Loving The Major - Jasper Hale

Nightmares

One night while the three vampires were out hunting, Adeline sat in front of the fire Jasper had built in the cabin they were staying in with Peter and Charlotte. She was attempting to make her way through a book about the basic machines that had been invented since her capture. While she had no real interest in them as truthfully they all unnerved her, she still wanted to know at least enough to cope in this strange new world.

After an hour of struggling through the book however, she began to drift off to sleep, quickly falling into one of her reoccurring nightmares. She often dreamed of being back in that barn and learning that Jasper had not survived the battle or that Maria was standing over her in a rage, fists and feet striking out at her. As such, she tried to avoid sleeping as much as possible. 

Her kind did not require as much as a human and only had to sleep every few days, but she stretched it out. She went full weeks without sleep, only doing so when she collapsed in complete exhaustion. She knew it worried and upset Jasper, but being trapped in that barn once again and having her worst fear of Jasper dying coming true play out in her head was worse than the exhaustion.

Not even an hour after she had fallen asleep, she woke with a start, tears streaming down her cheeks as her dream played on loop in her head. She sat there gasping for breath and trying to settle her fears, but she could feel the walls closing in on her and in desperation she stood on shaky legs to stumble her way out of the cabin.

She made it into the backyard that faced the woods but did not stop, plunging ahead into the darkness. She ran through the trees, stumbling over roots and rocks in the dark, not caring if she damaged her feet in her desperate attempt to outrun her past and the nightmares that plagued her. She only stopped when she could no longer catch her breath and fell to her knees in a clearing, tears still falling down her cheeks. She lay back on the grass looking up at the night sky naming as many stars as she could and reminding herself over and over that she was not locked in that barn and Jasper was no longer off fighting for his life.That they were both safe and far away from Maria.

~~~~~~~~~

Jasper returned to the cabin feeling defeated. He had hoped that once he left the army and Maria behind that he would begin to feel better and truthfully, he did. He felt free of the emotions of the newborns and Adeline had given him hope for their future, but every time he hunted reality came rushing back to him. He felt everything his victims did and it was slowly becoming too much for him, causing him to avoid hunting as long as possible. When he did finally go out to hunt, he rushed through it, preferring to get it over with as soon as possible.

Due to this, he had finished much sooner than either Peter or Charlotte and had headed back by himself. He had every intention of pulling Adeline into his lap so that they could read her new book together and he could hopefully help her some more with understanding the modern world as he forgot about how it felt to take another innocent man's life. 

However, as he approached the house, that plan was quickly dashed as he realized that he could no longer hear her heartbeat within the cabin. He rushed in as quick as he could, terrified that something had happened to her.

Reaching the living room, he saw the fire still softly burning and her book tossed carelessly on the floor. There was no sigh of intruder and he could not detect any other scent, but that did not stop his worries. Especially when he noticed the back door was open. He rushed out of it, following her scent, his worry kicked up to a new level as he realized that it led deep into the woods. He followed her trail for what felt like miles, picking up the subtle scent of her blood and realizing that she must have been barefoot.

He called out her name in desperation, stopping every little bit hoping to hear her answer him. Finally, he heard her voice answer him back and without any hesitation, sped off in that direction. He found her in the middle of a clearing, laying down on her back and staring up at the sky with tear streaks still apparent on her face. With a sigh of relief at finding her unharmed he realized what must have happened. Often times when she had nightmares, she woke unable to stay within the confines of any buildings, the reminder of the barn being too much for her.

He approached her slowly, not wanting to startle her out of any peace she had found. His worry over her safety had faded, being replaced with only relief as he collapsed down next to her. "You scared me Darlin' when I came home to find you gone. Did you have another bad dream?"

She nodded and made a small sound, still not taking her eyes off the stars. "I'm sorry I scared you Tesoro. I just couldn't stay inside for another minute. Then once I began moving, I just couldn't seem to stop. It was as if the dream would catch up with me if I did" she confessed quietly.

He moved to pull her close to him then, so that her head rested on his chest. "It's okay Darlin'. It's going to take some time for us both to heal, the best we can do is deal with it as it comes."

"But I don't want to do that" she admitted as tears of frustration began to fall down her face, "I want to be better now. I want to be able to sleep without dreaming of you dying in some horrible battle. I want you to be able to smile without having to force it. I want us to be happy as we were before Her."

"I know. I want that too, but you know what? I truly believe that someday we will get back to that. We may not be the same people that we once were, but someday I have no doubt that we will find a place where we can be happy again."

"You do?" Adeline asked, pulling away to look at his face.

"I do" he said with conviction, bring her headdown to lock his lips with hers.