Down On The Bayou Detective Agency - Case Files

Chapter 23

Endings and Beginnings

Definitions: om·nis·cient; ämˈniSHənt/; adjective

knowing everything.

Author's Note:

~o0o~

Previously:

"It's a very long and involved story, Dad, and one that I promise to tell you both, but I'd like to take my wife and children home."

~o0o~

One week later, Bella is home, once again strong and healthy. Her short time with Dragomir had weakened her, but now she was back to her healthy and robust state.

Edward and Bella were having their friends and family over to just reconnect with each other. Edward had still not told his parents what exactly had happened to Bella and the twins, and they were, quite frankly, beginning to bug him for information. They loved Bella and were appalled at her physical state when she became conscious once more. The twins were the same but weren't at the same time and the grandparents wanted to know what had caused the change.

After all small talk had been exhausted and all the paper plates and plastic flatware had been disposed of, they found themselves seated in a circle and began to talk.

"First, let me say that without Angela and Lauren's calming presence, I would not have gotten through the most horrific experience of my life. Thank you, both. You are more than friends to me now. You've become family." Edward had spoken softly, and there were tears in his eyes.

Both Angela and Lauren smiled and nodded at Edward.

"Now, Dad, where do you want me to start?"

"Why at the beginning, son. Where else is there?"

Edward laughed. "I'm assuming you mean why Bella and the twins disappeared. The cause was simple, revenge. We had destroyed Dragomir's scion, and its ego demanded retribution, therefore, the destruction of everyone who was involved. Since the twins have so many psi abilities and Bella is my wife and the mother of those twins, they were going to be the first to pay that price. However, as it is with beings of enormous power and abilities, the ego got in the way. Dragomir believed itself to be omniscient and us to be insignificant beings, no more than cattle for him and his ilk to feed on." Edward took a sip of his iced tea and waited for the questions he knew his parents needed to ask.

"But why the length of time between the killing of its child and the kidnapping of Bella and the twins?" Esme asked.

"It took a while for the news to arrive that the energy vampire was destroyed and for Dragomir to arrive here and then to locate us."

"Oh, I see. My next question, son, is how the hell did you mange to get rid of big daddy?" Esme said using air quotes.

Everyone laughed at Esme's nickname for Dragomir. At this point, the twins, who were supposed to have been in bed, came walking back out into the back yard. Masen crawled into Bella's lap and Lizzy into Edward's, making themselves comfortable.

Edward thought to them, "Why aren't you in bed?"

The twins gave a mental shrug and snuggled into their parents loving embraces.

"We had a great deal of help mom, the Knights Templar and my guardian angel, Michael. Were it not for them, we would not have succeeded, honestly. Help is always there for those who need it and ask for it." Edward smiled.

"I suspect you want to know how the twins got to the hospital?" Edward asked.

Both Edward's parents nodded.

"Once we-" Edward motioned to his friends "-and the Templars reached Dragomir's location on the astral, I told the twins to get their mother, take her back to her body, and the find their grandfather, simple as that."

"Simple? How could they do that? They're just babies!"

Bella spoke up for the first time now. "Yes, in years they are Esme, but they are more mature in many respects than any of us suspected. If you noticed, just now when they came back outside, they walked. This experience has matured them more. My consciousness was not in my body, but on those astral planes. When Edward told them to take me back, they knew, somehow, that if they didn't obey him, I'd die." Bella hugged Masen and kissed the top of his head. "They hoisted me up and brought me back to my body at the hospital, and then found Carlisle as Edward had instructed them to do."

"I figured it had to have been something like that, but I am really surprised that they actually did as they were told," Carlisle said.

Sam, who'd been sitting back listening, spoke up, "I have to tell you both, that Emmett played a very important part of this battle. He was willing to sacrifice himself to enable the rest of us to attack Dragomir. He was the first one to attack, keeping the attention and allowing the rest of us to follow from a different angle."

Emmett actually blushed, but said nothing. Lauren reached over and clasped her husband's hand and squeezed.

Carlisle and Esme both beamed at their eldest son.

"That brings us up to date, right? Anyone have anything they'd like to add?" Edward asked. "If not, Bella and I, well I guess we all have an announcement to make. This was our last case. We are closing the agency."

~o0o~

Esme and Carlisle were shocked.

Edward looked to his older brother and smiled. He knew what Emmett was thinking but wanted his parents to hear what that was. "Emmett? Do you have something to say?"

