A/N: Shoutout and huge thank you to twilightfan778, who's not just all-around wonderful and willing to help out an indecisive writer, but she let me plagiarize her, lol. The line 'He didn't just leave her, he was intent on breaking her' is all her doing. Thank you again:)

Acceptance

When Bella was lying in bed that night, her body exhausted and wanting sleep, her mind was busy thinking more about Leah's earlier question.

Could she forgive Edward for what he'd done?

Bella's response had been that she might have been able to if it was only his reaction to the pregnancy that she was grappling with, but that wasn't his only betrayal. And it wasn't only the additional betrayal of going to tell Charlie that she was pregnant.

Her trust in her husband had been shattered on Isle Esme, and while she'd initially been shocked that he could turn his back on her the way he had on the island and since their return home, she probably shouldn't have been. It wasn't the first time he'd broken her trust so thoroughly. After all, this was the boy who'd left her in the woods the year before with a whole slew of cutting lies, rather than being open and honest about how much the night of her eighteenth birthday had rattled him. He didn't just leave her, he seemed intent on breaking her. He took every single insecurity she had and confirmed that they were all true. He made her believe she wasn't good enough for him.

And not only that, but Edward had also betrayed everyone he claimed to love the previous spring. When he'd believed Bella was dead and decided to use the Volturi to enact his suicide plan, he'd let Aro read him, which meant he showed the telepathic king that the Cullens had broken one of the highest laws in their world. If Aro didn't feel affection for Carlisle, and if he hadn't been interested in Edward and Alice's gifts, the entire family would have been sentenced to death. And yet Edward hadn't given any thought to that. He hadn't considered that his entire family would have been murdered just because he was grieving and acted like a rash, impulsive teen. Precisely like the rash, impulsive teens he looked down on, thinking he was better than.

Not to mention that Alice had just discovered there was a new Quileute pack when the two of them went to Italy to try and save him, which meant Edward had also exposed the wolves to Aro, even if it was indirectly.

Without Edward giving Aro his hand, the kings would know nothing about the Cullens, or Bella, or the pack.

And Edward going to Italy was also the catalyst for Caius deciding it was time to annihilate Carlisle's coven. Without Caius giving Jane, Alec, and Felix the green light to hold off for five days, giving the newborns a chance to fulfill their goal, Victoria and her 'army' could have all been killed by the three guards in Seattle before they even had a chance to come and try to attack the Cullens and kill her.

A quiet knock on her door pulled her from her thoughts, a fact she was grateful for. None of those thoughts were pleasant. "Come in."

Jasper opened the door a crack and peeked his head in. "Want some help?"

"With sleep or my mental state?" Bella laughed, though it came out a little choked.

"Both. Either," Jasper answered with a smile. "But I've been told I'm a pretty good listener, so if you'd like some help that way without me using my gift, I'm happy to listen."

Bella only hesitated for a moment before nodding. One of the upsides of her surprise pregnancy was that she'd moved into the Cullen house full-time, which meant she was spending far more time with the entire family than she ever did before her honeymoon. She'd loved all of the Cullens for a long time, but she was beginning to love them more deeply now that she was finally getting to know all of them even better. Even the slightly thorny ones like Rosalie.

Jasper closed the door behind him and grabbed the armchair from in front of the sliding door and moved it so he could sit next to the bed. When Bella opened her mouth and then closed it again, looking towards the hallway, Jasper smiled a little. "Bedrooms are soundproofed enough that if we talk quietly, we won't be heard. They might catch a little bit if we speak at full volume, vamp hearing is awfully good, but otherwise you should be fine."

Bella let out a little sigh of relief. She wasn't sure she was ready for anyone else in the family to know where her head was. After taking a deep breath or two, Bella said the words that would alter her life forever. They would take the future she'd been planning and turn it to dust.

"I'm not sure I can forgive him," she whispered, ignoring the sting of tears in her eyes. "But if I can't, then what happens to me?" she asked, giving voice to her innermost fear.

