8. My Turn

I ran more slowly as I returned to the house…our house. I was still confused and frustrated, but I knew I wasn't going to make any more progress with sorting anything out without talking to Ginny. When I broke through the tree line and into the meadow where the house stood, I knew immediately that something was wrong.

I ran straight up to the house and in the front door. The house was empty. I ran through every room of the house and there were no signs of Ginny. I rushed into her bedroom and I stopped seeing a letter sitting on the bureau between our wedding picture and the picture of our children. My name was written on the outside.

The tearstained words glared up at me from the page…Dearest Jasper, I have no hope that you are coming back, but I had to leave this note in the event that you do. I see now that this was all a colossal mistake. I spent so many years wishing I could get you back that I hadn't taken the time to really anticipate that you wouldn't want me. You have been gone for three days now and I have no reason to believe that you are returning to me. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't…I went about everything all wrong and I'm sorry. I doubt you will come back to see this, but if by some chance of fate you do, then I guess I should tell you that I'm giving up. It's been too many years and without even the remote possibility that you may come back to me I just no longer have the desire to continue on. I assume that you have probably already reached Volterra and have gotten your heart's desire, and if so then hopefully they will be receptive to me following your example. If by some chance you have come back and are reading this now, which I sincerely doubt you are, then I'm sorry for putting all of this on you. Either way, I know you don't want me, you don't want us, and that is all I have ever wanted. So goodbye Jasper.. I will love you forever. -Yours Truly, Ginny

I stood still as my mind struggled to grasp what I was reading. She went to Volterra? How soon did she leave? She says it her note I have been gone for three days, so that's today. She must have recently left…and this time I'm the one who has to stop her. She can't leave me now, not like this! Six months ago she saved me from a horrible mistake, now it's my turn.

I ran to my room grabbing the necessary documents and a stash of money and ran directly toward the nearest town. There I stole the fastest car I could find and drove immediately to the closest airport where I chartered a flight to New York all the while on my cell phone acquiring tickets for a redeye to Rome. As I sat in the plane my mind continued to reel over what I needed to do, hoping against hope that I could get there in time to stop her.

Why on earth would she leave now? After all of this time, I finally know the truth and she's leaving? What would possess her to choose this point in time to leave? What would I do once I get there? Do I have the answers she needs to hear to make the right decision?

I read her note again and again as the realization sunk in that my knowing the truth wasn't what she needed. She needed me to want her, to love her, to be the husband that she has missed all of these years, the husband that she deserves. Could I be that man? Did I have those feelings for her?

I thought of the memories that boiled to the surface when she whispered my middle name, the name of our son, the name that confirmed the full scope of our past relationship. I felt those emotions as I watched the scenes play in my mind, but I was so overwhelmed and overloaded that I couldn't really absorb them and accept them. I replayed the scenes now in my mind as the plane streaked over the Atlantic Ocean, and I could feel my chest tighten with the emotions of my human self's confession of love for the human Ginny. I felt my breath shudder as I remembered asking her to marry me and I could almost feel my phantom heart pound in my chest as she said yes. My breathing sped as I remembered her walking down the aisle to me as she became my wife and how beautiful her soft bare skin looked in the firelight as I touched her in our marriage bed. I remembered the longing and emotions I felt as I caressed her letters in my pocket on a dusty road near Houston and the final tear that I would ever shed as I bid my love goodbye forever as the fire burned in my veins.

I LOVED GINNY. I did, I loved her and I wanted those things with her. Alice sent her to me because she knew that I would remember our past eventually and find that I still loved her. The love didn't die when I did, it just got lost in the chasm of my venom soaked mind, but when the truth of our past came to light it rose to the surface right along with all of the lost memories of a life long gone…but it didn't have to be. I could have a life with her again…Alice said as much in her letter to Ginny.

The plane wasn't moving fast enough. I had to get there and sooner rather than later. I had to save my Ginny, my wife, my life. My heart felt like it grew ten times larger in that instance. I felt a twinge of guilt for the ease with which I found myself ready for a new life with someone besides my family, but I also knew that they would want this, they would understand and they would be happy for me. I thought of my brothers and my parents and my Alice, of my life with them and the happiness we shared, and then I closed my eyes and said goodbye. Just like my human life disappeared with the fire in my veins, that life had been destroyed in the fire that burned six months ago in a clearing in Washington, and a brand new life was about to begin, if only I could get there fast enough.

The plane FINALLY landed in Rome and I rushed as quickly as I dared without bringing undue suspicion upon myself to escape the airport lurking in the shadows until I could find a fast car to steal. I drove at maniacal speed to Volterra and through the gates parking in a dark alleyway as dusk began to fall. I rushed to the doors of the tower testing the air for her scent and relieved to find that she hadn't arrived yet, so instead I took a seat in the darkened street at the bistro tables where I first met her and waited.

I didn't have to wait long, about an hour after I sat down I heard her hesitant steps and smelled her sweet cinnamon tinted scent before I saw her emerge around the corner. I felt a surge of relief that I hadn't been any later at any point in the process of getting here or else I would have been too late. She was crying as she approached, her gaze locked on the large ornately carved doors that led to her death, not even noticing me sitting at the tables. I took a deep breath and spoke from my darkened vantage point.

"Why Mrs. Whitlock, as I live and breathe…well breathe anyway."

She froze mid step and spun to look at me with wide incredulous eyes. "Jasper?"

I got up and ran to her side pulling her into my arms. "Yes Ginny, I'm sorry. I'm sorry it took me so long to get my head together that you thought I left and wasn't coming back. I'm sorry that it took me so long to realize the truth to begin with when as I look back it was glaringly obvious from the very beginning, and most of all I'm sorry for not remembering how much I love you…and I do…I love you Virginia Scarlett Benjamin Whitlock…with my whole heart."

I could feel her icy teardrops soaking my shirt as her shoulders began to shake with her sobs. "Y…you're not just sayin' this are you Jasper? Be..because I don't think I could take it."

I looked down tipping her beautiful face up to stare into my eyes. "No my love, I'm not just saying it. I remember now, I remember everything, and I especially remember how honored I was to have you as my wife the first time, and if you'll have me, I'd like to have that with you again. Will you Ginny? Will you marry me again and be my wife in this life in the way that you never got to be in our last?"

She closed her eyes as the tears fell and I could feel the sense of awe and love in her emotions. She never thought she'd hear me say these words to her and hearing them was making her heart soar. "Oh Jasper, Yes! Oh Thank You, Yes!"

I chuckled as I wiped a tear from her cheek and then leaned down to touch my lips to hers for the first time in nearly 150 years. It was different now and yet so the same. Our lips parted and our kiss deepened and my heart exploded in my chest as I felt the overwhelming love we had for each other. We held one another for a long time in the street in front of the lair of the Volturi before we finally turned and walked back toward the car tightly embraced in one another's arms, never to be separated again.

Author's Note: Hi, My name is Jen and I'm addicted to writing Fluff. I admit it. This was the final official chapter, but I have an idea for an epilogue and then Faded Memories will officially be completed. I know this was a super short chapter, but it was a bit intense anyway. Please let me know what you thought!