Lessons Unexpected—Chapter 14

A/N: I can't believe so many of you were worried Bella would just go "Oh, Edward! I LOVE YOU TOO!" and they'd skip off into the sunset as they glittered like every Hilary Duff product known to man. Puh-lease, people ;)

Now, sadly, I am running out of buffer for this story and since my RL is chaotic updates MAY become less frequent. I will try very, very hard to not let that happen but no guarantees, okay?

She disappears in her loyalty. She is a dress wearing a face in the doorway, opening her arms up to you – "Whatever You Want" by Vienna Teng

Edward opened his mouth to respond when all six of the vampires suddenly realized that there was another car racing down the driveway. Bella looked up towards the house and the mess of the patio door as she heard the tires on gravel.

"That would be Carlisle and Rose," Emmett said to no one in particular.

"Great," Bella muttered, "Just what we need. More Cullens."

"We were only here to help you, Bella!" Alice said, her tone defensive, "The least you could do is show a little gratitude."

"Gratitude!" Bella laughed and it was a hollow sound. "When I needed your help, where were you Alice? When I was practically suicidal, where were you? When my mother died, where were you? Where was my so called sister then?"

Alice opened her mouth and then closed it firmly, at a loss for words. Bella glared at her, satisfied that she had finally shut up the one person who had always had a convenient answer, all in thanks to her gift.

"Bella?"

Everyone turned to see Carlisle and Rosalie standing on the back patio, their eyes taking in the defensive postures of all six vampires on the back lawn. Carlisle still looked as stunning as he had when she was seventeen and met him for the first time in the Forks Hospital ER only now Bella was able to fully appreciate his pale skin offset by blonde hair and golden eyes. She felt something churn in her stomach at the sight of the man she had once admired so damn much.

"Do I dare ask what's happened here?" he asked as he walked toward his wife. Rosalie headed for Emmett.

"Oh, Carlisle," Esme whispered, tucking her face into his neck.

"Bella you...you look..." he hesitated, clearly unsure of how to proceed and she snorted.

"Different? Little paler? Yeah, I haven't hit the beach in a while."

"What the fuck is your problem?" Rosalie asked suddenly. Emmett reached out for her but she shrugged him off, "You got what you always wanted, why are you being such a bitch?"

"Takes one to know one," Bella spat back, turning with lightening speed to face Rosalie, "and don't you dare fucking talk to me about what I wanted. I've had more than enough of that Cullen trait."

"Where do you get off?" Rosalie darted forward so that she was right in front of Bella.

"Rose—" Emmett started

"You've always caused problems for my family," Rosalie hissed, her golden eyes narrowed in loathing, "I should have killed you when I had the chance."

"Yeah, you would have liked that, wouldn't you Rosalie?" Bella sneered, "because god forbid someone other than you be the center of attention."

Rosalie laughed, "Right, because finding someone to turn you doesn't make you an attention whore."

Bella snorted again and shook her head, "You're a stupid cunt, you know that right?"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Edward's head whip up in shock and she nearly grinned. How could I forget about Edward's sense of propriety? She thought to herself. Her peripheral vision told her that every single Cullen was staring at her in shock, only Jasper looked unfazed. Bella didn't often roll out the C word, but she'd make an exception for Rosalie. She glared at the vampire in question, whose face was set in a sour expression. She opened her mouth but it was Jasper's quiet voice that cut her off.

"Bella didn't ask to be changed."

Rosalie's head whipped around so fast that, had she been human, it would have broken her neck. Bella followed her gaze and saw that Jasper was standing there, his hands resting lightly on his hips and a determined expression on his face.

"I stumbled upon her at the University of Alaska Fairbanks," he addressed the room but his black eyes were on Bella.

"She was a student there. An English and Psychology major in her fourth year, mere months from her degree. The only reason why I even found her was because I happened across her scent while walking through one of the buildings. Turns out, it's the same building she had her mailbox in, which meant that repeat visits would ensure her scent would linger," he smiled slightly, "you've always had a very distinct scent darlin'."

Edward let out a soft growl but Jasper and everyone else ignored him. They were as riveted by his story as Bella was. She belatedly realized that this was the first time she was hearing their story from his point of view.

"I followed her to where she worked, a cafe and bar called Down Dogs. I listened in on her conversations and I was extremely entertained by the backbone she seemed to have grown in four years," this time he really did grin, "I listened to her talk to her incompetent boss like the fool that he is, joke with her patrons, and chew out drunken fratboys. The more I listened, the angrier I got."

For all Bella knew, the rest of the room could have disappeared. She stared at Jasper and he gazed back, neither of them taking in the people around them. She frowned at him slightly, not understanding why he was angry at her for simply living her life. Almost as if he could read the questions running through her mind, he held up his hand to her, stopping her before she opened her mouth to ask.

