A/N: I am so sorry about the delay. My muse was on my novel, which I am proud to say is completely written with the exception of some minor edits. So my hope is that my updates come quicker now on this story since I won't have the novel to distract me so much!

Anyways, thanks for sticking with me. It means a lot.

Chapter 5

As they made their way out of the forest, the daylight had faded into nightfall. They walked at human speed, their brief enthusiasm at the tree quickly muted by the fact that they had nowhere to go, no home to return to.

Bella focused on the sounds of the forest around her. As a vampire, she was now comforted by the world that came alive at night. The sound of an owl hooting in a tree above them, a fox that ran into its den, the small pack of coyotes that wove throughout the pines, keeping their distance but not their cautious eyes from the two vampires.

She closed her eyes, listening to the beating of the animal's hearts, smelling the fear that radiated off of them.

The animals would be safe from her tonight, however. Bella knew they should hunt, the stress of the day taking its toll on the both of them; but nothing even remotely appealed to her and she was sure Jasper felt the same. Maybe they would be more suited to hunt tomorrow.

Jasper was supposedly an excellent hunter, even better then Emmett. At least that is what Edward had always told her. She had not hunted much with the family since returning home. A quick trip with Esme and Alice, the occasional hunt with Emmett, but that was about it. It was always her and Edward.

She had kept telling herself that she could do things with them later. There had seemed like there was just so much time. Now she was not even sure when she would see them again, never mind if they would come to embrace her like a daughter and sister once more. Or a wife, Bella thought regretfully.

They stepped off the trail and back out in front of the car, with Jasper turning to her. "We need a plan."

"I know."

Instead of getting back in the car, they both sat on the hood of the Audi. Jasper's face hardened, a trait that Alice had told her remained from his war days when he was strategizing. "The first things we need to establish are the basics, and then we can take it from there."

"Well, our cell phones still work… for now. We have transportation but no place to live and then there is the matter of money."

Jasper nodded. "Yes. Everything has been changed, so it's logical to think that our access to the Cullen funds has been cut off as well. I'll test that theory when we got to refill our tank."

Bella knew her wallet only had several hundred dollar bills in it. Edward would have been ashamed. She thought back wistfully to when they were in Tuscany.

It had been a beautiful evening in the countryside. Edward and Bella spent the night strolling down the roads, Edward reciting Italian poetry to her. Bella had fallen in love with northern Italy, and had found a simply lovely painting of that captured the beauty of it all. She knew in an instant that Esme would like the painting and would want to have it. She fingered the cherry frame before turning to Edward who was looking at some other canvases.

"Wouldn't this be perfect for Esme?"

Edward rested his chin on her shoulder admiring the painting with her. "She would adore it. Why don't you buy it?"

"It's too much."

"Just pay for it. It's not like we can't afford it."

"Edward, I don't keep that kind of money on me."

"Bella, what are you talking about, I just gave you two thousand."

Bella shrugged. "I put in our safe back at the hotel."

"Bella, you need to get used to the fact that you are now a Cullen and with that comes certain… perks. But more importantly, I would like you to always make sure you have some money on you. What if we were not together?"

She furrowed her brow. "But I don't like carrying that much. What if someone steals it?"

Edward laughed gently at her. "Who is going to steal from us?"

He had been right, of course. From that moment on, Bella made sure she always carried at least five hundred dollars on her, but she could not make herself carry more. She was now wishing that she had listened to Edward. "I have three hundred on me at the moment because of the money I spent this weekend. We can only stretch it out so long. How much do you have?"

"Seven hundred and twenty eight dollars."

"One thousand is not all that much, Jasper. It will last us a month if we are really frugal."

Jasper's lips pursed. "No, it's not. But we may still be okay."

"How so? I mean, I guess we could both get jobs…"

Jasper shook his head. "That's not what I meant. I have always kept a separate bank account from the Cullen's. I never even really talked to Alice about it. I am just hoping that did not get compromised."

Bella turned to him surprised. "You have?"

He shrugged. "I was around for over one hundred years before meeting Alice. At first, I lived off of Maria, like all newborns did. But then, as I got tired of her lifestyle, I begin to secretly store away funds slowly. Over the years, it accumulated into a rather large account. When I finally met Alice, I was already financially secure, and with some helpful tips that she gave the Cullen's when we met with them, I was able to make my account ten times what it was."

