Disclaimer :

sexual content in this chapter

topics such as mental health, trauma and recovery are discussed in this story. Please read with caution!

Jasper

I never thought my life would end up this way.

There was always a plan. A thought out, surefire plan on how my life was going to be from the moment I was a teenager. Be a good son, a good example for my brother and sister, get good grades, get into a university to then get the career I knew I would excel at. A secure net.

I did all those things and more but there was always a plan on how to go about it.

There was always a plan.

Until she came along.

"Oh god, yes!"

I thrusted in and out quick and rough as the headboard slammed against the wall continuously. Holding onto her hips from behind, I kept going to get all of my frustrations out as quickly as possible. Her moans were loud and my heavy breathing filled the bedroom. "Don't stop Jasper!" I grunted when I felt her walls closing down around me. Just as I felt myself coming I pulled out of her and finished as she came, her voice being muffled by the pillow below her.

"Fuck that was so good." She said as she looks over her shoulder to look at me, a grin on her lips. I hummed in response, agreeing with her as I laid down on my side of the bed.

Victoria Meyer. A business professor at the university I worked at showed interest in me as soon as I transferred there. She was very confident and knew what she wanted. I told her I didn't want a relationship but a part of me wondered if she understood me completely as she almost always invited herself over to my house. That's another thing about me that seemed to cause problems with any sort of relationship I had. So that when I came to the conclusion, I don't do relationships, not since high school. I never found a good reason to date anyone, not with me going to college and wanting to focus on a career. Just wasn't in the cards for me - not a priority.

"You know, if you're not doing anything tomorrow I was thinking we could get dinner after my lecture." Victoria says, her hand trailing up and down my arm to my chest. I sighed, guess I should just tell her now.

I sat up and turned my head to look at her, "Sorry, I can't. I'm booked all day with appointments tomorrow." Her confidence turned to a sour expression on her face as she rolled her eyes before saying in a bitter tone, "Whatever, I'll just find someone else to go out with."

"You do that." I said before going to the bathroom and taking a shower. When I got out, Victoria was gone and a note was on my pillow with a message that told me to call her tomorrow. Guess she changed her mind.

After finishing my third session for the day I looked over my phone while I waited for my next client to come in. I replied to a few messages from my brother and clients before I had a call come in. I immediately smirked when I saw the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Hey you! Are ya busy?" Renee's cheerful voice sings out.

"Just waiting for my next client. Why, what's up?"

"Well, I'm going to be heading to Seattle with Bella tonight to celebrate her birthday a little early and I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner with us!"

Renee Swan.

She's been my best friend ever since high school. When I met her, she was two grades ahead of me but we quickly became friends. I remember how energetic and positive she always was to be at school. This tan, starry eyed kid from Arizona who couldn't stop talking about how much it rained in Forks as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. She was the one person I genuinely found entertaining in such a small town with nothing to do. And she could always see right through me somehow, she was an expert at calling me out on my shit. I quickly found out that no matter how naive she was about the world around us, Renee was always very mature for her age.

When she got pregnant in our senior year, her parents decided to move her to be with some distant family members until she had her baby. I never got to see Bella in person even though I wanted to but I was glad, crazy as it was at the time, that Renee decided to keep her daughter. After high school she ended up marrying the father, he was an older man in the police academy. Before moving to Tacoma Renee came to Forks to say goodbye, but I never met her daughter or husband for some reason. In fact, the only times I ever talked to Renee was through the phone or she would occasionally call me on FaceTime. She'd send be pictures of Bella but I never met Charles Swan, her husband.

"That sounds great. I'd love to see you two and finally meet Bella in person. How's she been?"

"Oh, busy with her head in the books like someone else I know. Of course she's also busy with training for regionals like crazy, it really means a lot to her so it's almost impossible to get her to sit still!" I chuckled at Renee's proud ramblings of Bella. She did that a lot whenever she talked about her daughter. It made me feel happy for her and surprised with just how dedicated Bella was to her education. I could tell she took after her mother in learning how to work hard.

"Well she sure sounds like a wonderful girl. I'm glad you're both coming by." I texted Renee after my last session to tell her I would meet her at the restaurant she chose but there was no answer. I figured she was still driving so I let her be and decided to head over anyways.

I got us a table as soon as I got to the restaurant and waited there for about an hour before I started calling her. I left her a few voicemails but she never got back to me. Worry slowly started turning to panic when the calls went straight to voicemail. I knew I couldn't wait in the restaurant forever so I decided to go home after another hour of waiting and hoped my best friend would text me soon to at least tell me she wouldn't make it or something. It didn't sit well with me that she wouldn't give me so much as a text back, it wasn't like Renee at all.

When my phone started ringing loudly I barely managed to open my eyes before answering it. I hadn't realized I fell asleep on the couch, my phone still in my hand.

"Renee?" Was the first word I said.

"Mr. Whitlock?" A deep, professional voice asks, a man's voice.

"Yes, who is this?"

"I'm calling on behalf of Renee Swan. She was in a car accident just outside of Seattle and is now currently in the hospital. She had you listed as an emergency contact." As he said all of that I was already stumbled off the couch and pulled on a grey hoodie over my shirt and didn't bother to change out of my pair of black sweatpants. I wasn't sure if I was even processing what this man was telling me, this stranger who was telling me that my best friend and her kid were - what was it again?

