A/N: Sorry for the long delay on this folks! Hopefully it will be worth the wait. As a minor pimpage, I have a cannon story ready to go up also, so please check it out! The title is Hell Hath No Fury, and it should be up shortly.

Emmett's POV

"Jasper? Jasper? Jaaasssspppeerrrr?" I dragged the last one out as long as I could. The lump under the covers still didn't move, which told me he was faking being asleep. If he had actually been sleeping, he would have bolted upright the minute I called his name. Jasper was doing better in a lot of ways, but he was still pretty skittish about being approached when he was trying to sleep.

I poked the comforter, about where I thought his back should be, and got no response other than an irritated grumble. If it had been Edward, I would have just thrown the blankets off and physically dragged him from the bed, but that probably wasn't a good idea with Jasper. I mean, God only knows that the guy sleeps in, and there are parts of my brother I just don't need to see. So instead, I picked up his kiwi bird and smacked the lump lightly with it. "Get up."

He sat up and shrugged the covers off. "Why? It's Saturday."

Like he went to school anyway. I took a quick moment to note that Jasper did, after all, wear pajamas, before grinning at him. "It's almost eleven, and you've been up here since ten last night. You aren't resting, you're sulking. Now come on; you and I are going out for pizza."

His eyes widened at me, looking almost cartoonish in the odd light seeping around the curtains. "Huh?"

"You" — I pointed at him — "and I" — I pointed at myself — "will be going" — I made little walking gestures with my fingers — "out to get some pizza." I mimed eating something. "Do you need to hear it again?"

He stood. "No, I got it. Why are we going out for pizza?"

I swear to God, Jasper has to analyze everything to death, which is why nothing ever gets done. "Because I'm hungry, simple as that. Not everyone's in some big conspiracy to do you in. Now, if you want something other than pizza, now's the time to tell me."

"Pizza's okay." He looked a little stunned, but I couldn't tell if it was because I had woken him up, or he was just surprised that I wanted to do anything with him when I wasn't being forced. I pulled open a dresser drawer and chose a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt at random. "Get dressed."

He tossed the shirt back. "I don't wear short sleeves."

If he had been anyone else, I would have given him the finger and told him to deal with it. But it was so hard to get Jasper to express an opinion about anything that I let it slide. This time. "Fine, how about this one?"

"Yeah, that one's good." He pulled the clothing up to his chest and scowled at me. "Are you going to fucking watch me change? Go away."

He had a point. After all, I had my beautiful Rose, why in the world would I want to look at another dude naked? "All right, come meet me downstairs."

I was halfway down the stairs before it hit me. Jasper wasn't bothered by the thought of me seeing him naked, he was trying to keep me from seeing his scars. None of us kids knew exactly what they looked like, but I knew they were bad. Mom had actually cried after seeing the pictures.

I understood his reluctance, certainly better than my siblings, and maybe even better than Mom and Dad. I had a long rip across one thigh from where my mother had thrown a platter at my dad. It had missed, but shattered against a table and cut me with one of the shards. Because they had both been falling-down drunk at the time, neither parent was willing to drive me to the ER. My brother Evan had fixed it as best he could with gauze and a few butterfly bandages.

The next morning, I had been prepared for the usual fussing and repeated apologies, as well as sloppy promises to quit the booze and do better for us. Not that I had believed them, even at the age of five, but I still expected to hear it. But when morning came, neither one of them even remembered the plate being thrown, much less that I had been injured. It had eventually healed without further attention, jagged and ugly. Even now, I wouldn't let Rose touch that scar. So yeah, I understood how Jasper felt, understood the shame of having a permanent reminder to prove just how little you had mattered to someone else.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on either of our pasts. Today, I was getting Jasper a date. And not just any date, either. I was going to hook him up with Alice. It had been a tough decision. After all, Alice deserved the absolute best, and I had to make perfectly sure that Jasper was it. Sure, he was a little bit fucked up, but I knew he would do anything for her. That much was obvious from the lovesick way he stared at her, and they way he did anything he could to make her happy, even at his own expense. He would be good to her, I was sure of it. Now I just had to talk him into it.

