Jasper felt the anger drain out of him, and his mind went blank in shock.

Oh no, what did I just do?

The footsteps drew nearer, and he just looked around the room like he was trying to find a way to escape, before he realised that he was being ridiculous. Why would he need to run? That was his and Alice's lamp, and he had all the right in the world to break it if he felt like it.

He could hear Carlisle come to a halt in the hallway to take in the damage, he presumed, but what his father felt while he looked at the broken pieces, he didn't know as he kept his emotions closely guarded.

Well, at first Jasper had perceived his shock at the loud noise, then worry about... well, he didn't know what had worried him to be honest, and now – nothing. Carlisle was completely shutting him out.

He heard a quiet groan of exasperation, before his coven leader came into view. He stood in the doorway, his face hard and unreadable.

To make sure he wouldn't look like he was shocked himself or like his backside was still throbbing, he got up from the bed and stood next to it.

"What happened?"

Jasper had no clue why Carlisle would ask... what did it look like?! Lamps didn't just unplug themselves and crash into walls twenty feet away like they were on some kind of suicide mission.

And he most definitely hadn't tried to kill a fly or a spider sitting on the wall with it.

As he thought about that, he came to the conclusion that it had more than likely just been a rhetorical question and so he refrained from answering.

That however, proved to be a completely wrong assumption when Carlisle took a few heavy steps into the room and put his hands on his hips while his eyes narrowed slightly.

"I asked you a question, Jasper. What happened?"

Jasper just stared at him, before he couldn't hold his father's gaze anymore and decided to look to the side at... nothing in particular.

"Oh, come on...," he snorted in response. Carlisle could not be serious with this stupid question.

Clearing his throat loudly, Carlisle let him know that he was not going to accept that as an answer. "Son, I want you to tell me what happened."

Before he knew it, he snapped his head back around and replied, "Well, I just sat here, minding my own business, when suddenly this lamp went crazy."

It became silent in the room, and the only noticeable thing that happened was that Carlisle's eyes darkened. "Jasper, you are treating on very thin ice," he warned. "I want you to explain what happened, now."

Seeing that he was getting annoyed with Carlisle for guarding his emotions and for his newly acquired habit of asking the same question over and over again, Jasper decided that it would be smarter to just keep quiet. Better say nothing instead of giving him answers he'd consider rude or even end up insulting him.

Carlisle took a deep breath. "I am giving you the chance to explain to me why there is a broken lamp on the stairs. Do you think it's wise to spurn that opportunity?"

A groan escaped him and before he knew it, he said in an annoyed tone of voice, "I don't care, Carlisle. I really don't care."

"Without an explanation from you, I would assume that you were still not done being defiant and threw that lamp against the wall in a fit of childish anger. Do you really want me to believe that? Because I can promise you that if that's the case, then I will tan your hide before I send you to clean that up."

Jasper clenched his teeth.

Childish? Childish?! There was absolutely nothing childish about him. He was a soldier, a warrior!

"Believe whatever you want," he snapped, feeling extremely upset about having that word associated with himself. "And if a few shards of glass bother you so much, then how about you clean it up."

The blonde man stared at him, before he started nodding to himself like he had just decided on something. Turning around, he took a few steps back and slowly closed the door.

That wasn't necessary for privacy reasons as they were completely alone in the house... but it was more than likely to show him what would happen now. Carlisle wanted him to know that playing nice was over now and that he was more than just fed up with his impudence.

When Carlisle marched towards him and grabbed him painfully by the ear, Jasper was sure that he would just rip it right off before backhanding him a few times.

But something completely different happened.

The coven leader sat down on the bed, pulled him over his knees and gave him a few mighty swats that could definitely not be considered love pats.

"Stop that!" Jasper protested angrily and tried to free himself from Carlisle's vice like grip around his torso, which only made Carlisle tighten his hold and pin his legs down with his right one.

Jasper was refraining from using his full strength as he was still fully aware that this was Carlisle and that he was in charge, but he would not, under any circumstances, allow to be put across anyone's knee like a naughty, little boy, because that's not what he was.

Having him smack him with his hand was already embarrassing enough and made him feel like a child, but lying across his lap? Why didn't he just pull his jeans and underpants down while he was at it and smack his bare behind while chiding him?

