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The familiar smell of cloves, ginger and sandalwood were the first things Addie registered. Realizing it wasn't the icy water under Wickery Bridge that she was trying to breathe, she inhaled sharply and relished the way her lungs expanded. No longer did the chill of the water seep into her bones. A stifling warmth surrounded her. The soft crackling and popping of a fire filled her ears, a sound much more relaxing than the silent pressure she remembered.
It slowly clicked that she was not in a hospital room; there was no sterile smell, no beeping of monitors and she was too comfortable. A person ended up in one of two places after their car tumbled off a bridge and plunged into the roaring river below: the morgue or a hospital bed. Her parents had gone to one and her sister had woken up in the other in the last accident.
Elena. Elena had been in the accident, too. Addie could feel her heart slamming against her chest in panic as she remembered. Her fingers curled reflexively, a silky comforter getting caught in her fist.
"Ads?" cracked a hoarse voice. A cool hand brushed over forehead; she tried to turn into the touch, a reprise from the heated room. "Ads, can you hear me?"
"'Lena?" she croaked weakly, her throat dry and scratchy.
Damon's head dipped as he gave a weak chuckle, a mix of fear and relief. Of course Addie would worry about her sister despite fighting for her own survival. "Elena's fine."
Addie's shoulders sagged in relief and the small crease of concern between her eyebrows disappeared. The blanket resettled against the bed as her grip loosened.
"Addie?" Damon whispered in concern as she went limp again. His fingers trailed down her cheek; she was much warmer than when he had last touched her, almost bordering on hot. He called out to her again and gently shook her but she didn't respond.
An anxious hand ran over Damon's face as he moved over to the fire. He used the fireplace shovel to scoop up the ashes at the bottom.
"She woke up? You were saying her name. I thought I heard her," Elena said apprehensively from over Damon's shoulder. She hadn't mastered the art of moving with silence but she had made it to his room from downstairs fairly quickly. She had only been a vampire for a few hours; he couldn't expect expertise from her yet.
"She got tense and mumbled your name. I told her you were ok and she fell back asleep," confirmed Damon. He used the ashed to smother the flickering red and orange flames that licked at the logs. The active fire was extinguished but the embers continued to glow.
"Why didn't you wake her back up? Why didn't you keep her talking?" demanded Elena, her voice laced with a concern that only an older sister could have.
He exhaled slowly as he stood up. His fingers ran through his hair as he tried to keep his patience; it was a bad habit he had picked up from Addie. Elena had been checking in on her sister every hour since she and Stefan had returned from being held captive by the Founders' Council on Pastor Young's farm. His brother had told Damon the basics of what had happened but Damon had been to worried about Addie to try and figure out what it all meant.
The whole mess had started with Klaus unnatural obsession with Addie. Before breaking the hybrid curse Klaus, as Nic Mikaelson, had been the benefactor to award Addie a full scholarship to the World of Music summer program at the London College of Music. No one had been aware of Klaus' pseudonym when Damon made Addie promise to attend the program as he lay dying from a werewolf bite. At the airport Klaus revealed himself and threatened to kill everyone Addie cared about if she did not join him and Stefan as they crossed the country in attempt to make hybrids upon completion of the program. He had sent his sister Rebekah to babysit Addie in London and the two had formed a sort of friendship.
Surprisingly, Klaus had done as he had promised and had allowed Addie to return to Mystic Falls before the school year started. The gesture would have been a lot more meaningful if he had he not returned her on the same night he turned of Stefan's humanity and commanded him to feed from Elena in an attempt to kill her. When he found out that he needed Elena alive to make his hybrids but that Damon and Katherine had found out the location of Mikael, Klaus left town, leaving behind Stefan with instructions to protect Elena. It would only be later that Damon would find out that his brother had also been commanded to protect Addie. It hadn't made sense as to why until Rebekah revealed that Klaus believed Addie to be the solution to either a curse or problem. The fact that Addie had specific traits and characteristics that made her unique made Damon concern that Klaus' assumption was correct.
It didn't help that Addie didn't seem to take her own safety very seriously. Addie had never approved of everyone's, namely Damon's, plan to work with Mikael to take out Klaus. She didn't approve of bringing Mikael into the fray because, in her opinion, things were calm and Klaus wasn't an active threat simply because he wasn't throwing people in front of moving vehicles at that point or threatening to kill anyone. Addie had admitted that she was selfish and she believed that inviting a vampire vampire hunter to the town where her vampire boyfriend and vampire friends lived and working with him was a very bad idea and not worth Stefan's freedom from Klaus or removing the living blood bag label from Elena. When Damon and Mikael had worked out a plan, Addie revealed what she knew of the plan to Klaus simply because Klaus had assured her that if Damon succeeded in killing him, it would be mutually assured destruction. Klaus had already ordered his hybrids to kill Damon if he died.
Addie had been pretty furious at him for being upset with her for choosing to save his life instead of letting him kill Klaus.
When Klaus announced he was staying in Mystic Falls, Addie invited him into the boardinghouse; Damon still wasn't convinced she hadn't done that just to piss him off. They finally had a proper chat, which only left things more complicated and unclear. Klaus revealed that he was counting on Damon to protect Addie. When she learned that Stefan had taken off with the rest of Klaus' boxed up siblings, Addie handed over a daggered Rebekah in a step towards a peace offering and with her promise to help return his brothers.
With his humanity off Stefan was cold as his sole focus was getting revenge on Klaus. When he kidnapped Elena and threatened to turn her into a vampire to prevent Klaus from making more hybrids, Stefan had broken Addie's wrist. Stefan managed to win a round against Klaus and be the better villain but it wasn't at a price Damon was willing to pay. Long-term, Klaus was likely the greater danger to Addie but he seemed to want her alive. Short-term, Damon couldn't predict what Stefan was going to do and he had already injured Addie once. Damon decided he needed to do something to get Stefan's behavior in check. He told Addie where Stefan was hiding the coffins and they decided to return Kol and Finn while keeping the locked coffin and Elijah to use as leverage should Klaus misbehave.
On further consideration, Damon decided to undagger Elijah to get his advice on how to kill Klaus. Having been betrayed by Klaus and dagger rather than reunited with his family, Elijah had been ready for revenge, as Damon had anticipated. Elijah had advised unleashing the wrath of Kol, Finn and Rebekah on Klaus to keep him distracted while they tried to unlock the last coffin. A successful opening of the coffin revealed that the it contained Esther, just as Elijah had anticipated.
Though Esther made it publically seem as if she wanted to live with her family in peace, she was secretly planning their demise. Using Elena's blood the Original vampires and Klaus were linked so that when one was killed, they all would die. Upon discovering this Elijah promised to kill both Elena and Addie if Damon did not stop Esther. The only way Damon knew how to do that was to disrupt the line of witches she was channeling, which meant he had to turn Bonnie's mother into a vampire. Addie hadn't been happy with his decision and the subsequent fight was messy.
Technically, as Damon liked to emphasize, he and Addie had already been broken up for over a week when Damon took Sage's advice and suggested a three-way with Rebekah when she began to act suspiciously. As he did his best to stress, he never actually touched Rebekah or Sage and all sexual relations were between them. All Damon was guilty of was digging through Rebekah's mind and discovering that there was a second White Oak tree that the family had failed to burn down. Milling records showed that the tree had been used to make Wickery Bridge, which was in the process of restoration.
Feeling hurt by Damon's actions Addie made a rash decision and revealed to Klaus that they knew a second White Oak tree had been planted and Damon would not rest until he found it. In Addie's opinion, if Damon was going to kill Klaus, he deserved to see it coming. Everyone deserved a chance to fight back. Beside, killing Klaus had always been everyone else's obsession, not her. Addie dealt with Klaus the same way she dealt with any problem: reason and logic. She was also fairly certain that part of the reason that she rarely had conflicts with him was because she applied the golden rule to him: the principle of reciprocality- treat others the way you would want to be treated.
Damon never knew of the slight warning Addie gave Klaus. However, it wasn't her information that led to the destruction of the White Oak. Rebekah learned about the tree and the bridge and the plan to kill the Originals from Sage, who sneaked it out of Damon's head. The blond believed she burned all of the original bridge but she didn't know Alaric was in possession of the historical sign crafted of White Oak.
Damon, Stefan and Alaric had fashioned a set of stakes from the sign and distributed amongst their friends. Addie wasn't comfortable with sitting back as they planned to destroy an entire family that claimed they wanted to live harmoniously and weren't doing anything to suggest otherwise. There was the small incident where Elijah threatened to kill both Addie and her sister but, to be fair, Addie had to admit that she'd probably kill someone if it meant keeping Jeremy and Elena alive. She knew how bad that sounded but Addie's morals were questionable. She never claimed to be the saint her sister was. However, it would be hypocritical of her to judge Klaus and his family on their past actions when she forgave Damon for his. There was one thing Addison Gilbert was not and that was a hypocrite. At least she usually wasn't hypocritical. Elena and Damon had a way of provoking the bitter, childish parts of her personality.
