A/N: So I've got some bad news, well bad news for me it doesn't really affect you guys. My computer crashed on Thursday and I had already written this chapter, so needless to say I lost all of my work, but have no fear, I have another computer in the house I can use but the down side is I chose to see my computer dying as a sign that I needed to rewrite the chapter. I hope you aren't too upset with the way it turns out and I will still be posting as regularly as I can, if my work isn't totally lost then I will post the original version on the outtakes page. Until next time enjoy!
She is fine most of the time
She takes her days with a smile
Moves like a dancer in light
Spinning around to the sound
But sometimes she falls down
Breathe – Ryan Star
Jasper POV
"Alice?"
"Yeah?" She looked up at me from the living room where she was trying to take her shoes off.
"I wanted to ask you-"
"Hey, have you called your parents yet?" She cut me off as she stood back up.
"No, but I need to ask-"
"When Jasper, I mean the baby is going to be here in a little more then three months! I had to fix things with my family but you can't even pick up the phone and tell yours? How is that fair?" She was clearly pissed now as she walked toward me stopping just out of arms reach.
I released the ring from my grip and pulled my hand out of my pocket. So tonight wasn't the night, which was fine because I wanted to talk to Carlisle, but I was still bummed.
"Do you want me to call them right now?" I said pulling my phone out.
"Yes, I do. Call them with me standing right here." She pointed to the phone and the floor. "Do it, call them, unless you want to sleep on the couch tonight."
"No, I'm calling." I flipped through my contacts quicker now that she threatened me with the dog house. I found the number and pushed it, and placed the phone up to my ear.
It ran four times before my mom picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hi, mama, it's me." I hadn't talked to my parents since Christmas and even then I hadn't told them me and Alice broke up.
"Jasper, oh it's so good to hear from you." She sounded very happy. "The last time I talked to you; you didn't sound so well, was everything alright?" Her mother-well what she has of them-instincts detected my suffering with just my voice, but so could Esme. If I had to choose which women knew me better I would have to say Esme-obviously after Alice. There was so much that I would tell Esme before I even dreamed of telling my real mother, I could never tell my mom that but Esme knew and she kept it to herself knowing I didn't want people thinking I hated my mom because I didn't, still don't, and pretty sure I never will.
"Yeah, ma, I was just sick, I had the flu I think." I wasn't above lying to my mother to avoid a conversation I knew was coming anyways.
"Oh, sweetheart" She sounded like she was talking to a child. "Well I hope Alice did a good job taking care of you"
"She did, actually mama I was calling you and dad to tell you that we're going to have a baby." I said it with a smile on my face and looked at Alice who still had a mean death stare going on and her arms crossed.
"Oh, how wonderful, Alexander, Jasper and Alice are going to have a baby." She told my father. "When is she due?" This was what I wanted to avoid if I could.
"Um…June 30th." I shut my eyes even though she was actually there waiting for the yelling to start.
"June 30th-wait…June 30th? It's the end of February!" She had a tone when she finally caught on. "Jasper, why haven't you called us sooner?" She was angry now.
"I'm sorry mama I've-I've…I've only known for a few weeks, me and Alice split for a while and she moved to Seattle before she found out, but she knew I didn't want children so she never called. I went looking for her to talk to her and I saw the obvious, but now we're back together, and we plan to stay that way." I didn't want my parents to think Alice was the bad guy in all of this-which they would just because I'm their son. I was over it so it didn't matter anymore, I would inform the rest of the group the story just in case and I was sure they would understand.
"So why didn't you call us a few weeks ago when you found out?" She wasn't so upset but there was still that tone.
"It's been hectic mama, the place where Ali was staying had a gas leak so we've been staying in a hotel, and we just bought a house in the suburbs of Seattle, not far from her job." I kept looking at Alice as I spoke and now a big smile crossed her face and she came and wrapped her arms around me, I hugged her shoulders with my free hand and after a minute I started moving us toward the couch.
"Seattle? What are you going to do about work? Do they have another branch there?" My mother was meddlesome but I knew she would only ask again if I didn't answer.
"No they don't have a branch, I'm going to look for something here in the city and until I do Alice has a well paying career that starting to really kick off so we will be fine until I do." I hadn't even told Alice about the potential job so I sure as hell didn't want to tell my mother. We sat down on the couch and got comfy while I finished up the horrible call that should have been fun.
"Do you know what you're having?" She was really lightening up now.
"No, we're gonna wait."
"Ok. So you bought a house you say? Is it a starter house?" It continued on.
