A/N: Here's another Chapter! I know it's been a while and I'm sorry for that. Quarantine and Covid have kept me incredibly busy over the past several months and I haven't had the chance to write. I'm so sorry for the long wait! I still own nothing but the plot.

BPOV

Entering mine and Char's suite and hearing no noise from the shower, I could tell that she hadn't made it back from wherever her and Peter had gone off to after they left the club tonight. Part of me was strangely saddened by that, but another more prominent part was relieved that I didn't have to deal with her Twenty Questions routine about Jasper. I would tell her how the evening went eventually, there was no point in trying to keep it from her, but I was glad for the momentary reprieve. It gave me the chance to get my own thoughts in order regarding how I felt about both of the Whitlock's. For the moment though, those thoughts could wait. I had a much more pressing matter to attend to.

I made my way into my bedroom and turned on the shower. It was imperative that I got out all the hairspray and mousse and whatever else Char and I had put in my hair to style it this evening, especially since my hair felt more like a helmet at this point than actual hair. Removing my dress and hanging it up in my almost full closet, I made a mental note to take some of the clothes that I didn't wear anymore, plus the clothes for the club that I had just stored in here, back to Heidi at some point for her to do with them what she wished. I stood in front of my vanity mirror and started the tedious process of removing all of the pins that Char and I had placed in my hair. Honestly, it took longer than I thought it would and I realized that Char was right, my head could have been used as a weapon if the need had arisen.

A small part of my brain decided that it would be fun to count how many pins I actually had in there and a faint human memory of counting the pins in my mom's hair after her wedding to Phil forced its way into my mind's eye. Renee hadn't spent thousands of dollars on a wedding dress stating that the small ceremony with the local Justice of the Peace would not have called for extravagance, choosing instead to find an off-white number at the local TJMaxx. The one that she finally picked was an ivory and cream Easter-inspired knee-length dress with a fitted bodice and a skirt that barely fanned out at the waist. The lace over the plain fabric gave it the right amount of wedding style that she was going for without being too fancy, but what pushed her over the edge to buy it was the pockets. Yes. Renee's dress had pockets and she was in love with it. She did, however, splurge a bit on the hairstyle and wound up with a grand total of eighty-four bobby pins in her hair when all was said and done. I smiled a bit at the memory, reached up to my own head, and began to count.

Seventy-two pins finally removed, I grabbed a couple of fluffy white towels from the linen closet in my room. Walking back into my bathroom, I turned the shower knobs on and waited patiently for the water to heat up. Once the water was hot enough, I stepped into my shower and let the hot water cascade over me. After Char and I had gone through our newborn year and could actually be let up here into our suite without smashing everything Hulk-style, I had requested that my shower have an additional showerhead installed. I enjoyed the feeling of the pressurized water against my hard skin and the added sound of the water pouring out of the second showerhead drowned out most other sounds. It was a pleasant way to shut my mind up for a while and was especially helpful when I tended to overthink things. This whole situation with the Whitlock's was a good example.

Listening to the white-noise of the water pouring out of the showerheads, I grabbed the shampoo bottle and squeezed a decent amount of the gelatinous substance into my palm before placing the bottle back in the holder, rubbing my hands together to separate the shampoo, and running it through my hair. There was nothing quite like the feeling of shampooing my hair. That may be weird, but the feeling of it loosening up after being so thoroughly glued to my head was near bliss. I shampooed it twice for good measure and as I was running my hands through my hair to condition it, I let my mind finally wander back to Jasper and Peter.

