Fuil 'o mo chuislean

I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am :) Thank you to those of you who are taking the time to review this, I do appreciate it. Hopefully my chapter lengths will even out a bit now and I can keep some kind of consistency in what I'm giving you with each update. The song mentioned in the first part of the story, Alyson Hannigan by Wax On Wax Off, is awesome and should totally be checked out if you haven't heard it. The fact that it's about a Buffy character who also happened to run with a werewolf just tickles me. I'm having to limit my own style a lot, which naturally comes out kinda wordy and pretentious (if you've read my other – now mostly abandoned – story Broken Saints you'll understand what I mean), but do let me know if I'm not managing it or if you want more/less detail, more dialogue/less description. There will be Bella/Alistair mush at some point in the story, but it'll be a slow burn to get there so relax and enjoy ;)

Chapter Four

Bella POV

When I regained consciousness the quality of the light shining through the gaping doorway gave me the impression that it was close to midday. I was stiff, completely numb and seeing double a little. I tried to wipe the blood off my chin with the back of one hand and ended up smacking myself in the face. When I turned my hand around to look at it I noticed that it held a small sliver of metal. Blinking furiously, I saw that it was one of the razor blades from the razor I had put out to complete my ablutions with. Looks like I'm going be Hairy Mary for a while longer until I can afford another one. At least the total lack of circulation meant that I couldn't feel the scratchy stubble on my legs for the time being. I looked down and gasped in horror.

My other hand was upturned in my lap, a thin red line tracing one of my blue veins from my wrist to halfway up my forearm. It was only a scratch, but its meaning was clear. He had done this. The giant guy, Alistair. And he had ~posed~ me; he had posed me like a suicide victim, the sick fucker. I felt myself gag a little and a small portion of my breakfast made its way to the tiled floor. 'I can get to you', the mark said, 'I did get to you, and I will again'. It also had something quite insulting to say about my supposed death wish, but I refused to listen to that one. Cold swept through my body from head to toe like an icy waterfall, filling every corner and crevice of me with dread, and I started to shiver uncontrollably. The hardness of his hand as he'd held my wrist told me he was a vampire. But this was obviously not the kind of vampire I was used to. I sobbed in panic as I looked up. If there had been any doubt, it was dismissed when I looked at the mirror and saw the word RUN written in my own blood.

He was hunting me.

I heard a muted rendition of Wax On Wax Off's 'Alyson Hannigan' coming from my rucksack. The only phone I had was the one that Alice had left on the ground for me as they drove away. It was for the gravest of emergencies only and had remained switched off until a week ago. I cursed myself for not turning it off again. It was ringing. Shitfuck. This was in no way good.

I thrust my arm deep inside my bag, ignoring the spiteful pins and needles that were bringing the limb back to life, and clasped the vibrating phone. I hit the answer button on the third try.

"Alsh? Hmphmm. Alice?" Throat dry. Next stop, drink.

"Bella? BELLA! Oh god oh jesus you're alive thankyouthankyouthankyou." I could almost hear her bouncing on her toes in relief.

"Yes, I'm alive, I think." Yeah, that is debatable at this point, or at least how long I'm going to remain that way with a seven foot psycho playing suicide games with me. "Is there a reason I wouldn't be?"

"Argh! Yes, I had a vision of you. I couldn't tell where you were but you were already hurt, the room was covered in blood and you were being attacked by a vampire. He was huge, I've…I've never seen anyone so big; he made Emmett and Felix look like toddlers for god's sake. Where the hell are you, Bella? Is someone after you? Have you seen anything strange?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Alice. I'm beyond freaked out right now and I think something seriously fucked up is going on but I don't think I'm in any danger in the next five minutes. Calm down, we'll talk. I'm gonna put you down for a minute, though, OK? I need to get up off the floor, clean myself up and get some feeling back in my limbs or I won't be going anywhere any time soon."

"'K." I winced a little, it was so unlike her to sound so subdued. I balanced the slim phone on the nearest toilet seat and stood to check my face over in the mirror. Check number…oh…say….twenty-five of things I wish I hadn't done today. Hi, my name's Bella and I'm a sunken-eyed crackwhore, please excuse the blood and drool.

