Hello!

Thank you for your reviews!

To be honest: I was half expecting you to dislike the last chapter! Maddie was quite evil in that one, tee-hee. This chapter here might make it worse for some of you :-/ I'm not sure.

Read and find out why!

"Esme, my love, she wouldn't do something like that," Carlisle said in a futile attempt to calm his wife who was in tears. They had remained sitting in the forest since they needed a moment to collect themselves after what had just taken place.

"How do you know? Didn't you see the look in her eyes?" she choked out before burying her face in her hands again.

Carlisle swallowed heavily before speaking again, trying to sound comforting. "I don't think she would do that - she wouldn't."

"You know how often she acts without thinking. What if she decides to follow through with her threat, Carlisle? We would end our own daughter!" she sobbed. The situation caused her bodily harm it seemed.

"Esme, she was upset, but I am sure she didn't mean what she said," he said to soothe his wife's nerves, even though he wasn't sure if he himself believed his words. He was just as scared and anguished as she was, but right now he needed to be strong for his wife.

"I cannot bear the thought of losing another child. And we would be the ones to - to ..." She turned away from Carlisle, not able to finish the sentence because heavy sobs shook her petite frame.

It pained him so much to see her that way. He knew how much she had suffered already when she had lost her little baby boy all those years ago. The desperation and pain she had felt then caused her to take her own life. Now this situation brought back all those painful thoughts and memories - for her and for him.

And the fact that Maddie had said she would make them do it made the situation even more horrible. They would rip their own child apart and burn her to ashes, because she could compel them to do it. If Maddie decided to let it happen, then they would have her venom on their hands and lose her forever.

"Esme. Esme, please look at me," he begged and waited for her to turn back towards him. "Everything is going to be all right."

Hugging her close to himself then, he tried to offer her comfort as best he could.

"I never realised that she was that unhappy. What have we done?" Esme whispered into his shirt.

He lovingly stroked her hair while replying, "We did what we felt was right, love."

"I'm a horrible mother, I-"

Carlisle pulled away, his eyes wide. "Esme, please stop. Don't you ever say that. You are a wonderful mother to all our children. Maddie is upset with me, not you."

"She threatened us, Carlisle! Why would she threaten us if she had the feeling that we both are loving parents to her?" No matter what her husband said, she felt like it was her fault, and hers alone. It hurt her deeply that over the past months she obviously had failed to show her daughter how much she meant to her. Maybe she should have tried harder, spent more time with her, hugged her more.

"Maybe she's testing us. You know she always had trouble accepting someone as her parent." Hopefully that little possibility would help Esme calm herself, Carlisle thought. It might be a test, after all.

Esme thought it over for a moment, then replied in a strained voice, "But what can we do? How can we prove to her that she is our daughter and always has been? From the second I caught sight of her I knew it in my heart."

"I know, love, I know. I love our children more than life itself and I cannot imagine the anguish she must have felt when she said those things to us just yet."

"Maybe ... maybe if we stop physical contact, then she would never be able to follow through with her threat. She forms the bond through touch," Esme mused, trying to focus on a solution instead of on the pain and sorrow she was feeling. She would never be able to hug or kiss her daughter again, but at least she wouldn't lose or hurt her.

Carlisle shook his head. "I don't want her to feel like we are abandoning her now. Avoiding her might send this message and make it worse."

Esme's shoulders slumped a little. "But what can we do?"

"I'm not sure."

Suddenly she lifted her head again, another idea had formed in her head. "She would be safe at Tanya's. We couldn't see her anymore, but that way she'll stay alive."

He frowned at his wife's idea. "Send her away?"

"She was happy there, why wouldn't she want to go back? It would be better that way, even though I'll miss her terribly." She looked at her folded hands in her lap.

"I cannot imagine not seeing her anymore," Carlisle uttered.

"I know, these two years had been unbearably long. I don't want her to go, but -"

"Let us speak with Rosalie," Carlisle suggested and his voice held determination.

Rosalie knew her sister - she would know what to do, wouldn't she? Maddie trusted her, she always turned to her whenever she needed someone to talk to. And he couldn't imagine Maddie wishing for something so drastic without having thought about what that would do to Rose and Emmett.

