Happiness in Unexpected Situations

A/N: Throw stones at me. I know. I'm a horrible person. And I have no right to ask of you guys to go vote for my story that was nominated (for the first time oh my goodness, I'm so excited!) over at the Slash Awards, but if you find it in you to forgive my horrible self then you'll do it anyway out of the kindness of your heart :]

A Close Call

"Alice! You can't just barge into their room without knocking!"

Jasper grunted as he slowly awoke to Bella's familiar voice. He tightened his hold on Edward and opened one eye lazily to watch Alice sneak quietly into their room.

"It's almost nine o'clock, Bells," Alice hissed back. "These lazy bones should be up by now anyway!"

Jasper fought back a smile at Bella's groan and he heard the door creak open a bit wider as Bella entered, albeit reluctantly. He felt Edward slowly stir next to him, and Jasper sighed and took that as his cue to awaken as he lifted his head slightly.

The footsteps ceased.

"Alice."

He heard Bella's sigh of relief and his eyes flew open when he felt one hundred pounds promptly flop onto his stomach. Jasper glared up at Edward's soon-to-be deceased sister.

"Alice, if you're not off of me in three seconds…"

Alice cheerfully ignored him.

"Good morning, Jasper! It's time to get up; we're going shopping!"

Edward groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Alice, why on earth would we need to go shopping?"

Feeling the edge of the bed dip, he glanced over to see Bella smiling down at him apologetically. Shaking his head, he waved at her to come closer.

"We're going out tonight, of course."

Alice snuggled herself in-between Edward and Jasper, sighing in content. Bella looked hopeful.

"Out as in… a restaurant, out?"

Alice looked offended.

"Of course not! I mean out, out. I feel like we've been cooped up and confined to this house for the past month. What do you guys do for fun, anyway?"

Edward raised an eyebrow.

"I offered to take you to my volleyball practices," he pointed out, dryly.

"And take you to the park," Jasper added, his hands sneakily moving to Edward's backside. Alice noticed the movement and smacked his hand away.

"No offense, but I'd rather watch grass grow than…"

Bella quickly cut her off.

"Unfortunately, Alice has the attention span of a five year old and constantly needs to be entertained," she said, rolling her eyes at Alice's pout. "However, I think getting out for a while and just having some fun would be nice, don't you think?"

Jasper shrugged, indifferent, but Edward didn't respond. Bella placed a light hand on his shoulder.

"Ed?" she asked softly.

He shook his head, and Bella rubbed his shoulder rhythmically.

"It's just a club, Edward." She said softly. "You won't be cheating on him if all you're going to do is go out and have a drink with Jasper, Alice and I. Just us."

Edward gave her a small smile.

"I should know that, Bells. I'm sorry I'm spoiling your guy's plans. You guys go; I don't think I'm up to it tonight."

Jasper pulled him into an embrace, ignoring Alice's squeak of protest as she jumped out of the way.

"Baby, if you don't want to go, we can always stay home and watch a movie."

Bella and Alice nodded in agreement, but Edward shook his head.

"You guys go out, have fun. I think I'll just stay in and order pizza."

Alice and Bella looked dubious, and Jasper bit his lip, unsure. Edward smiled and leaned in to give Jasper a soft kiss.

"I love you. Go, alright?"

Jasper nodded, nibbling his way down Edward's neck as he slowly slid down his pajama bottoms. Neither of them noticed when the other two occupants silently left their bedroom, quietly closing the door behind them.

"A-CHOO!"

Emmet frowned and paused in the act of putting on his leather pants. When the room went silent once more, Emmet walked over to his closet to carefully choose his top. He'd just reached for a white button up shirt when he heard another violent sneeze, this one louder than the first. Concerned, Emmet walked over to his and Jacob's adjoining door and poked his head around the doorway, only to burst out laughing.

Jacob had eye shadow smeared all over his forehead and part of his left cheek, and was glaring at the mirror as he reached for a tissue.

"Are you okay, man?" Emmet snickered, handing Jacob a few more tissues. Jacob glowered at him and sniffled lightly.

"I feel like shit."

"You look like shit," Emmet agreed, ducking when the eye shadow container came flying toward his face. "Alright, alright!"

Emmet eyed Jake critically for a few moments before saying solemnly, "You're sick."

Jacob felt the beginnings of a headache and rubbed his temple irritably.

"How'd you guess that one, Em?"

Emmet flopped onto his bed, yawning.

"You keep sneezing everywhere, and you have a booger hanging out of your nose."

Jacob's hand flew to his nose and groaned to find Emmet was indeed correct. Grabbing a tissue, Jacob quickly blew his nose and threw it across the floor.

Ignoring Emmet's disgusted face and grumble of, "The garbage can is just beside the door," Jacob ran a hand through his hair and started to pace.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do? Aro doesn't do sick."

Emmet waited patiently for Jacob to stay still.

"If at least three people have signed up for you, you can take your sign down for the night and be done after you've finished with your third customer."

Jacob froze.

"What?"

Racing toward the door, Jacob flung it open and snatched his clipboard off the door. Looking at the list, he sighed with relief. Only four had signed up so far.

"You could have told me sooner, Em," he muttered.

Closing the door, Jacob threw the clipboard to Emmet, who caught it deftly and scanned the list.

"Lucky," he said, placing it on the bed. Jacob sneezed again and groaned, leaning his head against the wall. Emmet took pity on him and stood.

"Need help finishing your face? Because I'm not helping you get dressed," he winked. "Even though I know you'd like that, you kinky bastard."

Jacob laughed and pushed him lightly.

"Just help me get ready, smartass."

"What's this place?" Jasper squinted at the sign. "It looks kind of shabby, Alice."

Bella looked at the long line of people that were trying to get in and frowned.

