x-x-x-x-x

Around three in the morning, Bella's truck was finally done. Emmett pushed himself out from under it and wiped his hands on a grease rag Jacob handed him, he had joined us about two in the morning, I think. To be honest I'm not really sure when Jacob had joined us, Emmett and I were each working on different parts of the truck then suddenly bam, there's Jacob under the bonnet with a screwdriver.

My Scottish pride may go a long way, but I have no problem admitting that we never would've gotten the truck finished in the time we did, had Jacob not joined us.

Emmett and Jacob exchanged a look as I walked around the truck, the three of us admiring our work.

"Kid?" Em asked "we good?"

I sighed and closed the bonnet

"Won't know till we start it up, but I don't want to do it here where everyone can hear it." Emmett got this gleam in his eyes "what?"

"So let's move it," he replied "put it into neutral, you and Fido here navigate I'll push,"

"Fido?" Jacob repeated, crossing his arms

"No offense," Emmett added carefully and Jacob nodded,

"None taken," he replied, then stopped as the three of us all heard the footsteps, someone walking towards the garage, their shoes crunching on the frozen ground outside, without a sound I grabbed the tarp and covered the truck.

I did this so quickly I didn't even take a sniff of the air to figure out who it was in the first place. The doorknob slowly turned and creaked open and I swear we dove to different spots trying to look as inconspicuous as possible even though it just made us look even more suspicious.

Emmett leaned against Rosalie's Beemer, Jacob sat on the stool and I hopped up on the bench itself, all of us waiting for whoever was coming, expecting to be caught red handed by Bella or Edward. So to be honest I was surprised when Seth poked his head inside with that ridiculous goofy grin on his face.

"Hey homies did I miss anything," A sigh of relief escaped the three of us, before Emmett reached out of the door and yanked Seth inside shutting it just as quickly. "Hello and good morning to you guys too,"

"Don't do that!" I growled hoping off the counter

"What are you guys up to?" Seth asked "'cause honestly innocence is not your forte."

I grinned at my best friend

"We finished the truck," I explained and his eyes got wide

"Dude, seriously!?" He exclaimed

"Shhh!" Jacob, Emmett, and I hissed

"Oh, right surprise," Seth replied "sorry forgot,"

"Well now that you're here it saves us a trip to come find you," I said before looking at Jacob and Emmett "we ready to go?"

"What are we doing?" Seth asked

"Test run of the truck, but we can't do it here in the garage because I can promise that Edward will try and sabotage it before Christmas." I explained "which would mean we'd have to take turns standing guard over it for almost four days." I took a deep breath "or worse, he gives Bella a heads up and ruins the surprise."

"So if we do the test run away from here Edward will never know?" Seth asked and I nodded

"As long no one thinks about it when he's in range. Four days guys that's all we have to keep it secret for,"

"Okay," Jacob agreed

"Sure," Seth promised

"I wouldn't risk jeopardizing my chance to see that horrified look on Edward's face when he finds out we fixed it, it's going to be so beautiful and amusing," Emmett added he paused "How far is good?" he asked

I thought this over, the distance for what we can hear is pretty astounding, if we had missed a part during the restoration and the truck roared its old roar, a household full of vampires would be able to hear it miles and miles away and if anyone was in the house or outside of it recognized that sound (ahem, Edward,) then we'd be busted for sure.

"I'd at least four miles if not more should be okay, the roar shouldn't be as deafening and noticeable as it was before. Even if the roar is simply part of the truck's original make up. I've taken care of the muffler and you tightened everything that could potentially rattle right?" Emmett nodded "then we should be okay," I paused "but just in case, hold on a second,"

I bolted into the house and sought out Rosalie. She wasn't hard to find, she was actually wrapping presents in the family room. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was trying to get into the Christmas spirit. But what really surprised me was what was on the TV.

