All credit for the Twilight story and characters belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I just enjoy playing with the characters. My thanks to my wonderful beta, EdwardsMate4Ever, and to Jaspersdoll for the title.

Catching Bella

Chapter 17 – A Seal's Life, or Jasper is Frustrated Again

"I'm glad you see it," Jasper remarked. "I'm not sure she does."

"Oh, she does," said Alice knowingly. "She's just never dated. Her parents were strict."

"That's one of the things we're looking into," said Carlisle. "Both her parents were shifters. I think one question we need to research is whether a shifter can mate with someone who doesn't shift."

"Her aunt, who is also a shifter, doesn't know," Edward replied. "She's in love with a human, which appears to be something different than anything else that has happened in their family's past."

"Who sold the girl?" asked Marcus.

"O'Leary and O'Malley," replied Jasper, "the owner and ringmaster of the Katy Circus."

"I'd like to raise something with O'Leary," said Emmett.

"You know them?' asked Marcus.

"I'm sorry, Lord Marcus," replied Carlisle. "Bella had been living with a small traveling circus before we found her. She left after the death of her parents, wanting to experience life on her own. It appears her parents had been preventing her shifts using animal tranquilizers, but Bella ran out. She saw me about getting a prescription, and that's how I came into the picture. O'Leary was the Katy Circus ringmaster, and O'Malley was the circus owner."

"Do we know where her family was before?" Marcus asked.

"Bella told us that her parents had joined this circus from another act overseas. They were flyers, trapeze artists, from a European circus. The Romanians had been looking for them, and her parents appeared to have fled to the United States to avoid them about twenty years ago. They joined this American circus just before Bella was born."

"So we don't know where they were before?" Marcus asked.

"Various circuses, I suspect," Jasper replied. "Circus people tend to be tolerant of uniqueness, and her parents found handlers who they trusted over the years. Like us, though, they had to move around because they don't age. Mr. Wu had been covering for Bella's father for years."

"How did you fit into the picture?" Marcus asked.

"Without much problem," Carlisle said. "I bought the circus as an investment."

"They saw you?" Marcus asked.

Carlisle considered his answer carefully. "We met with them twice, very briefly. The owners took off after selling Bella, absconding with all the funds and abandoning the circus. I told the remaining circus performers that I wanted to invest in their circus because I knew the two ladies. But they've only seen us twice."

Marcus' silence was grim.

"I was on hand to read their minds," Edward said. "Carlisle and Jasper had limited contact, and it was a cloudy day. The circus peopled sensed he's different, but they don't know what he is. Carlisle excels at blending in, and circus people excel at keeping secrets. Whatever they think he is, it isn't a vampire. They had some speculations, but none of them actually touched Carlisle, and they didn't see any sparkle."

"But I hear that we don't have to worry about O'Leary and O'Malley," Carlisle said. "The Romanians were apparently not happy about the transaction. My friends in the Irish coven went looking for them, and learned that they left their hotel with two rather fine gentleman, according to the concierge. Siobhan had met Stefan in the past and recognized his scent in the hotel lobby. The two men never returned to their rooms."

"The fewer witnesses the better," said Marcus. "Aro won't be happy, no matter how careful you were."

"Actually," said Edward, "most of the circus people now think Carlisle is a wizard. They're rather excited he's bought their circus."

Marcus laughed. "A wizard? Why do they think that?"

"Mr. Wu picked up on Carlisle's hesitancy about being seen and spread the rumor. They have a healthy respect for black magic, so they are hoping he keeps a distance. In the meantime, they're grateful that Bella's aunt, Mrs. Cope, is back, and they're looking for another lion tamer."

Marcus wasn't completely satisfied, but Carlisle assured him that Edward would do a scan on their thoughts from a distance on a regular basis to make sure no one was thinking about vampires, so they turned their attention to the problem of Bella as a seal.

Jasper carried the trunk upstairs to Carlisle's study. As he entered the room, Marcus stood admiring the portrait of Carlisle as part of the Volturi court done by Francesco Solimena centuries earlier.

"So many years ago," he said. "In some senses, we were both so much younger."

