Chapter Six: Complications

"Carlisle, what should we do?" I asked as evenly as I could. Edward, Carlisle and I were sitting in my father-in-law's office an hour or two after midnight. After meeting with Jacob at the clearing, I had returned to find Edward alone in our room and Renesmee in bed. Edward had sat in stunned silence as I relayed to him what Jacob had said about Jasper. Edward had remaining calm while I, on the other hand, was barely able to control my unease. I loved that about Edward—his ability to keep his cool, though I knew it had nothing to do with him being unemotional—he was able to keep his reactions temperate. I appreciated this; it was one less of the two of us that would bounce off the walls.

Now Carlisle sat in front of Edward and I, his face contorted with concern. "Jacob was sure it was Jasper's scent?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes," I answered.

"And he picked up the scent himself?" Carlisle asked. "He wasn't told about it by someone else?"

"I got the impression that he had been at the murder scenes himself," I answered, "but why do you ask?"

"I think it's safe to say that not all of the wolves are as accepting of our alliance as Jacob is," he answered.

I couldn't fathom that any of the kids from La Push would lie about this, but a part of me wished this was the case—it was better than the alternative.

"Could Jasper have been at the scenes to investigate?" Edward asked Carlisle solemnly.

"I think he would have told us about it if that were true," Carlisle answered.

I couldn't believe that Jasper had killed those people. I couldn't believe that he was capable of that even though he had had the hardest time adapting to the "vegetarian" lifestyle of the Cullens.

In the past, Jasper had been upset by my relatively easy time as a newborn vampire. My ability to control my appetite for human blood had no doubt caused him to rethink his assessment of his own "conversion" in a painful way. Jasper had always thought that being a vampire meant that there were some things that were almost impossible to control—the thirst for human blood, for example. The fact that I had been able to control myself around humans so quickly after I was changed made Jasper question his past: what had been due to him being a vampire and what had been due to his own personal shortcomings and flaws.

No one blamed him for his past. Maybe he blamed himself; maybe it had become too much. But would it have been enough to drive him to kill humans?

"We should talk to him," I said suddenly, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room.

"I think that's a good idea," Carlisle said as he met my eyes.

"He's in the living room now," Edward said.

"He's back?" I wondered aloud.

We rose from our chairs and went into the living room. We found Alice and Jasper there. They turned to face us as we entered.

Jasper leaned toward Alice. "You were right, there is something going on. The three of them are leaking anxiety." I tried to read Jasper's and Alice's expressions, but they didn't seem to fit.

Alice was looking at Carlisle, Edward and I. "I saw that you needed to talk to Jasper," she said.

Carlisle hesitated. "Jasper," he paused, "have you been looking into the murders that have been happening?"

"No."

"Has there been another murder?" Alice asked.

"No," Carlisle answered. He seemed to choose his words carefully. Edward appeared to deliberate along with him, being privy to his thoughts. "Jasper," Carlisle began again, "Surely you must know that we all care about you… and that anything that may be happening, we will help you through, but… we've been told that your scent was on the bodies that were found in La Push."

"You're saying that it looks like Jasper killed those people," Alice said. She looked to Jasper with a confused expression.

It was silent for a minute. All we could do was stand and stare at each other. Jasper didn't say anything. His expression looked pained.

"Carlisle," Jasper started, "I would never kill a human now."

"We believe that Jasper," I told him, "but…" I couldn't finish.

"The evidence appears sound," Carlisle finished for me.

"Who told you this?" Jasper asked.

"Jacob talked to Bella," Edward answered him.

"I see," Jasper said. "I don't know what is going on, but I didn't have anything to do with the deaths of those people."

"Jasper has been looking for someone to replace Jason Scott so we can get around if we need to," Alice added. "That's why he's been gone so often lately."

"Why didn't you say something?" I asked suddenly.

"I didn't think it was relevant," Jasper answered. He looked a little offended—and it seemed mostly by me. Even so, I breathed an internal sigh of relief. I believed Jasper's statement of innocence. Someone else was responsible; the question was, who?

I dialed the phone number for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning. I needed to talk to Jacob, though it seemed he was unreachable yet again. Finally, after the seventh ring, someone answered.

"Hello?" It was Jacob.

