A/N: If life doesn't throw me any curve balls, the next chapter should be up on Sunday. Thanks for reading:)
Maria
When Leah arrived home after her patrol shift early that evening, she went straight to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee, practically stumbling over her own feet with how exhausted she was. She wanted to just crawl under the covers for a solid twelve hours but she'd made plans to meet Charlotte and she just barely had time to try and scarf down a meal.
Sue had left a note that she'd offered to work a double shift at the clinic to cover for a nurse who'd come down with the flu, so Leah couldn't even count on her mom's cooking to lift her spirits, though the note lifted her spirits a little and made her smile. Her mom was adorable and always found a way to work in at least two compliments to her kids in even the shortest note, and always ended them with an 'I love you'.
Leah was staring blankly into the refrigerator when she heard an unwelcome sound and groaned a little. "I'm too tired for this," she muttered under her breath. She was trying to focus only on her exhaustion so she wasn't completely overwhelmed with her worry about Jasper and Alice. Speaking of…
Leah ran up to her room and grabbed her phone, then smiled when she saw two texts from Jasper.
In Oregon. Kinda boring but the scenery's great. Ali says hey.
His second text was a P.S. that made her snort a laugh.
You look beautiful in that shirt. Really brings out your eyes.
He obviously couldn't see her, and if he could, beautiful probably wouldn't be the first adjective that came to mind. She was a hot mess from head to toe. She quickly texted back, thinking about Jasper's messy curls and how they always looked more chaotic after a run.
Fix your hair, you look like shit.
It was a lie and they both knew it. Jasper never looked like shit. Even when he had messy hair with a leaf or two stuck in it, he just somehow managed to look like an adorable toddler who'd been climbing trees. So she sent a quick P.S. of her own.
Sorry, my fingers slipped. I meant to type you look hot. Be safe. x
Hearing a quiet knock, she wished Seth was home to deal with it and debated ignoring her all together. But if her mom ever caught wind of it she'd be very disappointed in Leah's poor manners, so she set her phone down with a sigh and walked downstairs.
"Hello, Bella," she said with a forced smile when she opened the door.
"Hi," Bella said nervously. "Um, when I was making dinner, my dad mentioned enchiladas were one of your mom's favorites. I asked if he wanted to invite her to join us but he said she was working a double shift and wouldn't be home until late. So, um, I made extra so she'd have a home-cooked meal to come home to, and I know you were patrolling all day and would probably be hungry when you got home, and with Jasper being gone, I just thought…" she trailed off her nervous rambling and held up the casserole dish she was carrying. "I thought you shouldn't have to worry about cooking on top of everything else."
Leah was so surprised that she actually gave her a genuine smile. Not so much because there was the prospect of food that admittedly smelled like what she imagined heaven smelled like, but because Bella had done such a nice thing for her mom. With juggling her place on the council, working as a nurse at the Res clinic, and having two kids who were shapeshifting wolves, Sue's life wasn't always an easy one.
Leah pulled out her manners and opened the door a little wider. "Thank you, that was really thoughtful of you. I don't have a ton of time but I just made a pot of coffee if you'd like a cup."
"Oh, um, sure. Thank you," Bella nodded, shocked that the wolf was actually inviting her inside.
As she followed Leah through the living room and into the kitchen, she looked around curiously. She thought she might have been at the Clearwater's house when she was younger, but she had no memory of what it looked like. It was lived in and cozy, and reminded her a lot of her dad's house. The impeccably decorated house her boyfriend and his family of vampires lived in always made her a little uncomfortable. She was afraid she'd trip over her feet and knock over something priceless or spill something on the pristine white couch.
Leah's house was filled with pictures of their family and friends, and many of them included Bella's dad. She felt a pang of regret that Charlie didn't have many photos of her, and none of the two of them together, because she hated having her picture taken. She stopped when one in particular caught her eye. It was a photo of a much younger Charlie holding a toddler Leah in his arms, both of them laughing as she tugged on his mustache. Harry Clearwater was standing just at the edge of the frame, watching the two of them with a smile.
