FYH Chapter 21

FYH Chapter 21

Christmas Surprise

EPOV:
It's amazing how fast time will fly by. I had no idea where the last three weeks have gone to. We signed the papers on the house two weeks ago. We are still waiting for Emmett and Rose to get back to us on the papers from the bookstore. They promised me that they would have an answer for us when we called tomorrow. Little did they know, that phone call was not going to take place. All I needed to do now was to get my wife to agree to my plan and we'd be all set.
Up until this morning I had no absolutely no intentions of changing my mind about spending Christmas in New York, but my excursion out shopping on my own this morning had changed my perspective completely. I wasn't ready to call an end to the trip by any means, but I did want to see my family. I spent the whole morning watching family after family spending the day together and missing my parents and my siblings more and more. The crap that they pulled aside, it was Christmas, and if we were going to be truly serious about working on our problems and working towards forgiveness I could afford to extend an olive branch and go home for Christmas.
I had already gone so far as to call the airline and book us flights to Phoenix. We were going to be stuck on standby because lets face it, it was Christmas Eve and I was deciding to fly at the last minute. But something in my heart was telling me that this was the right decision. Bella and I had decided to spend the morning on our own so that we could each finish off our Christmas shopping, so I had yet to be able to run this by her but I was positive that she wouldn't object to this, she would support me in this decision. I was still in the process of packing our stuff when I heard Bella return to the suite. She was naturally a little surprised and bit wary to come back to the hotel to find me packing.
She was excited once she heard that we were going to Phoenix for Christmas. She had understood my position about seeing my family, I knew that she did, but she also encouraged me to let go of the pain and anger, even though as she put it, I was more than entitled to be as angry as I was. But from her point of view she also never wanted me to have to live with any regrets should anything happen to my family during our separation. We finished our packing quickly and took off for the airport hoping that everything would work out and we would actually make it to Phoenix for Christmas.
Five hours later we were still sitting at Kennedy waiting for a flight. We were eating from a Chinese restaurant in the food court area when Bella turned to me. "As happy as I am to finally be meeting my in-laws. Can we please not make sitting at an airport one of those Christmas traditions you were eager about starting?"
I couldn't help but laugh. This was definitely something that I did not plan to repeat if I could help it. The airport was not only hot and crowded, but most of the people were crabby at best, and the kids around us were cranky and bored. The airline gave us pagers to wear so that we could wander around and still be in touch.
I had just dumped our dishes into the trash when the pager went off and we rushed back. They had managed to get us two seats on a flight to Cincinnati, Ohio. We took it, but little did we know; we would still have a very long night ahead of us. We arrived in Ohio at about 8 PM., after a three hour wait there we got a flight to Kansas City, MO. Then we were sent to Houston, TX before we finally made it.
We didn't make it to Phoenix until about 9AM, we were exhausted, and in serious need of showers, but we both felt that it was worth it. We grabbed a taxi and made our way to my parent's home pulling up in front of the house forty-five minutes later.
When we pulled up in front of the house I heard Bella gasp. She knew that my family had money but even I'd admit that this was a huge house and screamed that we were rich. I knew the house that she described growing up in was a tiny two bedroom. Hell, even the house that we bought was tiny compared to this house. We grabbed our suitcases out of the trunk of the cab and let ourselves into the house. We put down our luggage in the front hall and I quietly led Bella to the sitting room where I knew everyone would gather before brunch.
We stood in the doorway taking in the scene before us. Emmett was at the TV with Rose and Jasper; they were arguing and trying to hook up the computer to it. Dad was sitting in his favorite chair laughing at them. Alice and Mom were nowhere in sight so I assumed that they must have been in the kitchen cooking. I shuddered at the thought of my sister in the kitchen. I took a moment to appreciate just how much I had missed them and never realized it before I spoke up.
"That computer won't be necessary anymore Emmett." Every head in the room spun around in shock at hearing my voice. It took all of half a second before the whole group pounced on us hugging the life out of us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rose run out of the room, returning a few moments dragging my mother behind her. "You'll find out what's up in a second, Mom. Just come on!"
