Hey Folks!

Here's a nice long one for you! This chapter is going to be a 2 parter just cause I couldn't cover this one shot in one shot. There's just too much I want to do here and doing this in 1 chapter would result in it being like 6,000+ words.

By the way, if any of you are in NYC I highly recommend making a visit to the bar in this story! Its a favorite of mine with a real West Village kind of feel. But the owner I wrote in here is totally fictional even though he's based on a combination of two real people who will remain anonymous ;)

I highly recommend not reading this chapter without tissues. Especially at the end... Enjoy!

Two Years after Moving to New York

It wasn't easy but thanks to some help from my amazing friend Bonnie, I was able to pass my entrance exam to NYU Medical School. Bonnie had spelled me with the schooling I missed during my time as sleeping beauty. At first it felt like cheating but Damon made me realize that if none of this had happened, I would be at this point in my studies by now anyway and if I did the traditional rout and studied the old-fashioned way, I'd be years behind my dream of being a doctor. So, I let Bonnie spell me and continued my academic track. The classes were harder than I thought. There were many nights that Damon literally carried me to our bed after I fell asleep with my face on my books.

We'd become regulars at the bar on the corner of our building called The Broom Street Bar, and Damon had become good friends with the owner, Hank. Hank was 72 with long gray hair he always had in a ponytail and a rough voice with a full on New Yorker accent. One of his k-9's was gold and he had tattoos befitting a relic from the punk-rock era. He had no children and after many nights Hank and Damon spent talking about how much better rock music in the 70's had been, Hank started looking at Damon as the son he never had. Little did Hank know just how experience Damon was with the 70's rock culture.

After another day of grueling anatomy lessons and medical ethics, I went to meet Damon at the bar for dinner. Damon was already there and had ordered my favorite thing on the menu, nacho fries, a pita burger and a hard cider. As I rushed through the door my messenger bag caught in the frame and I almost fell. Damon was at my side in an instant making me question how many of his vampire skills he might still have.

"Easy there, lady grace." He smiled and kissed me.

I squinted my eyes at him, "Ha-ha. Sorry I'm late, the 4 train took forever."

"It ok, Hank kept your food warm."

I smiled at Hank and waived, "Thanks Hank!"

"No problem cookie. Go sit, I'll bring it over."

I smiled at his nick name for me and sat at our table by the window. Hank brought our food and challenged Damon over the song that played on the radio. "Alright wise guy, I'll bet your dinner you don't know this one.

Damon listened "Suzi Quatro, Wild One, 1974 from her second album Quatro. Thanks for Dinner Hank." Damon smirked smugly at Hank.

"How the hell does he know this stuff?" Hank asked me. I smiled and shrugged.

Turning to Damon with a smile I quietly said, "You're going to get yourself in trouble one of these days."

"With Hank? No way, I just happen to have excellent taste in music for my age." He winked at me.

I laughed and Damon took a sip of his beer. "How was class?" he asked me.

My head sank to the table. "Ug, I suck at anatomy. Its seriously going to be a problem, today I almost barfed all over the cadaver."

Damon shrugged, "Well, it's not like he would have cared. You like, washed your hands and everything after that class, right?"

A gaped at him. "Yes, thank you. And it's a little ironic, you being worried about my interlacement with a dead body considering your unspoken past."

"Um, yours too missy."

"Touché."

"Hungry?"

"Starving!"

"That's my girl. Even after she's handled a pickled corps, she can still pack it away."

I laughed and went to my food. I was about to dig into my fries when I smelled something off. Was it the cheese? No, it was the meat. It smelled terrible. Suddenly the smell of cooking meat from the small kitchen in front of the bar smelled horrible.

Damon had already taken his first bight of food when he noticed the odd look on my face. "You alright babe?"

"I don't know, does it smell weird in here to you?"

He swallowed and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "No, it smells like greasy bar food. Same as always."

"No, the something off."

"You feeling ok? You look really pale all of a sudden."

The smell just wasn't mixing well with me for some reason. Sweat started to brake out on my forehead and I felt dizzy, "I don't know, I just feel… oh my god," Without warning I got up and ran to the bathroom. Thankfully it wasn't being used. I hardly had time to shut the door behind me before I hurled up everything I'd eaten. Thankfully everything made it to the toilet.

Damon's POV

Elena made a rush to the bathroom like she was on fire. Hank called from behind the bar. "What happened to my cookie?"

