Well this week...for the first time in almost 3 years, snow has finally settled in Britain!...well had, it had all melted by midday.
If any of you guys want an image of Peter's dog, I saved a link of the picture on my profile page so check it out.
Disclaimer: I do not own twilight
Peter's POV
Now that Jasper and I have gotten to know each other after a few more sessions with him, I decided that today, I would let Jasper meet my wolf-like dog, Chester. I wanted to see how he reacted when he saw my dog. Would he act like a young child would and pet it? Or would his animal instincts kick and and view Chester as dangerous? He would either run for the hills or attack. I felt confident that that wasn't the case though. Jasper had opened up to me about his view on the wolves in the forest and told me how man was more dangerous. Perhaps he would get a little playful. Not a childlike playful, the kind of playful a wolf pup would get with the rest of it's pack. Oh man, that would be cute.
I knocked on the Cullen's door and waited for an answer. I had informed Carlisle that I was bringing my dog today so to avoid Jasper feeling in danger, Carlisle said that his siblings were keeping him entertained in his play room otherwise Jasper would have been eager to run out of the door and I didn't want to risk any bad reaction from Jasper when he spotted Chester. Carlisle opened the door and looked at me then down at Chester.
"Wow. You were right when you said he looked a lot like a wolf" he commented.
"Yeah. He's pretty trained too so I can leave him out here without him running off. Which I think would be best if he stays outside and we bring Jazz out here so that we can introduce him safely" I advised.
Carlisle nodded in agreement. "Come in" he told me as he walked back into the house. Leaving Chester outside to venture the garden, I walked in and listened out for Jasper who had just started whining like a puppy .
"It's alright, Edward. He can come out now" Carlisle called.
As soon as that was said, Jasper was out of the door in an instant and rushed over to me but instead welcoming me with a cuddle like he usually does when I visit, he begun to sniff the clothes that I was wearing. He could smell Chester on me. Once he was finished with me, he begun to smell the air to figure out where the scent was coming from.
"Do you wanna meet my dog, Jasper?" I asked him.
His head instantly turned to look at me and grinned.
"Chester, here?" He questioned, innocently.
"Yeah, he's right outside" I replied enthusiastically.
Jasper rushed to the front door and waited for one of us to open it for him. I walked over and slowly opened the door and he rushed outside until he spotted Chester. Jasper stopped in his tracks and crouched down to the ground as he eyed my dog.
Chester wasn't paying attention as he was just sniffing the ground with curiosity. Jasper looked very wary, almost as if the slightest sound would cause him to run away.
"It's alright, Jasper. He's not going to hurt you" I assured, quietly.
His ears twitched as I spoke but that was the only response that I got from him. His eyes were too focused on Chester. Carlisle and I watched and waited very cautiously and eventually, Jasper took a few steps closer to my dog. Chester noticed Jasper moving towards him and took that as his cue to move closer, thinking that he was about to be petted.
Jasper stretched out one of his hands to touch Chester's nose but still able to keep a safe distance. Doing that, I was able to see Jasper's hand shaking a little; he was scared although he tried to hide it.
Chester sniffed Jasper's hand, appearing friendly which boosted Jasper's confidence so he shuffled a little closer, moving his hand to touch Chester's grey fur. He broke a smile just as he did so, already relaxing.
"He nice" Jasper commented.
"Yeah, he's very friendly. You can play with him if you want" I told him.
I walked towards Jasper and Chester and took out a small ball out of my pocket. Both of them spotted the ball and my dog backed away from Jasper.
"Watch this" I said as he waited with curiosity.
I threw the ball as far as I could and Chester bolted after it, causing Jasper to jump back in surprise and observed the way the wolf look alike ran. He seemed both surprised and confused when Chester caught the ball in his mouth and ran back over with it, waiting for it to be thrown again.
"Take the ball off him, Jazz. And then throw it as far as you can" I instructed.
Jasper seemed to debate whether to do so or not and I guess it made sense to somebody like him. The way Jasper see's it, the dog had a ball in his mouth and that makes it his; he was the one that caught it after all. And to Jasper, the rules were, steal an animals claim, ad be the one who pays the price for it.
