Well, first of all, thanks to everyone who offered to help me out! You guys are awesome!! And a special thanks to brighteyes87, who has graciously offered to help me wrestle with where to take the end of this story!! Also, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and put this story on your favorites and alerts...it really means a lot to me and I love reading what you guys have to say about this! Alright, I know it's a couple days off but here's the Christmas chapter...

BLEEDING LOVE

I won't ask for much this Christmas
I won't even wish for snow
I'm just gonna keep on waiting
Underneath the mistletoe
I won't make a list and send it
To the North Pole for Saint Nick
I won't even stay awake to
Hear those magic reindeer click
'Cause I just want you here tonight
Holding on to me so tight
What more can I do
Baby, all I want for Christmas is you

"All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey

Chapter Eight

"Come on, Edward! Get your ass in here…it's freaking cold outside!" Emmett bellowed from the doorway.

"Shut up…if you would actually come out here and help me unload the car I would be able to get inside a little bit faster, dumbass!" Edward yelled back.

He slammed the trunk shut and added a few packages to the top of Bella's already teetering pile in her arms.

"Merry fucking Christmas…" she muttered under her breath as she slowly made her way up the Cullens' walkway, nearly slipping on the icy steps before finally getting inside the warm house.

Edward smacked Emmett on the back of the head with his free hand when he entered the house. "Thanks for all the help, Emmett."

"Hey, it's warm in here and it's cold out there. What did you expect? Anyways, it's Christmas, man, stop being such Grinch." He threw his hands in the air, as if he expected Edward to suddenly agree with him.

But Edward, on the other hand, was in no mood for Christmas cheer, especially since Christmas meant spending an entire evening at his parents' house. He had been tense the entire drive over, clenching the steering wheel with a death grip, and had hardly said a word to Bella during the drive. She knew not to hold it against him because if their roles were reversed and she had to spend a whole evening at Charlie's house, she would be just as tense as him. But, she had lucked out because, although Carlisle and Esme had invited Charlie, he had had to work. So she decided to let Edward's moodiness slide for tonight.

Esme came out from around the corner of the kitchen with a happy smile on her face. "Edward! Bella! I'm glad you made it here in one piece…the weather is so awful…but at least we have a white Christmas, right?"

"Yeah…hopefully the snow doesn't get much worse." Bella responded good-naturedly.

"Then we won't have to stay the night." Edward added in darkly.

Esme's face immediately fell at Edward's remark. She looked behind her quickly and leaned in towards him, lowering her voice as she spoke. "Edward, it's Christmas. Can you please try tonight…for me. I just want everyone to get along, even if it's just for one night. Can you do that for me, Edward?"

He exhaled loudly and ran a hand through his hair before casting a weary glance toward Bella before nodding slowly. Esme smiled warmly and enveloped her son in a tender embrace.

"Thank you." She whispered into his ear before releasing him.

He sighed again and just nodded before stepping around her to put the pies Bella made on the kitchen counter.

Esme sighed as Edward walked away but swiftly turned to Bella, the smile returning to her face as she took her in.

"It's so good to see you, Bella. Here, let me help you with all those presents!" She laughed.

"Oh…thanks…especially since someone decided to just bring in the pies and leave everything else to me." Bella responded with slight irritation.

Esme just laughed again and took several of the packages from the top of Bella's pile as she led her into the living room to put the presents under the tree. As they walked through the hallway, Esme turned to her with a desperate look in her eye.

"Bella, can you do me a favor and keep an eye on Edward? I know you two haven't been getting along very well lately but I'm just worried about this night turning into a complete nightmare, if you know what I mean…"

Bella nodded immediately but then frowned as she began to understand the full impact of Esme's words. "Sure, Esme but how did you know Edward and I haven't been getting along?"

Esme shrugged and patted her gently on the shoulder. "I think sometimes you forget I have Alice for a daughter."

Bella rolled her eyes and bit her lip to hide her laughter. "Oh yeah…I guess you're right about that."

Esme laughed cheerfully as she set the presents down by their tree. "And I wouldn't worry too much about Edward…he's got some issues he needs to sort through and as we both know, he has a tendency to take it out on the people he cares about the most."

Bella could only nod in response, not wanting to say anything for fear of continuing this conversation with Esme. She wasn't entirely sure what she had meant but she was positive she didn't want to find out.

