"What are you doing here?" Bonnie nearly spat as she instinctively lifted Arianna from her play-pen in the living room. Damon offered the baby a small smile as she smiled widely at him as well. Bonnie rolled her eyes, a look of evident dismay on her face as she couldn't help but feel betrayed if her daughter liked Damon. "Elena's out with Jeremy, they probably won't be back for at least another hour or so…"
"Yeah, I know. I actually came here to see you," Damon told her honestly. Her forehead immediately scrunched up together in confusion, her mind jumping to various scenarios where Damon would want to see her. She could only think of one reason that would bring Damon to her doorstep without Elena, no gun to his head and no evident sarcastic pretenses.
"Is Elena okay?" Bonnie asked nearly instinctively. "I just saw her not even two hours ago, please tell me that you didn't do something stupid…" she begged, her thoughts jumping to worst case scenario. Damon fought to hold back a growl at the thought that the witch would automatically assume he did something negative. Didn't she understand that Elena was his wife and he'd let hell freeze over before any arm came to his her?
"No, Judgey…I didn't do anything stupid. But it's good to know that you still manage to see the best in people," Damon retorted sarcastically. Bonnie rolled her eyes and shifted Arianna's weight to her other hip. Bonnie had begun to gain a little bit of weight, not enough for human eyes to pick up on but enough that Damon could see the beginning of a baby bump. "I was wondering if you could help me with something," Damon said with a small smile of mock innocence. Bonnie rolled her eyes and placed her free hand on her free hip.
"What do you even need my help with? You have everything you've ever wanted, don't you?" Damon opened his mouth to say a sarcastic comment as his defense faltered with a little bit of anger at the thought that he's tired of Elena already. "Just spit it out, Damon…" Bonnie warned. Damon rolled his eyes, his expression growing both cold and distant but at the same time, a tinge of vulnerability evident in his eyes.
"Have you ever heard of someone named Gloria?" Damon questioned randomly. Bonnie's forehead scrunched together in confusion, her brown eyes growing wider before her resolve quickening as she mustered up a poker face. "I'll take that as a yes. Do you know where I can find her?"
"Why do you want to find Gloria?" Bonnie questioned, almost reluctantly.
"I…it's none of your business, can you just tell me where I can find her?"
"What do you want with her?" Bonnie pressed.
"What does it matter?" Damon quipped, his voice near a growl. Bonnie licked her lips before turning around and going upstairs. Damon waited patiently as he assumed she was putting Arianna down for her nap. He was right as Bonnie descended the stairs only minutes later, concern evident on her expression.
"It matters because you show up at my house, out of the blue and start asking me questions about where you can find arguably one of the most resourceful witches known to exist in this day and age," Bonnie said quickly. "You can't expect me to just hand over whatever I know and expect that you're dropping off a gift basket for the woman, now do you?"
"Judgey's getting snarky in her old age," Damon quipped with a ghost of a smirk on his face. Bonnie folded her arms across her chest, her eyebrows raised and the expression on her face making it clear that she wasn't in the mood for games. Damon took a deep breath, and rolled his eyes before meeting Bonnie's gaze again. "I love Elena," he blurted out. "Her humanity was taken away from her in a life or death situation. I know she loves me, I know it but I can't help but think that given the opportunity, she would've wanted to stay human despite our relationship at the time. But now her body is frozen, and I can't give the woman I love a family…"
"Damon," Bonnie said – her voice soft and gentle. "Time turning is a very tedious thing, and only the original witch is capable of such magic and Gloria isn't the original witch."
"I don't want to turn back time," Damon clarified. "I want Elena and me to be human." Bonnie's eyes widened with disbelief, horrific confusion in every crease of her face. "I know it sounds crazy, but…stranger things have happened."
"You're insane," Bonnie breathed. Damon took a small step forward, his hands extended as if offering peace. His expression was tired, his eyes aged with wariness.
"Maybe I am, but I'm insanely in love with my wife. Look, I know you don't trust me. You never have and you probably never will. But this isn't about me; this is about Elena and the choice that wasn't given to her…"
"Elena made her choice, Damon. She chose this life."
"Do you think that if her body wasn't desecrating, she would've damned herself to an eternity of misery? You know as well as I do that this is the last thing she wanted, but somehow this is what she got…Bonnie," Damon paused, his voice softening. "If there is anyway you can help me make this up to Elena, then please, help me. Help me and give me a chance to do right by my wife, please."
Bonnie opened her mouth to speak but was thwarted by the sound of Jeremy and Elena entering the Gilbert house, laughter emanating the foyer and living room. Elena's face immediately contorted into minor confusion as she took in the atmosphere and the body language between her husband and her best friend. She and Jeremy exchanged a look of confusion before they shifted their feelings back to normalcy.
"How was lunch?" Bonnie asked suddenly as Jeremy leaned in to kiss his fiancée on the cheek.
"It was great," Jeremy said happily. "Where's our girl?"
"I just put her down for a nap but she's been fussy, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you…" Bonnie hinted. Jeremy nodded as he and Bonnie walked up the stairs hand in hand to see their daughter. Elena immediately turned to Damon, her voice low and quick as she questioned him.
"What are you doing here?"
"I just…came to say hi," Damon said awkwardly. Elena tilted her head to the side, her eyebrows raised in disbelief as she knows Damon's poker face all too well. He let out an annoyed sigh, a small smile on his lips. "Fine, I came here to see if she's heard anything from the other side about vampirism parents," he admitted half-heartedly.
"Damon…"
"I know it sounds crazy but…"
"I don't wanna do this anymore," Elena breathed suddenly. "I don't want to talk about families or babies or humans. We're not human. We won't ever have a baby. We won't ever have a family. That's the reality. There's nothing about the other side that can change that, so please – Damon. Please just stop…stop trying to find hope in something that is hopeless."
The expression on Elena's face tore ripped through Damon violently. He felt as though a shard of glass was pumping through his veins, his wife's broken expression reflecting in the glass. He watched as Elena took a deep breath in a feeble attempt to regain her composure as Jeremy and Bonnie descended the stairs awkwardly, silence hanging above their heads in a cloud.
"How's Arianna doing?" Elena asked, eager to deflect the attention from her tension filled conversation with Damon that had occurred barely a minute before. Bonnie smiled automatically and Jeremy instinctively wrapped his arm around Bonnie's shoulder.
"Amazing as always," Jeremy said proudly. Elena winked at him and smiled warmly as she could hear the faint heartbeat of her sleeping niece upstairs. Elena's heart broke at the knowledge that Arianna and any other children her brother and Bonnie have will be the only connection to a real human family. Elena kissed that goodbye when she drank from that blood bag. She'd never thought that she'd have to deal with the problems humanity harbored such as starting a family, but now suddenly it seems as though Damon has made it his mission to make her feel useless because she can't produce a child. She thought that when she married Damon, her life would be simple. She knew her marriage would have ups and downs, but as Elena stand in the foyer of her brother's living room, she couldn't help but wonder if she'd rushed into any of this. She couldn't help but wonder how things might've turned out if she didn't show up to see Stefan and Damon on the brink of death that one fateful night that changed her world…
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Elena loved Damon. They were soul mates, twin flames…inevitable. But there were times where Elena couldn't help but wonder how her life would have been different if she had never met Stefan or Damon at all. What would her life be like if she continued her life as a normal human girl, got married to a normal human husband and had a normal human family. What if she got the whole human nine yards, but couldn't have Damon? Elena shook the thoughts away, her heart aching at the thought of that reality. There was no world for her, if there was no Damon.
And she would give up her humanity, and all the opportunities humanity gave her – for her world…for her Damon.
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