A/N Well, folks, here we are...I can't believe I/we finally made it. Poor JaspersDestiny was up until all hours of the night last night so I could get this up today...she truly understands my OCD issues, bless her.
Chapter 29
"Jasper?"
"Yes, Bella?"
"Where are we again?" Bella asked, her voice a lazy drawl in the heat.
"About ten miles southwest of Big Bend National Park, Texas."
"It's nice here. I like the heat."
"I thought you might."
"You don't think anybody'll see us, do you?"
"We're pretty remote, Bella. And we'll know if anybody gets too close."
"What about airplanes…?"
"Bella. Just...relax. Relax and enjoy it. Nothing is going to get us. Nobody is going to see us. We're safe."
It killed Bella to feel the insecurity behind Jasper's words. The past week had shaken him badly. Hell, it had shaken her badly. She turned her head to look at him. They were both stretched out, fingers entwined, soaking up the sun's rays on their fronts and the radiant heat from the rock beneath them on their backs. Abruptly she flipped on her side, snuggling up to her mate and pushing feelings of reassurance and trust at him, hoping he'd believe her. He barely relaxed, but it was progress and it would have to do. For now.
"Do we have to go back?" she murmured against his skin, one hand reaching out to trace circles on his stomach. To her delight, he began to purr.
"Eventually. I thought we might…you know, visit Peter and Charlotte for a bit first... Just, you know..."
"Until your eyes change back."
"Yeah," Jasper said, tensing up again.
"They aren't going to care, Jasper. The rest of the family won't judge you."
"Those were innocent people, Bella. It's not like I took a bite out of Heriberto or any of his cronies."
"Extenuating circumstances, Jasper. The fact that anybody made it out alive is a miracle. The law called for them all to be destroyed. And as you and Carlisle so recently pointed out to me, that law is still a good one even if its enforcers weren't so great."
"Yeah, well, I figured it was a good time to bend the law a little bit."
"Thank you," Bella said softly, her hand dipping a little lower on his abdomen, causing his purr to rise in volume.
"Do you think Peter was able to get the Prius working?"
Jasper grabbed her hand, stopping its movement. "Bella?" he said.
"Yes, Jasper?"
"I don't wanna talk about Peter right now. I don't wanna talk about anything right now."
"Jasper?"
"Yeah?"
"Me either."
~CD~CD~CD~CD~
"Jasper?"
"Yes, Bella?"
"Are there always this many shooting stars here in the South? Or is this a meteor shower?"
"Um...I think it's still too early for the Geminids meteor shower, and it's too late for the Leonids. Or maybe it's not – hell, I don't even know what day it is. I think it's just because the air is so clear here that it makes it easier to spot them. It's one of the few things I missed about the South: star watching. Being with the Cullens, settling in and living amongst the humans…well, it always meant living in places that were cloudy a lot."
"Mmmhmm. I remember the stars being bright in Phoenix – or, rather, up in the mountains around Phoenix – but never like this!"
"You can thank your vampire sight for that."
"I will."
"Didn't you watch the stars when you were, um, up in Siberia? They were quite bright there, too. Different stars, though." Not these; these, Jasper almost considered old friends.
"No. I never left the cave. And once I did, I didn't paid attention to anything around me. Until you came along, that is. Then I still didn't pay attention to anything else around me." He glanced over at her and saw her grinning at him in the darkness.
"Hmm...me either, come to think of it." He rolled over, blocking her view of the stars, and ignored her when she protested.
She didn't protest very hard.
~CD~CD~CD~CD~
"Jasper?"
"Yes, Bella?"
"We're going to need to get some clothes before we go anywhere." Bella lifted herself up on her elbows and looked over her shoulder at their naked backs, lingering for a moment to appreciate Jasper's bare ass before turning her eyes back to his face. Yesterday they'd stayed on their backs all day. Today she'd declared they needed to lie on their stomachs. It was very important, she'd explained to Jasper, to get an even tan.
He'd not bothered pointing out that they didn't tan. It seemed a good idea to him that they soak up the heat evenly, too. He also wondered when she'd become an expert on tanning. He remembered her human days quite clearly – including the fact that she'd been almost as pale as a vampire from the day she arrived from Arizona.
"I don't see why," he said, not bothering to lift his head from where he had it resting on his crossed arms. He could see her from here and that was all that was important. "We ran all the way here buck naked and you didn't protest."
