Chapter 10 of the Outtakes is up, and it's a scene with Jasper and Carys that I've been trying in some form or another to work into the story since Twilight but never found the right place. It's too late to work it in now, so it's been put there.
I ran into some SERIOUS plot issues I (hilariously, as you'll find) didn't see coming...
Chapter 13
The rain-soaked drive to Carys' house was spent in tense silence. Parking his car out front, Carlisle assessed that no threat had returned before he gave her the all clear and they headed for the front door under cover of an umbrella.
Carys' hand shook too much to fit the key in the lock. It was on her third attempt that Carlisle gently took over.
"It's not so bad," he assured her when the door swung open and her reaction was to fling her arms around his neck and bury her face in his jumper.
Carys hummed a response and stayed just as she was. When he realised she wasn't going to let go, he lifted her an inch or two from the floor and carried her in, closing the door behind them.
Dropping the bags, he wrapped his arms around her and settled in to hold her until she was ready - both to confront the house and to give up the comfort of his embrace.
"Do you want to talk about Jasper?" he asked, guessing at the source of her sadness.
Carys shook her head and he hugged her tighter. By the time she drew away, he was swaying them from side to side and whispering sweet nothings in her ear.
After taking time surveying first the downstairs and then the up, Carys had to admit that Carlisle had been right when it came to the physical side of things. The damage wasn't so bad when you had a vampire to help.
And, though almost everything had been rifled through, she couldn't find anything conspicuously missing.
Small mercies.
Whatever they had been looking for wasn't there.
She thought it was more than likely they were looking for any information she had on them, but if she remembered correctly, it was all in Jasper and Alice's room.
She held on to the relief as she overloaded her laundry basket, determined to wash all her clothes just in case they had been touched.
Carlisle said nothing about that, nor commented when she lined up every bleach bottle or cleaning product she owned, ready to deep clean her house once Leah had the scent.
With Carlisle's help, it only took about an hour and a half to put the house mostly to rights and put the first wash on, during which time Leah responded to Carys' text to say that Jacob was at Bella's, and that she would be over soon.
While they worked, Carys told Carlisle of her thoughts of running away and her fears over the vampires coming so close to town.
In turn, he confirmed that running really wasn't an option, and told her certain things they hadn't wanted to say in front of Bella until they were sure.
"The newborns will more than likely attempt to search Forks," he explained as he stitched the lining of the sofa back into place, "if we don't have the numbers to head them off, none of the humans will be safe."
The blood drained from Carys' face.
Moving books from a pile beside her to the bookcase, she asked, almost desperately of both him and herself, "What do we do? If it comes to that and we're outnumbered? What do we do if they come here and-"
Carlisle abandoned his task.
Kneeling beside her in an instant, he handed her two books. "If we can't get enough people together in the next week, we'll return to the original plan and take the fight to Seattle."
"That really doesn't fill me with..." Carys sighed, whined, and then frowned worriedly at him. "If you go to Seattle - like-" she paused rather than say Jasper's name in her current mood, "he said, you'll be limited in your movements."
"I've been thinking about that," Carlisle mused. "We may be able to use it to our advantage."
Carys' frown melted away in an instant. "How so?"
"I'll need to think about it a little more before I share, unfortunately." Placing a hand to her back, he kissed her cheek. "Do you trust me?"
Carys glanced at his forehead. "I trust that sexy brain of yours..."
"I love you, darling, but you-ah."
Carys dropped the last book and quickly checked behind her as she asked, "What? Is there-"
"Leah's almost here," he soothed, rubbing her back, "I should go."
"Do you really have to?" Carys worried aloud, though she knew he did.
Leah wouldn't be happy spending a few hours in his company before he went to his shift, and even if he was too kind to mention it, she doubted he'd find it easy either.
Carlisle distracted her by catching her chin and raising it a little as he stared deep into her eyes, stealing her wits. Carys sighed. She would be embarrassed about that later, but for now she was content for everything to melt away.
