AN: S.M Owns Twilight and all the original characters.

This chapter will contain more mature themes and is a little more angsty than most. This story has many twists and turns and these characters are complex. I would like to map out their background so that you get to know them well. I feel like that always makes the story better. This will be a slow burn. There will not be an instant hook up followed by a wedding and five kids. There will be a HEA. I promise. I am still looking for a beta, so forgive any and all grammatical errors. I try my best. I will continue to update frequently. This story is mostly finished, but I am revising and editing and sprucing it up as I go. Reviews, thoughts and opinions are welcome : )

|Edward|

"Man, you have to calm down. I think you're over thinking shit."

"Emmett, I am not over thinking anything. Some guy out there wants to bone my niece! Tell me I don't have a right to clip him?"

Emmett shakes his head, exasperated with me.

"E, man….you don't even know the guy, and if you want Libby to let you meet him….well you're gonna have to suck it up and play nice for a minute."

I know he's right. I just don't want to accept it.

"I bought her a new camera. I'm going to try to bribe some information out of her tomorrow night." I smirk, satisfied with my plan.

"Libby is smart E. You really think she's going to fall for that shit? Why don't you just have a private investigator follow her around and figure out what she is up to every second of the day?"

I never thought of that.

Would that be taking it too far? I know Libby would hate me forever if she found out. But it would be perfect now that I think about it.

"Em, man…that didn't even cross my mind. You know any good PI's?" I say, grabbing my phone from my pocket.

Emmett doesn't say anything. He simply stares at me from across the restaurant booth like I'm a moron. He puts his fork down slowly and wipes his mouth with his napkin before turning back to me.

"Edward. You can't be serious man. I was fuckin' kidding! You can't do that to the girl. Think of something else, anything else….just…not that."

Again, I know he is right. I can't do that to Libby. It would be wrong and a complete invasion of her privacy. Teenage girls are really particular about having privacy.

"Look man, if you push it too far, she will rebel and want to be with this guy even more. Don't you remember being sixteen at all? It wasn't that long ago. I know you think this is a big deal, but it's not. Sixteen year olds date all the time and Libby is a smart girl, like I said. I am sure this guy isn't so bad if he caught her attention."

"I just worry. Not just about sex, but what if this guy knows who I am and is using her? I know it sounds conceded, but honestly, this shit happens all the time."

"Or maybe, just maybe, this guy thinks she has a nice rack and a pretty smile and wants to get to know her, that happens all the time too." Emmet counters.

What the fuck does he know anyways?

He's certainly not an expert when it comes to parenting or taking care of someone else. Emmett has always be a free spirit and annoyingly optimistic. He finds the good in just about every situation. I like to take a much more realistic approach and worry about every tiny thing until my mind feels like it could explode with all the different possibilities, all the things that could, would and should happen. Emmett's just…..Emmett.

"So, I was gonna ask you what you thought about that track I sent you last week. You have a chance to listen to it yet?" He changes the subject, probably sensing my unease.

"No, not yet. I haven't even unpacked my laptop or anything. I was going to go to the studio tonight but I will probably hold off until this weekend. I want to get settled in and straighten some stuff out with Libby."

"When are you planning on recording the next album?" He asks.

"I don't know yet, I'm writing some new material and I think I'm going to take my time. Now that I'm clean, I just really want to put everything into it this time around."

"Have you been going to those NA classes?"

"Not anymore. I don't think I need them. I mean yeah, I get tempted now and again, but I think I'm passed the hard part." I explain.

"That's good to hear man, I'm glad. I gotta be honest…..I was fuckin' worried there for a while…" He trails off.

I find it slightly ironic that at twenty-eight years old, I am dealing with the same thing my mother has her entire life, the reason I hated her so adamantly.

Addiction.

It's a strange thing, nearly indescribable. I don't know when one beer turned into ten or tequila turned into coke and coke turned into heroine. It just happened somewhere along the line. The nonstop touring and press stops and promotional shit. It was such an easy trap to fall into. If I was to be honest with myself, it was something I had been building up to since I was a kid.

I was numb. I won't lie; sometimes I wish I could be numb again. It's really hard to deal with your shit like an adult after spending half a decade so doped up you can't really feel anything at all. It would be so easy to just turn it all off again.

"Yeah, next month will be the one year mark." I say, throwing down some bills on the table.

Sometimes, the guilt is the worst of all. And the shame. How could I be so much like her? How did I become someone I hate and despise? Then I think about Libby and all the shit she has gone through in her life. She deserved so much better.

I tried to hide it from her, and for a while I was good at hiding it. Unlike my brother and his wife, Libby's parents, I am a functioning addict. I can snort a few lines and still go about the day. I can still get all the shit done that has to be done in order to keep some sort of stable façade in place.