When Damon went missing Klaus revealed that Rebekah was holding him hostage in bear traps and torturing him. That bit of information had been a gift but if Addie wanted his assistance in freeing Damon, she would have to reveal whatever nefarious plan Damon was up to. The decision was easy for Addie, the only thing she had to consider was how to convince Matt, Elena, Caroline, and Alaric to give her their White Oak stakes back. She had no issues obtaining the first three, her own, and the five Damon had left at the house. Stefan was already planning to use his and, if she was lucky, would be successful in killing all the Originals before Addie had to deal with Klaus. That just left her with the task of getting Alaric's.
Unfortunately, Alaric had an alter ego with a penchant for killing anyone who associated with vampires. Everyone was fooled into believing that the Evil!Alaric had been suppressed by a powerful combination of herbs that Bonnie made but it turned out that Alaric had not been taking them. When Addie went to ask for Alaric's stake, she was confronted with this dark persona. Evil!Alaric attacked with the intention of killing her but thanks to the grueling hours of defensive training Damon and, ironically, Alaric had forced upon her, Addie was able to escape the fight with a shattered elbow and a significant laceration to her shoulder.
Despite not being able to give him all the stakes, Klaus freed Damon to Addie because the deal was only for her. As she pointed out, she went above and beyond because Addie didn't feel the Originals deserved to be treated like pigs in a slaughter house.
Damon glanced down at Addie as he recalled her the beaten state she been in and the battle of wills that followed her rescue mission. From the middle of her bicep to where her shoulder began to curve there was a clean tear in the blood soaked fabric of her t-shirt. It looked like it was made in one movement with something very sharp as there were no signs of hesitation or fraying. The entire left side of her shirt was crimson. From what he could tell, the cloth had settled so that the extra fabric of the sleeve was covering her injury, sopping up blood. Her left elbow was swollen to the size of a softball and she was taking care not to move it. He hadn't been in much better shape after his session with Rebekah.
*Flashback*
Damon leaned against the Jeep to support his weight and held out his bloody wrist to Addie. Almost simultaneously she held hers up for him.
Addie shuddered and struggled to keep from vomiting as her boyfriend's mangled wrist was shoved under her nose. Mangled. His wrist was still gouged open and oozing dark red blood. She couldn't hide the panic and concern in her voice as she pointed out, "You're not healing."
Damon's lips pressed into a thin line as he didn't respond immediately. He was furious at her for putting herself in such danger and he wanted to just ignore her but the fear in her voice hurt him worse than the bear traps. "Vervain on the traps. It just needs to be rinsed off. I'll be fine," he mumbled. When Addie just looked at him doubtfully he snapped, "Drink."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Damon, you can barely stand up. You're nuts if you think I'm letting you lose anymore blood."
"But you expect me to drink from you?" he retorted sharply, his eyes flashing to the wrist she kept moving closer to his mouth.
"Yes," she said simply. "I don't look like death personified; you do."
"You're bleeding, Addie. A lot. You need to be healed," he grumbled. He didn't have the strength to argue this with her because she wanted to be ridiculous.
"I can wait. You need your blood more than I need it at this moment," she told him gently, continuing to use obvious logic rather than resorting to fighting.
"You are in pain."
"So are you."
Trying to appear stronger than he felt, Damon used the car to push himself up straighter. "I'm not feeding from you, Ads."
"I'm not moving until you do," she quipped back, not caring if she sounded like a petulant child. Logic didn't work if he decided to engage in a power struggle, anyways.
Damon nodded in agreement. "Fine. I'll grow stronger as I heal, at least a little. And you'll grow weaker as you bleed out. Then I'll just force you to drink my blood."
Unable to argue with reason she jutted out her lower lip and mumbled, "That's not nice."
"No but I'm not going to let my girlfriend die because she wants to be stubborn."
Addie lowered her wrist from his face. She wanted to run her fingers through her hair but she knew the movement would hurt. She worried at her lip as she thought. Eventually she decided to take him back home. As she walked to the other side of the car she remarked, "Just remember that's exactly why I did this; I wasn't going to let my boyfriend die because he wanted to be stubborn."
Damon had nearly lost his mind when he found out it was his best friend who had critically injured Addie. He'd been wary of leaving Addie unprotected since he had found out about Alaric's dual personalities. However, he'd let his guard drop to focus on killing Klaus because he truly believed his friend had it under control. Alaric was not in control, though. He was not taking the herbs as he was supposed to. Damon could not trust that he wouldn't snap again. There was no guarantee that when Evil!Alaric wouldn't succeed in killing Addie the next time he tried. Damon's only option was to make sure there wasn't a next time.
As Damon plotted the murder of his best friend, Stefan informed him that Klaus had forced Bonnie to unlink the Original siblings, meaning he had only managed to kill Finn, which was a complete waste since the guy was suicidal anyways. The icing on the cake was that Sage, who Finn had turned, and every vampire Sage turned had died about an hour after Finn. Once an Original died everyone who descended from them died. Killing Klaus would have been worth the price of his life if Addie hadn't just risked hers to save his.
Addie rescuing him had screwed his whole worldview up. Addie had put him before getting revenge on Klaus. She had put him before everything. Damon wasn't used to that. No one had ever done that for him. Addie had treated it as if it was no big deal because "that's what it means to love someone," but he had never experience anything like that. Damon had never had someone truly love him the way Addie did. He had always had a selfish relationship.
Damon was used to doing whatever was necessary to protect the person he cared for without worrying about how they would feel because they didn't put him first. Katherine, Elena and Stefan definitely never put there life in danger for him so he never knew what it was like to be put first. It was a guilty feeling. He didn't like it. It made him understand why Addie like him taking on suicidal missions against Klaus even though he was putting her first. Now he had the complicated task of figuring out how to protect Addie and himself.
Damon temporarily set aside the issue of figuring out who started his vampire line so he could determine whether or not he could kill Klaus to focus on Alaric. He had the added motivation to kill Alaric because, as Klaus had said, until Klaus was in possession of the final White Oak stake and Alaric Saltzman was no longer a threat to Addie and Elena, his investments, Damon could consider Addie under Klaus' protection. The idea was very disturbing. Killing Alaric was a simple decision because Damon knew he had to protect Addie but that didn't make it easy. The only reason he could do it with his humanity still on was because of how much he loved her. Damon snapped Alaric's neck over and over until he triggered his dark side but no matter what he tried, he could not get him to reveal where the stake was. All Evil!Alaric would say was that he hid it where vampires would never get it.
Addie had a difficult time understanding and accepting what Damon had done. It required no thought on her part to forgive him, though; she was a slave of the horrific concept of love. It scared her to even think of how badly Damon would have to screw up for her not to forgive him. That didn't mean she had to be ok with his behavior. However, Addie found out that Klaus had pushed Damon to the edge. Damon wouldn't have made the decision to kill Alaric on his own. Damon wouldn't kill Alaric just to protect her. At least that was how Addie justified his actions to herself. Killing his best friend caused Damon pain and that made her livid.
Klaus had caused them, particularly Damon, a lot of unwarranted stress and suffering. If Klaus wasn't the maker of his bloodline, Addie wanted Damon to have a chance to get his revenge. Murdering Klaus wasn't exactly murdering an innocent. No longer was she hung up on whether or not Damon chose to be fair. It was perfectly acceptable for him to plan a sneak attack considering Klaus had stood by while his sister tortured Damon. But Klaus was a force to be reckoned with. If Damon tried to go after him, it would more than likely end up with Damon having his heart ripped out, which was not acceptable. Addie had found the White Oak stake in the portion of Lockwood tunnels warded against vampires. However, she wasn't going to tell Damon about it unless something significantly tipped the scales in his favors of surviving an encounter with Klaus.
At the 1920s decade dance Klaus dug his nail into the tender flesh of Addie's wrist until she bled and discovered that she wasn't on vervain. When he asked her under compulsion if she knew where the White Oak stake was, Addie had no issue lying because she was special. However, when Klaus compelled her to follow him to a cemetery, Addie did as he said and did her best to keep up the illusion that she could be compelled. But somehow he knew how Addie had built up a tolerance to compulsion through drinking copious amounts of Damon's blood to heal her from extensive injuries repeatedly. Addie staunchly denied this, stating that Klaus' ideas were preposterous.
The Original hybrid finally revealed that his plan for Addie involved unlocking her "full potential" and the first step was to make her resistant to compulsion. Because Addie refused to admit that she could already resist compulsion, Klaus decided to initiate the process to train her. Klaus easily shattered through Addie's sternum and ribcage as he reached into her chest and clutched her heart, puncturing her superior vena cava. Reluctantly she drank his blood to keep from dying.
Damon's world stop when Addie told him what Klaus had done to her; how he had nearly killed her. It didn't matter that Klaus had technically saved Addie. It didn't matter that Klaus had some future plans for her. It didn't matter that Klaus would have to send her to the edge of death and save her several times to build up a tolerance against compulsion. All that mattered was Klaus put Addie in agonizing pain and there was a 100% guarantee he would do it again. Damon's one job was to protect Addie and he had failed to do that again. He was not going to let her down again. He hadn't planned on using the White Oak stake he had found stashed under her mattress until he had figured out if Klaus had started his bloodline but that didn't matter anymore. Killing Klaus had been bumped up to his number one priority.
