Hey there everyone! It's another update! I told you I wouldn't let you down! I know that the last chapter was more like a filler but I really needed to get it out before getting down to business. :) It's been a seriously long time that even I'm annoyed at myself right now. It's just that we had no class for a week and half—and instead given these ridiculous home-study schedules and homework up to our eyeballs.

Thank you for all your responses, they really brighten up my day (and seriously, it's raining so much right now that I need some serious 'day brightening') And also, thank you to all the loyal readers who still stick by me! I promise that this chapter's quite long :)

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine and no copyright infringement is intended.

Through Your Window

By writingunderatree

Chapter 20

Getting Down to Business

"Indoor voice, Emmett!"

"Dad said that we can use the family cabin in Georgia for a two week vacation!" he said eagerly. I remembered that! The cabin was awesome, it was just always my parents and Emmett and I. No help, no servants, just us. I missed those moments.

A chorus of approvals came from the group.

"What a great idea," Edward said. "We need to relax."

"Amen!" Alice threw in from her spot on Jasper's lap.

They all looked at me. This was mostly my decision, after all.

I shrugged and smiled. "Why the hell not?" I said happily as they cheered.

Day 1:

The 13 hour drive to the cabin was quite uneventful but not boring. I rode with Edward while Rose and Emmett took the Jeep with Alice, Jasper. James and Vicky took Alice's Porsche.

I really hope they weren't strangling each other to death right now.

We met up for a quick rest stop at the gas station after reaching the 5-hour mark. It was now 10:30 am and we had 8 more hours to go. I felt thoroughly refreshed after sleeping for the past three hours to make up for the lack of sleep that I got from waking up at 5 am in the morning. Edward, on the other hand, looked absolutely groggy and sleep-deprived.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, caressing his cheek and running my fingers lightly over the faint purple bruising forming under his eyes. He nodded slowly, yawned and ran his hand over his face.

I frowned and crossed my arms. "You are not okay," I told him. "You know what? I'll drive," I declared as I fished the keys out of his pocket.

That seemed to wake him up because before I knew it, he lifted me by the waist, causing me to squeal.

"EDWARD!" I said, trying to pry his strong arms off of me.

"You aren't driving, love, and that's final," Edward whispered lowly in my ear as I felt him take the keys from my loosened fingers. I shivered lightly and felt the vibrations from his chuckles behind me—he felt it too.

Damn it, and there I thought I was being subtle.

I sighed and he put me down before I turned back to him and crossed my arms with a pout. "I want to drive!" I whined, fishing the keys out of his hand again.

He kissed me lightly on the lips before plucking the keys out of my fingers. "I'm driving," he said.

I grabbed it again. "No, you will not! You're tired and probably as sleepy as hell from all the overtime you've been pulling off to go to this trip!" I argued.

"But Bella . . ." he started. I held up a hand to silence him.

"Look, if you want to stay up so badly, why don't you let me drive now and we can stay up later doing more . . . interesting things," I purred in his ear. God, seducing my boyfriend in a gas station parking lot, how pathetic am I?

I leaned back and looked up at him. He looked dazed and disoriented, which was the perfect opportunity to snatch the car keys back. I eased my hand into his pocket and fished them out once more.

"I'm holding you to that promise, Isabella Swan," he said.

"Don't worry," I said, smiling smugly at him before winking. "I don't intend on breaking it." And with that, I walked off to Emmett's Jeep which just zoomed in to the parking lot.

"Bella, is there a mall near the cabin?" Alice asked as she stirred her espresso absently, probably thinking about the things she would buy if there was a mall—which, there wasn't.

"Sorry to pop your happy bubble, Aly, but we will be in the woods, in a cabin," Rosalie chimed in—stating the obvious.

Alice looked absolutely crestfallen and sighed. "Oh well, it was worth knowing that," she said. "I may just go into withdrawal during this vacation."

"Don't say that, Alice," I told her. "The cabin has a pool and we have a closet full of Emmett's board games. I'm sure that'll be more than enough to keep us entertained."

Rosalie scoffed. "Emmett . . . board games?" she asked, holding back her laughter.

I smiled. "Yeah! We have a ton of board games. We have The Game of Life, Risk, Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, Taboo, Pictionary . . ." I said, trailing off as I tried to remember the others.

I didn't get that far before I heard Rosalie burst into loud laughter. "Risk? Emmett plays Risk?" she asked incredulously.

