Things were an odd semblance of normal for a few weeks after that.

People were in and out of the house constantly. At one point she didn't see Edward for nine days and Carlisle for twelve. But in the house she stayed.

She quickly learned that there were restrictions in place for hunting that she didn't know about. She'd been unaware of the fact that when hunting away from their own land, she was limited to two hunts per month. She'd been embarrassed about that and then spent the next twelve hours reading up on everything she didn't know about hunting and their feeding laws.

"It's not enforced as strictly as you'd think," Bella had tried to comfort her, seeing her embarrassment at her lack of knowledge after she'd asked Bella to go hunting twice in one week. "It's more of an honor system thing, really. Just to do our part to keep the wildlife populations from falling out of sync with their natural rhythms."

So Alice read. And read and read nearly everything in sight. The laptop she had in her possession was turning into her absolute favorite belonging, and having an extensive library in the house was as convenient as ever as she soaked up as much information as possible. If she was going to help 'lead' this strange world, she felt obligated to know as much about it as she could.

But at least once a day, for several hours at a time, Alice would find herself in the gym. Jasper worked with her mainly, giving her instruction and working with her and her visions.

It wasn't awkward, per se, but after working so closely alongside him for so many weeks, Alice simply knew when Jasper was merely being cordial to get his work done and do his job; which was exactly what he was doing with her. His comfortable smile abruptly faded from existence, a perpetual frown taking root on his handsome features. He wasn't unkind toward anyone, of course not, but all traces of the soft, caring man she'd grown to know had simply withered away.

It was exceptionally heartbreaking.

Thankfully, Emmett also trained with them most days when he wasn't being sent on an assignment. Alice would always be thankful for that. Many times had he interrupted a too tense silence or a lingering glance with just the right thing to say to make Alice laugh or Jasper roll his eyes.

During her off hours, when she wasn't actively reading up on more information or researching something relevant to that day's interest—reading through the full official Change Application process wasn't something most people did for leisure, but the hours Alice had spent on that had been fascinating and highly satisfying to her—Alice sat in her room on the floor, letting visions flicker through her.

She was always sure to center herself as best as she was able to. She'd watched several hours of mediating videos on Youtube one day several weeks before, and now used the techniques she'd learned, although painfully human-centric—what the hell were you supposed to focus on when you had no heartbeat and 'shutting out the world' was literally impossible to you—to calm herself before she threw herself into the future's possibilities.

Everyday she replayed the old visions of Maria, occasionally making rapid-fire decisions to bring new visions forth. Rarely she'd see a new face and wordlessly walk into Carlisle's office, before circling a face and returning to her room. She'd only seen three more new ones, but he'd requested she do just that, as well as contact him, with every new reveal. They were all humans that had gone missing in and around Mexico, just like they'd all suspected from the start.

Jasper didn't have to tell her how much he disliked her routines. It was apparent that he hated that she sat and put herself through miserable vision after vision. He didn't have to like it, she remarked one day after training, just before she'd rushed to her room to change and search their futures. She could do whatever she pleased with her gift, she'd snapped, feeling guilty at the forlorn look on his face as she'd stormed away.

One particular vision had left her shaken to the core. Thankfully, Bella had been in her room, readying herself for a shower when Alice had barged in on shaky legs, trying to physically hold back her despair.

But Alice thought it was a perfectly calm reaction to seeing a vision where you watched as half of your fellow Protectors were viciously slaughtered. Bella hadn't even questioned her, and instead had pulled a robe over her half-naked body and simply held Alice as she worked to calm herself.

She went without actively searching her visions for a couple days after that one, but then quickly fell back into the swing of things. It was hard to stop, despite the fact that certain visions could and would leave her miserable for days on end.

And knowing that Jasper felt her misery and likely knew the cause of it didn't help soothe their rocky relationship in the slightest. In fact, Alice was sure their inability to find an even ground about everything was just widening the gap between them. And this only made her more miserable.

