Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just playing with her characters.
A/N: We get our first peek into Jasper's head this chapter! Yay! Thank you to itsange and Gigi Scott, the betas from Project Team Beta, my awesome beta Laurie Whitlock, my pre-readers AlwaysJASPERsLOVE and Shadman, and my beloved sister Shelljayz who also happens to pre-read for me. :)
Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, put this story on their alerts, or took the time to review! You are all awesome! :)
Something important to note: This chapter not only introduces Jasper's POV but is our first glimpse of the rest of the Cullens. Because of this, I have to mention that Edward's gift is a bit different than usual. Not only can he read minds but he can also put his thoughts into other people's heads as well as do something akin to a 3-way phone call. It's not limited to three people but, essentially, he and anyone of his choosing can have conversations that are completely silent through his gift. To denote this, conversations that take place through Edward's gift are in "italics with quotes" while Jasper's individual thoughts are in plain italics.
oOo
Late July 2080
JPOV
"A human, Carlisle! A fucking human!" Rosalie hissed, glaring so fiercely at her "father" he'd have pissed his pants if his bladder had still worked and he'd actually cared that she was so angry. "What the hell are you thinking?"
The family was out in the woods about five miles from the house. Carlisle had decided to discuss the situation with the human somewhere more private than the house because he'd known Rosalie would have a conniption. Mid-hissy fit, the decibels of her shrieking had the ability to make even vampire eardrums explode, and he hadn't wanted to wake the girl. Esme had stayed behind to look after said girl.
I took in everyone's emotions and analyzed them as best I could, debating whether or not to interfere.
Obviously, Rosalie was furious.
Shocking, I thought with an internal eye roll.
It was only a matter of time before Rosalie was spouting off about how dangerous it was to have a human staying with us. Not dangerous for the human, of course—she didn't give a shit about that—but to us … the big, bad vampires, the predators, the hunters that were nearly indestructible. I rolled my eyes. It was all bullshit. One human didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, and she knew it. Really, she just wanted an excuse to be angry, whether it was a good one or not.
Emmett was curious and excited about the whole thing, but then he was generally excited about most things. He was like a big kid in that way. That was something I was a bit jealous of, that innocence he'd been able to retain even through the change. I suppose, instead, I should say his curiosity and excitement were amplified by the idea of a human staying with us. Emmett was absolutely fascinated by them and, by far, the most social of us. Keeping to ourselves was the hardest on him, so I knew that he couldn't wait to get back to the house to meet the girl.
Alice was also curious and excited. She and Emmett were a lot alike in their fascination with humans and their need for socialization, so that wasn't surprising to me. What was surprising was the absence of worry or panic. Unless she just hadn't mentioned it, which I found highly unlikely given it was Alice, she hadn't seen Carlisle and Esme's decision to take this girl in. That had to have caught her off guard, and because her gift was always giving her the answers to everything, Alice didn't always go with the flow well. The fact that she wasn't miffed, at the very least, was odd.
Edward, the telepathic bastard, was not curious in the same way that the others were. He didn't have to be because he was plucking what had happened with the human right out of Carlisle's head just as easily as he could pluck one of his vinyls from a shelf on the wall in the room he shared with Alice. He was surprised and … amused.
I was not curious about the human. I didn't see the point nor did I have the inclination to put forth the effort. She would just be another in a sea of faces that churned together and got lost in my subconscious as eternity marched on without reprieve. I didn't particularly want her in my goddamn house, but that had already been decided, so I didn't see the point in arguing about it.
Taking all of that in, it seemed like the best idea for me just to let things play out as they were. As long as things didn't get out of hand, I didn't see a need to interfere. Too much emotional fuckery wasn't always a good thing.
Carlisle, who was leaning casually against a tree, observed his hot-headed daughter mildly, but said nothing. He neither looked nor felt intimidated by her outburst, which only infuriated Rosalie more.
"You can't just bring a human into the house without asking anyone about it first!" Rose screeched, her voice shooting up an octave.
I could practically feel the venom leaking out of my ears.
Carlisle gave her a genial smile and an innocent shrug. When he spoke, his voice and demeanor were even, if a bit sly, but his emotions were impatient. "I asked Esme."
"How considerate," Rosalie bit out, her eyes narrowed to slits.
Emmett came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her up against him. He was concerned for her. Even though he was ecstatic about the human, he didn't like seeing his mate so upset. His touch siphoned some of her anger away, for which I was thankful. I wasn't in danger of losing control, but her rage wasn't exactly comfortable for me. It brought back the ghosts of memories I wasn't keen on revisiting.
"You weren't home, Rosalie," Carlisle said, his tone business-like and steely, yet still unfailingly kind. He met her eyes for a long moment, and when he broke his gaze from hers, he moved on to Emmett, and then to Edward, Alice, and I. It was his polite way of letting us all know his words weren't just for Rose. "Esme and I were. We made a decision to offer assistance to a girl who very much needed it. I'm sorry if this upsets you, but it's done. I wanted you aware of the situation before you arrived home so you could prepare yourselves to be around the scent of human blood for a few hours, not so that you could decide which was the best way to rip me a new asshole for showing kindness to someone less fortunate than we are."
Hearing Carlisle say the word "asshole" had Emmett, Edward, Alice, and I trying desperately not to snicker, but it was so, so hard. It wasn't the most mature we had ever been, but a cursing Carlisle was rare. We couldn't just not laugh at that shit. It was a good minute before the four of us weren't struggling to keep our faces straight. All the while, Rosalie was still glowering at Carlisle as he gazed serenely right back at her.
