Elena gave the mattress a gentle pat as she smoothed the sheet down over Bryce. Without looking up, she could feel three sets of worried eyes turned her way. "My initials look great."

"What?" Her godson gave his first giggle since the accident.

"My initials." She pointed down close to his hip. "All surgeons leave them. It's kind of like a signature for when we're especially proud of our work."

Elena glanced up, happy to see a hint of a smile on Jo's face. Even after Bryce seemed to be in the clear, her friend hadn't seemed to relax in the slightest. As far as she'd been able to tell, Jo was still blaming herself for agreeing to take an extra shift at the hospital instead of accompanying the family to the parade. No one had been able to convince her otherwise. But Elena knew the truth—nothing would have stopped Bryce from jogging after the candy—and Jo didn't need the memory of Bryce lying almost lifeless in the snow.

That image was all Elena could see when she closed her eyes.

"Mom?" Bryce shifted up onto his elbow, looking to Jo for confirmation.

Jo grinned. "Only the best surgeons leave their initials."

"You didn't." Bryce threw off the sheet and tugged up the hem of his hospital gown. His eyes widened at the bandaged area before he stared at Elena in shock. "Will they always be there?"

Alaric's laughter ended the fun.

Bryce looked between the three adults surrounding his bed before collapsing in apparent relief. "You didn't really…"

"Nope." Elena smoothed the sheet one more time. "No initials. But everything really is healing well. You'll be home before you know it."

"By tonight?"

Elena forced a cheerful grin. "Santa may have to make a stop at the hospital this year."

"But—" His lip started to quiver, striking Elena in the gut. He hadn't complained a single time since the surgery. Hearing that he'd have to spend Christmas in the hospital was what pushed him over the edge. A tear formed in the corner of his eye, and he rapidly blinked it away.

"Santa won't forget to come." Thankfully, Alaric answered Bryce, saving Elena. His voice was thick and unusually rough. "If your doctor says it's okay, we can even bring a little tree to put on the table over there." He pointed at the table already covered by a number of get well cards and balloon bouquets.

A knock sounded at the door before Elena could answer. She turned to see an unfamiliar man wearing a white jacket leaning into the room.

"Do you need something Doctor Price?" Jo looked at her boss in surprise. Elena didn't blame her. Once Bryce had been injured, Jo had immediately taken a week's vacation.

Dr. Price leveled a finger in Elena's direction. "I just need to talk to her."

Elena's stomach dropped. She'd been waiting for this. Even though she'd been asked to do the surgery, part of her was still waiting for some type of meeting where she'd be reprimanded for performing a surgery at a hospital she had no official relationship with. "I'll see you later, Bryce."

"Bye Elena." By the sound of his voice, he was already falling under the spell of the new hand-held game that Alaric had been ordered not to buy for him but somehow ended up on Bryce's bedside anyway.

Elena followed Dr. Price into the near-empty corridor. With less than twenty-four hours until Christmas, all the patients who could safely be sent home were gone, leaving the pediatric ward oddly quiet. Only one nurse, a few aides, and the unit secretary seemed to be staffing the area. As Dr. Price walked past the nurses' station, Elena thought she felt sympathetic glances being cast her direction.

The muscles in her neck immediately grew tense. She hadn't been subject to any kind of disciplinary action since…she paused…she'd never been subject to a disciplinary hearing. Her boss back home was going to be furious. But she didn't regret her decision. If she hadn't been there, her godson wouldn't be in the hospital bed right now. Alaric and Jo would be planning a funeral instead of trying to figure out how to smuggle a Christmas tree into his hospital room.

She wouldn't do anything differently.

Dr. Price stood next to the staff elevator, pressing the button to go down. He wasn't a big man, and he wasn't overly intimidating—not like the chief of staff back in Atlanta. Still, there was something about him that made her feel the gravity of the situation. Would a little small talk kill him?

