He beat her, just by a second, a second where her awakened eyes caught him leap down from a tree to give himself advantage, and her ears caught the wicked laughter ahead as he entered the meadow before her. She in turn darted up onto a branch so he couldn't see her, and when panic began sifting within the playful glint of his eyes, she pounced on his back and dragged him to the ground.

"You underestimate me, sir," she teased, straightening his collar. He brushed the hair from her eyes and rolled her onto her back. "You overestimate my control, Mrs Hale."

Heavens that felt good to hear out loud. She let him feel the emotion he'd evoked, and he nestled his forehead into hers. "I know."

Silence draped over them like a safety blanket, and she felt her shallow breath slow even more, until she barely noticed the oxygen hadn't entered her lungs for a few moments. She frowned lightly.

"You're just learning to drop the human habits, you don't need them."

"Jasper, my blood needs oxygen."

He lifted his head to look into her eyes. She continued. "I'm still mostly human, and that part needs oxygen. I can't just stop breathing," she said, ending with nervous laughter at the idea. He continued his unblinking gaze. "You haven't breathed for a full minute and 10 seconds. Do you feel dizzy?"

She waited for it to come. Then she shook her head, defeated.

"Is it normal for something like me to continue changing? With Renesme it-"

"She just stopped growing. When that happened, she realised that she too had simply adopted traits from Jacob and the humans around her, and from memories of Bella as a human. Now, you can barely tell her from us full ones. With you, the change is just slower. It's taken longer for the vampire part to gain the upper hand."

She felt dizzy now, trying to comprehend all the changes and stabilizations happening within her. What would stop next? The thoughts that answered terrified her.

"What about my heart?"

He looked away slightly, just a minute glance, but it mattered. It spoke more words than she wished to hear, even in his velvet voice.

"What frightens you about your heart?"

The human part of her would have blushed a few months ago, but now, she could say things that she would never have dreamed of saying out loud before Jasper.

"I don't want it to stop beating; I'll miss how it reacts when I see you."

He chuckled and kissed her nose. "Alenia, I fell in love with you with a still heart, and my very being rattled instead. Animals with faster heart beats tend to live shorter lives, so I'd be dead by now."

Alenia laughed, and kissed his forehead in return. "Thank heavens you don't have a beating heart then."

She nudged Jasper to the side and replaced herself on his chest, considering. In the last few of months since she learned of her nature, she had managed to match him in speed, almost strength, and now she had to learn to stop the now surplus task of inflating and deflating her lungs. With that her heart would slow, and cease to beat altogether.

What came next in the causal chain of events made her nauseated.

"Jasper, I won't be eating…normal food…soon, will i?"

In answer, he simply hugged her tight until she felt safe. "You'll be fine, I promise."

She believed him. She had to.

…

On protocol, Scott checked his watch again. "2:55 am." He even made himself shake his head in disapproval, and his mother tutted while his dad patted his shoulder. "Come on, you get neurotic when you're sleep deprived."

"I'm neurotic when I'm not, I'll go up soon."

Carla shook her head. "Well, on your head be it when you and your under-eye circles meet those cousins for the next wedding."

"They have them too," he said petulantly, his pale skin blushing lightly. By that time, he might not even have to sleep to be deprived from it. Not much, anyway. He could easily stay up until she came home.

"Mike?" Carla motioned half way up the stair case. Michael hesitated, and then held up one finger, asking for a moment. She nodded, disappeared, and he waited until the door closed behind her upstairs.

"Talk to me." He sat in the arm chair closest to his son, on one end of the sofa, and leaned his elbows on his knees. "Please."

"You're not worried? She'd out at this time with him and you're not worried? Its been 5 months since they met and they're engaged? Nothing about that tripping you up?"

"Scott, she's a grown up now. Besides, you mother and I were engaged within two months and a week. We were about their…well…her age."

Scott threw his hands up derisively. "There! How old is he? I'm not sure even he knows!"

"As far as I'm concerned he's twenty one, and has the morals of someone much older. He's…respectable."

He considered this, and slumped in his seat. He had no argument, and he felt sick that he was no longer able to defend his sister's honour. What ever happened to table interrogations at breakfast?

"You trust him, that's what is worrying you."

"Hmm?"

Michael's expression had settled into amused understanding. "All this checking the time, refusing to sleep, its because you trust him to protect her, and that goes against your principles."

"What, my principles covering my sister and vampires?"

Again, Michael rubbed his son's shoulder as he stood. "She's one, too, as are you and i."

Scott hated hearing that reality, because it put things in perspective. Before moving to America, he was a young human adult, one that hadn't known he was made of stronger, faster stuff. He never had chance to be arrogant about it; he knew their nature before his own.

Now, just as he was getting to grips with it, things were changing within him. He could feel it as he sat there, his extra sense ultra-aware of his father's eyes boring into his skull.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

He looked up, his eyes round with alarm. "Yes. We should trust them because we have to." Because before I start accusing him of wanting the little human blood still left in her, I must consider how my comments may be conceived as hypocritical in the future. Perhaps sooner than I think, he silently added.

"Good," Michael replied. "Now, bed. I'll make sure I'm here when she gets home."

Scott stretched his long legs out before him, earning several cracks, crying out for rest. He winced at the noise, stretching the rest of him as he stood, and lumbered up. "Night."

Before throwing himself into the covers that gave him that 'come hither' look, he caught a glance of himself in the mirror of the landing. Even in the dark lighting, his skin was pale. Pale white, but not unhealthy. He also recognised the under eye bruises shading themselves beneath his eyes, a light brown flecked with random shades of green. He'd never noticed those before, and there seemed to be even more of them as the days went by. His sharp eyes scrutinized his skin; smooth like a male model. Hell, he looked like one.

Hmm. Maybe he'd have a chance with one of those cousins…

Nah. His bed was his lady, and his aching limbs couldn't stabilise him any longer.