-MAISIE-
Mrs. Wortham was not my only surprise friend I made after the dust cleared from the initial visit to the Volturi. One afternoon, while Jett was napping and I slipped out of the house to run, I was nearly floored to see Jasmine waiting for me at the back door. She was dressed for exercise, just as I was, with her crowning glory of riotous curls tamed into two tight French braids framing her face and her sneakers and work out clothes. The only difference was that she didn't carry water like I did.
Unfortunately, near-vampiric abilities had not eliminated sweating from my life. And because I had apparently developed a penchant for masochism, I always ran until I worked up a sweat.
"Ready?" Jasmine asked by way of greeting. Still a little thrown by her presence, I nodded. We fell into step beside each other, Jasmine keeping easy pace with me.
It was winter. Snow lined the path I had carved for myself with these daily runs; it was packed tight under our feet. Animals were either in hibernation or sluggish and reclusive due to the season. Surely there wasn't an unknown vampire in the area. Jasper would have stopped me at the door if there had been a whiff of a scent he didn't recognize.
So why was Jasmine here?
We had run nearly half a mile in companionable silence before Jasmine spoke, dropping a bomb I hadn't expected. "Alice wants to take you dress shopping when the family's here for Christmas."
Her words nearly gave me pause, feet stuttering in my stride. "Absolutely not."
A smirk spread across Jasmine's face. "Are you going to dare tell Alice 'no'?"
"She's heard the word before." And she would hear it again. I had finals next week, an upcoming trip to Italy, a whole spring semester, and a trip to South America to worry about before I gave any thought to planning mine and Jasper's wedding.
"Not a lot of boundaries with that one, huh?" We took a curve in the path, the forest thickening around us. Here my self-made trail became twists and turns around massive evergreens.
I had always viewed Alice's tendency to overstep as an endearing quality. "She means well." But that wasn't going to stop me from complaining to Jasper when I got home. He was best at reigning her in, after all.
Beside me, Jasmine gave a snort of almost laughter. "You sound like Edward."
We ran the rest of my path in silence, Jasmine never once leaving me. At home, we branched off, me to my house and Jasmine off to hers on the other side of a tree line that separated our yards. Jett had woken from his nap; he was sitting up in his little seat, playing with the attached toys. Jasper had a clear view of him from the kitchen, where he was looking at various hotels that were decently close to the Amazon Rainforest. Both of us had agreed to leave Isle Esme out of our next South American excursion.
I retrieved Jett from his chair before making my way into the kitchen. He was getting stronger by the day. Already, he held his weight so well that he could—and preferred to—be balanced on your hip rather than cradled. He greeted me with one of his sloppy, open-mouthed kisses on my shoulder, my cheek being just out of his reach.
"You're so sweet," I told him, returning his kiss to his forehead before settling him more securely on my hip and turning to Jasper. "Please do that magic thing you do and control your sister."
"Which one?" He asked, voice muffled from his chin resting in his hand as it was. Honey golden hair stood all on end. He must have let Jett play with it again. I smoothed it down for him with my free hand.
"Alice." It was Jett's dinner time, which for now meant a bottle of blood. Carlisle was confident Jett would be able to have human food when he was older, but it had yet to be determined if he would have a want or need for it. I warmed the bottle while Jett played with the end of my ponytail where it fell over my shoulder. "Apparently she thinks I need to go wedding dress shopping."
Jasper ran a hand through his hair, ruining all the taming I had done. "Dammit, Ali. I'll call her tonight."
We were very much in agreement that a wedding was currently at the bottom of our priorities list. I shifted Jett so that he was laying in the crook of my arm. Much to the baby's annoyance, he couldn't yet hold his own bottle. He tried for sure, but his arm strength hadn't quite caught up to his desire to be independent. Still, he eagerly reached for his bottle and guided it into his mouth.
I came to stand behind Jasper, looking over his shoulder at his searches. Our biggest problem was that we didn't really know where, exactly, Nahuel and Hulien lived. Some guesswork was necessary for our starting point, but Jasper was confident he could track their scent once he found it.
"I think this one would be best for you and Jett," he began explaining, clicking through a webpage for a small, frighteningly expensive resort.
