Chapter 30

Slow and Steady

For the first few days home, Willow mostly slept as exciting as that was. She stayed in her pyjamas and was in Genevieve's bed rather than her own for ease of access around the house, but Willow was just glad to be at home.

Her arms from the cannula and anaesthetic were bruised blue from the veins being used and the back of her had was a fun mix of purple, blues and greens. They didn't hurt though, which was a bonus. Having just her leg in a cast meant that it was easy enough for her to wrap her presents, cast propped up by the kitchen table chair as she listened to her music, wrapping nice ribbons to compliment the colours of the paper.

Which reminded her, she needed to finish Esme's painting. It was nearly done, all she had to do was do the details and then put a sealant over it. Luckily, the barstools they had had back support, enabling Willow to get that finished and drying on the workbench. If anything, it meant that she was putting off catching up on the work she missed with the last three days of school for the year.

Everything was going fine, she had the Timeloop episode of Stargate on as background noise and her sketchpad out on her lap when there was a knock on the door. 'Willow!'

'Backdoor's open!'

It was Emmett and Jasper. Greeting her boyfriend with a kiss, Willow scowled at the heavy bag that Emmett had banging against his hip. 'I suddenly cannot read!'

'Three hours.' He bargained, sitting down on the floor by her head, 'that's all we'll need. It's pretty easy stuff, mainly just graphs and price floors. Where's your stuff?'

Willow was reluctant to give him that information, making a face. Jasper huffed a laugh, 'I'll get it, she won't give that to you.'

'I'm injured!'

'Pretty sure, Doctor Death doesn't give a shit.' Emmett snickered as he got to the right page, half his head on the tv. 'This is a fun episode.'

'The fact that they play golf with the 'gate? And how Jack sasses Daniel off? Ye-hey! I was watching that.'

Her bag was caught by Emmett as Jasper leant over the back of the sofa, tucking the remote in beside her cast, kissing her on the head. 'No, you were distracting yourself from your work.'

'Emmett, you're supposed to be the fun one. Why are you making me do work?'

'Because then you can actually enjoy Christmas. Wild, right?'

Willow sneered down at the worksheet in front of her. Logically, she knew she had to get the shit down, and Emmett was right in the fact that she'd rather get it down sooner rather than later, but she couldn't move, he'd ambushed her. She prodded him in the back of the ear with her pencil. 'Meanie.'

'Rude.' He turned around, sitting cross-legged on the floor still, 'Finish that sheet so I know where you're up to and where we can improve on.'

'If this ends up being complete shit, I blame the drugs.'

'You've been off the morphine since day three, sweetheart.'

'Some of these pills really knock you for six, you know!' she scowled over the top of the sofa, where Jasper was gathering the presents to put under the tree for her, considering she couldn't get up off the ground yet.

'Oi,' Emmett prodded the sheet, 'graphs.'

Willow sent him a baleful look but started on it. Macro was stupid. So was Statistics.

Swinging up the steps to the Cullen abode, with her tongue peeking out her mouth, Willow was just happy to be out of the house. She grinned at Esme as she opened the door for her, waving as Richard tooted the horn and drove away, and the crutches clicked on the floor as she moved into the living room. 'Suddenly, the stairs seem Mount Everest. So, thank god, you're all vampires. But those aren't going to be for today.'

Emmett came sprinting in as she settled herself, with what looked like an abundance of sharpies in hand. 'Can I draw on your cast?'

'As long as it's not a dick, regardless of how anatomically correct it is, go for it.' Willow sighed, lifting the cast for him to slide under. 'Your tree is gorgeous by the way.'

And it was, the real fir was decked in gold and silver, making the deep green pop. It was tall but not overly broad, in front of one of the floor to ceiling windows, the white lights making the glass look as though there were little stars outside. It also seemed to fit the cooler toned way Esme had decorated the living room. The garland over the fireplace and down the stairs was similarly coloured.

See, the Cullens had a cohesive theme. Willow just saw something vaguely glittery and was YES, THAT MUST BE ON THERE. Mother had a theme, they did not.

Esme smiled as she set a cup of cocoa on a coaster within arms reach of her and settled across from her, 'Thank you, darling. What's Richard working over the holidays?'

Thinking back on Richard's shifts, Willow pushed her glasses up. 'Because we thought we were going to the wedding, and I still think he should go mind, but I need Carlisle to needle him into going, he's working night shift Christmas Eve, late Christmas Day and then Boxing Day, he's off Saturday and then on again, Sunday and Monday. So, we'll do Christmas dinner on Wednesday and then he can take some to work and open presents before he leaves in the morning. We don't really do a big thing even if he isn't working because there's only the two of us so getting tons of food in doesn't really make sense. What about you lot? Don't you lot have traditions?'

