#tdod

[noahwyles]

the end of dial of destiny making me cry like a baby after the third time still. 🥲

[shadlad24]

Decision + The Mightier Debt

I have decided that re-uploading /The Betrayer/ is unnecessary at this time but have added the Intertwine chapters spanning "The Debt" to "The Quill is Mightier..." to their rightful positions.

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“Nevermind!” Hope interrupted whatever else Aphrodite might have to say. “I’m leaving this place. I’m not afraid of a mere mortal. And I’m big enough to face that warrior-witch now! I’ll do it myself!”

The goddess slapped a hand over her own mouth to stifle a guffaw. “You’re big, huh? …Ha!” she burst out anyway. “You have the same little-dog attitude your mother does! Oh, you two are too-”

Hope’s hunger hit her in a sudden, all-encompassing pang, and she threw herself at Aphrodite just as Gabrielle had the night she gave Hope up. “What’s she like, Aphrodite? Don’t just tell me anymore! Show me!”

And in another echo of that night, the goddess sighed and put a hand over searching, imploring eyes. “Fine.”

A slideshow of some of Aphrodite’s favorite iterations of Gabrielle revealed themselves to Hope. The recklessly brave young girl tricking a cyclops and bossing around Titans; the dork whacking herself in the head with a quarterstaff in Amazonia, then playing a pan flute while doing a goofy jig alongside Xena and Argo, later conducting a chorus of stalagmites; the little hothead telling off the ex-Destroyer of Nations multiple times, whacking Joxer countless times, and uselessly trying to put the pinch on a barman; the reverent meeting Aphrodite for the first time; the sweetheart reassuring and soothing people wherever she went; all the characters contained in the same small person whom Aphrodite had come to adore flickered and danced in the darkness of the goddess’s cupped palm.

“So, anyway-”

“More!” Hope commanded, wrenching the goddess’s gauzy shawl in her fists and making Aphrodite nearly fall, desperate to be closer to Gabrielle.

/

“H-hey, kiddo. Rough night?” Aphrodite was partway through asking when the bard whipped around at her touch, took her in for a tenth of a second, and then squeezed her tight, sobbing into her neck and inner shoulder. “Oh, sweet pea,” she breathed past the forming lump in her own throat. Her curly head rested against a silky one while one of her hands lifted to pet the girl’s honey-blond tresses for several minutes. “Woke up and realized you were stuck with us, huh? I hate when that happens!” A true grin spread across her lovely face when Gabrielle stopped crying so hard and began to chuckle ruefully.

“Yeah, realizing I might be stuck with y- Ares for the rest of my life is not a happy thought, you know?”

“No kidding! Imagine having to live with the big meanie for a thousand years like I have. That’ll really wreck your day!”

The pair laughed hollowly some more. Words abandoned them all too soon, however, as each struggled over whether to say more or nothing at all.

When Aphrodite could not stand the awkward silence any longer, she declared, “Well, let’s try to get back to sleep, yeah? Maybe we’ll wake up, and this’ll all just be a bad dream.”

“Yeah…” Gabrielle agreed. “…Yeah.” But she did not move from the spot or extricate herself from Aphrodite in the slightest.

Instinctually, the impotent goddess of love stroked and rocked her friend back and forth until Gabrielle was sound asleep. Then she carried the bard back to her bedroll, and, after a second’s uncertainty, moved both farther away from the fire. Speaking in an undertone to herself, she said, “I’m glad to know my protection cloak still works, but with me being like this, it’s best to not take any extra chances, right? …Yeah, this is smarter.” Aphrodite grinned. Take that, Dahak. My powers have been stripped, and I’m still stronger than you! Ha! Aaand, with my scroll, Gabby has the power to fight you if need be! So, there! Wh-

[flowerslut]

If you’re still doing it how about hunt, light, safe and laugh 😊

yes!!! I’m going to do it as long as people send me words! ✨😌 and I swear to GOD I’m gonna reveal all of these titles soon. that way people know what stories I’m talking about without me having to vaguely describe them 🤦🏼‍♀️

“hunt” — CotN sequel:

Then, Carlisle eyed her. “If you’re volunteering to return to the field after this trip, you better call Emmett up and tell him to swing Josie around here.” Then, he smiled. “That way you can see her before you’re gone for a bit.”

