Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or it's characters.

Note: I'm sorry for the long time between updates. I'm finished with the busy stuff, so expect regular updates again.

When he didn't come down after five minutes, I started playing with a piece of lint I found on my jeans while thinking about being a vampire and what that actually meant. I pictured Renee trying to figure out why I never visited her. I saw Charlie, noticing how pale I looked and how my brown eyes were now colored with gold. And then I saw Bella, looking just a beautiful as me and Jasper. When I accidentally flicked the lint off my knee, I started picking at my nails. In my line of sight, a third hand crept in. I thought it was going to land on mine to stop the nervous picking, but it went to my forearm instead. I stopped moving, recognizing the foreign hand as belonging to my enemy. That was when the hand clamped down.

It pulled me off the step, making me trip on my own feet as I tried to get them under me. I looked up at the aggressive male leading me to the dining room. "Stop it. If you wanted to talk, you could have asked."

"You wouldn't have come," he simply said.

The tall, bronze haired man with chiseled facial features looked back into my angry yet determined face. I couldn't see what Bella saw in him. He looked too perfect. My thoughts must have struck a nerve because I felt the hand squeeze my arm just enough for me to notice. "How do you know? You can't see the future."

"You can," he said, letting go of me.

"What?" I shook my head, startled. "Well, sort of, but no. It's just wishful thinking."

"Except for Jasper?" he asked, looking smug.

"Listen, just because you can go into my head, doesn't mean you should. You need to learn restraint. Or ask people if you can dig inside. Oh! I know! Dig around in Bella's head."

"This isn't about Bella." I rolled my eyes which didn't help the situation. He moved his face as close as he could to mine and I thought I could smell Bella's flowery shampoo on him. "You need to stop putting ideas into Jasper's head."

"And you need to start putting ideas into Bella's," I spit back.

Angering a vampire wasn't a good idea. I jumped as I heard drywall crumble. If my eyes were closed I could have sworn he hit the wall behind me. But, in the time it took me to blink, he was on the other side of the room standing in front of a hole the size of his hand. The whole thing startled me enough my heart wouldn't calm down with a few simple breaths. I hated how Edward and everyone else in the house could hear that.

"Edward," Esme's voice softly called from the doorway to the kitchen.

"You need to go cool off, man," Emmett said next to me.

"Get away from her."

"Jasper," I finally spoke, still looking at Edward looking at me. "It was my fault. I'll fix it."

"He should know better."

I'm sorry, I apologized to Edward without speaking. I have a tendency to poke before thinking. But you need to understand this isn't your life. And people in love do crazy things. I thought I saw eyes soften, but I couldn't focus on it for long as his features hardened again.

"Go. I'll fix it."

Jasper took a hold of my hand and anxiously pulled me out of the room. I mouthed a sorry as I passed Emmett. He shrugged his shoulders as if telling me another confrontation was bound to happen.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to let him do all the work?" I asked as he took us away from everyone.

"Yes," said Jasper in a clipped tone.

"You're angry."

"Yes," he repeated, taking me upstairs.

"I'm sorry?"

"Is that a question?"

"No."

He stopped in front of his bedroom door and turned around. "Look," he said as he placed both his hands on the side of my face, "you can't do that to him, to anyone for that matter. Do you know how easily he could have snapped your neck?"

"Yes, but-"

"We're not going to talk about changing you until we get through prom."

"But-"

"You weren't thinking of changing until after graduation, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then we still have a year to think about it before seriously talking about it."

I looked at his panicked face. I was confused by the urgency in his voice, the way he ran though everything as if checking them off a list. My voice hitched in my throat, causing me to swallow the panic that was starting to run through me. For the first time this afternoon, I was truly frightened. "Okay," I choked out, watching his eyes darting to my face and away. "But-"

"We're not going to talk about it," he said, almost growling.

"I know, but what's going on with you?"

He dropped his hands and walked into his room, shutting the door behind him. I looked down the lonely hallway and suddenly felt half my size. "You're scaring me, Jasper." His voice didn't come to me, but I did start to feel calm, more than I had in the past twenty minutes. "That's…better. I still wish you'd talk to me, though." I placed my hand on the door beside me. "I'll go help Edward."

As I stepped away with my right foot, I dropped my hand. My nails scraped against the wood until my index finger caught against the decorated grooves. A pain shot through my finger, and I shook my hand to get rid of it. I didn't have to look at it to realize I bent my nail back. Of all the dumb luck, I thought as I continued on my way to the stairs. I paused at the top to look at my finger. I had bent it back far enough that small beads of blood were starting to peak out between my nail and my skin. "Shoot."

Nothing in my life registered as slowly as that moment did. The blood wasn't enough to warrant anything more than maybe a run under some water, so I didn't think much of it. This injury happened more than once and I was beyond positive this wasn't going to be the last. But, as I placed my other hand on the banister to guide me safely down the stairs, I saw Edward running toward me. I cocked my head to the side and furrowed my eyebrows as I tried to get a grasp on why he looked so frightened. I felt my purse being pulled behind me and I looked over my shoulder to see what was happening.

