A/N: This chapter is pretty short so I'm going to post Chapter Ten either later tonight or tomorrow (my time, and I'm on the east coast of the US). This was just the most logical place to end it.
And honestly, y'all are patient as hell with how long I'm taking to give the background to how we got to the present day. Jacob and Bella have been sitting on Bella's back porch for a loooong time:) But we're almost to the point where the drama king himself makes an appearance.
Thank you all for reading! Take care, M. x
Because Jasper and Alice delayed their return home longer than they'd planned, Rosalie and Emmett weren't in New York while they were there. The two had decided to spend a few weeks on Isle Esme. Not exactly one of their many honeymoons, but just to have some time alone together away from other supernatural beings who had enhanced hearing. Even with the telepath gone, true privacy was virtually impossible in the Cullen home.
Alice and Jasper spent most of their time helping Esme fix up the house they were currently living in. While Jasper did a lot of the physical labor with Esme, she and Alice worked on the decorating side of things. Esme loved every part of rehabbing their houses so she was thrilled to have two of her 'children' working with her.
As she and Jasper were putting up drywall in the room that would become Jasper's study about two weeks into their visit, he felt a surge of happiness from her. When he glanced over, she was giving him a soft smile, her eyes lit with love.
"You seem so content lately, Jasper. It's a good look on you."
Jasper gave her his own smile in return. Esme was practically the physical embodiment of unconditional love. Even when Jasper and Alice had first joined the family and Jasper was anything but comfortable, he'd always found it peaceful to be near her. She was never nervous around him the way some of the others were in the beginning, and when he finally felt secure enough in their place in the family and shared more of his history, Esme hadn't felt anything but sympathy for him and relief and gratitude that he'd managed to escape from his past life.
It was one of the reasons she had always been so warm and welcoming to Peter and Charlotte when they visited the family.
On their very first visit about a year after Alice and Jasper joined the Cullens, Esme had walked right over to the former warrior and his mate and enveloped each of them in a hug. Pulling back, she looked both of them in the eye.
"Thank you," she said softly.
Peter and Charlotte exchanged a confused glance.
"For what, ma'am?" Peter asked.
"For going back for Jasper. I'll never be able to thank you enough," she answered with a smile. "I'm sorry you had such an unpleasant start to this life, and I'm so glad the three of you got away. You all deserve to live in peace. I may not be able to ever express the level of gratitude I feel for you taking the risk of returning to Maria's territory, but you will always be welcome in my home. If there's ever a time where you need help, you can always call on us."
Jasper was watching the exchange with just as much surprise as Peter and Charlotte, even with the advantage of knowing Esme's emotions. Most vampires shied away from the three, especially Jasper, because of the scars they carried. They made others of their kind nervous because they spoke to their finesse in battle.
All three vampires turned to Jasper when he spoke. "I can help with that, Esme. If you'd like, I can let Peter and Charlotte feel what you're feeling for them," he said quietly.
Esme gave him a beaming smile. "Thank you, Jasper, that's a lovely idea."
When Peter and Charlotte gave him hesitant nods he closed his eyes.
A few moments later, the two were filled with a riotous mix of every warm emotion. There was compassion and gratitude and relief, pride and affection, and even the ever-present unconditional love that always lived inside Esme.
Charlotte's eyes filled with venom tears and she pulled the Cullen matriarch into a fierce hug. "Thank you," she whispered.
When she pulled away and stepped back beside Peter and took his hand, Peter nodded his agreement.
"Thank you, ma'am," he said in the softest voice Jasper had ever heard from the man he'd fought alongside for so long. "When Jasper told us that he and Ali were planning to join a coven of five, I had my concerns. All we've known is that large covens are volatile and dangerous. That coven leaders are cruel and uncaring. I love Jasper like a brother and I was worried he would be walking into another hostile environment. I'm so glad to see that's not the case. Thank you for accepting him with open arms. Thank you for loving him. He's a truly great man who deserves all the love in the world."
Jasper stood there for a moment with his mouth open, touched beyond measure by Peter's words. Barely a second later, Jasper was off the porch and pulling Peter into his arms. He held the man close and surrounded him with his own love and gratitude.
When Charlotte let out a barely perceptible whine in the back of her throat, Jasper immediately reached out and pulled her into the hug.
As the three former warriors held each other, the other Cullens watched the trio with no small amount of shock. They knew Jasper cared about the two, but this was the first time they truly understood the depth of love Peter, Charlotte, and Jasper felt for each other. It was also the first time they'd seen Jasper with his guard entirely down.
A moment later, they all watched as Alice leapt off the porch and landed on Jasper's back. As she wrapped her tiny arms around the three, they all let out little laughs and Peter and Charlotte opened the hug enough to wrap her up, too.
"Alright, that's enough of that," Peter said a moment later, wanting to diffuse the seriousness of the moment. He pulled his foot back and kicked Jasper's legs out from under him and the four vampires tumbled to the ground, limbs tangled as laughter filled the air.
Jasper let out a low growl as he extricated himself from the other three. "You better run, Peter," he said with a smile.
Peter laughed and hopped to his feet. Before he'd gotten twenty feet, Jasper lunged and took him to the ground. The two wrestled each other in the yard, their playful growls and bright laughter echoing around them.
Alice and Charlotte each cheered for their own vampire, and Alice let out a triumphant shout when Jasper pinned Peter and leaned down to just barely touch his teeth to his throat.
"Damn it, Major! Can't you ever just let me win?" Peter grumbled.
