A/N: I have to tell y'all, I didn't mean for this section of the story to go for this many chapters, so if anyone's an impatient reader like me, things start moving along from here. And the next chapter is nearly finished so it should be up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading:)

Sink or Swim

Jasper had just finished backing the truck up the Swan's driveway so they could unhitch the boat when Edward and Bella walked out the front door. Leah glared at Bella as she got out but kept her mouth shut. While Charlie greeted his daughter and asked what her plans were, Leah went and helped Jasper with unhitching the trailer.

Edward walked over under the pretense of giving them a hand, but stopped short with a smile when he saw Leah standing there in nothing but Jasper's sweatshirt.

"You and Alice both suck," she hissed quietly when she saw his smile. "Would it have killed you to warn me?"

"Killed me? No," Edward chuckled. "But Alice made a point of stressing that she didn't want to deprive Jasper and Charlie of their fun."

Leah rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help smiling a little. In her opinion, Charlie and Jasper deserved all the fun they could get, even if that amusement and those laughs were at her expense. "Fair enough. And like Charlie said, it wasn't the first time and it probably won't be the last."

"Just how many times have you fallen off the boat?" Jasper asked her with a weird look.

Leah started counting in her head, making Edward laugh. "Honestly? Too many," she eventually shrugged.

Edward shook his head with a smile but then lowered his voice and looked much more serious. "Seattle?"

"We'll talk about it later," Jasper said quietly, seeing Charlie headed their way with the tarp to cover the boat. Bella hesitated for a moment, as if debating whether or not to follow him, then sat down on the porch steps with a quiet sigh.

When Charlie started unfolding the tarp, Leah snatched it out of his hands. "I believe this is my job," she pointedly reminded him. The last time he'd tried to put it on, he'd slipped and scraped his shin to hell on the metal edge of the trailer.

"It was one time!" Charlie laughed.

Leah nodded, keeping her face surprisingly serious. "And once is enough. Besides, those arthritic hands don't work as well as they used to," she added, darting out of the way with a bright laugh when Charlie tried to grab it from her.

"You're so funny, Lee," he said, giving her a flat look.

"I know," she laughed, then looked at Jasper feigning impatience. "What are you waiting for? You standing there looking pretty isn't benefiting me in any way, so come on, make yourself useful."

Jasper narrowed his eyes at her. "Run," he whispered, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Leah squealed and tried to duck behind Charlie when Jasper lunged for her, but Charlie just laughed and shook his head as he moved to the side. "Don't try to drag me into your mess, young lady."

Leah and Jasper chased each other around the Swan's yard, laughing and shouting at each other, making sure to keep their movements human. Charlie, Edward, and Bella all watched them, each with a different set of emotions.

Bella was a little bit amused, but her most prominent emotion was envy. Jasper and Leah's relationship was so new compared to her and Edward's, but her relationship had none of the playfulness that she was seeing between the empath and the wolf. They appeared to be so comfortable and at ease with each other already and Bella wished she felt that way when she was with Edward.

Edward's emotions were similar, as was his thinking about the differences in the two relationships, but he was also feeling a surprising amount of happiness for his brother. Regardless of how rocky their relationship had been through the years, or how strained it had been recently, he was still happy that Jasper had finally found his mate and was as joyful as he was now. His life had been far more difficult than any other Cullen, and seeing him so lighthearted was gratifying.

Charlie was just amused as hell and so grateful that he was again seeing the Leah from before Sam broke her heart. When Jasper made a surprisingly quick move and got his hands around Leah's waist, he cheered loudly for him. "Way to go, kid!"

Jasper completely ignored the emotions from Bella and Edward at hearing Charlie rooting for him and threw a laughing Leah over his shoulder and bounded over with a wide smile to pick up the forgotten tarp she'd dropped on the ground. He unceremoniously dumped her into the boat, making her huff in mock-outrage as she tugged the bottom of the sweatshirt down to cover her ass. "Rude!"

"What are you waiting for? You sitting there looking pretty isn't benefiting me in any way, so come on, make yourself useful," Jasper laughed, echoing her earlier words.

