I woke up a few hours later. Jasper had his eyes closed and hadn't moved at all since I had drifted off. If I didn't know better I would have thought he was sleeping.

"Glad you decided to wake up," he smiled, still not opening his eyes.

"Mrmph." I'm so articulate in the morning. He chuckled at my brilliance. I faintly heard some noise downstairs…Bella must have been over. She and I were the only ones that made noise around here.

"Come on, I'll make you breakfast," Jasper offered, hopping out of the bed with grace compared to my lumbered effort. My shoulder popped when I reached up to toss the hair out of my eyes.

"And you make fun of me for being old!" Jasper laughed.

"If I weren't still groggy I'd have an amazing, sarcastic reply," I smirked. What a sad day it is when I can't think can't come up with a witty remark. I followed him out the door, downstairs and to the kitchen.

"What are you in the mood for?" he asked, opening the refrigerator.

"Alice?" I called, looking over to the living room. "What am I in the mood for?"

"Oh, erm, pancakes," she said glumly.

Jasper didn't seem phased by Alice's mood; he cheerfully collected the ingredients…this time he knew where they were.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, she's just frustrated," he explained as he mixed batter. "She can't see anything since the wolves are involved."

I nodded in understanding. If he wasn't worried then I shouldn't be. I smiled suddenly as a thought crossed my mind.

"Can you put chocolate chips in the pancakes?" I asked with a pleading smile. "Please?"

"Well, you know, sweets aren't a good way to start the day…but I guess I'll let it slide," he laughed. "But don't get used to me being so permanently relaxed when it comes to your nutritional needs."

"Psh, please," I rolled my eyes. He flicked a chocolate chip at me then he dumped the rest into the bowl. I ate it greedily as he flipped a pancake on the stove. He was getting good at it.

"You were supposed to remind me to tell you something last night!" Edward randomly exclaimed, lurking in the doorway.

"You should've known I wouldn't remember!"

"Well I've gone and forgot now, it's lost forever!" he said all dramatically, flailing his arms about. Weird. I always had thought vampires were like elephants and never forgot. Edward laughed at me and left the room.

Jasper slid the plate with my breakfast on it to me and sat across the table. He still seemed cheerful but his brow has furrowed and he looked lost in thought. He stared down at the table with a hardened expression. I could guess what he was thinking about.

"You okay?" I asked. That was probably a dumb question.

He nodded, his gaze softened as he looked up at me. "I need to get you home soon, Alice said Lillian expects you back before noon."

I nodded and continued eating my breakfast. "You're getting really good at domestic things like cooking."

"Brace yourself, but I think I can even do laundry too!"

"I might have to keep you around awhile, then," I laughed.

I finished my pancakes and he dumped the empty plate in the trash. Throwing dishes away still entertained me, although I did hope they weren't precious heirloom dishes of Esme's or anything.

"Hey, Bella," I greeted her in the living room. If she replied I didn't know, Jasper put his hand on my back and ushered me outside to the porch.

"I'll explain in a moment," he mumbled, closing the door behind us. He held the car door open for me, earning my traditional snarl, and was beside me again in a split second.

"Well?"

He took a deep breath. "I'm…reluctant for you to be around Bella right now. The newborns have her scent and have been instructed to follow it. I can't risk her scent rubbing off on you, as far as we know they don't know about you. I'd like to keep it that way."

I nodded. "So do I need to stop coming around for the next couple of days?"

"It'd make me feel better."

That wasn't really a big deal to me. I'd miss seeing the Cullens for a few days, but I could handle it. In the scheme of things, trusting the judgment of a nearly 200 year old ex-army officer vampire seemed like a better idea than any stupid plan I could devise. Although some of my ideas might be so ridiculous the newborns would never see it coming and actually work.

Jasper pulled into my driveway and stopped the car.

"I'll come by later," he said and leaned in and kissed me. "I love you."

"And I love you. I'll leave the light on for you…even though it is sunny today, which totally sucks."

