A/N: If you've read this story over a year ago, this is not a new chapter. I've just finished editing it, and broke the last chapter into three for better flow. I've also changed the rating, and added a little lemon juice. As I reread it, I realized how much I loved it. If you're a new reader, I'd still like to hear your thoughts. Thank you.

Chapter 37

Healing

We make it back to the ranch in record time I think. I don't sleep the whole flight, and neither does my companion, of course. Everyone has gathered, and it's like a reunion of sorts, but it's such a somber occasion. I hug my mother and father before I rushed into her room to see my sister.

Tessa looks awful. Half her face is bandaged and she's connected to tubes and I.V.'s, and I almost think she's dead just to look at her. My twin has never looked a thing like me, but lying in the bed she only looks vaguely human. Clumps of her long blond hair are missing, and what's left is still matted with blood. Her ear is bandaged and I know from the phone conversation that it had to be reattached. In fact several of her limbs have been reattached.

The way Mom told it over the phone, was that the battle in Corpus Christi had been fierce and the newborn army had fought hard. Still they'd believed it was over and they were trying to decide if the surviving newborns could be saved. Jasper had turned for just a minute to answer a question for his mother, when they rallied. Eight survivors, all controlled by one mind, lunged for the only one present with a beating heart and warm blood – Tessa.

Their side fought back to stop them, and it was over in less than a minute. But they'd torn into my sister in a frenzy of anger and feeding that left her barely clinging to life. Carlisle was on his way even before they called; having received a warning from Alice. They did the best they could until he got there, but Tessa was the healer, and they had no one who could help her. I'm glad I didn't have to see what she went through before they brought her home.

We'd believed that hybrids had an immunity to the venom. But still none had been bitten to prove this was true. Even as a child I'd never dared to bite her after what happened to our mother. Tessa didn't die from the multitude of bites, but she did suffer. I'm told she suffered the agony that comes with the change, but she didn't change. For days she screamed and fought and begged them to destroy her. Finally her battered body resisted the venom and it was ejected out of the wounds.

Once she was calm and still, Carlisle had to work to piece her back together. We are amazingly resilient, but her wounds were so critical. She'd lost so much blood it almost killed her. They were fortunate to discover one of the shifters was a match for her, and he donated the blood that saved her life, at least temporarily. As soon as she was stabilized, Carlisle had her flown back home.

Our family has purchased several of the homesteads that surrounded our childhood home. It's become a sort of compound for supernatural people, where we can retreat and not be observed by human eyes. It's the best place for her to recover – or die – which is the unspoken fear. She still hasn't regained consciousness when I arrive. Our family and friends are gathered to see which way the pendulum will swing – either toward life or death.

As I look at her, it's hard to miss the man at her side. He sits with his head resting beside hers on the pillow, and two of her fingers clutched in his hand. It's the only part of her body that seems to not be bandaged. If Tessa looks terrible, Jasper looks tortured. I smile at my former patient and pull a seat up beside him. When I try to put my hand on his shoulder, he flinched away.

"Don't touch me with your power, I don't want to feel better about this!" I don't need my gift to know he's feeling guilty over what had happened. But even without touching him I can sense something even deeper than the guilt. Regret.

"She's going to get through this. She didn't survive this long just to give up. She's strong and she's one of the most stubborn women I know." I've always been an optimistic person, and even faced with the grave nature of her injuries I try to see the best of the situation.

"They tore both of her arms off! They tried to tear the flesh from her face and neck. We had to search for her foot." He holds up his arm to show me his scars. "They didn't just bite her like I've been bitten. They tore out chunks. I saw it happen and I couldn't stop them fast enough. Even if she heals, she's going to have scars, and it's all my fault!"

I feel the tears in my eyes. Just like my mother before me I can feel their pain, and I cry the tears they can't. I've done it so many times for Jasper, and I know to expect his anger. Like many men, he feels somehow emasculated to see his pain physically manifested in tears. I wait for his angry response, but it doesn't come. Instead he looks from me to her, then back again. He sways toward me just a bit and I gather him into my arms.

The flood of emotions is overwhelming and powerful. For a few moments I even forget who I am, and I can feel everything the man has had to endure during his nearly three hundred years of life. I feel almost broken myself as he drops all his pain into my lap. The guilt of all the deaths he's caused feels like a cancer that was eating him from the inside out.

