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The next day it was still storming outside but everyone had decided that Damon needed to be dealt with. They bundled up the baby and loaded everyone into the cars. It was Bonnie's first time out as a vampire and she was scared to death. Elena and Bonnie had never seen the other Mikaelson home but quickly pronounced it suitably grand and befitting Klaus.

Damon lifted his head from his position in the solarium as he heard familiar voices in the front part of the house. He hoped his rescue party had come. Surely Stefan had come to his senses by now or maybe Elena had pleaded for his release. His hope was short lived as Klaus walked Caroline over to see Damon all tied up and she had a cold smile of satisfaction on her face. She was never able to get revenge on him for what he had done to her while she was human except for that one day after her transition during the carnival.

Now though, as he looked helplessly at her, she walked over to him and broke each finger on his hands. Klaus had known that she would be vindictive but to see her like this-vindictive-was strange until he remembered that Elijah had informed him of Damon's relationship with Caroline and he wasn't going to stop her unless she went off the deep end.

"Do you know how I felt when I was human and nothing more than your toy?" she asked darkly. As he shook his head in the negative, she kicked at his knee which broke. He screamed out in pain and before she could say anything, Klaus broke in.

"As beautiful as this scene is to me," he gave Caroline a look and she nodded while walking back towards him. "I believe that it is my turn now." Going over to him, Klaus grabbed Damon by the throat and the elder Salvatore watched as Klaus' rage grew until his Hybrid face was out.

"I would kill you-torture, maim and then allow you a respite before doing it all over again-but I want you to know that I am moving past all that now and well…" he picked up a dagger that was coated in Hayley's werewolf blood. "I want you to remember what it feels like having something taken from you." His peace said, he slashed into Damon's chest without caring that he and Caroline were going to be covered in blood.

"I thought you said that you weren't going to torture him like that?" Rebekah interrupted as she was walking into the solarium with Stefan hot on her heels. She looked immaculate in a red dress and heels her expression haughty.

"I said that I would make no promises sister," Klaus told her with a wolfish grin and a kiss to her forehead. "I will attend to my niece now." Stefan nodded.

"Kol and Bonnie are hogging her at the moment so if you believe that you can get her away from them, be my guest." Hearing those few last words, Caroline began to sing that Beauty and the Beast song under her breath as she left with Klaus.

Stefan shook his head at her with a warm smile on his lips which vanished as he turned to stare at Damon with utter coldness and bitterness in his eyes.

"Why Damon?" he asked. His eyes held onto his brother's and the other didn't answer. Stefan got right into Damon's face in total intimidation.

"ANSWER ME DAMON! WHY DID YOU DO IT?"

"I didn't mean to!" Damon yelled at him. "I wanted to talk some sense into Elena and Bonnie got in the way! I wanted her to know that she was making a mistake by having a baby with a monster!"

"You're the monster Damon." Rebekah told him as she walked in front of him. "You are the monster-not Elijah! He never hurt Elena! Everything that you had done to her through all those years that you've known each other and however long you two were dating-you were the one who hurt her!" Damon knew that it was true but he didn't believe it.

"No-I never did." He said trying for defiance and coming out cockier.

"You insinuated that she was a whore twice and that she was a new Katherine!" Stefan yelled before he left. If he had to spend at least one more minute with his selfish, stubborn brother, he would have been close to killing him. Rebekah watched him walk away and then turned back to Damon with such utter loathing in her eyes that it was scary.

"If I could have it my way you'd be a pile of ash but as I'm above being a monster like you, the best punishment is for you to live with yourself and the guilt of what you had done."

She turned on her heels and walked away from him.

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Damon had seen the movie of A Christmas Carol – reading stuffy old books was his brother's thing. He knew about being visited by three ghosts but apparently this was turning into being visited by every original. He watched as Elijah strode down the hallway. He looked gentlemanly and fierce at the same time. He appeared deceptively calm as he strode into the solarium. When Damon saw the anger in his eyes he knew the original was anything but…

"I have been called a monster many times in my thousand year's existence," Elijah began calmly. "I have even used the term myself. It is at times an apt description." He punctuated the thought by breaking Damon's jaw again with his fist.

"When you inflict it upon Elena in reference to her carrying my child however it becomes reprehensible," he said and he stabbed Damon in the chest with a letter opener.

