Ten

"What took you so long?" Elijah annoyingly asked Damon once his cousin took a seat beside him at the bar. They were both at Connie's a run of the mill bar in downtown Manhattan, one of their favorite places.

True, it wasn't the kind of establishment that they frequently used, but Elijah liked this place even though it wasn't as elegant as he was accustomed too. It was quiet and there weren't a lot of people, so it was the perfect place to think after a long day and Elijah had a lot to think about.

Damon shrugged. "Sorry, you're all riled up. What's wrong? The maid burned one of your ties, get over it."

"No," he snapped. "It's not that, has Rebekah or Elena told you anything about me?"

"I try to avoid Rebekah, she talks way more that I can listen," Damon said as he pretended to study the drink menu. "And as for Elena, I've been kind of avoiding her, we bump heads way too much for my liking. We don't always get along."

"Already?" Elijah pretended to be shocked. "And you two aren't even married yet!"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up. One bourbon please. Double." He told the bartender. "So what's got you all moody?"

"Katherine," Elijah finally admitted.

Damon squinted trying to remember. "Elena's twin? You guys went out a couple of times, I thought that stopped over a year ago."

"Fifteen months, exactly." Elijah took another sip of his drink. How many of these had he had?

Damon scoffed. "How super specific of you, what about Katherine?"

"Well, it seemed that after we broke things up, she found out that she was pregnant and didn't bother to tell me. I have a daughter, Damon. A six month old baby girl, she named Karin. Rebekah already knows and I was told a few days ago."

Damon almost spitted out his drink. "Wait, a sec you have a baby, like a . . . infant?"

"Yes, an infant," Elijah snapped at Damon's stupidity. "As you can imagine the shock was great for me as well."

"Christ." Damon muttered a few swear words under his breath. "A baby! Do Aunt Esther and Uncle Mikael know? They are probably going have a heart attack and roll over on their graves or something."

"That's not funny," Elijah said about Damon's humor. "And no, I haven't told them, I'll tell them soon. The important thing is that Katherine and I have reached sort of an agreement." In a desperate attempt to change the subject, Elijah asked. "How's Elena?"

"She's hot."

Elijah frowned, clearly confused after working with Elena for the past few months he had found her a kind, agreeable girl and she was pretty there was no doubt about that, but unlike Katherine she wasn't into the sexy look, she was more girl next door. He had never heard Damon describe her as hot. "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"Look, you know the media and everyone around me follows my every step like roaches," Damon explained. "They needed to buy the whole love at first sight thing, and they know my type and Elena's sweet, country-meets city girl look wasn't the type I go for, so I called in darling cousin Rebekah and have her give her a makeover."

Elijah gave an impatient sighed. "So you want to change every aspect of the girl? She's not your puppet, Damon!"

"I'm paying her well enough!" Damon sounded offended. "And besides what kind of girl doesn't like receive clothes and whatever else girly things that they wear. She looks hot now without the librarian clothes anyway."

"Very deep." Elijah said sarcastically as he put a twenty dollar bill on the table. "Though I hope you remember Damon for your sake that there is more to a wife, even a fake one than just a pretty face."

"I'm home," Elena said tiredly as she opened the door to their apartment as she trailed back dozens of shopping bags (Rebekah had promised to drop off the rest tomorrow). All Elena wanted to do was to slip into sweatpants and forget over the fact that she had been made over more times than a Barbie doll.

She found Katherine sitting in the couch rocking Karin to sleep. Karin was curled against Katherine's chest in blissful sleep. "Elena is that you?" Katherine looked impressed. "You look great! I haven't seen you this dressed up since senior prom."

Elena blushed. "You really don't think it's too much? Or the highlights too weird, or-"

"Elena, you look perfect," Katherine interrupted her. "What's the occasion? Something tells me that it has something to do with the whole Mikaelson-Salvatore family mess."

"It does," Elena sat down next to her and took Karin from Katherine. "Apparently clothes from Macy's doesn't fit in with the prestigious Salvatore family, Damon paid for all of it. So what about you and Elijah, did you fix things?"

Katherine nodded. "In a way, we work out a compromise. He's right Karin deserves a father figure in her life, but the first time he's screws up I'm shutting the door on him."

Elena laughed. "Of course." She sighed. "Life changed so fast for us, Kat."

"I know," Katherine chuckled. "Sometimes I wonder if that's good or bad."

Katherine opened the door a few days later and frowned when she saw Damon standing there, looking weirdly casual in designer jeans and a black shirt. "What do you want?"

"Why hello to you too, baby mama." Damon smirked.

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "What the hell did you just say to me and you better answer quick before I slam the door over your fingers."

Damon raised his arms in surrender. "Chill, now I know how you seduced Elijah with your . . . charm. And where's my adoring niece to be, tell her uncle Damon stopped by."

"She's sleeping," Katherine snapped. "You do realize is seven in the morning on a Saturday morning and most people sleep."

"I'm aware." Damon smirked. "Now where's my beautiful fiancée, honey, I'm-"

"Damon shut up," Elena groaned as she came into the kitchen wearing a black silk robe with her hair in a messy bun. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to invite you to breakfast," Katherine rolled her eyes as she headed back to her bedroom. "We need to get to know each other because I know nothing about you and you only know how I like my coffee."

Elena shook her head. "We're scheduling a breakfast meeting to get to know each other? Isn't that supposed to come naturally?"

"We have three months, Elena," Damon said. "And I'm more than willing to email you a list of my favorite things every night for the next three months-"

Elena shook her head. "Ok, you won this round, just let me go change."

-End of Chapter Ten-

Thanks for your reviews, guys! I will be updating 2-3 short chapters a week, since it was what most of your preferred, thank you!