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Chapter 4: Escape

(Jasper's POV)

Edward stood at the desk in front of Mrs. Cope with his back towards us. His spine was rigid and his posture was tense. He slowly looked over his shoulder, though, from the emotions that he was giving off, he seemed to know who he would see when he turned around.

I quickly followed his line of sight straight to where Bella Swan stood with her back pressed against the wall beside the door to our left with a piece of paper held tightly in her hands. Her eyes were wide as she took in my brother's glare.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Natalie looking on over the exchange in confusion as she looked between Edward and Bella with a worried expression.

Edward's hand hesitated in the air above the counter. He seemed to be deliberating something and due to the way that his blood lust was influencing me, I was positive that I knew what it was.

I needed to get my brother and I out of there fast. I needed to get us out of that hot, tiny room that made the smell of blood saturate every particle of air that was present. I needed to get him away from Bella Swan. I needed him away from Natalie.

With a strength I hadn't possessed in decades, I ceased breathing and quickly moved forward to his side. I put my hand on the back of his neck and squeezed, making sure that I had a good grip on him without alerting the humans to the immediate danger they were in. I sent him out waves of calming, lethargic, pliable emotions, causing him to become just lucid enough for me to steer him out of the office and outside into the fresh air as quickly as possible.

"Hold your breath and let's go," I ordered him in a way that only Edward could hear.

I felt him cut off the motion of his lungs, and turned back to face Mrs. Cope. Her emotions were showing surprise at the change in his expression from whatever it was before. She shrank away from us, but her strong waves of fear did not form into coherent words.

Using all the control that he had been able to master in the decades of self-denial, he made his voice even and smooth, rushing through his words.

"Never mind, then. I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help." I spun him around and nearly launched him from the room while trying to keep him as calm and as docile as possible.

I happened to notice that as we passed the Swan girls, Edward's eyes were glued on Bella with a hateful glare. This was going to cause a problem, a big problem.

We continued to his Volvo, walking too fast the entire way there and didn't stop moving until Edward and I made it to his car. I could only imagine the thoughts that were going through Natalie's head after the unusual display.

I kept my hand on his neck in a tight vice-like grip, not wanting to take any chances, and continued on through the lot. From what I could tell, Alice had our siblings already arranged in the car so that I would end up sitting right behind Edward, making for an easier escape.

Most of the humans had cleared out already, so there weren't a lot of witnesses. I heard a sophomore, D.J. Garrett, who had noticed and then disregarded us as he spoke softly to himself.

"Where did those two come from – it was like they just came out of thin air…" He shook his head and smirked. "There I go, with the imagination again. Mom always says that I watch too much T.V."

As soon as the doors were shut and, after making sure that all of the windows were rolled up, I released Edward from my manipulation and took my hand off of his person. He immediately started to breathe again, trying to control his breaths, but he was gasping at the fresh air like he'd been suffocated.

"Edward?" Alice asked, alarm clear in her voice as she looked back and forth between the two of us.

He just shook his head at her.

"What the hell happened to you?" Emmett demanded, seemingly distracted for the moment as he narrowed his eyes at Rosalie.

Instead of answering, he threw the car into reverse. He seemed desperate to get out of the parking lot before Bella and Natalie came out.

I held onto the handle above me on the ceiling as he swung the car around and accelerated. We were going forty before we were on the road. On the road, we hit seventy before we made the corner.

Emmett and Rose both turned to stare at Alice. To be honest, I did too, wondering what the hell had happened to compel Edward into losing the prodigious control he held over his blood lust. He could normally rival Carlisle and his legendary restraint, so it seemed unlikely that he would snap the way he had without provocation.

Alice shrugged, she couldn't see what had passed, only what was coming and it seems she missed everything that had happened up until we were headed out to the car.

I could see her face from where I sat behind Edward as she turned to the future for an explanation. I knew when she'd found it, her emotions morphing into alarm, then disappointment.

"You're leaving?" she whispered.

We all switched our gazes to Edward now.

"Am I?" He hissed through his teeth.

I looked back over towards Alice and saw that she still was zoning in on the future.

"Oh," She murmured, fearful of whatever path Edward was heading down.

"What do you see?" I pressed, worried about my mate and what this new development would mean for her.

Alice spoke in a detached monotone as she answered, giving us a play-by-play of the grisly scene. "Bella Swan, dead next to her father, while Edward's eyes are glowing crimson with fresh blood. Jasper is there and has Natalie backed into a corner while she is in the process of changing. She'd tried to save her sister from Edward's attack, but he bit her before anyone could get there to stop him. Jasper is feral and his only focus is Natalie. None of us can get near her while she is so vulnerable.

