Co-written by Nothingtolose15 and phnxprncss.

Summary: Bella and Jasper Swan are sent to live with their father Charlie in Forks, Washington after the untimely death of their mother and stepfather. Neither of them had seen Charlie since they were 7 years old and Renee had cut off complete contact between the children and their father. Now here they are in a place they don't remember at all trying to get on with life. But to make matter's worst Bella Swan has not spoken a word since her mother and step-father's death. Will Jasper be able to protect his sister? Or will she have to go down her own road to find herself again?

Disclaimer: we do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

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Jasper's Point of View

To tell you I was simply shocked would be an understatement. When I heard the muffled crying, it stirred me from my sleep. But then I heard her yell and I almost thought that I was having some twisted dream and I was still asleep. Call me crazy, but I just couldn't be sure if she was actually talking again, especially after all the silence. I debated with myself for a moment before finally getting out of bed and walking over to her room. It was real, she was crying and yelling and …. Speaking. I ran to her and pulled her into my arms in an attempt to offer some kind of comfort. She looked absolutely broken and defeated and just thinking of her hurting that much caused me pain.

She blamed herself, but I adamantly believed that it was my fault. If I hadn't been so stubborn and had just answered her phone call that night they wouldn't have tried to rush home. They would still be with us. I was supposed to be home with Bella that night watching cheesy 90's sitcoms; we loved to do that stuff, but my friend relentlessly harassed to go over to his place for a little while so I just gave in. Bella was pissed that I changed my plans on her, but I left anyway convinced that she was overreacting. It wasn't like I was going to be gone all night.

When I received a phone call from the hospital telling me that I was needed there, I was worried, but I didn't think that it would be anything bad. Oh, how wrong I was. I got to the hospital at the same time as a third ambulance pulled up to the emergency room bay doors. I stood to the side to let the EMT's do their job, and then I saw that it was Bella on the stretcher. I don't even remember starting to cry as I ran to her side. I vaguely felt the arms of another doctor grab me around the waist to stop me. The only thing that I registered was that my baby sister had somehow been hurt, and I hadn't been with her like I should've been.

When I broke out of my trance like state of self-loathing, I realized that a doctor was sitting across from me waiting to talk to me. I braced myself for the worst since no one had had the decency to explain to me what had happened when I arrived. Or maybe they did and I'd been too far gone to notice. Either way, I was prepared for what I thought would be news of my sister. Instead, I found out that my parents had been killed in a car accident. They had been speeding home for some reason that eluded them; some reason that eluded me until the night that Bella finally broke down.

She thought it was her fault that our parents had been killed when in reality, she couldn't have been more wrong. It was then that I realized that the blame should've been on me. I should've been home with her, and had I been, none of this would ever have happened. We wouldn't be trapped here in Forks with Charlie. We'd be home in Phoenix where we belonged.

We had moved to her bed and we talked; we talked about everything and nothing all at the same time. We put everything on the table, no holding back and no sugar coating. It was real and every one of her misguided confessions cut me deep. She felt so stupid that she'd thought someone was in the house when it turned out that it was only an animal. But like I kept trying to tell her, it could've been someone and I should have answered the phone when she called me! It was all my fault in the end. Eventually we fell asleep and the next thing I knew it was morning. I opened my eyes and realized that I was still in Bella's room and she wasn't there. I was about to get out of bed to look for her when I heard the shower running and realized that she was just getting ready for school. Instead, I sat up in bed and just thought about everything. I was foolish and I definitely wasn't as strong as I let on. I missed my mom and Phil more than anything and it was all because of my stubbornness.

Now, nearly a month later, I'm still trying to deal with my feelings about what had happened that night. I absolutely despise myself for causing my sister that much pain and causing her to shoulder the blame for what happened. As the days passed by after that fateful night that we had finally talked, I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to try and make it up to her and to assuage her guilt. She was shouldering a burden that wasn't hers to carry, and as her brother, I needed to make that right.

