a/n: If you all want an update on Wednesday, I need 30 reviews. So, if you want an update soon, get the counter up to 322. Yep. You all only gave me 21, and I gave you a fuck hawt lemon. Originally this chapter was going to be a lemon, but my characters ran away with me so soooooorrrrry. Anway, I'm going to go back to something I did with For Always, because I liked the way it worked. I want you all to give me reviews to lemme know what you think, and I'm not really getting much feed back except for a few people who always review (and I love those of you so much, especially those of you who say things that make me laugh and make my day...you all know who you are), and maybe this will give you a little incentive to give me your opinions. Starting next chapter I will be returning to my DEDICATIONS. The person/people who have shown me their opinion the most number of times will be the ones to get the Dedication. It's simple, and I got a lot of feedback on For Always so I'm going to try this again. Anyway, I love you guys. (Thank you Darcy13 for correcting me on my poor judgement in the original A/N, and because of that, I will dedicate this chapter to you.)

Okay, nothing's really new. Life is life. Oh, I went dress shopping for Candy Cane. My dress is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S, GORGEOUS!! It's a Jessica McClintock and amazing. Absolutely amazing!!! And I got it on sale for 93.75. It's just so...gah I'm in love! hahaha. Anywayz, um, I also finished the first quarter of my school year so I'm happy and life's just all around pretty okay. I started using the Fluidity Bar workout again. I didn't protect my neck the way I should have when I was going their special crunches, so I can't turn my head, but other than that I feel awesome. I have to go back to gym on Monday, which is going to suck, but whatever. I'll live I suppose. I play a tournament next weekend, so I don't know if I'll get the chapter up Saturday night. I might have to put it up early, but that's going to be a pain in my ass. Maybe if you give the Review Whore (aka Me) a little incentive...

xoxo Jordi Brooke xoxo

Bella's POV

I handed Emmett and Rosalie their gifts, both in envelopes. I had sealed them and did my best to write their names on the front, though when I'd asked Edward if it was legible, he chuckled and kissed my temple. I never did get a real answer, but I assumed that if they opened the wrong ones, they would figure it out and trade.

"No matter what, you are not allowed to open those before Christmas Eve. And, furthermore, you are not permitted to call me if the hour is unreasonable for any reason other than an absolute emergency," I instructed them, though it was solely for Emmett. He was nothing more than a giant kid. I had been woken up on more than one morning before four AM because he wanted to open presents. I had no doubt that he would have called just to spite me on Christmas morning at what is a normal time in Paris, but an absolutely horrendous hour here in Washington. That, or he'd forget the difference between the time zones...

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Bellsy," he replied, blowing me off as he scoffed at my suggestion that he wait.

"I mean it, Emmett," I responded with a glare. I wasn't wearing my glasses at the moment, something that I'd only done one other time since that Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago. I could tell Rose and Emmett were so proud of me for doing it, and I could hear a change in tone in my father's voice the last time we spoke.

There was a quiet moment and I could hear the shifting of the envelopes followed by Emmett's shout of victory. "Score! I got the bigger envelope! Hell yeah!" he cried. I heard Rose smack him and his pouty "ouch" as he, I assumed, rubbed the back of his head. I laughed, shaking my head as I sought out my brother and hugged him tightly.

He squeezed me into his broad chest, kissing the top of my head like he used to do all the time in high school whenever I'd get upset. I was going to miss him this Christmas.

"Love you, Bells," he whispered softly, all joking tones disappearing from his demeanor.

"Love you, too, Monkey Man," I answered, earning a loud snort against my head.

"Give them back! Please! Give them back! Mike!" I was crying as I begged him to give me back my sunglasses. I had my eyes shut tightly, hiding them as my voice cracked with emotion. I reached into my pocket to grab my walking cane as the dam broke and the first tears slipped through my eyelids. There was nothing that could upset me more than taking away my sunglasses. They were my safe-place.

I started to open my cane when it was pulled out of my grasp as well. I felt a sob tear from my chest as I heard Lauren's taunting voice, telling me to get up. "Come on. Walk, blind girl. Fucking walk."

I felt and heard a violent sob tear from my eleven year old chest as I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them. I hid my face in my arms as Jessica joined in their mocking and cruelty.

