Hello everyone!

I got reviews and PMs asking me to do a Jasper/Maddie bonding story, and so I grabbed my netbook and started writing it for you. I'm not sure if it turned out the way you guys wanted or expected it to, but... still, I hope you like it! ;-)

Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer – I'm not Stephenie Meyer. Ergo...? Exactly, Twilight does not belong to me.

It was a boring Saturday afternoon and the rain was quietly drumming against the large windows of their new home, blurring the view of the outside world.

Maddie didn't really mind, as she did not really feel at home in this place. Both the surroundings and the house were strange and made her feel that they didn't belong.

They had moved to West Virginia a little more than two weeks ago... It was the first time she experienced moving with the family - and not because the time had come and they needed to settle down somewhere else or because people had become suspicious of them. No, this time it was because something unexpected had happened, and it made her realise how fast things could change.

She came home from school one day and when she entered the house, she immediately knew something was off. A few pieces of furniture were missing, there were no jackets and coats hanging on the hallstand anymore and the sudden eerie silence in the house was almost deafening to her. The others had already left and it was only Carlisle and Esme waiting for her.

The Mercedes was laden with suitcases and boxes filled with a few personal belongings. Esme had packed some clothes for Maddie and a few things she knew she liked and wanted to keep, and when the girl just stood there, staring at the two pathetic cardboard boxes that apparently held all her stuff, she was allowed to go to her room one last time for one minute to collect whatever else she didn't want to leave behind and what Esme had failed to pack.

Even though one minute was more than enough time for a vampire, Maddie felt that it was over way too quickly. She hadn't been prepared for this, and so she didn't know what to take.

And then they got into the car and left.

They left the house, the town and eventually the state.

And only when they were on their way out of the county did Esme tell her where they were going and that they wouldn't return.

Just like that. No return, no nothing.

They didn't even give her time to change out of her uniform, and when they told her her clothes were in the trunk and they would not stop just so that she could get changed, she whined that she wanted to drive with either Rose or Emmett - but they said No. So she kicked against Carlisle's seat and demanded that they go back or let her drive with someone else, and instead of complying they just told her to behave and be quiet.

Now she was lying on the brown leather couch in the living room, watching TV on a small screen with her head resting in Rose's lap while Rose was absent-mindedly flipping through a magazine.

Maddie had to admit that Forks hadn't been the most exciting place to be, but it was a metropolis in comparison to where they were now. There was absolutely nothing to do, this place didn't smell like home, the rooms seemed tiny and the ceilings way too low, giving the house an oppressing atmosphere and making her feel like a prisoner.

Even their holiday home at the lake was so much bigger than this one - well, at least she thought it was - and she had no idea why they hadn't chosen to go there. It's even already fully furnished, there were bears for them to feed on and apart from a few bad memories, it was a cool place and she would like to go back there.

They had only moved because Edward wanted them to.

Jasper had almost attacked his girlfriend, and then Edward panicked, broke up with her and made them move.

Funny enough, he wasn't here anymore. One night he had sat down at the kitchen table with Carlisle and Esme while the rest of them had been sent outside to go on a hunt. And when they came back, he was gone.

It looked like Esme had been crying and Carlisle barely spoke a word – nobody knew when or if he would come back.

The next day Esme had moved Maddie's things into the other room that was a little bigger, had a nicer view and a small balcony, because with Edward gone he wouldn't need it. Maddie couldn't care less as she didn't like any of the rooms.

The problem was that she just didn't like being here, and it felt like nothing could change that. Everyone in the family appeared to be so sad and quiet in this place, even though Rose had assured her that it was only the adjusting process at first. They needed to make this house their home first and settle in, and then everything would go back to normal.

But Edward was gone and no one knew where he was as he barely answered any of their calls or messages... even Alice had trouble seeing him.

To makes matters even worse Jasper was feeling overly guilty since Bella's birthday, because he knew that him losing control was what had made Edward demand that they moved, and it had eventually chased their brother away who was suffering of heartache, sadness, desperation and self-loathing.

So these two couldn't be in the same room together and they hadn't spoken a word ever since that day. Well, now it didn't matter anymore as Edward was gone, but it had negatively influenced the entire family.

Maddie's eyelids drooped as the newsreader was droning on and on about stuff she couldn't care less about, and she readjusted herself on the sofa to be a little bit more comfortable while she was feeling so very sluggish and bored.

An hour or so passed, when all of a sudden the porch door flew open and Jasper stormed into the room, closely followed by Alice and Emmett.

"You!" he bellowed and pointed a finger at Maddie, who gasped in shock and sat upright, then scooted back on the couch and closer to Rosalie.

"You! Come here right now!" he shouted while approaching them with angry steps, his gaze still fixed on the petite girl that just stared at him wide-eyed.

Rose dropped her magazine and shot up, taking a step in front of her sister while glaring at her blonde brother.

"What's wrong with you?" she queried and put her hands on her hips, frowning.

"Get out of my way, Rosalie," he retorted in a voice that resembled a growl.