I had heard brief versions of their past from the information that my Father and Uncles had told me plus what I had managed to learn from the conversation that Jasper and I had this evening, and even though I didn't know everything, I still found it difficult to make sense of Jasper more than Peter. Peter was easy to figure out. He hated being bored and would often do things to get him in trouble just for the fun of getting himself back out of it; he hated being lonely and those years that he spent away from Jasper while he was living with the Cullen's certainly took its toll if his constant presence at Jasper's side was any indication; and he was a bonafide shit-stirrer at the best of times. I did give him credit for his intelligence, not that I didn't think he wasn't, he just managed to hide his brilliance better than most. Plus his looks were nothing to snub your nose at and he seemed genuinely interested in Char, which I couldn't fault him for. So yes, I understood Peter to an extent, but I couldn't help but feel more of a curiosity about Jasper. The desire to know more about him, as frustratingly semi-mysterious as he seemed to be, was the one thing my brain was focused on and yet, it was the one thing I wasn't sure I wanted it to be this close to leaving for a warzone.

Considering I had known him as a human, I had thought back then that I had really known him, but the more I thought about it, the less sure I was that I had known him at all. Not really. And to mix the timid, Southern Gentleman who preferred to keep his distance and read History books on a regular basis with what I knew of The Major, well...the dichotomy of the two completely different personality types that I had personally seen both as a human and now, with the added type of what I had read about regarding what he was capable of in the Southern Wars, nearly made my head hurt. It was like I was trying to make sense of three different people living in the same body, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say that he suffered from a vampiric form of dissociative identity disorder.

If I were just going off of what I knew of The Major, as the title stood, I would expect this insane hard-ass to come into training tomorrow and put my recruits - and me as their Captain - through the ringer. I would expect some evil son of a bitch who got off on taunting and torturing those he was supposed to lead, to come in and rip me apart for such a "sorry excuse for a Guard". They weren't a sorry excuse for anything in my book, and I frequently saw to it that they were never treated with disrespect. However, if I were just going by the title alone, I still expected some sort of dominant Alpha Male ego to take my troops and tear their morale down to nothing before building it back up into some sort of formidable War Machine (which my troops were fully capable of but not at the cost of who they were).

Finding my lavender scented body wash and my loofah, I began to wash the rest of me. Not that I needed to wash excess dirt or grime off after just going to the Blood Room, but the action itself was soothing and the scent was relaxing, giving my mind the chance to continue thinking about Jasper. The more I thought about him, the more I realized that I just couldn't fathom Jasper being the hard-ass I had originally expected. As gentlemanly as he was towards me this evening - even walking me back to my room in a completely safe environment - it was just difficult for me to imagine him as anything other than the kind and caring man that I had seen over the past several hours. He was funny, he was intelligent, and he was genuinely kind, not to mention he was incredibly handsome to look at even with the prominent scarring. Even though we practically spent the evening learning about each other, I honestly couldn't wait for the opportunity to get to know him more.

Rinsing off the lather from the body wash, and now finally clean, I turned off the shower and heard the faint click of the suite door closing. Wrapping my hair up in one of the fluffy white bath towels and my body in the other, I wandered out to the living room to see Char leaned back against the suite doors with her eyes closed and the biggest shit-eating grin I'd seen in a long time plastered on her face.

"Nice of you to finally come back." I joked leaning against the doorframe to my room.

Char just opened her eyes slowly and found mine across the room. Blissful smile still plastered on her face. I didn't need to be an empath to know that her and Peter had hit it off, and probably gotten it on, too if her scent was any indication. "Have a good time tonight?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

She was gonna play this cheeky, then. Ok. I could handle that. "Well," I made an act of sniffing the air, "if your scent is anything to go by, I would say you had an excellent time tonight."

She didn't bother saying anything, but the look in her eyes was the only proof I needed. She was practically glowing and I found it both amusing and adorable. I chuckled a little as I turned back around and headed for my dresser so I could find more comfortable clothes to change into before we met up with everyone in the morning.

I heard the book before I saw it, and I was thankful in that moment for enhanced hearing, as I twisted to the right and grabbed at something that had been hurled in my direction and came down into a crouch facing Char, who had a Cheshire cat grin on her face, a challenge in her eyes, and another book in her hands. "What was that for?" I growled at the Edgar Allen Poe book in my left hand and tossed it onto the floor.

