Just a quickie, up later than I intended, and not much happens. But hey! I had fun!

Human blood took a lot longer to leave your system, and thank God for that. After a week of stretching her shield out over not only herself, but someone else, Bella would usually be desperate for sustenance. The fire in her throat still burned, but it wasn't the inferno she had come to expect.

It made sense after all, if all vampires had to hunt once a week like the Cullens did then the humans would figure out that something's up eventually.

If the guilt of ending a poor man's life wasn't still plaguing her, Bella might even marvel at her control. She had never realised that there was a nagging feeling in the back of her throat, a feeling that she was missing something, there was something she needed to seek out. It made her restless and uncomfortable, itchy in her own skin. She never noticed before. That is, until she had human blood and the feeling went away.

For the first time in her short second life, she felt complete. And she hated herself for it.

It was because of that that it was fear, not hunger, that prickled down the back of her neck when more humans were herded into the camp. A reward for their successful taking of territory to the south the day before.

Jasper was by her side in an instant, his hand wrapped around her upper arm.

"Come with me." He murmured, pulling her back into the canopy of the forest.

"Where are we going?"

He stopped. His eyes lingered on her face, then up to the crowd of hungry newborns forming, then back again; as if he were trying to think of an answer.

"Peter is busy gatherin' more humans." He finally said. "So you're comin' on patrol with me."

He didn't give her time to object, not that she would have anyway.

"You're sure Maria won't mind this?"

"'Course not. You're with me."

They walked in a comfortable silence, human paced once they made it to the territory border. Jasper immediately spat on the ground to renew the lines.

"Y'know," Bella said. "Before I came down to the South for all this, I had no idea that vampires did nearly so much spitting and licking."

To her surprise, a real belly laugh erupted out of him.

"You really were spoiled up there, weren't ya? Never had to draw out your own territory lines?"

"I didn't realise we had any." She admitted.

He continued to chuckle, a sound she'd been worried she'd never hear again, one that would fade into her memories of wrestling with Emmett and video game tournaments.

"Congratulations, by the way." She said. "On your victory yesterday. I wasn't there, but Peter told me you were a force of nature."

Jasper grunted, his good mood faded a little. "It helps that I can slow an army down. Or rile ours up. I have been practicing doing both at once but it's evadin' me."

And it always would, Bella noted. Despite her congratulations, the fight the day before had scared the crap out of her. It wasn't in Jasper's letter, the first major event to not be in one. Part of her hoped that future Jasper had just forgotten it, but that was obviously just wishful thinking. She had altered past events already, and that was terrifying.

While she was glad to not have to see the fight, the fact that she had no guarantee that Jasper would survive meant she was extremely stressed the entire time.

They lapsed back into comfortable silence. Jasper continued to check the borders and redraw them in places. Bella kept an ear out for any animal life she could quickly take down to tide her over. She wanted to get rid of her red eyes before she was anywhere near a reflection. However, there was nothing, not even a bird or a rodent. The land was lifeless, just like its inhabitants.

"You lied to me before." Jasper announced into the quiet.

Bella frowned. "I did?"

"Last week. I asked you what that feeling was and you lied."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bella lied.

"Yes you do! You're lyin' again!"

Jasper was smiling a little, so at least he didn't seem angry about it. Still, Bella didn't like being caught out like that and really had no idea how to explain loving someone she had barely known for five months.

"Despite my lies," She said. "You seem a lot more relaxed around me than you were before."

She was worried that this would make him tense up, but thankfully he kept his easygoing mood.

"I always knew you were hiding somethin'. There was a constant air of deceit around you that I couldn't work out. But then I saw you after you drained that man and realised you can't have ever done it before." He glanced back at her. "I understand why you would hide that. Nothin' would get you run outta camp faster than tellin' Maria that you disagree with her lifestyle for moral reasons."

"And that helped?"

"Well now I know what you're bein' deceitful about. Makes it a lot easier to trust you won't up and murder us."

Bella let them fall back into the quiet, but Jasper was practically twitching in agitation.

"Don't think I didn't notice you changed the subject!" He exclaimed.

