Jasper and Lexi got to the restaurant just as Edward pulled into the parking lot. Once again Hensley thought about how inconvenient cars were sometimes. Clearly her and Jasper were able to be much faster when running. Bella didn't appreciate Edward's super speed last time though and Hensley was sure she wouldn't appreciate it this time. Hell, based on Hensley's conversation with Bella yesterday, Edward probably wouldn't appreciate super speed either.

She felt Jasper stiffen when he saw his brother and Hensley squeezed his hand encouragingly. This was an awful place to cause a scene. Why risk exposure in front of Bella when he could chew Edward's ass in his head?

Bella jumped out of the car as fast as she humanly could and threw her arms around Hensley. "I told him not to leave you! I told him to go back!"

Jasper reluctantly let go of her hand and stepped closer to Edward, "Hm, someone with sense." Edward crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Bella, I told him to. I'm fine."

"You could've been hurt."

"But I wasn't." She argued back. Truthfully it had been a little fun. It wasn't very often that she got to fight people anymore and she missed the challenge. Three drunk men weren't exactly a challenge either, but it was something.

Edward interrupted their conversation before Bella had a chance to respond, "Anyway, Bella, I should make sure you eat before I take you home. It's getting late."

"What about you?" Bella asked Hensley, dropping her arms from around the girl.

Hensley looked over at Jasper before shrugging. "I'm okay. I live like 15 minutes away if you want to take me home?"

"Your car is at my house." Bella reminded her.

Shit. Hensley had minor regrets.

"I can pick you up for school tomorrow." Jasper offered, "Take you to Bella's to get your car afterschool."

"How are you getting home?" Bella was proving to be incredibly stubborn. And incredibly thoughtful.

"It's a 15-minute walk." Hensley lied. "I think I'll be pretty safe with Jasper." She gave the other girl a playful wink, hoping to calm Bella's nerves.

It seemed to work. "Okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. And you better not let anything happen to her!"

Jasper smirked, "Oh, I won't." If only Bella knew….

"Have fun." Hensley sang as the group parted ways.

Jasper and Hensley walked in the direction of her apartment just until there were no humans around.

They were only a couple miles from the complex when Jasper stopped her. "Let's do something." He cupped her face in his hands, "I haven't seen you in three days and I really don't wanna go yet."

"Aren't your friends still here?"

"They left an hour ago, which means I'm all yours Darlin'."

Hensley definitely enjoyed the sounds of that. It was nearly seven though, which didn't give them a ton of time left. She was really regretting not being able to have her own apartment. Or at least an apartment with her own room.

She thought for a moment and knew a perfect spot, "There's a cliffside a few miles from here. We can sit up there for a while. It'll be nice and quiet."

Jasper couldn't refuse that. He took her hand, and they ran through the outskirts of town together. It was a chilly run for Hensley, but nothing she couldn't handle. Jasper kept glancing at her as her hand slowly got closer and closer to his temperature. Hensley was unfazed though which was the only reason he kept going.

She climbed the cliffside easily, despite Jasper's panic that she fall and hurt herself. It was a redeeming feeling. Almost like she had proven her vampirism to him. She doubted that her not being able to climb a cliff was a dealbreaker for Jasper, but it was nice to show him that they were equal in abilities.

They went a little farther back into the cliffs, Jasper finding a perfect spot for the two of them to huddle together side by side. Even though she didn't need it, Jasper insisted on giving her his jacket to cover up with.

"You know, I'm pretty durable actually. It's not until it gets really cold that I start feeling it."

"Describe really cold." Jasper raised an eyebrow to her, "Like, Jasper's skin cold or not that bad?"

"Your skin actually gets pretty warm after a bit. Like when we hold hands your hand warms up nicely."

Jasper smiled. He had zero control over that feature of his skin, or any features of his skin really, but it was nice to know his body could adapt to make her comfortable, "I didn't know that about myself. I assumed I was freezing your hand off actually, but it didn't seem to affect you, so I tried not to worry about it."

Hensley nudged him with a giggle, "You're so weird. 'I think she's freezing, but she seems fine with it, so I'll let it go.' You could just ask you know."

"I dislike asking redundant questions. I would know if you were in pain."

She couldn't argue with that logic.

