Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Chapter 40 Trees

Victoria POV

"Yes, he turned off a few miles ago. Their house. Good. At the hospital then? Well, I suppose he works there like he did at the hospital in Forks. I smell it too, their scent is all over town. Yes. No, I'm going to watch a little longer then we'll go and find someone for dinner. No, I'm in town. I can see the valley from here, about 4 miles to their house. Clear view. Yes. Meet me at the damn on Mirror Lake and we'll see if anyone is out camping in this weather. Okay, I love you too. Bye Riley."

So, Highlands, North Carolina, I thought as I got comfortable in the top of the old oak by the cliff. Well, it's almost across the continent completely from from Forks and every bit as rural. Good choice, I suppose, though it's too far South for me, too much of a chance of sunshine to be out in the open all the time.

Alice POV

"It's just perfect", Bella told Esme and I, "I love the garland over the fireplace and everything you've done to make our house bright and totally decorated to the max for Christmas!"

"Well, it would look much better if there was a TREE to put presents under!", I chided Bella.

Honestly, she had kept only that one task for herself and Edward to do and there was still no tree! I understood the sentiment of course, picking their first Christmas tree out together and decorating it but please, the overall look of the room was just so wrong without the tree done yet!

"What's that about a tree?", Edward said as he walked into the room.

"Alice was just fussing because I insisted that you and I pick out our own tree, that's all", Bella answered.

"Well, no time like the present", he said as he walked over and put his arms in what seemed to be their permanent home around Bella. "I'll borrow the jeep from Emmett so that we can throw the tree on top to get it home," Edward suggested.

Bella gave him a look, it was just the cutest thing. My brother was so clueless sometimes.

"Unless you want me to carry it back from town".

"What?", he said, realization of the teasing he was about to receive from his wife for how enamored he was with his cars dawning on him. "You wouldn't REALLY expect me to tie a tree to the top of the Volvo would you, much less the R8?", Edward feigned horror replying to her unspoken words. "You're right though, love. I should buy us a truck for when just such things as this come up!"

My brother couldn't read her mind, but he knew her well enough to have the sense to duck out the front door as she started after him, obviously intending to pour the water in the glass she was holding all over him.

She turned to face the smiles and laughter from all those in the room and milling around the kitchen, still nibbling on leftovers from breakfast and having more coffee. Her father was outright laughing from the display he had just witnessed.

"Honestly, him and his cars. Two of us yet we have three cars. Next thing you know, he'll be wanting to add on to the garage!", Bella declared as she closed the front door after him.

"Great idea", I heard him say as he took off up the hill to borrow the jeep, though I doubt Bella could have heard him.

I decided that Jacob, Charlie, Renee and Phil could use a tour of Highlands as well as a last minute shopping opportunity while Bella and Edward went for their tree, so I urged them all to get their coats and let's get moving! Next thing you know, they would all be wanting lunch. Damn. That just dawned on me. Maybe Esme would come along and we would just treat them to lunch in town., Honestly, our way of just feeding once a week was far more convenient

~oooOooo~

EPOV

"What about this one, love?", I said as I pointed out a nice Douglas Fir about 8 feet tall.

"That one's pretty, but let's look around some", she said taking my hand and all but pulling me along to the next row of trees.

"This one is pretty", she said, smiling and looking to me for an opinion.

"It's bare in the back. Where are we putting the tree, anyway? If it's against a wall, it won't matter that one side is bare", I suggested.

"Edward, it has to be perfect no matter where we put it!", Bella exclaimed, smiling and almost running down the next and the next row of trees.

She was so adorable. I loved her more with each new experience we shared together and picking out a Christmas tree was no exception. We both disliked the long needled evergreens, preferring either the Douglas or Frasier Fir or even Spruce. All the trees seemed either tall and thin or short and full. Bella wanted tall and full, and that was the source of the delay in picking one. We walked around in the cold for an hour or so, looking at the different trees and sneaking kisses among them. I could stay out in the weather indefinitely as it had no effect on me, the same was not true, however, for Bella and I soon noticed her cheeks were quite red and she was shivering.

"Baby, we need to just pick one", I said nuzzling her face with mine, knowing I was going to have my work cut out for me getting her to choose. "It's all in the decorating, anyway and we need to have some time left to go and buy lights and ornaments", I added as a way of getting her to think of all the other things we needed to do as well as pick a tree.

"Well, she said as we stood at the front of the lot, "Let's just get that one then, if that's okay with you."

