A/N: Happy Holidays! Well, sorry about the delay, I have written this chapter multiple ways over the past few weeks and then tossed them because I wanted to portray Alice and Jasper correctly. I kind of feel like Alice could have reacted so many different ways in this chapter and I could not quite choose which; anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 31

"Alice?" Jasper could barely believe that she was here, in the flesh in front of him. If he judged her just by the look on her face, she appeared lighthearted, almost perky even, as her soft smile turned into her signature playful look that she reserved just for him.

"It's me."

It was a simple response, but one that made Jasper's heart weep for joy. Because for the first time, Jasper had actual physical proof that perhaps the Alice he knew and loved wasn't completely lost to him forever.

He spread his arms up wide, Alice ran into them, wrapping her small frame around his. Jasper squeezed her tightly, spinning the tiny vampire around in a circle as he so often did in years past, Alice's musical laughter filling the air.

He set her down lightly, her feet softly touching the ground. They did not say anything for a few minutes, instead Jasper just enjoyed the feel of Alice being in his arms again, immersing himself in the happy emotions that Alice was projecting. He breathed deeply into her hair one last time and with a sigh, Jasper stepped an arm's length away from the raven haired woman.

"I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Alice." Jasper sat down on a nearby bench and indicated for her to do the same.

Her big all knowing doe eyes stared at him and her hands began fidgeting slightly. Jasper recognized that Alice, like him, although happy, was unsure in the other's company. Nevertheless, Alice saddled up next to him, her body almost touching his. She nudged him slightly with her elbow. "How have you been Jazzy?"

Jasper did not respond at first; he was too busy trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind as his brain processed what was happening. His Alice, the woman he dedicated his life to for over half a century, was back now sitting next to him.

He finally realized that he had been quiet far too long in his thoughts and he needed to tread this question carefully, at least for now. "Overall, I've been alright. What are you doing here?"

She smiled bigger. "Jas, I would think that was fairly obvious."

He couldn't help but return her infectious smile at least a little. "Well Ma'am, I guess that it is. But I would like you to confirm it if you would."

Alice rolled her eyes. "That's my Jasper, always following protocol. Fine. The code word you are looking for I believe is Affiliation. Happy now? I am your contact."

"Thank you."

It made sense to Jasper why the Volturi would want involve her in this mission. Alice could see the future and would prove most useful in eradicating this pack of newborns. He could not fault the Italians in that line of thinking. However, they have now put the two most important women in Jasper's life in the way of danger and he could feel his fury mounting. If anything should happen to either one of them, there will be hell to pay in Volterra.

Jasper took a deep breath and redirected his anger. It wasn't going to be helpful at all at this point to stay angry; instead he turned his thoughts to the woman next to him. "How are you?"

While Alice's smile never wavered, he could feel sadness and confusion creeping through the emotional barricade that she had set up for herself. "Be honest, Alice."

"Good. Okay. Terrible." She laughed at her own answer. "I'm happy to see you. The past few days have been hard. It's not exactly easy learning that the past few months were a lie. How I reacted to you when you came to us after our memories were altered… it was awful. I threatened you! You of all people. Although I could see your desperation and I believed that you thought you were telling the truth, I still stuck to my guns and essentially we banished you. I am having a hard time dealing with the fact I did that to you and Bella."

"I don't blame you."

Alice grazed her hand against his cheek. "I know you don't, Jazzy. But the guilt is always going to be there."

Jasper closed his eyes for a moment and focused a sense of serenity her way.

"Don't Jasper. I need to feel this guilt. At least for now. Okay?"

He reined his emotion in. "Better?"

"Honestly? No. But thank you. I am so sorry for everything that I did to you during those months. I should have known, I should have seen that vampire who did this coming. But everything appeared normal to me. I remember when you and Bella left for the weekend to explore colleges, I saw you both coming back, happy and considerably closer. And I saw the four of us going to the mall that week to make up for your missing our shopping trip. Which you both still owe me." She eyed his clothes. "I see the past few months have not been kind to your wardrobe. Really Jasper, corduroy? I don't even want to know what Bella is wearing again. How is she by the way?"

The question caught Jasper off guard. He was expecting Alice to know how Bella was and he had assumed that she was aware of change in status between Bella and himself. But as he searched through her emotions, he found no jealously, no anger, not even understanding. Instead, he felt immense curiosity and he realized that she most likely did not have a clue. Jasper tried to think how to best respond. He went to his go to response with Alice when he was trying to navigate murky waters. This definitely fell under the category of murky waters. "You tell me, Alice."

The edges of her mouth frowned slightly. "I wish I could."

His eyebrows raised high. He did not know why he did not consider that a possibility before. "Bella and her shield?"

