Stolen Dreams
Disclaimer: Sigh. Really? Don't you know this by now? It's fanfiction, folks and all original copyrights belong to their owners. This plot is mine. Capiche?
A/N: Welcome to all of my new readers this week. I'd love to hear from you so I know how you found me. As for all those who've stuck with me . . . THANK YOU! Thank you also to Jenny Cullen, the mac daddy beta. She makes it readable week after week. More below, so enjoy.
Chapter 16
The next week flew by as Edward and I raced to get everything done so we could go back to Forks for Ryan's birthday. For both of us, the weeks surrounding his birth had always been times of reflection and sadness, so both Jasper and Alice immediately registered the changes. Always up for any excuse to shop, even for a fashion challenged ten-year-old boy, Alice took to the task with fervor.
On Monday evening, the real estate agent called with a list of properties. Edward threw the phone on speaker while we made dinner, and we listened to her rattle off the specifications on the first one.
"Maggie, let me stop you there," Edward said once she'd finally let him speak. "There have been a few changes. First, drop all the condos. We need a house with a yard—a big one. Second, we can't look at anything with less than four bedrooms."
"Uh, oh, okay," Maggie stuttered. "That's . . . quite a departure from what I have here."
"Well, our needs have changed over the last couple of weeks. We need somewhere appropriate for children, preferably with parks nearby, but that's not a requirement," he said.
"May I assume then that the better school systems are also a priority?" she asked, her business-like demeanor returning.
Edward faced me and grimaced. We hadn't talked about that part. If Ryan came to live with us, that would be a concern, but since it wasn't likely to be long term, schools weren't going to matter for another five or six years, at least.
"Um, decent schools would be nice?" It sounded like a question when Edward said it.
Maggie laughed. "Got it. Give me a couple of days, then. Only one of these that I have is going to fit the bill, and I know some of my colleagues have houses they are looking to move."
I liked realtor speak for "willing to sell cheap." Edward laughed and threw a tomato at me when I said so.
The next night, the boys left Ben in charge at the office and met Alice and me for a quick dinner before we hit Target. Jasper and Alice did fit together well, and even Edward had mentioned that he'd changed considerably since meeting her. For one, he didn't go out alone anymore.
Edward was convinced that every boy needed a Millennium Falcon. The fact that he found one made of Legos was even better in his book. I balked at the price of it, as well as of the Lego Death Star he picked up. He swiftly reminded me that we hadn't had a chance to get Ryan anything for ten years, and he was determined to spoil our son this year, at least.
And we did. The cart was full by the time we left. We got him both Star Wars Lego sets, eight t-shirts, five pairs of shorts, and three pairs of jeans. Alice and Jasper decided to just send a card with us with an iTunes gift card inside, so as not to overwhelm him.
On Wednesday, I called Charlie.
"Hey, kid," he answered on the third ring, as was his custom.
"Hey, Dad. I heard from Esme Cullen this week, and she said to invite you to Ryan's birthday party on Saturday. It's going to be at their house around four."
He growled into the receiver. "You've got to be kidding me. Agent Majors called an hour ago and 'requested' my presence in Seattle this weekend. Apparently, the Justice Department is trying to renege on the deal they promised Bob Gerandy. He said something about many kidnappers getting caught for one case, and if they let him off, it could be used as precedence."
"They want to throw the book at him?" I asked, shocked. I wanted the man punished as much as the next guy, but he was in his mid-seventies and not in great health.
"So it seems. Anyway, they want me there."
"I'm sure you can take him out for ice cream or something later, Dad. He does live less than a mile away," I teased.
"Yeah, yeah. All right, kid. Thanks for letting me know. I had forgotten it was that time already." And it seemed my dad had noticed my moodiness, too. Lovely.
We hung up a few minutes later with promises that we'd meet for lunch on Friday if he could get away from the Feds.
Later that evening, Edward's phone rang just as we were sitting down to dinner. Alice was out on another date with Jasper, so we were alone again. He frowned at the number and showed it to me, but I didn't recognize it. It was from somewhere near Forks.
"Hello?" he answered, pushing the button to put it on speaker.
"Um, Edward, this is R-Ryan. Mom gave me your number. I hope you don't mind."
I dropped my fork. Edward's eyes widened, and it took him a second to respond. "No, not at all, Ryan. You can call me anytime you want to. What's going on?"
"Well, do you remember that camp Mom told you about last weekend?"
"Yes . . ."
"Oh, uh, maybe you should get Bella, too. I should've called . . ."
"It's all right, buddy. She's right here with me. So, what's with the camp?"
