So here it is…another chapter. :)

I had fully intended to stop after 25, but it really just keeps writing itself. Like I have no idea where I'm going until I get there. Crazy huh?

And I have had very little time to write…as you can see. I'm trying to "get with the program", really, but RL keeps me so very busy…And problems with my computer are not helping much…

Oh, and before I forget, I've been trying to find the boys' mother's name, but came up with nothing. So if you got it, get it to me and I can change it. Cool?

26

Elena

"I…I'm sorry. What did you just say?"

My ears took it in but there was no way I could register what she just said. "I said, they are my sons." She spoke slowly, as if speaking to a child. Or an idiot…

"No, I heard you. I just…how is that possible?" I walked slowly over to the barstool that was just within reach. "I always thought you died in childbirth?"

She smiled. "What if I told you you were dreaming? Would you believe me?"

I shook my head quickly and forced my eyes to stay glued to her. "I don't think so. I was driving and I followed-"

Immediately I thought of the hawk and jumped off the stool. "Oh my gosh, did you see it? The giant hawk! I followed it here!"

The woman watched me as I jumped up and down excitedly and then smiled as I realized how stupid I looked. "I'm sorry. I just felt like it was so important for me to follow it and now…"

She walked over to me and placed her hand over mine on the counter. Her hand was warm, and she smelled like fresh roses. "My name is Elisabetta Salvatore." Even her name was beautiful and it rolled off her tongue perfectly. "You are Stefan's bride, yes?"

I nodded, my eyes still fixed on her. "Yes. Damon married my best friend, Bonnie."

Elisabetta's eyes widened and then she looked down at our hands. "Yes, I know. She's a firecracker, that one, eh?" She looked back up at me and smiled again. "You come here to ask something of me."

I cocked my head to one side as my eyebrows came together in confusion. "I did?"

Elisabetta nodded slowly, smiling brightly. "You are…puzzled as to how to ask me."

I had no clue what she was talking about, and I was sure she could tell. "Elisabetta," I started and she held up the hand that was not holding mine to stop me.

"You have married my son. You are no stranger to me. Please, call me Mama. All of my children do."

All? My eyebrows creased again and I had to ask. "All? I thought there were only the two?"

Elisabetta smiled again. "When Damon was very little, all of his little friends would be at our home. Stefan was just a baby then, and he would make noises in his…piccolo letto…" I could tell she was searching for the words to translate what she had said, and her hands were circling over each other. I was no help at all, and unfortunately all I could do was shrug and shake my head. "It's the little thing you put your babies in."

"Oh! The crib!"

Elisabetta let out a soft sigh. "Yes, that is it. I would watch them, and when Damon's friends would point to my pictures, he would always say, è il mio Mama. She is my Mama. They would ask my name and he would say, 'Mama'." She laughed and her eyes lit up at the memory. "So, as the years went by, when his friends would come, they would pass my picture where it hung and put a kiss on it, telling me, 'Hello Mama'. I would think you have more right to call me Mama than they did."

I couldn't help but smile, even though I knew there was really no way I could be sitting here talking to my mother-in-law when my husband was over five centuries old. And then a thought occurred to me. "Am…am I dead?"

Elisabetta glanced around quickly, and the gesture looked oddly familiar. "We don't have much time. I need you to tell my boys something. La chiave alla sua distruzione dentro presso voi." Almost immediately my head began to hurt, like someone was squeezing my brain from inside my head, and my vision started to go black.

"Wait! Elisabetta! Mama!" I tried to reach out for her but grasped only air, and then I hit the steering wheel, the sounds of horns honking behind me ringing in my ears.

I shook my head and looked around me as I realized I was still in my car, at the same stoplight where I had seen the hawk, but the bird was gone. I gunned the car and headed straight toward Bonnie and Damon's.

Damon

Stefan is about to burn a hole in my carpet, and I am about to rip his feet off if he doesn't stop pacing.

Bonnie looked up at me, obviously having heard my thoughts, and gave me what was supposed to be a stern look. It just looked like a kitten trying to scold a lion, and I had to resist the urge to laugh. She noticed and rolled her eyes at me.

