A/N: This is the last and final installment of my Jasper/Jacob trio Truth. For those of you who liked it, I'm glad and I hope that this is a suitable conclusion for you. I can't please everyone, but I hope that it's good enough. There may or may not be something extra to be added to this in the future, but for the time being I'm focusing my attention on my Poison universe. For those interested, you can find them in my lj or on .
Title: Truth
Part: 3/3
Rating: pg13
Pairing: Jasper/Jacob
Words: 2 421 words
Disclaimer: It's not mine, I swear! I in no way own anything that has to do with the Twilightseries, except owning copies of the books. Meyer makes the cash there, I make zilch.

. it's just this world's so far away .
I want to shine on you, and always like the dazzling sun
I will defend you, from all the darkness
This is the truth from my heart
- from SHINE by L'ArcenCiel

Two years later...

Absently, Jasper flipped a bit aimlessly through the morning paper as the sun crested over the horizon. He could see a thin ray of sunlight which had filtered in through a crack in the kitchen drapes and a tiny smile pulled at his lips.

Another string of murders, hm? Looks like the Volturi might be paying Seattle a little visit... Jasper set the paper aside and glanced down the hall towards where the bedroom was. His much younger lover was still fast asleep in their bedroom, getting as much rest as he could after the... long night that they'd had the night before.

Don't get him wrong, Jasper enjoyed the rough, adrenaline fueled sex that often followed a successful hunt of one of the many newborns who had been popping up in unusually high amounts lately. They hadn't figured out why this was, neither had really kept in contact really with their respective coven or pack; with the exception of the occasional call from Billy. So really, they had been largely in the dark for the past two years.

Carlisle had called shortly after they had moved into their small apartment, worried over where Jasper had disappeared too. Alice had apparently lost track of him because of his involvement with Jacob, so they had assumed the worst.

"Alice told me that she'd lost your future. I didn't - we didn't - want to believe that you had been destroyed..."

He sighed, they had wanted him to come back; but then again, he didn't think that any of them would be rather accepting of his newfound relationship.

Bella especially.

Even though she was now married to his adoptive brother, she still had those lingering feelings of love and attachment to the werewolf; and Jasper knew that there was some selfish part of her that felt like Jacob belonged to her and only her, that she was the undisputed master of his heart.

She wouldn't take well to the fact that that had changed.

Eventually, the frantic calls from his family had stopped, to the point where Carlisle might call ever five months just to check up on him and make sure that he was still in existence. Really, Jasper wasn't going anywhere for a very long time.

For the time being, Jacob was immune to his venom. They'd found this out by accident. Okay, so it wasn't so much an 'accident' as it was partly both his and Jacob's fault that they had found this out; control was still a bit of a problem of Jasper's. It wasn't completely his fault that during sex one had the disadvantage of losing complete control of themselves.

And Jacob's blood did taste simply divine.

Not that Jasper got to taste it on a regular basis, but he'd tasted it a few times at least; it made resisting the temptation that any humans could offer him much less potent. He found it much easier to deny the thirst that used to have threatened to overtake him whenever he was in a large crowd of humans; with Jacob around, it was much easier to focus on the heady scent that the werewolf gave off. The humans' fragrances paled in comparison.

"You're certainly up early..."

Snapping back into the real world, a tiny smile creased Jasper's lips as he turned away from the paper to look back at his still sleepy looking werewolf. Jacob was rubbing the last little bit of sleep from his eyes, his sweats that he wore to bed hanging almost scandalously low on his hips.

"Ah, you know me, I can't sit still for too long."

Jacob rolled his eyes as he shoved some bread into the toaster and poured himself some of the coffee that Jasper had already thoughtfully made. Honestly, the vampire had his schedule down after two years of living together, "Yeah, but you're normally at least sitting in the room when I wake up."

"This morning is... different," Jasper frowned. "I just have the feeling that something is going to happen... something big."

After he'd finished breakfast, Jacob poked Jasper in the shoulder; trying to get rid of the pensive air that had settled over the old vampire, "Quit depressing over it. If something happens, it happens."

"Hm, I suppose so..."

"Anyways, I've gotta get to work, otherwise my boss'll be on my case."

