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The Poet and the Pendulum	By : TwilightScribe Category: Twilight Series > Slash Views: 4180 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
Part: Part IX [ Take Me Home ]
Pairing: Jasper/Jacob
Rating: pg13
Words: 4518 words
Disclaimer: The Twilight series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise. Anything unfamiliar you see is mine.

Take Me Home

Three weeks later...

According to both Carlisle and the stuff that he'd given me and Jasper to read, I wouldn't start to really show until about the fourth or fifth month. I thought it was good, because that meant that I wouldn't have to go through the awkward process of having to explain to my best friend that I'd somehow wound up pregnant. I had no idea about how she would take it and I didn't want to add any unnecessary stress or worry onto the ones she already had.

Even with Alice planning the wedding – with just a little bit of help from Esme – she still had a lot on her mind. For one, she had to worry about the change that she was going to have to go through, and how she was going to deal with her parents. After all, they'd want to see her before she went to 'university' in Alaska, and she wouldn't be able to see them since it wouldn't be safe.

Edward knew though, but he didn't say anything about it which was something that I was grateful for.

Once Jasper and I found out that I was pregnant, he absolutely refused to leave my side. I knew he was worried about me, but that didn't mean that he could stop looking after his own needs because of it. Despite all the teasing that I had to put up with from Emmett about being knocked up, it was with his help that I managed to convince Jasper that he still needed to feed and that I'd be okay at the house.

That didn't meant that I was being left at the Cullen house alone. Nope, Rosalie's attitude towards me had improved quite a bit. I wasn't sure if it was because I was pregnant or if it was because she genuinely had started to like me, but it was nice to have her as a... friend. I didn't want to be the source of antagonism in the family.

So with either Jasper or Rosalie with me at almost all times, it was a little restricting. The pack had been pretty quiet about the whole deal, and I thought that they were probably deliberating on what to do about me and the fact that I was pregnant.

None of them had come by, and my dad was very pointedly ignoring me. Charlie had stopped by a few times to ask what was up and just to check up on the wedding preparations, but I just told him that it was something that he needed to work out for himself. I'm pretty sure, though, that Charlie knew that I was hurt by my dad's rejection, but he didn't say anything more about it except to offer some comfort.

Although, it was pretty funny to see his face when he found out that Jasper and I were an item. I think it might have given him the wrong idea about why Billy and I were having our little spat, but it was better then letting him on the truth.

One new thing started up that really annoyed me. I started getting what Carlisle called morning sickness about a week before the wedding. But luckily enough, that was really the only symptom that I noticed.

Despite the fact that it was really gross to be throwing up every morning, Jasper was always there to comfort me whenever I had my now daily sojourn with the toilet. It was something that I appreciated, even though the both of us could definitely agree that the smell of it was horrible; and I hated having that aftertaste of vomit in my mouth for hours afterwards. But Carlisle had assured us that it would most likely start to taper off as I got farther along.

The invites had been sent out a few weeks before the wedding, but it wasn't until the week before that the guests themselves started to trickle in.

Bella's mom, Renée, had flown in from Florida with her husband and were awkwardly staying with Charlie at his house. I knew that Esme would have been glad to let them stay with her and the rest of her family, but it would be a little difficult to explain why there weren't any beds in most of the bedrooms and why the kitchen didn't seem very lived in.

A lot of Bella's high school friends had been invited too, and all of them were excited about seeing one of their friends getting married. I think that their acceptance of the situation helped allay some of her nerves just a bit.

On the Cullens hand, the Denali coven had been invited down from Alaska – only minus one member. Apparently one of the sisters, Irina, was still very bitter about the fact that my pack had killed that vampire which had come to Forks with the intentions of killing Bella. But the other members didn't seem to hold a grudge against the Cullens over the issue, which was something that I was glad for. All of them were also very nice to me, which really surprised me.

“Oh don't worry about it! None of us really liked Laurent except for Irina, and, to be honest, she's never had exactly great taste in men,” Kate was saying with a huge smile.

Tanya rolled her eyes at her sister, “I wouldn't say that yours is much better. You need to stop crawling over men; especially when they just look at you the first time that they meet you and promptly tell you that they're already very happily married.”

Pouting, Kate crossed her arms, “And who was the one pining after Edward all these years?”

At that, Tanya actually smacked her sister across the arm, “That was a perfectly acceptable attraction; it wasn't like I actually expected it to go anywhere behind something physical.”

Both Kate and Tanya reminded me a little of my own sisters, and that was comforting to have around. Neither of them commented about the smell, but it seemed like they easily enough picked up on the fact that I was pregnant and jumped on it like a pack of ravenous dogs.

Tanya kept prodding my stomach, “Really? There's really a baby in there?”

