Chapter 26 – "New beginnings"

Damon slowly opened his eyes, feeling soft breaths on his chest. Looking down, he smiled at the sight – Elena, his Elena was peacefully asleep in his arms, holding him tightly, as if she never wanted to let go…Hell, he did not want this moment to end. Kissing her head softly, he tightened his grip around her, holding her close- feeling her warm body had always made him peaceful and calm.
He felt her stir in his arm and soon enough, there was those doe eyes looking up at him, and without even thinking, he just kissed her gently, both their eyes full of love and hope.
"And good morning to you Mrs. Salvatore".
Elena couldn't help but smile at him. She had thought that she would never have this again. And it had broken her to pieces to think he did not love her anymore. She was wrong. There would be no other man for her except Damon. Her Damon. She smiled at the thought, which caused him to rise his eyebrows.
"What is running through that mind of yours Kitten?"
She moaned slightly, resting her head back to his chest, "Just thinking how you belong to me only…"
Damon smirked slightly, "Is that so?"
Elena giggled, knowing he was teasing her, "Yep…All mine…Whether you want it or not".
Damon let out a loud laugh, which cause Elena's heart to swell at the sound of… She had missed his carefree banter with her.
"Okay then. Possessive wife, maybe we should get out of this bedroom before those two monsters barge in".
Elena frowned slightly at the thought of the kids, which did not go unnoticed by Damon.
"Elena, they love you and at this point, I am sure they've already forgotten about what happened." He tried to reassure her, although he knew that it was pretty much a lie, at least for the forgetting part. But he also knew that the kids loved their mother, although Elena seemed bent to think she had ruined the relationship between her and the kids forever.
"You don't know that Damon. I left… Without even saying goodbye… Hell, I was adopted! I knew the pain of losing my parents; I know the feeling of being unwanted and what did I do? I just walked out! I am worse that Isobel…"
Damon winced at the thought of Elena's adopted mother who had come into the light months before they got married; He remembered the time where Elena had learned all about how Isobel had left her behind. She had been broken. Realization dawned on him then. Elena thought her kids resented her just like she had resented Isobel then.
"Come on let's go downstairs…" Damon said, taking her by the hand.
Elena went down slowly, all those thoughts about her kids running in her mind.

Entering the kitchen, William and Sophia were already seated, enjoying breakfast. Stefan and Caroline were already up and had already prepared the kids' for the day. Damon mouthed Caroline and his baby bro a silent thank you while Elena gently kissed both the kids, who smiled genuinely at her.
Damon was looking at their little encounter when suddenly, an idea came up.
"So, kiddos, what would you say about spending the day with your mom? I have this important thing to do at the office so…" He said.

Elena raised her eyes, looking at him intently. He was lying, she knew it. He had nothing that important, she was sure of it. He was trying to help her re-connect with the kids and she felt herself smiling at him, hoping the kids would be happy about that idea.

"I'd love that!", squealed Sophia. "Always the bubbly one", Elena thought looking at her daughter, smiling.
"William?" Damon said, looking at his son questioningly. Of the two kids, Damon knew William was the one that took more after him and he knew that though he could love immensely, William often pushed people away when he got hurt.
The little boy looked to Elena, his bright blue eyes looking at her intensely. "I'll do that if we don't go on some shopping spree Ma. It's just so booringgg." He said, with that infamous Salvatore smirk, winking at his dad.
Everybody just burst out laughing, while Elena let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"That's my son!" Damon exclaimed, giving him a high-five.
"He is just so you!" muttered a laughing Caroline.
Elena smiled at her little family then, enjoying that moment, looking at her husband, only to find the most genuine and beautiful smile on his face, while he looked at her intently, making her fall even more in love with him, if that was possible.

Damon watched as Elena and the kids drive away for their bonding day. Stefan and Caroline had already left by then. He did not have anything to do in the office, but he knew there was that one thing he needed to do. Closing the door behind him, he quickly got in his car and drove there.

After banging on the door a few times, Damon was losing patience. "I know you're in here. Open up before I tear this door down!"

As if on cue, the door opened, with a brunette sending him killer looks. "What do you want?"

Damon felt the anger rising inside of him and struggle hard to keep control of himself.

"Oh don't go all judgy and bossy with me Bennett. I am not Elena, so I don't care."

Bonnie looked at the man before her, all judgy and pissed. "She is my friend, and you are bad for her. She just keeps doing the same mistake over and over again. She'll come back all in tears, just like last time. So whatever you have to say, just say it and go Damon."

"Just stay away from my Family! Hurt her once again I promise you I'll become your worst nightmare. And my kids, speak one single word against them again, and you'll see how I deal with people who hurt them. And as for your so call friendship with Elena or even Caroline, you are not their friend! If you were a true friend, you would not turn your back and spit venoms on them just to prove to yourself that you were right! You would never have encouraged her, in her weak moment, to walk out on her kids! You knew that would hurt her! You knew how she had been about Isobel! Yet, you just gave a damn about you!"

