Jasper sat at the kitchen stabbing at the cookie dough in the bowl with an electric hand mixer.
Esme had decided to bake some cookies and of course she had dragged him to the kitchen with her. Ever since his little escapade she would do nothing but drag him around whenever the others went hunting.
He hated baking. Dealing with cookie dough was worse than dealing with a starving newborn.
But he refused to be defeated by dough . If The Major could do it so could he. They were the same person at the end of the day right? His brain had to store some of that ability.
-You added the cream cheese right?- Came Esme's voice.
-Yes ma'am.
If Esme was being honest there was nothing more entertaining than watching Jasper in the kitchen. The faces he would pull while fighting with the dough were priceless.
Jor on the other hand had grown to surpass Esme when it came to baking. The kind of things he could pull off were both amazing and quite visually stunning.
-Is this good?- Jasper's voice pulled Esme out of her thoughts and she glanced at the bowl he was holding. The mix was now pleasantly fluffy and the sugar had mostly dissolved.
-Yeah, that's good.- She conceded before taking the bowl and starting to scrape it down to evenly beat the mixture.
She instructed him when to add the egg, egg yolks, vanilla, and almond extract, all while she made sure to keep up mixing it well, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Of all her children Jasper was the one who never made a fuss when it came to baking or cooking with her. Even when his unsupervised cooking/baking left a lot to be desired and she knew that he held a special place in his heart for his hatred against dough she knew that he liked helping her.
It was nice to get to spend time in the kitchen with one of her children. Her mother always told her that one of the best ways for children to bond with their parents was for the parent to teach them how to cook/bake.
Because there was nothing more exhilarating than getting to make something wonderful with someone you cared about.
That was the main reason she decided to bake cookies. Jasper had been more withdrawn than usual ever since his little escapade.
And what better way to cheer someone up than giving them something tasty?
It was a bit tricky of course for she didn't knew what he liked or if he had a particular favorite.
She had asked Alice and turns out Jasper wasn't a fan of sweet things unless it were ice creams which flavors fell on the berry's category.
And while Esme would have liked to give him ice cream she couldn't.
Because the ice cream in the fridge was Renesmee's favorite. Chocolate .
And Alice told her Jasper hated chocolate.
He liked apples.
And while it crossed her mind to make him an apple pie she had run out of apples.
Alice had said that cookies were fine. That he liked her cookies.
That had led her to find out that Jasper was prompt to steal one or two cookies whenever she made a batch for the hospital.
It was an amusing thought if she was being honest.
The idea of him waiting for her to not be looking to steal cookies behind her back.
~~~~~~~~~
-Are they good?- Esme asked as Jasper took a bite from the star-shaped cookie. She had even taken the time to make blue icing for the stars.
-They're always good, except for the first few times you started makin' 'em, they were way too salty.
Esme cringed at that. She couldn't taste the food so she had used Carlisle's co-workers as guinea pigs for her attempts at baking. Knowing that the poor people had to eat salty cookies made her feel bad.
-Don't feel too bad. They weren't horribly salty, they were still edible... probably.- He smirked at Esme's horrified look before picking up another cookie.
He had to admit that getting to eat more than one or two was exhilarating.
Esme for her side felt quite proud despite all. Bella was the only one of her children she ever got to feed, but now she could feed Jasper as much as she desired.
Even if it was meaningless for he didn't need it she liked the idea of getting him to taste as much of her food as possible.
Plus.
Having someone who could eat would do great next time school came around.
Though for that it would be better to pull up a few allergies for the school. The idea of him getting exposed to garlic made her insides churn.
Smelling it would irritate him and touching it would do nothing.
But if he ate it...
She can still remember how horrible he had looked during that incident. At the time it had been filed out as his gift's doing due Alice telling them that that was it.
Now knowing the truth it made her feel awful and furious the idea of someone having the nerve to hurt her son. Subject him to such distressing and dangerous situation. He could have died!
This time things would be different. They would take the right precautions, make sure he was safe and comfortable. She wouldn't let anyone hurt her son.
