YOU'RE WHAT!

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.

"Dr. and Mrs. Cullen, hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer before we can get these three into court and all of this will come to an end." Alice told them.

With that being said, no one said another word. They don't know what else to say.

CHAPTER 33: CLOSURE IS DRAWING NEAR

The silence amongst everyone present seemed to stretch until the whole atmosphere in the room was becoming extremely uncomfortable. Finally, Rosalie spoke, breaking the silence, by asking, "Are there any other questions that need to be answered?"

Edward's parents looked at each other before looking over at their son, what they saw there was a very uncomfortable man trying to stay calm under the circumstances that they all seemed to have found themselves in. And, with that observation, Esme responded by saying, "No, not at the moment." So, with that Edward breathed a quiet sigh of relief. However, he knew that it was only a temporary reprieve for now; his parents would have a lot more to say or ask once they had him someplace more private.

XXXXXX

Charlie was sitting quietly beside Bella's bed wanting her to wake up and speak to him, but he understood why they were keeping her sedated. "Sometimes I wish you had decided to take up a different line of work. Guess I have no one to blame, but myself. You were exposed to everything that had to do with law enforcement.

"You know, I can still hear, from time to time, the arguments we used to have about why no one ever wanted to date the Chief of Police's daughter. Of course, that was during the first three years of your high school years. By the time you became a senior your opinion began to change. All you could talk about after being with me that one time I had to take an emergency call was getting into law enforcement because you wanted to help people like you said I did. The only difference, you thought you knew at the time, was that you wanted to do it on a greater scale. Little did you know at that time that I did a lot of undercover work during the times I was away from home, supposedly going to meetings or to a seminar.

"Do you remember the argument we had about you wanting to study law in college for the sole purpose of training for the FBI? At first, I thought that you were going to become a lawyer and I was happy about that, but no, my little girl had to decide to get into the dirty side of things by just using a law degree for joining the FBI.

"In fact, all three of you girls have done great. You all got a law degree that helped you advance you towards working for the FBI. Yeah, I can just hear you all now saying that if it hadn't been for what I taught you things might have been different, but I never wanted you to be helpless at the hands of some scumbag trying to hurt or take advantage of you in some way.

"And, talking about what I managed to teach you, brings to mind, the first time a boy tried to force you to do something that you refused to do and how he had landed on his ass because of your actions. Made my day and the proudest dad ever. That first time showed me that you knew how to take care of yourself and that you had been paying attention to everything I had told and taught you.

"No father could have been prouder that day, or, now, despite the situation we find ourselves to be in at the present time. You have followed your dream, made a success of it and excelled even further than anyone expected a woman to do. In fact, all three of my girls have. But, sweetheart, do you have to keep giving you old man a near heart attack, especially this time around?

"I know what the consequences can be each time you take a new case, but this one has turned out to be entirely different than all of the others. All three of you have to add extra stress on me because you go and start a relationship with your charge. Each of my girls do."

After having his say for the moment, Charlie goes silent as he continues to hold Bella's hand. And after a while he slowly drifts off to sleep.

XXXXXX

Everyone arrived back at Bella's home and it didn't take any longer than they get inside and closing the door to the outside before Carlisle took the lead to demand an explanation for all that has been happening. He wants to know why everything has been so secretive and it was very clear that he had reached the end of his patience.

Rosalie and Alice took the lead and explained everything from start to finish. They explained how the case how come to the attention of the FBI and how they and Bella had been assigned to protect the three guys until the court date approached.

"But, to make sure that no pressure of any kind could be used against Edward, Emmett and Jasper we made sure that their immediate family members were under protection as well. And, before you ask, Dr. Cullen, that did include both you and Mrs. Cullen.

"And, it wasn't long after we began our protection detail that it was discovered that the people, we were protecting the guys from had no idea of how much your son and his friends knew about the Volturi crime family. We discovered listening devices planted throughout their homes. So, when we had something to discuss it was done at one of our homes." Rosalie explained things up to that point, then Alice took over.

"As time passed each of us realized that we were developing deeper feelings for our charges. I fell in love with Jasper and he with me, Rosalie and Emmett as well as Edward and Bella met the same fate. The deeper emotions that were developing were discussed with our superiors and we were told that as long as we weren't distracted from doing our jobs properly then no rules were being broken.

"We allowed the allusion that we were the guys girlfriends to try to keep the true nature of things on the quiet side. That side kept the Volturi's in the dark as just to how much was known about their illegal activities. And, in a way, that allusion did give an added layer of protection to the guys and their families.