During one particular training exercise—Emmett was off with Bella for the next couple days, leaving her training fully under Jasper's eye—she'd found herself especially frustrated, unable to put even a finger on him.

Despite initially being against training her offensively, Jasper had eventually relented. It was one thing to know how to defend yourself, but another to be able to fight back, and Alice knew she needed to learn both for when Maria struck. Hesitance aside, Jasper seemed to recognize that not training her offensively would eventually be a disservice to them all.

The main objective of the week had been for her to attempt to knock him off his feet. Something she'd been able to do in the past, but for some reason was having difficulty doing while practicing striking him. Jasper had gotten much better at reacting to her advances. Sure, she had her visions on her side, but once he had stopped thinking about his moves and started letting his instincts take over, it had been nearly impossible to predict his movements or reactions to her own moves.

When her visions proved to be not enough and she was left with only her own innate abilities, Alice always found herself disheartened. She wasn't a natural-born fighter. She wasn't strong like Emmett or fast like Edward. The visions were what made her an above-average fighter, and even then, she wasn't exactly much of a fighter anyways.

Jasper being the empath he was, he began to let up on her. Only slightly, but enough that Alice quickly noticed that he was starting to take it easy on her.

It only frustrated her further.

So when she made a split-second decision, going against just about everything he'd been instructing her on, she took a chance.

Flinging herself directly at him, she expected it when he swiftly grabbed one of her wrists, yanking her to the side and throwing her momentum off. But instead of trying to fight against the deflection, she leaned into it, flipping herself forward and landing just to his left. Of course he was quick to react, but by the time he'd stepped back or reached out with his opposite hand to knock her further away, she was too close.

As she flung her arms forward, ready to wrap them around him, he'd already reset his stance and gripped both of her shoulders firmly, preparing to shove her back. Without much thought Alice swung her legs forward, wrapping them around his torso as she flung her arms forward, grappling with him. Sure he was strong, but Alice was quick, and Alice was angry.

She fought with him for a quick millisecond, trying to keep him from yanking her off of him, but when her legs slid down slightly, her heels finding purchase against the backs of his knees, she used all her might and pulled.

When they both came down, Jasper nearly toppling head over heels over her, Alice re-tightened her hold on him, and when they came to a near-standstill, Jasper on his back, Alice sitting on him, she gripped his shoulders, shoving him backward into the concrete with a resounding smack.

One full second passed before she looked up at him, her teeth bared as her temper began to quiet, only to find herself shocked at the look in his eyes.

For the first time in what felt like months, he was staring at her with something Alice could only describe as awe. It had been so long since he'd looked at her with true emotion on his face, entirely uninhibited by the situation surrounding them. Suddenly, Alice was reminded of the last time she saw this specific look in his eye, months ago back in Portland.

Only then, their stances had been reversed.

She allowed herself to stare at his face, hers own only half a foot away from his, for one second longer before she nearly flew up and off of him, anger and frustration all but forgotten as she turned and fled the room, humiliation bubbling up inside of her.

But even as she closed her bedroom door behind her, curling up on her couch, her head in her hands, she couldn't forget the feeling of his hard, muscular body beneath hers. How he looked up at her with nothing but admiration displayed across his features, a softness in her eyes that she missed more and more every passing day.

And now that she'd been given another taste of that tenderness after so long without it, Alice found herself craving Jasper's presence with a fierceness unlike anything she'd ever experienced before.

Letting one of the more upsetting visions come to her then—of Maria purring toward her, Jasper standing like a stone at Alice's side—Alice forced her eyes shut and her body up.

She couldn't wallow in her conflicting emotions now, she reminded herself as she gathered the courage to leave the room and head back down toward the gym. With a quick glance she saw that Jasper was still there, sitting up on the floor, gathering himself as well. So, when hardly a minute later she re-entered the room, merely muttering a quiet "again", she hated how he simply stood there, staring at her with sad eyes.

"Alice—"

"Again," she repeated stubbornly, refusing to look up at his face any more than was necessary.

You know I can't, she wanted to say to him as he stood there, wanting to say more, you know we can't. You know this.

