Baby Talk Translation from Chapter 20:

She began growling, snarling, and snapping at Alice, wrapping her arms around me. "No Alice! Yucky Alice! No, no, no! Bella's Jasper!" she began shouting. Her voice became higher pitched as she got even more upset, hissing and baring her teeth at Alice. "Mama! Daddy! Papa! Em! No Alice! Alice yucky! No more Alice!"

Chapter 21 - No More Alice

The family all sprang into defensive positions, placing themselves between Bella and Alice. Alice stared at them in disbelief.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

Carlisle straightened up, his posture full of power and authority, his black eyes flashing. "We are protecting our little girl from you. It greatly saddens and disappoints me that you would make her feel threatened and unsafe in your presence, even after everything else you've done to hurt her and us. You need to finish packing your belongings and leave as soon as possible. Your presence will no longer be tolerated in the vicinity of my family."

"But, Carlisle!" Alice protested.

"No, Alice!" Carlisle snapped, a growl reverberating through his chest. "I am not interested in hearing any excuses for your behavior. There are no acceptable excuses. We have asked you nicely to make other living arrangements for yourself. I am now giving you a direct order to leave and not return without an invitation from myself or Esme. Do not make me enforce this command, or you will be sorry. I will not tolerate any further disrespect from you, or disregard for this family's needs, safety, and well-being. It is my duty as patriarch to protect those in my care. My mate and my children will always come first with me, and anyone who knowingly hurts them, thus becomes my enemy, including those I once trusted and considered my own. The betrayal you and Edward have demonstrated is profound and will forever change this family. There is no room in my family for backstabbing, lying, manipulative traitors. Goodbye, Alice. I do not wish to see your face again for at least a decade."

Alice sobbed, pouting, her emotions a wreck. She was in shock. I knew from previous conversations over the years she had never thought, never imagined, never even considered that the Cullens could or would cast her aside. She had made sketchy choices in the past, minor decisions that didn't seem to affect much in the long run, but had ignored my council when I had argued against her manipulating the future to suit herself. She was confident she would always be forgiven, that the rest of the family would always understand she was only doing what she felt was best. She was wrong. I didn't sense forgiveness in the emotions of any of those staring her down from in front of Bella and me.

Meeting the cold, hard eyes of those she had wronged, seeing that none would be defending her or intervening on her behalf, she finally turned and walked slowly inside, her shoulders hanging in defeat. She tried to send me a negative cocktail of emotions to punish me, but I was expecting it and able to divert it, rather than absorb it. It was one of her favorite tactics to try and control me - to overwhelm me with despair, hopelessness, abandonment, loneliness, fear, and rejection - whenever she didn't get her way.

Initially in our relationship, I had been forced to comply with her 'requests' to avoid the bombardment of emotional pain, but as the decades passed, I had become more and more adept at deflecting her carefully calculated mental torture. As her emotional grenade sailed harmlessly past me, I chuckled. I felt her spike of rage and disappointment as she realized she had failed in her objective to bring me down with her. She picked up her pace a little, stomping on into the house and back to her room.

Once she was out of sight, Bella turned to face me, still situated on my lap. She looked me directly in the eyes, capturing my full attention.

"No Ahllhss!" Bella growled, daring me to contradict her.

"No Alice," I agreed.

Bella put her hand on her face and then mine, staring deeply in my eyes. "Belluh's Jahssgrr?"

"Yes, Bella, I'm your Jasper," I assured her, stroking her cheek gently and smiling. "Bella's Jasper."

She beamed happily at me, her eyes shining with delight. "Belluh's Jahssgrr!"

Esme grinned slyly at the two of us. "I think Bella needs to take a bath, wash her hair, and change her clothes now, Jasper."

I looked over at her, feeling her delight, anticipation, and sneakiness. Sneakiness? What was Esme trying to hide? "Yes, of course," I replied, monitoring her reactions closely. Pretending I wasn't on high alert, I helped Bella up into a standing position. "C'mon, darlin'. I need to finish washing you."

