Author's note: I've recently been reading FantasmaBella's wonderful story, Not a Democracy, and it inspired me to get some frustrations about Twilight out, namely that Edward needs to take Bella's view into account instead of dismissing it whenever they disagree. This is my story about what I would have liked to see happen starting the day after Edward disabled Bella's truck. There will be spankings and talk of spankings. If you don't like that, don't read, and don't flame.

The whole story will be in Carlisle's point of view.

Chapter 1 – Un-stacking the Deck

Edward's Italy incident wasn't the first time I've had to spank one of my children, and knowing them, it wouldn't be the last. It was, however, the harshest I'd ever been with any of them. There were so many bad decisions that preceded the actual suicide event that I didn't fully understand until Edward eventually explained it to me. The common theme that ran throughout his whole story was Edward's dismissal of Bella's wishes when he had deemed that he knew what was best for her.

It had been just over three weeks since I had to discipline Edward for his continual lack of respect for Bella as an equal. I thought that we had settled all this unpleasantness, but lately, he seemed to be struggling with the same thing again.

That being said, it was no surprise when I got home from work on a Wednesday evening to find Alice and Edward having a silent conversation right in front of Bella who was trying but failing to cover up the fact that she absolutely hated when they did this to her. Alice rolled her eyes at something, and Edward's face was unyielding. Whatever he had decided was set in stone as far as he was concerned.

For all the talk about how stubborn Bella could be, I was pretty sure that my young son had her beaten, hands down.

"Hardly." Edward rolled his eyes at me.

"Hardly what?" Bella asked, looking at Edward.

"Nothing, love." Edward kissed the top of her head.

Bella threw Edward a dirty look. He was being rather condescending in my opinion, and it looked like Bella agreed.

"I was thinking that Edward was more stubborn than you by far." I told her, not wanting to keep her in the dark the way Edward always seemed to do.

Bella fought a smile. She clearly thought that Edward was stubborn as well. I knew he was stubborn. I had to not so subtly remind him on many occasions over the years. I hoped that this wouldn't be one of those instances. He needed to relax where Bella was concerned.

"It's for her own protection, Carlisle." He told me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You need to stop treating her like she's five, Edward." I scolded him out loud so that Bella would know how I felt about the way he treated her sometimes. "Commenting on what I had thought without telling her what I had thought was not for her protection. It was just plain rude."

"Thank you." Bella smiled at me, relishing in the camaraderie that she usually didn't have regarding the way Edward regarded her maturity. She had probably told him something similar before I was in hearing range.

"You want me to give her a running commentary on everything you're thinking?" He asked rolling his eyes once again.

"Of course not, Edward." I sighed in slight exasperation. "But if you are going to respond out loud, you should extend the courtesy of an explanation to those who don't have your ability to know why you are responding."

"Fine." He said, clearly humoring me.

"And speaking of protecting Bella, are you protecting her by keeping her out of that silent conversation you're having with your sister?" I questioned skeptically, motioning between my two children.

"Thanks for that." He mumbled to me sarcastically, letting me know that he didn't appreciate the fact that I had just let her know they were keeping her out of the loop.

"She knew what we were doing, Edward." Alice informed him. He was evidently the only one who didn't know Bella could tell when they did that.

"Then why encourage your brother to engage in such a deceitful endeavor?" I raised an eyebrow at Alice.

"In this case, we really are trying to keep Bella safe." She told me, again ignoring the fact that Bella was in the room with them speaking about her in the third person.

"And this secret information you have will put her in jeopardy if she knows it?" I asked them skeptically. "Information is the bad guy here?"

Neither one of my children looked like they were going to volunteer information here. It was a little surprising that Bella thought that she was at fault.

"They're afraid I will consider mutiny if they told me how they were going to keep me safe." She looked a little nervous to tell me this.

"Explain." I demanded from my children, not liking where this was heading.

I eyed my children who seemed to be playing a mental Roshambo to see which one of them had the unpleasant task of telling me what was going on.

"I'm sorry, Carlisle." Bella surprised me by speaking up, but hanging her head in shame, looking positively frightened of me. She must have thought I would be upset with her for some reason. "I know that Edward thinks that Jacob is dangerous. I disagree because…"

"That is what your silent conversation was about, your asinine rivalry with Jacob Black?" I asked Edward incredulously, interrupting her. I wanted to make absolutely clear that she knew that she wasn't the one in trouble here. She was well aware that I sometimes had to physically discipline my children. Considering that, it now made sense that she was frightened that I was about to discipline her in the same manner. I continued my rant, letting Edward know that I was upset I was. "Not the fact that Victoria is headed this way, but because you are trying to keep Bella from seeing her best friend?"

