…and another weekend instalment. The action is picking up now, as you will be happy to know and things will start to become clearer in this and the following chapters.

Don't forget to review – I like my dose of chocolate from time to time

twilight still doesn't belong to me *sighs*

11

Bella's POV

The next day I went to school determined once again not to let thoughts of Jasper distract me. In other words, I made the same decision I had on every day since coming here – fat lot of success that had been so far. Something about him just got to me, and I thought that maybe if I met him under different circumstances… I don't know. I feel drawn to him, and no matter what I hear about him, I only see a man who I want to be with and take care of for the rest of my life. I've even started dreaming about him, and the confrontation between him and Edward kept haunting my dreams so much that I had slept badly and was rather grumpy that morning.

The cold weather did nothing to improve my mood, neither did the fact that I fell over as soon as I left the house. Icy roads – great, just what I needed!

Somehow though my truck made it through when other cars I saw along the way had problems. I had been going quite slowly, maybe that had helped too, everybody else was already there, and the Cullens were standing around Edward's car as if they were getting ready for a photo-shoot. After I pulled into my usual spot at the school parking lot though, the riddle was solved: Charlie must have gotten up at dawn to put snow chains on my tires, lovely dad that he is. I was still smiling fondly about him, when I suddenly heard the noise of squealing tires and saw Tyler's van coming at me as if in slow motion. It was spinning out of control, and I could see Tyler's horrified face through the windshield.

Fear froze me to the spot, and I was sure to get crushed between car metal in a matter of seconds. I closed my eyes, waiting for impact, which came soon after. My head hit the asphalt with a bump that made my teeth vibrate, but then there was nothing. I would have expected the two cars to collide and squash me in between like spread on a sandwich, but I just felt as if I was in a metal cage, that felt protective somehow. I opened my eyes again and saw that Jasper had suddenly appeared and wrapped his arms around me to pull me down. There was a dent in the side of the van that looked as if someone had pushed it aside. Jasper was extremely alert and cursed when he saw that the collision had set off yet another vehicle which was moving toward my legs. He let go of me with one hand and shoved it away, before carefully cradling me again. He breathed out with relief when he saw my eyes were open.

"Are you alright, darlin'? I didn't mean to pull you down so hard…" Then he interrupted himself and tensed again. The next second he looked absolutely frightening: his eyes turned coal-black and hard, and his lips were pulled back from his immaculate white teeth in a snarl. His hold on me tightened and a feral growl ripped from deep inside of him. I shuddered and followed his eyes to what had brought on the change.

Edward was looking at him with an expression of anger so intense that you could almost touch the tension. "Ambulance is on its way. Get the hell away from here, you idiot", he pressed from between his teeth.

Jasper answered with another growl and Edward shook his head in a determined way and did not move. When the sirens came closer they both were gone so suddenly that I blinked, wondering if they had been there at all. Yet you could still see where Jasper had pushed the van and the other car had a dent that looked like his hand.

I was so confused by what I had seen that I let the EMTs take me away to hospital. Once we had arrived there though, I told them that I was fine.

"Why don't you let me decide that?" A kind voice asked from the door, and I saw that Dr Cullen had taken over my form on the clipboard. I had seen him before when he had come to talk to Charlie, and once again I wondered how someone so young could already be a doctor. He was movie-star handsome, and his eyes had the same unusual colour as Edward's and sometimes Jasper's.

"I'm ok, the cars never even touched me", I said but Dr Cullen simply handed my form to a nurse, and I was sent on the usual round of x-rays and tests. When I was finally pushed back to the ward, Charlie was already there with a worried face and scowling at Tyler, who looked definitely the worse for wear. Apparently his face had been hit by lots of flying glass from the windshield of his car.

"I'm so sorry, Bella", he said as soon as he saw me. "There was nothing I could do to stop the van…"

"You shut up, I'm dealing with you later", Charlie barked at Tyler and pulled the curtain separating the beds. "Bells, are you ok?"

"Yes, I already told the doc, but…" I was interrupted by Dr Cullen greeting Charlie at that moment.

After he had checked the x-rays of my head and my eyes once more, he pronounced me fit to leave.

"I told you I was fine", I heard myself blurting out before I could stop my bad manners.

He just smiled and touched a spot on my head. "I heard you, but with that bump on your skull, it is my responsibility to make sure. Now, you should take some painkillers and take it easy for the rest of the day."

"You were very lucky", Charlie said emotion choking up his voice. "You better call your mother and tell her, she won't believe it if she just hears it from me."

I grimaced. He had called Renee who was now in a panic, and I would have to sort it out. Wonderful! At the moment however that was the smallest of my problems.

Charlie went to settle the paperwork my stunt had generated and I got my shoes and went to wait for him in the hall.

When Charlie returned, he took my bag and led me to the Cruiser. As I was getting in I saw Jasper across the street, staring at me intently. I waved to him and smiled, but the next time I looked, he was gone.

