A/N: Okay, you guys' reviews have seriously been making my entire week. I've had to try not to squeal in happiness while at work - nevermind that I shouldn't be checking my private email on work time... Anyways, things are starting to pick up with this whole movie business. Hope you all enjoy!

I don't own this world or these characters, still, somehow, but I do own my plot.

The day after I agreed to work with Shelly, Alice emailed all of us a ton of paperwork and told us to get a lawyer. She sent us to Jason Jenks, someone she and Jasper had worked with in the past for reasons she wouldn't tell me, and since I had no idea how to find a lawyer I met with him.

According to him, the agreement was pretty standard, if not a bit generous. My right to say no was written into the contract, as part of the creative terms, as was Edward's and my parents. The figure that they were willing to pay us wasn't nearly as high as some of the bigger studios that had pitched to us, but it was still more money than I knew what to do with. The contract stipulated that the studio had the exclusive rights to any creative project about my story for 5 years post-release, after which time any of us involved would be legally allowed to pursue other projects.

I signed immediately. I wasn't interested in haggling for more money or trying to squeeze another film or other work out of it. As long as Edward and my parents were taken care of, I was content. My parents signed immediately as well, both of them touched that I had thought to include them. Edward took the most time to sign. Before he was finished with the contract they had added an NDA that stipulated that any details that any of us shared that did not make it into the final project could not be released, and that in turn any details released about the project during its production would be released under mutual agreement. Essentially, he explained to me, he didn't want everyone in the world to know every detail of our lives because someone got chatty.

We were told that we would all get our checks in the mail once filming was completed, in order to give everyone the most amount of time possible to back out. Until those checks were signed and deposited all of our rights were still protected. I didn't care, but Edward was really adamant that everyone's rights be equally represented.

Then, it was time to get to work on the script.

When I agreed to work with Shelly, I almost forgot that she wouldn't be the one writing the actual script for the film. She had a very clear vision of what she wanted the storyline to look like, but the actual writing came down to Vlad, her script-writer. I wasn't sure what to expect form Vlad, but the very first question he asked me was if he could meet with Kate and me. I told him I'd get back to him, and in my first therapy appointment post-Thanksgiving I brought up the idea to Kate.

"Well, Bella, how do you feel about it?" I knew that Kate wouldn't give me a straight answer, I'd been prepared for it.

"I'm not sure. These sessions are really private to me – I don't even bring Edward or my parents. And I don't know why he wants to come, but I don't think I like the idea of him asking you questions about me without me knowing."

"Well, he wants to meet with both of us, right? Bella, I would never tell him anything about you without you being present to say yes or no. I legally couldn't, even if I wanted to."

"I know that." I said, but hearing it out loud did make me feel a bit better. Kate smiled knowingly.

"Sometimes, it's nice to get a reminder. Bella, I think the question here is, how deep are you willing to let him in to write this script?"

"Umm"

"I only ask because it sounds like what Shelly wants is based on your personal stories. And it sounds like what you want is a really honest film. In order to achieve that level of honesty Vlad is probably going to get pretty deep with you. Do you have a boundary in mind?"

"I want them to know everything they want to know."

"Well, part of this story has been you coming to therapy. Another part of is it you going to visit Jane in prison. Another part is you living with Edward's family. There's your whole life in Massachusetts. All of those are aspects of your life that Shelly and Vlad and whoever else might be on the team, might want access to. Are you comfortable with that?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but I had no idea what to say. I knew that I would probably have to talk about those things, but I had never thought of anyone wanting to come in and see them. The idea of taking Vlad, or even Shelly, to prison to see Jane was incredibly uncomfortable. Taking them to meet Edward's parents was fine, but not necessarily high-priority for me. And taking them to Boston was out of the question – both because it held a lot of uncomfortable memories and because I didn't want to take the time off for travel.

"Think about it, Bella." Kate smiled, ready to move on. "Anyways, how was your Thanksgiving. I know you spent it with your family."

"I think I want Vlad to come here." Once again, I had shocked Kate.

"Alright, why?"

"I don't want to bring him or Shelly on a tour of my life. And frankly, there's a lot that I don't think they need to see. But as much as I remember what I felt going through everything, I think that you probably have a different view. If I'm going to let him in to write the script, that's what I want him to see. An outsider's view of what I went through."

"Okay, I can do that. And remember Bella, any time he asks me a question, I'm going to look to you first. I don't care how much he wants to know, if you are not comfortable with that question all you have to do is shake your head, and I won't answer it. Is that alright?" I nodded.

"Good, now, Thanksgiving."

When I left, I set up the appointment with Kate and noted that I would be inviting Vlad.

To my surprise, when we sat down with Kate, Vlad immediately thanked her.

