AN: Sorry I suck with updates... Thanks to my wonderful Beta Bell 1.

Chapter 12

Bella talked with her family for a few more hours. They determined, not only should Bella come clean about all her lies, apologize for those lies, and her recent behavior, but she should also be punished by her father.

Caius has never actually punished Bella and didn't know what to do. He rarely even reprimanded her. A spanking sounded appropriate, but he didn't think it would win favor with The Major. And Bella complained she wasn't a baby.

Asking Bella what she thought her punishment should be was of no help either. Bella suggested taking her phone away, which she wouldn't be using while she was in Volterra anyway. She suggested being sent to her room for a day or two. This idea was possible but didn't seem harsh enough. Her room was outfitted with all the latest technology, books, a comfortable bed and sitting area, and a state-of-the-art bathroom. By most human standards, it would make for a lovely studio apartment.

As Marcus so casually pointed out, locking her in her room wasn't appropriate, and the dungeons seemed even less so. Aro suggested a public apology, to humble her and keep her from misbehaving in front of others. Caius was content with this idea, but still felt it wasn't enough to atone for lying to her mate.

Marcus shared his idea, "Since we can neither lock her in her room, nor the dungeon, we could consider a public flogging,"

"No, no, no, absolutely not! I am not letting the rest of Volterra see me punished. I'm royalty damnit! Daddy, tell him!" She turned to Caius with big eyes. "A public apology is humiliating enough. I won't be beaten in front of people!"

Aro nodded in agreement and added, "she's right. We are to punish her, not humiliate her in front of her subjects. We are seeking to reprimand her, in front of The God of War. His punishments were not known for being kind. However, she is not a newborn vampire, we are not in a war, and abusing his mate may prove to be detrimental to the relationship we are trying to establish."

"So, what do you suggest?" Caius directed his question to Aro.

Aro paused for several moments. "Chores." He smiled as though he himself was the Cheshire cat.

Bella's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What kind of chores? I've done chores before, but only a few. I'm not sure I'd know how to do chores as a punishment."

"Exactly!" Marcus exclaimed, smiling back at Aro in understanding.

"Caius, what do you think, brother?" Marcus asked. He released Bella, whom he had been holding and looked intently at his brother.

"I suppose that could work. Is that a punishment for teenagers, Aro?" Caius asked, looking towards his brother.

Since he had every memory of everyone he ever touched, Aro had the most knowledge of humans… which included his regular human meals.

"It is. Spankings and floggings are frowned upon these days, especially by the Americans. As Bella suggested, normal punishments include loss of privileges, loss of electronics, and loss of freedom. But an increase in chores or adding unpleasant chores is a good way to get things done around the home and teach the scoundrel a lesson.

"I am not a scoundrel!" Bella huffed.

"Oh, but indeed you are, piccola." Caius smiled lovingly at her. She was his scoundrel that was certain.

"Am not," Bella mumbled again, looking away from her family.

"Isabella." Marcus turned her face gently towards him. "You know I love you, more than anything in this world. I am so disappointed in how you have handled connecting or honestly, not connecting with your intended mate. Maybe it is our fault for how you were raised, but lying to him about… everything…" His eyes took on a haunted look of regret and sadness. "That was your choice to make. And it was a poor choice." He released her face and stood. "We did not raise you to lie. That much I am sure of.

"I am going to speak with him. You three figure out exactly what she will be doing for her extended chores, and to whom she is to apologize, if a public apology is necessary, or if one specifically to Jasper is what is required.

"We need to respect his wishes. In private or in public, his name is Jasper. He is not to be referred to as The God of War, nor The Major. He does not care for these monikers. And he is right; it was a century ago that he earned those names; from a painful lifestyle he finds distasteful and has left behind. We have a lot of work to do to earn his trust, his love…" He pointedly looked at Bella. "And his loyalty." He looked back meeting both brothers' eyes, who nodded silently in agreement.

Marcus took his leave of the library and headed for Jasper's room. He walked at a human pace, not in a hurry to mend the broken bridges between Jasper and his family. He wasn't sure how to do it. He never purposely sought out friends. He had his brothers and that was all he needed.

