A/N: All right! It's crunch time! I've got a limited time to post the last three chapters for this story, so here's go nothing! Hope you enjoy this chapter and the following two I plan to post tonight!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight series or characters.

Solar Eclipse

Chapter 2: The Switch

Jasper sidles up the concrete drive of the Cullen home with Alice cradled in his arms at the stroke of twilight. With little effort, Jasper unlocks the door and eases into the eerie silence of their home. From the looks of things, everyone is still out with their respective partners, enjoying the last bit of daylight left in the inky purple hue of the sky. Jasper has a feeling that soon the deafening silence will be filled with the noise of inhabitance again and so he bustles up the stairs, carrying Alice to her bedroom. Once there, he shifts all of Alice's weight into one arm and effortlessly nudges the door open with his shoulder and ushers inside the gray darkness hugging the inside of her room.

For a few moments, Jasper is at a loss of what to do in order to prevent further agitation of Alice's condition. Thinking quickly, however, Jasper gently props Alice upright against her back wall and busies himself with making Alice's sole piece of furniture—a recliner—comfortable and more suitable for cradling her aching head. Once he feels he has done an adequate job of this, Jasper scoops Alice into the crook of his arms and settles her down into the cottony comfort of the several blankets and pillows he had positioned there on the recliner. Alice—with her eyes still tightly shut—is unaware of her newest surroundings, but she can feel Jasper's energy nearby and his gaze scorching through her with anxious apprehension. Once again Jasper is unsure of what to do next and just stands idly by, watching the slow rise and fall of Alice's chest as she takes in deep heaves of the air around her.

After a while, Jasper begins to feel that it is best to leave Alice alone and starts to turn on his heel to leave her in peace. He pauses, however, when he feels a familiar hand catch his arm in a firm, assertive grip.

"Don't go," Alice says with an undercurrent of desperation in her voice.

Though her eyes remain closed, Jasper is certain that her eyes are mirroring the desperation oozing painfully from her words. Jasper turns to look down at her then, his face an expressionless mask.

"Please don't go," she pleads once again, finally opening her eyes.

Jasper can read the need and fear there and these emotions blanket her in an aura of helplessness that he can't deny. Unable to resist Alice's plea, Jasper settles down beside her on the arm of the recliner noiselessly. The black leather hisses as Alice shifts to rest her head on his lap, a sigh escaping her. Jasper can feel her emotions beginning to ease into a faux zone of comfort just by his presence alone and the very idea of this warms a part of him he had long since thought had frozen over. He knew he couldn't provide her with true comfort, for he had no idea what was plaguing her mind, nor did he have the ability to relinquish her pain. All he could do was relieve her mind by remaining by her side.

Alice relishes in the startlingly swelling waves of relief that wash over her just by mere contact with Jasper. Though his gift gave him some measure of control over the effects he had on others, she suspected that a part of the easiness she was feeling had to do with Jasper's presence alone. It felt so unbelievable wonderful to be in his arms, feeling elatedly—and unrealistically—safe. If it were possible, she would remain in his arms for all eternity like this, if only to feel the solid existence of him cuddled close to her. Though part of her mind told her that such a thought was wishful thinking, the other, more optimistic part files it away as a prospective thought in perhaps the distant or near future.

Silence hovers over them in a hazy blanket and they thoroughly enjoy such peace, which soothes their minds. Without any pretense of warning, Alice begins to tremble against Jasper soundlessly and when he reaches downward to stroke her cheek, he finds them to be moist; Alice is crying. Alice's confused jumble of emotions—facilitating between fear, pain, anguish and despair—nearly chokes him as her tears continue to flow. Without thinking, he reaches for her and pulls her into an embrace. He can feel the icy chill of Alice's tears soaking into his sweater and his hand reaches up to cradle her head against his chest.

A muffled sob erupts from her and pierces his ears and his heart; Jasper had never heard such a sound escape Alice before and he was certain that he never wanted to hear it again. Alice digs her hands into the superficial, fragile material of Jasper's sweater, pulling him close and drawing in more of his graciously offered comfort. They remain like that for quite some time—seconds melded into minutes and minutes meshed into hours. Jasper continues to hold onto her, reluctant to let go for fear she may melt away with the silent wash of tears still gliding down her cool visage. A gasp escapes Alice followed by a helpless sound as a jolt of pain sears through her mind like a hot lance.

