Spitefic: Mama Bear
Jan. 28th, 2011 12:48 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
gehayi.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
twispiteficTitle: Mama Bear
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gehayi
Fandom(s): Twilight (1st book)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,537
Warning: There's mention of a threatening situation that fairly screams "lack of consent." It doesn't involve sexual contact and is only mentioned in conversation, but it's unpleasant.
Summary: Esme Cullen learns about Alice's and Edward's scheme to force an injured Bella onto a date against her will, and finally acts like the parent she's supposed to be.
Inspiration: Twilight Outtake – Extended Prom Remix.
Author's Notes:The Prom Remix is not part of canon, but it bugged me for all that. I really wanted someone in canon to recognize how completely nasty Alice was being. Esme develops the spine here that she doesn't have in canon because she's just had enough.
The italicized bit at the beginning is a quote from the Remix and is by Meyer.
***
"Alice," Bella wailed. "I can't wear that!"
"Why?" she demanded in a hard voice.
"The top is completely see-through!"
"This goes underneath," Rosalie held up an ominous-looking, pale blue garment.
"What is that?" Bella asked fearfully.
"It's a corset, silly," Alice said, impatient. "Now are you going to put it on, or do I have to call Jasper and ask him to hold you down while I do it?" she threatened.
When Esme Cullen heard that, something snapped inside her. The nerve—the unmitigated gall--of Alice to threaten anyone like that! And in front of a young woman who'd been gang-raped--!
This was going to stop right now.
She stormed up to Rosalie and Emmett's bedroom. Being a vampire, that meant that she appeared almost the instant that Alice spoke.
"Mary Alice Brandon Cullen," Esme said in a dangerous voice, "what do you think you're doing?"
Alice blinked in confusion at the use of her full name. Bella simply looked bewildered that anyone would dare to reprove a vampire...even another vampire. And Rosalie gave Esme a look that was a cross between "I hate that bitch Alice" and "Yeah, like you're going to do anything."
The worst part was, Esme couldn't blame Rosalie for this reaction. It had been a long time since she'd scolded any of her "children." It was more comfortable to forget that she was physically twenty-six while her "sons and daughters" ranged from seventeen to twenty...and that the boy who looked the youngest had been a vampire longer than she had.
"Well?" she demanded, glaring at Alice. "I'm waiting to hear your explanation."
"I...I don't know what you mean," Alice said in a twee voice. Esme was certain that if Alice could have arranged for her voice to drip chocolate icing at this moment, she could not have sounded sweeter—or more artificial.
"Did I or did I not just hear you threaten to have Jasper—the one of us who has the least control when it comes to human blood and, I might add, a young man---pin a half-naked Bella Swan onto the floor and hold her there while you forced her into a corset? And before you deny it, please remember that my hearing is every bit as good as yours."
"Yes," said Alice, sounding as if she thought this to be perfectly reasonable.. "She doesn't like the dress. I told her she was supposed to wear a corset underneath. I don't know why she wouldn't listen. I was only trying to help because she's my friend."
"I see," said Esme grimly. "You normally ask your husband to pin half-naked female friends of yours down while you dress them against their will. What charming behavior."
"Bella doesn't mind." Alice gave Bella a glance that said she'd better not mind. "Do you, Bella?"
Bella's face twisted with indecision. She plainly did care, but she was still young enough to care about not tattling to parents.
"It's irrelevant if Bella minds," Esme snapped. "The point is that I mind. We have certain rules in this house. One of them is that we do not hurt people. Bella has already been physically injured by our kind. How did you imagine that harassment, humiliation and a situation that reeks of dubious consent could be anything but emotionally damaging? And what about your sister? Didn't it occur to you that telling Bella that you'd have a man pin her down against her will might be triggering for Rosalie?"
Alice flinched, then gazed up at Esme with huge dark eyes that were probably intended, Esme thought, to melt her will. "I'm sorry." And her voice was even more sugary than the last time.
"No," Esme said, after studying her for a few minutes, "you're not. But you will be." So saying, she picked up the dress (clingy and see-through? Did Alice imagine that Bella longed for a new career as a streetwalker?) and ripped it in half. Bella, she noticed, looked more than a little relieved.
Alice shrieked. "No! No! I got her that dress for Edward!"
"Why did he want me in that dress?" Bella demanded.
Esme sighed. Sadly, Bella wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. "For the junior prom," she replied. "Which I imagine everyone's been talking about for the past month."
