A/N: Thanks for reading:)
Temporary Goodbyes
"Uh…"
Jasper gave his mate a small, sympathetic smile as he gently squeezed her hand. Leah was fresh off a patrol shift and she had just met Jasper at the Cullen's house. She'd been a wolf most of the day and thought she was just meeting him so they could go to the training session together, unaware that there had been a change of plans. Jasper had known she would want to come to Seattle with him and Peter, but he also knew the reason why they were going to Seattle would make her extremely uncomfortable.
And she wasn't the only one. The whole family, and Carlisle and Esme in particular, had also been uncomfortable at the idea of killing two not-quite humans. It had been Rosalie who'd eventually broken the heavy silence when he and Alice explained what they thought their next move needed to be when they got home that morning.
"Alice is right, it's a kinder fate than waking up as part of Victoria's army," Rose had said quietly.
"Isn't there some other option?" Esme asked, not only uneasy about the death of two sentient beings, but worried about the emotional toll it would take on Jasper.
When Jasper hesitated, not wanting to just flat out dash her hopes, Alice shook her head and answered for him. "There are other options than killing them before they wake up, but all of those options put the family, the pack, and Bella at greater risk. If we do nothing and leave them to finish the change, there will be two more newborns in Seattle killing humans to feed, and they'd be part of an army created to destroy us."
"And if we try to steal them away and raise them ourselves, we've got a whole different set of problems on our hands," Jasper added, knowing that would be Esme's next question. "Even if we could come up with a way to get in and out without leaving our scents behind - which would be virtually impossible - there's no way to have two newborns in Forks and keep them hidden, so some of us would need to take them away. All that would accomplish is decreasing our numbers, which leaves us more vulnerable. There would be fewer of us to patrol and fewer to fight when Victoria inevitably brings the army to us."
"Not to mention the guards will eventually be showing up here," Emmett pointed out. "Having two newborns while Bella is still very much a human seems like a terrible idea. And Aro's already uneasy with the size of our coven."
Carlisle had sighed quietly and nodded. He might not like it, but he knew Jasper and Alice's proposal was the best move for his family's safety.
And now, only a handful of hours later, Jasper was again in the same situation of explaining why he was willing to be the cause of death for two humans. He and Leah were in his study, so they had the illusion of privacy, but most of the family, along with Peter and Charlotte, were in the house and listening to their conversation.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I know this goes against everything you and your pack stand for, and if I thought there was a better solution, I'd take it."
Leah was silent for a minute before remembering something from Jacob's memories. "What about stopping the change?" she asked. "Like what Edward did with Bella."
Jasper shook his head. "No, it's much too late for that. There's no way to save their human lives. I'm not sure I would even still classify them as humans at this point. Even if they'd only been bitten right before Peter and Charlotte got there last night, the venom would still have spread enough that they're already closer to vampires than humans."
Leah took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. I need to call Jared, but okay."
Jared didn't have much to say about the situation, he'd just listened quietly and answered with a very monotone "I understand."
When Leah ended the call, she looked more closely at her imprint. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
Jasper nodded and smiled at her. "I am. And honestly, even if I wasn't, and even if this could be accomplished without my gift, I'd still do it myself rather than having anyone else in the family do it."
His answer wasn't a surprise to Leah. She knew the lengths Jasper would go to in order to protect his family, and that wasn't limited to only protecting them physically. Feeling exactly the same about him, Leah did her best to keep her emotions calm so he didn't have to feel the weight of them.
There were still a couple hours until sunset, so Leah, Jasper, and Peter decided to go along to the second training session to kill a little time. Peter ran with Charlotte and the rest of the Cullens, but Jasper and Leah took a detour to the Clearwater's house. The plan was for Leah to run to Seattle and back as a human so she smelled slightly less wolfie and she had no intention of running home in soggy pants like the boys, so she put a bathing suit on and then put an outfit that was easy to run in over it.
By the time the two of them got to the clearing, the training had already begun, and Alice and Charlotte were in the middle of the clearing with Jared and Paul in their wolf forms.
Leah looked at Jasper curiously when she saw him wince slightly as they sat down beside Peter. "What's wrong?" she whispered.
