Dear Damon,

Hope you are settling in during your first week at school. Must be weird going from a nice big room to a dorm where your bed hardly fits. Hopefully you are finding time to enjoy yourself down there and have a little fun, but not too much fun because I want you back here on Friday.

Things have been pretty hectic here, as we are getting ready for the school year to begin. I got my school schedule and I get first period spare so that will give me some extra time to get Claire to daycare. Which reminds me, a spot opened up at the daycare across from the school so she starts there on the day before school starts so that she can spend a couple hours at the daycare. I know you wanted to make the final decision on which daycare but I had to decide on the spot or they would give it to someone else. Also I know you like that one when we visited it in the summer.

Anyway we miss you so much even though you have only been gone a few days. Claire talks about you all the time so don't you start thinking she will forget you like you started to worry about before you left. She is going to be so thrilled when she sees you on Friday.

She has become the little adventurer lately, Jenna and I were cooking dinner (Yes we were actually cooking) and Claire decided to start her own little rock band as she hit wooden spoons on the pots. I think we are getting our first glimpse of the terrible twos because when ever I say no to her she shouts "NO" back at me so we will be in for some interesting moments with her for sure.

Okay so I don't want to keep you too long with this email, I know we will talk later so I'll just say we miss you and we love you.

Talk soon,

Love Elena & Claire

Claire was quietly playing on the floor with her blocks in the Gilbert house living room. With her plush ladybug beside her like always, Claire was playing with the block shapes and trying to match the shape with the shape hole on the bucket lid. Every time she got one in she would clap her hands because it was something mommy and daddy always did with her.

Elena came into the room with a load of laundry and sat it on the couch just next to where Claire was playing. As she started to fold the clothes Claire got up on her feet and waddled over to her mommy and grasped hold of the basket of clothes and looked up at her mommy with her big blue eyes.

"You want to help mommy," Elena asked with a smile and then handed Claire a baby washcloth.

Claire happily took the washcloth and immediately brought it to her nose as she had a big grin on her face.

"Does it smell good?" Elena asked and watched as Claire did her new trick of inhaling heavily. "Yeah?" Elena added and the little girl giggled. As the two or at least Elena folded the laundry they both heard a ding on the computer and it was a noise Claire started to know very well and her face lit up as she walked over to the laptop sitting on the coffee table.

"Dada!" she squealed happily as she pointed to the laptop screen.

Elena let out a soft laugh as she folded up the last article of clothing before placing it in the basket and then moved over to the coffee table. Skype had become a daily thing for Elena and Damon over the last few days with him away at school and Claire was now starting to understand that she could see her daddy on the computer screen. "Is daddy going to be on the computer?" she asked the little girl as she sat on the sofa in front of the laptop and pulled Claire onto her lap before turning on her Skype and answering Damon's call.

After clicking the button a big screen appeared and both Elena and Claire could see Damon. "Hey" Elena said with a smile as she waved to the screen and to Damon. Claire too was excited and waved as she squealed when she saw her daddy come up on the screen. "How have your first couple days of classes gone?" Elena asked him.

"Dadda!" Claire squealed again as she pointed to her daddy on the laptop.

"Hey guys" Damon said with a chuckle as he saw how excited Claire was to see him. "Hey Ladybug" he added as he waved to her.

Claire let out a giggle and then started to babble away as if she were telling her daddy what she had done today and Elena found it so adorable.

"Sounds like you two have been busy" Damon laughed. "Things have been pretty steady it's only the first week so not loaded with homework yet. Been able to find my way around campus, they have a pretty good coffee shop just down the street for your caffeine fix," Damon teased.

"Aw you know me so well," Elena laughed as she snuggled close to Claire and rested her chin on the top of Claire dark messy dark hair. "So how is your roommate? What did you say his name was again?"

Damon let out a chuckle and leaned back on his chair as he looked around his empty dorm room since his roommate was out. "His name is Galen Vaughn and other than the cruelty of his parents giving him a terrible name he isn't that bad I guess," he told her with a sigh.

