A/N: Okay guys, before you start fussing, I know that it has been a while since I have updated. Well, I can only say one thing: I am sorry. Life. But, I have this chapter up and ready for the go! I hope that you enjoy it and leave me some feedback. I don't know what people think if there is no feedback given!

Alrighty! Here it goes! I will try to have another chapter up sooner this time!

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Temper Tantrums and Tears

Alice knew that she was going to get a major lecture when she finally decided to go downstairs the next morning. Which, in all honesty, was precisely why she was still lying in her bed regardless of the fact that she was kind of hungry and knew that she had medicine that needed to be taken.

Alice realized that she didn't have a choice in the matter, however, when, not five minutes later, Esme came walking into her room.

"Come on Alice, there is a lot to take care of today. It is ten o'clock, which is later than I would normally allow you to sleep, but you were quite ill last night. Since you are up now, we can discuss a few things over brunch and then you can lie down for a nap afterwards." Esme told the child in front of her. Alice simply looked down at her hands and tried to stifle a sniffle that was threatening sneak its way out.

"I'm too old for naps," was the only reply that Alice could come up with.

"Not when you are sick. And, before you say that you are not sick, you had a very bad asthma attack last night. We have plenty to discuss without adding anything else to the list, so please, Alice, do as you are told," Esme said, her eyes held a sternness that Alice had not yet seen. But, there was something else there. Something that Alice had never really witnessed.

Could it, perhaps, be concern?

"Yes ma'am,' Alice whispered, looking down at her hands.

Esme looked at the girl in front of her. She knew that Alice was confused. And hurt. What had she been through growing up with a mother like hers?

Esme walked over to Alice and knelt in front of her, taking her shaking hands in her larger, soft, warm, dainty hands, and grasping them slightly.

"Alice, I know that you are confused and don't really know what to expect, but I promise you that Carlisle and I are not harsh people. You have to be chastised for what you did yesterday. However, so do the boys. I am going to talk to each of you today. Normally, that would not be your business, but I realize that since you are new to our household, you need to know that we, being Carlisle and I, are going to treat you exactly the same way that we treat our own children. While you are here, you are our child. Do you understand?" Esme asked Alice.

"Yes, ma'am. I understand." Alice whispered.

"Okay, Alice. It is ten. How about you go take a shower, brush your teeth, and then come downstairs into the kitchen. Everyone else has eaten breakfast and are in their respective rooms. I am going to go speak with Edward while you shower, and then you and I are going to talk while you eat."

"Okay. "

"I want you to leave the bathroom door unlocked just in case. No one will come in there. I want the door to remain unlocked in case something happens."

Alice nodded, stood up, and then went into her closet to get something to wear after her shower.

"I'll see you downstairs in a little bit, Alice." Esme told her and then walked out the door.

Alice sighed. She should have known that this day was not going to go her way.

Edward was mad. His arm was hurting and it was all stupid Alice's fault.

And, his daddy had smacked him last night.

Also, Edward knew that, since part of everything that had happened the night before was his fault, that that smack might not be the only one he got.

It really wasn't fair though. His mama made him come back to his room when he had finished eating breakfast because he had 'acted indecent for a child half his age and should not let his brother talk him into doing things that he knew were wrong'.

He didn't understand what was going on. He was supposed to have his mama's undivided attention when he was sick. Him. But, last night, Alice had taken it away from him.

Alice wasn't even his sister! It wasn't fair!

He wouldn't even talk to his daddy when he got home. He had decided that already.

And his mama…she was supposed to…

"Edward, honey, you and I need to have a very serious discussion." Esme said from the door way.

Esme had walked into Edward's room and knew right away that he was working himself into a right state. That child showed his emotions on his sleeve like no one she had ever had met.

"I don't wanna talk. I wanna go downstairs." Edward whined.

"Well, young man, we are going to talk, and you are not going downstairs. Do not think that your father and I don't know what has been going on in our own house." Esme told him sternly, sitting down beside him as she did.

"I don't wanna talk about Daddy! He hit me! And I don't wanna talk about stupid Alice! All this is her fault! I hate her!" Edward told his mother vehemently.

Esme looked at her youngest son, her eyebrows raised. She reached over towards him, careful of his injured arm, turned him gently to his side, and then smacked his behind.

Edward yelped and tried to rub his now injured posterior. Esme wouldn't allow it though. She grab his arm with one hand and placed her other hand gently under his chin to make him look at her.