Now, before I go any further I should explain something, Christmas is a favorite holiday for the Cullen family as a whole, Rosalie, Esme, Alice, Emmett, and Carlisle especially, each for their own reasons. For Carlisle and Esme it's mainly a family thing, especially for Carlisle, Christmas time reminds him of all the years he spent alone during the holiday and how much that has changed since he changed Edward.

For Esme, it's similar to Carlisle, she sees it as one of the rare opportunities where we might actually accept being treated as kids (certainly true with Emmett but I'll get to him in a second) Esme gets to continue her role as mother and make Christmas special and very family oriented for all of us.

Alice loves any opportunity to decorate and Christmas is one of the few times she's given unrestrained access to do whatever she wants for decorations. Of course, this year would certainly be different on all those accounts because our family wasn't together and Alice wasn't here to turn our house into Father Christmas' village, nor was Jasper here to shake his head at his wife's insanity and claim neutrality.

The missing members of our family fact still pains all of us, it was bad enough last year with Edward being off globetrotting, but to be honest that unknown isn't as scary as this particular unknown.

Emmett's thing is solely presents, he literally turns into the little kid that Esme wants to spoil on Christmas Day and it's hilarious. He still argues with Carlisle's rule regarding the first floor on Christmas morning, no one is allowed down near the tree after midnight, the exception to that is returning from midnight mass, but even then I'm hurried upstairs to my room. Emmett tries every year to defy that rule by sneaking downstairs, he's never succeeded but you've got to give him credit for his determination, or is it just plain stubbornness?

Anyways, I'm not saying Emmett's greedy or anything, he's not he just loves the anticipation and the surprise factor and that goes for not only gifts he's receiving, but also to gifts others are getting.

Rose is in a class all by herself, her Christmas thing is strictly traditional; the decorations, familiar stockings coming out of their boxes, the sound of Christmas carols on the wireless, lights decorating everything, and in recent years Christmas specials on TV. She of course loves your typical ones; Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life (which she won't let Emmett or I watch with her because we tend to question certain parts of it), and though it's hard to believe, Rose also loves the stop motion movies like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Santa Clause is Coming to Town as well as the cartoon, "How the Grinch stole Christmas". Don't ask me why she loves them so much, but she does. Again it's a tradition thing.

However, the movie that was on the TV this time was not any of those, it was a movie that for the longest time I swore Rosalie detested with a passion, though I never understood why. She claims it's because it's too dark and gloomy as a rendition of a story she loves, it's the only version of the story she's never accepted, she'll even take the Mickey Mouse version of the story over this particular one, Rose is also amazed that I've accepted the movie and enjoy it because I grew up hearing the story and I actually read it to the family as my own gift to the family my first Christmas as a Cullen.

What film could cause such a controversy you ask? Scrooged, the movie with that guy from Ghost Busters, Bill Murray? Yeah Rose has hated that movie before it even came out in November of 1988 and that was just from the posters from it. We made plans to go see it as a family, but Rose refused to go and ended up staying home, Esme and Carlisle decided to stay home with her.

I don't know why she thought it was mocking the original story, I thought it was a pretty cool modern twist on something that has been told and retold in its original sense so many times, especially since she's never seen it in its entirety.

Apparently all these years of me and Emmett swearing up and down that it's worth watching has worn her down because not only was she watching it as she wrapped presents, but she was nearly halfway through it and didn't look bored or disgusted at all, in fact if I didn't know any better I would say she was even enjoying the movie.

What made the whole thing even better was she was all alone. Everyone had kind of found their own spots throughout the house. Fi, Tia, and Maggie had invaded the library and were in there presumably, I'm pretty sure Benjamin was in the loft familiarizing himself with our collection of video game systems, the Denali clan (and Garret) had taken off to go hunting so had Charlotte and Peter, hunting different prey of course, but still keeping themselves satisfied.

"Ahem?" I cleared my throat giving Rose a heads up that I was there, she was so focused on her wrapping that she actually jumped when she realized she wasn't alone and hurried to cover the mound of unwrapped and semi wrapped items. I couldn't help but spot what looked like a new cage for Chap before it was covered up.