Bella was looking confused again. "But Edward never invited me."
"Oh?" Esme glanced at Alice. "So your report that Edward had indeed asked her to the prom was a lie."
"It wasn't a lie!" Alice shouted. "I did see him taking her to the prom! I did!"
"We aren't talking about your visions, Alice. We're talking about facts. Not possibilities or probabilities. And the fact is, Edward never bothered to ask Bella out. You and he simply treated her acquiescence in everything as a given. As if she were a thing that existed solely for your entertainment." She turned to Bella and tried to speak gently. "Bella, if Alice had not pulled this...stunt...would you be going to the prom?"
Bella shook her head. "No. I'm not much for dances, really, even when I don't have a cast on my leg. I trip over things. Once I tripped over a table leg and fell across half the table. My face landed in the punch bowl. And I'm afraid of these heels." She sat down on the bed and then liftedup her good leg, complete with hyacinth blue spike heel, for Esme's inspection. "I think you could kill a man with that shoe. And if I try to walk in it, the shoe will try to kill me."
"Vogue and Cosmo said they were the style," Alice said, sniffling--which is a silly sound from a vampire, Esme thought. We don't get stuffed-up noses from crying, because we don't cry. "Anyway, I don't remember being human--"
Possibly because you never were, Rosalie mouthed at her. Esme decided that talking to her later would be wise.
"—so I was just trying to have some vicarious fun with Bella. Enjoying the prom through her, in a way. I don't know why you're so angry, Esme."
"Enjoying the prom through her," Esme repeated. "I suppose we're just forgetting about the eighty or so proms that you've attended since the 1950s? Junior and senior? And the fact that you were supposed to attend tonight yourself?"
Alice stared at Esme, looking like a heroine in a slasher film who has just learned that the mad killer is her long-lost twin. "Supposed to go? But I am going!"
"No, you're not," Esme said quietly.
"I am! I am! I AM!"
"I don't see why we should reward bad behavior," Esme continued in a winter-calm voice.. "And this—using people for your own satisfaction, despite their wishes to the contrary—is vile. Humans are not toys, Alice. They are people, just like vampires."
"Well, not just like," Alice said. "We're better."
Esme shook her head and uttered the greatest heresy she'd ever spoken. "No. We're not better."
It was obvious, after all. Humans were the ones who fought for the rights of others, invented new devices, created art and told stories. Vampires simply lived in the world that humans crafted. Even vampires who tried to create works of art, like Edward, could manage no more than bland mediocrity. Esme suspected the lack of genius among vampires could be traced to soullessness She also suspected that most vampires knew or sensed this, and that, rather than cope with their own inferiority, they had decided that they were a superior species, not a parasitic one.
She had never before realized, however, that at least one of her children believed, not that the Cullens were trying to be better, but that vampires themselves were better. Or that a human could believe the same thing. For while Rosalie didn't look surprised by the concept—most likely having heard this from Emmett, who thought that most things humans came up with were, in his words, "pretty damned cool"--Alice was gaping at her as if Esme had just sprouted three heads. And Bella looked so stunned that Esme could almost believe that gravity had ceased working.
"We're not better," she repeated. "They may be mayflies—but Galapagos tortoises are not better than mayflies, Alice! You don't get to hurt or terrorize or intimidate or bully someone because you think that you're better! And since you don't seem to understand that both your actions and your attitude are unacceptable, I'm afraid I've no choice but to punish you."
"You have no right," Alice sneered. "We pretend that you're our mother, fine, but you're not and you know it. You're just some random bitch who can't get past the death of her child, so why don't you--"
Goaded beyond endurance, Esme slapped Alice across the face. The force of the blow knocked Alice to the floor, where she lay in a crumpled heap.
"Oh, my," Esme murmured. "I guess you didn't foresee that. But never mind. I'll tell you what's going to happen. First, no prom. Second—" She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number that she knew by heart.
"Yes, hello," she said to the human who answered the phone. "I've just learned that my teenaged daughter's wallet was stolen a few days ago, along with all her credit cards; she didn't want to tell me. Could you please cancel her Visa?"
It took some time, and was anything but easy—Alice kept screaming, leaping at Esme and trying to grab the phone--but after an hour or so, all of Alice's credit cards were canceled, and anyone claiming to be Alice or resembling Alice was blocked from getting new cards or from using her parents' or siblings' plastic. Protection against identity theft, after all.
