Author Note: So this is a one shot I had written a few years ago. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to post it or not but I finally decided to do so. This is an out take from Single Mommies. This can be read as a stand alone or a companion piece. It was just something I wrote for fun. I used to love the Anderson Cooper show and was sad when it was taken off TV.
~~~~~~~~Single Mommies~~~~~~~~~
The girls and I love to watch the Anderson Cooper show. It's one of our favorite talk shows now. Especially since Maury is nothing but paternity testing and Springer is nothing but trans-sexual cheaters. We like the different story lines that he does and the different celebrity guests that he invites. Betty White has been our favorite thus far. He has quite literally brought back the classic 90's talk show like the old Sally Jesse Rafael or Jenny Jones. We really miss those shows.
We were actually watching his show one day when Alice's cell phone rang. What would you know? It was a producer from his show. Talk about freaking awesome. Alice emailed his show with the details of our little story. It sparked interest in Anderson himself.
"Hello," she said slowly since she didn't like to answer phone calls with numbers she didn't recognize. Since it was a New York number, she answered it anyways unbeknownst to us that she actually did email the show.
Alice covered the phone and whispered, "OMG, it's a producer named Sally from Anderson's show."
"Yes this is she," Alice said as she began to bounce in place in between Rose and I. The couch was beginning to shake from her bouncing. She placed the call on speaker so we could hear too.
"Well Miss Brandon, I have some wonderful news. I'm calling on behalf of Anderson himself. He is very intrigued by you and your friend's stories." Sally said excitedly. From the sound of her voice, you could tell that she enjoyed her job.
"Really, I can't believe this," Alice said while she was gyrating in place.
"Really, Really," Sally said with joy imitating Shrek. "He would like to invite your friends along with their other halves and babies to appear on his show. How does that sound?"
"How does that sound?" Alice answered incredulously. "That would be amazing. We love Anderson Cooper."
"Well then, we will make your flight and hotel arrangements. All you have to take care of is making sure everyone can get time off work." Sally said with finality.
"That won't be a problem," Alice said excitedly. "I always wanted to go to New York."
"Well good," she said as she started giving us all the details.
Here we are on our way to New York. They set us up with coach tickets. However, with our boyfriends being the spoiled brats that they are, they upgraded our tickets to first class seats. But to their defense, they are all huge and would be more comfortable with more leg room and wider seat.
Charliegh fussed the whole time we were in the air. EC and Charlie slept the whole way. I'm ashamed to say that the thought of baby Benagryl crossed my mind. But I didn't succumb to the idea.
"Hey E, you gonna become a member of the mile high club?" Emmett actually asked Edward. They were sitting a crossed the aisle from us. Both Rose and I wanted the window seats, so that left both of them on the aisle. They were able to chit chat quite easily. I leaned a crossed Edward who was cuddling EC to his chest, "Really Em, what are you? Fourteen." The dull thud of Rose's hand to the back of his head was satisfaction enough for me.
"Awe, Rosie, What was that for?" He actually was dumb enough to ask. She smacked him again. It was quite comical to say the least. I was surprised EC didn't wake up with the slight shaking from Edward's quiet laughing.
"That second one was for being stupid. The first one was being a perv." She scolded the big lug.
"We are flying from Seattle to New York. We have lots of time for me to talk you into it." He said with a smirk and the eyebrow swag thing he does. Then we heard another thwack followed by, "don't get your hopes up slugger."
"Damn woman, your going to give me brain damage before our kid turns one." Em bellowed out which in turn caused us all to laugh. I'm just glad that Esme wasn't on this flight with us. Her and Carlisle are flying out on a later flight due to him needing to work. They wanted to include the doctor that impregnated the three of us especially after finding out that he was the babies' granddaddy.
After landing and finding our luggage, we found the limo driver holding a sign for the Cullen family. It was simpler for us to just have them use Cullen instead of all of our individual names. We were indeed all going to be a Cullen someday anyway so why not?
The show didn't spare any expense with the hotel. We were staying at a hotel near the studio. However, instead of getting us three different rooms, they got a suite with three bedrooms and a living room along with a kitchen. It was amazing. They said normally they didn't go to so much expense but Anderson was so excited about our story.
After we got settled in, we decided to walk to a diner to eat dinner. We didn't want anything fancy that night. We settled on a diner similar to the one that Seinfeld frequented on his show. The guys all wanted their greasy burgers while Alice and Rose ate salads.