"Christian!" she exclaimed "I'm putting bells on you or something!" I gave her an apologetic grin "what are you up to?" she added

"I had a favour to ask of you," I glanced at the movie and decided against asking her if she was enjoying it, in fact I decided my best course of action was to actually pretend I had no idea what was on that TV screen

Now my sister looked at me suspiciously and my apologetic grin turned to one of innocence, not that she believed me of course.

"What have you guys been up to in the garage?" she asked "I've been hearing clanging noises from out there all night," her expectant look grew stronger "I hope for your sake you left my car alone,"

"Don't worry Rose, the Beemer while neglected is fine," I assured her, my grin widened as I looked around the room carefully "Edward's at the cottage right?" I asked, lowering my voice, Rose still suspicious nodded slowly "whew,"

"Okay, what is going on Chris?"

"The truck is done," I whispered and those four words were all it took, Rose's eyes went wide and she grinned with excitement

"Seriously?" she exclaimed "you guys finished it?!"

I nodded

"I'm sorry we didn't include you Rose," I paused, suddenly feeling really bad that we hadn't included her in the final process. There's no one in the family better at repairing cars than Rose, even Jacob with all his knowledge could learn a few things from her. But I hadn't wanted to take her away from Nessie, but I knew that it was more of we got so caught up in the work, it didn't cross our minds.

Rose seemed to understand that, because she reached up and hugged me tight, no sign of anger at all.

"Oh don't apologize Chrissy," she said "if I know you and Emmett you two just got carried away and lost track of life itself." She paused "and if you add the wolf brothers into the mix I could've been standing in the garage with you guys and none of you would've noticed."

Not entirely true, but not exactly an exaggeration either.

"Right," I slowly replied

"Anyways, what's the favor?"

"I…I don't know how loud the truck is going to be when we start it up, it could be back to its original roar or it might be so faint that unless you're standing right next to it you won't hear it."

"Okay," Rose started "and?"

"I need you to keep a listen out for it, I'm worried Edward will recognize the noise and try to put a stop to this whole thing before we even get started. So what I need you to do is call me or text me if you hear the truck and if it's recognizable."

"How far were you guys planning on going with it?"

"A few miles from the property line at least, but again I don't know how loud it's going to be."

"I will listen for it Chris," Rose said with a smile "Edward's down at the cottage so you have that going for you "and I would take on that extra couple of miles, just in case,"

I nodded

"Thanks sis," I said giving her a quick hug, she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight, not accepting the quick hug.

"You did something very sweet for Bella Chris, it may annoy Edward, but even he will accept how nice this gift is." I ducked my head and managed to pry myself from my sister's hug. "oh you are so stubborn," she finished letting me go and rolling her eyes "get out of here so I can finish wrapping in peace."

I gave Rose a wave and returned to the garage where everyone looked ready to go.

"We in the clear?" Jacob asked and I nodded

"Rose is going to keep a listen for us and let us know if she can hear the truck and if it sounds like it used to from afar."

"Sounds good to me" Jacob replied

Emmett was ridiculously excited about this as he hit the garage door opener then moved to the back of the truck.

Seth climbed into the bed of the truck and Emmett headed for the tailgate. Jacob looked at me and started for the passenger side, but he stopped when he saw me shaking my head.

"What?" He grumbled "want me in the back?"

"No," I said rolling my eyes before tossing him the keys "we wouldn't have a truck to work on if you hadn't put in all that effort to get it running in the beginning. This was your project not mine, you should be the one to start it up."

Jacob looked at me suspiciously at first but then his expression softened.

"Thanks Chris," he muttered he held out his hand and I looked at it for a second, before accepting the handshake.

"Come on Jake lets get this show on the road before Bella or worse Edward figure out what we've been up to." I climbed into the passenger seat and Jacob hoisted himself up into the driver side.

"Did you fix the interior too?" He asked looking around I nodded.

