Carlisle led Jasper through a series of winding halls and doors, descending further into the palace as Jasper felt the temperature change. The decor, too, changed, from the bright and modern hallway Jasper had been greeted by, to old, dark, wood and iron, and wall tapestries that Jasper would guess were older than even Carlisle.

He seemed damningly familiar with the place. Not just in where he was going, but in the knowledge that no one would stop him for wandering out of bounds, or wandering in Aro's cloak.

Jasper idly thought about calling Alice. No, given what she'd suspected about Volterra, she wouldn't accept a call from him until he left. She would have to call him. Besides, he was certain she'd seen what had happened thus far, everything else would depend on if Edward could survive until tomorrow.

Jasper considered what Marcus had said in the beginning, that Edward might escape on his own. Alice hadn't seen that as a possibility, at least, not when Jasper had left, but it also might not have occurred to him yet that he could in fact escape. If he did–then given today, perhaps that meant they'd simply let him go. Jasper would then have to track him down and knock some sense into him.

Either way, right now there was nothing Jasper could do for Edward.

Which left him alone with Carlisle for at least a day.

It had only been just over a week since they'd last seen each other, and yet it felt like so much longer.

So much had happened.

Intellectually, Jasper had always known that Carlisle was older than him. However, he'd always felt younger. Anyone who hadn't been to war the way Jasper had, especially Carlisle's pacifist family who had never run into a spot of trouble anywhere, had seemed impossibly young. Knowing that he could have, in some other world, run across Carlisle during the Civil War always made his head spin.

The man always felt like he'd popped into existence with the rest of his coven fully formed.

And yet, here was the evidence that Carlisle had not always been the Dr. Carlisle Cullen who moved from town to town and played at being the local doctor.

Seeing Carlisle fit in so easily with the Volturi, talking back at Caius like they had known each other forever and both knew Caius would never be a danger to Carlisle, and then blend in so easily with this dark, old, palace, felt like–

Like just as Carlisle removed his human mask when he left the hospital, no longer playing the doctor, he felt like he was now watching Carlisle playing at another role.

They arrived in a room that smelled distinctly like Esme and Carlisle. The scents, however, were fresh and not yet soaked into the furniture. This was a room they had only very recently started to inhabit.

Carlisle, as he began digging through drawers for clothing, gave Jasper a chagrined look, "I suppose it doesn't mean much if I assure you I have not, in fact, been brainwashed and raped."

Jasper said nothing.

What he would say was that Carlisle's emotional state was–complicated. He was relieved beyond words at the verdict regarding Edward, terrified that it might not be good enough and Edward might already be dead by the time the rescue team arrived, mortified at having been caught out by Jasper and whoever else he'd sought to hide his love affairs from, exhausted, nervous, anxious, and… underneath all that oddly content in a way he hadn't been in Jasper's presence. As if something he'd never sought to look at too closely had sorted itself out.

Jasper's point was, that while he'd never personally met someone who'd been brainwashed, he'd met those who had been drugged and they generally felt–a pleasant overriding haze of contentment of an anxious crawling addiction.

Neither of those described Carlisle's emotional state at the moment.

Carlisle saw Jasper's scrutinous look and smiled as he held a pair of pants and a sweater to his chest. "Questioning whether or not this is my brainwashed self talking?"

"You've made a series of decisions that I–would not have previously predicted you making," Jasper finally settled on.

Carlisle ducked his head. "I suppose I have…" he looked contemplative for a moment, then removed his cloak and pulled on his new pants.

Jasper felt his eyebrows raising even as he turned his head to offer the man some privacy. Of course, it wasn't anything Jasper hadn't seen before. In Maria's wars, he'd had no time to waste on shame or fear of nudity. However, he could only imagine how Edward would have reacted to the idea of Carlisle casually changing in front of him.

Jasper would admit, a part of him did want to turn around.

Carlisle smiled brightly at him when he was done. "Where do you want to start, the gardens? Or maybe the city itself? Volterra is quite beautiful, and it's overcast today."

Jasper hadn't thought he'd be getting a grand tour.

To be frank, he hadn't thought much of what would happen to him after he delivered the information he needed to Aro. Alice had only seen that Aro would accept Jasper, that he would not be murdered at the gate. Whether they found his tale so presumptive that they lopped off his head, or they put him in a tower to be drugged, or they brought him to Aro's wife had been the question of the hour.

