I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You

Chapter 7

It was now two months exactly, to the day, since we had fought James in Phoenix, and life was not quite the same, but a new form of normal. Edward and Bella were still dating, but had both separately come to the conclusion that it was not as intense as they thought their relationship would have been. It was a similar relationship to what Alice and I had, in the way that they were both aware they weren't mates, rather just companions. The main difference between Alice and I, and Bella and Edward, was that Alice and I were aware of it from the beginning, and had spent a long time together building a strong relationship. Bella and Edward, not so much.

Our new definition of a 'normal' life included a few differences, mainly because of Bella. In James' attack she had suffered a badly broken leg, broken ribs, a cracked skull, and multiple cuts and bruises, as well as the broken wrist inflicted by Edward and the severe blood loss. She was a mess, and because of this we adapted.

Almost as soon as we made it to the hospital and Bella was being treated, I headed back to the hotel to collect our things and wait for Emmett and Edward, and to ask Alice about what we were going to do. Emmett and I needed to head back to Forks and be seen around town, and to help get everything ready for when everyone returned, so we ran back. But the whole way I couldn't shake this feeling that I was heading in the wrong direction, like something was pulling on me, trying to make me go south, back to Phoenix. I confided in Emmett on the run back, and when I described the feeling he admitted it was how he felt when he was away from Rose. Did that mean it was pulling me towards my mate? That my mate was back down south? I decided to keep with the original plan and ask Alice later. She knew who my mate was, she would tell me what to do and where I needed to be to find them.

Once back in Forks I helped out with making up a guest room at our house for Bella, should she need to stay with us for any reason, and also helped Esme clear up a few things at Bella and her father's house to make things easier for them when Bella returned. Esme cooked a few weeks' worth of food for them and froze it all, knowing Bella would be unable to help out in the kitchen for some time, and I helped by clearing out a few things in both Bella's room and the bathroom so it would be easier for her to move about. Once she could move.

Of course we didn't break in to the house to do this, Esme called Chief Swan a number of times to ask about how Bella was, and offered to do this all for him. He was so grateful for this, and also for Alice's offer to help Bella with showering and dressing for the next few weeks until she could do it herself. She was going to be pretty reliant on others for a while, something I think she had always tried to avoid. She would just need to get used to it.

Bella recovered quite well, and gained her usual independence after about a month, when her broken wrist was healed enough that she was out of that cast and into a brace. She had now been free of that brace completely for a week and a half. Getting rid of it was good for her relationship with Edward because they were no longer reminded constantly that Edward had lost control. Bella had confided in me that she was mostly conscious at that point, and had been absolutely terrified Edward was going to drain her. It put some strain on their relationship because Edward didn't know, he thought she was completely unconscious at that point. Mine and Bella's relationship had grown though, and we had become quite close friends, we were able to talk about anything, and she now knew everything about me, and I her, and she even managed to distract me from the annoying pulling I had continued to feel since Phoenix. Although now it wasn't pulling me south, so maybe my mate was in Forks? Alice wouldn't tell me.

It was prom night tonight. And like usual, we were all going, although this time was the first time Edward had a date he wanted. One time in Alaska a few decades ago he had taken Tanya along, simply to stop the rumours around school about him, but that backfired because then Tanya was only more encouraged. But tonight we were all going with partners of our own choosing. It was a little bittersweet for Alice and I, we knew that if our mates were only around the corner, this would be our last prom together, but again I couldn't think of anyone else I would rather be with.

I had dropped Alice at Bella's house earlier today so she would help her get ready, and Edward and I would go and pick our dates up from there. It was strange to go and pick up my date, normally for prom we would just get ready in our bedroom together. Often taking hours longer than we should have because we got distracted by each other. Alice and I would always have fun, but this milestone of net taking so long to get ready because she wasn't here in our room was strange, and marked the beginning of the end for our marriage. I would always love Alice, but I could feel it fading because of the mate thing. Maybe I should speak with her soon. Maybe the two of us could go hunting tomorrow and talk about it privately, without people listening in.

"Jasper, you ready yet?" Edward called out from the living room, signalling that it was time for us to leave.

As we pulled out the driveway in Edward's Volvo he turned to look at me.

"Thank you for looking after Bella in Phoenix, you did a good job, and I don't blame you for letting her out of your sight." He both sounded sincere, and his emotions supported this.

"I was only trying to protect her, thank you for trusting me with her. When she suggested that Alice and I go with her, I thought you would've said no. At least to me going. Although I knew you weren't too happy with Alice and her ideas of how much Bella should have known." I answered aloud, even after over half a century I found it unnerving to only answer with my thoughts, having a silent conversation.

