A Long But Relevant A/N: So, a few things before we get started. Or started further, I guess. This way I won't have to do any more long ass notes in the future and annoy y'all:)

First, maybe I overstated how dark this was, lol. Compared to Fate, which was mostly light and fun, it's definitely darker. But it's not like hella dark where it's no fun at all and it's all gloom and doom. I'll also just say right up front, the daddy is not anyone from the saga. For sure not Mike or Jacob! Yuck to both! It's a human, so no hybrid babies either, lol. And it's no one that's gonna pop up down the road to cause trouble. I'm also not sure yet how updates will work here. Probably not daily, though. I'm still the same me who's hella fucking impatient so I doubt I'll sit on chapters, but if I had to throw out an estimate… maybe two chapters a week? Three? I'll commit to one for sure, lol. Lastly, anyone who read my other story knows that technology and I don't like each other so much, but I finally started getting review alert things where I can reply. Where do y'all stand on that? Do you like getting replies? Do they annoy you? If you're kind enough to take the time to review, I'd like to be kind enough to not annoy the hell out of you for it:)

And that's hopefully the only note this long, lol. Thank you for reading and for all the reviews and follow and favorites! Y'all make me smile. ~ M. x

Surprises and News

Bella had just come out of the bathroom and made a cup of tea, her mind in turmoil, when there was a knock on her door.

When she opened it, she was met with Chelsea's smiling face. "Hello, Bella. Aro would like to see you in his study if you have a few minutes."

Bella nodded and set her mug down, then followed the woman through the twists and turns of the castle. Chelsea didn't offer conversation so Bella stayed quiet also. The door she recognized from the day before was slightly ajar, and Chelsea knocked quietly twice and then pushed it open.

When Bella walked in behind her she got the surprise of her life. "Jasper?" she said quietly, then practically launched herself at the man to hug him as tears stung her eyes. She'd never been more grateful to see a familiar face.

Jasper caught her with a smile, so fuckin' relieved to see that she was alright. Aro had assured him that she was perfectly safe but his edginess didn't diminish until he set eyes on her himself.

Aro watched the two with a small smile. He'd been notified an hour before that someone was at the front desk wishing to speak to him and he'd been shocked when he was informed that the man had introduced himself as Jasper Whitlock. He'd had him escorted to his study where they could talk in privacy, and he asked Jasper what his understanding was of the events that had taken place inside the family while they were living in Washington.

Jasper wasn't a stupid man and he'd noticed that Edward and Alice had been acting strangely since just before Bella arrived in Forks, and there were moments throughout the months after Bella and Edward became a couple that he felt emotions from the telepath and the seer that didn't fit the situation. There had seemed to be what he described as a 'dark undercurrent' in the family.

He had never, however, uncovered the true motive for their strange behavior.

His actions before eventually leaving the family - notably his attempts to uncover the cause of the strangely shifting dynamics and securing a divorce from Alice - were not a surprise to Aro, as he knew of those from reading the two Cullens. He also wasn't surprised by Jasper's account of the ill-fated baseball game where they had an altercation with a trio of nomads, although there were some pieces of that story that Jasper was still unaware of. He was, however, surprised to hear that Jasper believed a vampire had killed Bella's parents, specifically Victoria, the mate of the tracker they'd killed. Unfortunately he was only half right.

Aro hadn't offered much information when Jasper finished, not quite certain what was safe to share yet.

What was currently working in their favor was that Edward and Alice weren't aware that Jasper and Bella had been in regular communication since the family left Washington - he'd managed to keep that hidden in the few months between their departure from Forks and when he left the Cullens. Just before the family left town, Jasper had his brother Peter set up an email account in Jasper's name. He wrote Bella a short note to give her the email address and to briefly explain about her party. It was half-apology, half-caution that things felt a little off from Jasper's perspective. He snuck the note into her truck, and the two emailed each other regularly through Peter in the hopes that it would keep Alice from seeing it. It worked.

So rather than telling Jasper everything he'd uncovered so far, Aro instead had Bella brought to his study so the two could talk without fear of being overheard.

Bella stepped away from Jasper with an embarrassed smile while she discreetly wiped her eyes. "Sorry about that."

Jasper tugged her back to his side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm not," he laughed. "I've missed you, Bella. You could hug me all day and you wouldn't hear an argument out of me."

Aro smiled a little wider at the two. "I'll leave the two of you to talk in privacy. Bella, we're transferring you to a different suite. The one you're currently in isn't soundproofed so we're going to move you to one that is. In the meantime, feel free to talk in here."

Bella's eyes went wide. "My things?" she asked nervously.

"They're being moved for you," Aro said slowly, seeing the worry on her face. "Is something the matter?"

