A/N: Just a heads up: I will post another chapter tomorrow, to make up for the fact that there won't be a new chapter next weekend. I will be at a trade fair for work and I won't have time (or any nerves left) to post.

Mystic Falls | March 2034

Frowning, Damon pushed the end call button on his phone and, killing the engine, got out of the car. He'd tried Elena's work landline twice now but he got the answering machine both times. He didn't stay on the line to listen to the message or leave a voicemail. She was probably with a patient. He'd try again later.

He skipped to the back of the car, unsuccessfully hiding from the pouring rain as he grabbed his bag from the trunk and dialed a different number. It rang as he made his way up the path to his house. Dot picked up immediately.

"Change of plans," he began without preamble, annoyed at the day so far to bother with niceties. "How soon can you get to Nashville?"

"Four hours? No luck switching flights?"

"You heard?" Damon replied.

"It was on the news." Something rustled in the background on Dot's end. "When I heard, I got my bag ready, just in case."

Damon smiled and relaxed a little for the first time in hours. He shook off the excess water from his hair and shoulders when he finally made it to the porch. "And that's why you're my favorite business partner," he said. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"And I will collect," she threatened. "Once I come up with something horrific enough."

"I'll be anxiously waiting," Damon replied. "I'll email you my notes and research data. You'll have them by the time you get to Nashville."

"Thanks, appreciate it."

Damon finally managed to unlock the door, his mind so busy with other things that he didn't realize the fiddling was due to the door not having been locked in the first place. He'd already set down his bag and threw his jacket over the back of the nearest chair to dry before the fact computed in his head. When it did, he glanced back at the front door as if he expected to find the answer there.

"Shouldn't you be on the plane right about now?" came the voice from the other side of the room.

He turned around and faced Elena. She was standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen.

"Flight got cancelled," Damon explained. "Airline strike."

Elena grimaced. "Oh, no," she sympathized. "What about the bar?" The bar in Nashville, the one that wasn't doing great. Damon's most recent baby. Now that his kids were all in school and kindergarten, respectively, he tried to take over some of the duties that had fallen on Dot's shoulders in the past decade. He'd started traveling to their business locations more, though he didn't like to stay overnight. Days like today threw a wrench in his plans which he hated. He'd set up appointments – not only with the bar managers and other staff, but also with outside contractors and had a list of tasks he had to cover today. If it wasn't for Dot, he'd be losing an entire day just trying to reschedule everything.

"Dot's covering for me."

"Well, that's good, right? At least not everything is lost."

"Yeah," Damon breathed and sank down onto the sofa. "Why are you home?" he suddenly asked, only now remembering that she should be at work herself.

"Slow day," she replied. "Decided to close up shop. I can work on the patient files from home." She motioned to the small pile of papers on the kitchen counter. "I put a sign out to call if there's an emergency."

Damon nodded and glanced around, taking in the eerie quietness of the place. With four kids in the house, things were rarely quiet. It struck him as odd, this tranquil lack of noise. He and Elena looked at each other, simultaneously realizing the sudden luxury they'd been handed this morning: Almost an entire day with no plans and no kids. He couldn't remember the last time that had happened. His mind struggled to compute and he found himself at a loss of what to do with the suddenly freed-up time.

As if Elena could read his thoughts, she asked, "Do you have any other plans for today, then?"

"I should send this email to Dot that I promised," Damon answered.

"Yeah," Elena said and nodded absentmindedly. "And I should really get to updating those files."

"There were some irregularities on the last inventory from the Grill and I've been meaning to go over those."

Elena nodded again. "Right," she said quietly. "Or… we could…"

"…play hooky?" Damon suggested, reading her thoughts.

Elena's eyes sparkled. "We can't, can we?"

"Probably shouldn't."

"True, true," she said as she kept nodding. "But, you know, just out of curiosity, what would we do if we did?"

Damon shot out immediately, without having to think about it for even a second, "Have an entire meal and use the really good china and drink wine from the really nice glasses?"

Elena's eyes widened. "Ooh, good one." Then she offered up one of her own, "Watch a movie that doesn't have singing princesses in it?"

"Yes!" Damon wholeheartedly agreed. A movie that didn't have a desk lamp jumping on a letter in its opening did sound like an amazing idea. He added another suggestion, "A road trip?"

"Without the 'Are we there' questions from the back row all the time? Oh, that sounds heavenly."

"Mmh," Damon released a sound as he pictured it in his head. "Just you and me and not a single background noise, unless we're making it ourselves." He got up and stalked over to his wife, taking her in his arms and swaying a little. The possibilities were making him heady.

