Meeting the Family
"Should we just go up and introduce ourselves?" Elena asked.
"I suppose so." Stefan agreed reluctantly, "It's better than sitting here staring at them like a pair of stalkers."
Despite the point made, Elena was still hesitant and almost considered backing out entirely. That is until she noticed Mrs. Salvatore's arm waving in the air as high as she could, her eyes locked on the pair with a grin as she gleefully held her drink in her other hand.
There was no point in leaving it be now.
Like children caught out of bed after hours, Elena walked up to the happy-looking couple with Stefan following closely behind her. Now up close to the old woman, Elena noticed how sweet and pretty Mrs. Salvatore was. Though she couldn't quite put her finger on what made her so lovely in appearance and not just in cheerful disposition.
She smiled politely, "Hello, Mrs. Salvatore it's nice to meet you."
"Oh please, Elena, call me Gertie all my friends do!" She said, taking Elena by surprise with a warm hug, "How are you, dear?"
Elena's brows raised slightly, "Fine. How did you know my name?"
Gertie threw her hands up in the air, as if the entire situation as ridiculous, "Well, I may not be sleeping with him anymore, but Damon does keep in contact with me. He's usually complaining about you." She pointed to Stefan who was half surprised and half not. It was a feeling that was just as contradictory as it sounded.
"You must be my brother-in-law Stefan." Gertie smiled.
"I suppose I am, pleasure to meet you Gertie." He said with a tilt of his head.
"Bah," She put her drink down, "Enough with the formalities. If you're gonna use my name, you're gonna give me a hug when you see me."
True to her word, and with an awkward laugh escaping everyone's mouths, Gertie gave Stefan a big hug.
Damon rolled his eyes, "Oh enough with the chick-flick moments, Gertie, you're killing me!"
Gertie gave him a playful smirk, "So I can live to eighty-nine having survived pneumonia, a stroke, and two major surgeries on my leg." She paused to let all that information absorb before officially making her point, "And yet, I'll outlive my immortal husband because he can't witness affection."
Elena laughed in agreement with Gertie, who put her arm through the younger girls with a cheerful grin on her face that lit up her eyes through her glasses. Gertie feigned a whisper to her, "Remember, it's not because of biology that women outlive men. Sometimes it's absurdity."
After the cheap banter had died down, they all sat at the table Elena and Stefan had formerly occupied.
They learned that Gertie was originally from and met Damon in Wyoming of 1945.
"We had a bit of an on again off again relationship." Gertie explained, "I had my boyfriends, he had his girlfriends. Of course, I didn't know that he was a vampire at the time, but neither of us wanted to make a big deal out of the relationship."
"Lord knows, the neighbors did."
Gertie nodded, her expression looking half-exhausted just from the memory of the nosy neighbors who gave her judging looks every time she went outside. "I hadn't lived with my parents since the war ended. I'd established myself as a secretary at law firm that got business working for veterans, and at that time I was able to live on my own with the wages I earned."
Damon smirked, his eyes proudly raking over Gertie, "I always stopped in to kill a lawyer every now and then, making sure to bring a cup of coffee and a sandwich for the curly-haired girl who basically ran the office."
"No, no, you didn't start with bringing me lunch, dear. As I recall you took your time with it."
"I had to. I asked you out for coffee and you always had to cancel on me because you were too busy."
"Then you just came in without any business to attend to, with two cups of coffee and sat down at my desk during my break." She smiled.
Damon's eyes were entirely focused on Gertie. They were nostalgic as he could practically smell the fresh coffee and see the dark-haired girl taking a sip from all those years ago. One thing that hadn't changed one bit, he'd noticed, was the little smile that seemed permanently etched into her features, only to be amplified when Gertie really started to grin.
Which she did now as she recalled those days, "After a while you stopped bringing coffee for yourself and just started bringing in some for me, along with those sandwiches."
"Well, they were gonna kill you with all those hours, a 20-minute lunch break, and a deli double that time in walking distance." Damon sneered, though picked his "devil-may-care" attitude right back up, "I couldn't let that happen till I had my way with you at least once."
Elena nearly spit out her drink, and suddenly the couple remembered that the other two were there. Upon this realization, Gertie laughed, and Damon just winked and stared suggestively at Elena.
Stefan, meanwhile, wanted more than anything to change gears. "So, when did you two officially get together?"
"After I was pregnant." Gertie said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Elena looked from the awkward-looking Stefan, whose dreams of ignoring talk of his brother's sex life were (more or less) dashed, back to the happy couple. "I thought…" She paused, trying to form her thoughts into words properly, "I thought vampires couldn't reproduce?"
