A/N: Two chapters in one day?! Yes! I was motivated to finish this story and move on to the other incomplete stories I have. So if you've just come to this chapter without reading Chapter Nine, go back!

Yes, this is it. The final chapter. It's just a short epilogue. There was something I wanted to resolve and I wanted to give a look at Edward and Jasper's lives throughout the years.

Thank you everyone for sticking with me, and I hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm not sure I'll ever write another Edward/Jasper story again, but if I do I hope you will give it a shot. For the final time, enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Epilogue, 2013

Ninety Years Later…

'Love, do you have the box with my sheet music in it? I can't find it.'

'I put it in the living room,' Jasper shouted back. The sound of desperate rummaging could be heard before a heavy sigh seemed to echo throughout the house.

Find it? He asked.

'Thank you,' floated up through the floorboards to Jasper's sensitive ears. He smiled and turned back to his project.

They'd just moved into their new home. Jasper was excited to live in Washington for the first time. They'd moved all over the world, but for the first time in twenty years they were back in the United States. They'd gotten their own place, but Carlisle and Esme lived only a few houses away. They'd developed the housing situation several years ago. Separate houses gave them privacy, but living close still allowed them to see each other whenever they wanted. Very rarely did they share a house anymore, but both couples seemed to enjoy the privacy of separate houses within walking distance to each other.

Esme liked them being close because after a few years of living together, Jasper had discovered that after an argument he liked to clean to work off stress and anger. So whenever he was pissed at Edward, Esme always tried to get him to come over to her house and clean.

In their new house, Jasper was busy painting their room. The soft moss green was his favourite colour and Jasper thought it blended perfectly with the deep green of the trees surrounding their house. Not to mention that, based on Edward's descriptions, it was an almost perfect match for Edward's eyes when he'd been human.

In the past ninety years, Jasper had grown and matured in ways he'd never have imagined when he first met Edward. The years spent with Maria were long forgotten, eclipsed by memories of lust-filled nights in bed with Edward, family vacations, and sunrises and sunsets spent in Edward's arms. The man who Jasper had been was barely recognisable by the man he had become.

And for that, Jasper gave all the credit to Edward. Edward had saved him, loved him and helped him. He was eternally thankful that Edward had found him and tried to show Edward daily just how thankful he was.

Their relationship wasn't perfect. They were both stubborn and wanted to be right the majority of the time. But no matter how much they fought, they were always quick to make up and as time went on they grew more accustomed to each other and learned how to interact seamlessly. Ninety years on most of their fights were over little things like where to eat or what movie to see. They were 'fun fights' as Edward called them. Good natured bickering that added a bit of spice.

'Want to go for a run in the forest for dinner tonight?' Edward asked, suddenly appearing in the doorframe.

'I could go for some mountain lion,' Jasper said. Edward smiled and came into the room to check the progress of the paint.

'Looks great, love. I really like this colour for the bedroom.'

'See, I told you. And you wanted blue,' Jasper scoffed. 'Blue.'

'I happen to like blue.'

'Oh, it's perfectly good colour, I'm not denying that. But you were still wrong. And I was right.' To drive the point home, Jasper childishly stuck out his tongue.

'If you keep poking that tongue out at me, I can't be held responsible for what I do,' Edward growled.

Promises, promises, Jasper teased as he went back to painting. Edward laughed and pressed against Jasper's back. He nibbled his neck lightly before pressing a kiss at the junction.

'Maybe after we hunt we can cash in that promise?' He whispered, moving his lips up to ghost over Jasper's ear.

Jasper hummed and let his head fall back to rest on Edward's shoulders. 'That sounds like a plan.'

Edward kissed his temple before pulling away. 'Let's finish up the unpacking. I can't believe we've been here a month and we still haven't finished. This is the longest we've ever taken. It's pathetic.'

'We're men, as long as the couch and TV are ready, who cares about everything else? We've been busy,' Jasper said with a shrug.

'Yes, busy fucking.'

'You say that like it's a bad thing,' Jasper said with a smirked.

'Eventually we have to get something done,' Edward said.

'We are! See, paint,' Jasper said, gesturing to the painted wall with the roller.

'Well we need to get it done. Esme and Carlisle are coming over tomorrow and if most of our things are still in boxes we'll never hear the end of it,' Edward said over his shoulder as he walked downstairs to finish setting up the rooms down there.