"Too many chances to explain yourself are obviously making you irritable, boy," Carlisle remarked as he let his hand fall again and again. "Oh, and I need to apologise that I obviously didn't make myself clear enough in my study. Stop acting like a child, Jasper."

Jasper grunted in response when he realised that he wouldn't be able to free himself without running the risk of hurting Carlisle. He was his coven leader and so he wouldn't dare to fight him off with all his might, but he hoped the man would soon realise that this was really not necessary. And that he was too old for a kid's punishment. And that he wasn't a little child.

He could rip his arm off and whip him with it if he wanted, but... spank him?

Admittedly, the fierce slaps were making the sting that had already been there from the last correction gradually worse and that was something he couldn't ignore for much longer... yes, it was painful.

But... come on, over his knees?!

Carlisle seemed determined to set his butt on fire, and Jasper gripped the duvet tightly as he wanted something to hold onto.

He hissed when Carlisle gave him a particularly vicious smack to his sit spots. Maybe this was indeed because of Rose and Edward... was Carlisle just getting started? Was he planning on making the blood and venom concentrate in the assaulted spots, so when he dismembered him, it would take much longer for his body to recover from that? That was actually pretty clever.

"You better stop being so insolent, Jasper. And you do not break things out of anger," Carlisle lectured, cutting through Jasper's musings.

So this was only because of the stupid lamp?! "Stop it and let me go!" he demanded.

Carlisle did not let go of him, but he did stop the spanking for a moment to say, "We cannot change anything in this family and we cannot help you as long as you refuse to tell us what is troubling you. We encourage you to voice your concerns and worries, you are allowed to tell us whatever is bothering you, but you are not allowed to be disrespectful and destroy things."

Then he continued.

Jasper tried not to make a single sound while he twisted and squirmed on Carlisle's lap.

"Lie still, I'm not done yet." was Carlisle's immediate answer.

"Let go, Carlisle!"

"No," he replied without missing a beat.

Since the assault did not lessen, Jasper figured that Carlisle deliberately ignored his well-founded objections and was determined to continue to try and knock some sense into him.

Oh boy.

Esme and Edward made their way back to the house. They hadn't been gone for long, but Edward had constantly mentioned that he was worried about his brother and father, which had only made Esme doubt if it had been a good idea to leave them home alone. With every passing minute she was getting more and more nervous and concerned.

She wanted to be there for her baby – Jasper was so sensitive and so withdrawn at times, that she couldn't help but want to be at home to comfort him. Her motherly heart longed to see her child again and she was determined to do whatever was needed to help him.

Edward had grown quiet the closer they got to the house, and Esme was feeling drawn between worry and sadness now. The situation in Edward's room - an infuriated Jasper and a nervous Edward... it hadn't just happened. One or even both of them had been misbehaving, and maybe over the duration of a couple of days it got up to the point where one of them would snap. It was Jasper, who had been in a very fragile emotional state lately. He had tried his best to keep his inner turmoil a secret from them, but just one look in his eyes and Esme knew instantly that her baby wasn't well. Would he open up to Carlisle?

Even before they reached their backyard, Esme could heard loud, rhythmic slapping sounds and something that resembled muffled words and whimpers.

She gasped and turned her head to look at Edward, who had fallen back and now stood next to a tree, his eyes darting around nervously.

"You stay here," she managed to say before she ran towards the house in sheer panic.

It took her only a moment to reach the front door and bolt up the stairs. Pieces of glass were crunching underneath the soles of her feet, but she barely registered the sounds as her mind was occupied with something completely different.

Her baby.

Her baby wasn't well and she needed to get to him as quickly as possible.

The sounds came from his and Alice's room and she just wrenched the door open without wasting any time with pointless knocking and waiting. The wooden door hit the wall with a loud thud but she didn't hear it. She just stood there in the doorway, looking at the scene in front of her with her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

Carlisle's head shot up at the unexpected intrusion. His hand stopped in mid-air - he had just been about to strike Jasper again.

The boy was pinned down across his knees, breathing heavily, and as he must have sensed her presence or just wondered why Carlisle had suddenly stopped spanking him, he turned his head to gape at her.

By the look in his eyes, Esme immediately knew that he was hurting, and she gasped aloud while her heart ached heavily in her chest.

