All things Twilight belong to Stephanie Meyer

A/N - Alright so I didn't quite keep my promise for a quick update. Unfortunately real life decided to kick my ass the last few weeks. To those that have been following this story, thank you for your patience! Not once have I received any sort of nastiness for my at times slow updates, you are all awesome! Thank you for all of the reviews. I wish I had the time to answer each and every one. For those of you that have reviewed each and every chapter THANK YOU! You wouldn't believe how motivated it keeps me even when life is kicking my ass.

My beta Georgia Dawgette deserves HUGE thanks! She has an extreme amount of patience with me and I'm not so sure this chapter would be even near completion without her help and ability to motivate me.

Previously

"No more. I can't do this anymore Jasper, we can't do this anymore." Bella sounded resolved, as she shook her head.

Was this it? Had she finally reached that point where she decided being with me was just not worth the effort, worth dredging up old hurts, and creating new ones? Could I let her go now that I had a taste of what a life with Bella could be like? So many questions, none that I could to bring myself to ask. Instead I could only stand stiffly in front of her, my whole body once again rigid. I prepared myself for the blow of her saying goodbye.

BPOV

I was tired of feeling weak, and fed up with my entire life and feelings being wrapped up in Edward. Edward, Edward, Edward.............for too long everything I was, or wasn't had depended on him. This could not continue. Jasper and I could never move forward, or build anything together so long as this, as long as he was hanging over our heads. I'd reached my limit; I would not do this anymore.

"No more." I shook my head vehemently. "I can't do this anymore Jasper, we can't do this anymore."

I stalked across the kitchen, away from Jasper. The physical distance was an attempt to shield him from my volatile emotions. Obviously a vain attempt, seeing as the expression gracing his face could only be described as pure agony. I yearned to rush back in to his arms, to comfort him, but the only way I could do that was to shut it all off. The lack of emotions or feelings of any sort coming from me was no consolation to him though, as I'd discovered over the past couple of days. He found my 'emptiness', as he'd so aptly described it, to be just as disconcerting, if not more so than anything negative I might be feeling.

"Bella.......don't do this........" Jasper's voice cracked. "Please........." His ochre eyes were pleading with me.

I couldn't understand his response. How could he not want me to take control of my life again? Didn't he want us to be free of the secrets and lies hanging over our heads, over our entire relationship? This was no way to start our lives together. Couldn't he see that?

Then it hit me, literally and figuratively. A nearly debilitating sense of loss seemed to punch me in the stomach, one that couldn't even compare to what I'd felt when Edward had left me in the woods. It was only then that I realized how he had interpreted what I'd said to him. I'd told him I couldn't do this anymore. My god, he thought that by 'this' I had meant us?

The man standing across the room from me was not the Jasper I knew. His head lowered, eyes on the floor, arms limp at his side, shoulders hunched.......he looked defeated. I had to fix this!

I quickly moved to stand before him again, my hands pressed against his muscular chest. "Jasper, look at me." I pleaded.

Raising his head so that I could see his handsome face, I tentatively slid one of my hands up his chest, along his neck to rest on his square jaw. "Bella.......please." He whispered.

"It's not what you're thinking...........I didn't think........didn't mean......." I stumbled over the words as I lost myself in his eyes, so full of despair. "Never Jasper, never could I leave you." Jasper's icy hand enveloped mine resting against his face as he nuzzled his cheek further into my hand. "I have no life without you in it." I all but sobbed out the admission.

All of the anxiety and desperation that had permeated the room moments before vanished, only to be replaced with immense relief and an aura of what I could only describe as love. Before I could even register the movement, Jasper had his arms wrapped around me, our bodies melded close together and his face pressed into my hair. "Baby, I'm not even sure anymore how I existed before you." His normally smooth voice sounding hoarse with emotion. "I thought I was losing you."

"Never." I stated emphatically. "I will not ever leave you, so long as you want me." Although the subject of 'forever' and me being changed had yet to be broached by either of us, I had no qualms about pledging my forever to Jasper.

"I will always want you." Jasper whispered as his lips pressed against my own.

