[fic] Gravity Hurts (2/9)
Title: Gravity Hurts (2/9)
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Damon POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena; this chapter features appearances by Caroline, Stefan, and Elena
Word Count: ~2900
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (for language)
Spoilers: Everything through S3.
Summary: A bromance for the ages.
Author's notes: This fic is derived from this thread of discussion with shipperjunkie.
Previous Chapters: [1]
Damon's relieved when Jeremy seems to be a natural at driving a stick-shift. He only grinds the gears once, but he does keep slamming on the brake like he's trying to put his foot through the floor of the car.
"Ease up, Mario," Damon chides. "Just tap it a little, press your foot lightly. There's no reason to launch me through the windshield."
"Sorry," Jeremy says, glancing over sheepishly.
Damon restrains himself from reaching over to ruffle the kid's hair. He's not sure why he even feels that inclination, but he doesn't like it, not one bit.
It's not that he doesn't like Jeremy. Of course, he does. The kid had had the balls back in the day to come and try to kill him, like a man. He's had begrudging respect for the younger Gilbert ever since, and he might harass him every chance he gets about being an underage, friendless dick, but that's only because he likes getting a rise out of Elena's brother.
(It's almost as fun as getting a rise out of his own brother.)
Thoughts of Stefan are permeated by an anger that Damon's not sure he can control, so that makes this little expedition that much more banal. Is he seriously giving some kid driving lessons? (Some kid who just happens to be Elena's brother?)
It's better to keep busy, he supposes, until he makes his stage left exit.
"Take Route 4, like you're going to the Boarding House, only don't go to the Boarding House," Damon instructs as they get to the edge of town. "County roads are better. Less traffic."
Jeremy flips the blinker on and then takes the corner a bit fast, so Damon's thrown up against the passenger window. "Maybe ease into the turns a bit, huh?" he says. "We're not on a high speed chase, you know." Jeremy laughs a little and apologizes again. Damon finds himself trying to give positive reinforcement like some kind of fucking life coach. "Your general knowledge is great, you just need practice."
"You think that's what Stefan's telling Elena?"
Damon straightens himself in his seat and then looks over at his protégé. "What?"
"That's what Ric wants to know. If you think Stefan's vampire lessons to Elena are as practical as your driving lessons."
Damon whips his head around to look at the empty back seat. "Ric's here?"
"Yep," Jeremy says, his tone vaguely smug. Damon glances at him in irritation. He's the only one who gets to be smug for no apparent reason.
"And he wants to quiz me about Stefan's teaching methods?" Damon asks skeptically.
Jeremy waits a beat to answer. "He's just curious."
The really sucky thing about having had a best friend? You miss them when they're gone. And the reality is, on a lot of levels, he'd lost Ric long before he became an unstoppable vampire hunter. On the other hand, even though he can't actually hear Ric, he can still hear him. Jeremy's the source, but Ric's slightly dry condescension is still coating the words.
"Right, because Stefan was always of great interest to you, Ric." He continues to peer into the backseat, even though he knows he won't be able to see anything.
Again there's a small pause before Jeremy says, "His interest is Elena, you dick."
Damon looks at Jeremy who has taken his eyes off the road to smirk in his direction. "Was that him, or you?" he asks.
"Both."
Shaking his head, Damon points a finger in the general area of the backseat. "Caroline is there, too, it's not just Stefan."
"How do you know that?" Jeremy asks.
"Because, I talk to Blondie every day. I might not be able to fathom being in the same room with Stefan without staking him, but I do care about what happens to Elena. Caroline's there, and she's helping."
Jeremy looks in the rearview mirror and nods his head. "Ric says that Caroline has bigger worries than helping Elena. Apparently Klaus took over Tyler's body."
It takes just two seconds for those words to penetrate, and then Damon can't stop the words that fly out of his mouth. "Mother fucker! That's just great. Fucking Klaus. We can never get rid of him!"
While Damon's lamenting the un-get-riddable-ness that is Klaus, Jeremy says, "No. No way. She did not do that!" There is a long pause, and then he says, "Bonnie. would. not. do. that."
"What? What did Bonnie do?" Damon demands, looking back and forth between Jeremy and the space where Ric supposedly sits.