Charlie dropped me off at home and reminded me again to call Renee. I nodded with a sigh, but decided to take my things upstairs first. My head felt sore and I wanted to take some Advil first. I had barely gotten upstairs when the doorbell rang, so I dumped my bag and ran downstairs again to open.

"Bella", Edward greeted me, his face the expression as if someone of his family had just died. "I need to talk to you for a moment."

"Come in then", I held the door for him. What could he want?

He shook his head and remained in the door. "Bella, I just came to let you know that… to implore you once more to stay away from Jasper. I will do what I can to keep you safe, but I really need your cooperation."

I frowned. "What are you talking about?" Why was he being so melodramatic? Besides… "Can you explain what happened this morning?"

He shook his head. "No."

"But you expect me to comply with your wishes without an explanation?"

"It looks like it", he smiled crookedly. He was trying to dazzle me into giving in to him – I had seen him do that at school with the teachers for example, but I was not taken in.

"That's asking a bit much, and what is that talk about safety?"

He took a deep breath and looked as if he had a bad toothache. "Bella, Jasper wants to kill you. Please don't make it easier for him!"

I laughed out loud. "Rubbish. He saved my life today. I would have been two-dimensional if it wasn't for him stepping in."

Edward banged his fist against the doorjamb. "Didn't you see him this morning? Why can't you see he's dangerous for you?"

"I don't see how he could be any more dangerous for me than you are. Besides, how did he get there so fast? And how did he push the cars?"

Edward made a frustrated sound and left me standing. What the hell is going on with those two?

Carlisle's POV

Much as it hurts me, I'm beginning to have doubts about my newest son. I felt the need to change his life from him above all when he arrived and was sure that he would fit in, especially with Alice being so keen on him. She has been quite lonely ever since she came to stay with us out of nowhere more than six years ago, and as she was so sure he was destined for her, I thought he was her mate. Now however there is a huge conflict right down the middle of my family, and I'm not decided what to do about it.

I know Alice and Jasper have been intimate, but as for their being mates – it just doesn't feel and look right to me, more like a matter of convenience. Esme agrees with me, and I would trust her judgement in things of the heart above all, yet there is another difficulty: Both Jasper and Edward are convinced that Bella Swan is their mate. Much as I have already researched the matter I still don't know what to do with that situation. Apparently vampires can be mated to humans, quite probably that is what happened to Rosalie when she saw Emmett hurt and dieing, but how can a human be mated to two vampires?

Alice has said that Bella is meant to be with Edward, and while I'm overjoyed about the idea of my son having finally found someone to share his existence, I'm not happy about changing another human being, and I'm sure Edward wouldn't want that either. To make matters worse, Esme thinks that Jasper is truly deeply in love with the girl, and I'm afraid that an intense personality like Jasper cannot be convinced that love once it has found its way into his heart can be wrong.

I have been worried so much that I thought my head would explode, and had it not been for Emmett and Esme both agreeing with Alice that Jasper is good for us, I fear I would have given in to my baser instincts and would have asked Jasper to leave.

When Edward called this morning about the accident, I thought we were done for. The Volturi have never been happy about my way of life, or about the fact that my family has been growing in numbers, and would only too gladly step in and end us for a breach of secrecy, so we have to find a way to deal with this incident.

I waited for the end of my shift anxiously and then raced back home in order to decide what to do. I had not yet gotten inside when Edward jumped at me. "You have to tell him to leave. He has almost exposed us this morning, and he is a danger to all of us!"

I waved off answering until I was with the others and seated next to Esme. "We have to talk about this first."

"I think that Edward is wrong in blaming Jasper, the problem is the girl", Rosalie said.

I took a deep breath. I was not happy with sending Jasper away – I was not sure he would be leaving voluntarily anyway, but neither did I want to kill Charlie Swan's daughter. She was all he had. I looked around. "Where are Jasper and Alice?"

"I have no idea", Edward said. "Jasper took off right after the accident during which he threatened me, by the way, and Alice has been gone since lunch."

"She is probably trying to comfort him somewhere", Emmett said, not sounding very convinced.

"Or…" Edward started but stopped when the last two members of our family entered. Jasper looked like thunder and pushed Alice across the room so that she crashed into the table. She stopped her fall by holding out her hands, and we all gasped when we saw a jagged silver line around her left wrist.

Emmett was on his feet at once and flew at Jasper with a growl. Jasper simply batted him down, crouching over him and daring anyone else to attack him.

"Jasper!" Esme cried and went to comfort Alice.

"See!" I could hear Edward's voice next to me.

I held a growling and hissing Rosalie back with an effort. "No! What is going on?"

"You tell them!" Jasper spit at Alice. He let go of Emmett once Rosalie had stood down, but remained close to the stairs, his eyes slits and every muscle in his body tense.

This was not going to work. "Jasper, please sit down with us. We're not ganging up on you."

He eyed me carefully and went to sit a little apart from us.

I sighed and started the meeting again. "Alice, what happened?"