~OtA~
Chapter 25
Blah blah blah, Stephenie Meyer, yadayada ya, she owns the characters.
"Whoa! Hold on there!" Bella watched as Edward easily caught Jake mid-leap before he could pounce on her.. Chuckling, he sent Jake back to the kitchen, but only after promising that he wouldn't get any girl germs. That naughty Bella would just have to keep her distance. She was pretty sure he was lying.
They walked to the small office off the front reception room and shut the door as quietly as they could manage.
"So, what now my court appointed friend?" Edward asked as he gently put his hands onto her waist, bringing her closer to him. He sat on top of the small oak desk, his face searching hers for the permission to continue.
"I have no idea..." She breathed lightly into his ear.
She inhaled slowly and moved out of his grasp, backing towards the door.
"To be honest, I think the next step is to tell the judge we were half naked in Las Vegas, that you are known to this service already as a volunteer and that I should lose my license to practice in this state, if not every state I ever apply to, because of my misconduct." She hung her head. They needed to come clean.
Bella's phone rang. Startled, she looked at the screen and noticed it was Rose. She hit the busy button. She didn't want to talk to her at the moment.
"Then, after we face the mess that will be left after the shit hits the fan, well, I think I'd like to go on a date and do normal couple stuff. You know, considering I've already seen you half naked and all." She slowly walked towards him.
"Because to be honest, I find you intoxicatingly handsome, despite all the crassness of your alter ego. I think that you're the man I would like to hand my V-card over to."
She shyly looked at him from under her lowered lashes and smiled.
"Well," said Edward thoughtfully, "I would just like to walk around in public with you for starters. But I do feel obligated to you know, see you fully naked, since I've already seen you half naked...and take your V-card. But maybe we can do the whole courting thing prior to that."
"Why, Edward Cullen, are you an old fashioned boy?" She touched his face with her finger tips, finally resting them on his lips.
"Can I kiss you now or is that off limits?"
He gently took her hand, turning it around and kissing it gently.
"I think that's a good start." He leaned in towards her, closing his eyes as she closed hers...
And the moment was ruined by Rose. Ringing. Again.
"Ugghhh! There is so much cockblocking going on! Just let me get this!" She swirled around, grabbing the phone out of her pocket.
"This had better be good Rosalie Hale or so help me..." Bella paused, a look of concern replaced her anger.
"Just wait. Stop Rosie, just let me put this on speaker. I'm with Edward; he should probably hear this too." Rose's voice switched over to speaker phone mid-sentence.
"Fine, I'll repeat it for the scoundrel's benefit."
"Umm, Rose you're on speaker phone now."
"O-be kaybe, little bit of warning there next time Bells. Um, yep, so Jenks worked his magic. He managed to get some video from the night you were, you know, um, indisposed. Bells this is gonna be a bit of a mixed bag for you guys, do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
Bella looked at Edward, both wondering just what the hell was Rose carrying on about.
"Rose just tell us, go for good news first."
"Ok. Good news. You were drugged. There is evidence of a woman putting a powdered substance into both of your drinks. She sits there for ages, watching how you two are handling it and then when you left, she followed you out."
"So that explains the missing hours, was it roofies or something?" Edward asked, rubbing Bella's back as Rose continued.
Ignoring him, Rosalie continued, "Jenks has a series of different videos showing various the casinos and restaurants you stopped at along the way." She paused, a bit before continuing. "Um, Bells, do you really want this on speaker phone?" Rose sounded like she really didn't want to tell them the "bad" portion of the story.
"Come on, Rose, shit or get off the pot, just tell us already!" Bella was growing impatient. She liked facts. Quick facts, presented briefly, succinctly and preferably, accurately.
"Well… you went and did what idiots do in Las Vegas."
"We didn't get tats, Rose."
"No, um Bells, you and Edward. You… you got married."
Bella's phone managed to survive the impact of hitting the timber floor. Edward spent a lot of time not blinking.
"Holy. Shit." Bella sat on the floor, piecing her phone back together, the SIM card had managed to be ejected from its hidey hole. Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely slip the card in correctly.
She rang Rose back on speakerphone immediately after the problem was rectified.
"We just went into the chapel for fun or did we really do the whole deed?"
