Thank you to this chapter's betas, sweetishbubble and blahblahblah.

Project Team Beta is a fantastic resource available to authors in need of Betas. You can find their website at ProjectTeamBeta(dot).com.

I have to voice my insecurity that this is my first attempt at writing. Any constructive criticism would be appreciated!

Stephenie Meyer owns all things Twilight. Anything I didn't borrow from her was created in my twisted mind.

--==\\//==-

Chapter Two

Wednesday

Bella POV

"Alice, stop fidgeting."

"You first." Her gaze fell to the pen I was molesting.

The last two days had been a whirlwind. After our dinner with Esme on Monday night, Alice and I returned to the hotel. We spent a few hours coming to terms with the events of the evening. It may need to be noted that 'coming to terms' included a lot of swearing, some hyperventilating, and a stop at a liquor store on the way back to the hotel. The time seemed to oscillate wildly between crawling so slowly it seemed Wednesday would never come, and speeding by so fast we'd felt there just wasn't enough time to be properly prepared.

The show last night had been amazing. Midnight Sun's stage set up was simple. Just the three band members, their instruments, and some wicked lighting. They seemed to set a mood rather than rely heavily on gimmicks like pyrotechnics. The band connected well with their audience. Even though there were almost two thousand people at the sold out show, the energy in the cavernous venue was palpable.

The audience was fairly diverse. There were the teeny-boppers holding up signs saying "Marry me, Jasper," but they were definitely outnumbered by the throngs of fans that seemed to be there for the music and sang along with every song, radio hit or otherwise.

Alice and I were all smiles and quietly exchanging memories of the previous night when the door opened and Esme led the band into the small boardroom. She shot us a confident and reassuring smile that said, this will be okay, relax. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. I looked over at Alice who returned the same forced calm.

Here we go, we said to each other silently.

We stood for introductions, as unnecessary as they were on their part.

Jasper Whitlock, the lead singer and bassist of Midnight Sun, extended his hand and smiled warmly. "You must be Bella and Alice, we've heard a lot about you both. Esme has many kind things to say."

I shot a smile at Esme and shifted automatically into professional mode. As much as we liked this band, this wasn't our first time 'round the block. We'd worked with other bands we'd admired, (and okay fine, to be fair lusted after, even if we were not quite on the same level) and it was just a matter of remembering they were people and this was a business meeting. That was always what I had told myself, and I hoped like hell it would keep my hands from shaking with nerves this time too.

Jasper was tall, lean, and even in his loose clothing you could see he was very muscular. His blond hair was shorn shaggily about his neck in a medium-long , messy style. He had sharp, chiseled features that gave him an almost aristocratic look, but his blue eyes were very warm and kind. I guessed him to be in his late twenties, maybe thirty, at most.

Edward Masen introduced himself next. Edward was responsible for guitars and keyboards in the Midnight Sun world. I smiled and let myself take in his appearance. He was almost as tall as Jasper, possibly just over six feet, and looked to be about the same age, maybe a year or two younger. His bronze hair was messy in way that couldn't be force d ; it just happened naturally. He was the picture of perfection with strong, angular features. I admired his cheekbones and his amazingly sexy jaw. I found myself wondering if a jaw could actually be sexy, and then berating myself for practically drooling over bone structure. That was when I noticed his eyes for the first time. I might have taken a moment too long to stare into the startlingly green depths, but no picture had ever managed to convey just how beautiful they actually were.

Professional, Bella, Professional, I chanted inwardly as I ripped myself away from those wonderful eyes and continued shaking hands.

Emmett McCarty gave off a fantastically upbeat and playful energy, the kind you'd probably expect from a drummer. His smile lit up his whole face and made his eyes shine. It was possible he was a several years younger than the other two, but that may have just been the air of youth and joy he radiated. His short dark hair lay flat against his scalp and he was huge. There was just no other word for it. He was a wall of muscle. I was quite sure he would be terrifying if he were angry but in the playful mood he was in now, I wouldn't have been surprise to see him grab someone and twirl them around in a massive bear hug. I immediately pictured him as a big brother, the kind that would mercilessly poke at his siblings for a laugh, but also protect them fiercely.

The fourth person to join the meeting was Midnight Sun's manager, Carlisle Cullen. If Emmett gave off the air of a big brother, Carlisle was definitely had a fatherly vibe. At about 35, he was very attractive. His height was even with Jasper's and he could easily have been the band's fourth member. He exuded a fantastic calm and competence without coming off as too serious or intense. I imagined he handled a crisis exceptionally well and kept the band members in line.