"I just don't understand why I can't hear her thoughts," Stefan shouted from where he had finally stopped pacing. "I can always hear her thoughts."

Bonnie gasped and jumped up. "She's here," she whispered and hit the door at the same time Elena did. She gathered Elena into her arms and began to stroke her hair. "Are you ok? You had us scared to death."

I scoffed at the comment and everyone turned to me. To death Bonnie? I shot at her and she narrowed her eyes at me.

You know what I mean. Don't be a jerk right now. "Elena," Bonnie said pulling her back to look at her. "You're shaking like a leaf. What happened to you?"

Elena's eyes looked far away and when she caught my gaze she couldn't blink. "I saw…"

"What? What did you see, honey? Tell us," Bonnie chirped and I had the strangest urge to throw my hand over my wife's mouth.

"Cara, she was about to say it when you interrupted her." I was trying not to anger my bride, but she gave me a look that told me I had done just that and I had to shrug.

Elena looked lost for a moment, blinked, and then looked directly at me. "I saw your mother."

Three things happened simultaneously. Stefan and I both growled deep in our chests and took a fighting stance, looking around the room as if there were a predator preparing to strike. Bonnie gasped and jumped up in front of me, and Elena broke down in tears. Stefan spoke first, his thoughts conveying nothing more than pure curiosity. He had never met our mother, as she died in childbirth… bearing him. I blamed his existence for her death on a daily basis, and it wasn't until very recently that I had learned to hide that, and put it aside to face our enemies as a united front. And lately, it would seem that we had enemies "coming out of the woodwork", as Bonnie put it.

Stefan walked to where Bonnie had placed Elena on the couch and took his wife's face in his hands, handling her like a fragile doll. "Amore, you need to tell me what you mean by that."

Elena's eyes sought me out, once again, and her tears began to flow more freely. "I was sitting in my car at a stoplight…" She stopped and gave us all a sheepish look. "I was following a hawk."

"A hawk?" I shouted in exasperation. "What the hell were you following a hawk for? And what does that have to do with my mother?"

Bonnie placed her hands on my chest to slow my breathing. Clearly, I had not been prepared to hear that my new sister-in-law had encountered the only woman I had ever loved…until Bonnie. I looked down into Bonnie's eyes and my hands went to the back of her head, burying themselves in her curls and pulling her forehead to my lips. Cara, I'm sorry. I'm trying.

I know, she thought simply. Just give her a chance to explain.

Elena was sobbing loudly now and I noticed Stefan had not spoken again. His thoughts were jumbled, and as soon as he had one thought, another replaced it. "Elena," he whispered as he walked to the French doors. "Please…"

She nodded slowly and began to speak in a whisper. "I followed the hawk to a house, and when I stopped at the front door, it was open. I peeked my head in smelled some food being cooked in the kitchen. When I approached her, she turned." She stopped and looked at the both of us. "You both resemble her quite a bit."

I wanted to smile but couldn't. The anger at her passing was still fresh after all these years. I couldn't look at Stefan, for fear that I would snap at him again. So instead, I looked back at Elena. "Did she look well?"

Elena smiled. "She looked beautiful. You both have her smile."

Bonnie wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me closer to her. "Go on," she said softly.

"She told me how she would watch over you when you were little, and how Damon's friends would call her 'Mama', so she told me to call her that as well. She told me I had more right than they did, with being Stefan's wife and all…" She chuckled, more to herself than anything. Her thoughts radiated pride at finally feeling like she belonged to a family again. She was dead to her own.

Elena stood and walked over to where Stefan stood, still not facing the group. He turned when he felt her hand on his arm and pulled her into his embrace. "Oh!" Elena jumped slightly and turned to us. "She said one more thing, but it was in Italian, and I have no idea what it meant."

Stefan hid his disappointment before she could look back at his face. "Do you think you could try to remember?"

Bonnie let go of me and walked over to her. "I think that's where I come in." She was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning, and reached out to take Elena's hands. "I saw it. When I finally was able to see my vision clearly, Elisabetta spoke."