"We can't." Damon said, and Elena noted a hint of bitterness as he looked down at his drink sardonically. Meanwhile, Gertie happily clarified the situation which brought them together.
"Well, remember when I said I also had my share of boyfriends? I wasn't kidding." She winked, "The problem at that time was that, despite my own beliefs on the matter, people wouldn't be accepting of a woman with a child out of wedlock. Especially since I had no firm idea who the father was."
Elena couldn't help but be a little mystified by Gertie. Most women her age, if they had a sense of humor remotely close to Gertie's now, usually were very strict about how much they "did it right" when they were Elena's age. If there were times that they strayed from what was deemed acceptable in their time, Elena didn't know about it. Taboo subjects like illegitimate children and sex before marriage were either hidden in sock proverbial sock drawers or used as sermons to blatantly tell anyone listening not to do them.
But Gertie? She hadn't changed from her optimistic and playful attitude since she walked through the door. She treated these subjects as casually as Aunt Jenna did. They had serious undertones, but still not the worst in the world. I wonder if she was always like this? Could that be part of what attracted Damon to her? Elena wondered.
Gertie hugged Damon's arm, who looked at her with one of the most affectionate smiles Elena had ever seen on his face. "I never did thank you for coming down to the doctor with me, did I?"
"You asked. I came." He smirked, "I was one of your candidates."
"But you knew. You sly devil." Gertie teased, "You knew and you still came anyway for my sake. Well, I'll say it now, since I forgot to at the time. Thank you."
"There are other ways you can thank me." Damon said, "You know that."
Elena expected there to be more playful banter at the suggestive comment. Instead, not only was the tone of the statement more innocent than one might think, it was actually very emotionally-charged. The context dripped into the words and his expression. Yet Elena couldn't begin to imagine what that context was. It was so powerful, it made Gertie's big and toothy grin relax into only a small and pitiful smile.
"That's not why I'm here Damon." She said sadly to her husband.
I feel like every minute I look at them, there are a million more questions I want to ask. But where to start? Elena debated with herself. This is a whole new side of Damon. I'd never thought for the life of me that he could have such a connection with another person. For that matter, I never thought he'd allow me or Stefan to witness it even if he did! Damon is being so much more open and emotional. There's clearly so much history between them. I can't quite wrap my mind around what they could possibly have experienced together. And honestly, Gertie is pretty old. She's probably at the end of her lifespan. So far, I feel like I have no information to give me even an idea. If only I knew why Damon introduced us to Gertie now, after all this time of knowing her.
The man in question was taking a long sip of his bourbon. But as he did so, Damon's eyes flickered up and stopped dead in their tracks on someone coming in.
Gertie seemed to notice the person too, although she was smiling and waving a hand over to them. Curious, Elena turned around to see who it was. A man. Just about in his twenties. Extremely attractive; blonde hair, blue eyes, muscled, and a friendly smile. His eyes were solely on Gertie though, a very soft twinkle whilst he looked at her.
Damon's glaring daggers into the guy's soul didn't stop him from going right up to Gertie, already up from the table, and giving her a very passionate yet gentle kiss.
She didn't mean to be, but the image of a young guy kissing a woman in her 90's kind of weirded Elena out. Especially when that same old woman's husband was right in front of them! Stefan was probably as confused as she was, but his attention was on his brother. Both their bodies were rigid, as if prepping for a fight to break out.
"Hi, Pretty G." The man greeted her, arm around her shoulder.
"Hello babe." She said, looking up at him like they were sixteen-year-olds in love. Then back at the table with a look of pride, "Everybody, this is Steven Rogers, my fiancé."
Fiancé? Elena thought, wanting to ask out loud but deciding it would be redundant. Though her mouth was hanging open in Gertie's direction. Suddenly, Elena was feeling suddenly betrayed by the woman on Damon's behalf. She initially thought her so sweet and fun to be around. What kind of person announces this, in front of people she'd just met, and her own husband who is rightfully unhappy with this situation!
It was such a weirdly callous behavior from a woman who had, otherwise, been nothing but a big sweetheart. True to Elena's analysis, every moment just added more questions that needed answering.
Damon stood up to face off against Steven, who was trying to smile politely but clearly felt the tension in the room. Even Gertie stopped smiling. Strangely, Damon didn't look shocked by the revelation at all. He looked angry, yes, but it was almost like he expected this.
"So, you're the reason we're all here?" Damon stated, his eyes looking more murderous by the second. Steven could only nod to confirm.
It finally clicked in Elena's head. Why Gertie had suddenly shown up. Why Damon looked so angry when he was first leaving the house. Why he was being so much more attentive and emotional in front of them.
Gertie was leaving him.