Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Chapter 25 Plans

"But Chief, we were supposed to arrest him for assault and homicide . . ."

EPOV

"J. Jenks, please, Edward Cullen calling. Yes, I'll hold. J, yes it's good to talk to you as well . . ."

I called my attorney, well he had been my dad's attorney and my family's attorney and he had handled my inheritance and several things like buying my cottage and some investments since I returned to Forks. It would be only natural for him to handle this. He advised me that he couldn't represent me if there were charges because of some conflict of interest shit of some sort, but that wasn't what I wanted from him anyway. Most everything I had was in my name and Bella's, even if I had obtained it while she had been gone and I just wanted him to make the necessary steps to protect her . . . and my babies. In case someone started fucking with assets and shit, I thought it would be better if it was in her name alone, that way it couldn't be touched. She had her money, of course, and she was wealthy in her own right from book revenues, but she was my whole world anyway and I wanted her protected in every way, including financially. Husbands did that shit for their families.

Bella's face was indescribable. I hadn't looked at her on purpose since I picked up the phone. I knew she was scared, hell I was scared. I didn't have a fucking alibi, my fingerprints were on the weapon that hurt the girl, and they could prove a motive. I could really be fucked here, though I was completely innocent.

We were six weeks away from having our babies, probably two weeks considering it was twins, and I didn't want to upset her or worry her or add any stress at all if I could help it. From what I saw of the way Charlie was acting, neither did he.

"Edward, you don't really think there is a need for an attorney, do you?"

"If the DA is involved, sweetheart, then we sure as shit need advice. Let me call dad."

~oooOooo~

CharliePOV

I got into the cruiser and tried to hold my temper, I really did. Having a deputy question my judgement was just going too far, that was the only thing. He didn't shut up, but continued on about me letting Edward behind the wheel of a car and how he could just drive away.

"Chief, why the hell aren't you at least following him?" Lee demanded loudly. I had listened to enough from him.

"You're gonna need to shut the hell up, Lee. Last time I checked, I was in charge here. I'll listen to your advice and I appreciate your opinions and instincts. Hell I wouldn't have hired you if I didn't, but don't go against me like this. Never question me in front of anyone else, understand?" I demanded.

"But, Chief you . . ."

"Lee. Never question me in front of anyone especially not someone that we're dealing with about a case. I won't have it. Son, I'll write you up for insubordination and fire you quicker than you can say my name, do you understand me?" I blasted. I was sure spit was flying as I spoke, and I didn't care.

"I understand, Chief. I'm only trying to help. I think you're too close to this one, him being your son-in-law and all," Lee accused.

"You don't know much about me, do you? You've lived in this town what, two maybe three years?"

"About that, Chief," he answered somewhat defensively.

"Well, I knew Edward Cullen as a teenager and when he first started college years ago. It took me years to warm up to him, only happened this year in fact, and I've known him almost ten. I know what the boy was like and what the man he has become is, and my judgement is the one we're going to go with, understand?" I told him, some small amount less harshly but in a resounding manner none the less.

"If you say so. Just seems like it would be hard for you to be impartial, and we were sent out to arrest him, not let him into a car to get away in," Lee snapped curtly.

"He'll be at the station, Lee. Probably before we get there. He wants to prove himself innocent, I can see it in his eyes and so could you if you would just open yours," I told him, "that's how you become a good cop, Lee, you learn to read people and their faces."

I made my rounds through town, seeming nonchalant as I drove but feeling just a little bit nervous. I killed some time, making sure Edward had plenty of time to beat me to the office. Sure enough, Edward was waiting just outside on the steps of the station. He was pacing back and forth smoking a cigarette, something I hadn't seen him do in years, as Bella sat on the bench near by clasping her purse.

"Edward," I greeted him after parking and walking towards the station. Lee scooted by me almost forcefully, seemingly outraged that I had called it right.

"Dad, is this really necessary?" Bella pleaded.

"It's out of my hands, Bells. The DA wants to see him and she's waiting inside," he said, gesturing to the unfamiliar Mercedes parked in front of the station.