Knowing he wasn't going to freeze her to death gave him the confidence to let her in closer, putting his arm around her instead of being shoulder to shoulder. She welcomed the new position whole heartedly, nuzzling her face against his chest like she was a cat. He was very muscled. Not as defined as Emmett, who was built more like a body builder, but definitely strong. His arm felt a little like a protective cage around her smaller frame, ready to protect her from anything. A small piece of her was a little ashamed of how needy she was. Just a small piece. If Jasper noticed, or cared, he didn't say anything.

"Do you always wear long sleeves?" Hensley asked suddenly. Their earlier conversation of the cold and piqued her interest. She'd never seen Jasper in anything other than long sleeved sweaters or button ups.

"Yes. I haven't told you about my past yet, but once I do you'll know why I wear them around others."

"So, you only get to wear short sleeves around your family?"

Jasper hesitated. "No, not really. I don't like to wear to short sleeves."

"Why not?" Hensley couldn't imagine wearing long sleeves all the time. She would die if she had to train in them.

"They're just not as comfortable."

Hensley thought that was odd. But she didn't think vampires could sweat or get too warm, so she supposed it made sense.

Jasper was resisting the urge to shift under her questioning. He unnecessarily swallowed and quickly changed the subject, "So, what have you been up to while I've been gone?"

She followed the new flow of conversation easily, not as aware that Jasper had been uncomfortable, "I went to Bella's yesterday. That was a lot of fun. We just talked and hung out."

Jasper hummed, leaning his head against hers, while she talked about Bella's line of questioning and how the girl may have Edward figured out. Part of Jasper was worried or would have been worried if he hadn't been pressed up against her. Edward was a big boy. He could handle his own problems and be smart about them.

After a few minutes of shifting against him to find a comfortable position, Hensley finally said 'screw it' and climbed on his lap sideways and leaned into him that way. Jasper had no complaints. Her new position allowed him to rest his nose in her hair. Her scent wasn't as strong as it was in the crook of her neck, but it was stronger to him than when she was just sitting beside him.

They sat there for who knew how long. It didn't matter, well not really. Sure they had school, but it wasn't exactly on Hensley's list of priorities. Jasper felt differently about being responsible.

"We gotta get you home. You haven't had dinner, you gotta sleep for school…."

Hensley groaned, "Let's skip. Let's runaway."

He chuckled, his chest shaking underneath her, "That sounds wonderful. However, I believe your human government might feel differently."

Stupid government. "Yeah I guess."

Reluctantly they started getting up and convincing themselves to go back to civilization. Jasper was really starting to hate civilization. Lexi was smart, who needed the last year of school? They could say she got transferred. That would be incredibly believable. How far they could get before the government would catch on and start following them. Maybe they'd get lucky and they wouldn't come after the pair?

There was the issue of Jasper being gone though. It would look suspicious if the Cullens disappeared with Lexi…. But perhaps their closeness with Lexi got them required to move too. It wasn't too far-fetched. Who really cared? The humans could wonder and theorize whatever they wanted. Jasper couldn't care less about what they thought.

He was lost in his own plans on running away with Lexi that he didn't notice his phone buzzing until Lexi was tugging on his arm.

"Jasper." She was pulling much more forcefully than she wanted to, but he wasn't responding at all.

He finally blinked a few times and faced her. "Yeah? Sorry."

"Your phone."

He picked up it. Alice. Before he could greet her she said, "Nomads are coming. Three. They picked up your scent and got curious."

His stomach dropped. Nomads. Human drinkers. Lexi had human blood in her. Shit. Mind racing, he ran though different scenarios about how to get them away from her. Separating might make them more interested, but not separating was sure to lead to disaster. There was only three of them. Jasper could probably take three at once depending on how skilled of fighters they were.

"You're not fighting them by yourself." Alice snapped at him as she saw the decisions he ran through. "They think you're also nomads. If you leave now and head east, they won't follow you too far out of the city. They want to stay and hunt tonight. They'll think you were also hunting in the area and left to move on."

Jasper took Lexi's hand and lifted her on his back. He could talk to Alice and make this plan work at the same time. "Okay, how far do I go before they disinterested? Head out east for an hour or so?"

