Author's note: I'm not trying to up my read count, but if you haven't read "Bittersweet," this story isn't going to make any sense - or at least large sections of it won't. I've been told that "Bittersweet" was pretty enjoyable, and it was my favorite story I've ever written, so please...save yourself some confusion. Read that one first.

Rating: M - adult content, violence, mild language, sensitive topic

Because you asked for it (and because there's a herd of them)….here's a handy-dandy "kid" reference.

If the kids are named after US presidents, they belong to Ric and Jenna.

-Jackson (17)

-Kennedy (14 ish)

-Reagan (9)

-Madison (7)

Kids whose names start with a G are Jeremy and Hannah's.

-Grayson (7)

Damon and Elena's brood:

-Claire (9) – technically, she's Stefan and Elena's, but she's really Damon's now

-Brayden (7)

-Nathan (5), and Emma (5) – twins at the end of "Bittersweet"

There's a random one in here who belongs to Bonnie…I honestly can't remember the little one's name right now. (This is what happens when a writer comes back to a story 3+ years after it was written.) Sorry.

Damon reached out and switched off the alarm. Setting it had seemed like such a brilliant idea six hours earlier, but that was before Elena had decided to stay up to finish one more paragraph which quickly turned into one last chapter….which must have turned into two. When she was in full-writer-mode it was dangerous to interrupt her. He'd learned that the hard way.

So he'd finally stopped waiting for her at midnight, setting the alarm to celebrate this book finally being back on track. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

But now he wasn't so sure. Every pore in his body screamed out for just another couple of hours' worth of sleep. Shifting in place, he adjusted his pillow and caught sight of Elena. Her hair was fanned out on the cream cotton pillowcase, and her long were firmly closed.

Damn. A certain part of his body was definitely wide-awake now. And it was trying to bring the rest of him along for the ride.

No matter how hard she was trying to convince him otherwise, Elena wasn't asleep. If years spent sharing the same bed with her had taught him anything, he could tell if she was really asleep just by listening to the pattern of her breathing.

She was awake.

Wide awake.

And judging by the way her breathing caught in her chest every time he moved the slightest bit, no matter how much she was trying to convince him otherwise, she was thinking the same thing he was.

God, he loved his wife.

Damon rolled onto his side as he draped his arm across Elena's chest. He delicately ran his fingertips along her shoulder. Her breathing stopped completely as a shiver ran through her entire body.

It had been far too long since they'd had a moment like this.

At least three weeks. Even for someone formerly a vampire…that was forever.

"Really? You forgot to turn off the alarm?" Elena cracked one eye open as she tried to focus on the alarm clock on her husband's bedside table. "Today's Saturday. For the first time this season, the soccer game isn't till noon." She looked at him with his favorite grumpy glare.

Damon caressed his wife's shoulder as he reached beneath her nightgown, teasing the hint of a sleeve off her shoulder, exposing the delicate skin he craved. He kissed up along her jawline. "Who says it was a mistake?" He whispered into her ear as he pressed the length of his body against her side.

He pressed the evidence of his desire into her hip, earning a half-annoyed-half-aroused laugh. She reached up and tangled her fingers in his hair. "So you planned this?" Her lips drew up in the barest hint of a smile.

He'd won the battle.

He'd take sex over sleep any time.

"Mmm hmmm." His answer was almost a growl as he nipped at the base of her throat. His hand dipped lower on her chest until he was cupping her breast. "I missed you." She'd been gone to a charity fundraiser for the last three days, only arriving home the night before, and it had seemed as if she'd been gone for a month. He peeled the hem of her nightgown up around her hips. No panties. She was feeling brave last night.

"I was only gone two nights." She rolled onto her side and sought out his lips. She slid her hand down his back. Her fingertips toyed with the band of his boxer shorts. Relaxing into his kiss, she slid her tongue over his lips.

He reached beneath the hem of her gown and began to tease it over her head as he broke their kiss. "That was more than long enough." He slid his hand down the smooth skin of her exposed stomach. In a well-practiced move, he had his boxers off his hips and off his legs before she even had a chance to protest.

"Umm...no." She pulled at his wrist. "We can't."

"I beg to differ." He used his sexiest voice…the one she loved…the one she never turned down. He slid farther down in the bed and kissed her shoulder before he began to trail kisses lower and lower, making his way to the point of no return.

She pulled back and trailed a finger under his chin. "Really...we can't."

He knew what she was hinting. Claire and Brayden had passed their strep throat onto her two weeks ago. She'd just come off the antibiotics a few days earlier. Antibiotics interfering with birth control might be an old wive's tale….but they had proof in the two youngest members of the family.

He settled between her thighs, and he could tell she was almost beyond the point of resisting, but she gave it her best shot. "This is how we ended up with the twins."

He looked into her eyes with the stare that made her melt. "I'm willing to take the risk." His lips tentatively tasted her most delicate area, and she surrendered to him. Her back arched as she groaned into his touch.

It had been far, far too long.

"Dad?" The bedroom door creaked open. Claire stepped in with her eyes tightly closed. She'd once entered the room without knocking, and she'd vowed never to do it again. "Uncle Ric called. I, um, told him I thought you were busy." She'd always been a notoriously early riser. Apparently this morning was no exception.

Elena tugged the sheet up over her shoulders as Damon reached for his boxer shorts. "Thanks, Claire. I'll be right there." He waited for their oldest daughter to leave the room before he turned his attention back to his wife. He gazed down at her with a hungry smile. "Later." His lips met Elena's for a lingering kiss before he reluctantly pulled away.

He stepped into the hallway and took the cell phone from Claire's hand. "Why don't you go downstairs and watch television? You're up first. You can pick." He tousled her sandy brown hair and was rewarded by Claire rolling her brilliant green eyes at him.

