A/N: Uh oh, smut alert.

Chapter Seven

"See, you brought out the best of me"

August 23rd

2012

"So you just forgave him?" Bonnie asked skeptically as she put away dishes into a high cupboard above the sink. "After all this time."

"Oh hush, Bonbon." Caroline scolded like a little old lady as she wandered neatly into the kitchen, her bubbly voice wiping away any doubt before it could even begin to creep into Elena's mind. "You don't know Damon."

"Gladly." Bonnie muttered, drying a plate with a dishtowel. "He put you through so much 'Lena, and you're just going to forgive him?"

"Come on Bon, you can't be serious." Elena said exasperated. Bonnie was a loyal, loyal friend, and when it came down to it, you wanted Bonnie on your side. "He's sitting right out there with our son asleep on his chest and your asking why I'm forgiving him? What's there to even forgive?"

"How about abandoning his pregnant girlfriend for six years while she thought he was dead?" Bonnie said acidly. "You didn't even tell me he was Damon's. It was little Miss let-me-know-by-text-message over there who told me." Bonnie reproached, her almond eyes narrowed accusingly. "I barely knew you were pregnant."

"Bon, you were in Texas for most of the time they were together, like together as in physically. There was no way you could even begin to understand what he's like." Caroline told her soothingly; gently taking the plate she was drying furiously off of her and placed it in its cupboard. She frowned slightly. "How many times have you even met Damon, including tonight?"

Bonnie scowled, trying not to let a small smile of defeat slip through. "Once."

"Exactly." Elena said triumphantly, kissing her friend's cheek. "His circumstances were always going to be there. I knew that and I accepted that. He didn't know I was pregnant and he couldn't exactly be getting letters from his American girlfriend if he's working undercover. Get real, Bon. I love you, and I know you're just looking out for me, but I'm better now he's back."

"I still don't understand how you are doing this. I assumed this was a small thing. I thought it was only going to last a few months." She admitted quietly. "And now you've been with him for what-?"

"Twelve years." She said quietly, folding dishcloths away.

"You have a five year old son together, 'Lena and he's barely here!" she cried, exasperated. "How are you holding it together?"

"Bonnie!" Caroline hissed vehemently. "I get you're mad you've been out of the loop but what did you expect?" She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "How could we even begin to explain what it's like?"

"How am I holding it together?" Elena asked incredulously, speaking as though Caroline hadn't tried to reason. "Because he's here Bon! He's alive and he's done with it all. He's how I'm holding it together." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair in agitation as she piled away the last of the dishes and retreated to the lounge, leaving Caroline and Bonnie to argue in hushed whispers, the occasional phrase rising an octave or two – mostly from Caroline.

"Ben-ben, get up. Come on buddy, I need to go see your Momma." Damon was pleading with a stubborn five-year-old, who was currently curled up quite comfortably on Damon's chest dressed in his pajamas.

"Nope." Ben trilled mockingly. "I'm comfortable."

"Ben." Damon moaned. "Don't make me tickle you."

"You won't." Ben told him seriously, prodding his face. "'Cause then I'll move and you'll be cold."

Elena laughed as she sat heavily onto the sofa next to Damon and pulled Ben onto her lap, ruffling up his hair and wrapping her arms around him. "Momma, when auntie Bonnie and auntie Care fight, why does Auntie Care always win?" he asked innocently.

"I can answer than, Benny." Tyler said knowingly, from his place across the room, engrossed in conversation with Grayson. "You're auntie Care fights dirty." Ben wriggled out of Elena's lap and jumped off the sofa, running over to Tyler who grabbed him under the armpits and swung him into the air. "But she always, always wins. Remember that." He told the young boy as he set him on his feet.

"Auntie Care can't resist my adorable face. So I'd win." Ben pointed out, putting his hands to his cheeks and squishing them together, just at the moment Caroline walked in.

"You don't count bud, no one could win against you."

"Speak of the devil." Damon muttered in Elena's ear as the blonde immediately charged his son and started tickling him to insanity. "He'll need therapy by the time he's twelve. I'm willing to bet money on that."

"You want to bet money on our son being insane?" she asked disbelievingly. "And don't worry, Tyler straightens her out." Elena pointed out reasonably, catching sight of Bonnie sitting awkwardly on the edge of an armchair on the outskirts of their group. She ran her fingers through Damon's hair and pulled him to meet her in a sweet kiss. "I need to talk to Bonnie." She told him quietly as she drew away. "She feels left out."

"I don't think she likes me." He said, pouting adorably, looking like an older, more rugged version of Ben.