For now, his words were the only assurances I needed. Combing my fingers into his tangled, blonde curls I angled my lips against his, deepening the kiss. Feeling his tongue brush my lower lip I opened my mouth a fraction, granting him entrance. Jasper's tongue tangled with my own as his long fingers found purchase around my waist, pulling my body flush against his. His tongue and lips were beginning to elicit soft mewling and moaning sounds whenever he would pull away just enough for me to take a breath. It was as if we couldn't get enough of each other, each of us feeding off the emotions of the other. The intensity of the moment made every other time we'd touched pale in comparison, even the night his hands had explored all of me. This was more than just a physical connection; it was a reaffirmation of the immense bond between us.

All too soon however, our passionate impromptu make out session was brought to an abrupt halt, when we heard a slight "ahem" coming from the direction of the entryway between the living room and the kitchen.

Hesitantly, I turned my head towards the owner of the ahem, already knowing who I would see. Alice.........and cue the mortification. Instantaneously I could feel the heat radiating from my face, positive I was nearly glowing red. It was one thing for her to know I was intimately involved with her former husband; it was a whole other thing for her to see it up close and personal.

Alice of course, did not appear to be at all phased by what she'd walked in on, quite the opposite in fact. While I glowed red, Jasper continued to hold me close to his body while Alice stood in the doorway with a rather pleased smile plastered on her beautiful face.

"Shut up Alice." I mumbled before she could say a word, as I attempted to disengage myself from Jasper's arms. This proved to be a more difficult feat than I had anticipated. A deep chuckle emanated from him as I tried. As much as I wanted to be annoyed by it, I couldn't bring myself to feel anything but relief at hearing him sound happy, as opposed to the feelings that had plagued him only minutes before. The relief began to ebb somewhat as I realized that we had yet to discuss what I'd decided to do about Edward, as well as the details of Alice's phone call with him.

JPOV

Never in my existence had I experienced the kind of agony that I'd felt when I thought Bella was saying goodbye. If any doubt had existed in my mind that she was truly meant for me, that one moment, when I thought I'd lost her had completely eliminated any doubt from my mind. By the same token, I'd never before experienced the sweet relief that had washed over me when Bella had assured me she had no intention of leaving me, and that I had misunderstood her words. It was becoming apparent as the days passed that Bella was quite adept at provoking extreme emotions from me, both good and bad. Especially the good though. When she'd deepened the rather chaste kiss I'd initiated, all sense of why this wasn't the best time for us to be indulging in the physical aspects of our relationship seemed to fail me. Instead, I'd become engulfed by her scent, the feel of her warm pliant lips against mine, her soft and fragile body under my fingers, and the immense feelings of overwhelming love coupled with lust emanating from her.

The fact that we had yet to address what she had really meant by not being able to do this anymore, or that Alice was in the next room failed to hold any weight when my senses were so filled by Bella. Had it not been for Alice's timely 'ahem', I'm almost certain I would have ended up taking Bella for the first time in the middle of my kitchen. As frustrating as it was becoming, I was actually grateful for Alice's cock blocking. Bella, however, I don't think appreciated the gesture nearly as much as I did. I didn't need to be an empath to pick up on her embarrassment and utter mortification at being busted by none other than Alice. Of course, her first instinct had been to step away from me, but I was having none of that. There would be no more hiding what was between us, especially in my own home. So rather than allowing her to pull away, I locked Bella in my embrace while laughing at her attempt to struggle.

Bella gave up her vain effort to extract herself from my arms rather quickly, embarrassment giving way to impatience. The impatience I was certain stemmed from having to wait for Alice to say something, anything, about her phone call with Edward.

"Spill already Alice." I huffed, Bella's impatience obviously intensifying my own.

"I've bought you both some time. Edward is........well he's suspicious, that much was obvious. Though he doesn't know anymore more than, that we," She motioned between me and herself, "have been in contact with Bella in some way or another."

"So, Carlisle has been able to keep him out of his head?" I asked, relieved to have it confirmed that the man I considered my father, had not betrayed my trust.

