Thanks so much to all of you who voted for me in the Glove Awards! Awake and Alive won for Best Alice… I was so psyched! Especially considering what stiff competition there was! You guys are the best. :D
On that note, I wish I had a happier chapter to give you… this is another rough one. But I did try to lighten things up a bit down there at the end. Sorry about the multiple POV changes this time around… I don't particularly like doing that, but it would have been downright mean to cut it off. You'll see what I mean. ;)
Enjoy… maybe! LOL
(Again, I'm so sorry you're getting more than one email update. is screwing up the format every time I try to post. :/)
There's gonna be some ups and downs,
But with you to wrap my arms around, I'm fine.
You know you keep on bringing out the best in me,
And I need you now more than the air I breathe.
You can make me laugh when I wanna cry.
This will last forever, I just know.
So, baby, hold on tight, don't let go.
Hold on to the love we're making,
'Cause, baby, when the ground starts shaking,
You gotta know when you got a good thing.
"When You Got a Good Thing"
By Lady Antebellum
Previously:
Time had ceased to have any meaning for me over a century ago. When you have an eternity, the passing of time doesn't hold much significance… until now. Every day seemed never ending. If we could only know for sure that there was a light to look forward to, some hope we could cling to, perhaps it wouldn't have been so difficult to keep going.
But there was no relief in sight.
.
Chapter 8
Jasper
.
The first week of March brought the arrival of Emmett and Rosalie. I'd hoped their return would bring some sort of balance back to the emotional climate of our home, but just the opposite had occurred, in fact. After the first few days, I could see a marked difference in Emmett. This was not the laughing, boisterous brother I remembered. His decline was almost visible as he sunk deeper and deeper into depression, caving to the darkness that hovered like a storm cloud over our home. And it affected Rosalie as well. It bothered her immensely to see Emmett so uncharacteristically down.
One afternoon after Emmett and Rosalie had been home for a little over a week, Carlisle called us all into the dining room for a family meeting. He sat down at the head of the table with Esme on his right, holding tightly to his hand. The rest of us took our seats, but the one empty chair on Carlisle's left seemed to dominate the room… the voice of the one who was missing seemed to speak louder than that of those who were present.
Carlisle sighed heavily, looking at the empty chair and then each of us in turn. "We can't continue on like this," he said, voicing the thought that had weighed on all our minds as we'd watched our family crumble and break apart. "We have to do something."
He lifted his other hand, placing it on top of Esme's, enveloping her hand in both of his. Both of them wore pained expressions as he continued. "As you all know, the university's spring break is this coming week, and I think would be good for us to take advantage of that. I believe it might do us all good to get away for a while – to have a change of scenery and some time set aside simply to regroup."
"I think that's a good idea," Alice agreed from her place beside me.
"Where do you have in mind for us to go?" Rosalie asked in an uncharacteristically subdued voice, glancing at Carlisle.
"Carmen and Eleazar have been urging us to visit for some time. I spoke to them this morning, and they said they would be happy to have us stay with them next week."
Carlisle moved to wrap his arm around Esme's shoulder, looking at each of us with poorly disguised pain both in his voice and on his face. "I know the last several months have been just as difficult for all of you as they have been for us – perhaps in some ways, even more so," he said glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. He sighed deeply, as he struggled to tamp down on the grief rising to the surface. "But, for this week, I would like to see all of us try to put aside everything else and concentrate on what we have instead of what we don't."
We all nodded, knowing that, in theory, what he said would be for our good, but each of us knew that the application of it would be much harder. And Carlisle knew it too. This wasn't something we could just set aside or forget. But, by this point, we were all willing to try anything to break this oppressive cycle of despair that held us in its grip.
The rest of the week passed slowly as we made our preparations to leave. Bags were packed, airplane tickets were bought, and loose ends were tied up around the house. The night before we left, Emmett and I went hunting. It was odd hunting with Emmett being as down as he was. There was no horsing around either with me or with his food on this trip. I wasn't in the mood to deal with that kind of frivolity anyway, but there was still a part of me that missed it. Everywhere I turned there were reminders of how much damage had been done to our family. This was just one more example.
I gorged myself that night, feeding until I could feel the blood sloshing inside. But, once we boarded the plane that next morning, my precautions didn't matter anymore. As soon as I stepped inside, the scent hit me with the force of a battering ram.
