"Nothing endures but change" - Heraclitus

000

It happens slowly this time. It's a gradual sort of thing that Jasper can prepare himself for. The soft languid lines of Alice's body become rigid stalks as it spreads. Her attention is one and undivided in this moment that stretches on and on. Her adoring hazel eyes are galaxies to his, unable to see him in their immensity. Jasper detangles himself from her jungle gym limbs, drops a kiss on her head, and hastens his way to her room. He returns but a minute later, sketchbook in hand.

He's unsure about what kind of vision it is. Her emotions are suppressed under the weight of her clairvoyant thoughts and she feels… neutral almost. Subdued. It's a drastic drop to how she normally feels, bubbly and everywhere. He pauses the television and waits dutifully, the fresh clean taste of Junior Mints an afterthought in his mouth.

It is a vision of medium length, he decides when she finally begins to melt against him. Not as important as to require a rough sketch but pertinent enough that she takes a few moments to gather her interconnected thoughts as best as she can before she decides what to do about it.

He crouches at her feet, hands on her knees. Finally she blinks, sudden and absolute, and turns to meet his eyes. What comes out of her mouth doesn't shock him, though he feels like maybe it should. "Let's finish watching this movie."

He rises up to plant a kiss on her forehead, relieved, before letting himself drop onto the couch. The rest of the movie goes by dully, up until the credits start rolling. Alice leaps up and makes a beeline for the kitchen. Jasper watches her go, hears her stop and do an about-face, and then feels her fingers pulling him off of the couch and into the kitchen.

He follows after her, all gangly limbs compared to her lithe frame. He waits in the entrance and watches her begin her work. He's unsure of want she wants, he's not the mind reader here, after all. So he observes and he does it well. He pulls out the cutting board while Alice is still pulling ingredients out from the fridge. Slices of cheese, meats, and greens. Additional condiments. Sandwiches then. But Alice is pulling out various plates for the too many slices of bread and then he's concerned.

His mind comes up with various possibilities in a short amount of time. His mate's hand on his bicep as she passes by centers him briefly. He forces himself to slow his thoughts down. Food. Together they're making enough for everyone so they're all fine. Hungry then. Lack of game perhaps? But there shouldn't be a lack of game…

Sandwiches in lieu of blood, he ponders deeply. He still has difficulties adjusting to their dual diet. The thought of skipping a blood meal has him wrinkling his nose. Nonetheless, he helps Alice prepare the food.

He cuts up the first sandwich that she hands him. Based on the arrangement of it, a diagonal cut for this one. Rectangular for the next one. He makes a weird, off center cut that he knows will amuse Emmett. Should he buy sandwich cutters, with funny shapes? His brother would get a kick out of that. Alice's lips quirk upwards as he makes a decision to shop online soon. He even decides to take a page out of Emmett's book and goes about looking for drinks and desserts.

His mission is stopped short when Alice hands him another sandwich. Though he is vaguely puzzled, he stops in the middle of the kitchen and holds it. The reason why comes through the doorway a few seconds later and he hands Esme the uncut sandwich.

She smiles warmly at him, a hand on his shoulder as she passes through the kitchen. "Thank you, Jasper."

Esme takes a bite out of the delicious sandwich. Alice halts her preparations and shares a knowing look with Esme. Abandoning his dessert plans, Jasper instead takes the platter of sandwiches outside.

"ETA?" the latter questions as she heads outside to sit on one of the chairs available. One leg crossed over the other, she waits patiently while chewing. She's concerned but Alice would've told them of any problems so she allows herself to relax a little.

"Almost here," Alice chimes in, following after her mother, and even as she says it she can see Emmett in the distance, surprisingly. The rest follow along at a slower run but Emmett is running full speed towards the house.

"Esme, Esme, Esme," Alice can hear his chantlike words growing louder as he approaches and repeats them back to him much louder.

"Emmett, Emmett, Emmett!"

His run falters as he lets out a bark of sudden laughter. He comes to an abrupt stop right before Alice and it's too sudden a decision that she doesn't see it coming until he wraps his arms around her and spins her around, ruffling her hair when he puts her back down.

"Hey, shortstop."

She fixes him a stare as she blocks his view of the food. "Oh, look at these delicious sandwiches. It would be a… shame, if anything were to happen to them."

"Alice!" Esme admonishes, though there's a humorous undercurrent. Alice pursues her lips briefly. She reaches behind her to hand him a part of his sandwich but not without taking a bite first. He simply shrugs and takes a huge bite out of it, unperturbed. He reaches behind her to take the other half before heading inside to fix himself another one.

The rest of the coven arrives and for a minute or two, they allow themselves to forget that they need to talk about it. About half are in the kitchen, hustling and bustling, and half are outside when Emmett breaks the unintentional silence in that very eloquent fashion of his, "So, uh. We saw some weird shit in the woods."

