Spotlight: the Sequel

Untitled Part 13

Previously...

"It's gonna be okay," I told Alice, but still looking at Edward to make sure he knew I was talking to him too. He nodded and turned back to Rose.

I prayed to God that it would really be ok.

~oOo~

8 hours earlier...

Jasper and Alice had another fight, but this one was the worst. Jasper had been drinking a few beers and stumbled home. When he met Alice in their living room, she'd accused him of being with another woman, and it had led to a screaming match. Jasper knocked over a couple vases, and Alice threw him out. He left with his keys in his hand, expecting to drive away, but a car clipped him and knocked him unconscious. Alice had rushed over to him and called 911 as soon as she'd seen him motionless on the black pavement. She'd tried to do CPR on him, but she'd fallen apart after the paramedics had gotten there.

~oOo~

Present...

Alice was asleep in my lap as I brushed her short hair between my fingers. I charmed her to sleep after a few minutes of arguing with me about the bags under her brown eyes. Edward sat next to me, a sleeping Rose on his shoulder.

Emmett and Esme arrived later and we'd filled them both in on Alice and Jasper's fight. The police talked to us to figure out who hit Jasper. I wanted to kill whoever did it. Our family was just beginning to be comfortable all together, and now we had to work even harder to get it back again.

"Jasper has a problem, and Alice keeps enabling him do it by fighting him on it." Edward sighed.

"What do you mean, like letting him?" I asked.

"He shows up drunk all the time, she fights with him about it, he leaves, gets even more drunk, and comes back. It's a cycle. It's a cycle of anger and hurt that he's not going anywhere in his life, so he has to drink to numb the pain." He frowned. "I know the feeling from when I was hurt and angry and I had nothing else to live for, other than my vengeance with Jacob."

I rubbed his shoulder, and he relaxed under my touch, careful not to jostle Rose awake.

"You got out of that anger. So will he," I whispered firmly.

"It wasn't easy. It won't be for him."

"No, it won't. But if you went through it, and you pushed yourself to become better for yourself, then he can do it too."

~oOo~

While we were waiting with baited breath for word on Jasper, it gave me and Edward time to write. Emmett showed me a song by rapper B.o.B that fit our situation perfectly, and once I showed Edward, we knew we had to leave the hospital to work on the acoustic cover. We called our bandmates, and they all showed up to rehearse. I was on the acoustic guitar; Edward on keyboards; Kate on bass; Sam on the cajon drum box. We had to let Seth know he wasn't needed for this, sadly, but he was okay with filming the cover.

(Bold: Edward; Italics: Bella; Bold Italics: Both)

John Doe, I just want the John I know

Once you put the drinks on hold

Maybe you could come back home

John Doe, ooh oh oh oooh

Oooh oh oh ohooh oooh

Oooh oh oh ohooh oooh

As I kept singing the next verse, I kept getting angrier with each line. How could Jasper do this? Why did he feel the need to drink? Why didn't he talk to someone? What was going on with him? And how long had this been going on? I also felt scared. How were we going to help him? Edward and I knew a lot about being in rehab, but our reasons were different. I went for depression and cutting; he went in for anger issues, and now Jasper for drinking. Our family was a walking stigma of problems. But the good thing was that Edward and I overcame our problems with the help of our family, fans and ourselves. We still had our issues, but we were still doing the best we could.

I still had nightmares of what had happened with me and Jake, and I still felt urges to cut myself when I was anxious or stressed, but then I'd remember that I had too much going for me enough to go back to that state of mind. When Edward got angry, or felt himself becoming upset, just put his head between his legs and breathed in. He told me over and over again that he would rather control his anger than hurt me with words he didn't mean.

And that's when I realized I couldn't get too angry enough to not help my brother-in-law. I just wanted the nice, sweet, funny, talented guy back.