"Well, if I remember correctly, you were really, really insistent about that. I wasn't about to argue...although it's all still a little bit blurry," Bella said.
"What the hell are you talking about, Jasper?" Peter shouted over the sound of tearing vampire flesh as they ripped the corpses apart and threw them on the fire, the purple flames and smoke casting weird shadows in the darkness of the open space in front of Maria's den.
"Their clothes! Their clothes!" Jasper gestured wildly with one hand, his other hand refusing to break contact with Bella. Her eyes were shut, the pain of Jasper's healing venom on the back of her neck making her want to cry out and scream. She was settling for more of a whimper, though. Her mate was already frantic, but now he was getting downright hysterical. His shouting about clothing forced her to open one eye out of curiosity as she tried to sit up to see what had him so agitated.
"No, no, babe, lie back, lie back. You have to stay still..." he crooned, turning back to her and pushing her gently back to the ground.
"What...?"
"Nothing. It's nothing. Relax... Dammit, Peter!" Jasper shouted again, turning back to Peter and Charlotte. "Some of Maria's guys were still in uniform from up at Heriberto's place! Get them on there first! They might have fucking tracers planted on them!"
Bella heard a muffled, "Oh, shit," and then a flurry of activity on the other side of the clearing.
"Jasper?" she whispered, her voice sounding odd to her own ears. It hurt to talk, too.
"Don't talk, baby. You gotta heal up. Don't try talking."
"I don't have any clothes," she said, embarrassed at being naked in front of his friends, then embarrassed and ashamed at the pettiness of it – to be worried about her nudity in the middle of the nightmare.
Jasper jumped up and ripped his own clothes off before dropping back to her side. "Better?" he whispered, holding her with both arms now, being careful not to jostle her too much.
"Yeah..." she whispered.
"Well...if you remember that, then you might also remember that my insistence was based on a very real and legitimate concern."
"Yeah, I remember that too," Bella said, her voice dropping, fear creeping in. Jasper reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging her back down next to him.
"Shhh... It's over now. They won't trace us here..."
"I may never wear clothes again," she whispered, remembering it all.
"Now that's my kind of thinking..."
"Did you burn everything?" Jasper asked Peter, watching the distant fire down below them in the little box canyon where Maria's den had been.
Peter and Charlotte finished their climb up the steep slope, coming to a stop beside Bella and Jasper. "Yep, all the guards, everybody in the house..."
"Not EVERYBODY in the house!" Jasper said, aggravation creeping into his voice as he glanced at Bella, who he had around him, trying to hide her nakedness from Peter and Charlotte.
"Oh, here, Miss Bella, I brought you something. I know it was, um, hers…but you seemed a mite uncomfortable down there. I thought it might help." Peter held out a bundle of cloth towards Bella and Jasper, careful to not look at her.
"Thank you," Bella whispered, reaching out to grab it. It turned out to be a skirt and a top. Pretty, she thought, in spite of the stink of Maria on it. She wrinkled her nose and noticed Jasper did too. But she really was uncomfortable in her nudity around almost-strangers, so she quickly pulled the outfit on. Beside her, Jasper sighed and accepted a pair of shorts from Peter, pulling them on quickly.
"Well, I guess we're done here," Jasper said. "Your neck feeling all right? Can you run, babe, or do you want to wait a little more?" He reached up to feel her neck, then carefully moved her hair to the side and leaned in to look closer, trying to decide for himself if she had healed enough to move on.
"I've been better," she admitted. "But I've been a lot worse, too. I'd feel better if we just left. Every step I take north will make me feel better."
"Can't argue with you there, chica," Peter said. "I think we're good to go here, Jasper."
Jasper nodded and turned away, pulling Bella with him. "Good deal. Let's go. We need to get Bella fed, and soon." He glanced down at Bella, who nodded at him without speaking.
"Wait a minute..." Peter said, reaching out and grabbing Jasper's arm to stop him. "Shit, shit, shit!" Peter hissed. "Sorry, Miss Bella," he said, glancing at Bella. "We've got incoming, Jasper." He pointed further down the canyon, where headlights were approaching slowly up the almost non-existent road through the wash.
"Are you fucking KIDDING me?" Jasper asked, shock rolling off him. "Okay, everybody strip. Now!" He put action to words, pulling off his own shorts before stripping Bella of her new clothes. Charlotte began stripping her own clothes off, but Peter just stood there, staring at Jasper.
"Stop gawping at me, man, and take your damn clothes off!" Jasper shouted.
