AN: Sorry this chapter is so late, my birthday is just after Thanksgiving and my family made some plans that I had not anticipated to celebrate so that threw me off my schedule. Hope you enjoy.

Previously in our story:

"Bella, before we have kids, I want the paper work completed, if anything ever happens to us I want Peter to raise them; I don't want him to ever have to go through a fight for that to happen, okay?"

"Absolutely, I wouldn't want it any other way."

I held her to me and she held tight to my waist. I thought I would cry more, but I didn't, it felt good to tell her what had happened and have that over with.

"Jasper?"

"Yeah Darlin'?"

"How many kids we talking here?"

God I love this woman.

Chapter 24 Decisions and Distractions

BPOV

"Let's make it an even dozen," Jasper chuckled.

I would love nothing more than having a big family with Jasper but a dozen may be a little extreme.

"Is that your attempt to keep me barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen for the next twenty years?" I laughed back at him.

"Hmm, maybe."

He kissed the top of my head and I turned off the movie, getting up to go to bed.

"Come on big guy, we are going to need to practice if we are going to attempt to double the population of the ranch." I rolled my eyes at him and slapped his ass playfully.

"Practice is good, I like practice, one can never have too much practice." Jasper's voice took on a high pitch, making him sound like a silly girl.

"Seriously, do you want a big family?" I asked him as we climbed into bed.

"Yeah, I think I'd like at least four, three and someone is always feeling left out, two is too few, honestly five or six would be OK with me, but I'm pretty sure that eventually it would begin to take a toll on us and on your body. Really Bella, whatever makes you comfortable is OK with me. Right now, you may think six is fine but we have no idea how your body will handle pregnancy or how we will handle parenthood, so I am fine with keeping it open and see what happens."

"What if we can't get pregnant? I never really thought about having kids before I met you so I only ever made sure not to, what if it doesn't happen." It was something I never really worried about before now, but I wanted to have kids with Jasper.

"Well, unless there is some health concern I am not aware of why would you even think that way?" Jasper looked at me with concern.

"No, no, there isn't any reason that I am aware of, it's just that now I want that so much, I am a little scared." I guess that was it, I did want it now, so much so that I'd be so hurt if it didn't happen.

"Bella, darlin', I don't think we should even worry about that now. If it doesn't happen and for some reason we find out it won't, then there are plenty of other options we could explore. I am not opposed to adoption are you?"

"No, I'm not, I guess I am not opposed to much of anything, I mean, I would consider at least exploring in vitro, or surrogacy or adoption if it came to that, would you?"

"Yeah, I haven't given any of it that much thought before now either, but I really think we could reach a decision together Bella, if the need arises."

"I guess there are a lot of things for us to talk about and think about." My head began to spin just thinking of all the things married couples had to deal with, were we ready for this?

"You mean like who pays the bills, who does the laundry and cooking, do we buy the kids cars for their sixteenth birthdays, that sort of thing?"

"OK smart ass, but yes, I guess we do need to talk about the mundane as well as the big stuff, like money. How much are we allowed to spend without discussing it, and for you, how much is too much to be spending on a gift? I know that it probably isn't the same discussion most couples have, but, it still needs to happen.

"You are right Bella, my Mom always used to say "communication is the key to a happy marriage, that's why your father and I are always talking things out," I think she was right. Although, I think you are supposed to determine whether you want the same things before you agree to marry." Jasper laughed.

"Jasper, I don't think compatibility is going to be a problem, if we don't agree on something you'll just do it my way." I laughed.

"Oh really? You think so, huh?" Jasper jumped on top of me holding me down while I laughed.

"Oh yes, I'm sure of it." I winked at him playfully.

He kissed me and laughed softly, "The funny thing is, you are absolutely right, I probably would do it your way."

I batted my eyelashes at him and bowed my head shyly.

"Oh hell, I hope at least some of them are boys, because I can just see any daughters of yours wrapping me around their little fingers just like their mother." We laughed.

We made love, slow and tender and fell asleep in one another's arms.

Morning came around entirely too soon after staying up so late talking and doing other things.

Since our house hunting was over sooner than we expected we all agreed to spend the day looking around Palo Alto. Jasper showed us around campus and I was able to see where his office would be. We checked out the law school, I wanted to look into the bar review course and check out the law library. I'd probably be doing a lot of studying there.