Failing to find anything more appropriate, I used the oversized t-shirt to wipe furiously across my chin until the dried blood was gone. There was a large, puffy split running vertically through my lower lip which stung like a sonofabitch when I touched it but which I didn't seem to be able to stop tonguing absently. I rinsed the fabric with clean water, dabbed at the wound again and put a blob of antiseptic cream on it. I threw the wet garment and the shattered remnants of my razor in the trashcan, shuffled myself back inside my coat and walked to the door. Hoisting my backpack onto one shoulder I pressed the phone back to my ear as I stepped out into the sunlight.

"OK, Alice, what's up with this? I haven't spoken to any of you for years…"

"And whose fault is that? You disappeared, Bella! After all you said and how you handled us leaving, you went and did the same thing to us!"

I could hear murmuring in the background, which I assumed was Jazz trying to calm her down. It seemed to work, but I didn't disagree that I had it coming for leaving them in the lurch like that, I'd just rather it were postponed until we can be sure I'm not on the menu.

"OK…I'm sorry…let's start again." I could hear in her voice that her agitation had lessened, but still felt a little guilty for causing it in the first place; she'd been nothing but a friend to me and I hadn't acted as well as I'd have liked.

"I'm sorry, Alice, I'll explain when we have time to talk, but I do get the feeling that other things warrant our attention right now, OK?"

"I know, I know. There's not much more I can tell you about the vision than I already have, but perhaps it would help if I knew where you were?" She wasn't fishing for information, but I was still a little reluctant to give away my location. I had no idea if the Volturi monitored electrical equipment like cellphones, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

"It might be more helpful to see if you guys know anything about the sicko I ran into a couple hours ago. Does the name Alistair ring a bell? He…OW! Jesus!" I had to yank the phone away from my ear at the vicious growling I heard on the other end of the line. That was totally unlike Alice; I had no idea what would have pissed her off that much. The creeping dread started a little party in the base of my spine and proceeded to make every hair on my arms stand slowly on end.

"Alice? Are you still there? Alice, what the hell is wrong?"

"I…ah…Jazz would you go get Carlisle for me?" I heard a grunt and a door slam. "Bella, just so I have this straight, as I'm sure there could be any number of Alistairs in the world, can you describe him at all?"

I had been wandering slowly back across the small expanse of park toward the busier streets of the town as we talked and, looking all around me for anything suspicious, plonked my behind down on the base of a large statue.

"Honestly, no. I was semi-conscious at the time." Her small harrumph told me that we would be discussing that later, too. I sighed. "I came round for a few seconds and he was there looming over me like some fucking giant from a fairytale. Dark hair, I think. Jesus I've never seen anyone so big. He seemed interested in my scar, from what I can remember."

"Did he say anything?" Alice's voice was so tight with worry that I could picture her other hand effortlessly splintering the arm of her chair into kindling.

"Well, yeah. I think I tried to ask him who he was. But he seemed more interested in who I was. Oh, and he had a Scottish accent."

Silence. It dragged on, and on, the rest of me shivering as every single hair on my body stood erect with trepidation. I could only manage the smallest of whispers.

"Alice?" Her lack of response was stretching my already taut nerves as thin as they could go and then some. I kept looking around me nervously, half expecting to be pounced on with no warning at any second. All I saw was an old woman feeding some ducks from a bridge and a businessman looking at the tourist information map, surreptitiously scratching his backside.

"I…I…Bella, I think…CARLISLE!"

Fuckshit. This is so much worse than I thought it was. I folded in on myself a little, hugging my arms tight around me. I heard a little scuffle on the other end of the phone, a couple of brief slaps and a 'No I'm talking to her' before I heard Alice again.

"Bella? Bella?"

"Yes, yes still here."

"Sweetie, I'm going to put Carlisle on the phone. I think he can explain a bit better than I can." She sounded defeated. The phone crackled as it changed hands.

"Bella, it's been a long time." Carlisle sounded stressed but there was an undercurrent of relief and affection that I felt in equal measure. I may be in deep shit, but I couldn't help feeling incredibly happy that I was finally getting to speak to them again after so long. I could kick myself later about that.