Jasper finished painting the bedroom before moving to the library to set up their bookshelves and unbox all of their books and music. He was about halfway through when he heard Edward say his name.

Jasper placed the books in his hand on the shelf and went to search for Edward. He found him sitting in the completed living room, holding a large package in his hands. Jasper furrowed his brow as he looked at the box.

'Did you order something?' Jasper asked. He sat down next to Edward on the couch and wrapped an arm around him, expecting for Edward to show him some fantastic item he'd purchased for their home.

'No, it's addressed to you.'

Jasper frowned and leaned forward. 'I didn't order anything. Who'd send me a package?'

'I don't know, why don't you open it?' Edward passed the box to Jasper. It wasn't heavy, but there was some weight to it.

Jasper used a nail to rip the tape and lifted the flaps. There was something wrapped in tissue paper, but before he could get to it, there was a letter resting on the top. Jasper took the letter and flipped it open, and suddenly the world seemed to stop.

Jasper,

I'm sure you never expected to hear from me. And you probably never wanted to hear my name or think of me again. What I did to you was horrible. At the time I did it out of survival, but I now know that, even if it was survival, it was wrong.

I'm very sorry for what I did to damage our friendship. You were the one person I felt I could trust back then and I threw it away for a chance at power. I'm not asking you to forgive me – how could I ask that when I almost got you killed? But I wanted to tell you how much I regret what happened.

Maria is dead, if you wanted to know. She was killed in one of the battles about ten years after you left. Your bravery to escape inspired others and over the years her numbers dwindled and she was vulnerable. With her death, I also became free and my world gained perspective. If you're still running from her, you don't need to anymore. She's done hurting the innocent.

I finally found my mate. Catherine is more than I could hope for. I hope that whoever the vampire is that came to rescue you, he is still with you. He must have loved you to fight an entire army.

But the reason I'm writing this is important. The day you planned to leave you packed a bag. It got tramped in the mud and some of your clothes were torn apart in rage, but I managed to save the important parts. I kept it for all these years hoping to give them back to you, but I haven't gotten up the courage to write this letter.

Finally Catherine tracked you down and convinced me it was time. I'm sorry I was weak and afraid. No matter how you despise me, know that I still value what I consider a deep friendship.

I wish you all the best in your life and hope, someday, that we may meet again.

Your humble friend,

Peter

'Jasper, what is it?' Edward asked, startled over Jasper's sudden shift in mood.

'It's from Peter,' Jasper said.

'Peter, who's Peter?'

'Peter is the one who betrayed me. I told him I was going and he told Maria. It's because of him the plan didn't work.' Jasper passed the note to Edward and waited while he read it.

Jasper was startled. He had thought he'd never hear from Peter again. He'd thought of his old friend several times over the years. Sometimes he wondered if he had ever made it out alive and Jasper was surprised to find that he was happy he had. He understood why Peter did what he did. He didn't like it, but he understood. Just as Peter had said: it was survival. It was cruel and heartless, but Jasper had to admit to himself that had the tables been reversed self-preservation would have made him do the same thing.

He was pleased to know that Maria had finally been killed. He'd spent the first twenty years of his life with Edward looking over his shoulder everywhere they went. He refused to step anywhere near the South. While the paranoia had diminished over the years, it was a relief to know that he could finally stop running.

'What bag is he talking about,' Edward asked when he finished the letter.

'Before I left I packed a bag. I had some clothes and money in there. But there were also some photos and things from my human life.'

'Really?' Edward asked, leaning over his shoulder to get a better look inside the box. 'Well, open it, see what's inside.'

Jasper hesitated a moment then lifted the sheet of tissue paper. A strangled noise came out of him as he lifted a photo out of the box. 'It's my family,' he whispered.

He held the old, weathered photo out for Edward to see. In it, Jasper stood in his military regalia next to a middle-aged woman in a plain dress, an older man in working clothes, and a teenaged boy in overalls and a long-sleeved shirt.

'It's all I remember of them,' Jasper said. 'I can't even remember their names anymore. Or the colours of their eyes or hair. I just know this. I think it was taken before I left to fight in the war. For some reason I've always thought that my parents had the photo taken so there was at least one family photo before I went off to die. I'm not sure if that's a memory or some story I came up with in my head. But it's what I tell myself.'

