Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Stephenie Meyer created it all.
To TwiloverSue who did an emergency beta job on this on Christmas Eve of all times! You are the best. If you haven't gone over to read her stories Once Bitten and A Forbidden Love – you are totally missing out.
If you are clicking on this chapter first - go back, the normal chapter was posted just before! ;)
Just a short AN… This is of course Edward and Bella's first Christmas…from Edward's POV. Just a little present from me to you...
"Mom?"
Music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir filtered through the house filling it with Christmas music, and somewhere within it, the person I needed was most likely transforming another room into a winter wonderland. The smell of something savory, most likely a hearty pot roast, combined with the scent of the turkey, multiple casseroles, pies, the Christmas tree and boughs to create the sense of what I could only describe as "home."
"MOM!"
This time, I put enough volume to it that hopefully the miracle maker would be able to hear me over the music and her perpetual humming. Forks was good for my mom, the light was back in her eyes, and I could honestly say that the house looked and felt better than any other we'd lived in. Moving into the expertly decorated living room, I couldn't help the smirk that took over my face seeing the old albums leaning up against the wall. Emmett had attempted to get her to buy CD's to replace them all, but she'd refused.
"There is nothing like dancing with your father to the sound of Christmas music on old records. It has to have that scratchy sound to make it just right."
How many times had I walked in to find them dancing slowly together, my mother's cheek resting against my father's chest, just above his heart. I wanted that…the sense of two pieces coming together to make the whole. Which was why I needed her right now.
"MOM!"
"Keep your knickers on she's down in the basement looking for the box that contains our handmade ornaments," Emmett's voice boomed down the staircase.
"EM!" His name broke out of my lips as I ran to him for an appropriate "brotherly" hug. He, of course, about broke my back with the strength of his squeeze. "What time did you get home?" He'd stayed at school several extra days on his break to help a friend move.
"Lunch time. Ma had a huge spread laid out. Had to take a nap afterward."
The words were mere grunts as he rubbed his ridiculously over-muscled stomach. I knew he was eating well at college, but my mother's cooking was only rivaled by Bella's. Rolling my eyes at him, I realized the need to still find my mom was overwhelming. The package was burning a hole in my pocket.
"What's got you a flutter?" he teased.
"I'll tell you later, but I want to talk with mom first." He shrugged noncommittally, but I could see the interest clear in his dark eyes. "I promise Em!"
"Sure. Where's the munchin, by the way?"
Ah…a moment of reckoning. "Dad was taking her for her checkup."
Anger flashed over his face for a moment, but then it was quickly replaced. He was better at controlling it than me. "What time will they be home?"
"Soon, I was actually thinking they'd already be back."
"Well then go, you're obviously wanting some of Mom's time to yourself. You better hurry before dad gets home. I saw the records…" he nodded toward the old vinyl player.
Grinning, I moved toward the stairs.
"What time is Bella Baby getting here?"
His words stopped me in my steps. I couldn't help the smile that broke across my face at hearing her name. "Soon, which is why I need…"
"Go! Stay down there as long as you like. It'll give me the opportunity to talk her out of this lunacy. I am clearly a better choice for her than you," he threw out, the look on his face sincere in the teasing way only Emmett could employ.
"In your dreams!" I yelled back, taking the stairs down into the basement by twos. His chuckling followed me down into the huge area that had been turned into a game room for us.
"Mom?"
"Here," her muffled reply came from the huge closet under the stairs just before she poked her head out like a hermit crab. "I could have sworn that I put the box with your ornaments down here."
"It's on the top shelf, let me get it." Eager for her to see my surprise, I reached into my pocket and handed her the box. "Hold this for me." She wouldn't be able to resist, and when her gasp came through the open door, I felt comfortable to finally ask. "Do you think she'll like it?"
"Edward, its exquisite. Just perfect."
