Author's Note: I'm back with another chapter! Man, I've kind of been on a roll with these. Thanks so much for all of the amazing reviews to the last chapter. I know I threw a huge curveball out there, but everything will be explained soon. This is a really long chapter, so maybe gather some snacks and beverages. There is a lot of ground to cover in this. I'll just kind of leave you all to it. Have fun!
Chapter 13
I don't care what nobody says
We're gonna have a baby
Elena found herself being guided toward the bathroom, Beverly and her friend, Sarah, squeezing her between them as they wove through the crowd. After she'd sufficiently messed up her makeup by sobbing all over the bar, they had kindly pulled her from her stool, claiming she needed to get cleaned up.
Elena paid little attention to where she was walking, too lost in her own world of pain and regret. How had this happened to her? She and Damon used to be so strong. Things were never perfect, but in the beginning it felt like they could face anything, as long as they were together. Back when she'd first found out she was pregnant; he was the only thing that had gotten her through. He was the only thing she needed then. With him on her side, she felt like she would be okay. Her biggest mistake wasn't leaving for Chicago or even breaking his heart; it was that she stopped believing in him.
She stopped believing in them.
It seemed so impossible that this would be how they'd end up when she took him home to Mystic Falls with her. He had been her rock. He was always her rock. When he needed her in return, she'd failed him.
They led her into the brightly lit bathroom and stopped in front of the sink. Sarah grabbed her shoulders and turned her so she could get a good look at her face. "Okay, I think we just have a little mascara damage. That's a simple enough fix." Her comforting but positive attitude reminded her of Caroline, which only brought more tears to her eyes. She tried to hold them in as Sarah ran a wet towel over her cheeks.
"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "I'm such a mess."
"Honey, please," Sarah brushed it off like it was nothing, "If you haven't cried your eyes out over some boy in a public place, you haven't been living." She grabbed the concealer that Beverly had dug out of Elena's bag. "I did this last month in the middle of a basketball game. I was in a box at the Knicks for some work function when I started crying because one of the players for the other team had the same last name as my ex-boyfriend. I thought I was going to be fired the very next day."
"You really did that?"
"Yup, just ask Beverly."
When she looked over at Beverly for validation, the blonde smiled and nodded her head. "It's true. In fact, I think Sarah has cried in just about as many public places as you can cry in."
"I'm not normally like this, I promise," she insisted, but her words might have carried more merit if her words didn't slur ever so slightly. "Things just weren't supposed to turn out this way, you know?"
"If things turned out the way we planned, we'd miss out on the best things in life." Sarah passed the concealer back to Beverly after she'd blended some just under Elena's eyes before she continued. "Because those great memories, the ones we hold onto more than anything, are born out of something bad. It's why we appreciate them so much. If we didn't have to work for it and want it, it would be pointless."
"I wish I could believe that," Elena sighed. Years ago, she might have believed it, but she'd been so desperate to believe that good things were still going to happen even though her parents had been ripped away from her. Today, though, she didn't know how she could ever believe that something good was going to come from this. There would never be another man for her. How could she ever find any good in Damon being married to someone else?
"I know I'm being terribly nosy right now," Beverly interjected softly, "But what happened with you and Damon? If you love him this much, how did things go so wrong?"
Elena looked at the two inquisitive faces staring back at her, the answer on the tip of her tongue. Even though it had been three years since everything fell apart, it was still a story she never told. She could barely discuss it with Bonnie or Caroline. Yet, here she was, drunk and a mess in some gross airport bathroom, ready to just spill it all. It had all stayed bottled up for so long, scared that if she really let it out, she'd never stop. After all that had happened to her today though, she didn't know if she could hold it in any longer. She didn't know if she even wanted to try anymore.
She sighed and looked down at her hands that were fidgeting in front of her and quietly revealed, "I got pregnant."
Sometime after Elena stopped crying, Damon had moved them to her bed, but unlike most nights, there were no soft kisses or tangled bodies. There was a world of distance between them that night, neither saying another word. Sleep never came for her that night and she suspected it had never come for Damon either. For hours, they remained like that, frozen and awake in bed, staring at the ceiling as the reality came crashing down on them. For Damon, the revelation had been out of left field, but for Elena, it had been something she'd subconsciously known for weeks, no matter how much she'd wanted to deny it.
It had started a couple weeks ago with her breasts. One day, she'd gone to put on her bra and it just didn't fit right. It was all wrong, but she'd tried to brush it off, even when she noticed that they were more sensitive than ever. Some nights, she'd had to pull Damon's attention elsewhere because it had been too uncomfortable. Then, she'd missed her period. She'd been on birth control since she was seventeen and she started having sex with her high school boyfriend. In all of that time she'd never missed her period, not once. Yet, here she was, five years later, watching the days tick by without any sign of her monthly visitor.
It was slightly ironic when you thought about it. Every woman complained every single month about her period. Every woman pleaded to some higher power to just give her a reprieve. Yet, there she'd been, begging for it, longing for the aching cramps and bloated feeling. She didn't want to acknowledge what her missing period had meant. She had most certainly not wanted to add it in with her overly sensitive breasts. So, she'd buried it further in her brain, giving it no chance to grow.
Then the morning sickness had hit. Really, it was more of a sickness that lasted all day, but it had hit and it had hit hard. She began leaving Damon's before he could ever offer her any food and showing up too late for dinner. It was only when Caroline cornered her in a bathroom that the words had finally been uttered to her. Her best friend had invited her over to dinner one night and then forced her way into the bathroom when Elena had run off halfway through dinner.
