Friday Afternoon .
"Jasper, can you please come down to our room for a moment? You're Mother and I would like to talk to you before we take you to check in." Papa says on the phone.
I head down and knock on their door.
"Come in Son," Momma says.
I must have been projecting badly because both Papa and Momma asked me to calm down at the same time.
"Son, I promise neither you're Father or I want you to worry about anything, you are not in trouble and we completely trust you. We just wanted to go over a few things before we leave. As you realize we feel it's best you stay here at the hotel over the weekend. Before you say anything, we would do the same for any of our vampire family. Before we talk about your cover story we wanted to give you this." Momma says handing me a box.
I open the box Momma hands me and look at my uniform confused.
"I don't understand, this is my uniform, how did you get it?"
"Look inside the jacket," Papa says with a grin.
JLWHC, done in gold thread. I run my fingers over each letter.
"Papa? Momma? I don't understand."
"Your Mother and Aunt figured out how to recreate an identical uniform for you to wear." Papa starts.
"Then Aunt Carmen, myself along with member's of your family and cousins found as many pieces as we could and had the rest created. I put your initials inside to tell the difference. I know if anything happened to your actual uniform how devastated you would be." Momma continues.
As they are talking I continue running my hand over the letters;
JLWHC
"Jasper Lee Whitlock Hale Cullen," I say in even a whisper my parents can barely hear.
"Jasper are you okay?" Papa asks.
I still don't speak; I see the now concerned look on their faces becoming panic stricken looks.
"Jasper, baby?" Momma says now sounding frantic.
Without a word I almost fly into my parents arms, hugging them. Once I am finally able to speak I say,
"Papa, Momma, I love it, I cannot thank you enough, this is too generous."
"Nonsense baby, you deserve it, you are an amazing young man who overcame so much, and you are a wonderful brother and husband, and most of all the best son any parents could have ever asked for. All we ask is you wear it with as much honor as you wore your original one, and enjoy yourself this weekend." Papa says.
"I promise I will and I'll take extra care of it too." I reply.
"As for your cover story, Mr. & Dr. Green along your Mother and I feel it best to be as "honest" as possible. We would like to go with Stress Induced Anxiety with Fear of Abandonment due to a history of abuse and abandonment. Tony feels that it will be enough to avoid too many questions, but not too much to create more questions. When we go to check you in I will explain that we feel that it is best for you to not spend the nights at the campsite as you have only been with us for a few years now. That we feel comfortable allowing you to participate in everything you are signed up for. Now I know it is my rule and we expect everyone to carry their phones and keep them on at all times. However, you will not have to carry yours while in character. We will all be in the area and for the little time we are not I just ask you to stay near Tony, Catherine or Collin please. Catherine also wrote a letter of clearance so there should be no issues, also Tony and Collin agreed to help when we are not near. I can read this letter if you would like." Papa says.
"Yes please, but first I would like to just say I completely understand and agree with my not staying the nights. I was trying to find a way to ask if there was a way to participate and not stay there if you had not already figured out one. I promise I just want to have a memorable experience for all of us this weekend and feel if I had to stay I would not enjoy it as much. I know I would be worried, as I know you and Momma would. I would hate for anyone to feel nervous about me and what I could do if something happened." I reply.
Papa takes the letter out of the envelope and begins reading it out loud.
'Dear Sir or Madame,
I Dr. Catherine Green as Physician to Jasper Whitlock Cullen hereby agree with his parents Dr. and Mrs. Cullen that Jasper Cullen is fully capable of participating in the events and activates his parents have chosen for him with the following restrictions:
1. Mr. Whitlock Cullen is not to stay overnight at the campsite. This is due to his underlying anxiety issues and fear of abandonment.
2. That Mr. Whitlock Cullen should be allowed to carry his cellphone if his parents request him to in case of emergency. If they do not wish for him to carry his cellphone my husband Tony, brother-in-law Collin and I will be available in case of emergencies. Both my husband and I have letters by Dr. Cullen to help Jasper if the need arises.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact myself or Dr. Cullen.
Sincerely
Dr. Catherine Green, MD'
"What about the ball?" I ask.
"As you know your Papa and I have planned a dance for all of us here. As a surprise for all your Aunt Carmen, Aunt Sue and I were able to get everyone's sizes and ordered Civil War Era ball gowns for the ladies," Momma begins.
"And uniforms with ranks for the gentlemen," Papa finishes still smiling.
Eleazar's Room/El. POV.
"Hello"
"Hi Mr.…ah Uncle…Hello Eleazar sorry this is Tecumseh."
"Tecumseh is everything okay? You sound…well for the lack of a better word frazzled."
"Forgive me Sir,"
"Nonsense Son, what's wrong? Can we help you?
"Thank you Sir, but I don't think so, well not at the moment. I actually called to…
Chase, Dakota I said NO WE ARE NOT!
