Warnings: Mature rating, character deaths, sensitive subject matter, violence, language, adult content
Elena turned and looked through the front window. It appeared that sometime during her conversation with Bonnie, everyone else had woken up. If she leaned just right, she could see Brayden, Nathan, and Emma sitting around the breakfast table as Damon sat their orange juice in front of them. They could be an image out of a Norman Rockwell painting. A typical, happy family, complete with sleep-mussed hair and elbows on the table.
But they weren't typical.
The oldest sibling was conceived with help from a witch.
The others came into being after witches helped their father become human.
And the youngest was the newest in the line of dopplegangers – a place formerly occupied with her mother.
Elena's eyes threatened to spill over with tears when she began to ponder the danger hanging over all of them – not simply Emma. Because she knew from experience that when it came to dopplegangers, everyone who cared about her would soon be at risk.
Each face around the table was now in trouble…simply because she never asked one question…she'd never demanded the truth.
Just then, the little one she was carrying decide to give a violent kick. As she ran her hand over her stomach, she turned to Bonnie in dismay. "And you never thought about telling me? About making sure I knew?" The thought of the life she'd sentenced her daughter to sickened her. Staring at Emma with her sleep-tangled hair, her throat tightened. It was as if she'd unknowingly passed along a fatal disease. She leaned over and massaged her temples. "That's it, isn't it? You thought I knew."
"Like I said, Stefan promised he'd tell you. Once you had Claire, it didn't matter anymore." Bonnie's face was troubled.
"But why didn't you say something before I had her? You knew what Stefan was planning to do. You're the one who helped him." Elena didn't care that she was yelling, even when Damon came and closed the blinds to block the show from overly-eager eyes. "You knew about everything before I did."
"I didn't have a choice, Elena."
"Didn't you?" Elena accused.
Bonnie shook her head. "No, I didn't. Really." Based on the look on Bonnie's face, Elena could tell they were about to enter into witch-rule territory, a subject that Bonnie generally preferred not to mention. "Elena, Stefan saved my life that night Damon tried to kill me. It's one of those witch things. Just like Lucy had to work for Katherine until Katherine released her. Stefan never released me. I couldn't say no if he asked me to do something."
Damn the witch rules. It wasn't the first time they'd royally messed up her life.
"You didn't answer me before." Elena leaned back in her chair and gave her friend a pointed look. "Did you honestly not know that he hadn't told me?"
"I wanted to believe he had." Bonnie toyed with her watch.
Turning her head, Elena narrowed her eyes and glared at her friend. "After all I went through... all we went through... you actually thought I'd have a baby knowing that I'd pass the curse onto them or their children? You've known me for years. What kind of person do you think I am?" She jumped up off the couch and backed away from Bonnie. "Actually, don't answer that." The patio spun around her, and she blinked as she reached for the arm of the chair to steady herself.
"Are you alright?" Bonnie's eyes roamed Elena's face with concern.
"I'm fine. This morning sickness just won't end." Elena took a deep breath and slowly stood back up. She whispered, mostly to herself. "I've got to tell Damon." She winced and rubbed her head. "Umm...do you want some coffee or something before you go? I doubt you had time for breakfast before you came."
"No." Bonnie answered sadly. "I have to be in court by eight; but when you called, I knew it had to be important." For the first time, Elena noticed the business suit Bonnie was wearing. As she stood and gathered her bags at her feet, Bonnie reached out and patted her friend's arm. "Elena, I'm really sorry. If there's anything I can do to help Emma, just let me know."
Emma shook her head. "I think you've done enough for now."
Elena closed the front door behind her and froze with her hand still gripping the doorknob. Even in its currently-empty state, her stomach threatened to revolt, and her head pounded with the intensity of an oncoming freight train.
Worst of all, she was stuck. Literally. It was as if someone put glue on the floor at the door. She couldn't will her feet to move. Thankfully, her children were distracted at the moment. If they studied her too long, she knew the expression on her face would likely frighten them.
Nathan and Brayden were chasing each other around the table. Emma sat in the middle of the living room holding a tug rope with Molly and Missy fighting for control of the knots at the each end.
But not everyone in the house was distracted. At the sound of the door clicking closed, she had her husband's full attention. Damon stopped clearing the table and faced Elena. His eyes fixed on hers, and as he held her in the intensity of his gaze, no words were necessary. With one look at the pain evident on her face and he knew their worst fears were confirmed.
He stepped into the living room, herding Brayden and Nathan ahead of him. "Go upstairs and get dressed. Don't forget to brush your teeth. Your mom and I are going out back."
"But she just came in." Brayden whined at the unexpected interruption.
