Chapter Ten
Welcome Home
Bella didn't ask where Jasper got the car. It was sleek, black and fast. That was all she knew about it, that and it was capable of reaching two-hundred miles-per-hour within seconds, to which he used instantly.
She tried not to look out the window, his driving making her anxious. All of the vampires drove fast. She couldn't fathom why they would ever be in a hurry, they had forever. Yet the trees flew past too fast, becoming too soon into tall buildings of the city, the sun too low in the early morning.
Jasper had called Alice before they left to ask of the weather conditions and she assured him that it would be reasonably cloudy. He took the earliest flight out as possible to be safe but only because Alice asked him too. She was losing faith in her visions.
"Bella, please compose yourself, you're making me uneasy."
She looked down to her shaking leg, but it was of course her emotions that he was referring to. "I'm sorry, Jasper. I'm trying to... Not think." Not think about what was coming, not think about Edward. It was harder than it was when he left her, because she was no longer his, she belonged to someone else entirely. How difficult would he make it all be?
"May I calm you?"
"When have you ever needed to ask?"
"Whenever you're anxious you get very touchy. Remember in the hotel room?"
She did remember... When she cracked under the pressure of her anxiety of her family he tried to put her to sleep. She got angry and stormed off to the bedroom. She felt bad about that later.
"I'm sorry."
He smirked not taking his eyes off the road, not like he truly needed to keep them on it but it helped eased her. "Don't be."
"Can you put me to sleep?"
"Whatever you'd like Bella dear."
Suddenly lethargic she reached down to the lever between the bottom of the seat and the door and pushed her seat down horizontally. She fell asleep the moment she let her body relax but she felt a coldness on her hand, it sweeping between her fingers in a soft grip.
When Jasper gently prodded her awake she looked at the red numbers of the dashboard clock. Normally it would take a good thirty minutes to reach the airport but they were there in fifteen minutes according to it. She sighed but didn't say a word to reprimand him.
With his touch she was wide awake and with the few bags they brought they went through the large white building, the security, the adults and children, the suitcases and chatter, skipping past the escalators as they were walking three times faster than it.
Jasper checked the ever-moving flight announcements above a long desk that a few employees sat behind with fake smiles. They moved on to sit in the far corner in comfortably curved seats a good ways from others, those in the business suits with small laptops typing away.
"We have half an hour," he told her.
She stared out the window which - like in the Cullen's house - was the wall itself. She watched as the planes took off. All of the noises that if she pushed out of her initial thoughts became what would sound like the waves when someone was not paying attention, to be silenced.
"How do you stand it," she asked him quietly. Even if someone was sitting next to her they wouldn't hear, but he would. "How can you stand all the emotions?" She wouldn't say it, but she wondered the same about Edward, how he stood hearing everyone's thoughts all day long. She had assumed that it was like the loud planes, eventually you learned to tune it out, it got to be normal.
"Years and years of training."
That was it. The conversation ended there and they didn't speak for the rest of the half hour. They didn't even speak on the plane. It was something that Bella loved about Jasper. There was no need to fill the silence with conversation. They were at relaxed with sitting in their seats, her near the window watching the concrete ground slowly move out from beneath them.
As they flew higher and higher into the sky Jasper pulled out a stick of gum from his jacket pocket. He handed it to her.
She thanked him and unwrapped the pink stick. Soon her ears began popping as they soared into the clouds.
Within their own thoughts, Bella pertaining to the underlining worry of the reaction of what they were about to face, they held hands on the armrest between them. His leather glove kept her from getting too cold. It wasn't a necessary worry like it was when he laid in the bed with her but he said that her hand may very well get frostbite if she didn't regularly let go and flex it to move the blood along. The problem with that was that she didn't like to let go of him. It was a comfort beyond his ability that she liked to feel him.
The clouds stretched on all sides of them, the sun over the sky painting them a lovely golden hue. She noted that the color matched Jasper's eyes perfectly.
He rubbed his thumb over hers as he leaned back pretending he were sleeping. She spat her gum out into the silver wrapper and stuck it into her pocket to throw away later and she laid her head on his marble shoulder. Within moments she really did fall asleep (without his help), her head on his marble shoulder.
When the plane landed Jasper kissed her head the sudden ice of his lips waking her. She stretched her stiff bones and smiled at him. He smiled back at her but it was strained. As he kissed her lips a bit harder than he ever had she got the feeling that he thought it may be the last time he would be able to do it. There was that urgency in it that she was able to detect. She didn't like it. She never had. She recalled Edward doing the same.
Once they stepped out of the terminal Bella stumbled. Not just because she was naturally clumsy but because there outside of the metal detectors was their family. Carlisle holding Esme's hand, pain etched into the perfect faces that had nothing to do with their thirst. Alice, her bright gold eyes on Edward reading every emotion, her gaze floating to someplace in the future. Bella however met Edward's stare, her grasp tightening on Jasper. She knew he was paying special attention to every sensation that was passing through her and she had no reason to worry about that because all she felt was extreme happiness at seeing their family.
Edward's expression was heartbreaking but it didn't cause her to feel badly, not in the way it should have if she was in love with him, and so not to concern Jasper with it she looked past him to the others. Alice had turned ecstatic beaming right at them.
In a matter of a second when they passed through the detectors Esme embraced her, dry sobbing into her hair as though she waited years to do so.
"Bella, our Bella!"
She patted her back her eyes prickling with the elation that she was flooding her. Her family... she was finally with them and suddenly Edward wasn't of importance. She reveled in the fact that they didn't hate her, and as soon as that revelation and joy came it leveled, her eyes drying, she stopped choking on her tears as Carlisle patted her shoulder.
"Stop that Jasper, it won't diffuse me."
Bella and Esme broke apart everyone watching Edward glower at Jasper, a fury she hadn't seen in so long emanating from him, even his velvet voice had become rough.
"It wasn't for you, it was for Bella."
"I'm okay, Jasper," she assured.
Edward's ragged breath slowed but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. "We'll talk about this at home."
"Oh Edward," Alice exclaimed maddeningly. She shoved him out of her way as she hugged Bella. She was amazingly vibrant even in the worst circumstances, just as a pixie should be. "Welcome home, Bella."
She broke through Jasper's manipulations and hanged onto her best girl friend. "Alice -"
"Shhh, Bella," she hushed grabbing her shoulders to push her back into her direct line of sight. "I knew. I always knew this was how it was supposed to be. I'm not hurt and you shouldn't be either. You have a great man."
Her throat clamped but she gasped through her heavy tears. "I love you, Alice."
"I love you too, you silly human. Lets go home." She slung her arm over her shoulder and led the way towards the luggage circling on the belt.
No one spoke during their departure to the parking lot, nor when they climbed inside the extravagant red car waiting for them. It was like the game adults played with their children, the game of silence, all constructed so the parents wouldn't get headache's. The silence they were playing were for a whole different incentive. It was so that no one should fight, namely Edward and Jasper.
Jasper and Alice stayed firmly beside her, Edward forced into driving a neon green car in the slot next to them.
Only one sentence was said during the ride.
Esme in the passenger seat glanced to them in the review mirror and gave a brief smile. "That went better than I thought." Her attempt at cheerfulness was sad.
Bella caught Alice's reaction. Short-lived though her daze was, when she focused on the headrest in front of her she frowned. That answered everything.
The real battle was about to begin. She would wish for Victoria when she stood against Edward.
