Co-written by Nothingtolose15 and phnxprncss.

Summary: Bella and Jasper Swan are sent to live with their father Charlie in Forks, Washington after the untimely death of their mother and stepfather. Neither of them had seen Charlie since they were 7 years old and Renee had cut off complete contact between the children and their father. Now here they are in a place they don't remember at all trying to get on with life. But to make matter's worst Bella Swan has not spoken a word since her mother and step-father's death. Will Jasper be able to protect his sister? Or will she have to go down her own road to find herself again?

Disclaimer: we do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

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Jasper's point of view.

Damn, a whole weekend without seeing Alice or any of the Cullen's for that matter. If I thought this year was going to be a long one, I was highly unprepared for how long this weekend was going to seem. Bella looked much the same way I felt, but nowhere near as bad as Edward did. It looked like it wasn't going to be a good weekend for any of us because although Alice and Emmett seemed a little happier than the rest of us at the prospect of camping all weekend, they weren't all that enthusiastic about it. When we arrived home, Bella went straight up to her room and laid down while I decided to watch some mindless TV show to pass the time.

That is how the entire weekend went, Bella stayed in bed while I tried to find something to entertain myself. I worried about her constantly, thinking that she might slip back into the depression she was in not even a week ago. But as soon as Monday rolled around she seemed much happier. And I had to admit I was pretty ecstatic as well. I couldn't get Alice out of my head no matter how hard I tried, then again, it's not like I was trying very hard. When I had told Edward my feelings I knew they were still fresh. I was almost afraid that it was just a high from her just showing me a bit of attention that would eventually fade out but being away from her for the weekend seemed to make it stronger. On the drive to school, I couldn't stop smiling, and of course Bella noticed.

Jas - Happy about seeing Alice? - Bells

I chuckled softly to myself as I read her text message, "yes, I'm happy about seeing Alice. What are you so happy about today?"

Jas - ohhhh, the same. - Bells

I noticed that she'd blushed quite a bit when I asked her that question, and her response didn't quite seem like it was entirely truthful. I didn't push it though, she was happy and that's all that mattered. We got to the school in record time and found that Emmett, Edward and Alice were already in the parking lot waiting for us to arrive.

"Bella, Jasper!" Alice yelled; she seemed to love to yell our names first thing in the morning. I noticed that she basically ran over to us with a huge smile on her face. I wasn't sure if I had ever seen her so happy, but I certainly wasn't complaining. She came to a stop in front of us and it looked like she wanted to hug us but was afraid of how we'd react, especially Bella. Instead, she bounced around from one foot to another going on and on about how happy she was to see us and how boring the weekend had been without us and I think she may have even mentioned taking us with them on their next camping trip, but she was talking so fast that I couldn't be sure. I watched her with an amused smile on my face waiting for her to finish. When she finally stopped bouncing around, we made our way over to Edward and Emmett and began walking to the school building.

Emmett started talking about some crazy bear that tried to attack him which only caused Edward and Alice to laugh. "Seriously guys this thing was huge and it was chasing me and all this stuff!"

Alice leaned over to me as we walked and whispered in my ear, "it was a squirrel, I don't know what drugs he's been taking," she backed away and blushed. A piece of her hair came fell into her face and I couldn't help but want to push it out of the way. Without really thinking about it, I did just that and she blushed even more. Before this moment, I didn't think she could get any more beautiful than she already was, but seeing her face on fire with that beautiful crimson color sent my heart galloping. I was seriously falling for this girl and I had no idea what to do about it, and sadly, no one to go to for advice. I pulled my hand back slowly and she turned away from me to stare at the trees on the other side of the lot. I hoped that I hadn't offended or upset her. She didn't seem upset at first, but I couldn't be sure.

When we got inside and stopped in front of the girls English room Alice turned to me with a huge smile on her face, "Bye Jasper," she blushed then looked at Emmett and Edward, "I'll see you guys later."

Emmett nodded and rustled his sister's hair, "text me if you need anything," he looked like he was about to say more, but stopped when his gaze caught something. I tried to discreetly follow it and saw that he and Rosalie Hale were staring at each other. "Um yeah, you guys have fun," he said quickly and headed down the hall.

I looked at Edward and he just shrugged, "I don't know about him sometimes." He chuckled then turned to look at Bella and the longing in his eyes was almost tangible, "I'll see you later Bella?"

