I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I don't even know how long it has been since I updated this and I know you do not want to hear excuses, but I have actually had this written for awhile, but then our internet was down for awhile, one of my Christmas presents was actually that my internet was fixed! But then, holy freaking cow… it snowed. SNOWED! It never snows in Arkansas, at least where I live anyway. Oh well…I guess it's okay and pretty, I'm just not much for the outdoors….

Anyway, then we had no electricity for the night of Christmas and almost the whole day after, and then when the electricity came on yesterday we had to get the internet hooked up and…..oh goodness it has been a long haul! But now I am back, and excited! I think you're going to like this chapter! If I still have any followers left out there whatsoever… Love you guys! And Happy Reading!

A week after Elena arrived home from the hospital; she was in full on holiday mode. At least she'd given them a week to recover from Thanksgiving. She immediately had Ric go into the attic and get the tree and lights and put them all to work. Damon and Jeremy were given outside light duties, while Alaric stayed indoors with her and helped put up the tree and the garland on the staircase and fireplace.

When Damon complained that Ric should have to stand out in the cold with them, Elena only sternly told him that Alaric had hurt his back moving all the stuff from the attic, while Alaric stood behind her making faces at Damon.

Back hurt Damon's ass. Besides, it had just finished snowing the day before, making it even colder outside than usual, and while he wasn't really effected by the cold, he could still sort of feel its sting and didn't like to be wet.

Still, Elena believed Alaric, and kept him plenty busy inside the house, moving around the furniture to accommodate room for the Christmas tree, while she, maternal as always, made sugar cookies and hot chocolate in the kitchen.

When Damon and Jeremy finish outside they come in to the small Christmas tree set up in the living room adorning only lights and the smell of sugar baking in the oven. Elena hears the front door close and waddles into the living room, smiling at the trio standing next to the stairs. Damon smiles back when he sees her with an apron on and flour on her face, looking every bit the loving mother she was going to be.

"Are the lights finished?" she inquired, while fussing over a snow covered Jeremy, brushing off the white ice from his jacket trying to remove his jacket for him, while he embarrassingly tried to push her off. Damon nodded at her, laughing at the younger Gilbert, "Yes dear, we finished." Alaric and Jeremy became silent at the pet name he'd just given her, adding to the suspicion they'd had about the two's budding relationship.

Elena didn't notice, or pretended not to and removed their coats, putting them in the closet next to the stairs. Her and Damon's relationship had yet to become more than the meaningful caresses and small pecks on the cheek, and it had defiantly not been announced to their small group of friends. Even if they did they would know how to explain their weird connection to each other.

Since she'd returned from the hospital, Damon had stayed over every night, sneaking into her room after Ric had gone to sleep, although they were pretty sure he already knew. He would hold Elena, and comfort her bad dreams and massage her occasional leg cramp during the night, but aside from this their contact was minimal. Neither had given it much thought, they just simply were, no questions asked.

"Good. You guys must be freezing; come in the kitchen, there's some hot chocolate waiting on you." They followed waddling Elena each them sort of snickering, it had become a silent joke to them all to watch her try to move around now that her stomach protruded so proudly from her middle. They simply couldn't help it; she looked like a giant penguin the way she waddled here and there throughout the house.

They all took their hot chocolate as she offered it to them, Ric placing a chaste kiss on her cheek, trying to distract her as he grabbed a sugar cookie from behind her, hoping she wouldn't notice before retreating to living room. She noticed but didn't comment on it smirking at him. Damon stuck around in the kitchen as Elena began to fret over making icing for the cookies. "Need any help with that?" she looked for a moment while stirring milk into the powdered sugar in the bowl.

"No, I think I've got it covered."

"Didn't the doctor just say yesterday not to over exert yourself?" she just rolled her eyes and simply continued stirring. "This is hardly overexertion Damon." She replied annoyed. Why couldn't he just let her be? She could take care of herself. He shrugged his shoulders, seeing the crease in her brow signaling her short temper to him. She'd always had a fire, a fire that was now amplified due to her heightened hormones. Damon sat down at the island opposite her and just watched her work, slowly sipping his hot chocolate, pondering how good it was and wondering how she'd made it.

Elena diligently works on the icing, preparing it to decorate the cookies with. She looks up at him through her lashes while still mixing red food coloring into one of the batches of icing, "I decided on a name for the baby today."

"Oh?" she nodded, continuing to stir, he got impatient. "So? What is it?"

