Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the collective works of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga

A Great Day to Stay in Bed

Jasper had stepped out of the shower when his mobile chirped, alerting him of a text message. Towelling off his hair, he swiped the device off the bathroom counter and wandered into his room. Alice had laid out clothes for him to wear, a note placed on top instructing him that he was not to change the outfit. He was surprised that she had bothered. Alice had been having confusing visions and would spend hours in a trance, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. He had been uneasy when she first mentioned them almost a week ago, which had morphed into full-blown concern when she started skipping school so that she could focus on them.

He glanced over his shoulder towards their shared bathroom, despite knowing that her door was still firmly shut. For her to take the time to pick out clothes for him to wear (something she knew he didn't like her to do) when she was already forgoing her much beloved human charade made his skin prickle with anxiety. Or maybe it was Alice's anxiety he was picking up on. He rolled his shoulders out and began dressing with his free hand, trying to read the latest text message from Louisa.

Louisa: I just wanted to let you know that if I die today, I appreciate you very much

It was difficult to tell if Louisa was serious or this was one of her fatalistic, Gen Z jokes. Before he had the chance to reply to this, his mobile buzzed again, and another text popped up on the screen.

Louisa: and I think you've got a glorious ass.

A joke then.

Much appreciated. Why do you have doubts about your continued existence?

Dottie's driving us to school today.

My condolences. I'll prepare a beautiful eulogy for your funeral.

She responded with a series of emojis, few of which he knew how to decipher. Rolling his eyes at his mate's antics, he tucked his phone into his pocket and picked up his backpack, ready for school, despite his unwillingness. The only reason he attended was because Alice insisted. And Louisa.

God, he hoped he wouldn't have to go anymore after she was changed.

He exited his room and started down the hall, only to pause when he reached Alice's room. Despite her desertion, he still felt loyalty to his best friend, and with the amount of angst pouring out of her room, it hardly felt right to leave her. He pushed open the door without bothering to knock (it's not like she had any concept of boundaries anyway) and strode into the room, dodging a pile of fabric she had left lying on the floor- her latest project which she had abandoned when the visions first started. Alice was sitting on her fainting couch, knees pulled up to her chest, and wrapped so tightly in a fuzzy blanket that only her face was visible.

"I can dress my self, you know," he said, coming to a stop next to her.

"It's important. You are wearing that today," Alice said, her eyes screwed shut. "I can't figure out… it's all so confusing."

He sighed and sat down next to her, pulling her into his lap, her head tucked under his chin. They sat in silence as she browsed the future and he ran his hand through her short hair, sending her waves of tranquillity. She sighed, the tension leaving her body, and she leaned her head against his arm.

"There's been a decision," she whispered, her voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt. "But I don't know who's made it. There is… I think it has something to do with a box?"

"A present?" He had been toying with the idea of giving Louisa a birthday present, though he assumed she wouldn't want to actually celebrate the event. Perhaps that was what Alice was seeing?

"I don't know," she sighed, rubbing her face against him. "It's still undecided when it will be sent."

A pang of frustration rushed through her which he quelled almost instantly. He could hear Rosalie bitching at him downstairs to hurry up, which Edward attempted to cover up with a spritely tune on his piano.

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No!" her eyes snapped open and she all but glared up at him. "You need to stay with Louisa."

"I can't leave you like this, Ali," he insisted, pulling her into a tighter hug.

"No, you've got to stay with Louisa. You need to ride home with her today."

His hand stilled and he looked down at her in concern. "Because Dorothy is driving today?"

She pulled back to look at him in confusion. "What no—" Her eyes went unfocused for a moment. "Damn, she's dreadful at driving. Maybe."

Edward snickered in amusement, the music below halting and Rosalie took advantage of the silence to resume her yelling.

Jasper sighed and pressed a kiss to the top of Alice's head before sliding her back onto the sofa. "You'll message me if you need me?"

She patted him on the cheek, her eyes already glassy and unfocused, and gave him a noncommittal hum of agreement. Jasper rolled his eyes and picked up his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder before he walked out the door. His siblings were waiting in the Volvo by the time he made it down the stairs, and he slid in next to Rose in the backseat. The moment the door was closed, Edward threw the car in reverse and took off down the long, winding drive.