"I totally get that, Edward. You have a beautiful, intelligent wife and two children. You want to be with them and see them grow up. With our work, you're never home much. It's not fair to either Bella or the twins. You need to be with them. You don't need to work away from home, and we-" he gestured around the circle "-have had a good run."

"But?" Edward questioned.

"But nothing, Bro. And that brings Lauren and I to our own little announcement. We're pregnant."

Esme was out of her chair, bounding toward her eldest son and his wife. "I'm going to be a grandmother again?"

Lauren nodded silently and smiled at her mother-in-law.

"Yipeeeee!" Esme squealed.

Carlisle stood and walked to his eldest son and extended his right hand. "Congratulations, Son! Imagine that. I'm going to have another grandchild. Thank you, Lauren. You two have made us very happy. Thank you. Now three grandchildren make us very wealthy indeed!"

"Well, that's not quite right, Dad."

Carlisle and Esme paused on their way back to their chairs and turned around. "What's not quite right?"

"Lauren and I are having twins!"

A few minutes later, Esme asked, "Edward did you know about Emmett and Lauren being pregnant? You did, didn't you? You know everything!"

Edward and Bella both smiled and nodded.

All eyes then shifted to Sam and Angela.

"How about you?" Esme asked.

Angela laughed. "No, we're not, but we have been looking into adoption."

~o0o~

The friends began to explain to Carlisle and Esme the plans to disband the detective agency.

"But why? Carlisle asked.

Sam looked at his friends and they nodded for him to explain. "We've spent our lives devoted to others. We all feel it's time we paid as much attention to our lives. Simple as that."

"Won't that be hard? As you say you've spent your lives doing this. What will you do?"

"That's a good question, Dad. Write. We each want to get our own thoughts down, so our children will know more about us. I personally don't care about the rest of the world, but I want my, our, children to know us as more than just their parents. They should know that their mother was a Los Angeles homicide detective before she met their father-that we had lives before they came into them and changed everything for the better."

"I'm sure Sam and Angela feel the same, as do Emmett and Lauren. Our children are precious gifts and have brought so much joy to our souls. I would not change one thing about my life. I, we,Bella and I, want them to know who we were, what brought all us together."

"Sam and I have been best friends for more life times than you can imagine. We shall always be best friends. Our children will be best friends. We all will grow old around each other. There may be time that we will assist someone a little but never again to the extent that we have in the past."

Sam was smiling at his friend. "Edward's right. We're not going anywhere. We're just not going to spend anymore of our lives doing what we've done in the past. It's time to move on, time to devote ourselves to our families, which include you, Esme and Carlisle. We all live in the same area now. We just won't be traveling as we have in the past."

Emmett nodded in agreement. "Yeah. If I never see another dead body, it'll be too soon. I want our children to have a stable home life, just as you gave Edward and me, Mom." He paused thinking. "Have I ever thanked you for that? If not, I'm saying it now. Thank you for being loving and understanding parents. I hope that you'll let me know if I get to gruff or am not understanding of my children. I know I can be a knucklehead."

It was Lauren's turn to laugh. "Who you?"

Emmett blushed once again, this time a deeper crimson.

~o0o~

After the others had gone home and Bella and Edward had put the children to bed, they sat at their kitchen table talking.

"You are sure aren't you, Edward?"

"Yes! I almost lost you and our children. That's not going to happen again. I'll write my book and look after the children with you, go to PTA meetings and church on Sunday mornings if that's what you want to do. I just want us to be a family and give our children a stable environment in which they can grow and flourish. I want to spend quality time with you, go on moonlight walks, go to movies, dancing-whatever you want to do. I love you, Bella Swan-Cullen."

"Good, because I'd hate to have to hit you on the head to make you stay here with us."

They both had a good laugh about that.

"And, Edward, I have something to tell you, and for now, just you." Bella smiled sweetly and looked deeply into his eyes willing him to hear her.

"We are? We're pregnant?"

"Yep. That's one of the reasons they kept me a little longer at the hospital, just to make sure everything was as it should be, and Edward, we're having another set of twins!"

The End

Author's ending note #1: That's it folks. No more case files coming up. These characters have said all they're gonna say. Trust me, I've tried to get more out of them. I hope you've enjoyed reading this third and final installment of my FBI Guy series. I've enjoyed writing it. I don't know what's next, but knowing how my mind works, something will turn up. Thank you all for your continued support.

Author's Ending Note #2: Please remember this is the last of the trilogy/series. Part#1 is "Edward Cullen, FBI Special Agent & Psychic"

Part#2 is Edward Cullen & Friends-Down on the Bayou

Part#3 is The Down On The Bayou Detective Agency-Case Files