At times, he would seek the comfort of a woman, but it was never for long. He and his brothers have remained bachelors through the ages, hoping to meet their mates someday. As it turns out, someday can be a very long time indeed, he thought as he approached Jasper's door.

Marcus worked to not cover his emotions; disappointment and sadness engulfing him. He wanted to be real for The Major, err, Jasper. He spent so many years perfecting the art of masking his emotions that he found it difficult and slightly repellant to feel them now.

He knocked.

Jasper opened the door. Looking at Marcus with questions in his eyes.

"May we speak?" Marcus inquired, looking behind Jasper, indicating he should invite him in.

Jasper hesitated for a second, he didn't really want his peace invaded. However, he knew he couldn't hide out in his room indefinitely.

"Come in." He motioned to the small sitting area with two chairs and a little end table between them.

Marcus observed as he made himself comfortable in one of the chairs, that the bed held the imprint of his body, but nothing else was out of place. Jasper's bags still sat unpacked in front of the closet. Hopefully that was not a bad sign.

"Thank you." He met Jasper's golden eyes as Jasper joined him in the opposite wingback chair.

Marcus began and steepled his fingers in front of him as he spoke, "Jasper, I would like to start by apologizing for your reception here."

Jasper remained stoic, giving nothing away. "I have learned in the short time you've been here, many unsavory characteristics have come to light about Isabella. I will not apologize for her actions as it is not my place. I will apologize for my own actions however."

Marcus paused, noting that Jasper was only going to listen, so he continued, "I was dismissive of you when you arrived, which was poor manners. I do apologize for myself. I make no excuses; however, in my excitement to see my niece, I did not include you in our reunion, as I should have.

"Having found out everything that has been going on, I realize my own actions could only add to the unfortunate experience you've had since you arrived."

Jasper monitored Marcus' emotions and found him to be sad, embarrassed, disappointed, and sincere. The one thing he learned from his phone call earlier was that he needed to listen, so he waited.

Marcus sighed. "Jasper, I am very hurt by Bella's actions. She told us everything; about her lies, her behavior, and her concerns about her inadequacies as a mate." Jasper's eyebrows rose slightly at this information. Marcus offered him a sad smile.

"Yes, we have been talking with her for some hours now. She lied about her relationship with us, because she was looking for common ground with you. She apparently feels very socially awkward. I suppose that is to be expected. Since she was a baby, she was raised in a human world with vampires running her life.

"I cannot apologize for the way we raised her, and I will not. We do love her." He let Jasper feel all the love he had for his little angel.

"I don't expect you trust us after everything that has happened. I want you to know, Bella will have consequences for her actions. We did not raise her to lie to people and I'm especially disappointed that she lied to you in order to win your affections." Anger tinged Marcus' emotions.

Jasper suddenly worried for Bella's safety. He recalled Felix's statement when he asked if he liked Volterra. Felix responded, 'punishments could be severe, but they were always earned.'

Severe – the word reverberated in his head. He became increasingly worried about what they would do to his mate. Because she was his mate, he could admit it, even though they had not accepted each other as such. He knew it to be true.

Hesitantly Jasper asked, "what will her punishment be?"

Marcus sensed his unease and hurried to reassure him; this was why they had to tread carefully with Isabella.

"They are working on the finer details now, but it has been decided that she will apologize, and then participate in some chores; which I imagine are going to be things she would rather not do and may have never done before."

"Chores?" Jasper looked questioningly at Marcus. He, for the life of him, couldn't figure out how chores were a punishment. How unpleasant could they be?

Marcus nodded keeping eye contact with Jasper. "As I said, they are working out the finer details and I came to speak with you. If there is a punishment that you feel would be better suiting, or would like to add, we would certainly take that into consideration. Unfortunately, we are not in the habit of punishing Isabella."

Jasper's eyes widened a little. The idea that he would be allowed to choose a punishment for Bella was shocking. He was the one she had wronged the most. His mind raced through punishments; vampire punishments were not appropriate, dismemberment, being injected with venom to cause pain, withholding blood, restricting movement, being buried alive. None of those were appropriate.

Even though he had been acting as a teenager for many years now, he realized he's never really paid attention to the world around him. How were kids punished these days?

Seeing Jasper was thinking about something, Marcus waited silently – possibly the idea of a punishment.