It had been so long that she'd developed a defence against his mesmerising golden-eyed stare, but when he wanted to, he could still use it to his advantage. As he employed it so rarely, it was almost more potent when he did.
Blinking slowly, he drew away and winked.
Carys' mind scrambled to fit itself back together. She nodded slowly, then shook her head, and then tried to remember what an appropriate response to a ruddy stare looked like.
"You'll be safe," he promised.
"But will I get cuddles?" she murmured before her mind could catch up.
"That's between you and Leah."
Carlisle kissed her goodbye and headed to the car to wait. Less than a minute passed before Leah knocked; the sound coincided with that of the car pulling away. It had taken that time, and a little more, to rid Carys of the effects.
Taking one look at her face and mistaking Carys' wide-eyed dazed stare as fear, Leah ran her hands down her own arms, legs, midriff and back, shucking the rain.
Her black t-shirt and shorts - both of which Carys recognised - were almost dry, suggesting she'd just put them on.
When she was done winging out her hair and had adjusted a leather strap around her ankle, she wiped her feet and ran straight up to search for the scent.
Carys called up the stairs to her, telling her about what Jasper and Emmett had surmised after following their tracking, and, when asked, added that both she and Bella would be on constant watch from hereon in.
The last had surprised Leah a little - that she was trusted not only to be around Carys for an entire night, but to protect her in Carlisle's absence.
"We didn't pick up the scent last night," Leah announced as she jumped the last few stairs and strode across to the sofa on which Carys sat. "But we will next time." She sat down heavily and grimaced her distaste. "Ugh, it smells terrible in here. One's bad enough, but you stink of Carlisle."
"Carlisle doesn't stink," Carys complained, then wondered aloud, "Does he stink?"
Leah rubbed at her nose. "It's all acrid," she explained, slumping in her seat, "think..., so sickly sweet it stings."
Carys hummed - a long, drawn out sound - as she scrunched her face and tried to think of something like Leah had described. She couldn't.
Relaxing, she gave up. "You smell like bad too, apparently," she told her. Leaning towards her, she inhaled deeply. "I think you smell nice; musky."
"Nice," Leah retorted, pushing her away. "Just what every girl wants to hear."
"Not musky in a bad way," Carys said with a roll of her eyes, "musky like an expensive perfume. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were wearing one."
"I am. It's called Eau de Patrol. It's very exclusive," she assured, lifting her chin and affecting a non-specific accent. "Takes up to twelve hours to achieve the full effect but you got me on two. Jacob phased to run over so I dropped in at home."
"That was alright?"
"I don't know. I switched with Paul. Sam can complain when he finds me. Not like there's anything he can say."
Carys chuckled. Throwing her arms overhead, she leaned back and copied Leah's pose, sighing heavily.
"Do you know what it is?" Leah asked, then clarified when Carys rolled her head against the cushions to frown her confusion, "The bloodsucker."
"You mean who it is?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Carys ran her hands over her face and sighed again as she tried to work out how to say it without letting too much of her fear show.
For a moment she entertained not telling Leah until she knew more, but she quickly dismissed the errant thought. If help arrived and they could use the terrain to their advantage, the help would come in the form of red-eyed vampires. If it didn't, the wolves needed to be on alert to protect La Push.
Trying her best to give the details plainly, Carys ran through what they expected.
Leah sprang to her feet soon after Carys began and paced back and forth on front of the television.
"You've twisted my arm," she said as if they were discussing going for ice cream. "We'll fight with the Cullens. How many did you say-"
"No," Carys cut across her, alarmed by the sudden announcement. "You're not. This wasn't a call to duty, Leah. It was a PSA at best."
"We're in."
"No you're not. What if one of you dies? What if Seth gets hurt? Or if-"
"Oh, I think we're in," Leah said, just as breezily as before, a vicious glint in her eye. "This is our job, Carys. The red-head's been pissing all over our territory for far too long. If she's coming for you, I'm in. If she's coming after Bella, Jacob's going to be in, and if Sam disagrees (which he won't), Jacob can just take his rightful place as Alpha-"
"Wait, what!?"
