"Do me a favor," Selina said to Elijah as she brought both twins into the living room for a change of scenery.
"Of course," Elijah nodded, playing with her hair as she sat down and then taking Stephanie in his arms. "Anything."
"Let's wait a while before we tell your father and Gwen that the babies are born," Selina requested. "I want them to be old enough to at least be able to crawl away before they're exposed to your father. Now they're just too vulnerable."
Elijah nodded. "I can see your point, but you know we won't be able to stall forever."
"Yes we will, if I have something to say about it," Selina replied resolutely. "We're gonna stall as long as we like!"
Elijah sighed as she marched away resolutely, still holding on to Drew as tightly as she could without making him cry. Although he had to admit that she had a point, he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to hold his father off.
"What if I just take the twins to see Gwen and Father and you don't have to come?" He suggested at last. "Do you honestly think Gwen will let them be hurt? Between the two of us, they should be just fine."
"All right," Selina nodded. "I suppose I can agree with that," Selina replied. "Just be careful, please?"
Elijah kissed her and nodded. "I will, I promise. What is it that you intend to do while the twins are visiting my father?"
"Would you mind terribly if I went to go see Charlotte?" Selina asked him. "I haven't in a long time and I don't want to miss a chance to say goodbye if she takes a turn for the worse. Or at least I want to call Damon and ask how she's doing."
"Well, go ahead," Elijah told her. "It would be heartless of me to deny you the chance to do what you need to do under those circumstances."
"Thank you," Selina smiled and kissed him. "I appreciate it. Do you want to go to your father's now or later?"
"I want to at least make the plans and if we can get it over with now, so much the better," Elijah told her.
"Since there are two babies, would you like me to come with you in the car, or do you think you can handle both of them at once?" Selina questioned.
"I can handle both," Elijah assured her and reached out his free arm for Drew. "It'll be okay. I swear."
"I'm not worried, " Selina promised. "At least not about you, anyway. I'll make sure you have a nice stiff drink when you get home for sparing me from such torture."
"Thank you," Elijah smiled. "You're too sweet."
"So you two did have your babies!" Gwen cried when she opened the door and saw Elijah with the carriers and diaper bags on the other side. "After all the time of hearing nothing, I began to wonder. Come in, come in!"
Elijah obliged and brought Drew and Stephanie inside, sitting down on one of the living room sofas. "Is Father here?" He asked. "Or is it just you? I brought the children because I thought he'd want proof of their existence or something like that."
"Well, he's sulking in his private space right now," Gwen replied. "But I'm sure that once I tell him what's going on, he'll be more than happy to come out and join us."
And she was right about that. A few minutes after she left, she came back with Mikael, who looked very eager.
"Where are they?" He asked. "Can I see them? Have you finally done the smart thing and decided to take sole custody of the children? Is that why she isn't here?"
"Here they are," Elijah said patiently, gesturing to the two baby carriers on the sofa next to him. "The girl is named Stephanie and the boy is named Andrew."
"So small now, aren't they?" Mikael remarked as he peered down at them. "It's a shame it takes them so long to grow up and make something of themselves."
"I have to disagree," Elijah countered, taking them in his arms in turn and cuddling them while his father rolled his eyes. "I like them at this age, where they can just be, you know? No fighting, no worrying about whether or not something will go wrong. Just peace."
"Yes, peace," Mikael sneered. "I wish I knew what that was like when we were human."
"Well, we lived in a hard time," Elijah replied. "I think we could have all used a little peace. And why do you roll your eyes whenever I show affection to my children? Did you ever feel anything like that for any of us?"
"Of course he did!" Gwen jumped in.
"I would have said that!" Mikael snapped at her. "You don't need to speak for me, Gwendolyn."
"Tell me the story," Gwen urged. "Tell me of a time when you actually felt tenderness toward your children. That's something I'd really love to hear."
"Oh, all right," Mikael sighed. "If you're not going to let this go, I might as well, but don't expect to hear stories like these too often."
"The snow is going to be coming down soon," Mikael said as he returned to his family's dwelling and shut the door behind him to ward off the chill. His elder two children, Freya and Alexander, were tending to the fire while his wife Elissavetta sat on chair nearby, covered in blankets to ward off the cold because she was in a delicate condition and about to give birth to the fifth member of the family.
"Well thank goodness you got back in time," his wife told him. "You know how often people die from getting lost in storms, how many a wife has lost a husband that way."
"You won't lose me, my love," he told her and came to kiss her tenderly. He then motioned for the children to abandon the fire and come sit to talk with him. "Have you been taking care of your mother today while I've been out and about?"
"Yes, we have," Freya replied, pushing her blonde hair out of her eyes and lay her head on her father's chest. "How long until the baby comes?"