Esme and Carlisle didn't arrive till the next morning. They went directly to the studio from the airport. Once at the studio, they did our make up and truly made us feel like celebrities. Anderson's studio is awesome. We finally got to meet Anderson a couple of minutes before the show began taping. We stayed in the green room watching it on the monitor as the show began. He wanted to keep us for last since our story was so amazing to him.
"Anderson here and on today's show we have some truly amazing stories of faith and love to share with you. First Sherry's son was killed by a drunk driver. Let's hear her story now. Hi, Sherry tell the audience why you are here today."
"My son was only sixteen when he was hit by a drunk driver. He was walking home from football practice. He was in a coma for three days when the doctors deemed he wouldn't wake up. I made the decision to take him off of life support. I couldn't bare to watch him suffer anymore." The woman said while wiping her now falling tears. "He was such a beautiful boy and he was stolen from me."
"I'm so sorry Sherry. You mentioned before the show that your family actually criticized you." Anderson said while handing her a box of Kleenex.
"Oh yes, they said it wasn't my place to make such a huge decision. But I knew his time was up, I couldn't let him suffer. The only thing that was keeping him alive was the machines. That is no life. This way he is in heaven where his father went when he was nine years old."
"Can I ask what happened to his father?"
"He was a fireman who was a first responder to the North tower." She said as she was wiping more tears. I couldn't imagine the horrible terrors and traumas this woman has gone through. First she raised her son alone after her husband died on 9-11 then her son dies by a drunk driver. All of us girls were silently crying as our men tried to comfort us. We looked to each other not wanting to know of the terror of losing any of our men in a fire. I could totally sympathize with her. I freak out every time I see a red sedan drive down my street thinking it could be my Edward.
"I'm so sorry Sherry. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center really hurt America. What makes this story truly remarkable?"
"I met a man at church. Actually, I was new to this particular parish. My old congregation was giving me dirty looks every week. They made my life even more miserable than it was. I decided to find a new church." She said with a tight smile.
"Why were they giving you dirty looks?"
"Because they said I played God with my own son. They couldn't comprehend how I could end my son's life." She said with the traditional New York accent.
"Okay, so you met a man. Tell me why this is so spectacular." He asked with a small smile.
"Because after I dated him a few weeks; I finally got to meet his children. He has a boy and a girl. His boy is about my son's age. One day we were at the swimming pool and I noticed his scar on his torso. He had a rare disease that made his kidneys fail. He was on dialysis for a while. Then he told me that he had a transplant." She said with a thoughtful smile.
"I think I can see where this is going," Anderson said with a smirk.
"I asked him when, he said the exact date that my son's organs were harvested. See I decided to turn the negative into a positive and allow my son's legacy to live on."
"He got your son's kidney didn't he?" Anderson asked her. You could hear a collective breath from all of us girls.
"Yes, he did. It was as if my son came back home to me." She said with a beaming smile.
"Come on out Marcus, Alec and Jane."
"So Marcus how did it feel to hear that your son got your girlfriend's son's kidney?"
"It felt surreal. It felt like this was all meant to happen. I wasn't supposed to meet her until now. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason." He said simply with the biggest smile on his face. He then added, "she's the love of my life."
"Your children get a long great with her?"
"Yes, we love her," Alec began to say and Jane ended his statement, "like she's our own mother." Those two were quite creepy to say the least.
"Flipping creepy," we heard Emmett murmur and then another thwack. I looked up to see that it was Esme who smacked him this time.
"Go Esme," Rose exclaimed.
Marcus got down on one knee in front of Sherry. He grabbed her hand and said, "Sherry you are the love of my life. Both of our beloveds were taken from us early on, but we have both learned to live with out them. But you bring so much joy and love into our lives. Will you please due me the honor of being my wife and their mother?" There was another collective awe from all of us girls.
"Yes, yes, yes," she said as she threw herself into his arms.
"That is just so amazing. We didn't have a clue that he was going to propose." Anderson said. "I hope nothing but the best for your family." He told them sincerely. "We have to go to break now but when we come back, we have another amazing story to share with you about a pact between three friends. Stay where you are."
The producer shuffled Rose, Alice and I out onto the stage first. They wanted to talk to us about the pact before they introduce the guys and the babies.
"Welcome back, for those of you just tuning in; we are sharing stories of faith and love today. We just heard from a couple that met and then figured out her son donated his kidney to his son. Amazing stuff right there." Anderson said with a huge smile. "Listen closely as this next tale unfolds. It is a little tricky to follow as the many different faucets exist. I would like to welcome, Alice, Rosalie and Isabella to the stage. Hello ladies." Anderson began to say. But me being stupid, I corrected him, "please call me Bella."