Done. It was the very first tree I had suggested when we arrived an hour and a half ago. I Thought it, but I was uncertain if she realized it or not and I was not about to jeopardize our chances of leaving soon by telling her that.

I put the tree on the roof, not needing any assistance from the guys at the lot, and tied it down for the drive back down the mountain. Bella got in the jeep and I made sure the heat was on high to try and warm her, she was still shaking and holding her close to me would do nothing but make her colder.

The Christmas Store was just down the street, off Main Street in downtown Highlands. It was a store totally dedicated to everything needed to decorate for Christmas and was stocked year round with twinkling lights, trains moving along tracks set up around the ceiling of the store, and several dozen trees decorated with ornaments that were for purchase. From all appearances looking in the windows, Santa's elves had outdone themselves cramming all things Christmas into the shop and decorating it to perfection. It dripped yuletide cheer, garland, lights and red. Lots of red, from the velvet and satin ribbons and bows threaded through the greenery, to the shining balls on the trees and the color of the peppermint twists that hung everywhere.

I grabbed a basket and we chose white lights for our tree, both liking the look of the ornaments to have the color on the tree, not the lights. Ten strands should do it and a tree stand, now the ornaments. Bella had extremely eclectic tastes going from those ornaments that had biblical significance to cartoon characters, shiny and modern looking stainless steel to the old antique glass ornaments with pictures hand painted on them. The tree would be amazing and I realized at that moment that I would buy a special ornament for each year we were together, something that represented the year for us or some place we had traveled. This year I spotted an amazingly intricate carving of a palm tree on a beach and I thought it perfect, as I would never forget her telling me we were having a child and we had been on a palm tree laden island at the time.

"Edward, I know you don't like me to say anything, but some of these ornaments are really expensive in this little shop. It's a specialty store, after all, and they can be quite pricey", Bella whispered.

"True, love. But this is a resort town and there isn't any other store for miles around where we can buy ornaments. I like these anyway, don't you?", I asked her.

She gave me the cutest, shyest smile. I knew what that meant. She loved them but she was unaccustomed to spending what these would cost.

"Bella, do you remember the stock sale yesterday and the one last week?", I whispered into her ear. "You can spend as much as you want, it doesn't matter. You can have anything you want, love", I quietly reassured her.

She frowned and still looked like she couldn't make up her mind.

"You remember the stock in Ford that you sold, think of it as using that. You can invest and make more anytime you choose, love. Buy what you want, please? This is for us, for our home and our very first Christmas. I want you to have anything and everything you want", I said, kissing her lips.

"Edward, I have everything I want", she said giving me a squeeze, "I have you."

"That you do, love. Forever", I whispered into her lips as I kissed her again.

The smile that covered her face was the best present I could have gotten this year, second to her having our child. We decided that the tree needed at least a couple hundred ornaments to look full and I grabbed another basket to fill as we continued to shop.

"Bella!", her Mom's voice rang out across the store.

"Mom, you guys are in town to shop?", she asked as Renee and Phil walked over to us.

"Yes, we all came in to do some last minute shopping. I see you two are getting things to trim your tree, they have some gorgeous things here", Renee told her.

"They do", she replied as we all walked around the displays, Bella and I placing various ornaments into our basket.

"So where are the rest of the group, Mom", Bella asked.

"Esme and Alice are in that store with all the antiques and furnishings from asia, apparently ordering fabric of some sort and we left Jacob and your father in the Highland Hiker", Renee answered. "Highland Hiker?", Bella looked at her confused, "When did Dad ever like hiking?"

Renee looked at her daughter as though the answer were obvious and replied, "They sell fishing supplies as well."

"Oh", Bella said as she drew the word out and laughed.

Her mom picked out a couple of things, one that she wanted to buy for Bella, and we headed to check out of the store. The sales people had wrapped and bagged our other ornaments and there were several large handled bags waiting behind the counter as they added the contents of our current basket to them. Renee's eyes widened when she saw all the bags the sales associate scooted towards me.

Don't say anything, don't say anything.

Bella just spent more on ornaments than we make in a month.

God, he doesn't even care if she spends money!

That boy is so good to her, their baby will never want for anything.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the thoughts going through Renee's headed and I leaned to nuzzled my face into the top of Bella's head to hide my amusement as we waited for the receipt. Bella didn't even flinch as she signed the receipt for her credit card.

"How about some hot chocolate?", I asked as we exited the store. "There is a little place on the corner, just there", I said as I gestured across the street, "I'll meet you there as soon as I put these packages in the car."

