Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Rated M for several reasons.

Chpt 50 Scientific Realism

JPOV

I didn't have it in me to push for the audience with Carlisle, she's had to open up so much already, I know how hard that is for her and I want to help her, not overwhelm her.

Instead, despite the possible physical pain, she's going shopping with Esme and Kate. We need some bedroom furniture, not that I haven't fantasised about fucking her in my chair, its just no good for snuggling afterwards.

Snuggling. Jesus.

I've another reason not to press my luck. Pete and Char are coming for a visit, he's an extremely nosey bastard and I wouldn't have been able to keep him away for long. I haven't told Bella yet, she'll get nervous.

She knows I'm going to talk to Carlisle, tell him everything and while she's not thrilled about it she's a million times happier than she was when she thought she'd have to be there. She's going to be nervous when she gets back but Carlisle's got a shift at the hospital so at least she won't have to face him straight away. I'm not sure what worry she's hiding but I'm guessing its got something to do with what she calls 'the weirdness between us'. And I'm guessing, in her typically self-deprecating way, that she thinks it's influencing us somehow and I might not really love her.

My words don't seem to be working so time and actions are going to have to prove to her how wrong she is, although I'm hoping Carlisle can tell me something to help put her fears to rest.

Talk of the devil.

"I'll be in my study when you're ready Jasper." He mutters, strolling past me with his nose in a book.

"Thanks."

I'm hovering in the hall, waiting to see Bella off on her shopping trip like a lovesick schoolboy. Esme's already passed through twice and been hard pressed not to laugh at me, thank fuck Em and Rose are at school. I would have preferred to air my reluctance to let her out of my sight in private but Kate shooed me out of my own room so she could talk to Bella.

I am turning into a fucking pussy.

Finally.

Kate and Bella flit down the stairs, smiling.

Kate goes straight out to the car and Bella comes straight into my outstretched arms.

Esme sneaks past pretending not to look as I pull Bella in tight.

Time ticks by as we breathe each other in.

"This is pathetic." She laughs finally, making no attempt to move away. "I'm only going shopping."

"I know." I sigh. "Promise you'll come straight back if it starts to hurt?"

"You don't have to worry about me, I'll be okay."

"Who says I'm worried about you?" I ask with feigned surprise. "I thought it was an accepted fact that men have a lower pain threshold than women?"

"Asshole." She giggles.

"Yes, but I'm your Asshole."

Esme honks the horn.

"I'd better go." She says, pulling back and pressing a brief kiss to my waiting lips.

"Bring me back a present!" I call after her as she darts out the door.

Right. I absolutely refuse to stand here and watch them drive away. That really would be pathetic.

"Come in." Carlisle calls as I rap on his door.

The room is in almost total disarray, open books and papers strewn everywhere, three screens connected to his laptop all displaying reams more words.

"Researching?" I enquire, with just the right amount of sarcasm.

"Of course." He chuckles, putting his book down and leaning back in his chair. "Her scent has completely changed, its very similar to yours now, although more feminine, you must have known that would pique my interest."

"Um." This is one of those times when it takes a strong mental command to stop you from scratching your head.

"Sit down." He laughs. "And tell me everything from the beginning."

…..

"So let me be sure I understand." He leans forwards again, his eyes bright with enthusiasm.

"Your relationship with Bella was improving?"

"We were having fun." I nod.

"You kissed her? And you didn't get your face slapped? That certainly is an improvement."

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" I huff.

"Oh Jasper." He twinkles. I hate it when he does that. "You have no idea."

"Humph." I cross my arms over my chest, let him take the negative body language any way he likes.

"And then you went hunting?"

"Yes."

"And you don't remember what happened until you 'woke up' . . . . ahem . . . . together?"

"Just the conviction that she needed something from me."

"And she doesn't remember anything either?"

"What she actually said was 'not really'." I clarify.

"Did she mention anything about having the impression she 'needed something'?"

Nope. I shake my head.

"And you don't remember biting her?"

"No." I shift uncomfortably, a habit I've picked up from Bella.

"And you've never bitten a, um, sexual partner before?"

"No."

Fuck this is excruciating, thank god Bella isn't here.

"And how does your scar on her neck make you feel? Again if you please, so I can be sure I understand."

"Proud." I mutter, examining my perfectly clean fingernails with undue attention.

"I see." A pause.

If he laughs I'll rip an appendage off, I swear to god, I haven't fucking changed that much.

"And you both find it satisfying when you touch it."

I manage a curt nod. He knows all this, there's nothing wrong with his memory, I only told him ten minutes ago.

"I'm sorry Jasper, this is just so fascinating."

"Humph." I re-cross my arms.

"Then you realised you were connected, as if by elastic?"

Nod.

"And there were some issues with excessive possessiveness?"

"I didn't think it was excessive." I snap.

"No." He drawls, managing to keep a straight face. "You probably wouldn't."

I permit myself an exaggerated sigh.

"You and I both think she smells like you now, so does Emmett, I asked him. But interestingly Kate, Esme and Rosalie, cannot detect any difference in her scent from before, why do you think that is?"

"I don't know, a vampire's sense of smell isn't totally infallible but I've never known mine to be wrong."

"Quite." He muses. "But for so many of us to be wrong? I think there must be another reason and not your venom mixing with hers, I doubt that would have produced such a marked change and even if it had it would have faded a long time ago since you haven't bitten her again. You haven't, I take it?"

"No." I growl. Inclined to be offended he'd even ask, but then I did do it, once.

"And since being together in New York your connection is considerably less elastic?"

"Yes." Absently I rub my chest.

"Does it hurt now?"

