More than 100 reviews, woohoo! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

You made me so extremely happy! Soooo, my dear readers ... make a wish! I'm gonna play Wish Bear tonight :-)

Whatever you want, you'll get. (For example: I could do a one-shot about anything you'd like, just tell me!, or I answer questions, or or or)

On the drive back home, Maddie tried to reason with her father.

"Daddy?" she asked, still sniffling a bit. "I am well. It doesn't even hurt anymore."

He took a quick glance at her. "Madeline, enough," he rebuked, knowing exactly what she was trying to achieve by saying that.

She huffed. "But I'm fine! Turn around."

"No. I'm taking you home."

"But look, it's better!" she said emphatically and started to meddle with the bandage.

Carlisle quickly reached over and put his hand over Maddie's, restraining her from taking the gauze bandage off.

"If this bandage needs changing or has to be removed, I will do it - not you. Now stop touching it," he ordered, then put his hand back on the steering wheel.

Maddie made a face and sulked.

"I'm not hurting anymore," she lied after a minute of silence and kicked her backpack lightly in frustration. Why wouldn't he believe her?

But Carlisle saw that her body hadn't stopped trembling yet - a dead giveaway that she was still in pain.

"I believe you that you are feeling a bit better, but I don't believe you that you are pain-free. That would be a miracle, dear."

Boo.

"Take me back ... otherwise doing my homework would have been nothing but a waste of time, Dad." Would that change his mind?

He chuckled. "You are not doing your homework for your teachers, Maddie, but for your own benefit."

She didn't look convinced. "You sure?"

"Yes, sweetheart, I am sure," he said and ruffled her hair. He was glad that right now she was distracted from the pain she was still feeling - there was no Advil for vampires, after all.

While they were heading homewards, Carlisle called the hospital to tell them his arrival would be delayed; he apologised for the inconvenience and promised to be there as soon as possible. Maddie rolled her eyes - if he had listened to her and allowed her to go to school, he wouldn't be late now, now would he?

Then he called his wife and told her that their youngest would be staying home for the day and she should call the school to excuse Maddie's absence. After mentioning that Maddie was injured and needed some comfort, Esme was worried sick. Luckily they had already reached Forks, so it wasn't too long until they got home.

Carlisle steered his black Mercedes along the pathway which led to their residence. Even though they hadn't quite reached the house yet, Esme had already opened the front door and stood there, waiting for them to arrive.

The moment Carlisle stopped the car next to the garage, Esme yanked the passenger's door open and hugged her daughter close.

"What happened, honey? You're shaking!" she exclaimed, then looked at Carlisle. "Has she been crying? She has been crying!"

She looked back at Maddie. "Oh, it's all right now, sweetie, Mommy's got you."

Woah ... that was exactly what Maddie anticipated would happen, and she didn't like it - it made her feel bad.

She got out of the car with Esme having an arm around her waist; Esme immediately took her backpack so she wouldn't have to carry it with her bandaged hand.

"Maddie, honey, talk to me. What happened to your hand?" Her voice was dripping with concern.

"Daddy ripped my finger off," Maddie answered, inwardly laughing at the plain fact that it was the truth.

Hey! It was!

Someone cleared his throat behind them. Well, guess who, only the three of them were here ...

"Speak the truth, Madeline."

She turned around and looked at him, eyes all big and innocent.

"It is the truth, and it hurt!"

"All right, I hope you enlighten your mother about yesterday's and today's events. I need to get to work now."

He was with them in three long strides, gave them kisses, then headed back to his car.

After saying goodbye to him, Esme guided her daughter into the house, closed the front door behind them, and led her to the living room.

"Come, sit down. You can tell me what happened now."

"Mommy ... can I get changed first? I'll make it quick, I promise." Maddie hated her uniform and tried not to wear it any more than necessary.

"Of course, take your time." Esme didn't mind waiting a while longer to talk things over with her daughter. Maddie was home, she was more or less safe and sound, and that thought calmed Esme enormously.

Maddie hurried up the stairs, retrieved her cell phone from her backpack, and then threw the bag under her desk.

She just had to let him know. It would be mean to keep him in the dark about what just happened.

So Maddie started typing away. Well, only one word actually.

Sorry

She didn't even put an exclamation mark or a full stop at the end. Just texted that one word to her brother, who would probably be in trouble once he got home. But now he would be prepared.

Breathing a sigh of relief that that had been taken care of, she turned around and ... saw clothes lying on her bed.

Oh, Alice.

Maddie remembered having made a promise to Alice. She would be allowed to dress her and do her hair for two whole weeks. And her sister had obviously seen what was going to take place today, so she had picked out clothes for her to change into.

So Maddie had no choice but to comply; she changed into the denim skirt, white top and black cardigan that were draped over her bed. Putting on the cardigan was a bit of a struggle, though; The bandage on her hand was quite bulky and annoying, but she succeeded after another minute.

