Author's note: I'd apologize for this being late, but...looks like I'm not writing on a predictable schedule any longer. I hate to plead "temperamental writer," but it's true. I have to be in the right state of mind to write, and I've had a few bumps at the end of the week that left me really unsettled. Sorry.
Since I was critical last week, I will say that this past week's episode far exceeded my expectations. I really wish it had been the premiere.
Warnings: character death, language, violence, adult content, sensitive subject matter
Rating: mature
I still don't own TVD.
Damon let out a breath as he approached the battered white house. The last time he'd been here, things hadn't exactly gone well. He wasn't exactly certain why he was here now, but he knew that this would be the best way to keep Elena safe - now to just convince them of that fact. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he decided he had nothing to loose. Well, since they tried that little trick with his ring last time...maybe he did. Even so, he couldn't wait any longer.
He slowly mounted the stairs to the weather-beaten front porch and said a silent prayer that a cloud would block the sun before he really ticked everyone off. He and Emily had been on good terms once, and he hoped she remembered that. Tapping the door, it slid open with an echoing creak. Creatures that had taken residence in the abandoned house scampered out of his way.
Walking into the apparently empty living room, he felt decidedly silly. He had no plan other than to simply talk to into the air hanging around him, but desperate times called for desperate measures - and right now, he was a desperate man. No matter how much he wanted to protect Elena, he knew he wasn't a match for an enraged Stefan in a fight - even if he had Alaric and Caroline on his side. If he wanted to make sure his friends made it out of this battle alive, they needed a secret weapon. For that, he needed a little extra supernatural help.
"Hello!" His eyes roamed the dusty half-light of the late afternoon. He'd spent half the day convincing himself this was a good idea. Right now, listening to the disembodied whispers from the corners of the room, he desperately hoped he wasn't going to tick any of the spirits off too badly. He folded his hands in front of himself and attempted to look contrite.
"I imagine you're wondering why I'm here." He spun around as a wisp of dust swirled in the corner of the room. A cold chill snaked up his spine. "I need your help." He swallowed as an unseen, but easily felt, presence circled him. "Emily, if you're here, you know I upheld my end of the bargain..." he looked down at the floor to avoid looking at the faint smoke now circling the room, "mostly. I did try to save you. But you know I also wanted to save her. She had us both trapped in her spell. And I'm sorry for what I tried to do to Bonnie." He cleared his throat. "I was a different man then."
His eyes locked on the largest column of dust and he gave a half-laugh. "You describe yourselves of the guardians of Mystic Falls. What kind of guardians are you? You've injured one of your own. Bonnie was just trying to undo some of the damage your kind had done. Klaus should never have been allowed to exist - no matter how deeply in debt the original witch was to his family."
The vapor swirled more quickly around him. The skin on his face began to burn in the rays of the sun. He clutched tighter at his ring.
"Hey now!" He took two steps back toward the door. "It may not have been any of you exactly, but if a witch hadn't agreed to make my kind at all...none of us would be in this mess. You wouldn't have been indentured servants, and my brother and I would have died a long time ago like we should have. But it didn't happen that way."
Shoving his hands into his pockets, he turned and addressed the other swirls of dust in the room. "My brother's coming back to undo his curse...the curse one of your kind made sure had an escape clause. The world shouldn't have to face anything like Klaus again...and definitely not at the price I'm going to have to pay."
He squared his shoulders and looked into the darkest corner of the room. "Emily, I kept my promise to protect your children. Now I need you to help me protect my daughter."
"Do you need anything?" Liz walked into Damon's bedroom with a mug of tea in her hands.
Elena flipped the lid of her laptop computer closed and slid further down in the bed. "No, I'm fine." She looked around with a guilty expression. "I don't need you to stay. I'll be fine."
"Sorry." Liz placed the tea on the nightstand. With Caroline, Alaric, and Jeremy at school, Sheriff Forbes was elected most likely to keep Elena breathing. "I'm going with Damon on this one. You're not in any shape to go running if anyone gets in the house." She pointedly avoided discussing who the most likely candidate to arrive at the Salvatore house would be. "How are you feeling?"
"Better." Elena folded the edge of the blanket over the pile of papers on the bed. "I'm just a little sore now. I think I could make it down the stairs." She gave a sheepish grin. "Don't tell Damon I was sitting up."
"Your secret's safe with me." Liz perched on the edge of the bed. "Homework?"
Elena shook her head back and forth. "No." She bit her lip to stop it from shaking.
Sheriff Forbes studied Elena's face before turning her attention to the notepad lying on the bedspread next to the young woman's side. She raised an eyebrow at the heading at the top of the page. "Douglas Children's Services?" Reaching out, she opened the computer and ran a finger over the touchpad. A sad teenager, obviously very pregnant, stared out from the screen. As the side show advanced, a happy couple smiled lovingly at a a bundle in the man's arms. In the background, the teenager sat amid a cluster of friends - smiling and carefree. The message from the website was obvious. "Have you talked with Damon about this?"
Elena's face fell as tears cascaded down her cheeks.