Damon could not try and take out Klaus in the reckless manners he had schemed before. When he went after Klaus, he had to make sure he killed him. There was no room for error this time. Klaus was no longer waiting on the sidelines; he had shown up to play and Addie's safety was at stake. Inspired by his protective, defensive, possessive nature, Damon had an epiphany. He and Stefan would attack Klaus and Bonnie would use the same spell that her mother had used to entomb Mikael. Once Klaus was dried up and as stiff as a board, Damon would stake him just to make sure no one woke him up.
Elena and Jeremy had wanted a funeral for Alaric, whose death Damon staged and blamed on Klaus. Everyone but Addie was at the funeral when Klaus arrived and demanded that Addie and Elena leave town with him at that exact moment since his mother had possessed his sister and was trying to kill him. Addie was inclined to offer Esther her assistance until Klaus informed her that he had turned Damon's bloodline and even offered to call the moral Elijah if Addie if she wanted further confirmation. Addie negotiated with Klaus to leave her sister behind for the time being and she left with him to protect Damon, Stefan, Tyler, and Caroline. Klaus didn't take Addie as far away as she had expected. It turned out that he was waiting for some boxes from Tyler.
After Alaric's funeral Damon, Stefan, and Elena had been approached by Elijah. Damon had been appalled that he'd had the nerve to ask for their assistance in stopping his mother once again. He'd been even more furious to find out that Elena and Stefan considered trusting Elijah after all the times he had betrayed them. It didn't matter that he had revealed that Klaus had started his and Stefan's bloodline and Esther was specifically after Klaus, meaning she was indirectly after them. Damon's proposed idea of desiccating Klaus and then dropping him into the ocean where his body was irretrievable was the best option, even if he had no intention of actually doing that. There was no guarantee someone wouldn't manage to get his body and wake him. Damon was going to kill Klaus even if it meant his life; Addie's life was too precious to risk her falling prey to Klaus.
Unfortunately, when Elijah revealed that Klaus had left town with Addie, Damon had no choice but to cooperate with everyone else's plan. They would help Elijah stop Esther and in return, Elijah would help them desiccate Klaus and the hybrid would not be revived with Addie or Elena's lifetime nor the lifetime of their children. Elijah's plan required that Stefan and Caroline stop Esther as she masqueraded as Rebekah while he and Damon stopped Klaus and rescued Addie.
When Tyler, Damon, and Elijah arrived, there was an exchange of words. Sensing trouble, Klaus ripped into Addie's chest for the second time. Damon managed to throw the hybrid off of her before he could grab ahold of her heart but she still crumpled to the floor, bleeding profusely. Damon had to fight every natural instinct to focus on desiccating Klaus before he saved Addie. When he got to her, he was surprised to see that she was already starting to heal, but not as fast as she should. It had to have been the trace of his blood in her system from the night before working. Still, he made her drink from him again so she would heal quicker.
Addie was furious with Damon for putting himself and everyone else in danger just to stop Esther and Klaus. He had let Bonnie kill Jeremy! And she had been so scared that Klaus was going to kill Damon. That night Addie decided pushing Damon away would hurt him worse than fighting with him since the last time they had talked about him taking his safety more seriously for her benefit had obviously made no impact. She hadn't realized he had been there to tell her goodbye until she woke up and found his daylight ring on the nightstand and found the White Oak stake under her mattress gone. In a panic she had gone after him to try to stop him from doing something stupid but she didn't know exactly where he had gone with Klaus' body. However, Elena did and so she agreed to drive her sister.
"Damon!" exclaimed Elena after he didn't respond for several long moments and stared at her sisters, his expression blank.
Damon scowled as the sound of his name pulled him from his thoughts. He didn't want to deal with Elena's hovering and Addie wasn't going to want to deal with it when she woke up. He wanted to sit by his girlfriend's and care for her without his brother or her sister interrupting them, just as he had done all day.
"If you heard her talk and heard me speak then you heard me try to wake her back up," he explained excruciatingly slowly.
"Why isn't she waking back?" huffed Elena, her hands on her hip and stomping her foot for emphasis.
Taken aback, Damon blinked several times. While Elena asking ridiculous questions he didn't have the answers to was nothing new, he had never noticed her to do it in such a demanding, pouty and Addie-like manner. The two sisters were such opposites in nearly everything it was striking to find a similarity. He wondered if Elena's transition was highlight a side of her personality she tried to suppress. Perhaps she would respond like her sister.
"I don't know," he sneered. "She literally sleeps through fire alarms."
Elena's lips turned down. When Stefan had arrived at the crash, Elena had still been alert. She had insisted that Stefan save her baby sister first. Addie had stopped moving, stopped fighting and Elena had feared the worse. Almost hesitant she said, "Stefan told me I was in and out of consciousness through the night."
Damon was oddly disappointed by her response. Addie would have given him a smartass remark about how he hadn't been louder than a fire alarm or made some mocking point about how he finally didn't know something.
His arms crossed in front of his chest in an unwelcoming manner; he wasn't going to encourage conversation. They'd already had this discussion twice. "Yes, that's generally what happens when a person transitions."
"Is that what is happening?"
Damon rolled his eyes dramatically and repeated articulately, "I don't know. She sleeps through fire alarms. She could be unconscious or she could be asleep. I don't know, Elena!"
Elena winced slightly at his volume; she wasn't sure if her improved hearing made him seem so much louder or if he was actually being louder. It was obvious that he was stressed. They all were. Nobody knew what to expect when Addie finally woke up.
Addie's heart had stopped but paramedics had been able to restart it after almost fifteen minutes. Neither Stefan nor Damon knew if that meant she had technically died by vampire qualifications. Damon hadn't been particularly happy to discover that she had been admitted to the hospital but she had been hooked up to an EEG and it was reassuring to know there was normal brain activity going on. Other than being unconscious, Meredith Fell said Addie was medically clear and that she should wake up. No one had argued the raging vampire when he decided that he was taking her home.
If Addie was in transition, she should have been in and out of it all night until mid-morning like Elena had been but it had been nearly 24 hours before Addie had woken up for the first time, and that was only for a second. However, Damon had no idea what restarting her heart so soon after dying would do to the transition process. At least fifteen minutes of oxygen deprivation should have caused brain damage and the fact that she didn't have any suggested she was in transitions. It seemed highly unlikely that she would die, be revived and then his blood that was in her system would heal dead brain cells. There were limitations to vampire blood.
But he and Stefan only knew of people who were cardiopulmonary dead, determined by irreversible cessation of heartbeat and breathing, turning into vampires. Addie had been dead but she hadn't been dead. It was possible that his blood had healed dead brain cells if her heart had been restarted. She could have been unconscious for so long because her body was recovering from having to have her heart restarted.
There was no clear answer on whether or not Addie was transitioning.
"What do we do?" Elena whispered helplessly.
Damon noted with mild irritation that Addie never would have asked something something so obvious. Elena did a lot of things Addie would never do.
*Flashback two hours, Damon's bedroom*
Elena's fingers twisted nervously. "In your opinion, do you think she's in transition?"
Damon ran an anxious hand through his hair. He sighed, "I hope not."
"Why not? You don't want to spend forever with her?" Elena wonder. She didn't know why she felt guilty for asking.
"Of course I do but that's not what she wants. Addie would never go through with the transition."
Elena knew he had a point. The idea of her sister deciding not to turn was too depressing to consider. She turned away from Addie and focused on Damon. "I was surprised when it was Klaus and not you who came and rescued us from Pastor Young's farm today."
Esther had outed the vampires and hybrids of town to the Council when she had possessed Rebekah and they had quickly moved into action. They had actually stormed the boardinghouse in search of Damon but he had quickly hid himself and Addie in his closet. He doubted she would ever complain his wardrobe was too extensive ever again.
"I was willing to sacrifice my brother to kill Klaus. Did you really expect me to leave Addie unprotected to save him?" Damon remarked dryly.
"Not necessarily. It wasn't just him," she said in a small voice.
He didn't notice how his grip on the glass of scotch tightened slightly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"There is one perk to transitioning," Elena admitted as she stood up and moved closer to him. "I remember everything you compelled me to forget. I met you before I met Stefan. You were a stranger that told me you wanted me to get everything from life. Damon, why didn't you tell me?"
"Would it have made a difference?" he asked softly. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. Despite the initial pain, things had turned out well for him. He had gotten the dream: a love that consumed him, passion and even a little danger. He had gotten more; he had gotten a girl that felt the same consuming love and passion. Addie's dream probably involved a lot less danger, though
"You didn't make Addie forget meeting you," Elena pointed out, dodging his question.
Damon had never been able to provide a satisfactory answer as to why he hadn't made Addie forget meeting him that pouring night on the road. He had always made questionable decisions when it came to Addie, perhaps because she was always such a riddle to him. He had never met someone who had given him permission to kill them. "No, I didn't."
"Even way back then it was her," Elena said a little sadly. "Did you ever really have feelings for me or was it always her?"
He was confused at the way his heart seemed to skip a beat. Hindsight was 20/20. What he had felt for her had been lust and a possessive desire stemming from his obsession with Katherine. "I wanted you but I have only ever loved her."
