muttered. Then he yelped in pain.
"Language," Charlotte snapped.
Edward shocked Alice by not picking Bella up and removing her from the Cullen house the moment human-drinking vampires stepped inside the next day, especially when they explained what they were there for. He surprised her further by not trying to 'lay down the law' and forbid it. Maybe the talk about respect and Bella's right to make decisions had actually sunk in?
Not that Edward was okay with the idea of Bella being changed. Far from it! But he conveyed that with desperate pleas for Bella to rethink things —listing the dangers, the costs and what she'd have to give up— rather than handing down ultimatums.
"It isn't some glamorous thing, being a vampire," Edward argued. "It's not just 'together forever', 'love eternal'. It means giving up every aspect of your human life. Your mother, your father, your human friends … they could never know. You'd be dead to them. And you'd never be able to live a normal life, to go out when it's sunny, to stay in any place more than a few years. You'd never grow older, never have children—"
"I've never wanted children anyway," was Bella's response.
Edward ran an impatient hand through his hair. "And what about everything else I said? And what about yoursoul, Bella?" he pleaded. "Would you just throw away your beautiful soul?"
"Don't say that!" Bella objected. "Vampires do have souls, Edward. I know they do. I know you do."
"I don't," was his grim reply. "That's what being a vampire means, Bella. It means living on the blood of others, hungering to murder innocent human beings. It means giving up your humanity, your soul."
At that, Charlotte jumped into the conversation, snapping, "What a low-down, nasty, self-absorbed thing to say."
"What?"
"You think vampires don't have souls?" Charlotte scowled at Edward. "It takes a soul to love, Cullen. And I tell you now, I love my man more than anything in this world, and I know he loves me."
"Not to mention that calling all of us here without heartbeats soul-less things? Means you're essentially labelling your entire family as irredeemable monsters too," Peter pointed out bluntly.
"Carlisle and Esme are some of the most compassionate and loving people I've ever had the privilege to feel, vampire or human," Jasper said then.
"And here you are calling them monsters," Charlotte said, then repeated her earlier words. "Low-down. Nasty. Self-absorbed."
Bella reached for the dumbstruck Edward's hand then. "I know you don't think that way about Carlisle and Esme. Not about any of them." She stepped closer, cupping his face in her hands. "And you're not a monster either, Edward. You've done good things and, yes, terrible things too. But that's just choices. Humans can make terrible choices as well. It's doesn't have anything to do with having a soul or not."
That put Edward back on his heels a little. Not that a short conversation would change decades worth of self-destructive thinking, but at least he laid off the 'no soul' point after that, focussing instead on the others vampire-drawbacks he'd brought up.
As it got late, they made their excuses to leave. The argument was still going when they did so, and Alice honestly wasn't sure how it would turn out.
"We're gonna head off. We'll hold off till Seattle before we rustle us up some dinner," Peter announced as they headed for the door, slinging an arm around Charlotte's shoulders.
Edward grimaced at the reminder of their human diet, taking an unconscious but protective step in front of Bella that made Peter roll his eyes.
"I appreciate you not hunting in our territory," Carlisle had said diplomatically.
Peter shrugged. "I know how you Cullens get your panties in a wad about that sort of thing."
"Bella?" Charlotte said, and the girl peered around Edward. "Jasper has our number. Call us anytime if you have questions or worries about the change. Even if you just want a fresh perspective about what it's like, being a vampire, we'll be happy to share. It's a big decision. You wanna make sure you're fully informed—no unnecessary surprises, no unavoidable regrets."
Edward didn't look pleased, but Bella appeared to be nothing but thankful as she nodded.
The four of them —Alice, Jasper and his kin— said their goodbyes and exited the Cullen house.
Looking between the two Whitlock men, Alice was struck yet again by the resemblance between them, only highlighted by their similar taste in clothes—both seemed to live in well-worn jeans, cowboy boots and t-shirts. The only real difference between their wardrobe was that Jasper favoured plain, well-fitted shirts —something Alice greatly appreciated for how it showed off his physique— while Peter preferred looser ones with ironic or inappropriate designs. Peter's current choice was bold red with a white cross and a slogan underneath which proclaimed him an 'orgasm donor'. The man was shameless. Still, it had been hilarious to watch Edward's face screw up when he first caught sight of it.
