As wolves and humans all watched on in silence, Jasper bounded across the Cullen's lawn and up onto the back deck.

He gave Rosalie the most charming smile he could muster. "Hey Rose, good to see you."

Rosalie allowed him to pull her in for a hug, but when he let go and turned to hug Emmett, Rose put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't think you can charm your way out of this, Whitlock. What the hell's going on?"

As Jasper tried to figure out how he could get out of this mess with some of his very necessary secrets still intact, Bella got up from the table and walked over to join them.

"Hi Rosalie, Emmett," she said with a smile. "I've missed you both."

Emmett immediately hugged the little human he considered a sister. When no one in the family heard from her after they'd written her letters, the majority of the Cullens had assumed the girl had moved on, having no way of knowing that Alice had asked her to wait before reaching out. Emmett had been hurt to think she didn't care about the family as much as they cared for her, but all he wanted was for her to be happy, so he was willing to give her whatever space she needed. He'd always hoped they'd see her again.

He was surprised this was the circumstance he was seeing her in, but he was thrilled to see her regardless.

Alice, meanwhile, was genuinely frozen in shock for a moment. She hadn't seen the two arrive until the last minute and by the time she got back, it was too late. While she wasn't entirely blind around the wolves, with two of the wolves phasing just before Emmett and Rosalie had arrived, her sight was less reliable. As humans she could usually see the shifters fine, but they tended to make things a bit blurry in their wolf forms, and if any were mid-phase during a vision, it tended to fade to black.

She'd learned how to interpret what she was seeing after all these months with the pack in their lives, but unfortunately, the timing that day made all the difference.

Knowing she needed most of the assembled crowd to head home, she raced into the house to grab some clothes for Jacob. The wolf had phased on the fly like the impulsive teen he was, so his clothes were in shreds around the yard. She brought them back and set them inside the tree line just as Leah was tugging her own clothes back on.

She smiled in thanks at the little pixie. "Is everything going to be okay?" she asked Alice quietly as they waited for Jacob to get dressed.

Alice gave her a reassuring smile. "Yes, it's just going to take a little explaining. The rest of the family didn't know we've been spending time here, so this is just a bit of a shock to them. It'll be fine."

Leah nodded. "If you need anything, you know where to find us."

Alice pulled the wolf in for a quick hug. "Thank you, Leah. That means a lot," she whispered.

Jacob joined them a moment later and slung his arm around Alice's shoulders as the three made their way to the Cullen's back deck to join the others. "She's right, Tink. You need us, we'll come."

Alice's face lit up in one of her sunny smiles. She knew how much she valued the wolves' friendship and that she'd always be there if they needed her, and she was delighted to know they felt the same.

Jasper was watching the trio climb the stairs with a smile. Having heard their whispered conversation, his feelings in that moment matched Alice's exactly.

For Rosalie, the whole scene was entirely too surreal. If she hadn't lost the ability to sleep some seventy years ago, she would've thought she was dreaming.

Before anyone else had a chance to say anything, Sue Clearwater walked over to her daughter. "I think we should give them some privacy, sweetheart. Let's head home. That goes for the rest of you, too," she added to the other wolves. They all quickly nodded their agreement and began to collect their things.

Sue gave Alice a quick hug goodbye, and after barely a moment's hesitation, she walked to where Jasper was standing with Bella, Emmett, and Rosalie. Giving the two vampires a brief nod, she hugged Jasper as well.

"Thank you for your hospitality, both of you," she said as she looked back at Alice. "I hope we can do this again some time. And who knows, maybe next time we can bake together, Alice. Four attempts at a cake is far too many wasted ingredients," she added, her eyes bright with amusement.

Jasper and Alice both burst out laughing and the elder nodded to herself, glad she could lighten the mood. Job done, she gestured for the others to walk out with her. Angela, holding Jacob's hand, waved goodbye to Bella and the vampires just before they turned around the corner of the house.

It was quiet for a beat before Alice let out a bright and cheerful "Well! What should we do now?"

Rosalie rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Talk, Ali," she snapped.

Alice sighed but nodded. "Alright, but maybe we should sit down."

After hearing what Alice and Jasper had been up to over the last few months, Rosalie wasn't sure how she felt. Her inner bitch told her to be angry they had kept any of this from her, but she couldn't help but feel grateful that the two had worked so hard to protect the human the family loved so much.

