Inception on a Rainy Night by KT8812

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Many thanks to BookwormBaby2580 for pre-reading this chapter. The credit for this chapter goes to her and her nit-picking skills!

Chapter 10:

Previously:

I shook my head. I was still in no way fit to carry out a rational conversation. I mentally grunted at this thought. I was sitting with two vampires, discussing my being the soul mate of one of them, there wasn't a shred of rationality in the entire situation. Suddenly, the sheer implausibility of the circumstances hit me hard and a desperate giggle left my unwilling lips. It sounded foreign to my own ears, a little off and bordering on hysteria.

"Bella, I know this can be overwhelming, but you need to calm down," Carlisle tried to pacify me, looking a bit wary.

I couldn't respond to him. I needed space, I needed time, I neededsanity.

"Jasper let go of me. I need to leave."

BPOV:

Contrary to my request, Jasper's arms tightened on my already bruised middle. I was in no condition to tolerate another one of his raging fits and I knew I couldn't physically over power him. I did the only thing I could. I pushed all my emotions towards him, hoping he would understand my bewilderment and my need to calm down. I slumped and let loose the tornado of emotions brewing within me, all of it. The confusion, the doubt, the fear, the hysteria, the pain and most of all the complete and utter exhaustion.

"Bella, please darlin', let me make it better," he begged and my chest ached with his entreaty, but I couldn't bring myself to give in.

"I need to go Jasper, please let me go."

"I can't," his voice cracked, " Don't you understand Bella, I can't let you go."

I decided to give it my last shot.

"If you really expect me to believe that you care for me as much as you say you do, you'll let me go," I demanded.

Slowly, so slowly his arms loosened around me. He was letting me go. So why did it feel like my heart was shattering in my chest?

"Go," came his tortured voice and I knew if I looked at him, I'd never be able to leave. I willed my body to move, stiff from having been in the same position for so long and walked towards the door while keeping my head bowed. With every step I took, I felt myself die a little inside and yet I couldn't surrender myself to the foreign feelings he evoked in me. Before I could ever commit to him, I needed to know myself.

I walked unseeing; letting the gravel beneath my bare feet guide me as it abraded the soles of my feet. Nothing mattered, not my bare feet, or my dress or rather my state of undress or the increasing cold due to the waning sun. The cold was welcome, the numbness a relief.

The sound of an approaching vehicle registered in my clouded mind, the squealing sound of brakes, then footsteps.

Carlisle.

Warmth surrounded me in the form of a long woolen overcoat, gentle but insistent hands tugging me towards the car, a warn gust of air from the heater running in the car and the thawing of my person. Silently, he pulled my pair of sneakers from the floor of the back seat and maneuvered my frozen feet in to a pair of thick woolen socks that I knew I didn't own. Bending at an awkward angle, he then eased my feet into the shoes and silently drove us into the gray twilight.

The silence was soothing, the blur of greenery in the windows calming and the sound of our combined breathing reassuring.

"I'm, hungry," the words came without warning or conscious effort, only for me to realize that they were true.

A gentle tilt of the head was the only acknowledgement to my statement, but soon enough we were pulling up at a diner. As I walked into the eatery, I once again became acutely aware of the fact that beneath the concealing overcoat, I was still dressed only in my professor's shirt and underwear but the over powering aroma of food drove all thoughts from my mind.

We swiftly sat down at a table and I anxiously waited for someone to come and pick up our order. Of course, given my luck, our waitress was blonde, busty and very obviously flirting with Carlisle who was desperately trying to direct her attention towards me.

"I want a double cheese burger, fries and a double pineapple juice," I said in a loud voice interrupting her flirting.

"Humph, and what can I get you honey?" she asked Carlisle.

"Nothing me for me, thank you. We've already had dinner, but my wife is at a phase where she has very strong cravings and I could never deny her and our little one anything," he said in succulent tones.

I couldn't help the smirk on my face when I saw her visibly pale and walk away quickly. When I turned to Carlisle, he had the most bashful look on his face and something told me that had he been human, he would have been blushing.

"I apologize for insinuating something like that without your prior permission, Bella, but I thought that you could do very well without that woman's incessant nagging. I'm sorry if I have offended you in any way," he said with a bowed head and I wondered how old he truly was. And I asked him just that.