"He was devastated when your mom took you away," Leah said quietly from the doorway. "He missed you, so he threw himself into being a good uncle so he wasn't quite so lonely."
Bella nodded, feeling another pang of regret that Renee's decision meant she'd largely grown up without a father. The pang got a little sharper when she thought about her own actions through the years and realized it wasn't only Renee who denied Charlie a proper relationship with his daughter.
Bella thanked Leah when she handed her a mug of coffee, then took a few moments to look at the photos that lined the wall behind the table before sitting down. "No thank you, I already ate," she said when Leah offered to heat her up a plate.
Leah sat across from her and sighed with happiness at her first sip of coffee. She'd just picked up her fork when Bella's quiet voice broke the slightly uncomfortable silence.
"You love him."
Leah looked up and saw Bella was looking at a photo of Charlie playing catch with her and Seth on the beach. "Yes. Very much."
Bella nodded and sighed as she looked at the wolf. "I've felt… awkward my whole life. I've never been good in social situations, and it made me uncomfortable with having my picture taken. The only photos my dad has of me are school pictures, which are a whole other level of awkward, and I've wished more than once that he'd take them down."
Leah swallowed her bite and wiped her mouth before answering. "It's no secret that I blame you for a lot when it comes to Charlie, but the picture thing isn't one of them. School pictures are universally terrible, and you'll notice there isn't a single one on display here. Seth and I refused to let my mom put them out," she answered with a little laugh. "But more than that, it wasn't your job to send Charlie pictures of you as a kid. That was Renee's responsibility. Does he wish he had more photos of you from your visits with him? Absolutely. But those visits were always short and the vast majority of your time was spent with your mom. She should have made sure your dad had pictures of you growing up."
Bella nodded but took a minute to answer. "I love Renee, but she wasn't always the greatest mother. She didn't always remember to do typical mom things."
"Is that why you're such a good cook?" Leah asked curiously, trying her damnedest to be civil. She didn't know a lot about Renee, Charlie made a point to not speak badly about his ex-wife, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like the woman if she ever met her. From the little she did know, she thought Bella had probably learned her selfishness from her mother. "Because this is seriously good. Like heaven-level delicious," she added, figuring the compliment wouldn't hurt her. It was true, after all.
"Thank you," Bella laughed. "And yeah, my mom was pretty useless in the kitchen. I got tired of frozen pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so I found some cookbooks at the library and taught myself to cook," she explained. "It started with just wanting proper home-cooked meals that were easy enough for a kid to make, but I ended up really enjoying it. When I moved in with my dad, I took over cooking for him, too. He's just as hopeless in the kitchen as she is."
Leah gave her a little bit of a weird look. "Charlie's not the greatest cook out there, but you do know he managed to feed himself for seventeen years on his own, right?" she asked. When Bella looked at her with a little bit of surprise, Leah shook her head and fought to stifle a smile at her sneaky uncle and a scowl at the daughter who didn't have time for him. Bella had been living in Forks for over a year and she still didn't know her father at all. "If I had to guess, I'd say he probably downplayed his ability. If you're the one cooking dinner for the two of you, that means he gets at least a little bit of time with you every day."
Bella looked at her to see if she was just coming up with another way to get in a dig at her selfishness, but she saw Leah was being sincere. She looked a little annoyed, but she also looked like she was trying not to smile. It was a weird combination, to be honest.
"Honestly? Knowing you cook this well, if I was Charlie, I'd probably tell you I was useless in the kitchen too if it meant I got to eat like this every night."
Bella smiled a little at the compliment. She liked cooking and her dad was always appreciative and praised her skill, but she didn't often get a chance to cook for other people. She had no other relatives and very few friends, and the people she spent the most time with were vampires who didn't eat. It felt good to know someone else enjoyed her cooking, and it meant even more that it was someone who didn't like her all that much. Similar to Jasper and Rosalie, Leah didn't strike her as someone who threw out compliments she didn't mean.