Rose made an odd sound, as if she was choking on her venom, and glared at me. "Excuse me, Jasper? Did you hit your head lately? It's bad enough you licked her clean in front of the rest of us, but you don't seriously think we're going to let you bathe her in the tub, do you? We ladies will take it from here. You can stay down here with the rest of the guys." She shook her head and muttered under her breath, "Maybe they can knock some sense into you."

"But . . .," I instinctively protested, not liking the idea of letting Bella out of my embrace, much less sending her away with other vampires, even if they were my own family members. I'm her sire. She's mine, I made her, so it's my job to take care of her. My duty, my honor, my pleasure. Why are they trying to take her away from me?

"No protests, Major," Charlotte interrupted firmly. "You are not going to be seeing our baby girl naked. It's not right, and you know it. Now behave like the gentleman both your mamas raised you to be and entrust her into our care. Don't worry, we promise to bring her back."

"Eventually," Rose murmured, trying to hide her smirk.

Esme raced into the house to get the bathwater ready and pick out fresh clothes for Bella, while Rose pulled Bella gently but inexorably out of my arms. I had a strangely difficult time convincing my arms to let her go. Charlotte came around to Bella's other side, and the girls each took one of her arms, helping to support her upright as she found her sense of balance.

"Time to learn how to walk, Bella," Char announced cheerfully.

Rose looked taken aback, having forgotten Bella wouldn't automatically know how, but then grinned excitedly. "Watch me, Bella," she instructed, slowly and carefully taking a step forward with her right leg.

Charlotte then did the same on Bella's other side. "Bella's turn!" she encouraged.

Bella looked back and forth between the two of them, then down at her own feet. Slowly, Bella picked her foot up off the ground. She then began moving it all around and giggling. Finally, she took her first step and promptly sent her foot sinking several inches into the ground, creating a small crater. She looked down at the ground in surprise, staring from her foot to theirs. She pouted her lip out when she realized she must not have done it right.

"It's okay, Bella," Char quickly reassured her. "Just be more gentle with your foot next time." Char demonstrated her next step in extremely slow motion.

Bella tried again, and this time her foot only sunk into the ground about an inch. Solid improvement. Emmett and Peter were desperately trying to hold back their snickers. It only took a few more steps for Bella to get the hang of it, and by the time they made it into the house, she was walking on her own, no longer needing their support.

Carlisle cleared his throat to get our attention, now that it was just the men left standing on the lawn.

"There something you want to tell us, Major?" Peter snarked, waggling his eyebrows. I'd known him long enough to have a pretty good idea what he was suggesting.

I growled, "It's not like that, and you know it. She's just a child!"

"For the time being, but not forever," he acknowledged. "Alice aint the only one who noticed how close you two are. Ya didn't see any of the rest of us comin' over to have a taste of her dinner, did ya?"

"I'm her sire. We're supposed to have a bond," I snapped defensively. "Besides, we all know I have the weakest control when it comes to human blood, so it's not surprising I was the only one whose beast escaped his cage."

"Bullshit," Peter coughed. "Ya weren't out of control or else ya woulda taken the bag from her, stupid. Besides, if ya just her sire, then that makes ya her dad, right?"

I grimaced in distaste, the idea of being her father making me feel decidedly nauseous. "Hell, no! I aint her fuckin' Daddy. She's already got two of those. She don't need any more."

"Oh, I reckon ya just her big brother then," Peter taunted.

I snarled and nearly decked him. "I aint her fuckin' brother neither."

"Well, what are ya then?"

"I'm her sire!"

"What else?"

I grunted in frustration, pulling at my hair as I ran my hands through it. "I'm her friend, her protector, her caretaker, her comforter, her safe harbor. I'm whatever she needs me to be."

Peter grinned at me. "Exactly!"

I stared at him as if wondering if he'd lost his mind. It wouldn't be the first time I'd asked myself that question. I loved my brother, but the idiot was quite a few bricks shy of a full load. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I demanded when he just kept grinning like a fool.

He smirked and patted me on my head. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it, Bella's JahHssGrr. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

I frowned, seeing a similar smirk on Carlisle's face. What the hell?

Before I had a chance to ask any more questions, we all heard Alice scream. I checked on her emotions and felt the familiar haze she developed when she was having a vision.