When they began to spar once more, Alice tried to ignore the twinge of grief she felt, hating how she didn't know whether it was his or hers.


It wasn't long after that when Carlisle began sending Jasper on more missions, leaving Alice to her own devices more often than not. Of course, Emmett was home more than anyone else, and was still being tasked with helping oversee her physical training.

And training with Emmett was vastly different from training with Jasper.

Where Jasper was quick, seemingly able to predict her movements as if he'd been gifted with foresight, Emmett was strong. So strong that once he got a hold of Alice, no amount of playing dirty would help her.

"Emmett's a perfect person to train with," Jasper had remarked to her, several weeks before, "because his strength closely resembles the strength a newborn possesses in those first few months after change."

"Newborns are as strong as Emmett?" Alice had balked at the idea. She'd watched during training as Emmett caught Jasper off guard once—something that happened so rarely that it had seemingly shocked both her and Jasper to equal degrees—and clotheslined him so hard that it had put a foot-deep fissure into the floor.

Emmett was so strong that she almost felt bad for any newborns that had ever tried taking him out back in '64. Alice was sure they hadn't stood a chance.

"Newborns are stronger than Emmett."

Of course Emmett had scoffed at that from where he stood across the gym, grumpily remarking that their frenzied state put them on even ground.

Even though Jasper was an expert on strategy and on teaching her how to utilize her strengths and work around her weaknesses, training with Emmett was the closest she'd get to fighting the newborns before Maria's arrival. The only leg up she had on him was that she was just barely quicker than we was.

For a couple weeks, Emmett was her main teacher. Jasper would stop by a day or two week, depending on how busy Carlisle was keeping him, just for supplementary training. But then he'd be off and gone again, holding more trainings in more centers across the country. Only this time without her there to distract him.

Thankfully the entire incident with the paparazzi had been almost completely forgotten, most of the news surrounding the tense atmosphere across the continent as Mexico struggled to track down Maria, and the US and Canada prepared for a breach of their border.

"How much longer do you think?" Alice asked Edward and Bella one day, lying on the floor of their room. The couple had a couple hours to spare before they were off on a flight to Calgary and Alice had been more than ready to spend some time alone in order to give them some hours of privacy before their trip. To her delight Edward had invited her into their room, so currently she was lying on the floor beside Bella, enjoying the company of her two closest friends before they left again.

Edward glanced over at her from where he sat on the couch across the room, a small computer on his lap. "I don't know," he answered honestly.

It had been almost two weeks since there had been any leads on Maria's location. Every team dispatched to track her down had come back empty handed. It was better than them coming back with their numbers halved, but not knowing where she was created a new kind of anxiety within the general population.

There was no way of telling where she'd pop up next.

"Could be tomorrow, could be six months from now," Bella said, placing the old worn book she'd been reading face down. Of course, Alice knew this, but Maria's silence unsettled her.

She'd still been trying to see her, of course, with very little success. It had been about four days since she'd tried any new decisions. Every recent one left her empty handed and without a hint of new information. Even if she were to leave on impulse in an hour to track down Maria and her newborns, Alice wouldn't find her, nor vice versa.

"Jasper seems tense over it," she mused quietly. And it was true. He'd grown more withdrawn than ever recently after confessing to them that he feared that she was likely laying low for some unknown strategic purpose.

"He's going to have to get over the fact that we're likely going to be down in Mexico soon at this rate," Edward grumbled, typing something into his laptop. "I give it a month before we're making trips to the centers in Mexico City and Monterrey."

"Human politicians are having a nightmare of a time keeping people calm," Bella stated, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. "I imagine there isn't a place to go where the emotional climate isn't absolutely wrecked."

Alice frowned at that. She was embarrassed at how easy it was to forget that there were so many ways where this entire experience was so much worse for Jasper than it was for them.

"What are the odds I'll be able to get out of this house any time soon?"

Bella snorted at that and Edward sighed. "Not great," he admitted, closing the laptop and turning his full attention toward her. "I think that until we have a set plan, which we likely won't have until after we're working with Mexico, you'll be stuck here."

