Aallright, another chapter – have fun reading and reviewing. And yes, they will get together in the next chapter, so be patient just a little longer

Still don't own twilight

15

Carlisle's POV

What a strange day!

When I came home from the hospital in the late afternoon, I found Esme very happy. Apparently Jasper had come home from school that day in a buoyant mood, and the way she described it, it must have been a sight for sore eyes. She said she had never seen anyone so elated, and was almost dancing around the room herself. It looks like having an empath around can have its benefits; Rosalie was also quietly singing to herself and even Emmett's good mood had not been dampened by Esme telling him to tidy up the living room. Alice and Edward were gone off hunting, so I could not say anything about them, though I would really like my brooding son to have some fun for once.

Suddenly however Esme got up from my lap and dashed out into the forest. When I followed her, worried about what had caused this, she told me to go back. "I have the feeling that one of our children is in pain and needs their mom. You go back, dear, I can do this on my own."

Obviously I did not leave her completely alone but watched from a distance as she comforted Jasper and spoke to his friends, a tall blond man and a petite girl, human drinkers. My lioness did not even let herself be threatened into giving up by the tall vampire. Where her children are concerned, she knows no fear. When Jasper took off, I waited for her to join me and tried to take her worrying mind of the problem.

"But Carlisle, he was in so much pain. We need to make him better!" She curled into my arms for comfort.

"I would like to tell you everything will work itself out, darling, but at the moment I am confused. I have no idea what happens if a mate rejects the vampire, but it looks like it feels as if the mate died, and then…"

"But then he would die as well", she cried. "We can't let this happen." She was panicking; clearly as far as Esme was concerned Jasper was part of the family even though he had been there only such a short time.

"There, there", I tried to calm her down. "I don't think that she could reject him if she was his mate, and you have done all you can. He knows he is loved, and his friends will also comfort him."

She huffed, clearly not convinced.

"Esme, darling, you can't tuck him up in bed and give him hot milk and a cookie. He is a man."

She rolled her eyes at me and left me standing to attack the weeds that dared to encroach on her garden. I shrugged my shoulders and left. When she was in this mood, talking was no good. An hour later she was joined by the petite blonde, Charlotte, and the women worked together in silence. At least something that Charlotte told Esme made her better, and I could hear some quiet laughter drifting up to my window from time to time.

I wanted to find out what had happened that day at school, but neither Alice nor Edward were in and the account I got from Emmett did only confuse me. So I spent the night reading up on mating and trying to find out if a situation like we had had occurred before – no results. Everything came back to the idea that there could be no such thing as one person mated to two people.

Jasper came home early in the morning and disappeared into his room to play the guitar – as we had found out before, his way of dealing with heartache. Charlotte tried to join him, but was told to leave him alone. I have to say he is a very considerate person; he never wants anyone near when he is projecting his depression.

At seven a commotion started downstairs so I left my study to find out what was going on. I was just in time to see Edward flying past me as if the devil himself was pursuing him, closely followed by Jasper's tall friend in a foul mood. He caught up with him at the stairs and took him by the scruff of his neck and stopped him from going to his room.

"Excuse me!" I frowned at this guest's ideas of behavior, but was ignored completely.

"Major!" the other Texan vampire hollered. "I know what's going on."

Jasper shot out of his room. "Did I not give you clear orders?"

Everybody would have cowered at his look, but his friend only shrugged. "You know that sometimes your orders are way off, besides, I did not touch a hair on his precious head." He dusted Edward down roughly. "This skunk slunk into her room when she was asleep and spent the night there watching her sleep. He even lay on the bed with her, as if his being there was not creepy enough already." Contempt was flying off from him in droves.

Charlotte grinned at Jasper. "See, she didn't even know he was there, and she was describing you!"

Jasper stood thinking for a moment, then he started toward Edward. "You have been watching her without her knowledge, staying in her room at night? You could have killed…" Then he lost it and threw himself at Edward. For the next half hour we could see nothing but rising dust and fighting vampires taking apart the hallway. For a while it looked like an even fight, with Edward's gift helping him dodge Jasper's attacks, but then the seasoned fighter went into another gear and started fighting instinctively, so that soon he had my oldest son pinned to the ground, his hands around his neck, and growling.

"Jasper, stop that!" I screamed.