"This is getting ridiculous," Caroline had said to her as she shut and locked the bathroom door behind her. "You may think you're so clever, but don't think I haven't figured this whole thing out."
She had been washing her mouth out and trying to build the courage to go back to dinner and too drained to want to deal with any of Caroline's dramatics. She also hadn't been ready to hear the truth, and she'd told Caroline that much when she kept pushing the subject.
"I don't know anything and you don't either, so just leave it alone," she'd snapped at her best friend.
"If I've figured it out, it's only a matter of time before Damon does. So, if you are what I think you are and what you know you are, you need to snap out of this. Being in denial isn't going to fix this."
She'd stormed out soon after that, too furious to stay for dinner, but Caroline hadn't let her leave without the parting warning that she had two days to take a test on her own or Caroline was going to follow her around for however long it took.
That had been three days ago, and when Caroline had shown up at the bar tonight, she'd spent five minutes practically reading her the riot act while Damon and Stefan were barely ten feet away. Things were tense, but when they'd joined the boys, Caroline had put it to the side, a good enough friend to not out her in the middle of work. Then, she'd gotten sick, and Caroline had started in on her again. Not only did she have to tell Damon cause he needed to know, but she had to tell him because if Stefan found out that Caroline had known and didn't say anything, he'd be furious. She figured she'd already messed with their marriage enough.
So, she went home, locked herself in the bathroom for far longer than she should have and tried to decide if Caroline was right. She'd been in such a heavy denial she still mostly believed she wasn't pregnant. Once she was in that bed and Damon touched her stomach though, it was like the glass was shattered. The truth had been there, she just didn't want to acknowledge it. Then, the test made it fact, not just something she knew.
"What are you thinking?" Elena whispered into the stark silence of her room, unable to weave her way through the thoughts racing through her brain any longer.
She received silence fore a few short moments before hearing his voice for the first time since she'd cried all over him in her bathroom. "Everything, nothing. How to figure this whole thing out."
"What's there to figure out? You don't want a child, Damon. You don't even want a relationship." She sighed and pushed herself up in her bed. She rested against her headboard and looked down at Damon's still laid out form on her bed. "Just because I'm—" she choked on the word, unable to force it out. "You don't owe me anything. This is your chance to just walk out."
He sat up now, turning in the bed so he could face her. His head was shaking back and forth as he tried to find the right words to say. "You're pregnant and it's my child. I'm not just going to walk away, Elena."
"Oh god." Her chest constricted painfully at his words and the tears she thought she'd finished shedding in the early hours of the morning came pouring down her cheeks again. "Don't say that word. Please don't say that word."
"What?" he demanded softly. "Child, pregnant?" He stared at her for several long moments before an agonized look crossed his face. He swallowed deeply as he continued to stare at her like a realization was suddenly dawning on him. "Do you not want to keep it?"
"I'm 22 years old, Damon!" she cried out. "I work in a bar and I live in an apartment the size of your closet. I haven't even decided if I want to go to graduate school yet. How am I supposed to have a baby?"
"Do you need money?" he asked her quietly. "This is my responsibility too." He let out a strangled breath. "Tell me what you want Elena."
"I know that my life isn't stable, and that I don't have anything figured out, but I don't know how to get rid of it, Damon." Her voice was choked with fear and agony as his hands fidgeted nervously on his lap, anxious to reach out and touch her. "I mean, how do I do that? This is a person." Her wide and pleading eyes finally met his, imploring him for some great sense of wisdom. "How do I just get rid of it?"
"You don't have to, Elena." Unable to stop himself any longer, he grabbed her hand in his. "We both did this. I'm not just going to walk away."
His words painted a pretty picture, but she knew better. She'd heard everything he'd said over the past few months. "Give it up, Damon." She sighed and rolled her eyes. "We both know that you don't want a kid. This is the last thing you want."
"How would you know if I want a kid or not?" He couldn't bite back the frustration that slid into his voice. "You've never asked me."
"Oh come on, we both know you don't want to be a father."
"I'm not the 22-year-old here, Elena. I was married for 3 years. Kids were part of that equation for me." Her head snapped back at his small outburst, and she could see the remorse shade his features. "Look, I'm sorry," he apologized, his voice softening again. "Yes, it's true, I stopped thinking about having kids after Katherine, but that doesn't mean I didn't want them at one time or that I can't be on board with that again. I know that you're scared, but I'm here."
"Why are you being so nice to me?" She sounded so genuinely perplexed that he couldn't hide the small smile that forms on his lips.
"I know," he groaned, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "You're just such a horrible person. I can't believe I even associate with you."
A part of Elena wanted so desperately to fall into that easy banter they had. He was giving her an out here, a chance to put this off for just a few more hours, but she couldn't do that. She'd put this off for long enough. Burying her head in the sand obviously hadn't gotten her anywhere. She was still pregnant and scared. No, she wasn't just scared; she was petrified. If there was one thing she knew it was that she could not do this by herself. She couldn't be a single mother.
Without Damon, she'd be completely alone. She didn't have family to fall back on. Her parents were dead; there was no home to go home to. Her Aunt Jenna still lived in her childhood home, but she was married now and probably going to start her own family. Her brother Jeremy was in college in Georgia. It was just her and this baby if Damon walked away and she could not do that.
"Damon," she whispered hoarsely. The tears burned in her eyes when she looked at him and sadly shook her head. "You're saying all the right things and you're being absolutely amazing right now, but what if you change your mind? You can just walk away, no consequences, and I can't do that. I'll be completely alone and I can't do that. I don't know how to be a mom." A sob bubbled up from the back of her throat at the painful revelation.