"So I don't cause more harm than good?" She grimaced, feeling lousy at her own words. It was true though, that she seemed to be a walking magnet for disaster. Her and Jasper's little cross-country Center tour had drawn so much attention—not all good—and it had really been her fault more than anyone's...

"Alice," Bella moaned, rolling over to shove her lightly, not liking the self-deprecating tone she'd taken up.

"It's my own fault she's after me," she admitted out loud, shrugging as fingers brushed lightly over the carpeted floor.

Bella full-on smacked her then. "Stop it."

"I really can't see how she'd know about your gift," Edward crossed his arms. "It's bad enough that she knows about mine and Jasper's."

"Not mine," Bella smiled, stretching out and wiggling her fingers and toes.

"No?" Alice raised a brow.

"We didn't know about it until almost two years after I joined. It was almost '66 I think. Not until I met Eleazar for the first time properly."

"Is it possible Maria has a newborn who has a similar gift?"

"Similar gifts are possible in different vampires," Edward nodded, "Like Aro's and mine. Just to different extents and intensities. There's quite a few European protectors who have gifts similar to ours. Renata's shield, Corin's ability to keep people happy…"

Alice eyed him warily, "I thought we were supposed to keep each other's gifts a secret." Yet, here he'd just told her of a couple gifts she hadn't known about, from fellow international Protectors she hadn't met.

"You're a Protector." He shrugged, as if that were explanation enough. "It's better that you know."

"Does that mean we should tell the Mexican protectors about mine?"

"No," Edward didn't even think before responding. "Alice, we are serious when we tell you we've never seen anything like this. I get anxious thinking about how many people already know about it. It's that rare, and that powerful."

"If we were to tell anyone, it would likely be Gerardo," Bella mused, disregarding her husband's serious tone.

"I agree," he relented, shooting her a wry look, "but Gerardo isn't known for keeping a tight lip on things. If we told him he may get too eager about it and if word spreads it could mean disaster."

"So even if we join up with them," and thinking about it now, Alice could see some faint glimmers in their distant future, nothing solid or concrete yet, but the visions were there, "we won't be able to use my visions?" How on Earth would she help them, then?

"Keeping them a secret doesn't mean you won't be able to use them. Gerardo's mate, Ana, is perceptive enough to guess it anyways, I'm sure. We just don't need to be volunteering the information." Edward gave her a serious look. "Remember, this is a group that's been together for as long as most of us have been together. Some longer. They lost half of their members this year. They're in mourning, which means they're desperate. Learning about your talent could drive them to want to use it in any way they can. Not out of selfishness, of course—"

"But desperation," Alice nodded, feeling sad as she understood where Edward was coming from. "I just want to help."

"You do help," Bella assured her, rolling over and wrapping an arm affectionately around her. "And I bet you anything that when the time comes, you and those visions of yours are going to be what wraps this entire mess up."

Alice raised an eyebrow, "You really want to make a bet against me?"

Bella pinched her then, pulling back and giving her an exhausted look. "I'm not betting against you, because you better be just as confident in yourself as I am." Then, she smiled. "No more moping. I don't want you sulking around here while we're gone."

Alice felt offended. "I don't sulk!"

"Not like Jasper does," Edward muttered quietly.

"Be quiet or I'll start chucking shoes at you again."

Bella smirked and squeezed Alice again before releasing her. "Message Josie. Ask Esme for things to do around the house. Read. Learn. Just stay busy, alright?"

Alice snuggled close to her friend, holding her tightly. "Okay," she squeaked, feeling thankful for the friendship that she had with Bella. She hated that things were like this though, and that she felt so lousy most of the time that even Bella—private, quiet, sarcastic Bella—was going out of her way to make her feel better.

If she made it out of this mess, Alice noted to herself, she'd have to spend the rest of her life showing her fellow Protectors how thankful she was for them.


The next week passed by disastrously slow.