"Toss them!" I heard someone shout, but my ears were too heavily filled with my muffled cries for me to be able to tell who, exactly, belonged to that voice.

I did, however, recognize the sound of my cane hitting the ground as the tree branches sounded above me. A small acorn fell and hit me on the head, causing me to cringe.

"Try again!" someone else called out, and I heard the tree again, but this time no crash from my cane.

I heard a loud cheer, "It caught!"

The branches made that sound again, and I could only assume it was my glasses this time. They promptly fell the the ground beside me, and I heard the crack which could only mean one thing. Another cry rushed for from me, and I felt a presence beside me.

"Oops," Lauren sneered in my ear, not at all apologetic or sounding as though her actions were unintentional. I quailed away, scraping my hands on the pavement. I heard the sound of the trees twice more before my glasses were, finally, stuck.

They all laughed loudly, and I felt the world spinning, wondering where all the teachers were. Emmett had chosen to spend his recess with the new girl, Rose, in their history class, to finish up a project that would be due tomorrow. I couldn't believe I was so helpless. Without Emmett, I couldn't even defend myself.

The world began spinning faster and faster, and my stomach began to feel sick when I finally heard it.

"Unless you all want your asses handed to you in some of the most humiliating ways, I think you'd all be better off stepping away from her," a female voice seethed, piercing through the dark world that I was shrouded in.

Everyone became deathly silent, and I realized immediately that this was Rosalie, the new girl who Emmett was with. That meant he couldn't be far behind. I felt warm arms encircle me, and the unfamiliarity of them caused me to recoil, but I heard her soft voice in my ear, reassuring me that it was okay, and that the only person she would hurt was the 'sick fuckers' standing around and taking pleasure in my pain.

It was then that mine and Rose's bond cemented, and we'd hardly known each other for more than a few seconds. She held me in her protective embrace as I heard Emmett's booming voice, filled with anger. It cracked, as that of any boy hitting puberty, but it was deep and threatening all the same, and the heartless demons ran as I clutched Rosalie like she was my salvation. Because she was.

"Bella are you--"

"I've got her, Emmett," she cut him off. She shifted, but never let go of me. "Her glasses and her cane though...they're up there."

"Shit."

I heard his furious footfalls leading away just a bit along the pavement until they stopped, and I heard, instead, the crushing of acorns beneath his soles. I heard the scraping of his boots against tree bark over the sound of my now calmer sniffles. Soon enough, the branches were rustling, and my cane crashed down beside me, startling me as Rose continued to rock me like a mother would her young, wounded daughter.

"I can't reach her glasses!" he called down from a dangerously high distance above me. I squeaked as I realized how badly he could hurt himself.

"Em...g-get down," I squeaked feebly through another sniffle.

"I've almost--there!" I heard them bounce against something before sliding to the pavement and Rose huffed a loud, "Ouch! Nice aim!" as the branches ruffled again.

"Emmett! Be car--Oh shit." Emmett was almost to the ground, if I was judging my distances correctly, when I suddenly heard something very large hitting the grass/dirt area around the tree he'd just climbed. I could hear the wind rush out of his lungs and his sputtering and coughing, as well as the loud groan as Rose pulled me over to him. My hands brushed over my broken glasses on the way, and I picked those up and put them on, even though nearly the entire lens was destroyed.

We both fussed over him, before we finally realized his only problem was his stupidity, and that wasn't a result of the fall; more like the cause.

"My Monkey Man," Rose finally said to him softly as she stroked his hair, and then placed a soft kiss on his forehead.

Dad picked us up from school right after that, neither Emmett nor myself wanting to return to class after the ordeal. Rosalie came by after school was over to check first on Emmett, making sure he wasn't anything more than sore from the fall, and then me. She sat with me for a while, just talking in my room like today had never happened and I was just a normal girl before finally saying that if any of those kids ever gave me any more trouble then I should let her know. I was just so grateful to her that I gave her a hug which as reserved generally for Emmett and occasionally my father.

She stayed through dinner, and there were many jokes between the both of us about that certainly not being the first time Emmett was dropped on his head, lightening the mood among us. Dad admitted that Mom may have dropped him a time or two, but he'd always seemed okay afterward.