"I know that having to go through past details might be uncomfortable. Thank you for allowing us to have this conversation here. If anything gets to be too much, I would feel better having your expertise." It took me a minute to understand what he was saying, but when I got it I was touched. Vlad hadn't wanted to ask Kate about me. He wanted Kate there for my benefit. Just knowing that, I immediately felt so much more confident.

The actual questions that Vlad asked surprised me as well. He didn't ask for stories about my life. Instead, he asked me to describe my childhood – and he paid a lot of attention to how I felt and how I described both Tanya and Jane. Then, together, we laid out a timeline of everything that had happened since March. It was actually cathartic to lay it all out linearly. He again focused a lot on how I felt, but with everything that happened post-trial he also asked for a ton of details. To my surprise, he also brought up things that Edward had told him. I hadn't even realized they'd already spoken, but he brought up the time I locked myself in my room, which I had forgotten about completely, and the meeting with Didyme where we all initially said we wouldn't testify.

After hearing both of those through my perspective, he laughed and told me that Edward gave me a lot more credit than I gave myself, and suggested without saying it that I was very hard on myself.

The only question Vlad asked Kate was a doozy – he asked her to talk about how she felt I'd evolved emotionally from the beginning until the trial verdict was announced. To my surprise, Kate gave a very detailed, in-depth response. She talked about it as if she'd been charting out my progress, which I guess as my therapist she probably had been.

"Bella has worked very, very hard to process this the healthy way since the beginning. She had a few down moments, as would anybody, but I am very proud of the work she put in." Kate finished, smiling at Vlad. He smiled back, and then both of them looked at me where I sat – red as a tomato.

There wasn't too much time left after that. Vlad clarified a few more details, then shook our hands. He asked me if he could speak to my friends, and after texting them really quickly I gave him Alice, Jasper, and Angela's numbers. He told me that he was going to be speaking with my parents at the end of the week, and would try to talk to my friends by the end of the next week, and then he'd start writing.

Instead of going to back to the Cullen's house, I swung by Jasper's place to pick up Alice for a girls' night. We met up with Angela at our favorite restaurant, where I couldn't help but be a little reminiscent. The last time I'd been there I had no idea how my life was going to change. We didn't order one of everything, but we did get a few apps to split as we all got caught up.

Angela and Ben were still going strong, especially now that she finally admitted they were pretty serious. She told Alice and me about the new drama at work, that despite the fact that the big boss wasn't her direct boss, and Ben didn't work at the company, people were starting to claim she was getting favoritism. She tried to play it off like no big deal, but I knew she wouldn't have brought it up with Alice and me if it wasn't at least getting to her.

Alice and I didn't necessarily know how to respond either. She wasn't going to stop dating Ben, and it should have been obvious that there was no favoritism considering that a promotion she'd wanted had recently gone to a coworker. But she waved off our protests and told us that everything was fine – she was just irritated.

Meanwhile, Alice was beaming from ear to ear, telling me that because she arranged everything for me, the studio and Shelly considered her my agent for the project. It meant that she'd taken a sick day to sit in with them before they'd brought the contract to me, and she was having a blast talking to the rest of the team heads about me and the project plan.

She also told us that the plan was to have the script done by the end of the year so that Heidi, the casting director, could read it and pull her scenes for casting. I was shocked. December was less than a week away, and it seemed insane that anything could get done so quickly. When I spoke up, a pretty tipsy Alice rolled her eyes at me and told me that Vlad knew what his job was. After one more round of cocktails, we called it a night. Alice and Angela took cabs home, and I took a cab to spend the night at Edward's.

The last meeting Vlad wanted to have, was a meeting with Edward and I directly. According to him, he wanted to capture our dynamic accurately, which meant seeing us together somewhere we felt comfortable. So, the two of us invited him and Shelly to come out to a barcade with the two of us.

In theory, Edward and I had spent a ton of time together and, because he was my boyfriend, I didn't need to feel nervous around him anymore. But in actuality, because most of our time had been eclipsed by everything else going on in our lives, and because I felt weird knowing Shelly and Vlad would be watching us, I was extra nervous. I spent about 20 minutes staring in the mirror just trying to decide how I wanted to do my makeup, took the time to braid and flatiron my hair to make it super wavy, and 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave I ended up calling Alice to ask what I should wear.

I left 10 minutes late dressed in an old skirt I'd forgotten about – with shorts underneath because I knew we were going to play pool – and a tee shirt that I was pretty sure actually belonged to Edward. I was also armed with an overnight bag with work things and sleep things because realistically, I knew I was going to stay over with Edward.

Edward and I had agreed to meet at his place, so we could meet Shelley and Vlad together at the barcade. I had literally been in his apartment a few nights ago, but now it felt like a big deal. I walked up to the door slowly, and just as I was about to knock the door swung open.

