Disclaimer: Almost all characters belong to Stephenie Meyer!

~EPOV~

"Ooof!" I sat up quickly as the weight pressed down on my groin. Christian smiled at me, and his knee pressed harder into the tender area. I bit the inside of my cheek and gripped at his knee.

"Lift your knee, buddy," I rasped. He giggled and moved to my side. Anna, Sebastian, and Isaac came running in, and jumped up onto the end of the bed.

"Pancakes! Pancakes!" Isaac bounced on his knees and clapped his hands together loudly. I smiled at him while Anna climbed into my lap. I made sure she didn't hit the wrong spot like her brother did.

I looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

8:26.

"I did say I'd make pancakes, didn't I?" I scratched the back of my neck. It was hard to not lay back down and close my eyes. I wanted to wrap them all up in the duvet with me.

"You'll make pancakes?" Anna's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Chocolate chips! You have to put chocolate chips in them...please?" She added sweetly, tilting her head and batting her eyelashes.

"I can do that. Go wait in your rooms. I need to get dressed, and then I'll come and help you guys get dressed," I suggested. I helped them all get off the bed, and I ran my fingers through my messy hair and watched them run back out into the hallway with excited shouts coming back to me.

I'd be nothing without them. My life would be so boring.

I tugged on jeans and a dark blue sleeved shirt. I rolled the sleeves up to my elbows, and walked into my bathroom so I could brush my teeth. I washed my face and made my way to Anna's room first.

"Daddy, I want to wear a red shirt! Christmas is in..." She put her finger to her chin and looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought. I went to her closet as I opened my mouth and answered her.

"17 days," I commented. She squealed and skipped to me, gripping my pant leg as I grabbed her black jeans and a red shirt with a snowman on it.

Once I had her dressed, I had to roll the sleeves once so they wouldn't cover her small hands. I knew it would only be minutes before they were covering her hands again, and they would be dirty. Happened ever single time.

"Wait downstairs for me?"

She nodded her head and skipped out of the room. I watched her and made sure she got down the stairs okay before I moved on to the boys' room.

"Do you three want to wear red?"

I rested my hands on my knees and let out a laugh at the site in front of me.

They stood in a line, only in their underwear, and had their hands up by their foreheads in a saluting position. They had their chests puffed out. I composed myself and saluted them back. They had their lips pressed together, trying to keep their laughter in.

"I'll take that as a yes," I mumbled to myself as I walked to their closest. They went down the stairs on their butts once they were dressed and ready for breakfast.

"All right, let's get this show on t-" Isaac, Sebastian, and Christian gasped, covering their mouths dramatically as they surveyed the kitchen. I rubbed my forehead and worked on keeping the anger down.

Chocolate chips...everywhere.

On the counters, on the floor, some still in the pantry, and a couple on the table.

Anna held the empty bag upside down. Her face was pale, and tears were slowly coming to her eyes. She looked up at me with wide eyes.

"No chocolate chip pancakes now," I noted as I took the bag from her hands. Isaac and Christian huffed in disappointment. Anna was wringing her hands together as she looked down.

"Sorry," she said quietly.

I knew I should have moved the bag higher up on the shelves.

"Who wants to help clean?"

I sat on the couch with my hands in my pockets. Anna, Sebastian, Isaac, and Christian sat on the floor in front of my feet. They looked up at the TV while The Annoying Orange yapped on and on.

Annoying.

I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling. It felt strange to not be typing away on a computer. I flexed my fingers and bounced one of my knees.

I almost hated myself for not really wanting to find the man anymore. I was losing hope. The other officers at the station didn't bother with it anymore. Jasper and Rosalie gave up a month ago.

I could almost still hear the gunshots in my head. I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing.

My heart was like hummingbird wings.

My mom screaming. Angela yelling out for me to help her. Gunshots. Yelling. Blood curdling screams!

"Dad?!"

I jumped and looked down. They were looking up at me with worried faces, and it was Sebastian's voice that had brought me out of my disturbing thoughts.