"It hurts . . ." Alice hisses, recoiling away from her inescapable pain and snuggling closer to him.

Jasper strokes her hair, desperately trying to relinquish the pain wracking her mind with physical solace. He continues to hold onto her and the convulsive tremors passing through her body begin to slowly subside. He can feel her entire frame relax against him as full-body relief blankets her emotions. Jasper stays with Alice until the first light of morning brightens the sky over the darkened trees that hug the acres of land that the Cullen home encompasses.

"Alice . . ." he whispers against her hair.

"Yes," she mumbles, shifting so that she is looking up at him.

"Will it be sunny today," he asks, before tracing his thumb across her pallid cheek.

Outside the sky continues to lighten, but clouds obscuring a clear view of the sun begin to become apparent. Alice moves out of his arms to stretch and shakes her head. "No."

Then after a pause, "I guess we better get ready for school then." Her voice is quiet and Jasper can detect a hint of pain, hidden in those words.

"I suppose . . ." Jasper says with a note of hesitancy.

Alice instantly picks up on this and asks, "What's wrong Jasper?"

He locks gazes with her, searching them as though they hold the key to his anxiety. "I'm just worried about you," he says after a while of staring deeply into her riveting eyes.

"I'm fine Jasper. There's no need to worry about me now," she says, but Jasper picks up a trace of doubt in her emotions and he can see its unearthly gleam there in her eyes.

Jasper brushes her cheek tenderly before getting up and leaving to prepare for yet another school day. Before he was even within a foot of the door, Jasper picks up the tactfully hidden emotions of Edward outside in the hall. He turns the doorknob and opens the door, entering the hall quietly and shutting it behind him without a word. He knew Edward hadn't been listening long and may have caught snatches of the latter part of his conversation with Alice. As soon as he was far enough away from Alice's door, Edward appeared before him, his expression blank—an unreadable mask.

"What do you want Edward," Jasper asks with a flames of contempt warming his every word.

Edward ignores the heat of his words before he says, "The truth; I want to know what's going on. Why were you in Alice's room all night?"

"It's none of your business," Jasper says, sidestepping Edward before stalking down the hall towards his room.

Edward appears before Jasper again and he has to halt mid-stride to prevent a collision with his older brother. Edward remains silent for a moment, staring Jasper down with a cool gaze of irritating determination.

"Yes it is," Edward says at last. Edward shakes his head for a moment and grips Jasper by the shoulders in a pleading gesture. "Something is wrong with Alice," he continues, "and I'd like to know what, so I can tell the others."

Jasper's eyes darken in a barely controlled fury; he has to shut his eyes just to contain his beastly anger alone. "Alice doesn't need you broadcasting her business, so just leave her alone," he grinds out between gnashing fangs.

"Tell me," Edward hisses, trying to break through Jasper's mental defenses and uncover the truth about what was going on.

"Get out of my head," Jasper growls before swinging his fist blindly; it connects solidly with Edward's jaw, a blow that would have surely broken any human's neck or jaw in an instant.

Edward stumbles backward from the assaulting blow his back connecting with the opposite wall. His face exhibits true astonishment as he stares at a furious Jasper from across the hall. Without another glance backwards, Jasper heads down the hall to his room and locks himself in the comforting solace it offers.

******

Jasper wastes no time in getting dressed in fresh clothes and sneaks out of his room, checking the hall before leaving. He skirts past Edward's room and treads carefully across the carpeted floor to Alice's room. He knocks sharply and she opens the door instantly. Before she can utter a single word of greeting, Jasper nudges her back into her room and kicks the door closed behind him. He grips her shoulders gently and locks gazes with her.

"Alice . . . Edward is onto us," he says at last.

"What?" Alice questions quietly.

"Edward is starting to get curious about what's going on, and to top it off, he heard part of our conversation earlier on."