In the process, Esme learned that Edward had spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on a car for one date. A racing car that could reach 200 miles per hour. Esme closed her eyes, thought a "What in the world were you THINKING?!" at Edward (just in case he was listening), and proceeded to cancel his credit cards and block his access as well.
"I hate you," Alice snarled. "I wish you were dead."
"I am. We both are," Esme said evenly, "and don't change the subject. Now. It seems that you have entirely too much time on your hands--and no appreciation for money. So you're going to get a job, Alice. You're going to work this summer. Forty hours a week, at least. What you earn will go toward your credit card debt...which, let me tell you, is considerable. Some countries have national debts that aren't that big. And you're also going to spend some time giving back to the world by helping others. The Literacy Foundation, perhaps. You can spend some time teaching poor children to read."
Poor children—who wouldn't put up with Alice's superior attitude for two seconds. And the tutoring sessions were supervised, so if Alice decided to skip out on her responsibilities, others would notice.
"Why don't you punish Rosalie?" Alice whined. "Rosalie helped too!"
Rosalie tended to be very vocal when she supported something—or someone. Her silence throughout this debacle told Esme that she wasn't on Alice's side.
"Let me guess," she said, pressing two fingers to her right temple. "You told Rosalie that you foresaw something horrible involving her or Emmett, but that you couldn't be sure what it was. However, maybe if she helped you with this project, that would affect other decisions of hers...which just might avert that horrible future. How am I doing?"
Alice squirmed. "It was just...I needed some help, that's all. I didn't do anything bad."
"Using your power as a weapon and then lying about it isn't bad?"
"Anyway," Alice continued, "you can't punish me. You're just Carlisle's wife. Wait till he hears about this! He'll be furious!"
"Why wait?" And Esme punched a number on speed-dial.
Carlisle, as predicted, was less than overjoyed. What appeared to shock Alice was that he was less than overjoyed with her.
"I might not have punished you quite so severely," he said in a deeply disappointed tone, "but I support Esme's decision completely." And he hung up.
"Now," Esme demanded, "where's Edward?"
"A-at Bella's house," Alice stammered. "He's making her a gourmet meal for the prom ."
"The prom that he didn't bother to invite her to."
Alice squirmed. "Yes..."
"And why is he making her a gourmet meal?"
"Well...Bella doesn't like going to restaurants because Edward can't get her to eat and then he has to order her to--"
Has to ORDER her to?
"—so he thought that this would be more comfortable for her. He was just trying to be nice."
Esme looked at Bella. The girl didn't look as if she and rich food were all that well acquainted. Not anorexic, but still thin enough that Esme suspected food would not be Bella's present of choice.
She also looked tired. Not too surprising; she'd been running around for hours and her bad leg was probably aching. Esme couldn't imagine how bad it would be by nightfall.
Or, for that matter, why Edward, who allegedly loved Bella, couldn't see that making what he believed to be perfect food and getting Alice to buy her Alice's idea of a perfect prom outfit didn't make for a perfect date.
Or a perfect relationship.
Or, in fact, a relationship at all. Doing all the things that books and movies said were romantic didn't make a person love you.
Esme wondered if either of them had figured that out yet. Somehow, she doubted it. Bella seemed overwhelmed by the Cullens, and Edward...well, he was stuck at seventeen, and teenaged boys tended not to analyze their emotions or actions.
She glanced at Rosalie. "Rose, would you please drive Bella home in her truck? And then tell Edward that I want him to come home...now."
It wouldn't be easy to keep anything from Edward. She and Carlisle had spoiled the boy to the point where he felt entitled to read the minds of others. But...she would find a way. Perhaps she could persuade Carlisle to send Edward to Rio. He wouldn't like it—especially not without his thousands of credit cards—but once he stopped pitying himself and feeling hard-done-by, he might even find a purpose in life...one that didn't involve being a junior and senior in high school, forever and ever, amen.
He might even use that medical degree of his. Plenty of people had illnesses—even serious ones--that didn't require major surgery.
Bella wouldn't enjoy the separation; Esme had already noticed that she tended to panic when parted from Edward for only a few hours. But it needed to be done. Edward and Alice were running roughshod over the girl, and she was so stunned by the presence of vampires in her life and was so convinced of personal and species-wide inferiority that she was allowing this.
As Esme punched the number of the Swan residence into her phone so that she could bring Chief Swan up to speed regarding Edward's and Alice's little scheme, she reflected that vampirism was just one more cruel present that Bella didn't need.