"And now it will always be her?"
Damon hesitated, feeling slightly guilty about the trace of disappointment in her voice. He couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips as he looked at his Ads, though. "Always."
"We do nothing. I'm going to stay because I'm going to be here when Addie wakes up. Me. Her boyfriend. You are going to go somewhere that is not here because you are not someone your sister is going to want to see when she wakes up," Damon stressed, deciding to take a direct approach.
Elena balked, "Excuse me?"
"You and Addie might die for each other but you do not like each other. She blames you for, well, everyone being dead. You think she's a dramatic, know-it-all brat and want to get with me - "
"I do not-"
Damon continued to talk over her, "You two can't be in the same room without fighting! Your emotions are heightened from turning. If she's turning, Addie's emotions are going to be jacked up. If she's not, their still probably going to be jacked up just because she's Addie. I don't know how you two ended up in a car together but I don't predict a reunion of hugs and giggles."
Elena scratched uncomfortably at the back of her neck. After Stefan had called to say Damon had staked Klaus, Elena had turned the car around to head back to Stefan to say goodbye to him. Still hysterical from discovering Damon's suicide mission and in a full blown panic attack upon learning he had acted on it, Addie had demanded Elena keep driving Addie's car towards Damon, where they had agreed to go. They had crashed because they were fighting over the steering wheel. Elena hated to admit it but Damon was probably right.
"You're probably right," Elena murmured. "I'll go home if you promise to let me know the second you learn anything. We might not get along but I'm worried about her. If she's… transitioning would… Jeremy and I deserve to talk to her before she makes any decisions. If she's fine, I'd rather not be up all night worrying."
That was a lot easier than he had expected. Nobody deserved to talk to Addie before she made a decision if she was in transition. Talking to his brother was what led Damon to turn. Addie was the only reason after 147 years that he was not inflicting misery on Stefan for that and the Katherine situation. He'd say his Ads was his reward after all that time but he couldn't think of anything he had done to deserve her.
"Take Stefan with you. I'll let you know when I know something solid, ok? She might go in and out of sleep without transitioning."
"OK," Elena nodded. Addie was safe left with Damon. He truly loved her and would put her first. She could trust Damon.
Again the spicy, musky aroma of cloves, ginger, and sandalwood was the first thing Addie registered. It was stronger this time. The silky, satin material that caressed the bare skin of her arms and legs was all too familiar as well. She twisted from her back to her side, enjoying the softness of Damon's mattress.
A cool, strong had fell against her cheek and from somewhere in the distance she heard her name being called. Addie gave a soft moan of acknowledgement and buried her face further into the pillow. The sound turned into a whimper as closed eyes burned at the warning sign of tears. The pillow had smelled like her cucumber melon shampoo and conditioner. It was her pillow in Damon's bed. She quickly turned her face back into the touch and the scent of his cologne came back. Reminders of him were a comfort.
Addie knew what happen. She knew why they had crashed. Damon had staked Klaus, subsequently killing himself.
The idea was too painful for her mind to handle and everything faded away again.
Damon laid on stretched out next to Addie, his fingers playing with the hair she had dyed burgundy. Her hair had been its natural shade of chocolate brown, dark purple, dark blue, and the deep reddish, brown since he had met her. She had a habit of changing the color whenever got too bored. He liked that she always kept it so long that it almost reached the middle of her back. He enjoyed toying with it and it had the bonus benefit of helping with her anxiety.
Addie had rolled onto her side about two hours after she had asked about Elena. He had tried to wake her with no success. An hour after that she had begun kicking and swatting at the blankets. He had called out to her and tried to shake her awake several times when silent tears had started to roll down her cheeks but it hadn't worked.
After her summer with Klaus, Rebekah, and Ripper Stefan, Addie had been plagued with flashbacks of what she had witnessed during sleep. She never discussed with Damon what she had seen but before she had left, the sight of a blood bag nearly made her vomit and when she had returned, she had acted unfazed by the bodies Stefan had left strewn through the house one morning. In fact, the only gory thing that still bothered her was the sight of blood on Damon. He couldn't even imagine what she had gone through to turn her so numb.
Her thrashing calmed when he slipped into bed and pulled her into his side. The fact that he could comfort her with such a small thing even when she was so sound asleep brought a small smile to his lips. They both used Addie's excuse that he kept the nightmares away to justify spending every night together but Damon had always wondered how true that was.
Addie sighed softly as his scent invaded overwhelmed her again. Her silky, plush pillow had been replaced with something firm and cotton covered. A steady thumping beat against her cheek and echoed loudly under her ear. Next to her faces her fingers twisted into the fabric; it was soft and high quality.
"Ads," murmured a soft, tired voice. Her makeshift pillow rumbled with the sound. "Love, wake up."
"No," she mumbled resolutely. Her mind had created a world where she was curled up against Damon and she wanted to relish in it as long as possible. Waking up meant not only losing Damon but facing something worse. A person only woke up in a hospital bed after the wreck she's been in. She obviously wasn't in one. Waking up meant facing the afterlife she hadn't believed in due to a lack of evidence. Most religions she could think of considered you screwed if you died without believing in that particular religion. Addie wasn't particularly keen to figure out what awaited her.
Damon jabbed a single finger into the ticklish spot on her side, making her squirm and press herself harder against him. A wave of relief rushed through him at her responsiveness. He mimicked her defiant tone and insisted, "Yes."
"You're not real. I don't have to listen to you," Addie pointed out as she intertwined a leg with Damon's. His jeans were stiff and scratchy.
His brows furrowed in confusion. "Despite the fact I am real, I don't see how the two correlate. You never listen to me."
Addie groaned in annoyance. "You're dead. I'm dead. Technically, you're a figment of my imagination. That makes you an extension of me. And I listen to me, like, 98% of the time so your argument doesn't even make any sense."
It was a mixture of weariness, joy, and love that caused his laughter. Only Addie would assume she was dead and the first thing she would do would be to argue with herself. He couldn't resists pointing out her logical fallacy.
"You just said you don't have to listen to me, though," snickered Damon. He'd point out they were both alive soon enough.
Making a sound of frustration, Addie did exactly what she would have done to real Damon and rolled away from him, turning onto her other side. She didn't like it when her subconscious tried to argue with her. It took her a minute to figure out a counter argument. Smartly she retorted, "Uh, duh. There's a 2% of the time when I don't listen to myself."
"Well, who do you listen to then?" he wondered, playfully tugging at a lock of her hair.
"That's usually when I listen to the real you, the dead you," she whispered, her voice cracking.
Damon put a hand on her shoulder and declared firmly, "I'm not dead, Ads. Neither are you."
"Klaus started your bloodline and you staked him. My car went off Wickery Bridge and I drowned. I remember drowning. We're both dead," Addie reasoned. Tears leaked out of her eyes, screwed tightly shut.
"Klaus isn't dead," Damon grumbled sulkily. "Force it wasn't you who screwed up my plan. Bonnie did some witchy-woo and put Klaus in Tyler's body so nothing happened when I staked Klaus' body. And Stefan proved to be useful for once and pulled you out of the river."
Her lips pursed as she allowed the hand tugging at her shoulder to pull her onto her back. She supposed it was possible that Klaus' soul had been transported; he had possessed Alaric when he first came to town. And if Bonnie believed that Klaus had started Damon's bloodline it made sense that she would want to protect Klaus since Damon's blood had turned her mother. But nobody had known Damon was going to kill Klaus. Addie was the only one who had known where the last White Oak stake had been. At least she had been until Damon stole it from under her mattress. By that logic…
"It doesn't make sense that Bonnie would put Klaus in Tyler's body. Besides, the bloodline is a physical thing, not psychological. When you - when Damon," she corrected, as she was having a conversation with herself, "staked Klaus, his body should have been destroyed, like Finn's, meaning Damon still died even if Klaus' soul or spirit or whatever lived on."
Addie was far too logical for her own good. While Elena had figured out Stefan was a vampire, Addie concluded her sister was crazy and explained Damon's superior strength through steroid use, a medical experiment allowed for his super healing and he had some genetic mutation, LRP5, that gave him bones so strong that he could jump off buildings without breaking anything. It took a little compulsion to get her to accept the truth.
He didn't know what it would take to get her to accept that the supernatural was sometimes beyond reasonable explanation. Telling her over and over had obviously had no impact.
"You know, if I could explain the female brain and why you ladies do what you do, I'd market my skills and be a very rich man. Also -"
"You are a very rich man," Addie pointed out. "Well, Damon is."
He rolled his eyes. She was still convinced he was dead, which likely meant she still believed she was dead.
Cool, strong hands cradled her face with a surprising tenderness. It felt like a small jolt of electricity hit her every nerve as soft lips ghosted against hers. Addie gasped softly and Damon kissed her with more certainty. He pulled away gradually.
"That was real, love. Very, very real."
Addie didn't say anything but her hand came up to cover the one resting on her cheek. Her fingers fell perfectly in the spaces between his. The touch felt real. The weight of his head and the silk strands of his hair resting against her forehead felt real. The kiss had definitely felt real.