She didn't have time to stall the conversation because she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms encircle her waist and lift her high in the air. Grinning widely, she smirked as she turned her head, having already known that the only person who would ever do that was Emmett, and flashed him a big smile.

"Hello, Emmett. Merry Christmas. Now will you please put me down?" She said jokingly.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Bells." He replied cheerily as he set her back down gently.

"Where's your wife?" Bella asked, looking around his burly body for her friend.

"Oh, she's just upstairs on the phone with Alice. I guess her and Jasper are running a little late because of the weather."

"Well, it's probably best that they take their time then." Carlisle replied from the hallway. "Hello, Bella, Merry Christmas."

She smiled widely and quickly closed the distance between them to give him a hug. "Merry Christmas, Carlisle. It's good to see you on better circumstances."

He laughed and shook his head. "I couldn't agree more, Bella. Would you like something to drink?"

She smiled and nodded as she followed him back into the kitchen, where Esme and Edward were talking in hushed whispers. Edward's head immediately shot up when he heard Bella and Carlisle enter the room, his expression turning sour at the sight of his father.

Esme's eyes darted back and forth between Edward and Carlisle, obviously expecting some kind of confrontation. Carlisle met his son's eyes and nodded to him.

"Hello, Edward. Merry Christmas."

There was a long awkward silence in the air as Edward stared at his father with a hard expression. Finally, he surrendered and sighed.

"Hey, dad. Merry Christmas to you, too."

Bella and Esme collectively let out the breath they had been holding. Esme excused herself, muttering something about hearing Emmett almost knock the tree over, leaving Edward and Carlisle staring at each other, with Bella as the buffer between them.

Again, there was a long silence before anyone said anything. Carlisle poured Bella a glass of wine and swiftly handed it to her, his eyes hardly ever leaving Edward's. Bella instinctively knew that both men were waiting for the other to make a move, albeit a wrong move, before either would speak. She sensed that they had reached a stalemate and decided to intervene before things got much worse.

"So…does anyone know when Jake and Billy are going to get here?"

Carlisle finally broke his gaze with Edward and turned to Bella. "They called about ten minutes before you arrived. They should be here any moment now."

Bella nodded slowly and bit her lip while her gazed bounced from Edward to Carlisle. She took a long sip of her wine and looked at both men again, who hadn't budged from their standstill. This was getting to be too much. Here were two grown men (for the most part) who couldn't even stand to be in the same room with one another for the sake of the kindest woman in the world. What a pair of idiots.

Bella was just about to voice this opinion when the front door opened to reveal a snow-covered Jacob pulling an equally snow-covered Billy in his wheelchair up the steps of the house. Emmett stepped in to help Jacob bring Billy in the house as Rosalie finally descended down the stairs, cell phone in hand.

"Hey there, everybody! Merry Christmas!" Billy exclaimed cheerfully.

Everyone responded with "Merry Christmas" and Esme quickly rushed in to take Jacob and Billy's coats as Carlisle finally resigned himself from the kitchen and took the handles of Billy's wheelchair, steering him into the living room. Within minutes, Jasper and Alice arrived, adding to the new commotion spreading throughout the house as greetings and Christmas tidings were shared between everyone.

When the greetings had finally ceased, Billy rubbed his hands together expectantly. "Alright, when do we eat?"

Esme laughed merrily and bent down to kiss his cheek. "Everything's ready."

She stood back up to address everyone. "Alright guys, time to eat. The table is already set and ready to go."

She gestured for everyone to follow her into the kitchen. Jacob took a seat next to Bella with Alice on the other side of her, Edward ended up sitting directly across from Jacob and at the elbow of Carlisle with Jasper across from him next to Alice, Esme sat at the other side of Carlisle, Emmett and Rosalie were further down the other side of the table, with Billy at the other end of the table in his wheelchair. When everyone was seated, she started setting the hot plates of food on the table.

"Hmmm…this looks absolutely delicious, Mom." Emmett said, leaning closer and closer to the plates as Esme continued to set them down on the table. He reached forward but Esme quickly swatted his hand away.

"Emmett! You can wait!" She chided.

He frowned and Rosalie elbowed him in the side. "Come on, Emmett…does everything really revolved around food for you?"