"Well go have some fun enjoy part of the college life, " Elena told him. At this point Claire had reached her attention span and she started to squirm on Elena's lap and wanted to be let go so she could go play on the floor. "At least for a little you get to be a college student but then you better be on your way back here by the end of the week." she told him.

"Don't worry, I'd be home tonight if I didn't have mandatory lectures I had to go to" Damon told her.

Elena felt herself blush as she brush a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. "I love you," she told him softly, "and I miss you like crazy."

"I love you too"

"Laptop?"

"Check" Rebekah responded as she set her laptop down on her bed next to her packed suitcase and carry on bag. This time tomorrow she would be on a plane back to London since school would be starting in about a week. Since she didn't have much time left in town, Stefan spent as much time as he could with her even if it meant he was helping her pack.

"IPod?"

"Check" she answered as she as she held it up to show him and then stuck it in the front pocket of her carry on.

"Travel pillow?"

"Got it"

"Jacket?"

"Unfortunately yes" Rebekah replied with a sigh. "I'm really going to miss the warmth"

"Well here," Stefan said with a smirk as he ran over to the window with her phone and snapped a picture.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a giggle.

"Well once you get back to London who knows how long it will be before you see the sun again!"

Rebekah rolled her eyes as she hopped over her bed and skipped over to Stefan to grab her phone from his hands. "It's not that bad over there, they do have sun in England."

"I thought it rains a lot?" he asked her while moving over to the bed to start zipping up her suitcases.

"Okay, yes but while sunny days may be few and far between but they are not as rare as you make them out to be" she said as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Well I'll be sure to send you a lovely picture of us at a lake house for Christmas while you're dealing with snow in jolly old England" Stefan said as he ended it with a horrible attempt at a British accent.

"Oh honey don't ever try that again," she said with a laugh while shaking her head.

"Well in my defense I've got Italian ancestry not British" Stefan told her before leaning in for a quick kiss. Once Rebekah pulled away she took a seat on her bed and resumed her final check of her suitcases. As he watched her Stefan bit his bottom lip. "So what time do you leave tomorrow?"

"My mother is going to be dropping Kol and I off at the airport around noon and our flight is at 3pm" she told him sadly as she couldn't bring herself to look up at Stefan. They hadn't really talked much about what they would do about their relationship when she had to go back to school and the more they put it off the harder it was to talk about it because it meant the day was coming a lot quicker. They had spent the whole summer getting to know each other but apart of them wondered if their relationship would be able to survive with them being separated by an ocean for ten months.

"So we keep beating around the bush," Stefan finally said as he took a seat on her bed and let out a deep sigh. A part of him was afraid to have this conversation because in the last two months him and Rebekah had become so close and the idea of not being able to see her everyday was breaking his heart.

"I know" Rebekah replied with a sigh as she looked up at Stefan with her piercing blue eyes. Looking away again she brushed back her curly blonde hair and then finished zipping up her bags.

"You leave tomorrow" Stefan continued as Rebekah got off the bed and started to set her bags by the door so they were all ready to go. "What are we gonna do?"

Looking back at him Rebekah bit her bottom lip and looked down at her feet. "10 months is a long time," she told him. "It's not like your brother Damon where he can come home every weekend" she told him. "I probably won't be back until next summer really," she said knowing it was probably the truth. Sure they had time off at Christmas but usually her parents would visit London.

"So you want to just be friends?" Stefan asked her nervously.

Rebekah stared at him without saying a word for a moment because a huge part of her wanted to scream "NO!" but at the same time they had only known each other for two months so would a long distance relationship even be possible? "I don't want to" she told him softly.

"Me neither" Stefan told her as he got up from his spot on the bed and walked over to close the gap between them and cup her face so their watery eyes connected.

"I just don't want you to feel obligated or anything," she told him.

"I know long distance relationship usually don't work but maybe we can make it work," Stefan told her. "This summer has been one of the best summers in my life and don't want it to be just some summer fling."

"I don't want that either" Rebekah told him and she slipped her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug, "It's not going to be easy, with the time difference and all" she reminded him.

"We can figure it out" he told her and kissed her temple.

Leaning back on the two hind legs of the chair Damon was reading one of his textbooks just as Vaughn was stumbling into the dorm room. Tossing his pretty empty bag over on to his bed he let out a deep sigh he and went to the mini fridge and pulled out a soda.

