A scent of perfectly cooked bacon and eggs woke me up and greeted me with much anticipation. I turned my head to glance at the clock that sat on the nightstand and smiled when I saw the time, 8:34am. This was the work of Damon Salvatore waking me up in his own creative way. I noticed that I was wearing the same clothes I had worn the night before and decided to change the sweatshirt and legging for something a little fresher. I opted for a cleaner sweatshirt from Damon's growing collection matched with a pair of cotton pyjama pants. I slid on some thick wool socks to prevent my feet from going cold and joyfully made my way to the source of the delicious smell.

I entered the kitchen to see Damon stood over the hob with a frying pan in his right hand and a wooden spatula in the other, a kitchen towel was thrown over his shoulder and he effortlessly flipped the eggs. An old radio sat on the counter, softly playing a familiar tune- Calvin Harris, 'Feel So Close' and Damon was humming along to the rhythm. I tiptoed across the floor as quietly as I could, making sure not to disturb him from his happy trance, and made my way to the table, ready for my breakfast to be served.

I rested my chin on my crossed hands and admired him from a distance. He turned around to plate up his eggs when he saw me. A wide, genuinely happy smile spread across his face and it lit me up inside.

"Morning beautiful. Did you sleep okay?"

It took me a moment to register his voice and quickly snapped out of my daydream.

"Oh, yeah yeah. Um, you said you were going to wake me up for dinner?"

He let out a chuckle which made my heart stop in my chest. God I love this man

"You don't think I did? I came up twice to wake you up and I mean you did wake up-eventually- but you didn't stay awake for too long. I came back up a third time but you looked so comfortable that I just watched you sleep for a little while before climbing in with you and falling asleep myself."

He placed the pan and spatula in the sink before carrying both plates full of food over to the table, placing one down in front of me and the other on the place mat next to me. Before sitting down, he took some leaflets from the island in the middle. He hid them from me and began to speak again.

"Now, I'm going to show you some things and it would be a whole lot easier if you had an open mind when you read them. Do you think you can do that for me?"

I gave him a skeptical look before slowly answering.

"Oh-kay."

"I did some very deep extensive research last night after you fell asleep-"

I could see exactly where this was going and stepped in to interfere before he continued anymore. I stood up and held my hands up in surrender.

"Damon, I've been awake for less than 20 minutes, you cannot spring this on me now. Not this early, please."

He turned away looking ashamed, a sadness in his eyes. He mumbled something;

"So much for the open mind."

He turned his head towards me, a sexy smirk curling up at the corner of his lips. I dropped my hands by my sides and let out a heavy sigh. Sitting back down again, I held onto his hands tightly.

"Baby, I will look at the leaflets later, okay? I just want to have a nice breakfast with you without having to discuss any of it."

I chucked to relieve some of the building tension and he laughed with me.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Just know that the longer you put it off, the less time we have to talk about your options."

I took my hands out of his and played with them in my lap while staring at them.

"Trust me, I know. I've thought about this a million times since it happened but I didn't know what to do so I left it."

"You have me now, Elena. Come on, your breakfast is gonna be going cold."

He reached over the table with his fork and stole a piece of bacon from my plate and popped it into his mouth.

"Hey! The bacons the best part!"

He continued chewing while grinning at me from across the table. I stole of piece of his cut up egg in return. I mirrored his grin back at him before he spoke.

"Fine. Now we're even."

Damon finished eating before me but waited patiently while I finished the last of my egg. He was quick to take both plates and cutlery away before placing them in the sink and washing up.

"Do you want a drink?"

Even when he's busy, Damon will always stop what he's doing to help me. I wasn't letting him win this time.

"No thanks, I'll get a glass of something later."

I discretely grabbed a glass from the cupboard and reached around him to get some water. Before he said anything, I read his mind.

"Just because I'm unfortunately pregnant, doesn't mean I'm incapable of doing anything. Getting a drink won't harm either one of us and it saves you from running after me all the time."

I rested against the counter next to the sink and watched him finish washing up. He dried his hands, took my empty glass from me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"If there is even the smallest possibility of me making anything even the tiniest bit easier for you, then I will always go out of my way to make it happen. I thought you would've figured that out by now."

"It's unnecessary. Why multitask if we can split up the tasks and do everything quicker?"

