Do You Dare Me Jasper Hale?

Helping had never been Grace’s speciality but when it came to Grandma Georgina, it was another story entirely.

The old house kept silent as Grandma Georgina kept on telling Grace to make sure that she kept her body temperature up after the last time she held her hands.

Grace decided on that frosty Monday morning that she would be uttering a few words to Jasper Hale when he decided to make an appearance.

Sitting her gently down in to the wooden rocking chair by the window, Georgina sighed in contentment as she felt the first rays of morning sun hit her sunken cheeks.

“Shit”

It was lucky for Grace’s sake that Georgina was deaf otherwise she wouldn’t have taken to Grace’s poor language used around her. The faded off yellowish wallpaper greeted Grace as she made her way in to the kitchen, drowning her hands under the icy tap water.

“Hmmm...You didn’t cut yourself...hot perhaps?” A deep voice echoed in the pokey kitchen.

Grace didn’t turn around to acknowledge her guests arrival, so she didn’t see the confused expression Jasper wore as he silently approached her.

“Don’t” Grace warned as she felt a small calmness begin to spread, gritting her teeth she whipped her head round.

Narrowed dark honey eyes met hers as the vampire inched closer to look over the sink at her hands still under the running tap water.

“If you waiting for them to turn to ice cubes, I don’t think you’ll have to wait long” He muttered reaching to turn the tap off by its curved handle. A now irritated curse muttering Grace struck the handle with her hand, covering it like a life line, and turned to stare Jasper down with those dark forest green eyes, the water continuing to run over her fingers.

“Why are you here?” She hissed at him, while Jasper backed off slightly and retreated to one of the four kitchen chairs.

“I think the more important question is, why are you freezing your fingers?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grace’s mother was never ill, she always told people off for saying that she was, turning back to her 7 year old daughter and repeatedly telling her that they were in fact, crazy people.
Not everyone was perfect, and who would be after their husband dies next to them in a car crash.

But Grace’s mother was still normal and could not understand why people whispered about her all the time when she passed them in the streets or supermarkets.

“Now Grace you listen here, no matter what these people tell you, I am your mother and I love you ok? Don’t let anyone tell you different”

And 7 year old Grace kept to her promise, she kept to her promise in the playground when the other kids ganged up on her, she kept to her promise when the teachers kept asking if she was alright, and she even kept her promise when strange men came in to the house and her mother screamed.

Grace just stopped keeping to that promise when her mother ended up in that place with the white walls, white floors, white beds, and the people wearing white.

“They’ve caught me Grace, don’t let them catch you, and tell Richard when he comes in tonight that his dinner is in the fridge”

Her mother believed Richard was always going to walk through that door at 6 every evening, and when he didn’t, Grace’s mother just muttered something about him working too hard, and she would wait up again the next evening.

Richard was never going to come back, but Grace never told her mother that, she played along and watched at night from upstairs, peering through the wooden bars of the banister.

“And could you tell me who Richard is?” The smiley faced doctor had asked her.

And as clear as day, just like asking someone if the sun was really shinning, Grace finally revealed the truth about Richard.

“Richard is my dad, and he died in the car crash”

And like someone had lifted a blanket from her, Grace realised in the middle of that hospital, with the doctor vomiting out big words at her, that her mother was ill, really ill, and she was never going to be like her real mother again.

Grace had tried to forgive her dad when a old motherly looking nurse gently told her the news, but still staring wide eyed at the doctor as he continued his speech, trying to block out her mother’s screams from the other room. Grace couldn’t forgive her mother, she’d left her all alone, after breaking the only promise her mother had made her keep.

“Because my hands are shaking Jasper that’s why, and I need to stop them shaking!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hysterical Grace was not something Jasper had encountered before, let alone known what to do if it ever happened.

With his eyes wide at Grace’s outburst, he rose from the table much too quickly, catching the chair a second before it could crash to the cracked kitchen floor. Despite his gifted abilities with any given situation, Jasper decided against using extra help.

“Let go” He whispered in Grace’s ear, her right hand still clenched on the handle of the tap.

He’d used his speed to stand behind Grace now, his body looking like it was cradling hers, and his cold hand reaching round slowly to fold over Grace’s clenched one.

Blue colouring began to spread over Grace’s left hand, the water still cascading on to her skin, its gentle sound being the only sound in the room.

If they would just stop shaking, Grace thought, her mind cursing, ignoring her numb hands.

Soon an even colder hand touched hers, shocking her momentarily, her immediately body tensing.

“Grace” Again he whispered lightly in her ear, ignoring the burning now ripping through his throat.

As Grace’s body tensed, Jasper’s was no better; his became just as tense and solid behind her, desperately trying not to breathe.

Fire erupted through him, a scent so wonderfully smelling washed over Jasper’s senses, his eyes squeezing shut. Back away, move now, his brain shouting as he knew he was only inches away from Grace’s pulse, the skin thin and fragile.

Instead of helping Grace save her hands, Jasper was now stuck behind her, using every last strength to not suck the life from her. The atmosphere became almost overpowering, the silence deafening, as Jasper’s hand remained on Grace’s, trying to concentrate on the task.

“You haven’t fed.” It wasn’t an accusation; it was a statement, the truth. Jasper rushed over here, truthfully because he didn’t trust Grace, regrettably deciding that he was still stable enough to be around Grace.

For once in his life, he wished he had doubted himself more and gone hunting.

Jasper’s jaw became tight as he blamed this on Edward, believing he could handle everything as coolly as he did.

Wrong again.

Even though her numb blue hands still shook, Grace’s brain rebooted and went on auto-pilot, telling her immediately that there was no space between her and a dangerous blonde vampire, and it was running out of possible and logical ideas of what to do in these kinds of situations.

So Grace did the only thing she knew how to do with a marble frozen hand still tight on her own.

“You dare bite me; I will come back and haunt you”

She broke the impossible silence.