"Well . . . no, he doesn't. I do, and so do my parents. He just likes to watch us play since he sucks," I said with a laugh.

"I knew it," she replied, rolling her eyes.

It must've taken Alice to process my comment about a pool because she finally spoke up. "Wait!" she said, raising her hands out in front of her. "You have a pool?" she asked again.

I shrugged. "Yeah, we do."

"I thought you owned a cabin?" she asked.

"With a pool," I added cheerily. Actually it was a heated pool but they didn't need to know that--yet.

"Well in that case," she said, thinking deeply before visibly brightening up. "Thank goodness I brought a bikini!" she said happily. Rose and I laughed at her instant recovery.


"Oh. My. God." I think I just saw Alice's jaw drop after she said that. We were currently standing in front of the family cabin and by cabin, I meant the loosest interpretation of cabin as possible.

"I thought you said we'll stay in a cabin?" Rose asked, taking in the two-story cabin nestled up the hill. I had to admit, it was funny watching their reactions since it was their first time here.

"Well what are you waiting for?" Emmett asked, climbing up the first few steps. "Let's go!"

They all followed, Emmett with me trailing behind them. He put the key in the lock and slowly opened the door, drawing out the suspense.

"It's dark inside, Emmett," Vicky commented.

"Yeah, I don't see anything in there," James added. Vicky rolled her eyes upon hearing James' voice.

Emmett flicked the switch on and the front hall was flooded with light. The moment the room was illuminated, gasps were elicited from the others. Emmett and I looked at each other and laughed softly at their reactions.

"See something you like?" Emmett asked smugly.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" Alice squealed at an impossible high pitch, causing all of us to cover our ears. "Your cabin is gorgeous!" she gushed, her head turning from wall to wall before proceeding to touch and poke all of the furniture on her way in. We followed her inside with Rosalie staring slack-jawed at the expanse of the cabin. Why haven't we ever brought Rose here yet?

Well, it wasn't exactly a cabin, I mean, my definition of cabin would be a tiny bungalow off the wood trail. Based on their reactions, we shared the same opinion.

"It's beautiful, love," Edward murmured close to my ear. I smiled and turned to him.

"Well it's good that you think that," I replied. "Because for the next two weeks, it's going to be you, me and this cabin," I finished before throwing a glance at everyone else who was ogling the living room and Emmett's stellar entertainment system. "Oh, and those freaks," I laughed, pointing my thumb at them.

"Hey! We are not freaks! We are merely uh . . ." Alice trailed off, thinking of an appropriate word. "Eager!" she finished happily before picking up one of my mom's fashion magazines on the coffee table.

"Who wants a house tour?" Emmett boomed as he entered the living room.

Six hands went up simultaneously before they all followed Emmett up to the second floor.

"Alright, guys," I announced, looking at their forms currently sprawled on the couch. They didn't respond.

I tried a different approach. "Do any of you want to know your rooms or would you rather sleep out in the cold?" I asked, hands on my hips with a no-nonsense expression on my face. I did not want any arguments from them when they didn't know where to sleep later.

That got their attention.

"So how will it be, Bells?" Emmett asked from the corner. "We have four bedrooms," he said.

"Couples can share!" Rose piped in.

A loud "NO!" came from Vicky and James. We all turned towards them.

Rose huffed. "Right . . . you can't share because you just can't get the stupid hate-hate foreplay over with!"

"Hey, we do not have a thing," Vicky said, disgusted.

"Hell yeah," James added.

"Shut up," Vicky said in a clipped tone.

James raised his hands up, deciding to be the better man in this argument. "Shutting up . . ."

"Ok," Alice said, standing up—ready to take charge. "Since James and Vicky here won't share, how about the boys split up two rooms and we take the other two?" she suggested.

"Alright," Rose agreed. "It's not like we'll be sticking to those arrangements anyway," she muttered.

"So, the boys can take the rooms on the left side of the second floor and we'll take the right," I said.

"And we meet back here in half an hour for pizza!" Emmett threw in.

"Pizza?" Edward asked.

Emmett shrugged. "We may be in a cabin, but we are not in the middle of nowhere." He trailed off, looking out the window. "There's a pizza place around the corner," he said with a smirk. We laughed before collecting our bags and heading to our rooms.

