A/N: This and Chapter Thirteen are being posted together. I'm not really sure how those update alert thingies work, so please make sure you don't skip Thirteen. Thanks for reading!

Take care, M. x

"Thank you, Jacob," Jasper said.

"Of course," Jacob sighed. "Just keep her safe. All of you stay safe. I'll see you in a few days."

When Jasper ended the call, he turned to Alice. They were at JFK airport in New York and it was crowded and loud. He wasn't sure if Alice had heard their conversation. "She's in the air. She'll land in about five hours."

Alice nodded, her worry exhausting her in a way she wasn't used to as a vampire.

When Alice had told Jasper about her vision of Bella in Italy with them, Jasper's immediate reaction was a very firm no fucking way.

"There is not a chance in hell that I'm letting my very human mate step one foot in Volterra."

Alice understood his fear. She loved Bella just as much as she loved every member of her family. Edward included. Even if she did want to punch him in the face at the moment. But she wouldn't put Bella in harm's way if she wasn't certain of the outcome.

"We don't need to make firm plans yet," Alice said a little uncertainly. "We don't have time to fly to Seattle, drive to Forks, drive back to Seattle, and then fly to Italy with a layover in New York. The first thing we need to do is talk to the family and talk to Bella."

Jasper gritted his teeth and gave a resigned nod. He trusted Alice with both his own life and the life of his mate. He'd always had faith in her before, and his rational mind knew he needed to have faith in her now. But staying rational in this situation was difficult.

The other piece he was struggling with was the knowledge that it wasn't actually his decision to make. It was Bella's. Jasper refused to treat her the way Edward had, trying to limit her choices and forcing her to do what he thought was best. Jasper had more respect for her than to treat her as simply an extension of himself. Bella Swan may be Jasper's mate, but she was her own person.

With a silent nod, Jasper picked himself off the ground and held his hand out to help Alice to her feet. The two had then run back to the Cullen's house to let the family know what had happened.

The shock, fear, and anger that had assailed Jasper from all sides as they explained the mess Edward had gotten them into made him recoil. Alice repeatedly assured the others that in every single vision she had, Bella was alive and human when they returned home.

"And Edward?" Carlisle asked hesitantly.

"Where things stand now... the best I can tell you is that he has a fifty-fifty chance of walking out of Volterra. I can't know which side he'll fall on until we get to Italy," Alice answered carefully, not wanting to hurt her family, but not wanting to give them false hope either.

After a long discussion - and no small amount of arguing - all the Cullens came to the same conclusion as Jasper.

This was Bella's decision to make.

And so Alice and Jasper had closed themselves in Jasper's study to make a few phone calls. While Jasper dialed Jacob Black's number, Alice opened his laptop and began the process of booking a flight for Bella from Seattle to New York, and then a flight for the three of them from New York to Pisa.

To say Jacob was not pleased about why Jasper was calling would be wildly understating things. He may have punched his bedroom wall with enough force to make a hole. But when Jasper reminded him that this was Bella's decision - not Jacob's, not Jasper's - he sighed long and hard and assured them he would head to the Swan's house.

"Gimme thirty minutes," he said and abruptly ended the call.

Jasper knew Bella could worry herself straight into a panic when it came to the people she cared about, so he and Alice thought maybe having Jacob with her when they talked to her would help her stay reasonably calm. If they couldn't be with her in person, having her other best friend there seemed the most logical move. They gave him a brief outline of events first because having Jacob fly off in a rage in the Swan's living room wouldn't help anyone. They wanted him to have some time to get his anger at Edward Cullen out so he could support Bella however she needed.

"And you still see Bella human when we leave Volterra?" Jasper asked for the sixty-third time as he watched his fellow travelers speed-walking through the airport.

Alice nodded. "Yes. Alive, human, and unharmed. Even in the visions where we don't make it to Edward in time. And the future vision of her as a vampire with you hasn't changed," she assured him.

Jasper nodded absently. All he wanted to do was pull his mate into his arms and hold her close. Unfortunately, teleporting wasn't his vampire gift so he was going to have to wait another four and a half fucking hours.

Bella Swan was staring blankly out the small window beside her. She was in the sky somewhere above the midwest but her mind wasn't processing anything she was seeing.

