Hello my dear readers and thank you for your reviews!
Wow, okay, last chapter was a bit of drama, eh? But I felt it was necessary for the story, that's why it had to happen :-/
Once in her room, Maddie leaned with her back against the door and rubbed her left eye with her knuckles. The venom that was blurring her vision stung and it was only adding to the discomfort she was feeling. Just until a few seconds ago she had felt nothing but anger - it had only left her because of the unexpected smack she had received from her sister. It had taken her off guard and startled her, but now that she was in the safety of her room and could reflect on what had just taken place in the living room, she was actually glad Rose had done it.
She hadn't even realised just what she had been doing, but now she knew that it would have been horrible to watch. How could she lose it like that? How could she do that to Emmett?
Guilt gnawed at her insides while she tried to blink the tears away, unconsciously rubbing at the still aching spot where Rose had struck her.
She didn't even know what to do now … she had been allowed to be outside, and she hadn't even needed to ask for approval - she only did it because she knew Rose would appreciate it. Oh, it was frustrating ... she hadn't done anything wrong, but was in trouble anyways. So what the heck was she supposed to do now?
While she stood there in her room, unsure of what to do, a thought suddenly popped into her mind.
She could just call Esme and ask if it would be okay for her to come home early ... maybe Jasper would pick her up. Then she'd just spend her holidays in Forks, following the same routine she always had. It sounded boring, but at least she could meet humans without getting yelled at.
Once again anger made itself known at the unfairness of it all, and it mixed with guilt and an uneasy feeling about what would happen next.
When she pushed away from the door to pick up her phone lying on the bedside table, Maddie realised that she was still without socks or shoes and wearing nothing but a wet bikini – something that had made the sting of the smack undeniably worse. Deciding that she wouldn't want to risk getting yet another swat on a wet bottom, she walked over to her closet and opened it.
She pulled out some dry clothes, then drew the curtains and got changed – there was no way in hell she would leave her room now to take a shower or get changed in her bathroom. She didn't feel like seeing Rose or Emmett at that moment, and she didn't want Rose thinking she was disobeying her by leaving her room.
Dressed in an old pair of sweatpants and a large hoodie, she then slumped down onto her bed and buried her head in a pillow. Never would she have expected her holidays to be that shitty, never!
Rosalie watched her sister turn around and head for her room, just like she told her. She was glad that Maddie obeyed, as she wanted her to leave the situation now before it got even more out of hand than it already had. All of them were probably equally shocked right now and could use a minute to think.
"Are you all right?" Rosalie asked when she noticed Emmett blink his eyes.
"Yes," he replied and nodded his head, but abruptly stopped and drew in a sharp breath through his teeth. "Ow!"
"What's wrong?" she asked, sounding panicky, and helped him sit down on the couch, hoping he was all right.
"Just some kind of headache, I guess. It's gone now," he told his wife to calm her. A white-hot pain had shot right through his head, but as quickly as it had come, it was gone again.
Oh. As Rosalie had forced Maddie to sever the connection, the girl hadn't been able to ease out of Emmett's mind, leaving him with the sudden loss of her influence and therefore a blank mind. She didn't know how that could evoke a headache, but it obviously did.
He held a hand to his forehead and breathed out, then raked his fingers through his hair. "Um, babe … what happened?"
"You don't know?" she asked and her eyes widened while she felt a lump building in her throat.
"To be honest, I'm not sure if I do," he admitted and gazed at her, his eyes the colour of dark caramel now. Stress and uncertainty weren't doing him any good right now it seemed.
"Maddie was in the process of compelling you to do something ... very unpleasant and ... inappropriate with your jacket."
"Oh," he replied and distorted his mouth, remembering what his little sister had said before he asked her to repeat it. "Yeah ... that would've sucked. A lot, actually."
"Exactly."
Then he continued, and an odd smirk appeared on his lips. "I mean, just imagine -"
"Emmett, I don't want to imagine. It's not funny, okay?" Rosalie could not see how he could find this amusing now - he must still be suffering from the shock she assumed. The only logical explanation.
"Of course it's not funny!" he said. It would only be funny if it wasn't his butt that would be used for making stuff disappear. "I'm glad she didn't follow through with it after all."
Rosalie nodded, then told him in a calm tone of voice, "She was really mad." Hopefully he would see that he had been one of the reasons for Maddie's anger.
"Yeah … but why did she stop then?" It just didn't make sense to him that Maddie would be infuriated enough to use her talent on him, but then suddenly change her mind like her anger had vanished into thin air.
"I … swatted her," she admitted.
"Oh," he breathed and Rosalie nodded her head. She knew that Emmett realised the severity of the situation now, and that his behaviour had let to his sister getting smacked.
