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Carlisle was off work the following Monday night, and pronounced Jasper ready for the next level of his desensitization.

"Does this mean I'm done wearing the gowns?"

"Yes. And well done, Jasper. You've come a long way."

Jasper promptly tore off the gown he wearing over his clothes. We all laughed and gave him a round of applause as he shredded the fabric with a vengeance. Alice scooped up the pieces with a distasteful grimace, and the two of them went outside for a private gown-burning ceremony.

Emmett held his hand over his heart. "It's the end of an era."

"Thank goodness," Rosalie sighed. "It'll be nice not to have human scent floating around here all the time. So what's the plan for tonight?"

"Alice has assured me that the weather will be quite cloudy the rest of the day," Carlisle replied. "We'll take the van straight into town in the early evening, after Jasper has hunted. I want him to start getting used to seeing humans again, up close. And then depending on how well that goes, we'll try coming into town at night with the windows open."

"Just like you did with me," I remembered.

"This will be much easier than that was," Carlisle said. "This time we've got a whole family to help."

Emmett cracked his knuckles, imagining himself dismembering Jasper inside the van. In his imagination, each of us held a piece until we could drive safely away from the human populace. I snorted, shaking my head at him in disbelief.

"Minus two," Esme put in. "Rosalie and I were planning on going hunting together up in Canada tonight- we haven't had a chance to do anything like that in a while, just the two of us. Unless you need us?"

"No, that's fine. Edward, Emmett and Alice are more than capable of restraining Jasper, should any problems arise. And with Alice along, we should be able to avoid problems all together."

"It's a shame we couldn't have done this earlier," Rosalie said with a frown. "There's no way he'll be ready to start school next week, or even this semester."

Carlisle shook his head. "I don't plan on either Alice or Jasper attending school, or even existing at this location. It would be quite a large addition to the cover story." And it might be best if Jasper stays out the public eye… just in case there's an accident. He caught my eye at the end of his sentence.

I nodded. "I agree."

"Agree with what?" Alice asked as she and Jasper reentered the room.

"We were just discussing our cover story," Esme told them. "And how we'll probably wait until our next move to have you and Jasper be a visible part of the family."

Alice pouted. "So that's why I haven't seen myself going to school anytime soon."

Jasper frowned. Because of me? It isn't fair to keep her at home, just because I can't be trusted.

"It's not just a matter of safety, or even of trust," I told him. "It's also a matter of attracting attention. It isn't inconceivable that Carlisle and Esme would choose to adopt again in the cover story, but that sort of thing does draw attention. Especially if it was to be two new children at once."

"So the next time we move, you'll have five adopted kids?" Emmett wondered. "Sounds more like an orphanage than a family."

"It does seem a bit much, doesn't it?" Esme said, turning to Carlisle. "And we appear so young, ourselves."

"May I make a suggestion?" Jasper asked.

"Of course," Carlisle said. "Remember, you're as much a part of this family as any of us now."

Jasper gave him half a smile, and a brief nod. "I'm wondering if the idea of five children might seem less incredulous if some of us were biologically related. Take Rosalie and I, for example: our coloring is quite similar, and we're both tall, and about the same age."

I wrinkled my nose. "Twins?"

Jasper shrugged. "Why not? And we're both exceptionally beautiful."

"And humble," Emmett coughed.

"You know what I mean."

"I think it's a good idea," Rosalie said, looking to Esme.

"I think so, too," she agreed. "And what about different last names? We could say that you're foster children, and we had just taken you in. It would break up the shock a bit for the humans, to see different names and to see a family that's in transition."

"It does sound more realistic," I agreed. "And it would help with some of the odd looks and thoughts that you know we're going to get when you four end up pairing off."

Jasper frowned. I hadn't thought of that. "What a mess," he said aloud.

"Perhaps a 'mess' is actually more believable," Carlisle offered. "These kind of situations, where adoptions and fostering are involved, are rarely picture perfect. I think breaking it up this way is quite reasonable."

Emmett hung an arm around his wife's shoulders. "So, babe, what'll it be? The Whitlock twins?"