He could read the doubt and fear on her face; fine lines forming in her forehead and around her eyes, which she still hadn't opened.
"Ads, please, look at me. Look at me and you will see that this is all real," Damon pleaded.
One sapphire blue eye cracked open just enough to find a pair of light eyes with large pupils staring back at her. The room was dim but the sharp, strong features made for a face Addie would recognize anywhere. Her hand trembled as she touched his cheek, a light dusting of facial hair prickling her palm.
He eyes watered and voice shook as she breathed in disbelief, "Damon?"
He nodded and pressed his face into her touch. "My Ads, my love."
"This is - all of this is real? You're really real?" Addie questioned, struggling to comprehend how it was all possible. "We're both dead and in some sort of afterlife together?"
Damon let out a sharp, single chuckle as he propped himself up on his elbow. "Addie, we're not dead."
"I drowned," she exclaimed, her voice much shriller than she meant. The prospect of death terrified.
"Yes, you did," he confirmed calmly. "Stefan pulled you out of the water and you received emergency medical attention."
"If that were true I'd be waking up in a hospital. I already figured this one out!" she countered quickly.
"You were in the hospital. I figured you be more comfortable waking up here," Damon explained defensively. Addie continued to stare at him dubiously. "Do you want to hear you're dead?"
"Well, no but -"
He held up a hand and shook his head to stop her. "There is no but. You're alive and you want to be alive and that's all that matters." He still wasn't sure if she was in transition. If she was, he wouldn't push her one way or the other but there was nothing wrong with emphasizing that she wanted to be alive. "How do you feel?"
Immediately she answered, "Confused. You said Stefan pulled me out?"
"Yeah." That wasn't what he had meant. That didn't help him.
"How'd he even know we crashed? I mean, he knew we were headed to Lynchburg to stop you."
Addie rubbed at her head as a headache started. The sudden hastening of her heart was deafening as she could hear the blood pounding in her ears. She couldn't even begin to think about Damon rationally. He was supposed to be deader than his typical vampire state but apparently wasn't. Her emotions were a mess but primarily she made out a blinding rage.
That was something Damon hadn't even considered. He hadn't cared how Stefan ended up rescuing his girlfriend; he'd been too focused on if Addie had been saved in time to keep her from transitioning.
"I don't know. Does it really matter?"
"I should be dead! Excuse me for being a little curious as to why I'm not!" Addie tersely snapped back at him.
A thick eyebrow arched as Damon considered her reaction. It was possible her emotions were frazzled because she was transitioning. However, Addie was naturally prone to mood swings that could get quite intense.
"You can call Stefan and ask him how he knew," Damon offered innocently as he reached for his cell phone on the nightstand.
Addie made a strangled noise of frustration. Sometimes she swore Damon did things just to irk her. "I don't want to talk to Stefan. I don't care how he knew. I care how I'm not dead! I breathed in that water. I know I drowned."
Damon dragged a tired hand over his face. Addie was either laser focused or had the attention span of a fly. Unfortunately she always seemed to operate on whichever was least convenient for him. He just wanted to distract her long enough to figure out if she was transitioning or not. There was no reason to cause her to panic if she wasn't.
"I already told you that you received emergency medical attention. Why does the how matter so much? The important thing is that you're not dead."
Addie swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. Both hands anxiously dived into her hair, pushing it out of her face. The how mattered because…. The how was so important because….
Damon cringed when he heard Addie dry heaving in the bathroom. Transitioning could be hell on the mind and the body could easily be overstimulated and that could cause pain but he didn't recall anyone ever becoming physically sick.
Addie felt her hair being pulled back as she leaned over the sink, her throat burning as she coughed up clear stomach acid. Her vision was blurry with tears of pain as she squinted into the mirror and she saw Damon next to her, a look of concern etched into his face. When she stopped coughing long enough to catch her breath her death grip on the marble countertop loosened so she could push at Damon's stomach. Addie didn't want to be near him and it had nothing to do with him seeing her sick. She was livid and he was the cause.
"What's wrong?" asked Damon, his concern turning into worry.
"I just pushed you away because I want you to, well, I'm going to give you three guess," she replied snidely when she was certain she wasn't going to cough up a lung.
Damon was surprised at the frosty glare he met in the mirror as Addie reached for her toothbrush. She wet the brush, covered it with a generous amount of cinnamon flavored toothpaste and wet it again. Now, he genuinely had no idea where that outburst of attitude may have come from. It was so unexpected that he was inclined to tilt the needle towards "transitioning" on the mental gauge he created that measured how likely it was that she was.
"Well," he replied, matching her tone, "you can want me to go, you could even be a big girl and use your words to tell me to go away but, well, I'm going to give you three guess as to what I'm not going to do."
It was difficult to scowl with around a toothbrush and a mouth full of foam but Addie managed to do it as she watched Damon pick up his own brush and mint toothpaste. Inhaling deeply, she shut her eyes and did her best to focus on the calming task. She knew her process of brushing her tongue and then dividing her mouth into six region, further dividing each region into three areas and then brushing each area in a circular motion on a slight angle from left to right eleven times was more than a little obsessive but it gave her anxiety if she brushed her teeth any other way. If she did a section out of order or messed up on counting, her teeth didn't feel clean unless she brushed them again.
Knowing Addie took nearly five minutes to brush his teeth, Damon stalled on brushing his own. He wasn't entirely being obnoxious simply because she had started; he was also watching her intently in the mirror for any signs of discomfort. Gum sensitivity would be 100% proof that her teeth were adjusting to become fangs.
When Addie finished she began to nervously pace around Damon's room. Leaning against the frame of the bathroom he asked her, "What are you thinking?"
"I asked about Elena?" she replied, looking to him for confirmation. She remembered being told Elena was ok.
Damon shoved his hands into his pocket. He really hadn't thought out the whole situation of being the only one around when Addie woke up. It left him being the bearer of all the bad news.
He nodded and cleared his throat, "Yeah. The wreck was over a day ago. You've kind of been in and out of it for several hours. The first time you kind of came to the only thing you did was ask about Elena. I told you she was fine and you went back to sleep."
"Stefan pulled her out, too," Addie surmised. "It's amazing he got there in time to save both of us."
"That's, um, not exactly what happened," Damon mumbled, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.
Suddenly light headed she grabbed one of the four-posters for support. "What do you mean? You said Elena was fine."
Air was suddenly thinner and breathing was harder. Her legs felt as stable as cooked spaghetti. If Elena was fine then that meant she wasn't. That meant she had...had…
Damon caught Addie bridal style just as her knees buckled. Sitting on his bed, Damon held her in his lap. Her anxiety had been better recently but it seemed to be rearing an ugly head tonight. It could have been the trauma from the accident or transitioning that had aggravated it. More uncertainty.
"Exhale," he instructed gently when he realized Addie was holding her breath. She did. After a second he reminded her, "Inhale."
Addie rested her head against Damon's shoulder as he continued to repeat those two words. Her panic attacks were always spurred by a feeling like she was going to die because she couldn't breathe. One thing she loved about Damon was that he knew exactly how to ease her anxiety. It was the little things he did that helped too, like the way he ran his fingers through her hair in time with her breathing and matched his own to hers.
"You wanna tell me what that was about?" he murmured softly once she had gone back to breathing on her own and they shared a few minutes of silence.
"No," mumbled Addie as she continued to finger the hem of his black tee. "What were you saying?"
"Can we talk about that later?" He'd just managed to calm her down; he didn't want her freaking out again.
"No. What happened, Damon?"
"When Elena fell off the ladder painting Alaric's room and Jeremy took her to the hospital, there was more wrong than low blood sugar. She hit her head, causing internal bleeding. Meredith Fell used my blood that she jacked to heal Elena," Damon explained slowly. His arm around her waist had stopped rising and falling. He gently kissed her forehead and reminded, "Breathe."
A chill so bad ran through Addie that she shuddered. Her blood had turned to ice. Selfishly she had feared for herself; she hadn't known to worry about her sister.
Horrified, she whispered, "When we wrecked Elena had vampire blood in her system. Stefan didn't get to her in time, did he?"
Stefan did reach Elena in time but she had insist that he save her sister first. By the time he went back for Elena it was too late. Damon didn't understand why Stefan didn't just pull them both up at once but whatever.
"Addie, I'm so sorry." Elena could tell Addie the finer details.
"She, but, you said she's fine. If the wreck occurred over 24 hours ago…." Addie swallowed past the large lump in her throat and looked up at Damon with wide eyes, hoping he would tell her she was wrong.
"I'm sorry," repeated Damon. His thumbs quickly brushed her cheeks as a steady stream of tears began to fall.
Addie shook her head in denial and choked, "That's not - that's not fair. That wasn't supposed to happen. I never meant for that to happen!"
"Nobody meant for it to happen, Ads. It was an accident."
"No! You don't understand," she exclaimed hysterically. "I caused the wreck. This is all my fault. Elena being a vampire is all my fault."
Damon held onto her tighter as he realized her breathing was growing short and shallow. "Deep breaths, Addison. What are you talking about?"
"Elena and I were fighting and I grabbed the steering wheel!"
