Jasper was following behind Alice as she shopped. He had been working almost non-stop since leaving Forks trying to get his gift and bloodlust under better control. He was now at the point where he was spending time in large crowds while blocking out his family's bloodlust. It had taken a while since he had first had to get better at realizing which emotions were his own and which were his families. From there he had to learn how to push them to the side and block them out so they did not affect him as much. Now he was on what he called the final step; learning how to do that when bombarded by large amounts of emotion, such as when he was in a crowd. Alice had volunteered to help him with this stage and in true Alice fashion, she had found a way to turn helping him in into a shopping trip. Both his arms were filled with bags as she skipped along ahead of him still shopping.
He wasn't really paying attention to the stores they were in or where they were going, focusing instead on alternating between blocking out all the emotions around him and isolating the ones from Alice from the crowd and himself. As he switched back to focusing on Alice he felt a sudden shift in her emotions. He glanced up to see her in the middle of a vision and was quick to guide her over to a nearby bench for her to sit on until she came out of it.
When she did, she looked up at him with panic. "It's Bella! I saw her kill herself!"
Jasper gestured for her to keep her voice down so they would not be overheard. "Can we stop it?"
She shook her head, "no I don't think so, it's close. Like within the next day or two. But for Edward, we have to try. If we leave right now there is a chance we could get there in time." Alice knew she was mainly fooling herself, but if she didn't at least try she knew she would regret it.
"Alright let's get back to the car and head straight there" Jasper decided. While he did not hold much hope for getting there on time, he knew that even if they didn't Maya would need him. She may not love the human like a sister, but her dad loved Bella and watching him break down over Bella and being unable to do anything to help would kill his Darlin'.
The two quickly rushed back to their car and sped off down the road, calling the family to let them know what was happening as they did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hours later they arrived in Forks and headed straight for the Swan's house. Pulling up they could tell no one was home by the lack of heartbeats.
"Do you think we should go in?" Alice asked, trailing her eyes over the darkened house.
Jasper stared at his sister in confusion, "Why on earth would we do that?"
"I don't know, to find a hint I guess on whether or not we're too late?" Alice slid out of the vehicle and began making her way towards the house.
Jasper gave a long sigh before following her. As cruel and unfeeling as it sounded, Jasper really wasn't interested in saving the girl that was driving their brother away from them. His only concern was Maya and how the death of the girl would affect her.
By the time he reached the door, Alice had already picked the lock and let herself in.
"How very lady like" he commented dryly.
"Oh hush. Now start looking around to see if we are too late" Alice herself already beginning to look through papers scattered on the kitchen table to see if there were any hints.
Jasper, with a roll of his eyes, began to survey the house. He sniffed the air trying to catch the scent of his Maya but furrowed his brows in confusion when he only caught faint traces. He made his way up to her room trying to pick up a stronger scent, worry growing as he failed to do so. Even in her room the only scent of hers he could pick up was at least a week old and he quickly grew concerned that something had happened to her.
He began to riffle through her desk and check her closet in hopes that she had simply gone somewhere on a trip. But to his dismay, all her clothes seemed to be there and her large travel bags were still shoved under her bed. It was at this time that he began to panic; just as he heard the sound of Bella's god-awful truck come down the road.
Taking an unneeded breath, he slowly made his way downstairs figuring that Bella would be able to tell him where his girl had gone.
He came into the living room just as Bella threw herself on Alice as she called out her name.
"Bella! What are you ..." She trailed off, trying to figure out how to ask how she was alive.
Bella cut her off, "I'm sorry. I just ... I can't believe you're here. Is ..."
"Would you like to explain to me how you're alive?!" Alice shouted, giving up on tack and going with the straightforward approach.
"What" Bella asked, a confused look on her face.
"I saw a vision of you. You jumped off a cliff. Why in the hell would you try and kill yourself?! I mean what about Charlie?! What about ..."
Bella cut her off again. "I didn't try to kill myself. I was cliff jumping. Recreationally. It was fun."
Alice let out a groan of frustration at that. Now that the fear of being too late had worn off, Alice just wanted to shake some sense into this girl.
Throughout this Jasper had backed off not wanting to get in the middle of it. Instead, he stood off to side, waiting for his chance to ask about his Maya's whereabouts.To distract himself he pulled out his phone to check when her last message had come in and was upset to realize it had been almost a week. How could I have not realized that she hadn't reached out? She always calls me at least twice a week! Jasper thought, growing angry at himself as he continued to worry about his mate's apparent disappearance.
Meanwhile Alice guided Bella over to the sofa before speeding off to make tea. When they were both settled on the couch, Bella still not having noticed Jasper's presence, she recounted the whole story behind this latest idiotic stunt.
When Bella finished Alice proclaimed "I've never met anyone more prone to life-threatening idiocy."
"Did you ... did you tell him?" Bella asked.
Jasper internally scoffed at this, refocusing on the two in front of him as the conversation wound down. It seems even months later, even with two others in front of her all she cared about was Edward. They really are a perfect match he thought, thinking back to how Edward had left them all behind the minute he could so he could mope about leaving his human behind. It really made Jasper wonder why he had been so insistent about all of them leaving. Why he had threatened to leave the family and even kill himself if they all didn't move away.
"No, he only calls in once every few months. He said he wants to be alone," Alice said sadly. Bella looked down, apparently having nothing else to say now that she knew Edward would not be coming back.