Knowing she was pregnant only brought back the very real feeling of emptiness she still felt in regards to the loss of her parents. Her parents had died so suddenly that there had been so many things she'd never asked. No child ever expected to lose a parent, much less both parents, at 17 years old. If she'd known her mother would be gone so soon, she would have done so many things differently. She hadn't known though, and she'd never get the chance to undo it all.
Right now, she wanted to go home and cry in her mother's arms. She needed her mom to make it better. She needed her mom to tell her that everything was going to be okay. She needed her mom to tell her that she could do this. She just needed her mom.
"Hey," Damon reached out and grabbed her face in his hands, "Look at me." She sniffled loudly, but lifted her eyes nonetheless. "I get it, you're scared to death. I get it. I'm scared here too, but I'm not going to walk away. I'm in this, Elena—all the way. It's you and me here."
"But—"
"But nothing," he quickly cut her off. "You are not alone. You're not doing this alone."
He made such a convincing argument that she wanted to latch onto and never let go. Yet, there was still a nagging voice in the back of her head telling her that it wasn't that simple. They were friends who had sex; that was it. A child was never going to be in the plans for them but because of some cosmic screw-up, she was pregnant by a guy who practically broke out in hives at the word boyfriend. She couldn't just silence that.
"We barely know each other. How are we supposed to raise a child together?"
"What do you mean we don't know each other? We've been friends for months; we know plenty."
"I don't even know what you do. I don't know your middle name. I've never met your father. We never discuss the fact that you were married for three years. We don't really talk about anything and you know it."
"Fine," he shrugged, giving in far quicker than she'd thought he would. He moved around on her bed so he could rest comfortably against her headboard and stretch his legs out in front of him. "I handle accounts at the advertising agency my father owns. My middle name is Cristiano. You haven't met my dad because I actually enjoy having sex with you. And we don't talk about Katherine because there's nothing to discuss. My marriage didn't work out; it's not exactly newsworthy. Anything else you'd like to know?"
"Oh don't act like you're some fountain of information and I just haven't tapped into it." She snapped at him before she could help herself. He was taking the fact that she's scared and had no plan and using it against her to try and get her to move in with him, even though there was absolutely no reason that he would ever offer if she were not currently carrying his child.
"What do you want from me, Elena?" He snapped right back at her. "I didn't exactly plan this either. I'm barely divorced and still recovering from the fact that my ex-wife just took me to the cleaners for twenty million dollars! This is happening, though, and I'm trying to figure out how to handle this situation, even though you obviously thought that the last thing I was ever going to do is step up to the plate and take care of my responsibilities. And you know what? I don't regret this situation that we're in. You're carrying my child! How can I do anything but want to make this better for you?"
She felt a tear slide down her cheek at his revelation. "You really mean that?"
"Yes," he said to her as he wiped the tear away with his thumb. "You drive me kind of crazy, and this is going to mean that I'm going to have to see a lot more of Caroline, but I wouldn't want this to be anyone else but you. You're not some one-night stand that I thought I was never going to see again. I know we were just having fun and I genuinely do not want to get married or fall in love ever again, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you."
Elena's breath caught in her throat as she heard Damon voice the words she'd spent weeks longing for. She had known she'd gotten in far over her head with him, but she'd still hoped that maybe he'd possibly care for her. She'd known it was a foolish hope, but it hadn't stopped her. Now, looking into his eyes that were so open and honest, she found herself wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his neck. "I care about you too."
She allowed herself to revel in the feeling of overwhelming comfort as his arms slid around her body and he held her to him. That fear was still rushing through her veins, but as she settled against him, surrounded in his scent, it alleviated some of the crippling pain. If she had him, she could find a way to do this.
By the grace of some higher power, she remained calm for another week. She powered through the morning sickness that was in full force now. She'd thrown away her birth control pills, with only a slightly bitter "liars" falling from her mouth as she dropped the pills in her trash. However, this all came crashing to a sudden halt when she saw the approaching sign for Mystic Falls, Virginia.
"Tell me again why the whole gang had to tag along?" Damon questioned as he sped into her sleepy hometown, the rest of her friends in the car behind them. It had been his one demand once he found out they were coming on the trip: two separate cars, and he did not share with Caroline. "I thought we were supposed to do this whole thing alone."
"Ask Caroline; she's the one who insisted everyone come. I think she said something about us all needing time out of the city."
"Well why did she have to pick this weekend? Couldn't we do it at another time when we're not telling your aunt and your brother that you got knocked up out of wedlock?"
"Calm down, nobody is going to come after you with a shotgun."
"This is the South, you never know."
"We don't even own a shotgun." He'd been making these jokes ever since they decided she should tell her family in person that she was pregnant. For days, he'd been joking about shotgun weddings and how she was going to be shunned from town. It had made it painfully obvious he had no earthly idea what the South was actually like. It wasn't really that surprising, seeing as he'd grown up in New York City and had only left to go to college at Yale.
"So, what am I in for with your family? Will your brother try and beat me up? Is your aunt going to come after me with a butcher's knife?"
Elena sighed and thought about how best to describe what he was probably walking into with her family. Honestly, he was probably worried about nothing. Jenna might cry, but she wasn't expecting any violence. However, the closer the got to the home she'd spent eighteen years in, the more nervous she got. What if she was wrong and they did go crazy? What if they didn't just go crazy, but they were disappointed as well? She knew it was a possibility, but she didn't know if she could handle it if her Aunt Jenna was disappointed in her. She'd had two teenagers thrust upon her when she was still just in graduate school and she'd always worried that she'd failed because she'd never be able to live up to the mother her sister had been.
