A/N: Hey my lovelies! I'm going to try and make this story a little bit different, however, I will still use scenes that are important to the Twilight Saga storyline. If you don't like the way I'm going with this plot let me know how you feel about it all and I can explain my reasoning. Thanks guys!
P.S. To make up for my sudden absence (semi explained at end of Chapter) this chapter in a longer one then my usual 2-3 thousand words. Word count: 4690
-xoxo Jaye
Soon after everything calmed down, Jasper and Daniella were left in his room alone once again. Dani sighed as she sat on the couch next to the wall of windows, the embarrassment still evident in her emotions. Jasper moved closer to her and cautiously moved a piece of fallen hair away from her face and back behind her ear.
Daniella's eyes connected with Jasper's as she smiled softly. She was oblivious to the emotions of Jasper, only able to see the faintest spark of something in his eyes. Jasper, however, was able to feel what she was at the moment. Daniella was relaxed enough and had opened up to the pale skinned immortal. He could feel the immense amounts of embarrassment and he smiled gently. Jasper wrapped and arm around Daniella's shoulders pulled her closer to him so she would be laying on his chest as his body rested against the back of the couch.
"What is bothering you, my love?" Jasper southern drawl, prominent as ever. Daniella was blushing once again, but sighed and provided an answer to the question she was asked.
"Why'd she have to bring up Major?" Daniella mumbled hiding her face in his chest as the flush of her face refused to subside. Jasper's smile was like one that he hadn't used in years. As he gently traced shapes on Dani's hip, he ignored the question and asked one of his own.
"Why are you so upset about it being brought up?" Jasper asked, his nose nudging into her hair.
"Who wouldn't be? I have a Teddy bear that I named Major when I was 16 because of a-" Daniella stopped herself as her vision blured for a second before it came back. She was forced to relive the first time this had happened.
*Flashback*
She was fifteen, walking down the stairs of her childhood home in Phoenix, Arizona. Bella was calling her down for school. The girls were running late because the alarm clock didn't go off this morning. Dani was about half way down the stairs when her sight was taken from her. It was instead replaced by a thick blur before she saw something, and it definitely wasn't her stairwell anymore.
She could see horses, old fashioned carriages and the clothing of the 19th century. It was beautiful and Daniella loved everything about it. History was one of her most loved subjects. Suddenly, to Daniella, it felt as if she was there living and breathing in the air of the foriegn era. The sight of the new world she was viewing was clear, bright and as hot as the southern sun on a summer's day.
"Major!" Daniella heard someone yell. She turned quickly seeing a silhouette of a man on a horse as the sun blared into her eyes, her hand reaching up to block out what little of it she could. She watched as the so called 'Major' turned toward her. Their eyes locked on each other's immediately and it then seemed as though time had slowed. As if the only thing for miles of Daniella was the owner of those beautiful, emerald-green eyes.
But then his eyes left hers as he pulled on the reigns of the horse, causing the horse to gallop in the direction of Daniella herself. She thought the horse would run straight into her, but instead it flew right past her. Making Dani's hair, now a dirty-blonde color, fly back from her face and her hat, that hadn't been there before she fell into this new world, about fly away with the sheer force of the wind from the speeding horseman.
Daniella turned, watching as the green eyed man got called once again. "Major! Gather the calvary. We shall be heading out soon." The intimidating soldier told, a sense of confidence and respect laced in his tone as he spoke to the Major.
"I will gather the calvary when I am ready to. I give the orders here, soldier. Do not push your boundaries more than you already have." His voice was stern, built with the attitude of an experienced and knowledged individual. Daniella was amazed by the young man sat proudly upon the horse.
Dani felt the foriegn emotion of the blurriness return, then she was quickly thrown back into reality. Gasping as she returned from, who knows where she had been, she saw that she was at the bottom of her family's home staircase. Her mother and sister hovering above her.
"Dani? Are you okay?" Bella's concerned voice was something that Dani hadn't heard very often. She sat up slowly and winced at the sharp pain coming from her head.
"Ow! No, I...I don't know what happened.." Daniella spoke. She was scared. She didn't understand what had happened to her, all she knew was that her head was most likely injured. Daniella heard her mother sigh before getting up.
"Well, no school today. We've got to get Daniella to the hospital." Renee declared as Isabella helped Dani into the car.
