When I woke again, I was lying in bed with the blanket draped carefully over me. The door was shut and the room was almost pitch black. The chair next to my bed was empty and I felt wistful for my Dad. I hoped Carlisle had called him to make him get a good night sleep at the Inn. If I was asleep, hopefully he wouldn't have felt the need to rush back. Though aware that Dad was nowhere around, I was not unaware of the figure blocking out the light that filtered in window. My eyes adjusted and the figure staring at me was familiar. I knew that frame, the lean but muscular body. I squinted closer. His shoulders weren't moving – was he even breathing?

"Jasper?" I whispered, trying to make out the familiar features of my brother. He moved from view of the window and I gained enough light to take in his set, tensed expression. Apprehension gleamed in his eyes but it was him. "Jasper, are you trying to scare me?"

He didn't respond or move and my eyes adjusted further to take in the hands clenched into his expensive clothing.

"What's wrong with you, Jazz? Why won't you come any closer?" his jaw clenched at my question and I realised that I had asked the right thing. I took in his pained expression and my throat closed up.

Suddenly he stepped closer.

"Are you hurt, Emma?" concern shined from his southern accent and my heart swelled with love for him. A smile drifted over his face but it didn't stay for long.

I didn't respond, hoping he would keep talking. Sighing when he didn't, I took it as my turn to speak, "I'm fine, Jasper. Carlisle's just keeping me in to keep an eye."

"I told Alice to leave you be; she's mighty torn up that she scared you."

Alice, I tucked the name away in my mind.

"It wasn't her fault," I smiled at him even as my heart sunk that he had told his friend to stay away. "You know I've always been jumpy. Don't let her worry."

Silence fell between us as he nodded his agreement to my request; all I could hear the clock ticking until I felt the desire to throw something at it. Jasper and I had always been comfortable in silence. We could spend hours in the house in Texas either reading together or playing a game. Often, he'd sit with me as I played my guitar, never speaking but lost in his own world. Silence was our companion.

"Jasper," I returned to whispering and watched him tense as though he knew what I was about to say. He shut his eyes as though he could ward away the questions. "What's going on with you? I'm your little sister… please just talk to me. Nothing is going to change between us, I -"

His eyes flew open, locking with mine instantly and pinning me in place with their intensity.

"I could kill you in a second, Emmelyn," he snarled the words interrupting me and it was that tone, more than the words, that hurt me most. "I want to kill you."

He leant forward for emphasis and I watched in horror as his butterscotch eyes, that had watched me with such concern, swirled into empty black orbs in which I could see no emotions. My heart leapt in my throat even as I tried to portray a calm front but my instincts betrayed me. A growl rumbled through the room and I glanced around the space, praying that the source wasn't my brother. But he didn't move, instead he rocked back and forth on his heels as though chained to the spot.

"No, you don't," I whispered, more certain than I felt. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up in fear but I refused to acknowledge them. "If you really wanted to, Jasper, you would have done it already."

The door suddenly swung open and light streamed into the corridor. The sudden change caused me to cringe away so I heard Carlisle before I saw him.

"Jasper, be careful," his voice was harsh for him and I found myself instantly tracing his features, like I did Dad, trying understand them. I could see the worry and fear traced across them but couldn't understand the reason. Jasper wasn't going to hurt me. I glanced back at Jasper. He was watching me: his eyes once again the colour of honey and swirling with longing. My heart went out to him but I didn't dare move to comfort him, not when he would only push me away again.

"I'm sorry, Emma," I locked eyes with him instantly as he spoke. Carlisle's presence immediately forgotten. I took in Jaspers voice, attempting to analysis the differences, and the peculiar wave of calm that drifted over me. His eyes were misty and his face remorseful. The more I stared, the guiltier I felt. I couldn't attribute the feeling to anything but I felt it as though it was gnawing at my insides. Tears tickled at my nose but I pushed them away – I was fed up of crying. I had nothing that I felt guilty about. Certainly not to this extent.

Suddenly I blinked and he was gone. I glanced around in confusion, noting that as swiftly as Jasper left so had the guilt that threatened to eat me inside. Carlisle was gone as well and I wondered when in our staring competition he'd left us alone again.

I didn't sleep again that night and was staring at the ceiling in boredom when Dad entered the room in the early hours of the morning. My mood instantly perked up at the sight of him. He was clearly taken aback to find me awake but he smiled at me fondly, moving to kiss my forehead. Laying in bed, as he did so, made me feel as though I was five years old again but I didn't mind. It was surprisingly comforting after everything.

"You look exhausted," he whispered as he leaned back and studied my face. "Did you sleep at all whilst I was gone?"

I nodded, trying to alienate his worries. I didn't think it would help that cause telling him how little I had slept and what had kept me up the rest of the night. Jasper's dark eyes flashed across my vision and I tried my best to not to shiver at the fear that had washed through me. I would not be afraid of him. I refused to be. Even if that was exactly what my body told me was reasonable.