So there is five more chapters to post, so that means there will be a double up somewhere in there, since we said the entire story would be posted by Christmas Eve. Maybe it will be today ... maybe tomorrow or the next, but sometime between now and the 24th of December (US central standard time) there will be two chapters posted in one day.

Chapter 11

The last four days have flown by quickly, and Bella and I have just gotten our discharge papers. While I'm happy to be getting out, I'm unsure of where I'll be living.

Yesterday, Charlie informed me that my mom and Ed failed to pay rent and have been evicted. He was able to get in and get as much of Morgan's and my belongings as he could. I don't have any money left since my mom and Ed cleaned out my account almost the second they found out I was missing. I can't even afford to live in a motel.

So this leaves me with the homeless shelters. I hate the thought of staying in one of them, but I'm deeply grateful to know Morgan will be safe in Bella's home.

"Edward?" I'm brought out of my thoughts by Bella.

"Hey, are you all set to leave?" I ask as I put my hands in my pockets.

"I am, are you ready to go?"

I look around the room and lift my bag. "Yeah," I say as I take her bag from her.

The walk down to the car park is quiet and I frown as Charlie takes my bag along with Bella's from me.

"Chief, that one's mine," I say pointing at it.

"I know, get in," he says and I frown, but get in the car.

"Are you okay?"

I turn and look at Bella. "Yes, I'm fine ... just ... it's nothing," I say. I don't want to pull her down, or have her worrying about me.

Charlie pulls up outside of their house and grabs both bags walking inside.

"Are you coming? Morgan's dying to show you her room."

I chuckle and nod at Charlie.

My mouth drops open a little as I see what used to be the spare room. The whole room is now all pink and purple and very girlie."

"This looks amazing baby girl." Morgan runs into my arms smiling.

"It the best room ever," she says and nods.

I kiss her head and place her back down on her feet.

"Bella, Edward?" Charlie says with a nod toward Bella's room.

We both follow him and walk inside Bella's room. "Edward you are twenty-six, but there's no smoking in this house. We expect you to respect our home and everyone in it. We also expect you to take a share in housework and cooking. Now this here is one of those Futon sofa beds. Right now it just looks like a small sofa, but it folds out to a decent sized bed."

"What?" is all I'm able to say.

"This little sofa ... it unfolds into a bed."

I look at him confused and he sighs. "Edward, we would rather you and Bella didn't share a bed. And before you say you're not doing anything, Bella, we know that. We also know that you sleep better with him near you than you have slept in all the years you've lived here. We're just pointing out that the sofa folds out into a bed."

"I'm sharing a room with you?" I gasp out as I look at Bella.

"Morgan was settled in her room. I thought since we're getting along better that you wouldn't mind?" Bella says quickly.

"You want me to stay?" I say feeling my heart thumping hard.

"Yes, my dad told me that you're moving in with us until you found your own place?"

I shake my head at her. "You really want me to stay?" I say turning to Charlie.

"Sorry, Son, of course we want you to stay. I thought I said that when I told you about your place."

I shake my head at him.

"Well, we thought you and Morgan could stay here with us for now. We were talking about the price of decent places, and I thought instead of you and Morgan taking any old place, I could do up the basement so you had space just for you. You still have your job at Aro's and you could take your time saving money so your and Morgan's first home would be a nice place—a house that you could call a home."

"Thank you," I say hugging him, which takes him by surprise for a few seconds, but he hugs me back.

"I will not let you down; I swear to you, I will make you proud, all of you."

Charlie and Renee run through a list of rules that I know I can live with. When they're done, they walk out the door, but leave it open. Bella rolls her eyes closing it.

"You're really okay with sharing with me for a few weeks?"

"Yes," I say pulling her to me.

"I thought since we've only got a week until Christmas, we could go out tomorrow and get a tree, with Morgan?"

"Really?" I ask excited.

"Yeah?"

"I've never had a real Christmas tree before. You know what the home was like ..."

Bella nods and I'm sure the image of the twig they called a tree comes to her mind, too.

"Edward," Morgan says opening the door and walking into Bella's room. "Can you come and have a tea party with me and my teddies?"