"So how will we arrange ourselves?" Rose asked, looking at our bags lined next to each other in the hall.

"Who do you want to room with, Vicky?" Alice asked her.

She shrugged. "I'm good with anyone."

"I'll room with Vicky," I said. "That way. you and Rose can go canoodle with your men without leaving Vicky high and dry." I raised and eyebrow at them and they giggled. I was right—spot on.

"No problem, Bells, Aly and I will just head over to our rooms here and unpack and we'll meet you downstairs for pizza," Rose said.

"Ok, spill!" I demanded as Vicky plopped down on the bed. I towered over her and made the most convincing "no arguments" expression I could out of my face.

"Spill what?" she asked innocently. I wasn't normally the type of girl to ask for details like this but . . . I could see it already! I could feel the um . . . tension? Yeah! I could feel the tension bubbling between those two! I knew there was something there!

God! Now I sound like Alice! I've been hanging out with her too much lately. . .

"There's nothing to spill," she said nonchalantly.

"Yes there is," I replied stubbornly. Vicky rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Bella! You're not pulling this shit on me now, are you?"

"Vicky . . ." I said, sounding much like a mom.

"There's nothing to sa—" she got interrupted by a knock on the door. "Oh thank God," I heard her breathe as I went to answer it.

"Don't think this is over!" I threatened.

She smirked. "Sure Bella, whatever you say." Sarcasm was really becoming for a person like Vicky despite the fact that it pissed me off like nothing else could—and she knew it.

I rolled my eyes at her tactics and opened the door.

"Hello there, Beautiful." Edward was beaming at me from the doorway.

"Hey," I said softly giving him a light peck on the lips.

"Guys! Cut the PDA moment!" Vicky yelled from the closet.

"Well hello to you too, Vicky," Edward greeted.

"Hello!" she said, her voice slightly muffled as she dug through her bag.

"Want to take a walk with me?" he asked. I threw a glance at my bags. I guess I could pack later. . .

You guess? You SHOULD pack later! Hello? Adonis standing next to you!

Right, I WILL pack LATER. . .

I smiled at him. "Let's go!"

"You know, I feel like I could learn so much about you here," Edward said as he stared up at the trees surrounding us.

I looked at him. "Why's that?"

"It's because . . . you know, we're finally here, away from the stress, even if it's just for a while. Plus, we're in a place that I know is very dear to your heart." He gave me a meaningful smile.

"So apart from knowing almost everything about me . . . what do you want to know?" I asked coyly.

"Hmm . . . any embarrassing stories you'd like to share?" he asked, his voice smooth as velvet as he leaned closer, effectively disorienting me.

I blinked profusely. "Huh . . . what?" I asked in a daze.

He snickered. "I said, any embarrassing stories?"

Once it registered, I narrowed my eyes at him. "Not. A. Chance." I enunciated every word as I watched his face fall.

"Please?" He pleaded, unleashing the full power of his emerald eyes on me. I had to admit, I was a little peeved that I could still be dazzled by them and that I hadn't created some weird immunity for them.

Not that I minded. I kissed his pout away and kept walking.

"What about you? Any stories I should know?" I asked.

"Not telling," he said, chuckling.

"HEY LOVEBIRDS!!! I'm ordering pizza so get your asses over here!" Emmett boomed from the doorway and I swear I could see birds fly up into the sky when he did that.

"God, Emmett, indoor voice," I mumbled.

Edward laughed. "He was outside, you can't blame him."

I smacked his shoulder. "Ouch! What?" He had this adorable confused expression on his face.

"Ugh, just shut up," I said, rolling my eyes and laughing as we treaded back inside.

"So that's Pepperoni and Sausages, one with anchovies, a Hawaiian and one of those pizzas with everything on it!" Emmett elaborated as he grabbed the keys to his truck.

Rosalie scoffed. "Right, and that's only the ones for you."

"Ugh, fine . . . what do you guys want?" he asked us reluctantly. It must have been a painful feat.

"Just double the order," Alice said. We all nodded.

"Alright then! See you in a few!" And with that, he went outside and left to buy pizza.

"What do we do now?" Jasper asked.

"Ooh! How about a movie?" Alice danced over to the TV and opened the small cabinet underneath. She leafed through the massive collection of DVDs before picking five and holding them up to us.

One of them was that vampire movie that came out a few months ago. I never really understood Emmett's fascination for it—he had a copy of it back at home too.

