Sequel: Hold On

Life As It Is

A "Good" Morning After

The next morning, it seemed as if the storm had finally passed through. When Ella's eyes opened, she found Billie Joe's looking at her. She couldn't help but grin at him.

"Watching me sleep again? Someone's bored," she said, continuing to grin as he did the same.

"You're supposed to be grateful."

"That you watch me sleep?"

He groaned, hitting her with a pillow. She laughed as she got up and stretched, immediately noticing her new engagement ring as she did. She looked back at him with a smile.

"Happy Thanksgiving," she said.

"You too."

"So are we heading over to Tre and Laura's house?"

"Yeah, but let's be a little late," He gave a smug grin, pulling her back into bed.

She put her hands in back of his neck, playing with his hair for a bit before leaning in to kiss him.

"You know what I'm grateful for?" she asked, whispering in his ear.

"Me watching you sleep?"

She chuckled softly, her arms around his neck.

"No, you."

"Could you get anymore cheesier, babe?"

"Yes."

The thirty-three year old man lifted Ella's chin up with a smile, kissing her again, a bit more deeply as she returned that deep kiss. Suddenly, they heard a baby's cry.

"Noo," Billie Joe groaned as the two got up.

He made his way towards the crib where Phoebe was crying. He assumed she was probably hungry because as he glanced at the clock he noticed it was already noon.

"How'd we sleep through the whole morning?" Ella asked out loud.

"You're slowly adjusting to me sleeping in late," Billie Joe joked as she gave him a funny look.

She walked over to the house phone, the answering machine blinking that they had one missed message.

"Billie, El? Where are you guys?" Mike asked in the message.

"They're doing it!" Tre called out.

"Don't you think they would've stopped if they were?" Mike called out.

"NO! They're like bunnies, but worse."

Billie Joe and Ella laughed.

"Okay," the Green Day front man said, making his way towards the answering machine. "I'd like to introduce you to something called the delete button." He pressed it coolly.

"This message has been deleted."

"Thank god," Billie Joe muttered.

"You just deleted your best friends!"

"My annoying yet loving best friends."

"If you ever delete me, I'll delete your ass."

"I'll delete your whole body then."

She gave him a confused look, and then tiptoed to pat his head.

"That doesn't make sense."

"I can show you," he grinned evilly.

Ella tried her best to not laugh.

"First we feed Phoebe, and then maybe you can show me then," she said as she made her way back towards the crib, picking up Phoebe and shushing her a bit.

After feeding the little baby, Holly had called this time, making sure they were indeed coming over after hours and hours of not returning the call or calling themselves.

The two of them got ready and both dressed Phoebe, then made their way towards the car, driving to Tre and Laura's.

"You know a year ago, everything was so different. I was pregnant with Phoebe and you and Adrienne were planning to get divorced..." Ella trailed off a bit, resting in her seat.

"Yeah. And this year, I'm getting married again to you."

She smiled. "The sound of that just makes me grin."

* * *
When the two finally arrived, it seemed like everyone was already there, including Adrienne. They saw that the other two new additions to their little world were in the playpen, where Ella put Phoebe.

"Play nice," she said, smiling.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Tre asked, with a beer in his hand.

Billie Joe gave him a look. "None of your business."

"But I wanna know," he whined.

"Tre, I swear you're worse than any of our kids."

Ella chuckled. "We finally got engaged, Tre. Happy now?"

"You are?" He shrieked, looking down at the woman's engagement ring. He suddenly pounced on her, almost knocking her over.

"Tre! Get off of her."

"Nooo!"

"Get off of her or I'm telling Laura you've been acting naughty."

The drummer quickly let go, a grin on his face. "Hot stuff is finally tying the knot with Billie Hoe."

Billie Joe whacked on the head. "The only hoe around here is you."

"Why thank you," he said and walked off.

"I'm gonna go find Joey and Jakob," Billie Joe said, squeezing her hand and walking away.

Ella found Holly and Adrienne sitting and talking where the playpen was.

"Hey you guys," she said sitting down.

"Hey," they both answered.

She had a huge grin on her face. "I got engaged," she said.

The two women's expressions were certainly happy.

"Congratulations!" They both said hugging her.

"I hope this isn't weird or anything..." Ella said to Adrienne who shook her head.