"Bella didn't..." Leah clearly found the news hilarious. "Jacob's Ephraim Black's great-grandson."
"I know that," Carys testily replied.
"So..." Waving her hands a little as she rolled her head, Leah fixed Carys with a pointed stare.
"Oh..." Carys put the pieces together in a low voice and gestured. "Ephraim Black - Chief and Alpha; Billy Black - Chief; Jacob Black'll become Alpha - and... Chief...?" she added, squinting her left eye.
Leah waved her hand dismissively. "God knows. He's already put off being Alpha-anyway." She shook herself. "The point is, if the red-head and her newborn vampires are coming here-"
"If the family don't take the fight to Seattle first."
"And get stuck in the streets? Think about what they haven't told you yet, Carys - not what they have. It's pretty clear by now why no one likes to explain things to Bella; I had to sit through a fucking play-by-play of her hyperventilating over one vampire in the area - when she wasn't even here, and there were a bunch of vampires and wolves heading her off. If there are others coming here, that means..."
"They'll be close to the town...," Carys whispered, shaking her head. "I know, that's why I told you to be on the lookout... But you can't be in." Curling her legs under her, she rose onto her knees and held out her hands as another thought occurred to her.
"Listen. It's not that I don't think you can fight - you took down Laurent and god-knows how many vampires, but these are ones even the Cullens are having to train to fight. Besides! If you're in, Alice-"
"We're in," Leah said again, crossing her arms. Her tone further alarmed Carys. It was beyond adamant; she had left confident far behind her.
"If you're in," Carys repeated hollowly, "Alice won't be able to see them coming when they decide. She can't see you guys. If you decide to join us, we're all fucked on the timeline. We won't know if we're going there or they're coming here. Or, when."
Carys hoped Leah didn't pick up and run with the "we" comment. There wasn't really a we in this. It was only the vampires in the family who would be going to Seattle.
She didn't seem to notice. "Well... Fuck," she whispered instead.
Carys nodded quickly. "If... If you... If you maybe... Fuck."
It made sense that, of course, the first time Carys shared information without consulting anyone it would not only lead to risking more lives, but potentially dooming them all. A sense of dread made its home in the pit of her stomach.
Grabbing her phone, Carys dialled and held it to her ear as Leah watched her with a miserable expression.
"Alice," she breathed when the line clicked. "Either amazing news or an absolute fuck up beyond all recognition of past fuck ups. I'm talking astronomical proportions. I'm talking the Trojan who thought 'oh hey, that's a nice horse. Bit big, but it'll look good in the square'; I'm talking Richard the Lionheart and the guy with a saucepan on his head; I'm talking-"
Alice cut across her rambling. "Calm down! It's brilliant news," she assured her happily. "I suppose I should have warned you; I assumed you realised Bella would be the first to say anything."
Carys tried to ignore her embarrassed blush.
"But then again," Alice went on, "I only just got off the phone so I guess I deserve some slack; Jacob got to Bella's first, so I suppose you do as well...
"And before you say it, if you're going to suggest you go to Seattle and sacrifice yourself instead of having the wolves help like she did, I'll be a little disappointed..."
The news astonished and horrified Carys in equal measure. "She w-what!? Is she mad!?"
Bella had a serious death wish. It was the only explanation. Who else would suggest something so ridiculous? It wasn't even noble, it was just plain stupid.
From what Bella had told her about seeing Laurent, Victoria wanted to torture her to death. Who in their right mind, or even their wrong one, would be willing to suggest going to be tortured to death by a vengeful vampire?
It beggared belief.
"Should we be checking on her more?" Carys asked quietly, forgetting for a moment that Leah was in the room as she worried that maybe Bella did, genuinely, need some help at this stage. "Is there such a thing as a supernatural therapist? I guess not...? Is there?"
