Ava sat perfectly still as she posed for the photographer. The woman climbed up on her ladder and leaned down to where her camera was pointed straight down over Ava's head. Her usually curly hair was now pin straight and rested on her shoulders, a floral print dress was the outfit selection for this photo set, they even had me take her to get her fake earrings yesterday. For a while that made me pretty pissed off that they were trying to tell me how my daughter should look, but now that I see my little princess all dolled up I'm just a big ole pile of mush. Ava looked absolutely beautiful while she posed and danced around the field of flowers and smiled for the camera. At one point the woman even asked me if I wanted to have a few pictures taken of me and Ava to hang up around the house. Originally I had said no, but me being the pile of mush that I am, I ended up taking pictures with Ava as well. Now picture this if you will, me a thirty-something year old man, tattoos all over his body, and the physique of a street brawler prancing around a field of wildflowers... Yeah let that one sink in for a little bit.

"Here, I'd like you to look at these." The woman smiled brightly and handed me the camera so I could get a better look at the small screen. A smile of my own broke across my face as I looked over the pictures.

"They're beautiful," I said, "How long until they'll be ready?"

The woman shrugged her shoulders, "Not long, but if you want the one of you and her framed it'll be about a month. I send the photos to my friend in Seattle and she's the one who does the framework."

"Okay, that's fine with me." I replied and handed her the camera back. "Just let me know when they're ready."

-------------

Two hours later I sat on the couch with Danny and the guys along with Katrina and Vanessa, looking at some sample photos from Ava's little photo shoot. Katrina and Vanessa kept gushing about how grown up Ava looked with her hair and makeup done, while me I was trying to refrain from strangling Jordon for calling me a faggot for laying in the flowers. I guess the photographer had took some photos of just me while Ava was getting her makeup touched up.

"Oh relax George, Jordon's just jealous that you have a beautiful daughter and all he's got is a Brazzerz subscription and his hand." Katrina snipped back at Jordon for his last comment. Me and Jorel had to turn our heads away from the group so that Jordon couldn't see us laughing. Danny smiled and pulled Kat into his lap.

"Quite the firecracker eh Danny?" Vanessa snickered also covering her mouth.

"Heh, I'll say." He said with a wink.

After all the laughter had died down Dylan asked me what all the pictures were for.

"Well it's just that I don't have a lot of pictures of her except for the ones on my phone and I just wanted some that were a bit more professional, you know to hang on the walls and use as Christmas cards or some shit like that."

It stayed silent a little while longer and then Katrina began talking non-stop about how that was a cute idea, and that Danny should do something like that as well. He shot me a glare that told me that I was going to get yelled at by him later. I shrugged and turned my attention back to the guys, "So about that record deal." I said casually. The guys all stopped talking, even Kat.

Vanessa sat back and pulled out her phone. She knew when to let Jorel go into business mode when she was around. Matt was the first to speak, "I think that we should at least check it out." Danny and Jordon nodded their heads in agreement.

Dylan shrugged casually, "Why the hell not? We've been needing a new change in record companies anyway."

"I agree with, Dylan." Jorel said as he pulled out his phone and dialed the record companies' number.

Vanessa got up and pulled Kat out of the room with her. Right before they left, they both smiled at me and Kat said, "Daddy's little princess is growing up." She added a wink before slipping outside with Vanessa.

After we got done setting up the meeting for next Monday, which was actually four days away, I decided to let Danny and Katrina take Ava to the Zoo while I stayed home to work on the songs. Danny had given me a piece of paper with a song that he had already started working on, he had titled the song Lion. At first I thought that maybe he was on something when he had began writing it, but the more I read over it I began to understand what he was trying to say. He had left some spaces for me to put in my own lyrics, which is what he always did. By six o'clock that evening I had finished editing the song. The whole thing ended up basically being one for our daughters.

•Katrina's POV•

"Hold on." Vanessa held her hand up to cut me off. I slowly closed my mouth and leaned back in the chair. Her perfectly manicured nails were pointed at me in an accusing manner. Part of me worried if she would use said nails as a weapon if need be. Knowing her I honestly wouldn't put it past her to resort to that.