"Over my dead body."

"Jasper, please just calm down!" Alice beseeched her mate, while Emmett looked like he was contemplating dragging his brother back outside and maybe even give him a few slaps to the back of his head to help him get back to his senses.

"All of you, stay the fuck out of it!" he yelled, his expression livid and his eyes becoming pitch-black.

Carlisle and Esme came running down the stairs at hearing the ruckus downstairs, and they stopped right behind the couch, looking at their children with shock and confusion written all over their faces.

"What's going on here?" Carlisle demanded, and luckily he didn't need to wait long for an answer as Jasper was more than willing to brief the rest of the family of what the girl had done.

His venom was boiling with furious rage. "I almost attacked a human – because of her!" he accused. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were narrowing in anger.

Maddie glanced over her shoulder at Carlisle, who gave her a frown of confusion before he looked back up at his enraged son.

"Calm down, Jasper, and tell us what happened."

But Jasper ignored his father as he took a step to the side to be able to glare past his blonde sister. "Come here," he ordered in a dangerously low hiss and curled his finger at her. "Let's see if you'll do that again once I'm through with you."

Rose crouched and hissed sharply at Jasper, while both Alice and Emmett grabbed the blonde soldier by his arms to restrain him in case he would try and attack one of the girls.

"Let me go!"

Jasper growled at his bulky brother, and so Emmett gave him a growl of his own, daring him to make a move towards them while Esme put her hands on Maddie's shoulders to soothe her and fend Jasper off in case he would try and lash out at her.

"Enough!" Carlisle called authoritatively, "All of you! No more growling, no more hissing and no more threats!"

All eyes were on him and the room immediately grew silent.

Giving a satisfied nod at seeing that they had stopped acting like maniacs, Carlisle now took his time to look back and forth between his children, before he eventually fastened his eyes on Jasper.

"Son, do you need to step outside for a moment?" Carlisle asked, giving his son a scrutinising look as he still looked furious. He wanted to defuse the situation as he couldn't have him lose it like that again and then end up attacking one of his siblings.

"No, I'll stay right here where I can see that little devil," he countered, fixing the young girl with a venomous look.

"Jasper? Jasper!" Carlisle snapped his fingers to draw his attention, then pointed his index and middle finger at his own eyes the moment Jasper finally looked at him. "Eyes on me. Tell me what happened," he ordered.

"That crazy girl made me feel the urge to attack a human! If it hadn't been for Alice and Emmett, I would have done it – maybe even killed half the town!" he ranted while his nostrils flared of anger.

Rose looked at Maddie and mouthed, 'Did you really?' while giving her a look of bewilderment and disbelief.

Carlisle turned his head to give his youngest a questioning look, who just seemed to make herself even smaller under his gaze.

Looking back up again at his enraged son, Carlisle queried, "Why would your sister do that, Jasper?"

"She is a spoilt brat and doesn't like this town, so – of course – she decides to force us to move! Isn't that right?!" he yelled and his fists shook with the anger that was coursing through him and that he barely managed to keep under control.

"Madeline, is that true?"

Maddie shook her head and hugged her knees even tighter to her chest while Rose sat back down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Liar!" he screamed and was about to lunge for her to force the truth out of her, but Emmett stretched his arm out in front of him to hinder him from doing just that. At the same time Carlisle stepped in between Jasper and the couch the girls were sitting on, pushing the coffee table out of the way with his knee to properly block his son's path in case he would still try to charge.

"Tell them the truth!" Jasper's dark eyes blazed, and a barely audible growl rumbled in his chest – he didn't like having his way blocked.

His father looked sternly into his eyes. "Control yourself, boy."

Jasper breathed heavily, trying to obey his father. He was absolutely furious with Maddie, furious about the danger she had put the family in and her unscrupulousness to use him like that to get her way. This deceitful, little-

All of a sudden he was hit by an emotion that didn't quite fit the situation.

A sense of fear.

His eyes lost focus for a moment as he concentrated on his gift to see where that emotion was coming from.

Esme was a little afraid, yes, afraid that someone might get hurt, but it wasn't very strong as she was probably confident that there were enough people in the room that were still thinking clearly and rationally and wouldn't allow him to attack the child.

No, it was Maddie.

She was scared. Of him.

She usually got mad when her plans didn't work out, because she felt that it wasn't fair that she didn't get her way and because she was convinced that she was always in the right... Well, sometimes she started feeling nervous as she knew she was in trouble, but right now he clearly perceived that she was scared, and it was directed at him.

She feared him.

He cocked his head to the side and stared at his father's chest like he could see right through him and at the girl he was shielding. Yes, he was trying to decipher why she would suddenly feel that way. A new trick? Perhaps to make him have mercy on her? Or was it only meant to fool Carlisle and Esme? Maybe she had finally realised that she was in very deep trouble as nobody would take such a sneaky act lightly... good. Was about time.

