Chapter 13

FredsAngel and AngelsFred

Disclaimer: Viacom owns VH1, not us. (Like we'd want it, anyway.)

A/N FA: An update for all of you! AF and I are both getting ready for finals, but took this time out to update as many stories as we could (this, Ironic, OAS, a parody of Ginuwine's 'In Those Jeans', and a songfic that has been on my desktop since forever...). So you'll be reading a lot from us soon. And since summer holiday is upon us, we'll have more time to write. (AF: Sure. Right after we lie around my dad's place, fall asleep in front of the TV, wake up and go wakeboarding, eat, and start the cycle over again.) Oh yeah, this is a kinda funky chapter. Remember the very end of chapter 12? This starts out a few hours before then, while Angie and the girls are still in NYC. (Maybe I should do a "Sex and the City"-like spin-off from this.) Bad jokes aside, I love Nathan Lane. Especially in The Birdcage. And Adrienne's middle name is pronounced 'Ti' ah' ră.'

And thanks for the all the positive responses to "Prelude." I've found that I kinda like jerk!Fred; it reminds me of another annoying redhead who shall not be named. (AF: For your sake, you'd better be talking about my sister.) I've also grown an even greater fondness for George/Angelina. And since George was the jerk in "All of This", I figured it Fred's turn to be an asshole. (Besides, it's not like he can help it; he's irresistible. What you would you do if women just threw themselves at you for no reason?) And before I forget, very few people know that George and Angie are together…and Fred ain't one of 'em. Another little teaser for you guys.

Angelina's POV

After a quick glance around to make sure no one noticed four beautiful women appearing out of thin air, we stroll into the bright, cosy tearoom. I love Teany, if not just because of the great tea, because it doesn't resemble other teahouses I've been to. Like Madam Puddifoot's. Mum took my sisters and I there once and it scarred us for life. All that lace and glitter and crap is just plain wrong.

Hermione and Ginny sit down while Adrienne and I head to the counter. "Hi, Kels," we chorus to the woman at the cash register. Kelly is the vegetarian co-owner of Teany; her vegan counterpart, however, is nowhere to be seen. "Hey, where's Moby?" I ask casually.

"Eh, he'll be in later. And maybe if I'm lucky, he won't Apparate. That freaks me out. I'm glad you two walk in like normal people," Kelly answers just as coolly. "So the usual?"

"Not today. Can I get a teanychino?" Adrienne gives me a look. "Scratch that. Give me an 89."

"Rough night?"

"Very. There are times I think Club Edelweiss is the second coming of Studio 54."

"Girl, I've been saying that since it opened. The only difference is that it has better-looking owners." All three of us laugh; after all, none of us are old enough to remember the owners of Studio 54 (other than what we've seen on VH1's Behind the Music). "Is that all?" she manages to ask between chuckles.

"Um… two 80s, one plain scone with clotted cream and jam and one teany bagel. For me, one avocado and tofu cream cheese, smoked tofu with mango, and a ploughman's."

"You know, you get another choice," Adrienne smirks.

"Shut up. I'm thinking. And…peanut butter and chocolate."

Kelly turns to my cousin. "Uh, okay. And you, Adrienne?"

"I'm rather hungry, actually. One granola with soy yoghurt, a Welsh Rarebit, and a cashew butter sandwich. To drink…how about a 24." I glare at her. I can't believe she ordered Ti Kuan Yin after this morning's argument. "Okay, fine. Give me the Vanilla Berry Cream."

"You know, Adrienne, we're all adults here. You can say '69'," I smirk. Her response? A swing at my head. Evil, evil woman she is.

Kelly shakes her head at us. "Is that separate or together?"

"Together," we say in unison.

"Well, that's 52 bucks (A/N: actual price; menu's in front of me) then." I hand over the cash and we head over to the table.

As I soon as I sit down, my mobile starts ringing. Two seconds later, Adrienne's goes off. "What?" she says into the receiver, I presume to Fred.

Finally, mine stops ringing. I pick it up and check my voicemail. "Message sent by 'Jamilah Martinez'," the automated voice says, "at 9:24 AM." Followed by that, I hear the frazzled voice of my publicist.