"Oh, you definitely did the deed, and our mystery lady was your witness. She generously took your copy of the marriage certificate too, by the way. Jenks has secured another copy. Bells, you know you didn't consummate anything; it's all fine, honey. We just tell the judge that you were drugged and that you wound up in a hotel room, falling asleep in separate areas, with no recollection of what happened. Jenks says that Rohypnol can make you forget hours of your life and that you can be mildly sedated, but can walk and talk and be relatively functioning. Guess you guys just looked like a couple of drunks in love. It will be okay, Bells. We can get this thing annulled, we'll let the judge know and there will be no misconduct."
Bella let the words sink in.
"Do we know who this woman is?"
"Yeah, we do. Does the name Gianna Balini sound familiar?"
Edward began blinking again.
"She's the other woman. She's Tanya's girlfriend." He almost choked on the last sentence.
"She has a history of restraining orders, Edward. She's stalked the ex's of every woman she's dated. Jenks says she's a complete nut job; has a mega trust fund and enjoys messing with people's lives.
She was charged with drugging a woman that was the ex of her last partner. Roofied her, and watched the woman walk in front of a car and get seriously injured. Jenks says that a lot of money exchanged hands and the charges were dropped. She was in a mental health facility for a few months, and after that she started up with Tanya. She is quite unstable. I guess she wanted to make sure you were out of the picture."
"Does she know that I'm DJ EC?"
"Edward, she has a lot of time on her hands. If Tanya spilled the beans, then most likely yes. So, at the moment she's a nutcase with evidence that you two are married, and she's most likely waiting for when you go back on air in a week to expose you. Or blackmail you. Or let the judge know. Or any number of crazy things. She has a lot of power in her hands with that little piece of paper."
"Then we need to talk strategy. We need to get to the judge first thing Monday morning. We put the spin on it that Edward is a victim in this. The judge doesn't need to know that we were naked. We come clean now that we know that there was more to it. Rose, we also need to come clean and let the judge know that Edward is Teddy."
"Shut the gate! You're kidding me? Zaff has been going on about how perfect he is for you! Oh my goodness! Bells, he got Jake to talk. You need to take me off speaker phone, because I hate him and love him at the same time and I want him to still think I hate him. Err, bye, Edward."
"Am I off speaker phone?"
Bella pushed the button and walked away from Edward.
"Yes, Rose."
"You have to marry him. Seriously, he's a keeper. Zaff says he is amazing. He spends hours there on a Sunday, he's so patient with the kids, and the moms all trust him. But I hate his job, Bells. You gotta get him out of that career, honey..."
"Rose, one, I already am married to him and two, he's quitting on Monday. I gotta go honey, we have a lot to process." Rose bid farewell and Bella hung up.
She sat herself on the overstuffed couch in the corner of the room.
Edward timidly joined her.
"So, hi Mrs. Cullen." He waved his fingers at her, then proceeded to run his hands through his hair at a ridiculously slow and obviously stressed pace.
"I would most likely be keeping the Swan, and ditching the Cullen." She put her head on the back of the couch and commenced staring at the ceiling for all it was worth.
"This is a pretty interesting turn of events. Interesting turn, indeedy."
"That's an understatement. Our roofied selves got married, Edward."
"I like our roofied selves. They're all romantic and carefree and just go for it."
"True. That's the benefit of being completely drugged out. You don't have to think of the consequences."
"I say damn the consequences. I didn't pick a very good partner sober, so who says that my drugged up self doesn't have excellent taste. I married you after all."
"Just didn't consummate it, my friend. So technically, we aren't really married." Bella poked Edward in the chest to confirm her point.
"Is that really a law, or was that some lie made up by the company that sells Viagra?" He leaned over and pulled her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. She didn't struggle. Bella put her hands on his shoulders and stroked his neck with her thumbs.
"Well, Mr. Cullen, we've managed to get ourselves married, ruin both of our careers and it's all your fault."
"How is it my fault?"
"Well, you're just so danged gorgeous, my roofied self just couldn't help it. I honestly don't give a crap about my career right now."
"Well, you probably proposed to me, so maybe I'm not the criminal in all of these events. I'm very irresistible. Women tell me that all the time."
"Women? What women?" Bella said in mock surprise.
"Oh, my mother and my grandmother. They tell me I'm irresistible on a constant basis. It's my burden and my curse."
