This story was written for the Annual Damon & Elena Holiday Exchange, which I host at TVD Mixing. For more stories by other authors, check out the link on my profile. I answered the prompt posted by suckerfordelena.

The anniversary of Enzo's death wasn't supposed to make the calendar. Damon had turned his humanity off the day that he walked out the door on him, leaving him to burn alive. Enzo should have just been another name on the long list of names of the people that he lost in his undead life.

Damon rolled his eyes, kicking the snow beneath his feet. He had no reason to be back at the college on New Year's Eve; it was practically a ghost town with all of the student population gone for the holidays. He should have been partying in the city, anywhere but here, drinking the night away on blood laced with champagne.

Walking away from campus, Damon felt ridiculous for coming this close to the Augustine lab, but never close enough. It was fine, he didn't need closure- that's what killing off the Whitmore family was for. Standing at the streetlight, Damon looked ahead of him at the woman in white. She looked like an angel, surrounded by snow dressed in a white gown, a matching shawl and flowers scattered in her hair.

"Katherine?" He whispered when she looked his way.

It couldn't be true, he refused to believe it was his long lost love. Katherine was stuck in the tomb, not out and about, dressed like that on New Year's Eve. He shook his head and quickly walked ahead to get a better look of her.

Damon never saw the car coming.

"Mister, can you hear me?" His angel asked as she cradled his face on her lap.

"You're not real." He gritted out, still whiplashed from being hit by the car.

"You have to call an ambulance!" She shouted as the driver stepped out of the car to look at the damage.

The skidding sounds on the pavement were enough to tell Damon that the driver had gotten back into his car and driven away from the scene.

The angel holding him started crying and he felt her tears wetting his cheeks.

"This isn't real." Damon rambled, looking up at the Katherine lookalike. The shock was wearing off and he could feel his bones again. The impact of the car was only a scratch on his supernaturally strong body.

In a second, Damon was on his feet, grabbing the woman by her throat. "What are you?" He asked angrily.

The woman, very much alive and breathing for the moment, started choking as he held her above the ground. "How are you- Alive. You're alive." He stated as he let her go and stumbled backward in astonishment.

"Don't you think that's what I should be asking you?" She remarked, in between trying to catch her breath. Her back was hunched as she glared at him. "I believe you've suffered a concussion." She continued.

At the sound of an inbound honking car, Damon grabbed the woman by her upper arm, dragging her to the safety of the sidewalk.

"You shouldn't be walking." Her large brown eyes glazed over him in shock.

"I'm fine." Damon replied, turning to leave her. He was too overwhelmed by being around her, he couldn't stand another second of it. She certainly wasn't his Katherine and he didn't want to find out why she looked exactly like her. It was too painful and he was trying to remain numb.

"You are not fine." She ran toward him, this time pulling on his hand. Him being immovable as stone didn't budge as she tried to capture his attention.

"You just got hit by a car." She cried out stubbornly, her bottom lip jutted out as she pouted. "And I don't believe in miracles... You could have internal bleeding."

Damon remained silent, not willing to acknowledge her. He should have ran far away or killed by now.

"Please." She begged. "Don't leave without letting me exam you. I'm a doctor. Well, almost one."

Damon tugged his hand out of hers. "I don't like doctors." He spoke in a low tone, but the fierceness in his voice was enough to make her shiver.

The woman ran as fast she could to stop him and blocked him by standing in front of him. "I won't let you leave-." She started to say but he wasn't going to bother listening to what she was going to say.

"Listen, woman." Damon interrupted her and his stormy, icy blue eyes stared down at her.

"Elena." She offered with a smile, still not moving an inch away from his body.

"What?" He questioned looking down at her.

"My name." She placed both of her hands on his chest and looked up at him. "My name is Elena Gilbert."

"Gilbert?" Damon questioned and slowly his hands covered her wrists in a tight hold. "Any relation to the Gilberts of Mystic Falls..." He trailed off suspiciously.

"Yes." Elena answered slowly, uncertainty obvious in her face.

"That's where I was supposed to be tonight." He lied quickly. "In Mystic Falls."

"Me too, but I missed the bus." She answered looking at their hands which were still clasped on top of his chest.

"Any chance, you believe in coincidences, Miss Elena Gilbert?" Damon asked, his trademark smirk covering his face. He was in a much better mood knowing she was a Gilbert. Tonight didn't have to be a complete waste, she could come in handy in the future or maybe he'd just kill whatever family she had in their hometown.