*End Flashback*
When Dani came back to reality she saw that she was on the floor in someone's arms. Her actions turned frantic as she looked around only seeing the faces of each of the Cullen siblings, except for the one she wanted to see the most and her sister.
"Bella? Bella?!" Daniella called for her sister. It happened every time. When this happens she feels the pull to her sister strengthen. She had to make sure her sister was okay it was a priority.
Bella heard the yells of her sister from outside. Her and Edward had left to talk and he showed her the things she thought were impossible. When all of a sudden Edward said they had to get back. Bella didn't question it, she knew Edward always had his reasons. She hadn't expected, however, that she would be hearing the cries of her sister from outside the home of the Cullen's.
Bella's eyes widened. She knew that yell. It was Daniella's vision yell. Bella bolted into the home leaving a surprised Edward behind.
"Dani?!" Bella yelled, she felt the pull now. Bella ran up the stairs gracefully, almost inhuman, before she got to the room holding Daniella.
Isabella saw the Cullen's pained expressions. Jasper's was the worse, as he held her wriggling body in his stone-like arms. Bella knew that wasn't the right move at this point.
"Jasper, let her go." Bella spoke softly. Jasper immediately let go, watching as Daniella crumpled to the floor moving far away from everyone in the room. She was panting, when Bella sat next to her.
"It happened again..." Daniella whispered, her voice raw and cracked with her emotions. Bella sighed, pulling Daniella into a hug and hummed that familiar ballad from their childhood.
After a while Daniella was calm once again, and Bella looked to the Cullen's, Edward and Jasper now standing with his family across the room. They thought it was their fault. That it was something they had done. But it wasn't, at all. Isabella's gaze drifted over to her twin.
"You have to tell them now." Bella whispered to her, knowing fully well that everyone in the room could hear them speak.
Dani took a breath and nodded, "I know." She sighed.
"Tell us what, Daniella?" Carlisle's soft toned voice asked. Dani and Bella got up, Daniella only the slightest bit shaken from the recent events.
"Is there a place we can sit? It's a long story...and you all deserve an explanation." Dani stated, her voice vulnerable to everyone in the room by now.
Each of them made their way out the door and toward the office space to talk. Daniella noticed that Jasper was a large distance away from her as everyone had left. She made her way over to him and noticed the small step he took back. She frowned before taking his hand and holding it, wrapping her other hand around his wrist in comfort.
"Come on, Jazz." She spoke, barely above a whisper. "I need you now more than ever. Don't leave me right now." She muttered looking up at him. Her walls were down and she was a vulnerable, open book to him. Jasper's eyes locked with hers as he squeezed her hand back gently and kissed her forehead.
"I'm here for you, as long as you want me." He told her. The small smile that etched across her face was enough to tell him that she wouldn't willingly let him drift away anytime soon.
They then made their way down to the office to sit down with the rest of the Vampiric family. Daniella sat in front of the Cullen's with Bella next to her and Jasper sat close to her on the arm of the loveseat they had sat down on.
Dani was nervous about telling her story. She'd never had to talk about it before and when she did it was only with Bella. For one, Daniella had only just met these people and she was unsure of what their reaction would be. Second, she was already too invested in them to have them just walk out on her now.
"Okay, um.." Daniella was hesitant, understandably. Isabella reached out and held her hand in comfort. It was new but welcomed by Dani. She had been ignored for so long, and now the attention was centered around her. Dani didn't know how to feel about it.
"When I was fifteen I got a concussion. It was the first time I had ever gotten that serious of an injury before, but it certainly wasn't the last time I would be hurt in my life. It wasn't a very pleasant experience, getting the concussion. However, it wasn't completely my fault," Daniella took a deep breath before she continued with her story, "You know how, sometimes, you get lost in a daydream at school, while in a boring class? That's kind of what had happened to me. I was mid-way down the staircase at my house in Phoenix when it happened. It was like I traveled back in time or like I was seeing life through the eyes of my past self for the first time."
Daniella gripped her sister's hand and avoided the gazes of those around her, looking down at their hands as she spoke. "I know, I sound insane. I thought I was too for the first year. The first one I had, I was outside. I remember every vision I have. The sun was bright and hot on my face. Like the sun in summer, yet I was fully dressed in a pale-purple and white dress. My...My hair was, instead of being brown, a dirty-blonde color and I had a thin hat to match my dress. I'm not one for dresses now, much less when I was fifteen." Dani let out a slight laugh at the irony, "So you can understand why I was so confused at how comfortable I had felt wearing the dress, like I had worn them all my life."
