Warnings: Mentions of Self Harm, Mentions of Suicide

This chapter actually isn't as harsh as you'd think, but just in case those are triggers for anyone here's your soft warning.

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Getting out of the school was the easy part. While Wren seemed to struggle against his gift, he found that he could still project it around her. He enrobed them in a bubble of indifference, making it so that any who passed them would find them uninteresting and leave them be.

To her credit, Wren didn't falter as she trailed after him. He'd thought she would fight him more on skipping class, but it was the best option he could see. She was very obviously upset, and he was sure she wouldn't have been able to garner anything useful from her classes in that state. Beyond that, her mood was putting him in a precautious position that was best moved away from the general populace.

Which brought him to his next dilemma: getting her into Rose's car. While Jasper had access to his bike. among other vehicles, he usually settled for riding in with Rose or one of his other siblings on school days. It was because of this that he had a copy of all of their car keys. This, of course, drove Rosalie up the wall.

She was responsible for their cars and took pride in the job, but that pride ran a little too deep in Jasper's opinion. Now he could have taken Emmet's Jeep or Edward's Volvo, but he couldn't ever remember a time he'd been able to pass up irritating Rose. Though they were twins in name only, he still felt a brotherly bond that led him to do things that drove her crazy. Inciting her attitude was one of the perks of being in a stable coven again. Her fits could amuse him for days.

It also helped that as they approached the cherry red BMW, Wren seemed more than impressed. That, in turn, made him wonder just how little she thought of him when he wasn't around if she hadn't even noticed the luxury he and his family drove in with every day.

"Careful getting in Darlin', Rose'll kill me if I get so much as a smudge on her car," he said after opening the passenger door for her to slide in.

It was true, too. Rose would certainly try and kill him if he left even a fingerprint on her immaculate convertible. If she was strict with their treatment of their cars, then she was a drill sergeant when it came to her own. It was hard to believe, but if her own vanity extended beyond herself then it certainly landed with her cars.

Wren's wide-eyed stare met his own, her brow raised high.

"This is-," she started before seeming to think better of it," We can't take your sister's car."

Maybe it said something about him that her telling him what he couldn't do made him want to show her exactly what he could do.

Instead, he opened the door wider.

"Rose can get a ride home with Emmett, she won't mind."

It was sound logic, and a bold-faced lie. Rose would throw a fit and just knowing he wouldn't be around to deal with the first wave of her anger almost brought a smile to his face. Only almost, because he was still hyper aware of why they were out there in the first place. He could still feel the Wren's tight knot of negative emotions.

He watched as she took her bottom lip between her teeth, his eyes zeroing in on the action. He could practically see the blood rushing to the abused skin as she decided what she wanted to do. Normally he would be a bit more covert with his staring, but this time he wanted her aware. He wanted her to feel the pressure of his gaze and give in quickly so they could handle whatever was weighing so heavily on her.

"Fine," she eventually said, her eyes anywhere but on him.

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Getting into that car was one of the hardest things she'd done in her life. The seat itself was buttery soft, and when she tossed her half zipped and hastily packed bag in the back, she could tell that every part of it was well taken care of. It was against her normal rationale, and far beyond what she knew her Aunt's wishes would be. Still, Wren was… tired. She was exhausted, really, and the truth hung heavy in her heart.

She needed to do it. She needed to tell someone. Therapy had been one thing, but her therapist had been paid to help her. Wren wanted more than that. She wanted more then a business transaction meant to keep her alive. She wanted someone to listen out of more than just obligation.

Her Auntie knew and would listen, of course… But she had to. The older woman was accountable for her well being and it was that responsibility that kept Wren in the bubble that was slowly suffocating her. Angel had taken on so much responsibility with her decision to raise Wren. So much, that Wren was loath to give her anymore.

Especially since in her opinion, the internal war she was currently struggling with wasn't worth her Auntie's time in comparison to all the other things they had to deal with. It was bad enough that she'd gotten overwhelmed over a stupid letter she hadn't even opened.

But for the first time in a long time, Wren realized that she needed to talk, and it was because Jasper didn't have to be there wanted to listen.

And Wren, damning any other feeling she had, wanted him to listen. She wanted to tell him, and maybe there was a small part of her that wanted him to know so that she could finally have an excuse for her mess of a personality. She wanted him to know why she was painfully awkward, and why she couldn't just function like a normal friend. She wanted him to understand.

Evening knowing that he probably wouldn't because she didn't fully understand herself.

"Where to?" Jasper's deep voice cut through the whirlwind of her mind.

She thought for just a second before the answer came easily.

"Would you mind taking me home?"

