Alice's POV:

Allison and Jackson's six hundredth birthday and Ashley and Scryan's fifth hundredth birthday party was today. The four birthdays were all within a month of each other, so we always lumped them together and just threw one big party. We served blood, played games, and opened presents; typical birthday stuff. Then we had snowboard races, snowball fights, and paintball wars.

And there were presents, of course. All four received a new snowboard from Jasper and me. Bella and Edward gave them each a book; WWII for Jackson, Einsteinian physics for Allison, cartoon sketching Ashley, and a children's book about how nice it is to be tall for Scryan. Esme and Carlisle gave them bicycles, which were all destroyed before three hours were up. The Darwinian things went so slow that Jackson hit his in frustration, smashing it to bits. Allison crashed hers into Carl, mangling the front end. Emmett tried to straighten it out, but the metal snapped. Ashley popped the tires on hers trying to jump over some boulders. And Scryan accidently tore the handle bars off when trying to steer.

Jasper and I groaned when Emmett and Rosalie gave them baseball bats and a large supply of balls. It only took Ashley and Scryan twenty minutes to get theirs taken away for throwing them at the other kids. The balls disintegrated on impact or were caught with perfect precision and thrown at another head. But Jackson and Allison had not joined in in the mayhem, so they had been allowed to keep their balls. Jackson wanted to play a real baseball game, so he had stayed out of the fight.

Allison, however, could not figure out what she was meant to do with hers. Jasper tried to show her that it was fun to throw the balls back and forth and hit them. He tried to manipulate her emotions so that she would have fun, but Ashley was contradicting his manipulations, because she was mad that her balls had been taken away. So, Allison just rolled her eyes and asked Scryan for a baseball free future. He had already lost his balls too, so he obliged and the baseball game we had planned was canceled.

We stayed out partying until twelve am, before gathering up the little monsters and heading home. Jasper and I made it our policy to be back home by midnight, to keep the children on a schedule. And since the little leaches were caked in grime from the party, we started with baths. I do the baths on weekdays, but Jasper does them on the weekend.

Baths were a one on one event whenever I was home, but Jasper would turn on the calm and do them all at the same time when I went out hunting. When the children were younger, I looked forward to seeing those scenes in my visions, because the children would alternate between causing absolute chaos and being so nearly comatose that their heads slipped into the water, unable to hold themselves up with Jasper's lethargy. Hitting the kids with a blast of lethargy was his secret weapon to being able to control all four of them on his own, although now that they were growing up, they had learned to behave better around him, so he rarely had to break out more than the calm.

Tonight, Jasper took Allison up stairs for her bath, leaving me with Jackson, Scryan, and Ashley. I was urging them to calmly play a board game with me when I had a vision. As I was having the vision it came to fruition and Jackson fell to the floor screaming. One glance at Ashley and Scryan and I knew who was to blame, because they both wore suspicious smirks on their faces.

"Ashley, stop hurting Jackson right this minute!" I tried to sound tough, but the kids were all only half a foot shorter than me. They took after Jasper in the height department, so I had no physical stature to fall back on.

"I'm not doing anything to him, Mom! I don't have a venom burn like Angie," Ashley lied while Jackson curled up into the fetal position sobbing.

I took my baby into my arms, and spoke fiercely, "Ashley, you're to go to your room and have five minutes of timeout. Your father's going to be very disappointed in your behavior when he hears about this."

"But I didn't do anything!" she protested.

"Go now. Don't make me take you up there," I ordered. Jackson had finally stopped dry sobbing.

"No! I won't go! I didn't do it!" she continued to protest. So I transferred Jackson to my back and scooped Ashley up, depositing her in her room.

Then I went back downstairs to confront the other monster, "Scryan, what did you and Ashley do to Jackson?"

"Uh… I wasn't involved?" he said it like a question.

"Wrong answer. Go upstairs for five minutes of timeout for lying," I ordered. I could not believe my eyes! He went upstairs to his room, no back talk, and no additional lies. Why was it that Jasper's eggs behaved more civilly than my own?

Once we were alone, I removed Jackson from my back and sat with him on the couch. "What'd she do you, 'Son?"

"It was awful. She made me feel terrified."

"It's okay, 'Son, you're safe now. Let's go see if Daddy's ready for you." I kissed Jackson on the forehead and took him upstairs.

Jasper was just wrapping a towel around Allison and sending her to her room to get dressed. "Perfect timing your majest-" He paused mid-sentence. "What happened to Jackson?"

"Ashley and Scryan. What else?"

He groaned and replied, "These practical jokes have to stop."

"I put them both on timeouts. Speaking of which, they should be done now," I said handing over the poor victim before going to release the perpetrators.

Ashley was in her room sitting on her couch. There was no bed, because there was no need and no room for one. The four children's bedrooms were small, to make room for the walk-in closets. "Have you thought about what you did?"

"Yes, Mommy."

"And? Are you ready to apologize to Jackson? That was inexcusable behavior."

"Can't I just have another timeout?"

"You can have another, but it won't get you out of apologizing. If you want, you can sit in here until Dad's done with all of the baths." I hate that I have to resort to threatening her with Jasper, constantly. She is my egg, she should listen to me.

"Okay. I'll apologize."

We walked to the bathroom, and I announced, "Ashley has something she'd like to say."

"I'm sorry, 'Son." Ashley barely squeaked out.