"Jazz, please, don't hurt Edward!" Alice piped up from behind the banister where she had been hiding since the beginning of the fight. She must have returned to the house just before Edward. We had all taken cover, even Jasper's friends kept a safe distance.

"Major, no, calm down! He is not worth getting in trouble for", Charlotte hollered.

He ignored us all. His eyes were burning with hatred and he hissed: "You touched her without her permission. You are dead!" He had already taken off his left arm and was now biting into him wherever he could get him. It was clear that he was not set to make Edward's death quick, and for the moment it did not look as if there was any way of stopping him. Suddenly we heard a choked voice.

"No, Jasper, stop hurting my son, please!" Esme pleaded with him, carefully coming closer.

"Esme!" I cried, trying to drag her back, but Jasper looked up at her and let go of Edward for long enough so that he could tear up the stairs and disappear. We heard his door bang shut upstairs and music started.

Jasper turned toward the stairs snarling and growling but Emmett and Peter caught him. "No!"

"Enough!" I said and got in front of him. "Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, you get ready for school. Jasper, I want to talk to you in my study in exactly half an hour, so calm down!"

"Carlisle, the kids cannot…" Esme started, but I cut her off by embracing her, thankful she had not gotten hurt in the fray.

"Yes, they can. They won't be there for the rest of the week, that's enough time missed!"

Rosalie rolled her eyes at me but pulled the others along to get out of our way. I knew I could rely on her to make sure they attended.

Then I went to the third floor to talk to Edward.

I reattached his arm and took care of the wounds Jasper had given him, sensing however that it was his ego that had been wounded most. I have never encountered my oldest son in a more stubborn mood. He insisted that he was desensitizing himself against the lure of Bella's blood by staying in her room at night and refused to see anything wrong with this. He even claimed he was protecting her against Jasper's attempts at getting closer to her this way. Once he had said his piece he cold-shouldered me and I left the topic alone, hoping that once he had calmed down and also stopped hurting from the fight, he would be more approachable on the subject.

"Right", I sighed. "You're not going to school today! Neither are you leaving the house, is that understood?"

He nodded without turning to face me, and as he has not disobeyed any direct orders yet. I left him alone.

Dreading the confrontation with the other participant in the fight, I descended the stairs again. Jasper still was a mass of snarling growling vampire, fighting against Emmett's and Peter's attempts at holding him down with a vengeance. His face was contorted with rage, venom dripping from his mouth. Esme was upset and scared at seeing him like that, her eyes were pleading with me to help him.

"Jasper?" I asked in an attempt to get through to him. No reaction.

"Man, calm down, I need to get my bag to go to school with Rosalie. You don't want me to have to take the bus, do you?" Emmett tried good-naturedly, but only got a hiss in return.

"Major, cut it out! You're scaring the natives!" Peter finally screamed into his ear.

He went limp and Emmett let go of him, looking at him in a concerned way. "Are you alright, bro?"

"Jasper, we need to talk!"

"No time, I need to get to school", he answered, all business suddenly, but I noticed that his friends were still wary and Peter had not yet let go of him.

I took one look at his black eyes and told him. "Jasper, you are not going to school today, you need to calm down!"

"The hell I will. Bella's there!" He growled at me standing in his way at the front door, or what was left of that.

"No, Major, you can't do that!" Peter said, simply taking hold of him again and pulling him back with a strength that could only come from decades of training and living on human blood.

Jasper fought against his friend's iron grip, but Charlotte simply slapped him. "No, don't you dare hurt Peter!"

"Hey, Jasper, you can't go to school like this, you'll only eat everyone there. Calm down!" Emmett's calm words finally did the trick. Jasper slumped against Peter and was comforted by both his friends.

When he turned to me to apologize, I just shook my head. I could feel he was truly contrite, I did not need it put into words too. "Please, son, calm down."

"I need to see Bella, I have to talk to her…"

"Sure you do, dear", Esme said kindly, "but not while you're out of control like you are at the moment. I find that work helps calming down, so I would very much appreciate if you and your friends could help tidy up the chaos around here." She waved her hand at the scene of destruction.

"Yes, we will", said Charlotte and pushed the other two toward the splintered door.

"And no more fighting!" Esme gave them a stern look.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Peter and Jasper said at the same time. Charlotte grinned at Esme and me and winked. "I'll watch them, don't worry!"