Now it's Natasha getting Jasper's raised skeptical brow, that name had certainly not come up thus far, but he still refrains from comment. It's Natasha's decision to share her past when she wants to share her past, and if she hadn't considered the Black Widow name something they needed to know, he'll trust that. But it's still a surprise to find Seth picking up on who she really is so readily, considering who she really is had been, by nature, a secret. Clearly he'd missed quite a bit during his little vacation.
"Wow," Seth whispers, and it's clearly not something he'd meant to say out loud. "Er. I mean. Why are you here?" he asks instead, looking at Jasper.
"Our old friends the Volturi are perking up again," he says and explains what had happened: the raid—leaving Natasha's part out of it—and his imprisonment, the tentative experiments, his escape with Natasha's help, holing up in the woods to keep from being located again. "And it seems you already know about that little data leak that Natasha went ahead with," he glances at her and back to Seth, and barely even hesitated over the 'Natasha' instead of his customary 'Natalia', "but included in those files was the report of my interment and the results of their experiments, which—according to Alice—the Volturi will try to twist into 'revealing our existence.'"
At some point during his recitation, Leah had bounded into the woods and come back again in a torn shirt and shorts, standing behind Seth and closer to Natasha, as far as she can get from Jasper while still being a part of the discussion. Her routine glower is in full force, but she looks interested in spite of herself. "So they're coming back here and we're supposed to just clean this up for you?"
"Leah!" Seth says, aggrieved both as the Alpha responsible for an ornery packmate and as an embarrassed little brother, but Jasper shakes his head.
"Of course we'd never ask such a thing. The rest of the family is coming back. We wanted to warn you of that as well, in advance. But we're not recruiting witnesses as we did last time. It may well come to a fight." Unlike Carlisle's reluctance, Jasper's having difficulty masking the anticipatory smile. He wants nothing more than to be rid of the Volturi for good, even if that might cause a power shift none of them can predict.
no subject
"Wow," Seth whispers, and it's clearly not something he'd meant to say out loud. "Er. I mean. Why are you here?" he asks instead, looking at Jasper.
"Our old friends the Volturi are perking up again," he says and explains what had happened: the raid—leaving Natasha's part out of it—and his imprisonment, the tentative experiments, his escape with Natasha's help, holing up in the woods to keep from being located again. "And it seems you already know about that little data leak that Natasha went ahead with," he glances at her and back to Seth, and barely even hesitated over the 'Natasha' instead of his customary 'Natalia', "but included in those files was the report of my interment and the results of their experiments, which—according to Alice—the Volturi will try to twist into 'revealing our existence.'"
At some point during his recitation, Leah had bounded into the woods and come back again in a torn shirt and shorts, standing behind Seth and closer to Natasha, as far as she can get from Jasper while still being a part of the discussion. Her routine glower is in full force, but she looks interested in spite of herself. "So they're coming back here and we're supposed to just clean this up for you?"
"Leah!" Seth says, aggrieved both as the Alpha responsible for an ornery packmate and as an embarrassed little brother, but Jasper shakes his head.
"Of course we'd never ask such a thing. The rest of the family is coming back. We wanted to warn you of that as well, in advance. But we're not recruiting witnesses as we did last time. It may well come to a fight." Unlike Carlisle's reluctance, Jasper's having difficulty masking the anticipatory smile. He wants nothing more than to be rid of the Volturi for good, even if that might cause a power shift none of them can predict.