Thank you Sandra for betaing this chapter.

Someone like you

Chapter 10

'I'm gonna give all my secrets away'

"We found him."

Damon's head turned around as the two men ran through the door, both panting. Stefan clutched the little boy tighter to his chest, rubbing circles on his back as he stayed unresponsive in his arms. Grayson ran next to them, making sure that the blanket didn't fell off his grandson's small body.

For some reason he felt the tension leave his body knowing Elena's son was safe. He didn't know what being a father was like, didn't know how it was like to have a part of you to love, but in the past few hours he had lived through the pain that came with having to miss that part of you. Now that the biggest part of the woman he loved was safe and unharmed, he couldn't help but to wonder what he'd go through if he ever had to experience that kind of loss.

"Is he okay?"

"He isn't responding." Grayson's eyes went wide, squeezing Liam's arms. "We found him like this."

The relief that had been there washed away again as he approached Stefan and the boy, his eyes roaming over the small body, noticing the blue lips, the pale skin, the closed eyes. His fingers rapidly searched for a pulse in his neck, touching the soft skin.

"He's hypothermic." He pulled Liam from Stefan's arms and held him against his own chest. "We need to warm him up."

Stefan and Grayson came after him as he started walking through the long white halls. He had never wanted to be a father, he wasn't cut out to be one. The experience with his own father had made him realize that the gene of being the most arrogant bastard in the world ran in the family, in his own blood. He didn't want any child to experience that, certainly not his own child. But now he held Elena's son in his arms, he couldn't help but to feel that need to protect and treasure him because his own world would crash down if anything happened to the young life he now carried.

"Pull off his clothes." He placed Liam down on the bed while he started unbuttoning his own shirt. "Body heat is the fastest way to warm him up."

"I'll do it." Stefan grabbed his arm, already going for the hem of his sweater. "He's my son."

"You've been out looking for him for hours. You're cold."

Stefan's eyes softened as the realization dawned on him, his features became more innocent when he looked at the boy on the bed that was now stripped down to his underwear, his lips blue, not the usual pink color, his face pale, not the blush that usually covered it. He nodded slowly at the brother he had been unaware of for twenty-two blissful years.

"I fucked your wife, Stefan." Damon pulled his arm out of his grasp. "But I'm not a pedophile."

He saw Stefan's eyes darken as he walked to the bed and picked the boy up, feeling the cold skin against his own. He lay down and placed Liam on his chest, wrapping his arms around his small back. He shivered as Liam's skin was ice-cold against his own, the breathing of the boy shaky.

He placed his cheek against Liam's forehead, wrapping the sheets tighter around them, flinching as the boy's arms came into contact with his sides. "You're cold."

"You're cold."

He snuggled his nose deeper into the crook of her neck, his body shielding her from the cold air. A sigh of contentment left her as she squirmed underneath him, using his body as a blanket that warmed her chilly skin.

"You should have closed the window last night."

"I was busy last night."

She chuckled softly and turned her head to the side, letting her cheek rest against his forehead. Her fingers absently ran patterns on his arm, revelling in the tingles that his skin spread across hers. She had never been so at ease, never so at peace with herself. The arm he had draped around her chest made her feel safe, shielded from the bad world. The way his grip tightened on her every few minutes made her feel wanted, so wanted that she doubted anyone had ever wanted her more.

"We never ate the cake." She stopped stroking his arm and placed hers above his. "It's probably ice cake by now."

"I would have gotten food poisoning anyway." He looked up from his place on her chest, his blue eyes shimmering. "I don't trust your cooking."

"I already told you I've been baking it for weeks." She rolled her eyes, slapping his arm. "It's perfection by now."

"The only thing you can make is descent coffee."

She shook her head at him, too happy to get irritated. Her heart skipped a beat as he smirked and placed a kiss on the corner of her mouth, letting his lips linger there. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and smiled as she noticed the mischief in his eyes, the way that devilish grin played on his lips.

He pushed his nose against hers, brushing his lips over hers. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm happy." She pushed herself up and captured his lips, kissing him softly. "Just right here with you. I'm happy."

