A/N: We are so close to the end now I can feel it! The final two chapters are completely planned out now, with the dialogue on a constant loop in my head. But I'm not going to rush them, because I want them to be perfect. An anon reviewer asked how much longer they would be travelling... well this is pretty much it. No more car scenes from here on out. There are 23 chapters altogether.

What I'm currently reading? ... "Plight Thee My Troth", by Gingerandgreen.

Thank you to my lovely betas, StoryPainter and Thir13enth.

"Happier now?" I asked Bella. She really hadn't been pleased about me stealing the car and had been subtly pouting for much of our journey.

After driving through half of Saskatchewan, we'd dumped the stolen car outside a police station in Saskatoon and bought a new one once businesses opened for the day.

"I guess." She snuggled into the soft leather seat as I drove east, keeping up our zigzag pattern of navigation. Her mood was better now she knew the family would get their car back.

I turned on the radio and found a country station. Bella wrinkled her nose at the choice but didn't protest verbally, so the country remained.

"I do get it, you know," she said as she watched my profile.

"Get what?"

"I get that sometimes there are circumstances when you can't stay within the law. As much as I'd like to say that I'm my father's daughter and the law is paramount, I did grow up with my mother. And she had no qualms about bending rules to suit what she thought was right."

"Really? What like?"

"I might have caught her with pot a few times. Things like that. She'd always say that if she wasn't hurting anybody then it was her business."

"You know it's not like I go around constantly committing crimes, right? It's only when it's necessary."

"I know." She was quiet for a while, nibbling on her lower lip. Not wanting to pressure her to talk, I kept most of my attention on the road and the radio.

"It's a very different life you lead, isn't it?" she mused.

"Well… yes." It was possibly the understatement of the year.

"I mean, you told me the stories, but it's hard to comprehend that they're real." In a rare role-reversal, she reached over to the gearstick where my hand was resting and threaded her fingers through mine.

"Very real," I choked out. It didn't matter how much we were together; every touch was still like lightning. "You've had a lot to deal with in the last week. It's understandable if some of it seems like a bad dream."

She squeezed my fingers. "Good dream. Ninety-eight percent good, anyway."

"Really?" I was like a pig-tailed school-girl, still unable to believe that someone liked me. Like liked me, in fact.

I kept driving, but she leaned over and caressed down the side of my face, wrapping her fingers through the curls at the end of my hair. "I wouldn't change a thing, Jasper. If I had to go back and choose whether to meet you, even knowing the danger I was going to be in, I would choose you every single time."

My mind flashed back to Emmett and me standing on the porch at the house and him asking me a very similar question. Back then, I didn't really know what my own answer would have been. Even though I knew Bella was perfect for me, the constant knowledge that I had to give up Alice to be with Bella gnawed away at me. But here was Bella, so innocent, with her whole life ahead of her, and she was so sure of herself. Sure of me. Sure of us. Her emotions didn't betray one ounce of hesitancy as she spoke. All she was emitting was love. Love which I willingly sent back to her.

Her thumb rested near the edge of my lips, so she felt—as well as saw—when the grin spread across my face.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, handing it to her.

"Sweetheart, can you do me a favor?"

"Of course."

"While we're still close enough to the city to get good reception, open up my messages and text Emmett."

"Okay." She pressed a few wrong buttons, not proficient at texting, but found the correct page. "What am I saying to him?" Her fingers were poised over the keypad.

"Okay, type: 'In reply to your question the other week, no, I wouldn't change a thing.'"

"Jasper?"

I looked up from my book to see Bella standing in the doorway of the hotel bathroom. A twinge of nervousness was running through her. She was wearing a scandalous lack of clothing, which wasn't helping me keep my control around her.

"Are—are those my boxer shorts?"

"Do you mind? It's just warmer in this hotel than it has been in the others, and my sweatpants were a bit too much."

"I d-don't—uh—mind at all," I stuttered. Since when did vampires stutter? Never, that's when. But something about her wearing my clothing just – gah!

She slipped under the garish floral coverlet, which made a harsh rustling sound as if it were made of plastic. "Are you planning to lie with me? Or is your book more interesting?"

She let out a throaty laugh when I was across the room and on the bed next to her at vampire speed.

"Are you tired?" I asked her, glancing at my watch. It was only eight in the evening, but she hadn't slept the night before.

"A little bit," she admitted. "Get under the blankets."

"You'll be too cold."

"Didn't we just discuss that it was unnecessarily warm in this room?"

"We did."

"So get under the blankets."

I smirked and rolled off the bed. "Yes ma'am."

She snuggled up against my chest, her head resting on my shoulder, and kissed my neck. My t-shirt rasped against my abdominal muscles as she stroked my stomach. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Becoming a vampire."

I froze for a second. "Why do you want to know that?"

"Jasper, I'm going to be involved in this world now. It's important that I know all the details. And sometime in the future how one becomes a vampire might just be something that is very necessary for me to know. If I don't know all the details, I can't make an informed decision, can I?"

I cringed. I was torn. I didn't want to think about a situation where changing her might become our only option, but I knew that it was inevitable. Keeping her human wasn't a long term plan. If we wanted to stay together, it would be ridiculous for her to be forty years old while I remained nineteen. Not that I wouldn't still love her if that was her decision, but I couldn't imagine she would choose for that to happen.

I gripped her somewhat tighter than normal in an unconsciously protective gesture.

"How does it happen?" she prompted.

I sighed. I had to tell her these details. She was tenacious enough that I couldn't ignore the question. "It's a bite."

She moved her head, crooking it up so she could see my face.