It was where she felt most comfortable. More importantly, it was where her baking supplies were. If she was going to talk with him, she needed her distractions.

"You sure that's a good idea? I can't see your Aunt being too keen on you skipping class," he asked her, starting the car regardless.

"She's not home," Wren said simply. Even if she was, she was sure her Auntie would be understanding after the fiasco she'd put on the night before.

"Seems like she's gone a lot," Jasper commented.

Wren's eyes drifted out of the window as she shrugged, "She works long shifts most days. I don't mind being alone."

If she had bothered to look at him right then, she might have seen the way his amber eyes darkened in a way that was most definitely not human.

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The ride was quiet, but not uncomfortable.

Wren wasn't sure if Jasper had forgone his usual teasing because he could tell how worn down she was, but she was grateful. She was even more so when they pulled into the familiar driveway. She entered her house on autopilot, Jasper trailing behind her silently.

She'd made a beeline to the kitchen without a word.

She moved by muscle memory, going from the spice cabinet to the pantry as she gathered her supplies.

"Do you want anything? Like a drink or something?" she asked, still not quite looking at Jasper even as she moved around where he'd settled at her dining room table.

"No thank you," he said, much as she'd expected. He never accepted anything she offered him, and honestly if she was in her normal frame of mind she'd have been bothered. It was an ongoing trend with him, and one she didn't quite like. Wren could admit that one of the few ways she knew how to bond was through food, and his constant rejection of her little offers unsettled her. The only thing that helped was that he always seemed to be giving her treats.

Then again, the lack of balance in their exchanges was a different problem for her all together. As it was, though, she had more pressing issues to attend to, and Jasper knew that just as well as she did.

"So, what's bothering you?" he said, blunt but still somehow gentle.

Even after filling herself with all that resolve, her heart still skipped a beat at the thought that it was finally time to talk. If her hand slipped from the container of flower and made it hit the counter a little too hard, well then Jasper was polite enough to pretend not to notice.

Staring at the labeled container, Wren's brain bounced between a pineapple upside down cake recipe and the past she didn't want to face.

"I… don't know where to start," she said softly, moving to pop the lid off the flour. She felt off, her body feeling as if she was pressurized from the inside out and just waiting to burst.

'Anxiety, but not like an anxiety attack,' she thought, thankful that she at least didn't seem to be near a breakdown. She truly didn't know how she wanted to approach the situation, but Jasper, bless his heart, stated the obvious and made it simple where she couldn't.

"Isn't the beginning always the best place?"

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Watching her flit around the kitchen was both maddening and soothing all at once. She moved with a confidence he rarely saw her with, her small hands quick and sure as she gathered what she needed. He could smell the gas from her oven as it heated, and though it wasn't exactly pleasant, it did help cut through cloud of her scent drowning him.

He'd been in her house before, but he was sure it would take some getting used to being in an environment so thoroughly saturated with Wren. The stress of it was better than being in a high school full of humans, but only slightly.

He heard her exhale softly, then. He'd waited patiently for her to get situated, trying to give her time to work out what she wanted to say. It was a test in patience, but as she combined ingredients in a mixing bowl, he was rewarded for his efforts.

"When I was ten, I went to live with my Aunty," she started," I hadn't exactly… Been in a good place before that. I wasn't… great around people. Even worse than I am now, if you can believe it."

Given that issues like hers usually had to start somewhere he did believe it. He wanted to know more about that in all actuality, but he knew that they needed to stay on one track for the time being. He had planned to let her speak with as little interruption as possible, but he did decide to make one point.

"A conversation for a different day?" he asked, letting her know that he wanted to hear about that part of her past as well. He had a feeling he wouldn't exactly like what she had to say, but he knew he needed to know regardless.

He was realizing that he had a lot of things he needed when it came to her.

He felt her emotions spike, the anxiety turning into something that made even him feel a little sick, but she just turned to him slightly, her full lips pulled down at the corners.

"Maybe," she said, locking eyes with him for just a moment before turning back around to crack some eggs.

"Like I said I wasn't good with people. For a long time, I didn't actually talk to anyone at all. It wasn't just that I was quiet, I literally didn't speak."

He frowned at that but listened on.

"My Aunty was worried, and she ended up putting me in therapy, and part of my therapy plan was getting more social interaction. I wasn't too fond of that idea, but looking back on it, I get why it was necessary. She tried to put me into a few different activities just trying to get me to branch out. We didn't have a lot of money at the time, so the easiest way to do that was just to take me to the local YMCA. They had a bunch of free classes a couple times a week."

She paused for a moment, moving past him as she tossed the eggshells and a butter wrapper in the trash behind him. Just from that short snippet, a lot of things were beginning to make sense to him.