"B-b-but..." Peter stammered. "I got the clothes back in the States! There's no way there's anything planted in them!"
"I don't CARE, dammit! Strip!"
Peter kept arguing. "Maybe it's not the clothes... I mean, well, yeah, there are uniforms down there in the fire... That's probably what's brought them. But none of these clothes came from the compound."
"SHUT it, Peter! Take them off yourself or I'll do it for you, starting with your head!" Jasper growled.
Peter stripped.
"Yeah. You were right. Naked was definitely better. Good news is you were probably right about the tracers, though. Nothing happened after we left the clothes behind. I think Peter was right about it just being the uniforms."
"Yeah, he probably was," Jasper agreed. "But was it worth taking a chance?"
"No, not really. You know what, though?"
"What?"
"What if the tracers were in the human blood? Like, little nanobots planted in the human captives? And you drank that blood! Now it's in you, so they'll be able to trace you! Maybe they just haven't gotten up here yet. Or maybe they have, and they're just waiting for us to come down off this plateau..."
Jasper looked at her in disbelief.
"Bella?"
"Yes, Jasper?"
"You have watched way too much Star Trek with Emmett."
"Someone once told me, Jasper, to never say never – especially when faced with eternity like we are."
"Good advice. Was it Carlisle?"
"No," Bella said, smiling a little, knowing Jasper wasn't going to like her answer when it came.
"Edward?"
"No."
Jasper was silent for a moment. "Well, you gonna tell me?" he finally said, sounding impatient.
"Natan."
"Oh. THAT asshole. Maybe it was stupid advice after all."
"NO!" Bella screamed. "Don't kill him!"
Well, she tried to scream. It came out more of a gurgle. She'd regained consciousness in time to see Jasper tearing Maria into little pieces. Evidently, just tearing her limb from limb hadn't been enough for him. Relief that he'd recovered from Abeo's gift quickly enough to save her from Maria had surged through her, followed by horror when he'd turned his attention to Natan. Even though she'd thought about killing him, too, she found that she didn't want it to happen now. Her garbled scream stopped Jasper in mid-strike, and he quickly turned towards her. His eyes were black – blacker than she'd ever seen them before. Seeing her eyes staring back at him, he dropped his attack and rushed to her side. Elsewhere on the floor, Peter and Charlotte had begun to stir. Natan still lay unconscious, though.
"You're all right…you're all right…I thought you were dead…I thought she'd killed you!" he mumbled.
How foolish, Bella thought groggily. She was already dead. Maria couldn't have killed her unless she burned her. But she did hurt like hell. Almost as bad as after the werewolf attack. She found she couldn't speak, so she tried to send feelings of reassurance to her mate.
Jasper began carefully running his hands over her and trying to evaluate her injuries. He rolled her over and moved her hair to the side to inspect the back of her neck and the massive damage done there by Maria's teeth. He took a deep breath and then began to gingerly reassemble bits and pieces, continuing to mumble. Bella didn't know if he was actually talking to her or if he was just talking to himself.
"Wish Carlisle was here...gah, what a mess...don't want scarring...nasty bitch...probably infected...can't get infected, Jasper, you idiot...I think it's going to be all right...wish Carlisle was here..." Soon enough, though, he was licking the wound, sealing it up with his own venom. Bella winced at the new pain.
"Shhh...shhh...sorry, babe...had to do it…you'll be alright now..." he whispered, holding her tight against him.
"Jasper," Peter whispered from across the floor, "we've got incoming. I count five. I think it's the rest of the guards."
"Can you…?" Jasper asked, hating to.
"Yeah, if you can give 'em a shot of fear and loathing in Monterrey."
"No problem. Go upstairs. Let them get a little closer."
"Right. Come on, Charlotte." Peter and Charlotte disappeared up the stairs.
"I think Peter just made a modern pop cultural reference," Jasper said, sounding surprised as he turned back to Bella. She tried to smile but it felt like it came out as more of a grimace.
"I'm sure it was an accident," she said. The words still sounded a bit garbled.
"Shhh... Don't try to talk yet."
From up the stairs came the sounds of growling and hissing. Jasper's eyes grew unfocused for a moment, and then suddenly they could hear several vampires being ripped apart. Bella could tell from Jasper's unconcerned look that things were going well for Peter and Charlotte.
Across the room, Natan began to stir. Jasper turned towards him again, a growl beginning deep in his chest.
"Don't!" Bella whispered, reaching out to grab his arm.