Seeing the tears in her light brown eyes…I knew that we'd gotten it right. "It's not too much? Or too simple? I was afraid that just getting the sapphire would be too little, but I knew that if I put the diamonds on it, she'd have a fit. I just…"
Her finger against my lips stopped my anxiety driven tirade, and I watched as she traced the delicate setting with her fingertip. A startlingly blue heart lay in a delicate but sturdy "bird's nest." The nest and necklace were made of platinum, and the way in which the artisan had fashioned the material, it appeared delicate and ethereal. The blue heart appeared to almost be tangled up in the delicate "twigs" that had been fashioned into the nest…almost like the bird had secured and protected the precious stone with her creation.
Just like Bella had captured and now harbored my heart.
The bird's nest was symbolic of the moment I'd realized I loved her. I'd taken her on a hike on the trails behind our house, and not too far into the wood line we'd unexpectedly come upon a bird's nest that had been blown down by a storm the previous night. Lying just at the edge of the trail, we'd startled the mother bird away. One look at Bella's eyes and I'd known she was devastated by the fact that the baby chicks would be in such danger from predators.
"You know the old wive's tale that you can't touch a bird or the mother won't take it back is false," I'd said, very grateful in that moment for all the Boy Scout trips that my dad had taken Emmett and me on as children. I was just a boy trying to impress his girl.
"Seriously?" she attempted to smile through the already dripping tears. The babies had begun to chirp out for their mother and the sound was quite plaintive.
Looking up, I sighted the area where the nest had previously resided. It wasn't too far up, and hopefully if I fell, Bella would be able to get back to the house quick enough to get me help. The risk was worth it to impress her and see her smile. The problem was it would fall out again if I put it up there…but…if I could figure a way to provide a better foundation? My answer came when I sighted another branch that had fallen. The end of an oak limb, it was a chaotic mess of leaves, twigs, and smaller limbs…perfect to fill in the V of the branches where the next had previously resided.
It didn't take me long to scurry up and tie it off with some twine I carried in my daypack…always the prepared Boy Scout. When I turned to go back down to get the nest, my heart literally about stopped. My klutzy girlfriend had climbed the tree as well and clung to the trunk, the nest and baby birds within cradled to her chest. Seeing her conquer her fears, while at the same time caretaking the baby chicks so delicately, had been the final straw. When she smiled back at my shaking head, my heart gave way, and I knew what I'd been scared to admit. I loved Bella Swan with all my heart.
We hid up the trail and waited silently for what seemed like hours, but the mother bird finally returned and hearing her babies' calls from above, flew to her resurrected home. When she settled over the babies, warming them, Bella's hand squeezed mine, and just like the Grinch, I felt as if my heart grew three sizes that day.
So, the large sapphire heart cradled within the gossamer but resilient twined twigs of Bella's Christmas present were a symbolic representation of my love for her. It had been a struggle to open up so fully for me, but I was helpless against the reckoning force that was Bella Swan. I planned to tell her tonight…to tell her I loved her, and the Christmas present my mother had helped me design would hopefully remind her of that even when we were apart. Charlie had insisted that she would spend Christmas Day in their traditional manner with Jacob Black's family, so my family had moved our celebration to Christmas Eve. I was just hoping that Chief Swan would allow us to see each other later on in the day. I knew he was leery of me and of my and Bella's relationship. He was a father, I understood that. In actuality, he should be concerned because although I loved his daughter beyond all hope, I also lusted after her with the same intensity.
"Edward, she is going to love this," my mother breathed out and then smiled brilliantly.
It was easy to see how my father loved my mother so much. Her external beauty was amazing, but it was the spirit that resided within her heart and soul that made her so stunning. It was the same for Bella. I knew the theory that boys fell in love with their mothers, and indeed, I wouldn't deny that the girl that had won my heart was very much like mine.
"I hope so; she is so picky about gifts. I'm afraid that she will pitch a fit if she finds out how much I spent." I was more nervous about that than I wanted to admit. It'd cost my entire life savings, all my newspaper money, the dollars I'd put back during the summers working at camps, birthdays, Christmases. My Fender Stratocaster fund… It was worth it. I could always find a guitar, but I only had once chance at a first Christmas.