"Vision," I curtly informed the others. They nodded abruptly, all of us staring as the house, waiting for the outcome.

"Nooo!" Alice wailed dramatically. "Oh, Edward, you fool! How could you be so stupid?"

As soon as she came out of her vision, she promptly grabbed a few of her bags and raced out the door, not even bothering to acknowledge any of us. We figured that meant the vision didn't affect any of us, and I couldn't bring myself to feel all that worried about Eddie boy. I noticed I wasn't the only one feeling rather apathetic about the whole thing, not feeling any regret or remorse over Alice's rapid departure. In fact, all I really felt, was relief.

Emmett was the one to express what we were all thinking. "So what stupid thing was Eddie planning to do now that would cause her that reaction?"

I raised an eyebrow in disdain, well versed in the melodramatic ways of both Edward and Alice. "Wearing knee-high socks with shorts and sandals?" That earned me a chuckle from the group.

"No even worse!" Peter offered with a grin. "Wearing plaid with stripes or polka dots!"

"Shopping at Wal-mart?" Carlisle suggested, getting a giggle from the girls.

"Oh, I know! Joining a monastery!" Emmett exclaimed, then snickered, adding, "Now she'll never get inside his pants."

"Yeah, that sounds like something Edward would do," Rose remarked bitterly from the upstairs bathroom inside the house. "Can't be with Bella so might as well give up all hope of ever finding happiness with anyone else."

"Going back to his rebellious ways and attacking a human?" Esme postulated, her voice trembling with concern.

"Ooh, maybe he decided to go back and eat Mike Newton!" Emmett added, rubbing his hands together with enthusiasm. "He really had it out for that kid last year, for all his sick fantasies about Bella."

I found myself snarling at the thought, remembering all the lust Newton would emit in Bella's presence. Sounds like the asshole needs to be taught a lesson about respecting ladies. Maybe later after Bella's more stable. Hmmm.

"You don't think he'd tell Charlie what really happened to Bella?," Esme asked, starting to panic a bit.

"Nah, not even Edward is that stupid," Rose reassured her.

"Starring in a porn flick?" Pete suggested to break the tension. Everybody laughed accordingly.

"Yeah, right. He hasn't got the balls for it - literally," I shot back.

"Yeah, little bro aint exactly packing, if you know what I mean," Emmett muttered darkly.

"How do you know?" Rose demanded.

Emmett gulped, but answered bravely, "Jazz and I stole his pants once, while he was bathing in the river after a hunt. I was embarrassed enough on his behalf to never do it again. Nobody needed to see that, if you know what I mean. I wish I could forget the sight of his shriveled tootsie roll." Em shuddered theatrically. "I'm scarred for life now."

"Gee, and you were so sane before," Char taunted good-naturedly.

"Well, that explains why Bella never thought he was attracted to her . . . Guess there wasn't any noticeable evidence of his arousal . . .," Carlisle muttered, thinking aloud.

"Carlisle!" Esme chastised.

"Sorry, dear," he quickly apologized.

"Do you really want to discuss that in front of our baby girl? She knows her name you know," Esme continued chidingly.

Sure enough, Bella piped up then from upstairs. "Uht, Daddy?" she asked, calling downstairs. "Uht Eh-dee?"

"Nobody, baby. Eddie is Alice's friend," Carlisle hastily explained, dismissing her interest in the conversation. He was feeling embarrassed and ashamed, his expression sheepish.

Bella's emotions screamed of extreme displeasure. "Aliss ucky! Ehdee ucky?"

"Yes, baby girl, Eddie is very yucky," Carlisle hastily agreed, likely hoping to end the discussion quickly.

The rest of the family sent up a chorus of agreement.

"No Aliss, no Ehdee, no ucky!" Bella demanded.

"Don't worry, Bella. Alice and Eddie are gone. They won't bother you anymore."

"No mo Aliss? No Ehdee?" she asked, making sure.

"No more Alice or Eddie," Esme reassured her.

"Ehsss!" she cheered.

xxxxxxx

AN: There, I know you couldn't wait for Alice to be gone, so you should all be happy now, right?