Natan sat up and looked at them, worry and fear clear on his face. Bella didn't need Jasper's talent to know the vampire clearly thought his time was up.
"Let him go!" she said.
Jasper turned to her in disbelief. "Why?"
"Just...please, let him go!"
Natan didn't waste time to hear Jasper's reply. He flitted up the stairs and was gone.
"Let him go!" Jasper roared to his friends. "You better have a good reason for that," he told Bella.
"Later. Trust me," Bella said, shutting her eyes again. She was tired of talking.
"Always," Jasper murmured, picking her up and carrying her from the room.
"Yeah...care to explain it to me now?" Jasper asked, sitting up and facing her. "I'd say it's later. It's driving me nuts, Bella. You know I don't like loose ends, and he's a loose end if I've ever seen one. I don't care if Peter has met him before and spoke well of him. He hurt you."
"He didn't hurt me. He never touched me. He helped save me," Bella said quietly. "And by doing that, he helped save all of us."
Bella had not said anything yet; not during their long trip north and not during their days of lying in the sun together. She hadn't offered and Jasper hadn't pushed. Everything would come out in good time – and for once, they actually had time. Plenty of time. He'd managed to send a text to Alice before his phone had died, telling her where they were and saying they'd come home when Bella was ready. Alice had assured him that she could see nothing disturbing in their immediate future, although she also made sure to point out she didn't see much of ANYTHING in their near future. It was clear to her that they wouldn't be making definite decisions any time soon. She told him that as much as the family wanted to see them and assure themselves of both Bella's and Jasper's safety, they all completely understood the need for the pair to re-connect in privacy.
Evidently, though, Bella was ready to talk now. She told him everything that had happened to her – from the hotel room up to the point that she'd been taken down by Maria.
"So you see, Jasper," she said, once she'd finished telling him what had happened, "I HAD to let them take me. I couldn't protect Charlotte and Peter at the hotel. My shield, I guess, isn't strong enough to protect other people against EVERYTHING that is out there."
"You could have escaped, killed them once they were safely away from there," Jasper said, immediately feeling guilty. He didn't mean to make her feel like she had done less than what was possible or imply she was complicit in her own kidnapping. He was just grasping at straws, trying to understand what had happened.
Bella didn't get angry. She knew him too well. "Maybe," she said, sounding doubtful. "Jasper, you always tell me I'm a good fighter, but that's never really been tested in large groups. I mean, I go ape-shit and rip peoples' heads off, sure, but four against one? I don't think I'm THAT good. And to be honest..." she trailed off, feeling doubtful all of a sudden. Doubtful, embarrassed, and a little bit aggravated.
"What is it?"
"Well, if you remember, you didn't believe me or Peter when we said we thought Maria might have a talented vampire in her coven. You said she wouldn't have changed that much. And you were wrong." NOW she was angry. Angry and a little resentful. She might not blame him for what had happened to her – Maria might have gotten her away from him no matter what – but everything might have gone differently, better, if he'd only given her theory the benefit of the doubt.
Jasper squirmed a bit, unable to meet her eyes for a moment.
"Yeah. I was wrong. Really, really wrong," he said, nodding. And his inability to broaden his own thinking had almost cost him everything. "I'll never ignore your opinion again, Bella. I just...I'm used to being in charge in situations like this. And there's no room for democracy in a war situation, Bella. You won't convince me to change that part of me."
"I'm not asking you to change that, Jasper." She sighed. "I'm just...I just think you need to be willing to listen to others' theories. I mean, you always did when it was just you and me, back in Russia and Europe, and then when we were traveling around. You always listened to me. We were a team!"
"We ARE a team! I'm sorry. So sorry. I made the mistake of thinking that since I knew Maria, I knew how everything needed to go down in this situation. I was wrong. And I won't make that mistake again. I'll do my best not to do that in the future."
"Hmph!" Bella sniffed. "Just see that it doesn't happen again." She pushed Jasper's shoulder, shoving him over on his back.
"Hey!" he protested. "I let Natan go just because you said to, without questioning you. Even though it just about KILLED me to do it and went against everything I believe in!"
"Yes, you did," Bella said, leaning over and kissing him. "You know, it's weird – I'd already decided he was going to be the third person I killed once I got out of the concrete. And then, when it came time to kill him, I couldn't let you. He saved me, Jasper."
"Yeah, because it served his purpose!"