Still, Bella was just as awkward with compliments as she was with photos, so she changed the subject. "How are you doing with Jasper being gone?"
Leah internally rolled her eyes but kept her expression neutral. She wasn't like Bella, she wasn't going to completely fall apart just because Jasper had left town for a few days. She knew from some of the other Cullens that Bella panicked a little when Edward had to go hunt. "I'm fine. I'm worried, but that's less because he's not here and more because of why he's gone. But it hasn't even been twelve hours and I've been on patrol all day. I haven't had time to miss him yet."
"And it doesn't bother you that the woman he's looking for is... sort of an ex?" Bella asked, not entirely sure how to describe what Maria was to Jasper.
Leah took a deep breath to keep from snapping at her. "Maria is a lot of things, but I'm not sure 'Jasper's ex' is the most notable thing about her or the thing that causes me the most worry. Don't forget, Peter is also an 'ex' but I don't have any problem with Jasper spending time with him. They could spend twenty-three hours of every day together and all I'd feel was happy Jasper was around someone who loved him," she answered, trying to keep her voice even. "If you're asking if I'm afraid Jasper is going to see her and decide they should hop back into bed together, the answer is no. I know exactly how Jasper feels about me and I know exactly how he feels about Maria. She may be a general threat, but she's not a threat to our relationship."
Bella couldn't help wishing she had that much confidence in her own relationship. Edward didn't even have any ex-girlfriends to worry about, but she was always a little bit afraid he'd find someone better than her.
Leah looked at the time and saw she needed to get a move on, so she finished the last few bites on her plate and then took it to the sink to wash. "I'm not trying to be rude and shove you out the door, but I'm meeting Charlotte in fifteen minutes and I don't want to be late," she told Bella while she dried her dishes. "Thank you for this. It was really thoughtful of you and I know my mom will appreciate it."
Bella got up and handed Leah her empty mug. "I'm glad I could help."
Leah started walking her to the door but then she hesitated a moment and grudgingly took a short detour. She pulled a photo album from the bottom shelf of the bookcase and took out a picture, which she handed to Bella. "I don't have a frame for it, but if you ask your dad, I know he'll be happy to swap it with one of your school pictures."
Bella looked at her with surprise and then laughed a little when she looked at the photo. It was of Charlie, Bella, Leah, and Harry, and Bella and Leah looked about three and four. Leah was splashing around in a tide pool with her dad standing behind her laughing, while a more cautious Bella was sitting at the edge peering curiously into the water with her dad's hands holding her steady so she didn't topple in face-first.
"Thank you. This is great."
Leah just nodded and led her back to the door. "I know Charlie got you a camera for your birthday, so if you want him to take down the rest of those school photos, maybe use it take some pictures he can replace them with."
As Bella got in her truck and drove home, she remembered that Edward and Charlie had made a plan for the three of them to watch a baseball game together. Thinking she might be less awkward with candid shots than posed photos, she made a mental note to give Edward her camera to try and capture some pictures of her and her dad. Not only would it be a good way to get those terrible school photos off the mantle, but maybe they'd be a reminder of happier times for her dad after she had to leave him behind.
Alice had, for the most part, accepted that Jasper's connection to Leah meant she was flying blind nearly all the time. The further she and Jasper got from Forks and the wolf pack, the more she was bombarded with visions, and the more she wondered how the hell she'd managed for a century. It was like her mind was making up for lost time and she was being pulled into the future every five minutes.
Most of what she was seeing weren't even things that triggered visions in the past, and when she was sucked away from the present to see that Carlisle and Esme had some quality alone time in their futures, she huffed and muttered under her breath that she missed the wolves.
Jasper, feeling her exasperation and revulsion, smiled as he looked at her. "Who?"
"Carlisle and Esme," she grumbled, making Jasper laugh.
"Hey, at least they have a healthy sex life after a century together. That's something to aspire to, right?"
"And your sex life?" Alice asked him with a faux-innocent smile.