Jasper cleared his throat, looking Rosalie in the eye. "I was thinking Hale, actually."

Rosalie's thoughts hitched and a small smile spread over her face. She looked hopefully to Carlisle. "I don't see why not," he said, and her smile grew even larger. "It's been almost twenty years since the Rosalie Hale scandal has been in the newspapers. But let's not use that name when we're living so close to New York, agreed?"

"Agreed," Rosalie said quickly. Rosalie Hale. Finally!

"I get to be Emmett's twin!" Alice piped up. "Our hair is the same, too."

I coughed out a laugh. "Now that is completely unbelievable. He's what, four times your size?"

"Fraternal twins can be different," she protested. Emmett doubled over laughing, and then scooped her up and spun her around his head as she shrieked. Jasper just rolled his eyes.

Carlisle held his hands up, smiling. "We have all of eternity to try out all sorts of combinations. And this is only one scenario, in which all five of you would be going to the same school together. We could just as easily have Edward and Alice be in high school and the others in college, or Edward be Esme's brother again, or Emmett marrying into the family, like we did this time."

"I want to all go together to high school next time," Rosalie said with a frown. "That's the only way to have a decent number of years at any location."

"High school," I said with distaste. "No, thank you."

Oh, come on Edward! Alice thought. It wouldn't be the same without you. And besides, I need you to help me keep an eye on Jasper, when he first starts out.

I ground my teeth and shrugged noncommittally. I had been willing to go, before, but the more I thought about it, the idea of going from medical school back to high school was just detestable. But Alice was right about Jasper, and high school was definitely easier than college in terms of keeping tabs on homicidal brothers... not mention sisters who sometimes forgot to act human. And it would be a while before I felt ready to try medical school again, anyway.

"It's not like any of you have to go to school," Esme said, her eyes on my deepening frown.

Jasper cocked his head. "We don't? I know that Emmett and Rosalie lived alone recently, but I thought…" I thought they were breaking free from the coven.

"Of course not," Carlisle said. "That's just the most convenient way to do it, to explain everyone's youthful appearance. And Rosalie does have a point- the younger we all start out, the longer we can stay in a particular town. But you're all capable of making your own decisions, within reason- which level of schooling, working a job, taking time off to pursue other interests… Our kind generally prefer to occupy our time somehow, but there's never been a rule that any of us have to do anything in particular. It's imperative, however, that we make these big decisions as a family, and that we're all coordinated on the final cover story."

"And what if there are… disagreements?" Jasper asked, watching Carlisle carefully.

"Then Esme and I do our part as the parents, to lead the family in the way that we think is best. And those of you that are married also have your mate's wishes to consider. Emmett and Rosalie chose to spend some time alone the past few years, just to try something new. But if they had been in disagreement with the rest of us over something major, that would have been another reason for them to go off on their own for a while- which would also be acceptable. Even with the civility that our diet brings, we sometimes need a break from each other; a vacation, or something more. It doesn't change the fact that we are family, and that we love and support each other."

Jasper nodded, still a bit curious but satisfied. He had come a long way in terms of feeling at home, but in times like this he was still mystified by the new world he found himself in. He sometimes challenged Carlisle like this, very indirectly, just to see what he would say. And while Carlisle still wasn't living up to all of Jasper's expectations in terms of leadership, he never failed to impress Jasper with his serenity and wisdom, if not his gentleness.

"Time enough to decide all of this later," Esme said. "We won't be moving for a while, anyway. Emmett's been waiting to start college for fifteen years!"

.

.

.

"You'll be fine," Alice assured Jasper again. "I see it all. We drive to town, we human-watch for a while, we come back home."

Jasper nodded, silently climbing into the van. Carlisle was driving, and Jasper was in the middle row between Emmett and Alice: Alice, to hold his hand and reassure him, and Emmett, to hold him down if there were any unexpected problems. I sat directly behind Jasper, ready to put him in a headlock at the first sign of trouble.

"Just like watching them on television," Emmett said helpfully. "It's just through a bigger screen."