Jasper gave her a sympathetic smile and reached for her hand. "If you're asking about your place in the family, I assure you, you have one. You're a Cullen, Bella. And I don't just mean that in the sense that you legally changed your name. You're one of us, and you're one of us with or without Edward," he quietly reassured her. "We all love you, and I was telling your dad the truth earlier. We'd all really like it if you stuck around."

Bella sniffled a laugh and used her other hand to wipe her eyes.

"And I think you'll find that if there was only room for one, we would vote unanimously that you should be that one," he added.

Bella looked at him in surprise. "Like over Edward?"

Jasper nodded. "I obviously can't know for sure what you were thinking about before I knocked on your door, but I have a pretty good idea. And you're not the only one with that particular blend of emotions in the house."

"You guys don't trust him either?" she whispered.

Jasper shrugged. "How can we? You're the most important person to him, so if he was willing to betray you, willing to break your trust in him, how can the rest of us put our trust in him?"

Bella hesitated a moment before sharing what she'd been thinking earlier. "This isn't the first time."

"I know," Jasper nodded. "Him going to the kings the way he did in March… well, he pissed off more than one of us. The Volturi weren't the only means of enacting his suicide plan but he still went to Italy, putting the entire family in danger. It's hard not to doubt the character and loyalty of someone you love when they're willing to let you die."

"And the Cullens are loyal to each other in everything they do," Bella said quietly, repeating Peter's words.

Jasper nodded again. "Most of us are."

Bella knew there was one more part of the equation that she was very purposefully not thinking about, even as it kept nudging at her brain. One thing she'd been too afraid to acknowledge or accept. But could she keep being willfully blind to it? And given the fact that she didn't trust her husband anymore, was there even any reason to keep ignoring it?

"Can I ask you something?" Bella asked Jasper after a few minutes of silence.

He just nodded again, having a pretty good idea what Bella was gearing herself up to say. "Of course."

It took her another minute to force the words out. "Could you have done any of this to Leah?" she whispered, holding her breath.

Jasper just looked at her for a few long moments before shaking his head once. "No."

Bella nodded as she exhaled slowly. "And Peter? Could he do any of this to Charlotte?"

He shook his head again. "No."

"Okay," Bella said on another long exhale. Feeling the baby stir, she started rubbing gentle circles on her stomach. She would not break down now. She had a little one who needed her to be strong. "Does anyone else know?"

Jasper honestly wasn't sure if anyone else knew Bella and Edward weren't mates, although he thought Carlisle might have had some doubts start to creep in when Edward insisted the family leave after Bella's birthday party. "I don't know," he told her. "There's a chance Carlisle has his suspicions but we've never talked about it."

Bella nodded again but she couldn't keep the hurt from welling up inside her. Then her mind made a connection that she hadn't even realized she'd absorbed at the time. It threw a memory at her that she hadn't understood that day.

Edward glared at Leah. "You're awfully judgmental of how Bella treats her father for a girl who feels responsible for killing her own father."

There was a millisecond of shocked silence before the room exploded in a flurry of motion. At the same moment Jasper lunged for Edward, Alice used every bit of her speed to gently move Bella out of the way. And in the blink of an eye, Jasper had Edward pinned to the wall with his hand around his throat, squeezing hard enough that small cracks were forming.

Jasper glared at the telepath, his eyes filled with fury. "You absolute piece of shit. You really want to open this door? You want to use your gift to try and hurt my mate? Be my guest, but don't ever forget what my gift is, Edward," he growled. "I have a hell of a lot more ammunition to make your life an absolute misery and if you don't watch yourself, I'll spill every fucking secret you have."

"You've known all this time?" Bella asked Jasper. Without giving him time to answer, she went on. "That day he blurted out Leah's secret, you told him not to forget what your gift was. That you would spill all of his secrets if he wasn't careful."

Jasper just nodded again. That was what he'd been referring to that day.

"Why did you let him pretend?" she whispered, ignoring the fact that her voice was cracking slightly and her eyes were stinging again.

"Do you want the long answer or the short answer?"