"Oh, Baby." Liz slid closer to Elena on the bed and wrapped her arms around her daughter's friend. "No one's really talked with you about this, have they?" In a gesture that strongly reminded Elena of her own mother, Liz swept Elena's hair behind her ears. "Becoming a mom is a big deal. I know you have to miss yours right now. Miranda was one of my best friends. If Caroline were in the same place right now, I'd want Miranda to be there with her. Do you need to talk?"
Her voice breaking, Elena didn't even try to stem the flow of tears. "There's just been...so much happening so fast."
"Anyone in your place would be overwhelmed. I don't blame you." She handed Elena a tissue. "In the past year an a half, you've lost your parents, found out you were adopted, lost both your birth parents, dated two different vampires...and you died." She wiped Elena's cheek for her. "And that's just the short version for what Caroline told me. You have every right to be overwhelmed." Elena sniffled as she blew her nose. "Do you want to keep the baby?" Liz pressed the tea into Elena's hands. Elena needed it more than she did right now.
"I always thought I'd have kids. On the day I thought I was going to turn into a vampire, I remember telling Stefan I wanted to grow up and have a family. I just thought I'd be a little older when it happened." Elena took a hesitant sip from the mug. "I've looked through all my family history. Each of the women only had one child - a girl...when the witches created the curse, they were really specific." She drew in a shaky breath and ran her hand over her belly. "She's part of me. I don't want to give her up, but I don't know if I can keep her safe. She'd be safer if she was hidden with another family - far away from me."
"Would she?"
"I'm no match for Stefan."
"What about Damon?"
Elena's hands shook as she took another drink. "He's been...amazing, but I can't ask him to do this. He shouldn't have to take care of us forever."
"What if he wants to?" Liz squeezed Elena's hand. "You didn't see him at the hospital. I did." She looked squarely into Elena's eyes. "He was just as worried about that little one as he was about you."
"Really?"
Nodding, Liz patted the back of Elena's hand. "Really." She let out a long breath. "I think the two of you need to talk."
"You've got mail." Damon fanned through a stack of envelopes as he walked into the room. His choked voice confirmed he'd been in the house far longer than she'd thought. Damn vampire hearing.
"How much of the conversation did you hear?" Elena's hands shook as she gripped the edge of the blanket.
Damon sat on the bed and looked into her face. "How much was I supposed to?"
Elena shook her head and didn't look up.
"I know we talked a little about this a few months ago, but I don't think I really ever told you the whole story." He kicked his shoes off and slid under the blanket, carefully tossing the stack of papers to the floor. "Come here." He reached out and pulled her into his chest, tucking her under his arm. He laughed to himself. "It was right here that I told me you would have liked me in 1864. I meant it. But, you would have liked me even better in 1861, but you might have been a little jealous." He trailed his fingertip over her cheek. "It was probably the only time I was living my father's plan for me. I was engaged to a delightful Southern belle named Clara. Pretty little thing - blonde hair, bright green eyes. Her father said we had to wait till she was 16 to marry."
"You were getting married?" Elena widened her eyes in surprise.
He leaned over and studied Elena's face. He nodded grimly. "I might not have had the business sense that Stefan did, but I was doing one thing right in my father's point of view." Damon leaned over and kissed the top of Elena's head. "Back then, it didn't matter how big your plantation was if you didn't have a herd of beautiful grandchildren - you weren't a success in the community. Everywhere we went, always appropriately chaperoned, I might add, the ladies whispered about how beautiful a couple we made. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a running bet trying to predict when the first little Salvatore would make his or her arrival."
He took a moment and stared out his bedroom window at the creek running past the house. "We'd even started clearing land at the edge of my father's property for our house. Clara loved the little clearing in the middle of the only wooded section of the Salvatore land. She liked to talk about watching our children splashing in the creek someday."
"That creek?" Elena pointed out the window. "Your house was going to be here?"
Damon nodded. "Almost exactly on this spot." He cleared his throat. "And then smallpox hit Mystic Falls. I'd had it when I was two. I was safe, but Stefan hadn't. Clara got sick. Everybody knows that we had to protect Stefan." His lips formed a grim line. "I wasn't allowed to go see her. She died, and I never told her goodbye." He reached for Elena's hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "I was never the same after that. My father had spent a great deal of time and effort making certain that Stefan and I had been placed on the unsuitable list for the Confederate Army. A few months after we buried Clara, he decided that perhaps joining the army was exactly what I needed to snap out of the depression I'd found myself in. It didn't have the desired effect."
He pulled her hand to his face and kissed her palm. "I never thought I'd find someone else who'd love me. I think that's why I fell so quickly for Katherine - she made the whole vampire thing so appealing. I'd never have to risk loosing someone I loved again. I never thought I'd find someone else willing to have a future with me."
He tilted her chin up to look into his eyes. "And then I met you." He ran his hand along Elena's side and rested atop her stomach, smiling as the baby kicked at his gentle touch.
"You want to keep the baby?" Her chocolate brown eyes pooled with emotion.
"I promise I'll be with you every step of the way. I want to keep our baby." Damon leaned down and brushed a gentle kiss across her lips.
Elena's phone sang with an incoming call, and she frowned at the interruption. Reaching for the phone to silence it, she blinked in shock at the name on the caller ID. "It's Bonnie."