"Soon, I hope," Elissavetta told her. "I'd like to be able to move around. I feel utterly useless."
"You shouldn't," Mikael said. "You're doing something very important for our family. I don't want you to forget that."
"Look, Papa!" Freya cried as she ran to the window. "Snow!" She and Alexander both ran to look and as they did that, Elissavetta let out a cry.
"Mikael, I think the child is coming!" She said. "Send the children away to be with the neighbors, like we planned."
"No, Mama!" Alexander cried, running over to clutch Elissavetta's hand because he was old enough to be aware that having this baby could mean that he might never see his mother again afterward. He turned to his father, desperation in his eyes. "May I stay, please?"
"And me too?" Freya added. If Alexander wasn't going, Freya wouldn't either. They were twins and did all they could together. They'd come with Mikael when he and Elissavetta had married. Their mother, Mikael's first wife, had died in childbirth, along with the infant she bore, and part of the reason for his second marriage was to find his two children a mother.
"All right, you can stay," Mikael told them at last. "Do your best to keep your mother calm and don't do anything that could upset her. I'm going to get the midwife. I'll be back soon."
But just as he was about to leave, there was a knock on the door. Mikael opened it and Ingrid, the local midwife, strode in. "How long has this been going on?" She asked as Elissavetta was helped to bed.
"It hasn't been very long," Mikael informed her. "Her labors only just began."
"Well, you know from experience that this could take time," Ingrid told him. "Find some way to distract your children and if fortune has smiled upon you and both mother and child make it through the birth, I'll make you aware of it."
Despite the twins' prostrations, Mikael ushered them from the house and took them to a neighbor's, where they stayed for several hours with no news and Mikael getting more and more tense every minute, his memory of his wife's death fresh in his mind. Finally as the sun came up the next morning and the snow stopped, Ingrid knocked on the neighbor's door and asked for Mikael.
"What happened?" He asked. "Does she live? Do she and the child still live?"
"Oh, yes," Ingrid nodded with a smile. "You've married a very strong woman. And she's given you a son. You can come and see them now."
So Mikael brought Freya and Alexander back to the house and found Elissavetta sitting up in bed, looking very tired, but very alive, and holding a squirming bundle close to her heart. He looked at her and the baby in the dim early morning light and got down on his knees to offer thanks. Then, he said, "What should we call him?"
Elissavetta smiled. "I think…I think Elijah suits him," she replied. "Don't you?"
Mikael smiled and took his son from her. "Yes," he said firmly. "Elijah. My new son."
"That is so sweet!" Gwen cried when Mikael finished the story of Elijah's birth, a deep red blush coloring his cheeks.
"I—I had no idea you still remembered that," Elijah got out.
"It's not something you forget," Mikael replied. "I'm very pleased you seem to have added two more strong children to our family, and when you get home, you tell…tell her thank you for what she's done."
"I will," Elijah nodded. "After the sadness of visiting her former mother in law who's ill, Selina could probably use a pleasant surprise like that. I'll definitely make sure she knows."
"You've been a bit preoccupied lately," Ian observed to Samantha. "Anything you'd like to discuss with me?"
"No, thank you," Samantha shook her head. "Nothing you need to know about."
"Because you know you can tell me anything," Ian pressed, his dark eyes locked on his sister's face.
"I know," Samantha replied, stepping away from him a little. "But some things should be kept private."
"Is it a boy?" Ian demanded. "Tell me! Is it?"
"I kept your boyfriends a secret from Mom and Dad and now I'm gonna keep my guy issues a secret from you. It's nothing you need to worry about, though. I have it under control."
Ian's knuckles cracked. "Is it that guy whose car we crashed into? Is he bothering you?"
"If he is, I want to be the one to take care of it, all right?" Samantha told him firmly. "Find some other way to occupy your time. I know you can do it." She then left the house because she knew that if she stayed here any longer, she would explode. The recent news that the man who'd taken her in was her and Ian's biological father and had doomed them to a life of human parents and institutions instead of just caring for them himself had been almost too much for her to take and the only way she knew of to deal with it was just to avoid it. She didn't feel like she could take out her anger on Malachai. Not yet. But there was someone who was perfect to fill that need for her. Someone she could find very easily.
It took her much longer than usual to find Stefan, even with the spells she was using to track him. She appeared in the backseat of his car as he drove down the road with a suddenness that nearly caused him to lose control of his car and crash into a tree.
"You enjoy making me have car accidents, don't you?" He asked dryly as he glowered at her in the rearview mirror.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"Just…making a visit home," Stefan replied. "My brother and I both are."
"Can I come with you?" Samantha asked. "I need an excuse to get away."
