Dear Edward,

I met Jake's sister Rebecca today. She was nice enough, and seemed happy to be there. We got on great too. Jake was delighted of course, but I could see that she was just waiting for Jake to leave us alone. Once she did I found out why she had been waiting for him to leave.

Rebecca told me that she knew that Jake had been in love with me for a long time, and that if I ever, ever hurt him then she would personally beat the crappe out of me for it.

I laughed. Then I promised her that I would never hurt Jake, that I loved him with all my heart and know that I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I caught her staring behind me, and when I turned Jake was standing there.

I hadn't told him that I was in love with him before, and he appeared shocked. We talked about it later, and we finally both said the words. It wasn't just him. I feel so much happier after telling him. I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.

As Always, Love Bella.

Lizzie

After Edward had read one of my mom's letters I decided to try to find Jasper. Alice had told me that what my mom had wanted to do would be important to him, so I had decided to try to cross it off today.

I could see why too. If Jasper had truly been blaming himself for something since he and the rest of the Cullens had left Forks. . . well, I would prefer to lift that blame as soon as I could. I had no idea what he had been blaming himself for, but I intended to ask him to tell me if he could.

Someone had obviously told Jasper that I wanted to talk to him, because he was waiting at the end of the stairs when I walked down them. He smiled at me reassuringly, but I noticed that his lips remained pursed and he wasn't breathing.

"Hey Jasper. Mind if I talk to you? Mom wanted me to tell you something. It was on her list so. . . we can do it another time if you're busy though."

I was standing on the last step bat the time I started to speak to him, and had to look up to meet his eyes. He was quite a bit taller than me, and it was one of the few times in my life that I actually felt short.

"Of course."

He nodded his head at me gracefully, and gestured towards the living room.

"We fixed it up somewhat. Shall we talk in there?"

Jasper's voice was strained, and his eyes were dark. I wasn't sure what that meant - or why they would change color at all, actually but I decided not to comment for fear of accidently offending him. I walked into the living room ahead of him and sat on the chair closest to the door. The folder that I had almost forgotten was in my hand fell out of it as I sat down, so I reached down to pick it up.

It wasn't until after I picked it up that I really looked around. The place looked bare, as if someone had only just moved into the place. The only visible damage was a cracked floorboard and a few holes in the wall. It didn't look too bad, but compared to how it had been before Edward's temper. . . well, compared to that it looked terrible.

"Alice and Esme are already planning how to re-decorate it."

Jasper's words shocked me out of my thoughts and I spun around to face him, blushing.

"Sorry, I just got distracted. Happens a lot when I've only just got out of bed."

"Don't worry about it."

I noticed that Jasper's lips were pressed tightly together again, and wondered why. Maybe it was a habit of his or something? It just seemed like he was (almost) in pain.

"What did you want to talk about?"

Clumsily, I opened the folder that contained my mom's list and the letters. Alice's email address was now in there too, as I had added it this morning in case I would lose it. I searched through it until I found her list, and pulled it out.

"She wrote this list of things to do before she died and... did Alice tell you any of this already? I don't want to repeat something if you already know."

"She told me that Bella had wanted you to tell me something, but she didn't tell me what or how she told you to tell me. I was out of the house when you explained to the girls."

I chewed my lip before I began to explain again.

"Well, she never got to finish the list, so I decided to finish it for her. Skydiving, cliff diving and learning to fly... I got all that stuff done first, and then came here to find you and the rest of your family.

Not all of you were mentioned personally, but she wanted to find all of you. She. . . well, she mentioned you personally. Wanted to tell you something. It was important. Well, I think it was. I don't understand why she wanted to tell you that - obviously she didn't tell me and she had no need to clarify on her own list.

I don't think she even told my dad that it existed. Otherwise he would have made sure that she finished it. Well, I'm not sure about the stuff about her tracking you and the rest of your family down. The rest he would have made sure she completed, though..."

