You guys have been so lovely and supportive! Thank you so much!

I'm sorry to say that the updates may slow down a little, because I am trying to work a little more on Love in Shackles.
Again, sorry!

But I'll do what i can :)

Hope ya'll enjoy!

Damon looked out the window above the sink, and watched as Chris ran to the car that had pulled up near the drive.
He said something to the driver, through the window, then got in.

They drove off seconds later.

"He seemed better," Elena commented behind him, and he turned, focusing back on her.

"Chris?"

She nodded, taking a bite of her pancakes, and moaned a little.

The sound shot straight to his groin, but he ignored it, forcing himself to focus on her words.

"These are still amazing," she commented.

He smiled, "Thanks."

She took another bite, before addressing the other matter again, "You said something to him, didn't you?"

Damon moved, refilling his coffee cup, "I talked to him after I woke him up."

"And?" Elena pressed.

"And I think we have a long road ahead, but he's willing to walk it."

She smiled, looking down at her food, "I was hoping he'd come around."

Damon nodded, taking a sip of his coffee, and sat it down on the counter that he then leaned against, "You were right. He's a good kid, Elena. He's just hesitant, and who could blame him?"

She nodded, and he watched as guilt colored her face.

Finally she sighed, "I never should have kept him away from you…I was selfish. I just thought that I-," she swallowed, "I just want to do what's right for Chris, no matter what anyone else says. And I think having you here is going to be good for him."

"I think it's going to be good for us both," Damon admitted, "These past few years…I've just felt a little lost, to be honest. Like I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. Like I was somehow missing the point…until the other day."

She nodded, "I imagine it was a bit of a change."

He huffed, "Yeah, you can definitely say that. At first, I didn't know what to think. It was like I didn't even have control of my body. I was too busy processing that I actually had a son."
Elena's brown eyes were settled, encouraging him.

"It was like I suddenly had a flash of Giuseppe, and all the things he'd missed in mine and Stefan's life…and it hurt to think that I'd done the same to Chris, purposely or not…God, I missed so much, Elena. So much of his life…and I can't go back and fix that."

He took another sip of the coffee, "I wanted to be angry too, at first. At you, for not telling me, at my parents, Stefan…all of them for keeping it a secret."

Elena sighed, "Damon, I-"

"No," he cut her off, "It's okay. I can understand why you felt like you needed to, and you did an amazing job by yourself."

"That doesn't change the fact that I hid the truth from you," she reasoned, "You should be mad at me."

Damon shook his head, "I can't. I'm angry that I wasn't here, but it was just as much my fault as yours. I didn't have to leave. That was a choice that I made."

She was shaking her head now, "My father's an ass."

Damon couldn't really disagree, but, "I'm sure he thought he was looking out for you."
"Even so," she stated, finishing the last of her plate, "He had no right."

Damon grabbed the dish from her, placing it in the sink, "No, he didn't. And I'm pissed at him for it. If he hadn't of told me all of those things, I never would have let them affect me so much. But still, he didn't force me to leave. And that guilt is all mine."

She stood up, walking around so that she stood in front of him, "It's our guilt Damon. We both screwed up."

"But I got to do what I wanted," he stated, "I didn't have to give up my dreams. I got the career I wanted, and got out of this town. You didn't."

She shook her head, "No, I didn't…but I got our son. I got his childhood, his past…things that can never be recovered.

Damon watched as tears once again filled Elena's eyes, "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

He swallowed, and reached out for her.

She fell into his arms easily, and he pulled her tight against him, letting her use him for the comfort she so desperately needed.
Her arms slipped around him, tightening as her sobs increased.
He felt her tears through the shirt on his shoulder, but didn't mind.
She needed this, hell, he needed this.

He could imagine her years were just as vast as his had been, both stuck in an endless cycle, just existing in their lives.
He stroked her hair, holding her trembling body, whispering words of comfort into her ear.