"And best for you," I teased. The words 'discreet' and 'private' were peppered all over the page. He tipped his head back, smiling at me.
"It better be. This one is a recommendation from Jenks." So that was the cause of the devilish glint in his eye.
"Do you ever let that poor man rest?"
"I don't pay him to rest, mi amor."
Fair enough. After Jett's bottle was finished, I took him upstairs for his bath. Jett loved everything about taking a bath, except having his hair washed, which he hated with a burning passion. It wasn't even that he didn't want his face wet—there's no way he could have minded that, given his penchant for splashing water everywhere and laughing every time he splashed his own face.
"You shouldn't have grown so much of it if you didn't want it to get washed," I told him, trying not to laugh at his growling. Yes, growling. Rather than cry, when disgruntled, Jett liked to emit a low, rumble, growling sound. Like a very tiny Chewbacca.
Once he was clean and dressed in pajamas, I took Jett back downstairs to finish his bedtime routine. Already, he was over being rocked to sleep. He liked Jasper to read him a book and then watch Bluey while we all lounged together on the couch. Without fail, he was always asleep by the time the episode ended at 7 o'clock.
Yet me and Jasper always sat there watching the next episode until 7:30. "I think it's their accents. Where are they from? Like, New Zealand?"
Jett was laying across Jasper's knees, snoring away. "Hmm? Oh, maybe."
Something about that cartoon was hypnotic. Like, truly. A show about a family of dogs kept us glued to the couch until the much less entertaining Muppet Babies started at 8.
Jasper's fingers idly twirled my hair, my head resting on his shoulder. On the screen, Bluey and her dad took an injured bird to the vet. "Or maybe the colors."
Everything was soft scale, not quite pastel, but easy on the eyes.
"The music," Jasper mumbled.
Whatever it was, we watched the entire second episode. When the end song finished, it always felt like a spell was broken. We roused from the Bluey-induced reverie and we took Jett up to bed.
This became the pattern of our evenings. With Jett dreaming in his bed, I retreated back downstairs to work on homework. I could just make out the sound of Jasper's voice arguing with Alice over the phone. It sounded like he might lose, his voice dipping in pitch and hardening in its seriousness. Alice must have relented, though, because Jasper's voice was its usual honeyed drawl with the next sentence.
"You've been freed." I was so focused on my ornithology paper that I didn't hear Jasper come up behind me. He lifted my hair, twisting it gently in his hand to move it out of the way and press a kiss to the back of my neck.
I felt my eyes flutter shut, leaning back into him as I was imbued with an echo of his desire burning like a coal in my middle. He trailed his mouth down my neck, pushing aside the sweatshirt I wore to continue over the hill of my shoulder. "My hero. How can I ever repay you?"
"I have a few ideas," his breath washed over my skin, sending a delicious shiver down my spine. With a flick of his wrist, he spun the barstool I sat on so that I was facing him. The back of one hand trailed down my cheek before he pulled me from the stool and onto the counter. I pulled away just enough to confirm Jasper had moved my laptop out of harm's way before I was enveloped in his kiss.
"This is a kitchen counter, you know," I breathily reminded him when his mouth trailed down my neck again. His devilish grin burned against my skin before he withdrew and I could see it lighting up his face…right before his hands slid under my sweatshirt and relieved me of the garment.
"You're the only one who ever eats at it." He had a point. A shiver ran through me as his fingers skimmed over my exposed skin. On the counter, I had the higher ground. I should have had the advantage, but any thoughts of rebuttal were shattered from my mind when Jasper charted a path down my stomach with his mouth. He was always mindful of his teeth, never letting them graze my skin. The scar on my wrist was both a remnant of his bite and a reminder that, while immune to vampire venom itself, I was not immune to the pain of it.
My hand raked through his hair, charting over the geography of the thick scars on his neck. Despite his teasing, his hands slid under my thighs and lifted me. I wrapped my legs around his waist so he could carry me.
I think he intended to take me upstairs, to our bedroom, but we didn't make it farther than the living room. Laughing, we tumbled onto the couch instead.
