Author's Note: With Christmas coming up, I thought I would write a lovely, fluffy little Christmas ficlet for you all:-) Consider it my Christmas gift to all my lovely readers! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and the best gift that you could give me is some lovely reviews at the end to tell me how you liked it and what you liked best:-) I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful and blessed Christmas!

By the way, for those of you who don't have me on author alert, go and check out my two latest (apart from this) J/B fics - A Snore by Any Other Name and Lost in Space. I would love to hear your thoughts on them (as always!)\

Finally, bear with me if the timing of this is a bit off with the events of Eclipse....I really wanted it to be a Christmas story so I changed things a bit!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Bella or Jacob (alas!)

A Gift Worth Keeping

I'll be home for Christmas/No I'd never miss it/Christmas by the fireside with that family of mine/Christmas day will find me/With the miles behind me/I'll make it home on time.

Bella got up and abruptly turned off the radio from which Roger Whittaker's cheery voice was emitting. She reached up a hand to hastily brush away the tears that had formed in her eyes and huffed loudly, feeling very frustrated with herself. It was Christmas Eve and she was young and healthy with a family and fiancé who loved her and a warm roof over her head. She had no right to feel sad and sorry for herself. She had got, after all, what she had always dreamed of. And yet, as she sat at her bedroom window gazing out at the snow falling softly outside, she couldn't quite still the little voice that whispered slyly and insidiously in her mind but this isn't exactly what you dreamed of. In your dreams, he was always here somewhere in the background. He still loved you; he was still your friend. It never occurred to you in your dreams that he would decide to leave and get over you.

And that was what stung. Because really, in her innermost thoughts, Bella had been convinced that Jacob would always be there, would always love her. It was selfish she knew, and yet nothing could have prepared her for the agony of him deciding to leave and move on with his life. His love for her had always been something she could count on, like the sun rising every morning or the flowers opening in spring. It had never occurred to her that one day it could be swiftly and quietly withdrawn from her life.

She missed everything about him and never had his absence been so apparent as when she had gone through the motions of preparing for Christmas. As she had baked batch after batch of Christmas cookies, she couldn't help but remember how he used to sit on the kitchen counter whenever she baked, sneaking tastes of the cookie dough and profusely complimenting her 'mean baking skills' as he called them. She also couldn't help but be reminded of the fact that Edward had never tasted nor would ever be able to taste or compliment her on her cooking.

Whilst decorating the tree, the little silver bell ornaments had reminded her of his affectionate nickname for her – a name that only her father and Jake ever called her. It struck her then as rather odd that she and Jake should have terms of affection for each other, while she and her fiancé did not. Jacob and Bella became Jake and Bells when in each other's company, but Edward and Bella simply remained....Edward and Bella, despite their passionate declarations of undying love.

And when she sat in front of the fire, feeling its friendly warmth reaching out to her, lapping over her shivering skin and heating her to her core, she was forcibly and nostalgically reminded of another source of heat and comfort – a living source, who like the fire, had warmed from within and chased away the coldness and despair. And naturally, thinking of Jake's heat led her to think of Edward's coldness, and how inconvenient it was in winter, which of course triggered memories of a certain icy night in a tent and all that followed thereafter.

And so Bella found that no matter how much she tried to occupy her mind with other things, everything from cookies to trees to fire to songs on the radio incessantly brought a certain dark-haired boy to the forefront of her thoughts. And eventually deciding that further expenditure of her energy in this regard was quite useless, she curled up in her cold and lonely bed (Edward was out hunting) and fell asleep with tears on her eyelashes and wet, truthful trails down her cheeks.

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Thump. Muttered expletive. Crack. More muttering. Bella awoke with a start, her heart picking up speed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, making out a large hulking figure by her window. A figure who (if the thumping and cursing were not clue enough), was decidedly not Edward. She sat up quickly and reached out shakily to her bedside lamp, switching it on quickly as she took a deep breath of air in case she needed to scream for Charlie's (and Charlie's gun's) help. However, as the sudden bright light illuminated the room, she felt the additional air in her lungs rush out with an audible whoosh as she spied the person who was currently standing awkwardly by her rocking chair, which was looking, she noted somewhat absently, rather the worse for wear.

After a few seconds of staring at each other in surprised and awkward silence, Bella regained enough breath to whisper-shout "Jacob Black! What are you doing in my room in the middle of the night?!" Granted, this was not precisely the greeting she would have envisioned giving him at their reunion, but her sleep-fogged brain was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Jacob was here, in her room and he had not forgotten about her after all. Besides it was a pertinent question. What was he doing in her room in the middle of the night? That was more of an Edward thing than a Jacob-thing wasn't it?