'Therapy. Why didn't I think of that before?' he thought. It made a lot of sense the more he thought about it. From what he knew, mental health was beginning to become a more widespread concept then it had been in the previous century. More techniques were being developed in order to handle things like anxiety. If Wren was simply employing what she'd learned from her therapist to calm herself down, that would make a lot of what he felt from her more understandable. It was impossible to fully control one's own emotions, but there were ways to make it easier.

With that still on his mind, Jasper sat up a bit straighter and noted that she looked just the slightest bit more at ease now that she was finally talking.

"Do you need any help?" he asked, his manners telling him that it was only polite. He hadn't offered at first, as he'd seen how much she needed to just do something to occupy herself. There were times where he needed to do the same, though he had very… different outlets.

He was sure she didn't find sex or a good fight to be reasonable distractions.

"Do you know how to cut a pineapple?" she replied. He just looked at her for a second, eyebrows raised. He'd asked but hadn't really expected her to want him to do anything.

Let alone cut fruit.

"Can't be any different then cutting up anything else, right?"

He refrained from saying that if he'd ever actually gone out of his way to cut some fruit in the past hundred years, he couldn't remember it. He also thought it wise not to tell her the only thing he'd actually cut into in recent memory was living flesh.

Jasper didn't think his very human, very timid mate would handle that well.

Within the next few moments, he found a cutting board, knife, and sickly-sweet smelling pineapple in front of him. The fruit was ripe, and most likely at peak deliciousness for a human palate. To him, it smelled less than appetizing. Certain flavors still appealed to him, but he found that he could only really enjoy them through the scent and taste of another creature's flesh.

"It's for a pineapple upside down cake so if you just slice it in rings and cut off the rind it should be fine," she told him, holding her fingers about a half inch apart to show him how thick she wanted him to cut each ring. He got to slicing, the domesticity of the moment creating an odd feeling in him.

She went back to her mixing bowl, a round pan now out for her to pour her concoction into.

"Anyways…" she started again," she would take me every other day just to see if any of the classes would catch my attention. There was stuff like landscape painting, science labs, basketball, soccer, gymnastics. I hated it, honestly, but she only made me try each class once and if I hated it, she wouldn't make me go back."

He couldn't help but interject with "You hated all of them, didn't you?"

The light laugh she gave him unwound the tight knot of tension that he'd been holding on to, and he was thankful for it. Her laugh came with a brush of fondness and amusement that was a soothing balm.

"Oh, for surely. I wouldn't talk to anyone and almost all the kids and half of the instructors thought I was stupid. When they say kids can be cruel? They mean that shit let me tell you."

The curse slipped from her mouth easily, and he could sense the change in her countenance as she relaxed into what she was doing. As she relaxed around him. For all the stress she'd been under lately, he'd never seen her so at ease as she was in her kitchen, baking and talking to him. He'd noticed before that sometimes as she talked, her tone and sentence structure changed to something a little looser and vulgar. He'd been around long enough to know that it was a regional thing that spoke of where she'd grown up, though she seemed to have more of a problem showing it then he did.

The discovery was one he held on to, knowing it would serve him well in the future.

"You get picked on a lot?" he asked, the idea sparking unease in him, but at the same time he understood that kids would be kids. It was years ago, and so long as he was around no one would pick on her again. That much he knew.

She shrugged, but didn't elaborate beyond saying "Eh, things happen. As far as the classes go, though, it wasn't so bad. All of the instructors were volunteers, so the quality and offerings varied. There was one class, though…" it was there she faltered, and he felt the good will they'd begun to build waver, though she pushed on," It was a ballet class."

He heard her take a deep breath in through her nose, then "The instructor was this really pretty lady named Maleena Zakharov. She was a professional ballerina, but she was from a well-off family and all that, so she was used to doing a lot of charity work, I guess. She did a series of classes for about a month and she'd bring her daughter, Taisiya, with her to help instruct. I wasn't big on the ballet, but the first day they came I was in the class. Tai and I just… Hit it off, I guess. She was a lot more outgoing than I was, but the other kids disliked her almost as much as they disliked me and it kind of brought us together, I think. I didn't really like to dance, but I went to every one of those ballet classes that month."

Jasper could imagine an even tinier version of Wren, more rounded and twice as shy, stumbling around with a group of other kids trying to be graceful… and probably failing.

"You learn anything?" he asked, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Oh, absolutely not," she told him without skipping a beat," but I did get something out of it."

He could tell where she was going, and he met her halfway.

"You got a friend."

She came to get the pineapple from him, and he was able to see the small, sad smile on her face as she nodded.