"Because you're an ass." She responded laughing and proceeded to throw another book at my head. They were easy enough to dodge, but that didn't mean I wasn't still shocked that she would throw books at me. If I was human, I'd be in danger! Books hurt when they hit you! I growled low again, but Char could tell I didn't have my heart in it and she giggled like a maniac and threw another book at me as she bolted for the door to the suite. I dodged that one easy enough as well and gave chase.

She had managed to make it out of the suite and had turned right headed down the hallway. It wasn't hard for me to follow her scent, but I didn't really need to when I could still see her. Her constant laughter didn't aid her in escaping me either. Those endorphins in her system right now must be really nice.

"Charlotte!" I hollered at her as she rounded a corner and ran out of sight.

The only response I got from her was more laughter as I rounded the same corner and continued to chase her.

I could hear doors from other suites and rooms opening up as I gave chase and I could hear Jane ask Heidi why I was chasing Char through the castle in a towel. I didn't get to hear what I'm sure would have been a witty response from Heidi as I barreled my way down another corridor and smacked right into Jasper. I'm not sure who was more startled by the other's sudden appearance - or even more sudden closeness as he prevented us both from tumbling to the ground - but I couldn't help the giggle that escaped me when I found myself wrapped in his arms.

"Uh," I said looking down at my bare feet in embarrassment and coming to the realization that, apart from the towel that was miraculously still on, I was completely naked. "Hi again."

Jasper had apparently made it back to his room at some point because he wasn't wearing the costume that Heidi had made for him. Instead, he was in a pair of loose-fitting grey pants and I think that may have been a black shirt of some kind he had balled up in his hands, but I wasn't entirely sure. I couldn't help but gawk just a little at the sight he presented. His chest was muscular, but not overly so. More toned from use as a human and a soldier than the act of weightlifting. His abs were also nice and toned, and I could see the top of the classic V shape that formed at his hips before it disappeared beneath his pants. I could also see that his torso was littered with more scarring like I had seen on his neck, but it didn't do anything to detract from how handsome he was. Everyone here in the castle had scarring of some sort from battles they had won, so paying them any special attention was unnecessary. All the scars meant was that he was a capable soldier and he won all of the battles he had fought up to now. And that. That was more attractive to me than having flawless skin. I was grateful for my brain's incredible processing power at this moment. I was able to check him out in under a second and I really liked what I saw.

"Hi your own self." A smiling Jasper manages as he politely disentangles himself and steps out of my personal space. He leans in just a bit and whispers in my ear, "Um, are ya aware that you're running through the castle in naught but a towel?"

I drop my head backwards as a heavy sigh makes its way through my mouth. "Yes."

"Is there any particular reason for that?" Jasper's confusion is nearly palpable and I can tell he's projecting.

I look back at him and answer as calmly as I can, "Char threw books at me."

"Alright," Jasper looks left and then right down the hallways before continuing, "is there any reason why she was throwin' books at ch'a?"

"I was being an ass?" I muttered the question quietly.

"Sorry? Didn't quite catch that."

I let out another heavy sigh. "I said, I was being an ass."

I noticed the puzzled expression on Jasper's face as the follow up question that I was sure was coming almost made it out before I spearheaded the conversation, "At least, that's according to her." I had to defend myself somehow, even if it wasn't really that much of a defense.

"And you felt that you'd, what? Chase her through the castle?"

"No." I defended a bit petulantly, "She ran out of our suite after I growled at her and I gave chase. What are you doing out here, anyway?" Better to change the subject than have him realize I am actually a bitch when it's called for.

"I was just leavin' the training room, actually."

That was a surprise to me and if he couldn't feel the stunned confusion in my emotions already, I'm sure the tone I used would have made what I was feeling perfectly clear. "Why were you in there?"

The left corner of his mouth perks up in a half-grin, "It's been a while since I've had to do any fightin', so I was just dustin' off the rust, so to speak."

"You went for a workout?" I ask looking around expecting Peter to jump out at any moment. "Alone?"

He turns me and starts walking back to my suite and I can't help but follow after. He takes a deep breath and doesn't look directly at me, "Sometimes it's nice to be alone for a little while. It's nice to blow off some steam and really let loose without fear of someone else-" he trails off, not quite sure how to finish his thought.