Bella cursed internally. She hadn't expected anyone to be in her space and her three very positive pregnancy tests were still sitting on a paper towel on the bathroom vanity. Maybe the vamp moving her stuff wouldn't know what they were? Bella rolled her eyes at herself at that stupid thought. The fucking boxes were right on the counter with them. Damn it all to hell.

"Any chance whoever's moving my stuff is under that shield thing?" she asked, a tiny flicker of hope inside her.

Aro must have seen something in her face because he flashed over to the phone and made a brief call. When he hung up, he smiled at her. "She is now. And none too soon, Chelsea was just entering your suite."

"Thank you, sir," Bella said softly, grateful tears again stinging her eyes.

Aro nodded and left the two alone, telling them he would return in thirty minutes, then went in search of Chelsea.

Once Jasper and Bella were settled on the loveseat in the corner, he took her hand. "Are you alright?" he asked softly. "Have you been treated well?"

Bella smiled and nodded. "Surprisingly well, honestly. No one has been at all the way Edward made them sound," she told him. "Aro isn't very happy with Alice and Edward, none of them seem to be, but they've been perfectly pleasant to me."

"Good," he said with a relieved sigh.

"I'm sorry I disappeared on you, Jasper," Bella said quietly. "Things got… bad, in Forks. I had to get out. I'll tell you everything, but I've just discovered I've got a much bigger problem right now."

Jasper nodded. "Does it have anything to do with your panic when Aro said he was havin' your things moved?" he asked.

Even though Bella knew she was looking at her best chance at having someone on her side, she hesitated. Was she ready to say it out loud? She wasn't so sure. But ready or not, it wouldn't be a secret for long. Chelsea probably knew by now, which meant Aro would know soon enough. And she couldn't be sure who he would tell. Maybe it would be nice to tell someone on her own terms. She could think of worse people to confide in than Jasper Whitlock.

She'd missed talking to him the last six months but had felt like she needed time and space from everyone who'd ever known her.

After her dad was killed she felt like she was suffocating in Forks. Between grief and betrayal, she could hardly catch her breath. All she'd wanted was a little time to work out who she was now that she had none of those familiar tethers holding her to this world.

Bella took a huge, deep breath and held it for a second, then slowly let it out and looked in Jasper's eyes. "I'm pregnant," she said, quietly but in a way steadier voice than she'd anticipated.

Jasper's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. He could feel her worry, even a hint of the leftover panic, but underneath it she was hopeful. Hopeful and happy. Alright, so good news, then. Jasper pulled her into a hug. "Congratulations, Bella," he smiled. "That's not at all what I expected you to say," he added when he let her go.

"What did you expect?" she asked curiously.

"I'm honestly not sure. Pregnancy has been so far off my radar for about a century and a half that it never would've crossed my mind," he laughed, then leaned over to kiss her forehead. "I'm happy for you. Is it bad manners to ask who the daddy is?"

Bella laughed and reached for his hand again. Even without the use of his gift, just having that point of contact eased some of her nerves.

"Considering I've known for less than thirty minutes, I'm about as up-to-date on pregnancy etiquette as you are," she smiled, then shrugged her shoulder. "But it's no one you know, no one in Washington. And no one I'll be seeing again," she added quickly, shoving away that little bit of hurt inside her. "And don't congratulate me just yet, Jasper. I'm in uncertain waters right now because of those two fucking Cullens. Argh, I'm so fucking pissed that I let Alice railroad me! I didn't know I was pregnant or I never would've come with her!"

Jasper tucked her a little closer against his side. "We'll find a way through this," he whispered. "I'll help you find a way through this."

And with that, Bella lost the fight with the tears she'd been pushing away and shoving down for so long. The events around her dad's death had left her feeling completely lost. Set adrift in an unfamiliar world. So to have a man she'd always trusted tell her he'd help her find a way through… well, it was a start.

He was offering her a new tether to the world and she was going to hold onto it with all her strength.

Jasper pulled his favorite human into his lap and held her close, rubbing soft circles on her back as she sobbed.

They had a lot of talking they needed to do if they had a chance in hell of getting Bella out of Volterra still human, but that could wait. Bella didn't need words or plans in that moment, she needed a connection to someone who cared about her. And Jasper did.

So he just held her a little bit closer and let her cry some of her grief out.

There was a quiet knock on the door about twenty minutes later and Aro and Marcus Volturi walked in. Jasper nodded at them but didn't otherwise move. Bella had cried herself to sleep and was curled up in his lap with her head tucked against his neck.

The two men came and sat across from them, both wearing matching frowns.

"Is she alright?" Marcus asked quietly.