Jeremy finds a wide space on the side of the road and pulls the car over. Turning around to hang over the seat, he says vehemently, "She would let all the vampires die before she would help Klaus. There's no way, Ric. No way."
Damon grabs Jeremy's shoulder, squeezing it until Jeremy winces under his hand. "What did she do?"
"She's the one who put Klaus in Tyler's body, according to Ric." Another pause. "That's what Caroline just told Stefan and Elena."
Damon closes his eyes, and suddenly he's back there, at the storage unit with Bonnie. "No, she did it alright. And I totally gave her the opportunity." It's possible he just found someone to be more angry with than Stefan.
(It's possibly a tie between Bonnie and himself.)
"Ric says she did it to save you all, because Klaus fathered your bloodline." Jeremy looks at Damon, shaking his head slightly. "Does that sound like Bonnie, to you?"
Damon snorts at Jeremy's skepticism. "She wouldn't save me, per se, but she wouldn't let everyone else die, including her mother. Hmmm. Maybe I owe her a thank you after all." He presses his fingers against his eyes, contemplating for just one second yanking them out entirely. If he's blind, he doesn't have to see Stefan, right? Or Elena in all her vamped-out glory, being completely neutered by his brother, who he really doesn't want to see, has he mentioned that? Because honestly, for all the times he wanted to rip Stefan's heart out, the closest he ever came was in the basement of Mystic Falls General Hospital. It was only Elena screaming his name that had cut through the rage long enough for him to snap back to reality.
"Fuck," he mutters, dragging his hands down his face. "We better go to the Boarding House," he finally utters and then he looks around in amazement as Jeremy high fives the air in the backseat.
The kid looks gleeful as he turns around and starts the car. "This wasn't exactly the plan," he says, "but whatever gets you involved with my sister's transition is what I'll take, even if that means Bonnie's gone crazy."
He pulls the car around so that they're headed back towards the Boarding House as Damon gawks. "What?"
"You're the one, Damon. You're the one who should teach her."
"Right, because you thinking that will just make it happen."
"You seeing her is one step closer," Jeremy says confidently.
Damon remains silent for the half mile it takes them to get to the turn off to the Boarding House. As Jeremy eases the car into the driveway smoothly, minus the jerkiness of his earlier corner-taking, he glances back at the non-visible Ric. "He already knew how to drive, didn't he?"
As they go in the front door of his house, Damon calls out, "Stefan?" He focuses, listening hard, and he can hear them, in the library. He motions to Jeremy to follow him and they find a teary-eyed Caroline, a broody-as-usual Stefan, and a practically-crawling-out-of-her-skin Elena sitting amongst all Damon's books, obviously having a pow-wow.
Stefan gets to his feet as Damon and Jeremy come in, but Damon only has eyes for Elena. It's been five days since he's seen her, but it feels like five lifetimes. She stiffens as their gazes meet, and then she draws her legs up, wrapping her arms around them and containing herself on the over-stuffed leather chair.
"What's up?" Stefan asks, like the last time they all saw each other, Damon and Jeremy didn't take turns using him for a punching bag.
Damon rolls with it, because what's the point? Making Stefan deal with reality is just too much work. "We just heard about Bonnie, and the Klaus-Tyler hybrid."
"What?" Caroline squeaks. "How did you hear about it?" She wipes at the tears on her cheeks, and Damon almost feels sorry for her.
"Ric told me," Jeremy says, and all three of them exchange looks with each other before Elena asks in a hoarse voice, "What, Jer?"
"I see dead people, remember?" Jeremy asks.
The sarcasm in his tone is slightly over the top. Damon reaches back and puts his hand on Jeremy's chest. "Easy, buddy," he says, because he understands. But he doesn't need Jeremy and Elena at odds with each other, because that's going to be his position, he's certain.
"Are you all cooking up some sort of plan to deal with it, or what?" Damon asks, looking at Caroline and Stefan specifically.
"Bonnie has to do a spell to restore Klaus's real body before he'll vacate Tyler," Caroline says with a delicate sniff. "But...Bonnie's being difficult."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Damon huffs. "I don't even want to know about this." He turns around to leave, but Jeremy blocks him and gives him several head nods and eye-widening chin lifts. He knows what he's saying, We're here for Elena, remember? but Damon doesn't want to deal with that either.