"Antoinette Toussaint! Where the hell are you? Do you know how hard I work to keep your name out of the tabloids? I cannot believe the shit that you have put me through this time! Fighting with Adrienne Johnson! Have you lost your fucking mind?! Call me immediately so that we can set up a press conference to get this sorted out."

"End of message," the automated voice says needlessly.

At the same time, Adrienne snaps her phone closed. "Well, that was my publicist. Apparently, both the Enquirer and the Star got their grubby little paws on pictures of last nights events."

I turn to look at her. "You need to set up a press conference to stop those pictures from going to press, don't you?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

Ginny opens her mouth before I can even say anything. "That was your publicist on the phone, too, wasn't it? What's his name? Jamal Martinez?"

"No. That's my publicist," Adrienne answers. My cousin furrows her brow briefly before obviously coming to a conclusion. "Your PR girl is Jamilah Martinez, isn't it?" I nod slowly, seeing where she was going with this. "Then fixing this should be a piece of cake."

"You know, you're right. You call Milah, I'll call Jamal and we'll get this straightened out in no time."

Hermione exchanges a confused look with Ginny. "Will the two of tell us what's going on? We can't exactly follow your train of thought here. Or see why you'd call each other's public relations personnel".

"Our publicists are related!" we exclaim together. "We're represented by the same public relations company," I explain. "And it's run by übersiblings Jamilah and Jamal Martinez. They –" Before I can finish my statement, however, a deep, clearly masculine voice comes from behind me.

"So the wonder cousins are speaking now." If he thought we didn't hear that loud ass 'POP', then he has truly lost his mind.

"Hi, Moby," we say casually in unison. Then we add, "Shut up, Moby."

The techno superstar plops into the chair separating me from my cousin and slides an arm around our shoulders. "You know you love me." Then he looks across from us as if noticing Mione and Gin for the first time. "And who are these lovely ladies?" Adrienne and I burst into a fit of giggles. We've both known him for quite some time now and it still amazes us that he fancies himself a ladies man. (Not that he's bad looking or anything, but there are better out there.) He stares at Hermione for a few seconds before recognition colours his face. "Ohmigod!" he exclaims, face turning red with excitement. "You're Hermione Granger! Can I get your autograph? I can't believe it! Hermione Granger is in my teahouse! Sitting right across from me!"

Adrienne and I can't help but to laugh at him again. And at Hermione's frozen expression. Honestly, the girl looks like she's been Petrified again. "You'll have to forgive him," Adrienne manages to choke out between giggles. "He doesn't meet many people more famous than he is."

I can't resist getting a dig in as well. "Adrienne Tyarah Johnson! You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You know that there are no people more famous than him. His ego couldn't take that."

He focuses on us for the first time since realising that Hermione was with us. "If you two weren't such good customers…" That reminds me; what happened to my food? I'm hungry and need to deal with the wrath of the Martinezes later.

Apparently Adrienne was thinking the same thing. Now I'm starting to wonder if Fred was really worth not speaking to her for nine years. "Yeah. Speaking of that, could you tell your partner that we want our damn tea? We've places to be."

At that moment, Kelly comes over with two trays of tea. "A little help here," she says, struggling with the teapots. "There's another tray and a sandwich rack behind the counter." Moby reluctantly gets up and heads to the back of the small café. She puts a pot of Vanilla Berry Cream tea in front of Adrienne and a pot of Tea for the Liver in front of me. "The Yerba maté must belong to you two then," she said, setting a pot in front of both Mione and Gin. As she walks off to deal with another set of customers, Moby comes back.

"So who has what?" he says, a cheerful look on his face.

"Mione gets the scone and Ginny gets the teany bagel. The granola, Welsh Rarebit, and cashew butter sandwich goes to Miss Greedy over there and everything else is mine." He doles out the food and leaves.

Adrienne throws a bit of granola at me. "I'm greedy? You're the one eating a peanut butter and chocolate sandwich for breakfast!"

"Hey, I have the four food groups covered! Fruits and vegetables, dairy, soy, and chocolate." The table erupts in laughs. "Anyway, as I was saying earlier, our publicists want to set up a press conference so that we can dispel any rumours of animosity between two of their best clients. I don't think they even knew that we knew each other until then, though." We both pull out our mobiles and begin dialing. "Jamal? This is Toni Toussaint." I say into the receiver. Beside me, I can hear Adrienne talking a mile a minute to Jamilah.