"Yeah, I did. Tai was honestly the first friend I ever made. I moved around a lot before I settled in with Aunty and I never really got the chance to make friends, so when I met her, we bonded… really fast. Sleepovers, secrets, all the fun girl shit you know?"

He smiled back at her, trying to reassure her even as he asked, "So what happened?"

She was quiet for a few more minutes, but he let her have the time as he watched her finally put her cake into the oven. By the time she was ready to talk again, her cake was baking and she was beginning to scrub dishes, so he got up to help her. She stiffened for a moment as he came up beside her, but when he took a spoon from her to dry it, she let him.

"Tai and I were good for the next couple of years but then she kind of started having problems."

"With you?"

She shook her head, that profound sadness beginning to edge over her again.

"No, more like with herself. Tai had always been a little sad. She had pretty bad self-esteem issues, among other things. I guess the crappy mental health was one of the things that brought us together. We understood each other."

Jasper was beginning to unravel the problem, but it wasn't making it any easier. There were a lot of different implications to what she was saying, but he hopped he was wrong.

"Tai is a year older than me, and a little bit after her thirteenth birthday she started spiraling pretty badly. She got extremely depressed, and she started… hurting herself. No one knew except… me."

It was then that Jasper began to understand the roiling mass of her emotions. The pain, the anger, the self-loathing – he was beginning to see where it all stemmed from. Wren was sensitive, and she'd blamed herself for her friend's issues. She'd seen the pain and taken it on for herself. As an empath, he understood that better than anyone. He was affected by the feelings of the general populace every day, but he also knew that such things only got harder coming from someone you cared about.

"It got to the point where she was calling me almost every other day, just depressed and bitter beyond reason. We'd talk about it and I would try my best to remind her things would be okay, but it was so hard, you know?"

He could tell she'd begun to wander from the present moment, eyes unfocused even as she rinsed a mixing bowl. She was lost in her memories.

"You can't help someone who isn't ready to be helped," he told her, knowing he needn't have spoken at all, but wanting to ground her back to the present.

She glanced at him, a contemplative look on her face.

"That is… very true. You been around a lot of depressed people?"

'I can literally sense the emotions of every person I'm near' was the true answer, but what he said instead was "Not necessarily. I'm just very good at reading people."

This time, he could feel her exasperation when she said "Yeah, I noticed that."

He didn't point out that she wasn't exactly subtle with her own feelings.

"You're right, though," she said," you can't force someone to get help when they don't want it. She was so far in her own head that she couldn't see anything beyond it. She had just given up, I guess. I'd be lying if I said I really even understood the extent of what she was going through… I still don't. I didn't know how to help her, and it scared me a lot. She was hurting herself more and more, and I just got so afraid that I was going to lose her… But I also didn't want to break her trust. She told me all these things she wouldn't tell anyone else because she trusted me, but it got to the point where I was genuinely afraid that she'd – "a deep breathe was taken then, and Jasper could smell fresh salt from tears unshed, " - that she'd kill herself.

Jasper had seen suicidal people. Hell, in his time he'd even helped a few off themselves, though his reasonings had less to do with mercy and more to do with them outliving their usefulness to Maria. Regardless of the specifics, Jasper was well aware of the state a person had to be in to want to end their own life. Whatever Taisiya had been going through, it had to have been harsh for a 13-year-old to consider death as an option. The fact that his mate had been so close to that, had understood it even, made him incredibly angry.

It also made him incredibly sad, because from what he knew of Wren, she didn't deserve to feel that way. She existed quietly, more afraid of the world then it would ever be of her. Unfortunately, he also knew that the world tended to prey the most on people like her.

Beings like him tended to prey on those like her.

It was weakness in its purest form, and looking at the girl that was meant to be his other half, he didn't understand. His life would never be one of ease, he'd made far too many mistakes and garnered too many enemies for that. Though he'd found a semblance of peace with he Cullens, the fact remained that so long as he was a vampire, there would always be danger.

A lot of the time, he was that danger.

Still, Wren was there with him, and he knew that there was far more that she hadn't told him yet. She had to have strength to her to make it, even if she seemed damaged for it now. It made his thoughts scatter, his mind wondering what kind of joke the universe must be playing on him to tie him to a girl who he could see now so desperately needed someone to take care of her.

Alice, at the very least, was formidable despite her appearance. He could only wonder if Wren would be the same, once turned. Would she have a gift to match his own? Would the change expand on that hidden strength?

Only time would tell, but for now he'd listen to her and continue to wonder.

"Did she end up doing it?" Jasper asked, voicing perhaps the most important question of the evening.

