A/N: Chapter 9!

Thank you to my readers, as well as idealskeptic for pre-reading. A couple of my reviewers gave quite interesting theories as to who was at the door. Most guessed right, though, hope it doesn't disappoint!

Disclaimer: I own a couple of original characters, but that's about it.

Chapter Nine: Uncertainty

"Jasper?" I gasped out, staring at him with wide, unsure eyes. I couldn't believe it. He was back, here was here, in front of me…but why? How? I thought he was going to Seattle? I thought he was going back to Alice?

Why?

But that question was swiftly pushed aside as I looked him up and down, drinking him in. I had to restrain myself from diving forward and embracing him with all I had. I couldn't; he'd push me away from him quicker than I could comprehend. But I wanted to, oh, how badly I wanted to.

"Why are you here?" I asked, finally finding my voice, albeit a very shaky one. "I thought you were going Seattle?"

Before answering, he took a quick sweep of the hallway. "I did. The plan changed." He paused and stepped through the threshold, shutting the door behind him. "Angela, I need you to come with me."

"What?"

I'd heard him loud and clear, but my mind was clouded, enveloped with thoughts and questions. All I could say was what, and that wasn't beneficial at all.

"I need you to come with me," he repeated, much slower this time, as if he was talking to a child. I bit my lip, not wanting to get offended by the undermining tone in his voice. I'd brought that one on myself.

I nodded my head, trying to clear some of the fog. "Okay…just, let me get my jacket."

Before I could take even two steps, I felt him wrap his slender fingers around my forearm. I jolted and turned back to him, watching as he retracted his hand almost instantly.

"I don't mean somewhere nearby."

I froze; it was a kneejerk reaction, I couldn't help it. The missing pieces of the puzzle slowly started to fall into place. He had to go to Seattle to talk to the people who sent him here in the first place. Now he was back, and the plan had changed.

"The people who wanted to know if I knew about vampires…" I whispered, my voice trailing away.

He nodded curtly. "They want to talk to you."

For a second, the oxygen was cut off from my lungs. I'd never given much thought to them before, but now it was so obvious, and I wondered why I hadn't worked it out before. The people he'd gone to see, they were other vampires, and now these vampires wanted to talk to me.

Fear pulsed through me for the briefest of moments before I composed myself and swallowed back the sudden emotions. I could sense he wasn't telling me everything, and though I wanted him to be honest with me, there would be time for that later. I didn't even have to think about it, I was going with him.

"What do I have to do?" I asked instead, noting the slight waver at the end.

"Pack some clothes, and whatever else you'll need," he instructed, and then looked towards my bedroom. "Your cat. Is there anyone you can give it to?"

My brow pulled together as I thought about Aurora. If he was asking whether there was something who could look after her, then that meant we were going to be away for only a few days. This was longer than that.

"Carla," I said absently, rubbing my fingers across my forehead. "She'll be able to look at her while I'm gone."

He didn't look at me as he nodded. I wasn't sure what to make of his reaction, but instead of wasting my time trying to interpret it, I slipped away from him, and went to start packing my bag. I didn't know what to put in there, so I picked a bit of everything.

Once I was finished, I threw in some toiletries and went back out into the hall, noticing that Jasper had moved into the main room. I paused to stare at him for a moment, but quickly busied myself when his intense gaze flashed towards me.

I took a deep breath and walked by him, stopping at the chest of drawers. I opened the top drawer and pulled out some spare cash and my passport.

"You won't need that."

I jumped a mile, half moving to clutch at my heart, but catching myself halfway. I looked back over my shoulder, noticing that his eyes were fixed on my passport before slowly they looked back at me.

"My passport?" I asked slowly.

"You won't need any money, either." He said it as slowly as I had seconds ago. "I want you to leave any forms of identification behind."

I unsuccessfully tried to swallow back the fear once again. But it didn't work as well as it had earlier. As I stared straight into his eyes, I knew what this meant. I knew what was happening. But I didn't want to admit it.

I couldn't admit it, not yet.

To distract myself from thinking about it, I gathered the cat box I used to take Aurora to the vets, and went looking for her. I eventually found her under my bed, and it took a while to coax her out. But finally she crawled into the box, and it dawned on me, as I carried her out into the hallway, that we would be going soon. I would be leaving my apartment, my life.