"The blindness the wolves create is a little inconvenient, but I can work with it," Alice said, studiously ignoring Carys' questions.
Carys tucked the Bella problem away to ask the human instead.
"You can?"
"I can watch them until plans are made to come here. So long as the wolves aren't coming to Seattle?"
"Haven't you talked to Jacob about this?" Carys wondered.
"Bella didn't call until he left."
Carys accepted the response and looked at Leah. "You wouldn't risk Seattle, would you?"
Leah thought about it for a few moments. "Some of the guys might want to, but Sam wouldn't go for that," she said as she shook her head, "Seattle isn't our remit; we'd be leaving the land unprotected. I-"
"No, no, just making sure it's a definite no to Seattle."
"Done."
"Could Sam command it in some way? If so much as one of them decides to go to Seattle before we know for sure, we could all-"
"I said: done," Leah repeated with a roll of her eyes. "We're not stupid. Plus. It's not like anyone can decide to go off on their own without anyone seeing."
"No go for Seattle," Carys confirmed into the phone while she continued to eye Leah for any signs of insincerity.
"Well then, I suppose we'll be coordinating with the wolves! We'll have to train them as well..." she murmured as if she were speaking more to herself than Carys. "And we need to work out a few things first... Help and the like... How does Thursday night sound!?" she asked enthusiastically.
"Isn't it finals week?" Carys exclaimed worriedly. "Not everyone can just be up all night and be fine, Alice."
Leah scoffed. "'Course you'd think of finals at a time like-"
"It's your future," Carys hissed, "and," she admitted meekly with a tremor of fear, "your mum is Sue Clearwater."
The reminder took the wind out of Leah's sales. A little green around the gills, she nodded.
"Who's got finals?" Alice asked, reminding Carys that she was still on the phone.
"Erm... Seniors?" Carys' tone suggested it were obvious, but she genuinely had no clue of how the system worked despite having spent two and a half years in the country. The only people she knew about having exams the next week were Alice, Bella, Edward, and Leah.
"I know that!" Alice said. It didn't take a genius to work out she would probably be rolling her eyes in exasperation. "I mean, how many? Which classes?"
Carys hesitated and avoided Leah's eye when the wolf raised a solitary eyebrow as if she knew just how clueless she was about their schooling systems.
"Well..."
"Are we talking standardised testing?" Alice asked, her excitement growing. "Which textbooks are they working off? Edward won't like it but he could probably sort something out from those if not... Given the immediacy, I suppose Rosalie might be open to to stretching her hacking fingers if their school system's hooked up to the-"
Carys started. "Are you suggesting cheating, Alice?"
"Nothing of the sort! It's not really cheating if I happen to accidentally drop the answers where one of the wolves-"
"It very much is, Alice, and I think you know that."
"Oh, alright... From what I can see at the moment, we have time..."
"You can see that?" Carys queried with a faint frown. "I thought if the wolves-"
"I've taken precautions; markers have been set," Alice cryptically responded. "How does Friday night sound for the first training session then?"
"Friday night?" Carys asked Leah.
They responded in unison.
"Excellent," Alice announced.
"We'll make it work...," Leah agreed. "What was that about cheating?"
"Alice was..." Carys shifted uncomfortably. "She was suggesting she could get the answers to tests and slip them to you."
"Mmm..."
"You haven't worked all year to cheat, Leah..."
"I haven't worked all year to fail, either... But Mom would kill me. And the rest of them for aiding and abetting..."
"Exactly. She'd murder you all, come for Alice and me, and they'd never find any of the bodies," Carys said with a shudder. "Alice?"
"Yes?"
"Friday."
"Oh, I know," she purred. "Entirely unrelated," she said almost too quickly to be understood, "I'm having a graduation party for Bella on Monday; no wolves allowed! Bye!"
"Would you cheat?" Leah asked when Carys had hung up the phone.
Carys, who was 50 per cent sure this wolf-free graduation party must be one of the markers Alice was talking about, um'ed and ahh'd, then came to the conclusion that, "I cheated on a test once."