"The scene changes and I see the search that would follow and the careful time we would wait before it was safe for us to pull out and start again…wait…the picture is getting more specific." She paused before continuing. "I see the inside of Chief Swan's house. Bella and Natalie are in a small kitchen with yellow cupboards. Natalie is laughing at something Bella is saying with her back leaned up against the sink. Edward is stalking them from the shadows…"

"Stop!" Edward groaned, not able to bear any more as I balled up my fists, growling from the back seat. Whatever he saw in her head just now couldn't be anything good, and, coupled with his emotions, it was sending my instincts into a frenzy.

"Sorry," she whispered, her eyes wide.

The vision must have changed again now that Edward's decision seemed to be solidifying.

"I'll miss you," she said sadly. "No matter how short a time you're gone."

Emmett and Rosalie exchanged an apprehensive glance.

We were almost to the turn-off onto the long drive that led to our home.

"Drop us here," Alice instructed. "You should tell Carlisle yourself."

Edward nodded and the car squealed to a sudden stop.

Emmett, Rosalie and I got out in silence; we would make Alice explain more when he was gone.

I saw her place her hand on Edward's shoulder as she spoke. "You'll do the right thing." Not a vision this time – an order. "She's Natalie's only sibling, her twin sibling, and they are Charlie Swan's only family. It would kill them, too."

"Yes," He agreed nodding.

She slid out to join us, her eyebrows pulling together in anxiety. We then melted into the woods, out of sight before we heard Edward turn the car around.

"Your mate is a human?" Rose asked incredulously.

I sighed, knowing that this was coming the second she heard Alice refer to Natalie as 'my mate'. When we had informed the family of our divorce, we hadn't mentioned that my mate was a human, only that she would be arriving in Forks this week.

"Yes, Rose, Natalie's human." I answered.

"Tough break," Emmett winced, and I shot him a glare. He held his hands up in surrender, "Don't get me wrong, she's seems pretty cool. But a human?"

"We were all human once, in case you've forgotten?" Alice huffed.

"Wait, you're going to change her?" Rose interrupted, sounding appalled as she gripped my upper arm and swung me around to face her.

I snarled instinctively and she skittishly jumped back. Emmett grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him.

I took a deep, calming breath as I tried to get my bearings.

"Sorry," I sighed, apologizing for having snapped at her the way I had. My time in the Southern Vampire Wars had instilled within me with a certain set of reflexes.

"No, man, it's cool." Emmett brushed off my apology. "Rosie shouldn't have grabbed you like that." He threw her a look over his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Jasper." Rose murmured. I could feel the remorse flowing through her emotions. I gave her a nod of forgiveness, and she continued on with her previous line of questioning, "You're planning to change her?" She asked again.

"It's a little soon to be asking these sorts of questions, don't you think?" I frowned. Sure, I wanted my mate with me forever, but I could never force this life on her if it wasn't something she wanted.Not to mention that I'd only met her just this morning.

"What if she wants to stay human? Then what?" Rose pressed unrelentingly.

"That won't happen," Alice insisted confidently. "I mean really, Rose? How could she not want to have forever with her mate? Also, I've already seen her as one of us!"

My eyes widened at this revelation, and I couldn't help but to feel selfishly hopeful."It's so much more than that, Alice, and you know it!" Rose disputed. I couldn't blame her for pursuing the issue. We all knew how much Rosalie detested what she was.

No one spoke for several seconds as we stood off in the middle of the woods. I could hear the birds chirping and the crunch of leaves from the animals who were scurrying around on the forest floor.

"I'm sorry, Jasper," Rose apologized, "It's just that I don't understand how anyone could willingly choose this life, especially if they truly understood what they would be giving up."

I let out a long sigh. "It's okay, Rose. You're entitled to your opinion. Of course I would never force her into this life if it's not something she wants. But other than that, I don't know. This isn't something I thought to be thinking about so soon - we aren't even dating. All we can do is take it one step at a time."

I did know one thing for sure, from the second my eyes met those of Natalie Swan's, I became hers. I could already feel the bond that formed between us growing stronger as the day wore on.

"What they've found is rare, Rose. You know the lore. What if this was you and Emmett? Human or vampire, we spend our whole lives looking for that perfect person and most go their whole lives without ever finding each other. Would you really ask Jasper to give up his mate now that he's found her all because she's a human?" Alice asked.

"Of course not! I want Jasper to be happy too, but you're not taking this seriously enough," She hissed. "This will put us all in danger if he can't handle it around her, and, not only that, but think of what it would do to him if anything like that happened to her because of him! Vampires don't mate with humans for a reason!"

"Just because we aren't aware of it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened before, or can't happen again," I tried.

"I'm telling you it will be fine," Alice insisted, "I would have seen it already if something was going to happen!"

"Yeah, but you haven't exactly had the best track record when it comes to interacting with humans, Jas - no offense." Emmett amended.

"Jasper would never hurt Natalie!" Alice jumped to my defense.

