Emma Sommers

Sarah

A/N: Hope everyone had a happy holiday season, please enjoy this new chapter.

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Emma was up most of the night with Sarah, Enzo had been good enough to run out and pick up some formula and diapers, but he quickly crashed afterwards.

Damon had been on Stefan patrol and was making sure he acclimated to his new half human/half vampire status, taking him out for some late night pancakes with some bloody maple syrup on the side.

Lexi didn't stay long, Stefan still a little angry with her from what she disclosed earlier so it left Emma to make sure Sarah was okay.

Emma felt so badly for the little girl.

She hoped Lexi was right and Gail was just taking a few hours to wrap her head around everything before coming back but call her glass half full she just didn't think that was the case here.

She was due back at school in 2 days but how could she leave Sarah? Who would she even leave her with?

Maybe she could get an apartment near campus and try to finish her degree while raising her? She supposed she did have the money, still, it seemed like a lot of work.

Damon and Stefan came back home to find her face first in a giant pot of coffee.

"Hmm rough night?" Damon asks.

"I swear I couldn't get it to sleep for longer than 2 hours consecutively," Emma complains.

"Her, not it, her," Stefan corrects.

"Yeah I'm not so sure about that," Emma comments looking back at Sarah suspiciously.

"What are we gonna do, you guys?" She asks after a beat.

"What do you mean?" Stefan asks.

"She means who will be taking care of Sarah when Gail inevitably doesn't come back," Damon says spelling things out for him.

"What makes you think Gail isn't coming back?" Stefan asks.

Damon rolls his eyes at his brother's naïvety.

"Let's call it a hunch," he says.

"I could take her," Emma says, "I can postpone going back to college for a little bit and we can reassess in a year or two if Gail still hasn't come back."

"What? No, no way," Damon says dismissing her idea.

"What other choice is there Damon? You and Enzo want to raise her? We can't let her go into the system what if Gail does come back? If she finds out we gave Sarah away... that because she left she's lost her daughter for good... she won't come back from that," Emma says.

"Then she shouldn't have left!" Damon argues.

"She just learned her husband died," Emma says in Gail's defense.

"Don't care, it's not your problem, you were finally just about to start living for yourself I'm not gonna let you be saddled with some screaming kid for the next 18 years of your life," Damon tells her.

"I'm fairly certain they don't scream for the whole 18 years," Emma points out.

"Disagree, exhibit A," Damon says pointing back to Stefan who promptly rolls his eyes at his brother's not-so-subtle jab. 

"It might only be a year or less, Stefan and Lexi might be right, Gail could come back," Emma says.

"Yeah and by that time what do you want to bet you'll have become completely attached to her to the point she's calling you mommy and you're calling her baby... you want to put yourself in a position to be completely emotionally wrecked like that when she decides she's ready to be a mom again and snatches her back?" he asks.