A/N: Hi everyone! Here is the reunion chapter, hope you enjoy it :)

Thanks to HopelessRomantic79 for her beta skills and thoughts/ideas!

Chapter 8

Jasper POV

I stepped foot out in the parking lot, the first time as a free man in more than five years, and turned to my face to the sky. I closed my eyes and let the sun wash over my face, let the wind blow through my hair. I inhaled deeply, trying to remember everything about this moment. I was out. I was free. I could feel this sensation sweeping through my body, warming me from the inside, kind of like sitting next to a warm fire during winter. It was a glorious feeling.

"Jasper!" I was startled at the shout and looked around to find Peter jogging towards me from the other side of the lot, huge smile on his face. "You're actually out man," he said as he wrapped me in a hug. It was good to see him outdoors for once. He never failed to come see me every week. Charlotte would come too, that is until she had the girls two years ago. Which I understand. I wouldn't bring children to see someone in prison either.

"So what is the first thing you want to do now that you are a free man again?" he asked as we started making out way towards his truck. I hadn't really thought of what I wanted to do first. See Bella. That was for damn sure, but I had to give her some time. I had received a letter back from her two days ago saying she did want to see me and that she would contact me sometime soon. It made me hope and that has been a truly scary thing as of lately.

"God Pete… I don't know. I want the biggest greasiest burger there ever was with a pint of beer too." He laughed. "But at some point I have to call my parole officer and check in with him. I need to talk to Jenks to about the company which means I really have to talk to Bella too."

"Yeah… I wanted to talk to you about that actually."

We were already in his truck on the way home. I glanced over to him to see him looking out the front windshield, avoiding my gaze. "Ok… what's up?"

"Well, about three months ago Bella had a meeting with Jenks and me; she signed everything back over into your name for when you were to be released. She works at the diner now. Mary actually hired her. She does the books for them."

"Huh." I didn't know what to say to that. Now I know where she works, that's good, but it sounded like there was more to the story.

"Yeah, that isn't all. She apparently kept a running totally of the money she spent of yours. She started paying it back into an account, with interest."

I exploded. "What the fuck? It's hers. No obligations. No loans. And no fucking interest! I did that to help take care of her, like a husband should when I couldn't be there."

"I know man, don't shoot the messenger. I only found out about this like a month ago. She apparently set it up with Jenks so it's all legal and shit."

I sighed and slumped into my seat. That dangerous hope that I had started to feel build within me suddenly felt like a giant lead weight. None of this sounded good and all of it sounded like a severing of ties. Maybe that's why Bella did write back that she wanted to see me. Maybe she wanted to hand me divorce papers in person?

"Try not to think of it much," he said as we pulled up in front of his house. "Let's just go in, get Charlotte and the girls and head out and get some food, okay?"

The girls were adorable and knew who I was apparently. Both Charlotte and Peter said that they always talked about me to them, not in prison, but that I was away for work so the girls would understand why I wasn't around. But it did break my heart too. I should have a daughter of my own older than them. And it was sad reminder of what should have been.

Lunch was beyond delicious. It let me know just how much I had missed real food. The shit they gave me in prison couldn't light a candle to this stuff. And I was able to curb myself to only one beer, though the thought of getting drunk was rather appealing.

Over the next month I fell into a steady rhythm of putting my life back together. I went back to work with Peter but I stayed behind the scenes majority of the time. Everyone knew who I was, it was big news, and both Peter and I agreed it would be best if I handle the paperwork side of the business for a while until I could start being integrated back into our clients' profiles.

I helped out as much as I could at home too. I watched the girls for them while they finally got to go have a date. They were quiet difficult to watch, running around and getting into things constantly. But when they fell asleep on me on the couch while watching a movie, I knew it was all worth it. Apparently Bella had babysat a couple of times before too. I wonder how she did. Probably perfectly. She just always seemed like she would be the perfect mothering type.

Peter and Charlotte told me everything they could about Bella. What she was like during and after the trial, and the several years since. They watched her deteriorate down into nothing. Charlotte finally tracked down Bella's parents and begged them to come help her about six months after I was put in. They immediately got her help and she has been seeing a therapist ever since.

