Author's note
This is just some background info- This story is set in season 5 but where Elena and Stefan are together and attending college. Silas is alive and is after Katherine for the cure. Damon is reconciling his relationship with his brother and has accepted that him and Elena don't have the capacity for a relationship but instead a very strong friendship. Caroline is moving onto college and exploring her opportunities while Bonnie is dead but only Jeremy knows. Katherine has been shoved with the cure and returns to Mystic falls after a mysterious three months only to be running again from Silas. This takes place from the accident onwards.
Katharine carefully lifted her head while wincing in extreme pain. The accident had left her completely paralysed and disjointed. What was worse was that for the first time she couldn't do anything about it. Its funny how death looks from a human's shoes. Its far more poetic maybe even less painful or just plane ironic. "Is any body there?" she screeched at an inaudible level. "I need help," weirdly smiling at that phrase; it was as if she really had to use it for real, for the very first time. Closing her eyes and screaming in pain she rested her head again, slowly popping it down against the rubble, silently trying to bare the pain with no energy left to scream.
Slowly her left eyelid started filling up with liquid pouring onto its surface, with every passing second it kept growing until it started trickling down her cheek. With one hand completely crushed she tried using the other to remove what was probably blood from her eye but her human body was far too frail for a simple action. Maybe this was a time to repent and collect one's thoughts, to save what ever was salvable. What were her regrets? Was it being forced to give up a child or to be banished from your home, or maybe running to stay alive. If not any of that then maybe falling in love, that to with a man who vowed to love her till his very last breath and now hated her till her very last.
She made sure he hated her and that somehow brought her satisfaction. She didn't know why but it seemed he could peacefully move on and seek true happiness, which she herself fully toyed with. He wasn't supposed to be a sheer toy but he was the one man who loved her for her, saw beneath the monster and was the one who clung to her heart no matter how much time had moved. She kept pushing him away, made sure by now that his hatred was beyond what some can possess.
Katherine knew she was the monster he never believed she could but now she was sure he knew. He knew... Rolling her head ever so slightly as if it was gravity that just pulled it straight down, she surged all her power to open her right eyelid. Visibly seeing the footsteps at a long distance that were paced slowly one second and disappeared to only appear in front of her in the next. "Katherine, Katherine, KATHERINE!" Damon held it together but only so slightly, she was dying and for some reason it just didn't feel right. She whispered but he clearly heard her say, "save Jeremy, he is probably much more hurt then I am." Damon completely taken back by her words and puzzled by her sudden urge to be selfless other then her usual selfishness facade, replied "I already did, no thanks to you offcourse but you seriously have to stop running." She huskily replied "that's all I know how to do," he didn't hesitate to reply "well I'm afraid we're going to have to change that, you've caused me enough pain as it is and I am definitely not letting you cause it to others and neither am I letting you die so easily."
Within seconds he bit into his wrist and forced the blood down her throat, she fell into blackness and absolute numbness, almost like a drug was taking its effect at an alarmingly accelerated rate. Even as a human his blood tasted no different, not to her anyway. He lifted her head and placed it on top of his heart and then extended the other arm underneath her legs. Carrying her like a feather he rushed her back home to the boarding house.
Stefan checked his phone again waiting for reply from Damon. "I am guessing nothing yet?" Elena asked, "No nothing at all." Elena looked down towards her phone as well but she shook her head in disappointment, knowing well that things were definitely not okay. "Elena come one Jeremy is strong enough to handle this. I am surprised Damon even let us on this otherwise its usually Damon acting Damon." Elena still not satisfied with the situation looked up, "I know what you mean Stefan but think of this, the minuet Katherine comes back to town everything is out of place. What do you expect me to say? I turn her human only to come back and ruin our lives again. I am seriously not going to tolerate this again."