Bella and her Mom and Phil headed off to the coffee shop. I had a quick stop to make at the jewelers and I thought I might just have the time to get away with going there unnoticed if I did it quickly, well, human speed that is.

"Um, this is good", Bella commented to her Mom.

"You look really good, baby", Renee told Bella as they sipped their drinks.

I was listening, of course, before I ever entered the store. Renee was truly happy for her daughter and seemed to like me as well, though there was something about me that was unsettling to her. She hadn't figured out quite what that was, and I hoped to keep her from dwelling on it too much during our visit. Renee worried that we were biting off too much, but she accepted our decisions and treated Bella as more of an adult than her father ever had. It was funny to me that even in her mind she thought of Bella as her middle aged daughter, and I guess in some ways she was.

"Ready to go", I asked as I came to their table.

"Don't you want some hot chocolate, Edward? It's cold outside!", Renee asked.

"I'm good, and I can steal some sips of Bella's, anyway", I told her as I smiled slyly at my wife.

Bella and I left, excusing ourselves to get home and get the lights on our tree so that we could all place ornaments on it after dinner. She wanted decorating the tree to be something of a family affair and I had no objection. I would get it set up and the lights on it, help Bella with dinner, then we could all decorate this evening. I could even make a fire to have an even cozier evening for her. Anything she wanted. Anything.

As we passed the Christmas Store, we both stopped, seeming to realize at the same time that we had forgotten something. "We need hooks for the ornaments", I said. "And we need an angel for the top, or a star!", Bella added. Back into the store we went.

~oooOooo~

Charlie POV

I was sitting in their recliner watching a game when Edward came through the door with a hell of a big tree, not even asking for help with it.

"Whoa there, son. Let me get a hand on it", I said, jumping up from the chair and rushing to the door.

"Thanks, Charlie", he said as we sat the tree in the window by the fireplace. The furniture had been moved to create an empty spot and I guessed this is what it had been for.

The boy secured the tree in the stand and when we both agreed it was straight he started putting lights on it. Bella had come in with several bags and I went to the car and helped her bring the rest into the house.

"You guys buy out the store?", Dad asked as he surveyed all the bags of things we had just brought in.

"Not quite the entire store, Dad. How did you get home ahead of us? We just left Phil and Renee in town?", Bella asked.

"Esme drove Jake and me back, then went to get the others. Jake wanted to take a ride and look around, and there was a game on", I told her as I sat back to watch the game, content to observe.

It didn't take the kid long to put all the lights on the tree and he did a good job. The tree looked real nice there in the window and I guessed that all those bags were things to put on the tree.

The game ended and I noticed I was the only one that had been watching. Edward was in the kitchen helping Bella get dinner ready. Huh. Guess I liked that he helped her all the time, didn't seem to mind it either. He was smiling and laughing with her while he cut up vegetables for her. Well, that was a good thing. St lest he knew to keep sharp knives away from her whenever possible, she always had been a little accident prone, cutting herself and falling down a lot.

I had to chuckle to myself thinking of her growing up, always a skinned knee and a bruised shin. I don;t have a single memory of her without some kind of scrape or injury. Wonder if their kid will be like that, or if he will be like Edward, move self assured and without being clumsy.

Their kid. Hum. That one was hard to swallow. I was worried about him getting that close to her to begin with, now look. He got her pregnant. Guess they didn't intent it, though. Carlisle had told them he couldn't have kids and she married him anyway. It wasn't like they planned to have a baby this young, or even like they were careless. A doctor told them they didn't need to use protection since he couldn't father a child . . . that's a pretty sure thing, pretty well count on it if your doctor says so.

That was a conversation I would have like to have heard, her telling him she was pregnant. Boy had to have flipped out, figured she ran around on him or something since he knew he couldn't have fathered it. He didn't seem like he would have thought that about her, though. Still. Had to be one hell of a conversation between them.

It wasn't long before the rest of the crew arrived back home carrying small packages of their own and Jake came roaring back down the drive on that damned bike of his. Dinner was good, as always when Bella cooked and the Cullen's had disappeared to their house for the evening. It was just Bella's family here, and Jake.

"Time to decorate the tree!", Bella said almost bouncing up and down with excitement.

It was kind of fun, all of us unwrapping ornaments that they had purchased and finding the perfect place on the tree for each and every one of them. When I looked at the number of bags, I wasn't sure the tree would hold all that, but when the last piece was hung, there was still plenty of room for more.

"Just the right amount, love", Edward had told Bella, "Room for us to add a new one each year we're together from now on."