"You, young man, have crossed all lines. I know that you are injured, and I know that your feelings are hurt. However, you are old enough to know what your father and I expect of you. Right now, you may get up and sit in your time-out corner until I come and get you."

"But…but, Mama!" Edward wailed as tears trailed down his cherub cheeks. He hated the time out corner even more than getting smacked. He hated sitting still that long.

"No. Let's go. I have to fix something for Alice to eat and you have time out time." Esme told him as she stood up.

Each of her children had their own designated time out spot, as there were times when they all needed them. And, in Esme and Carlisle both knew that there was no punishment in being sent to a room that had all of their toys, games, and electronics in it.

Edward's time out spot was in the bottom step of the stairs which could be seen from the kitchen and the living room, as well as from the laundry room.

"No!" Edward yelled at his mother. Esme stared down at him. She had no idea what had gotten into her children, but she knew that she was fixing to find out. At that exact moment, however, she didn't reall have time to argue with her wayward eight year old. She picked him up and put him on her hip.

If he wouldn't listen to her, then she would just make him do as she pleased.

Something that rarely happened to Esme was happening right then.

Esme Cullen was losing her patience.

"Please put me down, Mama!" Edward cried. He did not, under any circumstances, want anyone to see him being carried to his time out. If she was going to make him be in time out, he was going to walk there like a man.

Esme sighed and looked at her baby boy.

"Are you going to act right and do as I have asked?" she asked him.

"Yes, ma'am!" he said and nodded at the same time, then rubbed his tear stained cheeks and runny nose against his mama's shirt.

Esme sighed. Oh how she loved her children, but they did tend to try her patience at times.

But, when her eight year old, cherub cheeked, blue eyed child unconsciously sought out her comfort even when she was chastising him…well, it made it worth it.

"Okay. Go straight to your corner. I have to talk to Alice while you are in time out." Esme told him while setting him down carefully on the floor.

Esme looked at her watch.

10:34.

It was going to be a very long day.

Carlisle dreaded the moment that he was going to have to go home, which, in all actuality, was very abnormal for him.

It wasn't that he dreaded home in general. It wasn't that he knew that his wife was going to be there, and very possibly be at the end of her rope, or that his kids would be sullen and whiny after a day of lectures from their mother.

It was because he knew that tonight he and his beautiful wife were going to have to punish their children: Rosalie for disobeying her mother and asking her father for his credit card; Jacob and Edward for their horrid behavior towards Alice; and, finally, Alice for her actions towards Edward.

He hated the fact that he was going to have to sit beside his wife and dole out punishments; especially, after the night they had had previously. He had felt so unwanted and then wanted at the same time. His wife wanted him, but his children wanted nothing to do with him.

He understood it, really. It was just that when they were hurt, they wanted Esme. It didn't matter that daddy was a doctor. No one held a candle compared to their beloved mother. Even Rosalie, at sixteen, wanted her mama to cuddle her when she felt ill. Daddy better not come anywhere near her when she felt sick.

Carlisle knew that it wasn't him. He had been a doctor long enough to know that it was almost every family that this occurred in.

Every sick child that came through the emergency room wanted their mamas. The only ones that usually wanted their daddies were the ones whose mothers were abusive, dead, or lacked any motherly instincts. Those were always easy to pick out.

Carlisle finally got home and walked in the door. The house smelled heavenly of roast, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, and rolls. Sometimes he honestly wondered where his wife found the time.

He set his keys in the basket beside the door, took off his lab coat and hung it on the coat rack, and then loosened his tie. It was only inside his front door did he completely change from doctor to husband and dad.

He looked up and saw Edward sitting at the base of the stairs.

Edwards time out spot.

He peaked into the living room and, sure enough, Jacob was in his spot. Carlisle took several steps towards the kitchen and was greeted with yet another child in a timeout spot.

Alice. This was a new time out spot. Right under the kitchen window, sitting on a bench that was facing the wall. It was low enough, and Alice was tiny enough, that she could not see out of the kitchen window.

The child looked just like his two sons did: Livid.

"Hey, Honey." Esme said from in front of the stove, "Would you mind calling Rosalie down here so that she can set the table?"

"Not at all." Carlisle replied picking up his tiny daughter, Bella, who had been coloring at the table.

Carlisle put Bella on his hip and went towards the stairs. Edward scowled at this. He loved Bella, but he didn't always like to share with her.

Carlisle walked up the stairs, patting Edward on the head as he did so, and then went towards Rosalie's room.