"Why?" Stefan asked wryly, one side of his mouth going up. "Terrorize someone a little too much and now you're running for cover?"
"Yeah," Samantha replied quickly, not feeling like she wanted to tell the true reason.
"Fine, whatever," Stefan sighed. "It's not like I can make you go away."
It took a few hours of bickering and arguing over who got control of the radio, but they finally reached Mystic Falls and the boarding house. Stefan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he was the first one there and he brought Samantha inside, saying, "There are several room here. You'll know which ones are my brother's and mine because the doors are already open, but you can take any of the others."
"You brought me all the way out here so that I could sleep alone?" Samantha asked. "Well, that's lame." She paused then, a realization hitting her. "What's your name? I realize that in all the time we've spent together, I've never asked. I'm Samantha."
"Stefan," Stefan told her.
"Well, that's not a name you hear every day," Samantha told him and then went upstairs to find herself a room. She looked over them all and scoffed when she'd looked in the open rooms and surmised that Stefan and his brother had taken the nicest rooms for themselves. That wasn't right. She hid her suitcase under the bed in Stefan's room and went back to tell him that she'd chosen a bed.
"Good," Stefan nodded. "Not mine or my brother's, I hope."
"No," Samantha shook her head. "Even though, based on past experience, I think you know that's exactly where I'm gonna end up."
And she was proven correct. Not long after she'd tucked herself into her own bed, Stefan sneaked in, picked her up out of bed, slung her over his shoulder, and took her into his bed. She was half awake initially, but she'd come entirely to her senses when they were both naked, sweating, clutching each other, and making an awful racket.
That drew Damon's attention. He came to open Stefan's bedroom door and said, "I know this outing was about us forgetting your problems with Felicity and the fact that Lucy is starting to pull away from me, as well as the fact that Mother's on her death bed and could die at any time, but that's no reason to make so much noise at night. Do you mind?" He turned on the light, saw both Stefan and Samantha in bed together. Stefan was cursing as he rushed to cover himself and Samantha up.
"Could you knock first?" He cried.
"No," Damon smiled as he came to sit down on the bed. He held out a hand to Samantha. "I'm Damon Salvatore, Stefan's brother. And just who might you be?"
"How in the world do you always know where I am?" Thomas asked Davina the next time they met up. "Do you have me tagged or something?"
"Maybe," Davina replied. "Would it bother you if I said I did?"
"Yes, it would bother me!" Thomas nodded. "Crazy people do stuff like that."
"Well, I have spent a lot of my life in an asylum for the mentally deranged because my parents were humans who didn't know how to handle my powers, so you're not just making stuff up," Davina smiled.
"I'm sorry," Thomas said, feeling too ashamed to laugh. "I had no idea."
"Oh, it's all right," Davina told him. "I made it through better than most of the others."
"Did they treat you badly?" Thomas asked.
"Well, it wasn't like every day was a party," Davina replied dryly. "It was a freaking mental asylum. What do you think? I know it's hard for someone who's got the perfect family to understand, but-"
"I was an orphan for most of my existence," Thomas interrupted. "I just found my parents."
"Oh," Davina flushed. "Sorry," she said. Then, to Thomas' surprise, she strode away without another word, as if, even though she were walking away, she hoped he would change his mind and catch up to her.
He knew this, of course, but ignored it. Even when she began to sob softly, he ignored it and kept his eyes on the book he was reading. But then when she ran back to sit next to him, he couldn't ignore her any longer. He groaned, cursed his kind soul, and put his arms around her.
"What's the matter?" He asked. "I've never seen you cry like this before."
"I just…I just found out the other day that the man who took me in is my biological father, the man whose sperm my mother used to conceive me!" She cried. "He's the reason why I have magic and because he didn't raise me himself, that's why I spent all that time in the asylum when it didn't have to happen!"
Thomas let her cry on his shoulder for a bit and then put a hand under her chin to bring her face up off his shoulder. He wiped her eyes and kissed her. She resisted at first, but soon gave in and they were running their hands over each other's bodies and tugging up each other's shirts to feel the warm skin underneath.
"Where's your car?" Davina asked finally. "We need to go to your car."
"Yes," Thomas panted. "I really think we do." He picked her up then and sped over to his car, pulling the locked back door off cause he didn't have the patience to find the key. They got in and put the door back on, then continued kissing. They were both in their underwear and about to remove those when Thomas got a phone call.
"Hello?" He said. "Who is it?"
"Sam," the voice replied. "You know, Charlotte's grandson? She's near the end now, and if you want to say goodbye, you better come quick."
"All right," Thomas said after a bit of silence once he'd pushed Davina off him. "Just tell her to hang on a little while longer. I'll be there as soon as I can."