After the run in with Regina, Marshall didn’t know what to do. He got out of there as soon as he could and returned to his hotel only to pace the length of the bedroom for two hours.

What was going on with her? What was wrong with him? What the hell was that! He had to figure out what the hell this thing was and what she wanted out of him. All he knew was that she was the only woman who could have done that to him and not have had his fist down their throat. Regina was the only woman he’d ever allowed to make him that vulnerable. And he did not like being vulnerable, to anyone. They had to figure this thing out. There was no option about it now. He wanted her and like she had said, he went after what he wanted. He dove for the phone and called the club. After he’d found out when Regina got off of work he formulated a plan, made a few phone calls and headed out to Ernelle and Regina’s apartment.

“What are you doing here?” Ernelle asked. Because he hadn’t called Ernelle, she was surprised to see him.

“I get what I want, and I want her, any other questions?” he asked gruffly.

“You go boy! It’s about damn time!” Ernelle said grinning.

“I’m sick of fucking around. She needs to sign that contract, she’s a better fucking rapper than ninety percent of the losers out there, and you know it too,” Marshall said.

“Good, maybe you’ll be able to get her to do it. I’ve known her for fourteen years and I haven’t had any luck, besides, you’re just as stubborn as she is. Use whatever would get you to agree to it, that’ll work,” Ernelle replied patting his arm.

“Oh, it’s being taken care of. What time she gon’ be here?”

“I’d say maybe ten, fifteen minutes at the most.” Ernelle replied checking the clock next to the door.

“Your best bet would probably be to go wait in her room and surprise her, that way you have an advantage.”

“Cool, just yell when she’s coming,” Em replied going towards her bedroom.

“What’s your safe word?” Ernelle asked. Em stopped and turned to look at Ernelle confused.

“Huh?”

“Your safe word, cause I know it’s gonna get loud when she sees your here, and you two are probably gonna be screaming at one another, and in case she really tries to hurt you,” Ernelle said shrugging slightly.

“Oh,” he laughed slightly, but sobering quickly when he remembered how she’d beaten up Benny.

“I’ll just yell your name,” he said chuckling.

“All right, oh and by the way Shady, she likes you, she denies it, she’s lying.” Ernelle added, grabbing his arm lightly. He nodded slightly and said,

“Thanks.” Ernelle smiled and patted his arm.

“Shit, she’s coming, hurry up!” Ernelle said as she heard a key in the lock. Em hurried into Regina’s open room and waited, listening for her entrance.

“Oh hey Ernelle, I didn’t expect you to be up,” Regina said smiling.

“I wasn’t really that tired. You hungry?” Ernelle asked nervously.

“Uh, sure, I’m just gonna go change, my feet are killing me! Last time I wear these boots dancing!” Regina laughed. Ernelle gave her a crooked smile and then sidestepped quickly into the kitchen.

Regina went to her room, closing the door behind her before dropping her bag on her dresser. She leaned back against the door to untie the tops of the boots and began the slow task of unlacing them. When she finally kicked them off she turned towards her bed and nearly jumped three feet.

“Jesus fucking Christ! Don’t do that to me!” she said falling back against the door, clutching her chest.

“What, thought you’d get away with doing that to me at the club?” he asked getting up off the bed.

“You need to get the hell out of here,” Regina said, still trying to catch her breath.

“I don’t think so. It’s about time you heard me out,” he replied taking a step towards her.

“You’ve got nothing I want to hear about,” Regina replied, knowing full well standing up against a wall with him coming towards her was not a good idea. She quickly moved away from the door.

“Yes you do. Tomorrow you are going back to the studio and you are signing that damn contract!”

“Why the hell should I? You said it yourself, the only reason I fucked you was to get the contract, so there, it’s done!” Regina screamed at him.

“Bull shit! I told you I was wrong and they know I was wrong, and you know it too! So what’s the excuse this time!” he watched her, that last comment had hit a nerve. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“You said, in front of everyone that I only fucked you to get the contract, and isn’t that what you really feel?” she asked, gesturing at him with her hand, her face contorted in anger.

“I was pissed at you because you said you wanted nothing to do with me! That’s why I said it, it wasn’t true, you know it, I know it, they know it.” They were both quiet for a minute. She crossed back to the door and opened it.

“Fine, just get out, now,” she said holding the door and looking away from him. He went to the door and slammed it shut again, locking it this time. Then he turned on her. She didn’t like the look in his eyes, fear fluttered in her gut realizing that now she couldn’t get to the door herself and Ernelle couldn’t get in. She’d gotten lucky with Benny. Marshall was twice her size and if he wanted to could easily break her in two.

“I’m not gonna let you fuck up your life because of me! I’ve had enough people telling me I ruined their lives and you are not gonna fucking be one of them, you got it!” he yelled as he advanced on her. She backed up a step but found her voice again.

“So I’m supposed to be worried about your conscience! Fuck you!” she spat.

“All right, I guess we have to do this the hard way,” he said going to the door. He unlocked it, opened it and turned to her again.

“What the hell are you talking about!” Regina shouted rolling her eyes. In one swift motion he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“Hey! Put me down!” she yelled, using her hands to smack him in the back.

“Just one second!” he said, a little too amused for her tastes.

“What are you doing! Hey!” she screamed as he threw her down on the couch.

“Hi Reggie! What up girl!” Regina looked around and quickly noticed that all the guys were now seated in her living room.

