A/N: Thanks for reading:) M. x
A Little Bit of Peace
"It's pretty much a straight shot through the woods from here," Jared told Jasper as they walked. "Going by car would take you through the village and we're still a little hesitant about that. I hope you understand."
"Of course," Jasper nodded. "Just this is more than I expected."
It was true. Even though he knew Sue had asked for him to be allowed to come to the Clearwater's house, Jasper assumed it would never happen. And he would've understood that. As far as he knew, the tribe's only experiences with vamps were limited to those whom their legends were based on and the Cullens they met in 1936. The Quileutes considered the 'Cold Ones' of legend to be the very epitome of evil, and prior to Leah imprinting, he'd wager that a lot of the pack agreed with Jacob that the only good vamp was a dead one.
The elders seemed to have a more nuanced view, but the wolves were largely controlled by their instincts. Going by everything he'd learned about the shapeshifters from Leah, the wolves all had alarming levels of anger and rage in the weeks preceding their first transformation, and in the early days of adjusting to being a protector, they could unexpectedly phase due to any strong emotion.
Anger was probably the most common, as it was in Sam's case the day he hurt Emily and the day Paul phased when Bella slapped him, though extreme shock could trigger it also. That's what led to Seth's very first transformation the day he watched his dad have a heart attack after seeing Leah transform in their living room, and Leah's shock at imprinting on Jasper had her going human without meaning to.
The vamps themselves also triggered the primal instincts of the wolves. Jasper knew from Alice that Jacob had to fight hard against those instincts to keep from phasing inside the Swan's house when she showed up after Bella flung herself off a cliff. He was visibly trembling, so much so that even Bella's human eyes saw it.
The shifters made vamp instincts a little jumpy also, but the Cullens were more controlled in that aspect. Not only were they all much, much older than the wolves - Emmett had been a vamp the shortest amount of time of all the Cullens and he'd been turned eighty-five years before - but they didn't see the wolves as evil. They were responding to a creature that had the ability to do them physical harm, rather than the inherent evil of a species.
While Jasper was lost in those thoughts, Leah was practically bouncing as she walked, thrilled right down to her toes that her imprint was allowed across the treaty line, even if his access was severely limited. "So does he have to go straight to the back door from the trees?" she asked Jared, the hand holding Jasper's swinging between them.
Jared gave her an amused smile. "No, he isn't restricted to the inside of your house. The direct path just gets him to your backyard, but he can be anywhere on your property."
"Cool, you can come to the front door when you pick me up for a date just like a real gentleman," she laughed as she looked up at Jasper.
"A real gentleman, huh? I'm not sure I know how to play that role," he teased.
"Please," Paul scoffed. "You've got that whole southern gentleman shit in spades. You're all 'yes, ma'am' and 'thank you, sir' and 'let me get the door for you, ma'am'."
Leah rolled her eyes and jabbed her elbow in her best friend's stomach. "I don't think manners are supposed to be limited to southerners, asshole."
Paul just laughed and shrugged. "I wouldn't know."
"Some of those 'polite' southern manners were bullshit back in your day and didn't extend to everyone," Seth huffed as he looked at his sister's imprint. "It's hardly polite to own other people."
"Very true," Jasper agreed. "Manners covered up a multitude of sins."
"Thanks a lot, Seth. Talk about a mood-killer on the second best day of my life," Leah snarked, but then tipped her head and reconsidered that. "Maybe third actually."
Jasper looked at his mate with a smile. His life had been long enough that he had a very long list of 'best' days, or at least best moments, and he was curious what Leah's were. "What are the top two?" he asked her.
"Meeting you, obviously," she said with an eye-roll and a very heavily implied 'duh'.
When she offered no more, he laughed and nudged her arm. "And?"
Leah scowled a little. Leave it to her to open her big mouth. Everyone just looked at her expectantly, making her scowl a little harder. Then she immediately cut that shit out because she didn't want to look like Edward Cullen with his constant sour expression. "Fine," she grumbled. "The day Seth was born."