Jasper shook off the emotions of the pack and shrugged. "Some of them are pissed," he explained, not entirely surprised.
Leah could sort of understand that, but Jasper had made a good point that the two humans in Seattle weren't really all that human anymore. She stood up and walked over to the pack to try and explain the situation a little more clearly. "Stopping them from changing also means less humans killed in the long run," she added after she repeated Jasper's explanation that there was no way to save their human lives. "The death rate in Seattle is partly down to how much blood newborns need. With two less newborns, that's two less mouths to feed."
That seemed to pacify some of the wolves, but Leah could see the scorn still in Jacob's eyes. She chose to ignore him. The kid was bound and determined to be difficult and she didn't have the time or patience to deal with him, so she just went back to sit with her imprint.
Once the sun went down, and after the Cullens wished them good luck and Esme gave Jasper a long hug, they left for Seattle.
Before they got into the water near Port Ludlow, Leah paused a moment and then turned to Peter. "I don't want to risk instinctively phasing because of being that close to a bunch of unknown vamps. If it looks like I might lose my shit, you have my permission to get me away from there as fast as possible. I don't want to distract Jasper and I don't want him to have to worry about redirecting his gift to keep me calm."
Peter nodded. "As long as you promise not to go wolf just so you can bite off any of my important bits, we have a deal," he told her with a smile. Then he turned to Jasper. "You need to promise, too. I don't want to drag her off and then have to worry about you dismembering me for it."
Jasper just laughed quietly and rolled his eyes. "You have my word. No biting and no dismemberment."
Satisfied, Peter nodded and they silently slipped into the water.
The whole thing was a lot less Mission Impossible than Leah thought it would be, though she did quietly hum the theme song as they approached the warehouse where Peter and Charlotte had seen the newborns. The three of them treaded water and Leah held onto Jasper's hand as he directed all of his attention on the two not-quite humans. It was a little wild to her that the muffled screaming hadn't brought any humans to investigate. It sounded like they had something in their mouths to smother their cries, but it was by no means quiet.
It was also a little astonishing to Leah that any human actually successfully made it through the transformation with how frantically their hearts were working. It seemed like too much strain for a human to survive.
Hearing the newborns moving around the abandoned warehouse made Leah uncomfortable. Instinct told her to rush inside and kill them, but she just gritted her teeth and locked her muscles. If they wanted to get their chance at Victoria, they couldn't tip her off. The last thing they needed was for the redhead to bolt and then spend the next few years always looking over their shoulders for when she might make a reappearance to fuck up their lives.
"You good?" Peter whispered, seeing how tense her body was.
Leah just nodded. "How many are in there?" she whispered back.
Peter started to answer but then took off like a torpedo when a newborn suddenly came running towards the closest dock at top speed, a human limp under his arm. Leah clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from making a sound, and Jasper briefly moved his attention from the changing humans to his mate.
"He doesn't know we're here," he reassured her. "He's just disposing of his meal."
Leah nodded and silently watched as Peter waited for just the right moment to strike. Jasper was unworried by Peter's actions, so Leah forced herself to stay calm. As the newborn came to a stop and started to toss the human's body into the water, Peter reached up and grabbed the human's leg and jerked it forward into the water, which caught the newborn off-guard so he toppled in also.
Leah watched closely, but whatever Peter was doing underwater was barely making even a ripple on the surface. She'd have to remember to ask him about that later because that seemed like a pretty good skill to have. Jasper must have heard or seen or felt something Leah missed, because he nodded to himself a moment later. "One down."
Peter surfaced less than a minute later beside them. "You good if I meet y'all back where we left the clothes?" he asked, and Leah saw he was holding the vamp's head, which appeared unconnected to a body.
"What are you going to do with that?" she asked.
"Get him back on dry land and burn him," Peter shrugged. "But I need to be far enough away that the smoke can't be seen."
"What about the rest of him?" she whispered. Peter lifted his other hand and showed her the newborn's headless body, so she just nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."
At a nod from Jasper, Peter swam off but then turned around a second later. "Wanna do the honors?" he asked Leah. When she looked at him in surprise, he just shrugged again. "Killing vamps is kinda your thing."
"Really?" Leah laughed quietly, looking at Jasper to see what he thought and if he was alright finishing up there on his own.