In the end, Chester lost his patience and dropped the ball on the ground and waited for somebody to throw it again. Jasper looked at Carlisle, as if he was waiting for is approval and Carlisle knew this so he gave him a nod and an assuring smile. That was enough for Jasper so he cautiously walked towards the red ball, picked it up and threw it with all the strength he could muster.
Chester ran off in the direction the ball was heading, jumped up and once again, caught it with his mouth.
"Woah!" Jasper gasped in excitement as he looked back at me.
"He's pretty good, huh?" I said.
Jasper nodded in agreement. Deciding that he liked the game of fetch, he walked towards the dog again to collect the ball once more. Since all of Jasper's focus was on Chester, Carlisle walked a little closer to me.
"I've been meaning to talk to you, lately. I have some concerns for Jasper and I believe that you will be more of help than I would" Carlisle mentioned.
I turned to him, giving him my full attention, concerned for Jasper also. What was this about? Carlisle and I moved to sit on the nearby bench where Jasper could still see us if he wanted us but if we spoke quietly, he probably wouldn't hear us. Besides, he was too focused on Chester to listen in on us.
"What is this about, Carlisle?" I asked just as I sat down.
Carlisle looked at Jasper, seeing how relaxed and happy he seemed as he played with my dog; he even smiled at the sight but frowned and sighed when he looked back at me.
"He's been having nightmares lately. His first one started on Christmas eve but he's been having one at least twice a week ever since and at least half of those had caused bed wetting" he explained.
"If his nightmares have only just started then something has probably triggered a bad memory. Besides the nightmares, has Jasper's behavior had any negative change since he has been talking to me?" I asked.
"Well, after the first session he had, he appeared to be very quit, more skittish than usual and very clingy. He can be exactly the same after some of your sessions but other times, he appears as normal...well, as normal as he can be" Carlisle answered.
And I would put my money on it that the session where I focus on Jasper's past in the woods and try to get him to tell me more about these 'monsters' are the same days that his behavior changes around Carlisle and the times he appears 'normal' will be the sessions were I focus more on his new family.
"He's been telling me that the only thing that were dangerous to him were 'men with loud sticks, and it's clear to me that he's talking about hunters" I told him.
"I figured the same thing. We have to get to the bottom of this if we're gonna give him any relief. He's afraid of loud noises, he can't sleep at night, he's constantly guarding us from whatever he is looking out for in the woods. I'm trying to do my best to give him a normal life but with this torturing his mind, it's making it impossible for me to do that" Carlisle explained, expression some frustration.
It must have been hard for Carlisle, feeling like there wasn't much he could do and I, too, was doing all I could to help Jasper but the more I knew about the monsters who were scarring Jasper from the inside out, the more I can do to stop it from happening. The question is, what can I do to get him to open up?
"Have you tried talking to him about his nightmare?" I asked.
Carlisle nodded. "I have questioned him but he just gives me this look that is so terrified that I find it difficult to push him any further" he explained.
Carlisle looked back over to Jasper, probably trying to replace the thought of a scared Jasper to a happy one. I did too and I saw him now chasing Chester around to garden and the outskirts of the forest. That put a smile on both of our faces to see him so happy.
"I do have another idea but it might have a bad affect on Jasper" I stated.
Carlisle turned his gaze onto me, curious at what I was getting at.
"Going by what Jasper has described to me, I believe these hunters may have been laying down traps as well as using their guns. Perhaps if I were to show him pictures of these kind of things and I asked about them, he might tell me about them and a glimpse of what he went through" I suggested.
Carlisle's expression changed to a pained one and I knew that it was difficult to decide whether to do it or not. The best outcome would be to find out what traumatized him and ease his mental suffering whereas the worst outcome would be that it would bring back memories full force but he doesn't spill anything, not only that but his behavior around the family will completely change from a playful puppy to a hostile and untrusting animal and they'll be back to where they started.