"For looking so shabby, there are a lot of people in line…"

Alice winked.

"Trust me, this place is good. A friend told me about it," she added as she skipped over to the bouncer, winking flirtatiously. Bella fought back a giggle as the bouncer ogled Alice with obvious interest before quickly nodding his head in agreement and opening the red rope. Alice waved Jasper and Bella over, and together they walked through the entrance and were immediately blinded by the bright lights and music. Jasper squinted and was able to make out a large bar a few feet away from the stage, and he turned to Alice to see her pulling anxiously on Bella's very cute dress.

After Alice's forced shopping trip, Jasper had to admit she had pretty good taste.

She'd grabbed Bella a tight black halter with large hoop earrings, but was nice enough to allow her to wear a pair of comfortable flat shoes. Jasper's outfit had been decidedly low key as well, wearing a pair of nice pants and a gray button up shirt.

"You two go ahead," Jasper waved them off as he nodded his head toward the bar. "I'm going to get a drink."

Alice nodded and hooked her arm through Bella's as they marched out onto the crowded dance floor, Alice already shaking her hips to the music. Jasper made his way to the bar and took a seat while he waited for the bartender to notice him. Leaning back in the chair, he allowed his eyes to skim over the establishment.

It looked nice, if a bit rundown; he couldn't see why Alice was so hung up about it. He could tell it was used solely for drinking and dancing, but he was surprised when Alice admitted to the place closing at eleven. Jasper was suspicious of a bar that closed that early, but if it made Alice happy, he would let it go and try to enjoy himself.

"Need anything, mister?"

Jasper was jerked out of his musings as the bartender glared down at him.

"Ah… just a beer, thanks. Any kind you have is fine."

The bartender nodded curtly and turned away to get his drink. Idly wondering what had crawled up that man's ass and died, Jasper was startled when a large hand rested on his arm. Whipping around, he was surprised to find himself staring up into a pair of dark blue eyes.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," the man said, and motioned to the seat next to Jasper. "This empty?"

Jasper nodded.

"Here."

The bartender returned with his drink, and Jasper handed over the money, very much aware of the pair of eyes trained on him.

"I've never seen you around here. New?"

Jasper took of sip of his drink.

"Yes."

The man held out a hand.

"Sorry, never did introduce myself. I'm Colin. Usually I come for the late night party, but tonight I'm feeling a little off, so I came early instead."

His eyes ran over Jasper's form with interest, but Jasper took no notice.

"Late night party?" Jasper asked with a frown, puzzled. Colin froze, instantly looking uncomfortable.

"You…er… don't know?"

When Jasper shook his head, Colin gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh, well then you don't need to worry about it. Have a nice night, beautiful."

Standing quickly, Colin gave him a quick nod and walked off. Jasper scratched the back of his neck. Odd…

Finishing the rest of his drink, he stood, not sure if he was supposed to be the designated driver or not. Deciding one drink was enough for now, his eyes wandered over the dance floor as he scanned it for Bella and Alice.

He found them at the edge of the crowd, Alice all but grinding on Bella's leg as they danced to the beat. Shaking his head in amusement, he started over to them only to freeze when he heard a deadly familiar voice hiss.

"We shouldn't be here, Emmet!"

Jacob fixed his hair one last time before giving a small sigh.

"What time is it, Em?"

Emmet's eyes were glued to the television.

"Hm?"

Jacob threw a pillow at him.

"Emmet!"

Grunting, Emmet raised his hands to his face to fix the smudge to his makeup.

"Mess up my face and I'll mess up yours," he threatened before turning over gingerly and checking his watch. "It's only ten thirty, Jacob. We don't have to be down until midnight. What's up?"

Jacob sighed.

"I'm tired. If I don't do something now, I'm going to be knocked out within the hour," he explained, before suddenly freezing. "Do we have any fudge?"

Emmet fought back a grin.

"No. You ate it all last week."

To Jacob's pleading eyes, Emmet chuckled.

"No way am I laying my ass on the line for you, bro. You know as well as I do downstairs is off limits during normal hours."

"… If Aro sees us, this is all on you."

Jacob shushed him and dragged Emmet along the hallway that led to the kitchens. Thankfully with how much Emmet ate, they were on a first name basis with the chef, who would practically give them anything they wanted. Just as they were passing a door that led to the bar, Emmet slowed down and peeked through the window.

Jacob grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?"

Emmet looked surprised.

"Have you ever seen the bar this full before?" His eyes scanned the dance floor and narrowed in on a pretty brunette. "They've got some cute ones out there to."

Jacob rolled his eyes.

"Do you only think about girls? For not wanting to get caught, you sure are intent on slowing us down."

Emmet placed a finger to his lips.

"Just a peek? I've never seen her before, so they can't be regulars. They won't be here later tonight."

Jacob debated with himself for a while before reluctantly giving in.

"Fine. But hurry."

Emmet wedged open the door and slipped through, much to Jacob's horror.

"Emmet," he growled to himself as he slipped through the door after him. Luckily Emmet hadn't gotten very far, and was simply standing quietly near the door, watching the proceedings with interest. Jacob did the same. Unlike later on, there was only a dance floor available to the guests, as well as a bar. It was fuller than usual, however, with couples pressed tightly on the dance floor. When Emmet took a step forward Jacob's hand whipped out to pull him back.

"We shouldn't be here, Emmet!" he hissed.

A soft voice startled them both.

"Hello?"

Emmet finally seemed to realize the seriousness of their actions and grabbed a petrified Jacob and shoved him through the door, but not before Jacob had locked eyes with a familiar pair of green ones.

"J… Jasper?"

A/N: That wasn't originally where I was going, and my plot line is not happy with this turn of events, but it just sort of fit, no? :] Don't forget to go vote over at the Slash Awards! All of the nominees are pretty much amazing.

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