"How old are you? The way you talk, you sound like you're from the seventeenth century," I said and I could have sworn that sometimes just a hint of an English accent leaked into his words.

"Didn't anyone teach you Miss. Swan that it was indecent to inquire about another's age?" he asked, a hint of mischief sparking in his amber eyes.

I was about to retort back when I wondered if he truly was offended by my question given that he obviously was much older than he looked. Were vampires insecure of their age despite their eternally young looks?

He must have caught the drift of my thoughts because the next instant he was reassuring me.

"It was just a joke Bella. I am not offended. It seems to be mere curiosity on your part," he said and it looked like he was about to continue with his sentence when the waitress came back with my food. She practically banged the glass of juice on the table and then turned to Carlisle again.

"Are you sure nothing interests you here? I'm sure there's something you'd want," she purred suggestively with a very blatant lip lick and Carlisle's eyes hardened. Apparently she'd decided that she wasn't above throwing herself at a much-married man with a child on the way. I dug into my food and settled in to watch the show.

"I'm fine, thank you Miss. I'll let you know if my wife needs something," he said, very pointedly dismissing her.

"I'm sorry," he apologized again.

"You've nothing to be sorry about. It's kind of funny watching them throw themselves at you. I wonder what they would do if they really found out what you are," I added thoughtlessly and then froze wondering if I had finally crossed the line and insulted him. To my surprise, he chuckled.

"I often wonder the same thing, Bella. Our good looks and charm are in fact a part of our predatory nature; they make it very easy for us to lure our prey away. It is disheartening to see how people so gladly give into mere superficial beauty, ignoring the truth that stares them in the face." As he said this, a dark cloud seemed to pass over his face, but he quickly recovered.

"So, you wanted to know about my age did you?" when I simply nodded he resumed his talk as I continued stuffing my face.

"I was born at some point during the sixteen hundreds, probably between 1630 and 1640, though I cannot be sure since births during those time were not precisely recorded and I lost most of my human memories during my transformation."

I looked at him, aghast at what I was hearing. I knew Jasper had told me that there were certain vampires over several millennia old in the world, but sitting in front of a three and a half century old vampire was scary, humbling and downright weird at the same time.

"What about Jasper? How old is he?" I asked, my brain seemingly disconnecting from my tongue once again. It was strange that I had never asked him this question myself.

Carlisle's demeanor changed instantly. He went from looking like an indulgent grandfather telling a story to looking like your father when he says that you will be told the secret when you're old enough to understand.

"Jasper's story is his own to tell, Bella. But I can tell you that he's over a century and a half old." As he said the words, he carefully studied my face, trying to gauge my reaction. I tried to think of Jasper as a very old wrinkled man with a toothless grin but I couldn't do it. I couldn't imagine him looking as anything other than what he looked like now. I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that he had over a century and a half worth of experience more than me and not for the first time I wondered what he was doing with someone like me. But suddenly, my mind visited a memory of Jasper and one of his lectures on the American Civil war.

"He lived through the Civil war didn't he?" I asked.

Carlisle didn't answer but nodded, indicating that this was not a topic he was willing to talk about.

I had finished my food by that point and Carlisle signaled the waitress to bring the bill. I instinctively reached into my pocket, realizing due to the absence of a pocket in its usual place that I wasn't even in my own clothes. Carlisle took one look at the bill and whipped out some money and placed it on the table. As we left, I saw that he had left the bill on the table along with the money. The ten-digit number scribbled untidily on the bill might have had something to do with it. This time I laughed out loud, though Carlisle pretended not to hear it.

As we got into the car, I noticed for the first time that it was Jasper's Mercedes that was on loan to him for Carlisle. This observation set off an unexpected twinge in my heart. As we pulled away from the diner, Carlisle turned to me and asked, "Where to?"

I should have asked him to drop me off at my apartment, but I was not yet prepared to be alone So instead I asked him if we could just drive around for a while. He very readily agreed and we once again settled into the comfortable silence, only now it started becoming oppressive. The events of the day and the new information started weighing on my mind and try as I might, I couldn't avoid thinking of it for much longer. I had so many questions I wanted to ask him, but I settled for the most important one.

"Why me, Carlisle? And why now?" I asked knowing he would understand what I was talking about.

"Your second question is much easier to answer than the first. He's bonded now because you're here and this is when he met you. Trust me, had he seen you five years earlier or five years later than today, he'd still be bonded to you."