We had lunch at a quaint place not too far from the campus. Char checked out some of the local shopping with me while the boys wandered around on their own since Peter was busy fielding calls from the realtor and relaying information to Tyler most of the time anyway. Tyler would be handling most of the details and closing.

While Char was off trying something on in the dressing room I called Rose to check in. I told her about the house and explained the concerns the guys had with getting married in Vegas and that we were all thinking about what we wanted in a wedding. Emmett had expressed the same concerns and had essentially vetoed Vegas too.

All was well in Seattle; Jacob was still watching the house on and off. Mary was running basic errands in my car trying to make it look like I was still there so that he would not get suspicious. He had followed her to the dry cleaners and to the grocery store, but did not go in, he just waited in his car and watched.

Rose told me that Dimitri had followed Jacob as he made a trip to the reservation one day, detouring through Forks. That had me a bit concerned. What could he have been doing in Forks? He had made several stops, including Newton's Sporting goods store where I worked a couple summers, the public library and a book store I used to frequent. He stopped for lunch at the dinner Charlie ate in every day. Not that there were that many places to eat in forks, but that seemed a little spooky to me. Every one of the places he visited, were places I had spent time. He spent the night at the reservation and then headed back to Seattle the next day.

I had a pretty bad feeling about the whole thing; I'd have to tell Jasper and Peter.

Char paid for her purchase and we wandered around a bit longer before meeting the guys.

Jasper gave us a tour of the neighborhood, including all the local necessities, grocery store, dry cleaners, there was a book store that looked promising. We just spent the day getting to know the area. We had received word that there was no other contract pending on the house, so it looked like it would just be a matter of reaching an agreement on numbers.

We had an early dinner and then hung out at the hotel watching movies. Our flight was early in the morning and the tension grew more visible as it neared. We were about an hour into the movie when Jasper's phone rang.

"Hello."

"Jasper, its Dimitri, I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"What has happened?" Jasper was out of his chair, pacing and he looked at me with a worried expression.

"Jacob tried to approach Bella, well Mary, but he thought it was Bella. The cat is out of the bag, he knows Bella isn't here. He was frantic, he kept saying 'you are not Bella, where is she, what have you people done with her?' and he seemed very upset."

"Does he have any idea where she is, could he figure it out?" Jasper asked.

"Well he was genuinely shocked so I don't think so, but now he is going to be trying to find out."

"We are headed back to Texas in the morning, I'll check in when we get there. Thanks Dimitri, is Mary OK?"

"Fine, he was too stunned to do anything, she hightailed it out of there."

Jasper hung up and filled us in on what had happened.

I realized my phone had been in my purse in the bedroom, I had no idea whether he had tried to contact me. The tension in the room was palatable, every one of us on edge. I hated watching what Jacob was doing to the people that I loved. I didn't believe he was dangerous, that he would actually hurt me. He just needed to be told in no uncertain terms that it was never going to happen between us. I waited about twenty minutes for Jasper to relax and then excused myself to use the restroom. I grabbed my phone on the way and locked the door behind me. Sure enough, Jacob had tried to call and there was a new text.

Bella, please, just tell me that you are OK. If they have hurt you or are holding you against your will, tell me, I will come and get you. I love you, I will always protect you.

Well, he has gone past telling me what he wants and has now deluded himself into believing we are in a relationship. This has to stop. I realized that I had never really told him that I wasn't interested in him or in a relationship with him. I had not told him that his actions were hurting me.

I dialed his number.

It rang twice.

I considered hanging up.

He answered on the third ring.

"Hello? Bella is that you? Are you OK honey?" The voice was filled with worry and concern, and it haunted me.

"Yes, Jacob, this is Bella. Jacob I am fine, no one is holding me against my will, I have not been harmed. Jacob the only one that is hurting me is you, by doing this."

"Bella, I love you, we belong together, you know that." Jacob's voice was higher, he was clearly agitated.

"Jacob, please listen to me. I know you believe that, but honestly Jacob, I don't know you and you don't know me the way you think you do."

"You are wrong Bella, I know all about you, all about Forks High, all about Charlie and how he died, I know about your mother and that asshole she was married to. I know that he blamed you for some reason. What happened with Edward was not your fault Bella."

OH. My. God. How in the hell could he know about that? Charlie and Renee's deaths would be in the paper and easy enough to find. Phil and Edward though, how could he know about them? His trip to Forks, damn it, he was checking on me, but how? It wasn't as though there was a public record of my relationship with Edward; nobody knew what happened when he left. The only people I ever told were Rose and Jasper.