Carlisle chuckled as he backed down the driveway. "I never thought about it that way."

"Relax," I added.

"You relax," Jasper shot back, turning halfway to face me.

A warm calm settled over me. I took a deep breath, leaning back in the seat. It wasn't that I was nervous, exactly, just... concerned. Jasper's thirst was already warming up as he anticipated seeing his first humans in months. I didn't think it was going to be "just like watching them on television". But he wasn't thinking about it consciously, so there was no point in me saying anything; it would probably just make it worse. I touched my throat absently, accepting the burn.

Jasper had improved more than he seemed to realize, over the past few weeks. Carlisle had been bringing home gowns with more and more blood on them. It was stale, and therefore hardly smelled appetizing, but it really was the beginning of this "visual desensitization" stage, as Carlisle called it. Jasper's thirst had slowly been decreasing, and he had been hunting less often. As a result, my own throat had been far more comfortable, and I had been able to stretch out my own meals a bit further apart. I was only able to feed on deer now, in order to resist the frenzy- I kept hoping to challenge myself further with a more enticing prey, but it felt like I had hit a wall, at least concerning that particular variable. And it seemed tonight was going to be uncomfortable for both our throats, but I could manage. Every little step toward achieving better control was worth it.

"You're ready for this," I assured him. "You'll be going to school in no time."

Jasper growled his disapproval, and Alice shot me a look of annoyance over her shoulder. It was no secret that Jasper was not looking forward to playing student with the rest of us when we moved in a couple of years. But that was his goal, nonetheless, because it was what Alice wanted. I smirked back at her, pleased that my little joke seemed to have helped Jasper relax a bit.

It was almost dusk when we got into town. Carlisle trusted Alice's weather predictions, but old habits were hard to break; we just felt safer at this time of day. We didn't want anything else to worry about other than the task at hand. I silently moved my hands up to hover right behind Jasper's neck as we began passing humans.

Just like television, he was reminding himself. They're not really this close. You can do this.

Alice's eyes were closed now. She was sweeping the immediate future constantly, and everything seemed to be going well. There were a fair amount of people out at this time of day; young mothers chatting over their fences while their children played in the yard, men mowing their lawns, people coming out of shops that were just closing, a teenage boy selling the evening newspaper on the corner, two girls in bobby socks sitting on a bench and whispering together.

"You're doing quite well, Jasper," Carlisle said, looking in the rear view mirror. "How do you feel?"

"Thirsty," Jasper answered. He drew a shallow breath, his gaze lingering on a man crossing the street beside us. "But it's easier than I thought. Emmett was right- it helps to have the glass between me and them."

"Should we roll down a window a little?" Emmett wondered aloud.

"NO!" Jasper, Alice and I all answered at once.

"One thing at a time," Carlisle said, looking back at the road. "Even with this going as well as it is, I'd like to do this a few times before we introduce live scent. And when we do, it'll be in the middle of the night when nobody's out."

We had a full tank of gas, so there was no reason to head home anytime soon. Carlisle kept making wide circles, taking us through all different parts of town. It certainly didn't take long to get through all the streets; White River Junction was really more of a village than a town. A lot of my professors and fellow students from Dartmouth lived here, and my attention snagged on a few familiar minds as we drove around. I eventually lowered my hands back to my lap; Jasper was breathing normally now and had finally unclenched his teeth after the first half-hour.

Only once did Alice's visions come into play. She saw Jasper hissing and sitting up straighter in his seat, about ten seconds ahead of time. In the vision, Emmett grabbed his hands and I clamped his head back to the seat, though there didn't seem to be any obvious trigger.

"Turn left here," she said casually. "I want to see what's down that street." Carlisle did as she asked, not missing a beat in his conversation with Emmett. Alice's vision of Jasper getting agitated and us restraining him disappeared immediately. She squeezed Jasper's hand, her eyes flicking back to me momentarily.

I don't know what happened there, do you?

