It's the day of Bella's birthday, and knowing that she doesn't like gifts, I'll simply wait until she's at school to leave my gift in her room, since Dad insists on waking her up with the gifts from him and Mom. I can hear her groan slightly as I pass her bedroom door and I can't help but roll my eyes at her dramatics.. It's a birthday, not the end of the world... I decide to enjoy my coffee in silence before I hear a knock coming from the front door signaling that Alice and Jasper are here to pick Bella up, making me smile.

"Good morning." I open the door with a smile, and Jasper quickly pulls me into a sweet kiss.

"Good morning, beautiful." He smiles and my cheeks flush at cuteness, and this makes Alice giggle as she moves past us into the house, and we move to follow her.

"Alice, I hear you're planning an unauthorized party?" I question with a smirk, to which she looks at me innocently.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about Sophie. I'm simply planning a birthday party for a good friend." She smiles, her tinkling voice echoing in the living room.

"She's not going to like it. She hates anything to do with her birthday, I'm going to guess she hates it even more now... She's overdramatic." I shake my head with an eye roll, at Alice's fantastic idea... and they both just roll their eyes in response, Alice still deciding to carry on with her plan.

"She's just going to have to deal with it. When are you coming over?" I snort at her finality, before debating shortly if I want to spend some quality time with Esme while everyone else is at school.

"Oh, I might come over while you all suffer through classes. Spend some time with Esme." I grin mischievously as Jasper sends me a playful glare, and Alice just grins widely.

"You know, you could always come to school with all of us. Spend some time..." Jasper trails off as he pulls me closer to him.

"Morning Alice, Jasper." Bella greets as she grabs her school things, smiling shortly at all of us before indicating with her eyebrows that she wants to leave, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"I graduated last December. There's no reason for me to painfully sit through high school classes again." I smirk at him, carrying on our conversation from earlier, as he raises a sass filled brow.

"Was that a dig?"

"Maybe." I smirk, holding in my laugh. "Now, quickly. You don't wanna miss any part of your senior year." He laughs sarcastically, pulling me into a kiss before meeting Alice and Bella at the car, and she waves quickly before leaving.

After they leave, I grab my separate outfit for the party tonight, and Bella's gift and pack it into my car and head to the Cullen's. Thinking of everything that has happened in the last couple months, the drive goes quickly and I'm excited to spend some time with Esme and not think about everything that happened with my sister in Phoenix. The drive was relaxing and it was like second nature in getting to the remote home of my favorite vampires. As I walk up the drive, I'm met at the door by a smiling Esme and this makes me smile and breathe a laugh.

"Alice said you might visit us this morning."

"Of course she did." I laugh as Esme welcomes me inside, and head to the living room where I see a steaming cup of coffee waiting for me, and my heart warms at the gesture.

"Esme, you don't need to always have coffee made for me, I feel bad."

"Don't feel bad, Sophia dear, I enjoy making stuff for you and your sister. It has returned a bit of my old life to me." She smiles sweetly and suddenly I'm curious about her human life, but too afraid to ask knowing that can be a touchy subject for a lot of them.

"Well, I greatly appreciate it Esme, you've been nothing but kind to me since I've been here. I hope I can repay you in some way." She simply smiles and shakes her head.

"You've done so much for Jasper already, brought so much happiness and love into his heart, that's all I could ever ask for. For my children to be happy and loved in this life." She grasps my hands gently in her chilled ones, and gives them a loving squeeze making me smile wider.

I spend the rest of my day talking to Esme about anything, just glad to have a mother figure to just talk about life with, it was a nice change for once. Knowing that Alice is throwing a party tonight, the Cullen's that are home decide to go hunting and so I decide to take a nap-- because if I'm being honest, I'm going to need the energy to deal with Bella tonight. So heading up the stairs, I find Jasper's familiar room and curling in up in the sheets that smell like him, I doze off.

"Soph, darlin' it's time to wake up." I hear softly, a chuckle following and I can feel soft fingers threading through my hair, making me snuggle farther into the sheets.

"Sophie, you know you can't keep Alice waiting." I hear after another laugh, and I hate that there is so much truth in his words.

"Why did Alice have to throw a party in the first place? Bella hates parties." I mumble, peeking one eye open to spy Jasper sitting next to me, smiling brightly.

"We all know that, but it's Alice and you can't fight with her on these things." I groan knowing he's right and I sit up in his bed, as he leans forward placing a tender kiss on my forehead. "Get dressed, your sister will be here soon." He smiles and leaves the room, forcing me to get out of the overly comfortable bed.

Thankfully it doesn't take me long to get ready, seeing as I don't tend to wear a lot of makeup, something I guess I can thank my mom for, since she's the one that has a better complexion than Charlie. Smoothing out the navy blue fabric of my knee-length dress, I check my hair one last time before opening the door of Jasper's room, finding him waiting in the hall for me.

