AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone, I can definitely say that there are thirty-one chapters to part two and I finished writing it yesterday. It should be posted by next week, it was really hard to write and I know many of you may hate it but I hope that you will still continue of with the series. I am thinking of taking off a week of posting before I post Part Three so I can get a good head start since I will be on vacation in July at Comic Con. I want to have chapters already written to post from San Diego. Thank you soooo much for reading and reviewing.
WARNING:
This story may contain content that could offend readers. Story will surround story lines involving acts of dominance such as domestic discipline. This story will not contain BDSM. This story will have spanking themes in later chapters. The following story will use mature language. This story has already been written and will contain character death in future follow ups. Lemons will not occur right away and not in every chapter this isn't Fifty Shades of fun. Please do not read this story if you think you may feel offended by the discussed themes.
Story and lyrics are mine; the characters are borrowed from Stephenie Meyer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
"Today's the day. Today's the day."
Our brand new five-year old decided to run into our bedroom at 6:45 a.m. and harass the crap out of us until both Edward and I got up.
She had been chanting that today was the day and singing "Happy Birthday to Me" to herself for the past five minutes. Finally Edward groaned and rose up out of bed, grabbed the little noisemaker and pulled her back into bed with us.
She screamed and giggled.
"Uncle Edward." She screamed.
Edward paused and looked down at her. "Why did you call me that?"
"Because I have an Uncle Jacob, and Uncle Darren and my Uncle Eugene died and you are Uncle Edward." She stated.
Oh boy this poor girl was going to grow up so confused.
"Well how about me? Can I be Auntie Bella?" I laughed, figuring I could add to the confusion.
"You can't be Auntie Bella, you're my mommy. Duh." She rolled her eyes.
My heart stopped. I looked over to Edward; he had a warm smile on his face.
"I think mommy is a great name." Edward proclaimed. He leaned down and kissed Gracie on the head.
I guess she had it all worked out.
"So can we go now? I want to see Cinderella." Gracie unable to grasp the importance of what she just called me, moved on quickly.
When we went into the pool that day after visiting Embry, Edward played a game with the girls trying to get them to guess what we were going to do for Gracie's Birthday. I had learned that they both had never been to a Disney park and that seemed like a travesty for two young kids currently living in southern California.
I don't think I ever heard such silence as both Savannah and Gracie's jaws dropped at the news. However the silence was short-lived and it turned to screaming very quickly. All day, every day Gracie would ask me questions about Disneyland and she would talk of nothing else.
"Okay, Okay. We are going to get up but you need to go and get dressed and see if you can get your sister up." Edward said.
Gracie jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. Both Edward and I flopped back down on our pillows.
"Hey, you said you were getting up." Gracie had come back to assure we would follow through on our end. Both Edward and I looked at each other for a second and forced ourselves out of bed. Gracie departed after that.
"I told you we should have just waited till the day of to tell her where we were going." I grumbled.
"Next year we'll do it your way." Edward replied.
We had bought Gracie a Cinderella dress that she could wear to Disneyland. Edward made all the arrangements for the day. Disneyland was going to send an escort to help us around the park. The best part was not having to wait in long lines for rides. I knew that we would be allowed to dine at Club 33 something I had always wanted to do but this day was more about the girls so I told Edward that we could eat at The Blue Bayou inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Ariel's Grotto. I had gone to park many times before but this was by far the best time I ever had.
Going with two young girls and seeing their eyes light up around every corner was truly an experience. Edward knew that we may feel a little tired before dinner so he rented out a suite at Disneyland Grand California just so we could rest up before dinner. We wanted the girls to lay down for an hour so they would be able to stay awake for all the different shows that happen late at night.
By the time we left the park, both Savannah and Gracie were ready to pass out. I think we had done our job. But there was still one thing left to do.
The next morning, Edward and I woke up early before Gracie and Savannah. Ian had met us at the front door to deliver one very important package.
We took the package upstairs making sure it was wrapped properly and we went to sit upon Gracie's bed.
She slowly started to rub the sleep out of her eyes while we gently called her name to wake her up. Savannah started to wake up to and once she saw what was in my arms, Savannah squealed. "Gracie, wake up. We got a kitten!"
At the announcement, Gracie shot up from the bed to meet her little white ball of fur with a hot pink ribbon tied gently around her neck.
"Oh my goodness. I wanted you soo much." She told the kitten walking on her bed, meowing.
"Well, we hope that you both will take good care of this kitten. You can take your kitten to other places in the house but until she grows up you need to keep her inside your bedroom so she doesn't get lost when you aren't watching her." Edward explained.
