When the baby girl cried for the first time, Damon felt tears of joy running on his cheeks while Shelby looked unaffected and was taken out of the room.

"Congratulation Mister Salvatore, it's a healthy baby girl you've got here. How do you want to name her?" The nurse asked him as she handed him the smiling baby.

"Like my mother… Rachel Salvatore… Rachel Elizabeth Salvatore." Damon replied while smiling at his daughter.

His daughter…

He was a father…

Something he hadn't felt in a long time swelled in his chest at that moment…pride… he was proud of what he had done… She was perfect.

"I love you Rachel… I promise you everything will be fine and you will be safe and happy!" he said before he left the room.

It was hard for him to leave her for a while but he nurses needed to finish taking care of her while he signed the necessary papers.

Before he went back to see if he could take Rachel home with him, he went to see Shelby. She was doing perfectly fine and told him she would leave the next day, after she got the okay from the doctor. She didn't want to see him or the girl ever again. She kept on calling it "That thing" and refused to know her name.

Damon was upset of the way she called Rachel and left before he would do anything rash. He gave her the information of the account she would find the money on and the papers for her new apartment in New York, telling her they would be in Mystic Falls, Virginia for the next couple of years if she changed her mind but that after that, they would move and it would be too late for her.

"Damon!" Shelby called him back as he was on his way out of the room.

"What?" He asked her.

"Thank you… You did more than I could have expected and I feel like I owe you the truth about something…" She said, hesitating.

"What, Rachel isn't mine?"

"Oh no, she is… I feel I should tell you that Katherine is alive… She's not in that tomb… I met her a few years ago... She's running away from someone and needed that person to think she was dead… She's known where you were from the beginning…" Shelby said.

"I think somehow I knew it… Did she ever love me?" He asked.

"She said she loved both you and Stefan and she didn't want to choose… she's planning on coming back in both of your lives when she needs you…" Shelby said in an apologetic tone.

"I'll deal with this when the time comes… Thank you… For this and for my baby girl… Have a nice life Shelby!" Damon said before he left the room and went to find Rachel.

He needed to hold her in his arms before he let go of his control and killed someone.

When he found the nurse that was taking care of his baby, she told him everything was fine.

"You'll be able to take her home tomorrow morning!" She told him.

"Do you mind if I spend the night here with her?" He asked her.

"Of course not." The nice woman replied.

Usually, the young nurse was the kind of woman he would have compelled to have fun with and drink her blood but instead he rushed to steal a couple of blood bags and went back to watch over his princess.

What did you think?

When will Katherine make her entrance?

Review please!

Lorelei Candice Black