Seth grinned and launched himself at his sister suddenly enough and hard enough that it was only Jasper's quick reflexes that kept them both from hitting the ground.
"Get off me," Leah laughed when her brother just held on around her neck. "I'll take it back," she warned.
Seth dropped to his feet with a heavy thud. "Pfft. No take-backsies on something like that, Lee. Now that it's out there, it's out there for good."
"No take-backsies?" Jasper said with an amused smile. "Y'all are ridiculous."
"Said like a true only child," Paul laughed. "Or only child as a human, I guess. You and your vamp siblings weren't elementary school age together, which is a whole other level of siblings."
Leah gave her imprint a cheeky smile. "I don't know, Edward acts like a toddler often enough that you might have some idea."
"Toddlers can't remove limbs, so I'm pretty sure that's a whole other level of siblings," Seth laughed.
"Very true," Leah agreed with a laugh. "Have you ever removed any sibling limbs?" she asked Jasper curiously.
He smiled and shook his head at the sharp and weird turn their conversation had taken. "I have not. Alice relieved Edward of a hand recently, though."
All the wolves looked at him in surprise. They certainly hadn't expected that answer. "Why?" Jared asked, a little wide-eyed.
"She's protective of me," Jasper answered with a little shrug.
"You say that so casually, like removing a body part of a family member is just part of an average day in the life of a vamp," Paul said incredulously.
"Losing a hand isn't quite the problem for us that it is for a human," Jasper answered with another shrug. He'd lived a life for a long time where temporarily losing body parts was part of an average day. "It's not like she burned it, so he wasn't without it for long," he added.
"Why did Alice's protective instincts come out that hard?" Leah asked suspiciously. She hadn't heard this story yet.
"Edward's too impulsive for his own good and he sometimes forgets he's a shitty fighter when he gets pissed," Jasper explained. "I offended his delicate yet too-big ego and he tried to put his hands on me in a not so friendly way. He wasn't successful, but Alice wasn't too happy with him."
The wolves took a few seconds to absorb that. All of them were more than a little shocked that even the ostensibly peaceful and loving Cullens occasionally committed violence on that level.
Leah was pissed on top of being shocked. Who the fuck did Edward think he was trying to hurt Jasper? She'd have to figure out a way to 'accidentally' take a bite out of him one of these days. "I knew I didn't like him for a reason," she grumbled.
Jasper smiled that his mate was just as protective of him as he was of her, but figured it was probably best to change the subject. "Do any of the other wolves live near you?" he asked her.
Leah tipped her head a little as she thought about where each pack member lived in relation to the path they were walking. "Paul's the closest. You can actually see his house from mine. Jacob and Sam are on the other side of the village from us, which is probably a good thing. And Jared and Quil are both sort-of in the middle, but they're on the opposite side of the main road from us so you won't be near their houses when you're coming in from the trees this way."
Jasper nodded, glad he wasn't going to have to worry about getting too close to anyone's property who was especially hostile to him. He assumed he'd be watched closely by a wolf or two for a while to make sure he didn't stray from the path the elders were allowing him, but as long as they didn't get in his way, he had no problem with that.
Feeling a bright burst of happiness, Jasper looked up to see the trees were thinning out and a house was visible. And standing on the back step, with that warm smile he'd come to enjoy so much, was Sue. She smiled wider when she caught his eye and waved at him.
Jasper grinned and looked at his mate. "I'm beginning to see where Seth gets his adorableness from," he said as he tipped his head towards her mom cheerfully waving at them.
Leah laughed and waved back. "She is pretty cute, isn't she?"
"This is where I leave you," Jared said with a smile as they got to the edge of the Clearwater's backyard. Before he left, he and Jasper exchanged phone numbers so they could arrange a time to start working on training the wolves.
"I'm gonna head home too," Paul said after stifling a yawn. "I went straight from patrol to talk to Sam and Emily with the council and didn't have time to catch any sleep before the meeting."
"You went with Jared and the elders?" Leah asked in surprise.