"I've moved on."

"And I think you should be happy to know that the ring on your finger was picked out by me," Holly said proudly.

"Oh really... and why is that?"

"Billie has no idea how to pick out wedding rings."

"That's good to know," she chuckled.

* * *
A few months passed by and from November, it had grown to now be March of a new year, 2006.

It was tough to be thinking of wedding plans although the band was completely done with touring because Billie Joe was now working with his and Adrienne's Adeline clothing line launch.

"I know what you're thinking," Billie Joe said to Ella one night. "I'm not busying myself on purpose."

Ella accepted that, knowing that her fiancιe really was a bit busy. She chewed on her pen that was she had been holding while sitting on the couch with her planner.

She was starting to start off her career as a photographer, looking for temporary freelance jobs here and there but deep inside hoping she'd find something to stick to.

"How's April for you?" she asked suddenly, going through the pages of the planner.

"Not too bad," he said, making his way towards the couch, his eyes looking towards the book where it was opened at that exact month.

"What about the sixteenth?" he asked as he looked at the date.

Ella looked up at her fiancιe, her eyes looking towards the slight scruff around where his beard would be growing.

"Sounds pretty good."

He grinned, kissing the top of her head and putting his arm around her.

"I know you were looking at the scruff, babe."

"You nicknamed it?"

"Yep."

"Well it's better than the hilarious blonde hair you had not too long ago."

"A lot of girls—on the internet liked it."

"Since when do you go on message boards?" she asked and chuckled as she got a bit more comfortable on the couch.

"Since Tre decided to go through all of them the night that those pictures made their way to the internet. By the end of the night, someone photoshopped my hair pink!"

Ella laughed as he gave her a look.

"Well, it's funny... "

"Hey babe," Billie Joe said to the now thirty-five year old woman who had been loading the laundry.

"Hey," she said, not looking back for a moment, then turned around, thinking her eyes deceived her.

She looked at his blonde hair and spilled detergent all over her pants.

"SHIT!" she yelled out, suddenly regretting she had said that since Phoebe was with Holly and Mike in the next room.

He gave his trademark grin, still standing as she stared at him.

"W-What the hell happened to your hair?"

"Tre dyed it for me," he said proudly.

"Under whose supervision?"

"Mine."

"This is a joke... right?" she asked, laughing.

"Nope... it's real."

She kept giggling like a teenager. "Why'd you do it?"

"So we can both be blonde together," he said and grinned at her as she shook her head with a small smirk on her face.

"Our hair looks nothing alike... "

"Oh it will, baby." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

She rolled her eyes at him as she put in the laundry and then headed with him over to the living room where Mike and Holly were watching TV as the two other babies sat in the playpen, playing.

"Hey, kiddo," Billie Joe said as he picked up Phoebe.

The nine month old baby stared at him with her big green eyes and started violently crying.

"What? What did I do?" he yelled.

"Your hair looks like you cut it off Big Bird," Holly yelled as Mike started laughing, resting his head on his girlfriend's shoulder as he did so.

Ella bit her lip as she took Phoebe away from Billie Joe and tried quieting her down.


"How come when you dyed your hair, the baby didn't violently cry like she did with me?" Billie Joe asked, crossing his arms.

"Because mine looked decent and I'm her mother."

"They always say that... that was worse than that little Japanese kid from this Tower of Records interview two years ago who probably got scared of my eyeliner."

He rested his head on her shoulder, feeling embarrassed.

"Aww... well at least she got you to eventually change it back," she chuckled.

"That and it really messed up my hair."

"Leave it to Tre to dye your hair... "

Two weeks before the wedding, preparation was quite important for the wedding. There were still things they hadn't done because the date had been announced so sudden.

Ella had never done the wedding thing except for her first marriage, but that was only eloping in Vegas. Planning a whole ceremony was very different.

She got into the shower that afternoon and turned on the water, feeling the warm water hitting against her aching back. She let out a sigh of relief as she reached for her shampoo. When she looked towards her left, she was startled to see a taller presence at her side.

"Dammit Billie, you scared me!" she exclaimed as he grinned, his jet black hair getting wetter by the second. "What are you doing in here?"

"Saving water," he said, his grin still remaining on his face.

"Oh, of course... we could use a cheaper water bill," she said as she pulled him closer to her as they kissed.