He smiled slyly. "Well, oh dear wifey of mine, surely you should know better than anyone that my life revolves around something else too…"

Loud groans erupted from the rest of the table.

"Wait?" Emmett shrugged. "Was it something I said?"

Everyone just ignored him and started digging into the food as Esme signaled that it was finally time. The meal continued in amiable silence with everyone enjoying their food. It took several minutes for conversations to get themselves started; Esme and Alice began chatting with Rosalie about her and Emmett's honeymoon while Billy and Emmett discussed the intricacies of ice fishing. Edward and Bella, however, remained silent.

Carlisle turned to Jacob and started up a conversation.

"So, Jacob, how did your semester end up? Did you have any difficult finals?"

"Well, Anatomy didn't go as well as I wanted it to…"

Bella snorted next to him and he shot her an annoyed look as he continued.

"But for the most part, everything else went fine. Actually, I wanted to make a little announcement since everyone's together tonight. I guess now is as good a time as any."

Now he had the attention of the entire table.

"Well, I got my acceptance letter yesterday from UW's School of Medicine. I don't think I could ask for a better Christmas present."

There was a loud cheer from the table as Billy pounded his fist on the table in celebration and shouts of congratulations came from around the table, as Emmett stood up from his chair to give Emmett a high-five and Jasper slapped him on the back.

"Jake, that's great!" Bella exclaimed before casting a quick glance to Edward across from her. He was forcing a smile on his face as he said a quiet 'congratulations' to Jacob, seeming to be deliberately averting his eyes from her knowing gaze.

"Wow…this is fantastic news!" Carlisle exclaimed happily from his chair.

Jacob beamed widely from where he sat and put an arm around Bella's shoulders. "I know, I could barely keep it to myself but I wanted to tell everyone all at the same time so…"

"I'm so proud of you, son!" Billy called from the other side of the table.

"Thanks, Dad!" Jacob yelled back to him.

"This is turning out to be a great night!" Carlisle yelled across the table to Billy. Billy grinned widely in response and pounded his fist on the table again.

Bella looked nervously to Edward, whose jaw was tightly clenched and his eyes were clouded over with a dangerous mixture of jealousy and annoyance. His eyes met hers briefly but they abruptly flew to a spot on the wall above her head before she could get a better read on him.

When the commotion finally died, the meal continued on without any further drama and the conversations reverted back to their previous topics. As everyone began clearing their plates and helping clear the rest of the dishes off the table, Bella made a beeline for Jacob and cornered him in the other side of the kitchen.

"What's up, Bells?" Jacob frowned.

Bella sighed and bit her lip. "Well, I'm really proud of you about medical school, Jake. Really I am. It's just that…"

His frown deepened and he crossed his arms over his chest. "What?"

"Well," she began softly. "Did you really have to bring it up at Christmas? In front of everyone?"

With confusion etched across his face, Jacob chewed on the inside of his lip. "I told you already, Bells, I wanted to tell everyone all at the same time. What's wrong with that?"

"Well…what about Edward? I mean, did you see his face?"

Jacob exhaled loudly in annoyance and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. "Oh come on, Bella. The world does not revolve around Edward. I had good news and I have every right to tell the people important to me that news when I want to. I thought you were happy for me."

"Of course I'm happy for you, Jake." She responded hastily. "You know that…I'm really proud of you and we all know how hard you've worked for this…"

"So what…I'm just supposed to not tell everyone the best news of my life just so I don't hurt his feelings?" He bit out.

"No, of course not. I'm just saying it was bad timing."

"I think my timing was perfectly fine, Bella." He spat venomously.

Now Bella narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "Are you telling me that you did this on purpose? Just to make him mad?"

Jacob scoffed and narrowed his eyes back at Bella. "Like I said, not everything revolves around him."

She was about to respond when she heard a throat clear in front to the side of them. They turned to see Alice smiling mischievously up at them.

"Oh Beeellllaaa…look up!" She pointed up at something above Bella and Jacob's head.

Bella looked up to see what Alice was pointing to and grimaced to see that she and Jacob were standing directly below the mistletoe. In the hustle and bustle of everyone arriving at the same time, the tension between Edward and Carlisle, and her concern over Jacob's news, she had completely missed that Esme had put mistletoe in the very corner in which she now stood.

