"Tyler, you said you had something to tell us?"
Tyler nodded and bit his lip. Not so subtly, he took Damon's hand and squeezed it gently. "This is probably going to shock you, so..." he looked at Damon who just nodded and blushed shyly. "We're having a baby."
Richard and Carol just stared at them, not even blinking. Finally, Carol spoke up, "Honey, I'm not sure you'll be allowed to adopt..."
Tyler chuckled, "Mom... I know about all the supernatural stuff that goes on in this town, and I know that we're a part of it."
"What do you mean?" Carol asked.
"He means," Mason said as he came in, "That Tyler has been turning since last fall." He frowned as he sniffed the air, "What..." he murmured. The air smelled like fresh grass and summer; like winter and rain, like... cubs. "You're... how is that possible? You're a vampire -" Mason stopped short, knowing his brother would lay him in for saying what was obviously the truth.
And as predicted, "Mason," Richard growled.
"No, dad," Tyler cut in, "Mason is right, or at least he was right. Damon was a vampire. We haven't quite figured out how or why, but Damon is changing; he's becoming human."
Mason shook his head, "I hear your words, and I hear his heart beating... and he doesn't smell like a graveyard anymore, but... how is this possible?"
"You... we trusted you with our son... we don't even know you!" Carol cut him off, glaring accusingly at Damon.
"I'm fine mom," Tyler spoke up, "I'm better than fine."
Damon frowned. He knew Carol was upset, but that hurt. "But Mason was right... I am a vampire." He paused for effect, "Or at least I was." He looked up at Carol, who seemed unable to decide whether to scream, cry or just listen. "I am and hundred and sixty..." he counted in his head, "-eight years old. I am Italian, the original Damon Salvatore. I am a confederate soldier, First and Second World War veteran, I have travelled the world many times over, I have four Ivy League and Oxbridge Master degrees, two each, and a PhD. I speak English, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. I tried learning Mandarin but I could never get my head around it. I'm a pretty loaded -" he shrugged, "I have a fondness for football, new gadgets, classic cars and rock music... and I'm forever stuck in the body of a twenty-two year old scared boy who was murdered by his own father." He sipped his drink, "I'm Damon Salvatore, and in my long, long life, I have never loved anyone as I love Tyler. That's all you need to know about me."
Carol stood speechless. "Y-you're a ... vampire? But how-?"
"Do I walk in the sun? Not kill people? Kill vampires" Damon guessed.
Carol nodded.
"Fairly simple, my lineage, vampiric lineage, goes directly from the Originals. My sire, Katarina Petrova, better known as Katherine Pierce, was the child of Rose, who you had the pleasure of meeting before she died. Rose was the child of Elijah, that would be Elijah Smith, whom you also met, who is one out of two still living of the Original Vampires. Now, there is only four of us who can walk in the sun."
"The Petrovas..."
"Katherine... is actually the founding mother of the Pierce family. She is Elena's ancestor - and identical twin, creepily enough..." he shuddered. "She's a total bitch by the way..." he said and did his eye thing.
"But how... did you become..." Carol just shook her head.
"In 1864, I returned from the war and I met this wonderful girl, and I fell in love, or I though I did. Katherine would string both me and my brother along... and Stefan, oh naive Stefan told our father she was a vampire in hopes to save her... but he rounded her up with the rest... and he shot us."
Damon just shook hishead. He did not want to lie, but he did not want to out Stefan either. "I was alone without my sire... It took me a while to learn to control the hunger, but only a few years. I learned how to feed without killing, how to heal... and make them forget, alter memories... make myself invisible. I learned that human food, coffee and alcohol curbs the cravings to a tolerable level... then of course, the blood banks arrived. The trouble with animal blood - trust me I tried, is that firstly, it's vile, secondly, it does not sustain a vampire. "
"You tried not... feeding?" Carol asked.
"Well, when you kill someone, take their very last life blood, you can go weeks, sometimes a month or more without feeding again... it's those last few precious drops that holds the most powerful life force... of course I keep a steady kill-free diet of breakfast lunch and dinner."
Carol just shook her head, "But..."
"Most vampires are evil," Damon said and shifted close to Tyler. "I will not even consider myself amongst the good ones -I know a guy who has kept to the animal diet for 90 years, but he's a sad excuse of a vampire. But few are evil out of... evilness. You see, when you are turned, all your sense are intensified, sight, smell, touch, taste... and you emotions. Many can't deal with the emotions. So they turn them off." He shrugged, "They flip the switch. As a newborn, this is easy. As you get older, you can't. It gets stuck." He poured himself some bourbon, "You see... there is a curse... or a blessing if you will... most vampires die, either killed or suicide, but a few live for centuries, even millenniums. In vampire terms, I'm a toddler; approaching my Terrible Two's. And a few find their soulmates. Most find love, as we live essentially forever, and we are social creatures after all... but a few find their soulmates... and when they do, they turn... slowly, very very slowly, they turn human."