"Natalia Maria." He was taken aback for a moment. It was beautiful, but… "Maria was my mother's name." she looked up, smirking. "I know. Stefan told me once in passing..Is that weird, do you not like it, because if you don't I can pick out another second name-"

"It's perfect." He interrupted her, making a small smile break out on her face. She glanced up at him sheepishly, "Good, I'm glad you like it." He smiled taking another sip of his hot chocolate. "It's very…Italian." He commented as she finished the last of the icing and placed the bowl in the sink. "I know." She repeated her words from before, looking at him shyly. "You're very…Italian." He was taken aback at what she was admitting. She was naming the baby after him.

He was in front of her in a flash of vampire speed, cupping her face in his hands. "Thank you." He replied softly, kissing her gently on the mouth before pulling back, being the southern gentleman Elena knew he was. But she pulled him back quickly, wanting to move away from the light kisses and soft caresses they'd become so accustomed to. Why were they still walking around on eggshells about that part of their relationship, when they'd both admitted in one way or another they had feelings for one another? Loving feelings at that.

Elena kissed him passionately, pulling him as close as her to her as possible with her large protruding stomach in the way. He responded willingly, finally able to kiss her freely without the burden of Stefan or anything else lying in their wake, except for the baby…

He pushed that thought away; she was naming her baby for him. Maybe for the life he'd never been able to live but expected to, or maybe just because she loved him that much, and wanted her baby to carry a part of him around if she couldn't carry his genes, she would carry his heritage. He lifted her onto the counter, making her gasp as the some of the icing went crashing to the floor but neither cared as their mouths danced to a tuneless song they always knew they would if ever given the opportunity.

Only when they heard a clearing throat did they pull away, turning around to see a disgruntled and uncomfortable looking Ric, with an empty coffee cup and a disapproving look upon his face. Elena acted as if nothing were wrong, refilling his cup and telling Ric to call Jeremy in the kitchen for them all to decorate cookies, as Damon cleaned the spilled icing from the floor, trying to ignore the glare that Alaric was shooting him that only promised an awkward conversation in store for him later.

….

And Damon was right, soon after the tree was decorated and Elena retreated up the stairs, whispering for Damon to join her once Ric was asleep, Alaric pored two tumblers of bourbon and sat one on the bar next to him, waiting for Damon while Ric nursed his. Damon rounded the corner by the stairs, meeting Ric's back as he sat at the bar, seemingly looking out the window above the sink. The glass of bourbon waiting for him did not go unnoticed.

He walks up to the bar, trying to figure out why he's so nervous. He can't recall the last time he felt this way, and suddenly remembers that the last time he did he was human and was having a long discussion with Collette Pewit's father, a girl he'd courted right before attending the war. Her father told him that he was to stop "this foolish marriage talk" to his daughter, for he wouldn't have a quick marriage that would result in his death in the war, leaving Collette widowed and brokenhearted at the measly age of seventeen. Probably good call ole Pewit.

This, however, was completely different. This was Ric he was talking about. His drinking buddy, his confidant…Elena's father figure. Elena's very protective father figure. "Damon quit standing back there and just come sit down."

Damon smirked, suddenly feeling foolish for even beginning to think that Alaric would confront him about Elena, he didn't have the guts. "So you and Elena," Ric began as Damon sat down. Okay, he does have the guts. Damon thought as he shot down the bourbon and pored himself another glass. "I'm going to be honest with you Damon," Ric began, "I don't like it. I mean have you even thought this all the way through?"

"What's there to think through Ric? I love her, she loves me. I can keep her and the baby safe, she cannot defend herself if little Klausy decides to make a comeback, however, I can." He says, the ever present smirk on his face while shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay, but what about Elena, how is she going to feel as she gets older? She's not going to stay eighteen forever Damon. She'll age and age and you will stay at the ripe ole' age of twenty –four. Don't you think that's going to affect her? Besides, I don't think that you are thinking about what will happen to you when she dies. You can't protect her from death Damon, not a natural one. Mother Nature can be a bitch, and there's really no fight you can give with her."

Damon continues to drink his bourbon, with a scowl on his face. As if he hadn't thought about all of this. "I know that Elena will die eventually. And I know that I won't be able to protect her from it…but some time with Elena is better than no time at all. The problem with this doppelganger curse is that…now Elena has created a new bloodline. So eventually, there will be another doppelganger, sure to go through all the hell that Elena has. She was lucky that we came to town and found her. If we hadn't she would have died long ago. So, I am going to make it my personal mission to watch over her family. I can't have Elena's bloodline being screwed with, I just can't, especially by Klaus, and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere soon, seeing as we can't kill him…yet." Damon smirked, holding onto a silent hope that a miracle would arise from an unknown grimoire.

