Hello! This is my first time trying out vampire diaries fan fiction, I have written before in other fan fics just not on here. So be kind, I'm a little rusty as I haven't written in a number of years, but I love the community, and wanted to try it out. This just came to me it's S1-ish I don't know where I'm going with it, or if I will go anywhere with it, just wanted to try it out. Call it a trial, if I get some review's I'll keep going, I have a plot... or an idea that has been running around in my head for quite a long while. I plan on it being a multi chapter, just depends on what the response is. So if you like it review it, if you don't review it... just be constructive please... :)

Chapter One - The Beginning

It's a late august afternoon; the sun hot in the cloudless sky, a gentle breeze keeps the heat barely tolerable, she still pulls up her hair in a high pony tail, and is thankful that she's wearing a tank top and short shorts. She lowers herself to the ground under one of the old large trees up there, brushing off the dust that dirtied her knees, she stares up at the large tree, and it shades her completely, and helps the heat a little. She doesn't know what kind of tree it is, but it's old, and very tall, she can't see the top and it leaves good shade, on this hot afternoon. She's still sweating, and still hot. But, that's from her climb up here, her feet are aching, and she's reminded that she's wearing only her flip flops, not the best for hiking, but she didn't think she was going to come up here anyway. What brought her up here, she's not even sure. Just kept walking, trying to get away from the house, get away from town where everyone still looked at her with pity in their eyes. She hated that.

The only sounds are that of birds singing and the falls as they drown out the gentle breeze that she heard on her hike up here. Elena pulls out her journal and leans her back against the a solid, but old tree, and not the most comfortable she decides as she reads over her last entry in her diary.

May 12, 2009 the last day she wrote in it was the day her parents died, before the party, before they died on the bridge, and before she broke up with Matt, it was the last day of her sophomore year. Reading it now, made her feel like she was a completely different person back then, and that was only a few months ago.

She was going to be a junior just one more year and she'd be out of this hell hole, that was Mystic Falls, its where she thought nothing ever bad happened, but something bad happened to her. It happened, and it turned her world upside down, knocking her to the ground, and burying her in a hole of sadness, that she wasn't sure that she could dig out from. It changed her, she used to love this town, love to write, and now the only thing that filled her was this hollowness, and darkness that wrapped around her heart and consumed her life slowly.

Sure she had Jeremy, well a shell of him, he blamed her. She knew it, he probably hated her and that's why he wouldn't talk to her, he wouldn't even look at her. She knew that he was using drugs, and she knew where he was getting them. But she didn't know how to stop him from wasting his life away. Hell she didn't know how to help herself, how could she help her brother. And Aunt Jenna, she was lost in her own mourning of losing her sister and not knowing how to care for two teenagers, when she was barely any older than the two of them. Elena brought her knees to her chest, her journal forgotten, and hugged her knees lowering her face to them. She shivered, she couldn't cry. She wouldn't. She had to be strong. It was all she had. She put on a fake smile today just like every day. She wasn't sure how she was going to go back to school, and face everyone, and have to be that girl. She lifted her head, and closed her journal not writing anything, and stood carefully, brushing her shorts off and walking over to the edge of the quarry.

She slipped a few times as she walked over there, grabbing onto a nearby boulder to steady herself, but even that doesn't stop her from stepping closer to look down into the quarry, it would be so easy she could disappear forever, and so fast. But she can't do that, it's not her. She's stronger than that. She takes a step closer, and slips on the loose rock, she flailing her arms grabbing for the boulder again, but gravity and momentum take her over the side, she closes her eyes, and her shrill scream fills the afternoon air, as she begins to fall.

She feels it rushing by her and whooshing by head she desperately reaches out, grasping at nothing, and screams some more. She's going to die. She closes her eyes, and prays. Thinking about everyone in her life right now, what it's going to do to Jeremy, to Jenna to her friends.