"God why does college always seem more fun in the movies" Vaughn asked out loud as he slouched back on the old white couch they had in the dorm room. "I've got a test and a paper due already."

"And we still have another eight months to go" Damon said with a smirk.

"Yeah thanks" Vaughn answered although he wasn't really grateful for the reminder. "God I hate college life!" As he took a big gulp of his soda there was a knock on the dorm room door and Vaughn got up to answer it and was met by a hot redhead with a charming smile as she wore only short shorts, a hot pink bra and oddly a top hat.

"Must be my lucky day" Vaughn said with a charming smile as he leaned against the door showing off his built body and ran his fingers through his blonde hair.

The girl giggled as her eyes moved from Vaughn and to Damon as he stood up to see what was going on just as a couple other people ran down the hall half naked as well. "Wow," she said, as her eyes looked both men up and down. "The other guys must hate you at parties" she said with a laugh. "Anyway I'm looking some plastic cups, we're playing a weird version of Mario cart with drinking and stripping."

"Awesome!" Vaughn thought as he peeked out of the room wondering which room was filled with half naked drunk girls."

"So who's winning?" Damon asked as he handed her over a bunch of cups.

"Oh I'm pretty sure they will think I'm winning right now. I'm Sage," she told them with a laugh.

"I'm Vaughn and this is Damon," he told her with a charming smile

"Thanks you so much!" she told them and then quickly skipped out the door to rejoin her friends. Leaving both Damon and Vaughn wondering if that really happened.

"Hey so you and your baby mama still going strong?" Vaughn asked Damon with a curiously look.

"Yeah why?"

"Oh just so I know I can take a shot at the redhead" Vaughn told him with a huge smile. "God I love College life!" Vaughn yelled and Damon couldn't help but laugh.

Entering the school hallways Elena let out a sigh as she made her way past the number or students including this years freshmen who all seemed terrified and not sure where they were going. When she finally reached her locker Bonnie and Caroline were already there and both seemed a little more upbeat then she did.

"Hey, so today is our last official first day of high school!" Caroline squealed happily. When Elena didn't show the same enthusiasm Caroline calmed down and eyed her friend closely. "What is it?"

"I had to drop Claire off at daycare for her first full day" Elena said as she did her best not to cry. "And she cried and didn't want me to put her down" she added finding herself unable to stop some tears from escaping.

"Aw" Bonnie said sadly as she moved closer and wrapped her arms around Elena tightly. She could see just how hard it was to leave Claire with someone who wasn't family or friends for the first time. "She is going to be fine, you visited the daycare a number of times before but it will just take some getting use to that's all" Bonnie told her.

"I know, I know but it broke my heart" Elena told her as she brushed back her hair. "I spent a good ten minutes crying in the parking lot" Elena told her.

"Everything will be fine" Bonnie reassured her as she pulled back from the hug. Elena gave a slight nodded just as the bell went and they would have to head to class. For Elena it was one of the longest mornings of her life as she sat in class wondering if Claire would be okay and if she had stopped crying and calling out mama as Elena had to hand her over to the daycare staff.

By lunchtime Elena couldn't take it anymore and had to call and check up on her because if she didn't there was no way she was going to be able to make it through the afternoon. "Okay thank you so much" Elena said into her cell phone as she made her way towards the table in the cafeteria where Bonnie and Stefan were sitting.

"So?" Bonnie asked as Elena took her seat at the table.

"They say she is having her nap now and that she was fine all morning" Elena replied as she let out a sigh.

"That's good" Bonnie said with a smile, "She is adjusting well"

"Yeah I guess I overacted" Elena replied as she shook her head thinking of all the crazy scenario she had made up in her head of what could of happened at the daycare. Yet now she could relax a bit knowing that Claire would be all right.

"Yeah well you should probably call Damon back because he said you left him a voicemail of you crying this morning" Stefan reminded her. "I had to reassure him that the daycare wasn't a torture chamber," Stefan told her.

"Oh my god I completely forgot I did that!" Elena said as she stood up from her seat and pulled out her cell phone to call Damon and let him know Claire was fine.

