Damon opened his eyes and found himself lying down outside a large house, his mouth tasting faintly of blood. It was dark outside, and the moon was shining down into his eyes. None of this was unusual to him. He'd been feeding. Now he picked himself off the ground and looked around, getting a bearing on his surroundings.

Fell's Church was a small town, and he recognized the house in front of him to belong to the Gilberts. He grinned. Nothing wrong with paying Elena a little late night visit.

He stretched his limbs quickly before making his way silently across the yard to the tree underneath Elena's window. He climbed it easily, having done it a thousand times before, and slid himself over to the window.

There she was, sleeping soundly in her bed, golden hair spread out across her pillow, looking like young and beautiful princess. He watched her sleep for a minute before leaning over and tapping lightly on the glass.

It took her a moment to wake up, blinking and rubbing her eyes, and finally look up at the window and see Damon. Instead of breaking into a smile like he had expected her to, though, she looked confused.

She opened the window and beckoned him to come in. He obeyed gladly, falling lightly on her familiar bed and smiling charmingly at her. "Evening, princess," he said.

"What are you doing here?" Elena hissed at him, getting up and standing several feet away from the bed.

This annoyed Damon slightly. What did she mean, what was he doing here? Only what he did all the time. He'd been hoping to maybe kiss her a little, maybe sink his fangs into her gorgeous neck and take a long, delicious drink, but for whatever reason she was choosing to be difficult.

"Just coming to see you, darling," he said, moving towards her. She stiffened, her eyes wide as she stared at him.

"What'd you mean, coming to see me, Damon?" Elena demanded, her hands curling into little fists. "It's two o' clock and we have school tomorrow morning."

"School?" Damon said. "What are you talking about?"

She wasn't– she was going to college. Maybe that's what she meant. He told himself that was what it was but then that didn't fit– she was here in her house in Fell's Church. Not on the Dalcrest campus. But– why? And why was he here? He'd been feeding, he remembered. On a girl with strawberry blond hair, named Georgia. She'd been good. But he couldn't make get the details before that exactly straight.

"What'd you mean, what am I talking about?" Elena said. "You, know, school. The place we go every day to get educated. What do you think you're doing just showing up at my window in the middle of the night? Are you drunk?"

"Not in the way you think," Damon said, thinking about Georgia's heady blood.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You know," Damon said, glaring, now totally confused and pissed off at her. What was she doing playing dumb? She knew fully well what he expected when he came to her, and she knew fully well that she was failing to deliver on every level.

He walked closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Listen, Elena," he said, "I don't know what's gotten into you right now but I need you to cut it out. Seriously. And just let me…."

He leaned in to kiss her but she jerked away.

"What are you doing!" she whispered furiously. "Damon, I told you a month ago, we're done, we're finished. There's no more you and me. I'm with Stefan and I'm not going to cheat on him with his brother. I thought you understood."

Damon stared at her.

"What?" he said finally. "What are you talking about? Do you think you can just trick me into believing some cock and bull story like that? We never had that talk, Elena."

"Yes we did!" Elena said forcefully. "And you've been fine with it for a month. I don't know what you've been doing, Damon, but you need to go home now and get your head cleared up because I can't deal with this right now–"

"Elena," Damon said. "You can't do this to me. I'm not going to be tricked. I'm glad you love Stefan and don't want to hurt him; you only tell me that a thousand times a day. Well, I'll tell you: it's too late now, the damage is already done. He knows about everything that happened between us over the years, he'd be even more of a fool than he already is if he didn't. Only an idiot wouldn't realize what had happened in the Dark Dimension was special, and you can deny–"

"What," Elena said, here eyes wider than ever and looking right at him with an unusual fear, "is the Dark Dimension?"

"Elena," Damon said, suddenly concerned for her. Something had happened– Elena was suffering from amnesia– he needed to help her. "Elena, look at me." She already was, but now her eyes met his with a startling intensity. "Are you feeling alright, darling?" he asked her, leaning in again towards her lips. He couldn't resist himself any longer and kissed her, consumed with the fiery, burning love that they always shared.