"How about you both sit down and come up with a name. We will go and start breakfast." I said.
Edward and I left the girls and started downstairs. Jacob was sitting at the bar with a bowl of cereal; man did he look like he had a rough night.
"Jacob, when is your call time? You look like crap." I laughed.
"One pm. And I look like this because I had insomnia last night. What's your excuse?"
"Come on guys." Edward tried to stop us but that's just how Jacob and I were with each other. We didn't really mean any of the things we razed each other about.
"Well, I'm coming with you, today." I told Jacob.
"Why?" he asked.
"Why not? Can't I come and support you and your endeavors?"
Of course I had an alternative agenda. Angela had been texting me the past couple of weeks about how she finally had been contacted by Jacob's personal production assistant Ben Cheney. Apparently they had held mad texting sessions and hot phone calls but Ben was stalling on meeting Angela in person. I wanted to meet this Ben myself and help a sister out.
"I've asked you to come to my set a couple of times and you have never showed any interest." Jacob replied.
"Well, you're leaving soon and I wanted to be able to spend some time with you."
Which was half-true. Jacob was going to be leaving in two weeks. He was planning on checking in on his sister before heading off to London for filming. I didn't know much of the movie he was going to be working on but he would be in London for about six or seven weeks. Nothing had been discussed about where he would go after. This was always a temporary situation. Where would Jacob end up after he finished in London? I don't know why but some part of me felt disturbed at the idea that Jacob would no longer be in our lives. I relied so much on him these days.
Jacob looked at me for a minute contemplating my words while he chewed. "All right. We leave at noon."
I smiled and continued on with breakfast.
The girls came down for breakfast toting their new kitten.
"So did you come up with a name?" I asked.
"Yes we did." Gracie replied. "I would like to present to you, Princess Meow Meow."
That's a mouthful.
"Uncle Jacob, did you see our new kitten?" Savannah asked.
"Wow, look at that." Jacob pretended to be impressed.
The cute little thing started meowing so I showed the girls all the supplies Edward and I had bought Princess Meow Meow. Edward and I thought that since the girls had a pretty large bathroom maybe we should keep her food and enclosed litter box up there since she would most likely be upstairs for most of her young life.
Unfortunately, when we were getting ready to leave for the day, Gracie had a meltdown when we explained that she needed to leave the kitten at home. Gracie was adorable and cute but one thing we learned quickly was that when she really wanted something she could throw a tantrum like no one other.
"Sweetie, you can't take Princess Meow Meow everywhere you go. It's not safe." Edward tried to explain.
Hearing Edward utter the words "Princess Meow Meow" was the best thing I had heard all day. I didn't know whether to find it sexy or hilarious. I tried to control myself especially since I had a five-year-old with a red face and tears.
"But, I promise to take good care of her." She wailed.
"I'm sorry honey; she needs to stay in the house." I replied.
"Then I'm staying here." She stomped her little foot down.
"No you're not. Gracie having a pet is a big girl responsibility; if you can't act like a big girl then maybe you shouldn't have the kitten." Edward responded sternly.
"No! Gracie just put Meow Meow upstairs." Savannah shouted.
Gracie stood in place, hugging the little ball of fur.
Jacob had been upstairs getting ready and came down to witness our little standoff.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Gracie doesn't understand why she can't take Princess Meow Meow to work with us." I explained.
Jacob crouched down to Gracie, "Gracie, you have to leave her here. She needs her sleep. Why don't we go upstairs and create a nice soft bed for her." Jacob asked.
"But, I don't want to leave her." Gracie whimpered.
"You're her mommy now and you need to make sure that she gets the proper amount of sleep. She won't be able to sleep if you keep playing with her. Don't you want to give her a nice comfy bed and some time to rest, you can play with her when you come home later." Jacob explained sweetly.
"Okay." Gracie relented.
Geez, was this man the child whisper?
After the delay of making Princess Meow Meow a comfy bed we were finally on our way. I told Edward I could take the girls with me, but he said it would be better if he took the girls for the afternoon. Jacob was filming at Universal which wasn't too far away from Warner Bros. so I could be over there in a jiffy if need be.
It felt weird being on set with Jacob, I never saw him as an actor. Even though I had seen more movies of his then I would like to admit I had only been exposed to friend Jacob. We were sitting in his trailer when I finally was introduced to Ben Cheney in person.
"Ben, this is Bella; Angela's friend." Jacob said.
Ben was adorable, dear god Angela would eat this man up. He was rather shy but when he met me you could tell he was instantly nervous.
"Hi, Ben. I feel kind of bad that I am meeting you before Ang." I laughed.
