Chapter Eight - Confrontations

I shot out of the house and headed north at top speed, whipping out my cell phone and calling Rose. I told her I was running and would meet the family in Ketchikan, and she promised to have everybody stop and hunt when they reached that point. I knew at my top speed it was going to take me close to three hours to meet them there, but I could travel at least twice as fast as their usual road speed, not even counting the ferries they needed to use with the vehicles. The ferries would slow them down enough that I should easily be able to catch them in that amount of time, and the Tongass National Forest was a favorite hunting spot for the Cullens due to the sheer size of the forest, the remoteness, and the large population of bears and other wildlife.

Once I hit the outskirts of the forest, I called Rose again and narrowed in on her coordinates. I quickly caught up to her and Emmett and went with them to track down the rest of the family.

"Jasper!" Carlisle exclaimed in surprise upon seeing me. "How did you catch up with us so quickly? You must have arrived right after we left."

"No, actually I was running," I admitted.

"But what about your things?" Esme wondered. "Didn't you want to bring anything with you?"

"Oh, that's okay," Alice dismissed Esme's concern. "I can just buy him some more things. I don't mind, though I think it's only fair for him to go with me, since it's his fault he doesn't have anything to wear now."

I frowned. "That won't be necessary, Alice. I'll be heading back to the house and my things after this meeting. I just didn't want to wait before talking to you and felt some of it couldn't be handled over the phone."

Rose growled, scowling heavily at me. "Jasper, you're being so selfish. You know Edward doesn't want you there and left you a note to be gone by noon. Even if you run back now, you're going to miss the deadline. Do you think you're the only one who would have preferred to stay in Forks? This whole thing is your fault anyway. Where do you get off making it worse?"

I growled back menacingly, and my tone made her take a quick step back, holding her arms up, palms out, in a gesture of surrender. "This is NOT my fault, and I'm tired of everyone blaming ME for it. If you want to point fingers, there are a lot more worthy scapegoats you should be considering. How about the little psychic here? Any of the rest of you wonder how she could miss a simple paper cut - something that doesn't involve any actual decision making?"

I felt the shock and recognition in the family, as well as the dismay, hurt, and sense of betrayal coming from Alice, as all eyes came to rest on her questioningly.

"Jasper!" she whimpered. "How could you?"

"How could I? How could you?" I demanded. "You're perfectly willing to let me carry the blame when you knew damn well she was going to cut her finger on that gift you gave her."

"What?" came the cries of outrage from the family. "Alice!"

"Yeah, she fully expected it to happen, had seen it in a vision. Only in her original vision, I had hunted, just like I tried to do. Unfortunately, this time she stopped me from hunting, so her little vision didn't pan out the way she expected. Edward was supposed to be the one to lose control, not me. Edward was gonna bite her, and we were gonna drag him off of her and away from the house, like y'all did to me. But he was gonna bite her neck, and by the time he was rational enough to talk and make decisions, it was gonna be too late to stop the change. That's what Alice saw in her vision that she didn't tell any of us about. That's what she was expecting to happen that night. You want to talk about selfish, how about we talk about Alice's little plan which wouldn't have given us any time to prepare a cover story or a body, while Charlie knew full well she was at our house, and Bella hadn't had time to say goodbye or make any last minute arrangements to settle her affairs. Not to mention how it would have affected Edward to have changed her by accident just because he couldn't control his bloodlust around a little paper cut. You think he's acted badly when I was the one who snapped, and Bella wasn't even bitten, just imagine how he'd be behaving if Alice had gotten her way."

"I can't believe you would do that, Alice," Rose grumbled angrily. "Why would you think that was a good plan? How could you blame Jasper, when he wouldn't have lost it, if you hadn't called him back every time he tried to get away to hunt?"

"I can't believe Edward would have lost control and actually bitten her," Carlisle murmured. "Are you sure about that, Alice?"

She nodded, not daring to meet his curious and disappointed gaze.

"I'm not surprised. He wouldn't be able to be around Bella at all if I wasn't always absorbing his bloodlust for him," I remarked. Suddenly, all eyes were on me.

"Absorbing his bloodlust?" Carlisle questioned.

I nodded. "How do you think he's been able to be so close to her? How do you think all of you have been able to tolerate her presence in the house so easily? I stay back when she's there for a reason. The way I absorb the bloodlust of all six of you on top of my own makes it damn painful to be around her. Edward's the worst though, since she's his singer. Hell, when he's not around for whatever reason, I don't even notice the burn at all. His bloodlust is just that strong. I've had to hunt like crazy ever since she came into our lives. You should have seen how many coyotes and jackrabbits I had to drain in Phoenix after stopping Edward from killing Bella while he was sucking out the venom. If I hadn't been taking his thirst from him as fast as I could, he never would have stopped in time. You all think I'm the weak one, but ever since I joined this family, I've been making your lives easier by taking on some of your thirst for you, each and every one of you, including Carlisle, though his tends to be minuscule. So every day I carry the thirst of seven vampires while you all only have half the thirst you would have without me. I was doing really well until Bella came along and sent Edward's thirst through the roof. I even got used to that though over the past few months. So, I don't want to hear any more bullshit about me having weak control or how this leaving was my fault."

I looked around and notice I had thrown my family for a total loop. None of them knew the truth of my struggle, not even Alice. I wasn't sure why none of them had ever even considered the idea. I mean, I was an empath after all. Then again, they had all grossly underestimated the power of my gift all these years. I was glad now that I had kept that little ace up my sleeve. It may well come in handy if there was something shady going on with our other two gifted members.

"I'm sorry, Jasper," Carlisle apologized. "I never realized. Why didn't you tell us before?"