I felt myself completely panicking now and my voice came out exasperated when I asked,"W-which hospital?"

"They're both in surgery at the moment. They were hit by a pick up truck on the 104 and they flipped into a ditch. It would be best to explain when you arrive." Renee's doctor told me, he looked to be in his early forties, his hair looked ashen black with the grey hairs that decorated it and his eyes looked tired and worst of all, they looked empathetic. He wasn't telling me what he thought, trying to spare my worries in case he was wrong. "She had internal bleeding in the brain and abdomen from the collision along with several broken ribs. Once she's out of surgery I will send someone to give you an update." Renee won't be out of surgery yet but based on how he worded his report to me I could tell he didn't see Renee walking out of the hospital in one piece...if at all. Something in the pit of my stomach made me feel sick at the thought of it all.

Bella was still in surgery too but her injuries were minor compared to her mother. A broken leg and concussion that left bruising but she would be okay with some monitoring to make sure there wasn't any internal bleeding that was overlooked. At least the doctor seemed hopeful about her being okay.

The waiting was what slowly drove me crazy. God, it was agonizing just having to sit in this uncomfortable chair that was worn out and coming apart from the amount of times people must've picked at the leather arm wrests with their nails, causing the yellow foam to peak through it's material. I seemed to pay a lot of attention to the chair for some reason while I waited. It annoyed me until more thoughts of Renee and Bella entered my mind. I bounced my right knee incessantly so much that I didn't even feel it anymore until an older woman gave me an annoyed glance before looking at my leg.

I started pacing after a few hours. Eventually, I called my dad to tell him what happened and asked him to come to the hospital. Fear trickled in as more scenarios played in my head. It was driving me insane and it didn't take long before I started pacing again and I couldn't even count how many times I looked up when someone would walk into the waiting room. I asked a nurse if Renee or her daughter were out of surgery yet, only to get a, "I will get their doctor to come see you soon."

Soon wasn't soon enough.

My dad and Emmett were there before the fucking doctor even came out to give me some news. I just needed to know if they would be okay. Luckily, Carlisle is the chief of surgery and managed to speak to some of the surgeons while Emmet convinced me to go get some coffee with him in the cafeteria. Emmett knew Renee too, as a matter of fact my whole family knew her and grew to care for her the longer our friendship lasted. After Renee's parents passed away, she had no one else but she was always a part of our family. I have no idea why I was thinking about that now.

Stop, they're going to be fine. Right?

"Jasper?" I was startled awake by my father's soothing voice and his hand shaking my shoulder. I blinked several times to shake off the blurriness from my eyes, I must have fallen asleep at one point.

"W-what happened? Are they...out yet?" I said, my voice slightly raspy.

My father sits down next to me, a look I couldn't quite decipher but recognized. The tone in his voice, his straightened posture. This was the side of my father I rarely saw, Dr. Carlisle Cullen. "Bella is out of surgery, she's alright...she's is still asleep from the anesthesia but should come around soon."

I noticed how he hesitated to continue, "And...what about Renee?"

My father looks at me with his wise eyes and sadness is all that fills them. "Renee suffered great injuries. The hemorrhaging was too great to control...it was a traumatic brain injury. There wasn't anything they could do. I'm sorry, son."

This can't be happening.

It can't be happening.

I sank down into the chair and everything around me blurred as I tried to wrap my head around the fact that I had just spoken to my best friend a few hours ago, she was happy.

Alive...

"Son?" I look up at him slowly, my eyes stung with emotions that plagued me, "is there...anyone we can contact in her family? Bella's father perhaps?"

I knew he was asking me as a doctor now and I know he was doing it as part of his job to look out for his patients but it pissed me off. He just told me that Renee was dead and he moves on like it was nothing. But I knew he was doing his job too, just like I knew he was suffering for the loss too.

We all loved Renee.

I exhaled and stood up, keeping my head down in an attempt to gather my thoughts.

"I-I don't know where he is. Renee hasn't mention him lately."

Carlisle places his hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze, "Do you want to see Bella?"

Did I want to see Bella...

"I...um," seeing I was still having trouble getting it together, he puts his hand on my shoulder to make me look him in the eye.

"Jasper, listen to me. I've seen many cases like these in my life. Renee was a part of our family, I can only imagine how you feel but we need to think about her child now. Bella's going to need someone to be there when she wakes up. She's going to need a friend, son. Because once that child wakes, nothing will be the same for her again. She needs someone to be kind and patient, someone who's not going to leave her side while she's going through this extremely difficult time. I believe you can be that person just as I'm sure Renee would have wanted you to be." All his words were true and they cut through me, damn me - damn it all. My eyes filled with tears as I nodded, deftly before following behind my father.

A/N:

Thanks for reading!

Leave a review, favorite or follow to let me know what you think.

This story has been on my mind for a long time now and I just needed to get it out there! Sometimes it's hard for me to even write the upcoming chapters, it makes me pretty emotional haha. I'll write disclaimers before every chapter to give readers a heads up just in case.

Please read with caution if these things can be a trigger for some of you!