A/N: Beegurl made me a lovely, lovely, lovely banner. I love banners. *hugs all my banners* Such talented people in this fandom!

Edward stared at his father, stunned. Betrayal hit him like a sucker punch to the gut. Fear sent chill down his spine and fury curled his hands into fists. For long seconds, he wasn't sure how he was going to react. The ache at the center of his chest made him want to cry, as childish as that was, but here was his father, the man he trusted more than anyone in the world aside from his wife, confessing that he'd told Jasper the one thing Edward didn't want him to know. "Are you insane? Have you utterly lost your mind?"

Carlisle narrowed his eyes at his son. "I realize you're upset, but it's not necessary to be rude."

"No, you're right. It's not. But you're going to tell me it was necessary to tell Jasper how to get to my daughter?"

"Edward-"

"I asked you once whose side you would choose if it came to a fight. I suppose I have my answer now."

Carlisle flinched backward as though Edward had struck him. He swallowed audibly before he spoke. "I'm not taking anyone's side. There are no sides for me to take. Jasper isn't fighting for Kaylee, Edward. My son asked me a question, and I didn't lie to him. I didn't lie to him anymore than I'm lying to you now."

Edward clenched his jaw, trying to think past the panic and anger. He didn't know how to define what was fair in this situation. He wasn't an idiot. He knew the awkward position his parents were in. They wanted to give Jasper their full support while Edward fought that idea tooth and nail. He huffed. "If he isn't fighting for Kaylee, why was he asking those kinds of questions?"

"He wasn't."

"Then you told him just for shits and giggles?"

"No. That's not how it happened. I never expected him to ask that particular question. Of course I didn't. I wouldn't have invited that conversation out of the blue."

"Then how did it come up?"

At that, Carlisle at least had the decency to look abashed. "I gave him Kaylee's original birth certificate. It was your mother's idea, and I agreed. We thought he might like to have it."

"Why? It's none of his business, Dad."

His father fixed him with a look that was a mixture of patience tinged around the edges with frustration. "I know you don't want to hear this, but I worry for your brother. On top of struggling with his addiction, I think he's heading into a very deep depression."

"And is that anyone's fault but his own?"

Carlisle pressed his lips together. The expression on his face was torn but contemplative, as though he were trying very hard to find the right words. "Everyone makes mistakes, and I believe absolutely we should face the consequences of those mistakes, but I also believe even the worst of us deserves respect and compassion.

"Addiction is an illness, not a choice. It's a mental illness. Your brother was very, very sick when he ran out on Kaylee and Bella. The consequences of that one action, a decision he made under the influence of a severe mental illness, are far-reaching. He is fighting so hard to come back from that, to take his life back and be the man he was meant to be had illness not taken hold of him. He's drowning, and I'm terrified he'll give up. Your mother and I wanted to give him something. Kaylee's birth certificate is a token - a physical thing he can hold in his hands that represents her. Because he does love her, Edward. You're her father in every way that counts, but she's still his daughter. He still aches for her every day. I see it, and that's a pain I know too well-to know your child is out there and you can't hold them, you can't help them. To know they don't belong to you."

"You of all people should understand why I don't want him anywhere near her. I remember how hard it was for you to send Jasper to his father."

Carlisle tilted his head. "Is that what you're worried about? Jasper isn't Charles."

"No. He's a drug addict with abuse in his past. Exactly the kind of person you want raising a child."

"Okay. Let's think about the absolute worst case scenario here. If, if, he chose to challenge your adoption, it would be a long time before he could do that. I will promise you I won't help him. If he chose to take action against you, our lawyers would be at your disposal, not his, and they're damn good lawyers. I think he might have secured a job at a gas station. Do you really think he'll have the means anytime soon?"

When Edward didn't answer, Carlisle continued, "And in the eventuality he raised the the money he needed and was able to convince a judge to overturn Kaylee's adoption, it still doesn't mean he gets custody of her. It would be years before he had any kind of significant custody, and you're married to Bella. He will never have full custody of Kaylee. No one can take her away from you. Tell me, Edward, what is it you think you stand to lose even in the very worst case?

"I told Jasper the truth about why you were so defensive. That's all. He's trying to wrap his head around how much pain he's caused. I really don't think he's interested in making things worse."

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed in deep. Carlisle touched his shoulder and squeezed when Edward didn't pull away. "What would you say if Jasper wasn't your son? If it was a stranger who'd abandoned my wife and daughter? If the stranger who hurt them wanted back in their lives, what would you be telling me to do?"

