Author's note: Hopefully this eases some of the weakened stomachs thanks to the freefall in the last chapter. Extra plus…I got to utilize another picture from my banner. If you haven't seen it yet, I have it posted on my blog acullenwannabe dot blogspot dot com! Thanks to my lovely prereaders Sherrie and Nichole for keeping me straight! Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 17

Elena called herself and Stefan into school as she sat beside me while I just cried. I couldn't stop. My life was falling apart in front of me and I was more or less powerless to stop it. Well, yeah, I had the power to stop it, but I couldn't at the expense of all of humanity. I could never live with myself, so essentially my hands were tied.

About an hour after he left, Stefan called, letting me know he'd found Damon safe and sound, downing a bottle of bourbon at the Grill. He suggested I come up and talk to him before he relocated somewhere less easy to reach. With shaky legs, I stood up and walked to the door, surrendering the keys when Elena asked for them seeing as how I was in no condition to drive.

My heart pounded in my chest and I felt sorry for the baby if he or she was feeling the emotional turmoil I was currently feeling. I felt like I was literally dying, my body ripping itself apart from the inside out, beginning with my heart. I prayed that the teeny, tiny, newly formed baby inside me was too young to be affected by my emotions, and protected enough that my stress wasn't risking having a miscarriage.

When we pulled up in front of the grill, a new round of tears started as Elena led me to the door. I opened it slowly and gasped at the sight of Damon sitting at the bar, leaning over it with his forehead resting against his left hand. He looked so lost and hurt that it made my heart break all over again.

I moved slowly, as if approaching a wild rabbit in hopes of getting close enough to get a better look without frightening it away. To my relief, he didn't move…not even a single muscle twitched as I approached.

I saw Stefan nod from the far end of the room over Damon's left shoulder and move toward the door where Elena stood waiting. With a quiet click, we were left alone in the empty room as the manager disappeared into the storeroom to do inventory.

We stood there in silence, his eyes trained on the glass in front of him as I just stared, my heart crushing inside my chest a little more with each agonizing second. Finally, he turned to me, his eyes hard and indifferent.

"You're not going to change your mind, are you?"

I swallowed before shaking my head, a fresh flood of tears flowing down my cheeks.

I buried my face in my hands and tried to wipe away the moist remnants, but they came too fast. I felt him in front of me before I heard his voice crack with a single syllable question… "Why?"

I sobbed and hiccupped until I felt a cool glass of water being pressed into the back of my hand. "Please take a drink," his voice was soft and warm.

I hiccupped again, taking the glass from his hand and taking a shaky sip before sitting it down beside me.

"There's no guarantee that we'll be hurt, Emily more or less stated that the baby wouldn't." He started to protest, but I lifted my fingers to halt him. "Please let me finish. If I don't do something, then the world is going to go to hell, almost literally. Family and friends I love will die, either being forced to break the curse or at the hands of Klaus and Elijah if Stefan were to change Elena and destroy their doppelganger sacrifice. If they did manage to break the curse, what kind of a world would that be for our child to live in? Even if I do nothing and protect him or her from this, how long before life as we know it is destroyed and he or she is left a slave to the vampires at best."

I felt relief and hope flood my system as his eyes softened, pain and understanding combined in those beautiful blue eyes that I feared would only look on me in hate.

"What if we can keep both of those scenarios from happening without you doing anything?"

I shook my head. "I don't believe that possibility exists, but if it did, I would take it in a heartbeat."

He took in two slow breaths before tears drifted down his cheeks and he moved to scoop me up in an embrace filled with passion of another flavor. I was used to sexual passion and even loving passion, but this was fierce, protective, and also totally devoted and loving and I smiled in spite of myself as I realized that this was my first taste of Damon the husband and father. The Damon that was going to move heaven and earth to save the world without risking his family, and I knew my life wasn't falling apart as I had feared, but rather piecing together more firmly than ever before.

He buried his nose in the crook of my neck and breathed in and out slowly before finally moving back to look at me. "Is it possible to be living in heaven and hell at the same time?"

I shook my head. "I don't know, but I definitely feel like I just got a reprieve. Believing I'd probably lost you just now about ripped me apart. It would have been impossible to live like that."

He leaned back, capturing my face in his hands and brushing away the tears that continued to fall. I swore that if I didn't plug the leaks soon, I was going to dehydrate.

He let out a loud sigh before closing his eyes and resting his forehead against mine, the scent of bourbon drifting across my face on his breath. "Yeah, me too. It hurt bad enough that I wished I could still shut off my emotions to escape it, but I couldn't. It was getting almost impossible before, but I think you destroyed that option now."

I smirked up at him. "Good. I don't want you disappearing on me again."

He smiled back before smoothing back my messy hair. "Don't worry. You couldn't shake me if you tried."

He kissed my lips softly before leading me out of the bar and back to his car parked alongside the building. I melted into the seat and shut my eyes, my head pounding from the strain of the morning and the rivers of tears. I think I drifted off on the car ride home, as I found myself being carried inside when I opened my eyes again.

Damon tucked me closer, kissing my temple before leading me back up to our bedroom where he tucked me between the covers and climbed in behind me, cuddling to my back and resting a hand over my abdomen. I smiled before drifting back into the sweet escape of sleep.

I woke up several hours later to find Damon sitting up in bed reading What to Expect While You're Expecting, a tray sat on the bedside table with a pile of saltine crackers and a small bottle of bubbly seltzer water. I smiled looking back to see him staring intently at the book, his forehead deeply furrowed in either concentration or confusion. Without missing a beat, he glanced down at me, flashing me the page he was reading.

"Did you realize that when the baby grows it smooshes all of your internal organs inside your body?"

I chuckled, "I assumed it would have to or else the baby would never fit."

His eyes twinkled at the smiled down at me before he jumped and spun around to grab the tray before sitting it beside me on the bed. "From what I've read this is supposed to help with the morning sickness, which most people say is a misnomer. I also asked Stefan to go buy a lot more fruit and orange juice and whole grain foods. Nutrition is really important while the baby is growing. Oh, and I also told him to get you some of those prenatal vitamins. Folic Acid is crucial."

I was laughing by this point, wondering if it was possible to adore him any more than I already did, and then realizing that this was probably the tip of the iceberg. "Thank you, sweetheart, but how do you know this pregnancy is going to be a normal one."

He shrugged. "We cover all of the bases. From what I understand, nobody had any reason to suspect your gestation was anything but normal, so who knows."

I smiled, scooting up to hug myself to his side, kissing his cheek before resting my head on his sternum and reading from the book as he continued to skim. If only things were going to remain this normal. I had to hope that we'd get the happy family Damon was preparing for when the dust finally settled.