Jaylor One Shots

Again?

Taylor wakes up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and stretching her arms above her head. Next to her, Joe is still sleeping soundly so she looks over to the clock. 6am. Jet-lag is still getting her slightly, they'd flown to London two days ago after having been stuck in LA for months during the lockdown. Sighing, she swings her legs over the side of the bed, grabbing her phone before heading downstairs to get coffee. 

Taylor sits down at their kitchen counter and pulls out her phone and starts sipping her coffee. She opens her emails, deciding that maybe she should look at those before Joe gets up. She opens one that has been forwarded to her from her team first and begins reading, her stomach drops slightly as she reads that Shamrock Holdings has purchased her music. He sold her music. He refused to enter any negotiations with her, or sell her back her own music, but he went ahead and sold it to someone else. This is the second time her music has been sold without her knowledge. She thought she was done with this when she gained the ability to start re-recording but clearly Scooter realised he was losing a load of money, but of course his pride wouldn't allow him to do the right thing and sell it back to her. No, he had to prove that he really did have control by just selling it to someone else. The music she spent years pouring her heart and soul in to. Taylor sighs, putting her head in her hands, just needing to process the news she's just gotten. 

It's honestly times like these where she wishes she could just run away from her life, leave all of this mess behind and not deal with it. The only piece of sanity she could cling onto in all this was the fact that she has the ability to re-record and has already begun that process. These men have been so difficult to deal with and now this. After a few moments, she begins drafting an email to send to them, knowing full well that she won't make any sort of deal with them while Scooter is still benefiting from this financially in any way. 

A few hours roll by and in that time, Taylor's called her mother and a few different members of her team who have all assured her that she's doing the right thing not accepting their offer of negotiations when Scooter is still involved. So she finessed her email and sent it off to be checked by various people, including Tree, her publicist. After that, she finally puts her phone down, waiting for all their responses. Taylor rubs her eyes, realising that she's exhausted after all that. But it's 10am, so the day has well and truly begun. Maybe she'll take a nap in the afternoon but for now she decides to make herself another coffee. Once that's sorted, she sits back down and sips her coffee slowly, trying to make sense of how she's feeling about all this right now. She just hates how powerless she's been in this entire situation, her music has been sold twice without her knowledge and no one had been polite enough to inform her beforehand or even considered that maybe they should just sell it back to her. 

Taylor spends a little while thinking about all of this, trying to wrap her head around it from the non-business point of view before she hears Joe making his way downstairs. He'd honestly been the biggest support to her through all of this, he'd held her every time something else happened in this stupid ordeal and had promised she wasn't overreacting, he helped take her out of it and stood by her the entire time, offering support but never overstepping. When Joe reaches the kitchen, he comes up behind her and rubs her shoulders for a moment before walking over to make himself some coffee. 

"What time did you get up?" He asks, sleepiness evident in his voice, clearly he's still waking up fully.

"Um, about 6am." Joe sits down beside her, rubbing his eyes before sipping his coffee. 

"Why didn't you come back to bed then? That's pretty early for you." Taylor shrugs 

"Something happened that I had to deal with." She murmurs. Joe sits up straighter and looks at her concerned. 

"What happened? Are you okay?" He rubs her knee gently and she looks down. 

"They sold my music again. I can't even make a deal with them because Scooter still has control." Her voice breaks towards the end of her sentence and she sucks in a deep breath, not wanting to cry right now. Joe grabs her hands, squeezing them tight.

"What? How? That's so...why would he do that?" Joe seems just as confused as she was and she sighs.

"Clearly he lost a ton of money when he bought my music without my approval, I know my fans have largely stopped streaming and buying it so he sold it on but he still wants the control. So, while they own it, a part of the contract of the purchase was that he still benefits financially from my music so I'm refusing to make a deal with them...I just can't. I just...this has happened twice now. Am I just that fucking unbearable that no one will sell me my music, or even at least give me a god damn heads up?" Joe stands up and moves towards her, releasing her hands and wrapping his arms around her, letting her head fall onto his chest. Taylor lets out a sigh of defeat, taking comfort in Joe's arms once again. 

"When will this all stop?" She whispers desperately into his chest, clinging to him. He runs his fingers through her hair, pulling her as close as he can with her still sitting on the stool. 

"I don't know love, I wish I could fix all this for you." He murmurs into her ear, continuing to rub her back. She can feel his support which is honestly calming her down and is keeping her from falling over the edge. Taylor has no idea what she would've done if she hadn't had him throughout all of this. 

"I can't even fix this, that's the worst fucking part." She says, her words muffled by his chest, but she knows he can hear her when his arms tighten around her body. 

"It's going to be okay, you're re-recording now." He says softly, trying to offer comforting words.

"But I shouldn't have to." Taylor sighs, closing her eyes.

"I know. You shouldn't have to go through any of this." She wraps her arms around his waist and they remain like that in silence for a while, Taylor just taking comfort in Joe's arms, knowing full well that he'd do anything to keep her happy. Eventually, Taylor pulls back, only to stand up and throw her arms around his neck, burying her head in the crook of his neck. She feels his arms go around her waist, pulling her body even closer to his. 

"I'm so sorry this happened to you again." Joe speaks gently. His words make her heart melt, she trusts him fully which she's so happy she's able to do.

"Thank you for being here." She murmurs and feels Joe's arms tighten around her waist.

"I wouldn't be anywhere else, you know that. I love you so much." Taylor pulls back, leaning her face closer to his and kissing him gently. She can just feel Joe's love pouring from him and it makes her feel good inside. They've had each other for four years now and she's so grateful for it. When they part from the kiss, Taylor offers him a small smile.

"I love you too." She says sincerely, she knows he knows but she just needs to say it right now. Joe smiles back at her, kissing her gently again before pulling her in for another tight hug. 

"We'll get through this together." He says gently with a whole heap of confidence. Hearing him say that genuinely makes her feel better, she's no longer carrying this stuff on her own. She has help, she has him and she knows it'll be like that forever.