The Last Snow: A Mother's Love

Tyler Burgess’ POV
7am

I sat down at the table and started drinking what was now my third cup of coffee.

Chris, Danny, and Bella arrived about 5 hours ago. They both went straight to bed in their bands’ rooms, and I helped them take Bella from the car into my bedroom.

Everyone knew that it was a safe bet to have Bella wake up and deal with me than anyone else. It was going to be a bit of task to get Bella familiarized with both of these houses, start interacting with everyone once again, and so on and so forth.

“Good Morning.” Alex yawned, coming down the stairs.

“Morning.” I replied.

He got himself a cup of coffee and sat across from me.

“So, everyone’s still sleeping?” He asked.

“Yeah, as far as I know. I’ve been up since 2 am when they got here, and I haven’t seen anyone down here since.” I told him.

“Gotcha. You must be excited, having Bella back and all, you’ve had to wait quite a while.” Alex mused.

“I’m thrilled, but I’m also staying cautious, I know there are things that set her off easily, and can switch her mindset in an instant.” I explained.

“Well, if there’s anything I can do at all to help, I’m here for you.” He offered.

I thought about that for a second.

“Actually, there is. The one thing I’ve been struggling to figure out is how to get Bella reacquainted with everyone, and who to start with, band wise. Considering every band has one person that Bella really isn’t the biggest fan of, it’s a little hard to decide where to start. Now thinking about it though, she never seemed to adverse to you and Jack. That could be a good place to start.” I suggested.

“Fuck yeah, that would be great.” He cheered.

“Oh, awesome, at least we have a place to start now.” I chuckled.

“Tyler!” I suddenly heard someone yell from the stairs.

“What’s up?” I asked, seeing Ronnie rush down the stairs, obviously looking a little nervous.

“Bella’s screaming bloody murder. It sounds like she’s just having a nightmare though and not up. But still, you might want to calm her down before she blows her voice out.” Ronnie informed me.

“Fuck. Hold onto that thought.” I told Alex.

He nodded his head, and I sprinted up the staircase, all the way up to the third floor.

As soon as I got to the second floor, I heard what Ronnie was talking about. Her screams were echoing in the halls.

I sped up my pace and made my way up one more staircase, took a left and was in front of my room.

“No, no, no! Stop!” Bella shrieked.

I popped open the door, and burst into the room.

She was sitting up against her headboard clutching onto the quilt, shaking, crying, and screaming.

“Bella, wake up. You’re okay now.” I told her, placing one hand behind her back, and the other on top of her hands.

“Look at me.” I said louder, trying to snap her out of it.

Finally her eyes snapped open, and when they did I saw just how bloodshot and scared her eyes looked.

“Tyler.” Bella whispered.

“Yeah, it’s me.” I cooed, gently tucking her hair behind her hair.

She kept looking around with wide eyes, not looking scared- more confused than anything.

Out of nowhere she leaned over and a pale flush flashed over her face.

Bella didn’t look too good.

“Hey, just breathe.” I cooed.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” She whispered.

“Fuck.” I exclaimed, quickly grabbing her and running to the bathroom with her in my arms.

Just as I got her into the bathroom, and she was kneeling in front of the toilet, she got very sick.

I grabbed her hair, and made sure that it was all out of the way.

I let my other hand continue to rub her back. It was obvious that she was beyond nervous, and this is why she was getting so sick.

Well, at least we knew the first day wouldn’t be easy.

“You’re ok, just relax.” I cooed.

It took her a few minutes, but she finally started to calm herself down.

“Do you feel a little bit better?” I asked her, as she fell back to sit on her butt instead of her knees.

“I guess.” She answered.

“Is it just nerves?” I wondered.

“Yeah, and it all just kind of clicked that this is all really happening right now. My mind’s spinning.” She told me.

“It’ll take a while for everything to come together, and feel like normal.” I said.

“As long as you’re here, I think I can make it.” She sighed.

“You know I’m always here for you.” I promised her, wrapping my arms around her waist.

We both sat quietly as Bella cleaned herself up, and slowly came back around to looking and feeling better.

“So, what’s next?” She groaned.

“Let’s go get dressed, and then we can take the next step.” I chuckled.