"Maybe you'll get lucky and she won't ask."
"I wouldn't be so fortunate." I shrugged but then couldn't help but smile seeing the sparkle of the blue stone. "Would you wrap it for me? If I do it, it'll be a sacrilege."
She patted my arm softly before putting me out of my misery. "I would love to! You're giving it to her tonight?"
At my nod, she smiled softly. "I've placed the mistletoe on the arch by the fireplace."
"MOM!" I felt the flush that stole across my cheekbones and face, cursing, not for the first time, my Irish ancestry.
Her eyes twinkled mischievously, and it was impossible to remain mad at her.
"You're adorable when you blush!"
I groaned at her teasing. Why couldn't I have gotten the dark coloring from the Platt side of the family like Emmett and Alice, instead of my father's side? At the least, I could have gotten his blond hair and blue eyes instead of my grandmother's reddish hair and green eyes. Em's favorite nickname for me when we were kids had been Leprechaun. Hearing a bark of laughter from above us, I realized that Bella must have arrived. The sound would be Emmett harassing her.
Noticing my distraction she patted my arm. "Go on and keep her upstairs. I have the perfect paper in here."
Setting the box of ornaments down on the card table, I winked at her and then ran up the stairs like a man on fire. Stopping in the doorway, I grinned like a fool at the scene before me.
"Emmett, when are you going to find some nice girl?" Bella stood beside my beast of a brother, looking like a delicate china doll in comparison. They were placing some of the filler ornaments on the tree.
"Why would I want to do that? I'm the man on campus, the women flock to me, red heads, blondes…brunettes." Through the mass of evergreen branches, he waggled his eyebrows at her in a lecherous way.
She snorted in reaction. "Pluh…ease. Let me talk to them, and I'll tell them how you snore like a bear when you fall sleep."
"Won't matter, because you're missing the point; I don't do a lot of sleeping around them."
Bella's tinkling laughter joined his booming noise.
"One day your 'man' ways are going to catch up to you, Emmett," she teased.
"OH! I hope so," he threw back at her, rubbing his hands in "maniacal glee" like an old-time villain planning to rob a maiden of her virtue.
"When I meet the woman who brings you to your knees…I'm going to tell her all the stories I've heard about you," Bella threatened him. "Em…need your help here," she indicated, pointing to a branch far above her head.
He moved quickly to grip her waist and raise her up to where she was pointing. I was strong, but not enough to do that for her.
"Thank you," she said quickly when he put her back to the floor.
"You know, you could just help me out with that," he was going back to her threat. "Dump that puny brother of mine and runaway with me." He flexed impressively then looked over to where I was standing and winked at me in a conspiring manner.
Bella laughed and bent at the waist, smacking her legs. "We'd kill each other Em. Nah, I'll stick with Edward."
"Good thing, because I'd haunt you if you left me," I said, finally letting her know of my presence.
Spinning, she grinned at me and the tell-tale blush graced her cheeks this time. "Edward…" she murmured before moving to me. When our fingers intertwined, it was as if I could breathe again.
~SOMP~
"Mrs. Cullen…"
"Esme, please Bella. 'Mrs. Cullen' makes me sound so old."
Bella glanced at me from under her long eyelashes, and I squeezed her hand softly under the table, letting her know that my mom wouldn't be denied.
"Esme…" the name came out hesitantly "…you are a wonderful cook. I would love to have the recipe for your sweet potato soufflé."
"Done." Alice threw in. "I know where the recipe book is!"