That had been–a secondary concern for him. In travelling to Volterra, he had only been thinking of what needed to be done for Alice's sake.

Carlisle was looking at him, contemplative again. "I think we'll start with the garden," he said. "It is curated by Aro himself, and quite beautiful."

"He gardens too?" Jasper couldn't help but ask wryly.

Carlisle grinned. "He doesn't trust anyone else with his precious plants. I tried to remove a weed once, he slapped my hand away and looked completely devastated. Turns out, I wasn't supposed to remove the weed in that particular way." He shook his head, fondness coming off of him.

Jasper was left with the bizarre mental image of Aro in an overly floppy sun hat, slapping people's hands away when they got a little too close to the tomatoes.

"Could I see the library?" he asked.

That, at the very least, piqued his interest. From what Carlisle had told him, and the rumors he'd heard of Aro's vast library, a library that held texts lost to mankind and historical accounts of things that the Volturi had covered up, then this was quite possibly the greatest library in the world.

If he had to be in Volterra, then by god he would at least make the most of it.

Carlisle stiffened.

"I'm afraid that's–" he cut himself off purposefully, "Aro's very particular about his books. He doesn't even let the guard touch them without permission."

Jasper nodded, and tried not to make his disappointment too obvious.

Though, given Aro's secrecy and the look he'd exchanged with Carlisle, he couldn't help but wonder if there was another reason why he wasn't allowed to see the library.

Jasper found himself looking at Carlisle, attempting to read the man, and decided to provide the answer to a question Carlisle had not yet asked, "I tried to talk with Edward, if it's any consolation. Both before he started calling Bella and before he went to Egypt."

Carlisle gave a tired smile. "Let's go find those gardens. They're private." Then, with a small laugh, he added, "Ah, everyone is too terrified to harm Aro's plants to go there."

Yes, Jasper could see that, he was certainly now terrified of the prospect of harming Aro's plants.

Carlisle clapped his shoulder. "I'll take full responsibility if you harm anything. Besides, it'd do Aro good anyway. He has no place to put new plants anymore and something has to go, but he just stands around panicking instead. And that was in the 18th century, it must be even worse now."

Jasper wondered if Carlisle realized just how much power he held. Jasper wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it for himself but–Alice and Edward had feared that it was Carlisle who was held captive here, utterly powerless and helpless. Jasper had just witnessed the kings of the world bend their heads, pardon blatant treason, for the sake of Carlisle and Carlisle alone.

Because of Carlisle, Marcus had said very clearly even as Aro had attempted to dance around his true reasoning.

Though, as he followed Carlisle through the hallways that he presumed led to the gardens, he suspected - no, knew - that Carlisle had no idea.

"Here we are," Carlisle said, and opened a door.

It was still overcast outside, though it had not been all that long since Jasper had entered the city himself, which perhaps made the gardens less vibrant than they would have been otherwise. Still, as Carlisle had promised, they were beautiful.

"Oh yes, it's much worse," Carlisle noted, looking around himself. "I knew it. Oh, he kept those alive, that's– I did not see that coming," he commented, looking at a part of the room. However, there were so many plants there that Jasper had no idea which one he was referring to.

There were many things Jasper found he now wished to ask Carlisle.

Did he consider these people friends? Of course, the answer to that was an obvious yes. He'd confessed as much when he'd first met Jasper and even shown him his painting with a delighted grin.

Why had he left? The diet, Carlisle had said, Aro had refused to do it and Carlisle had found he could no longer stand it. He'd had to search for like minded peers which, in turn, had led him to America and corners of the world less explored by the traditional western world he'd grown up in.

Had he missed it as he obviously seemed to? That he'd never said to Jasper or any of the family so far as Jasper could tell, but–

"There's a bench over there," Carlisle said, and motioned for Jasper to follow.

Jasper, who had expected a regular garden bench, could only stare at the Greecian stone bench that Carlisle led him to as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"I realize it's pointless," Carlisle said with a sigh as he sat, "You have no reason to believe me and I–I know how I, how Esme now, God help us all, look from the outside. However, I wish to try if only so that you, Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, and–Edward, don't need to worry."

Jasper sat down wordlessly next to him.