"All I could think was, how dare you?" he said, addressing her now, "How dare you be happy? How could you, when you were the reason my world had fallen apart. When that drunk student came out into the alley way, I lashed out at him and intended to kill him but you just had to chose that exact moment to take the trash out."

Jasper smiled wryly, "I've never been so pissed off at a human in my entire life. God, you know just how to push my buttons, who knew?" Bella nodded sagely; it was true, they certainly knew how to fight, the two of them.

"Long story short," Bella cut in quietly, her voice soft and her eyes still on Jasper, "We said some really hurtful things to each other. Actually, we screamed them. And I may have hit him with a lamp."

Jasper snorted softly as she sighed, raked a hand through her hair and finally looked away from him. She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her temples. She felt like she should have a headache and the memory of one flitted through her head even though nothing actually hurt, "I goaded him. He goaded me. We made mistakes. We both paid for them. End of story."

Bella didn't know why, but she didn't want to air their dirty laundry in front of the Cullens. By all rights, she should be spitting mad and letting out the whole sordid tale so that the Cullens could rip into Jasper. She had almost done that earlier and look at what had happened; Edward had attacked Jasper. When it came down to seeing one of them die, she had intervened without a second thought. Edward was still growling softly, Alice's face was a mask of anger, Rosalie looked betrayed and even Carlisle's upper lip was pulled back, exposing his teeth. Yes, if she wanted to, she could cause some serious damage here. Jasper was a good fighter, there was no doubt about that, but could he take all of the Cullens? There was a point in time when she would have said that it would never happen, they would never attack each other, but looking at the angry vampires around her, she could see it happening.

"End of story?" Rosalie hissed, her eyes darting between Bella and Jasper, "He changed you against your will and all you can say is 'end of story'?"

Bella sighed again, "Yes, Rosalie. That's how I feel. Trust me, Jasper and I have had plenty of time to fight about it," she sounded tired and she was, tired of talking, "we've talked about it, we've worked it out. It's done, nothing can change it, why continue fighting?"

"But your family!" Rosalie exclaimed, apparently forgetting that she hated Bella.

"What am I supposed to do, Rosalie?" Bella demanded, her anger rising again, "Waltz back into my apartment and say, "Guess what guys? I'm a vampire! I want to rip all your throats out!" she put on a falsely sweet and happy voice, "Group hug!"

Emmett snorted and everyone's eyes turned to him, "What?" he asked defensively, "it was funny." Rosalie looked like she wanted to deck him but Bella almost smiled.

"Don't you want revenge?" Rosalie asked, turning back to Bella and pinning her with a curious expression. Bella looked at her, confused.

"Revenge?" she repeated, "What will that do? What will that give me?"

"Satisfaction!" Rosalie replied instantly.

Bella shook her head, "No, it won't," she turned and looked at Jasper again, "Maybe it would if it hadn't been Jasper, but there's too much history between us. I don't want to see him hurt."

"History?" Edward spat, "What kind of history are you talking about here?"

Bella turned on him, her gaze cold, "Think Edward, think long and hard and maybe, just maybe you'll come up with something."

"You're both alone," Alice whispered.

Bella had almost forgotten that she was there. Sure, there was the part of her brain that had catalogued each Cullen, their scent, position in the room and the threat they posed, but Bella didn't think with that part of her brain. She turned and looked at the short, pixie haired vampire and nodded once, "Yes. That is part of it."

"Part?" Edward repeated, his eyes darting between the two of them.

"Edward," Bella said, crossing her arms over her chest, "Let's get this straight once and for all, shall we? What I do with my life is none of your business! So stop acting like it is!"

Edward closed his eyes and pressed his lips together as if he were holding himself back from bursting out with something. Bella didn't wait, she turned away from him and addressed the room at large.

"Yes, Jasper changed me against my will, but that is between the two of us and we've worked it out. I don't care if you don't like it, I don't really give a damn what any of you think and if that offends you, well, I don't care about that either," Bella walked over to Jasper and reached out, grabbing his hand, "Jasper has promised to stay with me until I can control myself, at that point we'll decide whether we should part ways, but that will be our choice and I really don't want to hear your opinion on it."

"Bella," Emmett said, stepping forward for the first time. He had been curiously calm and quiet throughout most of the exchange. "You have to know that we care abou—"

"Emmett, don't," Bella said, holding up a hand. For the first time since they had arrived, something other than anger was surfacing in her. She knew that Jasper felt it because he turned to look at her, squeezing her hand tentatively. He didn't try to drown out her emotions though, and for that she was thankful. She gripped his hand hard. She pushed back the anger over his lie about Tanya to the back of her mind because right now, she needed this anchor that he was providing. She knew, without really being able to explain how, that Jasper was here for her in this. Out of everyone in this room right now, she could count on him to have her back.