"Just charm Aunt Jenna, she'll melt. As for my brother, play video games with him and he'd probably let you murder me." She had no worries that they'd be fine with Damon; he wasn't who they'd known for over two decades, she was. If they were going to have a problem with anyone, it would be her.
"Hey," he switched his other hand to the steering wheel and reached out to snag one of her fidgeting hands into his, "Everything will be fine. Just keep telling yourself that it could be worse. We could be telling my father today."
Elena gasped and tried to pull her hand from Damon's grasp, but he tightened his fingers around hers. "Crappy pep talk, Damon."
"You're going to be fine. History dictates that the family of the girl always blames the boy. If anyone is getting roasted, it's going to be me."
"No one is going to roast you," she insisted. "Besides, if they killed you, who would help me raise this baby?"
He turned to briefly look at her and smile. "Remember that argument when your brother comes after me."
Elena spent the remainder of the car ride pointing out some of her favorite spots in her town and various memories she had. When she informed him that she had been a cheerleader during high school his face lit up like the fourth of July as he asked if she still had her old cheerleading uniform. It was a question he didn't let up on until they pulled up in front of her house.
"Oh my god, Damon!" she groaned as she climbed out of the car. "Give it a rest. I don't even think I still have it."
"Have what?" Caroline came bouncing over to Elena, a bright smile on her face.
"My old cheerleading uniform," she replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Cheerleading uniform?" Stefan seemed to significantly perk up at the mention of uniforms.
Caroline twined her arms around Stefan's waist. "Don't worry, I still have mine at home. If you're nice, I might show you why they made me captain." She nuzzled her face into neck as Damon gagged and Bonnie groaned from behind them.
"Elena?" The front door to her childhood home flew open and Jenna appeared on the front porch. "What are you doing here?" Her aunt looked confused as she came down the steps to a lawn full of guests she hadn't been expecting. "What is this?"
Elena shrugged nervously. "Surprise?"
This was all it took to send her Aunt Jenna across the yard and into Elena's arms. It was a bone-crushing hug, trying to decipher the words pouring out of her aunt's mouth. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" she asked when she finally pulled away, but only enough to look at Elena.
"I knew Jeremy would be in town for the weekend, so I thought I'd come surprise you. Everyone else just kind of tagged along."
Jenna looked at the five people scattered in her driveway. "I know Bonnie and Caroline, but who are the other two?"
Elena turned to look at the Salvatore brothers, standing next to each other with identical looks of apprehension on their faces. "That is Stefan, Caroline's husband."
He smiled and stepped forward to shake Jenna's hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Ah," she smiled, her eyes swinging over to Caroline. "So you really did find someone that could handle you. I thought it was just a joke."
"Haha, Jenna," Caroline deadpanned, but hopped over to give her a hug nonetheless. "Had to tie him down while he was willing."
When Jenna and Caroline parted, Elena motioned back to Damon. "Aunt Jenna, this is Damon, he's Stefan's brother." She looked back at Damon, confusion swirling in her gaze as she struggled with how else to define him. She didn't think now would be the appropriate time to drop the bomb that she was pregnant. "Yup, just Stefan's brother."
Damon unveiled the charming smile that was a force to be reckoned with in New York City, and as she watched her aunt's eyes widen, she knew that in Mystic Falls, it would simply be kryptonite. No woman would stand a chance against it. "Pleasure to meet you." He kept his eyes fully trained on her aunt while he lifted her hand and placed a kiss on the back of her knuckles.
For several moments, Jenna was only able to supply unintelligible noises from the back of her throat. When Elena was about to reach out and close her aunt's mouth for her, she managed to salvage a little bit of her dignity and choke out, "Nice to meet you too."
"Alright, let's go inside," Elena interjected. "I want to see Jeremy."
"That's if he's even up. It is only eleven."
Damon went to the trunk of the car to retrieve his and Elena's suitcases. When her aunt headed back toward the house, deep in conversation with Bonnie, Elena moved to his side. "You couldn't have toned it down a little bit?"
"Look who's talking." He raised an eyebrow and accelerated his voice to an unnaturally high pitch. "Yup, just Stefan's brother." After his poor imitation of her, his voice returned to normal. "You're just a smooth operator."
"Well what was I supposed to say?" she demanded quietly. "Was I supposed to just blurt out that you're my baby's daddy?" She cringed at the words.
Damon slammed shut the trunk of the car and slung Elena's bag over his shoulder before pulling his own behind him. "You could say we're dating. At least make it look a little classier than getting knocked up by some guy you're sleeping with."
"I don't think you being my boyfriend would really help the situation. Any way you slice it, I'm still going to be 22 and pregnant out of wedlock, with no chance of a ring on my finger. The rest is semantics at that point."
He came up short just outside her front door, a serious expression on his face. "Do you want me to propose?"
Her eyes nearly detached from her body as she gaped at him. "What? No! Why would you ask that?"
"You mentioned it."
"We're not saying we're engaged and you're not proposing because I'm pregnant. Okay?"
"Elena, he's awake!" When Jenna called to them from somewhere inside the house, Elena decided to table the current conversation. She did not have the mental capacity to comprehend what he was saying.
"No more talk of proposals, got it?" she questioned, before they entered her house.
"If you say so."
The remainder of the morning passed in a whirl of introductions and catching up with everything that had happened in the past few months. Well, everything except for one very major detail. Sometime after lunch, Stefan, Caroline, and Bonnie left to go get situated where they would be staying for the weekend and return for dinner. Jenna had insisted that she would cook for everyone, or that her husband would at least. Logan Fell had left shortly after her friends to go pick up enough food for everyone from the grocery store. Jeremy had hit it off perfectly with Damon after they got down to some overly violent game on his Xbox, leaving Jenna and Elena to their own devices in the kitchen.
