Moonlight Melody
Chapter 14: Eternity Together
After we had finally made it through the next two cities onward towards Jackson it seemed that everything gradually fell into place on their own, bit by bit.
We had been traveling for only 3 days and on the third day (now doesn't that sound kind of Biblical, and me being involved in vampires and all?) we were in Jackson and met up with Dr. Carlisle.
Only Dr. Carlisle. Edward, I was disappointed to find, was not with him.
Apparently Edward and the doctor had an argument. Edward had been brooding about it for. The issues had finally boiled over when they arrived in Jackson together. No one knew where Edward had gone or what he was doing, or when he would even come back, but Dr. Carlisle says that Edward just needed to find himself.
I was pretty sure that he would eventually.
Jasper learned to put the past behind him and let fate have its hand with Maria. He was convinced that the world would have its way with her and that justice would be served. I don't know what might have convinced him to change his mind but I'm glad that he did. Yeah, he still wanted to give that hot-dog a woman the boot. But that part had eased some when he'd come to realize you can't keep your eye on what's ahead of you and one that's behind you. It was either one or the other and he couldn't afford to lose me.
Fate did have its way with Maria, we came to find later.
It wasn't til much after I was changed that some of the bad things that Maria had done over the centuries finally caught up with her. The last that we'd ever heard, some of her victims' comrades had tracked her down and shown her the error of her ways in a method she would never forget.
I never remembered really noticing James before seeing that video. I didn't recognize him in the field.
How could I?
He had always been one of those people who were satisfied with watching from afar, away from the stage. Naturally I never paid any attention to him when I had so much more to focus on in front of me.
When I look back on it today my past self would have probably laughed if she had heard that I had gone through everything I did. But I have changed a lot since then now I know and yeah, I've seen that its possible.
And while I did reach this sort of epiphany, there are always going to be some things that don't really change at all...
"Move it—that last 'un a little more higher up!"
I hitched up my new skirt with white lace up my hips and carefully adjusted the red and orange autumn streamers that I was putting up in the B corridor of the hospital, with the supervision of my friend, Ixie Madison, to prod me along.
We had both decided that the hospital needed some sort of decoration to liven things up in there. Didn't I mention before how utterly boring white some hospitals were?
I had finally taken some action! Down with drab white! Up with color and life!
I want to say that every occupant of that corridor sent up cheers of gratitude when they saw this but I would be lying to you. It was only natural that some stubbornly clung to old traditions and went through the deal of making their disapproval known.
"What—what're you doing up there?! Alice Cullen you get your heiny down!"
Much to my dismay I was without earplugs. I just had to learn to deal.
I had been registered at the hospital as a niece of Dr. Carlisle so my name had been altered. Just so that I could safely and securely stay with Dr. Carlisle without being looked around for. And it was a name that fit me just right. I was now registered as Alice Cullen now.
I grinned sunnily from atop my ladder and flourished my hands to present the crotchety old doctor with our work, "Abracadabra shazam! You like it?"
He frowned, "No, Alice Cullen I don't like em."
I wish he would stop using my name like that in every other sentence…
"Jeezus, gramps it's jus some decorations to liven things up!" Ixie said turning to the old man, with her hands on her hips.
The ladder beneath me wobbled as if in approval. I quickly scrambled to hold onto the wall as Ixie unconsciously held it in place. Good thing she was defending our efforts, gramps was one tough cookie all right…
I went back to admiring our work so far.
"It'd look real nice to—"
"Don't you 'jeezus' me, Dixie Madison or I'll give your momma a holler bout this!"
I winced. Dr. Moony Madison (me and Ixie called him Dr. Loony behind his back jokingly) was really Ixie's grandfather. Was she gonna back down?
Apparently that only fueled her even more. She piped through grit teeth, "Alice, the red piece a bit farther to your left is twisted."
Ah! So it was.
"Don't you encourage her, Ixie!" the old man groaned and slapped a hand against the ladder I was currently stretching away from. Bad move. The ladder groaned too.
"Erm…Dr. Loo-I mean, Dr. Moony, please don't whack—" I started nervously.
I don't want to fall I don't want to fall I don't want to fall….
"Don't touch the ladder gramps, you want her to tip over?" Ixie snapped. "Then it'll fall, Cullen and all!"
I grimaced. Thanks Ix, turn it into a nursery rhyme. Falling would be loads of fun…
Loony growled in his throat just as I was starting to realize this wouldn't turn out right, "She shouldn't be there in the FIRST place!"
I stretched out on tiptoes to reach out, too lazy to get down and move the ladder, to afraid to get between the two (who were now bickering a full steam and clearly not paying attention to what I was doing).
Just a little…further…
Snap!
Uh-oh.
"CRIPES!" I squeaked and suddenly the ladder rebelled and tipped forward. Desperately I grabbed the decorations to stop me from going down with the ladder.
