She's got you high and you don't even know yet
She's got you high and you don't even know yet
The sun's in the sky, it makes for happy endings
You can't deny you want a happy ending

She's Got You High – Mumm-Ra

Bella entwined her fingers loosely with Jasper's as she pulled him towards the bar, hula skirt swishing as she brushed against an inflatable palm tree.

"They do this every year," she slurred into his ear, "it's like, totally traditional."

Jasper chuckled at her as she slurped her margarita messily through a straw, tipping his beer back and rubbing a hand, sticky from the bar, against his shorts.

Grabbing Bella around the waist, he steered her away from the bar. Catching sight of Jess in a corner, he gently tugged her towards her, depositing her on the seat next to Jess.

Bella tipped her head up to grin at him as she kicked off her shoes.

"I can't feel my gums," she laughed at him.

"I'm not surprised," Jasper chucked her gently under the chin, "you must have drunk your weight in tequila."

Jasper slipped away to the bathroom, rubbing a hand over his face as his other braced against the sink, staring himself down in the mirror. The smell of tequila was under his fingernails, he scrubbed them viciously, rubbing soap halfway up his forearm.

Mike came out of the cubicle behind him, bleary eyed.

"You alright, man?" he addressed Jasper as he pulled his fly up.

Jasper nodded tersely, splashing water on his clammy face as he watched his pupils dilate in the mirror.

"Here," Mike staggered over to him, "hair of the dog."

Mike pulled a hipflask out of his back pocket, silver and scuffed. Uncorking it he offered it to Jasper, who waved it away with a grimace.

"You sure?" Mike pushed it towards his face, "its Jack, thought every Texan loved that?"

14 years ago, Jasper is 10.

He could hear him before the front door even opened. Burrowing further underneath the covers, he clutched Grandma's sweater even closer. She'd worn it the day before she went to find Mommy and her smell still clung to it.

He hears his bedroom door open and lets out an accidental squeak of terror. He feels the hand land on his covers and the tears leak out. He swipes them away as quickly as possible, praying no wet streaks remain as the covers are yanked off. Boys don't cry.

A hand wraps itself around the top of his arm, his father's face looming closer to his in the darkness, the stench of whiskey strangling Jasper's breathing.

The first slap is expected and he barely flinches. The punch to the stomach looses a groan of pain, his legs inadvertently curling into the fetal position. The face above him curves with a satisfied smirk.

Jasper closes his eyes and tries to ignore the blows, concentrates on being as quiet as possible.

Rosabee can't wake up. Rosabee can't ever know.

Mike laid a hand on his shoulder, Jasper flinched away from the contact, the pain of his legs colliding with the sink behind him clearing the fog of his father's face from his eyes.

"On second thoughts, maybe no more for you," Mike laughed awkwardly, and motioned with his head towards the door, "maybe we should grab the girls and call a cab."

Jasper nodded, the motion unnaturally jerky. He peeled his fingers from their grip on the sink and moved towards the bathroom door.

"I've got my truck, I'll drive."

Mike shot him an incredulous look; "dude, you look wasted. Bella'll never let you drive, cop's daughter remember, she knows the risks too well."

"I thought her dad coached the Mariners?" Jasper paused in his pursuit of the door.

"Step-dad," Mike rubbed a hand along the back of his neck, a muscle jumping in his cheek, "she didn't tell you?"

Jasper shook his head, fingers wrapping around the door handle.

"He died when she was pretty young," Mike didn't meet Jasper's gaze, eyes finding an irregularity in the tiling, "think for all intents her step-dad is her dad."

Tugging the door open, Jasper pushed back into the throng of the bar, finding Jess and Bella still in their corner. Bella had fallen asleep, her head resting on Jess' shoulder.

The taxi ride home was short and not enough to wake Bella, so Jasper carried her to her door. He fumbled with her keys as he pushed her front door open and headed towards her bedroom.

"Bigger than Rose," he mumbled as he tried to juggle holding her and pulling the covers back on her bed.

She stirred at that, one hand moving to help pull the covers back, the other moving to his face.

"Who's Rose?" she slurred, pulling her shoes off as he laid her in the bed and yanking the covers up to her chin so she could wriggle out of her clothes.

Jasper passed her the pot of makeup remover on her dresser, perching on the edge of her bed as he watched her work it into her skin.

"My sister," he said softly, handing her tissue to wipe the cream away with and replacing the pot where he found it, "she's 15."

"I didn't know you had a sister?" Bella asked, as she discarded the tissue and tried to pull on her pajamas under the covers, "does she live with your parents?"

"No," Jasper picked at a loose thread on the bed, "she lives in Jersey."

Bella didn't push him any further, instead scrambling across the bed to sit in his lap, tangling her fingers in the short hair at the base of his skull and pressing her lips to his.

"Tell me about her," she demanded, tilting his head back so she can look him in the eye.

"If you tell me about your dad," he countered, adding at her look of confusion: "Mike told me he was a cop."

A sad smile tugs one corner of her lips up.

"He was," she bowed her head, "he was shot when I was 6, I hardly remember him."

Jasper tilted her chin up, and laid a hand over her heart.

"Yes you do," he soothed, "you keep him in here."

"His name was Charlie," she pushed her head into his shoulder, muffling her voice. She breathed in his smell, timing her breaths to his heart beat as she tried to calm herself.

"My mom died when I was 8," this admission brought her head back up, "I sometimes forget what she sounded like, or smelled like. But I know she'll always be in here," he picked up one of her hands and rested it against his chest, mirroring his, still attached over her heart.

Bella turned, tugging him towards the head of the bed. She lifted her arms up like a child.

"Hold me?" her bottom lip quivered as she asked.

Jasper kicked off his boots, discarded his jeans, and gathered her to him.