"When I first lived here, Aro was a very dear friend to me, that much is true, but he was also my lover. Of course," Carlisle said, with a shrewd look at Jasper, "I've wondered if you suspected as much."

"England," Jasper agreed with a hum.

Carlisle snorted. "That was funny," he said.

"You're lucky I don't talk," Jasper said in turn, unable to help his smile, "And that Edward doesn't like to linger in my thoughts."

Carlisle's smile faded at the mention of Edward, and Jasper felt the air between them grow heavy.

Jasper regretted bringing up his name. He supposed he could hope that tomorrow, within a few days depending where exactly they were keeping Edward, that they might see him again and this period of anxiety would be behind them.

Alice, certainly, would be beyond relieved to see Edward alive and well again.

"Now," Carlisle continued, exhaling slowly, "since they don't mind, and this is a tell-all - Sulpicia did make a lover of me as well. What's happening now - well, Aro and Esme are a new development, and let me tell you, I did not see that one coming. Nor did Esme, for that matter. But my relationships with Aro and his wife have always been inordinately close."

Jasper couldn't help his eyebrows raising. Finally, whether to put Carlisle out of his misery or else stop his mad rambling, Jasper noted, "I slept with Peter and Charlotte."

Carlisle's head swiveled towards him. "I knew it!"

Jasper snorted, "So would everyone, if the others weren't so–naive."

"Oh, now," Carlisle said, "I don't know that they're naive, they're just…"

"The others–love for them is a simple thing," Jasper mused, "Rosalie found her Emmett within only a few years, and he loved her fiercely in turn. Edward has no one, only his romantic ideals. Esme had her human husband–but then she had you. And Alice, of course, waited years for me and saw no one else. They're young and the idea that something they could take for granted, that we only have one great love in this world, isn't true… They would rather believe something is wrong with you."

Carlisle absorbed his words with a thoughtful look on his face. "Perhaps… though I always ascribed it to our human way of living." He turned to look at Jasper, his golden eyes darker than usual.

"When I was turned, my human life was over, the separation total. I had no interaction with human society beyond breaking into their libraries, it wasn't until the early eighteen hundreds that I stumbled into becoming a doctor, and by then the world was unrecognizable from the one I'd known, and I myself had– changed too much, I suppose. The human Carlisle Cullen did not survive those English woods." Carlisle paused, and tilted his head back to look up at the sky above.

Jasper watched him curiously.

The story of how Carlisle Cullen became a vampire had been a very events-oriented summary, for lack of a better term. He was a priest's son, he found vampires, one of them bit him, he despairs, discovers vegetarianism.

There had been a pointedly impersonal touch to the whole story, as Carlisle systematically and calmly recounted the order in which events had unfolded, almost as if it had all happened to some other person.

Jasper had ascribed this to being due to the passage of time, that it was all so far away, and the story retold so many times, that Carlisle no longer had much investment in it beyond that.

Something about the melancholy emanating from him now, however, as he recounted how the person he'd once been was dead in a way Edward Masen, Rosalie Hale, Emmett McCarthy and Esme Platt were not, made Jasper wonder if the emotional distance had been not because Carlisle saw nothing worth looking at in that story, but because he couldn't stand to look.

"However," Carlisle continued, "within our family… with the exception of you and Alice, they've returned to human society as soon as they were able, I've done my utmost to keep us constantly interacting with the human world." Carlisle hummed to himself. "I integrated myself, but when I play at being human, it is very much a character I play. With Rosalie, Emmett, Edward, and Esme - and Alice too, in her own way - this life is all they've ever known."

And Carlisle did not appear to realize it yet, but with that very explanation, he explained exactly why he would never convince Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, or Alice that his stay in Volterra was a voluntary thing.

Esme seemed to have–well, Jasper supposed he would have to meet with her to decide for himself just what kind of a metamorphosis she had undergone, but he would have thought she would be least able to adapt to this information.

"Carlisle," Jasper said after a pause, "I haven't decided yet whether there's something to what Edward's afraid of. I've never met Chelsea, I certainly have no desire to nor ever planned to, and I haven't met Corin either."

Carlisle opened his mouth. "Corin I can confirm right away is not what people think she is," he reassured Jasper. "There are a lot of rumors surrounding her gift, let me assure you, people get it wrong."