I paused before I told him what my mom had wanted to. Hopefully he would understood what she had meant, because I had no idea.

"She wanted me to tell you that. . . that it wasn't your fault. Like I said, I don't know what she meant."

Jasper seemed shocked, and his mouth dropped open as he took in a deep breath (seemingly) sub-consciously. His eyes instantly darkened even more, and seemed to focus in on me. I looked down to where his gaze was aimed, but saw nothing. There was nothing on my chest or throat, which was where it seemed to be aimed.

"Jasper? Jasper? You okay?"

She brushed off her chest, hoping to knock off whatever Jasper was looking at.

"Do I have something on me? Jasper?"

I was shocked when he suddenly just wasn't there anymore. It was if he had just disappeared, and I didn't move for a few seconds. Esme appeared just seconds after I stood, worry and relief visible on her face.

"Esme? What's wrong? Where's Jasper gone? He was here one minute and then he was just gone the next. . . I have no idea what happened."

"Calm down, sweetie."

Esme laid her hand on my shoulder, and smiled reassuringly at me.

"Jasper. . . he still struggles with our diet. Over the past few years his resolve has strengthened, and his control along with it. It just overcame him. . . you smell a lot like your mother. There are some differences of course, but relatives have similar scents most of the time. He left."

She clarified when she saw that I was confused. To what extent had he left?

"He's just gone hunting. Alice went with him. Jasper couldn't explain - it would have just made the chance of him losing control even larger than it already was. Alice told me that she wants to talk to you when they return."

I watched Esme's face as she spoke. She still looked worried, but I didn't blame her and it was easy to see why.

"He will be okay though? I didn't mean to upset him, if that contributed."

"Oh no, don't worry about it, Lizzie."

I smiled at her, still a bit unsure. We talked for a bit longer, until she told me that Jasper and Alice were back from their hunt.

"Alice is waiting in your room for you. "

I walked out of the living room quickly, but rushed back in when I realized that I had forgotten my folder.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't realize. . . "

Carlisle had obviously walked into the room through the other entrance as I had walked off, as I had just walked in him kissing Esme. I blushed, a little embarrassed. If I knew them better than I did I would not have taken a tack of notice, but the fact was that I didn't and was unsure of how they would react. Luckily they didn't appear mad.

In fact, they just smiled at me and both chuckled a little. Apologizing quickly, I grabbed my folder and hurried upstairs. I was half way up before I heard the two of them burst into laughter. They had obviously been trying to keep it in, and this time even I snorted a bit. I knew they could hear me.

Pushing the door to the room I had been given open, I saw Alice on my bed. She was giggling to herself, obviously having overheard what had happened downstairs.

"Hey, Alice."

"Hello, Lizzie. Did Carlisle and Esme give you any tips on making out?"

She smiled as she said it, but I still blushed a little at her words. Luckily it wasn't as easy to see on my skin as it had been on my mother's skin. She had been so pale that it had spread everywhere in seconds. My blush only ever appeared in my cheeks, thankfully.

"You should be thankful that it wasn't Em and Rose that you walked in on, Lizzie. Emmett wouldn't have just laughed. He'd have mocked you for days!"

Even I had to laugh at that. I wanted to get to know them better - all of them. Even the asshat. Hopefully he would become. . . more likeable though, because I didn't really want to get to know a whiny and self-pitying guy who had a big ego. He seemed to have improved already, but I just hoped that he wouldn't stop.

I knew that if he really wanted to get my mom's letters without permission that all he had to do was sneak in while I slept and take them. There was no reason he couldn't - well, except for the fact that I was pretty sure that the rest of his family would stop him from taking them.

He hadn't though, and I knew he hadn't because of his reaction to the letter that I had given him earlier. Edward had clearly been reading my mom's letter for the first time, as he had seemed to be processing it as he read it.

"Yeah that would have awkward alright."

I walked over to the bed and sat on it. Gesturing towards the pen that lay close to her, I asked her to pass it to me.

