ALANA

86

ARES

"You, what?" he seethes.

"Damon I don't need your lecture, I need you to tell me how to fix it." I grunt, running a hand through my hair.

"You left your wife, that was in labor, God damn you!" he shouts, making the staff look at us.

"I know. What do I do?" I ask him.

"I don't know Xander. You grovel, you beg. And you hope that she is the big, forgiving person I take her to be, otherwise you're getting screwed in the ass." he says in a low tone.

"She's going to leave." I say.

"That's a little extreme." he makes a face that says I'm stupid. "She wouldn't leave you. You love eachother."

"Yes but that is not always enough. I am not giving her everything she deserves. And whether she realizes that or not, I do. I give her nothing. She just birthed our baby. The scales are not even. They're not even close. I fucked up Damon." I run a hand stressfully through my hair again.

"That may be true. But divorce is not on the table here brother-"

"It has always been on the table. It should be and it has always been. For her. You know why? Because I peaked with her, she is one hell of a woman. She, however, can do better with a Nazi on crack." I spit.

Damon sighs.

"It's 2023, that was offensive." he says. I show him how unamused I am. He nods. "I'm going to go see her Xander. Just one word of advice, she needs to see all the emotion I just saw. She needs to see just how vulnerable she makes you feel. Because otherwise, to her, it's just her putting herself up to be vulnerable, alone." he says, patting my shoulder as he walks away.

Mother fucker.

ALANA

"Knock-knock." Damon says, standing in the doorway carrying flowers and a box.

"Hi Damon, come in." I smile. He smiles back, walking over and putting the flowers and the box on the little table.

I am so thankful I was already in a sitting position, my down there hurts so bad. And I thought that it was bad when Ares and I slept together. Go figure.

"Flowers for you." he hums.

"Is that chocolate?" I ask him.

"Sí, is that a baby?" He asks looking at the beautiful boy in my arms.

"That depends entirely on if you are willing to trade holding them. I get the chocolates, you get the baby." I smirk. Damon laughs.

"You have yourself a deal." He walks over with the box, setting it down then taking the baby from me. I start opening the box of chocolates as soon as my hands are free.

"Oh he is adorable. Not bad for an 8 hour old" Damon says, holding the baby so nicely.

Ares held him like a football. But I was pretending to sleep, so I couldn't correct him.

"Thankyou." I hum, eating one truffle after the other.

"Hungry?" He asks. I nod.

"You have no idea, I am famished. The food they have here is abysmal." I frown.

"Why didn't you ask Xander to get you something else." He asks, his face showing that he knows exactly why.

"You know why Robin." I say, in a rather snarky tone.

"Robin?" his eyebrows furrow.

"As in Batman's Robin." I say. He raises his eyebrows. "What? I loved watching batman as a kid." I shrug.