"…and that is what a rook does."
I nodded silently at Edward's words, storing the information away safely. I had to know all the rules before I could take down the reigning Cullen chess champion. I almost wanted to try playing him without my gift, but I knew the competitive urge would be much too strong. Suppressing my gift was something I had been trying to do for the past few weeks, at least when it came to the activities of my new family – three days of watching Emmett and Rosalie's bedroom romps had been more than I (or poor Edward) could handle. Edward suggested the block, something he tried to do to give his family just a touch of privacy. And so I began to find a careful balance of ignoring the every waking move of those around me and only focusing on the big happenings – which, thankfully, were few and far between.
Today was absolutely a day for focusing on the big happenings. As I sat in the den with Edward learning the rules and strategies of chess, Jasper was upstairs in our bedroom, preparing for his first session of night school. My stomach was filled with butterflies for him, and I spent every few minutes glancing into the future to make sure he would be okay.
"…B1 to C2. Understand?"
I shook my head, trying to concentrate.
Edward fixed me with a smiling stare. "If you're eager to lose, then by all means stay."
"I'm sorry, Edward, I just –"
"Go on, go to him," he interrupted, waving me off with his hand. "He's more worried than a mother hen, same as you."
I flashed a thankful smile, pushed myself up off the floor, and scampered out of the den. I had reached the foot of the stairs when Carlisle called out to me.
"Alice? Is that you?"
I turned to poke my head through the doorway of his study. Carlisle was sitting behind his heavy desk, an enormous stack of files from the hospital waiting to be read before him.
"Yes, it's me," I said, coming inside. He smiled when I entered.
"Please, sit." He gestured to one of the leather chairs facing his desk, and I sunk into one, my mind stuck between listening to my father and worrying about my fiancé.
"How are you feeling?" he asked in his comforting, paternal tone.
"Fine, thank you." Carlisle gave me a knowing look. "Nervous as anything," I admitted truthfully, and he smiled.
"I think we are all a trifle anxious. Jasper especially. But surely your gift must be a comfort."
I nodded. "A little. I'll just have to keep an eye on him during his classes."
"Make sure that you do," he replied. "I have the utmost faith in Jasper, but we must use every precaution. This is why we have been given our gifts, to put them to good use."
"I will," I promised, doubting I would do much more tonight than watch Jasper in my mind's eye.
"How does Jasper feel about tonight?" he asked.
"I was just about to go ask him that same question," I said with a smile. Carlisle waved me off with the same motion Edward had made moments before, and I smiled at their father-and-son mannerisms.
"Go on, then, don't let me keep you. I've a great deal of work as it is." He gestured to the files on his desk with a weary grin. I nodded my sympathy and left his office, heading back up the stairs as fast as my feet would take me.
I opened the door of our room quietly. Jasper stood in front of the full length mirror we had purchased a week ago, his face tense as he struggled with his tie.
"Here, let me," I offered as I walked to his side. He nodded and relaxed slightly. The instructions I had been studying for the past week sprung into my head and I went though the practice motioned without difficulty, making a little bow just at Jasper's collar, stepping back to straighten it into place and smile.
"Perfect," I murmured. Jasper gave a feeble smile in response. Even though he was the empath, I could still feel his nerves rolling off him in waves, making me nervous as well.
"Not you too," he somehow managed to joke. "I was going to come to you for strength."
"Don't worry," I said. "You'll be fine. Emmett's going to be with you the entire time. He'll stop you if something goes out of hand, and I'll see it before it gets that far."
"But if he has to stop me, he'll have to make quite a show, and if we're spotted…if somebody realizes…"
"They won't. Remember, Edward and I are going to have the car waiting just outside the building, he'll hear anything they're thinking."
"You promise you'll be waiting for me?" His eyes were as frightened as a little boys and my heart ached with a want to set everything right, to make the night perfect for him. Such wishes beyond any power I could conceive, I merely agreed to what I could do.
"I promise."
He bent down to kiss me, a brief, distracted kiss I knew I couldn't break through until he had proved to himself that he could do this. Taking his cold hand in mine, I led him from the bedroom down to the foyer where our family was waiting.
"Ready to go?" Emmett asked, his eyes bright with excitement. He was attending Middlebury to get his intended major in Business, different from Jasper's in humanities, but they would take the same core classes for the few year, an idea that somewhat settled the butterflies in my stomach. If strong-as-an-ox Emmett were there to watch over Jasper, everything should be fine.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Jasper answered. His hand was still firmly wrapped around mine, and I gave him a comforting squeeze. He brought my hand up to his lips, pressing it there for a too-brief moment.
"You'll be fine," I whispered. He nodded silently in reply.