"Come on, you supermodel! Jesus, Rosalie takes less time to get ready!" I knew he had a little trouble dressing and getting ready, with his hand being the way it was, but I just loved ragging on the guy. He seemed to understand that it was all in good fun, and would give me one of those goofy wide smiles, instead of the tense ones he usually gave us.

"I'm coming; keep your panties on." He hopped down the steps, looking as comfortable and at home as I had seen him yet.

"But Jasper, my darling, I wore the lace ones just for you." I let my lashes flutter flirtatiously.

He laughed, one of the few times I had heard him do so. "Later, babe."

Rose had finally fixed my Jeep, thank God. I was so sick of having to use one of those tiny little wimp wagons that the rest of my family preferred. Jasper started to jump up, and then paused. "Wait, I still have to take my pills."

Good thing it was Jasper who ended up with a medical condition requiring daily medication instead of me. There were still days when I forgot my backpack or to brush my teeth. Pills twice a day? Forget it. I tossed him the keys. "Remember to lock up!" He nodded and vanished back into the house.

I used the lull to pull the Jeep around (no easy task when you considered the sheer size of that thing) so it was facing outwards. Jasper, probably thinking he was going to be left behind, bounded out the front door, crossing the driveway in a few fast bounds, and pulled himself up into the passenger seat. "I was only in there a minute!"

Looking at him, I had to admit that he looked a lot different than when he first arrived. He definitely limped less, and I thought he used his hand better, too. The first time we had gone somewhere in my Jeep, I'd had to give him a tug because he couldn't get up there on his own. Now it was no problem. He had gained some weight, too. Don't get me wrong, he's still a skinny little fucker, but at least now he doesn't look like he's been starved. He very rarely looks happy, but he doesn't look scared now, either.

For reasons best known only to each other, Edward was trying to teach Jasper how to play the piano. Seemed like an odd choice for someone who had a hard time using one hand, but Jasper persevered, same as he did with everything else. It was actually kind of neat to listen to the jumbled notes become smooth. Dad thought that it was absolutely great for his finger dexterity, and Alice practically swooned every time she heard it. What was it with women and guys who played instruments, anyway?

I reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an envelope, tossing it at Jasper. "That's for you."

He picked it up absently, barely looking at it. A casual observer would have thought him uninterested, but I knew better. In one quick glance, he had noted that it was addressed to him, the bank logo on front, and that there was something unyielding inside. "What is it?"

I didn't reply at first, too busy trying to navigate that one tricky curve about a half-mile down the road. "Your debit card. It's not active yet, because you need to activate it from the house phone and I forgot to give it to you yesterday like I was supposed to, but it's yours."

He spun the card around in his fingers. "I don't have any money, so why do I need a debit card? I can't get a job, because your parents won't let me, and now I can't drive, anyway."

This had to be handled very delicately, which led me to wonder how in the hell I had ended up with the task. "Dad puts an allowance in every month, because it's easier for him to do it that way than keep cash on hand for four — I mean, five — teenagers. I think he's putting some of the money the state sends you in there, too, but I'm not sure. I don't know how much money there is, because I've been forbidden to peek, but enough for the things you need."

The card was no longer spinning. "I get an allowance? How much?"

"Hundred bucks at the beginning of the month. Don't ask Dad to advance you anything if you run out. He'll do it, but you'll have to sit though such a long boring lecture on budgeting and responsibility that you'll regret ever asking."

He carefully replaced the card in its envelope and put it back in the dash. "I've never had an allowance before." His eyes were downcast, and his tone gave no clue if he were pleased or not.

"Everyone gets an allowance for pitching in and doing chores. Didn't you do chores in your other house?" Nobody else liked bringing up his previous placement, but I didn't mind. Like it or not, those four years had happened, and it didn't seem right to deny that fact. We had all had lives before we were Cullens, and those lives needed to be remembered.

"Yeah." He drew the word out thoughtfully. "But we didn't get paid for it. We were just supposed to do them."

