The house was abuzz when she woke up. Not in a good way either.
Hensley showered a little slower than normal to give her family time to quit arguing amongst themselves and to give them a little privacy. This was not a fight that was ending quickly it seemed. She took a fifteen-minute shower, and they were still at it.
Carefully she crept down the steps to see what the commotion was about while trying not to get herself killed or in the middle of it. Rosalie and Edward where in complete stand-off mode in the living room. Esme was looking desperate to break up the fight between them while her husband stood behind her keeping a watchful eye on things.
The family itself seemed divided, Alice and Cooper on Edward's side, Jasper and Emmett on Rosalie's. Hensley knew little of what was going on, and therefore opted for the middle until a decision was made.
"What's going on?" She stepped up to the fighting pair and held her hands behind her back. Rosalie looked pissed, leading her to believe this had something to do with Bella.
"It's really not a big deal." Edward snapped, "I'm bringing Bella over to meet the family this afternoon."
"It is a big deal!" Rosalie stressed, "you're bringing her into our home! The one place we don't have to hide from her kind. Introducing her to us is a step forward in a relationship that shouldn't exist."
Alice jumped in, "It does exist. Bella makes him happy! Why can't you let Edward be happy?"
"Edward can be happy. With someone our kind. There are hundreds, thousands of us. Pick any one of them and I'll be thrilled."
"She's not one of us." Alice gestured accusingly to Hensley. Hensley couldn't help but feel hurt at her statement. She was trying hard to fit into the family and thought she'd been doing well.
"Don't you dare." Jasper snarled at the girl, taking a step forward with a dangerous glint in his eyes. He no doubt picked up on Hensley's pain.
Alice didn't step back like Hensley expected her to. She stood tall against Jasper, but her features did soften as she cast a glance at Hensley, "That's not how I meant it. I love her too. My point is that neither girl is a full-fledged vampire. You can't ask Edward to abide by rules Jasper isn't."
"Lexi is close enough. She's at least half vampire and she's Carlisle's daughter! You cannot compare Lexi and Bella. They're two completely different situations. Lexi was born into our world. Bella is an outsider being brought in. Lexi is not a danger to our secret because it's her secret too. Bella is human. She's not supposed to know of us at all." Rosalie was becoming more rigid the longer she spoke. It was no secret how Rosalie felt about this. "We've never interacted this closely with humans before. It's dangerous for all of us. Especially with her being Edward's singer."
Hensley had no idea what a singer was. Bella didn't seem like she was the musical type or the type to get on stage and perform. Edward's mind was made up though. "Everyone will be fine. All I'm asking you to do is say hi to her. You don't have to stick around."
"Don't plan on it." Rosalie spat. "You're being selfish. I'm not sticking around to condone it."
"How do you feel about this?" Hensley asked her father. Carlisle was obviously the patriarch here, the coven leader.
He sighed, meeting her gaze with worried eyes. He pressed his lips together for a second before speaking to Edward, "It's not an ideal situation. Under any other circumstance I would welcome the opportunity with open arms because I want you to be happy. But," He glanced over at Hensley, "I have a daughter to think about. I finally get to see her on an unrestricted basis and I am not excited about taking chances to ruin that opportunity."
Rosalie leaned back and crossed her arms with a satisfied smirk.
"However," Carlisle continued, looked at every vampire member of his family, "I trust you all enough to know your limits to make sure this ends well. This decision doesn't just have negative implications for the Swan girl, but my daughter as well. If this goes poorly an innocent girl dies and she gets locked away for the next year and a half." Jasper lowly growled at the sentence. "And then we'll all have to deal with that rath." Carlisle nodded to Jasper, a whisper of a smile on his lips.
Cooper broke his silence with a chuckle, "Talk about a time of hell."
"Hm. You think his rath will be bad you haven't seen mine yet." Carlisle winked. He stepped back to Esme, rubbing her shoulders.
"Yeah, you won't be able to kiss Alice unsupervised ever again." Hensley joked, watching Carlisle's expression. His just rolled his eyes. Frankly, Hensley wasn't sure which part of that joke wasn't funny.
Most of the family disbursed to hunt following the fight. Jasper had been reluctant to leave, but if he struggled with blood as much as Emmett had told her, then Jasper needed to hunt. No sense in taking chances.