"Jake," I said, "It's Bella. Where have you been?"

He sounded exhausted as he spoke. "Patrolling late last night and then trying to get a little sleep this morning. I've been up for at least 72 hours straight."

"Then I'm sorry to bother you," and I really was, "but it was important that I talk to you. We spoke with Jasper."

"Oh?"

"He said he wasn't responsible," I said, "and I believe him."

"Bella," Jacob said as he exhaled, "You've got to know how much I want to believe you…"

"Well then I don't get it Jacob," I cut him off in an irritated tone. "Why don't you believe me if you say you want to?"

"I was there. I picked up the scent myself."

"There's something else going on here," I told him.

"I really hope that's the case," Jacob answered, "but I can't hold Sam and a lot of the others off much longer."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Sam is ready to take care of the problem as he sees it—if you follow me," Jacob replied.

"We'll figure all of this out," I said. "We just need a little more time. And you should take care of yourself Jake; you sound exhausted. Aren't there enough wolves to go around so that you don't have to stay up so long?"

"There's a lot of ground to cover. Plus, there's been a few of us held up with questioning. That FBI agent still seems to think we're doing this for some gang."

"I promise we'll find who's doing this," I said. We hung up our phones. There had to be some explanation for what was going on.

Carlisle had gone to work at the hospital a few hours earlier. I walked into the living room of the Cullen house. I stopped dead in my tracks as I took in the scene there.

The rest of the Cullens were huddled around the couch; Jasper and Esme sat on either side of her. Alice stared straight ahead at nothing; I knew that look.

"What do you see?" Esme asked Alice. We all waited for her response with baited breath.

Alice looked terrified. "There's blood," Alice said, sounding like she was in pain. "There's a man there—I think he's a doctor—he's asking Carlisle if he's alright."

"That can't be good," Edward said quietly. He was kneeling in front of Alice.

"What else do you see," Jasper asked Alice.

"That's it," she responded.

Edward was right—this wasn't good. Being a vampire, Carlisle couldn't bleed, but he was a doctor and was around blood a lot of the time. Was the blood coming from a patient? And why was the other doctor asking Carlisle if he was alright? I knew Carlisle to be the antithesis of what a vampire was; he could function around blood like no other vampire I knew could. Was he having trouble this time? How worried would his colleagues become and what would they see?

"He's not answering his cell phone," Edward said as he clicked his shut.

Esme had already dialed another number: the hospital. "He's in emergency surgery?" Esme questioned the other woman on the line as calmly as I think she could.

I could hear the woman's response. "Yes," she said, "And he can't be reached right now, but I'll let him know you called as soon as he's out. There's no way to tell how long he'll be." Then the line disconnected.

Esme's face remained worried, as did the rest of ours. What was going on? We had to find out before it was too late.

I glanced at the clock; I had stayed in the same position for what seemed like hours. I saw that the rest of the Cullens had also remained as I briefly surveyed the room. Suddenly, Edward's cell phone buzzed. He flipped it open and answered.

"Carlisle," he said. All eyes were now trained on Edward, including mine. Edward was silent for a minute. "Okay," he finally said, and then he hung up the phone. Edward looked to the rest of us. "He's fine," he told us. "He's on his way home and he says there's something we need to hear."

A few minutes past and I heard the garage door open. Carlisle walked in and joined us in the living room. We waited as Alice told Carlisle about her vision.

"I'm sorry you were all worried like that," Carlisle said.

"Alice said there was a lot of blood," I said, "and that another doctor was worried about you. We though maybe…"

"I think I understand Bella," Carlisle said. He smiled slightly. "However, it wasn't the blood that affected me. It was the girl."

"The girl?" Esme asked.

"The girl that was brought into the hospital," Carlisle clarified. He looked over all of us carefully. "I was almost completely sure that she wasn't going to make it… but we did what we could."

"What happened?" Alice asked.

"The girl's wounds were pretty bad," Carlisle explained, "but it was the strong scent that was on her that took me by surprise."

"Who's scent was it?" Rosalie asked.

"Not 'who,' Rosalie, but 'what,'" Carlisle answered. "It was wolf. The wounds and the scent seem to suggest that a wolf was responsible."

"You mean someone from the Pack was responsible," I said.

"Yes, Bella, that is what I mean."