"Damon?" Elena said, voice soft.

"Hmm?" He answered, not even looking up from the laptop that was sitting in front of him.

"Do you. . . Do you think I'm like Katherine?"

Damon looked up. "Why do you ask?" he asked her skeptically.

"Umm. . . Well. . . I just wanted to know if I resembler in any other way other than my looks."

"Elena. . . " Damon sighed as he stood and walked over to her. He gently lifted her chin so that she was looking at him. "You are nothing like her. I repeat, nothing like her." He let go of her. "I promise."

Elena looked away. "And if I was like her? What would you do?"

"I wouldn't be here talking to you, now would I?"

"You're right. I'm overreacting."

"Overreacting about what, Elena?" Stefan asked as he walked into the living room that the two were sitting in.

"Umm. . . Bonnie. She. . . She told me that. . . Uncle John told her about Katherine and Johnathan Gilberts' journal and what it said about her in it. He convinced her that I was just like Katherine. I came to ask you and Damon about it. But since you weren't here at the time, I asked Damon what he thought."

"Elena, Katherine was a cruel, heartless woman. You. . . You care too much."

"How can someone care too much, Stefan?"

Damon laughed. "I'll answer that for you, Brother." Damon quickly flashed one of his brightest smiles at Stefan. "Elena, it's not easy to care too much, but you seem to be able to do it so easily. I mean, think about it. You found it in your heart to forget what I had done to you AND Stefan. You love Stefan more than your life, and yet I am like your second best friend. Which is weird, considering I had tried to steal you from Stefan." He chanced a glance at Stefan and was surprised to find him calm. "But that, my friend is beside the point."

"So that's it?" Elena asked, confused.

"Yes. For now. Until I decide to give you the longer version." Damon said, laughing.

"The longer version?" Elena looked between the two brothers skeptically. "Do I really want to hear it?" She asked, laughing.

Stefan was also laughing by that time. Damon's laughter hadn't been heard in so long that it was contagious.

"Of course!" Damon said, still laughing.