Disclaimer: Only Benjamin Hale is mine. heehee..SM own the rest of them

A/N: So glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter. Here is part deux, how do they handle the repercussion of Rosalie's bomb?

Chapter 16 : The Curious Case of Benjamin Hale : Part Deux

" Jasper!!!"

……

…….

Emmett POV

I had never been angrier with Rosalie as I was now. I glared down at her menacingly outside Jasper's room, having just deposited my unconscious brother on his bed to let Edward check him out.

"Rosalie fucking Hale, don't you dare say a word right now," I hissed at her. I'd hardly ever used the f word to her in an angry tone but I was livid right now.

"Emmett..I'm.." she stammered.

"Quit it! I don't give a shit what you want to say now, or if your story makes sense, if Jasper is indeed your brother or not. You're an adult! Fuck you're a level headed intelligent woman! I expected better of you than to just throw all of that in his face like this, OR have you forgotten the one big fact that he's sick?!!" I snarled furiously, not caring that I was yelling at her face.

There were many things of Rosalie's I could tolerate, but this wasn't one them. And when it came to Jasper's well being these days, I would not tolerate any shit from anyone, my babe included.

She balked positively and her face crumpled into tears.

"You better pray he's alright…or I don't… I don't know what I'll do with you…" I hissed angrily as I started pacing the small space in front of Jasper's room, frantically waiting for Edward to come out with news. I saw Bella pull her away from where she was standing just then, and I was silently grateful to her for doing that. I was not in a good space right now, and as much as I was angry at Rosalie, I didn't want to unleash my fury at her anymore than necessary.

It seemed ages then, even though it was only probably 10 minutes before Edward came out of Jasper's room, looking very relieved. I relaxed instantly.

"How is he?"

"I think he was just overwhelmed with everything. He seemed fine. He's sporting a bruise on his head and shoulder though, from the fall. Dad will want to know why that is.." he intoned.

"Shit…," I muttered thinking of the explaining we'd have to give to dad when he came back with mom later. Leave their sick son with us for a day and he's all bruised up. Way to go Emmett.

That could wait though, for now, I wanted to see for myself that Jasper was indeed alright. He would probably hate me for thinking him fragile, but ever since he got ill, I couldn't but think so and it made me a little protective of him these days. If he hated it, he'd have to live with it. I was his big brother after all. I looked at Edward and he cocked his head towards the door in response. With a nod, I slid past him into Jasper's room. He followed me.

Shit Rosie. Did he really need more shit thrown at him now? He was just getting over this one, I thought jadedly. I saw him stir and I made a move to touch his shoulder briefly.

"Hey bro… how you feeling?" I asked softly. He blinked his eyes rapidly before groaning and touching the smarting bruise on the side of his forehead.

"What .." he groaned as he tried to rise. Edward was quickly by his side, holding his shoulder back down.

"You should probably take it easy for a bit you hit your head quite hard there.." Edward indicated. He shook his head and pushed Edward's hand away lightly before pulling himself up to sit against the headboard.

" Where's Rosie.." he murmured.

" She's downstairs..calming down.." I supplied hastily. He looked at me, again I saw the same look of confusion and bewilderment on his eyes.

"I should probably talk to her.." he spoke, but I could tell he was at a loss of what to say.

"Jas, you don't have to say anything right now.. we've got all the time to discuss this later, Rosie's not going anywhere," I responded to him. He nodded and went silent. I wondered if we should leave him to rest. Dad and Dr R told us way back in the beginning that the patient's emotional and psychological health contributed just as much to the body's immunity response as the physical aspect did. It was dad's quiet way of requesting Edward and I to help Jasper deal with his dark moods, of which he had a morbid fondness of sometimes. He was probably in shock still. I worried now what it was going to do to his already taxed immune system. I growled mentally. Rosie really shouldn't have done this.

He didn't need this extra shit.

"What do you guys think?" he asked suddenly, looking at either of us. There was no accusation in his eyes, he was simply curious to know what we were thinking. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he was more resilient than I thought.

I scratched my short fuzzed head roughly.

"I don't know…. I still say maybe your mother got that brooch somewhere…hey, I'm not insinuating that your mother stole it, but let's say for argument sake that a lady did abduct her brother but she would have wanted to remove evidence right? The brooch could have been sold.. and your mother could have bought it, " I suggested. It made sense right?

"She was spot on about the bone marrow match," Jasper muttered.

"There've been numerous cases of non sibling donors," I interjected.

"But it does sort of explain why the two of you were so…for lack of a better word.. freaking intimate one day after you've met," Edward supplied now. At the word intimate, my eyes flashed red. What the fuck was going on that I wasn't aware of?

"What are you guys talking about? What the fuck?!" I almost yelled. Jasper and Edward chuckling did not allay my worry.

