Do You Believe In Fate?

Disclaimer: None of these characters etc. belong to me. They all belong to the wonderful and amazing Stephanie Meyer. I don't think I could ever be that creative. Lol. Stephanie rules!

Author's Note: Hey everybody! Okay, this time I'm sure this is going to be the important chapter. I swear. Lol, anyways, this is the chapter where everyone goes to Edward's parents' house for Christmas. Lots of fun stuff to ensue! Lol, hope you like it!

Holiday Surprises

Holy shit! That was my first thought when I slapped off my alarm and saw the date. December 21; I was going to meet Edward's parents today! Aahh!!! I couldn't tell if I was more excited or terrified. Thanks to Alice and Rose, I was already packed – half with what I deemed necessary and half with what they deemed necessary. Now all I had to do was get dressed, grab my bags, and meet Edward at his place. I groaned.

I took a shower and let the hot water and familiar scent of my strawberry shampoo relax me. After drying it, I could tell with one glance that I would lose the battle with it. So I threw it up into a pony tail and was done with it. I went into my room, wrapped in a towel, to try and decide what to wear. "Morning sunshine!" Alice chirped. A few years ago, I would have squealed and run into the bathroom to preserve my modesty, but by now I was used to it.

"Morning Alice." I replied. "I can't decide what to wear." I said. I'd said the magic words. Alice bounced up to my closet, and dove into my clothing. She came out with a quarter sleeve deep green top, and a black knee length swirly-hem skirt. She presented them to me, and I grinned. "You're a life saver." I said. I kissed her cheek, which made her giggle, and then laid the clothes out on my bed. Then I turned back to face her. She was already dressed to impress, in a deep blue and silver dress that came to her calves, and off the shoulder pretty lightly ruffled sleeves. "You look very snazzy today." I said. She beamed.

"Thanks. I picked out my clothes last night so I wouldn't agonize over them this morning." She said. I laughed.

"I smart choice I will remember next time." I said. "I'll be out in just a minute." I said. She nodded, and danced back out of the room.

After getting dressed, and applying light makeup (as was advised by the fashion goddesses otherwise known as my roommates), I went into the living room. I saw that Rose was also looking her best. She'd pulled her hair into a side-swept ponytail, and was wearing dark grey slacks with and a soft gold top just a shade or two darker than her hair. I took a deep breath. "You girls ready?" I asked. They nodded. We loaded our stuff into our cars (which as you can imagine was heavy and tiresome work, considering who my friends were) and then headed over to the meet the guys.

The entire way there I had to force myself to stay calm. I mean, for crying out loud, it wasn't like I was going to meet the president, or a celebrity. No, but it wouldn't mean as much if I was meeting the president, I thought to myself. I realized the only reason I was so nervous was because it meant so much to me for Edward's parents to like me. It was obvious that he loved them; you could see that plainly every time he talked about them. So if he loved them, they were important to him, and therefore important to me. Not to mention that Edward was the old fashion type – pull out chairs, open car doors, and so on. That was one of the things I loved about Edward. Bringing the girlfriend home would be very important to someone like him. God I hope this goes well!

We got to the guys' place right on time, for once. I bundled myself up in my nice coat, and shivered. Damn it was cold! Alice, Rose, and I linked arms and huddled together for warmth, and walked up into the apartment. We walked up the stairs, and then split. Alice and Rose knocked on Em and Jazz's door, and I knocked on Edward's. Edward wrenched the door open, and grinned at me before picking me up and kissing me senseless. When he pulled away my head was spinning, and my body was swaying. "Wow. I take it you missed me?" I said meekly. Edward laughed.

"Well, that too. But mostly I'm excited. I can't wait for you to meet my family." He said. I smiled. Yep, I was right. This was very important to him.

"I can't either." I said truthfully. He smiled, and looked across the hall. It seemed as if Emmet and Jasper were thinking along the same lines as Edward, because all three of them were grinning charmingly and boyishly.

