A/N: And so, we come to the end of another story. Let's get to it.
~Eight Years Later~
Bella checked the camera angle one more time before she motioned to Emmett that everything was ready. He winked at her, and she felt a flush of warmth from her toes all the way up to her cheek. She smiled patiently and motioned that he should get on with it.
Emmett turned his attention to the camera and flashed his most charming grin. "Hey there, sweethearts. Welcome back. Last week, we had some fun with food color misters. Because who doesn't want to spraypaint their cupcakes, right? We got some great pictures of folks impressing the hell out of their guests—you're welcome, as usual—with chrome-plated cupcakes and LGBT cupcakes. The solid gold bat symbol is still my favorite, though. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to show you how to get a gold drip pattern on your cakes, but today isn't that day." He clapped his hands together with finality.
A tiny echo of his clap rang out accompanied by a delightful giggle. Bella smiled, watching her little monkey as she looked up at Emmett with happy, adoring eyes.
Emmett looked down with an equally smitten expression. "You may have noticed we have a very special guest with us today. Today, we're going to be talking about some Mother's Day tips and tricks, so, here as my assistant, making her online debut, is Athena Hope McCarty. She's eleven months old and, as you can see, she's the most gorgeous girl in the history of forever." He waved his hand. "No bias. Some things are just facts.
"Now, as you may have guessed, Athena and I have a lot in common. Curly hair." He fingered a lock of the baby's chocolate brown curls and then he stooped down, putting his face close to hers. He pointed to his cheek. "The dimple. I know how much you like the dimple." This time, he winked at the camera and tickled Athena's feet so she shrieked out a giggle, grinning widely and showing she did indeed have the cutest little dimple.
"But, most of all, the thing we have in common is that our moms are both super cool and beautiful. A++, best moms ever."
"Mama," Athena exclaimed, pointing helpfully in Bella's direction, still grinning a miniature replica of her father's wide, goofy grin.
"That's right. It's all about the Mommas." He clapped his hands together again and his monkey copied him. "So we're going to do two projects today. One for big kids, that's me, and one for people who, say, are still working on mastering dexterity."
He reached below the counter and brought out a prepared tray. "Everything on here is edible. We have sparkles, and sprinkles. Fruity Pebbles, though only because Athena and her momma are fans. Candy flowers."
Athena leaned over slightly, gurgling happily as she surveyed the things in front of her.
"Now, luckily for us, Athena likes dropping things more than she likes eating things, which you would never know from looking at these thunder thighs." He gave her thigh a playful pinch. "I love baby thighs."
Bella caught his attention, making a go on motion. Emmett got very distracted by Athena's chub. He said it was edible, the weirdo.
He gave a surreptitious salute and moved the cupcake in front of Athena. "Hey, mini boss. You wanna make a cupcake for Momma?" He mimed picking up the various edibles and dropping them on the white frosting of the cupcake. Once Athena got the idea, Emmett glanced back at the camera. "See, it's like arts and crafts except you can eat it."
Athena sneezed, and Bella clapped a hand over her mouth, muffling her laughter. Emmett smirked. "Well, maybe.
"Anyway. For the big kids, we're going to be playing with sheet cakes." Emmett pulled out two large sheet cakes. "So, let's talk hacks. You don't need to be the Cake Boss to get a shaped cake. I'm going to show you how to turn normal cakes into a heart—that's for my momma—"
"Momma!" Athena said excitedly.
"—and a butterfly." He ruffled Athena's hair. "That's for this one's momma, my boss." He looked to Bella with that grin that made her heart skip a beat.
The man made her happy. The baby reaching out her grubby hand, offering him a chocolate raisin. He bent his head and let her put it in his mouth. She giggled, and he returned to his cake.
"Okay. So, heart. What you do is you bake a regular round cake and a regular square cake. Cut the round cake in half. Tilt the square so it's like a diamond. Match it all up."
Bella loved watching his hands when he worked. He was deft, arranging the pieces and seamlessly reaching over to help Athena figure out the sugar glitter.