I walked back down the hall with her to my room, and sat down on my bed as I showed her to the clothes that were in my closet for her.

“So, is this my room or yours?” She asked, noticing that the closet was split in half with my clothes and hers.

“It’s my room. However we all figured you’d probably be in here a fair amount.” I told her.

“It depends on what my room looks like.” She giggled.

“Well fuck, it’s a pretty nice room. I might have to drag you to my room.” I joked with her.

Her face turned serious after that comment.

“You know you never would have to fight to get me to be with you. Everyone one else in the building...that’s a different story. You know I’m a little heads over heels for you though.” She whispered, blushing.

“I do know that.” I replied with a grin on my face.

“Ok, I seriously need to focus.” She muttered, rummaging through the closet until she found a pair of black leggings and an oversized American Monster sweatshirt.

My old band, I didn’t exactly have the heart to tell her that I was now in Michael Vampire’s new band Dead Girls Academy.

We’d cross that road when it came to it.

“Hey, I need to get serious for a second.” I said, reaching out and grabbing her around the waist.

“I know, I shouldn’t have punched Chris.” She whispered.

I shook my head.

“No, that’s not it. Although I wouldn’t decline a promise from you to never do that again.” I said.

“Promise.” She stated.

“Alright, good. What I was starting to say though was that I just want to make sure that you know that everything’s going to be ok. I know you’re scared, the ear shattering screams in your sleep kind of gave that one away. You’re safe though, please know that.” I cooed.

“Am I?” She questioned me, raising an eyebrow.

“Absolutely.” I smiled, laying back on the bed and pulling her down on top of me.

“What?” She asked me.


“Do I get one more question?” I wondered.


“One more and then you owe me a drink for every question after that.” She answered with a chuckle.


“Deal. What I can’t understand is why you signed the contract, especially that fast. What in the world made you do that? I can’t figure it out for the life of me.” I said.


“It was a crap shoot to be honest. There wasn’t any logic or scheming behind it.” She
admitted.


“No way. I was expecting some crazy master plan from you.” I told her.


“Sorry, we’ve both got to wait for that to come to fruition.” Bella chuckled.


She wrapped her arms around me and fully rested her head down onto my chest.


“You’re precious, love.” I whispered, holding her tight.


Bella leaned down and gently kissed me.


“As are you.” She whispered back.


“I’d love to lay here forever, and never move...and I hate to break up this wonderful moment, but we kind of have to get up.” I groaned.


She let out a grumble, and got herself off of me and sat up at the edge of the bed.


“You ruined that moment.” She told me gruffly.


“I’m sorry, love.” I apologized, getting up off the bed.


“So what’s first, do I sell my soul to TJ or let Ronnie tattoo ‘owned’ across my ass.” She asked, with obvious attitude.


“Oh no, you’ve got it all wrong. Craig’s taking your soul, and Mike F. is doing the tattoo.” I replied, giving her shit.


“Fuck off.” She giggled.

“Shhh, little one. If anyone else hears that, they won’t take it as lightly as I do.” I warned her, quickly placing my hand over her mouth.

“Fine.” She mumbled from under my hand.

“Alright, let’s get you going on a tour of this place so you know where everything is. After all, not only is this building large, the main building is far beyond this one.” I told her, opening up my door.

“Where are we starting?” She wondered.

“You and Alex are starting in All Time Low’s room.” I told her softly.

“No, no, no.” She said, shaking her head.

“Tell me who else you won’t get into a fight with, and I will gladly have them show you around.”

“Besides from me!” I told her.

You could tell she was thinking long and hard about it, but was coming up blank. I knew she didn’t like any of them that much, they all pissed her off pretty bad. There was a few people I suppose that she could somewhat stand, Alex being one of them.

“Fine.” She huffed.

“Hate to break it to you sweetheart, but you’re kind of going to have to deal with everyone in the next week. I know most of them left a bad taste in your mouth, but if you can’t try and move past what happened before, they sure as hell won’t.” I told her.

“You know, I hate it when you’re right.” She grumbled.

“Nonsense.” I chuckled, kissing the top of her head and walking her to All Time Low’s room which was just at the end of my hall and to the right.

“Please tell me I’ll see you later tonight.” Bella cooed.

“Absolutely. As long as you’re nice to Alex.” I told her.