Without a word, Elena walked through the house and stepped through the back door. She didn't trust herself to speak until she was certain she wouldn't be overheard. She seriously needed to sit down. Dropping into the porch swing, she clutched the metal chain next to her seat. "We were right." She wasn't sure if she'd ever said three more difficult words.
"But how?"
"They didn't break the curse." She angrily pushed her hair behind her ears. "They knew they weren't going to be able to do it, but when I wouldn't agree to let them lift it, they told me what I needed to hear."
"Did Stefan know?" Damon's eyes said he already knew the answer.
Not fully trusting herself to speak, she simply nodded and tried to breathe. Realizing he needed more information, she swallowed thickly. "He told Bonnie not to tell me. In her defense, she apparently thought I knew. He said he'd tell me when the time was right." She paused. "Which never came."
"If I hadn't been so set on having a baby." Elena's words choked in her throat.
"Stop. Don't do this." Damon caught hold of her hand as the boys barreled through the back door, heading for the play yard that he and Ric built just a few months earlier. "You're not the one who did this. You've always been as much a victim of the curse as Emma is."
"But I could have stopped it."
"And then you wouldn't be here." His grip tightened on hers.
"Or…"
"I couldn't imagine life without them." He nodded at the boys, smiling as Emma flew through the back door in a pink fairy dress, complete with magic wand. "And I don't want to."
Elena sat on the porch swing as Damon absently rubbed her back. Nathan and Brayden raced up the climbing wall as Emma twirled around the swings. She danced back and forth before launching herself into the air and squealed with laughter as she jumped across the pile of wood chips.
"Careful, Em. I'm not in the mood to go to the hospital." Damon toed the ground and let the swing drift slowly. "I always wondered why Stefan asked me to take you upstairs." He wrinkled his forehead and leaned back in the seat. "He was always so protective of you...he never liked for me to be too close to you. Didn't trust me I guess." He shrugged his shoulders. "He should have been the one to want take you upstairs. I thought he'd started to trust me more. Or maybe he just wasn't trusting himself around the blood...but he specifically asked me to do it. He wanted to talk to Bonnie without me being able to hear him." He shot up and the swing shook violently back and forth.
Silence fell between them.
"Claire's ready to come home." Damon looked down at his buzzing phone. After the confrontation between Claire and Elena the afternoon before, Damon had called Jenna and arranged for a sleepover.
Elena nodded. "I'll go get her."
"Oh no." Damon fiercely shook his head. "You are not allowed behind the wheel when you're upset. That should be on your driver's license somewhere."
"And why would I be upset?" Elena rubbed her hands across her face. "Because I just found out my daughter's the doppelganger? Because I passed the same curse that almost killed me onto her? I remember the way they tortured me that night. I still have the scars. I can't let Emma go through that." Elena's voice caught in her throat as fought against the tears that had become a too-present part of her life.
"We won't. I guarantee you. We won't." He was emphatic as he met her eyes. Elena was an innocent player in a game that had started far beyond her birth. He sat back down next to her and pulled her to his chest as she dissolved into tears. Claire would have to wait a few extra minutes.
Once he was certain Elena was at least functional enough to leave at home with the three youngest of their children, Damon made the drive over to the Saltzman house.
"Dad, you're really late." Claire looked over the edge of the bannister and glared at him.
"I called your Aunt Jenna. She knew I was going to be late. When you called, I was in the middle of something, took me a second to wrap it up. I need to talk to Uncle Alaric for a few minutes. You can go back in Madison's room for a while longer."
"Damon?" Alaric stepped out of his bedroom. "What's going on?"
"Not here." Damon pointed to the back door.
"This is one of those kind of conversations."
Damon nodded grimly as he walked out the back door. He made his way to the far edge of the property and leaned against the fence. "We think we know why the vampires are here."
"And that is?"
"Emma." Damon didn't want to voice it - that made it real. He'd been strong when he was with Elena because he had to be, but he could no longer hide the fear he felt for his youngest daughter.
"What do you mean?" Alaric blinked at him in shock.
"They never broke the curse. That night. They promised, but he lied to Elena to get her to agree to lift it."
"You're talking about Stefan."
"My brother and his damn secrets." Damon picked up a rock, threw it, and watched it bounce against the tree. "I know why he did it. Hell, I was ready to yank off the necklace and compel her to agree. But why didn't he tell her after it was over? No, and even better, he went and got her pregnant without telling her it would activate the curse again. Now my daughter has a death sentence on her head."
Alaric let out a long breath. "And you're sure?"
"I'm as sure as I can be. You should see their pictures. Hell, even I can't tell them apart."
"As sure as you can be, but there's probably someone else who is even more likely to know. Have you talked to John?"
"Not yet. Bonnie just told us the whole story this morning."