"Hot date, Ed?" Emmett asked when the speedometer inched past one-twenty miles.

Edward let out a manic laugh. "Oh, I've got to see this." Though he didn't care to elaborate on what 'this' was.

They made it to Forks High in record time, Edward parking a spot far closer to the school than usual. Whatever had him so excited was apparently more important than the scratches his car would receive. For lack of a better thing to do, the four remained sitting in the car, watching as students began to trickle in. Edward refused to take his eyes off the road, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel. Jasper rolled his eyes, ignoring the youngest brother in favour of reading the barrage of status updates Louisa was sending him.

we left half an hour ago.

We live ten minutes away.

we haven't gone over fifteen miles an hour the entire drive.

dad says I need to be supportive and positive

I'm positive I'm going to die

After informing his mate that she was ridiculous, he put he looked up at the youngest Cullen, who hadn't lost the deranged smile from before. "Boy, you're grinning like a possum with a sweet potato?" Jasper noted. "What's got you so excited?"

Edward responded by pointing in excitement down the road where a silver Prius appeared, alternating between rolling and jerking halts. Jasper could feel Louisa's anxiety from where he sat.

"You're doing great, Dot," Louisa said, though her voice gave away her terror. The Collins' car inched into the car park, garnering curious stares from the arriving students. "Let's not ride the brakes, though, alright?"

Edward slapped his thigh and began to bounce in his seat.

"Holy shit!" Louisa screeched, her pulse skyrocketing. And for good reason too: Dorothy had hit a student crossing the lot. Not enough to hurt him or even to knock him down, but definitely enough to surprise him and cause him to drop the cup of coffee he was carrying. The boy looked back and forth between his coffee and the car a few times, trying to make sense of what happened, while inside the Prius, Louisa began yelling at her sister for her carelessness. Dorothy's face had lost all colour and she was staring, stricken at the boy she had almost ploughed down.

"Seriously, Edward," Rosalie snapped, pulling out a book from her backpack. "You dragged us here for early for that?"

Edward held up a hand to quiet her, never taking his eyes of the Collins sisters. "Wait for it."

The boy who Dorothy had hit seemed to make up his mind on how to react. Picking up his empty coffee cup off the ground, he circled around the side of the Prius and tapped on the driver side window, indicating for Dorothy to roll down the window. She did so, her eyes wide.

"Dorothy, right?" When she nodded, her hands, the boy continued. "There are better ways to hit on me, you know."

They didn't get to hear her response because Edward broke out into delighted cackles.

Jasper sighed and got out of the car, ready to calm his mate down before she had a stroke. He sent a wave of calm to the girls as he approached, listening with amusement to Louisa try and talk her sister through parking. There was a lot more profanity than Mr Collins had been expecting when he told his eldest child to be supportive.

"Morning," he drawled, opening the passenger side door before Louisa had the chance to. She gave him a wan smile and reached out with a shaking hand to take his own. He calmed her, slowing down her heart rate to a less concerning level and helped her out of the car. "Difficult drive?"

Louisa threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "I'm alive," she said after pulling away. "And I can't wait until I'm cleared to drive."

Jasper hummed and pressed another kiss to her lips. "I'll ride back with you after school," he promised. He bent down to peer into the car. Dottie was still frozen in her seat, hands gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white. "Was that your first time driving, Dorothy?"

"Since the accident," Louisa whispered in his ear when her sister didn't respond. She pulled away to grab her backpack from the backseat. "We just need more confidence. Right, babe?"

Again Dorothy didn't respond. Jasper flooded the little Collins' veins with tranquillity and watched as the girl's muscles relaxed and her death grip on the steering wheel loosened. She nodded slowly before grabbing her own backpack and getting out of the car. Without a word, she placed the keys on the top of the Prius and walked away.

"Well, that could have gone worse," Louisa said after Dorothy disappeared into a crowd of students. She locked up the car before threading her fingers through Jasper's leading him in the direction of homeroom. "Dad and Dottie had a massive fight about it, not long after you left. She's been refusing to drive since Mum died. Dad hasn't had the heart to force her, but with me out of commission and him working, we don't have much of a choice."

