Egypt
Wednesday January 5, 2004
“Hey Harry?”
“Hmm?”
“If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?”
Alice had bidden her time, allowing Jasper a chance to try his method first. But it had failed. Harry was still all alone, and still pushing away the idea of eternity for fear of being miserable forever. Which was silly, because she would never let him mope about for more than half a decade, at max. Plus, she was sure that Harry would be incredibly happy once he turned and discovered what all he would be gaining. He was reluctant to talk about himself, but it didn’t take a mind reader to see that what he seemed to crave the most out of life was a family.
Alice could understand that. She truly felt very in sync with Harry’s deepest desires. When she first woke as a newborn, she had been alone. Once she realized what she was, what had happened to her, she had been so horribly miserable to think of an eternity alone. Having the vision of Jasper and her family is all that saved her from becoming so crazed that she would have eventually had to be taken out. Nothing was more important to her than her family; Alice would kill for them and she would die for them.
And Harry needed a family like hers. He just always looked and acted as miserable as Alice initially had. His big green eyes were too full of pain and too filled with horrors of a past he won’t discuss. It was a kindness to give him an eternity with a family that loves him rather than let him wallow in misery for another 60 or so years as a human to ‘protect his mortality’.
So now it was just her turn to follow through with the very, very, careful plan to make sure Harry got that future.
Step one had been the most difficult, keep Edward from knowing. This involved a lot of focusing all her attention on inane and complex mental processes to keep him from plucking the plan right from her head. It also involved a lot of keeping Jasper and Edward separate, since Jasper wasn’t as good at hiding his thoughts as she was.
Step two was much easier. Get Harry alone and find a way to convince him to voluntarily travel somewhere far away with her. Which is why she was at Harry’s house, a safer place for this conversation as the rest of her family were at home, on a Wednesday night pretending to do homework.
Harry looked up from the notebook paper he had been messily writing his math homework on and gave Alice a curious look for her abrupt question.
“What’d you mean?”
“I mean, if I could go anywhere in the world, I’d go to Paris.” Which was true, Alice loves Paris. She loves the scent of fresh baked bread, despite the way she knew it tasted terrible, in the mornings when she walks down the sidewalk. The feeling of excitement in the air. The garish contrast of romance filled tourists and exasperated citizens. And the fashion. God. She loves the fashion in Paris. America was so far behind. “What about you?” she asked again.
“Er...” Harry narrowed his eyes and absently tapped his pencil on his chin while he thought about it. “Maybe Egypt? My friend Ron went there once and he said it was amazing. Hermione says it’s full of history, but I think just seeing the pyramids would be cool.”
Harry would choose one of the sunniest places on the earth. But it didn’t matter, because Alice would indulge him in this whim before she changed him. Harry was one of her best friends and he deserved it.
“You’re joking!” Alice gasped in a show of surprise and gave Harry a bright smile. “I’m going there next week!”
“What?” Harry’s face took on an incredulous look, his tone disbelieving. “Really? Why?”
“I got a letter from the American University in Cairo saying they want to interview me for a spot in their fashion design program. It’s very prestigious, I fly out Friday to meet with them.”
Alice wasn’t really lying to her friend, it was a prestigious program. She would know, as she had attended it before.
“Well you’ll have to take loads of pictures and tell me how it is.” Harry grinned easily, not showing even a slight hint of jealousy that Alice just said she would be traveling to the place he wanted to visit himself. Harry was a good person, a person who deserved a better life, and she was going to give it to him.
He was going to be her favorite brother ever, she just knew it.
“Orrrr, you could go with me,” Alice spoke slowly, as if just now coming up with the idea. “Jasper’s going with me too since Carlisle doesn’t want me traveling alone. Why don’t you come with us?”
Harry’s eyes lit up with a spark of excitement before he quickly masked it behind a blank look.
“I can’t just go to Egypt with you,” he said. “I don’t even know how to speak Egyptian.”
Alice laughed, her tinkling voice echoing through Harry’s brightly lit kitchen. Yes, Harry was definitely going to be her favorite brother ever.
“They don’t speak Egyptian Harry,” she corrected him. “And it doesn’t matter. Come on, please? It’ll be so fun! We can go see the pyramids together!”
Alice blinked-
Harry in cargo shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt, snapping photos of a pyramid on his cell phone and smiling happily. Alice and Jasper, both fully covered with long sleeved shirts and pants and overly brimmed hats that kept the sun off their faces, watching and taking photos of their own.
Good. So Harry would actually get to see the pyramids before they changed him. Once he was a newborn, it could take decades before he had enough control to go out around tourists like that.
