A/N: First, I want to apologize for sporadic updating. That is not normally like me, but I have been dealing with an occipital neuralgia causing a migraine for almost two months. Docs are working on getting it fixed, but until it goes away, I am finding it is hard to get on the computer every day. Sorry. Once it is gone, I will be back to my regular updating schedule.

For this story… I've always felt like Alice had an old soul (and not just because she had been around for a while) and Charlie has one as well, so I think it really could work (and since it was a reader suggestion, I thought it would be great to incorporate). Bella/Jasper is still the main pairing, and there are still a few things still to reveal about them. After this chapter things are going to pick up a lot. Enjoy!

Chapter 39 – Looking for Gold

Gold with specks of black, brown, and copper. Had the color gold always been so deep and warm liquid molten lava. Was lava gold? She wasn't sure. The only thing that Bella knew is that at the age of ten she had never felt more safe and warm as she had when she looked into the eyes of this stranger. His hands were a surprise to her because she thought if his eyes were so warm, his whole body must have been heated as well, but it wasn't. His hands were as frigid as ice and gave her a chill, and yet at the same time she didn't feel cold. She still felt warm and safe and something else.

Bella had always been taught that strangers were supposed to be something feared, something she should be wary of, however, she couldn't feel like that about JW. With just one glance, he made her feel secure, safe, loved, and special. With that one look, she knew she had a place in this world that was more important than taking care of her erratic mother or harboring feelings of abandonment in regards to her absent father. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, with JW at her side, no harm would come to her and she could trust him, lay her worries and doubts at his feet, and he would take care of her. And when they parted, she felt like he had taken a part of her with him. Was it normal for a ten year old to feel like this? She didn't care know and didn't care.

Day after day, she went back to the park to search for him even though she knew he wouldn't be there. She began to look for his face and eyes in the people that surrounded her, and never found him. Then she started to forget about his face, his hair, but never the cold and never the gold eyes. Those eyes smiled at her every night as soon as she closed her eyes.

Or had she forgotten? Looking around her, five years had passed and now she was fifteen. Everyone had the same eyes: gold. No, they weren't quite right. They weren't JW's eyes. Her head whipped to and fro searching for the pair of eyes that would calm her, give her the sense of safety she needed and sought. Where were they? Where was JW?

A sense of shaking pulled the brunette from her thoughts, and her eyes darted to the side meeting the golden eyes she had been searching for in her dream. Dream? It couldn't have been. She had been completely awake, but she had been completely oblivious to everything around her.

"Bella? Darlin' are you alright?" Jasper asked worried. He had left her sitting at the window writing in her journal when he had gone to take a shower, and suddenly feelings of fear, worry, and ineptness assaulted him and he rushed to her side calling out her name, but she never heard him. Her red eyes were wide open and full of terror, and still she never responded to his presence until he started to emit calmness and placed his hand on her shoulder. The moment he made contact and shook her ever so slightly, she seemed to snap out of it. What the hell had happened to his mate? He would have said she was dreaming or sleeping if it wasn't for the fact she was a vampire and didn't sleep any longer.

It took her a moment to register in her head that the man standing in front of her was the real JW, he was really there and at her side. What had that been? A memory? She didn't remember anything happening to her at fifteen. For that matter, nothing happened to her until she had moved back to Forks. "I'm…I'm fine." Forcing a smile, she stretched to kiss him, however, his lips didn't return the favor.

"Are you sure? Wanna tell me what that was then?"

"It was nothing. Really."

"Really? Darlin', I called your name at least four times and you never answered me. Now I know you don't sleep, so what the hell was that? You seemed scareder than a cat at a barrel of water."

Scared? She remembered feeling it as she searched for Jasper's eyes, but had she projected it strongly enough for him to feel it as well?