"You're right, I wasn't happy with the idea of Bella knowing everything, but it was the right thing for her to know. It would have been disastrous if James had gotten to her before she knew everything. Bella never would have forgiven me." Edward took an unnecessary deep breath then, trying to calm down before he spoke about whatever else was on his mind.

"And thank you for pulling me off of her. I couldn't control myself, and if you hadn't reacted when you did I would have killed her. You saved her life."

"Well what else could I have done? I wasn't going to let her die. It was a no-brainer really." I was confused as the where he was taking the conversation.

"But it wasn't though. No one would have questioned you if you hadn't have stayed in the room; there was so much blood. Even Alice was struggling with the scent of it and yet you hardly seemed to notice."

Well that wasn't true, I had felt the intense bloodlust from being in the ballet studio, it just never occurred to me to attack and react to the feelings.

"Alice has never told you much about your mate, has she?" Well that was a sudden change in conversation Edward. "Not really, I know about that pulling feeling you have felt. First it pulled you to Phoenix when you came back to Forks, right? And now it is pulling you somewhere in Forks, but not always, when you are at school, or a couple of other places with humans around it stops. What does that tell you Jasper?" Edward was acting strangely, why was he talking to me about my mate?

"Do you know who my mate is Edward? Have you seen her in Alice's visions?" Maybe he was trying to tell me.

"Yeah I know who she is, and she's great for you. Just don't rush it, let her set the pace, she is still very young." His emotions were interesting as he told me this. There was a little sadness but he was also happy, either for me or the girl. But what girls did he know that were young, and would be concerned about. There was only one.

I saw Edward smile a little as I thought of this girl. But no, it couldn't be her could it? She was happily in a relationship wasn't she?

"You haven't paid much attention to Bella and I together since we came back from Phoenix, have you? Not our emotions anyway. Things haven't been the same, and a week ago we had a long conversation, when we spent the day in the meadow together. We are going to prom together, but then that is it for our relationship. It isn't working for either of us." This is where I could feel the sadness coming from. He truly loved her, but not in the way he should.

And he was right, I hadn't paid attention to their emotions when they were together for the last couple of months. And was Bella truly my mate? I definitely needed to speak to Alice tomorrow. If it was true it would be unfair to Alice if we stayed together any longer. I just hoped that I didn't hurt Alice too much.

We had reached Bella's house by now and made our way to the front door to meet our dates, and for each of the two couples here it would be the last big date. The thought was slightly saddening, but I could feel that the two girls inside were excited for tonight, and it wasn't like neither of them knew this was the beginning of the end. Edward raised his hand and gently knocked on the front door of the small house. We heard Charlie slowly get up, off of the couch and moved towards the front door, grumbling quietly about how Edward was 'no good for Bella'. At this I had to hold back my laugh as this was exactly what everyone thought, especially Edward. I just hoped that if Bella was the one for me, Charlie would like me a little more. Edward smirked at me as if to say 'he will'.

Charlie let us into the house, giving Edward a cold and stiff handshake, whereas mine was much warmer and friendlier. He really did like me better, mostly because he blamed Edward for making Bella run away to Phoenix, and therefore blamed him for her injuries. I however was good in his mind because I helped out around his house while Bella was in hospital, and while she was still unable to do anything herself, I would accompany Alice around here when she was helping Bella shower, and help out around the house. I even carried Bella up and down the stairs as needed which Charlie was extremely grateful for. Of course Alice could have done it, and she did when Charlie was at work, but it would have looked very strange to Charlie to see little Alice carrying Bella.

We sat in the living room for a few minutes, I talked with Charlie for a while, and he continuously glared at Edward, until we heard the girls move towards the stairs and we moved towards the bottom of the stairs. Alice danced down first, before Bella was in sight, and if I had the ability to have my breath taken away I would have lost it then. She was wearing a skin tight, short black dress with long sleeves and multiple geometric cut outs all over. It was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen her wearing, other than nothing of course. She danced towards me, her short hair bouncing in curls around her face and a huge smile. I pulled her into my arms and have her a chaste kiss as to not smear her bright red lipstick all over us.

"You look stunningly beautiful." I spoke softly in her ear.

"Not too mad yourself, although I have trained you well to always dress yourself well enough." She spoke loud enough that Charlie could hear, earning a chuckle, before she spoke softer, only for me to hear. "Let's talk tomorrow, I had a vision of you realising, and she will realise very soon. Let's just have fun tonight." And with that Alice pulled my face down to hers and kissed me again before she turned, wrapping my arms around her, to see Bella's big entrance.