"Shall we?" he asked. The guys nodded, and all six of us headed out to the car. We piled mine, Jasper, Edward, and Emmet's stuff into his Volvo, and then Alice and Rosalie's stuff into Emmet's Jeep. This was the easiest arrangement, since Alice and Rose had packed so much crap. Alice, Jazz, and I were riding in the Volvo with Edward, and Em and Rose were taking his Jeep.

We all piled into our cars, and then headed out. It was only eight o'clock, so we had plenty of time to get to Forks. On regular conditions, it took about five hours to get there, but with snow, we had to be careful, which meant slow. And slow, meant that Edward was grumbling under his breath the entire way. He would never risk our safety and drive too quickly, but that didn't mean that he was happy about it. So to help pass the time, I'd brought along Alice's and mine favorite CD mixes, and we played slug bug. We started out with just light taps on the arm, but after a while it got really competitive, and when I could swear I could feel a bruise forming, I decided that was enough of that game.

We stopped about halfway there at a diner, and got some lunch, and Edward called his mom to check in. Apparently that was another thing our mothers had in common – they were both major worriers. Then we were back in the car. Once we were on the freeway and the chances of getting into an accident due to snow decreased, Edward held my hand. It was a casual gesture that he didn't seem to notice, but I did. It was little things like that that I had seen many of my friends take for granted. But I made myself notice. I looked at Edward, and really focused on the little things. Like the way his eyes got soft and far off when he was thinking, how his hair fell just so across his forehead, the soft lines of his mouth, the sharp angel of his cheekbones, the stone line of his jaw, and the broad strength of his shoulders.

Edward really was beautiful. Beautiful isn't a word most apply to men, but it was the first word that popped into the mind. But there was so much more under the surface. He was so selfless, considerate, caring, sweet, funny, and smart. He was incredibly smart. And he really cared about people. You could see it when he spoke, or when he looked at you. And when he held me, I felt like he would never hurt me, and never let me go. I trusted him, and I felt completely, and utterly safe.

The drive went by much quicker than I expected, though I think that had more to do with the fact I wanted to drag it out as long as possible, than anything else. We got to Forks around two, which we were all pretty happy about. None of us wanted to be driving in the dark in the snow. I'd been here a couple times, and not much had changed since. Everything looked comfortably familiar, and quiet. We drove by my dad's house, and I winced. He'd left everything the same too. Whenever I was there, I felt like he was waiting; waiting for my mom to come home. It felt kind of sad – that was one of the reasons I stopped coming. I felt like I reminded him too much of Renee, though I was more like Charlie; dark hair and eyes, shy, and a preference to being alone.

We drove a little ways out of town, and then turned down an almost nonexistent driveway. I was a little nervous. It was a privet driveway. "Um, Edward?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"What does your dad do for a living, exactly?" I asked. Edward's expression hardened briefly, but then became unreadable.

"He's in the family business. Both he and my Uncle are doctors." He said. I winced.

"Successful doctors?" I asked. He looked confused.

"Yes, why?" he asked. I didn't need to explain further, because right then we pulled out of the trees, and into a big open field. In the center of that field, was a big white house, straight off the cover of Home and Garden.

I could only gape. It was the most beautiful house I'd ever seen. The Masen house was shaded by cedar trees; a large white mansion three stories tall with a wrap-around-porch, with a river sneaking out of the trees to disappear behind the house again. It seemed eerily familiar. It felt like… like I'd been here before. I wondered if my dad had ever mentioned this place to me. I was stuck yet again with its size when I thought of my dad's modest sized home. "Oh my god." I whispered. Edward looked at me curiously.

"What?" I glared at him.

"Edward, you might have mentioned that you were rich!" I said. A strange expression came over his face. It was cold, and detached.

"What difference does it make?"

"Because now I feel frumpy!" I squeaked. Edward's expression cleared, and he laughed, and so did Alice and Jasper.