To his surprise, Carlisle gave a humorless laugh. "Jasper asked me almost the exact question." He shook his head. "I don't know, Edward. All my life I've tried my hardest not to judge anyone. It only takes living your own life to understand how easy it is to make the wrong choice, to hurt someone, to do something irrevocable. I believe in second chances. A marker of being human is the ability to evolve, to change, and I believe people can and often do change for the better. I believe in forgiveness. But like most things, all of those concepts are all but impossible when it's personal, and I understand that too."

Carlisle tapped a framed version of the Serenity Prayer Bella had hung there years before, when her father was trying desperately to save himself from his demons. "At the end of the day, Jasper is my son. He's your brother." His expression softened. "And he's Kaylee's father. These are things neither you nor I can change. I'm doing my best. I don't know how you want this all to end, but I'd like for us to be a family again. All of us, including Jasper."

"Family." Edward looked down at his clenched fists. "I begged him to get help. Over and over again, I begged him. Bella begged him. How many times did he come home high as a kite? How many times did you have to watch your wife cry over him? That's how much he loved his family. I don't understand how you can forgive him for that."

"Because love isn't a magical state of being. Loving someone doesn't mean you don't hurt them. It doesn't mean you can magically overcome a deadly disease."

"Well, regardless. I can't tell you how I want this to end, but I can tell you this. I don't know if I can ever consider Jasper my family again."

Carlisle winced, but he nodded. "That's understandable. I'm not asking you to accept your brother." He tapped the prayer again. "What I am asking you to accept is while he may not be your family, he is mine."

~0~

"Hey, Uncle Edward. You want to do a duet?"

Edward, Bella, and Kaylee hadn't so much as walked in the door before Henry was calling his uncle over to the piano. Edward set Kaylee down and ruffled Henry's curly hair. "Not today, kiddo." If he played anything today, it would come out stormy.

Kaylee clambered up on the piano bench beside her cousin. "Look what I can do." She pushed herself up against Henry, getting in his space so she could reach the middle keys to plunk out Chopsticks.

Henry's expression was unimpressed. "That's great."

Ignoring or oblivious to Henry's flat tone, Kaylee beamed at him. "Daddy taught me on our keyboard. Daddy says when we get a big house, we'll get a piano like yours or more bigger."

"Well, if you have your own piano, you can practice like me. Here. I'll teach you something, and we can play together."

Bella came to lean against Edward. She threaded their fingers together and looked up at him, kissing the underside of his chin as they watched the kids for a minute. Henry had an incredible amount of patience when it came to music. Edward nuzzled his wife's hair with the tip of his nose, enjoying the moment of peace.

Rosalie came in then with Vera on her hip and Jacob at her side. The little girl looked the picture of misery. She rested her head on Rosalie's shoulder, her arms around her mother's neck, clinging. Edward stepped forward to push a damp strand of hair away from her forehead and glanced up at Rosalie when the little girl didn't acknowledge him. "Is she sick?"

"She has a fever, but she'll be okay. Won't you, baby?" Rosalie kissed her daughter's forehead. Vera just grumbled in response. "Henry," Rosalie called to her son who turned around from his impromptu lesson. "Listen up, bud. I'm going to need you to be extra good and help Jacob out because he's going to have his hands full with this one."

"I can help too. I'm big. Look. I can tie my shoes." Kaylee kicked her legs in Rosalie's general direction.

"We can be good," Henry promised, smiling his winning grin.

"Yeah, I know that look, little man. I'm serious. Best behavior."

When she was sure of Henry's promise, Rosalie turned to the task of extricating herself from her toddler's death grip.

"Noooo," Vera whined, only clinging tighter. "Noooo, noooo."

There were tears, a lot of them, and by the time they all got out the door, Rosalie was not in a good mood.

Edward couldn't help his rush of childish, vindictive glee. His sister-in-law had, if anything, a temper that burned hotter than his. It was Rosalie he'd gone to when he needed to vent about Jasper. She was the one who understood his anger the most because he'd let her see it. From the moment Jasper ran out the door, Rosalie had been Edward's confidant. He had to be strong for Bella, Kaylee, and his parents. The whole situation had been way out of Emmett's ability to deal with. He didn't know what to do with something he couldn't fix with his hands or let roll off his back.

It wasn't that Edward thought his anger was useful; he simply wasn't done with it. He couldn't think about his brother without his blood boiling. Edward wanted to hurt Jasper, with his words and with his fists, he wanted to see him bloody and broken on the floor. Maybe more than anything, Edward hated his brother for making him feel such horrible things. He wasn't a violent person. He was a good son and a family man.