"Sorry Jake, not that the original interior wasn't good or anything but the seats were rotting underneath the material. It had to be replaced, it was probably like that even before you got it, only reason I found it was 'cause somehow some of the oil got into the cab when it went Mount Vesuvius on us." Jacob nodded "it is authentic if that makes you feel better."

"You guys going to chat all night about upholstery or can we actually get this taken care of before breakfast?" Seth called from his perch "I'm starving and your brother promised me steak and eggs,"

"Well, who is going to argue with that," Emmett chuckled "let's get this over with so we can feed the starving puppy over here. Let's rock and roll!" Emmett called as loud as he dared, I grinned at Jacob and we both shrugged at each other. I climbed into the passenger seat and Jacob into the driver seat, Emmett ran over to the garage door and hit the button to open it up before returning to his position behind the truck. "Okay wolf boy put it into neutral!"

Jacob gave a nod and slid the truck into neutral. Emmett gave the truck a good push and we started to roll out of the garage. I held my breath as we eased down the driveway knowing that any moment Edward might catch us and ruin the surprise.

But no one came out of the house no one came up the path from the cottage. We were in the clear.

Emmett picked up speed as we neared the main road and Jacob eased the wheel to the left. We live out in the middle of nowhere so it made it a lot easier to get the truck down the road without drawing suspicion.

Finally a good four miles from the edge of our property on a lonely stretch of highway we arrived at our testing spot.

I leaned out the window and waved at Emmett to stop pushing.

"Here's good Em!" I called and he nodded pulling the truck to a stop and hoping into the bed.

Jacob put the truck into park and slid the key into the ignition. He looked over at me expectantly.

"Ready?" He asked and I nodded

"let's hear that engine!"

"Hopefully on mute," Emmett added

Jacob game me a nod and turned the key. I was honestly expecting nothing to happen. I had been fully prepared for there to be no response from the truck. Despite everything we had done to save it the chance that it might have been for nothing was ever present.

So needless to say I couldn't help my reaction when the engine turned over and the truck sputtered to life.

"BLOODY HELL WE DID IT!" I shouted at the top of my lungs I jumped out of the truck cheering "it works it really works!" I continued, I could hear the others laughing and congratulating each other but I was cheering too loud to really notice.

Emmett came around the back of the truck and lifted me off the ground smacking me on the back in congratulations and Jacob and Seth soon joined us the three of us beyond ecstatic at the fact that all our hard work had paid off.

"Come on, we gotta put it into gear and really get it moving!" Jacob finally called bringing us back to reality. He made an excellent point, there was still the chance that just because it was running, the truck might not get very far.

I was a little surprised to hear Jacob being the voice of reason for this, it would be like Emmett being the voice of reason in the stock market.

"Wolf-boy makes an excellent point," Emmett pointed out, gesturing to the truck, him and Seth hoped in the back and Emmett tapped the roof of the truck "Let's do it!"

I climbed back into the passenger side as Jacob slid into the driver seat. Him and I exchanged a look and I held my breath as he put it into gear. The truck began coasting down the street and when Jacob released the clutch and stepped on the gas it picked up speed.

There was no roar at least not as bad as it used to be and it actually had some pick up when Jacob pressed the gas a little harder. It was a fully functioning pickup truck and it was a beautiful thing.

"Nice work Jacob," I said softly and Jacob shook his head

"None of this would've happened if you hadn't saved it from being sent to a junk yard. You're giving Bella a great Christmas gift kid."

"We're giving her a great gift," I corrected.

Jacob nodded at that.

x-x-x

After we got home and stored the truck in the garage where Edward couldn't find it Emmett, Seth and I headed inside. Jacob headed down to the res to confer with Sam about where we stood for everything.

Seth made a beeline for the kitchen determined to hold Edward to his promise of steak and eggs he was planning on waiting for him to arrive and nab him the moment he walked inside.

