I do not own nor do I make profit off of Twilight. All right's belong to it's author Stephanie Meyer.
A Tale of Two Christmas Eve's
Elizabeth Callahan takes a deep breath before reaching out, one perfectly manicured nail pressing the button on the elevator, and watching the doors close. Her husband is not with her, though he will be soon, he has some extra work at the office he told her although she knows the real reason.
Everyone mourns differently, even when the person you're mourning for isn't dead. In this case, it's his daughter and granddaughter, and the way he mourns is by pouring himself into his work. Elizabeth can't fault him for it; she has her own way of mourning, too.
The elevator doors open as she juggles several bags, the handles digging into her skin. Stepping out she is greeted by one of the nurses, she gives her a gentle smile and hugs her iPad close,
"Merry Christmas Eve Mrs. Callahan."
"Merry Christmas Eve Claudia." Elizabeth greets holding out three bags, "I brought small gifts and some pastries from Ando's." Claudia reaches forward carefully taking the bags with a gentle smile,
"Oh, Mrs. Callahan, that was completely unnecessary but so very appreciated." Elizabeth smiles. This is how she mourns, making others feel better. She used to enjoy spending her money on herself, but now she finds comfort in spending it on others, others who need it, others who appreciate it more than she does.
"You take such good care of my granddaughter it's the least I can do." Claudia smiles setting the bags down and typing something into her iPad,
"Speaking off, she's doing well, the infection in her g-tub cleared up very nicely and she's resting comfortably." Elizabeth smiles, she takes solstice in the small victories these days,
"Oh that's amazing, I was just going to ask." Claudia points towards the room Elizabeth is so very acquainted with.
"I just finished washing and drying her hair so she's already for you, will Mr. Callahan be joining you?" Elizabeth's Tori Burch flats gently echo on the floor as she passes the nurse towards her granddaughter's room,
"Yes, please tell him where I am." Claudia chuckles lightly,
"I think he'll know where you are." Yes, he will. Elizabeth is here every day, of course, her husband will know where she is.
Marceline's room is cheery, and the Callahans pay top dollar to make sure, Marceline not only receives the best care but also that the room around her reflects a girl her age with a happy atmosphere, it always relaxes Elizabeth when she walks into this room, it's the best the worst part of her day. The best because she gets to sit with her granddaughter, hold her hand, and talk to her. The worst is because her granddaughter is no longer 5 years old and because she can't respond, she can't do anything but lay there. Elizabeth finds herself staring at her granddaughter's lips a lot, hoping she'll one day just start talking. The tube in her mouth has long since been removed and relocated to an incision in her neck, as the part of her brain that tells her lungs to breathe was damaged in the accident.
"Hello, darling." Elizabeth reaches down smoothing Marceline's hair back. It's grown quite a bit since the spring when the doctors shaved her head to crack her skull before they realized anything they did wouldn't matter.
"It's Christmas Eve, and if you're really good, Santa might come and give you something you want." She kisses her cheek gently, taking in the antiseptic smell that has seeped into her granddaughter's pores. "The last time we spent Christmas Eve together, you wanted new skate blades, a Clara nightgown from the Nutcracker, and Turkish delights" Elizabeth laughs at that last one, "Papa and you had just watched The Chronicles of Narnia, and you were dying to know what they tasted like." She reaches up to wipe a tear away, "Papa called his cousins in London to get you the most authentic Turkish delights he could find. You were so happy to open them Christmas morning, do you remember?" She reaches forward gently grabbing her granddaughter's hand,
"I remember the face she made when she bit into them." A voice from the door chimes in,
"John!" Elizabeth smiles, "You remembered." He smiles back,
"How could I forget, I had to play nice with cousin Callum and then the cheap man made me pay for all the special shipping when he could have done it for a third of the cost over there." Despite the bad memory John laughs,
"She tried so hard to like them,"
"She started to tear up before I told her to spit it out." Elizabeth smiles wanes, "That was our last Christmas." She whispers,
"We have this one." It takes everything in Elizabeth not to reach forward and smack her husband, instead, she sits on her hands,
"John." She whispers a warning.
"I know Lizzie, I know, but...it's all we have."
"You speak as if we have nothing." John steps into the room, gabbing the chair by the door and pulling it over,
"We have money sure, but money can't bring Mare back-"
"I don't like that nickname." Elizabeth interrupts,
"It can't even get our daughter out of jail, not when she's been denied bail-"
"That's where she belongs."
"Lizzie." John's tone rises, "She's still our daughter."
"No, she's not, no look what she's done to our granddaughter. It's not us who are keeping her like this."