"I don't really feel like watching a movie," Vicky said, eyeing the titles.

Alice sighed, looking at her selection. "You're right, I'm not that into watching, now that I think about it."

"How about a board game?" Jasper asked.

"Sounds good," I replied, walking over to the game closet and opening it. I was overflowing from all of Emmett's board games.

"Ok, we've got Scrabble, Game of Life, Monopoly in three different editions and a bunch of other things."

"Scrabble," they all said. I tiptoed and eased the box out carefully, knowing well that one false move could cause all the boxes to fall on me.

After successfully extracting it from the pile, I walked back to them to find them all sitting down on the floor. I plopped down between Rose and Edward as Jasper set-up the game.

Five minutes later, we were about to start the game.

"Geez, Jasper, OCD much?" Vicky commented as she saw how long it took Jasper to set-up.

"Everything must be done accordingly," he retorted, holding up the rule book in one hand and the score sheets on the other.

"Like I said, OCD," Vicky sang.

"Let's just get this over with!" Rose grabbed the bag and drew out seven tiles before passing it around to everyone else.

James went first after drawing the letter A and the game started.

"S-O-U-N-D," he spelled as he put the letters down on the board.

"Are we in first grade again, James?" Vicky asked.

"Shut up, Vicky," he retorted before drawing more tiles from the green bag. I looked at the board.

"Sound," I said before furrowing my eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked; his hand immediately on my forearm.

I shook my head. "James, what are we going to do about the listening devices you planted in Jake's office?" I asked, suddenly panicking at realization on the flaw of this vacation.

Jasper smiled. "Don't worry, Bella," he soothed. "It's all being recorded and we can access them tomorrow morning," he said with a smile.

"You think of everything, don't you?" I asked.

He puffed out his chest. "Well, OCD is good for something," he said, throwing a glance at Vicky who rolled her eyes before Alice pecked him on the cheek.


"I bring sustenance!" Emmett yelled as he barged back into the cabin.

"INDOOR VOICE, EMMETT!" Rosalie scolded.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly as he put down a lot of pizzas.

"Something tells me that's not the only thing we ordered," Edward said, eyeing the boxes warily.

"Don't worry dear old brother of mine, if we can't finish it, Emmett here can do it!" Alice chirped.

Day 2:

After breakfast, Jasper had his laptop propped up on the coffee table as he opened the sound files from Jacob's office.

"I got it!" he yelled triumphantly.

"Alright!" Emmett said, rubbing his hands together as he walked over to Jasper, resting his hand over the seat next to him.

"Play it already!" Alice said impatiently.

"Okay. . .," Jasper trailed off, opening the very first file from the day that James left the listening device.

Suddenly, sound filled the room from the speakers on the laptop. Everyone listened closely as the sound of opening doors, ringing phones and murmuring filled the room.

"Can you fast forward it?" Vicky asked. "I'm not really into the idea of listening to how many hours of office . . ."

"Sure," he replied, fast forwarding it until we heard voices gradually getting louder. It was a man and a woman.

"It's Jake and Leah," I said, listening closely.

". . . are you sure?" Leah asked.

"Of course I am, baby," Jake replied and I cringed at his tone.

"Do you really think they'll give in to this one?" she asked. This one? Which one? What are they planning?

"They will, I KNOW it," he reiterated. "Now come here," he said.

There was silence, then a slight crashing noise before we heard . . . oh God, was that moaning?

"FAST FORWARD IT JASPER!" Alice said.

"What? NO! This is gold," Emmett said eagerly.

"EMMETT!" We all yelled.

He raised his hands up and moved back. I watched in amusement over the rim of my coffee cup. "Alright! Fast forward it, dude."

"I wonder how much of that we'll hear?" Rose mused.

"Ugh, Rose, must you be so crass?" I asked her.

She shrugged and raised an eyebrow at me. "What? I don't hear you complaining!"

"Let's just forget all about it . . ." Vicky said before we resumed listening.

Whew! And now that this baby's done . . . yay! Eleven pages later and the chapter finished! Expect more long ones soon! I can't promise frequent updates since apparently, our educators are trying death-by-homework, so if I'm still alive, I'll make sure to update more :)

Pass or fail? Please review! I hope you're all still there! PM or review in your suggestions of things to come! You know your ideas can add up to the drama!

Please and thank you! I'll see you all soon!