I stared out, unsure, at the silver Volvo parked in the driveway holding my sister and her stalker.

"You seem confused," Jasper commented, not looking up from my recent bedtable book, Niccolo Machiaveli's The Prince.

"I am," I confessed, turning back to the window. "I didn't realize that I wasn't going to be greeting them outside with Charlie and Bella... I should have known from my vision though..." I crouched in front of the window, pressing my head against the wall beneath, feeling a bit mortified at myself.

"Embarrassed you built yourself up over such a short meeting?" Jasper asked in amusement as he flipped the page. I twitched and buried my head between my legs instead.

"Don't say it out loud...I really don't want to go downstairs for it now," I muttered, voice strained from the embarrassment. And suddenly, his low chuckle was in my ear, cold chest a hair's breadth away from me. I sighed and leaned back into him, curling up and keeping my eyes closed.

"So even you're capable of making mistakes," he teased. I frowned (read pouted).

"The vision was misleading! What was the point of giving me that as the first vision of its kind I experience if it wasn't even that important?!" I complained, though I was actually starting to think on it seriously now that I was getting over my embarrassment.

"...maybe as preparation for future visions that'll be more intense?" Jasper theorized. I bit my lip at the thought.

"If that's the case, I'm not exactly looking forward to future visions," I murmured. Jasper wrapped his arms more securely around me, blanketing me in safety and comfort.

"Did you see something bad before your new visions started?" I shook my head, staring at the wall, troubled.

"No, but...before my visions changed... I got selfish," I whispered, clinging to the arms around me.

"Selfish?" I nodded and pressed as closely to him as I could.

"Finally getting to experience the love and happiness I'd been seeing in my visions months before... I won't be able to let you go like I'd seen, won't want you to leave me, not even for a month let alone nearly half a year." Jasper sucked in a sharp breath and my eyes widened in realization at what I'd just let slip and I bit my lip again, punishingly. His embrace turned from comforting to possessive in less than half a second.

"Half a year?" He breathed out at such a low volume I wouldn't have been able to hear if he wasn't right behind me. His grip on me tightened a little. "I thought you said we wouldn't be gone long?" He accused.

"In vampire terms," I argued weakly, voice soft.

"Do you realize how...how difficult it would be to just pretend to leave you? And you're talking about being away from you for months!"

"I know! It's different now!" I interrupted desperately. It was ridiculously ideal but I never wanted to make Jasper angry because I knew it would take a lot for someone as level headed as him to get to that point and I didn't delude myself into believing it was anything but my fault. "Before it was easy to say that I wouldn't change anything and let things happen because the ending was ideal but looking through a window and experiencing it myself is completely different!"

Jasper was silent as he took in my words, the only signs of his reaction being a slight loosening of his arms. "So that's why your visions changed," he finally said. "You went from passively manipulating visions to your advantage to actively trying changing their outcomes therefore your visions have become far more intrusive."

"But I haven't even changed anything yet!" I replied, flushing a bit when I heard a slight whine in my voice. I felt Jasper's smile when he pressed a soft kiss to my neck.

"No, but you have full intention to and your gift acknowledged that." I nodded, frowning, and turned a bit to nuzzle against Jasper's own neck.

"Now that I have you, I can't just let you go like that, even if it's temporary," I muttered petulantly. Jasper let out a chuckle.

"Trust me, I wouldn't have left so easily even if you wanted me to. It was easy living without you when I didn't know you existed, I didn't know what I was missing. Now that I do, why would I let you go, no matter the reason?" I smiled and gave him a sweet kiss, my actions and emotions telling him clearly that I shared the sentiment wholeheartedly. I pouted when he pulled away, only to see him tilting his head as if listening to something.

"What is it?"

"Black and his son are already leaving," he informed.

"What?! I missed it completely?" I asked, standing up quickly to look out into the downpour to see Billy looking back to the house and coincidentally looking right into my window. "Oh."