Carlisle nodded as began pulling out the texts he had read centuries before, admiring the craftsmanship of the bindings as he turned them in his hands. Together they went through all of the books, but found nothing in them about beings who could shift to any animal. They had a rather comprehensive listing of the locations and family trees of werewolf clans, as Aro had kept track of Caius' hunting expeditions when he had exterminated werewolves.

"After reading about Caius' thoroughness in dealing with the werewolves," Carlisle remarked, "I don't wonder that shifters went deep underground."

"I suspect that we'll be writing a new chapter in this history," Marcus said. "At least from our point of view. I can't wait to talk to the Major's mate when she returns to her human form."

However, as the days passed, it appeared that Bella loved being a seal. The Cullens' swimming pool, installed so Carlisle could use hydrotherapy with his patients, was getting a workout. She could swim laps, splash Jasper, and they brought fish for her to chase.

But that didn't seem to satisfy her. She kept trying to get out of the house, pulling herself in the direction of the nearby coast.

"Dude, she wants to play in the ocean," Emmett remarked as Jasper led her away from the balcony door she was nosing again.

"I am not letting her swim in the ocean," Jasper said. "There are orcas out there."

"You could go with her," said Alice. "I would see it if there were any in the area."

"You don't seem to ever seem to be able to foresee anything that happens to her," Jasper commented. "You didn't see when she was about to be kidnapped."

"I know, but I can still see what happens to you and Emmett," Alice said.

"You wouldn't see if she was about to be attacked," Jasper said. "I won't risk it."

But that wasn't the end of it. The seal kept making breaks for the door, heading toward the ocean, so finally Jasper relented and took her out at midnight with Emmett and Edward. The vampires wore black wetsuits and went into the ocean with her, so she could roll and enjoy herself in the waves without the threat of becoming an orca's dinner.

She wore herself out that night for the first time, but the next day was mischievous than ever.

Jasper, however, was getting tired of wooing his seal-girlfriend with fish and receiving seal kisses. He wanted girl kisses.

"She's enjoying this too much," he told Carlisle. "She has no interest in coming back."

The seal was in front of the fireplace, happily slapping at Emmett, playing a version of Twister with him that Milton Bradley never envisioned.

Marcus grinned. He held out a hand to the seal, who flopped her way over and slapped his hand with her flipper. He scratched her around the neck and chin. "It's nice to be around an animal again," he said. "They always flee us."

"It's time for bed," Jasper announced, and the seal lay on her back, slapping at him to the amusement of Marcus and Carlisle.

Jasper swept her up into his arms. As he took her upstairs, while she wiggled and orked in protest, he started calling her "Bella."

He put her down in bed, covering her up so only her seal nose and whiskers appeared outside of the blanket.

"Bella, come back, darling. Please come back," he repeated over and over.

Finally, in the morning, she shifted back.

"Good morning, darling," he said.

"Love you," Bella whispered, then slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Is that what you were saying, with all those 'orks'?" he asked.

She blushed.

"I love hearing it," Jasper said softly. "Say it again."

"I love you," she said.

She got a mischievous grin, and he looked at her warily. "What?" he asked.

There was a shimmer, and Jasper couldn't suppress the oath that escaped him followed by a muttered, "Not again."

In front of him was a cooing bird with a gray head, emerald wings, and light green body. "A love bird?" he said, coaxing it on to his finger. "Funny. Now come back."

There was another shimmer, and a giggling Bella lay in front of him. She reached for her discarded clothes, but he caught her wrist. "Later," he said. "I love you. No need to run into another skin, darling, not anymore."

He took her face with his other hand and stroked it softly before pulling her close. When he kissed her, she relaxed into his kiss. This time there was no pulling away, no fleeing. Two lonely people had finally found one another.

THE END.

Thanks to everybody has read, reviewed and favorited my story. Your support is the reason I keep posting.

I just started another story, "Vices and Vamps." Bella/Jasper. Bella's a frustrated cop during a Seattle murder epidemic. Hope you'll check it out.

If anybody's headed to the Twilight Meet-up in Nashville over the weekend of July 12th-13th, I'll be there. My first time going. PM me if you're going or live in the area!