The series is drawing to a close. This is part eight of ten. Thanks to Damonfan123 for the lovely review on the last part. And sorry that this part won`t have that many Dalaric-moments. I`m not really happy with this part, I have to admit. But I see it as a build-up to the finale. Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing.

All these feelings

The hallways of Mystic Falls hospital were busy as ever. Damon strolled around casually until he spied the female doctor who was trying to get her claws into Alaric. Pasting a friendly smile to his face he stepped into her way. "You know, we never got a chance to official meet, doctor... Fell."

She looked surprised to see him, but covered it rather well. He had to give her credit for that. "You're Alaric's friend, right? Damon Salvatore. I saw you at the council meeting. What are you doing here?" Damon fought to keep the smile on his face and told her some shit about waving to newborns. She frowned and turned away, but he wasn`t finished with her yet.

"I'm sorry about your boyfriend. Animal attack. Brutal." That made her stop quickly and turn back around. She clarified that Brian Walters had been her ex-boyfriend and claimed she was still having a hard time processing his death. He didn`t believe her for a second. "Yeah, I'm sure." he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You know, I just thought I`d come by and tell you that it wasn't an animal attack. But then I realized, you signed the death certificate."

The doctor frowned again and quickly ushered him into an empty room. "Would you rather I say he was staked like a vampire?" she hissed, telling him it was none of his business. Damon was done with being friendly. "I`m making it my business. Ric seems to like you. And if you are a psychopath that would really suck for him. I`m only taking care of a friend."

"You think, I killed my ex-boyfriend?" she asked incredulous, her frown deepening when he just shrugged. "If you care about your friend, go figure out how Alaric came into the ICU on his death-bed and walked out an hour later without a scratch." Dr. Fell shot back.

The vampire decided he had heard enough, she really was a psycho and turned to leave, when he suddenly felt a needle pierce his back. Dizziness shot through him and he fell to the floor unconscious.

He woke up just in time to see the doctor run out of the room with a few vials of blood. His blood. Groaning he sat up and stared after her. "Really? She is a damn psychopath." Muttering under his breath he got up and left the hospital. On the drive to Alaric`s loft he recalled the talk that had led to his meeting with the doctor.

*Flashback* Damon entered the Grill to find Ric sitting at the bar, talking animatedly to a dark haired woman. She was rather beautiful the vampire grudgingly admitted, watching as the two said their goodbyes. She left and Damon took her place. Ric told him that she was his doctor and that her ex-boyfriend, the medical examiner, had called her a psycho case. A little alarmed at that Damon told him that the guy was dead. "Murdered. Sheriff is trying to keep a lid on it because he was staked in the chest like a vampire." Alaric frowned. "Well, Meredith didn't say anything about that. Who do you think killed him?"

"I don't know but if I was a cop, your sexy doctor lady friend would definitely be a suspect." Damon snarked, which caused Ric to smile. "If I didn`t know any better I`d say you`re jealous, Damon." The accusation hit home a little too hard and Damon sputtered an indignant: "In your dreams, Ric."

The teacher only smiled a little wider at that. Amused at having caught him off guard or because he knew it was a lie, the vampire wasn`t sure. And he also wasn`t sure he wanted to find out. They went on bickering like usual after that, but he decided to check out the doctor himself. Just to be on the safe side. *End flashback*

Damon entered the loft without knocking and found Ric working out. Trying not to stare at Ric`s sweaty appearance he told his friend he would need the workout if he really wanted to start dating Dr. Fell. "Your doctor vervained me and then she bloodjacked me." he accused.

Alaric stared at him. "She did what? And when did you even see her?" Rolling his eyes Damon explained what he had done earlier. Obviously Alaric didn`t appreciate his concern and told him to stay out of it. "I`m only looking out for you. And I proved your theory... diagnosed psycho case. You're welcome."

Alaric sighed and got up, turning his back to the vampire. "Just... stay out of this, okay?" he asked again. "Fine. Date the psycho if you want to. But don`t come running to me when she stakes you!" Damon snapped and left the apartment without another word.