Both Stefan and I tensed at her name, and Bonnie looked back at the both of us. "She saw her. And I saw her in Elena's thoughts just now, so I know what I saw in my vision was correct. I caught only certain words, though, so I hope you guys can make sense of it."

Stefan looked as though he was ready for a fight, and I'm sure I did as well. I tried to relax and slow my breathing, as it had picked up at the mention of my mother's name. "What were the words, cara?"

Bonnie closed her eyes and began to recount the conversation she had heard. "Um…I heard chiave, distruzione, and dentro. Anybody make heads or tails of that?" She opened her eyes and looked at all of us.

"Chiave means key. Distruzione is destruction. And dentro means inside. But I'm not sure I know what they all have to do with each other." Stefan was still on a high hearing about our mother's impromptu visit.

I knew exactly what she meant. "She said, 'The key to destruction lies within', translated loosely." I said from where I stood in the doorway. "What I don't know is who she was referring to."

Bonnie's eyes widened. Stefan's breathing came to an abrupt stop. "Did she mean…me?" Elena asked shyly. "Was she talking about me?"

Stefan was at her side in an instant. "Why would you think that?"

"Because," she said between hiccups, "she kept telling me that I had something to ask her, but I didn't know how to ask."

Their immortality, both hers and Bonnie's.

It had been a question on all our minds as of late. Particularly with Alaric and Meredith's baby coming soon. No one knew if Elena could conceive. Bonnie's body would never grow again, and therefore couldn't carry a living baby. With Bonnie's heritage, now combined with her vampire state, what would that mean for her future? All questions with no answers. And the ones they affected most were Elena and Bonnie.

"I don't know," Stefan said, walking over to the window. "I know she used you for a reason. Why she didn't use Bonnie to speak to us, or speak to us directly, we may never know."

Bonnie stood in front of me, very still and quiet. "Damon…"

Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell limp. I caught her just before she hit the floor. Strangely reminiscent of our meeting in the clearing…

I closed my eyes, holding her, attempting to read her thoughts. We'd gotten so much better at this over the last few months that I knew I could do it; it was just a matter of her subconscious letting me in at this point. "Cara?" I whispered as I touched my cheek to her temple. "You need to let me in."

She started writhing beneath me, almost as if she was struggling to get free. Her eyes popped open and she looked at me. "Did you hear that?" she hissed.

I looked around with my eyes. "Hear what?"

She pushed lightly on my chest and I helped her stand. The rest of the group stood waiting for her to say something and she put her finger up telling us to be quiet and tiptoed about the room, walking slowly into the foyer and stopping abruptly. "We're not alone." She turned to face us as we stood watching her. "Someone's been using all of this against us."

Stefan's eyebrows bunched together and he looked around the room as well. "I feel something, too. It's very heavy, like a dark cloud."

Meredith started to whimper, her hands instinctively going to her swollen belly. I glanced at her and when I turned back to my bride her eyes were wide as her gaze landed on Elena. "It's you."

Elena looked around at all of us and began to tremble. "What do you mean, it's me?"

Bonnie walked over to Elena and placed her hands on the girl's arms. Her grip was firm, but not too tight, knowing she had the strength to break Elena into pieces. "Whatever this thing is, it's using you. Elisabetta used you for a specific reason. This thing has the weakest one targeted. And that one, right now, is you."

Elena's eyes were huge as she listened to Bonnie's words. "But why me? Meredith's human!" she shrieked.

Bonnie's eyes closed and she lay her head back for a moment. She took a deep breath and then picked her head back up. "Because you've been to the other side," she said, but in a voice not her own.

My mother was speaking through my wife.

Bonnie

I could feel the change in the atmosphere almost instantly. From the moment I stood, every hair on my body was standing on end. "We're not alone." I turned to face the group as they watched me. "Someone's been using all of this against us."

Stefan caught on immediately, and he began to look around the room, shivering slightly. "I feel something, too. It's very heavy, like a dark cloud."