I despised flying – I always had. It was torture to be stuck in a plane full of humans. It was difficult enough to control my bloodlust on the ground, but at least I knew if it grew to be too much, I always had an escape… I could always get away if I just couldn't handle it anymore. Not so when you're thirty thousand feet in the air. I knew my family would be there to stop me, but not before our cover was blown.
Even though the first class area was only about half-full, the cabin was permeated with the intoxicating fragrance of human blood. I held my breath as I took my seat, but not before the alluring scent filled every crevice of my lungs, awakening the bloodthirsty fiend inside. I sat, not breathing, fighting against the temptation whispering in my ear and desperately wishing for a wave of fresh air unscented with the burn of human blood. I hated having my senses cut off. I felt vulnerable, which only compounded my misery.
I didn't realize how tense my posture was until Alice reached for my hand, smoothing my tightly clenched fist so she could interlace her fingers through mine. "Relax, Jasper. You're going to be fine. If I'd thought you'd have any trouble, you and I would be driving to Denali. Nothing's going to happen," she soothed. "Trust me."
I nodded, still unwilling to take a breath. I tried to concentrate on relaxing one muscle at a time as the flight attendants walked up and down the aisles preparing the passengers for take off. As we taxied down the runway, I focused on the patterns Alice was tracing on my wrist… the soft sound of her humming… anything at all to take my mind off of the fires scorching my throat.
I cursed myself silently, calling myself by every foul name in every language I knew. Had I not learned anything at all from my mistakes? Had my lack of control not caused problems enough? I was appalled by the fact that I was even tempted… disgusted with myself that even a fraction of my mind contemplated the idea of how good it would feel to soothe my desiccated throat in that way.
I heard Emmett and Rosalie talking softly in the row behind me, and, in the row across the aisle, I could see Esme and Carlisle taking their books from their carry-on bags. All four of them were oblivious to the battle raging inside my head, and seemingly equally oblivious to the lure of blood that was calling my name like a siren's song.
Once we were in the air, I felt Alice stir beside me, releasing my hand. I thought perhaps she was tired of my silence and was going to sit with Esme for a while. It would serve me right if she did. I was no kind of company right now.
Instead I felt her soft weight settle in my lap. She snuggled in, making herself comfortable and nuzzled her face into my chest, sighing in contentment. I wrapped my arms around her and buried my face in her hair, taking my first tentative breath since boarding the plane. As soon as I did, I regretted it. Flames seared their way up my throat. It was agony.
I was immensely grateful for the angel in my arms. This was just one more time that she proved to be my only saving grace… my anchor when I needed it most. I took another hesitant breath, trying to focus my senses on Alice's sweet fragrance.
With each cautious breath, it became a little easier to fight back the beast as I became somewhat desensitized to the smell of the blood. And finally, about halfway through the flight, I felt my body relaxing. Securing my arms a little tighter around Alice, I laid my head back on the seat and closed my eyes. I almost chuckled to myself thinking that, to the passengers on the plane, Alice and I now looked like nothing more than a young couple napping together during the flight. Not one of them had any idea of the fierce battle for their lives that had been waged in the quietness of the closed cabin.
As the plane descended, I felt my relief growing. I had made it all the way through without snapping. I'd kept the beast inside locked away inside his cage in spite of his screeching to be free. From her place at my chest, I felt Alice's smile spread across her face.
As passengers stood to deplane, she lifted her head, her smile bright and triumphant. "I told you so."
I merely kissed her on the forehead, thanking her wordlessly for her faith in me – a faith I really didn't deserve of late. Together, we rejoined our family and, to my relief, left the plane behind us. Already, though, I dreaded the return flight home. I wasn't looking forward to putting myself through that again.
That week, Eleazar and Carmen proved to be once again the perfect hosts. There had been a long-standing relationship between their family and ours, and it was quite obvious that the Denali coven considered us part of their extended family. They spared no effort to be certain of our comfort there.
It didn't take long before I felt their distress for Carlisle and Esme begin to seep through, though. Eleazar and Carmen couldn't completely mask the looks of concern they passed back and forth. Seeing them now through their eyes, the change in my mother and father – and all of us, really – from only six months ago was startling.
We'd been locked away in our individual prisons of despair. It had eaten away at each of us on the inside until we were all shells of ourselves, in a way. The life was gone… we were simply going through the motions, too consumed with pain to do much of anything else. We all felt a bit disconnected from each other, and none of us seemed to be quite sure how to change that.