Hensley hung out in Carlisle's study while waiting for Jasper to return. It was a nice opportunity to spend time with Carlisle, something that had always been limited. They sat in cushy chairs talking about vampirism, if they thought Hensley would ever age or die, and how Carlisle's family came to be. Well, more like how Esme and Edward came to be. Hensley found Esme's story quite sweet. Not the crappy husband part, but the finding Carlisle again part. Almost like they truly were meant to be. Similar, but different to Hensley and Jasper.
Thinking about Esme and Carlisle led Hensley to think about someone in a similar role, but slightly different. "Will you tell me about my mother?"
Carlisle looked over at her, eyes softened, "Of course I will. What would like to know?"
"Everything."
He chuckled, taking a breath, "She was so enthusiastic about you. They told us every time they merged our DNA together and every time she would sit and cross her fingers that that baby would be the one. It wore on her, to have them reject each one. All sixteen of them. I had never seen her smile so bright as it was when they told her we could move forward with you.
"She liked daisies. Yellow ones were her favorite because they reminded her of the sunshine. She played the piano and would do so every time she felt well enough too. She swore that the sound would lull you to sleep. I can't speak for when she was pregnant with you, but it certainly did when you were first born."
Hensley smiled at that. A mother's instinct. For some reason she felt glad that her mother had that connection to her, no matter how brief.
Carlisle continued, "She had a lot of the same favorites you do; peanut butter, fall leaves and the crunch they make, the mint color, worms. You two like the weirdest things. I was able to convince them to let her outside every now and then in the beginning. Every time it rained, she reminded me to be careful of the little worms on the ground." Carlisle chuckled at something. "She loved the small things the most. It made sense to me when you were born a small baby."
"What was her name?" The name. The most sacred thing of all. The most sacred thing to anyone in that agency.
Carlisle shook his head, eyes faraway for just a moment. "Hensley." He took a breath, "I never knew anything else."
Hensley couldn't help the sinking feeling in her heart. It quickly bubbled up into a white-hot rage. How dare they do that to her mother? Leave her nameless, a shadow, a figment, a…nothing. Or even worse, a something, a tool, just like everyone else in that damn place. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to drive over there and give everyone she could find a piece of her mind because how dare they not only take her mother from her, but how dare they cover her up and erase her like she never existed. Especially to the one man who would be able to remember her and let her memory live on forever.
She could find it though. Hensley could. And she knew just where to look.
~.~
"I'm sorry to throw you under the bus like that." Alice frowned. The girls were up in Jasper's room. Hensley had been attempting to read, attempting to keep her mind off of the illegal acts she would commit. She welcomed Alice's distraction in that. "I didn't mean it like you weren't my sister or like you weren't part of our family. I just wish she would chill about the whole Bella thing."
"No big deal." Hensley lied. In the moment it had truly hurt, but she wasn't about to add more drama to the situation. "I get both sides. I worry about everyone too. I'm not a vampire and I've never had the desire to drink blood, but it sounds intense. The urge to drink human blood anyway."
"It can be. We're taking precautions though. Hence why all the boys are out."
"Emmett mentioned it's hard for Jasper. Harder, anyway. Is that because of-"
Alice moved from her spot against Jasper's desk, sitting down on the bed. The action caused Hensley to tense ever so slightly. If Alice noticed she said nothing, "How they were changed and brought up initially? Yes. Both of them, Cooper and Jasper, struggle with this lifestyle. Not that the rest of us don't, but when you start your vampire life out by never needing that control it's more difficult. And with Jasper feeling emotions, feeling everyone else's struggles…it is worse for him. But he's been doing really well, and I know he can handle Bella."
Hensley sighed. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in Jasper. She knew he could handle himself and would be alright too. But she selfishly worried about what would happen if the worst did manifest. She couldn't say goodbye yet.
"I really am sorry." Alice told her, breaking Hensley from the glimmer of pain. Her eyes were remorseful, which it made it hard to remember the hurt her words caused Hensley earlier that morning. "I really do mean it when I say I think of you as my sister. And Jasper is so different now that you're with him. He was always content to be here; this lifestyle has really helped him, but he was always missing something. He was happy, but not fully so. Now he has you. Now it's like he's whole."
Whole. That was a good way to describe it. She'd always struggled with how to describe how she felt about life now. She'd been missing multiple pieces to her life before she moved here with the boys; she had been incomplete. Perhaps, like Jasper, now she was whole.
