95Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did, Bella wouldn't be so freakin ready to be a martyr.
A/N: Sorry that this took so incredibly long but with no computer there really wasn't much I could do. This Chapter is a little shorter than the rest, but it was difficult to rewrite after I lost the original one when my old laptop went to computer heaven. I'm nowhere near as satisfied with this one as I was with the original, but it's a lot better than the other attempts I made to rewrite it, so I hope you enjoy it all the same!
BellaPOV
"Could you turn the heater on please? I'm still a little wet and it's starting to get really chilly back here." I asked, pleased when Esme reached forward and immediately turned on the heater and pushed another button that I didn't know what it did. Paul reached out and dragged me across the wide back seat of Carlisle's Mercedes wrapping his super strong, super heated arm around my shoulders.
"Who needs a heater when you've got a perfectly willing wolf right next to you?" he asked semi-jokingly as he rubbed his hand up and down the chilled skin of my arm. I moved to lean into him and savor the heat encompassing me, but clearly didn't think it through well enough. My ribs protested the new position and my broken collarbone amped up the pain that was already throbbing through the entire right side of my upper chest and I was unable to suppress the pained wimper that slipped out before I readjusted my position to one that didn't disagree with every ache and pain shooting through me with no relief from the Aleve Carlisle had given me at the hospital.
Stop being a little crybaby. If you hadn't had that Tequila Carlisle would have been able to give you a stronger pain killer. Actually, if you hadn't had the Tequila you wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place and this wouldn't even be a concern. You have no one but yourself to blame for any of this.
True. But without the Tequila, she wouldn't have had the nerve to climb Paul like the sexy tree that he is. She wouldn't have had those glorious fun filled moments with his mouth blowing all that heat and pressure right where we all needed it most. She wouldn't have discovered that vampires can get goosebumps and that Jasper smells like her naughtiest fantasies made real, the wolves would never allowed to vampires to live on the Rez for an undetermined amount of time to help and protect us, and we wouldn't have made so much progress towards our goal of unity among the races. I gotta say that the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks on this one. Besides, we'll be allowed to have some of the good stuff as soon as we get some food in our system.
"You're having another conversation with yourself, aren't you Little Mama?" Paul whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine at the heated feel of his breath washing over my neck.
I turned my head and glared at him. Ignore the tinglies...Ignore the tinglies... "I do not have conversations with myself Paul Avery Meraz, and you'd do good to remember exactly what I am capable of doing to you- werewolf super powers or not- before you antagonize me when I'm already in a bad mood." I warned him.
He laughed and I could feel the humor flowing out of the front seat and hear Jasper chuckling.
Assholes think that just because you're human you're powerless...
Better set them straight now chica, you know how these mythical men are, you give em an inch and they'll take over your entire life.
It's already happened with Assward and you're only now getting out from under that frozen thumb, do you really want more thumbs holding you down?
That was a really pointless analogy...
Shut the hell up, both of you! I'm busy!
I turned to Paul and let my eyes do that 'creepy dead eye soulless woman thing' that he had complained about whenever he caught me lost in in my own thoughts of Edward before the Cullen's came back to me. "Do you really want to open this can of worms Paul?" I asked with no inflection at all in my voice. To my immense satisfaction he shivered and removed his arm from my shoulders, somehow seeming to curl his massive frame further into the door beside him.
Jasper chuckled from the drivers seat and said something that was almost too fast for me to hear. I missed most of it but I'm certain I heard the words 'pussy cat in a wolf's clothing.' I turned my glare towards the front of the car to meet his amused eyes in the rearview mirror. They crinkled more and I just knew he was smiling even bigger. Stupid vampire obviously doesn't know that the weak little human has the most powerful weapon of all...knowledge. I might not be able to capture one of his kind, but my big furry friends could...and had they had. They had captured one of Victoria's little henchmen and they let me help 'interrogate' him. I knew a few things now that would make a vampire scream in pain and I had learned just how creative I could really be. I'm not too bad with a soldering iron if I do say so myself.
Now that I think about it, with Jasper's gift I bet there's all kinds of room to play around and torment him...
Ooooh yeah! The things you could do to him just by using your own thoughts to control your feelings! This could be fun!
My eyes were still glaring, but I couldn't stop the slight smile that came to my lips with this train of thought... He didn't know what kind of fire he was playing with, but I'd be more than happy to show him...
I know what the button did! They got heated seats in this pimp-mobile!
Wonder what kind of heating coils they use?
JasperPOV
Holy shit! Where did the sweet, pliable, eager to please Bella that we had first been introduced to go? And where did this hellcat with the power to scare a vampire and a werewolf with no more than a look come from? I mean, fuck! I already knew about the power she could hold with her eyes, but the only use I had ever seen before was the one where she makes you feel bad for not being a better person with no more than the innocence and love that shone through in her.