The house itself was as quiet as it had been when I checked in with Rose. Christmas songs were playing on the radio there was a fire going in the fireplace and Rose was parked on the couch reading a book, her presents wrapped and perfect were piled in a corner of the room.

She looked up when we walked in and watched Seth in confusion as he headed to the kitchen before turning her attention to Emmett and I.

"Well?" She asked and I nodded with a grin "nice work you guys," she paused "it's really going to mean a lot to Bella that you guys did that."

"And it'll be great to see how annoyed Edward gets!" Emmett exclaimed with an evil grin.

Rose sighed

"Yes Emmett that is important to," she replied with a hint of good humored sarcasm.

We chuckled at that then went quiet for a few moments. I glanced around the room and took a deep breath.

"Where are Carlisle and Esme?" I asked and Rose looked around too

"They went hunting with the Denali's. They promised to be back in the evening." I nodded "why?"

"Because we're four days before Christmas and look at this place? Nothing has been put out because we've been so focused on the Volturi, you've got presents wrapped with no place to really put them" I explained "we've got to make this one special, it's Nessie's first." I didn't add in that it could potentially be our last, I think that was implied without being said.

"The kid has a point babe," Emmett said nodding "we should decorate for Carlisle, Esme, and Nessie at least,"

"But we don't even have a tree," Rose pointed out

"You and the kid get the boxes down, let me handle the tree," Emmett replied Rose smiled and nodded

"Okay, I'm in," she said.

"Let's make this place something Alice would be proud of," I added darting upstairs with Rose right behind me.

It took maybe twenty minutes to drag the boxes down and by then we had an audience of sorts. Fi, Tia and Maggie had wandered out of the library and Benjamin hearing all the commotion from the loft had wandered out of my room, leaving whatever game he was playing to investigate.

Tia and Benjamin looked slightly confused as I strung garland down the banister, but Maggie and Fi looked ecstatic, Fi especially. She walked over to the base of the stairs and grinned up at me

"Can I help?" She called and I nodded

"The lights are in that box to your left," I replied nodding my head at the big box of lights I had dragged down from the loft "grab that string on top and start weaving it up the banister till we cross,"

Fi did as I instructed and with her maneuvering the lights, the banister began to look fully decorated. As I was coming down and she was heading up we bumped into each other.

"Um, I…" Fi started

"I'm sorry," I stuttered as I tried to move around her and she did the same, but our hands still brushed against each other and we exchanged a shy grin "you stay I'll go around you," I explained and carefully moved around Fi and continued down the stairs.

Rose was at the fireplace putting lights on that, she looked over at Fi and I and giggled. She had put Tia and Maggie to work untangling the lights for the tree and putting up more of the actual decorations we have. Benjamin was outside decorating with clear instructions on where everything was supposed to go, I had a feeling he wasn't planning on sticking to that and was in fact going to put his own spin on everything which was fine by me.

"Banister looks good," Rose complimented as I walked over there, Fi in tow, "Fi could you set up the manager in the corner over there?" she asked, Fi nodded and picked up the box of figurines carrying them over to where the stable was set on the floor, ready to be put up on the small table.

Not far from that, Rose had already set up the long table in preparation for Esme's houses. She has this enormous collection of these houses that light up, I think they're called Village 56 or something like that, she's got hundreds of them, enough to make up a very large town as well as a couple smaller ones and a city, and then some.

We've all helped to contribute to the collection, presenting her with new houses or figurines or accessories for it every year and she loves it.

"What about the houses?" I asked nodding at the ten or so boxes that contained said houses. (The amount of Christmas decorations my family has accumulated is mind blowing.)

"I was going to let Tia, Maggie, and Fi work on those while you and I finish up with the rest of the decorations."

Tia and Maggie exchanged a look and nodded, Tia knelt down and opened one of the boxes, pulling out the first house, the Scrooge and Marley office, from her Christmas Carol's collection. I wasn't kidding when I said Esme has hundreds of these things, the entire box that Tia and Maggie were about to dive into was full of Christmas Carol items. Of Esme's entire collection that and the New England village one are probably my favorites.

