A/N This idea came to me whilst watching 2x5. I think it makes sense that due to their Vampire natures Caroline and Damon would maybe have the occasional moment. They have a bit of a messy past to work through. This is still ultimately one-sided Damon x Elena and Caroline x Matt.

A moment

Caroline stirred awake, for a moment unsure where she was or what had happened. She was asleep on a couch. Damon was sat on the edge.

She immediately hissed and drew back. Damon tilted his head to give her his best 'really Barbie' expression, before turning away and she instantly felt like an idiot.

"Sorry."

This was after all his sofa, his house…her Mom. The misery swept through her head again, although it had never really left her stomach.

"Is my Mom okay?"

She was trying to work out why he was here, what was wrong. He seemed preoccupied, unhappy. He had woken her up by being here but it was still dark outside.

"She's fine." He looked at her again. "Probably plotting about how she can kill us all, but she's fine."

Caroline let her eyes slide away to the blanket she was under, her fingers plucking and wrapping around the fabric.

"She hates me," she whispered with a catch in her voice.

"Yes, she does." Her head jerked up to look at him in shock, but instead of finding cruelty in his expression she could only read empathy. "She doesn't get it. None of them do."

"Not even Elena?" It was a jab, that old lingering envy and she saw a flash of something in Damon's face, still so serious, before he answered.

"Not even Elena."

She felt a momentary swoop of elation, like she was a part of a special club…where all the members were dead. The feeling crashed. Caroline tightened her fists in the blanket and examined the pattern intently. "I wish my Mom didn't hate me."

Damon got suddenly to his feet. "Well in two days she will be free of vervain and her memory wiped."

He was being flippant, dismissive and she stared sadly at his back as she murmured, "That wasn't what I meant," and saw his shoulders tense slightly as he answered.

"I know."

He moved over to the drinks table and poured himself something as she watched, waited, wondering why he had woken her. They hadn't gotten to the point yet.

"She was wrong you know, your Mom." He tilted the glass at her. "You are still her daughter," he paused, "just…more so, and not alive, and cooler."

Caroline hiked her eyebrows at him.

"You know you suck at comforting people, right?" Her tone was her usual moody sarcasm and he smirked at her.

"I don't do chocolate ice cream and chick flicks if that's what you mean."

She felt herself smile a little at the image, in spite of herself.

"Thank you for not killing her…my Mom," she clarified, realising it might be hard for him to distinguish between the many people he didn't kill on a daily basis.

Damon gave a shrug and wandered back to her sofa, a drink in each hand. He pushed one into hers and sat next to her. Caroline examined the amber liquid with a crinkled nose as Damon spoke.

"You're the second person to thank me for that today. Nobody ever thanks me for the other hundreds of people I don't kill each day, but the noise when I kill one…" He rolled his eyes and downed the drink.

She grinned in her conspiratorial way and said eagerly, "That's just what I was thinking!" Not quite but close enough.

Damon scrolled his half-lidded eyes over her and she felt her pulse speed up a fraction (metaphorically speaking). He may be an ass but he was still smoking hot, and she knew that that look had been an appraising one.

"That's 'cause you get it."

She grinned and then suddenly realised they were having a moment. Her and Damon. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. The grin faded. His body tilted towards her and she wondered whether he could make the pain go away; the longing, the need…whether half an hour of heat would be enough…would give her a break. Old Caroline would have done it in an instant. New Caroline was a sexy independent vampiress who didn't need a man for self-esteem. So instead she asked, "Why did you wake me, Damon?"

There was a slight widening of his eyes in surprise. He hadn't expected the question; it gave her a weird kick of elation. He sighed and leaned back slightly, making her realise how close they had been.

"Well since we are being all honest and sensitive," he was using his patronising tone. He didn't finish the sentence but reached over with one hand outstretched. She felt her breath spike, heat flush her, and saw him smirk in recognition as, instead of doing what she thought he was going to, he plucked the drink from her hands and sipped it.

"Damon!"

He groaned dramatically. "I came to apologise for the way I treated you, when we were," he seemed stuck for a word and wrinkled his forehead in thought, "when I was using you."

It was a surprise, the apology and as he gave it she realised that it was only the still human part of her that had needed it. The vampire of her understood.

"Apology accepted," she said in her usual perky manner, before adding wickedly, "wonder what it would be like now. The two of us."

His eyes flashed appreciatively, smile twisting mischievously at the corners of his mouth.

"Caroline," drawn out as a warning.

She pouted a little. "Damon." Teasing.

He grinned. She responded. He didn't move any closer.

"You know we won't," he stated knowingly and she rolled her eyes.

"Elena."

He leaned in until his breath ghosted her lips. "And Caroline Forbes is no one's second choice," he taunted. Her vision was all his eyes and she could read his pain behind the mockery.

"Not unless she is compelled," she added and felt his smile. "We would be amazing though."

"You've already sampled what I can do," he purred.

"You haven't given vampire me a try," she flashed back.

The room seemed several degrees warmer and she was so very close to just kissing him anyway and to hell with Elena and Matt.

The sudden bitterness surprised her as it ripped words from her.

"Why is it always Elena?"

Damon jerked back like he had been burned by the sun and then his own pain fell in words, parrying her own.

"Why is it always Stefan?"

She nodded. Understood. In silence he drained her drink and strode from the room. In silence she let the moment settle, then turned over to sleep like it had never been.