"Mostly yes." Alice nodded her head.

There were things Alice wasn't saying, that much was apparent. You can't live with someone as long as Alice and I did and not be able to tell when something isn't being said. That being said, I also knew Alice would not keep anything from me that was paramount to Bella's well being. I would have to trust that whatever Alice wasn't saying, was more for Bella's benefit than not, and that she would eventually tell me.

"I want to tell him." Bella suddenly spoke up. "I can't keep waiting, and worrying that Edward will find out and how he will react." Her earlier statement was now starting to make sense.

"He has owned every emotion, every action, and almost every decision I have made since I was seventeen years old." Bella's emotions began to fluctuate again. I projected calm onto her while leaning down to place soothing kisses across her temple. "He doesn't get to own this, I want to be free." Bella's words accompanied her tucking her body in closer to mine.

As much as I wanted to stay in the bubble Bella and I had created for ourselves this weekend, I knew it wasn't possible. I could not, would not shelter her the way Edward had tended to, although the urge to do just that was at times overwhelming. Bella had seen and experienced enough in her short human life to have proved her capable of handling more than one would assume she could handle. There was however, one thing I could do for her. I could be the one to tell Edward and face the wrath and fury that would result. If there was one thing that I would never allow, it was for Bella to end up in the middle of the war that would ensue between my brother and I.

"I will tell him." I asserted while looking down at her tear stained face.

"No!" Bella wrenched her body away from mine to stand between me and Alice. I could feel the determination, and something akin to panic radiating from her. "This is my battle Jasper and I won't have you fighting it for me."

"Stop being so stubborn." I threw my hands up and raised my voice in frustration. "You have no idea how he is going to react. Darlin, you've seen first hand the damage we can do, yet still you insist on putting yourself in that kind of danger?" I was all but yelling at this point. Did she not realize what could happen if Edward became territorial, or worse if the hard fought control he'd mastered around her in the past slipped for even a moment?

"Edward would never hurt me." Bella's eyes darted between Alice and I before stuttering out the afterthought of, "physically anyway."

"Intentionally, no he wouldn't." Alice interjected. "But this admission, this uh situation could test his control Bella." Alice hung her head, and I knew without a doubt that this wasn't something she was only hazarding a guess over. She'd already seen the outcome of Bella facing Edward on her own.

"Alice?" My question hung unasked between us.

Alice stepped gingerly towards Bella and grasped her upper arms. "Bella I love you like a sister, and I realize you need to do this, in fact I encourage it." Alice took a steadying unnecessary breath, "But please, listen to Jasper. You cannot face Edward on your own; you must allow us to be there with you. The consequences of you doing this on your own would be too great Bella." The calm expression gracing Alice's delicate features did little to erase from my mind the look of horror that had flitted across her face a few minutes earlier

"Alright." Bella sighed, she hung her head momentarily before turning her gaze towards me and extending her hand out in my direction. "We will do this together." She agreed as I grasped her now clammy hand in mine.

"Thank you." I breathed in deeply, unaware that I'd been holding my breath.

I met Alice's eyes, reading the relief not only in their ochre depths, but also in the emotions she was giving off. I had a distinct feeling that whatever outcome Alice had seen when Bella decided to confront Edward on her own, had been devastating. I could only hope the outcome would be fractionally improved by her agreeing to us doing this together.

APOV

I don't think I had ever truly comprehended everything Bella had experienced since becoming part of our world, until she spoke of how Edward had essentially owned every aspect of her life since meeting him. I, better than any other member of my family, had seen how things between them had been. I had no doubt that Edward loved her, in his own way, and there was no question that Bella had been unequivocally and unconditionally in love with my brother. But.......I also had observed how Edward had controlled every aspect of their romance. There had been no equality. I hesitated to describe it as controlling, as everything he'd done had been to keep Bella safe, and her heart beating. However, Edward never truly understood that Bella had been more than willing to give up her mortal life, in order to spend eternity with him. It had perplexed me how he'd been perpetually willing to give Bella anything, except the one thing she wanted most. So yes, I could see how she would feel that Edward had owned everything about her for far too long.