"What?" Hensley leaned down closer to his ear, trying to hear what Alice was telling him.

"Yes, wait about an hour, and loop back into town from the south. They're only staying in the city to hunt and then moving on as well. They're going…north up to Canada."

"Okay. We'll do that then. Keep us updated if they change. Thanks, Alice." He shoved the phone back in his pocket, then said to Lexi, "I don't want you going home tonight."

"What? What's going on? I have to go home. They monitor my ID and will see it wasn't scanned back in."

Jasper sighed, "Can't you call and say you won't be home?"

"So, they can ping my cellphone however many miles east out of town? No. It's bad enough I have to warn Kaufmann I won't be back before midnight. Jasper, what's going on?" For someone completely out of the loop, she sure was taking it well. Though Jasper figured that was a requirement of the military.

"Nomads. They picked up our scent and wanted to come check us out. Alice says if we go east and wait for a bit then they won't follow us."

He was quiet as they flew through the woods, heading more southeast than east so it didn't look as strange to loop back up into town. She knew he was upset about the situation; his silence was a great indicator of that, but there wasn't anything either of them could do about it. She had to go back tonight. There was potentially a compromise to this though….

"You can stay with me tonight if that will make you feel better."

They got back into town around 1am. Hensley was trying her best to stay awake on Jasper's back. It was relaxing though; the ride was smooth.

Getting past the gate wasn't' too difficult. They were technically allowed to have visitors…it was just incredibly frowned upon. Once at her building, she scanned her ID and stuck her key in.

"Official." Jasper muttered as he followed her inside.

"You should see the actual building. Security up the ass."

She led up upstairs to her apartment. Kaufmann had their apartment door open before she even got a chance to take out her keys. Someone had been worried.

"The hells goin' on?" Kaufmann asked in a southern drawl of his own. Judging by the accent, Jasper's interest was piqued as he realized the man could be from Texas.

Kaufmann was nearly as tall as Jasper, standing just a couple inches shorter. Jasper noticed a long scar down the side of his neck underneath the shaggy brown hair. It looked much too clean to be from a training accident.

"Let us inside." Hensley tried to nudge him out of the way of the door. Kaufmann didn't budge though. He was in full big brother mode. Narrowed eyes scanned the man behind her. Jasper met his gaze and put his hands on Lexi's shoulders, rubbing them gently.

Kaufmann nodded once at the gesture, a sign of respect. He moved out of the way, still keeping his eyes on Jasper. "What's goin' on?"

"I'm spending the night." Jasper stated as he walked into her apartment after Hensley.

Kaufmann scoffed as he shut the door, "You aint' doing shit if she don't want ya."

Hensley sighed at the oldest boy. Of course it had to be difficult, "Kaufmann leave him alone. It's been a long night."

"No. He ain't staying if you don't want him here." Kaufmann eyed up Hensley. He was normally the most playful one of the three boys, but there was no joking in his eyes. He was fully prepared to throw Jasper's ass out.

"Kaufmann," Hensley returned the look with much less seriousness in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, "he can stay the night."

Kaufmann narrowed his eyes at her, silently questioning. She shook his head, telling him that she didn't really need him to throw Jasper out. If she had blinked twice, he would've. Their silent signal in case Hensley couldn't say anything. His shoulders dropped as he nodded, "Alright. Didn't think I'd have to tell ya this, but you do anything she doesn't want you to, and I'll show you exactly how we're special in this branch." His voice was as firm as the stare he had for the other male.

Jasper cracked a small smile for Lexi's benefit only. Kaufmann was still standing fairly strong against him, though not as much as a minute ago. He wondered exactly what Kaufmann's strengths were. Did he have special gifts like Lexi? He had the scar along his neck, which led Jasper to believe it was that general area where his gifts lie. Jasper got no chance to consider it further. Lexi was taking it upon herself to calm the boys down by removing him from the situation.

She had taken Jasper's hand and tried to lead him through the kitchen back to the bedroom. Kaufmann had other plans, "Woah, woah. Ya didn't answer me. What's with the dude?"

"Hale." She turned with a sigh. "His name is Hale. Hale, this is Kaufmann. My most annoying roommate."

It took Jasper half a second to realize that Lexi probably wasn't allowed to call him by his first name. "We met at the hospital."