But after a while, I began to slip. Things weren't getting done and I was starting to not care. My home life, my career, my marriage, everything was falling apart around me. I just didn't care.

The events that led up to my decision to get clean are perhaps the most shameful of all. For years I had stayed with Kathy, because I loved her. I am beginning to realize now that I was probably less in love with her and more in love with the idea of being in love. We met in high school and she came from a similar background as me. Her mom was a drug addict who had three kids from three different men. She grew up in the welfare system. She was just as angry and pissed off at the world as me.

Not exactly the similarities you look for when filling out your compatibility profile on eharmony, I know.

I guess that should have been a red flag right there. Eventually we both spiraled to the point of no return. Her vice of choice was alcohol and pain relaxers. I think we were both so far gone towards the end of our marriage; we were more like strangers than anything.

To make a long story short, I got high one night, went out to a club, and found her kissing another man.

Guns were pulled out and fists were thrown, and she walked away scot free.

I was not so lucky.

When I was arrested, they booked me for possession of drugs, being inebriated in public, and an entire slew of weapons charges. But that wasn't rock bottom. It wasn't enough to make me get clean. I had the money, the connections and the resources. I paid the million dollar bond, hired a great defense attorney and dug myself deeper. I went on a two week bender, filled an entire notebook full of award winning song lyrics and filed for divorce.

Rock bottom was the judge telling me they were going to take Libby away. Emmett telling me he wasn't going to produce my music anymore, and my mother calling me a hypocrite.

Rock bottom was every fan I ever had, now knowing my dirty secret, my hidden skeletons. Every critic I ever had, now had validation for their shitty reviews and pessimistic outlook on me as an artist. Getting clean was hard. Probably the hardest thing I have ever done. Once you get past the withdrawals and the triggers, the worst part comes. The part where you have to reprogram your mind, body and soul to function like a normal human being again. It's hard to feel everything all at once, when you've spent years searching for the one thing that will take it all away. Being numb is easy. Avoiding your problems is easy. Detaching yourself is easy. Everything else is hard.

"If you need someone to talk to E, I'm here for you man." Emmett says while standing up from the booth.

"And leave that poor girl alone about her boyfriend. Let her live a little, would ya?"

"I'll let you know when I am ready to get back in the booth, alright Em?"

"Sounds good man. I have a good feeling about this record. It's going to be one of a kind. I can feel it." He taps his fist against mine before turning to exit the restaurant.

When I get home at a little after three in the afternoon, Libby is in the kitchen eating a peanut butter sandwich while doing some sort of complicated math homework. I don't know why they teach kids this shit nowadays; they are never going to use it.

"What's up Libby bug?"

"Homework, same old sh-stuff." She looks up at me to see if I caught her slip.

"Yeah, I caught it"

"How you liking the new school? Make any friends?"

I'm trying not to question her about her boyfriend.

"Um, ya. It's alright. A lot of competition. There are a ton of really great photographers in my class." She says with a frown.

"There's always going to be competition Libby, just do you. That's the only thing you can do. Be the best you can be." I try to placate her.

"It's just….I don't know. I'm used to being the best in my class I guess. Does that make me shallow?" She questions me.

"No, it makes you human. The fact that you are even questioning your depth means you are far from being shallow. I promise"

She smiles a little.

"Oh! I have something I want to show you!" She says, reaching for her book bag. She pulls out her laptop and begins typing something into the web browser while I make my way around the kitchen island to sit next to her.

I am not expecting to see a modern black and white website with pornographic photos. The photos don't show any nudity per say, but they certainly suggest it enough. On the top right corner of the website is a photo of nothing but a woman's leg, it's bent at an elegant angle and there is a masculine hand grasping the ankle.

Who knew a leg could be so provocative….and sexy.

There really isn't anything too outlandish or vulgar about the photo, but there is a definite sexual connotation linked to the images.

Is she trying to show me porn?

This is not the way I planned the sex talk to go at all.

"Um….ok." I say.

"What exactly are you trying to show me?"

"This is B-Swan photography." She says with a giant smile on her face.

"That photographer you're always talking about?"

"Yup, the one and only. She is offering one mentor spot to a Cambridge student this fall, and I want it. Could you imagine how much I could learn from a one on one mentorship with her? She is like a photography god!"

"You mean, you want to learn how to take pornographic photos?" I 'm a little alarmed by this revelation.

I always pictured Libby taking wedding photos of happy couples or…..photos with people who are fully clothed . I would also settle for puppies and dandelions, like she did when she got her first camera. She would run around taking photos of every tiny object. Nothing was too boring or ugly for her. She saw the beauty in everything.

"No, Uncle E. It's not porn." She snorts.

"There is nothing pornographic about these photos. They are sexy, sensual and a little unconventional, but they are not porn."

"Is that what they tell you at your new school?" I say, a little ticked off that my niece just used the word sensual, and in the correct context. I need to get a hold of myself before this all blows up in my face.

