"You made it through round two, kid!" Emmett laughed and tousled my hair like I was five years old. The urge to strike him was pretty overpowering, but I refrained, remembering how painful it was on my end. "You know you're badass when even the Volturi won't mess with you!"

"Oh yeah, I'm so badass," I rolled my eyes. I took a step back to avoid another hair tousling from Emmett and backed straight into Jasper. "Sorry. How long've you been there?"

"The whole time," he grinned. Emmett winked at us and wandered back toward the others.

"Creepy. You really need to cut down on the brooding and lurking. Being a vampire is no excuse!"

He smiled softly and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You seem less edgy now," I noted.

"The Volturi didn't eat you and everyone's still alive. I believe I've earned the right to unwind," he chuckled and then fell dramatically to the ground, landing flat on his back. I sat Indian style beside him.

"You sure your arm's okay?" I asked.

He nodded and hopped back up on his feet like a cat. "You want to get out of here?"

"Yeeeees," I whined. I took Jasper's extended hand and let him pull me up. We began to walk toward the edge of the meadow.

"I think Bella wants to talk to you," Jasper said quietly.

"It can wait." I knew Bella meant well, but I wasn't in the mood to listen to whatever she had to say. Sometimes we didn't communicate well, her being overly sensitive and me being overly sarcastic.

"The woods smell like…dog," Jasper frowned.

I laughed at him. "They're not so bad."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill one of them, Quil, I think. He likes you a little too much. It's awkward."

"Me? Really?" I snorted in laughter but then composed myself. "Be nice to me or I'll leave you for the dog!"

Jasper laughed too. "I was actually thinking about doing something nice tonight, but if you have your heart set on being with the mutt then be my guest."

"Ooh, well, I need more details before I can be definite. You know how busy my schedule is."

"I was thinking Mediterranean food…maybe in Seattle? I feel bad I've kept you cooped up in Forks for so long; I know you're bored out of your mind here. But since everything's back to normal now, we can go places."

"You're not too tired for something like that?"

He grinned. "I told you, I don't get tired."

"But you're sure?"

"Well, maybe I'll take a nap first and then we can go."

I elbowed him in the ribs. "Where are we going, by the way? Your place or mine and how do we get there?"

"Yours and we're going to the car," he answered. "Too many people at home. Your Grandma is a lot easier to deal with."

"And the fact you have her totally wrapped around your little finger has nothing to do with it," I mused.

"Keep it up and I'll give you to the dog," he grinned. I stifled a yawn. "It looks like you're the one who needs a nap."

"Nah, I'm good. We have to go party in Seattle!" I protested.

He shook his head and gave me a knowing look. "So you're a morning person all of a sudden?"

My silence spoke volumes. Jasper smirked.

"Shut up."

"You just want me to buy you whiskey in Seattle, don't you?"

I mumbled something indecipherable but he knew he was right. "We know each other entirely too well; it's weird. We should get out more."

"I think that's an alright problem to have." He offhandedly threw his arm around my shoulders. It was nice to have him back. Not that he had ever left, but a stressed out and worried Jasper had worried me too. No one should ever have to be that on edge.

"Let's go home," he said and the next thing I knew I was on his back whizzing through the forest. Amusement parks had nothing on this. Before I knew it I was sitting in the comfortably heated Mustang tearing down the rugged forest "road."

"I need a new one of these." Jasper grumbled.

"New what?"

"Car."

I snorted. "I thought you meant shoes or something. Yeah, you've had this car, what, like a year?"

He shrugged.

"Can I have this one when you get a new one?" I asked. I tried to look pitiful but we both knew I really didn't care.

"I think I can do better than this for you. Perhaps something large and preferably armored."

"I'm an excellent driver!" I argued.

"I know you are, but these stupid teenagers around town aren't. Damn kids and their obnoxious rap music."

"Sometimes you're such an old man!" I couldn't hold back the laughter. He laughed with me. We lapsed into comfortable silence and I must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing I realized we were pulling into my driveway.

"Oh, sure, you're not too tired for dinner." He rolled his eyes at me as he held the front door open for me.

I, with all the dignity that's possible when doing so, stuck my tongue out and flipped him off. He just laughed.

