Hidey ho!

Seriously, these chapters write themselves right now!

patz13: I had a paper on politeness a week ago, I guess Maddie learned a little from me, haha! No, she is quite sweet to people she likes :-)

twilight1987: Cookies turned out great! I made five different sorts this time (my record was about sixty different sorts for Christmas a couple of years ago ... I am quite obsessed with baking and tend to get carried away sometimes ... oops, haha!)

Anyway, Christmas was awesome and tomorrow I'll go on a short vacation, weee! Yeah, we didn't get to have a white Christmas, so now we wanna have a white New Year's :D

Did you all enjoy Christmas?


It became apparent that Alice wasn't happy about Jasper's idea. She stormed into the house through the front door, dropped several shopping bags right on the spot in the foyer and then stomped her feet all the way to the living room,where she knew she'd find Jasper and Maddie, watching TV.

Jasper went rigid when he felt Alice's anger, while Maddie just turned around and smiled.

"Welcome back," she said happily and waved at Alice. Maddie knew Alice was pissed, but she thought it was kind of funny actually.

"Are you trying to torment me? Just tell me that I don't mean anything to you anymore!" Alice shouted at Jasper.

Woah.

Maddie had never seen her livid.

Like, really livid.

That wasn't too funny to be honest.

"Alice, you need to hear me out before accusing me of not loving you anymore!" Jasper begged and stood up from his seat.

She huffed. "You want to blind me!"

"It wears off after a couple of days," Maddie threw in, trying to be helpful.

"What if you do it wrong? I might be blind forever, thanks a lot!" Alice snapped at her, before continuing to glare at her husband.

"Jeez, take chill pill," Maddie commented and left the living room, heading for her own room on the topmost floor.

Blocking Alice's ability hadn't been her idea, so she shouldn't get yelled at.


Jasper peeked into Maddie's room about two hours later.

"It's time," he said.

Maddie looked up at him. "For real?" She couldn't believe that Alice would seriously agree. She had resembled an infuriated Harpy before ... how did he manage to persuade her?

"Yes. Are you still willing to do it?"

"Sure, no problem," Maddie replied, threw her magazine on the floor and walked towards him.

He didn't look too impressed that his sister would treat her stuff so carelessly, but she just grinned at him.

"Ah ah ah, my room - my stuff."

"Of course," he said, put a hand on her shoulder and together they descended the stairs.

To Maddie's surprise Edward was also there. He looked relaxed, while Alice had her arms crossed and glowered at them the moment they came into view.

Maddie stopped. Alice didn't look like she wanted to agree, and Maddie had no desire spending Christmas in a standing position.

"She already agreed, don't concern yourself with her attitude," Edward smirked. "And I am willing to give up my ability, too."

"Still - it's not fair. You haven't even bought presents yet. How am I supposed to know if this Christmas will turn out the way I planned?" Alice grumbled.

"You don't need to plan everything, darling," Jasper told her and sat down on the arm of the chair next to her, stroking her cheek softly.

"Fine ... then blind me, see what good it will do if Christmas is ruined." She was a little moody, but not angry anymore.

Maddie knelt on the floor in front of Alice and folded her arms on Alice's knees. She let her chin rest on top of it and looked up at her just like a little dog would.

"I won't do it if you don't want me to," she said softly.

Alice gaze turned softer at seeing her little sister's anxiety. She reached out and patted Maddie's hair.

"No, it's just ... I wanted this Christmas to be special for you."

"For me? But it is special already." Maddie smiled sweetly which made Alice smile, too.

"And maybe you'll like being surprised for once. We'll have a million Christmases together, what harm will it do if you're not having visions for one?"

Alice sighed, it was a long, drawn-out sigh. "All right, get it over with." She offered her hand, palm up, but squinched her eyes shut and turned her head to the side like Maddie was about to give her a shot and she just couldn't watch.

"Uhm, Alice?" Edward asked. When Alice had opened her eyes again and gazed at him, he said, "You need to look at her, otherwise she won't be able to do it properly."

Alice eyed Maddie, who looked apologetically up at her. Then Maddiegrabbed both her hands, and sat up on her knees so they would be closer to eye-level.

"Wait!" Alice called, clearly distressed. "... does it hurt? I mean, you are fumbling around with my brain."

Maddie shrugged. "I wouldn't know." Nobody had complained to her about a headache yet.