It's not like he's ever trained a baby vampire, and his track record with Stefan is less than stellar, as one might know, and beyond that, well, it's just complicated. Elena's the girl, the girl, and she doesn't want to be; she picks his brother over him even in the face of death, and he can't love her any less if he tried (believe him, he's fucking tried), and, and, and! It goes on for days, and he's just not cut out for this shit.
That's when he remembers: he already decided this. He's leaving town. That's what he and Stefan agreed on (prior to Elena's existence being eternal, but whatever) and that's what he's going to do. So he turns around and looks at his brother, the girl he loves more than is humanly-or vampirely-calculable, and the girl he once used as his own personal blood bag, and says, "If you want my help with anything, you have a very limited window of opportunity. I'm leaving town shortly, as per our arrangement, brother, so y'all better hurry up and decide if you want my help. Limited time offer, no rainchecks available."
Elena speaks first, her voice little more than a croak. "Where're you going?"
He looks over Stefan's shoulder at her and can't bite back his snarky reply. "Really, that's what you want to know?"
"Damon," Stefan says, a note of caution in his tone.
He draws his eyes away from Elena and looks hard into his brother's face. "Do you want my help or not?"
"Yes!" Caroline cries, standing up. "Yes, Damon, if you can help, I want you to. Please," she says with a soft wail. "Please help Tyler."
He spares her a glance; she presses her hand against her mouth as she breaks down sobbing and Elena finally gets up from her chair and walks over to put her arm around her friend. Damon watches this exchange, something that's familiar about Elena, and thinks, That's fitting. He'll help Caroline in some sort of karmic retribution, and then he'll leave Mystic Falls forever.
He'll go out the way he came in, balls to the wall.
A few glasses of whiskey later, they have a plan formulated, and Elena sits warily in the corner, looking at Jeremy like it pains her to have him so close. Which, Damon's sure it does pain her, in her gums, in her very veins. All she can think about is his sweet warm blood gushing over her tongue, and it doesn't matter that she loves him more than anyone else on the planet. After about a hour of her hungrily but woefully staring at her brother, he tosses his keys to the kid.
"Go home, Jer. I'll be back in a while."
Jeremy's eyes connect with his and he does his head-nodding thing again and Damon just gives one sharp return nod in confirmation. He will try with Elena. He knows it won't make a difference, but he'll try, so he can tell Jeremy later that he did. The burden is going to be on Stefan, but maybe he can give Caroline some pointers, things she can pass on to Elena that will help.
What he's not expecting is Elena following him to the kitchen when he goes in there to rinse his glass. They've devised a plan that entails Damon going to talk with Bonnie (which, isn't that hilarious? But really, it's the best way in this situation), and Stefan and Caroline intend to do their own witch-search just in case that fails. Elena doesn't have a job in the plan beyond moral support, only because nobody trusts her quite yet in leaving the house. (And when he says nobody, Damon means Stefan and Elena.)
"You're really going to leave?" she asks, her husky voice driving shivers up his back in a new and different way. (It's the you're only gonna hear it for a few more days way.) She clears her throat, but Damon doesn't turn around to face her. He stands at the sink and rinses his glass a second, then a third time, and finally she says, "Damon," in a plaintive tone.
If he doesn't turn around, he's a real bastard, in other words. And she is the girl he loves.
"Stefan and I agreed," he says, slowly pivoting around. "Didn't he tell you?" For all the times Stefan's kept things to himself, it wouldn't surprise Damon at all if this was the first she was hearing of it.
She nods, "Yes, he told me. I just thought..." she trails off and her eyes move around the room, landing on everything but him. "I guess, I just figured...you wouldn't, you would, well, you'd-"
"I wouldn't keep my word?" he supplies for her as she flounders.
She stands up straighter, and actually looks offended. "No. No. I guess I just figured other promises you made had more meaning to you."
At first, he has no idea what she means, but the longer they stare at each other the further he's falling into her eyes, which even if Elena's a vampire now, and she's slightly different, there are some things that nothing can change about her. And the hypnotic quality of those doe eyes are at the top of the list.
If she says, Please, don't go, he's toast.
