Scarred

I don't own Twilight, Stephanie Meyers does.

Chapter 1

It was almost time. Any minute he would walk through the door. The man she was destined for, the man she saw in her visions. Visions of love. Alice smiled to herself. She hadn't seen his face but she knew he was perfect. He had to be, he was a vampire.

All she saw of him was his wavy blonde hair but that was beautiful. It was odd she couldn't see his face but she didn't let it bother her. She thought of the visions she had seen. He was compassionate, loving, comforting, and protective. He was perfect for her. She saw him holding her, shopping with her, hunting with her. They would join a family. It was going to be everything she longed for. She would make new memories, it wouldn't matter that she couldn't remember her old life.

She squirmed on her stool at the counter. She wished he would hurry up. She watched the rain falling outside the diner. It was odd that the day that would change their lives was rainy, it was the reason he would enter the diner and meet her. She smiled softly, she would never curse the rain again.

She heard the bell over the door ring and put a hand over her unbeating heart, she tried to control her excitement. It was him she was sure, she took in a deep breath smelling him. He smelled of earth and sunshine. Perfect she thought as a sigh escaped her lips.

"You kept me wait..." She started to say as she turned around but the words died on her lips as she faced him.

The man that stood in the doorway was the man she had been waiting for. He was tall and broad shouldered. He had the same wavy blonde hair as in her visions but his face...Alice couldn't help her instinctive reaction. She fell backwards off the stool almost landing on the floor before catching herself.

She turned her face away unable to continue looking at his face. Her vampiric instincts screamed at her to run but she was frozen in the horror of it all. This couldn't be the man she saw. The loving man who held her so tenderly, no this was a brutal man, battle hardened and horribly scarred. She snuck a peek at his face. Only one eye looked back at her and in that eye she saw pain. For a moment guilt overwhelmed her and she started to reach out to him but he was gone back out the door before she could utter a word.

Alice stared at the door in shock. Her mind numb and his face burned into her mind.

"Would you like some coffee miss?" The waitress called to her.

Alice turned to look at her without really seeing her. The woman looked at her with impatience and a hint of anger. Alice's brow rose in question.

"Look I know he ain't pretty to look at but he's a good man. He helped Larry when those punks were trying to rob us last Wednesday. If it hadn't been for him Larry would have been hurt." She looked Alice up and down seeming to come to a decision. "You know I think I'd just like you to leave." She said and turned her back on her.

Alice couldn't believe it. Her man, the man of her visions...She remembered the visions she had of him. The man in them had been kind, tender, protective. Alice hung her head in shame, he hadn't deserved her reaction. She began to search her visions, to learn how her reaction had changed them. The waitress patently ignored her and Alice returned the favor.

She hung her head, she was no longer destined for the man. He would never be open with her now. Any vision of them together showed him quietly following her but never happy. No, that wasn't good, he deserved better than that. Alice was saddened to learn that she could no longer be with him if she wanted his happiness but resolved that it was what she wanted. She didn't like it but she knew she didn't deserve him. Her reaction had proven that. She wasn't sure how she felt about what it revealed about her but she would think of that later.

She decided not to pursue him and watched his future change. Now she saw him living alone in the woods outside a small town, hunting animals and never coming into contact with another vampire or human. She frowned again not liking his loneliness. No, that would not do. Alice walked to the door ignoring the waitresses relieved sigh. He would be happy, Alice would make sure of it. She walked out the door into the rain, determination on her face as she ignored the rain that drenched her new dress.

Jasper walked through the town slowly, his collar turned up and his hat pulled down. Not many people were out but he avoided the gazes of anyone he passed. Covering up his face as much as possible. He hated the fear, disgust and pity that people felt when they looked at him.

He grimaced, the vampire in the diner had been horrified when she looked at him. Jasper clenched his fist, what had possessed him to let her see him. Sure Sue and Larry accepted him, he had saved them from those punks and helped them fix up the diner. That didn't mean anyone else would, especially a vampire who could see the scars even clearer.

His mind wandered back, remembering that day. The day everything had changed. He had been so stupid, confident in his own abilities, looks and favored status. Maria had been angry already. She hadn't really forgiven him for letting Peter and Char go. He shouldn't have pushed it. She had been turning him away for months, gratifying her sexual desires with Richard. Jasper had been jealous and angry as he watched Richard take his place as favorite. He shook his head remembering his arrogance.

He had taken one of the newborns to his bed, making a point of having Maria catch him. He had thought causing her jealousy would remind her what he meant to her. He foolishly thought she really loved him. The woman had been torn apart and burned, she had been lucky. Jasper himself had been captured and tortured. His one eye closed in remembered pain.

He felt guilt remembering all the victims he had tortured for Maria. He had never let himself feel their pain before. He shut off his empathic abilities they interfered with his ability to fight. There was no way he could hurt someone whose pain reflected in his mind so he had blocked off that sense. In his newborn year all that mattered was his value as a fighter, it meant his survival. So he willed it away, ignoring any feelings that trickled through.

During his torture the damn had burst and his ability was no longer containable. He felt not only his own pain but the emotions of those around him. The anger and sadistic lust of Maria, the fear and willingness of his torturers. It was hell. They had bit and tortured him for months before Maria finally thought he was punished enough. He had scars from his many battles but by the time they were done he didn't think there was an inch of his skin that wasn't scarred.

He closed his eye remembering the first look he had of his face. Maria had brought him a mirror, smiling vindictively. Her emotions were poison and Jasper wondered why he had ever thought he loved her or that she had loved him. She was clearly incapable of love and if he had allowed himself to use his abilities he would have known that. Maybe he didn't want to know... He looked in the mirror when she ordered him to. The torture he had endured had made disobeying her impossible. What he saw...

Jasper's hand went to his face tracing the eye patch and running down along his mangled lip. One of his eyes was gone a bite mark halfway through the socket and running to his eyebrow, deforming it. His skin once was smooth was now bumpy, with silver lines in the forms of bites running over it's entirety. His bottom lip had a part of it missing and had been fused back together in a way that deformed his once full lips, making them thinner and showing part of his teeth as he was no longer able to close them all the way. To a human he would look as if he had been in an accident and had acne as a teen, to a vampire... Jasper shook his head.

"Your angel face is gone. Who would want you now?" Maria had said smugness in her voice. Those words echoed in his head even now.

She kept him around for a couple of years afterwards but he could never fight as well again. His empathic abilities made him hesitate, stopped him from being as ruthless as he once had been. When Maria realized he could no longer fight as well she threw him out. He had hoped she would kill him but Maria was cruel and wanted him to live.

He had wandered for a long time. He had debated going to Peter and Char but couldn't face them if they turned from him in horror. He had found this town and thought maybe he could settle down but it had been clear that it wouldn't be possible even before meeting the strange vampire. He could no longer feed on humans, their emotions of horror and disgust when he saw them was too much. He needed to go away, far from any person. He lifted his face to the sky letting the cold rain soothe him. Maybe someplace rainy...