A/N:

Sorry for the long A/N in advance, but it's a must-do.

Yes, it's been a hundred years, I know. Let's all acknowledge it's been unnaturally long since I updated.

Good! Now we can move on.

Okay, so this is how bad of a person I am: I forgot to give props to my beta when I posted my last chapter. Forgot! Can you believe that?! Bad, MaB, BAD! :::slaps own hand:::

So now, I must do her justice:

Thank you, DazzledIn2008, for everything you do: the beta-ing, the very important business-like pervy phone calls after work where I try to make you say "partial-facial" in the checkout line at the grocery store, the inspiring p0rny photos of half-nekkid tattooed dudes that "could be" your mechanic Edward, the squeeing text messaging, the fuckhawt photos of Jackson, Peter, and Rob you send me to load on my phone as your picture caller ID, all of it. I heart you, BIGTIME. This would be half the fic it is today without you.

Also, stop tormenting me with your new fic, Beautiful, and just put me out of my misery already! JFC, woman, that last chapter with Carlisle…UGGGHHHHHH! If you're not reading it, my lovelies, please abandon this immediately and go read it. It's fantastic.

Also, thank you to .com for reviewing The Cassolette and awarding it the AdVocated badge, and then pimping the crap out of it over and over again on Twitter. SQUEEEEEE! I can't tell you how honored I am that you guys liked it so much to rec it. THANK YOU! Go check out their site – it's pretty f'ing awesome – it's love for the unloved (unusual pairings, underappreciated fics, etc.) and it's got some fantastic fic recs!

One last thing: for those of you who love you some Jasper, you're really gonna like me after this chapter. I am totally enamored with Jasper and will someday write the Jasper fic that's been swimming around in my head. In the meantime, there's a little Jasper hawtness below, if that's your thang.

Okay, disclaimer, then on to the sheeeoooow:

O.O

Not the Only One

O.O

In the wee hours of the next morning, having just returned from work, I heard Edward chatting with Alice in his room.

"Are you and she still planning on shopping today? I thought we were all going hunting the whole weekend? I'm fine with it, though. We'll stay." he said in a slightly resigned tone.

"No, Edward, you need to take down something…substantial. You need to indulge and let go. You and Emmett and Esme go ahead. Jasper and I will follow along later, once Bella falls asleep. You need to hunt,"

"It's fine, Alice, I'll stay and go with you. Emmett and Esme can go ahead. I don't like the idea of leaving Bella alone."

"She's not alone, Edward. She's fine with Jasper and me, and then Carlisle will be here – he hunted Tuesday and yesterday because he has to work this morning and again tomorrow morning," she explained, a slight edge to her voice.

"I know, but I just don't – "

"Edward!" Alice cut him off, frustration clear in her voice.

"Jesus, Alice! What? Why are you so intent on me leaving?" he said, a suspicious edge creeping into his words.

"Because, Edward…be-because…" Alice stammered.

Alice never stammered.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself, and then: "Because it happens if you stay," she said quietly, hesitantly.

"What do you mean it happens?" he urged, concern lacing his baritone timbre.

There was a pause, and then a gasp. "Oh. Oh! Alice, are you sure?" Edward spit out, panic now clear in his voice.

"Yes, Edward. You've been strung so tight lately, and I didn't realize how tight until the vision accosted me last night after you two…spent the evening in your room. I didn't know…I shouldn't have encouraged her."

"Encouraged her?" he said, confused. "What do you mean, encouraged?!"

"Well, she's been so frustrated, Edward. She begged my advice. So I told her to take matters into her own hands, and, well…push you a little."

"WHAT!?" he roared. "You encouraged her to push me farther? Do you have any idea how close to snapping I am when I am around her on a normal day? Much less yesterday when she...Jesus…" he groaned, obviously reflecting upon their makeout scene from the night before.

I fought off the urge to replay in my head the sounds she'd made the night before, to avoid giving my thoughts away to Edward.

"She was in tears, Edward, I was trying to help. She's strung tightly, too, and has no outlet. It's not like she can rush off and kill something to get it out of her system for a few hours. I thought if she pushed you just a little you would maybe meet her halfway. You know, start slow, touch each other…" she led, suggestively. "Obviously, I was wrong."