At first, I didn't walk back into the main room. I couldn't seem to make my feet move. I wanted to see him again; every fibre in my body had wanted that. But now that he was back, he'd brought the danger with him, and I wasn't sure if I was ready for whatever lay ahead.

Jasper found me a minute later, crouched down beside Aurora's box, absently staring into space.

"I'm sorry," he uttered, his voice sounding so very different than the one he'd been using earlier. It held remorse and guilt and regret. The depth of those emotions being something I couldn't comprehend.

When I finally looked at him, I found myself shaking my head, almost as if I was telling him he didn't need to apologise. Did he need to apologise? I wasn't so sure. In all honesty, I wasn't sure about anything right now.

Another minute passed, and finally I took a deep, calming breath and stood up on my slightly unsteady legs. I scanned the area, trying to absorb every detail around me.

"I'm ready," I finally murmured, sounding far more resolute than I felt. "Come on…let's go."

He didn't respond to me because really, what was there he could say? He picked up my bag and left the apartment, leaving me to carry Aurora. Now that I was alone, I quietly whispered my goodbye to the empty room, and then closed the door, locking it behind me.

As soon as I was outside, my eyes trained on the car parked in front of me. It was dark grey, nearly black, with tinted windows. The car looked as if it was worth more than everything I owned put together. It was ostentatious, and in this street, it looked completely out of place.

But when Jasper opened the passenger door, I realised that I was wrong. With Jasper, it didn't look out of place at all. As I tentatively stepped towards the car, I caught sight of the crest on the front of the bonnet. I might not have known much about cars, but even I recognised that this was an Aston Martin.

Not even a few seconds passed after I sat down before Jasper was sliding into the seat beside me. He looked completely at ease as he put the car into gear and pulled away. The car was so fast, that I barely had time to look back at the apartment building before we were zooming out of the street.

Aurora hissed, breaking the silence. I smiled faintly, turning the box so that she couldn't see him.

"I don't think she likes you," I murmured vaguely, pressing my fingers through the grate on the front to let her know it was okay.

I saw him shooting a sideways glance at the box on my lap. "She senses what I am, but doesn't trust it. I'm an anomaly to her. Many animals react…strangely around my kind."

My kind. Whether intentional or not, he'd confirmed that there were others like him – other vampires. Not only that, he'd told me that animals sensed he was a vampire. I already knew he was different, but enough for an animal to sense it, too? That was staggering.

But he didn't give me the chance to comment on it.

"Where does your friend live?"

It took me a couple of seconds to remember what he was talking about – I'd all but forgotten about it. I closed my eyes quickly, straining my already frazzled mind to remember her address, which I relayed to him soon after.

He didn't need me to give him directions, and before I know it, he was pulling up outside Carla's apartment block.

"I'll wait here," he informed me, as if he'd expected me to ask what he was going to do while I got out. "Don't be long."

I bit back a response, knowing that there was no point calling him out on it. He was asking me to say goodbye to my friend and pet, whilst telling me to be quick about it. The other part of me didn't want to call him out on it because I still didn't want to believe it.

I didn't want to believe that I'd never come back here.

Once I was out the car, I made sure I had a firm grip of Aurora's box before walking into Carla's apartment building. Unlike with mine, she was on the first floor, so I didn't have far to go.

When I knocked on the door, her boyfriend, Robbie, answered. He smiled and held the door open, as if allowing me to come in. But I shook my head and asked for Carla. When she came out, I could tell she knew something was wrong.

"Angela?" she said cautiously, her gaze lowering to Aurora for a moment. "Is everything okay?"

I forced a smile onto my face and nodded. "I have to go away for a while, and I need someone to look after Aurora. I know it's a lot to ask…but there's really no one else I can ask."

"That's fine," she replied instantly. I relaxed a little, knowing I could trust Carla to look after her. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to visit family," I told her, hoping she wouldn't hear the lie in my voice. I hated lying to her, but she couldn't know the truth, whatever the truth actually was. "Here are my keys; there is food and everything still in the cupboards. Just clean it out, okay? Use it yourself."

She looked taken aback by my latter comment as she loosely took the keys from my hands. But before could question it, I held my hand up, biting the side of my cheek as I did so.

