CHAPTER 1

Elena POV

Elena sighed as she finished frosting the light blue on to the last of the fifty cupcake order she had to have done by the pickup time, which was in about an hour. Normally she didn't run behind on the orders, but since things at home weren't exactly working out, she found herself distracted and it was starting to affect her work.

"Elena, are you ok?" Her best friend Caroline asked, glancing up from her work.

"What? Yeah I'm fine." Elena sighed setting down the pastry bag, she turned to look at her friend who was finishing adding on frosting on top in shapes of diapers, booties, and pacifiers. "No, I don't know."

"Talk to me Elena." Caroline said setting down her pastry bag, turning her attention from the cake to the brunette; she had to stop herself from smiling at her friend who had blue frosting across her cheek. It was one of the things Caroline loved about Elena, she really got into her work and she had amazing skills in the kitchen. This was Elena's passion and you could tell by the amount of skill she put into her work.

"Well the kids' keep asking when their Dad is coming home, and I don't know what to say because, I don't think he is. It's been nearly 2 months Caroline. They're both too young to realize it, but I know Liam thinks something up." Elena said thinking about her two beautiful kids who were currently at their Uncle Jeremy's house. Both of her children had their mother's hair, Liam had Stefan's green eyes and Addison had her mom's hazel eyes. Liam is four years old and Addison is two years old.

Looking back at her relationship with Stefan, Elena figured problems started a few months before they figured out Elena was pregnant again with their daughter. Stefan wanted children, but after having Liam and seeing how much work it was being a parent he didn't want any more. He was the type of person who wanted to want children, but wasn't ready for them. Addison was a surprise, and everyday Elena counted herself lucky to be blessed with two healthy children, with or without Stefan's help.

"What did you tell them?" Caroline asked a slight frown on her face.

"I told them I wasn't sure. I feel bad for not being able to give them answers but, how can I tell them he left them for good." She replied and went to grab a large box to begin to place the finished cupcakes into it.

"Elena, Hun you did the right thing. Stefan was cheating on you, and abused you. Both of which make him a bad husband and father to you and those two kids." Caroline said. "You did nothing wrong."

"Thanks, Care."

"It's the truth."

Both girls went back to working in a comfortable silence, Elena was ready to hang up her apron and go pick up her kids and take them home. She only had a few more hours to go but she wasn't thrilled about it. She went over to their shared desk, and frowned at how unorganized it was and everything was piled up upon it. She moved some of their papers and looked at their calendar to look at the next order they needed to fill. It was for a retirement party; the man's wife brought them an idea and helped the girls plan it out, and wanted to pick it up on Thursday. The wife wanted a flat sheet of Europe and then make certain landmarks out of fondant with little figures of them, because the man's goal after he retires, was to travel around Europe. They also had a little girl's birthday cake to plan for the same day, so the girls would definitely be working weird long hours. Once Caroline moved the finished order to the fridge, she was back at the work table as Elena was looking over both order forms.

"What's up next?" Caroline asked sitting on the stool next to Elena.

"Well we have the little girl's birthday and the man's retirement cake, so which do you think you want to do?" Elena asked taking a sip of coffee, before handing over the order details and letting her pick.

"I'll do the retirement cake." Caroline said smiling knowingly.

"Alright, I'm going to work on the girls." Elena said happy that Caroline let her have the girl's cake. Elena looked over the mom's and the little girl's cake ideas. The girl wasn't very specific, but the girl knew she wanted stripes, polka dots on the cake, wanted it to be bright and remind her of candy.

Elena walked into the front of the store and sat her things down she needed to plan out the cake. She wasn't getting anywhere when the store's chimes went off and saw looked up to see her friend Matt coming into the store, she figured he wasn't here to see her, but Caroline who was his girlfriend. Elena looked at Matt and smiled. "She's in back," and then returned to look at her sketch. She was so happy for the couple, they had a rocky start but once they sorted out their issues, they were very much in love and fully committed to one another.