Like paper mache could save me now!
It was exactly as Ixie had said earlier: Decorations, ladder, Cullen, (that would be me) and all went down hard.
Of course Loony had already made a mad break for it by now. He'd let out the squeal of a frightened pig and scurried out of the way carrying my decorations on his head with him! Ixie clapped a hand to her mouth in a little scream.
Okay maybe she was trying not to laugh. I knew she was trying not to laugh.
E would be for Effort. F otherwise.
I was lucky enough to land on the cart of blankets the nurse had stationed nearby to put down the blankets on the new tenant's bed.
Not so lucky that the cart hurtled down the hall with me on it and smack dab into Nurse Beauregard's food rolling food station with a loud splat.
I noticed the IV stand just out of reach and winced. That was goin to fall on me.
It fell on my bottom after that thought. Sure, pure coincidence.
Some people have all the luck in the world…
Nurse Beauregard stuck her head out of the room a look of utter shock on her face. This became one of exasperation when she saw it was me who'd made it headlong into her cart. This wasn't the first time the nurse and I had crossed paths. Though that could have been because she was the only nurse who was giving out decent non-hospital tasting food around the hospital. I was a regular customer of hers, if you could call it that and tended to get into her cart pretty often.
"Alice CULLEN!"
I smiled sheepishly up at her, pinned to the ground. I crawled out from beneath the IV stand and the wreck of food and carefully righted the cart, finishing the last of the custard pie that had splattered onto my arm in a greeting, "Hi, Nurse."
Then I scurried away with as much dignity I could muster. I'd get Ixie later about holding down that ladder better. Some had to learn to pick fights and watch out for allies at the same time.
Speaking of fights I found my fighting machine of a man was waiting for me. He was just around the corner leaning with his back up against the wall casually. His muscular arms were crossed over his broad chest as he raised an eyebrow at the food that I was still wearing from Mistress Beauregard's food cart.
He wore a pair of brown slacks and a crisp white shirt with suspenders, his blonde hair falling into his eyes deliciously. The clothes of a hospital visitor.
When I had been admitted into the hospital as a patient with a chronic heart condition (which was how I now looked at myself instead of a person with a weakness), I had expected that Jasper would want to take up his old post as a night volunteer. But he had surprised me in telling me that he might just watch me and visit me every night instead like a normal person would. So Dr. Carlisle had used his influence as a doctor of the hospital to give Jasper permission to visit whenever he wanted. Usually at night, still.
I felt my chest constrict tightly at the sight of him.
"What happened, Alice?" he asked me looking down at my ruined skirt and blouse innocently.
Not innocently enough. He was there the whole time! I realized despite the fact his face was completely void of emotion.
I gaped in outrage, "You were there the whole time you should know!" and proceeded to poke him in the chest, leaving behind a blob of brown chocolate on his chest. He looked down with a frown while I breezed past him.
He caught up with me easily, still bearing the new badge of chocolate on his chest, "I knew you could handle it," he assured me, his voice carefully devoid of any amusement I was sure he had hidden beneath the surface.
I turned to the side so as to get a better eyeful of him so quickly that my skirt fluttered up and grinned, "I'd say that I hadn't it, but I would definitely try riding that cart again!"
Jasper rolled his eyes, "Only without falling off the ladder I'm assuming," he added dislodging a piece of custard from my hair.
I felt my heart squeeze hard at his touch and coughed to hide my displeasure. Boy did this man have a hold on me to make me feel like this!
"Something like that," I laughed and skipped a head twirling this way and that with my hands splayed to my sides gracefully.
"I think the decorations looked nice," he murmured so quietly that I almost didn't catch it.
I preened with pleasure and my chest gave another little jump. I grinned despite that momentary pain.
And then he went and ruined it for me.
"When they were actually up on the wall," he added with a delicate snort.
I twirled around with a big smile on my face, "Really Jazz! Well I'm gon—" I faltered suddenly when the pain in my chest increased greatly, leaving me gasping for air.
"Alice?"
"I'm gonna—"
My eyes flew to his even as I clutched at my heart painfully. He felt my pain too.
It was getting harder for me to breathe and even taking in one breath had nearly seemed impossible.
Something was very wrong…this didn't feel like anything that I had ever felt before.
This was different.
This was significant.
Instead of the lack of breath and the pain focused in the center of my body, I felt the pain branch out through my lungs, down my belly and through my legs. It spread through out my entire body so fast it left a dull ache in my bones. I was so numb, that I lost control of my body. With a soft cry my legs buckled out beneath me. His eyes were wide with panic when he caught me.
Something was pressing down on my chest and wouldn't let up. Pressing tighter and tighter…
Numb…my body was going numb!
The world around me flashed in a myriad of colors and my mind swam, flowing away from me in a stream of pain and confusion.
Jasper held me tightly in his arms.