Jasper nodded. "She fell asleep. It's been a long few days for her," he whispered. He didn't want to tip their hand too soon and he didn't know how much the kings were aware of yet.

He could feel worry and concern from both of them, but he didn't know the men at all. He had no baseline from which to work when it came to his gift. He could read their emotions all day but they'd mean very little to him in this context. These were the kings of their world. They dealt with so much on a daily basis that he couldn't be certain that the worry or concern was actually directed at Bella or her situation.

And the grief inside Marcus was essentially acting as a black hole for any other emotion. The worry in the man spiked when he saw Bella but it was swallowed almost immediately by his despair. If Jasper was going to use his emotions as one of his guideposts on how to navigate their way outta this he was gonna have to pick up each flare before it disappeared.

Before any more could be said, there was another knock on the door and a blond woman came in carrying a steaming mug of… something. It wasn't coffee, but that's about all Jasper could tell.

"When I was moving Bella's things I noticed she'd just made some tea. Once I finished I made her a fresh cup," the woman said quietly and set it on the coffee table in front of Jasper. She looked at Bella with a sad smile and turned to the kings. "I'll leave you alone, let me know if you need anything."

Aro and Marcus both nodded and Jasper quietly thanked her for her kindness. She smiled at him and closed the door behind her.

"How did you know to come, Jasper, if you don't mind me asking?" Aro asked after a few moments of silence.

Jasper smiled. "I'd had a bad feeling for a couple days that something was wrong, and my brother sometimes gets… I don't know, little nudges of intuition, I guess. He told me I needed to get to Volterra, that Bella needed an ally," Jasper explained.

Both men nodded. "Did you know that whatever was wrong, your own bad feeling, was to do with Miss Swan?" Marcus asked.

"Not with any degree of certainty," Jasper said, head tipped to the side a little as he thought on it. "But I've been worried about her for a while now, so she's always in one part of my mind."

"I have to be honest with you, Mr. Whitlock, I'm not entirely sure how to move forward from here," Aro said. "The law demands that she be changed or killed, but…" he trailed off and Jasper felt his uncertainty, his hesitation.

Jasper nodded and carefully brushed the hair from Bella's face. "Wake up, sweetheart," he said softly, smiling when she grumbled a little. "You really want us discussing your fate while you snore your way through the conversation?"

"I don't snore, Jasper," she huffed, then pulled her head away from his shoulder to smile at him. "You're surprisingly comfortable to nap on for a granite rock."

Jasper laughed and shoved her off his lap onto the cushion beside him. "Just for that you can sit over there."

Bella smiled as she righted herself. "Sorry about that, sirs. I didn't mean to fall asleep," she said to the kings once she was sitting properly with her clothes straightened out. "Oh, tea! Thank you to whoever is responsible for this," she smiled as she picked up the mug and cradled it in her hands.

Both kings smiled at her. "Bella, have you…" Aro quickly darted his eyes at Jasper.

"I have," Bella nodded. "Thank you for your discretion, though, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome," Aro smiled. "It's your information to reveal, not mine. Although I did tell Marcus in hopes that he could help me come up with a solution to this situation."

After a few long moments of silence, Jasper spoke. "I know that there are things that need to be dealt with in regards to the Cullens, but after that… what if you release her into my care? As a guardian of sorts?" he asked. "If Bella was open to it, that is. It's her life."

Marcus smiled the briefest of small smiles. "What do you have in mind?"

Jasper turned to Bella, rather than the kings. This was her decision, all he could do was offer her an option to consider.

"I think we both know that the odds of you being allowed to leave Volterra without any conditions are slim to none. The house I live in is well off the beaten path. We're miles and miles from even the nearest small town, which is truly tiny. We easily go months without seeing any humans. You could come stay with us. And, in return, I would give the Volturi my word that I'll keep you from takin' out a front page ad in the New York Times to tell the world about vampires. If you decide to be a hellion and cause trouble, it'd be my neck on the line, not yours. That should be enough to keep you on the straight and narrow," he added with a laugh, knowing Bella might take risks if it was only her own safety on the line, but not if she was putting someone else in danger.

Bella looked at him for a long moment, fighting a smile. "A hellion?" she laughed, then shook her head with a sigh. "Jasper, do you know what you'd be getting yourself into? This isn't a common cold that clears up in a few days. If my math skills haven't deteriorated since I left school, I still have seven and a half months of pregnancy ahead of me. Do you know anything about pregnancy?"

"Do you?" he asked with a smile. "Aside from the duration?"

"Well…" Bella trailed off and rolled her eyes with a huff of laughter. "Books exist, Jasper. I can learn."

