Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

Hey everyone! I am so sorry for the delay in updates. Life has been beyond hectic lately. College sucks, or at least it does to me. So does summer when you don't have AC. Anyway no one is here to listen to me rant about life, here's the next chapter. I'll try to remember to post a chapter every day for the next few days if I can. Enjoy the story.

-Line Break-

"It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace." – Chuck Palahniuk

Kat laughs as she watches Emmett and Jasper arguing over what video game to play, Alice was doing her nails while they sat in the Cullen's living room.

"Flip a coin or something, it'd be faster than you two arguing for another hour." Kat suggests still snickering.

"Fine, I'll get a coin, but I call heads." Emmett says.

"It'll be tails." Alice smirks. Emmett glares and gets the coin anyways, flipping it. It spins for a moment then falls still, it was tails, of course.

"Dammit!"

"My game it is." Jasper says with his croaked grin. The two begin their game, about half an hour later, Emmett throws the controller through the wall. Kat jumps, her eyes widening, before she covers her mouth, trying desperately not to laugh.

"Oh, Esme is not going to like that." Alice says grinning.

"I'm… uh… going hunting." Emmett runs from the house. Jasper puts his controller down with a chuckle and moves over to the couch with the girls.

"You two will back me up, that Emmett did it right?"

"Of course." They nod.

"Great." He sits next to Kat, running his fingers down her arm. She smiles at him and looks back at the design Alice is doing on her toenails.

"You do realize, that will be gone in like two days right?"

"Yes, then I'll just do them again." Alice says happily. Kat shakes her head with a teasing grin.

"Of course… I am your dress up doll after all."

"Yup." Jasper snickers at Alice's happy reply. He takes Kat's arm running his finger over her skin, brushing back and forth over old scars. Kat looks down at the scars he's examining.

"Where did you get these?" He asks her quietly.

"Different times and places… depends on which you're asking about." She shrugs.

"This one." He points to a circler one just below the crease of her elbow, four matching ones are scattered across her arms.

"They're cigarette burns." Kat answers, clearly unbothered by the question. Alice frowns looking up at her.

"Who gave them to you?"

"When I was six, I was in a foster home with five other kids, one of them smoked, she was my roommate… she'd put them out on my arm if she thought I was going to rat her out for them." She explains, smiling as Jasper leans down kissing the scars.

"That's horrible, didn't she get in trouble for it?" Alice asks.

"No, but she ended up dead right before I was moved again, I was there for about two months with her, then she got in with the wrong crowd… She stole the wrong guy's wallet, and well… the rest is history."

"And this one?" Jasper runs his finger over a series of X shaped marks running over her upper arm.

"I don't remember those one's, but Ainsley told me, one of my first foster families, when I was a baby… they used to put X's on the kids each time they made a mess." She looks at the scars. "I guess I was a pretty messy baby…"

"That's sick…" Alice says horrified.

"Yeah, well that's a large part of the foster system, there are a lot of bad homes, more bad then good…"

"This one?" Jasper runs a finger over a large scar across her left palm. Kat holds out her right palm to him as well, showing an almost identical scar.

"Those ones I did…"

"Why?"

"A group of friends and I… we became blood siblings when we were 11." She smiles fondly. "It hurt like hell, and we got a lot of shit for all showing up back at our houses cut up… but… it made us family, at least at the time." Jasper kisses each over her palms, then kisses her. She kisses him back softly, sighing when he pulls back as they get more into the kiss.

"You have a lot of scars…" Alice points out.

"Yeah." Kat shrugs.

"You said you were in foster care as a baby… why weren't you adopted?"

"I don't know… people never wanted me." Kat says after a moment of silence, not being entirely truthful.

"It doesn't matter, there are plenty of people who want you now." Jasper says putting an arm around her shoulders. She smiles at him.

"True, I have no idea why? But true…"

"There are so many reasons… you just can't seem to see them." Jasper sighs.

-Line Break-

"Time moves slowly, but passes quickly." – Alice Walker

The summer had gone by quickly and the new school year had begun. Before Kat knew it, it was coming up on Christmas again. It was hard to believe that this time last year, she hadn't known the Cullen's… That there had ever been a point in time without them. But then life tended to be like that, it had been less than two years since she found her home, and she couldn't even imagine leaving it now, living anywhere else. Christmas had always been a bittersweet time for her growing up… either loving or hating it. It truly depended on where she was that year… Now, it was only a happy time… She'd be spending Christmas morning with Charlie at home, then with the Black's on the reservation. But Christmas eve, she'd be at the Cullen's.

