Mystic Falls, VA August 1, 1864

Dear Damon,

I cannot believe that I will have to confront the Founders' Party unassisted by my best friend, and seeing those words, written in my own hand, I realize how selfish my feelings are.

Damon, I worry about you and your place in this infernal war. Why did you choose to leave the safety of our home for the uncertainty that comes from war? We both know that you have to sense of agreement with the Confederacy. We both agreed that using slavery to further our own wealth was abhorrent. Why, then, are you there and Stefan and I here, safe?

I miss you, Damon. I miss our banter and our truly appalling need to make your father look at us as though we are completely without merit. Come home, safe, to your family. I need you here more than I can put into words.

It seems odd that I end here, urging you to once again make your father angry and further the rift that grows steadily, but I fear for your safety. Please, Damon, find your way home.

Your best, if selfish, friend,

Jessa

She looked over the letter and wondered if it were right to send it. Damon's relationship with his father was notoriously bad, even before she came to be Giuseppe and Lily Salvatore's ward. There seemed to be nothing that Damon could do that would meet the satisfaction of his father. And once Lily had passed away, there wasn't adequate barrier between Damon and his father's wrath. Stefan, the youngest Salvatore, hadn't the same issue. Giuseppe seemed to see himself in his youngest son, someone to be admired and praised.

She considered again the heavy feeling in her chest that Damon were in danger. Of course he was, she scoffed internally, he was a soldier in war. Somehow that wasn't the only danger she felt was stalking him, but she had no idea where the feeling came from, nor why she felt the urgent need to share it.

Shaking her head, she threw the letter away. Why worry him while his attention was needed to keep him safe? She would keep her worries at bay, perhaps go shopping for a dress for the party she mentioned being averse to attending without her best friend's support.

"Mr. Salvatore," Jessa said, walking into his office. She was brought up short when she noticed that Stefan was already inside, waiting for his father's dictate on God knew what.

"Stefan, we'll speak more about this later," Giuseppe Salvatore said to his son. Turning with a smile to his ward, he raised an eyebrow to show he wished for her to continue.

"I apologize for bursting in, I could go." Jessa said, looking down. Giuseppe Salvatore made her uncomfortable, mostly because she was always witness to his interactions with his sons, and before with his wife.

"No, Jessa, you're a part of this family. If you need to speak with me, then I have time to hear you." He smiled and attempted to make her feel less like an interloper. "Stefan, please go. We'll talk later."

She stopped Stefan as he was walking out, "Actually, Mr. Salvatore, I came to ask if I could go shopping for a proper dress for the forthcoming Founders' Party. Perhaps, if he isn't opposed, Stefan could accompany me?"

Giuseppe smiled brighter at his young ward. "That's a wonderful proposition, Jessa. Stefan would love to escort you." Inside, Jessa cringed, she'd only hoped to give Stefan a moment away from his father. Somehow Giuseppe made it sound dirty.

"Only if Stefan wants to, Mr. Salvatore. He may have other plans." She looked up at the younger Salvatore, almost willing him to say he had another engagement, but Stefan smiled down at her.

"It's fine, Jessa. I'd love to take you shopping." He turned to his father and gave a curt nod, before offering his arm to her.

As they walked out of the house, Jessa wondered if she should ask what the conversation she interrupted was about, but decided against it. While she and Damon were close, her relationship with Stefan didn't warrant as much confidence. Stefan eyed the stables, but Jessa shook her head.

"Could we walk?" She asked quietly. "I think then we could postpone your conversation with Mr. Salvatore."

Stefan's smile could have lit up the mansion they had just left. "I always forget how mischievous you are. Yes, we'll walk. I have to thank you for the answer to holding off the awkward subject my father was bringing up."

Jessa's eyebrow slightly raised, but with her head down, he couldn't see. She couldn't possibly impose her curiosity about their conversation on Stefan, but it was difficult, she was so used to knowing the inner workings of her adopted family. With Damon gone, she should have grown closer to Stefan by default, but being around him reminded me more of how different the two men were. His presence made her melancholy for the friend she missed, so she had distanced herself. Add to that the problems she was having with sleeping, and she spent entirely too much time by herself.

"Jessa," Stefan's soft voice drew her out of her own reverie. She looked up and noticed that he was watching her carefully. "I wish that we had the same type of relationship you and Damon share."