Alice stifles a gasp at learning this. "How much does he know?"

"Not much. He only knows something is wrong with you, but he doesn't know what. If you want to keep what's going on with you from the family, you'll have to guard your thoughts more carefully."

"I understand. I'm sure you'll do the same."

"Of course. As long as you need me to," Jasper reassures her. "Besides," he continues, "I don't like Edward prying my mind or yours for information. He tried it on me earlier and I knocked him across the hall."

Alice gasps, shocked to hear of Jasper's unusually uncharacteristic show of violence; "Is he all right?"

"Yeah, but I think his pride is hurt. My show of violence of course will only renew his vigor to discover what we're hiding from him and the rest of the family."

"I know . . ." Alice sighs. "But that's all the more reason for us to shield our thoughts."

"Yeah . . ." Jasper says, running nimble fingers through his unruly curls.

Dropping his hands from her shoulders, he reaches for her hand and tows her to the door and leads her out into the hall. Alice shuts the door behind her sharply, and allows Jasper to lead her down the stairs and out in front of the house to wait for Edward in the light drizzle spilling from the dreary clouds hovering above them. Not long after they exited the front door, Edward appears and they collectively head towards the Volvo. They silently pile into the car and settle into their own personal zones of reflective thought as soon as Edward eases the car in reverse and sends the car skidding in a whirling screech of tires down the drive. An endless sea of trees slid by the rain-pattered window; the mind-numbing pitter-patter of raindrops on the Volvo's metallic roof did nothing to disrupt their thoughts.

Alice and Jasper sat in the back seat as always, hands intertwined warmly. Both of them were shielding their thoughts and this fact frustrated Edward. He struggles to break their mental shields and plow through their minds for the truth, but this amount of psychic exertion brings him to the brink of exhaustion. Edward's hands tighten on the steering wheel, turning his knuckles paler than usual. From then on, he gives up and the car is filled to the brim with a stifling silence as they speed closer to Forks High School.

Before long, they arrive at school and enter the building together. Edward leaves them as soon as they enter the vacant halls and only Alice and Jasper remain.

"We better get to class," Jasper says, stroking the back of Alice's cool hand with his thumb. Part of him wanted her to refuse to go to class, but Alice could have an obstinate nature about her when she felt that she needed to put up a strong front to prove her worth.

"Yeah . . ." she breathes, relishing in the caress of his thumb along her hand.

She holds onto his hand with a desperate squeeze, prolonging their physical contact. Alice tries to soak in as much of his strength as she can before she leaves for class; it was perhaps the only thing that would be able to get her through the day. At last she lets go, hesitating even as her hand slides from his, before loping down the vacant halls for first period. Jasper fights the urge to call her back and heads in the opposite direction to go to his first period class.

******

By fourth period, Jasper begins to occupy his mind with troublesome thoughts that revolve around Alice's welfare. All throughout class he kept wondering how she was faring and soon his anxiety begins to wear him out; he asks for the pass as an excuse to leave class and ventures on to inquire about her health. Jasper treads down the tiled hallway like the cool passing of a ghost, careful not to disturb the other classes that were in session. Jasper continues down the main hall for a little longer before turning down a smaller more secluded hall, which held five classrooms on either side. Alice's classroom was the third one on the right and he slides along the wall farthest from the doorway and peers inside.

Alice is easy to spot; she is sitting in the first seat of the first row and is closest to the door, making her easily visible from the doorway window. Half of Alice's class was already zoning into their own private daydreams and others were sleeping away on their desks without a care in the world as the teacher droned on and on in the front of the room. Alice was one of the few who struggles to remain attentive during the teacher's lecture, but Jasper can see right through her ruse; she was suffering on the inside—he could tell. Her features may have looked to be contorted in what would at first be seen as a frown of undue concentration, but in actuality, Jasper could see it as the look of anguish that it was not meant to be seen as. Her emotions radiated out to him and he shivered at the amount of pain he could feel piercing through her mind and permeating through her overwhelmingly, powerful emotions.

Without giving much thought to his next set of actions, Jasper knocks on the classroom door. Alice sees that it's him and raises her hand, requesting to open the door.