Elena was helping Jenna prepare something for dessert, which translated into Elena doing most of the preparing while Jenna went about pulling together all the alcohol that would be needed for tonight. She set a bottle of wine down on the counter and looked at Elena. "So, just Stefan's brother, huh?" There was a teasing smile on her face, letting Elena know that she hadn't been fooled in the slightest.
Elena sighed and set the whisk down in the large mixing bowl. "What gave it away?"
Jenna rolled her amusement-filled eyes. "I don't know, maybe his bag ending up in your room even though his brother is staying with Caroline. The way his hand seems to always drift far too low for anything platonic. You've barely taken your eyes off of him since you got here. Should I continue?"
"Okay, so we're more than just friends. You caught us."
"Were you really trying to hide it?"
She shrugged her shoulders before lifting the whisk again. "I guess not." She looked out to the living room at Damon and Jeremy thoroughly engrossed with the game on the television. She laughed quietly as she listened to Jeremy tell Damon he needed to look into bifocals. "So, what do you think of him?" she asked her Aunt Jenna.
Jenna turned to look at him and then looked back at Elena. "He's hot," she acknowledged with a lewd grin. "It's also easy to tell that he really likes you. I'd be careful though. You did just get out of a really long relationship."
Elena stiffened at the warning. If only Jenna knew how late that bit of advice was. She was so far beyond careful that she'd never see it again. She could open her mouth and tell Jenna right now what was going on, why they were really here. This was her chance, while everyone else was gone. Yet, as she opened her mouth to try and form the words, any words, they wouldn't come out. There was no easy way to tell her aunt that she was pregnant. She simply didn't know how to do it.
Although, Caroline seemed to be of a differing opinion when she arrived back at the Gilbert house at 5:00. "What do you mean you haven't told her? That's why we all left, Elena. You were supposed to tell her." To Caroline, it was supposed to be the easiest thing in the world. It wasn't surprising really, she had no filter and threw out more information in a two-minute timespan than most could convey in an entire hour.
"I didn't know what to say!" she whispered as she tugged Caroline toward the downstairs bathroom. "That's not exactly something you just blurt out."
"It's how you told Damon."
"Fine, if it's so easy then, why don't you tell her?" she bit out.
"Okay." Caroline shrugged and grabbed the bathroom doorknob, but Elena ripped her hand from it before she could turn it. "What?"
"I wasn't being serious!"
Caroline rolled her eyes. "I know that." She sighed and her posture relaxed. Elena knew she was being short with her friend, but she was scared. It had been one thing to decide to tell her aunt in person, but now that she was faced with the reality of it all, it was completely different. Her best friend knew it too. "I know you're scared, but you have to tell her. The longer you put this off, the worse it will be. If you spend the whole weekend here without saying anything, she'll just get mad."
"But what if she gets mad anyway?" she asked quietly.
"It's not like you're in high school, Elena. You're 22 and have a college degree. She may be confused at first, but she'll understand."
Elena wasn't so sure if she would. When she came home for Christmas, she'd had many talks with her aunt about the demise of her relationship with Matt. One of the main things they'd discussed was how she was not ready for marriage or children yet. Not even six months had passed since then, but here she was, pregnant by some guy that Jenna didn't even know. Would she really be able to get Jenna to understand the situation she'd found herself in? She still didn't believe it unless she was hunched over a toilet and emptying the contents of her stomach into it.
Caroline was right though, she had to tell her and she had to tell her soon. She just needed to figure out how.
"I'll tell her during dessert. She'll be a few glasses of wine in, so that should be a good point."
Dessert came and went without any fireworks. She tried to tell her, she really did, but she hadn't been able to find the words. Caroline had been more than happy to aid her through dinner, giving far more lead-ins for the news than was subtle. The blonde had a mission now, and it was to get Elena to spill the beans that she was pregnant. It was a battle of the wills as Elena glared at her friend, refusing to take the bait.
Everyone was gathered in the living room when Caroline came bounding down the stairs sometime after dinner. "Let's play Pictionary!" Most occupants of the living room groaned as Caroline bounced into the room with one of Jeremy's large drawing easels in her arms.
"I haven't played this game since my bachelorette party, this could be fun. Although, significantly less dirty." Jenna, with a full bottle of wine swimming through her veins, smiled brightly, up for anything. "I call Jeremy's team!"
"No!" Elena shouted. "I call Jeremy's team!"
"No way!" Bonnie interjected, rising from the floor. "You had him last time while I was stuck with Caroline! I call Jeremy's team!"
"Hey!" Caroline shouted. "I resent that!" She stepped away from the easel and planted her hands firmly on her hips. "For that, I get Jeremy." She smiled smugly and went to sit next to him, but Bonnie jerked her away before she could sit down.
"Nice try, Blondie! Not even gonna happen."
"Hey, Damon's the only one that can call me that. Watch it, B. Cause when I'm paired with Jeremy, I will make you pay."
"How about Jeremy calls his own team?" Jeremy offered from his spot on the floor.
"Nobody asked you, Jeremy!" Elena snapped, now on her feet and in front of Bonnie. "I had to let him sleep in my room until I was 10 because he was scared of monsters. He's on my team!"
"I've changed his dirty diapers!" Jenna exclaimed, joining the two friends in the middle of the living room.
This happened every time someone chose a game that involved any sort of drawing. No matter who Jeremy was paired with, he always won. He was going to an art school after all. They would all fight themselves in circles until someone finally decided that they would play Rock Paper Scissors to determine who would be paired with him. This time was no different, and fifteen minutes later, Bonnie was doing a victory dance around the living room. "You are all going down!" she shouted gleefully. She swung her pointed finger at all of them. "Be prepared to lose."
