Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns it all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chpt 47 Peace in Our Time
BPOV
We head upstairs together, feeling like we're on the way to our own execution. As we enter the bedroom Rosalie an' Em slip out, hovering in the hallway beside Demetri who is also there to prevent any trouble.
Predictably The Major mans up immediately.
"Esme. I am so sorry. I wish there could have been another way."
She looks up at him, towering over her as she sits on the bed beside Lisa's prone form.
"I don't want to talk about it Jasper." She says quietly. "It's done and there was nothing either of us can do now to change it."
"Please Esme, I'm sorry but I need to understand . . . ."
"There will be no revenge Jasper." She says in a tired voice, cutting him off. "I understand your desire to protect Bella and the people you love, I know why you did what you did. Nursing a grudge won't bring my husband back, neither the one I fell in love with nor the one who caused all this pain, so what would be the point? Like you I only want to be left in peace."
The Major nods stiffly an' withdraws leaving me to settle on the other side of the bed.
Esme an' I watch Lisa suffer through her change in silence, the smell of Carlisle's venom in her body an uncomfortable reminder of how we came to be here.
My turn.
"Esme, I'm so sorry . . . ."
"Why?" She asks looking up at me. "What did you do? We left you, let Edward break your heart. You didn't make him miserable, he did. Neither of you stuffed him into boxes for months on end, Rutilio and Aro did that. And none of us are responsible for the fact that he wasn't mentally equipped to deal with it. If there was anyone to blame for that it was Carlisle.
His love for Edward always bordered on the irrational. He mostly indulged Edward's every whim, the doting father. He taught him courtly manners and gentlemanly behaviour and he encouraged his desire to absorb knowledge, but he never taught him anything about real life or what it really meant to be a man. And Edward never learnt, incorrectly assuming he already knew everything he needed to because he could read minds.
I don't blame you, or Jasper, for any of this Bella. I don't even blame Carlisle, somewhere deep inside he was a flawed man, for all the goodness on the surface.
I understand why you have done the things you've done. I wish with all my heart that everything had turned out differently but . . . ."
She breaks down, sniffling.
"Oh hell." She says eventually looking down an' gently stroking Lisa's hair. "I will miss him for the rest of my existence. But I won't follow him into either death or madness. I have a family and I have responsibilities. They need me as much as I need them and together we will get through this. We will live and love, and we will do it well."
"Won't it be difficult, without your mate?" I have to know, how she's going to do it, losing Jasper would kill me. "If anythin' happened to Jasper, I, um . . . ."
"Yes I can feel an ache, deep in my chest, but I think it will fade over time." She pauses for a moment to lean down an' gently kiss Lisa's forehead, soothing her suddenly agitated movements. "It isn't the same for me. I don't believe I was ever as deeply in love with Carlisle as you are with Jasper and the last year, with his behaviour changing and his manner becoming colder. I don't know. We would have always been mates but perhaps not always husband and wife. From everything I've seen and heard of you two I think you would feel the same way about losing him if you were humans with no mating bond."
"What will you do?" I ask.
"Stay here." She says firmly. "As long as the wolves allow it, it's a good place to raise a vegetarian newborn. We've been away and changed enough as a family for it not to seem to that strange. I'll just tell the locals we lost Carlisle and Edward in a car accident and wanted to return somewhere familiar to grieve."
"What about Alice?"
"She's a very rich widow now." Esme smiles, it's not much but I suppose it's a start. "I expect she will be doing a lot of travelling but she will always have a home here with us."
"We'll do anythin' we can to help you." I vow.
"I know you will dear." She reaches over an' pats my hand gently. "And I appreciate it. You have a family of your own now but I would like us to stay close, I feel like I failed you in a way and maybe one day you will let me try to make up for it."
A lump forms in my throat, how the hell did Carlisle end up with a woman like her? I have to look away, back down at Lisa who is moaning an' writhing gently.
"I will take care of her." Esme promises me, giving my hand a squeeze.
"I feel like she's my responsibility an' I should do it." I whisper. "But I don't know how or if she would even want anythin' to do with me when she knows the truth."
"You and Jasper, you have responsibilities of your own. Great responsibilities, for which you are entirely suited." She says gently. "Let me take this one, she needs a mother and if I am nothing else, I am a damn good mother."
I nod.
"Lil' sister!" Pete's voice rings through the house. "Shake a tail feather, the night's a wastin' an' we've got a long journey ahead of us."
"You'd better go." Esme says releasing my hand an' taking Lisa's instead.
I open my mouth to speak.
"No more apologising. We understand each other, that's enough."
In the hallway Em gives me a quick hug an' darts into the room to sit with Esme. Over Rosalie's head Demetri raises his eyebrow an' I shake my head slightly.
Grinning he winks at me an' flexes his fingers, pretending to throttle her.
I manage not to smirk. Just.
Here we go again.
"Rosalie. I am sorry about Carlisle."
"Don't be." She says. "He deserved it and I won't mourn him."
I nod but her tight eyes an' pained expression give her away.
"I still don't like you." She continues. "But I want you to know that neither Em or I blame you, or Jasper, for any of what's happened."
"Thank you."
She nods an' then follows Em into the bedroom.
Demetri offers me his arm an' I take it as we head downstairs.
"I am glad you are alive." He says simply.
