~Chapter 15

Elena POV

After about ten minutes of driving we finally arrived at our destination. We had just passed the 'You're leaving Mystic Falls' sign when I softly nudged Damon.

"Pull over, we're right here," I told him, my eyes never leaving the park that came into our view.

"Sure thing," he replied back as he slowly turned off the engine. He took a look at the backseat.

"He's awake," he told me. I glanced at him and then turned my head towards Alex. He was wide awake, with his bright blue eyes looking curiously at the surroundings.

"Momma…" Alex whispered softly with a little smile.

I smiled back at my perfect son. Our perfect son, I corrected myself as I sighed.

"He looks so much like you Damon," I told him in a whisper. "He looks so much like you that it hurts," I continued as I bit my lip to fight back the tears. He didn't say anything, he just put his chin on his seat's headrest and just kept staring at Alex as if he didn't know whether he was in a dream or not.

I on the other hand looked right in front of me and saw that park. It was just like I remembered it, only I could see that it suffered from a lot of vandalism attacks. The two swings which were supposed to be red and green had their paint scratched off. The supposedly yellow and blue slide was half burned and the red seesaw looked like it was the only one that had survived the attack.

"Wow," I whispered breathlessly as I took in the scene.

"Are you okay Lena?" he whispered as he whipped his head around sharply in my direction.

"Yeah, just reflecting on some old memories," I answered back with a sad smile.

"Come on," he whispered again as he squeezed the palm of my hand lightly.

He was already out the door as I pulled down the small mirror compartment I knew his car had. I wiped away a tear and arranged my long dark hair. I inhaled sharply and opened my door. I gasped softly at the sight in front of me. It was such a beautiful sight that a few days ago, I would not even have dreamt it.

Damon was supporting Alex on his waist with one hand, Alex's bag hanging from his other hand and Alex was holding on to Damon since he had his arms around his neck. Damon was busy looking sideways to even notice me and he was also pointing at something, while Alex was smiling. I could already tell that even though my 8 month old child just met him, he seemed to already like him. I crossed my hands and watched the scene as a smile slowly crept across my face.

Then suddenly, Damon turned around and saw me standing there.

"Oh hey, I'm sorry I just thought I'd get him out of the car seeing that you were not out yet and-," he rambled in attempt to find a valid excuse.

"Hey, hey it's fine. It's fine. He's your son too," I replied back with a small smile. Damon stared at me after the words. I guess he could not quite believe them yet.

"He is, isn't he?" he whispered, asking himself.

"Let's get the push chair and then we'll go," I whispered back as I slightly squeezed his hand just like he did with mine a few moments earlier.

"What were you reflecting about earlier? If you don't mind me asking," Damon asked with a cautious look as we sat down next to each other on a wooden bench, which was just located near the now destroyed swings.

Damon was still holding Alex, and I was surprisingly fine with that.

"Actually I do mind Damon," I snapped at him.

"Geez, kay," he replied back in a hurt tone.

Shit, did I need to snap at him like that? I thought. I always do this. I always push people away, I sighed.

"The thing is… I spent most of my darkest days here in this park," I replied back, not really wanting to talk about it. I stood up and opened Alex's push chair.

"The dark days, that I was the cause of?" he asked again in a much softer tone this time as he passed Alex to me. I stared at him for a long moment and he stared back, before I finally caught hold of Alex.

"Yes Damon, those days…" I half-snapped at him.

He didn't say anything back. I just heard him exhale loudly and I felt one single tear slowly trailing down my cheek as further memories about 'those days' came rushing to me.

"They weren't only your fault, although half of them were," I whispered. "But most of them because of Stefan and Tyler. You know how that used to go," I sighed.

"Yeah," I heard him say in a low, angry voice.

"But other times it was because my aunt used to get really drunk and most of the times I didn't know what to do. I didn't have anyone, and she would usually smash half the house and–," I managed to say before he interrupted me.

"Kinda what you used to do with mine?" he asked with a small smile. I half-smiled back.

"Yeah kind of, and I used to be so scared that she would be out of her mind and do something crazy to me or Alex, although she never did, thank god. So I would just take Alex, take her car and drive. I would mostly end up here, since as you can see nobody comes around. Except for some idiots to vandalize," I continued as more and more tears made their way down to my chin.

I sighed and stood up once again from the bench. I leaned down in a crouch to put Alex in his chair. I tried desperately to get hold of the push chair's belt and fought with it in order to tighten it, but I just couldn't get it right.

"Fuck," I cursed as more desperate tears came rushing down.

"Hey, hey… I got it," Damon's soothing voice said from behind me as he placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. He stood up from the bench and calmly made his way over to Alex's pushchair. I sniffed loudly and sat back on the bench.

I watched him handle Alex so good that it was hard to believe that he never had any experience with children, as far as I knew, at least.

The scene was simply mesmerizing. Alex usually cried when he was near someone else other than me or Aunt Jenna. I remembered the times when some friends from her University sometimes crashed at our place. Alex would never stop wailing whenever her friends got too close to him, let alone hold him and talk to him like Damon was doing. A huge smile was plastered across his face.

"There you go buddy," he said softly to Alex with a genuine smile, not his usual smirk. Alex returned his smile with one of his own, for maybe what it was, the millionth time.

"You're so good with him," I whispered to Damon, "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but you are. I never imagined that you would. All those times I kept him from you, because I thought you might do something to him after what happened with us," I continued, while I stared at the ground, playing with my hands.

"Elena… Look at me," he said slowly.

"I can't. And I still can't let go of what happened Damon," I continued. I felt his hands cup my face and I instantly jumped a little. He sighed at my reaction and I could tell that he felt guilty for everything he's done. He tilted my face upwards so instead of staring at the ground I was then looking into his beautiful breath-taking eyes.

"I'm sorry," he simply said while staring into my plain brown eyes.

"I know I've said that phrase like a thousand times, but I'll keep saying it until my last breath because I will never forgive myself for what I've done to you," he continued. I looked away sideways again and this time he did not force me to look at him. I turned around from the bench too and he was then only facing my back.

"And I love you," I heard him barely whisper again just like the last time he said it. I shut my eyes hard, fighting back the tears.

"I'll keep saying that until my last breath too," he whispered again.

I love you too, I mouthed as I felt the tears' salty substance.

A/N: Thank God! I'm sorry it took me SO long to update, but one day I wrote a summary for like 10 more chapters and I lost it! Yesterday I found it, and somehow I found my inspiration too. Hope you like this chapter :) I'll try to update very soon.

Shannon x