As Elena left Bonnie couldn't help but laugh and shake her head at the nervous parents. Looking over at Stefan as he played with his food Bonnie rested her chin in the palm of her hand, "So how are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" Stefan asked her as he looked up at Bonnie.

"Well Rebekah has been gone for a few days now, I know how close you two were getting" Bonnie answered.

"It's been hard, the time difference makes it really difficult" Stefan told her since during the time that Rebekah had been gone they had only been able to talk on the phone once. It was starting make Stefan feel like maybe this long distance thing wasn't going to work after all.

"Look it hasn't been a week yet so why don't you give it some time, I mean the first week is always hard because your not use to the routine after a lazy summer." Bonnie told him and Stefan nodded. He wanted things to work between him and Rebekah and hoped that this long distance wasn't going to push them apart more then they already were.

When Elena returned to the table Caroline and Tyler were also making their way over and they seemed to be in the middle of one of their arguments? "It was one movie I don't see what the big deal is," Caroline said as she rolled her eyes.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked her friend.

"Tyler is upset I went to see a movie with Klaus" Caroline said like it was no big deal.

"What would you think if I took Sophie to the movies?"

"Slutty Sophie? Really Why would you ever do that?" Caroline asked with a nervous laugh as she saw what Tyler was doing.

"Come on its not weird, Elena would Damon find it weird if you and Stefan went to the movie's or if Damon went to the movies with say…. Bonnie?" Caroline asked trying to get her friends on her side.

Bonnie let out a scoff, "Yeah like that would ever happen" she mumbled under her breath.

Elena quickly gave Bonnie a little glare but knew there was no point in starting an argument with her because it would solve nothing so turned her attention back to Caroline. "First of all Damon and I have a 16 month old so we haven't been to the movies together in about 17-18 months. Only movie I've have seen was when I was with you in the park," She told her. "But no I don't think it would be weird if Stefan and I went to the movies but that's a totally different situation."

"Yeah I'm pretty sure Damon would beg me to go in his place if it was a Romantic comedy" Stefan joked.

"Or a musical" Elena added with a smile.

"Thanks for the help guys" Caroline replied although it was a sarcastic tone. "Anyway I honestly don't see what the problem is, we're friends."

"Maybe for you but Klaus has other motives," Tyler told her.

"Nothing happened!" Caroline groaned.

"I get that, but Klaus doesn't just want to be your friend" Tyler replied.

"Can we just drop this" Caroline said as she rolled her eyes. Tyler was about to answer her but then decided he didn't want to keep fighting in an argument that was going no where so decided just to let it go for now but he would be keeping a close eye on Klaus for now.

After a morning class Damon and Vaughn met up at a small restaurant on campus that was a popular hangout spot for the students. As a waitress brought over their food the cute redhead from the other day wondered into the restaurant. She first went up to the bar to get a soda and when she turned around she noticed Damon and Vaughn across the room.

"Well hello boys" Sage said as she confidently walked over and pulled up a chair in between the guys.

"Well look who got dressed today" Damon joked with a smirk.

"It was a game and I apparently was very bad at it" Sage told him with a laugh.

"Well no stripping game is fun if your winning" Damon teased.

"Speaking from experience?" Sage asked and Damon just smiled. "Well trust me next time I think its only fair if you two join," Sage told them. "I would earn big points with my roommates if I brought some extra candy to the party."

"I'm in!" Vaughn chimed in happily. Sage gave him a big smile as she placed an arm on the back of each of their chairs.

"So tell me where does America sculpt man candy such as yourselves?" Sage asked.

"Seattle" Vaughn told her. "Rain City" he added and Sage gave a grimace look.

"Well you must be thrill to be here in the sun then" Sage told him. "I'm pretty much born and raised here, just live in a small town about forty-five minutes from here" Sage explained.

"Another small town kid huh" Damon said in a tone that let her know he wasn't a big fan of his small town.

"And where are you from?"

"Oh the little boring town of Mystic Falls" Damon told her. "A town where your business is everybody's business."

"Oh don't I know it" Sage laughed as she lifts her glass and clanked it with Damon.

