A/N:

I'm not American, so I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I've seen enough posts online to understand it's today, so to all of you who do celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving :)

Title: Origins: Living in my Future

Author: MarieCarro

Beta: Alice's White Rabbit

Pre-reader: BitterHarpy and brierlynn03

Genre: Supernatural/Mystery

Rating: NC-17

Summary: Mary Alice Brandon had always been different. She seemed to know things that had yet to happen, and the people in town avoided her at all costs. But the cries of 'Witch' or whispers of 'Changeling' wasn't her biggest concern. Someone much closer to her than the townsfolk couldn't accept her differences, and it put her in life-threatening danger.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


CHAPTER 20

SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 21st – SATURDAY, AUGUST 28th 1948

"What can I assist you with, Miss?"

"Yes, We're checking out and want to settle our bill, please. The name's Whitlock," I said pleasantly to the man behind the front desk while Jasper lingered by my side, his eyes focused on the page of the travel journal I'd given him to use as an excuse for why he kept his eyes down—although he did react with surprise when he heard that I'd used his name to check in under.

"Certainly. I hope you enjoyed your stay," the man said, his voice filled with as much pride as if he owned The Bellevue instead of only working in it.

"It was most pleasant, thank you." I continued to exchange polite small talk. When it was time to pay, I turned to Jasper. "Honey, will you write the check?"

I could feel his bewilderment, so I whispered, "Your inside jacket pocket," so quietly only he could hear it. He pulled out the checkbook and saw his own name printed as the account holder, but he was smart enough to not show his complete confusion outwardly.

Once everything was settled to the hotel's satisfaction, and we walked through the front entrance, I linked my arm through his elbow. "Just keep walking. Too many witnesses around," I said as we made our way down the sidewalk, passing humans who either walked linked together in a similar fashion like us, or as individual businessmen making their way home from the office.

Jasper followed me without question as I led him toward East Fairmount Park, several miles away from the hotel. We didn't have a proper plan laid out, but he was getting restless inside the suite, so I thought it best to get him back outside where he was most comfortable before we decided on our next step.

Finally, as we left the protective shadows of the tall buildings lining the streets, just in time for the direct sun to settle behind the horizon, we reached the park which was emptied of humans because of the late hour. It was perfect for us and we let go of our human acts.

"How long have you used my name?" Jasper immediately asked with an amused expression.

"A very long time," I admitted without shame, then dug out the forged documents and staged wedding photos with this decade's "Jasper" in them next to myself. "As soon as I started accumulating money, I knew I needed to make it look as if it was a man holding the accounts, and in order for me to get access to them, appearing to be married to said man was the easiest explanation."

"But why my name? Why not your own?" he continued. He understood my motivations, but he was definitely curious about the details.

"I don't have a last name of my own. I don't even know if my actual real name is Alice. I just say it's my name because that's what you called me in my first vision," I explained and slowly approached the river. "And I don't want to use Carlisle's name right now, especially since they're all currently here in Philadelphia."

"So is that the plan?" he asked as he followed me. "To find your family and join them right away?"

I turned to look at him over my shoulder and gave him a smile. "I don't even need my visions to know that's not a good idea." The sudden urge to dip my feet in the water had me remove my shoes and stockings before sitting down on the edge and sinking my toes into the smooth river. "I've waited for you for such a long time and I don't want to rush this opportunity we have to really get to know each other." He sat down next to me, but kept his feet dry. "I also don't want you to feel forced into the idea of joining an unknown family just because I want it. That's something we have to decide together."

His expression contorted with confusion. "But you said your future with them was decided a long time ago. How can that be true if you're givin' me a choice?"

"The future isn't straightforward nor is it immutable," I said and leaned back on my hands. "Few things can never be changed: the weather; where the sun will rise and set … true love." I looked at him and saw the small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "My future with the Cullens was decided a long time ago … by me. But I can just as easily change that decision and therefore change my future."

I pulled my wet feet out of the water and rose up on my knees while facing his profile. The wind blew a lock of his hair forward and I gingerly placed it behind his ear so his face wasn't obscured. The small, pleased spark emitting from him by my touch encouraged me to allow my hand to linger on his skin.

"You are my priority, Jasper. Nothing beyond this point in time is set in stone with the one exception that I'll be with you until the day you ask me to go."