"No problem Bella. Now, I understand you three hail all the way from Washington State. How are you liking New York so far?"
"It's amazing," Alice said. I added, "it's weird seeing the ocean on the wrong side though." My comment caused the audience to break out into laughter.
"I bet that is weird. I bet the Pacific if much bluer too?"
"Yes, but we haven't had that close of a look yet. We hadn't gotten to go site seeing yet," Rose added.
"Of course, so you emailed the show about a pact. Can you tell us a little about that?"
"When we were in college, we all dated our share of loser men," Alice began.
"So we made a pact one night after one of us dumped a cheater. We won't name names." I said.
"yes we will. Alice caught Peter Nomad cheating on her with Lucy Carmichael." Rose said which caused the audience and Anderson to bust out laughing again.
"Well, chalk that up as a lesson not to cross Rosalie," Anderson said through his laughter. "so Tell us about this pact."
"I was getting to that if you all would quit interrupting me," Alice said in exasperation. Anderson just smiled into the camera.
"The floor is all yours Miss Alice," he said as he made a grand sweeping gesture towards the audience.
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted; we all dated our share of loser men. The pact was that if we weren't all married with children by the age of thirty, we were going to take matters into our own hands and get artificially inseminated together." She said as she looked pointedly at Anderson. He was to busy laughing at Alice's theatrics.
"So who turned thirty last?"
"I did," I said while raising my hand with a wave and a blush to my cheeks. "That is when they appeared on my door step with a cake, margarita ingredients and this onesie," I pulled out the onesie that says: I heart my Artificial Daddy. "Sorry about the stain, EC had a little acid reflex towards the beginning." This comment made the audience giggle again.
"So you all decided to get artificially inseminated?"
"Oh yes, that night we picked out sperm and even found a house for us to share." Alice responded.
"How did you choose the sperm?" Anderson asked with his brow cocked.
"You would not believe some of the donor banks and their data bases." Alice said.
"They started off with what I wanted. I said tall, light colored eyes and reddish or brown hair." I told him.
"Once I found him, it linked to my baby's swimmers." This brought another chuckle from the audience. "We were so excited that the two donors were brothers. His brother matched what I was looking for. Tall Dark and Handsome."
"You talk like it's the dating game." Anderson said with another chuckle.
"All I wanted was very tall and detached earlobes," Alice said with a giggle.
"Okay, so you all three got artificially inseminated by the same doctor. Please welcome Doctor Carlisle Cullen and his wife Esme to the panel." He said as both Carlisle and Esme were ushered into the picture.
"Dr. Cullen, did you have any reservations at all in doing the procedures?"
"Oh yes, I felt like I was playing the part of a God," I could not believe Carlisle said that with a straight face. All four of us girls on stage were giggling from his little inside joke. Anderson looked at us like we grew a second head each.
"It's an inside joke between us, Anderson," Esme said through her giggles. "But when you introduce Charlie, you will understand better."
"Okay," Anderson said slowly. "Sooo, if you felt uncomfortable with doing it, then why did you?"
"Bella was the very first baby I delivered. Actually, I was a first year resident in my ER round when her parents came through the ER. She wasn't waiting for a delivery room. She was born right there in the ER. I was so excited about delivering her that I decided to go into Obstetrician for my specialty."
"Wow, so the plot thickens. You impregnated all three of them at the same time?"
"Yes, but only Bella's hatched on first. The other two were very discouraged but didn't give up hope. Alice's came with the second round and Rose's came with the third round."
"So where does Esme fit into the equation?"
"My husband was so excited after he delivered Bella. He called me and told me all about it. Of course he woke me up at three in the morning. Really Bella, you couldn't wait a couple of hours?" She said as she mocked glared at me.
"Mother like son," Carlisle said as we all set into laughter again. Anderson looked very confused again.
"Another inside joke that you will figure out shortly," Esme sweetly said and then added, "Carlisle told me about three friends getting AI together and they were going to live together. He then proceeded to tell me that it was his first baby, I absolutely wanted to help in any compacity I could." Esme said matter-of-factly.
"Which meant?" Anderson asked.
"Helping them decorate their home and nursery, of course." She said in her duh tone.
"Via Skype, we have Chief Charlie Swan whom is Bella's father." Alice interrupted Anderson.
"He may be only Bella's father by blood but he is all of our father through bond."