We cling to one another for several minutes before he pulls away. He isn't angry. In fact he doesn't feel much of anything for a while. He's empty; drained of all the poison he's carried and held for so much time it's almost become a part of him. It's then that I feel what's left. Love. He loves her, deeply, totally, and truly. Not Alice – Tessa.

One thing I see over and over in my practice is the way people hold onto their pain. They let it define them and they resist all efforts to get rid of it and heal. I can only help those who are willing to let it go. Sometimes it happens freely, and sometimes it happens through several sessions of talking them through their problems. But if someone refuses to let it go, I can only do so much. Mom once told me about Marcus and the centuries he held his pain and anger. I've never met him, but my companion has told me about him as well.

Jane decided to come with me for this awful visit. I know my family and friends are surprised and maybe a little frightened to see her, but I hope they will welcome her. She's the perfect example of someone who held onto her pain until it became a part of her.

We plan to stay for two weeks. I hope that Jane will want to stay in the U.S. – with me. But I know the key to getting her to move closer to my home is Alec. The two are fiercely loyal to one another, and she can't stand to be away from him for too long. It surprises me that she wanted to come with me. If Tessa had just been a sister, I don't think Jane would have made the trip. But she's my twin, and Jane understands more than anyone the bond we share.

Before we left Italy, she let down her guard a bit with me. We'd gotten closer and I'd learned a lot about her before Tessa was injured. Just talking with her I learned so much about her short human life, I almost wished I hadn't. All the psychological pain Jane has ever inflicted, she has felt physically herself. It's part of the reason she felt no guilt over using her power so freely; no physical damage was done, and she'd suffered through it all herself.

The twins were used and abused by their parents, who practiced witchcraft. They were shared among the coven from the time they were very young until they became teenagers. For years the only one they could count on was the other. They were malnourished and neglected and they didn't grow like they should have. But with their small size they were able to squeeze into tiny hiding spaces where they'd cling to one another for hours while their parents searched for them. Alec would pray for those searching to be blind and deaf to them, and often it seemed they were.

The physical and sexual tortures they suffered at the hands of the only adults they knew, changed them. I don't know why I felt so drawn to her. On the surface, she was one of the most sadistic creatures I'd ever run across. And her loyalty to Aro, who changed her when she'd barely reached womanhood confused me. But there was something so haunted in her eyes, not to mention her delicate and exquisite beauty that just drew me to her.

It was watching her interaction with Alec that captivated me. The same girl who tortured someone casually, almost gleefully, was sweet and tender to her brother. In my studies of the dynamics between twins I'd heard of this; where one becomes the dominant protector and the other is the good, or favored twin. Jane was the one who was tortured most because she took the punishments meant for Alec as well as her own. Alec was flight, and Jane was fight.

I don't know when I fell in love with her, but I fell hard! I think it was when I let her try her talent on me, with the understanding that she'd gone through a similar ordeal herself. The excruciating pain was a reflection of her own, and I have wanted her from then on.

I want so much to help her recover from her pain. But she feared she'd lose her talent if she let go of her own suffering. She was afraid of losing her edge. She saw her talent as the only value she had to anyone. I just needed to show her she was wrong.

I have Aro to thank for her finally allowing me to get closer. Not that he did anything to smooth the way intentionally, but he lost interest in Jane. When Alice joined him and he took her as his mate, he had no room for Jane. She'd always basked in his praise and high regard, but Alice took his total focus. He didn't call on her, he didn't want her by his side, and he didn't shower her with praise. She'd looked to him as a father figure for so long, and she was lost without him. And she turned to me.

She didn't just drop her guard. But little by little I was able to disassemble the wall, one block at a time. She shared her origin with me and it makes so much sense now why she adores Aro and why she has the ability she has. The coven was arrested and the witches were all prosecuted, including Jane and Alec who were sixteen at the time. They were sentenced to burn at the stake, and Jane watched them burn the ones who had tortured then for so many years. She told me she listened to their screams and smelled their charred flesh with a smile on her face.

Her satisfaction was short-lived when they lead her and Alec to the woodpile and tied them back to back. She'd tried to save him during their trial. She took the blame for all the charges and tried to convince them that her brother was an innocent pawn when in truth they both were. All Alec had to do was agree with her, and he would have been spared. But he wouldn't. He sat mute, hugging his knees and hiding his face in an attempt to disappear. The very fact that they were twins in a time of superstition was all it took to convict them both.

