Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

AN: This Cut-take takes place the day after Jacob and Bella's wedding in the prolegomenon.

Maggie's Tale

July 22nd, 2006

The day Maggie quit working for LVMH, more commonly known as Louis Vuitton was the day that she met Rosalie.

Among the many different aspects of being an executive assistant with one of the biggest fashion names in the world was being involved with any and all charity work which the company did. The charity work she was involved with included everything from scholarships for up and coming photographers, models, and seamstresses, to donations for worthy causes such as breast cancer research and St Jude's Children Research Hospital, to sponsoring up and coming fashion entrepreneurs.

It was because of the last one that Maggie was with her boss, the CEO of Louis Vuitton, in Seattle, Washington instead of her home in Paris, France. A woman by the name of Rosalie Swan had managed to make enough noise to get their attention. It was a hard feat for an American to do. In fact, it was the first time in the twelve years that she had been an executive assistant that it had occurred.

She'd gone with her boss to China, Japan, the UK, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Brazil, Peru, Ghana, Kenya, Australia, and a couple of dozen others in her twelve years in her position, but never before had she gone to the states.

At least not since she'd moved from Maine to France when she was only fifteen and started to modeling Corsets, collars, chain-wear, garters, and other kink items. Going from modeling for a company who made the stuff most people wouldn't be caught looking at let alone actually wearing to an internship for a fortune five hundred company within four years had been the most mind altering decision of her life.

After a year as an intern and then two years as a lowly grunt, a position as an executive assistant opened up, being in the right place at the right time had landed her the position completely by accident... the six dead skunks, cases of rotten fish, and maggot infested goats heads that appeared in both her car and at the door of her apartment for the first year after she got the job honestly made her sometimes wonder if she'd actually been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but eventually the hate from other employees ended... or was at least muted.

Both Maggie and her boss sat at a large conference table and discussed what they should do as they waited for Rosalie to arrive for the meeting.

At nine am on the dot, the young woman who appeared to be about six-foot tall with long blond hair and breasts that looked suspiciously large for such a slender frame, came in. Technically, the woman was on time for her meeting with them, but in this business, if you weren't at least fifteen minutes early, you were actually late.

She came over to the table and placed a suitcase on it before reaching her hand out to Maggie's boss. "My name's Rosalie Swan, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

After they shook hands, Rosalie sat down.

"Well, you have five minutes to impress me. I suggest you use them well," her boss said in the most frenchy accent she'd ever heard him use.

Rosalie opened up the suitcase and pulled out a couple stacks of paper, quickly spreading out two rows of fashion.

"It's my desire to open up a new fashion line, Swan Song Fashion. These are some of the raw drawings of some of my ideas," she said as she pointed at the row with hand done sketches. On the side of each sketch were notes specifying measurements for different sizes, materials, costs, and more. "And over here are pictures of some of them that have already been put together. I didn't bring any in with me, but I can go get a few articles if you'd want to inspect them." She pointed at the other row, these one photographs. Most of the clothes were on hangers but there was an evening wedding gown on a woman who had to be almost as short as Maggie herself was, and a picture of a beautiful white lace wedding dress on a young woman. "I have most of the clothes from these photos in my car, all except the wedding dress actually. I made the wedding dress for my sister for her wedding which was just yesterday."

"So you sew your own designs?" her boss asked.

"For now, if you're willing to sponsor me so I can get off the ground properly than I plan on using some of the money to hire a family friend. I'm pretty sure you know her."

"I doubt that. But what were you going to call your company, again?"

Maggie heard the key word in her boss's question and knew immediately he'd already shut the door in the young woman's face, though she doubted Rosalie realized it.

"Well... I've taken a couple of business classes at the local university so I know controversy is extremely good for business. As such, I think calling my line Swan Song Fashion is perfect. It's morbid and tragic which screams controversial, especially when paired with the very lively and in-your-face designs that I make. On top of that, it's true, people should always live their lives and dress their best as if it is their swan song."

Maggie saw out of the corner of her eye as her boss's lips pursed together. "I'm sorry, Ms Swan. I don't think I'll be able to help you with your... pipe dreams, but I wish you the best of luck." He stood and headed toward the door before Rosalie could even open her mouth in response.

"Don't leave," Maggie hissed at Rosalie before getting up and following her boss out. "What are you doing? Did you not see those stunning sketches?" she whisper-shouted at her boss as soon as they were both in the hall.

"Yes, it's obvious the woman has passion for the world of fashion, but she has – how do you say it – cotton in her head. She's got big dreams, but that's all they're ever going to be. She will never survive in this world and I am not in the business of shelling out money to sponsor someone who will go under in a year's time." His voice was filled with scorn.

"As many sketches as she's done and pieces she's made this has obviously been something she's been working towards for years. I sincerely doubt that she'll flounder in a single year."

"Mon dieu! She thinks I'd know a friend of hers. She obviously needs her head checked. Besides, she's never worked as a model or a photographer or held any other position in the fashion world. It would be a waste of an investment."

Maggie disagreed with him though and she was pissed off as a result. Besides, she'd read somewhere in the original file she'd about the young woman that her aunt was Irina Higginbotham – given that, it was entirely possible Rosalie knew some of the same people they did. She let her fury do the talking. "Then I quit. I'll sponsor her myself."

"Sponsor her? With what money?"

"You do realize you pay me just shy of six million euros every year, right? Unlike you, I don't buy a car every other week and a new house every other month. I have plenty of money to help her get off the ground."

Her boss sputtered for a moment. "You... you... you can't just quit! You're under contract!"

"Not for the last four years, sir. On your insistence, I might add, because as I'm over thirty I have a replaceable status, even though I do a better job than any executive assistant before me ever has. Also as per you. Frankly I find it hilarious that my age is a problem given that you're almost sixty."

She turned her back on him and walked back into the conference room.

"I'll help you get off the ground," she said to Rosalie as she shut the door.