Esme and Carlisle were much too gracious to do anything but put on a good front when they were around the others, but a front was all it was. I wasn't the only one who noticed that neither of them ever once laughed, and their smiles didn't quite reach their eyes.
Alice and Rosalie spent most of the first several days catching up with Kate, Irina, and Tanya. I caught a whisper of disappointment from Tanya when we arrived, presumably because Edward wasn't with us. Irina as well seemed to be a bit preoccupied, though she never said why.
I'd hoped that being around others would help lift Emmett out of the depression that had enveloped him since he had been home, but it didn't seem to have any effect at all. It was incredibly strange not to have him cracking jokes all the time or to hear his laughter booming in the halls. I hadn't realized how much I would miss that until it was gone. His fun-loving personality was such a part of who he was… he just didn't seem like himself anymore. And, because of that, I almost felt like I had lost two brothers instead of one.
I think we'd all hoped that this trip would be some kind of turning point for us. As Carlisle had suggested, we'd tried very hard to lay everything else aside, but having all of us together had only emphasized once again how terribly different everything was… and just how broken we were. Our disconnection from each other was only made more obvious, and seeing that only made things seem more hopeless than before.
The constant depression had become almost unbearably oppressive to me. I knew that I was quickly approaching my breaking point. I honestly didn't know how much longer I could stand up under the weight of everyone's combined misery before I snapped altogether, crushed beneath it.
I knew something had to give.
And soon.
Alice
.
I was trying my best to hide it, but I felt like an absolute failure.
The dysfunction that had overtaken our family was bad enough – that alone was hard enough to cope with – but it was like a virus, infecting every one of our relationships. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't seem to get back to the way things were… it was proving to be impossible.
Carlisle and Esme had left only moments ago on a hunting trip, just the two of them. I truly hoped that the time alone would help them to regroup. They needed it. And Emmett and Rosalie had disappeared somewhere not long ago as well. So, now, I went to find Jasper.
This was where I felt the worst kind of failure.
Over the last several months, I'd watched Jasper slip deeper and deeper into himself. It was a self-defense mechanism that he only employed when he couldn't cope with the emotional atmosphere. The grief had worn on him during the last six months – grief and guilt both – until he'd retreated so far into himself that I was having difficulty reaching him anymore.
I felt helpless.
I'd always been able to draw him out before. This time, though, I wasn't sure how. I'd buried my head in the sand like an ostrich, spending time with Esme – though, that wasn't entirely selfish, we'd been able to provide each other with a small measure of comfort that we'd both needed. But, in all honesty, it was easier to share her grief than Jasper's. His hit me so much harder… it cut me so much deeper.
We'd always had an intensely intimate emotional bond. As private as he was, he shared his heart with me in a way that he'd never allow anyone else to see. But a little more each day, I felt like there was something separating us – like there was a thin sheet of glass between us…
I could see him though it, I could hear him, I knew he was right there… but I couldn't quite reach him. And I hated it.
I found Jasper in the sitting room, flipping channels on the television, though it didn't appear that he was even paying attention to what was flashing on the screen. His eyes were blank, his expression vacant. Seeing the look on his face broke my heart all over again. He was miserable, but I didn't know how to help him.
I'd thought about the two of us going off on our own for a while, but the family was broken apart so much already that I hated to do that. It would make things that much more difficult for Carlisle and Esme, and I knew it wouldn't really help Jasper anyway. No matter how far away we went, his unnecessary guilt would follow him. He was holding himself prisoner to it. It wouldn't matter how much distance we put between us and them, he still wouldn't let it go.
I was torn now trying to decide what was the right thing to do. My first priority was Jasper, there was no question in my mind about that – there never had been – but I was conflicted as I tried to weigh the consequences of the choice in front of me.
Could I further hurt the people I loved as my parents in a course of action that wouldn't ultimately provide Jasper with the relief that it was intended to? Would it actually end up hurting Jasper more knowing that we were adding to their pain when he already felt responsible to begin with? Would that separation actually do more harm than good for all of us? Would it end up making the rift in our family that much worse in time?
I didn't know the answers to any of my questions, and I felt so trapped. I wanted to do something… anything… but what?
The only thing I knew for certain was that I'd had enough of the emotional distance between the two of us. I missed Jasper… even though physically he was right here. The other day on the plane was the closest I'd really felt to him since we'd come home from Mississippi. That was the first time I'd felt like I was actually doing something for him, something to help him. Snuggled against his chest with his arms wrapped so tightly around me, I'd realized all over again how dreadfully I'd missed him.