The Bella I had witnessed in Jasper's arms when I'd inadvertently interrupted their, if I was being completely truthful, extremely passionate kiss in the kitchen, was not Edward's Bella. She no longer was the self conscious teenager of only a couple of years ago, but a confident young woman more than willing and able to express not only what she wanted in her relationship with Jasper, but her feelings for him as well.

Jasper and Bella were two of the most important beings in my life, and as strange as I'm sure it would be for many to comprehend, seeing them as I had, so wrapped up in each other, had been one of the best things I'd seen in a very long time. I know Bella was having a hard time understanding how I was okay with their relationship, and I could only hope that with time, she would begin to see things the way I did. Jasper was more than my former husband; he was the one being in the world that knew me like no other. He also was never meant to be mine in the way that he was so obviously hers. I hope that one day she will be able to trust in my happiness for them.

I had told Jasper that this needed to be done. That Bella would need to face not only her past with Edward, but the man himself if they were ever to be free to pursue a life together. So why now that Bella was onboard was a sense of dread settling over me? Naturally, I'd seen glimpses of how the situation would play out. Bella would have her work cut out for her, Edward was not going to let go easily. But the visions that played through my mind when Bella announced that she wouldn't have Jasper fight her battles for her, that this was something she had to do, were unfathomable. If she persisted in doing this on her own, we would lose both of them.

Wringing my fingers together, while my gaze drifted back and forth between the couple in front of me, I felt the dread turn to panic. I couldn't let this happen. It would destroy completely our now only fractured family, and the fall out would be something Jasper would never be able to come back from.

Attempting and miraculously succeeding in maintaining a facade of calm, I explained to Bella that although Edward would never intentionally harm her physically, the fact remained that at any time his baser instincts could override the humanity he worked so hard to maintain.

"Alice?" My name spoken as a question from Jasper, asked me what he couldn't in front of Bella. No other words were needed though; I knew he was asking if I'd seen what the effects of Bella's decision would be.

It was surprising how easy it was to convince Bella to agree not to confront Edward alone once I stood before her, my hands gently grasping her arms; my eyes pleading with hers to let this stubborn notion go.

Relief was a mild and completely inept description of what I felt when my vision changed, the utter destruction of everything dear to me no longer imminent.

BPOV

I sat on the edge of the bed, dressed in flannel grey and pink plaid pajama pants and matching grey spaghetti strap tank top. The weakness and fear I'd felt earlier was all but gone; I felt strong and more sure of what I wanted now than I ever had.

We were going to tell Edward. There was no set time as to when yet, only that we would plan it around my classes which we'd determined wouldn't be at all difficult. Seeing as how my last class on Friday ended before noon, and I wasn't scheduled to have class again until Tuesday morning, every weekend was a long weekend for me. I was very grateful for how I had planned my schedule. One of the greatest things to come from my, our decision to tell him, was that the stress of waiting for him to find out on his own was dissipating. Granted, we wanted to be the ones to reveal the truth to him, but we no longer feared him finding out another way. The realization had been freeing.

My thoughts wandered to the emotionally charged afternoon that had occurred. After things had been settled, Alice had taken it upon herself to decide that Jasper and I needed time alone; she had said we needed to decompress. I'd immediately had an immense amount of guilt that she felt the need to leave Jasper and I alone when she'd essentially just gotten here.

In typical Alice-like fashion, she'd dismissed both me and Jasper when we'd urged her to stay, and had insisted I stop being absurd when I'd apologized profusely for the drama that had interrupted our reunion. She had then gone on to maintain that her inner diva was all but screaming for a stay in a five star hotel after being holed up in the wilds of Alaska for so long, and that she already had reservations made at The Ritz Carlton. Alice had giggled when I'd asked her why in the world she'd need a hotel room that she wouldn't sleep in.

"Silly Bella, sometimes a girl just needs to be surrounded by a little luxury." Had been her exact words.