That would never work in our house, not in a million years. "Wouldn't work here. If we did it that way, nothing would ever get done."

When Jasper looked at me, I wished I hadn't said anything. "Maria had ways to make us listen." His tone was grave.

Beatings with a fireplace poker, perhaps? I probably should have stopped there, but his was the first time I had heard him indicate directly that Maria had been cruel to any of them. We were at the pizza place, but I circled the block again, hoping he wouldn't notice. If I lost this moment, I might never get it back. "Yeah?" It was a perfect answer. It expressed an interest in what he was saying, but wasn't too pushy if he didn't want to continue.

For a second I thought he wasn't going to answer, but he finally pulled his sleeve back and pointed at a wide scar on his forearm. "I wouldn't do the dishes, because it was Mark's turn, not mine. So she threw a plate at me."

I was more shocked by his actions than his words. Even this morning, he had refused to change in front of me, keeping the worst marks out of sight. I easily discerned the scar he was talking about, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the others. His skin (and I couldn't even see up to his elbow) was littered with old burns and scars, too many for me to even begin to count.

Luckily, he was too caught up in the story to notice my staring. "I got cut, and she had to take me to the ER. I mean, my skin was just gaping open and I was bleeding everywhere. So she wrapped my arm up in this little dishtowel, and put me in the van. The whole time we were in the car, she kept telling me to say I got cut doing the dishes." He gave a humorless little chuckle. "It wasn't even a lie. I had gotten cut on a dish."

We both sat in silence for a minute before he gave me a weary grin. "That's the pizza place, and don't think I didn't notice that we've driven by it three times."

Apparently he wasn't as unaware of his surroundings as I had thought. I had been about to make a fourth circle, but now that I was caught, I just gave him a sheepish grin and pulled into a parking spot. "So, what happened then?"

"They took me to the back and gave me nine stitches. Then they brought in a woman from Social Services to talk to me, because they have to do that any time a kid gets hurt under suspicious circumstances. She was this really nice older black lady, and she looked right at me and said, 'Jasper, this is an awfully deep cut to have come from picking up a broken dish. Tell me, did somebody at home hurt you?' And you know what I said?"

I did. "You said no."

He nodded tightly. "I said no. That was my one shot to help myself, and I said no. If I had said yes then, I would have not only been getting myself out of a bad situation, but the rest of the little kids who were depending on me." He sounded exhausted and disgusted with himself. "I don't know why I said no."

I knew that, too. "Because she told you to. Because you loved her and would have done anything to please her."

He raised an eyebrow, silently asking me to tell him my own story. Normally, I would have refused, but this time I felt that it was only fair. I tapped at my thigh, my fingers ghosting over the decade-and-a-half-old scar. "My mom hit me with a platter and put a big mark on my leg, right here. She didn't take me to the hospital, but if she had, I would have lied, too." I considered it briefly, then added the rest as an afterthought. "She was drunk."

"Maria wasn't. She never drank." He opened the door, but paused before jumping out. "You know the best part? We were at the ER for four hours, and when we got home, she points to the kitchen, which had my blood all over it, and says, 'Now clean up that mess in there and do the goddamn dishes like I told you to.' I did it, and that was the last time I ever questioned her, whether she was being fair or not."

I guessed the saddest part of his story was that it didn't surprise me at all. There are a million ways to wound a child, and some parents seem to know every single one of them. Jasper stood waiting for me, leaning expectantly against the front fender. He didn't look upset, just a little anxious that I hadn't gotten out of the car yet. So I gave him a smile that I wasn't feeling at all and jumped onto the pavement. "Okay, I'll feed you today, because you don't have your card activated, but next time, you're paying. You're my brother, not my date."

He waited until we were side by side before he started walking. "At the house you said you were wearing your lace panties just for me. Emmett, do you not love me anymore?"