"I'm happy, too." He ran his fingers through her long chestnut hair, untangling the knots. "And I wouldn't mind it if we spend more time like this."

She turned her head away from him, looking at the creme wall, guilt taking her over. She felt his eyes on her while the images of last night rushed back through her mind, the emotions lingering in her heart. She knew what she did and she wasn't going to deny or try to forget about it. She would carry the guilt with her and accept the consequences of her actions, whatever they may be.

"Can I take a shower?" Her voice was hoarse, the sadness tearing through it.

"Of course." He rolled off of her, following her with his eyes. "The towels are under the sink."

She nodded and threw the covers off her, feeling the cold air against her naked body. She threw her legs over the edge and got up, not bothering to cover herself up. With her arms crossed over her chest she walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She placed her hands on the counter, taking heavy breaths before she looked up in the mirror. Damon had been like this when she found him last night in the same position, seeing something he didn't like in front of him. The same feeling rushed through her mind. The girl she saw now was not the one she had been raised to be, this wasn't the girl her parents taught her to be.

The girl she saw now betrayed her husband, the one she swore to love forever in front of God. She had promised to be forever loyal to him, to only carry him in her heart as a lover. But now, when her body had been given to someone else and her heart didn't know what it wanted, was there something like knowing yourself and knowing what you truly wanted. If your mind told you one person but your body seemed to long for the other, was there anyway to decide which part of you was right?

Too disgusted with herself to see the image in the mirror any longer, she grabbed a towel from underneath the sink and placed it on the bench next to the spacious walk-in-shower. Tears started rolling down her cheeks as she tied her hair in a bun and smelled Damon's scent on her own skin, his sweat had left his mark on her body.

She let her back slide down the cold wall while the warm water ran down her body, washing away the crimes of a sinner. Sobs left her throat as she buried her head in her hands, her knees pulled up against her chest as the guilt of her dirty pleasure was carried away with the soft strays on her skin.

The door squeaked as it was pushed open gently, footsteps approaching the glass that separated the shower from the rest of the bathroom. She lifted her head up slowly, letting her brown teary eyes travel over his legs, waist, hard stomach and eventually meeting his ocean blue eyes.

She smiled softly when he pressed his lips together, exactly knowing what was going on in her mind. He walked into the shower, letting the strays warm his own naked body. With a sigh he sat down next to her and turned his head towards her, his blue eyes scanning over her curled up body.

"Don't say I told you so." She buried her head back in her hands. "You told me I would feel guilty, but please don't say it."

"I wasn't going to say that."

"Then what were you going to say?"

"Nothing." He shrugged indifferently. "I was going to sit here and let you talk."

"I'm not this girl." She shook her head, looking up at him. "I don't cheat on my husband."

"I don't think you know who you are." He whispered softly, his eyebrows knitting together. "I'm thirty and I don't even know who I am."

"You think you'll ever figure it out?"

"I'm starting to figure it out." His blue eyes bored into hers, looking into her core. "My life finally got a purpose."

And as his eyes bored into hers she couldn't help but think she was that purpose, that she was the reason he was finding himself. Because when he came into her life she had started discovering sides of herself she never knew existed. He made her feel, made her live through everything, and she learned more about herself in the past months than she learned in the twenty years before him.

"Damon." His name rolled off her tongue like he was her last hope. "What are we doing?"

"I don't know." He let out a hard laugh, shrugging. "But I know you have two options. We only had sex once, so you can pretend like it was a mistake and go back to your life from a few hours ago.

"Or?"

"This could be the beginning of something." He tucked a piece of hair back behind her ear. "We can have more moments like this and we'll figure everything out along the way."

"I'm married." She turned her eyes away from him, ashamed of herself. "I love my husband."

"I know you don't want to hear this." He touched her cheek, letting his finger linger there. "But which girl that's head over heels with her husband is dancing with her friend at six in the morning on her wedding night."

"You texted me and said you would come back." Her teeth clenched together. "I didn't want you to stand in front of a locked door."