“Already ahead of you,” she smirked, “I texted him an hour ago. Their movie doesn’t let out for another twelve minutes. They’ll be here around eight.”

“Leaves me with just enough time for a hunt,” Carlisle seemed pleased at the information. Alice knew that the man barely had the time to go on hunts now. “Either of you willing to join me?”

Jasper nodded absently, his eyes meeting Alice’s. At her responding blank stare he raised an eyebrow. “Coming?”

“light” — reylo fix-it fic

The woman looks like she wants to say something, but in seconds she’s gone. Rey blinks and it feels like she was never there to begin with. And maybe she wasn’t. Rey’s no stranger to the things the desert can do to your psyche. And if she is starting to go crazy it would only make sense.

Lifting her arms she pulls at the force, not even knowing what she’s reaching for. She pulls and pushes just to experience what it feels like again after so many months of small gestures and light touches between the force. She can hear the vaporators in the distance all groan in unison as she manipulates the force around them.

“safe” — human jalice AU

“Thanks,” Jasper grumbled, still feeling too awkward about this entire thing to really look back at him.

“And please, please be careful,” he cleared his throat softly, shuffling on his feet. “I mean, make sure to be safe. Use protection, and please get—“

“Carlisle,” Jasper had to interrupt before he burst with acute embarrassment, “it’s not like that.”

The man didn’t waver. “That’s what your sister said the first time we let Emmett stay over.” He didn’t need to elaborate there. Especially since Jasper had been the one to walk in on them back when they were eighteen and Rose had insisted she and the boy visiting from school were ‘just friends.’

This was different though.

“laugh” — the death of dusk

As Bella made her way out of the door, a producer stepped into the room directly after her, “Don’t go too far!” The man called after her retreating form. “We take the stage in five minutes!”

Bella simply snapped her fingers and held a thumbs-up over her head. Jasper grinned at the nonchalant gesture and the producers subsequent exasperation.

“We’re coming now,” Esme nodded. “Let me just double check everyone.” The words were more muttered to herself than to the producer. Reaching up, she adjusted another piece of hair on Jasper’s head and he had to bite back the urge to laugh. He was positive that he looked exactly the same, but whatever helped make Esme feel ready, he would go along with.

Carlisle got much of the same treatment, but when Esme licked her thumb and ran it over his eyebrow, Carlisle let out an exasperated sound. “Dear,” he scolded, and it was funny to feel such embarrassment from him.

[anubis20]

Official Token Prize #officialstore #nephilim #thedarksideofsimensions #ygo #yugioh #tcg #tdod

[shadlad24]

Rending Spark in the Falling Darkness

“No! Hope!” Just as she had leapt into the fray to stop Meridian from killing Khrafstar, Gabrielle used her staff to pole-vault herself to Xena and Hope.

“Well, you get this clear, Xena. No matter what she is, she is my daughter. Don’t come between us…”

But rather than take out a doomed aggressor, she charged the supposed victim. But in that move, she once again snatched her baby away from her best friend’s deadly intent. Screaming Xena’s name, she tumbled with her child into the lava pit.

/

Hope erupted from magma an hour after her mother tackled her into it.

Only one living thing remained in her father’s darkened temple. The lump curled up on the floor between the chasms stirred weakly. Black fury marred its face when its fluttering eyelashes snapped apart. Jumping and contorting into a crouching position, Seraphin prepared herself to kill her childhood friend.

Hope sent the mortal away with a flick of the wrist the second the zealot leapt up to shove her back to her death. “Peace, priestess,” the daughter of darkness muttered.

“Goddess!” Seraphin cried, instantly lighting up where she lay in a heap on the floor, a smear of blood from her side creating a trail to her. She again shot to her feet and then further jumped for joy. “I knew the betrayer couldn’t finish you!”

“Yeah, betrayer,” Hope agreed dully. Her face slumped into her hands as she released a weary sigh.

/

The swoop in her stomach told Gabrielle that she was still falling to her doom, her daughter no longer in her arms.

But her feet were on hard ground. Slippery-with-the-dew-so-often-found-in-the-forests-of-Britannia ground, but hard ground nonetheless. British foliage surrounded her.