"Where in the woods?" Esme speaks up through the kitchen door. Loud enough so the others can hear through the sounds of the water washing down the plates in the sink.

"Off of one of the hiking trails," this time Rosalie replies, along with a few plates in hand. She gives them to Esme while she waits for the water to heat up a bit. Esme looks pensive at her words.

"There's a hiker in the hospital. I got an email from Chief Swan regarding some sketches."

Rosalie narrows her eyes and adopts a similar look as she conjures up a quick timeline in her head. "That's... -"

"It was a wolf!" She swivels around at the interruption and throws a bag of chips in his direction in a split second. Esme gives off a sound of light disapproval at the speed at which it is thrown but Emmett easily catches it.

"A wolf?" This time it's Alice who speaks up, a frown marring her cheerful features. "You're sure about this?"

"Absolutely," and upon hearing where the rest of Alice's thoughts go, Edward continues, "but it's not the Quileute shifters. They haven't had any shifters in a while."

"Well, it's not like they would tell us if they did."

"Not even as a courtesy?" he replies to Rose's sardonic comment. When the coven had moved back to Washington, the townsfolk were all about the handsome doctor and his family. The news was everywhere and they were certain word must've reached all the way to La Push. He heard a rumor (through the rumor mill of private minds obviously) that some were boycotting the hospital since Carlisle started working there.

Still, Edward was fairly certain Carlisle had gotten into contact with them somehow. Like he said, a courtesy. Rosalie stops where she is and turns to give the ginger a pointed stare.

Alice nods, moving over to steal some chips from Emmett. She nudges him and chimes, "Looks like you'll have to work on your art skills, Em bear."

"Maybe," Edward replies to Emmett's unspoken question of you'll help me, right? Emmett pouts but says nothing. He's working his way through his chips. Alice feigns a move and steals a few more when Emmett falls for it.

Esme dries her hands on a towel. She leans against the countertop, thinking. "What did it look like?"

"Huge!"

Rosalie smacks Emmett in the back of his head as she's walking back outside. "No shit!"

Snickering, Edward answers. He and Emmett were the ones who got a better look at the thing. He reiterates, "Enormous, and fast. Dark fur. It disappeared in a residential area, which is concerning. It's no man's land but the hiking trail is closest to our hunting grounds. Oh! It was bipedal, somewhat. That's what surprised me the most."

"Whaaat, no, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was." They stare deeply into each other's eyes, not at all romantic and more with incredulity and skepticism. "Emmett, I know what I saw." Emmett materializes the image of the wolf but from a different view. "That was your angle, I was closer to the front. I saw its upper body," he insists but relents after a second, "though it did run away on all fours."

"So, neither of our two witnesses can agree on what they saw exactly. Great," Rosalie quips. The rest of the coven is making their way back inside for good, cleaning up the remains of their impromptu lunch from outside. It is rather late after all.

"Not helpful," her twin reminds her quietly with a small smile. He can feel the frustration rolling off of her in waves. It's all too… slow, for her. He doesn't have to be a mind reader to know that the lack of concrete information is disappointing and disconcerting, though she'll never admit to the latter.

"Another supernatural resident or simply a traveller passing by?" At their shrugs and blank faces, Jasper shrugs as well.

"We don't know for certain but there's not much we can do. Come to think of it, the scent faded quickly…" Carlisle trails off and Jasper looks intrigued by his statement. He'll have to check out the area soon.

"Well, we already have to keep an eye on some nomads, should they pass through." Esme chimes in, watching Jasper gingerly pick up a sandwich and sniff at it before taking a bite. It feels like sand and the flavor is initially muted but after a few chews, the feeling passes, becoming something that he recognizes from his time as a human ages ago. "Speaking of which, I'll be heading over to assist the police department tomorrow morning. In a few hours, I suppose. I'll see what information I can pick up."

Sensing it's the end of discussion, the coven splits up into their pairs and a trio. Emmett sighs as he thinks about where he stashed some art supplies. For once the roles are reversed, as Rosalie follows them to Emmett's room to play video games. Edward wordlessly hands her a controller.

000

Saturday comes and goes. And with it, information. Surprisingly, Bella is the first one up that following Sunday. She makes her breakfast and keeps the television volume on low while she eats. Though that does make sense, she ponders. Charlie had said it was going to be a late night.

There is a creaking coming from the stairs, interrupting the noise coming from the television. Charlie's finally awake. He yawns as he stretches out his limbs, making his way to the kitchen. Probably to eat some food.

When he joins her on the couch (with breakfast also in hand), he vaguely mentions what happened last night. Just that a hiker was found in serious condition, which obviously gives Bella more questions to consider about but she doesn't voice them. He even mentions something about sketches, which is more information than Bella had expected from him.