"Oh, here," I said, took off his jacket I had been wearing and handed it back. I had forgotten I had it on until we got indoors into the pleasant warmth. Seriously, why people want to live in a dead end town that's freezing nine months out of the year is beyond me. I didn't mind the constant overcast clouds nearly as much as the biting cold. "What time is it anyway?"

"Time for you to rest."

"Seriously. My watch is upstairs and I'm too lazy to go get it. Please tell me? I'm being very nice!"

He smirked and sat down on the sofa, pulling me with him. "Seriously. Take a breather for an hour or so then we'll head out for Seattle. I promise."

I chose to ignore his slight mockery, laid my head down on his shoulder and he gently took my hand in his. "Yeah, I guess you've been pretty good with your promises lately."

"I'm nothing if not thorough," he chuckled softly and then kissed my hand. I buried my face into his shoulder and groaned when I heard a car pull in the driveway. "By the way, It's almost 3:30."

"Time is so trivial. And not to mention passé."

He chuckled. "I'll meet you upstairs whenever your Grandma's tired of telling you about her day."

"She's excited about something?"

"Very…or she's had a lot of sugar. It's a hard call." And with that he slinked up the stairs. I couldn't help but love the way he moved, so catlike and mysterious and..slinky-ish. I wished I could be slinky. Or at least suave. I mentally snorted at my insanity. Yeah, some people wished for world peace and instead, deep down I wished I could move like a slinky. I'm such a good person. I heard Grandma clomp up the front stairs and I flicked on the TV so it didn't look like I had just been sitting there staring at nothing like an insane person. Which I clearly was, but grandmas don't need to know some things.

"Amanda!" she chorused as she glided through the door. "You've got to come down to LaPush with me tomorrow!" Then she proceeded to tell me about some craft thing with some of her friends or something. I tried to pay attention, but kind of drifted off. Jasper was right, I needed a nap. Or perhaps a heavy dose of caffeine. Both actually sounded pretty good.

"Honey, you look exhausted! Did shopping with Alice wear you out?" Grandma continued to talk at top speed.

"Uh, yeah." I was slowly losing the ability to concentrate.

"I swear, that child never slows down. Is Jasper here? I saw his car out front."

I froze for a second, I hadn't thought of a story. The whole truth probably wasn't a good idea, even the toned down version in which I knew he was just upstairs in my room, probably laying on my bed and getting a real kick out of this conversation.

"Nah," I managed to recover. "Emmett or someone's bringing him by later to get the car. We're going out tonight, probably Seattle or somewhere with things like real restaurants and stuff. Ya know, culture."

She laughed at me and told me to have fun, but made me promise to be back at a halfway decent hour because I had to go with her tomorrow to La Push. When I asked exactly what a decent hour was she said before the sun came up. I said we could probably make that happen.

"When's Jasper coming by?" she asked. She smiled when she said his name. I couldn't help but think she had a slight crush on my fiancé`. And, frankly, it was probably all his fault. "Amanda, my beautiful granddaughter whom I love very much, if that handsome fiancé` of yours is coming by the house, for God's sake, you should really go clean up! Or at least brush your hair!" She laughed and meandered into the kitchen.

I couldn't think of a snappy comeback (oh, what a sad day it was!) so I trudged upstairs into the bathroom. To have been up since…I couldn't even remember what time, so I knew it was way too damn early, and to have been freezing out in the woods I really didn't look that bad. A little haggard maybe. But since I was supposed to have been shopping with Alice I could see her point. At least I think I was supposed to be with Alice. Maybe we were on a hike. I was too tired and relieved to worry about my alibi.

I brushed my hair so it was straight and smooth (or as smooth as it was going to be) and put on some makeup. I couldn't help it, eyeliner's fun; it's pretty much my favorite item of makeup. After a minute or two of various cosmetic applications I decided that was as good as it was going to get and wandered down the hall and into my room.

He wasn't in my room but my window was open and my amazing intuition told me that Jasper was on the roof. I crawled out and saw him sitting under the awning. I mentally gave myself a gold star and was really glad that Jasper wasn't the mind reading Cullen because he'd surely think I was a lunatic. I sat down next to him and leaned against his side.

"We haven't been out here in forever," I remarked.

"Kinda brings back memories, doesn't it?" he asked. "You look nice by the way."

I laughed. "Thanks. Grandma told me I needed to look presentable if 'that fiancé of mine' was coming by."