Carol was just staring at him. Damon decided to fib a bit.
"Of course.. I though it was a myth; a story told to weed out the rippers from the those with true potential to live forever... but it's true. For any true vampire who has lived... their deepest desire is to walk in the sun again, to love someone without knowing that they will leave you behind as they turn to dust in their graves... they just want to be human again. To feel their own blood pumping though their veins, to not feel stuck in an eternal ice bath. To live, to love, to grow old and die." He just looked at her tear stained face as he spoke. "And that is what Tyler is giving me. Life. He is making me human again." he forced back his own tears, "I've prayed, for a century and a half to just feel my own heart beat in my chest... and Tyler has given me that. He stood up again and drowned his glass, "I don't expect you to understand how much that means to me... or how much I love him for it."
Carol snapped out of her stupor, "Do you feed on my son?" she asked.
Damon paused with his door on the handle, "No... not on purpose."
"What do you mean, 'not on purpose'?"
Damon flushed and looked away, "Sometimes I... I get carried away and I.. I bite him. Trust me, he bites back..." he tried to joke.
Carol flushed as she realised when he meant, "But do you ever feed?"
"No."
"I've never seen any marks on him- or you?"
"I rarely actually... vamp out... when I bite..." Oh this was awkward, "It's blood or hunger that triggers the.. fangs, so to speak, they rarely come out unless I make them..."
"Can I see them?" Carol asked, looking him straight in the eyes.
Mason and Richard just stared at her like she'd lost her mind."Carol -"
"Be quiet both of you," she chided.
Damon sighed and sat down opposite her, he closed his eyes and took a breath as he let his fangs slide out. He heard Carol gasp as he felt the veins around his eyes fill with blood and his eyes darken to near black.
"Oh my god..." she whimpered, "You're really..." It took a few minutes before she calmed down, "Can I -" Damon nodded. He felt her hands shake as her finger-tips touched his face. He frowned as her fingers pushed on his left fang. "Ow-" she jerked back as she cut herself.
"Sorry," Damon apologised, "They're quite sharp -imagine having them in your mouth. I lost count on how many times I've bitten myself -" he joked awkwardly.
Despite her fear and fascination, Carol laughed. "Oh dear..." She studied the young - old man, the vampire in front of her. He looked no more than his original 22 years. And killed by his own father no less.
This man loved her son so much it made his dead heart beat again - after a century of being dead.
"You really love Tyler, do you not?"
"I do," Damon nodded.
"Would you promise me, to protect him against any supernatural, or natural danger -?"
"Yes," Never mind Tyler could protect himself just fine. "Tyler is- at the lack of a better word, marked. Any vampire will be able to smell another vampire on him. No one will touch him." He let his fangs retract and his face return to his human visage. "Not to mention he's pretty indestructible in his own right."
"Mom?" Tyler did not actually have to ask the question. They all knew what he was asking.
Carol bit her lip, "I had a hard time accepting you were gay, Tyler, this..." she shook her head, "You're not even the same species!" Damon hid a grin. No, they were certainly not. "but... you're my son... and I love you so much. And Damon loves you... enough for his heart... dead for ever a century, starts beating for you..." she looked like she was about to cry. "I don't understand Tyler. I don't. I was raised in the belief that vampires are predators, dangerous and vicious and psychopathic... but Damon... You've been my friend for nearly two years, and you've been nothing but good to us..." she was so conflicted. "But I..."
"I understand," Damon said, "Liz had the same problem."
"Elizabeth knows?" Carol frowned.
"By accident!" Damon hurried to say, "I respect her too much to wipe her memory... so... we worked through it..." he sighed, "I understand that you're confused. I just hope you wont try to have me killed again..."
Carol caught the underlying warning.
"I love your son, and I hope that one day you'll see how much... that you'll accept me one day."
Carol just closed her eyes and nodded. "I need time," she said.
"Of course."
"But... how does you carrying a child fit in to all of this?" she asked.
Damon shook his head, "That's his fault," he said and pointed at Tyler, "I take no responsibility for this one."
"It's a wolf thing," Mason spoke up, "The wolf looks for the mate with the perfect DNA to compliment your own, regardless of gender; it works around it."
"So you've seen this before?" Tyler asked.
"In two females," Mason admitted, "But it was still biologically their baby."
"I can't believe I'm going to be a grandmother..."
"I can't believe -" Richard started, "That we've managed to keep our line pure for thousands of years, only for my firstborn -"
"Only-born, darling."
"-to be mated to a vampire, who turns human and on top of that, is male!" the mayor was rather pink at the end of it, and seemed to deflate. "I'm too old for this..." he groaned.
"Speak for yourself," Damon muttered.
Tyler couldn't help but smile. They'd made it to the end of the conversation, and they were all still alive. So it wasn't perfect, but they had listened, and they had accepted the truth- however much they didn't like it and needed time, but they had time.
The End.