I had issues with the ending of this chapter as well. I hope it's to your liking. :)
CHAPTER 18
The next morning, I got up early again and went on patrol. Garrett didn't join us this time, opting to go on a hunt with Alice. I don't think he will take on the animal diet, but with the human blood supply running low, all three of the human drinkers we currently housed had to make the sacrifice. Peter seemed to be the only one who complained, but I could tell he loved the chase.
There were less of the flesh eaters today, only a group of 60 or so, from what Charlotte and Peter reported. We got through them easily, Garrett's non attendance not making a difference. We got home and Edward was still missing. He hadn't returned from running out after our fight yesterday.
Alice joined me in the kitchen after I showered, and gracefully sat at the breakfast bar with a huge smile on her face.
"I don't think we will have to worry about Edward anymore." Alice said. I stopped what I was doing in the fridge.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"He is going to come back with her." Alice stated.
"When?" I asked.
"That's still undecided, but I saw them returning here, together. He hasn't found her yet, he's just running blindly at the moment." I resumed getting food out of the fridge. This was good news.
"I was actually coming to see you after I'd eaten." I said.
"I know. You wanted to find a way to get Ana here quicker after yesterday's run in that you and Edward had." I nodded my head, absorbing myself in putting together a meal. I skipped breakfast this morning, and I was starving.
"Will he know she is his mate or will he fight it?" I asked, putting some pre made soup in the microwave and a bread roll in the grill.
"He can't fight the pull, none of us can." I nodded, knowing all too well what she was talking about.
"It's harder for a vampire than a human. It's near impossible to leave a mates side until you claim them. It brings them physical and emotional pain" Alice elaborated. I felt so guilty. What had Jasper gone through while I was still with Edward? I had to find him and apologise.
"Stop, Bella. You didn't know," Alice said, grabbing my shoulder before I could bolt. "He understands. It's not your fault." I took a deep breath.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I whispered.
"It wasn't my place to tell you, Bella. It would have altered things. Edward would have put up a fight." Alice said quietly, turning me around to face her.
"Trust me, Jasper understood. He stayed close to you. He felt the love you had for him. He knew you couldn't be pushed to break up with Edward." Alice said, embracing me. I still felt terrible. I wanted to apologise; beg him for forgiveness for being so ignorant. Alice pulled away from me and put her hands firmly on my shoulders.
"Don't. Part of being someone's mate is knowing them inside and out. He knows more about you and understands you more than anyone. He knows it's not your fault, and he knows how upset you would have been if you knew. He doesn't want an apology, and he doesn't want your sympathy. Forget I said anything. If it makes you feel any better, because you are still human, it wasn't as bad." Alice said firmly. I just nodded my head, and went back to my lunch. It was ready so I sat down and started to eat. Alice sat next to me and put her hand on my knee.
"I won't say anything. But I'm glad you told me. I just feel terrible." I said, looking her straight in the eye. She smiled.
"I know. Now, hurry up and eat. I believe Jasper, Peter, Charlotte and Emmett are going to barge in here in five minutes and want to do some more looting." I perked up.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yes." She said.
"I'll loot you something nice." I said with a genuine smile.
"I know, and I'll love it." She said, getting up from the breakfast bar and walking out of the kitchen. Sure enough, just as I washed up my plate, they all walked into the kitchen together, wearing mischievous grins on their faces. Jasper strode over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind while I was washing my dishes up.
"Do you want to come looting with us in one of the deserted towns?" Jasper whispered in my ear.
"Of course. Alice already told me that you all wanted to go looting, and I promised to loot her something nice." I said, my grin matching theirs.
"We better take two cars then." Emmett said, laughing.
"Make that three cars, we will need the space." Rose said, walking into the kitchen.
"Are you you coming too, babe?" Emmett asked her.
"Yes. I haven't been shopping in a while. Besides, Bella might need some help getting Alice something nice." She concluded, turning to me with a small smile.
"I'll take the jeep." Emmett said.
"Will Carlisle loan us the Mercedes?" I asked Jasper.
"Of course I will, as long as you get Esme and I something nice, too." Carlisle said popping his head through the doorway, sharing the same grin we all had.
"I suppose we better get Garrett somethin' nice, too, or he might feel left out." Peter said sarcastically.
"Come on, let's get going. Peter," Jasper said, throwing his truck keys at Peter. "You and Char take my truck."
"I'm driving!" Char said, catching the keys and disappearing out the door. I stifled a laugh at Peter's unintelligible mumblings at his mate.
"I'll get your sword incase we run into any zombies." Jasper said, kissing me gently.
"I'll meet you in the car." I said, grabbing the Mercedes keys off the key hook.
We drove for about an hour at break neck speed. I wasn't paying attention to where we were going, only that we had pulled into a town roughly the size of Port Angeles. We stopped at a three story shopping complex and got out. The place looked much the same as Forks, except there were more deserted cars here and lots more rubbish flying about In the wind. Emmett got to the complex's doors first, and jimmied the lock so fast I didn't catch it. He opened the door with a face splitting grin and gestured for Rose to walk through first. He continued standing there until we all walked in. Once inside I was whisked off by Char and Rose upstairs. I was about to question them as to where they were going until I saw we were heading for a lingerie store.
"Will we be getting something for Alice in here?" I asked.
"Yes. I'm thinking something purple. That is her favourite colour at the moment." Rose answered.
"Better get somethin' dark green as well, that's Garrett's favourite colour." Char said with a grin.