"So you mean to tell me that you have spoken to Jorel's sister and you didn't tell any of us?!" Her voice raised a few octaves indicating that she was truly offended. I nodded my head. A look of anger settled into her eyes.

Yeah she's definitely mad at me.

"I can't fucking believe you Katrina." Her brown knitted together and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"You knew how this had messed with Jorel's head! How could you just keep this information from him? From me as well!? I thought that we were frie-" she stopped speaking and sighed. "You know what forget it Katrina. You wanna keep secrets? Fine. But don't ever set a foot near this house again." She said firmly before going inside. She made a point to slam the door for extra measures.

I sighed and let my shoulders slunk down. So much for that, I thought and turned to head to my car. I was quickly frozen in my tracks when I saw George standing at the end of the walkway. He looked like as if I had single handedly ripped his heart out and stomped on it with a stiletto heel.

"George, let me explai-" Before I could finish my sentence he took off to his own car and sped away. Well hell, can I not get a word out without people freaking out?! I closed my eyes tightly and rubbed my temples.

"Ugh whatever. Maybe Danny will know what to do." I said to myself and headed home.

•Jorel's POV•

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE TALKED TO HER?!??" I yelled out when Vanessa had finished speaking. She jumped back a little bit when I had jumped up from the couch. I relaxed just enough so that I could hug her and calm her down. She sighed and hugged me back tightly.

"I'm sorry babe, if had known sooner I would've told you." She whispered against my neck. I felt her frown before she pulled away and kiss my cheek, I nodded my head. I knew that she was telling me the truth. Vanessa wasn't the type of person to keep secrets from anyone, including me.

"But why would she hide this from me? From all of us, especially George? I mean Brooke is- was pregnant with his baby, and-"

"Babe." She held her finger to my lips to stop me from speaking. Clearly I was rambling again. "Some things we'll never know, but knowing her she'll go home to Danny and try to talk to him. Maybe he'll get some answers out of her."

Slowly I nodded my head and walked back to our bedroom. I laid down on our bed, Vanessa soon joined me along with Tiger. I sighed heavily and pulled her closer to me. Everything was calm and quiet until out of nowhere she said, "I want to get another cat, but she has to be black and I wanna name her Lucifer."

I shook my head at her, only my girl would want to name a cat Lucifer.

•Brooklyn's POV•

I glanced over at my uncle to see that he was deep in thought, his brow was pulled together and his face was creased with deep wrinkles that were set in a look of concentration. I knew that he was really trying to debate on whether or not to sign Aron back to the label. Just like him I wanted to give Aron a second chance, but he was making it difficult to do just that when all he can focus on is his new girlfriend. Don't get me wrong I love that he's found someone to share his time with but she's becoming more of a distraction. Personally I felt that he needed some time away from her so that he could truly focus on his music.

Derek pressed pause on his laptop and turned towards me, "What do you think?"

I just shrugged and skipped back to the first track that had been recorded over B.O.B and Hayle Willams' song Airplanes. The words were very different from what the song was originally, but it was still the same melody. And that isn't going to sell records in this business. If he ends up recording over the wrong person's song he might get himself shot.

"I think he needs to spend a little more time working on melodies, the words aren't too bad. I mean it's raw, aggressive, and it definitely expresses how he feels about the whole situation."

"Call him in and speak with him about it and find out if he can come up with a new melody himself or if we need to call in someone else to help him."

"Got it." I said shortly and headed out to my my office.

Janice smiled at me and handed me a folder from the accounting firm. I groaned and tossed it on my desk. I had totally forgotten that this month was my turn to handle the expense reports.

"God this is not getting any easier." My head dropped onto the edge of the desk causing my phone to fall off the edge and hit the floor.

"Damn it!" I scooted back and reached my hand down to pick it up, but another hand had beat me to it.

"Hey thanks, can I help you with anything?" I said sitting back up.

"Yeah you can actually." A deep voice said.
When my eyes met the other person I nearly had a heart attack.

"What are you doing here?!" I cried and jumped back.

"I'm here for you Brooklyn." Dylan said with a sly grin.

Well that's just fucking great. I rolled my eyes at his theatrics. I scoffed and sat back in my chair, Dylan took it upon himself to sit on the edge of my desk.