The friendship with the wolves blew her mind, honestly, if for no other reason than they way they smelled. She was just glad all their get-togethers at the Cullen's had happened outside. She could only imagine how long it would've taken to get the wolf stench out of the house. She kept that to herself, though. It was obvious how much Alice and Jasper cared about their new friends and she didn't want to offend them.

The thing she kept getting tangled up on was that she knew Jasper was still hiding something from her.

The two were as close as the twins they often claimed to be and it hurt to know that he was keeping even more secrets from her. They'd always had an open and honest relationship, sharing things with each other that they weren't necessarily comfortable sharing with the rest of their family outside of Emmett or Alice.

Rosalie shook her head with a sigh. She trusted her brother with her whole heart. If there was something he was holding back there must've been a damn good reason for it. All she could do was offer him the same respect he always gave her.

She would let him keep his secrets until he was ready to share them.

While Rosalie Hale could appear cold to the outside world, and Edward often dismissed her as shallow and vain, Jasper's gift gave him a better understanding of her. Rosalie's love and loyalty ran deeper than the others could imagine, and Jasper would never not be grateful that he'd found a true sister in her.

He knew that Rose was aware he was hiding something from her, but he also had faith that she wouldn't press him to find out what it was. As he felt her emotions leveling out, he knew that she would let him keep his secrets for now.

When he let her feel his gratitude, she'd rolled her eyes but still had a small smile on her face when she sent him her love and reassurance.

It was the closest either of them would come to acknowledging that Jasper and Alice were still keeping something from her.

When Rosalie discovered that Bella and Jacob had been working in the garage she very much considered her territory, she was not pleased. After looking around, however, her anger diminished. The two had treated her space and her tools respectfully, always cleaning both up before they left for the day. If she hadn't smelled the faintest trace of the wolf in the open air of the garage, she probably never would have known they had used the space.

Bella was the one who had clued her in the day before by thanking Rosalie for allowing them to work in there. If she hadn't been so genuine in her gratitude, Rosalie might have snapped at the girl that she had never given permission for them to use it in the first place.

Instead, she'd merely nodded and asked if she could take a look at the finished motorcycles.

Bella, knowing she and Jacob were hardly professionals, quickly agreed. She knew Rose was a skilled mechanic and it couldn't hurt to have her assurance that the bikes were road-worthy. And if they weren't, perhaps Rose could offer some guidance.

So Sunday afternoon, on hearing two engines racing up the driveway, Rosalie stepped out onto the front porch.

When Jacob and Bella came into view, Rosalie couldn't help but smile. Bella had a huge grin on her face and it was obvious she loved riding. Rosalie had observed the previous day that Bella had been growing up in their absence, and it was nice to see that the human had developed a bit more personality than she'd had when the family first met her, along with finding some confidence in herself.

The bikes were about as far from Jasper's Ducati as you could get, but that couldn't really be helped. Neither the wolf or the human had the money to buy something new, or even used.

While Rosalie was giving both motorcycles a thorough once-over, Jasper stepped outside.

"Heads up, Black!"

Jacob looked over just in time to catch the set of keys that we're headed straight for his face. When he looked down, he saw it was the Ducati key.

"Seriously?" he squeaked, then cleared his throat and tried again. "Seriously?"

"I didn't show you how just to tease you," Jasper laughed. "Just don't go too far and do not get pulled over for speeding, but yeah, enjoy."

A moment later, Jacob was flying down the driveway as his jubilant laughter echoed through the trees.

Bella smiled as she climbed the porch steps to sit beside Jasper. "That was kind of you."

Jasper merely shrugged. "I always planned on letting him ride it, there were just always other things going on. If you'd like, we could go for a ride later."

Bella gave him a brilliant smile. "I'd love that!"

Jasper felt Rosalie's surprise, but she kept it off her face. The family was used to Edward trying to control every facet of Bella's life - especially when it came to anything concerning her safety - that Rose couldn't help but be grateful that Jasper and Alice didn't treat her the same way. It was one of the things she hadn't liked about Edward and Bella's relationship.

While Bella had argued with her boyfriend when it came to getting to know his family, she hadn't put up much of a fight about any of the other things Edward tried to control about her life.

