Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
20. IMPATIENCE
Jasper had done a good job of ensuring me peaceful naps between moments he woke me to eat snacks he'd thoughtfully brought and once to ask me directions to the airport, another time to secure us in a hotel room.
The room was unfamiliar to disoriented, sleep blurred eyes, but the hard, cool body cradling me gently was not. One eye drifted to the glowing red numbers of the clock on the night stand, the other being rubbed dazedly by my hand. Just a bit past three o'clock.
"It's early morning," Jasper informed quietly as soon as I turned from the clock to glance up at him. "Your bag's at the end of the bed if ya want to shower and change."
"That sounds great," I breathed sincerely, happily following his suggestion. Wide awake, Jasper had food waiting for me after my shower, a classic eggs, toast, and bacon breakfast with a pitcher of orange juice.
Of course, halfway through the meal, negative feelings settled slowly into my stomach and killed my appetite. My fork clattered noisily on the plate in the thick silence of the room as I curled my knees to my chest and stared despondently at my toes. I nearly jumped when Jasper let out an exasperated sigh. He chuckled softly at my surprise and was kneeling in front of me in a blink, one hand sliding over my left foot until he loosely wrapped cool fingers around my ankle, tugging a little to get me to look at him.
He chuckled again when I pouted but complied and met his onyx eyes. "You make it hard to stay mad at ya when you look so cute punishing yourself." His easy affection and intimacy, the open and obvious love in his eyes, only made the insane guilt from before come back with a vengeance.
I felt his grip on my ankle tighten as I buried my head between my knees. "I shouldn't have been born," I whispered brokenly. "Bella was supposed to be an only child. Alice was supposed to be with you since you joined the Cullens. She found you and took you to them, her and Edward shared some fabulous brother-sister bond and she was fashion obsessed and basically dressed you all every day and made you guys a bunch of money with her gift and spotted trouble before it could happen and liked to give Bella make-overs-"
"She sounds exhausting," Jasper cut in, "and nothing like the Alice I saw in that clearing." He gently lowered my feet to the ground and leaned up to box me in the chair, though I still refused to look at him, biting my lip.
Honestly, I had been trying hard not to think of that because what if my birth was the reason she became like that. What if it was my fa-
"It is not your fault," Jasper interrupted my thoughts sternly though his fingers on my chin were gentle as he made our eyes meet. "She was born long before you and whatever she may have seen or not seen, she made her choice, one that didn't include me. Whatever woman existed in this other reality you're familiar with doesn't exist in this reality."
His firm words slowly, very slowly pierced through the haze of shock and guilt and fear of my existence usurping Alice's rightful place or Alice usurping my place at Jasper's side, a place I knew I wouldn't give up for anything.
"I-I just - there was a reason I looked for her long before we came to Forks. Sure I was a bit excited to see you all in person but I had never planned on being close to you, any of you, much less even talking to you, but when I couldn't find Alice with you or anywhere and I saw those visions of you-with me- of us and I thought that maybe it'd be okay to be happy myself while I support Bella through her melodramatic Romeo/Juliet relationship. Maybe I could even help you all with my gift like Alice, hopefully knock sense into Edward's head, and...and help you not see yourself as the weakest link of the family, convince you that you're probably the strongest vampire in this world..."
This time I cut my rambling off myself with a disbelieving giggle, tears of stress finally spilling from stinging eyes.
"Is it...is it really okay to stay with you?" I asked with desperation to no one in particular, a shaking hand reaching out to curl into his soft honey hair, laughing wetly. "Because I'm way too desperately in love with you now to be able to live without you anymore."
"Oh, little dove," Jasper murmured, picking me up and moving us to the bed as I curled up into him, burying my face in his chest. "I can't imagine lovin' anyone more than I do you, darlin'," he whispered adoringly into my ear, "ain't no Alice or anyone gonna change that." I could only settle myself further into his lap as he leaned back into the headboard.
The rest of the day passed in an amazingly calm, happy haze, seeming to completely ignore the gravity of the current situation. After a short call to the front desk to ignore maid service for now, Jasper and I settled in to watch tv and have my cheesy lover hand feed me my meals and snacks. At one point he had even waltzed me around the room to the dance scene of The King and I.
There was also a fair amount of time spent not only on the bed but the sofa and shower as well. In the incredibly warm and loving world we'd enveloped ourselves in, the vision that suddenly had me jerk stiff in shock brought us harshly back to reality, shattering our short moment of peace.
"Maddy?" I felt Jasper's breath ghost on my face, but my eyes were focused on a different scene. "What do you see?" He asked intently.
"A room," I breathed. "A ballet studio with gold bars across the mirrors. Something's missing - another decision hasn't been made."
"You recognize it?" Jasper asked tightly, knowing that could only mean one thing. "How much time?" He added.
"Yes, it's where Bella and I took dance lessons. Bella, obviously quit after a while but I still went until the end of my freshman year when they switched owners. The stereo and the table are somewhere different and there's a TV that wasn't there before. The view is the same as the one you could see from the window in the waiting room." I paused as I examined the vision, giving only the information it provided me. "Soon. He'll be in the studio today or tomorrow. It depends. He's waiting for something... in the dark."
"Could you draw it?" Jasper asked. "What is he doing?" Was the next question.
"Sure, I can make a rough sketch recognizable enough." I wasn't Da Vinci, but I wasn't a slouch in art either. "He's running a VCR on the TV, the TV of another place. It's too dark for me to see it."
"Where is this studio?" He asked as I started sketching with the paper and pencil he helpfully provided me.
"Around the corner from my Mom's house. Here. In Phoenix. Fifty-eight Street and Cactus. There's a VCR there too but he's not watching anything just tinkering with it. He watches in the dark room, waits in the studio."
