The Beginning Of Our Forever [1]

19. Damon's Choice

The entire journey back to the hospital was one roller-coaster of emotion after another. Sheila and Elena had spent the whole journey flitting between laughing and crying, with Jeremy sat in the back of the car oblivious to what was going on around him. As the car pulled up in the hospital car park, Elena's smile slowly dropped as it was almost time to say goodbye to not just her brother, but her niece too. Elena swiveled around in her seat to face Sheila and reached out to hold one of her hands in between hers. Looking up at Sheila through her eyelashes and a wave of thick, brown hair, she smiled bravely, holding the tears back.

"Don't you give me that look Elena," Sheila joked, smiling weakly back.
"I know what you're going to say and I don't want you to think like that. This is not goodbye. We are family, and no matter what, we are together now and will stay together for as-long as we have left." Sheila began to cry as she reached her spare hand to Jeremy in the back of the car.

The three of them sat hand in hand for a while, appreciating that despite the odds being against them, they were finally together. The silence within the car was quickly broken as the rain began to fall, and the gentle pitter-pattering on the roof began. As the rain got heavier and heavier, the windows began to steam up, and the three of them wanted to leave the car even less than they did before. Jeremy had started to doodle on the windows, drawing faces and patterns in the condensation while Sheila and Elena carried on talking about one of the most important things they shared a love for... Bonnie.

The rain had began to ease off when they were interrupted by a knock on the passenger window. Both Elena and Sheila jumped and glared at each-other, wondering who on earth was knocking on their car window... in the hospital car park... in the rain. Elena rubbed her hand across the window, wiping away the condensation, and smiled when she saw who it was that was standing outside.

Damon was stood there, pulling a funny face as he cowered underneath an umbrella.

"I don't suppose you can either let me in the car, or you guys could come and stand out here with me?" he joked, shouting through the window after un-crumpling his face from the silly one he was pulling.

"There is no way you are getting in my car, you're all wet and horrible," Sheila retorted, laughing. Elena raised her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders, smiling. Damon opened the car door for Elena and held out his hand out for her, choosing to stand in the rain as he held the umbrella over her instead.

"Hey," he smirked, as Elena stepped out of the car and stood up to look at him in the eye.

"Hey," Elena smiled back, before leaning forward to place a heartfelt lingering kiss on his lips.

"I needed that," Damon sighed, his eyes still closed.
"You will not believe the afternoon I'm having," he opened his eyes and placed his hand on Elena's chin, running his thumb over the line of her jaw.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Elena asked cautiously, unaware if he was referring to Bonnie's funeral or not.

"No, it's fine. You don't need to worry about it. Let's just say that Caroline has agreed to let the local riff-raff stay in our house for god-knows how long," Damon rolled his eyes, sighing. Elena's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open a bit,

"The Mikaelsons?! Why would Caroline agree to that? What did Stefan have to say about it?" Elena couldn't believe she'd have to share one of her favourite places on Earth, with some of her least favourite people.

"Klaus started shouting his mouth off as per usual and got Kol involved too. To save me ripping his head off, Caroline had no choice but to agree to let them stay with us. I'm sorry baby. Stefan isn't happy either, he's not 100% convinced that Klaus won't make a move on Caroline," Damon continued. Elena shook her head and put her hand up to her forehead.