Carlisle knew that tonight was going to be hectic and chaotic. He hoped that the next day would prove to be much simpler.

"Rosalie, your mother wants you to come down and set the table." Carlisle said as he stuck his head into her already opened door.

Rosalie looked up from her desk where she had been studying for the past hour. When she had gotten home from school all the little kids minus Bella were in trouble from the day before. Rosalie knew that she was going to have to eventually talk to her mom about what had happened the day before and she was probably going to get into trouble for taking her dad's credit card; however, her mom and dad were both caught up with the incident from the night before, as they should be.

Rosalie didn't want to give her mother any more reason to be upset with her.

"Sure, Dad. I am coming." Rosalie replied, standing up.

Carlisle smiled. Yes, he knew that his daughter was being extra obedient at the moment because she knew that her parents were at the end of their rope.

"Good Girl." Carlisle said, leaning down and kissing his eldest daughter's forehead as she walked by.

Carlisle and Esme sat on one side of the recently cleared dining room table while the three miscreants sat on the other side.

Alice sat on one end of the table. She had pulled her chair as far over to the very edge of the table so that she would not have to sit right beside Edward, who was in the middle. He had actually pushed his chair closer to Jacob's so that he would not have to be right beside Alice.

Carlisle and Esme simply sat and stared at the three children for a moment.

Jacob was staring out the window since he was on that side of the room.

Edward was looking at his Mama, trying to decide if he would get out of trouble if he started crying and said that his arm was really hurting. Or, if he could do the same thing and get Alice in even more trouble than she already was.

Alice, on the other hand, was looking down at her hands which were positioned delicately in her lap. She really didn't know what to think or do, as she had never really been in this position. Sure, she had gotten a lecture from Esme earlier about how one treated the members of their family. What Esme didn't seem to understand was that Alice wasn't part of the family. She was her own person. Currently, she was her own family. No, it wasn't fair, but not much in life was. Sure, she had to obey these two adults sitting in front of her, but did they really think that she was part of their family? Was it fair for them to like her, to show her what a real family was, if it was going to be yanked all away from her the minute that her mother decided that she had had enough of traveling, and was ready to come back? Alice didn't really think that it was fair of them at all.

"The first thing that all three of you should know and realize," Carlisle started, "Is that your mother and I are very disappointed in the way that you chose to act last night. One of the rules in this family is that there is never, under any circumstances, a reason to physically fight one another. Nor is there ever a reason to tease a member of this family about anything."

"She ain't a member of our family." Edward mumbled under his breath. Jacob looked at his little brother with wide eyes. The little brat didn't know when to shut the hell up.

"Edward Mason Cullen, I think that both your mother and I have both heard enough of your lip. The fact that you could be so heartless of another astounds me. I do not care that you are eight years old. You never treat any human being with the carelessness and hostility that you have treated Alice with since the day that she moved in with us. Never."

"Fine. But I'm not the one that said she could live here."

Carlisle looked at his son. Esme did the same. Both of them were shocked at the way he was acting.

"Son, do we need to go have a discussion in my office?" Carlisle asked the defiant child. He knew the eight year old was fixing to be in a mood that would not allow him to listen to anyone or anything.

"No. I am not going to your stupid office. I don't understand why I am in trouble when she hurt me! That ain't fair!" Edward ended his mini rant with a full blown yell. He stood up and stared at his parents rebelliously.

"Edward. Go into my office. Right now." Carlisle told him.

Edward looked at his father. He knew what a discussion in his father's office was like. It was not like this was his first rodeo, but he sure hadn't been sent to his office in a while.

"Fine! I don't wanna be out here anyways! Especially if I gotta sit by HER!" Edward screamed at his parents, then went running towards the kitchen door.

Esme sighed and then looked at the other two children. They were wide eyed. Jacob's mouth was hanging open. He was in disbelief. His little brother was an idiot!

Alice, on the other hand, was nearly in tears. She did not understand why Edward could hate her so terribly much.

"Do either of you want have any objections to being here?" Esme asked them. Both of them shook their heads in the negative.

They were not stupid. There was no way that they wanted to bring any more punishment down on them.

"Okay. I have talked with both of you today, and I want you to know that we are both extremely disappointed in the actions that you have each commited against one another. Regardless of how long Alice is here she is part of our family. Jacob, I know that you like to play jokes on people, but you have to realize that sometimes your jokes cause more harm than good. Yesterday was one of those days. Alice has not been here very long, and she does not know you well enough to know that you were joking. For your actions, you are grounded for a week. That means no electronics, no football, nothing. You may help me or your father, you will have extra chores and you will be showered and in bed by eight each night. Is this understood?" Esme asked her son.