Then he realizes what she's referencing. That moment, also in the library, also over bourbon, after a night of near-death experiences-I promise you. I will never leave you, again.
He shrugs. "What did I know?"
She smooths her hands down her jean-covered thighs, like maybe she's got sweaty palms. "I remember, you know," she says, moving towards the island center to get up on one of the bar stools to stare him down over the wooden table top.
Here's the truth, the reason he'd rather never have to help with this whole vampire thing, especially since she chose his brother. "Oh, yes," he says flippantly. "It changes everything, doesn't it, knowing we met first? I mean, who would leave true love up to, you know, something as unreliable as feelings? It's really just about first come, first served."
"Don't be mean," she says. It's so world-weary, as though she were a thousand-year-old vampire like Rebekah, not just an almost-week-old one.
"Don't be mean?" he repeats. "That's rich. To be honest, I figured you'd tear me a new one when you remembered. Stefan can let you fucking drown, but it's called respecting-" he uses air quotes "-your choices, but me, I'm the monster who would take your choices away."
Elena's eyes take on a sheen suddenly and she shakes her head at him. "I could be dead and not remember anything, or I can be a vampire and see you for what you are, but either way you wouldn't be happy."
He snorts. "Right, Elena. Because this is about my happiness. That's what it's always been about."
Stefan makes his entrance then, and Damon would bet stacks of cash that he was waiting in the hall for the right moment. "Are you staying here, again?" he asks Damon, as though he has no idea that he interrupted a quasi-argument.
Damon sets his clean glass down on the sideboard, upside down to dry. "No," he spits. "I can still barely tolerate the sight of you, brother. I'll be at Jeremy's. Tell Blondie I'll let her know as soon as I talk to Bonnie."
He heads towards what had once been the servants' entrance, the doorway that leads outside through a utility room behind the kitchen. "Damon, be careful," Stefan calls. "Bonnie's dangerous now."
He turns around, noticing how Stefan stands stiffly beside Elena's seated figure, and as he walks out backward through the door, he says, "Don't worry, I've got Jeremy. He's my secret weapon."
...chapter three...
Author: badboy_fangirl
Characters/Pairings: Damon POV; Jeremy + Damon (+ Alaric); Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena; this chapter features appearances by Caroline, Stefan, and Elena
Word Count: ~2900
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (for language)
Spoilers: Everything through S3.
Summary: A bromance for the ages.
Author's notes: This fic is derived from this thread of discussion with shipperjunkie.
Previous Chapters: [1]
Damon's relieved when Jeremy seems to be a natural at driving a stick-shift. He only grinds the gears once, but he does keep slamming on the brake like he's trying to put his foot through the floor of the car.
"Ease up, Mario," Damon chides. "Just tap it a little, press your foot lightly. There's no reason to launch me through the windshield."
"Sorry," Jeremy says, glancing over sheepishly.
Damon restrains himself from reaching over to ruffle the kid's hair. He's not sure why he even feels that inclination, but he doesn't like it, not one bit.
It's not that he doesn't like Jeremy. Of course, he does. The kid had had the balls back in the day to come and try to kill him, like a man. He's had begrudging respect for the younger Gilbert ever since, and he might harass him every chance he gets about being an underage, friendless dick, but that's only because he likes getting a rise out of Elena's brother.
(It's almost as fun as getting a rise out of his own brother.)
Thoughts of Stefan are permeated by an anger that Damon's not sure he can control, so that makes this little expedition that much more banal. Is he seriously giving some kid driving lessons? (Some kid who just happens to be Elena's brother?)
It's better to keep busy, he supposes, until he makes his stage left exit.
"Take Route 4, like you're going to the Boarding House, only don't go to the Boarding House," Damon instructs as they get to the edge of town. "County roads are better. Less traffic."
Jeremy flips the blinker on and then takes the corner a bit fast, so Damon's thrown up against the passenger window. "Maybe ease into the turns a bit, huh?" he says. "We're not on a high speed chase, you know." Jeremy laughs a little and apologizes again. Damon finds himself trying to give positive reinforcement like some kind of fucking life coach. "Your general knowledge is great, you just need practice."
"You think that's what Stefan's telling Elena?"