He smiled and waved her off. "So can I. Besides, I'm a way faster reader than you are. We can have Charlotte quiz us both after a week and see who knows more."

"Would Peter and Charlotte even agree to this?" she asked quietly, not wanting to get her hopes up just to have them dashed.

Jasper smiled and took her hand, then looked at the kings, who were watching their exchange with small smiles - Aro's obvious, while Marcus' was just barely discernible. "Before I run it by them, would those terms be agreeable to you?" he asked.

"I'm inclined to agree," Aro nodded. "We may have to put some other safeguards in place but that could do as a basic framework. Marcus?" he asked, turning to his brother.

Marcus nodded. "I would be satisfied with that. We'll need Caius to agree, but his distaste for the Cullens may work in our favor here."

Jasper nodded and pulled out his phone, giving Bella's hand a gentle squeeze.

Peter answered on the first ring. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's alright," Jasper assured him. "How would y'all feel about a houseguest? Like a long-term houseguest," he added, making Bella snort a laugh.

"How long is long?" Peter asked suspiciously, but quickly continued. "If it's Bella she can stay 'til the cows come home as far as I'm concerned but if it's anyone else… well, you know Charlotte's a little skittish around people."

"Charlotte?" Jasper scoffed. "Don't use your kind-hearted, friendly mate as an excuse for your lack of a social life."

"I have you and Charlotte. What more do I need?" Peter asked, completely fuckin' genuine.

"It's Bella," Jasper confirmed with a smile.

"Uh, are we talkin' a human houseguest or a baby vamp houseguest? 'Cause those are two very different scenarios to plan for."

"Human," Jasper shook his head with a laugh. "I'll call you back in a little bit when I know more. I'm sitting with two of the kings tryin' to figure out how all this is gonna work."

"Which ones?"

"Which ones what? Which kings?" Jasper asked.

"Duh," Peter replied and Jasper could practically hear him rolling his eyes over the phone.

"Aro and Marcus," Jasper answered, unsure why Peter was asking.

Peter hummed on the other end of the line for a second or five. "Tell him we'll take out Kristof if he agrees," he said eventually.

Jasper felt the shock from Aro and looked up to see the surprise on his face. "Uh, I'll pass that along. Thanks, Peter."

"Yep."

Jasper hung up and gave Bella a nod before looking back to Aro.

"How does your friend know Kristof?" Aro asked, a weird combination of curious, cautious, and amused.

"I doubt he does," Jasper shook his head. "I think you just saw one of his nudges of intuition in action. My best guess is that Caius won't agree to this when you first put it to him. Offering him something in return as an incentive makes him more willing. In this case, Kristof. Whoever that is."

"How fascinating. Bizarre, but fascinating," Aro said, then shook his head. "Well, we'll take this to our brother and see what he has to say."

"Before you do, and I'm sorry if this sounds disrespectful, I just wanna make it real clear that I'm not a hired gun. Neither is Peter. If it means you let Bella leave so she can be somewhere safe, we'll do it, no question. But that's it," he said, looking both Aro and Marcus in the eye. "Six months down the road, you don't call and say you've got a small issue and would we please be so kind as to take care of it for you."

Both kings nodded their agreement. "You have our word," Aro said, and Jasper could detect no deceit.

"Thank you. I'll need Caius' too, though," he smiled.

Aro laughed as he and Marcus stood up. "And you'll have it," he nodded, then looked to Bella with a smile. "Would you like me to show you to your new suite? I won't say you look tired this time."

Bella laughed as she and Jasper got up. "Thank you. Although I'm sure I do, it's been a rough few days."

"Well, if you can put up with us for just a little while longer, hopefully we can get you on your way soon," Aro assured her as he walked to the door.

When Bella realized Jasper wasn't behind her, she turned to see him looking uncertain. "You coming?" she asked with a smile and held her hand out. "I haven't gotten a proper night's sleep in what feels like forever. You can make yourself useful and knock me out for a solid eight hours."

Jasper laughed as he took her hand. "Happy to help," he said, and he found he really was. Sitting beside a sleeping Bella was as good a way to pass the time as any.

They had a hill in front of them they still had to climb, but just holding her hand seemed to sooth some of those jagged, broken edges inside him. The anxiety and edginess he'd been living with since the family left Forks was nearly entirely gone.

Jasper's mind stuttered to a halt on that thought.

He snapped his eyes to Marcus - the king whose gift was seeing the bonds between people, including that of mates - to see the man was looking between the two of them with a true, genuine smile.

While something like happiness and joy seemed to burst to life inside him at what he'd just now realized, he also felt fury rising up. Because it suddenly looked like Edward and Alice Cullen had a whole lot more to fuckin' answer for than Jasper thought.