"I'm starting to believe you," Jasper murmured to himself, "However, the others–they never will."

He made sure to look directly at Carlisle as he said his next words, "Accepting that you had this great, centuries old, love affair with Aro, a man whose history dwarfs even mine, let alone that you slept with his wife, that you returned and continued that love affair and that Esme has somehow become embroiled in it as well, will mean accepting that this reality they've built for themselves is false. It means that we have only ever been playing house just as much as you've played human doctor or we've played human highschool students."

Carlisle opened his mouth to say something, but Jasper continued on.

"It means that you're fallible," he said, "It means your love for Esme, which was supposed to conquer all obstacles, wasn't enough." Carlisle flinched at that. "It means that you had a history where you were not a human doctor, where you were not their father, where you consorted with vampires who gleefully drink what all vampires drink."

"Accepting what has happened here is to give up on every ideal they have ever believed in," Jasper said, "And that would break them, and so, they will never do it."

Carlisle beheld him silently, his emotions in a tangled mess. There was heartbreak and distress, first and foremost, and a growing sense of horror as he realized the truth in Jasper's words.

And, of course, because this was Carlisle, regret, as he took in Jasper's words and turned them into swords directed at himself, no doubt blaming himself for this ever being allowed to happen in the first place.

Jasper wondered if he should point out that he had no idea what to do about Edward because of this.

Rose and Emmett–they seemed to have decided that their best course of action was to keep out of Esme and Carlisle's way and hope for the best. Besides, they had each other, even if the foundations that they'd built their identities on crumbled–Jasper hoped they would support each other through it.

Edward though, if he was alive, he would never stop. He would demand Carlisle and Esme leave Volterra (and with Aro and Sulpicia as joint lovers, after what Jasper had just witnessed in that throne room, he rather doubted that was going to happen), when he failed he would continue on his desperate search for co-conspirators to help rescue his family.

He would either be executed by the Volturi or else Jasper–Jasper didn't know how he could possibly stop him. Alice, when Edward had been with the Denali with them, had never seen a way that she could stop Edward from doing what he wanted. At least, not one she was willing to take.

Carlisle got up, and after a moment Jasper followed.

Carlisle took him to stand before a large bush, one with its leaves riddled with holes. "Aro keeps snails, snails that are otherwise extinct and whose shells can be crushed to form colors that are no longer to be found out in the real world," he told him absent-mindedly. "Aro considers himself the archivist of history in more ways than just keeping the library."

"Does he have the dodo bird squirreled away somewhere too?" Jasper asked, "Or buffalo?"

Carlisle only smiled. "He would if they could be around vampires. He has lamented on many occasions that he can't, if only because the man would sincerely love a cat."

So would Alice. Trouble was, every time she saw herself adopting one, she also saw herself eating it. That'd put a bit of a damper on the idea.

"What did Alice say when you decided to come here?" Carlisle asked.

His face didn't show it, but there was a sadness in him now. Sadness for Edward, Jasper would guess.

"She knew she couldn't talk me out of it," Jasper said, "So she simply said goodbye."

"You did it for her though," Carlisle said knowingly, "I know that you and Edward are close–to a point."

Yes, Jasper supposed that was a good way of putting it. They were close, but only to a point. Of course, to Alice, Edward meant the very world.

"Jasper," Carlisle sighed, "I lack Marcus' gift, so for all that I know how I feel about you, I don't quite know how you feel in return. To me, you are a son. I care for you deeply, and… well, there's no denying that I feel a desire, a need, to help you on your way in this life, I always have."

Jasper gave Carlisle a look, couldn't help his amused smile, "I'm not sure I ever quite saw you as a father but–you are an interesting man, and I've always respected you, even if your love life turned out to be more complicated than mine."

He'd leave the replacement father shtick to Rosalie and Edward.

Carlisle's face twitched at Jasper's joke. "Jasper, since we're being honest with each other I'll come right out and say it. Jasper, Alice let you come here."

Jasper frowned, but before he could open in his mouth, he became aware of Carlisle's emotional state.

All of a sudden, it became very clear that that sadness Carlisle felt, was not for Edward, but for Jasper.

"She let you come here, Jasper, when she sincerely believes that neither Esme nor I can leave. She knows you have a gift that could prove–useful to Aro, were he so inclined," he took a breath then said, "She doesn't expect you to ever leave."