Author:
gehayiFandom(s): Twilight (1st book)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,537
Warning: There's mention of a threatening situation that fairly screams "lack of consent." It doesn't involve sexual contact and is only mentioned in conversation, but it's unpleasant.
Summary: Esme Cullen learns about Alice's and Edward's scheme to force an injured Bella onto a date against her will, and finally acts like the parent she's supposed to be.
Inspiration: Twilight Outtake – Extended Prom Remix.
Author's Notes:The Prom Remix is not part of canon, but it bugged me for all that. I really wanted someone in canon to recognize how completely nasty Alice was being. Esme develops the spine here that she doesn't have in canon because she's just had enough.
The italicized bit at the beginning is a quote from the Remix and is by Meyer.
***
"Alice," Bella wailed. "I can't wear that!"
"Why?" she demanded in a hard voice.
"The top is completely see-through!"
"This goes underneath," Rosalie held up an ominous-looking, pale blue garment.
"What is that?" Bella asked fearfully.
"It's a corset, silly," Alice said, impatient. "Now are you going to put it on, or do I have to call Jasper and ask him to hold you down while I do it?" she threatened.
When Esme Cullen heard that, something snapped inside her. The nerve—the unmitigated gall--of Alice to threaten anyone like that! And in front of a young woman who'd been gang-raped--!
This was going to stop right now.
She stormed up to Rosalie and Emmett's bedroom. Being a vampire, that meant that she appeared almost the instant that Alice spoke.
"Mary Alice Brandon Cullen," Esme said in a dangerous voice, "what do you think you're doing?"
Alice blinked in confusion at the use of her full name. Bella simply looked bewildered that anyone would dare to reprove a vampire...even another vampire. And Rosalie gave Esme a look that was a cross between "I hate that bitch Alice" and "Yeah, like you're going to do anything."
The worst part was, Esme couldn't blame Rosalie for this reaction. It had been a long time since she'd scolded any of her "children." It was more comfortable to forget that she was physically twenty-six while her "sons and daughters" ranged from seventeen to twenty...and that the boy who looked the youngest had been a vampire longer than she had.
"Well?" she demanded, glaring at Alice. "I'm waiting to hear your explanation."
"I...I don't know what you mean," Alice said in a twee voice. Esme was certain that if Alice could have arranged for her voice to drip chocolate icing at this moment, she could not have sounded sweeter—or more artificial.
"Did I or did I not just hear you threaten to have Jasper—the one of us who has the least control when it comes to human blood and, I might add, a young man---pin a half-naked Bella Swan onto the floor and hold her there while you forced her into a corset? And before you deny it, please remember that my hearing is every bit as good as yours."
"Yes," said Alice, sounding as if she thought this to be perfectly reasonable.. "She doesn't like the dress. I told her she was supposed to wear a corset underneath. I don't know why she wouldn't listen. I was only trying to help because she's my friend."
"I see," said Esme grimly. "You normally ask your husband to pin half-naked female friends of yours down while you dress them against their will. What charming behavior."
"Bella doesn't mind." Alice gave Bella a glance that said she'd better not mind. "Do you, Bella?"
Bella's face twisted with indecision. She plainly did care, but she was still young enough to care about not tattling to parents.
"It's irrelevant if Bella minds," Esme snapped. "The point is that I mind. We have certain rules in this house. One of them is that we do not hurt people. Bella has already been physically injured by our kind. How did you imagine that harassment, humiliation and a situation that reeks of dubious consent could be anything but emotionally damaging? And what about your sister? Didn't it occur to you that telling Bella that you'd have a man pin her down against her will might be triggering for Rosalie?"
Alice flinched, then gazed up at Esme with huge dark eyes that were probably intended, Esme thought, to melt her will. "I'm sorry." And her voice was even more sugary than the last time.
"No," Esme said, after studying her for a few minutes, "you're not. But you will be." So saying, she picked up the dress (clingy and see-through? Did Alice imagine that Bella longed for a new career as a streetwalker?) and ripped it in half. Bella, she noticed, looked more than a little relieved.
Alice shrieked. "No! No! I got her that dress for Edward!"
"Why did he want me in that dress?" Bella demanded.
Esme sighed. Sadly, Bella wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. "For the junior prom," she replied. "Which I imagine everyone's been talking about for the past month."
Bella was looking confused again. "But Edward never invited me."
