A/N: Hey all. Thank you guys so much for reading, reviewing, following and favoriting this little story of mine. I am SOO happy that a bunch of you really like it. 417 reviews...WOW! You all are so sweet to me. :) With that being said, here's chapter 32!
**Side note: Please remember that this chapter begins the 7 MONTH later time jump! **
Enjoy!
Must Love Dogs- Chapter Thirty- Two
….7 months later...
"What made you decide to stay in town?" Bonnie asked, watching Elena slowly take a seat beside her at the restaurant they were meeting at in downtown Portland. She was glowing, smiling like Bonnie had never seen before and part of her knew that it was maybe just the hormones. Because it had been like this for Elena in the last few weeks, one minute she was all smiles and the next the tears would be set off without a clear warning or explanation.
Elena ran her fingers through her hair, sighing deeply before she began to speak. "Mom said it would be better to stick around Portland until the baby was born. She never did get a hold of Stefan and that was her final straw. I don't know what's going on with him, Bon." She closed her eyes and placed both of her hands on her already round 7 month pregnant belly.
"He's a busy guy, Elena. You knew that when you met him. He's got a lot of things going on." Bonnie started to say as Elena scoffed. "And, I don't?" She paused, licking her lips and shaking her head. "I've called him a few times, mostly gotten voice mail. I've sent him things through the mail, I've emailed him and have gotten a few pretty nice emails back every few weeks and then this morning, I receive this from Katherine." Elena said, picking up her cell phone off the table in the restaurant and turning it towards Bonnie's curious looking eyes.
"He's been busy helping me with your aunts real estate search. He also sold the house that he and Rebekah shared. No one has heard from her in like two months. Stefan said something about how he needed a change just a few weeks ago. Something tells me that he means that he might be going somewhere."
Bonnie smiled a hopeful look in Elena's direction while handing the cell phone back to her. "Well, at least you know that he's alive." She chuckled, hearing Elena exhale heavily.
"I just- Part of me thinks that I should have gone to Florida. Maybe, it would be different right now. I wouldn't be feeling so alone in this whole pregnancy thing." Elena admitted, feeling Bonnie's warm hand caress the top of hers as she squeezed tightly on to her fingers.
"You're not alone in this, Elena. You've got me, your brother, your mom. Who has been so damn supportive of you and who's helping Jeremy create a nursery inside of the house as we speak..." Bonnie's voice trailed off suddenly as she smacked her forehead and cupped her hands over her mouth.
"Crap, I wasn't supposed to mention that." She uttered out, watching Elena's gloomy stare brighten just a bit.
"I know." Elena said softly, staring down at her cell phone in hopes of maybe Stefan calling her or even text messaging. She hated what she had done to them, making her own heart ache for him while forcing him to feel like a stranger to her.
"You said you could do this alone. But, he argued with you and told you that if you needed him that he'd be there in a heart beat. Elena, it's been months and all I've seen since you doing is working at that little art gallery down town for just a few short hours as an intern, binge eating and watching reruns of the golden girls on TV. Honey, you need to pull yourself together before this baby comes along." She heard Bonnie advise as she looked up at her and then back down at her hands.
"You're right." Elena paused, her lips pursed together while she vigorously ran her hands over her face. "I'm terrified of this whole thing, Bonnie. I mean, I want the baby. I want it more than anything. But, I was stupid and wrong to tell him that I could do this by myself because thinking about it in the long run. I can't. I can't do it alone and now that scares me."
Bonnie leaned over, grabbing a hold of her hands once again and squeezing them tightly before she added in softly. "You can do this. I know that you can and you will do this. But you won't be alone and it's just going to take some time." She smiled, releasing Elena's hands while watching the brunette lean back into her chair, tears starting to well up into her eyes. "I know." Elena replied softly, smiling through watery eyes.
"What is a for sale sign doing in the front lawn? Really?" Rebekah quipped, walking through the now empty house and following Stefan around as he made sure he wasn't forgotten anything. She scrunched her nose up as she took a deep breath and smelled the scent of Duke walking closely behind Stefan on a leash, his heavy padded paws hitting the tilt flooring with each movement that Stefan made forward.
"Aren't you supposed to be on plane to Europe or something. We had an agreement, Rebekah. Elena's gone. She's been gone for months and you're still here." He licked his lips with irritation, turning back towards his ex-wife with an even more hateful gaze.
"Yeah, so what. You're selling my house!" She exclaimed angrily, looking around the empty room and feeling a bit of disappointment inside of her stomach build.
"It was never your house to begin with. My name was always the only one on that contract, the one you never signed. You just moved in with me when I decided to build it." Stefan reminded her, hearing her frustration with him grow.