"Well...maybe. I don't know, though. He couldn't know for sure he'd survive. He had to have known that you would kill everybody there. He seemed pretty aware of who Jasper Whitlock is."
"Yeah, maybe. He wouldn't have made it out of there at all if he hadn't helped you. I still say he's self serving."
"Maybe."
Silenced descended upon them as they both lay back on the rocks, holding hands again.
"You said Peter knows him. How?"
Jasper groaned. "I don't feel like talking about Natan anymore, Bella. In fact, if I never hear his name again, it'll be too soon. If you're so curious, ask Peter when we see him again. He can probably give you the man's entire life history. Just do it when I'm out of earshot."
"Jasper, you are such a jealous cat!"
"Jealous? I'm not jealous! There's nothing to be jealous of!"
"You're right, there's not!" Bella giggled.
"I'm just...not interested in talking about Natan. I appreciate what he did to help," Jasper said stiffly. "And in return, I let him live. Because he helped you. And you asked me not to kill him. End of story."
"If you say so," Bella said, giggling again. "What do you want to talk about instead?"
Jasper rolled over, pulling her under him at the same time. "I don't want to talk about anything at all right now," he growled, leaning down to kiss her.
"Me either."
~CD~CD~CD~CD~
"Jasper?"
"Yes, Bella?"
"I think I'm ready to go now."
"Really?" Jasper said, jumping to his feet.
"Geez, Jasper, if you're so ready to go, you should have said something!" Bella laughed, getting up more slowly. She stretched languidly, the light from the moon glinting off her skin in a subdued version of the sparkling that would have been evident in the sunlight.
"I didn't want to rush you, Bella," he said. "I would stay here forever if that's what you wanted."
"But you're ready to go."
"Yeah. Pretty much," he admitted, grinning at her. "It's not the company or the location, it's–"
"The lack of pretty much anything edible?" she said with a laugh. "Yeah. I agree. I'm getting a little bit thirsty and a LOTTA bit tired of javelinas." She peered at him closely. "And your eyes are looking much better, Jasper. I don't think you even need sunglasses now."
He nodded, not saying anything. He also didn't tense up at her words, which told her more than anything else could have that he was ready to go back. They hadn't talked much about what had happened to him in the compound, but he was clearly coming to terms with it in his own way. Her acceptance of it had gone a long way to helping him.
"We will need clothes, though, Jasper. I'm not running all the way to Peter and Charlotte's house naked."
"You still want to go there first?" he asked, surprised.
She shrugged. "We said we would stop by."
"We don't have to, Bella. I know you weren't that comfortable last time."
"Yeah, well, they kind of grew on me. I want to stop by. Will they be back at the same cabin?"
"Yeah, should be. Peter said they were going to head back there."
"Okay," she said, nodding. "Let's go. But clothing first!"
"You got it, babe. We can go get our luggage and stuff. We buried it under a rock outside of Laredo. Peter said he'd leave our stuff there when they went back."
"No."
"No? But you said..." Jasper was confused.
"I'm not going back there. I'm never going anywhere near there again. Do you hear me, Jasper?"
"Okay... But our ID and stuff are there."
"Do we need them?" Bella asked, suddenly worried. "Will we be in trouble if somebody finds them?"
Jasper laughed. "No. They were made up identities. In fact, we can have Emmett just put a little paper trail out on the net that shows those two 'people' went missing in Mexico last month. That way, if anybody ever does find the stuff, it'll fit in nicely with the story. We'd never use those identities again, anyway."
"Huh. Okay, good, because I'm never going back there again and I don't want you to have to, either. We can just steal something off of somebody's clothesline."
Jasper looked around them at the desolate darkness that spread for hundreds of miles in all directions. "I hope you don't expect that to happen soon."
"As long as it happens before we get to Peter's house, I'll be happy."
"Bella?"
"Yes, Jasper?"
"What do you want to do next?"
"After Peter's house?"
"Yeah."
"I think...I think I want to go home."
"You don't want to go off somewhere by ourselves?" Jasper was surprised – not that he minded going back to their family, but Bella's answer surprised him. What with all her talk before of being nomadic, he'd just assumed she'd go back to that line of thinking now that the dust had settled.
"Yeah...I think I just want to be with family for a while. I'm tired of adventures."
"Your wish is my command, babe. Home it is."
"After clothes. And a visit to Peter and Charlotte."
"Right."
~CD~CD~CD~CD~
A/N There WILL be an epilogue next week...but other than that, I'm afraid we have reached the end, dear readers.
