Bella didn't know how to feel about the new dynamic in the household. She thought she had left the Cullens in her past, but in one short visit, it appeared they had been reinserted. Well, one of them at least. Her old life and new life were mixing, and whilst it wasn't unpleasant, she wasn't completely comfortable with it either.
She supposed it could have been worse, it could have been Rosalie that had been old friends with her new family. Despite that, she was trying to figure out if she still fit in with this new dynamic. Jasper had been friends with Peter and Charlotte longer than she had been alive, they had weathered storms as a unit that she could not imagine. In comparison, she had no real connection to these people. They had just been incredibly kind, but maybe now they had a new mission, and their family back, they would no longer need her.
On top of that, it was somehow painful seeing Jasper all the time. He was a reminder of the Cullens that had truly loved her and had believed she had given up on them, he was also a reminder of Alice and Edward and their betrayal. She couldn't even comprehend attempting to sympathise with Jasper, she would seem petty and childlike bemoaning her pain from a year's, apparently fake, relationship, compared to his relationship with Alice which had spanned over half a century. The situations were incomparable.
As such, for the first week or so that Jasper was here, she avoided him like the plague. Her new vampire abilities made it a damned sight easier too. She could flit away in seconds when she heard him, her newborn skills making her even quicker. But avoiding Jasper meant avoiding Peter and Charlotte too. Because Jasper was part of the household now, and he and Peter were as thick as thieves. She missed the training, especially now she knew that limbs could be reattached, and she missed the sage advice and the feeling that she was loved and accepted here.
And with time, also, she was becoming thirsty. She had smelt the blood as Peter had brought her food, but she had also been able to hear the honeyed deep tone of Jasper's voice and so she would fight every instinct. Peter would incapacitate the food eventually and leave him there for Bella to find. She accepted the meal, ravishing the morsel in seconds flat, she was sure it was her heightened emotional state that fed into her hunger.
Jasper felt like a mess, not his post-war mess, but a mess, nonetheless. He was glad to be dealing with it here though, rather than back at Alaska where he would have to pretend he new nothing about Edward and Alice. He just couldn't see why they would go through with this, what they could get out of it. Well actually, he could see what they might gain from breaking the Major, but not what they could get from having Bella dead. And if they wanted her dead, why did they not just let him and Rosalie do it like they first suggested, before all the problems with James and Victoria, before the whole family became attached to the human. It was just so non-sensical. He was both confused and distraught. Alice had been his lover for 50 years and he just didn't know how to compute the fact it had been a lie.
He was aware that he had been keeping extremely close to Charlotte and Peter in the last week, they had logic and positivity in spades. They were helping him. But he was also aware of the fact that Bella was well and truly avoiding him, and it was just making things very tense. Sometime in the last few days she had become almost completely invisible to his empathic skills, he had no idea what she was feeling apart from the minute glances at her eyes as she avoided him like a plague. It was a difficult position for Peter and Charlotte to be in too, he could feel their need to make sure he was okay, aware of how much this is likely to trouble him, but then he could feel how much they missed Bella as well. He didn't bring it up though. It was selfish of him, he was well aware, but he had been selfless for so long that he just needed some time. He only realised he needed to at least attempt to fix this when he saw a newborn resist the call of food purely to avoid being in his presence.
His talents may be no good in dealing with Bella, her shield must have increased in power since she had turned, but he knew how to deal with newborns. His early war career was built on dealing with newborns, and no matter what some of the newer, cockier vampires had believed it was not just his gift that got him through. He told Peter and Charlotte that he was going to hunt, he told them to have some time to themselves.
Of course, his Captain new him well-enough to know when he was bullshitting but merely nodded, his eyes and emotions giving a warning to make sure that he didn't fuck this up. That was as much permission that Jasper needed to know this could be a good idea.
The benefit of being a vampire for so long was that he had picked up a number of tricks. Whilst he couldn't remove his scent, he had learnt well how to shield it, it was only noticeable if you were looking for a scent or if you had a gift for scenting. Bella might just fall under the latter category due to her being a newborn, but she hadn't had enough training to hone any of her inborn talent yet. There were very little other skills he needed as long as he could find a good enough hiding spot, he didn't need to breathe, so would make no sound and if he was hidden, it was unlikely she'd see him, she'd assume he was with Peter or Charlotte so wouldn't look too closely for him in the woods.
He hadn't quite anticipated how long it would take Bella to come traipsing through the woods. He didn't know quite what it was she was currently doing to keep herself occupied, but it definitely was not involving the surrounding nature. Or today it wasn't at least, he would just have to assume it was his bad luck at this point. He'd seen her going into the woods most days, but being as she wasn't adopting the animal diet, he couldn't fathom what she was doing with her days in there.