"You can catch a ride with me." Damon offered. "Since we're both supposed to be there tonight."

"You're a stranger." She accused with wide eyes.

"You didn't have a problem spending time with me two minutes ago." He retorted, holding her hands tighter.

"I thought you were dying." She replied quickly.

"Still could be." Damon joked. "Besides I'm not a stranger, I'm a Salvatore." He explained before finally letting go of her hands. "That's right. I'm a Founding Family member just like yourself."

"Okay." Elena agreed while absently touching her wrists. The skeptical expression on her face couldn't be missed.

"Were you trying to kill yourself?" Elena asked breaking the silence as she sat next to Damon in his car.

"What?" Damon replied confused.

"You walked right into that car." She explained. "Why would you do that?"

Damon laughed a little, in a dry and snide way. "You have terrible bedside manner."

"Yes, I do." Elena replied, looking down at her lap. "Well, were you?"

"No, I wasn't trying to kill myself." Damon answered, rolling his eyes while his hands remained steady on the wheel. "Why were you at Whitmore?"

Elena shifted uneasily in her seat and Damon heard how her breathing pattern changed. "I told you, I missed my bus." She replied after a pause.

She hadn't really answered his question, but whatever Damon thought, it wasn't as if he cared about her life.

"You're not married." She stated, no doubt after checking his ring finger.

"Neither are you." He retorted flatly, having remembered from holding her hands earlier.

"Girlfriend?"

Damon shook his head. "You?"

"No, I'm not seeing anyone." She replied. "Do you have any siblings?"

Damon's hands tightened their grip on the steering wheel before leaning over to turn on the radio. "One." He answered in a strained voice.

"Same." Elena told him, without having to be asked. "A younger brother."

Same, Damon thought but didn't want to continue their conversation. He didn't want to go through the Salvatore history with her, there were too many chances of slipping up on his back story. He assumed that she knew Zach was dead. Luckily for him, she stopped questioning him, remaining quiet for the rest of the drive, only occasionally humming along to the radio.

"Home sweet home." Damon announced sarcastically as they drove past the welcome sign. "Where am I dropping you off?"

"It's late." Elena remarked, her eyes glanced at the clock on the dashboard. "It'll be Midnight soon."

"Is there your way of saying you wanna kiss me?"

Elena looked away quickly from Damon. "What I meant is- there's no point in showing up at the dance. It's almost over." She took a breath and gave Damon the instructions to her childhood home.

"Do you want to come in?" Elena asked as Damon pulled up to the curb.

"I thought you didn't want to kiss me." Damon replied as he scanned her over.

"I never said that." Elena replied with a cheeky smile before bolting out of his car and walking quickly to her front door, sparing a single glance back at Damon.

This was too easy, Damon thought after locking his car and walking up to the Gilbert porch. He fleetingly wondered if her words warranted an invitation into the house and found out under a minute later that he was able to pass the threshold.

Walking in, Damon scanned the photos of her family across the bannister of the fireplace. From the looks of it, Elena's father was also a doctor. He wouldn't be surprised if her old man was working with the Augustine project. It was no doubt that the Gilbert family still hated vampires and now Damon had an invitation into their bedrooms.

Turning as he sensed movement behind him, she stood completely still, staring at him with apprehensive eyes. Honestly, he wasn't sure how well he could read the young woman. She seemed so headstrong and so naive at the same time. Her behavior was just as baffling as her identical appearance to the only woman that he ever loved. He waited for her to say something, but she never did, not budging from her stance with her hands held behind her back.

"Your father is a doctor." He commented, motioning at the pictures behind him.

Elena nodded, unfortunately not saying anything else. She still had that eerie look on her face, he thought.

"What about your mother?" He questioned. He hadn't seen a photo of the woman anywhere.

"Dead." Elena's voice was hollow; she was used to repeating the answer so many times that the word no longer held meaning.

"Mine too-." Damon started to say before crippling over in excruciating pain. Damon looked up at Elena in shock as she shot him again.

"Vervain." He groaned, touching the wounds on his chest.

Elena was breathing heavily as she waited for him to pass out. She kicked him hard once, making sure that he was unconscious before cuffing him to drag him to the basement.

To Be Continued... Hope you're enjoying it so far. Let me know!