A/N: My internet has been being weird, so thought I should post this while it's actually working for a few minutes.

Rest assured that while we've had a couple of filler chapters, the action will be picking up again very soon.

So, I have a question for you... I was having a discussion with a friend in Pennsylvania about regional vernacular, and we were curious to see if we could find some border lines of where names for things change. Eg. I know that on most TV I've seen, they call the drink "soda", where she called it "pop". And me? (Because we have completely different words for most things) I grew up calling it "fizzy drink", but now would be more likely to call it by the brand name (coke, sprite, fanta etc). Where do you live and what do you call those soft drinks?

Bella was falling in and out of sleep as I drove through Montana toward Bismarck. I kept the radio soft enough to not disturb her and listened to my love's steady breathing as I maneuvered the long and gloomy roads. Around two in the morning, I pulled onto an access road to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I parked just far enough off the road so as not be spotted. The road was closed due to the inclement weather, and I could see road barriers just up ahead.

"Bella, honey." I jostled her softly to rouse her. "You need to wake up for a while."

"Mwumph?"

I kissed a trail from her cheek down her jawline and let my hand rest on her thigh.

"Mmmm," she moaned, and her eyelids fluttered open.

"I need you to be awake, sweetheart."

"Where are we?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

I moved back to my own seat. "North Dakota."

She looked out the window, confused. "It's the middle of the night. Why am I awake?"

"I need to hunt. I'll be as fast as I can. I really don't want to leave you alone, but I can't hold off much longer."

She nodded and felt a twinge of nervousness.

"And this is why I need you awake. I want you to be vigilant. If you see anything unusual, if anyone—on foot or in a car—comes near you, blast the horn. I'll stay close enough to hear it, and I'll be back as soon as possible."

I took my phone out of my pocket, checked that we had reception, and passed it to her. "If Alice calls, answer it. If she has any information for us, blast the horn. If anything is odd, or scares you, blast the horn. Don't hesitate. Anything."

She looked up at me, frowning. "Sh—should I be worried?"

"No, sweetheart. I'm just being extra-cautious. And you need to feel that you're not abandoned in the middle of nowhere. One honk and I'll be back, okay?"

She patted my leg. "I'll be fine. Go hunt."

I leaned over, kissed her quickly, and put my hand on the door handle. "I love you." I wondered when the novelty of being able to say that would wear off.

"I love you, too." She sounded a little bit patronizing. "Go."

I turned the radio up loud enough to stop her falling back to sleep and was out the door.

I figured there were some buffalo somewhere around here but couldn't smell them anywhere within a couple of miles. There were, however, a lot of elk. Enough that they could be considered overpopulated. I decided to help out with that problem and sprinted off.

Bella managed to sleep another couple of hours before I stopped driving. We had gone all the way to Bismarck and driven around the city for a bit, before backtracking and changing our course to north.

She woke when I slowed down as we pulled into Rugby. We were close to the Canadian border, and my mind worked quickly, changing my plan. Changing my mind often would help us if Alice didn't manage to keep her visions hidden from Edward.

"What time is it?" Bella asked, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

"Just after seven. Want some breakfast?"

"I can go without. I'm not horrendously hungry." As if on cue, her stomach grumbled.

I chuckled. "Don't fib about these things, sweetheart. I ate earlier. Now it's your turn. Don't sacrifice your comfort."

I took her into a small diner and urged her to order pancakes with all the fixin's. She followed it with strong coffee, proving that she didn't get enough sleep during her night in the car.

When she'd finished eating, I checked us into a hotel. The sun had risen and there was only a small amount of cloud cover—not enough for me to be able to walk around outside without attracting attention.

In our small hotel room, we each took a shower. When she finished drying her hair, she stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, clearly unsure what she should be doing.

"Sleep," I told her.

"I'm not tired."

"Well, that's not true."

"Okay, I'm tired, but I just had two cups of coffee. So I won't be able to sleep anytime soon."

I picked her up, carried her to the bed, and lay down next to her. "We can't leave here until the sun sets, so you can get at least a little sleep during the day. We can—I don't know—watch some TV. Talk. Whatever you like."

"Let's talk," she suggested.

"What about?"

"I want to know about you, Jasper. I know how I feel about you, but I don't really know anything about your history. You've lived one hundred and fifty odd years. You must have a lot of stories."

I considered what I could tell her. I wanted her to know everything about me but didn't want to scare her. "Most of the stories from before I met the Cullens aren't very nice."

"I'm a big girl, Jasper. I saw you rip limbs off your brother. I think I can handle a few scary stories."