I heard Carlisle. "Don't, Jasper."

Edward grabbed my shoulders and pulled me toward him with one hand as the other knocked my knees out from under me. I was still trying to look back behind me when my purse strap broke, but I ignored the falling item to stare at Jasper and Carlisle as I traveled back with Edward. Jasper's hand was reaching toward me. His lips were snarled back like a large cat wanting to go after its prey but not being able to do so. Carlisle was doing his best to hold back his adopted son while trying to catch his attention to get him out of attack mode. To me, he looked as though he didn't know who I was; I was only a piece of meat he wanted.

It was then I realized what was going on.

Edward ran with me into the garage without a word and placed me on the counter in front of the Aston Martin. He looked through a cabinet toward the door and pulled out a first aid kit. I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, we have a few," he said, answering my unasked question. "It has peroxide. We need to clean up-"

"My nail?"

"It's bleeding." I held out my finger. The bleeding had stopped. "But we can still smell it."

He placed the kit next to me and I pulled out the peroxide and gauze. As I cleaned my finger, I thought about Jasper and wondered if he was back to normal.

"No," he told me, pulling out shallow metal pan. He motioned for me to place the gauze in it. "I don't think he will be."

"Because of me," I said, understanding the situation.

"That is why the two of you need to stay away from each other. He isn't in control of himself yet." He lit the gauze on fire with a lighter I didn't see him get. "He's the only one who has lived off human blood."

I stared at my finger. The only thing that signified the excitement a minute earlier was a light white line across my nail. I thought about how Jasper would be the next time I saw him and how we were going get through this setback. I then thought about Bella. It was a rogue thought, most likely to make me stop thinking about Jasper, but it caused Edward to toss the metal pan in the garbage can harder than I was sure he wanted to. I felt the need to explain myself, but I knew he could see what I wanted to say before it even left my lips.

"I didn't mean to. She just popped in there. She has a tendency to do that."

"I know."

I dropped my hand, but kept staring at the spot it had been. It caused the Vanquish to focus into the foreground. My thoughts went back to Jasper, but Bella still sat on the edge. "He's stronger than he gives himself credit for. So is she."

"I know."

"I'm sorry."

"I am as well."

We didn't explain ourselves more than that. I tried to keep Edward away from my thoughts by counting. I focused on each number as it went past, but each time I made it to a significant number, my mind would jump to its meaning. Edward was nice enough not to make a sound each time I faltered. I made it to 1,863 when someone walked into the garage with us.

"Alice, I am going to take you home. Jasper apologizes he cannot do it himself," said Carlisle's voice. "Here."

I nodded and took my purse. He signaled for me to get into the black Mercedes. "Tell him it's not his fault," I said, glancing toward Edward. He nodded once and I followed Carlisle's directions.

Carlisle dropped me off before Bella returned home from school. I immediately went up to our room and fell onto my side of the bed. I thought I was going to cry or, at the very least, play through the events of the short afternoon. I didn't. With my face buried in my pillow, I fell into a restless sleep.

I looked for him Monday, but he wasn't there. It didn't matter until lunch rolled around. Walking in, I was still debating whether or not I should just skip it since I couldn't sit with Bella or the Cullens. Luckily, I was saved by Emmett and his big hand waving me over to his table. I smiled in relief as I walked over. Other than asking how Jasper was, our table was quiet while the three of them feigned eating and I picked at mine.

It was like that for the next couple of days.

I thought the evenings were going to be the hardest, but I was surprised on Monday when Edward told me to wait with them by his car after school. We waited until the parking lot was empty and I exhausted my supply of questions they wouldn't answer. It was then a car pulled up and Esme stepped out. She ushered me to the car and I went obediently. At first, I naively thought we were going to see Jasper, but she turned the opposite direction. We – more like I – ended up having a nice dinner while we talked about stories of the past.

The next two nights went the same way. Tuesday was Emmett's turn, Wednesday's was Rosalie's. All in all, it was nice to spend time with the family, and I got to know them better, but I couldn't understand why they needed to babysit me. None of them gave me a straight answer to my questions.

On Thursday, Jasper finally showed up. We walked near each other but not as close as before. Our conversation at lunch consisted of the weather and how our studies were going. Everything was overly formal, and I wondered if anyone noticed how the air between us changed. One shake from Edward's head told me my sister didn't even notice anything was up. I didn't know if I was happy about that or not. However, I did know I would eventually have to talk to her.

That evening Rosalie stayed with me again. We went to Port Angeles to do a little shopping. Nothing caught our attention, but we did end up having a small conversation about Jasper. She told me to expect him on Friday with explanations in hand.