Apart from her, Xena and the person the bard had been several months ago sat around a campfire eating quietly.

Much sooner than she usually would, Past Gabrielle stopped. The spoon she had brought to her lips hovered in the air for a moment; the next, it fell into her bowl which too fell to the dark earth.

Xena once more took up the unfamiliar role of trying to strike up conversation. “That bad, huh? Let’s just go with what we were talking about before and leave the cooking up to you from now on, hmm?”

Her friend nodded listlessly.

Xena sighed. “I’ll clean up. Why don’t you go lay down and get some rest? May-” One of her hands dropped her own bowl to grab Gabrielle’s as the girl pressed past her. “It will get better, little one. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but it will. Pr-”

A shadow of a smile tugged at the bard’s mouth though a cramp pinched in her cheek. Too, she pressed her fingers over lying lips, not wanting to hear another promise that would soon be broken. “Good night, Xena,” she said, the first thing she’d uttered since echoing the warrior’s own words back to her about the results of becoming a killer. Her hand very briefly caressed her friend’s cheek but fell before the woman could hold it to her face. Gabrielle trudged the few paces away to their bedrolls and collapsed onto them without waiting to hear a return greeting.

The Gabrielle unnecessarily hiding in the bushes watched as light blue eyes filled with tears until the warrior had to close them.

The pale face they were set in lost more color. And as the life drained from Xena, her lips began to move again.

For the first time ever, Gabrielle witnessed her friend pray over her, her light and spirit, a second time. Too bad they’d already been squelched, the bard thought dully.

.

Alright, y’all. Intertwined “Sacrifice” complete. Unfortunately, doubly, the summer will not be further explored in this story since Hope’s and Gabrielle’s experiences are not remotely intertwined. Gabrielle gets taken to another world, Aphrodite’s secret oasis (the story found in Tears of a Goddess: Convalescence, while Hope spends her time in Potidaea.

[shadlad24]

OMG; OMG; OMG! WHEEEEE!!!

Guess what! I just thought of another theory and related story idea that might fix all the major plot points I’ve been so concerned about and held back by all this time with my fic series. Yaaaaay!!!

Ladies, celebrate + get back to work with me!!! 😀 / 😝 ...I’ll, uh, follow in a minute. haha

^Credit where credit’s due

[shadlad24]

An Extinguishing of Hope

“Hope! What’s happened?” the blond goddess asked more loudly, sassily once she found her quarry.

Hope grunted. “That half-assed old man! He caught me coming for Solan.” Attempting to exploit the immortal same as she had done to her mother, she played up her own pitifulness. A beseeching look on her sweet face and small hand reaching out, she wordlessly asked for help.

Callisto was nothing like Gabrielle. “So, you had to kill him,” she said in her own version of a taunting sing-song. “And look what it’s done to you; weak as a little kitten. Which means, Solan; is mine!” Or she was exactly like Dahak’s chosen one.

Anguish surged through Hope at the sight of another woman walking out on her. Even worse, she was once again unable to stop it from happening. “No! You have to get me out of here!” she tried to speak Callisto’s language both orally and nonverbally, her facial expression and tone imitating combative threat as best she could in her drained state.

But it didn’t work. Amused and disbelieving, the blonde once more turned to leave.

—

The bard watched the haunted warrior numbly stumble toward the place where her son would be waiting for her. Gabrielle couldn’t face the boy. And she had her own searching to do. Wanting both to find her own child and to never see the girl again, she tore through the village, sidestepping the guest hut until she could avoid it no longer. “Fayla!” she shouted, the false name Hope had given her leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, and threw open the door to the place where she had told her daughter to wait for her.

It was empty.

Hazily, Gabrielle again envisioned herself as Pandora with a broken box. And a second time, she knew that hope had not been left to her, was not hers to keep.

—

Deciding not to call her child out on her lies and manipulation, the young mother dully mused, “You… knew Solan’s name, Hope. There’s no way-”

“Yes, there is! Xena and the centaur said it right in front of me! You even pulled out a chair to give me a front-row seat to that conversation! Don’t you remember? How do you think I knew to go to the Ixion caves to-” Hope gasped.