I also realized that both she and I would need to talk to Emmett, Edward, Alice and Rose soon. They'd been beyond understanding through everything. Even those moments when I'd unknowingly shut myself off from everyone else. I knew Bella understood what I was dealing with, but it broke my heart to see the hurt look on Alice's beautiful face every time I'd do it. I finally began to make plans for a night alone with Alice. I confided this in Bella because I needed her to know that I'd be telling Alice everything and letting her know that, regardless of what anyone else thought, the blame was all mine.

I could tell that she was upset by that, but she didn't let it show. Instead she too began making plans to tell Edward. Though they weren't quite a couple yet, I could see them slowly heading in that direction. They both held a lot back though, and that made it much more difficult for them. I hoped that her opening up to him would give him some confidence to open up to her, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hoping for the same from Alice.

Alice and I were affectionate in some ways; holding hands and kisses on the cheek, but I had yet to really kiss her and I wanted to so badly. I was afraid though, afraid that everything would be different after I told her, and I wouldn't have been able to live with that if I'd already experienced fully kissing her. Yet at the same time I knew that Alice wasn't like that, she was different. I didn't have much to base that particular judgment on since I'd never really had a girlfriend, but I just knew that she was different. The day finally came for my "date" with Alice and I was nothing more than a pile of nerves and butterflies. Though I knew she was much different than any other girl out there, I still feared that she would treat me differently once she found out that it was my fault my parents were dead. I did my best to put that fear aside as I got ready and drove over to a nearby park to meet her. I'd practiced my speech all morning and was hoping that by the end of the day she would officially be my girlfriend.

When I got to the park, she was already sitting on the top of the slide waiting for me. I couldn't help but smile at how absolutely carefree she looked in that moment and it just made me love her even more than I already did. She was beyond perfect for me in every way. As I got nearer to her, I could see the beautiful smile that lit up her face. Everything about her just glowed in that moment and I almost wished that I could freeze time just to be able to see her this way for all eternity.

She eventually made her way down the slide, giggling and squealing with joy the entire way down. As soon as she got to the bottom, she bounced up on her feet and ran into my waiting arms. I could never get enough of her hugs and I would never feel anything better than having her in my arms.

We walked around the park for a little bit, talking about nothing of consequence and just enjoying each others company like we always did. As the sky began to darken, I knew that I couldn't put it off any longer; I had to tell her and somehow make her understand that I was better than I had shown myself to be that night. I knew that she could tell I was nervous as her tiny hands rubbed my back in an attempt to ease the tension I felt. We finally stopped at the edge of the park and sat on a nearby bench as I once again braced myself for the worst.

"Alice, sweetie, there are some things that I need to tell you right now but I want you to understand something first. The feelings that I have for you cannot be shaken no matter what. Even if you walk away from me today and never look at me again. Don't tell me that won't happen right now, because I know that's what you're going to say. I know you. Just tell me that you understand."

As I said these things, I couldn't look at her. I didn't want to see the fear that I was sure I'd find in her eyes. Of course, true to her very nature, she surprised me by lifting my chin up to look into her face. I could see her eyes shining with unshed tears as she spoke with such conviction.

"I understand that more than you know, Jasper. But I want you to know that nothing I hear tonight could change the way that I feel about you."

I nodded and took a deep breath in an attempt to organize my erratic thoughts, "You know we came to live with Charlie because of a death in the family," she nodded at me to continue, "Mine and Bella's parents, our mother Renee and our step father Phil….. They were the best parents ever and if they were still alive they would adore you just as much as I do! Phil was more of a father to me than Charlie ever was. More than he'll ever be and it's completely my fault that they died."She looked into my eye and I was shocked to see that they weren't filled with the disappointment that I'd expected. "Why do you say that?""They were going out to dinner for some sort of celebration and Bella and I were supposed to hang out at home, watching TV and gorging ourselves on junk food, at least that was the plan. I ended up cancelling on her because my friend asked me to hang out. I figured that I wouldn't be gone for long anyway, so I decided to go. Of course, Bella was mad at me but I just thought she was overreacting," I sighed and looked down at my feet.