"I don't really think you need my permission, but it's fine by me," he assured her with a smile. "I'll only be a minute behind you."
When Jasper followed his words by letting Leah feel his sincerity, she gave him a quick kiss and then swam off with Peter.
Ten minutes later, she was standing beside him watching the newborn burn. With her human mind, it felt a little wrong to see a human-shaped being set on fire, but her wolf mind only felt satisfaction that this was now the third newborn she'd watched burn. Their progress might be slow out of necessity, but progress was still being made at whittling down Victoria's numbers.
By the time the newborn was nothing but ash, Jasper had joined them and Leah immediately reached for his hand. She asked him about the changing humans, watching his expression closely to make sure he was okay.
"It's done," was all he said.
Jasper offered to carry Leah back to Forks so they could get home a little faster, and because it was nearing dawn, she agreed. When the three of them walked into the Cullen's house, they were unsurprised to find most of the Cullens, Charlotte, and Paul waiting for them. Seth was there as well, but he was fast asleep in an armchair.
It didn't take them long to get everyone up to speed - and for Jasper to reassure everyone more than once that he was perfectly fine - and after Leah stifled a second yawn, Jasper scooped his mate up in his arms and headed for the stairs.
"I hope you know this whole Prince Charming, damsel in distress bullshit isn't going to work with me," Leah said, trying to look stern.
Jasper looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. "You want me to put you down?" he asked, knowing she was secretly happy to be in his arms. And as he suspected, she just glared and told him to keep on walking and to be quick about it, she was tired.
The next week was a busy time for all the supernatural beings in Forks and La Push. The patrol schedule Jasper and Jared put together ensured there were no less than two wolves and two vamps on patrol at any given time, though it was nearly always more than that. There was always at least one wolf on the Reservation and one vampire along the treaty line to ensure the safety of the tribe, and Bella and Charlie were both covered around the clock wherever they were. Joint patrols also extended east into Olympic National Park.
With the schedule being what it was, they didn't have another training session with the whole huge group, but there were regular smaller sessions with whoever was available.
The schedule was less grueling on the vamps, who had no need to take the time to sleep or eat, but the pack was really feeling it. Their days were a non-stop repetitive cycle of sleep, eat, patrol, train, eat, sleep.
Alice, knowing her time was better spent somewhere that wasn't Forks High, asked Carlisle about skipping out on the last few weeks of school. It took a little convincing, but he eventually fabricated an illness for her and managed to convince the principal to allow her to complete her schoolwork at home and for Edward to bring it to her teachers every day.
The elders, seeing how exhausted the pack was, also gave the wolves who were still in school the option of taking a temporary break.
Peter and Charlotte made three more scouting trips in and around Seattle, and the news wasn't good. They'd found another abandoned building housing an additional five newborns and one slightly older vampire who seemed to be responsible for keeping them in line, and after losing three members of her army and two who were mid-change, Victoria seemed to be trying to increase her numbers with very little caution. In the week following Jasper, Peter, and Leah's trip to Seattle, Victoria bit another five people, much to everyone's shock and dismay.
Jasper made another two trips over there and stopped one human mid-change, and used his gift to instigate a fight, but only one newborn was tossed in the fire before Riley showed up and broke it up.
"There's only so much I can do without making the situation worse," Jasper told Carlisle when he returned from Seattle the second time. "Riley's already suspicious, so if we keep on like this, taking out a newborn here and there, it's only a matter of time before Victoria gets suspicious also. She's already changing people at lightning speed because her numbers fell."
Carlisle scrubbed his hand over his face with a tired sigh. "You think she'll keep changing humans at this rate if we eliminate any more?"
Jasper just nodded.
"What else?" Carlisle asked, knowing there was something else Jasper wanted to discuss.
"Even if I did want to keep stealthily killing off her newborns, I can't," he answered a little hesitantly.
Carlisle looked at him for a few long moments. "You're leaving," he said, more a statement than a question.
"Only temporarily. We–"
Jasper was interrupted by Rosalie flying into Carlisle's study. "Where the hell–"
"Rose," Carlisle cut her off.
"Sorry," Rosalie apologized. "But what the hell, Jasper? Why are you leaving when you know we need you here?"
