A/N: Sigh. Just life, my friends, life. But we're here now. Let's see if I can get this story back on track.

~Inexplicable Season 1~

The woman's eyes are wide with terror. "It's you," she says, her voice thin. For a moment, it seems like she's going to faint or run. But then, her eyes narrow and fury paints her features. "You son of a bitch. "

Alice doesn't have time to register shock that this woman seems to know Jasper before her surprise doubles. Jasper—usually quick to soothe with his words or his gift—surges forward, grasping the woman by her arms. "You know me. Do you know me?" he demands, an urgency in his voice and actions Alice has never seen before.

"Let go of me." Their quarry writhes in his grasp. "You demon bastard, let go!"

Jasper does not. Alice calls his name, a hand on his shoulder, but he's focused on the woman in his grip.

Finally, the woman brings her foot down on Jasper's instep and stomps. Hard. Classic self-defense. When he lets go, she takes one step backward and then kicks, her boot landing with a thud against Jasper's chest. He flies backward, tumbling down her porch steps onto the path below.

For a split second, Alice is torn. They've worked damn hard to find this woman. She's sure there are answers here, and she has no idea what the hell has gotten into her friend. At the same time, Jasper is gasping for breath and in a right state, as he would put it.

"Get the hell away from me," the woman snarls and hurls something in Alice's direction.

That decides her. The situation is well out of control. She darts down the stairs, dodging projectiles. She stoops long enough to drape Jasper's arm around her shoulders and drags him to the car. She shoves him in the backseat, jumping when glass shatters against the car right near her head. The woman is still hollering epithets and threats as Alice drives away, tires squealing.

In the backseat, Jasper moans in pain. Alice glares in the rearview mirror as she drives on. "Yeah, well, I can't say you didn't deserve that. What the hell did you think you were doing, grabbing that woman like that?"

But Jasper just shakes his head. His eyes are squeezed shut, his hands not around his torso but on either temple, pushing hard. She recognizes the pose. Whatever emotion is radiating out from that woman is still impacting him.

So she drives. After a beat, she turns abruptly into a parking lot of a sprawling park. The car hasn't even stopped moving before she's yanking the key out of the ignition and stomping a few feet away. The lot is empty. There are people off in the distance—children at play in a playground. She knows the innocence of children, the pure joy of their emotions, is like a balm to Jasper. She isn't sure he deserves it, but it will get him back on his feet quicker, and she needs answers.

Sure enough, it's only a few seconds before his door opens. He approaches at a shuffle, but she doesn't turn to look and doesn't ask if he's all right. He stops at her side, sighs, but doesn't start talking.

"You can't have known her," Alice says, tone rough. "We've been tracking her for a month. We've had her picture."

"I didn't know her."

"But she clearly knew you."

"No. She don't know me either."

At that, she turns to glare at him. "So you're going to tell me you were manhandling a perfect stranger for no reason."

He winces and hangs his head, shame faced. His southern lilt is even more pronounced like this, when his voice is soft and sad. "I don't… There's no excuse for that. For laying hands on a woman."

The shame and contrition in his tone cools her anger a fraction. "Is this the part where you tell me you weren't raised like that and your father would have your hide if he knew what you'd done?"

The side of his mouth tugs up just slightly. "My mother, more like. My mother would slap me into next week if she'd seen that." He sighed, raising his head a fraction as he looked off sightlessly into the distance. "But I don't speak to either of them."

Knowing they've come to the crux of the matter, Alice waits.

It takes him a few moments of silence before Jasper speaks. "There's something I didn't tell you when we set out together. I don't want you to think I was trying to be deceitful. There were just things I knew that I didn't want to believe."

He sighs, shaking his head as he continues. "To tell it plainly, long story short? When I found those documents I told you about in my parents' attic, I also found a birth certificate. My birth certificate. There's a section that says what kind of birth—single etc." He swallows hard. "Mine said twin."

Alice hisses under her breath as the implication sets in.

"I have no memory of him," Jasper murmurs.

"Like me?" she asks, horrified.

"Maybe. Hard to tell, but maybe. Maybe I did wake up like you, not remembering my life before." He shrugs. "Maybe I was too young to know I'd forgotten.

"Regardless, my parents were cagey about everything. That much I did tell you. They wouldn't tell me anything about my brother except his name-Marcus. And that he'd been gone, lost to them, for a long time. Wouldn't tell me why or explain any of the other things I found. I left, and I haven't spoken to them since."

"And that woman recognizes you," Alice says.

"Even though I've never met her before in my life." He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "I felt the recognition. And worse than that, I felt her fear. She's terrified of him." He finally turns to her, eyes pleading. "I didn't realize how much I needed to know until I had it—this proof that he exists."

Suddenly, his expression changes. He blinks and takes a step closer to her. "Ah, hell. You're bleedin'." He points to a spot on his temple.

Alice frowns, putting her hand where he indicated and pulls it away with a hiss. Sure enough, her fingers are stained with blood. "The shrapnel must have caught me. That was a warzone for a minute."

"I'm sorry, Ali. If I hadn't overreacted…" He pulls the fabric of his jacket over his hand and presses it carefully to her head, close enough now that she's almost tucked against him.

She winces, eyes screwed shut, but after a moment she relaxes. She touches the edge of his jacket. "You're not wearing your leather jacket for once. Lucky thing, I guess."

He scoffs, his hand dropping to the side, cuff now bloodied, and gives her a lopsided grin. "Right. Because my leather jacket never gets any blood on it in our line of work."