Bonnie winced at Damon's mention of Isobel. Images of a broken Elena came into her mind. Damon's menacing tone made her stumbled backwards.

"Just stay away from us."

Without waiting to hear her or to see any reaction, Damon turned on his heels and quickly drove away from Bonnie's house. It angered him so much to know that she had hurt Elena so much, knowing how much Elena loved her friend. And even if he would not say it, it had hurt him to see Caroline so hurt too. She made Stefan happy and she would not allow Bonnie or anyone else hurt her again. They will re-built their little world and he would make sure that never again would she feel trapped or anything. She had dreams before they had gotten married and Damon realized that she had put all that in check just to take care of their family. It had been unfair to her, while he had actually achieved all he had ever wanted. It was high time for Elena to make it happen too. And he promised himself to make sure that she does just that.
He did not worry about how the kids and she were doing. He was sure that it would all be okay because Elena was an incredible mom, and the kids loved her.

"Hello Stef? Yeah I kind of need your help…Again."

Damon smirked, hearing his brother chuckling on the phone.
"What can I do this time big bro?"

"Look I know not much thing about those literature courses and all. Could you look up any universities nearby? It's for Elena…"
"Okay. I'll look up for that…Damon?"

"Yes Stef?"

"You're a great dad…And husband…Much better than our dad ever was…And a great bro too…"

"Yeah. I know. I am awesome. See you later." Damon tried to sound detached but his brother's words had touched him deeply. Stefan knew him perfectly. He knew that Damon had always had that feared of becoming like their dad – cold and heartless. But that was not the case. Elena had helped Damon get through that and he was glad that she had made his big brother the man he was now.

Damon had been back home and decided to surprise his family with dinner. He was sure that they would all be hungry and worn out after their day out. Elena had always managed to get them exhausted every time they'd go out. He realized he had missed much of these moments, spending all these hours at the office, making money. He had missed much of their family time. And he wanted to change things around now.
Stefan had dropped by earlier to give the leaflets he had managed to obtain for Elena. After some talks with his brother about business and Caroline of course, Damon had been all busy in the kitchen. It was already quite dark when he heard the sound of Elena's car coming up the front yard. And it was only minutes till he heard the happy laughter and giggling of his three favorite persons coming inside the house.

"Kitchen!" he shouted.
The three of them soon entered the kitchen and Damon tried to retain his laughter at the sight of both his kids talking at the same time, trying to tell him about their day. He was understanding nothing but clearly their day had been amazing.
Elena swiftly wrapped her arms around his waist, kissing him lightly, before whispering, "Thank you…I needed that day…"
Damon smiled to her, "I love you…"

Dinner at the Salvatores' was particularly lively that night. Elena and Damon were both laughing at William and Sophia cute banter about how shopping was boring or not. William had complained with this Damon-like pout about how the "girls", as he said, had tricked him into going to the mall for ice-cream and ended up going through every shop with "girly princess-eurk" things. Damon laughed at his son horrified face as he described the long hours (which Damon was sure he was slightly exaggerating about) he spent watching them gawk at clothes.
"Seriously dad, I am not hanging with them anymore. Only with you. You're cooler!" William had exclaimed which had made Damon and Elena to laugh.

After dinner, both kids had quickly fallen asleep in the middle of their bedtime stories. Coming out of his shower, Damon saw Elena looking intently at some papers – the leaflets Stefan had dropped earlier.
"About that..."
"What's that Damon?" Elena looked at him questioningly at him.

"Well, these are for you." Damon winked at her, deepening her confusion.
"What, why?"
Damon breathed in deeply and took her by hands, guiding her towards their bed.
"I remember a time where you would always speak of teaching literature and you would speak of writing and all…"
"Yeah that was a long time before." Elena spoke.
Damon huffed. Damn she could really make things hard sometimes. He chuckled at his own thoughts.
Elena frowned, "What are you chuckling about?"
"What I am saying kitten, is that you've sacrificed so much all these years while I was living my dreams. You took care of our home, our kids while I was out there making money, thinking that was great. I was wrong. And it's time you go for your dream now. And this is it. Now if you want something else, then we'll do that. Whatever it is you want to do, we'll do it."

Elena felt tears coming up. She did not know it would be possible to love him more yet, there he was, offering her things she had in her heart but never voiced out. She stared at him lovingly.
"Baby?" Damon's voice broke her out of her reverie.

Without answering him, she literally jumped towards him, kissing him fully and hardly.
"Whoa, I take it you're okay with going back to university then" Damon chuckled at her unexpected move.
"Yeah. I am. Thank you."
Chuckling, Damon decided to tease her a little bit. "Hmm My wife, the sexy student…"

Elena laughed, lightly hitting his chest. Her laughter, however died, when she saw the intent look on Damon's face while he was looking at her.
Gently taking her face in his hands, he kissed her swiftly before whispering, "I'd do anything

for you Elena. Anything."