The second that my mother saw me standing in the doorway holding Bella's hand her hand flew to her mouth and she stumbled back a couple of steps in shock. "Tell me they are really there." She finally said with tears streaming down her face. "Tell me that I am not imagining that they are standing there." She started inching toward me slowly as if she thought that if she moved too fast towards me I'd bolt out the door and disappear again.
"We're really here mom." I said moving forward to hug her. I held her for a full five minutes as she sobbed in my arms.
She just kept repeating the same thing over and over; "I'm sorry, Edward. I so, so sorry. I never meant to hurt you."
"Shh, I know Mom. I love you. It will be ok."
"I love you too."
I pulled away and reached back to take Bella's hand again and pulled her to me. "Mom, Dad, this is my Bella." Mom and Dad both hugged Bella and welcomed her into their home. After introducing Bella to Alice and Jasper, Bella decided to follow Alice and Mom back to the kitchen.
"Dude," Emmett started hugging me again, "What the hell happened? Not that I am not thrilled to see you but I thought you wanted to do the video conference thing."
"I did; this was just a last minute decision. A very last minute decision. We have literally just spent the last 20 hours at various airports trying to get here."
"So now that you are here, may I ask how long we have you here for?"
"We have to leave tomorrow. We have friends that are meeting us in New York for New Years." I saw Jasper squirm at the mention of New York and I intended to ask him about that, but that would wait until later, there was something else that I really needed to do before I could really relax and enjoy the holiday.
"Then I will just be thrilled that you are here today,son. We've all missed you terribly."
"I missed you guys too, Dad. More than I actually realized I did. But we aren't done traveling yet. There are still a lot of places that we want to see. And even when we are done traveling we are going to be in Maine. However, first things first, I really need a shower and I'm sure that my wife would like one as well, so I am going to go pry her away from mom's grip and we'll be back down soon."
"Good luck with that." Rose spoke up still sniffling from her spot on the couch. I walked over and kissed the top of her head before making my way to the kitchen. The scene I found before me melted my heart. It was something that I wanted to see repeated many, many times over during our life together.
ESMEPOV:
When I woke up this morning, it was hard for me to reconcile that it was Christmas. My Edward was not going to be here to celebrate with us. I missed my son every day. I justified his absence by reminding myself that if he had gone to college that he would have been gone anyway.
I made my way down to the kitchen to start the brunch that I had planned. I started a pot of coffee as I got to work on the pastry that I always make for Christmas. Erin our latest housekeeper had requested some time off to visit her family for the holidays and Carlisle and I were happy to oblige. So the kitchen was all mine for the next two weeks.
I wasn't in the kitchen long before Carlisle stumbled in and collapsed at the breakfast bar laying his head down on his arms. I knew that he had been held up late at the hospital last night with an emergency surgery.
"How late were you last night?" I asked as I handed him a cup of coffee.
"I got in around two. I swear I feel so old these days. Maybe it's time for me to start thinking about retirement. What do you think?"
"What do you do with all of your free time if you retire?"
"I don't know. Spend every waking moment with you."
"What would you say to a trip similar to the one that Edward and Bella are taking?"
"I think that I'd like that."
"How soon would you like to retire?"
"How about a year from now? Give them time to replace me at the hospital and the board."
"That sounds good to me." With that, my husband kissed my cheek and went back upstairs for a shower leaving his empty cup sitting on the counter. Yes, well, if we were going to have so more time together we were going to have some ground rules. I was not going to spend my days following him to clean up after him. My children were raised and gone. That got me started thinking about Edward again wondering how heand Bella were spending their Christmas morning.
An hour later as I was putting my strata into the oven I heard Alice and Jasper arriving. Rose and Emmett weren't too far behind them. Alice joined me in the kitchen to keep me company. I love my daughter dearly but that girl and kitchens do not mix. She jumped up on the counter and started munching on some fresh fruit that I had sitting there before pulling our traditional bottle of wine out of her bag and said that she thought that it was time to start celebrating the holiday. I figured that was why Rose opted to stay in the sitting room with the guys, Carlisle and Jasper weren't big drinkers and I knew that Emmett was abstaining while she was pregnant.
I had just finished my first glass and was about to pour a second when Rose came running into the kitchen grabbing my hand and dragging me out. I asked her what she was doing, I had cooking to do, and then I saw him. My Edward was standing in the doorway to the sitting room with a beautiful brunette by his side.