There really was nothing truly obvious for us to fix… we weren't fighting or even disagreeing about anything. We were just… drifting. We'd been ignoring the way things were because we couldn't really change anything. We'd been pretending that things were all right when, in reality, they were anything but.
We couldn't do it any longer, though.
I was beginning to feel like I was losing him… like the man I loved was getting lost to the depression that wouldn't let him go. He'd reached the point where he rarely spoke anymore unless he was directly spoken to, he didn't seek out anyone for company… he was just going through the motions, but it was obvious he didn't really care about anything.
I'd seen this haunted look in his eyes before, but it had been years since the last time – not since her… not since Maria. And he'd left her when he'd reached that point of suicidal depression.
I knew he'd never leave me. Though that fear might whisper in my ear occasionally, in my heart, I knew without a shadow of doubt that he would never physically leave me. But he was shutting down… he was starting to cave under the incessant pressure of grief.
And I had to do something.
Knowing that I was standing in the doorway, Jasper turned his face towards me. A smile pulled up the corners of his mouth, but it didn't come anywhere near his eyes. My feet moved towards him almost without any conscious thought on my part. He opened his arms to me when I went to sit on his lap, drawing me down and settling me comfortably against his chest.
I sank into him, burrowing as close to him as I could, breathing him in. My hands clung to him as my eyes began to sting. He was comfort… he was home. But I felt almost… desperate… knowing that things were less than perfect between us… that there was anything between us at all.
"What's wrong?" he whispered into my hair, sensing the anxiety in both my emotions and my grip on him.
"Everything," I said in a quiet voice, trying to get closer still. He didn't say anything, just held me tighter. "Jasper, we can't keep doing this."
He was silent for so long I began to wonder if he was going to reply at all. But when he did, his voice was only barely audible… and absolutely defeated. "I know."
"I don't know what to do," I admitted to him, dry sobs gathering in my chest as the desperation took hold even further. "I feel like every way we turn someone's going to get hurt… and we're all hurting enough as it is. We can't take anything else.
"But I can't just sit here anymore and watch this tear you apart a little more each day… watch you try to pretend that it's not destroying you little pieces at a time. I can't just sit doing nothing and watch you slip away from me. I feel like I'm losing you," I whispered into the fabric of his shirt.
"I'm not," he protested, tipping my chin back. "I'm not going anywhere… and you're not losing me." His words said one thing, but we both knew that, no matter how much we willed it otherwise, there was some truth to my fears.
"Maybe," I said hesitantly, watching his eyes carefully, " maybe you and I should leave for a while… just the two of us."
He shook his head before I even got the words out of my mouth. "No. Running away isn't going to do anything. And I won't do that to Esme and Carlisle. They've got enough on their plates as it is."
"Then what do we do?"
"I don't know, Alice… I just don't know."
Hearing the utter defeat in his voice, my heart twisted. I stood suddenly, holding out my hand for his. "Come with me," I said as an idea took shape in my mind.
He took my outstretched hand, trusting me implicitly though confusion filled his eyes. "Where?"
"Carlisle wanted us to use this time to regroup, so that's what you and I are going to do. Just for today we're going to leave everything behind, everything that's happened in the last six months. The only thing you and I are going to think about right now is us. When we walk out those doors, everything else ceases to exist."
A weary smile stretched over Jasper's face. "You're talking about heaven, you know."
I squeezed his hand in mine as he stood. "Then what are you waiting for? Let's go."
And we did. Hand in hand, we ran through the Alaskan wilderness. With the wind whispering against our faces, we ran, fleeing back to a time before all of this happened… back to a time when there was only the two of us. Our muscles pumped, our feet propelling us forward as we watched the scenery fly past us in a rush. It felt freeing as, with every step, we left our troubles and our fears a little farther behind.
We finally stopped at the peak of a snow covered mountain overlooking a glacial pond. With the sunlight breaking over the horizon, painting the sky in the blazing colors of the sunrise, reflecting them in the water below, Jasper wound his arms around my waist from behind, resting his chin on top of my head.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, a rainbow arched across the heavens, the light glinting from the glaciers below and shimmering brilliantly against our skin. We stood silently together, taking in the breathtaking scenery. I let the awe that the view around us commanded and the contentment I felt from being in my beloved's arms radiate from me, hoping that it would help to chase away the darkness that had hovered over Jasper for so long. I felt the deep rise and fall of his chest against my back as he simply breathed. And I matched my breaths to his.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Exhale.
