A/N: Well here we are again, the end of another story. Sorry it's so short, but I'm choked full of the cold and concentrating is something my brain thinks I don't need to do at this time lol xx Alexis
Bella
Have I mentioned just how much I truly love Jasper, yes I probably have many, many times. He surely has the kindest, most romantic of souls. After leaving Volterra we had headed to Rome, Rose and Emmett are staying there for a couple of weeks, to soak up some culture and lots of nightlife. Peter and Char were off to Spain to see some horses, he was mumbling about improving bloodlines, I think, his two passions were horses and cars.
But Jasper and I were heading to Britain, going to do some official and unofficial tours, connected to my favourite books. We are also going to be scouring lots of older and downright amazing bookshops; little hidden gems tucked away in their back streets and small towns. Jasper was in his element there, Alice never cared for these old, dusty places and he never got the time to spend hours immersing himself fully in books before.
We seem to gravitate to the same types of places or see things we both like at the same time, proving that we really are kindred souls. It's beyond crazy that some of the buildings in Europe are older than the country we were born and raised in. The Yorkshire moors were eerie and breathtaking; they were so integral to the story of Wuthering Heights, giving it a more dramatic feel. The old houses, not houses at all but vast estates, gave off the feeling of a time long gone by.
You expected ladies in tea dresses and gentlemen in pantaloons and frilly shirts to appear at any moment, just like in Pride and Prejudice. The whole trip was one I would forever remember, not just because of my vampire mind. But because this was something Jasper did for me and although Edward thought himself to be more cultured, I doubt he would have ever taken me.
If he had it would have been stuffy museums and things he liked, not me. The dry austere rarefied view of things, he had no real depth, no imagination. He didn't understand the want, or the need to immerse yourself in the locations and settings, giving your pleasure another dimension. A way of letting your soul free to become one with the author's creation and to give intensity to the locations you'd only read about. As I said, he was a child with no imagination, a very sad thing to behold.
When we returned to America, Jasper and I had a small church wedding in the town nearest to the Ranch in Wyoming. Charlie and Jake came, down for it; they had said they were going deep sea fishing as a cover. My dad walked me down the aisle and it was very poignant, if I could have cried I would, but he had a few stray tears for us both. I would be eternally grateful to Jake for giving my dad and me this moment.
They stayed with us for a few days and then Peter took then to the coast and sent them on a real deep sea fishing expedition we'd planned for them. Now they could take pictures and have real evidence to back up their trip. My dad was so like me, it was the small pleasures that gave him the greatest joy. Fishing was such a pleasure to him; he could unwind and just be.
I only saw my dad a few times more after that, he died in a freak winter storm ten years later, when a tree fell onto his cruiser after being ripped from the ground, killing him instantly. I saw the funeral from a short distance away and mourned the loss of a good man and father. At my insistence years before, he left everything to Jake, as I was supposed to be dead long ago. Jake had eventually imprinted and so moved into the house with his family and ran his auto repairs shop from there. As there was plenty of room at the side and around the back to build a decent garage.
It became the way of life for the Whitlock coven over the next forty years, we head out together, split up to do our own thing and then come back together. Rose started a new habit in Rome after we left Volterra, Jasper and I didn't find out for weeks. She would find fashion show announcements and send them to Alice, reminding her of what she was missing out on. Childish, I know, but we never said we were that grown up. I decided then I needed to do something with my time and along with Jasper, we opened up an online antique and book site.
So no matter where we were, it could keep going and we would search the world for timeless pieces, many we kept ourselves. Jasper did the American side and I the British, but we always went together to find new things. The other got involved too and we'd do an automobile section every few months, for Peter and Rose. Or an antique jewellery one for Char. Emmett kept us up to date on the latest in technology and security and eventually he too had a section for antique paraphernalia to do with innovation through the ages. Life was good and I just couldn't understand how some saw vampirism as a curse.
Boredom was the curse, if you had a focus time slipped by happily. I understood why Carlisle stayed a doctor for all those years. The thing that amused me was after one hundred years, stuff I'd used as a human were antiques. We learned to throw away nothing, well unless it was totally ruined. Clothes we went off, phones we'd replaced, furniture we no longer liked, the list was endless and an unexpected form of income for us. We would just build storage units on all our properties and just put things away and well wait!
The Volturi had so far only asked for our help once; it was a newborn situation in Australia of all places, about sixty years after our visit. Jasper, Peter and Emmett dealt with it easily and then we had a three month holiday in the Antipodes, win, win all around. New Zealand was beautiful and somewhere we'd visit again. The best thing about being alive for so long, there is always something new for us to learn. If we wanted to stay 'au fait' with the world around us it was a must.
On a personal front, nothing has changed, I still love Jasper with a total passion, we just get each other and unlike Rose and Emmett, we rarely disagree. Probably because Jasper thinks before he speaks, unlike poor Em. Peter and Char only argue so they can have awesome make-up sex, were on to them. The atmosphere in our coven is good, we talk out any niggles and if we want we can leave for a little to get a break. Rose often remembers how oppressive being a Cullen was and how she wishes she'd seen it earlier and they had just got the hell out of there.
I am roused from my musings of the past by very naked, wet Jasper. He over the years has learned to love his body as much as I do. Hiding his scars didn't get rid of them, it just started a festering hate of them in his soul. But with lots of love and attention, showing him how I felt about them. He has now come to embrace the fact, without them we would have never met. They prove he survived hell until I was born and he eventually found me.