"No, I know," Elena said and pulled back a little. She had a glint in her eyes that Damon's body responded to before his mind did. Her eyes moved from his face and focused on something over his shoulder. He turned to follow her gaze. There, outside, visible through the kitchen's double doors that led into the backyard, stood the hot tub. Damon couldn't remember the last time they'd used it.

"You power it on, I get the snacks from our secret stash," Elena divided their tasks.

"Are you watching me?" Damon asked, squinting sideways out of one eye.

"Maybe," Elena replied. She sat backwards in the water, one cheek resting on her crossed arms as she watched her husband. "I was thinking about the first time we met."

"On that dark street in the woods?"

"No, the other first time. At the Boarding House?" She had come to see Stefan and had met Damon instead.

Damon smiled, closing his eyes. "What about it?"

"You scared the bejeesus out of me with that crow."

Damon's mouth morphed into an amused grin. "Sorry about that. I needed a distraction for my great entrance."

"That crow in the cemetery, that was your pet as well, right?"

"Yes."

"And the one in front of Bonnie's car the first day of school, junior year?"

"Also mine."

"Was that all the same crow or did you have several?"

"Just the one."

"What happened to it?"

"I ate it."

"What?!"

Damon shrugged. "Stefan locked me in the dungeon. I was hungry."

"Why did you never get another one?"

"You know how long it takes to train and compel a bird?"

"No, actually."

"Well, a frikking long time."

"Then why did you do it in the first place?"

"To keep an eye on you."

Elena lifted her head from her arms to look at him incredulously. "You're not being serious."

"I'm one hundred percent serious," Damon replied. "After we met in the woods and I compelled you to forget about it, I needed to keep an eye on you. But I couldn't exactly stalk around the town and risk being seen, now, could I?"

"Why crows?"

"They're smart. Smarter than other birds. Makes it easier to compel. Which is not to say that it's easy, mind you. What's with all the questions?"

Elena nodded with her head towards one of the closest trees, just next to the swimming pool. The crow that Noah had saved and nursed back to health sat there, in the thicket of the still mostly naked trees. It was either hiding from the rain or waiting for Noah, like it did almost every day. Sometimes it was gone for days, a couple of weeks even, but it always returned. And when it did, it always waited for Noah.

"Do you think," Elena began, "there's something supernatural about Noah's ability to communicate with animals?"

Damon shrugged an 'I don't know'. "I think animals have amazing instincts, far superior to us people. And I think they recognize him as the opposite of a threat, as someone who just wants to help. At least that's what I believe."

Elena nodded. Damon's answer showed her that he must have thought about it as well.

"But if you want to know for sure," Damon continued, "ask Lizzie or Josie. If he's supernatural, they'll be able to tell."

Elena nodded, ending the topic. She'd thought about that as well. But in the end, it didn't really matter anyway, did it?

"Scoot forward a bit?" she said when she noticed Damon stretching his neck repeatedly as if fighting a stiffness.

He frowned, but did as he asked. Elena slid behind him and started kneading his neck and shoulders. Damon groaned in ecstasy and leaned his weight against her. After a few minutes of this, when he felt liquified and completely blissed out, he murmured, "Mmmh, I think I love you."

She chuckled and slung his arms over his neck, kissing the top of his spine. "You think?"

"Mh-mm. About two thirds of the way to fairly certain."

"Two thirds, huh?" she played along. "I'll take it."

They fell quiet again, Elena hooking her chin over Damon's shoulder and watching as he played with her hands, twisting the rings on her finger. He entwined their fingers, kissed her knuckles. "I love you more than life itself," he mumbled quietly against her skin.

She smiled softly, lifted her chin to kiss his shoulder and returned to her previous position. "I know," she said. "Love you, too."

They returned to silence. Rain continued to wash the world in gray and they watched it from the comfort of their embrace.

The shrill sound of a ringing phone interrupted the silence a short while later.

Elena stirred, making to move. Damon tightened the hold on their entwined hands. "Don't answer it."

"It could be a patient."

"It's not your work phone."

He had her there. Elena did have two phones and she never gave out the number of her private phone to her patients. Still, the instinct to answer was there. But she contemplated answering a moment too long. Her phone fell silent before she reached a decision. A second later, Damon's phone started ringing and he groaned. He did not have a phone dedicated solely to work-related calls. He did, however, have a business partner that was in the middle of a crisis that he should have been taking care of.

Disentangling himself from Elena, he climbed out of the warm water of the hot tub, shivering in the unseasonably cold spring day, and pulled his phone free.

The display read 'twins school' and Damon frowned as he answered. "Salvatore."