But this shit!... I could barely suppress the shudder that wanted to work its way up my spine and I'm ashamed to admit that I could no longer keep eye contact with her through the fuckin' mirror after she let out that freaky fucking smirk. I had never before seen or felt such a menacing combination of emotions, not even from Maria and that bitch knew how to rock a torture session!
With no more than a look she had me grateful that my bladder no longer functioned because the mix of determination, anger, promise, and threat, all capped off by an eerie sense of knowing and glee that she was emitting woulda made a lesser man piss his pants.
And by lesser I mean any man who was capable of pissing at all.
I bit my tongue, determined to hold back the word that had started in my balls (which were currently shriveling up and trying to crawl up inside of my stomach where they might be safer), and risen up my throat trying to fall out of my mouth and hopefully remove me from being the focus of her evil intent.
"Sorry." Stupid word made a break for it. Goddammit! I did not just cower and apologize out of fear of a tiny little human who couldn't even place one foot in front of another on a reliable basis!
Man the fuck up Whitlock! It's not like she could actually do anything to you, and even if her eyes can get all freaky and her emotions chill the shit out of you, you are a motherfuckin' vampire! Not just any old run of the mill vampire either! You're the most hated and feared vampire in the world, more so than the Volturi because even they know better than to fuck with you and you will not back down from some tiny little sexpot that shoulda been no more than a yummy snack just cuz she's got a little psycho grin on her face that woulda made the clown from It proud!
With the little pep talk I had given myself I took my eyes off the road and met hers in the mirror again. The sense of glee and threat coming from her only increased.
Since when have I categorized threat as an emotion? Well, it's actually a mix of emotions but it's a damn scary mix and there's a certainty underlying everything else that tells me that she knows she is capable of whatever harm she is currently imagining. My eyes fall down and I focus once again on the road, realizing with more than a little chagrin that the fact that she has made me feel nervous just makes everything else about her that much more down right fuckin' sexy.
Yep. She's gonna be mine. I'll get right on that plan too. Just as soon as I can look her in the eyes without wanting to crawl away and hide.
Thank god Pete ain't here to see this shit. That fucker would use this for ammo for the next millenium worth of jokes and wise ass comments.
Just when I had that thought my phone buzzed in my pockets and groaned, knowing without even reading the text that it was too late. Fucker already knew.
Asshat.
PaulPOV
I would laugh at the way Scar's smirk fell of his face and his eyes dropped away from Mama's 'see the hurt before I give it to you' glare if I wasn't worried about having it turned right back on me. Even then though, it was difficult to hold the laugh in when he kept flickering his eyes back at her nervously but couldn't hold her steady, unblinking gaze. Thank fuck it wasn't so difficult that I slipped and drew her attention back to me though.
I already learned the hard way that when someone shaves my head completely smooth while I'm passed out in human form, then uses red sharpie to color in my lips and blue on my eyelids, it translates into some weird transvestite drag queen poodle looking thing when I phase to wolf and I did not want to know what other fucked up humiliations she had come up with in the four months since then.
In the interest of keeping my own dignity, I'm going to sit over here in the corner of the backseat and not look her way or make any big movements.
It's not cowering dammitt!
It's a healthy interest in self-preservation.
EsMomPOV
I barely manage to hold in the full belly laughter I can feel wanting to climb it's way out of my mouth at the way my beautiful, fragile little human daughter has managed to frighten two supernatural so-called-men of immense strength. I can't wait to tell Rose and Carlisle about this! I think I'll leave Emmett to discover this on his own though, I can only hope I'm there to see it when he draws her wrath, as he no doubt will eventually.
With no more than a vaguely worded, softly spoken threat and the look on her face she has made two supposedly 'bad-ass' men cower away from her in fear. I'd never tell anyone, but I swear I heard Jasper whimper softly at one point.
Jasper looks my way in curiosity, no doubt the strong feeling of pride I have for Bella has him wondering what I'm thinking about. When I recall with perfect clarity the shudder that he gave after she turned and looked at him I have to bite laughter back once again.
Now he's pouting. Not in a very obvious way, but I'm his mother and know his different looks and I can see it as clear as anything. He must have guessed what was going through my mind. Silly boy. He's nearly two centuries old and is only now learning how effectively terrifying an angry woman can be.
Part of me feels that I should be upset about the obvious attraction I can see he has for her, but all in all, I'm really not surprised. Bella has allowed me to see the relaxed side of her that is normally suppressed when in the presence of our family and it wouldn't be the first time that I had the thought that her and Jasper would make a good pair. It was clear to me from the start that Edward wasn't the right man for her, but their love had seemed so strong and my love for her and desire to keep her in my family had allowed me to overlook the glaring discrepencies in their personalities. As long as he had made Bella happy, I would have supported her decision to stay with him, but it is increasingly clear that he's smothering her and she will only take so much of it before she has to make a change.