Edward was with Bella in Toronto for the foreseeable future while Jasper was off with Carlisle in Houston; a fact that had made Alice increasingly anxious with every day they spent there.

The closer he was to Mexico, the more uncontrollable her nerves grew. She found herself checking up on him nearly constantly, pulling forth flicker after flicker of his mundane schedule, just to make sure that yes, he was okay and no, Maria hadn't snuck up on them right under their nose.

Esme had left for DC that morning and currently Rosalie had been stuck in the intelligence office for four days now. She'd taken a break at one point just to storm into the kitchen, grab a drink, and rant to Alice for ten minutes straight, before heading back down into the library.

Alice had felt pretty bad about that. Especially since neither she nor Emmett could exactly help her out. Even though Emmett was trained thoroughly, he claimed that he simply didn't have the mind for any level of politics.

"She's the beauty and brains in this relationship," he'd remarked with a grin, "I'm just the muscle."

But still, until Alice learned the ins and outs of this entire job, she quickly realized that her feelings of inadequacy wouldn't soon leave her. That was something she'd have to get used to until after Maria was dealt with.

She had been sitting in the middle of her room, hands resting on her knees, flickering through vision after vision when Emmett had knocked on her door, ripping her out of one of her more upsetting visions in the process.

"It's not wise to struggle, mi tesoro," Maria's voice purred as Alice tried to wriggle her way free of her captor.

"Where is he?" Alice snapped, not willing to humor the woman with small talk. "What did you do with Jasper?"

"My, my," Maria clicked her tongue as she approached, "we haven't done anything. He came willingly, of course."

"Liar!" Alice snapped, suddenly dropping her weight, trying to throw off the huge vampire that had her by her arms. Of course, he only tightened the hold. Alice couldn't help but cry out. "He'd never go with you," she forced the words out through gritted teeth.

Maria shot her a saccharine smile. "There's a lot you don't know about him."

"Are you alright?" Emmett asked, opening the door after his third knock.

Alice had merely nodded and stood up slowly, not trusting her limbs not to shake.

"You want to talk about it?" He frowned, easily noting her borderline unstable state as she made her way toward him.

Alice merely shook her head, willing the vision to leave her fully. It wasn't real. It wasn't her reality. And hopefully it never would be. Just another potential future out of the hundreds she'd seen in the past several weeks where she'd tried. "You wanted to hunt, right?" She swiftly changed the subject, having already seen what he'd wanted to talk to her about.

He sighed, not one to blatantly ignore the elephant in the room like every other member of the household. "Whatever kid." Clearly displeased with her aversion to talking about what was bothering her, he turned and waved an arm toward the hallway. "Let's go."

They stayed close to the property during their quick hunt, not wanting to travel too far from the house, just in case. Alice found herself thankful for that, but despite their proximity she still found herself checking and re-checking their futures, lingering on Jasper's a few times.

She was halfway through her second small deer when she paused and checked their futures again, zoning out to the point where she hardly noticed when Emmett uprooted a giant tree just a few feet away from her.

"Alright, that's enough."

Alice nearly jumped, looking up as Emmett dropped the tree—the thing had to be at least ninety feet tall and maybe eight in diameter.

"I'm sick of the two of you moping around like a couple of spoiled kids."

"What?" Alice raised an eyebrow at that. "Spoiled?"

"Yes! Spoiled! You and Jasper!" Emmett let out a dry laugh as he rolled the tree several yards to the side, moving it off what appeared to be a small creek. "Never thought I'd live to see Jasper act like such a child. At first I figured, hey!" Emmett shrugged, "He's finally acting his age! Who knows? Maybe it'll do him some good! But now, it's just obnoxious." He complained, moving the giant tree a little bit further off to the side.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Alice suddenly wasn't thirsty anymore, dropping the half-drained doe to the forest floor, frowning when she took note of the small stains on her front.

Damn. She'd been getting good at avoiding messes, too.

"Oh, don't you play that game with me. You and Jasper. You're both ridiculous. This isn't some grand, daytime, low-budget soap opera, but you guys are really fighting for that Emmy, huh?"