"What are you doing here?" Alice's lips move in a blur of speed that could not be detected by the human eye and her words are so silent, they are nearly nonexistent.

"Getting you out of here," Jasper answers in the same mind boggling movement of lips that produce no sound.

Alice takes her seat quietly, watching Jasper sidle up to her teacher, bewilderment apparent in the furrowing of her brow.

"Excuse me sir," Jasper enunciates quietly and with a measure of devastating politeness.

"Yes . . ." he says. Turning his attention away from his bored class, he suddenly focuses his attention on Jasper.

"I regret to inform you that Alice will not be here the remainder of your class or the day. A family emergency has come up and Dr. Cullen needs us to be home as soon as possible."

Alice watches her teacher's face scrunch up in clear dislike of the fact that Alice would be missing his fabulous lecture, but soon relents to the inevitable.

"All right," he says, making a dismissive gesture in Alice's direction. "You're excused Alice. Be sure to make up the work from today's class and have it on my desk first thing Monday morning."

"Yes sir," Alice says, rising slowly and packing her things, mind racing with a string of thoughts.

Alice precedes Jasper and they exit the classroom quietly. Jasper shuts the door behind him, successfully cutting off the unbearable monotone of Alice's teacher. Jasper can read the questions darting behind the startlingly vivid warmth of her eyes, but he ignores them and grips her arm, tugging her further down the hall and out of earshot of the other classrooms inconveniently dotting the hall. Once they are a few paces away from the remainder of the classrooms, Jasper pulls Alice into a fierce embrace, which Alice instantly returns with as much vigor and need. He runs his hands soothingly up her back, while simultaneously easing her mind into a passively comfortable state.

They cling to each other, reluctant to leave each other's arms; their physical contact kept them rooted in the reality still ever existent in the world about them.

"Come with me," Jasper whispers against her hair after a while. "Let's get out of here . . ." Jasper holds her firmly to him, afraid and eager to hear her reply.

"Yes . . ." Alice murmurs against his chest, clinging to him more fiercely to prolong their embrace.

Without a second to lose, Jasper pulls away from Alice and grips her dainty hand in his. Fully aware of the dire consequences of his actions, Jasper begins to speed down the halls with god-like, inhuman speed with Alice keeping pace with him. It was likely that someone could have spotted them, but Jasper didn't care. He was functioning on one sole purpose: Making Alice happy again and relieving her pain—a selfless act on his part.

******

Within five minutes, they arrive at the lake. The scenery about them has taken on a dreary, cool disposition. The lake is not the vibrantly flowing rush of liquid in a confined space, but rather, a halcyon, gray reflection of the dark sky above. Even the trees around them seem to be more imposing. They stood tall as always, but they seemed to be watching all that went on about them. Jasper and Alice stand amidst this new environment silently—hands still intertwined in a needy press of cool flesh.

Alice turns and looks up at Jasper and for a while he does not acknowledge her questioning glance. He caves when she reaches upward and turns his face so that he is looking her square in the eyes. Her eyes search his for answers, but his eyes give nothing away.

"Why did you take me here," Alice asks, dropping her hand from his face.

Jasper sighs, running his free hand through his hair in a frustrated manner. "Because you were suffering; you were enduring so much pain."

Jasper takes her free hand in his and nuzzles his face against it affectionately, trailing kisses along the palm and inside of her wrist. Alice lets out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, easing her hand out of his. Jasper brings his hands to rest on her shoulders and they glide upward to tangle in her curt, almond-colored hair.

"I wanted to relieve your pain," Jasper says after a few heartbeats of silence pulsing around them.

Without hesitation, Alice collapses against him, dragging herself into the comfort of Jasper's arms. They stand amongst the bleak scenery about them, completely at peace away from the rest of the world. A soft rain begins to fall upon their prone forms and Alice looks upward at the tears that fall continuously from the gray sky above. The raindrops begin to dampen her hair instantly, clinging to her eyelashes and running down her pale cool cheeks. Jasper's tousled curls glitter with raindrops.