I appreciated her faith in me, but I was curious about what made her so confident. After all, Emmett wasn't wrong; I had been the reason the family had to pick up and move more times than I was comfortable admitting, even to myself.

"You can't know that, Alice." Rosalie fought. "Of course I don't think he would intentionally hurt her, but accidents happen, and humans are fragile! They bleed!"

The picture Rose had just painted for us made me physically sick to my stomach. Just the thought of being the one responsible for Natalie Swan's untimely demise was more than I could take.

"I'm telling you guys, that won't be an issue!" She turned her attention to me, "Didn't you notice it earlier?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion, using my advanced senses to quickly flip through my memories of interacting with Natalie today, but came up blank. "Notice what?"

"Her scent, silly!"

Emmett frowned, "I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously you wouldn't. You aren't her mate."

As they continued to debate, I took the time to think back over Natalie's beautiful fragrance of lilacs and fresh apples. It was the most wonderful smell, and it immediately made me think of home; not the home I had living with the Cullen's, but the home I'd grown up in back in Texas while I was still a human. My family had an orchard where we grew the most delicious apples, and my mother loved lilacs. My father had planted them all over our property just for her. When springtime came, the entire farm would smell like lilacs. It was comforting, safe…

It was then that it hit me as I remembered the observation I'd made when we were talking after school. The smell of her blood, though appealing, did not drive me towards hunger. It had been a combination of the other humans in the room in addition to Edward's blood lust for Bella Swan that had caused my throat to flare up the way it had earlier, not Natalie.

Relief filled me under this realization, as well as curiosity. Was it really the newly formed mating bond that protected Natalie from the threat I posed? I didn't know for sure as I had no point of reference; finding your true mate was a rare thing in the vampire world, and a human mate was understandably unheard-of. Whatever the reason was, I was grateful and thrilled at the direction my life was heading in, especially if it was leading me towards Natalie Swan.

A/N: What do you guys think? I didn't add any extra scenes but I rewrote the chapter anyway. I didn't like how I presented the chapter before so I tweaked it.

If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in the Author's Note at the bottom of the next chapter!

Twilight-Survivor : Saw your reply to my review. That's the first time a review of mine made it anywhere near the actual chapter of a story so I'm not even sure if my reply should be here or as a PM? I'm thrilled that your planning on continuing my fav's of yours! And I definitely agree with with working on fewer stories at a time, that's my personal writing Achilles heel. I get a new idea and it takes me away from what I was working on to begin with and then again, and again until I'm so detached from the original I had been working on that returning to it is much more difficult. spent the quarantine sorting my stories (deleting really bad ones and combining ones that are too similar) in hopes that I can actually finish one of my multi-chapter ones (so far all I've ever posted are one-shots). Seeing you returning after all this time is quite inspiring too. You obviously stepped away from your stories a lot longer then I have any of my own so once I'm finished sorting I'm going to pick two very different stories and commit to not working on anything else until they're done. (Hopefully it will actually work, lol) So, thanks for returning, thanks for inspiring and thanks for the great stories! While you were on your fanfic hiatus, were you only on a break from writing them or did you step away from the twilight Fanfiction world all together. (I only discovered Fanfiction in 2015) and I read a lot more then I write. (95% reading - 5% of my fanfic time is writing) so I'm curious where you would fall on the spectrum and what your most recently read favorite was?

Bella'Xo: I think what happened was that I started taking college classes and didn't have a lot of time for writing and then I ended up going through a reading only phase lol. I found a whole bunch of amazing stories that – in my opinion – were just as good as the originals! Some Fandom I enjoy – to name a few - are Twilight Saga (duh!), Supernatural, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Labyrinth to name a few. If you want to know what I've read, look in my favorite stories. I favorites every one that I've read, but some are also on Archive of Our Own. There is one Jasper/Bella story on there that I have read so many times and was moved off of FanFic. Its called Insecurities by JamesRamsey. There was also a part of the sequel written last I read it.

Nicoconsd : I don't remember reading the original of this one so excited to get more :) I'm also curious about the Bella Edward relationship... will it be there? Will Edward be able to read Natalie's thoughts? Can't wait for more :)

Bella'Xo: Yes, the Edward/Bella relationship will definitely be there! It will be Twilight but what would happen with Natalie inserted into the mix. I don't want to give away any spoilers but I will say that it will definitely add a twist. The story is more focused on Jasper and Natalie's relationship, but Edward and especially Bella plays a huge role in Natalie and Jaspers life and I wanted to show how Bella and Edward are affected with Natalie in the mix, as well as Jasper playing a larger role than in the series. Natalie and Bella are very close due to them having to take care of each other due to Renee's hair brained flakiness, being more of their friend then a parent – she stills loves her girls to pieces though. As for being able to read her thoughts, SPOILER: no, he won't be able to, but her reasoning is slightly different then Bella's. This is where them being fraternal twins will come into place – the same but still different. Stay tuned!!