A Fresh Start
By BetterInTexas
Chapter 07:
Jasper POV
“It’s time, Alice.”
“I know Jasper. I just… we lost Bella. I lost Bella. Now we are losing
our family.”
“They aren’t our family, Alice. We are family. You and I.”
“I know.” She whispered. “It just seems like if we leave, it would be
admitting she is gone.”
“She is gone, Alice.” I whispered back.
“I know.”
“You can’t stand to be around him. None of us can stand to be
around each other. It is time, Alice.”
“Let me pack.”
I took a breath and walked downstairs. The family was sitting around the table.
“You and Alice are leaving?” Carlisle asked.
“Yes.”
“Will you return?” Esme asked.
“No.”
Silence.
“Rose and I are leaving too. We aren’t coming back.” Emmett spoke.
This wasn’t a surprise. I knew how they both were feeling. Resentment towards each other, anger, depression, guilt. It was a
running theme in this family.
Esme turned to Emmett.
“Emmett? Rose?”
“I’m sorry Esme. After what happened. After what we did to Bella… Emmett and I cannot be a part of this any longer. There will be no
more going to high school so Carlisle can be a doctor. We won’t do it any longer. We are going off by ourselves. We won’t be a part of this family. I’m truly sorry but it has to be this way. There is no going back.”
Edward looked around.
“Stay. I will leave. I will never return. Don’t break up the family over my mistakes.”
“We all made mistakes, Edward. We never should have become
involved in the human world. It is not our world. We should have
either made you turn her immediately or ran away from her.” I told
him.
“Jasper, we still have each other. We have our family.” Carlisle said
quietly.
“No. You let Bella become part of our family. Then you let Edward
pull us away Carlisle. We abandoned a family member. Families
don’t do that. Our family fell apart the moment we left her. We should have turned her. We abandoned her. She saved Edward and he turned her down again, leaving her in danger. Making her run.
Making her disappear. We killed her. You should have changed her. I should have changed her. Now it is too late. Our family is no more. It is time for us to go.”
Alice walked down carrying 4 bags. I took two from her.
“Goodbye.” She whispered.
We turned to walk out the door. Alice stopped.
“Edward? I hate you and I hope you suffer for eternity you selfish
immature bastard.”
With that said Alice and I walked out of the Cullen family. What used to be the Cullen family.
An hour away from Forks, I picked up the phone and dialed Peter.
“Hello Jasper.”
“Hey Peter.”
“What can I do for you?”
I was a little taken aback. Peter sounded serious. He sounded…
angry?
“Alice and I have left the Cullen family.”
“And?”
“We were hoping to come visit you and Charlotte.”
“We are a little busy, Jasper.”
What the hell?
“Okay.”
“We are living in Bulgaria right now. We plan on moving soon but
aren’t sure where.”
Bulgaria?
“What the hell are you doing in Bulgaria?” I asked.
“Being vampires. You remember anything about that?”
Yep. Peter was definitely pissed.
“I’m detecting a bit of anger here, Peter. We do something to you?”
“No Jasper, you did something to yourself. Both of you by hooking
up with those fucking Cullens. Going to high school? You fucking
idiot. Now the Volturi want your fortune teller and you want to bring me and Char in the middle of your shit. You are poison, Jasper. Stay away from us.”
The call ended. He hung up on me. That hurt. I know he didn’t like the Cullens, but damn.
“Where are we going Jasper?”
“I don’t know, Alice. Where do you want to go? New York City?”
“Yes. It’s as good a place as any.”
PPOV
“That was kind of rough, baby.” Char mentioned.
“Yeah. Had to be though. I can’t take a chance with him coming to
Texas. As long as we stick to our plan of never being involved in
Bella Swan’s life, Alice won’t get a vision of her. If she does, she and Jasper will come looking for the girl. Then we will have to kill them both.”
“You would kill Jasper over a human?”
“This one I would. How was she the last time you checked on her?”
“Doing great. They are engaged. You wouldn’t believe the wild ass
party they had. It looked so fun.”
“Good.” Kid deserved fun.
“You should see the bed he made for her. Damn thing is fit for a
queen. I wouldn’t mind having one. I’m sure he wouldn’t make the
same one but something like it would be nice.”
“If that is what you want baby. But we have to use an alias to buy it
and hire a guy to pick it up. They are to have zero contact with us or any other vampires.”
I know, baby.”
“Then check out his website and email an order for something you
like, darlin.”