"Bella, we are connected as mates, and the bond has only grown and gotten stronger now that you're a vampire and we consummated our relationship. That being said, I would have to be pretty damn dense not to feel the emotions you were lettin' out given the fact I'm an empath." He brushed her hair out of her face, "Now tell me what's wrong. Sometimes if ya talk about it, it'll make ya feel better." When she still looked hesitant, he held up three fingers and said, "Boy Scouts honor."

Snorting, she retorted, "I didn't realize they had Boy Scouts during your boyhood days."

"They didn't, but it sounded good."

His sideways smile was her undoing. His accent had gotten stronger due to the emotions he was feeling and she knew she had caused it. He had cast a spell on her and she could not break free… not that she wanted to. No, she wanted to be under his spell for the rest of her existence; just as she wanted him under hers. "I was looking for gold."

"Looking… for… gold?" He figured it was better to wait for more of an explanation because hers left him more confused than when he first walked into the room.

Shaking her head, she ran a hand though her hair and stared out the window again, gathering her thoughts and organizing them so that they made sense. "When I was ten and met you in the park, I should have been afraid of you. I was always told to stay away from strangers because strangers were bad. They would take little children away from their mothers and do bad things to them. Don't accept anything from strangers, don't go with strangers, don't do this, and don't do that. The only thing that I was told I could do with or to a stranger was kick him or her if they tried to touch me, scream in their ear as loud as possible, and then run away from them. I didn't do any of that with you."

Memories of the first time he had met the precocious ten year old popped into his head and he smiled, "No, you were quite talkative and asked a lot of questions. You were a curious little girl."

"Not normally," she corrected him, her voice sounded almost bewildered.

"Really?"

"My mom was always a tornado that I would clean up after. She took care of me, but I think there were times when I played the adult more than she did, even when I was ten. That day I decided to do something for me and not do what I was supposed to do, and I chased that kitten and ran into you. I should have been scared and I wasn't. I remember overhearing Alice say that I should have been repelled by you, I never felt that at all. What did she mean?"

Jasper leaned against the wall next to her and answered, "Vampires are a lethal weapon. Our bodies are designed to hunt and kill. Humans are our normal prey. Think about it like this. When a lion hunts the gazelle, as soon as the gazelle knows the lion is there, they try to run away… to escape. Most humans with any sense of self-preservation will have the same reaction. They don't know why, but their heart will speed up and they will feel scared of us, and at the same time they are drawn to us. Our scent, beauty, and presence attract humans, but they keep their distance at the same time."

"It isn't only because you want them to stay away?" She blurted remembering how the Cullen's held themselves apart from the others in the lunch room her first day in school.

"No, some of that is them keeping their distance. Although, I will admit that it is also us trying to keep the humans at arm's length. Humans are still the prey we crave the most. We have made the conscious choice to hunt animals instead of humans because we don't want to kill humanity; and for those of us with gifts, sometimes it is torture to take a human life."

"What do you mean?"

"I feel the human's emotions. Edward can hear their thoughts. In the moments when you drink a human's blood, our gifts are more like curses."

She hadn't thought about it like that, but she could understand how it would make the process difficult. For her, it was more about not wanting to bite a human - her friends and family. Shaking her head, she decided to leave that for now, "So when I was ten, I should have been scared and repelled, kicked you, yelled in your ear, and ran away."

"Probably." He stared at her for a moment before asking, "What's goin' on in that head of yours?"

She turned to look him in the eyes, those same gold eyes that had captivated her at such a young age, "I never felt scared. I felt warm and safe. For the first time in my life, I knew everything would be alright. I didn't have to worry about what would happen tomorrow, if my mom would remember to pay the bills, clean the house, or anything else. Your eyes were gold that night. I thought they were the warmest thing I had ever seen, and I instinctively knew you would protect me as long as I was with you." Without breaking eye contact, she grabbed his hand and weaved their fingers together, "Your eyes were warm and your hands were cold. I hadn't been expecting that. I thought if your eyes were so warm, the rest of you had to be as well."