The elevator door opened with a soft ding, and he stepped inside. Elena followed. It smelled like fresh paint, and the carpet looked new. "Part of the remodel?" She couldn't help it. Even if he didn't want to talk, she couldn't stand the silence.

"Yes." He looked around the elevator, nodding. "Almost this whole wing is new."

That explained the monitors in Bryce's room. Very high-tech. The med students would drool if they got a chance to work with them. The equipment Elena worked with on a day to day basis was considered dated at best. More realistically, most of it would probably be described as out of date.

The doors opened almost silently, and Elena followed Dr. Price into a hallway she'd been down once before. If she turned right, she'd be close to Jo's office, but they continued going straight. At the very end of the hallway, Dr. Price paused in front of a closed door. He opened it and waved Elena in first. "After you."

He didn't speak until he was settled in the chair behind his desk, and Elena was seated in a lime green leather chair that was so out of date it might actually be new. He sighed before folding his hands together, his index fingers pointing toward the sky. "I need to talk to you about the surgery on that patient."

"Doctor Price, I really didn't have a choice."

He held a hand up, signaling her to stop talking. "I'm not here to reprimand you, if that's what you're thinking." He shook his head, giving a deep laugh. "Just the opposite. I've talked to a few people who were in that room with you. They all agreed they weren't sure if anyone else could have saved Bryce." He leveled his eyes at her. "And I'm awfully fond of that little guy."

"So am I."

Dr. Price interrupted before she could continue. "I'm fond of all the children in Mystic Falls. All the rest of the residents too, for that matter." He paused, shifting forward in his chair. "If I'm not mistaken, you grew up here. Isn't that right?"

"Yes." Elena nodded, a wave of nostalgia trying to wash over her. "In fact, this office used to belong to my dad."

That surprised the chief of staff. He cocked his head to the side and blinked. "I didn't make the connection. But now it makes sense. Of course Grayson Gilbert's daughter would become the best trauma surgeon I've ever seen in action."

"You…saw me?" Now it was Elena who was caught off-guard.

"Only briefly." He pulled a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket and placed them on the bridge of his nose. "It was busy here yesterday. I haven't worked trauma in a while, but when we're overwhelmed, no one has a day off."

Elena fought the desire to laugh. She couldn't picture Russell pulling a shift in the OR. He was too fond of his paperwork and schedules and budget to be bothered by something like actually practicing medicine. "That's impressive."

"Mmm hmm." He nodded again, distracted by something on the paper he held in front of him. "From what Jo tells me, you've been gone almost ten years."

Elena did the math in her head. "Something like that."

"The population here has doubled in that length of time. We're the new hot place to live, apparently."

"Yeah, I remember Stefan saying something about that." He'd found it so funny that he sent the a copy of the article to them through the mail. Her heart had stopped in her chest when she saw the legal-sized envelope, certain that it contained the papers that now resided in the side pocket of her overnight bag.

"And I'm sure you've noticed the expansion at the hospital."

"Hard not to. Not with how hard it is to find a parking place around here." Riding a golf card from the remote parking lot through almost six inches of snow was far from Elena's favorite way to get to work. Of course, if she worked here, she'd have one of the coveted parking passes that hung from Jo's rear-view mirror.

He stacked the papers in his hands. Elena had to wonder what was so engrossing that he kept glancing away during their rather odd discussion. Finally, he cleared his throat and slid the entire stack to her. "The population growth is causing issues for us here. We had an independent audit done." He frowned. "We didn't fare as well as we'd expected. The auditor found one major issue—we don't have anyone skilled in working with pediatric trauma. Not at the level we need for a community as large as ours." He glanced down at the report. "You can look it over."

Curious, Elena took hold of the stack of papers. She tried to mask her confusion. "Are you wanting my suggestions?"

"I'm wanting you to come work for me." He didn't try to couch his offer in any type of pleasantries. His steely gaze locked on hers. "When I came here, I said I'd make this hospital competitive with any other one in the country. I've succeeded. Except in one area." His index finger tapped the paper work. "I need you—not someone like you. You. And I have the feeling you'd like to be close to Jo's kids."

