The small hamlet in the valley of the Swedish Alps was buried under snow. The thick ice covered storefront etchings and seemed to grow up from the ground, creating frozen barriers around homes and doorways.

The town was boarded up and desolate for the season save for a hulking wooden lodge at the top of the hill overlooking the powdery skyline of the town.

Inside of the common area of the lodge was the typical animal skin décor; an oversized fireplace with a roaring fire and a single compelled human who tended to the flames also while catering to Damon's whims.

The man chatted idly, wondering aloud why he had stayed behind instead of traveling to the south of Italy like he usually did at this time of year.

Damon was waiting. Knee bouncing, thoughts racing and bottle finishing, waiting.

She had told him she was only to be gone for an hour, and she was deeply saddened by it but there was too much risk to wish for more time, even under the veil of a charmed snow-covered town in the mountains.

Damon looked down at his watch. She had five more minutes before it would be on the hour.

Howling wind sung though the cracks and crevices and Damon thought of what if this was to be the end.

He couldn't compete with this male. There was no fight. The love she possessed for this mythic being trumped all, even him.

The hand on his watch revealed the hour. Still no Bonnie.

And the cold that had found itself into the lodge, wrapped its blue fingers around his heart.

But true to her word, she did come back. 15 minutes late.

She had come in with the wind, escorted by a vampire she called Marcel.

Damon enveloped her into his arms and kissed the top of her head looking over into the ink-colored eyes of the escort.

"Thank you for making sure she got back to me safely," Damon expressed without warmth, stressing the 'me'.

The other vampire smiled wide and assured Bonnie he would see her soon before departing.

"There's no reason to be mad at Marcel, there's no reason to be mad at anyone but me really," She said once she was snuggled under his arms in front of the fire.

Damon thought he reasons to be mad at whoever the hell he wanted you, in particular the vamp who swaggered in with his woman deserved his malice, but he entertained Bonnie and asked, "Why you?"

"Because you were fine, and I come and disrupt your life and.."

Damon snorted, "First off, I'm never "fine"", he said motioning his fingers into air quotations, "And secondly, fuck, you and I both know there isn't a secondly, you know as well as I do that there is no life to disrupt without you."

He felt the warmth of tears soak through this shirt.

Damon didn't know how to navigate this territory, it was completely out of his experience, which was interesting and scary for him, to have a new path to forge in his over a century of existence. But he sighed and lifted the witch from his chest so he could be brave and look into the green.

He sighed and pushed back the sweaty tendrils from her forehead, "I know that if it comes down between me or him, its always going to be him, I get it," He stated, his voice cool and low, "But that's the risk I'm willing to take to have you, and I've never been much of sharer, but I'm willing to share you, and if it comes down to it, I'm ready to give up this great life of my olive crops, fast cars and models to spend it with you."

There was a choke of laughter and tears that bubbled up from her, and he smiled, deeply and from his heart.

DBDBDBDBDBDBDB

Damon stares up the carpeted staircase, the dark hall waiting for him at the top landing. He can hear their distinct voices, one jolty and forcing cheery, the other raspy and grave.

He catches their cautious remarks to one another, imagining them using mostly facial expressions to convey the true meaning behind their words.

They are whispering but he can hear them perfectly on the second floor.

"Not since Bonnie died."

That was Caroline to Elena.

Damon turns the sentence over in his mind. Not since Bonnie died. It feels surreal, absurd even.

He puts one anxious foot on to the bottom step and ascends the staircase, and overhears them immediately switch the conversation to lighter things, to New Year's plans as they are aware that someone is coming.

Before reaching the landing, he thinks maybe he should have waited until the end of the dinner when everyone had gone home or to bed so he could have real time with her and not have an entire house full of people listening in on what he had to say to her.

Bravery was never his shtick. That was Bonnie.

And Bonnie would be heartbroken to know he is avoiding her, and has been avoiding her it seems, even if he was too grief stricken to know what he had done.

What could he possibly say to her now? I missed and needed you as much as you might have missed and needed me, I just didn't know it?

He pushes himself forward, inching down the hall until he knocks on the guest room's cracked open door opposite Damon and Caroline's bedroom.

Caroline and Elena say come in in unison.

Sticking his hands into his pockets, he rocks back and forth on his heels, "Sorry to interrupt the gossip, but I thought I might have a moment alone with her."

Caroline flashes her big blue concerned eyes at him, and then at Elena, "Of course, Damon," She says rising from the plush pink settee adorned in ruffles and lace, "I'll be in the Kitchen if you need me, okay?" She stresses.

His mouth stretches into something that resembles a smile as she pats him on the shoulder on her way out.

Elena sighs, and he averts his eyes to the pictures on the wall, hating their sweet saccharine messages and himself for not living up to all the promises he had given her.

"Do you want me to close the door?" Elena asks him, breaking through the fog of his self-pity to where he could see her, and her bright shining smile at the sight of him.

"Yes, " he says so softly that if Elena hadn't been a vampire she wouldn't have heard him.

And he's left all alone with her, with one of the greatest loves of his life, and he feels pressure behind his eyes and under this ribcage.

He reaches for her soft hand gripping the rail of her crib and caresses her plump cheek, "Ava," he says gently and it produces a gurgle of words and smiles and stomping of little feet.

And something breaks inside of him because she knows exactly who he is and from her excitement and open arms, she doesn't care what he has or hasn't done.

He swoops her up into his arms, holding her up in the remainder of the winter light spilling into the petal pink room.

She was the spitting image of him.

Thick curls and tendrils as dark as a raven feathers frame her face and apple cheeks and her eyes were feline like his, and just as blue, dark and striking, just like his, and just like his they became murkier based on her mood.

The only bit of Bonnie was her contribution to Ava's heart-shaped face but Damon believed that her personality would prove to be more like her mother.

The world could deal with a replica of his arresting good looks, but another him in temperament and character? There would be pitchforks and stakes waiting outside their porch every day she returned from pre-school.

He laughs to himself remembering Bonnie telling him over and over as she pointed to her round belly that this baby was going to be his match.

"Don't be like me," He warns, half joking.

Her eyelashes flutter over her smooth cheek and he pulls her into him, snuggling her close under his chin. Inhaling the crisp sent of power and baby lotion, he closes his eyes and gently rocks from side to side, remembering when she was born and the joy that could not be contained inside of him, and how for the that moment upon her arrival into this world, he wanted the entire planet to feel combustible, to be drunk on happiness and the ache of love just like him.

Author's Note

Trying to wrap this up nicely.