Author's note: To write this chapter I was inspired by the fic called "Pour Down the Rain" by Creaturess of the Night, I use the idea of the words Marie told Damon with her permission. So I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 3
"Cordelia!" Marie shouted. "Have you seen Damon?" Marie was very upset.
"No, ma'am, I haven't seen him, I thought he was still asleep same as child Stefan" Cordelia replied.
"What do you mean you haven't seen him? It's not in his room." Marie said, looking worried.
"What's happening? Why the fuss?" Giuseppe wondered as he left his room adjusting his robe and raising his hands touching his head because of the terrible hangover he had. Cordelia had already begun to mobilize the slaves to find Damon.
"Damon isn't in his room and Cordelia says she hasn't seen him, and as is almost noon..." Marie started to say when a stableman entered the house.
"Ténèbres is missing since last night!" the young stableman said clearly altered.
Marie turned to see him scared "Saddle Artemis" she commanded.
"Where are you going?" Giuseppe asked without worrying.
"To get my son" She answer resolutely.
"The boy will return when he gets hungry," Giuseppe said, grabbing her arm.
"If you don't care that he may have spent the night outside with cold under this storm, and having broken ribs, I do... so now I'm going to look for MY SON!" She screamed loosing from his grip "Cordelia, prepare me a bag with food and blankets!"
Stefan still in his pyjamas and hugging his teddy watched the scene from a corner with frightened eyes.
When Cordelia had everything ready, Marie grabbed the things and rode at full gallop toward the woods where she assumed Damon might be. She hadn't been riding for more than fifteen minutes when she saw the boy sitting on a rock in a clear, shivering with cold, and soggy. It was raining dogs and cat, water fell in torrents.
She tried to make the horse run faster, but a rock went in her way, causing the horse to lose its balance and fell sideways on her. Damon saw what was happening. And when the horse achieved to get on its feet again, Marie was almost unconscious, whimpering because of the intense pain.
Damon carefully but with difficulty helped her to stand up and to climb back to the horse which was limping, he climbed back on his horse and returned home, screaming that Marie had fallen from her horse. Giuseppe went to meet Damon and Marie, he took his wife in his arms and lovingly brought her up to his room.
Cordelia sent to pick up Dr Janes from the town, again. The doctor came as soon as he could. Marie had started coughing up blood. The doctor began checking up Marie, shook his head and said a very worried face "I cannot do anything, the weight of the horse must have caused internal wounds, that's why she's coughing up blood, I can only help with the pain so she can be more comfortable, while her time comes."
Damon began to mourn. Giuseppe looked at him with a glare "Don't cry she doesn't need your tears, she's not even your mother" he said dryly.
The next day, at noon, Marie had died. Giuseppe, left the room with Cordelia, to fix the temporary resting place for Marie until the arrival of the coffin had ordered from the town. When the coffin arrived, the maids had already dressed Marie, she was ready to be placed in the coffin.
A little 6-year-old Stefan began to mourn grabbing Damon's hand who was biting his lower lip to hold back the urge to cry.
His father entered the room where the coffin was. Damon let go Stefan of who ran beside his father with a face full of tears "You have to be strong, a fighter" his father said, wiping the tears from his little eyes.
Neither one of the guys mourned again, not during the funeral, both of the remained calm and serious even during the funeral procession toward the cemetery.
And neither of them cried when just a week after the death of their mother, their nanny, Cordelia began absentmindedly humming "Doucement s'en va le jour" French lullaby her mother had always sung. Nor wept when their father took of Marie's portrait which had been hanging in the main living room, as he had done years ago with Nicoletta's, Damon's mother, portrait. Not even cried when Artemis, their mother's favourite horse had to be euthanized later that week.
"Why my mother died?" Stefan asked Damon the same day Artemis was put to sleep.
"I guess, the same reason mine did" Damon replied remembering the words that Marie had told him once when he asked if it was true that she was not his mother. He became quiet, going deep into the memories that flooded his mind.
"True, my child, I didn't give you birth, but that does not mean you're not my son. Your mom and sister went to heaven because God needed more angels to help him, and nobody else could do the job better than they." Marie said as she cradled a three years old Damon to sleep in her arms.
The boy looked at her with his intense blue eyes "So they didn't want to stay with me?"
Marie looked into little Damon's sad innocent blue eyes "Of course they wanted, but there was no one else who could do the job, nobody could really do the job better than them. And both of them love you, my child"
Damon asked, "What kind of jobs were they needed for?"
Marie hugged the little boy against her chest and answered "God needed them to help him with a lot of things. He needed them to place the stars in the sky at night, to help other people to become angels, and to help him pour down the rain"
"Why do they have to help pour the rain?" The little child asked, really intrigued.
"So people can learn to dance and sing under it" Marie replied, and laid Damon on his bed and started singing "Doucement s'en va le jour" for the little one to sleep.
"But why?" Stefan asked Damon again, more anxious than before; taking his brother back to reality and out of his memories.
"Because God needed ONE MORE ANGEL IN HEAVEN" Damon replied shrugging his shoulders, smiling widely.