"You know I can't…" he trailed off suggestively. "I can't, Alice," his voice breaking on her name. "I want to touchher so desperately…but I also just want to... I want to break her. And it would kill me," he whispered.

"Hence why we are hunting, no questions, Edward. I'll let her know – she'll be fine with it. Look, I understand. It's been building slowly over the years, for both of you, but now – now it's become all-consuming for her. You're a danger to each other," she chastised.

"Do you – have you seen the future changing? Can she…can she survive it? Can she survive us?" he said, grasping for something positive from her.

What did he mean, survive "us"? Did he mean the two of them together? Or was someone else here a danger to her life?

"I'm – I'm sorry, Edward," Alice resigned. "From the moment she agreed to marry you and you agreed to try, the vision concerning you consummating your relationship hasn't changed. If you and she… You can't, Edward. The minute her virginal blood appears on the scene, you snap, and she…"

"There's got to be another way, Alice. With me, you don't even see her surviving long enough to become…one of us…and I can't…I can't exist without her. I can't leave her, and I can't love her…I'm lethal. And the fact that I desire her so much that I would give in and kill her just disgusts me to no avail…"

"Edward, stop. You've seen bits and pieces…there may be another way, and I think…that may be what has to happen. I saw something once some time ago… Then, well I had a new vision the other day…and then again a few hours ago."

There was a pregnant pause, as she let whatever she was showing him sink in.

"I know it will be so hard for you, but it may be the only way," she said, tentatively. "You've known for some time now, though, that this may be the way it has to happen, haven't you?" she said with such tenderness, I couldn't imagine at what she was hinting.

"Yes, Alice," he said in a defeated, quiet tone. "I just…it shouldn't have to be this way. It should be her and me and perfect and slow and sweet and…and that ends with her dead."

"Yes. And it's certain that if you don't go hunting, she dies tonight. And not to be reborn one of us," she said with finality. "Look, don't worry. She's safe here. She's going to want to take a nap this evening anyway – she didn't sleep well last night after you wound her up and left her panting," she reasoned.

"If you're certain… How will I cope? I have to, if it's her only option to live. I hate to leave her alone even for a moment. I feel so lost when I'm not near her," he admitted.

I knew the feeling.

"Look, we'll talk through it this weekend. I promise, everything will be okay if you just…let go," she promised.

I wished for a moment when I could let go. I felt like I was going to snap and consume Bella myself…but not her blood. I feared for her innocence as much as Edward feared for her life.

Alice finally convinced Edward to leave with Emmett and Esme, promising to follow with Jasper and catch up with them once she was back from Port Angeles.

"Jesus Christ, the sexual frustration in this house is about to push me over the edge," Jasper admitted as he made his way deliberately down the stairs a few minutes later. "I'm going to need this hunt this weekend just to make it through another week of deer and fucking high school."

"You know how difficult it is for him. Remember your struggle with our diet when you first joined us. I remember a different kind of frustration that radiated through this house back then." I still felt the fatherly need to defend him – I was still the peacekeeper, a role that didn't easily mix with the need to completely consume my son's girlfriend, but a role that was still important to who I was.

"Ah yes, the roughest six months of this family's life to-date. It was a test to everyone's will, really, having my blood lust taunting you all. But you and Edward, neither of you ever seemed that close to giving in. At least I never felt it from you, but again, my mind was elsewhere…" he stared off past my shoulder, a longing creeping into his now-kind eyes.

"Jasper, really? Was it that great before you met us? I think not if you've lived with us this long and stuck to it. You seem happier now that you're a vegetarian, no?" I knew Jasper was happier; I wanted to hear him say it, though. I felt honored being their leader, but from time to time, I needed to hear the reassurance of their trust in my leadership.

"Of course it wasn't that great, Carlisle. You know I prefer this life. It's hard, though, sometimes. The temptation never completely dies," he says, licking his lips unconsciously, a look of lusty longing lingering on his features.