Bella couldn't help it. She erupted into cackling laughter. If any wildlife had risked being near the camp, she surely scared them away.

"I have to know what it is, Bella!"

She shrugged and tried to give him her best confused expression, but he wasn't having it.

"Look, usually I rely on Peter for some happiness around here. I don't know how he does it, but he finds a way to be positive despite this place. His emotions are like a beacon of light in the gloom of all the anger and bloodlust. It keeps me sane. But you! You are not just a beacon, you're the sun! I feel I have to be near you just to stay warm!"

They had stopped walking as he talked. He turned to face her and picked up her wrist, his fingers brushed at the skin peeking out from her cuff and made her shiver.

"There is a darkness in you now." He said. "One that wasn't there before. I know it comes from this place, and I know that sometimes it swallows you. But every so often, you feel this." He flooded her with it, gold filled her veins, her head lifted and her dead heart sputtered. "And it makes me feel alive! Please, Bella. I have to know what it is. I have to!"

It was love. So transparently, obviously love. The second Jasper got out of there and felt it elsewhere he would realise. But Bella couldn't just tell him, just like she couldn't just tell Peter about the time travel. There was no room for him to react poorly, any mistake could be fatal. But she couldn't lie to him, not anymore.

"You remind me of someone." She said very carefully. "My sister. When I first saw you, I couldn't stop thinking about her."

"Jeez, you have a large family." He said. "So this is how you feel about your sister?"

Bella nodded, unsure. It was very much a half truth. Jasper obviously did remind Bella of Alice, there was no avoiding that when almost all of her memories of the two were linked. But her love for Alice felt different; it didn't make her feel light, it made her feel warm and like she wanted to laugh. Jasper had his own brand of love, one that she wasn't quite sure how to explain. It wasn't quite true, but for the time being she would let him believe it.

"I just don't understand." He said. "How did your family let you come here? You talk about them like they are the best of people, but they let you join an army without a way to even know if you are alive or dead?"

Bella swallowed hard and bit her lip. She thought for a moment and then grabbed his hand, pulling him along with her out of the territory. "Come with me."

What she was doing was a risk. A huge risk. The fallout could be tremendous. But, she had to make progress somewhere. Yes, Jasper's attitude towards her had improved immensely, but then all she had was a close relationship within a war camp. At some point she had to broach the topic of leaving together and quite frankly, the sooner the better. There was no getting around it. He had to know that she didn't intend to stay, that there were people out there waiting for both of them.

Bella warred within herself until the little yellow shack came into view through the trees.

"...What is this?" Jasper whispered, his tone terse and guarded.

"It's a post office." She said simply and reached to unlatch the ramshackle door, never letting go of Jasper's hand.

The door swung open and revealed a large pile of letters on the shelf. Bella realised with a sinking feeling how worried her family must have been, she hadn't been in the post office for over a month, Carlisle must have been terrified.

She forgot her company for a moment and scooped up the letters, sifting through them to recognise the various styles of handwriting. There was at least one from every member of her coven, every person who loved her.

"So you are spying…" Jasper murmured from behind her. He stared around him with wide eyes.

"No!" She span around and grabbed the first letter in the pile, an unsealed note from Kate. "Read this and tell me I'm spying."

He gave her a wary look and unfolded the paper.

"April 11th, 1886," He read aloud. "My darling Bella,

It has been over a month now since we have received word from you and I must say Carlisle is getting rather frantic. Tanya tells me he has been drafting plans to break you out for the past two weeks and it is becoming difficult to talk him out of storming the place himself. I know you are not avoiding our letters, sweet girl. But please, when you at last receive this letter, do leave an answer right away. I left some more writing equipment should you need it.

Garrett and I will be running between here and Kansas every day until we hear word from you. Then we plan to loiter around Dallas for some time, so long as you are safe.

I send you all my love, dear one.

Kate."

Jasper refolded the note and passed it back to her, avoiding eye contact.

"This is your cousin?"

"Yes," Bella kept her eyes on him, trying to gauge his mood on his impassive face. "She and her mate have been travelling around the area."

Jasper hummed and nodded, his eyes locked on the floor.

