A/N: Thanks for the positive feedback for the last chapter. I LOVE hearing your opinions and suggestions. I'm glad all of you liked Edward's reaction to Bella's little secret.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but Twilight owns me. That hardly seems fair.


Chapter 9: Repercussions

EPOV

"Vampire."

"Yes."

I shuddered, which had nothing to do with my bare skin pressed up against the cool wall of my room. I hadn't moved from the corner where I'd ended up after fleeing from Bella, I'd just simply slid down into a crumpled ball on the floor. My attempts to control my breathing into anything less than hyperventilating gasps had proven impossible, and I was light-headed and close to passing out when my door flew open. Jasper threw himself into the room and cast his eyes around in a panic, finally alighting on me in the fetal position.

I met his gaze and felt instantly soothed, my breathing beginning to calm. This was how it had always been with us. Outsiders probably thought we were gay or something. I didn't care – they could think what they wanted. The truth was, we'd been through a lot of shit together for the last 10 years and through it all, we only ever had each other. If one of us was in pain or having a freak-out, the other was there to make it go away. And right now, I wasn't ashamed to admit that I fuckin' needed Jasper.

"Edward? Edward, are you ok? I heard you yelling…did she hurt you or something? What happened?"

I just looked at him, trying to slow my gasping breaths, not really sure what to say and not exactly able to say it anyway.

"Ok, first let's get you off the floor. Can you sit up? Where does it hurt?"

He leaned down, grabbed me under my arms, and lifted me to my feet. Though a little shaky, I managed to stay standing without his help. He began looking me over, I guess searching for a bump or a scratch. Or a bite mark…I thought, then shuddered again. I finally put my hands up to stop him.

"I'm not hurt Jazz. Just…stunned and…I need to sit," I rasped out breathlessly. I made my way to the bed and sat down on the corner of the mattress. I stared at the spot on the floor where I had found her crouching next to me.

Probably scoping out the biggest vein in my neck…

When I first woke up and found her next to me, my shock quickly subsided into excitement and possibly even some giddiness…of the manliest form, of course. The feel of her skin in my hand was indescribable, and the electricity surging between our connection was enough to make the hair on my arms stand on end.

I was confused at first at her silence, and it almost seemed as though she was holding her breath. I had quickly pushed the idea aside because I thought that wasn't possible, but now I knew better.

Hearing her speak could probably be considered the most exhilarating moment of my life to date.

"Bella."

Her name fit her perfectly, and felt magical rolling off my tongue. The way her tiny smirks made her strange crimson eyes crinkle caused my already-pounding heart to flutter erratically. I barely managed to keep my cool during my interrogation. I'd felt horrible for snapping at her when my temper got the best of me, cringing on the inside as I watched her flinch away from my raised voice. The site softened me immediately, and I calmed myself enough to go through mine and Jasper's list.

Part of me was glad I'd figured out the truth and gotten her to leave without losing my blood or my life. The other part of me wished we'd never made that list, because then maybe I'd have never put two and two together and I could still be blissfully ignorant in Bella's intoxicating presence. When it all finally clicked, 'flight' took over 'fight' and I completely freaked out. I didn't even pause to think about the impossibilities of it all – I was past expecting a normal, natural explanation of things.

And, to make things worse, there was still a war raging in my head between being terrified and angry at the blood-thirsty creature that had been in my room, and feeling guilty and remorseful over the pained and saddened look on my beautiful Bella's face when I ordered her away.

Wait, MY beautiful Bella? That couldn't be further from the truth, and I'd like to keep it that way…I…I think…Jesus, I need some Advil…or a stiff drink…

"Edward? Hey man, Earth to Edward! Are you still with me?" Jasper's concerned voice broke through my confused thoughts. I glanced up at him, noticing that he'd sat down on the bed next to me, and nodded.

"Yeah, sorry Jazz, just drifted off there for a sec…"

"More than a sec." He thrust a glass of water under my nose. I hadn't even noticed he'd left to get it. "Tell me what happened in here."

"I figured it out Jazz, didn't you? When you were in there with her, didn't you figure out what they are?"