"Well, Bella, Jacob…" Alice chirped merrily. "It's Christmas and I do believe you both are standing beneath the mistletoe so…"

Bella closed her eyes briefly and cast a weary glance towards Jacob, who was grinning brightly.

"Oh come on, Bells, it is Christmas." He elbowed her playfully, acting like their previous argument had never happened.

She sighed and started to speak but was immediately halted when she felt Jacob's lips on hers. She froze where she stood, unable to move at the contact and suddenly felt like she wasn't in her body. Jacob's lips were warm, attempting to move and prolong the kiss, and there was an evident sweetness to his kiss but it was just so awkward. There was a collective "aw" from the rest of the room and she felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment, which snapped her back to reality. She quickly pulled her lips away from his and frowned at the smile on his face. What on earth could he possibly be smiling about? The whole thing had just been plain mortifying, not to mention the fact that she had never, even for one second, thought about kissing Jacob.

She swiftly walked around the other side of the table, effectively moving away from the evil mistletoe while Alice pulled Jasper over to where Bella and Jacob had just been standing. As Bella walked back to the counter to retrieve her wine glass, her eyes briefly met Edward's. He only allowed himself to look at her for a moment, but she saw nothing but steel and ice reflected in his gaze. She quickly downed the rest of her wine and didn't hesitate to fill her glass back up to the top.

Everyone started congregating to the living room, as anticipation for all the presents awaiting under the tree began to spread. Esme happily snapped pictures of all her 'kids', and Bella couldn't help but feel a sharp tug. Esme had always been like a second mother to her and she treasured the fact that the feeling was mutual between them, especially now that her real mother was dead. But the fact that this was her first Christmas without the presence of her mother, or even Charlie for that matter, was a blow she wasn't quite ready to face. Unfortunately, Christmas was here whether she liked it or not and she would just have to make the best of it. Besides, she could tell that Esme had taken great pains to make this Christmas special for everyone, considering this was Rosalie and Emmett's first Christmas as a married couple and Edward and Carlisle's first Christmas at war with each other, Esme had obviously wanted to do everything in her power to try to make the night was best as she could. Not including the mistletoe.

Emmett had already donned a Santa hat and was passing presents around to everyone as the mad frenzy began. Jasper let out a loud yelp of surprise when he opened his gift from Carlisle and Esme. He held up "Civil War: A Nation Divided" for Xbox 360.

"Oh my God, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen! Alice, we need to leave immediately because your parents don't have a 360 here." He exclaimed breathlessly as he turned the game over in his hand.

"Gee, thanks a lot Mom and Dad. Now I'm not going to see him for like a month." Alice said lowly with disapproval.

Carlisle laughed heartily as he slapped Jasper on the back. "That was the idea, Alice."

She rolled her eyes but quickly turned her head in the direction of Emmett's shout.

"Yes!" He yelled, pumping his fist in the air as he held up a Seattle Seahawk's jersey in his other fist. "The best team ever!"

Esme laughed as she passed out small envelopes to Alice, Rosalie, and Bella. They took them from her hand and with mischief in their eyes, tore the envelopes open to reveal gift certificates for a full day at the spa.

"I thought you girls would like doing something relaxing and fun together." She explained while the girls excitedly inspecting their gifts.

"Thank you so much! This is amazing!" They responded, each girl quickly getting to her feet to hug Esme tightly.

"You're welcome! I'm glad you girls like it."

"Oh…do we ever!" Rosalie exclaimed.

"Ok, ok…Bella, you have to open our present now…I've been waiting and waiting to give this to you and I just can't wait anymore!" Alice chirped, jumping up and down with two packages in her hands.

"Alright, alright, take it easy there, Alice." Bella laughed as she took the larger present out of Alice's hands. She quickly tore open the paper and opened the box to reveal a gorgeous shimmering gold dress. Her jaw dropped at the sight of it and she couldn't speak as Alice thrust the smaller package at her. Bella wordlessly set the dress down carefully next to her and opened the other present, which were matching gold spiky high heels. She didn't know what to say. Both presents were just too beautiful for words.