The secretary of the headmistress of Bennett's and Octavia's preschool/kindergarten introduced herself, explaining that she was calling on behalf of the headmistress who wished that the twins' parents come to the school immediately.

"I've tried Mrs. Salvatore's phone as well, but with no luck. Would you have an idea how to reach her?" the woman finished.

"It's Doctor Salvatore," Damon corrected, "and you don't have to. You've reached me now."

"Doctor, of course. I apologize. But you see, in matters such as this, we really prefer to have both parents present, Mr. Salvatore."

"And what matters might those be?" Damon's voice sounded harder now, he realized that. But he couldn't help the fear that suddenly gripped him.

"I would really rather talk about it in person."

"Lady," Damon pressed, a little bit irritated and a lot anxious now, "just tell me if my kids are okay."

"Oh, but of course," the secretary hurried to say. "They're fine. They're both fine physically. But you should probably get over here ASAP."

"I'll be there in a sec."

Before he could hang up, the secretary tried again, "You wouldn't happen to know how I could reach your wife, sir?"

Damon sighed. "I'll bring her, too," he replied and ended the call.

"What happened?" Elena asked. She'd gotten out of the tub and sat on its edge, wrapped in a towel.

Damon quickly summed up the conversation, repeating again and again the assurance that Tavi and Bennett were fine.

"So much for our day off," Damon muttered as he got dressed. Elena sent him a quick and sad smile full of worry as she turned around so he could zip up her dress.

Damon and Elena both flew through the open door that wore the 'Administration' sign and stormed the secretary's desk. Damon opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the woman nodded to the door to their right. "Go right in, Mr. Salvatore," she added.

At the same time as she spoke, Elena pulled on his arm. She'd noticed a familiar face on the other side of the door that was half glass.

Throwing it open, she took in the room. "Jeremy?" she asked, wondering what her brother was doing here. Then she saw three kids sitting beside each other on the bench along the back wall. Tavi, always in the middle, as was befitting the leader of a gang, flanked by her brother and her cousin. All in all, a very common tableau to those who knew them. Octavia and her boys. The Three Salvatores, or the Salvatore Triplets, as they were also known. Elena couldn't remember who'd come up with that moniker. But whoever it was didn't seem to care for the fact that neither were Bennett, Octavia, and Jacob triplets, nor was Jake actually a Salvatore. It was true however that they were pretty much attached at the hip. She wondered why she had been surprised to see Jeremy there in the first place. If the twins were in trouble, it stood to reason that Jacob was involved in it as well.

"What happened?" Elena exclaimed, sinking to her knees in front of the children and checking them for injuries.

Tavi, forever the spokesperson, raised a finger in the air and announced, loud and clear with all the indignation of a four-year-old ('Almost five, Mom. Almost five!'). "It was not my fault!"

"What was not your fault?" Damon asked behind Elena's back.

She was still busy giving the children the once-over. Aside from a few scrapes, most of the damage seemed to be confined to torn clothes, missing buttons, and dirt and grime.

"I didn't start the fight!" Tavi insisted.

"What fight? Somebody tell me what happened. Right now!" Elena commanded. She glanced up at her brother but Jeremy just shook his head.

"I just got here a minute before you guys did. I know as much as you." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

Looking around, Elena only now noticed that the headmistress' office was empty. The chair behind her desk was missing its actual headmistress.

Jeremy noticing Elena's gaze, explained. "She told me to wait here while she took care of the other boy."

"The other boy?" Elena asked and swiveled her head back to the three kids sitting mulishly on their bench, uncharacteristically quiet.

She eyed them one by one. Asking Tavi for the story was no good. She could keep a secret with the best of them. If she didn't want to give it up, nobody was getting it out of her. Elena's eyes slid to Jacob. He was too loyal and as long as Tavi was in the same room, he'd defer to her. If she wasn't talking, neither would Jake. That left Bennett. Elena nodded at him. "Talk."

From the corner of her eye, Elena could see Octavia roll her eyes, annoyed that her mom honed in on the weakest link. What Tavi was too young to understand was that it wasn't weakness that made Bennett come forward; it was an extremely keen sense for justice. He believed that if he just told the truth, without embellishing it, that everything would be alright.

"Tavi's right," Bennett began. "I wasn't there when it started, but I saw how Brandon pushed her. She fell and she hit her head really hard."

At that, Elena grabbed Octavia's head and turned her, examining it closely. She checked her vision, asked if she was in pain, or felt nauseated. Tavi shook her head no. She was fine.