Alice walked in the room more sedately and perched herself on the arm of Jasper's chair. "We won't be gone long. Only a few days," she assured her sister.
Rosalie was silent for a few seconds before she realized what they weren't saying. "Where are you going?" she asked Jasper sharply, narrowing her eyes at him. "And the next words out of your mouth better be that you're going on a longer hunt than normal."
Jasper just shook his head. "I'm sorry, but you know I need to do this."
"Bullshit," Rosalie snapped. "What you need to do is stay here with your family. What you need to do is not leave your mate behind. What you don't need to do is traipse around the damn country looking for that Mexican wh–"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Rosalie Hale," Esme interrupted her from the doorway, her hands on her hips and her expression fierce.
Rosalie huffed a few times but then looked at her with pleading eyes. "Please, just tell him this is a stupid idea."
Esme shook her head. "It's not my job to tell him that. I can only assume that if he's going to find Maria, there's a good reason for it. You know Jasper, Rose," she said a little more gently. "Do you honestly think he would leave at a time like this if he didn't believe it was necessary?"
Rosalie turned those pleading eyes on her brother. "Why? Why now?"
Jasper gave her a sympathetic smile. "Alice saw her in Utah again, and if there's even the slightest chance I can intercept her, I need to try," he explained. "I don't want to run the risk of her coming all the way here and finding out about the wolves. About Leah."
"We already decided that if we haven't found her by day three, we'll turn around and come back," Alice added.
"And you really think Leah will be okay with this?" Rosalie asked, grasping at her last straw.
Jasper shook his head a little, trying not to be frustrated when he knew she was worried, rather than angry. "I don't think, I know. Leah and I talked about it last week when I knew this was a possibility, and we talked about it again last night before Charlotte and I left for Seattle. Is she thrilled about it? Of course not. But she's also every bit as protective about her pack as you are about this family. She knows enough about Maria to understand the potential risks if she was to learn about the wolves."
Alice nodded. "And I know you're not all that fond of Bella, but can you imagine what she'd do if she somehow found out there was a human who could already block mental gifts? I know that's an unlikely scenario, but it's not a chance Jasper or I particularly want to take."
Rosalie sat down in the chair beside them and put her head in her hands. "I don't like this," she whispered. In her mind, Jasper seeing Maria again was exactly the same as her seeing Royce fucking King or Esme seeing Charles Evenson.
Jasper scootched his chair closer to hers, smiling a little that Alice just lifted her feet off the floor but stayed on her perch, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Rosalie immediately turned and held onto him. "It's going to be fine," he reassured her. "Alice is coming with me and you know she won't let anything happen to me."
Rosalie snorted a laugh at the thought of Jasper needing anyone to protect him and lifted her head. "A pixie-sized bodyguard, huh?"
Alice laughed brightly. "Didn't Leah say she had a cape from an old Halloween costume? Maybe she'll lend it to me and I can play superhero."
Rosalie smiled but couldn't ignore her worry and tried to come up with any alternative that Jasper would approve of. She couldn't think of even one. "What about taking Edward with you?" she asked instead. "At least then you'd know every sneaky thing she has running through that vicious mind of hers."
Jasper immediately shook his head. "I won't ask him to leave his human mate here without him while the specter of Victoria is hanging over us."
"What if Peter and Charlotte come with you?"
Jasper shook his head again. "Not only do I not want them to have to come face to face with her again, but I need them to stay here and pick up the slack while we're gone."
Rosalie just nodded in resignation. She knew Jasper was right on both counts. With Alice and Jasper gone, they needed Peter and Charlotte to help with training and patrols, and the couple also tried to avoid Maria at all costs. They'd run into her once decades before, and Maria was still very much carrying a grudge against them. It was her belief that Jasper never would have left the south or her army if not for them.
"If I truly believed there was a chance this might come down to a fight I can't win, I would ask them to come with us," Jasper told her. "But from the little Alice has seen, Maria is on her own. She's not stupid enough to start a fight she can't win."
"Can you see anything?" Carlisle asked Alice.
