CHAPTER EIGHT:
"There are things I'd like to do with the human you'
"Jasper why can I hear your heart beat?" Alice freaked. "Carlisle, why does he have a heartbeat?"
Alice was in hyper mode, talking a mile a minute, which wasn't good. Alice usually functioned on an energy frequency that surpassed everyone else and that was without trying. Now that she was actually wound up the family could see that she was starting to vibrate with pent up pixie-power. It was like a toddler on a massive sugar rush, only Alice would never experience the whole crash and burn then sleep for twelve hour side-affect. She would just keep going and going and going, sort of like the energizer bunny.
Esme grabbed her shoulders and looked at her hard. "Alice," she shook her. "I need you to do something for me."
Alice shook her head violently.
"Stop moving," Esme commanded, forcing her daughter to sit on the couch.
Alice tried really hard but she couldn't stay completely still and her fingers were moving nervously in her lap. It was an improvement though.
Carlisle was at Jasper's side in an instant. He reached for Jasper's forearm and rotated it to where Evelyn had bit him. The wound was back as if unsealing itself and it was oozing some type of clear liquid. Carlisle touched it and immediately recoiled. It sizzled and burned like a human touching a hot frying pan with their bare hand. Carlisle smelled the secretion, venom.
"It's a reaction to Evelyn's venom," he said assured.
"Well, why is that happening?" Alice shrieked again. She jumped up and Esme forced her back down. Jasper seemed to be stunned.
"She said she killed humans with her venom, so if she bites a vampire she apparently makes them human," Carlisle said, running on a theory.
"Jasper, you're becoming human," everyone gasped.
Rosalie looked frantic, "Jasper, I'm really sorry, but I have to go find her."
Emmett nodded.
Jasper looked at them with resolve, "Of course, I understand. Go find her. I'm worried about her too. I'll be fine."
"Is he going to be fine Carlisle?" Alice asked in bated breath as Emmett and Rose ran through the front door.
Carlisle truthfully didn't know, but he was going to find out. He ran the usual tests he would on any human patient that came into the hospital. He started with vital signs: Jasper's temperature was slightly higher than normal, for a vampire that is. Carlisle felt for his radial pulse. It wasn't palpable yet, but Carlisle had a feeling that it would be in a couple of hours. He tried taking blood pressure and got an incredibly low reading, something that would indicate a human was about to die, but in Jasper's case it was strange. He should not have any type of blood pressure reading at all. Because of that Carlisle took a vile of his blood. It was dark and thick, so viscous it came out like molasses, but there should not have been blood in Jasper's veins, he was immortal.
Then Carlisle checked his SPO2, measuring for the amount of oxygen attached to Jasper's blood. Because he did not need to breathe the reading should have been zero, but by now Carlisle was not surprised to see 5% flash up on the monitor. A normal human should be between 95% and 100%. Jasper was definitely not human. Yet. Carlisle retook the measurement ten minutes later and Jasper's reading was now 7%. Oxygen was slowly attaching itself to Jasper's sludge-like blood. Carlisle estimated that Jasper would need to begin breathing air normally within several hours.
After that he interviewed Jasper about every thought, feeling, and symptom he was having. Jasper didn't seem to be in any pain. He was still able to control the mood in the room, so his ability had not faded. Carlisle made him crush a boulder into dust and sprint around the house to assure that the vampire strength and speed had not vanished. Jasper did make a comment about feeling weaker than normal, but other than that seemed to be fine.
Finally Carlisle nodded. "From what I can see, Jasper is slowly transitioning from vampire to human. He is retaining his vampiric abilities while the human functions return. But yes, he seems to be quite healthy. He's fine."
Alice still looked worried. "Jazz, honey, do you feel okay?"
He nodded, "A bit tired I guess."
Alice laughed. Tired? If that was it, she could handle tired. Then she had an idea. "Come with me."
"Where are we going?" Jasper asked. He felt strange inside. Alice had that funny look on her face and all Jasper wanted to do was scoop her up in his arms and kiss her into oblivion, but somehow the human senses and needs were bombarding his brain now too.
He wanted to go with Alice, but he felt somewhat exhausted. Maybe he wanted to have a nap. Sleep? That was a strange notion, but seemed oddly inviting. He was also craving, and he didn't know why, a bowl of cheerios, the disgusting cardboard smelling cereal Evelyn ate when they ran out of things to make her for breakfast. She never liked eating the same thing twice, or maybe Esme was just trying to outdo herself in the kitchen. Either way Jasper felt like cereal.
Edward laughed. "Jasper, the human you is much more entertaining than the vampire you. Maybe we should keep you like this."
"No," Alice said suddenly. "Jasper is not remaining human. You can turn him back, right Carlisle?"
