Hello readers!

I apologise for the wait. I was concentrating on my other story and so I spend the time I had on that. I really hope it won't happen again!

Emmett sat up when he heard the door to Maddie's room open. He had waited more or less patiently for the girls to come out of there, so they could finally try to put this mess behind them.

Rosalie emerged and walked toward him, and immediately Emmett swayed to the side in an attempt to look past her to see if Maddie would come out, too. If she wouldn't then it would mean that she was still mad at him, and he really didn't want her to be. Sometimes he just couldn't stop himself from acting like he had - it just happened.

He saw her following after Rosalie into the living room, now dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants, and the tension he had felt vanished and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was soothing to know that she was willing to talk and that she was covered up again.

When Rosalie reached him, he scooted over to offer both of them a seat on the couch, then looked up into his wife's face who gave him a little smile. That smile was meant to show him that she appreciated his thoughtfulness, as well as that the talk in Maddie's room had gone quite well.

Rose sat down next to him, but Maddie did not stop at the vacant seat on the couch – she chose the coffee table.

"Maddie," Rosalie chided mildly, having expected the girl to sit on an armchair or right next to her, but Maddie didn't react. She just watched Emmett with a strange look in her eyes; it was scrutinising and reluctant - a weird combination.

"Are you … okay?" she whispered, never taking her eyes off him. He looked fine, she noticed, his eyes were still of a golden colour and she couldn't find anything weird about him. No tension or pain, no nothing.

"Yeah, of course I am," he replied, making it sound as though her question was a little weird. "Are you?"

She didn't answer, just reached out and made to grab his hands. "Let me -"

"Maddie!" Rosalie gasped, but Emmett stopped her from panicking.

"She just wants to check!" he told his wife, then looked back at Maddie. "Don't you, Tiny?"

She gave him a nod and in her eyes he could see she wasn't angry anymore or would pose a threat to him in any way. No, she wouldn't harm him - not that he had ever feared that she would.

"Go ahead," he told her and without hesitation put his hands in hers.

The look in her eyes became more intense while she stared into his, and when Rose was just about to stop it as her nerves didn't allow her to watch this any longer, Maddie had already let go of Emmett's hands. "Okay," she said and ran a hand through her hair before placing it on her knee.

"What was that all about?" Rose asked, shooting Maddie a skeptical look.

"I just wanted to see if I damaged something." Or to be more precise: she wanted to see if she would be able to see any damage. Had that been the case, then she would have tried to fix it, of course. Plus this was new to her, and that's why she was kinda curious to find out more about that ability of hers.

"Awww, you cannot damage anything in there," Emmett said jokingly and knocked with his fist against the side of his head, making it sound hollow. Then he smiled broadly at her.

The corners of her mouth twitched but that was about it and suddenly the atmosphere changed again.

Emmett sighed, because he realised that now they had to talk about what happened and try to fix it instead of joking around.

"Maddie, I am sorry about the way I acted. Something must have snapped inside of me, I guess. You know I would never intentionally want to embarrass you or get you in trouble. And so I guess I deserved what you did ... kinda."

She looked up at him, and he could feel how incredibly uncomfortable the mention of that made her. "Em, I ... didn't know what I was doing," she admitted and bit her lip. "It somehow ... just happened."

He nodded his head to show her that he understood that her anger had driven her to force him to do something he ... wouldn't normally do. He had no clue that that wasn't what she had meant.

"I'm so sorry," they said in unison, then looked at each other in surprise.

"What are you sorry for?" Emmett asked and blinked his eyes at her like he didn't understand. The mere thought of her doing something wrong was preposterous. Well, okay, she did screw up from time to time, but right now he couldn't see anything she had willfully done wrong.

She frowned at his odd question. "My control slipped."

"It slipped?"

The way he stared at her made Maddie look away. She knew he could never be truly mad at her, but maybe he would keep his distance from now on? Maybe he thought she was dangerous, like a newborn ... "Uh-huh," she whispered and hung her head.