Jasper laughed and looked at her a little incredulously. "Do you honestly think I'd have sex with my mate for the first time and not tell you about it?"
"I don't know, isn't there some 'kiss and don't tell' rule?"
"I'm pretty sure the phrase is actually 'kiss and tell'," Jasper laughed. "You know everything about me and I've never kept anything from you before," he shrugged. "I'd maybe ask her first if she minded if I kissed and told, but we both know she'll immediately blab to Paul about it so I can't imagine she'd care if I blab to you."
Alice just nodded, knowing he was right. Paul and Leah may not have been friends as long as she'd been friends with Jasper, but the dynamic between the two of them was strikingly similar.
"Our relationship is still so new, and sometimes it's not easy to reconcile my heart and my head," Jasper admitted quietly. "Mate bonds, imprint bonds… they're so strong and they lock into place so quickly. It's too easy to mistake that for love at first sight, but it's not love. How could it be when you don't know a thing about the person at the other end of that bond? Look at Edward and Bella. They went from zero to sixty and immediately started declaring their undying love for each other. They had a lot of feelings back then, but genuine love wasn't one of them. Curiosity? Sure. Attraction? Yes. Infatuation? Absolutely. Obsession? More than a little. But love? No. Not in the beginning. They didn't take any time to get to know each other and grow comfortable with each other and we've all watched the fallout from that over the last year and seen them struggle on a daily basis. I don't want to make the same mistake with Leah."
Alice shook her head and was quick to reassure him. "You guys are nothing like Edward and Bella. Not only are your personalities miles apart, but your relationship is far more similar to Carlisle and Esme's, and Emmett and Rosalie's in their early days. They may have known they were mates, but trust didn't just automatically come in a single lightning bolt moment for Esme and Rosalie. That took a little time, so they got to know each other slowly instead of just jumping in head first. And like you said, you can't love someone if you don't know them."
"It's a little bit of a mind-fuck, to be honest," Jasper added. "I know I'll never love anyone else now that I've met her. I know I'll be with her for the rest of my days. That commitment, that rock solid future, is already there. And when that commitment comes before love, it creates a weird dissonance between my head and my heart," he said, trying to find the right words to express how he felt, but feeling like he still wasn't explaining it correctly.
Alice opened her mouth to answer but then stopped in her tracks when she was pulled into the vision she'd been trying to will into existence for weeks. Feeling the sharp shift in her emotions, Jasper just stood beside her, silent and still, not wanting to do anything that might distract her from whatever she was seeing.
It wasn't a long vision, and Alice blinked herself back into the present in under half a minute. "That…" she trailed off and shook her head. "I don't understand what that was."
"You saw Maria?" he asked.
Alice nodded, replaying the vision to try and figure out what exactly Maria wanted from Jasper. "The only thing I can say with any confidence is that we'll find her if we continue on our current path."
Jasper's chest tightened a little. As much as he knew they needed to find Maria before she showed up in Washington, he still wasn't all that keen to come face to face with her. He wasn't afraid of her, but the idea of seeing her again after seventy years was definitely a little unsettling. "Did she say anything?"
Alice nodded again. "She warns us about Victoria and explains how they met and the conversation they had."
"And?" Jasper asked when she didn't say anything else but knowing she'd seen more than that.
Alice looked up at him a little nervously. "She asks about Peter and Charlotte."
Jasper had to take a second to swallow back a growl. "Why?"
"I don't know," Alice answered after searching the future again to try and get even a sliver of additional information. Any clue that might give her a better idea of what Maria was up to. "I'm sorry, but I don't know," she repeated.
Jasper immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders to reassure her that he wasn't upset with her. He knew better than anyone that Alice couldn't always see whatever she was looking for. Unlike Edward, who got angry when she couldn't see every little thing about Bella, Jasper knew Alice wasn't omniscient and he never expected her to be.
"What color are her eyes?"
"Red," she answered immediately.
Jasper felt a small measure of relief that Maria wasn't angry and hostile straight out of the gate. "Does she ask about the Cullens?"