She gave him a small smile and nodded before grabbing Alice's hand and turning to walk into class. "We've got it bad, man." I said and we both started laughing. My morning classes went by too slow for my liking; probably because I was desperately waiting for lunch and the opportunity to see Alice again. Not to mention that meant there were only 2 classes left in the day and then we'd be able to spend the next few hours hanging out at home.

I swear I had to have been staring at the clock the entire class waiting for it to be lunch. When the bell finally rang indicating that it was time I basically ran out of the classroom and to my pleasure and surprise ran right into a certain pixie-like beauty. "Oomph!"

At the impact, she fell to the ground and I instantly felt bad. "Shit Alice, I'm so sorry I didn't see yo ---- what are you doing waiting at my class? Don't you usually meet us at the cafeteria?" It wasn't like I minded her being outside my classroom, that had to have been a good sign, right? But, I'll admit that I was a little confused. I didn't even know that she knew what class I had before lunch. When I realized that she hadn't yet answered my question, I looked down at her to see that she'd started blushing again, and if it were even possible, she was even redder than before. Stunning was the only word that came to my mind at the sight of her at that moment.

I leaned down and helped her to her feet, "I… uh... I…" she just smiled at me, "um Edward umm... I uh" she just couldn't stop blushing and I just wanted to lean forward and kiss her. Wait! Kiss her? Did I really? Yes I mean, I think I did. Oh boy. "Jasper I'm sorry... I... uh... I'm sorry."

I couldn't help but start laughing at her, she was just too cute at that moment, stumbling and stuttering over every other word. "It's okay Alice, don't worry about it. I'm certainly not complaining," I said with a smile.

We met up with Bella at her class and continued our walk to the cafeteria. Alice kept her eyes on the floor, but I couldn't keep my eyes off her. In fact, I'm surprised that I made it to the cafeteria unscathed. Once we got there, Edward and Emmett were already waiting for us. And Emmett was looking impatient, probably hungry. "Finally! Alice where the hell were you?"

Edward smacked him on the back of the head and I had a feeling he knew that Alice had met up with me at my class. I noticed that Alice kept her eyes on the floor so I answered for her, "I stopped her in the hall so she came to get Bella with me."

"Oh, okay. Well can we go in? I'm hungry and not really in the mood to deal with these assholes today!"

I nodded and opened the door, "after you ladies," Bella and Alice both smiled at me and walked into the cafeteria. They were followed, rather closely, by Emmett which caused Edward and I to start laughing. Thankfully, he didn't know why we were laughing. I'm sure he wouldn't have taken well to the fact that he'd just grouped himself with the girls. We quickly made our way through the line and headed over to our table only to be met with a pleasant surprise; Rose was sitting there waiting for us.

"Um, hey Rose," Edward said, confusion clear in his voice as he scratched his head. I was actually kind of confused myself, but tried not to let it show. She seemed nice enough our first day of school. She'd certainly been nice to us at least, one of the few besides that Angela girl. Still, I didn't understand why she was sitting with us. I didn't mind, I just didn't get it.

"Hey guys, Alice, Bella," she replied, while nodding at each of us. "You don't mind if I sit here today, do you?"

"Of course not," I quickly replied, and the others quickly agreed with me. We could see Emmett watching the table that Mike and his friends sat at, seemingly waiting for them to say something to us about Rose sitting here or directly to Rose. Amazingly enough, the stares, snickers and pointed comments didn't come at all. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement seeing as how these kids had given us hell from day one and that was only a week ago.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes; I don't think any of us really knew what to say. It was finally Edward that broke the silence, "So, today's a nice day out?" He said, the phrase coming out as more of a question than it was intended. "Um, yea ....." I slowly responded, still unsure of how to react to the sudden change that had taken place. Finally, Alice broke the almost unendurable silence and tension by asking the question that we'd all been dying to ask.

"So, Rose, what brings you here today?"

"Well," she looked at all of our faces and smiled lightly, "There was no reason for me to continue sitting with them. They are rude, especially to all of you and I don't want to associate with them anymore."