Maybe Edward felt the same way about Bella.
Maybe Hensley was unfairly judging Edward before talking to him about his relationship. She thought Jasper's siblings had similar feelings about their relationship until they found out how serious it was. Carlisle for sure did. Maybe Hensley had been wrong.
Or maybe Edward was being stupid and endangering her life. Or maybe both were true.
This life was good, but it was complicated.
Jasper, Cooper, and Emmett came back from hunting after a couple hours. Emmett was excited to have Bella coming over, even offering to help Carlisle and Esme cook the late lunch they were serving. Chicken something something. It smelled amazing.
Cooper and Alice kept to themselves, which confused Hensley. Alice had been so excited to meet 'her new sister.' She figured the girl would be the first one to jump on the opportunity to greet Bella. Instead, because Emmett volunteered to help Carlisle and Esme cook, Rosalie was the one stuck out in the open. Hensley was sure she was thrilled about that. Maybe Edward's timing would be off, and she'd be able to ditch once the meal was done.
Hensley wasn't overly emotional one way or another about the meeting. She was content to stay out of the drama. There was probably less of a chance of her getting into trouble with the agency that way.
Her and Jasper were in his room when Edward and Bella arrived, right on schedule. She should've known that vampires would be punctual.
"Should we go say our hi?" She asked her mate, looking up at him from her spot in his lap. As indifferent as she was about Edward and Bella's relationship, she didn't want to appear rude. The girl was still a friend.
Jasper looked up from the book he was reading, listening intently to Edward and Bella talking downstairs, "Not yet."
"Are we on a greeting schedule?"
He cracked a small smile at her, "No. I just need to make sure people are calm before I bring you down. I'm not taking you downstairs if Edward and Rosalie are going to fight. I'm not having you in the middle again."
"You can…enforce that, right?" She rose her eyebrows at him before getting up off his lap. She turned to wait for him, reaching her hands out so she could 'pull' him up off the bed.
He hummed in agreement as he let her guide him off the bed. Before she could get too much farther, he grabbed her by her waist and pulled her in to place a small kiss on her forehead. A promise that he would keep her safe.
Bella seemed surprised to see Hensley there with Jasper and Edward's family. Hensley thought the girl knew that she and Jasper were pretty serious. But then again, her and Jasper weren't exactly touchy-feely in school. Most likely due to his past history, Jasper was much more reserved in all aspects of socializing.
Alice and Cooper joined them shortly after to greet Bella as well, Alice clearly more enthusiastic as she gave her 'new sister' a tight hug.
"It's so great to finally meet you." Alice exclaimed, giving Edward a sharp look. Hopefully Bella and Alice clicked as well as Alice thought they would.
Cooper welcomed Alice back to his side and greeted the girl as well, letting his southern drawl out since they were home, "Bella. Nice to meet ya."
Bella gave the older Whitlock a shy smile in return.
"Anyway, I hope you're hungry. Do you like Italian?" Esme smiled warmly at their houseguest, filling in the awkward silence. Edward had mentioned them going to an Italian restaurant before which was what sparked Esme to pick an Italian dish.
Bella nodded, "Yeah, absolutely."
"She already ate." Edward quickly interrupted.
Hensley watched from the side as Rosalie broke the dish with salad in it. Jasper pulled her back slightly as it snapped, trying to avoid her being hit by the glass should it fly over. Hensley knew that it was nearly impossible for the glass to pierce her skin, but whatever made Jasper feel better. "You know I could've had that." She teased Rose, nudging the girl when Jasper deemed it safe.
Rosalie looked down at the salad now mixed with shards of glass, "I'll buy you new salad."
"What do you mean? I'm sure it's fine. Adds a nice crunch." Hensley winked. Her sister cracked a small smile, so she took it as mission accomplished. "Not going to lie, kind of bummed about the lunch thing. I thought I could eat with someone who actually enjoyed food for once." Hensley moved on to tease Bella, trying to keep the mood light.
Bella didn't take it that way, giving her a sympathetic look while stumbling over the right words, "I'm sorry, I just- I know they don't normally eat."
"It was very thoughtful of you." Esme saved the girl.
"Just ignore Rosalie. I do." Edward muttered to Bella. Externally Hensley cringed. This was not going to play out well. Jasper, sensing the shift in the room, pulled her closer to him again and put his arms around her.