"Okay, let's assume that that was the reason." He grabbed her chin and locked their eyes. "Why did you kiss me?"

"Because I was an emotional mess."

"I've ignored you for three months." He held her chin firmer as she tried to pull away. "Why was it so important to you to be here on my birthday?"

"Because I'm not happy without you." Her fists collided with the floor beneath them. "I don't want to miss you, but I do. I miss you so much."

He let go of her chin, his arms falling limp beside him, his eyes looking at her in disbelief as the tears continued to stream down her cheeks. His breathing shaky as he looked away from her, his lips pressing into a hard line. The thoughts in his mind a whirlwind filled with emotions he didn't want to feel.

"We're both scared, Damon." She placed her hand on his shoulder, sitting on her knees next to him. "I know you don't want anyone to need you, it scares you."

"You don't need me." His eyes looked up with so much pain that it made her heart squeeze together. "You're better off without me."

"You're wrong." She pushed her face against the side of his, kissing his jaw. "I didn't like myself before you came along. I didn't like my life, but I settled for it."

"But you still married him."

"What did you want me to do?" She clenched her teeth together, squeezing his arm. "You use women. I couldn't make myself one of them."

"You're not one of them, Elena." His eyes shot blue fire. "That's exactly why I stayed away from you, because I couldn't make you one of them."

"Don't stay away from me anymore." She showered the side of his face with kisses, pressing herself against him. "I need you."

"What about your husband?"

"We'll figure it out along the way."

"We found him two blocks away from the accident." Grayson sat down on the chair next to the bed. "God knows how he got there."

"He'll be fine." He wrapped his arms tighter around the body, sharing his body heat with him. "He's going to wake up any second."

"I'm going to ask the nurse for more blankets." Stefan looked away from his son and brother on the bed. "It will speed up the process."

Damon rolled his eyes as Stefan disappeared out of the room. "He really doesn't want me anywhere near his kid."

"You both hurt him five years ago, he's only being careful." Grayson looked up at him. "He doesn't want to lose her again."

"She went back to him." His mouth pressed into a hard line. "She chose him, he has nothing to fear."

"She came back." Grayson nodded, looking at his grandson. "But I always had the feeling it was only temporarily. She never intended on staying."

"What happened?"

"Liam happened." He smiled at the boy that lay on Damon's chest. "And when she found out, she hated it because she knew she couldn't go back to you."

"Why not?" He shook his head at him, stroking Liam's chestnut hair. "She could have come back any second."

"She knew you didn't want to be a father." Grayson swallowed back the lump in his throat. "Let's be honest, you made it pretty clear you never wanted to be one."

"I don't want to turn out like mine. I don't want to hate my kid."

"I know you see him in you, but if you ask me, you're nothing like him." The older man looked down at the hands in his lap. "You did everything you could to make my daughter happy, and Giuseppe would have done everything he could to make her miserable."

"But I hurt her." He looked down at Liam's sleeping face. "I broke her heart and turned my back on her."

"When you took her to Chicago with you ..." Grayson searched for words. "I almost hated you because you were taking my little girl away from me, but then I visited the two of you and I saw how happy she was and how free she seemed. You were the best, and the worst thing that ever happened to her."

"I lost her." His voice broke, his breathing shaky. "And If Mason screws it up, I'll never get the chance to set that right."

"She's going to make it." Grayson clenched his teeth together. "She has to, I can't lose her, and her mother."

"How can you be so calm about it?" He looked at him with frantic eyes. "They're both fighting for their lives."

"There's nothing I can do about it but wait here and hope they're okay." He shrugged and looked at Liam. "Right now the only one I can take care of is my grandson."

"What if we lose her, Grayson?"

"We won't."

"But what if we do?"

"Then you have to take care of Liam." Grayson got up, stroking his grandson's hair. "It's in her will, if something happens to her, you get him."

"What?" His blue eyes shot fire. "But that's impossible."

"She set that will up the second he was born." Grayson smiled softly. "Even if you hurt her and broke her heart, she wanted him to meet you someday."

"Why?"

"She told me he should know the person that changed her life." Grayson placed his hand against Liam's cold cheek. "The two people she loved the most should meet each other."