"Not sure Hank, keep an eye on our food will ya? And can you hand me a water?" The old man handed me a bottle of Poland Springs and I walked over to the bathroom. I pressed my ear to the door and heard the obvious sounds of my wife throwing her guts up. I knocked on the door.

"Elena, it's me, can I come in?"

"Absolutely not!" she shouted from the other side and another round of violent sounds came from her end of the door. "Ya, cause that's gonna happen." I said and opened the door which she either forgot to lock or didn't have time to lick before her food came back up to play. I Pulled her long hair back into a makeshift ponytail.

"I told you not to come in here." She said weakly.

"You did but, horrendous sounds of my wife in agony veto any words of keep out." When it looked like the sickness had passed Elena sat back and flushed away her… episode.

"That class must have really done a number on me." She said as I handed her the open bottle of water. I reached over the toilet and pulled out a few sheets from the paper towel dispenser, wet them with cold water and put them on her forehead.

"You ok to move?"

"Ya I think so."

I pulled her onto her feet and half way carried her towards the front door. As we left I called out to Hank, "Do me a favor and have Dolly wrap up the food? I'm gonna take Elena upstairs. I'll be back down for it in a bit.

He waived at me, "No problem, just take care of her."

As we got outside into the fresh air Elena took a huge breath. I realized she had held it all the way through the bar. In the elevator, Elena slumped against me. I had seen her sick before but this was different. She was really weak. I wrapped my arms around her, brushing strands of hair off her face and she leaned against my shoulder.

"It's alright baby, I got you." Once I got Elena into the loft I tried to bring her straight to bed but she insisted on going to the bathroom and brushing her teeth first. When she finally emerged, I carried her bridal style up to our bed, laid her down and took off her shoes. I kissed her head and whispered I was going back down to the bar to get our food.

"…I'll be back in 5 minutes."

"Mm-hmm." Elena grumbled as she fell asleep.

Grabbing my keys, I locked the door behind me and went to the elevator. Leaning against the wall I started questioning what was wrong with my girl? Around mid-winter last year she caught a bad flu and I waited on her hand and foot. So much so that I ended up catching the damn thing just as she was getting better. It was the first time I'd been sick in almost 2 centuries. That was rough but it wasn't like this. Then, her symptoms came on gradually; post nasal drip, aching limps, then finally the fever, coughing, sneezing and stuffy nose. This was totally out of nowhere.

When I got to the bar, I saw Hank had our food in 2 paper bags on the counter. "How's she doing?" he asked

"Asleep, she just came from an anatomy class and almost tossed it there, maybe it stuck with her?" I shrugged, I sucked at figuring this stuff out. What the hell did I know about sickness?

"Did she say anything else before she made a run for it?"

"Just that the food cooking smelled off to her, but it smells normal in here to me."

"Hu…" Hank thought to himself.

He looked like he was on the verge of something, "You gonna share the thought or do you actually expect me to pay you a penny for it?"

"It's nothing just, my late wife back in 82. She got pregnant for the first and only time in our 40-year marriage. The kid didn't make it but in the beginning, she used to lose it over the smell of some food being cooked. Mostly meat and the greasy stuff. Any chance you two are expecting the pitter-patter of little feet?"

I froze, no way, not a possibility. But again, we were both human now. And while we were pretty safe, there were times when caution did get thrown to the wind in the heat of the moment. Then I remembered one night, I'd come home from the bar late after helping Hank close up. I thought Elena had late classes so I was surprised by what I saw when I walked in the door. The loft was lit by dozens of candles and Ed Sheeran might have been playing. What's up with that guy by the way? His music is like a one-way speed pass for the bedroom. Anyway, Elena dolled herself up in some sexy lacey thing and I don't remember having ravaged her with more fuel than since we were vampires. Did we go 3 times that night? 4? And I… shit.

I swallowed hard, my eyes having found their way to a random spot on the chalk board wall behind him. Hank shrugged, "Judging by the dumb-stick look on your face, I'm guessing its totally something in the yes direction. Mazel Tov kid." He slapped my shoulder and I silently turned to the front door and made my way back to the loft and Elena. A pregnant Elena? Could it really be? I was totally on autopilot as I let myself back in the building and elevator. The door started to close when I shot my hand out, stopping it from closing. I left the food on the marble bench in the lobby and ran back to the bar. I needed to ask Hank more questions. I didn't have a father to turn to for this stuff and asking Rik would only result in blondie finding out. The ball of wax that would form was too much for right now. I wasn't even sure it was true yet! It didn't matter that I was technically more than twice his age, there were aspects of life Hank had experience with that I never did. This being one of them.