Rosalie scoffed, throwing her hands up to gesture at the family, "Right. Let's pretend this isn't dangerous for all of us. It's not bad enough that you're putting yourself and her at risk but now you're hurting others as well."
Bella looked around the room confused, avoiding only Rosalie's glares. She settled on Edward, silently asking him what she'd clearly missed. Hensley figured Edward would leave that part out. Why trouble the girl if he didn't need to?
"Everything will be fine." Carlisle intervened, giving Rosalie a look that clearly told her to drop it, "We're taking precautions. Edward is being careful. It will work out."
Hensley could only hope he was right. The thought of being separated from her new family, of being separated from Jasper…he squeezed her waist in comfort. Whether it was to comfort him, her, or both she couldn't quite tell.
~.~
Edward took Bella on a tour of the house, relieving the family from their duty to greet the girl. Carlisle was pleased that the 'event' went well. Rosalie couldn't have cared less. Jasper was just glad he could stop pumping happy juice into the air. Not that he didn't enjoy helping out, but it was straining. Having Lexi there only made it worse.
She was always his first priority, the first person he'd go to protect. Having to juggle reining in his companion's emotions and keeping the most important person in his life safe was a bit of a struggle.
When he'd been with Maria it wasn't as difficult. Of course, he'd wanted to protect Cooper, Peter, and Davy. They were his brothers. It wasn't nearly as detrimental if they were bitten or minorly injured in the process, however. He didn't feel as if his life would be over if they were to hurt.
With Lexi, it was the opposite. No harm could ever come to her. Ever. A bite…someone else's marks on her skin….
"Jazz." She whispered, rubbing his hand.
He glanced up at her, breaking himself out of his nightmare to watch her rub her chest. Even his thoughts could harm her. How was he ever going to protect her from others if he couldn't protect her from himself?
"Stop." Lexi commanded, cupping his face in her hands. He could feel his brother's eyes on them from the other couches in the living room and he suddenly felt uncomfortable. Jasper was not a public person and having what was sure to be a personal discussion in front of his brothers twisted his guts in ways he hadn't felt since he was human. "Think happy thoughts."
It was hard not to think good thoughts with her warmth on his skin.
God he was a mess.
"Yeah, Jasper," Emmett teased, "stop being such a Debby Downer." Lexi shot Em a disapproving look before Jasper could. She settled herself back against Jasper and continued on her English homework. He'd offered to help her with it, to explain the entire plot of the novel and all the main character traits to her, but she insisted on reading it herself. It was hard to argue with her. She probably would do better that way. Still, Jasper was disappointed. More time reading meant less time together.
Of course, one could argue that they were spending time together, but his favorite time spent with her was when they were actually interacting. He loved nighttime when he could spend hours upon hours just holding her. Truthfully, he could spend the rest of his life like that with her and be perfectly content. It was different when she was awake though. He'd much rather actually interact with her: hear her laugher, listen to her dreams and thoughts, feel her warmth against him….
"Alright, alright, you convinced me." She joked, tossing her book aside and settling into his lap, nestling the side of her face into his chest.
Emmett "ooh'd" at them, which immediately alerted Carlisle that something was going on. If Lexi wouldn't be so upset at him for doing it, he'd kill Emmett.
Lexi giggled at his thoughts, "You do know that killing people isn't always the answer, yes?"
Jasper shrugged, "It's always the answer for Emmett."
"Rude." Em muttered, throwing one of Esme's decorative pillows at Jasper's head. He never understood the importance or purpose behind such things. Everyone just moved them out of the way when they sat down. But for some reason, Esme enjoyed them so he caught the pillow easily and set it on the floor.
"What's going on down here?" Carlisle demanded, eyeing Jasper and Lexi as soon as he could see them from the stairway. Of course, Carlisle would assume it was them. Not that he was wrong.
Luckily, his newly useful brother stepped in, "I threw a pillow at Jasper's head while Lexi was tryin' to read."
Carlisle sighed, taking a seat next to the 'offender' as he did so. Apparently, his conversation with Bella was now over, "Let my kid do her homework will you?"
Cooper shrugged, "I am! I just thought I could annoy the hell outta Jasper while she did it."
Lexi slipped her hand back into his and picked up her book seeing as they needed to keep up the lie with Police Chief Cullen. "How's Bella?" She asked after 5 minutes. So much for reading.