Kat looks in the mirror, finishing putting her hair into a bun. She was wearing a evergreen long-sleeved dress, with black tights, and her black flats, She had added a black belt to the dress, and wore her black dream catcher pendent, with her black rose earrings, and her charm bracelet. Her hair was up in a bun, with a black rose clip in the front. She grabs her bag, and her leather jacket, Alice had gotten her for her last adoption day and headed downstairs. Charlie would be giving her a ride over, and Jasper bringing her home around eleven, her curfew having been extended for the holiday. Alice was throwing a party, so Charlie would be staying for a few minutes before heading home.

"Dad, I'm ready to go when you are." She calls as she comes down the stairs.

"I'm ready, you look beautiful." Charlie says with a smile, he's wearing some simple dress pants, with a button up shirt and a tie. The two head out to the car and over to the Cullen's house. The outside is decorated with beautiful Christmas lights. They get out of the car, heading to the door. Kat knocks softly, Charlie leaning past her to knock harder. "They won't hear if you knock that softly, Kat." Kat smirks to herself.

"Katrina, Chief Swan, Come in." Carlisle opens the door with a smile. They go in, Christmas music is playing, and there is a buffet of food by one of the walls, Christmas decorations hang on the walls, looking amazing. A large Christmas tree sits in the living room, by the window wall, as Kat had come to calling it.

"Hey Kat, Hi Charlie." Alice skips over to them, hugging Kat.

"Hey, Alice." Kat hugs her back.

"Hi, Alice." Charlie smile at her.

"Chief Swan." Jasper greats Charlie with a hand shake before turning to Kat.

"Jasper." Charlie gives him a nod. Kat takes Jasper's hand, laughing as he pulls her into the living room, where Rosalie and Emmett are dancing to the music that they can now see Edward is playing on his piano.

"You must be Charlie? Kat has told us so much about you. I'm Esme Cullen." Esme says walking over to Charlie with a large friendly smile.

"It's nice to finally meet you." Charlie smiles back holding out a hand to shake. Kat laughs as Jasper spins her around to the music, grinning as Edward starts playing jingle bell rock, she gives him a thumbs up, loving the song. Edward just gives her a nod and continues playing.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, Jingle bell rock. Jingle bells swing, and jingle bells ring. Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun; now the jingle hop has begun." Kat starts singing to the piano as Jasper and her dance. Charlie, Esme, and Carlisle stand to the side watching the couples dance.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, Jingle bell rock. Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time. Dancing and prancing in Jingle Bell Square in the frosty air." Kat laughs as Alice joins her in the song, pulling her away from Jasper to dance with her, much to Jaspers amusement.

"What a bright time, it's the right time, to rock the night away. Jingle bell time, is a swell time; to go gliding in a one-horse sleigh. Giddy-up jingle horse, Pick up your feet, jingle around the clock. Mix and a-mingle, in the jingling feet. That's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell rock." Her and Alice finish twirling into a pose together laughing happily. They all spend the next hour talking and dancing, until Charlie leaves, then things calm down a bit, Kat sitting with Jasper on one of the loveseats will talking with Alice.

"Okay, present time." Esme calls, coming into the room.

"Christmas is tomorrow." Rosalie points out.

"I mean the presents between Katrina and us Rosalie." Esme says giving her a look.

"I'll pass them out." Alice jumps up from her seat, as the rest of the family find places to sit. She quickly passes each of them their gift from Kat, and places Kat's presents from them in front of her. Rosalie looks down at hers looking confused.

"Who wants to go first?" Esme asks.

"I do." Emmett quickly chimes. He pulls open his box, grinning as he holds up multiple game controllers, all made custom.

"They're titanium… I figured you'd take a little more time breaking them that way." Kat smirks from her seat. Jasper chuckles next to her shaking his head.

"Thanks Kat, they're great." Emmett grins at her. "Open the present from me." Kat leans forward picking up a large box, she pulls off the wrapping, the box shows a picture of a stereo system, with a cord to plug in her iPod.