"Other people do sit here," I reminded him. He helped me remove his own shirt, throwing it over the back of the couch before returning his attention to me.
"I'm hardly concerned with other people at the moment, Maisie."
Those were my good days, when I could function like a normal person and venture out of the house. Other days I skipped my classes and my runs alike. Mrs. Wortham was entirely too kind to me; even when I felt like absolute hell, I still made myself go to work so as not to put her in a bind. On those days, she always knew, somehow.
On those days, I got to hide in the basement and scan the old documents onto microfiche away from everyone else.
The bad days saw me holed up inside with Jasper and Jett. All three of us lounged in bed those days, because I had neither the energy nor the wherewithal to leave the sanctity of the covers. Jett thought it was a great game to practice his ever-increasing mobility by grabbing handfuls of covers to pull himself forward. He tugged on our arms, our hair, our clothes, anything that could help him move around.
"We're going to be in for it when he figures it all out." Jasper's voice came to me muffled, covered as his face was by Jett. He had managed to climb enough that he was stretched over the entirety of Jasper's head, his little hands trying to reach the headboard above. Jasper caught him, eliciting a thrilled peal of laughter as Jett was turned upside down. I watched his hazel eyes go wide with his excitement.
"He reminds me of Emmett, but, like, a compressed form of boundless energy."
Jett laughed even more when Jasper tossed him—gently—onto the mattress. He hid his face in the covers, laughs slowly petering out, and then popped his red-cheeked, wild-eyed face up at us and laughed again. I couldn't help but laugh back at him.
Sometimes I was jealous of how blissfully unaware he was of everything. With enough pestering, I could convince Edward to tell me what went through his mind. Mostly you and Jasper, he had told me. Rose and Esme come up a lot, too. He never thinks about Italy in the daytime, but he must remember. Jennifer's face and a few of the Volturi have come up in his dreams.
I scooped Jett up where he lay playing peek-a-boo with us, cuddling him to me. He was all to willing, throwing his arms around my neck to hug me back. "He's yawning. I'll go get him a bottle."
Jasper had his hard days, too. Thanks to his empathetic abilities, our bad days usually coincided with each other's. With Jett down for his nap, I put him in the bassinette in our bedroom before slipping back under the covers with Jasper. He reached for me, fitting me to him and lifting my arm so he could run his thumb over my bite scar. Vampires could not weep, but I could feel the deep chasm of his remorse and sadness over this area of ridged, raised skin.
He pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head. "I am so sorry, mi amor."
The words were meant for me, but I knew they did him more healing than he would admit. I had forgiven him even before he had sunk his teeth there, into my wrist, at Aro's command. But the apologies were a penance, and with each one, it became a little easier for him to accept.
"I am sorry," I told him, fingers brushing over the scars that littered his bare chest. "Yours is the only full bite I've ever had. How many do you think there are on your skin? Hundreds? Thousands?"
"Not near so many that I wouldn't relive each and every one, knowing that one day life would bring me you." His golden eyes drifted over my face, focusing above me. "All things considered, I think we've made it out immensely better than we expected to from each of our tribulations."
He was looking at Jett, I knew, and I loved him tenfold for it. There had never been any hesitation in me when it came to taking on raising a vampire-human hybrid, but Jasper had been slower to come around. Though he tried to hide it, there was little he could do to conceal it when his emotions bled so seamlessly into mine. The growing affection he felt for Jett was obvious.
I kissed him, hoping to convey all the love that made my chest feel tight with the ache of its intensity. "Every day," I told him. "I would do that stupid trial again every day, if it meant I got to have you and Jett safe and with me on the other side of it all."
To relive the trial would mean to witness the deaths of Serena, Maysun, and Jennifer over and over again. A shiver ran through me just at the thought. Did that make me a terrible person? That all things known now, I would choose their deaths again to keep Jasper and Jett? Perhaps. But, if so, I knew I was in good company.
Jasper was one of the best people I had ever known, even with his dark past. Here he was in our bed, in our house, with a child that had become ours just feet from us. He took my face carefully in his hands, framing my cheeks in his palms, and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"And I would do the same, mi corazón. Every moment of it."
