Disclaimer – I do not own Twilight. All recognizable plot and characters belong to the talented Stephanie Meyer.

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BPOV

Charlotte and I stopped for the night in Chicago. The next day she insisted we shop. I couldn't really protest since all I had was my purse. After the shops closed and I had eaten, we got back on the road. She drove through the night while I slept. I didn't want to know how fast she had been driving through the night because when I woke up she told me we would be there that afternoon. We stopped twice for me to eat but otherwise she drove steady, if still very fast. I found that despite all the time we had been spending together, we still had a lot to talk about and our conversation never faltered. We sang along to the radio, talked about the places she had seen with Peter and some of the nomads she had come across. I told her about the wolves and about Paul, how I'd come to pick New Orleans, my first date with Luc. The only thing I didn't, couldn't, talk about was the morning I'd lost him and my daughter. She was similarly open with me; the only thing she refused to talk about was how she was changed and her newborn year saying it was more a part of Jasper's story than hers. I only knew that was when she had met Peter and that Jasper had somehow saved both their lives.

We parked the truck at a tiny cottage at a small place called Darby.

"This is it?" I asked climbing out of the truck and admiring the little cabin. It was removed in the woods but closer to town than I expected. Only a thirty minute drive.

"This is it for easy going." She replied. "We have to run in from here."

I followed her into the little cabin and saw it was like a hikers waypoint, a one-room cabin with supplies and things. She took our shopping bags, filled a large black pack with all our clothes, and slung it on her back.

"Um, Char, how far is this place, because you know, human and all."

"Got it covered" A voice spoke behind me and I swirled around to see Peter and Jasper standing there with a load of grocery bags.

Jasper filled a second large pack with the shopping bags and handed it to Peter who slung it on his back.

"See you there?" He winked and took Char's hand and they both ran out.

Jasper shifted on his feet, "It won't take long to get there."

I smiled at him, "Is it ok. My being here?"

He smiled back at me and nodded, "More than ok Darlin."

He seemed to hesitate so I went to him and he led us out of the house, locking it up. I saw a second truck now parked beside the one Charlotte and I had driven here and I blushed.

"Sorry we stole your truck Jazz."

"Borrowed," Jasper laughed "and everything I have is Peter and Char's to. It was faster to run anyways. We beat you here by several hours."

He went over to the truck, grabbed a small black bag out of the glove box.

"This way." He led me around back before holding his hand out for my purse. I gave it to him and he put it in the duffle. "Mind taking this?" I slipped the long strap over my head and settled the bag behind me. Once it was secure Jasper lifted me onto his back, his hands secure at my thighs. "Hold tight, we'll be there in less than an hour."

I nodded and buried my face in his neck, he smelled like worn leather, gunpowder and apples.

"We're here." He told me stopping after a while. I lifted my head and gasped as I looked around. It was beautiful. More than even Char had described.

Jasper led me, while I was slack jawed with my gaze swiveling around us, towards a large log cabin near the crystal waters of the lake.

Inside the main floor was one open space, a small kitchen was in one corner divided by a large island but the most of the room was made up of a large sitting room with two double long couches that looked like you'd just sink into them. The largest wood coffee table I'd ever seen and two brown leather chairs on either side of a massive fireplace. Across the fireplace was a giant entertainment center.

"We don't have cable but we have almost every movie made." Peter laughed.

"Come and see upstairs." Char came over and tugged my arm leading me up a beautiful floating wood staircase.

"Technically we only have two rooms." Char told me shyly. "Ours is on the right and Jasper's on the left. Luckily the boys ran here much faster than we can drive especially with the shopping and eating stops so they have already started on your room."

"My room?"

"Technically it's the attic." She told me looking away.

"I'm sure it will be more than fine."

She nodded and led me up another flight of stairs. The ceilings were pointed and low in some areas, the floors like the rest of the house were hardwood but where part of the walls were the logs of the other rooms part were boards with visible beams. Light came in from the windows, the whole space one huge open area like the main floor. I thought it had character and was the most beautiful room.

"This is great." I grinned at her.

"We cleaned it up and put in a closet over there, nothing close to Alice standard." Jasper motioned to an area with folding doors and I pulled them open to see shelves and hanging rods.

"It's perfect for me. Thank you." I smiled at him and he smiled softly looking away. I wondered if maybe he would be blushing were he human.

"We ordered furniture in town and will carry it out to assemble it when it's ready tomorrow." Jasper told me, still standing just inside the door.

I turned and smiled at him again, "I don't even know how to thank you."

"Just did." He winked at me. "We also picked up groceries while we were in town, non perishable mostly so I hope its all ok."

"I'm sure its great." I told him.