"She doesn't have to die for me to meet him." His blue eyes went wide. "He's Stefan's son for Christ's sake, she can't take him away from him."

"You know there's a reason why she called him Liam." Grayson shook his head at him, grabbing his jacket from the chair. "Damon Liam Salvatore."

"She's going to be fine."

He scanned over the girl in the bed, her chestnut brown hair spread across the pillow, her lips closed around the tube that filled her lungs with oxygen, her skin pale and her brown doe eyes firmly closed. His eyes snapped to the monitor that showed her heartbeat, the line going up and down. The man that held her hand and sat beside her on the bed looked up as soon as he entered, the green eyes glaring at him.

"How's Liam?"

"He's asleep." He crossed his arms over his chest, approaching the bed. "He'll be fine in a few hours."

"How did you know she picked him up?" His green eyes locked with his, his hand squeezing Elena's tighter. "Why did you know and I didn't?"

"I was with her when Liam called." He rolled his eyes as Stefan's face went hard. "We both had our clothes on, even if I suggested to take them off."

"Why was she with you?" His teeth clenched together. "Can't you keep your hands off of her for two minutes?"

"She was the one that came to me." His blue eyes went wide. "Get your facts straight before you start accusing someone. She came to me like she always came to me."

"Why did she?"

"Because I was the one that saved her mother." He grabbed the bars of the bed in his fists. "She came to thank me."

"Why did you save her mother?" He stood up, placing Elena's hand on her stomach. "You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"I know, Stefan." He rolled his eyes exaggerated. "I only care about myself and hurt other people, I must have gotten that from our father."

"He's not your father." His green eyes went wide. "He didn't want you."

"But he sure as hell got me." He shook his head with a hard laugh. "I'm way past caring about you and your father."

"You should have stayed out of our lives. You ruined us."

"I ruined you?" He arched his eyebrow. "Your marriage was already ruined before it started."

"Because you came in it."

"No. Because you wanted her to be someone she was not." He spat in his face. "You may have been in a relationship with her for four years, but after two months I knew her better than you did."

"But still she came back to me and left you." Stefan's green eyes shimmered as he saw the hurt cross Damon's face. "She didn't want you anymore."

'If I hadn't hurt her, she would still be with me." He looked up at Stefan, his blue eyes soft. "And you know it."

"But you did hurt her, and I had to pick up the pieces." Stefan looked back at Elena. "I'm not going to let you take her away again."

"I never took her from you." His blue eyes focused on Elena's motionless body. "She followed me."

"And it burned her." Stefan crossed his arms over his chest. "She knows now how stupid it was."

"Did you ever think about why it hurt so much?" The blue eyes focused on the green ones. "Love hurts, Stefan."

He saw the pain that crossed Stefan's eyes because he knew, he knew he would have lost his wife five years ago if she hadn't been sent back to him. He knew she had someone that meant more than him, that that love still lingered beneath the surface, and was waiting to rise again. His wife had found comfort in a man he never thought worthy of her, but at the end of the day she had chosen to leave the state with that man, and leave everything and everyone she know behind to start a new life with him in a new city.

"M. Salvatore." The nurse interrupted their stare. "I need you to fill in some forms for your son."

"Of course." Stefan nodded firmly and gave him one last look before he stepped through the door.

His eyes moved back to the girl on the bed, her chest going up and down as the tube filled her lungs with oxygen. He moved to the side of the bed, taking her hand in his, feeling her cold skin that used to be so warm against his.

"Don't die, okay?" He brought her hand to his lips, kissing it softly. "I can live away from you, but I can't live without you."

"I thought I might find you here." Mason leaned against the door frame.

"Where else would I be?" He placed Elena's hand back down on the mattress, holding it with both hands. "I can't lose her."

"You know the first twenty-four hours are crucial." He stepped into the room, standing on the other side of the bed. "If she makes it through them, she should be fine."

"She'll make it through them." He looked up to her peaceful face, feeling his heart squeeze in his chest. "She made it this far, she'll get through the next day."