I started crying as he held me. There were moments in the last few months that I was sure that I would never see my son in person again. That no matter what I did to apologize and make amends that he would always keep me at arm's length. But here he was. After he extricated himself from my grip, I turned to Bella standing next to him smiling. She was absolutely breath taking. Even more so than in the pictures they had sent back.
I had to return to the kitchen sooner than I would have liked, but I had to check on the food so that our breakfast would not burn. This time Bella followed Alice and I back to the kitchen. I grabbed her into another hug after we reached the kitchen and thanked her for bringing my son home, then she informed me that it was actually all Edward's decision. He was ready to come back.
We poured her a glass of wine and she offered to help cook but I declined so she leaned back against the counter next to where Alice was sitting and we engaged in a great conversation that included a lot of laughter.
I was telling Bella about the time in Alice's freshman home-economics class that the teacher started the year off with the sewing module and Alice was so good at sewing that she was the top of the class and quickly became the teacher's favorite. That was until they got to the cooking module. After Alice's very first concoction landed five people, including the teacher in the emergency room with food poisoning she was asked to sit out of the cooking section. She got put in charge of designing the table layouts instead.
It was in that fit of laughter that Edward found us when he entered the kitchen moments later. "Hate to interrupt your fun, ladies, I just thought that Bella might want to shower and change after spending all night changing."
After they went upstairs, Alice started bouncing in her seat, "I can't believe they're here!" She squealed.
"I know!" I squealed just as loudly.
After brunch, we all made our way back to the sitting room to open presents. We had gifts for Edward and Bella that we were intending to send to them just as soon as we could. We may not have known exactly where they were but we did know that they were jumping around a lot lately.
I sat back and watched my son with Bella as we opened our gifts. Last Christmas I made the worst mistake of my life and nearly lost my son over it. I really did believe that he loved her and that she loved him. I really did think that it was the right thing to do. But now with hindsight, I know that I should have talked to my son first. I should have let him make the decisions that affected his life.
I had been looking at the photos from last Christmas recently and I never realized how sad he looked, almost despondent. Especially the picture of him putting the ring on her, I failed to notice that day that my son was crying while I celebrated his engagement to that wretched woman. I was determined somehow, someway; I was going to make it up to him.
EPOV:
I was never a materialistic person but I think that I will cherish the gifts that my family gave us for a very long time. My father, the man that abhorred my love of writing, who thought it was an absolute waste of my time, who forbade me from writing growing up, gave me monogrammed, leather bound writing journals. I was absolutely speechless. His gift was more that just the physical manifestation of paper, it was the encouragement and acceptance that I had always sought from him and had never received, until now.
After all the Christmas presents had been opened Mom told us that there was one more for Bella and I. It wasn't really a Christmas gift though; it was their wedding gift to us. Bella and I sat there a little confused as they all left the room and came back only moments later, each carrying a book in their hands. Dad was the first one to approach us and handed me the book that he was carrying. When I saw what he really had handed me I was left completely speechless.
It was a scrapbook photo album filled with the pictures that I had sent back. The one that Dad handed me was the first as it contained the pictures from San Diego. As we took them all and looked through them we couldn't help but realize all the hard work that had gone into them. They were not only filled with the pictures but fun facts about the places that we had been to. There was one that was dedicated completely to our wedding.
That is when I knew for an absolute fact that coming home for Christmas had been the right decision. It was the first Christmas in a long time that I could remember being happy about spending time with my family. I was so amazed and thrilled with the scrap books that I couldn't stop thanking them, and neither could Bella. I looked over as my wife jumped up from the couch and hugged my mother. This was going to be the Christmas that I would remember for the rest of my life as being my all time favorite. It was the Christmas that my family finally accepted each other for who we really were and not who we wanted each other to be.
A/N:
Are you surprised? I was, but Edward insisted. I wanted to let you all know that I have written another future take for charity. This time it's the Tsunami relief. You can find the link on my profile and many other places around the fandom. Some great authors are donating stories and the people of Japan really need help. The future take that I wrote was referenced in the one I submitted for the Australian Floods compilation. And its longer than I usually write ending at over 3600 words.