I look to Bella who tilts her head.

"You bet," I say picking her up and carrying her back to her room.

"How are you, baby girl?"

"I'm okay, Edward. I love living here, it's the best, and Charlie lets me play in his car and I even got to switch on the lights."

"Wow," I say as I smile at her.

"Oh and Renee, she lets me make cakes and cookies for my class. Since I brought them in and had nice smelling clothes, I even made new friends."

I smile at her – even though it hurts me knowing I wasn't able to give her all of these same things daily. I made sure her clothes got washed every week, but she only had a few things she could wear to school. Taking food wasn't an option since we barely could keep it on our own table.

"I sent a letter to Santa, and Sally said he'd be at the mall tomorrow. Can we go see him? There's no school tomorrow!"

"Sure," I say trying to work out how I can get money to take her. Even with Charlie and Renee being so welcoming toward Morgan and me, I don't want to ask them for any more than what they've already given us. As for Bella, I owe her too much already.

Morgan keeps talking as we play; she's telling me everything she thinks I've missed.

"Edward, Aro is here to see you," Bella says as she peeks in the door. "Morgan, would you like to help me set the table for dinner?"

"Yes," Morgan says jumping up.

I get up and walk out with Morgan and Bella.

"Hi," I say seeing Aro standing there.

"Edward, good to see you up and alive. I'm just here to drop this off." He hands me an envelope. "I also wanted to tell you that I don't expect you back to work until the fifth of January."

I look in the envelope seeing money.

"What?"

"That's your pay you're due. I didn't want to put it into your bank account with you being missing."

"But, there's more than my normal monthly pay in here?" I say knowing I still had a week to work before payday, meaning I should only have three weeks' wages coming at most.

"You've worked for me for four years now. That means you're entitled to get sick pay. You had enough compiled to pay for two months' wages. I've paid you right up to the fifth of January, and there's also your Christmas bonus in there."

"Thank you," I say taken a little aback by this.

"It's fine; let me know soon if you don't feel you're able to come back on the fifth and we'll work something out."

"No, Sir, I'll be there." Aro gives me a nod; he waves at the rest of them before walking out.

I look at the money seeing I have close to four grand here. I take half of it putting it in my pocket before turning to the Swans.

"Renee, Charlie, I know we never talked about rent or payment, but here," I say handing the envelope to them.

"What's this?" Renee asks.

"Aro dropped off my wages – he said he gave me sick pay and a bonus, too. I have kept some so I can get stuff for Christmas, and put some away, but I would like you to have the rest."

Renee shakes her head giving it back to me.

"Please," I plead, "I want to pay my own way; I've always paid my way."

Charlie takes the money, counts out five hundred dollars, and then hands the rest back to me.

"The way I see it, three hundred a month is more than enough for rent, food and then two hundred for the clothes you needed. You put the rest in your savings."

"But—"

"No buts. I paid my mom three hundred a month, Renee was the same. We take three hundred a month from Bella, you are no different."

"But Morgan—"

"The state is paying us money for her to stay here with us until you are on your feet, so there's no need for you to top it up, son. Stop worrying, you're paying your way."

"Thanks," I say and he nods.

~SQ~

I wake up feeling rested, and see Bella is just waking up as well.

"Morning," I say reaching out and moving her hair from her face.

"Morning," Bella says along with a yawn.

"You want a shower or have breakfast first?"

"Shower," I say after thinking it over for a few minutes.

"Okay," Bella says.

I wait until she has left the room before getting out of the bed and into the shower.

I enjoy my first long, warm shower at home, in what feels like forever. Once I've shaved and gotten dressed, I walk into the kitchen and see everyone is there.

Charlie looks up at me and points at the chair next to Morgan. I move to it sitting down just as Renee places a plate of food down.

"I'm doing a double today and your mom's in court all day. I know you're planning on getting a tree, so I'll leave my truck for Edward to drive. We also need you to do the grocery shopping today."

"Do you have a list or do you need me to make it?" Bella asks.

"I have done one, but add anything you know we need that's not on it," Renee says looking between Bella and me.