His eyes widened of their own accord and finally he realised how strongly his behaviour had affected her. He hadn't been fair with her, and then when they continued to argue, he had aggravated her to that extent that she lost control. Who was to blame for that? He couldn't find anyone at fault for this, except for himself. "Did you let it slip?"

That made her look back up. "Huh?"

"I mean, did you want to let it slip?" he asked.

The frown on her face became more prominent - Em once again didn't make any sense.

"No, of course not!" she replied, and there was a little note of desperation in her voice. Losing control over her instincts couldn't be worse than this. They probably thought she was too dangerous to go outside on her own now - she obviously had no self-control whatsoever. "Oh God, this is so embarrassing ...," she whispered.

"Ssh, calm down, Tiny. Nothing happened."

"Nothing happened? I didn't know what I was doing! That is not nothing, Em!" she practically yelled, then buried her face in her hands. What a horrible day that was ...

Emmett reached out and patted her hair until she calmed again. Slowly she took her hands away from her face and looked at her siblings with big, sad eyes. "Will you tell Mom and Dad?" she asked carefully, hoping they would say No. This was embarrassing enough as it was, she really didn't want more people to know. Besides, Carlisle and Esme would probably be so disappointed - she could deal with them being angry with her, but not disappointed, no.

"If we notice that it becomes a problem, we will have to let them know. But I really doubt it'll happen again, so don't you worry," Rosalie said, trying to calm her nerves a little. She succeeded if only just a little, because Maddie still looked doubtful.

Rosalie let out a sigh, then added, "Maddie, they would want to know if something like this happens. Not to make you miserable, but to find a way to help you."

Emmett lightly touched her knee with the back of his hand to get her attention. "Mad, come on. It happened because I made you mad."

"That's even worse ... now I cannot even control my anger anymore."

Seeing that she was so miserable and was back to covering her face with her hands, Rosalie had to do something. "Maddie, you can control your anger, but it just got very difficult today because we all were struggling to keep the situation under control. I was trying to stay out of it because I thought it would be best to let you two speak out without having me interrupt, but that was obviously wrong of me and I am sorry."

Then she turned to Emmett and said, "Emmett, don't you have something to say to her?" Whatever happened this afternoon hadn't been Maddie's fault, but now she seemed like she thought it was. Plus she was doubting herself, and Rose just couldn't let that happen. She knew Emmett wanted to apologise to her, and maybe his words would show Maddie that they weren't innocent in this.

"Tiny, I am sorry for the way I acted. I guess, somehow I lost control as well. You can go outside on your own, and we knew exactly where you were, so I shouldn't have pulled you away from the lake."

She rubbed at her eye, then pulled her legs up to sit Indian style on the coffee table. With her head tilted to the side, she asked, "But why did you do it?"

"I don't like them and I don't like seeing you with them," he stated matter-of-factly.

Rosalie gave him a look that was bordering on glaring, but he had his eyes fixed on the girl in front of him.

"But why?"

"Tiny, you know why ... um, this is really hard for me. I will try and not interfere again, I promise I'll try my best but please be careful, okay?" he asked with a pained expression on his face.

"... okay," she replied, not knowing what she was supposed to make of that, but after a moment she thought there was only one thing he could have meant: she should be careful with her anger around humans or she would lose control again. Now that she was struggling, she had to be extra careful with humans.

So she nodded her head.

"So, we cool again?" Emmett queried, and before Maddie could answer, Rosalie spoke up.

"Shouldn't we resolve something first?"

Emmett scratched the back of his head before asking, "Like what?"

"I think you two wronged each other. Do you think that the way you two acted was all right?" Her voice was stricter now, probably trying to make them see the severity of the matter.

Oh shit. Both of them hung their heads before mumbling,"No."

Rose addressed Maddie first. "What do you think Emmett deserves for embarrassing you and dragging you away from the lake, Maddie?"

"Huh?" Her head shot up and she looked at Rose with eyes that shone with confusion.

Emmett did the same, but he remained silent. He got the feeling that he knew what Rose was trying to do here ... to make sure they wouldn't continue to 'hurt' each other, she would let them pick punishments for each other. If one was harsh, the other one would be, too - if one would be lax, the other one would also be like that. She had probably learned that from Carlisle. Of course both of them would be forgiving, she figured, and that would hopefully prevent similar situations in the future.