"Yes, ma'am. And, Alice, I really am sorry about yesterday. We shouldn't have done that to ya." Jacob said in a low voice.

"It's alright." Alice responded equally low, looking down at her hands again.

"Alice, you are also grounded for one week. Carlisle and I realize that you did not mean to hurt Edward and that the boys started it. However, if something like that happens in our household, you are to come and get one of us. If we are not here and Rosalie is in charge, then you tell her. You will not fight in this house. Do you understand?" Esme paused and waited for an answer.

"Yes'm." Alice whispered, silent tears falling down her cheeks.

"Alice, dear, we want you to feel like this is your home because, while you live here, it is. You will be treated just like our own children. Alice, we want to get to know you, to love you. We realize that you are having a hard time, but that will change. You are grounded for the next week with the same stipulations as Jacob. After last night, you are going to need the rest, so going to bed early will be a good thing. There will be a few chores that Esme will give you, and you will not be allowed to use any electronics. You may e-mail your mother, but only on the computer in the family room with mine or Esme's permission." Carlisle told her gently. She nodded, but did not look up.

"Jacob, dear, would you mind going to your room so that your father and I may talk to Alice. You can start getting ready for bed. We will be up in a little while to say good night." Esme told her eldest son.

Jacob nodded and stood up. He went around the table and stopped beside his parents.

"Ma, Dad, I really am sorry. I'm not just saying that because you expect it of me, I really am."

"We know, honey. It is all over now. You are forgiven." Esme said, standing up and kissing her son.

Jacob walked out of the room and went to his room while Esme and Carlisle turned back towards Alice.

"Alice do you have any questions about anything? Do you understand why we are getting on to you about last night?" Carlisle asked the tearful girl.

"Yes, sir." Alice said quietly.

"Alice, why are you upset?" Esme asked her, getting up and moving to the other side of the table to sit beside Alice.

"I'm okay. I…um…I just…I am not really used to everything here. I will get used to it though. I promise." Alice whispered.

"Alice, you take all the time that you need. But Carlisle and I, we are always going to be here when you need us. If you step out of line, you can expect us to admonish you for it. You can always expect us to follow through with the things that we promise. Do you understand?" Esme asked the small, teenage girl.

"I know. Can I go to my room now? I promise that if I need anything that I will ask. I will also put all my electronics into a bag and set it outside my door for you." Alice said.

Esme and Carlisle looked at each other. They had not told her that that was one of the stipulations of being grounded in their household because the other kids already knew it and they were going to tell her before they sent her to bed.

"Okay, Alice. Go on, dear. I will bring your medicine up to you in a bit, and then you may read or lie in bed. Which either you prefer. " Esme told her. Alice nodded then got up to go to her room. She was tired. It really had been a long day.

Esme sighed as she and Carlisle sat in the dining room.

"You know that we still have Edward to deal with." Esme said sadly.

"I know. We can't let this slide, Esme. His behavior…"

"Was unacceptable. He knows how to behave, and the things he said were vile. I had no idea that our son, at eight years old, could be so hurtful." Esme released a resounding sigh and tried to will back tears.

"I had to smack him once today. I believe that your discussion is going to be more of the same?" Esme asked Carlisle.

This time it was his turn to sigh.

"We don't really have much of a choice do we? I hate having to do that to any of them, but if that is what it takes to make him behave and step back into line…" Carlisle said.

"I know. I agree with you. I think this time, however, we need to present a front. We will both go in there. If he sees that we are both disappointed in his behavior, he may very well correct it much faster."

"Yes. Oh, Esme, I hope that these things start evening themselves out soon. I hate that we always have to be the bad guys."

Esme laughed and then climbed on her husband's lap, wrapping his arms around his neck.

"Oh, dear Carlisle, you know that that is why we had children!" She laughed and then placed her lips on his.

Carlisle smiled up at her when she withdrew and laughed silently.

"Oh course, my dear. Come on. Let's go ahead and get this over with. Then we can put all the kids minus Rosalie to bed. We still have to talk to her. Then, we can go to bed!" Carlisle said.

Together they walked up the stairs towards Carlisle's office.

Once they got there, Carlisle opened the door…

…and what Carlisle and Esme saw did not make them happy….

A/N: sorry for the cliffie~