Hey, sorry it's been awhile. It's been a crazy, busy for week for me. It's March break, finally! Hopefully I can get one or two more chapters done before school starts up again. So, this chapter is a flashback written in Elena's POV, so it's a little different. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own VD or its characters.

Chapter Thirteen

My Baby and I

I am sore everywhere, it's like my body's on fire. I open my eyes slowly to see a woman wearing pink scrubs in the corner of my room. What the heck, why is she in my room? But, then I realize, this isn't my room at all. The room's white and the bed is uncomfortable. Then I remembered. I'm in the hospital. Wait! Where's my baby? I look around the room frantically.

"Nurse?" I say. She turns around surprised. She rushes up to me and checks my IV drip, that I had just realized was attached to my arm. I couldn't remember much of the previous night. I thought I would have remembered giving birth to my baby.

"Where's my baby?" I ask her.

"She's in the NICU right now. But, there's no need to worry it's just a precaution because you were a month early." I can tell that I have a worried look on my face; I can feel my heart beating a mile a minute.

"What happened to me? Why can't I remember it?" I ask her, I am so confused.

"The baby was breached; we needed to do an emergency c-section." She explained to me. That's when I remembered the doctors telling me they needed to put me under.

"Oh." That's all I could muster at that moment.

"Can I see my baby?" I didn't even know if I had had a boy or a girl!

"Is it a boy or a girl?" I asked a little ashamed that I didn't even know the gender of my baby.

"She's a beautiful little girl." She said and my heart filled with love and wonderment in that moment.

"I'll get the doctor and then we'll go see your baby. Do you need to call anybody to tell them the news?" I was saddened in that moment, but I knew what I had to say.

"No." I said. The nurse had a sympathetic look on her face and then she left the room.

My baby was in an incubator the first time I saw her. She was beautiful and she had a shock of black hair on the top of her small, pale head. She was so tiny and precious and she made my heart swell bigger than I ever thought was possible. The doctor took her out and let me hold her. She looked even tinier in my arms; she fit perfectly there. She opened her eyes to look at me and it was as though she knew who I was, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was my perfect, sweet baby. I felt a twinge in my heart that her father couldn't be here with me to meet her for the first time, but I convinced myself it was for the best.

As I stared at her, I realized I hadn't picked a name out for her. I looked at her for a moment and realized there was only one name that was right for her. Miranda. That was my mother's name. Miranda Margaret, in homage of my little sister that I hadn't seen in years. When I filled out the birth certificate I put her last name as Gilbert and I didn't put Damon's name anywhere on the birth certificate. He would never know. He could move on with his life. We left the hospital three days later to go to my apartment. The doctor's told me that my baby had recovered from her early delivery very quickly; they were a little surprised by it, but didn't admit it. Josh was nice enough to come pick us up from the hospital. He had told me once that he liked me, but I had told him that I wouldn't be going out with anyone for awhile. He had accepted that. He understood and for that we became best friends. He helped me out with the baby's room and he never asked questions about my past life. When we arrived at the apartment I was exhausted and sore. Josh brought to my room and took Miranda to hers. I knew I needed his help, but I couldn't have him get attached to her and her to him. He was my best friend but he would never be anything more. He would end up with a broken heart if anything happened between us. Though, I was too tired to tell him this now.

I slowly fell asleep. When I awoke I started to panic, I had been asleep for five hours and my baby hadn't started to cry yet. I ran to her room and found Josh fast asleep with her in his arms. I sighed in relief, they were so cute. I ran to get my camera and took a picture. Josh awoke to the flash of light.

"Hey." I whispered.

"Hi. She woke up crying. You looked so peaceful... I didn't want to wake you up." He explained. I smiled at him.

"I can't thank you enough. You're a great friend." I said as I walked over to him. His face fell and he looked down at Miranda. I knew he wanted more, but I wasn't ready yet.

"Josh." I said cautiously.

"I know you're not ready, Elena. What happened to you to make you run away from him, to hide your real name, to hide her?" He looked down at Miranda.

"Josh." I said again.

"I know you don't want to tell me. But, please, I know that it's none of my business. Just this once please tell me." I was too tired to argue. I told him that I had a one night stand and that I didn't want to burden him with a baby that he had with a woman he barely knew. He bought into the lie and didn't question me. He loved me and in my weak moment I thought that maybe, one day, I could love him back. We did things like a family would for awhile, until Josh got too pre-occupied with his latest girl friend. I was somewhat jealous, but I was happy he could move on from what he felt for me.

Sometimes at night I would wake up from nightmares, yelling out for Damon. When Miranda was six months old I went back to school. Josh helped me sometimes. When I found my baby sitter, Josh stopped coming over and stayed at his girlfriend's. When Miranda turned a year, we had a birthday party with a couple of my friend's from my classes and kids from my apartement building. Josh came over too, though briefly, because his girlfriend was jealous of Miranda and I, though I don't know why. It was ridiculous and I didn't like her much. She was a short brunette with crap color eyes and a horrible personality. She was nice and innocent to Josh and mean to the other's behind his back. I didn't say anything; it was none of my business. Four months later, I thanked God that he broke up with that horrible wretch. He asked me out again a few months later. I said no. He kept asking and I finally relented and went out with him. When he came to pick me up, Miranda didn't recognize him, but it made sense. He hadn't seen her in almost a year. The date went better than I thought and I was finally happy again. We kissed at the end of the date and I actually thought I had a future with him, until I went into my apartment to find the baby sitter dead. My life crashed down around me and I was running back to Damon.

