A/N: This is the second part of the Christmas fic. Hopefully it's enjoyable. :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight

It would seem that Edward knew exactly where he was going as he expertly maneuvered his Volvo down the icy streets of Forks. And I guess he would know where the beginning of the sleigh ride was. It wasn't hard to get the information from the thoughts of people as we passed them. Or maybe he memorized the location from the advertisement he claimed he saw. For me, it's easier to just not speculate.

I was once more tucked under the blanket and feeling flushed with the heat in the car still turned all the way up. Really, I thought Edward was just trying to get on my nerves now. There is no way that he could possibly think that I was too cold when I was under this huge blanket and the car felt like an oven. Any time I tried to discretely turn the heat down, however, he always caught me and turned it back up. Also, whenever I mentioned the possibility of heatstroke he would simply raise his eyebrows and smirk at me, causing me to forget what I was arguing about.

After about ten minutes of driving I knew that we were close when I saw Edward scowl. Mike must have been working the tickets tonight because Edward usually reserved that look just for him. It was silly, there was no competition to be found in Mike for my affections, but Edward still insisted on disliking the boy. Not to mention that Mike very strongly disliked Edward back for reasons I could barely fathom.

"Be nice," I muttered under my breath as he parked the car. Edward shot me a slightly indignant look but didn't seem to promise anything.

Once we were both outside, and Edward had made sure that I brought the blanket with me, we approached Mike and his partner for the night, Angela. Edward seemed to be pleased to see Angela at least. He thought she was a nice girl and a good friend for me. I guess he would know. He reads minds after all.

"Two please," I said with a bright smile to the two of them. "You guys look like you're absolutely frozen." I ignored the somewhat dark look that Mike gave Edward and instead focused on how Angela seemed to be happy to see us.

"It's been a long night," Angela sighed as Mike handed us the tickets. "That'll be ten dollars."

Edward nodded and pulled his wallet out of his coat pocket, quickly selecting out a ten-dollar bill. "Have you had a lot of business?" he asked politely, although I knew that he would have been more inclined towards silence. I guess hanging around me gave him a better sense of how to be human.

"A bit," Mike replied coldly. Angela shot him a look and bit her lip.

"We should be close to paying back for all of this stuff and having some money left over for the club," she elaborated, reaching to grab a mug of what I assumed to be hot chocolate. "This town really gets into Christmas, huh?"

"What else is there for a small town to do?" I asked lightly and Angela smiled.

"Well, have fun," she said and looked pointedly behind us to hint that there were some people coming in behind us that were going to want tickets.

"Thanks," I replied and smiled at Mike as we left. He reluctantly smiled back before turning to the newest customers. Edward gritted his teeth. "Please, I don't even want to know," I muttered. I hated when he felt the need to suggest that Mike had been thinking something about me that went a little bit beyond friendly. It made it easier for me to look Mike in the eye the next day if I just didn't know.

"Neither did I," he pointed out but didn't say anything more.

Just as we approached the sleigh area, a new one pulled up that had emptied itself of its most recent customers. Edward signaled to the driver and then helped me carefully into the sleigh, watching my feet the entire time anxiously. Despite his assistance, however, I did manage to stumble a little once I was actually inside. I ended up falling into my seat instead of just sitting in it, causing me to blush tremendously. Edward chuckled and climbed in after me, softly inquiring if I was okay in a much too amused tone. Before I could really respond, the sleigh was moving forward and I gasped in surprise.

"Here," Edward unfolded the blanket and draped it across my knees. I mumbled a thanks and smiled up at him. Truth be told, it was rather cold out tonight.

As the sleigh moved forward, I continued to sneak glances over at Edward to see if he was enjoying the ride. He did appear to be looking around in interest and I relaxed knowing that he wasn't too terribly bored.

As if to further my hope of his entertainment, he said, "I've never really seen the town this way. Everything is lit up and there are so many people out." He appeared to be very thoughtful as he peered at all of the homes and people walking by. "I never got out much before. I didn't know this place could be so cheerful."

"I didn't either," I admitted, "I never even considered the thought that Forks might be really festive and not always so dark and rainy." Edward chuckled again and I knew he must have been thinking of the first real conversation we'd had together that had been about the weather.