"I did," he nodded. "I'm not part of the council or anything but, as Beta, they thought it would be helpful if I was there. You know, show a united front or whatever," he shrugged.
"Wait, don't go yet, Paul," Sue said and then darted inside. She came out a moment later with a small tupperware container and walked down the steps to hand it to him. "Here. Take these home with you."
Paul cheered a little too loudly and laughed when Seth and Leah both started grumbling.
"Oh hush, there's plenty more for both of you inside," Sue laughed.
Jasper watched with an amused smile as Leah and Seth took off running and bounded up the back steps, both of them trying to make it through the door first. Leah won, but only because she was slightly more ruthless than her little brother and shoved him hard enough that he landed in the grass at the bottom of the steps. Being the easy-going kid he was, he just laughed and hopped back up and followed her inside.
"Cookies?" Jasper asked Sue.
"Yes," Sue sighed, shaking her head at her children, though she was still smiling. "You'd think they were raised by wolves," she muttered under her breath. It took her a moment - along with a snort of laughter from Paul and another amused smile from Jasper - to realize what she'd said. "You know what I mean," she laughed.
Paul took off for home after thanking Sue for the cookies and catching a quick mom-hug. When he shoved Jasper's shoulder as a goodbye, Jasper smiled, thinking they'd finally gone from friend-adjacent to friends. Leah and Paul had a tendency to use pushing and shoving to show their affection.
"Would you like to come inside?" Sue asked Jasper with a mile-wide smile.
Jasper looked at the back door for a moment before nodding at her. "I would, but I'd like to do it right the first time," he said, tipping his head towards the side of the house.
Sue's eyes lit up. "Perfect," she laughed, then ran up the stairs and in the back door.
Jasper smiled and walked around the house and climbed the steps to the front porch. He rang the doorbell and waited. Then waited a few moments more. Then a few moments more.
After about a minute, Sue flung the door open and put on her best surprised face. "Jasper! What a lovely surprise!"
Jasper bit back his laughter and put on his best serious face. "Nice to see you again, ma'am. Is Leah home?"
"Oh, I think she's probably around here somewhere. Why don't you come in and I'll see if I can find her," Sue said, opening the door wider.
When Jasper walked inside, his mate was standing a foot away rolling her eyes. "And you think Seth and I are ridiculous?" she drawled, then threw herself at her imprint, who caught her with a laugh.
"Missed me, huh?" he teased.
"Only a little," Leah laughed as she stepped back and grabbed his hand to drag him into the kitchen. "You should probably text Alice before she freaks out and crosses the treaty line to make sure you've survived the journey."
Jasper nodded and pulled out his phone, but before he could text, it rang. "Hey–"
"Jas!" Alice loudly cut him off. "I've been worried sick! What took you so long?"
He snorted a laugh. "Worried sick or just sick of hearing about cars?" he asked.
"Maybe both," she laughed. "But you're okay?" she asked, a little more seriously.
"I'm fine," he quietly assured her, knowing she was genuinely worried and not wanting to downplay that. "We walked at a human pace, that's all. I just walked in the door."
And just like that, Alice's worry disappeared. "I'm so happy for you!" she said with a little excited squeal, which was immediately followed by a sigh. "Damn, Rose is glaring at me. Gotta go, text me when you're on your way back. Love you."
She hung up before Jasper could say goodbye and he smiled as he tucked his phone back in his pocket. When he looked up, Sue was wringing her hands a little uncertainly. "What's the matter?" he asked her.
"It's silly. I just… well, when someone comes to my home I usually offer them refreshments of some kind," she answered.
Jasper bit back his laughter for a second time and reached for a cookie from the plate sitting on the table. "This is perfect," he said with a smile and then took a bite. He thought he'd done well covering up the grimace as he chewed and swallowed, but the amused and indulgent smile from Sue and the laughter from Leah and Seth made him think he hadn't been entirely successful. "Delicious," he said, handing the other half of the cookie to his mate. "I'm pretty full, though, so maybe you should finish it."