Alice shrugged. "Possibly. I didn't look for you after a certain point in the past few months because it was intermittent at best and now, I am having a hard time seeing your future all together. The small glimpses of the future I do see involving you, doesn't quite make sense, and I am not sure what to make of it."

Jasper couldn't help but ask. "What are you seeing exactly?"

Alice's face scrunched up. "I saw your house. You know, the one that you renovated back about a decade before I met you?"

Jasper nodded.

"You and Bella are there, walking through the garden talking to one another." The petite vampire cocked her head. "Is that where you stayed the past few months?"

"Yes, Peter and Charlotte had just arrived there, so we stayed with them."

"I'm glad their memories were not altered. At least you had someone. Are they well?"

"They are good. They are in Italy as well. Did you see them at all?"

"No. Edward and I were kept in seclusion. I did not see anyone in the castle except for who the Volturi wanted me to see."

That was not surprising. "What else did you see in your visions?"

"I saw you at our house in Minnesota, you and Edward were cordial to each other, but rather cold at the same time. I guess that is understandable… given the circumstances."

He knew that she was in reference to the relationship that Edward and her maintained during the past few months. He wondered though if the frosty reception would have more to do with when he discovered the nature of the relationship between himself and his former wife.

"And then I saw you and I together. I am not sure where it was, but it was night and I hear Bella yelling out for you in the distance."

"Is that all?"

Alice scrunched up her face. "Yes. They were just quick imprints almost; nothing that I could discern anything from and I don't even think they are in the right order."

She rubbed her face in frustration and then replaced the frown she was currently wearing with a plastered on smile. "Ugh. I'm sorry. The past few days have been rough on me, Jasper. I don't quite feel like myself right now. Between finding out your life is lie and my talents going all wonky on me, I feel almost worn down. Me, the eternal energizer bunny."

"I'm sorry, Alice." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave a tight squeeze.

Her smile turned genuine again. "The good news is, at least I have you back in my life, Jazzy. With all the craziness, you have always been my constant."

She raised her hand to graze his cheek, looking him straight in the eye. "You never gave up on me. All these months, all the awful things I said, we did, and yet you never gave up. I will never be able to express how much that means to me Jazzy. How much you mean to me."

Her fingers moved lower, against his shoulders, finally resting on his biceps. He closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself. He could feel Alice's longing and did not want it influencing him and doing something he would regret later. He instead chose to manipulate Alice with his emotions, forcing her to feel more serene indifference.

He could feel Alice stiffen slightly and she looked up at him with a knowing look. "Don't do that, Jasper."

"I'm sorry." He pulled back a little so she would not feel the effects so dramatically. "But I-"

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." She cut him off before he could explain himself. "I wouldn't necessarily be willing to start where we left off if I was in your position either."

"Alice, it is more complicated than that." He couldn't lie to her or keep the truth from her.

"I know. What happened between Edward and I over these past few months, it complicates things. There are still feelings I am trying to resolve within myself, trying to come to terms with. But I want to make things work with us, Jazz. I want to fix this, no matter how long it takes."

"It's not that easy, Alice."

"Don't you think I know that?" She ran her hands through her hair in frustration and sighed. A very uncharacteristic move for her, he noted. "But I am willing to try if you are."

Jasper stood up, away from her, staring off into the distance, instinctively towards the east. Somewhere, thousands of miles away in that direction was Bella. His heart ached. "I… can't."

Alice stood up as well her tiny hands balled into fists. "You can't? Just like that? You decide that you want to throw everything we had away?"

"Alice, you know I am not throwing it away just like that."

"Well then, what Jasper? You were happy to see me. I know you were! Why won't you give us a chance? I know that this is screwed up and I know that it was not easy seeing Edward and I together like that. I am sorry. I am so so sorry, Jazz. You have no idea how much I wish I had predicted that Vampire showing up and being able to prevent the following events. But I didn't, and I can't erase the past. Just give us a chance. Please."

Her voice had started off in a loud crescendo and ended as no more than a sobbing plea. Jasper did not respond at first, instead choosing to wrap his arms around her once more, rubbing her back until her shaking body slowly stilled. She sniffled. "We were good. Weren't we Jazz?"

"We were, Al." Memories flooded his mind of all the wonderful times they had spent together. She pieced him together when no one else could, she believed in his strength when he thought he had none.

"Then what is it?" Her voice sounded so small. He couldn't bear to hurt her, but she needed to know the truth.

"Life has ways of setting us on the right path. Isn't that what you used to always tell me?" She nodded. "That fate has the ultimate say and that what is meant to happen will eventually happen."

"What are you trying to tell me?"

He did not mince words. "Alice, I fell in love. I met my mate."

Jasper could practically feel her heart constricting. Her eyes welled up and she choked on her words. "No."

"I'm sorry. More than you will ever know."