Jasper reaches for her chin delicately and brings her face down to eye level before locking gazes with her. A sweet smile graces Alice's lips and Jasper's heart leaps into his throat and aches with need. Her lips are moist and inviting and he doesn't resist the temptation to taste them. Leaning forward slowly, so as not to frighten her, he presses his lips firmly to hers in a tingling swell of uncontrollable emotions. Alice's lips meld perfectly to his, relenting to the coaxing assault of his lips and tongue against hers.

A cool fire ignites between them, warming their insides to the consistency of lukewarm water and such a sensation draws them closer in each other's arms. Their hands grip tightly at the other's clothes, drawing in as much of them as they possibly can without fusing their bodies together. Alice's hand reaches upward to tangle in Jasper's mass of damp curls, relishing in the feel of it against her fingers. Such need erupts between them, spilling over the edge and spurring in them a more primal desire, which for the time being they tamp down with fierce admonitions. Jasper however, does indulge in the partial fulfillment of this need by sliding a hand underneath Alice's sweater and pressing his hand against the pale expanse of her abdomen.

The instant he does this, Alice begins to feel herself grow dizzy, her equilibrium spiraling off its usual course. The world pauses around them, as if holding its breath for a moment, and suddenly resumes motion much like before, but only this time, things seem to be off-balance with the world and Alice herself. She ends the kiss when a queasy sensation settles low within her, pitching and reeling within the confines of her mind.

"Did you feel that," Alice asks, trying to orient herself from more than just Jasper's kiss.

"No . . . What did you feel," he asks, confusion marring his perfect features.

"I don't know . . . It felt like the Earth was shifting abnormally underneath me."

Jasper stares at her for quite some time, trying to contemplate what Alice was experiencing at the moment through her emotions alone.

"Are you worried about this feeling?"

"I'm not sure . . ." Alice replies with a hint of hesitancy lacing her words.

Jasper has nothing to say to that and only reaches for her, pulling her snugly into his arms. Alice brings her arms up to wrap around his torso instantly. Whatever this feeling was sure to bring, Alice was prepared to face it as long as she was in Jasper's arms.

******

Alice and Jasper spent the rest of their time together amongst the trees and the opaque surface of the lake until darkness shrouded the area in shadow; it was then that they decided to head home. As soon as they enter the bright airy comfort of the Cullen home. They face another stern lecture from Carlisle, which they had expected and speculative stares from Edward. Before long Carlisle leaves to comfort Esme once again, but not before telling them that they would be hunting tomorrow. Afterwards, Alice and Jasper head upstairs, hand-in-hand, ignoring Edward's fierce perusal. Once there, they stalk down the hall and bustle into Alice's room before shutting the door behind them.

"Do you want to stay with me tonight," Alice asks, settling down on her recliner still littered with her disheveled pillows and blankets draped along its arm and cushions haphazardly.

"I'd do anything you asked me to Alice, as long as it makes you happy," Jasper whispers to her, undying devotion coating his every word.

Alice smiles up at him brightly, and he obligingly sits down beside her without a word. He laces his fingers through hers silently and draws her closer to him. They both enter a reflective meditative state and cuddle closer to each other as nighttime blankets the Earth in what looks to be eternal darkness.

******

Daylight approaches after countless hours of perpetual and absolute darkness. Sunlight of the approaching day streams in through Alice's curtained windows and spills outward onto her carpeted floors and over her and Jasper's still forms; the sunlight glitters against their skin like so many diamonds. The warmth of the sun draws them out of their meditative states an they slide hesitantly out of each other's arms. Alice's eyes, hair and skin glows luminously warm and inviting in the sunlight and Jasper can no longer resist the temptation to kiss her again. The instant their lips touch, however, a flash of light erupts between them followed by a searing pierce of pain lancing through their bodies.

They are instantly thrown apart then, backs connecting solidly with opposite walls—Jasper on the left nearest the door and Alice on the right housing the window. The force of the impact knocks all the breath out of them and draws them into the abysmal embrace of unconsciousness.

A/N: Okay, another chapter is complete! The next one will be on its way sometime today, followed by the lemon chapter. Till then!

Silver Moon Vampiress