"Lizzie," John warns and Elizabeth knows exactly what he's going to say, he's said it before and both know it will break her.
"Please...not tonight, it's Christmas." John nods, backing down, both know how John feels about the situation, while Elizabeth blames her daughter for what she's done, John only blames Elizabeth, but while one's forgiven the other, one is still holding a grudge,
"Speaking," John starts reaching into his pocket, "I saw your mother this morning, she made for you." Elizabeth watches as John pulls out a folded piece of paper from his coat pocket, and sets it on the bedside table. It's a simple but nice card, made with notebook paper and folded in half, the cover has a beautiful and detailed drawing of the Nutcracker ballet in ballpoint pen.
"I didn't know Sarah could draw." John smiles.
"She has a whole business in there, she makes cards and trades them with the other women," Elizabeth frowns,
"Trades them for what?"
"A whole bunch of things, she said it's a barding system in there." Elizabeth's frown deepens,
"Don't you put enough money on her books for her not to have to trade for things?" John shrugs,
"She said sometimes she does them for free too, but a lot of the women in there are old-fashioned, trading is their form of money." Elizabeth reaches forward to grasp Marceline's hand again, before asking the next question,
"How is...how is her program going?" John nods, reaching forward to caress Marceline's cheek,
"Very well," John looks up towards his wife, "She's been going every day and even started to attend chapel on Sundays." Elizabeth nods,
"That's good." John looks up at his wife,
"You know Lizzie, you can visit her." Elizabeth shakes her head,
"No, no I can't, who will sit with Marceline."
"You can come after." Elizabeth shakes her head,
"I'm not ready John." He leans back,
"Alright then, when you're ready."
"Thank you." John nods, holding his hand out over Marceline's body, Elizabeth is hesitant at first but meets him halfway, their enclosed hands resting right above their granddaughter's sternum,
"I wish things were different." Elizabeth whispers,
"I know," With careful hands both John and Elizabeth wiggle their hands into Mare's,
"Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas."
…
"You're still awake?" Edward peeks his head between the doorframe connecting our two rooms. I reach for the remote to the TV muting the riveting documentary on Victorian Christmas sweets,
"Did you know sugar plums aren't actually plums?" Edward lifts a brow and smirks,
"That can't be what's keeping you up." I sit up and shrug,
"I'm just thinking," I answer truthfully. Edward takes this as an opportunity to step into the room,
"What are you thinking about?" I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my chin on them,
"I hope my mom is having a good Christmas Eve too."
Christmas Eve with the Cullens is so very different than Christmas Eve with the Callahan's. For starters, Esme woke me up with a forehead kiss and the promise of a good breakfast which she delivered, pancakes in the shape of a reindeer. Mom never woke me up, trusting me to get up on my own, and to her credit I did. Breakfast was usually a bowl of cereal on the couch while we watched the news and then a Hallmark Christmas movie. We muck around the house for the rest of the morning, mom usually goes to the store to buy boozy eggnog and immediately starts drinking the moment she gets home. She stays semi-sober through dinner, Chinese from our favorite place and then she'll light a peppermint candle one she gets from the same store as the boozy eggnog, and we'll finish the night with It's a Wonderfull Life before she tells me to go to bed so she can put presents under the tree and finish the eggnog. It's not much, but it's enough, it's one of the few days when mom waits until I go to bed to get plastered, therefor it's my favorite.
However, that's not the case for a Cullen Christmas Eve. After breakfast, I let Alice take me upstairs to pick out an appropriate holiday outfit, we went through several different options before I finally agreed to one. A simple pair of jeans, a white sweater, and a red plaid scarf. I picked out some tall fuzzy socks and headed back downstairs where Jasper asked to play chess. A few games later, all of which I lost, and Emmett found me to make ornaments,
"The tree already has ornaments"
"None that we made,"
"Because all the ornaments are made of glass and expensive."
When we got back from Italy, Esme wasted no time in putting up the Christmas decorations, which included a tree in every room, all different themes, mine included. It's a 6-foot flocked pine tree with white and crystal snowflake ornaments, Esme calls it, white Christmas, and I have no issues with it, I like it. It sits in the corner of my room in the book nook and blends right into it, I've enjoyed falling asleep to the warm glow every night.
"I would like some homemade ornaments."