The three spent the remainder part of the day laughing and having a good time before taking the fun back to Damon and Vaughn's dorm room where Sage snuck in some whisky for them to drink.

"OH MY GOD YOU DIDN'T!" Sage cried out loud as she stared at Damon in disbelief.

"I'm not kidding" Damon said with a laugh. "We set the old truck tires on fire and then rolled them across the bridge. Police station was on the other side so they couldn't get to us and they never found out it was us" he explained.

"That is terrible!"

"No one was hurt," he assured her, "Well except the police department reputation with the unsolved case of the flaming truck tires," he answered before chugging back his whisky.

"And here I thought I was bad" Sage said with a laugh. "Seriously you have to meet my friend R.J. you guys would totally get along"

Damon laughed and nodded his head as he checked his phone and saw that it was nine o'clock. "Just a sec" he said as he got up from the floor where both Sage and Vaughn drunkenly sat.

"Don't worry he's not bailing out it's just 9'oclock" Vaughn explained although not that well because Sage didn't quite get it. "He calls home this time every night to say goodnight to his daughter" he cleared up.

Sage's eyes widened in shock as she looked up at Damon, "Wow you have a daughter?" Getting up from her spot on the floor she walked over to Damon's bed and took a seat while he handed her a photo of little Claire. "Oh my gosh she is adorable!" Sage said with a huge smile and could see the big grin on Damon's face as he brought the phone to his ear and started talking into the phone.

"Look at those serenely blues" Sage said as she was in aw of the cute little girl in the picture with a big smile and blue eyes that were definitely Damon's.

Getting off the bed she moved back to the floor to give Damon some privacy while he said goodnight to his little girl on the phone and Sage couldn't help but smile when she saw the big smile on Damon's face when he talked to her.

When Damon returned to the floor Sage had a big smile on her face and handed the photo back over to Damon. "She is definitely a cutie, boys will be knocking on your door when she is a teenager" Sage laughed.

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Damon snapped as his protective side came out and Sage couldn't help but laugh. "Oh the karma for the once womanizer who raises a daughter."

"You know if you keep this up I'm going to need to drink a lot more to forget this" Damon stated and Sage and Vaughn just laughed.

"Well what do you say we take this party down the street, a couple of my roommates are heading there we can check it out" Sage told them as she refilled all their glasses one last time.

"I have to leave tomorrow morning" Damon told her.

"All the more reason to party tonight!" Sage told him. "Come on one night of fun will be good for you," she told him. "Please come," she begged as she batted her eyes at him in a way Damon could tell she was able to get her way a lot.

"Fine, I'm in" he responded and both Vaughn and Sage cheered and chugged back the whisky. As Vaughn got up to grab his coat Sage gave Damon a big hug as she was so please he was coming.

"This is going to be so much fun I promise!" Sage told him as she took his hand then started to skip out the door. "But first we have to stop by and get R.J." she told the boys with a grin.

Once Sage was a few steps in front of them, Vaughn wrapped his arm around Damon's neck. "God she is hot," he whispered so that Sage couldn't hear.

"Don't worry she's all yours as long as you can find away to beat this R.J. guy for her attention" Damon told him.

"We just need to stop in here for a second" Sage told the guys as she walked up to a local bar on campus. With her low cut black top and tight jeans she led the boys to the front doors.

"Exactly how are you planning on getting us in?" Damon asked since none of them were twenty-one.

"I know the owner, we're fine" Sage assured him and then walked up to the bouncer flashing her smile. She leaned in close to the bouncer and neither Damon nor Vaughn knew what she was but the next thing they knew they were walking through the front doors of the bar.

"You and that magic smile" Vaughn whispered against her ear as they walked in the door.

"Oh yeah like you haven't used your charming smile to get your way" Sage giggled back.

Vaughn smiled back before he split off from the gang for a moment and join the fun on the dance floor. Sage giggled and shook her head as she saw Vaughn having fun dancing with some already pretty drunk girls. Turning back to Damon she noticed that there were a number of girls eyeing him closely.

"So" Sage said with a smile as she wrapped her arms around him. "I want you to meet R.J." she told him happily and then started to pull him towards the bar counter.