Alice shook her head. "I can't say definitively that she doesn't, but just going off the little I can see, the only time she mentions them is when she tells us about Victoria."
Jasper forced himself to switch gears, focusing on strategy and tactics rather than on what his sire wanted with two of the people he loved most in the world. "The further south we go, the more open the landscape will be. Can you see any path where we can intercept her where we have the cover of trees?"
Alice took another minute to think about what she knew of Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. "We should definitely skirt around Nevada," she said eventually. She pictured a map in her mind and then searched the future again. "Our best chance is if we cut east into Idaho. But we'll have to be careful because there's more than one reservation along that route that I'd prefer we avoid."
"Really?" Jasper asked in surprise. When Alice looked at him with an amused smile, he shook his head and laughed. "I'm not surprised there are reservations, I'm surprised there might be other shapeshifters."
"I can't be sure," Alice shrugged. "Our futures don't disappear or anything, but if the Quileutes have protectors, who's to say other tribes don't have similar legends or similar abilities?"
Jasper nodded. "Better to just keep a respectful distance," he agreed. "Maybe Leah and I can do some traveling in the future. You know it's hard on her being the lone girl in the pack, so how great would it be if she could meet another female protector?"
Alice agreed that it might do Leah some good. When she'd first phased, she'd been made to feel like fate had made a mistake by making her a wolf by some of her pack mates. Not by all of them, not even by most of them, but even just one or two people believing you're a weird freak of nature can take an emotional toll.
"Speak of the devil," Alice said just before Jasper's phone chimed in his pocket, and he pulled it out and smiled when he saw it was a text from Leah.
Fix your hair, you look like shit.
Almost immediately, it chimed a second time.
Sorry, my fingers slipped. I meant to type you look hot. Be safe. x
Alice just smiled when Jasper started laughing, then laughed with him when he showed her the texts. "Your hair does always get a little wild when you're running," she said, reaching up to pluck a leaf from one of his loose curls. "See?" she laughed.
Jasper just shrugged with a smile. There was no taming his hair, and when Rosalie had given it her best effort with half a bottle of gel in the '80s, he'd looked completely ridiculous and immediately washed it out.
"Come on," he said, pulling Alice's hand to get her to start running again. "The sooner we find Maria, the sooner we can get back home."
Twelve hours later, Jasper and Alice were standing on a branch of the tallest tree they could find. The sun still hadn't risen, which was a good thing. While there were clusters of trees dotted here and there, there were vast areas of open space in between them, and remaining hidden during the day was going to be harder.
The two of them were holding hands to make communicating silently easier, and when Alice squeezed his hand, Jasper pushed his gift out as far as he could. It took a few seconds, but eventually he found the emotional signature that was still so familiar to him even after all the decades that had passed since he'd seen her. He stayed laser-focused and started peeling back the layers to ensure he didn't miss even the tiniest thing.
He frowned and looked at Alice, not entirely sure how to translate everything he was reading. The two of them passed emotions back and forth for a few moments and then Alice shook her head and shrugged. She still didn't know why Maria was interested in Peter and Charlotte.
As Maria got closer to where they were waiting, she slowed down and eventually came to a stop about twenty feet away. She stood still for a moment, only her eyes moving as she scanned the area, and then she looked up into the trees and immediately zeroed in on Jasper. Both he and Alice noted her red eyes.
Maria stood perfectly still as she looked at Jasper for a few long moments, her emotions fluctuating too quickly for Jasper to get a good grasp on them.
"Major."
Jasper bit back a growl. He wasn't her Major anymore, he hadn't been since he walked away in 1938. "Maria," was all he said. Maria's eyes moved to Alice and her curiosity spiked, then spiked further when she saw the two of them were holding hands. Jasper had to bite back another growl, not at all happy with Maria's interest in his closest companion. Alice already had Aro intrigued by her gift and Jasper didn't like feeling that same intrigue in his sire.