"Carlisle." I heard my voice crack. "It's so good to speak to you."

"To you, too, Bella. We have a lot to catch up on, I know, but I'm afraid that must wait. From what Alice has told me, you are in a very precarious position."

"You guys seem to know a lot more about it than I do." I frowned, puzzled. "Unless it was because I told her I was semi-conscious. I should have explained it was only coz I fell and hit my chin in the…"

"It wasn't that. Bella, where are you?"

"I…ah…I honestly don't know if I'm OK with saying where I am, Carlisle. It's not that I don't trust you, but with the Volturi after me…"

"The Volturi? I'm sorry to say, but the Volturi are nothing compared to the problem you may be facing. You mentioned a vampire called Alistair to Alice?"

"That's right. Bit of a perv I think." I was trying so hard to lighten the weight I felt inside, but my attempt at humour fell flat even to my ears.

"If it's the Alistair that I know…you said he was big? Huge? With a Scottish accent?"

"That's right. Those are the only two things I really remember about him. But…he did do something odd." I could hear the question in Carlisle's soft 'hmmm'. "When I regained consciousness the second time I was posed. Like a mannequin."

"Posed how?"

"Like…like a suicide victim." I heard his angry hiss. "He'd taken one of the blades out of my razor and drawn a little scratch up the inside of my wrist and posed me with the blade in the other hand." I clutched the sleeve of my coat tightly around the offended limb, as if I could make it not have happened if I pressed hard enough.

"Son of a motherfu" was all I heard before the phone smashed against something and the line went dead. I stared at mine in shock. Carlisle doesn't lose his temper. That's like…like a polar bear wearing nipple clamps. Does. Not. Happen. Less than ten seconds went by before my phone showed an incoming call from a different number.

"Bella, I know you don't want to tell me, but I need to know where you are and I need to know right now. Please, for the love of god, tell me you are not in Scotland." My mouth gaped open at his words. I tried as hard as I could but for a few awful seconds I couldn't make my throat work.

"I…I…ah…Carlisle, I…"

"Bella, please!" I heard a menacing snarl and it hurried my response even though I thought it was directed at someone who was in the room with him.

"I can't, Carlisle, I'm….I am in Scotland. I have been for the last two months." I was shaking hard now. This was the first time since that day in the ballet studio with James that I had felt such intense fear. But it was worse this time, because I was miles away from the only people I knew could help me, and I had not walked into this situation willingly, or even well informed.

"Sweet jesus." Taking the lord's name in vain was a first for him, also, I thought. That I had heard, anyway; his and Esme's 'special time' was something that just did not exist inside my head. "Bella, wherever you are, I need you to get up and start walking. If there's a train station nearby, it'll be busy as well as the best way for you to get out of Scotland so start walking there and do it now."

My legs had forced me to stand and were making their way out of the park onto the street before I could even think about what I was doing. I had a rough idea in which direction the train station was, and turned my feet to face accordingly. Like the city it served it wasn't huge, but there would be a decent amount of people there among whom I could lose myself, hopefully long enough to board a train and escape South to England.

"OK, Carlisle, I'm walking now and I should be there within twenty minutes. Please, please tell me what you know, or what you think is going on; you are really freaking me out and I have no idea why." He sighed softly.

"Is there anything else you can tell me about what he did while you were unconscious?" he asked in a more level voice.

"Well, he uh he wrote 'RUN' across the mirror in my blood. This…this is bad isn't it, Carlisle?" I was trying to fight the tears that were tightening my throat but I was having some serious trouble finding my big girl pants right now.

During my years on the run, away from my family, my home and everything I knew, I'd been sometimes days without food or somewhere warm to sleep and I'd not cried as many times as I had today. The notion that this may be one of the last days I had left to experience flitted through my head. I banished it immediately but it still made the bile rise in my throat. Had I spent so long around vampires that I'd started to feel immortal myself? Untouchable? Even fleeing from the Volturi, there was stress, a tremendous amount of stress, but not nearly as much fear as there should have been considering what they could do to me if they chose. As frightening as they were, they still constituted part of the known Bella universe.

