Hi there. This isn't my first one-shot but it's my first fanfiction from The Vampire Diaries. I want to send a very special Thank you for my friend Krista, not only she offer us the chance to read another version of our show, but also because she encourage me to write this one-shot and the one that I have from Arrow, because she also help me checking my grammar, and she also is a unconditional friend and we share some little secrets. I really appreciated your help Krista, so this chapter is dedicated to you. Thank you.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or anything associated with it. Just my love for writing.
I hope you enjoy the chapter and don't forget to leave a review, good or bad, any kind of feedback allowed me to improve. Let me read what you think. Thank you for taking the time to read this one-shot.
She didn't have anyone else to ask. That's the reason she was driving to the Salvatore's Boarding House and praying that Damon agreed to do this particular favor for her.
She arrived fifteen minutes after she decided this. If she had thought more about it, she probably would have told Caroline to forgo her trip to Whitmore College with Elena and had her do this instead, but this was important for both of them; Elena finally got the change to leave the house without Damon and, at this point, getting another visit would be too difficult.
She looked one more time through the rearview and got out of the car, praying that this was the right decision.
"Damon…" She called once she opened the door.
He appeared in front of her using vamp speed.
"Liz, what are you doing here?" He asked, taking a sip of his bourbon.
"Day drinking, huh?" She replied, pointing to him.
"Well, somewhere, it's already past noon." He answered with a smirk on his lips. "But that don't answer my previous question. What are you doing here?" He asked again.
"Listen. I need a favor..." She told him.
Before she could finish, he heard a cry that came from Liz's car.
"Sorry to interrupt, Liz, but someone is crying in your car." He warned her.
Before he could ask, Liz rushed to the car where Damon heard her whispering sweet words to someone. His curiosity won and he stepped outside, leaning against the doorframe. Now, he understood why she was there. Liz turned, looking directly at him.
"Hell no. No, no, no. Did I mention no?" He said before she could talk.
"I don't have anyone else to ask. You are my only option. Caroline is at Whitmore with Elena and that is your fault," She said pointing him with her index finger. "If you had let her go the first 4 times, this wouldn't be happening. But you being you, kept Elena to yourself." She finished with her hands on her waist. "And I hope that the next words that come out of your mouth will be an affirmative or I swear that I will tell Elena to deny you what you've been doing with her the past few weeks." She treated him.
He downed the last of his bourbon before giving Liz a hateful glare.
"Fine!"
He started walking back inside, yelling at her. "But you owe me a big one and this better be kept between us."
She listened to him while she took Grace out of her seat.
"I don't owe you anything, Damon. This is your fault to begin with. But I agree with you that this should stay between us." She told Damon as she walked inside the house with Grace in her arms. "Damon, she is my niece, Grace."
She was around two or three years old with brown hair that ended at her shoulders, crystalline blue eyes, and a white little smiled. She wore a yellow smooth summer dress with white dots.
"How long do I need to watch her?" Damon asked her.
"Just a few hours. I need to do my patrols and finish some paperwork." Liz answered, handing him a small pink backpack. "In the backpack you'll find anything you might need throughout the day." She explains.
"So, what I need to do with her?" Damon asked, while Liz sat Grace on the couch and gave her a giraffe plush doll.
"Just keep an eye on her. Never leave her alone and, please, if she gets hurt, just call me." She lowered her voice so only Damon could hear her. "Don't gave her blood." She said, emphasizing the last part.
"Who do you think I am?" He asked her. "Better forget that." He added.
"That is what I'm trying to do." She answered to him before kneeling in front of Grace. "Sunshine, you need to stay here with Damon." Liz explained while she pointed to Damon. "Be a good girl and don't cause trouble. I will be back very soon, okay?"
"Okay, Auntie." The little girl answered in a sweet, low voice.
"Okay." Liz echoed and kissed her forehead before standing up and walking to the door. "You can call me if you need anything." She reminded Damon.
"We'll be fine. Now, go before I change my mind." He told her before sitting on the couch next to Grace.
She glanced one more time before closing the door behind her, and watching Damon looking at Grace, she could swear that a smiled appear on his lips.
Using his super hearing, Damon could hear Liz leaving the Boarding House. When he was certain she was gone, he glanced down at Grace one more time, watching her play with her plush doll when she suddenly stopped.
"I'm thirsty." She said to him.
"What?" He asked.
"I'm thirsty." She repeated, her big blue eyes looking up at him.
