Wisconsin, 1949

God, if this had been the secret all along to making her deliriously happy, he'd have done this last year in Pennsylvania.

She laughed again, eyes sparkling as she twirled around again, her white dress flaring out and wrapping again around her legs. "Did you see the look on the justice's assistant's face?" she asked.

"No," Jasper replied honestly. "I was too concerned with the vision of beauty in front of me. Speaking of which, what was irritating you about halfway through?"

"Oh, I caught the justice looking me over," Alice replied dismissively. "I couldn't figure out how to get him to stop without killing him, so…"

He had to laugh. She had only noticed one? "Lissy, every man who's been within eyeshot of you today has been looking you over." Pulling her into his arms, he continued, "You look absolutely breathtaking. Even more breathtaking than usual, actually." He kissed her. "I've had trouble keeping myself from massacring every man who looked at you today. 52 men, in fact. Plus collateral damage. It would've been a record, even for me."

Alice smiled again and continued her graceful spins, still holding onto his hand. "Jazz, thank you," she said, pausing in her pirouettes to look at him. He just laughed and spun her around again.

"Just dance, my Lissy."

*~*~*

Jasper was on his feet in a flash when he heard the door to the apartment opening. His first immediate thought was that Maria had come for him. Glancing behind him, he saw Alice still deeply absorbed in another one of her lengthy visions – she hadn't even reacted to the sound of the intrusion.

Taking a deep breath to catch the scent, he relaxed slightly – Peter and Charlotte. They must've been in the area, caught wind of him.

"No," he heard Charlotte say. "No, this can't be right. Why in the world would Jasper be here? You must've tracked him wrong, Peter…"

"I did not 'track him wrong', Charlotte."

"He didn't," Jasper called softly, not wanting to disturb Alice. Leaving the bedroom, and Alice sitting motionless on the bed, he joined his old companions out in the living room. "Hello, Peter. Charlotte, good to see you again."

"What the hell happened to you?" Peter asked bluntly, staring at him.

"What?" Jasper asked, momentarily confused.

"Your eyes, Jasper. They're gold," Charlotte said, a frown crossing her face as she looked at him.

"Oh, yes, that," Jasper said. "I've discovered a new diet."

"What, dirt?" Peter demanded. "It's unnatural, Jasper. Our eyes aren't supposed to be gold. What are you drinking, that it's turned your eyes like that?! And how in the world did you come across it in the first place?"

"Oh, yes, Peter, because vampires are perfectly natural," Charlotte scoffed.

"You know what I mean."

"I'm drinking the blood of animals, Peter," Jasper said as he took in his old companions' ragged appearance. "Your own diet scarce out in the Arctic wilderness? What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Why?" Peter asked incredulously, still staring at Jasper in disbelief. "Why in the world are you drinking animal blood when you're surrounded by all these perfectly good humans? I can see it if you're desperate, if you're in the backside of nowhere with no humans around…"

"Peter, answer the question."

"We were in the area," Charlotte spoke up, "when we caught wind of your scent. Peter misses you, incredibly enough. He was hoping maybe you'd gotten over whatever your problem was and that you were ready to come back." She paused, a question crossing her face. "Who else is in here?"

"Jasper," Alice called from the bedroom.

Both Charlotte and Peter turned to stare at him. "Who's that?" Peter asked interestedly.

"Jasper!" she called again, a little more tersely. A small wave of anger hit him – maybe he'd spoiled her a little too much, doting on her every beck and call.

"You leave her alone, Peter," Jasper warned sharply as he turned back around. "I'll be back. Yes, Alice?" he asked, a slight irritated edge to his voice.

"Hmm, she must really be something," he heard Charlotte murmur to Peter.

"Why are you mad at me?" Alice asked petulantly, twisting around to look at Jasper as he came into the room, waiting at the doorway.

"Because I was in the middle of a conversation, Alice," he replied pointedly. 'And because I was hoping you'd stay quiet for just a while longer so that Peter didn't catch sight of you,' he added in his mind.

"Oh. So I guess I don't need to tell you that there's two vampires coming," she offered apologetically.

Despite himself, Jasper laughed, realizing a fraction of a second too late that the sound had piqued Peter and Charlotte's interest too much. "No, you don't," he said, entering the room. "They came while you were busy watching them come. Are you telling me that you blanked out for five hours for Peter and Charlotte?"

"It was five hours?" Alice asked, smiling radiantly as he leaned down and kissed her. "Seemed like only a few minutes."