"Thank you Alice," Charlie said.
"Your welcome Chief," Alice said with a salute. Anderson started laughing.
"So Chief Swan, you couldn't join us today due to your job and all but what is your role in this story?"
"Duh, I'm Pops to three beautiful babies," Charlie said in his sarcastic voice. We just shook our heads while looking at the ground in embarrassment. "But anyways, when they told me about Bella being pregnant with no daddy and still being a virgin," Anderson interrupted.
"Bella, you were a virgin," Anderson asked incredulously.
"Still is," Rosalie snickered.
"That's actually kind of refreshing to see in this day and age," Anderson came to my defense.
"As I was saying, I asked them if they actually thought it was the reincarnation of the Christ baby," which caused the whole audience to laugh. "Rose told them you could see it that way since Dr. Cullen impregnated her." Esme started to giggle even louder than us girls. Rosalie's blush could rival the my usual perma-blush. "But that wasn't even the best part, Bella's mother actually asked if I thought a UFO abducted her and then impregnated her." Then it was my turn to turn beat red again.
"Okay enough from Chief Chuckles," I said as the audience broke out into laughter again.
"Oh girls, we're not making fun of you, really," Esme said through her giggles.
"Okay so we really do need to move on. Chief Swan, thank you for appearing. We will want to talk to you later on so if you would stay connected we would appreciated it." Anderson told my father.
"Of course Anderson," my dad said with mischief in his eyes.
"We have to take a commercial break but when we come back, we want to hear about these deliveries," of course my face chose this time to turn red again. The make up crew came out again to do any touch ups that were needed. Anderson went back stage for a few minutes and then came back.
"welcome back, if your just tuning in, we are talking to these three beautiful women about their amazing story. We're going to jump ahead a bit. Bella you gave birth first. Can you please explain what happened that morning?"
"It was quite traumatic, to say the least," I said as I glared at Alice.
"Dr. Cullen what was it like to deliver the baby of your first delivered baby?" Anderson asked him.
"I wouldn't know," he said with a smirk.
"What do you mean," Anderson asked with confusion marring his face.
"I never made it to the hospital. Alice and I were out to brunch when I felt pressure." But Alice interrupted me.
"I want to tell this story, I always wanted to yell is there a doctor in the house. Long story short, there wasn't. However, two of the hottest firemen came over and offered to help us. Edward delivered EC, the end." I just glowered at her cliff notes version of the story.
"Wow, Alice I believe I remember it a little differently than that," I said sarcastically.
"Why don't we bring the firemen out that helped you? Edward, Jasper and Emmett Cullen please come on out," Anderson said.
Edward sat down in the chair next to me and grabbed my hand. He kissed my temple and the whole audience awed. "So Edward, tell me your version of what happened."
"I was having lunch with my brother Jasper. We had just gotten off duty. Well anyways, we heard Alice yell is there a doctor in the house. We offered our services and I delivered the baby in the manager's office." Edward said as he squeezed my hand. Yeah, so I decided I was going to tell them the correct story.
"Look, these two are skating around the truth. I went into labor. The manager was a jerk. Alice was being a brat. Not only was she making fun of me and Edward while I was in an emergency birth she told him that his father impregnated us and the baby was already out. Long story short, EC looks identical to Edward and he thought his father cheated on his mother. Jasper had to push his shoulder down to keep him in place." I said which caused Esme to snicker.
Anderson laughed as he asked, "So why did the baby look so much like Edward?"
"Once we got to the hospital, it was confirmed that Edward was the sperm donor." I told him.
"So not only were you impregnated by his father but it was with his sperm and he delivered the baby?"
"Yes that sounds about right. The guys down at the station donate their sperm each week. We would then sign the checks over to the children's hospital. So not only are we helping the children, we're also helping people that can't have babies for whatever reason," Emmett said proudly. To his credit, he didn't even crack a joke which is so not like Em.
"That's awesome, there are so many couples out there that want to have babies that can't," Anderson had said. But Emmett interrupted Anderson, "it's kind of weird to think about though. I mean, our dad handled our baby making juice." There was a collective ewe heard all over the studio. WE even heard one come from Charlie and Anderson himself. They all laughed when the saw Rose smack the back of his head. He over dramatized it by rubbing it and saying, "Owe, Woman."
"Hey, how many Grandpas do you know that can say, 'I remember when you were just a little swimmer,'" he proceeded to add. The audience erupted in laughter when Carlisle reached over Esme and hit Emmett himself. In all the time I have known Carlisle, I have never seen him raise a hand to anyone.