After a few minutes, she calmed down, gaining control, but still he held her.
It wasn't until she leaned away slightly that he loosened his grip.
She took a step back, as if being as close as she was to him was suddenly uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry about that," she told him, wiping her eyes, "I don't break down like that…I can't."

He ran a finger under her chin, lifting her gaze to his, "Sometimes, you just have to," he reasoned.
She shook her head, "No, I don't. Because it's a weakness that I can't afford to have."

He let his hands slip, to grip the back her neck, "But I'm here now."
She swallowed, "That doesn't mean it's not a weakness."

He offered her a smile, "No…it just means that you don't have to be so strong all the time."
Her voice was a shaking whisper, "But actually, I do."

He held her gaze, "Elena, you don't have to carry this weight alone anymore."
Her eyes closed at his words, and he smiled, "You can let go."

She blinked her doe eyes clear, "I can't…not yet. I've been doing it for so long, I'm not sure I even know how to share this."
He brushed back her hair, "You'll figure it out…and in time, you'll see that you can trust me."

"I want to," she admitted, "I want this to work."
"Me too," he assured her, "But enough with the heavy. We need to find something relaxing to do, let us just get used to being around each other again."

She sighed, "Yeah, that's a good idea."
"Any suggestions?" he asked, dropping his hand from her.

She thought for a moment, then a light grin lifted her lips, "I know that you didn't get to be here when Chris was little, but I have pictures, home videos, albums…everything, up in the closet, if you maybe wanted to look through them?"

He smiled encouragingly, "Of course. That sounds perfect."
Nodding she motioned toward the room, "Follow me, then."

They walked down the hall, into her bedroom, where she pulled open the door to the closet he'd placed his things in last night.

"It's the box in the far corner up there," she told him pointing, "Will you grab it?"
He nodded, moving around her to see where she was pointing.

It was a bigger box, but he had no trouble sliding it closer, before pulling it down.
"I tried to keep everything," she admitted, "And not just pictures. School projects, mother's day cards, you name it."

Damon chuckled a little as she sat on the bed with the box and began opening it.
He sat across from her.

The top folds lifted as she untucked them, and pulled the top open, revealing, indeed, a little bit of everything.
Papers of different colors layered the top, and he reached for them.

Home-made Christmas decorations, finger paintings, cards made of construction paper…the list went on.
Elena began lifting things out herself.

"Ah, here," she stated, handing him an album, "These are all from his first year of school."
Damon took it, and opened to the first page of pictures.

The first was of Chris, obviously as a young child, standing proudly with some stranger, who Damon guessed was his teacher.

In the next one, Elena, who must have been in her early twenties, was crouching down next to him, her arm wrapped around the boy, who was smiling happily.
Valentina was in the next one, with a similar pose.

"My mom was there?" he inquired.

Elena leaned over, glancing at the picture he was looking at, and nodded, "Yeah, she came with me on his first day. She adores Chris, and also thought someone should be there to take the pictures."

Like he should have been, he thought to himself, guilt swarming his stomach again.
He made a mental note to thank Valentina later.

Elena stood, and pushed the box further up on the bed, so she could take a seat next to Damon.
He let her pull the album a little closer to herself, so they could both look.

"He was really good that day," she told him, as he looked over the other pictures, "Most of the children cry when their parents leave, but he was too excited to worry much about me. He loved his class, and his teacher."

Damon flipped the next few pages, different events playing out, including a Christmas party the class had, a Play Day on the school's football field, where the children played in races and other Olympic type games, and even a shot of Chris standing by the Mystic Falls Elementary School sign.

He settled on one picture that he really liked.

It was obviously night time, at a football game. The shot had been taken from a side angle, in the bleachers.
Elena was looking off toward the field, a smile on her face, and Chris was in her lap, facing the game, but he was leaned back, asleep on her shoulder.
The serenity of the moment had been captured perfectly.