Jasper hopped to his feet and reached down to yank Peter up. "Nope," he laughed. "Work harder if you want to win."
"Wait, you've never beaten Jasper in a fight?" Emmett asked incredulously.
Peter gave the behemoth a playful glare. "I'd like to see you do better," he challenged.
Emmett eyed Jasper for a moment before nodding. He'd been wanting to wrestle the man ever since he learned his newest brother was some bad ass from the south, but he knew Jasper wasn't entirely comfortable with the family yet and hadn't wanted to push him before he was ready.
Emmett walked down the porch steps with a smile. "I'm gonna take you down, Major."
Peter practically choked on his laugh while Jasper gave Emmett a smirk. "Alright. No biting, no pulling off body parts, teeth to the neck to win."
Emmett didn't even wait, he just ran straight at Jasper. The family couldn't help but laugh when Emmett was pinned on his stomach, Jasper's teeth on the back of his neck, in less than two seconds. He never even got a hand on Jasper.
Alice's loud cheers filled the air as Jasper helped his bear of a brother to his feet. "Better luck next time," he shrugged.
Emmett just smiled, never one to let anything get him down. "I will beat you at some point."
"If you say so," Jasper laughed as he brushed the dust off his clothes.
After that day in the yard, Rosalie had approached Jasper about teaching her to fight. The violence which ended her human life had left her feeling vulnerable, and Rosalie Hale didn't do vulnerable.
Jasper knew the general story of how Rosalie had come to be a vampire and he understood her need to be able to defend herself.
He had already trained Alice to fight in their two years between meeting in the diner and joining the Cullens, so he easily agreed to teach Rosalie as well. Occasionally some of the other Cullens joined them - Emmett mostly.
Edward dismissed the notion of learning to fight. The eternal teenager relied so much on his telepathy that he assumed he would always have the upper hand. He quickly discovered that Jasper fought so much by instinct after so many decades that there weren't a lot of linear thoughts to pull from his head. After a few sessions of finding himself pinned within seconds, his ego took a hit so he shrugged off the training.
Jasper had initially been surprised that Esme came along as often as she did. It didn't take long, however, to see the fierce mama bear inside the Cullen matriarch. She wanted the knowledge that allowed her to protect her 'children' should they ever need it.
Standing in the house in Ithaca, with Esme letting him feel all her love and pride, Jasper wished he could tell her the truth about what he and Alice had been up to.
As far as the family knew, in between their brief visits to New York, Alice and Jasper were in Mississippi trying to find information on Alice's human life.
Which was, in fact, true, it just left out the time the two spent in Washington.
Before James had caught Bella's scent at the baseball game and things had taken a sharp and violent downward turn, Edward had caught a stray thought in the tracker's mind about Alice. There wasn't much, just that Alice had been in a hospital in Mississippi before she was turned.
Having a human friend in Bella had made Alice curious about her own human life, so the pair spent time traveling through Mississippi on the off chance Alice might see something that triggered a memory. It was a lot of ground to cover and the two had been unsuccessful so far in finding anything.
Jasper tried to stay as close to the truth as he could when he answered Esme. "It's been nice traveling lately. Alice and I haven't made any progress in learning about her human life, but we've made some good friends while we've been away. You know we both love living with the family, but sometimes it's nice to have a bit of time on our own."
Esme nodded her understanding. Living in such close quarters with other vampires - who feel things far more intensely than humans - could sometimes be overwhelming for her empathic son. While she did miss the two when they were gone, she knew he needed to get away on occasion. She would never begrudge her family anything they needed to do in order to be happy and healthy, so she just gave the pair hugs as they left and let them know how pleased she would be when they returned.
Alice and Jasper always kept in touch with frequent phone calls, never falling off the grid the way Edward had recently.
Esme barely kept in a sigh thinking about the boy who had been her son the longest. While her love for him never faltered, she couldn't decide if she was hurt and angry at his prolonged absence with virtually no contact with the family, or if she was worried for him.
She knew how much what happened at Bella's birthday party had shaken his faith in himself. Choosing to leave Bella a few days later had only worsened his state of mind.
Jasper, feeling her emotions dip a little, knew where Esme's thoughts had gone. He pulled her into a hug and let her feel his love for her.
"Everything'll work out. We're a family, we'll get through this just like we've gotten through everything else life has thrown at us."
Esme smiled and leaned up to give him a quick kiss on his cheek. "You're right," she nodded. "Thank you for reminding me."
Before the two could get back to work, Alice came bounding into the room with a wide smile. "Esme, can I borrow Jasper for a sec?"
Esme watched in amusement as Alice barely hesitated for half a second before pulling Jasper down the stairs and out the back door. If Alice wasn't so obviously thrilled by whatever she wanted to talk to him about, Esme would've been worried by her urgency.
After they'd run far enough away that they wouldn't be overheard, Alice turned to him with one of her beaming smiles. "We need to head back to Washington!"
"I'm assuming from your emotions that whatever you've seen is good news?"
"Yes!" the pixie exclaimed. "But I can't tell you what it is yet. I want it to be a surprise."
Jasper agreed easily. He trusted Alice completely and wouldn't push her for information she didn't want to share yet. Her emotions let him know it wasn't something he needed to worry about, so he was content to let himself be surprised.
After throwing a bag together and giving Esme quick hugs goodbye, Alice and Jasper headed to Forks.
Neither knew it yet, but it was the last time the pair would visit their friends before all their lives were turned upside down.