Bella managed a single laugh. "Depends on how long the long answer is."

Jasper smiled at her. "The simple answer is because you loved each other. Why would I speak up when he loved you and you loved him in return? Edward might have been my main consideration in the beginning, only because I didn't know you yet, but why would I want to take away your happiness just because you're not mates? Not all vampires find mates but they can find genuine happiness and true love in a companion that lasts decades. Centuries even."

Bella nodded, knowing that was true. From what she knew about the situation with Maria earlier in the year, her mate had died a long, long time ago but she'd managed to fall in love again. "And the long answer?" she asked after a moment of thought.

"The long answer isn't all that long," Jasper shrugged. "Like I said, the two of you loved each other so it wasn't my place to interfere in that. And Edward's been my brother for an awfully long time and I was glad he was finally getting a shot at love and happiness with a partner. It obviously didn't turn out that way, the two of you seemed to have hurdle after hurdle, and most of them were of your own making," he reminded her, not wanting to offend her but not wanting to lie either. He didn't want Bella to look back at her relationship with rose-colored glasses when the bulk of their relationship had been anything but rosy. The two of them only had a proper partnership, one where they were equals, for just a handful of months. It wasn't until around the time Victoria's newborns came that both she and Edward made a concerted effort to change the things that were wrong between them.

Bella smiled at his expression. "Don't worry, you haven't offended me," she assured him. "You're right, there was a lot wrong with us. And being able to watch the rest of you… the other mated pairs in the family, and even Charlotte and Peter… well, looking back, it's a little easier to see now."

Jasper gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Was there another reason?" she asked. It looked like the empath had more to say.

"Honestly? I think you were the closest that Edward could ever get to having a 'mate'. Not only were you a good match for him when you first met him, but I don't think Edward could ever have, or at least could ever be happy with, a partner whose mind he could read. I just don't think he could do it."

Bella took a few minutes to think about that. She thought back on all the times she could remember him quietly telling her what the people around her were thinking. She thought about the times she'd seen him pluck a thought from someone's mind and judge them for it, or use it to score points or win an argument.

The common theme tying all of those things together was Edward's disdain for the thoughts he heard and the people who had them. He always judged others as shallow or superficial or vapid. Rosalie was probably the best example Bella could think of. Even she could see that there was so much more to Rose than her vanity and her resentment at being changed, and that was before she even got to know her. Edward had lived with the woman for over eight decades, had been listening to her thoughts for over eight decades, and he'd somehow never seen what was below the surface when it came to his first 'sister' in this life.

So given how harshly Edward judged others because of fleeting thoughts they had, could he have ever found happiness with a partner whose mind was open to him? The longer Bella thought about it, the more certain she was that the answer was no.

And if she flipped the scenario around and thought about Edward's potential mate, could that person be truly happy with him? If he disagreed with them or got angry with them, would he use their thoughts as ammunition, the way he so often did with Rosalie? The way he had with Leah's innermost fear that she'd killed her father? Would he use their insecurities against them the way he had with her after her birthday?

Bella had always been glad there was a glitch in her brain that kept Edward from snooping around in her head and she'd loved him more than she could express in words. What would their relationship have been like if she didn't have a mental shield?

She snorted a laugh and shook her head. Awful. They might not have even had a relationship at all if that was the case. Bella had the same superficial thoughts as everyone else on the planet and Edward would've hated hearing how often she thought he was 'dazzling'. He would have thought she was just as shallow as every other girl at Forks High.

So no, Bella couldn't see anyone being happy with Edward if he used his gift the same way he'd been using it for a hundred and two years. And given how resistant he was to change… well, Bella thought Jasper was probably right.

"Well, too fucking bad for him. He's lost me now, so he's lost his only shot. His only opportunity."

Jasper barked a surprised laugh at Bella's snark. It wasn't all that typical for her, though he had heard it a few times. Then he started humming the intro to the song 'Lose Yourself'.