Jasper–of course, he'd known that was a possibility. It'd been very clear to him what he was risking when he walked up that hill into the city. His death, his imprisonment, his use as a hostage to coerce Alice to come here herself (in which case he hoped that she let him go). Yes, he'd known and–he knew Alice knew, of course she knew, but he hadn't quite thought of it the way Carlisle had just said it.

It had been something he'd been willing to risk, to sacrifice, for Alice's happiness and security. There had been no talking him out of it, at least, if Alice hadn't bothered to try then he'd figured she'd seen that there was no point.

Carlisle continued, in a kind voice, "I don't think she thought about this way, she cares for you too much, and she's desperate to save her brother. However, Jasper… Alice was given a choice between you and Edward, and she did not choose you."

Jasper looked dully for a place to sit, but there was none, and so he ended up collapsing backwards, feeling branches break and give way under him. Behind him, he heard the crash of a potted flower hitting the ground.

Aro would probably be mad about that.

Carlisle sat down next to him, not seeming to care about Aro's flowers.

"You know, I often wondered why it was she saw me," Jasper said quietly, "Alice never questions her visions, and the ones that see so far into her future are mysterious even to her. But I wondered–why me? Was it because I needed her so desperately? Because I would love her so fiercely? Because I was looking for your diet without even knowing it was possible? Or was it simply that I could protect her in a way that the rest of your coven could not? Now–was it because one day, in the distant future, I would make this choice and she could sacrifice me for her brother?"

Carlisle pointedly said nothing, only put his arms around Jasper's neck and hugged him.

Jasper passively let him do it, letting his chin fall on Carlisle's shoulder and Carlisle's hair tickle his face.

Distantly, he noted that Carlisle still smelled like Aro. Now Jasper probably would too.

"And I wondered–why not Edward?" Jasper heard himself say, "I figured it was because she was never in love with him. She loved him, but she was never in love. And he was never interested in her, if he has a type among women, then Rosalie was closer to it. And there's you, of course."

Carlisle stiffened, but he didn't say anything.

He wondered if Edward should survive and return to Alice, if all that would turn on its head. They would give up on Jasper, as easily as Edward had dismissed Rosalie and Emmett (it had not escaped Jasper that Edward had not spared nearly as much concern for them as he had for Carlisle and Esme). Perhaps they would find solace in each other, perhaps Alice could dissuade Edward from his path of self-destruction, and perhaps Jasper was merely a stepping stone that Alice's visions had laid before her.

"And she doesn't know herself. Alice doesn't know the answer to any of these questions. She has so many emotions, and she needs so much from those of us around her - from me - but she does as her visions tell her, she always has. And now– now I don't even…"

He trailed off.

"Carlisle," he asked very quietly, "What am I going to do?"

Carlisle laughed, then pulled away a hand to desperately clap it over his mouth, "Jasper, I'm so sorry but–you have no idea how many times I've asked myself that question in this past week. It seems to be the only question I ever ask myself these days."

Squeezing Jasper slightly, he mused, "You could always talk to Sulpicia. She's the one with all the answers," he said. "Don't talk to Marcus, though" he warned, "He'll only tell you the truth but make you feel worse. Of course, should you annoy him… he'll come to you."

Jasper only shook his head. "Carlisle, I–"

For a moment, he wanted to damn it all, and go back. It was becoming quite clear that the Volturi weren't going to keep him against his will, not while Jasper remained dear to Carlisle and Carlisle held the inexplicable power that he did over Aro.

But to what? The choice had been made, Carlisle was not wrong about that. Even if he returned, Alice would suspect he was a sleeper agent for eternity. She would never feel safe around him again. And if Edward came back, he'd fan that spark of suspicion into an inferno. There was no place for him there, not sullied as he was by merely setting foot in Volterra.

And she'd made her choice… Even if Edward returned–would she even want Jasper there, an unwitting and hopeless third wheel?

"The diet," Jasper choked. "I won't be able to–" shame welled up in him, and all of a sudden he wished he was anywhere else in the world but here, next to Carlisle.

