Twilight isn't mine, but the idea is. I was inspired to write this after a marathon of Fast and Furious. All the songs on the soundtrack helped me create this, so you should check them if you don't know them.
Many thanks to my dear friends m0t0b33 and TeamAllTwilight for the pre-reader and beta work.
Many asked about Edward being hand-cuffed...well this chapter explains it. They police usually act as a precautions in most cases, before they investigate.
Next time Edward came around was to an acute pain from his surgery. It didn't take him long to see Bella wrapped around him. Her knee might have been the culprit since it was resting near his groin.
As he stared at her pretty face, he realized she was having a bad dream. Her face was scrunched up as if in pain and her arms around him tightened. Small whimpering noises left her mouth.
"Bella. You need to wake up," he said softly. It hurt to turn around but gritting his teeth he did do. "Bella, I'm here."
Slowly, her tense body relaxed, and she opened her eyes.
"Hey," he greeted her, watching her worried. "Do you remember what you were dreaming?"
Confused at his question, Bella shrugged, snuggling better into his arms. Suddenly she shot up.
"You were gone!" she gasped, tears pooling in her eyes.
"That's highly impossible. I can barely move without pain radiating from my wound."
Sidetracked, Bella made to call for the nurse, but Edward stopped her.
"I'm not going anywhere," he promised.
"I hope so."
"That asshole Judge won't take me away," Edward said seriously. He had to talk to the Judge in the morning, when his fate would be decided.
"If he sends you to jail…"
"Bella, I'm pretty confident he won't. I talked to Emmett and your brother. He should absolve me of everything for helping in Ben's gang catching. The police have been after them for years. I think I even deserve a medal of honor." He looked quite smugly.
"You definitely hit your head." She giggled.
Pleased to hear her laugh, Edward hugged her tightly. "Let's sleep, baby. I need to be awake and with a clear mind when that idiot comes over to visit."
Bella nodded. "Night." She kissed his neck, snuggling closer. He pecked the top of her head.
Some hours later, he was brutally woken up by his father. After pursing his lips at the sight of Bella still asleep next to Edward, Carlisle started taking things out of a travel bag—toothpaste, toothbrush, cleaned, ironed shirt and dress pants, socks and a change of underwear, along with soap and towels.
"What's this?" Edward frowned.
"You need to look your best at a process. Have you forgotten?"
"This isn't the court, Dad."
"It's a real trial. Be a good sport and cooperate. Be thankful it's me doing this. I persuaded the nurse to allow me to wash you."
Glancing at Bella—still asleep, Edward felt a blush spreading on his cheeks.
"I need to piss," he mumbled to his father.
"Need help standing up?"
"Yes. Last time I tried, I nearly face-planted. Em was here, thankfully."
"No face-planting before seeing the Judge. He might think you got into a brawl." Carlisle's eyes twinkled with glee.
"With the floor." Bella's small voice said from behind them. "Good morning, sir." She had become somewhat friends with Edward's father, but he still scared her.
Once Bella was gone under the pretext that she needed a shower, Carlisle took care of his son. As his father methodically washed his torso, down his legs, being careful with his cut, Edward mused aloud that he'd never given him a bath as a child.
"I failed you on so many levels, son. I always thought wives should stay home and raise children." He looked remorsefully at Edward.
"That shooting lesson came in handy the other night." Edward smiled, bracing on his dad's shoulder as he helped him get dressed.
"I had no idea what to do for fun that day. I'm glad I took you shooting targets though."
"Me too. Thanks, Dad."
They were done. Edward was dressed smart, clean and shaved. After a visit from his doctor, he was cleared to have his visitor.
The Judge was as strict as ever. He tried to point out all of Edward's felonies, but his father—present as his lawyer—brought arguments in favor of absolving his son of all convictions.
"Young man, you have quite the rap sheet here and the last stunt you pulled put you here in the hospital. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Your honor, I know that I did lots of bad things, but living with a cop for a semester changed me. He made me see how my actions were affecting not only me but the ones around me as well. I'm not going to go back to my old habit, I promise. This time I did it to help the police."
"Yes, you helped the police catch you in act."
When Edward opened his mouth to retort, Carlisle placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Don't say another word." He turned to address to the Judge. "Your honor, my son has done some bad things, but as his DA, I'm entitled to work his case and have him absolved of all charges."
The Judge waved for Carlisle to keep talking.
"Let's remember why exactly he is here, shall we? He's in the hospital because he got shot helping the police catch a gang of dangerous criminals, and had it not been for him, more people would've been hurt or worse.
"As you can see, he did plead guilty for the charges brought against him, but given that his good actions overweight the bad ones, I'd say he needs to be acquitted."
After the longest two hours of Edward's life, the Judge was gone, and his record was squeaky clean once again. He promised his father to buy him a beer for saving his ass, to which Carlisle said loudly, "When you're twenty-one."
"Of course." Edward laughed loudly.
"Now you have to stay out of trouble. Do you think you can do that?" He fixed his blue eyes on his son's green ones. "If this happens again I might even charge you. And let me tell you, son, I'm not the cheapest lawyer in Chicago."
