Chapter 4: Massachusetts, 1950

"We're so close, Jasper," Alice whined as she wove her arm through his, noticing how tense he was. "Why are we wasting time here? They could leave…"

Jasper sent a glare at a young human man watching Alice in interest, then turned back to her. "Because, Alice, I think we need to discuss some things before we go disrupt people's lives for eternity."

"We can't do it after?" she complained.

"Do you see them leaving in the next week?" Jasper asked pointedly, opening the car door for her.

"Well… no, but…"

"Then we're fine."

"But Jasper…"

*~*~*

"Alice, I'm getting worried about you and this crazy quest," Jasper said softly as they abandoned the car near the Massachusetts border.

"Don't say that," Alice begged. "They're real, I know they are."

"I don't doubt that they exist, Alice. I'm just worried that they're not realistic." Finding a quiet place out of sight from the interstate, he sat down, pulling her into his lap. "I think you're seeing what you want to see, Alice. We both know that your visions are somewhat subjective. It's all in the way you interpret it."

"No…"

"What's going to happen when we get there, Alice? Do you think they're going to just let us in?"

Alice looked at him, betrayal in her eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, you know it's true," Jasper said quietly.

"They will… they will let us in," Alice insisted, though now her voice held a note of uncertainty in it. "I saw it. They will."

"And maybe they will, maybe they won't," he replied, kissing her lightly. "But either way, Alice, the initial impression isn't going to be good. It's very unnerving, to find out somebody already knows almost everything about you when you don't have a clue who they are. And I'm not going to help matters at all."

"Why?" she asked, frowning at him. "Why would you say that? You're good, Jasper, anybody can see that."

He laughed wryly. "No, Alice, you see that, and I have no idea why you didn't notice the scars first the day we met. Everybody else sees them and tries to get me as far away as possible."

"But that doesn't –" she started to protest, when he cut her off.

"I'm not trying to talk you out of it. I'm not changing my mind. I just don't want you completely thrown for a loop when we get there, Lissy. I'm just trying to prepare you."

"Would you stop cutting off my train of thought?" Alice asked impatiently. "I was going to say it doesn't matter. Peter and Charlotte got past it, other people can too."

"Peter and Charlotte owe me their lives," Jasper disagreed. "They had incentive. Your Cullens owe me nothing. There's no reason for them to look any further than the scars."

"You have no faith in yourself, Jazz. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt once in a while," Alice complained, nestling her head against his shoulder. "This isn't the South. People are a little less prone to fighting here, in case you haven't noticed."

"Mmm, I have noticed," Jasper said, kissing her neck. "Less prone to fighting, more prone to judging."

"Jasper Whitlock, your pessimism is depressing," Alice growled.

"My pessimism is well-earned, Alice Whitlock," he replied with a slight edge of teasing in his voice as he lowered her to the ground.

*~*~*

Maybe his warning had struck a chord. Maybe it would've been the natural course. Jasper wasn't sure which it was, but as they slowly approached the Boston area, Alice became more and more pensive, a little more uncertain. She started spending more time in her visions, trying to see what would happen when they got there.

"Ugh!" she shrieked one afternoon, flying out of her vision in a disgusted rage. "Let's just get this over with!"

Jasper couldn't stop the affectionate laugh from escaping. The decisive passion made a change from the wavering uncertainty of the past week. "All right," he said, getting to his feet as she whirled around to glower at him. "I'm coming."

"Emmett and Edward went hunting," she told him with a sigh as she grabbed his hand.

Jasper winced slightly at the word 'hunting'. Yeah, he probably should've done that while she was caught up in her visions. He was getting close to his breaking point, and he wouldn't be able to hold off much longer.

"Can we just go, and deal with it as it comes?" Alice asked softly. "I'm sorry, Jasper, I know you're thirsty. Just a little while longer, please?"

"Whatever you want, Alice," Jasper said indulgently.

"Thank you," she whispered.