"I got a phone call from her maybe an hour or so later, but I didn't answer because I thought she was just going to make me feel guilty again for leaving her home alone. I told myself that it was okay that I didn't answer because I'd be leaving soon anyway …… and then the hospital called and told me that I needed to get there right away." I could feel the tears that were slowly falling down my face as I fought to maintain my composure.

"When I got to the hospital, I saw them pulling Bella out of an ambulance on a stretcher and I thought that something serious had happened to her …… I broke down before they got a chance to tell me what was going on, and by the time I came around again, she was awake but in shock and my parents were gone."

I turned to look at her again and saw her brows furrowed in confusion. "Why do you think that's your fault, Jas? I don't understand?"

"She had heard something in the house and thought someone had broken in. That's why she called; she got scared…" I lifted my hand and wiped away the tears that were still running down my face. "When I didn't answer she called my parents and they rushed home. See Alice, I was stubborn! If I answered the phone my parents would still be alive but they aren't all because I couldn't just stay home like I'd promised."

Alice tilted her head to the side and just stared at me, "Jasper, that's not your fault!""Yes it is Alice," I started sobbing, completely unrestrained, "I am the worst brother and son!"

The tears were coming faster and harder now and I couldn't find it in me to care. My destiny was now in the hands of the stunningly beautiful girl that I had fallen in love with, and I couldn't see her loving a monster like me. I felt her hand brush along my cheek, attempting to wipe the tears away and comfort me, but it was all to no avail. The only thing that could possibly comfort me now would be to hear her say that she didn't hate me.

"Jasper," she whispered softly against my ear, "it was not your fault and I would never for a moment even entertain the thought of blaming you. Please don't beat yourself up over this because I'm not going anywhere."

It took me a moment to understand what she'd just said and once it clicked in my head that she hadn't run off leaving me to fend off the pain; I did the only thing that felt right at that moment. I kissed her. Not on the cheek or on the back of her hand either. I threw so much passion behind that kiss that I was sure there would be no doubt in her mind of the feelings that I truly felt for her. Even so, I needed her to know for certain. I pulled back slowly and rested my forehead against hers to stare into her eyes.

"Mary Alice Cullen, there's something else that I need you to know right now and this time, I really need you to pay close attention to what I'm saying," I paused as she slowly nodded her head, her gaze never leaving my own. "I love you, Ali, more than you could ever understand. But I promise that I'll do everything I can to show it to you every single day if you ….... give me a chance. Would you consider being my girlfriend?"

Alice looked at me for a moment before nodding and smiling, "Yes Jasper, Jazz. Yes I would love to be your girlfriend!" She pressed a soft kiss to my lips, "But I need to tell you my story as well and I'm afraid you'll never look at me the same again."I brought my hand up to cup her cheek as I pulled her in for a quick kiss, "Never think that…"She nodded and we started to walk hand in hand as she started to explain her story. She said she still had lapses where she forgot certain details of her childhood, but that her brother's preferred it that way. She explained how it was harder for them, and how they tried to protect her from things when it got really bad. "I know that it's going to be so hard for Edward to tell Bella. It was always the hardest for him to deal with. He took everything on himself and still carries the weight of the world on his shoulders because of it." I reached over and gently wiped the tears out of her eyes.

"I'm glad you trusted me enough to tell me," I gave her a soft smile, "and you could never be like that so please don't even think it." She nodded, "One time Emmett drank and he got scary and it reminded me so much of him and all that happened." She bit her lip in an attempt to keep the sobs from coming, "after that happened he promised he would never drink again and we all made a vow that we would never drink and so far, we've all kept that vow."

"I'm sure that I'd have no problem keeping that vow too," I said with more sincerity than I'd ever felt. I knew that there was nothing that I wouldn't do for her, and if that included not drinking, then so be it. I would never want to risk reminding her of something that painful. She meant too much to me for me to consciously do something that could possibly hurt her.

