This is part 2 of what was part of the compilation and was beta'd by A Jasper For Me! *heart*

Big thanks to Louise Lewin, Vancouver-Canuck-Girl, and Capricorn75 who must really love me because I test their patience - daily! And, well they let me lol

Thank you so, so much for the love so far! It's not enough - my simply saying thank you - but I can't give you all sloppy kisses like I wanna. So ... yeah :-)

No Matter What

Chapter Two

*X*—Bella Swan—*X*

"For the last time ... No!"

"But, Mama!"

"Briella. For the love of God!"

"What 'bout him?"

With a sigh, Bella dropped her head to the table and sent a silent prayer for God to grant her some strength.

"Really, sweetie." The warming voice of Briella's grandmother, Senna, spoke up. "She can stay if she wants to."

"No." In attempt to shake it, Bella wiggled her head against the wood, protesting, "I thought Laurent was going to be home this weekend. I forgot his schedule's crazy right now. It's okay."

"Are you sure? You look dead on your feet."

That's because she was. It had been an intense past few months for Bella. First she'd lost her job, then she had to move to be closer to her daughter's family. Now she was fielding calls from her own mother, who conveniently wanted nothing to do with them until Bella announced she was moving.

Since before Briella was born, Bella depended heavily on the support of Laurent and his family. They were both young, barely seventeen, when she got pregnant. And though his parents were devastated and disappointed, they opened up their home to Bella when her parents put her out.

Or rather, when Bella left. Her father's ludicrous ultimatum of "Choose us or this boy", had her packing within hours. It wasn't about choosing her boyfriend over her family. It was about choosing her child. A child, Bella's father made clear, he would never support.

A year ago, following their retirement and moving to a quieter town, the Revins had offered Bella to move with them. Briella was close to her Granddaddy and Nana something fierce and cried for days when she realized she wouldn't be living with them anymore. It was the same for them. They felt as though they were not only leaving Briella behind, but Bella—someone they'd grown to look at as their daughter. But with the end of her and Laurent's relationship, the desire to 'make it on her own' with her daughter, and give her parents one last chance to be involved, Bella had stayed behind.

It was a decision she regretted instantly.

Within months, just about everything had fallen apart. She'd lost her job because of babysitting issues. And one night after trying to ask her parents for help and her father only agreeing to let Bella stay if Briella didn't, she knew she was on her own. It wasn't until she'd lost her apartment and ended up having to sleep in her car one night, that she called up her pseudo parents to tell them what had been going on. Without questions asked, they told Bella to 'bring her butt on home' to them.

With their help, support, and guidance, she had just finished the last of her nursing courses. Bella found a new job, and recently got her and Briella into a quaint but nice two bedroom apartment. It was a proud moment for Bella, having her own place again, but it's still an adjustment for Briella. She couldn't understand why everyone didn't just live together like they did before.

And now she couldn't understand why she was being forced to leave. She knew enough that she'd been staying there, at her grandparents' house and with her dad, almost every weekend since the move. What was so different now?

"Your daddy's at work, baby." Bella tried to explain—again. "So you'll see him next weekend."

"B-but what 'bouts Nana?" Briella frowned and looked at her grandmother, unleashing the power of her puppy dog eyes. "Won't you miss me?"

The older lady smiled at her granddaughter's tactics and quickly brought her hands up to cover up her giggle. "I miss you every day."

Bella sent her a mock glare. "Don't you go encouraging her."

"And don't you go being so stubborn."

Both women sighed. Senna understood what Bella was doing, or trying to do. She'd been a young mother herself, having had Laurent's older sister almost twenty years before she had him. She remembered the stage she saw Bella going through now, as if she were back in the midst of going through it herself. The stage where asking for, or accepting, too much help felt like you were doing a lousy job as a mother.

Though that was part of it, things were different in Bella's mind. It was one thing when Bella and their son were still together, but now that they were 'just friends' co-existing for the sake of their daughter alone, Bella was hesitant to ask anything of them. She didn't want to get in the way should anyone else come around.