We were a little slow to respond, but once what she'd said sank in, I didn't think anyone would be able to calm Alice down. She was so excited; she was practically bouncing in her seat, happy to have a new friend. Edward and I sat back and watched the three girls interacting. Of course, it was a little difficult being that Bella still wasn't talking, but Rose seemed content with the texting thing that Bella and Alice had started. I glanced at my watch to see that lunch was going to be over soon and I wanted to walk Alice to class without it looking too obvious. Edward had been walking Bella to biology anyway since they were in the same class, so Bella was use to me parting ways with her as soon as lunch ended. I decided to ask Edward what to do, since Emmett knew nothing and I was pretty much afraid to tell him.

E - Hey, what do you think Alice would do if I offered to walk her to class - J

He looked up at me and grinned before tapping Alice on the shoulder and handing her his phone. She looked puzzled at first, but slowly smiled and nodded to me. I wanted to be mad at Edward for putting me on the spot like that, but she'd agreed to it, so I couldn't actually hold it against him. I wouldn't let him know that yet though, so scowled at him before gathering my books and gesturing for Alice to follow me. As we walked down the hall I couldn't help but smile every time our arms brushed against each other. She had her books held to her chest as she animatedly told me some story. I knew I should have been paying closer attention, but she looked so cute when she talked about things she loved. I wanted so much to just reach out and take her hand in mine. But I didn't want to scare her off and I wasn't sure if it were too soon for a gesture like that. So I decided to try something else, "Hey Alice, could I carry your books for you?"

"S-sure," she stuttered out as she handed me her books. We continued down the halls and I noticed that she'd gotten quieter, only volunteering information if directly asked. I glanced down at her and noticed that her brows were furrowed as if she were in deep thought about something. "Hey, everything okay?" I asked, unsure if she'd gotten uncomfortable walking with just me. However, she quickly soothed my fears as she looked up at me with the most blindingly stunning smile on her face, "I'm perfect," she replied simply, before taking my hand in hers.

I knew I must have had the hugest grin on my face as we continued down the hall and when we got to her class, I didn't want to let go at all. I swear I had giant butterflies flying around in my stomach. "Here's your stop," I said as we came to a halt and I knew I failed at hiding the sadness in my voice. I handed her books back to her but we continued to hold hands. Was it just me or did she perhaps not want to let go of mine as well?

She looked up at me shyly with a small smile on her face, "Thank you for walking me to class today, Jasper." I just nodded, completely awestruck by her innocent beauty. Did she not know exactly what she did to me? After a few more moments, she finally released my hand, but instead of turning to walk into her class, she stood on her tip toes and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was in heaven. I swear, a marching band could've come walking down the hall and I wouldn't have noticed. After another moment of standing there completely lost in my thoughts, I turned to walk off to my own class.

I know it was a tad dorky, but I always paid attention in history class. Today, however, I just couldn't. All I wanted to do was talk to Alice. It finally dawned on me that I had her cell phone number from when I had asked Edward for it for Bella. I had never used it before, but now was the perfect time to do so!

Alice - Hey, it's Jasper :] how is math class going? - Jas

I kept glancing at my phone waiting for her reply. When she finally did I felt like I could have squealed. I was seriously was starting to feel like a girl.

Jasper – Math class is ….. boring. I can't pay attention at all. – Ali

Thoughts of why she couldn't pay attention began to flitter across my mind. Could it be the same reason that I was struggling to keep my focus in class? Could she possibly feel, even a little, of what I felt for her? The rest of the class was torture, plain and simple. Alice and I sporadically texted back and forth, and we learned so much about each other with our impromptu round of 20 questions. I glanced back at the clock seeing that we had like two minutes left, so I decided to say what I had wanted to say all day.

Alice - Just so you know, you look beautiful today! - Jas.

I sent the text and held my breath awaiting a response back from her.

Jasper – Thank you! I must say, you're quite nice to look at as well. Meet me after class and I'll walk with you to the Bio class. – Ali

Finally, the bell rang signaling the end of class, and I jumped out of my seat and was out the door before anyone else had even moved. I couldn't wait to see her again, even if it'd only been an hour since I'd last seen her. She drove me to do things that I never thought I'd do and feel things that I never thought I'd feel. Seeing her again, pacing in front of her math class, sent my heart into a frenzy. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that I loved her. But, that couldn't possibly be it, could it? I'd barely known her for 2 weeks and I was almost positive that you couldn't feel that strongly about someone after such a short amount of time. Then again, I'd never known anyone quite like Alice.

