Chapter 11:

Esme POV-

When we arrived back at the house, having actually survived our shopping day, and ate dinner. After we had finished, the kids both looked at the clock and, in unison, sighed, starting to do their chores.

'I will admit, these kids have great discipline, but Danny already looks so exhausted, and after the day we had, they shouldn't have to do any chores,' I thought to myself.

"Why don't you guys go upstairs, I can handle the chores," I told them, taking the duster out of Jazz's hand and the trash out of Danny's. The two teens shared a look of disbelief before breaking out into large grins.

"Thanks Esme," they replied in unison, ponding up the steps to their rooms. I chuckled lightly, quickly finishing up their chores, sitting on the sunken-in couch (that, no doubt, became like that as a result of Jack using it). Speaking of, the large man had disappeared down into the lab as soon as they had arrived home. It didn't seem right, here they were, all at home, but nobody spent any time together. It was a somewhat foreign concept to me, because, even though all of my 'kids' are grown, they all spend a lot of time with each other and even Carlisle and I (of course, some of that time is spent hunting, but even still, we were together).

"This family does not spend enough time together," I muttered to the camera. Making up my mind, I walked down the stairs to the basement. Jack was bent over a large table (awkwardly of course, do to his large size).

"Jack," I exclaimed, he looked up from his work, opening his mouth, probably to blather on about ghosts to the rest of the country on camera, but I quickly stopped him, "You need to spend more time with your children, quite soon they will be gone and you will be wondering where the time went. My family and I have always been close, and I want the same for you and your kids. So, I was thinking that we all play a game in the living room," I told him in a 'this-is-my-decision-and-you-have-no-choice-in-the -matter-tone.' After a few seconds of looking from me to the camera, Jack finally sighed.

"Alright, I'll be upstairs in a minute," he told me. Satisfied, I went upstairs to collect the kids. I knocked three times on Jazz's door before pushing it open. She sat legs crossed on a chair in front of her desk. She looked up at me with her teal-colored eyes.

"Hey, Esme, what's up?" she asked in a cheerful tone.

"Well, I was hoping that we could all play a game in the living room, you know, you, me, your brother, and your dad, like a family," I smiled.

Jazz seemed to hesitate so I decided to take a more of a psychiatrist approach.

"You know," I started, "I read somewhere that spending more time as a family and engaging in healthy competition can really influence the social bonds not only in the family, but also outside of the family, not to mention, getting together as a family encourages mental development as well, and some studies show that when families spend more time together, the children actually get better grades," I knew I had her now.

Jazz looked thoughtful, no doubt thinking about her brother and herself. I could practically see the thought process as the gears twisted in her head.

"Alright, sounds good," she decided finally, "I'll be down in a minute." I nodded in agreement, slowly closing the door behind me. Two down, one to go.

Again I knocked, before opening the door to Danny's bedroom. He had headphones in and was laying on his back on his bead with his eyes closed. His music was loud, so loud that the camera guy, and not just myself, could hear the individual words coming out of his earbuds, (I know, because the camera guy muttered under his breath about liking that particular song). And although, it didn't seem possible that Danny would have been able to hear us come in, the second I opened the bedroom door, his eyes shot open, and he sat up in his bed, turning off his iPod and setting it on the little nightstand next to his bed.

"What's up?" he asked with a slightly sheepish smile.

"I was wondering if you wanted to play a game with, me, your sister, and your dad. They're already on board," I asked hopefully.

Danny took less than a second to think but then said, "Sure," with a grin, following us out of the room and downstairs where his sister and father had already gathered.

"What are we playing?" Danny asked casually, plopping down onto the lumpy couch.

"I was thinking Clue," Jazz spoke up with a smile. Danny and Jack shrugged, and thus it was decided. We set up the game, each choosing our own characters: Jazz was Mrs. Peacock, Jack was Colonel Mustard, Danny was Reverend Green, and I was Mrs. Scarlett. We played a couple of games, both of which, Danny somehow managed to win, correctly accusing both his sister and father's characters of the murder.

Before we knew it, it was late, and both of the kids went upstairs for bed when the camera men went home.

'Tonight,' I thought, 'I'm going to figure out why Danny is so tired in the mornings, and, hopefully prevent it.'

One by one, the lights flicked off, even Jack went to bed, bored of being awake. Later that night, I crept along the hallway, pausing outside of Danny's door. I nearly continued on pacing down the hallway when I heard a tap that was somewhere between a pop and a click, followed by a nearly (if it weren't for my enhanced hearing) inaudible shuffle. Danny's heart-rate, which had been slightly slow, now increased to something that was still under that of a normal human. I debated with myself for a second before I pushed open the door, just in time to see Danny nod his head, which was currently sticking out of the open window, at the street below, where, I had no doubt, that his partners in crime, Tucker and Sam would be waiting. Danny turned back around jumped, letting out a yelp when he saw me.

"E-Esme," he stuttered, "Um.." he gulped, "what are you doing here?"

I smirked at him, "Checking on you of course. And a good thing I did, I wondered why you always seemed so tired, you have been sneaking out every night."

"Uh…" he tried to think up an excuse, I walked passed him, leaning out of the window. Down below, as I suspected, Sam and Tucker were waiting, and they seemed extremely surprised to see me.

"I'm sorry guys, Danny won't be sneaking out tonight, he needs his rest," I called down to them, not waiting for a response, before I slid the window back down, locking it, "Now, you go back to bed."

"But-"he argued.

"No buts, I'm sure whatever it is can wait, and you know I'm just looking out for your health. And don't you even try to sneak out again, because I will know," I gave him a pointed look. Finally, seeming to accept that going back to bed was going to be inevitable, Danny sighed and crawled back into bed.

"Are you going to tell my dad?" he wondered.

"No, so long as you actually go to sleep," I told him, he nodded and I walked toward the door, smirking to myself as it closed with a subtle click. As I walked down the hall, I wondered how he was able to get out in the middle of the night at all. It was a two-story drop from his window, and surely if he was sneaking out the front door every night he would have been caught by now. I heard light snoring start down the hall, and I felt satisfied with myself.

'Hmm,' I mused, 'That boy sure is a mystery.' One that I was determined to solve.