"Tell me. What do you think he deserves?"

Maddie's forehead wrinkled while she contemplated this. She gazed at the ground for a long moment before she lifted her head again and said, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Rosalie queried and eyed her carefully.

Maddie shrugged her shoulders while giving her an apologetic look.

No one could be mad at Em for long and she couldn't be either. He was her big brother and he always helped her and cheered her up and spend time with her. The way he acted today had really pissed her off, but she realised that he hadn't tried to be mean. 'Mean' was a characteristic that just didn't fit him. And since she knew he didn't like seeing her with guys, she also knew that he was probably just trying to look out for her. Besides, she had been mean to him even though she hadn't noticed what she had been doing, so ... she had no right to chose a punishment for him now.

"All right, if that is how you feel," Rosalie commented, then turned her eyes on Emmett. "Emmett, what do you think she deserves for insulting you?"

"Aww Rose, that was my fault," he replied. "Besides, the poor thing got swatted! She didn't even deserve that, don't you think?"

Rose sat there with raised eyebrows and waited to see if that was his final answer of if there was anymore he wanted to say.

But he didn't say anything else, just turned to look at Maddie again and asked, "So, we're cool, Tiny?"

She nodded her head, then smiled at him.

"Oh, come here, you," he said and opened his arms. She jumped up and let him pull her onto his lap and hug her.

When she loosened the embrace, he looked her in the eye and said in a voice that wasn't as playful anymore, "But Mad, seriously, you need to take your phone with you, no matter where you go. You know Mom would have a fit if she found out that you're going somewhere without it and then we'd all be in trouble. Do you want that?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Glad to hear that. So from now on you'll take it with you just like you do at home, right?"

"Yes."

"How about we go on a hunt now? I'm sure it'll do us good." Now that everyone was obviously calm again and the peace in the house was restored, Rosalie thought it was time to get them all fed. Going on a hunt together was always fun, and the warm blood would help them relax and wash the stress of this afternoon away.

"Hell yeah!" Emmett replied. "There are tons of black bears around here just waiting to be drained, Mad!"

Maddie loved the idea of going hunting and getting some bear blood. Bear tasted so much better than deer, and she couldn't wait to feel it moistening her throat and filling her stomach. But she wanted to get changed first, so she darted from the room to find some ugly clothes she could stain.

"What do we do now?" Rose whispered while glancing in the direction Maddie had gone to make sure she would indeed be in her room and not overhear what they would be talking about.

"Hunt?" Emmett asked and looked at her weirdly.

She tzked. "No. About her losing control, I mean."

Emmett exhaled, then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Make sure it won't happen again."

"Aha."

"Going hunting is a good start, Rose, and it's probably all she needs and all we can do," he told her. "Besides, it was an accident, she said so herself."

At that moment Maddie came out of her room, wearing clothes that Alice must have chosen for her. A white, ruffled skirt and a light blue shirt with little white hearts all over it. Her phone that she had remembered to bring was poking out of her right sock and she had tied her hair up into a high ponytail so it wouldn't get all bloody.

"Don't laugh," she said when she came to a halt right in front of them. "I just wanna give Alice a vision of me wearing it to make her happy."

"Yeah, I bet that'll make her happy." Emmett grinned. Especially the second vision Alice would get, the one of Maddie hunting, would make her happy.

"Aw Maddie, don't ruin that outfit," Rose said while looking her up and down. "And you're gonna lose your phone like that."

"I wouldn't have to ruin it if you hadn't packed it," Maddie pointed out, then opened the middle drawer of the sideboard right next to her. With the Scotch tape she knew she would find in there, she taped her phone to her ankle, then smiled at Rose. "Ta-dah."

"Now she won't lose it anymore." Emmett smirked while fumbling around in his jeans pocket.

He held his keys up in the air after he had found them, then exclaimed, "All right, let's go!" And so they headed for the garage.

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