PRAYERS ANSWERED

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

"Remember what I told you would happen if you fail in doing what you've been told to do."

CHAPTER 37: THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

Renee could tell just from the looks on each person's face and by the feeling of the intensity existing in the room that everyone was anxious about what she had to tell them. But, from observing the posture of each body she could tell that they also feared what might be said.

So, trying to lighten the mood of the room, Renee smiled and gave an air of joy and happiness at what she had to tell them. She tried to convey this in her movements and her greeting of them all. "I see that all of you are very apprehensive by the looks on your faces, but, believe me when I say what I have to tell you all is far from sadness; it is nothing short of a miracle that hopefully it will bring joy and to peace to all of you." She told them just before taking a seat next to her husband.

"Okay, my dear, please relieve our friends and their family of the fear they are feeling for some unknown reason. What is it that you need to tell them face to face that couldn't have been said on the phone to me and to let me tell them?" Charlie asked his wife. He was also feeling a bit of fear on behalf of their friends, but, from the way Renee was acting it didn't seem to be anything that upsetting.

"Well, I don't really know how to tell you what Bella told me to get you to believe what she said except to just say it outright and then fill in the blanks. EDWARD IS GOING TO BE RETURNED TO YOU ALIVE AND WELL WITH HIS NAME CLEARED!" She blurted out after saying what she did.

She saw how everyone reacted to what she said and the absolute shocked looks on each of their faces and the frozen state of their bodies. This was something that no one expected, not even Charlie. The statement had caught all of them by surprise in mid motion of shifting from one position to another, even though they were all sitting.

"Ugh….excu…excuse me, what the hell did you just say?" Esme asked at the same time as everyone else yelled, "Are you delusional?" in disbelief of what they had all just heard as they were recovering from their emotionally frozen states of stillness due to the shock they had received from Renee's words. That is everyone except for Carlisle and Charlie.

The two men weren't quite sure how they should be reacting or what they should be believing. Of all the things, they had thought Renee would have been told by Bella, this information wasn't it. But, then why should they expect anything any less after all that had been happening over the last few days? They had just spent the entire night last night listening and writing down all that Edward was relaying to Charlie as Carlisle wrote. The name of the person that had really committed the murder of R. J. One of the young men that Esme and Carlisle had watched grow up with their children and had welcomed them into their home as members of the family.

It turns out that one was the son of a mobster that had been involved with Charlie and Carlisle in the past. Even to the extent that his father had arranged to have Charlie's daughter taken. And, then the other one was actually responsible for killing one of their own and then framing another of them for doing it. All of this was beyond reason, even enough to make a person believe in their own sanity, but, it was really happening.

As both Charlie and Carlisle were having the same thoughts running through their minds, they both had the same reaction as two final thoughts reached them at the same time. They looked at each other, realized by the look on the other's face that they were on the same page and then they turned to Renee. But, before Carlisle could form the main questions that needed to be asked Charlie asked first, "Renee, what all did Bella tell you? Did she mention how she knew any of this?"

"That is exactly what I'm going to tell you all. But, like I told you on the phone, I do believe that Bella knows more than what she's comfortable revealing at the moment. She talks about the main points, but, fill in very little detail concerning certain things." Renee responded, but, not exactly answering her husband's questions. And, as she finished speaking she noticed the questioning looks on everyone's face. So, she begins to explain what she meant by telling them everything that Bella had told her. It took a while, but, after she had finished repeating all that she had learnt there was complete amazement upon all of their faces. No one knew what to say. It was a tale that could have come out of some fictional book. Not something that could possibly be happening in everyday life; not in their lives especially, but, then that's what they thought when Edward had been arrested, tried and put to death.

"I need to talk with Bella. She might have the answers that we need to prove all that Edward told us last night." Charlie was quick to recover and remark to no one in particular.

But, it was Alice, the little pixie that seemed to have lost her bubbly light once her brother had died, that timidly asked, "Is it really true that if we can prove that Edward didn't kill R. J. then he could be returned to us?"