"Hey" came a girls voice as she tried to step in between Damon and Sage. Flipping back her honey blond hair she reached out and touched Damon's chest as she licked her lips.

"Um he's with me" Sage interrupted and Damon was sure he sensed a bit of jealously in Sage's voice as she made the girl back off. Once she was gone Sage still had Damon by the hand and started pulled him again but this time he pulled back.

"Look Sage, maybe I never made it clear but I have a girlfriend" Damon told her.

"Yeah I know Elena, I saw a picture of her in your dorm" she told him and then as she watched Damon's face expression she thought maybe he thought she was interested in him. "Don't worry Damon I'm with R.J. and that's who I want you to meet" she told him and then let go of Damon's hand as she skipped over to the bar where a man with a shaved head and blue eyes was sitting drinking a beer.

Damon started to walked over to the guy when all of a sudden Sage walked right past the man and leaned over the bar counter and locked lips with the brunette female bartender. Damon halted in his spot and his mouth almost dropped as Sage made out with a cute brunette.

When they pulled apart Sage looked back over at Damon with a smile and Damon shook his head as he close the gap between them. "Well I obviously have a giant ego," Damon said as Sage just laughed. "You did this on purpose" he accused her with a laugh.

"I get my kicks where I can" Sage teased. "Damon Salvatore meet Rose James" Sage said as she placed her hand on Roes' arm. "My girlfriend"

"Nice you meet you" Damon told her, "Sorry I'm a little surprised Sage never mentioned-"

"That I was a girl, yeah she loves to freak people out. It's nice to meet you" Rose told him with a laugh.

"We're heading for the Kennedy party down the street," Sage told Rose with a smile.

"Great my shift is over in five" Rose told them and then made her way back to help some customers.

Once Rose left, Sage looked at Damon with a huge smile on her face while Damon bit his bottom lip. "I feel like an idiot" he told her and Sage just laughed and wrapped an arm around Damon and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "This is gonna be fun" she told him.

When Vaughn got off the dance floor he saw Sage talking with a girl, as they were getting ready to leave. Catching up to Damon he wrapped an arm around him as they followed not too far behind the girls. "So do you think I've got a shot with Sage?"

Damon laughed realizing Vaughn had missed Sage's little surprise, "Trust me buddy she is WAY out of your league."

Sitting on her front porch Bonnie was starring down at one of the first modeling gigs she had gotten and even though she was happy about it she learned pretty quickly that Connor was not happy with it. After school she had called him with the good news and that she was given a prototype of the photo that had her posing with three other people. Although she could finally say she got her first gig there was one down side; she didn't get paid for it. This was what Connor was unhappy about and thought it wasn't something Bonnie shouldn't be proud of.

"Everything all right?" hearing Elena's voice Bonnie looked up with a smile as Elena came walking up the driveway pushing Claire in her stroller. Seeing Elena with Claire, Bonnie smiled and then waved to them as they came closer.

"Bama" Claire chirped happily as she reached out for Bonnie with her little arms.

"Well look at you" Bonnie said with a laugh as she reach down to lift Claire out of the stroller and pulled her onto her lap. "Before I know it you'll have my name down" she said and then gave Claire a kiss on the cheek.

"Well Jenna is determined that before she learns to say all of your names she will have to learn to Jenna first" Elena told her as she took a seat beside Bonnie on the porch. "I think Claire finds it funny every time Jenna tries to get her to Jenna she just laughs. It has become a game."

"Are you teasing your aunt Jenna?" Bonnie asked Claire as she turned her around on her lap so that they were now face to face.

"Bama" Claire giggled as she touched Bonnie's cheek with little hands.

"So how are you handling her in daycare?" Bonnie asked.

Elena let out a sigh as she reached out a hand and touched Claire's cheek. "It's been hard, she still cries when I drop her off but I think I'm having a harder time leaving her there then she has staying there. Yesterday before I was out the door she had stopped crying and was picking up a toy," Elena told her.

"Haha it's a act to make mommy feel bad," Bonnie told her.

"Yeah and it's working" Elena told her as she ran her fingers through her long hair. "We are slowly getting into a routine but I think she is starting to really miss Damon because getting her to go to bed has gotten a little harder. Last night she was pretty fussy until about midnight."