"Jacob, those are events in my life, they are not who I am, Reading about my family in a newspaper, asking questions about me in my home town does not mean that you know me. If you knew me you would know that those things are distant past." I tried to keep my voice even, not to show too much emotion.

"Bella, I know you are just afraid because Edward left you, but I will never leave you. I would not do that to you."

"Jacob, you don't know anything about that. I'm sure that you had high school girlfriends, relationships that ended. That was all it was, nothing more. You and I are not in a relationship Jacob." I tried to talk some sense into him.

There was a knock on the door. "Bella, who are you talking to?" Jasper asked through the door. I could hear in his voice that he was frantic.

Shit.

"Bella, who was that, is there someone with you? Damn it, I knew they were holding you. Where are you?"

Jacob was getting insistent and Jasper was trying the knob, when he realized it was locked he began pleading with me to open the door.

I unlocked the door and stood back. Jasper came through followed by Peter and Char. He stood watching me, confused, angry, hurt all at once. I could see each of the emotions swirling just behind his eyes. I needed to let him know what was going on.

"Jacob, I am with my family, now. If you really knew me, you would know that I don't want you to call me or text me or follow me anymore. I want you to stop this. You need to talk to someone about this; you need to get some perspective. Someday you will meet the right person and be very happy, but Jacob that person is not me. I know that you do not want to hurt me, but right now that is what you are doing. Your actions are hurting me and my family. You deserve to truly love someone, someone that will love you Jacob, this, between us, is not love, it is not healthy. Now you say that you will do anything for me right?"

"Yes, I will protect you, I'll do anything." Jacob was pleading now.

Jasper and Peter were coming closer, Char grabbed Peter's arm and shook her head, no.

"Then stop this, let me go, move on and find someone else, which is what I need from you." I tried to be firm, to be straight forward. I just hoped it would work.

"Bella, please don't do this, we can be so good together."

"Jacob, I am going to text you the name of someone that I want you to go talk with, will you do that for me?"

"Yes, Bella, I'll do anything for you."

"Good, I'll send you the name tomorrow. Please go and talk, really talk and open up, OK?"

"I don't know, that isn't going to change the way I feel about you, but fine, I will do it for you Bella."

"Goodbye Jacob." I hung up and realized I was shaking like a leaf. Jasper took the phone and turned it off.

He led me out of the bathroom and back to the front room of the suite and just held me as I shook and cried. Jasper's thumbs ran up each of my cheeks drying the tears. He pulled me into his lap and rocked me, promising everything would be fine and telling me how proud he was of me.

Eventually I began to feel better, the sobs slowed and then stopped. I knew now what I had to do, what I wanted to do. All of this happened for a reason, Jay harassing me, Jacob stalking me, finally finding Jasper, the love we both so desperately felt for each other. I knew now what healthy love was. Jacob didn't have that luxury, he never did. He had no positive model of love, no means of knowing the way real love felt, the impact it had on you.

I had been thinking a lot about what I wanted to do with my life ever since I met Jasper, ever since Jay showed his true colors. The truth was, it wasn't only my lifestyle that had left me feeling lonely and empty. It was all the choices I had been making in my life. I realized that I had never wanted to become a lawyer to represent greedy corporations. I originally wanted to be a lawyer to help people, to advocate on their behalf when no one else would or could. Somewhere along the way I had lost sight of that, I had stopped caring about anyone or anything. Jasper had changed all of that by simply loving me.

It truly amazed me that it took meeting one of the wealthiest men in the country to remember that I didn't care a lick about money or status or fame, the one thing that I had ever cared about was people, and doing the right thing by them. Edward made me forget that, and Jasper, he reminded me of it, of who I really was.

"I need the name of the best therapist in Seattle, preferably someone who works with this kind of thing." I announced after a very lengthy and tense silence.

"Bella, darlin', are you OK?" Jasper asked holding my hands in his, as he looked at me with such worry.

"I'm fine. I've decided what I want to do. I don't want to go back to a firm. I want to start a center for victims, stalking victims, domestic abuse victims, victims of sexual harassment. I want to provide legal support, emotional support, counseling, a place for people to reach out, to get help. I want to educate young women and men to stop this trend before it happens. This world is entirely too messed up and children do not have enough positive role models, we parade too much dysfunction in front of them and it has become the norm. I mean seriously, look at the headlines, look at the tabloids, our youth is looking up to Brittney, Lindsey, Paris, Michael, Tom, Anna Nicole, no wonder nobody knows how to have a healthy functional relationship any more."