Fi had finished up the nativity set by then and had wandered over to her sister and Tia to help them, but first she looked at me and nodded at the set

"Does that look okay Chris?" she asked shyly, I had no doubt that she knew what she was doing so I only looked at it to humour her,

"Sure it loo-" I started to say, realizing something was missing "where's the baby?" I asked confused, Fi walked back over and looked the set over, she gave me a puzzled look before leaning up to a shelf and pulling down the small ceramic figurine

"He's here," she explained

I raised an eyebrow

"Call me crazy, but isnt he supposed to be there?" I said pointing to the manager. Fi giggled and set the baby back on the shelf, carefully rewrapping him in bubble wrap "what, what I say?"

"The baby doesn't go into the manager until Christmas Eve," she explained

"Really?" I asked, I guess in a way that made sense, but in my family both my human family and the Cullen family, the nativity set was put up and that was that, everyone was present and accounted for from the start.

"You never did that?" Fi asked reacting to my confused face, suddenly worried she had done something wrong "I'm sorry" she said softly "I'll fix it," she reached forward to take the baby down and put him in the manager, I reached forward and put my hand on hers gently

"No Fi, its okay I think you're right it's better your way." I said gently, she smiled and nodded

"Are you sure?" she whispered

"Positive," I replied just as softly, I was about to continue when I saw Rose nodding for me to join her at the fireplace, Fi didn't give that a second thought as she joined Maggie and Tia, organizing the multiple villages. "What's up?" I asked when I reached my sister, she looked gloomy about something and at first I wasn't sure what it was.

However it didn't take me long to put two and two together especially when she gestured to the box at her feet. It was full of our stockings, handmade by Esme as each of us have joined the family, each significant and special to the owner.

There was mine with a wintery forest scene sewn on it, a wolf and a reindeer amongst the trees, snow flakes falling, and my name sew carefully at the top. Emmett's had a teddy bear sitting in the middle of a toy train track, strings of popcorn all over him. Everyone had one and I realized the source of Rose's gloominess, first off right underneath mine, very eye catching and visible was Alice's brightly colored stocking.

I remembered last Christmas when we were in New York and I watched as Carlisle and Esme hung the stockings, pausing only when they pulled out Edward's and the heartache that appeared on the faces of both my parents. They had put Edward's up, though it clearly pained them to do so with him off gallivanting the world leaving us to worry about him. Not having Alice and Jasper here brought back those memories of Edward being gone and I wondered as I'm sure Rose was wondering, was it right to put their stockings up? I was still holding onto the trust that our sister knew what she was doing and that her and Jasper had not abandoned the family, but were simply trying to find a way to prevent the execution that was sure to come. I had to hold onto that faith in Alice's decision, after all Charlotte and Peter's presence alone was proof enough that we had to trust Alice and Jasper. Just as they would not allow us to be in harm's way, there is no way that Jasper would willingly allow Charlotte and Peter to risk their lives either.

The stocking issue was only part of the problem and once I solved the 'do we hang Alice and Jasper's stockings up,' issue I allowed my profile to unravel the next problem and it was pretty obvious, this was Nessie's first Christmas and Bella's first Christmas as a Cullen, we did not have stockings for them.

When Jasper and Alice joined the family, Esme set to work weeks before Christmas to design and bring to life the perfect stockings for them. Alice's as I said is brightly colored, with bursts of stars, Christmas lights, and a house brightly decorated for the holiday, a way to remind Alice that she is home and to reflect her excitable personality. Jasper's is similar, not in brightly colored, but in a warm and calming manor, with images of a decorated Christmas tree, family, ways to remind Jasper that he is also home.

However, with everything that's been going on, it's easy to understand why Esme hasn't done any of the Christmas decorating, which means I doubt she had time to make stockings for Nessie and Bella.