“I just told you that,” I replied, scowling as I swatted her hands away for the millionth time. “And stop feeling up my stomach; it's not like you can actually feel it move yet.”

“When will that be?” Kate asked, curiosity burning in her gold eyes. “We're going to have to stick around for that; I've never felt a baby kick.”

I glared at her, “I'm not some curiosity that you can ogle at and poke, and neither is my baby. So stop talking like I'm not here.”

Carmen sighed, shooing the two vampires away, “Tanya, Kate, behave yourselves please. I know you're excited about the wedding and the fact that we will soon have a new addition to our extended family, but that doesn't mean that you can treat him as such.”

Both of the female vampires had the decency to look chastised, and after apologizing to me for their behaviour, they went upstairs to chat with Alice about the wedding before going to introduce themselves to Bella.

Once they were gone, Carmen turned to me with a very maternal smile on her face; it reminded me of Esme's. “I must apologize for Tanya and Kate's actions, once they get themselves excited there simply isn't any stopping them.”

“It's alright,” I replied automatically. I was starting to get used to vampires wanting to poke at my stomach; even I was guilty of excessively touching it, I'd run my hands over it, marvelling at the fact that under all that flesh, I was carrying and nurturing another life. It was just a lot to take in. “Sometimes I get a little carried away about this too.”

She laughed, a musical sound that was comforting in its warmth, “Yes I can imagine that it is. You and Jasper must be very happy.”

“He worries over me more often then not; I think he's more panicked about all of this then I am, which kind of sucks because he does a shit job of trying to hide it from me.” But I still couldn't help but smile, “But yeah, he's as excited about this as I am. I think it's just because Carlisle wants to treat me with kid gloves and he just doesn't want to step out of line and do something potentially harmful.”

Our sex life had suffered quite a bit since it had come out that I was pregnant. It wasn't like it had completely ground to a halt – the newness of the imprint still hadn't worn off so we kind of still were trying to fuck each other's brains out – but there wasn't as much experimentation as I'd thought there would be. More or less we were sticking to what was safe.

I didn't really see the point in it since I wasn't that far along, but this was something that Jasper couldn't be moved on and I just had to accept it. We'd talked it over somewhat, and we thought that it would probably be best if after this pregnancy Carlisle started me on birth control just to be sure that we wouldn't start populating the world with babies.

“All men seem to get like that,” Carmen replied. “Even when you're not with child, they still hover over you and want to protect you with all their might. On occasion Eleazar is like that as well; I'm quite sure it's a vampire trait, to be overprotective of one's mate.”

I'd heard that term thrown around quite a bit, but no one had really taken the time to explain it to me. “Is a mate sort of like the vampire version of our imprinting?”

“I wouldn't know about imprinting,” Carmen began. “But our mates are our other half. We might be able to love others, but when our mate comes, then it's only them who we can give ourselves to fully and completely.“ She shrugged, “No one has ever really looked into it, we only know how we feel when we find them.”

I nodded. It was sort of like imprinted; even we didn't know all of the details when it came to it, we just knew what it was when it happened. Your entire world shifted to revolve around them, that was how it was, and I guessed with vampires it was a similar thing.

Carmen interrupted my thoughts, “Well, with one wedding in the next few days, do you suppose that you'll want to have your turn to walk down the aisle, Jacob?”

“Not really.” I hadn't given much thought to marriage; it didn't really matter to me. And besides, I was pretty sure that it wasn't recognized in the state of Washington. Even growing up I hadn't thought much about getting married, I didn't really care one way or another.

“I see,” Carmen replied. “You're content with how things are then?”

“Yep. I don't need a piece of paper to tell me that Jasper and I belong together.” I grinned at her, “I know he won't leave, I'm fine with not getting married.”

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.

The Denali clan hadn't come alone, they'd brought along a 'guest' who had run into them on their way down and travelled the rest of the way with them. Apparently he was an old acquaintance of Carlisle's, because his appearance didn't seem to set off any warning bells.

The rest of the Cullens, though, were just as confused as I was about him; apparently he'd never dropped by for visits before.

“Carlisle,” he greeted with a small smile. “I didn't expect to find you with such an extensive family.”

Carlisle shook his hand, smiling warmly at him, “It's been what? Two hundred years since we last met? Setsune, you should have come to visit before now!”

“Ah, my apologies Carlisle.” He bowed politely.

I could tell he was Asian, even though he didn't have the accent that I'd come to expect. I guess he'd been speaking English for so long that his accent had simply worn off; I couldn't think of a more plausible explanation. How he knew Carlisle was still up in the air. But if they'd met some two hundred years ago, then that meant that they'd met some time in the nineteenth century – and that was just a rough guess on my part.

