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Chapter 9: Home
When she found him hidden in the mountains, he didn't even turn to look at her when he said, "Did Alice send you?"
Esme smiled softly, "She told me which direction you'd gone, but I was already looking for you."
He frowned, turning toward her. "Why?"
"Do you remember the night Alice married Edward?"
Jasper smirked. "She's planned a different wedding every decade, or at least every time we move, you're gonna have to be more specific."
"The first time," she clarified, stepping closer toward him. "I found you in the room you had shared with her after they'd left on their honeymoon. You were packing to leave. You said Alice didn't need you anymore, so it was time for you to move on."
"I didn't wanna cause you any more trouble," he nodded, finding himself tuning in to her emotions more intently than he'd meant to. But there was no pity there. No annoyance. No wariness. Then he realized.
There never had been from Esme.
She smiled, as if she knew what he was thinking. "And what did I tell you?"
"To go if it was what I wanted," he recalled, "but to know that I always had a home, and a family, with you."
"That's right. Edward, Rosalie, and Emmett, they all had mothers- beautiful women they lost during or just before their transition. Alice doesn't remember her mother, and you..."
Jasper flinched and looked out over the vast view, seeing only the hazy human memory of a woman clutching his hand as she lay dying.
Another hand slipped into his and pulled him back to the present. "I lost my baby boy. I wanted to be a mother more than anything in the world, but he was taken from me. So when I married Carlisle, I felt as though I may finally have that chance. To have a family. But Edward, Rose, and then Emmett, they didn't really need me. They love me, I know, and I love them. But I've always felt closer to Alice, and to you."
"I'm not a charity case, Esme."
"No. You're not," she said, placing her hand against his cheek. "You're my son."
Love, unconditional and overwhelming, crashed over him. He closed his eyes and let it flow through him. When he opened them again, he looked into her golden eyes and she smiled at him. "It will all turn out alright."
He shook his head. "She's gone. I don't..." his voice broke and he sighed. "How do I fix it?"
Esme continued to smile gently. "You start by coming home and letting your family help you."
"Rose and Edward ain't gonna be too keen on helpin' me."
A fiercely protective look flashed in Esme's golden eyes. "Don't worry about them. I've already talked with them. You deserve to be happy, my dear. And I've never seen you more happy than when you're with Bella. We won't let anyone take that away from you."
Jasper frowned. "We?"
Alice stepped out from behind a boulder, the frightening little pixie. "We," she grinned. "I told you I'd plan a wedding for you one day. You promised you'd let me, remember?"
He returned her grin. "You're gettin' a little ahead of me, Ali."
"Says you," she smirked and bounced up on her toes. "Come on. You've got to change before you go over to Bella's. You look awful."
"My apologies, ma'am."