"'S okay, Ash," Jackson replied.

"Okay, Ashley, go wait in your room while I talk to Scryan.

"I can't believe Scry ratted me out," Ashley muttered under her breath as she went.

I did not feel like admitting that he did not in fact rat her out, so I let it go. She went back into her room and I found Scryan lying on the floor having a vision.

"Scryan, you know you're not allowed visions on timeout." He did not respond. He must have been in his vision so deep that he could not sense me. Edward told me that Scryan's visions, unlike my own, feel one hundred percent real and he cannot even perceive the real world. I can always perceive the real world in the background of my visions, so I decided to wait it out. That, however, did not last long, because he momentarily started to scream.

"Scryan, snap out of it," I begged, shaking his shoulders.

When he still did not respond, I knew it could only be one thing: a vision of Ashley. Ashley knows that she does not have to actually mess with Scryan's emotions. All she has to do is decide to, so back down the hall to Ashley's room I went. As I left Scryan withering on the floor in pain, I was torn. I wanted to pick him up and comfort him, but I knew that would do no good. He would not stop hurting unless I stopped Ashley, and he would not be aware of my efforts when he did. There was no way to comfort him.

I wanted to carry him with me to Ashley's room, but his limbs were flailing about chaotically. Being the tallest of the children at four feet seven inches he was just three inches shorter than me. He was not just the tallest of my own but of all twelve, because in the last decade he had grown another inch, officially surpassing Aiden in height, although not in weight. I could easily lift Scryan's weight; that was not a problem, but carrying him was awkward at the best of times, because of his height. When he was flailing like this, it just was not possible, so I turned and left him there in order to find Ashley.

"Stop deciding to hurt Scryan right now, young lady!" I ordered as I entered her room.

"I didn't decide to do it. I was just thinking about doing it. Honest." She actually looked like she might be telling the truth this time.

"Well, if that's true then you won't have a problem repeating that statement to your father, will you?"

"No ma'am." When she was not causing so much trouble she was actually pretty cute the way she copied Jasper.

I decided to take her to Jasper, ask if she was lying, and looked to the future for the answer. I found the vision:

So, back to the bathroom we went. "Repeat it," I instructed Ashley.

"I did not decide to cause Scry pain manipulating his emotions. I was only thinking about doing it," she said, looking down at her shoes.

"She's telling the truth," Jasper said smiling at me encouragingly. I could feel the emotions he would send me: pride, love, and support. He must think I am doing a better job at this than I realize. "Ashley, you aren't to think about hurting Scryan. In fact, you're to decide right now that you will not hurt him," he ordered while washing Jackson's long hair.

"Okay, Daddy."

"Now, go back to your room and wait for me," I instructed. She does so without talking back and I have a suspicion this is mostly for Jasper's benefit.

The vision ends and I nod my head once. "Ashley, Dad says you aren't lying, but you're to decide right now that you're not going to hurt Scryan."

"Okay, Mommy."

"Good. Now stay here until I come back for you."

So I headed back to Scryan's room. He was out of the vision and dry sobbing on the floor, so I ran over and picked him up. "Shh. It's okay Scry. Ashley isn't gonna hurt you now."

"I didn't mean to, Mommy!"

"Shh. You didn't mean to what, Scry?"

"I didn't mean to scry. I wasn't looking. I swear to Darwin I wasn't!"

"It's okay, Scry. You're not in trouble. Mommy's got you."

"I'm not in trouble for having a vision on timeout?"

"Were you looking for a vision?"

"No. I was sitting down on timeout like you said."

"Well, then you're not in trouble. You're not allowed to look for visions, but if one finds you there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"I love you, Mommy."

"I love you too, Scry. Now, let's go get Ali and Ash. Okay?" I asked and he nodded. I picked him up, and we went off to retrieve the other two leaches.

On the way back to Ashley's room I felt a wave of mischievousness, playfulness, and happiness wash over me, which was Jasper's nickname for Ashley. Jasper has an emotional nickname for each of us, chosen based on our own most frequently emitted emotions. Mine was love, joy, and hope. Scryan's was stoicism, determination, and contentment. Allison was confidence, love, and happiness. Jackson was love, calm, and content. Whenever we felt these mixes of emotions, we knew Jasper was calling.

Ashley opened her door and saw me. "Mom, Daddy's calling me."

"I felt it. It's your turn for a bath, go ahead," I said as Jackson exited the bathroom heading to his room.

"Thanks, Mom," she replied heading to the bathroom and Scryan and I went to Allison's room.

Allison was reading her new book, fully dressed, waiting for me. Being the most mature of the children, she was aware of the chaos I had been dealing with and was trying to stay out of it. "Hi, Mommy!"

"Jackson just finished his bath, so let's go back downstairs."

"Sure. Come on, Scry," she said taking Scryan's hand and leading us into Jackson's room.

Jackson had dressed and was attempting to pull a brush through his long hair. "Mama? Thank Darwin! The brush's stuck, again."

"Here, let me help you," I replied, detangling the brush from his hair. I quickly brushed the tangles out and added a hair tie in what Jasper refers to as, "The elf style."

Then the four of us went downstairs, sat on the couch in the living room, and waited for Jasper to finish up. "Who wants to play videogames?" I asked. There was still another bath and a half to get through and I needed a distraction to entertain the children, or I would never make it.