Jasper shook his head and looked surprised, then smiled. "We didn't really talk about it at all. I woke up to her crouching over me, and she looked all scared but…Edward, shit, she was beautiful. All tiny and pale and spiky black hair and…she looked like a damn fairy, except for those trippy eyes. I grabbed her before she could run off and after fighting me for a bit she stayed and then…I'll never forget this for as long as I live Edward, I saw what time it was and I told her, 'you've kept me waiting for a long time,' and she smiled, and her whole face lit up, and she said, 'you have no idea.' And then we just talked about…anything. I told her about me, and she told me that she has some sort of amnesia thing and can't remember anything about her past, and…I don't know man, I didn't even think to ask what she was, everything was just so natural and it felt…normal, like I'd known her forever and we did this every night…"

He finally took a breath and I couldn't stop the jealousy rising in my chest, constricting my pounding heart. Jasper was still blissfully ignorant. And he got to talk to his visitor, and she'd talked back. I angrily rubbed my face to rid myself of that thought – I knew the truth, I shouldn't have wanted her to talk back now. I looked at Jazz and he was fuckin'…glowing. I'd never seen that look on his face before. The boy was in love. After one night, after one conversation, he was head-over-heels, Cupid's arrow in his ass, 'His' and 'Her' towels, 'I'll lasso the moon for you' in love.

"What's her name?" I asked, because I couldn't think of anything else to say.

He smiled even wider, somehow. "Alice."

That's pretty old-fashioned. I hadn't met a lot of Alices that weren't over the age of forty. It hit me then that the Alice and Bella were probably decades old, even if they didn't look a day over 18. It hadn't even occurred to me to ask how old she was…and how long she'd been that way.

"What your girl's name?" Jasper asked. I cringed a bit at hearing him say my girl. I had no idea how I was going to break this to him, that these girls could never be our girls.

"Bella," I sighed, frowning, even though just saying her name made me get butterflies in my stomach.

Suddenly, that tingly feeling I had during that creepy dream last night came over my body again, and I noticed I had unconsciously shifted my weight towards my balcony door. Jasper, I saw, had done the same. I quickly straightened up and ignored it, but the feeling remained.

"Beautiful name for a beautiful girl, huh?" he quipped, elbowing me in the ribs and smirking. His smile faltered when I didn't return it. I hated that I had to ruin this for him. It was rare that the kid was this happy about anything.

"Come on man, spill it, what was all the yelling about? What are they? It can't be that bad. Well, not that bad for not being human, I guess."

I took a deep breath and avoided his gaze. "Vampires," I whispered.

"You're going to have to speak up there Edwa – "

"Vampires! They're vampires Jazz! You know, the undead? Pointy teeth? They enjoy blood? Not big fans of the sun? Sleep in coffins, turn into bats, hate garlic and holy water? Fucking VAMPIRES!" I roared. I looked up into his face, waiting for it to drain of colour, for him to totally freak out, but it never came. In fact, after looking momentarily stunned, he laughed. No, not just laughed. He fucking chuckled.

"…So?" he asked.

So?! How is he so calm about this? The one time I need him to NOT be calm…he freaks out over my grazed elbow, but can't freak out about us being stalked by fucking mythical creatures?!

"Um, what do you mean 'so'? Vampires kill people Jazz…you know, drain them of blood? And Bella and Alice are vampires, and they were in our apartment, in our bedrooms, hovering over us while we slept, and you aren't even the slightest bit concerned?" I asked incredulously.

"I get it man, I read Anne Rice too. And yeah, it's a bit freaky. But think about it. They've had countless opportunities to kill us if they wanted to. They were on our balcony last night, they were in the street today, and they were actually inside our apartment tonight, and yet we're both still quite alive. In fact, the only reason you're alive right now is because Bella saved your life which, last time I checked, was pretty much the exact opposite of trying to end it, right?"

Smartass.

I had to admit he was right. It was strange that they'd made no real attempts to hurt us during the ample opportunities they'd had to do so. Maybe they didn't want to…no, I was not going to start thinking like that. They probably just weren't hungry yet or some shit. I told Jasper as much.

"Man, you've got to chill the fuck out sometimes. If they wanted to kill us, we'd be dead already. And did you ever really feel like you were in danger? No, I bet you didn't. Did you ever think that maybe they're good vampires?"

I scoffed. He glared at me and continued.

"I know, I know, that sort of sounds like an oxymoron, but it could be true. Think about it. Now we know vampires exist. Yes, it's fucked up and I definitely feel like I'm dreaming, but there's no use being in denial about it. And, if there are two, there could be ten, there could be hundreds, thousands even. I doubt they all chose to be that way, and I'd bet my left nut that in a population that big, there has to be at least two who decided to not be killers."

