Alright, it's been almost a month. Okay, -checks watch- One month! One month?! Well, I have other stories that need tending to. LOL. So...you cna check them out if you think it is necessary. It is. Check them out. NOW! Not now, after you read this. THEN DO IT!

Jasper POV

Pull yourself together! You've been through worse. I couldn't stop running. I don't know what I was running from, mostly to save the family from feeling what I felt. I should be able to at least control one aspect of my life, myself.

"Jasper, honey, please stop." Alice's voice whispered through the misty night.

I stopped and leaned up against a nearby tree, depleted, like my tank was on empty. It wasn't. I could never be on empty, but just trying to control the most lethal weapon I had took its toll. "They just couldn't let it go. Those abominable, egotistical, THINGS!" I pulled a tree from its roots and prepared to throw it across the forest before Alice was in my face, holding the tree.

Her eyes were kind and calm, well as calm as the perkiest person on the planet could be. "Don't do that. You're killing trees. They have agencies that can hunt you down. Come on, let it go."

I released the tree, but brought the double meaning to light. "Let it go? How can I? This is our family. Our family," I sat down, disgusted.

Alice did the same, "I know it's our family. I am part of this family."

I was confused and I didn't know why, "Well then…"

"Well then what?"

I dropped wherever that question was going, "How can this happen? To us? Again? It's not fair! We hurt no one! We disturb no one! We live in the middle of the woods with a driveway that's over a mile long for Christ's sake! Why can't they just…go?"

Alice rubbed her hand lovingly across my shoulders, "I don't know, but we can fight this. We always do."

"No, we can't fight this. We can't fight them. They have been strategizing. There's no way we can do what we did last time and win. They know what we have. We can't win. I can't lose you." I felt the hopelessness wave back over me. I tried to hold it in so Alice could give the pick-me-up comment she was sure to have handy, but she was drowned in despair as well.

We sat in silence once again.

Alice picked her head up as the emotions began to suppress, "Wait, how does putting Edward away in prison give them the upper hand?"

I hadn't thought of this. I was so absorbed in my own misery about the past fight, I hadn't thought about exactly what was happening, "What?"

"Edward. He's being framed for murder. By the Volturi. How does that help them if he's in prison?"

"Maybe it's just a punishment," I hung my head down, remembering what "punishment" was. My eye caught one of the scars. That was punishment.

"For not going with them? Well I didn't go either."

No. Not Alice.

Alice caught my reaction, "I didn't say they were going to do anything, but why Edward? I mean, I don't think they could pin much on me, seeing as I spend most of my days at the mall, but still…"

"They better not do anything," I said through gritted teeth.

"They won't. Jazz, we can figure this out," Alice tried, and succeeded at making me feel better. She has always, and would always have that affect on me.

"But this, we can't beat this. No matter how much rubbing you do. No matter how many, 'It's going to be alright, Jazz's' It's not going to be alright!" I pulled myself away from her, feeling more isolated than ever. Texas. My mind flashed back to Maria, Nettie, and Lucy, how they betrayed me, how they left me to fend for myself, having to kill or be killed.

Alice saw the indecision and wariness in my eyes, "It's not like that here. No one is going to hurt you. You're not going anywhere."

The fragmented thoughts painted a grim picture. A picture I didn't want to look at. A picture I knew would be clear as day if things continued, "Let's go."

"Go? Home? Okay."

"Not home."

Alice's spiky head twisted to the side, "Where?"

"Anywhere."

"Anywhere includes home." She nodded, almost telling herself that I wasn't thinking what I was thinking.

"No it doesn't."

"Yes. It. Does."

"Alice—" I began, but she cut me off.

"Don't you Alice me! We are going home! We are going to fight this! We are going to stick together! We are going to be a family! This is exactly what they want! For us to fight and leave each other! Do you want to give them what they want? Validation? Huh, Jasper? None of this running crap! I can't run in these!" She pointed to her red heels, "Well, I can, but I'm not. Jasper. We. Are. Going. Home. Got. It?"

I stood, speechless by my love's sudden intensity. I had never seen her take such a stand.

"Got it?" she said through gritted teeth.

"We'll go home," I sat down, afraid to run through the woods and back to an already tense house, with a fuming Alice.

Alice's face relaxed back to the beautiful position I had always loved. "Of course, Jazz."

"I still don't understand why."

"Neither do I."

"It's not fair."

"I know."

"I'm tired of running. I'm tired of fighting."

I knew she understood. This just wasn't about me or Edward, and it was selfish of me to even include myself into the list of victims. I wasn't affected from this. I was, but not as much as Edward. It doesn't matter how many times we move or how many lives Carlisle saves, they are always going to be the ones to come and ruin all we have worked for. All Carlisle has built up. How could the supposedly self-respecting, self-righteous leaders of the vampire world stoop to kill a human to get back for one gift? One gift.

We can alter the outcome of our own futures, but not everyone will see it our way.

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