Perhaps it was beyond foolish to believe so, but some part of me was, I think, quite convinced that should they have caught up with me I would have been able to talk my way out of it, or call upon my ties to the Cullen's yet again. I didn't like this sudden, unimpeachable knowledge that I was very, very fucked. And that I might be just as dead in the near future, perhaps even today. If Alistair had proven anything with his ghastly little Bella-exhibit, it was that I am most definitely touchable.

Jasper POV

"Son of a motherfucking whore cock shit!" I wanted to move but I couldn't, I was too astounded at what had just come out of Carlisle's mouth. I think I probably would have been less mesmerised if I'd suddenly come across a ten breasted woman; there wasn't a chance in hell of tearing my eyes away from Carlisle in this state.

"Bella, please!"

I could hear from Bella's voice that she was frightened out of her wits, and Carlisle's emotions were making me nauseous, so I assumed she was right to be scared. He was cycling from terror through denial and protective concern to murderous rage. And that killer inside suited him very well. I had never seen him look so much like a wild thing and was desperately grateful to Esme for choosing that moment to enter the room and move silently over to Carlisle. She laid her hand on his arm in all her gentleness, and although his anger retained its magnitude, his malevolent emotions weren't the explosive chaos they had been a moment ago. Only a mate had that effect on us, and I felt their bond tighten to sing in the air between them as she mimicked his footsteps, all the while keeping one point of contact with his restless body.

Up until this point it would never, ever have occurred to me to be afraid of Carlisle. Seeing his face as he hurled the phone across the room, in a moment of blessed true clarity, my respect for him increased tenfold as did my pride in being numbered among his sons. Fucker has game. Gotta give him that.

The second I tried sending a dose of calm at him he rounded on me with such a ferocious snarl that I backed off as quickly as I could without provoking him. His eyes were deep, black, bottomless; that had been a very bad idea. I've heard Carlisle mention Alistair before, but rarely in a sentence of more than ten words, and always in as evasive a way as possible. If he couldn't even bring himself to talk about him, then what kind of shit Bella had gotten her sweet ass into? I picked up the scattered pieces of Ali's cellphone from where it had hit the dresser and flicked them into the trash. He was using mine to speak to Bella now and I hoped that it didn't meet the same fate. I'd called Rose and Emmett while I was downstairs, though, so at least if it did bite the big one it'd have accomplished that much in its short but drama riddled life.

Keeping an ear on the conversation with Bella, I chose a chair on the opposite side of the room from Carlisle's temper and concentrated on sending some calming waves to my Aligirl. It took an enormous amount of fucking anything to stress her out and she was more so now than she had been when we'd been trying to keep Bella from James. Her face looked pinched and her hands rubbed around and over themselves constantly as she watched Carlisle and listened to the exchange between he and Bella. I growled under my breath at no-one in particular that she was having to feel like that. She smiled in gratitude as the relaxing vibes reached her and came over to me to stroke my hair and throw one of her arms around my neck while I purred into her embrace. That was just like her; she was the one who was strung out but she put my feelings before her own as always.

Carlisle was pacing to and fro fitfully. If he hadn't been in such an ornery state I might have tried to get a gauge on his emotions again but I wasn't gonna push my luck. When I heard Bella say on the other end of the line that she was in Scotland, I felt something very strange from him come hurtling out at me with a speed and certainty that shocked me. Sorrow and resignation. The only time I'd felt that particular combination, I think, was from shell shocked soldiers about to have a limb amputated; even condemned men about to die held out hope until the end. Considering how important Bella is to all of us, that made me shiver a little despite my own proficiency in battle. Was Alistair some worse kind of monster than your garden variety vampire? Surely whatever it was that had Carlisle so tied up in knots we would face it as a family, as we always had, and prevail.

I watched Carlisle slump into a chair, rubbing his hand across his face, as Bella told him what Alistair had written on the mirror and my certainty faltered. If it were possible, he looked older than he had five minutes ago. Staying so tightly controlled was taking its toll on him, although he was not quite so close to breaking point as he had been when we realised that Bella had disappeared without a trace.

