A/N: Well, you guys sure know how to make a girl freak out and lose confidence in her ability by withholding reviews, don't you? Oh, I should thank WriteChristineR for listening to that freaking out and talking me off the "I'm quitting writing" ledge. Love you!

As always, my betas, StoryPainter and Thir13enth have done an amazing job.

Oh look - the "FFN Bloat" seems to be fixed! The word count on this chapter actually matches what it says in my Word doc.

And what I'm reading? ... "Just Between Us" by CayStar. One of those fics I just rush home to continue reading. :)

The reluctance and resignation Bella felt when we loaded back into the car the next morning convinced me that we needed to stay in the same place for at least a couple of days. Some place we could rest and recuperate without the fear of the sun affecting our activities.

I was a vampire. I may not be a woman, but I could still multi-task. I could drive, make phone calls to organize a place to stay, and keep Bella from going mad from boredom. I was practically Superman. Just… without the way-too-revealing spandex situation.

After four hours, I pulled up in front of a log cabin. It was part of a camping ground consisting of twenty similar cabins, but since it was the middle of winter, there were no other guests. The owner lived fifteen miles away and was slightly reluctant to open the place up for us until I sweetened the deal with a promise of double his normal rate.

I was opening Bella's door before she could even remove her seatbelt.

"M'lady." I added a flourish of my hand for effect. "Your humble abode awaits."

She looked at me as if I had grown a second head but allowed me to carry her to the porch of our cabin. She squirmed on the way there, protesting loudly that she was more than capable of walking, but changed her mind once I set her down and she had some time to look around.

The snow was deep, with snowdrifts several feet high. With her inadequate footwear, she would have quickly become a snowman had she attempted to walk through it herself. The snow sparkled in the afternoon sun, as did I. Trees a hundred feet high surrounded the clearing, towering up toward the washed-out blue of the winter sky. Everything was quiet—even I couldn't hear any cars—and the only sound was the hum of the power generator. The only signs evident that we weren't the only people in a hundred mile radius were the footprints and tire marks left when the owner came and turned on the power for us.

Bella leaned back into my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind.

"This is really nice, Jasper." She deeply breathed in the untainted Canadian air.

"Better than the seemingly unending string of Holiday Inns and Ramadas?"

"Oh, much better." She looked down and stroked a single finger along my sparkling hand. "And we don't have to hide. We don't have to pretend to be human and fit in with society."

"We? You are human, my dear. Or did you forget that?"

"I may be human, but I've never really fit in with the rest of society. I've always been different. Maybe that's why we fit together so well."

"Maybe." I smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Perhaps your mind somehow knew that the love of your life wasn't human, so you didn't need to try so hard to belong. Perhaps there wasn't a choice in whether we would meet – it was always meant to happen."

"Like destiny?"

"Yes. Just like that. Does that scare you?"

"No, not at all." She turned in my arms and pulled my head down so she could kiss my lips. "It feels right." She ended with a shiver.

I quickly realized that as beautiful as the scene before us was, I had an underdressed human out in ten degree weather, and she would quickly freeze if I didn't get her inside. I led her through the front door, which was unlocked as promised. The walls, as expected, were native timber and the roof was a natural A-frame. A fire was roaring in the hearth with comfy couches surrounding it, and one wall was lined with a bookcase filled with beautiful leather-bound books.

"There should be a bedroom and bathroom back here," I told Bella, leading her to the right with my hand on the small of her back. "I'll bring our bags in and you can freshen up or whatever it is you girls do in the bathroom after a long trip."

She gasped when we entered the bedroom. There was a beautiful four-poster bed in the middle of the room with a cream thick shag rug covering the cold wooden floors. A picture window looked out into the forest behind the cabin and there was a window-seat perfect for reading.

"This is amazing, Jasper. You are spoiling me."

"I'd like to take all the credit, but I honestly had no idea what it looked like when I booked the place," I chuckled.

"Still… It's perfect."

"I'm glad you like it. I thought we would stay a while here. A few weeks, maybe? Long enough to work out our next move."

If I didn't know better, I would have thought she was supernatural with how fast she moved to embrace me. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"I'm assuming you approve, then?"

"Very much so."