After promises that we would see each other tomorrow, and spend the last day before I had to go back to class together, Alice left for the evening. The events of the day had done little in the way of provoking my appetite for food, but at Jasper's urging I'd prepared myself a small salad for dinner while he took a moment to call Peter to offer him a cliff note explanation of what had taken place, as well as begging off the offer of Peter and Char paying us a visit. Jasper had explained that neither of us were in the frame of mind for it, and really just desired a quiet night together. If I didn't think about it too hard, I could almost picture us being a typical couple spending a Sunday evening at home together. Unfortunately, my aptitude for over thinking.....everything didn't allow for that particular fantasy to stick around too long in my mind.

And this is how I now found myself perched on the edge of Jasper's bed, waiting while he finished his shower before we settled into our night of 'togetherness', as I was internally dubbing it now. Hearing the spray of water in the shower cease, I was unexpectedly hit with a feeling of nervousness. For more than a few minutes now, the reality that only a door separated me from a gloriously wet and very naked Jasper had been playing havoc with my libido. This, coupled with the fact I had decided that I didn't want to wait any longer to belong to Jasper in every sense of the word, I was impressed with myself that I wasn't a very large vibrating bundle of nerves.

After coming to the conclusion that we would very soon be telling Edward about our relationship, I had decided that when the time came I wanted to go into it with Jasper and I belonging to each other not only emotionally, but physically as well. If I was to be completely truthful, there was a small part of me that wanted to go into the confrontation with Edward with there being solid proof that what Jasper and I had ran deeper than anything Edward and I had ever had together. However, a much larger part of me just simply wanted........him, wanted to show him how deep my love ran for him, wanted to take that step to merge our emotional bond with the physical.

The click of the bathroom door opening succeeded in not only distracting me from my thoughts, but also in increasing my nervousness to a nearly insurmountable degree. The sight that I beheld when I raised my eyes to look at the man who exited the steam filled room overwhelmed me completely.

Jasper........perfection......his blond curls falling in wet disarray around his handsome face, drops of water still dripping down his broad shoulders, trailing along the pale skin of his chiseled chest, the sparse trail of fair hair below his navel, leading into the towel which hung loosely around his narrow hips where a very obvious V only accented his perfectly formed abs. Not even the crescent shaped scars that were visible across his chest, shoulders and arms could detract from his appeal. It was the complete opposite in fact, they only served to enhance the ruggedness that contributed to his appeal. My mouth went dry, and I couldn't be completely certain as to whether my jaw hadn't hit the floor. Jasper smirked, and cocked his head to the side. There was not a doubt in my mind that he knew absolutely every feeling that went raging through me at the mere sight of him.

"Bella?" The deep timbre of Jasper's voice laced with a questioning lilt flowed over me, causing a shiver to run through me.

"Hmmhmmm?" It was as though I was suddenly unable to form a coherent thought. What was wrong with me? I'm an intelligent woman, capable of articulating myself so much better than a mumbled 'hmmmhmmm. Besides, this wasn't a new development, I'd already seen him with less on than the towel that was currently gracing his slim hips.

"You okay darlin'?" He drawled.

"Never better." I answered.

Damn him, he knew exactly what he was doing to me. Cocky empath!

"Alright, if you're sure." Jasper shrugged his broad shoulders before walking to his dresser to dig out a pair of pajama pants.

The urge to chuck one of the many pillows piled on the bed at his back was nearly overwhelming. That is, until, with his back still turned to me he dropped the towel from around his hips. Bending forward slightly he began slipping his pajama pants up his muscled legs. I couldn't help the slight groan that escaped my lips, a groan he'd no doubt heard. My suspicion was all but confirmed when he seemed to take his sweet time sliding the cotton material up his legs.

The man was maddening! Between the plethora of emotions I was throwing off, and the lack of control I seemed to have over my physical reaction to him, there was no way he was in the dark as to what I wanted. I shouldn't have been surprised. More than once Jasper had insisted that everything we did would be at my pace. The ball was in my court, and he was no doubt waiting to see what I would do with it.

A/N - Next chapter things will FINALLY heat up.......promise!