"Bells—" he tried again.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" she screamed, her voice breaking on the last word. It was what her father had called her. He was practically the only one who had ever called her that, with the exception of Jacob, but Jake had picked it up from Charlie and it hurt to hear that name dropping from someone else's lips. The horrible lump was back in her throat again and her eyes burned mercilessly. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose, trying to calm down. She would not lose her cool in front of the Cullens, they would not see her break down and cry.

Without opening her eyes, "You'll have to forgive me if I don't believe that," there wasn't a sound in the room except her own breathing. It seemed that every other vampire was holding theirs, "I was raised to believe that you stand by your family, especially when they've done nothing wrong."

"I know that I didn't do anything wrong," Bella said, taking another deep breath and keeping her eyes closed, she knew that if she was going to say this calmly she couldn't look at them, "And I know that you lay the blame at Edward's feet, that you feel he made you leave, but I cannot accept that. The fact of the matter is that no one forced you, no one could have. You're fucking vampires for fucks sake, you're immortal. It's not like a gun to the head has a lot of persuasive pull for any of you. I cannot forgive you for walking away from me when I would have done anything, anything, for any of you."

She opened her eyes, her gaze falling on Alice. Whatever she was going to say next was pushed aside by the sight of the smaller vampire, standing there and glaring daggers at Jasper. Her golden eyes kept darting down to where Jasper held Bella's hand tightly in his own. Bella growled, "Succumbing to the nature that you fight to suppress every day is not doing something wrong. We are what we are, human, vampire, or animal; we can't change that and we all make mistakes. It does not make us monsters."

Alice's eyes darted to Bella's and she had the sense to look slightly ashamed.

"Jasper made a mistake, he's made a lot of them I suspect," she squeezed his hand, "but you were supposed to be his family and you tossed him away like a piece of shit because of something he really couldn't control. I know that he didn't really want to hurt me and I finally understand a little bit of what he felt that day. But what I don't understand is how you were all so quick to condemn him for something that almost every single one of you have done before."

She looked at each of them in turn, "Each of you, with the exception of Carlisle, has taken a human life," she let her gaze rest on Edward, "several, in fact." She swept her gaze around them again, resting on Rosalie. The truth was that she wasn't sure that Rosalie, or even Alice, had ever killed anyone and she was taking a gamble here but she was pretty positive that given the fact that she knew Alice had no guidance when she awoke the odds were that she would have given in to her instincts even with her visions. Rosalie...well, Rosalie was far too much of a bitch to not have taken that kind of anger out on someone before. "Do you deny it?"

Not a one of them spoke and Bella felt a brief rush of relief that she was right.

"So how dare you judge him?" she asked, "You, of all people, who should have been understanding?" she shook her head, "I can't fucking believe you."

"His attack on your birthday may have been an accident," Edward's lip curled on the word as if he didn't believe it, "but how do you justify his current diet?"

"I don't," Bella said, "I don't like it, and Jasper knows that, but it's his choice and I'm the last person who would want to take that away from someone even if I don't agree with it."

"So you'll live with someone who takes a human life on a regular basis," Edward asked, arching an eyebrow.

"How many vampires do you know, Edward?" Bella asked, casually.

"Hundreds," Edward said, his brow furrowing.

"And do all of them follow your diet? Or is there a huge population of vegetarian vampires out there that I don't know about?" Bella arched an eyebrow at him.

"Only the Denali's follow our lifestyle," Edward said shortly, the look on his face stating that he knew where she was going with this.

"And yet you still associate with the others."

"But we don't live with them!"

"But it's my choice if I want to live with a vampire who does hunt humans."

"Bella," Edward said, exasperated, "You can't be serious!"

"Oh," she grinned, but there was no humour in it, "I'm dead serious."

Edward didn't need to know that Bella really didn't have any intention of sticking around if Jasper was going to continue killing human beings. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right. Briefly, her mind went back to that kiss she had shared with Jasper and the fire that it had ignited in her belly, but she pushed it away to think on later. Not for the first time, she was glad that Edward couldn't read her mind. He would fly into a rage because...because he still loved her. She felt her stomach do a nervous flip and she swallowed unconsciously.

Edward was staring at her, disbelief evident in his expression, shaking his head slowly.

"I don't know you anymore, Bella," he whispered.

She clenched her hands, even the one still holding onto Jasper, and tilted up her chin, trying to push away the jumbled thoughts in her head.

"You never knew me at all."

A/N: Alright people! It is Halloween this weekend (for all of us who live in North America—sorry Jessicka!) and I hope you all enjoy it! I will be getting my drink on with a bunch of people who, like me, are technically too old to dress up but young enough to not give a damn.

Teaser: People are STILL having trouble with the link and I've been advised to not put in the "dot" so that it's easier to copy and paste, so I won't do that anymore BUT if you still can't get the link to work, DM me and I will send it to you. I will be hung over on Sunday while trying to plan a lesson on Hamlet so please do try the link first ;)

http: / /alexisdanaan . tumblr . com/post/1428735475/teaser-ch-15-lessons-unexpected