"What do you mean?" Elena asked but Damon knew exactly but Caroline meant. He had been a vampire long enough to encounter a pregnant woman and knew a vampire could hear a fetal heartbeat.
"You're pregnant," Damon said awestruck. The doctors had said it wasn't impossible after all. They had just said it was highly unlikely. Caroline and Elena were suddenly talking monthly hormone cycles, periods and nausea but Damon tuned them out. Despite how long he'd hoped and wished for this he was freaking out. He'd already accepted this wouldn't be part of his ending but now suddenly he was wrong. And how could Elena not know if there was already a heartbeat? What if that meant something was wrong? Damon had an irrational desire to put Elena behind him and shield her from the world while at the same time he wanted to run up the stairs and hide. He did neither but stood perfectly still.
"You just need to go to the doctor and find out," Caroline was saying when Damon tuned back into the conversation.
"Right," Elena said and she got out her phone and dialed. Damon listened to Elena talk to her doctor about her cycle and time of the month without really taking it in. Could this be real? Was this really happening? Did he actually get to have a biological child with the love of his life? Damon remembered the day he'd come to Elena and told her with all his heart that he wanted to be the father of her children. He'd had complete faith on that day that he'd be able to do it but now with the reality on his doorstep, all Damon could think about was how horrible his own father had been.
Elena got off the phone and said she had an appointment for the next day with her doctor. Caroline and Elena talked while Damon and Stefan watched silently. Damon was glad his brother was here. Elena was so happy when their friends left that Damon couldn't help but smile with her.
The next day Damon stood beside Elena, who was laying on a cold metal table at the doctor's office. When the doctor put clear gel on Elena's stomach and showed them a tiny grey jelly bean with a heart beat on the screen it Damon couldn't help but stare in awe. They'd actually done it. He'd always said vampires couldn't procreate but they love to try. It seemed that no longer applied to former vampires. He held his wife's hand firmly as they gazed at their own little jelly bean together.
"I am going to cut my hours at work," Elena said on the drive home from the doctors. "The doctor said it was a high risk pregnancy and I don't want to jinx it."
"Why not just take some time off?" Damon said.
"Well I will need that time off for when the baby comes," Elena said hurriedly. "Oh we should work on a nursery."
"Breathe, Elena," Damon told her calmly. "I don't care how much time you take off. You know I have money from my vampire days. Don't worry about work. Just focus on not stressing out."
"Right," Elena said. She took a few deep breaths as Damon parked in their driveway. When the car stopped Elena turned to beam at him. "Can you believe it?"
"Almost," Damon laughed. He reached out, placed his hands over her smooth flat stomach and wondered how long it would be until she started to show. As he looked back up at her face she was smiling. She kissed him sweetly before leaving the car. Damon followed her into the house.
"What was that for?" Damon asked her. She turned to beam at him.
"For being wonderful," Elena said. Damon pulled her in and kissed her, his hand once again moving over her stomach. The whole concept of a person inside her that was a part of him, thrilled Damon.
"For you Elena," Damon whispered. "I will be as saintly as a serial killer can be." She laughed, seemingly unable to be annoyed at him for even crude jokes.
"We aren't telling people yet, understand," Elena said. "Not till the end of the first trimester."
"Understood," Damon replied then added seductively. "You up for some practice at conceiving our second kid?" She just rolled her eyes at him.
Over the next few weeks Damon couldn't help but watch Elena. Every time she touched her stomach he wondered if she could feel their child move, even though all the silly baby books he'd read told him this early that wasn't possible.
One morning, after making her breakfast, Damon had placed his hand on her lower back and kissed her. This was by no means an abnormal event but as he felt her body press closer to him and her hands under his shirt he realized his gentle greeting had been quite something else too her. They'd had sex right there on the kitchen floor and it seemed to Damon that her climax this time had been something more than normal. A rather similar thing happened the next morning when Damon woke up to find Elena's fingers gently running over the muscles on his arms and chest. He'd kissed her good morning and she'd jumped on top of him, deepening the kiss and moving it forward. Damon put two and two together quickly after that. A pregnant Elena was a horny Elena.
At their next doctor's appointment Elena asked their doctor if increased libido was normal. He'd said yes, and also to enjoy it while it lasted. Damon soon found himself attacked in every room in the house, not that he was complaining. Elena's breasts also got bigger and more sensitive. Picking up on this Damon gave them more attention.
This wonderful phenomenon only lasted a few weeks however. Soon Elena was repelled by his touch and puking every morning.
"Pregnancy is bipolar," Damon told his wife. He was holding her hair back and rubbing her spine as she heaved over the toilet. "I mean you'd think food was important for growing jelly beans. Why'd it make you throw up?"
"No idea," Elena said as she got up from the floor, and went to the sink to wash out her mouth. "But the books and the doctors agree that it's normal."
It wasn't until the puking ended that he finally noticed the swell of his wife's usually flat stomach. Her breasts had remained their larger size and Damon rather loved the change, not that he'd had a problem with Elena's breasts before. The pregnancy in general seemed to be enhancing Elena's natural radiance.
"You are beautiful when you are growing a tiny human," Damon told her one evening as they sat on the couch together. He had a hand on her slightly swollen stomach and he was looking right in her eyes. "There is a glow about you."
"Thanks," Elena said.
The next day they went to the doctor together for the appointment that would tell them if they were having a boy or a girl. At this point Damon just wanted a healthy baby, the gender hardly mattered. What he was most excited about was that Elena had finally agreed to start telling people once they knew for sure what they were having. She still wasn't showing enough for anyone to figure it out, especially since she basically worked in giant blue pyjamas, though she called them scrubs.
Damon watched the doctor place the cold gel on his wife's slightly distended abdomen and bring up the black and white image of his child. The technician pointed out the baby to them then told them the gender.
"A girl," Elena repeated softly.
"Yes," the technician confirmed.
That night they invited everyone over to their place and shared their good news. It was then that they learned that Caroline and Stefan had rather failed to keep their mouths shut. There were guilty looks from everyone, apart from Enzo. Apparently Bonnie had failed to fill him in and, after he had congratulated Damon and made it crystal clear he had absolutely no interest in being Godfather, he spent the rest of the evening glaring at his girlfriend. As Elena tried to glare at Caroline her face split into a smile and she throw her hands in the air, exclaiming that she didn't care because she was having a beautiful baby girl. Everyone laughed and the evening turned out to be a great get together with friends who already knew everything they shouldn't.
As his guests were leaving Damon snuck away to call the only friend of his who hadn't been able to come tonight. To his great disappointment Alaric already knew.
"Okay, who told you?" Damon said grumpily.
"I do still talk to Elena regularly," Alaric reminded him.
"Oh that little sneak!" Damon replied. "She said we weren't telling people. I have been so good and there she goes blabbing." Alaric laughed, loudly in Damon's ear.
"Who's on the phone?" his wife asked coming back into the room after saying farewell to their final guest.
"You told Rick!" Damon accused her.
"Sorry," Elena said half heartedly.
"I knew I should have told Enzo," Damon grumbled.
Thanks to my awesome beta for adding in the great Enzo stuff! ^_^
From here on in guys no more 2-4 weeks between chapters! I am gonna start updating this story like I usually update fanfics otherwise known and way faster than the sad excuse for updates this story has had thus far. I have all the chapters planned out now and they should be completed quickly at this point. I have completed one of my other stories so once this one is complete I will finally be back down to updating only ONE story. YAYS! Three was too many!