"I get it." I gently lay a hand on his arm as we walk. It may linger there a second too long, but he doesn't mention it. There's a part of me that does understand that when you really let loose, it's nice not to have anyone there in case you forget that it's just training, but I also know that there are other times that it's better to have someone there to help pull you out of those moments.

"So" Jasper changes the subject as we begin to walk, "wha'd ya do to Char in order for her to call ya an ass?"

I chuckled a little and stared at the floor, "I didn't really do much, honestly. I just made her aware that her scent was a dead giveaway to how much fun she had this evening."

He chuckled and glanced at me, "You said that?"

"I did." My smile would have made the Cheshire Cat jealous.

"And she thought that throwin' books at ch'a would help?"

"I'm actually sure that it did." I reply honestly thinking about how Char's mind usually worked. "I'd rather she throw books at me in playful frustration than use me as her personal punching bag in training. Where she's the type to be more physical, I'm the type that would tell you I was gonna knock you out, but never actually do it."

"Why is is that?"

"For me, it's mostly about vocally venting my frustrations. If I say it, I feel better and am able to keep my head...so to speak. For Char, it's the opposite. She feels like if she doesn't physically act, she'll explode." Jasper just nods his head in understanding as we continue to walk down the hallway.

"By the way," I can't help but ask as I find myself back in front of my room, "did you happen to run into Char on your way back from the training room?"

"I have a feelin' that she'll be back before ya know it." Jasper responds calmly as he tips an invisible hat to me and says "Goodnight again, Miss Bella." and turns to walk back to his and Peter's room.

Jasper was right as it turned out. It wasn't five minutes before Char opened the door back to our suite and she found me dressed and waiting in one of the armchairs like an angry parent whose child has been out after curfew.

She looks around the room and notices that there are no more books littering the floor. "You cleaned?"

"Yep." I reply tersely. I wasn't really mad, but I was upset that she would choose throwing books at me over actually telling me how she felt. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly while I run my fingers over my eyes. "Look Char, I know that you like Peter. I also know that you don't want to hurt my feelings by telling me about him. Please know that when I ask about your time with him that I'm asking as your friend and not as your lover, ok?"

Char sits down on the couch and visibly deflates. "Yeah, yeah. I know. It's just hard for me to separate the feelings that I have for Peter and the feelings that I have for you. I don't want to make you jealous over the amount of time I spend with him. You're important to me."

"But so is he." Char doesn't bother denying the observation. "Char, you're important to me, too. But do you honestly think that I'm going to stand in between two Mates just because I had some silly 'claim' on you first?"

"No." Char responds seriously. "You're not the type. And I don't even know if we are Mates. All I know is that I like him. He's funny and smart and has a good head on his shoulders."

"Then what was with the book-throwing and calling me an ass? I mean, honestly all I wanted to do was ask about your evening. I didn't want to give you grief about liking Peter, nor would I, but just as a reminder, friends tell each other shit."

"Yeah, ok. I got it. I won't keep things from you from now on. Also, I'm sorry for throwing books at you." Char gets up off the couch and curls herself into my lap threading her arms around my neck in a hug.

"Thank you. I accept your apology." I muffle into her shoulder wrapping my arms around her waist to hug her back.

"Great." She says in a sudden change of tone. "Now you get to tell me everything about what happened between you and Jasper tonight!"

I laugh and ask, "Which time?"

I still can't see her face because it's buried in my hair, but I can feel her jaw drop and she starts pulling away to look at my face before saying "What do you mean which time?"

So, we spend the next few hours divulging our evenings with the Whitlock's and are back to poking fun at each other as friends do by the time it's time to get ready to meet the Guard for training.

Char and I were the first to arrive, as per usual, but it didn't take long before the training room started filling up with new recruits. Surprisingly though, Jasper and Peter were the last to arrive before we started drills. As shocking as that was, they both stood off to the side like statues, which is not what I expected at all. I expected them to join me and Char at the front and put my Guard through their paces, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. Instead, what I got were a whole lot of curious recruits that couldn't help but look their way. After the third or fourth time this happened, I got sick of it and called everyone to attention.