"How you keep your jacket so pristine after everything we put it through is the second great mystery of my life. Very supernatural." She grins back, and then gestures to the car. "So what are we going to do about this mess you've made of our witness?"

~Present Day~

"Jesus Hilary Rodham Christ," Bella said under her breath, shaking her head as she flipped through the pages of script that had just been hand-delivered by her boss.

"What?" Aro asked, an odd edge to his normally gentle lilt. "You don't approve of the changes?"

It was late in the pre-season for there to be such a change in direction from where they'd originally been heading with the series. After Edward and Bella's falling out, Aro had said he would do his best to make things easier on them to work together, especially in the first few episodes. They were back on set for read-throughs in a few days, which was why Aro had rushed the finished script to her in her hotel room at the latest convention.

"It's compelling writing," she assured. "Just…" She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. "I thought the idea was to make it easier for us to do our job when I don't like him."

Aro furrowed his eyebrows. "But he'll be playing the bad guy."

"Making him play his own twin brother and having him manhandle me isn't exactly giving us distance."

"It's playing into your real life emotions. You're supposed to hate him."

Pressing her lips together, Bella nodded. He really thought he was doing her a favor. A week ago, before San Diego, this script would have brought nothing but dread. Oh, Aro was right in a way. Her real animosity toward him would have worked well on the screen. But to do these scenes over and over for hours a day in real life? That would have been difficult to say the least.

"We worked it out, you know," she said. "We're good now. You don't need to write around our feelings."

Aro cocked his head, looking almost confused. "So...you don't hate him."

"No."

Aro stood and shrugged. "Then, I suppose you're just going to have to act like you do." He flashed her a grin and made his exit.

~0~

Bella pushed open the door to the waiting room, offstage from their last panel of the convention. She spotted Edward across the room, but he was too engrossed in his copy of the script. His expression was serious, maybe even a little irritated, as he glared at the pages.

Relieved once again that she'd let go of her anger, Bella crossed the room in a few strides. She threw herself down on the couch beside him, laughing at the shocked expression on his face as she caught him off guard. "So serious. I take it there's something you don't like about the changes?" She'd have thought, now that they were in a good place, he'd find the idea as funny as she had.

He didn't speak right away. His gaze lingered on her face a half beat, and she thought his cheeks seemed pink as he readjusted himself, scooting so there was some distance between them but he was angled toward her.

"It's, uh… I mean, it's not like it won't be an interesting challenge." He shrugged. There was something uncomfortable about his expression and posture. "There's just… that last scene. There's so much touching." He cleared his throat, stumbling over his next words. "Not that to touch you is so distressing or…" He rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks definitely pink now. "It's the intimidation thing. Getting in your personal space. It's…"

"Gross. And uncomfortable?" She tilted her head. "Two words very characteristic of a bad guy."

His lips quirked, but the troubled v between his eyes didn't smooth out.

"Hey, man. At least he's not making Jasper pull that crap." She rolled her eyes. "I swear, every 'good guy' out there invades womens' personal space and they play it like it's supposed to be sexy." In a quick movement, she jumped up, tucking her legs beneath her so she kneeled on the seat, towering over him. She leaned in close so they were nose to nose. "Because it's so attractive when someone tries to make you feel weaker. Because being intimidated is such a turn on, right?"

He blinked, and his breath stuttered, hot against her skin. The air between them churned with uncomfortable energy. Bella found her attention concentrated on the way his tongue darted out, licking his bottom lip.

"It's…" His voice came out scratchy. "In the right context…"

"Right." Her thoughts felt a little thick. She'd turned the mood awkward, and it was throwing her off. "Context is key."

Their eyes met, and for some unfathomable reason, Bella felt breathless-maybe even a little dizzy. She blinked, the thought occurring many seconds too late how inappropriate this was. She was towering over him and far too close, even given the context of their renewed friendship. She backed down, scooting to the opposite end of the couch.

"These scenes… It doesn't make you uncomfortable?" Edward asked after a few heavy moments. "After last weekend, I mean."

Bella shuddered. She understood why he was asking. Jasper's twin was yet another man who thought nothing of using his size and strength to make her feel small.

But she was an actress. She knew how to separate real assholes from fictional ones. "Hey, I've been through much worse in the name of quality entertainment. We all have. Can you name one actress who doesn't have an onscreen sexual assault under her belt? A rape scene and a birth scene—those are the two guarantees if you're a girl in the business." She cocked her head. "Come to think about it, I think I knocked both out in one year. I was… what, fifteen? I was in a movie where the main character had a flashback of a date rape, starring me, and one of those television social issues movies about a teenage mom in the same year."

"Christ," Edward muttered, wiping a hand over his eyes. "I'm not sure that's a notch I'd want in my belt at fifteen."

"It is what it is. This job is so weird when you look at it that way. How many rapes do you think I'm going to rack up in my career?" Bella shook her head. "But wow, that spun off on a tangent. Point is, yeah, a violation of personal space and body contact is a lot less than what other show runners have put their female leads through. And there is a definite upside to all this."

He raised a dubious eyebrow.

Bella grinned. "If you're playing the bad guy, there's a very good chance I'm going to get to kick your ass before this storyline is done."

He laughed. "Now there's a perk."

"I'm looking forward to it.

"Strange business," he mused again, his lips turned up in a small smile. "Getting paid to kick my ass."

"You get your ass kicked a lot in this show. I might as well have my turn."

He nodded solemnly. "Fair is fair, after all."

A/N: Tune in next time when we finally make it to the set of Inexplicable.