Chapter 6: Would Do You Good

Dedication: To my ridiculous Melly. I love you and your heinous, lying green dot.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters.

"A change would do you good,"

~A Change, Sheryl Crow

Bella had reached a stage of contentment that had previously only been achieved by tiny kittens curled up on the fluffiest of pillows in the most perfect beam of sunlight. She was warm and felt more peaceful than she had in a long time. An automatic cheerfulness settled over her as she woke - something residual.

Awareness came back to Bella in increments, but when she sighed and her warm, good smelling blanket chuckled, her eyes all but flew open.

There was an arm wrapped around her.

The chuckle was distinctly male.

It was also familiar.

Bella rolled over. "Edward, how the hell did you get in here?"

Edward looked amused. "Good morning to you too," he murmured. When she only glared back at him, he relented. "I charmed Esme into letting me in." He waggled his eyebrows playfully.

"Figures," Bella mumbled, rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. Being his best friend meant that Bella was very familiar with Edward's ability to charm just about anyone - male, female, child, or cat - into giving him anything he wanted. Had he a mind to, the boy most certainly could have used his gifts for evil.

"So, you just needed a cuddle or something? Is...what's his name... Benjie not paying you enough attention?" she grumbled, sitting up against the headboard.

Then it was Edward's turn to glare. "Benjamin. Maybe Ben. Not Benjie," he corrected, fixing her with a hard stare until she put her hands up in surrender. His expression softened and he tilted his head at her then. "Actually, I fully intended to spook you awake -"

"Brat."

"-but I happened to hear what you were mumbling in your dream."

Bella froze. The way Edward was looking at her was mildly disapproving and more than a little mischievous. She knew that she talked in her sleep of course. She wracked her brain, but couldn't for the life of her remember what she'd dreamed about. "What did you hear?" she asked, feigning disinterest.

"Well, you said Jasper's name a lot."

"That's to be expected," she defended automatically. "I mean, obviously he's in my thoughts constantly right now. It's only logical, right?"

Edward raised an eyebrow. "You called him Big Daddy."

All the color drained from Bella's face. "I did not!" she squeaked.

"No, you didn't," he agreed, grinning. Bella smacked his arm and he sobered again. "You did say he was sexy though."

At that, Bella looked down at her hands. She shrugged. "I'm not blind."

He chuckled. "Well, I can't disagree with you on that count." He shook his head ruefully. "Sorry. I guess I got a little freaked out. It just sounded like... a pleasant dream. That's all." He laughed. "I just got carried away. It's not like you'd date your best friend's husband."

Bella opened her mouth to confirm that when a memory stopped her.

The night previous, as he drove her back to the Inn, Jasper had softly pointed out that if they went to a bar together, anyone who saw them would assume they were on a date. At the time, Bella had merely scoffed and said she didn't give much of a damn about what the good denizens of Forks thought. The majority of them, from what Jasper and Esme had said, were fairly certain she was doing everything she could - short of beating Jasper about the head - to make his life miserable.

Edward's opinion, however, she did care about.

She wasn't able to erase the guilty expression from her face quick enough. Edward caught it and his eyes went wide. "Bella..."

"Oh, what?" Bella demanded, exasperated. "It's nothing, okay? It's just... it's not a date, okay? I mean, the man has puzzles out in his living room," she said as if this should justify anything.

Edward furrowed his eyebrows. "You are missing some information that will make that statement make sense.

Growling in frustration, she wrung her hands in the blanket, trying to put her thoughts together. "He has no one, Edward," she said, the thought making her heart twist painfully for Jasper. "He hangs out a little with Esme and Emmett, but that's the extent of his life here. He doesn't even date."

"Well, whose fault is that? From what I understand the majority of the women in this town have a crush on him – even the married ones. That's his choice," Edward countered.

"Think about it. No one here even knows the whole truth of what went on between him and Alice. What's the point of dating someone who really doesn't understand what you've been through?"

"Whoa, whoa," Edward got up so he could face her. "I thought you said it wasn't a date."

"It isn't! He's a nice guy. I just thought… I don' know what I thought. This whole mess is making him really sad. I just wanted to … cheer him up," Bella babbled, very well aware she was digging herself a deeper hole.

Edward was outright gawking at her. "You have a crush on him."

"Oh, come off it," Bella protested. "I do not. And what are we? In high school?"