Damon straightens himself in his seat and then looks over at his protégé. "What?"
"That's what Ric wants to know. If you think Stefan's vampire lessons to Elena are as practical as your driving lessons."
Damon whips his head around to look at the empty back seat. "Ric's here?"
"Yep," Jeremy says, his tone vaguely smug. Damon glances at him in irritation. He's the only one who gets to be smug for no apparent reason.
"And he wants to quiz me about Stefan's teaching methods?" Damon asks skeptically.
Jeremy waits a beat to answer. "He's just curious."
The really sucky thing about having had a best friend? You miss them when they're gone. And the reality is, on a lot of levels, he'd lost Ric long before he became an unstoppable vampire hunter. On the other hand, even though he can't actually hear Ric, he can still hear him. Jeremy's the source, but Ric's slightly dry condescension is still coating the words.
"Right, because Stefan was always of great interest to you, Ric." He continues to peer into the backseat, even though he knows he won't be able to see anything.
Again there's a small pause before Jeremy says, "His interest is Elena, you dick."
Damon looks at Jeremy who has taken his eyes off the road to smirk in his direction. "Was that him, or you?" he asks.
"Both."
Shaking his head, Damon points a finger in the general area of the backseat. "Caroline is there, too, it's not just Stefan."
"How do you know that?" Jeremy asks.
"Because, I talk to Blondie every day. I might not be able to fathom being in the same room with Stefan without staking him, but I do care about what happens to Elena. Caroline's there, and she's helping."
Jeremy looks in the rearview mirror and nods his head. "Ric says that Caroline has bigger worries than helping Elena. Apparently Klaus took over Tyler's body."
It takes just two seconds for those words to penetrate, and then Damon can't stop the words that fly out of his mouth. "Mother fucker! That's just great. Fucking Klaus. We can never get rid of him!"
While Damon's lamenting the un-get-riddable-ness that is Klaus, Jeremy says, "No. No way. She did not do that!" There is a long pause, and then he says, "Bonnie. would. not. do. that."
"What? What did Bonnie do?" Damon demands, looking back and forth between Jeremy and the space where Ric supposedly sits.
Jeremy finds a wide space on the side of the road and pulls the car over. Turning around to hang over the seat, he says vehemently, "She would let all the vampires die before she would help Klaus. There's no way, Ric. No way."
Damon grabs Jeremy's shoulder, squeezing it until Jeremy winces under his hand. "What did she do?"
"She's the one who put Klaus in Tyler's body, according to Ric." Another pause. "That's what Caroline just told Stefan and Elena."
Damon closes his eyes, and suddenly he's back there, at the storage unit with Bonnie. "No, she did it alright. And I totally gave her the opportunity." It's possible he just found someone to be more angry with than Stefan.
(It's possibly a tie between Bonnie and himself.)
"Ric says she did it to save you all, because Klaus fathered your bloodline." Jeremy looks at Damon, shaking his head slightly. "Does that sound like Bonnie, to you?"
Damon snorts at Jeremy's skepticism. "She wouldn't save me, per se, but she wouldn't let everyone else die, including her mother. Hmmm. Maybe I owe her a thank you after all." He presses his fingers against his eyes, contemplating for just one second yanking them out entirely. If he's blind, he doesn't have to see Stefan, right? Or Elena in all her vamped-out glory, being completely neutered by his brother, who he really doesn't want to see, has he mentioned that? Because honestly, for all the times he wanted to rip Stefan's heart out, the closest he ever came was in the basement of Mystic Falls General Hospital. It was only Elena screaming his name that had cut through the rage long enough for him to snap back to reality.
"Fuck," he mutters, dragging his hands down his face. "We better go to the Boarding House," he finally utters and then he looks around in amazement as Jeremy high fives the air in the backseat.
The kid looks gleeful as he turns around and starts the car. "This wasn't exactly the plan," he says, "but whatever gets you involved with my sister's transition is what I'll take, even if that means Bonnie's gone crazy."
He pulls the car around so that they're headed back towards the Boarding House as Damon gawks. "What?"
"You're the one, Damon. You're the one who should teach her."
"Right, because you thinking that will just make it happen."
"You seeing her is one step closer," Jeremy says confidently.