He swallowed, "These are amazing, Elena."
She must have heard the thickness in his voice, because she smiled at him, "Well we still have plenty to go through, so don't go getting all emotional on me yet."
He chuckled at her teasing tone, "Give me the next one."

Two hours later, they had gone through nearly the entire box, having analyzed all the photos carefully.

Damon was overwhelmed by the full extent of everything he hadn't gotten to be a part of.
It was so much more than just the school events.

It was family vacations, Chris's summers learning to swim, or ride bikes, it was missing Chris's first baseball game, and his scraped knees he'd gotten just being a boy, playing outside.

It was racecar themed birthday parties, shaky steps, and first words.
It was an entire era of his son's life.
Suddenly, he was hating himself a lot more than Chris ever could.

But Elena seemed to catch on, "There's nothing we can do about it now, Damon."
He nodded, "Doesn't change the wanting to, though."

"Oh, believe me, I know," she assured him, "But it doesn't matter either way. The past is the past."
"The past is all of Chris's life," he told her, looking up to meet her eyes, "I missed so much Elena. And I can never get that back…I can never make up all of this," he motioned to the scatterings around them.

She sighed, "I know…and I'm sorry, okay, I am…but you haven't missed out on everything. Christian is still young, and he still needs you to be a part of his life. All of this is important, of course, but so is his prom, his first car, high school sports, his girlfriends, going through college applications, his graduation day. There is still so much ahead, and you can be here for it. It's not too late."

Damon nodded, taking in her words, "You're right. I need to focus on what I can do now, and not what I missed back then."
Elena looked up at him through her lashes, "I think it's okay to feel the loss of those things. They are a big part of Chris's life. Just don't let the past outweigh what you can experience now."

"Yeah, I know," he offered her a small smile, "It's just a lot to take in."
She nodded, "It'll get easier."

He noticed that she winced after she said this.

"You okay?"
Her eyebrows furrowed, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a headache. I felt kind of off after I laid down last night, and it didn't really go away this morning."
Damon pursed his lips, "Well, it is flu season."
She shook her head, "Oh god, don't say that. I don't need to be getting sick."
He chuckled, "Well, go take some pain killers, I'm sure it'll clear up."
"Yeah, you're right," she agreed, standing, "I'll be right back."

She walked out of the room, and he turned back to the box, reaching to one of the last albums.

It was pastel, with Christian James Salvatore embroidered on the front.
A baby book then?

He opened it, and smiled at the first set of pictures.
Elena's maternity photos.
He was stunned by the awe that overcame him.

She looked the same as she had the day he left, only now her stomach was swollen, rounded, making her dress protrude out.
Her arms were wrapped around the bump, cradling it as she smiled down at it.
She was so beautiful.

He wished so badly that he could have seen her that way, radiantly happy, round with his child.
He glanced carefully at each picture, amazed at how her body changed, to grow this baby.

A few pages in, the pictures changed to ones at the hospital.
Elena, hooked up to an IV, sitting at a slant on the bed, Caroline next to her.

Some with her and different family members, and finally, a picture of Chris, was the nurse was cleaning him.
Then a picture of Elena first holding him.

Damon couldn't take his eyes off of the pages as he turned them.

Even as a newborn, Chris had startling blue eyes and a head of dark hair.
There were pictures of his nursery, and tons of Elena holding him.
The last picture of the album was Chris's first birthday party.

He was covered all over with chocolate cake, and had icing all over his hands, but his little grin was one of excitement.
Damon smiled sadly.

This is what he should have been doing all of his life, taking adorable pictures of his child, and the amazing woman who'd carried him.
Not finding temporary comfort in the arms of nameless strangers as he drunk himself through each show.

He made a mental promise to himself.
He was going to make this work, no matter what it took, because he wanted this.

His family, this life…it's what he had always wanted, without realizing it.

And now, he could have it.

He only had to play his cards right.
Be a father to Chris, the best he could, and then win Elena's trust again.

Luckily, he had all the time in the world to do so.

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