We walked around the park for a little longer before finally deciding to head home after agreeing that neither of us would tell our siblings what we'd learned until Edward and Bella had a chance to talk. After that, we'd all sit down and tell Emmett and Rose. It was the only way that made sense to us, and I was pretty sure that it would make sense to the others once we explained it to them.

I sat in my car and watched as Alice drove away towards home, and I couldn't help smiling to myself. She was my girlfriend. She said yes. She hadn't run away from me.

As much as I missed my mom and Phil, there was a small part of me that recognized the fact that had I not lost them, I would never have met Alice. I pulled out my phone and decided to send a quick text to Bella, I wasn't sure if she had made plans with Edward and I felt bad leaving her home alone, but she had insisted that I go out and spend some time with - What are you doing? – JasI waited for her to respond, but after 20 minutes of waiting, I started to get worried; she never took this long to respond to a text message. I quickly started the car up and rushed home, panic turning my blood to ice as my mind came up with every conceivable possibility of why she hadn't yet replied. As I pulled up to the driveway and was about to jump out of the car, I heard the text alert beep on my phone. I opened it up without bothering to see who it was from as I raced towards the door. It wasn't until I was inside that I stopped to look down at the message.

Jas – I just got out of the shower, sorry. When will you be home? – Bells

I let out the breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding and leaned against the wall. Of course it would be one thing that I hadn't thought of.

I just shook my head and walked upstairs to check on her. "Hey Bells, it's me," I knew she would only respond if I said it was me."Come in, Jas." I opened the door and she was sitting on her bed brushing her hair. Her face lit up when she saw me enter, she knew I was going to see Alice and I could tell she was curious about how it had gone. "Well, how was it?" "I asked Alice to be my girlfriend and she said yes!" Bella's eyes lit up and she got off the bed and came over to give me a hug, "I'm so happy for you, you deserve it Jas." I hugged her back tightly out of excitement and happiness. When I broke the hug, I looked down at her and smiled, "You know you deserve to be happy as well, Bells, do have your eye on anyone?" Both Alice and I knew that Edward liked her – it was actually blatantly obvious to everyone but Bella – and we knew that Bella liked him.

She sighed softly to herself before meeting my eyes again, "Yes, there is someone ….. But I don't think he could ever like me like that so there's no point in me even thinking about it." I tried to rebuff her statements but she wouldn't let me. I never understood why she thought the way she did about herself, but I'd learned over the years that if I pushed her, it'd only get worse. There was nothing that I could do but hope that Edward would be able to show her how wrong she was about herself. I just gave her a small smile and went to take a seat on the edge of her bed, bringing my one leg up and under me. "So what do you feel like doing on this boring old Saturday?" Weekends usually weren't too bad. We didn't have to deal with the kids from school and Charlie was usually off fishing all weekend. Apparently our arrival didn't stop him from changing that tradition which I was honestly quite glad for. She just shrugged and brought her brush back to her hair pulling up into a ponytail. "I could make us dinner and maybe you could invite Alice over."

I couldn't help smiling at her suggestion and immediately agreed to it, but instead of just Alice, I called Alice and invited the whole gang over. She suggested that we make it a sleepover since Charlie wouldn't be home until late the next day, and of course, I couldn't say no. I let Bella know that everyone would be coming by and staying over for the night and I was going to run by the grocery and video store to pick some things up for the night. She just nodded at me, acknowledging what I'd said, as she started on dinner.

As I drove to the store, I couldn't help but think about how much our lives had changed since Phil and Renee had passed. Of course I still missed my parents, more than anyone could even imagine, but I knew deep inside that they would be happy for us. They wouldn't have wanted us beating ourselves up over what happened. It didn't ease my guilt much, but it certainly helped and I could only hope that Bella felt the same way.

