I DREAM OF RAINBOWS

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.

All he had wanted to do was to tell his family that he was going to have to go to Seattle to get all of this mess straightened out, but not to worry because he had Mr. Winston that was going to be helping him once he got there.

CHAPTER 45: THIS IS WHY I DID THINGS MY WAY

"Well, Dad, would you mind telling me just what the hell is going on? I go down to Forks so you could give me some answers as to why you started all of this mess with the Cullen's and with hope that maybe, just maybe, we could decide how to get this whole situation fixed, but no, not you. You leave for work the next morning while I'm asleep and then just disappeared without telling anyone anything other than that you'll be gone for a few days.

"How the hell do you think that made me feel? Did you even consider how I felt receiving that information from someone down at the station since you didn't take any time to leave me a note?" Bella started ranting at Charlie as soon as they had gotten inside her home and the door had been closed.

And during the whole time she had been talking she had walked into her living room with Charlie following behind and he took a seat as Bella continued pacing. He knew his daughter well enough to know to stay silent until she had gotten it all out of her system, then he would explain where he had been and tell her what he was planning to do.

Finally, Bella stops her pacing to end up standing in front of her father in a posture of hands on her hips, tapping one foot while giving the impression of impatience as she waits for Charlie to begin answering her questions and giving her an explanation.

"Bella, it would be a lot easier for both of us to conduct this conversation if you would sit your butt down and stop all of this pacing. I do realize that you are trying to relieve some of your pent-up frustration, but your pacing is doing nothing more than keeping you agitated and annoying the shit out of me." Charlie didn't hesitate to tell his daughter in his cop tone of voice. Anytime he used that tone Bella knew that he meant business and not to argue.

Bella sat down, well more like flopped down after what Charlie had said and glared at her dad as she sat there waiting for an explanation or at least some answers that would help to make more sense of this entire mess.

"Don't keep glaring at me with your eyes acting like laser beams. I'm here to talk with you and to update you as to what I've been doing and what I'm planning to do to try to help this whole situation to have a good closure. But if you're going to keep acting like a spoilt child then maybe I should go on home and leave this all for another day."

With that said, Bella did try to relax her posture and attitude. It wasn't easy because of her impatience and because of how upset she still was with her father. Why he even started all of this to begin with was still a mystery to her.

Once Charlie saw that she was making the effort to calm down and allow him to speak, he began to explain to Bella about his disappearing act. "I decided that it would be better if I personally spoke with this Edward Cullen of yours before I made any further decisions that might be heading all of us into deeper waters of the wrong direction.

"So, I made a trip to L. A. to speak with him, but I used an assumed name, of course, so he wouldn't make the connection between you and me. It was in the hope that he would be more open with me. That way I could get a better understanding of how this young man's mind worked. And, I must say that it worked.

"No, I won't tell you what all he did tell me. However, I'll tell you that now because I can see by the look on your face that you're about to ask me to repeat all that he told me. So, just let it be enough to know that I found out all that I needed to know that Mr. Cullen isn't a bad sort; just hampered by having an oversized ego. This ego situation started at an early age because of all of the attention he got from various areas.

"Because of his looks, his position, and his intelligence, both genders have more or less bowed to him by giving him all of the attention. It came to the point that he became used to that kind of thing and has been spoilt because of it.

"So, now it has progressed to the point that he expects everything to go his way and for everyone to want to fall in with his position on everything, to let his opinion be the finally word on things. That is because this is what he has become used to. I don't know if it started with his parents, but I do know that it began when this young man got out and about to begin making friends, and it has continued from that point onward to where the way he is has ballooned to what you see now.

"So, you can see that his attitude grew from an early age to where it is just a natural part of his attitude with people now. It isn't because of something that he has against any one person in particular. It has just developed so that it's part of his persona." Charlie concluded with what he was explaining to Bella.

"So, now he naturally assumes, subconsciously, that everyone will go along with what his opinion is and in a manner of speaking, bow down and kiss his ass?" Bella couldn't resist asking.

"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just explaining what I've discovered from talking with the young man. But, in spite, of learning all of this, Edward Cullen still needs to learn that not everything is going to go his way.

"But, sweetheart, he doesn't deserve to be sent to prison. So, because of that, I'm going to help him get beyond his trial with the hope that he will have learnt some kind of lesson about how to treat others."

"Dad, you feel this is the best way to go after all that you've told the police?" Bella asked with a lot of doubt sounding in her voice.

"I believe that it might be a good start, but everyone else is going to have to stop giving in to his wants and desires. That is something that I have no control over. However, I can say that how he'll treat you from here on out will be influenced by my actions and by what you allow him to get away with in the future."

And with that being said, Charlie sat and looked at his daughter as he awaited her comments.

Bella didn't really know what to say about what her father had just told her. They both sat in silence while she considered everything she had just learnt from Charlie. And she had to admit that he had made sense even though she was hesitant to admit that to her dad.

Without commenting any further on what all Charlie had just told her, Bella decided to retreat to some safer topics.

