Arriving at the academy was an interesting experience. Jasper knew that most of the command cadre of the sheriffs department, along with the entire training staff of the academy would be on hand for the orientation session. He had been warned by Edward that the Gunny would be there and that he should be careful to not be anywhere alone with him or out of sight of the rest of the training staff. Emmett planned to buddy up with Jasper as much as allowed and when they filed into the classroom area, they made sure to take a desk towards the back of the classroom. Emmett spotted Edward leaned against the desk talking to the director and he nudged Jasper. Jasper glanced at him in spite of his efforts to resist. "Emmett, dammit don't draw attention to him or me!" Emmett laughed at his buddies discomfort as Jasper blushed and tried to shrink into his uncomfortable chair. The rest of the recruits slowly trickled in and promptly at 1600 hours the officer at the doors turned and locked the entry doors, leaving a rather large and imposing officer to deal with the stragglers.

The director began by taking roll. There were 32 answered as present and accounted for , and with a nod of the directors head, the classroom door was opened and 6 stragglers were marched to the front of the classroom to explain themselves and their reason for being tardy. Two of them were sheriffs department recruits and the Gunny was on them like a pit bull the moment the director was done checking them in, "Follow me, NOW!" The two recruits followed him out, tailed closely by the Captain and it wasn't too long before the shouting could be heard inside the classroom. After 10 minutes the recruits came in, sweaty and disheveled to take their seats near the front of the classroom, and the Captain and Gunny returned to their positions of wary evaluation.

The rules were simple, "Do not be late, do not miss class, always be prepared, respectful and follow orders." They were issued their guide books and rules and regs and told that they would be tested on them the next night. They would be beginning PT on Saturday as well as the hands on training. Any injuries would be at the cadets or their departments expense. They were not to bring weapons to class until specifically told to, and any deviation from that would result in immediate termination from the academy. They would have uniform inspections daily and they would be held to standard. A cadet class captain would need to be elected and would be responsible for all lapses in discipline as well as would be reporting directly to the director and all command staff any questions, comments or complaints from the cadets. They would have one week to elect and officer. The director of the academy invited questions and a few cadets asked about off hour behavior requirements, and a few grumbled when they were told that they were held to the same standard as already sworn officers and as such if they got into any trouble in their off time, it would affect them in the academy. The director was very blunt, " By mid session, I expect to lose more than half of you, most cant hack the academics, we have injuries, frequently, and the physical demands will be too much for some." He looked directly at Jasper when he said that, and Jasper looked right back at him, evenly meeting his gaze, he was used to being under estimated and he knew the director would live to eat those words.

After he had finished giving them the breakdown of the rules and regulations, the director turned the floor over to the individual departments with the sheriffs going first due to the sheer volume of cadets. The Gunny lead the assault on their ears, going old school classic R. Lee on them, barking like he had never learned to communicate normally, he glared at Jasper throughout most of his rant about rules and punishments and how he liked to washout those who could not properly represent the department. Jasper sighed to himself, it was going to be a long 6 months. The captain studiously ignored him during orientation though Jasper felt his eyes on him as he left that evening , and he wished that there was some way they could live in a world where things were different.

The first few weeks of the academy flew past, and due to his caginess and willingness to go the extra mile and organize study groups to help the cadets that were weaker academically, Jasper quickly became popular amongst his fellow cadets, much to the surprise of the director who had expected him to be treated as the goat. Jasper was elected class Captain and soon became the Directors right hand man, often running errands for him to the sheriffs' department. Whenever they could grasp a few stolen moments together, they were filled with passion and need and want. Jasper felt himself falling for Edward in spite of the warnings Edward gave him, not to. He couldn't help it. They spent hours together in one another's arms and Jasper felt that something was there, but he didn't know what. He knew that he loved Edward, and with everything he learned about him, it only made him love him more, but he felt that Edward was keeping a distance between them, a wall around himself that Jasper just couldn't seem to climb over no matter how freely he gave of himself or how much effort he put into things. There were times he would get a page to meet Edward at his apartment and he would be there waiting, and then Edward would not show up. There would be no call, no text, and no apology for his behavior. At the academy during training, he had been an opponent for Jasper on a number of occasions and true to his word he gave no quarter to Jasper. In fact it was after one of these defensive tactics training sessions that Jasper ended up in the hospital.

EPOV

I don't know what the hell happened. I didn't mean to hurt him, but he zigged when I was expecting him to zag and I connected with that hard head of his and they next thing I know he is on the fucking ground having a seizure! It was the most terrifying thing I have ever seen in my life and I wanted to just grab him up and hold him, but Emmett shoved me back so damn hard that I had his hand prints in my chest for a week and he shouted, " Don't just fucking stand there you idiot, call an ambulance!" He flipped Jasper up on his side and got some padding under his head so he didn't bang it on the ground any more than he already had. I got an ambulance on the way as the seizure passed, but Jasper wasn't waking up. His mouth was bleeding and he had a hell of a knot on his head where the baton had connected and I could already see battles signs starting to show. I had given him a concussion and maybe a skull fracture. Holy Fuuck !Emmett was looking at me like he was fixing to rip me limb from limb as he rubbed Jaspers back and talked to him. "You could at least talk to him and let him know you are sorry, Goddammit." I knelt down and patted Jaspers shoulder as the ambulance rolled up, "I'm riding in with him and McCarty" I told the director "Have someone bring my truck into the hospital would you?" He said he would and I told the medics I was riding in back and Emmett was riding up front as they strapped a still unconscious Jasper to a backboard and prepared to haul ass to the hospital.

