A/N: I know, I'm a slow updater. I have no excuses.

Thank you to all of you lovely people who embraced my idea, read and reviewed. It's so relieving to know people are 'getting' it, and I can't thank you guys enough.

Oh! And do I need to change the rating because of bad language? Here's your warning - thar be obscenities ahoy.

Alice's eyes fluttered, and I looked at her curiously, stroking her shoulder as she shook herself out of the vision. "They're not coming back to school today," she told me. "They're taking him home."

I felt my muscles relax, allowing myself to come down from a state of martial alertness I hadn't even realised I was embodying.

"Come on," she urged, rising to her feet with an ease only a vampire could accomplish. "Let's go back inside. I know you want to."

Cringing, I sent her a pained look. I couldn't stand the idea of hurting this woman who I had spent a third of my long life alongside. The woman who found me as a broken empty shell of a man and nursed me back to this calm and content being, free of the pain and ravages of my violent existence. Alice fixed me. Alice was my life.

Well, maybe not anymore, I sighed internally.

I grabbed at her hand desperately, needing the feel of her temperate skin against mine to ground me somehow. She gripped me tightly, her eyes closing and shuddering imperceptibly for just a second, which I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for the quick surge of desperation and panic that flickered out of her. She quickly got herself under control, replacing her fear with steely determination.

She stopped just in front of the cafeteria door, looked at me, oozing understanding, and dropped my hand pointedly.

"She doesn't need to know about the nature of our relationship right now," she said softly.

I nodded slowly, turning my head to the glass, where I could both see and feel Bella. It was distracting, which was a very unusual sensation for a vampire, with unlimited brain capacity, to feel.

This distraction was likely the reason why it took a few seconds for realisation to set in.

"You've been doing that the entire time we've been in Forks, haven't you?" I gasped. As my mind flickered back over our time here, I knew it was true – Alice had been very careful to not let anyone at the school know that we were a couple, always keeping the affection to times we were alone.

"People talk," she shrugged. "It's better if she thinks we're just siblings. In the beginning, anyway."

I sent her a burst of love and appreciation, which she accepted with a nod and a smile.

"Remember not to come on too strong," she murmured as we returned to our hastily abandoned table, still littered with trays, abandoned human food, and Rosalie's physics book. My military training came in handy sometimes, and my natural inclination to situate myself where I could see the whole room meant that I was facing directly at her. My body trembled without my consent. The pull wasn't as strong as it was outside, as my nerve endings seemed to recognise that I was at least in the same room as her.

She hadn't moved from her previous position; her food was untouched since I last saw her. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to the conversation going on around her; she was distracted for some reason.

Carefully focussing in on her mental essence, I took in her emotions. Curiosity, confusion, and… slight disappointment? I wondered what had caused that.

I hadn't even realised I'd done it until it hit her. Her faced crinkled in confusion, and I realised I had sent her a wave of awe and adoration.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I cursed at vampire level. Alice, realising what I had done, was chuckling behind her hands across the table from me. Glaring light-heartedly at her, I quickly eliminated her mirth and replaced it with remorse.

My eyes still trained on Bella, I saw as her head slowly lifted and she looked around, trying to ascertain why her feelings had suddenly changed. She didn't look around the room like I expected her to. Instead, like they were magnetised, her eyes were drawn immediately to mine. As I heard her heartbeat stutter from across the room, and relief and happiness filled her when she noticed me sitting there, I couldn't help the way my face lit up.

I could feel a smile pulling at my mouth, when Alice hissed across the table. "Keep your teeth hidden."

Heeding her advice, I kept my lips tightly closed as I smiled at her. Her heartbeat stuttered again, and a bright red blush rose against her skin as she ducked her head in embarrassment. Her blush was beautiful. The way the blood rose to the surface of her skin was…..

Wait a second, I demanded of myself. Her blood….

"What the hell am I doing?" I hissed at Alice. "She's human!"

My wife chuckled and I pulled my gaze away from Bella to glare at her. "Is this really only just now occurring to you?"

I watched as Bella peered at me from around the curtain of her hair. "Well… yes." Everything had been thrust upon me in such a short a time; I hadn't really had time to process it properly.

"I can't be close to a human." My body protested, shaking slightly at the thought of hurting her. "What if I kill her?"

"You won't," Alice reassured me. "Not accidentally, anyway."

My eyes swung to hers, slightly too fast for a human. Luckily nobody but Bella was paying us attention, and she was too far away to notice the movement. "You mean….?"

She nodded, just as the warning bell rang. Frowning, my glance flicked between Alice and Bella, trying to work out both whether this was a good thing or not, and why Bella would agree to be changed.

I opened my mouth to ask the question, but Alice turned to me as we exited the cafeteria. "Because when you love someone like that, you want to spend eternity with them," she whispered too low for any of the humans to hear.

I was antsy all through my English class after Alice informed me that I would have History with Bella the following hour. I had to roll my eyes at myself; I was beginning to have way too many human responses regarding this girl. I could barely contain myself as I rushed to the class.

"What on earth is wrong with me?" I muttered as I took a seat at the back of the class. It was both an eternity and a micro-second before the exact reason for my new-found insanity walked through the door nervously, glancing between the classroom number on the door and the piece of paper in her hand obsessively.

