Feel This Moment
Disclaimer: I don't anything or anyone from The Vampire Diaries.
Damon is 31, Elena is 29, Declan 4, and Noah 8 months.
"Are you sick?" Elena bends down and lightly presses her hand against Declan's forehead, brushing some of his soft dark hair out of the way. "Damon! Does he look sick to you? I think he's sick, no he is sick." she bites on her bottom lip nervously while continuing to feel for a temperature. "He should stay home just to be safe."
"Mommy I'm not sick." Declan frowns confused as he pushes her hand away from his head.
"Baby he's fine." Damon chuckles softly as he walks towards them along the hallway, baby Noah resting silently in his arms perfectly content with his pacifier in his mouth, a complete contrast to the screaming baby who woke them, and most likely their neighbors up, at 6am this morning.
She stands up with a worried look on her face as she looks at her husband with panicked eyes. "I don't know Damon...I don't like this." she glances back at Declan who is stood all dressed by the door with his spiderman backpack over his shoulders, ready and waiting to leave. "He's still just a baby, he needs to stay with us."
Damon smiles and goes to reassure her but Declan interrupts. "Are we going yet?" he asks impatiently, clearly not picking up on his mother's distress over the situation. "I don't wanna be late Momma." he tugs on Elena's arm eagerly.
"You see, he wants to go!" Damon tells her reassuringly but she still doesn't think this is a good idea. "Come on, let's get in the car, he's right we're gonna be late if we hang around here for much longer." he smirks at her and she lets out a small pout but he just leans down and gives her a quick kiss on the lips before opening the front door and escorting Declan out to the car, Noah still held comfortably in his arms.
He buckles Noah into his car seat before double checking that Declan has his seatbelt on correctly before he climbs into the front seat where Elena is waiting for him on the passengers side, chewing nervously on her finger nails.
"Babe," he reaches his hand out and touches her thigh while reversing out of the driveway. "He's going to be ok."
"I just don't like the idea of leaving him alone for a few hours with a complete stranger." she frowns.
"It's pre-school, it's not like we are just dropping him off with some random."
"But that's exactly who she'll be Damon, a random! We don't know her from Adam and she doesn't know our son." she argues because she knows she's right. Who would be the people looking after her son? Would he get all the attention he deserves? Would he be protected from bullies if there were any?
"He'll be fine, Elena. He'll love it, and just think he'll make some good friends here. Didn't you meet Caroline in pre-school?"
"Yeah...I guess so." she sighs and fiddles with her fingers as she notices they are getting closer and closer to their destination. Trying to tell herself that this is ok, that Declan will be safe here and that this is good for him and it will make him easier to adjust when he does start school for the first time.
This is the normal, right and sensible thing to do.
Once they pull up into the parking lot of one of the local pre-schools it's Damon who freezes with a frown on his face.
"You know...maybe you're right." she notices his face paling and she raises her eyebrow at him questionably as she notices his tense body.
"Are we here Daddy?" Declan asks excitedly as he looks out of the window. "Is this it?"
"Nope!" Damon replies quickly and goes to restart the engine but she quickly reaches out and stops him, grabbing his wrist before he moved to twist the key.
"Damon!" she almost laughs. "What were you just saying to me? Don't you dare have a freak out now!"
"I'm not freaking out!" he argues immediately but the unusual high pitch to his voice proves otherwise. "I'm just saying, it wouldn't be sensible of us to let him go in there around other kids when he's sick!"
"Daddy I'm not sick!" Declan unbuckles his seat belt. "Can we go in now?" he groans loudly while trying to open the door but being prevented from the child lock.
"Yes sweetie." Elena gives Damon a pointed look before climbing out of the car. She goes and picks Noah up out of his babyseat and balances him on her hip while Damon helps Declan climb out of the car, immediately grabbing his hand tightly.
"Alright, you need to remember that nobody can push you around Dec, so if some punk kid comes and tries to bully you just hit him or something. Show him who's boss."
"Damon!" Elena gasps in disbelief. "You can't say that!" she scolds her husband in disbelief. "Declan baby, you know the rules, you're not allowed to hit anyone."
"But what if-" Damon argues but Elena cuts him off.
"Anyone. If someone is mean to you, you go and tell the teacher, ok?"
"Ok Mommy." Declan nods his head in confirmation and she feels a little relief that he at least seemed to have listened to her.
She sends a warning glance in Damon's direction who raises his eyebrows back but before they can get into anything they reach the gates and a middle aged woman approaches them with an overly large smile on her face.
"Hello!" she greets them enthusiastically. "Declan Salvatore, I presume?" she looks down at small boy with his messy dark hair blowing slightly in the light breeze.
"Yes Ma'am." he greets back with a polite smile which always makes Elena beam with pride.
"And you must be Mom and Dad." she looks up at Damon and Elena. "I'm Mrs Stevens, nice to finally meet you." she holds out her hand for them to shake.
"You too." Elena replies politely with a smile of her own, albeit a nervous one and Damon reluctantly follows.
"So is it just you looking after all these kids on your own?" Damon asks getting straight to the point, not even bothering to hide the skepticism from his voice.
"Oh no, I have two other members of staff to help me." she smiles and motions behind her where there are two other women lining up all the children in a line.