"I know some of you have noticed that we have an audience today!" I began walking over to the Whitlock's with my voice raised just enough to be heard, but not loud enough to be considered yelling. "This" I say finally reaching them and standing beside Jasper "is Major Jasper Whitlock, of the Southern Wars. Him and his Captain, Peter Whitlock, will be assisting us in Romania when we leave in just under a day! They are here to make sure that we are the best fighting force the Romanians have ever seen! They will be observing your training today and whatever they say goes! They tell you to change something, you change it! They tell you to stop doing something because it could get you killed, you stop doing it! Am I understood?" A resounding "Yes Captain!" echoes around the training room and I smile a bit as I head back to Char.

It isn't long before all of my recruits are fighting one another. This is hand-to-hand without using gifts. I want these men and women to know how to fight without using them instead of solely relying on a gift that they may or may not have. You never know when it could be rendered useless.

I take a moment to scan the room and spot Jasper off to the side. Closer than when he first came in, but still a good distance out from where I was. It was only a few hours ago that I'd seen Jasper, granted the image that repetitively played in my head since I had seen him walk away from my door a second time had kept me company in the hours that followed, and now I got the chance to spend more time with him. This wasn't going to be anything like how we spent last night, but I could keep my thoughts and feelings to myself in order to be at least semi-professional.

What I wanted was for Jasper and Peter not to see anything that needed fixing when they looked at the potential out on the floor. However, I knew realistically that that wasn't going to happen. The whole reason that the Whitlock's were here in the first place was because we weren't gaining any ground in Romania.

I was hopeful that whatever strategies the Whitlock's could come up with would be useful to move our front line forward once we arrived back on the front. They were both more familiar with this type of warfare than I was and I couldn't wait to see what they had in store for my Guard.

Jasper spent several hours going through my Guard once he finally got tired of sitting on the sidelines. Sometimes he'd just watch individual parings as they practiced their drills, other times he would actually step in and offer support or advice, and there were even a few times that he broke apart a sparring pair and paired them up with someone else to see how they'd fair, but the entire time he was with them his attention didn't wander. He seemed determined to get the best possible techniques from my Guard and although I knew he didn't want to be here doing this, he seemed almost in his element. It was fascinating to watch as my Guard took his advice and his suggestions to heart. I could see the light behind their eyes shine when they managed to get something right and score Jasper's approval.

"You've done pretty well with 'em. I've gotta hand it to ya." Jasper and I had stopped walking through the sparring vamps for the moment and were just off to the side of the Training Room observing the changes that Jasper had made throughout my ranks. His arms were casually crossed over his chest and his feet were shoulder-width apart. If I didn't know any better, I would say that his stance was casual, but either I was starting to understand him better, or he was throwing off some pretty interesting vibes, either way I could tell he was on edge. A dead giveaway was his eyes. They never left the sparring vamps in the room, not even to turn and address me.

"I'm glad they meet with your approval, Major." My stance was a bit more formal as I just stood next to Jasper in a parade rest. "For what it's worth" I take my eyes off of my Guard for a moment just so I can try and meet his eyes, "I appreciate you doing this. I know that doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things considering how much you don't want to be here, but I appreciate that you're taking this seriously."

"How else would I take it?" There's no malice in the question and I can tell he's not even really offended by it. He's honestly curious as to the answer.

I turn back to facing the Guard, "Well, you could have come in here, given the minimum amount of advice and called your duty done."

"True." Jasper glances quickly at me before turning his head back to the front, "Although, I do plan to live past this war with the Romanians and in order to do that, I need the best that the Volturi can offer. If that requires me to train 'em as my own, then I will."

I couldn't really fault him for thinking like that and I appreciated it more than he knew. It wouldn't be too long now before we were back in the war and I was extremely grateful to have him by my side.