"Here, Jasper dear." Esme stepped forward, holding out a brown leather satchel I knew to contain his books.
"Thank you," he murmured, still not letting go of my hand, reaching forward with the other to take the bag.
"You should get going," Carlisle advised. "Classes start at seven."
Jasper nodded and bent down to kiss me. It was half as distracted as it had been before; a desperation had snuck in, making it feel as though this would be our last kiss for a very long while. I brushed that idea aside, reveling in his kiss, forcing myself to think, to know that he would be all right.
The door was open and Emmett was standing on the porch. It was all too fast. Jasper's desperation seemed to be rubbing off, and I clung to him until Edward cleared his throat.
"You'll be fine," I repeated, half to myself.
"I will," Jasper replied, only half to me.
"Remember, Edward and I will be waiting in the Ford right in front of the building."
"I know. I love you."
"Never enough."
One more kiss, one last lingering kiss, and he was gone.
I stayed at the window, peering out into the darkness, well beyond the time that the Mercedes turned the corner and went out of sight. My heart of lead was surely in the soles of my shoes without him at my side, and who could possibly move with such an affliction? I pressed a hand against the glass, willing him back no more than two minutes after he had left. He wanted this opportunity so much that I could not hold it from him…but we were both so worried about what might happen as a result. Perhaps it made more sense to wait…
"Alice."
Edward's hand was at my shoulder.
"Alice, come away. Come."
I allowed his hand to pull me away, his touch feeling nothing like what had been there mere minutes before but still comforting in its own way. We went into the den where Esme and Rosalie were watching The Vincent Lopez Show and sat side-by-side on the unoccupied sofa.
"Don't worry, dear," Esme said sweetly, reaching over to place her hand on my knee. "He will be fine, I'm sure of it. You haven't seen anything, he's well-fed, and Emmett is there with him."
"Emmett can stop him if anyone can," Rosalie chimed in. "Think of something else. You'll feel better."
But how on earth could I possibly do such a thing? My head and heart were filled with nothing but Jasper.
"Esme," Edward said suddenly, his voice full of hinted meaning, "didn't you have something to give Alice?"
Esme's eyes lit up. Whatever the meaning was, she understood. "Oh, my, I almost forgot." She rose from the sofa and left the room, returning a few seconds later with her hands full of slim, glossy magazines. She sat in the open space next to me.
"Alice, you'll drive yourself insane if you sit here and worry so." She placed a motherly hand at my cheek. "He's fine, I know he is. Don't you see that?"
I checked once more on Jasper. Class was due to begin any minute, and I could see him clearly, sitting in a desk at the far corner of the room, his jaw firmly set as he tried not to breath in the no-doubt mouth-watering scents of the seven or so humans around him. The window next to him was cracked to let in the fresh air and Emmett was sitting in the desk next to him, one final precaution. It would be three hours of the same breath-holding, I knew, and I allowed myself to finally relax.
"There." Esme smiled warmly. "He'll do wonderfully, I'm sure of it. Now, see what I have for you."
I looked down to where she had spread the books on the coffee table, but my eyes couldn't register whatever they held. As I felt myself sliding into that familiar, catatonic state of envisioning, I grew frightened of what horrors I might see.
Jasper was rocking nervously from side-to-side, fumbling with the cuffs of his handsome stroller suit. Emmett stood at his side, dressed in the same grey suit, and he smiled at the man's tense fidgeting. He had been just as nervous…at least the first time.
"She's coming," Edward said, nodding to his left. Jasper stilled almost immediately, standing at attention like the major he had once been. The three pairs of eyes scanned down the aisle of the small church they were standing in to where a pair of doors had opened. Esme came first, dressed in a pretty, full-length, chartreuse gown. Rosalie was right behind, her dress the same color but with a straight, tight design that made Emmett's jaw fall a little slack. For Jasper, there was no looking at these two women. He saw nothing but the beautiful angel in white entering the room on Carlisle's arm.
When I slid back to consciousness, my eyes were still locked on the coffee table and the magazines that lay there and I realized why I had had this prophetic vision. They were bridal magazines, and on the cover of one was my dress, that breathtaking, wonderful, perfect wedding dress.
"Alice!"
Esme's voice was full of concern, her hand feeling my head for any signs of impossible illness.
"Esme, I'm fine," I insisted.
Clucking her tongue, she pulled on my jaw. "Stick out your tongue."
"Really, Esme, I'm all right!" I gently tugged her hands down.
"When are you going to remember that your human treatments are entirely unnecessary?" Edward teased with a wry smile. "She was only having a vision, not a seizure."
Esme pursed her lips worriedly but sat back. "Are you sure you're fine?"
I nodded. "More than fine, Esme. I saw something. Something wonderful. Did you see it, Edward?"