Rosalie let out an uneasy sigh, because now they had to talk about what happened, admit to both their mistakes, and figure out a way to not repeat them in the future.
It was just weird – normally spending time with Maddie was a lot easier than it was now. In case she misbehaved, Carlisle and Esme took care of it and all they needed to do was comfort Maddie or explain things to her. They never needed to really assume the position of being solely responsible for her. Never in a million years would they have thought that it would be so hard to take care of a child, never.
The main problem today was Emmett's behaviour actually. He was this overprotective big bear, that sometimes just acted without thinking – only driven by this instinct to protect his family. That had made him ignore Rosalie's words to leave the girl alone and let her have fun with people her age. He just flipped and was completely convinced that there was nothing wrong with his behaviour. Well, maybe not anymore as he could see what would have happened to him if Rose hadn't interfered and what actually happened – Maddie got smacked.
Rosalie took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch, pinching the bridge of her nose like Carlisle always did in stressful situations.
She had allowed Maddie to leave the house to spend time at the lake with people her age, and asked her to put on a bathing suit or the like so she wouldn't look weird next to the other teens and in order to not drip water all over the ground floor when she would come back. There had been no problem whatsoever, until Emmett saw her with the human kids swimming in the water.
Then – when Rosalie noticed her husband's absence, she had already figured where he was at and what he was doing. And indeed, when she opened the front door, she could see him marching toward the house, leading a scowling Maddie by the hand.
She had been so certain that Emmett was in the wrong, but then doubts snaked themselves into her thoughts when they came closer. As soon as they were inside she found out the truth and knew that Maddie had indeed been dragged away from the lake for no reason. That wasn't fair and she wanted to say something – but couldn't. Everything happened so fast and then there was the cussing and Emmett's obtuseness; both of them were in high dudgeon and it got a little too much for Rose at that moment - so she made a decision. It was the wrong one, she knew that by now, but at that time it seemed like a good idea.
She had counted on Emmett's senses to kick back in, so that he would see reason and notice that he was in the wrong and completely out of line. She had hoped he would manage to calm himself as well as Maddie in order to discuss the problem, and she had hoped he would remember what she'd told him before.
At the same time she had hoped Maddie would take a deep breath and actually realise what Emmett was saying – he was scared she didn't want to spend time with him anymore because she had human friends now. So yes, there was more than one reason for his odd behaviour, and Rose had trusted Maddie to notice the insecurity behind Emmett's words. She knew him well enough to notice that – but she obviously didn't due to the anger she had felt. And then it was already too late.
"What do we do now?" Emmett asked carefully and eyed his wife who seemed to have gotten more and more frustrated and disappointed with something – or someone.
She took her hand away from her face and let it drop to her lap. Then she lifted her head and fixed him with a level look. "We need to put an end to this, and there is only one way."
He gasped. "Oh come on! It wasn't that bad what she did! I am so not going in there and spank her, forget it!" he replied in a hurry, his voice taking on a hint of panic.
"No, it was bad, Em -" she started to say, but he interrupted her.
"You cannot be serious and expect me to spank her, Rose!" he whispered fiercely, trying to make sure Maddie wouldn't be able to overhear. "I could never do that!"
Rose raised one eyebrow and waited for him to finish his rant after he had so rudely interrupted her, then she snorted. "Oh, Emmett ..."
His face scrunched up in confusion. "What?"
"Do you really think I wouldn't know that?" she asked him and flipped her hair back over her shoulder, then looked him in the eye again.
Somehow Emmett had trouble following. "... what? But you said -"
"Emmett," she said with a groan, "you are a teddy bear, a big fluffy button-eyed bear without claws. You are someone who cannot bear to see a girl cry, much less be the reason for it."
When he just stared at her with his mouth hanging open, she continued. "I was trying to keep you from reacting like you did today, in order to avoid a situation like it occurred just now. I was hoping that if you thought you'd have to discipline her if she acted out, you'd be a little more careful."
"So that means … you are going to spank her? Oh come on, Rose, that's just -"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"But you said -"
"I didn't say anything, Emmy. I never said I would spank her in the near future, just wanted her to think it could happen," she remarked and hoped he would leave it at that, because she wasn't sure if he had figured out that Maddie had been lying to them a few days ago. The only reason for mentioning a spanking had been to remind Maddie that just because they were on a vacation without Carlisle and Esme, it didn't mean she could do whatever she wanted and actually deceive them. They were responsible for her now, and they could only grant her the freedom she deserved as long as they could trust her.
"Oh," he uttered and relief showed on his face after a moment.