"I saw the burns from the defibrillator on her chest. They can sue you if they want, you went against hospital policy."

"If I would have followed those rules she would have been dead." His eyes snapped up to Mason's. "So if she lives and they sue me, I'll be the happiest man in the world."

"It can cost you your job." Mason shook his head. "And I heard about the miracle you made happen, but when I looked deeper into the case I noticed it was her mom. What are you doing, Damon?"

"Love makes you blind, right?" He looked back to Elena, squeezing her hand. "I'm flying blind here."

"You're going to hit a wall sometime." He whispered, taking the chart from the end of the bed. "We both know her mother is a lost cause."

"She's only lost when I say she is." He shook his head, pressing his lips together. "But to be honest, what I did in that theater, it scared the hell out of me. It will go into the history books and they'll call it a miracle, but when I came out of that operation, I was scared of what I had done."

"You took a risk and you pushed the limit because you knew it was worth it." He smiled politely. "And she would have killed you if you had let her mom die."

"And that's the thing. When her mom dies, it will probably be on my table." He shook his head, stroking Elena's hand. "She'll hate me for it."

"We can't save them all." Mason sighed. "Even if we want to, sometimes they just don't let us."

"I've never been so scared as today." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "I don't know how Grayson can do this. First his wife, then his daughter and on top of that his grandson."

"He still has his faith." Mason put the chart back on the bed. "A GP doesn't lose that many patients as a surgeon, they can still believe there's someone watching over them."

"For once I want to believe there's someone watching over us."

"I've never seen you like this." Mason started walking to the door. "And I shouldn't, but I like it."

"Like what?"

"Vulnerable."

He turned his head away from Mason, moving his eyes back to the broken girl on the bed. He sighed as he saw the monitor next to her go up and down, her strong heart beating in the room. The same heart that used to love his, use to carry him and cherish him with no boundaries.

"I can't take care of a child, Elena." He sat down on the bed next to her body. "You know I can't, so don't you dare leave us behind."

He lay down next to her, carefully avoiding the IV. A sigh escaped him as he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling himself closer against her. He placed a kiss on top of her head, feeling the tears that wanted to escape his eyes, the way his heart wanted to rip out of his chest and beat for her.

"You can't do this to me. I'm scared, Lena." He whispered in her hair, letting his forehead rest against her temple. "I've never been so scared in my whole life."

He let the tears roll over his cheek as he tried to remember the last time he had cried. Until a few hours ago he had thought that the day she left him five years ago was the worst of his life. But now he could really lose her forever, he felt more desperate than any man should ever have to feel. His eyes kept producing tears he hadn't shed in thirty years, while the woman he loved was fighting for her life in his arms.

"I love you." He kissed her cheek, letting his lips linger there. "I always will, but you're making me an emotional mess and I have a reputation to uphold so right now I kinda hate you."

"You can't give me Liam." He sobbed against the side of her face, shaking his head. "He'll turn out like me and you don't want a screwed up kid like me."

"I'll raise Liam if you want me to and I'll love him but you know my father, I'll turn out like him and I'll hurt Liam." He squeezed her tighter against him. "You don't want me as a father, I don't know how to be one."

"What are you doing with my mommy?"

His head snapped around as he heard the high pitched young voice. His blue eyes focused on the boy standing in the hospital gown in the doorway, clutching his teddy bear to his chest. He got up from the bed and sat down on the edge, wiping the tears out of his eyes.

"I was checking up on her." Damon got up and looked between Elena and the boy. "You shouldn't be up this late."

"Strangers shouldn't sneak into mommy's bed." He glared at him. "But you did."

"I'm Damon." He smirked at the boy in front of him. "We talked on the phone, remember?"

"You're the smart doctor?" His eyes went wide, his tone admiring. "I'm Liam."

He chuckled softly as he scanned the little body. The chestnut hair was ruffled and his skin still paler than healthy. He was walking on barefoot and the hospital gown only covered his bare skin down to his knees. His arms were covered with goosebumps but his pouted lips were pink, and his little body was standing straight in the doorway. He pointed to his small arm as blood was running over it.

