12 days of christmas

Day 7

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Damon asked, as they sat in the car.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Elena sighed deeply, "What about you? Are you ready for this?"

"What do you mean?" Damon asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

"Just... this might be really difficult, you know," she said, placing her hand on top of his, stroking the back of it gently. Damon looked down, as though he hadn't really considered it and shrugged.

"I'll be fine," he said, kissing her hand and getting out of the car. She followed along, as they grabbed the wreaths from the back of the car. Elena realized that each of them symbolized a loss and hated how many of them there were, but this was reality for them now.

They were both wearing all black - Damon had even put on a suit. After they'd grabbed all of the wreaths, they both headed into Mystic Falls cemetery.

When she was younger, her parents had always taken her and Jeremy to visit the graves of their grandparents around the holidays. She hadn't ever met them, they had passed before she was born, so it had never really struck her as important...just sad., However, since she had lost her own parents, she understood the way Grayson and Miranda had felt, when they used to go. What was once a boring Christmas time tradition had become an essential part of the year that often offered a sad comfort.

When she had suggested it to Damon, he had been hesitant, and she'd understood why. There were so many losses that were still so fresh, and bringing them up, all at once, might prove to be too much emotional turmoil to take in a single day. But they had talked about it, and decided it was too important to not do. Even though it wasn't going to be fun, it was necessary.

"I can't believe there are so many graves to visit," Elena whispered, as they walked towards the first one. She didn't know what it was about graveyards, but it always made her feel like talking louder than a whisper was really disrespectful.

"Where to first?" Damon asked, putting his free arm around her. The other was carrying a bag of wreaths.

"My parents," she said, following the too familiar path, "they're closer." They walked together in silence. When they arrived at the grave, Elena grabbed one of the wreaths and put it down on their joint grave.

"Hi, Mom... hi dad," she whispered, kneeling in front of the grave, "It's been a while since we've had a moment like this." Damon stood back, knowing he should let her do this on her own.

"It's Christmas time... it's the first time in a long time I get to celebrate. Damon is here with me. We're celebrating together this year.. So much has changed since you were here.. We've been busy with Christmas traditions for a while now. It's been great, getting to really enjoy the holiday again. I wish you could be here for it... I miss you both. I love you. Merry Christmas."

Elena stood up and kissed the top of the gravestone. As she stepped back and looked down at the wreath, Damon put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

It wasn't until she glanced up to see him also looking down at the grave that she recalled the fact that her father had worked for the same organization that had tortured Damon for five years.

She had loved her dad so much, but knowing that he had been capable of doing some of the things that had been done to Damon left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"He wasn't all bad," she reminded herself in a whisper, swallowing hard as her eyes fell back to Grayson Gilbert's name in the stone, "My dad...but...he hurt people, Damon. Vampires, like we were."

Damon rubbed her arm lightly, "Hey, don't do that." She blinked back a few tears and met his gaze, "It feels wrong to mourn someone who was capable of those things...but I still miss him."