She bounced up and down in the seat, and I was absolutely as astounded as my parents to see it. Usually, she was morose after her appointments, taking days, sometimes weeks to get back to some sense of normal. Bella grinned over to her in a conspiratorial way, and it wasn't too difficult to imagine that she would be in possession of all my mother's recipes before the end of the night. It would be too much to hope that Alice would sit Bella down and tell her our secret. I was leaving it to her, to let me know when the time was right. Certainly, it would have to be before their first sleep over…which I was counting on soon. Alice wouldn't be able to explain away the nightmares easily.
"I'll test any recipe you want to make," Emmett volunteered. Honestly, how he could think about eating anything else, I didn't know. I was absolutely stuffed, and there was still dessert to go.
"Mom, Dad, why don't you go relax, and we'll clean up," I offered. It didn't take more than that for them to disappear. Within a few moments, we heard Sinatra start crooning, and Emmett rolled his eyes.
"Don't go in there BB. If you turn pink just seeing Edward across the room, you'll be crimson seeing the way those two act."
"I think it's great," she said softly. "I wished my dad could find someone, but fishing is his only love."
"Well, we can work on that!" Alice chirped in, and I could see the proverbial wheels spinning in her head.
While I scrubbed the dishes and then rinsed, Bella dried. Alice and Emmett focused on clearing the table, taking care of the leftovers, and putting away the dishes as we did it. When Bella bumped her hip to mine, I grinned.
"Hey handsome." She used a sultry voice.
Mistletoe be damned, after sitting beside her, hearing her laugh, and feeling her leg brush against mine all throughout dinner, I couldn't stand anymore and spun to pull her up for a kiss, groaning when her fingers laced through my hair and pulled me even harder into her. Angling to the side, I pressed her lips open with mine and the groan turned into a moan as I tasted her and felt her tongue brush mine. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pulled her even tighter to me, feeling her breasts press against my chest and her sex press against the ridge in my pants. When we finally broke apart, we were both gasping for breath.
"Breathe," Emmett teased as he came into the kitchen, causing me to put her down and us to break apart in a guilty manner. "Man, Ali, I don't know which kiss is steamier, the one we walked into here or the one that we just left."
Alice's face was a mixture of happiness and a tinge of fear. I'd asked her if my kissing Bella made her uncomfortable, and she'd rushed to assure me not, but I knew that it wasn't as carefree an experience as she attempted to present. Thankfully, Bella's embarrassment at Emmett's teasing covered up her reaction. She was beautiful with passion filled eyes and the pink staining her cheeks.
Giggling, she walked over and slung her arm around Alice's shoulder. My tiny sister jumped just slightly but then moved into Bella as if she was drawn to her. "Come on, Alice. Let's leave the rest to them to clean up and go watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance."
And with that, Emmett and I were left to clean up the rest of the pots. "I liked my other help mate better," I grumbled, having had more plans to taste my girlfriend's lips.
"What, my legs are as cute as her's!" he exclaimed. The look on his face told me he fully knew that he'd ruined my moment.
Glancing down to the tree trunks covered in dark hair that his long gym shorts exposed, I grunted in disagreement. "Don't you own a pair of pants?"
"Yeah, somewhere, but I look better in shorts. Even better without a shirt." He threw back at me.
"Dear Lord help us," I muttered, but with little fire. My big brother was impossible to stay mad at.
~SOMP~
"Edward, where are we going?"
Heaven, I thought, but didn't say that. "Somewhere special."
"Isn't this that trail where we found the baby birds?" she guessed accurately.
Lucky that I was facing the other direction, I let the grin that threatened to take over my face win.
"Huh? You know, you might be right." It was just about 100 yards on further up. My parents had thought I was crazy to take her out on the trail at Twilight, but as usual, they'd helped me set everything up.
"You know what, I think it might start snowing," she noted, and feeling the bite to the air, I realized she might be right. I would not get that lucky though…
Stopping, I turned to pull the cowl of her fur lined jacket up to protect her against the chill. The cold had brought out the redness to her cheeks and lips. Dark chocolate swirled within her eyes, pools of liquid delight in her alabaster skin. Something in my eyes must have given me away because she grinned and stepped closer to me with lustful appreciation. Groaning and pulling on everything I could find within me, I stepped back from her. Not yet…just a little farther down the trail. To distract her and me from the enticement, I reached inside the pockets of the coat and pulled out the warm gloves I'd put inside for her.