Whatever these feelings were, the moment that she caught sight of me and smiled, it didn't matter. Love or intense like, it was all the same. I just wanted her to be mine in some way, shape or form, and I hoped that she would one day want the same thing too. "Hey Jasper," she said with a blush on her cheeks before looking down at the ground trying to hide it but when she looked back up it was still there. "Shall we go meet Edward and Bella now?"

I nodded and slipped my hand in hers and led her down the hallway to the bio room. Of course we got looks the whole time, even more so than usual because we were holding hands. Alice looked almost afraid, but I just tightened my grip and she smiled. "Hey guys!" I called out as we waltzed up the door. I couldn't help but notice the looks on both Edward and Bella's face seeing us holding hands.

Edward looked, for lack of a better term, shocked and Bella looked thrilled. She kept glancing between Alice and I with a smile on her face, and I realized just then how much I'd missed that smile. We all stood there for awhile, Edward, Alice and I talking while Bella leaned into me still smiling. It wasn't until the bell rang again, signaling the start of the next class, that we realized we were all late. Alice quickly kissed me on the cheek again before skipping off down the hall, Edward close behind her, while I picked Bella up and sprinted off towards the gym. Of course gym was completely and utterly boring. I couldn't even pay attention at all. At one point, I completely missed hitting the ball causing this big goofy looking kid to get hit right in the face giving him a bloody nose. After that, Coach told us to just have the rest of the period to ourselves as he dealt with the kid. I knew Bella must have had so many questions she wanted to ask and selfishly I hoped that she'd verbally voice them, and soon. Though I had to admit that I was glad she was at least smiling once again.

When the bell rang signaling the end of class, and the end of the day, I all but ran to the parking lot, only going slow enough so that I wasn't yanking on Bella's arm the whole way. When we reached the parking lot I realized that I still needed to talk to Emmett about my feelings, and intentions, towards his sister. That alone was enough to send me into a cold sweat as my mind conjured up every possibly way that Emmett could kill me. Call it an overactive imagination, but as an older brother, I knew that the natural instincts of a big brother to protect any younger siblings weren't always an instinct that could be controlled. I was lucky that Edward had been okay with this, but in some ways it was if he realized he didn't have a choice. If he wanted me to be okay with anything happening between him and Bella, than he had to be okay with anything happening between Alice and I. Unfortunately, I didn't have that built-in safety where it concerned Emmett.

When we finally got out to the cars, I was shocked to see Rosalie once again. Actually, it wasn't seeing her that really shocked me, but the closeness that she and Emmett seemed to share. When we reached the car I saw them back away from each other and look down at the ground awkwardly. I noticed that Edward and Alice hadn't come out yet and I started mentally kicking myself for not meeting them inside. Finally I saw them approaching us, talking idly amongst each other. I couldn't tell what they were talking about, but from the looks if it I was kind of hoping it wasn't about me yet at the same time I kind of wished it was. Bella tugged on my arm, and when I turned to look at her, she looked pointedly at Emmett; she must have noticed me staring at Alice right in front of him.

I quickly composed myself and started looking around the parking lot instead. I noticed a few of the other kids looking our way with questioning looks on their faces. I didn't really stop to think about that because by now I was used to getting stared at, but I off-handedly noticed that most of the stares were directed at Rose. I turned back to see how she was handling the added attention that hanging out with us entailed, and all I can say is that if looks could kill, every single person that dared look at her would've been dead.

Edward and Alice finally made it to the cars where we were all gathered and Alice skipped over to me and kissed my cheek again. I stiffened a little as I saw Emmett's eyes widen and then narrow at me. Bella seemed to notice this too and did the last thing I ever expected her to do. She went over to Edward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As if she was showing that it was a new thing for all of us to do. Emmett's eyes widened a little at this, while Edward stood there dumbfounded. Hell, I was dumbfounded too, and from the look on Bella's face, she was shocked at what she just did as well. The tension in the air was practically a physical embodiment at that point. Emmett's eyes were moving so fast between the four of us that I was starting to feel dizzy just watching him.

