Authors Note: This was my entry for the TwilightPackFanatfics Tis the Season 2023 challenge! I chose the song 'Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) by Darlene Love :) This entry won first place!

Also the gorgeous cover for this story was created by the talented GoOasis726!

(BellaxPaul)

I stood by the living room window, felt the cold seeping through the glass as I watched the snow continue to pile up in deep drifts outside. I swirled my glass of ill gotten whiskey, ill gotten because it came from Renee's kitchen cabinet and I was still underage. I had decided to spend the holiday with Renee and Phil this year, since it had been close to a year and a half since I'd moved in with Charlie. Charlie was dismayed, but he was able to make plans with Sue instead. I sighed to myself in agitation, I really should have known better. Of course my hair-brained mother was ecstatic when I told her on the phone, which was months ago so she would have plenty of warning and constant reminders from me, but she flaked out and had left on a vacation in Mexico with Phil, leaving me to come home to an empty house in a state with unprecedented snowfall.

Alone and surrounded by the cheap, christmassy dollar store trinkets I had bought to decorate seemed to only damper my mood rather than improve it. Of course she had fallen over herself in apology on the phone, and had insisted that I enjoy the solitude of her house until my scheduled flight back to Forks. I took a strong drag of the whiskey, my third but I wasn't counting. My thoughts drifted and swirled with the snow outside, eventually towards Paul and Jacob. Uhg, Paul. He was brash, far too blatant, way too overprotective, and a complete smart ass. He was certainly no gentleman. And yet I couldn't get him out of my damn head. I didn't know if my feelings for him were my own or the result of the imprint, which was the real reason I had made my escape, I needed some space to figure it out and I decided not to tell him I was leaving the state. Guilt ravaged me which I told myself was ridiculous, I don't answer to Paul Lahote. I can go where I please. Or so I told myself. And yet, here I was, alone and pining after a man I had no business pining for. It used to be Edward Cullen I craved, I had become almost catatonic from it, I had lost myself completely and it was only through Jacob and then Paul that I managed to pull through it. Deep down I was afraid to love someone so completely that I would lose myself again. If I was being honest with myself, it was the real reason I kept pushing Paul away.

A tear slid down my cheek, I downed the last of my drink, making my head swim and my body warm. I supposed I would take a nap before trying to turn what little groceries Renee had in the house into something that could pass for a meal. Alone, depressed and drunk, I curled up on the loveseat with my favorite throw since childhood and drifted off into a deep slumber.

My dreams were blissfully a dark and vast void but somehow I could hear the sound of shuffling, jingling and cursing. My unconscious brain swam through the endless void towards the sounds in curiosity which slowly turned to alarm. I was supposed to be home alone. Finally I felt a gentle shake on my shoulder and managed to drowsily make my way back to the land of the living, to find Paul's face just a few inches from mine as he gently shook me awake, calling my name with a gentleness I didn't know he was capable of.

"She lives, she breathes!" He teased me as I raised myself up into a sitting position.

"What are you doing here?"

He handed me a glass of eggnog as my whiskey ladened brain finally caught up with the rest of me and I took in the transformation of the living room around me. There was a plastic tree set up in the corner of the living room now, clumsily wrapped in Christmas lights with plastic bulbs and small metal bells. Red and green streamers were hung all around the walls. Pizza boxes now sat on the coffee table, radiating heat and a delicious scent. Paul himself was wearing a santa hat, with another one strawn across the arm of the love seat beside me. Tears welled in my eyes as I took in everything.

"Well, after you performed your Houdini act, I got the message pretty loud and clear, and intended on spending the day alone, but then your father chased me down." He answered as he poured his own glass of eggnog.

"Charlie? Why?"

"He insisted that I catch the next flight and come spend the holiday with you, that he was afraid of you being left alone and heartbroken. Something about his ex wife not being reliable? Either way I tried to refuse, I told him you left for a reason, but the man just would not take no for an answer." He took a tug of his drink. "You know, he actually arrested me?"

My eyes widened. "I'm so sorry, Paul."

"Eh, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I chased after you even though I knew you wanted space. Your father was just really worried, then I found myself getting worried." He looked deep into my eyes. "I'm not normally like this, I'm not used to a woman making me… feel this way."

"Paul." I returned his intense gaze. "Is this really us? Or is it the imprint?"

"You're not the only one who's been fighting this tooth and nail, y'know. I can't answer that question for you, but I can for me and I can tell you that I've decided it doesn't matter." He paused for a moment. "I love you, and I'm willing to wait for as long as you need me to. This has to be your decision, Bella."

I blushed crimson as my heart embarrassingly pitter pattered, knowing he could hear it. Then he smiled my favorite smile, the one full of mischief that made him look years younger. He grabbed the extra santa hat and pulled it over my head, I giggled as I adjusted it. Then he handed me a small package wrapped in red, white and gold wrapping paper with a giant stick on-bow. The wrapping was clumsy. It was so endearing.

I gingerly ripped the wrapping open and then the small cardboard box and found a necklace with a small, white wood carving of a wolf and a tiny, yellow metal sun charm attached to it. The tears that had been welling now spilled over.

"You… made this?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'd been working on it for a while actually, now just felt like the perfect time to give it to you."

"It's beautiful." I breathed.

He gently moved my thick hair to fasten the chain around my neck.

"I wanted to remind you that no matter how dark and dreary the night is, the dawn will always return."

I wrapped my arms around his neck tight, thanking him quietly in his ear. My heart swelled. I think I know the answer now.