Stelena: Eternal Love (2)

6- Isabella's First Word

One week later

Stefan's POV
I woke up to the soft sounds of my baby girl babbling to herself. Hearing her beautiful voice first thing in the morning and waking up to my gorgeous fiancée, was always perfect. I gently unwrapped my arms from around Elena, making sure I didn't wake her, and started to make my way to Isabella. Before I left the room I stopped and turned to look at Elena. The guilt I felt consumed me since she was in a lot of pain last night and barely got any sleep, where she'd only just fallen back asleep an hour ago. Of course, I stayed up with her and tried to help in any way that I could.
I quietly walked into Isabella's room to see her little smile that I've been dying to see. When she saw me she started laughing and reaching her arms out towards me.
"You're in a very good mood this morning." I said happily as I lifted her out of the cot and lightly kissed the side of her head. I carried her down stairs, so that she wouldn't wake Elena up, and sat her down on her play mat. She didn't waste anytime before crawling over to her toy basket and tipping its contents out all over the floor. I laughed at both the innocent smile she gave me after she did it, and the fact that I was going to have to pick them all up later. Nonetheless, it was adorable to see her pretend to use her toy phone, she would always take our phones to play with, so we bought her a pretend one.
"Who's on the phone, Isabella?" I asked. I knew she couldn't reply but Elena and I have been talking and asking her questions to try and stimulate her talking. She's been a fast learner so we're hoping she'll start talking soon.
She passed the phone to me, so I put the phone to my ear and pretended to talk into it. She thought it was hilarious and erupted with the most adorable laughter I've ever heard.
We continued to play with the phones until Isabella decided she'd had enough of it. She climbed and stood up on my lap, then she started to cover my eyes with her small hands. Every now and then she would uncover my eyes, so I could quietly shout 'boo' to her. She absolutely loved to play peek-a-boo and she was laughing so much that I was worried she would wake Elena up. It took her a few minutes to calm down and when she did, she sat down and curled up in my lap. I'm guessing she got up a little too early, and she was very tired still.
"Daddy's little girl," I said as I lightly kissed the top of her head. It was quiet for a couple of seconds before I heard the one word that made my heart melt.
"Dada," Isabella said. I was bewildered. Did I just hear that correctly? Did Isabella just say her first word right before my eyes?
"Dada," she said again, with the same cuteness as before. I gasped. I couldn't believe it. I hugged Isabella, picked her up and walked as quickly as I could to the bottom of the stairs, all the while with a smile on my face.
"Elena!" I called, excited to tell her the news.