I shook my head minutely. It was sort of a shame that I couldn't hear people's thoughts ahead of time in Alice's visions, for situations like this. For all we knew, we were about to drive by a man who just happened to look like one of Jasper's enemies from sixty years ago.

We went on for another ten minutes without incident. Jasper was doing fairly well in terms of not thinking about feeding on the passersby. There were a couple of times when he saw a human walking near the entrance to an alley and his throat would flare, remembering various times he had fed in alleys. But he was always quick to push those thoughts away, and I had to admit I was impressed.

It was hard to say, then, whether anyone was to blame when it happened. Alice was still watching the immediate future, though not as intently as when we first started out. Emmett still had his hands an inch away from Jasper, though he was looking up in the rear view mirror as he and Carlisle chatted about his classes that would be beginning next week. I was still watching Jasper's mind closely, but my hands weren't ready at his neck any longer.

It was a little girl on a bicycle, riding along beside her mother on the right-hand sidewalk. Either she made a sudden decision to change direction, or maybe the man walking out of the shop beside her had just decided to walk out in her path. Either way, Alice's visions gave neither of us any warning as the girl's front wheel twisted suddenly, making her tumble to the cement. It wasn't a particularly nasty fall, not really… but she had skinned both her right knee and her right elbow. The blood began to flow and Jasper lunged without thought.

We caught him in time… mostly. By the time he had finished bowling Alice over in his frantic attempt to break through the right side of the van, Emmett had caught his left leg and I had grabbed his hair. Jasper turned on us, snarling and snapping, and we latched onto him as well as we could. He went for me first, since I had his hair; a reflex from all the times his enemies had tried to behead him. I released his hair just long enough to slam my elbow into his face, doing my best to ignore his hands around my throat. I got my other elbow around his neck just as Emmett got a firm grip around his waist. Emmett's other arm crashed down, tearing Jasper's fingers off of my windpipe. We had him, but the three of us had just slammed up against the right wall of the van, my head cracking against the window; it was a miracle the glass wasn't broken right then, because that probably would've sealed all our fates. But the van was now tipping dangerously from the collision, and with all our body weight on this side it was going to keep tipping.

"Hit the other side, now!" I ordered Alice, leaning as far inward as I could while keeping my arm around Jasper's neck. He wasn't fighting me anymore, but I didn't dare let him go.

Alice threw herself against the left side of the van, and Carlisle did his best to do the same while still in the driver's seat, scrambling against the steering wheel to try and help right us. It was enough; we slapped back down onto four wheels and Carlisle gunned the accelerator, putting some more distance between us and the girl.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" Jasper gasped, going limp in our arms. "It just happened so fast…"

"It's all right," Carlisle said quickly. "Let's get on home now."

"No, wait!" Alice cried, her eyes darting back and forth in a panic. "Slow down, Carlisle!"

Fate, it seemed, was truly against us tonight. The rear view mirror began to flash blue and red, first in Alice's mind and half a second later in reality. I looked over my shoulder to see a police car pulling out from the curb behind us. Emmett muttered an oath, letting go of Jasper and taking his seat. I waited another second before releasing him, and we both scrambled back to our seats, as well. Carlisle nudged the brake and glanced down to check the speedometer; he had been speeding in his haste to get away from the girl, but not excessively. Oh, please, not now… "Edward? What are they thinking? Edward!"

"Give me a second!" I growled. I turned again to look at the policemen, trying to grab hold of their unfamiliar minds in the sea of thoughts around me. The one in the passenger seat was trying to reconcile the tipping with the possibility of a blowout, and the driver was trying to piece together his own version of events. He had seen us tip and swerve, and a girl falling off her bike...

Did they hit her? And didn't I see that van drive by a couple times earlier?

I snarled in frustration, cursing the unreliability of human memories. It had only happened seven seconds ago, and he was already bungling what he had seen! But now he was squinting, trying to see inside the van in the half-light. He leaned toward his companion, asking if he thought we had hit the girl. The other man shook his head, assuring him it hadn't happened that way. And besides, vans didn't just tip over onto two wheels for no reason.