Edward was fighting against his smile. "Lately I even started questioning whether you were really a lawyer. You know, with your other business…"
"Being a lawyer is what saved me so many times. It's my job. The other part sort of came with your mother—her dowry, if you want to call it that."
"Do I have to do it too? Cuz after the other night…" Edward shuddered.
"You don't have to do anything, son. Why do you think we both fought so hard to keep you out of trouble. Your grandpa kept hinting at you joining us, but I told him you're not interested and that school was your thing."
"Well, I do like school…some classes."
"Good thing I didn't lie." Carlisle wrapped his arms around his son, hugging him tightly. "When I saw you bleeding, I regretted all the times I waved you out of my way, too busy with work. I could see all these scenes passing through my mind like a bad movie."
"I'm fine, Dad. Well, sort of."
Pulling him at arm length, Carlisle looked him in the eye. "The doctor said you're healing fast. But the second you're cleared to fly, we're taking the private jet back home. I know the best doctors."
The door opened, interrupting their moment. Esme stared at them surprised before quickly joining them and wrapping her arms around both—husband and son.
Since Edward had always been close to his parents—or as close as his father allowed—he loved having them around. He was extremely happy for whoever might have talked to the hospital's manager to let someone stay with him overnight. It was usually Bella—not that he minded, or his mother.
He had to sit alone on his hospital bed for a few hours once his parents left to talk to his doctor and see when he'd be released, then to go and talk back home to have someone prepared to take care of their boy.
Edward was clicking away on the remote control, flipping through the few channels the TV caught, but nothing grabbed his attention. Then the door opened and he forgot about his boredom. Bella was carrying a heavy bag from the looks of it, and he hated being unable to rush to her and help.
She beamed at him. "I hear you're a free man."
"Yup." He nodded proudly. "All thanks to Dad. The Judge was all for sending my ass to jail."
"Oh, I'm glad he didn't." She sat next to him, taking his hand. "How are you?"
"Honestly? Bored to death. I could eat an elephant. And I hate not being able to move on my own."
"That's quite the list. I can help with one thing." She winked, producing a jar from the bag, along with a spoon. "I made you soup."
He eyed the yellowish liquid warily. "I see. You're here to finish what Ben started."
Bella slapped his thigh with all her might. "I'm not poisoning you! Your mom helped me, if you must know."
"I feel much better now. Frankly, Bella, I've seen you in the kitchen." He shivered for effect.
"Not all of us are born chefs." She huffed, pushing the jar in his hands. "Eat. I'm not sure if the hospital allows food from the outside."
Opening the jar, Edward moaned at the heavenly smell—chicken soup. As he carried spoonful after spoonful, Bella updated him on the outside world.
"Jimmy's still mourning the loss of his colleague, like the whole local police. Your cousin went back to Chicago at everyone's insistence—he's a newlywed and spending time away from his wife." She shook her head, biting her lip. Edward nodded in agreement, wolfing at his food. Soup had never tasted so good. His first real food since he was admitted in the hospital.
"Oh, did you hear about Jake?" Bella wondered softly.
"No." Edward eyed her worried. "Did he get in trouble?"
"It's kind of his fault everything that happened. After that first crazy night when you got shot, and then when we knew you'd be alright, Jimmy took him to the station. He spent the night in locked up."
"Someone bailed him out?"
"Better. He got a lawyer without asking for one."
"Dad?" Edward gasped in disbelief.
"Yes. Though, he couldn't do much. They won't send him to prison, but he has to do community service for three months."
Edward whistled, setting the empty jar on the bedside table. "He escaped this stinky situation very good."
"Everyone's been telling him that. Jeez, Edward, I've never seen him so scared as the time Jimmy cuffed him and read him his rights as he hauled him out of the hospital."
"I wish I was there to see it."
"And stop my brother."
"At the time I was angry with Jake, but then I thought better and realized even if Jake and you and Fredonia didn't happen, I'd still have ended up facing Ben—one way or another. We had unfinished business."
"He was mentally unstable!"
"Possibly." He shrugged.
"I know," Bella whispered. "Nate, one of Jimmy's colleagues questioned me about the whole thing since I was directly involved."
"You didn't tell me!" Edward muttered, annoyed. "What did they do?"
"Nate only asked me stuff about what I was doing while you were racing. How did Ben get me? What happened when you came to rescue me, stuff like that. I was so tired and numb that I'm glad he asked me before I got sleep. I doubt I'd have been able to respond to his questions after a night's sleep."
"Oh, baby. I'm so sorry you were involved. I wanted to kill him when I realized he got you."
"He recognized Brady," she whispered.
"I know. It was an uncalculated move from him."
"Well, Brady told the police—his ex-colleagues—that it was his fault everything that happened. He even resigned. He blamed his resign on his accident, but I know he felt guilty about ruining the police operation."
"And how do we know it wouldn't have gotten to me injured, or Ben trying to kidnap you? He saw me with you, and he'd never seen me that way with anyone. Sure there had been chicks, wishing me good luck before a race, but he could tell I felt differently about you."
"Can we not talk about that?"
"Sure." He smiled and opened his arms for her to snuggle there.
"Oh, I brought you this. You know, to keep you company." Bella searched through her bag and produced her Christmas present for Edward—Betty's replica.
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