The Celestial Accord

Chapter 10 Forever Starts Now

Evie wakes up with nausea and runs to the bathroom to let go of her lunch, and then she takes a bath before she falls asleep again. In the water, which is where he finds her. But with his vampire senses, he knows she has gotten sick.

Damon’s head snaps up mid-conversation with Stefan. His nostrils flare slightly, and with a voice sharp as night, he says, “Something's wrong." He moves towards the adjoining room, before anyone can even respond, his vampire senses screaming. His connection to her grows by the second.

As he walks into the room, the scent hits him-sickness, but underneath it something else. Something changing. He follows the sound of water to the bathroom, then finds her in the bathtub. Steam rises from the surface where she’s submerged, her breathing shallow, the water still running. He reaches out and shuts it off.

He kneels beside the tub, voice urgent but controlled. “Baby, Evie. Hey. Look at me. You fell asleep with the water running.” His hand hovers over the water, not wanting to startle her, but his dark eyes are scanning her face with predatory concern as he feels the heat waving off of her.

“You’re burning up. What happened?” She opens her eye with grogginess still evident as she says, “I don’t know. I just got nauseous and then hot. My stomach hurts. But I’m ok now, I think.”

Damon's hand moves to her forehead, his newly warm palm pressing gently against her skin. He can feel the fever radiating off her-but its not a normal fever. It's something else entirely. “Your stomach hurts? Where exactly?”

His voice drops lower, more focused. The sarcasm is gone that is ever present in his voice. Stefan appears in the doorway of the other room, close enough to sense something shifting but not close enough to see Evie. He can sense a shift in Damon’s energy and asks, “What's happening?”

Damon says, not taking his off of her. “She’s burning up, and something's different. I can smell it.” He reaches for a towel, his protective instinct in overdrive. “We need Bonnie. Now.” He lays Evie on the bed while they wait for Bonnie, for she was working on getting the dress with Elena a few blocks away.

He asks her to marry him right there and then.

Damon kneels beside the bed, his dark eyes fixed on her. His hand trembles slightly-something rare for a vampire-as he pulls out the platinum ring. His knees at the side of the bed like a knight hovering over sleeping beauty. Stefan quietly excuses himself from the room, closing the door softly behind him to give them privacy.

The stone catches the light: a deep blue sapphire surrounded by diamonds, elegant and possessive. His voice is rough with emotion as he says, “I know the timing is insane. I know you’re sick, and we're in Vegas, and everything is in chaos.”

He takes her hand gently, his thumb brushing her skin. “But I can't wait another second. Evelyn Hayes, marry me. Be mine. Forever,” the ring glints between them, a promise written in metal and stone, and Evie cries, shaking her head: “YES!!YES! You bet your ass I will marry you.” She says enthusiastically, and Damon laughs.

He slides the ring onto her trembling finger, his own hands shaking with relief and joy as he says with his voice breaking slightly: ‘You’re mine. You’re actually mine.” He leans down to kiss you deeply, pouring everything into it-centuries of loneliness, months of obsession, the terrifying vulnerability of actually loving someone fully.

The bedroom door bursts open. Bonnie rushes in, Elena right behind her, both sensing the supernatural shift in the air. Bonnie's stopping short, eyes widening: “On my god. Did you just?” Elena saw the ring, squealing, yelling, “You proposed!!”

Damon doesn’t break eye contact with Evie, his hand still cradling her face, and responds with a smirk on his face. “She said yes!” Then, just like that, Evie has another wave of nausea. “So much for the wonderful moment,” he says as she jumps out of bed with her hand around her mouth, running for the bathroom.

Bonnie’s eyes snap towards her retreating form, her witch senses flare immediately, and her expression shifts from joy to alarm as she says, moving into the bathroom to hold her hair back with a trembling voice, “Oh my God."

Elena steps back, watching Bonnie run after Evie. Sensing something profound has shifted in the room, she asks from the doorway, “What is it? What's wrong?” Damon’s protective instinct kicks into overdrive. As he moves towards the bathroom, his hand moves to her back as he crouches down to her level.

His voice is dangerous and protective. “What do you see, Bonnie?” She looks between them and says, “I can’t be sure. Ummm... I need to run some tests, but maybe...” she stutters, and Stefan comes into the bedroom from the other room asking, “What's going on?”

Bonnie’s hands glow brighter, her eyes widening as the magic pulses beneath her fingertips. Her voice is barely audible as she says, “There are additional heartbeats.” The words hang in the air like a thunderclap. Stefan stepped fully into the room. “You mean you hear another heartbeat?”

Damon's entire body goes rigid. His hand trembles against her back as the realization crashes into him. And he whispers, “You’re pregnant.” Bonnie nods slowly, her expression a mixture of wonder and concern. “The bonding accelerated everything. The pregnancy is progressing at an impossible rate. At this velocity.. Evie, you’re not carrying a normal gestation.”

Evie gets up from the floor and washes her mouth out and says, “What? What we just did yesterday that’s too fast...” She starts to panic, and Bonnie's hands glow brighter as she traces the magical signature pulsing through her.