"Ah, yes. The woman that beat the shit out of my favorite client. What do you want?"

"You know, she did do a number on me, too." The silence on the other end of the receiver lets me know that Jamal Martinez is not amused, so I get to the point. "Your sister called me and said that we needed to set up a press conference immediately to stop the pictures from going to press."

"So why aren't you on the phone with her?"

"Because Adrienne is on the phone with her right now."

"And you know that, how?"

"Because she's sitting next to me in Teany." And flinging granola and soy yoghurt at me while she's gesturing and arguing with Jamilah. But I'm not going to tell him that. "She's trying to do the same thing with her that I'm doing with you."

"Which is?" Let it never be said that Jamilah and Jamal Martinez aren't really siblings. He's just as bull-headed and stubborn as his sister. Maybe even more so.

"Explaining to you that it was a damn misunderstanding so that we can clear up this mess. We have a flight to England later this afternoon."

"Out of where? She hasn't said anything about it to me." Or to me. Why did I say that? Oh yeah; 'cause she's a bit angry with my ex-husband as well.

"La Guardia. On Delta. At 4:00," I say, shocking myself with the details. I thought I had forgotten all the schedules I had memorised. The only problem is he'll probably check it out when he gets off the phone with me. Ginny gives me the thumbs-up and raises her mobile to tell me it's already been done.

"So what time do you want the conference to be?"

"Hold on a sec. I need to check with Adrienne." I tap her shoulder. "What time do you want to hold the conference?"

"I don't know. What time are we leaving for Fr – er, Aunt Molly's?"

"Plane leaves at four."

She raises an eyebrow at the word 'plane', but catches on quickly. "So how about 2:45? Time to make our statements, answer a couple of questions, and then get the hell out."

"That's cool." I turn back to the phone in my hand. We're thinking along the same lines apparently. "2:45. We just need enough time get in and get out."

I can hear him clacking away on the keyboard in his office. I wonder if it looks anything like Jamilah's, ultilising the minimalist look in favour of Feng Shui. (So she says; I think it's for the corporate shark feeling. Her office gives off a frightening vibe.) "Okay. I'm free then. Just let me talk to Ms. Martinez about her schedule and we'll try to accommodate you and Ms. Johnson before you leave." Ms. Martinez? Ms. Johnson? Does he always have to be so damn professional?

"That will be fine. Goodbye." Good riddance is more like it.

"Good day."

Looking to my left, I notice that Adrienne has hung up her mobile. She looks a bit a weary. Meanwhile, Mione and Gin are staring at me, expectant expressions on their faces. "Well?" they chorus in unison.

"He's going to check Jamilah's schedule to see if we can do a conference at two." I turn back to my cousin. "You look a bit tired."

"Jamilah scares me. She's too much like her brother. Remind me to look her up when I'm in the market for a new lawyer."

"That's how I felt about Jamal. He actually referred to Milah as 'Ms. Martinez'. It was scary."

"And there's nothing –"

Hermione cuts Adrienne off. "You can talk about that later. What I want to know is how in the hell does Moby know about me?"

"Joanne's four books," Ginny says cheekily.

"Shut up, Virginia," she says, empashising Ginny'sfanon name. "I was talking to the Muggles."

Adrienne looks at me. "You want to field this one or should I?"

"You can take it."

"Okay." She pours another cup of tea and turns back to Mione and Gin. "The short and the short of it is that he's a wizard. A lot of the beautiful people in New York are."

"It's kind of like Marvel comic books. All the costumed freaks are in New York," I add. "If the general population doesn't think it exists, chances are a famous New Yorker is one."

"Like who else?"

"Nathan Lane."

"What's he?"

Adrienne bursts into a fit of giggles. "She's an alien." Ginny makes a face that's somewhere between disgust and confusion. "You really don't want to know how we know."

Time Jump

2:45 PM (EST)

I've never been so nervous in my life. I manage to catch Adrienne's eye and she's just as tense as I am. I know she's worried about her name being dragged through mud in KeVan Monét's column beside mine. And it'll be worse for her because she's a record exec and technically Spin is a magazine devoted to music. "You sure you want to do this?" I whisper.

"Yeah. I was part of it. Besides, I was in worse shape than you were. Monét'd be on my side."

"But this means admitting we're related. Then the bastard would probably attack the whole label."

