Dear Diary
Claire is doing much better now and is back to her old curious self again. While at school I would call Damon like every ten minutes to make sure she was alright for the first week but now things have gotten back to normal. She has had a check up with Dr. Bennett whom always assures me she is doing fine. I'll admit I was obsessed for a few days following the hospital with Claire's temperature.
As February is coming to an end, Claire is nine months old and boy does time fly! Just a couple weeks ago we decided to start giving her baby food although I still breast feed her; it make things a little easier. She wasn't too thrilled about the food to begin with and Damon doesn't blame her. We have found the kind she likes and she is even holding her own spoon and eating, although sometimes it seems she wears most of it. Claire has also become pretty fascinated with blocks and loves to pick them up in her tiny hands.
She is able to go from her belly and into a sitting position and always has a happy please looked on her face when she does it. Damon is more then certain she will start crawling soon and always has the video camera on him at all times just in case.
Elena
"Come on Ladybug, come to daddy" Damon said as he held the video camera out in front of Claire determined to catch her crawling for the first time. Sitting in the middle on the Gilbert family room Claire just stared at her dad with her big blue eyes as she smiled at him. "Come on I know you can do it," Damon said as he sat down on the floor with her. Picking up her stuff ladybug that was lying in front of her Damon held it out as the little girl tried to reach for it.
"Come on Claire, crawl for daddy," he told her as Claire gave him a stubborn pout as he wouldn't just give her the toy back. The little girl had pretty much an identical pout to her dad. She made little frustrated noises as she reach for the ladybug that was just out of her little hands reach.
"Damon are you teasing her again?" Bonnie said as she came into the room along with Elena and Caroline as they ate chocolate cake.
"It's not called teasing its call encouragement. Much like I encourage you to get a new personality," he snapped back with a grin.
Bonnie glared at Damon and then threw a pillow in his direction. "Your such a jerk sometimes Damon."
"It's called character," he said as he picked up Claire and sat her on his lap. Claire was more then happy as she was able to clutch onto her ladybug again and hold it tight. Damon kissed Claire's head as the little girl babbled away to herself.
"Well I hope that it doesn't rub off on Claire" Bonnie scoffed.
"I say the same thing about you" Damon said with a smirk.
"Now, now you two" Elena said as she licked the chocolate off her fork. "Lets not forget who the child is in the room." It seemed the when ever Damon and Bonnie were in the same room together the two of them would go at it and see how many buttons they could push. Elena had hoped that overtime that Damon and Bonnie would grow to tolerate each other but that didn't seem to be the case at all.
Just then the front door opened and Jenna and Alaric walked in looking exhausted. Elena turned to her aunt and gave her a confused look, "shopping that tiring?" Elena asked as Jenna threw down her bags.
"It's not but my car wouldn't start and we had to push it to get it started" Jenna informed them.
"I had to push it" Alaric corrected her.
"Whatever, it had to be pushed"
Damon chuckled as he sat on the floor with Claire, "Why don't you buy that car you pretended to be buying when you were secretly dating Rick."
"I don't need a new car," she told him.
"The car is telling you otherwise," Damon said with a smirk. Jenna just rolled her eyes at him and headed to the kitchen just as the phone started to ring and left the teenagers alone as they laughed.
"Alright ladybug time for our nap" Damon said as he got up from the floor while holding Claire. Moving over to where Elena was sitting he allowed Elena to say goodnight and kissed her baby girl.
"Oh by the way, I bought Claire this adorable dress!" Caroline squealed as she pulled out if her bag and revealed a pink frilly dress.
"Another pink dress, how many is that now" Damon said as he took Claire back and showed off the pink dress she was already wearing that Caroline had bought her two weeks ago.
"She's a girl Damon get used to it" Caroline giggled as she leaned up to kiss Claire on the cheek.
"A real man wouldn't have a problem with pink," Bonnie said as she too leaned up to kiss Claire while Damon held her.