* * *
Meanwhile downstairs, Holly had made her way into the household, finding Tre in the kitchen.

"Hey," she said as she stood next to him. "Where's everyone?"

The drummer shrugged but secretly knew exactly where the engaged couple was. "What's up?"

"I uhh... needed something."

"What?"

"Something feminine."

Tre made a face. "Can't you see I'm eating Cocoa Puffs?" The thirty-three year old drummer pointed at the cereal he was eating.

"You've made me puke more than once, it's about time I made you do it."

She headed towards the upstairs bathroom as an evil grinning Tre went behind her. Unaware of the sound of the running water, Holly made her way into the bathroom along with Tre and rummaged through the cabinet.

"What's that sound?" she asked herself as she got up and opened the shower curtain. "OH SHIT."

A startled Billie Joe and Ella stopped what they were doing and stared at her and a laughing Tre whose mouth was dropped open.

The thirty-five year old naked woman's eyes widened as she immediately closed the shower curtain.

Embarrassed as ever, a red-faced Holly made her way out into the hallway with her box of feminine products along with Tre.

"Oh, fuck... " she muttered to herself as the drummer continued to laugh. "Tre, it's not funny."

"Not if you already knew they were already in there," he said, biting his lip.

Holly's face fell. "You knew they were in there?" she yelled as he nodded.

She took the box and whacked him on the head several times until she could see Mike coming up the stairs with a confused look already printed on his face.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

* * *
Ella blushed as she laughed nervously after Holly and Tre left as she dried her hair with a towel.

"I knew though Tre would stoop that low," Billie Joe chuckled as he dried himself off.

"Well you know Tre... anything to see any of us naked. I'm sure Holly got a kick out of seeing you in the nude."

"And you too."

"Well not really... we used to live together in college."

Billie Joe looked over at her and wiggled his eyebrows. She chuckled softly and threw a towel at his way.

"Perv."

"So uhh... have you been thinking about where should we have the wedding?" Billie Joe suddenly asked.

This drew Ella's attention as she slowly put her bathrobe on around her.

"Not really... just that it shouldn't be in the backyard," she said quietly, then looking at him. "Sorry."

"No, I get it. I don't want it there either."

She shrugged. "I guess we should go looking then."

As the couple drove around the Bay Area, they were desperately looking for a decent place to get married. It wasn't until they got to the final place on their route that they decided it was right enough for them.

Stepping out of the expensive car, Billie Joe and Ella looked at the beautiful garden in front of them. Filled with tons of flowers, including beautiful roses. They looked around, knowing this was definitely the place they would want to remember as where they got married.

They stood together hand in hand as Ella inaudibly sighed.

"What's wrong?" Billie Joe asked.

She shook her head. "Nothing. I umm... I know this is completely out of the blue, but I want to invite my mom to the wedding." She looked up at him as he nodded.

"If that's what you want."

"I do. I just sort of think... after everything that's happened, she should deserve to go to at least one of my weddings," she chuckled softly.

One of the other things that had to be taken out of the way was of course, the wedding dress.

Holly and Ella made their way into the best wedding dress store they could find. After her third dress, the bride to be was frustrated.

"Twirl around," Holly ordered, laughing at the ridiculous dress she had on.

"No."

"Do it."

"Hol'... " She began.

"For the love of God, do it for me."

She grunted and did so, watching the woman's face light up as she chuckled at her. After twirling around, she made her way back into the dressing room and tried on another dress.

This time, the dress was long and had spaghetti like straps. The material felt soft on Ella's skin as she walked back out to Holly who had a smile on her face.

Returning the smile, the bride to be knew it was the dress for her.

* * *
"Explain to me again why you're staying here," Mike said as he stood in the doorway of his guest room where Billie Joe was lying down.

"Ella's superstitious."

"So?"

"So, she doesn't want to see me before the wedding or anything or it'll be bad luck."

"You and Adie didn't do that."

"And look where it got us."

The bassist shook his head with a smirk. "You're perfect for each other."

"You got that right."

As Mike left the room, Billie Joe relaxed and closed his eyes. Tomorrow would be the day he'd be getting married. Getting married to the woman he had loved for so long. It was finally happening. Nothing could ruin this day. Nothing.