I know it's been awhile. Rest easily, all. I'm not abandoning any of my fics. I've just been busy lately and no ideas have been flowing that freely. I'd rather wait until they came rather than post a forced-out chapter that's going to suck.

And please, no more PMs asking me to update. It'll come when it's ready. I'm not giving up, and neither should you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, any of the characters in Twilight, or anything related to the books and/or movies. If I did, I would be way too busy- doing dirty things with the Cullen boys- to sit down at my laptop and write this story. The scenes and general plot ideas that I did borrow from Stephenie Meyer have been revamped to fit my story.

Learning to Live Again

Chapter Fifty-Two: The End of the Line

Jasper POV

"I'm so glad to see you join the party! I was surprised that you didn't show up first actually," Victoria said as she inched closer to Bella, making sure to stay between us. I walked into the small room, crouched and ready to attack. Edward came in behind me, standing tall in order to take in the situation.

"I'm here now, and that's all that matters," I said with a hiss. "Get the hell away from her!" I took a step forward, standing next to Jacob. He was tense and I could feel his anger growing; he was getting ready to phase back when needed.

Apparently Victoria was a complete idiot, because instead of listening to my words she grabbed Bella's arm and pulled her toward herself instead. Before I could lunge forward, Victoria had a hand grasped around Bella's neck and another grasped around her arm.

What's she thinking, Edward?

"You know you're at the end of the line now, Victoria," Edward said out loud. He was looking into her eyes, still standing tall and confident. I wish I could feel that way right now. My only concern was to get Bella out of here safely and run away with her where no one would ever find us again.

"Your only confidantes are either dead or have turned against you. Your original plan to kill 'my mate' has been uprooted, because Bella and I aren't even together anymore. Instead of just letting your bitterness go, you decided to try another angle but it's not holding up quite the way you would expect it," he antagonized. My brother did make me laugh sometimes. Very rarely.

"What do you know about anything, Cullen?" she hissed at him, tightening her grip on Bella's neck. I heard Bella whimper softly, holding back tears in her eyes as she looked at me. She mouthed 'I love you' to me as if it were the last time she'd get to say it. "You're living in a fantasy world where humans and vampires can interact with no repercussions. That's not the truth, you need to know that. They're food for us, that's how it's always been."

"That's how it is for you, but we've learned differently. You don't understand; that's fine. We don't care about your opinions, but we do care for Bella. We're not going to let you harm her," Edward continued. It was like he was trying to talk her down from a ledge. Who cares about her?! Just get Bella!

I was done waiting. "Look, bitch," I started, making sure to draw Victoria's attention to me. "There are two ways to do this, hard and easy. You can either hand over my girlfriend now without a fight, and I'll make it quick and painless for you. Or you can put up a fight, and I'll enjoy slowly torturing you for any pain that you've caused her." My voice was coming out in a growl, and I could sense fear from Bella. I didn't know if it was fear of Victoria or me. It wasn't important right now; we'd deal with that later.

"You know that I'm not scared of you," Victoria purred. Her grip loosened on Bella, though. She was now only holding her by her arm. If Jake and I could tackle Victoria then Edward could get Bella safely out of here. With the grip Victoria had, it could break Bella's arm. I didn't want her to get hurt because of my impatience.

"She's had worse, Jasper," Edward whispered for my ears only. I shrugged. Neither of us wanted to hurt her, but it was the lesser of two evils. If only we could know what she was thinking. Or at least tell her to get out of the way while we attacked.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Victoria antagonized. "You're all crouched and ready to attack. If you're so sure that I won't get out of this alive then come and get it," she said without a waiver to her voice. She knew this was the end of the road. This made her even more dangerous, because if she was going down then she would want to take someone down with her.

Bella was the closest to her, so she was the obvious choice. Edward and I were faster than the red-head, but neither of us willing to play roulette with Bella's life. If she didn't make it out of this, I didn't expect us too either. There was no way either of us could live in a world that didn't include Bella Swan.

"Quite the predicament you're in, isn't it?" Victoria continued to taunt us. "You want to come after me but at what price? I could kill her before you got to her… or worse." Victoria pulled Bella closer to her, still only keeping a grip on her arm. Bella looked up at her with bitter hatred in her eyes. I knew that her mind was working, and I was terrified of what she was going to do.

"If you're going to kill me, just do it already. I'm sick of listening to your whining," she said steadily. Her voice was neither antagonizing nor fearful, she was just resigned. Victoria snapped.

As the red-headed vampire raised her arm to smack Bella across the face, Jacob lunged at her from behind in wolf form while Edward slinked in from the other side and spun Bella out of Victoria's arms right after her hand made contact with Bella's cheek.

"Get her out of here! We'll take care of Victoria," I whispered harshly to my brother. I didn't wait to see him take Bella away. Jacob had managed to pin Victoria to the ground, a hard feat even though he was over twice her size. She was struggling underneath him, trying to find a way out of the mess she had brought upon herself.

"Let her up, Jacob. She's mine," I said with an even voice. He turned to look at me, and I could see the questions in his eyes. "Block the entrance just in case she gets past me… but we won't have to worry about that."

Instantly, Jacob was on his feet- or paws, I guess- and was pacing back and forth between the two exits to the small clearing we were in. She sprang up off her back but didn't have enough time to stop my attack. I was in front of her and had a grip on her shoulders before she could even hiss at me. And just like that, the world stopped.

I let myself be overtaken by my anger and my basic instincts. I head-butted her at the same time that I yanked on her arms, pulling them from her body. I tossed them to the side and wrapped my arms around her head, pulling and yanking. She let out a blood-curdling scream as I finished dismembering her. Jake- being the good puppy that he was- had changed back into human form and had managed to get a fire started in the small clearing.

I tore into Victoria's body while Jacob gathered the other pieces and threw them in the fire. Once we were finished, we both just stood back watching the flames burn her remains, making sure that she was history.

"Have you gotten any further reports from your pack?" I asked, needing to know that this was over.

"Seth told me that our families managed to get all the newborns taken care of with minor injuries. Sam got bit pretty badly while he was looking out for Leah for me. That only managed to piss her off, because she can take care of herself. Cameron took a few bites as well when he was trying to lure some newborns away from Alice. I guess she got pissed as well, since she had warned him not to intervene. Those two would actually be friends if they weren't so stubborn," Jake teased.

"I'm glad no one was hurt worse," I said. The flames were dying down now, but I couldn't make myself move. All I wanted was to run to Bella and hold her tight, making sure she was okay. I wasn't that naïve, though. While she was physically unharmed, she wasn't okay. She would never be okay. Sadly, I was beginning to understand Edward's original apprehensiveness regarding bringing her into our family.

I would never be as stupid as my brother and leave her, but I didn't want to put her in danger either. I needed to know that there was no one else out there that would be wanting to hurt her, take her from us. I just didn't know where to start. The only solution I could see was to turn her, and I knew that she wasn't ready for it. She thought she was, but I knew better.

"Stop over-thinking everything and just go to her, Jasper," I heard my brother's voice behind me. "She needs you right now. She's at home, crying on Rosalie's shoulder. She made me come check on you to make sure that you were okay," he explained.

That was all I needed. I got up and went to find my girl.