"Be careful if you go somewhere late. Invite a friend over or something, I won't mind."

"Dad?"

He takes a large bite of his breakfast, rendering him unable to speak. He opts for a phonetic response instead. "Hm?" Despite the questioning noise, it is clear that his attention is elsewhere. The meal takes his undivided attention at the moment - like a hungry wolf.

There is a moment's pause. If Charlie were paying attention he would've seen the hesitation on her features. "Thanks. I'll do that, go out and whatnot."

That is not at all what she was going to say. When has he ever seen her go out? Late at night? She reins in her impulse to blurt out what she's thinking. Good thing too. After all, he had just obscurely mentioned what seems to be an ordinary hiker-lost-in-the-woods case and yet he's asking her to be careful.

He's just asking her to be careful.

Not to mention, he noticed her lack of a social life! Charlie, of all people. Therefore, it must be serious. Should she invite someone over? Or go somewhere with someone? Go to someone's house even? Thanks to her homecoming gift, she now has more independence than she did back at home. Oh, she could even go to the Rez and visit Jacob. Leah and Seth as well!

Maybe she should plan it out? That seems like a good idea, space out social interactions and whatnot. Alright, now that's a fantastic idea.

She finishes up her breakfast and takes the steps two at a time to get back to her room - a dangerous feat for someone with the occasional tendency to trip at the randomest of times. Spoons, the little devil, surprises her on the last step when he swats at her legs. She crouches down and rubs his belly when he presents it to her as he half heartedly rolls over. She's only got a vague idea of who she would like to hang out with.

In the middle of searching for her dirty socks, her phone chimes from wherever she last left it. Her head swivels around the room, trying to identify the exact location but otherwise ignores it. She picks up the vacuum on her way back upstairs. It's when it beeps a second time that she manages to locate it. Who could it possibly be?

As expected, there's two messages. One from Angela and one from an unknown number. She clicks on her friend's name first.

Hey, Alice asked for your number. Didn't think you'd mind so I gave it.

She slides down on her screen and reads the first line of the next message from the unknown number. So that must be Alice.

That's fine. I've been meaning to ask for it anyways, thanks! she texts back. And it's true, she has. They met at the library and Bella didn't really think much of it because she saw them every time she went. She supposes she might've taken the coincidences for granted. She checks the next message.

Ahoy Bella! It's Alice. Just thought you should have my number in case you wanna hang out. Here's Emmett's too!

Ahoy? She laughs at the odd greeting and makes a note to ask about it during school.

Oh, and Emmett's number too. That's awfully nice. The treacherous voice in the back of her head (the one that makes all the sarcastic comments) wonders how come Rosalie's number isn't attached. She ignores herself and rereads the message, trying to come up with something. Bella makes an attempt to type out words a few times before deleting them. She finally ends up sending something simple.

Thank you Alice. I've got some chores to do rn but I'll definitely take you up on that offer.

She does have chores right now. And she's not entirely sure when would be a good time for the other girl. So she'll ask later. She's adding both numbers into her contacts list when her phone vibrates in her hands and she nearly drops it.

Great :)

Great. Okay. Coooool… Cool, cool, cool. She stares for a minute longer before she throws her phone on her bed. It bounces and slides and she's so thankful that it didn't fall off or hit the wall. Spoons meows in that pseudo offended manner of his from the bed and she just rolls her eyes. She grabs a sticky from her desk (yellow, she notes absently) and scribbles a name and sticks it on the wall near her calendar with a satisfying slap of her palm.

ALICE

She'll probably forget about the exact reason why there's a sticky note on her wall with Alice's name on it but oh well. That's life. Still, she can't help but face the wall and stare at the sticky a moment longer. Pressing her lips together, she picks up her pencil again and writes in very small, teeny tiny letters: Rosalie #.

She can't help but ponder over the wording of the message. In case you wanna hang out. Very convenient. Damn it. She spots the missing sock she was looking for earlier.

"Mrow. Mrow. Mrow."

"Alright, alright buddy. I'll turn on the vacuum." She plugs the vacuum in and goes about her task. He still hasn't let up in his soft meowing until she brings it over to him. Spoons puts up a small fight, swatting at the narrow tube, before giving in and practically hugging it to his face. "Just a minute okay?" she tells him conspiratorially.

000

10/19/19 A/N - short chapter! Part two of 8 probably. Not much but it's honest work. Dunno when's the next chapter, might be a while bc I'm stressy and messy. I realize past present scenes are weird in present tense but bear with me, with past and future chapters. I'm already too committed with the present tense. Will probably respond to reviews/questions in the next chapter. Uhhh, mental health is important! Be good! and leave a comment, maybe?