This is one of the longer chapters, and one of my favorites I think. I don't know why though. It'st just starting to get good.
The gang back at the boarding house had started calling and Damon and Elena both were sending the calls straight to voicemail. Elena hadn't thought about how she wanted to tell her friends about her daughter, but a phone call was definitely not the way. She knew that if she answered it she wouldn't be able to tell them what her and Damon were up to anyway. She decided that hourly texts to her friends to let them know she was fine and hadn't gone on a killing spree with Damon were just as good as picking up the phone anyway.
It had finally gotten so late that Damon had to stop and get a room for the night.
"Remember the last time we stayed at a motel?" Elena asked as she grabbed Damon's arm and leaned into him as they walked to their room.
"Oh, do I."
"If Jeremy hadn't interrupted us... I wonder how things would be different. Or if they even would be."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if we'd slept together that night...maybe our status as a couple would have changed. It wouldn't have been a coin toss that determined if you or Stefan came back to Mystic Falls, because as my boyfriend, you would have had the right. Then, maybe you would have known what Jeremy and Matt were planning and I never would have gotten in the car, or you wouldn't have listened to me and would've saved me from drowning instead of Matt. Then, Stefan would have been left to fight off Rick, and I don't think he would have had a chance."
"So, are you saying it's a good thing that Jeremy interrupted us that night?"
"I don't know. I guess we'll never know how that effected everything." They reached their room and Damon opened the door. "I do know one thing though."
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
Elena smiled coyly. "Jeremy's not here tonight."
"My throat's burning." Elena complained a few hours later as she got up from the bed and walked to the other side of the room.
"You need to feed." Damon told her point blank.
"I get that." She grumbled.
"Have you thought about how you'd like to go about doing it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Animals, humans, bloodbags?"
"Oh...no, I haven't given it much thought."
"Well, personally, I say go human, and fresh is best. If you deny it to yourself, the slightest drop could send you into a frenzy. And we all know what frenzies look like thanks to Dear Old Stefan." Elena seemed to be thinking about it, before Damon said. "I've got a few bloodbags in the car. Come on, it's nothing you haven't already had before." Elena agreed.
Later the next day, they were crossing the border, and Damon even let Elena do the honors. Not long after that, they were pulling into the yard of a quiet house.
"Is this it?" Elena asked him.
"Yep." Damon replied.
Elena noticed a pink tricycle in the yard and tried to imagine her little girl riding it and regretting all of the time she had missed out on.
The two vampires got out of the car and walked to the front door and Damon knocked.
"Just a second." They heard from inside. A moment later, a woman with dark red hair opened the door. It took a second for Elena to realize that this was Gia, since the last time she saw her, her hair was a dark brown and she was in her late teens.
"Uncle Damon?"
"Gia?" Elena said before Damon could say anything.
Gia studied her for a second, before recognition flashed in her eyes. "Oh my God, Elena?!" Gia took a step outside and gave Elena a giant hug. "What are you two doing here?" She asked as she walked inside the house, expecting the two to follow her.
"We need to talk to." Damon told her as he took a step inside.
Elena was about to follow, but there was some sort of invisible force field, like she and the doorway were the same sides of magnet. She hadn't been invited in.
"What about?" Gia asked.
"Um...Damon?" Elena asked from the door. Both Damon and Gia turned their heads.
"Elena, what are you doing outside?" Gia asked with a slight smile.
Elena bit her lip. "I uh... I can't..." Instead of finishing her sentence, she demonstrated the effect the doorway was having on her body.
"Oh, no." Gia said sadly. One, because she never wanted to see anybody she loved in this condition, and two, she knew that meant Charlotte was no longer protected with her.
"That's," Damon started. "Kind of why we're here."
Gia nodded and could already feel a lump in her throat. "Come inside, Elena. Of course, you can come inside."
Suddenly, the invisible barrier was removed and Elena took a step inside the house. She looked around and saw the pictures on the wall. Gia with a little girl. "Is that her?" Elena asked as she took a few steps toward the frame.
"Yep." Gia told her. "I still think she's the spitting image of you."
Elena nodded. "Does she know who I am?"
"I've shown her pictures of you, and told her that you'd come and get her one day."
"Where is she?"
"Upstairs, coloring."
"Elena." Damon said before she could even think about going up there. "We need to talk first, then you'll have all the time in the world to see her."
Elena sighed and nodded. The vamps followed Gia to the the living room where they all sat down and talked. After they caught Gia up on the entire story, Gia began catching Elena up on her and Charlotte's lives.
"I call her 'Charlee' sometimes." Gia was telling them when they heard a small voice.
"Aunt Gia, I hurt myself."
One moment, Elena smelled the blood and the next she was on her back, sliding across the wood floor and hitting a wall. The way Damon had her pinned down, if she were still human, she'd be dead.
She suddenly realized she was hissing and her fangs were exposed. "Oh my God, what did I do?"