"Yeah sure you can sit there, go right ahead." I said sarcastically.

He laughed and pulled his hair back out of his face. "Nice to see you too Brooke."

"What are you doing here Dylan, and how the hell did you fine me?!"

My mind drifted back over the past few weeks, digging up all sorts of memories to see if at any point I had run into him or accidently called Jorel...No that's not possible, I wouldn't have just "accidently" butt dialed my brother and not remember it. So how in the hell did Dylan know where I was?

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair, "How did you know where I was Dylan?" I asked him again.

He shrugged and smiled slyly. Well at least he hasn't changed after all these years, I thought and pushed back from the desk. By this point I was starting to get anxious. I could just feel an anxiety attack coming on.

"Whoa, hey are you okay Brooke?"

"No Dylan I'm not okay." I said calmly. Does he really expect me to be okay when he's not answering my questions? Honestly who would be okay in this situation!? I took another steadying breath to try and calm my nerves. "I'm going to ask you one last time Dylan, how did you find me?"

"That's not the poi-"

"YES IT IS THE FUCKING POINT!!" I threw my hands up in pure exasperation. I was way beyond the point of no return with my frustration.

There was a soft knock on the door and soon Janice poked her head in, "Is everything okay in here Ms. Decker?"

"Yes, everything is fine."

"Alright then. If you need anything just let me know."

"Thank you Janice." I said rubbing my temples. I brought my gaze up to meet Dylan's, he shifted his weight from foot to foot. "You." I said sharply. "Answers. Now!"

He exhaled and held his hands up in mock surrender, "Alright. Kat told Vanessa that she had spoke to you, V got mad and kicked Kat out of her and Jorel's house, V told your brother. George was actually standing in the driveway when V was yelling at Kat about not telling us that she had spoke to you. And he got a call from a producer here saying that they wanna sign us to the label. Jorel hounded Kat for more information about when she talked to you, but she didn't say that you work here I found that out on my own."

I stared at him in bewilderment, my mind was still trying to piece together everything he had just said.

"Oh and George and the guys are down the hall talking about the record deal, but they don't know that you work here though." He added smugly.

"He's here!?"

That got my full attention. I felt my heart sink down to the lowest level of my stomach, and possibly beyond that. There was no way that I was setting foot outside of this office if George Ragan was right down the hall. Yes I know that sounds childish but I can't face him. Not after all these years.

"Brooke do you need a minute to process this?" Dylan asked softly. I shook my head slowly.

"I'm fine Dyl."

How could this happen? After building my life back up and making things better not only for myself, but for Katherine as well, this could not be happening! How the hell am I supposed to explain the past six years to him and my brother? Right then my office phone rang noisily, breaking my train of thought. I walked back over to my desk and saw that Mr. Evans was calling me...Fuck my life!

Mr. Evans was the one who handled all of the re-signing and new record deals.

"Yes Mr. Evans?"

"Ms. Decker I need you to come down to my office for a few minutes. And bring Mr. Alvarez with you."

I sighed heavily and told him that I was on my way. I glared at Dylan and told him that Mr. Evans knows that he was with me.

His face paled, "So that means that-"

"Yeah Dylan. That means that my brother, and George know that I work here. And now I have to pretend that I'm not panicking and act like a professional. So thank you for visiting me Dylan."
He gave me an apologetic look as I stormed down the hall to Mr. Evans' office.

When I reached the door I heard Mr. Evans explaining the terms of the record deal. Dylan came up behind me and pushed me back from the door gently.

"Let me go in first." He said and pushed the door inward. Mr. Evans' voice quieted when Dylan walked through and all the guys looked back at him. From where I stood I could see that George was trying to see if anyone else was going to come in after Dylan. A look of deep longing settled in his eyes.

Yeah he most certainly knows I'm here. I took one last deep breath before I pushed my way through the door, past Dylan and took the empty seat by Mr. Evans.

"Good afternoon everyone, my name is Brookelle Decker and I will be assigned to help manage your band while you are signed to our company." I forced my voice to sound strong, and professional. Although I'm pretty sure my eyes gave away every single emotion I felt. Well this should be fun, I thought sarcastically.

