First and foremost this is the original story before I started to rewrite it... and got stuck in the writing of the rewrite. If you are following the rewrite you will notice quite glaring differences between this and the one you have already started following. I do not intend on giving up with the rewritten version, however, I think you guys waiting for me to get over my blank slate of a muse isn't going to happen any time soon. So I am re-posting the original. This was my first completed story and it is very different from how my last stories flow.
Secondly, this is not beta'ed. NOT AT ALL. There will be mistakes in spelling (I'm Australian and some words we spell differently). The layout will honestly have you wondering what the hell I was thinking. I wasn't; well that's not true. What I was thinking was that I knew what I was doing and screw anyone else... yes I was a conceited little shit even at the age of 31.
Thirdly, there are 68 chapters to this story, including the epilogue and two outtakes. All of which have been uploaded to my profile I will try to upload as often as I can. Please understand that I have a busy life in the real world. This includes two children, one grown and the other with disabilities. So while I should be able to update wherever I am, if something happens please understand that I will miss updating.
Last but not least. I am not SM. Not even close. I do not own the franchise, work in any capacity with the publishing houses or studios. I merely escaped from reality to play with some characters that I fell in love with while reading four books in a matter of days.
"Bella, come on you know you want to. It won't hurt promise." Yeah, where have I heard that before?
Oh I know when I had to go through this for Char's wedding, and really that was torture for me and everyone that was around me. I squeaked, screamed and a lot of cussing on my behalf and now they wanted to do this to me again.
"Char what are you doing in there, I want in. Sounds like fun and I definitely want in on some of that action." Peter still has that nasty dirty mind.
Why did I let Rose talk me into this into shoot, and where was Jasper when she cornered me? Work had without a doubt launched me into celebrity status apparently even after having Junior and everything that happened with Brea. I had asked the girls if they too would help me make Brea's final wish come true, and it was now the opening for our little adventure. So you guessed it publicity was gonna happen with or without my permission; and as Rose said, this way we get to okay everything before it goes to press.
You would think that since it's with the newspaper that we'd get final say regardless, but no apparently not unless we signed an exclusivity contract.
"If he even thinks of stepping in that door, or even trying to turn that door handle Charlotte Jamie Whitlock you will be one very disappointed woman and he will be one extremely sore man. Got that?" I growled through gritted teeth.
Needless to say she ran over and locked the door and sweetly told him to get the hell out of here if he wanted to be a daddy.
Yep Petie boy caught the daddy bug, and Emmett is starting to get that itch. Doesn't help that Jazz is constantly talking about being able to teach Junior all sports and taking him hunting. Now the sports thing I'm fine with; but if he thinks that I'm gonna let him put a rifle in my boys' hands he's got another thing coming. It scared the hell outta me when him and the boys went with Felix and Marcus hunting, and at least Edward thought better than come around me and talk about how much fun it's gonna be when Junior was old enough.
Yes I know he's only 6 months but he ain't ever going to be doing that shit right there. But getting back to the drama at hand; that would be having Char Alice and Rose attack me with all sorts of beauty devices, or what I lovingly call torture devices. See the dress, yes dress, isn't that bad, cause I got to veto all those ridiculous things that they saw as dresses and keep the one that I liked. And since it was getting cold I wasn't gonna freeze my tiny ass off. Thank you Paul for that too, he worked me till I was back to my old self and the diet that I was on really kicked ass.
Arg; I'm getting off point here.
Yes the dress was a simple black flowing silk with silver straps that eventually crisscrossed my back towards my butt, matched with silver heels that I have been walking around the house in for the last week and a half to get used to them. Alice's thing; need we say more. The only jewelry we all decided we would wear was the lockets that each had Brea etched on with matching earrings that Chelsea gave us after she found out what we were up to.
The girls were already stunning when they cornered me in the room, handing Junior over to momma Jane the minute they got here. Traitor she knew what was coming but didn't give me a heads up; nope her exact words "I wanna see your pretty little body in a dress. You two still haven't started on wedding plans yet. I'm gonna be old and grey before that wedding happens." If only she knew what we had planned. She's so gonna regret not helping me with this.
"Bella, come on stay still it's almost done," Rose complained the slightest movement I made, and I sorta didn't help since she was doing my hair and it's as long as hell right now.
I couldn't help the evil smirk that graced my face and I wasn't gonna apologize right now for it either. I knew that the battle was lost long ago, but didn't mean I was gonna go quietly. And if I knew that they weren't enjoying themselves with this I'd feel guilty but the smiles and little glints in their eyes tell way too much of how they like it.
Another 3 hours of prodding, poking and lacquering on the all sorts of smelly stuff and I was given the all-clear from the torture chair to get dressed, we heard the guys leave about 2 hours and 2 champagnes ago. When I asked why I wasn't allowed to see Jasper and Junior before they left I was promptly told that they agreed with Jane about the whole wedding and dress thing. Not like at Char's wedding I wore pants or something. But as the theme of their wedding was summer fun it was sundresses and flats. That plus the only other time I wore dresses was when I was pregnant and that wasn't gonna happen any time soon. Junior has started teething early and it wasn't fun I can tell you that. It hurt like hell when he bit down during breastfeeding.