"I never said I have a problem with it, I'm just pointing out there are more colours to choose from" he stated as he started to head for the stairs while the three girls on the couch giggled.
Shaking her head Bonnie looked at Elena, "Honestly of all the guys you picked Damon to be the baby daddy?"
Elena laughed, "Okay it's not like a held a tryout and besides whether you see it or not he is great with her" Elena told her.
"He calls her his ladybug" Caroline gushed.
"I know, believe me after everything I've seen of Damon growing up he really does love that little girl. He's a great dad, but if you tell him I said that I will deny it!" Bonnie sated.
Elena laughed, "Trust me it's not like he would believe me. But trust me Damon has changed, I mean sure he can be hot headed and drive me insane but when most guys would of just ran and never looked back, he didn't. We never planned for this to happen but it did and we have found a way to make it work."
"I'm sure the hot sex helps too" Caroline chimed in.
"Oh trust me it's one of the many perks" Elena said with a grin as she leaned back into the chair.
"Damn I knew I should have taken my shot when I had the chance" Caroline said as she snapped her fingers.
"CAROLINE!" Elena laughed as she swatted at her friend's arm.
"I'm kidding, I've very happen for you… and the great sex."
"No I can handle them," Jenna said into the phone in frustration in the kitchen. "Look I know things are not going smoothly but I'm handling it!"
Alaric was sitting at the counter watching as Jenna had a very uncomfortable conversation with Elena and Jeremy's grandparents. Upon hearing that Elena was pregnant and Jeremy was getting into trouble their grandmother would call to yell at Jenna about her bad parenting skills.
After Miranda and Grayson's death, Grayson's parents had assumed they would have been the guardian's of Elena and Jeremy. When the lawyers had read the Will and announced Jenna as their guardian they were not too please.
They were already not happy that Grayson had allowed Jenna to live in the Gilbert family house in Mystic Falls while she was in school but then also put their grandchildren's lives in her hands. During the first six months of the transition of losing their parents their grandparents were there and tried to get Jenna to give custody to them.
When the first six months came to an end and the kids moved down to Mystic Falls with Jenna they were very bitter and headed back to their home in Florida. Their grandmother assumed that if she left Jenna to deal with them all on her own that she would come to her senses and allow them to be the guardians. Yet in their eyes, Jenna had ruined their lives by allowing Elena to get pregnant and Jeremy to have trouble with the law.
"Look I am in charge and I am dealing with it! If you want to offer some help fine but if you have just called to tell me about how they are better off without me then why don't you go back to the silent treatment you were giving us. You couldn't get your way so you just left completely at a time they needed all of us!" Jenna yelled in to the phone. "GOODBYE ELIZA!" she added and then slammed the phone down in anger.
"You alright?" Alaric asked as got up to comfort Jenna and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head as Jenna let out a sigh as she remembered all the mean things Eliza Gilbert had said. "Maybe she's right maybe I'm not cut out for this" Jenna said.
"Look you are a great guardian," Alaric told her.
"Really because ever since I was put in charge of them things haven't gone the way their parents had envisioned their lives would. Elena was suppose to finish school, go to college, start a career and then get married and have a baby. Jeremy use to get good grades and now he is constantly skipping class and getting into trouble."
"Look it hasn't been easy but your doing the best you can. If it weren't for you Elena would have had to drop out of school to be a mother. So many parents would of thrown their teenage daughter out when she got pregnant but you didn't. And Jeremy well you know he is having problems and you are doing everything you can to deal with them. In the end everything will be okay" he told her and then hugged her tight.
"They can't judge you when they just up and left" Alaric added as he kissed Jenna's forehead.
"Thank you" Jenna said as she let out a sigh of exhaustion.
As he stepped up to the store counter Jeremy tossed the package of toilet paper, eggs cartons, and spray paint up. Stuffing his hands into his sweater pockets as the cashier rang him through he had his black hood on that was pretty much covering his face. As the young cashier totaled up his order she eyed him closely because it was no secret what he was planning to do with these items.