"How do you manage?"
"I know not how. I really am sorry, Bells. You're an amazing lawyer. We'll figure this out. I won't let this ruin your career and everything else you've worked for. This place is important to me, too."
She bent down and kissed him. Edward kissed her in return. Moments were lost as they said all the words that needed to be said by touch alone.
It should have been simple. Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy, boy likes her. They fall in love and make little tiny versions of themselves all over the land. The End.
They were enjoying their few stolen moments when a frantic knock came at the door.
"Teddy! Teddy! You gotta come help!" It was Jake.
"Um, just busy matey." Edward covered Bella's mouth to stifle her giggles.
The little boy started to cry.
"Please Teddy, it's my mommy."
Edward moved Bella and opened the door. He could suddenly see what the boy was so panicked about.
Jake was now slumped on the floor, watching as a man, presumably his mother's ex boyfriend, had a knife to his mother's throat.
"How did you get in here?" Bella began.
Edward pulled the little boy up and handed him to Bella, pushing her behind the door to the office. He kept his eyes on the knife wielding man.
"So, help me out here, man. What's with the knife? It's not really needed, is it?" Edward spoke in his calm and serene voice.
"I will cut this bitch, man, if you come anywhere near me." He frantically waved the knife around, only to return it to where it had been pressing against the woman's throat.
"I'm not interested in stopping you dude. I'm all for families being together, just not really fond of the knife being so close to her throat. Maybe you could just drop it a bit. You can't even open the door to leave, your hands are full."
"I just want her to listen to my side for a while. I fucking love her, man. She's everything to me. It took me months to track her down. I just want to be with her. The kid can stay; I don't give a shit about the little prick."
The little boy was making small shallow breaths as he clutched onto Bella's neck. Bella felt the tension in his body. It mimicked hers.
"Yeah, kids can be a bit much, but hey, but no one wants your girlfriend hurt there, so tell me how I can help you."
"You can shut the fuck up. I just want to get out of here and talk with her man. That's all."
"Ok, well, that seems reasonable. I can open the door for you. It's a tricky lock. Just put the knife down, you still have hold of her. Catherine, you're happy to walk out with your boyfriend here aren't you. Just nod that you are happy."
Catherine was wide eyed and obviously in shock. She took a deep breath and swallowed a sob.
"Um, Yes" She nodded her head slowly.
Bella hoped that Edward knew what he was going to do.
"Catherine, what's your boyfriend's name?"
He answered for her. "It's Frank. I don't want to hurt her; I just want to talk to her."
"Well Frank, I think that's good. But the knife doesn't make for a good conversation piece. Catherine is happy to talk, but the knife, it has to go."
"She just needs to LISTEN to ME!" He held onto Catherine tighter.
"She can't hear so good with the knife against her throat. Frank, if you trip you'll kill her. She isn't fighting you. Catherine wants to talk. You are very close to killing her, Frank."
Franks eyes were darting all over the room. Tears started to fill his eyes.
"If you love her, you want her to live, just let her go. She wants to listen, Frank. She really does. I can see it."
Frank started to sob, mumbled something about loving her and dropped the knife. Edward reached over and yanked Catherine out of his slackened grip. Edward had Frank on the floor with his arms behind his back in seconds.
Sirens could be heard in the distance. Someone must have managed to trigger the "Code Black" button that was installed by the alarm company in the event that something like this would happen.
Edward was talking quietly with Frank, telling him what was going to happen and how Frank just needed to be calm and let things play out. He seemed to be listening, as he quietly sobbed and professed his love.
The police arrived shortly after. Frank was arrested, having breached his restraining order. They were all interviewed, but were informed they needed to come to the station to make statements in the next few days.
A few hours later, Jake was safely in bed, wrapped up in his mother's arms.
Bella and Edward finally had another moment alone.
She walked up to him, and wrapped her arms around him. She had tears in her eyes and she sighed with relief as she felt his beating heart with her cheek. She looked up at him.
"I'm happy to be Mrs. Cullen, if that's okay by you."
OtA
Hi guys, I am slack. I know. I apologize. The journey is coming very close to an end... Leave a review if you feel the need. Maybe with some direction as to where you would like the tale to go? Bahahahaha... no I have that covered!
As always, love to my Beta and Pre reader.