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.
Just as everything that had set down in the main bedroom I heard the very fucking annoying sound of something crashing. I wasn't too happy about it either, we had made sure that the girls were busy this weekend, well I had asked them to keep Bella away from here some and the guys could set up the house as a surprise, but that's irrelevant right now. The noise of something breaking was not something I wanted to hear. Especially when it came from Junior's room.
"It's all good bro, nothing damaged, and the picture frame can be fixed." Emmett's voice boomed out, now I had to figure out if he was the one that broke the fucker in the first place or did he get there after the fact. I put down the power drill that I was using to fix the bed frame together, purely for whoever's safety more than my own, and made my way towards Junior's room where I was met with both Peter and Emmett looking at the pieces of glass on the floor.
"Damn, Peanut is so not getting on this floor anytime soon," Peter muttered under his breath and telling me that he was the actual one who broke the glass in the frame.
Yeah big boy that shit is fragile and cuts deep. I had to wonder if either of them knew I was actually in the room when they started to clean the fucking mess that they had made up. A flow of curses flew out of Pete's mouth as he cut his finger on a small piece with an obvious sharp edge. It was fucking funny in a way, and I would have probably laughed my ass off if it had happened in another room but this meant that we had more work with unpacking to find Bella's little handheld vacuum thingy that she kept in Junior's room for emergencies just like this shit.
But instead of helping the two asses in the room I left and went back to the bed frame that needed to set by tonight, especially if Bella was going to be coming home here tomorrow sometime. I had gotten pretty far by the time I had heard the sound of that little thing cleaning the floor. And by the time that I had finished assembling the bed frame I was more than ready to just lie down on the mattress and just fucking sleep. With the heavy metal frame and the wooden base, it was one heavy mother fucker.
"Dude, what the hell is all this shit? And how the hell did you get that woman to agree to this shit?" Emmett's voice once more called from the back of the house, breaking me from my few minutes of reprieve. I knew what room he was in since Bella had pretty much told me to take the third largest room in the house to turn into my escape from everything that was pissing me the fuck off.
Whether it was work, shit that was being said, or even her I was to come and do whatever I fucking wanted to do in this room to calm down. Somehow she had thought that if I had my own place to hide out like her study she'd not have to worry about me losing my shit and taking off for god knows how long. I'd already set up the gym equipment when the guys came from the storage facility where I had previously kept that shit, and still had the big ass TV and sound system to set up; along with some other things from my army days. I still couldn't believe that it had been nearly two years since I had walked off that base and not looked back.
I turned the corner into the room to see both Edward and Peter looking through one of the other boxes that held all my old military gear including my dress uniform and some old field clothes in there somewhere but it was the picture that Emmett was looking at that got my attention. It was taken not long before our last deployment that McNamee had taken that picture where we were more relaxed.
That tour was probably the worst one either I or Emmett had seen, including our first one. Watching the little kids holding weapons that no kid should ever know existed let alone how to handle those machines. It was part of the reason that so many of us left the force after returning home.
James was pretty fucked up near the end and watching him being sent home earlier 'cause he couldn't handle some of the things we saw was something that none of us expected. But it was something that settled his ass more than anything that they could have done to him. He never told us what he actually saw when he was out patrolling that night, but it made him walk the straight line so fast and hard that he turned to the police force the minute he was released from his contract with the military.
Garrett had to be the jokester along with Emmett during that time, but he too had seen something's that no-one would have thought possible. Last I heard from him he was still enlisted with the military, though he was always able to handle the most fucked up things and not have it affect him that I had to wonder if he had been in the military a little longer than necessary.
He was and probably still is a great guy, someone that had always smiled at the shit that we'd see; and bring us back from the brink of fucking the hell up when shit got too twisted to understand. Yet his lanky ass was still able to get out of all the shit that he started and pulled with not a fucking mark against his name. His best would have been when he literally was able to one-up Emmett's big ass with pranks during one of our R&R times. That war lasted the whole time we were meant to be down but those two kept us on our fucking toes, wondering what was gonna happen next and who the fuck too.