"Carlisle!" she shouted as soon as she got over the initial shock and found her voice again.

"Esme?" he asked, completely confused now.

She was horrified at the sight of her husband smacking her poor boy. "Carlisle! What- Let him go!"

He shook his head, his hand still raised and ready to smack her son's behind again. "Love, we are not done here. Please-"

"NO," she immediately interrupted him before he could even dare to think of sending her out of the room again to continue what he should have never even started in the first place. "You will stop this instant! What has gotten into you?!"

He finally lowered his hand, but did not let go of Jasper. "Esme, please leave."

What in the -? "Most certainly not! Let him go!" she demanded angrily, her eyes pitch-black and dangerous.

Jasper, just lying there motionless with his mouth agape, felt his father tense at Esme's words and he wasn't entirely sure, but he guessed that the black eyes did it.

Carlisle slowly removed his arm from his lower back and his right leg stopped restraining his movements.

"Go wait downstairs, Jasper," Carlisle told him in a quiet voice and helped him stand. Not that Jasper needed any help, but he was moving quite slowly, obviously still in shock.

Now having his feet back on the ground again, he walked towards the door to go downstairs when Esme stepped in front of him and placed both her hands on either side of his face.

"Are you all right, Jazz?" she whispered worriedly, her throat painfully constricted as she gazed into his dark eyes that held a visible layer of venom.

He quickly nodded his head, and she let her hand smooth his blond locks back out of his face before she bit her lip.

"I'll wait downstairs," he told her in an emotionless voice, and her hands dropped to her sides when he moved past her and out into the hallway.

She looked after him, and when she was sure that he was indeed downstairs and hopefully out of ear shot, she whipped her head around and narrowed her eyes threateningly at her mate.

"How could you? Carlisle, you were supposed to talk to Jasper, not punish him! How dare you spank my boy?"

He shook his head and got up from the bed, his hands raised in a soothing manner. "Esme, calm down. It's not what you think."

She let out a gasp and looked at him like she didn't believe a word he had said. "I could hear you from afar and I just saw you! There is no excuse, Carlisle! Our son is troubled and suffering, but you just ignore that and discipline him!"

"Hear me out, Esme, please," he implored. "This is not about what you think. I did not take any action concerning his behaviour this afternoon and I wouldn't have without talking to you first. Calm down, love, let me explain."

"You just spanked him," she stated in sheer disbelief and shook her head.

He turned to the side with his hand pressed against his forehead and released a heavy breath. "Esme, you came up the stairs, you saw the broken lamp. Jasper was acting out, he has been defiant right from the moment I took him to my study – he was constantly challenging me."

"Jasper is troubled, Carlisle!" she tried again to make him understand. "He doesn't know what he's doing!"

"No, Esme," he objected and took a step towards her. "He knows exactly what he's doing. He was being disrespectful and defied me again and again, and instead of telling me what happened or even doing what he's told, he starts destroying things."

"Because he has trouble dealing with his pent up emotions!" she argued for her son. How could Carlisle not see what was going on with the poor boy?

"Stop trying to find excuses for his behaviour, Esme, please. That was not acceptable behaviour. I was understanding, I was giving him enough chances... I was calm and patient – he gave me silly answers and backtalk. No matter what's bothering him, there are rules for him and his siblings and they need to be followed. Maybe being so lenient with him and making excuses for his behaviour are having the opposite effect and he gets even more rebellious and angry."

She crossed her arms over her chest and exhaled deeply through her nose. "I don't want to hear it, Carlisle."

"But that is the truth, love," he replied as he took another step closer to his beautiful wife. "I know you are hurting for our son, but his emotional turmoil won't stop until he manages to take care of it himself or tells us what we need to change to make life easier for him. We both want to help him, but we can only do that if he allows us to help. And in the meantime, I'm not going to let him create havoc in the house because he's not feeling well – if I let him do that, then soon the rest of the family won't be feeling well anymore."

"Carlisle," she said, trying to remain calm, "you spanked him."

He raked his hands through his hair and closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes, I did. And I wasn't finished just yet – you interrupted us."

Esme couldn't believe he had just said that. "You are not seriously saying that you will discipline him some more tonight," she gasped in disbelief before her eyes narrowed and she continued in an almost threatening tone of voice, "I can promise you that that won't happen."

