Disclaimer: All characters and part of the plot belong to Stephanie Meyer.

Chapter 13 – The Best Christmas Ever

Unknown POV

25th December, 2005

I ran through the forest back to our home. Having hunted in Philadelphia just a couple of days prior, I was sated enough to go mingle with humans without losing control. And I was using this opportunity to get a Christmas gift for my beloved.

As I ran, I thought about how drastically my life had changed in only two years. Just last year, on this day, I was lying with my mate under the stars, thinking of how wonderful my life was and is, and how amazing my eternity would be with her at my side.

"Just five more days," I said.

"Just five more days left your humanity," she sighed sadly and placed her head right above my heart, her one hand on my stomach. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer. She continued speaking.

"Just five more days left for your heart to beat, for your blood to flow. Just five more days till your skin becomes as cold as ice, as hard as marble. Just five days left before you'll start craving human blood more than anything."

"Just five more days… before I'm yours forever. To love. To cherish," I said with a soft smile on my face.

She looked up at me. Her eyes were pained. "Why don't you understand? When you become one of us, you would lose your chance to live a normal human life! To graduate, go to college, marry, have children… you would lose everything!"

"None of those matter. Once I'm past my newborn stage, I'll be able to go to high school and college. And as for marriage… do you want me to propose to you right now?" I asked with a smirk and received a smack on my head.

"Oww," I said teasingly. But then I became serious again. "I mean it when I say none of those matter, my love. I don't want a normal human life. All I want is you," I whispered. I knew she would hear the love and sincerity in my voice.

We had had this argument more than hundred times over the past one and a half year. I knew what she would say next. And she knew what I would reply.

She was about to protest but I cut her off with a kiss. She wound her arms round my neck and pulled herself closer, deepening the kiss. I cupped her cheek with my palm and gently pulled away.

"Darling, not one of the things you stated before would matter to me as long as you're by side."

"That's exactly what I'm saying! I should leave. I should stay away from you. I'm the reason you'll not be able to live a normal-!"

I placed my palm on her mouth and she quietened. "Define normal," I challenged her.

She opened her mouth to speak but failed to say anything. Because both of us knew. Every person with the least bit of common sense knew that normal was what you defined it to be. Normal differed from person to person. Normal was not something you could give a proper definition to.

"You are my normal," I said. "You are everything that matters to me. You are the sun that brightens my day. You are the moon which shows me light during dark night. You are my entire universe, love."

She couldn't argue with this. She couldn't argue with the fact that I loved her more than my own life.

She sighed again and placed her head on my chest. I started stroking her hair, gently.

"Just five more day," her soft voice said before she started humming my favourite song.

Just five days after that conversation, the process of becoming a vampire was implemented on me.

Finally, I reached our home. It was nothing more than an abandoned log cabin in the middle of the Salmon-Challis forest.

I entered silently and saw the most beautiful woman in the world looking outside the window with a smile on her face. I swiftly crossed the room and encircled her waist from the back with arms. She spun around to face me.

"Hey," I whispered.

"Hey to you too." Cue the kiss. "Merry Christmas, darling."

"Merry Christmas, my love. I have a gift for you," I said with a smile.

"Oh really? I have one too," she said with a smirk. "But first show me yours?"

"Give me another kiss." Cue, again, the kiss.

I took her left hand in mine and pulled her to bed, making her sit on it.

I got down on one knee in front of her. I was extremely nervous though I knew that the chance of her saying no was less than one percent. We had both been waiting for it.

"Edythe, you are the most important person in my world. I had fallen for you the day we met, and I had fallen hard. It is impossible for me to imagine my life without you. You are my sun, my moon, the stars in my sky, my entire universe. You showed me what it felt like to love someone so much that it hurts, so much that you'd give your entire life to her. You showed me what it felt like to really live, to really be alive. Before you, I thought I had everything. I never knew what I'd really been missing. But the moment you came into my life, you set my entire world ablaze. For the first time, I really saw the world. For the first time, I was really able to feel how beautiful the world could be.

"Edythe, I love you more than anything else, anyone else, in the world. I promise to love you and cherish you for all of eternity. I promise to stay by your side through good and bad times, no matter what. Would you, Edythe Masen, do me the extraordinary honour of marrying me?"

I opened the velvet box with my grandmother's engagement ring placed in it just as I finished my speech.

Her eyes went wide in surprise before breaking into the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face. "Yes," her voice cracked with joy. "Yes!"

I gently took out the ring and slid it on her ring finger.

She lunged at me and I caught her and hugged her tightly. Her lips found mine and we both kissed passionately and I spun around the room with her in my arms.

We broke apart and I whispered, "My fiancée."

Our lips met again.

Apart a couple of minutes, we pulled apart and I set her on her feet.

"You've made me the happiest man on this earth," I said and she smiled again.

"By the way, did you buy this ring?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"No, it was my grandmother's. Before she passed away, she left me with it and told me to give it to the one I loved the most," I said. Her eyes widened again.

"Well?" I prompted.

"Well what?"

"Your gift?"

"Oh, right," I heard the nervousness in her voice.

"Beau—" she stopped, unable to continue.

"Edythe, you know can tell me anything, right? I meant what I said right now. I'll be by your side no matter what."

"Beau, you're going to be a father," she said in a rush. If I'd been human right now, I wouldn't have been able to even understand it.

My jaw dropped as my eyes widened in shock. "What?" I whispered.

"I'm pregnant, Beau." She took my hand and placed it on her stomach. I felt the slight bulge in there.

All my brain took to process this statement was one second. My fiancée was pregnant. She was pregnant with our child. I was going to be a father. I felt like my chest was going to burst with joy.

My face split into the widest smile in my entire life. "I'm going to be a father?" my voice cracked with happiness.

"Yes," she said nervously.

I picked her up and swung her around the room again, kissing her. "I'll amend my statement. You've made me the happiest man in the entire universe!" I exclaimed and hugged her even tighter to my chest and buried my nose in her hair.

"This is my best Christmas ever," I whispered, my happiness and joy evident in my voice.

"Mine too." Her voice was full of love and merriment.

We stay like that, in each other's arms, for a long time.