"Wow, Sophie. You look...absolutely stunning." He places a kiss on my hand as he intertwines our fingers, and we begin walking toward the stairs.

"Thank you. You look handsome yourself, Major." I wink at the old nickname and he squeezes my hand, and we've finally made it into the living room,, apparently all still waiting on Bella and Edward to make their appearance.

"Alice, not to burst your bubble, but you do realize Bella isn't going to enjoy the party." I state making Rose roll her eyes, and I don't blame her lack of tolerance for my sister, as I agree with her most times.

"Yes, but Sophie dear, she's just going to have to deal with it." This makes me laugh a little, and I feel Jasper wrap his arm around my waist and I find myself melting into his embrace. Before anyone else can say anything, we hear Bella and Edward come in from the front door, and Alice tells everyone to be ready to wish her happy birthday, making me sigh slightly.

"Happy Birthday!" Alice chimes as the come into the room and Bella sighs, seeing everyone in the room and then smiles slightly.

"Thanks Alice, and everyone for coming, although I don't really like birthday parties." She shrugs, but Esme is the first to break the awkwardness and gives her a small hug, wishing her happy birthday and Carlisle follows suit.

"Happy birthday Bella." I say and Jasper nods in agreement, and she almost seemed shocked to see me here which I thought was interesting and I had to squash the irritation I felt rising in my chest.

"Okay! Let's open your gifts!" Alice exclaims excited enough for Bella who seems the complete opposite at the thought of gifts and the attention being on her. She takes the first one from Alice only finding it an empty box.

"It's already installed in that ancient thing you insist on driving." Emmett chuckles, and makes me laugh slightly, knowing he isn't wrong.

"Hey, don't hate on the truck." Bella tries to fire back, and is soon presented with another gift from Alice and Bella's apprehension is back.

"Alice, I know I told you I didn't want anything—" Bella says reluctantly, her eyes flitting around the room, writhing under the attention of everyone in the room.

"But I didn't listen. Open it." She interrupted smugly making me laugh, and Jasper tightens his hold around me almost like a warning to be nice. Bella sighs in defeat and begins to slowly open the blue package.

"Shoot." I hear Bella mutter as she jerks her hand back from the package, a small bit of red visible from the paper cut, and I can feel Jasper tense underneath my arm causing me to grasp his hand tightly.

"No!"

Edward reacted faster than I could think, pushing Bella out of the way as Jasper left my arms lightning fast and headed for my sister. I was thankful for Emmett being able to contain my boyfriend, but just barely, and without thinking I pull myself from Rose's grasp and place myself between the struggling vampire and my injured sister, placing my hands on either side of his face.

"Jasper. Look at me." I watch his dark eyes frantically flit from my eyes over my shoulder and back, like he's trying so hard to resist it. " Hey, at me. It's gonna be—"

He ends up brushing past me to Bella, unintentionally knocking me to the ground and Alice quickly grabs my hand to pull me out of way. With the help of Carlisle he's finally restrained, and I try my luck again, ignoring Alice's warnings.

"It's okay, Jasper. It's just a bit of blood. Hey." I whisper gently hoping to settle down the frenzy he no doubt is trying to control inside, and his dark, wild eyes finally meet mine, and all I can see is total pain and disgust flooding in his eyes and it breaks my heart.

I let his brothers take him away from me, watching solemnly as Alice goes with them to help ease his internal suffering, because Carlisle needs my help to patch Bella up. Grabbing the supplies he is going to need, I follow him to his office, where it doesn't surprise me that he has medical things onsite. Edward brooding silently at my side, no doubt beating himself up for hurting Bella more than just the paper cut.

"Edward, you may as well go find Jasper before he gets too far. I'm sure he's upset with himself, and he won't listen to anyone but you."

Carlisle states as he stares at Edward and I feel terrible, wishing I could console my boyfriend, but I know he wouldn't want to be around me right now as much as it kills me. At that Edward leaves and we are left in silence, except of the clinking of the glass pieces into the bowl as Carlisle removes them from Bella's arm.

"How do you do it?" Bella suddenly blurts, breaking me from my mental revere, and I'm curious as well, knowing he has dealt with some gnarly things at the hospital.

"Years and years of practice. I barely notice the scent anymore." He says with a small smirk, and they talk some more as I retreat back into my thoughts, and when Carlisle is done removing the glass from her arm and begins stitching her up, I take care of sanitizing the tools burning the blood and alcohol making sure to clean everything to hospital standard so that the Cullen's can return to their home, and not worry about her scent.