After the accident, when days turned into weeks and there was no doubt Jasper had abandoned all of them, Edward had destroyed his favorite photo of them in a fit of rage. In it, he was a toddler, maybe two, clutching the hands of each of his elder brothers. He looked up at them with a little brother's awe on his face.

Watching a hero fall was never a comfortable experience. Edward wasn't sure he'd ever forgiven Jasper for being someone he couldn't look up to.

Bella reached out to take his hand over the shifter. She didn't ask what he was thinking about; he supposed that was easy enough to tell. Instead, she stayed quiet as they drove and ran her thumb over his knuckles. She sighed when they pulled into the driveway. "Here goes nothing."

They walked up to the entryway hand in hand. Rose and Emmett pulled up right behind them, so they all got in the door around the same time. The atmosphere between the four of them was thick and oppressive. The weight of it doubled as they went in the house.

Jasper did the same thing he'd done with Edward and Bella. When they got in the door, he pulled himself to his feet looking for all the world like he was a beaten down dog. He came to stand in front of Rosalie. "Hi, Rose. You can-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before Rosalie had slapped him across the face. Hard. Hard enough the sound made Edward jump even though he'd been expecting some kind of drama. Jasper's face snapped to the side and he gave a small cry of pain.

It wasn't as satisfying as Edward would have imagined. He wasn't the type of person who liked hitting from any person in any context except self-defense. He didn't excuse women because they were women, and he didn't hold with the old "boys will be boys" adage either. But as his father had said, principles were difficult to stick to when it was personal. Given the violent nature of his thoughts for his brother lately, he figured he would have enjoyed seeing him get hit, but he didn't. Jasper was already down so low, it was rather a redundant move.

The rest of the family converged, calling Rosalie's name or gasping. Rosalie held her hands up and out. "I'm done. That's it. I promise." She took a deliberate step backward.

"I'm fine," Jasper said as Esme tried to fuss over him. He was still holding his cheek, but he shrugged away from his mother's hand. "She's got as much a right as anybody to be pissed at me."

"You're damn right I do. And you want to know something? You got off light. One slap isn't enough. It's not nearly enough."

"Rose." Emmett put his hand on his wife's arm.

"No," Jasper said. He dropped his hand to his side. There was a bright red hand print across his cheek that, frankly, impressed Edward. Jasper took a deep breath and did his best to square his shoulders. "Let her say what she needs to say."

Rosalie didn't need any further prompting. She stepped into Jasper's personal space and even though he was taller than she was, she seemed to dwarf him. "It's the least of what you deserved for what you did to Kaylee alone. How fucking dare you? There's no circumstance I can understand running away from your child. That choice was taken away from me - to be able to carry my own children, to create a child so easily. Yet pissants like you can knock up every girl on the block without a second thought. It's a gift, Jasper. I don't care if she was stillborn, she'd have been a gift, and you spit on that without a second thought.

"And don't even get me started on just what kind of coward it takes to do what you did to Bella. She was twenty-one years old, Jasper, just a kid. It only makes it worse that you thought the baby died. Do you even realize just how shitty a person you have to be to do something like that? What, it wasn't enough that she lost her daughter and was, for all you knew, crippled, but you thought she should have to deal with her boyfriend dumping her all in the same day?"

Bella was squeezing Edward's hand so tightly it hurt, but he was fairly sure he was squeezing her hand just as much. There was a lump in his throat too painful to swallow down. He couldn't have spoke even if he wanted to. From the look on everyone else's faces, they were much in the same boat. His mother and father both looked torn. Emmett was staring at the ground. As could be expected, Jasper looked worst of all of them. He seemed to shrink with each word, and the color had long since drained from his face. Edward wouldn't have been surprised if his knees gave out.

Yet no one stopped Rosalie. Maybe it was because she had found the words to articulate everything the rest of them had been thinking, feeling, holding back because it was too much - too much anger and hurt and frustration and lost time, all of it so senseless.

"You left your baby brother to clean up your messes just like he usually did, or did you even notice that? Did you notice how many times Edward covered for you when you made a promise to your parents you didn't think twice about breaking? He could have stepped back and let you sabotage your own relationship with Bella, but despite how he felt about her, he always tried to help you fix it when you fucked things up with her. He listened to her vent and, rather than encourage her anger toward you, he defended you as best as he could. We all thought you were a good man, even if you had your problems, but obviously Edward turned out to be everything you couldn't. That's the one good thing that came out of the clusterfuck you left behind. Bella and Kaylee deserved so much better than you, and they got it. So help me God, if you try to fuck with that, I will end you myself."