"It would upset her to know what Maddie said," Esme remarked. The situation itself was bad enough, Esme didn't want to upset anyone else. Rosalie would be devastated ... why hurt her so?

"It would upset her more if something happened and she found out that we had left her in the dark about Maddie's words." He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb, then put his hands on her folded ones.

She nodded. He was right.

Rose could talk to Maddie, she would be able to make her see reason.

"Rosalie?" Carlisle knocked on the door and waited for her to answer. They had walked home, with Carlisle having an arm around his wife's shoulders to support her since she was still silently crying. Before they had reached the front door, Edward sped out of the garage in his silver Volvo. He had glanced at them, his face a blank mask, before he focused back on the path in front of him. Carlisle had already half expected something like that - Edward always had trouble seeing his mother crying, it grieved him.

The door opened and Rosalie looked up at her parents. "Yes?"

"We would like to talk to you. Would you join us in the living room?" Carlisle asked.

"Sure," she replied, even though she felt a little uneasy. It was strange that they looked so troubled and then wanted to talk to her alone.

Loud music could be heard coming from the upper floor - Maddie was listening to her favourite music again.

So they had obviously approached her and made concessions, Rosalie mused. She was pleased that the harmony was restored in the family.

Sitting down on the creme-coloured couch in the living room, she looked expectantly up at her parents then, waiting for them to let her in on what was bothering them. They looked tense - worried even.

How could that be? Shouldn't they be happy that Maddie was finally herself again?

Carlisle cleared his throat, then started talking. "Rosalie, dear, what impression did you have of Maddie lately? Especially the last couple of days."

"She was more at ease during the last days. She and Emmett were goofing around," Rosalie replied honestly while tucking one of her blond locks behind her ear.

"Did you have the feeling that it might have been an act?"

Rose gave him a baffled look. "An act? What do you mean? Why would she just pretend to have fun?"

Carlisle sighed. "We don't know. It is just a question."

Rose sighed. "No, I did not have the feeling that it was an act. And she seems to be quite well right now."

"So you didn't get the feeling that she might have gotten worse?" he asked her.

Rosalie definitely did not like this talk. What happened that he would ask so many weird questions?

"No! Could you please tell me what's going on? Your questions seem quite odd," she said and looked back and forth between her parents.

Carlisle gave her a level look before speaking again after some hesitation. "Your sister gave us an insight of her feelings today. She remarked that one day she will want her choice back and that your mother and I would be the ones responsible for the necessary action then. She would even lend us a hand in fulfilling her demand."

Rose swallowed heavily, then blinked her eyes a couple of times while processing the information she had just been presented with. "That's what she said?"

Esme, whose eyes were once again filling up with fresh tears, nodded her head.

Rosalie frowned and shook her head in disbelief. Why would Maddie say something horrible like that? Why would she wish to get killed? Did this girl have any idea what that would do to each and everyone in this family?

And then it dawned on her...

... the talk they had ...

... Maddie had thanked her ...

... and sometimes this little girl used drastic measures to show her displeasure ... she had obviously thought of a way to hurt her parents the way she felt they had hurt her in order to finally let go.

Maddie wasn't someone to bear grudges. She couldn't be angry for long ... but what she had said to their parents seemed like she had wanted to get even with them because she had been frustrated and sad and blamed them for it. Well, that rapidly developing anger had pulled her out of her depression, but it was downright cruel to treat their parents like that.

"Does she think we don't love her? That we favour the others?" Esme asked in a strained voice. It would break her heart if her youngest would feel cut out. That had never been her intention! She always tried to be there for all of them, but sometimes Maddie needed some space and so she let her have time to herself. Had that been wrong? Should she have pressed Maddie to talk about her feelings?

"No, it is quite the opposite actually," Rosalie snorted angrily, then clenched her jaw.

That didn't go unnoticed by her parents, and her voice as well as her facial expression confused them.

"What do you mean?"

"That little devil, I cannot believe it," Rosalie said more to herself than to her parents. She had half a mind to go upstairs to find her little sister and spank her behind good and proper - screw the consequences.

"Rose?"

Rosalie sighed, then looked back up at them and said, "She doesn't want to die."

Esme breathed a sigh of relief, holding a hand over her heart.

"But why would she say something like that?" she whispered, still teary-eyed.

"To hurt you." Rose shrugged.

