Castle Walls

Chapter 18: Family

Elena's PoV

It has been five months since our baby Joelle, or Jojo, as we sometimes call her, has been born. She is a beautiful bundle of joy. I never get tired of cradlimg her in my arms, talking to her and cuddling her. Sometimes, she likes to hold my finger and then shake it as if it was a rattle. It is her favourite game and since it is funny and adorable, I love it too.

Elijah is a wonderful dad. He never shies away from anything, not even changing diapers.

At the moment, I am watching him and Joelle. He is cradling her in his arms, feeding her with a bottle. At first, I wanted to feed her with only my mother's milk, but she is so often hungry that I eventually agreed to let my husband feed her with a bottle every now and then too.

Elijah is wearing a grey Tshirt. Not his usual style, but once he saw what baby burps can do to his treasured suits, he quickly changed his mind, saying those plain casual clothes were, quote 'efficient and tolerable for domestic duties'.

The sight makes me smile. My husband and my daughter, our little baby on Elijah's arm, as he feeds and cuddles her. His face clearly shows his adoration; he is completely taken in by Joelle's tiny fingers patting his hand. He ends the feeding time by kissing her forehead.

"Aw, look at you two. I don't know what kind of god led me to you, but I am eternally grateful. I love you both so much." I say and approach them.

Joelle coos and shakes her arms in my direction. "You hear that, darling? She just said 'we love you too'." Elijah says. The smirk on his face is nearly as cute as the smile on my daughter's. I sit next to my husband and he gives our baby to me.

I gently rock her on my lap while Elijah watches us. "To think I spent three years of my life not doing this. I feel like a complete fool." he eventually says.

"Well, you did have to deal with a bad experience first." I reply.

"That's true, but still. It seems sort of- unbelievable at the moment. Thinking I almost ceased to believe in love."

I look at him thoughtfully before saying: "You know, I once read something in one of your mother's poetry books. A poet called Julie Plec once said: 'If we cease to believe in love, why would we want to live?'"

"Beautiful words. I should really borrow that poetry book from my mother the next time we visit her." Elijah says.

I nod. "Not a bad idea, I can recommend it. But before we meet your mother again, we have a picnic to get to."

"Right. Why don't you go ahead and help our little princess into the car seat. I'll get the bag." Elijah says and kisses my cheek. I nod in agreement.

For this afternoon, we are meeting Matt, Rebekah, Vicky, Kol, Klaus, Aurora, Henrik, April, Jeremy, Tyler, Bonnie and Kai for a picnic in the park. A big picnic for friends and family. Well, except for a few people we currently have a frosty relationship with such as Mikael and Esther.

When we arrive, almost everyone else is already there. Rebekah comes to us, greeting us shortly without looking at us and starts gushing over little Joelle.

"Hey you, baby girl! Would you like to come to Auntie Rebekah? Yes?" she speaks to Joelle using the adoring voice she always has when she speaks to Joelle. Wordlessly, I let her take my daughter in her arms. Rebekah smiles happily and rocks little Joelle up and down. Matt joins her in adoring our baby.

My husband lays an arm around my shoulders and pulls me closer to him. "You do realize we're not gonna get our daughter back till this picknic is over?"

I grin and nod. "Rebekah is so crazy about Jojo. I think she would live with us 24/7 if she could."

"Indeed. I wonder when she'll start noticing anyone else again." Elijah smirks.

"When Joelle finishes school. At the earliest." Kol says, approaching us. He, Klaus and Aurora are just arriving. Elijah lets out a laugh and goes to hug his brothers.

While Elijah stays with Kol to chat, Aurora pulls her husband to Rebekah and Matt, tickling my daughter's cheek. "Aw, isn't she just precious. Niklaus, I want one of those too! As soon as I'm finished with my career!"

I admit, I still do not like Aurora that much, but Klaus and her seem to be happy together and that is what matters most.

"Hey, Lena!" Bonnie greets me as she approaches me. We hug. "You look incredible! I'm so glad you and Elijah worked things out. Then again, you guys always loved each other so much, I had no doubt you would. And gosh, you gotta let me hold your baby!"

"Bon, please, not everything at once." I stop her excited flow of speech, slightly amused. "There's enough time for us to catch up."

She takes a deep breath and nods.

Kai lays an arm around her shoulders and grins at her. "Besides, don't we have news for her too?"

Bonnie looks at him and her smile becomes even more excited. She nods vigorously. She lifts her left hand. And there, on her finger, is a ruby ring.

"O my god, you guys are engaged??" I literally squeel at this.

"Yes, we are! We're gonna get married!" Bonnie squeels back, still excited as hell.

Kai chuckles a bit, but beams lovingly at his fiancee and kisses her cheek. "Oh yeah, we are! Actually, I thought perhaps we should get married as soon as possible, before she realizes she could do better." he jokingly says. Bonnie laughs and wraps an arm around him.

"Wasn't that my idea?" Elijah remarks as he and Kol join us. I grin and take his hand.

"Congrats, you two!" Kol says to Bonnie and Kai.

Immediately, Bonnie starts telling the story about how Kai took her out for a last date night in Portland. They had dinner on a porch with a nice view at a beautiful restaurant. And when the dessert came, there was a ring on the plate next to the chocolate cake. As soon as Bonnie saw it, Kai took her hands, told her he loved her madly and asked her to marry him. She cried happy tears when she said yes. A few other guests who saw the scene clapped their hands, congratulated them and the manager of the restaurant let the waiter bring them two glasses of champagne for free, as an engagement gift.

We all enjoy their story while we sit on our blankets with our sandwiches and muffins in front of us.

"You guys are adorable." Vicky comments.

"I'm sure you will be as happy as my wife and I were when we were wed." Elijah warmly says. Kai looks at him a bit confused for a moment which he probably is because of the language my husband used, but he quickly changes his expression and smiles a little.

I cannot help but giggle a little. I love how my sweet Elijah is always so formal. Affectionately, I kiss his cheek.

Then, I get up, grab Bonnie and walk over to Rebekah and Matt with her. "Hey, Bekah! I think it's time to let Bonnie hold the baby now."

My life is wonderful. Of course  times will not always be perfect, but no matter what comes, I will have my friends and my family around. And I would not have it any other way.

The End

And here, as promised, the video which this story is based on. 🙂