Stephenie Meyer owns all of the rights.

"I'm not good enough to be your friend anymore, or anything else. I'm not what I was before. I'm not good." — New Moon

The hunt went well, as planned. I wore some of Rose's old clothes– the ones that she didn't care about and would have used for hunting eventually. She had a large closet full of clothing, it's not as if she needed it all. And, she didn't seem to mind lending it to me for the hunt. I was glad that we were on civil terms now.

Edward was surprised somewhat when he found out what my talent was. He sort of learned about it on our hunt, but later asked me to clarify it. I was good at hunting. Not just food, of course, but people, too. I was a tracker, I guess you could say. And, yes, that was a talent. I rarely used it – who did I want to find? – but I had it. And Edward told me that perhaps it could be of great use to me one day, if I wanted it to be. However, every time I thought about tracking a person, I couldn't help but remember James' cold, hard murderous plot involving me and tracking. Just because I had a talent didn't mean that I had to use it.

Now, three weeks later, Edward and his family were planning on going on a big hunting trip, with the exception of Jasper. Jasper wasn't going because he had just gone on a long hunt a little before his family, and he was good. Edward had told me that Jasper really just needed to 'purge' his feelings for a weekend because the sudden change in feelings around the house was driving him bonkers.

That being said, while the rest of the Cullen family was gone, I'd be "tutored" by Jasper. I think the real reason that Edward was making Jazz "tutor" me was because he was worried how his leaving would affect me in the long run. Trust Edward to think of something ridiculous like that. Okay, maybe I would be a little anxious with Edward gone for four or five days... but I was sure that I could handle it myself.

"I'll see you in a couple days," Edward promised, his lips meeting mine softly. He broke the kiss and pulled me into a tight hug as he kissed my hair. I knew that he was gonna miss me, and I hugged him back pretty tight.

"I'll be fine," I assured him. "Jasper will take good care of me."

Before Edward could say anything else, Emmett beeped the horn loudly outside. The rest of the Cullen clan that was embarking on this "great adventure" were already out in the cars that they would be taking. Edward gently let me go and walked out to the car. I saw him smack Emmett once on the back of the head before they pulled out, bickering by the sounds of it.

"Those boys," laughed Jasper as he shut the door.

"I have two hours until I have to get back to the home," I told Jasper pointlessly. I knew that he probably already knew that.

The next few days went by rather quickly – given the circumstances, I mean. Jasper was a lot of fun to be around. During our time together, we talked about random things, played video games, redecorated Jasper's office (It was now a beautiful baby blue, in contrast to the original white color). We basically were just staying busy, but it was a good busy.

The night before the Cullen family was supposed to come back, Jasper asked me a serious question that I hadn't thought about for a long time. He said, "Bella, have you ever gone to college?"

I shook my head 'no'. "I couldn't afford college because I didn't have an endless supply of money – and I knew that I would have to change jobs every so many years," I hesitated, "But, once, after high-school, I took a training course type thing and started working for a police department and they moved me into their 'missing victims' unit. I suppose that Edward has told you about my 'skill'?"

"Yeah, he said that you're a good tracker. What city were you living in?"

I paused for a second, collecting my thoughts. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go into this matter with Jasper, but then I decided that it was Okay to trust him. "A suburb outside of Vancouver, Canada. I was, of course, working in Vancouver – such a beautiful city," I recalled.

I still thought that one of the prettiest cities that I had seen in my travels was Toronto, Ontario, but it was too sunny there for someone like me to live. Okay, so Vancouver wasn't the rainiest place on Earth, but I managed to get by. Vancouver was one of those cities that it was hard to live in, but if you were dedicated, you could do it.

"What did you do for your job, then?"

"Vancouver is a large city, so no doubt there are people missing and everything. I was put on my first missing person's case when I volunteered – it was a young girl, I think age 4 and a half, missing for 46 hours. I found her within two hours of being on the case. After that, I got a reputation of finding small clues that no one else thought mattered and finding a person – not to mention, I have a wicked sense of smell."

"How long did you stay there?"

