"Da-da," small feet, with five small fingers attached to each, tap over the hardwood floor of the living room, repeating the word "da-da" countless of times, until she finally reaches for her father on the other side of them room. She raises her hands and wiggles her fingers in the air, gesturing for him to take her in his arms.
He puts his hands around her small waist, gently clenching his fingers around it, and lifts her in his arms. "Hey there princess," he kisses her red cheek, maybe from all the walking she did, or maybe it's the natural blush she inherited from her mother.
She feels so small in his arms, she's still a baby, one year and two months old. There are small, light curls hanging around her face, touching her burning cheeks, her dark, brown hair giving a nice contrast to her leaf green eyes. Her nose is the size of a tip on his little finger, and her mouth are drawn into a long, thin line, looking especially beautiful when she smiles, with a little help of its cherry red color.
"Lizzy?" Elena says her daughters name in the form of a question. When the baby doesn't answer back, which mostly always she does, even if it is with a gurgle, she always has some reaction to her name being called out, Elena calls for her one more time, "Lizzy," Stefan hears his wives voice coming out of the kitchen.
"Did you run away from mommy?" he chuckles at his daughter, removing the locks from her face. She giggles at him, pinching his nose with her little fingers.
"Lizzy," Elena keeps calling her name, each time more desperately, and Stefan can hear her footsteps getting closer.
"Should we tell mommy you're safe?" he cocks his eyebrow in his daughters direction and she watches the way his lips move carefully, "Or should we let her sweat a little more?" he smirks and Lizzy giggles at his face expression like she's approving of his idea. She taps her palms against his cheeks, feeling his cheekbones with her fingertips.
"Elizabeth!" she calls for her daughter helplessly, approaching the living room with fast step.
She enters the living room and her look falls on her daughter in her husbands arms. She's exploring his face like she's seeing it for the first time, trying to reach for his hair, tugging onto the hem of his shirt while he's trying to keep the untamed hair out of her eyes and wipe the drool off of her lips. She puts her hands on her hips, swinging a little on the side, and calls out her full name, "Elizabeth Christine Salvatore," she furrows her brows in her daughters direction as she turns her head around to face her mother.
"Ma-ma," Lizzy says, locking her big, brown eyes on her mothers, exploring her face expression. She turns around to face her father, putting her hands over her mouth after saying, "Angry," with an irregular r she decides to swallow. Stefan laughs at his daughters cuteness.
"Yes, I am angry," Elena says, trying to keep her face straight, "I've been looking everywhere for you!" she takes her out of Stefan's arms, even though Lizzy struggles to stay attached to her father. "Are you ready for your punishment?" the corners of her lips turn upwards, forming a smile.
Lizzy's eyes widen upon hearing the word punishment.
"Here it comes," she uncovers her daughters belly and blows air into it, making her burst into laughter. Stefan puts his fingers on her small torso and starts tickling her gently, making her laugh louder.
When Elena pulls her mouth away from her daughter belly, Stefan takes his hands to himself and Lizzy's laughter subsides.
Elena positions Lizzy on her hip and makes few steps towards Stefan, stepping on her toes and kissing him on the lips.
"Mmm," he murmurs, making her stop when she tries to pull away from him, wanting to feel the taste of her lips for a little while longer.
At the age of 30, Stefan found his wife as beautiful as she was back in college. Her hair was still long, reaching the middle of her back, and he enjoyed pulling his fingers through it. Her eyes grew more tired each day, but they were also filled with experience and love only few could phantom. Her lips are as subtle as ever, even more delicious if it's possible. She still has her slender figure and long legs. Motherhood has changed her. She became even more emotional, but she's also more determined.
When she finally detaches herself from him, she asks, "When are you going to be back?"
He puts a sport bag on his shoulder and wraps his fingers around his suitcase handle. "Sooner than you might think."
She pouts at him, swaying Lizzy in her arms, "I hate being in this huge house all alone."
When Elena got pregnant with Lizzy, they decided it's time for them to sell their apartment and move into something more spacey and family friendly.
"You're not alone, you have Lizzy," he points at the baby in her arms with his look.
She huffs. "All the worse," she shakes her head, "Imagine if someone breaks in and you're not here to protect us," she shudders at the thought of it, since she's aware that happening is very likely possible. "Plus," a devilish smile appears on her face, "Sometimes I get really.." she mouths the word horny to him because she doesn't want to say it out loud in front of Lizzy.
A grin appears on her face. "Babe, that's the first thing I will take care of when I walk into the house," he lowers his lips on hers one more time, "I might take you right there on the front door," he can feel smile forming on her lips as his scrape over hers.
She sighs. "Time to say bye to daddy," she takes her daughters arm into hers and makes her wave in Stefan's direction.
"Da-da go?" Lizzy frowns at Stefan, "No," she says with a crying voice, extending her arms in his direction.
Elena whimpers as she hands the baby to Stefan.
"I will be back in no time," he kisses the top of his daughter nose, "Keep mommy safe, bumblebee."
When Elena gets pregnant for the second time, Stefan decides it's time to end his career. He loves his family more than anything else in the world and he doesn't want to wait for an injury, or old age, to put him into retirement. Money is no problem, not with what he made so far, and with Elena's current job which has a steady income.