Edward looked good. Great. He was wearing jeans that I didn't remember ever seeing in his closet, paired with a button down with rolled up sleeves over a tee shirt. It was nice, but it wasn't exactly a catalogue look. But something about how casual and happy he looked took it over the edge for me.

"Hey Bel –" I cut him off by going up on my toes to pull him in for a kiss, which lingered when he wrapped his arms around me pulling me closer. Suddenly, I forgot we had plans. Edward was still, stubbornly insistent that it "wasn't time" for us to sleep together yet – even though the case was over. I respected it, but that didn't stop me from wanting him.

He slid his hands under my skirt and I jumped up to wrap my legs around him, not even caring that we were out in the hallway. I was rewarded with a deep groan into my mouth and his hands tightening around me to hold me up.

"Edward did – whoa!" To be honest, I was willing to ignore Masen. But the second he heard him Edward let me go so quickly I almost dropped to the ground. He held me up with one arm, and half-turned to glare at Masen. Masen looked like he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or retreat.

"Sorry!" He said, and he was clearly fighting a smile. I was holding a laugh in too, but Edward looked much more rattled and I wondered if maybe his ban on sex was affecting him more than he let on.

"Come on Bella, let's go." Edward interrupted my thoughts. He brought my bag in from where I'd dropped it in the hall and dragged it into his apartment, grabbed his coat and keys, and we were out in the hall in less than 2 minutes.

The little humorous moment had softened my nerves for sure. Rather than driving we decided to walk to the barcade, which turned into more of a sprint because of how cold it was. When we arrived we were both laughing, and I was a little out of breath and knew I had to be completely red in the face. But as soon as we got inside Edward pulled me back in for another lingering kiss. This time, we were interrupted by Shelly politely clearing her throat. Edward was all smiles as he shook first Shelly's then Vlad's hand, and I quickly followed.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road!" Vlad laughed, once we got the formalities out of the way.

"Do you want to start with a round at the bar, before we head back to play some games?" I asked, not sure if I should direct the question to Shelly or Vlad. She turned and deferred to him, and he shook his head.

"Let's do the opposite. Do you want to play that giant jenga? Or are you pool people?" I realized Edward had never seen me play pool and I had my answer.

"Pool!"

"Oh! Let's do guys vs girls!" Shelly jumped in, winking at me. I wondered if she was hiding some pool secrets of her own. Vlad looked a little irritated, but he nodded.

"Alright. Do you want to break?" Edward directed the question to me and Shelly, but he held the cue out towards me. I took the pool cue he offered me, but shook my head.

"You guys go ahead!" I smiled to him and then winked at Vlad. Edward broke, and from his first hit it looked like Edward was taking it easy on us. I just took it in stride.

"Shelly, you want to go next?" I asked, after Edward went. He sank one striped ball before he missed. He seemed surprised that I didn't go, and he came over to me.

"Hey…you're not nervous, are you?" He seemed so concerned. I knew I ought to make him feel better, but I knew I'd have fun playing with him.

"I'll be fine." I shrugged, trying not to smile too hard. "It's just a game." Shelly sank two balls on her turn, and Vlad didn't sink a single ball. What he did do, was line me up with an easy first shot.

On my turn I sank the shot he set me up for, no problem. With Shelly cheering me on, I sank a second. And then with Shelly getting excited, I sank a third. On my go for the fourth, I hit it just slightly too soft and it stopped a few inches from the hole. Then I walked up to Edward, and kissed his shoulder.

"Edward…you're not nervous, are you?" He laughed out loud, looking between me and the table with a wide grin.

"Oh, it's on Isabella." He sank two more, but missed on the third, but didn't give Shelly many options. She hit it so that Vlad couldn't get a hit. And then with Edward's direction Vlad sank one and put the ball in an awkward spot for me. I managed to get one in but almost scratched, and instead of going after the last ball I hit it way far away from Edward's other options. He got one in with an impressive trick shot that I still think was an accident, then missed. Shelly also missed, mostly due to Vlad 'accidently' knocking a chair over as she took her shot. Then Vlad got one in to tie us up. When it was my turn for a shot, I smiled.

"Good game." I winked at Edward, before easily getting the last ball in. Then I turned to go after the 8 ball. But when I leaned over to knock it in, Edward came up next to me and started trailing a finger up and down my arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Just watching you play." I kind of didn't want to tell him to stop. I wouldn't have thought Edward would play dirty, and I was kind of into it.

"Hold that thought." I said. I made sure to lean a little further to play with him a bit, but I wasn't losing that game. It was a tricky shot, but I did manage to get the 8 ball into the pocket I called, and win the game. The second it went in, before Shelly and I could celebrate, Edward pulled me into another, lingering kiss. Then, leaned in and whispered.