"Okay, sweetheart, I'll go get the bags and the groceries from the car. We can just relax for the rest of the day." For the first time in a week, we didn't have anywhere to go. We didn't need to run anywhere or worry about getting out of town. And even our scents would be somewhat masked by the snow. We could feel safe here. Long enough to reduce both of our stress levels.

It was almost as if we were playing house. This was what it would be like to live with Bella. She was excited to be able to cook a real meal—not the take-out and diner meals she'd been living on for a week—and she seemed to be making up for lost time. I sat back with a book in my hands and surreptitiously watched her work. She was humming to herself, content, as she banged around in the cupboards and clashed pots together.

I couldn't deny, however, that the best part of watching her was when she dropped one of the bags of rice and it burst all over the floor. Initially, I jumped up, offering to help her clean it up, but she waved me off. Boy was I glad I had listened to her. Instead of cleaning, I had been treated to a front row seat to her bending over with the dustpan. My perfect view of her ass made me forget any pretense of reading, and I stared openly. Not unexpectedly, the sight was stirring things inside me which I had been trying and failing to keep hidden the last few days. There was a smidge of smugness as she stood up, which made me think she had positioned herself like that on purpose.

She knew exactly what she did to me. I could only hope that the feeling was reciprocated.

For someone normally so uncoordinated, Bella was a natural in the kitchen. Her body seemed to flow through the movements necessary like water. Her hips moved languidly to music only she could hear as she stirred the pot of what I could only pinpoint as some kind of sauce.

Almost as if the kitchen were surrounded by some kind of force field, the second she exited the room, she regained her clumsiness. She plopped down on the couch opposite me and immediately spilled some of the red sauce on her white t-shirt.

"Oops," she said with a giggle, and moved to stand up.

"No, stay there. I'll fix it." I was back, kneeling in front of her, within seconds. I dabbed at the stain with the damp dishcloth, obeying her every instruction like a puppy. Gripping her waist with one hand, I dutifully rubbed at her shirt, making a bigger wet patch with each stroke. A small part of my mind—the dirty part, I assumed—was hoping that if I kept rubbing long enough, my path would rise up to be touching her breast.

"Jasper, baby, I think it'll be easier to just change my shirt."

I pouted like a child as I abandoned my task until a wicked thought came to me. "Well, take it off, and I'll run it through the washer."

She laughed at me. "Nice try, but I'm not wearing a bra."

I had known this already. My superhuman eyesight was well aware of her lack of undergarments. "That's not a problem."

She playfully whacked my arm. "You're pushing it."

"Sorry, sweetheart." As I flopped back into the couch cushions, I lamented that she hadn't taken my suggestion seriously. I would really have no problem with her walking around naked. Or even half-naked. Or in her underwear…

I literally slapped myself to stop my train of thought.

Day dawned as Bella awoke, nestled in my arms. It was perfect. She fit against me like the missing piece of a puzzle. And when I compared the nights she had slept in my arms to the nights she had spent alone, I surmised that her sleep was a lot more peaceful with me.

While Bella had slept, I had texted Alice to make sure everything was still well back at home. She confirmed that Edward was still limbless, which comforted me greatly. Bella yawned and her eyes fluttered open. As she stretched her arms above her head, her top rode up, exposing a sliver of porcelain skin. I tried to place my cellphone on the nightstand while keeping my eyes on her, but didn't reach quite far enough. It missed its target and ended up falling down the side of the bed onto the thick rug below. Apparently Bella was unintentionally seductive enough to distract even a vampire.

Shrugging, I told myself that I would retrieve it later. I'd need to plug it in to be charged overnight, but right at that moment, Bella was more important.

"Morning," I whispered into her hair.

"Morning," she groaned. "Really? Is it? It's still dark out."

"The sun's just coming up. It's almost nine, though."

She rolled over to snuggle further into my chest. "Don't want to get up."

I smiled down at her. "What if I told you that it looks like the sun is going to shine all day? I thought we could wrap you up warm and go outside to make snowmen."

"And snow angels?"

"Sure. Snow angels too."

"Okay. I'm up."

She was fast with her breakfast and didn't even complain when I made her wear more clothing than she probably needed, considering the sun would keep the worst of the chill away.