Chelsea Marcus and Little Bella were going to be meeting us there as special guests and if I could talk them into it they would be the ones that would be cutting the ribbon to open the doors. The way I see it, it was Brea's dream and if she couldn't be the one that cut the ribbon then her family should be the ones that did it. Little Bella as too little to handle that, but Marcus and Chelsea were the obvious choice. After all the hassle we went through with Brea's will and that Heidi woman trying to contest the will for custardy it was time to celebrate that beautiful woman that we loved.
Having the photographer come to the house was a little disturbing until I saw Angela walk through the door, she resigned from her position as my assistant and I was never happier to see her follow her dream as a professional photographer. Rose threw her weight around at work to make sure she was hired and put under the lifestyle section of the newspaper. No-one wanted to lose that girl to the graphic scenes of the paper.
She took the shots of the four of us, both grouped and separately, since someone was going to be interviewing us at the building it took less than an hour. She wished us luck with what we were doing and agreed that it was for a good cause before she left, which left us waiting for the cars to pick us up, nothing fancy but classic regardless. The whole party thing was Rose's baby since I had no clue what was involved in running a charity, I was taking a back step at this thing and letting the girls do what they knew needed to be done, I was more of the behind the scenes type of person anyway.
The drive as not quiet but nor was it loud, I think we were all worried about tonight going off without a hitch. Well I know I was. I wanted to make sure that it worked out, but mostly I wanted Jasper beside me to keep me calm. The half-hour drive was taking forever as far as I was concerned; well that was until Char and Alice started with the funny looks.
And the whispering…
"You know she should wear something like that when they finally do decide to put us all out of our misery." Alice the fashion doctor wasn't going to be held back much longer.
"Would you please just say it already? Seriously what are you two talking about?" Rose, wait Rose had no clue what they were on about. Well I thought so until they all started to laugh; now I was thoroughly confused as to what was going on.
"Bella, can we ask you something? No pressure or anything but we are curious." Char's southern accent was on thick, but hey I was starting to get used to it finally, well you know what I mean. I simply nodded my head not sure where this was going and not sure if I liked what I saw in their eyes.
"Well, since you have that ring on your finger we thought you would be planning this big wedding or something, you know since you have to realize that it's not gonna be something that the newspaper will let slide. Well we wanted to know if you and Jasper have gotten around to planning anything yet." Her innocent look didn't fool me for a minute; I've lived with this woman 5 years now. She can't pull that over me nor can she get information out of me like she used to.
"Basically we wanted to know shit. I mean the who, what, where, when and all that stuff." Rose cut her off once she knew I wasn't giving in. I couldn't help it but laugh and feel completely relieved as we pulled up at the building where the opening gala was being held. But was instantly stopped when I saw what was waiting outside the car.
All four of them looked amazing, each dressed in similar suits with only the little pocket hanky thingy matching the accents to our dresses. Even Junior was dressed in a little suit. Slowly the girls exited the car, leaving me sometime to regain my breath and calm my nerves.
"Ready sweetheart?" Jasper called as he held his hand out for me to grab.
I saw my handshake as I placed it in his, but instantly calmed once his strong hand gently squeezed mine. When I stepped out I was greeted with the most amazing smile from the man that I truly loved, and was handed the little man who only just beat him from first place in my heart. Thankfully the cameras weren't that bad and Junior was snuggled into my shoulder away from the flashing lights as we made our way towards the reporters and the rest of our family.
I greeted Chelsea and Marcus, and gently kissed the little angel that was in her grandma's arms before facing the reporters. Since the others set everything up it was left to me to do the talking, which I was fine with as long as they kept to the foundation that had us here in the first place. But as usual once all the important things were over like why the name, and what we planned to do to help those young mothers that were out there; soon the personal questions started, and were put to a halt very fast. I was never someone who would face the crowd like that, but somehow I managed to keep my cool and not give anything away that was private.
We danced, ate, drank a little, and had a great time. Momma Jane took Junior home with her for the night knowing that we would be here until it finished, including the clean-up that was surely going to take forever. Or as Jazz said we ate some food, drank some bubbles (which he didn't like), and kissed some ass, now all we had to do was kick everyone out and clean the place up. Gotta love the simplicity of the man. It wasn't until after 2 am that the last guest left, leaving the 8 of us and the cleaning crew that we hired to relax and think back on the whole thing.
"Well girls I think you just might have pulled it off. From what I heard you have quite a few backers from tonight." Edward smiled at Alice before he took a swig of his beer; yes we were kind enough to have some for the guys after the bubbles were finished.
I sat there in between Jasper's legs on the floor since the chairs were being put away; resting my head on his chest. I couldn't help but smile at the idea that we might be doing something right. Something that would benefit those girls out there that weren't lucky like I was to have such great friends to help them out… or a family that yes at first took it bad but was there for me when it truly counted. Hell father changed a lot since that day. He did put on one stipulation when it came to grandchildren; he wanted Jazz and I married before we added anymore to the family.