"Aw, you shouldn't have to put on a show for me."

"Meh, she's just old fashioned. And under your spell. And—"

"And that's your cell phone," he cut in a second before my phone rang.

"It's Bella," I groaned.

"You can't avoid her forever. And she already thinks you're mad at her."

"But I'm not! I just find her slightly…"

"I know," he said softly like someone other than me would hear.

I decided to suck it up and answer the phone.

"Amanda!" she began. I could feel a tsunami of apologies and explanations coming on. I laid down, rested my head on Jasper's leg and braced for it. He laughed quietly at me and patted my head. "I'm soooo sorry! I know how mad you must be at me and I don't blame you at all! I never wanted Jasper or anyone else to get hurt! All I want is to be happy with Edward, I didn't know everyone would be dragged into it and nearly be killed and…"

"I know and it's not your fault." I felt rather bad for cutting her off, but I really didn't want to listen to all that gushing. Bella was a really nice person, but way too oversensitive for my liking.

"How can you be so mellow about this?" she asked. "I mean, Jasper could have died because of me!"

I wanted to thank her for the reminder but decided to be nice and hold the insult in.

"Things happen, Bella. Everything could just as easily have been about Jasper and I. Honestly, I think that if Jasper and me were together before you and Edward then it would have been us. And I know you wouldn't be mad at me if that's how it had played out because I couldn't control it. Apologize to me after you personally call the Volturi and rat everyone out. Believe me, if I'm ever mad at you, you'd know."

"Is she serious Jasper?" Bella asked, knowing he couldn't help but overhear with his supersonic vampire hearing.

I laughed and held the phone up to his mouth.

"Very," he laughed and I put the phone back to my ear.

"I wonder why they're not interested in you. The Volturi, that is." She continued to muse.

"I'm a boring person."

Jasper snorted.

"Hah, I wouldn't say that's exactly right," Bella chuckled. "So we're really okay?"

"Really."

"You're not just saying that?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die that I'm not just saying that."

"Alright then. I'll let you go, thanks for being so understanding."

"Sure," I said. It wasn't an impressively elegant response, but what was I supposed to say to that. "Bye, Bella." She said bye and hung up. I snapped my phone shut and sighed dramatically.

"You were very nice," Jasper praised.

"She's a nice girl, I mean, I like her and all, but sometimes I think she really is crazy. Does she really think everything is her fault?"

"Yep. She actually does."

"Craziness."

"You wanna get going or do you want to rest?"

"I'm good to go! But I should probably change clothes first." I eyed my own grungy clothes and then looked at his nearly pristine ones. The only thing wrong was a slight grass stain on the knee of his jeans and it even looked like it had been put there on purpose.

"I'll meet you at the door," he said and kissed me and walked me over to my window.

"I'll try to be surprised to see you," I chuckled. He flashed a grin at me before stepping off the roof and landing silently on the ground.

I hopped through the window back into my room with great poise and grace, landing on the hardwood floor with just a dull thud...unlike all those other times when I tripped at the last minute and ended up swearing as I crashed to the floor. One of the perks of living with my grandmother was that she didn't really hear things go bump in the afternoon.

I changed into some clean jeans and a black shirt. I pulled on some cowboy boots (from Alice, she said it only made sense since Japer was from Texas) and grabbed a jacket. I glanced in the hall mirror as I sauntered downstairs and decided that I looked less woodsy than before and was probably fit to be seen in public.

"Jasper Whitlock!" I greeted. "So nice to see you again, and for the first time today!" I sat beside him on the sofa.

"Whitlock?" Grandma asked, looking perplexed.

Oops.

"It's my middle name," he explained. "A family name."

"Oh, that's nice. It sounds very distinguished."

I swear, Jasper could do no wrong in that woman's eyes.

"Ready to go?" I asked him, fearing I'd slip up again if we didn't get out soon. He nodded and we headed to the door.

"Does it matter how late we're out?" that fiancé of mine asked politely.

"Oh, honey, no. I told Amanda to be back before the sun came up, she's coming to LaPush with me in the morning. But I know you're a responsible young man, so I'm not worried."

One day she was going to jump Jasper. And I probably was going to be in hysterics and unable to help. Besides, he was bringing it on himself.