"Then I'd sue him for slander and take the asshole for every penny he has." Maybe I should switch to Jamal for my PR. Jamilah wouldn't let me fire back. I groan. When she finds out everything that I did last night, she is going to kill me.

"Okay. Let's do this." We both turn back to the gossip and entertainment journalists (and I use that term loosely) in front of us. "First question."

"Is it true that the two of you were fighting over Alex Daniels in the bathroom of a nightclub?" a gray-eyed blonde in the front row asks.

"No," I answer flatly. "Next question, please."

A woman that could be a dead ringer for Robin Givens stands up. "Ms. Toussaint, do you have a drug problem? Is it true that you are addicted to heroin and cocaine?" Heroin? Cocaine? Where do they get these things?

"No. I take ecstasy because I am bipolar and my doctor back home prescribed it for my depressive episodes." Okay, so I'm not bipolar. But my physician did prescribe it for my depression. "Next."

A tall man with skin the colour of milk chocolate and a predatory glint in his eye stands up in the last row. KeVan Monét. Should've known he'd be here. Actually, I knew he'd be here; it just threw me off that he wasn't in the front row relishing all this. "You know, I never noticed how much alike you two look until now. Are you sisters?"

Adrienne fields this one. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. Sledge, but we're not. Just cousins that had become estranged over the years. Next question."

Monét remains standing, but winces at the use of his real surname. It could be worse; at least he isn't going on about how it's a slave name designed by the 'man' to keep him down. "But you're from New York and she's from France."

I roll my eyes and humour the rat. "No, I live in France; I'm a native Brit. But I'm a citizen of both countries." That's the truth. And they can check up on it, too. We might have been the richest combined magical family in Europe, but Mum and Dad wanted to be sure we could survive in the Muggle world if Voldemort ever came back. So my sisters and I had dual citizenship in both the magical and non-magical worlds.

Adrienne continues. "As am I. Her dad and my mom were brother and sister. My family moved to New York when I was fifteen, which was about the same time her parents split up."

"My dad moved back to France and my mum stayed in England. And since I spent six months with each parent, the courts granted me dual citizenship. Then I spent a year majoring in Classics at Cambridge, dropped out, and moved to France permanently." I smirk. "Anything else you want to know, Kevin?"

He shakes his head and sits down, looking like a chastised child. I'm actually looking forward to reading his next column. We field a few more questions before Jamilah and Jamal Martinez rush in to remind us of the time. We stand up and head outside where Hermione and Ginny are waiting for us. "Ready to go?" Gin asks.

"Yeah," my cousin and I answer in unison before laughing. We've been doing that a lot today along with giggling. We quickly look around for watching people and then the four of us Disapparate.

Fred's POV

8:30 PM (GMT)

Forget angry. The four women standing in front of me are beyond angry; they're furious. I think I can actually see smoke coming out of the noses of Adrienne, Hermione, and Ginny. But Angelina...she doesn't just look angry, she looks disappointed as well. I'm really in for it now, apparently. "I can explain," I say in a feeble voice, looking 'round at the four females that have their arms folded across their chests and are staring daggers at me. Explain what? I don't even know what they're mad about. But then, they were always mad. I smack my head in frustration. Fred, you idiot, this isn't the time to be making crappy jokes.

I guess they can tell that I'm completely in the dark about what has them so pissed off because Angelina speaks for the first time since she and her mates have arrived. "You can explain why I've been the target of slander in a popular magazine? You can explain why I've been in a severe depression for the last few years? You can explain why you've been lying to me all this time?" I watch as a slow smile spreads across her lips. Uh-oh. That means I'm really screwed. "Well, go ahead then, Fred. Explain." A few seconds of silence while I sit on my bed and try to make sense of Angelina's words. I have almost no clue about what she's talking about. Her foot begins tapping the floor impatiently. "We're waiting."

"Well, Angel –"

"Angelina," all four women snap immediately.

"Well, Angelina," I continue, making sure to emphasise the correction, "I had a good reason."

"Which was?" she says in an even monotone. Oh sweet Merlin, she's seriously pissed. That's the voice she uses when Mount Angelina is about to erupt and she's doing everything in her power to keep her anger in check.