What was happening to me? I wondered and squeezed my arms tight against the pain.
Something….wron…
"It's…be…okay"
His voice swam in and out and it only barely just registered that we were both moving, with my face tucked into the hollow of his arm.
"…going…to…okay.."
I don't really remember what happened after that if you were to ask me. Not from personal experience. I only know it as Dr. Carlisle told me later. Jasper had carried me to my room and told one of the nurses passing by at the time to call for Dr. Carlisle saying that it was of great urgency that he was to get to here as soon as possible and that Alice was in trouble.
He had known that something had gone terrible wrong. I didn't know what was wrong with me, even after years of going through things like this. He had felt my confusion and it scared him even more.
Whatever the reason, Dr. Carlisle was there when I woke up. He was just adjusting the IV stand beside my bed at the moment when I opened my eyes for the first time in so many hours. Jasper nodded to me beside my bed where he sat.
"It's good to see you again, Alice," Dr. Carlisle said with an odd smile that was small even for him.
That put me on red alert immediately and I shot upward. Something was up. It was one of those smiles that never really reached your eyes.
The grim smile.
That was the first clue that told me something was very wrong and that what had happened in the corridor to my room was serious.
I wasn't afraid to ask. I knew already. My intuition snapped to attention immediately and picked up on it. I winced.
"I'm…I'm dying already, aren't I?" I asked with a nervous laugh.
The lack of reply was answer enough.
"Why is that funny?" Jasper growled. "This is what comes down to it. This is the end already and you can laugh about it like it's nothing?"
I smiled and made a tsk-tsk motion. I wasn't worried.
"No, actually this is the beginning," I corrected him and then turned to the doctor. "This is chance for a new beginning!"
Both men had no doubt as to what I was getting at.
"I'd like for you to make me one of you, please." I declared with as much pride and sincerity as I could muster.
"No way," Jasper was adamant.
"Way," I shot back without taking my eyes off Dr. Carlisle's suddenly frozen frame.
Jasper growled threateningly and from the sound of it, bent the metal arm of the chair.
Ignore ignore ignore.
"Don't listen to her, doctor, she's mad in the head," Jasper snarled.
Dr. Carlisle Cullen looked between us.
"Why the hell not?!" I squeaked.
"Because it is hell!"
The doctor stepped back and started making his way out of the room. I think me might have said something about letting us work this out. Something else about it being a big decision, though it might have been made already for one of us.
We were too busy arguing the point to each other to really thank him for that.
"I want to be with you forever and stay by your side. If you're in Hell, I'm there with you."
"No!" he shook his head furiously, "Not like this!"
"I don't know if you noticed it, Jazz, but I'm DYING! As in I'll be gone soon! What if I don't see you again?" I shrilled and started to cry.
Damn it why couldn't he shut up and listen?
"You're already a PART of me, how can I lose you!" he roared. "I'll be with you again even after death! Souls always cross paths if it was meant to be!"
I blinked in surprise and leaned back against the headboard of the bed, stunned.
He had certainly gone a long way from thinking that he would never have peace. I had very clearly remembered how he used to believe that he didn't have a soul left. Or even a place to rest after he had ceased to exist anymore. Now he was going on about the afterlife together. As if there was a chance…
"But I don't want to be away from you at all," I said sadly. "I don't want to take that chance."
He looked at me and after a long pause he finally got up, sat on the bed and pulled me into his arms.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this Alice. Why do you want this so badly?" he murmured, sounding utterly tortured.
I looked up at him, "Because I finally found you after so many years, that's why. And there's no way I'm going to go 'round losing you. Do you know how many times I dreamed about you, hmm?" I demanded making an attempt at humor to lighten the mood.
Jasper smiled.
"If this is what it's gonna take, I want it. You're mine." I lay my head on his chest.
"Do you know what you'd be giving up though? You couldn't sleep anymore…"
I made a face, "I have nightmares, who needs em?"
"Not being able to function like a normal human, the thirst."
I rolled my eyes, "It's a pain anyways. The way I see it, it would only make me just like you. Which means, more time with you!" I chirped happily. Then paused. "I want this, Jazz. Don't you want me too?"
He gave me a gentle squeeze and kissed the top of my head. I felt him smile, "Of course I do. I love you Mary Alice Brandon…of course."
I beamed and wiped my face in his shirt, "Good! So then it's settled. 'Cuz I love you too…maybe even before I met you that night," I added softly.
Dr. Carlisle stepped into the room and cleared his throat. Jasper shoved me back on the bed without the least amount of grace.
I pouted and shot him a look.
"So you're sure about this Alice?" the doctor asked me with the most serious look on his face that I had ever seen.
"I'm positive," I answered looking just as serious. "See, I have to stick around for this guy right here. I promised him. He's not getting rid of me that easily!"