'You look very handsome in your uniform,' Edward said. 'And your have your mother's texture of hair.'

'I've always thought that. The colour in the photo looks similar, so I've thought I got my hair from her.'

'And your eyes look like your father's. Same bone structure, as well.'

Jasper nodded. He couldn't tear his eyes from the photo. He thought he'd never see it again and for years had mourned the loss of that one final attachment to his old life, to the people who had loved and cared for him as a human. He often wondered what had happened to them, but he couldn't even remember where he lived and without that and their names it was hopeless. But he hoped they had all grown to be old and happy without him.

He put that photo down, and went to the next item. It was the photo taken on the day he joined the military. He looked much the same as in the other photo, but he was more rigid and alert – like a soldier.

He put that photo next to the others and went back into the box to retrieve the remaining items. He pulled out three medals, an identification badge, and a hat, all the items he had recovered from his bloodied, ripped uniform after first transforming. His military medals and badges had drops of blood still on the fabric portions, but they had been small compared to the rest of the outfit. And the military hat that had been knocked from his head was spotless.

Edward took the medals from his hands and reverently held them up to the light. 'We'll have to frame all of this. Find a way to keep the photos from the light so they don't fade. These have to last a lifetime.'

'I thought I'd never see these again,' Jasper said, finally voicing everything. 'I thought the last bits of my life were lost. I – I just don't know what to think.'

Edward thought for a bit before saying, 'I think I can finally forgive Peter. I didn't know exactly who it was, but for all these years I've hated the person who betrayed you to that woman, who caused you to be tortured. But now he's given something back to you that was lost. So I think I can forgive him now. It was a different world and no one knows what they'd do in the same situation.'

'I'd have done the same thing,' Jasper admitted. 'I might not have liked what he did, but I understood why he did it.'

'Do you want to send something back,' Edward asked. There wasn't a return address, but it'd be easy enough to use contacts to find him.

Jasper shook his head. 'Not yet, I'm not ready for that yet. But maybe, someday, we'll meet again.'

Edward kissed his cheek and carefully picked up the precious items. Jasper took a moment for himself to think over the past until his Edward gathered him in his arms and dragged him outside to go hunting.

xXx

His photos and medals were professionally framed and Edward placed them front and centre on the mantel of the fireplace.

While Jasper was happy to have them displayed, he enjoyed even more the feelings of pride that Edward got towards him whenever he saw them. With the items from his past and the apology from Peter, Jasper felt he was finally ready to put his life behind him. He vowed that never again would he think of that horrible time – his pre-Edward life.

The photos and medals moved with them throughout the years, and in every house Edward would proudly place them somewhere everyone could see. That helped Jasper develop his love of history and drove his desire to become an expert in Civil War history. He used his 'namesake-ancestor' Jasper as his introduction to the historians he talked to, and hoped to one day write a novel set in the Civil War.

While Jasper tended to keep his focus to history, accumulating more and more knowledge, Edward bounced around. He was brilliant, even by vampire standards, and got bored easily with learning the same thing over and over again. Over the years Edward got postgraduate degrees in Medicine, Science, English, several different languages, Music, and several times he even studied History with Jasper so they could have all the same classes.

When they didn't want to go to school, they travelled. Their goal was to visit every country in the world, and they'd return somewhere when the country's name or borders changed. They also joked that someday they would have fucked in every major city of the world. It was a private goal, one where they didn't mind marking locations off the list several times.

His life was more than Jasper could imagine. He loved Edward with everything in him and together they tried to make the other as happy as possible. Some days Jasper would look over at the man sitting next to him and wonder how he had gotten so lucky. Edward was perfect for him, more than he could imagine and more than he deserved. He often lost himself in his thoughts of Edward.

And whenever he would voice his thoughts aloud, Edward would just smile at him and kiss him deeply.

And while he could never know for sure because reading minds was Edward's gift, he imagined that whenever he was thinking those thoughts about Edward, Edward was thinking them about him.

And he couldn't have been more right.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed how I ended it; let me know what you think. Thank you again for reading Love and War. I've enjoyed the ride and I hope you'll check out some of my other stories.

Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited, and reviewed this story. It's been a joy and I'll miss my boys, but it's time.

Signing off, A.J. Kelly