We spent another few moments in companionable silence as we looked at the town together. Edward had moved his hand so that it was on top of mine, even if mine was also covered in blanket. I appreciated the gesture and didn't push my luck.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if I didn't exist? If I had died when I was supposed to?" Edward suddenly asked, turning his face so that he could get a good look at my reaction.

My first one was panic. Why was Edward talking about this when there was a man driving a sleigh right in front of us? A quick look at the driver caused me to realize that he had headphones of a sort in, making him totally oblivious to the passengers behind him. Something told me that listening to headphones while driving a sleigh was illegal but I was greatly appreciating it at the moment.

"Don't talk like that," I mumbled, feeling an odd tightness in my chest at the thought of it. The world wouldn't be right if Edward didn't exist. I should have known that watching movie like 'It's A Wonderful Life' would spark a conversation like this.

Edward wasn't going to let me get away that easily, though. "No, really. If I wasn't here right now you would be living a happy and normal life. You could be in a sleigh with Newton or another normal boy and have a healthy relationship. Instead, you have me."

I glared at him indignantly. "Exactly. I have you instead. I would never have been happy with some normal boy, Edward."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, obviously unsatisfied. "I don't think you fully understand what you're saying, Bella. You would be better off if I never even existed at all."

"Well," I jutted my chin out defiantly and stared him square in the eye, "If you never existed then I wouldn't exist either."

"Don't be ridiculous," he muttered, looking away from me.

I stared at him for a moment before I pulled out the excess blanket and draped it across his knees as well as mine, bringing us closer together. He looked at me sharply. "What are you doing?"

"Getting closer to you," I snapped, wriggling closer to him and carefully wrapping my arms around his waist. "Don't you try to stop me."

"You'll catch a cold," he told me flatly but did not try to push me away just yet.

"No I won't," I insisted. "You need to stop talking like a crazy person and just enjoy the ride. I think we already learned tonight that every person is here for a reason." I paused. "Whether they're fully human or not," I added quickly.

Edward sighed but draped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in closer to his side. I grinned, knowing that I had won. Somehow, though, I knew that this wouldn't be the last time we would talk about this.

Then, at that moment, snow began to fall softly down on us, causing Edward to start. "Of all the luck," he sighed and looked gloomily up at the skies.

"It's wonderful," I disagreed and also looked up at the sky.

Edward looked at me with an amused grin on his face. "You know, I seem to recall a girl that ran away at the first sign of rain or snow. She looked a lot like you."

"This is different." I brushed some of the icy mess out of my hair. "This is Christmas snow. It's not nearly as depressing as normal snow."

Edward chuckled, brushing some of the snow I missed out of my hair. "Well, when you put it that way."

The snowflakes remained large and far apart. It looked like something out of a movie, in my opinion. It would figure that Forks could actually produce some of the most perfect looking snow I'd ever seen. I still didn't like it so much but I could appreciate its beauty under certain circumstances.

Suddenly, as I was admiring the snow, Edward tilted my chin up towards him and kissed me for the second time that night. I was too surprised to even react like I normally would have. I just enjoyed the moment and was literally frozen in surprise. One of Edward's hands reached out and caught a tendril of my hair and bunched it with his fingers. Then he pushed himself away, grinning at me.

"What was that for?" I asked in surprise. Usually the lurking danger of his blood lust kept his affections at bay but he had kissed me twice, so far, that night and for extended periods of time. Truth be told, I didn't exactly mind. And now I really didn't mind that the sleigh driver might be breaking the law right now if it meant that we had that much more privacy.

"Doesn't every girl want to be kissed in the snow?" he asked innocently, glancing at me through his eyelashes.

"Your mood swings really are giving me whiplash now," I joked, not bothering to fix my slightly mussed hair.

He grimaced slightly. "I'm sorry. My emotions are a bit out of my control lately."

"The holidays," I nodded my head. "They do that to people."

"I guess so," he agreed, tracing my face with his fingers. I squirmed slightly in my seat but never broke eye contact with him. He abruptly pulled them away with a smile in my direction. "We're getting close to the end of the ride."

As we passed a house we heard some carolers outside of someone's house singing a cheerful tune. I turned my head to get a better look at them and smiled. It seemed that Carlisle, Esmé, Alice, and Jasper all ended up meeting and were standing at the side listening to the carolers. Alice was bobbing slightly to the beat and it seemed that she was singing softly along with them while the other three looked on with peaceful expressions. I wondered briefly where Rosalie and Emmett were but decided that it was probably best not to know.