Honestly, their relationship had never seemed all that healthy to Rosalie.

This was just another reason why Rose knew Jasper to be a better man than Edward would ever be, and why Rose was confident that whoever fate chose to be Jasper's future mate would be loved well and treated with respect. Jasper would never take away someone else's autonomy, while Edward tried to dictate every breath Bella Swan took.

At that thought, Rosalie turned to look at the two talking quietly on the porch.

She was aware that Jasper and Bella had shared a special friendship on his and Alice's arrival in Forks. The two could just as easily talk for hours about anything and everything as they could happily just sit quietly in the same room reading. While the whole family had loved the human, it was always Alice and Jasper she was closest to.

Rosalie thought back to the disaster that was Bella Swan's birthday party. That was the night Rose came to the firm conclusion that Edward was not Bella's mate.

The moment her blood hit the air, Edward's eyes had turned pitch black. Jasper - feeling the sudden spike in Edward's bloodlust - let out a warning growl and prepared to lunge to keep their telepathic brother from taking a bite out of the human.

Rosalie still wasn't sure if Edward had tried to push Bella away from him so he didn't eat her, or if he was pushing her away from the other vampires who he thought were trying to take his 'prey' from him.

Either way, it didn't matter. Just as Edward raised his arm, Alice let out a quiet gasp.

"Goddamn it, Edward," the pixie growled as she used every bit of her vamp speed to get between her best friend and the wall. As Edward shoved Bella backwards with more force than was probably safe for a human, Alice was there to gently catch the girl, preventing a more serious injury.

Jasper, meanwhile, lunged for Edward. For an eighth of a second, Rosalie was afraid Carlisle was going to try to stop Jasper, thinking he was the one losing control. But as soon as he saw his telepathic son snarling and growling, trying to get out of Jasper's hold, Carlisle shouted for Emmett and Rosalie to help restrain him.

The second Emmett had his arms locked around Edward and he and Rose began wrestling him out of the room, Jasper got up and flashed over to stand sentry in front of the barely-bleeding human in Alice's arms.

His face was as fierce as Rose had ever seen it, and she knew Jasper would take whatever measures necessary to ensure no one got past him.

Rosalie knew after those few lightning fast seconds that Bella and Edward weren't mates. If she was, Edward's only priority would have been to ensure she wasn't at risk from the six other vampires in the room.

Which is exactly what Jasper had done.

Rosalie sucked in a sharp breath.

Jasper's head snapped up when he felt the shift in her emotions.

He met her wide eyes - the shock clear on her face - and silently begged her to ignore whatever revelation she'd just had.

Bella, having seen the brief moment of panic on Jasper's face, reached over and gently took his hand. Almost immediately, the tense lines of Jasper's shoulders relaxed a bit.

Seeing that, Rosalie's face softened and she gave her 'twin' a reassuring smile as she nodded.

Yes, she would let him keep his secrets until he was ready to share them.

A/N: Okay, brace yourselves, cause this author's note is hella long. I just want to explain one of my AU changes.

I've obviously made it so Alice is not entirely blind when it comes to the wolves, because honestly that was just a lazy plot hole to me in SM's Twilight. She couldn't see anything when the wolves were involved but she could train and fight in Eclipse using her visions even though she was literally in the middle of the wolf pack? Same with the whole Breaking Dawn 2 anti-climax of an ending. If SM had stuck to her own canon, Alice would've given Aro her hand and he would've been all "um, I don't see anything. like literally nothing."

And the best reason all those vastly intelligent vampire minds (or SM) can come up with is that Alice can't see something she's never been? Uh, okay, sure. I have no doubt that there was at least one occasion in the last 60 years when she wanted Emmett to do something for her, and to get him to agree she was like "run 17 miles north and then 42.6 miles southeast and you'll find a grumpy bear."

I think it's way more realistic (as anything can be in supernatural fiction) that in those moments when the wolves are phasing, they're in neither their human or wolf bodies, so it could be argued that they don't exist in those in-between seconds.

Honestly, if I wasn't going to be using SM's stupid plot hole just to really nail home what a stubborn dick Edward is, I would've scratched the whole thing and not made them affect Alice's visions at all.

So. That's that. If any of you have stuck it out to read this far, thank you so much! You're all wonderful:)

Take care, M. x