Leah lit up. "Really?" she asked, fascinated with the response.
Carys' stomach churned. She felt clammy from the mere thought, let alone the admission of it - it added to the tension suffusing her spine over the wolves helping.
"It was Maths," she said aloud when Leah prodded her. "I was sitting next to Timothy Jenkins and he pushed his paper to the side so I ended up changing a couple of mine... He was wrong on two of them..." Carys rubbed at the anxiety gripping her chest. "Still haunts me. Not that he was wrong, but that I cheated."
Leah sank down beside Carys. "What happened?" she asked softly.
"Nothing really," Carys admitted. "My teacher probably knew, but I guess she turned a blind eye. I was nine after all, and I think she could see the terror in my eyes."
"Fuck." Leah dropped her head back. "I thought you were serious."
"I am!"
Leah sighed and stared at the ceiling by way of response.
After a moment, Carys joined her.
The feeling of dread gripped her anew. The wolves joining the fight was good for numbers, but bad for other reasons. If one of them died...
Then again, there was time to train them, and they'd already proved themselves capable of fighting experienced vampires...
It was the brute strength of the newborns that she worried about most.
The more she thought about it, the more Carys realised she was with Carlisle. She hated the thought of fighting; she hated the thought of anyone being hurt, let alone dying.
The realisation brought her back to thoughts of Richard and, for the first time in a while, much to her shame, she wondered whether he'd chosen this life for himself. Riley likely hadn't. He'd simply disappeared one night.
Just as Jasper had.
Jasper...
An hour later, while they waited in much the same positions for their pizzas to arrive, Carys built up the courage to voice the concern that had brought her to inviting Leah over in the first place.
"Leah?"
Leah turned away from the television to look at her. "If you're going to ask why I'm not telling the guys, Jake's probably done it." She added with a laugh, "There's no risk of him staying over at Bella's." Narrowing her eyes, she went on, "How come you didn't tell me about her plans?"
Carys had been on the verge of interrupting. Instead she tugged the scrunchie from her hair and tried to loosen the curls and frizz against her head.
"Which ones?" she sighed, returning her gaze to the ceiling.
"To be a vampire as soon as she can. She told-" Leah stopped speaking with a suddenness that drew Carys' attention. "Fuck that was rude. What were you going to say?"
"I didn't mention about Bella because... I guess it's more complicated than that," Carys murmured. "It's not just her change that's making me need to."
"Does this have anything to do with her running off to this..." Leah paused, nodded, then tapped at the air. "Volturi?"
Carys blinked and shifted, betraying her astonishment. "She told Jacob about that? How much did she tell him?"
"Only that she'd gone off to save her boyfriend from them," Leah conceded. "She said he left to protect her... Jake appreciates that."
"Yeah, well!" Carys threw the side of her fist down at the cushion and fought to relax again. "He didn't have to take Carlisle with him, did he?"
"That's true... But... Does it? Have something to do with the Volturi," Leah clarified.
"I... I don't... Yes..." Carys conceded uncomfortably. "Yes. I..."
"Don't worry," Leah soothed, patting Carys' arm. "Bella will tell Jacob soon enough. She's worse than Seth, and I thought he was a blabbermouth. I'll wait."
Glad that Leah hadn't seen fit to make the connection with Edward's actions just yet, Carys smirked for effect and shoved her hand away.
"You're terrible. And! Oh!" she remarked, changing the subject again. She needed time to build the courage back up. "You still haven't told me about Quil!? I thought imprinting was supposed to be rare. Is that why things are different with the guys?"
Leah slid down in her seat until her legs were visible on the other side of the coffee table and only her shoulders and above remained on the sofa.
"Claire-" she lifted a hand "-Quil's imprint Claire," she clarified with a smirk which appeared a touch malicious, "has changed things. Might not be what Sam thought after all."
"So what's wrong with Claire?" Carys asked. She shouldn't be, she supposed, but she was a little excited to find out what all the fuss was about.