Bennett continued his story, "So I pushed him back. And then Jake hit him. And then I might have hit him too. But he was much bigger than me or Jake or Tavi. And he called her names. Tavi says he called her a bad word and—"

He fell silent when Octavia interrupted. "He called me a freak," she finally admitted, a defiant look on her face. Whatever happened today, it was clear that she was not sorry. "Because of my eyes," she added somewhat more quietly. "And he said I dress funny."

Elena felt Damon sigh behind her. It was true, Octavia's eyes were a most distinct feature. One light blue, one brown, it was an arresting sight if you weren't used to it. But that wasn't something that Octavia could control, exactly. The rest, however, was all her. She had been barely four when she'd begun picking out her own clothes and more often than not, the clothes she chose came from her brother's closet. Though not a boy's cut, she also preferred to wear her hair short.

"You said, girls can dress however they want," she addressed her dad.

Damon lowered himself to a crouch. "Yes, I did. And yes, they can."

"I'm not a freak," she whispered quietly, sullenly.

"No, you're not," Damon agreed. "You're my little weirdo."

Tavi's lips turned into a smile even though she fought really hard against it. She loved Damon's nickname for her and she couldn't resist the smile, even though she wanted to.

"I told Brandon to take back what he said," Octavia continued to tell the story. "But he just said, 'What are you gonna do about it?' But before I could do anything about it, he'd pushed me. And then Jake and Bennett came out of nowhere and… and…"

"Jumped him?" Damon helped.

Tavi nodded. "Before I could!" she exclaimed angrily. And Damon and Elena both understood that she was less angry about the comments Brandon had made, than about the fact that she wasn't the one to retaliate. Confirming it, Tavi tore into her boys, "He's just a bully. I can handle a bully."

And then all three kids were yelling at once. The boys claiming to just wanting to protect her, Tavi yelling back that she didn't need their protection. Jacob throwing in that she would've done the same thing. Bennett reminding her that she had done the very same thing only a few weeks ago, on the playground, when some older kid tried to push Jacob from the swing. Tavi loudly pointing out that that proved that she didn't need their help. And so on it went until the door clicking shut stunned everyone into silence.

"Oh, don't stop on my account," Mrs. Yang, the headmistress, spoke into the sudden silence as she took a seat behind her desk.

"Dr. Salvatore," Mrs. Yang greeted Elena.

"Elena," Elena offered. She and the headmistress had known each other for a while now, had been on a first name basis since Elena had started treating Mrs. Yang's children that were a few years younger than the twins. It seemed weird to return to formalities just for propriety's sake.

"Elena," the headmistress nodded gratefully and turned her attention to Damon. "Mr. Salvatore."

She paused for a second, giving Damon the opportunity to extend the invitation of first names, also, but Damon just nodded once and replied, "Headmistress Yang." He clearly wasn't going to be as forthcoming as his wife. Whatever was coming, it was clear, he had picked his side in the conflict, putting up a front between the official of the school and his children.

"Is the other boy alright?" Elena asked. "Brandon? Do you need me to check him out?"

Mrs. Yang smiled warmly at Elena. "Thank you, but no need. He has a split lip, a few bloody scratches. The nurse already took care of it." Addressing Jeremy, she said, "Mrs. Gilbert couldn't make it?"

"Claire's caught up in meetings all day." Being mayor, even of a small town like Mystic Falls, didn't leave one with much spare time or the ability to drop everything at the drop of a hat.

"Very well," the headmistress took up the thread of conversation. "If you all kindly take a seat. I think we need to have a talk about violence on school grounds and conflict resolution."

An exhausting hour later, three adults and three kids walked into the parking lot, nobody saying a word, Tavi kicking viciously at every stone in her path. Thankfully, it had stopped raining. At Jeremy's car, Elena paused, wanting to exchange a few words with her brother before he and Jake drove off. Bennett paused next to Elena, but Octavia headed straight to their car and waited without turning around for the doors to unlock. When Damon clicked the button, she climbed wordlessly inside, still avoiding everyone's eyes and continuing to stare straight ahead.

Elena met Damon's gaze over the roof of the vehicle, meaningfully nodding towards their daughter, her eyes telling Damon to talk to her. Damon sighed with resignation and climbed behind the wheel. He glanced into the rearview mirror, watching his daughter's stony glare. Then he turned around in his seat and faced her.

"It's just two days," he tried gently. It wasn't a suspension per se, just a strong suggestion to use the time to think about how you could've handled the situation differently. It took everything in Damon to not roll his eyes at the phrasing.

"It's not fair," Tavi exploded in his face.

"No, it's not," Damon agreed.

He caught her off-guard. Without wanting to, she met his eyes, the surprise clearly written there. "I didn't do anything wrong." After a pause, she added, "And if it happens again, I'm not going to walk away and tell a teacher."