"No, I have followed this photographer's work for a long time. She does more than just boudoir photography, you know. She is really good at what she does and she is world renowned." She folds her arms defiantly across her chest.

"Well I don't like the idea of you photographing naked men who go around grabbing women's ankles!" I say a little too harshly.

Libby lets out a loud snort.

"Their ankles?! Yes…. because ankles are so inappropriate. We should all walk around dressed like nun's, I mean…god forbid we show our ankles! That would be so inappropriate!" her tone is laced with sarcasm.

"I want to do this. This is all I have ever wanted, and I am going to get that mentorship. I am sorry if you don't like it, but I do and there is nothing you can say to change my mind." She slams the lid on her laptop closed, making a move to get up.

"Wait….Libby. Don't storm off. Look, I just…shit. Libby. When did you grow up?"

Her expression softens at my tone.

"Edward. I know what you're doing. You feel guilty about all the crap that went down and you're trying to shelter me. I don't want to be sheltered. I want to live and see and do things. I don't want what happened in the past to tie me down. You can't stop all the bad things from happening. I love you, I do. You're the only person I can count on and you have always been there for me, more than my own parents. But, you have to let me do this. This is my dream."

How is it that she see's right through me.

I am beginning to wonder if I ever did as good of a job at hiding things from her as I originally thought. Was I so far gone that I failed to see that Libby was becoming her own person? That she was growing up and forming opinions of her own.

Surely, it didn't happen overnight.

This makes me feel like an even bigger piece of shit. While I was out fucking everything up, the nanny and the housekeeper and the security detail where here, in this house, watching her turn into this amazing person and I missed it all.

"Alright, fine. You've made it clear that you want to do this. I want to go with you for the first few days though. Just to check everything out and make sure that it's a good place and that you won't be subjected to anything….inappropriate." I concede.

"Yes! This is going to be awesome! I can't wait!" Libby squeals, throwing herself into my arms for a celebratory hug.

It reminds me of a much different time, when simple things would make her so happy and joyful. I am suddenly reminded of the new camera I purchased for her today.

"Wait right here. I have something I wanted to give you" I say, making my way to the living room. I retrieve the box from the cabinet by the fireplace and bring it into the kitchen.

"I was going to wait until tomorrow to give this to you, but I think you should have it tonight." I place the box on the marble island in front of her.

She stares at the box for a moment before slowly reaching for it. I didn't have time to wrap it; I was planning on doing that this evening. The Nikon logo is prominently displayed in top of the box, making it blaringly obvious what the box contains.

"No f-ing' way!" Libby shouts, tearing the box open and pulling the camera out. She stares at it with a look of awe before cradling it to her chest like a newborn infant.

"I….I love it!"

"You haven't even used it yet, how can you love it?"

"This is the best gift ever" She ignores my question.

"Thank you so much Edward. I can't wait to use it." She gives me another hug.

"I didn't know if your lenses would fit that camera, so I am going to allow you to buy some with your credit card. There were so many different kinds, I didn't know which ones to get" I say after she lets me go.

"Really? I get a credit card veto? What the heck is going on here?" Her face turns suspicious.

"Nothing is going on here. I just wanted to give you a present, since I missed your birthday and all." I run my hand through my hair, suddenly nervous.

"And…?" She questions farther.

I drop my hand from my head and sigh.

"And….I wanted to meet your boyfriend. Maybe get to know him a little. You could have him over for dinner or we can all go out."

"No way."

"Why not?"

"Because you will be mean and scare him away and then I will be a virgin until I turn forty! That's why!"

"So you are a virgin then?"

"What?...yes, I'm a virgin. Thanks for asking." Her attitude has returned.

I sigh in relief this time.

Thank fucking god.

"Look, I promise to behave myself and not scare this boy away. I just want to meet him and make sure that he is an alright person."

"And what requirements does he have to meet to be considered an alright person?"

"Well, I don't know for sure, I guess…. he would have to be kind and respectful and look out for your best interest."

"What if I say no?" She challenges me.

"I can't force you to stop seeing this boy, I know that. I don't want this to become a problem for us. I just want to meet him. It would help me sleep better at night."

She lifts her hand to her mouth and begins chewing on her thumb nail, a nervous habit. After a few moments of contemplation, she speaks.

"Alright. I'll invite him to dinner. But….I swear, Edward. You better be nice!" She points her finger at me.

"I promise." I raise both my hands up in a defensive gesture.

"I am going to go fill out the application for the mentorship. Thank you for the camera again. I love it." She picks up her book bag and puts the camera back in the box.

"Wait, so you haven't gotten this mentorship thing for sure yet? You just argued with me over something that might not even happen?" I say, exasperated.

"Oh, it will happen. If it's the last thing I do." She says with an air of certainty.