Damon remains silent for the half mile it takes them to get to the turn off to the Boarding House. As Jeremy eases the car into the driveway smoothly, minus the jerkiness of his earlier corner-taking, he glances back at the non-visible Ric. "He already knew how to drive, didn't he?"
As they go in the front door of his house, Damon calls out, "Stefan?" He focuses, listening hard, and he can hear them, in the library. He motions to Jeremy to follow him and they find a teary-eyed Caroline, a broody-as-usual Stefan, and a practically-crawling-out-of-her-skin Elena sitting amongst all Damon's books, obviously having a pow-wow.
Stefan gets to his feet as Damon and Jeremy come in, but Damon only has eyes for Elena. It's been five days since he's seen her, but it feels like five lifetimes. She stiffens as their gazes meet, and then she draws her legs up, wrapping her arms around them and containing herself on the over-stuffed leather chair.
"What's up?" Stefan asks, like the last time they all saw each other, Damon and Jeremy didn't take turns using him for a punching bag.
Damon rolls with it, because what's the point? Making Stefan deal with reality is just too much work. "We just heard about Bonnie, and the Klaus-Tyler hybrid."
"What?" Caroline squeaks. "How did you hear about it?" She wipes at the tears on her cheeks, and Damon almost feels sorry for her.
"Ric told me," Jeremy says, and all three of them exchange looks with each other before Elena asks in a hoarse voice, "What, Jer?"
"I see dead people, remember?" Jeremy asks.
The sarcasm in his tone is slightly over the top. Damon reaches back and puts his hand on Jeremy's chest. "Easy, buddy," he says, because he understands. But he doesn't need Jeremy and Elena at odds with each other, because that's going to be his position, he's certain.
"Are you all cooking up some sort of plan to deal with it, or what?" Damon asks, looking at Caroline and Stefan specifically.
"Bonnie has to do a spell to restore Klaus's real body before he'll vacate Tyler," Caroline says with a delicate sniff. "But...Bonnie's being difficult."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Damon huffs. "I don't even want to know about this." He turns around to leave, but Jeremy blocks him and gives him several head nods and eye-widening chin lifts. He knows what he's saying, We're here for Elena, remember? but Damon doesn't want to deal with that either.
It's not like he's ever trained a baby vampire, and his track record with Stefan is less than stellar, as one might know, and beyond that, well, it's just complicated. Elena's the girl, the girl, and she doesn't want to be; she picks his brother over him even in the face of death, and he can't love her any less if he tried (believe him, he's fucking tried), and, and, and! It goes on for days, and he's just not cut out for this shit.
That's when he remembers: he already decided this. He's leaving town. That's what he and Stefan agreed on (prior to Elena's existence being eternal, but whatever) and that's what he's going to do. So he turns around and looks at his brother, the girl he loves more than is humanly-or vampirely-calculable, and the girl he once used as his own personal blood bag, and says, "If you want my help with anything, you have a very limited window of opportunity. I'm leaving town shortly, as per our arrangement, brother, so y'all better hurry up and decide if you want my help. Limited time offer, no rainchecks available."
Elena speaks first, her voice little more than a croak. "Where're you going?"
He looks over Stefan's shoulder at her and can't bite back his snarky reply. "Really, that's what you want to know?"
"Damon," Stefan says, a note of caution in his tone.
He draws his eyes away from Elena and looks hard into his brother's face. "Do you want my help or not?"
"Yes!" Caroline cries, standing up. "Yes, Damon, if you can help, I want you to. Please," she says with a soft wail. "Please help Tyler."
He spares her a glance; she presses her hand against her mouth as she breaks down sobbing and Elena finally gets up from her chair and walks over to put her arm around her friend. Damon watches this exchange, something that's familiar about Elena, and thinks, That's fitting. He'll help Caroline in some sort of karmic retribution, and then he'll leave Mystic Falls forever.
He'll go out the way he came in, balls to the wall.
A few glasses of whiskey later, they have a plan formulated, and Elena sits warily in the corner, looking at Jeremy like it pains her to have him so close. Which, Damon's sure it does pain her, in her gums, in her very veins. All she can think about is his sweet warm blood gushing over her tongue, and it doesn't matter that she loves him more than anyone else on the planet. After about a hour of her hungrily but woefully staring at her brother, he tosses his keys to the kid.