At the end of the night, when Rose was saying goodbye, she took my spare set of glasses off my face and slipped a different pair on as I was frozen, surprised.

"These are just until the new ones come in," she told me. I was still frozen when she went to thank Dad for letter her stay, and Dad laughed it off, hugging her and thanking her for whatever she had done to help me.

Emmett was, for the first time, a true gentleman, offering to walk Rose out to her parents' car. She allowed him to, and when he came back, he exclaimed happily, "I've got a date with Rose! Dad, I think I'm in love!"

I laughed, shaking my head. "Be good to her, Monkey Man."

~*~

"The main layout isn't much different from yours," Edward told me, explaining for the fifteenth time in the past hour that without the furniture, our apartments were absolutely identical. I understood that the first time he said it, but I tried to keep from getting frustrated. This would be the first time Edward would have to show me some place which I was completely unfamiliar with and help my to memorize it all. Emmett had gone apeshit when we did this with my new apartment, and it ended up being Rose who had to finish helping me, but they had left before Edward had completed his last final, and neither would be able to help now.

So, instead, I sighed and took Edward's hand, the one which held his keys, in a manner that was meant to say, "I know, now open the damn door," in the most gentle manner possible, of course.

"Okay, okay," he replied in a strained tone.

"You're nervous?" I questioned as he unlocked the door. I stopped him from turning the doorknob and leaned against the frame, pulling my glasses up on top of my head so that he would look me in the eye. I always hated people seeing my eyes, but with Edward, it was different. It was almost an intimate act, and it made me feel...I couldn't describe the feeling it gave me to know he was staring into my eyes, but it was a good feeling, one that I grew to love experiencing. "Why?" I asked as I moved my hands to his chest, then slid one up to his neck and then his chin, setting his face in the proper position to truly see mine.

"It's the first time you'll have ever been in my apartment," he answered, as if it was obvious.

I shook my head at him. "So? Explain."

He sighed, his warm, fresh breath brushing across my face. I inhaled it greedily, knowing Edward's scent was intoxicating. His velvet voice began to speak in a keyed-up tone. "I don't know. I mean...I really shouldn't be nervous, right? But I can't help it. I'm hardly ever here anymore, anyway. I sleep here sometimes, yeah, and when I really need to study without...without you distracting me I'm here, but otherwise I'm not. And so it's not really that important of a place to me, but this...this is another step up...and I'm afraid with every step up that something will change...and I'll lose you or we'll fight or I'll hurt you or you'll realize I'm not good enough for--"

And that's when I stopped his nonsensical speech by pressing my lips to his. He was absolutely insane if he thought anything could make me leave, could make me think he wasn't good enough for me. When I pulled back, I smiled sadly at him.

"Edward, you're being silly. I love you, fully and completely. I'm not going anywhere just because I'm finally going to see your apartment. You won't lose me, and we won't fight over it. I don't know how this could hurt me. I mean, sure, I could trip or fall or something, but wasn't the both of us falling to the pavement how we met?" I reached up and stroked my hand through his soft, wild hair before settling it behind his neck while placing my other on his cheek. "And if there's anyone undeserving, it's I who does not deserve you."

He tried to speak, but I placed my fingers over his lips to stop him, because I knew it was the truth. I'd always known it, and I'd long ago decided that I would enjoy this beautiful love we shared until he realized what I knew. I didn't deserve him, but I considered myself lucky every moment he chose me over any other girl out there. He'd never be able to convince me otherwise, so trying to would be wasting his breath. The facts just don't change.

"Let's go inside now," I finally suggested, ending our conversation, and Edward's defeated sigh told me that while this wasn't over forever, it was for now.

He took my hand from his mouth, kissing the back of it and then placing a peck on my forehead. His hand moved to the doorknob right beside my hip, and it squealed quietly as he turned the cool metal and pushed the door open. He lead me through the open frame and into the room. I heard him flip the light switch, and there was a quiet buzz from the lights which were now, obviously, on.