But judging by the puzzled looks her parents gave her, she decided to explain a little further. "I am fairly sure that this is about getting even. She obviously knows how much you love her, otherwise she wouldn't have chosen to say something like that to hurt you the worst way possible."

"She knows?" Of course that was most important to Esme right now. To her, there was nothing worse than having someone in this family who wouldn't feel loved. She would willingly take the pain for them, just to see them happy.

"Sure."

Of course Maddie knew. What Maddie had said to their parents confirmed that she knew. And little Maddie was unbelievably at ease now, apparently she felt great, because she had upset her parents out of sheer spite.

This was characteristic for Maddie's logic, why hadn't she thought of that before? That was why Maddie thanked her - she had given her the ideal weapon. Esme and Carlisle had wanted to change Maddie, it didn't just happen out of the blue - and that was the final information Maddie had needed for her wicked plan.

In order to finally get over the frustration she had felt for a while now she wanted to watch her parents suffer ... to let them be sad so she would feel better.

"Everything she said was for the simple reason to hurt us?" Carlisle asked, trying to understand the situation.

"Well, I don't know what else she said to you, but this specific topic: Yes. I could talk to her if you'd like - to make sure I am not wrong about this."

They suddenly heard squealing and laughing over the music coming from Maddie's room. And then - as if it wasn't loud enough already - Emmett and Maddie bawling the song that was playing.

"See? She's well." Rosalie smirked. So she was indeed right. Of course she was, she knew her little sister and her strange way of thinking.

"I have never been that scared in my life," Carlisle breathed and held a hand to his forehead, looking upward. He was so, so relieved to hear Rosalie say these words and - of course - to hear Maddie laugh. But that his little girl would say something so malicious and mean just because she had felt like it shocked him. Esme had been in despair! He couldn't help but feel disappointed and even a little cross with Maddie. Esme had never wanted for Maddie to know about her little son, so he couldn't accuse his daughter of making Esme remember losing her baby. But he could reproach her for her motivation to intentionally frighten them witless.

"I think that was her intention," she commented and scowled.

"As long as she knows that we love her-," Esme started to say but got interrupted by Rosalie.

"Esme? Aren't you even the slightest bit upset about what she said to you? That was plain cruel!"

"I don't think she thought it through," Esme said to apologise Maddie's behaviour. She was just so relieved at hearing Rose say that Maddie wasn't serious, that she couldn't feel anything else right now.

"I would have slapped her had she said something like that to me! How dare she?" Rosalie ranted. She was upset to say the least.

"Rose," Esme mildly reproved.

"No! I'm really angered by this! You don't say something like that for lack of anything better to do, and you certainly don't run around and threaten the people you love!" Rose was beside herself. Of course she was scared as well, because if Maddie hadn't made that threat just to upset her parents, then it would have been her honest wish - that thought was scary.

Furthermore, what made this situation so dangerous was the fact that Maddie thought like an obstinate child. And unfortunately vampires had a malicious streak to themselves, and that mixed together ...

Vampires didn't feel compassion; it just wasn't natural to them, it wasn't in their nature to be compassionate. They loved to play with their victims, they enjoyed to torture and kill, because the blood tasted better with as much adrenaline as possible in it. To come straight to the point: They didn't feel sympathetic to anyone, and very often not even to their own kind.

If Maddie let that cruel, unsympathetic side of her nature resurface and get the better of her, then it might end very badly. Was she lacking love and compassion?

But from day one she had been surrounded by vampires who had acquired the feeling of sympathy for others. She never met 'non-vegetarian' vampires in her life, so she had never been influenced by anyone else but sympathetic people.

Consider other people, treat others with dignity and respect and maintain a low profile - that's how she was raised by the Denalis and themselves.

They didn't kill humans and Maddie had her bloodlust under control. She even had human friends, so she has learned compassion and sympathy by now.

So Maddie should have known better than to treat her parents that way.

Chapter wasn't proofread, just so you know. But I wanted to finish and post it so you wouldn't have to wait any longer! Next chapter might be up next Friday, dunno. I need to study :-(

Now...

A talk with Maddie is in order, don't you think? ... but who should do it? And will she be trouble?

REVIEW and let me know what you think should happen next! (I have written a talk with Rose and plan on adding a scene with Esme, but I could still change it, you know!)