"No, it's a four bedroom, and 2 ½ bath, it's a good place to raise a family, good neighborhood, definitely several steps up from our apartment in Port Angeles." I was proud to say.
"Ya'll have to call us when Alice goes into labor now you hear; Rosalie has already been instructed to do the same. Don't forget to call; you never call us anymore Jasper." She now complained. "And what do you mean you and Alice split up, when did that happen?" I was about to get caught in my lie.
"Um last fall, not long after Rose found out she was pregnant." I admitted.
"When I talked to ya at Christmas you said she was 'fine', why did you lie to me?" She sounded hurt.
"Because I wasn't dealing with it well, that's what you heard in my voice at Christmas, it was the sound of my pain and suffering." I didn't want Alice to hear this because she already felt bad enough, but I needed my mom to understand why it was too hard to talk about it then. "I only got better after I found out about the baby and we got back together." I looked down at Alice who was resting her back against my chest I smiled at her when she looked up at me and she smiled back. It was all worth it.
"But you're fine now? You and Alice are fine now?" She demanded.
"Yes, we're both fine mama, don't worry."
"Ok then. You better not lie to me again!" She also demanded.
"Yes ma'am." I sounded like a true Southern gentlemen. "How's dad doing?" I hated to ask but I figured I might as well.
"He's doing good, let me see if he wants to talk, hold on."
"No mama, it's fi-" But it was already too late.
"Alexander, do you want to talk to Jasper!" I heard her faint yelling. A few seconds later she picked up the phone again.
"Um, sweetheart, he's real busy right now, can he call ya some other time?" Her accent was thick as she lied to me. I wasn't going to call her out on it though because the truth was I didn't really want to talk to my father, we had been fighting for the past few years and I honestly can't even remember why, but we were both stubborn men so it continued to drag on.
"It's ok mama, I love ya and I'll call ya soon, I promise." My accent always shined a little more when I was talking to my mom and the promise was one I was going to keep, mainly so I wouldn't get yelled at again.
"Ok sugar, I love ya." At least she wasn't pissed anymore.
"Love you too mama." I hung up the phone and tossed it on the messy coffee table. "Are you happy now?" I asked my pregnant pixie.
"Yes and no." She answered still staring straight ahead.
"Why? What did I do wrong?" I figured it was something I forgot to add in, some minor detail.
"That's not it." She shook her head.
"What is it then?" I sounded more concerned and I was.
"It's not right…what I put you through, I don't deserve to have you lie to your parents for me, and I sure as hell don't deserve you." She had finally looked up to tell me.
"Oh, Alice, don't think like that, you know how I feel about you. I didn't tell her the truth because my parents can be very critical, and I didn't want to hear it especially if you're involved." I brushed the back of my hand on her cheek. "So don't worry about it, I love you, that's all that matters." I smiled and kissed the top of her head.
"Ohm, I'm exhausted." She complained and let out a large yawn which I caught.
"Me too, how sad is that, we're in our mid-twenties and we're tired at 9 o'clock." We were definitely pathetic.
"It's sad for you, for me I'm pregnant I get to be tired all the time." She said pulling herself back up, I got off the couch quickly to help her stand and she took my offered hand.
"You're right." I gave in. "I can't wait to show you the house tomorrow." I smiled as we walked into the bedroom.
"I know I'm so excited." She practically was jumping up and down.
I slept well that night dreaming about our house and how it would look once we moved in. It was a place I could stay forever.
Alice POV
I was more then happy when Jasper finally called his parents, and I really was pissed when I found out he still hadn't and I needed him to know it. The following morning I was anxious to see the house, Jasper had called Emily-the realtor-and she said she would meet us there at noon.
11:30 finally rolled around and we hopped in the jeep and headed to our new home. I recognized the street name and began looking for the house I knew from the photo. Jasper was right, it was a place to raise a family, I saw me and Jasper sitting in rocking chairs on the porch in the summer when we were old and gray, maybe a golden retriever or some reliable breed of dog at our feet.
Emily was already in the driveway when we pulled in and she waved to us near the front door. We got out and Jasper waited for me to come around took my hand and led me toward the house, our house.
"Hey Jasper, and you must be Alice?" She turned to look at me, I nodded my head yes. "I'm Emily, it nice to meet you." She stuck her hand out for me to shake.
"Same here. Does that mean he and my brothers have been talking about me?" I wondered.
"I've heard nothing but good things, and Jasper was a little worried you'd be upset about this." She gestured to the house.
"He worried unnecessarily, I'm just glad he found a place so quick." I found it easy to converse with her.