"Alice's baby was next, so was there anything dramatic about it?"
"not really, she had the absolute normal pregnancy." Rose said out of envy. I'm right there with her on that one.
"How about yours Rose?"
"Mine was actually the hardest out of the three. I was raped when I was younger and there was a lot of damage left inside me. The placenta ruptured while I was at the grocery store. Thankfully Bella and Edward was there. Edward carried me to his car and then drove like a maniac to the ER. I had to have a C-section and the baby was actually born about seven weeks premature. Charles only weighed three pounds."
"Oh wow, I couldn't even imagine what that would be like. Thankfully, you both pulled through. I would like to take the time now so everyone can meet these wonderful babies," Anderson said as the babies were carried out by the shows producers and assistants. They put each baby in the lap of each of us girls.
"Bella, how old is EC and what is his real name?" Anderson asked me.
"EC stands for Edward Charles and he is eight months old," I answered him as he started babbling da-da and reaching for Edward. "He is a total daddy's boy," I said as I handed him to Edward. "His first word was da-da and he crawled for the first time to his dad."
"Alice, how old is Charliegh?"
"She is seven months old," she was so fussy again. Like I said, Alice has no one but her self to blame for that one.
"Rosalie how old is Charles?"
"Charles is six and half months old."
"He's so tiny," Anderson said.
"Good things come in small packages," Emmett defended his son.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't meaning anything bad about it," he started to apologize.
"No you have nothing to apologize for, Anderson. He is so tiny but he is smart as a tact." Rose said as she popped Em in the back of his head again.
"So tell me, all of the babies have some variation of Charles in the name. Can you explain the significance," Anderson said as Em scoffed at his question. His ego still hurts a little even though he did understand why the baby was named after Charlie.
"I can answer that Anderson," my dad's voice came out of nowhere. Then the video feed that he had been on earlier appeared on the screen. "I'm great like that," which caused all of the audience to snicker.
"Charlie had been the one person who had supported all three of us girls. Alice and Rose were both disowned by their parents for various reasons. My dad took them under his wing and pretty much finished raising them."
"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Charlie interrupted me.
"All of us bonded with something similar in our lives. My parents disowned me after I was raped and didn't believe me. It was Charlie that found me my justice. Alice's disowned her early on too because she's a little freak. Bella's mom disowned her because she was abducted by a UFO and was impregnated. We had a similar bond and it made us close." Rose said.
"Charlie was our glue. We are total daddies girls and love him unconditionally." Alice finished for her. You could see Charlie reach up and cover the web cam. We could tell that he was totally crying. But no one called him on it.
"You can say Charlie's the man," Em said which caused everyone to laugh again.
"Well we are out of time but we would like to thank you all for coming out today. We at the Anderson Cooper show love to give away gifts. We thought long and hard on what to give you ladies. Then one of my producers suggested this." He said as he handed Rose a framed certificate. "We donated $5,000. To March of dimes in the name of Charles Emmett Cullen and $5,000 each to the Children's hospital you guys donated your proceeds in the names of Edward Charles Cullen and Charliegh Rayann Cullen." We were all speechless and in tears.
"Thank you Anderson. That is an awesome gift. I hope the March of Dimes can totally use that money. My beautiful grandson was a premature baby and today you wouldn't really know it except for his size." Carlisle said.
"All of the babies are beautiful, I hope you all enjoy New York." Anderson said in closing.
"Before we go, we have a gift for you. We know how much you like to give gifts away so we wanted to extend that to you," Edward said as Jasper pulled a Seattle Fire Department t-shirt and hat from behind his back. It had Cooper written on the back of it. Alice handed him a scrapbook that the three of us girls put together of pictures of him with some of his more memorable guests.
"Wow, I'm not used to getting gifts. It's usually the other way around. Thank you so much." But my dad interrupted him.
"There is one more, Anderson. Thank you for giving my girls their dream come true by meeting their idol which is you and giving them the trip of a life time. Esme has a special t-shirt from the Forks Police Department along with a badge. You are an honorary Forks Police officer." Our dad said as Esme handed him the t-shirt and badge. It is an actual badge and the t-shirt is like the t-shirt the boys gave him except for it said Forks PD on the front with Cooper on the back.
"Like I said, I'm totally speechless. I'm now an officer of the law. Who would have thought?"
AN: I hope you enjoyed this. If you haven't read Single Mommies, check that out, too.