When he quits, Elizabeth is four years old, and his decision makes her happier than it makes anyone else. Whenever he left the house for a long period of time, Elena was left alone in the house with a screaming toddler. Elizabeth got attached to her father like most of the little girls do, and even though she loved her mother to no ends and spent almost every waking moment with her since she was a baby, she felt a special bond to her father. So when he retires, she takes him into her room and barely lets him out, making him a frequent guest at her tea parties, making him sit still during face painting and in time, even convincing him into buying a puppy.
When the second baby, Coleen, comes, Elizabeth feels a little bit jealous and detaches herself from both of her parents. This makes Elena inconsolable, because even though she knows the newborn needs her more, there's a certain bond a mother has with her firstborn. After some time Elizabeth warms up to the idea of having a sister, and accepts Coleen into the family.
When the girls start attending preschool, Stefan realizes he has a little too much time on his hands so he decides to invest into opening a bar, which, luckily, considering their neighborhood, kicks in. After only few months they get a huge overflow of money, which makes Elena breathe lighter since she wasn't certain her husbands idea will take a stroll.
She gives birth to a boy, Noah, one month too early, and he's too weak to do anything on his own, including breathing. Elena stays in the hospital longer than she has to, sitting by his incubator day and night, watching his little chest rise and fall, barely. Stefan takes care of the girls, but he struggles with the problem more than he lets Elena believe.
He always thought Elena is a much better parent than he is. He's a fun dad. He takes them to a bouncy castle and buys them rides on carnivals and lets them eat candy before dinner. They love him because he breaks the rules their mother sets, knowing they can't get in trouble because they were listening to one of their parents. He loves his children very much, but he never finds it in himself to be strict, maybe because his father was too cold and too strict towards both him and his brother. He never wanted to have such a relationship with his children.
But Elena is the one who keeps every tooth, who convinces them veggies are delicious, who stays awake at night when they a fever, holding their hand and cooling their foreheads, and who every year on their birthday cries while going through a photo album because she knows her babies are no longer babies. She has a connection to them which he will never be able to understand or experience, and there's a reason why they call for mommy every time they fall and bruise a knee.
Even though doctors say there's a high chance he won't make it, Noah makes a slow, but steady recovery. As he grows up, Elena becomes too protective over him, even though he grows up to be a strong boy with light, brown hair and big brown eyes. Out of their three children Noah resembles Elena the most, not only in the looks, such as the color of his hair and eyes or the gentle features of his face, but in the personality as well.
The fourth, and the last baby comes a bit unexpectedly, as a surprise, after Stefan catches Elena crying while putting away baby clothes she's never going to use again. She comes shortly after her brother, but as a polar opposite to him.
Stefan teaches them how to ride a bike and how to swim. He sets them a playground in the backyard, and Elena insists he puts the same tree house she had while they were growing up. He dislikes the idea but does it anyway.
Elena introduces her children to books and fairytales and fictional characters and Elizabeth is the one who takes most after their mother in that area. By the age of ten her bedroom is full of books, she has so many of them she can sleep on them. She lives inside of them most of the time, anyway. Coleen takes up playing violin, and Stefan gets Noah into football. It doesn't take much, it seems to be in his genes. Elena is a little weary of the idea in the beginning, remembering her son trapped into an incubator, but she still bakes cookies and goes to each and every one of his games. The youngest one, Blair, takes up ballet to waste all of the extra energy she has, and Elena hopes she sticks to it longer than she did when she was younger.
They love hearing the story of how mommy and daddy met, even when they become older and get lives of their own.
Elena opens up a small bookstore between two skyscrapers, in a small, ruined building. It took time, money and effort to make it seem presentable, and even though business wasn't God knows much, it made Elena happy. And that's all Stefan cares about.
At the age of 50, Stefan finds his wife as beautiful as she was twenty years ago. Her hair got a little bit shorter, and her eyes still seem tired, but they also radiate a certain kind of warmness he found in her eyes only. Life took it's stroll on her, mostly work, and giving birth, as well as raising, four children. She tries to dye her hair to seem natural, but he knows there are grays underneath, but he doesn't mind. She's still his Elena, long hair or no hair, brunette or gray, she will always be that little, chubby toddler with a chocolate smudged around her mouth.
Elizabeth and Coleen go to college, and soon enough Noah and Blair follow. They fall in love, start families of their own, leaving Stefan and Elena alone, like they were in the beginning.
Stefan sits in his favorite armchair, watching football, but he can't seem to hear a word over Elena reading out loud to their grandchildren. He doesn't mind, though, because hearing her voice is more important to him than anything else. His son wonders how he can put up with it, and Stefan hopes that one day he understands.
Not everyone find the love of their life in kindergarten, or elementary school, or high school, or college, or until they're old and gray. Not everyone get to meet their soulmate. Some do, and even then, it doesn't always work out. Life happens, and sometimes, love is not enough. Other things decide to interfere, and unfortunately, they tend to prevail.
But for some people, things do work out.
She reads her favorite book for a millionth time, remembering her mother fondly. He eats muffins, remembering how his best friend used to steal them from him. When she falls asleep on the couch he covers her up with a blanket because he's not strong enough anymore to carry her in his arms. She holds his hand as they go through a photo album together.
Snow falls on the top of her nose, and he brushes it off with his bare finger.
At the age of 80, with gray hair and eyes that are as alive as when she was a toddler, Stefan finds his wife as beautiful as she was her entire life.
So here we are, at the end of yet another story. I enjoyed writing this one as much as I enjoyed writing the previous ones, and I really appreciate all of your reviews and kind words, they really mean so much to me. Thank you for reading and I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
I started a new story, Shattering Truth. The first chapter is out if you're interested ;)