"Well, come on in and have a look around." She turned to unlock the door. "So far the paperwork is looking good, we'll do the credit check tomorrow oh and Alice I have some papers I need you to sign as well. Jasper signed just enough to take it off the market." She opened the door wide and stepped aside. "This is your house; you should be the first to enter." She smiled as she told me.
I walked into the long narrow hallway with Jazz behind me until I approached the end where the interior finally appeared more then a half blocked set of stairs. The main floor was large-except for the hallway-branching the house into sections, to the left was the dining room and kitchen, to the right was a large family room with a beautiful stone fireplace, in front of me to the right were the stairs, and dead ahead was a decent sized sitting room that walked-out to a very large porch. I decided to start at the center and work my way over, there was another walk-out door in the kitchen, and the dining room was separate from the kitchen with its windows facing the front of the house.
The backyard was big and green with a two small pine trees one in each of the back corners of the yard, the porch itself took up almost half of the yard. I left the kitchen and went to the sitting room, it sat lower then the rest of the main floor with a step at both entrances, its whole back wall was windows that faced out to the yard and there was another small fireplace on the south wall and had built-in bookshelves that covered the rest.
"We'll have to get a few baby gates for these steps." I pointed to the two single steps that went to the kitchen and toward the hallway.
"Yeah, I figured we would, but the living room is pretty big, I thought maybe we could put a changing table down here and a basinet so we don't have to go up and down the stairs for everything." Jazz said taking my hand and pulling me to the living room which I hadn't looked at fully yet.
Jasper was right; the living room was big with more bookshelves against the hallway wall and the large stone fireplace on the shared wall with the sitting room. There was one extra large window that faced west-the front yard- and two smaller ones on the south side.
"I haven't even seen the upstairs and I already love it." I smiled looking at Jazz.
"I was the same way." He gave me a quick kiss.
"This here is the half bath, the other two are upstairs." Emily said opening the door I passed on my way in here near the stairs. "Are you ready to go up?" She asked her smile never leaving her face.
"Yes." I replied.
When we got to the top the hallway branched off both ways.
"The master bedroom is this way and the other three rooms are down there." Emily pointed to the right first then the left.
She went toward the master first and I was amazed when I walked in, it was a large room with neutral colored walls and sand colored carpet like the rest of the house except for the kitchen and hallway which was a light wood.
"Wait you haven't even seen the best part yet." Jazz sounded a bit too excited when he pulled me to the left of the room. He opened the door to reveal a large walk-in closet that curved into an L shape. I gasped when as I took it all in.
"You are- oh, I could just eat you alive right now." I said through my teeth as I grabbed the front of his shirt and gave him a passionate kiss, and then I remembered we weren't alone. "Sorry, hormones." I blushed as I told Emily.
"Don't worry about it; do you want to see the other rooms and your bathroom?" She pointed to the bathroom I had yet to look at.
It was large with double sinks, a large double-headed stand-up shower and a beautiful bathtub on legs.
"Now I really know why you bought this house." I stated.
"Why's that?" He wondered.
"The bathroom, I won't be able to complain its too crowded, and the doubled-headed shower." I had caught on.
"It was just a bonus really." He tried to sound nonchalant about it.
"Um hmm, yeah, I'm sure." I teased him. So now comes the task of choosing a room for the baby, you said they were to the left of the stairs?" I asked Emily the last part.
"Yes, they are." Emily turned around to leave and me and Jasper followed. "This here is the remaining bathroom." She stopped across from the stairs.
The bathroom itself wasn't the biggest, it was bigger then the one at our apartment, but if there were more then two people trying to use it in the morning, it would be difficult.
"If we have more then one let's hope they're not girls, mornings would be a trip to hell and back." I laughed at Jasper thinking about the possible outcome.
"I thought about that afterwards, the basement isn't finished and there is space to put another room and bathroom plus still have a nice area for a mini bar maybe?" He snuck in the last part. I stopped walking and turned to face him.
"A mini bar? With a baby on the way?" I stopped walking. I knew he really wanted one but I decided to have a little fun.
"Pretty please, come on it will be at least another 15 years before our baby won't be afraid to come down here if we say there is a boogeyman." He sounded like an idiot, but it was making me laugh more.
"You want to tell our child that there is a monster in the basement, do you not like sleep, because the last time I checked on the weekends you sleep until after 12 if I don't wake you up first." I kept it up.