I saw Jasper the next morning standing stiffly on the other side of the road by the Aston Martin with a lone lily in his hand. My lips pulled into a small smile. Without a word, Bella got into her truck and went off to school. As soon as she was out of sight, Jasper walked toward me as I moved toward him. We met on the sidewalk to the driveway and he handed me the flower.

"I'm going to put this in something. Do you want to come in?" I asked.

He shook his head.

I rushed inside to find a vase but couldn't find one. Instead, I had to put the flower in a large Seattle Mariners souvenir cup. It looked silly sitting on the small kitchen table and I laughed despite myself.

Jasper was back at the car when I came out again. I half jogged, half walked in anticipation of what the day was going to bring. I hated the fact school was going to have to get into the way of our reunion.

"We're not going to school today."

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

A hopeful hitch in my heart presented itself, and I immediately regretted it. He regretted it too. As quiet as I could be in the gravel of the street, I walked to the passenger side of the car and got in. We didn't say anything else until we reached our destination.

"Are we going to talk about why someone was always around me this week or are we leaving that until the end," I spoke, breaking the still air between us.

"I didn't want you to be tempted to come see me."

I twisted in my seat to see him. "That is a crappy answer and you know it."

There were a few false starts before he replied, "I wanted to keep your mind off the bad." I looked at him questioningly. "You would have tried to break everything down to fix a situation you couldn't have fixed. Then you would have tried to talk to me, and I wasn't ready. I still don't think I'm ready."

It was my turn for false starts. I wanted to refute his statements, but he was right. Having everyone around me, even if they didn't talk to me, made me focus on other aspects of my life like school, Charlie, and Bella. It worked best at school because of Edward and his ability to crawl into my mind, even when I didn't want him there. And, as much as I didn't want to admit it, spending time after school with Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie also helped. It all allowed me to be close to Jasper without being near him. It made me realize early on I wasn't going to be pushed out of his life for good.

"How do you already know me when you don't even know yourself?" I finally blurted out. I lifted a hand to reach out for him, but he jerked back against the car door. It reminded me of when I first tried to reach out to him.

"I do know myself. That is why I am planning on telling you no." He worked his way out of the car and I watched him as he disappeared out the door. I sat in the car for a half a minute before I followed him.

"You can't keep running away from me, Jasper," I said, walking into the house.

"Hello, Alice," said Esme, almost popping up in front of me. "Can I get you anything?"

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

"Okay. If you need anything just ask." She looked at me with her all knowing golden eyes. "I'll be around."

"Thank you," I said again and passed her, determined to find Jasper before he locked himself in his room again. I found him sitting on the couch in the spot Rosalie was the last time I was over. I took a deep breath and walked over to sit next him in the chair Emmett was in. "We need to talk about it."

"That is why I brought you over. So we could talk. But you're not going to change my mind."

"What happened last week won't happen again if I'm a vampire," I started. "So it'll help you, not hurt you."

He half smiled. "I know. It would be nice to not to want to kill you over a simple injury."

I looked away, ashamed. "Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking."

"It's not your fault."

My eyes found his again. "If it's not my fault and it's not your fault, then whose fault is it?"

Jasper took a moment to act as though he was thinking deeply about the question. "Edward's."

Unable to stop myself, I snorted into a laugh, breaking the tension between us. When I calmed myself down, I tried reaching out to Jasper again by moving onto the couch and placing a hand on his thigh. He didn't jerk away, but I could still feel him tense up.

"Did you mean it?" he asked, changing the way I thought the conversation was going.

"Mean what?"

"When you and Edward were squaring off in the dining room, you turned your feelings from anger to…love."

"And you think I fake my feelings?" I asked backed by fake anger. My looks softened and I turned on the couch and sat up on my knees. I then took his face in my hands, making him look at me and nothing else. "I mean every word and every feeling concerning you." I leaned forward and kissed his forehead and let go. "Now, I have a question for you. What was up with you after that? You freaked me out."

"Your feelings weighed so much, I didn't know what else to feel. You freaked me out, Alice. Once I left your side, it was easier to concentrate on calming myself down. And you."

"Don't scare me like that again."

It was his turn to laugh. "I came after you bearing my teeth," – he flashed a frown – "yet you were only scared of me when I was panicking over a feeling?"

"I knew you weren't going to kill me. And you won't kill me when that day comes."

"How can you be so sure?" Jasper asked me seriously.

"Because I've seen it," I answered just as seriously.

The rest of the day was spent talking about nothing and everything. He shared more about his past and I shared more about my ability. I talked about Bella and he talked about Edward. We talked about the day when I would become part of his coven, although he still insisted he wasn't going to be the one to place his teeth in me. We talked about what the first months of being a vampire meant. And we talked about the family I would have to give up until I figured out how to include them in my new life without putting them in danger. By the time the rest of the family found themselves together again at the end of the day, Jasper and I were peacefully together on the couch trying to be blissfully unaware of what the world was doing around us.