"Yah, it doesn't quite work that way," Jasper swallowed hard. He wanted her. Hell, he always wanted her, but the moment she grabbed his hand, his libido shot into overdrive. A normal man would not be able to keep up with conversation, and not for the first time since she had returned to him, he was glad his brain and body could both multitask; however, even a normally simple task seemed to be getting harder and harder… along with his dick.

"Your hand's not cold now."

"Darlin', if you don't stop rubbin' your fingers over my skin, you're gonna find yourself on your back in a couple of seconds and this conversation will be placed on the backburner."

"Is that a promise or a threat?"

True to his word, Jasper grabbed her and threw her on the bed with enough force, she bounced twice before settling down on the mattress. Her jeans were ripped off of her along with her underwear before she finished bouncing, and the moment she stopped, he buried himself deep within her heat. She was already wet and waiting for him, ready for his cock to be driven in and out of her, hurdling her towards climax. Reaching between them, he pinched her clit and she screamed his name, but he was nowhere near done with her. Flipping her over, he entered her from behind and bit down on her neck causing her to moan and buck back onto him, driving him even deeper than before.

Electric shocks coursed through Bella as she moved her hips back and forth, meeting his rhythm movement for movement. In and out, he pumped his member into her with ease, scraping the roof of her entrance and forcing those nerve endings to feel pleasure with each thrust. She cried out his name again. How many times had she climaxed for him? How many times had he sent her over the edge? Jasper was like a drug to her, the more she had, the more she wanted. She was addicted. Feeling his fingers rubbing her clit again, his thrusts became harder, more erratic. He was close and so was she. One, two, three… Everything exploded and she saw nothing but white, and a moment later she could feel his cum flowing into her, filling her, coating her insides… and she savored it. She wanted more. He was her drug, her addiction, and she would never get enough of him.

It was long minutes before Jasper decided to speak again, "Darlin' what was this about? You lookin' for gold?"

"I don't know. Something is just out of reach. It feels like a memory, but it couldn't have been. I never got lost again, at least I don't remember getting lost. I do remember looking for you sometimes, but I never found you. And then for some reason I pictured myself at 15 and everyone had gold eyes, but not the right color of gold. I was looking for you again. And the next thing I know, you were standing here in a towel." What had started out as a serious explanation, ended on a snicker. She flipped over and pinned her mate to the bed. She didn't want to talk any longer. They were leaving tomorrow, and today she wanted him. Slowly lowering herself on his dick, she took him in and threw her head back in ecstasy. No, he was no longer cold. He was hot, and he made her burn for him.

Forks…

Charlie had been holed up in his borrowed room for a day and a half now. He would have sworn Carlisle and the rest of the Cullen family all needed to be admitted into the looney bin if it wasn't for the fact that as crazy as it sounded, something inside of him, something minute and almost nonexistent, believed everything the doctor said. Vampires? Really? Did something like that really exist in this day and age? Call it police instinct or whatever, but something kept him in that house with a family who seemed to wholeheartedly believe they were vampires: blood drinking, undead vampires. Who knows, maybe he had been transported to the Twilight Zone. It was either that or he was going crazy too. He didn't know any more. The only thing he did know, nothing about this serial killer case made sense, so if even a hint of what Carlisle said is true, it might explain the unexplainable.

That wasn't the only issue though. There was something about the petite woman that had greeted him when he arrived. He had never met her before, and yet, he recognized something about her. Maybe it was too many years on the job as a cop. Everyone started to look like someone else and no one had an unusual mug any more. That had to be it. Or maybe he had met her and didn't remember. He didn't know, but that was the least of his concerns right now because for the moment, he seemed to find himself in the middle of a war between mythological beings that shouldn't exist: the war and the beasts. Was he a prisoner of war or were they truly trying to protect him? And what about his daughter? He needed to warn her about this family. Glancing out the window, he wondered if there was a way to breakout without being found out. It was time to put his years of police work to the test. His only hope is that he came out in the lead.