❝ June, 2013 ❞

"And you said nothing?" Garrett questions, dodging the pebble Phoebe throws at him in response.

"Why do you make it sound like that's the worst thing in the world?" She huffs, ducking as he retaliates with a stick.

The duo is leading the way to the lake under ten miles away from their home as the rest of the combined family follows along at varying distances behind them. For once, everyone is walking and enjoying the naturistic scenery around them instead of racing each other, allowing them to converse peacefully. Though the calm and fight-free atmosphere definitely has everything to do with Tanya threatening everyone's lives beforehand, Carlisle and Esme aren't going to complain about the rare peace.

"Because your emotional support cowboy finally decided to stop wearing those hideous sweaters and you responded with an awkward silence," Garrett counters. "I'm no scienceologist but I doubt that's the reaction he was hoping for."

"It wasn't completely silent," she defends herself. "I asked if he had seen my sunglasses recently."

The memories of earlier this morning play on repeat in her mind, and she can't help but to think of a thousand ways it could have gone better each time the loop ends.

For the first time since they've gotten back together, Jasper wasn't hiding behind the protection of long sleeves anymore and, like the other boys, is dressed in swimming trunks and a t-shirt. While standing practically motionless in the doorway to their bedroom as she looked at him, it was written all over his face how terrified he was of what her reaction may be. For an empath, he's terrible at hiding his own emotions and it didn't take an expert to understand the topic of the scars covering his body made him ashamed and uncomfortable; so Phoebe downplayed the situation in an attempt to dissipate the clouds of worry hanging over him and continued the search for her sunglasses. But, clearly, this did nothing but worsen everything and Jasper has kept his distance since.

"Which leads to my third and favorite theory," Garrett is concluding a rant Phoebe hadn't paid attention to in the slightest, snapping her out of her thoughts as he claps his hands together like a proud detective. "Jasper is clearly the leader of a supernatural mafia."

"You're delusional."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"You can't tell me it wouldn't make sense," he argues. "Besides, until you put on your big girl boots and ask him about it, you can't prove me wrong."

Phoebe groans and, purely out of spite, makes the decision she's been putting off. "Enjoy your theory while it lasts, boomer."

"That's a dollar in the bullying jar, bitch!"

"Now you owe a dollar too!"

"Damn it!"

Meanwhile, nearly a half mile behind them and at the end of the jumbled line of vampires, a similar conversation is occurring between a stressed empath and flippant himbo.

"I'm still confused," Emmett admits, sliding his sunglasses - or clout goggles, as only he liked to call them - on as the sun breaks through the foliage. "Why is it so bad that she under-reacted instead of over-reacted?"

"It's not," Jasper huffs, realizing how silly the situation sounds when it's worded that way. "I just wish she would let me know what she was thinking."

"Then ask Edward. He was probably listening anyways."

"I was not!" Edward incriminates himself by responding, earning a laugh from Bella.

"Even if I wanted to - which I don't, because I know how to respect someone's privacy - Phoebe would kill us if we purposefully invaded her thoughts," Jasper chuckles. "Besides, I-"

"VIBE CHECK!" He's cut off by the shouts of his mate as she jumps from an overhead tree branch, landing directly onto an unsuspecting Edward's shoulders. He promptly throws her off and she falls back into Jasper's arms. Peering up at him through sunglasses that match Emmett's, she smiles coyly. "My hero."

Entranced by her smile and good mood, Jasper's worries practically disappear as he sets her back on her feet. Challenging Edward and Bella to a race, Emmett leads the way to join the rest of the group, giving the couple more privacy.

"What's so important that it took you away from your race with Garrett?"

"You are," Phoebe admits, loosely draping her arms around his shoulders as they stop walking altogether. "I want to apologise."

"For what?" Jasper asks, his eyebrows crinkling in confusion. "You've done nothing wrong."

"For this morning. Wearing something new clearly means a lot to you, and I just assumed acting as though it's not a big deal would be the best way to make you the least uncomfortable," she explains. "And for anything I did to cause you to think you had to hide your body and past from me. I'm always going to be here for you, no matter what, and I'm sorry for not making that clearer from the beginning."

"Your emotions were everywhere this morning. That's nothing to apologise for, darlin," he promises, gently kissing her temple. "And it's because of you that I'm finally ready to share my past. I never kept it hidden because I thought you would react harshly; I did it because you're this amazing, selfless, beautiful person I have the pleasure of calling the love of my life and you deserve to have an equally amazing mate, not one with sins he can never repent for."

"I fell in love with you when I thought you were a Confederate soldier," Phoebe points out. "Nothing can scare me away from you at this point."

"That's sweet," he agrees with a chuckle, one of his hands disentangling from hers and snatching away her sunglasses to place them on top of his head in the blink of an eye. "But I can't take you seriously in these ridiculous sunglasses."

She sticks her tongue out childishly but, nonetheless, allows him to keep them at bay as they continue their slow walk to the lake, staying silent as he begins the tale of all that happened after she and Garrett disappeared from the war.

The beginning of his second life wasn't anywhere near as kind to him as Phoebe's was, with Maria thrusting him into the midst of a vampire war as soon as she got the chance. With his own emotions heightened and everyone around him suffering in one way or another, Jasper lived in what most people would deem a personal hell for years. Having to kill weaker or useless soldiers, often boys and girls younger than him, on top of having to kill innocent humans to stay alive, left him an inescapable anguished state that he feared would last forever until he, Peter, and Charlotte gathered the courage to leave Maria and her twisted lifestyle behind in the early nineteen-forties.

"I had no idea you had chosen to become a vampire, so I assumed you died of old age years ago. I thought I'd spend the rest of this new life alone until I met Alice in some diner in Philadelphia," he concludes. "We set off to find the family she saw in her visions, and it eventually led me back to you, so it's one of the greatest decisions I've ever made."

A comfortable silence surrounds the couple as Phoebe mulls over everything that was said, and Jasper can't help but gauge how she's feeling. Though saddened by the tragic story, that's the only part of her emotions that changes. Jasper briefly wonders if his gift is broken as her love for him doesn't waver in the slightest and, if anything, seems to grow stronger as he allows it to wash over him and soothe his nerves.

Phoebe stops walking just as the trees begin to thin and the lake can be seen, using her hand clasped in Jasper's to tug him into a hug as she wraps her arms around his waist.

"Thank you for telling me," she murmurs into his chest, unable to put into words how moved she is by him trusting her enough to put the parts of himself he's most ashamed of on display.

"You deserved to know."

The moment ends abruptly, though, as Emmett catches sight of them and rushes over.

"This cuteness certainly does pop my pussy, but I need both of you to hurry up so we can kick Edward's ass in underwater football."