"What?" Jacob asked and then proceeded to look over at Ben.
"I thought you met Angela?"
"Uhh….well…I…" Poor Ben was at a loss for words.
"Ben, you've talked to this girl for the past couple of months and still haven't even met her. I told you that she was beautiful, what are worried about?"
Jacob obviously couldn't see what was going on. Ugh! Knowing Jacob, he probably boasted so much of Angela's beauty that poor Ben here was afraid to take it to the next level out of fear for what Angela would think about him.
I pushed Jacob aside and looked Ben square in the eye.
"Ben. Angela is a great person, please just meet her. Just be a gentleman, you should see the people she is surrounded by all day. Trust me, she craves intelligent conversation and if you have managed to hold her interest this long then I can definitely tell you that Ang is so interested."
"I'm just worried, I really like Angela. I don't want to lose that." Ben confided.
"What, stop being a pansy." Jacob interjected.
I turned on Jacob and pointed at him, "You. Out. Now!"
I pulled Jacob to his trailer door and pushed him outside it.
"Dude, this is my trailer." He complained.
When Jacob was finally out of the picture, Ben and I were able to talk a little more freely. I felt bad for guys like him; afraid of pursuing something because of fear that they will lose. After our little discussion Ben promised to take Angela out on an official date.
Ben left for work and Jacob stomped back into the trailer.
"Well, my work here is done." I smiled.
"So this is why you wanted to come today, it had nothing to do with me?" Jacob asked. I started to feel a little bad, he genuinely looked upset.
"Well, I just wanted to help move things along but I would love to stay and see you work."
"Just forget about, Bells. I gotta get going, I'll see you later."
Jacob left not even hearing my protest. Well just great. Now I have to find a way to make this up. I sat there in Jacob's trailer for a little while hoping he would come back but he didn't. My phone started to ring and it was Justin.
"Hello."
"Hey B. Are you at Warner?" he asked.
"No. I'm over at Universal. Why?"
"Perfect, can I meet you?"
"Justin, I can't help you today. I should get back over to Warner Bros."
"I have a surprise for you." He sang.
"How long is this surprise going to take?" I asked.
"Look, I have a couple of friends that want to meet you. There is a very good job opportunity in it. Don't be stupid." He demanded.
"Gee thanks." I rolled my eyes.
"Hey I heard how you turned down that record deal. You can't possibly get any stupider then that."
I huffed. "Oh, for the love of god."
"Just meet me."
I finally gave in under sheer curiosity. I wasn't as familiar with the Universal lot as I was with Warner Bros. When I finally located Justin, I was a tad bit miffed since it was so hot outside.
"This better be worth it." I grumbled.
"It will be. So you know that song we danced to in Vegas, the one that TMZ filmed and put on their website." He started explaining.
How I loathed TMZ. Those guys were everywhere.
"Yeah."
"Well, it just so happens that I am friends with the artists and they wanted to talk with you."
I stopped in my tracks. I started to process what he was saying.
"Veonna wants to talk to me?"
"Yep and Michael Newton." He proclaimed.
My heart started racing. Veonna was a legend. She was highly sought after, she was career maker. If you worked with her even once, you gained honor in the industry.
Justin was trying to pull me along but I was still having trouble believing that Veonna was behind the door in front of me and I was about to meet her.
"Damn, calm down. You're sweating." Justin laughed.
"Well, gee….it isn't every day that I meet someone of such distinguish." I retorted.
"You didn't seem that nervous when you met me."
"That's because you aren't a legend." I rolled my eyes.
Justin formed the cutest pout but I started moving forward.
We walked into the room and Veonna and Michael were laughing about something.
"Here she is." Justin presented. "Veonna I would like to introduce you to Bella Swan."
We went to shake hand. "I am so honored, truly." I breathed out. I could imagine a halo of light and angels singing as I looked upon Veonna.
"Oh, thank you. Thank you for meeting with us as well." Her voice sounded like Snow White singing to the animals. Sorry for the Disney metaphors, my life has been altered forever having to watch those movies over and over with Gracie and Savannah.
"And this is Michael Newton." Justin moved me on.
"You can call me Mike." He replied as he shook my hand as well.
"Pleasure to meet you." I greeted. Michael was cute, well even a little hot but something about him held an air of entitlement that put me off a bit.
"So, I saw the video of you two on TMZ dancing to our song." Veonna started out.
I was never more embarrassed. I wanted to defend my actions and say that the alcohol made me do it.
"Also I have seen your work in the past couple of music videos you have made. Justin tells me that you were the brains behind their concepts. I was wondering if you could take a moment and think of a concept for song?"