Elena sat frozen by shock. When she could finally move, she glanced down at the pages he'd handed her. The audit. The one that identified the need for someone who could do her job. "I don't know what to say."

He stood up, reached across the desk, and held out his hand to shake hers. "Don't say anything now. Go home. Enjoy Christmas Eve. You'll be here a few more days, right? Get in touch with me then. Or wait until New Year's. I don't mind waiting."

And with the handshake, the unexpected meeting was over.

Damon sat in the chair closest to the hearth, swirling his glass of scotch. He wasn't sure when Stefan stopped keeping whiskey in the house, but he'd remember the lack of his favorite beverage for next time.

What next time?

It was hard enough to be here now, listening to the happy buzz in the kitchen. Caroline and Stefan were laughing at something Bonnie had said. Jeremy teased his wife, but Damon couldn't quite make out the words. From the sound of things, even Elena was joining in.

He hadn't seen her smile in too long. Probably months. Definitely not until she was back home here with her friends and family. Their friends and family. The people who'd definitely make certain he knew just how disappointed they were to hear that he and Elena hadn't been able to keep going. She was right.

Damn, she was always right.

No matter how much he'd wanted to get the whole divorce thing out in the open, it would have cast a chill on the celebration. Even if he hadn't wanted to step on her heels tonight in the kitchen, he had to admit he was enjoying himself…despite being fully aware this was all pretend.

When he'd slid his arm around her waist walking into the dining room, the act was so warm. So familiar. If he closed his eyes, he could easily pretend it was a year ago when the whispers he tickled into her ear weren't meant for polite company instead of just being yet another act of camouflage. They even seemed to be tricking Caroline now. Or maybe everyone else was trying too hard to keep Ric and Torey distracted, so they didn't have time to pay attention to what might be going wrong between him and Elena.

"Hiding in here so you don't have to do the dishes?" At some point over the last few minutes, Ric had appeared in the room. Damon hadn't noticed.

"I thought you were on Torey-duty." Damon needed to get Ric out of the room. If anyone was going to see through his act, it would be Ric.

Ric poured a glass of scotch for himself, but didn't move to settle into a seat on the couch. "Nope. Elena's got her. They're playing with Play-dough."

"I thought she'd like that. That's why I got her the multi-pack."

"You both did." Ric's eyes fixed on Damon's with a look he couldn't quite decipher. "You each gave her the exact same gift. Just like you both gave Stefan the same headphones."

Damon attempted a laugh. "Next time we'll have to shop together and not just talk about what we're getting everyone."

Ric wasn't buying it. He could tell by the rigid posture of his friend's back and the way he clenched his hand around the tumbler. "Why don't you come outside with me? I have something I need help getting out of the shed." Ric's voice said turning him down wasn't an option.

Damon turned back toward the kitchen. Stefan and Caroline didn't own a shed.

"Are you coming?" Ric's voice was more stern…more like what Damon imagined he probably sounded like when he was teaching high school history.

Damon down the last few swallows of his drink and placed it on a coaster on the table next to him. He slowly stood, feeling more like he was headed to a date with a firing squad than heading to a chat with his best friend.

Ric didn't say anything until they were outside.

Far outside.

When Ric walked out from under the covered patio, continued beyond the row of cars parked in the circle drive, and headed to the tree line; Damon was thankful the snow had finally stopped. Now the moonlight reflected off the white blanket, giving everything the glow he'd typically expect of an early morning. With the bright stars shining in the velvet-black sky, it was almost romantic. When they last lived here, he'd have taken Elena's hand and pulled her outside. They would have sat on the back of her car, watching for a falling star…or maybe not watching anything at all.

That was then.

Now Damon suspected he was about to have the singular conversation he didn't want to have, especially not on Christmas Eve. When Ric was so deep in the woods, no one would hear them—not even if the conversation turned into more of an argument than a discussion, he finally turned back to face Damon.