With each of Jasper's deep, concentrated breaths, I felt him relax a little bit more as he let the grief of the last half-year fall like shackles to the ground. For the first time in months, a sense of peace pervaded the both of us.
We made a conscious effort to put everything else from our minds. For right now, there was only us. I welcomed the tranquility that we had sorely missed, but I wanted more than that.
I stepped outside of the circle of Jasper's arms and smiled when he opened his eyes in question. Squeezing his hand, I took a few steps back, noticing with relief how he seemed to stand straighter now… taller. His shoulders had been stooped for far too long under the weight of the burden he'd been carrying. The lines of stress had been erased from his face… and now I wanted to see him smile again. I wanted to hear him laugh.
I bent down, collecting a handful of snow and packing it into two separate balls. I knew he could feel the burgeoning of my mischief, and before he had the chance to turn around, I threw one squarely into the back of his head. He whirled around with eyes widened in surprise, and I let another one fly, hitting him right in between the eyes.
Jasper blinked rapidly, wiping the snow from his face. I giggled at his shocked expression, grinning impishly and daring him to fight back. He didn't say anything at first, he simply bent down and packed his own fistful of snow, tossing it deliberately from hand to hand as he turned his eyes back to me.
"Darlin," his voice was slow and soft, belying the mischievous intent behind his eyes. "You have no idea what you've just gotten yourself into."
"Oh, I think I do. And do you know what I say to that?" I asked with a gleam in my eye. He cocked his head to the side, waiting. "I say bring it, soldier boy. Give it your best shot," I taunted him, still grinning.
He reared his arm back, hurling the snowball in my direction. I saw the exact course it would take before he even threw it, so, of course, I stepped easily out of the way, watching it disintegrate as it hit the tree behind me.
I faked a yawn, picking at my nails and pretending boredom. "Oh please. Was that the best you can do?"
Jasper's eyes widened, and he barked a laugh at my audacity. The sound of his laughter – the first time I'd heard it in months – made my heart leap into my throat. I'd missed it so much.
With a playful growl, he crouched, his eyes sparkling as he prepared to spring at me. I leapt out of his way a fraction of a second before he could grab me, laughing as I ran behind a tree. "You're going to have to do better than that, Jazz. Catch me if you can!" I teased him, knowing that he most certainly would catch me… he always did.
He caught onto my playfulness quickly, chasing me around and around the mountain. He'd stop every once in a while, scooping up more snow to toss at me. He managed to hit me twice, making one decision and then changing his mind at the last possible second.
For the moment, though, he was definitely on the losing end of this fight. His clothes were covered in patches of snow from where I'd nailed him repeatedly. But, based on the future that flashed before my eyes, I knew that this was one battle we were both going to win in the end.
Jasper
.
Alice's squeals and laughter were the sweetest kind of music to my ears as we played like children in the snow. I'd missed this carefree atmosphere even more than I'd realized. The sounds of her happiness were a balm to the wounds the last few months had left on my soul. All the sorrow and pain that had been inflicted receded from my mind as Alice and I played our game of cat and mouse over the mountain.
The sound of my own laughter was almost startling at first – it had been so long since I'd had anything to laugh about. But I couldn't keep it in. For the moment, we were forgetting … and doing so thoroughly.
Alice repeatedly taunted me by letting me get closer, but when I would reach out for her she would leap gracefully out of my way, and our game of chase would begin again. Her breathless laughter rang in my ears, one of the most beautiful sounds in my world.
Finally after numerous circulations, I managed to grab Alice around her waist. I knew she could have evaded me quite easily if she'd wanted to – but she wanted to be caught. I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her off her feet, spinning her around and around to the sound of her delighted squeals.
But I wasn't quite done yet. I wasn't about to let her off so easily after she had mercilessly pelted me with her snowy missiles. I held her prisoner in my arms after our spinning stopped, my intentions unmistakable in my gaze.
Her eyes widened until they were the size of the saucers in Esme's favorite china. "Oh no. Jasper, you wouldn't."
"I wouldn't what, darlin?" I drawled in a slow Texas twang. She knew exactly what was coming. With a roguish grin, I tumbled us both to the ground and pinned her underneath my weight, holding both her arms securely above her head with one hand.
"Alice," I began, still using a very deliberate drawl, "How many times did you manage to hit me? Hmmm?"