"Damn, dude," Emmett protested, as he thought about what my confession meant. "You mean, every time you slipped it was because of us? Because we hadn't hunted like we should have and couldn't control our own bloodlust, so you controlled it for us? By taking it on yourself? So, all the times you've been blamed and lectured and belittled, it was really our fault? And you just took it, so we wouldn't feel bad? Damn, dude." Emmett was shaking his head. "No wonder you're tired of taking the blame for shit. I would be too. In fact, I would've told everyone decades ago. Wait a minute. You can't tell me Edward didn't know this shit. He would have heard it in your head. He would have heard you thinking about our thirst levels and known you could feel it. How could he not say anything to the rest of us? We could've been helping you by hunting more often ourselves to reduce your burden."

I smirked. "Let's just say the golden boy isn't anywhere near as controlled as he'd have you all believe. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to absorb his anger and irritation in school, especially since Bella came along, to keep him from snapping and killing some boy for his perverted thoughts. He wouldn't be able to pull off the saintly holier-than-thou attitude he loves so much if the rest of you knew how much I've had to help him control himself. I lost count of the number of times his anger alone nearly led him to expose us. Mike Newton, for one, is damn lucky to be alive, considering the number of times Edward has been secretly plotting his imminent demise."

"You mean Edward knew?" Carlisle exclaimed, disturbed by this revelation.

I shrugged. "Yep. He never came out and said it, but he would always interrupt me any time I went to tell the rest of you, and his emotions were pleading. It was obvious he was begging me not to mention it, though it took me a while to truly understand why. He wanted me to continue being the scapegoat for the family, so everyone else could feel better about themselves."

"Oh, Jasper, I'm so sorry!" Esme cried, grabbing me into a hug. The others, except for Alice, all apologized and hugged me as well. Alice just watched with an air of discomfort. I wondered then if she had known as well. Of course! She must have seen it every time he made the decision to explain the true reason for his struggle to the rest of the family.

"You knew! All this time, you knew," I accused Alice. "Yet you still had the nerve to berate me and act like I was weak. How could you?"

Alice began wringing her hands nervously as the family's eyes turned to her with surprise and disgust. Her eyes were imploring for us to believe her. "It was for the best. For the family."

"Insulting me, lying about me, and undermining me was for the best for the family?" I demanded. "How so?"

"You would have left," She confessed. "You would have returned to Peter and Charlotte. Then the rest of us would have started making slips of our own and feeling guilty. Edward would have slipped. I would have slipped. Emmett would have slipped. More innocent human lives would have been lost, not to mention more risks of exposure. We needed you to stay for the good of the family."

"So you sacrificed me, let me carry all the guilt and remorse, rather than sharing it equally?" I sneered.

She nodded emphatically. "You're stronger than we are. You could handle it, and it would have destroyed us."

"I guess you understand now why I can't leave Edward alone with Bella. Who knows what might happen if I'm not there to keep him from losing control of his thirst," I explained. "I'd better go ahead and start back. I don't want to be late. I'll stay with her and keep her protected until we're all reunited again."

"You can't do that!" Alice immediately protested. "Edward specifically wanted us all gone!"

I rolled my eyes. "Like I care. Tell me, did you all write letters to her for Edward to deliver?" They all nodded. "Did he promise to deliver them?" Nods all around again. I scoffed. "He was lying. He doesn't have any intention of giving them to her. He intends to go with his first plan of not allowing any of you to say goodbye. She's going to think you abandoned her without a word."

Esme gasped, her hand to her mouth in horror. "No, Edward wouldn't do that! That's . . . that's just . . . cruel!"

"Why are you doing this, Jasper?" Alice growled, annoyed. She had her hands on her hips. "Why are you trying to turn the family against Edward?"

I raised my eyebrow in challenge. "I'm not, Alice. I'm merely telling the truth. Edward himself was the one who made those choices. If those choices turn the family against him, then he only has himself to blame."

"Why do you think he isn't going to deliver our letters?" Emmett asked, troubled. He was pacing and clenching his fists, trying to deal with the overwhelming emotions that had been erupting throughout the meeting.

"I could tell he was lying at the family meeting. His emotions clearly depicted his deception. Alice would have known too, if she'd been checking up on him with her visions. Go ahead and check, Alice," I demanded. "Look and see how he intends to break up with her and whether or not he gives her your letters."

Alice sneered at me. "I don't take orders from you, Jasper Hale. Now, I insist you stop all this nonsense. You're just stirring up trouble. I gave Edward my solemn promise not to watch Bella's future anymore."

"Well, break it," I demanded, my fierce gaze locked with hers. "Look it up now!"

"No!" she snapped, folding her arms across her chest defiantly.

I stared at her in disbelief. "You're refusing to honor my request? My command? You're choosing to support your brother over your own husband? You really won't look and see how he intends to break Bella's heart, not even for her sake?"

She frowned and shook her head emphatically. "Edward needs me right now, and I will not let him down. I gave my word not to look for Bella's future, and I intend to keep it."

I had worded my questions the way I had for a reason, though I could tell by her emotions Alice hadn't caught on to it. Carlisle sure had. The rest were instinctively disturbed by the words, but didn't have the same realization Carlisle did. Carlisle was the only one who'd spent time around 'real' vampires in their natural setting. He'd kept them sheltered from so many aspects common to most of the vampire world. When Alice replied the way she did, I met Carlisle's horrified gaze. Yep, he knew what it meant alright. He grabbed onto Esme for comfort, both for himself and for what he knew would come next.

"Alice Cullen, you've been bullshitting me for the past fifty years. You are not my soul mate, and I find it hard to believe you're completely unaware of that fact," I calmly accused.

AN: Yeah, I don't think he was all that surprised by that point. The rest of the family? Find out their reaction next chapter, also their reaction to Edward's deception and betrayal.