"You could run laps around me, you know."
For the tenth run in a row, Jasmine had joined me. She smiled, golden eyes sliding to her left to meet mine. "I know, but there's more to life than just whizzing by it all. I'm trying to teach Edward that."
"I guess we'll know you've succeeded if he ever joins us out here without complaining the whole time."
In just a few days, the Cullens would be in Alaska for the holiday. Edward had graciously offered to host Christmas at his and Jasmine's house. I was so relieved I couldn't even put it into words, but Edward had understood. He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze when he asked if I wanted to come over to help Jasmine decorate.
We had done just that the majority of the afternoon, now catching a run before the sun could set on yet another of Alaska's abbreviated winter days.
"He thinks I'm crazy, running at a human pace with you."
"Yeah, well," I said with a shrug. "He's a butthead."
Jasmine laughed at my immature insult. We didn't run as far that day; the winter had been heavy with snows, and even my daily runs were having a hard time combatting the ever-accumulating drifts. We turned back too soon for my liking. Though we didn't talk a lot, I had come to expect and want Jasmine to join me on these runs.
"Thanks for taking over Christmas duty, by the way," I told her. And I meant it. Beside me, Jasmine shrugged.
"I get wanting to have a place to retreat to. I love them, but when the family's all together, it can be a bit much. You and Jasper need it, the space. That's why you had a hotel room at Thanksgiving, right?"
"Yeah. Esme's better about it. More respectful. Rose can be a lot, though, like you said." In the pocket of my leggings, my phone buzzed against my thigh. And so can Alice, I thought. Denied her opportunity to drag me from dress shop to dress shop in Alaska and Canada alike, she had been sending me dress styles and fabric examples nonstop. I was supposed to be looking through them and 'curating my wedding style', but I hadn't given them more than a passing glance to get rid of the notification.
Finals were over, though, and I knew I wouldn't have that excuse to hide behind when the family congregated in just over a day. I groaned internally, knowing I would have to sit down and go through them tonight after Jett was in bed.
"Jasper's right, though. You are Jett's mother."
While I knew this, between the drama with my mom and the guilt I still carried where Esme and Rose were concerned, it was good to hear. Jasper told me so often, but hearing someone other than him say it was extremely validating. I needed to hear it more than I realized at the time.
Jett figured out crawling by the time Christmas rolled around. Carlisle and Edward were fascinated by the fact he had achieved this milestone months ahead of typical baby development. Neither Jasper nor I had told anyone of this new skill, so when Jett's little legs went slack as soon as we walked into Edward and Jasmine's house—his signal that he wanted to be put down—there was much clapping and celebration when I set him on his hands and knees and off he went.
"When did he learn to do that?" Carlisle asked, watching intently as Jett crawled across the floor to smile up at Esme. Edward had come to stand beside him, features settling into the exact expression of wonder Carlisle wore.
"Last night," Jasper provided. "It was a whole game."
Which was true. Jasper and I had sat opposite one another, about a yard or so away from each other, and let Jett crawl back and forth between us for practice before bedtime.
"He thinks he's all grown up," I added. Esme was bent at the waist, beaming at Jett.
"You're a big boy now, are you?" She asked him. Jett gurgled a half-laugh of a reply for her before crawling right across her feet. "Watch out for people walking."
Jett went on his happy way, thrilled to have a new space to explore. Our living room had quickly become boring to him this morning, as had his own bedroom. He had always been curious, and that trait was only magnified now that he was mobile. Over half the living room had been charted before Rosalie caught him, stopping him short on his trek toward the Christmas tree.
When he was in the bath each night, growling at me to let me know how displeased he was that we were yet again washing his hair, I always laughed at Jett. But when he began growling before Rosalie had fully straightened, there was an instant spike of annoyance. "He wants down."
Rosalie lifted him further, though, planting a kiss on his cheek and trying to cuddle him to her shoulder. Jett had different ideas. He twisted in her arms, wide eyes searching until they landed on me and Jasper. His lip took to quivering, bright patches of red in his cheeks at having been ignored in his growling request.