"Bella…" Rosalie whispered hesitantly. "We just thought you should have something special to wear for New Year's this year…but if you don't like it, you can take it back…"

Bella shook her head furiously. "No! I love it! I guess…I wasn't expecting you guys to get me anything like this! Now I feel stupid for what I got for you guys…"

"Oh come on, Bella! You know we'll love it, whatever it is." Alice responded cheerfully, obviously ecstatic that Bella actually liked the outfit.

Bella bit her lip as she retrieved their presents from under the tree and handed each one to them. Alice and Rosalie immediately tore off the paper and gasped when they saw what Bella had given them.

"It's not much, definitely not as extravagant as what you guys gave me but..."

Rosalie held up a hand, her eyes still glued to the photo album in her hands. "That's enough, Bella. This is fantastic…I love it!"

Alice looked up at Bella with tears in her eyes. "This is beautiful Bella. I don't even remember taking some of these pictures…"

They started flipping through the pages together as everyone else gathered around to get a look at the photo albums. Bella had made each them, with Rosalie's full of a combination of wedding photos and random snapshots of her and Emmett, while Alice's were full of photos of her and Jasper; in each photo album, Bella had included several pages of photos of their group of friends, dating back to grade school.

"Oh Bella…this is wonderful!" Rosalie exclaimed and grabbed Bella to pull her into a tight hug.

"I love it." She whispered into Bella's ear.

Bella smiled happily and brushed her own tear out of her eye. "I'm glad you guys like it."

Alice reached up and hugged her as well while the photo albums passed from person to person around the group.

"Hey!" Alice yelled suddenly. "Edward hasn't opened one yet! Emmett, find one under there for Edward!"

Emmett obliged his little sister and tossed a package to Edward. He turned it over to read the label and looked up at Bella in surprise.

"It's from Bella." He said hesitantly.

She smiled softly in encouragement and he ripped the package open until he held the blank music pages in his hands.

"I thought you might need something to write down that new song you've been working on." She told him warmly.

He nodded quietly as he stared at the pages.

"Oh yeah…" Emmett mused. "He hasn't let us hear his new song yet. We need to learn it before we can play it, you know Eddie."

Edward cast his brother a wary glance before turning back to look at the present Bella had given him. The room was silent for a moment until Billy spoke up.

"Bella," he began quietly. "There's one here for you from Charlie too. I don't know if you want to open it now or later but…Jacob, go give that to Bella."

Jacob quickly stood and handed the small package to Bella, who reached for it with shaky hands.

"You don't have to open that in front of us if you don't want to Bella." Esme whispered kindly.

Bella shook her head. "No, it's fine. It's doesn't matter…might as well just get it over with…"

She quickly ripped the paper off the small box and lifted off the cover with trembling hands. She wasn't aware that everyone's eyes were on her as she opened the note from Charlie that read: "I just thought I would pick up where Mom left off. Love you, Dad." She lifted the small object underneath the note out of the box, with tears welling up in her eyes. It was a white ceramic angel ornament. She held the delicate object in her quivering hand, refusing to look up to meet the expectant eyes of everyone else in the room. Instead, she tossed the ornament aside, not stopping to consider that she could have broken it.

"Bella…" Esme asked hesitantly. "Are you alright?"

Bella still couldn't look up as she responded barely above a whisper. "I just need a second...I'll be right back."

She didn't hesitate and had fled the living room before anyone could respond to her; she didn't stop until the bathroom door closed behind her. Then the sobs began to escape, her chest heaving violently as she struggled to gasp for air. There were just too many emotions, too many feelings that she didn't want to give a name, too much pain erupting through her entire body. As much as she wanted to love and cherish Charlie's present, she wanted to hate it just as much. It was just one more reminder that her mother wasn't there anymore, would never be there ever again, and she would never receive another Christmas ornament from her ever again.

She was jolted out of her revelry by a light knock on the door.

"Bella?" Edward said softly.

She grimaced at the sound of his voice and furiously wiped her eyes clean of tears.

"Yeah?" She called.

There was a short pause.

"Can I come in?"

She exhaled loudly and closed her eyes. "Alright."

He slowly opened the door with deep concern etched in his forehead. He took in her blotched, red eyes and immediately pulled her into his arms.

"Are you alright?" He whispered softly into his hair.

She nodded and murmured into his shoulder. "Did you see it?"

She felt him nod as he responded quietly. "Yeah, I did."

"Am I a horrible person for hating it?"