"Not the way it did in New York, that was actually painful, this is more of a dull ache but it isn't getting any worse."

"Interesting." He muses for a moment, idly flipping through one of the books on his desk. "And now you can feel each other's emotions, even when her shield is up and you're not projecting?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." He stops to read something and then leans back in his chair again, tilting it as he laces his hands behind his head and closes his eyes.

The building feeling that he knows exactly what's going on explodes into a certainty.

As if he can sense my impatience he opens his eyes, fixing them on mine.

"Do you love her?"

"Yes."

He nods.

"Fucking hell Carlisle, please, spit it out!"

He leans forward again, propping his elbows on the desk and resting his chin on his hands.

"I think you are Mates."

Really? That's it?

"I was hoping." I shrug. "I haven't spoken to her about it, she's still so human in many ways, I didn't want to frighten her off."

"No Jasper." He's smiling and it's not a smile I like. "You misunderstand me. I do not mean mates in the commonly accepted sense."

And there it is again, the urge to scratch my head, what the fuck's he on about?

"Mates became a widely used vampire term to describe a committed couple centuries ago. As you know, Esme and I, Rosalie and Emmett, even yourself and Alice, would all be described as mates. The fact that a lot of us choose to follow the human custom and 'marry' as well is neither here nor there, to the rest of our kind we are mates."

I nod.

"That wasn't always the case. The term was originally applied to actually mated pairs."

Nope, desire to scratch head, escalating.

"Like swans Jasper, quite apt if you think about it, vampires that mate for life."

"You and Esme are mated for life." I point out, completely unable to imagine them ever being apart.

He sighs. "This is very difficult to explain, obviously. Esme and I are together because we choose to be, there is nothing more powerful than our love holding us in place, and I sincerely hope we stay that way forever, but we don't have to. Mated pairs are different. Once committed they will never be able to be apart, they will never want to be."

My face must be communicating my struggle to assimilate what he's saying because he keeps talking.

"It's instinctual. Chemical. Biological. Spiritual. Bound together for eternity. Destined, fated. Soul Mates."

I swallow, I'm getting an inkling of what he's trying to tell me.

"From what I can tell from my research it's extremely rare, which is probably how the term came to be misused, although it doesn't surprise me in your case, you've always seemed intrinsically more vampire than any other I've met.

Bella too. I know she's clung to her humanity but she didn't have any other frame of reference, but still, considering how well she coped, adjusted, it's almost like she was born to it. Which, with hindsight, may well be why she survived your very near draining her. Destiny. Fate."

What the fuck?

"How?" I finally manage to ask, surprised at how strangled my voice sounds.

"Ah." He says, digging an ancient tome out of the pile. "That's one of the interesting bits. The ingredients may all be there but it requires something analogous to a ritual to set them off . . . . hold on . . . . here it is . . . . a bit like a contract, offer and acceptance."

Sorry, I don't remember sitting down at a table and signing anything . . . .

"It involves, ahem, claiming." He expands.

Claiming? That word conjures up a number of images in my head, some of them scarily familiar, others from some deep seated primal male fantasy . . . .

Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit. She'll fucking kill me . . . .

"Carlisle, I never meant to, I didn't realise . . . . shit . . . . what?"

He chuckles, leaning forward eagerly, fingers lacing together again as he regards me with something resembling gleeful anticipation.

"I bit her, I didn't know what I was doing, I don't even fucking remember, I must have f . . . . like an animal. She's going to be so mad, feel so trapped, I never would have forced her, I love her, I want her to be mine, mine for eternity, but I didn't do it deliberately, I know I didn't, what if she doesn't believe me? Carlisle." My voice is pleading. "I never would have claimed her like that if I'd known . . . ."

Never, I love her, I only want her to be happy, not feel like a fucking chattel . . . .

Mine? Mine forever? Soul mates? I can't believe how happy that thought makes me . . . .

Fuck! I collapse back in the chair, shocked to the core.

His smile widens.

"You really do love her, don't you?"

"Carlisle, I can't explain, its . . . . ah."

"She's yours, forever. You will always be the most important thing in her existence and she in yours. It's a remarkable gift, I think."

"She's going to hate me when she finds out."

"I doubt it."

He's radiating that gleeful anticipation again.

"Why?"

"It's not clear." He admits. "It's not like we procreate, in the traditional sense, which is the usual reason for 'mating' in the animal kingdom. Physical protection? You'd be an ideal candidate. Protection from the loneliness of eternity, a mutual desire I would have thought. An overwhelming need to belong to something, someone? To matter? Simple heartfelt love?"

Yes, I can identify with all of that, but that wasn't what I was asking.

"Why might she not hate me?"

"Two halves of the same whole? Connected on the most intimate of levels. Sufficient unto each other. Blessed?"

He's playing with me, I can feel it, his gleeful emotions are billowing out of him like a warm wind.

"Bella isn't the type of woman to 'lie back' and just accept that." I point out, almost shuddering as I imagine her reaction.

"Oh Jasper." Carlisle's smile broadens. "Son, if it makes you feel any better you did not claim anything. Try not to think of your bite as a statement of intent, more as your seal on the papers of surrender."

What?

"In all my readings one thing has always been abundantly clear. Male vampires do not take anything in the mating process that the female has not made a decision to give. Or, more correctly, you my dear Jasper are the one who was claimed."

Still smiling he leans back in his chair, the picture of innocent amusement.

What the fuck?

"It makes perfect sense if you think about it." He continues. "A vampire like Bella, beautiful, intelligent, mentally strong, surely nature would abhor for her to be 'paired' with an unworthy male? Think of it as the ultimate defence mechanism, or accolade. Only the female can claim a mate."