"However, the events leading up to Bella being taken were nothing more than a random act in an attempt to get a hold of one of us to find out what was known. Bella was doing her job by preventing Edward from being taken by putting herself in his place and shoving him out of the way." Alice paused for a moment to see the effect of what had been said by both her and Rosalie was having on Edward's parents.

"That was how Bella ended in the hospital. She took the torture that had been intended for one of us." Edward said and then left the room to go into the kitchen. The emotions that this whole episode had invoked within Edward were finally threatening to spill over and take control of him. It's difficult to keep such tight control when all a person wants to do at times is just to go off into a private spot and release all the pent-up feelings that are wanting to swamp him.

Edward felt like things were coming at him too fast now; that he isn't being given time to adjust before the next event comes hurling at him. The shooting, Bella being taken, then Bella returning, but to the hospital after being beaten without mercy, someone trying to get to her once more, his parents arriving demanding answers to their questions and no idea what was going to happen next. With all of that running through his mind and wanting to take command of his emotions, his life, Edward felt like he was about to have a total mental and emotional meltdown with no return.

He hadn't said anything to the others, but he was carrying the guilt of Bella being in the shape she was in. If she hadn't shoved him out of the way and taken his place then no telling how things might have turned out. But, the one thing for sure is that she wouldn't be lying in the damn hospital heavily sedated just so she could rest.

True the odds of him ever having returned from being kidnapped were slim to none. With the biggest bet being on the 'none'. Edward wished that Bella could wake up with no pain and tell them what had happened after she was taken and why they beat her in such a fashion. Surely, she had answered the kidnapper's questions, so, why did they treat her as they had? All questions with no answers, at least for the moment.

XXXXXX

"Where are you taking me?" The stranger asked of the U. S. Marshalls.

Both Sam and Felix had identified themselves and shown their shields to the young man they had taken into custody after Charlie's attack in Bella's room. They did this not just to identify their positions in the law enforcement community, but to try to relieve some of the stranger's anxiety that they had observed in the stranger's constant surveying of his surroundings and the people that were watching what was happening.

"We're taking you to our office, but then we could also take you to the AG's office or to the FBI. Do you happen to have a preference?" Felix asked, being a bit of an ass. He had little tolerance at this point for the man that was believed to be threatening the life of a fellow agent as well as the daughter of a close friend.

"Felix, simmer down. Let's give this young man to have a chance to calm down and to have some time to think about what his destiny in the near future could be."

"What do you mean by 'could be my destiny'? We all know that I'm going to prison and there I won't live long in that place."

"A lot of things could change, but it will all depend on the next few choices that you decide to make. I would advise you to consider what I've just said until we arrive at the office." Sam suggested as he glanced into the rearview mirror to observe the young man.

XXXXXX

Bella could vaguely hear voices around her, but she couldn't quite understand what they were saying. She was only catching little snippets of the different conversations here and there. And, she wonders why her mind isn't fully grasping what has happened to her and why she's in this condition.

However, it doesn't take long before things start flooding back into her memory: the shooting, the attack to kidnap one of the guys, her shoving Edward out of the way since he was the closest to the attackers and she had been taken in his place, then it didn't take long for her to remember the whippings without being asked a single question.

It took a bit more time for Bella's mind to remember getting herself out of the building where she was being held, to remember seeing her father and then the detective that took one hell of a long time before getting her to a hospital. But once she arrived at the hospital her memories fade into nothingness; everything faded into a dark blackness and for a while not even sound seem to penetrate through the black fog. Eventually, she was able to start hearing voices without fully understanding the words spoken by anyone.

One voice above all others and the words spoken from time to time, did reach out to Bella and she recognized Edward's. But now the one other voice that was reaching out to her was that of her father's, Charlie seemed to be next to her and she could feel his hand. That was when Bella was puzzled by the feeling of water falling upon her hand. She couldn't understand why she was feeling the water.

XXXXXX

Sam and Felix escorted the young man to an interrogation room that had a two-way mirror hanging on the wall. And, just as both men turned to leave, the young man spoke, saying, "I will speak with you, but only if no one is on the other side of that mirror and you can prove it to me."

AN: Is the young man that was found over Bella about to tell everything to Sam and Felix? For some reason is Bella about to regain consciousness. Is Edward starting to let his emotions take control of him?

Hope you will enjoy this story and will let me know your thoughts, ideas and comments as we move forwards.