"See, making a more interesting cake is simple geometry. I bet if they taught geometry with cakes everyone would pay attention, right?" He flashed a grin at the camera. "So, a heart. The trick with all this is in the frosting. Thicker frosting. A nice buttercream works. This one is dyed red, obviously, because it's a heart. Keep up, guys, come on. Or a cream cheese, but that's a little difficult to spread. The idea is, you're trying put the pieces together."
Athena's giggles reached a disruptive crescendo. Emmett switched his attention to the baby girl. He cackled. "Look at you." He held her arm out. She was predictably covered in sugar. "You look tastier than any cupcake. Let's see."
He picked her up, flipped her upside down, and licked the sugar off her cheek as she shrieked in delight. Bella again had to smother her own mirth. In that moment, she experienced an incredible rush of pure, unadulterated joy.
What a sweet family she had. Literally.
The segment ended ten minutes later with two gorgeous cakes, one ridiculously wonderful, glittery cupcake, and two sticky, sugar-coated McCartys. Emmett, with Athena in his arms, went to her and kissed her. He always tasted so sweet.
~Emmett~
Emmett looked around the table, and, for a brief moment, his life was completely surreal. From where he was sitting, he could hardly believe it had only been eight years before that he and his mother had been a team looking after their darling Alice alone.
Darling Alice had turned into a stunning teenager. She was all bright eyes, jet black hair, and a vivacious energy. When he looked at her, the woman she'd become, he felt an enormous sense of pride.
Kid was going to do big things. He'd always known it.
Then, there was his mother. He'd spent so many years watching her struggle when he was too helpless to do anything more than the lion's share of the chores. She was such a giving, awesome person, and it had hurt him to see how much she wanted to give him and later Alice but never could.
With a little encouragement from him and Bella, Esme had opened herself up to the idea that, after so much complete heart-fail, she actually could have a man who loved her and cherished her. Carlisle was everything Emmett could have asked for in a husband for his mother. Hell, he was just a little bit miffed the man couldn't really be a father to him. He was fantastic with Alice, though.
And Christopher. It was a bittersweet kind of satisfaction to see one of his siblings growing up with a doting mother and father. Christopher Cullen was a cute kid. Four, "Four and many, Emmy" years old, Christopher was quieter than Emmett or Alice had ever been. Like now, he was peacefully coloring, spaced out and oblivious to the hubbub around them.
Even Jasper had finally settled down. With Peter of all people. Peter who was hot and cold and furious and...the man was drama. They'd been on-again, off-again for eight years, but Jasper was happier with him than without. Emmett supposed that was all that mattered.
Emmett's attention was drawn by a movement to his side as Athena tried to drag the silverware over to her. He grabbed it away and she let out a little cry of displeasure. "I know, mini boss."
She pouted, looking at him with big, watery eyes.
"Uh oh. The look," Bella said, obviously amused. "This is going to be interesting. The look is Daddy's weakness. I know he wants to give you whatever you want when you look at him like that, but you want knives. Hmm." She tapped her lips.
Luckily for Daddy—whoa, he was a daddy, that would never not be a trip—Athena was highly distracted by Mommy's words. She stared at Bella, eyebrows adorably furrowed as though she thought her mother might be quite insane.
Shaking his head, Emmett stood up. He was kind of giddy because he'd always wanted to do this. He picked up his wine glass—so fancy—and tapped his fork carefully on the side.
Then, he shouted anyway, "Yo! Listen up."
On the other side of him, opposite Bella, Alice covered her face with her hands. "Oh, here we go."
Emmett flashed a grin. "What's a matter, little sis?" He ruffled her hair, causing the predictable cry of outrage. "Who says this is about you?"
Alice successfully pulled away from him, glaring. "This is my graduation party. It better be about me."
"Pffft. I just needed an excuse to party. When do I get to throw a fancy party, huh?"
"You graduated. Not my fault if you didn't throw yourself a party."
"Mom and Carlisle threw me a party, but they invited an officiant and made me share with Bella." He winked at his wife. "Anyway, the point is, I want to take this time to talk about myself."