"Isabella, I know that look. That is a look previously reserved for Johnny Depp and Johnny Depp alone. I'm going to ask you again. Do you have a crush on Jasper Whitlock?"

Bella thought about calling him on his condescending tone. But then the bravado all but melted out of her faster than an ice cube in a pot of boiling water. She leaned forward, burying her face in the blankets. "Can you give me a break here? I mean, contrary to popular belief I am a girl. He is a sexy, charming guy who has been pining for years over the wife he married – despite the fact that he was eighteen years old and she was pregnant with another man's child – who hates him. I mean…come on. I'm hardwired to crush a little on that. Plus… you haven't seen him in his uniform, Edward. Seriously."

She felt the bed dip as Edward knelt, then his hands were on her, tugging her upright. "Bella," he said softly and waited until she looked up at him. "Even if he is telling the truth about everything – and we have no reason to believe he is –"

"I believe him," Bella interrupted, more sure of that than she was about anything else.

Edward sighed and continued as if she hadn't spoken. "He's still your best friend's husband." He paused as Bella's eyes flitted away guilty.

She chuffed. "I'm going to a bar with a man I trust. We're going to have a few drinks, hopefully have a good time. That is all that's going on here," she said firmly.

"Are you sure? Sweetheart, you're playing with fire here. This is so unlike you – to do something that could hurt Alice a lot."

Scrambling to put a little distance between them as her defenses rose, Bella kicked the blankets off and climbed out of the bed on the side opposite of where Edward knelt. "I'm not trying to hurt Alice. I'm not doing anything wrong. For fucks sake – it's just taking a guy out who could use a few drinks over a fucked up situation."

She took a deep breath, calming herself before she spoke again. "Edward...she loved him once. I've seen it. I'm sure of it. She would have wanted him to be happy again, even if she doesn't remember that now. All this time, Alice has had us to support her when she needed it. Surely not even Alice – if she knew the whole truth – would begrudge him a little fun."

Edward still looked wary, always worried - for both her and Alice. "I'm not stupid," Bella asserted.

He crawled over to her side of the bed then and sat on the edge, pulling her down beside him. "You have such a big heart, Bella," he murmured, wrapping an arm around her waist. Bella put her head on his shoulder. "I would just hate to see you trust the wrong person." He chuckled, ruffling her hair playfully. "You're such a bad liar, you'll believe anyone who has the least bit of skill."

At that she thwacked him hard in the stomach. Edward made a satisfying "Ooff," sound but then chuckled, holding her tighter even as she tried to push him away. "Alright," he digressed. "Either way, we're back to square one. We still need evidence we can actually present to Alice."

Bella rifled through her bag, pulling out a list of names. "Well, I suppose I don't have much of a choice but to try to find someone else who might have known them. I can get back into her boxes tomorrow but until then..."

"I am definitely coming with you if you're going to talk to that Lauren girl you told me about?"

Amused, Bella raised an eyebrow. "What, you think I can't take a bitch?"

At that Edward rolled his eyes. "And give Jasper a legitimate reason to throw you in a cell. I can help you." He pointed to himself, smirking, "Charming, remember?"

"As if I could forget."

~0~

That afternoon was a frustrating one. Bella and Edward headed back to the Miller Tree Inn after several unsuccessful conversations.

At the Pacific Inn Motel they had not found Lauren. They did, however, find Jessica Stanley. She had been far more polite to their faces, but in that two faced way the French had perfected where she said one thing and meant something entirely different.

Edward's shameless flirting had loosened her tongue a bit. She did remember a James. Specifically, she remembered the way Jasper pretended it didn't hurt when Alice went "catting around with that creepy blond," further adding that said blond had eyes like a snake.

No, despite her sugar-sweet tone, it was obvious that Jessica was not a fan of Alice. "It's not going to help us to expose Alice to antagonistic people," Edward said when they left the Inn.

Bella agreed. "At least we know he was real," she said pointedly.

Edward's answering hum was noncommittal.

They spent the rest of the day fruitlessly trying to track down an Angela Weber. Whoever she was, she seemed to have disappeared right off the face of the planet. Bella couldn't blame her for wanting to escape Forks.

Since Edward had to get back, they headed back to the Inn at mid-afternoon.

"Looks like Carlisle is back," Edward noted, nodding at his brother's car.

They got out of the car, but Edward paused as they climbed up to the porch. He pulled her down into a crouching position so they were peering in the window. "Seriously, Edward?" she hissed in a whisper. "Is this where I find out that you're a creeper?"