The whole time we'd been trying not to laugh, Rosalie's frustration had been building until finally she spun her ire on Alice. Edward, who'd read her thoughts, and Alice, who'd seen her decision to confront her, were prepared for it. Edward instinctively went to step so that part of his body was in front of his mate's, but Alice grabbed his hand and kept him by her side. She wanted his support right now, not his protection.
"Why didn't you see it?" Rose demanded from her position within the circle of Emmett's arms. There was less bite to her voice than there had been before but there was still plenty.
"Rosie," Emmett chided, leaning forward and burying his nose in her hair. He nuzzled her neck, making her purr, and she went slack in his arms. She leaned her head back against his shoulder and closed her eyes, contentment replacing the anger she'd been feeling. It was almost as if she'd forgotten the whole situation, even though I knew she hadn't.
Damn, Emmett's good.
"I'm not sure," Alice answered. "But I'm kind of glad I didn't."
"Why's that, sugar?" I asked in genuine interest.
"It's just kind of nice to be surprised, I guess," she said with a little smile that Edward mirrored as he squeezed her hand.
Hearing that made me grin.
"Soooo," Emmett interrupted. "How'd you meet the human, Daddy C?"
Carlisle chuckled and gave a little shake of his head at his bear of a son that always managed to bring humor to even the most serious or awkward of situations.
"Esme and I went dancing at Le Jazz Hot in Port Angeles last night. The weather was quite nice when we got there, but a storm came on as quickly as they always do here in the Pacific Northwest. On the way home, we saw her walking along the side of the road."
Carlisle was lying. Carlisle, who had never lied in all the time I had known him, was lying to everyone's face. Well, not to everyone's obviously. I knew he wouldn't have tried to keep the truth from Edward, not because he couldn't but because that's not the type of person he was, and also because Esme wouldn't have been able to manage it. I may not have been able to glean the truth of the matter from his mind in the way my brother could, but he sure as hell couldn't hide the deceit in his emotions.
"He's lyin'," I said to Edward silently.
Edward's eyes shot to mine in shock. I only ever let him hear my thoughts on a very rare occasion, even if what I was thinking was nothing of consequence. I liked my privacy and had constructed walls around my mind worthy of protecting Fort Knox for the express purpose of keeping Edward out of my head. I kept the nasty shit from my past pretty tightly locked away, but there were times when I couldn't hold it back, and no one should ever have to see or hear any of that. As a telepath, it would have been like he was reliving it with me and, while the nosy fucker annoyed the shit out of me sometimes for trying to poke around in my head, he didn't deserve that.
"No, he's not," Edward replied futilely.
"Now you're lyin'," I shot back, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Be patient, and I'll show you everything. Carlisle wants you to know anyway, but right now, I'm enjoying the show," he said with a smirk. He really was enjoying watching Carlisle and Rosalie go at it. I could feel it.
"Fine," I replied. "I just don't get why he's botherin' to lie in the first place."
"He and Esme are protecting the girl," he answered, not physically shrugging but the implication was there in his "voice." When he said 'protect' I knew he didn't mean from Emmett and Alice.
I frowned. "Why would they bother? What is so fuckin' special about this girl?"
"I don't have a damn clue," Edward said. "Per their request, I'm not allowed to tell Alice until after she leaves since she's not the greatest actress when it comes to stuff like this, and you know as well as I do that Emmett can't keep a secret for shit. If Rosalie found out it would be a bloodbath, and you know how Carlisle and Esme are. They like this girl, and she's got balls, I'll give her that."
The amusement he was feeling strengthened, and I didn't know if it had something to do with the girl and her "balls" or Carlisle and Rosalie's confrontation.
"Seriously?" Alice asked, drawing my attention back to the spoken conversation, her eyebrows raised. "Did her car break down or something?"
"No," Carlisle answered. "At any rate, she was soaked, freezing, exhausted and starving," he continued. "It was late, and she was in the middle of nowhere. We could not, in good conscience, just leave her there."
"And you couldn't have just dumped her at the church in town?" Rose asked, still sounding relatively tame even though her anger was, yet again, heating to a boil.
Carlisle rolled his eyes, actually freaking rolled his eyes. "This is Forks, Rosalie, not Seattle. The church in this town doesn't stay open at all hours."
"And there was something wrong with the crappy motel on the edge of town?" she persisted, unwilling to let it go.
"She's a child, Rosalie!" Carlisle snapped, finally losing his patience. "No more than seventeen, and no one was around to take responsibility for her. Your mother and I are taking that job on temporarily. She won't figure out that we're different, and even if she does register that we're a little … off … it would take more than a few hours for her to figure out exactly how we're different. This conversation is over," he said, his tone final. Then he sighed, his disappointment in her palpable to everyone, not just me. "If you have such a problem with this, your presence at the house for the duration of her stay is not required."
Without another word, he turned on his heel and took off toward the house, the rest of us not far behind.
"The hell it's not," Rosalie spat. She was both incensed at Carlisle's blatant dismissal and chagrined by his disappointment in her.
Emmett rolled his eyes behind his mate's back. He was getting more excited by the minute, and I was honestly surprised he wasn't vibrating. Alice would have been if she hadn't been so saddened by the news that this girl was apparently alone. It no doubt reminded her of her own circumstances when she'd first woken from her change.
Now that the show was over, Edward flooded my head with images and sound. I smirked. The next few hours were going to be interesting.