He released her gently so he could finally look at her face while he spoke. "No…you're not. Maybe someday you'll love it but you don't have to right now."

She nodded slowly and sighed as she wiped her eyes again. "Thanks."

He smiled softly at her and rubbed her arms soothingly. "No problem. You know I never got a chance to thank you for the present. That was…well, I don't really know what to say…but thank you."

She laughed and hit him playfully on the shoulder. "Well, you're welcome."

He smirked. "I got you something too but I didn't have a chance to…"

He was cut off by Esme, who stuck her head into the doorway. "Bella? Are you alright?"

Bella nodded quickly. "Yeah, sorry about that before I just needed to…"

Esme put a hand on her shoulder and smiled warmly. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. Now, why don't you two come back into the living room now. Edward…you still have to open your present from your father and I…so let's go!"

Bella and Edward laughed as they left the bathroom and made their way back to the living room where everyone else was waiting for them. Alice was at Edward's side in a heartbeat, with a package held up in her hands.

"Here you go!" She sang cheerily. "It's from Mom and Dad."

He rolled his eyes at her and took the present from her. He ripped the wrapping paper off quickly and he smirked as he held up the acoustic guitar pedal.

"Thanks, guys. I actually really needed one of these…this is great…" He said with a smile as he looked at the box. "This is the right one, that's for sure…"

Esme smiled happily and clapped her hands together in delight. "Oh…I'm glad you like it…I wasn't sure if…"

Edward waved his hand in dismissal. "No, Mom…this is perfect…"

Esme grinned broadly as Carlisle stepped forward with another package in his hand.

"And this one is from me…I know you don't need it quite yet, but you will so I just wanted to get you started early." He said with a smile.

Edward took the package from him and carefully tore the paper away from the box. He lifted the lid off the top of the box and exhaled loudly at what he saw. He looked back up at Carlisle with fury in his eyes. He threw the box down violently on the floor, causing the stethoscope to tumble out at Carlisle's feet.

"Nice, Dad…real nice. Thanks a lot for that grand fatherly gesture." He brushed past his father and stormed heatedly into the kitchen with Carlisle close on his heels. Their argument could be heard from the living room, much to the chagrin of those left behind.

"Did you really have to do that?" Edward spat out viciously.

"Edward, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…I just…"

"You just what? You thought you would throw it my face…yet again! God…I can't believe you, in front of everyone!"

"That was not my intention. I just thought you might need that in the future."

"What future, Dad? The one you've been pushing on me since the day I was born? That one? Well, guess what? I don't want that fucking future. I never did…why can't you understand that medicine was never something I wanted, but something you wanted."

"So you'd rather throw away your entire life in a filthy club full of women and play with a cover band? That's your idea of a future?"

"It's what I love right now. I don't know where I'll be ten years from now but I sure as hell won't be in medical school."

"But you have the intelligence to do it, Edward. It's an honorable profession, you'll be able to take care of yourself because of it…look at Jacob! He's done everything right…"

"And I've done everything wrong…is that what you're really trying to say? That I'm a failure? That music isn't honorable? What the fuck do you know?"

Carlisle took a long breath as everyone in the living room shifted nervously.

"Edward, that's not what I'm saying. I just meant that there's no future in it. You can still play your music and have medical school at the same time. I think if you study harder and retake a few classes, you could get in no problem."

"I'm not going to do that. I don't want to be a doctor, Dad. When are you going to accept that I don't want to be like you?"

At that, Bella exhaled angrily, threw her hands up in the air, and stomped into the kitchen.

"Alright, you two. That's enough!" She yelled at them.

Carlisle and Edward stared at her speechless, their eyes wide with shock and surprise.

"You know what you guys are?" She yelled again. "You're both assholes. That's what are you. I'm sick and tired of all this tension between you two. All the hostility. It's Christmas, god dammit! And Esme…did either of you even stop to think about what this has done to her? Did either of her even see the look on her face? You're ruining Christmas for her and she's worked so hard to make everyone happy and you two idiots can't even keep it together for one night to make her happy. I don't care that you're mad at each other. You can argue all you want some other time but enough is enough! Christmas is about treasuring what you have and being with your family…look at what you have!"

She paused as she looked between the shocked faces of Edward and Carlisle before continuing.

