As you can probably tell I have a majority of this story done! So I just wrote some more today of a later chapter, and decided to update! :) Anyway, I realize that these are short, I'm sorry about that, normally I write pretty long chapters, but, I just like the way these flow you know? Anyway, please continue to read and please review!
Elena's second trimester came and went, bringing them into the home stretch. The third trimester came and with it brought an extremely exhausted Elena. Her need to pee prevented her from being able to take longer than a thirty minute car ride and heartburn kept her up at night or made her think twice about what she placed in her mouth. In other words, she was miserable, but all the time kept on a smiling face. Damon sometimes wondered how she even stood up with the large stomach that now protruded from her abdomen.
But she was a soldier, in every sense of the word, and kept up the 'I feel fine act' as well as she could manage.
"Damon! Is that you?" she asks as she hears him walk through the front door. He'd come over to drive her to her doctor's appointment today. Ever since she'd reached her third trimester, Dr. Fell had insisted that Elena come in every week to get checkups. Her tiny frame set up the perfect conditions for early labor if they weren't cautious. "Yes! Is everything okay?" she doesn't reply for a moment as if debating with herself. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine!"
He rolled his eyes and waited at the bottom of the stairs for her to come down. Or admit to him what was wrong.
"Damon?"
"Yes Elena?" she sighs, finally giving in to whatever internal battle she was having earlier.
"Could you come up here?" he smirks, quirking his eyebrow, curious to what she could possible want. He walked into her bedroom to find it vacant. "I'm in here." She called from the bathroom and as he turned the corner he was met with Elena…in a bathtub. Unfortunately for him, all the good parts were covered, she'd put on a bathing suit. She sighed and winced, embarrassed by the situation she'd put herself in.
"I can't reach my legs and I really don't want to go to the doctor with leg hair a mile long. Basically, I'm asking if you'll just shave my legs. Please?"
He squints his eyes at her, trying to decide if she's serious. "Don't you think that's going to be a little, awkward? I mean I can always call Caroline-"
"Caroline's not here and I don't have time before my doctor's appointment for Car to come over here. Just-please do this one small thing for me."He continued to look at her skeptically, not seeing this having a good end result no matter how they approached it. "Oh, come on, stop being such a baby." She yelled and held up the razor and shaving crème for him to take.
He sighed, knowing he'd never be able to resist when she threw puppy eyes his way. "So how long have you been sitting up here trying to do this?" she made a small sound with her nose as a laugh. "Only an hour. I kept trying to reach my legs but it's like I have three stomachs or something." He laughed as he applied the foam to her legs, looking at her quizzically when he reached her thigh, asking if he should do that to. "Yes." She nodded at him.
"So, how's life treating you Damon?"
"Elena." He chastised her. "What? Just trying to make a bit of friendly conversation."
"Yeah, well excuse me for thinking this will be easier if we just don't talk at all."
"Oh come on. It's just a little leg, I even put a bathing suit on, it's not like you haven't seen me in one of those." He rolled his eyes and allowed his eyes to rest on Elena's stomach. He hadn't seen it so blatantly exposed in all the time she'd been pregnant. She met his gaze over her protruding belly button, before she poked it. "Disgusting isn't it. The pregnancy bible says that it'll go back to normal around three weeks after I have the baby. But right now it's just stuck like this."
He gave her a small smile, not looking up from his work on her leg. "Well at least you only have about a month or so to go. And you have Thanksgiving coming up, isn't that like every pregnant woman's dream?" she smiled.
"Not exactly. Especially when everything you even think about eating gives you heartburn." He gave a small hum of a reply, trying to stay focused on his task so he didn't cut her.
"I know this is a little strange but, thank you. For doing this for me…" he looked up at her face when she stopped mid sentence to find her blubbering. He sighed, she was crying for no reason all the time these days. Hormones he supposed.
"I just don't know what I would do without you Damon. You do all these things for me…and…and, what do I give you in return? Empty promises and worry and…God Damon, I'm sorry, I sound like an idiot. I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you. For everything you put up with." she managed to choke out, giving him a small smile that just barely reached her now red and watery eyes. "Come on 'Lena, don't cry. All I'm doing is shaving your legs. And you're welcome. For the record, I don't expect you to do anything for me in return. We both know that if I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be."
She sniffed and gave a small laugh. "I know, it's kind of ridiculous what can upset me these days. Still thank you for doing this. I almost asked Ric to do it earlier." Damon laughed, not letting his eyes move from the blade removing Elena's hair. "Now that would have been a sight to see." After pausing for a moment he added, "And even more uncomfortable than this."
"Do you really think it's that weird?" she inquired. He pondered for a moment, suddenly realizing that no, it wasn't. It felt…normal. Comfortable. Familiar. Being with Elena had become almost second nature to Damon. There was rarely a time when he left her out of his sight, constantly worried he was going to miss something important.