"Five hours and twelve minutes, if we're going to be exact." Jasper lifted her up onto her feet within a second. "Come on. I'm sure Charlotte would be thrilled to have another girl around."

"I would be," Charlotte spoke up from behind him. "But first you have to introduce us, Jasper. Where'd all your Civil War era manners go?"

"I left them somewhere in Galveston, alongside my mortality," Jasper said in response. "Alice, Charlotte. Charlotte, Alice."

"Hello," Alice greeted cheerfully, casting a semi-questioning glance behind at Jasper as he settled an arm securely around her waist.

"Hey, what am I?" Peter objected, his face betraying his thoughts as he took in Alice's appearance.

"You're a guy who used to run a brothel. Stop eyeing my wife," Jasper said pointedly.

"Peter!" Charlotte exclaimed, hitting his arm. "Stop it!"

"I'm sorry!" Peter exclaimed defensively, shielding himself from another blow. "Old habits die hard!... Wife, you say?" He took a good, hard look at Alice, taking in the clear amber colouring in her eyes. "Hmm. I figured you probably didn't jump off the bandwagon all by your lonesome self. I assume she's the one responsible…" He grinned when an angry hiss escaped from Jasper's lips. "Calm down, seriously, Jasper. You can't honestly tell me you came up with the idea all by yourself, because last time we saw you, you were going off in search of the nearest fire pit big enough to throw yourself in."

Charlotte shook her head, still looking at Alice. "I only wish Peter jumped as fast as that to my defense," she confided with a smile and a roll of her blood-red eyes. Alice smiled back at her, still safely ensconced in Jasper's arms. When Peter sent her a miffed glare, she laughed. "Don't even bother denying it, Peter. They'd be halfway out the door with me before you'd jump in."

"So does it actually do anything, the animal blood, I mean?" Peter asked. "I mean, does it work any better or any worse than human?"

"Well, I don't know," Alice said quietly, her fingers picking uncertainly at a stray thread on Jasper's sleeve as her eyes went slightly unfocused again.

"She's never tasted human blood," Jasper explained to Peter, tightening his hold in order to better support her weight while she watched her vision.

"Never?" Peter and Charlotte both asked incredulously.

"Never," Jasper confirmed. "There's not a big difference, actually, between drinking the human blood and drinking the animal blood. Doesn't taste nearly as good, though. The animal's a little weaker, but it's not something you'd notice unless you've spent the last century drinking human. I barely notice anymore. Why?"

"Just curiosity," Peter shrugged. "I still think you're absolutely mad. What's going on with her?"

"Alice can see the future," Jasper said by way of explanation. "When she blanks out like this, it typically means she's getting another vision."

"Really?" Charlotte asked interestedly.

"Massachusetts," Alice stated as she came back to reality.

"What about Massachusetts, love?" Jasper murmured into her ear.

"That's where the Cullens went," she explained to him simply. "Massachusetts."

*~*~*

It didn't take Alice and Charlotte long to become good confidantes. Their one disagreement seemed to be their choices in diets: Alice tried to convince Charlotte to try animal blood, Charlotte tried to convince Alice to try human blood.

Jasper put a stop to that negotiation quickly. The last thing he wanted was for his innocent little wife to become a cold-blooded killer.

He and Peter generally got along a little better than they had before Alice, but it wasn't too long – maybe a year – before they were back to blows, especially when it came to Peter's self-control. It was all Alice and Charlotte could do to keep them calm enough to avoid ripping each other apart.

"You couldn't have held off for five more minutes?!" Jasper hissed angrily as the four made a quick escape from Lansing. "Five damn minutes, Peter, and we'd have been outside city limits and nobody would've noticed!"

"We can't all be martyrs, Jasper!" Peter threw back viciously. "As if you haven't killed your share of humans in bad places! Or do I need to remind you about San Antonio?"

"Peter!" Charlotte rebuked, Alice barely managing to catch Jasper's arm and pull him back before he attacked. "Enough!"

"Jasper, calm," Alice ordered.

The two young men snarled at each other again, and the two young women looked at each other in exasperation before Charlotte finally said, "This isn't working."

"It's not going to," Alice agreed with a sigh. "We're going to keep heading east for Massachusetts."

"We'll head west," Charlotte returned. "Somewhere. Must be nice, to have a purpose. A destination."

"It is," Alice replied. "Come on, Jasper." She tugged at his arm. "Jas-per…" she growled warningly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Jasper grumbled.