'Usually, we'd spend it up in Alaska, with the cousins.' Emmett spoke, focusing on what looked like a bear, hunching over her cast, 'But we saw them last year and I think all of us want to stay here this year, what with the accident and everything.'

Nodding, Willow cradled the mug in her lap, 'Did Carlisle get told about what we do with the kids?'

'About wrapping things from Santa?' Esme perked up, 'Oh yes, we have several things to drop in. Rose was particularly excited for them.'

'I usually do like a Christmas tree for them to colour in on the wall in like that butcher paper. One year, I think I was about fifteen, we got away with letting them put their handprints on it for the layers and everyone got their names on a bauble too. For the kids, the paeds go all out with decorations, kind of try and get them away from the fact that they're in the hospital for the holidays. And they do a candy cane draw to see who dresses up as Santa for them on Christmas day. Dad got it two years in a row.'

They laughed as Emmett took a ballpoint and began to fine line the bear. 'It'd be funny if Carlisle got asked to do it.'

'Vicki would definitely try and get a photo.'

The idea of Carlisle in a Santa costume had them laughing as Esme brought some wrapping things out and began to do it human speed as Emmett set the remote in her lap. With nothing really exciting on, Willow decided upon Home Alone which had just barely started. 'The concept of this film makes me anxious. How could you forget your child?'

'The power goes out. Causes the clocks to reset.'

'Still. How do people sleep when they have a holiday to go on? Like, I barely do when I go to New Hampshire, but that's mainly because I have to deal with Mother but like, semantics.'

And thus, began the running commentary from all three of them as they watched the movie.

The others came back from whatever they were doing as Kevin was setting traps, Rosalie and Alice laden with bags probably meant they were shopping, and the guys with leaves and whatnot in their clothing meant that they were hunting but the golden eyes gave it away.

'That's just a medical nightmare.' Carlisle commented, flabbergasted as everyone joined them in the living room, Emmett having started a fire about halfway through.

'Where does he get the tar from?' Willow threw out, leaning against Jasper as he swung his legs up onto the pouffe, 'Goes to Home Depot with his dad – you know what we need, Dad, a can of tar.'

'Don't forget the fake grass.' Edward grinned as they watched Kevin put a nail through it. 'Or the barbeque lighter on the doorknob? That's a fire hazard.'

'When this came out, I sort of thought that he was genius, but then again, I did agree with Ariel on the fact that she was sixteen, she obviously knew what she was talking about when it came to loving a stranger she had had only just met. So really, we can't trust six-year-old me to make any logical decision, but like seriously, those steps would be a nightmare to get up.'

Rosalie looked at her from her own spot surrounded by Emmett's mass, 'I think that's just growing up?'

'It sucks.'

'You got that right.' Jasper threw out, hand running through the ends of her hair absently. Nestled into him, Willow looked down at her leg.

'Emmett…'

'Yeah?'

'Did you draw you…fighting a bear on my cast?'

'Yeah.'

He looked too much like an excited puppy for her to say anything negative, so Willow settled on, 'Your line work's good.'

'Thanks.'

Progress was slow but steady as Christmas crept closer. Willow still hadn't heard anything from Mother and as the days went by, that gut feeling festered in her. Every damn time the phone rang, her heart stopped in her chest. It got to the point where Richard had taken the landline from her room, less she develops that arrhythmia which would just be the cherry on top of the shitty sundae.

With Emmett having broken her cast's virginity, it began to be added to, mainly by Sophie who happily drew lopsided unicorns, reindeers, and the like. Someone had drawn an ANDY on the sole that had her snickering every time she noticed it. Alice had even painted her toes to look like little candy canes for the holiday season so not only did her cast look like a packet of colours threw up over it but also her toes did. The sparkles were nice though, they caught in the light.

On the relationship front, Willow figured she and Jasper had reached Peak Domesticity when he came into her bathroom to find her shaving her leg on the bath, shorts on the floor – she could not do it in the shower because she missed tons because she couldn't see without her glasses. 'What are you doing?'

Willow looked to the razor in her hand and then slowly over to him. 'Flying a kite?'

Huffing a laugh, he swung onto the bath with her, sitting on the rim with her cast and wiggled his fingers for the razor. She didn't even have ask. His eyebrow went up when he felt the conditioner but said nothing as he flicked the water on and ran it under the tap. 'Why?'

'I miss chunks in the shower, I can't see.'

He thumbed her toes. 'Alice?'

'Yep. Thought they looked boring and dull with the cast and I was immobile anyway. I got to pick the design though. Any other presents to get?'