He'd always been the weak link of the family, the one who couldn't maintain the diet and who slipped up, who was suspected of not truly caring about it (and was there not truth in that? Without his gift forcing his hand, he would have been killing humans with the rest of them, and they all knew it.), but he had at least refused to give up. After every slip, he had gone back out into the woods, hunted down a boar and a deer, and drawn their tasteless, unfulfilling blood into his throat with a sense of duty and determination.

Not even Edward had been able to do the diet on his own after his rebellion. He had tried, but known that he couldn't do it without help, and returned with his eyes still red.

Jasper had no illusions about what would happen to him when he went off on his own, how he would fare.

Already he could see himself, a red-eyed, miserable, beast haunting the streets at night, trying again and again to get it right until inevitably, he gave up.

And then– well.

Then he imagined that he would find someone to pick a fight with, and he would lose.

"You could stay here," Carlisle said, "I can't promise how long I'll have to stay. It could be months, years–it could even be an eternity, I simply don't know."

Jasper blinked in alarm, and felt the hair on the back of his neck rising with the fearful instinct that something else was going on behind closed doors. Something beyond love affairs, something that wasn't brainwashing from Chelsea or Corin, but there was something else that was keeping Carlisle here in Volterra for an indefinite amount of time.

A large favor, Aro had said.

What, exactly, was it the Volturi needed Carlisle for?

Why, exactly, had Carlisle Cullen, of all people, been summoned to Volterra?

Caius' mockery of the plan had made it clear that part was all Aro, and then Jane catching him out on his lies had made it clear that - well - it was all lies.

Which Jasper realized with dawning amazement, and terror, meant that whatever was actually going on, not even Jane and Alec were trusted to know about it.

What exactly would he be getting involved with, should he stay?

(And why hadn't Alice seen any hint of it?)

Carlisle didn't pause to explain, didn't even seem to think it was necessary, instead he continued, "However, Aro has long since given up on me and my diet, he learned that lesson, and given that it causes you physical pain–he would support your choice and give you every means to follow it. And Esme and I would be here to help you."

Carlisle didn't bring up the Denali, which would have been a false option if there ever was one. Because without the Cullens, the Denali was the first place the surviving members of the coven (whose collapse they hadn't even acknowledged yet) would gather. Alice, and Edward if he survived, would very likely stay with the Denali for a time.

Which meant Jasper could not.

Carlisle grabbed Jasper's hand, and squeezed it. "You joined my coven because I could offer you a better life. I can still do that," he said.

"Carlisle," Jasper said with an amused smile, "You realize that within the course of a single conversation, presuming you are brainwashed, you have left me little to no recourse but to stay in Volterra and join the Borg."

Resistance is futile, Jasper thought to himself, you will be assimilated.

Carlisle groaned as he realized. "And Alice is surely watching us. Oh, this looks worse than Aro bursting in my room in his bathrobe."

If she wasn't watching Edward. Jasper had no illusions as to where her priorities lay. Now that the Volturi had made their decision in Edward's favor–there was little of interest she could gain by watching Carlisle and Jasper chat in a garden.

Jasper patted him on the back, "And this is why none of the others will ever believe you."

Carlisle looked at him. "Would you wait here for a moment, while I retrieve Aro?"

Jasper looked at the crushed flowers beneath himself with some bemusement. Sure, why not? He'd been in more humiliating positions where he'd had to command more respect. Of course, then he had been merely meeting with Maria or Peter, who were at the end of the day small fries.

Carlisle patted his shoulder, and was gone in a flash.

Leaving Jasper alone with himself, Aro's flowers, and his thoughts.

He picked himself up from the ground. It was one thing to be caught red handed, another to still be sitting on the flowers he had so cruelly destroyed.

He wondered if Alice knew they were no longer married. Of course, she had probably resigned herself to that the moment Jasper had decided to head to Volterra. It was Jasper, then, who'd been under the illusion that he'd entered Volterra as a married man.

He wondered if he'd speak to her again. She had a phone, they had each other's numbers, and to simply not call one another again would make this all the more surreal, but–

What was there to say?

Peter would laugh, no doubt, as would Charlotte. They'd always been assholes like that and never quite seen the appeal of Alice. The last time they'd visited, they'd thought Edward was utterly mad and told Jasper they feared for his sanity on this whack-job animal diet.

Jasper was in for a good long cry, he knew.