I had to hand it to the man, he definitely had an overactive imagination. I decided to mention the hole in the plot of his "A Tale of Two Good Vamps" story.

"Ok Jazz, then what DO they eat?"

"Who gives a shit dude? Not us. That's all that's important to me. I mean, vampires or not, you have to realize that we're meant to be around them in some capacity."

"And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"I know you feel the pull too Edward, I can tell by how you changed your position at the exact same time I did. It's not a coincidence."

Fucker. He wasn't supposed to notice that.

"I'll take your silence as you agreeing with me."

I glared at him. He laughed again.

"Edward, relax. Next time they come we'll all talk together and figure it all out."

"Jazz, I seriously doubt they'll be coming back."

With this comment, Jasper's face finally did drain of all colour.

"Wh-what do you mean they won't come back? What did you do? What did you yell at her?"

I hesitated, but there was really no use in trying to keep what happened from him.

"She wouldn't talk to me. I think she was holding her breath, actually. She only ever said her name, and then I did all the talking. I read her the list, and then I remembered something else and…it all clicked. And then I ordered her away. As soon as I figured it out, and she confirmed it, I…I yelled at her to get out and never come back. She looked so sad…"

My regret was winning the war in my head. Jasper looked momentarily defeated, but then cheered up.

"You want to see her again though, don't you." He smiled. It wasn't a question.

I sighed, but nodded. It was true, even if it terrified me to admit it. I could only hope Jasper was right.

He nodded back. "Then I think they'll be back, even if Bella thinks you don't want her to be. If they feel what we feel, they won't be able to stay away for long. It'll work out, don't worry your pretty oddly coloured hair about it."

He patted my shoulder and stood to leave. He took three steps towards the door, then stopped and turned back to me.

"By the way, how did you figure it out if she wouldn't talk to you?"

"I remembered…in the street today…when my elbow was bleeding, she…she growled at me."

He paused, thinking. Then he smirked.

"Hot."


Classes began the next day. Jazz and I managed to arrange our schedules so that we only had classes Monday to Wednesday, though we had to go straight from 8am to 5pm each day. It was slightly hellish, but worth it to have constant four-day weekends.

Jasper and I didn't talk about the girls at all for the next week. I needed to cool off about the whole thing, and I think he was too nervous to bring up the fact that they hadn't come back to the balcony yet. In all honesty, I was concerned about it too, since I knew it was all my fault, and I would be completely to blame if he never got to see Alice again. Plus…well, let's just say the war in my head had ended, and anger waved the white flag to make way for guilt. I wanted to see Bella.

All that week they came, every night, but stayed hidden in the trees. They probably had no idea that Jazz and I knew they were out there, but we could feel it. That tingly feeling always got stronger when they were close. I never let Jazz go out to the balcony though. I wanted to give them space, just like they were giving it to us. By Saturday afternoon, though, Jazz was going nuts.

"Edward, I'm sick of this. They're out there every night and I don't want to ignore that anymore. I don't want to ignore her anymore. I can feel her right now, in the middle of the day when I know she's not there. I'm being pulled towards her. You are too."

I nodded, then shrugged my shoulders. I could indeed feel myself being pulled, and knew it was towards Bella. That didn't mean I planned on doing anything about it.

"It's not like we can do anything about it Jazz. If they ever come up here, it'll be on their own terms."

He shook his head, his anger growing. "No. I'm going to do something about it."

And with that, he marched out of my room and out the front door of the apartment. Confused and slightly horrified, I scrambled off of my bed to follow him. When I finally caught up with him on the stairs, he completely ignored my pleas for him to stop and continued right out the front entrance of the building. He turned the corner of the building and walked into the yard in the back, hesitated, then took a deep breath and plunged into the forest.

"Jazz! What the hell are you doing?!" I sprinted after him but he refused to turn around, shaking off my arm when I tried to stop him.

"I'm following it Edward. I'm going to follow this pull and see where it leads me. I can't just sit around and do nothing. And I also think, since it's probably your fault that they're not coming up to the balcony anymore, that you owe me, and should come too. But even if you won't, I'm going."

"I…"

I didn't know what to say, so I kept my mouth shut and just followed him silently.

Talk about a fucking guilt-trip…

We walked for a really long time, and I couldn't deny that the pull seemed to get stronger with every step we took, leading us in what was unmistakably the right direction. We eventually found a river and, keeping it to our right, began to follow it. The sun was sinking lower on the horizon when we finally came out of the trees into a clearing.