"Ok, bad idea, but come on, Emmett's got one, and it sounds like Rose is going to take it out and turn it into a play room anyways. You wouldn't just be doing it for me but you'd be doing it for Emmett too." He tried to make me feel bad.
"So you really want a man-cave for Emmett?" I turned back around and went into the first bedroom, it was small and kind of had an L shape to it like my closet, but it was a bit bigger.
"Yes and no." He answered.
"Well which is it, 'yes' or 'no'?"
"Yes, because Emmett will be devastated when his beer signs get banished to the garage, and no because I've always wanted a man-cave of my very own." He looked down at his feet and kicked some invisible thing.
"I think we might be able to work something out and get you a man-cave of your very own." I had always intended on saying yes but I wanted to know his reasons and to make him think I might say no to see how bad he wanted it.
"Really, oh I love you baby." He had a grin the size of California as he gave me a very tight hug.
"Ok, honey, choking me and the baby." I managed to get out.
"Oh, sorry." He released me right away and resorted to just holding my hand.
We left the room and headed down a part of the hallway I hadn't seen yet because it was hidden, at the end were two doors on each side.
"These two rooms are virtually identical, except the one on the right has two more windows that face the north side of the house." Emily informed me.
After looking in both I realized she was right.
"So which one do you like for the nursery?" Jasper asked wrapping his arms around me and pulling my back into his chest.
"I think I like the smaller one for now, it's the closest to us. But I don't think I'm going to want the baby sleeping in there at first, I'd rather have her in our room, because if someone breaks in they don't even have to walk by us to get to the baby, we'd never hear it." There was panic in my voice.
"Alice, calm down its ok, it's not a big deal the baby can sleep in our room until you're comfortable otherwise." He turned me around to say.
"And I can assure you the neighborhood watch here is very good, everyone kinda watches out for everyone." Emily tried comforting me.
"I'm sure I'm just overreacting, I struggle to think that soon we'll be separated forever, I think I'll miss feeling her inside me." My hands moved to my belly as I looked down at my bulging stomach.
"You've never referred to the baby as a 'him' or 'her' before." Jasper sounded surprised and I was too because he was right.
"I guess it just feels like it might be a girl, I don't know." I waved it off trying to drop it.
"Well I think it's a boy." Jasper stated.
"Wanna make a bet? $20 says it's a girl?" I offered.
"Deal." He stuck his hand out like he did every time we made a bet and I shook it sealing our deal.
"So what do you think of the house?" Emily asked.
"Jasper was right, I love it. He knows just what I like; it must come from knowing me so long." I looked at the man I loved.
"How long have you two been together?" She asked as we headed back through the hallway and down the stairs.
"Ten years, but we've known each other since we were toddlers; we grew up next door to each other." Jasper filled in.
"Wow, so yeah I guess you would be in tune with each other. Ok, Alice, I just have a few papers I need you to sign and then everything will be finished."
"Alright, so when can we start moving in?" I asked.
"If everything goes ok with the credit checks and what not they you can move in as early as next weekend." She said.
Yes!
"Great, we have a lot to do, and I've got a wedding that's less then three weeks away." I explained.
"Oh, are you guys getting married?" She was curious.
"No, I plan weddings for a living; I work for Christophe and Company.
"Ok, I know where that is, Rachael Christophe is a genius, wow so yeah you can afford this house with the clients you work with." She laughed at herself. "Alright, just sign anywhere you see the red 'X' and let me know if you have questions about any thing." She pushed the small stack of papers in front of me at the island in the kitchen. I couldn't wait to cook something on the beautiful stainless steel stove, hear the sounds of feet running across the hard floors and I smiled as I grabbed the first paper in the stack.
I spent a half hour signing things and when I was finished my hand was all cramped up. Emily told us she would call Monday after they heard back from the bank and we would go from there. I was so thrilled that Jasper had found our home that I thought I might wet my pants from excitement.
"Oh, I'm so happy Jasper, we could be out of the hotel by next weekend, and I know the colors I want to use on the walls in the nursery, after that I will let you take it away." I didn't want him to think I was taking his job away from him
"That's cool, I figured you'd pick the color anyways and I'm glad you like it. I guess I should get the rest of my stuff from Rose and Em's this week and move it in storage, which should keep me busy for a while."
"God I can't wait to start our lives there, it's like I can see what it will be like in the future." I sighed with content.
"And what does our future hold?" He teased me.
"Happiness…lots, and lots of happiness." I watched him to see his reaction.
"Well that's a good thing isn't it?" He wasn't really asking but I decided to answer anyway.
"It's a very good thing." I smiled at him.