Gabrielle felt her own life drain away yet again with the unnecessary admission. “You killed Kaleipus, didn’t you? Didn’t you?” Unable to shake or strangle her daughter, she dug her fingernails into the girl’s clothing.

Her child sniffled, losing hope too. “I had to, mommy. He found me.” Her hollow tone hurt her mother even more than the truth did.

“Because you were there to kill Solan.” Again, tears fell down the bard’s bowed face onto her baby’s. “Oh, Hope… How could you?” How could I?

“I’m sorry, mommy,” the girl whined petulantly. Then she remembered her rage, which gave her another fleeting spurt of strength. “But Xena deserved it! She took you from me! Father’s let me see! It’s only fair that she suffer like we did! I hate her, mommy! I’d kill her son again if I could, and her too!”

Gabrielle stared into the setting sun, blinded by the light and getting lost in darkness. Bleakly, she realized her old lie had come true.

“It’s- beautiful expression of sweetness just turned into this, this hateful snarl and; and it was like looking into evil itself.”

.

Welp, there go the next three chapters of Intertwine, all the ones connected to “Maternal Instincts.” Enjoy! 😀

[flowerslut]

The Death of Dusk

idek what chapter this is tbh

happy Monday yall! I won’t be posting this anywhere else but here for several months (or at least until I write more between this story and WitD) but since it’s been a while since you got any fun Jasper POV stuff, I figured y’alls patience deserves some reward 💖

It always amused him whenever they had to do something like this. Human production companies typically never had any clue what to put in the green rooms. Where human guests would get theirs filled with snacks and overly-expensive drinks, they usually just filled theirs with extravagant flower bouquets. 

It was a nice enough gesture, but some days the flowers stank. And today was one of those days.

Of course, it had been the first thing Rosalie had complained about, nice and loudly for a few of the PA’s to hear—and subsequently shoot each other panicked looks about—then, after she’d realized there was only one bathroom in the room, she’d gathered up her bag and made for the hallway, declaring that she’d just get ready in the hall bathroom.

No matter what uncertainties lay ahead for the remainder of their afternoon taping, Jasper could always count of Rosalie to dial up the dramatics when it came to public appearances.

Esme had assured the two young women that the flowers were lovely and had thanked them profusely. She and Carlisle had shown up ready, as had he and Edward. But Rosalie had rolled her eyes at the whole lot of them.

“The whole idea is to show up wearing something different than what you’ll be recorded in, change upon arrival into the real show-stopper, and then change into something else on the way out.”

“Babe, you are the show-stopper.”

Edward had rolled his eyes and gagged audibly as he scrolled through the TV stations across the room. Eventually he’d settled on some local newscast and he and Esme had been watching the local weather report for several minutes now.

He quickly busied himself with the random piles of reading material left for them on the coffee table in the middle of the room. 

Ever since he learned what gossip magazines were he’d learned to despise them with his whole and entire being, but that didn’t mean he would let himself go unaware of what the general public was saying about himself or his fellow Protectors.

The PAs must’ve vetted these, though. Because there was nothing bad written about any of them in any of the glossy publications he thumbed through.

“Light reading?” Carlisle asked, amused as he went to pick up a magazine of his own.

“Of course,” letting the final one flop back onto the table, he straightened up, eyeing the clock on the far wall. Noting the absence of the production team, he turned toward the older man. “You know they’re going to lose it when they aren’t allowed to ask questions.”

Carlisle grimaced as he inhaled. “Yeah, I know. We’ll get out of here swiftly.”

“And not give Rosalie enough time for her third outfit?”

Carlisle cracked a smile at that. “I’ll apologize back at the house.”

“I was going to give everyone a run-down but,” he turned and also glanced at the clock, “it looks like we might run out of time to adequately do that.”

“It’s nothing that we don’t all know.”

“Alice, too?”

Carlisle was silent at that. “It’ll be okay.”

“She’s not known for reacting lightly.”

“It will be okay,” he spoke again, a bit firmer this time. Jasper wanted to roll his eyes. Optimism was no match for a 4’10 emotional hurricane, but he’d let his comrade believe whatever he wanted. He was the one giving the speech. Let him deal with it.