"You pulled your IV out." He moved to the first-aid-kit next to Elena's bed. "Come here so I can take care of that."

Liam sauntered to the bed, keeping his eyes on his mommy that lay in it. A small gasp left his throat as he saw the tube in her mouth. His small hand reached for hers, his eyes welling up with tears as he placed a kiss on it like Damon had done before him.

"Come here." He picked the boy up and placed him on the bed. "Let me see that."

"Is mommy going to be okay?"

"She'll be fine." He wiped the blood from his hand and arm. "She has to be."

"Why were you crying?"

"I wasn't crying." He arched his eyebrow at the boy, smirking. "I just came out of the shower."

"But your hair is dry."

"I used a plastic thingy that kept my hair dry."

"But only old ladies use those."

"How did you turn out so smart?"

He moved his eyes to the boy's small face, noticing the ocean blue eyes piercing into his own. The emotions went through his body, his hand gripping the boy's arm for support. His own ocean blue eyes kept locked on Liam's as they continued to stare at each other, noticing the same features in each other's faces, the ocean blue eyes they were sharing.

"Mommy says I got that from my daddy."

"I think your daddy is a pretty smart guy." He swallowed back the lump in his throat. "But maybe not always as smart as he thinks he is."

"You look sad." His pink lips formed a pout. "Do you need a hug?"

"You got that from your mommy." He pushed his finger in Liam's chest. "She thinks every excuse is good enough to hug someone."

"Mommy says a hug can make all the pain in the world go away."

"Thank you for the offer." He ruffled the boy's hair. "But I'll be fine without the whole touchy-feeling thing."

"Damon?" Liam's big blue eyes looked up at him. "I'm scared mommy will die."

"She loves you too much to die." He stroked the chestnut hair back and held back his own tears "Let's get you back to your room, you shouldn't be up this late."

He nodded quietly and moved to the front of the bed, placing a kiss on his mother's cheek. With tears in his eyes he looked back up at Damon and held his arms out, ready to be picked up. Damon picked him up, feeling the boy's breathing against his neck as he snuggled his face in it. With soft circles he tried to soothe him as the tears kept running down his face.

"You got a whole room for yourself." He turned the light on and looked around the empty room. "You must be really special."

"No." Liam sniffed against his neck. "My daddy has a lot of money."

"I guess that makes you special to the hospital." He pulled the covers back and put him down on the bed. "They know they won't get that money if they don't take really good care of you."

Liam chuckled softly, his blue eyes lighting up. "Can I watch TV?"

"You shouldn't even be up." He pulled the covers over him as he lay down. "I don't think watching television is a good way to get you to sleep."

"But I can't sleep without mommy." His eyes welled up with new tears. "It's Thursday and she always sleeps with me on Thursday."

"Why don't I stay with you for a while?" He sat down next to him on the bed and turned the television on. "Just don't tell anyone I let you watch television at two in the morning."

"Pinky promise."

Damon wrapped his own pink around his small one and shook it, chuckling as he did so. "It's been years since I made a pinky promise."

"You can't break a pinky promise." Liam's eyes went wide as he started surfing through the channels. "They're really special."

"I bet they are." He rolled his eyes and frowned when Liam told him to stop on Grey's Anatomy reruns. "You watch Grey's Anatomy?"

"Mommy made me watch with her." He turned on his side and made room for him. "She doesn't like watching alone."

"I know." He rolled his eyes and lay down beside him, fluffing the pillow behind his back. "Is she still rooting for Meredith and Derek?"

"Yes." Liam nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the screen. "But I like George better."

"Didn't George d-?"

"I'll stop watching if anything ever happens to George." His eyebrows knitted together. "But I don't know what happens after season five because mommy never let's me watch. She says bad things happen."

"I can imagine why she says that." He shook his head in amusement as he noticed Liam's serious face. "I like Izzy and Alex better."

"I like Izzy too." He chuckled softly at something on the screen. "She looks like auntie Care."

"And Bonnie like Cristina?" Damon arched his eyebrow at him, snorting.