"Look what you've done to her! Vampires aren't supposed to procreate!" Damon said. "She deserves better than you – hell she deserves better than all of us!"

"That may be the case Damon," Elijah said reining his anger in once more, "but I love her and I will endeavor every day for the rest of my existence to make her happy." A gasp at the entrance to the solarium caught both their attention. Elena was standing there in a mint dress with a jeweled empire waist and a bubble-hem skirt that just showed off her four months of pregnancy. Neither man liked the look on her face.

"Elena," Damon decided to use this to his advantage, "what do you say about the originals now?" The chains rattled as Damon attempted to gesture to his current state. Elijah flashed to Elena's side but she bypassed him and continued to walk to Damon. There was pain in her eyes at what was being done but anger too and understanding. She looked Damon in the eyes as she laid her hand on her growing belly and grabbed Elijah's arm with the other.

"Let me make this simple and clear for you Damon," Elena said trying to hold her emotions in check. She wanted to get her point across without bursting into tears. "I love him Damon. I see his flaws, his struggles and I know what he is but I also know just what kind of man Elijah is Damon and I love him! I am having his baby – I can feel him or her moving inside me right now and nothing makes me happier. You were always spouting that you wanted my happiness Damon – well you got it. It's right here before you! Elijah Mikaelson makes me happy every day. I want to spend the next thousand years with him – more if I get the chance." Then in a move that utterly shocked Elijah, Elena flashed to Damon with the letter opener and stabbed him without holding back.

"That is for Jeremy!" She stabbed him again in another location.

"That is for Caroline!" She looked deep into Damon's blue depths wanting him to see that any romantic feelings she might once have felt for him were gone. Then she stabbed him once again. By now she was crying and she dropped the letter opener onto the floor as she saw his blood on her hand and running down her arm.

"That's for Bonnie!" She cried out through the tears and then she fled the room.

"Are you proud of yourself?" Damon gasped through the pain as his wounds began to heal.

"Elena makes her own choices," Elijah said as he looked after her a moment. "She has always been able to." Elijah walked from the solarium after his pregnant Elena.

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A few minutes later Kol strolled into the solarium and walked towards him, whistling evilly and in a more deranged way than Damon thought could happen. Damon let out a low groan before Kol picked up a baseball bat and swung it at his ribs and legs. Damon couldn't help the howl that he released as the bat connected with his ribs.

"See," Kol started casually, "my siblings and I can be monsters-yes-but unlike you, we know that monsters always, always can find a light within the darkness that depletes the darkness within us." Kol punctuated this with another swing of the bat.

"Great story," Damon coughed as his ribs were slowly healing a second time. Kol paid him no mind as he twirled the bat around in the air with such loathing and hatred.

"What you said and did to my Bonnie as well as Elena was way beyond cruel." He looked at him coldly, menacingly. "My unborn niece or nephew isn't a monster but you are." He nodded as he decided on what to say. "I'm surprised that Nik left you alive after the whole 'Caroline' fiasco back when you first arrived in Mystic Falls and Elijah not bothering to slaughter you with your most recent transgression against his child. I'm impressed."

Damon wanted to say something but the lightest footsteps came walking towards them and Kol watched with a little satisfaction as Damon's face filled with shock as he saw Bonnie in the same white dress that he had first seen her in when she was dancing with Kol at that club.

"Hello Damon." He raised an eyebrow and snorted.

"So judgey changed teams and is now pro-vampire? I'm surprised." He said dryly only for Bonnie to wield the letter opener that Elena had used on him earlier and she was stabbing him everywhere that she could.

"You KILLED me! After I had saved your ass in the fire that John started when Katherine first came back to town!" She looked darkly at him. "I should have just let you die."

"You did that for Elena," Damon scoffed.

"I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do," Bonnie said. She dropped the letter opener and grabbed Kol's baseball bat. With an evil glare in her eyes she swung with all her might and everyone heard Damon's cry of pain as the bat connected. The sound shook Bonnie and she began to tremble with horror at her own strength. She dropped the bat from her shaking hands and then ran out crying. Kol looked after her – his heart breaking for her. When he saw that same pain on Damon's face Kol glared at him.

"How am I supposed to bring her back from this?" Kol asked him and without waiting for an answer he went after Bonnie.

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