Chapter Sixty Five

Carlisle

I had been amazed when Jay rang and asked if we could look after Bella for a while. He didn't go into detail but Alice said we should just agree and not ask any questions, that Bella was having a bad time and I understood that. She didn't have to be a vampire to feel the pain of separation from her mate and I wondered how Jasper was coping under the circumstances. I remembered the confused and angry young man who had turned up on our doorstep with Alice. Esme was terrified and unsure if we should offer him a home but Rosalie, to everyone's astonishment pleaded his case and I was very glad she did. The more we came to know him the more we understood and admired him and he tried so very hard that it was a pleasure to help him.

Now he had risked everything by going back into the very life he had fought so hard to escape. And all to keep safe another young man, his descendant yes but more importantly a young man in whom he saw himself. I just hoped this wouldn't prove too much for him, the violence and change in diet, his gift and his struggle to break free of the lure of human blood. All things that had almost proved his doom already once. Rose and Emmett had freshened up Jasper's room for Bella thinking she might feel better close to him, we had kept all his things and set up a room in case he ever returned, a room we had hardly dared would ever be used until he appeared with Bella along with Alice and Jasper's double, now that had been a scary moment for all of us. Now all we could do was wait for Jay to deliver her into our care and try our best to make the waiting a little more bearable.

Jay

It started raining shortly after we set off for the drive back to the Cullens and I wondered if we really could beat the worst of the storm. Bella was very quiet, hugging herself and I knew only too well what she was feeling, it had been hell apart from Alice and I knew where she was and who she was with, that she was safe. Bella's mate was anything but and that was at least partly my fault.

"You OK Bella? Hopefully it won't be long before The Major can get the hell out with the information he's looking for."

She turned to me white faced and strained,

"He won't come back until he has enough to stop Caius, we both know that and it could take some time. I'm scared Jay, scared he might be hurt or killed. That I might never see him again. What if he can't resist human blood and won't come back because he fears he might be a threat to me? These things keep going through my head all the time, they're driving me mad."

"He loves you Bella, you're his mate, he'll return don't you ever doubt that. You call to him constantly and he won't be able to resist that lure trust me."

The closer we got the heavier the rain fell until it was almost impossible to see ahead and I was forced to slow to almost a crawl. The first crack of lightening made Bella jump,

"I hate storms. When I was little I always worried that my dad might get called out to an accident because of a storm and get run over. Storms and high winds really frighten me. Maybe we should pull over until it eases off."

"No worries Bella, we'll be fine, the road is empty and I promise to take it easy, don't forget vampire reflexes."

She nodded but didn't look convinced so when the rain became harder and the lightening was almost continuous I pulled over.

Bella

I wished storms didn't scare me but I just couldn't get over the fear and I was gratified when Jay pulled over to the side of the road switching the engine off so it seemed we were in a box that was being pounded by the heavy rain, the lightning flashes illuminating us in a strange white light at intervals. We made conversation about nothing really, what his plans were for himself and Alice once this was over.

"I'm going to find her a loft apartment in Paris or New York as a base and we can travel the world together. I'll show her the great historical sites in Egypt, Russia, Europe…"

I shook my head,

"I think you might find Alice will show you the great shopping arcades of the world, Milan, Paris, Rome….."

He grinned,

"Well maybe we can compromise, some of each."

"You can try but Alice has a habit of getting her own way."

"Well it will be fun trying to beat her."

"Good luck with that, I've only known Alice a short while but there's a lot of determination in that small package."

"I guess she's entitled after the past she had. She told me what she found out thanks to you. Fancy being committed to an asylum by your own parents for having visions of the future. It must have been terrible, and to find out you'd been declared dead by those same parents."

"I think she worked her way through that. She found her family plot and that she had a sister who lived and had children of her own, one she called Alice in memory of her dead sister. Alice told me she'd traced Alice's descendants but they died out a few years before she found them. She's really alone except for the Cullens and you."

"Sometimes having a family can be as big a curse as not having one Bella. Mine wanted me to be something I wasn't and yet ironically I find myself being just that person and I find in a way I like it. One day I'd like to sit down with The Major and really talk to him, I guess I'll never get to write the book I planned on."

"Why not? Jasper wrote books and I think you owe him one."

"Yeah, too right. I guess I never gave much thought to what we do with our…..I was gonna say life but I guess its eternity. God that sounds daunting, I guess I better find myself something to do. Maybe you're right Bella, I could really do research and write a book of my own, maybe more than one. What other hobbies do the others have?"

"Well Carlisle's is medicine, Esme runs her own interior design business, Emmett is in to computers like Darius and Hunter. As for the others I'm not really sure."

"What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you're going to become a vampire like us, what will you take up as a hobby?"

"I haven't really thought about that, I guess I'll follow Jasper, maybe learn to ride, I might even collect books or work with antique books. I guess it depends on Jasper a lot. At the moment all I can think of is seeing him again and feeling his arms around me. I miss him so much Jay."

Jay

Although the rain hadn't eased much I felt uneasy sitting here in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to deliver Bella safely and have a little while with Alice before heading back so I started the car and eased back onto the road glad I was the only one on the slick highway. We hadn't seen another set of headlights for ages, most people had sensibly decided, like us, to take a break until the weather eased but then everyone else didn't have a vampire behind the wheel. I kept my speed down for Bella's sake, she was holding her door handle tightly and flinching when the thunder cracked.

"Not long now Bella, you can relax soon."

If only I had been able to see a few seconds into the future!