Okay. Take a deep breath, Fred. You can do this. Just tell her the truth. You did it because you love her and you'd rather die than to see her hurt. "Umm…"

"That doesn't sound like an explanation to me." She turns to her mates. "Did you hear an explanation, girls?"

"Nope," Ginny says.

"Can't say that I did," Hermione replies.

"Nah," Adrienne adds.

Angelina turns back to me, a bit of a grin on her face. "Well get on with it, Fred. We don't have all night, you know." She's enjoying this. She's actually taking some kind of sick pleasure in watching me squirm. She's such a sadist.

"Iloveyouanddidntwanttohurtyou!" There, I said it. Granted, it was all on one breath and came out as one convoluted mumble, but I said it nonetheless.

The grin on Angelina's face gets bigger and spreads to her companions. She's going to torture me; I know she is. They're going to use the Cruciatus Curse on me. Hell, they might even AK me; they all took out their wands out when they started smiling. "Could you say that again? I didn't quite hear you."

"I said, 'I love you and didn't want to hurt you.' I thought sacrificing my happiness for your life was a fair trade. What I don't understand is why you're so angry."

"You don't understand why I'm so angry? Could it be that you made a major decision about my life and didn't even consult me at all? Not even one tiny bit. Could that be it?"

"Sarcasm doesn't become you, Angel." Why do I dig myself into a bigger hole?

"I think it does. Almost as well as being a jackass suits you."

"I was saving your life!"

"No, you weren't!"

"How can you say that? You can't know what's going on in my mind. You're not a telepath."

She throws her arms up in exasperation. "You just don't get it, do you? You decided the rest of my without me! How do you think I felt? I lost my entire family and my friends in the war! And then to lose my husband without a say in it? I wanted to fucking die, Fred! Got that? DIE!"

Then tears start welling up in her brown eyes and I stand up and pull her close. I had no idea she felt that way. "But I came back," I whisper in her left ear.

She pushes me away. "And that's exactly the point! If you were really trying to save my life, you wouldn't have." She sighs. "It really hurts that you didn't think enough of me to at least tell me what was going on."

Is that what this is about? She thinks I didn't care about her? "Angel –"

Gin's look softens and she finishes my thought for me. "It's not that he didn't think about you, Angie. He just did the only thing he thought he could do at the time."

"That doesn't excuse his behaviour!" Adrienne snaps. I have a feeling that she's on Angie's side here. "He still should've told her what was going on and let her make the decision for herself."

"And what would her decision have been?" Hermione replies hotly. "She would've chosen to stay with him! And then she'd be dead right now and Fred would be in Azkaban! And tell me, how in the bloody hell would that help any of us?"

This goes on for a few more minutes before I can tell Angelina's had enough of it. "Shut up! All of you, just SHUT UP!" The arguing ceases and all eyes fall on Angelina. "This is between Fred and me, not between the three of you." She takes a deep breath and continues. "I appreciate you all coming with me for moral support, but I think I can do this alone now. Just…go talk to Arthur and Molly or something." I watch as the three Disapparate before my eyes. Then she turns back to me. "Now, where were we?"

You were trying to not kill me. "I was trying to explain myself."

"Oh, right. Go on."

"Ginny was right. But so was Adrienne." Even though she should have been on my side, but I'll discuss that with her later. "I wanted to protect you, but I just ended up acting like an idiot."

She laughs. Well, that's a good sign. "When don't you ever end up acting like an idiot?" She's making jokes; that's an even better sign.

I slide my arms around her waist and pull her down onto my lap. "I hate it when you have a point." She doesn't say anything, so I nuzzle her neck. "You're not mad anymore." It was a statement, not a question. She shakes her head. "So do you forgive me for acting like an ass?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Of course not." She slides off my lap, pushes me flat on the bed and then straddles me.

"Fred?"

"Hmm?" I murmur, wondering why the beautiful, Junoesque woman on top of me hasn't started ripping my clothes off yet.

"You're not keeping anything else from me are you?"

"Of course not, Angel."

"Good." Then she mutters a Silencing Charm and we succumb to our deepest desires.

A/N AF: I just wanted to let you know that the story is going to be winding down soon. It's actually getting to be way longer than we intended it to be, so its got to end soon or else it'll start going downhill. So the action is going to pick up a bit starting with chapter 15. The next chapter is going to be all fluff because things haven't been okay in Fred/Angelina land since…chapter seven, I think.