I burst through the door and caught Hank pouring someone a pint. Not wasting any time, I dropped in front of him at the bar and started asking away. "When did you guys know for sure your wife was pregnant?"

Hank cocked an eyebrow at me. "She went to a doctor dummy."

"No, I mean was there other stuff she did? Other signs besides the throwing up?"

Hank thought for a moment. "I did notice after she tossed up her food she was really weak ya-know? Like the life had been drained out of her. But after she rested for a bit, she devoured a whole plate of Chinese dumplings like it was the first time she had eaten in weeks. The color came back to her face and she went right back to normal. Like none of it ever happened. Then it did happen again, that was when I though the men with stethoscopes had better take over."

I nodded like an idiot kid and asked more. "What worked for her being sick? Anything? I mean she wasn't supposed to take medicine or anything, right?"

"Damon, it was the early 80's. nobody gave a shit back then. I saw pregnant women smoking, drinking. Now a days, you have a smoke within 300 yards of a knocked up chick and people look at you like you're an axe murderer."

"You really need to quit those by the way. But seriously, did anything work?"

"You're starting to sound like my dead wife you know that? I been smoking since before you were a gleam in your daddy's eye kid."

"I highly doubt that but come on! I need answers."

"Crackers, the ones with salt and ginger ale."

"Got it, just one more thing." This was going to be hard to ask. Hank was a rough no nonsense guy but this topic could change that. "I don't want to be a dick by asking you this and if I'm overstepping just tell me to piss off. How did you lose your kid?"

Hank looked down. "Miscarriage, my wife was 4 months in and she started bleeding. The doctor told us it was normal for her to do a little of that so we didn't worry. Then that night, she started cramping and well… That was the end of that."

"I'm sorry buddy."

"Eh, it's ancient history. Now go, take care of your wife and I get first dibs at his musical education." I smiled and thanked him. I knew it couldn't have been easy for Hank to talk about that with me but it was thankful he did.

Before I came back up I stopped at the drug store and bought a few things; saltines, ginger ale, a jar of pickles, vanilla ice cream and a pregnancy test that came with 2 sticks. I figured if one was defective the other one would serve as a backup. The pickles and ice cream thing could be a total urban legend but it couldn't hurt to be proactive. The sales girl eyed me like I was a piece of meat as one by one I placed my items on the counter.

"I'm Slone," she said flirtatiously, arching her back so her chest appeared larger than it was.

I smiled back and put up my left hand, "I'm married." Call me what you will, but I love it when this happened. I honestly loved playing the married card. The look on these foolish little girl's faces was nothing short of hilarious. Then I dropped the last item in front of her, the pregnancy test "And we might be expecting." My singsong voice was the icing on the cake.

The sales girl Slone, stupid name, was flustered as she rang me up and bagged my items. "Thank you, Slone. you have a great day." As I sauntered away I had to use all my willpower not to crack up laughing there and then.

Back in the loft I watch Elena sleep for hours, wondering if there was someone else in there with her. When 10pm rolled around, I figured I'd better wake her up and make her eat something. Groggily Elena came too. I had warmed up the burger, careful to keep the windows open so the place didn't smell like hamburger and set Elena off on another bathroom run.

"How long have I been out?" She asked scratching her head.

"About 4 hours."

"Crap! Why didn't you wake me? I need to study!" she tried to jump out of bed and fell back down, dizzy and completely devoid of food.

"Slow down there you," I said catching her and softening her landing on the mattress. "You need to eat something before you go putting your nose to the grind."

She made a face, "I can't even thing about food right now."

"Good, don't think, just eat." I put the plate in front of her. "For me?"

She smiled, "You know that whole sire bond thing was over years ago right?"

"No sire bond here, just a loving husband who watched his beautiful wife completely empty the contents of her stomach earlier and wants her to eat something." I gave Elena my best puppy dog face.

Her relented like I knew she would. "You didn't have to give me the face."

I shrugged, "You go with what works. Now eat."

After a few tentative bights, Elena went into a frenzy and devoured the entire burger in a very unladylike fashion. Hanks words from earlier rang in my ear "…like she hadn't eaten in weeks."

"Oh, my god, that burger was heavenly. I feel so much better now. Thanks for making me eat love."