"It's not what's wrong with her," Leah sang. "It's what's not happening."
"What d'you mean?"
"They're not getting together!" Leah announced, throwing her hands up. Turning to Carys, she laughed as if it were the funniest thing in the world. "They're suddenly best friends, sure. He wants to be around her all the time, sure. He thinks about stuff she's said all the time, sure. But there's nothing romantic about it. ."
"Well..." That was very interesting indeed. "How old is she?"
"About two."
"Two!? I'd hope there wasn't anything going on with them, then!" Carys cried.
Leah smirked again. "She's just turned fifteen," she admitted. "Claire's Emily's niece. Much older sister. And I guess she's a cousin of mine? Second once removed? Is that it?" She dismissed the explanation with a wave. "Anyway. Well within the age range for them to get together; he's sixteen," she explained. "If nothing happens between them..."
Carys realised what Leah was saying and whispered, "It means Sam and Emily..."
"Yeah!" Leah announced. "Yeah. Could be it's not as cut and dry as Sam thinks, so I'm not getting quite as much hate. Plus, Paul punched Jared." Without any clarification on that part, or how it mattered, she moved on. "Guess we'll have to see, won't we? Sam still thinks it'll happen. Quil? Not so sure...
"Now. You." Slapping Carys' leg, Leah stared up at her. "Enough about me. What's up?"
Carys was reeling from what Leah had shared. Laughing almost silently - and a tad hysterically - slid down to copy her friend's pose. When the position panged and tugged at her abdominal muscles, she shifted up a little more.
"What do you do if you find out one of your friends used to be a racist?" she asked.
She had Leah's full and undivided attention now. "How racist? And how long ago?" she asked. "Way to bury the lede!"
"I wasn't going to just be like 'so turns out I have an ex-racist for a friend', was I?" Carys grumbled. "As for his racist - very. And... A long time ago. Long enough it's not him anymore and hasn't been for... Forever."
"Okay... Well... How racist is very? D'you mean said racist stuff or did racist stuff?" When Carys didn't answer after a beat, she added, "'Cause usually you try to educate people, right? And he's already been educate-"
"Confederate."
"Fuck..." Leah drew out the word.
"I don't know a ton about this," Carys admitted. "We don't really get taught much about it in England... At school, I think I studied the Civil War for a term, and that was when I was going my A-levels."
"I don't know half of what you just said," Leah admitted, "but... What did you learn about him?"
"That... He was there when Texas joined the Confederacy and I think he held those views," she said, tempering the explanation. Even as she was feeling, she found herself protecting him. That irked. "My teacher said Confederates were fighting for their way of life, but that way of life was slavery, right? 'Cause it was Texas and they had slavery the whole time?"
Leah stuttered, took a deep breath, and asked, "Do you have your laptop with you?"
Carys nodded and fetched it from the bag by the door. By the time she sat down next to Leah, the teenager had sat up, ready to take it from her when she'd logged in.
Leah tapped away, sparing Carys furtive glances as she did so.
"Before you read this," she said, hiding the screen, "I need you to remember - and I'm not defending a vamp-whoever this is, but..." Half closing the laptop, she asked, "You're sure he's changed? It's not like you're the only non-Caucasian he-like. You're not the exception to the-"
"No." Carys knew him well enough to say it. "He's... More than most, he has this appreciation for human life - all human life. And he apologised - he clearly felt terrible about it.
"He... He believes... He feels... No," she confirmed again, struggling to find the words to explain his empathy or how each of the Cullens had a conscience that alluded most vampires. "He's not like that anymore. He was genuine."
"Well... Remember that," Leah said, turning the laptop and raising the screen. "'Cause it's fucking bad. I'd not... Yeah. I'm not going to say what I'm thinking."
Carys tore her gaze from Leah's sympathetic expression and curiously burning eyes, to glance at the muscle ticking in her jaw, and then finally to the page, where she found A Brief Summary of Slavery in Texas and scrolled down past the more detailed summary until she read:
"Abridged Timeline:"
She scanned the page and moved swiftly down until Leah tapped the screen. Carys settled to read.