"She's a nice girl. Handling this very well, I think." Carlisle was relieved. Though he worried about Lexi's safety, he meant every word when he had told Edward he wanted the young vampire's happiness. "I think she may join us tomorrow as well."
"For baseball?" Emmett perked up, suddenly more interested in the conversation than his show.
"Why?" Cooper asked Jasper's unspoken question, "She can't play. I mean, she could, but not on my team. Talk about a free out."
Carlisle gave him a disappointed look. Always trying to keep the peace, he and Esme. "She's coming to watch, not play."
"Can she even-"
"Hush." Carlisle cut him off. They all knew where Cooper was going. "She is apart of our family as long as she is with Edward. We're happy to have her."
~.~
Red was trying hard to sleep the few hours before his overnight shift, which was difficult because he'd just finished work three hours ago. Also, difficult because Kaufmann was pestering Hensley in their room while she was trying to get ready.
"Red's going to kick your ass." Hensley whispered, gesturing to the boy.
Kaufmann just shrugged. He was fairly fearless even when he shouldn't be. "Nah, he's still got four hours 'til his shift."
Hensley was trying to dress in layers. Leggings under her uniform pants, long sleeve shirt, then t-shirt, then army sweatshirt, then uniform jacket…she had to be on patrol tonight, which meant she was outside until 4 AM. In Port Angeles, in March, that meant cold.
Red was on comms, which was an inside job. Much easier, but on overnight was pretty bland. Not many people to talk to, not many cargos coming in.
Anderson was prepping supply helicopters for a large shipment going out at 5 in the morning. Their branch in Wyoming was facing a shortage on artillery because of…reasons. Anyway, Anderson and a few men were loading choppers and making sure they were fueled up and ready for the flight. That meant that despite sharing a shift, he wouldn't be able to talk to Hensley.
Anderson and Hensley, being they were up soon, often got bland jobs now. Kaufmann and Red were the only two who got to do anything interesting in terms of missions. The price they paid for getting out.
"I'm gettin' hot looking atcha."
"It's cold outside." Hensley whined as she threw on her sweatshirt, "And I have work in 20 minutes."
"20 minutes you could be without a sweatshirt." He pointed out. Kaufmann was a heater. So was Hensley compared to the other people in her species, but she still got cold at night in the rain. "Anyway, what's your plan for tomorrow? We're leavin' at one so some whiny ass can sleep a bit."
Red threw a pillow at Kaufmann's back.
Hensley rolled her eyes. Poor Red had back-to-back-to-back shifts. "Sounds disgusting. I'm hanging out with the fam tomorrow during the day. I have overnight though so I'll be back before 10." Hensley was dreading that shift.
Kaufmann sniggered, "Hanging out with ya boyfriend. Hot."
"I will kill you."
"You know what they say, if you're embarrassed about it ya shouldn't be doin' it."
"You look your mother in the face and tell her how many women you've been with."
"I would if I had a mom!" Hensley should've known that wasn't going to work. Kaufmann was embarrassed of nothing. If they didn't have to be so minimalistic, Kaufmann would have a trophy from every one. "Can you believe Anderson's leavin' us this year? What a dick."
Hensley frowned at her closet. She didn't want to think of Anderson leaving or her leaving after that or anything.
"Let him go." Red muttered, "Let him be happy."
"Who could be happy without me?"
It was going to be weird. They'd been together for so long now. They were family. Waking up without Anderson there to chide her about her coffee…it was just strange.
But at some point, they had to go their separate paths too.
She thought about pipping up and reminding them about her leaving too, but now just didn't seem like a good time. She had to work…no sense in starting drama. There was still time to tell them.
The early March air was just as cold as Hensley expected it to be. Even with a hat, she was cursing the Agency's requirement to wear hair tied back. Her ears could've used the extra protection.
Her patrol shift was done outside the main building, which meant she wasn't able to walk more than a step or two at time. No generating a little body heat by walking around like they could when patrolling the barracks.
Things weren't so bad in the beginning of the shift. It was early enough that people came and went pretty regularly. Around 8, things took a nosedive in terms of activity. By 9 it was basically a wasteland. To make matters even less exciting, she was working with an army recruit. He was nice enough but working in two completely different areas gave them little to nothing to talk about. Especially since Hensley's area was so classified.