"Oh?" Esme glanced at Alice. "So your report that Edward had indeed asked her to the prom was a lie."
"It wasn't a lie!" Alice shouted. "I did see him taking her to the prom! I did!"
"We aren't talking about your visions, Alice. We're talking about facts. Not possibilities or probabilities. And the fact is, Edward never bothered to ask Bella out. You and he simply treated her acquiescence in everything as a given. As if she were a thing that existed solely for your entertainment." She turned to Bella and tried to speak gently. "Bella, if Alice had not pulled this...stunt...would you be going to the prom?"
Bella shook her head. "No. I'm not much for dances, really, even when I don't have a cast on my leg. I trip over things. Once I tripped over a table leg and fell across half the table. My face landed in the punch bowl. And I'm afraid of these heels." She sat down on the bed and then liftedup her good leg, complete with hyacinth blue spike heel, for Esme's inspection. "I think you could kill a man with that shoe. And if I try to walk in it, the shoe will try to kill me."
"Vogue and Cosmo said they were the style," Alice said, sniffling--which is a silly sound from a vampire, Esme thought. We don't get stuffed-up noses from crying, because we don't cry. "Anyway, I don't remember being human--"
Possibly because you never were, Rosalie mouthed at her. Esme decided that talking to her later would be wise.
"—so I was just trying to have some vicarious fun with Bella. Enjoying the prom through her, in a way. I don't know why you're so angry, Esme."
"Enjoying the prom through her," Esme repeated. "I suppose we're just forgetting about the eighty or so proms that you've attended since the 1950s? Junior and senior? And the fact that you were supposed to attend tonight yourself?"
Alice stared at Esme, looking like a heroine in a slasher film who has just learned that the mad killer is her long-lost twin. "Supposed to go? But I am going!"
"No, you're not," Esme said quietly.
"I am! I am! I AM!"
"I don't see why we should reward bad behavior," Esme continued in a winter-calm voice.. "And this—using people for your own satisfaction, despite their wishes to the contrary—is vile. Humans are not toys, Alice. They are people, just like vampires."
"Well, not just like," Alice said. "We're better."
Esme shook her head and uttered the greatest heresy she'd ever spoken. "No. We're not better."
It was obvious, after all. Humans were the ones who fought for the rights of others, invented new devices, created art and told stories. Vampires simply lived in the world that humans crafted. Even vampires who tried to create works of art, like Edward, could manage no more than bland mediocrity. Esme suspected the lack of genius among vampires could be traced to soullessness She also suspected that most vampires knew or sensed this, and that, rather than cope with their own inferiority, they had decided that they were a superior species, not a parasitic one.
She had never before realized, however, that at least one of her children believed, not that the Cullens were trying to be better, but that vampires themselves were better. Or that a human could believe the same thing. For while Rosalie didn't look surprised by the concept—most likely having heard this from Emmett, who thought that most things humans came up with were, in his words, "pretty damned cool"--Alice was gaping at her as if Esme had just sprouted three heads. And Bella looked so stunned that Esme could almost believe that gravity had ceased working.
"We're not better," she repeated. "They may be mayflies—but Galapagos tortoises are not better than mayflies, Alice! You don't get to hurt or terrorize or intimidate or bully someone because you think that you're better! And since you don't seem to understand that both your actions and your attitude are unacceptable, I'm afraid I've no choice but to punish you."
"You have no right," Alice sneered. "We pretend that you're our mother, fine, but you're not and you know it. You're just some random bitch who can't get past the death of her child, so why don't you--"
Goaded beyond endurance, Esme slapped Alice across the face. The force of the blow knocked Alice to the floor, where she lay in a crumpled heap.
"Oh, my," Esme murmured. "I guess you didn't foresee that. But never mind. I'll tell you what's going to happen. First, no prom. Second—" She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number that she knew by heart.
"Yes, hello," she said to the human who answered the phone. "I've just learned that my teenaged daughter's wallet was stolen a few days ago, along with all her credit cards; she didn't want to tell me. Could you please cancel her Visa?"
It took some time, and was anything but easy—Alice kept screaming, leaping at Esme and trying to grab the phone--but after an hour or so, all of Alice's credit cards were canceled, and anyone claiming to be Alice or resembling Alice was blocked from getting new cards or from using her parents' or siblings' plastic. Protection against identity theft, after all.
In the process, Esme learned that Edward had spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on a car for one date. A racing car that could reach 200 miles per hour. Esme closed her eyes, thought a "What in the world were you THINKING?!" at Edward (just in case he was listening), and proceeded to cancel his credit cards and block his access as well.
