After Blondie's little session of torture a few weeks back, Damon had wanted to go over and make sure she was okay—take stock of things. She was his child after all, he had that right. Or, he thought he did.
Turns out, sometime since he last remembered her, Barbie grew a backbone—which he found out when she slammed the door in his face before he could even speak a word.
-x-
He tried again a few days later, this time when she was in public—at the Grill with her mother in sight—but Caroline bested him again when she started to flirt with one of her high school boys just long enough to make him retaliate by doing the same to piss her off.
As it turned out, she had learned a few things from their time together when she was human. And she knew that nothing worked to distract him more than trying to get revenge.
By the time he bothered to drag his eyes from his redheaded toy, Caroline was long gone.
-x-
When they finally do speak, Elena acted as referee. As it turns out, the conversation didn't need Elena because it was too short to end in an argument.
"What?" she asked, gesticulating wildly. He didn't answer right away, too surprised by her and Elena's sudden appearance in his bedroom, and she appeared to take it as a sign if his complete incomprehension. She elaborated, "You've been following me around for weeks, completely disregarding the obvious signs of my ignoring you; but I've had enough. Just say whatever nasty, mean, derogatory things you want to say so you can finally leave me alone."
Damon hated that Elena was standing there with her arms crossed, looking mightily disappointed in him. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright after what happened a while back—wanted to check in."
He tried to make it sound casual, like it wasn't a big deal. Maybe that's why they didn't buy it.
"We—" Caroline pointed between her and him—"we are absolutely nothing to each other. You may have facilitated my turning, but you are nothing to me; not after what you did to me yourself—trying to save me doesn't make up for almost killing me, Damon."
He opened his mouth to retort, but there was nothing to say. No witty remark to lighten the mood, no sarcastic comment to aggravate her. Nothing.
"I'll never give you the chance again," she continued, "and you can't just apologize for what you did."
She walked out then, and Elena soon followed with a shake of her head. He stared after them and blinked for a moment then formulated a plan.
After all, eternity's a long time to harbor such resentment—he had plenty of time to get around to begging for forgiveness again.