As usually happened in these types of meetings, it wasn't the fact that the band members were amazingly beautiful that struck me, it was that they looked so very normal. Don't get me wrong, they were definitely on the hot side of the gene pool, but they weren't the airbrushed perfection that was usually seen in publicity photos and magazine covers. They were just normal guys that had worked hard to master their craft and were now starting to reap the rewards.

I took comfort in that thought, as I always did. In that way, they weren't so different from us . It was hard to be quite as nervous when you worked out that you weren't in a room with rock stars, but with people who happened to be good musicians. I smiled at everyone in the room and remembered our pep talk in the car on the way here. I took another deep breath and started chanting my confidence and professionalism mantra.

"Well, as you all know, of course, I'm Bella Swan, and this is Alice Brandon. Say hi, Alice."

"Hi, Alice."

"Very funny," I deadpanned.

"I thought so," she trilled.

Everyone laughed, and I felt the tension go down a notch. This was good. If they were comfortable with us and our slightly insane friendship, then we wouldn't have to put up any pretense. We always did our best work that way.

"I have no idea how you deal with content and sourcing material for various uses now, but Alice and I more or less specialize in one stop shopping. We're going to lay out the type of things we've done in the past as well as new areas we think we can cover for your upcoming tour."

Alice took over. "I'll start by running you through some of the things we can handle on a typical day. We start at sound check. If you plan to, or already offer passes to your fan club or added value tickets, we can organize and run the sound check viewing, getting the fans in to watch the day's rehearsal, and then out again when they need to be. We can also handle Meet and Greets, or any autograph session if you want them to be more formal. The only thing we may need is access to additional security, for larger numbers. I can do the strong arm thing, but it usually results in me breaking other people's bones." Everyone chuckled. I was laughing because I knew that they thought she was joking.

"Next up," I continued, "is the show. We do photos and video for all shows. Live shots are great for press, websites, merchandise, and publicity. Video can be used on-line and for b-roll if you have plans for a DVD in the future." I felt Alice and I slip into our easy rhythm. We both started to feel our confidence rise rather than faking it.

Our proposal continued and we laid out the rest of ideas. After accounting for all the additional types of content we could gather on a daily basis, we showed them examples of some of the work we'd done in the past. Even though it was on a much smaller scale than what we had outlined for Midnight Sun's tour, it was a good cross section of our skills and abilities.

Going by what we'd seen at the show the night before, we had actually scaled back a little. We got the strong impression that these guys were about substance rather than flash, and we wanted to be simple, upfront, and honest. About a half an hour later, Alice was wrapping up some last details about the types of photos that worked best for different kinds of shows. The confidence I was feeling earlier had slowly started to fade as l looked into the four men's faces. Their eyes had continued to widen as our presentation progressed, and now they were positively incredulous. I looked over at Esme who was still beaming proudly.

"Of course we'll also be on hand to promote the tour and foster a relationship with the fans at the shows. We feel this will overflow to your on-line presence and help your following there," I said trying to stifle my rising panic. I caught Alice's eye and knew she was on the same wavelength. She usually was. Maybe we overdid it? But Esme knew this is how we did things, and she told us to account for everything in our presentation to the band.

We waited for someone to say something… for anyone to say anything. Finally Alice turned to me, slightly panicked, and in true Alice fashion she blurted out. "Why do I feel like I just claimed to have a subscription to playgirl for the articles with a straight face?" Then she froze.

The entire room burst into laughter except for a slightly mortified Alice.

"Esme, where have you been hiding them?" Carlisle asked as he chuckled. The awe in his voice was unmistakable, which completely confused me.

"I told you it would be perfect didn't I?" she sang in her best 'I told you so' voice.

Jasper finally got control of his laughter and looked at the other two members, who nodded. "Oh yeah, we're all over this."

--==\\//==--

An hour later, we were in Esme's office going over the standard forms that needed to be signed. Esme had just placed the phone down after working out the details of flights and how we would meet up with the tour.

"Esme, I almost had a heart attack at the end there." Everything was happening so fast I still wasn't sure I was taking it all in properly. "They were all staring as us like we'd spontaneously grown a limb from the tops of our heads."

Alice laughed but nodded fervently in agreement.

"I know the way you ladies work is very normal for you, but you have to understand what a catch you are for a band like them. They're used to having to deal with different photographers, videographers, and label people at every show to do all the things you breezed through in that meeting. Can you imagine what a pain it is to track them all down in every city, then explain what you want and how you want it done? Not to mention the fact that you also have to make sure that person does it the way they're supposed to.