"She doesn't." Elena replied, kissing him again and untangling herself from him. She walked over and plopped herself down in the chair Bonnie was sitting uncomfortably on. "Hey Bonbon, Caroline deafen you?"

Bonnie smiled weakly at her, turning around grateful to engage in the conversation. "Almost." She told her thoughtfully. "She gave me a lot to think about."

"Like?" she prompted uncertainly.

"Like, I don't know what any of this is like. Other than your Dad when we were kids, I didn't know what it was like for people." Bonnie shrugged. "I never assumed you and Damon would work out when I heard you met someone. I thought it would last a couple months then you'd figure out what you really wanted and move on." She sighed, twisting her hands together awkwardly. "Then months turned into years and I was in Texas and you were in New York and I never met the guy before today because every time I came back he was gone for months on end."

"He had to, Bon." Elena pointed out sharply.

"I know, I know." She responded, appeasing Elena with her apologetic tone. "It just seemed like he wasn't here. Then you got pregnant and Caroline told me through text message and then she told me I had to get here for you so I jumped on the next flight here and the next thing I know, I'm comforting you over the death of your child's father as the same time I'm meeting that child." Bonnie finished in a rush of confusion. "That would break most people, and you were just sitting there with a new baby and a dead boyfriend. It was a lot 'Lena, I guess I don't understand how you and Car' do it. I don't understand how any of you do it." She added gesturing to the people around the room.

"He's easy to love." Elena said, smiling softly as she looked at Damon and her father talking animatedly, with wide arm gestures and loud laughs. "It's difficult to explain what it's like. You know when you come visit New York and you see me and Care? Even if it's been months since we saw each other we fall straight back into ourselves and nothing ever changes?" Bonnie nodded attentively. Elena could practically imagine the wheels turning in her mind. "Imagine you had to constantly worry about us dying, or worry about us being hurt or lost or captured. When you worry that much every minute of every day, the only thing that makes that better is when he's back here and when he's safe."

"I guess." Bonnie admitted. "I still don't think I'll ever understand it the way you both do." She gestured to Caroline and Damon, currently bickering like siblings and play fighting as she chased him around the living room and Tyler, who suddenly tackled him to the ground, fighting him jokingly while Grayson looked on, doubled over with laughter. "You all love him a lot and he's such a big part of your life. Caroline was a wreck when she thought he was dead." Elena nodded solemnly. Those months had been excruciating, and without Caroline and even Tyler helping out she doubted she would make it though. In a way, their pain and sorrow at losing a brother, a lover and, a friend made it easier. They knew that no matter what time it was and no matter where they were, they had someone who understood.

"Bon, what's your point?" Elena asked finally through her smiles.

Bonnie shrugged absently, grinning as Ben charged towards her. "Hey bud, you come to bug your Momma while I'm talking to her?" Ben nodded enthusiastically, laughing his head off with his innocence so childlike and contagious, it just lit up the room. That was probably why Tyler and Caroline acted like kids all the time, they spent too much time around this one. "I just don't get how it all went back to normal so quickly."

August 18th

2012

Elena stared at him. Memorizing every line, every contour of the dead man's face. She shifted slightly, leaning on her folded hands as she look in the new scars, the only marks, the faint line under his jaw where he'd cut himself shaving because she'd screamed so loud he'd thought she was being attacked. She used to tease him about it endlessly; he had cut himself shaving because of a spider. He'd grumbled and moaned, whining on and on after she had sheepishly pointed out the small bug in a corner of the room after he'd bolted out of the bathroom with blood pouring down his neck.

She reached out, tracing a line down his neck, across his Adam's apple and softly sweeping his collarbones. He shifted slightly, rolling towards her, breathing softly. His soft snoring and gentle breathing as he drifted in and out of slumber was enough to settle her; she was convinced he wouldn't disappear the second her eyes slid shut.

"You're staring." He murmured, slowly opening his eyes to reveal his marine-like orbs to her.

She rolled her eyes, trailing her hand down his bare chest, over the tattoos lying there and began tracing the lines of his taut muscles. "I'm waiting for you to disappear." She admitted quietly, pulling her hand back slowly. He caught her hand before she pulled it away and held it firmly in his own, pressing their joined hands to his lips.