More and more, I was seeing flashes of humor from him. Apparently, his true personality, when it wasn't being smothered by anxiety, was quite funny and easygoing. It would have to be, otherwise he would have ended up putting a gun to his head. Honestly, I don't know if I could have survived what he had. Barring that thing with the plate, and a handful of similar alcohol-fueled incidents; my parents had never been abusive. Neglectful to the extreme, yes, and we were certainly unwanted children, but we had never been burned with cigarettes, or hit with pokers, or left with deep, mysterious burns. I had never been molested or raped, like my sisters had.

Out of all of us, Edward was the only one without a sob story, and even that was questionable. I had seen pictures of him from when he'd first arrived, barely three years old and fresh out of the hospital. I was sure that part of his pale, drawn appearance was the result of being so ill, but a lot of it was mental. In just a few days, he had lost his mother, his father, his home, basically everything. His relatives had packed some clothes and a few toys and handed him off to strangers who expected to be referred to as "Mom" and "Dad."

No wonder the kid in the pictures was crying often, and scared-looking when he wasn't. Kids are resilient, though, and it didn't take long before he began to laugh, and settled in quite nicely. I guessed his story wasn't anywhere near as tragic as Rose's or Jasper's, but it was sad nonetheless.

But I had already spent too much time dwelling on the past today. We were all here now, and the future was important, too. I slid an arm around Jasper's shoulders and tugged him towards me. He overbalanced on his right leg, just like I had known he would, and stumbled into me. I gave him a sloppy kiss on the side of his head. "I still love you, babe. It's just a good thing that you're a cheap date."

He had been starting to look worried, since it had taken me so long to reply, but now he nodded and smiled. "That's me; I'm cheap all around."

There was probably some deep significance to that, but I had had more than enough deep thinking for the day. "What do you want?"

We'd had pizza as a family before, but only as a pick-up. Jasper seemed willing to eat anything, but he had never really had a chance to pick just what he liked. "They'll split it in half, so pick whatever you want and don't worry about me."

Jasper went over to the list of toppings, wrinkling his nose as he read some of the more exotic offerings. I noticed that when he read, he put his face pretty damn close to the menu and squinted a little. Maybe I should suggest to Dad that Jasper get his eyes checked. He looked up at me. "Barbecued Chicken?"

"Hey now, those are fighting words. BBQ chicken pizza is absolutely delicious." He still didn't look convinced. "How about this: I'll get BBQ chicken on my half, then you get whatever you want on yours, then we'll switch slices."

"Okay." He ordered extra cheese, pepperoni, and bacon, a man after my own heart. I took our number and sat down at a table near the window, Jasper trailing after me like a puppy.

I waited until he had hopped up on one of the tall stools before giving him a serious look. "Okay, you and I need a battle plan."

"'Bout what?" He took a sip of his drink, his attention mostly on the people he could see through the window.

"About you asking Alice out, you dumb shit." It was all right for me to call him that, since he knew I was teasing him.

He flushed darkly, telling me that I had scored a direct hit. "I . . . uh . . . I wasn't going to ask her out." He was stuttering a little bit, which he always did when he got nervous.

I gave his shoulder a thump. "Obviously. But the rest of us are sick of watching the two of you make tortured baby cow eyes at each other. She's got this real problem with not thinking she's good enough, so she's never going to ask you. Therefore, you need to be the one doing the asking. Simple as that."

He drew a little pattern in the condensation left by his glass. "She thinks that she's not good enough for me?" He sounded disquieted by the notion. "How could she think that?"

Oh, no; I wasn't about to reveal my sister's darkest secrets. Those were things the two of them needed to figure out for themselves. Jasper looked up, his blue eyes beseeching me, but I just shrugged. Love was hard, and it was going to be harder for the two of them than most. They could make it, though. Alice would do anything for Jasper, and Jasper was used to fighting for absolutely everything he had. I just had to convince him to fight for Alice. He gave a soft, disgusted sigh. "I don't know how. I've never . . ."

That came as a surprise. Sure, he was skittish as hell, but he was attractive enough, with his dark blue eyes and gentle demeanor. "Never? You haven't ever had a girlfriend?"