"Don't ask too many question…please," I half begged, my voice failing me at the end. "It's okay; I have everything planned out…"

Her brow furrowed, and I silently pleaded with her to accept it, even though it went against her conscience. I couldn't explain it to her, no matter how much I wanted to.

"When will you be back?" she finally asked; the worry in her voice evident.

I shook my head, my eyes filling up. "I don't know, Carla…I just don't know."

I was certain that was the moment Carla realised there was something more to it than I was letting on. This was all so sudden for her, for the both of us. If I was going to visit family, I would have told her before, and it certainly wouldn't have been a last minute decision like this.

But she couldn't ask me what was going on because somehow, she knew I couldn't answer her. The conflict was clear on her face, but I watched as she took a deep breath and held her hand out for Aurora.

With shaking hands, I passed her over to Carla, who placed the box down beside her and stepped forward, pulling me into a tight embrace. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but words failed me.

"I'll see you," she whispered, tears filling her eyes. I bit my lip into my mouth and nodded, knowing I couldn't promise her I would. Some would have thought I was being dramatic, but with Jasper, there was something that told me this wasn't going to be safe. He'd arrived so unexpectedly, urging me to go with him, and I was complying because he needed me again, and as silly as it was, I held onto that.

With one last look at Aurora, I turned away and made my way towards the door. Made my way back to Jasper.

Carla was a good friend, one of the best I'd had…I was going to miss her, Aurora, too.

When I slipped back into the car, Jasper didn't say anything. I wasn't sure if he even looked in my direction; I didn't care to find out. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, and even though I was completely silent and looking out the window, I knew he knew.

That was probably why he didn't say anything. He'd already apologised earlier, there was no point repeating it now.

I was ready to settle back into the seat and stare resolutely out the window, when we drove down the main road, and something stopped me. The DVD rental shop.

"Can we stop, please? There's something I need to do first." The words were out my mouth before I realised I was speaking. He didn't question me; he just pulled over and let me get out. Was this how it was going to be for us? Not talking apart from the odd, jilted conversation when we needed to say something?

I didn't want to think about that now.

When I pushed open the door to the shop, Claire's gaze landed on me straight away. When she saw that I had been crying, she left her post at the desk and came towards me.

"Angela, what's the matter?" she asked worriedly, putting her arm around me as she led me towards some chairs. We sat down, and I took a deep breath before telling her something similar to what I told Carla. There was no point changing my story, even if the chances of them talking to each other were slim.

"How long are you going to be away?" she enquired.

Like with Carla, there was nothing else I could say. "I don't know. But I'll be okay…I'll be with people I trust."

I wasn't sure where the latter comment came from, but deep down, I knew that it was true. I could trust Jasper…there were so many things I didn't know about him, so many things I probably never would know about him. But somewhere inside me, I knew I could trust him. If there was one thing I was certain about, it was that.

"Look after that baby of yours, okay?" I told her, wiping at my face with a tissue Claire had handed me. "Will you say goodbye to Max for me?"

Claire nodded before leaning over and giving me a hug. When I pulled away, I sniffled and took another deep breath. I said goodbye, something I hadn't been able to do with Carla, and forced my legs to walk out the store.

This time, as I climbed back into the car, Jasper didn't start the engine. Back in Forks, before they left, before I knew about vampires, I'd dreamt of Jasper staring at me, dreamt of him being this close to me. But now that we were in this situation, I wish that I wasn't.

It was so damn messed up. I didn't want him to drive away from me, but I didn't want him here, seeing me like this, either. I needed some time to digest what was happening, but with Jasper, that just wasn't possible.

He wanted to go, and I just had to follow him.

"Why did you say goodbye to her, too?" The way he asked was as if he already knew the answer, and if I didn't know any better, he probably already did. He just wanted to hear me say it.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks, and then shifted in my seat so that I could see his face. I stared at him long and hard, allowing my eyes to tell him before my lips did.

"Because I'm not coming back here, am I?"

I'd been staring at him so intently that I saw the slight flicker of something flashing through his eyes. Maybe I'd been wrong earlier; maybe he really didn't know why I'd said goodbye after all.

But now he did, and when he said, "I don't know," in a deflated voice, I knew that I had been right all along. No matter how hard I tried to deny it, there was a high chance I wasn't going to come back.

Whatever it was he had planned…it was dangerous.