“I don’t know,” Harry hedged, never noticing the instantaneous flash of Alice’s vision. A vision that meant he would give in eventually, she just had to find the right offer.
“Did I tell you we’d have to miss a week of school? And it can be excused as a college scout trip?”
Friday morning Alice enacted step three and had Jasper picked herself and Harry up and the three of them drove to the airport together. They were on a plane before the rest of the Cullen’s could even notice their absence.
“I’ve never been on a plane before,” Harry said. His face had turned pasty white the moment the plane took off and he looked nervous as he tapped his fingernails on his armrest in his seat between Jasper and Alice. “I don’t think I like it much.”
Which... didn’t make any sense to Alice or Jasper because Harry came to the United States from England.
“Did you not fly to the US this past summer?” Jasper asked him. Harry’s tapping abruptly stopped and he went still for a moment. Alice watched him curiously. She loved Harry, but he was very peculiar.
“I meant I’ve never flown for this long?” Harry said, raising his voice at the end and making his statement sound like a question. “Egypt is much father than London was. Alice are you excited about your interview?”
Alice saw that he was deflecting, but she was happy enough to chat about the fashion program that she was allegedly scouting out as their plane took them to their first layover.
“I’m running to the ladies room,” Alice told the boys once they landed in Chicago. “Jasper, Harry’s probably starving. I’ll meet you guys at our gate.”
Alice waltzed her way through crowds to the nearest exit. She flipped her phone back on and grimaced at the stack of voicemails she already had. She didn’t care too much about Rosalie’s messages, those she simply deleted, but she did feel guilty not telling Carlisle or Esme about their trip. It was Carlisle she knew would take the news with the least anger, so it was him that she called.
“Is he dead?” Carlisle answered the phone, getting straight to the point. Alice knew that her family would realize it was no coincidence that Harry disappeared the same day her and Jasper did, she had just needed to wait until they were far enough away to inform them of everything.
“No,” Alice told him, not minding his assumption that they’d accidentally killed him. It was a common problem when turning humans, one she didn’t anticipate since Harry’s blood didn’t make her the least bit hungry. “Can we come back once it’s done?” She closed her eyes while she waited the moment it took Carlisle to answer and grimaced when no vision appeared for her.
“It will be a fight,” Carlisle said. “Rosalie is searching for you, Edward as well.”
“Will they forgive us once it’s done?” She closed her eyes, still nothing. Ugh. She doubted if Edward and Rosalie found them clear in Cairo, but she didn’t enjoy not knowing for certain.
“Possibly, but if you kill him I believe it would be best for you to stay away for a while. I wish you hadn’t done this,” Carlisle’s voice sounded truly mournful. Alice knew what it cost him to ask they stay away for any length of time, but she also understood his reasoning. If her plan went wrong, it was Edward and Rosalie who Carlisle would comfort.
“I won’t,” Alice said confidently. “I’m sorry Carlisle, but you know this is the best plan. Have you ever known anyone who needs this life so badly?”
“I wish this wasn’t the way,” Carlisle prevaricated. “Be safe daughter.”
Alice pocketed her phone and squared her shoulders. If her family could trust her judgement when she had her sight to rely on, they should trust her now.
Jasper waited until they were on the final leg of their flight, with Harry passed out beside the window now, to bring up their family.
“Carlisle called?” he whispered, his voice less than the lightest whisp of breath in the silent cabin.
“And Rose, and Edward, Esme, even Emmett,” Alice responded just as quietly.
“I don’t want to fight them,” Jasper told her, his voice was tight with stress. “I won’t fight my family. Not if they don’t force me to.”
“We won’t,” Alice reassured him. “They’ll accept it when it’s done.”
“Should they though?” Jasper breathed. “I don’t... I don’t know if this is the right plan. I think he was close to just accepting, maybe we should wait longer and then ask him again?”
“We’re already on the plane,” Alice pointed out. “And he doesn’t know what he wants because he doesn’t know it’s an option. He was meant to be one of us, I just know it.”
“Maybe.” Jasper watched as Harry’s chest rose and fell evenly, his eyes flitting around behind his lids as he dreamt in a peaceful slumber, one that Jasper had eased along. The two of them didn’t say anything more about it for the rest of the flight. Jasper just watched Harry with a gentleness in his expression that more than confirmed to Alice that this was the best plan.
When she focused on Jasper or Harry in the future, she saw them together. And they looked so happy, so in love, so at peace. But neither of them would ever be so happy and at peace if there were still all these secrets between them. Harry would just be unhappy, and Jasper would always only be a half-participant in their relationship.