Nonsense, was what Senna thought of this. Sure, she felt a little heartbroken when she was told of the break up, fearing what kind of relationship she might be allowed to have with her granddaughter. But she was utterly surprised when Bella kept on business as usual … well, until now.

"I appreciate what you're doing." Senna gave her a soft, encouraging smile. "But never turn down the chance at a good night's sleep. And I'm sure you have some things you'd like to do this weekend. Child-free?"

"Like what?" Bella raised a bored eyebrow. "Grocery shop?" For a second, her eyes glazed over and she giggled at the thought. Oh, what that would be like to go at it alone and not with a child who suddenly needed everything.

"That, or go out with some friends, perhaps?"

As best as she could, Bella tried to hide her frown. She didn't have any friends, not really. There was one especially nosy nurse at her job that tried to invite her out to a club last weekend, but Bella wasn't sure if that was still her scene. The last time she went to a club, it was for her twentieth birthday, almost eight months ago. It was a goodwill gesture from Laurent, to take her out, but since they were already broken up, it was just awkward. She ended up sneaking away to call a cab while he tried his best to ignore the women that were hitting on him all night.

Bella smiled, thinking about her tall, dark, and handsome friend. They'd been through a lot together, grew up quickly. And words couldn't express how lucky she felt that she didn't have one of the 'baby daddies' who just ran off or claimed the kid wasn't theirs. Laurent had always been there and was always intent on doing the best he could for them. Hence his new job.

The hours killed him, all of them, and so did the realization he would be away more often than he would be home. But in the end, he couldn't pass up the money, couldn't pass up the ability to give his daughter whatever she might want or need.

It was because of this, though, that Bella was intent on taking Briella home. She'd known about his schedule change, but it had completely slipped her mind that it started this weekend. She didn't want it to look like she was just using it as an excuse to dump Briella on her grandparents.

Having grown tired of listening to the good-hearted, but repetitive back and forth of his three favorite women, Nahuel Revin, better known to everyone as "Grandaddy", whether he was kin to them or not, pushed open the sliding glass door and walked into the living area.

"Granddaddy!" Briella squealed, tearing off at full speed toward him.

"Hi, princess." He let out a hearty chuckle, unwrapping her from his legs to pick her up and rest her on his hip. "How was school?"

"Good."

"What did you do?"

"Uh … played."

"Yeah?" He smiled. "Is that it?" At her nod, he laughed again. "Sounds legit."

"Uh huh." She beamed. "Oh, and I made a friend today. Where was you?"

"Were. Where were you."

"Where ... were ... you," she repeated slowly, looking at him for confirmation she said it right.

From the kitchen, Senna rolled her eyes. Once a school teacher, always a school teacher.

"I was outside getting the pool ready for my favorite girl."

"Yay!"

"Actually," Bella spoke up. "We're not staying."

With a conspiring look to his wife, then Briella, Nahuel sent Bella a soft smile, and muttered to himself, 'that's what you think'.

"Now." His attention went back to Briella. "Tell me about your new friend."

Briella beamed, at the ready to divulge all the details she could remember about her friend with the pretty arms and small phone.

It didn't take much to convince Bella to stay a little while longer when Granddaddy offered to make them dinner—she always enjoyed his cooking, and he knew it. She also couldn't pass up the opportunity to tire Briella out with a few laps in the pool.

But the joke was on her because after her second helping, she pretty much fell out on the couch.

"Mama, is it nap time?"

Bella stirred at the sound of Briella's voice and reached her arm out to her. "Yeah, baby."

With a yawn, she climbed up next to her mom without complaint. The effects of time in the pool, plus two full hot dogs and some chips catching up to her.

Sitting on the adjacent loveseat, Senna smiled softly at the two. Words couldn't describe how special they were to her and her husband. But in that moment, all she could do was scowl at the thought of Bella's parents. Especially her mother.