Dani let out a nervous breath, but it was suddenly gone as a wave of calmness washed over her. She looked up to Jasper, a small, appreciative smile on her face. He layed a comforting hand on her shoulder, signaling for her to continue.
"It was the first thing that I heard in this new world I had fallen into. 'Major', " Daniella smiled a small smile as everyone in the room, excluding Bella, realized why she had been so embarrassed about her Teddy Bear and why it had triggered her 'vision'.
"When I looked to see who the man was calling for, I saw the silhouette of a man on a horse. Our eyes had locked for only a couple seconds, but it felt as if minutes had gone by. His emerald-green eyes captured my own as if there were a wanted poster set out for them. Suddenly his eyes left mine and he pulled on the reigns of the horse in my direction."
Daniella could tell that the Cullen's were hanging on to every word that she was saying. Edward was the most interested out of them all. Dani guessed it was because he could see who she was thinking of. She was extremely grateful that he was letting her tell it at her own pace.
"He whipped past me so fast that the force of the wind he had created nearly knocked my hat off of my head. I continued to watch him as the young man yelled to him once again, 'Major! Gather the calvary. We shall be heading out soon, ' The young soldier had spoke. He had nothing but respect for the younger Major next to him. I admired that, you see. The Major was young, but he was respected by his men, no matter his age."
Dani's heart swelled in admiration for the memory of the past world. It was something she had always found fascinating. It was interesting how the world had changed over time. She only wished she had been able to see it happen herself.
"Major responded, of course. 'I will gather the calvary when I am ready to. I give the orders here, soldier. Do not push your boundaries more than you already have.' He was stern when he spoke, and I could sense that he had an immense amount of knowledge and experience behind him. I was amazed by the blond man sat proudly upon his horse... I don't know what happened after that. I woke up at the bottom of the stairs with Bella and our mother above me. We went to the hospital and I was told that I had gotten a concussion. For weeks, I blamed the concussion for what I had seen that day, but then it happened again..and again..and again. Then suddenly it was a part of me that I kept to myself. A part of me that I was burdened with for the rest of my life. They happen randomly and I can't control when I get them or what they are. Sometimes.. Sometimes, if I touch an object that has a deep connection with someone or something I will be thrown into another vision. Other times, I can be lying in my room drawing and I can just drift off into one." Daniella felt as if she was revealing one of her closest secrets to the world, and in a way she was.
"Or in class.. when you're drawing." Jasper spoke, his tone was unnaturally soft and shock was clear in his posture.
Daniella looked up to where Japser had moved to stand beside his vampiric family. She saw the confusion etched onto their stoney faces, but she also saw something else, however, she couldn't tell what it was. She guessed it was something bad because no sane person would be saying the things she had said.
Dani turned her eyes downward ashamed of herself and nodded as she moved a peice of her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah...but I," Daniella seemed frustrated, as if something was missing. As if she knew what everything meant, but she couldn't put the last few puzzle pieces together, "I feel like I'm supposed to be figuring something out by now, but I just can't." She sighed as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, as a headache was sure to be occurring at any moment.
"What do you mean, Dani?" Alice asked, her voice all knowing.
Daniella thought for a minute. She went through everything she had been through since she arrived in Forks. Then, she landed on a memory as her eyes opened and her eyebrows creased in realization. She remembered now.
"The Portrait." Edward said. Jasper's eyes shot over to Edward for confirmation receiving a nod in response. Dani's head shyly turned back up to face the family in front of her.
"You.. you kept it?" She asked, the topic at hand was making her more and more vulnerable by the second and Jasper didn't know how to feel about it. Jasper looked into Daniella's eyes and a soft smile flashed across his lips before he spoke.
"Of course I did. You drew it Daniella I wasn't going to throw it away. Do you think it can help with this?" Jasper asked.
Dani bit the inside of her cheek, debating on the idea. She slowly came to the conclusion that she would like to see it. She admitted that she can't remember exactly how it looked, just that after it had happened she knew she had to get away from things for a while.