“Already looked baby. Just waitin on the all clear from you. I know
how you are about this girl and staying away from her.”
“Everything is fine. So long as Jasper doesn’t ever come here while
she is alive, it will be fine. If he does…”
“You think you can take him?”
“I know I can. He isn’t the same man he used to be.” The man I knew never would have let shit get that far. He never would have let it get started at all.
BPOV
“It’s cold.”
“I know. Shhh.”
“It’s dark. I can’t read.”
“I know Mary. The sun will be up soon.”
“Why are we wearing camo?”
“Cause we are huntin, darlin.”
“We are in a big wooden box on legs. It’s not like we can even be
seen.” This was the big deal? This is what I got my shoulder damn
near dislocated for?
“No, they can’t see us. But the deer can hear us. So let’s be quiet
okay?” he whispered. I rolled my eyes but the effect was lost on him in the cold darkness.
I sat in the dark for ten more minutes. I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. I was cold. This thick camo jacket was doing nothing for my cheeks and nose. He wanted to put a wool mask on me and I told him I looked stupid. I was kind of wishing I had it now.
“Bo?” I whispered.
“What Mary?”
“I need to pee.”
“Can you hold it? It’s almost sunrise. See? The sun is coming up
behind us. It will hit the feeder any minute.”
I took a deep breath. I really didn’t need to pee that bad. I was just
bored. It was too damn cold to pee anyway.
“I guess. How is this supposed to work again?”
He took a deep breath. He is the one who brought me. I didn’t beg
him to drag me out here to shoot Bambi’s dad.
“The feeder goes off at the same time every day. The deer get
trained to come to the feeder at that time to eat. They come, we find the biggest buck and you shoot it.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.” I pointed out.
“What do you mean it doesn’t seem fair?”
“You have these animals thinking they are coming for breakfast and then shoot them? How is that different than killing a dog when you put food in his bowl?”
“It’s not the same.”
Seems the same to me.”
“I’m not shooting a dog from 200 yards away.”
“May as well be.” I mumbled.
I guess he didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me. I would rather be
planning my wedding. We were getting married in two months. Me
and my girls had a lot to do. Steph was going to be my maid of
honor. She was basically planning the bachelorette party. Me and my girls had to do the rest. It was fine though. Steph wanted camo
napkins. Not happening. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with for my party.
The sun came up and I heard Bo.
“Holy shit.”
“What?” I scooted up and he put a hand on me.
“Gently and quietly sit on the bench and grab your rifle.”
I did as I was told.
“Look down the scope to the right of the feeder.”
I looked and saw him. Wow.
“He is big.”
“Yes he is, Mary. Now train your sites just behind his shoulder, just
like we practiced and slow your breathing.”
“Why? I can see him fine like this.”
“Why? Mary, you have to shoot him there to kill him humanely. You can do this. You have been practicing. Just like target shooting.”
“I… I can’t kill him.”
“What?” he hissed. “That has to be a fucking twelve point buck!”
“I know. I can count. He is beautiful isn’t he?”
“Yes. Now kill him and you can look at his head on the wall all you
want!”
“I can’t do it Bo. He is too beautiful.”
“Move over then, Mary. I will do it.”
I saw him place his rifle on the stand next to mine.
“No!”
“What? If I don’t kill him someone else will. It is deer season you
know.” He told me like I didn’t know what I was freezing my ass out here for.
“We could take him home. Keep him behind the shed.”
“You can’t take a wild animal home! What do you want me to do?
Rope him?”
Then it happened.
“Look Bo! He has a wife!” A beautiful doe walked up beside him.
“Bo, you can’t kill him with his wife next to him!”
I think Bo just said a curse word under his breath. He was mumbling
something about monster bucks and chance of a lifetime. I don’t
know what his problem is. Deer season happens every year. Oh how cute…
“Bo look!”
“You gotta be fucking kidding me.” He whispered.
The cutest baby deer just walked up next to the buck and began
eating off the ground next to his daddy.
It kind of made me wonder about my parents. Were they alive? Did
they look for me but in the wrong place? What if they didn’t?
Marriage had me thinking about a lot of things. Nobody was giving me away. I didn’t want anyone to. It’s been me and Bo since he found me in the woods. I would be giving myself to him. I don’t care about my old life. But I did wonder about my parents sometimes. I mean everyone has parents. Our children wouldn’t have grandparents with Bo’s parents dead and mine unknown.
“Bo you can’t kill the daddy with his wife and kid there.”