"I could drive," he offered, holding the door to the school for her.

She gave him a sweet smile and raised their joined hands to kiss the back of his hand. "That's a thoughtful offer, but she needs to learn. If you want to give her driving lessons, though, I wouldn't be opposed." She shooed a couple that was making out on her locker away before entering the combination and tossing in her lunch bag. "What's wrong with Alice?"

Jasper wasn't even surprised by her question at this point. "Visions," he said quiet enough so that the group of students passing by couldn't hear. "We can talk about it later."

A locker slammed shut nearby at the same time the warning bell rang. Louisa jumped in surprise, a spike a pain shooting through her. Jasper stepped closer, his hands moving to rest on her hips, shielding her body from the throng of their peers.

"It will be alright," he murmured into her hair. "You're safe."

"There are be so many people," Louisa whispered, turning around to bury her face in his chest. "I can't do this."

"Of course you can," he replied, rubbing his hands along her ribs. "That's why we spent last week reorganising your library."

Louisa gave him a weak smile, raising up on to her toes to peck his lips. His reassurance was accompanied by a smile of his own, something that Louisa focused throughout her morning classes, especially when the presence of others became too oppressive. Even still, by the end of history, she knew far more about Emmett's night than she would have liked, and though she was excused from participating in gym class, she learned the impressive scope of Coach Clapp's k-drama obsession without having to exchange more than a few words with the man.

Although, she had to admit that Hello, My Twenties sounded pretty good.

New Netflix recommendations aside, Louisa found herself collapsing into Jasper's waiting arms the moment she stepped out of the gymnasium. She allowed him to lead her through the crowds of hungry students and sit her on a bench outside of the school library. He produced her lunch bag from his backpack, handing it to her before sitting next to her, pulling out a book to read while she ate.

Louisa found herself appreciative of his thoughtfulness as well as the silence and rested her head on his shoulder while she munched on carrot sticks. He shifted the book away when he realised she was trying to read it, giving her an unimpressed look before pressing a kiss to her temple. After putting the book away to remove any temptation on Louisa's part, Jasper informed her of Alice's visions (at least, what little he knew). While Louisa couldn't offer any insight into the matter, she enjoyed exchanging theories with him. The topic carried them through most of lunch, at least until the sound of footsteps approaching captured their attention. Louisa looked up just in time to see Edward wandering around the corner, her sister in tow.

"What happened?" Louisa asked, sitting up straight at the sight of her sister's tear-stained face.

"Tommy Garner was being an insufferable ass," Edward supplied, guiding Dottie to sit next to her on the bench. With Dottie taken care of, he backed up so that he could lean against the far wall, his eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Louisa pulled her sister into a hug, giving Jasper a smile when she felt a blanket of calm settle around them. "What's he done this time?"

"It's stupid," Dottie said after a shuddering breath. "It's not that big of a deal."

"I wouldn't say that," Edward said, eyes still fixed on the ceiling. While Louisa didn't interact with the youngest Cullen as much as she did with his other siblings, she recognised the gesture as Edward's weird way to give them privacy— something that was difficult to do with this mind-reading and impressive hearing. "He was quite rude."

Louisa's brow furrowed in confusion. If Edward, aloof as he tended to be, was getting himself involved in something, it had to be bad. "I'm going to find out," she told her sister. It was fortunate that Jasper's influence hadn't let up, or Louisa would have been out of her seat, ready to track down the little shit and beat him to a pulp. Even still, she had to take a calming breath before she continued. "It would be better if you told me now."

Dottie pulled away and buried her face in her hands. "He said 'like mother, like daughter,'" Dottie said. "Because I almost killed Noah this morning."

Louisa was out of her seat before she realised she had moved, blood pounding in her ears and a rage like she had never felt before coursing through her body. No, a baseball bat would be far more poetic for Tommy Gardner. She'd start with his legs first, that way he wouldn't be able to run. Break his jaw so she wouldn't have to listen to his screaming. She would castrate him for good measure— the world didn't need his spawn in it. Then crush his pelvis for no other reason but because it would hurt like hell. She'd have to wait for the rib cage, though. It wouldn't do to have him suffocate before she was through.