"I want a detailed apology letter and a sincere verbal apology. In the letter I want her to list everything she has done wrong and the truth. I want her write 200 times, 'I will not lie to my mate.' And I believe this should be in addition to whatever chores y'all assign to her."

He paused and thought a minute more. "Also, I do not think she should be allowed to take the life of a human while she is a human and obviously juvenile. She does not understand fully what it means. If that girl had a family, I believe Bella should also send her condolences and meet the family in person to see how she has affected them."

Marcus waited to see if Jasper was going to add anything else, but it appeared he was finished. "My, you have given this some thought, haven't you?" Jasper did not respond.

"Please, will you follow me? We will speak with my brothers and Isabella about these additional consequences."

Jasper hesitated, but nodded. He would get nowhere if he was being obstinate and unpleasant. When he spoke with Peter a few hours ago, he was told that things would work out, but he needed to make his feelings and needs known in a respectful way. Peter suggested trying to develop a relationship with the brothers and not let years of rumors cloud his judgment.

Peter was a good friend and listened as Jasper vented about the situation, about being lied to, that he felt used for some sick prophecy. He felt he had no control over his future for the same reason, and he was mated to someone who needed to not only learn what it meant to be a vampire, but a human as well. She was in her own little world.

Peter assured him things would look up and he just had to let everything play out. "Listen to what they have to say… just go with your gut," he said.

Jasper followed Marcus back to library to find only Caius there, who had not moved from his chair.

"Where are Bella and Aro?" Marcus asked, looking back at Jasper indicating to Caius they had returned to speak with all of them.

Caius nodded a welcome to Jasper as he answered, "Bella was tired, so Aro took her to her room for the night. They were going to stop off to get her some dinner on the way."

"Did you finalize her punishments?" Marcus moved to sit back on the sofa he had occupied with Bella and Jasper followed taking the chair Aro had just left.

"We did. Major… I'm sorry, Jasper. Would you care to know the Princess' punishments?"

Jasper nodded hesitantly.

"We have decided, and Bella is agreeable, she will issue you an apology in front of the Elite guard. We are not seeking to publicly humiliate her, but do want to humble her. She will do this tomorrow. She will also be preparing her own meals and cleaning up after herself. She will not have the wait staff she usually does when she is here.

"In addition, she will be washing every car in the garage over the summer. There are 23 – we decided that equals about one a day, and she will be escorted to clean the furnace room after our meals."

Jasper didn't know what to say, she was going to be washing cars most of their vacation. He agreed with the apology, that she prepares her own meals and cleans up after herself, but she did that a lot anyway from what he knew of her time with her father. Of course, it was something she was not used to here. Cleaning the furnace room seemed a bit morbid to him, but he held his tongue.

Marcus nodded towards Jasper unsure of Jasper's opinion on what they had decided but adding, "Jasper had some ideas of his own, Brother. I feel they are reasonable ideas also. Would you be willing to entertain them in addition to your own punishments?"

Jasper was hesitant and a little confused as to why Marcus indicated the punishments were labeled specifically as Caius'. When they were in his room, he seemed to indicate they had come up with the punishments as a group. A family, maybe? Jasper wondered. They did seem to have those affections for each other. Jasper was still unsure what to make of this group.

Caius still hid his emotions, but Jasper noted Marcus appeared to be making an effort not to hide his own. An effort that seemed to be uncomfortable to him. Interesting, Jasper thought.

Caius looked to Jasper with a genuine smile. "Please share."

Jasper shared his thoughts for punishments and Caius nodded along.

"I do like those ideas, Jasper. Maybe we could reduce the number of cars to give her time to complete your requirements? What do you think?" Caius seemed genuinely curious.

Secretly, Caius wasn't happy with having her wash all the cars in the garage. He thought three or four was enough. But Aro argued it had to be unpleasant for her, not just a weekend chore. Likewise, he felt cleaning the blood and ash left in the furnace room after disposing of the bodies was a bit too gruesome for a human. The Major's punishments seemed much more appropriate.

R&R do you agree with the punishments? I wonder if Jasper is going to be happy having to punish his own mate or feel more like a father...how many of those does she need anyway?