"I hate you," Alice snarled. "I wish you were dead."
"I am. We both are," Esme said evenly, "and don't change the subject. Now. It seems that you have entirely too much time on your hands--and no appreciation for money. So you're going to get a job, Alice. You're going to work this summer. Forty hours a week, at least. What you earn will go toward your credit card debt...which, let me tell you, is considerable. Some countries have national debts that aren't that big. And you're also going to spend some time giving back to the world by helping others. The Literacy Foundation, perhaps. You can spend some time teaching poor children to read."
Poor children—who wouldn't put up with Alice's superior attitude for two seconds. And the tutoring sessions were supervised, so if Alice decided to skip out on her responsibilities, others would notice.
"Why don't you punish Rosalie?" Alice whined. "Rosalie helped too!"
Rosalie tended to be very vocal when she supported something—or someone. Her silence throughout this debacle told Esme that she wasn't on Alice's side.
"Let me guess," she said, pressing two fingers to her right temple. "You told Rosalie that you foresaw something horrible involving her or Emmett, but that you couldn't be sure what it was. However, maybe if she helped you with this project, that would affect other decisions of hers...which just might avert that horrible future. How am I doing?"
Alice squirmed. "It was just...I needed some help, that's all. I didn't do anything bad."
"Using your power as a weapon and then lying about it isn't bad?"
"Anyway," Alice continued, "you can't punish me. You're just Carlisle's wife. Wait till he hears about this! He'll be furious!"
"Why wait?" And Esme punched a number on speed-dial.
Carlisle, as predicted, was less than overjoyed. What appeared to shock Alice was that he was less than overjoyed with her.
"I might not have punished you quite so severely," he said in a deeply disappointed tone, "but I support Esme's decision completely." And he hung up.
"Now," Esme demanded, "where's Edward?"
"A-at Bella's house," Alice stammered. "He's making her a gourmet meal for the prom ."
"The prom that he didn't bother to invite her to."
Alice squirmed. "Yes..."
"And why is he making her a gourmet meal?"
"Well...Bella doesn't like going to restaurants because Edward can't get her to eat and then he has to order her to--"
Has to ORDER her to?
"—so he thought that this would be more comfortable for her. He was just trying to be nice."
Esme looked at Bella. The girl didn't look as if she and rich food were all that well acquainted. Not anorexic, but still thin enough that Esme suspected food would not be Bella's present of choice.
She also looked tired. Not too surprising; she'd been running around for hours and her bad leg was probably aching. Esme couldn't imagine how bad it would be by nightfall.
Or, for that matter, why Edward, who allegedly loved Bella, couldn't see that making what he believed to be perfect food and getting Alice to buy her Alice's idea of a perfect prom outfit didn't make for a perfect date.
Or a perfect relationship.
Or, in fact, a relationship at all. Doing all the things that books and movies said were romantic didn't make a person love you.
Esme wondered if either of them had figured that out yet. Somehow, she doubted it. Bella seemed overwhelmed by the Cullens, and Edward...well, he was stuck at seventeen, and teenaged boys tended not to analyze their emotions or actions.
She glanced at Rosalie. "Rose, would you please drive Bella home in her truck? And then tell Edward that I want him to come home...now."
It wouldn't be easy to keep anything from Edward. She and Carlisle had spoiled the boy to the point where he felt entitled to read the minds of others. But...she would find a way. Perhaps she could persuade Carlisle to send Edward to Rio. He wouldn't like it—especially not without his thousands of credit cards—but once he stopped pitying himself and feeling hard-done-by, he might even find a purpose in life...one that didn't involve being a junior and senior in high school, forever and ever, amen.
He might even use that medical degree of his. Plenty of people had illnesses—even serious ones--that didn't require major surgery.
Bella wouldn't enjoy the separation; Esme had already noticed that she tended to panic when parted from Edward for only a few hours. But it needed to be done. Edward and Alice were running roughshod over the girl, and she was so stunned by the presence of vampires in her life and was so convinced of personal and species-wide inferiority that she was allowing this.
As Esme punched the number of the Swan residence into her phone so that she could bring Chief Swan up to speed regarding Edward's and Alice's little scheme, she reflected that vampirism was just one more cruel present that Bella didn't need.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-28 05:59 pm (UTC)And hooray for Esme for slapping Alice! Lord knows she needed it.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-28 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-28 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-28 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 10:10 pm (UTC)Your welcome, btw.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 01:44 pm (UTC)This icon is for Alice.