Damon and Stefan, who were sitting next to each other, identical looks of confusion on their faces. This was their first dose of a game night in the Gilbert residence and they looked like they'd entered the twilight zone. Damon looked at Stefan and held out his beer bottle. "Team?"
Stefan nodded gratefully and tapped his bottle against Damon's. "Team."
"Ha!" Caroline snorted, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead. Jenna had joined Logan in the chair they were sharing, curling up next to him and preparing herself for imminent defeat. Bonnie was sitting comfortably next to Jeremy on the floor a bright smile on her face. This left only Elena and Caroline to choose their team, but Caroline was having none of being paired with Elena. "You don't think I'm stupid do you?"
"No?" Stefan questioned warily, unsure of where this was going.
"If there's any team that would have a chance of beating Jeremy, it would be the two of you. You're with me, baby. Deal with it."
"They look petrified, Caroline. Let them choose their team," Logan spoke up for the first time during the whole debacle. "You and Elena will be fine."
"You don't get it," Caroline whined. "They're like telepathic; they'll kill all of us. I mean it. Stefan could draw a line and give one look and Damon would get it. It's not fair." She ended her tirade by stomping her foot petulantly on the floor.
Jenna leaned over the chair and hoisted up a bottle of wine. "Here, have another drink. You're on Elena's team; deal with it."
Caroline huffed and threw herself down at the end of the couch. "We are going to get slaughtered," she grumbled.
"We've been best friends since before we could even use a crayon. We can hold our own."
"We'll see about that."
As predicted, Damon and Stefan were slaying every team in the room. Not even Jeremy's art skills were able to pull him and Bonnie ahead in the game. Because, while he would get Bonnie's wrong most of the time, Damon and Stefan had gotten every single one right. It was true; they were telepathic. A fact that was proven as Stefan drew a poorly crafted car rammed into a tree.
"Carrie!" he shouted out. "Carrie! Carrie!"
"Yes!" Stefan pumped a fist in the air and then high-fived Damon.
"What?" the entire room exploded.
"What in the hell does that have to do with the movie Carrie?" Elena demanded from her spot next to Damon.
"I dated a girl named Carrie in high school and she wrecked my car."
"That's not fair!" Caroline whined. "You can't use inside jokes."
"You can't talk or spell things out. The rules of Pictionary say nothing of inside jokes." Damon smiled smugly at his sister-in-law. "Maybe if you could draw better."
"Whatever." Caroline rolled her eyes and pushed herself up from the couch. She grabbed the pen from Stefan and flipped to a fresh sheet of paper and Elena stared in dread as Caroline tried to think of what to draw. There had been one theme and one theme only with Caroline's choices: babies. It only took her a moment to think before she began to frantically draw on the sheet.
She began drawing what Elena realized was a bottle, causing everyone in the room to groan. "Another one?" Jeremy complained.
"I think she's trying to tell us something," Jenna said. "Or at least Stefan."
Stefan choked on his beer, his wide eyes darting to Damon. As Caroline began to draw a circle she couldn't take it anymore. Caroline was driving her crazy.
"I'm pregnant!" Elena blurted out. Damon's joking with Stefan came to an immediate halt and the room fell deathly quiet. Jenna, Logan, and Jeremy were stunned into silence, while Bonnie looked around nervously, not expecting the sudden turn the night had just taken.
Stoic, Jenna rose from the couch and looked directly at Elena. "You and me. Kitchen. Now." Scared, Elena swallowed thickly and looked helplessly at Damon. He moved to stand, but Jenna held her hand up toward him. "Not you, just Elena."
"I'm sorry," she whispered before standing and beginning the slow walk toward what felt like her imminent death.
She sat down at the island on one of the bar stools as she watched Jenna pace on the other side, a disillusioned expression on her face. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, struggling for where to begin. Jenna reacted like this every time she heard something from Elena or Jeremy that had surprised her. She struggled with how to handle these tough situations, even though she had been dealing with them for five years now. It was hard for her to strike the right balance between being the only parental figure in their lives and the aunt that was closer to their ages than she was to her own sister's age.
Finally, she stopped her pacing and pressed her hands on the countertop. "How did this happen? Do no tell me it was planned."
"I don't know," she answered meekly, unable to look into her aunt's eyes. "We were safe. We didn't plan any of this."
"Are you keeping it?"
Elena looked up now, tears burning in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm keeping it."
"God, Elena," Jenna choked out, tears now shining brightly in her eyes. "You're 22."
"Plenty of people younger than me have babies."
"But you're supposed to be married and stable." Jenna sadly shook her head. "Yes, you're not a teenager and you have your degree, but this is still going to be hard. Just a few months ago we were sitting in this very kitchen as you told me that you weren't ready for children and the serious things that Matt wanted. Nothing has changed since then. You haven't gone to grad school yet. You still work in the bar, and while it's a good job for a 22-year-old, it's not a job that a new mother can have. You can't work those hours with a newborn. And not to mention you're pregnant by a guy that I didn't even know about until today. How is that supposed to work?"
"I don't know," Elena admitted, embarrassed that she lacked so many answers for her aunt. Even though Damon knew she was pregnant and he was going to remain in the picture, they hadn't discussed the formalities of much of anything. It still felt like a dream most of the time, like if she just closed her eyes for long enough, when she opened them, she'd be in her bed, not pregnant. It was hard to discuss something she hadn't yet come to terms with.