"Oh, right!" He said, taking the backpack and opening it. "Let's see what we have." He said, finding an apple juice "Here."
He handed it to her, but she just stared at it.
"You were thirsty right?"
She took the juice between her hands and raised it to Damon.
"Open, please."
"Oh, yeah, sorry." He said before taking the juice from her and opening it. "Now, here you go." He said, handing it to her.
"Thank you." She said, starting to drink from the straw.
After a few minutes, she finished the juice and gave the empty box to him, turning back to play with her giraffe.
He stared at her. He swore that if he and Elena could have a child, Grace would be a perfect mixed between them. While he was lost in thought, she left her giraffe on the couch and climbed down, standing in front of Damon.
"Play outside?" She asked.
"Outside?" He looked at her nodding her little head. "Do you want to play outside?" He repeated again.
"Please." She said, bouncing up and down.
He closed his eyes before answering her.
"Okay. Let's go outside."
She waited patiently for Damon to get up from the couch. He started walking to the door and, feeling something in his hand, he looked down to see that Grace's fingers wrapped around his. He opened the front door and, once they were on the grass, Grace released his hand.
Grace turned to look at him.
"Chase me." She said, touching Damon's hand and running away from him.
She turned back to see Damon still in the same position. She stopped and ran back to his side.
"Chase me." She repeated and started running away once more.
"Seriously?" He said, using vamp speed to appear in front of Grace.
She tried to watch over her shoulder to see if he was chasing her and at that precise moment, she hit Damon's leg and fell to the ground. She glanced up at him with tears shining in her big blue eyes.
He knelt in front of her.
"Please, don't cry." He managed to say before she started to cry. "It's okay. You don't have to cry. Please stop." He tried to calm her. "Come here." He said, picking her up. "You're okay. Damon is here." He said whispering and hugging her close.
He held her until he couldn't hear her sobs anymore.
"Are you hungry, Grace?" She nodded against his chest. "All right." He said, giving her a kiss on the head and starting to walk toward the house, her still in his arms.
He sat Grace on the couch, opening the backpack and searching for a snack, finding some kind of mix of nuts, pretzels, cereal, banana chips, and popcorn in a Ziploc bag.
"This all we have. Do you want this, Grace?" He asked, showing her the bag.
"Yes, please." She said reaching for the bag in Damon's hand.
"Easy, kiddo." He smiled at her. "You don't have to rush." He said, opening the bag before giving it to her.
He watched her while she enjoyed her snack. Maybe he'd overreacted when Liz asked him to watch her. Everything had been going well. Maybe he could have this, a family, with Elena. They couldn't have their own child, but they could always adopt. A smile started to form on his lips as he thought, but Grace once again pulled him from his dreamland.
"Thank you." She said, handing him the now-empty bag.
"You're welcome." He said without thinking.
She took her giraffe and hugged him with one arm, keeping him close to her, then she started to look around, searching for something.
"What are you looking for, kiddo?" Damon asked her.
"Cartoons." She told him.
"Oh! There's no television down here. It's upstairs." He clarified to her. "Do you want to go watch some cartoons?" He asked her.
"Please." She answered.
"Okay, let's go." He said, standing up and taking Grace into his arms.
He entered his room and put Grace down on the bed, switching the television on with the remote and climbing up to sit with her.
"I guess Liz would probably kill me if I let you watch something that wasn't appropriate for you, so we have very few options here." He said, more to him than to Grace while he searched the guide for something for her to watch. "We have something call The Backyardigans, Sofia the First, Bubble Guppies and Doc McStuffins. Which one do you want to watch?" He asked her.
She thought about it for a few seconds. "Doc McStuffins!" She answered excitedly.
"Okay, Doc McStuffins it is." He affirmed.
He positioned his back to the headboard of his bed when Grace crawled close to him to cuddle by his side. He immediately passed an arm behind her head, hugging her close to him while they watched TV.
"Night-night, Daddy." She said to Damon, closing her eyes.
"Sleep tight, Grace." He replied, kissing her forehead and closing his eyes, too.
"Damon, I'm home" Elena said, closing the door behind her. "Damon?" She called him again without answer.
Using her heightened hearing, she could hear 2 breaths coming from Damon's room. Without losing a second, she used her vamp speed to appear in the doorway, ready to speak when she saw Damon hugging Caroline's cousin, Grace. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she snapped a photo of the scene in front of her before joining them and falling asleep.
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