Jasper had left and returned faster than her mind could register. He now had a canvas in his hands, the back visible to her. Daniella was nervous now, for some reason. She looked up to Jasper, and noticed how ashamed he seemed to have gotten suddenly.
Slowly, Jasper turned the portrait around and when Dani saw it she couldn't stop what had fallen from her lips, as if it came naturally to her.
"Major..." she whispered, however everyone in the room had heard her. Their eyes widening in a sudden realization.
"Do you remember why you painted this, Daniella?" Carlisle asked. Daniella racked her brain for the memory of the art room.
"I... I remember a woman. She was manipulative, yet undeniably beautiful. She had eyes as red as blood and... and she was with the Major." Daniella was suddenly overwhelmed with a sudden burst of sadness. She remembered why she left the room now. "I remember why I left." Daniella admitted.
"Why? Why did you leave the art room, Dani?" Jasper was curious, he was finding the answers to the things he had been wondering about for so long. Dani's eyes lingered on his as she replied.
"Major. His eyes were no longer the piercing emerald green that had caught my attention in the beginning. They were a crimson red, a slight tint of black beginning to spread throughout his eyes." She told him, her hand reaching out to allow her fingers to graze across the portrait's eyes slightly.
She noticed the tension in the room. They were waiting for her to react, to say how much she had hated what the Major had become. Except, that wasn't what had happened.
"Major Jasper Whitlock.." Daniella spoke, a fondness laced in her tone. The Cullen's looked at Dani in shock. Jasper watched in complete amazement as he witnessed Daniella remember him. Her southern drawl that slipped through causing memories to resurface. Memories Jasper had pushed away for so long. To keep himself sane and yet detached at the same time. He had forced himself to forget. "Your eyes. They were different, but I could tell that the Major I had come to know over the years was still there." Dani smiled, as she looked at the portrait, taking it from Jasper's hands as she stood. "I guess it's a good thing I'm into blonds though, huh? Seeing as your eyes seem to change about as much as the seasons do."
All at once Daniella was comfortable again her truth was out and open to them, and she was getting used to the idea that the Major from her visions just happened to be standing right in front of her.
The quiet room was disrupted by the chuckled of the people around her, including Jasper. He was finding it hard to adjust to the information he had gotten in the last few minutes, as well as the memories flooding into his mind of the young girl her face ever so familiar. No matter how many names she had been given over time.
"I can not believe it's you.." Jasper's voice was laced with amazement as he held the side of her neck in his palm, rubbing her cheek with the pad of his thumb lightly.
"I can't believe you didn't notice by now," Daniella spoke, a slight joking tone in her voice, "but it's understandable. I have had many names over the years Major Whitlock, but one thing has remained unchanged." Jasper's eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.
"What's that, Dani?" He asked. Dani smiled taking a small step closer as she reached up and held his wrist with her hand, rubbing it softly with her thumb.
"Do you remember the first time we spoke?" She asked, a genuine curiosity in her question. Jasper's smile was prominent.
"August 28th, 1862. I had recently turned twenty and got promoted to Major in the Texas Calvary. We had just began our run through the town when we heard yelling from across the street." The smirk on Jasper's face was unmistakable. The Cullen's listened intently to the story unfolding in front of them. "Of course, we went in search of what was causing the scene to occur." Jasper's southern accent slipping out smoothly, "Only to find a certain little lady, dressed in pants of all things," The laugh falling from his lips was music to most of everyone in the rooms ears. "Sat proudly on a horse with a riot of angry townsfolk at her feet. She was laughing at them, telling them they were thick headed and that she would not move, willingly."
"Thick headed? They were controllin' little bastards. Even my Father was tellin' me to 'get my ungrateful ass off of that damn horse!' It was my horse and I had done nothin', but wash Gypsy since I had gotten her." Daniella spoke, a thick Southern accent that hadn't been there before falling from her lips. Her eyebrows creased in anger at the townspeople. Daniella was stubborn and when she starts something she tends to never let it go unfinished.
Daniella was surprised by the sudden accent she had gotten, a slighty blush brushing across her cheeks.
"Easy there my Southern Bell, your accent's slippin' through." Jasper smirked, watching in slightly awe as the rosy color brushed onto her cheeks before continuing. "I went over to see what was happening, my right hand man by my side as usual...
