BPOV

PRESENT TIME

"But, how do you know that my clients sitting in this courtroom are the ones who broke in and attacked yourself and your husband?" Questions the attorney. "Afterall, not only did you just tell the court that you were so distraught that nobody could calm you down… how do you know you aren't still so distraught to unintentionally point out my clients?"

I clear my throat, interlocking my fingers together and resting my hands in my lap. "It would be awfully, awfully horrendous for that to happen. But DNA doesn't lie, does it? My teeth marks are forever scarred in one Marcus Volturi who just so happens to be sitting there as one of your clients," I tell him and the more I speak the more heated I become. "Furthermore, I've made positive identification of the cursive 'V' tattooed on their hipbones and on their shoulder blades as they repeatedly raped and abused my now dead husband and I. My husband was murdered by those monsters you're defending."

The attorney stands there like a fish out of water as mine smiles proudly towards me nodding before standing up from her chair. "Your Honor, I believe it would be a great time for a recess," she says politely.

"I do believe that's very much needed," the judge agrees. "I need a drink," he mutters seemingly to himself. "Alright everyone. We'll return tomorrow at ten in the morning." He bangs the gravel and stands from his chair in dismissal.

-O- -O-

"You did great with that jackass," Jasper chuckles.

I can't hold back my own laugh as I nod in agreement. "It felt pretty damn good to be honest."

"It's only two, would you like to do an early dinner? We can go to that seafood restaurant if you'd like?" he offers taking my hand in his and kissing it gently.

"That sounds good," I tell him, laying my head on his shoulder as I inhale his delicious scent.

"Good, because I'm starving," he says making me laugh.

"You're just an endless pit," I reply. "I wouldn't take you any other way though."

As we make it to a red light, Jasper tilts my head up with his hand under my chin gently placing his mouth over mine, kissing me deeply. I sigh contently against him, enjoying the round of butterflies he always seems to give me every time we kiss. A car horn unfortunately ruins our moment, making my heart kick up a notch as he grumbles under his breath and begins driving once more.

"What if we don't win?" I ask suddenly.

It's not that I doubt anything, I know what happened and I know these men did it… but there is always that small voice in the back of my head making me doubt.

"We will, Bella," he says with pure conviction. "But for arguments sake… if we don't, at least we got two of the bastards…"

I nod closing my eyes briefly pushing back the memory of the second horrendous night of my life. Jasper squeezes my hand gently- knowingly in his own hand as he rests them in his lap.

"I love you," he says.

I smile. "I love you, too."

THREE YEARS AGO

"When I got home that night, everything felt and seemed normal," I continue softly. "Um… I went to Edward's office and told him that I was going to jump in the shower, and he told me that it wouldn't be too much longer until he came to bed as well."

"He worked long hours?" Jasper inquires jotting something down in his notebook.

"No, just for the past month or so. It's been very annoying really," I shake my head. "On the way back to our bedroom it felt like I was being watched so I went to go double check that the doors were locked along with all the windows we normally only when it's nice out and the security system was activated."

"At what point in the house did you feel as if you were being watched?" he looks up at me with pure concentration in his eyes.

I pause to think about that for a moment with a frown on my face before I begin speaking again. "Almost as soon as I stepped out of his office towards the bedroom… I was just passing by the guest room that we never use. I didn't bother going in there because we never use it- not even the windows."

"Would you have noticed something out of the ordinary if something was tampered with in that room?"

Would I? You would think I would- I mean after all I lived in that house but as we never used that room, I had no reason to go in it. "No," I finally say with a sigh. "I don't think I would've noticed unless it was sticking out like a sore thumb."

"You're doing great," he tells me softly as I look down at the white blanket covering me. "So, after you made sure you had everything locked up you went to go shower?" I confirm with a nod. "Did you hear anything strange while you showered or afterwards?"

"No, I uh, after I showered, I tried to stay awake for Edward to come to bed but I must've fell asleep and woke up after he got out of the shower."

He nods continuing to write. "Did you guys go right to bed or stay up later?"

I shift slightly in bed. "Stayed up a bit later," I answer.

"Did you notice anything off about his behavior when you woke up?" I shake my head. "Okay, what did you guys do?"

My face heats up as the monitor beeps faster all the while I try to tell him exactly what we were up to without using words. Looking towards him, I raise an eyebrow and even his face flushes a bit. Good.

