Alice was overcome with giddiness. It was a wonderful sight, seeing all three of her brothers so at ease, smiling, laughing, happily taking orders from Lilah. She was still disgruntled that they wouldn't let her work on her own, and in turn, she'd taken up the role of a mock-dictator, making sure every tree and shrub was planted just-so according to her vision, at perfectly spaced intervals. Alice, too, was happy to see Lilah being so lighthearted and playful. She knew she'd had a hard time coming to Forks. She deserved to have more than just one good day, but this was a start.
"I said seven feet away, Emmett, that's six!" Lilah said.
Emmett popped up, shovel in hand. He stopped the hole he was digging and stared at the one human incredulously, asking, "How the hell can you tell? Do you have a tape measure built into your brain?"
Edward glanced between the last tree Emmett had planted and the hole he was digging. He grinned, all too happy to tell his brother, "She's right, Em. You should go about a foot to the left."
Emmett grumbled, playfully exasperated, and moved a foot to the left.
"Lilah, I think you should move in with us," Alice said. "No one ever listens to me when I try to direct a redecoration project. We would get so much more done if you were the project leader!"
Already, Alice's mind was swimming with possibilities—redecorating her suite, building a ridiculous indoor pool complex in the back yard, even buying up a bunch of other homes to flip for a profit. She had already created a few dozen scenarios in which she could use Lilah's directing abilities to her advantage. Edward saw all of it, in stark contrast to Lilah's thoughts. She didn't mind the idea of working with Alice, but being regulated to the role she was currently in sounded torturous. She wanted to get her hands dirty. It had driven her mad, not being able to get in there and work today. She couldn't imagine doing much more of it, let alone how much Alice had in mind.
Again, Lilah's kind smile and slight nod to Alice betrayed nothing she had in her head. Edward had to laugh.
"Don't tell her," Lilah said.
Frowning slightly, Alice asked, "Tell me what?" Her eyes soon flashed with realization, and then she said, "You hate my idea."
"Not all of it. I'll help you get the troops mobilized, so to speak, but I want to be in the trenches with them."
Alice's nose scrunched. Getting down and dirty with the paint and power tools was not her idea of a good time. She didn't understand why it appealed to Lilah, but as she'd started to accept her horrible fashion choices, she would have to understand why Lilah insisted on doing the dirty work herself. Those were parts of Lilah that Alice couldn't wrap her head around, but parts of Lilah nonetheless. And as strange as they were, as Lilah was, in so many ways, Alice liked them.
Jasper, having finished up with his portion of the work, joined the other three, walking into a treasure trove of positive emotions. Alice had been given a new breath of life, having a new friend, someone to figure out. She was ecstatic to have someone new, and tentative, as Alice was learning how to build a relationship with Lilah, who did not give into her every whim like her family did. Even Edward was in a lighter mood than he'd been in a long time. Lilah had brought something silly and playful out of Edward, two words Jasper would've never used for him. She kept him on his toes. She wasn't like Emmett, who'd say exactly what was on his mind, and she wasn't like most people whose minds he read, because she didn't filter her thoughts to make them more palatable. She outright changed them. Not to lie, but rather to take every measure against offending or upsetting someone, or to guard her thoughts close to her chest. She was highly concerned with others. Making them happy, wanting to help them.
Jasper had rarely seen someone so concerned with the happiness of others. It was as if Lilah was, subconsciously, pushing out a will for those around her to be in good moods. She wanted to do for them, to do what she could to ensure their comfort and their joy. Having so much help, as she did now, was frustrating. But somehow she'd found a way to be grateful for it.
Endearing. Endearing was the best word that Jasper had for Lilah. Everything about her drew him in. Everything about her would draw anyone in. It was hard not to like a person who was truly, seriously devoted to bettering the lives of other people. Someone hardworking, unafraid to get their hands dirty, who found her own joy in making others smile.
Jasper could feel her joy. She was glad that she could entertain Edward, glad to put a smile on his face, as she'd already realized that was no easy feat. She was glad that she was able to offer Alice friendship, because she could see how much it meant to Alice, and because she'd already figured out what an honor it was to be Alice's friend. She was glad to tease Emmett, because playful banter was what he lived for. She was glad that she could provide them all with some fun, some laughter, because she'd deemed them all to be good, standup vampires for their offer of protection, something she didn't feel fully worthy of.
The most prominent, most basic thing about Lilah was that she did not project any judgement. It was the thing about her that everyone appreciated. They, all of them, were used to being judged by everyone they'd ever met. Other vampires judged them for their diet. Humans judged them for being too cold, too distant, obviously not quite human, but not in a way that they could ever put their fingers on.
There was no judgement from Lilah. She didn't think they were freaks, nor monsters. She saw Alice for Alice. Edward for Edward. Emmett for Emmett.
Maybe, sometime, she'd see Jasper for Jasper too. Only he wasn't sure he wanted that for her.
He looked at her, smiled at her, as she and Alice shared another laugh. He wasn't so confident in his ability to talk to her yet, but he did want to be involved, somehow. Show a modicum of his appreciation for her and what she'd already done for his family.