"I wouldn't have thought you being so good at pool would be such a turn on." At first I thought he was teasing me but when I leaned back a bit to look at his face, I realized Edward was serious. And that, was a huge turn on. Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything about it with Shelly and Vlad there. So, I gave him a quick peck and then turned to face our guests who were both unashamedly peering at us.

"Do you know how cute you both are?" Shelly gushed the second we made eye contact. I smiled. For the rest of the night we decided to stop pool and play other games. We played Skee Ball, which apparently is Vlad's thing. We played a shooting game in which Edward absolutely killed the rest of us. We played one of those basketball machines too. After a few rounds of each of the games, we did sit down for a few rounds of drinks to talk. Instead of asking us questions, Vlad mostly just talked to us about normal things.

Halfway through the conversation Edward started rubbing my knee, and his hand kept getting higher and higher. He didn't go anywhere inappropriate but even just the feeling of his fingers darting under the edge of my skirt brought me back to how I felt at the beginning of the night and after we played pool. I couldn't get out of there quickly enough.

When we finally said goodbye to Vlad and Shelly, we once again darted back to Edward's apartment. The second we made it into his room, darting past a bemused looking Masen, it was like the dam erupted. We were a mess of lips, and hands, and moaning. I thought for sure he was going to relent, but he wouldn't. Edward didn't even take his pants off. As I started in on his pants and he stopped me, I couldn't help letting out a frustrated sigh.

Edward stopped, grabbing my hands and sitting us both down on his bed.

"Bella, are you…I'm sorry." He looked so frustrated and I felt so guilty, because I never wanted to make him feel like that. But I was getting frustrated.

"You don't owe me an apology Edward. I just…you're you, and I can't help how much I want you." Edward gave out a frustrated groan at that, and I felt a little bad, but it was true.

"Hey, we should have dinner. We didn't end up eating anything at the bar." I said, to divert.

"Bella be honest, are you mad?"

"No." It was the truth. Maybe once upon a time I would've been mad, or at least frustrated with Edward. But I respected him and I respected his boundaries, even if in the moment sometimes it was disappointing. In being with Edward I got everything that made Edward amazing. With all of that, sleeping with him was really a non-issue.

"Alright." Edward leaned down to kiss my neck, before tossing me my shirt and making his way bare-chested into his kitchen. With a view like that awaiting me, I had nothing to complain about.

Once Vlad got going, he really got going. By the time he'd met with Alice and Jasper, he already had the story more or less formatted out, and had the first several pages done. By the end of that week, he had the first 30 pages. After he had spoken to everyone, it seemed like Vlad did nothing but crank pages out. It made sense, working on the script was his job, but it was still incredible.

Rather than calling, Vlad texted me any questions that came up. I got used to getting texts like:

When you went for your DNA Test did they do blood or saliva?

Did you hug your parents when you met for the first time?

Were your friends with you when you got the call?

Did Jane ever live with you and Tanya?

It was always random, and often out of order. I knew I wasn't the only one – Edward got texts as well and even my parents and my friends occasionally. Vlad never sent us any pages of the scripts, even when Alice asked as my agent, but he would update us randomly on the page count.

The biggest surprise was when I found out that Vlad had visited Jane in prison – without asking me. She still refused to see me – I'd tried to visit the day after Thanksgiving only to find out that I wasn't on her list and she wouldn't meet me. I was pissed and hurt, and it took Edward, my friends, and a pint of ice cream to remind me that Jane was an adult and so was he and it wasn't my choice whether he spoke to her or not.

By late December, I was starting to get really curious about the script. Vlad had stopped sending us page updates once he got to 137, which Alice told me meant he was probably making edits. I still wondered if he was going to finish. I knew he was meeting with Shelly regularly and getting her feedback about the script, because she took me and my parents to dinner to talk to us about the next steps of casting and location scouting. She also took copies of a lot of old pictures of all of us – including some that had finally been released to me when the trial was completed – for the wardrobe and hair & makeup people to start putting together their looks, and for the location scouting and design people to get started.

We had other things to worry about, too. We were all getting ready for the holidays in different ways. Jasper was flying to Korea with Alice to visit her parents. Angela was taking Ben home for Christmas too, which was an even bigger deal for the two of them since he hadn't met her parents yet. The Cullens had invited my family to come and spend Christmas altogether – Masen, Lizzie, and Jake included, and I insisted on making the meal which brought an unneeded layer of stress into my life. The script was still in everyone's mind, but it wasn't the only thing.

Still, when 3 copies of the script turned up on the doorstep three days before Christmas, wrapped in a big red bow with the note Merry Christmas, Bella tucked in on a little card, it made my day.

Later, Vlad texted me to enjoy my reading, that he was on vacation until the 10th, and to be ready to tell him everything I needed changed the second he got back.