Her eyes watered at hearing Damon's name being said. She missed him and the knowledge that he wasn't safe ate at her. Stefan raised his hand to cup her cheek, worried that he'd hurt her somehow.

She forced a smile and chased the hint of tears away by sheer force of will. "I'd like for us to be closer friends, Stefan." She took the hand cupping her cheek in her own and pushed it down, carefully so she didn't hurt his feelings.

As they walked to town, they talked about their past. Stefan was laughing about the first time they met when he was 5 and she was 4. She vaguely remembered, but Stefan was telling a story that seemed foreign to her ears.

Mystic Falls, VA 1851

Jessica Warren was watching her mother get ready for lunch at the Salvatore house. Standing behind the long draping curtains, she peeked as her mother put the finishing touches on her elaborately curled hair that was piled high on her head. Her dress, a pale green lawn, was pinched at the waist with what Jessica considered a torture device, but her mother called a "corset". She was terrified, even at 4 years old, to hear that one day she would have to wear one as well.

Luckily today, at 4 years old, she could wear a simple smock dress with itchy leg coverings and shoes so tiny her father said she must be part fairy. He smiled as the servant took her to him, finding her behind the curtains, so he could coddle her before they all went out.

"My little Jessica," he said, giving her nose a little rub with his. "You are already so beautiful that it hurts Papa's heart that one day you'll go off and get married."

Jessica hardly knew what any of it meant, not really. Only that her parents adored her and wanted to finally let her meet the neighbors. It was terrifying to her, having only been friends with the servants' children. Suddenly she had to make friends with children of families like hers. Wealthy. And she heard, from peeking around curtains, that these neighbors only had BOYS. The servants were careful to only allow their girl children play with little Jessica. What if these boys were mean? What if they didn't like her? She had difficulty sleeping from the moment she'd heard her parents speak of this lunch two weeks ago.

Jessica hadn't thought about other children, notwithstanding the servants', before that day. She'd just lived within the bubble of her family's home. It was huge, given that they were "filthy rich" as the servants' discussed daily. She played with her dolls, and read the books her papa taught her to read. Sometimes disappearing into the worlds of fantasy and terrifying her mother with her quietness. That's what probably prompted the sudden need to introduce their little one to the real world.

For two weeks, her mother reminded her constantly of the proper way to do things. What fork was appropriate for what course, whether it was appropriate to accept a drink from an unknown quantity. Her favorite, yet silliest, was how to address those that she was meeting.

"The father's name is Giuseppe Salvatore. You will address him as Mr. Salvatore." Her mother said, walking around Jessica as though tutoring her for something important. "His wife, Lily Salvatore, is Mrs. Salvatore."

Jessica was, even at 4, ready to roll her eyes. She'd been taught this from what seemed like the moment of her birth.

"As for their sons, Damon is the eldest, and for now because you're still children it's fine to call him Damon. The same goes for the youngest, Stefan." Her mother, paced, seeming to reconsider the whole meeting. "If this works out as well as I think it will, Jessica, then your future will be assured."

Jessica had no idea what her mother meant, wondering if it had anything to do with the dreaded corset. She didn't have much time to consider because she was fitted for her smock dress the same day, and looking down, it matched her mother's color and pattern.

Her papa, kissed her cheek. "Jessica, where did you go my princess?" She giggled at the tickle of his whiskers on her cheek.

"Papa, what does Mother mean when she says that meeting the Salvatores will fix my future?" She scrunched up her tiny nose as she tried to figure it out.

"Ah, Princess, it doesn't do well to dwell on your Mother's mechanisms. Just have fun, these Salvatores aren't so scary." He smiled again at her, and she snuggled into his arms, wanting nothing more than to stay home and read with her papa.

Her mother had descended the stairs at that moment, and her papa put her down so they could walk together down the lane toward a similar huge house. Her mother carefully protected under a parasol, and Jessica clutching her papa's hand. When the Salvatore house came into view, her mother whispered to papa that they had to be very careful because the townspeople weren't without knowledge of the supernatural and her father whispered back that he knew and they had taken careful precautions.

"I still couldn't believe that my brother, who constantly reminded me of his elder status, picked you up and was completely taken with showing you the house and grounds." Stefan said, smiling with the memory. Jessa was pulled out of her own memory, and chuckled at the memory of Damon taking her under his wing.