An arm wrapped around her waist before she got too far, spinning her around and pushing her against a wall. Jasper trapped her between the wall and his body, standing so close that she could see nothing but the buttons on his shirt. His hands gripped her arms, his fingers wrapping all the way around her bicep in an ironclad grip. "Don't be foolish," he hissed, tilting his head down speak into her ear.

For a fleeting second, Louisa thought he was telling her not to be angry, which only served to make her angrier. That was her mother, her dead mother who had been killed in a car crash, which Garner was talking about. She had every right to be angry. Especially when Garner was using her death as a weapon.

Jasper's lips touched the shell of her ear and in an instant, her thoughts became sharper, less frenzied. Through the haze of her fury came a moment of clarity. He wasn't telling her not to react. He was telling her to wait. If he hadn't wanted her to retaliate, he would have taken away her anger. But he hadn't. She could still feel it, burning icy-hot through her veins. No, he was telling her to wait. If she reacted now, ran off with a half-baked idea of murder with a blunt force object, she would be sloppy, leave too much evidence behind. If she wanted revenge, she needed to enact it with a level head. Something smarter, harder to trace back to her. It would be much more satisfying, watching Tommy Garner snap mentally, rather than feeling his bones snap beneath her. Though that did hold quite a bit of appeal.

More coldness ran through her veins under Jasper's influence. No. She needed to take her time with this. Tommy Garner would regret having harassed her sister. Louisa sagged forward, resting her head on her mate's chest, breathing in his scent. She still wanted to smash something, but she was decidedly less homicidal. He pressed his lips to her temple and she had to fight the urge not to pull his lips to hers in an aggressive kiss.

"He's terrified of spiders," she said, at last, pulling away from her boyfriend so she could see Dot. "I can fill his backpack with them. His locker too."

"Do you think you could get a jar of them into his bedroom by climbing through his window?" Dottie asked, her voice weak. She wasn't sure what she had just witnessed, but it made her skin crawl. She knew Louisa had a temper, but that was something to the extreme. And then there was the way Jasper had… dealt with it. Even then, she wasn't sure if she would rather have an apocalyptic Louisa or the cold, detached Louisa who was standing in front of her. She glanced over at Edward, whose already pale face had gone so colourless that his lips had bleached white. He was watching her sister with a look of horror on his face as if he didn't seem to know how to react to Louisa's sudden change either.

"I'm not one for heights," she replied with a huff. "Besides, they keep the key to the house inside the window box to the right of the front door."

Dottie gave a watery chuckle at that. "As long as they aren't poisonous."

"Of course not," Louisa replied. They'd be venomous. She made a mental note to look up where she could find enough spiders to suit her needs. The bell signalling the end of lunch hour rang and Louisa sighed heavily, rubbing a hand across her face. "We can talk about this more when we get home."

Dottie nodded and took off towards her next class. Edward lingered for a little longer, looking slightly nauseated, having no doubt heard her thoughts.

Then he should butt out of her head, she thought, irritated, as she grabbed her backpack where it lay abandoned on the bench. Jasper's hand wrapped around hers for a moment before she ducked under his arm, resting her head against his shoulder. He bent down and nipped at Louisa's ear, distracting her long enough to steal her backpack, slinging it over his shoulder before she had the opportunity to protest.

Rosalie seemed to understand something was wrong when the two entered into Spanish and wordlessly offered her chair to Louisa so that she could sit closer to Jasper. Louisa tried to give her a friend a smile of appreciation though it came out more like a grimace. The class was unremarkable in the fact that nothing interesting happened, though Louisa guessed that had to do with Jasper's influence, as Mrs Goff would have objected to their seating arrangement on a normal day. After Spanish, Jasper walked her to Calculus, pressing a swift kiss to her jaw, a trend that continued until school finished for the day, much to her relief. And perhaps Tommy Garner's life.