"Thanks." Matt said before walking behind the counter and into the back room. She started sketching the basic to the cake, deciding that it was going to be a small 3 tier cake. The bottom was going to have up and down strips, each strip was going to be a different color and was going to make the stripes have a rainbow pattern, and the middle tier is going to be green with a pink ribbon wrapped around it –made of fondant. The top tier is going to have a white background with polka dots in different color and sizes. Then to top off the cake she was going to put a big rainbow lollipop sticking out of the top and then the seams of each tier were going to be lined with gob smackers, also in a rainbow pattern. Elena was really excited about the cake, and could picture Addie wanting something like this for her cake. Elena looked at her calendar and schedule she decided that she was going to have to start cooking the cake today, and make sure she did it right, she didn't have time for the cakes to turn out wrong. Then she would let it cool and set, and then tomorrow (Tuesday) she would go to the store to pick up the candy and lollipop before she came into work to start the fondant coloring. Elena started to make the vanilla cake by scratch and then began on the lemon frosting the girl decided she wanted, listening happily to the music Caroline turned on.

Elena was just finishing sealing the icing when the cake was almost cooled down and settled before looking at the clock, happy to see how fast the day went. She was just waiting the last five minutes when the cake was finishing cooling and would drop and ready to be stored in the refrigerator. She cleaned up her area and hung up her apron, on her hook. After saying goodbye to Caroline, she walked out the door and was more than happy to go pick up her kids.

Elena pulled up into the driveway, a smile on her face ready to see her two little babies. It was always hard for her to leave her children, not because she didn't trust her younger brother with them, but because she was so worried about Stefan showing up unexpectedly. She knocked on the door and was smiling when Anna, Jeremy's longtime girlfriend, of nearly a year open the door. Elena was trying not the laugh as she saw Anna's hair and knew that Addie had played with it. Anna's long black hair was in many halfway done ponytails and had many hair clips hanging from her head.

"Hey Elena come on in, Jeremy and Liam are just picking up." Anna said motioning Elena inside their rented house.

"Thanks for watching them; you don't know how much it means to me." Elena said grateful that her family and friends still stood by her even though her husband didn't.

"We love too, they are amazing kids Elena, and you've done such an amazing job." Anna complemented with a smile.

"Thank you," Elena said. "I will have to repay the favor when you have your own little ones."

"Not yet," Anna smiled, "Hopefully later, but we are waiting until we have a more stable life style."

"That's great."

The two girls could hear Jeremy's heavy steps walking towards them, and giggling following. He entered the door way and they saw that he was weighed down by the two little ones. Addie was holding onto the back of his neck, trying not to fall off the piggy back ride, while Liam was sitting on Jeremy's foot, clinging to his leg.

"Mommy." The Addie cried out and then began struggling to get down. Liam hopped off his uncle's leg and went to hop into his mom's arms.

"Hey Babe" Elena said, kissing his forehead before picking him up. Jeremy released Addison and she ran to her mom and began tugging on her jeans trying to get her mom's attention.

"Hey Bug." She said setting Liam down and then picked up her baby girl. Addie threw her arms around her mother's neck and then kissed her.

"Was I missed?" Elena laughed as she could feel her daughter nod into her neck.

"Thanks again for watching them guys. I'll see you tomorrow?" She asked.

"Yup. Drive safe sis." Jeremy said wrapping his older sister and niece in his arms. Before kissing both Elena and Addison on the forehead, and giving Liam one last hug and kiss goodbye.

"Thanks Jer." She said. She walked outside and got them both into their car seats and then reversed out of the driveway, and began to ask them about their day.

Thank you for reading, please review and tell me what you think. I am currently going through all the chapters and editing them, it is VERY needed. If you have read this story before, I will warn you that I may add on some new parts. Please be patient for the new and improved chapters, I have many other things going on and this is not a high propriety right now.

3/21/14- Edited