*George's POV*

When we got to the recording studio all the guys were on edge about the meeting and how it would go, mostly because we had been told an hour before we got here that Aron was supposed to be recording here as well. We had all agreed that if we saw him we'd just ignore him like always and if he tried to start shit with us then we'd just leave. Of course Jorel hesitated on the decision, I knew that even after all this time he still wished that he could at least talk to Aron every now and then. He never did quite get over the fact that we had all outnumbered him when we had made the choice to kick Aron out of the band. Part of me felt bad for Jorel but then again I had to do what was best for the band.

"Hey, you okay man?" I asked him as we stepped off the elevator. He nodded his head and said that he was fine.

"Alright." I said and pushed him forward. As we walked down the hall we all kind of looked around at the old posters of bands and gold albums that hung on the walls. A few women gave us these looks of disgust as we passed by them. Stupid bitches, I thought and continued down the hall.

At one point I heard Jordon say, "Hey did that plaque say Brook-" before being cut off by a receptionist.

"I take it that you are Hollywood Undead?" A short chubby, middle aged woman said from behind a corner desk. I nodded my head, she smiled sweetly at us and motioned for us to follow her. I glanced back at Jordon to see if he was still following us, he had his back turned and was staring at an office door.

"Come on faggot." I yelled at him and grabbed ahold of his shirt collar.

"Okay I got!" He yelled and pushed my hand off of him.

"Mr. Evans is waiting for you all, just go right on in." The lady said politely and held the door open for us. I gave her a small smile and thanked her. When the door clicked shut Mr. Evans stood up and greeted each of us.

"It's nice to finally be able to work with you guys, now here's my offer: European concerts, Nationwide tour, immediate release of your album and two music videos. What do you guys think?"

I glanced around at the guys, they all seemed to nod in agreement with the offer, well all but Dylan.

"Hey where'd Dylan go?" I asked Jordon being as he was closest to the door. He just shrugged and pulled out his phone to play Fruit Ninja.

"I think I might know where he is." Mr. Evans said and dialed an extension.

"Who's he calling?" Jorel asked.

I just shrugged and listened for the other person to pick up, "I don't know he thinks he knows where Dylan might be."

Jorel rolled his eyes. "He probably found some hot intern to mess with."

I shrugged, "Maybe."

"Ms. Decker I need you to come down to my office for a few minutes. And bring Mr. Alvarez with you."

I watched as he hung up the phone and pulled another chair right up next to his own chair. His words echoed through my mind. There was no way that this girl that he called could be my Brooklyn. It couldn't be, it just didn't seem possible. Six years I've spent trying to find her and get her to talk to me and now all of a sudden she may or may not walk through that office door. She couldn't have just moved two states away and began working at the same record company that just so happened to want to sign us. The door finally opened to reveal Dylan. Time to find out for sure.

I moved in my seat to see if there was anyone else behind him. Sure enough a medium height woman with brown hair, brown eyes, and a body I could never forget, walked through the door with a folder tucked under her arm. She took the empty seat next to Mr. Evans and said, "Good afternoon everyone, my name is Brookelle Decker and I will be assigned to help manage your band while you are signed under our company."

Jorel stood up quickly, knocking his chair down, his eyes bugged out and his jaw hung loose as he took in Brooklyn's appearance. She smiled at him calmly then turned her attention to the rest of the guys.

"I'm assuming that you are all in agreement with the terms of the new contract?" She smiled at the guys then pulled out the contract that we were supposed to sign off on. This girl couldn't be my Brooklyn. She was way too professional and had even changed her name to Brookelle, who the fuck is Brookelle?! Danny cleared his throat loudly and pulled on Jorel's arm so that he would sit down again.

"Yes we are." Danny replied back to her and took the pen from her hand. The way that he took it from her looked like as if he was afraid to touch her skin, almost like as if he touched her she would disappear and all of us would wake up from some bizarre dream. After Danny had signed his name he passed the pen and contract around to all of us to sign. It took Jorel a while to sign his name but he eventually did and so did I.

"Great. I will make a copy for each of you and on Monday morning we will discuss songs and an album tittle." Brooke smiled at us one last time before hurrying out of the room. To me it looked like she didn't want to be here any longer than she had to be. And honestly I wasn't having that, she's going to talk to me and that's final. No more hiding.

