Disclaimer: I don't own the amazing creations from inside of Stephanie Meyer's brain.

A/N: Sorry for not posting a new chapter on schedule! :o I was busy with band and what little life I actually have. ;) Anyway, to apologize, I'm going to upload two chapters at once. This will be the first. In edition...I wonder what this chapter will be about? *slow smile*

CHAPTER TEN: RINGS AND FLYING LIMBS

I sat in the living room for about a half hour, channel surfing and trying to ignore the noises coming from upstairs. It so wasn't worth it to even think about what was happening up there. Especially when I realized that I was sitting under Carlisle and Esme's bedroom.

Finally, when I was sure Nessie would be asleep, I crept outside and across the yard to Edward and Bella's cottage. I'd been dreading this moment for years, and now it was time to face my fears.

I knocked quietly on the door. Within seconds, Edward and Bella were in the doorway giving me the evil eye.

"Yes?" Bella prompted.

But Edward knew what was going on the second he read my mind. "Come inside," he murmured, a pained look on his face.

Bella looked at him questioningly, but he just shook his head and stood aside so that I could come in.

I had to bend so that my head wouldn't hit the top of the doorframe, but I made it in. Edward gestured to the living room in defeat.

"So I'm assuming you already know why I'm here," I said, once I'd settled onto the couch.

Edward nodded, but Bella looked irritated. "No, why?"

Edward sighed. "He's here to ask my permission to propose to Nessie," he almost choked out.

Bella blinked. "Wow. Okay, last thing I expected…." She laughed nervously. "Um…that's really sweet, Jake. Not a lot of boys still ask the father before proposing."

I shrugged. "Well…I just wanted to do things, right, ya know? And it might have something to do with the fact that if Ness came in screaming that we were getting married, I might lose an arm…or a leg…or a head." I took a deep breath. "Okay. So this is…kinda hard. Um…Edward, I love your daughter with all my heart. You know I would never do anything to harm her, and you know I'll always try my hardest to protect her. I want to be with her forever. She's my girl. I guess what I'm getting at is…would you care if I proposed to Nessie?"

Edward took a deep breath, held it for a minute, and then let it out slowly. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, then hunched over and made a low sound in the back of his throat.

Bella patted his back comfortingly, smiling. She looked at me and mouthed, He'll give in.

Edward sat back up, ran a hand through his tousled hair, and squeezed his eyes shut. He opened them. Then, in a voice almost completely unintelligible even to my ears, he murmured, "Fine. But don't expect me to be happy about it."

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. I felt elated. "Thank you!" I whispered fiercely.

Bella laughed.

I jumped up and tiptoed into Nessie's room. She was soft and limp on her mattress, breathing deeply. She'd taken a shower. I could smell the gentle fragrance of her shampoo. Her blankets were tangled around her ankles; she'd been kicking off her blankets since the day she was born.

I reached down and gently removed her slender bare feet from the jumble, then pulled the blankets up to her chin. I smoothed her damp hair out of her face, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Sleep well, my angel," I murmured.

I was woken up by Emmett thumping me on the head. "Sit up so I have room!" he commanded. "You have the longest damn body I've ever seen!"

Too tired to object, I sat up.

Ness came in and sat beside me. "How ya doin' sleepyhead?" she asked.

"Better now," I replied, wrapping my arms around her.

Alice danced in. "Can I be your bridesmaid?" she asked excitedly.

Nessie turned to look at me with wide and confused eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked, giving her a Look.

"Well, now that I can see shape shifters, I saw that you were planning on marrying Nessie, so…"

"You were what?" Nessie breathed, turning to look at me.

I shot Alice a glare. "Well, since big mouth here has already told you…just…come here," I said, pulling her to her feet.

We walked outside, Nessie eyeing me warily. "This was supposed to be more romantic, but…" I pulled the ring out of my pocket.

Taking a deep breath, I slid down onto one knee and took her shaking hands in mine. I balanced the ring box on my knee and stared up into her eyes, which were suddenly wide and in awe.

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen? There could not be an odder pair than us. But I promise I'll take care of you and hold you close to me forever. Will you marry me?" I asked softly.

"Jake, I…" Nessie started, blushing.

My heart sank as a hundred possibilities of why she wouldn't marry me sprang into my mind. Too tall. Too Indian. Too annoying. Not polite enough to her dad and her aunt. Hot headed. Weird. Too old for her. Cussed too much. Not mature enough. Not smart enough, not brave enough, not…

"I wouldn't like anything more," she finished, tears filling her eyes.

I grinned widely. "I love you," I said, standing up and holding the ring box out to her.

Taking a deep breath, she took it and opened it.

"Oh my gosh, it's beautiful," she gasped.

"It was my mom's," I admitted. I hardly had money to buy her something new and fancy; though I was sure Alice would've lent me some. I didn't ask favors from vampires. Even four foot ten girly vampires.

"It's perfect," Nessie said with finality, slipping it on to her finger and admiring it. So it was set. We were getting married.

The very next thing I did was go to Jasper. "Teach me how to fight," I said. "The right way. Everything."

Jasper raised one eyebrow. "Why do you want to learn how to fight?" he asked.

"So I can protect Nessie from now on," I said.

Jasper sighed and pushed up his sleeves. "Okay."

I nodded, keeping a poker face. I hadn't expected him to give in so easy.

"Do you remember what happened to you eight years ago? You didn't watch your back while fighting. You got hurt."

I groaned. "How could I not remember? I was the naked guy on the ground yelling my head off and soaking myself with tears. I was a wuss."