Without really looking around I asked, "Where are we?"

Jazz nudged me with his elbow and pointed to the left, where I was greeted with the sight of an enormous white mansion, and said, "I think…we're there."


BPOV

While I was fleeing through the trees and back towards the Cullen's house, I stopped abruptly and noticed with mounting terror that Alice wasn't with me. In all the stress of the situation in Edward's room, I'd completely forgotten about her. I listened for her thoughts and breathed a sigh of relief when I heard her coming through the forest.

must be so mad at me. This is all my fault, I should have been more focused! She'll probably never forgive me…

I barely had time to feel thoroughly confused before she burst through the bushes behind me.

"Isa!"

She ran up to me and hugged me to her tightly, practically crushing me in the process. I managed to pry myself loose from her grasp, though not without some difficulty.

"Isa! Oh god, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault, I – "

"Alice!" I interrupted. "Jesus, slow down. What's your fault? What happened with Jasper?"

Alice took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

"I was watching him sleep, you know? He looked so peaceful and adorable, and I wasn't paying attention to anything but his face, and then he suddenly woke up, and I couldn't even move. I knew I should be running away, but I didn't. And then he grabbed me and wouldn't let go, and then he said, 'you've kept me waiting for a long time', and I knew he was talking about him trying to stay awake for me, but I thought of how meaningful that really was for me, so I said 'you have no idea'. And then he let me go, because he knew I'd stay, and then we just talked for a while and I couldn't think about anything but him and how absolutely perfect he was and…I missed it. I missed seeing what would happen with Edward. It wasn't until I heard him yelling that I snapped out of my Jasper-centric state and saw what was happening…oh Isa, he looked so angry, and you looked so sad and scared and…I saw that you were going to run so as soon as I heard the door open I gave Jasper and apologetic look and followed you and…Isa, I'm so sorry! I could have prevented the whole thing! I can't believe he figured it out…it's my fault."

I could tell this was one of those times in Alice's life that she wished she could cry. My heart broke for her. Not just because she was needlessly blaming herself, but because she had been having such a perfect time with Jasper and it had been ruined and cut short. I grabbed her and pulled her to me, hugging her as tightly as she had done to me before.

"Al, none of this is your fault, so stop. You deserved to have that time with Jasper that was free of concerns for anyone else. I'm glad Edward knows what we are and I'm glad that he was angry about it. He should be angry, and scared, and…and it doesn't matter how I feel about him, because what he feels is much more important."

Alice pulled away and shook her head. "Don't talk like that Isa, you matter too. And besides, you know it's meant to be, that it's fate…I mean, don't you feel it? The pull? It came back to me as soon as I left Jasper's room."

I had felt it come back, and told Alice as much. But that didn't change the fact that things could never be right between Edward and me.

Alice looked me in the eye. "Tell me you don't love him, and I'll drop it forever."

I hesitated. I couldn't love him. I didn't even know him. And I'd only known of his existence for two days. It wasn't possible. It was absolutely not possible that I missed him already, or that the feel of his skin on mine actually gave purpose to my existence because of how badly I wanted to feel it again, or that just being in that room with him, whether he was yelling at me or not, was the single greatest experience of my life…shit.

"I…I love him Alice. But…but it doesn't matter, because he clearly hates me."

"He doesn't hate you, Isa. He's just scared and confused. He just needs some time to cool off. Trust me."

I tried to believe her. Every night for the next week, we went hunting with the Cullens. Alice and I were getting much better, and the trips were getting shorter and shorter. Afterwards, we'd hang out with Emmett and play games, or chat with Carlisle about this or that, or spend time with Esme planting flowers and rearranging furniture, or even watching Rosalie tune the cars while she taught us about transmissions and fuel lines and fan belts. She seemed to warm slightly to us over those next few days, though it was definitely not the full acceptance of the rest of the family, and her angry, nasty attitude never failed to rear its ugly head at least once a day.

After these evening activities, we'd claim that we wanted to go for a run to get familiar with our surroundings. Carlisle made sure to tell us where the line that marked the edge of the Quileute property began so that we wouldn't make the terrible mistake of crossing it. Then we'd go off running, and always end up in the trees behind the apartment building, listening to the boys but never making our presence known to them. We'd then leave as soon as they were asleep to avoid any temptations of visiting their rooms. I couldn't help but notice that they never spoke about us.