"That should be your new motto, you know. 'Why multitask if we can split up the tasks'."

"Mmm, you think so?"

He nodded and mumbled in response before leaning in for a deep kiss. I let it go on for a moment before breaking away to ask him a question that I was dying to know the answer to;

"So, how long would you say I have before I have to make a decision?"

Damon spun me around so I was leaning my back against his chest and he carefully lifted up my sweatshirt to lay his hands on my exposed belly. His chin rested on my shoulder while he listened intently at the movement of my unborn child. We stood motionless for at least 3 minutes before I broke the silence.

"Well? Damon how long do I have before I need to make a permanent decision?"

"Shh, just give me another minute."

Then it hit me. He can't hear anything. Even with his impeccable senses, he can't hear any movement in my stomach.

"Oh my god. Damon tell me you can hear something."

The worry in my voice caught him off guard. He held his chin up and moved his hands away from my stomach to hold onto my hands.

"Wait, Elena. This baby was the result of a horrific act forced on you, against your will."

He turned me around so he could look directly into my eyes.

"Are you telling me that you want to keep it?"

The purpose of his question hit me. Hard. I suddenly remembered that this is not Damon's baby. This baby shares no connection with Damon. This was Tyler's doing. This is what Tyler did to me. The consequences of his selfish actions and my decisions will loom over me for the rest of my life.

"What... No, I just... Damon, I don't... I..."

I quickly pulled away from his grasp, the first tear making its way down my cheek.

"Elena, shh. It's okay, I just didn't think you knew what you wanted yet. "

He held out his hands for me to take them, I stared at them before reaching out to hold them.

"You have, at most 2, 3 weeks to make your final decision."

My eyes widened at the deadline.

"That's only a month, just under."

The realisation that I had so little time only occurred to me now. Soon, I began to hyperventilate, my heart hammered in my chest and I was having difficulty breathing. Damon was quick to catch me as I collapsed into his hold. He positioned us so he was leaning on the island in the middle and I was leaning on him for support. He had his left arm reaching across my chest and he soothingly rubbed my right arm. Both of my hands were reaching around his arm firmly as his right hand stroked my hair in an attempt to calm me down.

We stayed like this, holding onto each other for half an hour, saying nothing but relishing in the comfortable silence that surrounded us. I was the first to talk.

"I should've told you sooner. I should've told you as soon as it happened Damon. I would have another month to decide and I wouldn't have to rush about and worry if I made the right decision. Damon, you are my best friend, you were even before we started dating and I should've told you, regardless of our relationship status. I needed someone to talk to but I refused to let anyone in. I panicked."

He kissed my temple and gave an honest reply.

"I won't lie to you Elena, telling me sooner would somewhat ease the tension of the situation. There's just going to be a lot more pressure on you to make a decision now than if you had spoken out sooner."

I sat up and brushed my hands through my hair.

"I'm mad at myself Damon."

"Why? There's nothing you could've done to prevent this."

"All the signs leading to a pregnancy were blatantly obvious and right in front of me. Mood swings, low blood pressure that caused me to pass out when I left the clinic, even my period was late. Damon, my period is never late. Ever. I mean, come on, no condom or birth control. And I'm mad that I didn't see it."

"Don't beat yourself up, there's no way you could've known."

His sympathetic approach angered me and I raised my voice.

"The signs were all there Damon! I should have known."

I grabbed onto the counter and quickly pulled myself out of his strong hold, making my head feel light and my vision to go blurred. Damon's voice pulled me back to reality but it sounded harsh and cold. He stood up straight but stayed behind me.

"Elena, stop. Just... Stop."

I spun my body around so I was facing him.

"Be honest. Did you notice any, I don't know, weight gain or changes in my appetite at all? Anything at all?"

"Elena-"

"JUST ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION."

I screamed at him wanting an honest answer. My forceful command made him livid and he shouted a response back at me.

"YES. I DID NOTICE SOMETHING, ELENA. I NOTICED A LOT OF THINGS ACTUALLY, LIKE HOW YOUR MENTAL HEALTH HAS SLOWLY DETERIORATED THE LONGER YOU DECIDED TO KEEP THIS A SECRET. I NOTICED THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO BE INTIMATE WITH ME ANYMORE AND NOW I KNOW WHY. I NOTICED HOW MUCH PAIN YOU'RE IN BECAUSE OF IT AND HOW HARD YOU TRY TO HIDE IT. I NOTICE HOW MUCH OF AN EFFECT THIS IS HAVING ON YOUR SELF ESTEEM.