Jasper shook his head, 'I just have to wrap everything, and I am sorely tempted to just chuck stuff in bags and slap a label on.'

'That's just lazy.' Willow teased him, leaning back on her hands. 'Besides, it would take you five minutes. You know who's terrible at wrapping?'

'Who?'

'Gi.' She grinned, 'Literally, it's like the girl gives up within ten minutes. So, everything just looks like a questionable…shape? She got Elizabeth a nice bottle of her favourite syrup for her coffee like two years ago and it was a shit storm. Probably more tape than paper.'

He snorted and held her steady as she rinsed off and then lifted her out after she dried off. 'Pass muster, my lady?'

'It's never been so smooth.' Willow grinned at him, happily leaning into his space as he pulled her in, 'You didn't have to but thank you.'

Jasper's smile was soft as his hand came to bring her head down for a slow kiss, thumb smoothing her chin gently. 'It's no bother.'

Their foreheads knocked together gently as her arms slid loosely around his neck. 'I love you.'

'Because your leg's never been so smooth?'

Willow barked a laugh, and Jasper watched as her head fell back, her chocolate curls butter soft on his fingers as they tickled, as light as a feather. Her eyes were always greener when she wore jewel tones and that ruby t-shirt was no different, glasses sliding back up her nose as he watched her giggle.

That was one of his favourite sounds.

When Willow was warm and filled with such soft emotions, her laughter was just everything to him. Whether Jasper or another one of the Cullens made her laugh, or if their humans had caused her to bray like a donkey, her cheeks always flushed, and it made her seem so alive.

Willow just seemed to smooth his jagged edges so softly, accept all parts of him, make him want to be a better person, a better man, for her, for himself, that Jasper hadn't even noticed how being around her human friends had become so much easier with her at the centre point. His Mate was so selfless, yet so encouraging and filled with a quiet determination that it had felt like she'd always been there.

Yes, Willow hated confrontation and tried to shrug off terrible interaction against her person like water, tried to see everyone in their best like; but he knew, in the depths of the night when she would whisper her secrets, that she sometimes felt like she wasn't ever going to be able to achieve anything; that maybe she should just go the easy road.

'What?'

'I love you.'

A dimple deepened on the side of her mouth as she cupped his face, her little warm hands so grounding to him, Jasper bit back a purr of contentment as Willow pressed their foreheads together again. 'I love you too.'

Because there was so many of them now, with the Cullens having been forced into their group, willingly, Lucy had determined they'd be doing Secret Santa because apparently, that was what they did now? But, logistically, Willow mused as she wrapped Rosalie's present – a heather grey sweatshirt with STEMINIST in calligraphy on it – that the Cullens didn't know what the word 'budget' meant, so giving them a fixed price and chucking them into the deep end of gift-giving without using their gifts, was a sink or swim kinda task. She was excited to see what would happen. And since Emmett's presents hadn't arrived yet, Willow considered it a good thing.

The only ones that weren't pulling their hair out were Jasper because as quiet as he was, he paid attention to people's favourite things, the telepath and seer because they were cheaters. Writing Rosalie's name in a stylised font on the brown paper, Willow tied a nice bright red ribbon around it and slid it into the bag that she had as well because crutches were bitches.

Christmas was less than a week away and their Secret Santa meet up thing was the next day, what with the Forresters and Kennedys having family agreements in the city and Tacoma to go to. A few years ago, when the four humans had started High School and Willow had been blissfully unaware of the…uh, supernatural variety, they had made the 'rule' of opening the presents on Christmas Day, but they all either pretty much lied and opened them immediately out of sight of the others or at least peeked at what they got.

So, long story short, that rule didn't last longer than that year.

They were all impatient fuckers.

With her gift wrapped, Willow sneered at the fact that she had to get up.

Yeah, no thanks. She'd stay on the floor. Besides, she wanted a nap anyway and the carpet she was on was soft. Yanking her blanket down, Willow took her glasses off and just tipped over onto her side, yes, this was satisfactory.

Was her bed comfier than the floor? Hell fucking yes.

Did that involve her having to heave herself and thus her casted leg up off the ground? Also, yes.

Did Willow give a damn at this point? Nope.

The floor it was.

Jasper came in through the front door that time because Alice had told him to and gave Richard a confused look. 'She's in her room, wrapping stuff.'

'Ah, okay. Is it okay if I?'

'Yeah,' Richard waved him on, still appreciating the question even though the two had been together for nearly a year at that point, 'I heard a thump about an hour ago and I hope she isn't dead. She might be napping though.'

'She does enjoy them.'