As they woke Harry to unboard in Cairo and he gave Jasper an adorable sleepy eyed smile, Alice thought that sometimes everyone needed a bossy little sister to give them a push in the right direction.
“Woah.” Harry raised his brows once they entered the little cabin Alice rented under a pseudonym in the off-skirts of Giza. It was an old fishers cabin, surrounded by a sparse bit of wildlife and near a lake. They were a little over an hour from the pyramids that Harry was so eager to see and far enough away from the city that they were ensured privacy.
“It’s a bit small, but it’ll do,” Alice chirped, an understatement as the cabin had a living room, kitchen, one bedroom, and a bathroom. “Harry you can have the bedroom, Jasper and I will take the couches.”
“Don’t be daft,” Harry said. “You take the bedroom Alice. I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.”
“What a gentleman.” Alice batted her eyelashes at Harry, successfully making him laugh. “My interview isn’t until Monday. Would you like to go see those pyramids that Ron said are so fascinating tomorrow?” Alice smirked when she said Harry’s friends name, but truly she was impressed with the red headed human. Harry told her before that Hermione Granger was a genius, but it had been Ron Weasley who had known there was something off about Alice after only knowing her for an hour or so.
It had been a little insulting that he thought Alice was only pretty because there was ‘something weird’ about her, but she didn’t get hung up on the opinions of human men really. Plus she thought that Ron and Hermione had been fun to meet and spend time with. She had regret having to leave so early, but she was worried that Ron’s bemusement when he looked at her would lead to him making assumptions, incorrect ones to be certain, and making Harry on edge with her.
Ron and Hermione would have made excellent additions to their family as well. Sometimes Alice thought that if it was up to her, she’d have a hundred siblings and they would all live happily ever after.
Thankfully, Carlisle was in charge of decisions like that. For everyone except Harry, because he was Jasper’s love and Alice’s best friend.
“Er... d’you guys want to?” Harry asked, his eyes were eager but his voice was hesitant. Alice threw one of her arms around his shoulder and gave him a broad smile.
“We do,” she assured him. “Let’s make this the best trip ever.”
And in Alice’s opinion, they did.
They spent the next couple of days showing Harry all the touristy sights in Giza and Cairo. Alice and Jasper had to keep pretending to be just as surprised by he was, but really it was old news to them.
Alice loved watching Harry get so eager for the things they explored as a group though. It was nice to watch him discover all these new and interesting sights and cultures, it reminded her of the first time she had seen it and it had exposed worlds full of wonders to her.
“That is not good,” Harry laughed at dinner one night as he shoved away his meal. Alice agreed with him, of course, but since she was only pretending to eat the rozz me'ammar, it didn’t phase her.
“It’s a classic Egyptian cuisine,” Jasper told him. The three of them were ‘enjoying’ takeout on their living room floor in their cabin. “England has ruined you for the finer things,” he teased Harry.
“What are you on about?” Harry scowled, his eyes lit up like they always were when he was teasing Jasper. “Treacle tart and steak and kidney pie are the finest meal available.”
“That sounds so weird,” Alice shuddered. “Pie is meant to be sweet, not filled with meats.”
“I don’t think people who live in America can really say what’s weird about us Brits,” Harry leaned back on his forearms and grinned. “I thought I was in a whole new world when I got here.”
“What was the biggest culture shock?” Jasper asked him curiously.
’Well, people in America are just so bloody friendly, aren’t they? It’s not like that in England, at least not where I grew up.’
“Well, people in America are just so bloody friendly, aren’t they?” Harry said, his face just as calmly amused as it was in the vision that had flashed through Alice’s mind a tenth of a second before Harry answered. “It’s not like that in England, at least not where I grew up.”
Alice listened half-heartedly as Jasper and Harry talked about different cultures and lifestyles. Why was she so easily able to see Harry as a human, but impossible to see him as a newborn? She didn’t think it meant he wouldn’t survive the process, but it did put her on an uncomfortable edge during their trip as she was having to follow through a plan entirely mentally blind. She only had her instincts to follow, but certainly that was enough.
***
“I changed my mind.”
Alice had known this was coming for the last two hours. Jasper had been in the living room, sending peaceful emotions to Harry, and watching him sleep when Alice got a vision of him saying precisely that.
They were out in the woods while Harry slept, hunting buffalo together. Alice had already taken one down and waited silently as Jasper finished his off.
“You know he’d be happier,” she said bluntly. Jasper stood beside her and stared up at the sky, thinking through her response.
“I do not know if he will be happy knowing we took away his option to choose,” Jasper said slowly, enunciating his words with care as he chose them. “I believe we should go back to our previous plan. We can just keep showing him how wonderful everything can be, and then ask him again. Maybe in a year or so.”