She shook her head. "No. Or at least not much. I'm not even sure if we find her, to be honest. I've tried looking further into the future to see the outcome, similar to what I do when I want to see around the wolves, but there's nothing about her. What I can say is that Jasper and I are both alive and well in every vision I've had unrelated to Maria. Our futures haven't disappeared."
Carlisle, Esme, and Rosalie felt a small measure of relief in that, but it didn't make their worry disappear entirely. That wouldn't happen until Alice and Jasper were back home safe and sound.
"Would you like me to come with you?" Carlisle asked. Even though he was an anomaly in their world when it came to how he led his coven, he was still their coven leader, and he cared greatly about the safety and security of every member of his family. He never would have imagined that he'd have to sit back and watch Jasper walk out the door to search out the worst ghost of his past.
Alice and Jasper shook their heads, but they were both smiling. "We appreciate the offer, but your leadership skills are needed here," Alice answered.
Jasper just nodded his agreement, but he let Carlisle feel his gratitude, then he stood up and looked at Alice. "Can I have an hour?" he asked, wanting to go say goodbye to Leah.
"Of course, give her a hug from me," she answered with a bright smile.
Fifteen minutes later, Jasper was knocking on the Clearwater's front door. When Sue opened it, she pulled him inside and wrapped him up in a mom-hug.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked. Jasper had been open and honest about his past, both with her privately and when he met the rest of the council, and she didn't like the idea of him seeing his sire again.
Jasper smiled and let her pull him into the living room to sit beside her on the couch. "This is the best way, you know that," he reminded her. He'd already explained that the biggest reason he was going to find Maria was so the existence of the wolves stayed hidden. If she got anywhere near their corner of the Olympic Peninsula, she was bound to come across the wolves' scents, especially because they'd been patrolling so heavily in and around the Cullen's territory.
Sue just nodded, her feelings conflicted. She didn't want Jasper to go, but she was also grateful for what he was doing. The idea of Maria being anywhere near her children, the pack, or her tribe made her incredibly uneasy. And if she did come to their area and a wolf happened to cross paths with her, she dreaded to think about what might happen. Maria hadn't survived for centuries simply by luck.
"I expect you to keep in regular contact," she said, trying her best to sound stern. "At least one phone call a day."
Jasper nodded with a smile. It would probably never not be wild to him that someone outside his family - Cullen or Whitlock - genuinely cared about him. "You have my word."
"Alright," Sue sighed. "Go on up. She didn't get home until the wee hours, so she's still asleep, but she told me you have her permission to wake her up."
When Jasper silently opened his mate's bedroom door, he took a second to just soak in the sight of her. He'd be lying if he said it was easy for him to leave her. He wasn't sure there had been even one day since he'd met her that he hadn't seen her, even if it was only for a few stolen moments here and there. The prospect of three days away from her made him uneasy.
He sat down on the edge of her bed and gently brushed her hair away from her face, thinking how beautiful she was, even with her hair slightly damp with sweat and pillow creases on her cheek. Both of them were slow to trust, each for their own reasons, and neither of them were the type to fall headfirst in love, but the bond that had already formed between them was undeniable.
Jasper was man enough to admit he wasn't all that far from being head over heels in love with the wolf fate had tied him to.
"Your eyes are practically burning a hole in my head, Whitlock," Leah grumbled in a voice raspy with sleep. "Quit staring and lay down with me for a while."
"Sorry," Jasper laughed quietly and toed off his shoes before laying beside her and gently pulling her into his arms. "I was trying to come up with a polite way of telling you there's drool on your chin."
Leah snorted a laugh and put her head on his chest. "I don't drool."
"Mmhmm, sure you don't," he murmured, not able to fight a smile.
The couple laid in a peaceful silence for a few minutes, neither of them particularly eager to say goodbye. Jasper wasn't the only one who was uneasy at the coming separation. Leah was quite literally a protector, and the instinct to protect her imprint was possibly the strongest pull she had, even more powerful than her instinct to kill hostile vamps. The fact that Jasper didn't need protecting was irrelevant.
"You'll keep in touch?" she whispered.
"Of course," Jasper reassured her, pulling her just a little bit closer.
"Every day?"
"Absolutely."
"And you'll keep your phone on?"
"All the time."
"And you'll come home in three days, whether you've found her or not?"
"You have my word."