He laughed and slouched back in the seat. He seemed reluctant for me to leave.

"Everything'll be fine, ya know."

"I know," he agreed. "But still."

"I know."

He gave my hand a squeeze and I got out of the car.

"Did you have fun?" Grandma asked as soon as I was inside.

"Yeah, it was nice."

"I was hoping Jasper would come in, I haven't seen my son in law in awhile!"

"He's planning on coming by later. He had a family thing to do."

"I don't know the rest of them too well, are they all as polite as Jasper?" she asked. I'd forgotten that to most of the town the Cullens were mysterious and distant.

"Disturbingly so." I leafed through the mail. There was another letter from Cornell, probably something about registration.

"Do you mind going to the store for me? The one down in LaPush, they're the only place around here that carries what I need. It's too far to go to a real grocery store…all the way in Port Angeles."

I agreed and she handed me the list, car keys and money. The drive to La Push was pretty, but I couldn't help but wonder if wolves were following me since I probably reeked of vampire to them.

I got to the store and started wandering around looking for the stuff on the list. I'd been there a million times; you'd think I'd remember where things were, but no. Shopping bored and irritated me. I finally found the things on the list and brought them up to the counter to pay. The guy looked familiar but I couldn't place him. He seemed to be eyeing me, too.

"You were with the Cullens the other night, weren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered, still slightly perplexed.

"I thought so; you're with the big blond one, right?"

Again, I nodded.

"I'm Quil," he said, extending his hand. "Jacob's friend from the party. I was in the meadow last night too, but you probably didn't see me."

"Oh, right, sorry. I knew you looked familiar. I'm Amanda." I shook his hand, it felt like I was sticking my hand into an oven. But then again, I was used to Jasper's frigid touch. Ew. Jacob. What an annoyance.

"Sorry if Jacob offended you that night or anything. Sometimes he can be a bit…"

"Of an ass?" I chimed in.

Quil laughed. "I was gonna say difficult, but ass'll work too."

I smiled and took the bag of my stuff he had put on the counter.

"Are you gonna come out again tonight?" he asked. Maybe it was a characteristic of all the wolves to ask an obscene amount of questions. But Quil seemed nice, so it could've been worse.

"Nah, not tonight. Jasper wants me to keep my distance from Bella…since…yeah."

"I gotcha," he agreed. "That's probably the best idea I've heard since all this started happening."

Someone got in line behind me so I took it as a cue to leave. "I'll see you around, sometime," I said.

"Yeah, see ya."

I drove too fast on the way back to Forks. One of the downsides to riding with a vampire is that eventually I seem to think I have superhuman reflexes too. But I made it back in one piece.

I went in the house and put the groceries up for Grandma before heading up to my room. I opened my door to see Jasper slouched in a corner cast in shadows, he could look pretty intimidating whether he meant to or not. I wasn't surprised to see him there, when I walked in the house I seemed to be able to tell he was there, but I'm not sure how.

"I want to apologize," he began.

"For…?" I always felt dumb when he thought he had been rude or something and I hadn't noticed.

"I've been short and distant with you lately. I don't mean to be taking my stress out on you, but I have been and I feel terrible about it."

"If the past few days are your idea of taking things out on me then it's no big deal," I tried to assure him. I sat down on my bed.

"Yes it is a big deal, it's not your fault any of this is happening and I shouldn't treat you any differently because of it."

"It's really fine," I insisted. "I completely understand why you've been so worried and stressed and preoccupied. I hadn't noticed you being short or anything, quit beating yourself up. You're so sensitive, Jazzercise!" I laughed.

"It's hard not to be," he grinned. "I've just been so worried about you…how to keep you safe. So worried, in fact, that I'm willing to overlook you calling me Jazzercise…whatever the hell that is."

I smiled.

"But I have a plan now," he said triumphantly with a crooked grin of satisfaction.

"Huzzah, success!" I tried to lighten the mood. Which probably didn't work, but I was always looking for something to distract him from his self inflicted guilt. "What's the plan?"