"Victoria is headed this way?" Bella asked Edward angrily, breaking out of her fear to yell at Edward. "Is that why you… started that argument between Charlie and me? To get me out of the state because Alice saw Victoria?"

"To get you as far away from the danger as possible, love." Edward tried to placate her.

Obviously, she had a different opinion.

"Don't you think that you should have at least told me?" Bella was on the verge of tears, shaking with anger. "If you'd shared that information with me, I wouldn't have tried to sneak to the reservation, and you wouldn't have had to disable my truck!"

You did what? I asked him silently. He winced, catching the authoritative tenor of my thoughts.

"You knew I wanted to see him!" She breathed heavily, trying desperately to overcome her involuntary tears. "AND you know how stubborn I am. Don't you think you should have at least mentioned how dangerous it would have been to go to the reservation alone?"

During Bella's whole rant, Edward tried to silently communicate with her that he needed her to not make this worse than it already was. His face pleaded with her to please let it go, but she was far too angry with him to recognize his facial cues or care about them if she did.

"I'm not that stupid you know!" She began calming down a little. Her tirade was dying out. "I would have had enough sense to postpone my trip to the reservation if you'd have told me."

I looked over my children to see where to begin. I wasn't exactly sure what Alice's role was in this whole mess. I decided to start with her.

"And your part in this debacle?" I asked Alice.

"I called Edward and told him that Bella's future disappeared." Alice sighed heavily.

Bella's face lit up with realization. She finally understood that I wasn't upset with her. I was frustrated with my children.

"Even though I am very disappointed in you, Alice, I will excuse you with a very strong warning." I gave her a pointed look. "You will not engage in deceiving Bella or helping Edward detain her unnecessarily."

"Yes sir." She ran off quickly before I changed my mind.

"As for you, son…" I started to lecture Edward.

"She has no idea how dangerous werewolves can be, Carlisle." Edward talked above her once again.

"And Edward has no idea how much Jacob did for me when he was gone." Bella returned the favor and looked directly at me, completely ignoring the fact that Edward was sitting beside her. Tears still fell down her cheeks, but she had yet to let herself become emotional. "He seems to conveniently forget that Jacob protected me, and pretty much held me together when… when he… left me for my own good." Heavy sarcasm dripped throughout her last statement. She was obviously of the same opinion I was, that Edward should have consulted her before taking off.

"I didn't forget." He looked at her and tried to get her to look back at him. "I'm grateful…"

"And you shouldn't be expected to just drop your best friend because Edward doesn't like him." I added, sitting down next to her opposite Edward.

"It's not because I don't like him, Carlisle." Edward seethed. "It's because he's dangerous."

"And I disagree." Bella argued, still battling to remain stoic. "Jacob has never hurt me."

"But teenage werewolves are unstable, volatile, if he gets angry…" Edward countered.

"And vampires aren't?" She snapped at him. "I seem to remember you throwing me across the room because Jasper was out of control. You don't seem to have a problem when I hang out with Jasper, but because it's Jacob, you suddenly have a problem."

She's right, son. I thought to him.

"I have a problem with it because I can't be there to protect you." Edward explained very slowly causing Bella to think he was insulting her intelligence.

"I don't know how to fight this, Edward." She finally gave in to her tears and let them overtake her. "You're already so much stronger than I am, smarter, faster, and more beautiful. Don't you think the deck is stacked against me enough already? Do you really feel you need to resort to using Alice to get your way when we disagree? I c-can-can't do this anymore, Edward!"

Edward reached out to comfort her, but she jerked away from him. I hated seeing her like this. I quickly touched her shoulder to let her know that she could lean on me if she so desired. Faster than I had thought possible, she threw her arms around my neck and began sobbing. I pulled her into my lap and held her.

I had already thought of her as my daughter, but I knew that her relationship with her parents wasn't a traditional one. Her mother was her friend, and her father left her alone most of the time. I had often wondered how she saw me. Did she view me as a parental figure or more of a friend as she viewed her mother or a detached stranger as she could have possibly seen her father? It surprised me that she would allow me to care for her this way, considering her selfless personality. Wasn't she always caring for others?

Yes, she was. It should be no surprise to Edward that Bella couldn't just drop her friends because he didn't want her to see him. She and Jacob had grown very close during our time away. Whether Edward knew it or not, Bella loved Jacob, not to the extent that she loved him. Nonetheless, she still loved Jacob. This had to be ripping her apart. How long could she live with Edward's stubborn refusal to let her see Jacob? Apparently, she had reached her limit.