Edward didn't look amused. "Would you shut up? You'll want to see this. It's...sweet."

Skeptically, Bella peered in the window to see what Edward was looking at. Carlisle and Esme were sitting side by side, caught up in conversation. Their faces were lit up with smiles, their eyes only for each other. Looking at them, Bella thought that she and Edward could have done a Riverdance in front of the window and they wouldn't have noticed.

"Observe the Cullen mating dance," Edward narrated for her benefit. "You see how he appears totally enraptured by what she's saying? Some might consider this a ruse designed to lure the unsuspecting woman into bed, but you'll find that a real man, like a Cullen man, does not feign interest with the right woman. No, he's actually into what she's saying."

Bella chuckled and, smirking, Edward continued. "Now watch as he goes in for the kill. Notice that he leans in as he speaks, causing his intended to lean close as well. And you see his hand - brushing hers oh so innocently. That close together, his intended is dazzled -"

"Dazzled?" Bella snickered.

"Dazzled by the signature, Cullen emerald eyes." He grinned at her. "Always a killer."

"I can imagine," she murmured, not taking her eyes off Carlisle and Esme.

"Even just watching, you can see the atmosphere becomes heated. Conversation goes out the window as their gaze lingers on each others lips and then... the inevitable."

As if he was hearing Edward's commentary, Carlisle leaned in. His fingers stroked Esme's chin and his eyes were questioning. Her eyes closed as their lips met.

"And then, we strike," Edward said mischievously, rising and bringing Bella with him.

"Edward! No," Bella protested, laughing.

But it was too late. Edward opened the door, proclaiming loudly, "Hello, Brother! Esme!"

Carlisle and Esme were so startled that they both stood, both looking flushed. Looking at Edward's smug expression, the elder Cullen brother turned to Esme, smiling sweetly. "Allow me to beg your pardon in advance for my unruly behavior in your fine establishment."

Before Esme could respond, Carlisle lunged at his younger brother. Soon they were wrestling in the foyer like they were teenagers instead of grown men. "You think you can take me, old man?" Edward taunted, getting his brother in a headlock.

Carlisle grabbed Edward's leg and toppled him onto his back. "What was that? Ya whipper snapper?"

"Oh, my," Esme muttered, watching them wrestle.

Bella just cackled. "My bets on the blond."

~0~

Bella found herself getting inexplicably nervous as evening rolled around.

Carlisle and Edward had taken off for Seattle, both having to work the next day. Since Edward was going to tease him mercilessly the whole way back anyway, Carlisle had left Esme with a promise to come back that weekend - to look at a few more houses of course - and a sweet, deep kiss.

As Edward hugged Bella goodbye, he whispered in her ear, "Be careful."

"I know what I'm doing," she said.

Now, she wasn't so sure. She found herself brushing her hair and wondering ridiculous things like whether she should wear it up or if she'd brought her curler. Despite the fact that this wasn't a real date, she wanted to look good.

What would it hurt? She argued with herself about her intentions, but the bottom line was that it had been a long time since she'd gone out at all. It never hurt a girl's self esteem to look good.

Justified, she borrowed a curler from Esme, ignoring the other woman's knowing look, and teased her hair into soft waves. Then she'd put on jeans that she knew made her ass look good, and a button down shirt that hugged her curves.

Bella was adjusting her shirt obsessively when there was a knock on the door. "Bella," a highly amused Esme called, "your gentleman caller is here."

Oh, she was a fine match for the elder Cullen, that was for sure. Rolling her eyes, Bella grabbed her purse and opened the door.

Esme was already most of the way down the stairs, so Bella followed her down, trying to ignore the fluttering butterflies in her stomach. She almost stopped short when Jasper came into view.

It was like the first time she saw him in the police station except instead of the fantasy-inducing police uniform, he was wearing a much more casual get-up of a form fitting gray shirt, jeans and a black jacket. Delectable didn't even begin to cover it. That day being a work day, he was clean shaven save for a light, five-o-clock shadow. She didn't miss how his eyes - looking as nervous as she felt - raked over her body.

"Hi," he said brilliantly.

"Hello," she greeted with just as much eloquence.

They were both distracted by merry chuckling moving further back into the house. Jasper rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about her. Esme is a hopeless romantic. When I showed up here asking for you, she was already writing an unlikely love story in her head."

Jasper cleared his throat in the awkward silence that followed. Bella shuffled her feet. "We should go," she said quietly.