A teenage daughter turning up pregnant would be a shock to the system for anyone, so she understood Renee Swan's need for 'tough love' at first. However, she couldn't support the 'no love' it turned into over the years. As a mother, even with hurt, anger, and disappointment in a situation, it was hard for her to understand how she could completely turn her back on Bella. Not just Bella, but the precious little girl curled up on the sofa as well. One hand occupied with sucking her thumb and the other playing with the ends of her mother's thick brown hair. She was a little angel and Senna couldn't imagine missing out on moments like this one.

As she thought about it deeper, her immense anger and resentment toward the Swans amplified. They'd always been friends, mostly because their children grew up alongside each other and were always in the same classes. With that, their last names being so close had them partnered up a lot. They were both great kids, straight A students, popular and active in sports and school clubs.

When the two started dating as teens, it wasn't a shock to anyone.

What was a shock was Charlie Swan's reaction to the duo. They knew narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and some prejudice still resided in the world, but they never expected it from someone they considered a dear friend.

Senna and Nahuel heavily suspected things would have been different had Bella fallen pregnant by someone else, someone who wasn't black, and this broke her heart just as much as it angered her. Over the past five years, counting the time they dated, up until this moment, Senna and Nahuel had watched Bella go through a range of emotions in reaction to the way her parents treated her.

Since she wasn't their daughter, they couldn't protect her from them. But they vowed to do their part, always, to help her shield Briella from as much of it as possible.

*X*—*X*

When Bella woke up some time later, she was momentarily confused until she remembered falling asleep on Senna and Grandad's couch. Through a yawn, she still managed to smile at the pillow under her head and blanket thrown over her legs.

There wasn't a time she could remember the Revins not being there for her. Growing up, it was always the two families going out and taking trips together. She'd always looked at them as second parents and was just as devastated to tell them she'd gotten pregnant as she was in telling her own parents. In fact, she'd been a little more afraid of their reaction, fearing they wouldn't accept her. Or that they would blame her for 'ruining their son's life'.

It had never come to that.

They didn't have it in them not to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it. It was a trait that often found them taken advantage of by friends and family. Bella didn't like that she appeared stubborn. She didn't even feel like she had anything to prove by turning down their help from time to time. Really, she just felt they deserved their rest as much as she did, if not more. They'd raised their kids, and helped raise grandkids already. She wanted them to enjoy their retirement and not burn out.

Her phone buzzed on the table and Bella rubbed at her eyes in an attempt to wake up further. The time showed it was after nine o'clock, and the buzzing was due to notifications of missed calls and texts she'd gotten while asleep.

The first few were from Laurent, varying texts asking her to call him so he could tell Briella goodnight. Then one saying never mind, that he just spoke to her from his mom's phone. She smiled, glad he didn't forget even when he was on the road. Briella would have had his ass, otherwise.

The smile faded when she saw another missed called was from her mother. Nothing irked her more than Renee's sudden need to be involved. She'd always thought of them as close, and though she'd understood the hurt she must have caused by getting pregnant at seventeen, she never expected her to side with Charlie the way she did.

Finding it hard to forgive her for stirring up all the bad memories and fights again, Bella sighed and set her phone back down on the table.

She'd gotten to a good point with it all, a point where she resigned herself to the fact her parents wanted nothing to do with her. At least that's what she'd thought, but now she wasn't sure.

Laying her head down on the pillow, her sigh turned a tad bit dreamy thinking of the one highlight to her very long day.

The stranger on the bus. The one who made her daughter smile. The one with the tender smile, red hair, and haunted green eyes.

The one, she decided, that if she saw him again, she was going to introduce herself to.

Well, there you have it. Some insight to Bella.

For the most part, the story will continue in the same fashion of alternating POV's but will always be a continuation of what's already happened. Not a retelling. Some prefer one POV over the other, but umm ... I wouldn't recommend skipping chaps and whatnot. Ya might miss something ;-)

Soooooo ... what did you think? How about that Charlie, huh? *sigh* All too common I'm afraid.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Until Next Time

~Lo