The Magi's Gift
By Lady of Spain
Disclaimer: S. Meyer owns Twilight.
"What again? I lent you ten bucks last week."
"I know, but no one is bringing me any cars to repair. Zip, nada!" He put his hands in his jeans, pulling the pocket linings inside out to make his point. "Everyone's saving up for Christmas, and it's not doin' my wallet any favors.
"Do you think your mom could use more help at the store?"
Embry shrugged. "I already asked. She can't afford another stock boy."
"Jeez, what am I gonna do? I gave Bells a carved pendant last year. I'm out of ideas here."
A smirk played across Embry's face. "How 'bout carving a dog whistle; that way she won't bother the neighbors when she calls you for help."
"That's very funny, Em—funny, but not exactly very useful."
With one hand on Jacob's shoulder, Embry said, "You need to chill, my man. It's Bella—she won't care."
"Yeah, but … I wanted to give her something special this year."
His best friend flipped open his wallet. "Well, join the club. I wanted to get my girl a nice gift too. Damn, this is my last ten spot 'til pay day. If she leaves me, just because I'm broke, it'll be your fault."
On the way back from school, she pulled up at a green light to make a left hand turn onto her street. The engine died, midway. A semi was bearing down on her, and in a panic, she keyed the ignition again, and pushed on the gas pedal clear to the floor. The ancient Chevy lurched three feet, and stopped once more—dead! Bella tried again, and this time she made it onto the cross street, about a minute before the semi plowed through the light. Holy cow, that was a close one!
The Chevy kept dying on her quite a lot lately, but this was the second time the stupid truck stalled in the middle of an intersection—it was getting downright scary. Pulling over to the soft shoulder, she stopped to take a deep breath and thank her maker for saving her from what could have been a fatal accident. She waited a couple of minutes for her heart to quit pounding, and with shaking hands, continued down the street to her home. Immediately on entering the house, she phoned her best friend, personal mechanic, and love of her life, Jacob Black.
"Whaddya mean, it's been doin' that for weeks? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Jeez, Bells, you could've gotten yourself killed today."
"I didn't want to bother you, Jake. Christmas is around the corner, and final exams are next week. You've got more than you can handle right now."
"Look, it's no bother, if it means saving your life!"
Jacob bumped his fist against the refrigerator door, attempting to calm himself. "I'm … I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you, but thinking about you getting hit by a semi, no less—I just … it's too much. You about gave me a heart attack.
"Tell you what … bring your truck over tomorrow after school, and I'll look at it. But you gotta promise me, stay off the main roads, and no more turning on busy intersections. You got that?
"And get Angela to drive you back and forth to school. One more thing … I love you, Bells, to the moon and back."
"I love you too, sweetheart."
Jeez, he melted every time she said that to him. He couldn't help grinning as he put the receiver back on the hook.
Removing his head from under the Chevy's hood, Jacob wiped the grease from his hands, and looked at Bella as she sat on the wooden crate. "Okay, the good news is I think I found your problem."
One of her eyebrows rose. "You mean, besides you?"
"Ouch … I won't comment on that, 'cuz I know you're lying. Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, your carburetor's shot to hell. The bad news is: you'll havta buy another one, and believe me, they are hard to come by, so it's gonna cost you, big time."
Her face fell, and she whined, "Oh great … I don't have the money to cover it. My mom's giving me cash for Christmas, and to buy new school clothes, but I don't know when it'll arrive."
"Don't worry about it. I'll think of something. I'll try to get over to Checker Auto tomorrow. In the meantime, this monster needs to stay parked in my driveway. You'll still need a ride to school and work. If Angela can't take you, can you ask another one of your friends?" He stopped, a funny look on his face. "Not the Cullens though."
Bella sighed as she rolled those cute little chocolate circles around in her head. "Jake—that's ancient history."
Her wolf boy leaned his back on the truck's chassis, stretching out his long legs. He's ancient all right. Seen a lot of that history too. "Yeah, well history has a bad habit of repeating itself."