"It doesn't hurt, Alice. You just feel your mind relax and then there is a very strong bond between the two of you. Maddie makes you feel safe so you would want to comply with what she tells you."

"I make you feel safe?" Maddie snorted with laughter. "Really?"

She would have never guessed that it would feel that way when she manipulated somebody. She always thought she just made people weak-willed and then she would dictate them what to do.

Well, you never stop learning...

Edward nodded his head. "Yes, that is the only way I could possibly describe it."

"Awesome." Maddie liked that.

"Let us not delay it any further, Alice is quite nervous," Jasper urged. He had tried to calm her emotions before, but she hadn't wanted it so he immediately stopped.

"I cannot help it," Alice whined. She was a little scared, because she loved her visions - they were a part of her. What would it feel like not having them anymore?

But she also wanted to do it for Jasper - it obviously meant a lot to him. It was just surprising that he would trust Maddie's gift now - they always had gotten the impression that he deemed it to be quite dangerous.

Maddie intertwined her fingers then, stretching out as if preparing for a fight or something. She tilted her head to the left, then to the right side, stretching her neck.

Alice eyes widened.

"Sorry," Maddie said and gave her a sheepish smile. She didn't mean to cause Alice more distress, but she wanted to be all relaxed to be able to fully concentrate on blocking Alice's gift. Alice would probably try to resist her at first, and her ability was strong to say the least, so it would require a lot of willpower from Maddie to make Alice be unable to perceive her visions for a few days.

Maddie held both her hands out for Alice, who reluctantly put hers in Maddie's.

Jasper rubbed Alice's back comfortingly, while Maddie gave her an encouraging smile and told her that it would be all right, that she would concentrate like crazy so nothing could go wrong.

"Look me in the eyes and don't turn away," Maddie whispered, then tried to gain access to her sister's mind.

After a minute Maddie's lips pressed together tightly. "Stop fighting me, Alice, you need to let me in. Relax."

She didn't want to force her way into Alice's head, wanted for her to open up willingly instead. But Alice was anxious and so Maddie had to patiently probe into the mental barrier Alice had tried to built up.

It wouldn't have been a problem for Maddie to just drill into her sister's mind, but her conscience kept her from doing so. Alice had given her consent, so there was no need for unnecessary force.

And then it worked.

Maddie had full access, it was like a gate had been opened and she could place new thoughts and ideas into Alice's mind, trying to fill the blankness that presented itself for the time of the connection.

"You are unable to perceive any visions whatsoever. The future will remain a mystery to you, you will not know anything that might happen beforehand."

Alice's eyes stared back at Maddie, unblinking.

Taking a deep breath, Maddie slowly pulled back out, carefully severing the connection that had enabled her to manipulate her sister's gift.

Leaning back, Maddie ran her fingers through her hair, while Alice blinked owlishly - so she was coming back.

"How do you feel, love?" Jasper asked his wife when he noticed her stirring.

"I'm fine, even though I feel like something is missing."

"That would be your ability then," Edward commented with a smirk.

"It's your turn now, you promised." She grinned and lightly slapped his knee with the back of her hand.

"Give Maddie a minute." Jasper said while looking at little Maddie sitting on the floor. Her eyes were a nuance darker now - not much, just a little. Alice hadn't made it easy for her sister and Maddie needed to be focused on doing the same to Edward now.

"I'm okay, just ... phew. Okay, next one," Maddie uttered after rubbing her hands over her face, then blinked her eyes a couple of times.

She stood up and seated herself next to Edward, who seized her by the elbow in order to steady her. She was all right, but he just wanted to make sure.

She scooted back on the sitting surface, then turned to face her brother completely.

"Ready?" She asked and offered her hands for him to take.

"Ready."


After Maddie had blocked their gifts, Jasper thanked her extensively. He seemed proud of her, even though Maddie didn't understand why. Then he offered to take her shopping, and asked her if she would be willing to help him choose some nice presents for the family.

That made her smile, and they left with Rose and Esme.

And on the next day, they left again to do some Christmas shopping. Now that Alice couldn't see and Edward couldn't hear, the rest of the family was looking forward to surprise these two.

Only Alice stayed home.

She wasn't mad at Maddie, mind you, but she was sulking a little after realising to what extent Maddie's ability had numbed hers.

She couldn't see - anything.

Not even the tiniest glimpse of the future revealed itself to her.