“He could die by then!” Alice snarled. “He might just try and kill himself again and with the gaps he causes in my vision, who knows if we’d be able to see it in time! You’re being selfish Jasper Hale!”
“Me?” Jasper turned and was bent over in Alice’s face in an instant. “What about you? You just want to keep your new friend around forever! You’re thinking of what you want, not what’s best for him!”
“I am thinking of Harry’s best interests,” Alice hissed. How dare he say that to her?! “This isn’t about me.”
“Isn’t it?” Jasper said, his normally passive face twisted in anger. “You think this will fix everything for him, because it did for you. Did you consider that it may make it all worse for him?”
“It will not!” Alice yelled. “You just can’t see it because you’re letting emotions get in the way!”
“Ironically you actually can’t see it Alice,” Jasper said quietly. “I won’t fight with you, and we aren’t turning him. Not unless he wants to.” Jasper gave Alice a severe look and turned to run back towards the cabin.
“If he discovers what we are then he’ll have to be changed,” Alice yelled at Jasper’s retreating backside.
“Then you better be careful, or the next time Harry disappears you won’t know where we’ve went,” Jasper said, his voice clear and his tone threatening.
Jasper just didn’t understand. He’d always had people with him. As a human, he was a part of the army, comfortable as he led his troops through battles. When he turned, he was immediately a part of Maria’s clan. Then he was with Peter and Charlotte. Then on his own for a short, and by his own account, depressing, time. Then with the Cullen’s.
Jasper didn’t truly understand being alone, not like Alice did. Not like Harry does now.
So Jasper could threaten her all he wanted, but Alice knew that someway, somehow, everything would work out in the end.
She just had to turn Harry.
So Alice laid low. She made up with Jasper, said that she would follow his plan, and waited for her chance. She only had a small window left; they were leaving in two days and Jasper had vigilantly not left Alice alone with Harry even for a moment. Her sight wasn’t helping her any, which must mean that Jasper hadn’t decided to leave Alice alone with Harry. Which meant he needed a push in that direction.
“Jazz I am telling you, Harry would love it if you cooked dinner,” Alice whispered to her brother the night before they were meant to return home. This was her last opportunity to get Harry alone. They had woken up early and went sight seeing once more, and Harry had fallen asleep on the couch after they returned. She had heard his stomach growl in his sleep, and a plan formulated fully ready in her mind. “He’ll think it’s romantic.”
“I don’t know how to cook!” Jasper scowled. “Let’s just go out tonight. It’s easier to pretend to eat if there’s other people around to distract him.”
“Or you cook and we’ll take turns distracting him,” Alice said earnestly. “Cooking can’t be that hard. It’ll be fun!”
“There’s nothing here to cook,” Jasper pointed out logically. And just the way she’d planned on him doing. “I’ll cook for him tomorrow.”
“You’re being lazy,” Alice rolled her eyes and pushed her lips out thoughtfully. “Why don’t you go hunt real quick and grab stuff to cook for Harry? Then I’ll go when you get back.”
Jasper gave her a look that clearly portrayed what he thought at that idea, so Alice snarled for effect.
“Do you not trust me?” she demanded. “I said I’d wait for you to get him to agree, and I will.” Alice wasn’t superstitious, but if she was she would probably cross her fingers for the lie.
“Do you swear to me that if I go hunt and get food that you won’t tell Harry about us?” Jasper asked.
“I swear,” Alice said solemnly. And it wasn’t a lie, not really. She had no plans on telling Harry anything. Alice radiated perfect calm and tried to work in a bit of hurt so Jasper would feel guilty for upsetting her.
“I’ll be back soon,” Jasper said, skepticism still lacing his tone. “Don’t do anything stupid please.”
Alice snarled to prove a point.
While she waited for Jasper’s footsteps to be far enough away to not hear her anymore, she closed her eyes and focused. She dug in the future to figure out the exact time he’d be back.
In exactly eight minutes and two seconds Jasper was going to open the cabin door and drop an armload of paper sacks. Apparently, he was choosing to not go hunt and just get groceries.
He probably didn’t trust her to be alone with Harry for too long.
Which was both rude and entirely fair.
“Haaaarry, wake up,” Alice sang across the room lightly. She didn’t mean to scare him, but he startled as he sat up anyway.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked around a yawn. He looked adorably sleepy; his hair was much messier than usual, and he had lines on his face where it had been smushed against the couch cushion
“Nothing,” Alice smiled innocently at Harry. “Jasper went to go get dinner, but I have a question for you though, before Jasper gets back. It’s important.”