Jeremy never met her eyes but tried to get her to hurry it up. "Are you almost done?" he snapped at her, as the girl seemed to slow down and stopped.
"Yea…" she said and then gave him his total. Jeremy quickly handed her the money and then snatch up his bag and left the store in a hurry. The door chimed as he left and as he walked across the parking lot there was a group of kids waiting by a dumpster.
"You get everything?" as one boy as he approached Jeremy to see what he had picked up.
"Yeah" Jeremy said with a nod as his friend handed him a cigarette. Handing off the bag he pulled out his lighter and lit up the cigarette along with a few other kids. One of those was Vicky who stepped closer to her man so that he could light her cigarette.
"Lets do this," a kid with a Mohawk said as he led the group of teens towards the school in the dark night. Running across the parking lot they huddled in the doorway of the school as Jeremy crouched down and started to pick the lock.
His lips pressed down on the cigarette as the smoke filled the air in front of him. His ear was pressed against the door as he listened closely for a click while he worked on picking the lock. Everyone else remained silent and waited and once they heard a click smiles spread across their faces.
Turning the doorknob he opened it up and then they all rushed inside the quiet gymnasium. Vicky started skipping and twirling around the gym while the boys got out the toilet paper and eggs.
"I brought us a little something else," one of the guys said as he pulled out a bottle of vodka. Vicky's eyes went wide with excitement and quickly snatched the bottle from him. As she smiled at the boys she broke the seal on the lid and downed a fair amount.
"Now, now you have to share" Jeremy said as he wrapped an arm around her and took the bottle away with his other. Vicky smiled up at him and then captured his lips and Jeremy could taste the vodka on her lips.
"Alright you two lovers, lets get to work" the guy with the Mohawk called as he tossed a roll of toilet paper up and over the basketball net.
When Vicky broke from the kiss she squealed in delight and went over to join the boys in vandalizing the school gym. When she pulled away Jeremy chugged back the vodka while joining the others.
While they shared vodka and cigarettes, they made a teepee on the basketball nets with rolls of toilet. They threw eggs at the walls and across the floor and spray-painted the walls and the school sign so that is wasn't even recognizable.
The next day at school Elena and Bonnie were crossing the school parking lot. "So Mr. Saltzman just gave us this new family history project."
"Well as a Gilbert that shouldn't be too hard" Bonnie told her with a smile.
"I guess but I've lived in New York my whole childhood so I never really grew up with the founding family story" Elena insisted.
"Well the Lockwood's have a museum with a bunch of artifacts from the 1860's I'm sure they have a list of families and descendants" Bonnie insisted as they climbed the steps of the school. "Plus I'm sure my grams has some stories about your relatives, she has a old picture with your grandmother I think."
"That would be…" Elena stated to say as they entered the school and were met with a crowd of people standing in front of the gym. "What's going on in here?"
As the girls pushed their way through they listened to the mumbles of the students as they passed and then their eyes landed on the vandalism done to the gym. "Whoa…" Bonnie said in shock as she saw the damage done.
"Who would do such a thing," Elena said in disgust as she shook her head.
"Jeremy Gilbert can you come with me" came the principal's loud and firm voice. Elena turned her head and saw her brother standing there with a guilty look on his face as the principal and a police officer approached him. He made eye contact with Elena for a moment before he was taken away while the whole school stared at him.
"Wow, first the sister is a slut and now the brother is a criminal, talk about lousy parents" came a voice from someone in the crowd and loud enough so that Elena could hear.
"HEY Shut UP!" Bonnie yelled at the girl as she quickly lead Elena away as the students turned to stare at her. "Come on Elena" Bonnie said softly as she left the crowd of people behind them.