He left Char and I to get settled, she helped me unload my clothes and showed me where the bathroom was. Then we went outside and just sat in the setting sun. It was still surprisingly warm and I felt like I had entered another world. I thought small towns like the one I had ended up at in Maine were quiet and peaceful, it was nothing like it was here.

I fell asleep as we watched a movie that night. The giant couches were covered in a soft cloth material and made of feather; I'd never been on a more comfortable sofa.

The next day my furniture came. The boys got a wood bed frame, wood night table and desk, all which had to be self-assembled. Once everything was in place they went back into town and came back carrying my double mattress and box spring. They disappeared a third time and returned with a feather mattress topper Char had apparently insisted I needed.

We had gone with them in the morning and I'd gotten sheets and a few things while Char got what she wanted. We stopped by the grocery again and then returned to the cabin. That night I fell exhausted to sleep in my new room.

While I slept, Char worked and when I came down for my cereal in the morning she presented me with her gift. She had carefully matched the torn photo pieces and glued them to a white board, the tiny white spaces separating the torn pieces made it look like the giant frame of collage photos had been made with purposely torn photos. It was a beautiful piece of art and it had all my memories carefully preserved, even in their tattered and torn state.

I cried and hugged her and we went to hang the large framed art piece in my room. The next night she carefully and meticulously sewed my little Jourdain bootie and placed it in a frame of its own, so it looked as though it had never been damaged. The same message Rosalie had chosen written in beautiful calligraphy underneath it.

A week passed and I was sitting alone out at the lake when Jasper joined me. He spent most days off with Peter, doing I had no idea what. It was only in the evenings they joined Char and I.

"I want to do something nice for Char." I told him after it seemed like he wasn't going to speak. "She's done so much for me."

"You've been her friend. It means more to her than you know." He answered.

"She's been more of a friend to me than I have to her, opening her home, making me that collage of my torn memories, fixing my babies bootie. I'd like to do something special to say thank you."

He was quiet for a minute. "She's easy to please, anything you do will be more than she expects."

"You're not going to help me?"

"I can run you into town tomorrow to have a look around for something. She and Peter will enjoy the alone time."

"Ok." We fell into a relaxed silence and I noticed how peaceful I found sitting with Jasper was.

We watched as the sun sank behind the mountains that seemed to rise up out of the lake, though Char had taken me to the other side of the lake to see that they really didn't. There was also a very beautiful waterfall hidden over there where we would sit and talk.

The sky darkened to velvet and still we sat out there.

"I've never known a human to be able to sit so still for so long." He finally spoke.

I sighed and laid back in the grass looking up at the purple blue sky. "What do you and Peter do all day?"

"We've re-scented the area, been in town getting various affairs in order and most afternoons we spar."

"Scented the area?" I asked wrinkling my nose.

"The entire valley is owned by us legally but having fresh trails of our scents shows other vampires who might pass, that the area is claimed territory."

"I like it here." I told him as I watched the first stars appear. "Char was right. It feels like the whole world has disappeared and we are in our own little universe. It's peaceful."

"Yes, this is one of my favorite places."

"Char said she thought it was but where are the other places?"

"My first favorite place when I was human was a large maple tree in our yard my brother and I used to climb."

"Really?"

He nodded, "After he died I'd climb it and sit in the high braches. Even when I got older I remember going up it to think, as though the wind in its leaves would whisper my older brothers wisdom back to me with the answers I sought."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't exactly remember. Most of my human life is blurry. I remember that he passed when I was ten or eleven from some kind of illness. He'd have been thirteen at the time."

"What else do you remember?"

"We had a farm, it was small like all the ones in the area but we did well enough. It was a simple life but I remember we were happy. My mother was a sweet woman who cried when I left for the war. She had long blonde hair and smelled like apples and vanilla. Pa was a kind man, he was fair and worked hard, when harvest season came he paid the same three free blacks to come help and he'd even eat midday meal with them instead of segregated as was the way then and he worked harder than anyone. He never took a belt to me or my brother, the only time I ever saw him cry was over my brothers grave and he had wet eyes when he clasped my shoulder and told me how proud he was the day I joined the Confederacy." He stopped seeming to think before continuing, "I don't usually think about it, the memories are all so hazy but the things I find I remember are things like the old maple, my mothers voice singing Christmas carols and my father's warm laugh. It was awhile from when I left home that I was turned, my life had changed so much and the one I lived so content with my family on our little farm seemed far away already."

"Will you tell me about your turning?"

He was quiet a long moment before he lay back in the grass next to me, looking up at the stars beginning to appear in the night sky. "It's not a pretty story."

"I didn't imagine it was."

