Stained Glass Windows || Jasper Hale

Twenty One

The grey clouds were lazily weeping snow as the crowd that was the Cullen's and all their witnesses arrived to the field where the face down was to held. It scattered the ground, stitching the previously fading blanket of white together. Jem had lost count over how many times the ground had become a blanket of white only to melt into patches and be resewn back together over night. It had been snowing ever since he and San had left Bella's and Edward's cottage and the white blanket was about two inches deep. It all carried a bitter chill that lurked around them. Any fully human would have been frozen but the group didn't care. Jem had bundled himself up in jumper and coat but the flakes still lingered in his hair.

"Whose putting up the tent?" Esme asked as they found a less snowy patch under a few trees. Jem and San had put up many tents during their lifetimes. They had spent most of the nineties living in the back of cars and tents, travelling around the country. They had only really settled into apartments in the autumn of ninety eight. Before then, in the eighties, they had lived in various slum housing as they had been ever since San had been born, moving around until they were almost caught in a murder investigation. Then they had gone back to living as Jem had always lived, on the move. It was only San and modern technology that convinced him to settle into apartments again.

So when Esme posed the question Jem shrugged and stayed silent. San pointedly pretended to be staring at the trees. The caramel haired woman caught their disinterest and smiled as she turned to Emmet. "Think you're up to the challenge". The other vampires very obviously not paying attention. They were huddled in their covens or had left to hunt one last time before tomorrow. The Cullens had all hunted the night before and their eyes were bright gold.

Emmet hooted. "Yo, Jasper, help me out here!" He slung the large bag across his shoulder. Jem betted that the tent was some very expensive glamping thing. He and San had always slept in cheaper tents but with his gift, he could have it up in minutes.

He watched Jasper and Emmet struggle for five minutes. The tent canvas rumpled at their feet and tent poles scattered around them. "How does this work?" Jasper was muttering as he tried to gently fit two poles together. Snowflakes were scattered in his hair like a crown as he frowned at the poles.

Jem glanced around. Edward, Bella and Alice were with Nessie. Alice was teaching her how to make snowballs and aim then at her parents. Bella laughing as the snow cascaded down her jeans. Edward grinning widely as he talked with Carlisle nearby. To their left, San was with Seth. The hybrid was curled up on the Wolf boy's lap, the snow around them melted from Seth's body heat. San was dozing into the other boy's shoulder. He must have been still sleepy after their late night. Jem sighed and was disturbed by a curse from Emmet and Jasper. The larger vampire had crumpled one of the poles in his hand. "Oops", Emmet remarked weakly.

A couple of feet away, Rosalie sniggered as her mate turned to her apologetically. "Nessie needs that tent", she reminded. Snowflakes dusting her hair like an ice queen. Emmet tried to ben the pole back out.

"San and I need the tent too", Jem reminded. He hadn't spoken much with Rosalie and the glance she sent him was considering, as if she was truly paying attention to him for the first time since their arrival.

"How cold do you get?" She asked as they both stood in the snow and watched the two boys curse at the tent.

"I feel the cold, not in the same way vampires do. I can get cold but it takes me far longer than humans to get to a point where it is truly affecting me. We cannot die from it, but it does make us sluggish when combined with a lack of blood".

Rosalie considered him. "I forgot you were older than me".

"I'm over two hundred years old", Jem shrugged.

She turned her golden gaze over to where Nessie was being swung around by Edward. The little girl was laughing and shrieking with joy. Her expression was loving but there was a yearning in it. "What is is like?" She murmured to him. "You raised your brother. What was it like being a parent? I wanted to be a mother when I was human, and now I will never have the chance".

"Honestly?" Jem hummed. "Terrifying. I never thought of being responsible for anyone else. The person I was before I met Annabelle was selfish and egotistical. Then I learnt that my father had sired another child. A baby who would be left to grow up alone, like I was. I couldn't allow that. Then I held San for the first time and I knew that I would never let him suffer like I did".

Rosalie smiled sadly. "He's a good person. You did well".

Jem sighed. "I could have done better. If I had more money, then I could have given him a better life". The two men were making headway with the tent. Jem flashed Jasper a smile and the blonde smirked back.

"I guess we all wish we could have done better", she sighed back.

"You are a great aunt. Nessie is going to grow up with everything the rest of my species lacks. A coven, a mother and father. Aunts, uncles and grandparents too. She will never want for nothing". It came out a bit more bitter than Jem intended and he huffed. "I am jealous".

"I am sorry it was hard", Rosalie turned her golden gaze to look into his eyes. Jem felt a flush rise to his face at the acknowledgement. She smiled at the sight. "Oh you can blush. That's sweet".

"My hair also grows and I get morning breath. Luckily we don't need the toilet as often as humans".

"Carlisle has theories that your bodied just absorb everything much more efficiently than human bodies do. The vampire side needing feeding much more often. The morning breath and bad hair days, well I don't miss those", she chuckled.

"Well, being immortal does give you the time to get used to that", Jem smiled back.

"I do miss sleeping", Rosalie added.

"That is nice. I don't relish nightmares".

"Yes", she was obviously recalling the one he'd had durning the Peter Pan movie last week. "Those do not look fun".

Jem chuckled this time. Jasper and Emmet were now hammering in the pegs to keep a large bell tent upright. "No. Immortality does have the downsides of lots of trauma. I'm better than I was though".

"If we don't all die tomorrow", the blonde woman smiled at him. "Then I think I could like you. You have a dark sense of humour. Jasper chose well".

"I'm not complaining", Jem shrugged.

The tent was done and it stood tall under the shelter of the trees. Emmet was filling it with camp beds and blankets. Alice directing him as Bella and Edward dusted the snow off Nessie. Jasper stepped away to stand at Jem's side. "I think she's worried you'll get cold", he remarked.

"I never minded the cold and San has Seth". Jem gestured to his brother. Jasper smiled upon seeing the two boys curled up together. They looked cosy. San listening to Seth talk with a calm expression. Jem loved seeing how relaxed his brother could be around another person. Seth was one of the precious few people who San didn't consider family who flashed green. It made subconscious defences settle.

Jem went to go and help the others unpack. The afternoon was into moving on and the hybrids would be hungry soon. He and Esme had cooked food this morning for him and San. Nessie still mostly drinking human blood as she was still growing. For the rest of them who ate human food, he had done kimchi fried rice with egg. A simple but filling dish prepared with the kimchi he had made earlier that week. The wolves seemed to enjoy it and Jem silently watched them all eat from his position on the log benches Edward and Emmet had made while they were reheating the food. The tent behind him and a newly made fire pit with crackling flames before him. It cast orange light over them all as the early winter gloom of sunset sunk in.  The witnesses all lingering around them, red eyes gleaming.

Glancing up, bowl warm in his hand and his coat tugged closely around his shoulders, Jem watched the snowflakes melt over the fire. The specks of white still descending lazily from the sky. He picked them out from the clouds and watched them flutter as his mind turned over the possibilities of tomorrow.

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