***** Damon's POV

He doesn't know what the appeal is to follow Elena around; he just can't seem to leave the town without finding out more about her. Why did she look like Katherine? He'd left the night that they met the first time, to go to Georgia and talk with Bree. But she said she couldn't break the tomb spell that he needed the gem first, and even then she wasn't sure if she was strong enough to break it alone. He needed a Bennett, as Emily had done the spell to protect the tomb. He was there to look for that gem, and he knew where he'd left it, and he knew where it had been taken, the damn Lockwood's had it, they had what was his. And he wanted it back.

His head snaps up as he hears the scream, completely distracting him from his thoughts. He doesn't hesitate, as he suddenly finds his legs carrying him as fast they will allow him to the top of the quarry, he wasn't far away, close enough to get there, but far enough away that she didn't hear him. He jumps with the momentum of his run.

He knows he's too late; he's not a hero, so why does he even care? But he does. And something about her when they first met, kept him from killing her. His momentum and weight carry him faster than that of Elena, he gets his fingertips around her toes, but it's enough. He pulls her flailing body securely into his arms, he's not sure if they'll hit the rocks below or the water. Although he prefers the water. The rocks would spear him, break every bone in his body, and his body isn't thick enough to protect her, at a last ditch effort he, pushes against gravity, and safely hits the water below, tightening his arms around her as his back strikes the water. He's momentarily stunned at the impact, but he doesn't loosen his grip.

He surfaces with her towing her to the shore as quick as he can. He stumbles a few feet, and drops to the ground, cradling her against his chest, and positioning her comfortably in his lap. She's unconscious and he thought he killed her, he's about to rip into his wrist, when he feels her move, she starts to cough, and she grips his shirt, tearing it as she pulls it away from his soaked chest.

"Shh, you're ok now." He murmurs against her wet hair, she stiffens as if for the first time realizing someone is holding her, and she looks up at him with her chocolate colored doe eyes full of fear, and then glances behind herself at the quarry. She is frozen, as she just stares at the water, and then cranes her head to look above them. She turns back to stare at him, it would be comical if she didn't just fall from 100ft above them. Her eyes widen further if that's even possible, Damon just continues to search for any wounds on her, and holding her soothingly.

"I wa-" she coughs, and sputters, and pushes herself away from him, but shivers so violently, that she reaches for him again and he holds her against his shoulder. "I was...I didn't mean too, I just." She starts to shake violently against him. He holds her tighter, but carefully, and she begins to cry, to sob against his chest.

"Shhh, you're okay now, it's ok. You must have slipped, I heard you scream." He murmurs softly against her ear, running his hand soothingly along her spine.

"But, I could have died...I wanted to disappear." She coughs some more, and grips his shirt harder, ripping it some more, but he doesn't care, and he tightens his hold on her. "I can't be that girl, I can't be strong for them anymore...they all think we should be over it by now." Damon frowns, he has no idea what she is talking about, but as if reading his mind, she begins to explain. "But we're not, they died, my parents died, and the last time I saw them I was so ungrateful, I lied to them, told them I hated them, I was being selfish, and a bitch and I was..." Her voice broke as she broke off, keening against him. Damon held her even closer, as she sobbed violently, her pain shattered his heart, and his switch struggled to stay in the on position, hell the first night they met it did that.

"Shhh... We say things we don't mean." He murmurs softly against her ear.

"But they're gone, I can't take it back." She looks up at him tears falling down her cheeks, and it nearly is his undoing.

He swallows, and goes on quietly "No one's ever gone; gone...they live within you." He whispers, feeling his own eyes sting, and is thankful he's already wet. "Talk to them that way, and they know..." He brushes back hair that has stuck to her face, and cups her cheek. He needs to make a fast getaway. But she stops him.

Her hand cups his over her cheek, stopping him from continuing "Who are you? I-I feel like I know you." Damon swallows.

"I'm a friend..." He begins to compel, but she stops him.

She shaking her head. "No...We've met before, you're that man...Damon" He frowns, he had compelled her to forget. "We met, the night my parents..." She starts to shake again. His arms tighten reflexly and pull her closer.

"Yes," He's still holding her cheek, he lets his hand drop, and she takes it in her hand, playing with the ring on his finger.

