Wow, I dropped the ball, normally I have the review reply all written out before now.  So all Nikky has to do is send it to all the reviewers at FFN, and I do TWCS and I post one in the comments FicPad.  I dropped the ball this week.  Between personal stuff and the holidays and other drama things, I just flat out missed the bus.  I am so sorry for the delay in you getting this from us.  There were not a lot of questions at all, but you all seem to LOVE Esme, and how could we blame you.  I FLOVE her myself.  This is short but sweet, but hey you’re going to get an extra long teaser …   Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing.  Nikky and Kasi~

TEASER:  As Bella’s face pales, I look to see who she’s looking at.  I see Sue walking in with a crying Leah clutching her arm.  When I turn my head I catch James rolling his eyes at the display that Leah is putting on.

“I will go back and take my seat, I hope you like my last surprise,” James says getting up and walking away.  I watch him trying to work out what he’s talking about, but chatting brings my eyes to the dock. I watch as two officers bring in Paul and Jacob.  I frown at them seeing that their heads seem to have been shaved and they both have those scalp molding scarfs on their heads.

“Please rise for the Honorable Judge Varner,” the court bailiff speaks out loud before anyone can say anything. 

The judge enters the room and sits in his chair, and tells us to be seated as he calls the court to order.  The judge reads over some paperwork and looks up at the defendant's table. 

“This is a court room, remove those head scarves,” the judge says bluntly.

I kiss Bella’s head, but the loud gasps make me turn my head.  I look around the room seeing everyone’s looking at Paul and Jacob.  As they move around at the reactions, I can see they have ‘rapist’ tattooed across their foreheads.

I turn to look at James who is smirking away.

“What did you do to him?” Leah screams as she stands up making her way toward Bella and I.

“Young woman, sit down!  No, in fact get out of my court room and don’t come back until you put some clothing on.  Bailiff remove this person, and do not let her back in here unless she’s dressed more appropriately.”

Leah’s mouth drops open as she looks at the judge with rage in her eyes. Two of the eight bailiffs in the room escort her out of the room with Sue running out of the room behind them.

I smile a little and turn back to pay attention to the judge.

“Are the defendants, still pleading not guilty?” the judge asks.

“Ernest Berty, for the defense, your honor,” the defense attorney stands and says.  “I’m representing both Mr. Lahote and Mr. Black and they both plead not guilty.  At this time, your honor, we are petitioning the court to have the trial moved due to bias and news coverage in this matter.”

“Well Mr. Berty, since both your clients are facing charges in four states including the great state of Washington, I doubt you’ll find anyone who hasn’t currently heard something of the case.  You have had your chance to question and discredit members of the jury, so therefore your request is not applicable.  Your request to move the hearing is denied, and further more future stalling tactics such as this will not happen in this court.”

I chuckle silently as the defense attorney tucks his tail and sits down.  The judge has the bailiff bring in the jury and they are seated.  We listen as both sides give their opening arguments.  I’m glad that as soon as the opening arguments are done, the judge breaks for lunch.

“How are you feeling, Love?” I ask Bella, as I lean close to her ear so our conversation is private.

“I’m all right, but I think I may head home soon, if that’s okay?”

I kiss her head.  “Of course it is, my love.”

Thank you all for reading and reviewing.  We love reading all of the nice things that you all have said.  Thank you again for everything.  Some of the biggest questions we had was these:
I thought Bella was having a girl? – Bella thought she was having a girl, but Edward thought boy.
Have Charlie and Leah been involved sexually? – No, Charlie is a real yuck, but he honestly thought Leah was his daughter.
How in the world did James get away with the things he did to Jake and Paul? – Money and having influential friends does a lot in any situation.  Besides this is fiction and there are not many if any people who did not want Paul and Jake to both get a tiny taste of the stuff they all to willingly dished out to others.
Is there an Epilogue after 25 or is 25 the epilogue? – The story is 25 chapters including the epilogue, so no more after 25.
Do you have more stories coming out since this is coming to a close? – We currently have a one-shot we did for Christmas that has an epilogue yet to post.  Then we have the one-shot we are writing for Moo AH, which we will post sometime in January.  We will be starting our new story that is sort of an ugly duckling Bella story, and for a change it will be in Bella’s POV and we’re excited by this prospect.  We also have an Escort story coming soon, and it will be fantastic.  We have another story we are doing for a fandom fights program, this time it is for domestic abuse—this will be a story written with jess2002 joining us.  We also will be posting a story to the facebook group page.  The two groups it will post at are: TeamAllTwilight & AndTAT Fan Fiction and it will post at Secluded Wings.  Everyone’s welcome, we are an adult only, drama free environment. 
Is Phil going to end up with Sue? – No, but there is a bit of a story there yet to come for them both.
I think that wraps up the majority of the questions we have been asked.  I hope that you all like this teaser it is COMPLETELY unedited, because we haven’t even gotten 24 to the beta yet—speaking of which the last 2 chapters – 24 and 25, may have a few more mistakes than normal, since we are down 2 of our team because of the holidays.

Thanks again for reading and reviewing our story, Nikky and Kasi~

Teaser:  I hold Bella’s hand as we walk in with Adam into the doctor’s office.  We’ve both been worried about today, this is his first set of injections.  “You’re sure you’re okay to hold him?” Bella asks me again as she holds Adam close to her.

“Yes, I’m okay to be the mean parent today,” I say again with a little chuckle. “Beside you don’t like shots.  Since they scare you when you get them done on you, I know this is really going to be hard on you,” I say.  I remember that I had to hold Dean for his four month shots because Rose couldn’t even be in the same room when it was getting done, and Emmett was sick.

Bella frowns at me and I chuckle kissing her lips. “It will be fine, I promise.”

“But he’s only two months and still small.”

I pull her and our son to me and hold her close as I look down at my sleeping son.

“I know, believe me, I know.  Sweetheart if weren’t important for him to have these done we wouldn’t be here.”

Bella nods and lets out a sigh.

“I really can’t believe she’s breast feeding him in public,” a woman says loudly to the other woman sitting next to her. 

Both Bella and I turn to look at her and then to a young woman about Bella’s age who is breast feeding her baby.

“These teens today have no respect, whatsoever.  They act like whores, get pregnant and then plop their breasts out for everyone to see,” the woman sitting next to the woman who first spoke replies.

I look to Bella who’s looking at the young girl that is being spoken about so rudely.

“It’s girls like her that go out lead a guy on and then cry rape when it gets taken further than they wanted.  But just look at her showing all off all her goodies here in public.  Whatever do these stupid trampy girls thinks is going to happen?”

My mouth drops open at the woman’s cold words.

“Hold our son for a second,” Bella says passing AJ into my arms as she gets up.  At first I think she’s going to the restroom but instead she turns walking directly over to the two women.

“As you seem to make sure that your thoughts were spoken loud and clear enough to everyone that’s in the room, I thought I should make my thoughts clear.  First, neither of you have any right to judge that girl on anything she’s doing.  So what, she’s feeding her baby, it’s a baby who is clearly hungry and being cared for.  If you don’t like it, then don’t flipping look!”

My eyes open even wider hearing Bella use one of her clean swear words.  I start to get up to head over to her.

Thank you very much for all of your reviews. I love reading them xx

Hey! I just want to say a huge thank you for your review(s) on My Laird. I truly appreciate your support.
I had a lot of fun writing the story and can't wait to start the sequel. See you in July!
Kara x x