“Mary, that is food. It’s the same as cows when you eat steak.”
“I don’t have to look at the cow’s head every day in my living room
while I eat it! Besides if it is just meat you are after why do you have to shoot the one with the biggest horns?”
“Antlers.”
“What?”
“Antlers, Mary.”
“Whatever.”
“Look what did you think we would be doing when we went hunting?”
“I know, but Bo. He is so regal looking. And his family is there. It
would be too sad.”
“Mary… fine. Let’s go home.”
“No! I want to watch them eat and get some pictures.” I had to get a picture of this. It would look so good on our wall.
“We don’t have a camera.”
“Yes we do! I brought ours from home. Hold on.”
I grabbed the camera out of the bag and zoomed in.
“You brought a camera?”
“Yes. Isn’t that what you are supposed to do? Take a picture with a
deer?” What was the problem? I was being proactive.
“Yeah. A dead deer that you just shot. Not a family photo that your
friends are going to kick your ass over because I let it go.”
“Just tell them I shot and missed.” Men.
“I love you Mary. You have no idea how much this shows that I love you.” He whispered and kissed me on the nose. It was nice because my nose was freezing.
“I know.” I smiled back at him.
“So if I don’t get to mount a bucks head on my wall, there is
something else I want to mount.” He winked at me.
“Great! Let’s go home. We can climb under the covers and you can
warm up my toes.”
“No. I was thinking more like now.”
“Uh. Bo, it’s like 40 degrees. I am freezing. I am not getting naked in here.”
“We have the space heater.”
“I have to pee!”
“No you don’t.” Dammit, he knows my lies to well!
“I am not making love to you in this wooden box!”
“But Mary, I have always had this fantasy about making love in a
deer stand.” He was giving me that panty dropping grin. Now he was stroking my cheek. Don’t give in.
“No!”
“Fine.” He sighed. “I suppose since I am here I may as well shoot
that buck. Oh wow. He has two kids with him now. Want to see?”
“You are going to kill that deer if I don’t give it up in this deer stand?”
“That’s right.” Fuck he was looking through his scope again. I was
really cold. I moved to look at the feeder. There were two babies
there now.
“You expect me to fuck for that deer’s life?”
“Yep.”
I looked again. The babies were so cute.
“Close the flap and turn the heater on. You aren’t taking my top off. And nothing comes off till it warms up in here. Deal?”
He finally put the gun down.
“I think that is a fair compromise darlin.” He smiled.
“Shut up and turn the fucking heater on, Bo.”
Charlie POV A month was wasted running from Dallas to Louisiana. I must have talked to every metropolitan police department. Dallas was way too big to give me any serious help. Tyler was nice but the guy who was in charge of missing persons just came from Robbery and didn’t recognize her. They didn’t have her in their system.
Jake and I hit every small town we could with missing person’s
posters. I even talked to the bank and arranged to get a loan for a
reward if anyone gave me any info leading to her being found.
I was sitting with Sam, Jacob, Billy and Sue in Billy’s living room. The Cullens had left. We had no reason to think the Italian vampires would be here. No vampires for a couple months. Things were slowing down. Unfortunately my investigation never got underway.
At least it didn’t get far.
“Am I fighting a losing battle here?” I asked to no one in particular.
“No Charlie. You aren’t. When are you going back?” Sue asked. She
had been so supportive. All of the La Push gang had been but Sue
especially. She sat up so many nights with me, just listening.
“Last weekend of every month. I will keep going to Texas for the rest of my life if I have to. I may have to move there if nothing comes up soon.”
“I’m going with you this time.”
“Sue…”
“No, Charlie. I am coming with you.”
“Any word from Paul and Embry, Sam? Jake?”
“No. They are covering the area around Whitehouse, and then hitting the Palestine area.”
The Pack had a running rotation. Two of them were always in East
Texas passing out missing posters with Bella’s face. When I went to Texas, they would come back to La Push. When I got back to Forks, two more pack members would go to Texas. Leah and Seth went last time. Paul and Embry were there now. They ran at night trying to catch a scent. They passed posters out during the day. I didn’t know how they afforded this but Billy told me not to worry about it. I really wasn’t in a position to argue.
“Charlie I think you need to focus on what you didn’t find.” Billy
commented.
“I have been, Billy.”
“No. I mean what you didn’t find at the police departments. No
unclaimed bodies that haven’t been identified. No human remains
found by hunters in the forest in the past year that haven’t been
identified. She hasn’t been found dead. She wasn’t buried in the
middle of a forest. She was left on the side of the road. Someone
would have discovered a body. I agree with Jake’s theory.”