I watched as Edward drew a long breath from the cigarette in his hand and tossed it onto the cement step, grinding it into the pavement with his shoe as he exhaled. "Let's get this over with, Charlie," he commented, reaching for Bella's shoulder and starting up the stairs with her.

I followed them in, holding the door for my daughter.

"Why don't you sit down here, Bells, in my office. We'll be back in a while," I said gesturing to myself and her husband. She looked as though she wanted to come to but I put my hand up, gesturing to her, "You have to wait here. She wants to talk to Edward alone."

"But dad!" she almost wailed.

"No arguments," I said firmly.

"It's alright, sweetheart. I'll be right back," he told her lovingly as he held her to him. I had to look at the floor to give them a minute the moment was so personal between them. You could actually see and feel the love between these two, and I finally understood what Bella had been telling me since she took him back. She really did love the boy and he loved her. He had shown no upset himself at the idea of being questioned. Most folks got all crazy and nervous about it, but he had only shown concern for keeping her calm, especially since she was about to have their babies. All of a sudden, I had even more respect for this man. I would need to really do some investigating if I was going to find the guy that hurt Jessica and prove him innocent, but I had to try.

~oooOooo~

Victoria POV

"Yes, I know, I know. Chief Swan went out to bring him in just a little while ago and I'm going to the station now to question him. Yes. Well, you wanted the Cullens discredited, the boy has just given us a way to do it," I told my favorite candidate for governor. Well, I suppose I could call him my lover, but that was a dangerous term to use . . . his wife might find out.

The Cullens had always taken the side of our dear incumbent governor, propelling him to power on platforms including human rights and the environment but my James (Yes, James. Not the same Jakes that Bella was with, but there is actually another person in the world named James, imagine that!) was running against him this coming year. If we discredited the Cullen family with a scandal this size, we would severely limit their effectiveness in furthering the career of our dear current governor. Forever.

All the evidence I needed was right there in his file, the bastard probably did actually do it . . . not that it mattered. We wouldn't even have to make up some added evidence, given what I had read of his actions and admissions. The timing had to be right. I had initially told Chief Swan to arrest him this morning, but I was thinking better of that. I didn't want any public sympathy for the man and arresting him and throwing him in jail when his wife was about to deliver twins might arouse some public sympathy for him. I could wait. It wasn't like I thought he was a flight risk what with the very pregnant wife and the reputation for being so devoted to her. Even if he did, that would only work in our favor, pegging him as a heartless bastard, leaving his very pregnant wife to save his own skin! Ha! You had to love where the press would take that. All the Cullens were so cocky, thinking they were above reproach and couldn't be touched. We would just see about that.

I stroked the file a time or two, running my fingers along the evidence that would indite him. This was it. Once James was elected, he wouldn't care about publicly leaving his wife, we would come up with something to make it her fault, something she had done that was so despicable that he had to separate himself from her. I smiled in spite of myself. We could finally be together and not just at out of the way places and under cover of darkness.

I drove down to the station and waited an hour on them. Why the hell it was taking so long, I had no idea. Finally I saw him arrive with his wife, but they didn't come in the station. I had been expecting him in the back of the patrol car and in cuffs, not pacing with a cigarette in hand but it figured that his father-in-law/Chief of police would have let him drive himself in. Apparently he hadn't arrested him yet, and in this particular case, I was glad. Seeing her only reaffirmed my thinking that the public outcry and potential sympathy factor he could invoke with his wife as pregnant as the girl obviously was outweighed by the risk of his fleeing prosecution. He wouldn't run, he was too damned sure of himself if he was anything like his father. I could wait. I had all the evidence I needed and time was on my side.

~oooOooo~

EPOV

I paced back and forth in front of the station, though I tried not to. I had noticed an old pack of cigarettes in the door of the car on the way in and when I parked and reached for the door handle, I had grabbed them. I don't know why. Bella hated it when I smoked, but I just needed to calm down and depriving myself of oxygen seemed to help. I opened her door and helped her to stand, her belly getting in the way of most things these days, including moving around much on her own, at least from sitting to standing. We walked towards the door, Bella noticing that Charlie's cruiser was not there yet. We sat on the bench outside the door, my arm around her telling her not to worry, that we both knew I hadn't done anything wrong and that surely they would find the bastard that had hurt Jessica, or she would wake up and tell them who it was.