"Esmé says hello," Edward whispered to me, his cool breath on my neck. "They all saw us. She says that she's prepared to have you take home the eggnog a some cookies that she's planning on making before we get back."

I smiled, looking back at the four as we passed them. "I'll be sure to thank her. I'm sure Charlie will appreciate it too."

Edward's smile suddenly turned into a scowl and his hand tightened his grip slightly on my shoulder. His lips still close to my ear from whispering Esmé's hello to me, he said, "Newton sees us and he thought he saw us arguing earlier." All of the streets in Forks seem to lead to the same place. It was rather annoying in this case.

"We were arguing?" I asked lightly. Really. I was surprised that I had come up with something witty to say with Edward that close to my personal space. I must be getting better at keeping my head in control around him, which was a very good thing.

Edward gave an amused snort and I relaxed. "You forgive me too easily."

"Yeah," I agreed, "But you do the same for me."

I thought I saw Edward's jaw tense in preparation for another argument. Luckily, I also saw that we were approaching the ticket booth with Mike inside of it and saw him staring at us. So, in an attempt to both distract Edward and try to make it even clearer to Mike who I belonged to, I slowly turned my face up and planted a kiss on Edward's jaw, which was still close to my face.

It worked. Edward's jaw relaxed and it seemed that he had entirely given up on arguing about how he was putting my mortality at stake. He softly smiled and said, "Isabella, love, you never cease to surprise me. Thank you."

"You're welcome," I replied and gave him another kiss for good measure. The sleigh then came to a halt and the driver sent us an impatient look. Edward laughed again and gracefully stepped out of the sleigh. Once his feet were on the icy ground he turned to grasp my hand gently and pull me out of the sleigh after him.

"Thanks," I mumbled, blushing a little at the precautions Edward thought it was necessary to make with me. Unfortunately, I had even more trouble getting out of the sleigh as I did getting into it. There was an icy patch that Edward didn't seem to count on me landing on and my feet nearly slipped from under me. I started to fall backward but Edward's free arm snaked around and caught me around my back and supported me. Carefully, at a human speed, Edward pulled me back up and I was blushing even more than before.

I also noticed that my messy slip had also startled the horse that had pulled our sleigh so that he jumped to the left, away from us with a wild look in his eyes. I grimaced and apologized hastily to the driver. He waved it away and straightened the horse back out with little difficulty.

We walked away and I felt incredibly guilty for scaring the horse. My face was still red from the experience. "It wasn't you," Edward explained, an amused crooked grin on his face. "The horse was scared of me. I made too sudden of a movement trying to catch you and it thought I was going to attack it. The driver had some trouble with it the whole ride also." I looked up at him in surprise but saw that it didn't seem to bother him to admit it.

I giggled a little, pulling my coat tighter around me. "Poor thing." I was kind of relieved that it wasn't my fault after all.

"Bye!" Angela called from the booth, waving to the two of us as we walked past it. I returned her wave and saw that Mike looked a little gloomy and did not even smile in our direction. I felt a small twinge of regret at seeing his sad expression but tried to forget about it. He would be okay. That is, he would be if he ever realized how much

"What now?" I asked cheerfully as we walked to the car.

Edward reached into one of his coat pockets and produced a brightly wrapped gift. "I give you a present."

I halted in my steps and had a funny feeling in my stomach. I think it was dread. "Edward," I sighed, "Did you get me something really expensive?"

He shook his head solemnly, still holding the gift out. "I'm saving that for your birthday." I glared darkly at him at the mention of my birthday and an expensive gift. "Please, trust me on this. I got this gift especially for you for Christmas."

I knew he was guilting me into it and I also knew that it was working. I gratefully took the small box that he was holding out and smiled at him. "Thanks, Edward. I have something for you too." I started to reach into my own pockets, searching frantically and trying to remember where I put it when Edward protested.

"You first," he insisted, watching me expectantly.

I gave up the search for the moment and started to unwrap the gift. Under the paper was a small, plain white box. Inside of the box was a small plastic cactus. "Oh," I stuttered, looking at it.

Edward made a bit of a face. "It was pretty cheap and kind of… tacky," he muttered, looking somewhat regretful. "But I know how much you miss the desert sometimes and the sunshine so I thought that this might help remind you."