Charlotte said that Bella didn't have much of a life either, that she was depressed for so long that they were afraid she would do something drastic. But apparently she slowly got better, stronger. She didn't talk about herself to them much. Didn't elaborate about her life or what she did. Charlotte was pretty sure Bella slept away the first three years of my sentence. That broke my heart. Bella deserved so much more than that. But then she started seeing a new therapist that was actually helping her. She started going out and doing things more, if only to get out of the house. And she finally started working again a few months back.

I was afraid of this. I was so scared she would just shut down and bottle things up, not properly grieve. And that's exactly what she did, at least from Charlotte and Pete's standpoint. It took everything I had not to just run over to the diner and see her after having that huge talk with them. But I was really trying to respect her wishes.

Six weeks after I was released I finally received word from Bella. I would have preferred to have spoken with her myself but Charlotte did. She gave her my new cell number while she was at it so she could talk to me directly next time. But she wanted to see me and asked if I could meet her in front of the diner this coming Saturday.

I was excited.

But I was also terrified.

I didn't know what was going to happen in this meeting with her. Where did we stand and what was going on in her head? Never have I wish more than ever that I could read minds or know what she was feeling. It was frustrating. And I was beyond frightened that this was indeed the end.

Saturday morning found me pacing back and forth in front of the diner in the chilly fall air. I was early and I was starting to get nervous. What if she didn't come? I turned and started back down the sidewalk in the other direction. What if she took one look at me and left? I turned again and started back the other way. But this time I looked up and stopped dead in my tracks.

There she was. No denying it. She was skinnier then the last time I saw her. Her hair was longer and whipping back in forth in the mild breeze. She had obviously aged the five years it's been, small little details stuck out. But you could also see that she had been through so much. She just looked tired.

Her eyes found mine and she stopped walking about fifty yards in front of me, but it felt like a mile. The distance felt too great to cross, so we stood at an impasse. She twisted her hands together nervously while biting down on her lip. It still made my pulse jump a little when she bit her lips, I used to love that. Still do apparently.

I honestly couldn't tell you who moved forward first, but within seconds Bella was throwing her arms around my neck and burying her head in my shoulder, crying. I don't think I could have hugged her any tighter than I already was. I buried my nose in her hair and her scent washed over me. I felt a lurch in my chest that I could lose this right here and I could not, would not, let that happen.

I could kind of hear her mumbling into my shoulder but I really couldn't make it out. I pulled back slightly so I could look at her face, it was streaked with tears. I cupped my hands around her face and started wiping them away. "Bella…" I breathed out. "What? What is it sweetie?" My voice was soft, barely a whisper and I was so afraid out what her answer would be.

"W-Why did I wait so long to see you?" she cried. "Oh god." She leaned forward and buried her face into my chest, tightening her arms again. I broke and a tear rolled down my cheek. It felt like my heart was trying to burst out of my chest.

"Did you drive here Bella?" She shook her head no. "Good, come on. We don't need to have this conversation in public. Let's go back to our, I mean, your apartment." I walked her down the street towards where I parked with her firmly attached to my side. It was hard to believe that everything wasn't going to be ok when she was latched on to me so tightly, but that could all change. I was still quite skeptical.

It was a good thing I was driving Peter's old truck with the giant bench seat in the front or else I wouldn't have known how I would have driven us anywhere. All the way back to the apartment, Bella sat right next to me. Made it kind of hard to parallel park on the street too but I really didn't care at that point. Bella grabbed my hand and laced her fingers through mine as she and I made our way up the stairs to the apartment. It felt so surreal. Not much had changed about the building and surrounding area itself while I was away. But walking into the apartment changed everything. It was entirely different. Different couch, TV, pictures on the walls, tables, and lamps… all of it screamed Bella. It also screamed change and moving forward.

"I-I had to change the apartment…" Bella hiccuped out. "It hurt so much to see all your stuff here, our life together. The therapist at the time said it might be a good idea."

"I don't blame you. I really don't. It was probably a good idea at the time." Things felt a little awkward now that we were in the apartment together. She sat down on one side of the couch while I sat on the opposite.

"I don't know where to start," she whispered as she looked down at her hands.

"Well… Peter and Charlotte told me as much as they could, why don't you fill in what they don't know?" She nodded. I briefly outlined what they had told me, she nodded along with it agreeing to it, which hurt. I had hoped that they were over exaggerating it. Apparently not.