Of course, he didn’t really mean that. And if he had to he would absolutely do his part to help fix any potential chaos on their end; even if that meant using his ability on an anxious Alice.

Mentally, he braced himself for that potential situation, even going so far as to think about what he’d possibly say to her to apologize afterwards.

“Hopefully, she’ll warn us if she sees anything first.”

Ah, he’d nearly forgotten about that. “Hopefully.”

“Okay!” Esme strode into the room, smiling widely and looking overall lovely in her dress. She strode up to Carlisle and reached forward, adjusting his already-perfect tie. “You two look dashing, by the way.” She smiled over at Jasper. 

When she reached up and adjusted a single piece of his hair, he snorted. “Better?”

“Oh, a thousands times,” she joked back. Then, she turned toward where Bella and Edward were. “Are Rose and Alice still getting ready?”

“Last I checked,” Bella turned away from the TV as she spoke. “How much time do we have?”

“None!” Esme threw her hands up, the motion making her look more annoyed than Jasper knew she really was. “Please, go fetch them.”

As Bella made her way out the door, a producer stepped into the room directly after her, “Don’t go too far!” The man called after her retreating form, “We take the stage in five minutes!”

Bella simply snapped her fingers and held a thumbs-up over her head. Jasper grinned at the nonchalant gesture and the producers subsequent exasperation.

“We’re coming now,” Esme nodded. “Let me just double check everyone.” The words were more muttered to herself than to the producer. Reaching up, she adjusted another piece of hair on Jasper’s head and he had to bite back the urge to laugh. He was positive that he looked exactly the same, but whatever helped make Esme feel ready, he would go along with.

Carlisle got much of the same treatment, but when Esme licked her thumb and ran it over his eyebrow, Carlisle let out an exasperated sound. “Dear,” he scolded, and it was funny to feel such embarrassment from him.

So, while Jasper didn’t enjoy public appearances, the lead up to it all usually made it entertaining. Especially the uniquely energizing buzz of emotions he would feed off of from everyone in the building.

“Ah, there you are—”

“Not now,” Rosalie cut the producer off, not even glancing in his direction as she stood in front of him, blocking off the doorway. “You,” she pointed a red-painted fingernail toward Jasper, “come here. We need you.”

He blinked over at her. “Why?”

“Ugh!” Striding into the room she grabbed him up by the arm and began to pull him after her. “I don’t know. Alice is freaking out.”

“Alice?” Carlisle was alarmed. “Is she okay.”

“It’s fine it’s fine,” Rosalie waved away everyone else with her opposite hand as she dragged Jasper from the room, “it’s just this one she wants.”

“Why does she want me?” He asked, absolutely dumbfounded. But even as they approached, he could feel Alice’s emotional turmoil vibrantly throughout the hallways. Oh. That explained things…

“I don’t know why, just hurry up.” And when she attempted to pull him through the door of the women’s restroom, he planted his feet firmly.

“I can’t go in there!” He hissed at her. Had they lost their minds?

“And why the hell not?”

He looked at her like she had two heads. “Its the women’s room.” Couldn’t they just meet him in the hallway?

“It’s only Bella and Alice. Besides,” she readjusted her grip on his arm, “if any human women come in, when they piss their pants at the sight of you, they’re in the right place at least.” She tugged him forward.

“Real classy, Rose,” he deadpanned. And when she pushed through the doorway, he instinctually wanted to shield his eyes. Granted, he knew deep down there wasn’t going to be anything to see, but still. It was the polite thing to do.

“Okay, he’s here. Now what?”

To say he was still unprepared to see Alice would be an understatement. But only because how utterly stunned he was to see her all dolled up to the point that he almost did a double-take. But no, beneath all the paint, it was her.

Jasper could feel her relief as she strode up to him, smiling with dark lips and blinking up at him with long, dark lashes. “Perfect,” she breathed, and for a moment Jasper was worried he wouldn’t be able to speak. “Hi, can you please calm me down before I ruin our night?”

It was much as he’d guessed on the way over, but it was hard to focus on her request when immediately she reached out for him and grabbed one of his hands. When she laced her fingers with his and started pulling her after him—back the way he’d just come—he felt like he was getting whiplash. It was so much at once. All he could do was grip her hand back firmly.