"And you'll have Alice take a sneaky photo of Maria so the pack and I know what she looks like?"
Jasper smiled. They'd already had this exact conversation, word for word, the night before. Twice. "I will, but the picture she drew you is pretty accurate. Do you have Peter's number? And Charlotte's?"
"You know I do. You were there when I put them in my phone," she reminded him.
"And you'll call them if you need anything?"
"Of course," she answered with a smile, because this was also a repeat of their conversation the night before. "I think maybe we need to work on coming up with some original content when you get back."
Jasper just laughed and kissed her forehead. "I need to get going," he whispered.
"I know," Leah sighed and sat up. "Please be safe."
"I will, I promise. And you do the same. If anything happens, anything you're not sure how to handle, please call Peter. He'll drop whatever he's doing if you need help."
Leah nodded and promised she would, then let herself just sink into his embrace for a minute.
"Want me to help you?" he asked as he stood up, tucking the duvet around her when she laid back down. She nodded and yawned, so he leaned down to give her one final kiss and whisper a temporary goodbye, then used his gift to gently ease her back to sleep.
After catching one more hug from Sue, Jasper headed into the trees behind the Clearwater's house and walked towards the treaty line at a human pace, doing his best to ignore the tightness in his chest. He wasn't at all surprised to find Peter and Charlotte sitting on the ground waiting for him where he crossed onto the Cullen's land.
Charlotte stood up and silently wrapped her arms around him. She knew all too well how difficult it was for a vamp to be separated from their mate, and she had a feeling it would be even harder for Jasper, both because of the threat they were currently facing and because his relationship with Leah was still so new. She also knew he wouldn't let that distract him from what he was about to do, so she didn't even bother to remind him he needed to stay focused.
The three of them walked in silence for a few minutes before Jasper looked at Peter. "Anything?"
Peter shook his head. "Nothing concrete. But I'm almost positive there's nothing to worry about," he answered. "Well, nothing but having to see that devil again. It's been an awfully long time since you've been face to face with her, you sure you're okay doing this? We'll come with y'all if you want."
"It is what it is," Jasper shrugged. "We'll be fine. And thank you for offering, but I'd much rather you stay here. I told Leah to give one of you a call if she needs anything."
Charlotte nodded. "Good. She and I already have a date later tonight to do some more training."
"That girl is fierce," Peter laughed.
"And eager to learn," Charlotte added with a smile. She was really enjoying spending time with Leah and getting to know the girl who made her brother smile so much. She was also pretty impressed that she wasn't giving Jasper a hard time about leaving to look for Maria. She was looking at it pragmatically rather than emotionally, and just supported her imprint in what they thought was the best course of action. She wasn't particularly happy about the situation, but she also didn't make any demands that he not go or that he take her with him.
Peter and Charlotte weren't any happier about it, but they were looking at it through a pragmatic lens also. Maria was definitely still angry at the two of them for escaping her army and for helping Jasper escape, but when they'd seen her in the '70s, she hadn't been overly hostile or confrontational, so they doubted she was looking for Jasper just for the sake of a fight.
The entire coven was waiting for them on the front porch when the house came into view, those on patrol having taken a brief break to say goodbye. Edward had even temporarily left Bella's side, knowing Paul was in the woods behind her house waiting to shadow Charlie when he left for the station.
Alice got to her feet and smiled at the three Whitlocks. "Ready?" she asked Jasper.
He just nodded and then silently accepted the hugs from his family. Esme and Rosalie held on for a little longer than the others, but they were both doing their best to keep their emotions calm.
"Keep in touch," Emmett said quietly as he hugged his brother. "If you need us, we'll come."
Jasper smiled as he pulled back and ruffled Emmett's hair. "I appreciate that," he told him, letting him feel his gratitude at the offer. He knew Emmett was being completely genuine and that every single member of the coven agreed with him.
Not for the first time, and undoubtedly not the last, Jasper sent up a prayer of thanks to the universe for sending Alice to him and for making sure the two of them found Carlisle and the rest of their family. His life had purpose and meaning now beyond just being a weapon for a sadistic sire, and he was surrounded - for the most part - by joy and love. Even through the hardest times they'd faced as a family, Jasper wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.