Carlisle looks over at his daughters, Rosalie had been silent through all of this, but, he knew that she was feeling the same emotional upsets that the rest of them were feeling, and, he wants to try to reassure them both, however, only answers Alice, "After all that has been happening over the last several days, I would have to say that we need to take this bit of information as a definite possibility."

"But, how? How are we supposed to prove that all you and Chief Swan were told is the truth and really did happen?" Jasper spoke up unexpectedly. He was still having a hard time believing all that had been told to them; in fact, Emmett was feeling the same sort of disbelief, but, hesitated to express his thoughts for fear of upsetting the older Cullen's and his wife.

Carlisle opened his mouth to speak, but, Charlie responded to Jasper's main question first by saying, "What needs to be done is that I need to talk with my daughter and get her to tell me more of what she knows about all of this. But, I also have connections with some higher ups in the SPD that I can take all of this information, minus, of course, the exact details of how it was obtained.

"By doing that an investigation to confirm all of the information will be started, on the quiet side, before an arrest is made."

"Do you really believe that your daughter can provide the necessary information that will be needed to give this proof for my brother to be returned to us?" Rosalie asked, speaking for the first time. Next, she questions, "What will his appearance be like? And, how can time be rewound to be able to return him to us?"

"I'm not able to answer your last questions with absolute certainty, but, I would imagine that the Man on High knows what he's doing when it comes to things like that. But, in regards to your first question about Bella, yes, I do believe that she can provide some very important details for us." Charlie answered with all honesty.

After that everyone seemed to want to speak and offer advice or opinions and the discussion became a little heated at times as some tried to make their thoughts the necessary ones for the approach and actions that might be needed.

XXXXXX

Delight was escorted out of Felix's apartment by her husband and was put into the car she had used earlier. Once that was done father and son worked together to get Felix installed into Demetri's vehicle for the ride to the hospital to have his wound attended and in preparation for his confession to the police.

No one uttered a single word to each other until Felix was in the car and the older Carlson bent down to look at Felix on a face to face level. It was then he said, "Fail to do as I've told you and your death won't come easy. Do as I say and you might live to grow old in prison." After saying this, he straightened up and looked over at his son for a moment then shook his head from side to side, then he turned and walked over to his son's car to drive his wife home.

But, both father and son were so wrapped up in their concern to cover for Delight that they had gotten careless since they didn't think to search Felix. They forgot that the young man always carried a weapon somewhere upon his person. Their main concern had been to protect Delight and to remove her from any possible exposure or discovery of having been the one that had shot Felix.

So, Demetri had eyes on the road and failed to notice Felix reaching for a pocket in his cargo pant leg; a pocket that had a gun within. As he gripped the gun and began pulling it out he turned toward Demetri and said, "You know that I'm not stupid enough to believe that you or your father will allow me to live even if I do confess to killing R. J.

"She should have chosen me instead of mooning after some pretty boy that didn't want to give her the time of day other than as a friend or brother. And, you were wrong by giving Edward the advice that you did to ignore her; some brother you were. You could have told her to look in my direction and to give me some consideration. I loved, and still do love, her, but, she didn't want me and, I guess you didn't consider me to be good enough for her because you turned a blind eye to my feelings for her.

"I didn't mean for her to die, everything happened in a fit of temper when she rejected me after my saving her from that brute, Harper, but, when it was over I knew that I could use it to get Edward out of my way as the one favored over me by your entire family."

Demetri was hearing the words coming out of Felix's mouth, but, was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. So much hatred was spewing forth out of Felix that it was hard to understand why his friend had felt that way towards Edward who was innocent. He had managed to disguise his feelings very well. And, it was as that thought crossed Demetri's mind that he took his eyes off of the road to look over at Felix. When he did look at Felix he was surprised to see the frown on Felix's face and the gun resting in his friend's hand and in that moment, as well, he realized that it was pointed directly at him.