"1821: Texas is included in the new Mexican nation following the Mexican War of Independence; permission is granted to bring English speaking Anglo-American settlers to Texas; development scheme allows purchase of additional 50 acres for each slave brought to the territory.
[Note: free blacks are offered full citizenship in Mexico including land ownership at this time. In Texas, this continues into the 1830s.]
1823: Mexico makes the sale or purchase of slaves illegal.
1827: Coahuila y Tejas legislation outlaws additional slavery and gives freedom at birth to children born to a slave.
1829: Mexico abolishes slavery. Texas is allowed one year to transition.
1830: Anglo-American slave-holders use loopholes. This includes forcing slaves to sign life-term contracts of indentured servitude. Debts can and are inherited by descendants.
1831: Tensions grow, culminating in the Anahuac Disturbances.
1832: Texas prohibits servitude contracts exceeding 10 years."
Leah rubbed at Carys' back as she scrolled again until she saw the word revolution. She expected it meant she'd moved too far and missed the revolt against the United States. When she doubled back, she noted the date.
"1835: Texas Revolution; some slaves escape and fight with Mexico.
1836: The Republic of Texas is created. It legalises slavery again; the General Provisions of the Constitution forbids slave owners from freeing slaves without the consent of Congress. It also forbids Congress from making laws that restrict the slave trade or emancipate slaves, and re-enslaves all people of color who are indentured-"
Carys took a deep steadying breath and scrolled further.
"1845: Texas becomes the 28th U.S. State."
She scrolled again past various sub-lists with all manner of details.
"1860: Slaves make up 30% of Texas population; U.S. Congress considers abolishing slavery in non-State territories; Texas secedes from the United States. One month later, Texas joins the Confederate States of America, which declares-"
Carys closed her laptop and Leah took it from her. Pressing her palms to her eyes, she leaned against her friend and clutched at her arm as Leah embraced her.
"Now you know," Leah said a while later when the doorbell rang.
Carys pointed to her handbag and Leah picked it up on her way to the door.
Carys stayed where she was and forced a smile when Leah returned, telling her she needed to be distracted by food, wine, and funny films.
She did. Really. But she also needed to think. Jasper wasn't that person anymore, but she couldn't quite grasp how he had been in the first place.
Part of her wanted to talk to him so that she could find out why it was that war he was so eager to fight. Another part wished she didn't know any of it. The rest of her believed in redemption, and in him - but not of him as a human; only of him as a vampire.
As they say, she thought to herself, ignorance is bliss.
A/N: The Jasper issue won't come up constantly, I promise. I know I don't have the emotional energy for that, I doubt anyone really wants to be put through that every chapter, and I don't think it would really be in character for Carys to focus on it all the time after they talk - it'll be more that she needs time... I do think it's important to address that as a human Jasper was part of something terrible all the same, and to make it clear when even I didn't realise the entire history behind it.
Alice was canonically excited about the wolves getting involved so I figure she'll be happy for the help here too!
Thank you to: chellekathrynnn, BMBMDooDoo- Doo- Doo- Do (x3), souverian, Ghostwriter71, Ella (Thank you! Poor Carlisle kept getting talked over and ignored! I reckon part of it was her being sure, and part of it was standing up for her man haha! As for Irina and Laurent, canonically they were on their way to falling in love but not quite there yet, and so the way I reckon is works is that either it can be love at first sight, or it can grow - just like with humans; with Carys, though she was strongly attracted to him, she didn't love him immediately, I don't think, and I like to think that could be true of vampires as well - they can fall in love for a time, but from the looks of things, it's only a soul mate, a true love seemingly, that works like that, which is why it can take so long for some of them to find theirs), Momochan77, jhaenox, derniermom, KEZZ 1, BubblyYork (x88!) I'll reply to PM'able reviews after I've had some dinner!