*Brooklyn's POV*

"God damn mother fucking cock sucking son of a mother fucking bitch!" I mumbled to myself as I stormed back to my office. Once I shut the door I grabbed a pillow from the couch and screamed into it. "This is not happening." I whispered to no one in particular. My heart beat loudly against my chest from all the anxiety that I had been feeling and containing for the past twenty minutes. All of it was just now starting to come out and wrack my body with uncontrollable shaking, heavy breathing, and now, oh joy, tears. Fuck my life... Just hit me over the head with a cast iron already.

"This can't be happening." I repeated and sunk down on the floor by the bay window that sat on the east side of my office.

"It's happening Brooke." George said firmly from the doorway. I could hear his heavy footsteps tread across hardwood floor. Why did he have to follow me? Can't a girl have a massive panic attack in peace?

"Go away Johnny," I mumbled into my arm. "I don't want to see you right now. Matter of fact not ever again."

He chuckled and sat down next to me, "Well babe it looks like you're stuck with me since I just signed that contract."

Oh how I love that he finds this amusing. I sighed and picked my head up. I saw him watching me out the corner of my eye. Makeup was no doubt running down my face and probably made me look like a raccoon.

"Didn't your mom teach you that it's rude to stare?" I bit back sharply.

He smiled softly. "Didn't your mom teach you that it's rude to take off with your boyfriend's baby without an explanation?"

Of course he would use that against me. He's probably been waiting this whole time to say that to me. But then again I can't really blame him either.

"No actually she didn't. Put me in foster care before I could even find out what a dick was."

"There's the Brooklyn I know."

I rolled my eyes and wiped my face with my sleeve, "So what do you want Johnny? You want to see her? You want to try and play dad to her? Well you can't. I've moved on in life and the contract that you signed is the only way that you will be able to speak with me. Everything will strictly be business."

He ran his hands over his face. When he made eye contact with me again it felt like my heart was about to give out from the amount of pain that was held in those bright blues.

"Please Brooklyn, that's my baby as well!"

I shook my head slowly. I couldn't let him into our daughter's life now, nor ever. I made my decision six years ago and now I have to live with my choice and stick with it. It did pain me to see George react this way and I wanted so bad to tell him that he could see her, but like I said I've moved on in my life and I can't just announce her father's presence out of nowhere.

"Brooke can we just talk about what made you leave me... and what about Ava? You know that she misses you a lot."

And there it was. That last tip of the iceberg that sent me tumbling down an avalanche of emotions, painful memories, and complete heartbreak. As soon as I opened my mouth it was like six years of pent up feelings came pouring out, whether it be sugar coated or just plain brutal, I said it all.

"George I left because I didn't want you around anymore! I didn't feel the same way as when we had first started dating, it was like I was numb from all emotion. I tried so hard to smile and go on with our happy life but I couldn't! I don't know what caused this depression but it just grew and grew until I just couldn't take it anymore. And when I found out that I was pregnant I freaked the hell out. For the longest time I wanted to get an abortion, but it was the mere thought of being able to have the chance to give him or her a better life made me change my mind." I paused to catch my breath and wipe away a mixture of tears and snot from my face. "I didn't want to bring a baby into this world and have it to where one of her parents was madly in love with the other and the other just didn't feel the same anymore! It was either I stay and be miserable or leave. So I left. I moved away and started my own life, got a great job, a nice house, good friends, and even a damn dog as well! My life ended up being pretty fucking great and now I have to deal with you, my brother, and the rest of the guys! I don't need this shit!! I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE!!"

I clutched my chest and leaned back on the side of the desk. My breathing was way out of control and it felt like the room around me was closing in. Everything was becoming smaller with each breath I took. I tried to steady myself by drinking some water, but all that did was make the room spin when I tried to get up off of the floor.

"Brooklyn...?" George stepped closer to me with his arms reached out to me. I tried to grab onto his hand for support but my vision began to blur together and it looked like he was all the way on the other side of the room.

"Brooke..."

His voice echoed around in my head. It was like he was everywhere around me. I took a deep breath and tried to walk to him, but I was quickly met with the cold hardwood floor.

"BROOKLYN!!!"