We lapsed into silence, and when I turned back in my seat, looking out the window, he pulled away. Once we were out of the main city area, Jasper put his foot down, and I began to see the true power this car possessed.

It was about twenty minutes into the drive that I shifted in my seat so that I could sneak a glance at him. I was feeling far calmer now that we were driving, and it allowed me to relax and drop the guard I'd built up.

After another ten minute of nothing but the sound of the engine, I decided it was time to break the silence. I wanted to ask him what his new plan was, but that question was too heavy. I needed something far lighter than that.

"Where did you get the car?"

He barely even moved as I spoke. I knew I was a jumpy person in general, but if he'd have suddenly broken the silence as I had, I was certain I would have jumped out my skin.

"Carlisle owns a garage just south of Joliet," he replied smoothly, as if owning a garage in a state you didn't live in was something everyone did. "The Aston was the fastest and most suited my requirements."

I was half tempted to ask him what his requirements were, but I was still trying to absorb the fact Carlisle owned a garage, and cars like this, and didn't use them. Now, I knew they were rich, you just had to look at the place they lived to know that, but still…I wasn't sure rich even covered it after hearing that.

"Is this one of Carlisle's cars, then?" I asked, looking around for any signs of use. The car interior was absolutely spotless – had it even been driven before today?

"No. I think the Vantage is one of Rosalie's," he informed me whilst not taking his eyes from the road.

I ignored the one of comment. If you were rich enough to own a car like this, and still say it was only one of a number of different cars, then you decidedly had far too much money to speak of.

When I really thought about it, I could picture Rosalie driving a car like this. I could see her being one of those girls that had a rich daddy and went around partying, whilst sleeping with as many men as possible.

Way of sweeping generalisation there, Angela.

But it was true, though, you saw those kinds of girls on TV all the time. They were seen on that stupid reality crap the general population seemed to love. They were all spoilt bitches, and I was putting that lightly.

Of course, to call Rosalie a spoilt bitch was as good as signing away your death certificate, and I'd come to that conclusion long before I even knew she was a vampire.

By the time I'd pulled myself from my musings, the clock on the dash told me another fifteen minutes had passed. I scanned the area we were driving through, but didn't recognise it. But then again, why would I?

It was gradually getting darker, and soon enough it would become too dark to see beyond the headlights. Would we drive right on through the night? I wasn't sure about Jasper, but the very thought of being in the car the whole time was giving me leg ache already.

I wasn't going to say that to him, of course. I just had to hope we weren't going to be driving for too long. That brought me around to my next question. I was slightly anxious to ask him because it was leaning towards the heavy stuff I'd been trying to steer away from.

However, I couldn't keep putting it off. I had to ask him because frankly, I deserved to at least know where we were going, even if he didn't want to tell me what we were going to do once we got there.

"So…whereabouts are we going? Seattle?" I asked casually, half hoping that we were heading for someplace closer. Even in a car like this, it would take days to get to Seattle, and I was sure not even vampires could drive for days without stopping…right?

But I didn't have time to dwell on that thought as I realised Jasper looked really tense for the first time in nearly an hour.

"Angela, I haven't been completely honesty with you," he admitted, staring directly ahead of him as if his life depended on it. In that moment, I could easily have spouted some sarcastic comment by saying that I'd known that already. When was he ever completely honest with me?

But I didn't because this was serious, and seconds later, I was holding my breath, waiting for him to continue.

"Right now, we are heading for Seattle," he continued. I felt a slight wave of apprehension wash over me, knowing that whatever was coming, I might not like it. "But that's only because there's a man there I need to see. He has some things I need sorting out, and he'll be the one to buy the tickets."

"Tickets?" I echoed faintly, feeling a little light headed. "How far are we actually going?"

When I looked over to study his expression, I got the suspicion that he'd said more than he'd initially planned to right now. But it was out, and as the tension mounted, I sucked in my breath once again, until finally he uttered the four words that made my stomach flip.

"We're going to Italy."

A/N: Of course it was Jasper! So, who wants to tell me why they are going to Seattle? Who are they going to visit? What about Italy? Find out Angela's reaction in the next chapter.

Check out the posts on my blog for a couple of pictures that related to this story. Jasper's car and a blinkie, to be more precise. A link to my blog is on my profile, check it out or follow it for future posts.