Leah swiped her hair out of her face and glared at her imprint, fighting a smile. "Has anyone ever told you you're an asshole, Whitlock?"

A sharp crack of laughter escaped Jasper. "Yes, actually. Many people."

Leah's smile softened as she hauled herself to her feet and gave her imprint a kiss over the side of the boat. "You're not so bad," she assured him.

As Charlie watched the two of them work together to cover his boat, he saw out of the corner of his eye that Edward was looking at him. When he turned to his daughter's boyfriend, he saw that his expression was different than any other time he'd been around him. The kid typically either looked a little too arrogant for Charlie's liking, or as if he was trying to be respectful in a way that didn't quite ring true, like he was simply playing the part of the respectful boyfriend. In that moment, however, he looked uncertain and very much like an insecure teenager, which wasn't at all usual. Charlie wasn't sure he'd ever seen Edward act like a normal teenager.

Charlie looked at him for a moment. "You're wondering why I don't like you?" he asked quietly so Bella didn't overhear him. When Edward's eyes went a little wide with surprise, he nodded. "In addition to the times you've hurt my daughter, look at Leah's face right now. It's no secret that the girl is like a second daughter to me. Do you see that smile? Hear that laughter? I've never seen Bella that carefree or that full of joy," he told Edward honestly, but not entirely unkindly. "When she's with you, she either looks self-conscious and insecure, like she doesn't think she's good enough for you, or she looks at you like you're her hero. I have never seen my daughter - in your presence or while talking about you - smile like that."

Edward's knee-jerk reaction was to be angry at Charlie for saying something like that, and he wanted to argue that he was wrong, but he couldn't do that with any degree of honesty. Charlie was just reinforcing everything he'd been worried about, all the ways he'd questioned the difficulties in his relationship with his mate, everything his family had been trying to point out since he and Bella had met.

Edward turned to look at Bella sitting on the porch and frowned when he saw her expression as she watched Jasper and Leah. It seemed he wasn't the only one who wished things could be easier. It was impossible to deny that he and Bella had never had the same playfulness between them that his brother and his mate had.

Jasper, meanwhile, held his breath as he waited for Edward to respond. He knew Edward was aware that what Charlie had said was absolutely true, but Edward often lashed out in the cruelest of ways when he was on the defensive. He didn't react all that well when anyone pointed out one of his many flaws.

He also felt a little bit of sympathy for his brother, because it was Jasper's firm belief that Edward wasn't the only one who made things hard, or the only one who brought very little levity to the relationship. Yes, it was definitely true that Edward had never been all that great at letting loose and having fun with the rest of the family, but Bella seemed exactly the same as her mate in that respect. Jasper could probably count on one hand the number of times he'd heard the girl laugh purely out of amusement, rather than an awkward laugh at being uncomfortable in a situation.

Edward eventually nodded once and looked back to Charlie. "I love your daughter immensely, but I'm not blind to the flaws in our relationship. It's been repeatedly pointed out to us recently that if we're going to have a happy relationship, we're both going to have to make some changes," he admitted softly. "I want nothing more than to make Bella happy. If that means I need to change some of my ingrained habits, I will do my absolute best."

Jasper and Leah both stopped what they were doing and looked at the telepath - Leah with a hell of a lot of surprise, and Jasper with a brilliant smile. He sent his brother all the pride he was feeling for him in that moment. Edward had always firmly believed that vampires were forever frozen in time, never growing, but with the benefit of his gift, Jasper knew Edward was being completely genuine about trying to change.

Edward rolled his eyes a little when he felt Jasper's pride in him, but it was impossible to completely hide his smile. It felt like it had been an awfully long time since he'd given anyone in his family reason to be proud of him, and Jasper had been particularly disappointed and angry about his behavior over the past year.

Charlie couldn't deny that he was a little bit shocked Edward was willing to admit that he wasn't perfect, and neither was his relationship. Shocked, but pleased. It was Charlie's experience that acknowledging our faults typically led to working on improving those aspects of ourselves.