"And what are you going to do if she decides to turn?" Ric asks, quietly. Damon stares back at him blankly, not sure how to reply. "She won't ask me to do that." He says slowly. Surely. Alaric merely snorts a laugh in reply. "I wouldn't be so sure. My wife did."

"That was different."

"Maybe."

"Elena doesn't want this life. Besides she has the baby." Ric takes another large gulp from his bourbon. "Okay."

"Okay?" Damon repeats back as a question. "Okay, I trust you with her." Ric replies, before getting up and retreating to bed, "Just be careful Damon, don't you dare hurt her."

Damon just resigns to sitting in the kitchen, bourbon in hand thinking about Collette, with a fond smile on his face before retreating up the stairs. That hadn't been nearly as bad as talking to ole Pewit.

…..

Damon finds Elena half asleep with the covers on, she looks up when she hears him enter the room. "Damon?" he shushes her before pulling off his boots and lying down next to her on the bed, his arms behind his head. He turns his head to look at her where she's gazing up at him, grinning softly, sleepily.

"What's up sleeping beauty?" he asks, wondering what's on her mind behind the peculiar face she was giving him. She shakes her head and snuggles in closer to him, or attempts to, before giving up and turning away, her back facing him. "Hold me Damon?" he nods even though she can't see him, and shifts closer to her on the bed, lying a hand on her stomach and kissing the top of her hair lightly.

"Thank you for everything you did today Damon. Jeremy hasn't had a normal Christmas in a while. He always used to hang lights with my Dad. But for obvious reasons he hasn't been able to do that in a few years, so…thank you." He hums a reply, playing with a strand of her hair. "No problem, little Gilbert was almost pleasant today. Almost." He added in the end. He'd been hell trying to explain things to. Damn hot headed teenager.

They remained silent for a moment, it was peaceful silence, the kind most couples enjoyed before they succumbed to sleep, and now Damon saw that they really weren't all that different from every other normal couple out there, it'd just taken a few road bumps along the way to arrive here.

"So, Natalia Maria huh?" Elena smiled and turned around on her back, moving her head to look at him. "Natalia Marie." She repeated in conformation. "Why?" he asked, genuinely wanting to know.

"I don't know. I just decided that I liked that name. Natalia, and as for Maria…I just-you have been so great Damon. Without you here these last nine months would have been hell. Believe it or not, you're my rock Damon, and you deserve to own a part of this baby's name. So, I decided to name her after your mother."

"Thank you." He repeated again, although he'd already thanked her plenty in the kitchen earlier. She giggled at his speechlessness, and gave him a small kiss on the lips. "You know," she began silkily; "I was a little upset when Ric interrupted us earlier. I think we had a good thing going." He smirked at her, running the back of his fingers over her arm making her shiver.

"Did we now?" She nodded, biting her lip and smiling at the same time. She felt almost giddy. He leans in and kisses her on the lips, she brings up her hands to cup his face, slowly allowing her lips to meld with his, reviling in the tender kisses Damon worshiped her body with. He moved his hands everywhere, caressing her everywhere, trying not to put too much weight on Elena's stomach, as he passionately kissed her, the only sound in the room being her occasional low moan and their breathing.

He pulls away for a moment, looking down at the beautiful creature that he now was allowed to call his own. She was breathless, her chest rising and falling quickly with her panting breaths, her hair a mess, in tangles from Damon running his fingers through her hair. She looks up at him lovingly, her warm chocolate eyes soft, and reaches up for the hem of Damon's shirt pulling it off and tossing it to the floor, without words telling him what she wants.

He leans down, an arm on each side of her head, "Are you sure?" she nods, "Make love to me Damon." She doesn't ask, it is a command. He gives her a simple chaste kiss on the lips before moving her to the center of the bed, moving the hair out her face when she gets settled. "It won't hurt the baby?" he asks, wanting to make complete sure this is what she wanted. She shakes her head no, "She'll be fine." He nods and kisses her again, pulling her legs around his waist and loosing himself in her for the rest of the night.

So…What did you think? Did you like the name I picked out? It took me a long time to decide, thank you to everyone who commented or PM me about a name! I tried to find something that was pretty, but still sounded like a modern type name. Also I tried to find what Damon's mothers name was, I don't think they have ever mentioned it on the show, (correct me if I'm wrong) But I tried to Google it and Google told me that in the books it was mentioned that her name was Maria, anyway, I hope this was sufficient and not to worry, little Natalia is on her way!