"I'm sorry I woke you up. I heard your cell phone ringing." Her brow furrowed with concern. Damon smiled widely. She was definitely his brother's child. Not a day went by that he didn't see an echo of his brother in her.

"Your mom and I were already awake." He kissed the top of her head. "Don't worry about it." He leaned against the decorative table in the hallway outside his bedroom and looked at his phone. Three missed calls from Alaric already this morning? He dialed the number. "Ric! Please don't tell me they moved the game..."

Damon watched as the players in their deep blue uniforms ran back and forth on the soccer field. Since the game was rescheduled at the last minute, each team was short multiple players. Play was supposed to begin in 10 minutes, and they were still missing four players. He glanced down at his watch wondering if they were going to have to forfeit.

"Busy, huh? At six in the morning..." Alaric came to stand next to Damon and held out a paper coffee cup. Alaric wasn't even trying to hide his smirk.

Damon took the offered cup and winced as he took the first sip. "I was busy with your stepdaughter. Do you really want to go there?"

"Not really." Alaric shook his head.

"Why'd they reschedule the game?" Damon sighed in relief as two more of their players jogged onto the field. Jackson waved the boy and girl over to the rest of the team as he helped take the herd of seven year olds through their warm-up routine. "Weather?"

Alaric looked at the gray clouds already building on the horizon. They'd already had to reschedule almost half the teams' games because of the unusually stormy season. The commissioner had called all the head coaches the night before to let them know they would try to get as many games in as possible on Saturday - even if that meant starting the games at 7:30. Somehow, the Rebels were one of the teams chosen for that earliest slot. "Yep." A roll of thunder echoed in the distance. "We'll be lucky to get our game in." He turned back and looked over his shoulder at the family members seated in folding chairs behind the team. Elena eyed the clouds as she she fussed over Emma's braid. "She getting any better with storms?"

"Some." Damon blew on his coffee and turned back to look at his wife. She gave a weak smile and nodded in answer to his unspoken question. "I've only found them in the shelter twice this season."

The referee waved at Alaric and Damon to signal he was ready to start the game. "Alright, let's go." Alaric motioned for his young players to take their positions on the field. Braydon and Reagan stood side by side on one side of the field while Grayson took the center position for the Cardinals. Just as the referee blew his whistle, Reagan stuck her tongue out to taunt her cousin on the opposing team.

Damon couldn't hide his amusement. He started to laugh and looked at Alaric, "That would be your daughter."

Alaric looked from his daughter to the coach of the opposing team. "Sorry Jeremy. We'll talk about it when we get home."

Damon pulled the blanket up beneath Emma's chin as he bent to kiss his youngest daughter's head. "Night, sweetheart," he whispered as he closed her bedroom door. He clicked the hall light on as he passed by on the way to his bedroom.

It had been a very long afternoon. The predicted storms seemed to never end. When a particularly fierce burst of wind broke a tree limb down the street and knocked the power out for their neighborhood, they'd been forced to play Twister by candlelight. Well, most of the family played. Claire sat with her feet tucked under her on the couch while she pretended to read. Somehow she'd inherited her mother's fear of storms. He couldn't really blame her. She knew the story of how she'd lost her father.

Thankfully, the storms passed before night fell. Looking outside after the rain passed, they'd been spared much damage, but he would be raking leaves for the better part of the next day.

He smiled to himself as he heard Elena turn the bathwater off and turn on the jets to the bathtub. He'd handled bedtime duties, just as he did every night he wasn't occupied with town business. Thankfully, everything was peaceful in Mystic Falls now. They hadn't had an emergency council meeting since the tornado. All things supernatural seemed to have forgotten about his town.

Vampires. Werewolves. Witches. They were out there. But now they were leaving his famiy…and his town alone.

And that was just how he liked it.

He pushed open the door to their bedroom, and the scent of Elena's favorite lavender bubble bath greeted him. Turning off the bright overhead light, he was pleased to see she'd already lit a candle. "Everybody's asleep."

Elena looked up at him doubtfully. The thick foam from the bubbles hid everything interesting from his view. "Everybody?"

"As far as I could tell. Brayden was out before I finished reading Nathan his book. You know he always crashes after a game." Damon took a seat on the edge of the bathtub. He smiled expectantly at his wife.

"What are you smiling at?" Elena slid deeper into the water.

"I don't know..." He did his eye thing in her direction. "Candles...bubbles...a little less water than you normally run. Looks like you might be expecting something."

"And what would I be expecting?" Even the flickering glow of the candle couldn't hide the soft flush that had come over her cheeks. She licked her lips and shifted to one side of the oversized tub.

That was all the invitation Damon needed. His discarded clothing joined hers at the side of the tub.

"Did you mean it?" Elena leaned against Damon's chest. The bubbles piled around them and almost reached her chin.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "Mean what?" Pushing her hair over her shoulder, he kissed the nape of her neck.

"This morning... When you said you didn't mind the risk." Her expression was serious as she ran her hand down his leg.

"Very much." One hand trailed down and came to rest on her thigh. The other found a different place to rest.

"But what if?" She couldn't even bring herself to voice the question.

He knew what she was asking. "Elena, growing up, my best friend came from a family of 12." He pulled back so he could look her in the eyes.

"Your best friend grew up on a plantation."

"Well, there is that." He conceded. He stroked her cheek and left a trail of bubbles. "If something happened, and we had another baby, I'd be the happiest man in the world. They're each part of us. They're here because I'm in love with you." His eyes burned with sincerity mixed with desire. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and his lips crashed against hers.

For those who've asked (and may have skipped the earlier author's note), I've included a kid reference guide in the author's note.