Jasper shook his head. "You weren't a wuss," he disagreed. "You just don't have that high of a pain tolerance. I doubt anyone has a pain tolerance that high. That would hurt. We didn't care that you were the naked guy on the ground yelling your head off and soaking yourself with tears. We just didn't want you to die."

Rosalie passed by, running back to the house with Emmett in close pursuit. I could only hope they'd been hunting out there. "I did," she called without stopping. Emmett caught her around the waist from behind and lifted her into his arms, and she squealed.

Ignoring her, Jasper continued. "Do you know how I got this?" he asked, slightly pulling down the waistband of his jeans. There was a long jagged white line directly below his bellybutton that looked like it stretched all the way around his waist.

I shook my head. "Nope."

Jasper sighed. "It was a long time ago…before I met Alice. I don't like to admit it ever happened. I was taking care of some of the un-teachable newborns. I turned my back on one for half a second to finish off the other one…bad idea, I guess.

"The first one got his arms around me and squeezed, making me let go of the second one. The first one grabbed my legs and the second one grabbed my arms. They sort of played a game of tug a war with me after that. It hurt, but I couldn't do much about it…when you're in that kind of situation, what can you do? I felt ripping along my waist line. It hurt like fire, but raised as a soldier, you were never supposed to show your pain…I kept my mouth shut. More and more ripping, then…I felt agony so unbearable that my tightly pressed lips parted in a scream."

I saw Jasper shudder at the memory, but he pressed forward in the story. "They dropped me then…it was at that moment that I realized I couldn't feel my legs. If vampires could pass out, I would've. I frantically looked down at where my bottom half should've been. My stomach, my belt…nothing. Just jagged edges.

"A sudden movement caught my eye. Over in the corner…my lower half groping towards me. I screamed again, this time more of sheer terror than pain.

"'Shut up!' the newborn had hissed. 'You'll make her come. We'll fix it, we'll…' Maria burst in. the two newborns' lives ended quickly. I did not feel sorry for them.

"She'd grabbed my legs and carried them to me. 'Now, watch close, Jasper, because next time, you'll have to repair yourself,' she'd said kindly. She explained to me that I needed to lick the edge of the torn limb, and then press it to the rest of my body. The venom would reseal the skin.

"After I'd been torn like that, the littler things didn't hurt so badly. I was building a pain tolerance. The more I was hurt, the less it…hurt."

"I was like you, ya know. We had entirely different reasons, but I tried to be like you were," I said quietly.

"What?" Jasper asked in confusion.

"I wanted to stay quiet when Carlisle was hurting me, too. I guess you did it for…pride, or whatever, but I did it to protect Billy and Bella. I didn't want them to have to see me or hear me. I got through him breaking my ankle without making a noise, though when I jerked, I kicked him with my good foot…I could hear them outside and I didn't want to scare them.

"I held my breath before Carlisle severed my shin bone, but when the blow came…it was twenty times worse than the ankle. I couldn't help it; I yelled. Loudly. When I heard Bella get all quiet, I knew I'd regret my screaming as long I'd live. I'd worried her."

"If I mess with your emotions, will you hurt me?" Jasper asked softly.

"No," I mumbled miserably.

Calm washed over me. And peace. And a horrible headache.

"I could help you get a higher pain tolerance," Jasper said.

"I just wanna learn how to fight," I said.

"Pain tolerance is part of fighting. Every fighter gets stuck in a situation they'd rather not be in, sooner or later. Wouldn't it be easier to be able to think through the pain than lay on the ground yelling?"

"Fine. How do you get a high pain tolerance?" I asked.

"I told you. Repeated pain."

"No way. I'm out," I said.

Jasper sighed. "Chicken…I'll make you a deal. I will let Emmett rip my arm off. If I can endure that without yelling, then you do the pain exercises."

"Deal," I said immediately, confident in an easy victory.

"Oh, Emmett!" Jasper called.

Emmett appeared next to Jasper like he'd been standing there the whole time. "Yes, brother?" he asked innocently.

"How many times have you ripped my arm off for pain exercises?"

Emmett acted like he had to think about it. "Thirty six times," he said finally.

"And how many times have I yelled?" Jasper prompted.

"Nine," Emmett answered immediately.

Esme blurred to my side. "Oh, boys, are you doing those horrible pain exercises again?" She sighed. "Jake, now you're in on it too? Wait…they're not ripping your arm off, are they? Because yours won't reattach…"

"Naw….we're doing a bet. If I lose, I'm responsible to start pain training," I explained.

Esme rolled her eyes. "Vampire, shape shifter, unicorn, it doesn't matter. Teenage boys are weird," she said, flitting off.

"We're not really teenagers! Just because we look smoking for our age doesn't mean we're teenagers! Jacob's like twenty four, and I'm…wait, Jazz, am I still ninety five, or am I ninety six?"

"No idea," Jasper said absently, holding out his arm. Emmett grinned and cracked his knuckles.

Jasper, on the other hand, grimaced and gritted his teeth.

"On your mark," Emmett said, taking Jasper by the hand. "Get set," he continued, leaning back. "Go!" With a grunt, he yanked, and a sparkly object went flying through the air, landing sickeningly at my feet. It was an arm.

I felt sick to my stomach. And it wasn't because of Jasper's arm. It was because he hadn't yelled. At all. Sure, he was grimacing horribly and making a face, but the deal had been a yell. Damn.

"You lose," Jasper said through his teeth.

I groaned, picking up his arm and tossing it back. I watched in disgust as he licked it, and then pressed it back to his shoulder. "Good as new. Now, what do you want me to break?"

"My arm," I sighed.

"How long does it take for your arm to heal?"

"About twenty four hours," I said, grimacing.

Jasper nodded. "Come inside."

Stomach in knots, I followed him in.