"Oh….uh….well…." Come on Bella move on toward muti-syllable words.
"Um…I have to think for a minute." I finally responded.
"I have the song here if you want to listen to it a couple of turns." Michael added.
I nodded my head and he set up his portable speaker. He started to play the song and I couldn't stop my head from bouncing back and forth to the beat. It was a hip hop pop song I guess was the best way to describe it. I closed my eyes and started to try and think. Man I really hated being put on the spot.
After a couple turns, I finally sighed and just gave them the only thing I could come up with. I wasn't some damn trained seal. I could kill Justin right now. He could have at least warned me.
"Okay, so I know your song is supposed to be some kind meaning for partying, however what if you took your song into another direction maybe something a tad bit literal. Save the planet. You could highlight on some of the issues that plague the earth. Melting icecaps. Oceans polluted. Trees being cut down by the thousands. You two can advocate ways to save the planet, in a totally sexified, partying manner of course."
Veonna looked over to Michael both of them seemed to be in some serious thought.
"Justin would you be able to choreograph?" Veonna asked.
"Yeah, no problem." He answered.
"All right, write-up a treatment and set a budget. We film in three weeks." Veonna informed me.
"Whoa, wait a minute…what?" I was a tad bit confused at the moment.
"Well I like your concept, I like you. Let's go with this." Veonna replied.
I looked over to Justin confused.
"She wants you to direct her music video." Justin clarified.
I laughed a little, "Uh…I'm honored, but I don't have a lot of experience. I've only ever directed one music video before. I don't think that I am ready to take on such a prestigious…project. Also I have a rule on my sets that I'm not sure either of you will be able to comply with. No offense."
"Bella, the man who directed my first music video never had directed before. I have brilliant intuition; I can see people's talent even before they can see it. I don't know of your rule but Michael and I will abide provided you do your job. If this is about money; I assure you, you will be compensated handsomely."
"It's not about the money. I am fortunate enough to live with a man who won't even allow me to help with bills thus if I am going to work for anyone I want to always pick jobs I love and there is an understanding of respect on my sets. I don't do well with divas, I have had past issues with them."
"Understood. Will you commit?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
No doubt this would be the type of project to really skyrocket my career if done properly. If I failed I would be the laughing-stock of Hollywood. Oh god, I wish Edward were here.
"Would you excuse me for a minute?" I asked.
They nodded and I exited the building quickly. I dialed Edward, I already knew what he was going to say but I still needed to hear his voice.
"Hey baby." He answered.
"Hey….so a funny thing happened on the way to the forum." Leave it to me to make Broadway jokes.
"What happened?" Edward sounded curious.
"So I was here at Universal and I received a call from Justin, well long story short he took me to meet Veonna and she wants me to direct her next music video with Michael Newton."
I blew out a breath.
"Really honey? That's tremendous. I'm so proud of you." He boasted.
"I haven't said yes. I'm worried I'm not ready. What if I screw this up?"
"Bella, you are talented and amazing. You won't screw this up, but I'm afraid that if you don't accept this opportunity you may come to regret it. I will always stand behind you. You can do this."
God, how I loved him.
"Thank you. I needed to hear that. I love you, Edward."
"I love you too, baby. Go knock'em dead."
I accepted the project, I only had three weeks to prepare. There was a lot that was going to happen in the next three weeks. Liberty Project's album was going to be released. Jacob was going to be leaving.
Jacob.
I really needed to go back and try to apologize. I still felt bad from earlier. Jacob had been a godsend, he was always willing to help out with the girls and even though we started off rocky I truly did appreciate Jacob.
I walked back over to the soundstage where he was going to be working. I figured I would try his trailer first. Jacob was inside reading his script dressed in tuxedo.
"Wow, someone's lookin snazzy." I sang.
Jacob wouldn't even look up at me.
"Ah come on, really? You gonna stay pissed off at me?"
I sighed.
"I'm sorry, Jacob. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Please don't be mad at me."
Jacob looked up from his script. "It's fine. Whatever." He dismissed.
"All the things I have said to you over the past couple of months and now you want to be mad at me. What's your problem? What do you want me to say? Jacob, I appreciate you. I am ever so thankful for your friendship even if you are a pain in my ass some times."
"You don't get it Bella? Look if you wanted to talk to Ben, why didn't you just say that? Why did you go through a charade to come today? If we are friends then don't lie to me. I have tried to be there for you every moment the past couple of months. Even the other night with that music record asshole, I backed you up. The only thing I asked from you was for you tell Edward. Did you do that?"
"You're mad at me because I didn't tell Edward something that was of no concern of his about an incident that I handled from a day last week?" I snapped.