I kissed her burger flavored lips and got up from the bed taking Elena's plate. When I turned around I picked up the test. "Hey babe, would you do me a favor?"

"What's up?" She asked as she got up.

I held out the test and asked, "Can you take these to the bathroom and pee on them?"

The look of confused horror on her face caused me to stifle a fit of laughter. Then she realized what I was holding.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"I'm just saying, you got sick out of nowhere and…"

"Ya, sometimes it happens to people, it doesn't necessarily mean… that."

"Well its cheaper than a trip to the doctor and if they come up negative at least we can rule this out."

"This is ridiculous, I've been careful."

I pursed my lips tilting my head to the side. "Not exactly… remember that night? The candles? The lacey thing?" I gave her my bedroom voice as I listed the significant details of the night in question from 8 weeks ago. Elena blushed. I loved that after 2 years of marriage I could still make her turn red.

"Ok, I'll take these to the bathroom and when they come up negative It's pepto bisbol time."

"Agreed."

Elena's POV

In the bathroom, I waited for the 3 minutes the box said it took for the results to come up. This was ridiculous. There was no way I was… that. Geez I couldn't even think the word. It was too soon! I still had another 2 years of med school and at least 3 years of residency ahead of me! Then I remembered one girl in my ethics class named Carrie. She was a 3rd year and was 6 months pregnant. We were the only two married women in the class and had become pretty good friends.

I had asked her how she could handle being pregnant and medical school at the same time. It looked like a ton of work and stress. She said it wasn't easy but she planned to take a sabbatical once the baby was born and return after a few months. Carrie and her husband had been married for 5 years and they had wanted kids badly. Her husband was in law school and her mom planned to move in with them to help with the baby so they both could continue their education. Carrie had spoken with her adviser and together they came up with a game plan.

So, it wasn't impossible but it was hard. But Carrie had the help of her family, something Damon and I didn't have. I looked at myself in the wall mirror to the left on the sink and studied my reflection. I turned to the side and touched my belly, imagined it sticking out. The I stopped myself. "Stop being stupid Elena," I chastised myself. The alarm went off on my phone signaling the 3 minutes were up. I approached the 2 tests on the counter like they were tiny bombs and read the results.

"Oh…"

Damon knocked from the other side of the bathroom door. "Come in," I shouted, still frozen.

He opened the door and with restrained rush and asked, "What's the verdict?"

The words left my mouth like I was choking. "I'm, I'm pregnant."

Damon looked like he'd been punched in the face and won the lotto simultaneously. He pulled me into his arms and held me so tightly I could hardly breathe. "Holy shit babe." He said into my hair as he started to kiss my forehead, cheeks and then my lips.

"What are we going to do? I mean we're not ready for this, are we?"

"Is anyone every really ready?" he asked. The mix of emotions on his face were fascinating. There was worry, excitement, fear, joy and more that I had ever seen before in one shot.

"I guess not but, Damon, I still have 2 more years of med school and residency and that'll be insane hours. How can I be a mother and still become a doctor? We have no family that can help us really. And…"

He took my face in his hands, instantly calming me. "We'll figure it out. I mean it's 2017, stay at home dads are a thing now right? Elena, do you know what this means? This is everything we've fought for. Becoming human, getting married, having a family. We're getting the chance we never would have had."

He was right. There was a huge part of our lives where the possibility of children was no possibility at all. But here we were; married, happy and now pregnant. I started to cry.

"You're right. Crap is this the hormones already?"

"I have no idea, I just know that I couldn't be any happier than I am right now."

Damon's POV

I held Elena to me. A baby, we were going to have a baby. A screaming, puking, pissing, pooping baby. I couldn't wait. Going down on my knees I pulled up Elena's t-shirt and spoke to her belly.

"Hey little one, I'm your dad. I can't wait to meet you." Kissing the skin that housed our child the world felt complete. I nuzzled my face against Elena's womb and she hugged my head, bending a little to kiss the top of my hair. What a perfect moment.

In my head, I hoped it would be a girl. A beautiful little girl with brown hair and eyes and a fire to conquer the world. Just like her mother.

I hope this was a good addition to my view of D&E's human life together. So far the support I've received for this story has been amazing! I'm so glad fans of the VD series are enjoying my contribution to our favorite couple.

I hope to have Part 2 of this chapter up by the end of the weekend so please keep a look out! Thank you again and please, please review? They really make my day and inspire me to write more. Also if you have any ideas or things you'd like to see happen let me know!

~SL