Forgive me sire again, I called to ask you please tell everyone we will be coming but could be a little later than we initially planned. Unfortunately we have an emergency we need to take care of…
I'm not telling you two again, NO WE ARE NOT!
I'm sorry for yelling Eleazar. I don't want to go into a lot of details now because; well I am not sure what happened. All I know is one of the young ladies of our tribe was possibly assaulted by another member of the tribe who claims he is her imprint. He is not as far as we know; she is a shifter but shows no signs of imprinting yet. Her parents are distant relatives and dear friends of ours and asked us if we could come get her until the Sheriff finds him. Hopefully before the men of the tribe do, if you know what I mean."
"Yes I do, I will be happy to explain this to Carlisle and the family, and please do not hesitate to call any of us if you need help."
"I will or one of the boys will. Eleazar may I ask a question?"
"Of course Son."
"Do you think it would be a problem if we brought her down with us? To Greenfield Village I mean, I can understand and will respect your decision if you do not. I will even…."
"Stop, of course she is welcome to join us. There is no problem with that at all. She will be very safe with us and hopefully for the time she is here will forget about what happened to her. Please just go help her and be careful, I will talk to Carlisle and Billy right now and explain what we talked about. Have a safe trip and remember call us if you need anything."
"Thank you Uncle Eleazar, we will see you soon."
I tell Carmen what the call was about even though I know with our hearing she probably heard the whole conversation. Next I call Billy's room, then Carlisle's room.
Carlisle's Room/C. POV.
"No Eleazar, I can call Billy and…Okay, please call Sam and we call a quick meeting later this evening. Let's say between seven thirty and eight o'clock by the pool. Also please let us know if they call back." I say.
"Thank you and I will." Eleazar replies before we hang up.
I catch Esme and Jasper up as they both are in the room when Eleazar called. I remind Jasper nothing is to be said or done until I say so.
4:40 PM
Jasper, Esme and I head over to Greenfield Village to meet up with Tony, Catherine and Collin. They had told me to bring Jasper a little early to meet the colt he would be riding.
"Carlisle, Esme over here," we hear Tony calling waving at us.
"Tony, how are you?" Esme asks.
"Wonderful thank you. Jasper this is Midnight, he is five years old and has already been in one other show like this. As long as he is comfortable with you and you with him, he's yours for the weekend. All we ask is you take special care of him. We trust you but also know your strength."
"Mr. Green…he's beautiful. I promise I'll not let any harm come to him." Jasper says before turning towards the horse. "Hi boy, it's okay; I won't let anyone hurt you. Here I have a present for you. Do you like apples? Good boy, good boy Midnight." He says as he pets Midnights forehead.
The more Jasper talks to the horse, the stronger his southern drawl becomes. I could not feel him manipulating the horse and must have a perplexed look because he responds.
"I did for a second Papa, but turned it off quickly. He senses I mean him no harm even though I am a danger to him."
"We feel he's an old soul Carlisle. I have had his parents, grandparents and so on for many years." Collin responds.
I brief everyone on what we decided for our back story and proceed to check Jasper in for the weekend. After he goes with Tony and Collin to see where to meet, what he will need and get the times with locations of the events he will be in. While he does this Catherine takes Esme and myself around pointing out the entrances that are wheelchair friendly, explaining about the different things to see and do here. I know everyone should love it here.
7PM Hotel Pool/B. POV.
I remind everyone as they come in to swim that Carlisle wants to talk to them when he gets here. As we wait everyone is enjoying themselves, as I look over I see Claire talking with a little girl about her age. They seem to be having fun when I see them walking towards the pool and family to play."
7:45 .
"Kids," I call out loud enough to get their attention.
Once everyone is facing me I proceed to tell them about the phone call and what we know so far.
"Okay, any questions?" I ask once I am finished.
"Uncle Carlisle do we know her name?" Kim asks.
"No not yet honey."
"What kind of…well you know?" Jared asks next.
"Jared, thank you for your wording as there are other families and children here. We do not know the extent. This brings me to my last point. No one and I mean no one will harass, question or remark about happened to this young lady. If she wishes to talk to anyone please be there for her. We all have needed someone to talk to without asking too many questions. So please respect her privacy."
I see no more hands so Esme and I join everyone in the pool and hot tub for a while longer before we all head up to bed.
1:30 AM
D. POV.
Chase and I are sitting in the care with our friend's daughter. While T goes in to get our room number's andkeys. The poor girl has finally fallen asleep and we do not want to wake her. While it's best we don't know much it breaks our hearts to seeing her like this.
"Dakota, I'll carry her when we head in if you grab her bag." Chase offers.
"Okay, I think that will be better for her if she doesn't wake up. I wish we knew more but T is right we don't want to react in front of her. She's been thru enough already."
A few minutes later we all head up to Uncle Carlisle's room and knock on the door.
"Coming…"