"Did Alice know about the account?" Bella couldn't help but think this was too good to be true.

"I'm sure that she knew of the account, but we never openly discussed it. I never had to use those funds in all the time I was with them."

"Then why keep the account open?"

Jasper glanced at Bella before choosing to stare out towards the forest. "Well, I guess at first it was that despite Alice's confirmation that I would take to this lifestyle, I did not believe it myself. I struggled so hard; I had so many slip-ups that I did not understand how I would ever have the strength to resist human blood."

Bella was going to interject, but Jasper turned to look at her fully then. "Then, when I finally did gain control over my urges… well, I guess it was because it took me a long time to feel like a Cullen, like one of them. Sometimes, I still don't. I'm different. I'm not perfect like the rest of them. I still struggle once in a while, and I need to battle demons from my past. I guess that is why I kept the account open. I always felt that someday… I might need it. When they realized I really did not fit in."

Bella lowered her shield consciously, letting Jasper feel the full breadth of her emotions. He smiled. "Jasper, I have always considered you a Cullen, through and through. You embody more than probably anybody else in the family, what being a Cullen is. You made a choice to be better, to not give in to your natural instincts. You had lived by those instincts for one hundred years. The fact that you changed? Well, that is amazing."

"You give me too much credit."

She reached her hand out to his. "You don't give yourself enough."

Jasper squeezed her hand. "Thanks Bella."

Bella took a quick glance at her cell phone. It read quarter of three in the morning. Was it really that late already? She knew her mind had been distracted on the way back from the trail, but she had not realized she had lost all sense of time. She wondered briefly if the same had happened to Jasper. They wouldn't be able to get a hotel room now at any rate, not that they really needed it anyways.

She pulled her hand away from Jasper, clasping both of them against the back of her head as she leaned back on the hood. The clouds had cleared up, and she was now staring at the millions of worlds that hovered above them. "So we are okay with money and we have a car. So what do we do about where to live?"

"Well, we have two choices. We can either stay here, or we can leave."

Bella sat up straight, looking at Jasper like he was insane. "Are you crazy? Why the hell would we leave?!?"

"The question is Bella, why would we stay?"

"Because! Our mates, my husband and your wife, are about ten miles away, in our house, with our family. Right now, they are sitting down and living our life. What the hell happened to us figuring out what happened and fixing it?"

"Bell-" Jasper tried to interrupt, but Bella kept going.

"Furthermore, that tree up there in those woods? That tree is evidence of Alice's love for you. She promised you forever."

"Bell-" He tried again.

"She made vows! She said she would be with you and never leave you. That means something! That has to mean something!" Bella realized that she was not just talking about Alice anymore. Her eyes watered. "They made promises to us, Jasper. We can't just leave. We can't."

Jasper grabbed Bella and pulled her to him. "We aren't leaving them Darling. We aren't. Do you really think I would just abandon Alice and let you leave Edward? Never in a million years."

She looked up at him. "Then why would you want to leave?"

"I have some friends I think that can help us. Remember when you were human and I told you about my past?"

She nodded into his chest. "There are a couple of vampires, Peter and Charlotte. I am still close with them. They have resources and know all kinds of folks. I'm not sure who or what is behind this and why, but they might be able to help us figure this out. But more importantly, if I just stay here, without being able to see her or contact Alice, I will go mad. And from the sample of your emotions that you have been letting me feel, you will too. Peter and Charlotte, well, they won't let that happen. When you and I are wallowing in self-pity, they will snap us out of it. We need that. That was all I meant. Promise."

Bella thought it over. The ache that she felt for Edward tugged at her. She wanted to be with her mate. She wanted to go right back to that house and make him remember, make all of them remember and go back to living her life. But two against six were not the best of odds and she knew it would not end prettily if they did that. What Jasper said made sense. They wouldn't be gone forever and perhaps they could figure this out and restore their memories. A thought came to her then. "Jasper, what if Peter and Charlotte don't remember you either?"

He held her tight. "Let's just hope they do. And if they don't, then we will figure this out together. Just the two of us."

Bella made a decision. She needed to be strong to make it through this and needed to make rationale not emotional choices. "Okay, then. Make the call to your friends. If they say its okay, then we leave right away to figure this out."

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed. Let me know what you think so far. I know it is not a whole lot of answers yet, but this is also a romance, and I need to set certain foundations and let certain emotions prevail before I can go down that avenue.