"You know my father was a clergyman." Carlisle begins softly as they talk about differences of diet and souls, and I tune in back in to what it is they were talking about, not hearing Carlisle's story before. "He had a harsh view of the world that I was already beginning to question before I was changed. But I still hope that there is still a point to this life, even for us. That's why I try my best to help all those I can with this life I was given."

Suddenly the conversation turns to Bella wanting to be turned and how that would be difficult with convincing Edward because he doesn't want her to be like him, "without a soul" apparently. Which cause my thoughts to turn to myself, and they start to swirl, because I have never actually given thought to how a relationship with a vampire would go. Not only that, but with our relationship being so different, since we were together in another life, I'm not quite sure how this one will turn out or be different. Not really wanting to think too far into this or listen to Bella complain, I head out the back door in hopes of finding Alice, and that she'll know where to find Jasper.

I grab one of Jasper's warmer sweaters, and cover myself in it making my way outside into the chilly Washington night air. As if Alice knew I was coming, she meets me at the end of the deck with a sad smile, and the beauty of the night is lost on me as my worry fills my stomach.

"How's Jasper?" I ask quietly.

"He's very unhappy with himself. It's such a challenge being around Bella, and he hates feeling weak. But he's also dealing with the fact that you saw him in that state, and he's not dealing with that very well." This makes me sigh, as my heart feels heavy and Alice places a comforting hand on my arm.

"He should know that doesn't change how I see him or how I feel about him." I shake my head, shivering from a chill not knowing how this night was going to end for us.

"We know that, but we also know Jasper, and how hard he can be on himself more often than not. Especially with the stress of this new diet, and not wanting you to see him as a monster." I nod along with what she says, because it's true. "Come inside Sophie, I will never hear the end of it if I let you get sick out here." She chuckles slightly, putting a comforting arm around me and leads me to the living room.

We sit on the couch for what feels like ages, and I'm pretty sure I dozed off a couple of times, but I wake with a start when I feel soft fingers running through my hair. I blink the sleep from my eyes, looking to find the somber face of my Jasper and I can see the pain underlying in his eyes and that wakes me up.

"Jasper--" He places his chilled hands on either side of my face and gives me a small smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"Can we go for a walk?" I just nod, placing a warmer hand over his own. He grasps my hand tightly and we walk out the back door and I am thankful I still have the sweater on because the temperature difference is astounding, especially with his hand in mine.

"I apologize completely for how I was earlier. You shouldn't have seen me like that." He says quietly, and I squeeze his hand making him look in my direction.

"It's alright, Jasper--" His face contorts in pain as he cuts me off.

"No it isn't. I lost control and could've hurt you, not to mention I almost hurt your sister." I stop walking which causes his arm to jerk, but stay connected making him stop and look at me.

"So your composure broke. It happens to the best of us, not to mention you stayed with me instead of going to feed, which didn't help you."

"Don't make excuses for me Sophia." I flinch at the use of my full name and the distaste lacing his voice. "I thought I could handle being around you and Bella, and apparently I cannot. And I don't ever want to put you in harms way like that again."

"What are you saying?" Not liking the pain appearing in my chest, and not quite sure what he is trying to say.

"What I'm saying..." I can see the internal struggle happening on his face, and it seems whatever it is he is going to say, he doesn't want to say it. "What I'm saying is that I am dangerous for you to be around. A-and I believe it would be safer for you if I weren't." I just stare at him in disbelief as his eyes are trained to the forest floor, but looking up at me and I'm shattered by the pain I see in his dark eyes.

"You're being too hard on yourself--" I defend, and in frustration he pulls his hand from mine running them through his curls painfully.

"But I'm not Sophia! What happens the next time I lose control and my family isn't there to hold me back? I can't keep selfishly putting you in danger." He states in finality, and I know what he's trying to do. And it isn't going to work, my own anger rising at his ignorance.

"Alice can take you home, but I--" He pulls at the curls again before turning his back to me, and I almost collapse at the feeling in my chest.

"No! Jasper Whitlock!" He freezes as I shout his old, full name, not letting him walk away from me a second time.

"We are in this together. When I said last spring I wouldn't lose you again, I wasn't lying. A century and a half was long enough for my heart to know that I can't live without you. Let me help you, let me be there for you. You cannot leave me behind again." I mutter all my emotions laid in front of him and he flinches slightly at the force of my words, the look on his face proving I struck a nerve.

"I'm too dangerous right now. I don't want to hurt you--" He admits and I close the gap between us, grabbing both his hands in mine, waiting for him to finally look in my eyes.

"You'll hurt me the most by going away again."

A tense minute passes as we simply look into each others eyes, both reading the emotions of the other, seeing similar things, before I'm suddenly pulled into a strong embrace. I can feel the tension leave both of our bodies, and I feel him bury his face in my hair causing me to envelope him tighter, knowing he's made the decision that won't cause both of us harm. Making the decision to grow stronger, together.