I'll be home for Christmas

Chapter 24

Chapter 24 - I'll be home for Christmas

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe [ruadh sidhe] and Feebes86 for betaing and pre-reading.

"Are you okay?" Josh asked Bella.

"Just… worried."

"Edward is nothing to you, now."

"I know… but..." She bit her lip.

"I understand. He's more than the guy you nearly married."

She had nearly literally killed herself for him. Joined the ranks of the undead. "It's his family, too. I would have been part of his family."

"Your dreams, Josh?" Billy interrupted. "How much time do we have?"

"Sorry… I dream of gliding, fast moving creatures, in long dark cloaks with hoods, so that I could not see what they were. It wasn't until Izzy described them that I realized who they were." He put his hand up to his forehead. "It's a little hard to get an exact date. Dreams tend to show a full moon or whatever."

"When the first snow falls," Quil said. "Wasn't that what the pixie said last time?"

"Pixie?" Josh asked.

"Alice," Bella explained. "She's under five feet."

"What does this dream show that helps us guess the time of year?" Old Quil asked. "We can confirm with Alice Cullen if they want to help."

"She might be able to tell when the Volturi make a decision, but once someone's future intersects with the wolves, Alice loses her visions," Bella said. "And when she is close to the wolves herself, she is future blind."

"I know it will be soon and other than that, all I can give you is the waning stages of the full moon," Josh said.

"So about three weeks?" Old Quil said.

"Jeez… try to get a calendar in the next dream would ya," muttered Paul.

"Three weeks? That's not much time," Sue said.

"It could be the full moon after that. So that would be seven weeks," Josh said.

"I vote for seven weeks," said Jake.

"Oddly about as long as Joy suggested," Old Quil said with a smile at his daughter in law.

Nervous chat broke out again.

Old Quil turned to the audience. "Do you accept Joshua Uley as my successor?"

One voice said, "I don't know… does he say he's a shaman?"

"He doesn't say it, I do," said Old Quil.

"I, too, saw him in shaman dress in my dreams," Billy added.

"Do you trust us?" Old Quil asked.

Murmurs of 'aye' and 'yes' and a few that grumbled but it was the sound of agreement.

Josh gave an odd little bow. "Thank you. I will try to prove my worth."

Bella clasped his hand and squeezed.

He kissed her temple.

"Right," said Billy. "We have much to do. I will contact the lawyer in Seattle. We need to make sure we have all possible wolf candidates here on the reservation."