She was still in a state of shock that she was on her way to New York, where she, Alice, and Jasper would board a flight to Italy. She was beginning to regret her decision to not accept Jacob's offer to fly with her.

Jasper and Alice had assured her that they could either get Jacob a hotel room in New York to wait for them to return from Italy, or buy him a ticket back to Seattle just a few hours after they landed at JFK. Neither option seemed all that practical to Bella at the time. Even if Jacob flew back home immediately, it would still be something like twenty hours of traveling when taking into account the nearly four hour drive between La Push and Seattle.

Now, however, she was wishing she hadn't tried to be so practical. Having her best friend beside her would've made this infinitely more bearable.

Two recurring thoughts kept circling in her brain. The first was that Edward Cullen had told her he didn't love her and then walked right out of her life. Why would it matter to him even if she was dead? Which she wasn't, obviously. Would it have been that much of a strain for the boy to pick up a damn phone before plotting his suicide by the vamp police?

The other was that she was furious Edward would do something so potentially damaging to his family.

Esme Cullen had lost her son when she was human and the pain and despair over his death led her to try and end her own life. The fact that Edward would even consider forcing Esme to feel that same pain of losing a son all over again made her want to smack him.

She had no desire to have a cast on her hand, though, so maybe she could ask Jasper to do it for her.

She kept feeling fury rise up inside her and there was a part of her - a very small part - that wanted to ignore the whole situation and not run in to rescue him. She, however, unlike Edward, wouldn't want Esme or any of the other Cullens to suffer through the pain of losing a son or brother if they didn't have to. If she could help to bring their family member home safely, of course she would do it.

So there she was, flying somewhere over the continental U.S. on her way to meet her two favorite vampires.

She knew she'd feel a lot better after getting some hugs from the two, so she closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and worked on practicing what Peter had encouraged her to do.

As soon as he saw Bella walk out into the gate where her flight from Seattle had landed, Jasper moved with just a bit too much speed to get his arms around his mate.

Bella, for her part, felt so much relief at being safe in Jasper's arms that she immediately started crying.

Not caring that people were looking at them curiously, Jasper scooped Bella up and carried her to a more secluded spot. He sat down with Bella in his lap, Alice beside him running her fingers gently through Bella's hair. They had an hour before their flight to Pisa took off, so they simply sat quietly and let the girl get her tears out.

After only about five minutes, Bella took a few deep, shaky breaths, and then untucked her face from Jasper's neck.

"Sorry about that," she said with a sheepish smile.

Alice smiled and waved her off. "If I had the ability to cry, I'd probably be doing the same."

Bella nodded as she climbed out of Jasper's lap and sat on the floor in front of the two vampires. "How long before we need to be at our gate?"

Jasper glanced at his watch. "Fifty-three minutes."

"Okay," Bella said on a long exhale. "I need a human moment, then I need some food and water."

The three stood and walked towards one of the restaurants on the concourse, stopping at a restroom on the way. They found a small table in a back corner that would give them some privacy, and after Bella ordered, they ran through the current plan again.

There wasn't much of a plan to get through, honestly.

Haul ass off the plane in Pisa, haul ass to Volterra, haul Edward's ass out of Italy before the Volturi turned him into a pile of lavender-tinted ashes.

Bella had just taken the first bite of her sandwich when Jasper's phone rang. He answered it quickly and then put it on speaker and set it in the middle of the table.

"Hey y'all," Peter and Charlotte greeted them.

After everyone said their hellos, Peter got down to business.

"Alright. Ali, there's a rental car in your name at Pisa International. It's a Porsche and it took some finagling, but it should be waitin' for you when you land."

Bella, seeing the gleam in her favorite pixie's eyes, was quick to jump in and remind her that one of her passengers was a very breakable human and she would have to rein in her speed-demon tendencies. Alice laughed but nodded at her best friend.

"Major, you're not gonna like this but you can't go inside the walls of the city with them."

It was silent for a few beats before Jasper spoke, his voice a low growl. "What do you mean I can't go into the city, Peter? If you think I'm going to let—"

"Think about it for a second, Major."

Jasper snatched the phone up and stalked out of the restaurant. "Explain," he snapped.