"Here," I held them up to help her put them on before I did the same.
She gasped when we turned the corner and she saw what had been done ahead. Under the abandoned bird's nest, my father had helped me dig a small pit and line it with rocks. A roaring fire had been built, and I knew that Emmett had probably just skirted into the woods…keeping watch over it until we arrived. He'd taken the path ahead of us and was at this moment giving us a wide berth as he went off the trail to circle around us and head back to the house. Right next to the fire was an oversized Adirondack chair with several warm blankets draped over the back. A picnic basket had been placed to the side of the chair; it contained two thermoses of hot chocolate and my Christmas present to her.
"What is this?" Bella exclaimed in a surprised voice.
"My Christmas surprise for you…with the help of my parents and siblings, of course."
Removing her glove covered hand from mine, she stepped around me and moved to stand just beside the fire, looking to the chair.
"Edward?" Looking back to me, I could tell she was totally confused.
"I wanted to come back here to give you my gift. Will you sit with me?" I nodded to the chair and when she responded with a quick head nod, I moved over to spread out one of the blankets in the chair as a protective layer.
Grabbing her hand, I pulled her to me and down onto my lap, then covering us with the others for warmth. Reaching inside the basket, I gave her one of the thermoses that Alice had prepared for me, taking the other. Removing our gloves, the warmth from the chocolate made it tolerable. Bella sat sideways across my lap so that I could see her face, and even though she was taking a sip of the steaming hot liquid, curiosity was imprinted across her face. I couldn't stand the anticipation.
"Bella, when we moved to Forks, I had no clue that I would meet anyone. I thought I'd finish off high school, apply to college, and then medical school…I had everything planned out. But life didn't give it to me like I planned; it seemed as if fate almost enjoyed sticking her hands in and stirring the pot. I still remember the first day I saw you, how quiet you were and how you kept to yourself. You intrigued me even then, but as I grew to know you, it was as if you wrapped your fingers around my very soul. I will admit that I fought it, unwilling to trust my ability to win your affections."
Reaching in to the basket I took out the small box and handed it to her.
"Open it," I begged softly.
"Uh huh, not until you open mine," she countered, holding up a small satchel.
"But, I'm on a roll," I whined, thinking of how afraid I was that I'd lose the words.
"I know, and that is why I want you to open your's first, I'm afraid I'll be crying by the time this is over. Please," she said holding up the bag just a little farther, her dark eyes imploring me. I was a sucker when she begged, and she knew it.
It was a simple drawstring bag. Opening it, I dumped the contents into my hand; it was a silver bracelet…but a unique one. It was a continuous chain of treble clefts, the bottom loop of the stylized letter linking to the top of the next one. The notes weren't exactly the same…and it was then that I realized that they were handcrafted; she hadn't gotten this from a jewelry store…
"This is beautiful…" but I shook my head at the description, it was too masculine to be beautiful. "Where did you get this?"
"Jacob's cousin, Paul. He works with silver…mostly items he sells at the reservation store to the tourists, but Jake helped convince him to do it for me." Ah…Jacob. "Actually, he owed Jake a favor, and Jake let me cash it in. Course now I owe him a favor, but most likely he'll just ask me to cook something up for him. Since his sisters left, he claims the only good meals he gets are when he comes over. Anyway…do you like it?" she asked in a hesitant tone. "It's not too girly is it?"
Running my fingertips over the links, I couldn't believe how perfect it was. "Absolutely not, but Bella this had to cost a lot…"
"Do you really want to go there right before I open my gift?" she challenged. "Anyhow, like I said, I cashed in the favor to get it made…and the silver, well…it was a hand me down."