"Hello, Maria," Alice said calmly, gently squeezing Jasper's hand to keep him from saying anything. She'd felt the spike of anger and protectiveness in him and the last thing they needed was for Maria to react to Jasper's anger and become hostile before they could even start a conversation.
Maria cocked her head to the side as she looked at the tiny vampire. "Alice, was it?"
Alice just nodded, though she and Jasper both had to fight against the impulse to roll their eyes. Maria knew perfectly well who Alice was.
"I'm assuming by this ambush that the rumors I've heard about your gift haven't been exaggerated?" Maria asked her.
"Ambush?" Jasper said, not entirely successful at fighting an amused smile. "Surely you know an ambush when you see one. We simply found you before you found us. So. What is it I can do for you, Maria?"
Maria eyed the two of them for a moment before nodding in the direction of the tree they were perched in. "May I come up?" she asked. When Jasper just stared at her without answering, she waved her hand at the ground in front of her. "Or you could come down here. There's no reason we can't sit and have a civilized discussion."
Jasper waited for Alice to quickly scan the future, and after she squeezed his hand again and sent him her acceptance, the two of them dropped to the ground. They stayed where they were, though, keeping a little bit of distance between them and the devil from the south.
"I didn't come for a fight, Major," Maria said with an irritated sigh when she realized they weren't coming any closer.
Jasper's eyes hardened a little as he looked at her, but it was Alice who answered. "Weren't you the one who taught him to be cautious. To always stay vigilant? To never let his guard down?"
Maria's eyes darkened as she glared at her. "Don't presume that you know me," she snapped. "Life in the south is nothing like the privileged world you inhabit."
Jasper sent Alice a hefty dose of caution as he felt Maria's anger rising, but she had no intention of keeping quiet. She'd kept quiet in 1950 because their entire family was present and she didn't want to risk antagonizing Maria, but out there it was only the three of them. Being so far from the wolves, Alice's visions were coming fast and furious, and she and Jasper had the upper hand.
"Don't presume that you know me," Alice said, trying to keep her voice steady to not betray her level of anger. "I've been seeing Jasper since the moment I woke up 1920," she told her, smiling internally at Maria's obvious surprise. "Yes, that means I had eyes on your camp for nearly twenty years. I didn't spend those twenty years as part of a 'privileged world' with the Cullens, I spent them alone, which gave me an awful lot of free time. Just think about all the things I've seen."
Jasper's eyes narrowed as he felt Maria's shifting emotions. There was a flash of rage, though there was also the barest undercurrent of caution. Maria wasn't a stupid woman, so she didn't miss Alice's unspoken warning that she'd learned to fight by watching Jasper train the newborns. But she almost immediately took her rage and forcefully shoved it aside, trying to keep herself calm.
After seventy-five long years with Maria, Jasper knew she wanted something from him, he just didn't know what it was.
Maria stared off into the distance for a moment to wrangle her anger to a more manageable level so Jasper would believe she wasn't a threat. She knew it wasn't going to be easy to gain his help, and knew gaining his trust was an impossibility. It was one of the reasons she hadn't made any decisions about what she would do when she found him. Yes, she wanted to keep Alice blind, but she also knew she was going to have to feel out her former second in command before knowing how to proceed. She hadn't anticipated Alice's protectiveness of Jasper, and that she was the one Maria would have to tread lightly with.
Once she felt sufficiently calm, or at least as calm as she was currently capable of being, she looked back to Jasper. "I came to warn you," she told him.
Jasper stayed silent and just steadily held her gaze. There was more, and he wasn't prepared to say anything until he knew what it was. Especially if it had anything to do with Peter and Charlotte. Jasper would walk into a fire before he let Maria get her talons in either of them.
Maria gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the screaming inside her that told her to never show any weakness. "And I need your help," she admitted. "I'll tell you what I know if you agree to hear me out."
Jasper wasn't at all surprised that Maria was trying to make a deal with him. She never offered anything without expecting something in return. Curiously, she seemed unaware that they already knew about her meeting with Victoria and that they knew Victoria's plan.
"Go ahead," Jasper nodded. "I'm listening."