The next day we hit the city's Hall of Records.

Jasper set each of us a task. Alice, with the assistance of her future-sight, was assigned to the hardest one. She was going to try and find out what happened to his younger sister. Married, kids, anything on the subject.

Edward was looking for either of his brothers.

I was helping him search for his nephew, his elder sister's son. He had been just two when Jasper left for the war, so we didn't know too much about him.

I was searching through everyone with the last name Fischer during the 1870's when Jasper suddenly snorted in disbelief. I glanced at him and he smiled, "One of my friends married a girl that he loathed through our entire schooling period."

Alice flounced over, disrupting the topic. She sat on Jasper's lap, her nose buried under a huge book. "Jonah Foster, did you know him?"

Jasper nodded and Alice reported, "He married your little sister in 1879, and they later had one daughter named Louise."

I watched Jasper's eyes soften, "That was my mother's name."

Edward gravitated over to us, holding a book so small I could hardly believe any useful information was in it. "The elder of your brothers names his firstborn son Jasper Edgar, after 'the brother he so dearly missed' and your father."

Before anyone could get sentimental, Alice started talking. Her eyes were distant and her voice was dreamy, "Silas Gabriel Whitlock, born March 3rd, 2002. Trinity Foster Care, Houston, Texas. Reason for custody: orphaned. Date of dismissal: August 1st, 2006."

After a moment she re-focused on the world around her, staring at Jasper with wide eyes. He asked anxiously, "What was all of that?"

Edward set his book down and looked at Jasper with wide eyes. "You have a living nephew. Well, a great-something nephew."

Alice beamed, "Right here in Houston!"

Jasper looked startled, very startled. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. Twice.

Clearly, he had not been anticipating finding any family members.

I asked sadly, "He's in foster care?"

Alice nodded, "That's what I saw, on the paper."

Jasper asked, "Why did you see a paper?"

An uneasy silence suddenly befell us. Edward nodded to Alice, and she took Jasper's hand in her own.

She started, "Well, Jasper… I saw you holding it, I saw him with you."

I asked, incredulous, "Where, at the foster home?"

Alice bit her bottom lip. Edward answered, "No, he was giving it to Carlisle, back in Forks."

Jasper + Kid in Forks?

My surprise must have been very great, because Jasper looked at me suddenly. He narrowed his eyes, "I don't understand, Alice. Why?"

Jasper had the child with him back at home. He had the papers. He had a paper that listed a dismissal date- one that happened to be in just nine days.

I whispered, "I think you adopt him."

Three sets of eyes burned into me. Nobody spoke, but they didn't have to. I just knew what they were thinking, they were silently asking for my logic to be explained.

I shrugged, "August 2nd of 2006 is in just a little over a week. You had the paper, and you had him. We're scheduled to be back in Forks on the fourth. What else could her vision have meant?"

Edward quietly agreed, "She makes a point."

Jasper was just sitting there, staring at me with a dark intensity. I'd be afraid he had gone into shock if the others weren't so calm. He was probably just digesting the idea. Knowing him, which I do, he was ripping apart the theory in his head and trying to see if it all matched up.

Some military tactics don't ever leave a person, and analyzing every action, every piece of information, with the utmost care is something Jasper will always do.

After a long time, in vampire standards a least, (as it was no more then five minutes), Jasper snapped out of his sudden shell.

He asked, "Bella, will you come back to the hotel with me for a while? I want to talk to you about

something."

I sat on the bed with Jasper, waiting for him to speak to me. He was quiet for a while before he shared his thoughts, "I've never thought about children before. I never wanted one, at all, even when I was human. They're so small, and fragile, and accident prone."

His eyes widened considerably and I could only imagine the horrible things that were racing through his mind.

I tried to settle his nerves, "I'm accident prone, too, and you get along with me."

Jasper frowned, "Bella, the day you fell out of that tree… If your bone had broken the skin it would have been over. Wolves or no wolves, I would have killed you. I can't manage around human blood when it's right there in the open."

I could understand why he was telling me this. He was afraid, for the child. Little boys get scraped and cut all of the time.

I frowned, "Well, Alice should be able to help, right?"

He shook his head, "Not really. Kids make exactly the kind of split second decisions that messes with her visions. They don't really know what they want until they are about to do it."

I suggested, "Rosalie and Esme could take care of him, then. They'll both be fine. Or Edward, even."

Edward had outstanding self-control, and he'll know exactly what the boy is thinking!

After a few seconds he accused, "You want me to do this."

I blinked in surprise, "Says who? I haven't decided anything!"

Did I want to see him with his family member? Would it actually make him happy?

Jasper leaned back, shrugging lightly. "You're defending the position quite swiftly. It seems to me like you're very decided."

He made a point.

It wasn't my place to tell him to do this if he didn't think it was right.

But it's my job to encourage him to do things, isn't it?

I shrugged and pointed out, "It can't hurt anyone for you to go and at least see the kid."

He asked instantly, "Will you come with me?"

Did I have any reason not to?

I took his hand in my own and smiled, "Of course I will."