It took Bella a second to figure out why, but then she realized what she'd said and she started laughing with him. And she was so grateful for the stupid laughter and lighthearted relief. The baby apparently liked it too with the gentle rolls he seemed to be doing. There had been so much that felt so heavy recently and Bella didn't want that to take a toll on her child.

"So you wanted him to have that shot at happiness from the beginning?" she asked, going back to the other reason Jasper hadn't said anything about her and Edward not being mates.

"Um, no actually," Jasper said with a slightly nervous laugh. Then he cleared his throat. "At the very beginning, before you guys got together, I thought we should kill you," he admitted.

Bella's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Seriously? Why would you…" she trailed off for a second as she realized why Jasper might have wanted her to die. "After the van?"

Jasper nodded. "You know all about the exposure law by now, and the way he saved you… well, there should have only been two options. Change you or kill you."

"But Edward never wanted me to be changed," Bella nodded, seeing where Jasper's thinking had been. The man was nothing if not methodical and protective of his loved ones. "And you didn't want your family to be at risk."

He nodded again. "Yes. My objection wasn't about you personally, but just to a human who suddenly knew a little too much. But Carlisle took a risk based on a possible future Alice had seen. Once I decided not to kill you, it cleared the way for her to see a different future. She saw that you wouldn't tell anyone how Edward saved you and she also saw you as a vampire. Carlisle put his faith in Alice, and even though you didn't know it, he put his faith in you too. That you were trustworthy enough to let you live."

Bella was quiet for a minute as she thought about that. It felt good that Carlisle had trusted the Bella in Alice's vision before anyone in the family knew her. "Well, I'm glad you didn't murder me," she said with a little giggle that made Jasper laugh. "What a weird sentence that is to say."

"I'm glad now too," Jasper nodded. "And you know, there is a plus side to this whole mess."

"That I managed to get a surprise baby out of it?" Bella laughed, rubbing her stomach.

"There is that, but don't forget, Alice had that vision of you as a vampire before you and Edward became a couple. And since he's not your mate, you might just have someone out there that you're perfect for. I think the Bella who first turned up in Forks was a pretty good match for Edward. But the Bella you've become since? I think she's destined for someone better. You were obviously meant to be part of our world, so I have hope that your other half is out there, just waiting to find you."

Bella smiled but shook her head. "I'm not ready for that just yet. First I've gotta get through this," she said, cradling her baby bump.

"And I have faith that you will," Jasper nodded. "I know I've already said it, but I'll say it as often as you need to hear it. You're stronger than you know, and you're growing stronger every day. Just tonight alone shows how much strength you have," he pointed out. She tipped her head and looked at him in confusion, so he clarified. "You're sitting here laughing with me even though you just realized your relationship has crashed and burned."

Bella thought about that a minute and then nodded. "I think it's a lot easier to acknowledge and accept that it's dead and gone because I'm not alone. Last year, when you guys left, I didn't really have anyone to lean on and I fell apart. But now, I have all of you right here. Loving me and supporting me. And knowing you all as well as I do, I know if I need to do some leaning, you'll let me. But maybe even more importantly than that, I've got this little one counting on me. I can't afford to fall apart right now."

Jasper smiled at her. He wondered if she realized just how far she'd come since she moved back to Forks. "It can't hurt that this isn't quite the same heartbreak as last year," he pointed out. "Last year you lost the love of your life clear out of the blue. You had no control over it. This time you are the one deciding it's over."

Bella huffed and shook her head. "And it's no one's fault but his own. I'd forgiven him for the things in the past. I was ready to spend eternity with him. But he did this. I didn't just have a change of heart like he did last year. His actions, his betrayal, shattered my trust in him. And I don't think it's possible to love someone you can't trust."

"I agree," Jasper nodded. "But for what it's worth, I'm sorry this is how it's all played out. I'm sorry you didn't get the happiness you wanted."

Bella scootched herself sideways so she was right at the edge of the bed. "I'm going to hug you now," she warned him before throwing her arms around him and holding him tight, a few tears leaking out of her closed eyes. "You're an excellent big brother," she whispered. "Thank you."