But, by taking his eyes off of the road at the very moment proved to be a mistake as it would give both of the men a life altering surprise. It took a few seconds for both to realize that they had been hit by another car; a car that had run a red light. The impact of the car smacking into them caused Felix to fire the gun and the bullet hit Demetri in the chest.

The airbag on the driver's side exploded which helped Demetri to avoid the full impact of slamming into the steering wheel and the windshield, but, Felix hadn't been so lucky. His airbag failed, so, some of the shattered glass pieces from the windshield that had been sent flying managed to find a target. Several pieces had pierced his chest near the heart and one particularly large piece that could be seen had punctured a main artery to the heart which was causing Felix's life force to slowly seep out of him. However, several other pieces had flown into other parts of his body, both in the upper and lower areas. The ones that had punctured the lower parts of his body had hit in the stomach, legs and knees. It was the pieces that entered the knees that managed to alter the appearance of the gunshot wound Felix had received earlier at Delight's hand.

Both men were unconscious so they didn't hear the sound of sirens drawing near due to the panicked call made by the driver that had rammed into them. He had escaped the incident with only minor injuries, but, he was fearful for the two men that were in the vehicle he had hit in his rush to get to the hospital to be with his wife who was having their first baby. He had been so distracted that he had failed to notice that he had gone through a red light, so, he didn't stop.

XXXXXX

Felix saw the beautiful light that was coming closer and closer to him. It took shape and was his beautiful Roberta Jane. He started to speak to her, but, she held her hand up and told him to listen to her; so, he did.

She reached out to him and gently laid her hand upon his cheek as she said, "If you wish for a chance for greater consideration you must do the right thing. You, my dear Felix, know what that is. You must tell the truth about the night I died and clear an innocent soul. By doing this you will know peace as you achieve your final goal. I love you, Felix, and await."

"I will R. J. I will and then you won't have to wait any longer; we'll be together finally. That is my final goal."

Unfortunately, as R. J. vanished, Felix never gave thought that R. J. didn't promise that they would be together; only that he would know peace and have a chance of consideration. She only said that she awaited, but, never said for what. R. J. was really waiting for Felix to clear his conscious by confessing to the truth that he was her murderer and that he had framed Edward Cullen.

XXXXXX

As the police, firemen and medical teams arrived and began working frantically to rescue the two unconscious men, a voice could be heard repeating the same phrases again and again. "I did it. I killed R. J. Edward is innocent. I framed him. R. J. don't leave me I'm doing as you've asked. I'm confessing the truth." But, no one could understand why he was saying this repeatedly. But, slowly as he continued repeating himself the police did finally start to make sense of what he was saying.

Finally, as his body was released from the passenger side of the car and was being loaded into an ambulance which also contained the unconscious and injured Demetri, Felix began to make more sense as he was slowly regaining some consciousness. He asked to speak with the highest ranking police officer on the scene.

As the officer came along beside him and introduced himself, Felix told him the full story of how he had murdered Roberta Jane Carlson and framed Edward Cullen for the murder. He told the reasons why and how he had managed to have the pen on him at the time of the murder. Then as he lost consciousness once more he uttered, "An innocent man was put to death for a crime I, alone, committed."

XXXXXX

Demetri was rushed immediately into surgery upon his arrival at the hospital and his family was called. However, Felix was pronounced DOA (dead on arrival) as they wheeled him into the emergency room and his family was notified.

R. J. reached out to take his hand and laid a gentle kiss upon his cheek and then led him before a group of glowing individuals. But, just before she left him to face the group alone. she turned to him once more giving a gentle, loving smile and said, "Thank you. Thanks for giving peace to all of us by correcting a great wrong." Then she faded out of sight.

A/N: SURPRISE! Is Felix's confession enough to truly bring Edward back? How will the Carlson's, the Cullen's, the Swans and the James' family react to Felix's confession?

Thanks for reading and looking forward to your thoughts and reviews.