"The tracker's changed his plans then," Jasper uttered gravely. "He's made a decision that will lead him to the mirror room, and the dark room."
"And we only know where one room is?"
"Yes."
"But we do know that he won't be in the mountains north of Washington, being hunted. He'll elude them," Maddy muttered. Jasper's hand found itself over hers, cold, hard, and comforting as he twined their fingers together.
And then the phone rang.
Jasper had it to his ear before the first ring ended. "Carlisle," he announced tightly after a short silence. "Yes," he replied to something, meeting his eyes with mine. He listened for a long moment. "She just saw him." He described my visions. "Whatever made him get on that plane...it was leading him to those rooms." He paused. "Yes," he murmured into the phone, then his brows furrowed. "Rosalie?" Another short silence. "I'll call her."
Jasper readily dialed a number with blurred fingers as soon as Carlisle hung up, not waiting long for him to pick up. His brows furrowed again as he listened to whatever she said. I understood why when he handed me the phone, making my own brows wrinkle in confusion.
"Uh, hello?" I spoke into the phone, hesitant. Even now I wasn't used to Rosalie of all people being so friendly with me.
"Just wanted to assure you that Edturd is no longer the only one on protection duty at your house," Rosalie informed me casually. "Esme and I will make sure Charlie's safe." Jasper had to lead me to a chair when I slumped and wavered on my feet in relief.
"Thank you," I whispered hoarsely, voice thick with emotion.
"You're welcome," Rosalie replied warmly before her tone turned serious. "There's something else we thought you should know. It had to do with that red eyed pixie."
My throat constricted painfully. "Oh?" I managed lightly, voice just a tad too high.
"Yeah, the one that fucked up your perfect plan. She's like an evil you," Rosalie returned with a much more natural, casual tone.
"What do you mean?" I questioned slowly, reluctantly, troubled and not sure if I really wanted to know.
"When we went after her and the red head...the pixie set it up so we could kill her off easy," Rosalie admitted quietly, sounding frustrated, angry almost. "And not out of the goodness of her heart. She could have saved the red head, but she just watched it happen, taunted her even about having the hunter to herself before escaping without a backwards glance."
Whatever small flame of equal hope and terror had sparked in me at hearing Alice had helped the Cullens died quickly at the rest of the news imparted on me. "Oh."
"If I wasn't so pissed at her using me like a convenient tool, I'd admire her arrogance and ruthlessness. As it is, I hate the pixie bitch." I couldn't help but snort at Rosalie's easy derision of Alice. It was so alien a statement, but such a Rosalie thing to say given the circumstances.
"If she's free to join James, why hasn't she?" Jasper asked. I wondered that too and was surprised when the visions came as easy as normal, no blocks or blanks when I directed my focus to this Alice.
"She's...waiting somewhere else, relaxing. She doesn't look worried or impatient at all," I sounded as baffled as I probably looked.
"Seems like she's really confident in her boy toy," Rosalie commented from the phone, shocking both Jasper and I.
"Could...could she really be so assured that James will succeed she didn't even bother to look into his future?" I breathed in disbelief. That sounded far too incredibly stupid for words.
"She must be, otherwise she'd be hightailin' it to him to save him if she saw us rippin' and burnin' him." Jasper murmured in as much disbelief as I felt.
"I told you she was arrogant," Rosalie sniffed. We exchanged a few words of goodbye before she hung up and left the two of us alone once more.
There was contemplative silence as we both absorbed the new information, me being more thoughtful of her actions than Jasper considering I had alternate behavior to compare.
"I should leave a message for my mother," I suddenly said. "In case she comes home from Florida too early."
Jasper wordlessly nodded after thinking on any possible negative repercussions. He only shifted his gaze politely to the wall, his posture screaming disinterest as I dialed the familiar number. It rang four times before I heard Renee's breezy voice telling me to leave a message.
"Hey Mom," I started lightly. "Just called to tell you something really important. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but just trust my sixth hoodoo sense on this okay? If you get home in time to hear this, don't go anywhere until you talk to me." I repeated the number Jasper wrote out for me twice, carefully. "I'm serious. Don't worry about Bella and I, Bell is safe in Forks and I'm perfectly fine. I just really need you to listen to me and call me no matter how late you hear this message, all right? Right, well, love ya Mom, bye."
I stared at the hand holding the now closed phone as if it were a foreign object, watching blankly as the limb shook from where I was holding it up. Strange...I didn't think I felt scared enough to shake. Maybe it's because I knew it wouldn't be Renée to receive the message? Things were starting to become far too real for me.
Thankfully Jasper was very ready to once more distract me as we waited, placing his hand over mine to steady it before completely moving me to his lap again and hand feeding me fruit leftover from my meal. I more than happily allowed myself to temporarily forget the peril I was about to place myself in, feeling nothing but love and safety as Jasper lulled me to sleep humming a nice song I didn't recognize*.
AN: Finally! Finally done with this chapter! Lucky for you, you won't have to wait long for the next chapter either. Surprise surprise! Three full chapters in a row! You guys are so lucky that my friend asked for a new chapter to get through her first day of going back to school. Since I know the pain and anxiety very well, I agreed despite the late night I'll now have to spend typing it up... Anywho!
This chapter called for a lot of chopping off or switching up scenes in the book irrelevant and/or poorly placed in regards to Maddy so hopefully it's not choppy or awkward, it's shortness can't be helped too much either.
Also, conveniently at the end is a * note regarding what Jasper hums to Maddy to lull her to sleep. I'll see if I can find it on tumblr somewhere or at least give a link to YouTube for anyone interested and willing to imagine the tune being hummed by a dreamy southern vampire. It'll be on Madsper on tunblr to anyone vaguely curious.
As always, thanks for reading, hope you liked it, and reviews are very much looked forward to!\(=u=)/