"He will thank us." Rose added with a half smile.
We spent 20 minutes browsing, finding both purple and dark green lingerie with outrageous price tags. It seemed ridiculous. Even if I put the two garments together it still wouldn't be enough material to make a t-shirt. But, I could see the advantages. I grabbed a few matching pairs of underwear For myself. It wouldn't go astray. Char and Rose also picked up a few things for themselves. Once we were finished, we bagged up our stuff and left, now heading to some up market clothing store. While that wasn't really my taste, I did manage to find a nice pair of jeans and a jacket that I liked. I called out to Rose and Char that I was going to look for something nice for Carlisle and Esme. I walked around, checking out the different stores until I came upon a shop with different paintings, ornaments and statues. They all looked to be one of a kind and very expensive, so I set to work looking at all the pieces and checking them out. I came across a large painting. It was of a small village, during the late hours of night. It looked to be in the era that Carlisle was from. It was beautiful. All the attention to detail, the colour work; it was perfect and it screamed Carlisle. With that thought, I looked around some more. Almost instantly, I found a vase similar to the one of Esme's I broke. I never thought I would have the chance to replace it, so I wasn't going to pass this up. Besides, it was a two piece set. I pulled out my phone to text Jasper where I was and to bring towels and a Thick blanket to wrap this stuff up. It only took a minute before all three of them showed up, using their speed to wrap the items and put them in the car.
"What did you guys get up to?" I asked.
"We found a gun shop and stocked up." Emmett said.
"Cool. Got anything else you want to do?" I asked him. Emmett shrugged his shoulders, Peter looked thoughtful and Jasper was too busy looking at the pieces of art to care.
"Well, I have an idea. And because you guys are indestructible, It will be so much better!" I exclaimed.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Trolley surfing!" I announced. Jasper, Peter and Emmett stared at me confused.
"Ok, so what you do is you all grab a trolley, run with it then jump in. Who ever stays in the longest without falling out wins."
"I'm in! And I bet you are too, Peter. I know Jasper won't. He knows I'll win." Emmett said, clearly challenging Jasper.
"Your on." Jasper said, turning around slowly. We walked until I found some trolleys, which happened to be at the grocery store, and gave each of them a trolley. They took position and were off so fast I would have missed it if I blinked. Emmett cheated, of course, and they all ended up fighting with each other. I just shrugged my shoulders, grabbed another trolley and did some more looting in the grocery store. Once done there, I headed to the liquor department, but quickly needed another four trolleys. Might as well grab as much as possible. I raided the cigarettes behind the counter as well. I dragged my five trolleys back to the front of the store, and the guys still hadn't stopped. I called in the reinforcements, and lucky Char and Rose came when they did. I swear Emmett nearly lost an arm. I rolled my eyes at them.
"Make yourselves useful and grab a trolley each. Unless you want to do more shopping, I'd like to go now." I didn't wait for an answer, I started walking in the direction of the car. I was stopped by Jasper before I got to the front entrance.
"I'm sorry." He said sincerely.
"It's fine, let's just get this stuff in the car and head home." I said, grabbing his hand. We got to the cars and started unloading all our loot. Lucky we brought three cars, there is no way it would have all fit in just two. Just as the last bag was put away, everyone stiffened. I looked around but couldn't see anything.
"How far?" Rose asked.
"Four miles. If we leave now and go the long way, we can leave undetected." Jasper answered. Like a flash, I was in the car and heading home, Emmett and Peter close behind.
"why are we running? There is enough of us to obliterate them." I asked.
"no reason, it's getting late and you need to have some dinner." What? This didn't make sense.
"please, just trust me."
"Ok, Jasper, i will... For now." I will find out one way or another. Why would we run when we could kill them? There were five vampires after all. I will trust Jasper's judgement. How bad could it be?
We sat in silence the whole way home, the atmosphere tense. We all arrived home and went our separate ways, but not before I gave Alice, Esme and Carlisle their gifts. Alice was thrilled, just as Carlisle and Esme were. Jasper was still tense when we headed for bed a few hours later.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest, leaning against the headboard of the bed. I was only mildly annoyed that he had kept whatever it is that has him so tense from me. I was more concerned that my mate was so obviously stressed and seemed to be at war with himself. He sighed, running his hand through his hair, cursing Edward under his breath.
"What's Edward got to do with this?" I asked, confused. He looked at me with a pained expression.
"Jasper..." I whispered, reaching my hand out to his. He took it and rubbed his thumb across my knuckles gently.
"My job is to protect you, love you and look after you. This... This is something I need to protect you from. I can't tell or explain it to you, but I need you to trust me. I want you to take a break from patrolling for a few days. Go and see Charlie, hang out with the pack. Spend some time with Emmett. I will explain in time, but I can't right now." I digested his words slowly. I wanted to be angry, but I couldn't. Something was telling me to drop it, not argue with him.
"Ok. But don't keep it from me forever." I said with a smile. He pulled me into his arms and stroked my hair. I would still patrol, I'll get Emmett to take me. I know he would be more then willing. I'll wait till Jasper goes on a hunt tomorrow. He won't know. I didn't spend the last month or so training till I was almost vomiting to take a break. I could drag Rose along, too. My planning was interrupted by Jasper not so subtly showing me his desire for me. I discarded my plans for the moment to enjoy some private time with Jasper with no interruptions. This is, after all, my favourite way to end the day.