Alice simply stared at him blankly, sensing a pop culture reference that she didn't fully understand.

"Whatever." He waved a hand and rolled his eyes. "Bad analogy. You two are stupidly dramatic, how about that?"

"I don't see how any of this is dramatic," Alice defended, "I think we're both reacting to this situation rather appropriately."

"I'm not talking about Maria, Alice," Emmett spoke, as if it were obvious. "I'm talking about you two and the weird thing you guys have going on."

Alice suddenly felt self-conscious. "Nothing's going on," she spoke quickly and without much confidence.

"Jasper's quiet, and he usually keeps everything to himself. And I mean everything," sitting himself down on the large tree he'd overturned he fixed a curious glance toward her, "but I'd like to think I know that pain in the ass pretty well."

"Well, I do too," she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly. She did not want to have this conversation. And she especially didn't want to have this conversation with Emmett. Emmett, who Alice simply knew would make some good points. Emmett, who arguably spent the most time with Jasper than anyone else. Emmett, who was such a sweetheart that Alice would be rude for not entertaining him with this one, measly conversation.

"But Alice," his face was sympathetic as he spoke, "you've hardly known him five months."

Alice bit back a sigh as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. He had her there. "No offense," she contemplated just running away; surely she could outrun him if she caught him off guard… "but I don't get why we're talking about this right now."

Emmett laughed, "Because he's in love with you, you little freak."

Alice laughed, shaking her head as she toed her discarded deer with her shoe. Emmett always had his heart in the right place, but this was a subject she wished everyone would leave alone. "That's not funny."

"Alice." The tone of his voice caused her to freeze completely, her eyes stuck on a particularly wet-looking patch of leaves under her feet. After a few tense seconds, she lifted her eyes only to find him staring back at her, his face devoid of all humor. He looked very un-Emmett-like in that moment, as serious as he was, and that's when Alice's dead heart felt like it stopped.

"No he doesn't," she whispered, hardly believing her ears, fixing him with an incredulous look.

Jasper didn't love her. Alice would admit that she didn't know much, but she knew people didn't fall in love under their circumstances; war looming, prophetic vision, total incapability of seeing eye-to-eye...

"When we were in Arizona, working with the wolves," Emmett spoke, leaning back so that his hands rested on the rough bark of the overturned tree, "and when we had that meeting." Alice remembered. It was when she'd had her first vision of Maria. Emmett blew a long breath in and then released it slowly. "You should have seen him, Alice. When you screamed, even after that." He shook his head. "From the point where he first thought you were in danger to when we got back home—" he whistled lowly. "The only person I've ever seen freak out to that extent before was back in '64, when there was a two hour period where Bella thought Edward was dead.

"It was that bad, Alice. I'm not going to rat him out to Carlisle but we skipped a couple meetings and Jacob helped me fudge some paperwork so we could be back home as early as we were. He was a complete wreck." He fixed her with another serious stare. "If that had been Rosalie or Esme, he wouldn't have reacted that way. I've known him for fifty years, Alice. I've never seen him so distraught."

She was speechless. She couldn't come up with a single thing to say in reply. Sure, it may be a naive thought, but Alice figured love was something you were supposed to work for, something that people did on purpose, typically. Yes, she supposed she loved all of her fellow Protectors in their own ways. But for Jasper to be in love with her simply didn't sound real.

And maybe it was because it was something that she wanted so damn badly.

Alice wasn't used to things turning out her way. She'd wanted a life of peace and had gotten the opposite. She'd wanted to know that as a human, she'd been wanted, and only recently had she found out she'd been discarded, turned over to the state with just a simple signature.

She'd wanted to live a normal life, but instead she was burdened with visions day in and day out of things that were far greater than she was.

There was plenty that Alice wanted, and if she stopped lying to herself for half a moment, she realized that Jasper was one of those things.

"Are you seriously going to tell me that nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing—happened on your trip back in May?"