Eyes trained on the table, he shook his head. "No, it was always just . . ." He trailed off, shrugging helplessly.

A thought occurred to me, one that could derail this entire plan. "You aren't gay, are you?"

"No, I like girls." He didn't sound particularly offended that I had asked. Not that I cared about his sex life, but if he was gay, I would need to make some new plans for the afternoon. No point in spending hours trying to fix him up with Alice only to find out that he would rather be dating an Alistair.

"But you do like Alice, right?" I needn't have asked. Every time I mentioned her name, he got his dopey look on his face.

"Yeah. But what am I supposed to do? I can't drive her anywhere, like to a movie, and I sure as hell don't want to ask her out to just sit around the house. That's creepy."

"Mom and Dad won't let you have dates in the house. Also, no making out in public areas of the house, and absolutely no sex in the house." I watched him carefully when I brought up sex. He had said he hadn't had any girlfriends, but that didn't necessarily mean he'd never had sex. His face, which had gone back to a normal color, turned bright red. Yep, still a virgin.

The pizza arrived, and conversation paused while we each had a slice. Jasper picked nervously at his, his lips moving silently as he tried to get the words out. Finally, he looked up, his eyes intense. "I don't want to take Alice out just so I can have sex with her. She's a real lady, and deserves to be treated like one."

Jasper had never struck me as the screw-'em-and-leave-'em type, but it was nice to hear that he had honorable intentions from his own mouth. "Of course not. If you did that, I would have to kill you. Now, here, try a piece of the chicken pizza."

I watched him carefully as he took the slice, curious about whether or not he would react to my threat. Rosalie had told me how badly he'd flipped out when she had threatened to cut his balls off (though to a guy, castration was a far worse threat than death). But whether he was more comfortable with us, or he just didn't think I was as big of a threat — or maybe both — he just shrugged. "I know. This is actually pretty good."

"Of course it is." We fell into a companionable silence, both eating whichever half of the pizza we felt like. When it was just Jasper and me, we could just sit there, without the uncomfortable need to fill the silence with words. I didn't have to be a good son, or perfect boyfriend, or nice brother. I could just be his friend. One day, probably soon, he would be a real brother to me, with all the trials and tribulations that went along with that. Right now, though, I was happy with things the way they were.

"I . . . Uh, can I ask you something?" He was playing with an abandoned crust as he spoke.

It was hard, but I managed to repress the urge to tell him he just had. "Sure."

"How did you ask Rose out? I mean, what did you say to her so she would say yes?"

Not a good question. Not because the subject was sensitive or anything, just because I couldn't help him. "I didn't. She came into my room one night and told me that I was going to be taking her out to dinner that Friday. Good thing, too, because I was way too nervous to ask her myself. Doesn't do much for you, though, does it?" He shook his head. "I don't know — flowers, candy, singing telegram?"

"No, none of that is right." He was starting to look dejected already, and he hadn't even asked her yet.

"We'll figure it out. Come on, let's go." I waited until we were in the parking lot before I continued. "So, I thought we could do a double date, you and Alice, Rose and me. Then I can drive us. Dinner and a movie; it's classic." And I would be able to keep an eye on him and protect Alice's honor if it became necessary. Perfect.

He nodded enthusiastically. "That's good."

We drove aimlessly for a while, both trying to think of a good way to ask Alice out. We looked at flowers, but he shot down everything I offered. No, roses weren't right. Lilies were too big, violets too small. By the time we left, I was ready to strangle him. It was four-thirty when we got home, and we were no closer to an answer than we had been first thing this morning. "Well, we have until Friday, so we don't need to do it right away."

"I guess." I hated that he sounded so upset, so I patted his shoulder again. "You want to play Nintendo?"

The Xbox was downstairs, since it belonged to the entire family, but I had an old Super Nintendo hooked up to the television in my room. Jasper loved it and was really good at most of the games, so I let him play whenever he wanted. To my relief, he brightened up and nodded. "Can we race?"

Playing Mario Kart sounded like the best plan we had come up with all day. "Yeah. I get to be Yoshi, though."