I looked at Jake who was nodding at his Dad.
“You think she is still hiding because she thinks vampires are after
her and therefore me.”
“Yep. It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Billy said.
“But if that’s the case she could have caught a ride, hitch hiked
anywhere. She may not even be near Texas now.”
“That’s true Charlie but I would bet that girl is alive. All we have to go on now is East Texas. We stick with that.” Sam said.
“I’m just so damn disappointed I guess. I really thought when I found the area that finding her would be…”
“Easy?” Sue whispered. I raised my head and nodded.
“Yeah.”
“You can’t give up, Charlie.” Jake said quietly.
“I will never give up Jake. I will be on my death bed still looking for
leads!” I yelled. I was a little wired.
Give up? Not an option. I would go bankrupt. Lose my job, my
house, whatever it took. Work two jobs if I needed the money. I was going to bring her home. One way or another. I just wish I had a sliver of hope. Anything that could be found.
Bo POV
“You should have brought someone else to help you unload.”
“Why?”
“I’m not strong enough for that dresser.”
“Of course you are. The weight lifting has made you a lot stronger.” I told her honestly.
“Are you saying I look bulky? I can’t get bulky Bo. I’ve already had
my fitting. I can’t change sizes!”
“Would you relax? You aren’t bulky by any means. Still the same
size. I’m just saying you have gotten deceptively stronger.”
“I still can’t handle this.”
“I have the dolly. All you have to do is open the doors. Then we can go into Tyler and check on your flowers. They will be here this
weekend. If they’re not perfect we are going to be at the Rose Garden. We can just pick some.”
Mary was so into this wedding. She must have been a really girly girl in her old life. I would have loved to have known her then. I also wish she knew her parents. I have always been a little insecure about her old life, no matter how often she tells me not to be. But it was lessening. I knew without a doubt no matter what she wouldn’t leave me. Now I wish she could find out if she at least had parents who were alive. I missed mine pretty bad still. I wished they could have been there. Steph was in tears over it the other night.
They would have loved Mary so much.
We dropped off the dresser. Mary tripped over the door she opened but thankfully no injuries occurred. This is why I only trusted her with the belt sander. No other power tools for her. After we get back from the honeymoon, I planned to give all my attention to her plan. She decided we could afford a bigger shop. She had the spot picked out behind our house. She had the sign picked out. She had the hiring plan laid out. We were expanding. Slowly. But we were going to expand. She convinced me. She said I was too talented to only use my talents locally. Truthfully I had thought of this since I first started making furniture. I was always a little afraid though. A little unsure of myself. She gave me confidence. She made me feel there was nothing we couldn’t accomplish together. It seemed like every time she opened her mouth some words of wisdom spilled out.
“Bo, I’m hungry and I need to pee.”
Okay. Maybe not every time. But a lot of the time. Some of the time.
“You want to wait ten minutes and go to Bodacious Barbecue or you want to stop at Dairy Queen over there?”
“Hungerbuster with bacon. Good… Mmmmm. Mary hungry.”
“I guess Dairy Queen it is.” I laughed. She must be hungry if she is
doing the cutest little Hulk imitation ever.
We pulled in and sat at the blue table. Why they felt the need to
make the tables different colors in these places I will never
understand. Like having lunch in a Rubik’s Cube.
We sat and talked about nothing in particular. Then she started
talking about my tuxedo. My bachelor party. She denied knowing
anything about her party. I knew the only contribution the maid of
honor had made to the wedding was the bachelorette party. Steph
arranged this. It made me nervous.
“So are you going to have strippers at your party, Mary?” I asked
casually.
“I really don’t know. You would have to ask your sister.”
“Mmm hmm. So you have no idea?”
“Hey. I’m just along for the ride. What about you? Strippers?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cause I heard they were taking you to Timeout.”
“Yeah? I don’t know what Todd has planned.”
“Mmmmm hmmmm.” She hummed raising an eyebrow.
“Hey look. Our order is ready!”
We ate in relative silence. Mary threw a few French fries at me. I hit her with an open ketchup package on her nose. We got some dirty looks from the teens working the counter for making a mess I suppose. All in all a typical day for us. No matter what we were
doing, I always seemed to be having fun with her. That’s the real
reason I brought her on deliveries. They were boring without her.