Alice swallowed thickly, remnants of blood and venom still lingering in her mouth. She couldn't speak because she couldn't lie to Emmett then, knowing that he had her there. Things had happened. Maybe not in the way Emmett thought they did, but during those weeks things between her and Jasper had irrevocably changed.

"He loves me?" And suddenly Alice didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry.

It did make sense. The way he watched her. The way he panicked above her safety beyond all sense of reason. How he'd tried kissing her in Portland. Every touch, every glance, every word they'd ever exchanged, Alice felt as if she was viewing them all under a different light. Or as if the light had finally been switched on, and now she was seeing things for what they were.

"Oh for sure," Emmett nodded, despite the fact that Alice's words had been less of a question and more of an awed realization. "Look, I know things suck. Maria sucks. That vision of yours sucks. All these stupid circumstances surrounding everything that's going on here and in Mexico? It all sucks. But—and if you tell Rose this I'll deny it all day—she's wrong when she says you two can't afford to be distracted. I mean," he threw his arms up in exasperation, "you're already distracted! It's not like pretending you're not head-over-heels for one another makes it any less true! It probably makes it worse to be honest."

"I'm not…" but an unamused look from Emmett quickly silenced her weak, insincere protest.

But Alice had never been in love, so how was she supposed to know that's what it was?

Suddenly, that tiny voice in the back of her head chimed in, reminding her quietly.

This is reciprocal.

"I'm not saying jump his bones when he gets back," Emmett stood up then, brushing off the back of his pants, and eyeing her with hesitance, "because please don't. But these are my two cents: stop pretending like you two wouldn't do anything for the other one. If I find all this damn tension annoying, I can only imagine Edward's about to set himself on fire."

"We can't though," she nearly cried, needing him to see her side. How were they supposed to indulge in a relationship when they knew the chances of both of them making it out alive was slim?

"Sure you can," he shrugged, "you said it yourself. There's already a target on your back. The entire country already thinks you two are together. You assholes are already in love with each other, and clearly more distracted than you should be—seriously y'all staying away from each other is only making that worse, I'm telling you. Besides, I've been happily married for eighty-eight years now. For once, I know what I'm talking about." He walked up to her, hands in his pockets as he shot her a sympathetic glance. "You seem hell-bent on thinking this isn't going to end well. This whole Maria thing."

"Because it might not."

"Then the only thing you have to lose is time." He shrugged. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he glanced down at it. "Speaking of time," he nodded back in the direction of the house, "Rose is wondering where we went."

Turning to follow him back, Alice hesitated for a few moments. "Emmett?"

"Hm?" He paused and turned, looking confused that she hadn't made a move to follow him yet.

She waited for two seconds, before the words nearly jumped out of her. "Do you ever wish you weren't what we are?"

"What? You mean a vampire?" He sounded nearly insulted by the idea. He scoffed. "No way. I love this life. Sure, I didn't choose it, but I thank the vampire that saved me from that bear every day of my life."

"They tried to drain you though," Alice frowned, recalling the circumstances in which he was changed under, "they weren't trying to save you."

"Eh, if that's how you choose to see it." He shrugged off his almost-demise as if it were nothing. Just an overlooked part of his life. It was such an Emmett thing to do, Alice realized with a small twinge of jealousy. She wished she could see passed her own past and circumstances, too. "I see if as the best gift ever, because it brought me to this insanely cool life, and it brought me to Rose."

"So you wouldn't give it up? Even if you could?"

"I wouldn't, but I know if it were ever possible, and if we were ever given the chance, Rose would jump on the opportunity, and I would go right after her without a second thought."

Alice struggled to understand. "But you just said how much you enjoyed this life."

"Yeah, but I'd do it for Rose. No matter how much I love being a vampire or have fun with this wild, immortal life. If she wanted out—if she wanted mortality—so would I. I'd do whatever makes her happy." He paused for another moment. "What brought this on? We jumped from the topic of love to death real quick." His eyes were concerned, and a little suspicious.

Alice shook her head, "Nothing."