And for a moment, she kissed him back, and it was like everything was back to normal. Damon moved his lips down from hers and onto her neck.

And he paused. His fangs– there was something wrong with them, they weren't growing. They needed to elongate. But they weren't working right. Oh well, he thought, he was going to get through this anyway, and he bit her in the same spot as usual to drink.

Two appalling things happened simultaneously: Elena screamed, loudly and shrilly, the noise surely waking her aunt and sister; and Damon realized that his teeth with not dig into her veins. His canines were completely blunt, they barely punctured her skin.

Damon jumped away from her, staring around her room now, confused, wondering what was happening, because if he couldn't drink her blood then something must be off, and he heard the footsteps running towards Elena's door but made no move to get away because he knew he could just use his vampiric speed to escape faster than anyone could see. But could he? He couldn't suck her blood. The thought struck him all too late, and when unfamiliar mad and woman entered Elena's room Damon was only half way to the open window.

"Daddy!" Elena shrieked, running to her father. "Mother."

"What's going on?" the man demanded irately, just as Damon wondered the same thing. Elena's parents were dead! The both of them! Had been since he'd met her! "Who are you?" the man yelled at Damon. "What are you doing in my daughter's room!"

"It's Stefan's brother Damon," Elena told her supposed father. "And I don't know what he's doing in my room but he seems confused and I…" She glanced at Damon cautiously and he stared back at her without emotion while she moved up to her parents and whispered something to them. He couldn't hear it. He didn't know what was happening.

"Why don't you come downstairs?" the man said to Damon carefully when they were done with their private discussion. "We'll call your parents to come take you home–"

"Not his parents," Elena said quickly. "Stefan. His dad wouldn't be happy."

Damon didn't see why they thought his parents were still alive, but hey, they were supposed to be dead too. Maybe it was national Parents Come Back From the Dead day. Damon shuddered at the thought of his father living again. And then there was the fact that Elena was trying to get Stefan to come pick him up. Was she insane? Why couldn't he just leave the way he'd come?

But at the moment he couldn't trust himself– after all, his vampire powers seemed to be turned off completely– so he just nodded and followed Elena and her zombie family downstairs and didn't complain when Elena went to talk to Stefan on the phone in the other room.

They all sat in the kitchen completely silently for several minutes until Stefan came running in, wearing a blue windbreaker and looking sleepy.

"Come on Damon," he said sharply after kissing Elena's hand lightly. "We'll discuss this in the car. Let's go."

As they left Elena called out, "See you tomorrow."

"Bright and early," Stefan replied with a smile.

Damon followed Stefan outside, but didn't get in the car. Instead, he turned and walked away, down the dark street, silent and brooding, trying to think through what was going on.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Stefan said, apparently not aware that Damon was in no mood to put up with this crazy charade. He followed him down the street, even going so far as to grab him by the arm. "Seriously, Damon, we've got to get home or we're going to be dead when we go to school–"

"We already are dead!" Damon snapped out viciously, tearing away from his brother. "Or has everyone somehow forgotten!"

"What?" Stefan said.

"Don't you what me, vampire–" Damon growled, turning around to do something terrible and violent to his brother.

Stefan took a step away from him. "Who's a vampire, Damon? What are you talking about? Did you do drugs or something? Wouldn't be the first time…."

All this made Damon freeze on his way to gouge out Stefan's eyes.

"What to you mean, wouldn't be the first time?" he said.

"I mean, it wouldn't be the first time you've done PCP and gone crazy after a long night of partying and, may I remind you, gotten yourself in loads of trouble with not only everyone you know but also Father."

All of a sudden Damon had vague memories of this life, of partying with high schoolers and coming home completely wasted. Getting punched in the face by his father and getting a broken nose.

But–

He had never gone to high school parties to get drunk (he had much classier ways) and would never have had a chance to get punished for it by his father, who was long dead before parties like that even existed.

"I– Stefan, our dad's dead…." Damon said weakly, overwhelmed.

Stefan shook his head. "I don't know what's wrong with you right now," he said to him, "and we've got to get you home."

Damon followed him mutely to the car.