Setsune was also the definition of a pretty boy. I couldn't say that he wasn't without his masculine traits, but he was definitely more on the pretty side then handsome side, in my opinion at least.

When he'd entered the house, Jasper had been at my side protectively. His eyes followed the other vampire's movements carefully, trying to gauge if he would be a threat or not. It didn't take too long for him to settle down – and some work on my part to convince him that it was fine and that the other vampire clearly wasn't hear to rip my head off or something.

“You need to mellow out a bit,” I commented dryly, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek once he'd calmed down a little.

The arm around my waist tightened a bit in a one-armed hug and I got one of those heart-warming smiles of his in response. I'd done good.

“I'm very glad you're here Setsune,” Carlisle was saying as he escorted the vampire into the main part of the first floor. “My son is getting married.”

The entire Cullen family – plus me and Bella – had assembled on the main floor to meet this old friend of Carlisle's, and all of us were feeling a bit on edge. If it wasn't for Jasper keeping us all calm then Bella or I probably would've been a nervous wreck more then anyone else.

Setsune actually seemed genuinely surprised to hear that; he raised an eyebrow as he asked, “Really? I wasn't aware that you had children Carlisle.”

“Well, we are not related in the biological sense, but I do consider them my children,” Carlisle replied with a smile. He held out his hand to Esme, “My wife, Esme.”

Esme swept forward, smiling broadly at the newcomer, “It's such a pleasure to meet you, Setsune. I hope that you'll be comfortable during your time here; will you be staying for the wedding?”

Setsune bowed politely to her before accepting her warm hug, “I don't think I will be able to refuse your generous hospitality and invitations. If I may, who is the lucky couple?”

This was Edward and Bella's cue; the two of them swept forward – Bella stumbling a little over her feet as she did so – but otherwise it was smooth. I couldn't help but smile a little at Bella's clumsiness, and wondered absently if that was something she'd carry over into her vampire life. It was an interesting thought.

Again, Setsune bowed to them both as they introduced themselves, “It's a pleasure to meet the both of you, and I wish you good health and happiness in your upcoming union.”

Bella blushed – a bright crimson color that stood out, “Th-thank you.”

He smiled at her, “You are very welcome.” He turned to Edward, “You are very lucky to have found her.”

“I know,” Edward chuckled.

Not to be outdone, Rosalie and Emmett came forward next, introducing themselves as well. And Rosalie was definitely pleased because Setsune didn't waste the opportunity to flatter her almost immediately.

“Ah, it is very rare to meet such a beauty.” He smiled at Emmett, “It's an honour to meet the both of you.”

Alice had been lurking at my side, and when it was her turn, she danced forward, keeping one arm twined around mine as we went. The moment we stepped forward, we had Setsune's full attention, and I noticed that he was staring more at me then at either Jasper or Alice.

Even though his attention was clearly focused on me more then Alice or Jasper, he still was very cordial to the both of them and paid Alice several compliments on what little of the wedding preparations that he had seen being done around the house. He even congratulated Jasper when we were introduced as being a couple.

I didn't miss how Jasper's arm tightened around my waist.

But Setsune's attention was quickly pulled away by Carlisle who had a few questions that he wanted to ask his friend. The other members of the Cullen clan dispersed; Emmett and Rosalie disappeared back upstairs, while Edward and Bella slipped back out since Bella was supposed to be at home with her parents but had excused herself to do some 'wedding preparations' with Alice.

Of course, Alice had a lot still to do, so she quietly excused herself and went back outside to continue with her preparations for the wedding extravaganza that she was planning.

“What brings you down this way?” Carlisle asked. “The last I heard from you, you were resolved to return to Japan.”

Setsune smiled a little enigmatically, “Business.”

“I wasn't aware that you had any business in the Americas.”

“It's not my business, per say,” Setsune replied. “My mate had something that needed to be dealt with, so I came along. It was only chance which let me meet your friends from Denali on my way in, and from them I heard that you were living in the area.”

This seemed surprising. I wondered where Setsune's mate could be and what they'd be like; if he was coming to the wedding, then his mate would definitely be there.

Carlisle seemed surprised by the news too, “I didn't know that you had a mate. When did you meet them?”

“This isn't my first time in America,” Setsune replied. “I came here maybe... fifty or so years after I last saw you – sometime in the 1860s, I believe – and I happened to meet my mate during my travels. Or rather, they found me.”

Setsune was pretty tight-lipped about his mate and wouldn't give any details, but once Carlisle and Esme were done making him feel welcome in their home they left, leaving Jasper and I alone with him.

Once again, his attention shifted to me. I couldn't see anything cruel or dark in his face or eyes, and he seemed to be... curious I think about me. Jasper seemed at ease too, so I could only assume that Setsune wasn't giving off any threatening vibes.