-Are you okay?- Jasper's voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she glanced at him. She circled the countertop and wrapped her arms around him from behind. He looked up at her with a confused frown. Here from up close she could see the silver freckles, now more noticeable that his eyes were red.
-Of course I am. Can't a mother hug her son?- She questioned which got her a smirk in return.
-Of course.- He went back to his cookies and Esme's arms loosened around his shoulders. She loved hugging her children but there was something about getting to hug Jasper that never failed to make her feel at ease.
He didn't tense as much as he used to when she hugged him.
He had never been one to let people aside from Alice hug him.
Turns out it was him wanting to avoid someone catching his scent past Alice's.
Now that it was in the open that he was a black blood Esme could hug him for hours if she so much desired to. He would never protest about it.
In fact.
He seemed to love being held as much as Esme loved holding him.
Aside from that and his diet not much had changed. He did took it to disappear into the forest from time to time so as to practice getting a hang over his echolocation.
And he had taken it to teach the wolves how to fight in their human form in exchange for knowledge about how their shifting worked. He still couldn't shapeshift but he wanted the knowledge.
It was an interesting sight if she was being honest.
To see the wolves fighting him in their human form.
And with that of him getting his strength back there were little chances for someone to be able to take him down.
Now not even Emmett could restrain him.
And while that was a rather mesmerising fact considering Emmett was their strongest that also meant that much like Emmett no one would ever be able to hold him back from attacking a human.
Because while he was put back into a human blood diet he still had as much trouble controlling his thirst as he had had before.
And Esme understood it. It wasn't something he could control after all. In fact. He was doing great all things considered.
A black blood would never stand a chance at being in a crowd of humans and not lash out.
But Jasper could.
As long as there wasn't blood involved he could be in a crowded place.
In her opinion? That fact alone made his control as good as theirs.
She can still remember when she first saw his silver eyes, they were as beautiful as they were haunting.
And still.
That color seemed to fit him better than she could have expected.
Her fingers carded through his hair. There were still a handful of golden brown locks and she knew for a statement of fact that his hair had grown back quite a bit.
Golden brown.
Something about seeing that hair color felt rather... odd.
His hair color from when he was human.
Vampires changed a lot when turned.
She can still remember Bella losing it over how her hair had went from such a dull brown to a near reddish brown sort of shade.
It had been an hilarious afternoon indeed.
She sometimes wondered how her children had been as humans.
She knew some of Emmett and Edward's backstories as humans before things went wrong. Knew a bit from Rosalie too.
From Alice.
Finding out the truth behind Alice's transformation had been quite heartbreaking. The idea that someone would throw their daughter in an asylum and fake her death the same day was horrible.
That that man who was meant to be her father would attempt to kill her.
But what had shattered her had been Carlisle's words about it.
Considering the time period and her case it was probable that she had lost her memory due constant shock therapy.
Shock therapy.
The sole idea of sweet joyful Alice going through something so awful made her chest bleed for her.
Her sweet girl hadn't deserved such suffering.
Jasper on the other hand.
She had never heard him speak about his human life before the military.
Though all things considered he may not even remember much about that, both because of Maria's torture and because of his age.
Vampires had perfect memory. Yes.
But for some odd reason the memories from their human lives seemed to fade the longer one lived.
Jasper was turned in 1863.
He was older than Esme herself.
His memories from his human life could be as well nothing but blurs at this point.
Still. While he was older than her he had been 19 when he was turned.
She was 26.
He would forever have the mind of a 19 year old. Hence. He could be older than her in vampire standards but his mind would never quite reach the maturity of an adult.
Vampires couldn't change. Reason for the immortal children to be so dangerous. The younger the vampire the worse it could be for them.
Immortal children could be either uncontrollable or develop an obsessive stage of blinding rage over the realization that aging would never be an option for them. Cursed to be children forever.
Reason turning a human under 15 was nothing but asking for troubles.
At least she didn't had to be worried over her children.
Edward had never been bothered over being 17 forever.
And while Alice had had a phase of being quite sensitive about her child-like appearance due her height she had grown out of it long ago.
Her children were happy and safe.
And that's all that mattered.