"Damon has always been misunderstood by your family, Stefan." She said, watching how the light played on the dust motes as they walked along. "I know you may not notice, given it's your family, but I think in me, he saw a new element. Someone who didn't have ingrained expectations."

"He couldn't have picked a better ally." Stefan teased. "I can never really decide if he corrupted you or if, even at 4 years old, you had it in you to make him more mischievous."

She laughed and took his arm. "Oh, Stefan, both."

The four members of the Salvatore family stood on the porch of the house watching their guests arrive. The adults dressed in their finery and the eldest son in a smaller version of his father's suit. Stefan, the youngest, was wearing his own smock-like outfit. Jessica, started to dart behind her papa's legs, but her mother hissed that she must walk along without peeking from behind things. So, blushing heavily enough to feel warm, she walked carefully between her parents.

"Madeline," Mrs. Salvatore said, coming forward to greet my mother. "I love your dress, that color is absolutely stunning."

Papa, held my hand as he greeted Mr. Salvatore. "Giuseppe, I heard that you were thinking that planting should happen earlier this year."

Jessica waited to be noticed and addressed, as children were never to speak before acknowledged. Finally, Mrs. Salvatore's gaze fell upon her.

"Oh, my." She smiled kindly, and knelt down. "You, lovely creature, must be Jessica."

The urge to nod silently and hide behind her papa's legs was heavy, but instead feeling her mother watching her, she answered carefully.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Salvatore." Her smile was small, but she felt like a burden of worry lifted when Mrs. Salvatore laughed lightly.

"She's such a doll, Maddie, why ever haven't we met her before?" Mrs. Salvatore took Jessica's hand in hers.

"Well, Lily, you know that we pride ourselves on our breeding. Having Jessica meet people before she was ready to do so properly would not have been bearable." Her mother's smile was tight, she hated being questioned on Jessica's upbringing.

"Then you'll have to excuse us for our boys," Giuseppe broke in, laughing far too loud and long for Jessica's liking. "They definitely do not act as though they are well bred."

Jessica glanced at the two boys on the porch, they too were waiting to be acknowledged. The older, Damon, was looking at his father with a pained expression. His father's "joke" had hurt him, she could tell. Stefan, the younger, wasn't paying attention, he was looking at the bushes with an almost palpable urge to go running.

"Come, Jessica," Mrs. Salvatore said, pulling lightly on her small charge's hand. "Let's introduce you to the boys."

They walked ahead of her husband and Jessica's parents. The boys refocused on Jessica, the very tiny child walking with their mother in their direction.

"Don't mind Mr. Salvatore," Mrs. Salvatore whispered to Jessica, "Damon and Stefan are very kind and sweet boys. You'll like them and they will adore you."

Jessica smiled shyly as she was presented to both boys. Damon, to the surprise of his parents was far more accommodating to this little girl than to even his own brother.

"Jessa," Damon said, rechristening her immediately. "You and I are going to be great friends."

He looked at Jessica's parents. "Mr. and Mrs. Warren? May I take Jessa to look at the grounds? I promise I will allow no harm to come to her."

Her parents looked both shocked and impressed by his interest, while his parents were completely shocked. As her mother nodded her assent, his mother gave a silent warning and his father insisted that Stefan go as well.

"We'll come when lunch is ready," Damon assured his father. Then, surprising everyone, he swooped Jessica up into his arms. "Come along, Princess Jessa, it's time to learn all about your new playground."

Stefan had let her get lost in her own thoughts for so long that she could see the first shops before she was dragged back to the present.

"You shouldn't allow me to mind wander, Stefan." She admonished. "It's a constant struggle to keep me tethered to the ground, you know."

He chuckled. "Your quiet while we walked gave me time to think over my father's conversation from earlier, so I apologize, for I too was lost in my own mind."

"Would you like to share?" She asked, uncomfortable asking. "I won't push, but sometimes sharing a burden lessens it greatly."

"I would love to share this burden, but I owe it to my father to hear the rest of his explanation first." He answered, smiling down. "I will, however, take you up on that offer after that second talk."

She nodded her assent and they began shopping for a dress that she dreaded wearing to an event she'd rath