He winked, motioning with his index finger for her to move closer. "Now bring your sassy little self over here, and introduce me to your lips."
"Geesh, could you possibly be any more romantic?"
"I could try, but what would be the point? At least this way, you don't need an interpreter to get my meaning."
That night, Jacob had been sitting on the edge of his bed for hours on end, his head in his hands, wracking his brain as to what he could do to get his hands on some money. The idea to buy his girl that carburetor had settled in his mind, but how to get it was … nearly impossible. Wait—he could sell his bike. Nah, that wouldn't bring in enough cash. If he sold both of them? But one was Bella's after all, so, that wouldn't work either. That left the only other thing he possessed of any value—his beloved Rabbit. He'd do it for Bella, no contest.
When the sun came up the following morning, he parked the car out in front of the house with a homemade sign on it that read: 4 Sale - $250, or best offer.
Embry went by the little red house that next day, and did a double-take. Whaaaat? No way! Jacob was selling the RABBIT? He trotted back to his home, and dialed Bella. She would never let him sell his precious car just so she could have a good Christmas, would she?
"Hey, Bella—Embry here. Have you been to Jake's lately?"
"Not since he looked at my truck, why?"
The words practically burst out of his mouth. "You might be interested to know that the wolf cub is selling the Rabbit. It's in his front yard with a big ol' for sale sign on it."
"What? Why?"
"Yeah, that's what I say. I guess he's really hurting for money."
"No … I can't let him do it—that car is his baby. It has his sweat and blood invested in it."
"You don't need to tell me. He borrowed some of my sweat to rebuild it too."
Suddenly, there was silence at the other end of the line. Then he heard: "Oh … Em—can you buy it from him?"
He slapped himself on the forehead. "You been smokin' crack? Where would I get that kind of money?"
"From me."
"Oookaaaay, and where are you gonna get that kind of money?"
"I've got some saved up, and my mom just sent me $200 for Christmas. So will you do it … please, Embry?"
"You mind tellin' me how I'm supposed to do accomplish this daunting feat?"
"I don't know. Make up some story. Just don't let him know I'm buying it."
"But what about your carburetor? Jake said you needed one for the truck."
"Oh screw the truck. I'll hitch-hike to school if I have to. My mind's made up. I'm buying that car. Don't try to talk me out of it. I'm stubborn that way."
Embry laughed. "Really? I hadn't heard."
That very afternoon, Embry went to see about the car. "Hey, Jake, got a buyer for the Rabbit."
"Oh yeah?"
He had his story all worked out. "Yeah, man, my second cousin over at the Makah Rez wants to buy it. The thing is, he can't pick it up 'til next week, so I told him I'd deliver it.
"His mom lives over at Beaver; she gave me the money." Embry pulled the wad out of his pocket, handing it to Jacob. "There it is, all $250, cash."
As Embry drove off, he saw the astonished expression on his friend's face. If only Jacob knew …
At Checker Auto, Jacob had to special order the carburetor. No one sold them anymore. All the new models had fuel injection systems.
By the time the carburetor, the kit, and a few other items needed to install it were added up, along with the handling and shipping, the total came to $153.99, so he'd still have money left over. He could get a new stereo for the Rabbit. Crap—he forgot—the Rabbit was gone … history. He hopped on his bike and thundered down the road to home. Thinking about the look on Bella's face when she opened her present would more than make up for his empty garage though. Love meant sacrificing for the other person, and he had done it willingly. He knew in his heart that if the tables were turned, she'd do the same for him.
Christmas day arrived, and as prophesied, Bella was in shock when she opened the huge box housing the needed parts for her truck.
She closed her gaping mouth to ask, "How did you …" Then—a light bulb moment zapped her brain. "Wait … You didn't … Oh my gosh—you did, didn't you?"