"Oh?" Jasper asked, standing as well to return to hugging me from behind and catching sight of a now wide eyed Billy Black. "Oh. He saw me," he said flatly, obviously not caring. I only grinned rather maniacally and tilted my head to give Jasper full access to my neck. My grin widened to an almost baring of teeth at his near horrified expression as Jasper slowly leaned down to press another kiss on my neck, his cool breath fanning over my skin as he chuckled. "You're evil," he murmured but with the way it came out as a near purr I doubted he actually much minded.

I woke quickly, good mood restored and the embarrassment of yesterday having passed after I nearly gave Billy a heart attack. I'm sure I should have felt a bit guilty about that given how horrified he looked, but I figured that accepting the whole vampire and shapeshifting business meant he was made of sterner stuff. Besides, that expression was far too hilarious and priceless for me to feel any form of remorse. I hummed and quickly slid on my Destroyer top, shallow waters maxi skirt, major swoon platform boots, and hoodie with angel wings on the back*, all black of course. Well, mostly.

"Good morning," I chirped at Jasper in greeting after giving him my customary flying hug.

"Mornin', looks like that little scene you made yesterday cheered you right up. It took you longer than usual to fall asleep with how much giggling you were doing," he teased. I gasped, mock affronted and smacked his arm.

"Jasper! I do not giggle! At least call it snickering! Giggle sounds so...so undignified," I finished in a whisper of horror.

"Whatever you say, Maddy," he chuckled. The drive to school and school itself passed quickly and soon enough it was time for lunch again. A purchase of a bagel, a chocolate chip muffin, and a bottle of iced tea later and I was once more comfortably seated in Jasper's lap, nibbling away at my snacks.

"You eat like a bird," Emmett smirked, "or a mouse, or a bunny, or a hampster-"

"I get it," I interrupted with a pout, "I eat consistently in small bites. I think you got your point across." Emmett's smirk grew to a grin.

"Just making sure."

"Yeah, sure," I grumbled under my breath, making Jasper and Emmett chuckle at my sulking. Then, of course, my vision shifted and I saw Jasper, Bella, and I driving home together and then Emmett and Edward hunting together somewhere. "Oh," I huffed out, shaking my head to clear away the slight disorientation.

"What did you see?" Jasper asked softly, his hand rubbing my arm comfortingly and keeping me grounded as I came back to reality. It was actually harder than I thought to get used to these visions no matter how small they are, my lauded adaptability a bit slow to work here.

"Nothing much, I just forgot that Bella won't have a ride home today so we'll have to give her a ride," I murmured before glancing back at Jasper. "You don't mind do you?"

"I suppose this means I can't ravish you on the drive back like I intended," he drawled, his tone flat. His equally flat expression was broken by a smile when I laughed. "It's fine, not exactly like I'd be going out of my way. You two do live in the same house, after all." My eyes widened then when Rosalie seemed to growl under her breath from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Told ya not to listen, babe. It always puts you in a bad mood," Emmett commented.

"Um..." Did I miss something? And wasn't that unusual in and of itself. Rosalie answered my unasked question by turning to glare hatefully at my sister, Bella turning to peek at us not a few seconds later and cringing as she caught the full brunt of the piercing gaze. Edward threw his blond sister a disapproving look, but Rosalie only scoffed and turned away with a regal flip of her hair.

"Both Edward and your precious little sister disgust me," she verbally replied with a scowl.

"Ah," I answered lightly, not fazed. "Any particular reason or the same as before?" I asked curiously.

"Besides her usual and completely idiotic ignorance or willful disregard of her own safety and Edward's sickening obsession with her, I honestly don't understand what's so fascinating about her," she said, the word 'fascinating' dripping with mockery. "Her looks are average, her grades are nothing special, and she has all the fashion sense, personality, and self esteem of a suicidal chess club member." I blinked, resisting the urge to vocalize the 'would you like ice for that sick burn' comment, knowing that was most definitely not the right response to my sister being insulted in front of me. Of course confrontation was out of the question as I had no intention of arguing with Rosalie, I simply understood that Rosalie and my sister did not have compatible personalities. They simply did not get along well unless under very, very, very special circumstances. I doubted the two would have gotten along half as well if it weren't for the events that happened in Breaking Dawn. Before that, Rosalie only begrudgingly respected and accepted her. So, best course of action? Divert her attention.