Alice and I were waiting at the airport to meet Bella's flight. It would be almost a year now since any of us had seen her, when Emmett, Rose, Alice and I had taken her to Las Vegas for her 19th birthday. I never would have thought Bella would turn into such a party animal but her argument with one of the table dancers had been almost as much of a disaster as Alice stumbling across her singer shortly afterwards. Bless Rose for stepping in on Bella's side. Despite both of those things, I'm proud to say we showed Bella a damn good time, although the rest of us weren't sure whether to be insulted or amused that Bella's favourite memory of the night had been her subsequent night in jail with Rose. Selfishly, I took a huge amount of satisfaction from every single good birthday memory we were able to give her. She had never once blamed me for trying to take a bite out of her, but that didn't mean I didn't still feel a little lingering guilt over tarnishing such an important birthday. It had become important to all of us to make sure that her birthdays after that were filled with as much fun and happiness as possible. I loved that we could make her feel that without the use of my gift. And, I could tell, so did she.

There was no sign, as we waited for her flight, that there was anything amiss with Bella. There were no worrying visions from Alice, no ominous calls from the Volturi, no nameless sense of foreboding. If anything, quite the opposite. Alice was practically bouncing on the spot with anticipation. Ironically, it was probably her best performance as a human yet; we find it notoriously difficult to fidget in the same manner as they do. There were tickets to a Broadway show in Alice's bag. I knew she was dying to give them to Bella the second she saw her, but her visions had shown her that she'd get the best reaction if she waited until the last minute. Damn me but that didn't stop her pleading with me every ten minutes to be able to give them to the poor girl on arrival.

Having to wait was absolutely killing her, and several of the airport lounge's seats had paid the price for it. I was hoping no-one would notice the bent metal and punctured upholstery until we were well on our way back to our house in the hills outside the city. Her struggle for control over dragging people willy-nilly into the hectic world that was Alice was almost as great as my struggle to deny myself human blood. As different as those two things were, they were both so ingrained in our natures that I wasn't any less proud of her for her control than I was of myself for mine. And that was what made us such an inseparable team; polar opposites, but with such a profound understanding of each other that half the time we didn't need to talk. The thing that I love most about my marriage to my beautiful mate is that our silences mean as much as our conversations. Even this agitated, this buoyed with excitement, there was a part of her that was so calm, so still. The centre of her, where her love, her family bonds lie unchanging and undiminishing, was something very like the eye of a hurricane.

I don't know if we could have stopped Bella disappearing for good if we'd had some warning, but we would have tried. When her flight arrived, we watched as person after person walked through the arrivals lounge, each and every one of them not Bella. By the time we realised she simply hadn't been on it, Alice was almost stammering in panic. It must have been a split second decision on Bella's part; if the action comes to pass quickly enough after the decision is made, there is no vision to be had because what has been decided and the domino effect of its consequences are already in the past. I felt utterly helpless as I stroked Alice's hair while she whispered hurriedly on her phone to Carlisle. When I saw a swish of black clothes and pale golden hair across the lounge, I shushed Alice quickly and whispered one word to her.

"Jane."

Alice's mouth shut instantly and she shut the phone, knowing Carlisle would have heard me. I grabbed her hand and hurried her through the crowds and back out to where Emmett and Rose were waiting in Em's Jeep. They knew the second they saw us come rushing out without Bella that something had gone horribly wrong. If I'd not been so worried, I would have found it not more than a little amusing that Rose felt more worry than Emmett did. But then, after their little post-fisticuffs night in jail together, she and Bella had become almost as deeply entwined in and with each other as Bella and Alice were. Thus began three years of searching and hoping.

Bella POV

Carlisle continued to talk to me as I walked. I wish I could say that his soothing voice was calming, but everything he was saying was just putting even more pressure on my already fraught nerves.

"I get that he's a human drinker, Carlisle, and that that's dangerous, especially to me coz even under the body odour and the grime I still probably smell damn tasty. What I don't get is why this is so much worse than me coming across any other human drinker. We all know that some of them can be cruel, even play with their prey. What is it about Alistair that I'm missing here?"