"Mm... alright." Jacob grinned and kissed the vampire's cold cheek before dashing back down the hall to shower and change; Jasper merely smiled and rolled his eyes at how energetic his young lover could be. Oh well, he really didn't mind the antics; as long as Jacob was happy, then so was he.

Folding the news paper, Jasper went through the familiar process of tidying up the kitchen. If it was just Jacob on his own, the place would have been a disaster zone by now; Jasper was the only one keeping the place clean.

The bedroom door slammed against the wall with a little more force then could be said to be necessary, and then Jacob was hollering out a goodbye to him before the front door slammed shut behind him.

Running hot water, Jasper started to scrub at the dishes and coffee mug with the sudsy water. As usual, he started to hum tunelessly as he worked; sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he washed both the breakfast dishes and the ones from last night's dinner.

Just as he started to rinse the now clean dishes off, the phone rang. Drying his hands quickly on the nearest dish towel, he reached out and grabbed it off the wall-mounted cradle.

Answering it, "Hello?"

"Jake? Jake listen there's-"

Jasper frowned as he placed the voice, "Jake's not in at the moment; he's at work. Is there something that I need to pass along to him?"

"Oh, um, well..." It was very obvious that Sam felt awkward about talking about whatever it was that he had called to tell Jacob to Jasper; which, to Jasper, made it just all the more suspicious.

"Whatever it is that you need to tell him, you can tell me. He and I don't have any secrets."

"It's just... the short lee-vampire says that she sees the Volturi-" he spat the word out with such hate that Jasper could very nearly sense it through the phone, "-are intending to pay us a visit to make sure that Isabella has been turned into a good little vampire."

"That's not all, is it?"

"No. She wants to see Jake before they come, to say goodbye or some other shit."

Jasper frowned, true, he did care about Bella; as a sister, but he wasn't too sure on how the entire situation with himself and Jacob would go over with her. Bella had the tendency to overreact when it came to things...

"I'll have to talk it over with Jake, but why are you the one calling and not Billy or Carlisle?"

There was a pregnant pause before Sam responded, "Billy... hasn't been doing so well, caught something out fishing. But doctor Cullen seems to think that he'll make a full recovery."

A brief nod to himself and Jasper finished up the conversation with Sam quickly enough. He hung up the phone and took his head in his hands.

What are we going to do?

.:-o-:..:-o-:.

Jacob was just finishing up at the book store that he worked at when his cell went off. The blaring noise of some techno-rendered classical piece causing his boss to shoot a dark glare at him. Shrugging, Jacob shoved the last few books onto the shelf before pulling it out and answering it.

"Hey Jazz!"

"Jake..."

Oh, that didn't sound good... Jacob bit his lip and frowned as he exited the store; Jasper never sounded that pained anymore. Not ever since the two of them had been together.

"What is it? Did something happen?"

"... Sam called. Bella wants to see you before the Volturi come."

He nearly dropped the phone in shock. Bella wanted to see him?! The Volturi?! What the hell was going on?

All of a sudden, Jasper started to gush out most of what Sam had told him over the phone earlier that day, and the pain only started to get worse. And Jacob could understand why.

While he still did love Bella, it wasn't the same as it had been before; what he felt for her was now more like the sort of love you did have for a best friend or for a sister, the romantic aspect of it had really disappeared. In the wake of his feelings for Jasper, his feelings for Bella had gradually dissolved into something that would have made her happy back when they had been friends back in Forks.

"... the Volturi... are going to Forks?"

"To make sure that Bella has become one of us; it was... part of the deal that they made three years ago."

"And she wants to see me now to say goodbye?! Why the hell couldn't she have done so earlier?!"

"Bella was... really torn apart over her sudden change to our life, or should I say the loss of hers. I don't think that she felt that she had the control to meet you in person; she spent most of the year after we left far from humans somewhere in Alaska. My best guess is... she wants a clean break before embarking on her new life with Edward."

"I don't know if I can face this, face her..."

He could almost feel Jasper's longing to embrace him over the phone, "If you need me to, I can come with you. We will face this together."

"Thank you."

He could hear a soft chuckle, and suddenly his heart felt much warmer and strength washed through him, "Anything, anytime."

.:-o-:..:-o-:.

It had been a long two years since either Jasper or Jacob had set foot in Forks and, not surprisingly, nothing had really changed much. Of course, they weren't actually going into the town itself; instead, they were going to the Cullen family house.