"I'm glad to hear that. Bella's her own person and you're my daughter's chosen partner. I respect her right to make that decision without any complaining from me, so there's nothing to lose and everything to gain if you and I can get along," he said with a small smile. He hesitated a moment before sighing quietly. If Edward was willing to do things differently, maybe he should try and do the same. "Maybe next time we go fishing, you and Bella could come along," he offered.

Edward darted a quick glance at his mate. "Um…"

Seeing the skeptical look on Edward's face, Charlie laughed. "Yeah, maybe we should start smaller. How about we all watch the next Mariners game together? Bella did a pretty good job cheering when she joined us, and lord knows the Mariners can use all the help they can get."

Edward nodded with a smile. "I'd like that."

Leah vaulted herself over the side of the boat to land beside her imprint, and immediately took his hand so he could feel her emotions more easily. She wasn't quite sure what emotions to use to ask 'is he full of shit?' so she just focused on her uncertainty. Jasper gently squeezed her hand and nodded, letting her feel his reassurance.

As the two of them walked to where Charlie and Edward were standing, Bella took a deep breath as if to steel herself for whatever she was about to do, and then stood up and intercepted them. Leah glared but managed to keep her mouth shut.

Bella shifted awkwardly and wrung her hands together as she worked up the courage to speak. "I'm sorry, Jasper," she said quietly. Seeing Leah glaring at her, she shook her head a little. "I'm being honest. I get why you're upset with me and I understand, but I really am sorry," she told the wolf, then looked back to the empath. "My head was spinning last night with everything that happened, and I wasn't thinking things through before I said them. I shouldn't have just automatically assumed that you would be willing to help me just because you have experience with newborns."

Jasper had to work to keep from rolling his eyes. He debated how to answer for a moment and then turned to Leah. "Will you give us a minute?" he asked.

Leah didn't hesitate. She just gave him a quick kiss and went to keep Charlie distracted so her imprint could talk to Bella alone. Didn't mean she wouldn't eavesdrop, through.

"Look, Bella," Jasper sighed. "I usually try to give people privacy where their emotions are concerned and I typically keep whatever I read to myself. But from your emotions, that inferiority and insecurity you're feeling, it seems like you're assuming I won't help you because I don't think you're worth helping. Is that accurate?" he asked.

Bella didn't answer with words, but she gave him a single hesitant nod.

"That's not why Peter and Charlotte got so upset last night. When you join our family, I have no issue with helping you adjust during your newborn year. What we all do have an issue with is you wanting to become a vampire right now, with no preparation and when you'd be a liability," he explained quietly, then held up a hand when she opened her mouth to protest. "I'm sorry that offends you but it doesn't make it any less true. And not only would you be a liability, but we would have to focus more on keeping you under control than on the threat we're facing. There is absolutely no way to teach you how to fight against a newborn army while being a newborn yourself that doesn't involve way too much pain for both of us. It's not simple, it's not easy, and it's not fun. That's why Peter and Charlotte got so pissed. They didn't like that you listened to the hell that was my life in the south, especially with the added weight of my gift, and then casually threw that aside when you thought it would benefit you to have a 'newborn expert' in the family."

"I…" Bella hesitated, then sighed a little dejectedly. "I keep getting it wrong, huh?" she said with a laugh devoid of any humor.

Jasper just looked at her for a moment. "Do you want honesty or do you want me to say something strictly for the sake of making you feel better?" he asked. "If it's the latter you want, you'd do better looking for that in Edward."

Bella only hesitated for a second or two. "Honesty."

"Good choice," Jasper nodded. "We already consider you a member of the family, but when you join our coven full-time, you'll have seven other people to consider. Eight if you include Leah. Peter wasn't exaggerating when he told you we are loyal to each other in everything we do. There are more people to consider than just yourself or Edward. Your wants and needs won't always come first, but you will have just as much of a voice as the rest of us do. You still have a few months before you're changed, so rather than trying to come up with excuses to be changed earlier, or wishing you could just skip that time, maybe use it to try and practice thinking about other people. Take a closer look at how your actions affect those around you," he said, keeping his voice gentle to take the sting out of his words.