"Well, hell I wanna get in on this too," Rose suddenly said as she turned and gave Emmett a kiss on the cheek as well. The look on Emmett's face sent Edward and I into a fit of hysterical laughter while Rose just gave us a cheeky grin before turning to walk off to her own car. "Wait, Rose," Alice yelled after her, "if it's okay with Jasper, would you like to hang out with us at the Swan's?"

Rose looked from Alice to me and I nodded, "Yeah it's perfectly alright with me. I mean my house isn't much fun but we would all love for you to come."

Rose smiled, "Well then it's settled I'll be there... I guess I'll just meet you guys there?"

"I'll ride with you," Emmett blurted out. "I mean in case you get lost or something."

"Okay... See you guys then," Rose and Emmett gave us all a quick wave and headed off to her car. As soon as they were out of ears length we started to laugh again.

Somehow, we all managed to control our laughter and get into our respective cars. As much as I wanted Alice to ride with me, Bella's face was still a shocking shade of crimson from her earlier action of kissing Edward on the cheek. Of course, I knew that he was probably on cloud nine right now, like I had been during History, but Bella wasn't usually that bold and she was probably worried that she'd scared him off or something.

"Hey Bells," I said, waiting for her to look at me, "don't worry yourself over what you did, okay? I promise you that you didn't scare or upset Edward." I saw her smile a little before turning her face back towards the window. If only I could tell her how he really must've felt right now, that would make things so much easier.

We all arrived at the house around the same time, and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the goofy grin plastered on Emmett's face when he got out of Rose's car. I decided this was the best time to confront him on my feelings for Alice with him being in a good mood and all, "Hey Emmett I need your advice on this thing for my car and…"

"I'm good with car stuff," Rosalie said with a smile.

"Uh I…" I looked around not sure what to say back to that. "No, it's okay Rose. You can go on inside with everyone else."

I took a deep breath and looked Emmett in the face.

"So, what's up?" He asked, confusion coloring his face.

"Honestly Em, I just needed to tell you something, and I hope that you can respect that I'm being upfront with you about this and not overreact. I …….. I really like Alice. Actually, I don't think like is even a strong enough word for what I feel. I've already talked to Edward about this and he and I were able to come to an understanding, but I want to make sure that you're okay with this as well. If not, I'll back off. I don't want to, but having my own baby sister to worry about, I get it."

He just stared at me for a few moments, his face blank. I wasn't sure if he was happy, upset, or angry. It was impossible to tell. He took a deep and shook his head, "You talked to Edward already? I should have figured… he's the more level-headed one... Did he tell you what he would do to you if you hurt her? Because I'm just letting you know it would be a 100 times worse coming from me!" I just nodded and let him continue, "But I like you Jasper. You and Bella are the first people to actual accept us, and I like us being friends. So I'm not going to freak out on you. But just know Alice has been through a lot so please don't hurt her."

"Emmett I have no intentions of doing so... I mean I know I haven't known her very long at all. But she brings something out in me that's almost foreign…" because I paused for a second to gather my thoughts, I swear I heard him say 'I know what you mean' but I didn't question it. "I haven't told her yet. I mean I've possibly hinted at it but that's just about it... And..."

Emmett put his hand up to stop me from continuing, "Seriously man its fine, just stop rambling and let's go inside," he smiled and we headed in. Now there was 6th person to our group and even though my living room didn't really have much room, no one minded sitting on the floor.

For the remainder of the day, we just hung out talking and watching TV. Time seemed to pass both faster and slower all at the same time, and before we knew it, Charlie's cruiser was pulling into the driveway. "Fuck," I muttered under my breath as Emmett, Edward and Alice jumped up from where they were sitting and started heading towards the door while Rose watched them curiously before getting up to follow as well. "Hey guys," Emmett yelled from the entryway, "we'll see you tomorrow, and Jasper, don't forget what I said earlier." Finally having caught up to them, I just grinned and nodded at him while walking over to give Alice a kiss on the cheek. She flushed red and kissed me back before walking out the door.

A few minutes after they'd all left, I remembered that Charlie had come home but I hadn't heard him walk in the house yet. Curiosity getting the best of me, I walked over to the front window to see if he was still sitting outside. I noticed a light on in his cruiser and contemplated going to see why he hadn't come in, but decided against it and instead went up to my room, thoughts of Alice constantly present in my mind.

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A/N: WOO!

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