I could feel the tension rolling off Meredith and she placed her hands on where Jessa was moving in her womb. I saw Damon glance at her and he turned back to me as my gaze set on Elena. "It's you."

Elena looked around the circle of us and started shaking slightly. "What do you mean, it's me?"

I walked over to Elena and took her arms in my hands, careful not to grip too tightly. "Whatever this thing is, it's using you. Elisabetta used you for a specific reason. This thing has the weakest one targeted. And that one, right now, is you."

Elena's eyes were as huge as saucers as she listened to me. "But why me? Meredith's human!" she shrieked.

I closed my eyes and instantaneously felt…weird. It was almost like an out-of-body experience. And that's when I knew what was happening. When my head came back up, not realizing it had gone back in the first place, I felt drained. "Because you've been to the other side," I said, but it wasn't my voice.

Elisabetta Salvatore was speaking thorough me.

This had only happened once before, when Honoria Fell was helping us fight off the evil we had faced in Fell's Church. We knew now that Katherine and Klaus had ultimately been to blame for everything that had taken place, but I knew that if Damon and Stefan's mother had come to warn us of something, it was probably twice as strong as Katherine and Klaus had been. And I wasn't sure we'd be able to fight whatever it was.

I felt my body walk over to Damon, and my hands went to cradle his face. "Mio figlio," she said through me. Yup, this has got to be the weirdest thing ever to happen to me.

Damon's expression toggled from elated to confused to in awe, and ran the gambit at least three more times before he spoke. "Mama?"

I nodded, my body no longer my own, and embraced Damon tightly. "Non ho mai pensato vorrei vedere di nuovo," he whispered softly.

Of course, he thought he would never see her again! Wait, how did I know what he said? I tried to shake my head clear, but it wasn't my head at the moment. "Ho bisogno di parlare in fretta," she said, and I could feel the reason why she had to speak quickly. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife, and it kept getting thicker.

Elisabetta turned my body toward Stefan and taking Damon by the hand, walked me over to stand in front of him. "Tu sei fratelli, e non si comportano come essa. Devi venire insieme a lottare. La forza è dentro di voi due. Deve essere fermato."

I felt Damon stiffen, and I attempted to reach him mentally. Damon, what is she saying?

His eyes snapped to mine, and I knew he heard me. She says we need to behave like brothers and come together and fight. He looked down at his feet then, a combination of anger, pride, and embarrassment at being scolded by his mother through his wife.

Stefan cleared his throat and smiled, pulling me into a warm embrace in an attempt to get close to his mother. It dawned on me then that he never got to know her, and I wished I could do something to make it more real for him. I made a mental note to pursue that a little later.

When he released me, I felt like Elisabetta was physically being pulled out of me and the harder I tried to hold on to her for the boys' sake, no amount of strength I had would do it.

When I opened my eyes, again not realizing they had closed, I was locked inside a cocoon of Damon's and Stefan's arms. Both boys were holding on for dear life, trying their hardest not to cry, but still sniffling. "She's gone," I whispered, and felt Damon's grip loosen instantly. He cleared his throat and walked to the other side of the room, not looking at anyone, and attempting to regain his composure.

Meredith stood stock still, only her eyes moving, her hands still holding her belly. "So…what now?" She said softly, trying her hardest not to ruin the moment for the brothers, but still needing to know what was happening.

Stefan looked up, and you could tell he'd been crying. "It's Angelo. It's gotta be."

The group turned to look at me, then at Stefan, and realizing where he was looking, fell lastly on Damon. He had turned to face us and simply shrugged. "He's alive and well, living out on the East coast. At least that's where he was when he contacted me last."

I felt the anger boiling inside me and it took all I had not to run to him and slap that smirk off of his face. The one person he wanted to protect more than himself, and he had kept this from me. How in the hell do you know that? And why am I just finding this out now? I screamed at him mentally.

His expression softened when his eyes met mine. Cara, please. I just wanted to protect you.

By leaving me vulnerable? This is knowledge you should've shared with me!