By the time she had spoken to the teacher and received her textbook, there were only two vacant seats – one at the very front and centre of the class, where all eyes would be on her, and the other next to me. If I had been Alice, I believe I would have been doing what she referred to as her 'happy dance'.

She hesitated slightly at the front desk, flicking her eyes around the room. Relief flooded her when she saw the second empty seat, to be replaced with a flustered feeling when she saw I was sitting there watching her. Her eyes were on the floor, and that gorgeous blush covered her skin as she took her seat, glancing at me a few times.

My attention was focussed on her, my skin feeling like it was electric from her proximity. I sat on my hands, not bothering to take notes – it wasn't like I needed to – to try and remove the temptation to reach out across the small gap to touch her. Even while sitting on them, I could feel my fingers twitching towards her. Apparently meeting your Pereche translated to losing control of both your mind and body.

If I had been human, and not able to take in hundreds of details at once without concentrating on them, I would have missed what Mr Randall was talking about. As it was, it took the chairs of those around me moving before I reacted to his demand that we pair off to discuss the upcoming research project.

As children all around the room began moving together, I turned my body towards Bella, which made every cell in my body seem to cheer. She was biting her lip nervously, and not making eye contact with anyone. She obviously wasn't going to volunteer to partner up with anyone. I could see that weasely Newton kid building up the courage to ask her, and knew I couldn't dilly-dally any longer. Grabbing my chair, I scooted it across the aisle next to her.

"May I?" I indicated between the two of us. Surprise and a bit of elation ran through her.

"Uh…. Sh.. sh… sure." She looked up at me through her eyelashes. I don't think she realised just how enticing that action was.

"Jasper." She looked at me, confused. "My name is Jasper," I amended, and a slight blush colored her cheeks.

"Bella." She extended her hand out to me formally.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," I smiled, and took her outstretched hand. Instead of shaking it as she expected – something that only men did back in my day – I enclosed her tiny fingers within both my hands.

Theoretically, I knew about it from the stories I'd heard of sufletul pereche throughout my years, but I wasn't ready to experience it in person. The touch of her skin made my body feel like it was on fire. Every nerve ending burned. But it wasn't an unpleasant sensation at all – not like the change. It was warmth and love and …. Completion. I was a moron for thinking these things, but no other explanation could come to my mind. I would be happy to never leave this spot again, the thought of which scared me. This pull was so intense, how would I manage to leave her side to go hunting?

I knew she could feel something too. Her fingers twitched against my skin, her blush intensified, her heart pounded, and excitement ran through her. As she pulled her hand away, she was filled with regret and disappointment. I normally didn't like over-using my gift, but without even thinking about it, I was replaced her emotions with contentment. She relaxed a bit, causing her knee to move frustratingly close to my own.

"I guess we should choose a topic then," I suggested, gesturing towards the whiteboard. "There's a heap of 'em to choose from."

"Um…." She hesitated, and seemed to be considering our options. "How about 'John Bell Hood'?" Her voice was hesitant, as if she wasn't sure of my reaction.

I smiled and forced back the laugh threatening the back of my throat. This really was a girl after my own heart. Of all the 'great' men written on that list (although I would argue why those damn Yankee Aggressors shouldn't be on the list), she chose the one Texan. I'd never met the man myself, but I definitely had heard tell of his successes. My only trouble would be finding actual source material, and not just writing what I had heard around the campfires on the battlefield.

"That'll be perfect," I grinned. Only at the last millisecond did I remember Alice's advice from earlier, and covered my teeth with my lips.

I barely followed our brainstorming session, instead wondering when I could touch her delicate skin once more. It was so fragile and translucent and soft, and it called to me like blood.

I did learn that while she was born here in Forks, she had spent most of her life being moved from place to place by her mother, mostly throughout the South. That, combined with the fact that most of these kids would choose Yankees to study, and she wanted to be different, is what made her decision on research topic.

"I was born in Texas," I admitted softly. I wasn't sure if this was really part of the story Alice had weaved over the student body regarding our backgrounds, but I figured Bella would find out everything about me sometime.

She looked at me in surprise. "Really? You don't have much of an accent."

I chose my words carefully. "I was adopted a long time ago, and have been in the North ever since." I smirked at her. "Ah kin turn it awn if ya like, though, ma'am."

Her giggle rang out above the hub-bub of the classroom, making my unneeded breath catch.

"I guess we should meet after school sometime," she mused as she packed up her books at the end of the hour.

I almost wanted to kiss Mr Randall for giving me such a perfect opportunity. "For sure," I nodded. I quickly ran through my options. She really shouldn't be exposed to my family, so our house was out. "I could come to your house tomorrow after school? I'll pick up the books we'll need beforehand." No need to tell her that I would be getting them from my own house, and not from the library.

She bit on her much-abused, bright red lip. "That sounds good," she said quietly. "I… I'll see you tomorrow Jasper."

As she gathered her backpack, I offered her my hand to help her stand, revelling in that incredible warmth and prickling which hadn't changed since my first touch of her hand. She accepted it, slightly embarrassed by what I was raised to think of as simple good manners, and gave me a last glance before moving away.

I took in the deepest breath I could, hoping to take her intoxicating scent with me until I could see her again. The smell thrilled me, and almost distracted me from the tugging in my gut, which was increasing with every step away she took.

I smiled to myself. I had met her. And she was lovely.