"Yeah ..." Liam shook his head doubtfully. "With bigger boobs."

"Does a five-year-old think about boobs?" He locked his eyes with the other blue ones. "I thought that started in puberty."

"Mommy says I'm an exception."

"I bet you are."

"Uncle Ty says my smile makes panties drop." Liam shrugged indifferently. "So I can have any girl I want."

"Just don't smile at old ladies, okay?" His eyebrow knitted together in disgust. "They're always horny and it's just creepy for a boy your age."

"I smiled at a big teenage girl in the store and she asked mommy if she could babysit me." His lips curled into a devilish grin, waggling his eyebrows. "I think she had other plans with me."

"And did she babysit you?"

"No." The grin disappeared from his lips. "I think mommy was onto her."

"Just so you know.." He rolled his eyes at the boy. "Your mom won't allow you to have sex before you turn thirty."

"No?"

"No." He shook his head. "So you have to make sure you've got your own car once you're sixteen because sex in your mother's car is just wrong."

"So only mommy can have sex in her car?" His blue eyes look up at him.

"You stop having sex in the back of a car once you're twenty-five." Damon shrugged. "It's like a rule."

"There are rules?" Liam's blue eyes went wide. "Can you teach me them?"

"I can." He got up from the bed and turned the television off. "But first you need to sleep and have ten other birthday parties."

"Damon?" Liam snuggled his nose into the pillow, his eyes fluttering. "Will you visit me again, because the nurse said I would have to stay for a few days because I was hyto ... hypa ... hiproo ... because I was really cold."

"Of course I'll visit." He smiled softly as the thought of spending more time with him rushed through his mind. "But only at night because you'll get a lot of visitors during the day."

"My grandpa is going to visit me tomorrow." Liam clutched his teddy bear tighter to his chest. "But I don't think he really likes me."

"Grayson?" His eyebrow arched. "Don't think that. Grayson loves you."

"No." He shook his head, curling up next to his teddy. "Daddy's daddy."

"Why doesn't he like you?" He hovered above the small body, wanting to shield it from the evil he knew. "I'm sure he loves you as much as he loves your daddy."

"No." Liam's looked up at him. "He says I remind him of someone he hates and that's why he can't look at me."

"I think he's the most dumb person I've ever met." Damon stroked Liam's hair back, boring his eyes into his. "He's crazy if he doesn't love you."

"Sometimes I think daddy doesn't like me either." He whispered quietly. "He always gets mad at mommy if I do something wrong."

"Grownups are usually pretty messed up." He smiled softly. "But that has nothing to do with you, your daddy loves you and your mommy would do anything for you."

"Will daddy be mad because I called mommy to pick me up?"

"No." He shook his head. "It was an accident and no one could do anything about it."

"But mommy's hurt." Tears welled up in his blue eyes. "It's my fault."

"Liam." Damon grabbed the boy's chin. "The only thing that went through our mind when we heard about the accident was taking care of you and your mom. No one is mad at you."

"Mommy said I had to run away from the car because it could explode, so I tried to run to auntie Care, but I got lost."

"You did good." He squeezed his arm. "And I'm sure your mommy will tell you the same once she wakes up."

"I just hope mommy will be okay."

"She will be." He adjusted the sheets and tucked him under, stroking his hair back. "How about that hug?"

Liam smiled softly as he reached his small arms out. He wrapped the little boy in his embrace, squeezing him tightly against his chest, giving him the comfort he hadn't been able to give in the past five years. He smiled as he felt the little boy place a kiss on his cheek, his tiny arms tightening around his neck.

"Goodnight, Damon."

"Goodnight, Liam." He placed a kiss on his forehead, closing his eyes to savor the moment. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow." Liam yawned and snuggled his nose in the pillow, his eyes fluttering. "Bye Damon."

He stroked Liam's cheek one more time and turned off the light, leaving the sleeping boy behind in his room. The white halls were empty as he found Elena's room again and sat next to her bed, taking her hand in his, softly stroking it with his thumb, his blue eyes focused on her face as he sighed.

"You could have told me about our son."

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