Jacob had the grace to look slightly sheepish, as he looked back at her, steadfastly meeting her gaze. He blushed a little as her eyes ran over him, taking in his somewhat dishevelled and shaggy appearance.

"Um...Hi Bells."

Even as she felt a twinge of annoyance at the fact that he could leave for three months without so much as a word and then come back out of nowhere and have the absolute nerve to simply waltz into her room in the middle of the night and say Hi Bells she also couldn't help but feel a little thrill run down her spine at the fact that he called her Bells. She had missed hearing her nickname spoken in that deep, husky voice. But she would not cave now. No, she was not going to let him get off that easily. So she steeled herself to frown heavily at him when secretly all she really wanted to do was run into his arms and sob-laugh into his shoulder, and repeated her question in as stern a voice as she could manage.

He shifted his feet uncomfortably and then cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Well, I kinda didn't expect you to wake up. You wouldn't have woken up if I hadn't tripped over your damn rocking chair. Since when does it sit in front of your window?" He sounded rather irate by the end of this sentence and Bella had to stifle a grin at his rather obvious attempt to avoid answering her question.

"I moved it. You can't blame me if I wasn't exactly expecting you to come crashing through my window in the middle of the night. But you still haven't told me what you're doing here in the first place?"

Jacob's sheepish look returned for a moment and then it disappeared as he moved forwards and sat on the edge of her bed, grabbing her icy hand between his two large warm ones. Jacob had never been able to be around her for long without touching her in some way, she reflected, silently thrilling in the feel of his warm skin on hers again.

"Well, I've been running as a wolf for the past three months, just trying to get away from everything. And I hadn't really been in contact with the pack, although now and then I would catch glimpses of their thoughts, which is how I knew that you weren't married or, or changed, yet. But anyway, I had totally lost track of time, and had no idea what day of the week it was, let alone what month, until I heard something about Christmas in their minds a couple of days ago. And it got me thinking....about how this might be your last Christmas alive and how I wouldn't be there to see you....and so I came. I only meant to see you one last time – I didn't mean to wake you up, and I'm sorry for that Bells. You weren't ever supposed to know that I had been here. "

He shrugged and avoided her gaze, looking down at their joined hands which were resting in his lap.

"Although now that I think of it, your bloodsucker would probably have figured it out as soon as he gets back from wherever he is." He added rather bitterly.

Bella slapped him lightly on the arm with her free hand. "Don't call him that, Jake. And anyway...I'm glad that you woke me up. I've missed you, you know."

"Yeah?" He looked up at her, with an almost forlorn hope in his eyes.

"Yeah. Really. More....more than I thought possible. I've missed just being with you, Jake. Your laugh, your smile, your warmth. Everything about you. Life just wasn't...the same without you. It was empty somehow. And I mean, I've felt emptiness before, but this was different somehow. I'm...I can't be me without you. I become just a puppet of me, going through the motions. I need you Jake. Is....is that wrong?"

His grip on her hands tightened and he looked at her searchingly for a few seconds before answering.

"Yes, if you still just want me as a friend. I'm sorry Bella, but I can't just be your friend anymore. I....I can't. You can't have your cake and eat it, Bells."

She looked down, as he had done earlier, at their joined hands and saw where her ring glinted between his fingers. Reaching down, she slipped it off and placed it carefully on her bedside table. Then she looked up at him again, and whispered, "I know, Jake. I think...I think your being gone has taught me an important lesson. I...I know who it is I can't live without now."

She heard his sudden intake of breath and felt his hands release hers and wrap around her cheeks, bringing her face up to his. There were tears in both his eyes and hers, but these were not the same tears as those she had shed earlier. Those were tears of loneliness and lostness, whilst these were the tears of someone who has been found and is oh so happy to be home at last.

Out of the corner of her eye, Bella caught sight of the clock next to her bed, and as Jacob lowered his lips to meet hers she whispered, "It's ten minutes past midnight. Happy Christmas, Jake. And thank-you for the best Christmas present ever."

Jake grinned and murmured against the place where their lips met, "Do you think you'll keep this one?"

She nodded ever so slightly, so as not to break the heavenly contact, and her enthusiastic response was all the answer he needed, as he drew her even further into his warm arms.

THE END

A/N: Review my lovelies and tell me your thoughts and what you liked!;-) Have a marvellous Christmas!