The drive home was much smoother than the drive to school. Jasper rode shotgun, guiding Dottie through the motions of operating a car, his gift keeping the anxiety levels of the Collins sisters down to a manageable level. Without the all-consuming fear of dying in a crash, Dottie even managed to drive the speed limit at one point. Louisa dozed in the backseat, relieved that the day was over and surprised that she had made it through the entire day. She had a splitting headache, though she couldn't be sure if it was because of her concussion, interacting with too many people, or her anger.

Dottie turned onto their street at a snail's pace, passing by Chief Swan's house, his cruiser parked in the driveway. Their house appeared a moment later, icicles hanging off the front porch and a family of misshapen snowmen sitting on the front lawn.

"Did you order something?" Louisa asked, noticing a brown box sitting on the stoop. It was a bit too early for the mail, but maybe it hadn't been delivered with the USPS?

"Not that I can think of," Dottie replied, pulling into the driveway and parking the car.

"Maybe it's your birthday present?" Louisa supplied, unbuckling her safety belt and sliding out of the car when it came to a full stop. Dot's sixteenth birthday was less than a month away and Louisa could only hope that Dot's sweet sixteen was better than her own had been.

Louisa scurried up the front path as quick as she dared, dodging patches of ice that refused to melt despite the copious amount of salt her father had applied on top of it. The air had a humid, frigid quality that promised more snow in the near future and clouds of condensation trailed in the air as she hurried towards the warmth of the house. Hot tea and a heated blanket crossed her mind, though, knowing Jasper, he would probably end up stealing the blanket from her. She skipped up the steps and bent down to pick up the box, calling for Dottie, who had the house keys, to hurry up. She needed to stop meddling. It was her fault. She just couldn't leave it alone.

Louisa froze. Where had that come from? She glanced down at the box in her hands. Unmarked, without postage or even a return address. Where had this come from? It had to have been hand delivered, but by whom? More curious than before, Louisa brushed passed her sister and into the kitchen, not bothered to take off her snow-covered boots. Digging a pair of scissors out of a drawer, she sliced open the top. And gagged.

Jasper felt Louisa's panic a split second before he heard her vomit into the sink. Not caring if Dorothy saw him moving at an inhuman speed, he was in the kitchen before Louisa had straightened up. He was by her side in an instant, pulling back her hair and turning on the faucet to rinse away the sick. The smell hit him next, the unmistakable, nauseatingly sweet scent of burned flesh, emanating from the package Louisa had brought inside. He inched forward, surveying the box's contents, or more accurately, what was left of it. The charred remains of what appeared to be a crow.

He glanced back at Louisa who was washing her mouth out, taking note of her mental state. He reached out with his power, mentally stroking her, trying to calm her. Only nothing happened. Confused, he stepped towards her, resting his hands on her hips, hoping that the contact would increase his influence. It did nothing but to cause her to jump in surprise and spin around.

"We need to get out of here," she whispered, pupils blown wide.

His brow furrowed. "Why?"

"He's going to blow us up."

He glanced between the package and his mate in confusion. Had she picked up on something? Was there something besides a dead bird in the package? Had someone sent the Collins' a bomb? He stepped closer to the box, inhaling and trying to detect the presence of chemicals beneath the scent of death. Louisa grabbed him before he got too close and pulled him back.

"No, don't get too close," she hissed, her panic increasing. "We need to get out of here before he comes back."

"Who?" Jasper asked, not understanding the urgency behind her words. There was nothing else inside the package and certainly not something that could blow them up. "Did you see something?" He reached out again with his gift and tried to calm her but to the same results. It wasn't often his gift didn't work on people. He had noticed that humans on the autism spectrum didn't react well to his influence, and those with schizophrenia rarely saw any benefit from his emotional manipulation, particularly during a psychotic episode. But Louisa didn't have either condition, so why was she suddenly outside his sphere of control? Unless…

"We're going to be next!" she shouted, grabbing him by the wrist and yanking him towards the back door.