I woke up from my flashbacks and everything made sense to me again. I raced down the stairs to find Bonnie.

"Bonnie!" I yelled out. "Where's Miranda?" She came out of the living room and raced over to me.

"You remember!" She exclaimed.

"Where's Miranda?" I repeated frantically.

"Uh... she's with Damon." She whispered.

"Damon?" I exclaimed. "He knows?" Bonnie nods and I felt like fainting. "Oh God. What-what was his reaction?" I was worried. My daughter was with Damon. That was a recipe for disaster. He could barely take care of himself, he was a play boy. Then I remembered how much he had changed over the years. Maybe he wasn't a lost cause.

"Meredith was the one that was there when he found out. She told me that he was shocked, but took it well... for Damon, anyway." I nod.

"Can you drive me there?" I asked her, a little calmer. She nods. When we open the door, I saw the last person I thought I would see here. Josh looked as though he was about to knock on the door.

"Oh, thank God Elena. I didn't know what happened to you. I got worried when the police found Alana's body. What happened?" he asked, hugging me. I hugged him back.

"How'd you find me?" I asked. He had a guilty look on his face.

"I, uh, snuck into the admissions office to find your information... and your real name. I was worried. I needed to know if you were okay. Sorry?" He said.

"It's okay. I forgive you." Bonnie gives us a questioning look.

"Oh, Bonnie McCullough meet Josh, my uh, friend." Bonnie eyes us suspiciously.

"Boyfriend." Josh says. I elbow him. Bonnie's eyes go as huge as saucers. But, she keeps her mouth shut for once and goes into her car, I follow. So does Josh. This was going to be interesting.

"So, where are we going?" Josh asks excitedly. I didn't say anything so Bonnie answered for me.

"To the boarding house, that's where Damon Salvatore lives." He looks confused.

"Who's that?" This time it was Bonnie who didn't say anything, she knew I needed to tell him. I sighed and Bonnie looked at me sympathetically.

"He's Miranda's dad."

"Oh, the one night stand guy? Did he recognize you?" Bonnie snorted.

"How could he forget her? He was in love with her for years. I mean he didn't even get over her when she left." I groaned at Bonnie and she knew that she shouldn't have said anything.

"I thought you said the guy didn't even know you." I sighed.

"I'm sorry Josh I lied. It's very complicated."

"I'm smart Elena, I can figure it out. Tell me the truth this time." I sighed again and relented.

"I met Stefan Salvatore and fell in love with him in high school. I'm still kinda fuzzy on some things. I had amnesia for a little over a week." He looked at me quizzically.

"Then Damon came along. He was the bad boy big brother. Stefan was like day; he was the nice, do no bad kind of guy, Damon was the opposite. He was night; he was bad and dangerous. But deep down I knew he was good. He had a tortured soul; he went through a lot in his life." Bonnie chuckled and I gave her a death glare.

"Stefan went missing and we searched for him together. We started to have feelings for each other. When we came back things... changed. Then Stefan left for awhile again. I fell in love with Damon. I left because I had betrayed Stefan and would have inevitably started another war. History was repeating itself. Katherine, a girl that both brothers were in love with had betrayed them both. I had pretty much done the same thing. When I left, I didn't know I was pregnant. In a nutshell, that's it." I explained. Josh looked as though he was in some type of shock, then he snapped out of it.

"Why was your babysitter killed?" He asked finally.

"Some bad people were after us. All of us, Stefan, Damon and I. Though I don't know why yet."

We drove down the boarding house driveway. Josh looked around himself curiously. We got out of the car and we entered the boarding house without knocking on the door. I could hear Miranda playing with Damon. I entered the living room and locked eyes with Damon. My heart skipped a beat and my cheeks flushed to a deep red. Miranda looked up and ran over to me.

"Mommy!" She yelled out. I hugged her tightly. It was the first time she had ever called me mommy, she always called me momma. Damon looked behind me to Bonnie and the stranger. He looked at me questioningly. Josh came up to me and looked at Miranda, then at Damon.

"Whoa, I always thought she looked like you, but now... She looks a lot like him." To my surprise I saw Damon smile with... pride? He got up on his crutches.

"Do you remember?" He asks me. I nod, still hugging Miranda. Damon came over to me and hugged me.

"Thank God." He said. For a moment everything felt right again. Damon, Miranda and I. Then a pest cleared there throat and ruined the moment. I separated, or more like pushed, myself away from Damon.

"Um, sorry. Damon, this is Josh." I said.

"When did HE get here?" Damon grumbled.

"Actually about a half hour ago." His eyes were blazing. I needed to get control of the situation NOW. I looked at Josh and he had the same look in his eyes. War.

"Okay, boys cool it." I said.

The front door opened and in walked Stefan. All eyes were on the blonde hair, green eyed vampire. He looked over at the room full of people with surprise on his face. The tension in the room could've been sliced with a knife.

"You remember." Was all he said before all hell broke loose.

Please review! Tell me waht you think will happen next. It's interesting to read what other's think. Anyway, I hope I can update soon.