It was around 5 hours he waited until he first caught the scent of Bella on his periphery. He noticed that for someone who didn't need to breathe a lot she spent a good portion of her time sighing, though he assumed it was a reflex of her thoughts rather than actually attempting to breathe. He knew from the land enough to guess she was heading down to the river by her current direction. He followed her down there as subtly as he could manage and when he'd finally caught up with her she was sat in the grass by the river, watching a raccoon take a sip further down river. He'd found her, now he just had to get her to stay.
The river was one of Bella's favourite spots to just sit and ponder. She felt less lonely when surrounded by the rush of the river and the small animals pottering about their business, most of them gave her an extremely wide berth, but a few of the braver creatures would come for a closer sniff before scurrying back away. None of them had let them pet them but watching them brought her enough peace. She had gone for a wander a bit further afield today, taking in the Texas skyline rather than retreating here straight away.
She hadn't been aware of Jasper's presence straight away, there had just been a sense of being watched. She couldn't scent anything though and that threw her off the idea, she assumed it was just a small dash of paranoia. But as she kept running, she kept hearing the soft but subtle sound of footsteps that were out of touch with her own. With that knowledge she focused her nose, trying to figure who was following her, she had to know if it was a threat. It took her several moments for her to focus in on the scent, buried under levels of protection. She wasn't the happiest, but she accepted that Jasper had come to talk to her. She could only assume it was to relieve the tension in the house.
Despite knowing he was now there, she had continued on until she reached the river, sitting down comfortably and watching a raccoon sip from the water that was flowing gently in the glowing sun. She was almost positive that he didn't know she knew he was there, and that he was waiting for the right moment to not alarm her into running away. She decided to put him out of his misery after a good five minutes.
"How could you all kill the animals, which were innocent, but see feeding from humans who were murderers and rapists as a travesty, Jasper?" She turned towards where he had stopped. The question genuine, as well as the flicker of amusement as she watched the bush twitch from what she assumed was his surprise.
"On a personal level it was about the emotions. Whilst the animals had them, they were muted, and were often less violent and dark than humans. It wasn't about what was right, it was about what was easier," He had come out of the bush by now, obviously seen. He came over and sat next to Bella on the grass, his head turned towards the sun despite his attention being aimed at Bella, "How long have you known I was there?"
He was genuinely curious, he had no idea that she knew until she had given herself. He was surprised that she was even allowing it to occur.
"I felt you watching me from the beginning. The scent thing threw me off, but I had to know it wasn't an enemy. It wasn't, it was you." Jasper was impressed, it took a lot of power to work through a scent-masking when you didn't know about it as an ability. He was sure that with the right training she would go on to be a phenomenal vampire.
"That's impressive. Many a vampire older than you wouldn't have been able to push through it. If you knew it was me, I'm surprised you didn't try and run off. You've been avoiding us all." He saw Bella shrug out of the corner of his eye, it was weird not being able to feel her emotions, he had only her body language and words to go at. Of course, he had received his gift because he'd been exceptionally good at reading people as a human.
"I wasn't sure what I could say. I can't even imagine how shit it has been for you finding this all out. I didn't want to add any more bad emotions to your load. You needed Peter and Char. But I figured I couldn't avoid you forever, and I miss them."
At the explanation Jasper had to fight the urge to laugh. She had seemed so different, seemed so full of fire when she had been fighting, so angry when she had found out about Edward's lies, but at the core she was still the same person at the crux of it, selfless to a fault.
"Well you needn't worry, Darlin', I can't feel your emotions any longer. Even then, whilst you didn't say it, you shouldn't worry about feeling your feelings are inferior. I may have more memories that have been tarnished, but you lost more Darlin'. First you lost us all because of my actions and my manipulation, and then whilst you hadn't technically lost us all, you had still lost someone you had deeply loved and someone you considered a best friend and sister. It's gonna take time for us to be okay, Darlin' but avoiding people who want to help you isn't gonna solve anything." He bumped his shoulder against hers, offering her a genuine smile.
"You know, apart from the hotel room in Phoenix I think this is the most we've ever interacted. And both times you've had some real words of wisdom. I feel like I've been really selfish by avoiding you all. Char and Peter have been nothing but good to me. If they hadn't turned up, there's a real good chance I would have died in the forest." Jasper was confused, he had wondered how Bella had ended up with Peter and Charlotte but when he'd asked, he'd just been told that it was Bella's story.
"How did you end up in a forest?" Bella let out a laugh, and he didn't need his gift to know there was a reasonable amount of bitterness injected into it.
"In short? It's where Edward left me after telling me that he nor any of his family cared for me at all and you were all leaving. I was distraught, lost and it was dark, I fell asleep on the forest floor, and woke to Charlotte's face. And the rest is history."
And the rest was history, indeed, thought Jasper, the rest was history, indeed.
Is this… a chapter. Wonders will never cease. Hope y'all are doing great and enjoy the Bella-Jasper interaction in this chapter.