Elena's POV

I woke up this morning to find that Stefan was gone, and this actually made me feel a little upset. I loved waking up to his warm, comforting arms wrapped around my body, to his sexy morning hair and to just him in general. I was assuming that he'd gotten out of bed to get Isabella because lately she's been waking up earlier than she usually does. I must have slept through her babbling, which is what she tended to do in the morning, because I was just so tired. I didn't get a good night's sleep last night because I was so uncomfortable in every position and in so much pain. I've developed a small baby bump which I admire and adore, but at night it makes me very uncomfortable. I felt bad for Stefan because he stayed up all night with me, got barely any sleep and was probably worried about me. Although having said this, I wouldn't expect any different because Stefan's always been very protective of me.
I laid in bed for a few more minutes before I heard Stefan call my name. I really didn't feel like I had the energy to get out of bed but it was Stefan calling and it sounded important. I dragged myself out of bed, my back still aching and replied back.
"Yeah? What's wrong?" I called, coming to walk to the top of the stairs.
He smiled softly. "Hey sweetie, sorry if we woke you but you're going to want to hear this."
"No, it's fine. It was about time I got up anyway, what is it?" I asked. I walked down the stairs and stood by Stefan and Isabella.
"Isabella said her first word!" He said with the cutest smile on his face. Was I hearing this right?
"Oh my god, really?" I half asked, half exclaimed. He simply nodded his head, I could tell excitement was his number one emotion right now.
"What- what did she say?" I said with a massive smile on my face. He quickly whispered something in her ear and few seconds later I heard...
"Dada!" Isabella shouted, waving her hands up in the air. I gasped and placed my hands over my mouth in total shock.
"Oh my-," I stopped in pure shock. My little girl was growing up so fast, and it was so scary.
"Did she just-?" I asked. Stefan happily nodded as he passed a smiley Isabella over to me. I held her close to me as I rocked from side to side.
"You're growing up too fast," I said, kissing the side of her head lightly. It was so exciting hearing her talk but at the same time, it was a little sad because it just showed how quickly she's growing up. I just needed to remember, no matter how old she was, she would always be our baby girl.
Out of nowhere, tears started to roll down my cheeks from the happiness I felt about the fact that my little girl was talking. Although, my hormones made the situation worse and make me cry a lot more than I normally would. Stefan obviously saw me crying and wrapped us both in his warm embrace. We stood there for a few minutes wrapped up in our hug: moments that I always made my heart swell. Moments like these always cheered me up, and made my day so much better.
Eventually we all drew out of the hug, only because Isabella started to wriggle about in my arms. I gently placed her down on the floor and we both watched intently as she toddled away. She's not completely stable as she walks but we were both happy that she's walking.
"I'll have to call my parents later and tell them what Isabella said." I told Stefan whilst wiping away the remaining tears.
"Yeah, and I'm sure Bonnie and Caroline will want to find out too," he replied. I couldn't stop smiling, I still can't believe what's just happened. I always knew her first word would be related to Stefan because she's always been such a daddy's girl.
"They're coming over later so we can tell them then," I said.
"We sure can." He smiled widely and kissed my forehead. Stefan's forehead kisses were the best and I had no clue what I'd do without them. Just little, simple gestures from Stefan made me feel so much better.
"I'm going to get dressed." I said before giving his irresistible lips a short, sweet kiss.
"We'll go up with you. I need to get dressed and so does Isabella," he said.
"Okay," I smiled. Stefan picked up Isabella, took my hand, and led me up the stairs.
Once we had all finished getting dressed, had gotten downstairs, and settled down, I decided to call my parents. With Stefan sat on the floor playing with Isabella, I sat on the sofa dialling my mum's phone number. Placing the phone to my ear, I smiled at the sight of their daddy-daughter moment.
"Hello?" I heard my mum's voice.
"Hey mum, it's me," I replied.
"Hi, Elena. Is everything okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine. I have something to tell you though." I said smiling away, I was so excited to tell her.
"What's up? Please don't tell me you've already gotten married or something." She said making me laugh a little.
"No, it's nothing like that. We wouldn't do that without you." I replied.
"Okay, I was so worried that you'd already gotten married without telling us. I'm not sure why I thought that mind you. But anyway, what do you need to tell me?" She questioned.
"Well, it'd probably be better coming from Isabella so, hang on." I said as I put her on speaker. I sat on the floor with Isabella and Stefan and encouraged Isabella to talk.
"Dada!" She shouted out as enthusiastically as she had before.
"Did you hear that?" I asked my mum down the phone, a smile was plastered on my face.
"Did she? Oh my- did Isabella just say her first word? Am I hearing this right?" My mum stuttered in pure shock, with excitement laced in her voice.
"Yeah, she said it this morning!" I replied with the same amount of excitement.
"Oh, wow! That's so great! Proud of you Isabella!" She said to Isabella, and because she was on speaker, Isabella heard. Hearing her nanny's voice, she smiled and clapped her hands. This made both Stefan and I laugh and smile at her in awe. Isabella was the sweetest little girl I've ever met, she was always so smiley and giggly when she was with any of our family or friends. The only time she's ever in a bad mood is when she's tired and all babies are like that.