"You need to leave, Rebekah. I have a friend of mine coming over to set up for an open house this evening and the last thing either of us needs is you complaining about how I can't sell. Well, sorry to break it to you. But, I'm doing whatever the hell I want." Stefan confirmed, tugging Duke's leash as Rebekah sighed out a breath.
"Speaking of, what are you going to do with him?" She asked, glancing down at Duke as if she'd never given a damn about the dog. Clearly, she hadn't since over the last several months, Stefan had been the one taking care of him and making sure that he was doing okay.
"Duke's mine now. He goes wherever I decide to go and I'm not giving you anything. As far as I'm concerned, Rebekah. You and I dissolved any sort of mutual relationship that we had months ago. Now, I'm giving you one last option to start over far away from here since Katherine royally screwed you, financially speaking. I never asked you how it felt to be penniless." Stefan smirked at the thought of his sister in law bankrupting Rebekah within a blink of an eye and the aftermath that had followed.
Rebekah had been in hiding for weeks after, finally emerging just a few short months ago after she had gotten the news that Elena had left. At first the backstabbing blonde had tried to recoil her once steamy relationship with Stefan. However after he had shut her down, Rebekah had asked him for a deal.
"Fine, I'll do it. I'll leave just like we had said. You paid for my ticket to get out of town for good and I'll go. Under one last condition." She tried to say, attempting to entice him and reel him right back into her web of deceit and lies.
"I'm done making deals with you. Katherine was right, making deals with you is like making them with the devil and selling part of your soul." Stefan smiled widely, brushing past Rebekah and listening as she inhaled through gritted teeth.
"I have a plane already waiting, you can go wherever you want to go. Just make sure to never come back. And, I mean it this time." Stefan warned, tugging on Duke's leash as they both walked towards the front door and Rebakah saw him open it widely, pointing outside.
"I called you a taxi and Elijah packed your bags two weeks ago. He's waiting for you in some god awful place. He said it's somewhere I heard that you've always wanted to go." Stefan mentioned, looking over at her as she glanced down at her shoes and shrugged her shoulders back in defeat. "It's over, Rebekah. I hope you have a nice life." Stefan said, taking a step back as she took a few forward and began walking out of the door. He watched as she paused near it, placing her hand against the door's handle and stopping in her tracks. Rebekah turned around with a saddened look in Stefan's direction when she asked. "Do you think that if things would have been different between us that we would have been happy?"
His eyes closed, releasing the leash from his hands as Duke sat by his feet and then he shrugged his shoulders back. "I don't know. But that's why I'm doing this. We both deserve a second chance, Rebekah. And, moving on from each other is it. I'm freeing myself from you and you need to do the same." He replied, watching her slowly walk towards the awaiting taxi while stealing one more glance.
"So, what do you plan on doing when we finally leave this place?" Katherine asked, rolling into Damon as she snuggled into the curve of his body. His arm was loosely draped over her stomach and there were mangled bed sheets laying half over them and half on the ground of the Boca Raton resorts hotel floor.
"Well, I was thinking that after two weeks of our much needed vacation that we'd pick up our daughter from my mothers, go see my dad and then we could get back to being responsible adults." He smirked, kissing her forehead as Katherine's hands caressed his stubble covered cheeks and she inhaled sharply. She didn't want to leave Bocan Raton and go back to the Florida Keys and work. That was the last thing that Katherine wanted to do since just a few days before they had shown up to the resort, Jenna and Alaric had finally found a rental property for their salon.
"When we get back home, I won't have anything to do." Katherine grinned widely, moving her fingertips against Damon's stomach muscles and feeling his abs contract underneath her touch.
Damon let out a loud laugh, taking her hand into his as he began kissing her arm, moving his lips slowly up and down and watching Katherine's eyes flutter shut. "You'll have me, to keep up with." He smiled at the thought of keeping their blissful and uninterrupted moments in tact once they went back home and back to the reality of running a business with Stefan who had seemed to be fairly distracted and distant from everyone around him lately.
"What do you think he's going to do?" Katherine mused, lifting her body up and allowing the thin white sheets to fall to her waistline as she straddled Damon's pelvis. Damon's teeth ground together as he felt her lean down and kiss his bare chest, running her long perfectly manicured fingernails over her husbands sculpted upper body.
"I like when you work out." She teased, kissing the exposed flesh underneath her palm and hearing him let out a shaky breath as she rolled her hips forward. Damon's voice cracked when he tried to speak. But, all he could think about was what she was doing to him, taunting him while using her usual tactics in bed.
"Stop changing the topic!" He argued with a shaky tone, feeling Katherine slide down his body with her hands, kissing his skin and moving lower with every movement she made. Her mouth was just above his belly button before she spoke out loud.
"Well, I'd rather do this than talk about your brother and his problems. It's a lot more fun, don't you think?" She asked with a tantalizing tone as Damon withered underneath her.
