Chapter 38

Stefan had Damon sitting next to him and Lilly in front of him.

"She's beautiful." Damon marveled. "How did this happen and where's her mom?"

"Are you sure you want to know? It's a long story." Stefan warned.

"Just tell me." Damon told him with a friendly pat on the back.

"Some witches tried to pawn off a fake pregnancy on Klaus. They claimed he had fathered the child. There was a baby however and Bonnie's new ability to make a vampire pregnant. She volunteered to recode the DNA. Rebekah was to be the mom and I volunteered to be the Dad."

"Where is Rebekah?" Damon looked around.

"She's serving out her own punishment for trying to kill the girls. She was banished for six years."

"Please don't tell Katherine that," Damon worried. "She begged me not to come here. She's terrified that the Mikaelsons will take our baby as punishment."

"They won't as the girls will be pissed off at them." Stefan said as he waved his hand. "It took Elijah a while to even get in Elena's good graces for the stunts you and Evil Katherine pulled off and she beat the crap out of him."

Damon was a bit freaked out now. "Do you know if she still hates me?"

"Once she wakes up from her nap ask." Stefan told him. "Though Elena's a bit more ruthless now but she's been toning it down."

"How ruthless?"

"Ask her." Stefan said with a shrug. He knew that she's ruthless but he wasn't sure how ruthless she is.

"Please," Damon turned his attention back to the three brothers," Katherine needs blood, my child needs blood from one of you three to survive." Damon looked desperate as he pleaded. He held Katherine lovingly against his chest and it was easy to see she was in distress.

Elijah knew that it was a matter of time before his brothers made a decision so he would be the one to give her blood but with a price.

He didn't get a chance to offer his blood as Klaus placed it in front of the five hundred year old doppelgänger.

"Until that child is born you both will have to live here." Klaus said. "Jeremy and Davina will take you to your room for the moment."

It was Jeremy's turn to show off by jumping off the balcony and landing gracefully like a cat in front of the two, veins out on display.

"Woah Gilbert," Damon gasped, "finally decided to join the winning team huh?"

"Yep," Jeremy grinned and led Damon still carrying Katherine to the suite of rooms they had been designated. Bonnie and Davina followed along. Bonnie gave Katherine a beautiful blue highlight in her hair so she would be instantly recognizable. Then she placed an invisible symbol on both Katherine and Damon as he watched anxiously.

"What are you doing?" He worried.

"It is only a spell that prevents either of you from leaving the compound without an original," Bonnie said gently.

"Thank you," Damon smiled.

"So how has it been?" Bonnie asked Damon. He couldn't help but smile.

"She's actually happy Bonnie. When we realized that she was pregnant we were in shock but it quickly turned to joy. It wasn't easy at first. Lately though it's been wonderful right up until she began to collapse and a witch friend of Katherine's who by the way doesn't believe this is a real pregnancy told us we needed Mikaelson blood. Apparently she doesn't know there's an active Bennett witch."

It was a couple hours later when Katherine woke in Damon's arms. She smiled up at him and then instantly became worried.

"You did it didn't you?" She asked. He nodded. "What are they going to do to us?" Katherine worried.

"Calm down beautiful. I promise I won't let them hurt you or the baby and I don't think they'll want to once they see how you've changed, lovely," Damon said as he held her tenderly and she rubbed her baby bump nervously.

A snort was heard from the doorway and everyone in the room looked to see who was behind Bonnie.

"Oh we don't want your child Katerina," Klaus said with amusement lacing his voice. "Trust me on that."

"Then what do you want?" Katherine had to ask.

"That is something I need to speak to my family about." He turned his gaze to Bonnie. "Bonnie, my brother is nervously waiting for you. He doesn't seem to trust anyone after the accidents that have happened."

"Do you mean about Elena's murder spree?" Damon smirked.

"No." His eyes turned amber colored and he had a cold smile on his face. "The accidents were about Elena getting her neck snapped and being thrown into the vervain room. Since then, Elijah's protective streak has grown."

Bonnie nervously surveyed the room. She wasn't entirely sure if she should leave Klaus with Damon and Katherine. There was no love loss there for sure.

"Klaus if you do something I don't approve of I can guarantee you Kol will be in line with me," Bonnie said. "Damon if you or Katherine tries to hurt a member of my family...well let's just say if you thought I was powerful before you don't know the half of it Damon Salvatore." Bonnie readjusted her dress over her baby bump and then left the room. She was surprised to find herself enveloped in Kol's embrace a moment later. She smiled and kissed him deeply.

"I love you too," she smiled before she kissed him again.