Sue laughed and patted his shoulder. "You're a good man, Jasper Whitlock."
The four of them sat around the kitchen table and talked for a while, and then Seth dragged Jasper back outside to start building the supernatural locker room at the edge of their backyard. With all three of them working, they got a good bit of it done, but just as the sun was beginning to set, Seth was called in to do his homework. He grumbled and sighed a few times but eventually gave in and went inside.
Leah plopped herself in the grass and took a moment to survey their handiwork. "Vamp speed's pretty great."
Jasper smiled and sat beside her. "It's definitely helpful sometimes."
They laid in the grass in comfortable silence for a while, Leah tucked against Jasper's side with her head on his chest and his fingers gently running through her hair. Occasionally they spoke in soft whispers, but life had felt pretty chaotic recently so they mostly just reveled in having some alone time and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
When Jasper heard a car pull in and park in the driveway, it only took him a moment to recognize the emotional signature. "Charlie's here."
"Really?" Leah asked with a smile. "That probably means it's dinner time."
Right on cue, Sue stuck her head out the back door. "Dinner's ready," she called.
Leah sat up and looked at her imprint. "You wanna cut out before Charlie sees you?"
Jasper opened his mouth to answer, then glanced at the back door when he felt Charlie's pleasant surprise. "Too late."
"Hey kids," Charlie greeted them as he walked into the backyard. "What's all this?" he asked curiously, gesturing to their building project.
Leah and Jasper exchanged a quick glance and Jasper did a little quick thinking. "Sue was telling me they needed a little more storage space than they have in the garage," he answered. "We figured it wouldn't be too hard to build her a big storage shed back here where it's out of the way."
Charlie smiled and nodded. "That's a nice thing for you to do for her. You joining us for dinner?" he asked Jasper.
Jasper briefly debated saying he needed to get home or that he'd had a late lunch, but he genuinely liked Charlie's company, and the man was rebuffed often enough by his daughter that Jasper didn't want to do that. "Yeah, I'd love to," he answered, hopping to his feet and pulling his mate up with him.
"Jas," Leah whispered lowly so Charlie wouldn't hear. "You don't have to."
Jasper just squeezed her hand and let her feel his reassurance. Sue gave him a worried look when they walked inside, so he just smiled and discreetly shook his head so she knew he wasn't bothered. Eating human food seemed like a pretty small price to pay if it meant spending time with Leah, Seth, Sue, and Charlie.
Sue put a little less food on his plate than she did the others, and then tried to spread it around to make it look less obvious. It wasn't really necessary, though, because Charlie didn't notice as he dug in to his own food.
"Delicious as always," he complimented Sue after his first few bites. "I appreciate the invite."
"You know me, I always cook too much," Sue laughed, though her smile was tinged with a little sadness. She still hadn't gotten the hang of cooking for three rather than four.
Charlie nodded his understanding and moved the conversation on. They all chatted easily as they ate, and Charlie kept the mood light by telling funny anecdotes about the day in the life of a small town police chief.
"He was naked?" Leah laughed. "Like zero clothes on, completely naked?"
Charlie smiled and shrugged as he set his fork down. "It was the middle of the night and apparently sleeping in pajamas makes him feel like he's suffocating. He ran outside before he thought to grab something to cover up with and then he was too afraid to go back inside," he laughed. "Anyway, turned out it wasn't an intruder. Or at least not a human one. There was a raccoon stuck in the chimney."
Jasper sat listening with a smile, occasionally joining the conversation, but mostly content to just sit and soak up all the positive emotions in the room. And if he wasn't mistaken, once Sue wasn't grieving quite as much, he thought there was the potential for something to blossom between her and Charlie. There was no romantic love between them at the moment, but they both cared for each other a great deal. Jasper discreetly watched the two of them and thought they'd be really good for each other.
He was surprised by how much that idea appealed to him, but Charlie and Sue both deserved to be loved wholeheartedly. He couldn't imagine Sue, Leah, or Seth ever taking him for granted and Jasper wanted that for Charlie.