Alice however, was distracted by a scent that she had finally noticed now that she was not so focused on Bella. "Bella, what is that god-awful wet dog smell?"
"Um ... that's probably me," she said in embarrassment, "Or it's Jacob."
"Jacob who?" Jasper asked, speaking up for the first time from across the room. Bella jumped in shock, whirling around to finally look at him.
"Jacob's kind of a werewolf" Bella admitted.
Jasper brought his hand up to his face, eyes closed in exasperation. It seemed even without their family in town, Bella had found a way to involve herself in the supernatural. At least his Darlin' was also a shifter and could handle herself. The girl must really be stupid. How many times does she have to put herself in danger before she realizes that she is out of her depth? Jasper wondered. Someday she would go to far and when that happened he and his family wouldn't be around to help the ungrateful girl.
Alice was much less quiet about her opinion, "Bella, werewolves are not good company to keep!"
"Speak for yourself" came a voice from behind them. Alice stood up and moved over towards Jasper as he shifted his weight to be ready for an attack.
"I had to see you were safe" the wolf, Jacob, Jasper assumed from the description Maya had given him, said.
"I thought you couldn't protect me here?" Bella asked, feeling pleased and smug that he was apparently breaking the rules just for her.
Jasper held back a small laugh at the interaction. Going by the feelings between the two and the way they interacted it seemed as if Bella had found a new supernatural boy to latch onto. Maybe this would finally convince Edward to come home and stop moping about and upsetting his family. Though he would not be excited to be dealing with Edward's emotions if he found out that Bella had moved on from him, Jasper would gladly suffer through it if it meant the rest of his family was happier.
"Guess I don't care" the wolf responded and then the two just kind of stared at each other while Alice and Jasper stood off to the side silently. At least until Alice couldn't take it and spoke up.
"Well, we're not gonna hurt her."
"No, you're just harmless Cullens. I'm talking about the other bloodsucker who tried to kill Bella because of you."
"Victoria?" Both Alice and Jasper said in shock. Jasper's fear over what had happened to Maya coming back full force.
"Yeah, Victoria's been around" Bella confirmed.
"I didn't see her. I didn't see you get pulled out of the water either. I can't see past you and your pack of mutts!" Alice realized, not happy about it. "Its like Maya all over again!"
"Don't get me upset."
Jasper reached forward to grab Alice's arm and pull her back behind him at that. While he had no intention of fighting the wolf here, and he would in defence of his sister, he preferred to keep the peace if possible.
"Hey, stop." Bella began to say, moving to stand in between them "stop, stop, stop, stop, stop."
Bella sent Alice a look over her shoulder and Alice sighed, "we'll give you a minute."
Both vampires headed for the front door. They were almost there when Bella called out softly, "hey, you're not going anywhere, you're gonna come back. Right?"
Alice turned around and gave her a small smile, "As soon as you put the dog out."
Jasper smirked as they walked out the front door. As they came to a stop outside, he turned to face her, smile dropping. "Have you seen anything about Maya?"
"No. Why? Did you find something in her room?"
"More like what I didn't find. The only scent I can pick up of her in the house is at least a week old, but she hasn't taken any of her clothes or bags with her that I could see. And now we find out Victoria's been in the area when we both know Maya likes to explore the woods. I'm worried about her."
Alice cursed. "If only I could see her more reliably. Okay, when the wolf leaves, we'll ask Bella what she knows. But don't worry Jas, Maya is probably just off on a long adventure or something. We'll find her and she will be perfectly safe. In the meantime how about you call the family and let them know what has happened while I try and see if I can find her in a vision."
He gave a nod, glad to have something to do to stop him from barging into the house and throwing the wolf out so he could interrogate the human.
He pulled out his phone and called Carlisle who picked up after two rings.
"Hello Jasper, so how did it go? Did you make it in time?" He questioned.
"I guess you could say that. We did not make it time to stop the idiot from jumping off a cliff but we got to talk to her because a werewolf came by and rescued her while she was drowning. So this whole thing was a waste of time. It turns out Edward's danger prone human has decided to hang out with werewolves in our absence." He growled out.
"Well at least she is still alive. So, how is Maya? Is she happy to see you again" Carlisle asked, missing the little ball of curiosity.
"Actually she is apparently missing. From what I can tell she has not been home in a week and yet her stuff is still in her room. And we have just been informed that Victoria has been spotted in the area. Alice is searching her visions now to see if she can find Maya and we will be asking Bella, but it is concerning."
Jasper didn't need to be an empath to feel the concern and worry coming from Carlisle, it was clear in his voice. "Yes, that is worrisome. Do you need us to come down and help with the search?"
"Not at the moment, I'm still hoping Bella can tell us something. Or her father. But if not, I will definitely be glad for the help." Jasper glanced over just in time to see Alice come out of a vision and race into the house. "Hang on Carlisle, Alice just had a vision and going off her emotions, it was nothing good."
"Uh oh, could you keep the line open so we can hear?"
"Will do." Jasper said as he quickly followed Alice into the house, absently noting that he could vaguely hear Carlisle call for the rest of the family over the phone.
He entered the kitchen right behind her as she told Bella, "It's Edward. He thinks you're dead! He's going to kill himself!"
Jasper grimaced and fought the urge to hit something at the news. It seemed like his brother was incapable of not causing them worry and trouble these days. Sometimes Jasper really did wonder just what his brother was thinking or if that flu Edward had suffered from had addled his brain and they were only now beginning to see the affects.