"Hey baby, what are you doing?" I ask, hearing my own tone drop a register or two,
"Hi darlin', lookin' for a clean shirt and pants" he answers smirking as he felt my lust increase.
"Why? You look good to me, just like that" I purr and he laughs,
"Peter and Emmett might not see it like you do darlin'," he says,
Giving up on his search and stalking across to me. His eyes had turned black with his own need and feelings and I can't suppress the moan that escapes. This is something I will never tire of; being forever frozen in time has its perks let me tell you. We never can get our fill of each other; our love is an endless thing, like an infinite loop of adoration and joy.
It's the feel of his skin on mine, the sparks as he touches me. His loves as it floods my senses, our breath as it combines in our passion. All of these things and a million more is what makes us, us! Even after all this time he is attentive and places my needs before his own. But he will always be special to me because he gives me his all; it's like holding his heart in my hand while staring at his soul. Heady and intense, love without boundaries. Jasper trusts me, loves me, needs me and that's what makes it so right because I feel exactly the same.
We were lying on our bed, just being us and soaking up each other's emotions after making love. Jasper was singing to me as he often does,
'Ordinary No, I really don't think so,
Not a love this true.
Common destiny, we were meant to be,
Me and You'
There have been many new songs over the years, but I still love the old ones the best. The seemed to define us, grow with us and give voice to our love.
"You two decent? We need to talk" Peter shouted up the stairs,
We groaned but got up and dressed anyway. What now, it better not be one of his hair-brained ideas again.
FWTMTY
Jasper
These last one hundred years have been my best; Bella had made my eternity happy and a joy to live. Before her, I just existed, sometimes painfully, sometimes in abject boredom. But now every day it a good day, a special day and I thank God for that. She had given me all I could ever want or need and even things I didn't realise I was missin'. We complement each other; completed each other, two halves of the one whole.
I was lyin' with my head on her chest, where her amazin' heart once beat and I could imagine it. She was strokin' my hair and drawin' nonsensical patterns on my scalp, it was heaven, our little bit of heaven right here on earth. I had been singin' to her, she loved that and I lived to please her when Peter shouted us to come downstairs. Man, this better be important.
Watchin' Bella get dressed was just as sexy as watchin' her undress. She has no idea even now, how allurin' and enticin' she is to me. I'm drawn in by everythin' she says or does all the time. I could just stare at her all day and never get bored. Finally, after she laughingly slapped away my wanderin' hands we made it down to the lounge. Peter looked grim; he hadn't looked like that in years.
"She's decided it's time! One hundred years of misery seems to be her limit. Since the brother's found the other seer, who sees things as if set in stone, she's been next to useless to them. She's waitin' for you in Canada, the place where Edward died!" He said stoically,
"Okay, then this is it, the end finally," I said quietly and they all nod.
Never have I wavered in my hate for her, she wanted my mate dead for her pleasure. It wasn't even for jealousy, just plain and simple spite and for that, I can truly never forgive her. So now I must put an end to her and give us the perfect peace we deserve. Not that the last one hundred years have been bad for us, anythin' but, only Alice has suffered.
Even Carlisle has finally risen above his failure with Edward. With over eighty-five years of intense, gruellin' research, he had been inventin' a synthetic blood replacement for vampires and it is now a workin' alternative. Our place in the food chain is still at the top; we just don't need to kill the humans to survive any more. But a few die so as to become mates or to a newborn's uncontrolled bloodlust. But as they the humans, have declined in number we have stayed about the same, increasin' only slightly.
We set off at our leisure for the Tuktut Nogait National Park once again, only this time Bella is with me and seeing it from a different standpoint, it is still one of the most beautiful places on earth. Alice is sitting on a rug awaiting us. God forbid she should get dirty, for all her bravado she's worn down and weary.
"You kept me waiting a long time," she said with equal amounts of sass and wistfulness,
"You in that much of a hurry to die then, Alice?" I replied.
Refusin' to play her stupid games. She huffed knowin' I was not goin' to comply, didn't she see that before? I quirked an eyebrow questioningly,
"I've seen none of you since Bella's change," she said quietly,
"That's Mrs Whitlock to you. Only my friends call me Bella!" Bella stated coldly and Alice flinched.
"I'd like to apol...!" she tried to say,
"Save it, it's a lifetime too late and of no importance to any of us!" Bella said cuttin' her off.
This was not goin' as Alice planned, she was gettin' no sympathy nor was she feelin' any remorse. She really should have expected this, the cold shoulder. But Alice had always lived in a dream world of her own makin'. Though we put paid to that, one hundred years ago.
"Can we get on with it baby, we have a second honeymoon in New Zealand waiting?" Bella asked me and I nodded.
In true Alice style she had chosen Bella's and my wedding anniversary to be executed. Obviously thinkin' that it would affect us, put a damper on it for us. She really didn't see how unimportant she was to us anymore. Her life, even her death would cause us no grief what so ever, pretty gallin' I'm sure. Bur proof she had never changed or grown.
The time for talkin' was long ago, so I stepped forward sayin',
"Goodbye Alice".
Swiftly removin' her head and tossin' it in the pyre Peter had lit. He body followed and she was no more. The whole thing felt anticlimactic and irrelevant to us, I wonder did Alice know that? How little impact in the grand scheme of things she really made to our lives, poetic justice I'd say.
Me And You by Kenny Chesney