"Please, Bella!" Edward begged, clearly anguished over what Bella had just said and probably my thoughts. "I can't live without you!"

Bella, realizing how her outburst must have sounded to him tried to comfort him, "I d-d-didn't m-m-mean it l-l-l-like that…"

Let her calm down, son. I don't think she's going to leave you. I thought to him, not wanting a repeat of his despair when he sought to kill himself in Italy. And I allowed my thoughts to wander. I didn't mean that she was breaking up with you.

He nodded, shakily.

"Sh, Bella." I attempted to comfort her. "I've got you, sweetheart."

Bella is right, though. Because of the inequality in your physical aspects, you have a much greater advantage during a disagreement. I'm extremely disappointed that you pressed that advantage to force Bella to comply with your wishes. I gave him a preview of the lecture he could expect from me later.

"Hypocritical much?" He whispered to me, and I quirked an angry eyebrow at him. "Silent conversations while Bella is in the room."

"Would you prefer if I chastised you vocally?" I asked him loud enough that Bella could hear me. "I had been trying to allow you the benefit of privacy, but since you're determined to be difficult, I will reprimand you aloud."

Edward scowled at me, and Bella stopped crying to listen.

"May I say something first?" Bella asked me.

"Of course, Bella." I indulged her. This was, after all, about her.

"I didn't mean that I was leaving you, Edward." She told him. "I only meant to say that I couldn't fight about this anymore knowing that you were just going to rationalize forcibly keeping me from Jacob. I am going to see Jacob, Edward. Deal with it."

Edward opened his mouth to argue, but I interrupted.

"And… you are not to keep her from it." I ordered, leaving no room for misinterpretation. "This has to stop, Edward. You need to learn to flex, to allow Bella to live her life. You will not prevent Bella from seeing her best friend.

"Furthermore, if I understand it correctly, Charlie has directed Bella to spend time with Jacob, and you are actively preventing her from obeying him. Is that correct?" I arched an eyebrow in question to my son.

"He doesn't understand the danger. I can't explain it to him, Carlisle. I would rather Bella be grounded than… mishandled by Jacob." He defended his actions.

"And likewise, Jacob cannot explain to Charlie how dangerous you are. Can he?" I felt like I was pointing out the obvious, but whether or not Edward had thought of it, he wasn't volunteering that information.

"How would you feel if Jacob started taking drastic measures to ensure you couldn't see Bella?" I continued questioning an increasingly sullen teenage vampire.

"That brings me to the crux of the matter, Bella's truck." I looked pointedly at my son who continued to stare at his shoes in silence. "Explain, now."

"As you know," Edward finally spoke, "Alice called to tell me that Bella's future had disappeared. I ran back from a hunt and disconnected her battery so that she would be unable to see Jacob."

"You asked Alice to let you know if Bella's future disappeared?" I pressed, and he nodded. "And did you ask your sister to see if Bella would sneak off to see Jacob if you told her the truth about Victoria?"

"No." He muttered.

"And obviously, I only meant that you should have told Bella about Victoria if it was the truth. If you lie to her about Alice's visions to manipulate her, you will also be in serious trouble."

"Serious trouble?" Bella looked up at me. "It just slipped out, Carlisle. I didn't mean to… to… get him in trouble."

"You've done nothing wrong, Bella." I told her, hoping that Edward would back me up on this, but no, he clearly thought that this was between them, and I shouldn't have been brought in the loop.

"Regardless of how I found out, I'm glad that I have because Edward's behavior has been reprehensible." I looked at Edward and found him staring at the ground. "Besides, she readily confessed everything she perceived as her own transgressions, and you have done nothing but try to cover up what you know you did wrong."

"Please, Carlisle." She cried. "None of this would have happened if I hadn't tried to sneak off! I should have told him straight out where I was going!"

"Do you see what you're doing to her?" I asked Edward angrily. "She feels terrible because she went against you even though you had no right to order her to stay away from Jacob."

"This was between myself and Bella." He argued back at me. "She had no right to bring you into this."

"You mean the way you brought Alice into it?" Bella countered shyly, hiding her face in my shirt.

I honestly couldn't believe she had asked that, but it was true. Edward had no expectation that Bella should keep this between them if it was acceptable for him to employ his sister's talents to keep tabs on her.

"That's different, Bella." Edward snapped. "I was trying to pro…"

"I want to go home, da-Carlisle." Bella interrupted him, quite finished listening to his feeble explanations. She had begun crying again.

Edward stood and held out his hand to escort her home. Bella started to shake her head and decline, but I beat her to it.

"I don't think so, son." I told him. "You are to wait for me in your room. I will drive Bella home."