"Bella, you amaze me, it's a great idea. If that is really what you want, I will stand behind you every step of the way." Jasper kissed me gently on the lips and smiled softly.

"So will I," Char said.

"Looks like the Whitlock family just started a new foundation with Bella at the helm. I'm in too Bella, whatever it takes." Peter said proudly.

"Really? You will all help me?" I was overwhelmed.

"Absolutely, but can we add emergency shelter to the list?" Peter asked. I knew he was thinking of Irina.

"And rape counseling?" Jasper added, I knew he was thinking of Rose.

"Let's start by finding Jacob the help he needs," I said.

We all agreed and made plans to sit down and talk it all out once we were back in Texas. I had no idea whether I had just done the right thing with Jacob, but it felt right. He deserved to hear me tell him that I did not want a relationship with him. I realized that I had never done that, never really told him.

Was I biting off way more than I could chew, yeah, probably?

In the morning, everything seemed so clear. We called Rose and Dimitri and told them about my conversation with Jacob, they were both going to run down names for me to send to Jacob. Rose thought her therapist might be able to recommend someone.

I called the pilot and let him know we were on the way. I had an idea, and hoped that it might make the flight home a little less difficult. Maybe if we could keep focusing on the plans to deal with Jacob and this new idea, we could keep Peter's mind busy. Hell it was worth a try.

I asked the hotel concierge for basic office supplies, legal pads, pens. He came through and had a bag waiting for me when we checked out. Once we were all comfortably in the back of the limo I pulled the bag out before Peter even had an opportunity to start to panic. I handed everyone a pad and pen and told them I wanted us to brainstorm ideas. The first step was to come up with an outline of what we would like to accomplish, then move on to what we would need, where to find the resources. I explained my idea most of the short drive to the airfield.

Peter was adequately distracted. I didn't think that he even realized that he had not begun to panic yet.

I went to meet the pilot and let him know that so far everything was OK. He was ready to go as soon as we were boarded. The hotel's driver loaded the luggage onto the plane and we all took our seats, this time around a small table.

As soon as we were seated, I started throwing questions out again about the plans; Peter had been running the ranch for a long time and his business sense was keen. He was coming up with practical aspects that I wouldn't necessarily have thought about yet. Char's event planning experience contributed some unique perspectives and Jasper's' teaching background proved helpful in identifying methods for outreach programs.

It wasn't long before we were more than half way through the five and a half hour flight and and Peter and Jasper were doing well. It seemed the more I kept them distracted, the better. Once the conversation began to wane I asked about possible affiliations with the University, perhaps Stanford's Law School. We talked about that for a good hour and before we knew it we were descending.

I packed up the notes we had taken into the hotel bag and got ready to land. Jasper gripped and squeezed my hand during the landing and other than that; it was a much different flight than the one to California.

As we walked to the car Peter put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him. "Thank you, Jasper is a very lucky man, you are an amazing woman. Don't think I don't know and appreciate what you did."

"I will do anything for my family Peter, don't ever forget that." We walked the rest of the way to the car just smiling, Peter's arm around my shoulder, my arm around his waist.

We climbed into the back of the car and I sat beside Jasper while Char snuggled into Peter's side. It had been a good trip, we accomplished so much and although we had all been on an emotional roller coaster nearly the entire time I felt really good and thought the others looked as though they did too.

We were all anxious to get back home. Home. Funny, I didn't even think of Seattle as home anymore. Home was wherever Jasper was. This week it was Texas, soon it would be California. I honestly didn't even have any desire to go back to Seattle except to see Mike, Emmett, Rose and James.

Jasper carried our luggage into the house and to our bedroom. He unpacked about the same way that he packed. Literally he turned the suitcase upside down and dumped the contents onto the middle of the bed. Once I stopped laughing, I pulled out the toiletries bag and brought it into the bathroom and sorted the clothes into loads and made Jasper carry the basket to the laundry room.

I had lost several days of studying and couldn't afford to miss any more. There were only a few weeks left before I would have to fly back and take my finals. Once the exams were done I would finish packing anything I wanted to take with to California. Emmett and Rose were excited and anxious to get moved into the house.

The next steps of my life were right around the corner.