Damon hadn't known how Addie and Elena ended up in a car together but he was only slightly surprised to learn that it had resulted in a fatal crash because they ended up fighting. However, when Addie put it that way it did kind of sound like her fault.
"I'm sure she provoked you into doing something so...reckless," Damon attempted to comfort. He knew Addie would call him out if he said it wasn't her fault.
That was true; Elena had refused to keep driving to Damon so Addie could say goodbye to him. She had been selfish and insisted on driving back to Stefan. Addie hadn't grabbed the steering wheel hard enough to direct them off the bridge; that had happened because Elena had insisted on fighting her for control. Still, Addie had grabbed the steering wheel and that had ultimately led to a wreck.
"None of that matters! I have to go. I have to apologize," she insisted, pushing at his chest.
Damon took hold of Addie hands as sobs wracked her body. "Listen to me, Ads. This is not your fault. Elena does not blame you. I've talked to her. She's been here to see you. Elena was worried about you. She did not blame you. If she did not blame you, there's no need for you to feel guilty."
Addie wasn't convinced it worked like that. It was entirely plausible that Elena blamed her and was just waiting for her to wake up to rip into her. Elena could have been genuinely concerned about her and pushing her anger aside or she had been putting on a front to impress Damon. Elena surely blamed her; she blamed herself.
"Elena never wanted to be a vampire and now she is. Even if she doesn't blame me I have to talk to her and make sure she's ok," maintained Addie, her sobs slowly subsiding.
"It's the middle of the night. Wait until the morning the morning to call her," suggested Damon. He was careful not to say that Elena was probably asleep when he knew she was likely awake waiting for an update on Addie. Addie was able to tell when he was lying. If she talked to Elena, her sister would undoubtedly ask if she was in transition, sending Addie into shock.
Addie pushed away from Damon and ran her fingers through her hair. He was right; waiting was the rational thing to do. She could focus on her guilt later. There were still pressing matters she had to attend to.
Her eyes narrowed angrily and she crossed her arms in an unwelcoming manner as she leaned against the wall and stared at Damon. Her voice was as sharp as a knife and as cold as ice as she accused, "You tried to destroy Klaus. You stole the White Oak stake and went behind my back."
He had been hoping she wouldn't pick up on that fact. Damon nodded in silent confirmation.
Addie glanced down at her thumb a the loose fitting ring that rested there, a beautiful blue lapis lazuli stone covered with an ornate, silver 'D'. She was surprised that it hadn't fallen off in the crash or that Damon hadn't taken it back.
"You knew he started your bloodline. You knew killing him would kill you," she accused. "There's no other reason you would have left this," she held up her hand to show the daylight ring, "with me."
He nodded again. "I knew."
"What the hell is wrong with you? What were you possibly thinking?" Addie demanded furiously, surprised at the volume of her own voice.
"What was I thinking?" Damon gaped defensively. "Did you miss the part where Klaus ripped into your chest twice?"
"No, no, I was there for that," she retorted smartly. "I was also there for the part where you guys turned him into beef jerky! You beat Klaus. Why the hell did you need to stake him?"
He looked at her incredulously. Was she serious? "Anyone could have revived him with just a few drops of blood and he would have gone right back to hurting you! I didn't beat him. I temporarily neutralized him."
"Bullcrap! You made a deal with Elijah that Klaus wouldn't be woken during Elena's or my lifetime or the lifetime of any children we may have. You were even going to have Bonnie spell the coffin shut for 100 years. I was perfectly safe! Your arrangements guaranteed that," she bit back rapidly. "Admit why you really staked him!"
Damon's brow furrowed in confusion. He had no idea what she was talking about. He had staked Klaus to protect her. Nearly everything he had done for the past eight months had been to protect her. Addie was his world, his life.
"Those arrangements were no guarantee," he argued back. "Bonnie could spell the coffin shut but I think by now we've learned the lesson that wherever there is magic, there is a loophole. Besides, Bonnie betrayed us and put Klaus' soul in Tyler so he wouldn't be trapped in the coffin," he pointed out opposingly.
The spell Bonnie had used to seal the coffin would activate once an Original touched it, creating a bloodlink so that only someone related to Klaus could open it in 100 years. Damon had never intend to hand over Klaus, though. It was all a charade to fool everyone into a false sense of security.
Addie inhaled and exhaled loudly and sharply. Bonnie had to have had her reasons for doing what she did. Seething, she hissed through gritted teeth, "Bonnie is our friend. She is my best friend! We trust her! You couldn't have possibly have known she was going to do that. I know you, Damon. You might not always trust Bonnie but you trust me. And I trust her. You wouldn't have staked Klaus because you believed there was the possibility that Bonnie wouldn't hold up her end. You cannot justify your behavior based on Bonnie's actions!"
"There's still always a loophole in magic," countered Damon, finding the point that Addie hadn't argued.
Fighting with Addie was like trying to navigate a hedge maze. He could turn left with a point and she would shut him down with a solid counter argument of her own. He would make progress for awhile, feeling like he might actually get somewhere only to find out that she had been thinking up the perfect way to block him and he would have to backtrack to where he started. His only clue to winning a dispute with Addie was to look over the walls of the maze and try and see what avenues she hadn't already blocked.
Addie rolled her eyes in annoyance. Damon always had to be so nit-picky and would try to find and find any argument he could, particularly when he knew he was wrong. "And a loophole would be a problem we would deal with together if the problem ever arose. You can't just create solutions for imaginary things! Technically, there's always the chance that I might not get into any college but do you see me trying to hack computer systems to change admittance decisions or asking you to compel my way in?"
Pinching the bridge of his nose Damon exhaled loudly. He had no idea how Klaus, someone who repeatedly attacked her and wanted to use her for some unknown reason, related to something as trivial as getting into college. Addie was only a junior and had a year before she needed to worry about college applications. The idea that she wouldn't get in was laughable, though. Addie was one of those people whose intelligence was so great it caused them to have abnormal social interactions. In her mind there was some logical path between this argument and the possible problem she presented but Damon couldn't follow it. Sometimes trying to make sense of Addie's sense just led to non-sense. For the most part, he had stopped trying to understand the leaps in topics.
Damon decided to focus on the part of what she said that even seemed relevant and yelled back, "How are we supposed to face any problem together when, in 14 years, you're going to be ripped from my life despite the fact that you're going to live another fifty or sixty years after that? Tell me how that works!"
Desperate for a relationship with Addie, Damon had agreed to enter a terminally fated one. It would end but he'd rather have a defined period of bliss with her to remember for eternity than never have a chance to be with her.
Addie had feared there would come a point when he would start hinting at spending forever with him and she would have to consider leaving him because she knew she'd never want to be a vampire. At the time Damon believed that time would come if they were in a regular relationship. However, he wasn't completely, utterly, hopelessly in love with her at the time. He knew now he would never pressure her into choosing a lifestyle she despised.
Despite the new insight into himself, Damon had never proposed lifting the time limit on their relationship because Addie had delivered a devastating blow to him when she determined the length of time. Even though she referred to them as 'money munch parasites' Addie enjoyed children but detested the idea of having her own. She also didn't believe in marriage as it was an arcane institute of social construct. However, they had to end their relationship when she turned thirty because she might possibly change her mind on having kids and if she did she needed two years to find a potential husband (because marriage was suddenly a requirement), two years of dating him, a year of engagement and then a pregnancy at 35. Apparently becoming pregnant any later would increase risk for the baby and her biological clock wouldn't necessarily be on her side.
Kids and a husband were something Addie insisted she didn't want but she was firm on the decision that she needed it to be an option. Damon could give Addie all his love, his protection, and anything money could buy but the one thing he couldn't give her was the family she may want and so he never mentioned amending the time restraint. He would settle for having Addie as long as she would have him; there was no guarantee she wouldn't end things before reaching thirty.
Addie bit her lip as she struggled to find a response. She definitely wanted to talk about the dynamics of their relationships but not about the timer they had set. Plus, this was her argument; she wasn't about to let Damon turn it around when he had been the one to screw up.
"And you know how we would find out about a loophole?" Damon continued when he saw that he had finally stumped her. "When Klaus attacks you again! And at that point it might be too late for me to save you. I couldn't risk that, Ads."
"Klaus' goal isn't to kil-"
"If you say his goal isn't to kill you I'm going to scream," threatened Damon.
Addie snorted derisively, "Is that supposed to scare me?"
"No but it's a really annoying sound."
"I mean, the sound of your voice is annoying and I put up with that non-stop so I'm pretty sure I can handle you screaming," she replied non-pulsed. Damon's lips tugged into a slight, innocent smile. Addie pursed her own to stop the corners from twitching upward. Sternly Addie reprimanded, "I'm really pissed off at you."
"I get that," he said. "I don't get why but I'd have to be pretty dense to not get that you're mad."
"You're pretty dense for not understanding why!" she snapped. "You went on a suicide mission!"
"To protect you!"
"This wasn't about me!" Addie exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration. "Screw some magic loophole! You still had a deal that the Klaus would not be woken while I was alive."