The vampire began to shake her head back and forth as she usually did when she was dealing with a particularly hard vision. "This can't be happening. We were going to reunite and it was going to all be okay." She paused, and Jasper could see her thinking, sifting through various memories and thoughts. "Oh my God."

Alice's eyes lit up with knowledge and her accusatory gaze practically pierced right through him. "It's Bella! You have fallen in love with Bella?"

He did not wish to deny it. "Yes. We never intended-"

"The vision of you and her in the garden! It makes sense. You were looking at her with affection and I did not correctly interpret it. I mistook it for friendship. You were looking at her like… like… you used to look at me. How could this happen?"

"We never meant it to. Over time, we discovered that we meant more to each other than just friends. It's hard to believe, but she understands me in a way even you don't Alice." He was not sure how she would take the next part so he put as much gentleness as he could in his tone. "I marked her."

"You marked her?" His ex understood the depth of his feelings if he did that. "Did she…? Did you let her…?"

He knew the unfinished question. "Yes. She marked me too."

Alice sat back down with a thud and did not say anything. Minutes passed as she stared at the dirt in front of her, kicking at an invisible rock now and again. Jasper knew this was what she needed to process all of this. He had seen her do this before. He had many questions he wanted to ask. Was Alice designated to the same fate of dual memories as the other Cullens? Where was Edward and was he with Bella? But now was certainly not the time to ask and so he remained silent.

Finally, she looked up. "You've moved on and I'm stuck between two lives, two sets of memories? How is that fair?"

She did retain both memories. Jasper wasn't sure what to say in response. He loved his Pixie, but not the way that he loved his Bella. "It's not. But nothing about this entire mess is really fair, is it?"

"I look at you, and I see the sixty years that we were together, where we were in love, happy with everything we have. And I come back, finally remembering who we were and that I love you, and I find that you have moved on, with my best friend of all people! And my heart is broken, it's so broken, Jasper."

"Alice, believe me when I say I understand."

She grunted something nonsensical in response, so Jasper chose a more direct route. "What do you think I went through all these months? Bella and I came home and you were living a different life, with Edward of all vampires!" He restrained his voice. "Bella and I were both devastated. It took us a while to actually see what was in front of us, what the truth was."

"The truth." Alice replied bitterly.

"Yes, the truth. That no matter how much we love the both of you, and we do, that Bella and I are meant to be. You and I were happy, Alice, very happy. But Bella is my future, my everything. I'm sorry."

"I am having a hard time believing that."

"I know." Jasper still found the next words difficult to say. "You said that you had both sets of memories. That means a part of you is still in love with Edward."

"That is irrelevant."

"How so? Does he still have both memories?"

"Yes."

"Well, then both of you have feelings for one another. I can feel your emotions when I mention his name. Your heart is trying to deny that it wants him and your brain is trying to convince you that it wants me only; but we both know that is not the truth. Alice, I think that you could be happy with him."

"I can't."

"Emotions are emotions, Alice. It doesn't matter where they originate from. Doesn't make your feelings for him any less real. Trust me. I am a little bit of an expert on this." He smiled slightly. It felt very odd trying to convince Alice to go to Edward, to be happy with another man. But he wanted her to be content so much. He wanted her to have all the happiness in the world. Jasper could just no longer give it to her. "I want you to know love like I now know it with Bella."

Alice looked up at him. "You won't say that when Edward kisses her and marks her over your mark."

Jasper growled. Alice had become adept at adjusting her emotions, but he could still feel the jealousy that she felt over Edward and Bella and probably over Jasper and Bella as well. "What are you talking about, Alice?"

"Come now, Jasper. You know him as well as I do. Edward is not going to give her up without a fight. But know that Edward, as much as he may have feelings towards me, will not just stop pursuing Bella. He has already told me that his marriage to Bella takes precedence, and he will fight for her if there is any chance of getting her back."

Images flashed through Jasper's mind of all the things that Edward would try to win back favor with his Bella and those images set a fire in his heart. "He would have marked her years ago if he truly thought that she was his mate."

"Edward will rationalize that. He will even rationalize the fact that he marked me."

Jasper paused just for a split second. "He marked you?"

"Yes. Do you find that hard to believe? After all, our memories were altered to believe that we were mates."

"No, I guess I shouldn't. But regardless, Edward will not be touching Bella in that manner." Jasper was trying hard to not let his imagination run away with him. He would make sure that Edward did not have an opportunity to try anything with his mate. He began to calculate the quickest way to find Bella so he could prove to Edward once and for all that she was his and would always be his.

A voice rang out in the distance and Alec could be found leaning up against a tree. "I really hope you are not planning on abandoning our mission Jasper, especially when we just rendezvoused with our contact. That would be very unfortunate."