"I'll have to run some more tests, but I don't see why not. If he was turned vampire once, he should be able to be turned again." Jasper scowled. He didn't like the sound of that. He didn't relish going through the whole transformation thing again.
Alice nodded. "Good, then come on Jasper."
"Where are we going?" he asked again.
"Not far," Alice said raising her eyebrows seductively. "Just upstairs; there are things I'd like to do with the human you, Jasper Hale." Alice grinned mischievously. Jasper's heart flew into a frenzy of skipping beats as it attempted to find a rhythm. After being stagnant for so long it almost seemed confused. But Jasper knew in an instant that he would relive the unbearable vampire transformation a thousand times if it meant being with Alice. And as other human urges rose inside him he knew that cheerios and a nap could wait. They could definitely wait. Maybe all night.
"I could get use to that," Alice laughed, kissing Jasper on the cheek. He had a funny, but delicious smell to him now. She tugged on his hand, gently this time, pulling him from the couch.
"Alice, I wouldn't," Edward warned thinking back to his honey moon.
"I'll be careful," Alice muttered, already caught up in her plans.
"It is very difficult to stay in control. You'll hurt him," Edward warned. He remembered Bella covered in bruises and shuddered.
Jasper stood suddenly, picking Alice up off the ground bridal style. "You heard the woman, she'll be careful," Jasper echoed. Alice giggled incessantly as Jasper flew up the stairs. Apparently it would take a while for all the vampire to get out of his system.
"Remarkable," Carlisle said, watching Jasper disappear. Edward could see the gears in his medical trained mind turning. But then the door to the bedroom Alice and Jasper shared slammed shut and Carlisle seemed to snap out of his train of thought. "I have to get this in a centrifuge," he exclaimed, disappearing to his office with the vile of Jasper's blood. He had blood now? Strange.
"We'll I guess we should go help Emmett and Rose," Edward said to Bella. If we leave now we should be able to catch them. Esme?" he asked.
She looked nervous. "I better stay here and make sure Alice really doesn't break him."
Edward chuckled.
"She'd never forgive herself," Esme mused. She started tidying the already tidy living room and Edward left her to her thoughts.
Edward nodded, taking Bella's hand. Ah, Esme, the epitome of caring.
Alice sighed serenely from her position wrapped in Jasper's arms, where she had been for the past several hours. She was facing away from him, but she could hear him breathing in regular intervals. She assumed that should be expected now that he needed to breathe regularly. They had found that out right when they were in the middle of…well, you get the drift.
"Jazz," Alice whispered, barely audible to the human ear. There was no response. She rolled over to see Jasper's eyes closed. He was sleeping. Aw, poor Jasper. Her man was all tuckered out. She assumed that was only to be expected as well. They did have quite an eventful night.
Spending time with human Jasper had been very interesting and quite enlightening. She had to admit there were human parts of him that she wouldn't mind keeping around, for one his heart beat had this melodic hum to it which seemed to put her in a trance. She also couldn't help but love the way he blushed whenever he looked at her. It was nice to see that after all this time together he still got the same butterfly feeling in his stomach for her. Now Alice knew why Edward hadn't been so keen on changing Bella. She would definitely miss this, the little non-verbal quirks and tell-tale signs that revealed what he was thinking and how he was feeling. Jasper was getting warmer too. Her cold skin against his didn't seem to bother him though as he slept peacefully, making up for decades without it.
There was a knock on her door. Carlisle. Alice jumped out of bed, careful not to disturb Jasper, and was dressed in a second. She opened the door and the light spilled in. Carlisle looked from Alice to the sleeping Jasper and smirked.
"Sorry to bother you." Carlisle was still grinning, but then he became more serious.
"What is it?" Alice asked anxiously. "What did you find out?"
Carlisle stepped inside the room. He could hear the heartbeat. It was much more pronounced now, much stronger. And he could easily smell the blood. Warm, sweet, floral, he wondered how Alice had kept her composure. Then he looked at her, watching Jasper longingly. She loved him, that's how.
"I ran his blood through the centrifuge and examined it under my microscope. From what I can tell, Jasper should become fully human in the next thirteen hours."
Alice nodded. "He's sleeping now, I don't want to wake him," she whispered. She heard the sound of people coming up the stairs.
"We figured that when the noise finally died down," Edward teased. He and Bella wanted to see Jasper. Then Emmett and Rose appeared followed closely by Esme. Apparently a sleeping Jasper was something everyone wanted to see.
"Did you find Evelyn?" Alice asked. She already knew the answer. She had seen it.
"Yah," Rose smiled.
"She almost made it to Canada," Emmett said. "Little tyke is fast. Almost gave Edward a run for his money."
"Is she okay though?" Alice wondered.
"She's better. It took some encouraging to convince her to come back. We told her about Jasper. I wanted her to know the truth. She almost seemed relieved that he merely turned human," Rose said thoughtfully. "We brought her home; she fell asleep on the way. She's down on the couch now."