"So am I."
"Neither you nor the Master will embark on a mission like this again without talkin' to me first." He growls, giving my arm a good shake. "Do you understand me Mistress?"
"I'm not goin' to get away from you for a very long time am I?" I ask as we reach the ground floor.
"No Mistress." He says struggling to raise a smile. "I nearly lost you, it will be quite a while before I regain my equilibrium from that particular experience."
And again.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be Mistress." He chuckles, handing me off to a waiting Jasper. "I will exact my revenge, plus interest, from Simon's skinny and ill-informed behind."
"Do I have anythin' to apologise to you for?" I ask my mate, looking up into his shining eyes.
"Not yet darlin'." He chuckles. "Let's go home, you need a bath."
"You're not exactly the cleanest vampire in the world either." I observe.
"Are you calling' me dirty?" He enquires, voice dropping a few octaves, eyebrows waggling.
I coil myself around him, pressing my body as close to his as I can.
I get a low growl in response an' his big hands drop down to grab my butt, holding me to him.
"Don't start that." Pete objects from the front door. "At least wait till we get home."
Moving such a large number of vampires across populated areas takes a lot of organising an' it almost another 48 hours before we're gathered in Jasper's office for what Pete's calling a debriefing. An' Char insists on referring to as cruel an' unusual punishment.
I try to concentrate as he drones on, I really do, but my tub is upstairs an' it's calling to me. Bella, Bella, come to me, soak in me, relax in me, let me take care of you. When it starts reminding me that there'll be room for Jasper too it's almost more than I can resist.
My mind drifts as I survey my family. My brother, who has taken to our new life as leaders like a duck to water. My sister who is revelling in all the activity an' the chance to poke her nose into the lives of the Guard. Simon who has rapidly become the brother I always wanted but now often wish I didn't have, perfection. And Demetri, I still don't know what pigeon hole to put him an' perhaps I never will, more than a brother but less than a lover, a source of constant guilt I no longer want to be without.
An' outside around us Elise, Nicholas, Sergio, Alfredo and the others. All family an' all here.
They constantly surround us, Jasper an' me. Fighting, bickering, training, gossiping an' loving. Yep, there's quite a lot of that goes on no matter that Pete would have everyone believe Jasper an' I are the only people in the world who ever have sex.
Rutilio is gone an' Carlisle, who we didn't even know was an enemy. How many more are out there? I guess we'll never know an' you could definitely go crazy worrying about it, I nearly did.
Its peace Jim, but not as we know it.
I used to love that song. There's Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow. There's Klingons on the starboard bow, scrape off Jim!
I put my hand over my mouth to stifle the giggles that come with the sudden memory of Charlie doing the actions.
Char looks at me curiously, desperate for any diversion from Pete's monologue but I shake my head. No way am I getting the blame this time.
Oh dear god, I need a bath, what's he going on about now?
" . . . . so with all the intelligence we have at the moment, an' we're startin' to put together a really good network, there isn't anythin' we really need to worry about at the moment . . . ."
Sighing I catch Simon's eye an' he winks. Char is cleaning her nails an' even Demetri's eyes are starting to glaze over.
" . . . . need to get to Russia an' sort out Ksenyia's . . . ."
"So what you're trying to say." Demetri interrupts eventually. "Is that we currently have nothin' to worry about?"
"Yes." Pete nods seriously. "What did that English guy say, peace in our time?"
Jasper throws his head back an' laughs.
"His name was Chamberlain." He snorts in amusement. "An' if memory serves me correctly he was a bit fuckin' wrong an' WWII broke out soon afterwards."
"That sounds very Whitlock appropriate." I mutter under my breath, making Simon snigger.
"Oh." Pete ponders scratching his head thoughtfully. "Ah fuck it, never mind, ya'll know what I mean. The Cowboy Coven advisory at this point is green."
"Nope, sorry." I snigger. "I still haven't got a clue what you're on about."
"Don't any of you fuckers ever watch the news?" He demands.
"No." Demetri observes dryly. "I am over a thousand years old an' immortal, what interest would I have in the televised news?"
"Well old man." Pete huffs. "For your information the Department of Homeland Security issue color coded warnings about threat levels, green is the lowest an' we're on it. Of course we need to talk about how we categorise all this shit an' deal with the intelligence as it comes in. In the human military we used to have a formal committee to . . . ."
I look over at Jasper, to see if he's as horrified by that prospect as I am, but find him staring intently at me an' ignoring Pete completely.
Dear god he's a beautiful man, it's almost painful to look at him an' my insides twist with love an' desire as my eyes drink him in. From the manky old cowboy boots propped up on his desk, along the lean jean clad legs, across his ripped t-shirt which partially exposes his pale but exquisitely formed chest, to the halo of gold hair that frames his perfect face.
He raises an' eyebrow an' his mouth twitches up at the corner.
With great difficulty I tear my eyes away from that mouth an' look into his dark golden eyes.
Whoops, Jasper coma.
He gets to his feet an' stalks towards me.
"Oh shit." Pete groans. "How are we ever supposed to get any work done with those two around? I give up, everybody out. Shoo, be back here at 9am."
I barely register the sound of the house clearing as if someone's called in a bomb threat, instead I part my lips in anticipation as Jasper's face descends slowly to mine.
Now we're home.
The End