"Call John and Jeremy. Tell them we need to have a family meeting tonight. If you want, I'll call Liz too. She'd want to know about something like this." Alaric turned back and looked at the house where Jackson stood eyeing them suspiciously. "Jackson and I will be there about nine."
With relief, Damon collapsed into the deeply cushioned couch at the end of what might have been one of the longest days of his life. After he caught Elena taking her third pain killer in less than six hours, he'd taken a good look at her and sent her upstairs to bed. Whether or not she chose to sleep was her decision, but he strongly suspected her body would seize control once she stopped her furious cleaning. Since he hadn't heard a noise coming from her room over the past five hours, he thought his guess had been correct.
Now he simply had to wait.
John, Alaric, Jeremy and, despite Jenna's protests, Jackson were due in a few minutes. Liz had been visiting Caroline. She'd offered to drive home, but Ric told her their problem could wait. He wanted to answer the door before a knock at the door could disturb anyone upstairs.
Having a few moments to himself was a dangerous situation tonight. During the last few years of Stefan's life, he'd made peace with his brother. He wasn't certain they'd ever be as close as when they were boys, but they could depend on each other, and they trusted each other, at least he thought they did.
He reached for the album they'd given Elena for Christmas. Flipping it open, his eyes were immediately drawn to Emma - her gaze so intent on the flowers in her lap.
He knew that look.
He'd seen it in Elena's eyes when she was scribbling out a section of a manuscript. And Jenna had laughed when she couldn't get Emma's hair to curl. She'd teased Emma that her hair was just as difficult to curl as Elena's.
How could he have missed the similarities? She didn't even like pickles...
If he was honest with himself, he knew why. Because Stefan had never given him any reason to think otherwise. After everything they'd been through, everything they'd watched Elena go through, everything they'd been helpless to save her from, he couldn't understand why Stefan would have been willing to take the risk.
Even if the next doppelganger didn't arrive for 500 more years, she still would have been a distant part of Stefan.
But she wasn't.
In a cruel twist of fate, once again, his world had been rocked by a choice Stefan made.
As he looked into the photograph of those tiny chocolate brown eyes, he made up his mind. No one was going to get to her - even if it cost Damon everything - including his own life.
A car door slammed and pulled him from his thoughts. He reluctantly pushed himself out of his seat as he glanced at the clock.
Someone was early.
"I thought you weren't due here till nine." He opened the door.
"Actually, I didn't know you were expecting me." Katherine smiled coyly back at him.
Damon stepped back in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to save your daughter. Bonnie called Lucy. Lucy called me. Believe it or not, I actually do have a few friends." She drummed her fingernails on the doorframe. "Are you going to let me in?"
Damon narrowed his eyes and hesitated.
"Damon, you know I helped you protect Elena once. I'm not going to hurt your daughter. Let me in." She dropped the air of superiority. "Trust me. You need me."
Damon considered her for a moment. He backed away from the door and pulled it open. "Katherine, would you like to come in?"
She rolled her eyes at him as she used her once-familiar Southern accent. "Thank you for your kindness." Taking the seat he'd just abandoned, she looked up at him as he stood next to her. "So, you're human now." She studied him for a moment. "It suits you." She gave a puzzled smile as she caught sight of the pictures on the mantle. Standing back up, she stepped closer to examine them more carefully. "And you've been busy." She gave him a cat-like grin.
"Damon?" Elena hesitated at the top of the stairs. "What's she doing here?"
Katherine's eyes trailed up and down Elena's body. With a laugh, she looked at Damon out of the corner of her eyes. "You've been very busy."
"I don't know yet. What are you doing up?" Damon took hold of Elena's hand as she walked the rest of the way into the room. After watching how much the stress of the day had taken a toll on her, he was hoping she'd sleep through the whole night, and he'd be able to present her some type of plan of action in the morning. But then he realized this was Elena he was talking about. She'd never been content to be left out of a plan.
"I heard you talking to someone." Sleep still seemed to be weighing heavy on her. "I came down to see who was here. "What is she doing here?"
"And it's a pleasure to see you again too, Elena." She picked up the framed family picture from the mantle. Her eyes narrowed in a mixture of suspicion and amusement. She ran her finger over the glass. "This one... Definitely not yours, Damon." She tapped a finger on Cassie's smiling face. "I'd know those eyes anywhere. She's Stefan's? That's a story I have to hear." She cast a cat-like glance at Elena. "You did end up with both of them...Isobel must be highly amused." She chuckled to herself. "You have a child with both Stefan and Damon. I've obviously been gone from Mystic Falls for too long."
"Not nearly long enough." Elena bristled.
"Take it easy." Katherine purred. "I'm here to help. I'm not the only vampire who knows about this one." Her perfectly-manicured fingernail pointed at Emma's face in the photograph.