"Graaaaaaaaaawh," he growled again, but this time there was a watery edge to it. Jett had never so much as whimpered, let alone cried, yet his hazel eyes were bright with the threat of tears.
"Put him back down, he wants to crawl to the tree." It came out as more of a snap than I intended, but it got the job done. Though she looked none too happy to relinquish him, Rosalie set Jett back on the hardwood floor. He crawled right to the massive, live tree taking up one corner of the living room opposite Edward's piano. Once his destination was reached, Jett rolled himself onto the red skirt around the tree and stared up in awe at the lights Jasmine and I had strung on the branches. Just to be safe, we had avoided hanging any ornaments on the bottom, and I was glad we had done so. Jett was soon entertaining himself by swatting and kicking at the lowest branches.
"What's wrong with him?" Rose asked, delicately scrunching her nose.
"Nothing," I snapped again at the same time Jasper more mildly said, "He just wanted the Christmas tree."
Just then, Alice came gliding down the stairs with a pile of presents balanced in her arms. "Don't tell me you're depriving that little baby of a tree at home."
"Ours doesn't have colored lights. It's new to him." Jasper peeled away from me to help Alice with her haul of presents. Jasmine was close behind her, carrying a similar load. As Jett had already commandeered the tree, they set all the presents in a pile on the couch to begin sorting them.
For my part, I planted myself on the floor beside Jett, still feeling the sting of Rosalie's question. Nothing was 'wrong' with Jett, he just didn't want to be held. He would have done the same thing to anyone keeping hold of him instead of setting him down like he wanted. Jett was entirely unaware, and I was honestly a little jealous of that. Later, he played just as gleefully with the tissue and wrapping paper left after opening gifts.
Esme did me a real solid that year. Save for Jett and Jasper, she did the rest of the shopping for me when it came to gifts for the family. It was our secret, mine and Esme's. I suppose you could lump Edward in with us, but he was so tactful and discreet that no one but him was the wiser.
To my surprise, Rosalie didn't have much else to do with Jett on Christmas Day. I wasn't sure if that had more to do with his not wanting to be held or actual, genuine respect for Jasper and I as his parents. What I do know is that Emmett was just as much of a child as Jett was while the two of them sat on the floor, Jett in Em's lap, and tossed gift wrap around together.
Jett got more presents than any baby I had ever seen on their first Christmas—spoiled Ava included. Considering that we were neighbors with Jasmine and Edward, Jasper and I had bundled Jett up and simply walked over to their house. Looking at Jett's massive pile of toys, books, and clothes, I realized what a mistake we had made on that front.
"Don't worry about it," Jasmine told me when I apologized for not thinking that one through. "I think we both underestimated the combined forces of Esme, Alice, and Rosalie on this one. Come by and get it tomorrow. I promise I won't let Edward wear all the toys out."
Across the room from us, Edward and Jasper were giving a concerted effort trying to get a koala and a sloth, both of which played music and had lights, to 'link' to one another and play the same song at the same time. "Toys have gotten fancy since we were kids, huh?"
"I'm pretty sure I never had a pretend laptop to teach me my numbers and letters," Jasmine agreed.
Jett absolved himself when he began to grow tired from all the play and attention. He reached up for Rosalie when she stooped to begin cleaning up the mess Emmett had helped him create. I would be lying if I said my heart didn't give a squeeze when I watched Emmett lift Jett, one of his dimpled smiles lighting his face, and pass the baby to Rosalie. This time, Jett was all too happy to cuddle up to Rose under the curtain of her hair. She hummed for him, swaying softly, and he was asleep in seconds.
With the gifts opened and Jett sleeping, I had no excuses left to avoid the conversation Alice was waiting impatiently for all day. Emmett had drifted off to join his brothers in playing with Jett's toys. Rosalie took one of the armchairs closest to the fire, still humming for Jett as she rocked him. Esme and Carlisle followed suit with Rose, taking up chairs of their own to talk in soft tones while Jett dreamed.
And I was left entirely open for Alice's ambush, her table in hand so she could take notes. The one saving grace was that Jasmine didn't let me go down alone. Alice linked her arms through ours, pulling us both to the couch.