"Ka...Kath...Katherine!" He shouted out, hearing her go along as she moved back up towards his face and whispered into his ear. "I'm just making sure that we enjoy our last few hours here. Before we go back home." She winked while placing her finger against his lips and staring at his blue eyes that looked mesmerized by her.
She felt his rough hands reach up to touch her hips as she leaned back down and touched her lips against his own for one brief second before pulling back and smirking. "What is it baby, cat got your tongue?"
Damon's eyes widened, his mind felt foggy and his senses were all being consumed by his wife's floral scented perfume that was filling his nostrils. He shook his head, playfully grabbing a hold of her and pinning her down against the bed as the bed sheets tangled against their legs even more and Damon kicked them away quickly. The smirk on his face grew wider as he leaned his body into hers and grinned as Katherine buried her face into the pillow behind her head. "What are you going to do now, Damon?" She asked, feeling his rough calloused fingers brush against a tender spot of her inner thigh.
"I'm going to distract you for a while. Make sure that you never forget this moment." He replied, pulling her against him and kissing her roughly as he pushed the sheets away and relished in the skin on skin contact that now followed.
"You know, we could move into it." Caroline commented, glancing up at the run down old looking building that stood tall and majestic like in front of them.
"Are you sure that you want to move in with me?" He asked her, grabbing a hold of her hand and hearing her sigh out a breath. They had been officially dating for 7 months and in Caroline's book that was grounds for moving in with one another. Although, she knew how hesitant Klaus was to the whole idea since he personally thought it was too early on in their relationship.
"Moving in together is a huge step." He smiled at her, intertwining their fingers and looking up at the large 10 story building with a vacant penthouse on the top floor that Klaus had made an offer on, just three days prior.
"Yes, I'm sure of it." Caroline stated in a firm tone, tightening her hand around his and sighing deeply.
"Besides, we're going to be closer to the office and this is closer to my work. So, it's a great location." She tried to reason with him. He smiled as he thought about living with her, waking up with her by his side every morning as of late had been amazing and Klaus wanted to make sure they continued that.
"Are you still going to make me breakfast?" She teased, nudging his shoulder and opening her mouth to say something else fairly playful. But, the sound of a car rolling up behind them forced them both to turn around towards the noise.
Caroline watched him get out, straightening out his suit as he gave them both an apologetic look. "I've been trying to call you guys. Listen, I have an emergency business trip that I need to fly out for in the morning and I need someone to watch Duke for a few days." Stefan explained breathlessly as Caroline huffed out a breath and glanced over at Klaus who seemed a bit amused by what Stefan was asking of them.
"I know that Klaus is in the middle of moving out to your place. But, Caroline- I need this. It's important." Stefan told them, holding Duke's leash as he explained that he had a private plane waiting for him just a few miles away on a secluded landing strip and since he couldn't get a hold of Katherine or Damon. Stefan hadn't really a choice in deciding who to leave Duke with.
"But-." Caroline began to protest as Stefan ran back to the car and looked back behind him to see Klaus following.
"What's the urgency mate?" He questioned when they had finally found a moment alone. Stefan looked exhausted, he had been up all night working on the last minute touches for the open house and early this morning after he had gotten out of bed, feeling a bit lonely and depressed, an idea sparked.
"I need to get out of here for a while. Klaus, I just need to go somewhere." He stated, clearly already set on the idea of needing a change.
"Where are you going and when can we be expecting you back?" His best friend questioned, leaning against Stefan's car and looking over at Duke who had his head placed gently on the back seat.
"I'm not really sure, all I know is that I need to make it count and that wherever I go that it will help me clear my head." Stefan explained, noticing the look of worry in Klaus's eyes as he opened his mouth to add on. "Have you spoken to Elena since she left?"
Stefan's shoulders shrugged back and he tilted his head to the side. He had sent emails and they'd exchanged a few pictures- him with Duke and her with her mother- But as far as talking on the phone ever since she had made it clear to him that she could raise the baby by herself. Stefan hadn't really bothered to keep in touch. "I haven't. You know, I was thinking of going out there to see her. But, I just don't think she'd want to see me after how we ended things." He confessed, feeling Klaus's heavy hand firmly sitting on his shoulder.
"You should go see her. Apologize face to face and then see if you two can work things out. Stefan, she's carrying your child." Klaus reminded him.
The mention of the baby caused Stefan to exhale deeply as he placed Duke's leash into Klaus's hands and cupped his fingers over his best friend's. "I'll think about it. All I know is that right now, I need a break." He stated, pivoting on his heels and whistling for Duke to get out of the car. Klaus pulled the dog to him and called out for Caroline as they both stood in the parking lot and watched Stefan leave.