"Hi, Bella. Right, camp. They want us to do this family project with pictures of us as babies and stuff. The teacher said that we should include pictures of our parents as kids, too, if we could get them. Do you think . . . I mean, do you have pictures of you and Bella when you were little that I could borrow?" He stumbled through his explanation like he was afraid we would say no.
I was doing my best to hold back tears.
"Our baby pictures?" Edward asked, blowing out a huge breath.
"Well, yeah, I've already got some of Mom and Dad, but I wanted to include you, too, since you're my real parents. If you don't want me to . . ."
"Of course you can!" I interjected.
"Yeah, of course. I just have to figure out where mine are," Edward laughed. "I'll have to call my mom and have her email them to me. Can I forward them to your mom's email account?"
"That would be good. Can you email me yours, too, Bella?"
My heart sank. Renee could barely keep track of me, much less my baby pictures. Most of them had gotten left behind when we moved from San Francisco to Utah one summer when I was about Ryan's age. "I don't know if I have any, but I'll see what I can come up with."
Edward's eyes gleamed. "Actually, Ryan, I know where there are lots of baby pictures of your mom. Her dad used to show them to me all the time when I would come over to take her out and she wasn't ready."
"That's mean!" he laughed.
"That's your grandpa. Anyway, he lives right there in Forks, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you dropped by to see him tonight or tomorrow," Edward told him. I'd shared our earlier conversation with him, and it seemed he was scheming to get them together sooner than I was.
"Okay. Well, I'm not allowed to just talk to strangers . . ." Ryan said, hesitating again.
"But you are allowed to talk to policeman, right?" Edward said with a smirk I was sure Ryan could hear through the phone.
"Bella's dad's a policeman?" He sounded pumped.
"The Chief of Police," Edward said knowingly.
"Cool." Ryan stretched it into three syllables. "Maybe my mom or dad would take me over there. Is he still at the station this late?"
I checked the time on the microwave. "No, he's probably home now, watching the Mariners' game. Your dad knows where he lives, though. Your grandpa won't mind at all."
"Thanks, Bella! Um, I'll see you on Saturday, right?"
"Yes, you will." Edward said, smiling at Ryan's eagerness.
"Bye!" Ryan hung up without waiting for us to respond.
Edward didn't bother to hide his smirk this time. "I give it less than hour before we get a phone call."
"That long?" I laughed.
"Well, you've got to give the kid time to arrange transportation. Let me call Mom real quick and have her email mine over. Otherwise, I'll forget," Edward said as he dialed the phone.
I filled my mouth with a bite of lasagna to keep myself quiet.
Elizabeth was more than willing to send the pictures, and she promised to do so as soon as she returned home from the grocery. Luckily, she was alone, and neither Edward nor I had to endure listening to his dad again, even if it was through the phone.
Edward reheated his food and ate quickly. He had more work to do that evening.
"Edward," I called as he headed into the other room to boot up his computer.
"Yeah, baby?"
"I was going over the schedule that Esme sent, and it looks like next weekend should be our weekend with Ryan, since we aren't counting special events, like his birthday. That, and the following weekend, you'll be out of town. Will you be able to swing that?" I leaned against the door frame between the kitchen and the living room.
Edward grimaced. "Yeah, I'll figure something out. I can't keep sticking Jazz with all the weekend shifts, though. This puts me out for the next month, at least. I might have to do a few overnights, if we've got them, to make up for it."
I nodded. "Just talk to Jazz, okay? I don't know how long it's going to be before we can have Ryan here instead of having to spend the weekends in Forks."
Edward groaned. "I know. I think we're going to go broke from the gas."
"Hey, at least we don't have to feed him all the time," I joked, knowing that I would love to have that problem. "Did you see how much that kid eats?"
Edward laughed. "I know. He comes by it honestly, though."
The blue light from his screen cast an odd pall over Edward's face, and I knew that I had already lost him to the cyber world. I was content, though, to spend the night reading beside him.
Thursday flew by, and before I knew it, Alice and I were heading back over to Angela's for a girls' night in, while all three guys worked late. Angela and Ben had hit it off in their shy way and were talking on the phone quite frequently, though they hadn't been out on a date yet. Angela ordered in Chinese, and we sat around her table gossiping and catching up.
My phone rang just after six.
"Hey, Dad," I answered with a smirk.
"That boy . . . I'm telling you, Bells, he could be one of the sweetest kids I've ever met," Dad declared.
"He is a pretty good kid, isn't he?" I said with pride, although I'd had nothing to do with it.