“Uh, hi, what the hell is going on?” she asked awkwardly as she went to sit up, but Em grabbed her hands.

“Hey Swifty, help me out here for a minute,” Em said nodding to Regina’s feet.

“No problem,” Swifty jumped up and grabbed Regina’s feet.

>“What the fuck are you doing! Ernelle!” Regina screamed as the turned her over onto her stomach.

“Okay Bizarre, you know what to do!” Em laughed.

“What the fuck?” Regina asked turning her head as much as she could after being stuffed into the couch. She saw Bizarre backing up to the couch and she suddenly realized what they were doing.

“Don’t you fucking dare Bizarre!” she yelled, kicking and struggling furiously.

“Don’t do what?” Bizarre asked innocently.

“Ernelle! Do something!” Regina screamed when she saw her take Bizarre’s seat.

“Sorry Reggie, they got to do something to make you listen to reason,” Ernelle laughed.

“You got one last chance Reg, to agree to the contract, or Biz here is gon’ make you Reggie pancake,” Em taunted.

“Not in your fucking life you piece of shit! LET ME UP!” Regina roared, yanking on her arms and legs in her attempt to get up.

“Okay Biz, let her have it!” Em laughed as Bizarre lowered himself onto Regina’s squirming body and made himself comfortable. Em and Swifty let go of her arms and legs, but it didn’t matter. She was so small that most of her body was pinned down by Bizarre and his weight had knocked all the air out of her.

“Now lets see how long she lasts under there,” Em laughed taking a chair next to Dre and smiling. Regina narrowed her eyes at him and said,

“If you think this tactic is going to work, you’re out of your mind. You forget, I had sex with you, this is nothing sort of a trip to the fair compared to that,” Regina spat. Fifty and Dre started to laugh as did Ernelle and Kuniva.

“Oh man, has she got a mouth on her,” Ace laughed.

“Who wants to make a bet that she can last longer than old Em here!” Kon shouted.

“Yeah he can’t last five minutes!” Bizarre chuckled.

“Oddly, the very same thing that happens in the bedroom!” Regina called out.

“Shit Em, you gon’ put up with that?” Kon asked.

“It was just so bad wasn’t it that you had to come back another four times to find out if it was a fluke huh?” Em asked giving her a steely gaze. He felt vindicated, watching her struggle like he had to while watching her dance at the club.

“Bizarre, you get off of me now or when I do get up I’ma gon do worse than kick your sorry ass!” Regina threatened as she tried to pull herself free.

“Nope, I don’t think so, you’re pretty damn comfortable. I think I’ll stay thank you very much,” Bizarre said as he grinned, leaning back on the couch.

“Don’t do that! Get off, right now!” Regina screamed, now feeling his full weight pressing into her back. She could hardly breath now and it was painful to try. Em got up and kneeled beside her head on the sofa.

“All it takes is four little words. I’ll, sign, the, contract. That’s it, come on Regina. I know you can say it,” Em said, his voice going up in pitch a little to tease her.

“You, are such an asshole!” she struggled to get out.

“I don’t think those were the words, come on Reggie,” Em said turning his head raising an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah come on Reg!” Proof yelled out.

“Reggie, you know you want to!” Ernelle yelled next. Soon the whole room was chanting her name and variations on the theme of “sign the contract!”

“You are such a vindictive little friggen monkey,” Regina stalled as she starred at him, not willing to give in.

“That didn’t sound right either,” Em smiled at her.

“I won’t, god dammit, get off me!” she screamed in frustration again, making one last attempt to push him off.

“Reggie, come on, you know you want to baby,” he said again making a face at her,

“I am not your baby!” she snapped.

“Come on, say you’ll sign,” he continued to egg. She took as deep a breath as she could and starred at him hard.

“All right! Fine! I’ll sign the damn thing!” she screamed. A huge cheer went up around the room and there was a scuffling of people.

“Now get off me!” she yelled.

“Nope, not until you sign it, Dre, hurry it up,” Em replied turning to Dre who was pulling a stack of papers out of an envelope.

“Just the last page,” he called throwing the stack to Em. He pulled a pen out of his pocket, uncapped it and stuck it in Regina’s hand. He opened the stack of papers and held them up.

“Okay, sign away,” she glared at him and said one more time,

“I hate you.” She looked down at the paper, gripped the pen tightly and scribbled her name on the dotted line. Em smiled at her, took the pen and threw the contract back at Dre.

“Okay Biz, you can get up now!” Dre called.

“Ah, but she’s comfortable!” Bizarre whined.

“Please get off!” Regina said pathetically, almost laughing.

“Oh all alright Fine, you guys never let me have any fun!” Bizarre pretended to pout as he sat up and then stood. Regina lay there limply for a few minutes, catching her breath.

“Nice doing business with you Reg, and by the way, this one goes into effect now,” Dre laughed.

“Ha ha ha, very funny!” Regina said as she excavated herself from the couch.

“Okay, I guess we’ll be going now, since we got what we came for,” Dre said giving Em a knowing stare. He looked quickly away, watching Regina stretch her back.

“Guys, let’s go!” Dre called going to the door.

“See you later Reggie!” Proof said as he ruffled her hair on his way out. They all called out their good-byes as they exited the apartment. Regina rolling her eyes and shaking her head as she rubbed her back.

Once they were all gone she looked over at him and said,

“Well, I guess you do get what you want.”