Jasper just smiled and held her and let her cry the few tears she was giving herself. It didn't take her long before she pulled away and wiped her eyes. And as she did, a huge yawn creaked out of her. Looking at the time, he saw it was after midnight. "I think you and that little one of yours need some rest. Want me to help?"

Bella nodded and yawned again, then got herself all settled and cozy with the duvet tucked around her. As she felt Jasper's gift start to work, she managed one last whisper before sleep pulled her under. "I still have other happiness."

And instead of falling asleep crying that her relationship was over, she fell asleep with a small smile on her face that, despite her dead relationship, she hadn't lost the family she loved as her own.

Once he knew Bella was soundly asleep, Jasper figured he'd go check on the person across town who he was sure was still awake.

The house was pretty quiet, as only Esme and Carlisle were home. Charlotte and Bree were still off chasing each other through the forest, and Rosalie and Emmett had gone for a short hunt. Which was really just an excuse to get each other naked. Leah had headed home an hour or two before he'd gone in to talk to Bella. She hadn't been back to her own house in a couple days and figured she should make an appearance. And with her mom being run off her feet at the clinic and Seth being back in school, she wanted to start tackling some of the things that had been left slightly neglected. Most notably, laundry.

"Is she alright?" Esme asked worriedly when Jasper walked in the living room to tell them he was heading out for a little while. She and Carlisle hadn't heard any of their conversation, but they knew Jasper had been up there for a good long while.

Jasper shrugged but nodded. "She will be. And honestly, she's doing about fifty percent better than how she thinks she's doing."

Carlisle laughed quietly. "We're often our own worst enemy."

"Well, right now her worst enemy is Edward. So… you know, brace yourselves."

Carlisle and Esme both nodded. Jasper wasn't saying anything they didn't already know. They knew Bella forgiving her husband was going to be a steep uphill slope that she very well could decide not to climb. And neither of them could blame her for it. Edward had treated her horribly and betrayed her trust in him more than once.

"She has the baby to consider now, too," Esme said. "Sometimes the things we're willing to tolerate for our own sake aren't things we're willing to tolerate when it comes to our children. Bella may have been able to forgive him in time, she already has forgiven him for past offenses, but I don't think she would risk the possibility of him betraying or hurting their child in the future by forgiving him now."

Jasper nodded his agreement. He had a feeling the protection of the baby played into Bella's decision. "Well, I like her so I'm glad we get to keep her, even if he doesn't."

Carlisle looked at him pointedly with a raised eyebrow. "So I was right?"

"Yes," Jasper laughed. "You were right to tell me and Rose not to kill her."

Carlisle grinned at him. "I knew you'd eventually see it my way. You really shouldn't doubt me so much."

"I hardly ever doubt you," Jasper reminded him with a smile. "And you know it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got one more human to check on."

Esme nodded. "Charlie?"

"Yeah. I know he seemed fine when he left but I just want to make sure. Unlike the rest of us, he doesn't really have anyone to talk to about us. Sue and Billy and the pack obviously know that he's aware that we're different, but Charlie is so protective of our secret that he rarely even talks about it with them. I think he's afraid he might slip and say a little too much, or ask a question he shouldn't, or on the flip side, that Sue or Billy might accidentally say something he shouldn't know," Jasper explained. "When he first found out about us, we told him that all of our safety was on the line. Not just his, but Bella's, mine, Leah's, our family. And that man will do whatever he has to in order to protect our secret, which is the only way he can protect us."

Carlisle nodded. "So he keeps his thoughts to himself."

"Mostly," Jasper answered. "He does occasionally talk to Sue or Billy, and sometimes Leah. But more often than not, that's about the pack. So yeah, for the most part, he doesn't talk about us."

Esme got up to hug him. She'd said he was a wonderful man earlier and she'd meant it. "Would you like either of us to come with you?" she asked when she stepped back.

Jasper took a moment to think on it before he shook his head. "Not tonight. But I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow and you can talk to him then if you'd like."