"Yup...yeah, what is it?" I sat up and rubbed my sweaty palms on my thighs. Sebastian cocked his head in question.

"You okay, Daddy?" Anna crawled toward me and placed her hands on top of mine. My heart slowed considerably from that.

"Yeah, I'm okay, honey. I'm good." I took her hands in mine and pulled her into my lap. Christian and Isaac sat beside me. I raised my eyebrow at Sebastian as he continued to stare at me with furrowed brows.

"Come sit, Sebastian. We'll watch a Christmas movie." I patted the spot beside Isaac. He smiled and hopped up onto the couch.

The kids didn't make it through the movie. The movie wasn't even halfway through before they were sleeping.

I shrugged, got comfortable, and easily joined them. This was our day.

"Ah, you got me!" I fell to the ground as the ball of snow hit my side. Anna was in stitches, and Christian was hurrying to make more snowballs. Sebastian and Isaac kept throwing them at me.

No mercy.

I looked at Anna again. She was sitting in the snow, almost falling over in laughter.

"Anna! You have to come help Dad!" I reached my arm out to her, and Christian gripped her shoulders to keep her in place.

"No, don't! He'll attack you. He'll keep you from us," he said to his sister. She looked torn as she looked to him, and then to me. I gave her my best puppy dog eyes.

"No! I'll treat you like a princess! You'll be my queen!" She fought her brother's hold. Isaac threw a snowball at her back as she awkwardly ran to me. The deep snow was a little too much for her small legs.

"I'll protect you," she said with only promise in her voice. She made a snowball and threw it with everything she had. It landed near their feet.

"Awww."

"It's okay. I can already tell. When you're older, you're going to have a wicked arm," I said to her as I started making more balls of snow. Her pout was gone at those words, and she fell to her knees to help me.

"Better than Sebastian, Isaac, and Christian?" I cleared my throat. I couldn't tell her that she would be better at that then her brothers. She would tell them I said that, and then they would confront me about it.

"You four will be the same."

"I don't want to be the same," she whined just as a snowball hit her in the shoulder. It exploded, and some got on me as well. She screamed and ran away, abandoning her snowballs.

I sat back on my butt and watched as they chased each other around.

My family, I thought with a wide grin on my face. My cheeks even started to get sore a bit.

"Hot chocolate, hot chocolate! Come get your hot chocolate!" I set the mugs down in front of them. I made sure they were cool enough before they started to take little sips.

"Dad, you're so silly," Isaac and Christian said together. Sebastian and Anna chuckled as they drank their warm drink.

"Dad!" Sebastian shouted. I, along with the kids, jumped in surprise at the unexpected explosion. I looked him over, thinking he had spilled his drink and burned himself a little or something.

"We need the marshmallows," he said like it was the most obvious thing ever. I guess it was pretty obvious when it came to hot chocolate. I held my hands up with a chuckle, and grabbed the bag from the pantry. I scowled as I saw a few chocolate chips sitting on the shelf. I looked back over my shoulder at them before I picked them up and popped them in my mouth.

"Throw them!" Isaac said. Anna clapped her hands together and nodded.

I opened the bag, and got two marshmallows out. The first one bounced off Isaac's fingers. The second one he caught, and it was hard not to laugh at how his eyes widened in surprise.

"Nice catch, bud," I complimented as I popped marshmallows in all of our hot chocolate.

Well...we ended up eating the rest of the cookies, and Anna basically demanded that we make more. Sebastian and Christian helped easily, but Isaac just went back into the living room to watch TV.

"Brush your teeth good. Make sure to get your front teeth." I stood in the doorway of the bathroom and watched the children brush their teeth.

As they were spitting into the sink, the phone started ringing from downstairs. I hurried to reach it, and my eyebrow raised as I saw Carlisle's number on the screen.

I thought he was out.

"Hello? Carlisle?"

His voice was rough with emotion after a short moment of silence.

"It's your dad, Edward. He's gotten even worse."

My heart shot up into my throat while my stomach dropped to my feet.

Feel free to review.

Updates won't be everyday.