"Oh, right."

"Doesn't answer my question." Kaufmann waved her forward, arms still crossed over his chest.

"It's nothing. We're fine now, but we almost had a run-in with some bad people." Hensley tried to be as vague as possible, turning to make her way to the bedroom again.

"Vampires like him?"

Her head moved slowly from side to side on autopilot, "Nope." Willing herself to act natural, she took Jasper's hand again and tried to pull him along, going about her night as if she was truly getting ready for bed and not wondering how Kaufmann got in on the secret.

"Ya know, you're kinda like a book." Kafumann said conversationally, "I can totally tell you're freaked. I knew you'd flip when I told ya I knew. Really though? How unobservant do you think I am? Kid looks pretty similar to Carlisle."

Hensley sighed, rubbing her face. It was too damn late for these games, "You're an ass, you know that?"

He laughed at her stress. Like an ass. "It was funny though. Totally worth it. Anyway, what's the story there? You pulling some incest shit on me?"

"No," Jasper spoke up. Not actually, considering his voice was still low, trying to be respectful of the other roommates. "I'm not Carlisle's actual son. It's just a cover we use to fit in better."

Kaufmann nodded slowly, "So Carlisle's got some vampire-cult thing going on?"

Hensley wanted to smack him. He sure could be blunt and not in a good way, "I think it's normal for vampires to travel in groups. Besides, they all have the same diet, so it's easier for them to stick together."

"Which is not humans. Cause I would've been long gone."

Hensley giggled while Jasper tried not to smirk. "I think Carlisle's considering it anyway."

The bedroom door opened, and a zombie-like Anderson trudged out, rubbing his eyes. "Okay, look, you got a nice vampire boyfriend for your nice half-vampire self. Can you two shut up now and go the fuck to bed?"

Kaufmann crossed the kitchen, opening up a cupboard and a drawer. He promptly took out a cup and spoon, banging them together. That was how Hensley found out that Red had overnight, because if Red had been home Kaufmann would've died before any vampire got a chance to eat him.

Once Anderson and Kaufmann quit fighting for the night, Hensley finally got to sleep.

Jasper took a look around the room Lexi brough him too and noted that it was surprisingly empty. There were two beds on the right. One in the center of the wall and one in the corner. Two more beds were in the same spaces but on the opposite wall, as if the room were flipped on the x-axis. A single 6-drawer dresser sat between the beds in the far corners of the room…and that was it.

Part of Jasper wondered how they four fought over the extra two drawers in the dresser. He could picture Lexi putting up quite a fight.

"Fancy, isn't it?" Hensley laughed awkwardly, breaking the silence.

"I'm surprised they make you all share a bedroom. Couldn't spring for a second one, huh?"

Hensley sat down on her bed, the one closest to the door and shrugged, "Right? They built them a few years ago. Totally could've added a second bedroom if they wanted to."

"Why didn't they?"

Hensley shrugged, taking off her shoes, "They hate me."

Laying down together on a twin bed wasn't the easiest or most comfortable thing. Hensley was trying to give Jasper the most room. He was the guest after all. They ended up both on their sides, foreheads pressed together, his arm wrapped around her. It was the most peace she'd ever felt in the room.

Jasper faced the door all night so he could watch for potential intruders. Whether Kaufmann was upset with him or had to work he wasn't entirely sure, but the older man never came to bed. Jasper could've checked on his emotions, but he was busy experiencing something completely new.

Vampires couldn't sleep. It was a pain in the ass, a little irritating, and made no sense. But they couldn't.

Being in the room with two sleeping humans though…it was odd. Jasper wasn't sleeping. He was fully conscious. He could hear people talking outside the building on patrol if he focused on it. When he focused on the emotions though, when he let himself be enveloped by the…void of emotions…it was as close to sleep as he'd gotten in years.

It was peaceful and relaxing to just rest and feel nothing. The last time he'd felt nothing was what seemed like forever ago. He didn't even really remember the last time he felt nothing. Surely he had to of been human, which was over 140 years ago. A lifetime and a half almost. Yet here he was, with Lexi, completely void and it felt wonderful.

Whatever demon or angel or God or Satan or being that blessed him with her…he owed them his entire life and more.