"Aw, she's growing up so fast." She said down the phone, making me think about how quickly she was growing up, for the second time today. I knew it scared us both to lose her, and that our time with her before she goes to university or moves out was shortening each day. But, we've both had to remember that although she was growing up fast, we still had ages until we needed to think about it. Before I could reply, we heard a knock on the door, probably being Caroline and Bonnie.
"I'll get it." Stefan said before he kissed my cheek and got up to get the door. Smiling like an idiot, like I always did when he kissed me, I told my mum I had to go and said goodbye.
"Bye Elena, we'll see you soon. Love you." She said making me smile, I missed being so close to my mum. Even though I've missed my whole family,  living here has been the best choice I've ever made and I couldn't ask for anything more.
"See you soon, love you too." I answered before I hung up.
By this time, Bonnie and Caroline were already in the room, smiling away like they always did.
"Hey Elena, Stefan told us about Isabella. What did she say?" Caroline asked, barely containing her excitement.
"She said 'dada.'" I said with a smile on my face.
"Really? That's great; I bet you were happy, Stefan." Caroline said, with the same smile on her face, looking over at Stefan.
"Yeah, I didn't expect it. We were just playing and she said it. I called Elena to tell her, and judging by her reaction she was shocked as well." Hearing Stefan talk about Isabella was just such an amazing thing because I don't think he ever expected to be able to have children. It reminded me that we've, together, been able to make his dream of having children come true.
I nodded along to his reply, a smile constantly on my face.
"It's weird how fast she's growing up. It feels like yesterday when we were seeing you two at the hospital with a new born, Isabella." Bonnie said, making me reminisce in the time we've had with Isabella. It felt like the past year has just passed us by.
"Isn't it her first birthday soon?" Caroline asked, making me snap out of my thoughts.
"It's in about two weeks. But it's someone else's birthday before that." Stefan smirked, looking at me. I gave him a stern but joking look.
"No it's not. I don't remember anyone's birthday." I said before standing up and sitting on the sofa in between the girls and Stefan. Caroline and Bonnie both knew my birthday was coming up but I didn't want to draw attention to it.
"You can't get past us that easily, Elena. We know it's your birthday, and before you even try to protest, I've already bought your presents." Caroline said with a jokingly smug look on her face.
"You guys really don't need to get me anything, we don't even need to make a day of it." I said, knowing that I would get a rant from Caroline, Bonnie and Stefan.
"What do you mean we don't need to make a day of it?" Caroline exclaimed.
"Yeah, it's your 20th birthday, Elena. There is no way that we're not going to make it good. You deserve it, right Stefan?" Bonnie added, looking at Stefan, who nodded his head before replying.
"That's right. You deserve your special day, plus Caroline wouldn't want to let a good party go to waste." He joked, making us all laugh.
"If you all insist." I said jokingly, admitting defeat. I shuffled down to a more comfortable position, Stefan wrapped his arm around me, and I just sank down into his embrace.
"Are your parents coming to visit on your birthday?" Bonnie asked.
"I think so." I replied. I hope my parents come, because celebrating birthdays with the family has always been a sacred tradition to us.
"I'm sure they will. So, are you excited to turn 20?" Caroline asked, rather excitedly.
"Kind of, I'm more excited about celebrating it with all of you guys." I smiled at the thought of celebrating my birthday with Stefan, Caroline, Bonnie and my family. Stefan gently tightened his grip around me as he lightly kissed the side of my head.
"We're all excited to celebrate it with you." Bonnie said with a cute smile on her face. We all smiled at the thought.
"So Caroline, how are you and Klaus?" I asked, changing the subject away from my birthday.
"We're good. I'm surprised we made it this far, because although he's such a gentlemen, I never expected our relationship to last as long as it has. I'm glad we got this far because I've always wanted this. I never thought I'd ever have a relationship that lasted this long. Sorry, I'm babbling." She apologised which made me laugh slightly.
"You're obviously very passionate about it. Haven't you been dating for almost a year?" I asked.
"Yeah, I guess. That's scary! We got together the day before Isabella was born." Caroline said, making me think about that day. Stefan and I had spent that day decorating Isabella's room, which was literally what we had been doing the whole week. We were both so happy, and it's sad to think about what happened after, and that we never knew what was coming. I smiled at the thought of our happiness, and prevented myself from thinking any further because I knew what lied ahead. Whilst the others talked, I continued to think about that day, how different everything was then. I was so glad to be where I was now, because I couldn't live my life without Isabella and Stefan, or Caroline and Bonnie for that matter. I know I've said it a lot but, I don't know where I'd be if I didn't have this incredible man in my life. He really doesn't give himself enough credit, because he's managed to get Isabella and I to where we were now. I couldn't be more grateful to him. He was definitely one in a million and was our hero.

AN: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'm sorry for taking so long to write the chapter. I have had so much to do and writing hasn't been at the top of my list, because of all the work I have to do. I will make it up to you! The next chapter is going to be good!
Also, sorry that there wasn't a lot of Stelena moments, I really wanted to focus on Isabella this chapter. But don't worry, next chapter will have a lot of Stelena moments!
And...Stefan is going to have some big news next chapter, so you guys can look forward to that. Comment and Vote, love you guys!😘❤️
-Chelsea x