"I'm not going anywhere." He murmured sadly, his blue eyes meeting her brown. Unable to bear the pain locked deep inside her chocolate orbs he reached out, erasing all boundaries she may have placed between them and pulled her tight against him. He dropped his head to her shoulder and placed a sweet kiss there. "I'm so in love with you." He told her in a whisper. At twenty-two years old he'd found the girl he was going to spend forever with and he hadn't even had to try that hard. They're relationship was hard, stunted and scarred by the absence of him in pictures during holidays or the constant layer of dust hovering on the guitar that stood in their study, but they were always working for it; always working towards the day when he could be done and they could be them.

She palmed her way up his chest, trailing her fingernails over his back as he leant up and captured his mouth. "I love you too." She replied, kissing his jaw and trailing a hot path down his neck and across his shoulder. "But if you ever leave for that long again I will kill you."

He chortled, grabbing her thighs and rolling them over so she was on top of him, staring at him slyly. She let her head hang over him so her long hair dangled teasingly over him, letting it brush softly against his arms in the way that drove him crazy.

Elena moved in, hovering just above his lips. "You're so disgusting. Your son is next door." She told him rationally, kissing his lips slowly, teasing him with her teeth and her lips and her tongue.

Damon waggled his eyebrows. "How do you think we made him?"

Elena snorted. Leaving her legs on either side of him, she curled up on his chest, drawing patterns across the ink that was imbedded his skin, right across his heart and the skin surrounding it. The pictures trailed over his shoulder, thinning as they moved closer towards the elbow, inked memories making a path across his skin. "Immaculate conception."

Damon chuckled stroking her hair with one hand as the other one moved with aching slowness up the smooth skin of her thigh and across her waist, his scarred fingers dancing across her hipbones. He played with the waistband of the sleep shorts she wore for a moment before moving his attention elsewhere. He listened to the frantic beat of her heart as he moved up her stomach, his other hand tracing the outline of her jaw, moving across her arms and down, under her shirt, sending jolts of electricity through her body as they brushed over her sensitive breasts.

Goosebumps erupted over her neck as his hot breath blew over her ear. "God, I missed you." He breathed, his voice rough and ragged.

She lost all restraint, holding his face tightly in her hands she kissed him deeply, fighting with him furiously as his rough hands moved over her bare back, sending aches of longing to every part of her. She captured his bottom lip between her teeth, smirking roguishly as she released it languidly, placing lazy kisses over his sternum, trailing at her own sweet-pace down his chest muscles.

Damon's hands slipped out of her shirt and immediately tangled in her hair and he rolled on top of her, settling between her legs as he pinned her to the mattress. She let out a low moan as he pressed into her hips. He moved from her mouth to her ear to that sweet spot on her neck, nipping the skin and driving her crazy with the attention and practiced hands of Damon Salvatore. She wrapped her legs tightly around his hips, pressing him closer to her.

He groaned as he ripped her shirt over her head, tossing it haphazardly behind him, focusing his attention on her newly bared chest. Elena sank her head into the soft pillows, shivering as he mouth made contact, trailing lazily over her, sinking lower and lower as he kissed a path to her bellybutton. His hands palmed her hips slowly sliding her shorts off of her legs leaving her bare before his lustful gaze. As his sinful mouth reached her inner thighs, teasingly biting the skin there he moved upwards, giving her attention where she most needed it. She shuddered against him, repeating his name as she buried her trembling hands in his raven hair and he worked her skillfully, sending her tumbling over the edge before she knew what was happening and leaving her trembling beneath his tongue.

She lay, slick with sweat and tangled in the white sheets as he laid a torturous trail of hot, burning kisses over her body, dipping his fingers inside of her as he finally reclaimed her mouth. "Damon." She finally gasped into his mouth, frantically pushing his sweats over his hipbones and sliding them down his legs.

He hissed in pleasure as he entered her in one fluid movement, groaning at the sense of completion he felt at finally being with her. "Elena." He bit out as her back arched against him, molding her warm, pliant body to him. He moved against her, finding a rhythm that was near impossible to lose. She was driving him crazy, as her long fingernails raked over the skin of his back leaving long red scratches. He tensed, burying his hands in her long hair and kissing her feverishly, reaching his edge as she reached hers and they both fell, leaving them breathing deeply against each other's sweat slick skin as they came back down to reality.

Elena roused him from his state of bliss the same way she always did, with a small fingernail teasing the skin at the nape of his neck as her hands ran through his hair. He wrapped an arm around her, kissing her softly and letting his eyes fall shut.

"I missed you." She murmured just as she fell asleep.

A/N: *blush

Just letting you know that while you lot in the U.S get your next TVD episode tomorrow, I have to wait until Monday. MONDAY.

Though I'll probably watch it online.

This show will kill me. Honestly.