Bella gave him another hesitant nod, ignoring the little flare of hurt inside her.

Jasper took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm honestly not trying to hurt your feelings, Bella. I'm just trying to prepare you for life as a Cullen. We'll all help you if you're willing to try. That's the benefit of being in a coven like ours. I know you don't like when anyone tells you you're young, but you are. You're only eighteen, and by your own admission, those eighteen years have been spent in a pretty solitary life, with no friends and an extremely small family. Don't assume you know everything or that you know best. If you're not sure about something, ask one of us. If you're questioning whether or not your motives about something are selfish or if they'll be detrimental to anyone else in the family, ask one of us. If you have questions about our world, ask one of us. We'll help you but we can't do it for you."

Bella just nodded again, this time with less uncertainty. She wanted to be a Cullen, wanted to stay by Edward's side forever, so she needed to start trying to think like a Cullen.

"And maybe sort your shit out when it comes to Jacob," Jasper added, making Bella scowl at him a little. "You're hurting someone who's been my brother for seventy years, Bella," he said sharply. "You're not in love with Jacob, you want to be with Edward, and you want to join our world. You aren't questioning any of those things, so maybe stop making Edward question them."

Bella turned to look at Edward with wide, shocked eyes. She knew she had insecurities about their relationship but she never would have imagined in a million years that Edward did also.

"I know you feel like your relationship is lopsided, but it's not," Jasper said quietly. "He loves you every bit as much as you love him."

Bella looked at him, a tangled mess of doubts and insecurities.

"If anyone knows, it's me," Jasper reminded her with a smile.

Edward, seeing the doubt on his mate's face, walked over and put his arm around her. "I think you'll find in time that Jasper is incapable of lying," he assured Bella with a low chuckle. "He might keep a negative opinion to himself, but you can be sure that if he does open his mouth, he's telling the truth."

"So Peter's always right and Jasper's always honest?" Bella asked with a little smile, remembering Peter's words from the night before.

"Exactly," Jasper laughed. "Now, unless I'm mistaken, y'all were about to head out and do some much needed talking when we showed up, so shoo. Go do your thing."

Edward frowned a little. "Shouldn't we talk about Seattle?"

Bella looked between the two of them. "What about Seattle?" she asked, annoyed that she always seemed to be missing something.

"It's nothing that can't wait a few hours," Jasper answered when Edward hesitated. "I need to speak to Carlisle and I need to get Alice, Peter, and Charlotte back down here. Edward will fill you in and we can talk later," he said, giving the telepath a pointed look.

Here's your chance, kid. Sink or swim.

Edward didn't even scowl at Jasper calling him 'kid' in his thoughts, he just nodded. He couldn't keep burying his head in the sand when every single person in his life was telling him the same thing. If he wanted his relationship to be more like the ones around him, he and Bella needed to make some changes. He was under no illusion that it would be a quick and easy process, but he could no longer deny that it was necessary.

Jasper smiled at him when he felt Edward's emotions.

It'll all work out. Just be honest and try and have some faith in her. If you tell her that you have the same doubts that she does, if you tell her she's hurting you, I can't imagine she'd ignore that and keep doing what she's doing. She loves you, she won't want to be the reason you're hurting.

Edward just nodded again and braced himself for the conversation to come.

On the drive back to the Cullen's, Leah and Jasper made a flurry of calls. Leah started with Jared, then moved on to Paul when she got his voicemail. He agreed to head to the Cullen's, but told her he was going to drive over. Jacob was on patrol all day after skipping out the night before, and Paul didn't want him in his head until he knew more. Leah got Seth's voicemail also, so she just left a message asking him to call her back.

Jasper first called Peter, asking the three of them to make their way back to Forks. When he tried to demand answers, Jasper just said he'd explain later. He didn't want Peter to go off on some half-assed mission to Seattle before they made a plan. Peter did a little bit of grumbling, but said they'd be back in a couple hours.

Then Jasper called Carlisle. That was a slightly more tricky conversation.

