"You have grown flowers in parts of me that I thought were already dead. Do you have any idea the emptiness you have killed just by existing?"
Or, alternatively, in which Jasper Hale falls in love with the very fragile, very human Analise Rivers.
[...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It had been just under a week, but Analise already knew that she would enjoy her new life as a vampire. While she was having a difficult time dealing with giving up having children of her own, the Cullens had been successful at distracting her from negative thoughts. She was constantly having competitions with Emmett to see who could run the fastest or who could find and hunt the biggest animal. Rosalie had done Ana's hair in probably hundreds of different styles, and Esme was teaching her how to bake homemade desserts for the school events. Ana found that not sleeping really opened up a lot of opportunities for small adventures.
Carlisle was still working on figuring out the analytics of Ana's gift. She was practicing mostly with Emmett and Esme, seeing as she had already put herself through the pain of Emmett's death, and Esme's was the least horrific. The only discovery that they had had was that her gift seemed to be only in her palms, and only during skin to skin contact. So, if Ana was touching someone through fabric, her gift wouldn't work, which had been a relief during her first attempt to be in close proximity to humans.
"Are you sure about this? What if I can't do it? What if I hurt someone?"
Jasper was sitting in the driver's seat of Carlisle's black Volvo and put his hand on Ana's knee to comfort her. "You'll do fine," he reassured her with a smile. He made sure to use his gift to grant her some sort of relief from the anxiety she was feeling.
"And if not, we'll be able to tell," Alice chirped up from the backseat.
The task at hand seemed like an easy one from the outside: just go into the grocery store, grab what Esme needed for the bake sale, and go home. However, the four occupants in the vehicle knew that it was so much more than that. Originally, it was supposed to be just Jasper with Ana on this adventure. But upon Ana's request, Edward and Alice were tagging along as well. Edward could read Ana's thoughts so he would know first if she needed to leave. And Alice could flip through various scenarios of the future based on Ana's decisions, which would further guarantee the safety of the humans around them.
"Remember to hold your breath if you need to," Edward instructed.
Jasper gave Ana a comforting smile. He had full faith in her because she cared too much about other people. Jasper knew better than anyone how difficult it was to abstain from human blood, but Analise was stronger than she gave herself credit for. "And if you feel like you might not be able to endure it, be honest. There's no shame in needing more time."
Ana prepared herself mentally. She repeated the same phrase over and over again in her head; mind over matter. She took a deep breath and held it in her lungs. When she exhaled, she opened the passenger door and made her way through the parking lot and up to the glass doors. When she pulled them open, she decided it was best not to breathe. There were only eleven other people in the store, and she knew this for certain because she could hear the beating of their hearts.
"Move your shoulders so it looks like you're breathing," Alice reminded, her voice too quiet for human ears.
Ana nodded and did as told. They walked to the back of the store together to get the first thing on the list; margarine. There were two different kinds. Analise began to ask which one they should get but realized she couldn't ask a question with no oxygen in her lungs. So, instinctively, she inhaled.
