Eleanor's fingers tapped against her stomach while she laid on her back, eyes wandering the blank ceiling above her. A pit of worry had formed in her stomach, distracting her from the people around her. Well, person.

Her fiance sat in the chair by the bed, watching her with a concerned look. He knew she was scared, and it killed him that there was nothing he could do to sooth her worry. Carlisle sat up and placed his elbows on his knees to speak to her.

"Carlisle," she interrupted. She kept her eyes on the ceiling as she spoke, "what do we do if Aro wins?"

Carlisle frowned, "what do you mean?"

El closed her eyes and sat up, "if... if he kills you all and takes me and Alice?"

Carlisle instantly leaned forward and took the girl into his arms, immediately calming her down. He placed a hand on the back of her head and gently began to rock the two, "El, I promise you that's not going to happen."

"Yeah but-" she opened her mouth to protest, causing Carlisle to hold her tighter.

"I'm not going to let them touch you. Or Alice," he promised, "and you've said it before, you can protect yourself, sweetheart. You're probably the strongest one in this house, Garrett said so. Besides, I'd let them take me before they could touch you."

"Over my dead body," El sniffled, "they're not touching you."

He kissed the side of her head, "they won't, Ellie. I promise."

Her wandering eyes stared out the window, focusing on the snow falling from the sky above. It wasn't sticking, but that didn't stop Eleanor from worrying. Carlisle's words from earlier had completely left her mind, and she was back to assuming the worst.

The Volturi were coming. They were going to kill the Cullen coven. They were going to take her.

She shuddered as the thoughts entered and left her mind. What the hell was she supposed to do to protect her family? She didn't want their blood on her hands.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, snapping her out of her toxic thoughts. Eleanor turned her head to see her fiance, a look of worry stretched onto his features as well, "are you okay?"

She formed a tight lipped smile and looked back towards the grey sky, "yes. It's snowing."

"It's not sticking, El."

"It will be soon," she mumbled.

Tomorrow would be Christmas, and she desperately hoped that she would be able to spend that day with her family. If anything terrible were to happen, she wanted to see them one last time.

A deep sigh left Carlisle, and he knelt down to Eleanor's height, "what did we talk about earlier, Ellie? It's going to be okay."

"I hope you're right, Carlisle," El told him, finally meeting his eyes.

The two were interrupted by Garrett, who awkwardly cleared his throat and clapped his hands together. Eleanor threw him a cold stare, waiting for him to tell them what he needed.

"So, uh, do you still want to train Eleanor?" He asked, doing his best to avoid her stare.

El's shoulders slumped. She had forgotten that she was going to train with Garrett and Kate, and honestly, she wasn't feeling up for it. However, she needed to learn to fully project her powers in case she had to protect them.

Her eyes connected with Carlisle's for half a second before she stood, "yeah. Let's get this over with."

The car came to a slow stop in front of Mrs. Stanley's house early on Christmas morning. All of the negative thoughts from Eleanor's mind had finally subsided after hours of reassuring words from both Carlisle and Kate. Thank God - she didn't want to be anxious during the entire visit with her family.

The witnesses realized that their battle would be tomorrow. Eleanor was thankful that she was going to at least be able to spend Christmas with her family. She just prayed that it wasn't the last one she had.

Carlisle opened the driver's side door, and swiftly made it to Eleanor's side to open her own. She thanked her fiancee before turning to the back seat to grab her mum's and Jess's presents.

The two made their way into the house, instantly greeted with the comforting smell of cookies and hot chocolate. A grin easily found its way to Eleanor's face when she saw her mother and twin.

"El!" Her mom exclaimed when she spotted her. She ran over with wide arms and wrapped her daughter in a hug, "I've missed you, sweetheart. It feels like it's been decades."

Eleanor laughed at her mother's exaggerations, "it hasn't been that long, mom.

She turned her attention to Jess, "I've missed you too, Jessica."

The twins embraced briefly before pulling apart, "it's nice to see you too, Carlisle."

The man greeted the woman with a smile and a wave. He had already set down the presents on the table, and now the two were being led into the family room to sit on the sofa. Mrs. Stanley handed a cup of cocoa to her daughter after Carlisle declined.

El held the cup close to her body as she listened to her mom speak about what had been happening. Eleanor hadn't realized she'd missed so much in the few short weeks since she'd last seen her mother.

"Anyway," Jess smiled at the engaged couple when their mum's story came to an end, "have you been doing anymore wedding planning?"

"Um," Carlisle and Eleanor shared a look as he began to speak, "not really."

"What?" Mrs. Stanley cried out, "why not?"

"I mean all we have left to do is..." she trailed off as she thought of what needed to happen. Truthfully, they hadn't done any planning for the wedding. When had they had time? "dress shopping and invitations?"

Carlisle nodded at the lie, "I'm pretty sure that's it."

"When's the date?"

Eleanor smiled. They had figured out the date, "April 14th."

Carlisle squeezed the girl's shoulder and the two smiled at each other as they thought about their upcoming wedding.

"Why don't we go dress shopping after the New Year?" Mrs. Stanley asked, "you're going to be running out of time, El."

Dark thoughts began to fill her head again. What if she died in this battle and her mother didn't get to go dress shopping for her daughter? What if she never got to marry the love of her life?

Eleanor forced a smile to her lips, "we have all the time in the world."

As the hours passed on, Eleanor could feel her anxiety growing. It was snowing harder now, but still not sticking.

She knew the battle would be within the next twenty-four hours.

Now, Carlisle was trying to distract her by teaching her chess in his office. However, she couldn't stay focused. Her mind was overthinking all the possibilities of the tomorrow.

"El?"

She didn't react to the sound of his voice and Carlisle huffed. He stood from his seat and moved in front of the girl.

"Darling?"

Her eyes moved to his and Carlisle's heart nearly broke at her expression. He raised the side of his lips.

Carlisle stood from his kneeled position and helped Eleanor to her feet. His arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her close to him.

El buried her face in the crook of his neck, exhaling deeply. They stood in silence. Eleanor felt her anxiety fading the longer she stayed in his embrace.

But there was one fear the remained.

Eleanor's eye stung with unshed tears as she thought about her own worst fear. The fear of Carlisle dying.

She gripped him tighter. She could feel a lump growing in her throat again and tried to swallow it back.

She wasn't going to cry. She was just thinking the worst - there was no way Carlisle was going to die.

Eleanor took another deep breath. It would be always be okay as long as he was there.