Whether it was his tether to sanity or a rope dragging him down a path of no return, he didn’t even care at this point.

“Also,” the Alice look-a-like, with her bronze-shaded eyes blinking at the whole lot of them, “we have ten seconds before Esme and a very unhappy producer walk in and scold us for taking so long.” Once they were back out into the hallway, Alice waited half of a second for Jasper to fall in step beside her before she gripped his hand tighter and began moving.

“Sorry for asking this of you,” she spoke breathlessly, “especially since the last time you did it I freaked out a little bit. But it’s absolutely necessary, trust me.”

He didn’t doubt her. In fact, he wondered if she knew a potential meltdown from her had been a topic of conversation not even two minutes before.

Then, he realized she must’ve been waiting for some type of reply.

He smiled, as if remembering he had functioning facial muscles of his own. (He truly hoped he hadn’t been gaping at her.) “I’m not going to be the one to bet against the psychic, so alright.”

Turning her head toward him, she shot him a dazzling smile over her shoulder. “Why, thank you.” Jasper felt a bit of emotional static from her before her relief and contentment took firm control.

It was only then that he began to calm her down. But at that point, and he was planning on firmly keeping this to himself, he really didn’t think she needed too much help. Still, he focused on expelling a nice even calm in a radius around them.

As Alice walked, Jasper couldn’t help it when his eyes flickered over her leading form. Just for a split-second, and without lingering, he defended mentally. But the blue dress, although modest, really didn’t leave a lot to the imagination.

She looked nice. And as he tried hard to find an appropriate way to tell her, he never got the opportunity to. Because quickly Esme found them. As Esme cooed and flitted around, not adjusting even a single hair on Alice’s head, he was purely focused on Alice’s mental static. He knew she was receiving visions after vision after vision, but it wasn’t until he looked up at Edward’s knowing gaze that he realized the undercurrent of her emotions was blissfully happy.

And when he watched Edward’s eyes flickered toward their joined hands, Jasper could feel the shock and curiosity.

I’m just calming her down, he felt the need to defend himself and felt ridiculous for even having the urge at all, she probably thinks proximity helps.

And it did, in a way, but it wasn’t entirely necessary. Still, Alice likely didn’t fully know that. There was no idea she knew what she was doing. Nervously, he realized that he would have to extract his hand from hers eventually—there were photographers waiting for them out there.

But maybe this was keeping her calm. Sure, that feat could be accomplished without holding her hand, but maybe it was a mental thing? He wasn’t about to deny her anything that would keep her happy and level-headed for the next several minutes. First appearances were always a bit frightening. Even if it was just a room of people with some cameras.

(And sometimes that room was a courtroom, and sometimes everyone was calling for your head…)

Even as everyone gathered—Emmett walked by him with a raised eyebrow, looking very pointedly from Alice, to their joined hands and back at him—Alice didn’t once relent in her firm grip of Jasper’s hand. It was as if she didn’t even know she was doing it.

And the longer she held on, the less willing he was to break contact.

Even when a couple of the PAs noticed, they had to pretend not to. But judging by their wide-eyes and thorough confusion, Jasper knew exactly what they’d be talking about the second they took the stage.

And seconds later, they were being led out into the studio. Or, more like Alice was leading the two of them out, a bit too confident for her own good.

When the photographers started snapping pictures, she stumbled to a stop, blinking at them, unsure of how to proceed. Jasper finally disentangled his fingers from hers then—swearing mentally; they’d absolutely gotten a few of them before Alice could react, which would be absolute fuel for whatever nonsense the press would have to say that night—carefully leading her to the stage where they, thankfully, would be sitting side by side.

Her emotional state was still relatively sturdy, but as he led her to her chair, she leaned over to him, “Is that normal for one of these?” She whispered under her breath, still taken aback by the fact that the room was nearly lit with the amount of camera flashes currently going off. In the background he could hear a few PAs and producers irritatedly informing the photographers that no flashes were allowed. But even for a few seconds, picture after picture after picture was being taken.

“They try to get as many as they can before filming, when they have to keep it to a minimum and use no flash.” He paused, wondering if she knew what that was. “That’s when the light goes off with it; brightens up the pictures.”