"Carlisle brought him down to the station around lunch time today, and he said you and Edward had told him to come to me for baby pictures of you. I'm not sure which one of you I should thank, but man, it was good to see him." Charlie wasn't an overly emotional man, so to be able to hear it in his voice stunned me. I knew how he felt, though.
"Edward remembered you showing my pictures to him when we started dating," I told him. The girls' stares were boring into me from around the table.
"Ah! Well, he remembered them, at least. Useful now, right? I just wanted to say thanks. It was good to meet him and have him know who I am. Told him to call me Charlie for now, if that's okay."
"That's fine. He's calling us Edward and Bella until he figures out what to call us on his own. Are you still coming up tomorrow?" I asked.
"Sure am. I'll call you when I figure out what we're doing. Thanks again, kid."
"You're welcome, Dad."
I smiled when he hung up with his signature gruffness and met the eyes of my friends. I explained to them how we'd arranged for Charlie to meet Ryan. Angela teared up when I told them all about the Saturday we'd gotten to spend with them. Her quiet presence had kept me sane right after we'd lost him, and I was grateful that she could share in the joy, too.
Angela had settled into the library and had started several new programs designed to get all members of the community involved. She was also running a used book drive. Those that the various branches of the library already had plenty of, they would sell to help raise funds for more programs. Not only was she benefitting the community, she'd found ways to offset the cost from the city's budget, and the library board was thrilled.
The sales in Alice's shop had increased three fold since Angel had been kicked to the curb. The two new interns both had an eye for fashion and were well connected over at the college. Again, they were mostly kids with more of their parents' money than sense, but who was I to judge?
Our party broke up later than usual, considering that we all had to work the next day. Alice followed me back to our apartment. There wasn't much talking to be done, as we were both exhausted, so we simply wished each other a goodnight and retreated to our own rooms.
Thursday blurred into Friday without much fanfare. None of my patients tried to destroy the furniture—a win in my book. Dad called early and made arrangements to meet me for lunch at a little deli near the office. The FBI headquarters weren't far away, and by the time we met, he'd already been in meetings for several hours.
"They're going to take it to trial, Bells," he told me over sub sandwiches and homemade chips. "They told him that the plea deal was off the table."
"Can they do that?" I asked, incredulous. I always thought that once a plea was offered and accepted, it couldn't be taken away.
"New evidence. He never told the prosecutor about the money he accepted. It doesn't matter that he didn't spend it," Charlie explained. "It adds another charge to the crime. Essentially, he also stole ten thousand dollars from you, since he didn't tell you about the account until his crimes were exposed."
As much as I wanted him to pay for what he did, I didn't want to expose Ryan to the media circus that a trial of this nature was sure to be. "Is there any way to keep Ryan out of it?" I asked.
He shook his head. "I doubt it, Bella. I'll do what I can, but locally, this case is going to be big news." He ate for another moment, and then swallowed and grinned. "On a brighter note, I got a little something for Ryan's birthday."
He slid an envelope across the table, and I opened the flap. Inside were three tickets to the Mariners' home game next weekend.
"Dad!" I gasped. "This is . . ."
"I thought it would be nice for Edward, Ryan, and me to go together, if the Cullens will let him come. I might have pulled a few strings, so they should be pretty good seats. He said the other night that he likes them." Dad's face flushed as if he was embarrassed, and he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm sure he'll love them. Wow. We should, uh, stop and get a card on the way back to put them in," I suggested. I wanted there to be no doubt as to who they came from. Ryan wasn't going to forget this birthday in a hurry.
A few minutes later, once both of our sandwiches were gone, Dad brushed off his hands and disposed of our baskets. He followed me into a little souvenir shop that sold overpriced cards and picked the only one that looked even remotely kid-friendly. Five dollars later, he scribbled a short message, tucked the tickets inside, and licked the flap closed. I secured it in my purse to give to Ryan the next day.
Edward met me at my apartment at six, and we drove off once again to Forks. Sam had a room ready for us when we arrived.
"I'm going to have to start a frequent stayer program for the two of you," he joked, as he handed over our keys. "Three more stays, and you get a night free."
"I think we'll hold you to that," Edward said with a smile. "You'll be seeing a lot of us."
The room looked just like we'd left it, only cleaner. Edward set our bags down by the door and wrapped his hands around my waist. I snuggled my face into his chest, only to have him pull back. When I tilted my head up to ask what was wrong, his lips met mine in a searing kiss. I felt it all the way to my toes.
"I want you," he murmured against my skin as he trailed kisses down my neck. He knew it always turned me until a gooey ball of need.