Date: 2011-01-29 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 04:54 pm (UTC)Coincidence: Twilight's on a local cable channel right now, and the scene is where Bella dreams up Wardo's real identity. My God, it's horribly cheesy. Say It!! Out Loud!! Lol/barf.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-29 07:49 pm (UTC)Thank you! Once I got started, I couldn't stop. There's just so much wrong.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-03 06:49 am (UTC)And thank you. You're so right--Alice desperately needs to be slapped. She's like Wardo, only tinier and more twee.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:02 pm (UTC)And all that business of having Jasper to hold her down!? o.O
Well, I suppose Meyer intended that as sexual innuendo, a little wink and a nudge. But seriously, in this context and with those characters it's just nasty. As always, Meyer completely fails to understand the psychology of her characters. She just goes for whatever scenario she thinks is funny or sexy. "Half-naked, struggling Bella, hungry Jasper and a corset... hawt!"
Oh, and I loved your Esme's analysis of Bella's situation. Oh, sure, she'll pine and mope for a bit, but then she'll remember that she used to have a life... sort of... before she met the vamps. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 06:30 pm (UTC)http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/twi_outtakes_promremix.pdf
I mean, is that really Meyer's idea of friendship and good times? Forcing someone to do something they don't want to do, while wearing a dress they don't want to wear?
It seems to be. Meyer just loves having Bella forced to do things, because if Bella is forced to accept rich presents (instead of coveting them) or is forced into a kiss (instead of kissing someone because she wants to, which Meyer would probably regard as hopelessly aggressive and not at all appropriate) or is forced into marriage and pregnancy even though she's scared of both (instead of making her own decision and possibly turning away from the white and delightsome Cullen "angels" and her "destiny"), then:
1) she gets everything that she could possibly desire and
2) she has not been selfish, greedy or ambitious--i.e., sinful--in in order to get these things.
(You and I know that Bella is a shallow, selfish, insensitive, co-dependent twit, but Meyer doesn't realize that.)
Oh, and I loved your Esme's analysis of Bella's situation. Oh, sure, she'll pine and mope for a bit, but then she'll remember that she used to have a life... sort of... before she met the vamps. :)
Thank you!
Canonically, Esme's human husband, Royce, was abusive. His abuse and the death of her newborn child are what drove her to suicide. So I think she'd be very upset at seeing the same pattern repeating in Bella's relationships with Alice and Edward. She'd want to be sure that Bella wasn't forced into anything.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 10:43 pm (UTC)2) she has not been selfish, greedy or ambitious--i.e., sinful--in in order to get these things.
Yeah, that's what annoys me the most. Like it's such a bad thing to want to go to a prom wearing a fabulous dress! Even though the one Meyer described sounded tacky rather than fab, but I assume it was meant to be an awesome, sexy dress. But nooo... Bella is modest, she wouldn't dream of wearing anything glamourous! *facedesk* *facedesk* *facedesk*
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 12:34 am (UTC)They carry her around, help her with her personal hygiene and clothing, and and... I think it nailed it for me when Edward was "too impatient" to let Bella eat on her own, and started feeding her. Just as if she was a baby that hadn't quite mastered the skill yet.
Yes, it's nice to be pampered. I'm the first to admit that I like being taken care of... but enough is enough! When I eat, I'm the one holding the fork, and no mistake! Sheesh.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 05:16 am (UTC){Just as if she was a baby that hadn't quite mastered the skill yet.}
In that same Outtake, in earlier paragraghs at the Cullen house, Tyler rings and Wardo keeps the phone out of Bella's reach, like an adut holding a toy away from a child while she trys to grab it. I think Meyer was doing her version of being "funny". All it is is incredibly disturbing and coupled with the feeding her thing, it makes it even worse.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:32 pm (UTC)Badass!Esme AND parents acting like parents? This spitefic is made of so much win! ^_^
no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-02 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-08 10:34 pm (UTC)And an honourable mention to Carlisle for seeing this situation as it is, and agreeing along with Esme's decision. Good there, too! Good for Bella in also clearing things up and being honest.
Wonderful stuff! :)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-19 11:03 pm (UTC)But I have to say... I think MistyHaze420 has read your work. She wrote quite a similar Esme - I even believe the nickname "Mama Bear" came up on occasion.