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, a smirk firmly in place. "I don't know what kind of magic you possess, but I already know that day will never come around. Just in these past two days, you've given me more hope and dreams of a peaceful future than I could ever have imagined before. Your naturally joyful spirit is like a soothin' balm for my charred soul."

"That's nice to hear," I said and gently pressed my lips against his cheek. Then, I leaned back and took a deep breath through my nose, pulling all of the scents around us into my lungs. Lingering in the air from the day's escapades in the park was the hint of human, but it wasn't strong enough for me to be bothered by it. "I don't have any definitive places I wish to visit in the world, so tell me, Jasper Whitlock, if you could go anywhere you'd want, where would that be?"

{=LMF=}

It was quiet apart from the ocean hitting the rocky shore and the wind blowing through the fir trees. The lighthouse keeper and his wife were inside their house, and there was no way for them to see us from there, but apart from them, there wasn't a human in sight and the closest city was miles inward the mainland.

For a moment, it was easy to imagine myself and Jasper as the only two people in the world.

He'd yet to tell me why he wanted to go as far east as possible without leaving US soil–which was why we were in Maine–and he'd somehow already learned how to utilize the blank spots in my visions because I couldn't even see him telling me either, but as the setting sun painted the sky pink and orange, I didn't find it in me to care.

It was like standing inside a painting.

"Wow," I breathed out. "I didn't think anything could take my breath away anymore, but this is incredible."

"It is," Jasper said, his voice low and serene. "This is what I've always envisioned absolute peace to look like."

I reached out for his hand and he closed the distance between us first by firmly entwining our fingers and pulling me close to his side. "Thank you, Alice," he said softly.

"For what exactly?"

"For remindin' me that wishes can still come true after death."

"It was a wish you had as a human?" I asked for clarification. "To come here?"

He shook his head. "Not me. My sister."

I immediately turned my head to look at him at the mention of a sister. I didn't think he'd have any memories left of the family who was long gone and buried. With his life being dominated by bloodlust and violence, I had assumed everything had faded into obscurity.

With how Edward and Rosalie had spoken about it when Emmett joined the family, it sounded quite taxing to retain human memories and not something done lightly. Naturally, I had no personal experience of it, but it was astounding Jasper had any memories.

"You had a sister?"

"A brother too. But Caroline was my twin. She's the only one I can really remember, though, because she threatened my life when I left home." He snorted as he thought of it. "She said 'I swear to the Lord of everythin' that is sacred and holy, if you don't return to us, Jas, I will go out there, find you, and drag you back home by the roots of your blond head before I kill you myself.'" He let out a genuine chuckle that made his eyes almost sparkle with humor. "I have no idea if she made good on that promise when I disappeared, but I wouldn't have wanted to be the one who stood in her way if she did."

"She sounds like she was a force to be reckoned with," I said, mirroring his smile.

"That she was. She looked like a proper southern peach but with the temper of a bull."

I giggled at the image that statement conjured in my mind. "Do you remember why she wanted to come here?" I asked to continue the affectionately reminiscent conversation.

"Not too clearly. Our family settled in Houston the same year it was founded, and seven years later, Caroline and I were born," he said, really straining to recall the details of his past. I knew he was doing it for me because he wanted me to know the man before the vampire, and I loved that. "That town was all we knew, and even though we witnessed it grow, Caroline always said she wished to one day stand at the edge of the world and watch as the horizon swallowed the sun."

As he said it, the sun dropped below the ocean, and the night cloaked us. We remained standing on the cliffs for another moment before Jasper turned us around and we started walking back into the forest, his hand still holding on to mine.

"Have you ever wanted to look up what became of them all?" I asked softly. "Since you have some memories left, I'm convinced it wouldn't be too difficult."

Jasper slowly took a deep breath, but then shook his head. "No. It's better to leave them in the past. They were the family of a different man … a boy really, and I prefer the dead stay dead."

I understood his reasons, but there was still a part of me who was jealous, and of course he picked up on it, but just as I knew his motivations, he already understood mine as well.

"I wish you had that choice as well. It's not fair you should be deprived of everythin' before this life, but do understand that rememberin' can sometimes feel more like a curse than a blessin'."

"I'm trying to convince myself there's nothing there worth remembering. That my human life was so horrible, it's better to have forgotten." My attempt at jokingly waving his concern away was weak, and didn't work.