Jasper shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on those cowboy-booted heels. "No chance you can stick around a while?" he asked.
But Peter shook his head. "Expecting a contractor at the house day after tomorrow. We're getting a pool put in!" he said excitedly.
Something about Peter's words made Charlotte grimace.
Jasper nodded but sighed. "It's just been too long since we saw each other."
Charlotte raised an eyebrow and pointed out that, "It's a two-way street, Jasper. You could've dropped by our place too."
"She's got a point," Alice said, looping a hand through his elbow and leaning into him.
Jasper nodded sheepishly. "Fair enough. I guess the older I get, the more time gets away from me."
Alice hummed thoughtfully. "Like when you're little and a year seemed like forever?"
He shrugged. "Can't say as I remember my human years too clearly darlin', but it's probably the same sort of thing." He looked over at Charlotte and Peter. "Right, so maybe we'll do that. Drop by."
Jasper gave a questioning look to Alice, who nodded in agreement, while inside she warmed at his automatic 'we', rather than 'I'. He gave her a curious look, feeling her mood but not quite understanding the cause.
"We'd be glad to have you." Peter grinned. "You can check out the alligator tank."
Charlotte groaned and buried her face in her hands.
"Alligator tank?" Alice dared to ask.
"The pool," Charlotte said wearily. She looked up at the sky as if to ask, 'why god, why did you stick me with him?' "Peter's been binging on old reruns of The Crocodile Hunter. Decided he wanted his own alligators in the back yard to wrestle with."
Jasper was equal parts amused and disbelieving. "And you're letting him?"
"I lost a bet," was the clipped response.
Peter however was more forthcoming, explaining that, "She thought I couldn't—"
"Don't you dare!" Charlotte hissed warningly. "Those details ain't no one's business but ours."
Peter skipped back out of reach as she swiped at him. "—make hercome more'n a hundred times in a single day," he finished, a shit-eating smirk in place. He waggled his eyebrows. "I sure showed her." And then he turned and bolted.
Charlotte stood frozen in place for a long moment, fists clenched at her side. Then, eerily calm, she looked back at Jasper and Alice with a perfectly mannered smile. "Please excuse my abrupt parting," she said sweetly, "but I've got a mate to emasculate." As she stomped towards the trees, slowly picking up pace, the last thing they heard from her was, "Not gonna see his balls again for a month!"
A long silence followed the couple's departure.
"So, Peter…" Alice drawled. "Stupidly brave, or just utterly lacking in self-preservation instincts?"
"Oh, definitely the latter," Jasper said with a sigh, but there was a grin on his lips. "Come on darlin', let's go home."
A/N 2:
For those who may be wondering, re: the differences between the canon timeline and this one … strangely, without the benefit of foresight, things went a lot smoother here. You'd expect the opposite to be true, right? Apparently not.
Without canon-Alice to push the relationship along, and reassure Edward of his control, the Bella/Edward romance took a much slower, more ponderous pace. Like Bella said in an earlier chapter, Edward was MIA for months before he got the courage to return to school. And then he was more cautious in his approach of Bella.
The couple were either not together yet, or not close enough, for Bella to be invited to the baseball game. Edward mightn't even have returned to school by that point actually. Either way, James et al. just continued on their way through. There was no Bella-hunt, and no James killed leaving a vengeful Victoria to create a newborn army, no inevitable alerting the Volturi, etc.
In addition, without Alice to push the birthday party thing (cause yeah, I totally imagine that as a canon-Alice idea) the Paper Cut 'O Doom© never occurred. This in turn meant Edward didn't panic and make the family leave. Not abandoned, Bella didn't cling to Jacob and eventually find out about the wolves, so the whole love triangle drama is skipped too. (And just to make doubly sure? In that scene when one of the wolves imprinted on Angela (you caught that, right?), it was Jacob.)
(What do you mean this is all awfully convenient? My desire for a relatively drama-free fem!Harry/Jasper romance has nothing to do with it! Oh fine, maybe a bit to do with it. But there will be some drama. A bit. A tiny bit. *pouts*)
Reviews make me happy (hint, hint).