"No, I'm Yoshi. I'm sick of being Princess." He had that stubborn look in his eyes, and I knew it was going to be a race for the controller. There were eight characters to choose from, but Yoshi and Princess were really the same driver, with the same strengths and weaknesses in the way they raced, and I we liked to match. Otherwise, how would we know for sure who was the better driver?

For a minute, his blue eyes met mine defiantly, good humor lingering in their depths. Then, without warning, he broke for the stairs, no doubt intending to beat me up there and get his favorite character. I chased after him, but he was good at zigzagging on the steps so I couldn't pass him. "Asshole!"

We slammed hips in the doorway, both groping for the lead controller. The two controllers were so tangled up that neither one of us could tell which was which, so I grabbed the closest one and hoped for the best. We were both pounding buttons so quickly that we were three screens in before we figured out that Jasper had the lead. He grinned at me, then paused. "Let's be Bowser and Donkey Kong instead."

This happened every time he managed to get the lead. He would either want to be one of the other characters, or play Battle Mode instead of racing, or he would let me be Yoshi after all. He was getting better about standing up for himself and having his own opinions, but when it came right down to it, he always backed down. I just wasn't sure how to call him out on it without upsetting him. "Sure, we can be Bowser and Donkey Kong."

We raced best two out of three, which I won, but just barely. He kicked my ass in battle mode, though, and we remained locked in friendly competition for over an hour. It was almost time for me to start my homework before I gathered up the courage to say what I had been thinking. I paused the game. "So, there's something I wanted to ask you."

He leaned back against the beanbag. "Okay."

There was probably a really nice and gentle way to put this, but I would rather just come out and say it. "So, you've been having a lot of really bad nights the past few weeks, and I was wondering if you would rather sleep in here with me. You know, maybe that would help? We have a blow-up mattress for Mom when we camp, so you don't have to lie on the floor."

He was staring at me, giving me the strangest look, so I backpedaled a bit. "I mean, if you don't want to, it's cool, but I thought I'd at least ask."

Relief flooded his eyes so quickly that I felt kind of bad. How long had he been hoping that someone would ask? But Jasper was Jasper, always suspicious. "I don't want to bother you, or wake you up."

I snorted. "Dude, you're waking us all up, anyway. You're freaking loud. It's all right, though, you won't bother me by being in here."

He looked at me for another few seconds, then nodded. "Yeah, that would be all right."

Good. I had been worried that he would take the offer the wrong way, but he seemed pleased. "I'll go get the mattress; you take the sheets off your bed."

The mattress was in the hall closet, but the pump was up in Edward's room. Don't ask me why; I'm pretty sure I don't want to know. By the time I got both of them together and back to my room, Jasper was already there and playing Nintendo again. He leapt up when he saw me, and for the first time, I saw pure happiness on his face. "She said yes!"

"Who said yes?" Jasper's brain sometimes runs on a different track than everyone else's. "Alice?"

"Yep. You weren't back yet, so I went down to her room and asked her if she wanted to go out with me on Friday." He sounded exceedingly pleased with himself.

"Just like that? After all the planning we did?" I couldn't possibly be that easy. After all, this was Jasper we were talking about, and nothing ever went that easy for him.

"Uh-huh. I remembered what you said about Rose, and everyone says that you should just be confident, so I went into her room and just asked." He cocked his head slightly. "She squealed."

We were all familiar with Alice's squeals. They meant she had gotten exactly what she wanted — in this case, Jasper. Thank God.

"Great! And we didn't even end up having to get her anything. We can save that for the actual date. Now help me get this thing pumped up."

He did so without question, his eyes dreamy. His good mood held for the rest of the evening, even though I absolutely slaughtered him in everything we played on the Xbox. Once he was ready to go to sleep, he just said goodnight and curled up, not seeming bothered by either the light or me still moving around. He was asleep within moments, his breathing going soft and deep. I worked a little bit on my homework, then settled down myself, turning off the lights.

That night was the first night in two weeks that Jasper didn't wake us all up.