(I've been sitting on this for months, the original that I had written got lost on a flash drive mishap. Sorry for the delay, I'll work on more writing over break, here are two new drabbles for you all. Enjoy!)
It happened one day while Jasper was hunting. He was joined by Carlisle and Emmett, while Rosalie and Esme had gone to Seattle for the day to do some shopping. Bella was reading to Nessie back at their cottage, and Edward stayed back at the house, helping Alice escape.
When Jasper returned he could immediately feel the guilt radiating off of his brother, who looked grim and withdrawn, idly playing a tune on the piano. Edward had looked up at him, pain and sympathy flowing off of him and Jasper froze. Instantly he knew what had happened.
He dropped to his knees on the spot, Edward and Emmett rushed forward to grab him, dragged him over to the couch. Carlisle was already on the phone whispering quickly to Esme, informing her and Rosalie of Alice's decision.
Engines rumbled in the driveway before extinguishing, the crunching sound of rusty doors slammed before three yapping shape shifters made their way up to the Cullen's porch. Inside the door Jake stopped, looking frantically to Edward after he saw Carlisle snap his phone shut stiffly.
"What's wrong?" Jake asked not moving any further inside.
Edward looked from his brother to the wolves at the door. He swallowed instinctively, "Alice-"
"She's gone," Jasper choked from between his brothers.
Leah pushed Jake aside and strode inside, "what?" she glared and looked around at the lack of female Cullen's present before Bella rushed through the back and into the living room, Nessie clutched to her chest.
"What do you mean Alice is gone?" Bella shrieked.
Jasper stared unseeing at the floor, his eyes widened and empty, Emmett held tightly to his shoulder still, Edward pushed up from the couch to console his hysterical wife and wailing daughter. Jake rushed to join him.
Seth opened and closed his mouth, resembling a goldfish, eyes wide in shock.
Leah looked around at them all, Jasper was felt everything that they were, and his pain at the loss of his wife was multiplied by the present company. "Do we know who did this?" Leah hissed to Carlisle.
"She saw something," Edward said quietly, as he looked away from his wife for a moment, Bella still clutched to his arms, Nessie sobbed into Jake's neck. His gaze cast downward he nodded towards Leah, "she saw herself, happier, elsewhere," he bit enigmatically.
A flare of righteous anger ignited in Leah and she exhaled harshly through her nostrils. She moved swiftly so that she stood in front of Jasper and grabbed his free hand and yanked on his marble form until he looked up at her. A flicker of recognition rose in his eyes.
"Let's go," she growled when she reached for his wrist instead.
"Hey there, Wolf-girl, he just lost his wife, I don't know what you have-"
"Shut it, you do realize that you're all overloading him, right? He's dealing with, with, his own issues and he has to be bombarded by all of your feelings on the matter as well! I don't think so, let's go," she barked the order.
Jasper rose mechanically and followed Leah as she attempted to drag him outside. On the porch she dropped her hold on him and stalked towards her car.
Before Leah could reach her side of the Bronco, Jasper was there, eyes cast down as he held the door open for her. Leah stopped at the front of her car and blinked, "what the fuck are you doing?"
Jasper looked to her then back to the door in his hand, "Opening your door?" he questioned, his voice sounded distant, like the look in his eyes.
Leah arched an eyebrow and clutched her keys tighter in her hand. "You're not driving my car," she growled.
He looked at her exasperated "Holding it open for you."
Leah fixed him with a strange glare and proceeded to stomp over to her side and climbed in past Jasper. She buckled as he shut her door and got in through the passenger side door with a pained look more prominent on his features. Leah jammed her key in the ignition, pumped her clutch and brakes as she glared ahead, "Why did you do that?" she snapped.
Silence was her answer.
They drove for several minutes before Jasper finally spoke again, "Where are we going?"
"Well," Leah began. "We're going to go find your wife," she answered. "I figured Mama-vamp and your not-twin-sister are scouring Seattle since they're already there. And we'll try to track her down this way," Leah explained.
Jasper nodded numbly. A minute or two passed. "She drives a Porsche, you can't catch her in this truck," he said eloquently.
Leah sighed and tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "I get that," she said condescendingly to Jasper as if he were a petulant child. "We're going to beg Charlie to put out an APB on her car and on her, saying that she ran away, everyone thinks she's my age anyway-"
"If Alice doesn't want to be found we won't be able to find her," Jasper stated.
Anger exploded from Leah and she slammed her foot on the brake, forgetting the clutch, as the car screeched to a halt and the engine sputtered and jumped under them until it stalled out, her hand met the steering wheel violently as she let out a loud curse. She shook as she aggressively tried to restart the car, but icy fingers delayed her movement. "What?" she screamed as she looked over to a stoic vampire in her passenger seat.
Jasper opened his mouth to speak but then closed it, a tic in his clenched jaw attracted Leah's attention. "You removed me from my home because I was drowning in my family's emotions, and now you're scorching me with your anger," he said tersely.
Leah paled, "Oh, shit. Sorry," she apologized quickly, and then breathed in slowly, forced herself to clear her head and reel in her anger, protect the Empath from her rage as she worked to let it dissipate easily. After a few silent prayers and a crack of her neck, she noticed Jasper breathing calmly in sync with her. She focused on their joint breaths, in through the nose, raising the soft pallet, the air cycling down through her throat, gathering in the bottom of her lungs and swelling to the top; a controlled exhale through the mouth the air pressing out slowly, stomach muscles contracting. Leah felt an overwhelming sense of peace and –gratitude? She opened her eyes and realized that Jasper was looking at her now, an easy expression on his face. "Why don't you want us to find Alice?" Leah asked.
Jasper cringed, "If she left, she had a reason; and if she left without telling me, or saying," he gulped unnecessarily, "goodbye, then I should respect that."
Leah nodded, numb, and pushed against Jasper's influence over her emotions.
"Why did you help me? Why do you think I need to find Alice?" Jasper asked, resisted the desire to send calm emotions at Leah.
Leah shrugged, "Same shoes," she mumbled, a pang of pain escaped her barrier. "Just thought you deserved an explanation from the horse's mouth."
Jasper nodded now. "That's – very unselfish Leah, thank you."
Leah coughed. "No, it's not, it's very selfish. I figured – at first – that she was killed which would equal another suicide mission and I'm kinda starting to enjoy life again; but when my favorite mind-raping leech said she split, well, I figured that'd just be the downfall of the house of cards. Domino effect, n'shit, which would lead to Jake leaving and forcing us to go back to Sam," Leah finished her speech picking at a hangnail while Jasper felt the ghost of that pain from earlier flash through, more dull though, almost diminished, if only the memory of the pain. "So don't thank me, because this is really for me," she frowned, her hand reached to turn the engine over again, but Jasper's hand stopped her again. She looked up shocked, an exclamation stuck behind her teeth.
Jasper looked at her directly in her dark chocolate eyes, which caused Leah to repress the chills that shot up her spine. "Thank you," he said again, as he rubbed his icy thumb over the back of her feverish skin, encased in his cold, stone grip.