He nodded. "You all looked lovely." This caught Rosalie's attention.
"What was it? What did you see?"
"My wedding," I said with a grin. "Specifically, my wedding dress."
"Oh, what did it look like?" Rosalie asked.
Edward jabbed one long finger on the pile of magazines. "Just like that. Am I correct, Alice?"
I stared down at the picture he was pointing to and nodded. It was the same beautiful white short-sleeved dress from my vision, all satin and lace overlay with a slight sweep train and pretty flounced hem. The hem was where I found a fault – the dress in my vision had been cut to end at my shin.
"Beautiful," Esme breathed and began tossing out words my fashion-conscious mind had never heard of, like "Schiffli embroidery" and "tulle rusching."
"You'll have to hem it to fit her, of course," Rosalie said to our mother.
"You could do that?" I asked.
Esme nodded. "My mother taught me to sew when I was a girl."
Edward's hand reached across me to touch our mother's knee as her eyes grew cloudy and faraway. She smiled a heartbreaking little smile and he took his hand away, confirmed that she was all right.
"But yes, I could hem it any way you'd like," she offered. I nodded silently, thinking this information over. "Unless, of course, you'd rather we hire a tailor instead."
"No, no," I stammered, hoping she hadn't mistaken my silence for opposition to the idea. "I was just wondering…could you make it tea-length?"
Esme laughed lightly. "Anything for my daughter's wedding."
I beamed. My daughter! Even after nearly a month as a Cullen, those little acknowledgements of acceptance still quickened my breath and made my stomach all a-flutter.
"How fashionable," Rosalie breathed as she leaned over to look at the dress. "With a skull cap or pillbox, maybe. And of course you'll need bridesmaids." Her eyes sparkled with the promise of a new dress, a dress I already knew would look amazing.
We began discussing these already-seen dresses, an activity Edward quickly excused himself from. Rosalie's slinky slip of a dress was found in the second magazine we went through and Esme's was in the fourth, both the same pretty shade of pale green that we all deemed would be perfect for a spring wedding. After two hours of wonderfully girlish frenzy, Rosalie and I excused ourselves and met Edward at the base of the stairs, following him out to the garage where the Ford was parked in the space the Buick had occupied before we sold it. Rosalie moved to sit in the passenger-side seat.
"Do you want to drive?" Edward offered, holding out the key. I shook my head.
"Jasper doesn't like me to drive when I might have a vision," I explained as I opened the back door. He nodded and slid into the driver's seat, starting the car and pulling down the drive without a word.
The ride was quiet, none of us speaking. Edward focused on his driving, Rosalie was content to examine her nails, and I was lost in my thoughts, silent words Edward could surely hear, wondering how Jasper's first day had gone. He had been fine in terms of satiating his thirst; my lack of visions concerning that subject had assured me of that. But how had he done as a student? Did he like his teacher? Was he satisfied with the curriculum, or did he find it boring? Stifling? Difficult? Now that I knew he could manage being shut up in a room with a dozen or so humans, I wondered if his dream had matched up to the reality.
We parked the car on the street in front of Munroe Hall, a large white building Jasper and Emmett's last class was in, and sat down to wait the last ten minutes before class got out.
"I'm going to wait in the Mercedes," Rosalie announced after a while, nodding to the parking lot next to the building.
"Go ahead," Edward murmured absently, his brow furrowed as he stared, deep in concentration, out the window. As Rosalie exited the car, I wondered if he was trying to hear their thoughts all the way from out on the street. Edward's slight nod answered my query.
"Really?" I was astounded that he could do such a thing.
"It's tough," he admitted. "Would you be all right out here if I went inside? Waited outside the classroom?"
"Yes, of course," I replied. Anything to help Jasper. Edward gave the deserted street a sweep with his eyes before rushing from the car at an exceptional speed. I kept my mind focused on Jasper in his last few minutes of class, thrilling at how handsome he looked in his adorable bowtie and delighting when he correctly answered a question posed to the class. I slipped out of the car when the clock struck ten, leaning against the hood as the students came filing out of the building, most quiet working-class individuals seeking higher education, some overachieving young scholars, all smelling absolutely breath-taking. I realized just how hard this had to have been for my Jasper, and I blessed him for wanting this opportunity so badly as to go through all that pain.
And there he was, coming down the front steps with Emmett and Edward flanking his sides. Our eyes locked with a hungry, frantic look. He began moving faster than he should around so many humans, but I didn't care. I couldn't care for anything, anyone, except my Jasper. He threw his arms around me, holding me tight in his desperate grasp, burying his face in my hair and breathing in deeply.
"Hard night?" I asked, my mouth muffled against his shoulder. Jasper gave a hard chuckle.
"You have no idea."