"What are we going to do Chris?" Rose whispered "it's bad enough we can't have stockings or presents for everyone here, but it's even worse that Nessie and Bella won't have stockings at least."

I thought this over, she was right of course and I knew there had to be a way to fix it, I just wasn't sure how. I leaned against the fireplace and ran my fingers through my hair, trying desperately to come up with a solution. Before I could go any further on my train of thought, a flash of light caught my attention, Tia, Maggie, and Fi had gotten part of Esme's villages up and running, the light house began flashing it's warm light over the room.

"That's it!" I exclaimed, my sister looked at me suspiciously

"What's it?" she asked

"Do you remember when we moved back to Forks a few years ago, our first Christmas back Edward blew a fuse when he tried to put up the lights. You and I both told him that the lights he was using were old and weren't going to work right."

"Of course I remember that, the idiot scoffed at us and plugged them in anyways, we lost power for hours."

"And those lights were ruined," I added "so you, me, and Emmett had to find new lights. Do you remember where we went?"

Rose shook her head and I couldn't blame her, we drove all over the place looking for specific lights, because Esme is kind of picky about what lights get put up where, hence why Edward had paid for the new lights, Esme had repeatedly told him the lights he was putting up did not belong outside.

Anyways, our travel eventually took us to Port Angeles, where we found a great little store that not only sold the lights Esme wanted, but tons of other Christmas gear. I think that's where we even got the lighthouse that had reminded of this in the first place.

Rose looked over at the lighthouse and the same realization that had hit me, washed over her now.

"Oh yeah, that store in Port Angles," she finally said she paused "oh my god Chris they sold handmade stockings."

"Not just any handmade stockings," I reminded her "detailed ones," I looked at my watch, it was just about five in the morning, if I left now I could be in Port Angeles when the store opened and if we waited until the evening to put the stockings up, that would give Rose enough time to sew Bella and Nessie's names onto the new stockings and add any details we needed.

"Are you sure you want to go?" Rose asked and I nodded

"I'll take my bike, be the fastest means," I said "don't put the other stockings up yet, we'll do it later with Nessie. If I'm not back by the time Em gets back with the tree you guys can decorate it, don't wait for me. At least we can have that and the rest of the house up and decorated for Ness,"

Rose nodded, she reached over and hugged me tight

"See you when you get back,"

I nodded and bolted towards the garage, grabbing my sweatshirt on my way out. I opened the garage door, threw my leather jacket and helmet on and kick started my bike, zooming out of the garage. The faster I got this done, the sooner I could be back home, hopefully in time to see the look on Nessie's face when she saw the house decorated. I glanced behind me as I navigated down the driveway, Benjamin was doing a great job putting the lights up, there was a good chance he was going to go a little over board, but at this point I didn't care.

If this was going to be our last Christmas I wanted it to be special for everyone, but especially for Nessie, and if somehow we managed to figure out a way for her to escape our fate, for her to survive, I wanted her to be able to look back and remember Christmas a magical and beautiful time, a time when her family made sure it was special for her.

I took a deep breath as I neared the end of our driveway; the lights from the house had grown dim in the distance and faded away once I turned onto the main road. As I reved my bike and headed towards Port Angeles, I started to sing my favorite Christmas song softly to myself, I don't know why it entered my mind or why I was singing it, but it made me feel calmer, I could practically hear my choir mates singing with me, most of them long dead by time…

"Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen, when the snow lay 'round about deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, when a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel…"

x-x-x-x-x

A/N: I apologize for the delay in updating this and for the shortness of this particular chapter, I'm honestly not sure where the months of November and December went. So I had hoped to have this be a Christmas chapter, but it kind of got away from me so what I'm going to do, and I'm going to try my hardest to do this, I will have chapter 27 be up either Christmas eve or Christmas day and it will be a chapter I've had planned for a while because it revolves around Christmas during Breaking Dawn. Thank you everyone for your patience and putting up with my lack of updating. I swear it is not intentional. Till next time! Thank you everyone for your support!