*Jasper's Flashback*
"Hey! What's going on here?" Jasper's right hand yelled over the crowd of townsfolk as they blocked in a horse and its rider. Shouts of protest were being thrown to the two soldiers, so Jasper took action quickly.
"Enough!" Jasper's stern, authority filled voice yelled. All of the townspeople quieted, some watching in respect of the Major, some avoiding the eyes of both of the soldiers in front of them, and some glaring at the horse rider across from them. "Now, someone explain what is going on here."
"She's wearing pants, sir! She's on a horse as if it's her right to be there! It's unacceptable." An older man spoke, his skin dark from the southern sun and his chin covered in a 5 o'clock shadow.
"She?" The Major had asked in slight shock. A woman on a horse in 1862? It was unheard of and completely unacceptable in these parts.
"Oh give it a rest Earl! You're the town drunk! What right do you have to judge me, when the whole town knows you chug away your disappointment of a life from an alcohol bottle!" The rider then turned the horse around by the reigns, like a pro, to face the crowd and the newly arrived soldiers. She froze slightly at the sight of the Major who had captured her attention from the first glance.
Jasper's gaze locked onto the woman in front of him. She was dressed in boots, pants (of all things), her thin dress tied up on one side to resemble a shirt, and a hat sat upon her head blocking the beating heat of the sun. She was bold, different, but that wasn't what the rest of the townspeople had thought.
"Ma'am." Jasper grabbed the brim his hat with his finger tips and nodded his head in respect to the lady on the horse in front of him. Jasper was raised to respect women, it wasn't going to end just because he was a Major in the Texas Calvary.
"Major." The little lady nodded back in respect to the Major. Just because she was rebellious, doesn't mean she had no respect for the worthy soldier.
"Can I ask why you are at the center of this riot of townsfolk?" Jasper asked, jumping down from his horse so they could talk face-to-face.
"Well, Major," the woman jumped down from her horse as well to stand face-to-face with the Major. "I was just wanting to take little, old Gypsy here for a run. She's been a little rowdy lately, ya see, and I thought it'd be nice to let her run around a bit." She responded, petting the neck of her childhood horse beside her.
The Texan Major couldn't help but laugh at the complete dismissal of the angry people around her. The woman smiled as she heard the laugh of the Major, turning to give him her full attention.
"Well ma'am, how about we let these people wallow in their anger and we take our horses for a little stroll? What do you say?" Jasper asked his smile brightening the green in his eyes.
"I think that is a wonderful idea, Major." She smiled, a slight laugh leaving her lips. She grabbed the reigns of her horse, Gypsy, and they made their way away from the crowd of people beginning to start their yelling once more.
"Major Whitlock! You can't find this acceptable. She's a sorry excuse of a woman if I've ever seen one." The Major's right hand man told him.
"Well then, I guess it is a good thing that you've yet to have been with a woman before, huh." The Major responded, not even turning to acknowledge the man behind them. The two walked in silence for a while before they decided to make conversation.
"Can I ask what possessed you to do this, ma'am?" The Major asked.
"I've had Gypsy here for about my whole life, and yet I have never been allowed to ride with her outside of our little property. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands an do as I please." She replied, radiating pride that the solider was not oblivious of.
"I see. But what about the clothes?" He asked looking over to her.
"Well, dresses really aren't made for horseback riding now are they?" She sassed back.
"I guess not." He responded.
"So, what's your name soldier? I figure we'll be walkin' around for a bit and if it's alright with you, I'd like to match a name to that pretty little face of yours." She smirked at the green eyed man.
"Names Major Jasper Whitlock, ma'am. Yours?" He smiled at her.
"Ella Grace Richards, sir. It's nice to meet you." She smiled back as they continued to walk their horses for a long while. Their conversation anything but silent.
*End Flashback*
"The one thing that hasn't changed about me Major Whitlock, is that I still don't give a damn what anyone's opinions of me are. I'll wear my jeans and ride my horses, or I'll speak my truth and stand up for what or who I believe in. That, Mr. Major, is unwavering." Daniella concluded as the proud smile had yet to have left Jasper's face.
A/N: I am so sorry my lovelies! I went on vacation for a while and I wasn't able to write. However, I'm back and writing as much as I can now. I just want to thank you all so much for getting chapter one to over 600 reads! ily all so much!
-xoxo Jaye