Once everyone was finished eating, Leah started clearing the table and Seth got up and made a cup of coffee for Charlie and a cup of tea for his mom. Leah then handed Charlie the plate of cookies and shooed the two human adults out of the room. Charlie protested but Leah just gently shoved him towards the door to the living room. "She cooked, we clean. Go relax for a bit."
From their emotions, Jasper got the impression that this was a familiar routine for the four of them.
Leah washed the dishes and Jasper grabbed a dish towel to dry, then passed each thing off to Seth to put away. It was an effective assembly line and they had the kitchen tidied up in no time.
After seeing Leah smother a few yawns, Jasper smiled and pulled her into his arms. "Did you get any sleep before the meeting?" he asked quietly.
Leah sighed in contentment as she rested her head on his shoulder. "A little," she said through another yawn. "It's fine, I don't have to patrol tomorrow so I'll get to sleep in."
"If I know Charlie like I think I do, I can't leave until after he does. If he thinks I'm walking home through the forest he'll offer to drive me, and because a car ride will take us through the middle of the Reservation I can't do that," Jasper whispered.
Seth quietly went about making his sister a cup of tea, smiling at the peaceful expression on Leah's face as she relaxed into her imprint's arms. After everything Leah had been through in the previous year, he'd worried it was an expression he'd never see there again.
Once he'd stirred just the right amount of honey into her mug, Seth handed it to Jasper and tipped his head towards the living room.
Jasper nodded and led his sleepy mate into the room where Sue and Charlie were chatting, then got the two of them settled on the loveseat across from them. Leah immediately leaned against his side, and it spoke volumes about how tired she was that she only put up a token protest when Sue pulled out a photo album.
"Mom," she whined.
"Oh hush, this is my right as your mother and a rite of passage I refuse to miss out on," Sue laughed, pulling out photos from Leah's childhood to show Jasper.
Jasper smiled as he looked at them, thinking Leah was just about the cutest thing he'd ever seen. She had a huge smile and eyes sparkling with happiness in nearly every one. Many included Charlie, and he told the stories that went along with the pictures. There was a proud Harry Clearwater carefully handing his brand new daughter to Charlie, his eyes shimmering as he introduced his best friend to his baby girl. There was a very small Leah holding a fish too big for her little hands - the very first fish she ever caught. There was a photo of her with a gap-toothed smile, standing between Charlie and her dad at what looked like a Mariners game. There was one of her sitting on the couch with a very focused expression as she looked at the newborn little brother she was holding in her lap, wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed her to be a proud big sister.
There were camping trips and bonfires and days at the beach, and Jasper listened to every story, happy to learn anything and everything about the woman he had the good fortune to be bound to.
After about half an hour, Leah fell asleep with her head on his shoulder.
When Charlie saw her eyes close for the fourth time and not open again, he smiled softly at her, a peaceful kind of happiness welling up inside him at the sight of Leah sleeping with a small smile on her face with Jasper's arm around her. "Do you need a lift home?" he whispered, having seen that Jasper's truck wasn't there.
Sue answered before Jasper could. "I have something to give Esme so I'm going to run him home," she said quietly.
Jasper was grateful for her intervention. He would've had to say one of his family members was picking him up and he didn't like the idea of lying outright to the man.
Charlie just nodded. "Alright. Will I still see you bright and early Saturday morning?"
"Of course. I'll be by around six," he answered, smiling internally at the happiness Charlie felt in response.
After Sue walked him out and said goodnight, she came back in and pointed towards the stairs. Jasper nodded and carefully stood up, scooping his mate into his arms and following her upstairs, where Sue showed him to Leah's room. He got her tucked in her bed and then leaned down to kiss her forehead. She didn't so much as stir the whole time.
"You can stay over if you'd like," Sue whispered as she gently brushed her daughter's hair back.