"Edward is staying with Bella somewhere in the forest while the fight's going on, which at first seemed like a disadvantage but with ten wolves on our side it doesn't affect much. And having him with her will keep Bella from going into cardiac arrest with worry, so that's a plus for us all."

"My first instinct was for me to take you somewhere far away for the weekend and come back when it's all over and the newborns are dead, but they need me too much. I'm the only one of us who knows what to expect from first-hand experience and I can't leave them."

I nodded as he paused to take a breath.

"I thought about having you stay with Edward and Bella, but if something were to go wrong and they got her scent it could be disastrous. Two humans in one place is a huge attention grabber for a vampire, let alone one a few months old and that's a lot for Edward to protect. Of course, any of my family would be glad to stay with you, but I've asked Esme if she would guard you for the day."

He paused for another breath and an amused smile crossed his features. "She may not look as dangerous as Emmett and me, but she's pretty fierce when you mess with one of her kids. She can be a lot more dangerous than anyone imagines."

I smiled. It was hard to picture sweet Esme ripping the head of a grizzly like Emmett. "So Esme and I camp out for a day or so and then everything goes back to normal?"

"God, I hope so," Jasper groaned and flopped back on the bed. "I still have to iron the details out, but I've talked to Alice and she says everything will go off without a problem." He absentmindedly ran a hand through his hair.

"Whatever you think'll be best," I tried to be cooperative. He didn't need me being difficult on top of everything else. "Would you like to make a formal entrance downstairs? Grandma was talking about wanting to see you."

He smiled. "Sure."

He hopped over to the window, silently opened it and was on the roof a mere second after the suggestion left my mouth.

"You smell like dog, by the way," he smirked and leapt off the side of the house. I hoped he saw the select hand gesture I chose to shoot in his general direction, but somehow I thought he got the message. I shut the window and heard the doorbell ring.

"Amanda, Jasper's here!" Grandma called up the stairs.

I strolled down the stairs and tried to act like it had been longer than 10 seconds since I'd last seen him. I went up and gave him a hug.

"I saw that, by the way," he chuckled into my ear.

"Well come in, Jasper! It's so nice to see you; I was just saying it had been awhile since you'd been over!" Grandma gushed. Seriously, when she threw herself at him in a lustful fit I hoped he didn't expect any help from me. The paramedics would have to resuscitate me from lack of oxygen due to excessive laughter. But Jasper had been to medical school, so at least I could be revived quickly.

Grandma chatted excitedly with Jasper for a few minutes before flitting back into the kitchen to check on whatever she was cooking. Jasper and I followed her and stood in the doorway as she continued talking.

"Won't you stay for dinner, dear?" she asked.

"No thank you ma'am, Esme and Alice are cooking something special tonight," he declined politely. "But thank you for the invitation."

I always sounded like an impolite heathen next to him. One time he'd told me that he was such a gentleman because he was trying to keep from going on a homicidal rampage. I had laughed, but I had the feeling he was only partially kidding.

"Well, shoot," Grandma said and wrapped a paper towel around a small cut she had just made on her finger. I glanced at Jasper out of the corner of my eye. His eyes were glued to the blood and he was perfectly still and incredibly tense. He had a steel grip on my hand, like I could hold him back.

"Jasper?" I said lowly, I knew Grandma wouldn't hear.

No answer.

"Jasper?" I said, still lowly but a bit more loudly. I had finally learned not to elbow him in the ribs, so I stomped on his foot instead.

He glanced at me, but didn't relax his posture.

"Why don't you go to my room and see if you can find that book you wanted?" I suggested, fumbling for something to say since Grandma was watching us now. Apparently stomping on your fiancé's foot isn't normal pre-marriage behavior. Who knew.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot," he went along. "Excuse me, ma'am."

"You two and your books," Grandma laughed.

"Well, would you rather drugs or literature?" I smirked.

"I think the drugs might be more normal for your age bracket. Go on upstairs and help him find whatever he's looking for in that library of yours!" she shooed me away.