Once at the grocery store, I quickly grabbed a cart and perused the aisles for some much needed provisions. I grabbed everything that I could think of and made my way through the checkout line while debating on what movies I should get for the night. I finally decided on a couple and headed to the video store to pick them up before making my way back home. When I pulled into the driveway, I saw both Rose and Edward's cars there. When I walked inside I saw Emmett and Rose cuddled up on the couch watching television, while Alice sat in the chair looking bored. I was happy to see that as soon as she saw me, that changed and her face instantly lit up. She jumped to her feet and ran over to me, throwing her arms around my neck and giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Hello to you too, beautiful," I smiled at her and then shot a nod to Emmett and Rose, "Where's Edward?""He's in the kitchen helping your sister," Emmett said not removing his eyes from the television. I nodded and looked back down at Alice to give her a quick kiss on the cheek before leading her into the kitchen. Bella was at the stove and I realized that it felt like years since I'd last seen her cooking. It had been one of her favorite things to do when we were living in Phoenix because my mom wasn't the greatest cook around. Edward was sitting at the table pretending to read the paper while his eyes actually watched everything Bella was doing. It would've been absolutely comical if I hadn't tried to pull off the same thing a few times with Alice. I just couldn't believe that Bella couldn't see how absolutely smitten Edward was with her.

I started putting everything I'd bought at the grocery store away after tossing the movies that I'd rented on the kitchen table. Even though I'd picked out movies that I thought everyone would like, I was a little worried about the reactions that I'd get from them. We all knew each other fairly well though, so I was pretty sure that I'd made good choices. I could hear Edward reading off the titles from where he was sitting at the table.

"Street Kings, Transformers, Over Her Dead Body and ……. A Cinderella Story, Jasper? Seriously?"

I started laughing as I saw the look that Bella gave him for laughing at that selection. Of course none of them knew that Bella was a closet Hillary Duff fan and that A Cinderella Story was hands down her favorite but it certainly looked like one Edward Cullen was about to find that out first hand.

"And pray tell, Mr. Cullen, what exactly is wrong with A Cinderella Story, hmmm?" The ire in her voice was apparent, even to me, and I could practically see Edward's mind racing to find some kind of plausible excuse for his reaction.

"Umm... Well," he looked at me and Alice hoping that we'd help him out of this mess but we both just shrugged and snickered softly. "Nothing per'se, but umm... I just don't know anything about it?" He ran his hand awkwardly through his hair, "I mean umm …. I guess I just didn't see you as a fan of that kind of movie ….."

"Oh Edward, I shall surely miss you when you're gone," I said more to myself than anything else, but Alice's giggles from beside me signaled that she had in fact heard me.

"Jasper, finish this up for me, please. Edward, living room NOW!"

I watched the two of them leave the kitchen quickly and started laughing hysterically as I walked up to the entryway to see what was going on.

"Bella, I don't understand… did I say something to upset you?" I heard Edward saying as he dug his hands into his pockets.

"You insulted A Cinderella Story, Edward! Have you even seen it before?"

"Well, I haven't, but I didn't mean to insult the movie. I was just surprised that Jasper had rented it, that's all."

"Emmett, Rose, MOVE I need the TV to school Edward on the greatness that is A Cinderella Story and Hillary Duff!"

I quickly finished dinner and put it onto the dinner trays that Charlie kept in his kitchen so that we could all join Edward and Bella in the living room. The movie, as expected, was a hit with the girls and even though I don't think Edward understood why Bella liked it so much, he resigned himself to just accepting it and made sure to keep any comments about the movie to himself. After we ate dinner and the first movie had finished, Alice, Bella and Rose got the living room set up for sleeping while we boys got the snacks together for all of us.

I could tell that Edward was elated to be spending the night here with Bella and I was elated to be spending the night here with Alice. As for Emmett, I don't think elated could even begin to describe what he was feeling, and whatever he was feeling, I didn't want to bear witness to. As the credits for Transformers began to roll, I noticed that all three of the girls were comfortably asleep and Alice was right where she'd always belong, in my arms.

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A/N: Oh my, the movie thing …. Yea, that was a tad difficult but so funny to write at the same time. Still, poor Edward …. But Yay for Jasper and Alice, right!?R&R, please! We'd most certainly appreciate it!