Three perfectly good reasons to hate me in after-chapter A/N.

Jasper POV

Outside of the window the dream-like stature of the clouds burned a true gold, the sun was just behind us and it was like these were the gates of heaven, but we weren't ready for them, not at all ready.

Alice's steady rise and fall was so rhythmic against my side, I almost forgot she was there. Her pixy hair had shifted over her eyes, and I carefully brushed it aside, so as not to wake her. When she was asleep like this she was so peaceful, nothing in the world could trouble her whilst in this state. Except for him.

Immediately my eyes tightened, and a growl nearly escaped my throat, but Alice sighing stopped it. I looked down at her and saw she was smiling, and automatically my lips turned up. She was happy, and honestly, that was all that I needed to know.

After that night, something changed between Alice and I. Before, I had thought that we were going okay as it was, but I was obviously wrong. After that night, we were so much more comfortable around each other, it was odd to realise how secluded in our own minds we were until that point.

Now I knew, now Alice was not the only one to attempt to hold it all together, and she knew that I would stay with her for as long as she needed me, I would. Sure, I still had my own secrets, but she didn't need to know those right now, she was only just recovering from her own trauma. To tell her my past would not help at all.

So with that decided, Alice wouldn't find out anything just now, it was too soon. Something needed to happen, a trigger of some sort. Of course, using a random generator of fate to decide something like that is not the best idea in the world, but it is all I have.

Alice stirred, and raised her head slightly to see mine facing the window. I turned to her and saw the sleep still in her half-opened eyelids and chuckled.
"Hey you," I said, whilst she gave me a lazy smile and fell back on to my shoulder.
"How much longer Jazz?" she breathed, as I checked the over-head televisions to see the map they were showing on them. The miniature version of the plane on the screen was on the dotted line, practically at Seattle.
"Pretty much there, Ali, so you've gotta get up," I laughed, feeling her falling asleep again. I loved that new nickname for her, it sounded so cute and lovely, perfect for her. The first time I called her it her face had lit up, it was adorable. Alice sat up properly and looked out the window. For a moment, she looked confused, and then she grabbed my wrist and had a look at my watch.
"I thought it was later," she simply put it. I shook my head at her, rolling my eyes, which earned me a playful punch in return. Alice was still tired, I could tell, and soon enough her head was resting back on my shoulder, her breathing slowing again.

I couldn't complain, it wasn't like I didn't like us looking like we did. To everyone else I would've bet that they thought we were a couple. Best thing was, I didn't care. Honestly, to be in a relationship with a girl like Alice would make me a very happy man. But what exactly were we?

Sure, we had kissed, and it was nice. More than nice actually. But what of it? It was a spur of the moment type thing, and I think Alice had liked it, I couldn't be sure though. We held a weird bond though, I wasn't sure if you could call it friendship, we were more acquaintances that knew more about each other than met the eye, that was for sure. So were we simple acquaintances, or could it be just a very odd friendship, borderline relationship?

All these thoughts were too heavy, too serious, for me right now; I shook them out of my head. I wanted to have some fun for a while, and not have to worry about things out of my control. I'm sure Alice felt the same, though don't get me wrong, I wasn't thinking that it was because of her my life isn't fun anymore. If anything, she has given me a reason for fun, a reason for hope. Hope that she'll get better, hope that I'll be the one to help her get better, and hope for the fun that her life can then be filled with afterwards.

Yes, there was definitely hope.

Alice POV

Everything had happened so fast, yet all too slow. I couldn't comprehend half the stuff that Jazz had told me about… just about everything to be honest. He wanted to tell me everything about his family, and Forks, as if he was a full bath tub of stories and laughter that had been forced to keep the plug hole securely in its place until he was sure he could tell me. It seemed as though he decided to drain himself in just a few days.

The weirdest thing was, I loved hearing about Jasper's family, about how Emmett would always tease him no matter what, whilst Edward was the calmer one, but with an equally evil manner, of Esme and her love, who was the perfect mother figure, and Carlisle, the patient yet good natured father. They sounded like a lovely family, and whilst I was terribly nervous to meet them all, I had already been daydreaming of pulling pranks on Jazz with Emmett, to listen to Edward play his piano (Jazz said that he was the best pianist he had ever heard) or to do something nice and simple like help Esme cook a meal. Nice, family feelings that I hadn't had in a while.

Not meaning that I thought I was their family or anything, god no. I'm not even sure as to what Jazz and I 'are'. I guess that's just it, we are 'Jazz and I'. Despite not knowing what to call it, I knew we had formed some sort of bond, after what we'd been through together. Jasper wouldn't know it, but he had healed me in more ways than he could actually imagine. In myself, I saw the differences, though they were slight, and these pleased me to no end. Somehow, whatever the effect Jasper was doing to me, it was helping, and that was all the information I needed in the world.

Someone was lightly shaking my shoulder, just enough to pull me out of whatever state of slumber I was in. Groggily I opened my eyes to see Jasper's smile right in front of me. It was all I could do to not kiss him right there, did I have license to do that? I thought not, so I only blinked myself awake as he chuckled at me.
"Ali, we're here," he murmured, but his words shocked me the most, I hadn't felt the plane land or anything.

Around me, people were getting up from their seats and collecting their over-head luggage. There was a wide range of people there, considering. You had the normal family types, trying to trade their bustling real lives in for the calmer atmosphere of Washington, business looking people that were probably going to head straight to Seattle for some sort of important meeting and the casual travellers, just going to Washington for the sake of going.

