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Chapter 14

"Edward, Bella ..."

I wake up as Morgan shakes me.

"I heard a noise. I think Santa's here."

"What?" I say looking at the clock to see that it's almost seven in the morning.

"Baby, I'm sure that wasn't—"

I'm cut off by a loud chuckle.

"See," Morgan whispers.

"Come on, let's go and see," Bella says moving off of the bed with a grin on her face.

All three of us walk slowly down the stairs.

"I think we should wake Charlie up; he has a gun after all," I say worried about the noises.

"Why would he shoot Santa?"

"Baby?"

"Look, snowy foot prints," Morgan yells pointing at the floor where there seems to be some snow.

"What?" I say in a confused tone.

"Oh ..." I look up seeing the same Santa that was at the mall.

"Santa?" Morgan yells.

"Oh no," Santa says looking at his watch. "I'm running late again."

I look at the Santa's face, and then the more he talks the more I realize that I know him.

"You're the real Santa?" Morgan asks and Santa nods and she runs from my side to him. "Can you stay for a bit?"

"Only for a little bit. I can watch you open some of your gifts, is that okay?"

Morgan seems pleased about this and jumps up and down.

"Do you want your usual hot chocolate, Santa?"

"Please, Bella," Santa says.

I follow Bella into the kitchen. "What's going on?" I ask.

"Santa's staying for a cup of hot chocolate as Morgan opens her gifts?"

Bella and I walk back into the living room to see that Renee and Charlie are now up, sitting and talking to Morgan and Santa.

"What about you, Edward, my boy?"

I swallow before my mouth drops open. "A—"

I am cut off by Bella slapping her hand over my mouth and she gives me a nod to say I'm right. I kiss her hand and grin at her.

"Okay, now we're all here – you can open your gifts," Santa says.

We watch as Morgan opens several packages. She gets new clothes and some art and crafting supplies. She even got a Barbie house and some Barbie dolls. She opens what looks like it may be a book and squeals out and runs into Renee's arms, hugging her. When she turns to me, I can see how excited and happy she is.

"Edward, I got a kindle to read and play games on," Morgan says joyfully.

"That's amazing," I tell her with a big smile. I'm so pleased to see her so delighted.

"Aren't you opening your gifts?" Aro, who's dressed like Santa, asks me.

"Here you are," Morgan says as she hands me a large gift bag.

Renee, Charlie and Santa brought me an iPad, good work boots, more clothes, CDs and books. Aro, also known as Santa, then hands me an envelope and I open it. I'm blown away by what I see. He's set it up for me to have a full course as an architect apprentice.

"How?"

"A bird told me it's your dream job. I've seen some of your sketches, so I know this is something you can do. It'll have you working part-time and doing this part-time, but in the end it will be worth it."

"Thank you," I say.

Aro nods at me.

"Well, I need to be going; I still have some children to visit. How about I see you again next year, Morgan?" He gives her a big hug and then he shuffles out the door. My eyes widen as I hear what sounds like sledge bells, and there's even a flash of light that goes across the window.

"Fireworks," Bella whispers in my ear.

"Does he do this every year?"

"Yes, he's off to the home now; don't you remember him coming by?"

I shake my head at her.

"It must have started the year you left then."

Bella looks down to the ground and I kiss her head.

Bella and I help make breakfast, and as soon as we are done, Charlie and Renee settle down to play a game with Morgan.

"Come with me," I say taking Bella back to our room.

Once we are on the bed I pass her the gift bag.

"This is for you," I say and she passes me a bag in return.

I watch her take out the photo album first and she looks through it taking her time.

"So many memories," she whispers at the end.

She looks at me. "A gift for a gift, so now it's your turn."

I nod at her and open the first one I come to. Like me, she gave me a photo album, only this is full of pictures of Morgan and me.

Bella cries when she opens the second gift, it's the new frame I made her. I even put the same photo back in it.

"I'm sorry I broke the first one we made."

Bella shakes her head and hugs me. "Thank you," she says.