"Uh, normally when we feed, the venom that is in our mouths goes into the bite. If you don't kill them—if their heart is still beating—the venom has a chance to go around the body. It changes each cell in the body one by one. It takes about three days, on average, and is…." I trailed off.

"It's what?" She nudged me with her chin.

"It's indescribable, really. It's the worst pain you've ever felt in your life, multiplied by a hundred. It's like you're burning alive, like a red hot poker is searing each one of your veins. The pain was so intense, I lost track of time – I couldn't tell if it had been three hours or three years."

I glanced down at her face to see her cringing.

"That sounds pretty bad."

"I know that I should still be trying to impress you, but yeah—I screamed the whole time. As much as I would do anything for you, I would hesitate before agreeing to that again if you asked."

"It's okay. I won't ask you to do that."

"I appreciate that."

She lay her head back down on my chest and picked up my hand, gripping it tight. Her other hand began tracing along some of the more visible scars on my arm. "Is it hard?"

"Huh?"

"Is it hard being a vampire?"

"It depends. I'll admit trying to stick to the animal diet is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's difficult trying to get used to your new strength. The first year or so is the worst, though. You have very little control, snapping at the slightest provocation, unsure who you really are, unsure where you fit in the world, and feeling like a monster. Overall it's not too bad, though. There are definitely some good points. The freedom of running faster than the wind is exhilarating. And knowing you have forever to be with the ones you love… Well, who wouldn't want that? But, yes, killing to survive can be depressing."

"If I was changed, would I want to kill my father? My friends?"

I sighed heavily. "Bella, sweetheart, if you are ever changed, you won't be able to see your father again. We'd have to leave. Firstly because, yes, you would want to kill him, and secondly, because he would be suspicious. We need to keep our cover. You would look slightly different and wouldn't be aging."

"I couldn't see him anymore?"

I kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry."

She continued her tracing of my scars as she took in the information. I felt horrible. Being with me would turn her world upside down even more than it currently had. She had been telling herself that it was okay to be lying to her father because she'd be able to make it up to him later.

She glanced up at my face. "And you live forever?"

"Well, we don't age. So I guess you could say we live until someone kills us."

"I don't want to think about you being killed."

She wrapped an arm across my waist, hugging me close, and inched her body up higher so she was partially lying on my chest.

"You'll be pleased to know I have no immediate plans for that," I told her, smiling, and kissed her. I felt her quickly melt into me, and her hands found their way into my hair. She was the one who deepened the kiss, and I wasn't going to object.

I moved one hand to behind her head, the other resting on the small of her back, and I moaned into the kiss. Nothing felt better than this. She was so soft and warm, her weight pressing against me, and her lips moving languidly against mine.

"I love you, Bella. I'll never leave you," I whispered against her lips.

Her heart fluttered and her lips traveled down my cheek to my jaw. "Never?" she breathed.

"Never," I confirmed.

She pulled her body farther over me so our bodies were completely aligned. She was so much shorter than me her feet rested just below my knees. Her movements had pushed the blankets down past her hips, and her tank top had bunched up slightly, two inches of her silky skin being revealed to my fingers.

"I love you too," Bella muttered, pulling at my hair as she came in to attack my lips again. "I don't know why, but I do." One of her hands left my hair to travel down my arm, lingering on my biceps.

I moved my hand from her back down to cup her behind; the most intimately I had touched her so far. "That seems like an insult." I squeezed her behind gently for emphasis.

She pulled her head back to look at me. "Not at all."

I drew her back down to me, kissing her deeply for what was nowhere near enough time. She tasted so incredibly amazing it was hard to stop. But from the reaction my body was having, I knew I had to or I would never stop.

Cradling her in my arms, I moved her off me and pulled my knees up to hide my inadvertent response to her. "God, Bella," I groaned, flinging my arm across my eyes. "You'll be the death of me. My second death."

"Sorry." Embarrassment filtered through her lust.

"Never be sorry for being so desirable."

She lay there, staring at the ceiling, her bunched-up top still disheveled and exposing her flat stomach. "I'm not desirable."

My head flashed toward her. "You most definitely are. Remember, sweetheart, I can feel the lust of every male in every room you are in. I have to resist killing every single one of them."

"But…."

"Trust me, Bella. You're gorgeous. Beautiful. Perfect."

I could tell she wasn't convinced.

"Bella, feel this." I sent her every ounce of love, lust and admiration I felt for her. She just laid there, eyes wide.

Her heart pounded and goose bumps exploded across her skin as she absorbed the depth of my connection to her. "Wow," she whispered.

"Exactly. How can you question how perfect you are when you feel that?"

"I guess I can't." She sat up, fastened her deep brown eyes onto mine, and I sensed the love she felt for me in return.

"Perfect," I whispered.

She needed to sleep. It had been a ridiculously long day. I pulled her back down, my arms wrapped around her, and spooned up behind her. I stroked up and down her arm as she relaxed and her eyes drooped.

"Jasper?" she whispered, her voice quiet and lethargic.

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to be changed. Not yet. I only just got my dad back. I want to spend more time with him. And I want to live a bit more of a human life. I want to graduate high school. I want to go to college. I want to go to some stupid frat party and get drunk. Give me five years or something, then we'll look at it."

"That's fine, sweetheart. I understand." In one way, I was a little bit relieved. Any way to put off the pain she would experience with the change made me happy. She was right – we would have to seriously think about it sometime, but now wasn't the time. Right now, all we had to worry about was Edward. We had to find a way to get Bella back to Forks without the risk of her having the life sucked out of her. We would find a way; I was determined to find it. Everything else could wait.