Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Behind Steel Bars

By Midnight Dreamer

Chapter 16: A day at the Whitlock Ranch

Just like any other day, Jasper was up with the sun and starting out his day like every other; he made his way to the kitchen to make his coffee and walked out the front door to retrieve the newspaper while it brewed. Making his way back to the kitchen, he got his cup out of the cabinet and poured a full cup before heading to his office and sitting behind his desk. Sipping at his coffee, he read about the news of the day, glad that he had yet to read anything about his weekend getaway at the local police station.

Once finished with his coffee and the newspaper, he checked his email – nothing new there. He swung the chair around to the monitors that showed the house and reset the system to start taping today and realized it was barely 6:30.

Jasper sat at his desk for awhile, trying to decide what to do for the day. Peter and Charlotte had both returned to work, so that left either staying home and doing nothing or going to visit his Ma. Jasper decided on the lesser of the two evils: to the ranch it was.

After putting his coffee cup in the sink and making sure everything was the way it was supposed to be, he went to his room. After putting on a fresh pair of jeans, a t-shirt and his new boots, he was ready to go.

Jasper was almost out the door when he suddenly remembered he didn’t have a way there. He was about to give up and just stay home when he remembered the storage shed down the street still held one of his old vehicles. Alice despised it, saying it was useless since they had no need for it in the city. So heading back to his office he recovered the keys that lay hidden in the upper right hand drawer of his desk before he headed down the street to the shed.

Unlocking the door to the shed wasn’t as easy as he thought it was gonna be since the years of rough weather wore on the lock, making it rusty and stiff. Eventually it gave in and relinquished it’s hold on door.

Stepping inside the wind entered with him and kicked up the unsettled dust, making him cough. He reached for the light switch that sat on the wall next to him and blinked at the sudden intrusion of light in the darkened space. His vision finally adjusted and his sights immediately landed on the tarp covering his once true love.

With great ceremony he removed the tarp and unwrapped his treasure. Smiling a little more as the fully-equipped, midnight blue 2001 Ford F250 with dual cab pick up was revealed – she was every farm boys wet dream: a lift kit that made it so he had to jump up slightly to get into it, the chrome cow catcher on the front adding to her beauty and handiness on the farm, and the roll bars with spotlights for better visual in the fields.

Jasper climbed up into the drivers seat and started her up; the engine roaring to life before settling into an idling purr. Looking around, he noticed everything inside was right where he left it. As he turned to put her into gear something caught his eye. A piece of fabric sticking up by the passenger side door. He leaned over grasping the material in his hand; yanking lightly he removed the item from it’s hiding spot: his old black stetson. He had forgotten about it when he was forced to put the truck in storage. Smacking it off his knee to shake the dust out a little, he then settled it on top his head. Smiling to himself he put the truck into gear and drove out of the shed. Stopping only long enough to get out and seal up the shed, he was soon on his way back home to the ranch. He was finally going home!

* * * * *

After his phone call with Peter, Dr. Cullen went about his rounds for the better part of the morning. Soon enough, he realized he could put off the inevitable no longer and had to call his wife and tell her of the developments in their daughter’s no-longer marriage. But how was he to explain that she cheated on her husband – while he was off fighting in the war for our freedom and his life – while she stayed home and was comforted by their supposed best friend? Carlisle did not know what he was gonna say but decided it was time. Making his way once again to his office he pulled his cell phone from his coat pocket. It rang only twice before she picked up.

“Cullen Residence, Esme speaking.”

“Esme, darling, how are you this morning?”

“I’m fine, dear. Just preparing for my lunch with Abigail.”

“Well, that is part of why I’m calling…”

“Oh, and why would that cause you to take time out of your busy day to call me?”

“Well, it’s more about Alice then Abigail.”

“Have you seen Alice? I haven’t heard from her in days.”

“Actually, I saw her just this morning here at the hospital.”

“The hospital! Is she okay? What happened? Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

“Esme, Esme… calm down. She isn’t hurt – she is here with a friend.”

“Thank heavens! Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

“Sorry, love, you didn’t give me a chance to.”

“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. How is she? Where is Jasper? Is he home? Does he know what’s going on?”

“She is fine! Her friend is a little banged up but should be fine to go home tomorrow. Jasper, I believe, is at his home – he knows exactly what is going on – at least as much as his lawyer tells him, anyway.”

“Lawyer? Why would he have to find out from a lawyer? What is going on, Carlisle? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Dearest, it seems that Jasper and Alice got divorced several days ago.”

“They what?”

“I said something similar to that, I think, when I spoke with Peter.”

“Peter? As in Jasper’s brother? Why didn’t you just call Jasper?”

“Jasper phone has been disconnected but Peter gave me his new number and I had planned on calling him at lunch time to talk about what has happened.”

“What has happened?”

“Well, from what Peter has told me, Jasper came home on Friday. He and Charlotte picked him up but they didn’t phone Alice because Jasper wanted to surprise her. Well, when he got home our daughter was in bed with another man; a supposed friend of theirs from the way it sounds – the same friend that she is here at the hospital with, Edward Masen. Alice said that this Edward and Jasper got into a fight and Edward got injured so he has been here since that night. Jasper, on the other hand, spent his first weekend home in the local jail.”