She curled up on the couch and whined at the loss of her visions and since she had already purchased all presents, she wasn't in the mood for joining her family to buy even more.

But being all alone at home, failed by her gift and nothing watchable on TV, her mind was racing.

The thought of not knowing what she'll get for Christmas drove her insane.

And she didn't know what her siblings would be getting, either. It was only a couple of days until Christmas Eve and she didn't know anything!

How was she supposed to endure this? How was Christmas supposed to be perfect when she had no way of making sure that it would be?

She was torn between staying glued to the spot, trusting her family ... and checking on them.

Maybe she would just peek into their drawers real quick, making sure that they had already taken care of buying presents. No big deal, right?

She drummed her fingers on the armrest of the couch, breathing heavier now, until she couldn't take it anymore.

Bolting up the stairs, she then stormed into the first room she saw. It happened to be her parents' bedroom. During the last years they had always hid the presents in the closet of their bedroom, to make sure no one would find them by accident before Christmas.

Alice wrenched the door of the walk-in closet open, and pushed her parents' clothes to the sides, then knelt on the ground to look underneath them in search of wrapped up boxes.

Nothing.

Nothing!

How could that be? Where were the presents?

So she crawled out of the closet and looked under their bed, but she couldn't find anything.

The sideboards maybe, she mused.

But she couldn't find a single present. She cleared out every single drawer in gradually increasing irritation, sending the contents flying through the air in hopes of finding something.

She had no such luck.

Letting out a roar of frustration, she then hurried over to her Dad's office. Maybe they were hiding the goods in there this year?

But after having cleared out the old mahogany closet, the sideboard and even Carlisle's desk, she was even more frustrated than before.

Slamming the door shut which nearly took it off its hinges Alice stomped down to the basement.

They normally kept all the utensils for forging documents and other important things down there, so maybe she got lucky now and would find what she was looking for. They rarely spend time in the basement ... it was indeed a good hiding place.

She cursed under her breath when she realised that she wouldn't find anything in that part of the house either.

Stomping up the stairs again, her hair dishevelled, she was now headed for Rose and Emmett's room.

She was so caught up in her frenzy, that she didn't notice Carlisle entering the house, coming home from work.

He watched Alice shaking hear head, deep in thought, while mumbling some incoherent nonsense. She was ascending the stairs, pulling her hair in frustration and then vanished from his sight.

That was odd.

Carlisle dropped his bag by the door, quickly laid his wool coat on top of it, then hurried after his daughter.

He had never seen her like that before ... what was troubling her so?

"Alice?" he called when he reached the first landing, hoping she would answer and explain to him why she was so distressed.

But she didn't answer.

He walked on, determined to find her, when he passed his and Esme's bedroom.

The door was wide open and so he had no trouble detecting what had happened in there. If he wouldn't know any better, he would guess that they had been robbed.

The floor was littered with clothes and his wife's accessories among other things. The sideboards were missing drawers, because they had been carelessly thrown onto the bed or off to the side.

That caught him completely off-guard.

Gasping, he shook his head in disbelief, before backing out of this room.

He turned around, but then noticed that the door to his office looked slightly askew.

Oh dear.

He immediately figured what must have happened here. A house with many doors and many teenage vampires practically asked for these doors to be slammed by said vampires.

Oh, how many doors he had needed to replace over the last decades ...

Opening the door carefully, he wasn't let down to learn that the upper hinge was broken and his study was looking like a battlefield. This room seemed to be competing with his bedroom when it came to looking like a mess.

He heard noises coming from down the hall, which woke him from his state of shock, so he called his daughter's name and left his study.

An explanation for this would be really helpful. He didn't want to blame it on Alice, because he had no idea who had vandalised these rooms.

But she was very likely to know.

And he was determined to find out what had happened here right now.

"Nothing ... nothing!" Alice exclaimed in disbelief and continued to pull the drawers from Rose's bedside table and turned them upside down, spilling the contents on the floor and the bed.

"Alice! What are you doing in here?" he questioned, his eyes held shock and confusion.

"No ... somewhere else." She distractedly scratched the side of her face, then turned and stormed towards the door where her father was standing.

"Alice, would you please answer me!" he demanded.

"I'm blind, Daddy!" she complained to him, then mumbled, "They must be hidden somewhere else."

She pushed past him and ran up the stairs leading to Edward's and Maddie's bedrooms.


What might happen next?

I know, of course :D

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