Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, Stephanie Meyer does.

Previously: It wasn't just Esme that told me they were returning. My chest stopped hurting, and a sense of calm descended over me. I knew Jasper was close, and when the door opened, I knew he was right behind it.

BPOV

Jasper didn't enter first; a different man did. He was an inch or two smaller than Jasper, but had similar skin tone, so he was a vampire too. He was also blond, but I didn't know if this was Emmett or Carlisle.

I didn't have to ponder that too long, as Esme's eyes immediately locked onto him and a small serene smile crossed her lips. It must be Carlisle then.

Carlisle went to his wife in a flash, kissing her for a fleeting second. I saw him smile; he clearly adored her like she adored him. I felt mildly envious but was soon distracted by more movement in the doorway. Two more people came in; a huge guy with rippling muscles and dark curly hair who had his tree-trunk-like arms wrapped securely around Jasper.

I was confused at first; why was Jasper being restrained? His eyes were golden and he looked calm enough.

I understood why though, because when Jasper saw me, his eyes quickly darkened and he tried to get out of Emmett's arms, struggling against the impressive muscles. "Jasper!" Carlisle said sternly, turning from Esme to face his adopted son. He moved gracefully to stand between me and him, effectively blocking our view of each other.

Jasper appeared to stop struggling and I heard him give a sigh. I moved to a sitting position, hesitated, and then got to my feet, saying, "Can someone please tell me what is going on?"

Carlisle looked between me and Jasper and when our eyes met I noted that he had very kind and intelligent golden eyes. Instantly I trusted that he meant no harm to me and simply wanted to help everyone work out what was happening.

"I don't know for certain," he said at first, and I heard Jasper give a huff of annoyance. Esme shot him a quick look, and Carlisle continued, saying, "I need some time to do some research. If you two can co-exist without causing the other pain for a few hours then I will have some answers for you. A day at the most."

"It's fine when I'm close to him…" I tried adding to the conversation.

"I'm sure it is," Carlisle smiled at me encouragingly, which surprised me for some reason.

There was a few seconds of silence, and then Carlisle finally announced that he was going to get to work, and beckoned Esme over, whispering something briefly in her ear before he left out of the front door, giving me back the line of sight to Jasper. Our eyes met, and he tugged a few times against Emmett's huge arms.

"Emmett and I will be staying here too," Esme said to me, filling me in on what Emmett and Jasper already seemed to know. Great. It felt amazing being the only one left out of the loop.

"Can… Can you let him go now?" I asked Emmett.

Emmett looked at Esme for confirmation, who nodded slowly. Emmett released his hold on his brother, who immediately stepped out of reach, casting his dark brown eyes warily in his remaining family's direction before he turned back to me, approaching me cautiously.

Emmett stood watch, ready to act at a moment's notice if Jasper tried to hurt me or something, while Esme seemed incredibly tense and nervous while she watched us all.

Jasper stopped a few feet away and his eyes travelled down my face, my neck, my shoulders, my arms, to my left hand. He held his own hand out, open, palm up, and waited expectantly, his eyes still watching my hand.

Confused, I placed my hand in his, not knowing what to expect, and he took hold of it gently, turning it so he could see the silvery scar he had created. He stared at it for a few seconds, and then quietly said, "I'm sorry."

I felt my eyes go wide because it just wasn't right for Jasper to be sorry. It had been my fault in the first place! I had to go and freaking slice my hand performing the simplest of tasks.

"No, it's okay." I said, withdrawing my hand quickly.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"Not anymore. It kinda tingled for a while afterwards but that's gone now…" I trailed off, staring at my hand too. "I'm just so clumsy, I didn't mean to cut myself, I swear."

Jasper gave a little grumbling sound, and then turned to face Esme and Emmett who were watching us, still waiting to intercept if Jasper tried to attack me. "I'm not going to attack her again." He told them.

"Yeah, right." Emmett snorted, folding his impressive arms. Esme looked a bit guilty and told Jasper that she was sorry, but she had to be sure I wasn't harmed.

Jasper sighed, and his shoulders slumped. Impulsively I went to him and placed my hand on his arm, feeling him flinch slightly with surprise. His lovely deep gold eyes stared at me and he raised an eyebrow ever-so-slightly.

"What are you doing?" he asked me.

"Sorry," I apologised quickly, starting to withdraw my hand. Immediately I felt the loss at the lack of contact, and he seemed to as well because he reached out and took hold of my wrist, holding it loosely but firmly in his unbreakable hold. Behind him I could see the look of confusion on Esme's face, while Emmett stepped forwards and put a huge hand on Jasper's arm.

"Let her go, man," he said, trying to keep the situation light.

Jasper didn't even look at him and kept our eyes locked, refusing to remove his hand. His eyes turned dark in the blink of an eye when Emmett touched him and he began to growl really lowly, in a way that sent shivers down my spine and gave me goose bumps.

"Don't touch me," he warned Emmett, still keeping his eyes trained on mine.