"Thanks Emmett, it's awesome!" she says, reading what it can do with a large grin.

"My turn!" Alice sings, ripping open her present. "I love it, Kat. Thank you." She says racing off, coming back a moment later, wearing her new dress. It was a deep red cocktail dress that flared out at the waist. "Now open mine." Kat picks up the bag, pretty sure she knows what Alice would get her. Smiling as she pulls out a blue and green sundress.

"Thanks Alice."

"Edward, why don't you go?" Esme says, grinning, loving watching her children open the gifts. Edward opens his box, smiling as he pulls out a few CD's from a band he had never heard of.

"I thought you'd like some of those, they're a group I knew in Olympia when I was a kid." He nods.

"Thank you, Kat." He motions for her to open her gift from him. She picks up the bag, opening it, she grins.

"Thank you." Inside is a very old book about composers.

"Rosalie?" Esme prompts her. Rosalie opens the box, pausing when she sees the silver, oval shaped, locket. She opens it, eyes widening slightly. Inside are two pictures, one of the Cullen family, and another of Emmett and her on their first wedding day.

"Alice helped me get the pictures, I hope you like it… I wasn't sure what you'd want." Kat says biting her lip.

"I do… Thank you, Kat…" Rosalie looks up at her. Kat smiles at her widely. "I didn't get you anything…" she says looking somewhat guilty now.

"That's alright, I don't mind." Kat says, still smiling. "Who's next?"

"I'll go." Carlisle says, carefully opening his present. Inside is a copy of an extremely old book, along with a clearly recently made translation. The translated cover says 'The guide to the supernatural: Anatomy and Description. By: Estelle Sparrow – 1652'. Carlisle opens the translated copy of the book, finding an index, with a note saying the original didn't have one. He moves to vampires reading quickly, then flips through the rest. "Where did you get this?" He asks her looking at it shocked.

"I inherited two copies when Ainsley died. I only need one, I thought you'd like it, as far as I can tell the information in it is accurate."

"The part about vampires is… I haven't heard of some of the creatures listed in the index before."

"I've met about five, I guess technically six, of the species in the book, if you count you guys and the wolves..." Kat shrugs.

"This is fascinating Katrina, thank you." Carlisle smiles at her. "Who did the translation?"

"I did."

"You speak Latin?"

"Yeah." She says as if it's the most normal thing. "Ainsley taught me when I was little." Alice is looking between the two looking confused, she had not seen Kat translating the book, or deciding to give it to Carlisle.

"Open your gift from me." Kat nods, picking up the small box, inside is an antique pocket watch, with a silver finish, it has vines engraved around the edge, leading to the back where a dragon is engraved, surrounded by vines.

"This is awesome, thanks Carlisle." She grins at him looking the watch over.

"You're welcome."

"I guess it's my turn." Esme grins, and opens her present, inside is a silver pendent, one side has the Cullen crest, the other has a picture of the family. "It's gorgeous, thank you."

"You're welcome, Alice helped me with the crest design and the photo."

"Open yours." Esme says with a large grin. Kat picks up the small box opening it. Inside is a silver dream catcher pendent, with a dragon at the center, sitting in the catcher.

"Thank you, Esme, It's wonderful." She puts it on. Then turns to Jasper. "That just leaves yours." Jasper smiles at her and opens his box. There is an old civil war era book she knew he'd been looking for, and a smaller box inside. He takes out the book grinning.

"Where did you find this? I've been looking for a copy for years."

"E-Bay." She smirks with a shrug. Jasper takes out the small box, and opens it. Inside is a key chain, a circular disk with his name engraved on it, and a silver star with the quote "And then my soul saw you and it kind of went "Oh there you are. I've been looking for you."" engraved on it. Jasper smiles at this, turning and kissing her softly.

"Thank you." Kat blushes deeply as he pulls back.

"You're welcome…"

"Now yours." He puts her last gift in her hands. She opens the box. Inside is a high end sketch book, with high end artist's pencils. Along with a small jewelry box. She opens the box, it's a silver heart shaped locket charm, with a simple design, inside is a picture of the two of them during the summer, along with the words "My Darling". Kat immediately adds it to her charm bracelet.

"Thank you." She hugs him tightly. Jasper hugs her back, kissing the top of her head.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat