The shock in his bright-blue eyes was so consuming, that he couldn't even say a word. He just watched as Stefan's eyes widened in surprise as well, hearing that Damon knew the girl he was with. He was moving his eyes from one shocked face to the other. Katherine had even forgotten to cover herself up, at the sight of Damon, she just froze there, her mouth half open in a silent surprise, her whole body stiff. But she was the first one to snap out of the trance, she pulled the sheet up to cover her naked body and looked everywhere but at Damon, nervously squeezing one side of the sheet in her hand. Damon shook his head as the time started ticking again for him. The moment he saw her face, his whole world spun around, and then stopped, not being able to start moving again.

"Oh, come on, don't be shy with me now, it's nothing I haven't seen before." He tried to play the sarcastic card, like he was always used to when he was deeply hurt and he didn't know what else to say. As much as he didn't want to admit it, seeing her, like that, after all this time, it cut him deeper than he wanted to admit. And it wasn't because he still loved her, the only feeling he had towards her was resentment, it was because it brought back a lot of feelings to the surface, feelings he had been trying to hide with years – humiliation, pain, so much pain.

"What's going on here?" Stefan was the second one to break the uncomfortable silence; the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Katherine was still being speechless, her eyes glued to the floor, like it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. "Do you know each other?"

"You could say that." Damon said with the same sarcastic tone, though he could feel how his facade was cracking up, revealing all of the pain he had kept buried inside. "Come on, honey, tell him." He said the word "honey" with such hatred, that he surprised even himself.

Katherine, though, seemed to have lost the ability to speak. She kept on watching the floor, and not saying a thing.

"Kat?" Stefan's voice sounded soft, his tone was almost seductive, like Damon wasn't even in the room. The woman lifted her head and locked her eyes with the green one of the man before her. Watching them like that, Damon realized something, Katherine and Elena actually looked very much alike, the face structure, the lips, the cheekbones – they had almost the same facial structure, how didn't he notice that before? But the resemblance ended there – when the character was concerned, Elena and Katherine were complete opposites. Elena was kind, sweet, and sometimes she could even be shy, she was always ready to help the others, putting herself second, she had big, warm smile and even bigger heart. Katherine, on the other hand, was seductive, sly and selfish. She would always put herself before others, to save her own skin, not caring about the consequences. Her looks was what she was counting on the most. Elena loved with everything she had, and Katherine… Damon wasn't sure if she was even capable of love. "Tell me." He heard Stefan's voice again, which shook him out of his trance.

"Yes, Katherine, tell him, I'm dying to know the story." Damon was making the situation even worse, putting salt even in his own wounds.

"Oh, cut the act, Damon." She snapped her head in his direction, locking her eyes with his. Fire was dancing in them, which meant, he had managed to get through to her, cracking her façade of a shy girl, full of regret.

"And here she is. It was about time, I started to get worried." He said in the same mocking tone, he wasn't going to give her the pleasure of showing how hurt he actually was.

"I know you better than you think, Damon. I know that right now, you're tearing up from the inside." She said calmly, looking him challenging in his eyes. She knew that she was hurting him, Damon realized, she just didn't care.

Damon clenched his fists, without even realizing it, the anger started to circulate through his veins.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Stefan rose his voice, making them both look at him. In their mutual need to hurt each other, they had forgotten he was even there.

"Damon was my fiancé." Katherine said, and looked at Stefan, the expression on her face suddenly changing. Her features softened and she even attempted to smile a little bit, trying to soften the blow.

"He was your fiancé?" Stefan gaped in surprise.

Katherine just nodded, and she reached to touch his face, the soft skin of her hand brushing against Stefan's. Damon felt like throwing up.

"What do you mean by that 'he'?" Damon asked suspiciously, capturing the tone in his brother's voice.

Katherine and Stefan just looked at one another, and Damon saw how Stefan's features changed, almost like he was accepting something, while a fire started dancing in Katherine's eyes. She has always loved a good scandal, Damon thought to himself.

"Oooooh…" Something in Damon suddenly clicked as he realized what was going on. "It was you, wasn't it?" He said, his voice was as cold as ice, the tone of his face changed in a grimace of hurt, not being able to keep on his façade anymore.

"Damon, I swear to God, I didn't know it was…" Stefan started, but Damon cut him off.

"If you knew, would it make any difference?"

The look on Stefan's eyes, and his silence gave away his answer.

"Yeah, so I thought."

"Now we're even." Stefan said the first thing that came to his mind.

"What?" The disgust in Damon's voice was so obvious, how could he talk like that? Even Damon had his limitations and Stefan had just crossed them all.

"You fucked my wife, I fucked your fiancé." He responded, almost like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Is this a joke to you?"

"Actually, I think it's pretty funny."

Before he even realized what he was doing, Damon's fist hit Stefan's jaw for the second time, crashing his bone with all the force he had, almost hoping that by hitting the crap out of him, he would feel better. It didn't 'happen. He felt Katherine's small arm wrapping around his own, and pulling him away from Stefan. Of course, even if she wanted to, she couldn't stop them, but Damon decided that there was no point in fighting him. It wouldn't change anything. He stepped back, pulling his arm out of Katherine's harshly, and giving her a look full of hatred. At the sight of his expression she instinctively pulled away, getting closer to Stefan.

"What the-" Stefan started, wiping away the blood from his face. "I did the same thing to you as you did to me, you have no right to be angry!" He exploded, giving his brother a poisonous look.

He was right, actually, Damon realized, but he wasn't going to tell him this.

"You know what, enjoy her." He said, the mocking note returning in his voice. "She's a real catch."

He exited the room, slamming the door loudly behind him, in the same moment as Katherine moved closer to Stefan, and started looking at his jaw, a worried look appearing on her face. Worried, Damon thought, she was worried about him. He didn't know what was the thing that hurt him the most, he just felt like being used, again, the feelings he had buried a couple of years ago, surfacing again.

He needed to see Elena, he needed to tell somebody everything, he couldn't hold it back anymore.

He drove to the hospital, his vision almost blurry because of the anger and rage circulating through his body. He pulled over at the hospital parking lot and slammed the car door with such force that he was surprised the glass didn't break or crack. He stormed into the hospital, almost running to Elena's room. He found her just almost like he had left her – lying on the bed, with an IV stuck in her arm, the liquid slowly getting into her body. But now she was holding a book, and there was something different in her expression, almost like she was glowing.

She heard footsteps and her eyes moved from the book to the door to see whoever had just entered the door. Seeing who it was made her face light up and a huge smile appeared on it, revealing her white teeth. It took her only a moment to realize something's wrong. She could say by the look in his eyes, and by the expression on his face that something was seriously bothering him.

„Damon, what's going on?" She asked directly a note of worry creeping up in her voice.

„It's.. " He ran his hand through his hair, not knowing how to explain what he had just saw. He knew it would be devastating to her as well. „I went to see Stefan."

„And? What happened? Did you talk to him? What did he tell you?" The questions kept on flowing from Elena's mouth, she was a little worried about what Stefan could have told him. It should have been her to tell him such important news, and she didn't know how he would react.

„Well, when I got there, he was... busy." Damon said, he was never the type to lose his grammar, but here he did, not know what to say.

„Busy? Busy how?" Elena squinted her eyes in suspicion, now sure there was something wrong. After a couple of more moments of silence, she started to get anxious. „Damon! Don't go all shy on me now."

„He was with another woman, Elena." He said mildly, looking her right in the eyes to see her reaction.

In the beginning Elena didn't even move. She just stood there, her eyes glued to Damon's, but it was like she wasn't even seeing him. Then her features changed, a thousand emotions running through her face – anger, humiliation, surprise, and then acceptance. Damon was so shocked to see the last one, he thought she'd be furious, yelling and screaming frantically. This was not a reaction he had expected to see.

„Elena?" He asked hesitantly. „Are you okay?"

„I... I don't know how to react Damon, how do you react when you hear something like that?" She responded, her voice was so low, almost a whisper. „I understand." She said simply in the end.

„You what?" Damon's voice rose, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

„He was hurt, Damon, you didn't hear the way he talked to me. I've never seen him like that. That's probably the way he lashed out. I hurt him, and he went to some bar and hooked up with a random girl, wanting to hurt me as well." She was so sure of her words, that Damon didn't know how to say the next words to her.

„There's more." He added quietly.

Elena rose her brow, waiting for him to go on.

„It wasn't some stranger in a bar. It was Katherine."

„Katherine?" She gaped in surprise. The shock in her eyes was so obvious that Damon wondered how he would continue, since this wasn't even half of it. „As in your ex fiancé?"

„The one and only." Damon said bitterly.

„Oh my god, Damon, I'm so sorry, I can't imagine how you must have felt seeing her again, like that." She said, reaching out to touch his face. Her hand touched his cheek, and she started massaging it gently.

Damon lifted her head to lock his eyes with hers. How could this woman even be real? After what he had just told her, that her husband had cheated on her, she was still worried about him, putting herself second like she always used to.

„Elena, will you just let me finish?" He asked in the same low voice, and Elena nodded her head in agreement. „Remember how I told you Katherine cheated on me, and I never saw the man's face?" He asked gently, squeezing her hand in his, as he watched how the realization downed on her, and her eyes widened in pure shock.

„Stefan?" The word was barely audible.

„Yes." Damon confessed.

He wanted to tell her something, to make the pain she was feeling right now go away, to make the humiliation of the fact that she was used and fooled go away, because he knew exactly how she felt. He knew all the feelings that were now battling into her, he knew that better than anyone, and he wanted to help her through this more than ever.

He was just about to say something, when her phone rang, she reached for it on the night stand, and seeing the caller ID, her eyes started gleaming with anger. Damon didn't need to ask who it was, he knew only by looking at the expression on her face.

„Elena, I don't think it's a good idea to talk to -" He started but she cut him off.

„If you try to stop me, Damon, I swear, I'll slap you." She said and he decided to leave her, maybe she needed that, some closure, the closure he never got to experience.

„Elena?" The voice on the other line was low and uncertain.

„You stupid piece of shit!" Elena exploded, yelling on the phone, Damon had never heard her talk like that, and he was probably just as surprised as Stefan, because the silence on the other line was deafening.

„I guess Damon told you." It was all the other voice responded.

„You guess Damon told me? That's all you have to tell me? How could you do this to me? How?" He eyes filled with tears, and her voice started trembling.

„It's the same thing you did to me, Elena, what do you want me to say, that I'm sorry? I'm not." His voice had turned cold.

„How long has this been going on?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

„Since before we got married." Stefan confessed, now she could hear the regret and pain in his voice, but it was too late.

„Before we...?" The tears started flowing down Elena's cheeks and her voice became weak. „So even after you found out we were about to have a child you.. you didn't stop?"

„This was stressful for me too, Elena. Who wants a child in college? It was messed up! When I was with Katherine, it was the only time I felt good. I felt complete. Not worrying about anything or anybody, it was just me and her. And I knew that you wanted us to break up, before the whole baby situation came up, and I wanted it too. This relationship, it was too much for me, we were too young for such a serious relationship and you know it. And with the baby, it became suffocating for me, Elena, I felt like I couldn't breathe."

The truth is, Elena knew exactly what he was talking about, because she felt the same way with Damon, only she wanted the baby, although it was a mistake, an unplanned surprise, she had always wanted it.

„Then why did you react like that earlier? You had no right!"

„I was hurt. Even after everything, I still loved you, Elena, there will always be a part of me that loves you."

Elena just hung up, not sure she was able to listen more. She turned to face Damon, who was looking intensly at her.

„I'm okay." He rose his brow. „Really, Damon, I'm okay."

„With all of these stuff going on, I never asked, do you feel better?" He asked mildly.

„I feel.. fine, Damon, but there's something I need to tell you." Now it was her turn to lose her grammar, she didn't know how to start, she didn't know what to say, she didn't know how he would react.

„Yes?"

She took a deep breath.

„I'm pregnant." She blurted out and looked him in his ocean-blue eyes, just in time to see how the shock settled there, and he gaped in her with his mouth half open.

„How?" It was the first thing he managed to say.

„Well, you know when a man and a woman-" Elena tried to make a joke, but he cut her off right away.

„I'm dead serious, right now, Elena, don't joke with me. I thought you were careful!"

„You fuck me without a condom!" She rose her voice to him, tears filling her eyes.

„I thought you were on pills!"

„Well, when they tell you, it's almost certain that you will never have children you don't really think about pills!" She spat at him.

„Almost seems to be the key word here!"

„Why are you being like this? I thought you'd… you'd…"

„I'd what, Elena? I never signed up for this! I just, I need a little fresh air, right now." He said, and exited the room, leaving Elena alone and crying.

The truth was, she had never really expected him to jump out of happiness or anything, but this, this was really something she hadn't expected as well. She thought that at least he'd be the tiniest bit happy. She knew this was a lot for him, he had commitment issues and in the span of 24 hours he had become from single to in a committed relationship to a father. She knew this must have been a lot for him, but still the pain she was feeling right now was more than she had ever imagined. She knew she would keep this child, she wanted it more than she had ever wanted something. But she also wanted Damon the same way. She wanted their son or daughter to have a father, she wanted a family. She wanted them both, but right now she wasn't sure she would ever get them.

Damon took one deep breath after another. Now he knew what Stefan meant when he said he was suffocating. He felt like he couldn't breathe, no matter how many deep breaths he took. What Elena had just told him had turned his whole life upside down. He wasn't a father material, he couldn't raise a child. He wasn't even sure he'd be fit for a boyfriend; he was too messed up even for that, leave alone raising a child. It wasn't that he didn't want it, as much as he didn't want to admit, despite the consuming fear that had taken over his body another feeling was trying to creep up on him – excitement, happiness. The main problem was, he didn't want to screw up the child's life, because it was all he was doing, screwing up people's lives. His phone rang, getting him out of his trance. He had no intention of picking it up, but when he saw the caller ID he knew he had to.

„Hey mom."

„Hey sweetheart." Lucy's warm voice sounded on the other line. „How are you, I thought promised you'd call."

„I'm sorry, mamma, It's just, it's been...busy."

„Honey, what's going on?" She could say there was something bothering her son, only by the sound of his voice.

„It's nothing, really." He tried to convince her, although he knew his mother wasn't the type to get easily fooled.

„Damon Salvatore, you tell me what's going on right now." She sounded like such a mom in this moment, that Damon couldn't help but giggle. He took a deep breath and decided to come clean, after all, he and his mother were always very close, if there was someone, beside Elena, who could understand him, it was her.

„Remember the girl I told you I was with the last time you called?"

„Yeah."

„Things got more... complicated."

„Complicated how?"

„She's pregnant."

„Damon!" She almost yelled in his ear, making him jump slightly. „Baby, that's amazing!"

„I'm not so sure, momma." His voice was low and weak.

„Why?"

„I'm not a father material, mom, you know that. I will just mess this kid up, he'll be better off with just Elena."

„No one is better off without their father, Damon, you should know that better than anyone." She told him and as she met nothing, but silence from her son, she continued. „It's time you stop underestimating yourself. You are an amazing man, son, and you'll be an amazing father as well."

„Do you really think so?"

„I'm sure of it, sweetheart."

„How?"

„Do you love her?"

„Don't answer my question with a question."

„Do you love her?" She repeated, her tone suggested she wanted yes or no for an answer and nothing else was acceptable.

„Yes, I do."

„That's how I'm sure." She said mildly.

„Thank you, mum."

„Any time, baby, I look forward to meeting the legendary girl that managed to make Damon Salvatore settle down."

Damon smiled and hung up. He went back into the room to find Elena, curled up in bed and crying. His heart broke a little by the sight, knowing he was the reason for her tears. He got closer to her, laying in the bed next to her, and wrapping his hands around her. She didn't slap him, or fought him, which was good, Damon thought, he had said some horrible stuff.

„I'm sorry." He whispered in her ear.

She turned around to face him.

„What does that mean?" She asked quietly.

„It means I'm sorry for what I said before, and I'm going to try to be there for you, both of you."

„Really?" Elena's eyes widened in shock and a huge smile appeared on her face.

„Yes. Just don't say I didn't warn you." He smiled, and she chuckled, kissing him gently.

„I'm sure you're going to be amazing."

So, this is for now, I hope you liked it. Thank you for all of your amazing feedback, and I have to tell you, this story is heading towards a wrap up, I don't want to overstretch it more than I have to, so I'm going to see if I will separate the next chapter into two or would just post an epilogue! :)