Esme and Carlisle both nodded. They expected to see much more of Charlie in the coming days. Which they were glad for. Not only did they like and respect him, but they were glad Bella had her father's support during what was undoubtedly a very scary time.

"Please make sure he knows he's welcome here any time," Esme said before Jasper could leave. "We can even do a little rearranging so he has his own bedroom here if he'd like to stay over."

Jasper smiled at the woman who loved with her whole heart. Since Bella was family to them, so was Charlie. "I'll tell him," he assured her.

It didn't take him long to get to the Swan's house, and just like he expected, Charlie's bedroom light was still on, as was the one in the kitchen, despite the late hour. He quietly knocked on the door, not wanting to startle him. Feeling the spike of alarm in Charlie, followed by a flash of anger, he smiled and spoke just loud enough for Charlie to hear him through the door.

"I come in peace."

Charlie opened the door looking exhausted but he had a smile on his face. "I might not know what you are, Jasper, but I'm almost positive you're not an alien."

Jasper just laughed and shrugged. "You never know."

Charlie opened the door wider and gestured for him to come in, then he walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. There was a half-finished bottle of beer in front of him and he picked it up and tipped it towards the chair across from him, silently asking Jasper to come sit. "Came to check up on me, huh?" he asked him with a small smile.

"The supernatural world threw up all over you today," Jasper shrugged. "I figured it was worth coming to see how you were handling it all."

Charlie nodded and was silent for a few minutes. Not that time thinking was going to do him any good. He'd already been thinking for hours at that point. "Honestly? My biggest concern is Bella," he said eventually. "It's not like I didn't already know there was a whole world out there that I'd been ignorant about my whole life. And it's not like I learned anything today that gave away your secret. I'm just worried about my daughter making it through this," he said, his voice tightening on the last sentence.

"Whether she makes it through this the way she is now, or she makes it through it by becoming like my family, we'll do everything in our power to keep her walking around on this earth."

Charlie snorted a laugh, thinking about his alien comment.

Jasper smiled at him. "We've got some pretty hefty tools at our disposal to make sure she doesn't die. And like I said, we all love your daughter. She's part of the family and our family always protects each other."

Charlie snorted another laugh. "Now you sound like the mafia."

"In terms of always protecting each other and being willing to kill to keep each other safe, I guess it's not too far off," Jasper admitted. "Not humans," he quickly added, seeing Charlie's expression change. "Others that are like us."

Knowing the rulers of Jasper's world handed out the death sentence with ease, that didn't entirely surprise Charlie. "Back in the spring, was that what all that was about? The stuff in Seattle, and me and Bella having to have a sleepover at La Push?" he asked.

Jasper nodded and debated just how much to say. Eventually he just went with a truthful answer that didn't give much away. "Yes. We'd protected Bella from something last year and one of my kind took offense to it. They were looking for revenge."

Charlie's mind scanned through the previous year until he thought he'd found the answer. "Something to do with Phoenix?

"Yeah," Jasper nodded again. Then he took the opportunity to address something that had always bothered him. "When she left, she didn't mean any of the things she said. We were trying to get her out of town quickly and she said the first thing she could think of that you might not argue against," he explained. Then he thought about that sentence again and realized it was exactly what Edward had done to Bella the day he'd left after her birthday. He said the most hurtful things he could think of because he knew she wouldn't argue against them. She would just let him go. He wondered if Bella had ever seen the correlation.

"Edward took her down there?" Charlie asked him, relieved to know his daughter hadn't felt the way she'd claimed to so soon after finally moving in with him.

Jasper shook his head. "Alice and I did. The others met us down there a couple days later. And before you get indignant that your daughter's boyfriend didn't take her away to keep her safe, he was up here trying to eliminate the threat with the rest of the family. Alice and I are the strongest fighters in our family, so if the threat happened to slip through their fingers, we were there to keep her safe."