"It's not impossible. But I know very little of the works of the human mind beyond their emotions," he said, then pulled on my hand slowly until he had his arm protectively slung around my shoulders as we continued to walk at a tranquil pace. "Just know that I don't care either way. I'm more impressed than anythin' that you've retained such an optimistic outlook on life despite what's been thrown at you. I admire that about you."

The way his compliments stroke my ego caused me to giggle, and as always when our physical contact was prolonged, I could feel even the tiniest shift in his emotions as he unconsciously projected them onto me.

Apparently, my joyous giggle caused certain … stirrings for him. And knowing his mind had drifted to that place, I was helpless against the need to join him.

He'd been in my life for a week, but after that first time I pushed him away, he hadn't attempted to advance our level of intimacy again. But then again, neither had I.

We kissed, held hands, hugged, snuggled and cuddled while just reveling in our building relationship and the depth of our emotions when we were together. It was easy to feel content with that because it was intimate and safe.

But all of that didn't mean I wasn't imagining getting closer to him and lusting for his body.

Unlike him, I had no sexual experience that I knew of. I didn't know if I was a virgin or not, and all my knowledge was from books, and what I'd witnessed between him and Maria, as well as between the couples in my family, so, naturally, there was a veil of nervousness shrouding my decisions on pursuing that closeness.

"What could possibly be racin' through your mind with your emotions scattered like that?" he finally asked.

"Everything and nothing," I answered cryptically, but then gave him a smile and the truth. "We haven't touched the subject of sex since the hotel, and yet we're both aware that we want each other. For some reason, I felt the need to justify why to myself."

"And what's your conclusion?"

I shrugged beneath the protection of his arm. "I don't know if I have one." I stopped walking and he turned to face me, his expression blank, but his darkened eyes revealed he already knew what I was going to say. "I want you, Jasper," I said steadily. "All of you. I don't want you to suppress even one part of yourself when we're together because you can trust me to care for you emotionally as well as physically."

His face thawed with the warmth of his responding smile. "I know I can trust you, Alice. I've never met anyone in my life who deserves it more." He reached out with his hand until his fingers were touching my face. "Tell me why you're nervous."

"You'll be my first," I said simply. "My one and only as far as I know. It's bound to make me a little nervous since I have no idea what to expect."

Slowly, and ever so softly, his fingers eased into my hair until his hand cradled the back of my head. "You can trust me to be gentle. The last thing I'd ever want is to hurt you in any way."

"I know you'd never hurt me. It's not you I'm nervous about. It's the act in itself."

He allowed his head to tilt to the side without breaking our eye contact. "I stepped into this life as a virgin. You'll be surprised by how you instinctively know what to do."

We closed the space between us simultaneously until our lips touched and then fearlessly opened to each other. His tongue sensually played with mine, and his arms wrapped around me until I was enveloped in pure Jasper from all sides.

I was prepared and ready, expecting him to begin exploring my body as he had in the suite, but he surprised me by breaking our connection and leaning away.

"But not here," he said.

"What's wrong with here?" I asked and looked around the serene forest surrounding us. With the stars blinking high above our heads and the sound of the ocean still hitting the shore, it was quite stunning and more than an adequate scene for me to share myself with the love of my life.

"You don't ravage the woman you'll spend your life with on the forest floor." He smirked at my confusion and placed a light, quick kiss on my open lips. "At least not the first time. My lady deserves a bed, or, at the very least, a mattress and some bedding."

I smiled at the sweetness. "Thank you, but I don't need a bed or for you to prove that I'm special to you. You've already told me that."

"I know you don't need it, darlin'," he said, and my heart soared with the endearing nickname. "But I want to give it to you nonetheless."


A/N:

What's positive about Alice's amnesia is the fact that she can't remember all the awful things that happened at the asylum. She doesn't know that she was sterilized and sexually assaulted by an orderly, and so she gets to experience a first time she deserves, with the man she loves. She gets to believe that Jasper's touch is the only one she's ever known, and that's very comforting.

Jasper's story about his family isn't canon and completely made up by me. I gave him a couple of siblings, and yes, I did name his twin sister after myself xD Don't judge me!

If you put into google earth the most eastern point of usa, you'll see the lighthouse I mentioned in this chapter. It's a museum today, but at that time in the late 40s, it was still used and being maintained by a lighthouse keeper and his wife.

Tomorrow, there will be a little ^^, smexy time between our couple!

Until then,

Stay Awesome!