Bella turned to him and told him she loved him right there in front of all of us and kissed the boy. She really did love that boy, that was obvious. What Carlisle had told me about him leaving partly because he wanted her to have a family, have a happy life and he thought he couldn't give her that, give her children that is . . . well maybe he did have his reasons for leaving. Maybe he was trying to look after her best interests, wanting her to be happy. She sure as hell had been anything but happy though, after he left.

Alice had told me something about how bad off he had been without her, when she had first come to my house back before we found Bella she had told me he nearly hadn't survived the separation. I didn't listen at the time, didn't care. All I saw was my daughter, broken after that boy left her. I never thought about what it took for him to love her like that and leave her anyway thinking she would be better off without him. Damn. I never saw it that way, but the look on his face . . . every time he even glances at her it's obvious for all to see. The boy really does love her, I'll give him that.

~oooOooo~

Victoria POV

I stared into their front window. I could see it from my perch, though they would not be able to spot me at this distance. I saw them all, laughing and smiling, decorating that tree.

How long had it been since I had a home, since I stayed in the same place for very long at all. Hotels for a few days at a time, when one of dinners had credit cards on them that I used to pay for it with. Houses of my victims where I stayed to clean up, maybe take some clothes to change into.

I remembered having a home as a child, at least I thought I remembered it. It was a warm feeling, kind of fuzzy though. Human memories were vague at best.

James and I never settled down, always traveling like nomads, moving from meal to meal and staying in the forests and outskirts of towns. These vampires didn't live like that, though. They owned homes and nice cars and had possessions. Possessions. It seemed like a foreign word. It wasn;t possible to have possessions when you had no way of earning money, and no place to keep them. How did these Cullens do it, have money to buy these things. They didn't steal, and they didn't kill humans to get it.

He had his arms around her. His mate. I could see them clearly in the window, standing there kissing. My anger boiled. I missed kissing. I had Riley, of course . . . but that wasn't James. James knew how to kiss, how to treat a woman. He had been my mate for decades and I was lost without him.

Edward had to pay, I had to make him feel this hurt, this loss. Somehow, I just wanted to figure them out first, see what made them tick. I was every bit as intelligent as they were and if they could find a way to live like this, to actually have a settled life, I could do it as well.

The thought if having a house, cars, clothing . . . I just had to figure out how they did it, learn their secrets. I could do that. I could watch and learn, then kill her. If I had to go through my existence without my mate, I would at least have a way of changing my life for the better . . . then I would end her, and ruin his life forever . . .

~oooOooo~

Jasper POV

She was standing on the deck, looking out over the valley. I wouldn't normally have said anything, but she had been standing there ever since they got back from town last night and it was nearly sunrise. She was perfectly still as only a vampire could be.

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her neck.

"Would you like to spend some time with me, Darlin'?", I whispered into her ear as I kissed down her neck towards her throat.

She rubbed my hands that were clasped in front of her before turning around to face me.

"I would love to spend some time with you. Did you finish your book?", she asked as she laid her head against my chest.

"I did, and another as well. I didn't want to disturb you, you looked deep in thought", I told her, kissing her lips softly.

"I can't see, Jasper. Everything is somewhat foggy since Jacob arrived. It has to be him, the wolves fog up my vision and he's a member of that tribe. That has to be why I could never see where Bella was while we were looking for her, she was with him and I can't see him!"

"That would make sense, Darlin'. It would explain a lot. Especially how hard it was to find Bella and how you haven't been able to keep a clear view of Victoria. Victoria has been shadowing Jacob to find out where Bella was, and you couldn't see because she was close to him", I told her.

"We will all need to be on guard, Jasper, maybe even have someone watching their house all the time. She could be here. I might not see her!", Alice cautioned.

"Calm down, Darlin'. Let's go let Edward know what we think so that he'll be on guard as well. He hasn't had any more of those instances of 'sleeping' has he?", I asked her.

"Not lately, but they are a regular thing for him when he's with her. I'm sure once her hears my latest thoughts about Victoria, he won't be sleeping at all. It's almost morning and I can go with you when you get Charlie to go fishing and I'll tell Edward then."

"Maybe we should cancel the fishing today", I offered.

"No, you and Emmett go with Charlie so that there are two of you to protect him. Esme, Rose and I need to talk to Bella about the baby room anyway. There will be four of us with her, so she'll be fine!", Alice said, "We'll just stick to the day we had planned, but keep our ears open, okay baby?"

"Anything you say, Darlin'. Now, could you say just a little less for the next few minutes?", I asked as I picked her up and headed to our bed.