I was counting on the waking up and telling part. Though I didn't want to talk about it with Bella and worry her even more, they had a hell of a lot of circumstantial evidence staked up against me and it fucking looked bad, even I saw that. Prisons were full of people that wee innocent, you read about it all the time . . . people being shown to be innocent and released after serving ten years and shit. There was no way I was missing ten years of my kids lives . . . or ten years with Bella. Hell, I couldn't stand a night away from her, who was I kidding.

Charlie pulled up, something of a smile on his face when he saw me there waiting. His deputy, Lee, seemed to push past him and head on into the station like they had been arguing or something. I could only guess. Charlie walked over and held the door to the station open for Bella to walk in, after I helped her to her feet,and he suggested that she wait in his office. I thought she was going to jump down his throat she was so mad, but I held her for a moment, feeling her body relax as I silently comforted and reassured her. She was the one I was worried about in all of this and I had to keep her and my babies safe . . . and calm.

It was three hours later that I found her curled up on the sofa in Charlie's office. Charlie had always kept one in his tiny office in case he needed to spend the night at the station or whatever, and she luckily had dozed off. Thank God. I hesitated to wake her, she looked peaceful and I knew the minute she awoke she would be upset again.

"Take care of her," Charlie said as I felt a hand on my shoulder. Charlie wasn't one for any kind of demonstration of emotion, so his reassuring me this was was huge for him. He was trying to help. He hadn't said anything while Victoria tried to brow beat me and twist things around this morning during our little talk session. She had a case against me, that much was certain, and it had been abundantly clear that Charlie was supposed to have arrested and charged me with second degree murder and assault this morning. She made it clear that, since he had not chosen to do that, she would wait a bit longer and search for more facts. Like she needed any more damned evidence. It was almost as though she was trying to scare me into running, to see if I would crack. I was fucked, and I knew it . . . so did Charlie.

"I'll find the bastard that beat the girl up, son. We'll get through this. Something made that damned woman think twice about charging you this morning, Edward, and I just have to use that time to get to the bottom of this. We need answers, and we need them now . . . before anyone is charged with that babies death."

I didn't say anything, I couldn't take my eyes off my wife.

"I know Victoria asked you . . . but isn't there anyone, a name, a place, anything you remember Jessica telling you at any time about any friends of hers or places she had been?" Charlie asked.

I thought about it, hell I had been thinking about it. "She never mentioned anyone, Charlie, not that I listed to her much. I was kind of just there and she led me wherever we were going at the time, movie, dinner, whatever. I don't remember shit about any of it, believe me, I've tried."

"Well, you better try harder, Edward. I'll do my part but think, son. We need a clue where to look, where she lived, who she knew. Think hard. The girls mom moved away years ago and her dad's been in prison forever. I'm going to talk to him, see if he kept in touch with his wife, but it's a slim chance. He's been behind bars since she was a baby," he told me. I hadn't known that about her, at least I thought I hadn't known. I guess I never cared to know when I lived here as a teenager, I just knew she had that fucking huge house where Bella had gone for a party and I had rescued her. That was about the extent of my knowledge about Jessica Stanley. Angela. Angela was friends with her, come to think of it.

"Charlie, do you remember Angela Webber . . . friend of Bella's from high school?"

"Sure. Pastor Webber's daughter. Nice girl," he answered, looking puzzled.

"She was a friend of Jessica's back in high school. They weren't friends now, but maybe she would know who else Jessica hung out with," I told him. I had forgotten about Angela - the only Angela I knew now was the nurse in the Nicu that I was friends with, and that was a different Angela altogether.

"No one else, son? Anyone at all?" he pressed.

"No, Charlie. I was a couple of years ahead of them in school, I only knew some of the girls by going out with them. Bella may know more of who Jessica hung out with back in those days, she was in her class. She went to that party at Jessica;s house . . . you remember."

