Chapter Forty-Three

The Final Chapter

After Ella had disappeared and Damon had regained his strength he had gone looking for her. The others had tried to stop him considering that she had just tried to kill him, but he didn't listen. He had to find her. He had wanted to stop her before she'd left the house, but he'd been unable to speak.

Before he'd left he'd given Elena an earful for the way she'd spoken to Ella. What happened wasn't Ella's fault it was Marcus' fault. He'd known all along what Ella was and he'd never warned her, never prepared her for what was going to happen to her. Marcus was the only one to blame; Damon just wished he'd killed him more slowly. Given him exactly what he had deserved.

He hadn't been able to find Ella anywhere and he'd searched everywhere he could think that she'd go. The only place left was his house, but it wasn't Ella who was waiting for him there, it was Alaric. He was standing in front of the fireplace, a glass in his hand. He set in on the mantel when he saw Damon.

"What the hell Damon?" he demanded, walking over to where Damon stopped just inside the room. "Where have you been?"

"Have you heard from Ella?" he asked, ignoring Alaric's question. "Is she here?"

"No, I haven't seen here and as far as I know she isn't here."

"Then I have to go," Damon explained, turning away from Alaric to leave again.

"Damon!" Alaric yelled, chasing after him. He caught up with him at the door and pushed it closed before Damon could leave. "We need to talk."

"I don't have time to sit and chat Ric," Damon huffed, curbing the overwhelming urge to move Alaric by force. "I have to find Ella."

"Why?" Ric demanded. "Why do you need to find her? What is with you and this girl Damon? She tried to kill you, she killed Jeremy…"

"Only temporarily," Damon cut in.

"What is so special about this girl Damon? I've never seen you act the way you do around her. What's going on?"

Damon sighed, his shoulders slumped and he walked back into the lounge. He'd been holding on to this secret for months now, it would be good to get it off of his chest and he knew he could trust Alaric. First he would need a drink, he downed two whiskeys before he turned back to his friend who was waiting patiently, but worried.

"I'm…" Damon started then stopped. He threw back another whiskey, taking a deep breath. The words were harder to form than he thought. It was difficult to even think it let alone say the words out loud. He still wasn't sure that he actually believed it, he'd been trying to deny it for so long, but there was really no getting around it anymore. "She's…Ella's my…daughter."

Alaric was dumbstruck, he didn't really know what to say to that. Of all the answers Damon could have given him, Ella being his daughter hadn't even crossed his mind. He stared at Damon for a full minute before finally opening his mouth to speak.

"You're the Vampire? You're her father?"

"Yeah," Damon nodded. "Who'd have imagined me ever being someone's father?"

"Not me," Ric answered honestly. "How long have you known?"

"I've had my suspicions since the day we met, but I didn't know for sure until today," Damon explained, he had to admit he felt like a weight had been lifted. "Eighteen years ago when Maria told me that she was pregnant I flipped out. She was the only person who'd ever made me forget Katherine. Not once did I care about Katherine while I had Maria. Then she told me she was having a baby and my world crumbled again. Just like it had when I thought Katherine was dead."

"You thought she'd cheated on you," Alaric guessed, knowing he would have thought the same.

"Yeah," Damon nodded. "I refused to believe her when she said the baby was mine, it was impossible, so I left. I never saw Maria again after that and then I met Ella. Straight away I felt connected to her, even as she stood there screaming at me. I had to protect her. It was confusing at first; I didn't know why I felt that way. She looked familiar, but I knew I'd never met her before. Then that night when we were all at her house I stayed all night, I couldn't leave and that's when I saw it. A picture of her mother, Maria holding a baby I knew was Ella and I realised that this was the baby who had broken us up and I knew that the woman I had once loved was dead. I swore then that I'd protect Ella, she was innocent and she was Maria's. I knew there was also the smallest of possibilities that she was mine, I felt like she was and then Marcus confirmed what I'd been struggling to believe. I'm Ella's father, I have a daughter Ric."

"Wow," Alaric breathed. He snatched a glass from the sideboard and filled it with a double measure before throwing it back. "Kinda makes sense thought, some of the expressions she pulls…I just thought she'd been spending too much time with you and you were starting to rub off on her. Now I guess it's just because she's your daughter."

"She has my hair," Damon pointed out. "Maria's was brown."

Alaric was stunned again by his friend. His expression was so full of love and pride, it was nothing like the Damon he'd come to know and it made him speechless. He'd had no idea his friend was capable of such emotions. He truly loved Ella even though she'd just tried to kill him.

"Are you going to tell her?" Ric asked.

"I don't know," Damon sighed, his happy expression vanishing. "Would you want to know I was your father?"

"I think she has a right to know Damon. It might actually stop her from trying to kill you for killing her other father."

"She was upset," Damon shrugged off the comment. "Marcus was all sorts of evil, but he had still taken care of her her whole life, she still had happy memories. You can't just erase all that love in seconds. I hated my father for what he was, how he treated me and what he did to Katherine, but I was still upset when Stefan killed him. All I'd ever wanted was for him to be proud to have me as a son."

"So you don't think she'll try again? To kill you I mean."

"We won't know until we find her, will we?"

Damon was about to turn to leave again when Stefan appeared at the entrance to the room. His expression was grave and Alaric's heart flew into his throat. Damon too looked worried, but Alaric knew it would be for a different reason, a different person.

"What's wrong? Is it Jeremy?" Ric demanded when Stefan didn't speak.

"Jeremy's fine," Stefan assured him. "He woke up and then Elena took him home."

"Then what is it?" Damon asked impatiently. His fingers had clenched into fists at his side.

"There was a note waiting for Jeremy when he got home," Stefan explained. "She wrote it to say goodbye. Ella's gone."

THE END

A/N: Well I hope everyone has enjoyed this story. Well done to those who guessed that Damon was Ella's father, you were right. I also have some good news, or what I hope is good news, there will be a sequel to this fic. Set in the same universe, but I'm giving nothing away. Ella might be back, but she might not. The fic will be called Hell Hath No Fury and I hope you will all read it. Thanks again xxx

The first chapter of the second Fic in this series Hell Hath No Fury has now been uploaded