"She speaks as if you have plans."

Bella sucked in a breath. This was a delicate situation, and it was vital that Jasper didn't detect a hint of deception from her. No matter what, she could not lie.

"We do." She finally said. "She keeps me updated on where she is so that I can find her when I leave."

He met her eyes then.

"When you leave?"

"Yes. I'll go home eventually."

Jasper's brow furrowed. His gaze bore intently into her, but not with the anger she was half expecting. He looked at her with fear and pity, sadness radiated off him in waves he was projecting.

"You really think you can leave?" He whispered. "The only way Maria is letting you out of here is as a pile of ash."

"Then I guess I'll be escaping."

He sighed. "You can't escape, it's not possible."

"Of course it's possible!" Bella grasped his hand, coaxing him to look her in the eye. "You could come with me you know."

"Come with you?"

"There's a whole other world out there, Jaz. One that's so much better than this. This place is full of hatred and pain and bloodshed, but that's not all the world is! You think me and Peter are light? You should see a school, a wedding... a birthday party! This place is so grey and numb, but the real world is just a few miles away and it's full of life!"

Jasper didn't speak, he gazed down and their joined hands with an unreadable look in his eyes.

"Even if it were possible…" He mumbled. "I can't leave Maria."

"Do you mean you can't leave her or you don't want to leave her?"

"Does it matter?" He finally let her go and stared back down at the ground.

Bella sighed, exasperated. "Peter and I have a theory. We think Maria has an ability to make people love her."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "That's ridiculous."

"No it makes sense! It always seemed so weird that she's basically keeping you and the newborns as slaves but no one seems to care. But then I put my shield over Peter and suddenly he hated her. It's like it took away the hold she had over him."

Jasper didn't look convinced, Bella's temper heated up..

"You have to believe me!"

"I don't..." Jasper sighed. "I know you ain't lyin' Bella. I don't think you're lyin', I just think you're wrong. And besides, my feelin's about Maria aren't the only thing that keeps me here."

"What else?"

"Anton. He's a tracker."

"So? We can deal with trackers, I put my shield over us and we jump in the ocean for a few weeks to cover our scent. Problem solved."

"Not for this kinda tracker." Jasper said. "Anton can bind to two people, and once he's bound to them, he can track them forever. Not through their smell or nothin', through their minds. Right now he's bound to Maria and he's bound to me. No matter where I go, he will find me."

Bella was thunderstruck, for more than one reason.

"But-"

"No, Bella." Jasper chuckled, a dark despondent sound. "You can't shield me forever."

"Jasper." She stepped into his space, grasped him by the upper arms and pulled herself up to her tiptoes to look him better in the eye. "I will find a way to get you out of here. I will do whatever it takes. You don't deserve this life."

For a second he stood there, nose inches from hers, breathing her air. Then he sighed and pulled away.

"Good luck Bella."

He turned and ran back towards camp, most likely to finish his patrol. Bella needed to get back as soon as possible before anyone noticed, but she had one thing to do first.

She grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil from the pile Kate so kindly left and scratched out a quick note.

Everyone,

I'm okay, I promise. I'm sorry I scared you all. Maria has issued an order that no one is allowed to leave the camp, I won't be able to send or receive messages for a while. I don't know how long. Please don't come to the camp. Seriously, don't. I have Jasper and Peter looking out for me. I'll be fine, I swear.

I love you all,

Bella

She folded the note in half and left it neatly on the now empty shelf. The other correspondence she shoved in her bag, to be read and then burned later. She took off towards the camp, following Jasper's scent back to the boundary line.

Anton's involvement in this plagued her thoughts, not just because he was a weaselly little slimeball that left metaphorical oil slicks on everything he touched, but because it was so surprising. This was a huge problem she had to tackle, and yet it wasn't in the letters she had brought with her. She couldn't get her head around it, there was no way Jasper didn't think it was important. Did he not know?

It was stressful, and frankly terrifying. But for the first time Bella could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She had two things stopping her from grabbing Jasper and running like hell. Anton's power, and then Maria's. For the first time, she truly knew her enemies.