Hey!
Yes, I was actually planning on updating sooner, but I needed a break from everything.
But I have some good news for you: Holidays are coming soon and then I'll have time to write again! I hope I can go back to updating 3-4 times a week!
I like your ideas about Maddie living with Rose and Emmett, but I have already something different planned that'll help Maddie deal with everything. Just wait a couple of chapters ;-)
"Maddie?" Rosalie called over the music and walked into her sister's room to which the door was wide open.
"Huh?" Maddie replied, barely able to hear her older sister speak.
So Rosalie turned the music off, because talking would be a lot easier that way.
"Hey! We were listening to that, Rosie!" Emmett complained. He was lounging on Maddie's bed, but drew himself up into a sitting position then.
"We need to talk, right now."
"What's wrong?" Maddie queried and stopped jumping on her bed.
"You have to ask?" Rosalie let a little of her anger show.
"Huh?"
"Carlisle and Esme just talked to me because they were both very upset."
"Oh, they are back already?" Maddie asked and tilted her head to the side like she was waiting for her sister to tell her an interesting story.
That they were back home yet wasn't according to plan... she had actually hoped they would stay in the forest for a little while longer, so they wouldn't have heard her and Emmett singing.
Oh well, she just got carried away.
Rosalie slowly folded her arms across her chest. "I told them that you lied," she commented dryly.
Maddie groaned. "Rose! Couldn't you at least have waited a couple of days?"
Rosalie just knew she had been right about that! Argh ... that girl!
Her expression hardened visibly. "I hope you are kidding right now. They were devastated."
Maddie smirked.
"I would so like to wipe that smirk off your face right now," she said and - maybe unknowingly - flexed a hand at her side.
Maddie's eyes widened and she leaned against Emmett, away from Rose.
Emmett put an arm around his little sister's shoulders. "Rose, don't say that! What is wrong with you?"
"What is wrong with me? I am not the one who takes pleasure in being cruel."
Maddie snorted at hearing that. "Cruel, my ass ... you are making a mountain out of a molehill."
"Maddie, let me warn you: I am that close to putting you over my knee, so you better lose that attitude."
Emmett had no clue what was going on right now. Why would Rose be that livid with little Maddie? And he didn't like his wife threatening to smack her - she was just a little girl, after all. What could she possibly have done? Stained a T-Shirt? Not taken her shoes off at the door?
Maddie whimpered and leaned even closer against Emmett.
He reached up and patted her hair, while saying, "Woah Rose, please, you're scaring her."
"I'm not scaring her, she's just pretending to be scared so you would protect her from punishment."
"You just threatened to spank her!"
Rosalie couldn't believe that her husband would argue now. "And that is the least she deserves! She needs someone to knock some sense into her!"
"Start from the beginning. What happened?" Emmett asked - he needed to understand why Rosalie was so upset, then he could start trying to diffuse the situation.
"Ask Maddie, she'll enlighten you," Rose snapped.
Emmett looked confused, but then he fixated his gaze on Maddie and waited.
"I don't wanna say ... you'll be mad at me," Maddie muttered and squirmed a little.
"And he has every right to! How could you be so cruel?"
"Hello? I wouldn't have followed through with it. And besides, it wasn't that bad," Maddie replied casually.
Rose was fuming, that's why Emmett decided to do the talking now so Rose wouldn't follow through with her threat.
"Then tell me what you did if it wasn't that bad," he prompted.
She grimaced a little while looking up at him.
But Rosalie was obviously not done talking yet, so their eyes were back on her when she spoke again.
"What's going round in your head? Threatening your own parents to use your ability on them to do something like that?" Rose ranted at her.
Maddie shrugged. "So?"
"So? !" Rose looked like she was that close to losing it. When she took a step towards Maddie, Maddie quickly scooted back on the bed, so in case Rose would want to smack her, she wouldn't be able to reach her.
"I always have to do whatever they tell me. I could show them how that feels like," she replied petulantly.
"But threatening them with your death?" Rosalie was outraged.
"What? !" Emmett roared and jumped up after hearing the reason for his wife's indignation.
"Don't yell at me...," Maddie murmured and pouted. She glanced up at her brother, but he looked completely shocked, so she turned her gaze on her folded hands in her lap.
"You threatened Mom and Dad that you'd kill yourself?"