My next gift is a cup that has a photo of Bella, Morgan and me with Santa Aro.

"I've done this for you," I say handing her the drawing. In the picture is Bella, Morgan and me outside what I know is Bella's idea of a dream home.

"How did you remember?" Bella asks looking at the house.

"It's strange that once I remembered you, everything came back to me. Everything we talked and dreamed about. This is my goal, before I'm thirty, to build you that house."

Bella runs her hands softly over the picture.

"It looks so beautiful," she whispers.

"You're beautiful."

Bella looks up at me and smiles with unshed tears in her eyes. "Okay, I got you this," she says handing me a wrapped gift. I open it to see it's a new watch. I take it out seeing that she has had it engraved with Little Bit and Edward, forever friends.

"Thank you," I say kissing her cheek.

"I have one more sort of. Well ... it's really more of a question," Bella stutters out.

I tilt my head and Bella closes her eyes.

"Would you like to go out with me on New Year's Eve?"

"On a date?" I ask excitedly.

Bella bites her lip and nods. I jump off the bed and grab the box with her ring in it.

"You don't have to. I mean it doesn't have to be a date, date."

"I want it to be a date, here," I say handing her the box. She opens it and gasps seeing the ring.

"It's a promise ring. I promise to always be your friend first, to always strive to make you happy, to love you, the way you should be loved. I swear that the Edward—the cruel, unhappy, mean one—is gone. I swear to you I will never treat you or anyone like that ever again."

I slide the ring onto her right ring finger.

"I love you," I tell her.

"Edward, it's snowing, can we go out and play?" Morgan asks bursting in the room excitedly.

I move off the bed. "Of course we can, let me get dressed."

Morgan cheers and runs out of the room.

"Edward," Bella says softly and I turn looking at her. "I love you, too, but I need to take this slow."

I grin broadly at her. "Slow I can do," I say leaning close to her. "I can do slow for you," I whisper and kiss the side of her face.

The rest of the day was spent just like Bella said between eating and opening small gifts that Renee and Charlie hid. I was pleased when they liked what I had got them. I was happy to watch them make a bigger show about what Morgan gave them both. They even used the cups and plates she made them, when they had their afternoon snack of coffee and cookies.

Charlie and Renee both took turns to pop out, but made sure that we were all happy first. I, for the first time saw they were people that truly care. I know Charlie and Renee weren't only people who just stuck their noses in other people's business. They are truly two people that want to share love and happiness with others who may not get it, have it, or are able to find it on their own.

As the night goes on, we play more games and even settle in for a movie. When it's time to go to bed, I can't help but be so thankful that the Swans are a part of the life Morgan and I have now.

"Well, did you enjoy your first Swan Christmas?" Bella asks me with a smile on her face.

"I did, very much, more than I can explain. Morgan was happy as well; thank you," I say to Bella kissing the top of her head.

As I drift off to sleep, all I can do is be thankful for all of the things I have. It's not the monetary things that I'm grateful for, but the love and support I feel.

~SQ~

"Edward," Morgan says quietly, and I slowly open my eyes to see her staring down at me.

"It's snowing; can we build a snowman?"

"Yeah, let me wake up and get dressed."

"YES!" she yells happily.

"Morgan?" Charlie says from the door, and she starts to shake a little.

"Sorry, I was making too much noise. I won't do it again," she says right away.

"You're fine, sweetie, but it's only six in the morning. So how about you come out with me, I need to plow some snow?"

Morgan bites her lip and looks at me.

"Can I?" she asks me.

I nod at her and she kisses me and jumps up.

"Let's go, Charlie," she says and again he chuckles.

"You'll need to get dressed warmly first or Renee will have my rear when we get back."

I lay back falling asleep listening to Charlie and Morgan faintly talk.

It doesn't feel like much time has passed when I wake back up. I look to the clock to see the time now says it's after nine – wow it's been three hours. I look to where Bella normally is in her bed, but see it's empty.

I get showered and dressed and head downstairs. I find Bella and Renee are talking to another lady, who I believe is Tanya.