Making her way back downstairs, Esme opened her arms the second she saw her daughter, indicating for her to come and sit with her.

Esme put an arm around Maddie and gave her a kiss on the temple as soon as she was seated, then asked, "Now, dear, what happened to your hand?"

"When?" There were several times that something had happened to her hand, right?

"Start from the beginning, sweetie. I would like to hear the full story," she replied and tucked a loose strand of Maddie's hair behind her ear, then held her daughter's good hand in hers.

"It happened yesterday, when I was talking to Edward... but I swear it was an accident!" she added the last part with wide eyes.

"What exactly happened?"

Maddie squirmed a bit... she really felt like a back-stabber and thought about just not answering.

"Maddie, dear...," Esme cooed, inching even closer to her daughter and hugging her. "Don't be scared of telling me."

Maddie pondered over saying that she herself broke her finger. Carlisle had just assumed it had been Edward ... and Esme did not have a clue what was going on.

But unfortunately the silence unnerved Esme, who asked worriedly, "Are you hurting again? Talk to me, Maddie! Are you hurting?"

Dear Lord, Maddie felt even worse now. Would she dare to flat-out lie to Esme now?

Esme was just so motherly and protective; it tore her apart every time one of her children was unwell, sad or hurting. Worse was all three of these combined, just like Maddie felt right now.

"Maddie, I'm here, just talk to me." She had put a hand on Maddie's cheek and looked her in the eyes.

"It was an accident," Maddie whispered.

"What happened?"

"We were arguing over a CD, and we both held onto it. Then Edward braced himself and wrenched it from my grasp, ripping my finger off as well. He didn't notice that his fingers were overlapping my left index finger. That's how it happened."

Esme gasped, holding her hand over her mouth in shock.

"I heard you scream, but I didn't notice you were severely injured! Oh baby, how could I not notice?" Esme asked, clearly upset.

"No, no! Mommy, I'm all better now. Look!" She held up her bandaged hand, hoping it would soothe her mother's nerves. "Daddy patched me up, I'm healing."

But the opposite effect occurred - Esme looked guilty, devastated even.

"Mom, stop! You had nothing to do with it! I didn't want you to know, okay?"

Esme's voice was shaky. "Why, Maddie?"

"I don't know! I panicked, I guess. And I didn't think you would care."

Esme looked at Maddie, hoping she would explain, because what she just said didn't make any sense.

"We wouldn't care that you are injured?" she asked and squinted at Maddie. She couldn't feel anything but confusion at that statement.

"I don't know! It was like ... I thought you would be mad at me."

Esme blinked a couple of times, trying to process this information.

"Why do you think we would be angered about you being in pain and telling us about it?"

Maddie frowned. "So ... you wouldn't?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course not, no! Why would you even think that?" Esme could have laughed at the absurdity of the thought alone. Why on earth would they ever be mad at her for telling them she was hurt? They were her parents, for heaven's sake!

Maddie looked like she herself had no clue what she was talking about. "I don't know," she said, looking confused.

But then, Esme knew.

It hurt her that her daughter would be frequently confronted with her past - even though Maddie didn't realise it this time. Maybe her memories had faded some more as would be desirable.

Before Maddie could ponder it over and realise just why she had assumed that her parents would be mad at her, Esme drew her attention back to yesterday's happenings.

"What happened after Edward hurt you?"

"Well, you came up because I screamed and I knew you would want to know why, so I scratched my other hand."

"Go on." Esme's voice was tense - she didn't like that Maddie would lie about being hurt and, in addition, hurt herself even more.

"I needed to fix my finger, that is why I got the duct tape from the garage. But it didn't work too well. I had to change it every couple of hours and my hand somehow didn't grow back together. And then I tried to hide it this morning, but Dad saw my hand when we were in the car. Then he took my finger off again, cleaned it, bandaged everything up and wouldn't let me go to school." Maddie pouted while she said the last sentence.

"Oh honey, I am so sorry that you had to go through all of this." Esme hugged Maddie tightly and patted her back.

"It's okay." Maddie tried to shrug it off.

"No, it is not. We'll be talking to Edward about this," Esme promised.

"But you always say I am responsible for my actions, so there is no need to talk to him."

"Yes darling, but he knew you were hurt and didn't tell us either. That was wrong of him, especially since he was the person who caused the pain."

"It was my decision," Maddie said firmly.

Esme frowned at that. "Did you keep him from telling us?"

"No." Maddie shook her head.

"See? Now don't concern yourself about us talking to Edward anymore. Relax a bit, I want you to make a good recovery, dear."

Happy with this chapter? It is actually my 2nd version ... in my 1st one, Maddie did go to school after Carlisle taped up her hand and Edward picked her up later and yeah ... but then I changed it, because I thought it would be more like Carlisle if he brought Maddie home to Esme. Right?

I'm already excited about the next chapter :-D

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