For some time I was in my own little dreamland, just dazing at my fellow passengers, putting together how they looked and how the acted; deducing how they made them who they were or mentally commenting on an item of clothing really didn't look good on that guy, or how a dirty scowl was rather unbecoming on that lady. All this time Jasper was watching me with a bemused look, simply smiling at my people-watching. When I finally noticed him doing this I felt like all the blood in my being rushed to my cheeks, it was quite shocking how red my face must've gone. To this, he just laughed, and I tried to muster up a scary face at him, but as usual, it wouldn't work. If anything, it made him laugh even more.

I managed to exit the plane with some grace at least (well, apart from a minor trip on the stairs, which Jasper was sure to notice and humour me for) and we easily made our way through the airport and to our bags. They were quite small really, as apart from what Jazz had bought for me I didn't own anything else. He had claimed that as he still had quite a lot of clothes back in Forks he could travel light. I just said that he hadn't got that many clothes in the first place, as he always wore the same things. In return, I received a large amount of tickling (which Jazz now knew I hated), but in my opinion it was worth it.

"Oh no," Jasper groaned, as we were walking towards the airport exit, and where I presumed a taxi or something was waiting for us.
"What is it?" I asked, I had no clue as to what would need to be 'oh no'-ed at right now.
"My family, it seems they have decided to welcome us back," he coughed slightly, "In style." His distaste was obvious, with just a tint of underlying humour. That's when I saw them.

Immediately I burst out laughing. How could I not? As you can expect, Washington airport isn't as used as some airports, and still, the Cullen family were causing a stir. Esme and Carlisle were there, just as I'd expected them to be, sophisticated but with their air of fun, and I assumed that Emmett was the taller figure, as he was the elder son, and Edward the smaller.

Other than that, I wouldn't have been able to tell. The problem being that both Emmett and Edward were dressed head to toe in true to form cheerleading outfits, made up of short, (very tight) fitting tops, bright pink tutus and pom-poms to match. They were also covered in make-up, their faces a shameful orange with shocking red lipstick, false eyelashes higher than the Empire State Building and ridiculous peroxide blonde wigs. The overall effect was horrifically overwhelming, but to top it all off, Emmett was carrying out what looked like a cheerleading routine, consisting of many can-can like kicks and shakes of his pom-poms, while Edward meekly copied him. At one point, Emmett noticed that Edward wasn't putting one hundred per cent effort into it and stopped to punch him once, Esme's face was like one of thunder as she told Emmett off, who then proceeded to carry on his dance whilst Esme simply rolled her eyes.

Carlisle and Esme were also sweetly holding each a corner of a big banner they had made which said 'Welcome to Washington Alice!' with big grins on their faces; they finished their look by waving. The sight of them being so kind, made tears come to my eyes, they were too kind for words. We were practically at the automatic doors, and as someone walked through them before us I could only hear Emmett (in his booming, masculine) chanting in his best cheerleading manner:
"Ali-cat, she's ready,
Ali-cat, she's smooth,
Ali-cat will take control
And stomp all over you, hey!"

It was all too much for me, as I turned to see Jazz's face a very deep shade of red, I doubled over from laughter as Emmett ran over to me and gave me a hug, bone-crushing bear hug.
"Hey girlfriend!" he squealed, in what I guess he presumed to be the best feminine voice he could muster, but it was better than I could reply, save for laughter. Somehow we made it outside, into the cool, somewhat moist, Washington air. Still slightly recovering from Emmett's more than ecstatic welcome I shook hands with Carlisle, Esme and Edward, thanking them for letting me stay with them and for their warm (Emmett gave a huge grin) welcome. Of course, they shooed these thanks away and said it was the least they could do.

Esme asked us to wait for one moment whilst she went to get something from one of the cars. We asked why she couldn't just wait until we were back at them but she said she had an idea so we let her go. A short while later she returned, with a digital camera in tow, and asked a passer-by if they could take a picture of us all. We stood as a full group underneath the 'Welcome to Washington Airport' sign outside with Jazz and I in the middle, with Esme and Carlisle on one side of us and Emmett and Edward on the other, the sign they had made for me in the middle of us. Once the passer-by had taken the picture and checked with Esme if the picture was okay she thanked him and looked back at us. Tears of happiness were in her eyes as she said she wanted to get it printed and framed as soon as possible.

And for once, I felt at peace.

A/N: So, I fail. I'm so so so so so sorry.

The three perfect reasons henceforth are:
1) This is so epically late, it is actually unreal.
2) It is also terrible, and has been thrown together with no fore-planning and has also been done in something like two hours (including writers block!).
3) I have exams coming up (June 4th, 12th, 17th AND 18th!) also I'm attending the British Grand Prix, have work experience, activity days and goodness knows what else coming up, so if you do get chapters they will be a) rather late and b) shockingly bad.

So honestly, don't expect amazingness until at LEAST the end of June? It sounds ages away, but really, it isn't.

BIG THANKYOU'S:

Reviewers – XXSkittlesXX, EveryROSEHasAThorn-RosalieHale, Vassillia, the evil little pixie, ElectroGem, Roses004, Abikinzz, hansbmd, XxWannaBetxX and lilsabeth, you are all amazing, and the fact that you reviewed made me feel even worse for not getting this to you all sooner!

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And also, everyone else (there has been 383 of you!), please review and just say what you think about the story so far, likes and even dislikes, I don't mind!

I'll shut up now, love to you all, and thanks again!
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