He hoped the bath Alice had described, the grand, Roman, bath that looked like something straight out of a National Geographic reconstruction, would be available to visitors. Jasper was about to have a good, long, very long, cry, and he would rather do that submerged underwater so people wouldn't hear him bawling his lungs out.

After a few minutes, the sound of two vampires approaching roused Jasper's attention.

"Carlisle!" Aro said in dismay, and nothing else. He just held his hands out, as if they could somehow will the flower pot back into its original state of glory.

Carlisle only touched his hand and smiled, and Aro huffed.

"That doesn't excuse it!" Aro said, "And I blame you, you can't tell people terrible things about their relationships where flowers can be broken. You take them to–some room where I don't have any fragiles."

Carlisle merely grinned at that, still holding Aro's hand.

"And yes, I know that nearly every room has fragiles, but dammit, Carlisle! That was my favorite pot!"

Carlisle must have thought something particularly catty to that, certainly, his emotional state was more amused than anything else. Amused and–irreverently fond, it was the emotional cesspool of a man who was hopelessly in love.

"Alright, it wasn't my favorite pot, I have many favorite pots, but I liked that pot! Do you have any idea how old it was? How invaluable? It doesn't matter that I have five identical pots, now it's not an even number anymore!"

"Oh, I'll just break another, then," Carlisle quipped, and turned towards the row where the five surviving pots sat, and moved towards it.

"Don't you dare!" Aro said, pulling him back, and turned to Jasper, as if this might dismiss Carlisle's terrible crimes against flowerpots everywhere.

"Right, yes," Aro said, and looked a bit awkward for a moment, "Well, Carlisle has informed me that you–may be deciding to stay. And that, due to that–Shouldn't we have Bella here for this?"

Carlisle only gave him a look, not even touching his hand.

"Too true," Aro murmured, "Then she'd be retching into my poor, surviving, flowerpots and I'd have no garden left."

"Aro!"

"Oh I must make some levity of it," Aro said, "Otherwise, it's just so damn bleak."

The humor left Carlisle, and he was left staring grimly back at Aro.

"Oh yes, and your control," Aro said, looking at Jasper as if this had been an afterthought, "Yes, I'm afraid I can't allow you near Bella for quite some time."

"But, first," Aro said, seeming to remember something, "if you don't mind - I must request that I touch your hand again. Carlisle called me here because there is something you will have to know if you are to stay with us, but… well, I need to know if I can trust you first."

He held out a hand.

Well, that wasn't a sentence you heard every day. Jasper–to be honest, he wasn't quite sure if he was a trustworthy fellow. Oh, he'd do what had to be done, when no one else would do it, you could certainly trust him to do that.

Still, to have none other than Aro contemplate trusting Jasper, because Jasper was apparently moving in with the Volturi, and after having known him for all of half an hour at that.

Jasper had come a long, and surprising, way since leaving Maria's army.

After Jasper had openly admitted to suspecting that Aro was drugging and raping the head of Jasper's coven–

Now Jasper was vaguely wondering why he hadn't been put on trial right after Edward and had his head cut off.

… Because that would upset Carlisle, and Aro would never do anything to upset Carlisle.

Right.

Perhaps it was for the best Jasper would not be returning to Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett, because they would never believe any of this.

He extended his hand, as curious as Aro if he would pass the litmus test.

Aro took his hand into his own, and this time he held it only for a moment.

"Bella's pregnant with Marcus' child," he said.

Jasper blinked. "Come again?"

Aro gestured for Carlisle to continue. Carlisle nodded.

"Tuesday night, Bella walked into the men's Roman bath by accident, found Marcus. They are both lunatics, so they inexplicably decided to have sex with each other. Aro walks in on this spectacle, is completely horrified, and naturally decides that the best recourse is to burst into my room in his bathrobe because we have to clean said Roman bath. Because," Carlisle lowered his voice, "no one can ever know Marcus had sex!"

He shook his head. "That really was the reason for all the secrecy, at first. Aro, an utterly shameless men who goes around sleeping with anyone's wife if she can make a good enough argument for why this is actually going to solve several problems and get him laid, cannot handle the prospect of Marcus having sex."

"Not anyone's wife," Aro interjected, "Your wife. This is a first for me as well, a very strange, very surreal, first."

"Tuesday," Jasper murmured in a daze, "Tuesday that's–laundry day. That was Edward's phone call about the laundry."