"No. She threatened to compel them to rip her apart and burn the pieces," Rosalie clarified, a little smug now that Emmett was just as upset.
Emmett looked back at Maddie, who sat on her bed looking at him with big, puppy dog eyes now as if she couldn't harm a fly.
He took a deep breath, then said chidingly, "That is not cool, Mad."
"Sorry," she replied in a little voice and hung her head.
Emmett gaze turned softer then and his shoulders slumped a little, which didn't go unnoticed by Rosalie.
"She is not sorry, Emmett, so don't you believe her."
"But just look at her," he said and gestured towards Maddie. He sounded as if their new puppy had just peed on the carpet, but you couldn't be mad at the little whelp because she was just so darn adorable.
Rose shook her head in annoyance. "Emmett, would you please step outside for a minute?"
"No! Please don't go, Emmy," Maddie pleaded. She didn't want to be alone with Rose when she knew she'd get scolded now like you wouldn't believe.
"Rose-," he started, but got interrupted.
"I just need to talk to her, but I cannot do it with you in the room. She's manipulating you without you noticing."
"I'm not! I just don't want him to leave, because then you'll go all crazy on me."
"I need to talk to you."
"About what?" Maddie groaned.
Rose's jaw dropped. "What did we just talk about? !"
"I know what we just talked about - I was present, you know?" Maddie snapped, then grimaced and added, "But I thought we were done."
Rosalie shook her head and said in a fake sweet voice, "Oh, we are far from done."
Maddie didn't like talking about that now because Rose seemed pissed, so she tried, "You know, it isn't even your business."
"Are you sure about that? My sister saying she'll force our parents to kill her is not my business? No?" Rose glared daggers at Maddie, who now tried something different.
"I didn't mean it! It's not my fault if they cannot see that."
"You were very convincing apparently. Now come here so we can talk," Rose ordered and pointed to the edge of the bed.
"No, you'll smack me," Maddie folded her arms and sulked.
"I won't smack you, you silly girl. Now come."
Emmett left at that and closed the door behind himself. Rosalie wouldn't lie to Maddie, so there was no need for him to be in this room anymore.
Maddie scooted over to the edge of her bed and let her legs dangle, while Rosalie sat next to her.
"I want you to tell me why you said something like that to them."
Dismissing lying as a stupid idea, Maddie said, "Because I felt like it ... and I was angry at them."
"That much is obvious. Why did you chose to threaten them with that?"
"Again: I was angry at them," she answered.
"So you decided to hurt them."
"I didn't attack them!" Maddie shouted indignantly. She knew what Rose had meant, but maybe pretending to be a little stupid might help to get out of trouble.
"Your words were meant to hurt, weren't they?" Rose clarified with a raised eyebrow.
"They are just words, it is up to them what they do with it," Maddie argued.
Rosalie huffed. "Maddie, can't you see? They were devastated because losing a member of the family is the worst that can happen to anyone. And telling them that they'd be the ones who would end your life was very cruel. You have the ability to follow through with your threat, whether you meant what you said or not, and that horrified them."
Maddie just shrugged her shoulders.
"They are your parents and they love you very much. Can't you understand what it would do to them to lose their daughter?"
"I just wanted to upset them, I never planned to follow through with it," Maddie replied meekly.
"How would they know?"
Again, Maddie just shrugged her shoulders.
No, no, no, shrugging wasn't good enough for Rose right now. "I want you to answer me."
"But it's not fair! I'm never allowed to do anything, because they make every single decision for me ... so I just wanted to show them how it feels like to not have a choice."
"That was a little extreme, don't you think?"
"It. wasn't. that. bad!" Maddie sounded frustrated and a little angry. Was Rose stupid or something?
"Yes, it was. They would lose their own child!" Rosalie huffed.
"I didn't think about it that way," Maddie looked at her, then down at her hands.
"What do you mean?"
"You said they changed me for themselves. I just wanted to take that from them," she explained in a subdued voice.
Rose squinted at her, trying to understand what her sister was implying. "They changed you out of love, Maddie."
Maddie looked at her as if she was kidding her.
Yes, she still had trouble believing that they had - after just a couple of days - loved her enough to change her. They hadn't known her, after all.
"They changed me to keep me," Maddie snapped, her eyes narrowed to slits.
Oh. Now that was the problem for Maddie's anger, Rosalie realised.
