Author's note:

Thank you for you reviews, the very few that there are. I'm sorry it's taken me so ling to update been dealing with health issues and the story of my Emmett and me is over for now. The story you are reading is our story, though the parts of Emmett are mostly fictional, the interactions between Emmett and Rosalie are true and as accurate as my memory allows me. The characters are all real, they are all very real people that were ingrained into our lives and as of now only one remains between the two of us. I will not tell you how the story ends, but for new we are on pause. Thanks for sticking with me.

~Brandtishot

Chapter five: Road Trip

"Got everything packed up?" Royce had asked for the millionth time as they finished loading his car up.

"Yes we have everything," Emmett repeated himself for what felt like the millionth time.

"Snacks? Cigarettes? Music? Drinks?" Royce listed off.

Jasper smacked Royce in the back of the head before Emmett could reach over and do it himself, "He said yes, now let's go!"

They were on a road trip after requesting some leave and having it approved to all head up to Washington so Royce could finish filing for divorce and visit all his friends. Royce had asked Emmett and Jasper if they wanted to come along and meet some hot girls in the process.

"Wait what about maps?"

"YES!" Jasper and Emmett both yelled at the same time.

They finally pulled out of the base and on to the freeway and started heading north to Colorado to stop and see one of Royce's friends Alice. Alice was also a single mom going through a divorce and was from what Emmett could tell, a really sweet girl. They were also stopping along the way in Oklahoma to visit another one of Royce's friends Nevaeh. Apparently, Royce wanted to introduce Jasper to her since they were both country bred.

After about an hour of listening to Royce sing along to the likes of Gary Allen and Toby Keith, Emmett ejected the CD and almost threw it out the window on to the freeway. He dug through his own collection looking for something more tolerable.

"Hey I was singing to that!" Royce protested.

"No, you were dying to that!" Emmett retorted.

"Oh thank God, did he stop singin' or did I go deaf?" Jasper chimed in from the back seat.

"He stopped!"

"What?"

Emmett and Jasper howled with laughter while Royce mumbled something about them not appreciating good music. Emmett popped in some Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody started playing from the speakers.

"Turn it up!" Jasper called from the back seat.

Soon all three soldiers were belting the lyrics at the top of their lungs flying on the freeway as the countryside began to disappear behind them.

Four hours later they made their first stop at a gas station, Royce got out to put gas in the car while Jasper ran inside for cigarettes and Emmett had to use the restroom. Emmett handed Jasper some money to get him a pack as well before running off to the restroom. When he was finished and walking back towards the car, he noticed Jasper was sprawled out in the back seat toying with a cigarette that wasn't lit, rolling his eyes in annoyance. Royce was chattering away on his cell phone when he approached, so Emmett got back in the car and eyed Jasper.

"Rosalie," Jasper answered.

"Alright darlin', I'll let you know when we get to Nevaeh's and her mom's. Yeah she's just a friend, I promise. Okay bye," Royce hung up and as soon as he climbed in the car his phone rang again. Emmett glanced over at Royce as he answered the phone, "Hello beautiful, yeah Emmett and I should be there in a few days. Can't wait to see you and the little man, alright bye Alice."

Royce started the car and pulled out on to the road towards the freeway.

"How many girls are you seeing?" Jasper finally asked from the back.

"Officially or unofficially?"

"What's that supposed to mean? You're either seeing a girl or you're not," Emmett said in annoyance.

"Well see there's a difference, I'm mostly using these girls to get my rocks off since my wife won't and wants to leave, plus Rosalie is really pretty. Prettier than Maria, so either Maria gets jealous and comes back, or I get a prettier, new wife."

Emmett had to bite his tongue as Jasper and Royce laughed at his admission. Emmett was raised to treat women with respect, not use and abuse them. It was more than obvious that Royce didn't care about these girls' feelings one iota. What killed him even more, is that Rosalie was an unsuspecting, young, vulnerable, and pregnant girl. She didn't deserve to be toyed with like Royce was doing to her.

Emmett remained quiet and sometimes changed the music for the other two for the rest of the car ride to Oklahoma. It was near five in the evening when they finally pulled up to a house that appeared to be converted from a doublewide. This was clearly Nevaeh's house. What Emmett didn't expect was this rotund girl to come flying-well as fast as a two hundred and fifty pound girl can waddle-out of the house and come straight for them, huffing and puffing the whole way in a tank top and jeans while holding in her arms this alien looking baby who had absolutely no hair, ears like a JK Rowling house elf, and a dress, which made him assume that this baby was in fact a girl. Not far behind these two creatures came an older woman with greying hair who looked very much like the younger girl, aside from the fact that her skin was as wrinkled as a prune and her teeth were as yellow as an ear of corn and she weighed probably about fifty more pounds. Emmett shuttered thanking whatever God there was that was listening that Royce was not trying to set the two of them up and that his mom raised him to have good matters.

"Is that Royce I see?" The first creature shrieked with a Southern drawl. Emmett found her voice to be offensive to his ears and hoped she wouldn't do that again.

"Hello beautiful," Royce greeted her as she hugged him, wheezing for air. Royce kissed her on the cheek and whispered something in her ear making her giggle. Emmett watched the exchange as Royce introduced Jasper to her, to which Jasper immediately started pouring on his Southern charm and had her eating out of his hand as well. Then Royce did something awful, he turned his and the girl's attention to him.