"Well, you need to know." Jenna walked into the living room and returned a moment later with Damon trailing behind her. "Sit," she commanded simply and pointed to the empty barstool next to Elena. "Want to tell me why my 22-year-old niece is telling me she's pregnant when I didn't even know she'd met someone until you showed up on my doorstep today?"
Damon, although appearing on edge, remained calm as he rested his elbows on the counter and looked at Jenna. "The pregnancy came as a surprise to us too. We've only been together for a few months and this wasn't planned, but we're trying to figure things out."
"Both of you? Or are you planning to leave when things get tough?"
This question gave Damon pause, but only for a brief moment. "Both of us," he answered confidently. "Yes, this wasn't planned, but that doesn't mean I'm going to walk away."
"And you're ready to raise a baby?" she challenged.
"Yes, I'm 28 and I have a job that keeps me more than financially secure. I know that Elena is young, but I'm in a place with my life where I can raise a child. And as for Elena, whatever she needs, I'll help her out. She knows that."
"Okay," Jenna sighed, somewhat calmer, but not much. She motioned toward the hallway leading to the stairs. "I need to talk to Elena some more."
Damon nodded and rose from the chair. He turned to leave, but immediately twisted back to look at her aunt. "I know how this probably looks and you have no reason to trust me, but I care about your niece. She won't do this alone." After his parting words, Damon disappeared from the kitchen and could soon be heard walking up the stairs.
"Well, I can see why you fell for him." Jenna rounded the island and sat in Damon's vacated chair. "He certainly has a way with words. I just hope he means them."
She didn't say it, but Elena hoped he did too.
"I'm sorry, Aunt Jenna," she whispered brokenly. "I know you're probably disappointed."
Jenna reached out and placed her hand over Elena's clasped hands on the counter. "Sweetie, I'm not disappointed in you; I'm just disappointed for you. You're still so confused about what you want with your life, and I don't want a child to interfere with that. I just wanted you to have things a little more figured out before you became a mother."
Elena's lips quivered as a tear slipped down her cheek. "I'm scared." She looked at her aunt's hand on hers and then at her aunt. "I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to be a mom."
Jenna gave her hands a comforting squeeze. "I know, but nobody does, not really. You have to figure it out as you go."
"I miss my mom." The words came out as a strangled cry as she lost her battle to hold the tears in for any longer. "I need her to tell me what to do, but she's not here, and I'm so scared. I just want my mom."
Jenna pulled Elena into her arms and hugged her tightly. Her hands ran soothing circles over back. "I know you do." She continued to try to comfort Elena. "I know that you will figure this out. You can do this."
"But what if I can't?"
Her aunt pulled back now, but rested her hands firmly on Elena's arms. "You can," she insisted surely. "You have been through so much and I know that you can do this, even though I was a little hard on you." She smiled and gently brushed Elena's tears from her damp cheeks. "Besides, if you somehow royally mess it all up, Caroline will just steal your kid."
This did the trick of pulling a small laugh from Elena's mouth. "True," she admitted between giggles. "Although, she'd probably steal my kid no matter how good of a parenting job I do."
Jenna smiled amusedly. "You're probably right." The smile faltered for a moment as Jenna stared at Elena. She felt nervous underneath the scrutinizing gaze from her aunt. Finally, she shook her head and sighed, but it wasn't filled with despair or sadness. "I still remember when you were born. I can't believe you're going to have a baby."
"Preaching to the choir, Aunt Jenna."
"Well," Jenna clapped her hands on Elena's legs, "I think we've done enough soul searching tonight. You should head on up to bed. We'll talk more tomorrow."
Elena didn't know what they would discuss tomorrow, but she was happy that things had been mostly settled tonight. Telling Jenna, being able to confess her fears to someone that had known her for so long, had helped. It had lifted a small weight from her shoulders. She was still carrying around a two-ton weight, but it was lighter now than it had been when she'd arrived home. She would take what she could get.
Exhausted and emotionally drained, Elena climbed the stairs she'd climbed thousands of times throughout her life, her heavy feet guiding her toward her childhood bedroom. She rounded the stairs at the landing to go to her bedroom, but when she saw a small stream of light coming from beneath her brother's closed bedroom door, she decided to make one detour before bed.
Quietly, she knocked on the door and opened it after Jeremy told her to enter. He was sprawled out on his bed, his laptop on his legs. He looked up at her in the doorway, his eyes lingering for a moment too long on her still flat abdomen. "I'm sorry you had to find out that way."
"I'm sorry you've shattered my illusion that you were still a virgin." He smirked, trying to lighten the mood, but quickly grimaced, finding no real amusement in his joke. He closed his laptop and moved it to his nightstand. "Pregnant?"
Elena closed the door to his bedroom and crossed the distance to his bed. She reached down and hit his legs, forcing him to move his legs so she could lie on his bed. He remained silent as she fluffed two pillows behind her before stretching her legs out. "I still can't believe it."
"What are you gonna do?"
The corners of her mouth tugged upward. "That seems to be the million dollar question." With a sigh, she brought her hands to her stomach. "Truthfully? I have no idea. I haven't thought beyond keeping the baby."
"What about Damon? Is he going to help?" She nodded her head. "Do you trust him?"
Elena's eyes widened, taken aback by the question. Nobody had ever asked her if she trusted Damon. For months, she'd consistently heard that she shouldn't trust him, but no one asked whether she did. Honestly, she could see why she shouldn't trust him. Damon didn't have much to offer emotionally at this point. The scars were still so new from his divorce, and things could change on a dime. The rationality didn't have any sway on her feelings. She did trust him. Right now, she trusted him more than anyone.