"Emm..relax, not that kind of intimate bro.." Edward pacified. He looked at Jasper, silently asking him to explain the matter that I had obviously been ignorant of for the last 2 months. Fuck!

"Didn't you notice anything between us when we first met? Wasn't it obvious? " Jasper threw his questions at me. I nodded. But I also told them, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary out of it.

"Besides, you have that thing with people..charisma. I thought you were just weaving your magic dude.." I said plainly. Edward guffawed and Jasper rolled his eyes.

"Geez Emm, way to hurt your brother's feeling.. you make it sound like I intentionally play on other people's feeling.." Jasper started. I raised my hands in apology immediately.

"You know I don't mean it that way Jas.." I offered in supplication. He grinned, telling me he was only teasing. He became silent yet again.

"She was right." He spoke now, eyes unfocussed, staring into space. Edward and I looked at him confusedly. What was he talking about now?

"The spark, or electric..whatever it was - when we met..I felt it when she touched my finger, and when she kissed my cheek.." He looked at us half amused. My eyes widened in shock. I didn't think those things actually happened in reality. I thought Rosie was just talking nonsense. Edward raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not kidding you guys.. it was…weird. Kinda messed with my head for a bit." He intoned.

"Why didn't you tell us then?" I asked, astonished. Edward looked at me as if I had sprouted a second head.

"How?? How'd you think you would have reacted man? I kinda valued my life…" he replied, chuckling a little. It dawned on me belatedly how ridiculous my question was. I would have probably killed Jasper if he had told me that there was "spark" going on between him and my babe.

"So what did you do? Weren't you worried at least?" Edward asked now.

"Well, considering I had bigger things to worry about… it wasn't that hard," He responded lightly, but his face darkened then, as if a bad memory had touched his mind. Right, how could we have forgotten, he had just started his chemo when I introduced Rosie to them. I reached out to touch his shoulder and call him back to the present. He shrugged back and the darkness veiling his eyes disappeared.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't try anything dude," I supplied half seriously. I didn't want to think what I'd do to Jasper if he did go after my girl, even if it was only to test a theory. They obviously found it funny.

"I'm glad Rosalie didn't try anything either," Jasper chuckled out as an afterthought. If I thought my eyes couldn't get any bigger and rounder, they did. I nearly choked. Edward coughed guiltily at the mention of that, as if he knew something else we didn't.

"Spill it Edward…" I hissed.

He chuckled. I narrowed my eyes.

"Bella… Bella had a …semi confrontation with Rosalie one day, and warned her not to fuck with you or face her wrath." he muttered trying to stifle a laugh. Bella and Rosalie?! Cat fight?

"Bella Bear versus Dragon Rosalie.." Jasper intoned in a deep bass voice, mimicking one of those horrible WWE commentators we'd seen a couple of time on TV ads in Jasper's room.

Now that would have been a good fight.

We looked at each other for a moment and cracked up laughing again.

……

"You look tired.. you wanna rest for a bit?" I suggested after our laughs had died down.

"Yeah, maybe that's not a bad idea.." he responded tiredly.

I should be glad, but instead I felt distressed by his answer. It was so unlike him to acquiesce so easily. It only made me more acutely aware of his current state of health. I hated being reminded of the fact that he was still very much battling this.

"Wake me up when mom and dad arrive?" he requested. We nodded and left him to rest.

Time to deal with Dragon Rosalie.

***************

Edward POV

We left Jasper to rest and headed downstairs to the lounge where Bella and Rosalie were waiting rather anxiously for our update. Bella was practically fidgeting on the couch and it took all her effort not to launch at me when we started down the stairs.

"How is he?" she asked, worry lining her beautiful face between her eyebrows.

"He's alright, just a little bruised up from the fall." I answered her lightly. She relaxed perceptibly. She linked her fingers with mine and we returned to the couch where Rosalie still sat, quiet as a mouse now. It was so out of character, I had to smirk at Bella. She chided me silently with a flash of glare. Emmett pulled the ottoman to sit in front of her.

"Rosalie," he started. I wondered briefly if we should rather leave them, but a quick glance from Emmett told me he wanted us to stay.

This, this was pretty monumental. Putting Rosalie in her place.

In the last two months of seeing them together, it was always Rosalie who seemed to be wearing the pants in their relationship. And he was like the little puppy happy to tag along behind lady dowager there. We didn't mind, we knew Emmett was strong and solid enough to hold his own. But today Emmett was showing her that he did indeed wear the pants in the relationship, if he wanted to.

"Rosie.." he started again, and placed a finger under her strong chin, lifting her face to look at him. Jasper's chin. They had similar jawlines. I hadn't notice that before.

She didn't speak. But her teary eyes reflected the emotions swirling inside her now. One stood out starkly. She was sorry. I felt a little bad for feeling angry with her earlier on. She was just affected as Jasper was in this.

" I'm..sorr," she had started talking but stopped the moment he put a finger up.