"That was Jessica's house, wasn't it! That party where you had to go and rescue her and we ended up at the emergency room. Hell, Edward, she ended up at the emergency room so many times I had forgotten that one," he chuckled. "You two thought she was pregnant then, didn't you son?" he asked with a glint of anger in his eyes.

"Yes, we did, Charlie. She thought she was having James baby . . . he had fallen off that cliff a month before."

"So, when I came to the hospital to pick her up, I wasn't actually her next of kin . . . was I?" he asked, his anger surfacing. He was apparently seeing if I would tell him the truth and I had nothing to hide.

"No, Charlie, you weren't. We had been married for about two weeks when that happened." I watched as his face reddened, then calmed. He needed answers to try and solve the current problem, and I wasn't about to lie to him now, even if my answers made him mad.

"Son, I never asked this, but what do you know about her and that boy . . . James? I know my daughter, even back then, and she wasn't the kind of girl that just got pregnant like that. Help me out here, how did that happen . . . or do you know?" he asked, staring straight at me, his body rigid.

I gestured to his desk chair as I sat in the chair in front of it, Bella still fast asleep on the sofa. "No, she wasn't like that, and yes, I do know how it happened, Charlie. Are you sure you want to bring all of this up now, on top of everything else?" I asked, worried that it would only piss him off more.

"Yes."

He stared directly at me, through me almost his gaze was so intense Why the fuck he wanted to know this now I had no idea, but I had no problem telling him.

"Bella had gone to a party, Charlie. A Halloween party. You have to understand . . . back then everyone thought Bella was really uptight, a prude kind of," I smirked, "Just like you probably wanted her to be and I'll hope my daughter will be now that I think about it ," I laughed.

He smiled, but it didn't touch the rest of his face.

"Anyway, she was Jame's girl, and everyone harassed him for going with her because she never put out . . . ever. No one understood his fascination with her, including me," I told him sheepishly. "I was something of a player then, but you already knew that."

"Well, Mike and Tyler had a bet that Mike couldn't get Bella to kiss him. They came up with a trick . . . Tyler faked shooting Mike, fake blood and all which really upset Bella, especially since you were a cop and had apparently been shot before," I told him. Charlie nodded, his hands clasped in his lap as he listened.

"Bella ran to Mike and put his head in her lap, and Mike told her he wanted a kiss before he died. She kissed him. The ass hole jumped up and high fived Tyler, winning the bet and humiliating Bella. She was so upset, hysterical really, James took her back to his house to comfort her," I risked a glance up at him, but he was staring at his desk as he listened. Bella was still asleep, her breaths constant, so I continued.

"One thing led to another, and she ended up getting pregnant that night. Apparently she was crying so hard that James started just holding her and, well, fuck, you know what happened then so no, Charlie, she was never that kind of girl. They were getting married, Charlie, she and James. He bought her a dress and everything. It took me and Jake both to talk her out of hurting herself and jumping off that cliff where he died. She didn't want you to be ashamed of her and she had no idea what she would do now that he was gone," I took a deep breath and continued.

"I had promised James that I would take care of her if anything happened to him. He knew about my inheritance, he knew I could provide for her and his child. He loved her, Charlie. He told me how special she was, how she was everything to him and he got me to promise to be there for her . . . and thank God I did."

He was silent for a long moment, then he grabbed his pen and started writing.

"I doubt that Tyler is still around, he was something of a trouble maker and the Newton boy, Mike, moved to Seattle to run one of the damned chain stores they started. Jake is still here though. I hadn't thought of him. Maybe he would remember something to do with Jessica, it's worth a shot anyway," Charlie mused.

Bella stirred, her hand moving to wipe a stray lock from her face and tuck it back behind her ear as she sat up. "Hi sweetheart," I greeted her as I went to sit beside her and put my arm around her. She rested her head on my shoulder, groggy from being asleep and I'm sure tired from worrying about me. I kissed her softly, holding her to me.

"Let's go home, wife. I need you."