*~*~*

Jasper took a deep breath to try and get the lay of the land as they approached the edge of the Cullen property. "Alice, stay back, please," he requested quietly, pulling her behind him.

True to Alice's vision, there were two scents leading off into the woods they had just come from, probably both male (based on the scents, any way – not an exact science). Three more were leading into the house, probably one male, two females.

"Oh, please, Jasper…" Alice begged. He smiled and turned around to kiss her briefly.

"No matter what happens, Lissy, I'm here," he whispered to her, just as the front door opened and two women stepped out, their expressions cautious. One blonde man wasn't far behind them.

Alice seemed to forget her anxiety all of a sudden, dashing up to greet them with a bright smile and a delighted cry of "Esme! Rosalie! Carlisle!" before throwing her arms around each of them in turn.

Jasper winced at her familiarity and waited for their reactions to hit.

Confusion. That was the primary emotion. Confusion and a little bit of suspicion. Nothing extraordinary, but mind, they hadn't seen him yet. Even for vampires' vision, this was a little too far to be able to properly see the scars.

"I'm sorry, do we know you?" the blonde girl asked warily as she detached Alice.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, Rosalie, I forgot we haven't actually met," Alice gushed, backing away momentarily. "It just seems like I've known you forever –"

The confusion was still there, but the suspicion was slowly going away – Alice had succeeded in charming them.

"I'm Alice. I can see visions of the future, and I've seen you guys for quite some time now…"

Jasper started to back away into the forest, thinking of maybe just letting Alice have her moment of joy before he came in and ruined it all for her. He'd go hunting. Try and lessen the brutal impact he was going to have on their lives.

He breathed in again, giving himself over to his instincts as he took off in the direction of a delicious scent. Had he been thinking at all, he would've realized that it was too good a scent to be animal.

*~*~*

His feeding was interrupted by the sounds of others coming towards him. Looking up, he realized that the sound of the dead human's final cry had probably attracted some attention.

"Emmett, get a hold on yourself!" somebody's voice shouted. "Think of the lashing Rosalie's going to give you if you mess up again!"

"Grab him before he bolts!" another shouted back, and Jasper instinctively snarled as hands grabbed his arms, tearing the sleeves. The strength of the grip rivaled a newborn, beaten only by the smallest of margins. "Hey, who are you?" it demanded.

Jasper stopped as he came to a disconcerting conclusion. What a way to meet the rest of the Cullens. "Great. Alice is going to kill me," he groaned, barely managing to wrench himself free of his captor and backing away from the lifeless body as quickly as possible.

"Where'd you come from?" the bronze-haired boy asked.

"Down there, somewhere," Jasper answered, gesturing back towards the general direction he'd come from. "I'm not sure, exactly."

"Let's take him back to the house, let Carlisle deal with him," the dark-haired young man who had caught him said. "We can't have him running around on the loose. Look at him!"

"You know, I can hear everything you're saying," Jasper said pointedly, uncomfortably tugging at the ruined sleeves of his shirt. "I'm not deaf. Far from it."

"Probably came from the South," the bronze-haired one continued, ignoring Jasper's comment. "Not many other places somebody would get that amount of scarring."

*~*~*

Alice was waiting anxiously out on the front porch when they arrived. The second that the three boys had cleared the trees, she ran to meet them.

"Oh, Jazz…" she breathed, a flicker of disappointment in her eyes as she put her hands on his face. "Emmett, let him go," she ordered in a slightly peevish voice.

"Uh, I'm sorry, do I know you?" the dark-haired one, who had been gripping Jasper's arms behind his back the entire journey, asked with a frown.

"You don't know her, but she knows you," came the blonde girl's voice. "Who's this?"

"I'm sorry, Alice," Jasper whispered to her softly. "It was a mistake…"

"I know," she said simply. She gave him a slight smile. "I'm just glad you came back right away this time. Emmett!" she added sharply, giving the young man behind Jasper another glare. He still hadn't released Jasper.