I'm pretty sure my answer wasn't in any intelligible language. My fingers drifted from around his neck to the buttons on his shirt, which fell open under my fingertips. He shrugged it off, one arm at a time, while using the other arm to lift my t-shirt over my head.
I never understood what was so sexy about watching Edward take off his undershirts, other than the fact that he was revealing his ridiculously sexy body at the same time. But seeing both of his arms grasp the back of his shirt and pull it over his head made me swoon every time.
His gaze was almost feral as he looked me up and down, and though I was still wearing a bra and my jeans, I felt stripped naked. I was frozen, captured in his green eyes. His hand reached behind me and nimbly relieved me of my bra. Then, his fingers popped the button on my jeans. His eyes got wilder as my black lace boy shorts were revealed, and all I could think was, "He's going to eat me alive." It made me shiver in a good way.
I moved backward, leading him toward the bed, as I stepped out of my jeans. He shoved his own down over his hips, leaving only his black boxer briefs, which left little to the imagination.
"This isn't going to be slow and gentle, sweetheart," he whispered in my ear. "I need you. Now."
My legs hit the edge of the bed, and I scooted up onto it as quickly as I could. I needed him just as much he needed me; I wasn't willing to wait any longer.
Edward knelt between my spread knees, bent over, and kissed me hard. Without warning, his hips bucked forward, and he slid into me easily, powerfully.
A moan escaped my lips as he filled me. Nothing ever felt so good as when Edward and I were joined like this, no matter if we were making love slow and sweet or fucking fast and hard, like we were now. Edward set a relentless pace, driving me higher and higher and banishing all thought from my head.
"Feels so . . . fucking good, baby," he grunted, never slowing.
One hand held his body above mine, and the other sneaked down to where we were joined. The instant his fingers brushed over my clit, bolts of electricity jolted through my body, and I cried out again in pleasure.
"Come for me, baby, please," he begged. The strain around his eyes showed how hard he was holding back.
He pressed his fingers down again as he thrust with his hips, and I exploded. White spots of light flickered in my vision as the free fall began. I had barely hit the bottom, when Edward sat upright on his knees, jerked and stilled, his own head thrown back in ecstasy.
There was no vision as stunning as Edward coming. His body was rigid, and all of his muscles were tensed, while his face was relaxed and blissful, a state I rarely saw outside his sleep. Lazily, his eyes opened and found mine, a sweet, crooked smile overtaking his features. He leaned forward and kissed me softly.
"I love you," he whispered against my lips.
"Love you, too," I mumbled, still feeling boneless and sleepily relaxed.
Edward rolled to my side and off the bed, slipping out of me as he went. Seconds later, he returned with one of the hand towels, lightly moistened, from the bathroom. After he cleaned me up, he threw the towel in the floor and lay back down beside me.
"That was . . . sorry I attacked you by the door like that," he said with an embarrassed laugh.
"I'm not." I snorted. "You didn't hear me complaining, did you?"
Edward's finger traced small circles over my bare stomach, and his eyes watched each movement. I studied him, wondering where his mind was, when he spoke again.
"Our son turns ten tomorrow, and I'm not sad," he said quietly. "It's been so long since I was able to smile and enjoy this time of year."
I ran my hand through his hair, loving the feeling of his thick, silky locks as they slipped between my fingers. "Alice takes me out of town sometimes. One year, she insisted that we go on a road trip to see the world's largest ball of twine, until she realized it was in Kansas. We went to a dude ranch, instead."
Edward laughed and tried to disguise it as a cough.
"What? You can't imagine me and Alice as cowboys . . . girls, whatever?" I asked, pretending to be offended. "It was pretty funny. That was the only thing that kept me from sinking into a hole for the entire week. Alice doesn't do dirt well."
"Please tell me there are pictures of that," he chuckled. "I would pay good money to see them."
"There are," I told him. "But I know what you mean. I'm so nervous about tomorrow, though. I don't want to step on Esme's toes, but it's he's my son, too. I didn't get the chance to do his first birthday—this is my first one."
"We've missed so much," he said quietly, the sadness in his voice almost painful.
I rolled into his arms and rested against my chest. There, in the dark, we just held each other, because there was nothing else to say. We couldn't get back the time that was stolen from us. All we could do was move forward and enjoy each minute we got with our son now.
For those of you interested in outtakes, please put me on author alert as those will start posting this week as a separate story. I'd also love to know what else you'd like to see for the Fandom Against Juvenile Diabetes compilation in January.
Thanks for reading, have a Merry Christmas and I'll see you on the flip side.