Path Of the Empath

The disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Twilight or to any of its characters.

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Chapter 10-Detour

Three days later I was playing video games on the living room floor with Emmett, who had just gotten back from Europe with Rosalie the night before, when Alice called me from upstairs. Damn. I couldn't stop playing right now or my guy was going to die and I would owe Emmett Twenty bucks. I pretended I couldn't hear her since I didn't feel anything coming from our room to signify that it was a dire emergency or anything.

That lasted about forty seconds before she was standing in front of the T.V.

"Jasper I need to talk to you." Her hands were on her hips and she felt…annoyed. Damn.

"Alice, can you just move to the side like an inch so I can kill Jasper's guy?" Emmett was smirking. She glared at him and didn't move an inch. It appeared from the look on her face and her feelings that unless I wanted to get carried upstairs by my tiny wife I had better get up of my own accord. Emmett wouldn't let me live that one down. I sighed and handed him a Twenty as I got up.

"Don't spend that Emmett; I'll be winning it back from you later." I sent a little wave of fear at him, just to mess with him, as I walked up the stairs. His eyes gaped wide for a second before he realized what I'd done. Then he grinned and shook his head, as he picked his controller back up.

When we entered our room she spun and looked me dead in the eyes. Wow. Her beauty still awed me every single day. I can't believe I was going to stay downstairs playing video games with Emmett instead of being alone with this gorgeous angel. I reached for her hands and drew her closer to me. I held her gaze as I leaned in slowly to kiss her mouth. She kissed me back, sighing sweetly into my mouth. Then she pulled away with a look of absolute regret on her face. I knew exactly why from the feelings of sexual tension rolling off of her. I was confused. What was she up to?

"Jasper, I think I need to get away for a few days."

"Okay love, I'll take you wherever you like." I tried to kiss her again, smiling to myself at the double meaning in my words.

"Actually Jazz, I was thinking of going myself. To shop on Rodeo Drive." She kissed me lightly before pulling back to see my reaction.

Something was off…I couldn't quite place it though. "You are going to go shopping alone?" This was not like her, usually someone had to go along with her and suffer…

"Well, I just saw this new designer online and she only has a boutique in California. I'm dying to check it out-I have to have something from her before anyone else." She pouted prettily. Something was definitely off. Alice never acted like this with me. I was about to call her out on it, when she pressed her lips against mine with urgency. Oh My God. She tasted like heaven. She was trying to distract me and I knew it, but I trusted her so I played along. She would tell me in her own good time.

"When are you planning to leave?" I whispered against her lips.

"In an hour." She smiled and it was as though the sunshine had burst into our room. The only way I knew it hadn't, was because of the lack of sparkles on our skin. I stood immobile for a minute, thoroughly dazzled by her. I shook my head to clear it. She seems to feel so determined…what is going on with her? If she's shopping why don't I feel the frenzy?

"Alice, what's going on?" I hadn't wanted to ask her. I did trust her, and I wanted her to know that, but this wasn't like her.

"What do you mean? The boutique opens tomorrow and I want to be there when it does. If I leave now, when I get there will be a thunderstorm going on in L.A. Then I will be able to start shopping right away instead of waiting for nighttime." Her story was good. Maybe I was reading too much into it. Maybe I should just be glad I didn't have to go shopping in California…

"Did you want to go? I just figured you didn't, but—"

"No, no-go have fun love. I will miss you every second though." I kissed her quickly, thanking my lucky stars that I had just dodged that bullet. "Are you flying?"

"No I think I'll ask Carlisle if I can take his Mercedes. The tinted windows will come in handy during the day" She answered quickly.

Strange? Yes. But the idiot that I am I let it go. Whatever she was hiding must be important to her, because she never kept anything from me. That was only reason I was still indulging this little façade of hers. If it was important to Alice, it was important to me.

"I'll be back in a few days. I love you." And then she was gone.

I fought with myself for a minute. I should stop her and demand to know what the Hell she was up to. The protective, jealous southerner in me was screaming that I should. I let her go. I respected her too much to spy on her. Besides, Alice was never good with secrets. I knew it was only a matter of time before she fessed up to whatever had her fleeing across the country right now.

I was right. Exactly thirty hours later my phone rang. Surprise, surprise it was my wife. I smiled as I answered, "Do you miss me already?"

"JASPER, WHERE IS CARLISLE? OH MY GOD, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE LEFT HER ALONE!" She was hysterical. She was panicked and even though she was too far away for me to actually feel her panic, I did anyway out of habit.

"What is it Alice? What's the matter?"

Rosalie and Emmett heard the terror in my voice and came to listen.

"Jasper, I saw Bella commit suicide! I saw her jump off of a cliff!"

"What? Alice what are you talking about? I thought you couldn't see her anymore?"

"I thought that maybe if I got closer, I could pick up on her. I got to Denali and at first I still couldn't see but all of a sudden it just came to me-she jumped Jasper!"

Rosalie, Emmett and I stared at the phone in horror. "Alice, I'm going to try and find Carlisle-don't do anything crazy. I will call you right back—'

"Jasper I'm so sorry I lied to you! I had to do something though! Edward was being so stubborn—"

"It's okay Alice, we'll talk about it later-I'm not mad love."

"I'm going to Forks right now." She admitted.

"Will you make it in time?" I said it quietly but Rose and Emmett could still hear everything.

"Probably not, but I can't just sit here. And maybe I can do something for Charlie. How could she do this to him? To US?" She sounded inconsolable.

"Alice calm down, love, you won't be any good to Charlie like this. I have to hang up and call Carlisle-will you be okay?"

"Yes. I'll call as soon as I know something." She hung up.

I spoke quickly to Carlisle, giving him the gist of the situation. He promised to come home as quickly as possible.

"We should call Edward too." Rosalie spoke for the first time since Alice called.

"Are you insane Rose?" I looked at her incredulously.

"He would want to know."

"He absolutely would NOT want to know. Number one-he told us to stay the Hell out of her future; number two-he will go off the deep end again." Emmett said in his booming voice.

"Again? Who said he ever came back from the deep end? Emmett's right Rose, we can't tell him about this. He can't handle it." I said quietly.

"You are both fooling yourselves. Whatever he said-he absolutely wants to know what is going on with her. Besides, if he knows she is dead then it will give him closure and he can come home."

"Rosalie, do not pick up that damn phone." I was annoyed because I could feel how excited she was to tell him. She found some sort of happiness in the idea.

We had to work on her for awhile, but eventually she agreed to wait to tell him until we had more information for him. He was definitely going to want some answers.