"Err, sorry, but do I not classify as boring human? I mean, my grades are worse than hers (which means average), the only fashion I like is black, and my self esteem has a split personality of narcississtic, plain jane, and full on self depreciating." Emmett started to cough in a sad attempt of masking his snickers before giving it up as a poor job and bursting out laughing.

"Really? You have self depreciating thoughts?" Jasper asked half joking, half serious. I shrugged.

"It's not like I want to, it literally just hits me sometimes, all the negativity. Soon enough one bad thought snowballs into another worse one, then another until I hit full on depression. It annoys me after I recover but I've considered and resigned myself to the possibility that it's part and parcel of being a teenager and going through puberty." Emmett laughed harder at my answer.

"Putting aside your seer gift, you are the farthest thing from boring I've seen in an average high school student. Your fashion sense would be a plus to the interest factor, your tastes even more so, and your personality is far more fascinating than your awkward sister's." Rosalie stated blandly. I shrugged helplessly as Emmett finally calmed down.

"Bella has her own weaknesses and strengths like I or anyone else does. You've only ever seen her weaknesses and my biggest strengths. I'm sure some of her future actions and any future mistakes I make may change your opinion more than any argument I can say now." I replied simply, knowing nothing I could say in Bella's defense would help anything.

"We'll see," Rosalie said skeptically.

The rest of the day passed in the blink of an eye, the ride home much less eventful than I imagined, and then, not soon enough, I was back to snuggling in bed with Jasper, falling into an easy sleep.

Knowing that it would be a bit warmer today and just who I would be visiting, I decided on a simpler outfit, even if it was still all black. I wore a Sorrow hood tank dress under a double breasted leather trim duventine wool crepe jacket with a pair of Dolly 50 heels*, forgoing any accessories and make up as usual. I honestly had no idea what i'd be doing today since Jasper seemed to be constantly flickering between decisions, that intelligent man, him, so I figured it wouldn't matter what I decided on.

The soft humming I'd been doing as I walked out the door abruptly stopped when I spotted, not a black jaguar, but a flashy red convertible waiting for me with a very much female blond driver at the wheel. My thoughts derailed comically to the line 'get in loser, we're going shopping' as I recovered myself and continued just as casually as before to the convertible.

"Well, this is a surprise," I grinned as I got into the car. "Didn't think I'd have the honor of being escorted to the Cullen home by you."

"Jasper mentioned that you see less everyday visions since that sudden shift. I guess you don't see small changes anymore unless you actively look for them." I nodded in agreement as she turned the car on. "I offered. Jasper was too shocked to say no." I laughed as she pulled onto the road and sped forward.

"Well, that's fine with me. This might be to my advantage actually," I murmured pensively.

"In what way?" Rosalie questioned a bit sharply, though I took no offense, it's just the way she was.

"Just to check, we aren't currently within hearing distance of the others, are we?"

"Not yet," she affirmed readily.

"Well, I've been meaning to inform Jasper about a...sensitive (?), er, subject for a while but have been waiting for the most...opportune moment to do so. Today is finally that day," I hedged.

"Spit it out already, Maddy," Rosalie pushed impatiently.

"There's a...wolf-" I ignored her low growl, "-at the Reserve named Paul who I ran into during one of my summer stays when I was fourteen that...gained an unfortunate interest in me and has been...attempting to force himself on me since which has, admittedly, gotten more difficult in the past few summers after he went through his first transformation and I can't...push him away by force anymore," I tiptoed delicately. Rosalie's growl grew to a full blown snarl, the car going much faster than before.