"I was thinking blowout," he said. "But that doesn't make sense. Had to be some kinda explosion in their fuel line. They're gonna have an engine fire if they don't pull over."

I laughed in angry disbelief. "They're worried about us. They think there was an explosion in our fuel line which caused us to tip, and now they think we need to pull over before we catch on fire." My sentence was punctuated by the wail of the cruiser's siren as the driver flipped it on. The other policeman was already writing down our tag number in a little notebook. "And they've got our license plate," I said through my teeth. I slammed my fist down into the seat, tearing right through the fabric.

Emmett cussed again, louder this time. This is either gonna end up being really funny or really sad...

"Alice?" Carlisle asked. "What if we let them pull us over? Since we're not in trouble, will they let us keep the window up while we talk?"

Alice bit her lip, and I shuddered at the vision that was now unfolding. Despite the fading dusk, they wouldn't even need a flashlight to see the struggle going on in the back of the van: three people trying to hold back a raving lunatic with blond hair and black eyes. And they would have had an up-close view of Carlisle's face by then; slaughter or not, they would connect the oddness back to the Cullen name. "It doesn't matter," she said with a sigh. "We can't get pulled over. No way." Jasper tensed beside her, trying to guess what her vision had contained. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes, telling himself not to think about it.

"Edward, move to the back," Carlisle said tightly. "Give them a friendly wave and tell them we're fine."

I hunched down and flashed into the back seat, sitting up slowly as if I had been there the whole time. I waved and smiled calmly out the rear windshield. We're okay, I mouthed to them. I nodded and gave another wave, turning back around.

Don't these idiots know anything about automobiles? 'Course I'd expect something to go wrong, buying foreign like that, the driver thought with a tolerant sigh. He accelerated a bit, rolling down his window and waving his arm toward the curb.

"No good," I reported to Carlisle. Unbelievable. How were we going to get out of this one?!

Carlisle's eyes flashed from the rear view mirror to the road, and back again. Then he hit the gas for all it was worth and turned out onto the main thoroughfare.

"Not gonna work," Emmett said, shaking his head. "Not in this thing. Rose has been trying, but she's never gotten it to go above eighty-five."

"I don't need to outrun them," Carlisle said distractedly. "I just need to lose them long enough for us to get Jasper out and-"

"No, NO!" Alice wailed. She saw Jasper struggling against us in an alley, the noise drawing a crowd. Now Jasper began to panic, seeing Alice lose her composure.

We're not going to be able to outrun them. They'll corner the van, and when the door opens… when the door opens… Venom flooded his mouth, and blood-drenched fantasies flooded his mind.

"Emmett," I said sharply, moving back to my original seat. "Get Jasper." Emmett grabbed him again, locking his huge arms around Jasper's chest and pinning his arms down. Jasper tried not to fight him this time, but the siren was literally a siren now- a beautiful song promising blood, coming closer and closer. Alice grabbed his feet just before he stomped a hole in the floor of the van.

"Shh, Jazz, shh! It's okay. Shh, look at me, okay? I'm right here." She began humming, rubbing his arm with one hand as she gripped his knees with her other arm.

"I'm trying!" he snapped back at her, struggling against Emmett's arms. At least he wasn't turning to bite; that was good.

"Alice!" I hissed. "Not now! We need to get out of this."

We were running out of options, and fast. Carlisle couldn't even get up to sixty, not with the other cars that dotted the main road. When a red light loomed ahead he swung onto a side street, looking for alleys that we could possibly pull Jasper into. Alice was the only one whose up-close description wouldn't be recognized, but she had never really learned to drive…

"Doesn't matter," I said in a rush. "Can't do the alley thing at all. He can't leave the van."

Carlisle clenched his teeth, his mind scrambling for alternatives. His turn had bought us a few seconds, but had made our predicament worse. The policemen had now realized that we were purposely evading them and sped up to catch us, sounding their horn along with their siren. Alice had released Jasper's legs and had her fists scrunched into her hair. She was trying out one wild idea after another, the visions blinking in and out of existence so fast I couldn't keep up. Not that I wanted to, since most of them involved Jasper feasting on the policemen, or worse. Suddenly her eyes flashed open and she turned to Emmett.