She laughed lightly at that, her eyes amused as he took his seat beside her. “I know that.”

He held in his own smile, feeling a little silly. “You’ll need to remind me eventually what you do know about, again.”

For as nervous as he said she was, Alice did remarkably well. Sure, she was rather fidgety, and she couldn’t seem to fathom why all these strangers wanted to take pictures of her. It wasn’t until they were given a two-minute warning before airtime that he turned toward her. “Are you still going to need help, or will you be able to hold onto this?”

She frowned, “Hold onto it?” A few cameras went off and she sent a quick annoyed glance to her side. “How, exactly?”

“Just how you’d think?” She was already doing it for the most part; he only had a tiny amount of calm buzzing through the air currently, and she was doing magnificent despite it. But his question seemed to make her nerves intensify slightly, as if bringing to her attention the fact that it was almost showtime.

But even as Alice steadied herself and evened out her breaths, Jasper could feel her anxiety begin to rise.

“I can still help if you can’t do it.” Truthfully, he was going to keep a little bit of calm going regardless of Alice’s state; anything to keep the audience a bit more subdued after what they were about to hear. “You going to be okay?”

Alice nodded, a woman counted down from five, and then they were on the air.

It went well at first. Carlisle gave his speech perfectly, introducing Alice to the crowd and the cameras gracefully. Alice herself had done wonderful, too. A bit stunned by the attention, and especially by the applause, but nonetheless she had kept her cool.

And then, the bad news.

Jasper knew that the second her name was uttered, it would mean the ending of a period of peace for him in the public eye. He’d done well for himself over the years. Staying out of trouble. Going above and beyond in every aspect of the job. And keeping to himself. The combination of all of those things had made life for the past few decades almost good.

It had been all he’d ever hoped for any beyond it.

So Jasper knew, that once people knew Maria was back, it would be back to what it was like before. First the shock would set in, and then the conspiracies would begin. Initially, it would be innocent; people would only want to know the what and the how. But over time, and Jasper knew it wouldn’t take long, people would begin to point fingers at him.

“I now have complete proof, and say with saddening confidence, that Maria is back.”

With a sad sort of reluctance, Jasper allowed himself to feel the way the room shifted and changed, the emotions morphing almost as one unit. Shock, denial, terror, anger, hopelessness.

The speculation was nearly immediate.

“Absolutely outrageous.”

“There’s no way.”

“This is a disaster—”

“Why now?’

“Impossible.”

“How are we supposed to prepare for—”

“They told us she died.”

“How long have you known about—”

“God, help us—!”

“I wonder if he’s known the whole time. He has to have some sort of connection if she’s still alive.”

But before the crowd could get too rowdy, Carlisle was calling them back to attention.

He hated how he could feel Alice’s gaze on him. He wished he could tell her to stop; to look ahead before anyone took note. Because the instant they zeroed in on him, he’d be a target. And even if it was innocent enough, once she started associating with him in public, she’d be a target, too.

She didn’t deserve to be crucified by the media just for showing him a little bit of sympathy. Even still, she stared at him, and Jasper could feel the push of her emotions against the calm that he was now blaring liberally, hoping to calm even the angriest reporter’s emotion.

As slight as he could manage, he shook his head.

Thank you, he wanted to tell her, but please, please stop.

And once Carlisle announced their decision, all hell broke loose.

Reporters were shouting both his and Carlisle’s names with equal fervor as they were promptly escorted out of the studio. Thankfully, as they approached the back of the building Carlisle tossed him the keys. Driving was always a calming thing for him.

But as they parted ways with the ladies—all of them, besides Esme, jumped in the car with Rosalie—Jasper felt a sharp disappointment, and a keen worry for Alice. He wouldn’t be there to keep her calm and explain things, and she wouldn’t be there to expel those comforting, warm emotions for him.

And if anything at all was going to happen as a result from that night, it was that Alice was absolutely going to have to start keeping her distance from him. For her own good now.

As he peeled out of the parking lot, not far behind Rosalie, the thoughts sobered him.

Instead, he clung to the feeling that he’d basked in before the director had counted down. It was all he could do, in the moment.