"Bella, I have known Alistair for over two hundred years. I am probably the only person or vampire that he considers something akin to a friend. And by friend I mean I am likely the only vampire he would allow a few seconds to explain themselves rather than killing them on sight. You must leave Scotland. He is hunting you, so he will follow you. I may be able to talk to him if we can get him on soil foreign to him, but even I would be torn apart the second he laid eyes on me if I had the audacity to set foot in the country he has claimed as his own, especially to interfere with his…pursuit of you."

"His country? That's…isn't that a little strong? An entire country? Surely the other vampires that live here must…" He cut me off before I could finish my sentence. I might have been a little annoyed if I hadn't been so very fucking close to peeing my pants.

"There. Are. No. Vampires. In. Scotland." I gasped. "Even the Volturi won't venture there because they are so afraid of him. And on the rare occasion that he visits Italy, they recall the entire guard, wherever they happen to be in the world, and they go into total lockdown until he leaves. After his first visit, where they lost over ninety percent of their guard, they will not risk facing him again. Do you understand, Bella? I cannot stress enough how dangerous he is, how volatile; he almost exterminated the largest group of gifted vampires in the world on that first meeting. And, it pains me to say, that the only person who can help you until you are out of that country is you."

I was shaking like a leaf at this point. I couldn't wrap my mind around what Carlisle had just told me and it felt like my legs did not want to keep me vertical for much longer.

"Carlisle what can I do?" I still search frantically around me for any sign of him every few seconds and my breathing was becoming harsh. I had to calm down somehow but it felt impossible.

"The first train to England is still your best option. And not just across the border, go as far South as you can, to the coast. Are you near the station yet?"

"Yes, I think it's only a few blocks away now. Will you stay on the line with me? I'm just…I don't think I can stay calm by myself." I choked back the sobs that were making it hard to talk. I had taken only a dozen more steps when something occurred to me, something that stopped me in my tracks and sent prickles up and down my spine. "Carlisle," I said slowly "if he…came across someone that I had touched, someone who had my smell on them, what would he do?"

"I think you know the answer to that, Bella." My vision narrowed to a pinpoint and there was only one word screaming round and round in my head.

"Sophie!"

I swivelled on one foot and pushed off at a ninety degree angle with the other, urging my legs to find the energy for longer, faster strides.

"Change of plan, Carlisle." I ignored his cry of frustration and dropped the hand that held the phone low to my waist.

Having turned away from the route to the train station, I forced myself to run fast, faster, my backpack thumping painfully against my ribs. I raced down narrow streets, across a corner of the park, through an alley. As I reached the first gentle downward slope of the hill at the bottom of which was where I had last seen Sophie and first seen her Da, I saw the familiar blinking of red and blue lights behind the buildings. I sprinted down the hill, past windows and doors, gaining speed thanks to the incline and puffing like my lungs were about to give out.

As I rounded the last corner I saw the stationary ambulance and the paramedics loading a stretcher with a zipped, black body bag on it into the rear of the vehicle. My mind grabbed onto and repeated the same phrase as I covered the remaining metres to the busy scene, 'nonononononononono'. I stopped on the periphery of the action and cast my eyes around, looking for something or someone that I recognised, trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of the blonde hair or small form of Sophie. If I had led him to her I couldn't…no, don't think that don't think that.

How could seconds seem so much like hours? They stretched out in agonising detail until I found what I was looking for. I could hear Carlisle calling my name over and over through the phone but it was a leaden weight and I couldn't lift it to my ear until I knew for certain. Finally, eyes. The eyes I found looked back at me with recognition.

The old lady from the bakery didn't look at me quite as kindly as she had before. My entrance told her all she needed to know about my part in what had happened just outside her shop. I glanced back at the gurney carrying the body and saw the smallest corner of Da's vomit beige coat protruding from the zipper. The old woman turned to face me fully and her eyes flicked down to the little girl asleep in her arms. Her limbs looked awkward, perhaps sedated rather than sleeping, and who wouldn't have needed to be. I hadn't believed in anything enough to pray since I was smaller than Sophie, but I prayed now. I prayed that she hadn't seen it, hadn't smelled the blood that was spattered in two glistening ribbons across the opposite wall, hadn't heard her father's last breath or cry.