"Edward, if you can do a little maintenance around the yard for me today, I'd be grateful. Everything you'd need is in the garage."

I nod at him.

"And, don't let this one," Charlie points to Bella, "try and put the outside lights up. The last time she did she fell off the roof."

I turn to look at Bella and she glares at her dad. "It was not the real roof, just the little one above our front door."

"Yeah, and she also overloaded the plug socket and gave the full street a blackout," Charlie says looking right at me.

"It only lasted an hour," Bella says a little glumly.

"We had no lights last Christmas, and it was so cold," Morgan says.

Charlie looks to her and swallows. "Mom forgot to pay our bills," I say quickly. I know Charlie, Renee and even Bella will know when I said forgot – I mean she spent the money on booze.

"Do you think Santa will know where we are?" Morgan asks after a few minutes.

"I already called him, he knows," Charlie says and Morgan turns looking at him.

"You ... know ... Santa?"

"Yes, of course I know Santa. I make sure he's safe while he's in my town."

Morgan looks at Charlie and he looks right back at her.

"Can I give you a letter to give to him?" Morgan asks after a few minutes have passed.

"We'll see him at the mall," I remind her.

"That's not the real Santa, that'll be just a man dressed up like him. I sent a letter along with my class, but if Charlie knows him then I know he'll get it this time."

I sigh and rub her back.

"You can give me the letter and I'll make sure he gets it," Charlie says folding his paper.

Morgan runs off quickly to get her letter and when she comes back, she gives it to Charlie.

"Okay, I'm off to work," Charlie says standing up. He gives Renee a kiss, and then kisses Bella's and Morgan's heads. "Here is my card, get whatever we need at the store," he says to Bella. Turning to me, he hands me a set of keys. "Don't let her drive," he says moving his eye to Bella.

I look to Bella who has a blush on her face. "Why, what am I missing now?" I ask holding back my chuckle.

"She drove backward into the precinct."

The chuckle I was holding bursts out. I had heard about someone crashing backwards into the police station, but never would I have imagined it was Bella that did it.

"It's not my fault – you left the truck in reverse."

"On that note, I should leave too," Renee says standing up holding in her chuckles. "I'll see you all later," she says kissing Bella then Morgan and she even surprises me with a kiss to the top of my head.

"Okay, moving on, what should we do first; get a tree, or shopping at the mall?" Bella asks looking between us.

"Oh wait, if we're getting a real tree, we could go to the tree farm, choose it, go shopping and then go back and pick it up," I say.

"Can we get a big one?" I look to Morgan who looks very excited as she waits for an answer.

Bella nods. "Yes, but I need to get washed and dressed. You, too, Morgan, and then we can leave." Bella gets up clearing the table.

I jump up helping her and soon the dishes are in the dishwasher. Bella goes into the bathroom and I walk Morgan to her room.

I watch as she pulls out what is clearly new clothes. "Where did these all come from?" I ask looking at the warm winter jacket.

"Renee took me out when you were in hospital, to get some new stuff we needed."

"Did you remember to say thank you?"

Morgan bobs her head and then looks to the ground.

"What's wrong?" I ask lifting her chin back up.

"Do you think I'm bad?"

I shake my head at her. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't miss Mom or Dad, and like living here so much better."

"That's okay to feel like that, too, baby. I don't miss them or the old apartment either," I tell her as I hug her.

"I missed you so much. I like living here more now, especially with you and Bella back."

I kiss her head.

"Can you help me make them all something?"

"I can," I tell her.

"It needs to be special."

"It will be, as long as you want it for them. I think they are the kind of people that are happy and pleased when someone gives them a gift, especially one from the heart."

"Why can't Renee and Charlie be our mom and dad?"

I feel my heart sink a little and I'm unsure what to say in response. I've always known deep down that Morgan wanted a mom and dad more than anything. I've only seen Charlie and Renee with her a few times, but they've shown her more love in each of those times than what Mom and Ed have shown her throughout her life.

A/N: So things are looking up for Edward, and Morgan is thriving in the Swan household. What are your thoughts?