Peter sighed. "Think about what gifts the Volturi have. On the off chance y'all end up in the castle, all it would take is one glance from Marcus and Edward hearing in his thoughts that you are Bella's true mate and every bit of the work we've done over the past year or so will have been for nothin'."

Jasper stopped short at that. "You think they might end up in the throne room?" he asked incredulously.

"It's a possibility, Major. The timing is gonna be everything in this situation. But whether they get to your asshole of a 'brother' before he does something stupid or they end up in front of the kings, your girl is gonna be just fine. Ali, too."

"Is there anything you aren't telling me, Peter?" Jasper asked quietly after a minute.

"I'd say there are a lot of things I'm not tellin' you, Major. Just the other night Charlotte and I—"

"Peter," Jasper said on a tired sigh.

"No," Peter answered, and Jasper could hear the smile in his voice. "At least nothing that's relevant right now. Like I said, regardless of how all this goes down, Alice and Bella are both gonna be fine."

Jasper was silent for a few minutes, trying to work out his tangled thoughts. It went against everything inside him to let two of the most important people in his life walk inside the walls of Volterra without being there to keep them safe. Jasper was a warrior and a protector, this was the kind of shit he was good at - keeping his loved ones safe.

Peter let Jasper think things over in silence, confident that the man he saw as his brother would make the right decision.

"Wait, even if I'm not there for Marcus to see my connection to Bella, he'll still see that Edward and Bella aren't mates. Won't Edward hear that in his thoughts?"

Peter chuckled. "I think you'll find that Edward already knows she's not his mate. It won't make a difference to him. He still thinks he loves her, mate bond or not."

Jasper nodded silently. After Bella's birthday party most of the family concluded that Edward Cullen and Isabella Swan were not mates. But just like Edward, the family - Carlisle and Esme specifically - thought the two being in love was what mattered most. Whether they were true mates or not was… well, not irrelevant, but not necessarily the death knell of their relationship either.

Jasper glanced into the restaurant to see Bella watching him curiously while Alice encouraged her to finish up her food. Glancing at his watch, Jasper realized they needed to get a move on.

"Alright, Peter. I'll do it your way," he agreed quietly.

"I know," Peter laughed.

Jasper just rolled his eyes and walked back into the restaurant.

"Wait! Before you hang up, lemme speak to your girl for a sec," Peter called out just as Jasper was getting ready to hang up on his oldest friend.

Jasper handed Bella the phone and she looked at him in surprise before putting it to her ear.

"Peter?"

"Hey Bella, you alright?" he asked.

She took a breath and held it before letting it out slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I am. I trust Alice and Jasper, and I trust you, so… I'm not a complete mess. Nervous, absolutely. Pissed off, sure. But I only cried for, like, two minutes."

"Six," Jasper corrected with a smile, then let out an 'oomph' when Alice elbowed him in the ribs.

Bella gave him a playful glare, fighting her own smile. "You're an asshole, Whitlock."

"Two minutes, six minutes, that's hardly any time at all," Peter reassured her, the smile evident in his voice. "Anyway, y'all need to skedaddle, but you been practicin'?"

Bella's eyes darted to Alice and Jasper as she answered. "Yes."

Alice raised an eyebrow at her best friend but that was all the outward reaction her two vampires had.

"Good. Just do your best. It might not even matter, to be honest, but better safe than sorry."

Bella nodded even though Peter couldn't see her. "I'm going to have Jasper knock me out on the plane for a few hours, I really need some sleep, but I'll work some more after that. Having him keep me calm and focused might actually help."

"It might," Peter agreed. "And just remember - and this goes for all three of you - y'all are gonna be fine. Edward might get a bit of an ass kickin' but y'all are gonna be just fine."

"Good," Bella snorted. "He deserves it."

Alice and Jasper's laugh rang out as Peter and Charlotte said their goodbyes. "Love y'all, call when you can."

"Love you too," Bella, Alice, and Jasper said in unison.

The three stood up from the table and Jasper put his hand on Bella's back to guide her out of the restaurant. Bella reached out for Alice's hand and the trio made their way to the gate feeling lighter than they had an hour before.

They had unbreakable faith in each other. Whatever the next twenty-four or forty-eight hours threw at them, they would get through it together.