How the hell was he supposed to interact with a human? He wracked his brain. What had he done when he was human? Well, he'd interacted with other soldiers for the majority of the time he could remember as a human. Soldiers looked after one another, on and off the battlefield. Make sure everyone was safe, clean, fed, hydrated.
That was it.
"Would you like anything to drink, Lilah?"
It came rather suddenly out of his mouth, perhaps, but Lilah was gracious enough not to react to the slight faux pas. Edward grinned at him encouragingly, and Alice was doing her best to suppress an excited, supportive squeal—he was, after all, making an effort, as she had wanted him to do. On his own, too.
"Yes, please," Lilah said. "If it's not any trouble."
She started to fidget with her hands. She was appreciative, but nervous now. She'd have to get over that complex she had about not accepting anything from anyone, especially if she was planning on being friends with Alice.
"It's not any trouble," Jasper assured her. A bit uneasily, he found his lips curling into a smile of his own. "Emmett actually decided to experiment with making drinks, ever since he figured out he liked baking for you. There's every kind of tea, coffee, lemonade, and juice you could ask for in our kitchen now."
Lilah's freckled cheeks flushed. She hated feeling that someone had gone so out of their way. However, before she could go too far down that hole, Emmett sauntered over, all too excited.
"Oh, try the cherry lemonade!" he said. "I think that's the one that turned out best. It smelled the best, anyway. I printed off a recipe from the internet for that one."
"Okay. Sure, thank you."
Emmett nodded enthusiastically and went to bounce toward the house, only to be stopped mid-step by Edward, who grabbed him by the shoulder and reigned him in.
"Jasper offered, let him go," he said, not breaking eye contact with Jasper as his spoke. He flashed him a wink, too. A small sign of encouragement, as he knew how uneasy Jasper was feeling, in such foreign territory.
Emmett, being Emmett, did not catch on and merely rolled his eyes and told Jasper, "Get her a glass of one at the front of the refrigerator, with the cherries, in Esme's fancy crystal pitcher."
Jasper nodded. He started toward the house, Alice hopping along at his heels, all too happy with herself as she followed him inside.
"You're doing so good!" she said. He felt her love, support, and encouragement, though he didn't need his gift to pick up on any of it. She scurried around the kitchen island to catch up with him, so she could look him right in the face as he opened the fridge. "You're smiling. Since when does Jasper Whitlock smile so much? I told you, it'd be good for you to get to know her!"
He chuckled, pulling Emmett's cherry lemonade out, and then opening the cabinets to find a glass. What the hell kind of glass was he supposed to use? That opened up a new can of worms. One of Esme's nice crystal glasses would reflect how much Lilah was appreciated, but that could also seem like too much, too fancy. They had a set of plain glasses too. Was glass even the kind of thing one offered a guest, in a casual situation? He didn't know. He went for the plain glass, anyway, wondering if he'd come to regret his choice later on.
"It's nice, being able to be so open with someone," Alice said. The wheels in her head turned as she tried to figure out how she could say what she wanted to. "I feel kind of selfish saying this, but I'm glad she's here. The circumstances are awful, I know, but I…I'm glad I get the chance to get to know her."
Jasper nodded. He understood. Lilah shouldn't have been here in the first place. She shouldn't have had an abusive father, she shouldn't have had a father that tracked her down as an adult and threatened her and her adoptive family years after she'd settled into a healthy life without him.
He could still feel the emotions Lilah had about her father. Hate, fear, terror, horror, disgust. The fear was more in regard to what her father could do to her family. But everything else was because of the memories, the trauma, all of the sickening things he'd done to her. Jasper didn't know the details. He didn't know if he wanted to, because knowing her feelings about what had happened already instilled more action-inducing anger in him than Maria had ever hoped to get out of him.
It was terrifying and confusing, knowing that there was very little Jasper wouldn't do to prevent Lilah from feeling anything close to what she felt that first night they'd met.
He was too lost in his thoughts to be able to reply to whatever Alice had said, and instead asked her, "Do we have straws?"
Alice's expression dropped. She was baffled; she hadn't expected such a question. She'd been too caught up with the excitement at hand to have thought to consult her visions lately.
She shook her head 'no' as she laughed. Jasper had to laugh to. He realized it was silly, being so concerned with the presentation of a glass of lemonade. The exact kind of silly that Alice had been waiting to get out of him. The exact kind of care for another being she'd wanted to see from him.
He merely shook his head. He didn't want to get into it with Alice. Not yet. He was sure Edward already knew everything, and they'd all get into it later.
When they walked back outside and Jasper saw the expression on Edward's face, he knew, for sure, they'd get into it later. More than he wanted to get into it. Because he knew that if Jasper had the capability to blush, he would've been beet red in that moment, handing Lilah her glass of lemonade.
Thankfully, Lilah didn't know that. She smiled and thanked him and took a sip, as Emmett looked like he'd explode if she didn't.
"Well?" he asked. "World class good stuff?"
She hardly got the 'yes,' out of her mouth when Emmett let out a victory whoop.
As he, Alice, and Lilah, shared more laughter, Edward caught Jasper's glance and nodded. He knew what was going through his mind and he wholeheartedly agreed.
How wonderful it was to see someone bring such life back into the family. Someone kind, someone who didn't judge, someone who appeared to care so much about them already, someone who hadn't asked for anything in return.