His family snickered collectively, and Emmett smirked. But then, he looked down, wondering if he was really about to admit this.
"So, I have a confession to make. A long, long time ago, I was about to graduate from high school with no idea what I was going to do for college."
"Oh, so long ago." His mother looked highly amused. "You ancient, decrepit being."
"I got a wrinkle." Emmett pointed to his cheek.
"That's a dimple."
"A dimple is just a wrinkle you had at birth. Anyway! I'm telling a story, woman." He shook his head in mock disgust. "So, college. Funny story. My bio dad showed up, like he does every once in a while. And seems like he felt bad for peacing out on the whole raising his kid and, mainly, paying for his kid, he wanted to make amends. Monetary amends. Long story short, he gave me a car"—he took a deep breath—"and offered to pay for me to go to college."
He looked to his mother, watching her eyes go wide. It would have killed her to think that his father could sweep in and provide Emmett with something she couldn't. In the end, though, that wasn't why he'd done what he'd done.
"The thing was I had this goofy little sister." He looked to Alice who was looking curiously back at him. "She was six at the time, but man. This kid. Even then, you could tell she was talented.
"Pain in the ass as she always was, Alice turned out to have that artsy kind of talented. Like she was some female protagonist in a teen romance movie with dreams to go to art school." He did the air quotes. "So, I got curious and decided to figure out what the fuck art school means. Turns out, the best schools for any kind of art, fashion, painting, whatever the hell she ended up doing, are really, really spendy. Reeeeeeeeaaallllllly spendy."
"You worked all the way through school for your sister, not yourself," Esme said, sounding both amazed and horrified.
Emmett flashed her a guilty smile. "Yeah. I know you wouldn't have wanted that for me. But, I never knew what I wanted to do. I never had a talent like that. You do what you have to. I know what you would have said, Mom, but we were a team. The three of us.
"And here's the profound part. Speeches are supposed to have a profound part. I know. I watched like 100 speeches in movies and on YouTube. Let's see how this works.
"Life is rarely ideal. But, because we had it rough in a lot of ways, because I randomly had to learn how to make fancy face cupcakes, I got this job. It should have been a blip—one of those jobs you take because you need to make money somehow." He flashed a wicked grin at Bella. "Problem was, my boss was all about sexual harassment…"
More chuckles and Bella scowled at him, but her lips softened into an adoring smile almost immediately. She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, no. That's right. She somehow restrained herself because she thought I was heeeelllla gay and in love with my roommate who, by the way, isn't my type."
Jasper exchanged a glance with Peter. They made goo-goo eyes at each other. Emmett made a mental note to give him shit about it later.
"So, that's the thing I have to say to you, little sister. I look around at my life, and damn. It's awesome. I'm some kind of YouTube star who gets to make dessert for a living. My wife is way too smart for me, and damn. You're so hot, boss."
"Thanks, babe." Bella's cheeks were tinged pink, but her eyes swept over him the same way they did when she was about to jump his bones. "You're okay. I mean, I prefer an eight pack and you only have six, so…"
Oh, he was going to throw her over his shoulder the second the baby went down.
Anyway.
"I got the cutest kid in the world. My mom is happy. I finally have that little brother I begged for when I was five. And because Carlisle and Mom make such a great team, I don't have to pay for Alice's insane school. Fucking Barcelona, kid? Really?" He shook his head. "But it means I can throw this badass party.
"So, here's to my baby sister. You're going places, short stuff. Sometimes, those places aren't going to look so good. Some of them will look just…" He shrugged. "But, you never know where you're going to find your next adventure. You got this, Ally, and I'm proud of you."
Their family applauded. Alice kissed his cheek and clung to his neck. Bella patted his knee under the table, the same happiness reflected back at him.
Life couldn't get any sweeter.
~The End~
A/N: So many thanks to Betsy, Ausha, Mina, MoH, Packy, and Eleanor for all their help.
Thanks for coming along on this journey. Writing Emmett is fun. I hope you enjoyed.