I MIGHT NOT UNDERSTAND WHY BUT I ALWAYS KNOW WHEN SOMETHINGS BOTHERING YOU ELENA, DON'T THINK THAT I'M OBLIVIOUS TO THE THINGS THAT MATTER."

He was heaving, his chest raising and dropping heavily while sweat beaded at his hairline. He fell to his knees and held onto my waist. While pressing his ear to the lower part of my stomach, he continued on much quieter than before.

"So don't ask me if I noticed any changes in your weight or appetite because I couldn't care less about any of that, unless it was negatively affecting you to the point of it threatening your safety. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. It's hard enough watching you go through this by yourself. "

I could hear Damon trying to hold back sobs. My hands instinctively made their way to his hair and I massaged his head.

"I'm sorry baby. I'm so so sorry for yelling at you. I'm mad at myself not you, baby I promise I never meant to get mad like that."

My heart broke at his sincerity and I broke down in tears with him. I didn't want to stay in the kitchen anymore so I prompted for us to move elsewhere. I spoke nasally between sniffles

"I know baby. Why don't we go and sit down in the living room, or go upstairs for a little rest."

I knelt down in front of him and took his face in my hands. I wiped away some of the tears on his cheeks and smiled.

"And I am not going through this alone. This would all be a million times worse if I didn't have your ongoing support."

He smiled back at me and took my hands to help me up. Damon led me into the living room and told me to get comfortable on the sofa, he returned momentarily with a large blanket and draped it over my lap. I had my back leaning against the armrest and my legs stretched out in front of me.

I watched Damon walk over to the fire pit and light it almost instantly, the crackling sound filled the atmosphere with a homely feeling. The heat radiated and warmed us both.

Damon was crouched in front of the fire with one arm reaching up to balance himself on the mantelpiece. Once he made sure it was properly lit, he came back over to the couch. He lifted my legs up and sat down, replacing them on his lap. He stretched his arm around my waist and carefully pulled me into his chest. Gently, he caressed my thigh and rubbed it comfortingly.

I rested my head on his shoulder and held his arm between slim fingers.

We lay, listening to the sound of the fire for 15 minutes before I spoke out.

"Mmm, I could stay like this forever."

Just then, as if the universe was waiting for me to say those exact words, I felt a familiar sensation building up in my stomach. My hands threw the blanket off of my body and I stood up immediately. Quickly, I rushed to the kitchen again only the bring the breakfast back up and into the sink. Once again, Damon was on my tail and he draped the blanket over my shoulders. He gently squeezed my shoulders and shushed me every time I whimpered. For added support, he ran the tap so I didn't have to look at what I threw up, eliminating to possibility of me being sick because of the sight.

"It's been less than 24 hours since I found out I'm having a baby and I'm already sick of... being sick."

I crossed my arms on the edge of the sink and laid my head down. Groaning because of the oncoming headache, Damon's hands slowly made their way down to my waist and continued around to hug my stomach. He whispered in my ear.

"Maybe that's nature's way of telling you what to decide..."

I took in his comment before responding.

"I want to see what all of my options are before even considering my final decision. I will call up some clinics that specialise, in these situations and get some consultations on the best route to take."

He sighed in distress.

"Elena, before you do any of that, there is actually something that they require of you before even giving you options. You need to decide whether or not you're going to keep the baby when or if you give birth to it. They can guide you from there."

I slowly lifted my head and peered over my shoulder into his general direction.

"I cant keep the baby. There is just no way I could love it, knowing how it came into existence, just no way."

He kissed the sensitive spot behind my ear and proceeded with his explanation.

"Okay, I completely respect your choice, but now we need to decide what to do with the baby. Do you want to abort the baby, put it up for adoption or, we could talk more and just make sure that you don't want to keep it. I would just hate for you to choose to abort the baby and find out that you actually wanted to keep it. I don't want you to make a decision and then regret it for the rest of your life."

I thought long and hard about the information and processed it accordingly before settling on an appropriate response.

"Let me have a look at those leaflets."