Four months passed and still no word from Sherriff Forbes, causing Damon to become highly suspicious. Elena was supposed to get an ultrasound that day, so he couldn't look into it himself…or more like he refused too. Damon was a little insecure about missing Ian's birth and was determined to be with Elena through every second of this pregnancy. While Elena was getting ready he whipped out his cell phone and dialed Alaric's number.
"Hey Papa Saltzman, I need you to do something for me." Damon could practically hear Alaric roll his eyes through the phone.
"Not a good way to start out asking for a favor, Damon." Not it was his turn to roll his eyes.
"Please, Ric? It involves Elena." Alaric sighed.
"What is it?"
"She has an ultrasound appointment so I'm going to be busy today, but I need somebody to check out the Forbes situation. Caroline warned me months ago that her mother was coming our way but nothing has happened. I know I should be glad, but at the same time, Liz is my friend and I'm a little worried." Alaric was quiet for a moment, thoughtful, and his answer surprised Damon.
"No." Damon was taken back and he was at a major loss for words for a moment.
"What do you mean, no?!" He asked, half-offended.
"I mean no. I want to be there for the first ultrasound too…that's kind of my grandchild, Damon." Alaric flinched at his own words, knowing he wasn't really old enough to have one, or at least he hoped he wasn't.
"But I will ask Jeremy for you…I'm sure he and Adriana wouldn't mind paying Liz a visit." Damon chewed on his lip for a moment, pondering it.
"Absolutely not, that's my brother-in-law. He's only a kid, what if he gets hurt?"
"He's nineteen now, he can take care of himself. Besides, I told you Adriana
would more than likely go with him now that they're engaged, and she and Bonnie are the most powerful witches of our century. She is capable of protecting him." Damon thought it over briefly and finally gave in.
"Okay, call Little Gilbert and get back to me the appointment is in an hour." He paused before adding "I still can't believe he switched Bennett's, I seriously thought he'd end up with Bonnie in the end." Alaric chuckled.
"Well everyone thought there for a while that Elena would end up with Stefan, but she switched Salvatore's, it's wise. If you fall in love with two people choose the second, because if you fell for the second you never truly loved the first." Damon smiled.
"So if it had come down to Isobel or Jenna…you'd have picked Jenna?" Alaric was quiet for a moment and Damon instantly regretted bringing that up.
"In a heart beat." He admitted softly. Damon was suddenly uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry, Ric. I shouldn't have…look, just call me back after you talk to Little Gil- I mean Little Saltzman." Alaric smiled.
"I will." Damon hung up the phone with a heavy sigh and sought out his wife. She was in their bedroom, trying her hardest to pull a teal dress over her perfectly round belly that was finally showing. He chuckled and helped her gently tug the dress over it.
"Elena you need maternity clothes bad…she's going to need room to breathe, Princess." Elena smiled.
"You are set on it being a girl too? You and Ian are going to be awfully surprised when it's a boy." Damon raised his eyebrow.
"You think it will be a boy?" Elena shrugged.
"I just mean that I don't know. I'm going to laugh if you go all out picking out the prettiest girl names and we end up having an Edward." Damon almost gagged.
"Edward? That better be some sort of vampire joke because we are not naming our son after some sparkling queer from those stupid books Caroline reads." He scoffed. Elena giggled and rolled her eyes.
"Not after him, after Edward Scissorhands. That's the first movie you and I ever watched together." Damon's heart melted.
"You are so cute." He was about to say something else but his cell rang.
"Right on time, Ric, it's almost time to go." He said as he took Elena's hand and started to walk her out to his car.
"Jeremy and Adriana are on their way to the Forbes place right now, I'll meet you at Meredith's office." Damon agreed and hung up, opening Elena's door for her.
Meanwhile, while Alaric, Damon, and Elena were headed to the appointment, Jeremy and Adriana reached Caroline and Liz's house. The front door was slightly ajar when they got there and the couple exchanged anxious looks with one another before cautiously nudging the door open. No one seemed to be around and Adriana shivered.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Jere." He smiled reassuringly at her and kissed her temple.
"We'll be fine. If anything is in this house it won't be hiding in plain sight like this. We need to head to the cellar." Her grip on his hand tightened at the new plan and Jeremy beamed, he loved feeling like he could protect her. They headed towards the back of the house and descended some stairs. They led into a dark dusty cellar that the Forbes family had been using for generations. There Liz was, strapped to a chair in the middle of her cellar being tortured by a face they hadn't seen in a very long time. Kol was interrogating her, burning holes in her flesh with a cigarette every time she failed to comply.
"What are you doing here?" Kol flashed a dashing smile.
"I could ask you the same thing, mate." Then his gaze fell upon Adriana and he smirked.
"Beautiful as ever, Bonnie." Adriana rolled her eyes.
"I'm her sister." Kol's smile faltered and he sneered.
"How horrid. I was expecting the powerful sister." Jeremy snarled at Kol and took a step forward.
"What are you doing to Sheriff Forbes?" He hissed.
"I've been keeping the little bitch down here for months now…feeding her scraps of bread and the nasty kool-aid shit she tries to feed my brother's girl when she's here. See, I came back to Mystic Falls for something I'd left behind and then I caught wind of Liz's little plan to shoot Damon dead with those wooden-bullets of hers and decided to put an end to it." Jeremy shook his head, confused.
"Why do you care about what happens to Damon? Especially when you're brother and Caroline are the ones that sent Liz after him?" Kol smiled his dark, wicked little smile and chuckled slightly.
"I don't, but the…thing I came back for does, and not only that, but a little birdie told me that Niklaus raised Caroline from the dead. I need to know how he accomplished that, and I know Caroline told this pathetic sac of shit here. I must say she's a strong woman though, I didn't expect to be down here this long." He sounded amused and Jeremy and Adriana felt a little at ease now, knowing this was in the benefit of their family.
"Well now that we're on the same side, you mind telling us why you need to know and what you came back for?" Kol grinned wider.
"For now…that is my little secret."
Back at the doctors office things were going smoothly, the ultrasound gave a nice little picture of the baby but they couldn't yet tell the gender. Alaric and Damon both had tears in their eyes as they looked at the tiny little baby on the screen.
"If it's a girl…can we name her Rose?" He asked quietly. Elena grinned.
"I love that…Violet Rose, and we can call her Rose?" She wondered out loud.
"That's beautiful baby." He said with a sniffle, kissing the top of her head.
"Violet Rose or Grayson Edward." Damon said proudly, caressing her stomach lovingly. Elena gasped.
"G-Grayson?" Damon nodded.
"After your father." She sat up, taking Damon's face in her hands and pulling his lips to hers.
"I love you so much." He smiled adoringly at her.
"I love you too." Alaric started laughing a little.
"Ian is going to be mad if it's a girl and you don't name her Nala." Damon and Elena simultaneously rolled their eyes.
"He can call her that if he wants too, but I'm not naming my daughter after the girl in the Lion King." Damon said with a snort, shaking his head and beaming at the thought of his son cuddling his new sister and calling her Nala. It would be so cute. Damon looked from his beautiful Elena and their unborn baby to his best friend/father-in-law and then thought of his son and sister-in-law back home. His family was a little dysfunctional but it was one thousand shades of perfect and he never in is one hundred and seventy five years would have guessed that life would ever taste this sweet or be this…human.