"But why me? I'm plain, ordinary. In over a century and half, he couldn't find anyone better than me? I find that difficult to believe," I argued.

He sighed and then gently parked the car next to the curb, making sure that the area was not a no parking zone. He then turned to me, his eyes earnest, begging me to understand what he was saying.

"Bella, what you and Jasper have cannot be equated with any normal human relationship. The pull he feels towards you is permanent, eternal. You are the one and only for him, he will never want for another in all his existence."

I remembered Jasper's words from before Carlisle had arrived.

This thing between us is stronger than the strongest bond you can think of. You are what is air to a human being and blood to a vampire. I need you in order to survive, to exist. You are my life now, the sole purpose of my existence. What we have is eternal and everlasting, my Bella. It is forever.

"He said something similar to me before you came to visit. He said what we had was eternal, that it was forever. I didn't think he was serious, that he meant it quite literally. I though it was just something very sweet he said in the heat of the moment," I admitted.

"That is where you are wrong Bella, because in the vampire world, forever quite literally means forever. Trust me when I say that Jasper was not exaggerating anything, he was simply stating the truth."

"But it's that truth which worries me! Carlisle, I don't want Jasper to be with me because he has no choice in the matter! I don't want him to want me because some mystic power compels him to be with me." My words would not make sense to anyone else, even in my head my thoughts were running together, but I couldn't slow down, my brain was on overload, trying to find a logical reason behind what was happening to me, only now I was worried that there may never be a logical solution to the situation I found myself in.

"How do I know that what I feel for Jasper is real and not because of the mating bond?"

Carlisle, who was being very patient with me, seemed to be deriving some twisted kind of pleasure from my questions and confusion since a wide grin stretched across his face.

"What you feel for Jasper is most certainly because of the mating bond, Bella. There has never been any ambiguity regarding that," he said calmly while I gaped at him.

"So you're saying that… that…"

"Bella, listen to me," he said, suddenly turning serious. What was it with the rapid mood changes with the Cullen men? "Just because what you feel for Jasper is due to the bond, does not make it any less real. If we'd never had this conversation, if you hadn't discovered that you were Jasper's mate, bound to him, would you have ever doubted your feelings for him?"

My head was spinning back to the realization I had when Jasper had me tied up in the bar's basement the previous night. I loved him. In that moment, I had been so sure that I had loved him; I never would have thought that I would be doubting the very same feelings before a day had passed. Yes, I loved him, still did, but what about the reason behind that love? I asked Carlisle about it and again there was that thrice-damned smile of his.

"The heart does things for reasons that reason cannot understand, Bella. You cannot look for a definitive logical reasoning for love; it's not an equation to be solved. If one could make a list of the reasons for which one fell in love, I'd doubt it was true love."

I knew he was old enough to be my great, great, great grandfather, but on hearing his words, I felt even more young and naïve. He stopped the car and I realized that we were now at the fork in the road that would lead to the Cullen mansion hidden in the forest. I hadn't realized when he had started driving again and brought us here.

"I saw how you reacted when I told you that you and Jasper were soul mates, but it is a term quite popularly used by humans, so why did it bother you so much? I thought any young girl would be happy when told that her current beau is her soul mate."

"I guess, I never believed in the concept of soul mates," I sighed. He gave me an inquiring look and I decided he needed to know a bit of my history. "My parents divorced when I was less than one year old, my mother got custody though I'd visit my dad from time to time. I never thought that soul mates could be real because I never saw a relationship like that, it never worked out for my parents and while Renee is happy with Phil, their relationship is comfortable, it doesn't have the kind of depth or intensity you'd associate with soul mates, and it took her the better part of fifteen years to find him. My father is still single, though he's recently started dating. For me, the concept of soul mates was really something created by the movies to sell romance."

Now that I had put my thoughts into words, they sounded so bitter. I had always thought that I had coped with Charlie and Renee's separation very well, but now I know I still had some residual resentment directed towards them for it.

"I am sorry about your parents separation Bella, but soul mates is not a concept which holds true only in the vampire world, it is true even for humans, though it is even rarer in case of humans. Vampires, with their keen senses and heightened emotions are far more likely to find their mates than humans, though they often the have go centuries before they find their other half. Also, mostly it is impossible for a vampire to detect their mate if he or she is still in human form, so many of them never get to be with their mates because their mates live an ordinary human life and pass away without either of them being aware of the bond."

