Caroline had stepped out onto the porch, Elena poking her head behind her, "It is time for dinner, and there is room for everyone. I have already set the table for three more, "She stammers, wringing the ends of her Christmas decorated apron.
"They aren't staying," Damon says between clenched teeth, but Caroline and Elena ignore him; they are staring at the young boy.
Caroline drops down to meet his gaze and offers her hand. He shakes her hand respectfully and introduces himself. Caroline smiles, "Nice to meet you, Gabriel," She starts, "I don't know if you know this but your mother," She pauses and looks back at Elena and Damon, tears barely there, "But she used to carry that same bear around when she was your age."
Gabriel hugs the teddy bear closer to him, "She gave it to me before she died," He states clearly.
Damon shoots a look at Rebekah, confused. He knows that the events are still hazy on the day his wife died, that he is still traumatized, but the knowing that his wife had done all that she did, even sacrificing herself to be able to see her kid once more and didn't, is a fact, a fucking sad fact that makes him ponder what was the fucking point.
Caroline ushers everyone inside, and Stefan greets the Mikaelson guests like he is pleased to see them, taking their coats and asking mundane questions to the sisters, like asking Freya what she thought of Mystic or prattling on to them both how he has heard on the news it was unseasonably warm in New Orleans and that he doesn't like spending the holidays in warm places, and offering them cocktails from the fancy decorated bar-cart, where Caroline had mixed a crystal punch-bowl of a red-colored drink, the floating orange slices, disturbed by the ladle.
Damon can smell the thick of cinnamon in the high-ball glasses that Stefan shoves into the Mikaelson sisters' hands.
And the rest of the guests shuffle around the living room, welcoming the three uninvited guests to join them. Caroline turns up Bing Crosby crooning, 'White Christmas' from the speakers, Stefan places his arm around his wife's neck, and there is laughter and easy conversation between the adults as young Gabriel sits silently, tucked next to his Aunt Freya. Damon overhears Matt's hushed voice say into Elena's ear, "It's like Bonnie is here."
The house is full of vampires, witches and werewolves, gathered together to have a Christmas eve dinner, celebrating the most human of holidays, and Damon snorts and excuses himself to the kitchen to pour another solo cup of Bourbon.
DBDBDBDBDB
"We are moving back to Mystic."
"Excuse me," She said, her head peeking up over some ancient tome, giving him a look before placing the book down on her thighs, "You're serious, "She almost laughed, "I'm open to it, Damon, if that's what you really want." She said quickly, closing the book and reaching for another from the stack next to the nightstand, "But let's circle back to it when I'm not fighting to get my son back and fending off a coven of batshit crazy witches from killing him.
She had been reading book after book since Marcel had left. She was looking for a spell to give her the strength to send protective magic to her son while growing a vampire's baby.
There wasn't much literature on the subject. It turned out that Bonnie was in a league of her own.
Damon kicked the bedsheets off of him, annoyed, and hovered over the side of the bed, "We are about to have our first fight."
She stared at him like he grew another head.
"Um, you and I have had plenty of fights, we've had more fights than anyone else I know in my life, we have fought so mu– "
He cut her off, and he held up his hand, "As your husband, this is going to be our first fight as a married couple, and it's going to be over you not considering that I know what the hell I'm talking about and that I'm trying to protect you and our baby girl.
She folded her arms, "I'm listening."
"Moving to Mystic gives you the connection to a magical source we haven't considered."
"Which is?"
"Ancestral land, Bonnie. Your family has land there. Land that they, as free men and women, worked and owned, had families, and gatherings, land where most of them are now buried, including your Grams. While you are pregnant, that ancestral magic should be able to give you some kind of witchy juice while you focus on knocking down the Nola hags."
The light in Bonnie's eyes went from skeptical to engaging, "Okay, but what about my son?"
"Have Klaus do the exchange there, "He said, believing that this plan might work, "There, your son will not only have his super witch Mom and me, but he will have the family protection of Caroline, Stefan, Matt, Tyler, hell, I'm sure the whole damn town would fight to keep your child alive."
Her brow scrunched up again but then quickly smoothed over as a smile spread across her face. She scrambled across the bed to kiss him square on the mouth.
Miracles were funny things. From all accounts, procreation was denied to Vampires. They were practically dead. But a miracle had happened. When Bonnie and he came together, what was dead inside of him had been transmuted into living. He didn't question why or how. You don't question miracles. You just kiss the forehead of the little witch whose belly was getting bigger day by day and tell her you loved her. You didn't want to ask too many questions for a real fear that the miracle would unravel to a reality you didn't want.
DBDBDBDBDB
He throws the empty bourbon bottle into the trash. He begins searching for another when Freya skulks into the warm kitchen, Gabriel in tow, mentioning Caroline telling Gabriel to help himself to some Christmas cookies.
Damon does a quick once-over of all the food displayed on the marble countertops, feeling the bourbon, before picking up a platter of iced sugar-cookies shaped into snowmen.