Meanwhile Damon was doing his best to protect Katherine despite the fact that she had centuries on him. Her heartbeat betrayed how very terrified she was of Klaus.

"Klaus I'd appreciate it if you would stop trying to stress her out," Damon requested. "I can't imagine this is good for the baby."

Klaus smirked. "It's good to see that I still have that effect on her." He walked away from the room, quietly closing the door for them.

Damon sighed and ran his fingers through her hair.

"Do you want to know what we're going to be having or do you want it as a surprise?" He asked her.

"You know what the baby is?" Katherine smiled excitedly. Damon smiled at her. "Please tell me."

"It's a boy Katherine," Damon said with obvious delight, "you're giving us a son." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"When can we get out of here?" She asked and he sighed as she sat back on the bed and he began to pace. "Damon?"

"I had to get you that blood Katherine!" he worried, "the deal was they gave you the blood that saved our son and we stay here until the baby is born." Katherine became very panicked then.

He calmed her down instantly.

"You're going to be safe and they won't do anything horrible for the moment."

"You sure?" Her voice was small and light sounding.

"I won't let another baby be taken from you Katherine. You get to keep this one, I promise," Damon vowed. He smiled then and tenderly cupped her cheek. "We're having a little boy." Their hands drifted to her baby bump.

VVVVVV

Meanwhile the others were gathered in Kol's suite where the charm kept all of their conversation private.

"Katherine's a consummate actress," Elena said, "how do we know this isn't just another one of her tricks?"

"Well Damon sucks at it and he's obviously in love with her," Caroline said.

"What if she's just making another play for Elijah? She knows he wanted the sweet, innocent Katherine back. Maybe that's the card she's decided to play this time," Elena growled.

"Actually she wants as far away from him as she does all of the rest of you. I think I get a pass because I made her pregnancy possible," Bonnie said, "and instead of hating you and wanting revenge she is truly terrified. She wants nothing more than to get away from here and it's not just Klaus, it's all of you."

"Well she should fear us. She ran from Klaus, tried to kill me and the list of things she's done to Elijah over the years is too long to go through," Kol growled. Then he looked to his brother, "although admittedly Elijah seems to open himself up to some of that."

"What are we going to do to them?" Klaus asked.

"Tread carefully," Bonnie warned them.

"What should happen if she ends up doing something against one of us?" Caroline had to ask. "Can we lock her up somewhere until the baby's born?"

Bonnie saw how much Kol and Klaus loved that idea but Elijah's smile was terrifying at the thought of doing that.

Elena noticed and shook her head slightly.

"He's imagining all the ways to torture Katherine and Damon." She told her in a whisper.

"Has anyone bothered to consider the possibility that my spells worked and they really have changed? I appreciate everyone's faith in my abilities," Bonnie growled and she walked to look out the window. She was surprised to see that Damon and Katherine were cautiously emerging into the courtyard. He was carefully guiding her along. She had to be probably 28 weeks along.

"BONNIE!" She turned to see Elena there with a sad smile on her face. "We do trust you and your magic but we don't really trust Katherine and Damon." Elena explained. "Plus my mood swings since they appeared have been going crazy."

"Your mood swings were crazy before," Caroline felt duty-bound to point out.

"Okay so what's the plan of action?" Bonnie sighed.

"They keep to themselves and we keep to ourselves." Bonnie said to them all. "Unless one of us and one of them tries talking to us, we do nothing."

"Oh I gave Katherine a blue highlight in her hair just so there isn't any confusion. There's also a spell which prevents them from leaving the compound unless they are in the company of an original," Bonnie said.

Later that afternoon Damon joined Stefan who was playing with Lilly. He smiled.

"She's really beautiful," Damon commented.

"Yes, she has a lot of her mother in her," Stefan smiled.

"Those are your eyes though," Damon smiled and indeed Lilly had already lost her newborn blue in favor of Stefan's hue. Damon reached out and gently touched the infant's cheek.

"She is very beautiful," Katherine said from a distance. "How old is she?"

"She'll be a week old tomorrow," Stefan replied.

"What was it like when you held her for the first time?" It was an experience that Katherine never had.

Damon was curious about it but he also wanted to talk and apologize to Elena who was either in her and Elijah's room, with Caroline and Bonnie or somewhere around this property.

"It was life-changing," Stefan confessed sincerely. "In that instant I knew that she was depending on me. She would look to me to shape her world, to teach her and train her. On the other hand here is this perfect, beautiful little girl that has no idea about all the mistakes I've made in life, all the hurt and destruction I've caused. All she knows is I'm warm, I'm holding her securely and she likes the sound of my heartbeat. It's a feeling like none other."

Katherine smiled.