Rosalie rolled her eyes without him noticing and shook her head. He really couldn't switch off his overprotective instinct over his baby sister …
"Hey, you said we need to take care of it and there's only one way. What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means, you need to let her be a teenager."
"What are you even talking about? I let her be a teenager, she can do whatever she wants!"
Rosalie raised one eyebrow at that. "You dragged her back to the house."
"That," he said and gestured around with his finger, trying to find the right words. "was for her own good. She's not safe with people like them."
"How, Emmett? It's not dark outside, she was where we could see her and she told me where she was going before she left. We know less about her whereabouts when she goes somewhere after school than here at the lake. You should be glad."
"I don't trust them, Rose. I just have that feeling something's wrong with them. Besides, she left her phone at home and you know very well that that's not okay."
"I think I'll go talk to her now," Rosalie said and stood up from the couch. She didn't take her husband's concern seriously, because he was only trying to cover up the fact that he was scared his sister might develop certain interests in boys when spending time with them.
While Maddie was lying on her bed, trying to collect her thoughts, she heard someone knock on her door.
"Maddie?" Rosalie called from the other side of the door, waiting for Maddie to allow her to enter.
But Maddie wasn't in the mood for talking to her, so she remained silent and hoped her sister would walk away again and just leave her alone.
"Maddie? Can I come in?"
Ugh. "No."
"I see," Rosalie replied, then asked after a moment of silence, "Would you come outside then?"
"No," she answered before burying her face in the thick, downy pillow again.
"Hm, how shall we talk about what happened then?"
"We just don't," Maddie replied, her voice was muffled by the pillow but still audible to Rose.
"Come on, Maddie," Rosalie said in a soft tone of voice, trying once more to get Maddie to agree to talk it over.
After letting out a long groan to show Rose just how unwilling she was, she murmured, "Fine."
Then Maddie pushed herself up into a sitting position, and while she brushed her hair out of her face, she said, "Come in."
Maddie's eyes were glossy when Rosalie saw them for a moment before Maddie turned away from her and lay down once again. She felt ashamed and angry and confused, and she didn't know which one these feelings Rose would detect in her eyes. Besides, as long as she didn't know what Rose had in store for her, she thought it would be safer to hide her emotions as best she could.
Hesitantly, Rose closed the door then slowly walked over to the bed Maddie was lying on.
She sat down, and before she could place a hand on her shoulder, Maddie jerked it away.
Seeing that her sister didn't want to be touched, Rosalie retracted her hand again, not wanting to disturb her any further. The calmness she felt confused her, because Emmett had been in danger and it should really infuriate her ... but Emmett was fine now and Maddie had felt provoked by him, so that obviously soothed her nerves somehow. "I'd like to ask you something. Could you sit up and look at me?"
"No," Maddie groaned into the pillow.
Rosalie sighed. She understood where that was coming from, and she couldn't blame her for it.
"You were about to compel Emmett," she stated, hoping they could still have an honest conversation even though Maddie wasn't looking at her.
Guilt came back full force at hearing what Rose just said, and Maddie tried to swallow the thick lump of venom in her throat away while turning her head to look at her. "Is he okay?" she asked hesitantly, her voice shaking with fear that she might have seriously hurt him. She had never been interrupted while compelling someone, never broken the connection so abruptly, and therefore didn't know if the other person would suffer trauma or something.
"Yes, he is," Rosalie replied and nodded her head. "But how could you do something like that? That is so unlike you."
Maddie averted her eyes, then whispered, "I didn't do it on purpose."
A silent gasp escaped Rosalie's lips. "You lost control over your ability?" Oh dear, that wasn't good, not good at all. Well, she was glad Maddie hadn't purposely tried to harm Emmett, but that she had been so upset that she didn't even notice she was in the process of compelling someone ... Emmett would most definitely need to hear about that.
Maddie bit her lip while trying to keep the tears at bay, then said in a voice barely above a whisper, "I wanna go home." The shock and disbelief in her sister's voice made her feel so small, and she longed for someone to hug her right then.
"Maddie, please. Let us talk about it before you really want to end your vacation," Rose said and saw something change in Maddie's eyes. Her gaze hardened with sudden anger and gone was the look of trepidation.
"Vacation," Maddie snorted and shook her head in disbelief. "My vacation hasn't even started yet! I cannot even take a single step out of the house without having Emmett drag me back inside or watch me like I was going to run off or something!"
"He takes this responsibility-thing a little too far, I agree. I will talk to him, don't worry."
"How am I supposed to trust you, huh? I told you I would go to the lake and you said it was okay, and then Emmett's storms out and walks me back to the house like I did something wrong! Why didn't you tell him that it was okay?" she queried, infuriated by the memory that was playing in her head.