I know. Even his thoughts took on a defeated tone. I'm sorry. Truly, I am. I didn't know how else to protect you other than to just keep it to myself.

My shock took over at that point. "You don't trust me," I stated plainly.

Damon's eyes widened in disbelief. "Of course I trust you, cara. Why would you think otherwise?"

"Because you knew. You've known all along and didn't tell me." He moved to touch me and I pulled away. "Don't," I said, walking away and heading upstairs.

I heard him calling me, but he was wise and left me alone. I closed my bedroom door behind me and sat on the bed, crying until there was nothing left.

Damon

What the hell just happened?

All at once my world was righted and then blown all to hell simultaneously. My mother, the only woman I had ever loved until Bonnie, spoke to us. And she chose my bride to touch me, caress my cheek, and make me feel like everything was going to be alright. This hell that I had lived for over five hundred years made sense in that one moment. And then, as if someone had flipped a light switch, it had all come tumbling down.

And yet again, my brother was to blame.

I stood staring at the empty space Bonnie had just occupied and blinked like mad trying to control the anger I felt. No, it wasn't really Stefan's fault, but hell, who else could I blame?

Yourself, blame yourself, came that infernal inner voice. Who knew a merciless killer like myself could find his conscience again? I lifted my chin and recognized the action as something the arrogant Damon Salvatore would have done in his youth. I was not that man anymore. I was a centuries old vampire, a murderer, a philanderer…who desperately wanted to make things right with the beautiful, fiery redhead sitting and crying upstairs that had completely stolen his heart.

"I'll go-" Elena started, but I held my hand to stop her.

"No", I said and cleared my throat. "She's right. I should've told her. I'll go fix this."

All eyes were on me as I walked to what could either be my salvation or my execution. Whatever Bonnie decided I would have to abide by. If she needed time, I could give her that. How many nights had I watched her from afar before we had gotten together? But if she needed me there, I would be whatever she needed me to be for her. I loved her that much.

I counted the stairs as I climbed them, listening intently for some clue as to what I would find when I opened the door. Come in, Damon, she said mentally before I reached for the knob.

Bonnie lay curled up on her side of the bed, not facing me, but I could tell she was still crying and very much upset. "Why?" she asked softly.

I didn't have to ask what she meant. "I kept it from you because we were all so happy. Elena and Stefan had finally married, Alaric and Meredith were having a baby, and you and I…well, we'd never been closer." I moved slowly forward until I stood at the edge of the bed. "Cara, you have to believe that I have every faith in you. The Neanderthal in me simply wanted to protect my bride. Even though of the two of us, you would be the one that needs the least amount of protection."

I heard her snicker and then she slowly turned to face me as she sat up. "Damon," she said, patting the bed next to her. I took my seat quickly before she changed her mind. "I have the strongest feeling your mother made contact because this thing is bigger than us. Whatever is coming, I have a feeling it's bigger than anything we've ever faced."

I nodded. "I agree," I said as I pulled her into my side. "And I have to tell you that whatever went on down there was positively surreal."

I could feel her smile against my chest. "I know. It was like I could feel everything she felt but I was still me. I knew what was going on. It wasn't like I was in a fog or anything. I don't remember anything Honoria Fell said, but this…this I remember. And I could understand her!" She was excited now, and she pulled away, getting on her knees and putting her hands on her thighs as she faced me. "I knew exactly what she said when she spoke to you the first time."

"But you asked me what she meant?'

"Yeah, cause I only caught half of that sentence. I was too excited about understanding Italian!" She giggled, and the sound was music to my ears. I went to embrace her and she stopped me with her hand. "Don't think you're off the hook, Salvatore. I'm still upset that you didn't tell me you knew about Angelo, even if I do understand why you kept it from me."

Damn.

Bonnie smirked at me. "Well, then I guess there's only one thing left to do."

My brows came together in confusion. "What's that?"

"Train for a battle."

Try not to hate me, m'kay? I swear I'm trying to update faster. This chapter has actually been finished for a couple of weeks, but it needed 'tweaking'. Let me know what you think?