“Oh my! That poor dear… Have you spoken to him yet? Does he know that we knew nothing of her betrayal and that we still love him?”

“I have not spoken to him yet but I plan on asking him to lunch to talk it over. I just wanted to give you a heads up since you are having lunch with Abigail.”

“I hope she isn’t angry with me over what Alice has done. She didn’t seem to be when I spoke to her yesterday.”

“Well, let’s hope she doesn’t hold this against us. As for our Alice, what would you like to do about that?”

“If you see her again today, please tell her I would like her to come to the house for dinner tonight.”

“Will do. Anything else, dear?”

“Yes, could you stop at the bank on your way home? I have a feeling your daughter is gonna need to get into her old account now that Jasper isn’t taking care of her.”

“Sure thing. I will see you when I get home. Love you!”

“I love you too, dear.”

* * * * *

When Jasper finally arrived at the ranch he went straight to work. It felt nice to feel useful again. He worked side-by-side with his mother’s ranch hands: tossing hay and straw into the empty stall in the barn, cleaning out the stalls, brushing and washing the horses after running them and helping to mend the broken fences. It was almost lunch time when Jasper caught sight of his Ma waving him over from the porch. Moving towards her, he saw that she was holding a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses.

“Hey, Ma!” Jasper called to her.

“Boy, why didn’t you come tell your Ma you was here? I wouldn’t have even known you was here if it weren’t for that monstrosity you call a truck parked in the drive.”

“Don’t dis the truck, Ma,” Jasper chuckled, settling into the seat next to her.

“What ya doin’ out here, anyway?”

“Needed something to do. You know how it is… idle hands and all that.”

“Yeah, now ya sound just like your Pa.”

“It ain’t a bad thing.”

“No, it ain’t. So, how ya doin’, boy?”

“Better now that I’m on the farm and finally feeling at home.”

“This is always your home.”

“I know that, Ma and I’m thinking about coming to stay here for awhile. I’m might lock up the house in the city and crash in the small cottage at the back of the farm till shit settles.”

“Well, ya know you are welcome.”

“Thanks, Ma.”

On the horizon Jasper noticed a black SUV was coming up to the house, leaving a dust trail in it’s wake.

“Ma, are ya expecting someone?”

“Yeah – sorry, Jasper, I forgot Esme was coming for our weekly lunch date.”

“Nah, Ma, it’s alright.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, Ma – you have your lunch with Esme. I have to get back to work anyway; there’s still six more horses to take care off.”

“Okay, baby. You get back to work and I’ll see ya later.”

“Be back by sundown like always, Ma.”

“Be careful.”

“Always, Ma.”

Jasper was heading down the stairs when Esme’s SUV came to a stop. Esme stepped out and called to him before he could get to far away.

“Jasper?”

“Esme, it’s good to see you but I have to get back to work.”

“Please, just a minute.”

“Okay – you have one minute.”

“Jasper dear, I just found out about what happened between you and Alice. Carlisle called me this morning to tell me about it, saying he ran into Alice at the hospital with that man.”

“Edward – his name is Edward.” Jasper growled.

“Jasper, I don’t really care what his name is.”

“Sorry, Esme. It’s still a sore subject for me.”

“Well I wouldn’t expect anything less. You loved her with everything you had – I saw that. Anyone who knew you saw that. And as for my daughter, I will be speaking with her later this evening so I would like to know exactly what happened.”

“What do you know so far?”

“I know that you found Alice with that man in your bed and that you spent the weekend in jail because of a fight that you had with him. That he whacked his head off your counter top and that he woke up this morning… and that you divorced Alice on Monday.”

“So, the cliff notes.”

“I guess, is there more?”

“Esme, I think you and Ma should go in the house and have a seat – I have something I think you both should see.”

“If you think that is best.”

Jasper followed the two women into the house. While they headed to the living room, Jasper headed to the basement where he kept all the surveillance equipment that was connected to both his and Peter’s homes. Reaching into a file cabinet, he pulled out one of the many copies of the footage from the last two years. Finding what he was looking for, he closed the drawer before heading back upstairs to meet with the women. Upon entering the room, Jasper’s Ma spoke:

“Son you sure about this?”

“Ma, I think it’s best if we are all on equal footing here, so everything is out in the open. I won’t have to hide anything around yous and we can start to move forward from all this – I just want my peaceful life back!”

“Well then, get on with it.”

Jasper walked up to the DVD player and inserted the disc:

“This starts back from when I left two years ago so you will first see us all leaving together.”

“Who is us?” Esme asked.

“Myself, Alice and Edward.”

“Oh, my…”

“I will be out in the fields if you need me. I’ll be back in a few hours, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me when I return.”

With that, Jasper walked out of the house and back to his work. He took his time with the horses, finding it helped to calm him down. He wondered what his Ma and Esme would think once they watched the footage… How would his life change now?