"When is he home?"

"Couple hours" Elena replied with excitement.

Bonnie nodded and although she wasn't Damon's biggest fan it wasn't a secret about how much he loved his little girl and how much Claire loved him. For the first 14-15 months of her life she was with Damon everyday.

"So how are you?" Elena asked as she remembered how upset Bonnie seemed when they walked up.

Elena watched as Bonnie snuggled with Claire as she thought about what she was thinking about before Elena and Claire showed up. Bonnie bit her bottom lip and then reached over to the other side of her and picked up her photo and handed it to Elena. "It's for a local charity," she told her and she watched as Elena's eyes widen with huge smile spreading across her face.

"Bonnie this is amazing you must be so excited" Elena told her.

"I was" Bonnie told her but her smile slowly faded from her face when she remembered what Connor had said about it being a step in the wrong direction and not something she should be proud of. He called it a disgrace that she took the gig. "Connor though was not at all pleased, I seem to be nothing but a disappointment to him."

"I'm sure that's not true" Elena assured her.

"He called me taking this gig a disgrace," Bonnie told her sadly. "Connor obviously had high hopes for me and it looks like I do nothing but let him down and maybe he's not wrong. Maybe this whole dream is a waste of time," Bonnie added as she bowed her head in shame.

"That is not true, and I don't want you thinking that" Elena told her best friend as she wrapped her arm around her. "Like any job you have to do some dirty jobs before you can get to the top. Many have to mop the floors or buy the coffee before the get to the executive office. It'll happen trust me" Elena told her and even if it was just a little bit Bonnie started to believe her.

Elena had her books all laid out on the kitchen table as she tried to get some homework done. She would glance over at Claire while she played on the floor with her ladybug held tightly to her body as she babbled away to herself. Elena just smiled over at her little girl as her pencil dropped to her notebook and watched as her daughter played on her own like she was in her own little world. As she sat there she noticed a car pull up on the driveway and when she got up to check she saw the blue Camaro.

A smile grew on her face and she looked over a Claire, "Baby girl look whose outside!" Elena said happily to her daughter and watched as Claire looked up at her mom for a second and then got to her little feet and waddled over to the window and peaked her head out.

"DADDY!" she squealed for the first time in excitement and she started jumping up and down. She turned to look at her mommy with a huge smile on her face as she pointed out the window as Damon was walking up the driveway. "DADDY!" She squealed again as she looked out the window.

Elena couldn't help but laugh at how excited Claire was as she watched her daddy coming up the driveway. She shrieked and squealed, jumped up and down, as her daddy got closer and closer. "Is that daddy?" Elena asked her little girl who was now screaming out the window obviously Damon wasn't coming fast enough.

She watched as he climbed the steps of the porch and quickly closed the space between him and then door and after a gentle knock he slowly started to open the door and Claire was right their as soon as a small crack appeared. "Daddy, Daddy" she chirped as she tried to help him open the door faster.

As soon as he started to open the door a huge smile grew across Damon's face as he caught sight of his little ladybug and could hear her saying daddy for the first time. "Hello Ladybug!" he said with a chuckle as the door was wide open and Claire was raising her arms up high for Damon to pick her up. Loving seeing the excitement in her eyes Damon reached down and picked her up and then snuggled her close to his chest and inhaled her scent mixed with Elena's. "God daddy missed you so much ladybug," he told her as he started to kiss her temple while Claire held on to him tighter.

As he held his ladybug his eyes wondered up and over to Elena as she stepped closer to join the two and quickly snuck in a kiss that she had been dying to give him all week. "I've missed you so much!" Elena cried as her fingers ran through his hair and then she pressed her lips against his again.

When she pulled back, Elena just found herself happily staring at one of the most precious things in the world. Seeing how happy Damon was as he looked at his little ladybug and softly talked to her while she had her little arms wrapped around his neck in a hug. With a smile Claire gave her daddy a kiss on the nose as he talked to her and told her how much he loved her. The love between a father and his daughter was a gift Elena was so happy she got to see every time the two of them were together.

Let me know what you think!