I'm happy that she's finally blossoming out of the shell she had created around herself using other people's expectations of her as her building material. Between the way she had always had to step in and fill the spot of mother to her mother and 'wife' to her father, it was no wonder that she had so much strength in her. The only part that surprised me is how no one else could see it as clearly as I could until recently.
Now that the Volturi are involved and she has to become one of us no matter what happens with her and Edward, I can finally encourage her to be who she was always meant to be. I love Edward and I'm sorry that he's going to be hurt more by the changes in Bella, but he brought this on himself. If he had only changed her when she first asked, then she would still be the girl that he had fallen in love with, the girl that worshiped him and molded herself to please him. Instead, he left her and created the vacuum in her life that had necessitated her change. The woman she had become would never be satisfied with what Edward could provide. Would never be satisfied with being what he wanted. She was so young, and malleable when we had first met her and she had wanted his love so much that she'd had no problem changing herself to be what he wanted, but by his own actions she had been hardened by struggle and heartbreak and would no longer fit into the square hole he wanted to shove her into.
Despite Edward's pain, that which he is feeling now and that which is no doubt to come, I am proud to see how strong she is. Happy to be able to keep her in my life and eager to make sure she is happy with it's clear to me that Edward is no longer the man that can keep her happy. That ended when he left her in the woods with a broken heart-an act that he had left out of his story when he told us that he would let her know why we were leaving and for which I still carried the big toe of his left foot in my purse for committing. Edward is too set in his old-fashioned ways for the woman she became with the help of his lies and cruelty.
But Jasper... Jasper has always been the one of us who could most easily adjust and adapt with the changes that came with eternity. He is also the one who is better suited for a such strong headed woman with a generous heart and so much strong emotion. He deserved someone who could love him with all her heart and I knew he wouldn't hold her back the way Edward seemed determined to do. The only thing I want is for my children to be happy. Edward and Bella were no longer the ones who could do that for each other... but Bella and Jasper...
Not that she seems to be noticing Jasper in that way just yet. With the way she looks at that Paul boy, and the way he looks at her, I'm frankly amazed that she was still available when we came back to her. There's more to that story than I know yet, but I'm a mother and I can be patient. They very obviously love each other and likely have done so since before we came back, so what is it that has kept them apart? I'm worried that she'll be heartbroken about losing him after the change, but they seem to have some sort of understanding about the whole situation that I don't quite understand just yet. It's like they are a couple, but at the same time, they're not. Whatever it is that Jasper can feel from them towards each other certainly seems to upset him though. I only hope she knows what she's doing, although I will support her and help her figure it out if she doesn't. After all, that's what Mothers are here for, to support our daughters, help them up and show them how to stand tall even after they fall.
JasperPOV
I'm not sure exactly what Esme is pondering right now, but whatever it is, it is causing a maelstrom of love, pride, hope, fear, support and humor. Esme is always full of positive emotions, it's why I love spending time with her. Until recently Bella was the same. She still always has that inner emotional landscape of love and worry, but some of her outer emotions today are freakin me the hell out!
Still not wanting to chance getting caught in her eyes again, I avoid the rearview and turn my attention and curiosity onto Esme. She smiles and reaches over to hold my hand where it resting on the gear stick strengthening the emotions I can feel from her and giving me a little bit more insight to them.
I can't really describe the way that touching someone clarifies their emotions for me other than to say that it's almost as if each particular emotion leans towards the person that causes them. For example Esme is feeling love and pride for both Bella and me, fear and concern towards Bella and the odorous mutt in the backseat, and humor towards the mutt and myself. I don't like the fact that the two of us are linked in any way but I guess I can understand that Esme finds a great deal of humor in the fact that Bella backed us both down without any superpowers.
My phone buzzed again and this time I pulled it out. It was easy enough to ignore the one that I knew was from my asshat of a brother, but I really needed to check this one out and make sure that Alice hadn't seen anything I would need to know urgently. Peter's message from earlier popped of first.
J- Bet your yella bellied, lily livered ass I ain't lettin you live that shit down, I printed up the t-shirts weeks ago! -Peter
Asshat.
I deleted that shit and opened the second one, only barely resisting the urge to throw it out the window after I saw it was from Pete as well.
Superpowers of psycho-pussy man-watch out for yourself bro-the force is strong with this one and she hasn't yet decided which half of her powers she most wants to show you-the psycho or the pussy. Tell Kitten I can't wait to meet the little girl that made you wee in your knickers hahahaha!
I ain't telling her shit, and there's nothing he can do about it.
Naturally, as soon as that thought crosses my mind I hear her phone buzz in the backseat.
Asshat.