Freya thanks him and picks up two cookies. She hands one to Gabriel, and the boy turns to Damon and says, "Thank you."
"No problem," Damon says, opening another bottle, foregoing the solo cup to drink from the source while considering the kid and the motives of a Mikaelson, "So you made your aunts bring you all this way 'cause you want to meet your sister?" Damon didn't mean to sound so hostile, or maybe he did, but either way, his words make Freya place a loving hand onto Gabriel, pulling him closer to her.
"Yes, sir," He states, holding the cookie, not the least bit interested in the edible snowman.
"Why?" Damon asks the eight-year-old, averting his eyes from the kid. He is the only one in the house who isn't enraptured by the look of him. He could do without the kid's face. Too painful.
It was both of Gabriel's parents that died three months ago. First, it was Klaus, lashing out, doing what he did best, going for the jugular, attacking witch after witch. But the hybrid's type of warfare was no match for this coven, especially when one of the witches wasn't even in human flesh anymore but still hellbent on avenging her dead daughter. The daughter that Klaus had killed and set the ball rolling on the turn of events that would be the end of him and Bonnie.
Damon recalls how Klaus fought and lost and how he had to hold Rebecka back from going in to save her brother from his certain death at the hand of the witches.
Maybe this whole family meet and greet was genuine, or perhaps not. Maybe the Mikaelson's were planning to avenge their brother now and somehow and in some way needed to involve his daughter.
He takes a swig and thinks he will rip out their hearts before they touch Ava.
The boy gives the cookie to his aunt and moves the teddy bear to his other arm, and she nods to him, assuring him, and he looks up at the drunk vampire and says, "She is my sister, and I am responsible for her."
Damon laughs and bites the head off one of the snowmen, crumbs flying everywhere, "Those are pretty strong words for a squirt your size. Being a big brother is no joke and a commitment," He says, recalling similar words being told to him around the time he was Gabriel's age.
Freya's face darkens, and the words that follow the look are calm but strained, "Gabriel is Ava's brother, Damon. Don't deny the children each other because of your feelings towards my deceased brother."
Damon takes a sip, ready for a retort he was sure to regret, but Stefan steps into the kitchen.
"Everything okay in here?"
Freya looks over at the younger Salvatore, "Yes, we were just enjoying your wife's cookies."
Stefan's forehead crinkles despite the smile plastered on his face, "We were about to say grace and start dinner if you all would like to meet us in the dining room."
"Lovely," She answers and then turns to Gabriel, "Follow Mr. Salvatore to dinner; I'll be right there.
Damon grabs another solo cup and pours a bourbon for Freya, "Truce, "He asks, offering her the cup, "Half the shit that comes out of me right now is not rational. I wasn't quite sane, to begin with, but after the last three months…" He trails, "I'm just not right in the head, "He smiles.
Freya refuses the drink, "It's not me you owe an apology to."
Damon nods.
"You know from what all I've heard about you, the rancor and curious praise you evoked from my brothers, I thought you were smart and perceptible, but you really are a disappointment to meet.
Damon takes her cup and gulps it down, "I'll let the kids meet, okay?"
"It's not just that, Damon. After meeting Gabriel, I thought you might be more inquisitive about him."
Damon looks taken aback, "Why should I be? The one connection we shared is dead. He and Ava are the ones who have to get along."
She stares at the vampire for a moment, "Because if it weren't for Bonnie giving birth to Gabriel, there would not have been your precious daughter."
"Why don't witches ever speak in English?" He says to the ceiling before refilling his cup," What did Bonnie and Klaus's kid have to do with Bonnie and me having a baby?"
"Gabriel," Freya starts, her voice dropping to a whisper, "Gabriel is special. And when Bonnie was carrying him, she received genetic material from him, just as much as he received from her. Still, the genetic material from Gabriel would be special in a way that would make it possible for her to have a baby with a vampire."
Damon circles back to when Bonnie first told him she was pregnant and how in disbelief they both were. Even though he thought it crazy that Bonnie Bennett, of all people, had a child with Niklaus Mikaelson, the magic involved with them having a child made sense. Werewolves and Witches could procreate. Werewolves were living things. And with Klaus being a hybrid, Bonnie was able to get pregnant.
Damon folds his arms and leans back onto the counter, "So what you're saying is Gabriel has some kind of DNA that he shared with Bonnie when he was cooking in her stomach that made it possible for Bonnie to get knocked up by vampires?"
"Microchimerism. Most mothers are changed by their children."
Damon rubs his hand over his face, drunk and tired, and overhearing Caroline start the saying of grace, "Well, I guess I got something to add to my part of the grace. I can thank the kid for turning my dead sperm into living sperm. That should blow everyone's hair back at the dinner table, "He laughs, picturing Stefan's forehead.
Freya sighs and stops Damon from leaving, "Not just your sperm, Damon," She huffs and spells it out for the drunk vampire, "Gabriel is unique because he can bring anything back to life.
Author's Note
To anyone still willing to read this after so much time has gone by. Thank you.