Just as he was getting into his car he received a message from Bonnie, telling him to get the coffins with the Originals to safety, since Klaus had found out where they were. Rushing to the abandoned cottage the vampire realized he might not have enough time to get all of them and he would need a back-up plan. Just in case.

He decided to take the one that wouldn`t open first, since Klaus probably wanted this one most. He moved it to the old Lockwood cellar and rushed back, debating with himself he opened one of the other coffins and pulled the dagger out of Elijah´s chest. After scribbling down a short note which he put into the original`s pocket he turned to the next coffin. But it was already too late. Klaus had arrived.

The dead witches attacked him, but stopped once he threatened their descendants. Really useful, Damon thought sourly, but kept his mouth shut. He was lucky they had finally stopped messing with his daylight ring whenever he entered the cottage. No need to piss them off again.

Klaus walked over to the coffins and frowned when he only saw three of them. "Where's the fourth? Show me!" he demanded. Damon casually leaned against the wall. "Well, here's the thing. They can't. It's not here. You see, Bonnie gave me the heads-up. I didn't have enough time to get all four, but I did have time to get one."

Klaus face darkened and he stalked over to him, murder in his eyes. "I will tear you limb from limb. And only then, when you're a riving mass of blood and flesh will I rip your heart from your chest." Damon just smiled smugly. "Sorry. The same rules apply. You know, leverage and all. I know you want your family back. But something tells me you want what's in that coffin a lot more."

The hybrid stopped inches away from Damon and glared at him, but made no move to attack. "You`ll regret this." he finally promised. Damon internally thanked his lucky stars that the gamble had paid off and hurried out of there. He debated visiting Alaric for a second, but then thought better of it and went home instead. Maybe it was better for both of them if Ric really started dating the doctor.

A few hours later he stood in front of the fireplace, brooding, when Stefan entered. "Oh, you're still alive. I assume, that means Klaus didn't get his coffins." Damon frowned and turned to face his brother. "Don't look so happy, I was only able to get one of them out in time. The locked one." Stefan shrugged it off, telling him it was just one of those days and that one was a good choice.

Damon watched him walk upstairs to his room and decided to tell him about waking Elijah later. After making sure whether it had been a good idea or not. Checking his watch he left the house. He didn`t want to be late for his meeting.

Just as he entered the meadow in the woods, his phone rang. Elena told him that sheriff Forbes had visited and that Brian Walters had been killed with a stake from the Gilbert weapons arsenal. The vampire joked about Elena being the prime suspect. "She doesn`t think that I did it. She`s just trying to find out why somebody used one of my family weapons to kill a council member."

Damon had an idea and he had no problem telling her so. "Why don`t you just ask Ric if his dirty little doctor had access to the weapons." he suggested, a little surprised to suddenly hear Ric`s voice in the background. "You`re on speaker phone, dick."

Angry that his friend was obviously defending the crazy doctor Damon started bickering with him, both of them not ready to drop their opinion, until Elena suddenly suspected Stefan. "He was crazy that night. And you know he was trying to get underneath Klaus's skin, he was capable of pretty much anything." she pointed out. Damon didn`t really believe that. How would the death of a medical examiner affect Klaus?

A sudden noise made Damon turn around. He`d almost forgotten that he was there to meet someone. "Anyway got to go, you'll know more later." he ended the conversation. Ric wanted to know where he was, but Damon just hung up and turned to face Elijah.

"You left something in my jacket pocket." the original murmured, pulling out the note. "Oh, yeah. 'Dear Elijah, let's get together, plot the destruction of your brother, XOXO'" Damon quoted. "Was I right to undagger you or are we going to have a problem?" Elijah smiled at that and told him he was here to talk, promising he would help them stop Klaus. Damon wasn`t sure if the original would betray them again this time, but he was willing to take the chance and agreed to bring Stefan for a meeting with Klaus and Elijah.

Of course the meeting only served as a distraction to buy the witches some time to open that coffin. It was a good plan. Maybe even a great one. But of course as plans go, it was probably destined to fail. And it did fail. Miserably at that.