"They look a bit young don't they." he frowns, his hand clutching Declan's a little tighter.
"I can assure you Mr Salvatore that all staff here are fully qualified to look after all children with the utmost care."
"We know that." Elena joins in with a small smile. "He's just nervous." she ignores Damon scowling at her from the corner of her eye.
"Ah, is he your eldest?" Mrs Stevens questions with a smile and she nods her head. "I can assure you both that Declan will be fine, won't you sweetie?"
Declan nods his head confidently and Damon sighs loudly and glances to Elena who is starting to pale slightly as they both realize this is it.
Their going to have to leave their baby boy.
Elena curses herself when she feels her eyes start to sting with unshed tears and she lets out a shaky breath while willing herself to stay strong. The last thing she wants is for Declan to see her crying and to think that this is a bad thing.
"Alright buddy, come give me a hug!" Damon crouches down before wrapping his arms around Declan. "Now remember to behave yourself." he pats his shoulder lightly.
"I will Daddy."
"Alright then!" He presses a kiss to his forehead before standing up, turning to face Elena who is discreetly wiping a fallen tear from her cheek. He sends her a reassuring smile, knowing that at least one of them has to put on a brave face. So instead he takes Noah from her arms and lets Elena say goodbye to Declan on her own.
He watches with pure love as Elena bends down and runs her fingers through Declan's hair softly, whispering something in his ear before hugging him and telling him that she loves him. Declan of course replies sweetly that he loves her too and he feels his smile widening, his heart bursting at the sight and he hates himself for being such a sap but he can't help but hold Noah that little bit closer against him.
Elena smiles and reaches for Damon's hand as they both wave goodbye to Declan who is led towards the other children in the playground and they both reluctantly make their way back to the car.
"So..." Damon frowns slightly. "What do we do now?"
Elena glances back at Noah and smiles. "Ice cream in the park?"
"You want to go to the park Noah?" Damon turns around in his seat to face his youngest son. Noah replies with some gurgling nonsense words of his own, his vocabulary only being stretched to 'Mama' 'Dada' 'Yes' and 'Bye' at the moment. "Ice cream in the park it is" he confirms with a grin, his spare hand reaching over to hold Elena's smaller one in his.
Four ridiculously slow hours later Damon and Elena pull up eagerly and far too early through the gates of the preschool. They both climb out of the car and wait by the doors anxiously, Noah being left looked after by Bonnie while they plan to take out Declan for his dinner to celebrate his first day.
Elena squeezes Damon's hand tightly, almost bone crushing and it reminds him of when she was in labor with both boys, but he understands because he feels just as anxious and nervous as she does right now.
There's something different about leaving your child in school than with your family and close friends.
"He'll be ok." Damon whispers into Elena's ear reassuringly, using his other hand to brush some of her hair back before pressing a slow soft kiss against her lips.
"What if he hated it? What if he spent the whole day upset and wanting to go home and we never came for him?" Elena bites on her bottom lip once he pulled away.
"They would have called." Damon speaks confidently but he knows that the thought has crossed his mind numerous amounts of time throughout the day.
"What if they somehow got the wrong numbers for us? Or...or maybe we lost signal on our cells today and never realized?"
"Elena, you were checking your phone every five minutes, I think we would have noticed." he smiles softly at her, squeezing her hand but he knows that he was doing the exact same thing. He just did a better job of hiding it than she did.
"Yeah...yeah you're right I suppose."
"I'm always right." he smirks and she rolls her eyes with a smile.
"You think you're always right, there's a difference baby." she nudges him with her elbow and he chuckles but it quickly stops when he sees the doors opening and a load of children quickly running out to be greeted by their parents.
It doesn't take long for Declan to come bouncing out, another brown haired boy by his side and Damon feels himself grin as Declan fist bumps the other boy before running towards them.
Elena immediately lets go of his hand and wraps her arms around Declan, standing up so she is carrying him in her arms.
"Oh I missed you!" she peppers kisses all over his face and he chuckles as Declan tries to squirm out of his grasp. "How was it? Did you have fun?"
"Yeah!" Declan grins happily and he feels his entire body sink in relief. "Do I get to go back tomorrow?"
"Not tomorrow, but the next day maybe." Damon replies, knowing that Elena is nowhere near ready to let go of her son on a daily basis just yet.
Heck, he knows that he isn't ready either.
"By the way, who was that other kid you were with?" he asks while walking back to the car, Declan still in Elena's protective arms.
"Oh, that's my new best friend, his name is Austin." he explains casually and he notices Elena's smile widen from the corner of his eye.
"So, where do you want to go for dinner?" Damon asks once they are all in the car.
"McDonald's!" Declan shouts full of enthusiasm and Damon knows just how clever his boy is because usually Elena avoids those kind of places but he's sensing that Declan knows just exactly what kind of mood his mother is in.
Elena sighs loudly but smiles anyway. "Ok fine! But just this once!"
Declan smirks a cheeky smirk that Damon notices in the mirror and he chuckles to himself.
"McDonald's it is!"
Sorry it's so short! It seems I've lost my muse for this story at the moment.
I hope it was still ok though and that it wasn't a major disappointment.
Thank you for reading :) Until next time!