"I–may have rambled nonsense about laundry when Edward asked me what that draining noise was in the background and why I was with Aro in the middle of the night," Carlisle said with a wince. "And now everyone, even Caius who is in the know but just has no faith in me, thinks that I had sex with Aro that night and I just have to take the fall, because Marcus and Bella's iniquity really does need to stay a secret."

"Because she's… pregnant," Jasper echoed.

Had anyone else tried to tell him this, under any other circumstances, he wouldn't have believed it for a second. Would have thought they were mad, lying, or both. He would have dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

This day, however, had been just insane enough that Jasper could believe it if Aro told him the Volturi were going to form a traveling circus.

"I'm just going to ask a question in case no one's thought of the possibility," Jasper said, "Are we certain Bella has never had sex with anyone else?"

"Dead certain," Carlisle said dully without missing a beat while Aro simultaneously said, "Absolutely no one."

"The girl… just, believe me when I say that I can believe she has no prior sexual experience. None whatsoever," Carlisle said.

Aro shook his head sadly.

Jasper decided not to ask.

"We discovered that same night, when I was checking Bella for injuries, that she was pregnant. We also discovered that she'd known we were vampires - well, she thought aliens - this entire time, and Aro's scheme had been perfectly redundant," Carlisle said.

Jasper raised his eyebrows at that. He just imagined the rest of the family in Italy, all geared up to be the experts on pretending to be human, not realizing that Bella Swan already knew.

It was almost enough to make him wish he'd been there, just to see this.

Aro only glared at Carlisle.

"We also realized some rather troubling implications this would have, not just for Bella, but for the vampire world at large, should more people learn about this. Ah – the situation could get difficult, hence the secrecy. I'm sure you can imagine," Aro supplied.

Jasper blinked once, twice.

… yes.

Depending on what exactly a vampire-human hybrid would even be like, yes, Jasper could imagine.

Even if it wasn't humanoid, but some sort of bloodthirsty crocodile… Maria would be interested in having a few of those in her employ.

"And that, in turn, is why I had to get my family out of Volterra, while still giving a plausible explanation for why I was staying. Hence the cancer."

"... Cancer was not a plausible explanation," Jasper pointed out after a long pause.

"Got anything better?" Carlisle challenged.

"You've run off with Aro," Jasper said, "That one turned out to be true."

Carlisle opened his mouth, but no words came out.

More tellingly yet, he shot a look at Aro for assistance.

"He was being faithful to his wife!" Aro said, because apparently there was no bridge he wouldn't try to sell for Carlisle.

"Right, Bella is pregnant," Jasper decided to say instead, "And we can't tell anyone for obvious reasons, and I can't meet with her because she's human and–pregnant with Marcus' child."

And then Jasper would be accidentally eating not just a prized human with a very powerful gift but the woman pregnant with Marcus' son.

"Yes," Aro said.

"Although you can still help out in the library," Carlisle offered with a smile. "We're trying to research this thing. Even Sulpicia has come down from her tower."

That wasn't an offer, Jasper thought to himself, so much as a thinly veiled command of how Jasper would be spending his future time in Volterra. It was likely, also, the only reason Jasper was now being told given they'd left Jane out of the loop.

That, and he knew how to keep his mouth shut.

Well, of course, Jasper supposed that Carlisle couldn't keep it a secret. Had Jasper not been told there was only so much sex he could assume Carlisle was having when he ran off to tend to an apparently vomiting Bella Swan. Which was why he'd told his family she had cancer, but since Jasper had made it clear how little he thought of that excuse–

He got to know the bizarre truth.

Which he supposed meant that now he truly was never going to leave Volterra. At least, not without Carlisle.

He was starting to wonder how Rosalie and Emmett had ever made it out. They'd been there for several days, and yet here Jasper was, one hour in the palace and he's stuck.

He supposed they could only thank Emmett's obliviousness that Rosalie must have temporarily absorbed. That, and they had a functional marriage where no one wanted to sleep with Volturi, and no one was getting left at Aro's doorstep like a discarded puppy.

As Jasper followed Carlisle out of the garden (Aro stayed behind to fret over his ruined plants), he could only resolve to himself that he, at least, would not start sleeping with any of the Volturi. He could do that much.