She sighed and shook her head. "You got that wrong."
What the ...? "No! You said so yourself!" Maddie shouted and jumped up.
"Oh dear ... Maddie, listen to me: Yes, I think they changed you not only for you but for themselves, too, but only because they loved you and didn't want to lose you." Rosalie said and pulled Maddie back to sit on the bed again.
Maddie complied and frowned.
"You don't see it that way? But you know they love you, don't you?"
"Yes, they do now," Maddie clarified.
Rosalie shook her head. "No, they did right from the beginning. But either way - the thought of losing you was the reason why they were so scared by what you said to them in the forest."
Maddie curled a strand of her hair around her index finger while thinking about it.
Now it dawned on her. She had thought that she got changed because she had been like a shiny new toy to her parents. So she just wanted to take that from them, but had not taken into consideration that they, well, have come to love her by now.
So she had kind of screwed up by ignoring that tiny little fact. But she had been so angry with her parents! It can happen that you don't think clearly when pissed off, right?
"Oh," Maddie breathed.
"Do you understand it now?"
"I guess."
"Would you like to go downstairs now and talk to them?" Rosalie asked. A talk between Maddie and their parents was inevitable to resolve the matter.
"No." Thank you, but No, thank you. Maddie really wasn't in the mood for talking anymore.
Rose sighed, then hugged Maddie. It was surprising that there were still so many misconceptions occurring - she thought they had everything covered by now.
"But you know that I love you, don't you?" She asked, just to make sure.
Maddie nodded.
"Really?"
Maddie rolled her eyes, then smiled. "Really. And I love you, too."
The remained like that for a little while, Maddie letting her head lean against her sister's shoulder, thinking about what had happened earlier.
Finally making the decision to better get it over with, she exhaled and said, "Okay. I'll talk to Mom."
Rosalie pulled away to look Maddie in the eye. "I am glad to hear that. Shall I send her upstairs?"
Maddie nodded her head, then let her upper body fall back onto her bed.
Ugh, sometimes she plain hated talking. If her family knew that she screwed up that often, then why did they still want to talk about it? It's nothing new, right?
Not even ten minutes later someone knocked at the open door.
"Maddie?" Esme called from the door. She looked harassed and Maddie felt a little pang of guilt, because she knew that she was the one who had done that to her.
"Come in," Maddie said while sitting up.
So her mother entered, closed the door behind herself and walked over to the bed to sit down next to Maddie. Then she turned a little so that she could face her daughter.
When Esme didn't say anything but just looked at Maddie, Maddie started to feel a little uncomfortable. She tilted her head to the side and tentatively asked, "Are you all right?"
Well, what else could she say?
"I'm better - relieved - but I am not all right, honey," her mother responded honestly.
"Sorry," Maddie murmured.
Esme took a deep breath before saying, "Rosalie told us that you didn't mean what you said to us."
"Uh-huh."
"And you didn't mean to hurt us that way."
"Yes."
She sighed. "Maddie, we love you. I just cannot understand how you could ever block that out. That hurts me the most."
And then something in Maddie took over again. She wasn't exactly at fault here, she figured. There was a huge difference between words and actions, and she had only made one empty threat, whereas her parents always treated her like a child.
What's worse, huh?
And that her mother now told her how she had hurt her was just plain wrong!
"Well, you hurt me by never letting me do anything," she countered.
"And you thought threatening to make us murder you would be an appropriate method to get what you wish for?" Esme asked calmly.
"It seemed like a good way to start." Maddie shrugged dismissively.
Esme was not happy about how her daughter seemed to be quite unperturbed about what she had done. "Madeline, don't you see the graveness of this matter?"
"Mom, don't blame me for the fact that you start crying for no reason," Maddie commented with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Esme's eyebrows shot up at hearing and seeing that. What has gotten into her daughter? Why was she so insolent with her?
"You made us believe we would soon end your life! I love you more than you could ever imagine and your words petrified me," she told her, her voice slightly cracking.
"I didn't mean it! It's your own fault if you cannot tell the difference."
Seeing that her daughter obviously was in a bad mood and determined to take it out on her, Esme spoke very softly in an attempt to soothe Maddie's anger. "I thought I would lose you." She really hoped they could continue this talk without Maddie's disrespect now.