"Do you think that it might work?" Carlisle asked, taking the idea in consideration.
"I say its a 50/50 chance. But if we try it, at least there is some chance of helping him" I told him.
Our attention on each other was interrupted by the sound of laughter which came from Jasper who was lying on his back, trying to hide the ball in his hand while Chester pinned him with his large paws on his chest.
"If there's a possibility that I could see him that happy everyday, I think you should do it" Carlisle mumbled without taking his eyes away from his newest son.
With that in agreement, I spent the next 20 minutes googling images and printed them off on the Cullen's computer. I had printed off images of commonly used guns during the hunting season, bow and arrows, bear traps and fox traps.
Once I had them printed, I walked back outside where Jasper was sitting with his back against Carlisle's chest on the ground and Chester was laying next to the two of them, panting.
"It looks like you worn him out, Jazz" I said as I walked up to the three of them.
"I tired" Jasper yawned.
It was only two in the afternoon but this must have been what Carlisle was talking about when he had told me that Jasper often takes naps during the day. In fact, he doesn't ever get one long sleep, it's all made up of small naps.
"I need to talk to you first, Jazz" I mentioned.
"Why" he whined as he fiddled with his father's sleeves.
"Jasper, you know you have to spend at least 1 hour with Peter every week. You still have time to spend and this talk is important" Carlisle told him, gently.
"Don't want talk" he mumbled as he hid his face in his fathers chest.
Carlisle changed his position and distanced himself from Jasper a little so that he could look him in the eye.
"I'm not giving you a choice here, Jas. You need this" he said a little more sternly.
Jasper furrowed his eyebrows, looking in my direction so that he could glare at me. He sighed and stormed passed me and back into the house to where I assume was his play room. I guess he had expected Carlisle to give into what he wanted.
"Don't push him too hard though. He's gonna hate me if all this session does is cause him more pain and I really don't want him distancing himself from us now" Carlisle admitted.
I gave him and assuring nod. "Don't worry. I'm a professional at talking to people with horrifying pasts. He may spend the next few days sulking about this but I can promise you that he wont push you away completely" I told him honestly.
Besides, sulking was part of being a child and if Jasper has been spoiled rotten ever since he has been living with the Cullen's, then he would obviously get grumpy when he realizes that he won't always get what he wants.
I found Jasper, as suspected, in his playroom where we usually talks. He glared as I walked in and I noticed that he was scribbling on the paper in frustration and anger.
"I'm not telling you anyfin" Jasper muttered.
I sat down cross legged in front of him, hoping to gain eye contact but he just hid his face by pressing his chin against his chest. It wasn't hard to guess that he had been crying. Not much, just a little. Of course he would; he had expected his father to back him up and accept that he didn't want to talk to me. And not only that but Carlisle was extremely soft with Jasper, maybe a little too soft so it annoyed him when he heard his father speak so sternly with him.
I didn't say anything back; instead I took out one of the many picture that I had printed and put one in front of him. This one had a picture of a shotgun. Jasper took one glance at the image placed in front of him before his whole body stiffened and he dropped his coloring pen. I could see his chest breathing in and out harder and harder, louder and louder and I could see that this was a beginning of a panic attack.
Just as I reached my hand out to grab the picture in hopes to calm him down, Jasper got up as fast as he could and ran out of the room, slamming the door shut. That was then followed by a sudden sound of screaming...really loud screaming.
This wasn't good.
I hadn't even imagined that kind of reaction from him.
What the hell won't he tell me?
I rushed to my feet and exited Jasper's playroom, hearing Carlisle's attempts to calm him down but they weren't working. He was trying to escape from the house but somebody had been smart enough to shut it in time.
He felt trapped and it was making him panic.
Honestly? I had no idea that was coming...I just kinda typed that and thought...wow
I love you guys by the way. Like seriously, I had over 20 reviews for my last chapter and when I first started writing, I got excited over 1 review.
So...give me some happiness...give me reviews!
And I just like to remind you guys to click on the links on my profile to get the image of Chester!