"Hold him," she said simply. "Hold him with everything you have." Emmett shifted Jasper onto his lap like a rag doll, wrapping his left leg around Jasper's knees. Alice closed her eyes once more, seeing herself running in what looked like an alley, and then a flash of trees zooming by the van. She opened her eyes and leapt for the door handle, wrenching it open.

"ALICE!" I roared, but there was no time. Jasper was gasping now, twisting wildly against Emmett's grip as the new air burst over him.

She turned and fixed her eyes on mine. "Follow me!" she ordered, and jumped. Trust me, Edward! Jump out, NOW!

I exchanged an incredulous look with Carlisle and jumped out. Alice was running at a human pace away from the van, and toward another side street. Toward the oncoming police car.

"Have you utterly lost your mind?!" I hissed, running after her. I took one quick glance back at the van- Carlisle had somehow gotten the door shut again- and continued running.

I think I know what she's doing, Edward. Make it good!

"Help!" Alice cried, waving her arms at the oncoming police cruiser. "He's after me! Oh, HELP!" She aimed for the side street at a human sprint.

I ran my hands through my hair, unable to believe I was even in this situation. But I saw what she was about, too. And it might just work- the shadows of twilight were on our side now. I began to run after her, turning my face just enough so my profile wasn't obvious in their headlights.

"Get back here NOW!" I shouted, pretending to make a grab for her. Then I closed my eyes in revulsion and, at the top of my lungs, called my sister a horrible, ghastly word. I lunged for her again, and she tripped gracefully, tumbling across the pavement like a gymnast.

We were just out of sight of the policemen now, and they were completely confused. The driver slowed almost to a stop, unsure whether he should follow the crazy van or the girl in imminent danger. He made his choice, spinning the steering wheel to follow us with one hand and calling on the radio for backup with the other. Alice gave me a triumphant nod as we saw a vision of Carlisle driving the van under a thick canopy of trees that couldn't possibly be in town. The picture was a bit fuzzy with uncertainty, but shimmering with the urgency of an "almost here" vision.

"I can't believe that worked," I breathed. "How did you-"

"Not yet," she warned, nodding toward the oncoming police car. We resumed the chase, running just slowly enough to lead the cruiser as far from the others as possible. It was almost absurd how slow we were running, and how I never quite managed to catch her. But I supposed it was credible enough, considering how small the blocks were and how often we jumped out of sight. The policeman in the passenger seat had his window down now, and his gun drawn, but Alice and I were so close together he never risked taking the shot. At one point, we got too near the other police car, which was in constant radio contact with the one following us as it zoomed back from whatever patrol it had been on. Our pursuers began to think about giving up the chase in order to go look for the van, since they were still the closest to where it had last been seen. This would leave us free to escape the second car, but we couldn't have the first car hightailing it back to look for the van, which was as slow as molasses.

"They're thinking about going back for the van," I said quickly. Before Alice could come up with a plan to test, I lunged and caught her, throwing her against the brick wall of the nearest building. I stalked towards her slowly, waiting for the police car to get a little closer, and then I grabbed her again, this time by the throat. She kneed me right in the groin to break free.

"That was completely unnecessary," I choked out, limping after her and for once, not acting.

Just trying to make it real!

Once we were satisfied, we ducked into another alley and made a mad dash out of town, using Alice's visions to find the best route. We ran straight home. We didn't speak the entire time; all of Alice's focus was on Jasper now. We watched as he calmed down, but agreed to stay in Emmett's grip for the time being. Carlisle wove his way through the darkest streets, finally driving out of town to the northwest.

Alice and I finally ran into our yard, to find Esme and Rosalie still away. I stopped on a dime, running both my hands through my hair and letting out a huge breath.

I didn't ever want to see a police car again.


This scene will be directly continued in the next chapter. This last line was so ironically funny, I just had to end it there. Poor Edward, the only vampire in the world with a human cop for a father-in-law! :)