Her eyes shut tight, and the wave of emotions that crashed over him almost caused him to cry. He was ready for a sob to break from her chest at any moment, the sorrow she was feeling almost crushing them both.

But she didn't cry.

"No," she said, her voice steady despite her own turmoil," she didn't. She couldn't, because even though she asked me not to, I told."

Then, Jasper could feel the shame bleeding through.

"I told my Aunt, and she told Tai's parents. I didn't let Tai know I was going to tell, but one night I just… couldn't do it anymore. She needed help, and I knew I couldn't be the one to help her. Therapy isn't for everyone, but it did help me. I knew that at the very least she needed to start talking to a professional, and I couldn't force her to do that."

It was then that Jasper knew what he needed to do, and he crossed a boundary he hadn't dared to before. He pulled a measuring cup from her hands, noting how it startled her. Without bothering to dry either of their hands, he pulled her into his arms.

"You did the right thing," he told her.

He'd hugged her just for a moment, feeling her immediate panic and not wanting to drive her too far, but it served its purpose of reassurance. She felt so much shame for betraying her friends trust, and he knew then that she thought he'd think less of her for it.

He didn't, and though she'd hardly reciprocated, the brief moment he'd held her was enough for the tiny sliver of fear she'd felt around him ease. He'd felt that fear more than once, and he'd thought it was because she was simply scared of him. Most people were, and he'd failed to realize that such fear could stem from somewhere else.

She'd been so afraid of him shunning her for the damage done in a past relationship that hadn't even been her fault.

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Not many people hugged her. It was partially because she didn't want to be touched in general, and partly because she just didn't have many around her who cared enough to try.

But as she talked about one of the most difficult parts of her life, he hugged her.

And that gave her the strength to continue.

"Tai sent me a letter yesterday," she finally admitted, " and that's what I've been so messed up over. I haven't talked to her since the day her parents found out what was going on. They agreed that she needed to get professional help… But Tai's parents and my Aunty also agreed that it was best if we didn't see each other while she got the help she needed and I-"

"That seems unnecessarily cruel," he interjected, startling her.

At first, she didn't agree. The comment did make her think, though, and for the first time she realized that the reason she'd had so much trouble dealing with the situation was because it had been. It had hurt so much to know her only friend was out there suffering, and she could do nothing but hope she got the help she needed.

But it had also been necessary, and Wren was self-aware enough to realize that.

"It might've been cruel," she told him, still lost in thought," but it was necessary. I wasn't… in the greatest place myself. I'm not sure exactly how the conversation with Taisiya's Mom went, but I know at the end of the day my Aunt had to decide what was best for me too."

"You obviously cared a lot," Jasper told her pointedly," so I don't see how keeping you away from her was supposed to help you. Isn't it good to have support systems in situations like that, anyway?"

Wren nodded, telling him "Yeah, but that was kind of the problem too. Support systems are there for you to be able to rely on and I wasn't exactly in the best mental place myself. My Aunty was afraid that we'd only end up dragging each other down before either of us could get better."

And there it was, the hardest part. Wren had tried so hard to look after Tai's well-being that she'd overstressed. At the time, she'd still been working on getting a handle on the worst of her social anxiety, and the added pressure didn't help with that.

Tai had helped pull her out of her shell for sure, but sometimes caring too much could be harmful no matter how good the intentions. Wren was a pessimist by nature, and that combined with Tai's increasingly suicidal thoughts wouldn't bode well.

Now she knew if faced with the same situation, she would be able to handle it better, but then… not so much.

She told Jasper that. She let him in on a part of herself she hadn't shown anyone since Taisiya Zakharov. It was a leap of faith for her, more than anything, but of course Jasper took it all with a grace she'd never have. It was a heady feeling, for once not feeling judged or looked down on for her own shortcomings. For the first time in years, it felt like she could breathe.

It was with that clarity that she was able to sit down in front of Jasper and finally, finally read that letter.

She was even more grateful for his presence when after reading said letter, she had someone to look up at and share the relief and overwhelming sense of joy.

"She wants to come see me!" she told him, truly smiling for the first time in over 24 hours.

When he met her happy smile with a genuine one his own, she discovered an entirely different problem. Looking at him after the emotional rollercoaster she'd been on made her feel raw, open, and just a little too incapable of controlling herself.

So, in that moment, Wren Kitt felt herself fall just a little bit for one Jasper Hale.

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This is based on a situation I went through when I was younger. Mental health is something very serious, and If you know anyone in a similar situation, just remember: there is no shame in doing what you have to do to save a life.

ANYWAYS. Jasper needs a stiff drink after their day (Too bad hes a vamp lmao). Wren just better hope Jasper doesn't start feeling that budding affection who knows what it'll make him do