"Disappointed doesn't quite express how I feel about your actions this afternoon," he told her darkly. She cowered at his tone.

"What the hell were you thinking Rosie, going at him like that? You would think he was the enemy." He blurted stiffly.

"Reasonable me would say you were probably shocked by this yourself, but still… it doesn't excuse your behavior...especially, especially seeing that you're fully aware of his condition. Jesus Rosie.. I nearly had a heart attack there when he dropped like that…"

"I'm sorry.." she blurted again.

"You should be.."

"He's barely handling this shit as it is, and you throwing this at him now ....did you really think he would react positively to this? to your attack? I freaking thought he had a.." I could almost read the word relapse forming in his mouth, but then he held his tongue.

I knew Emmett felt let down by her, it showed clearly on his face. And she, she looked just about ready to bawl again at the look he was giving her.

"I don't give a shit what he may be to you, but that's my sick brother there you just hurt Rosalie," as he said it, his voice increased in decibels markedly.

" …arrgh fuck!"

Emmett was not good at handling emotion. He usually got physical before he would even cry. But right now, he was right about to lose it in front of us. I saw him shut his eyes tightly then, and he seemed to be struggling with his inner self for a bit. When he opened them again, I swear I saw them glisten with unshed tears.

"I just want Jasper to get better..."

".. if it means keeping unnecessary shit away him for a while, so be it. I'm willing to do anything if it means it's going to help him get better.."

"Can you understand why I'm so angry with you now?" his voice had softened to barely a whisper, yet I heard the crack in it.

" I'm sorry.." he uttered to her again.

I had to swallow the lump in my throat. Hearing Emmett get emotional like this was not something I was used to.

"I'm sorry..I'm sorry…" she made to speak then, even though she was mostly sobbing the words out.

"I didn't mean to hurt him, I really didn't….I have no excuse, I know...it's just that.. when I saw the brooch…when you told me who it belonged to – everything, everything just flooded back into me…"

" I..'m sorry…I just want.., I wanted Benji back.."

"If I hadn't ..if I hadn't been distracted.." she couldn't continue. Her face had crumpled again and Emmett had pulled her into his chest then.

If it weren't so horribly real and so horribly wrong, I would have laughed at the sheer absurdity of the plot of this soapie drama my brother was apparently starring in.

One thing for sure, we had some explaining to do when mom and dad came back.

Dinnertime would be interesting no doubt.

***************

JPOV

Rosalie came to apologize this evening.

Truth was I wasn't really mad at her. I didn't need this extra complication right now but I couldn't be mad at her. I didn't think she was expecting this either.

I honestly couldn't tell anyone what to make of this. Confused? Yes. Lost? Maybe. She had pushed this thing on me, and forced opened Pandora's box, and now there were a thousand questions yearning to be answered. The only problem was, I didn't have the emotional capacity to handle anything else right now. Things may have gotten better since I got home, but some days, I still struggled to stay afloat. My dreams were still dark. They were still haunting my every step.

"I'm sorry Jasper," she beseeched me. She looked so repentant, I felt sorry for her. I had seen mom pull her into the kitchen after dinner. I knew she must have received a tongue lashing from her.

"Apology accepted.. " I said jokingly. She came to sit by me. Immediately I felt that same feeling she spoke of when we first met. Familiarity. It was as if our souls were greeting each other.

"I was so mean to you.. and I hurt you..God..I don't know what I was thinking," she blubbered. I pulled her into a hug immediately.

"Hey listen.. I know you didn't mean it.. you were just as shocked as I was. I'm sorry I scared you and everyone else.. in normal circumstances, I don't think I would have pulled a feat like this...I probably just need a blood top up, that's all," I joked. She laughed a little.

" Jas..about what I said.."

I didn't know what she was going to say next, but I knew I couldn't give her what she probably wanted. So I stopped her.

" Rose..I'm not saying No.. but I can't promise you anything right now.. already there's a thousand questions forming in my head and I can tell you they probably won't make me feel good. I'm not ready to deal with the repercussions of this yet.. I'm barely handling dealing with this illness as it is," I told her honestly.

She shook her head. Her blues looked into mine. Tenderly.

"No.. No… No.. No.. You don't have to think about anything or do anything about this... I'm really sorry for unloading this on you so prematurely. When you're ready, when you're better, however long it takes.. I'm gonna be here, and then we can..try.. and do this together alright?" she murmured softly. I smiled.

"Okay…I can do that," I said agreeably. She smiled back at me and threw her arms around me for a hug.

"Thank you," I heard her whisper.

"Can I say something and you won't take it wrongly?" she asked pulling away from me after a while. I nodded.

"I've missed you." She whimpered.

I pulled her into another tight hug then. For a brief second, I let her take us back into her memory. We were back in the sandbox. There was no Jasper, no Rosalie. We were just brother and sister again.

A/N: So how was that? A little anti - climatic? reviews are love!