I could tell that Jasper was intrigued by this side of me, and with due reason. He had never seen this side of me before. I was still very much so a guarded person around the Cullen Family, especially Edward. It wasn't that I was ashamed of it, per say, but there was so very much in my history that dealt with a darker past that I wasn't sure I wanted to let him see yet. One day I knew that I would let him in, but not just yet.

"I stayed for five years after the course I took ended. So that meant that I was pushing... nearly 25 years old. I didn't want to attract any more attention to myself than I already did."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Immensely. I loved being able to help people, to help kids. It's almost always kids that get lost – occasionally a pregnant woman or something, too. Normally they're just running away from their husbands, though," I reported my findings to my confidant.

Jasper paused, and I could tell that he was trying to work something out in his head. "Then why didn't you do it again in a different city – Seattle or somewhere? I'm sure that you could have easily taken another course like that and kept doing it if you liked it so much."

"It took a toll on me."

"What do you mean?" Jasper questioned me, and I saw him glance up at the clock. We still had plenty of time left together to talk about this. More time that I would have liked, actually.

"Jasper, I don't know what to say. In Vancouver, in the five years that I worked there... I worked on 527 missing persons cases. Out of those cases, roughly 80 percent were children's cases. And out of that 80 percent, 33 percent of the cases ended up with the child dead. That's 139 dead children," I added so that he didn't have to do the math.

"Wow, Bella. That's..." His voice trailed off, and I could tell that he was at a loss for words.

"And...," I started, but never finished. I was scared of admitting what I wanted to tell him badly. It had been nearly 30 years since this had happened, and I had never told anyone. I felt awful for the thoughts that were racing around my head.

"It's okay, Bella. You can trust me, you can tell me."

I felt soothing waves emitting from Jasper's body and calming me. It felt really nice, and I knew that regardless of if he was using his powers to draw a response out of me, I would have told him. He was just a good person. Next to Edward, I think that he was one of my favorite people in the family. He just cared so much and did everything in his power – quite literally, in his case – to understand and help when he could.

"During the years that I lived in Vancouver, I made a really good friend. Her name was Madison Cunnings, and she was married to this really nice boy named Jeff. She was my best friend. I confided in her with everything, except for the fact that I'm a vampire. I wanted to tell her that, too, but I didn't know how to go about saying that. And, I knew that would get me and her and her family into deep trouble with... the Volturi."

I paused for a moment, wondering how I was going to phrase the rest of my thoughts and story together. This had all happened very long ago, but as I spoke about it, it felt so much more recent. Jasper laid a comforting hand on my own hand and I felt deeply calmed. I thanked him by looking into his eyes and opening my mouth to speak once more.

"They had trouble conceiving a child, and when they did, they had a lovely baby girl whom they named Katherine. They named me as her god-mother. I was thrilled. Right before I quit my job, however, someone kidnaped beloved Katherine. He was another Vampire in the area, who hated me and wanted to get at me the easiest way possible. He took her to a suburb of Vancouver and murdered her – sucked her blood dry. She was three years old; he killed her on her birthday. Can you imagine how I felt when I had to go to my best friend and say, 'yeah, I found Kathy, but she's dead'? Jasper, it killed what was left of my ability to love.

"After that, I vowed to never do that kind of work again, never to get close enough to anyone again. I didn't want to get hurt anymore, Jasper. I was so tired of the pain that I felt every day and every night. It wasn't worth it to me. That's when I really started posing as a runaway teen. It was safer."

Without any words shared between us, Jasper leaned forward and just hugged me tightly. "It's okay, Bella. Thank you for telling me that."

"Please don't tell Edward," I requested. "I'll tell him when I'm ready to tell him."

"I promise," he assured me.

I hadn't really used my tracking skill since everything with baby Katherine happened. I was glad, too. That was a part of me that I wanted to completely forget.

I was happy when Jasper walked me back to the home. I told them that I didn't feel well – and who could argue when my skin was so pale? – and spent the rest of the night lying in my bed. I knew that if I could cry, I would have cried myself to sleep that night. All I wanted to do was to tell Edward that same story, but I didn't want him to hate me for it, either. I was so nervous, yet so happy that he would be coming home soon.

I couldn't help but wonder how he would feel about my history when I told him the next day.