I have waited a thousand years for you.

A Christmas day

A few minutes later Esme reappeared with a mug of warm tea. Margaret thanked her and was then led upstairs to rest. Jasper and Maggie came to a halt by a door. When it opened, Jasper took in how she looked around, marveling over the view of the trees wet with rain, the soft green walls, and the books all over the desk, shelves, and bed. Jasper noted how her fingers wrapped around the mug, absorbing its warmth. It was an old habit she had had even when they first met, wrapping her fingers protectively around the things she held, as if someone were to snatch them away. Though when they got together, that habit was left behind. Jasper couldn't help but feel sorry for her, he had no idea what she could've felt when she received the telegram that thought him dead. He moved towards the desk, picking up books and papers, and organizing the room a little bit.

"Sorry, for the mess." Jasper started as he placed the books from the bed back on his bookshelf.

"I like your mess, it tells me about you," Margaret replied, almost in a trance. That was what she used to tell him when he stayed up late working with papers flooding his desk. It touched Jasper deeply, plucking the strings of his mating bind, almost begging to be settled. He managed a laugh as he unmade the bed, lifting the covers for Margaret to settle into.

"What has it told you about me?" He inquired, watching closely as she knelt on the bed and sunk into a spot between pillows. Then, her body began sliding down until she was laying. The same unusual steps she took to get into bed all those years ago. Jasper would never tire of seeing her doing all of those things that were just her. Jasper felt he could simply admire her for the rest of his life and never grow tired.

"That you work too much." She concluded, happily sipping her tea. Jasper hummed in contempt.

"Rest now, I'll wake you in the morning." He took the mug from her hands and began to leave, but Margaret stood, the covers dropping from her shoulders.

"Would you stay?" She offered, and Jasper stood frozen in place, the mug still in his hands. He nodded slowly, then rushed downstairs to leave the mug and got back in a blink. He sat next to her as she drifted to sleep and he watched her. He observed how her chest rose and fell, how her cheeks were flushed, and how her smell would stay in his room for months. Each time she rolled over it hit him like a tidal wave, her smell, her blood, the mating bond, it would fall on him like a ton of bricks, and yet he could only watch her, his heart filled with happiness.

***

The next few weeks went by quickly for Margaret, she had never felt so alive, so herself with friends. Though most of the school still liked Maggie, they looked over their shoulder with disgusted expressions when she sat with the Cullens during lunch. Few were the days Jasper didn't come to school since his revelation, usually, it went down to sunny days where they might be exposed and hunting days.

It was the first day of Christmas break when Jasper Hale knocked on Charlie's front door. Margaret was in the kitchen baking cookies for her father and his coworkers, as they still had to work during the holidays. Christmas carols rang through the air, mixed with the heartwarming scent of vanilla and cinnamon. Margaret dropped the spoon in the bowl she was mixing and shook the flour from her hands, spreading the mixture on her apron. She was washing her hands for the millionth time when she heard the knock.

"I'll get it, Chef Maggie," Charlie informed her, he had been in such a good mood lately. Though he wouldn't say it, knowing that Isabella would come by next year had made him the happiest man on earth. It hadn't occurred to Margaret that another factor that influenced his good mood was the fact that she had begun acting more like herself, few where the days she cried and her nightmares had reduced in great measure. Charlie also enjoyed seeing her go on her 'Girl Trips' as Alice called them, it eased him knowing that she had finally found true friends in Forks, especially with Bella's coming.