Where Bella was.

The motorcycle had been a sort of present from Edward before Jasper had left, and Jacob didn't mind the vampire's maniac, as Bella would've called it, driving, so they arrived on the outskirts of Forks where the house was in a relatively short amount of time.

Of course, it would have been easier and much faster to simply run the whole way, but Jacob had wanted some time at least to try and think up some excuse as to where he'd disappeared to and what to tell Bella.

Jasper wasn't the only one worrying over the newborn vampire's reaction.

Skidding a little to stop, the pair stood silently in front of the house, waiting. The front door flew open, and a blur of brown and too pale skin flowed from the front door before slamming into Jacob with a force that nearly hurled the werewolf to the ground.

"Jake! Jake I'm-I'm so sorry!" Bella cried out, and though she'd long since lost the ability to cry years ago, she still looked and felt like she would break down into tears at any moment.

Jacob shot a look at Jasper who shrugged as he pulled off the helmet, which was mostly for show, and tucked it under his arm; Jacob had discarded his the moment that they'd disembarked from the motorcycle.

"Um... hey Bells."

"Where have you been?! I've been... I've been worried and..." She stopped herself and pulled back, pulling herself to her full height; which wasn't all that much, despite the heels she was wearing. "I've been worried, and so has Charlie. You disappeared two years ago and no one's heard from you since!"

"I was... um... in Seattle."

"Billy told everyone that you'd moved out there but-oh, hi Jasper..." Apparently, she hadn't noticed the tall, blond vampire standing off to the side who was looking to the porch of the house.

The rest of the Cullen family had crowded itself onto the porch to watch, perhaps in case Bella lost control of her blood lust and attacked Jacob; or it could be to prevent her from inflicting any harm on the two.

"Hello Bella." Jasper's voice was soft and low, as always.

She looked between the two, a frown on her face, obviously trying to put together everything that she'd seen and was probably drawing conclusions from. Her eyes suddenly widened and her amber eyes immediately fixated on Jacob's; a bit of torment mixed in with the realization.

"You two... ran away... together?!"

Silence hung in the air for a little, then...

"Um, well I guess you could put it that way, but that's not really it..." Jacob sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, unable to meet Bella's rather unnerving stare. He was so used to the warm chocolate that the blazing gold unsettled Jacob a little; even though he looked into eyes like those on a rather regular basis, and loved them.

"... I don't know Jake... I don't really know anymore..." Bella murmured. "I've been thinking about this for a while now, ever since you disappeared, and I thought that... I could actually let you go, that it would be easy to do. I've gotten what I wanted, but now..."

Her voice faded. Jacob looked away, wordlessly holding his hand out to Jasper, who took it in his own; offering his own silent support to his werewolf. A wave of affection and love washed over Jacob, giving him strength.

"Yeah, I know it's not easy to say goodbye, but I think that it's about time that you and I start letting go of what could have been and start living."

Bella looked between the two of them, her eyes locking on their interlocked hands. "I want too, you don't know how much I do... it's just..."

"Bells, you've found your perfect match in this twisted world, and I've found mine. I gave up on you two years ago, and I've moved on. You have an eternity in front of you, you can't spend it pining over me. That'll just make him miserable."

Damn, why did it still hurt to say Edward's name? He had lost out with Bella to him and for the most part the scars from that loss had healed over; he had someone who completed him in every single way.

It was... better this way.

Seeming to steel herself, Bella nodded, as if confirming something to herself, "Yes... I'm sorry that I couldn't keep control of myself... as long as you're happy, then I can't be selfish and try to take that away."

Once again, she stood up straight, looking Jacob in the eye and smiled, really smiled.

"Friends?"

"Friends."

The two best friends turned almost lovers smiled at each other as the ones who they'd completely given their hearts to stepped up beside them and took their hands. It was one long eternity in front of them, but they'd make it through.

Somehow.

FIN.

Um, comment or review please? I'm sorry if the ending sounded cheesy, but I was sort of in a rush to finish this... I kept getting distracted. I'm starting to study history independently on my own, so that means that I have to find the books on my own.

Gosh, I sure hope the libraries carry books on what I'm studying... the internet really isn't the most reliable thing out there.

Twilight.