It was a bummer because he was curious. Had she been able to say anything, they probably could've talked all night.
The only saving grace she had was towards the end of her shift, at 1 AM. Red found some time in comms to setup a secure channel for them to talk in. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as an emergency crew had to come in, which pulled Red's focus.
The last three hours of the shift was easily the worst. Hensley was getting cold as the temperatures dropped and she was bored. Her mind couldn't come up with enough things to keep her occupied. Well, it couldn't come up with enough things that she wanted to think about to keep her occupied.
Night shift was the worst because you slept most of the day away. Getting done at 5 in the morning would do that. By the time Hensley woke up, she had minimal time to get ready before heading out to Jasper's to play baseball.
Emmett quickly claimed her as his own when she arrived, announcing to everyone that she would be on his team with Edward and Alice. Jasper seemed hesitant, but Cooper was all for it. "It'll let Esme hang out with Bella, and they get the disadvantage of having a half human."
Hensley was going to show him what a damn disadvantage she was.
"Sure you don't wanna wait and ride with Ed?" Cooper asked her before they set off. Hensley was getting annoyed then, trying not to glare at Jasper's shitty older brother.
Jasper picked up on her emotions immediately, telling Cooper to leave her alone in a tone that was less than friendly. Hensley felt bad for sicking Jasper on Cooper, when the older Whitlock was genuinely surprised she could run as fast as they could. She had thought he was trying to be a jerk about her being lesser or something.
"Might not be such a disadvantage after all." Emmett had teased.
She proved she was no such thing. Edward got Rose out, Hensley propelled herself off of Emmett's shoulders to catch Carlisle's hit, and Emmett actually proved himself useful in getting Jasper out. Hensley was kind of glad Emmett had been paying attention. She had been far, far too entranced by Jasper. There were few things sexier than watching him do baseball bat tricks.
Edward gave her a minorly disgusted look, "Keep your head in the game."
Hensley couldn't totally see, but she swore Jasper gave her a wink. Damn vampires.
Cooper was up to hit last. Hensley wasn't sure what Alice was doing when she yelled at everyone to stop. If she was trying to help her mate it wasn't working. Before she could go after the ball anymore, Edward grabbed her by the waist to pull her back. "Don't. Get back by Jasper."
Hensley's head snapped over to her mate. He didn't seem overly aggressive or upset with anyone. What was going on?
"Back by Jasper." He pulled her along towards the rest of the family when she wasn't listening right away, "put your hair down."
Jasper was quick to take her waist and bring her closer. He wrapped his arms around her, rubbing his hands up and down her own arms. The baseball cap was promptly taken off his head and placed on her own. Things were getting weird. "What's going on? Why is everyone so worried?"
"Nomads. They heard us playing and got curious." Jasper muttered, flipping her around so her back was pressed against him.
"What are you doing?" Emmett asked before Hensley was able to.
Jasper huffed, glaring at his brother for interrupting his work, "I'm trying to mask her scent. Make her smell vampire."
Rosalie scoffed, "Good luck. Could smell them both from across the field."
Hensley glanced up at Jasper, unsure of how he would react to that. He seemed ok. More worried perhaps. His face was always so hard to read.
"Just stay behind me." He spun her once more so he could cup her face. "Not lettin' anything happen to ya." Jasper kissed her forehead before gently stepping around her. He kept He slept on the other side of him from Bella and Edward and Hensley couldn't help but wonder if that was to distance her from the human smell. That way, if they were detected, they wouldn't associate Hensley with Bella? She shook her head. This was insane.
Far too soon for Hensley's liking, which was never, the three nomads appeared: two men and a female.
The man in the middle, the the dreaded hair, held up Cooper's baseball. Hensley understood why Edward didn't want her going after it then.
"I believe this belongs to you." He tossed the ball to Carlisle, who caught it easily.
"Thank you."
"I am Laurent. This is Victoria and James." He nodded to each person with him in turn.
Carlisle took a small step forward, "Carlisle. This is my family."
Hensley was pretty sure her father was trying to get them killed when he talked about how the nomads' hunting activity was causing problems. She gripped Jasper's hand, trying not to draw too much attention, or any attention, to herself.
As the conversation shifted to the three joining the game, Hensley saw a clear out. Nice and easy.
Jasper was quick to turn around and usher Hensley away from danger. Too quick, if one asked Edward.