He'd be lying if he said that he didn't feel partially responsible, because this should be his brother here with Elena. Stefan should be shaving her legs. Stefan should be taking her to the doctor. Stefan should be here period. But the plain simple fact was, he wasn't. He was gone, he'd gone rogue, and he was more than likely never coming back, at least in Elena's lifetime he wasn't. Maybe the kids, but it was doubtful.
Damon met her gaze as he finished her ankle and replied, "No. I guess it's not." She smiled softly at him. As she thought over the past few months, Elena couldn't really think of a time that she and Damon had been alone together like they were now. Sure they spent hours, days of their time together, but also with Alaric and Jeremy and everyone else that constantly seemed to inhibit the Gilbert home. She brought her hand to his face, while he calmly sighed and leaned into her touch for a moment, ignoring the fact that her hand was wet.
She suddenly felt extremely over come with gratitude, because even though there were always other people in the house, Damon was always one of them. He rarely left Elena's side, and for that she was grateful. He'd become a constant in her life, something she irrevocably depended on, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that her love for him had grown to life threatening heights. He just made her feel safe again.
"Thank you." She whispered, placing so much more within those simple words than just a gratification of a job well done on her legs. She was thanking him for loving her (which she knew he did). She was thanking him for being there for her. She was thanking him for being her rock. She was thanking him, for being just what she needed, always.
He gulped, noticing the now heavy tension that had seemed to rise and grow between them with each passing second. "You're welcome." They heard someone suddenly clear their throat behind them, making them jump; ruining what otherwise would have been a perfectly good moment.
"Everything okay in here?" questioned Ric who stood in the doorway of Elena's bathroom, looking uncomfortable.
"Everything's fine Ric. Do you need anything?" he shifted his weight from foot to foot, clearly wanting to say something, but restraining himself from doing so. "Nothing I guess. See you guys after your doctor's appointment Elena."
"Bye Ric." Yelled Elena to his retreating form, keeping her eyes locked on Damon.
"I'm going to let you get dressed." Said Damon as lifted up from the tub and dried his hands off with a towel. She watched him silently retreat from the bathroom before calmly saying his name. He turned around looking at her expectantly, "I love you Damon. You should know that." He watched her for a while, he's not really sure how long he stood there looking at her, as her doe eyes calmly stared back at his. Like she didn't just make a life changing profession.
He turns back to the door, disappointing her, before calmly telling her the words she'd just so care freely thrown in to the air, "I love you too Elena." He replies before closing the door carefully, wondering what the hell just happened.
…..
They don't mention the 'I love you's', but something has clearly changed between them. They're more affectionate, they don't really kiss, maybe a peck on the cheek now and then from Damon, but the air around them is different. Lighter, not so tension filled. He caresses her stomach often, talking to the baby, much to Elena's enjoyment. (It's funny to watch big bad Damon talk in a baby voice).
The change in their behavior has certainly not gone unnoticed by their friends, who are sure to constantly ask them about it, the unknown facts of their relationship becoming a major topic of discussion, whether the couple was in the room or not. Ric, in particular, was worried of the development of the two. It didn't take long after the bathroom incident for him to get the courage to ask Damon about it.
"It was nothing. Just a friend helping out another friend."
"Elena has plenty of girlfriends to shave her legs for her Damon." Damon sighs, getting frustrated with a conversation that he could see going to hell and fast. "All of which were unavailable that day. She wanted them done before she got to the doctor. She almost asked you to do it. What would you have done then? So see, you should be thanking me. Your welcome."
Alaric cut his eyes at Damon, trying to read into the strange institution that had become Damon and Elena's relationship. "Fine. Don't tell me what's really going on. Just don't do anything stupid." And they left it at that. Caroline on the other hand was insatiable.
"Come on 'Lena, just tell us what's going on. We understand. You're pregnant, your hormones are raging. It's not the end of the world for you and Damon to have something going on."
"There's nothing going on. Sure we care about each other, but nothing other than that is going on. We're still Damon and Elena, constantly at each other's throats, just, now we have a better understanding of each other. We've just gotten closer, that's all."
Caroline sighed, scowling at Elena, and finally gave up in trying to make her tell her the truth. "Just be careful Elena. Your decisions aren't just affecting you now." Elena met Caroline's gaze, and gave her a simple stare, with a small smile. Not sure what to say to her to assure that there was nothing going on between her and Damon, but when it boiled right down to it, she knew that something had changed, exactly what, she wasn't sure what, but there was a noticeable difference in their relationship.
"Okay, I'll be careful." She replied to Caroline after a moment, surprising them both with what she'd just admitted.