Jasper smiled and I saw his eyes crinkle at the corners. I smiled at him in return when he reached out his hand to stroke my cheek with his thumb.
The gesture was so tender and soft I let out a small sigh of happiness and tipped my face into his hand.
I could only watch him, marvel at the depth of color in his now gold eyes and get lost in them. If I looked just close enough could get a look at what he felt for me more strongly than ever in his eyes. I saw my whole world reflected in there, in fact, as corny as it may sound.
I never really did break free since then, though. He still holds all of me and obviously even the love that he has for me as enough to overcome and cancel out all the negative ones that he could never get past before.
And I didn't want to.
It was amazing how much he had come to change in the past few months.
How much we take things for granted in our life. How we never take the time to think about how it is possible to overcome the obstacles in our life if we only try and believe.
Being with Jasper helped to teach me that.
All those years that I dreamed of him before even meeting him were years that it took for my future to come to me. I only had to reach out and take it.
The night that I was changed he was with me the whole time.
"Through every agonizing moment. He went through the whole transformation all over again for me. We went through it together. And we've been together since," Alice finished and then sighed happily looking up at the ceiling. It had finally stopped raining and the moon showed clearly through the glass windows.
"And that's my story."
Jasper laid his hands on Alice's shoulders from behind the couch. Alice looked up at her husband and smiled as Bella jumped in surprise. He smiled in return.
Edward nodded to Jasper in greeting without looking away from the TV screen. A new chef was now carefully frying an assortment of vegetables.
She hadn't even noticed Jasper walk into the den!
Alice leaned over to pat Bella's knee and stood up to follow Jasper out of the den.
"Wait," Bella stuttered and blushed. "What else happened after that?"
Alice stopped and then sat back down. Jasper's attention shifted to the television where Edward was now flicking through the channels. "Oh! I almost forgot for a second," she admitted sheepishly and Bella grinned. That human side of Alice that she had heard about in the story was still very much alive in the Alice Bella knew.
"Everything!" she explained.
"See after I was changed I didn't know my own strength at all. You'd be shocked at how drastically different a vampire's strength is from a human's. And of course, the thirst was there too. We had all gone hunting and it was then that Carlisle suggested that Jasper and I go away together to find ourselves. To help me to come to terms with my new life. It was very different from being human and took a lot of getting used to. Carlisle promised that when I was ready, I could come to find him.
Jasper and I went around the world and spent time together for 27 more years. We had already spent a year together in Jackson. That's half a lifetime together but each year was absolutely timeless. In 1950 about two years after Jasper and I were married for the first time, we decided to go back to the Cullens and take him up on the offer. I had never expected an entire family waiting for us. It was perfect. We became a real family, Jasper changed his name to blend in, we started posing as teenagers in school. That was fun. It was a little more harder for Jasper but we're still working on it," Alice started laughing and Jasper rolled his eyes.
Much longer after Alice and Jasper went back upstairs and left the den Bella looked at her own love (who watched avidly while the man put a pan of food into the oven) and sighed.
Alice had quite a story to tell. She had gone through so much.
Why couldn't Edward understand how she felt like Jasper had understood Alice?
Would she ever get the answer from him that she wanted to hear?
As if he had read her mind, though it was impossible, Edward picked up the remote to the TV and put it on pause.
Bella gaped. He'd actually recorded it!
Then he turned to his girlfriend, his eyes solemn.
She trembled with excitement. Had he changed his mind?
"Bella," he started.
"Y-Yes?"
Could he possibly have had a change of heart after listening to Alice's story?
"NO."
Bella groaned and slumped in his arms sourly as he chuckled and went back to watching the French cuisine show.
Ah well, it looked like it was another battle for another day.
.THE END.
FINISHED!!!! Finally im finished and so relieved! I can't believe it took me a whole year to write this story. Not much compared to other people's stories, I know but its just that feeling you get when you tie up the loose end to any story you've written, right? Time seems to have gone by so slowly but hell it was all worth it. And yeah, I know it's been more than a week. I seriously didn't think it was going to be this hard to write the last chapter XD thanks Kat for reminding me to get my ass in gear lol. I've learned a valuable lesson from this. Never make time promises about the next chapter to your readers. Especially if you've been known not to be able to keep em!! So that's the end of that lol.
I have a lot more to say in my blog (which is the Homepage link in my profile in case some people have been like 'where the hell IS that' the whole time lmao). Some definite thank yous to you devoted readers i love you, an explanation behind Edward's disappearance, a musical playlist that i listened to while writing the story (haha yeah i know im a copy cat), Adrian and Alice's story, and even some end-of-the-story connections to tie it all up for you. There's pleeenty of stuff in there so pleasepleaseplease take a look and feel free to review! i'm pretty sure that i added the anonymous comment thing because it looks like hatori reviewed. nodnod. If not don't hesitate to email me!!!
Thanks again! xoxo: mjcullen