"When's he coming back and where is he going?" Caroline asked softly as Klaus shook his head and exhaled. "I don't know and I'm not sure. But, I really hope he comes back soon before Duke and I start becoming friends. Remind me to keep my expensive shoes locked up in case the dog starts developing separation anxiety while Stefan's gone." Klaus joked, earning a smack on the arm from Caroline as she frowned at him and then bent down to pet the top of Duke's head. "We're going to have lots of fun together, don't you listen to what that big fat jerk has to say." She smiled, cooing into the dog's ears as he leaned into her and licked her face.
"So, have you thought of what you're going to name the baby?" Miranda asked the next morning as Elena made her way into the kitchen and went straight to the fridge, pulling out a couple eggs and turning back around to find something else that wasn't going to give her excessive heart burn. She hated that small detail about being pregnant on top of the fact that almost everything nowadays was making her want to cry.
"I don't know. Mom, I told you, I refuse to tell you what the baby's going to be until I talk to Stefan about it first." Elena replied, smiling over her shoulder at how disappointed Miranda looked while trying to pry the information out of her daughter.
"Speaking of the baby's daddy. Where is he?" She asked, watching Elena slowly spin around and place her hands flatly on to the granite gray colored counter top. She casually tapped her fingers gently against it and sighed out a loud exhale. "I pushed him away, mother. I forced him out of our lives because I felt like he didn't need to be involved."
Miranda shook her head, closing her eyes and then refocusing them back on to Elena while she spoke. Here it went, another long drawn out speech on how stupid it was for Elena to do what she had done- burned almost every bridge that connected her to Stefan.
"I don't-." She began to argue, raising her hand up and dropping it suddenly when the door bell rang.
Elena looked over at her mother and then quickly to the clock on the wall. "It's 7:30 in the morning. Who the hell could it be now?" Elena questioned, swatting away Miranda's arms as she tried to go answer the door. But, Elena was already cranky and determined and what her mother had learned while living with her daughter over the last few months was to just leave her be!
"I'm coming. Hold on!" Elena shouted, placing her hand on to the door knob and unlocking the door. She took a step back before swinging it open. But, once her eyes met his and he looked right at her. It was like all of her anger had disappeared.
"What are you doing here?" She asked with a breathless tone, crossing her arms over her chest and resting them against her stomach.
"I.." He began to say, suddenly feeling nervous because he hadn't really planned on showing up to Oregon. Hell, he hadn't really planning on showing up at her mothers house either. But, there he was. "I know that you don't want to see me. So before you slam the door in my face. Just hear me out, please." He stopped, looking down at his shoes while clearing his throat and then he began to speak again. "Elena, you stayed here and we lost touch. And, I got scared when I heard you were pregnant. But, I told you that I wanted to be in your life and the baby's too. I blame myself for losing you. Because, I didn't try hard enough to keep you. I hate that I ruined us and any sort of potential we could have together." He paused again for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose before he continued to explain in a soft tone. He hadn't really prepared a speech. But, this was quickly becoming one- well more of a confession and an apology to her because he knew that she deserved one from him.
"Before you tell me go and that you don't want to see me again. I wanted to tell you that I love you and that I've been missing you like crazy. Hell, I left Florida yesterday morning and flew out to New York- had dinner by myself and I thought, this isn't what I want to be doing with my life anymore." Stefan took a deep breath, rambling on. "I was going to order some drinks and meet up with Lexi while at the hotel. We had planned on getting stupidly drunk together and talking business mergers. But, then I found this and then I got to thinking that I had to come out here and talk to you, face to face."
Elena's shaking hands reached out and grazed against his as he handed her the small black and white plastic looking film. "It's the sonogram that you sent me. One you had gotten from the doctors a few months ago. We're going to be having a baby boy, aren't we?" He asked calmly.
He could see her tears beginning to fall upon her reddened cheeks. Elena exhaled deeply and nodded, taking a step towards him as he outstretched his arms and whispered against her ear while pulling her into his embrace. "I'm sorry that I've been out of touch." He said, backing away to wipe the falling tears from her face as she locked her eyes on to him and spoke in a broken tone. "I'm sorry too. I never really meant what I said over the phone, Stefan. I was scared." She confessed, pulling him closer and burying her tear stained face into the curve of his neck, Stefan felt her body relax against his as she whispered softly into his ear. "You're here."
Stefan chuckled, backing away from her and wiping her tears with his thumbs as he too got a little choked up while replying back with a sweet smile. "I'm here."
A/N: Oh, BOY! ;) Before you all go and think that Stefan's going to be changing because of the baby all of a sudden...Let me just say that his change in personality won't be just because of the kid. It's going to be for a few other reason's as well. Although, for now how about we all just relish in the fact that after 32 chapters that Stefan is finally growing up a bit and pulling his head out of his ass! :D
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