Which had been Mrs. Yang's suggestion slash school policy on how to react in a situation like this. "I know you won't. And I'm glad you know how to stand up for yourself." Damon was fully aware that he was possibly teaching his daughter the wrong kind of lesson here. But he was all too familiar with the kind of world they lived in and he'd rather his daughter knew how to defend herself and occasionally get in trouble for it than be helpless and rely on the adults' intervention.

Mollified, Tavi and Damon shared a secret smile.

Octavia took a careful look around and Damon knew that whatever came next, she didn't want anyone to overhear it. "Daddy?" she whispered. "Am I freak?"

"Oh, baby," Damon said. He reached over and unclasped the safety belt that she'd strapped herself into. He grabbed her under her arms and pulled her to the front, hugging her tightly before setting her down in the front seat beside himself.

For a long minute he just looked at her. Octavia was headstrong and independent. That someone managed to shake her to the point that she would now doubt herself broke his heart a little. He searched his mind for a way to explain to her that the things that made her a freak in someone's eyes were strengths, not weaknesses.

"Remember the swans that live out on the lake out by the Terrace?"

Tavi nodded, confused where this was going, but listening.

"You know that one swan, the one with the long neck?"

Tavi laughed despite herself. "They all have long necks, Daddy."

"Yeah, I know, but you know which one I mean. The one with the red beak."

She shook her head, frustrated. They all had red beaks. "I don't know which one you mean."

"Okay, then," Damon said, seemingly changing tactics. "Do you remember the black swan?"

Tavi nodded immediately.

"Why do you remember the black one?"

"Because. He stands out."

Damon smiled and waited for Tavi to understand. "Because he's different?"

Tavi nodded.

"Like you're different?"

Octavia remained quiet, chewing her lip pensively.

"Different is one of the best things you can be," Damon told her. "It makes you unique, and unforgettable. And special. And if someone calls you weird or a freak again, you smile and you say thank you."

At the very least, this reaction would confuse her opponent and give her time to get a punch in. But Damon kept that wisely to himself. He didn't think Elena would agree if he started teaching Octavia these tactics.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?" Damon asked. At Tavi's questioning look, he explained, "Can you keep an eye on your boys? They need to learn not to talk with their fists." He hoped he wasn't being too transparent. By asking Tavi to reign in Jake and Bennett, she'd inevitably have to hold back herself as well, without realizing it.

Tavi looked through the windshield towards where Jacob and Bennett stood. She shook her head slightly and rolled her eyes. "Boys are so much work," she replied with such a deep sigh, Damon almost laughed.

"Why is my spider sense tingling?" Stefanie asked when Damon answered his ringing phone just as they got home.

"What number is this?" Damon replied.

"Anoush's," Stevie replied. "I'm borrowing her phone because you refuse to get me one. Why is my spider sense tingling?" she asked again.

"The triplets got into a fight at school. They've been suspended for two days."

"Damon," Elena spoke beside him. "It's not a suspension."

Damon nodded and corrected himself, "They've been suspended but we're not supposed to call it a suspension."

Elena tsk'ed and shook her head. He was incorrigible. She let him be and went to take care of the wet towels and swimsuits that they'd left in a heap after receiving the call from the school.

"Is everyone okay?" Stevie asked after Damon summed up the events.

Damon reassured her that they were but Stevie asked to talk to the twins anyway. Just so she could tell the jittery feelings in her stomach to stop bothering her. Bennett refused to talk to anyone, still sulking about the world being unfair – Damon would have to talk to him. But Tavi happily grabbed for the phone when Damon told her who it was.

"Hey, Weirdo," he heard Stefanie's greeting when Tavi answered. A big smile bloomed on the girl's face.

"Did Daddy tell you?" Tavi immediately launched into the story. "Jacob and Bennett beat up a guy who was mean to me. And now we're all in trouble. Boys are so stupid."

Damon frowned, not sure if Tavi was taking away the right kind of conclusions from today's events. He and Elena would definitely have to sit the twins down again and explain everything from the start. On the other hand, if Tavi wanted to hold on to the notion of 'Boys are stupid', he wasn't going to dissuade her. The longer she held on to that idea, the longer he could sleep in peace.

Leaving his daughters to talk on the phone, he went to find Elena. As he passed the kitchen, his eyes wistfully strayed to the hot tub outside. Already their relaxed morning felt like a lifetime ago. But there was no sense dwelling on it. Just another day in the Salvatore madhouse and frankly, Damon thought as he listened to his kids' voices ring through the house, he wouldn't have it any other way.