Fuck! What the hell had I done? I had been pushing him harder than the other cadets, but I wanted him to prove to everyone he was capable of making it out in the field just fine, and he had been meeting every single challenge I threw at him, handling every combat challenge and every defensive tactics and force exercise that we had with skill and perseverance, even though his body was a road map of bruises and sore muscles that I spent many an hour massaging and tracing guiltily when we got time together. I knew he was pushing too hard and I was the reason, he wanted to make me happy, he wanted to please me at the cost of his own physical well being. The baton training was often the toughest part of the entire academy, many cadets ended up with significant bruises and we had even experienced broken bones from miscalculations or over enthusiastic cadets who forgot that they were actually facing comrades instead of real bad guys. Jasper had turned and ducked, the opposite of what I was expecting him to do and instead of catching him in the upper arm, I had caught him in the side of the head with a pretty strong off hand strike, strikes that had been known to kill lesser men.

When we arrived at the hospital, he was still unconscious and unresponsive. My heart was dying inside but I had to show the hard-assed, callous side to the E.D. staff as they asked for information about who he was and what had happened. Emmett was giving as much of his medical history as he knew and I was shocked to hear that he still had shrapnel in him so they were going to have to figure out how to get films of what was going on in his skull without that creating a problem. I went into the room they had him in as the nurses finished cutting his clothes off and starting Iv's. He was breathing on his own, but he was out and didn't even flinch as a catheter was seemingly jammed into him. "Jesus woman! Easy on the poor guy , he will need that again when he wakes up!" She smirked at me, "Hun, he isn't feeling a damn thing right now, and its better to get it done quick so I can get a urine sample and get it sent off with everything else." She looked at his tattoo on his hip and I saw her face soften, " Poor dear." She covered him up with a blanket and brushed a stray lock of hair off his face as she gathered up her stuff to leave the room. "He will be fine, if they were truly worried about a brain injury he would be on his way to Barrows by now, so don't you worry about him." I didn't know what to say to that, how the hell could she tell I was genuinely worried and heartsick about the fact I had really hurt him? Fuck! That scared me just a little, because if some random nurse could see he meant something to me, then others might be able to tell something was going on as well. I had to get gone and soon. I planned as soon as my truck arrived, I was going to bail and leave Emmett orders to call me as soon as he knew something.

EmPOV

That bastard was leaving? He did this to Jasper and now he was just going to leave? Emmett wanted to rip his head off and shove it up his manipulative and calculating ass, but he knew that would only hurt Jasper more when he woke up and Emmett had faith that he was going to wake up, and soon. They had been through too much together to let some stupid training accident take one of them out, plus they were already half-way through the academy and there was no way this was going to stop them now. He stood there seething at Edward, trying to convey just how badly he wanted to hurt him as he did his best to maintain professional decorum in the E.D. and the cover that Jasper and Edward had so carefully crafted. Cullen got a call midway through their conversation and he turned and walked away from Emmet to talk to the person, " Yes, he is still unconscious. No, we don't have a status update on him beyond that. Yes, I was the one that hit him. Yes Sir, I understand. No Sir, he has no family outside of McCarty his roommate. Understood." Edward ended the call and turned to Emmett, "Apparently I am going to be staying here, so disregard that last. You probably need to get some fresh clothes and some food, as well as some clothes for him to replace the ones they cut off of him, so there is an officer driving in to bring me my truck, you can take it and handle that." Emmett was pissed beyond belief at the audacity of Cullen's casual dismissal of him. " I am not leaving him until he wakes up and I know he is going to be okay, Im not so worried about covering my ass as you are, so why don't you just fucking leave and I will take care of him?"

They stepped toe to toe and it looked like they were going to go at it but the same nurse that had tended to Jasper, stepped between them and said, " If you two want to find out whose dick is bigger, I can catheterize both of you and let you know, but if you don't mind, he is starting to wake up and you might want to take your asses in there so he's not alone when he does."

Jpov

Jasper didn't know what the hell had happened. Last he remembered he was facing Edward who was demonstrating the techniques of keeping a suspect at bay with just an expandable baton. He went in for a sneak attack and that was the last thing he remembered before he woke up with a whopper of a headache, naked, in the emergency department. Everything was a bit blurry and when he tried to sit up he realized that two sets of hands were pushing him back down. "Take it easy there Jasper, I don't think they want you sitting up just yet, okay?" He heard Emmett call for a doctor and he realized that the other set of hands was holding one of his while gently stroking his forehead…Edward was there! " You scared the hell out of me." was whispered in his ear as Edward leaned down to talk to him, "I cant stay long, but don't worry about things at the academy, I will handle it with the department and with them, so just focus on getting better. I will be over as soon as you are home."