A Knick In Time

Family Crossing

"Soo cute!" Kol says. He is holding Honor in his arms and plays with her fingers. "Hi there, you little troublemaker. Your parents don't know it yet, but you and I are going to be Mystic Falls' ultimate pranking team. Your uncle Kol is going to be the very pinacle of your life."

"Hm." I lean into my husband who's standing right behind me. "It was nice to have her for ourselves for about two minutes."

"Oh, no need to give up hope yet." Elijah smirks, "I'm sure we can have another two, when she's 18 or something."

I giggle. "Actually, I think we'll get a few more minutes with her very soon."

"How do you mean?" he asks.

I turn around and wrap my arms around him. "You'll see soon."

"You can do some pranks with her, if you have to." Jenna says, looking poignantly at Kol, "But if you steal my stuff again and teach her to help you with it, I will firefry your ass."

"Come on, Jen, are you seriously still upset about that? I mean, it was just a few CD...s." Kol says, looking at Jenna with big, innocent eyes while still rocking Hope on his arm.

Jenna stares at him sharply.

Under her scrutiny, he slowly begins to grow uncomfortable.
"Well... and a few books... whisky bottles... and cell phones. But that was it!"

"You stole multiple cell phones from her?" I ask incredulously.

My boyish brother-in-law gives me a short glance, remains silent, and then turns back to my daughter.
"Hey there, Honor, don't you look beautiful today!"

I exchange a glance with Jenna. She mouths 'coward' to me and shakes her head at Kol.

"For the record, though, you always did get your stuff back." Freya pipes in.

"Because you or Elijah always came to give it back." Jenna points out, "Not because your brother has any decency hidden under his manchild-jerkface surface."

"Pff... you're a manchild-jerkface surface!" Kol retorts, seeming like he thinks he should be angry but actually isn't. Then, in the very next second, he goes back to ignoring us and cuddling my baby as if nothing happened.

My honey blonde aunt slightly shakes her head at Kol before turning her face to me.
"By the way, Elena, now that you're here and awake, I have a favour to ask of you."

"What is it?"

"You know how Alaric has been living amongst vampires for quite some time now?" she asks rhethorically.
I nod.

She sighs. "Well, turns out, that hasn't made him any less hostile towards them. Which is mostly Damon Salvatore's fault. Seriously, that guy needs a shock collar or something. But anyway, long story short, with all these vampires in the house, Ric is refusing to drive me to my pregnancy breathing class. I was hoping that, with you awake and backing me up, we might change his mind."

"Sure." I say to her. Then, I turn my head to the kitchen and raise my voice a little, to make sure he'll hear me. "Ric?"
My aunt's partner stops chatting with Jeremy and looks over to us.
"Yeah?"
"Jenna tells me she has a class in..." I look at my aunt.
"30 minutes." Jenna says.
"... right. 30 minutes. Would you be a dear and drive her there?"

Alaric squirms uncomfortably. "Actually, I think it's better if we go another time. With everyone here and your baby and all..."

"But Ric," I argue gently, "that's exactly the point. There are so many people from our family here to help. There's no need to delay the class. And Jenna really wants to go."

"Well... I really don't think we should just... leave like that. This is our home after all." he says. I see how he tightly clenches his jaw.

Jeremy, who has been standing directly next to him the whole time, interferes. "You know what, that's no problem. I can drive her."

"Yeah, exactly. That way, I can get the laundry done, like you asked me to, yesterday, before Elena went into labour." Alaric replies, visibly relieved that my brother decided to save him.

It takes a few more minutes of arguing, but eventually, Jenna caves and leaves to her breathing class with Jeremy. I shoot an apologetic glance at my husband. Hopefully, our families will bond over time and get over their differences.
Just a few minutes after Jenna and Jeremy leave the house, someone else calls for me. Which I expected the entire time.

"Elena!!" Kol's voice sounds bashful and somehow panicky, "I think, your daughter, uh... needs you."

Honor has started wailing. The sound breaks my heart a little, but sounds strangely adorable at the same time. It's confusing. I raise my eyebrows at Kol. "By 'me', I'm guessing you mean a diaper change?!"

He awkwardly ducks his head and nods.

I shoot a look at Elijah and he huffs, visibly amused. "You were right. We are getting our daughter back now."

"Not for long." Kol promises, his head still a bit lowered, while he hands my daughter over to me, "I'll steal her again once she stops smelling like this."

"And just how many times a day do you think does a baby need a diaper change?" I ask him.

Elijah takes Honor's baby blancket from the table and turns to me. "Perhaps you remember the time when Hope was a baby, brother. In addition to changing diapers, there were the times when she cried because she was hungry, because she wanted her diaper or simply because she wasn't comfortable. While we change my daughter, how about you take the time to think about how much of that you intent to handle."

I grin at the sight of the söightly scared grimace my brother-in-law makes before turning around to walk upstairs where the changing table is.

Once in the nursery, I carefully place my daughter on the table and begin to take off her onesie. Elijah, meanwhile, opens a package with diapers and one with cleaning tissues.
"You know," he says, "this room is rather nice."

"Thanks, I thought so too. Can't take credit for it though. Jenna and Ric actually put it up for their own baby, but when we found out about me having a baby too, we decided to make a bit extra room in here, so we could share." I clarify.

As I wipe Honor's behind, Elijah hands me a diaper.
"That sounds really nice." he says, "And I would very much understand it if you want to stay here with your family and continue using this nursery."

I put the diaper over my daughter's cleaned and powdered behind and then look over my shoulder to my husband. "I'm sensing a 'but' coming up."

"You know me well." Elijah acknowöedges and carefully takes Honor from the changing table onto his arm. "As I said, this is all very lovely. But, I was thinking, perhaps you'd consider choosing another option for us."

"Us, as in... me, you and Honor?" I ask, meaning it mostly rhethorically, but still wanting to hear him say it, because it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

He smiles. "Yes. You, me and Honor... our family."

I beam, feeling the exact feeling I knew his words would give me with a wave of satisfaction. Boy, it sure is nice to have my husband back.
"What other option did you have in mind?"