"Where'd you go, one minute you were there, the next you disappeared." She asked him her voice quavering, and he feels a lump form in his throat, he tries to swallow it, damn what is this girl doing to him. He swallows, and pauses a minute searching her face.

"I didn't want you to get in trouble." He smirked. He knows he can't compel her now. So instead he pushes them to their feet. "We should get you out of those wet clothes..." He drops her to her feet, pausing when he sees her panic, brilliant Damon, he thinks real smooth. "...and warmed up, I live not far from here, with my uncle Zach at the Salvatore boarding house." He smiles and winks.

"Oh...Zach, I didn't know he had a nephew." She said turning to face him, she's calmer now, she pulls out her pony tail, shaking her head, and then piles it back on her head in a messy bun.

"We're not around much." He says in return watching her and when she's ready he turns and leads them towards the trail, but she stops and looks up at the falls again, as if they can just jump up there.

"My bag." She says starting to walk again, and not looking where she's going and she trips. But Damon's there to catch her.

Damon grasps her shoulders, and steadies her "Easy there, we're heading up there." He say's eying her closely, she's limping a little, and she's not wearing any shoes. "You didn't wear shoes to hike up there?" He looks at her incredulously.

She looks down frowning, and then looks back up at him "I wore flip flops..." on his look she glared at him "I didn't think I was going there...I was going to the...to um." She looks down from his intense glare. "I must have lost my shoes in the water." She looks back at the quarry.

"Stay here, I'll be right back with your things." He said, as he found her a log to sit on, she started to protest, but he just shakes his head. "It'll be faster if I just go." He raises his eyebrow to wait for her protest. But she doesn't.

Damon starts off at a slow jog, and then when he's sure he's out of her eyesight, he takes off at his vampire pace, getting there under twenty seconds. The hike up in flip flops would have taken her close to an hour, he thought, for him in his hiking boots he can make it about ten minutes or less.

"How'd you get back so fast?" She asks, and he raises his eyebrows, staring at his feet.

"I'm an avid hiker, you wear the right clothes, than it cuts the time in half." He snorts.

She crosses her arms and huffs, "Well I'm sorry if I..." She trails off, and looks down. "Sorry." Damon just chuckles and steps closer to her.

She looks up frowning. "I'm not laughing at you, come on." He bends to lift her up and she stumbles back a few steps. "Really?" She glares at him. "I'm only trying to help, look at the ground, those rocks are as sharp as glass, and unless you want to bleed out?" He raises an eyebrow. She sighs and lets him pick her up.

"Just rest, I - I'm not as light as I look." She protests.

"You're light as a feather." He smiles, and she blushes at their closeness. And it's true, she is light as a feather.

He heads off to where he left his camero, and she gasps as he sets her down at the passenger door "I love your car"

He smirks as he opens the door for her. "Thanks" he helps her in, handing her her bag carefully.

The drive to the boarding house is a quiet one. With Damon unsure how Zach will react to him showing up with Elena. But he's in luck when they arrive as no one's there. He turns off the ignition of his car and looks at Elena as she gasped at the house in front of her.

"That is huge." She stares at it.

"You've never been here?"

"No...My parents knew your uncle, I didn't." Damon nods, and gets out quickly, and moves to open the door for her.

"Yes, it large, my ancestors didn't believe in doing anything small." He said with a snort.

"You sound like you don't like that?"

How did she get that? He thought. He guided her towards the huge house, and pushed the door open, listening for his uncle. Finding it empty, he followed her in.

She was awestruck. "This is amazingly large." She told him spinning in a complete circle. Damon looked around at his surroundings, but he can hear from the tone of her voice what she's not saying, it's cold.

"Yeah, Zacks done well keeping up the place" he led her to the stairway, and followed behind her as he guided her to his bedroom. He'd been there earlier that day moving back in. He'd already spoken to Uncle Zack, and much to his displeasure, Damon was going to stay. He knew his brother was already there. But they hadn't run into each other yet. He looked forward to that confrontation; he knew that he was still on the bunny diet.

"I can take you to a different room..." He said, when she paused, and her heart sped in her chest.