This time Stefan looks up at her and brings his hands to cup her cheeks, " I know when it comes to Jeremy you become upset and you have every right to be, he came back from the dead from a death that was caused by none other then Katherine. Which is why I get confused as to why you saved her and don't say cause you wanted her to have a second chance or for her to experience a life as a human. Why would you waste it on her? Why does she get to get to have the one thing you and me would kill to have?"
Elena closes her eyes whispering the words, "because I wanted her to feel weak and powerless just like I did when she handed me over as bait. I know I am just as bad as her for doing this but she was able to rip me apart from the inside because I was human, it was a chance I just couldn't let by go." Stefan waited until she opened her eyes and wrapped his arms around her waste and let her head fall on his chest. It was a moment that needed no tears but just patience, because without it their hearts could never heal.
Stirring among sheets with a blurred vision that started to clear very slowly, Katherine pushed her eyes open only to experience a daunting migraine. Her efforts at lifting her neck were better but still straining; so it was better give up for now. As the vision cleared up her memories were being reinserted within an instant and she saw a figure standing right on top of her.
It was impossible to even mistaken this figure, raven black hair, crystal blue eyes and white porcelain skin. "So your sense came back, I guess that's good. I mean the wait was irritating and quite frankly not worth it," Damon sniffed. "Ur lucky you know, Jeremy is still alive because your stupidity insured both your deaths if I hadn't come in time." He waited, " Why do you keep acting like a child, why? Can you truly not see anyone happy Katherine? Is it beyond your capability to once in a while to do the right thing, for God's sake! You know something you brat because of your stupidity Elena could have lost her brother by your very hands again. It seems like you can't even trust us to keep you safe instead you return the favour by dragging us down with you. It's a habit Katherine, which has controlled you ever since 1864. " Not wanting to hear anymore she closed her eyes and turned her head, hoping he would leave her in peace but he clearly wasn't done. "Oh no no no, you simply don't get to shut me out, not when I clearly have a hell lot more to say to you bitch," Damon at the verge of loosing his mind and fury at her.
Katherine's eyes jump open while he stared down harsher then ever. His voice deepening and becoming more demanding by the second "You know your lucky I was able to convince Elena and Stefan not to come by and instead assured them that Jeremy was fine, which he is but like I said no thanks to you." Damon simply sneered at her, which wasn't until she realised where exactly she was. She was lying on his bed, in his room and more importantly in his shirt. Checking to see if her undergarments were still on she slid her hand carefully underneath the shirt and silently thanked God that they were still intact. "You see Katherine I can let you rot on the streets after healing or I could simply call Silas now and get rid of this whole problem. But you see I prefer neither, because it seems to me either way you will come back haunting us and all for your own personal gain. You just can't seem to keep you paws off."
He smirked and she was sure what ever was going to happen she wasn't going to like it, she started up mumbling, "Damon please, just let me leave and I promise not to come back, just let me go. Coming back here was a mistake and I have no idea what was going on in my head but just believe me this once, I had never any intention to hurt Jeremy I was jus… just scared." Her eyes scared but he was too satisfied with himself to get her in this position. "Now, now Katherine lets not rush this or it won't be fun. You see the thing is I don't believe a word you say and I am afraid no one does but what makes it fun is that I am a vampire and you're a human. So getting the truth isn't so hard anymore and neither that volatile, compulsion's a gift and it's ironic that I am using it on you. Oh well desperate times call for desperate measure, right?" Katharine's fear grew by the second and now clearly droplets were falling down from her doey eyes. Before she could even utter the word's "don't", Damon grabbed her shoulders and brought his eyes on hers and simply said, " from now on you won't move outside this bed, you will talk only when I ask you something and you are only allowed to answer with the absolute truth." His eyes dilated and so did hers. She was under his trance and there was no way out of this.
Damon far calmer with himself but carrying a slight pang to his heart walked to the other side of bed, "Ok so let's start by something simple, like what's your name?" "My name is Katerina Petrova." Damon smiles that finally in 145 years he will get answers to what seemed impossible, "Ok so that's good. Now where were you from and how old were you when you turned?" Katherine puzzled by his need of generic knowledge but ashamed as well that he seriously couldn't trust her, not even enough for things such as these. Like an automated response her lips opened, " I am from Bulgaria and I was 21 years old when I turned."