"You both have an amazing family that I would kill to have! Edward…you have a father and a mother who love you unconditionally whether or not you want to see that. They both just want what's best for you and Carlisle may not understand what you want but you haven't given him much of a chance to try. And Carlisle…you have this huge, wonderful family with so much love and the best wife anyone could ever ask for and you have a son who's trying to reconcile what you want and what he wants and can't do it without help from you…and you constantly pushing him towards medical school doesn't help anything. Don't you both see what you're doing here? You're ruining this happy, beautiful family that a lot of people would die for and you're just throwing it all away because of stupid, petty pride! What a waste…"

Edward and Carlisle were silent as she pushed past them to head back into the living room, where everyone else was now standing up, waiting to see what was going to happen next.

Bella quickly gathered up her and Edward's presents under her arm and looked up remorsefully at Esme.

"Esme…I'm sorry about all this but I think it's probably best if Edward and I get going now…especially with…the snow and everything."

Esme nodded quickly, trying to hide the tears in her eyes and quickly moved to embrace her.

"Thank you for trying." Esme whispered into her hair. "You know, you are a part of this family. Don't ever forget that, ok?"

Bella nodded and sighed deeply. "Thanks, Esme. And I'm sorry again, for leaving like this…but it's probably best to just separate them right now."

She nodded sadly and rubbed Bella's shoulders comfortingly. "I know, I know…tell Edward to call me when you two get home, alright?"

"Sure." Bella whispered. She went back into the kitchen, where Edward and Carlisle were still standing.

"Come on, let's go home." Bella bit out icily.

Edward didn't hesitate to follow her out the door after saying his goodbyes to the everyone in the living room. He followed Bella out to the car and flinched when she slammed her door shut. He walked around to the driver's side and slide in quietly. She didn't say a word or even look at him as he started the car.

"Bella…" He began softly.

She shook her head furiously. "Don't start it with me, Edward."

He sighed loudly and focused his attention back on the road.


About fifteen minutes later, Edward couldn't stand the silence anymore. Bella was still refusing to speak or make eye contact with him and the tension was between them was rapidly pushing him to his breaking point. With a deep sigh, he reached underneath his seat to bring up a small wrapped package and held it out to her.

She turned her head at his sudden movement and hesitated before taking the present from him.

Before she started to open it, he sighed again. "Look, you're right. I am an asshole. You've been telling me that since…well, I can't exactly remember how long you've been telling me that but you're right. Anyways, I told you earlier that I didn't have a chance to give you your Christmas present so…here it is…you don't have to open it right now if you don't want to but I just wanted to give it to before you storm into the apartment and slam the door in my face."

Bella bit her lip and glanced at him cautiously out of the corner of her eye. His gaze was trained firmly on the road, his fists clenching the steering tightly as he waited to see what she would do.

A split second later, she was tearing the paper away from the present until she held the leather-bound journal in her hands. She looked back at him with wide eyes.

He quickly jumped to explain. "I just thought, you know…I don't know…when I have something I need to get off my chest, it's always been easier for me to write it down rather than say it…I think the words just come out better that way. So I thought you might want to try it..."

She nodded slowly as she turned the journal over in her hands. When she was still silent, he started to panic and began to ramble to cover his worry.

"I didn't mean to…suggest anything…I just thought it could be…I don't know, therapeutic for you…ugh, that wasn't what I meant. I meant I just wanted to give you something that you could use…"

She sighed and shook her head.

"Edward." Her voice came out in a whisper but it halted his speech immediately.

His knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly and he leaned forward slightly as he waited for her continue.

"Edward," she started again softly. "You're an asshole. But you're also a thoughtful asshole."

He laughed reflexively at that and bit his lip, his knuckles relaxing against the steering wheel.

"I love it. I don't think I could ever tell you how much this means to me. Thank you, Edward."

He finally turned to her and met her smiling eyes. He couldn't help but grin back.

"You're welcome." He finally replied.

They remained silent through the rest of the ride home and even when they arrived back at their apartment. There was nothing left to be said for the night and they knew it. Although both knew instinctively that something had changed between them, they had their own demons to wrestle with and they quietly said goodnight to each other before shutting their bedroom doors.


Yeah, nothing like a drama-filled Christmas! Hope you liked it!! Leave me a little review...I love them and they keep me going!!