Damon's sky blue eyes bulged out of his head as he gaped at her, "And you expected me to trust those two-faced Original bastards when all they've done is betray us?"
That was, perhaps, an argument she hadn't entirely thought out. Damon had serious trust issues and valid reasons not to trust the Originals. Addie might have been able to tell if Elijah was telling the truth and being sincere because of her special ability but Damon couldn't. A dark, foggy sensation would come over Addie when a she could detect when a vampire was trying to fool or deceive her, including if they were trying to hide her identity. According to Klaus, this was one of the defense mechanism she was born with to protect her in case Jeremy was "activated" and attracted vampires into her life. Addie was also able to resist compulsion, thanks to Damon's help, and if any vampire tried to drink her blood, it would burn and choke them. Damon was the exception to this; when Addie became capable of resisting compulsion, he became capable of drinking her blood. There was no clear explanation as to why that was.
Addie tried a different approach. "Realistically, what were the chances that Klaus was going to revived and attack me?"
"Greater than I was willing to risk," he answered without thought.
"Oh, my god. You know the chances were slim!"
"Obviously not because he's still walking about," Damon retorted.
Tired of beating around the bush Addie accused, "Damon, you did this because you put your damn obsession with getting revenge on Klaus before me!"
"What?" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Addie, that's insane. I did this to protect you." She huffed and rolled her eyes. He gently grabbed her upper arms as he stood directly in front of her. "Ads, you can tell if I'm lying and I'm not. I just wanted to protect you. You are my once in a lifetime. You are my everything. There is no happily ever after without you. Klaus hurt you and he was going to keep hurting you. I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let there exist any chance of someone hurting you."
There was nothing to suggest that Damon was lying. Addie shook her head tiredly; she couldn't believe they had to have the same discussion for the 100th times.
"If you killed Klaus, you would have saved me from a slight risk of physical pain but you would have stuck me in an emotional hell," Addie declared as she pushed beyond her comfort zone and met his eyes to emphasize her point. "Damon, you can't stand the idea of me hurting. How do you expect me to bear you dying? I'm far more afraid of losing you than anything Klaus may do to me."
Damon opened his mouth but lost for words he closed it again. He shook his head helplessly. The only thing he could say was that he had done it to protect her. Obviously that hadn't been a very good reason.
Addie gave him a small, reassuring smile as her finger flitted through his soft, raven locks. Rather than perfectly styled like usual, Damon's hair was jutted out in several directions, suggesting he had anxiously been tugging at it. She knew it was a habit he hated that he's picked up from watching her.
"I understand how badly you want to protect me because I want to do the same for you but we have to learn where to draw the line," she said, her tone gentler than before.
His eyes slipped close as she played with his hair hypnotically. He hummed thoughtfully, "So, we agree on you not putting yourself in danger and making deals with Klaus to save me when his lunatic sister holds me hostage."
"No," Addie replied curtly. "Klaus wasn't trying to kill or torture me, which Rebekah was doing to you. I wasn't really putting myself in danger. You just get all alpha male any time I go near Klaus."
"Since the guy keeps ripping into your chest and plans to continue to, I have every right to go alpha male," scowled Damon, immediately missing the feeling of her fingers in his hair.
Her face scrunched up as if she were smelling rotten eggs. She hated when Damon was right. "In my defense, he really was just trying to make a business deal then. Now that Klaus is trying to hurt me, you do have the right to be a little more protective. I'll keep my distance if it helps you keep your sanity."
"It will."
"However you have to help me keep my sanity by not running off on anymore suicide missions," bargained Addie.
"I was pro-"
"If you say you were doing it to protect me I'm going to scream," she interrupted, mocking his words from earlier.
Damon pursed his lips in mock annoyance at the impish grin she gave him. He loved her but she could be difficult. He sighed in exasperation, gently cupping her cheek. Earnestly he asked, "What do I get to do to protect you? I can't live with the idea of you hurting, or worse, and knowing I could have protected you."
"Remember that really short period of time where we were both open and honest and ran our plans by each other?" she quipped with a hint of sarcasm.
He groaned slightly. "That was, like, a really long week. How am I supposed to run my ideas on how to protect you if Klaus has you captured?"
Addie rolled her eyes. Damon always had to be so dramatic. "In that case, if there is a chance you're going to die, don't attempt a rescue."
"Ok," Damon nodded simply.
"You don't mean that."
He shook his head. "No. I'm going to do whatever I can to protect you."
"Damon, it's not worth it if I lose you. You agreed to take your safety more seriously before but I need you to actually mean it this time. I could not live with the guilt of knowing you lost your life for me."
The single lamp lighting made it just bright enough that the emotion and sincerity was clear in Addie's eyes. It was obvious how concerned she was for him, how much she worried, how much she loved him. Things were so much simpler with Katherine, and even Elena and Stefan. They would never as him the heart wrenching decision to put his life before their own because the thought of living without him wouldn't kill them.
Resolving to be a better man, a better boyfriend, Damon leaned in close and whispered the most precious words he had ever heard, "Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bear it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved."
Addie's heart fluttered in her chest as she swallowed past the lump of emotion in her throat. Too afraid to say three simple words, she had found William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 to confess to Damon her feelings. She had never believed in the concept of unconditional romantic love before as there seemed to be too many logical complications that could make someone stop feeling that way. Damon had managed to convince her otherwise. Damon proved that true love was real.
Pushing herself onto her toes Addie whispered against his lips, "I love you, too."
Damon grinned in satisfaction as her mouth angled against his. Again, Damon's simple kissed shocked Addie to her core. Kissing him was always magical but tonight everything felt amplified. The hair that curled at the base of his neck felt silkier as her fingers twisted into it. His lips were as soft and velvety as rose petals. Eagerly her mouth parted under his. Addie stiffened and clamped her mouth shut as she was struck with another bout of nausea.
Sensing something wrong Damon quickly pulled back. In the dim light he could see Addie's brows furrowed and her lips pursed into a thin line. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Addie murmured as she moved from between Damon and the wall. Still disgusted by the overwhelming taste of mint, she went to the top drawer of Damon's dresser and pulled out a crystal decanter and a tumbler. She poured a small amount of the caramel colored liquid into the glass. Coughing and spluttering, she choked on the drink. It tasted like rubber bands that had been dipped in an ashtray. Baffled, she held up the empty glass and demanded, "What is this?"
That wasn't a good sign. At only $160 a bottle Johnnie Walker Blue definitely wasn't one of Damon's finest scotches but Addie had never choked on it before. Transitioning screwed with tastebuds. He took the tumbler a measured out two fingers for himself. Perhaps it had gone bad in the few hours he hadn't tried it. A peaty, nutty and slightly bitter flavor coated his tongue, exactly as he expected.
"It perfectly good - well, passable scotch," Damon shrugged, setting the tumbler on his dresser.
"It taste like swill," grumbled Addie, sullenly crossing her arms in front of her.
His thumb brushed over her lower lip as it jutted out slightly. Again he asked, "What's wrong? You're pouting."
A great part of her wanted to finally blurt out the truth and tell him how revolting she found the flavor of mint. That wasn't entirely true, though. Mint was entirely tolerable, even delectable, when she was kissing him. Usually. And while she definitely preferred bourbon to scotch, Damon typically had excellent taste in liquors.
"I don't know," she sighed in frustration. "I guess I'm just still feeling guilty about Elena."
Damon frowned. "I don't suppose you'd just, you know, stop feeling guilty if I told you to stop?"
Addie shook her head slowly. "No. I don't think guilt works like that."
"I suppose not." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked at her helplessly. "What can I do? What do you want?"
"Honestly, I want to talk to my sister," she admitted, not fully understanding the feeling. "There's nothing to do but wait until morning."
Damon stalled as he considered his options. "Do you want something to eat? You haven't eaten in 36 hours or so."
"I'm not h - actually, I'm starving," she realized.
Transitioning could cause a person to confuse bloodlust with hunger. However Damon hoped going without food for so long was the source of Addie's hunger. They had managed to avoid the topic and he continued to hope to. Getting her to eat would be a foolproof test to tell if she was changing. Human food would be unbearable if she was.
"You want me to draw you a bubble bath while I whip something up?" he offered with a light-hearted grin.
Damon did have a glorious bathtub that was perfect for soaking in. Addie's shoulder shoved into his as she pushed past him and replied smartly, "No."
"Suit yourself," he retorted, mimicking her tone as she flopped on the bed.
Addie had a strange way of not saying anything and still communicating exactly what she wanted. Or perhaps he just understood her that well. From the drawer he grabbed a lighter and lit several cream colored candles on the bathroom vanity and tucked on the shelf of the towel rack that hung next to the bathtub. He turned on the faucet to fill the tub with scalding water. From the shelf he took a full bottle of lavender and sage scented bubble bath and emptied three-quarters of it. Addie liked to act as if she was grown but there was an element of her that found joy and amusement in little things like bubbles, sugary cereals and Saturday morning cartoons. He shut off the tap when the bathtub was only half filled. Another one of Addie's little quirks would keep her from getting in right away and there was no point in wasting the water.
"I'll be back up in thirty minutes," he informed her, returning to the bedroom.