"Hand me down!" Suddenly, I wasn't certain about taking it. "What kind of hand me down?"
She looked decidedly uncomfortable, but obviously realized I wasn't going to go further without an answer. "Ok! I was left several pieces of jewelry from my Grandmother Swan and I gave them to Paul to make this for you."
"But…that was your grandmother's jewelry, you shouldn't have! Bella, you can never get it back."
"I don't need it back, because it'll always be on you, right next to me."
The need to kiss her was intense…but not before I'd given her my present first. I wanted her to know first…to have the next time I touched her lips to be after I'd told her.
"Right next to you!" I swore out, knowing it meant that she felt the same way. Holding the bracelet out, I couldn't stop the trembling of my hand as she latched it around my left arm. Before I ruined the plan, I held my gift up next. "Please open it." My voice was hoarse, strained with the need to say the three little words.
Tearing into the beautiful bow my mother had fashioned, she ripped through the paper and then opened the lid.
"Edward…" she breathed out in a husky tone. As promised, tears began to run down her cheeks as she mimicked my earlier actions, brushing her fingertips across the sapphire and twigs that surrounded it. She sniffed several times before talking again. "That's why we came here..."
"Yes…" I shifted her slightly closer to me, our breaths coming out as clouds in the cold air between us. "You've captured and ensnared my heart, Bella. I knew it when we stopped here and you were intent on rescuing those birds, even putting yourself in danger to do it."
Her hand crept to mine and our fingers linked together. "How funny that we would both choose silver," she joked out in her characteristic manner of handling intense emotions.
Silver, indeed… Well at least I'd made it through that hurtle. Hopefully, she'd believe the sapphire was a crystal for now, but if she asked, I would tell her.
"Will you put it on me?" she asked, quickly unzipping the jacket to pull it down far enough for me to do so.
When I was done, the blue heart nestled enticingly between her breasts. Uncaring if anyone else ever saw it, I'd had the chain made to a longer length so that it would do so. She placed the tips of her fingers to the stone through the layers of her shirts and then her lips trembled. It was my undoing.
"Bella, I love you…" I blurted out without any sense of elegance.
Her eyes widened and she broke out in a glorious smile. "Edward, I love you, too."
Just as I leaned in to kiss her, the first snow flake filtered down in the air between us, dancing as if in a sort of celebration. It was quickly followed by another and another, and for the moment we stopped, marveling at the beauty of nature befalling us. But then the need became overwhelming, and I pulled her to me, softly pressing my lips to hers.
What followed was a multitude of small, gentle worshipful kisses, our breaths mingling almost symbolically. My other half…I'd found her and suddenly I wanted to dance, just like my parents. Breaking from the intoxication that her lips provided, I pulled her to her feet, unable to do anything but chuckle when I saw the small twig of mistletoe dangling from the branch that supported the remains of the bird's nest. Had my mother really thought I needed it, or was this a gift from Alice and Emmett?
Did it really matter?
"What are you doing?" Bella questioned when I draped the blankets around us to help ward off the chill.
"Will you dance with me?"
"Here?" she squeaked. When she saw my sincerity, she followed up with, "but we don't even have any music."
Wrapping my arm around her waist and groaning in pleasure when she laid her cheek against my chest, I took the ultimate risk and opened my mouth to sing. It had been a long time since I've felt brave enough and Bing Crosby would probably roll over in his grave, but for now the only witnesses to my possible embarrassment were Bella and the snow.
"I'm dreaming of a White Christmas…" Continuing through her gasp of surprise, I laid my cheek against the top of her head and began swaying with her.
Wrapped in a multitude of blankets, the fire merrily eating up the wood and heating us, the snow beginning to dust our cheeks and hair, Bella and I remained in our little cocoon of happiness as I sang the words that I'd heard many times and associated with only the fondest of holiday memories, both of us certain that this would only be the first of many to come.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! Or whatever other celebration you may choose to observe. Here's wishing you and yours a wonderful time from me and mine!