"And it's not always the blood, Carlisle. It's all of it – the complete letting go that comes with that lifestyle. I ate what I wanted. I went where I wanted. I fucked who I wanted. It was truly giving into the animal inside. It was glorious…horrifying to the man inside, but glorious to the beast," he said, a faraway look in his eye, and a fleeting feeling of exhilaration and arousal radiating from him.

"And yes, I let go from time to time…with Alice, hunting," he says, a subconscious eyebrow raising on its own to accompany the faraway look in his eyes, "but it's not the same. Luckily, I have a woman who understands, and helps me deal with it. Like lately…" he trailed off, looking back at me, the eyebrow still near his hairline, a complimentary corner of his mouth rising, "I'm not the only one reacting to the sexual frustration in this house…"

I stopped breathing.

"…am I, Carlisle?"

I stared at him, dumbstruck.

Literally. Struck. Dumb.

I had no idea what to do, to say. No next move. I was found out, and I had no idea how to deal with it. I hadn't yet panicked, but that was the next step once I had my wits back about me. I studied my folded hands on the counter, attempting to look stoic while desperately trying to pull my shit together.

He chuckled, smirk still in place, eyebrow finding its way back down to its normal position.

"It's fine, Carlisle. You know I don't give a flying fuck how many times you and the missus get it on. In fact, the luckier you are, the luckier I usually am, based on my lovely ability to absorb and radiate. Not that Alice ever needs the extra push…" he says with a slight nod, remembering, "but I can't deny that the extra freaky I'm radiating at this family – all because of the hormonal, emotional rollercoaster that lovely young thing is riding, and the frantically sexual, tormented feeling coursing through Edward – isn't…well…fucking delicious."

My head snapped back up to meet his gaze, completely shocked and taken aback at his admission. I was in the clear – he thought my crazed sexual anguish was a result of the sexual frustration he was radiating as a result of Bella's normal and Edward's self-deprecating torment.

"So sue me, Carlisle, for getting off on it. I can't fucking help it, they way you're all throwing it back at me, and besides, it's too good to waste, right? It's either that or I fight it all the fucking time and live miserably like Edward.

"I indulge, and Alice reaps the benefits. So what? I mean, I can't fucking help it, having that delicious-smelling morsel running around here wetter than Seattle in March with her hot blood pumping and her thighs discretely rubbing together while she stands there and tries to remember her manners – smiling her please and thank you – and looking like she does? I mean, Jesus Christ, Carlisle, how could anyone resist that delectable, succulent, naïve woman? Edward's dick must have some kind of gangrene."

I stared at him in utter shock, completely floored at his admission of attraction to her.

"If she ever decided one day to show up here with that sensual smell and demurely sporting a school girl outfit, it would be all over for me, for her life, and her virginity, Alice and Edward be damned. I mean, I love Alice, but I am a man and an animal, and I can't deny it all the time."

I could feel the lust rolling off him in waves now. It was starting to make my cock ache and my vision blurry. The strangest feeling was welling in me: attraction – aimed at Jasper? I couldn't even tell anymore – mixed with longing, lust, and something I hadn't felt for centuries. True bloodlust. Animalistic lust for blood and sex. It felt…right. Wild. Exciting. All-consuming.

It surprised me, as the feeling was close to what I felt for Bella, but for the bloodlust. I understood why this feeling was coming from Jasper, but I needed to separate myself from him before I started feeling it too strongly. I was so overwrought with the effort to keep myself in check that at this point, anything was possible, and anyone was game. And I knew Jasper wasn't particular about gender when it came to getting off; he had strayed before – never within the family – and Alice was never one to judge or reprimand; in fact, she encouraged it over indulging in bloodlust, but I'm sure even she had her limits, as did I.

And I didn't want to fuck Jasper.

Not by a long shot.

I wanted something more…lively.

See? You know you want some of that Jasper, though, don't you? I know you do.

BTW, thank you, thank you for continuing to read this crazy endeavor. Reviews are like snuggling with the Puma at Comic-Con. OH! Or meeting Wrong13. Or, like Peter Facinelli's guns in that shirt he wore to Comic-Con. JFC. I mean Jesus. F'ing. Christ.

LOVE!