Finally, he broke the silence, “You are of the Quileute tribe Jacob?”

I nodded.

He absorbed that information, and he seemed to drift off into thought. I heard him mutter something that sounded like, so that's why, but I couldn't be sure since I didn't catch anything else before he was too lost in thought.

Jasper and I left him to his thoughts.

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.

Since Emmett insisted, Edward was getting a bachelor party. I wasn't happy about this and threatened him pretty badly about how he better not be planning something dirty or else I'd do something drastic. He probably wouldn't have taken my threats seriously – or Bella's for that matter – if it wasn't for the fact that Rosalie happened to join in on my side.

One way to win against Emmett: Get Rosalie involved, you will win every time.

Luckily, Emmett caved to our threats and organized an overnight hunting trip out in an area that the Cullens didn't usually frequent. According to Jasper, they'd probably play a few games to see who could catch the most prey or who took down the biggest. Even though it was completely unnecessary, I told him to be careful.

Jasper chuckled, “Don't worry about me; I'll be fine. Those predators won't be able to touch me.”

I'd seen him and Edward in combat; I knew he would be fine. But still...

He pulled me into his arms, kissing the top of my head as he did so. I returned the gesture, wrapping my arms around his waist. We stayed like that for several long seconds before he pulled back enough to kiss me senseless.

“I'll be back in the morning; you won't even know I'm gone.”

Both Rosalie and I saw them off as they went to pick up Edward from Bella's house. The wedding was the next day, and even I was a little surprised to find that Edward usually did spend the night at Bella's house. Then again, Jasper did the same with me and we were sharing the same room so... maybe it wasn't so different. But we weren't the ones getting married.

Alice was too preoccupied with last minute details to be any use as a distraction for me – I still couldn't get over the separation whenever Jasper left, even though I knew that he had to go – and while Rosalie had definitely improved in temperament, she and I didn't have much in common except our mutual love of cars. And I wasn't allowed to help her tinker because I was pregnant; it sucked. We got along fine now, but she also had a few things she wanted to get done before the wedding, and excused herself.

I didn't know where Carlisle and Esme were, and no one was around to baby-sit me so I did something that was a little risky.

At first, I'd thought the roof was completely deserted, but it wasn't until I nearly lost my balance on a loose shingle that I was informed otherwise. A cold hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back before I could fall off the roof.

I was a little surprised to find Setsune up there.

His dark golden eyes took in my appearance, “I didn't expect to be interrupted, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be up here,” I replied sheepishly. He'd released my wrist once he was sure that I wasn't going to tumble off the roof and to the ground below. “If you want, I can go; I just wanted a little fresh air.”

He smiled, returning to his seat on one side of the roof, “No, I don't mind. You may join me, if you like.”

I did, taking a seat a reasonable distance away from him. I looked up at the sky; I could see the stars really well from here, even better then back in La Push, probably better then in Forks.

The two of us sat in silence for what seemed like ages. I didn't know much about Setsune, but something gave me the feeling that he probably knew more about me then I thought he did. After a few more minutes of staring at the sky, Setsune broke the silence.

“You're pregnant, are you not?”

It took me a little aback; I hadn't known vampires could tell. “Wha – yeah I am, but how–”

He actually chuckled at that, “It's very faint, but I can hear its heartbeat. The signs are there, if you know what you're looking for.”

I had to admit, I bit down on that bit of information, “What signs? The only symptoms I've got are morning sickness and a bit of fatigue.” Even Jasper had admitted that if it wasn't for Carlisle's diagnosis, he wouldn't be aware that I was pregnant.

“The faint echo of your child's heartbeat, and the very, very faint hint in your scent,” Setsune replied. “Of course, I can't be sure of that as I wasn't acquainted with you before your pregnancy but it will become more obvious the further along you are; I'm sure that Jasper has at least started to notice it.”

“You sound like you're speaking from experience.”

Setsune shrugged, smirking now, “It's not the first time that I've encountered your kind; back in the nineteenth century, I had a bit of a run-in with a few of the Quileute shifters. It was a... life changing experience.”

He was definitely speaking cryptically for a reason, but he seemed like he was dropping clues; like this was a mystery that I was supposed to figure out for myself. I had suspicions, but those were pretty damn useless without anything to back them up.

“And one of those shifters was pregnant?”

He shook his head, “No that came later... much later, after the banishment.”

“Banishment?” Now I was confused; confused and very, very intrigued about just what the hell it was that Setsune was talking about.

He nodded, and the silence fell again. I wanted to ask him about the banishment that he'd just spoken of, but I got the feeling that he was going to explain it to me anyway and I'd just have to wait and be patient. Eventually, he elaborated.

“My mate was banished from the Quileute tribe for imprinting on me.”
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The Poet and the Pendulum