4. Parental Control? Yeah Right!

Day 4

"What are you two doing?" Esme asked her daughters forcefully as she found them in her husband's study.

Whatever they are up to it better not having anything to do with that silly bet!

She had been absolutely dumbfounded upon coming home to find a side of her house burnt down. She had shouted at all four of her children for going on half an hour before Carlisle had dragged her away to calm down. Carlisle had got them all to board the burnt out hole up, and to tidy up the mess in her house (mainly broken mirror pieces), while he had spoke to her and when she returned they had all apologised profoundly. Some normalcy had returned to the household in the hours since their return, and all four had promised that the bet was over. Yet she didn't believe them, mainly because Jasper still had not been given any clothes and Rosalie, for reasons she didn't even want to try and comprehend, was still walking around in her skimpiest bikini.

Rosalie gave a little jump of surprise upon hearing her mother's question, causing her to drop the book in her hand. She turned around to face her mother with a guilty look on her face. Both Alice (who of course wasn't surprised) and Esme laughed at her. "I've never seen a surprised vampire before," Esme said with a chuckle.

"I was concentrating," Rosalie said huffily. "And someone could have warned me." She glared at her sister, who picked up the double meaning - 'why didn't you warn me Esme was coming and what the hell are we going to tell her?' Alice smiled, knowing her sister didn't need to be worried. She had a plan and it would work.

Esme wasn't going to be distracted. "So what are you two doing?"

"Packing up all Carlisle's books so we can hide them from him," Alice answered truthfully. Rosalie shot her a look that clearly said 'what the fuck are you doing?' Alice ignored her – she knew exactly what she was doing. "Did you get the note I left you?" Alice asked sweetly, referring to the note she had left on top of her mother's house designs.

"Yes I did. Care to explain that?" Esme asked confused.

"Just pointing out a few home truths," Alice replied mysteriously.

"What 'home truths'?" Esme sounded even more confused.

"Just how you and Carlisle stick within your intended gender roles." Esme looked even more confused, but slowly it dawned on her what Alice meant. She gave a snort of laughter.

"Don't be ridiculous Alice," she said with a disbelieving smile.

"I'm not. I suppose you can't really blame Carlisle for it though, he is from the 17th Century after all," Alice stated calmly, picking her words very carefully. She knew that to win they needed Esme on their side, though she couldn't quite see why yet, but she had to plant the seeds of doubt that would get Esme to change her mind very carefully if she wanted to get their mother to side with them.

Alice briefly wondered if this was the right thing to do – playing with her mother's insecurities like this. But then she remembered that Jasper and Emmett had to lose considering what they'd done, and her visions were telling her this was the only way to do it. Plus it would be a victory for her mother as well, she reminded herself, trying to ease her own guilty conscience.

"I don't know what you're talking about Alice," Esme said composedly, though she was no longer smiling.

"Ok," Alice conceded. "I still can't believe those two burnt my closet down. You thought of a punishment for them yet?" she asked her mother, purposefully changing topic.

"Not yet. I'm sure me and Carlisle will think of something." Esme seemed a little confused by the sudden topic change, but her flash of anger at the mention of what had happened was also noticeable.

"Yeah because Carlisle seemed so bothered about it," Alice muttered, supposedly to herself, but it was purposefully just loud enough for her mother to hear her.

"Excuse me?" Esme snapped.

"What? Oh, nothing," Alice replied in a falsely sweet voice.

"Ok. Well … I'm going to … I'm going to leave." Esme was flustered by the bizarre conversation. "Leave your father's books alone girls," she ordered, trying to regain some balance of control over the conversation and then she flitted out of the room.

"So what's your plan now - oh mystic psychic?" Rosalie snapped at her sister.

"Just give her 30 minutes," Alice replied coolly.

*****

30 Minutes Later

"So what's your plan?" Esme asked as she arrived back in her husband's study where Rosalie and Alice were waiting.

Alice and Rosalie explained the next stage of their plan while all three of them packed up Carlisle's books.

*****

2 Hours Later

Esme sat on her bed, watching her husband change out of his medical clothes.

"I can't believe those two," he said to her.

"Who?" she asked, as he came and sat on the bed next to her. He placed his arm around her waist and gave her a chaste kiss; there was little else they could do with their children and their super-sensitive hearing in the house.

"Alice and Rosalie. Did they tell you what apparently happened to my books?" He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"Yes, the book stealing fairy got them," she replied, trying to keep her voice as sincere as possible.

" 'Book stealing fairy', you ever heard such nonsense?" he muttered, more to himself then to her.

"It's not nonsense Carlisle," she told him. He shot her a sceptical look "You never heard of the book-stealing fairy?" She tried to make her voice sound surprised.

"You're not seriously buying this?" he asked her incredulously. Esme just shrugged.

"It's true," she stated calmly, trying to hide her amusement but failing slightly. Carlisle noticed the slight smile on her face – it was the same look Alice and Rosalie had worn earlier.

"Not you as well. What is going on?" he said exasperatedly.

"A book-stealing fairy came and stole all your books," she stated calmly, sticking to the plan.

"No it didn't!" Carlisle sounded even more exasperated now. "What exactly happened while I was at the hospital?" he asked.

"A book-stealing fairy came and stole all your books," she repeated calmly, trying her very hardest not to laugh.

"Ok. I know that's a lie. You know that's a lie. What happened?" Carlisle couldn't believe his wife seemed to be going along with whatever Alice and Rosalie's stupid plan was.

"It's not a lie," Esme said mock innocently. With an annoyed sigh, Carlisle got up off the bed and left the room, leaving Esme sat there with a smug smile on her face.