"Yeah," Jasper agreed, nodding. They looked at each other. Bella widened her eyes at him expectantly. "Oh. Right. We should go," he blushed, chuckling nervously.

They both laughed then, amused as much as they were irritated with themselves. It did serve to break the tension, and conversation flowed easily between them after that.

"How did you spend your day?" Jasper asked as he drove.

"Oh, no," Bella shook her head. "The whole point of this evening is to not talk about this whole situation."

"Fair enough," Jasper said smiling.

The Hang-Up Tavern was, as could be expected for the town of Forks, a real dive. There were no pool tables or dart boards. However, there was a screen they could feed quarters into in order to play various games. They decided on Mahjong and played, their fingers occasionally brushing, as they spoke.

"My life is boring," Jasper said, taking a drink of his beer after Bella had asked him a question. "Forks isn't known for its crime rate, and lord knows I'm not that interesting." He shook his head at the bar and then looked up at her again. "Tell me more about you."

Bella gave a short laugh. "There isn't much to say. I went to college, but I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do with my life. I got a degree in business just because I had to make a decision. So now I'm a manager at a company that drives me crazy."

Jasper hissed in sympathy. "Well, what about your love life? Have you met the man of your dreams?"

"Oh, yes." For a second, Bella thought that a dark look flashed across Jasper's eyes, but then it was gone and she thought she must have imagined it. "And he loves me. But he has sex with other people I'm afraid."

"What?" Jasper asked, uncertainly.

"Yeah. Like right now he's probably with a man named Benjamin. Not Benjie," she said with a touch of sardonic humor.

It took a moment for Jasper to process that. "Edward?"

Bella nodded.

"That must have been hard," he sympathized.

"It was and it wasn't," she said quietly. "I never lost him because I never had him. We both lament that we're not … compatible in that way. But on the bright side, he loves me, and because he's a friend and not a boyfriend, it's fairly unlikely that we'll ever break-up. So to speak."

"There's never been anyone else?" Jasper asked, sounding sad at the idea she had been alone all that time.

Bella shrugged. "I don't know if I'm good girlfriend material. I don't know, it seems that a lot of the guys I've met - hell, the girls too - just have this idea that you have to be in a relationship to be happy. I've never subscribed to that. Seeing a lot of my friends move in and out of relationships, losing pieces of themselves each time for people that they shouldn't have been with in the first place. I guess I haven't really been looking that hard."

"I can understand that," Jasper nodded, clinking his beer bottle against hers. He'd seen so many people - Alice included, of course - just wasting their precious time with significant others that, were they thinking at all rationally, they never would have chosen. "It's a delicate balance, I think," he said thoughtfully. "You have to do things for yourself and part of a whole at the same time - but you can't lose yourself. You can't live for someone else, and that's what a lot of people end up doing."

"Isn't that what you've done?" Bella asked not unkindly.

Jasper didn't answer right away. He didn't look at her, moving his fingers over the screen in front of him, mindlessly pairing up tiles. "That wasn't how it was supposed to be, you know?" he said softly. "It wasn't that I gave up any dreams to marry Alice. We both had dreams. We knew that...starting a family as young as we were... it was going to be hard. But we were willing to work hard and work together."

"But then, why not realize your dreams after she was gone?" she pressed, honestly curious. When Jasper looked at her, one eyebrow arched in bemusement, she apologized quickly. "I'm sorry. We weren't supposed to be talking about this."

"No, it's fine. I just can't imagine why you're interested," he admitted.

Bella shrugged, looking at the screen. "It just seems like you're wasted on this town...and in your job. You know I have no problem with police officers - my father's one. But it seems like a waste of your mind."

Jasper gaped, a little shocked by her answer, and Bella kept her eyes studiously trained on the mahjong tiles on the screen. He chuckled to himself, trying to remember her original question. "I don't know why, really. At first, when I was sure she would remember and come back, I was just holding up my part of the bargain. I worked hard. I bought a house that would be great for a small family. The way we had figured it - Alice was going to go to school and take care of the baby, with her parents and my parents help. Then I was going to get to go to school while Alice worked.

"But then, of course, she never came back. A few years passed while I waited...and then my dad got sick. Then there were endless doctor visits, hospital stays...helping my mom out with the house and all that," he trailed off, a forlorn expression coming over him as he remembered.