"Were you planning on telling us?" Ric definitely sounded like a protective guardian and not a best friend.

"Telling you what?"

Ric frowned, looking far older than Damon had ever seen him. "Don't try to deny it. When Bryce got hurt, she yelled for Jeremy—not you. Tonight, she practically hit the ceiling when you touched her shoulder." Ric waited for Damon to deny it, but he couldn't. In fact, he was surprised at the way an invisible weight seemed to slide off his shoulders. "How bad is it? You two still living together?"

"Nope." Now it was out in the universe. Somehow it seemed fitting. Ric was the first person Damon told when he was planning to propose to Elena. And he was the first person who knew that the marriage was over. Definitely not the kind of full circle he'd ever planned.

Ric took a deep breath and scrubbed the stubble on his chin. "Promise me you didn't cheat on her."

Damon felt himself bristle. "You know me better than that."

"I thought I did." Ric looked at him without blinking, his hand balled into a fist at his side. Damon had the strong suspicion that if Ric had believed Damon was lying to him, he'd be lying in the snow right now after getting intimately acquainted with Ric's right hook. "Of course, I also thought the two of you were made for each other."

"Sometimes…things just don't work out."

"What happened?"

Now it was Damon's turn for the long breath. He'd asked himself the same question more sleepless nights than he liked to admit. As much as he wanted to pretend he didn't know, that would be a lie.

"Damon?"

"The baby was due tomorrow." God, he didn't expect to choke up just saying the words. "We laughed about the timing. I mean, what kid wants a Christmas birthday? I'd driven her crazy—coming up with every Christmas name you can imagine. Like the planning was her fault. One day, she slipped and fell leaving work. She got checked out. Everybody said she was fine. I think…I think she knew. She asked me to go to the doctor's office with her. She never did that." Damon tried to stop, but once he got started, the words kept flowing…words he should have said to Elena, but he was saying them to Ric instead. "No heartbeat. Her doctor said it wasn't her fault. Sometimes things just go wrong. But something broke that day. We broke that day. Neither one of us knew how to fix it."

"So you just left?"

"It was better than arguing all the time." That's what Damon kept promising himself.

"And that's why she doesn't know about the bar."

"Yep."

"Is it final yet?"

Damon pursed his lips and stared down at his shoes. He dragged a toe through the almost pristine snow. "Not yet. But I think Elena has the papers with her. Knowing her, she's planning on giving them to me for Christmas."

"Because she thinks you want it?"

"Because I know she does. Even if she doesn't say it." And then it would be done. He still didn't know what to do with himself. He hated the idea of starting over, but he couldn't see himself staying in Atlanta. The idea of running into her at their favorite coffee shop or the grocery store or just the gas station. He just couldn't do it.

"Have you thought about coming back here?"

"What?"

Ric adjusted the collar of his coat around his neck. He glanced to the side, staring back toward the house, checking to see if they were still alone. "Matt and I were just talking last week. I want to cut back my hours. He's wanting to go back to school. We need someone else."

"You're not busy enough for three managers."

Ric raised an eyebrow. "We're about to buy the building next door. Almost doubling the size of the place. I don't know anyone else I'd rather have working with me."

"The guy who divorced your step-daughter."

"My friend." Ric clapped Damon on the shoulder, nodding toward the house. The front door stood open, and Torrey bounced on her tiptoes. "I think someone wants to go home so that Santa can come." Ric started walking back to the house, but he turned and looked over his shoulder. "But think about my offer. You're always welcome back here."

Author's note: Well, this chapter turned into the chapter that just wouldn't end. We've had massive weather issues the last few nights, and that's when I do my writing. I'd planned to wrap the story up with this chapter, but I didn't want to delay any longer. There will be one more chapter—hopefully posted later this week. I do plan to have a short epilogue as well.

Thanks for sticking with me.