"This feels so weird!" she shouted at me as she packed snow together to make snowballs. She didn't seem to care that I was letting her hit me—there was no way she'd hit me if I was actually trying to avoid her throws—and squealed with delight every time she got a snowball on target. "When you rub bits together it squeaks like styrofoam!"

"Have you never played in the snow before?"

"I lived in Phoenix until a month ago. When does it ever snow there? And I only ever really visited my dad in summer."

"Good point." I lobbed a small snowball high so it landed perfectly on top of her head.

"Hey!" She shook her head desperately. "Ew! It's all through my hair!" Her teeth were chattering slightly after being outside for over an hour.

I walked over to her and pulled her into my arms, kissing her cheek. "That sounds like a good excuse to run you a bath. It'll warm you up."

"That sounds good. And a cup of hot chocolate."

"Deal."

Bella's emotions were all over the place as she showered and prepared for bed the night. She seemed to take longer showering than she normally did, and I wondered just what she was doing in there.

As she brushed her teeth, I could feel lust coming off her—which, naturally, I loved—but also incredible nervousness. What did she have to feel nervous about? Did she want to talk about something? Was she still scared of Edward? Did I need to reassure her more that I would protect her with every ounce of my being, even if it meant sacrificing myself?

I slipped between the sheets, assuming that she would want me to stay with her through the night again. She seemed to like me being there. Why would tonight be any different?

She opened the door and paused—her heart skipping a beat when she saw me—before tiptoeing across the room and sliding into bed. She didn't curl toward me as she often did but instead lay on her back. Her mahogany hair spread out against the crisp white pillow, making her look like an angel. My angel.

"You okay, sweetheart?"

Her nervousness hadn't gone away, but I still couldn't put my finger on the cause.

"Yes," she said breathily.

I raised an eyebrow in expectation. I felt like I needed her to say something more. It took several minutes before she did.

"Come here." She reached an arm out toward me and grasped my arm, pulling me so I was lying almost on top of her.

She craned her neck to kiss me roughly. I sure wasn't going to complain, especially when she opened her mouth to me. I was lost in the kiss until she pulled away.

She looked directly into my eyes. "Jasper?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I…" She seemed to lose her nerve. It felt a bit like when she first said she loved me. The same kind of feelings were emanating from her.

"What is it?" I prompted her.

"I don't want to wait anymore," she whispered.

"Wait for what?"

She seemed to be steeling herself. "Jasper, look at me."

I obeyed, looking directly into her deep brown eyes.

"I want you."

"You have me."

"No. I want you." She leaned up to kiss me forcefully on the mouth.

Oh. Oh! A light bulb went off in my head. What she was asking suddenly made sense in my head, and my body froze.

"Really?"

She nodded coyly. The nerves were back.

"Now?"

"Now."

Alice

I guess it's a side effect of my gift; I really can't handle not knowing what's going on. So when Emmett received a text from Jasper, I bugged him for a full two days until he explained it to me.

I know it's over between Jasper and me. I know it was inevitable and there was nothing I could have done to change it. I know she's perfect for him. But still – hearing him say that he wouldn't change anything even if it meant he could still be with me… it hurt.

Jasper was my whole world for an average human lifetime. I loved him so desperately, and the fact that he now loved someone else hadn't changed that. I hoped that Carlisle's theory was correct, and once Bella was changed our bond would be broken, and I would be able to move on. Maybe once that happened I would start having visions of a new mate – because right now I couldn't see any potential mate in my future at all.

I was curled up with my head in Esme's lap, mourning the message received from my ex-husband. He was happy, which in itself made me happy, but I couldn't help but be upset that he had moved on from me so completely.

We would always be the best of friends—I had seen that, at least—and I also knew that I would be close to Bella once she changed, whenever that happened.

I stiffened as I was hit with a vision based on Carlisle's latest decision and sighed heavily.

Esme ceased her stroking of my hair and looked down at me. "What is it?"

I gave her a resigned look before indicating my head across the room to where Edward sat. He was picking out a piece on his piano with his one remaining hand. My eye movements between Edward, Carlisle's study and the basement seemed to explain to my mother what was happening.

Carlisle—the soft-hearted soul he was—couldn't stand to see Edward suffering any longer. He was going to give him back his missing limbs.

I'd been relatively good at hiding my visions from him, but now I would need to be extra vigilant.