Loving The Major - Jasper Hale

Edward the Stalker

Time carried on and Bella continued to stare at the Cullens every chance she got. While Edward continued to give her mixed signals. Being friendly one day, and the next completely ignoring her or being rude. This was driving not only the girl, who had developed an obsession with the family, nuts but also his siblings. They were supposed to be avoiding the girl so she did not discover their secret and instead Edward continued to interact with her and draw her interest. He seemed to think that they were mates, but the rest of the family was not convinced and urged him to stay away from her.

There were more than a few arguments about his actions at home. Mostly between Rosalie and Edward. She wanted him to ignore the girl completely and Edward wanted to get to know Bella better as the fact that he could not read her mind continued to fascinate him. Many times, Carlisle had to break them up before it became anything more than shouting.

Jasper had tried to help at first, using his power to try and keep everyone calm, but after the first few times, he gave up and left it to Carlisle. He seemed to be the only one they both actually listened to when fighting. Not even Emmet made much progress in calming them down. Usually because Edward would lash out at him as well, which only further set Rosalie off.

For the most part though, the other members of the family tried to stay out of it, not picking sides. They wanted to support their brother/son now that someone had come along who had caught his interest, but at the same time worried about the danger of it. So, they remained silent or tried their best to keep the peace between Rosalie and Edward.

Adeline had joined in on one particular argument however. When she had discovered that he had been sneaking out at night to watch the poor girl sleep she had been unable to keep her thoughts to herself. She had been beyond appalled that he could behave in such a way and had attempted to convince him to stop; telling him that it was a breach of her privacy and what he was doing was wrong on so many levels. Unfortunately, Edward had gotten defensive and began yelling at her, which caused the Major to throw him through the open balcony doors and into a tree.

Normally, an argument like this would not have set Major off so badly, but he still had not completely forgiven Edward for what he had said to Adeline at the last family meeting and the tension within the family also already had him on edge. Edward hadn't talked to Jasper and Adeline for almost a week after that, upset that his family took their side, telling him that it really was wrong to watch Bella without her knowledge.

That worked fine for Jasper though, who was still upset at how he was treating Adeline and everyone else, as well as the danger he was putting the family in. Adeline on the other hand was upset. It seemed like Edward was allowing his fascination with Bella to consume him and she was not liking the changes in him that she saw. How he was becoming a tad obsessed with her and crossing boundaries without the girl's knowledge.

All this led to Adeline spending most of her time out in the garden, taking her frustration out on the weeds and channelling her worries into her plants. It was certainly productive as her garden had never looked better. Everything was green and healthy and she had even had time to clean out the leaves that had protected the more delicate plants over the winter. However, unlike in the past, even working with her plants could not fully distract her from the situation and bring her the peace she sought. Even the sight of Jasper looking adorably confused and covered in dirt as he attempted to help her could not fully erase her worries over the possibility of being exposed.

A possibility that regrettably came to pass the day after Edward had spent the afternoon following the girl on her trip to Port Angela's. He had given her more clues about them during that trip and Bella had arrived at school and stared directly at Edward before she marched passed him and into the woods, clearly having figured something out.