“Alright then,” Harry rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses and gave Alice a more alert grin. “What’s up?”
“Harry, how would you like to be my brother? Like, my real brother? Forever and ever?” Alice spoke in a sweet little voice and made her eyes big and pleading for effect. Which worked, because Harry’s own eyes softened and he looked at Alice sadly.
“That would be be wicked Alice, I always wanted a sister.” Harry’s voice was just wistful and sad enough for Alice’s resolve at this plan to strengthen.
“Then we have to do this quick before Jazz comes back,” Alice said in a more businesslike tone. She had precisely six minutes and 39 seconds before Jasper was going to open that door, plenty of time to get too much venom in Harry to be reversible. “It’s going to be terrible for a few days, but then you’ll be part of our family forever. Okay?”
Harry’s eyes widened as Alice slowly stepped towards him and he scrambled to his feet. She tried to ignore the dark scent to Harry’s blood and solely focus on the warm scent to make sure her venom flowed through her own body and coated her teeth quickly.
“Alice- hey, what’s going on?”
“Don’t freak out please,” Alice said patiently. “I’ve never done this before, and I’d be heartbroken if I accidentally kill you. Plus everyone will be furious with me, we all care about you a lot.”
She’d actually probably have to go on the run, but she really didn’t think there was any chance at all that she was going to kill him. Harry just didn’t smell like food.
“Hey- hey- back up-“ Harry held up a hand in warning as he backed up to the wall. “What have you never done before?”
“Turned anyone,” Alice said simply. She licked her teeth and tasted quite a bit of the tangy venom. Enough to do the job. “I’m only doing this because I love you and I know you’ll be so so happy once you never have to leave us, never have to be alone, okay?”
“Turned?” Harry blinked slowly a few times and stared at Alice for a long minute, wasting one of her precious sixty seconds, before he let out a heavy sigh. “Dang,” he shook his head. “Vampire. You’re a vampire aren’t you?” he didn’t sound surprised, just exhausted.
Alice crouched down, “Yes Harry.”
“And Jasper?”
“Yes,” Alice was calculating the best time to leap when Harry started laughing. Really, heavily, laughing. Harry had never laughed so hard in her presence before. She had worried he would scream, or faint, or something else- but laughing was an odd reaction to have. Even for someone as different as Harry was, it wasn’t a normal reaction at all.
“That’s perfect,” Harry said breathlessly after his laughter died down. His eyes were shining with laughter. “Oh. Perfect. Everyone in your family is a vampire? Carlisle and everyone?”
“Yes, and soon you. You’ll officially be part of our family in just three days-“ Alice was down to seventy four seconds, she had to do this now or Jasper would stop her. “Stay still please.”
“Alice, don’t!” Harry had himself pressed all the way against the wall now and finally looked fearful, which wasn’t Alice’s goal, but was probably inevitable given the circumstances. “Wait, listen-“
Alice sprung. She was on Harry’s back before he could blink and had her arms wrapped around his neck. “I’m sorry,” she said softly and honestly. “But you’re really going to see this is for the best.”
Alice bent her head down and bared her teeth-
BANG!
Alice could see every single spec of dust, mites, and light as she flew through the room and crashed in to the far wall, breaking a shelf with the force of her head. She snarled in an automatic response to the attack and went to get back up, but...
Alice was frozen.
“What?” she gasped. Her eyes flew quickly from her own body, suspended in air but held firmly against the wall as if an invisible hand were holding her in place, to Harry.
Harry.
“How...?” Alice and Harry stared at each other for a long time. Neither saying anything. Both questioning the entire situation. Harry’s breathing was harsh and rapid, she could hear his heart beating wildly in his chest. He had his right hand in front of his chest, a thin strip of wood held aloft in it, Alice saw that the hand was shaking the slightest amount, probably from the adrenaline she could sense coursing through his body. Harry’s teeth were leaving tiny indents in his lower lip as he chewed it and kept a wary eye on Alice. Not that he had anything to fear, as Alice very clearly couldn’t move.
Alice still hadn’t figured out exactly what was happening when Jasper came back in the room, arms full of groceries that he dropped immediately.
“What’s going on?” he demanded, his eyes round with wonder as he stared between Harry’s defensive position against one wall and Alice’s suspended one on the other wall.
And for something to surprise both Alice and Jasper: it had to be incredibly remarkable.
“Er...” Harry waved his hand with the stick in it and Alice was dropped to the floor unceremoniously. She landed on her feet, but the shock off the abruptness nearly made her stumble over. “Maybe... maybe we should talk?”