We finished up and I dumped our baskets in the trash. It was time to go check on the location and the flowers. I backed out of the parking lot and something caught my eye. Two of the biggest guys I had seen around these parts. Looked Indian. I didn’t know many Indians but I didn’t think they were normally any larger than a normal person.
These two were huge.
“Hey Mary, look at those guys walking in.”
She turned and saw them.
“Holy shit they are big.”
“Yeah.” Putting it mildly. 6’5 at least and built like goddamn
bodybuilders. Strange. Maybe there is some sort of boy building
competition in town.
“We shouldn’t stare. It’s rude Bo. Let’s go check on the flowers.”
Paul POV
“We can eat later, Embry.”
“Fuck Paul, I’m starving. Besides they got these Dairy Queen places all over. We can leave a poster here.”
We walked in and stood in the back of the line.
“You think she is alive, Paul?” Embry asked trying to sound casual.
“Yep. Not a doubt in my mind.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“That little girl slapped a 6’5 man in the face once and then didn’t
pass out when that man turned into a giant wolf. She survived
vampires. She survived a serial rapist according to Charlie. She is
too tough to die.”
Embry nodded and stood silently. I perused the menu. Four double
cheeseburgers sounded about right.
Jalepenos? Don’t mind if I do.
We placed our orders and went to sit down to wait. All these fucking tables were colored. Red, blue, yellow. What am I in? A fucking pre school?
We picked the blue table and sat down. Away from the smell of a
burning grill, it hit me. A fresh scent. Embry smelt it to. His eyes were wide.
“It can’t be.” He whispered.
“I’ll never forget that girl’s scent, Embry. It has to be fresh to be on
this surface.” I looked under the table and saw an open ketchup
package. I picked it up and sniffed. Jake wasn’t the only one who
would never forget that scent. Before I imprinted on Rachel, that girl haunted my dreams. She still does sometimes. More so since she had been gone. I kept it to myself. But before the Spirits decided the Wolf should love Rachel Black, the man loved Bella Swan. I never told her because of this stupid imprinting thing. I was glad I didn’t. I didn’t know if she would have me but imprinting would have been another blow in her life she didn’t need. That’s why I’m glad she never fell in love with Jake. The chance of imprinting was too great.
Also I would have been too jealous.
“You okay, man?” I heard from the front.
The kid at the counter was staring at me. I suppose I was sniffing a
ketchup packet off the floor. I handed it to Embry and walked to the counter, posters in hand.
“You seen this girl?”
“What is this? A joke?”
“Do I look like I am joking boy?” I growled. He backed up.
“Chill man. I’m just sayin, the poster says missin but that girl and her boyfriend were throwing French fries and that ketchup packet not 5 minutes ago. They left right before you came in.”
“You see what they were driving? A license plate? What direction
they headed?”
“No. I’m kinda busy working here. That says there is a reward. Is
there a reward?”
“You know where she is? Where she lives?”
“No! I don’t know her. Never seen her before. A lot of people live in
this area, man.”
“In this town?”
“No but we are ten miles from Tyler. She ain’t from Whitehouse. I
know everybody in Whitehouse. Neither of them were from here.”
“I tell you what kid. You keep this poster. You put it up on the wall.
You see her again you call that number immediately. You help me
find her I will pay you myself. Now put our food in bags. We have to hit the road.”
I walked back to Embry who had sat and watched the exchange.
“Five minutes? We missed her by five fucking minutes! Hell Paul, it could be five days! There are 100,000 plus people in Tyler. That’s not even counting the small towns around here.”
“Embry, shut up already. We know she is alive and we know she is in this area. We know more than we knew before. This is all good
news.”
“Did I hear him say boyfriend, Paul?”
“Yeah. But it could have been just a friend. Downplay it. I don’t need Jake coming up here on a mission to win her. We need to get her home. Now I got to call Charlie.”
I dialed his number, smiling. It would be nice to give him some good news.
“Paul?”
“Charlie. I haven’t found her yet but I know she is alive. She just left a fast food place right before Embry and I arrived. The guy at the counter recognized her instantly. She was with another guy and they were playing around and laughing Charlie. She is alive. She doesn’t appear to be in danger. We don’t know exactly where she is. We still have to search. But we are on the right track, Charlie. Someone will recognize her from the poster. It’s a matter of time.”
I heard nothing but silence on the other end of the line.
“Charlie?”
Then I heard it. Chief Swan was crying silently.
“Paul… I am on my way. Get me a room in Tyler and text me the
details. I am on my way.”
Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction 
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