“I’ll be an angel.” She promised.

Once she was in their room, I said one last goodbye for the moment and went to go and grab Alex.

“Hey, I’ve got Bella up in your room. If you want to take her on a tour that would be awesome.” I said.

“Yeah, absolutely. I’ll obviously avoid the basement, but is there any other places to avoid?” Alex wondered.

“No, you’re good.” I replied.

He went off to go meet up with Bella, and I stayed where I was in the kitchen.

Ronnie was currently the only other person in the kitchen, but we could hear a few pairs of feet coming down the stairs.

“How’s she doing?” He asked.

“As good as can be expected. She’s far more light hearted than I expected though. She cracked a few jokes and even laughed a few times. Which were both things I didn’t think I’d see in at least a month.” I answered.

“That’s great, now she has to keep that up through training.” Ronnie said.

“Did I just hear the word training? Please tell me we pushed the date up.” Ashley cheered, popping into the kitchen.

“Ha, don’t we all wish?” Ronnie laughed.

“As far as I know Chris still doesn’t want to do anything for a solid 3 weeks, to give her time to adjust and get used to being around all of us and the new house.” Ryan Sitkowski said, trailing directly behind Ashley.

“All things considered, I don’t think we should be put off by three weeks. For fucks sake, we already went 8.5 months without even having her in our control.” Ronnie pointed out.

All of a sudden two more voices made themselves heard, Alex and Bella. There wasn’t screaming, so that was a really good start.

I hushed everyone in the room with me, so that I could actually hear what they were saying.

“So this house is seriously just for sleeping?” Bella asked.

“Yup, there’s a little kitchen and some furniture on this floor level, but as you saw, the top three levels are just bedrooms, and a few bathrooms.” Alex responded.

“That’s absurd.” She replied.

“You might actually end up liking that, it means that the main house that we’re headed to has a lot more space for everyone to live in. Think of it like this, the old house was already huge and it had all of our bands’ bedrooms in it. The new main house is even bigger than the old house, and besides from one extra bedroom for you, there’s no bedrooms. That equates to a shit ton of space.” Alex told her.

“Alright, that’s something I can deal with.” She laughed.

After that I heard the front door open and shut, as they were now on their way to the main house.

“Ok, that went much better than I thought it would. She didn’t even curse him out.” Ashley exclaimed, a little shock.

“I told you she was a good girl, you just have to give her a chance.” I stated.

There was a little bit of small talk between everyone, but within twenty minutes we all had split up, and far more people were now awake.

I already was feeling a bit of anxiety about not knowing what Bella was doing, how she was acting, and if she was overall doing okay.

Ghost caught on to that pretty quick, so he had me come and help him set up what was going to be a bonfire tonight. Something fun yet relaxing to kind of act as a welcome back, we missed you gift.

I just hoped I didn’t lose my mind by that time.

14 Hours Later
9 pm ~

“See, she’s fine.” Andy said, pointing to Bella who was in one of the many lawn chairs we had set up around the large fire pit.

“She didn’t even flip out once?” I asked, almost in disbelief.

“No. I mean it was obvious there was a million other things she’d rather be doing with anyone but us, but she stayed respectful.” Andy told me.

She never did stop surprising me, but I knew there had to be a reason behind this.

“Stop it.” Andy said.

“Stop what?” I asked.

“Analyzing her every step and word is going to drive you fucking nuts. She’s ok.” He assured me.

I sighed, he had a point.

“Alright.” I agreed.

“Good, now have a beer and take a load off.” He chuckled, tossing me a can of beer.

“If you insist.” I laughed.

I walked over to where Bella was sitting and sat on the ground next to her, as Ricky and James were trying to start the fire.

“Hey you.” She whispered.

“Hello.” I cooed, slipping my hand into hers.

“It’s nice to see you again.” She told me.

“Same here, you have no idea. How was your first day back with everyone?” I asked her.

She chuckled.

“You know, when I was younger my mom would always make me go to summer camp, and when I got there I’d look around and realize I hated everyone there. I fucking hated it, and quite frankly, I’m feeling the same way about this.” She whispered.

“Hate is a strong word.” I cautioned her.

She looked down at me and just glared.

“I know.” She grumbled.