"I do," she whispered. "I know he seems arrogant and like bad news, but he's a good guy. He's the only thing that's kept me calm through any of this."
If she hadn't had Damon this past week, she would have been a wreck. She wouldn't have been able to leave bed. Some moments, the fear was so crippling that she physically could not move. Then, his fingers would thread through her hair or she'd feel a whisper of a touch across her cheeks, and he'd look so deeply at her that she believed he was seeing into her soul. And when she thought she'd die from the sheer intensity of it all, he'd just breathe out her name and tell her that they were in it together. Everything would tilt back on its axis and the world would come alive again around her.
"For what it's worth, I don't think he's that bad. I had fun with him. Even if you did tell him to play video games with me."
Elena gasped. "He told you?"
"I'm a stoner, sis, not stupid."
She leaned forward and reached behind her back to grab one of the pillows she'd been using to swing it around and hit her brother in the chest. "Just because you're all creative and artsy, doesn't mean you have to embrace the stereotypes."
"Like you and your little friends didn't swipe my stash back in high school. You were a mini-stoner yourself, Elena."
"You are not allowed to repeat that to anyone!" she demanded. "I have a reputation you know."
Jeremy glanced down at her stomach and back at her face. "Yeah, I think that's shot to hell now."
"Asshole." Elena slapped her brother on his chest. "I liked you better when I could lock you in my closet and make you beg to come out until you cried."
"And you wonder why I turn to drugs."
Elena rolled her eyes, but laughed nonetheless, but it quickly turned into a yawn. "God, I'm tired." She was learning that exhaustion was another side effect of pregnancy. Well, according to Caroline it was. She hadn't exactly been roaming Google for pregnancy information. "I need to go to bed."
As she was climbing out of Jeremy's bed, he asked, "Should I put in my headphones?"
"Ew!" she squealed. "Don't ask me things like that."
"I'll put them in."
Elena leaned back over before she stood up and placed a quick kiss on her brother's cheek. "Love you, Jere."
"Love you too, sis."
She sighed and pushed herself to her feet, anxious to get some sleep. Instead of going back to the hallway, she used the bathroom she shared with her brother to get across to her room. When she opened the door, she found Damon lying on her bed in much of the same position Jeremy was on his; only he had his phone in his, his fingers flying rapidly over the keys.
He spotted her in the doorway and immediately sat up, dropping his phone beside him on the bed. "So, how did it go? Do I need to get a bulletproof vest?"
"No." She rolled her eyes. "After she got over the initial shock of it all, she calmed down. I think she's just really surprised."
"She can join the club," he mumbled. He looked her over, taking in her overall appearance. "Are you okay?"
She shrugged noncommittally. "As okay as can be expected, I guess. I'm just really tired." She threw herself onto her bed with a loud sigh. "This pregnancy might kill me."
Damon leaned over her, a soft smile on his face. "But think of all the perks." One of his hands skimmed over her stomach and up to her breasts. He ran his thumb over one of her nipples until it pebbled beneath his touch. "I'm definitely on board with this side effect."
"Pervert," she giggled and halfheartedly shoved him away from her.
"Not a pervert," he corrected her, "Just looking on the bright side of things."
His phone beeped between them, signaling a new message. "Have you been working the whole time I was downstairs?" she questioned. "Isn't it a little late for that?"
"It's never too late for work," he insisted before a joyous expression flashed over his face. "That's not all I've been doing though."
"Really?" She raised an eyebrow, disbelief at what he was claiming. "What else have you been doing then?"
In a flash, he was off her bed and walking toward her closet. She pushed herself onto her elbows to watch him. He opened her closet door and disappeared inside for a moment. "While you were giving the whole knocked up speech downstairs, I decided to snoop through your things. See how dirty your teenage self was." He chuckled from inside her closet, while fear crept up her spine at what he'd found during his investigation. He poked his head out from her closet, a purely devious loon on his face. "It took some digging, but I stumbled upon the motherload."
"Oh god" she groaned. "What did you find?" His arm shot out from the closet, his hand holding a hanger in his hand that held her old Mystic Falls High School cheerleading uniform. Her eyes widened in surprise as she began shaking her head. "Oh no."
He nodded his head. "Oh yes."
"I am not putting that on!"
"It doesn't matter if you don't put it on." He emerged from the closet and closed the door behind him, still holding the uniform like a pot of gold. "This is coming back to New York with us. We can't just let it go to waste in the back of your closet."
"I have not worn that since I was 16!" she exclaimed. "It probably doesn't even fit anymore."
He waved it in front of her. "There's only one way to find out."
She could not believe this was her life. She was 22 years old and pregnant by a guy that wasn't even her boyfriend. To make things crazier, she was sitting on her childhood bed, staring at said guy, as he tried to convince her to put on a cheerleading uniform she hadn't worn in years. Really, her only choice was to embrace it.
She sat up on the bed and gave him a pointed look. "No pictures, understood?"
His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree at the thought of her really putting the uniform on. "You put this thing on and I'll agree to anything you want."
She raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Anything?"
He eagerly nodded his head. "Anything."
With coordination she didn't know she had, she jumped from the bed, grabbing the uniform from his hand before her feet touched the floor, and skipped off toward the bathroom. "Those clothes better be on the floor by the time I get in here." As she was closing the door, she could see him already stripping off his shirt. Maybe coming home wasn't that bad after all.
Author's Note: If anyone read the first draft of this, ignore the stuff at the bottom, most of it is just old stuff that I didn't go with. I obviously need to learn to delete things I decide not to put in the story. I think there are two lines that even allude to anything happening in the story. My apologies.