"Well, you won't lose me. Everything is all right again," Maddie snapped and narrowed her eyes. Actually, she was annoyed. Now it was back to the way it was before - her parents would continue to want her home as much as possible and she wouldn't be allowed to spend time on her own somewhere else.
Perfect.
"It is not all right, sweetheart. I don't understand how you can be so unfazed by this matter. You made that threat for a reason," Esme said, indicating that she wasn't done talking. She wanted to discuss this now.
"Fine. I said what I said because I don't believe you changed me out of love. Honestly, that isn't possible," Maddie snapped at her mother, then turned her head away.
Esme put a hand on Maddie's knee so she would look at her again. She wanted her daughter's full attention, wanted her to see that she was telling her nothing but the truth. "But we did."
"I don't believe you. You didn't know shit about me," Maddie replied spitefully.
Esme took a deep breath, not liking her daughter's language very much. But then she decided to not dwell on her poor choice of words and discuss the matter in hand instead. "I cannot tell you anything different, because then I would be lying, dear."
Maddie turned her head away again so she wouldn't be looking at her mother anymore, and said rudely, "Ugh, don't give me that crap."
"Madeline, please mind your language and hear me out," Her mother chided. Her daughter was really trying her patience and she wanted for that to stop.
Maddie snorted and crossed her arms. "No, thanks."
"Excuse me?" Esme asked in disbelief. Her daughter's behaviour had turned undeniably atrocious now.
"I don't wanna listen to you because you are full of shit," Maddie replied stubbornly. Of course she knew better than to talk to her mother that way, but she was just so damn annoyed that she didn't care at all.
When Esme spoke again, her voice was strict and admonishing - she was fed up with her daughter's disrespect, that much was clear. "Listen to me, and listen closely: I won't be spoken to like that. If you are disagreeing with what I say you may voice your opinion, but do so respectfully, am I understood?"
"Yes," Maddie replied, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. What was wrong with Esme? She went from being close to tears to rebuking. Schizo much?
Esme gave her a warning look, before saying, "Now. You might not believe it, but we cared about you right from the beginning. Alice's visions were fate, and we knew it. We were overjoyed and -"
Maddie lost the battle then and rolled her eyes, muttering: "That's fucking ridiculous."
And that was the last straw.
Esme quickly reached out, seized her daughter by the upper arm and deftly pulled her over her lap. Maddie didn't even have the chance to put up a fight because she was completely dumbstruck.
But lying in a prone position over her mother's lap wasn't the only thing that happened.
All of a sudden a number of sharp swats rained upon her backside and unfortunately for Maddie, her jeans weren't offering much protection.
After half a dozen of spanks, Maddie yelped when Esme's hand connected with her behind twice more, even harder than before to drive the point home.
The moment Maddie felt the grip around her waist loosening, she jumped up and took several steps backwards, staring at her mother open-mouthed. Her face definitely would have been beet-red if it could.
"What the ...? Mom!" Maddie managed to say, still trying to get over the shock. Her mother - yes, mother! - had just freaking spanked her butt. No, no, no, no, no ... that was not supposed to happen. Her Mom was the sweet, caring person, who always comforted Maddie and was lenient towards her. She even left the house when Maddie got a spanking, for fuck's sake! Huh?
Esme kept a straight face.
She just sat there and looked at Maddie as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened here.
"OW!" Maddie then clarified for her mother, holding one hand palm up out in front of her to underline that she expected an explanation, while her other hand was busy trying to rub the sting out of her behind. It had been a brief spanking, but that didn't change the fact that it hurt!
Now that the shock subsided, the pain and guilt gradually became more prominent and Maddie's eyes filled with venom.
Esme was with her in the wink of an eye and put a hand on either side of Maddie's face. Now that her daughter was cured of her insolence they could talk, Esme decided.
"I love you more than you'll ever know and I cannot bear the thought of losing you. So don't you ever, ever say something like that again," she whispered with authority in her voice. Her eyes showed honesty and love, and then she hugged Maddie to herself.
Maddie felt awful, knowing what her mother was referring to. And her butt hurt. But the hug was so comforting, so loving that she hugged her Mom back.
And then the tears spilled over and Maddie cried into her mother's shoulder.
Tee-hee ... what do you think? And what will Carlisle do? Or was the talk with Esme enough?
Tell me in your REVIEW and I'll update as soon as I can!