"No, it's not that, the room is just so...cozy and it doesn't feel cold like the rest of the house, its warm." She turned and smiled shyly at him. She was fidgeting with her hands, waiting for him to say something, or lead her further into his bedroom.

He smiled in return, and led her further into his room. "That's why I picked it." He shrugged, and led her to the bathroom. "I'll start you a bath." He murmured, and did that quickly. After he turned on the water to a comfortable level, he walked back out into his room, and grabbed one of his many t-shirts, and some sweatpants that he was surprised he had. "This will have to do, until we can dry your clothes." He smirked, and she nodded.

"I don't want to intrude, you should go first." She told him as she took the offered clothes. He shook his head, and led her to the bathroom.

He pulled out a fluffy towel, and laid it on the sink. "There are other rooms, it's not a problem. I'll use the shower." He told her smirking. She blushed, and he had to turn away from her. "Take your time, there is bath gel in the corner there, I'll give you some privacy." He was starting to leave when he felt her hand on his arm.

"Thank you, Damon. Thank you for saving me." Tears were filling her eyes again, and he nodded quickly, he hated tears. And wanted to make that fast escape, before they started again.

"It was nothing, now enjoy." He said, and squeezed her hand, before turning and leaving her to herself.

********** Elena POV.

Elena undressed, and sunk into the warm bubbly water, drawing the curtain around the bath. The scent of whatever Damon had put in the bath intoxicated her, and soothed her at the same time. It had an earthy scent, and it smelled like him and it did wonders in soothing her aching muscles. She let out a soft moan as she sunk further. Feeling the strained muscles of the hike and the many trips, and the fall soothe against the warm water. She couldn't hear Damon anywhere. She didn't know why she thought she remembered him, at the same time she remembered him, and something pulled at her memory to forget him. But she strained all her power against it. The blue of his eyes, that's what it, was they were clear, caring and commanding. Intense. How could she forget that, even with them framed by the dark of his hair, and pale skin.

*******Damon POV

He hovered outside the door, before forcing himself to open the door, and breeze in, and grab her soiled clothes. He had to force himself not to look at the curtain, or he would have lost his control, and opened it. He wasn't the hero, and he was never the gentleman, but something inside him however small it was felt for this girl. She looked like her, and for whatever reason, he needed to figure out why. Her eyes were different now, than what they were when he'd first met her. When he first met her they were full of life, and light. Now something shadowed them, and he was sure her loss. They weren't as dark as Katherine's or as cold as hers were. But, he knew that she had gone through darkness. Damon quickly stripped out of his soiled clothes and cursed when he found his cell phone waterlogged. Well at least he had a spare. He always did. He showered quickly, and dressed quickly in one of the spare rooms, and hauled his and her soiled clothes to the laundry room. Fortunately, he knew how to operate the damn thing. He knew how to stay clean and usually always had to. Once he had that going, he went to the kitchen with hunger on his mind. No, he couldn't honestly feed from Elena, but he could feed her he decided. He opened the fridge, and pushed around the items. Finding what he needed. He hadn't cooked in a long time, but that's not something you forget.

He listened upstairs to see how Elena was, she was so quiet, and he could hear the steady rhythm of her heart beat, as she hummed a song that sounded like a lullaby. He didn't know the tune. But, it was heartbreaking, and nearly brought tears to his eyes. What the hell was wrong with him, he should stop all this sappy stuff before he turned into one, and kill the next person he sees. He shook himself, and finished cutting the tomatoes, garlic and onions. His eyes watered from the onions. He added the appropriate seasonings, and pushed the meal into the oven, setting the timer for thirty minutes. Then he prepped the dinner salads. Glad that he took time in watching his mom cook when he was a child, and watching the slaves and maids later in his life. He never liked having slaves; he felt it was in all kinds of wrong. He became close to one though, she was always nice to him, rather took him under her wing after his mother died, and his dad started treating him like he didn't exist, or he was just a ant that needed to be crushed. Stop being so melodramatic, he hated when his switch was off, then he thought too much, he had emotions that he didn't know what to do with. But, he couldn't turn it back off, and that frustrated him.

