N: I'm having trouble with e-mails, that's why this is not beta-ed, I couldn't reach my beta. I am sorry for any mistakes you might find.

In the next chapter, big DE moment…

Hold my hand and I will fly

Elena took her seat beside Damon on the small private plane. The chairs were not like the ones she was used with. These ones were big and comfortable. They were in pale brown leather, with a massage button and a heating button. There was even a couch and relatively big tables where a chef would bring them food that could actually be consumed. She was trying to find as many differences as she could to make sure she had a strong case against the odds of that horrible accident repeating. After many failed attempt, she finally attached her seatbelt and took a deep breath. Damon was seated to her right and to her left there was a tiny window.

Damon was watching his wife in the corner of his eye. He knew she was nervous and scared, but she was putting on a brave face. Before the accident, he didn't remember ever seeing signs of nerves, but since she got back, he started to notice little things. She would either tuck her hair behind her ear or started putting on hand cream or playing with a certain object she had in her hands until the object was broken. Just after she attached her seatbelt, she started putting on hand cream. Her hands were red as she kept massaging them. When Damon thought it was enough, he pushed up the arm rest between the two seats and grabbed her hands.

"At this rate you're going to peel off your skin," he said. Elena turned to look at him and Damon smiled at her. Just one simple gesture, but it gave her all the strength she needed.

***Lucky 13***

Once in the hotel room, Damon took off his tie and climbed in bed. He turned on the TV, just for some background noise. He was still thinking at the flight, how she held on to him all the way through the flight. He was just getting to the part where they passed some light turbulences and he had to talk to his wife and calm her down when Elijah stormed into the room.

"Turn that thing off, Damon," he ordered and Damon did as told. "Listen there is a meeting at noon tomorrow at the Royal Club, their scheduled speaker got sick and they want you to take his place. There are about two – three hundred of them, all educated, rich people."

"Sounds more like Klaus's people," Damon commented.

"They are; that's why it's important that you go, and take Katherine with you too; their wives would be there. Katherine, dress classical, not a lot of jewellery, we don't want them to think we have something to prove –"

"I can't go," Elena said softly.

"What do you mean you can't go?" Elijah snapped.

"Anna's appointment with the doctor is tomorrow at one."

"Crap," Damon cursed. "It totally slipped my mind."

"This is a great opportunity, Damon," Elijah was slowly losing his patience. There was only so much he could do for the campaign if his friend refused to cooperate.

"Can's you just get another appointment, Katherine?" Stefan asked.

"It was hard enough to get this one; it would probably be weeks until I get another one if not months. I don't think it's good for Anna to wait that long," she answered.

"Your mother could accompany Katherine to the doctor, they will tell you what the doctor said after," Giuseppe offered and Antonella sustained his proposition.

"Mom, dad, I appreciate it, but she is my daughter," Damon said.

"Damon, I think mom and dad are right –" Stefan started, but Damon didn't let him finish.

"What do you think Katherine?" he asked and Elena shook her head in disbelieve. He never asked for her opinion before.

"They are both very important, Damon. It's your decision," she said. Elijah cursed under his breath. This Katherine was driving him insane. Before, when she yelled and screamed and complained all the time, she was easier to refuse and be put in her place, but now that she used this calm diplomacy, Elijah knew even before Damon said the words that Katherine won this time. He threw the papers on the table and stormed out after Damon announced that family came first and that he'll take the appointment with Anna instead of a speech for some rich snobs.

Giuseppe and his wife followed the campaign manager, in hopes to calm him a little and Stefan stood up from his chair, walking slowly towards the armchair Elena was seated in.

"I hope you're happy now," he spat. Elena stood up as well, ready to defend herself, but Damon was faster.

"That's enough Stef," he shouted and his brother backed up from Elena immediately.

"How can you let her do that to you?" he asked his brother. "She's manipulating you with this good-mother routine."

"What happens between my wife and I is none of your business, brother," Damon said, emphasising the words: wife, I and none.

"Of course it is. I've invested yeas in this to see you get elected and now you are letting her ruin everything!"

"I am grateful for everything you've done, Stefan, but I hardly think one speech would cost me the elections. Plus, this is not about you, me or Katherine, it's about Anna and you know I just want to do what's best for my daughter. This appointment is a priority."

After taking another glance at Elena Stefan left the room. Elena turned around facing Damon. "Is that what you think, that I'm playing a role?" she asked.

Damon didn't answer, not because he didn't want to, but because he had no idea what to think. Damon was used to be in control in a relationship. Even since his first conquest at age fourteen, he learned how to handle women. He wasn't stupid, he knew women liked him, and he liked them. Before Katherine, there was Rose, his most serious relationship. It lasted two years until they both agreed that they weren't each other's forever after. One year later Katherine Pierce stepped into his law firm. Stefan did most of the hiring at that time. For Katherine, he asked Damon's opinion and after Damon approved, Katherine was hired as a legal assistant. It took Damon a few months to actually break his own work rules and ask Katherine out. Her big, brown eyes and her seductive smile stole Damon heart; he fell in love with her so deeply that nothing else mattered. Just after half a year of dating, Damon asked Katherine to be his wife, two months later they were married and in a few weeks, Katherine was pregnant with Anna.

During the pregnancy Katherine complained about everything. No matter what Damon would do or say, nothing was good enough. Her doe eyes were no longer sparkling when she looked at him, but filled with disappointment and hate. It was as if she was blaming Damon for ruining her perfection with his child.

Once she gave birth, she not only wanted nothing to do with Anna, but put all her energy into getting back in shape. Damon couldn't understand, since she didn't gain that much weight and he swore to her that he loved her no matter what. He understood a few months later when Katherine took her first lover. She made no secret out of it. He knew now, he should've divorced her right then and there, but for Anna's sake, and for the sake of what they once had, he didn't.

Just a few weeks before her trip to Dallas, she came into his room. He had too much to drink and she was as sexy as ever. Even if he swore to himself he would never touch her again, he gave in. The moment she came to him saying she was pregnant and that it was the worst thing that could happen to her, that was the moment Damon realized he didn't love Katherine anymore, and he would never be able to love her again.

Right now, Damon was watching his wife walk towards the bed. "We should order something to eat, he said.

"What would you like?" she asked.

"Anything. I would eat anything at this point."

She lay on her belly, carefully crossing her legs and grabbed the phone. "Yes, peanut-butter with grape-flavoured jelly, that's what I said," he heard her say. "I know it's not on your menu, but that's what the child wants to eat," she argued and Damon let out a giggle. Elena turned around, giving him a bright smile. He adored the way she smiled lately. It wasn't like before, calculated, seductive and sinful. Her smiles were sweet and innocent, almost shy and her eyes were bigger and brighter when she smiled at him or at Anna. Even her kisses were different, they shared just a few, but they didn't taste like deceit and betrayal. Damon took his time and analyzed her kisses since she recovered from the accident; it was as if he was kissing a different woman. He would watch her with Anna or just at the farm with the animals and it was like seeing her for the first time.

Elena pushed her ass up just a little to get off the bed and Damon dick twitched in his pants. What he needed was release. Of course, that would be easy, but he didn't want just sex with just any woman; he wanted it with this woman.

N: Please review!