"Now, Maisie, I'm not saying I doubt you, but I did take the liberty of curating my own list of favorites for you. Jasmine, feel free to chime in." I glared at Jasper over the top of Alice's head for not saving me, but he only smirked back at me. Rolling my eyes for full dramatic effect, I turned my attention to Alice as she began making a case for why I absolutely needed lace sleeves on my wedding dress.
The best Christmas gift Jasper could have given me came after the holiday passed. Two days later, Jett and I were in the middle of a very important game peek-a-boo when there was a knock at the door that interrupted his shouts of hysterical laughter.
"Jasper!" I called, not wanting to leave our game. I covered Jett with the blanket again. "Wheeeeeeere's Jett? How do I keep losing you?" Before me, he kicked and squealed beneath the blanket until he managed to uncover his face. "There you are!"
"Aaaaaaaah!" Jett shouted his excitement. There was another knock on the door. Where's Jasper? I wondered. I know that butthead heard me.
The shower wasn't going upstairs, so he had no reason not to answer me. But apparently he was set on ignoring both me and the door. "C'mon, I guess we better answer it."
Other than Edward and Jasmine, we had no neighbors. I fully expected it to be a Cullen family member, maybe Kate and Garrett. There was no one else we knew well enough around Alaska that would be knocking on our door. With Jett trying to continue our game using my hair as his new cover, I opened the door to reveal Gunner's very red face.
"Gunner!" I shouted, reaching for him with my free arm. "Leah!"
"Maisie!" Gunner mimicked me before pushing his way into the house. "I'm freezing my a—um, butt off out here."
"Yes, Alaska is cold in the winter, we've been over this. You have a heat source right behind you. Don't blame your sucky survival skills on me."
He hugged me once he was fully inside, squishing a squirming Jett between us. Gunner took the baby with him when he pulled away, holding Jett aloft to see his little face. "Hey, buddy, remember me? Your favorite uncle?"
"Oh, you'll have to work for it," I told him as I hugged Leah. "Emmett let him destroy a whole living room over Christmas. I'm not entirely sure how that effects the rankings."
Gunner was much the same, but Leah had changed since I had last seen her. She had grown her short-cropped hair out so now it brushed her shoulders. The biggest change, though, was the wide smile she wore even as she rubbed at her nose. Leaving the pack and foregoing shifting didn't make her less of a werewolf; Jasper's vampiric scent still bothered her, even if she ignored it for my sake.
"Has my brother learned anything? How's his life skills living on his own?"
"I do almost all the cooking now, if that's what you're getting at," Leah said with a laugh.
"I'm not surprised."
A moment later, Jasper came through the front door with their luggage in hand. He had been home the entire day, as far as I knew… I caught a glimpse of a certain silver Volvo just before the door shut behind him. Edward. What a sneak.
"You and Edward have been scheming?" I accused when Jasper stopped to kiss me.
"Jasmine, too. If you're going to prosecute the two of us, I'm not above taking her down, too."
Our one and only guest room had been converted to Jett's nursery, but in Leah and Gunner weren't above sleeping on an air mattress for a few days, thankfully. Jett would just sleep in his bassinette in mine and Jasper's room with me instead.
I knew that Leah still held reservations about Jett. I didn't blame her. How could I? By nature alone, she shouldn't be in the same room as Jasper. Jett was new territory for all of us. I also knew, though, that something about Jett was magnetic. He was happing Gunner's arms, patting his cheeks and cooing to him while Gunner beamed. It didn't take long at all for Leah to venture away from me and toward the two of them, earning herself her own coos and smiles and pats from Jett.
Somewhat alone with Jasper now as we lingered near the door, I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him to me. Not counting Alice's disruption with the wedding dress planning, the next hurdle on my list was the return visit to the Volturi.
Gunner was exactly the bolstering reprieve I needed.
"I love you," I whispered to Jasper, watching Gunner pass Jett into Leah's waiting arms. His reply didn't come verbally, but I was diffused with a sunshine-warmth that spread from my heart to every inch of my body.
A/N: Just a little fluff before we get to the Volturi again. I am so sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! My laptop bit the dust and I'm very indecisive, so it took me a few days to choose one to replace it with!