"I wasn't counting," she said with wide, innocent eyes.
"No? Well, I was. Do you want to know?"
"You're going to tell me anyway."
"Yes, I am indeed. Thirty-six times, Alice." She tried to bite back her laugh at hearing that number but didn't quite succeed. "And how many times did I succeed in hitting you?"
"Ummm, twice?" She phrased it as a question, but I knew better.
"Yes, darlin. Twice. I think we need to even up those numbers a bit, don't you agree?"
With my free hand, I gathered a large handful of snow. Catching her wide-eyed gaze with my own, I proceeded to smear the snow across her face, from her ear across her cheek. She squealed as the wetness trickled down her face.
I reached for another handful and smeared this one down her neck, letting it trickle below the collar of her shirt. She laughed and squealed, trying to buck me off as I proceeded to give her the same treatment with handful after handful of wet snow, until her clothes and hair were just as covered in the snowy crystals as mine.
When I felt that our score had been evened out to a sufficient degree, I stopped, gazing at her, memorizing the sight of her face lit up with exhilarated laughter. The feel of Alice's delicate body as it bucked and squirmed under mine with her every laugh caused heat to spread and blaze throughout my frozen veins. It had been too long since I'd felt her this way. And I wanted her… with every cell of my being.
Alice's laughter stopped as she registered the passion simmering in my gaze, and the movements of her body became provocative instead of playful. Answering desire immediately filled her own eyes, letting me know that this had been her intent all along. She wanted this as much as I did.
Time stopped as she reached up to tangle her fingers in my hair and pulled my face down to meet her eager lips. Fire scorched my body as our mouths molded hungrily together, but this wasn't the agonizing burn that assaulted me when I smelled blood. No, this was like being licked with flaming tongues of pleasure.
Sixty years Alice and I had spent together, but my desire for her had never faltered even once in all that time. Instead it had only grown stronger with every day that passed, every kiss we shared.
Her soft, smooth lips moved fervently against mine now, her warm tongue snaking out to tease the inner surface of my lips. I angled my head, parting her lips further and eagerly meeting her tongue with mine as we began our familiar dance. As our breathing sped, I wondered now how I had ever lived a day of my life without her. I devoured her mouth ravenously as if she was the sustenance I needed for my very survival, and she, in turn, did the same to me.
I ran my hands through her hair, down to stroke my fingertips over her face. I knew her every feature as well as I knew my own – better, perhaps. My fingers moved from our feverishly joined lips, down to her neck, across her collarbone, skimming down to cup the soft weight of her breast in my palm.
Her low moan fueled the fire burning through my core. My world shrunk to only this moment… this woman… our love. Nothing else in all the world existed.
I resisted the urge to rip the clothes from her tiny frame. We had nothing else to change into up here, and there was no way in hell I was letting Alice walk back to the house like that. That would be fodder enough for Emmett's teasing for the rest of eternity. The thought of such a scenario was adequate incentive to break through the haze of my passion long enough to allow me to release each clasp cautiously.
As I carefully removed Alice's clothing, she relieved me of mine as well. With our clothes finally shed, our hands and lips raced over each other, touching, stroking, inciting our shared passion to ever increasing heights. I caressed her every dip and curve, glorying in the warmth that permeated every cell in my body under her touch. We both reveled in the joy and pleasure we could bring to each other in this way… love the way it was meant to be.
The snow around us should have sizzled and melted under the heat of our passion. But I never would have noticed. I was consumed in the need of the moment. When I could hold back no longer, I slid into Alice's welcoming warmth and brought us both to ecstasy.
We loved each other continually throughout the night, pausing every now and then sometimes to talk, and sometimes just to lay together in silence. In this moment, I was entirely complete. I was untouched by all the trials that had buffeted me. It seemed like a different world now with my pixie wife nestled so contentedly in my embrace.
I could never say that Alice was my other half. That didn't go nearly far enough. She was the very center, the sum and total of my existence. My very reason for being.
In this moment, my world was perfect.
But all of that was about to change.
So, baby, hold on tight, don't let go.
Hold on to the love we're making,
'Cause, baby, when the ground starts shaking,
You gotta know when you got a good thing.
::insert ominous music:: We know all hell's about to break loose in the next couple of chapters. I hope you enjoyed the little break beforehand, though… I think we all needed that!
Thanks so much for reading. Please take a second and leave me some love… you know I love hearing from you! :)
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