She appeared at the top of the stairs hesitantly, looking as if she would rather be somewhere else, but astonishingly beautiful. My heart should have been thumping in my chest just at the sight of her. Her slender body was accentuated beautifully by the dark blue dress Alice had chosen for her, and the one silver heeled sandal elongated the leg we could see. Her other leg was hidden in her walking cast, but other than that you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at her that she had almost died two months ago.

She slowly made her way downstairs where her dad hugged her and told her to have a good night, before Edward kissed her on the cheek before presenting her with a small flower corsage. That reminded me I had one to give Alice, which I promptly secured to her wrist with a kiss to the back of her hand.

We left Charlie and Bella's soon after that, with a promise to keep Bella safe as she would be coming to our place afterwards for a 'sleepover' with Alice. Of course Bella would be the only one sleeping, and then tomorrow was the day of the double break up. I felt terrible thinking about it, but the inevitability of it was nearly comforting, I knew what was happening and there were no more surprises.

We quickly arrived at the school, where the prom was being held, and made our way to the ticket booth by the front door. The school was decorated in horribly clichéd style; balloon arched and crepe paper everywhere in varying pastel colours. Every prom I had been to in my very long life had been decorated in the exact same way. Maybe next time I needed to convince Alice to be on the prom committee so it would be decorated to a reasonable standard. Edward chuckled under his breath at that. Apparently I was being funny.

"Not just you." He answered, loud enough that Bella heard.

"What's going on?" She asked, oblivious to our silent exchange.

"Tyler was under the impression that he was taking you to prom and has turned up looking for you, after going to your house to collect you." All four of us laughed quietly as we saw Tyler move towards the ticket booth, and wanting to avoid a confrontation, Alice moved us into the gym while I sent some calming feelings towards Tyler. Prom night wasn't the time to have confrontation.

Immediately after we entered we found Emmett and Rosalie, they were commanding the dance floor after having scared off any other potential dancers. Alice and I immediately made our way into the middle and began to dance. It was a modern song, but still had the required beat to waltz to, so we did, as did Em and Rose. Bella argued with Edward that she couldn't dance, and yet he still pulled her out, and carefully placed her small feet on his larger ones, allowing her to move more gracefully. I was incredibly happy to be dancing with my wife, but I couldn't help but feel jealous of Edward. I wanted to dance with Bella.

After just two songs, Edward took Bella outside as one of the young boys from the reservation was there to speak with her. Not wanting to leave the two of them alone with a possible wolf we all took a break from dancing and stood in a small group near the exit they left from, trying to look as if we needed a break and were having a conversation. We could hear the boy, Jacob I believe, trying to warn Bella to stay away from Edward and that he was dangerous. Bella simply laughed at him and said that he shouldn't worry anymore and could pass on the message that Edward and her were no longer together and then she turned and walked back inside.

The night continued on as normal after that, we had our prom photos taken, we danced with our dates, and swapped dates for a few dances, so I was eventually able to dance with Bella, and the two of us wore ridiculously wide smiles as we did so, earning some strange looks from other people. I didn't think that Bella was aware of the bond we apparently had between the two of us, but in that moment I knew she had become aware. As I twirled her around, careful to keep most of her weight off of her broken leg, her heartbeat increased, and her emotions became calmer, more peaceful and happier. Apparently I started to project these feelings unconsciously because the whole room became calmer and many couples began to declare and demonstrate their love. Unfortunately, because I sent out so much of these feelings, I had trouble controlling them, so we decided to leave the prom, although it was a little early.

There was another hour left of the prom, but we had already had photos taken and danced, and Bella was beginning to tire, so we left. This time Alice and I rode in Rosalie's red BMW with her and Emmett, while Bella and Edward took his car.

"So what's up with you and Belly-Boo?" Emmett questioned as we left, using the nickname he had given Bella shortly after she returned from Phoenix, a sign that he had accepted her into the family.

"It's none of your business Emmett, and I will need to speak with Bella before I speak to you about it." I lightly growled; getting possessive of Bella even only hours after I had realised my feelings towards her.

"Alright, alright, just be careful with my little sisters." Emmett may have been the youngest in the family, but he definitely took the role of big brother very seriously, especially towards Alice and now Bella.

"Jasper will, won't you," Rosalie began with a slightly feral smile on her face, "Emmett's not the only one who wants to protect the human." And with that I knew she had accepted Bella into our family, even if she didn't full like her. She knew Bella was important to the family and losing her could destroy the family.

…..

A.N.: So Jasper knows, and Bella is about to figure it out, YAY! I hope you have enjoyed it so far, here is where it really deviates from the original story quite a bit. Thank you for sticking reading part one of the story, I really appreciate any feedback what-so-ever.

The next part (New Moon and Eclipse events with a twist) will be up as soon as I have written it, within the next month. It only took me a month to write this, so I will write the next bit at the same speed.

Thanks,

xx