But McNamee was probably the closest on out of everyone other than Emmett that I got to know. He was able to get you to smile with his simple Irish words and understanding when it was the right time to step in and when it was the best time to leave shit the hell alone. That plus he could drink like a fucking fish in the water. That man never lost a drinking game and wouldn't share his secrets of how the fuck he was able to pull that shit off. I always meant to call him to see what he was doing now or if he too had left the military or not. But with life going from one crazy-ass thing to another I never really got to that call. Still, now that things are relatively normal I should call that guy soon.
"Rumor has it bro that you're leaving the gym and moving onto bigger and busier things." Emmett never did leave things for long.
I handed my resignation to Demetri a few days earlier after talking to pa and one of his old friends who was having some troubles with working now that he was, well fucking old. He was taking me in so I could learn all the technical shit that went along with renovations and the legal aspects for the future. His kids didn't want the company and after doing the work here with pa I found that I really liked working with my hands and taking my shitty ass problems on the wood sometimes.
That plus after bringing the old guy here he liked what I could do and was pretty much hinting that after a while he'd sell me the company once I got used to all the shit. I was all for it and when I brought it up with Bella she was ready to kick my ass out if I didn't take the damned thing. Something about me being able to do something I actually enjoyed.
I didn't realize that she knew that the gym work wasn't keeping me as occupied as it used to. But hey it's not like I saw that place as my forever, and I'd always go there and catch up with Demetri and the rest of the people there. Or more specifically they'd show up on my doorstep if I didn't keep in touch with their asses. Not much changed during the time I worked there; it was like a close-knit family and it was going to stay that way if Rebecca had something to do with it.
I just nodded my head and looked around the room, I was still amazed at how well it was all turning out, well the getting shit right thing was anyway. This room still had a heap more to go before I would say it was ready to be used.
"Well, what you gonna be doing then? It's not like you'd be able to sit your ass down and not do anything. You weren't built like that Jazz." Peter called from his place on the floor with Edward, both of them seemingly stopping their hunt through my shit.
It's something that no member of the Whitlock family with a Y chromosome or some shit like that. We were always busy with one thing or another. No matter how fucking hard we tried we'd always be doing something. It wasn't that I didn't want them to know what I was doing and what may be happening in the future but I wanted to make sure that I was headed in the right direction before I told them the whole thing, and those fuckers wouldn't let shit drop until they knew all the information.
"Um, well I'm gonna be working with one of pa's old mates for a while to figure out some things then I'm looking into going into business for myself. After that fuckwit trashed the house it was me and pa that fixed it up and done some renovations to the whole thing. It looked great before but now it's fucking perfect." I answered without going into too much but enough to keep them happy; or at least they didn't ask any more questions about it.
Soon after we got back to getting the furniture into the house, and setting everything up to where it was acceptable until Bella got here. Then no doubt she'll want to move shit to where she wanted it to be. Me I didn't really give a shit, I was happier that we'd be in our own home sooner than she planned. It also meant that we would be moving closer to the wedding that was gonna make her mine in every fucking sense that she wasn't yet. Meaning legally; yes I was very fucking happy about that.
I was still wondering who the fuck I was gonna have for my best man, my brother, or my best mate. It was something that Bella and I agreed to; well one of her conditions to the whole thing. We'd have a maid of honor and a best man, but we wouldn't tell each other who it was gonna be, because really it was something that would cause the other one to change their mind. From what she had told me; she's already picked out who it was gonna be and bought the dresses and shit like that. And to make sure that no-one would be snooping around and finding the dresses she'd had them kept at the store until the week before the wedding.
My only job was to make sure I picked my best man and turn up on the fucking day. Yeah, that wasn't gonna be a problem. The only detail as if we were going to tell our parents before the whole thing or if we were gonna surprise them along with everyone else. Bella was all for leaving it till the last minute and then telling them before the actual ceremony, something about Renee not being able to keep shit to herself. I really didn't care so much just as long as she walked down that aisle towards me and I'd be one happy motherfucker. And yes I can say that with all connotations that go along with it.
We eventually finished getting the house ready by dinner time and none of us were sad to say it wasn't finished, it was fucking hard work and I really owed them for giving up their downtime to help me with it. Bella had sent me a text saying that the girls had already had dinner while out so it was up to us to fend for ourselves. We had driven past a little pub about halfway between here and Peter's house that looked like it could give us a good feed, so that was where we were heading. To fill up on food and have a few drinks after all the shit we did today. Something about eating pub food with a beer chaser was always a good way to thank your mates for helping out when you needed to get shit done.