"That's pretty much the gist of it," she agreed. "I'm not going to go into detail on the days because some of them, honestly, I can't remember. I was not in a good place and I folded in on myself and cut everyone else off. I barely ate. I slept when I could and had nightmares most of the time. It wasn't pretty and I really don't want to cause you any more pain by telling you all of it. Because I know you, you'll take it all as your fault and feel guilty and we won't get pass this. My new therapist Liam has been really helpful this last year. He helped me restart everything. See it as it was and move forward. It was hard, but I am in such a better place now than I was even a year ago."

"That's really great Bella, but… it was all my fault."

"No it wasn't." Her voice finally sounded strong, like the Bella I knew before everything went downhill. "That was something Liam helped me to see too. It was not your fault. It was James' fault. He is the one that caused this whole mess and you were the one who was simply fighting for your family. You saw him as the threat that he was and you went out to rectify the situation. I don't blame you."

I closed my eyes at those four little words. I don't blame you. They rang out in my head and I repeated them over and over just so I could get that forever ingrained in my brain. I waited five years to hear those words.

"Thank you Bella. I really needed to hear that," I whispered shyly.

"What? It's true. At first I kind of did blame you because I didn't really understand what my emotions were. The therapists helped me see that. It wasn't you I blamed. I really don't blame you. I blame James and what he did, the situation he caused. Would I have preferred him in jail alive and you here with me instead? Absolutely. But then I would always worry if I was his last victim. Would he get out and do it again to some other poor helpless girl? So, no, I don't blame you because you might have saved the lives of countless others out there just waiting for James to unleash his cruelness on."

I let out a huge breath I was holding. What she said made sense. "So… where does that leave us?"

She blushed and looked down at her hands. "Well… we didn't entirely know each other that well when we married and then all of this happened. I think… well…" She paused for a minute. My heart was pounding out of my chest and I could hear the blood rushing through my ears. "I think that we are two totally different people than we were when we got married. So perhaps we should, I don't know… date?" she asked shyly.

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. It was an automatic response. "Date? Oh god yes." She smiled finally at my confirmation. "I was so afraid you were going to whip out divorce papers and hand them to me and I really don't want that. So yes Bella, I would love to date you. I would be more than happy to start over and try again. Anything for you."

For the next two hours we just sat and talked on the couch. She updated me with little things like Mary at the diner, things about her folks she hadn't already told me, her job, some of her ideas about the future and some of things I might have missed in the world while I was in there. It was a good conversation. Reminded me so much about the first couple of times we had sat together and talked at the diner. If dating was what it would take to be with Bella, that fresh start, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Standing at the door saying goodbye, we set up a time to have dinner together the next night. She worked Monday through Friday like I did so finding time to go out together was going to be no problem. But as I stood at the door, hugging her goodbye, I knew that I had to kiss her. It had been far too long.

I pulled away slowly and looked her in the eyes. I could see the love, still present as always. I leaned in slowly, closing the gap between us inch by tortuously slow inch, giving her plenty of time to object. But she didn't, she leaned forward and closed the gap faster for me, pressing her lips instantly to mine. I had forgotten how deliciously soft her lips were and how perfectly they fit with mine. Her arms tightened around my neck as she pushed herself closer, opening her mouth to mine. I wound my arms around her waist and pulled her hips flush with mine. I groaned and turned to push her up against the door. It has been over five years since I had sex with someone, let alone kissed. It was almost too much. I started peppering kisses down her neck as she moaned just loud enough for me to hear.

I grumbled and dropped my head to her shoulder, stopping the kissing in its tracks. "Bella…if we don't stop right this second, I am afraid we will push ourselves into a situation that we are not ready for yet no matter how badly we both may want it."

She nodded her head and sighed as we eased ourselves away from each other. "You're right. We shouldn't rush, especially after how hard it's been the last few years." It's hard all the time, I thought and tried not to laugh out loud at my immature little joke. But I was seriously looking at going home to house full of people when I wanted to do was stay here and bury myself in her.

I gave her one more small kiss, nothing more than a quick peck as I let myself out the door. I couldn't help to feel elated as I made my way down to the truck. All the weeks of worry since I got out was all for naught. It looked as if maybe, finally, things were looking up.

A/N: No teaser this time because the next chapter is the epilogue. I can't believe we have reached this point already :(

Would love to hear your thoughts and maybe what you may or may not want to see in the epilogue. Thanks!