"Morning," I say faintly and they all turn to smile at me.

"I best be off now. I'll see you later, Renee. Bye, Bella, Edward."

"Bye," I say along with Renee and Bella.

"Well, I think I'll go and get dressed," Bella says quickly and runs out of the room.

"Is everything okay?" I ask worried with the way Bella left the room the way she did.

"Yes, I wanted this for yesterday, but better late than never."

Renee passes me some papers and I look at them.

"This is an order to give, Edward Anthony Masen, temporary supervised guardianship of Morgan-Spice Rum Dwyer."

I frown looking at Renee. "What?" I ask unsure about what I'm reading.

"This was the reason I've been in court so much. I went on your behalf. This gives you legal guardianship of Morgan. Tanya will have to pop in and see you once a week, for the first three months. The visits will go down as long as you are coping, which I have no doubt you will."

I swallow holding back my tears. "So, she won't have to go back to Mom whenever she returns home?"

Renee takes a deep breath. "No, she won't. I'm sorry. I should've told you earlier—I didn't want to work you up or get Morgan upset—Elizabeth signed over her rights to the State. She no longer has any legal say in what happens with Morgan."

I feel my breath leave my body, where I knew that she never cared or was a mom to Morgan, but this just seems so much crueler than I thought she was able to be.

"One of the rules for your guardianship of Morgan is that you both will be seeing a therapist."

"I'll do anything for her." I pause for a few seconds. "What else will help me to keep her?"

"Every case is different, but there are things that seem to mean the most in court. One is maintaining a home, and the court knows that you'll be staying here, and that will be for at least a year or so. By staying here, you'll be showing the court that you're paying rent, helping with the cleaning and cooking as well. With the testimony from Charlie and me, this will only help you. Another is keeping a job, which again you have done for four years now. Plus, now that you're going to be working part-time to get a degree, it'll show that you're trying to improve yourself. Staying out of trouble is a big thing, of course. The judge looked at your past and saw that up until you were twenty-two, you have only some petty crimes. He understood that most of your petty theft charges were so that you could feed Morgan."

"What about when I crashed into Charlie?" I ask.

"He never logged that crime, Edward. Come on, you never went to court, did you?"

I shake my head. I always thought that Charlie had fucked me over, when I pled guilty right away. "I'm sorry," I say again, feeling my heart sink.

I clear my throat knowing it's about time I took some responsibility for my mistakes. "Can I talk to you and Charlie privately?"

"Sure," she says patting my hand.

"Edward ..."

I jump and turn to the door as Morgan runs in.

"That was so much fun, and look at how much I made," she says as she holds out her hand full of different coins.

"Wow, that is a lot," I say with a big smile.

"Yeah, I helped Charlie. I'm going to go show Bella," she says walking out the room.

"Can we talk now?" I ask Renee, really wanting to do this and get it over with.

"Yes, come on into the kitchen."

I follow them in and close my eyes trying to gather my thoughts.

"I know that I haven't been the nicest of people, and I've been unkind to Bella, and both of you. I felt angry at my mom, dad, Ed, and somehow instead of my anger going toward them it went to you. Now I can see that you have only been trying to help me, not that I understand why. I was a low life, but you wanted to help me and I'm grateful for that. I swear to you, from this point on I'm going to be a better person. I'm going to talk things out with Bella, explain why I was the way I was."

"Edward, son, the best way to show someone that you changed is not through words, it's by showing them. You're not and have never been a low life. You haven't always shown the best behavior, but you've always had a reason. Whether it was to protect Morgan, or because of the things your mom and Ed put you through; there was always a reason. We're behind you one hundred percent. Know that you can come and speak to us about anything – no judgments."

"Thank you," I say. I finally feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel I've been living in and I owe it all to the Swans.

A/N: So what are your thoughts now? We will post another chapter a little later this afternoon, for now I (Kasi) am off tot he doctor. We hope you enjoy this chapter and the one we'll post later today the final chapter (Epilogue) will post tomorrow. Much love and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Nikky and Kasi~