"Thanks. I just cross telling Jasper off my list. Won't take two seconds."

"Sure."

I pulled the list out of the folder, placed a tick next to 9 and skimmed through it again.

Things I want to do before I die:

1. Track down Edward Cullen and tell him I'm okay.

2. Write a novel on mythical creatures. X

3. Get Alice Cullen's real email address. X

4. Watch Marley and Me and not cry. X

5. Tell Jake how my feelings have changed. X

6. Have a family with him. X

7. Tell those kids how Jake and I got together (minus the V +W's) X

8. Buy another bike, and ride it to Charlie's house. X

9. Find Jasper Hale and tell him it wasn't his fault. X

10. Slap Paul again, just to see if his control will hold. X

11. Get a book published X

12. Go skydiving. X

13. Give Emmett Cullen a bear hug again.

14. Get my degree in creative writing. X

15. Tell Elizabeth who she's named for.

16. Find Rosalie Hale and taunt her about the fact that I still have my truck.

17. Tell Edward that I love him. (even though I love Jake just as much)

18. Give Edward my letters.

19. Learn how to fly a plane. X

20. Go cliff-diving again, but with the whole pack this time. X

21. Talk baby-talk to Leah just to check her temper control. X

There were six things left on the list for me to do, and I was only completely sure that I could complete five of them. I hoped that since my mom had been close to the Cullens when she was younger that they would be able to tell me someday, but I didn't plan to ask just yet.

I slid the list back into the folder, and placed it on the bed beside me.

"Esme said you wanted to talk to me after you and Jasper came back from hunting. . . is something wrong, Alice?"

"I just wanted to thank you. For what you said to Jasper. It helped you know, and believe me when I say that he's as grateful as I am. Jasper's been blaming himself for what happened with Bella."

I asked her the question I had wanted to ask Jasper, but hadn't got a chance to. He had left to go hunting before I had gotten the chance.

"What happened exactly? That Mom wanted him to know he wasn't to blame for."

Alice looked as if she was considering whether or not to tell me. How bad could it be?

"Don't get mad okay? At him or Edward. It wasn't either or their faults. We threw a birthday party for Bella's 18th. Well, I did. It was going fine, and then she got a papercut while she was opening one of her presents. Jasper. . . it was hard enough for him to be around human anyway, but Bella was bleeding. It wasn't much. but it was blood so he lost control. He didn't bite her or anything. Edward pushed her out of the way and she ended up hurt.

Carlisle had to give her stitches and Edward. . . Edward was distraught. He decided that if he stayed with Bella she would be in danger, so we all left. We didn't want to, but we respected his decision. Jasper believed that was his fault that we'd had to leave Forks and Bella. I tried to tell him that it wasn't so many times, but he never believed me. When you told him that Bella herself had wanted to tell him that. . . well, I couldn't imagine what he's feeling right now. "

She paused before continuing.

"He was a bit upset that he almost lost control, but he's okay now. Jasper's just gonna stay away from you for the rest of the day just in case."

"Oh okay."

I was shocked at her explanation. Why would Edward leave over something like that? It wasn't as if Jasper had done it on purpose. I had only met him yesterday, but it was already clear to me (especially after what had happened earlier) that he wouldn't have deliberately attacked a human.

"I know that he wouldn't have done that on purpose. I mean, look at her little time has passed since I once met him and I know that."

I smiled at Alice, and was shocked when she reached out and pulled me close. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was hugging me, and for me to react and hug her back.

She beamed at me as she pulled back, and though I was slightly colder than I had been before I felt better than before too. It was weird though, because I hadn't exactly been feeling any worse than I normally did before Alice had hugged me. Hesitantly I lifted one side of my mouth to half smile back at her. I had noticed myself doing that a lot lately. Smiling. Even when I had gone back home I had smiled a maximum of twice a day. In the past day alone I had smiled so many times I had lost count.

I just hoped that was a good thing.