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.

She was to the point of missing him so badly that she needed to hear his voice even if it was no more than hearing his greeting message from his voice mail.

CHAPTER 68: HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

Bella listened to the phone ringing three times before the voicemail picked up and she heard Edward's greeting message. Once she heard the beep to leave the message she said, "Edward, I…" and hung up without really knowing what she had wanted to say in the message.

Edward was just going through the door when he heard her voice saying his name, so he rushed over to answer the phone calling, "Bella… Bella, wait," when he realized that she had disconnected the call. "Damn!" He yelled while wanting to smash something, to hit something or just to do violence to something, to anything, it didn't make any difference to him. He was frustrated as hell that he hadn't been quick enough to get to the phone before she hung up.

He checked caller ID but saw that she hadn't left an identifiable number for him to be able to call her back. All that was shown was 'unknown number'. But he went ahead and tried calling her cell phone number with the same results that he received each and every time, no answer.

He decided to call Rosalie and Alice to ask if either of them had heard from Bella tonight. Hopefully they would be able to tell him something. He dialed Rosalie's number first and after several rings he thought she wasn't going to answer or might not be at home. However, she did answer somewhat breathlessly, and he quickly explained why he was calling. "No, Edward, she hasn't called here. We've all been here for a couple of hours after going out to eat earlier."

"Okay, thanks. I'll try Alice to see if she might have heard anything."

"Edward, Alice left here only about thirty minutes ago, so I'm not sure that she's at home to even have received a call from Bella. But I guess that it won't hurt to try calling her to ask."

So, Edward ended the call and tried to call Alice. At first, he thought he hadn't given her enough time to have reached home and was going to hang up only to try again in a short time, but suddenly the phone was answered in the same manner as Rosalie had answered his call to her, Allice being a bit breathless.

"Hello?" She answered as if asking a question.

"Hey, Alice, it's Edward. I'm wondering if you might have received a call from Bella tonight?" He asked.

"Not since I've been home, and I haven't checked my voicemail yet. So, I can't really tell you yes or no right now. Why are you wanting to know all of a sudden?"

Edward quickly explained the reason he was checking, and Alice told him to hold a moment while she checked to see if any messages were on her voicemail. It didn't take long before she told him that her machine had registered an incoming message, but no one spoke. "However, an unknown number also registered on caller ID, so, I supposed that could have been her.

"Edward, if any of us do hear from her we'll be sure to let you know. You don't have to worry about that. We know about the misunderstanding between you two and we are working with you to correct it." Alice told him. "I can tell you this much though knowing my cousin like I do, that she will call back now that she seems to be ready to reach out to someone; to any one of us." She tried to reassure him.

"Okay, thanks, Alice. Sorry to have interrupted yours and Jasper's night." Edward remarked with a little chuckle before hanging up. His imagination was very active with the idea of what he might have interrupted due to how breathless Alice had been when she answered his call.

Time passed and was getting late, but Edward just couldn't bring himself to go to bed. He was hoping that Bella would try to call again and at the same time was afraid that he would miss her call again if he did give up for the night and went to sleep.

But as it was getting later and later no call was forthcoming. Finally, he gave up and went to bed.

It seemed that he had just dozed off when he was awakened by the ringing of the phone. Quickly getting up and racing to answer the call, Edward tripped on the covers and fell face first to the floor. He had been in such a hurry that he hadn't fully extricated himself from all the covers.

By the time he did get to the phone it stopped ringing. However, Edward did recognize the phone number and returned the call.

It was Charlie calling after he had retrieved the message that Bella had left for him. He had called Rosalie to see if she had some idea about the desperate message that his daughter had left him and he wasn't going to take any more nonsense from anyone. He wanted answers and he was determined to get those answers one way or another.

XXXXXX

Charlie returned from work at the station and followed his normal routine after pulling a double shift. He fixed a quick bite to eat and carried it into the living room to watch late night TV while eating. And, just as he was about to sit down in his old recliner that was when he noticed the blinking light on his answering machine.

Rising, he walked over to listen to the message and was surprised that it was Bella. However, the way her voice sounded had him greatly disturbed. He had known from the time she had left L. A. the way she had that something had happened between her and Edward, but she refused to explain any further than that she had another book started and was on a deadline to get it finished since her obligations with Cullen Productions was now finished.

