Twilight

Jasper POV

"Ya know, I know the little one, your little pixie friend. She's the only one to ever get away from me." The vampire's voice is a low muse of curiosity as annoyance shines in his eyes. He stalks around the room, the camera in his hand catching every emotion on Bella's face.

"And you haven't changed a bit, sweetheart." James is shaking his head with a low laugh — in disbelief? Shock? Pride? — as the camera pans around, brings him into view. He's smirking as if he knows some kind of secret, and his eyes are dark with intention.

"I'm still pissed about that, by the way. That the cowardly little orderly turned you just to keep you away from me. But as — the fates, destiny, comeuppance, what have you — would have it, we're here again.

"And after I'm finished with Bella here, I've got plans to find you again, sweet Mary Alice Brandon." The vampire grins—

And the room comes to life around us.

"Alice…" I sigh softly and lean over the back of the couch to wrestle the remote away from my heartbroken little wife. "Drop the remote. Now, sugar."

With the change in my tone, the use of that name, she can't ignore my command. The remote falls into my hand, and I wince at the sight of her bitten off, gnarly nails.

Nimbly hopping across the back of the couch, I pull my girl into my lap and hold her sweet face in my hands. "This isn't healthy, darlin'. You've got to let it go."

"Let it go?!" She yanks away from my touch, eyes blazing as she glares at me. "He was the only lead I had to my human life, literally the only person who has any inkling of a clue who I am!"

Though my heart hasn't beat in centuries, it clenches in my chest at the sight, sound, of her pain. I can't take it away, not really, not the way I want to. She has to work through it, heal and, eventually, get over it.

I shake my head with a humorless laugh. "I know you, Alice." Grabbing her chin, I pull her eyes back to me, and hold back the urge to shake her. These past few months have been hell on the both of us, and I hate that it all comes out between us, against each other.

"I'm your husband. I know you best, even better than you know yourself. What that vampire knows is the old you, the human you. There's no telling what you were like back then, Alice. You might not have even liked yourself."

I shrug limply then flash a small smile, "I still would've loved you, but that's beside the point."

Cupping her cheeks, I stroke her skin and gaze deeply into her eyes, ensure she can see the sincerity in my own face. "I love you just as you are. Your family loves you just as you are. You're perfect as you are now, as a vampire, as my mate."

I drop a sweet kiss to her forehead and pull her against my chest. Most of the fight has left her, I think, but I share some peace and strength with her anyway. "Please don't stress yourself out over this, darlin'. Even if it was worth it, which it's not, you can't go back to being a human anyway."

She nuzzles her face into my neck as I tug a blanket over us and rock back and forth. Her little mouth finds my skin, suckles desperate at first before calming to an unconscious motion.

We fall asleep there, lights on, TV off, and tangled together. Until she wakes us both with a scream, jerking out of a nightmare. Again.

And the cycle repeats. Over and over again for a couple of months.

Until I tie her to our bed one night and kiss every inch of her naked body, naming off every little thing that I love about her, physical and non-. Until I fuck her in front of the full length mirror and make her tell me what she loves about herself.

She never questions my love for her again, but I'm sure to remind her regularly anyway. The rest of her energy that isn't spent in bed with me is devoted to vigorous, thorough, and repetitive investigations into her family and human life.

I don't necessarily agree with any of it, but there's no way I'd tell her that. My job is to support her, give her any help that I can if she needs it, and love her unconditionally. The rest is background noise.

And still, she was never truly mine after that, not completely. Parts of her still longed for her humanity. Even though as a human she wouldn't have me, much less know who I was.