"I wouldn't." Jasper's voice was a barely there rasp. "Christ, Rosalie. After everything, you think I even thought for a second I could just walk back into my old life?"

"Shut up. I'm not even nearly done with you. You've been going on and on about how you want us to be honest. You want us all to say what we've wanted to say. Well if they won't, I will.

"You broke my husband. Fucked up asshole that you were, you were the one he leaned on. Emmett was going out of his mind, he was so stressed out after you left. The family was falling apart and we were trying to have another baby. He needed you. He needed his best friend and you abandoned him too."

"Rose." Esme's tone was pained and sharp. "Maybe we can-"

"Let. Her. Speak," Jasper's gritted out. His breath was so labored, his shoulders rose and fell.

"Don't you speak to your mother like that," Rose snapped before Edward could. "Kaylee was better off without you. Bella got Edward out of the deal. What you've put Esme and Carlisle through is 100% crap.

"You know your mother blames herself for all of this? She always has. You can't imagine how many times she's apologized to Bella, Edward, all of us."

"Because it's my fault!" Esme put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes watered and her breath hitched. Carlisle folded her in his arms and almost everyone else started to protest.

"That's bullshit, Mom," Edward said. He dropped Bella's hand to go to his mother's side. "This is all him. All of it."

She shook her head slowly. "Not all of it." She raised her eyes to Edward and they were filled with pain and shame. "You don't understand the choices you make when you have no self-worth. You can't understand, and I'm so thankful for that."

Jasper took a shaky breath and took a careful step in Esme's direction, casting a wary look at Edward before he stopped. "They're right, Mom. How could any of this be your fault?"

Esme went to him and cupped his face in her hands. It struck Edward then, the way his brother's face registered shock, as though he hadn't been touched tenderly in so long, he'd forgotten what it felt like. She stroked his cheeks. "I grew up believing I was worthless. The things my parents said, what they did to me, it all reinforced that one fact."

She dropped her hands and wrapped them around herself. "When I met Charles I was so grateful for him. I couldn't understand how anyone could love me..." She stumbled over her words but recovered after a moment. "I thought he was a saint to put up with me, since I obviously caused him so much trouble."

Edward curled his hand into a fist, rage making his blood boil. He remembered when Jasper's father had put him in the hospital and Edward figured out what his mother's first husband had done to her.

She reached out to stroke Jasper's cheek again. "So you see, it is my fault at least partially. I didn't break the cycle in time for you. I made so many mistakes. I stayed too long. Then I was too much of a coward to report him, so I had no legal leg to stand on when he sought custody. You can't tell me if you'd grown up like Edward and Emmett, with a man who knew how to be a father and a mother who could recognize abuse, you'd be here right now."

Jasper opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, he pulled his mother to him and rocked her in his arms. "It's not your fault," he said.

After a minute, Carlisle was able to get everyone moving into the dining room. No one even pretended to be hungry.

Jasper spoke first. He sounded tired, defeated. "There's not a lot I wouldn't do if it would make things right between us. I know that's going to take time and a lot of effort. I just…" He spread his hands out wide on the table, imploring. "You gotta tell me where to start. Anything. Something small. Just…" He gestured helplessly. "Anything."

Surprisingly, Rosalie gave a disgruntled groan before she said. "I've been thinking about this a lot. There's only one reason I agreed to see you today. I can't speak for Edward and Bella, but I'll be damned if I make your parents suffer for your mistakes. Carlisle's birthday is in another two weeks. You'll see my kids then. Whether or not I want you to talk to them or touch them is another story, but I won't take them away from their grandparents just because I don't want them anywhere near you."

Edward started. He'd been so wrapped up in all things Jasper, he hadn't even realized his father's birthday was drawing closer let alone the implications of what that meant for his family. He looked to Bella and saw the slight panic he felt written on her face.

Jasper glanced at them and quickly looked down at the table, but not before Edward saw the flash of hope on his features. He knew what this meant as well as Edward and Bella did. He didn't ask, though. Instead he raised his head to Rose and Emmett. "That's… yeah. That would be great. Anything you want. "

Bella rested her hand on Edward's knee and squeezed. They were going to have to make a decision on letting Jasper see Kaylee sooner rather than later.

A/N: Many thanks to barburella, songster, and of course, jfka06.

Well… did that go better or worse than you expected?