"You want me to do what?" Carlisle asked in surprise after Jasper explained his conversation with Charlie and then asked him to go to the hospital.

"I know it's a little ethically questionable, but you can use the hospital computer network to search for any cases in Washington that might fit with newborns hunting," Jasper explained. Newborn kills were notoriously savage, and going off what Charlie said, there had been numerous suspicious deaths recently. "If we're going to go up and deal with this, we need to have as much information as possible, and you're our best shot at getting a definitive answer on whether or not Victoria's in Seattle."

Carlisle didn't even hesitate to agree. Yes, it was perhaps a little ethically questionable, but the safety of his coven, his family, meant everything to him.

Jasper thanked him and ended the call. "Not quite the relaxing afternoon I was hoping for," he said, looking at his mate.

Leah laughed and took his hand. "No, not quite. But at least the morning was great."

Jasper just nodded. He certainly couldn't argue with that.

A couple hours later - after Leah had showered off the seawater, changed into clean, dry clothes, and scrounged through the Cullen's kitchen for something to eat - about half of the Cullens, all the Whitlocks, and Leah and Paul were all gathered in the living room. Edward was still out with Bella, and Esme had gone to the hospital with Carlisle.

"Seattle?" Rosalie breathed after Jasper explained what Charlie had told them and what his suspicions were. "How the hell do you keep newborns hidden in a city that size?"

Leah looked at Jasper. "There's a chance it could just be a coincidence," she said uncertainly, not really believing that. "You're the expert, what do you think?"

Jasper was honestly still a little shocked that they were even in this situation. He never would've imagined in a million years that the experience he'd gained in the first half of his second life would ever be relevant in the second half. He never wanted the Cullens to be exposed to anything like this. "I suppose anything's possible, but going off the information we have at this point, I'd say it's likely that she's in Seattle and already has multiple newborns. Personally, I would have left the city rather than risk exposure, but if the disappearances and grisly murders are any indication, they're still in Seattle. Or at least nearby."

Peter nodded. "It's an awfully familiar pattern," he said, thinking about his time in the south. "She could be taking a page out of Maria's book and she's lying to them to keep them hidden."

Jasper just nodded, because that was definitely an option. Maria had lied about nearly everything that had to do with their world in order to keep her newborns in line.

"Just telling them that the vampire myth of the sun burning us is true would probably be enough to keep them indoors and out of sight," Emmett said. "At least during the day."

Jasper just nodded again. When he'd first woken up, Maria told him the sun would kill him to stress the importance of staying hidden in the shadows, and it was only because of an accident of timing that he'd happened to catch sight of his sire walking outside during the day and realized that she'd lied. Unfortunately for him, Maria's excuse that she was just trying to protect him was believable enough to a relatively new vamp that Jasper took her at her word.

Even though he knew how disorienting it was to wake up as an entirely new creature, especially one with his gift that did nothing but make everything even more confusing, he was still ashamed that it had taken him so long to see through Maria's lies.

Alice knew Jasper better than she knew herself most days so she knew what he was thinking and gently nudged him with her elbow. "Quit it. You couldn't have known," she reminded him for what felt like the gazillionth time.

Jasper just smiled that she could read him so well. "We should wait to hear what Carlisle finds before we make any definitive plans, but we're looking at a whole different scenario if they're in Seattle rather than the wilderness of Canada."

Alice nodded, trying to think through all their options. "We can't tip Victoria off that we know where she is, and it's not going to be easy scouting in the city while keeping ourselves hidden, but that's probably going to have to be our first step."

"I'm coming," Leah and Paul said at the same time.

At seeing the six vamps looking at them a little skeptically, Leah crossed her arms defensively. "In case you forgot, we can take care of ourselves."

Emmett laughed a little. "Uh, in case you forgot, you can't turn into a giant wolf in the middle of a city with over seven-hundred thousand human citizens if you need to take care of yourselves in the way I'm assuming you mean."

"Not to mention that a giant wolf would definitely tip Victoria off," Rosalie pointed out.