"So how did Jasper know that I'm his mate?"

"There is no conclusive evidence on the phenomenon of vampire mating, even less so about vampire human mating, but it is believed that if a vampire is sensitive enough, he'll feel a certain, shall we say, affinity towards the human that is his soul mate. That affection might be entirely platonic, or even fraternal because the true nature of the bond is only revealed when both the partners are vampires. The reason most vampires never find their mates is because they tend to give into their inner animal, their basest instincts, living like an animal and resembling humans only in their appearance. In such a situation, they are entirely closed off to the emotions that might lead them to their human mates. However, when both the partners are vampires, the attraction is immediate and there is no stopping the mating bond once they sense each other. In a very crude attempt at explanation, it could be said that the feelings of vampires, their emotions and bonds belong to a certain frequency, which barely coincides with the frequency at which the humans feel their emotions and it is due to this disparity that vampire human mating is virtually unheard of."

"So the reason it took Jasper so much time to claim me as his mate is because I am human and not vampire?"

"Yes, he held back for an impossibly long time for a vampire mainly because of two reasons. In what seems to be a very similar reaction to yours, he found it impossible to believe he had actually found a mate in a human. He couldn't deny his very strong attraction to you but couldn't bring himself to acknowledge that you truly were his mate. The second and most obvious reason was your fragility; he feared he would lose control if he allowed himself to get too close to you."

"So if I had been a vampire…"

He smirked; it was something I expected from Jasper, not Carlisle. It was a tad disconcerting.

"If you had been a vampire when Jasper first saw you, believe me when I say that he would have claimed you then and there without a care in the world about who was watching."

"But you still haven't told me how Jasper could feel that I was his mate when I am still human," I persisted.

"I cannot say for sure, but I do have my own theory. First and foremost is the fact that Jasper is an empath, so he is even more sensitive than normal vampires to emotional ties. It's obvious this had a lot to do with the fact that I received a frantic, almost incoherent phone call from him after is first class as your professor of American history." He chuckled quietly, probably remembering that particular conversation.

"I also think our so called vegetarian life-style has a lot to do with the phenomenon. Unlike most vampires, who are nomads, governed by their animal instincts, we possess a much better control of our senses. Hence, we are a lot more sensitive to human emotions. And that we live amongst humans and have more human interaction than any other known coven only exacerbates our responses to them. These are the two major reasons why Jasper responded to the bond while you are still human."

I mulled over everything he had told me and despite my doubts, I wanted to explore this relationship with Jasper. I had very strong feelings for him, and while the truth that these feelings were due to my being his mate disturbed me, I couldn't bring myself to deny my own feelings. Carlisle was right, the mating bond might be the cause of my feelings for him, but that did not diminish the depth of my feelings for him. I truly loved him and if Carlisle's words held any truth, he had no choice but to love me as well. Looking at it in a different perspective, it kind of looked perfect. He loves me, I love him, forever. Perfect.

A bit too perfect, a voice piped up inside me.

"Can we go back to the mansion, please? I think Jasper and I need to have a very long talk. And given his reaction to you this morning, I know there are a lot of hurdles in our path. I'm sorry we've taken up so much time of yours but I'd really appreciate it if you could stay for a while longer and help us smooth out things a bit more."

Yes, I was immensely grateful to Carlisle. He'd helped me sort out my jumbled emotions and while I was nowhere close to a crystal clear picture of what lay ahead of us, at least I had now accepted our bond and was prepared to learn how to cope with it. I felt a burst of gratitude towards the elegant man sitting next to me and understood why he was the head of the Cullen family. There couldn't possibly have been a better candidate.

"Thank you, Carlisle," I whispered. It was nowhere close to what I wanted to say, but I hoped he would catch the underlying emotion, and he did not disappoint.

"Please don't mention it, my child. It gives me great joy to see you with Jasper. I know he's a bit volatile right now, but you most certainly do bring out the best in him, never doubt that. And as for my time, well, that is one thing I have in abundance, don't I?" he teased as he drove us towards the house.

As we got closer to the massive building however, a weight seemed to settle on my chest, a hot, heavy feeling which got worse the more rapidly we approached the house. Suddenly, Carlisle stopped the car, his breathing labored and I saw that his previously golden eyes were now pitch black.