Another woman stepped up to the bakery owner, perhaps thirty years her junior but so similar in looks that it had to be her daughter. She nodded confidently at her mother and held out her arms demandingly. The old woman patted Sophie's back and ran her fingers through the fine mess of blonde curls before easing her into her daughter's arms.

I didn't understand at first why she had been spared by the giant hunting me; she'd hugged me tightly and my smell must be all over her. Until I realised that Da would have had my smell all over him too. But, more than that, he would have had the scent of my fear on him and my skin under his dirty fingernails. I remembered what Edward had told me about the instinctive reaction of a vampire to another vampire interfering with or even simply approaching near their kill, and it became clear. It did nothing to ease my mind, but I was more grateful than I could put into words that he had attacked me this morning and thus taken his daughter's place.

I didn't dare move any closer, but the daughter listened to something her mother said and also turned to me. She was smiling, and I recognised just how beautiful the older lady must have been in her youth. She saw my hesitation and took some small steps toward me, everything about her way of moving was gentle. She stopped in front of me, her smile said a great deal of what she grasped of my part in all this, and of Sophie's importance to me.

"She'll be mine now." Her voice was as soft and lilting as Sophie's.

"I know." I nodded my acceptance of this. I thought that the little girl in her arms probably wouldn't know how lucky she was for a long time yet.

"He was bound to meet an end of some kind sooner or later. We've been biding our time until we could do this for her. Ye ken how useless social services are; it would hae taken them months or years to get her away from him."

"I do. I'm glad she'll be safe now." I could feel the tears trickling silently down my face and was thankful that she both understood their presence and refrained from mentioning them. "I…I envy you just a little, for having a lifetime with her ahead of you. I'm too young to be a mom and my situation…" we both let the sentence trail off without remark. "I only met her for a few minutes and I think I love her."

"That's every child's gift to us. They can make us feel when nothing else can." I swear, all Scottish women are part witch; they have a wisdom and a simple connectedness that they seem to be born with.

"That's very true." I smiled then, I couldn't help it. Just thinking about how Sophie made me feel was enough to banish the day's terrifying events for a moment. I held a hand out to touch her while she slept but hesitated, not wanting to put her in any more danger. I berated myself; my smell was already all over her, and adding to it was a selfishness that she shouldn't have to pay for. "Bathe her." I murmured, receiving a brief nod in return. I allowed myself the length of one breath to stroke my finger over her silky cheek and tug at a curl before withdrawing my hand. She was still warm. I was satisfied with that and turned away from them with a nod of my own to Sophie's new mother and the knowledge that she'd be thoroughly loved.

I pointed my feet back the way I had come, put one in front of the other and lifted the phone back to my ear.

~Sin~

I'm trying to work in the Scottish accent in a few important words, eg. hae (have), nae (no), ken (know) and ye (you) without translating entire sentences phonetically. It might be slightly more correct if I did do that, but I've read stories where authors did this for Jasper's accent and it ruined almost every scene with him in because it was just too much effort to decipher constantly, even when they didn't get the accent horribly wrong. I'm pretty sure that, like they did, if I tried to use it too much, my thoroughly imperfect grasp of the accent I'm working with would be too apparent. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I loved most of it, had a horribly difficult time writing Jasper's pov because I got stuck, mostly due to the fact that while it was necessary, I was looking forward to writing what came after it. Was Jasper's pov too short, btw? There's a lot of backstory to tell, but I'm trying not to piss you guys off by having chunks of flashback that are too big and don't leave room for the present day story to continue very far. Perhaps at some point I can manage a whole chapter of flashback followed by a normal chapter posted at the same time so we can have the best of both worlds. Let me know. Until next time…

1st Feb 2013: Having thought long and hard about one particular comment from a reader, I've decided that yes, if Bella had been so panicked about her scent being all over Sophie, she wouldn't have left without warning the woman to remove it, so there is one tiny change in the last paragraph. Apologies in advance if this change shows up as a new chapter in your inbox, for those of you with the story on alert; you shouldn't have to wait much more than another few days for the next, much delayed, chapter.