"Let her go." Emmett repeated, louder and firmer, becoming much more serious.

"I'm warning you, Emmett. Let. Go." Jasper growled.

"Jasper…" Esme approached us cautiously. When Jasper didn't acknowledge her, she looked at me. "Is he hurting you?" she asked me, looking at my wrist. I looked down too then shook my head.

"No, it's fine." I said quickly.

"Emmett, let him go," said Esme gently.

Emmett huffed, then let go. Slowly, Jasper's growls receded, his eyes lightened and the room became silent.

"Bella, you sound hungry, would you like me to help you make some breakfast?" Esme offered suddenly, looking nervously at Jasper, but then relaxing when he didn't begin to growl again.

"Oh, um… Yes please." I said, a bit surprised. Did she know how to cook? I thought that they didn't eat food; Jasper had seemed so adverse to it…

I tried to follow her into my kitchen, but Jasper still held onto me. He was staring at my wrist, at where we were touching, where nice little tingles were occurring. It reminded me of the tingles I had felt when he had first licked me, back in the basement of that shack. I remembered how good it felt…

The memory made me blush involuntarily, and even though he wasn't looking at my face, he seemed to know, because his eyes shot up and began to darken again. I let out a little squeak of surprise and tried to pull my hand away from him, but he wouldn't let go.

"I… I'm hungry…" I stuttered. "J-Jasper…"

He let go quickly, looking apologetic and took a few steps away, clasping his hands together behind his back. "Go on," he said quietly, "Esme is waiting for you."

I observed him for a few more seconds and then I hurried into the kitchen. Esme stood by the door, nervously pulling at her own hands in a very human-like gesture. It confused me why they still acted so human when I knew they could stay still for hours.

As soon as Esme realised I was okay, she smiled and relaxed. "Okay, sweetie, what would you like to eat?"

"Um… I don't know. I was making myself a sandwich earlier…" I looked over for the discarded knife, but it was gone. Huh…? "Are you sure you want to help me, I assure you I can make myself food. I've been doing it all my life."

Esme smiled at me and nodded.

"Um, okay. Do you want to butter the bread or something?" I found myself wringing my hands like she was doing earlier.

"I think it would be safer if I cut up the vegetables," she said apologetically.

Oh, so is that why she wanted to help me? So I didn't cut myself again. Geez!

"Okay, yeah, I think that would be best." I showed her where everything was, and she immediately got to work, slicing through the vegetables quickly and effectively. I found myself staring at her open-mouthed. Yikes.

Finally I received my sandwiches and I sat down at the dining room table, munching my way through them. I looked to the door by chance and felt my heart do a small flip when I saw Jasper leaning against the wall. I was starting to wonder why my chest wasn't hurting. Had he been here all this time?

He didn't say anything even though he knew I was staring at him, so I said nothing either and continued to eat. When I was done, I put the dishes in the washing machine then went into the living room. Jasper followed me silently. I sat on the sofa and looked at each of the vampires in turn. Emmett looked really bored, his arms folded, looking everywhere around the room.

Then, all three heads shot round to look at the front door. I heard a car pull up outside, and a second later the door opened and a beautiful blond female walked in. And I mean beautiful, like, super-modal beautiful. Her sharp golden eyes fixed on me, and she gave me a fierce glare, but said nothing, and went to Emmett, putting her hand on his chest, whispering something to him. Her eyes moved in my direction and I realised she was talking about me. Great. Another person who didn't like me. Join the freakin' queue.

Jasper was suddenly by my side, and I could see his fists were clenched by his side. I couldn't see his eyes, but I was sure they would be dark again.

"Rosalie," said Esme gently. "It's rude to walk into someone's house unannounced."

Rosalie gave a small hiss of annoyance and spun round to face us. "I'm rude?!" she demanded. "I'm rude?!" She glared at me and Jasper. "Alice is upset because he is cheating on her with that… that… human!"

I flinched. Ouch. I never would have thought that being called human could be an insult.

Jasper growled. "Rosalie, I am not cheating on Alice! I'm trying to work out what's going on!"

Rosalie bore her sharp white teeth to him, "Tell that to Alice! A human, Jasper, seriously!?"

"Precisely! She's just that, Rosalie! Nothing else!" Jasper snarled back.

I felt my heart drop. Jasper really didn't see me as anything but a human?

I didn't want to hear them argue over me anymore so I jumped to my feet and sprinted for the stairs. I knew that they could have caught me if they wanted, but when I reached the top of the stairs and dove into my room, locking the door behind me, I realised that they must simply not care.

Dammit! Why did I think that Jasper would have followed me, tried to stop me, tried to tell me that he was sorry…

UGH!

I flung myself onto my bed, face down, and buried my face into my pillow, trying not to scream or cry or do anything stupid.

Why the hell did I even think I could mean anything to Jasper, I mean, he had Alice, right? That little… That little… UGH!?

And now my chest was hurting…

It wasn't fair… It just wasn't fair!