"She got hurt, Jasper," Charlie snapped. Then he took a deep breath to calm his ass down. He'd always known the story about Bella falling down the stairs and straight out a window was bullshit. Bella was clumsy but even for her, that was a little too unbelievable. And if she'd had some type of altercation with someone like the Cullens, he was lucky she was still alive. "Sorry."

Jasper just waved him off. "It's fine. But for the record, Bella made some poor choices and took off on her own without us knowing. She would have been fine if she'd stayed with us, but she thought she knew better than me and Alice," he said with a scoff and an eye-roll.

Charlie smiled but did an eye-roll of his own that his young human daughter thought she was better off on her own than with her two supernatural protectors. "A human gave you the slip, huh?" he chuckled. "Just how much did that rankle you?"

"A lot," Jasper huffed in indignation. "Peter still gives me shit about it."

Charlie laughed a little. "Well, thanks for at least trying to protect her."

Jasper shrugged. "She and Edward loved each other by then. It would've been rude to just let her die at that point."

"And now?" Charlie asked, his anger rising at the mention of Bella's husband. "Does she still love him?"

Jasper tipped his head a little while he debated what to say. "You tell me," he said after a few moments. "You know this version of your daughter pretty well."

"He's always had such a hold on her," Charlie sighed. "From the very beginning, she was so enamored with him."

"She was," Jasper agreed. "But don't forget, Bella's a protector in her own way, just like you are. She might go about it all wrong sometimes, but at heart, she's a protector."

Charlie looked at him steadily for a moment. "And he's put me at risk."

Jasper nodded but didn't say anything.

"And he's a threat to her child. Or he was, anyway," Charlie said slowly.

Jasper just nodded again.

Charlie was silent for a few minutes. "I've found it's pretty hard to love someone you can't trust," he said eventually.

Jasper smiled that Bella had said the same words only a couple hours before. "I agree," he nodded.

Charlie exhaled slowly. He knew Jasper probably wouldn't come straight out and tell him that Bella wasn't planning on giving Edward another chance to hurt her. He knew enough about him to know he wasn't the kind of man who spilled other people's secrets. But if he was reading between the lines correctly, he thought the telepath's hold over his daughter may have been broken for good.

"So what happens now?" Charlie asked. "If she's not tied to Edward anymore…"

"She's a member of the family," Jasper assured him. "She'll always have a place with us if that's what she wants."

Charlie nodded again. His mind was whirling just like it had been since he'd gotten home, wondering about all of the possibilities of what the future might hold. Not just for Bella, but for himself. He looked at Jasper for a moment before asking about the one thought that kept trying to break through and be heard the loudest. "And me? If I wanted to stay with my little girl?"

Jasper smiled at him. He couldn't even say he was surprised that Charlie had been thinking about being changed so he didn't have to lose his daughter. "I think that's a big decision with a lot of factors to consider. It's not something you just jump into on a whim. Once you become one of us, there's no going back. You will never be human again."

"But it's possible? And it means I could stay with her…" Charlie trailed off for a moment, knowing the next words he said just might seal his fate. "It would mean I could keep her in my life forever?"

Jasper nodded and smiled at him again, ignoring that instinctive but quiet voice of alarm in the back of his mind that Charlie was admitting he knew Jasper and his family were immortal. If he'd learned anything about the man since meeting him, it was that he was entirely trustworthy. He was confident that he could put his faith and trust in Charlie Swan and know he'd never break it or betray it.

"Yes. You'd get to stay in her life forever," Jasper confirmed. "Mine too," he added with a laugh. "And Leah's."

Charlie's eyes went wide with surprise. "Leah's… well, she's not… getting older?"

Jasper shook his head. "Nope. As long as she phases, she won't age."

"Huh."

Charlie sat back in his chair. The idea of becoming a vampire was honestly a little terrifying and he'd been wondering whether he'd completely lost his mind to be considering it at all. But the idea of never having to say goodbye to Bella, Leah, or Jasper? That certainly helped the fear recede a little. Helped him accept that this actually was a legitimate choice in front of him.

He drained the last of his beer and nodded. "Then I guess I've got some thinking to do."