"You mean one of those mangy wolves has been trying to rape you since you were fourteen?!" She hissed. Okay, maybe not the best first person to tell it to, but since she wasn't running off and breaking the treaty now nor in any visions I considered it safe. Besides if this is how Rosalie reacted then I was justified in seeking support in numbers when deciding to finally tell Jasper.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly have put it like that..." I replied weakly, but not wanting to defend Paul in any way and not entirely positive of the belief that he wouldn't rape me if he had he opportunity. Rosalie let out a long hiss before seeming to visibly pull herself together, taking a deep breath, her face becoming stony.

"And you're telling me now to help in preparation of Jasper's reaction," her tone as hard as her expression as she spoke.

"Well, if your reaction was any indication..." I trailed off, managing to pull a small upturn of Rosalie's lips from my response.

"While I admit the subject is a...sensitive topic for me, I'm sure Jasper's reaction to the news will be worse than you feared, but it was the right choice to tell him when the family is gathered," she said, sounding almost like she was giving me a compliment. "We're reaching hearing distance," she murmured a few minutes later. The rest of the ride was spent in, not comfortable but not awkward either, silence. Rosalie had barely parked the car in the garage when my door was opened and I looked up to see Jasper offering his hand.

My amused smile slipped to an expression of gaping disbelief, no doubt, when I spotted what he was wearing. Ohmygoodness is that a Poet shirt*?! Was that even legal?! No, that's irrelevant, of course it should be illegal, it should, in fact, be a sin because nothing but the word sinful could describe how good Jasper looked in a Poet shirt.

I swallowed, shutting my mouth with a click, knowing that if I could hear my heart beat suddenly rising in excitement at the incredible sight, then everyone else heard it as well, not that I cared much at the moment, still shamelessly gazing up and down at my hot lover...boy was I glad that Edward wasn't around right now because I'm sure both of us would have been uncomfortable with the dirty thoughts running through my head right now. I snapped out of my daze thanks to Jasper's husky chuckle, making me shiver as I met his smoldering gaze, knowing he could feel just what emotions spiked at the sight of him.

"I may have looked through a few of those websites you mentioned, out of curiosity of course, and found a thing or two I liked, though most of it was far too gaudy or flashy for me, this was something simple and the closest to my taste." I nodded dumbly before mentally slapping myself and shaking my head to snap myself out of it. I gave Jasper a wicked smirk as I finally took his hand and allowed him to pull me into his arms.

"I didn't think my style of clothing would suit you either, for the same reasons, but I have to say that the shirt unexpectedly suits you," I murmured, my heart stuttering as I slowly rover my eyes up and down his tall form once more. I had looked through the male selection of clothes for my style before out of curiosity and I knew that most of it would suit Jasper terribly so I never gave it a second thought, but of course Jasper managed to surprise me by finding at least one thing that would suit him far too well.

"You might want to save those thoughts for later. We still have to at least greet my parents first," Jasper teased, whispering into my ear. "You look quite lovely, by the way. I don't think I've ever seen your legs without any of those pretty tights of yours when you wear such short dresses, skirts, and shorts." This time it was his turn to freely roam his gaze over me, or more specifically, my exposed legs. I laughed and gave him a joking, warning smack.

"Now who's distracted. Come on, introduce me already, I'm sure they won't bite." I laughed when Jasper only rolled his eyes at my horrible joke, giving me a chaste kiss before beginning to lead me to the door that led from the garage into the house.

"As if you don't already know them," he drawled.

"It's called being polite, Jasper," I retorted primly, tone haughty. Surprisingly, Jasper wasn't the only one to express his amusement at my remark as we walked in. Emmett was expected with his boisterous laughter, but Esme's giggling and Carlisle's chuckles were a pleasant surprise.

"Indeed. It's wonderful to finally meet you, Madeleine, welcome to our home," Carlisle greeted warmly, arms open wide in the universal sign of welcome.