"That's inconvenient," Leah grumbled with a scowl, but then looked at her imprint. "I think it'll be fine. I can just stick close to you and if we accidentally stumble on any baby vamps, you can do the combat portion of our mission if I have to stay human. Right?"

"You have that much faith in him?" Peter asked with a smile.

Leah immediately nodded. "Of course I do," she answered seriously. The answering smile from her imprint made her heart skip a few beats so she just rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs. "Quit looking at me like that."

Jasper laughed and his eyebrows shot up. "How was I looking at you?"

"Like you wish the rest of us would disappear so you could kiss her until she got a little lightheaded," Paul said with a heavy eye-roll.

"To be fair, I'm pretty much always thinking that, so–"

Paul held up a hand to cut Jasper off before he could say anything else. "Okay, Romeo," he scoffed. "Back to what really matters - us coming to Seattle."

"If I may?" Charlotte cut in. "It's nice that y'all want to help - truly, it's my opinion that you can never have enough people as allies - and Leah, I think it's lovely that you trust Jasper with your life like that, but I'm not sure you guys going to Seattle is the greatest idea."

"Why not?" Paul snapped, thinking she just didn't think the wolves had any business sticking their noses into vamp affairs, momentarily forgetting that she and Peter were planning to help train the wolves. Then he immediately apologized when he saw the anger in Jasper's eyes and remembered the story he'd heard about Edward nearly dying for the second time because he was disrespectful to Charlotte. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to come out that way."

"It's fine, Peter and Jasper are both a little too protective for my own good," Charlotte laughed. "But to answer your question, I know my brother, and if either of you are with him when he goes up there, Leah in particular, he's going to be so focused on making sure y'all are safe that his attention will be split. And being distracted is never a good thing when you're walking into a potentially hostile situation."

Paul and Leah exchanged a quick glance. They couldn't really argue with that logic, because it was absolutely true. Neither of them wanted any of the Cullens to be at a disadvantage because they were worried about the wolves, especially because they'd be somewhere neither wolf could phase if they needed to.

"How about a compromise?" Jasper asked the two of them. "Charlotte's not wrong, so if it was up to me, I wouldn't want either of you to be walking around the city itself. But that doesn't mean you can't help. There's plenty of land that's far enough outside the city limits that, if you've got cover of darkness, you can go wolf if absolutely necessary with far less risk of being seen."

Leah's stomach clenched at the idea of them being separated in such a potentially risky scenario but she nodded a little hesitantly, trying to push aside her worry.

Jasper gently squeezed her hand and let her feel his understanding and reassurance. "I'm happy to leave the city proper in their hands," he said, tipping his head towards the other vamps. "They're all capable of keeping themselves safe, they don't need me to do it for them. You and I, and Paul if he wants to join us, can look at a map and come up with some less populated areas that might be worth taking a look at."

"Really?" she asked, surprised at the offer. With how protective he was of his families, she'd assumed he would insist on being glued to their sides.

"Of course," Jasper nodded. "You and Paul are protectors. Not only does that mean you aren't defenseless, but I'd never expect you to just sit on the sidelines when it comes to protecting your people and your land. This area is your home, and it's been your home a hell of a lot longer than it's been mine."

Leah smiled and nodded, grateful that her imprint understood her so well. "Thank you."

Jasper just nodded and kissed her temple.

"Three couples," Rosalie said quietly, looking at Jasper and his mate.

"Three couples what?" Leah asked, confused by the non sequitur.

Rosalie smiled at her. "Jasper told Edward recently that there were two couples he could look at in our house to see how a mated pair should work. I know you don't actually live in our house, but there are definitely five mated Cullens who Edward could learn from, not four."

Jasper felt his own gratitude at hearing those words from Rosalie - the Cullen least likely to throw out compliments for no reason - echoed in Leah's emotional palette. The whole imprint-mate thing was still so new for them and they'd had very little time so far to ease into their relationship, to just relax and get to know each other, and navigate all the ways their relationship was going to work. They'd just been plunged straight into the deep end.

Fortunately for Jasper, he'd found a partner he could swim with.