I smiled widely at him and looked back at the cactus. "Edward, that has to be one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever gotten," I admitted and spontaneously wrapped him into a hug. "Thank you!"

Edward's body stiffened for the moment and I knew that I had thrown him off guard. I trusted him to be in control though and soon he relaxed and pulled me closer. "Anything for you."

When I pulled away I remembered exactly where my gift had been hiding in my coat. Eagerly, I reached inside of the correct pocket and produced an unwrapped gift. "I didn't have time to wrap it but," I handed him the box, "Here you go."

"You didn't need to," Edward protested but stopped at my pleading look. He carefully opened the box and then smirked. "A Spider-Man web shooter?"

"Edward Cullen," I declared solemnly, "You're my hero." My lips were trying their best not to break into a smile.

I could see the emotion passing through Edward's face as he looked at my gift. He was fighting between irritation at my insistence of calling him a hero and relief that I didn't think of him as a monster. Finally, his perfect lips twitched upward and I knew which side had won. "You amaze me," he said again and stared down at the plastic toy.

"Come on," I blushed at his gratitude, "We're pushing the time limit. What would the neighbors think if I went home after midnight?"

Edward seemed to agree as he unlocked the Volvo and helped me inside. This time, I was far more graceful and I reveled in the accomplishment of not falling into the seat. Edward wasn't so encouraging. "I was hoping to see you blush again," Edward teased, "I'm going to have to try harder." I blushed at his implication. "Apparently not much harder."

I stuck my tongue out childishly at him and he gave me a crooked smile. It seemed that there was very little that could permanently bring his spirits down tonight.

……………………………………..

Later, after I'd returned home and woke Charlie up to announce my presence, I waited patiently for Edward to come through my window. He surprised me by coming through the bedroom door.

"Sorry," he apologized as he quietly shut the door behind him. "I wanted to put Esmé's eggnog and cookies in the fridge for you."

"Oh," I returned my heart rate back to normal at the shock of seeing him there and smiled. "Thanks."

As Edward walked toward me he didn't fail to notice the newest addition to my desk. "The cactus already has a home?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Of course," I blushed. "You don't just re-gift those sorts of things."

"I see," he pretended to sound thoughtful. In a moment he was next to me and I shut my eyes peacefully, used to the chilly temperature he brought to my room at night. I inhaled deeply and then smiled, just happy to know that he was there with me again. It seemed that I saw Edward so often these days that any moment without him seemed to stretch out for an eternity.

"What are you thinking?" Edward asked, stroking some of my hair away from my face and sounding somewhat perplexed. The iciness of his fingertips didn't startle me.

"That I'm glad you're here," I admitted easily. "I'm also thinking that I've never been more in the Christmas spirit than I was tonight."

I could picture his smile without even having to look. All of Edward's emotions radiated off of him, or at least it seemed that way to me, and it wasn't hard to keep up with his moods that way. "I'm glad. I've never enjoyed a Christmas more in my new life than I did tonight."

"Do you remember Christmases before you were changed?" I asked curiously, opening my eyes to watch him.

"Bits and pieces." He paused as he seemed to think deeply about the little that he did remember. "I remember thinking about the war a lot during my last couple of Christmases. I remember decorating a tree with my parents when I was young. But it's hard to picture in my mind. It was so long ago."

I played with his hand thoughtfully. "Do you think they'll entirely go away at some point?"

"I don't know," he answered truthfully. "I can be certain, though, that Christmas could not have been more enjoyable than what I experienced with you tonight."

I sighed. "Now how am I supposed to get to sleep after you say something like that?"

"I could leave," he offered, acting as if he was going to get up and take off out the window. I didn't think he would, but just to be safe I clutched onto his forearm.

"Don't," I muttered. "It'll be even harder that way."

Edward laughed softly and relaxed next to me again. There were another few moments of silence in which I'm sure Edward thought I was asleep. I laid there with my eyes closed and then suddenly I felt myself smile.

"What are you thinking now?" Edward asked. I knew he was frustrated by his lack of ability to read my thoughts so I decided to be honest again.

"That I love you," I informed him without much ado. I could sense his smile again.

"I love you too," he agreed. Suddenly, he chuckled. "You'd better rest up. Alice plans on taking you shopping for a Christmas outfit tomorrow."