… she was suffering from a flashback of some sort. He slipped a handkerchief out of his pocket with one hand and grabbed Louisa around the middle with his free arm, dragging her over to the spice cabinet. It didn't take him long to find the bottle of peppermint extract, which he poured out onto his handkerchief, the cool, sharp scent stinging his sinuses. He guided the handkerchief to her nose and instructed her to breathe deeply. Her fingers clutched at the back of his hand, pressing the cloth closer to her face. Whether it was because the scent of the bird had been replaced or because the peppermint grounded her, Louisa slowly sunk back against Jasper's body as his calming influence, at last, began to relax her.

He glanced back at the charred bird, and to his surprise, he saw that Dorothy was standing at the bench, a look of disgust twisting her features as she peered into the open box. "Don't touch that," he commanded. "We don't know what's in it."

"Well we can't keep it in here," she snapped. "Or else it will just start again." Her eyes darted to her sister, whose legs no longer seemed capable of supporting her.

"This has happened before?"

"Last time it was burned bacon," Dorothy replied. "We don't cook meat often, especially not pork. She says that one smells most like it."

"It?"

"Human flesh," Dottie finished in a whisper.

He almost demanded an explanation to how his mate could possibly know what that smelled like but he stopped when a sudden, horrifying realisation came over him. Louisa wasn't a vegetarian because she disliked the taste of meat or was morally opposed to eating it. It was because it reminded her of what happened in Seattle. He had a vague idea of what had happened from what he had been able to coax out of Louisa, but she had always remained stubbornly silent about that day.

"Do you think it is from him?" he asked, pulling Louisa tighter to his body.

Dorothy shook her head. "He's being held without bail until his trial. They're supposed to notify us if he's released early."

"Go get Chief Swan," Jasper commanded. "I don't know who sent this, but I'm not taking any chances." She bit her lip and sent an anxious look to her sister. "She's staying with me. Go now."

There was a flash of irritation, but the little Collins complied, and a moment later the sound of a slamming door echoed through the house. He half carried his mate into the lounge, pulling her down into his lap after sitting down on the sofa. She collapsed against him like a boneless cat, her hand falling away from her face with a thump. He went to press the handkerchief back to her face but she turned her head, pressing her nose to his neck.

"It was him," Louisa said quietly. "Anna's murderer.

"How do you—?"

"It felt like him," she explained, her warm breath fanning against his cool skin. "He's pissed. He knows we're investigating. It's a warning to leave it alone."

Every fibre of his being wanted to tell her that she should follow the suggestion, but he held his tongue, knowing it would be pointless to argue the matter further. "It hasn't been publicised," he said instead, lifting a hand to run his fingers through her long hair.

"He has to be a local," she whispered. "This is a small town. Even when things should be a secret, people find out about it. He knows now, and he's terrified."

"Does he think you're on to him?" Jasper could hear Dorothy returning with Chief Swan. He hated to press her but he knew that their time for a private conversation was running out.

She shrugged and nuzzled her face against his shoulder. "He thinks we are. Or will be. I'm not sure. I don't want to touch it."

He dipped his head so that he could kiss the spot between her eyebrows. "You don't have to."

The front door opened, bringing Chief Swan and a hesitant Dorothy, who, after showing the man the package, joined them in the lounge. Louisa shifted, sliding out of Jasper's lap, but not before pulling him in for a brief kiss. What followed next was a flurry of all police officers Forks had to offer, who catalogued the box, dusted for fingerprints, and interviewed the three students about the package. Not that there was really much to tell. After all, Louisa could hardly inform them that it had been sent as a warning to stop her from snooping.

But it turned out, she didn't have to. Not even half an hour after the police arrived, the door opened once more and Sergeant Todd entered the house. He walked into the lounge, his gait lacking its usual confidence and swagger, his hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched in on themselves. He dropped into the chair across from the sofa and watched Louisa for a minute, his eyes weary.

"What did he send?" He asked, his voice resigned.

Her head tilted and gave him a confused look. "How did you—"

"What did he send?" he repeated, cutting her off.

"A bird. How did you know?"

"Because," Sergeant Todd said, the freckles that covered his face standing out against his abnormally pale face. "I got the same thing, nine years ago."

"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours." –Wayne Dyer

A/N: Hey there! Surprised? I hope so :) Leave me a review and let me know what you think!