"He's projecting," he whispered.

Carlisle turned towards me with panicked eyes, something I had not seen even when Jasper was an inch away from beheading him. His cell phone started to ring and he looked at it as a dying man might look at his salvation.

"What do you see? What should we do? How come you didn't see this earlier?" he questioned whoever was at the other end at a rapid fire pace. He weight in my chest was impossible to ignore, it felt like a two-ton stone had been dropped onto my heart.

"I can't do that!" he cried. "I can't put her at risk like that, we don't even know if she will be able to stand the pain," he argued and though I couldn't hear what the other person, was saying, I did have a very good idea about what was being suggested.

"I need to go him, Carlisle. I caused him this grief, it's my fault," I whispered as I stepped out of the car and started walking towards the monolithic structure looming in front of us.

"Bella, please. You don't have any idea about how powerful Jasper is," he urged, his eyes wild. "You may not be able to stand the amount of pain he is projecting, he's making it difficult for me and I am a vampire! I have no idea how this could affect you, it may even cause physical damage to you. Please, rethink your decision. Let him calm down on his own, you can then talk it out with him."

I looked point blank in his eyes and asked a question, the answer to which I already knew.

"If it was your mate hurting like that, would you wait outside for her to calm down?"

He lowered his face, knowing he couldn't lie about something like that to my face and nodded in silent assent.

As we both reached the foyer, he collapsed onto the floor, curling in on himself. The weight on my heart had now turned into a steel vice, squeezing the life out of my chest, no wonder with his vampiric sensitivity Carlisle couldn't take it any more. The need to reduce the pain was too much; I wanted to turn around and run away, away from the pain that was like a stab to my heart, fire in my veins and a blow to my mind. The only thing that forced me to continue was the fact that all this pain was originating from Jasper. It was his pain. It was the pain I had caused him.

As I entered the living room, hunched in on myself, I heard the crunch of glass beneath my feet. The room was dark but I managed to fumble around and find the light switch. The scene that met my eyes made me forget the pain for a second as dread coiled in my stomach. The room in front of me was foreign. In no way did it resemble the room I had left behind a few hours ago.

Every breakable thing lay shattered on the floor, pieces of glass and ceramic covering it. Furniture lay splintered, upturned and in some cases pulverized to saw dust in some places. The ornate chandelier which adorned the high ceiling lay twisted at an awkward angle in one corner, a thing of art and beauty cruelly relegated to a piece of useless scrap. Perfect, circular holes were punched into the various walls of the room, making it look like Swiss cheese. Even in my crushing agony, I was grateful that the entire structure was still standing.

I had reached my pain threshold, I knees threatening to give out. I needed to find jasper and as I looked around for him desperately I saw a figure curled up into a ball, lying motionless at the end of the staircase. I made my way towards him and felt the pain increase beyond my imagination as searing bolts of agony jolted my body.

I dropped next to him, ignoring the little pieces of debris that dug into my flesh. It was nothing compared to the pain, his pain. I curled my body around his, hoping he'd realize my presence but he remained unmoved. My heart was about to explode. I needed to talk to him, apologize to him for doubting him, us. I needed to tell him that I loved him, but my tongue wouldn't work, my mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

As the darkness closed in, I had only one prominent thought.

I love you.

A/N: This chapter was quite a tough one for me, so I hope you enjoyed it. I'd love to know what you expect to find in the upcoming chapters. Reviews, suggestions and new ideas are always welcome!

Important: I've been selected to join the R&D division of a Pharma company in a metro city, hence I'll be busy for the next few months, moving and getting into daily routine there. I might not be able to update for 8-10 weeks. I'll try to update another chapter in the next week before I move, but after that, it might be a while before I am able to update so please bear with me.

I promise to complete this story though it may take a bit longer than anticipated.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas in advance, just in case if I am unable to get a chapter out on Christmas day.

Hugs,

-KT.

Nanal89: Yes, I thought it would make sense if Carlisle forced Bella to admit her attachment to jasper herself. Bella certainly wasn't smart about the comment she made, but she wasn't exactly thinking straight at that point of time. Things will get better, I promise!

Ninny1954hotmail: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. The outcome of Carlisle's visit is gradually unfolding. The grand finale of the 'conversation' is coming up in the next chapter.