"Don't worry Bella, you look beautiful." Alice said. I just shook my head, and bit my lip. Now I was infinitely more nervous than I had been, and I didn't think that was possible. Edward and Jazz opened our doors for us, then we got out bags and caught up to Rose and Em. Alice grabbed some of her bags, and Jasper took the rest, and Emmet did the same.

We all walked up to the front door, and Edward unlocked the door. "Hello? We're home!" he called. We set our bags in the foyer, and Edward looked around. Then he noticed a small piece of paper on the table just inside the door. "They had to run out to get a few things. They'll be back in about an hour." He said. "That'll give us time to get settled then. Let's go." He said. We all picked up our things again, and went upstairs. The entire time we were walking through the house, I could swear I'd been there before. It was the strangest sensation.

"Emmet, Jasper, you can take your usual rooms." He said. They nodded, and headed down the hall. It seemed as if they knew this house as well as they knew their own. Edward looked at me. "You can share my old room with me… if you want." He said. I smiled.

"Like I'd want to sleep anywhere else?" I asked. He grinned.

Before Edward could lead the way, my body went on autopilot. I headed down the hall, and stopped in front of a door. Before I could open it, Edward stopped me. "Bella?" he asked. I looked up at him. He was frowning.

"Huh?"

"How did you know which room was mine?" he asked. I blinked in surprise.

"Oh. I don't know. I was kind of on autopilot." I said. He shook his head as if to clear it and then we went in. When we entered his room, I gasped. The entire south wall was glass, and it overlooked the river. It was beautiful. "Wow." I said. Edward smiled.

"The whole wall is like that, not just this one." He said.

"It's amazing." I said. Then the strangest thing happened. I had a sudden flash, as if a memory or dream suddenly recalled. I saw myself, when I was very, very young. I was standing in front of the glass wall, by tiny hands and nose pressed eagerly against the glass, peering out at the world with a look of awe.

"Bella? Bella." Edward called, shaking me slightly.

"What? What?" I asked, startled. He smiled.

"You were spacing out. Are you okay?" he asked. I smiled, and nodded. I shook off the strange vision. It was impossible. I hadn't lived in Forks for more than a month after I was born, and I'd never been to this house any of the times I'd visited.

Edward and I unpacked, and it felt… nice. It felt warm, and comfortable. Our clothes were side by side in closets, and had neighboring drawers, and there were two toothbrushes on the bathroom counter. I was smiling the entire time we unpacked.

After we were done, we met up with the others, and the guys gave us a grand tour of the house, complete with stories of mischief that occurred in each room. Downstairs, we walked past a piano, and I wanted to ask Edward which person in his family was musical, but I was suddenly distracted. Em, Rose, Jazz, and Alice had already moved onto the next room, but I was rooted in place. I stared at the wall behind the piano, which was in the front room. I stared, and for some reason couldn't look away. Even when Edward called to me. "Bella?"

There was a picture. It was off a young boy, and a young girl, neither of them more than four. They were sleeping, curled up together in the grass. The girl was resting her head on his chest, her curly brown hair falling into her face, her tiny hand fisted in his shirt. The boy's wavy bronze hair fell into his eyes, and he had one skinny arm under his head as a pillow.

I stared for a long time, frowning. Why did this one picture seem so important? Why did I feel as if it was everything? I stared, and searching the very ends of my memory, trying to find some hint as to what this picture meant to me. And then it hit me.

Memories flew past my widened eyes, and I gasped. I squeezed my eyes shut again, and tried to focus on the flying images. Edward and me as children, playing together in my father's backyard, sitting together on his porch on the swing, laughing, crying together. Crying together… Edward was running towards the back of my car, he fell… I had wept for him. My eyes flew open. Edward!

Ending Note: Yay! Cliffy!! They are so much fun. Lol. Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I was very busy. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but hopefully soon. Thanks again to everyone whose faved, reviewed, and read. You rock!! Peace!! ~~~~~~~~:D~~~~~~~~