Jacob shrugged, nonchalantly. "Hey, there's nothing I wouldn't do for you, Bells. I guess it's not really all that romantic though, huh?"
"Oh, Jake It's the most romantic thing you've ever done," she cried. She stood and flung herself into his waiting arms.
Billy sat nearby chuckling softly, obviously enjoying the tender scene.
Bella pulled away suddenly—much to Jacob's surprise—and taking him by the arm, dragged him out into the yard.
This was really weird. "What're we doin' out here?"
"Your present's in the garage. It was too big to bring into the house."
He'd never seen her smile so widely before. Looked like she had a surprise for him too. They walked past her truck which was parked beside the Taj. He scratched his head, wondering how it got there. With his wolf hearing—and even without it—the noise of the engine on that old rust-bucket could be heard for blocks. He let that thought pass as they got to the entrance of the garage.
Jacob pulled the door partly open when Bella stopped him. "Don't go in yet. Now, close your eyes, and no peeking until I tell you to."
All right, he'd go on with her little game. He shut his eyes tightly, but just to be sure, Bella got up on her tip toes and stretched her arms up, placing her palms over his eyelids. He walked forward a few steps, pushing the garage door aside, and Bella whispered, "You can open them now."
The sight that met him, nearly knocked him on his butt. His tongue lay flaccid in his mouth; Mr. Chatterbox was rendered speechless. His brain began to whir, as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Embry was in on this. His dark eyes glistened with moisture, and he drew Bella to his side, kissing the side of her head.
"Jeez, Bells, I don't know how to thank you."
"Oh … I can think of several ways, but first, come sit with me inside the car. I have something else for you."
Jacob argued while scooting onto the seat. "You've spent too much already. Actually, I owe you some change from the sale."
Bella reached into the glove compartment, and retrieved a small box. "I don't want to hear any more about it. Now I need you to close your eyes again."
Removing the contents, she took off a shoe and with the straight pin from the box proceeded to hammer the mistletoe to the roof of the Rabbit.
Confusion reigned in Jacob's head. Was she taking off her shoe? And what the hell was she hammering away at?
"Okay, all done. Jake … look up. What do you see?"
His grin lit up the interior of the car. "I see a perfectly good excuse to exercise my lips. Care to join me in a little aerobics?"
She moved toward him, and Jacob took her face in a vice-like grip, his mouth latching onto hers as if his life depended on it. After this warm up, Bella stopped to catch her breath and say, "Have you ever read The Gift of the Magi?"
He winked at her, taunting, "No, but I'll bet you'll tell me all about it."
With her fingers curling around tufts of his hair, she began her tale. "Well, it's about a couple that wanted to give a gift of love to each other. He had a pocket watch, but no chain; she had beautiful long tresses, but no hair-combs to put in it. So she had the hair dresser cut it off and pay her for it so she could buy her sweetheart a watch chain. In the meantime, he sold his watch to get her the combs. Isn't that a beautiful story?"
"Yeah, but you're not gonna cut your hair are you?"
"No, silly. I just wanted to compare our story with that one. It's not exactly the same, but the sentiments were."
Jacob's long arms wrapped around her shoulders, inching her closer. "Speaking of sentiments, c'mere, girl. Let's not waste the mistletoe. Hey, wait a minute, tell me something, Bells. How did your truck get outside the Taj without me hearing it?"
"Easy—Em, Quil, Jared and Paul, put it in neutral and pushed it out into your yard."
Shaking his head, Jacob muttered, "Huh … so that's how they did it. Okay, no more talking, my tongue has better things to do, right?"
Her brown eyes widened in anticipation. "You said it, mister!"
Bella and Jacob kissed and hugged for quite a while. Turned out that sprig of mistletoe was the best present yet. Even the Magi would agree.
By the way, after several months, that little bunch finally crumbled into flakes of dried brown powder dusting the seats and floorboards of the Rabbit. And the following Christmas, Bella put up a new sprig. Well, if it worked once …
The End