"It's kind of important. Somebody manhandles you, is Edward's business. I think you…"
I cut him off, "What do you even care? It has nothing to do with you."
"Well, I'm sorry Isabella. I didn't realize that your well-being had nothing to do with me?"
WHAT? Well-being. God now he was even sounding like Edward. What did they sit around and read a book together on the subject. UGH!
"Jacob, it doesn't. This is not even a big deal? If something like this had happened to you, I wouldn't expect you to tell your future girlfriend because it doesn't involve her."
Jacob looked at me for a second.
"Future girlfriend." He sighed and then shook his head. "If it was the love of my life, I would tell her because yes, Bella she has the right to know."
"Well then goody goody gumdrops for your future girl friend." I retorted. I turned to leave the disaster trailer.
Just as I was about out the door, "If you don't tell him, I will."
I stood there for a second preparing a final remark but I had nothing.
I arrived back at Warner Bros in time to catch Edward taking Gracie and Savannah to the commissary for ice cream.
"Hey." I waved and smiled at them.
Edward's smile was grand at the sight of me.
"Want to chase down an ice cream truck with us?" Edward asked.
"Honey, I don't think that will be necessary, they have them all in a freezer. No chasing." I laughed.
"Ian helped me with a hook shot." Savannah announced.
"I'm not sure what that is, but I'm sure you're great at it." I replied.
Edward shook his head at my sports aloofness.
While we were sitting and eating ice cream all I could think about was Jacob and his warning. Should I call his bluff or should I tell Edward with the chance to spin it my way. I mean if Jacob did have the balls to go through on his little threat I'm sure he would make the story seem fantastical. Edward could tell I was someplace else and he asked me about it but I just told him I was thinking about my new music video project.
Later on that evening, Gracie was happy to finally be home so she could play with her kitten and I didn't see her or Savannah until dinner. When it was time for bed, they had a small fight over which bed the kitten would sleep on but I settled that quickly with the taking turn's route.
I settled myself downstairs on the couch with a notepad as I started to fully dive into working on my treatment. Jacob wasn't home for dinner and I wasn't about to call him and find out how he was planning on making it home since I took him to work this morning.
Edward was in his office working on emails at the moment and I was happy for the silence. The funny thing about silence is it doesn't usually last long.
"Bella, I'd like to speak to you upstairs for a moment." Edward said from the entry to the living room. I looked up and saw him standing there, Jacob was right behind him. It was clear that they had their discussion.
I got up from the couch and started towards our bedroom.
"Mind your own damn business, Jacob." I spit.
"Enough! Upstairs." Edward was through with politeness.
As soon as I was upstairs I went and sat down on the bed. Edward was right behind me.
"All right Bella, I'm going to give you a chance to explain." Edward began.
"I don't feel there is much to explain. I was in a conversation about a song I helped write and Riley felt it was his place to pull me aside. He did grab my wrist a little forcefully but I handled the situation. I didn't tell you because it wasn't a big deal. Jacob only told you to get back at me for this morning."
"You don't feel I should know when someone hurts you?" Edward asked angered.
"It wasn't that big of a deal." I exclaimed.
"Isabella, I don't know what I have to do. You don't seem to understand that I want to know these things. You deliberately kept this from me. I haven't punished you in a while because I wanted to try warnings. After this past spring when you kept things from me, I thought I punished you good and proper but little by little I have noticed that you have once again started to not only keep things from me but you have no respect for your own safety."
I pushed my face into a pillow and cried out in frustration, "I don't believe this."
"Well believe this; you're on a thirty-day restriction. If in the next thirty days you step even one toe out of line I will throw the book at you. Do you understand?"
"Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous."
"You are going to apologize to Jacob, from what I understand he stepped in to protect you. I think the least you could do is apologize for your attitude downstairs." Edward continued.
"Absolutely not. Jacob has bug up his ass. I refuse to apologize." I declared.
Edward sat down on the whipping bench. "Isabella, come here. Maybe I can make you see the error of your stubborn ways."
Uh oh. My how the tides had turned.
"All right, all right. I'll apologize." I jumped up trying to spare my poor ass.
I started to walk toward the door but Edward called me back.
I tentatively walked over to him.
"I'm getting really tired of the snotty attitude. Thirty days. Understood?" Edward's eyes held a promise I wasn't about to trifle with.
I nodded my head and as I went to retreat Edward landed a smack to my ass so hard I felt tears instantly form.
There was no doubt in my mind that Edward would make good on his promise. I'm sure at this point he would throw the book at me for jaywalking. Thirty days. I could be good for thirty days.
Right?
