Continued from Chapter 6: Camera. [Read that one first to understand this one…]

"All right, I was able to sneak behind the desk and change a few papers around. You officially checked out seven hours later than the actual check out date." Carlisle stated.

Alice and Jasper nodded in confirmation.

"Now all that's left is to go fall down some stairs, Alice," he continued.

Jasper felt Emmett's genuine disappointment and he patted him on the back. "Next time we need to destroy something, it'll be your turn."

"Yeah, yeah…" he grumbled, flipping onto the hotel couch and flicking through the channels at lightening speed.

"We'll meet you at home, then," Carlisle said, anxious to check in with Edward and Bella and then get back to Esme and Rosalie in Forks.

It had been decided that Alice would stop in to update Edward once their plan had been completed. "You know how to make it convincing. Be safe."

"Yep, will do," Alice said grinning, faking excitement. She was good at it. Only Jasper knew she wasn't really as happy as she was pretending. He didn't need to be able to feel her emotions to see it. Her smile wasn't right. He wondered if Carlisle had noticed and was just being polite by not saying anything.

"We'll be through shortly," he said as they closed the door behind them and walked to the stairs at the end of the hall. They were on the second floor, but the back-entrance stairs were steep. Private. What they needed. Looking down, he judged that they were roughly 18 feet from the bottom of the stairs. It would be considered a miracle that Bella had escaped death.

At the bottom of the stairs there was a fancy glass door that opened to a small foyer. The foyer had three huge windows on both sides of the second glass door, six windows total, plus the glass door.

She smiled at him, but her emotions didn't match it. They had been in the background when with Emmett and Carlisle, but he could feel the confusion and sadness from watching the tape start to push through her façade. She struggled to keep them at bay, but he didn't think she was going to make it much longer. He watched her closely, in case she needed him.

"Here I go!" she exclaimed, and dived gracefully down the stairs, tumbling twice in the air, and then gracefully through the first glass door.

The door shattered, and she lay amongst the broken glass for a brief second. He admired how beautiful she looked among the sparkling shards around her. Her dark hair absorbed the tiny crystals like glittering snowflakes.

Her black eyes met his and at that moment, she quit pretending to be all right. It was just the two of them, and she no longer had to hide it. He finally felt her control waver and she broke. Sorrow, anger, and confusion ripped through her.

He jumped quickly, landing on two feet next to her, but she was too swift. She sprang up and punched through the first window with her left fist, second with her right. With each punch, he could feel her anger and grief flare up briefly and then start to fade away slightly. She punched through the third window, and then went to the other side of the door and kicked through the fourth. The glass sprinkled onto the floor, tinkling on the linoleum. She broke the fifth and sixth windows by slapping her left palm against one and her right on the other simultaneously. She fell with the shattered glass to the floor and just laid there, her anger ebbing, her sorrow very slowly turning into relief. She was gasping, and he quickly realized that she was sobbing. In their near sixty years together, he had never seen his wife like this. They had had some pretty low times, and she had tearlessly cried before, but this was different.

Jasper sank down next to her and wrapped his arms around her, embracing her emotions. He didn't send her any calm feelings, but could not stop the overpowering love that he felt for her. He let her feel that, over and over, pressing his lips to her forehead as he cradled her in his arms.

He felt her breathing him in, and he laid his head on top of hers, taking in her scent as well. They didn't say anything for a long time. No words were needed.

He paid strict attention to her emotions, noticing every small change. The anger and sadness slowly dulled and the confusion followed. They were replaced by more calm emotions…a mix of acceptance, clarity, appreciation, and her love for him.

"Jazz, thank you--" she started, but he interrupted her.

"No need to."

She paused for a second and then said, "You know, all the times we wondered about me. About why I couldn't remember. It all makes so much sense now…how could we have missed it?"

"Seeing things in retrospect always makes them seem more obvious," he told her.

She nodded against him. "It's better that we finally know."

"No more blissful ignorance," he said.

"Right. But blissful ignorance is a lie. And I'm glad to know the truth…even if it hurts."

The negative emotions had totally faded back into the background now. She was nothing but calm and determined.

He didn't have to ask her. He knew what she would want to do next. "We'll find out more. We have a place to start now."

She nodded again. He untangled himself from her and stood up, offering her his hand much like she had offered him hers in the diner so long ago. She smiled at him. A real smile. And took it, springing up from her place on the floor.

Glass fell off of her and onto the floor with the rest. He brushed more glass off of her and delighted in the fact that her laughter matched the sound of the glass hitting the linoleum tile.

She brushed him off too and sighed. "I guess we've finished fabricating Bella's fall."

"Well, there's still a door left…."

The shared a quick glance, and without a word, the two burst through the remaining door, hand in hand, out into the clear night air.