Esme calls from the kitchen when she hears me argue my case, and that's all it takes. Emmett and I proceed to sit at the kitchen table, clear ornaments, glitter, colored paper, pipe cleaners and the rest of Esme's craft supplies litter the dining room table. Emmett who's a little kid at Christmas enjoys showing me every ornament he's making. A reindeer, a snowman, a glitter bauble, he works fast and with a smile on his face the whole time, I enjoy it and end up making two ornaments myself. After Esme served lunch, tea style she told me, with a small variety of sandwiches and a very small cup of soup. Carlisle came home from work after that bringing with him several pre-assembled gingerbread houses and that's what we we spent doing from 1 to 4, everybody in teams of two, based off of couples except for one team.. Alice with Jasper, Carlisle with Esme, Rose and Emmett, and lastly Edward and me, and turns out Rose and Emmett are very good at decorating with small details and blowing all of us out of the water.
After Esme insisted on starting dinner, the rest of us sat down to watch Christmas movies, but not before Carlisle pulled a peppermint candle out of his briefcase with a gentle smile on his lips and and lights it setting it in the middle of the coffee table. I couldn't find anything to say instead swallowing a tear-forming lump in my throat and letting Carlisle sit down next to me and pull me to his side while It's a Wonderfull Life, starting playing on the TV until Esme called me for dinner.
Dinner was several kinds of appetizers, from ham and cheese sliders to hot baked rolls. A festive plate of Christmas cookies sat at the end next to a small plate of cheese and crackers. She even had pigs a blanket and a relish tray. She smiled almost embarrassed,
"The food channel said small appetizers are the best for Christmas Eve and a large dinner on Christmas day."
I smiled at her,
"It looks great Esme."
I proceeded to eat too much of everything and then practically passed out on the couch, Home Alone in the background, Emmett's laughter periodically bringing me back to the present, but eventually, I fell asleep before waking up to my head in Carlisle's lap his fingers in my hair,
"Bedtime."
He smirked when he saw I was awake,
"You said I didn't have a bedtime when there was no school."
"Christmas Eve is different."
Both Carlisle and Esme presented me with new Christmas PJ's, a soft silky pink set with candy canes on it before ushering me upstairs with a quick forehead kiss. Unfortunately, I'm wide awake now, the excitement now died down and my mom is heavy on my mind,
"She's probably thinking the same about you," Edward said with nothing but kindness in his voice, too bad I don't have the same in my response,
"Too bad I'm comatose." Edward frowns, looking away before smiling,
"Tell me the best gift she's ever gotten you." I lift one brow,
"What?"
"Tell me the best gift she's ever gotten you." He repeats. I purse my lips before answering,
"My mom used to follow this rule for every Christmas," I rake my brain for that saying she had, "Something to wear, something you want, something you need, and something to read." That's it.
"I like that." I nod,
"Last year she got me this sweater." I smile at the memory, reaching up to run my hand down my new Christmas PJ top imagining I'm wearing that sweater, "It's my favorite, if I could go home and only take one thing with me, it would be that sweater. It is knit, the color a cool mint green with pearls sown in the front. I don't know where she got it, but I loved it," Edward smirks,
"Mare Cullen loved a piece of clothing." I frown,
"Don't tell Alice." When his smirk doesn't disappear I reach behind me and throw my pillow. He catches it easily,
"Our secret." He promises, "Did you at least have a good day?" I smile softly and nod,
"It was really nice,"
"Before you're too overwhelmed by tomorrow I wanted to give you my gift." I frown again,
"Two things, what does that first part mean and second, I didn't get you anything,"
"First don't worry about it, second it doesn't matter." He pulls out a small rectangular-shaped package wrapped in red and green striped paper from behind his back, did he always have that? He holds it out but I just stare at it, "I think you'll like it." I gingerly reach forward and grab it,
"Is it a book?" A smile creeps up on my face,
"Open it." Edward shrugs. I rip through the paper and hold the gift up, an old hardcover book that's been very well taken care of,
"The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus?"
"It's a children's book that came out in 1902, it was my favorite as a child, I thought that if you couldn't sleep maybe you could read?" I bring it to my chest,
"Thank you, I love it." Edward smiles,
"Read, try to sleep." I nod watching him head back to his room but not before turning and smiling,
"Sleep tight Mare,"
"Don't sleep at all Edward." I wait till he closes the door with a soft thud before opening the book, finding an inscription on the front page,
To a very special boy on his favorite holiday,
Merry Christmas Edward,
Love Mommy.
I run my hand over the faded ink before finding another note underneath, this one in new dark ink.
To A special sister on her first Christmas in Forks,
Merry Christmas Mare
Love your brother Edward.
I close the book and bring it to my chest hugging it close to protect it when the tears start falling down my cheeks and onto my Christmas sheets. I smile knowing these are happy tears,
"Merry Christmas you softy." I whisper, knowing Edwards heard it through the door, a second later I hear him answer,
"Merry Christmas Eve crybaby."