Damon satisfied that things were matching up so far, he thought now is the time push it further. "Ok so now for a big one, answer very carefully, oh I'm just kidding because you can only tell the truth." He smirked, " Why did you string me and Stefan along in 1864?" Like a robot would answer Katherine did, "I was in love with one brother but I couldn't let him live with my shadow while I was on the run, so it became important that I left and when it was clear for me I would come back to him but I knew that could take forever, so I turned his brother that he would always have someone even if it isn't me." Damon turned his back to her knowing well that who she was talking about and how he was the one who was supposed to entertain Stefan until she came back for dear Stefan to sail off into the sunset with. For some reason for him to completely get closure he had to hear her say it. " Very Smart, I guess I am talking to someone who has dealt with compulsion longer than I have. So who did you love Katherine, who was the one you wanted to come back for and which brother was a mere distraction for the other until you came back?"
He waited with his back faced to her, which still allowed him to clearly listen to the running tear droplets from her cheeks. Katherine wanted to stall so badly but just like a robot her monotonic answers came, "I was in love with Damon Salvatore and his brother Stefan was purely turned to support him but never to merely distract him. I wanted to come back for Damon and no one else." If Damon was shocked that would clearly be an understatement. He still hadn't turned to look at her and he was still listening to the tears dropping, "Repeat that." Katherine started again, "I was in love with Damon Salvatore and his brother Stefan was purely turned to support him but never to merely distract him. I wanted to come back for Damon and no one else."
As if listening to it twice just wasn't enough so he made her say it again, and again, until a tear dropped from his eyes and she was purely exhausted from crying. But she continued, every time he demanded a repeat she repeated, over and over again. As a human for the first time Katherine felt time stop. It could have been hours this kept going on. A sentence was being repeated as if he wanted to condition himself. He knew she wasn't lying. She couldn't, not now. He finally gathered the courage after hours of listening to the same sentence so he could face her but still stayed on the other side of the bed. Her Eyes were red and strained, her body even more pail and fragile. "Why, why lie to me all these years? Why never trust me and why make me your first option for sacrificial death?"
The tears that seemed to have stoped briefly from exhaustion had once started again. " I lied so you could hate me and live your life knowing you were happier without me. I trusted you too much, which is why I knew telling you anything about my past was too dangerous especially because you would put yourself in harms way for me and all these years what I had successfully protected and loved would be a waste. You wouldn't or didn't waste a second to give your life for Elena if it was ever needed. I knew you Damon, your heart was pure and you would love till it killed you, which exactly what I didn't want, at least not until it was safe. As for wanting you dead, I couldn't imagine that ever let alone going ahead with it. You just assumed that every time to make it easier on yourself to hate me, even if I wanted to stall you and Stefan you would be believe that I wanted you dead, and I let you believe it by saying yes in return. It was only to fuel your hatred towards me. You stayed away, you remained safe." She finished with taking a hard earned breath at the end; it took it all out of her to be simply listening to what she had herself said.
His questions were becoming far more painful then she could have imagined. Damon's head hung in anger and in shame so he screamed, "Don't you dare say you did this out of love!" Damon moved at vampire speed to a very close proximity to her. He bent down and looked deep into her eyes, wishing she wouldn't break his world apart and especially now when he had accepted after 145 years of whom she truly was. He was so close to moving forward with his life and she brought him right back to square one. He closed his eyes once again in front of her and asked, "where did you leave when you had the cure, what happened to you? I saw you were bruised heavily and you were still running." Katherine swore if she answered this then she would collapse in a matter of seconds after it. "I…. I … I was kidnapped by Klaus to be his personal blood bag for creating more hybrids and… I was his sex slave until Elijah freed me and left me at your doorstep, only to be now used by Silas.