"I am so sorry. I did, but he obviously didn't listen."
"Great. Are you aware that I am once again the freak just because of you two?"
Rose looked perplexed. "What do you mean?"
"Just imagine someone causing a scene in front of a bunch of people and then dragging you away by your hand. That was embarrassing."
Rose reached out to place a hand on Maddie's forearm, trying to comfort her, but Maddie didn't want to be comforted by her. She was a lot more angry than sad now, and she pulled her arm away and glowered at Rose until she withdrew her hand and placed it in her lap once again. Then Maddie continued.
"I neither want Emmett to look like an unreasonable idiot, nor do I want to look like a toddler that had just run off. Now I have to send a text to one of them, explaining that I forgot to take my epilepsy medication and therefore run the risk of getting a seizure. Emmett had noticed and came outside to find me because he was concerned," Maddie explained, her face twisted into a bitter mask.
Rose nodded. "That is a very good explanation for what happened, Maddie. How do you know something like that?"
"You think I'm too stupid to read a book, huh?" she spat, but then took a deep breath and continued in a voice that was a lot calmer than before. "Jasper told me to have an excuse ready for all kinds of awkward situations, and he told me to look up different sicknesses for we quickly forget what symptoms a cold or chicken pox actually have."
"My question wasn't meant to offend, I apologise if it came across like that," Rosalie said and saw Maddie nod her head after a moment, acknowledging her apology. "But to be honest, I don't see how you'd be a freak because of something like that."
"It's always the same," Maddie replied, and buried her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie. "As if the way I look wasn't enough, now they think I have a chronic neurological disorder." She hung her head and added in a whisper, "I can never fit in like a normal person."
Rose tucked a strand of hair behind Maddie's ear and was glad she didn't pull away this time. "What's wrong with the way you look?"
"Are you kidding me? As if you haven't noticed that trait about us. We look like freakin' photoshopped humans. With yellow eyes."
"We just stand out because we are prettier than humans. Looking pretty doesn't make you a freak, Maddie," Rose explained. She never really had a problem with the way she looked. She enjoyed that no matter where she went she was always the prettiest person in the room.
"I don't wanna stand out, I just wanna be normal and fit in and have fun."
"The way we look is something we cannot change," Rosalie said softly, because they really couldn't make themselves look ugly.
Maddie let herself fall backwards to rest with her upper body on the bed, then covered her face with her hands. "I know ... but having to tell people I have freakin' epilepsy doesn't really help my situation."
Rose sighed and lay down right next to Maddie, smiling at the girl when she noticed. "It doesn't make it worse, either. I spent a lot of years on this planet already, so trust me. People will notice you no matter what."
Maddie suddenly gasped. "What the heck are you doing, Rose?" she asked warily and propped herself up on her elbows, confusion detectable in her voice.
"I cannot seem to follow you."
"You are talking to me like nothing happened, but you only came in here because you are going to smack me, right?" Maddie queried, suspicion visible in her slightly narrowed eyes. "I'll tell Mom if you try."
Of course Maddie didn't want to get smacked, and she certainly didn't want her sister to be the one to do it. Besides, except for losing control she hadn't done anything - and Rose should actually know that since she was always someone who understood her, someone who was honest and helpful and offered comfort. Okay, maybe Rose still didn't consider this an offense that could go unpunished - she knew using her ability on someone out of spite was bad, but it had just happened.
"Do you think you deserve to get a spanking?"
"No," Maddie replied instantly, then started to fidget a little because Rose didn't look away and seemed to expect a little more, and so Maddie said, "I didn't do it on purpose, really. But Emmett dragged me back on purpose, so maybe you should smack him."
"I'll think about it," Rose said and when she saw Maddie nod her head, she really had to try her hardest not to smirk. "How do you feel?"
Maddie scrunched up her nose at that question. "I'm not sure ... okay, I guess."
"All right. How about you come to the living room with me and we have a talk with Emmett to make sure what happened today won't happen again?"
Phew, I think I'll send them on a hunt in the next chapter ... well, after they have talked about everything.
This chapter was never supposed to be a spanking-chapter, it's way too early for that and I'm sure neither Rose nor Emmett would be ready to do it.
Emmett could never spank anyone (well, at least not in a disciplinary way *wink*), and Rose knows that, of course! And I'm sure Rose would try different methods before even considering turning her sister over her knee.
Now … the premise of this story is that Rose should give Maddie a spanking, but maybe you know that I had my problems with that and it took me a long time to actually see it happen. Now, don't get me wrong, it will happen in this story, but the circumstances will be different, you'll see.
Thanks for reading and please review!