"Let him go, Emmett," the bronze-haired one said quietly. "He's not going to run."

"I'm going to take a guess and say that you would be Jasper?" came the voice of the blonde man as he and the red-haired woman joined the group. "Oh," he said warily as golden eyes met crimson.

Jasper hesitated, one arm looping around Alice's shoulder as she tucked herself into it, burying her face into his chest. He could feel the suspicion coming back strong, quickly followed by resolution. His heart fell – he had done it, just as he had suspected. He had killed Alice's dream with his sordid past and his paper-thin self-control. Who was he trying to kid? He was no better than Peter. Peter was better, probably, because he didn't try to deny it.

Well, might as well attempt to make the best of the destruction.

"Yes, I'm Jasper," he replied politely, holding out his free hand to the man. "Am I right in assuming that you're Carlisle?" he asked, cringing only the slightest bit as he saw him take in the scars covering his arm.

The blonde man nodded, a frown crossing his face. "May I ask where you come from, Jasper?" he asked quietly, still examining the scars.

Alice flinched in his hold and Jasper kissed the top of her head, rubbing her arm soothingly as he gave her little waves of comfort. He would take the interrogation like a man. He wouldn't be the cause of any more pain in her life.

"Texas, originally," Jasper replied quietly. "The southern states and northern Mexico for the better part of a century. The northern states more recently."

Carlisle nodded wordlessly, releasing Jasper's hand. "The wars?"

Jasper nodded in return. "Yes, sir. Second-in-command of an army for 81 years. Major in the Confederate Army before that." As Alice nestled closer, pressing her cheek against his chest, he took a deep breath to calm himself. "I left… five years ago."

He could almost hear everybody thinking it: 'That's not a very long time. Not long at all…'

"Would you excuse us a moment?" Carlisle requested simply, looking back at Edward and Emmett. The Cullens disappeared back into the house, and he heard Edward asking, "Why is all my stuff in the garage?"

Jasper chuckled slightly as he looked at Alice. "Lissy?"

"That room had the best view," Alice replied with a slight shrug, voice trembling.

"Listen, Lissy," he said softly, pulling her away from him for a moment to look into her eyes. "I have a feeling I know what they're going to come out and say."

"I know," she whispered, wrapping her hands around his wrists as he put a hand on her cheek.

"You can stay, you know," he murmured, kissing her. "You don't have to leave just because of me." He kissed her again, closing his eyes as he breathed in the intoxicating allure of her scent. God, it would be hell to give her up. "They like you. Doesn't take a genius to see that."

Alice wound her arms around his neck. "I'm not going anywhere without you, Jazz," she murmured back, resting her forehead against his. "Remember what you promised in New Mexico?" she continued. "You promised never to leave me…"

"I wouldn't leave, if you didn't want me to," he told her. "I would stay around. I just wouldn't be here."

"That's not good enough," she whispered.

"I would follow you," he continued persistently, stroking her hair. "I'll follow you until the end of time, Lissy, if that's what you want."

She sighed, head falling to his shoulder. "That's not good enough," she repeated.

"You could run away every once in a while," he offered with a slight, teasing edge to his voice. "Be the good girl running away with her bad-influence boyfriend, and come back when you realized that he's bad for you, and you're not going to change who he is."

"Jasper, if you insist on beating yourself up and demeaning yourself at every step of the road…" she started to say warningly. "I don't want you to follow me. I want you to be with me. I want you to live with me, Jasper, because I am not going to keep you hidden away like you're something to be ashamed of!"

He smiled, closing his lips around hers. "Oh, Alice, you're far too good for the likes of me," he murmured, nuzzling her cheek affectionately as he sensed the little shots of delight emanating from her. "I love you, sweetheart."

"Every day of forever?" Alice asked teasingly.

"Every day of forever, love, I promise," he replied, just as the Cullens came back out.