"HE DID WHAT?" Jenna screamed into the phone as she was leaving the college campus. I'm on my way" Jenna said as she hopped into her car. Inserting the key she listened as car made noises but wouldn't start up. Cursing under her breath about not getting the car fixed weeks ago like Damon had suggested she pulled out her phone.
"Listen no gloating but my car died and I need a ride." Jenna said and rolled her eyes at the person on the other ends answer. "Yeah I'm in the parking lot."
Within about fifteen minutes a car pulled up in front of Jenna, as she opened up the passenger door she saw Damon sitting in the drivers seat with a big smile on his face and a I told you so look.
"Shut up" Jenna snapped at him while Damon just laughed.
"I never said a word" he chuckled as he started the car.
Jenna shook her head as Damon started to drive, "Thanks for picking me up though" she told him.
"It got me out of going to that play group Elena suggested I take Claire to" Damon told her with a smile.
With a smile Jenna looked into the back seat to where Claire was in her baby seat and her eyes went eyed when she saw what Damon had dressed her in. "Really Damon you bought a nine month old a leather jacket?"
"She's like a little Hells Angel" Damon said with a chuckle as he glanced back at Claire with her big blue eyes and black leather jacket. "I even got her mini sunglasses" he joked as he handed them to Jenna as he drove.
Arriving at the high school Damon got Claire out of the car while Jenna headed inside with a very pissed off look on her face. ""Word of advice ladybug, don't get on aunt Jenna's bad side" he whispered to her as he headed into his old school.
As he walked in the door the halls were fairly quiet since classes were going on so he was able to walked down the hall no problem. Standing outside the principal's office bouncing Claire up and down he could see Jenna through the window talking to the principal while Jeremy slouched in the chair in front of the desk and starred down at the floor.
Claire must of saw him because she started pointing and giggling happily as she saw her uncle Jeremy. "Yeah that's uncle Jeremy" Damon said as he pressed a kiss to Claire's forehead.
As the bell rang Claire looked around wondering where the noise was coming from and then suddenly the hallway filled with students as they left the classroom and headed for their next class. Many of the girls noticed Damon with Claire and quickly ran up to him and the baby.
As Elena was leaving class she saw the group of girls and then spotted Damon holding Claire. As she walk over she noticed the outfit Damon had her in and shook her head. As she push passed the crowed Claire got all excited and reached out for her mommy. As Elena took Claire into her arms many of the girls who were oohing and awing over Claire and Damon headed off down the hall.
"This is new," Elena said as she took a better look at the leather jacket. "I thought I had her in a pink dress this morning."
"Weird" Damon said with a smirk.
"So what are you doing here?" Elena asked him while Claire played with her hair.
"Jenna needed a ride to pick up Jeremy, her car died" Damon told her and then pointed to Jeremy and Jenna in with the principal.
"It's unbelievable isn't it" Elena said as she shook her head. "It's like he's trying to get the police to arrest him and throw away the key.
"He's just going through a rough patch," Damon said in Jeremy's defense.
"Yeah well many people go through rough patches without getting in trouble with the law." Elena told him.
Damon remained silent thinking he had no right to bad mouth Jeremy because he himself had done some bad stuff during his years in high school and at one point he did vandalize the school swimming pool with the rest of the football team so he couldn't judge Jeremy. Shrugging his shoulder him and Elena stood there as the principal's door opened and Jeremy walked right past them without saying anything and headed for the car.
Jenna came out next and let out a sigh, "So he's been suspended and he won't give out the names of anyone else involved. Thankfully they are not going to press charges."
"So he doesn't deny doing it?" Elena asked.
"He never said a word in there," Jenna said not really understanding what was going through Jeremy's head at the moment. "The principal was ready to expel him but I got them to give him another chance. Yet I'm getting the feeling he doesn't want another chance."
Elena bit her bottom lip as she saw how stressed out dealing with Jeremy was making her and how exhausted she was having to juggle school, work and taking care of them. It wasn't easy and Jeremy seemed to be making it as hard for her as possible.
"Elena don't you have class?" came the principal's voice as he came out of the office.
Nodding her head Elena gave Claire a quick kiss and then handed her back to Damon. She fussed a little but soon settled against Damon's chest.
"Mr. Salvatore what brings you here? I believe we graduated you," he said in a tone like he wasn't pleased to see Damon again in his school.
"Don't worry I'm leaving" Damon said and then with a wave in Elena's direction left the school along with Jenna. As they crossed the parking lot they saw Jeremy leaning against the car with his hands stuffed in his pocket, his hood up and his head down starring a his shoes.
"Get in!" Jenna said in a firm tone.
Without looking up Jeremy opened up the back door and slid inside. As Jenna hopped in the passenger side, Damon strapped Claire into her baby seat next to Jeremy while she babbled away to her uncle Jer.
When they pulled up to the house Damon parked the car and turn to look at Jenna. "Can you take Claire inside? Let me talk to him" he said softly. Not really knowing what else to do Jenna nodded and then got out and got Claire out of the car.
As they headed inside Jeremy moved to follow. Quickly Damon got out of the car and chased after him and blocked his path to the house. "What the hell is going through your head right now?"
"Get out of my way Damon," Jeremy snapped as he shoved Damon against the chest.
"You think you're some big shot because the cops know your name and you got suspended?"
"Leave me alone!" Jeremy yelled.
"Stop being an idiot!" Damon snapped back.
"I don't take advice from the jerk who was stupid enough to get my sister knocked up at seventeen" Jeremy fired back as he got up in Damon's face.
Damon gave a smirk a comment and didn't back away. "Wow is that the best you got? The jerk who knocked up your sister, bro that was eighteen months ago" Damon told him. "Time to get some new material if you want to stay bad ass."
"Screw you I am not your bro!"
As Jeremy tried to pass Damon grabbed his arm aggressively and pulled him back. "The only one getting screwed is you, trust me if it was the other way around your idiot friends would of turn on you in a heart beat. If you get kicked out of school the only one getting screwed in this situation is you" Damon growled. He held his stare with Jeremy for a long minute and the released his grip. Tugging back his arm Jeremy stormed up to the house and slammed the door behind him while Damon stood outside thinking about what to do with him.
As the bell rang to begin the last class Caroline let out a sigh and moved to sit in the café across the street where her father's wife was sitting and waiting patiently. "I can't stay long I have classes" Caroline informed her.
"I know I will try to be as quick as I can with this," she told her.
"Look don't take this the wrong way but my father hasn't been apart of my life for years and I have no intention of changing my mind on that. If you are here to try and plead his case for him then I'm sorry you're wasting your time. The way I see it Bill Forbes is not my father."
"He's been arrested Caroline" the women blurted out and shocked Caroline when she finally let it out.
"I know what he did to you and your mother, at least I know now," she told her as her fingers tore at the napkin on the table. Caroline remained silent as she saw how timid and nervous the woman had become all of a sudden. "In the beginning he just struck me and I just wrote it off as stress. He was working on his drinking when I had met him but after we were married his drinking returned. He's been more violent lately and at one point he almost hit Margret and I knew I had to do something about it. I just learned about Bill's first marriage a couple months ago and I had no idea about you either."
"So he's going to jail?" Caroline asked trying to figure out what the point of this meeting was.
"Not quite" she told her as she ripped up the napkin some more as she let out a shaky breath. "He was arrested but he is going to be posting bail tonight or tomorrow."
"Okay…" Caroline said not sure where she was going with this anymore.
"He's been charged with misdemeanor charges of domestic violence battery, child endangerment," she told her. "But in order to put him away I need your help."
"My help?"
"I need you to testify against your father" she said and watched as the look of horror appeared across Caroline's face. She had spent years trying to forget him and now here was this woman wanting her to have to talk about what she went through and be in the same room with him once again.