When the wind blew and Bella's scent got carried over, James had to focus on Hensley. Bella was indefensibly human, but Jasper's protective nature over Hensley piqued James's interest more.
"Go. Jasper and Edward take the girls." Carlisle took charge, not that he particularly needed to. If anyone thought either vampire was leaving their mate, then they were mistaken.
"Come on, Darlin'." Jasper muttered, trying not to be frantic. Showing his worry would only make the girls worry and they didn't need that. They were doing that enough on their own. Jasper helped Hensley into the Jeep, Edward doing the same for Bella.
"We just made this his most exciting chase yet. He won't stop until he gets them." Edward explained as he drove through the woods.
"So how do we lose him? We kill him?" Hensley was calm. Far too calm for Bella's taste, judging by the ludicrous looking expression on her face.
"Exactly." Jasper confirmed. "We'll get out of town and Cooper can handle James."
Bella immediately had problems with that plan, exclaiming, "Out of town? We can't leave. I-I mean, Charlie. He's still here. He could get killed because of us and-"
"It doesn't matter." Edward told her. It's a little insensitive, but Hensley understands the thought process. The only thing on Edward's mind has to be Bella.
"We can't risk your safety." Jasper agreed, taking Hensley's hand and holding it firmly.
"That's my dad! We have to go back. Lead the tracker away somehow."
Bella's phrasing got the gears turning. Leading James away could work and be the best option. Hensley tried to offer a compromise. "What if we take Bella home, she tells her dad she's leaving and then you go…wherever it is. That way, James will hear her say she's leaving and will leave Charlie alone, but Bella is still safe? We'll be right outside watching the house."
"That." Bella nodded towards Hensley. "Let's do that. Please, Edward. Please."
"Fine. You have five minutes or I'm coming in to get you." He warned.
A few minutes later they pulled into Bella's driveway. The girl flew out of the car, barely listening to Edward's, "Five minutes!"
"Let me know what I can do to help." Hensley told them while they waited. She may be half human, but she was also half vampire and was a hell of a lot stronger than most gave her credit for.
"What do ya mean?" Jasper asked, raising a brow. "If ya think you're goin' near him, you've lost your mind, Darlin'."
Yeah she figured that would go over like a lead balloon. "I didn't mean fight him. I just thought if you needed help luring him away or something while they go out of town-"
"You're going with." Jasper told her, looking stern.
Hensley frowned. When had they agreed she was going too? It was just Bella that was leaving. Not her. She couldn't leave. "No. Just Bella is going. James is after Bel-"
"Both of you." Edward cut her off. "He smells you too. Thinks you're human."
"But I'm not." She protested. Wasn't that obvious by her heartbeat? It was too fast.
"He doesn't know that. Jasper take the car." Edward jumped out into the night.
Hensley climbed up front, trying to see where Edward was going and if Bella needed help or was in danger. Jasper threw the car in reverse just as she caught a glimpse of Edward in Bella's truck. She didn't think Jasper would leave his brother to fight James alone…though Jasper was known to care far more about Hensley's safety than anything else.
Since everyone was safe for the moment, Hensley tried to reason with Jasper. "I can't go. Do you have any idea what they'll do to you, what will happen if I leave? I have work, I can't not show up, Jasper."
"Tell them you're sick."
"Without them taking a look at me? Without them forcing me to see one of their doctors? Jasper, they'll kill you. No hesitation. If they think for a second-"
"Isn't Carlisle one of their doctors?"
Hensley thought she was going to be sick. She shook her head, not even willing to consider such a thought. Swallowing the bile in her throat, she choked out, "No. They-they can't." Her hands trembled as she pushed her hair out of her face. "They can't know."
"Lexi. If that will work, we have to do it. Your safety-"
"I'm fine! I'll-I'll stay home. I won't leave the complex. There's no way he'd get in there. Please, Jasper. Don't do that. Don't make Carlisle do that." She was not above begging. Not if it meant keeping her family safe. In a brilliant moment of clarity, or stupidity, she thought of a new plan, "Let me call Kaufmann. Please."
"You got until Bella and Edward are ready to leave."
If she had been human, the phone screen may have been hard to read with the shaking. She fumbled with the small buttons until she found Kaufmann's number. While it rang she prayed he picked up. She couldn't remember what shift he worked.
Finally, she heard his voice, "Hey, what's up?"
"I need your help."