“Come on we’re having s'mores, you can’t have hate in your heart with s’mores.” I told her, trying to lighten her mood.

“When s’mores can give me my daughter and virginity back, let me know.” She growled.

“Shh, stop it Bells.” I warned her, knowing that if anyone else heard that she might be in trouble.

However, I knew when she brought those two things up, they tore her apart inside.

I turned her chair around, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down onto my lap.

“Fine.” She sighed.

“Hey, if you want something to cheer you up, just think about how long it’s taking them to build this damn fire.” I murmured into her ear.

That thankfully got her to laugh out loud.

“It’s getting a little painful to watch.” She giggled.

“Just keep trying to find those little moments, ok? It won’t make things perfect, but it will make them better.” I assured her.

“I’m trusting you, Burgess.” She playfully growled.

“Good.” I said, letting a little smirk show on my face.

She snuggled in closer to me as they finally got the fire going, and really stoked it up.

Those of us who drank had a few beers, and Ben of all people even let Bella have one alcoholic drink.

We had s’mores, and listened to various stories told around the fire, they ranged from crazy tour stories, scary campfire stories, and they even managed to slip in some stories of how nuts I had sometimes gone when Bella was away.

I knew those last ones were thrown into hopefully soften her up, but just by her body language I could tell it wasn’t working, but again she wasn’t killing anyone yet so that was a plus.

“Hey, can I go to bed?” Bella suddenly whispered.

“Of course.” I told her, standing up and helping her up as well.

“Goodnight Bella.” Everyone called to her.

She kept silent, not saying anything to them.

“Are you ok?” I asked, noticing she wasn’t just going quiet with them, she was going quiet with me to well.

“I just need to sleep.” She replied, as we got back into the house with the bedrooms.

I followed her up the stairs, and was surprised when she passed my room and continued on up the stairs to the fourth floor where her room was.

“Do you have everything you need?” I asked her.

“I’m missing one thing, actually.” She told me.

“What’s that? I can go grab it for you.” I said.

“No, silly. It’s you.” She whispered.

“Well that’s good, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to sleep alone tonight.” I exclaimed.

Bella went to the corner of the room and stripped down to just her bra and underwear, as I sat on the corner of her bed.

“So, all in all today wasn’t nearly as awful as I saw it being. Does that mean tomorrow I get tied up and whipped?” Bella asked me, slipping into the bed.

“No. Unless you wanted that.” I teased her, taking off my top and getting under the covers with her.

“You could do it.” Bella cooed.

“Oh could I?” I asked, intrigued and surprised by that answer.

That beautiful blush rose to her cheeks and she hid her face from me under the covers.

“What are you hiding from me, little one?” I wondered, pulling the blankets away from her face.

“Can I tell you something that I need to stay between you and I? Something I would need your word that you wouldn’t tell anyone else.” She softly asked.

I saw it in her eyes that this was something very important to her.

“I promise you, Bella.” I promised.

“I’m starting to realize that I signed that contract for you. You’re the closest thing to a normal life I’ll ever have, even through all of this crazy bullshit.” She whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

“Tyler, I love you.” She suddenly proclaimed, smiling up at me.

I didn’t even know what to say, my heart was beating so fast and words were just escaping me.

I just had to act.

My hands pulled her body against mine and my lips met hers.

Once I went to pull away I was pleasantly surprised when Bella pulled me back and our lips met again.

“I love you too, so so much.” I told her, finally letting the two of us catch our breaths.

“I think I can handle whatever they toss at me as long as you’re by my side.” She happily said.

“It’s nothing you can’t handle, I know it.” I stated, interlacing my fingers with hers.

She shook her head and kept laughing.

“What the fuck has my life become?” She asked, rolling over and curling up under the blankets.

“Shh, don’t worry about that. Just sleep for now, ok?” I told her, getting myself comfortable under the sheets finally.

I got a simple head nod from her, and that was a sure sign that she was quickly nodding off.

As she drifted off to sleep I couldn’t stop thinking about those 3 words she said that made my heart flutter.

I love you.

That’s all I needed to know to make me a happy man.

Notes

Aww, love is in the air for Bella and Tyler. Will that be reciprocated with the others? How will everyone else take to Bella confessing love to Tyler, or will they even find out?