"Rosalie? Take her upstairs," Carlisle said, and Jasper heard Rose whisper to Maddie to get up. They quietly left the room and ascended the stairs, and once they reached her room and had shut the door behind them, he noticed the atmosphere change again.

"Sit down," Carlisle requested while looking at each of his children. He must have figured that it would be a lot easier now to find out what had happened and why it had happened.

Without Maddie in the room Jasper would be calmer, of course, and Carlisle always tried to separate his children when they were arguing or about to fight, to make sure nobody would get hurt as that could easily happen when one or both of them were so on edge.

Rose would stay with her and talk to her - that way they'd get to the bottom of this a lot sooner than when they would just have everyone sit down together and try to have a talk without ending up growling or hissing at each other.

Carlisle took a few steps back and seated himself on the couch before Esme sank down onto the cushions right next to him, giving him a nervous look that made him cover her hands with one of his own and give them a gentle rub.

Alice and Emmett sat on the other leather couch without taking their eyes off Jasper, who just remained standing.

"Jasper, sit down, I said," Carlisle ordered in a soft but firm tone and watched his son hesitate for a moment before he eventually obeyed him.

As soon as the boy was seated next to his brother, Carlisle gave him a curt nod before looking at Emmett.

"What happened?"

"We left the house about one and a half hours ago to go on a hunt. We headed north for the lake to check for a herd of deer, when Jasper suddenly...," he trailed off and glanced at his brother, who sat there with his teeth clenched.

"When he suddenly what? Speak, Emmett."

Emmett sighed. "… when he suddenly changed direction and headed for the town. He didn't listen to a word we said, but Alice told me what would happen if we didn't restrain him. We somehow managed to catch him, then wrestled him to the ground and pinned his arms to his back until he was back to his senses. There was the faintest of human smells in the air, maybe a hiker... and Jasper had obviously been heading for where that person was. He told us that he was suddenly hit by the smell, it was so much stronger than it was supposed to be considering the distance. It caught him completely off guard."

Carlisle rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You didn't have any trouble with your bloodlust since we moved here, am I right, Jasper?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I saw him attacking the hiker and then he headed for the hospital," Alice piped up, and when her father's gaze fell on her she gulped. "... Sir."

"It's all right, Alice, you are free to speak. Tell me what you know, honey."

"That's it," she admitted embarrassedly and bit down on her bottom lip.

Carlisle frowned at that answer. "Did your sister compel Jasper to feed on humans?"

Alice's face scrunched up and she shrugged her shoulders apologetically. "I don't know, Daddy. I was focussing on Edward and where he was, I was trying to see how Bella was doing and... and..."

"Oh, baby," Esme cooed and immediately got up from the couch to take a seat on the armrest right next to her petite daughter. She hugged her with one arm and started to softly stroke her head. "it's all right. Nothing happened, everything's all right. You're under a lot of stress, honey, please don't feel responsible for this now."

"Ssh, Allie, it's not your fault," Jasper whispered calmingly and reached past his brother to place a hand on his wife's knee. "It's hers."

Emmett shook his head and squinted his eyes at him like he just couldn't believe what he had just said. "Would you stop saying that, bro? You have no idea if she has done something and what you are accusing her of doesn't even make sense!"

Carlisle raised a hand. "Calm down, Emmett. You, too, Jasper. I don't want to hear any arguing or see you attacking each other. This is quite the serious accusation, Jasper, and I would like to find out what happened without having you two making the situation worse. I know this move wasn't easy and I know that all of you are worried about your brother, but I expect you to conduct yourselves and don't take the stress as of late out on each other."

"This is not about Edward, Carlisle, it has nothing to do with him. This is about her putting our lives at risk by doing as she pleases and ignoring the rules that are set in place to protect her and us. She has just endangered our entire coven by manipulating me!" Then he sat a little straighter and cleared his throat as though preparing himself and the others for what he would say next. "I ask for permission to deal with her myself, Sir."

Emmett leaned back and practically gaped at him. "Are you for real?"

"Jasper-," Carlisle started to say, but he was interrupted.

"Do you just want to stand by and watch her disrespecting me all the time? Especially now that she has clearly gone to far, and risked our exposure?"

Rubbing his forehead as though trying to ease some of the tension that had developed since he had come downstairs, Carlisle replied, "We don't know the true facts of the matter yet."

"It's obvious that she wronged me and quite frankly, I've had enough. It was that close, Carlisle, just imagine I would have gone hunting without Alice and Emmett."

And instead of giving him an answer, Carlisle looked at him like he was contemplating something.

It might not look like a bonding story just yet, hahaha, it really doesn't, but we'll be getting there eventually. I cannot tell you how many chapters this story is going to have, but it won't be awfully many, I think. I have the first four finished and am working on the fifth chapter at the moment. Just decided to post this now, because otherwise I will probably never finish the story (I wrote the first three chapters in September... *whistles*). Yes, I tend to be lazy.

Sooo... guilty or not guilty, hm? ;)

Thanks for reading guys and let me know what you think!