He finished the salads, and put them in the refrigerator, and stepped out onto the balcony, lost in thought.

***** Elena POV

Elena slipped out of the bath as it started to get cold, and dried off, wrapping the towel around herself. She pulled on his offered clothes, his shirt was huge on her, and fell to her mid thigh, she pulled on the sweatpants, but even when she tied them, they were way too loose for her. Instead of using them she folded them neatly, and went with just his shirt. She felt extremely uncomfortable in just his shirt, but she felt stupid just holding up the pants the entire time. He'd already taken her clothes, as he said he would. She hadn't heard him. She slowly walked out into his bedroom, drying her hair as she did. He was nowhere in sight.

"Damon?" She called out, and still nothing, she padded across his floor, and stepped out into the hallway. "Damon?" She jumped when he was suddenly beside her, inches away, his eyes intense. "Hi." She said shyly, tugging at the hem of his shirt, his eyes followed the motion, and a little gasp left his lips before he collected himself, and stepped back. "The pants were too big...so I...uh, well, your shirt is long enough." She stuttered, and he smiled and nodded.

"I have your clothes in the wash." He replied with, taking another step back. "I made some lunch." He stepped out of her way, and let her move. He followed her down the stairs, but when she paused, he led her to the kitchen.

"You can get very lost in here." She stated, and he laughed.

"Yes, lots of rooms." He replied, and walked into the kitchen. "I didn't know what you liked, so..." Her eyes grew wide; he'd really out did himself.

"Wow...are you a cook?" She eyed him, surely he wasn't. She didn't think he was.

"Ahh...no, I'm Italian, it's inbreed in me to cook." He smiled at her, and winked. "I hope you like...Italian." He said quietly.

"Are you kidding! It's my favorite." She squealed, forgetting herself as she jumped up and down. Damon smiled, shyly at her, well maybe not shyly.

"Well I'm happy to oblige." He pulled out a chair, and she sat in it.

"Aren't you eating?" She asked.

"Yes, but it's not going to serve itself." He said smirking, and she blushed and started to get up.

"Oh no, no guest serves herself, allow me." He pushed her shoulder gently back down into her seat, and took a seat himself. He'd made salads for the both of them, and some sort of Italian chicken, in Alfredo sauce, and noodles, how he had done that in the time that she was taking a bath, but when she looked at the time, she realized she'd given him plenty of time. She took a bite of his meal, and it melted in her mouth. "This is amazing; oh wow...you should be a cook." She said with her mouth full.

Damon raised an eyebrow, shaking his head, he swallowed his food. "Thank you." He smirked, and it almost looked like he blushed. He wasn't one to take compliments she had that figured out, besides that he was a mystery.

"That was absolutely amazing, Damon, thank you." She said as they were clearing up the dishes.

"I'm glad you liked it. It's a Salvatore secrete, my mother used to make it for us." There was sadness in his voice, and she saw the pain go through his eyes.

"Well, it was amazing." He smiled sadly.

"Yes, she was an amazing cook." He whispered, and then shook his head.

"I'm sorry." She touched his arm, and he froze a second, before turning to frown at her. "For losing your mom." His eyes widened, and then he nodded.

"It was a very long time ago." He offered, and continued to wash the dishes, as she dried them.

"I'm still sorry." He nodded, and smiled.

"Hello Zach." Damon suddenly said, and Elena whipped around, backing into Damon. Zack stood in the entryway of the kitchen with a frown on his face. Elena suddenly remembering her state of undress blushed, and hid her body more into Damon's side. He wrapped a protective arm around her, and stepped around her.

"Damon." Zach said, not sounding thoroughly pleased that he was there. "What are you doing?" He asked angrily.

Elena watched as Damon narrowed his eyes, and glared at his uncle. "This is Elena, she fell from the quarry, and I brought her here to get cleaned up." He explained, as he moved closer to his uncle. She could no longer see Damon's face, but his back was rigid and tense. She wondered why, but she didn't know much about Zach Salvatore he had kept mostly to himself.