Jasper considered it for a moment, but then thought about how he'd felt when he learned Edward was sneaking into Bella's room to watch her sleep without her knowing and shook his head. "I appreciate the offer but it doesn't feel right to be here without her permission."
Sue nodded her understanding and walked with him outside. "I'm so glad you were here with us, but I'm sorry you had to eat human food," she said with her typical warm smile as she hugged him goodnight.
"It's all good. I'm sure if I had tastebuds that worked properly, it would've been delicious," he laughed. "It was nice just getting to spend time with all of you. Thank you for talking to the council on my behalf so I could be here," he said more earnestly. "I'll always be grateful you went out on a limb for me before we'd even met."
Sue just smiled and shrugged. "I knew you were worth it."
After a final goodnight and a last wave, Jasper walked into the trees and headed for home. He ignored the watchful eyes of the Alpha as he thought about the previous few hours, unsurprised that he had a silent escort.
Jasper had often thought about what it would be like when he finally met his mate, but even though he'd lived with mated pairs and felt their love for each other, he was wholly unprepared for how it felt to meet his own other half. He hadn't realized a part of him was missing until he found it, and now he wondered how he'd ever made it a century and a half without her.
He hadn't been part of a human family since he'd left his farm to go to war, nor had he spent a whole lot of time with humans up to that point in his second life, and spending the evening with the Clearwaters and Charlie had been one of the most enjoyable nights he'd had in a long time.
As he neared the treaty line and felt the emotional signature of the person who'd been his constant companion for seventy-two years, he realized he'd been so lost in his thoughts that he'd forgotten to text Alice to let her know he was on his way home. But even though he'd given her no advance notice, he wasn't at all surprised to find her sitting cross-legged on the ground right where he crossed onto the Cullen's territory.
"Sorry," he apologized as she got to her feet.
Alice waved him off as they started walking home. "It's fine," she assured him. She smiled when he asked her how she'd known when he'd be there, since she was still mostly blind when he was with any of the wolves. "I decided to just sit and wait for you and then check my watch when you showed up," she answered with a little shrug.
"Clever," Jasper laughed.
She just shrugged again. "It's been kinda fun trying to come up with ways to work around those pesky blind spots," she smiled.
Alice hadn't made too big a deal about her inability to see portions of their family's future - and Jasper's in particular - now that they were all tied to the wolves, but Jasper knew she was bothered by it. She had no memory of her life before she was changed, it was just one long stretch of inky blackness, and the way her visions were now fading to black sometimes left her with a feeling akin to a deeply unsettling deja vu. Her visions had been with her since she woke up a full century before, and it wasn't such an easy adjustment to being blind again.
And Jasper couldn't blame her for that. He couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like if he suddenly lost the use of his gift. As much as it occasionally felt like a curse, he'd had the benefit of it to navigate his way through the world for over a hundred and fifty years. It was as much a fundamental part of him as any other sense he possessed.
"So how was it?" Alice asked.
"Perfect," Jasper smiled, then told her everything that had happened since Emmett had taken off running with her. "Can you see anything about Charlie and Sue?" he asked after he got her all caught up.
Alice let Jasper take her hand and silently lead her through the forest as her eyes unfocused while she searched the future. After a minute, she sighed. "Not much. I think they're both too tied to some of the wolves that it makes everything a little… blurry, I guess. Or maybe because neither of them are contemplating a relationship, there's nothing for me to see yet."
Jasper just nodded, having expected that answer.
"Why? You wanna play matchmaker?" Alice asked with a mischievous smile.
"Maybe one day," he laughed. "The potential is definitely there, but let's let her get through her grief at losing her husband before we try to throw her in another man's arms."
"Fair enough," Alice agreed. Like Jasper, she liked Charlie Swan. She figured she could afford to be patient if eventually she could help him be happy.
The two of them walked the rest of the way home in silence. Just like Leah and Jasper a few hours earlier, Alice was glad for a little bit of peace and quiet after all the upheaval in their lives in recent weeks. More would surely come, but for those few moments, they took advantage of the peace while it lasted.