“The hybrid bond happening at the same time as your mating...accelerated your biology. Your body isn’t human anymore- it's adapting at vampire speed, but with your cosmic energy layered on top. Time moves differently for you now.”

Damon carries her back to the bed and kneels beside it. His dark eyes lock on yours with fierce intensity as he tries to calm Evie down. “Hey. Look at me. We’ve faced Klaus; we’ve survived impossible odds already. We can handle this too no biggie. As long as we have each other.” His voice drops, possessive and protective as he smiles and looks deep into her eyes and says, “Our child. That’s ours, Evie and I will burn the world down before I let anything happen to you or that baby.”

Stefan exchanges a worried glance with Bonnie across the room as Evie says, “But does that mean their life could go that fast too? That’s not right now. Please don't do that to me. I don’t want that...”

Bonnie’s glow intensifies as she works through the calculations, her brow furrowed with concentration. “No, I don’t think so. The accelerated growth doesn’t mean accelerated aging. The child develops fast, but once born, it could mean normal time applies. It’s possible your baby won't age at vampire speed-just during gestation.”

Evie nods, “But we don’t know for sure, and we can't because nothing like this has ever happened; that’s what you're saying." Stephan leans against the door-frame, relief visible on his face as he continues to contemplate out-loud. “So if the pregnancy timeline is compressed, but the child will be normal once born, they will have a better shot at a real life, but we don’t know if that will be the case or not.”

Damon’s grip on her hand tightens, his newly warm thumb stroking her palm as he comforts her: “Forty days instead of forty weeks. Wow, that’s ok; we can do this. You’re the strongest person I know; we got this. His dark eyes search for yours with raw vulnerability, unsure if he is trying to convince you or himself. But know this for sure. I’m not going anywhere.”

Evie trembles slightly under his touch, fear coursing through her veins as she says, “Oh god, that’s gonna be good in some aspects and bad in others. I will get fat fast,” She giggles and looks at Damon, “which also makes me more vulnerable. But I guess we will deal with that as it comes. So are we getting married while we're here? We should do it before the baby comes for sure.”

Right as she finishes, the door suddenly pulls open and Lexi says, “Where’s the bride? In all her glory. I’m here. Bitches, let's get this party started.” Everyone starts laughing as Lexi, the whirlwind of energy with her blond hair catching the light, stops dead in her tracks when she sees her on the bed, the sapphire ring glinting on her finger. Lexi's eyes go wide, and she screams, “OH. MY GOD. You actually did it!!”

She looks at Damon and hits him in the shoulder. “Well, I guess you're not as stupid as you look, Salvatore.” She then rushes over, pulling Evie into a careful embrace, mindful of your nausea. She pulls back, grinning: “Evie, you look radiant. Well, mostly radiant. A little green around the edges, but we can work with that.” She says, laughing.

Damon stands, his arm protectively holding Evie’s hand, even as he does so, and says, “She’s pregnant. The bond accelerated everything.” Lexi's expression shifts from joy to shock, and she slowly asks. “How pregnant are we talking?”

He looks down at Evie and answers Lexi with a grin: “A week in a day we estimate roughly. So we're going to need to leave the country and get as far away from Klaus as possible for her to give birth in peace. Lexi's expression hardens into tactical mode. She pulls out her phone immediately.”

“I have contacts in New Zealand. A remote cabin, off the grid. Klaus won't find you there-the New Orleans coven has wards set up across the entire region in conjunction with several other covens. It's the ultimate safe-haven. Exactly what you need right now."

Damon nods, already thinking three steps ahead. “We leave tonight. After the ceremony. Stefan can handle Klaus if he shows up looking." Stefan steps forward, his ever-calm demeanor masking the weight of what he's agreeing to. He knows he just agreed to play interference, but this is his brother and his niece or nephew. He's willing to sacrifice anything for that.

He nods empirically as he confirms: “I’ll keep him occupied. Buy you time to get out of the country. Throw as many decoys as I can his way.” Lexi turns to Evie, her blue eyes fierce with determination as she shakes her head in disbelief and says, “Forty days. That’s how long we have to prepare for this baby.

That’s not much time, and Damon- she looks at him pointedly. “You don’t leave her side.

Evie takes a deep breath and looks at Lexi and asks, “Are you coming with us. I need you; I’m afraid. I don’t want to do this without our best friend. I know I’m guilt-tripping you, but I don’t care. I love you, and we need you, Lexi.” She says with tears in her eyes.

Lexi's expression softens immediately. She reaches out and takes her hand from Damon, squeezing it gently. “No. No. You're not guilt-tripping me. You're stating what you need and, of course. I’m coming with you. Where else would I be?”

She glances at Damon, then back to her. “You think I’m letting my best friends go through this alone? Not a chance. I’ve got your back, always have, always will." Damon’s jaw tightens slightly, not with jealousy, but with gratitude. He feels the same way Evie does. Lexi is family plain and simple.