He clears his throat. "Right, sorry. Have to ask." I nod my understanding. "Police arrived on scene at three in the morning, what happened between the interaction with your husband and that time when police showed up?"

"Um," I shake my head trying to regain clear thinking. "We fell asleep and then the next time I woke up…" Stupid monitor giving my emotions away!

It must be irritating to Jasper as well because he presses my call button and requests for the monitor to be shut off for the time being. A nurse comes in to quickly disconnect the wires from my chest before walking right back out closing the door.

"What time did you wake up?" He asks as soon as the door shuts.

"I'm not sure, the clock was blinking as if the power shut off," I frown. "The first thing I seen was Ed- Edward bent over," I take a deep breath.

"I know this I hard, Bella, but you're doing great," reassures Jasper as his thumb begins to rub gentle circles on the back of my hand.

I had completely forgotten that I had a death grip on him that I haven't seemed to be able to let go of. It soothes me. "He was already beaten pretty badly, I- I remember thinking how I could've slept through that. I started screaming. Yelling at them to get out and leave us alone." My palms are sweaty, and I feel as if I could pass out any minute as my heart pounds in my ears.

"How many men were there? Any females with them?" he asks relentlessly.

I squeeze my eyes shut as I begin to feel my whole body begins to shake. "Four of them no one else."

"Deep breaths, darlin," smooth circles on my hand. "Can you continue, or should we take a break?"

I shake my head. If I take a break now, I don't think I'll be able to continue. So… I continued. I continued until I couldn't breathe. I continued until I suddenly found myself wrapped in the comfort of Jaspers scent, gasping for air as he tries to calm me down. It might have been minutes that had gone by or possibly even hours until I slump against his body.

"You remembered an exceptional amount of details," he tells me. "This will help us in the case."

"Why didn't they leave?" I ask quietly.

He says nothing in response, instead he decides to relax me back down against the bed but doesn't release my hand. "I don't have that answer for you, darlin."

I drag the covers all the way up to my chin as I carefully try to turn on my side slightly, wincing as I do so.

"You shouldn't do that," he tells me. "You might hurt yourself further."

"I do believe I've had worse," I inform him before realizing how that came out when his facial expression changes. "Oh, no- that's not what I meant." My face reddens with embarrassment.

"Okay… now I'm intrigued," he tells me with a smirk tossing his notebook and recorder down on the tray beside him before relaxing back.

"I was pretty clumsy growing up, they set me up my own cot since I was there at least every other week," I tell him softly with a small laugh. "I was on first name basis with the head doctor and pretty much all the nurses at the hospital where I grew up. If I had to guess, I was there with a sprained something or other and a broken this or that. Countless of stitches and a couple of times held together with medical glue or whatever."

"How could one person, possibly be so accident prone that they have a weekly ER visit?" he laughs shaking his head.

"Someone who has two left feet and a best friend who is a bad influence," I roll my eyes. "Jacob dared me to do a double back flip off the diving board," I grimace at the memory.

Jasper's smile widens. "And how did that work out for you?"

I can't help the snort that escapes me. "Well, his mother refused to allow him into the pool for the rest of the summer after I accepted the dare," I began trying not to laugh as the pain in my ribs shoot through. "I did half a back flip but somehow managed to get too close to the diving board and hit my head and neck on the corner of it and not only knocked myself out," his eyebrows raise in amusement, "but I also managed to bleed so much that Jacob thought I was dead and then he passed out just as his mom was coming outside to sit with us."

We're both laughing as his phone begins to ring, glancing at it, he stands up and steps outside the door to leave me alone. Man, he was right, this hurts. Turning onto my back once more, I close my eyes momentarily willing myself not to think about Edward. The sound of the door opening jolts my eyes open as I see the nurse coming to hook up the heart monitor once more.

"Do you need anything dear? You haven't eaten at all today and it's almost dinner time," she says concern written on her face.

"I'm not hungry, thank you though," I tell her quietly.

"I'll inform the doctor," she tells me before beginning to walk away.

About ten minutes later Jasper comes walking back in with a masked face that makes me uncomfortable. I keep quiet as I try to keep my eyes everywhere except for him. I hear him walk over to the other side of the room to rummage through something before coming back around to his chair and sitting down.

"I'm keeping you from your job," I state softly.

He shakes his head. "I'm exactly where I need to be."

A/N: And there we have chapter five! Leave me your thoughts!

-bellacullen166