RELIANCE [Alice + Oc + Jasper]

CHAPTER ONE

TUESDAY

AUGUST 10TH, 2004

FORKS, WASHINGTON

....

"Alice, I don't know how many times I have to tell you," Lorraine drags the words out in long weary sigh. Her eyes resting on the fretting pixie-like young woman before her as she tucked in the comforter alongst the injured girl's body for the hundredth time, while leaving her healing leg bare. "You do not have to swaddle me like an infant. It's not that cold in here, so please. Stop trying to bury me underneath a mountain of blankets."

The topaz irises on the Tinkerbell personified pale face before her seemed to blow wide in horror once the other girl's words settled in the air between them. It was followed by a small wince that pulled at her doll-like appearance as she immediately pulled the heavy comforter away from the black-haired female's form, wilting with caution. She fluttered backwards a bit. The hesitation in her frame was noted as she reached down to fix the pillows beneath Lorraine's injured leg and, realizing what she was doing, slide back once more, offering a softened smile. It was noticeable that she wished to help the other girl by doing something, and judging by her fidgeting she was close to doing anything to ease her own worries at this point.

"She's right," a honey-golden blond haired male steps forth from his spot on the nearby couch, stationed in the far left of the living room, closest to the built-in fireplace. The solemn look on Jasper Hale's face was accompanied by the rigid movements as always, though lessened.

He was taller than both.

The most silent sibling out of the adopted doctor's children was leanly built, with his muscled frame holding a tautness that hid some of his stiff posture. The gold of his topaz gaze was darkened than Alice's, appearing nearly molten. He had abandoned the aged book he happened to be scrolling through to come and pull his partner back from her hovering, situating himself at her side with an arm curving across her waistline.

"You have to give her some space, darlin'." His smooth drawl was not normally heard, but when speaking to those he was comfortable with, it was more pronounced. "Let her breath some."

"But is she not cold? Or is the comforter too heavy for you, I can switch it out for a new one- or two!" Alice's musical tune was full of concern as she leaned back supportively against the chiseled pale man behind her.

The exasperated look imprinted onto Lorraine's face spoke for her.

"I just don't want you to get chilly, Lory. You're too fragile right now and I don't want you to go back to the Hospital. Carlisle warned me that your susceptible and prone to illness while recovering. I can't see... I can't see how you're acting so calm." Alice fixes her words, then gifts her with a scanning gaze, as if she were trying to see through or something.

"Alice, I am not cold nor am I going to get sick." Lorraine scoots herself further up the couch and gives the brunette a gentle smile, reassuring her. "Am I going to be fragile for a while, yeah. But I'll live."

"How do you know that? Are you not afraid anything could happen?"

The stress flickering across the pale girl's face blossoms a new fear within herself now. Her hands flex around that of Jasper's, who tightens his hold on her waistline in response to her distress. Whatever she is thinking is obviously putting Alice into a dark mindset, enough where her entire form suddenly stiffened, akin to a statue. The conflict on her beautiful expression manages to twist the ethereal image into one of horrid frustration. A grim mask comes and goes from the now haunted look in her golden eyes, which were searing directly into Lorraine's glacial-blue ones.