AN: At the end of every chapter I say "Next we'll have some action!" and then Jasper and Bella decide that they want to have a sweet moment up in their room instead. Idk y'all, guess I gotta listen to the Major.
As always, I do not own Twilight.
Later, after Rosalie and Emmett were promised that they would be talked to more tomorrow; in which Emmett's sad hopeful gaze followed Bella as he left out the door.
Later, after Jasper had gathered Charlotte and Peter into his office and discussed in quick tones about how surprisingly personal the Seattle matter had become; Peter getting on the phone with Garrett to call a cease fire on the first plan.
Later, Bella was finally curled up in bed with Jasper wrapped around her and she could finally try to process everything.
"Jasper?" Try as she might her voice was more timid than she wanted it to be. Still Jasper looked at her gently with his dark garnet gaze. Hm, she'd have to remind him to go out and hunt soon. He was getting too lost in everything going on lately.
"Yes kitt'n?" His voice was amused as it broke through her thoughts and she blushed in embarrassment. Gently, he reached up and cupped her cheek with one cold palm. "No need to be embarras'd kitt'n. Not 'round me."
She smiled as his words gave her the confidence to ask what she was thinking.
"Jasper, why couldn't you do anything about Carlisle before you heard about the newborns? He sounds like he's been positively awful."
He stared at her for a moment, his face carefully blank, before he tilted her face up and placed a soft kiss upon her lips.
For a brief moment when they kissed Bella could have sworn that she felt everything he was feeling. His kiss seemed filled with a gentle sort of melancholy, a grief that seemed buried away for years only to resurface.
"I forg't sometimes, how little ya truly know about our world, kitt'n." A whisper against her lips that left her desperately clutching at the hand still on her cheek.
"What do you mean? Jasper, I don't want to be ignorant of your world, of the world I'm joining." He shut his eyes against her pleading gaze but didn't try to turn away.
"Isabella," There was a long pause, and if Jasper had been human, Bella would have thought he was merely collecting his thoughts. But no, she could feel his hesitance in the air; along with his growing resignation.
"I wonder what you would say if ya knew how I used to be. How I still hafta be sometimes."
Oh. That's what the issue was.
Carefully, so her clumsiness wouldn't pick the worst possible moment to shine, Bella disentangled herself from Jasper. He let her go without resistance, but she could see the slump in his shoulders. She swung herself around so she could straddle his lap, willing her blush to disappear so she could tackle this serious moment.
Jasper's eyes flew open and his hands instinctively went to her hips.
Which was, oh, that is nice. Revisit that later Swan, serious moment time first.
"Jasper Whitlock, you listen to me and you listen well because I'm only going to say this once." She took a deep breath before plowing forward. "I don't know who you were before me, or who you may turn into in the future. And I cannot guarantee that I won't argue with you along the way."
He was staring at her again, his gaze searching her face as if to see the sincerity of her words.
"But I will let you know this: We wouldn't be mates if I couldn't handle it. So don't. Don't try to keep things from me because you think I won't like it or because you think you'll scare me. I'm in this now, for everything. Every part of you Jasper, don't forget that."
Barely a blink later and she was wrapped up in his arms, his face pressed tightly against her shoulder.
"I don't know what I did to get ya, kitt'n. But I promise that I'm gonna do everything in my power to keep ya."
She held him there close to her for a moment, letting him seek the comfort that he had clearly gone without for who knows how long.
"Will you explain to me, what counts as a crime in our world?"
Her voice was soft and his answering sigh was even softer.
"'Course I will, ya gonna hafta know it eventually." He peered up at her from underneath his lashes and blonde curls. "'Specially since ya gonna be a Princess and all."
She squealed and leaned back so she could push him away from her. He let himself be pushed with a laugh, his hands going back to her hips and squeezing teasingly.
"Aw c'mon now, don't be like that Princess." The look of him against the pillows with a teasing smirk upon his face, curls a mess around his face, made a heat flush through her. She ignored it, and instead purposely squirmed in his lap. He sucked a quick breath in through his teeth and she grinned at him in triumph.
"Gotta problem there, cowboy?" She teased, tossing her hair out of her face. He growled playfully at her and she laughed delighted. "None of that now, don't try to distract me from rules!"
His grip on her hips lightened and he growled playfully once more before shifting them so he could sit upright.
"A'right, a'right. Pushy lil' thing." He kissed her once, quickly, as if he couldn't help himself, before he kept on. "There aren't many rules in our world, not when ya get down to it. The first, the one we really follow, is no exposure of our kind. We can't let humans learn about us, or catch any permanent evidence of our existence. Always, always cover ya tracks, kitt'n."
Bella nodded, that rule seemed like common sense really.
"Everything else kinda leads into that, but some things have had to be spelled out over the years. Newborn armies are one of those. While they were real common once upon a time, everybody knows they've been outlawed for decades now. Too obvious, too violent."
He paused, looking away from her. She watched as his jaw clenched.
"We used to take out ent're towns back then. Didn't matter who the people were, or what lives they'd had...it was all about gaining property." He looked back at her then, his jaw still clenched and his eyes hard. "I've lost count of how many humans I've killed, kitt'n. Couldn't tell ya how many I changed just to kill 'em off later."
Again his gaze left her, this time to fall to the image of his hands gently cradling her hips. She felt his thumb just barely brush up and down across the bone there.
"Those things Cullen did? They were common in the wars. Hell, I've done those things an' worse. Ain't never done the whole family song and dance, that's a lil' sick even for me, but everything else? Shit, there is probably a few things he could learn from me." A sigh, so quiet she could barely hear it even as close as she was to him. "I've done horrible things, and the worse part is I've even enjoyed some of 'em. But that's part of our nature, violence swims through our veins like blood used to."
Bella let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding. That was...well different from how the Cullen's had always made it seem. But Bella knew now that nearly everything they told her had been some kind of lie, so she wasn't as surprised as she could have been.
"That's why you couldn't charge Carlisle with anything until Rosalie and Emmett proved human interference."
Jasper nodded, his face stern.
"Technically, a maker has all rights to do whatever he wishes with his coven. An' while what Cullen is doing is distasteful...I can't formally go after 'im."
"Because you're a Prince."
Jasper grimaced at her words but nodded in agreement.
Bella nodded, leaning back to look up at the ceiling while she thought.
"But you technically already had proof of that, because you found me, and I knew about vampires because of the Cullen's."
She couldn't see his expression but she felt the warmth of his satisfaction and pride rush through her.
"But," she continued before Jasper could say anything. "You were probably waiting until after the Seattle Situation was taken care of, or even until I was changed."
"Clever, clever kitt'n." She glanced down to see Jasper smiling up at her. "Ever play chess, kitt'n? Ya got that analytical mindset."
She smiled back at him shaking her head in the negative.
"I got one more question, cowboy."
"Hm? What's that?"
"When do we leave for Seattle?"
AN: Next chapter, SEATTLE. Whether Jasper wants to or not. What did we think of this chapter? I promise next time someone will get their limbs torn off, haha.
As always, enjoy!