It's not fun, believe me. I used to do it on a regular basis before you two came aboard. Why do you think I always make sure you're content with everything? I know you probably think it's because I'm wonderfully kind, but honestly I keep you happy for selfish reasons. If you ever left, I'd have to deal with it all again. You can never, ever leave." Esme laughed but I could tell that she meant every word she had said.

"I never actually thought of it that way, hmm… I guess we are pretty amazing," I said as I tossed my hair dramatically. "Does this mean we can start making horribly unreasonable demands on the rider?"

"I never did like brown M&M's," Alice said to the form she was filling out.

"Oh sure, I work with you all this time and you choose this moment to grow rock star egos!" Esme threw her arms in the air and tried not to laugh as she handed us another stack of papers. We looked at the dauntingly large stack of forms and got down to the business of filling them out.

"Well, I think that's about it." Esme groaned as she handed us the copies of our finalized contract three hours later.

We had relocated back to the board room when Esme's desk became too small for us to spread out, read, and sign all the documents that needed our attention.

"Esme, you deal with all this paperwork on a daily basis? How are you not blind?" Alice said, looking slightly cross eyed.

"Who says I'm not?" She pointed at her glasses. "So, you're back to the hotel tonight, and tomorrow you head back to Virginia, right?"

"Yep. Apparently we have some packing and loose ends to attend to." I tried not beam like a kid on Christmas morning, but I knew I wasn't fooling anyone.

"I hope you're excited. I think you're going to have a lot of fun!"

"Esme, you honestly have no idea how excited we are. We're just a little too stunned to process it right now, I think. Bella will probably wake up at four a.m. and start freaking out on me," Alice said.

I nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

--==\\//==--

Alice POV

We used the time in the car as we drove back to Virginia to discuss every element of the meeting ad-nauseam. "I think it's weird that they didn't even go away from the table to pretend to discuss it. Esme must have really talked us up."

"We definitely need to send her something as a thank you." Bella was still in awe over the developments o f the past 24 hours.

"Yeah, we should… Bella? We're going on a six month, cross-country tour with Midnight Sun!"

"I KNOW!" Bella screamed as I joined in. We'd been doing that every half hour or so since we'd left New York. Very slowly, the fact that we were about to do something most people only dreamed about was sinking in.

We pulled up to the house and unpacked the car, suddenly overwhelmed with all the things that needed to be done in the next two weeks. Luckily, we didn't have to worry about doing anything to prepare the house for a six month absence.

Although Bella and I had both moved out of Renee and Charlie's home after College, we ended up living there again within a year or so for many reasons. We were still there mostly because it made sense. With the constant traveling we did, it was pointless to get a place of our own just so it could sit empty most of the time.

The first task to be accomplished was stocking up on supplies. We had decided to upgrade some of our gear to celebrate the new job. Bella may claim to hate shopping, but get her into an electronics store and the girl puts me to shame. She managed to pick up a new digital still camera, and new hard drives and RAM for our laptops. She also insisted that we needed a few jump drives, various peripherals like headphones, and power cables that were always getting lost or broken.

I always made fun of her for being so over-prepared but the fact was, Bella was the one you went to when you needed something.

I took care of the rest of the shopping; toiletries, office supplies, clothes etc. After much grumbling from Bella that she didn't need new clothes, I reminded her that we might have to go for long periods of time between Laundromats and she might like more than the three pairs of shorts she currently owned when we ended up in California and Florida in the middle of summer. She left me alone then.

When we first got home from New York it felt like two weeks would never pass. Now it seemed like we had blinked and we were standing in the Richmond International Airport hugging Charlie and Renee goodbye.

"Be careful girls." Renee was sniffling as she crushed Bella.

"Mom. Can't. Breathe," Bella managed to gasp.

"Oh, sorry, Honey." Renee turned to me and gave me a rib-splitting hug too. "I'm going to miss you girls so much. Six months is too long!"

"We'll be home before you know it, Mom," I said as I winced and rubbed my side.

Charlie chuckled. "Be careful and be safe. You know I worry about you two surrounded by all these rock stars and parties."

"We'll be fine, Dad." Bella smiled as she threw her arms around him. "You know we're usually too busy to join in on the wild parties."

He grunted in a non-committal way as he hugged me. "Make sure you keep in touch."

"We will," I promised.

Bella pushed the luggage cart to the check-in desk and, before we knew it, we were getting on the plane and on our way to Chicago to meet up with the tour.

--==\\//==--