Emmett looked like he was about to push the subject, but when his phone began buzzing, he picked it up and answered it. "Hey Angel. Yeah," he turned back toward the house and started walking, "no we'll be back in a couple minutes. Just grabbing a quick bite." Waving an arm toward Alice, he waited until she began to walk until moving any further forward.

Listening to their quick, uninteresting exchange Alice found herself focused on Emmett's words. About how he'd sacrifice everything he knew if there was a chance he could make Rosalie happy.

Wasn't that an idea Alice could empathize with? Surely she'd do anything in her power for Jasper, whether that meant handing herself over to Maria and keeping secrets from him for his own good.

Thinking about how upset he'd likely be if he knew about that, Alice closely followed Emmett, wondering to herself whether or not pain and sacrifice were integral parts of love.

If so, love didn't sound all that great to her. But as a vision struck her—Jasper would be home by sunrise—and a warm joy began to flow through every inch of her body, she couldn't even try to deny that what she felt for him wasn't something intense.

And if it was love, she thought to herself, halfway paying attention to Emmett's phone conversation with Rosalie, then they were both so royally screwed.


A/N: Okay. So. I'm hoping I'm not making a mistake by preemptively posting this. I usually only post chapters if I've been writing towards the ending and I haven't gotten much writing done this week. Mainly due to technical issues—google docs is only working on safari now (updating to Sahara straight-up murdered google chrome somehow; RIP) and safari apparently can't handle the 200k word monster that I'm attempting to work on. Nor will it let me work on smaller documents. It's annoying. I hate apple and everything that's associated with it.

So, I've been trying to work between three browsers now and every time I try to write on Pages the formatting gets fucked. Essentially: I'm just frustrated currently. If any of you guys have any advice I will immediately take it. I just want to work without shitty browsers and shittier apple programs fucking up my groove. I just want to finish this STORY! Ugh. Anyways, sorry about the rant. But apple is getting in between me and finishing this fic, and that's not chill.

Hope you liked this chapter. I'm going to spend the rest of my weekend trying to write my way toward the conclusion of this story. It's looking like it'll wrap up somewhere between chapters 40 and 45, so that's nice to know. It's also exciting knowing that the ending is in sight (for me at least) and I'm about to finish this monster. I'm feeling happy about that, just irritated by technology in the meantime.

I hope we can all agree that Emmett is the MVP of most of the chapters he's in. Because he is. And he's so fun to write. And I love him DEARLY. Here's another reminder to find me on Tumblr and join in the silly nonsensical fun we have there. I'm currently participating in a Twilight Secret Santa gift exchange on there, so in a couple weeks I'll be posting a cute little one-shot there. Won't tell you much more beyond that; it's a surprise. Anyways...

Act Three is almost over. Be cautious.

~*~ review replies ~*~

worldtraveller78: LMAO please don't go! just gotta make sure people are ready for the pain! and don't worry I'm Captain Angsty Bitch so if yall are looking for some angst I will always be here to deliver the goods. oh yeah Jasper truly has been suffering these past several chapters. it is amusing to think about how he can usually figure his way out of most situations, and he's am empath, but the second he has a personal situation that needs navigating, he's lost as shit as to what to do. poor buddy. feelings can be like that sometimes.

it's so funny though bc usually in my fiction I can be like "yeah yall will get your HEA don't worry calm down" but... I find it much more satisfying if people don't know whether they'll get their happily ever after or not :~) if that makes me evil so BE it!

exceptionaldork: hmm... yes... I wonder why she wants her? hahaha I will say that she does want Jasper too, but... you're right, there is something about Alice ;)

deltagirl74: I love love love the wondering. you guys aren't too far off but no one has really hit the bullseye with Maria yet, and that just means I'm doing SOMETHING right! I mean if the villains motives were easy to determine it wouldn't be much of an adventure now, would it? and oh man it's so funny because literally Emmett is days away from doing that exact thing: locking them in a room together and making them sort their differences like ADULTS! but as you can see above, maybe what he said here will have some sort of effect on our girl :)

CLee56: happy belated birthday! hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)