"Go home, Jer. I'll be back in a while."
Jeremy's eyes connect with his and he does his head-nodding thing again and Damon just gives one sharp return nod in confirmation. He will try with Elena. He knows it won't make a difference, but he'll try, so he can tell Jeremy later that he did. The burden is going to be on Stefan, but maybe he can give Caroline some pointers, things she can pass on to Elena that will help.
What he's not expecting is Elena following him to the kitchen when he goes in there to rinse his glass. They've devised a plan that entails Damon going to talk with Bonnie (which, isn't that hilarious? But really, it's the best way in this situation), and Stefan and Caroline intend to do their own witch-search just in case that fails. Elena doesn't have a job in the plan beyond moral support, only because nobody trusts her quite yet in leaving the house. (And when he says nobody, Damon means Stefan and Elena.)
"You're really going to leave?" she asks, her husky voice driving shivers up his back in a new and different way. (It's the you're only gonna hear it for a few more days way.) She clears her throat, but Damon doesn't turn around to face her. He stands at the sink and rinses his glass a second, then a third time, and finally she says, "Damon," in a plaintive tone.
If he doesn't turn around, he's a real bastard, in other words. And she is the girl he loves.
"Stefan and I agreed," he says, slowly pivoting around. "Didn't he tell you?" For all the times Stefan's kept things to himself, it wouldn't surprise Damon at all if this was the first she was hearing of it.
She nods, "Yes, he told me. I just thought..." she trails off and her eyes move around the room, landing on everything but him. "I guess, I just figured...you wouldn't, you would, well, you'd-"
"I wouldn't keep my word?" he supplies for her as she flounders.
She stands up straighter, and actually looks offended. "No. No. I guess I just figured other promises you made had more meaning to you."
At first, he has no idea what she means, but the longer they stare at each other the further he's falling into her eyes, which even if Elena's a vampire now, and she's slightly different, there are some things that nothing can change about her. And the hypnotic quality of those doe eyes are at the top of the list.
If she says, Please, don't go, he's toast.
Then he realizes what she's referencing. That moment, also in the library, also over bourbon, after a night of near-death experiences-I promise you. I will never leave you, again.
He shrugs. "What did I know?"
She smooths her hands down her jean-covered thighs, like maybe she's got sweaty palms. "I remember, you know," she says, moving towards the island center to get up on one of the bar stools to stare him down over the wooden table top.
Here's the truth, the reason he'd rather never have to help with this whole vampire thing, especially since she chose his brother. "Oh, yes," he says flippantly. "It changes everything, doesn't it, knowing we met first? I mean, who would leave true love up to, you know, something as unreliable as feelings? It's really just about first come, first served."
"Don't be mean," she says. It's so world-weary, as though she were a thousand-year-old vampire like Rebekah, not just an almost-week-old one.
"Don't be mean?" he repeats. "That's rich. To be honest, I figured you'd tear me a new one when you remembered. Stefan can let you fucking drown, but it's called respecting-" he uses air quotes "-your choices, but me, I'm the monster who would take your choices away."
Elena's eyes take on a sheen suddenly and she shakes her head at him. "I could be dead and not remember anything, or I can be a vampire and see you for what you are, but either way you wouldn't be happy."
He snorts. "Right, Elena. Because this is about my happiness. That's what it's always been about."
Stefan makes his entrance then, and Damon would bet stacks of cash that he was waiting in the hall for the right moment. "Are you staying here, again?" he asks Damon, as though he has no idea that he interrupted a quasi-argument.
Damon sets his clean glass down on the sideboard, upside down to dry. "No," he spits. "I can still barely tolerate the sight of you, brother. I'll be at Jeremy's. Tell Blondie I'll let her know as soon as I talk to Bonnie."
He heads towards what had once been the servants' entrance, the doorway that leads outside through a utility room behind the kitchen. "Damon, be careful," Stefan calls. "Bonnie's dangerous now."
He turns around, noticing how Stefan stands stiffly beside Elena's seated figure, and as he walks out backward through the door, he says, "Don't worry, I've got Jeremy. He's my secret weapon."
...chapter three...