Sighing, I pulled her against my chest so that we were spooning. I wasn't sure I wanted to see her face when she realized how much of a monster I had been in the past. But she wanted to know about me, and I couldn't deny her. So I began the long story.

"You already know I grew up in Texas. I was too young when the war broke out, but I was desperate to fight those damn Northerners who thought they could tell us how to live our lives…."

She fell asleep as I was explaining about helping Peter and Charlotte escape. Her deep, even breathing and complete relaxation made me stop talking so as not to disturb her.

It was with both relief and frustration that I realized I had missed yet another opportunity to tell her about my relationship with Alice. She really needed to know, but it wasn't something that just came up easily in conversation. Oh, who was I kidding? …I was scared to tell her. I was terrified that a tiny whip of a girl would be mad at me. I was a coward when it came to her.

"Are you going to be okay to travel again tonight?" I asked her when she woke up a few hours later.

"Of course."

"Are you sure? If you're too tired, we can stay here so you can get some more sleep."

"But you want to keep going?"

I frowned. "Well, I do, but you come first. If you need more sleep we can stay here."

"I can sleep tomorrow. Let's keep moving."

I stood and kissed her on the top of her head. "Okay. You stay here with our bags. I'm going to sell our car."

"We've only had it for forty-eight hours!" she protested.

"Trust me."

"I do."

I passed her the phone. "Give your parents a call or something to reassure them you're fine. Order some room service. I'll be back in half an hour or so."

I started to walk away, but she pulled me back by the hem of my shirt. "Hey."

"Yeah?"

Reaching up, she pulled my head down and kissed me – chaste, but forceful. "I love you."

I couldn't help grinning at her. "I can't explain how much I love hearing that from you. I love you too."

When I returned, a few thousand more dollars in my hand, Bella was sitting on the bed, flicking through channels, bored.

I opened up her bag and looked through it quickly.

"What're you doing?"

I pulled out the warmest sweater I could find. "I need you to dress as warmly as possible. Lots of layers. Hat, gloves, scarf; everything you can find. It's going to be close to zero degrees out there."

"Uh…. Why do I need all these clothes?"

"We're getting out of here."

She laughed. "And we're walking or something?"

I nodded, smirking. "That's right."

"Excuse me?"

"If we want to stay in relatively unpopulated areas, we need to go north, not east. You don't have a passport, so we can't just drive over the border. So I'm going to run, carrying you."

She stared at me, shocked. She hadn't made any move toward getting dressed. "You're insane."

"It's unexpected. And when you're on the run, you can't do what is expected."

"No. You're just insane."

I shrugged. "Possibly. Love makes you do stupid things."

"Don't I know it," she grumbled, picking up the sweater.

As I watched her add more clothing, I wondered about that comment. Did she think that it was because of her relationship with me that we were on the run? Did she wish it were otherwise? What would her life be like if she hadn't met me?

I shuddered when I realized if she hadn't been my pereche, she would most likely be dead by now. Without my protection, Edward would have killed her by now. Maybe not that first day in the cafeteria but definitely when he escaped and ran back from Alaska.

I felt a cold chill run through me and prickling around my eyes. If it were possible, I would be shedding tears. The thought of her being lost to this world was causing a visceral reaction I had never felt for anyone in my life—vampire life or human life.

She looked a bit like the Michelin man, wearing practically every piece of her clothing we had brought along as well as one of my sweaters and my jacket. There was an advantage to her wearing enough clothing to fill a small store – it meant we could condense our entire luggage down to one bag.

We got odd looks from the hotel staff as we checked out, but since Bella could barely move her head from all the layers, she didn't notice the sidelong glances.

We walked down the street toward the bus station until we were out of sight of the hotel and then turned north. Three blocks later, we were in farmland, hidden in the shadows of a stand of trees.

"Are you sure nobody will see us?"

"They won't," I assured her. "I'll be going too fast and sticking to wooded areas wherever possible. Anyone who does catch a glimpse in the dark will just think it's a figment of their imagination."

Snow surrounded us and lights twinkled behind her head as I stared at her perfect porcelain face—the only part of her body exposed. I was lost in her for the longest time. I was only pulled from my adoration when she flushed bright scarlet.

"Don't look at me like that. It's embarrassing."

I could hear the soft tones in my voice. They were almost hypnotic, even to my own ears. "You belong to me, Bella. I'll stare at you whenever I like. And I'd like to do so for approximately ninety percent of the day. Now, hop up."

I helped her settle, clinging to my front like a koala bear, and wrapped one of my arms around her rear to hold her steady. She wouldn't have a very good grip, so it would be pretty much up to me to make sure she didn't fall. Being able to hold her so closely was just a fortunate perk of the position. Once she was secure, I took our bag in the other hand.