"Nevaeh, this is Emmett," she lunged towards him wrapping her arms around his skinny frame laughing a hello in the process. Emmett hesitantly hugged her back, though very acutely noticed that she smelled like grease and he could feel her arm sweat through his shirt. The baby gurgled and he looked down to find her staring up at him with a huge grin on her face, gnawing on her finger with her gums. Despite the fact that she had absolutely no hair, Emmett had to admit that she was a pretty cute baby.

"Who's this cute girl?" Emmett cooed reaching for the baby.

"Oh that's Naomi," Nevaeh answered still trying to catch her breath.

"Come see Uncle Emmett," he took Naomi from Nevaeh and followed everyone inside, tuning out the rasping, low voice of Nevaeh's mother, whose name he later learned was Nicole. Emmett spent most of his time playing with Naomi on the floor and some of her toys while Nevaeh sat on the couch between Royce and Jasper laughing like a hyena while each had an arm thrown behind her. Nicole insisted she get a few photos in right away as Emmett picked Naomi up off the floor and had her giggling like crazy as he made silly faces at her.

When they were done, Nevaeh said it was time for Naomi to have her bottle and Royce eagerly jumped up off the couch and all but grabbed Naomi from Emmett's arms offering to feed her. This left Emmett with absolutely no buffer between him and Nevaeh and her family. He quietly excused himself and went out on the front porch and lit a cigarette. As he opened his phone and started searching through his contacts for Bethany's number, he heard the screen door behind him open and shut. Nicole had followed him outside and lit her own cigarette taking a long drag from it as he sighed heavily and shut his phone. He wanted desperately to hear Rosalie's voice to calm his nerves, but now he'd have to wait, hopefully not too long since she was probably going to bed soon.

"So soldier," Nicole began. "What's your story?"

Emmett took a drag from his cigarette, "What do you mean?"

"What's your story? You have this look about you, like someone stole your favorite toy."

Emmett chuckled at the irony of her choice of words, Rosalie was far from a toy. At least to him, but to Royce he could see that.

"Have you ever fell for someone you've never met before?" Emmett asked, dragging his words out slowly.

"What do you mean?" Nicole asked, exhaling a plume of smoke.

Emmett took a long drag off his cigarette, cautiously trying to think of the right words to say, "There's this girl, and we've never officially met. We talk on the phone all the time and on instant messenger and every time we do, I can't help but smile."

Emmett leaned on the porch railing staring out into the quiet neighborhood, smiling wistfully remembering some of the conversations he and Rosalie had. Nicole watched him quietly, continuing to smoke while she waited for him to continue.

"She's amazing though, you know? She makes me laugh, she's beautiful and smart, and we can talk for hours and it never gets old."

A comfortable silence settled between the two of them while they finished their cigarettes.

"I know there's a 'but' in this story," Nicole finally said. "So what is it?"

"She's not mine, she's someone else's and that someone else is a friend. Not only that, but he's cheating on her and using her and I don't know what to do," Emmett said hanging his head in his hands. Nicole came up behind him and rubbed his back in a motherly fashion, Emmett then realized he had judged her too quickly when he first met her and let himself relax feeling guilty for his early assumptions.

"Want my advice?" she asked stepping away from him so she could look him in the eyes.

"Please."

"You don't tell her," Emmett opened his mouth to speak, but Nicole held up a hand to silence him. "You continue being her friend, because she's going to need it. It's not your place to tell her what's right or wrong in this world or how cruel it is. You be that shoulder she needs to cry on and that strength she's going to need to pull herself back up. You show her how beautiful she is and that she is worth something. That's all I got kid, now let's get back inside before they send a search party."

Emmett put his cigarette out in the ashtray on the railing and followed her inside, feeling slightly better about his disposition. Little did he realize that this sound advice she had just given him would help him in the future.

Rosalie stared at her phone willing it to ring with her mind. She was lying in bed absolutely exhausted after her shift at work, her feet and back aching from standing for the past six hours with little relief in sight. The room was only illuminated by the small lamp on her nightstand, her computer had long been shut off and she felt her heart ache. Royce hadn't called her or even texted her to let her know that they had made it safe to his friend's house. He had called earlier to let her know that they were going there to visit her because she was going through a divorce and needed some support.

Rosalie knew with a sunken heart that he was lying, but she chose to ignore it. She thought of calling Emmett and even went as far as pulling up his contact information and selected his phone number. But when she got to it, her finger hovered hesitantly over the call button. It wasn't right that she was starting to depend on their conversations to make herself feel better, especially since she was seeing Royce.

Rosalie shoved the phone under her pillow and began to fall into a fitful slumber only to be woken up after about thirty minutes when her phone chimed that she had a text message.

'Miss you, made it.'

Rosalie wanted to throw her phone across the room and watch it shatter into a thousand pieces, but she thought better of it and shoved it deeper under her pillow, huffing angrily as she tried to get comfortable again. Though it was clearly stuffed under her pillow, the offensive cell phone chimed again alerting her to another text message. It was James again, this time simply telling her he loved her.

Rosalie instantly felt guilty for being mad at him and grew angry at herself for being so childish. She quickly typed out a similar message and sent it back to him then rolled over and willed herself to sleep.