"Esme, what happens when Rosalie or Edward is giving you constant backtalk, then throws a childish temper tantrum and breaks something out of anger?"

Jasper quickly descended the stairs, trying to step around the glass shards to make as little noise as possible while his mind was racing from one thought to another.

Not knowing what to do and where to go, he decided to wait in the living room until one of his parents would come downstairs and tell him what would happen now. Nervousness engulfed him as he could hear Esme's raised voice and Carlisle's soothing one sounding down to him from upstairs, and he was just staring at the ceiling while trying to make out words to find out what's going on.

Seeing that it might take a little while until they'd come find him, he considered sitting down on the upholstered couch, but quickly decided against sitting as he suddenly got aware of the fact again that his rear was smarting and just a little too sore for him to be able to sit comfortably. He wasn't sure, but there was a slight possibility that his behind was twice its previous size now and he really wasn't interested in increasing the throbbing just because he was used to sitting while waiting for someone or something.

So he dismissed the thought as quickly as it had entered his mind, and was now trying harder to focus on what was happening around him.

He could make out single words now and perceive mixed emotions coming from his room upstairs.

Esme, his dear loving mother, was sad as well as worried. She shouted and gasped, barely able to breathe, and the heavy sense of protection and love he felt coming off her in waves was almost making him nauseous. That's what she was feeling for... him? It was so intense that it felt like a stab to his heart whenever she said his name... so her feelings of love were truly directed at him at the moment.

Was he really deserving of her love after everything he had done? He didn't think so.

While she yelled at Carlisle however, he also experienced how unhappy she was with her husband. He doubted that it was about how he handled him or his choice in punishment per se, as she herself was a person who preferred to resort to this type of discipline instead of giving them a punishment more common amongst traditional vampire covens. That woman was just too compassionate, loving and motherly for that – he could not see her taking off limbs or burning them some to teach them a lesson, and never before had she done so. He had witnessed all of his siblings getting on her bad side from time to time - none of them feared her or resented her and she had never once dealt with any of them in a way he had seen Maria deal with her disobedient underlings in her coven.

No, right now Esme was angry about something Carlisle had done, but... concerning him? That's what it sounded like, but he refused to believe that. Or maybe... was she mad that he hadn't been any harsher? That he hadn't dismembered him?

But he thought he had just felt the love she had for him...

He was confused and so he bit his lip and strained his ears to listen more closely, when it suddenly hit him and he realised that he already knew what was going on.

His adoptive parents were arguing because of him.

A heavy sense of guilt washed over him, making his heart constrict and his breath catch in his throat.

I'm a horrible person.

The two most compassionate and loving people he knew apart from his sweet little Alice were arguing, because of him.

No, he couldn't let that happen.

Wit his thumb and index finger rubbing over his eyes, he marched up and down the room in silence while trying to find a way to make Esme stop and see that all of this was solely his fault. Carlisle was only keeping order in his coven – in the most embarrassing kind of ways, yes – but he was doing what he had to and nothing else.

Esme allowed herself to be blinded by the concern she felt for him, instead of realising that he was the one to blame and not Carlisle.

Rosalie, Edward, and now them... all these horrible incidents wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for him. He felt so disgusted with himself that it was making him physically sick.

How come that he was suddenly making everyone miserable around him?

As he was agonising over what he could do now to set things straight, his head suddenly snapped up as he perceived the emotions of yet another person - a person that wasn't in the house with them.

He hurried to the window to gaze out into their backyard and scan the surroundings for an intruder, and quickly found the source of these new emotions.

Edward was standing by a tree looking back at him, his face paler than usual.

Yup, Mama and Papa Cullen are not on the same page here concerning Jasper. It really is very unfortunate that she walked in on that... I blame Edward, haha! Nah, just joking. For the first time in his life, Edward is really trying not to be a pest :D

I actually wanted to make the talk between Carlisle and Edward a part of this chapter, but it just didn't come to that. And in the last chapter I only said that Eddie would make an appearance and... he did, right? Hehe ;-)

OK, and even though I feel like writing the next chapter now, I think I need to head back to TH and see what the kids are doing while the parents are gone... Rose found a wonderful explanation for all the damage, but I'm not sure what Carlisle and Esme will think of that, hm.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Oh, and HAPPY EASTER everyone!