They had no idea that they were being observed by the Volturi. At the time, Eleazar was with the Volturi and he was able to identify humans who might develop powers or gifts if changed. He seemed to think the twins could be powerful if they were mature enough for the change. Aro was checking up on the twins when he discovered them being burned alive. Jane can't even speak of the pain she suffered as she was being cooked from her feet up. Her hair had caught fire before Aro and his guard were able to douse the flames and pull them down.

She remembered every moment of pain. She remembered seeing her burned and blistered limbs. But more than that she remembered when she was bitten and the pain intensified. She heard the tortured screams of her brother, both in her ears and in her head. She thought that those burned at the stake often fell unconscious long before they died, and she couldn't understand how she could be conscious during such severe burning.

From my practice, I know that they all go through the burning, and they all remember. But when Jane awoke to her new unlife she realized she could inflict the burning on others, at will. The villagers had fled when the Volturi came to rescue the "witch twins," and Jane was anxious to punish them for what they'd done. For all the wrongs that had ever been done to her and her brother, she went after them. In the village many had known their torment and turned a blind eye. First she and Alec fed; then Alec, Jane, Aro and his guard, tortured and killed everyone else.

My father and Uncle Vladmir both bear a serious mistrust of Jane and her brother. Jane has told me that Aro wanted them to be "found" by Vladmir when he was building his empire. She would have done anything Aro asked, because he was the one who saved them. Still, she claims they were treated fairly and they really did hope that the conflict wouldn't happen. She didn't know that Chelsea and Joseph were spies either since she and Alec arrived before them.

It still surprises me that my father knew the girl I love, long before I was born. It's even more jaw dropping that they almost killed one another. I learned of all this ancient history before I brought her to the ranch.

Her trust in me is still a fragile thing, and I really hate leaving her amidst so many who could have been her enemies at one time or another. But Carlisle won't allow a crowd into Tessa's room. After I have my visit, and do my part to help Jasper release his pain, I hurry back to Jane and introduce her to those I know and love. Of course her reputation and name are legendary, but none of them has ever been introduced to her in a polite way.

My mother and father stand united as I presente her, with my own arm protectively around her. Jane and my father lock eyes for a long moment before my mother breaks the spell. "It's so nice to meet you! Of course I've heard about you over the years, but I'm happy to finally meet the woman who's kept my son away from home for so long." She reaches out and takes Jane's hand in both of hers. "I'm sorry this meeting isn't under better circumstances; we've all been so worried." Once my mother welcoms her, my father reaches out and takes her hand in his. He holds it for an uncomfortably long time before releasing her.

"I don't have it in me to carry on some ancient conflict. Especially not while my daughter fights for her life." He looks at me and I can feel his pain. "Tristan, make your guest feel welcome. If either of you need anything let one of us know. I'm glad you came." He speaks to both of us, then he pulls my mother close and they just stand, wrapped in each others arms as if everyone else has disappeared.

I make more introductions, and Jane seems very nervous when it comes to meeting the Cullens. They seem gracious but maybe a little stiff and formal. Afterward I take her on a quick tour of the house, and we wind up in what is still my room even though I haven't been home for so long. Jane is surprised I have a bed in the room, but then she laughs when she remembers that I have to sleep.

"I keep forgetting that you're not one of us... I mean not a vampire." The more I get to know her and mend the damage that was done to her, the more I see her smile and hear her laughter.

For two weeks I'm able to show family and friends a different side of her. She's pleasant company even though she's a little reserved. She doesn't attack anyone during her whole visit. I'm hoping we can stay longer, but she's anxious to return to Italy and her beloved Alec. I hate the prospect of leaving while Tessa still isn't fully recovered, but we'll be returning before the year is up.

For the two weeks we're home, we watch my sister slowly improve and mend. When Carlisle removes the bandages from her face we're all worried about what will be revealed. Two bites can be seen, one that took a chunk from her cheek and her lower eyelid, and one below her chin. She's healing though, and the flesh is slowly filling in. She will have some scars from the venomous bites, but Carlisle assures us that her face shouldn't suffer, since her natural healing will repair the muscles and nerves.

It actually takes six months for her injuries to heal completely. She does bear the scars, each place she was bitten, but they are faint. Even still she's happier than she's been in decades. Jasper has asked her to marry him – finally!