Despite the lateness of the hour, Charlie called Alice but received no answer, so he tried Rosalie. He heard her answer her phone and he immediately explained why he was calling and then demanded to know why Bella was sounding the way she was.

"Uncle Charlie, I really don't know. From a call that I had gotten from Edward earlier tonight, it seems that she tried calling him also. No one has heard from her otherwise and none of us have any idea why she was calling tonight." Rosalie explained to him. And her explanation only raised more questions and concerns about what was happening.

"Okay, thanks, honey, I'll see if I can get a hold of Edward. Maybe he might have some idea of why she is trying to get a hold of us." And, with that Charlie hung up and placed a call to Edward.

When Edward answered, Charlie wasted no time in stating why he was calling so late at night or rather in the early morning hours. "Edward, I want to know what is happening to my daughter and I don't want any bullshit answers like I've been getting for the last several months from all of you."

"Sir, I don't know what you're wanting me to say. Surely Rosalie or Alice told you what happened between Bella and me before she left L. A." Edward replied to Charlie's demand for answers.

"No one has told me a damn thing. When Bella returned to Seattle, I asked her why she was back sooner than she had been expected and all she said was that her obligations with your company were completed. She did say that she had started another book and was on a deadline to get it finished and to the publisher.

"I accepted that answer for the time being even though I knew there was more to it than what was being said. Thinking that I would give her some space and that when she was ready, she would tell me the complete details of all that happened to bring her back. However, that didn't happen.

"Now, while being on a book tour my little girl calls me sounding like death warmed over. What the hell happened? And don't tell me nothing because I know better.

"Let me warn you that if you won't tell me everything and it all is the believable truth then I will be making a trip down there and all hell will be breaking loose until I learn all of the sordid details about everything." Charlie didn't hesitate to tell Edward and Edward knew from the way the man sounded that he wasn't kidding; he meant every threat that he spoke.

After Charlie had finished speaking Edward took a deep breath and a moment to try to think of how best to answer the man. He felt that in a way he owed Charlie Swan for all the help he had given to get him out of the legal trouble he had faced not long ago. True, it had been Chief Swan who had started the investigation and filed the charges against Edward and Edward had been bitter about it enough to want revenge, but all of that changed as he got to know the man and his daughter, Isabella Swan. His mission of revenge had somehow slowly changed into a need to be with Bella. How or why, it had changed still hadn't fully become a conscious thought to Edward, but he was getting there slowly but surely.

Edward had become so lost in his thoughts that he had forgotten about Charlie being on the phone until he heard the man calling his name. "Yeah, Charlie, I'm still here. I was just taking a moment to try to figure out how to explain all of this to you since no one else has made the effort."

"Son, it shouldn't take any great thought to tell me anything. All you have to do is tell me the truth." Charlie was quick to remark.

"Yes sir." So, Edward began telling Charlie everything from the very first moment he had met Isabella Swan up to the present moment. He left nothing out and had made sure to include his feelings about each incident.

"And now how do you feel about everything?" Charlie quietly asked the question.

"I need her in my life for some reason." Was all that Edward said.

"Edward, I'm going to ask you a simple question and give me an answer without even thinking about it. Do you love my daughter?"

Edward did as Charlie asked and replied, "Yes. Yes, I do, and I didn't even know it until this moment. Please, Charlie, I need to make her understand that I didn't betray her." Edward's spontaneous answer to Charlie's last question surprised him. He was shocked by his answer but knew that he meant it. He was in love with Bella Swan. All of his doubts and random thoughts, even his jumbled emotions, all seemed to have settled with just that one answer.

"Well, then, Edward, this is what we're going to do." Charlie told him and continued to explain his plan for getting everything cleared up.

When Edward hung up from that conversation with Charlie, he had the biggest smile on his face, and he was feeling more relaxed than he had been in months. He felt like his life was getting back into balance and he quickly set about getting ready to follow through with Charlie's plan.

AN: Edward has finally come to his senses. And now that everything has been confessed to Charlie, he has a plan to try to get everything cleared up between Bella and Edward. What is his plan, and will it work?

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