XXXXXX

Edward sat in his cell mentally questioning why his mother had hung up on him without giving him a chance to tell her why he had been calling. It just wasn't like his parents not to listen to what one of the brothers had to say. They had always been very attentive to their sons, even when punishment was being metered out. His parents were strict, but fair in the raising of their children, and the three boys had been shown nothing but love by their parents every single day.

That was why Edward was having such a hard time understanding why his mother hung up on him.

Of course, Edward knew he would be trying back again in short order and hoped that what ever had been the cause of the hang up earlier had been resolved by the time he did call them back once more.

XXXXXX

"Mom, I can understand why you did what you did, but don't you think that Edward deserved an explanation of why you were hanging up on him?" Emmett asked as he looked at his mother, Esme.

"No. No, I don't think that he deserved any sort of explanation at that moment. Let him sit and wonder about what is going on. It won't do him any harm.

"Besides, he has been warned enough over a period of several days since all of this business started with Ms. Swan, about his behavior and he chose to ignore those warnings.

"We all have talked with him and expressed our objections to what he was doing, but nothing seemed to have absorbed into his brain. So, maybe these actions will start to get his complete attention and let him know that we mean business." Esme said as she looked at both Emmett and Jasper, then turned her gaze upon her husband before finally looking at Rosalie and Alice.

The room continued in silence until Alice decided to voice her opinion, "Mrs. Cullen, I can understand, I guess, your reasoning about why you're doing what you're doing to Edward, but if you're doing this because of what happened between him and my cousin, then I think that you are going about things in a wrong way."

"Alice, to a certain extent, it does have to do with how Edward has behaved toward Ms. Swan, but it goes further than that. It is only with what you and Rosalie have revealed to us that has made me realize that Edward has probably behaved in the same manner toward other women.

"So, with that being the case, my son needs a wake-up call and I'm going to give it to him. There are some things that you aren't aware of that combined with his actions surrounding his handling of Ms. Swan that has to be corrected. And my husband can attest to the fact that we've warned Edward several times and have tried several times to find out what his problem was, to no avail. He says there is nothing going on, so, it seems that he has been caught in lying to us about things.

"It's time for some action to be taken that will get his attention strongly enough to bring about the necessary changes." Esme commented back to Alice's remarks.

And with Esme making her purpose known, it seemed that no one had any thing left to say that would carry any weight to changing the situation one way or the other.

XXXXX

Bella asked Charlie if he was planning to head back to Forks shortly or if he was going to stay for a day or two.

"I need to stay at least until tomorrow since I've got to talk with my old friend, Michael Henderson, the Seattle Police Commissioner."

"Oh? You want to tell me what is going on in that area? I mean why to you have to talk with him?"

"Bella, I need for you to understand something; I'm a police officer as well as your father. And I do take both jobs very seriously.

"You told me about all that had happened to you, so, being in law enforcement it required that I report a crime that had been committed no matter how the information came to me. And, yes, I do understand that you were talking to me as your father.

"But I had to weigh the whole situation from both perspectives, as an officer and as a father. I had to consider that if Edward Cullen was treating you in the manner that he had, that it was possible that he had or was likely to treat other women in the same manner. That screamed as a danger that had to be dealt with.

"I will be honest in telling you that I didn't think that you would react the way you did, but honestly, I don't know that that would have stopped me from doing what I felt was necessary in doing both of my jobs." Charlie paused at this point but held up his hand to forestall any comments that Bella looked as if she was about to make.

Then he continued, "I had talked with Mike and told him what you had told me since everything started in Seattle and then I called a friend in L. A. to let him know about the incidents that had taken place there.

"However, Mike had requested for Cullen to be extradited back to Seattle after issuing a warrant for his arrest. Then he had asked me to be on the team that was to bring Cullen back here.

"Now, it seems that I've opened another can of worms while trying to fix things with you. Since I went to L. A. and talked with Cullen and then told Mike about my visit there, it seems that the D. A. might decide to call me as a witness against Cullen when he comes to trial here in Seattle.

"I'm trying to get out of the having to bring Cullen back and from having to testify against him. I gave Cullen my word that I would help him to get out of this mess and I'm determined to fix things between you and me. I love you, Bella. I don't want to have things uncomfortable or any sort of mistrust between us.

"I'm trying, sweetheart, and I want you to believe that I will make things right for everyone. But remember what I told you earlier; I can hopefully help Cullen to learn his lesson on how to treat people and the rest is going to be up to you and others that have anything to do with Mr. Cullen."

Bella sat and looked at her father for a time and then a small smile began as she reached across to grab Charlie's hand, giving it a squeeze. Then she said, "Dad, you know where the guest room is."

XXXXXX

Edward waited until later in the day to try to place his call once more to his parents and then had the surprise of his life when no one answered to accept his call.

A/N: Charlie was finally able to tell Bella what he had done and more details about the reasoning behind his decisions. And poor Edward is deeply in the doghouse with his family without understanding why. Oh, he's in for a surprise in more ways than one. How is everyone going to communicate with each other about their motives?

Thanks for reading and looking forward to hearing from you.