"I estimate it'll take us about an hour of running. Maybe two, depending on how far from the border we come across another town. Try and keep your face tucked in against my chest and out of the wind. It's pretty cold already, but we might encounter some snow up ahead. I don't want you getting frostbite."

She nodded her head—which was already tight against me—and I took off.

I would like to be able to say that it was the most pleasant ride of Bella's life. But I would be lying. By the time we reached Canadian soil, Bella was shivering violently and moaning periodically into my shirt. I asked her several times if she needed me to stop for a while, but she told me to keep going. An hour and forty minutes after leaving Rugby, we came up on a small town. Lights blazed in the windows of perfectly maintained houses and smoke blew from chimneys.

I set Bella down on a patch of sidewalk that was untouched by snow, keeping my hands on her arms for balance. It was needed, apparently, as she almost fell over the second her feet touched the pavement.

"Dizzy," she groaned and promptly leaned over to empty her stomach of its contents. I rubbed her back in soothing circles as she continued to heave.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her mouth with the back of one hand and holding onto my sweater with the other.

"Why do you need to be sorry? I'm the one who ran too fast for you." I held her hand and led her into the town center. Outside a secluded house, I approached a car, checked there wasn't an alarm system, and pried open the door.

"Jasper!" Bella hissed. "You can't do that! That's stealing!"

"I'm aware." I pulled the envelope out of my back pocket with the money from selling our last car, and placed the envelope in the mailbox. "Better?"

She frowned. "I guess. It's still wrong."

"We need a vehicle unless you'd like to spend the next six hours with me carrying you. I just bought a vehicle from them."

"Bought it without their knowledge!"

I shrugged. "Paid more than it's worth, too. The police will find it tomorrow and they'll get it back."

"I'm not a criminal. My dad is the police chief." Her arms were crossed over her chest—as much as her over-clothed body would allow—and her angry posture caused her right hip to jut out seductively. Even when she was irritated with me she still looked absolutely perfect. Mouthwatering—and it had nothing to do with her blood.

"That's fine. You're not borrowing it; I am. Get in." I slung our bag into the back seat and pulled open the panel hiding the wiring. Hot-wiring was a piece of cake when you'd had Rosalie Hale as your teacher.

Her frustration and reluctance to comply was hitting me to my very core. It was almost as if it hurt me to hurt her. She stood outside the window, alternating between glaring at me and looking at the house nervously, and it was only once I got the car started that she stripped off two unneeded layers of clothing and threw herself into the passenger seat.

"Do you like making me an accessory to grand theft auto?"

"Bella, sweetheart, as much as you don't want to hear this, the nature of what I am sometimes necessitates living outside the law. Do you think that my passport has my correct birth date on it? No, things like that have to be forged. We have to lie about who we are every day. We don't live by normal human laws because we find ourselves in situations in which no human would ever find themselves. But the alternative to lying is to go off the grid entirely—which the majority of our kind resort to. They are nomads and roam the earth with no real purpose except survival.

"Now, if you're really uncomfortable and can't handle this, we can take this car back right now, but it will mean having to run until we get to a town with a car yard."

She huffed, but was obviously acquiescing – she reached over and pulled her seatbelt on.

"Nobody is getting hurt here."

"I guess," she grumbled. She slumped in her seat, and within minutes she was struggling to stay awake.

"I love you," I reminded her, keeping my voice low. She glanced at me, bleary-eyed. "Your safety—and right now, your comfort—is my top priority. I don't know those people, so it's easy to ignore how they feel to get what I want. But you need to remember that this is a much smaller crime against humanity than what I used to do on a daily basis."

"You're still inconveniencing them. They are going to be distraught when they realize what you've done." Her voice got softer with each word. "That's the important thing here; how you're making that family feel. Not what is convenient for you and me." And with her final admonishments, she drifted to sleep.

I went over her words in my mind. I was supposed to be the empath, but Bella seemed to understand peoples' feelings better than I. Sure, I controlled their emotions to my will, but it had been a long time since I stopped to think about how my actions affected humans. My family, sure, but not strangers.

Not many things could change a vampire's personality or way of thinking. I had thought that the only monumental shift that would happen to me had already happened – finding Bella and falling in love with her. The whole time I had lived with Alice, nothing had changed for me. I had known I wanted something different when I ran from Maria, and Alice had shown me the light.

But as much as I knew that Bella was perfect for me—my other half—the question had remained as to why. Why had the fates, or whoever designed these things, chosen her for me?

Tonight, for the first time, I wondered if maybe it was because she was making me a better person in a way nobody else had before.