I could hear the sibilance of the radiator coming from across the room, likely under the window, just where mine was. His keys rattled as he set them down on what I assumed was the counter top, again if it was just where mine was. I could hear him taking off his leather jacket, and then he came to me and removed mine as well.

"I'll put these away and then I'll show you everything. Just let me know how you want to do this," he told me, his voice retreating as he moved farther away, his feet relatively quiet on the wooden floors.

His apartment smelled like a mix of various scents. Some were appealing, while others were not.

The strongest ones, the ones which really did dominate all others to such a great degree, was that of cleaning agents. The smell of bleach from the tiles and bathroom burned strongly in my nose, while orange and lemon and what I recognized as the pungent scent of a wood-cleaner mingled together and hit hard in the contrast.

The next one I detected easily was Edward's perfect smell, ever the most tantalizing concoction of man, man, and more man. I wished I could bottle that and sell it. I'd be a fucking rich woman off of its sales alone. I giggled at the imagery it brought up, men lining up in stores all over the world to buy the only scent that could guarantee you the love of a woman. It was so true though.

Then there was a light floral scent. Freesias. They were fresh, too. I smiled as I realized Edward had bought some of my favorite flowers to put in his apartment. He once told me that to him, I smelled like freesias, or another similar floral scent. I didn't believe him, but most people are completely desensitized to their own scent, so I suppose I really wouldn't know.

There were other fragrances lingering around. The smell of wood and of the warm air that came from the heater. I could smell the littlest reminders of his breakfast, a bagel he'd thrown in the toaster. He'd slept here last night, instead of my apartment, as he'd remained awake until something around three-thirty, while I had gone to bed on the early side and woken up around five to finish studying. Apparently, his morning between waking and testing had been spend scrubbing his apartment with various cleaning products.

I stayed put, taking in the invigorating smells of his apartment which already told me so much and yet so little about his place while I waited for him to put our coats away. When finally he returned, something tickled my nose and the redolence of freesia momentarily overwhelmed my senses as I realized it was a flower he rubbed against my nose. I giggled and stole it from him, tickling his nose in retaliation. But he was better, and grabbed my waist with one arm, trapping me to his chest as his fingers assaulted my vulnerable sides.

"Uncle! Uncle!" I shouted and he stopped, laughing at what was surely my flushed-yet-irritate face. "Jerk."

He pecked my forehead, still smiling. "I'm sorry, love." We both knew he wasn't really sorry.

"So," he started after a few moments of silence as we just snuggled by his front door. "How do we go about this?"

"Show me everything there is, Edward. Start with the living room, if that's what you'd like. Furniture, obstacles...just everything," I answered awkwardly, not really knowing the best way to explain this.

"Okay...Yeah, okay."

And so it began. He had a nice leather couch against the wall, then two leather seats on either side. The set was definitely expensive. He had a large ottoman in the middle, same material and design as the rest of the furniture. There was a large TV set mounted on the opposite wall, the one near the door. All expensive, far more than my furniture was, judging by the feel.

On the other side of his main room he had his keyboard set up, stacks of staff paper organized into neat piles all around it and into a small music cabinet. He promised to play for me after our tour. I stroked the keys softly as he kissed my neck, making me promise I wouldn't distract before he could get the chance to play. I didn't make that promise.

He had a huge stereo system by his piano, too. It had soooooo many buttons. I wanted to push them all, feeling like a child being handed a shiny object, and Edward laughed, telling me to have at it, though it wasn't as much fun once I'd pressed them all, so we moved on.

He walked me around the living room a few times while I familiarized myself with the room. It was necessary, as I tried to memorize all the places where I would likely trip myself up. I was sure we'd have to go over all of this again tomorrow.

He brought me into the kitchen then, and began going over every surface with me, my body held firmly against him, back to chest. He ran my hand over the counter as he walked with me, slowly showing me everything he had on the surface - the stove, the sink, the cell phone charger, etc. Then he began showing me where the most important cabinets were - the ones with the bowls and plates, with the utensils, with the glasses. Finally, he showed me the inside of his fridge, which was barren. It was a good thing we'd gone out earlier to eat. Finally, he showed me his little breakfast nook, then took me slowly into his bedroom.

It was a good thing I hadn't made that promise earlier. I never would have kept it.