He sighed, "I was evacuating the last of the people out of Galveston and went back for a final check. As I rode out to meet with my men I came across three women, very beautiful women in fine dresses, the type not seen much in the South around then because of the blockade. I was sure I would have seen them in the town or amongst the other evacuees but night was falling and I couldn't leave three women alone out there no matter how off the situation felt. I got off my horse and went over to them. Maria took a liking to me and ordered her two sisters not to kill me. She looked at me and said 'No. I think I'll keep you.' Then she bit me. I spent three days burning in the deepest fires of hell and when I woke, it was to a world of war, destruction, death and blood. Maria was building up a newborn army to overtake lands; feeding grounds were endlessly battled over in the South. I survived my newborn year, the development of my gift giving me an edge and as quickly as I rose in the Confederate Army, I rose in the ranks of Maria's army. Most don't survive the newborn year, they either die in battle or kill each other and those that don't are simply not useful anymore, so she had them killed. That became one of my tasks, to cull out the ones no longer useful. My other duty was to lead them in battle, to defend her territory or take over new ones. We killed without thought or reason. Over the years, she came to call me Aries, her God of War, our enemies knew me as the Bringer of Death. I had never lost. Retreated and regrouped but never fully failed." He began to explain the carnage that was life with Maria; the constant wariness, the constant battles, the blood and death, destruction and pure evil he was forced to live in. "Eventually I turned Peter. At the end of his newborn year, Maria let him live because she thought he was useful and he was a good soldier, not just in physical strength but in mind as well. He was one of the most deadly she had even after the advanced gifts of the first year faded. She let him live and the fucker stuck to me like glue. I didn't understand it. No one tried to befriend me. In battle Peter was always at my side, I found him useful and despite myself, I liked his company. After his third year I listened to his input in battle plans and about newborns, he became my Second. After a decade, I considered him my friend. When I turned Charlotte with the new batch of battle fodder he couldn't help but watch her, he was protective of her. It wasn't until her year was up and it was our job to kill them that he fully realized she was his mate. He knew he'd probably lose in a fight with me and she would still die. As he crouched in front of her, neither of us wanted it to end like that. He was my brother. Instead of attacking, he ran and I let them go. Maria was furious with me but I was long past her control. I stayed because I knew nothing else, had nothing else but Maria was smart enough to fear me at least in part. However crazy the bitch was, she was to old and to smart not to recognize that I was not to be crossed, even by her. I remained and led her wars but I was not under her control. Five years later, I caught Peter's scent and went to him. Maria would kill him if she found him and I still didn't want to see him dead. Char was with him; they'd come back for me. They explained how there was more than blood and death and war. How differently we could live, that I to could be free, I ran with them, never looking back and Maria was smart enough never to come after me. I had spent a century doing nothing but training, fighting and killing. We all have scars to remind us of the life we led, the monsters Maria turned us into and I was the worst demon of them all. It took some time to adjust to the nomadic, free life with Peter and Char. My gift made things difficult for me as I began to let myself feel as I hadn't since just after I'd woken to that world. They couldn't heal the depression that descended when I opened myself to feeling, it was then I left and found Ali waiting in a diner. I was always wary of other vampires and they could see by the scars that my clothes don't cover just how dangerous I am so they are all equally wary of me. The Pixie jumped up, came over to me grinning, and said she'd been waiting a long time for me. I'd never met anyone like her. I was stunned and for the first time in my vampire existence, I had no idea how to react. Her emotions were joy, excitement and affection. It was overwhelming. For the first time I let myself be fully led by another. She said things would be better soon, that we were going to meet a different kind of vampire, a family we'd become a part of. She was exuding only sincerity and happiness. She was a bright star in my sea of black."

I had reached over and taken his hand at some point during the telling. The sky was now full of stars, shinning brightly down on us. I understood how he had felt about Alice, for me that was Char. "I believe everything happens for a reason. I'm not sure if I have to because I'd go crazy if I didn't but I believe that while we choose our own destiny and forge our own path, the destination is set, fate has a plan and we are led there by events in our lives out of our control. I have to believe it because otherwise all there is, is the sadness, the pain and loss, the anger and hatred. I still feel lost though, like I'm drowning. Char's been my life raft, a light in the dark that has surrounded my life. She asks for nothing but gives me everything."

"Char is a good woman. I couldn't have asked for a better mate for my brother. I'd do anything for either of them, as I believe they would do for me. More so even than the Cullen's, they are my family, live together or apart we are always there for each other. Char loves you. She, none of us Whitlock's, loves easily or lightly and there is nothing we won't do for the people we love."

We fell silent, watching the stars, and I made a wish on one of the three shooting ones I saw that whatever the future brought I would be able to hold onto the perfect peace of this moment.