The quiet conversation was broken up by a gruff little snort from Jasper. He rolled over, apparently unaware of everyone's presence.
"Aw, he snores," Alice squealed, crossing her hands lightly over her heart.
Bella and Edward chuckled. "I remember when you use to do that, love," Edward said to her.
"I never snored," Bella defended.
Edward shrugged. "But you did talk in your sleep a lot."
Emmett snorted. "I remember that. Edward would talk about it constantly. Bella said my name. She said she loved me. But she was asleep. Does it count when she's asleep. I don't know. Curse these humans and their need to sleep."
Edward took a swing at Emmett who ducked and continued laughing.
"Alice, you better hurry and change him back, your man is getting uglier by the minute," Rose said suddenly.
"Rosalie," Bella hissed. Rose shrugged.
"He's perfect," Alice said, pushing a stray lock of blond hair away from his face. Jasper's eyes shot open. They all gasped, which made Jasper jump.
"What is it? Where am I?"
"It's okay Jazz, I'm right here," Alice cooed. "I never knew your eyes were blue. You have beautiful human eyes. Aren't his eyes the most beautiful human eyes you've ever seen?"
"Mine were bluer," Rosalie stated, indifferently.
Alice reached for his hand. He recoiled.
"You're so cold," he shuddered. "That's it Carlisle, turn me back. I can't even touch my wife without shuddering."
"It's okay Jazz, we're working on that," Alice promised. She was completely awe-struck by the human Jasper. Part of her just wanted to sit and watch him. There was so much to learn about Jasper as a human.
"Alice, I think it wise that we turn him as soon as possible. The longer we wait, I'm afraid the worse the transition back will be," Carlisle explained.
Alice sighed. "It was fun while it lasted," she smiled a crooked smile, which mirrored Jasper's.
"Yes it was," he agreed. "But I'd like to get back to my old self now, if you don't mind."
"I can do it Alice, if you don't think you can," Carlisle said suddenly. "Blood courses in his veins now."
Alice paused for a moment to think. It was almost as if she hadn't realized. "It's okay Carlisle, I can stop myself." But then Alice seemed to become preoccupied with another thought.
"What is it, dear?" Jasper asked her, running his hand along her jaw line. She nestled into the warmth of his palm.
"I'm going to give you a scar." The idea of tainting his perfect skin with another painful scar was almost unbearable. Hadn't Jasper already suffered enough?
"If it's from you Alice, I will treasure it forever. Go on."
Alice let the venom fill her mouth, then rotated Jasper's forearm. She bit his arm right above the point where Evelyn had sunk her teeth in. Jasper groaned as Alice forced her venom into his blood stream. She tried not to pay attention to how good his blood tasted. He tasted even better than he smelt.
Jasper cringed, but as he watched his wife there was something strangely seductive about her turning him back into a vampire. She pulled away after a moment and immediately a fiery burning sensation engulfed his body. It felt like red hot flames were licking against his skin. Jasper bit down hard on his lips to supress the moan.
"I'm sorry, Jazz," Alice whispered.
"It's not so bad," Jasper muttered. It was painful, more pain than he had experienced in a long time, but it was bearable. Carlisle tried giving him morphine, but the venom burnt it off too fast to be any real help.
Because he was still partly vampire, what may have taken three days for the change to complete itself, only took three hours, and Jasper had to admit the pain was less than what he remember. He presumed what remained of his vampire DNA gave him a higher pain tolerance. And for that he was thankful. Having Alice lie against him also seemed to help. Her chill numbed the pain as the venom transformed him. He was glad he could keep his composure. He didn't want Emmett teasing him for being weak.
When Jasper was back to his old self he did feel remarkably stronger. Carlisle called this the 'new born' effect, but doubted it would last long because Jasper never fully returned to a mortal version of himself. Jasper took advantage of his show of strength, though, and challenged Emmett to a wrestling match, which he won. But they also broke Esme's coffee table and were now in trouble.
The eventful hours of the early morning had ended when Esme scolded the boys for leaving a path of destruction around the house. Carlisle had to agree and said that now, because of Evelyn's rare and indescribable gift; there were serious matters that needed to be discussed. Things that could change their future forever.
"There are decisions that need to be made now that certain amazing and virtually impossible, but none the less real, events have come to pass," Carlisle said evenly as he looked around at his family. "We must decide now, whether we will remain vampires or reclaim the human lives we lost."
He paused, not for effect, but to choose his words. "Evelyn could use her gift to reverse the change and we could be human once again. Everyone is free to choose as they wish, just know that I do and I will continue to love each and every one of you as my own children."
The Cullen's were quiet for a long time. There was a lot to consider, except for Alice, who seemed to think the decision was simple; a no-brainer really.