On Saturday morning Carlisle called us into his office. Rosalie, Emmett and Esme had all gone out for various reasons, and I knew he chose this time when the house was empty to ask us about the boys.

"I was wondering, girls, how your nightly visits to the boys have been going?"

Al and I looked at each other in shock.

How did he know? Al thought.

He chuckled. "Yes, yes, I know that's where you've been going. It's not hard to figure out, and I can't say I'm surprised. How has it been working out with – "

"Oh Carlisle! It was so good and now it's just awful!" Alice burst out. She then proceeded to inform Carlisle of everything that had happened; from sneaking into the rooms to getting caught; from calm Jasper to temperamental Edward; from being ordered away to still sneaking into the trees every night; and from me loving Edward to him absolutely hating me.

Needless to say, Carlisle was quite concerned. Not only did two humans know about the existence of vampires, but they were not at all accepting about it. I only knew this due to his worried thoughts, because before he could express any of it verbally to Alice and me, we were interrupted by a shriek of anger from the front yard. Carlisle closed his eyes wearily.

I believe that is Rosalie, and it seems she's overheard some of our conversation…

He stood and quickly went down to the front door and outside. Alice and I followed hesitantly, terrified that we were essentially walking to our execution. We saw Rose, fuming, next to Emmett who was holding her around the waist, looking confused. Esme had also arrived, and was wringing her hands nervously. She put her arm around Carlisle's waist as he approached.

"Humans, Carlisle?! You've known about this and you allowed it? And now they know about us? Are you insane? Now we have to worry about wolves and the Volturi!"

Carlisle quickly explained the situation, though I had to admit it didn't sound very good. Esme looked shocked, but her thoughts betrayed her.

Oh they've found love, it's wonderful, even if they are human…

Emmett looked uncomfortable about the whole thing, but didn't say anything out loud.

Well…this is a difficult situation, especially having her singer be her mate…

Rosalie was still shrieking, whirling around and getting in our faces. I had no idea what to say to make anything better, so I kept silent. Carlisle was attempting to defend us, but Rosalie was having none of it.

"Shut up Carlisle. I don't care if you are the self-appointed head of this family, there are some things that you do not keep to yourself! This concerns everyone, not just you, and not just them!" she sneered as she pointed at us. I finally spoke up.

"You're right Rosalie. We should have been honest from the beginning. And I know it doesn't make it any better, but I can assure you that we won't be having any trouble from the humans. We don't plan on going near them anymore."

Alice scoffed. Everyone turned to look at her. The ensuing silence was deafening. She looked around fearlessly.

"I'm planning on going near Jasper again. I won't lie to you. He's my mate, and I won't stay away from him. I've been alone for too long. You don't scare me Rosalie. If you have that much of a problem with it, I'll leave."

I gaped at Alice. I felt a mixture of pride for her standing up for herself, and horror for her possibly having condemned herself.

Carlisle stepped forward. "Ok girls, that's enough. We don't want you to leave, and I think we can – "

"NO! I do want them to leave! If you're going to bring danger to our family then you should both just get the hell away from here!"

"Rose that's enough!" Carlisle bellowed.

The screaming of both audible words and raging thoughts was overwhelming me. I brought my hands to my head and shook it rapidly, trying unsuccessfully to rid my head of the clamour. My head felt like it was going to explode, but no one seemed to notice. Instead of trying to shut them all up, I just took off. I needed to run and get away from all of it, whether it was for a few minutes, a few hours, or if I just never came back to this house, to this town…to Edward.

I ran as fast as I possibly could, not caring where I was going and blocking out any thoughts that were intruding into my head. I knew I was too fast for anyone to catch up to me, so I put my head down and ignored everything.

Later, I would find out what a huge mistake that was, because I blocked out Alice's verbal and mental shrieks warning me about the vision she'd had as I ran away – a vision telling her where I was running to without realising.

When I finally did look up and take in my surroundings, I stopped dead in my tracks and froze completely.

I'd crossed the treaty line.


End Note: So this chapter was probably not that exciting, but its purpose was to move the story along to a more exciting place, so hopefully that's ok with everyone. Well, I'm sure it is, since it's been moving relatively slowly for 8 chapters and you people want some action/conflict/angst! And you're gettin' it!

P.S. Anyone catch the "It's a Wonderful Life" reference? Kudos if you did, you know your classic Jimmy Stewart Christmas movies.