Elijah really was on their side, they even managed to undagger the rest of the original family and the witches really did open the coffin. But whatever was inside was gone by the time Damon and Stefan arrived. And to make matters worse, while they were busy with Klaus, someone attacked Alaric, who died once more. The ring brought him back, but just like the last time he came alive coughing up blood.

Damon rushed to the hospital again, only to find that Dr. Fell had already cured Ric, using the blood she had taken from Damon. Alaric agreed to spend the night in observation and Damon glared at the doctor until she let him stay. He spent the night sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair, staring at Ric`s sleeping form, cursing that stupid serial killer, cursing the psycho doctor, cursing his damn feelings.

Of course from then on things only got worse. They found out that Esther, the original witch and mother to Klaus and his siblings had been in the coffin. She decided to make Mystic Falls her new home and stay there with her kids.

Worse than that was that Alaric really started dating Dr. Fell, so Damon decided to take his mind off of the teacher and retaliate in kind. Even he had to admit he must`ve been a little out of his mind to use Rebekah to do so.

While he was busy with the blonde original, Esther conspired with Elena to kill all of her children, which would have been fine with Damon. But then Elena had an attack of conscience about the whole Original murder thing and managed to disappear. Stefan went in search of her while Damon called Ric, who snarked at him for sleeping with Rebekah. Like he had any right to be jealous, dating the psycho doc and all.

Shortly after Elijah paid the Salvatores a visit, told them he had Elena and to get her back they had to stop his mother from killing him and his siblings. Which meant it was time for another one of Damon`s fantastic, spontaneous plans. At first everything went surprisingly well. Caroline distracted Klaus, Meredith distracted Kol and Alaric used the chance to dagger him. Since the originals were connected, that meant all of them went down.

Unfortunately Klaus proved to be more resilient than his siblings and managed to undagger his brother before they had the chance to get him away, knocking out Ric and Stefan in the process. Only Elijah`s sudden appearance and protest that they were needed saved their lives this time.

So it was time for the back up plan. Damon grudgingly allowed the doctor to take care of Ric, while he and Stefan drove to the old witch house to prevent Esther from killing her children. The only way to stop her was to break the Bennett bloodline. After tossing a coin to determine who had to do it, Damon and Stefan entered the building.

They found Bonnie and her mother quickly. While Stefan was distracting Bonnie, Damon fed Abby his blood and killed her, effectively breaking the line, so Esther couldn`t draw power from them anymore. The original witch managed to get away, but at least they had kept their promise, so Elijah kept his and let Elena go. Damon considered that a small victory.

He retired to his room as soon as he got home, worn out after yet another chaotic day, that had almost ended in disaster. Nothing new lately. He wasn`t really surprised when Stefan followed him and demanded to know why he had turned Abby. Stefan had lost the coin toss, so he should have been the one to do it.

Damon sighed. "I'm not blind. I see what's been going on around here. You're hanging by a thread, Stefan. Barely over your last ripper binge and all you want is to be the old Stefan again." His brother claimed that the old Stefan was gone for good, but when Damon remarked that he hadn`t drunk human blood in some time, he was genuinely surprised.

"How'd you know?" Damon snorted. "Spend 146 years with someone, you kind of start to pick up on their tails." Stefan admitted that the last time had had drunken human blood had been the night he threatened to drive Elena off the Wickery Bridge. "See? You have enough to feel guilty about! Why add to the list? By the way, you're welcome." Damon turned away, but for his brother the conversation wasn`t finished yet.

"You know, you're not fooling me either. You still love her, Damon." he accused, causing the older one to sigh again. He debated just letting Stefan believe what he wanted, but decided to finally tell him the truth. Maybe it would help and at least his brother would find happiness again.

"No, Stefan. I don`t love her. I never have. Not really." Stefan looked doubtful, but Damon just clapped him on the back and ushered him out the door. "Believe it or not, I won`t be any competition. It's for the best. I'm better at being the bad guy anyway." Stefan finally left and Damon resigned himself to another sleepless night.