'When she was small,' Richard grinned, melancholia bleeding into his emotional palette as Jasper deviated from the foyer and into the kitchen where he had been making lunch, 'I didn't even have to fight her on nap time. I'd just have to mention it and she would grab Dragon and toddle off to her room with a smile and be out for the count. Bedtime was a little different but out of the three of them, by far, Willow was the easiest baby. You staying for lunch?'

He shook his head. 'Esme forced a sandwich on me before I left. But thanks though.'

Richard nodded. 'Go and see if she's conscious and let her know food'll be done in ten.'

'Will do.' Jasper called as he jogged, three steps at a time, up to her bedroom. He shook his head with a laugh as he found her sprawled on the floor, blanket slung haphazardly over her lower half, cheek with drool on it, mushed against the fuzz of the carpet, glasses not far from her side. With a quiet smile, Jasper lifted her and put her on the bed, sitting by her side as he grabbed her glasses from the floor and tucked them onto her side table. 'Sweetheart.'

'Mmm.' She smacked her mouth together, squinting at the light, 'Times'it.'

'Your dad's nearly finished with lunch. Sent me to see if you were still alive.'

'I was just nappin'.' Willow yawned, propping herself up on her elbow, scrubbing at her eye.

Jasper tucked a loose bit of hair behind an ear, 'Cast too much of a hassle?'

'Yup.' She sighed, sitting up, kissing his cheek. 'When did you get here?'

'Not even five minutes ago. Though apparently, you were always down with naptime?'

Willow went to defend herself then thought on it. 'Yeah, pretty much. Sleep is great.'

'How's the leg?'

'Annoyingly itchy but fine. Can you pass me my crutches?'

Jasper snagged them with his foot and held them upright for her. 'My lady.'

'Thanks.' She smiled and clicked her way over to the door after putting her glasses on. 'Hey, Dad, you thinking about going to the wedding?'

Jasper shook his head, taking the stairs first as Willow took her time down them. 'I'm still debating.'

'I don't know why,' Willow shook her head, sitting at the table, 'It's not every day that your first baby girl gets married.'

Richard sighed, raised an eyebrow at her as he put her toastie down on the table. 'I haven't even met the guy.'

Jasper leant in the doorway, 'I don't know why you'd want to, from what you've told me,' he nudged her chair, 'Robert Carlisle is a rich asshole.'

'No, well, okay, so I haven't exactly been nice about him but he makes Eve happy so…you should go. To the wedding. Maybe take Natalie? Heh? Heh?'

Richard laughed. 'Are you setting me up for a date?'

'No.'

Yes.

Jasper had to turn his face away, scrubbing the smile off his mouth as the father and daughter shared a weighted look. 'What about you?'

'Carlisle and Esme were actually the ones to bring it up.' He threw out, 'Besides it's only the three days and we were planning on having the Forresters and Kennedys over if they don't already have plans.'

'See?' Willow gestured back, 'I won't be left alone, unaided or unwatched. Besides, it's not as if we're known for throwing absolute ragers.'

Richard grinned. 'Those horror stories paid off then?'

'I don't want my stomach pumped, cheers. So…wedding?'

'Fine.' And Jasper didn't even need to manipulate him. 'But my suit?'

'Should still fit because your size hasn't changed since last year but bring it to Elizabeth anyway and have her check it out. See? Problem solved. Now, date?'

He pointed to her, 'I do not need your help in securing me a date, little miss. Eat your food.'

Willow used it to gesticulate. 'Dad, the wedding is less than two weeks away.'

'And if I don't have a date,' he declared walking past her into the living room, 'then that's fine.'

What was it with her father and being a complete moron?

All she wanted was for him to not only be happy but also, maybe, potentially, rub the idea that he was successful and happy too to her Mother's face? Maybe?

Oh, he put pickles in her toastie. And camembert with the nice ham. Yes, Dad.

Though, fuck, that bite was hot.

It's my birthday, I'm 22 and because some moron went for a dander around the city not far from me, we were on lockdown the whole weekend so my plans were thwarted AGAIN. Fuck off, Miss Rona. No one likes you.

Does this mean that you may get a double update this week? Yes.

Is this me hoping you all send me wishes? Maybe.

Also one of my best friends bribed me with toffee if she got two chapters this week so...what can I say, I have a sweet tooth.

News on the writing front - I fucking finished Twilight the other night, fucking WILD. Honestly. Did not think I'd get as far as I have. Turns out it's easier writing fanfic with a book series than a TV show because you don't have to rewatch the same fecking scene again and again to get the inflictions right. So I started New Moon and you are in for a treat.

Anyway,

Enjoy

K x