Epilogue

TEN YEARS LATER. . .

Elena stared at her reflection in the mirror and she briefly wondered if she should have straightened her hair instead of the curls. But Katherine was right she did straighten her hair every day, but Damon said she looked cute. Well, Elena cringed, Damon had to say that. He was her husband.

Elena could hardly believe that ten years had passed since she married him. They were going to Hawaii next month for their anniversary and Lily had reluctantly agreed to babysit 10 year old Henry, 8 year old Rosie, 7 year old Annette, and 5 year old Austin for a week. Rebekah had secretly phoned her and told her that she and her wife would pop in to make sure that Lily hadn't accidently killed her grandchildren. After all she wasn't the most maternal person.

"Will you stop fussing?" Katherine said with a roll of her eyes and she closed her tiny purse. They were in the bathroom at The Marion Hotel an exclusive hotel. They were here for the Dove Awards in where Elena was nominated for a historical romance novel. Elena had written a novel about a young woman who travels back in time to 1864 Virginia and falls in love with a wealthy landowner's son. It had been a bestseller in the romance novel community. Yet Katherine was acting like she and Elena had made a quick pit stop at Wendy's. "You look fine."

Elena rolled her eyes as she stared at Katherine's slim figure it a tight back dress. "Easy for you to say. You only had one child, not four. Some of us are not comfortable strutting around."

Katherine rolled her eyes as she put on some lip gloss. "You're not exactly a sumo wrestler, Elena. You're curvier that you used to be, big deal. You had four kids and besides if you had four kids, Damon still finds you attractive." Elena playfully splashed some water on her face. "Besides I've asked you to come to Pilates with me and you always say no. Besides Nadia is the perfect child." She said referring to her pretty, curly haired 11 year old daughter. "We don't need anymore. Besides Nadia already has a pony and a cat. She doesn't want any siblings and to go through the whole pregnancy thing again? No thanks."

"What are you two doing?" Caroline barked as she came into the room dressed in an ivory gown. "Elena the awards ceremony is about to start and you know Damon can't handle all 4 kids for long. I think he's about to have a coronary."

"We're going," Elena chirped as she pulled up her violet colored dress to make sure that she didn't step on her dress. "You know I thought a honeymoon was supposed to relax a person, not make her feel more stressed out."

"Well Stefan took so long to pop the question that maybe they didn't even fuck-ow." Katherine scowled as Caroline pinched her. Elena held back a giggle as they began giggling.

The girls headed back to their table, Damon breathed a sigh of relief as he saw them. 4 small dark heads turned to stare at Elena as she sat down. Elena gave her husband a reassuring kiss on the side of his forehead.

Henry immediately continued his tangent of never ending questions. "Mommy, how much longer are we staying here? Daddy, what is inside that huge vase? Mommy, what-"

"Henry, how about we let Mommy rest?" Damon replied sounding exhausted as Austin started unbuttoning the bow tie on his suit while sitting on his lap. Rosie and Annette started giggling as they pointed towards a man who was stroking another woman's bottom.

After what seemed like hours the announcer came on stage and there were a couple of polite speeches made. The children started fussing and Elena started to wonder if maybe this wasn't the best event to take 4 children under 10, but they had insisted that they wanted to see Mommy get her "prize" even though Elena wasn't even sure that she was going to win. She was only a nominee after all.

A plump looking women came on stage wearing a horrible velvet suit. "And now we have reached our historical romance section. We have 4 nominees Eloise Withdrop for the novel Jane, Alice Little for her novel Behind the Willow, Jessica Roberts for her novel Yourself, Myself, and I, and finally Elena Salvatore for her novel The Moonstone."

Elena swallowed and Damon leaned over and squeezed her hand as Annette and Rosie cuddle into her.

"And the winner is Alice Little for her novel, Behind the Willow. Congratulations Ms. Little."

Elena felt her heart drop as a smiling blond went to regain her prize. She could feel the pitying looks from Katherine and Caroline. The ceremony continued for another 45 minutes. A reception followed but Elena decided that she wanted to go home.

All 4 kids were asleep in the car on the way home, Elena doubted that they would remember today other than a long, boring evening with fancy clothes. Damon raised a thick eyebrow as he turned to stare at her. "Are you ok, honey? I'm sorry I know you were really looking forward to winning."

Elena nodded, "I'm fine, Damon I am just a little. . .disappointed, but I can't win at everything. There are other novels, other prizes, other award ceremonies."

Damon nodded as he caressed her hand. "You could return back to blogging you know, the kids are a little older now."

"Maybe. I kind of like writing novels though," she turned to him. "I think I want to write another novel though. Based on us, based on our life," she turned towards the back where her children were sleeping. "And the life that we created."

"Straight out of a soap opera." Damon grinned. "I'm sure the audience would eat that up. How I seduced an innocent virgin who hasn't even held hands with a guy."

"And the self absorbed jerk that swept her off her feet."

"Mix a crazy ex-girlfriend-"

"A murder attempt."

"And a crazy family."

"And you have a bestselling novel," Elena said with a smirk on her face. "I already have a name for it."

Damon smirked as he caressed her thigh. "Oh? What is it? Dysfunctional Romance 101."

Elena laughed. "Close enough. Marriage of Convenience."

THE END

Thank you so much for your reviews, patience, and for continuing this story I know I wasn't the most frequent updater. I appreciate all of your support throughout the years. I am hoping to continue my other TVD story, Dearly Beloved soon!

Thank you everyone!