Wanting to comfort him, Bella reached out without thinking, stroking his hand. Jasper looked down, watching her fingers move over him and resisting the urge to flip his hand over to hold hers. Unconsciously, he leaned in, his voice getting lower as he continued. "My father passed away about a year and a half ago now. My mother moved to Florida and … I'm just here, I guess." He laughed again, humorlessly. "Wow, it's a little pathetic to hear out loud."

"It's not pathetic," Bella countered quickly. "Life just happens sometimes. I understand that. I mean, look at me. I really haven't had any challenges to overcome - not like you have anyway. And I've been working at a job that I can't stand, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I still don't have an answer. Now that's pathetic."

"No it isn't," he murmured, realizing belatedly that he was staring at her lips. "Edward told me, yesterday, that you two met because you were both volunteering on the Rape help line on campus. He says you still volunteer there."

"I do. I volunteer a number of places, actually," Bella confirmed, wondering where he was going with this.

"Sometimes it's not about what you do to earn a living... it's about what you do with your life as a whole that counts," Jasper concluded.

They had, in the course of their conversation, leaned in so close together that their noses nearly brushed then. Somehow, the proximity was not awkward. Rather, it almost seemed like too much space existed between them. Bella could see in his eyes a hunger she instinctively recognized. He wanted to kiss her.

She found that she wanted to let him.

For one, two, three moments they froze.

Then, Jasper closed his eyes, forcing himself to turn away from her. He breathed in slowly through his nose, trying to reorient himself.

"You really haven't seen anyone seriously since Alice?" Bella blurted without thinking, needing to fill the silence between them.

Jasper's head snapped to her, not quite sure he'd heard correctly. "What? Haven't you already asked me that?"

"Sorry... it's just that it's not hard to see that the single ladies around here are fans of yours. Why wouldn't they be," she chuffed. "You're not like me, you know? You're a little bit of a romantic. I don't see you as..." she trailed off, realizing belatedly what she was about to say. She was going to say that he didn't seem like the one night stand kind of guy, and she couldn't imagine that he hadn't had sex since Alice had been gone. But that wasn't any of her business and way too personal besides. She shook her head, laughing at herself. "You know what... can we start over? Just blame it on the alcohol and forget I said anything?"

All too glad to steer the subject away from that can of worms, Jasper asked her an inane question about what kind of movies she was interested in.

As the night wound down they found themselves reluctant to part, but as they were not on an official date, neither of the pair could think of a good excuse to stay. Reluctantly, Jasper drove Bella back to the Miller Tree Inn.

"Thank you for tonight," he said sincerely as he walked her to the door. "You were right. I needed the break."

She smiled at him, her eyes soft even in the weak light. "I had a good time. You're good company."

They both lingered, out of excuses to stay in each others company.

"You were right," Jasper said suddenly, just as Bella was about to turn away.

"What?" she asked, turning back.

"Earlier, at the bar when you asked about other people?" Jasper sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, looking anywhere but her. "Two years ago, there was a woman. Maria. She and I had a ... thing going for a while. For the first time since... since Alice, I was happy with someone."

He took a deep breath, looking up at the stars. "We had been seeing each other for almost half a year when she started asking a lot of questions about Alice - specifically if I was ever going to get a divorce. I got defensive. I broke it off with her without a second thought. I never even thought to regret it." He looked down, shaking his head before looking back to Bella. "What does that say about me?"

They looked at each other for long moments. Bella stepped back down to Jasper's side. "It was hard for Alice too, you know... to think about being with someone else? But sometimes, you've got to learn to take what you want, Jasper. When you can have it."

He stepped closer to her. The chill in the night air seemed to fade, and Bella's face grew hot as Jasper's eyes took her in from her toes all the way up, stopping at her eyes. Even in the darkness of the evening, they were wide and alive. "Take what I want?" he echoed.

Bella nodded, finding that she had forgotten how to use words.

He took another step toward her, leaning down and kissing her. In the same instant, his hands went to her waist, pulling her up against him - taking exactly what he'd wanted all night.

A/N: TwilightMundi is SUCH a hero. My betas are laid up - one of them having just given birth and the other just very ill (I know right? How dare they.) - and she offered her beta services of excellence. Thank you darling!

Incidentally, sorry about the delay in updating. I got sick and it's horrendously difficult to concentrate when you have cold as bad as this one is. Ugh. But I'm getting over it. It shouldn't be as long before the next update.

Hit the button! Curse me out for leaving it there if you want. I know. It's evil. It's all about the pacing dudes.