Addie tried to scowl at him but he could see how her lips quivered as she fought a smile. "I said 'no.'"
"Your lips said one thing but I know you," winked Damon. "Thirty minutes."
"Thank you!" Addie called after him, allowing the smile to cross her face as he left the room.
The room plunged into darkness as she turned off the only lit lamp. Addie stretched as she lazily made her way to the bathroom, the flickering candlelight guiding her way. Her nose tickled at the strong scent coming from the bath. She didn't like lavender. Addie turned on the shower, allowing the water to warm as she stripped. How did she end up in Damon's clothes? Surely she must have been in a hospital gown….
Addie showered quickly before switching to the bathtub, the water still warm. She knew it was a bit neurotic but she couldn't convince herself that taking a bath was nothing more than stewing in her own filth if she didn't go into it clean. She winced as the faucet echoed loudly off the tiled walls as she filled the tub the rest of the way. When bubbles towered over the rim and water threatened to slosh out the sides, she turned it off. Sinking down into comforting heat she tried to turn her mind off.
*Flashback, One Year Ago*
Addie sat in the booth next to Jeremy as he told Aunt Jenna and her about the extra credit assignment the new history teacher was letting him do to make up for his troubled phase. The conversation flew around her but processing never seemed to take place. Her mind was too busy with other matters. That afternoon Damon Salvatore had threatened Bonnie over that stupid necklace again. Addie's fear, triggered by the image of the boy he had killed a week ago and his lazy attitude about it and the sub-textual threat he made waged against her protectiveness of her friends, outrage that he could even make her feel such a way, and a nagging curiosity of why he was so damned obsessed about an ugly stone. Tonight was the first time that she had seen him since she watched him kill needlessly over a week ago and she was too distracted by his presence at the bar to do anything more than push around the garlic roasted potatoes and glare at the back of his raven hair.
After the better part of half an hour, her curiosity and anger outweighed her self-preservation and so she excused herself to go to the restroom but instead made her way to the bar. Addie knew Jeremy was watching her and would give her the tenth degree later but she could handle him; she was just grateful Aunt Jenna's back was to her.
"Damon," she said coolly, sitting in the barstool next to where he stood, leaning over the bar. At least now she would be at eye level with him instead of feeling inferior by having to look up to him.
"Addie," he replied just as coolly, taking another drink of the strong smelling alcohol.
It pissed Addie off even more that he hadn't at least acknowledge she was physically right next to him.
Addie gritted her teeth and tried to make her voice seem off-handed and friendly but she knew it was still only lukewarm and tearing at the seems with anger and frustration. "Bonnie told me you two had a little incident today in the parking lot at school."
"Hardly," Damon scoffed, finally turning to look at her, "it was more of check-in to make sure my crystal was in good hands and a request to pass along a message."
"I wouldn't bother lying, Damon. I heard the tale straight from Bonnie and given that she hates you just as much as I do," at that Damon smirked wickedly as he took a sip, which made Addie continue in a voice hard and tight with lividity, "I'm more inclined to believe her than you."
"Are you accusing me of lying? Are you sure that's a wise move?" he prodded with a grin, teeth sparkling white in contrast to the bloodstained smiled he had last given her. This one was no less threatening.
Addie laid her hand flat on the slightly scummy bar top and sat up straighter, making her slightly higher than him and making her feel a little more powerful, "Remember the first night we met? You told me to take control of my life and that includes getting my head out of my ass and being concerned about my best friend. So, leave Bonnie alone."
"Sure," Damon nodded, sounding as if this was completely reasonable, "just as soon as I get my crystal back."
"You mean Katherine's necklace?" Addie mused, eyeing the bottles behind the counter as if this didn't interest her. She had just gotten the message from Elena right before heading over.
Damon squeezed into the small space between Addie and the bar and rested his weight on his elbows which land on the wood, one next to the hand Addie had dropped to gain confidence. "Who told you that?"
"So, it's true?" Addie said, her eyes going wide.
"No," Damon responded too quickly, sounding a little unnerved for the first time.
"Um, you basically just confirmed it was by getting that murderous look in your eye when you asked who told me," pointed Addie, leaning back on the backless stool. Damon was just in a little too much of her personal space. "So, why are you so obsessed with it?"
Damon scrutinized her for several long seconds. He had almost killed her; she knew he was a vampire; she had seen him kill; yet she was still right in front of him. He had been dying to tell someone of his master plan; he could at least tell her a snippet.
"Like you said, it's Katherine's. What connection does Bonnie have to Katherine? Why should she have it?" Damon shrugged. Even if he wanted to tell her the truth, he wasn't going to make getting it that easy.
Addie looked at him skeptically, her eyebrows arched, "So, you are threatening my best friend and sending messages to an 150 year old witch who is haunting her because you want this stone back for sentimental reasons?"
"Of course not. You're thinking of the brother with hero hair that walks on a moral plane that even God can't fathom. Do I look like Stefan to you?" Damon said, running a hand through his tousled hair and giving a wicked half smile.
Tapping her chin in thought she took appraisal of him and lied, "No, Stefan is much cuter."
Damon shrugged and smirked, "I took all the sexy and left him the cute."
"Are you really so arrogant?" she sighed with exasperation.
Smirking, Damon leaned with just his back against the bar and settled his hands over Addie's slight waist and gave her a smoldering look, "Is it really being arrogant if it's true?"
Addie shook her beet red face and pushed Damon's hands off her, "You're dick. If you don't want it for sentimental reasons, why do you want the crystal?"
"Aww, back to that?" Damon pouted. Not earning a reaction from Addie he leaned closer to her and whispered conspiratorially, "Can you keep a secret?"
Feeling a sudden burst of boldness and perhaps stupidity she leaned in towards Damon's ear and said ever so softly, "Have I gone through the town screaming 'vampire' yet?"
She pulled back and was satisfied to see the tiniest hint of color in Damon's cheeks, if she squinted her eyes. It was nice to know she wasn't the only one who could get their cage rattled.
"I suppose not," he smirked, radiating conceit as if it was under his command she hadn't said anything. "Well," he said quieter, "that ghost haunting your witchy friend, she made me a promise. Katherine is still alive but she's been trapped under the old church for 150 years. It's been so long because I needed the comet but I obviously didn't have the crystal. But I think I've found another way to free her. But I still need that precious amber stone to free her. Now you know my deep dark secret; you know why I'm in town and what my master plan is." Addie opened her mouth but Damon quickly put a finger to her lips to quiet her. "If you talk about it, I'll have to kill you."
Addie searched his face for a tell that he was kidding but couldn't find one; either he was serious or he made one hell of a poker player. She'd try calling a tiny bluff. Addie yanked her head back and swatted Damon's finger out of her face.
"You have no idea how hard it is not to laugh in your face right now." That slapped Damon harder than her hand could have based on the way his jaw unhinged. The shock quickly turned dangerous but Addie pushed on. "You call Stefan the sentimental one yet you've been in love with the same girl for 150 years and are acting in-fucking-sane to get her back. Unless stabbing your brother's best friend in the chest is just for fun. Speaking of your brother, your jealous, possessive mind has let him believe that the girl he loved is dead. You're just a giant box of Fruit Loops, Damon!
"That stone shocks anyone who tries to take it for you because what you're doing is stupid. It's stupid! Reason one: move on. Reason two: Katherine toyed with you and your brother at the same time; how much more romantically evil can a person be? Reason three: if you loved her, she's probably as insanely dangerous as you and you've already done enough damage here. We don't need anymore of your kind. Reason four: I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm sort of handling the idea of your bunny eating brother in my sister's life and he makes her happy and I don't want his ex-love coming back and possibly screwing up with that happiness."
Damon's leather clad arms were crossed in front of him, almost brushing against Addie. It had been years since he spoke with such maliciousness "You do realize I could kill you in less than a heartbeat."
"I know" Addie sighed dramatically before perking up and brightly adding, "but then who would you tell your secrets to? Who would be there to tell you that you're being stupid?"
*Later that night*
"I don't get it," Addie sighed as she leaned on the frame of the bathroom that joined her room with Elena's.
Elena dropped her pen in her diary and rubbed at her eyes tiredly. It had been a very long day. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with her smartass little sister. Groaning she grumbled, "What do you want, Addie?"
Slowly Addie said, "Your boyfriend's brother would have killed your best friend if your boyfriend hadn't been there to magically heal her ripped out throat."
Even the words sounded ridiculous. It was completely mental to be getting involved in such nonsense.
Possessed by Emily Bennett, Bonnie destroyed the crystal Damon had been so desperate for. In an outburst of rage he had tried to kill her but Stefan had managed to tear his brother away before he could succeed.
Elena wasn't going to waste time pointing out that Stefan wasn't actually her boyfriend since he had decided not to be with her. "I was there. I know what happened. Do you have a point?"
Addie's eyebrows arched in surprise. That statement wasn't enough of a point?
"You had to explain to Bonnie that she was almost killed by a vampire. And the part where you are dating the murderous vampire's brother, who is also a vampire? Elena, nothing but death has surrounded Mystic Falls since Stefan and Damon came to town!" she exclaimed.
"Get to your point," Elena snapped.
Addie shook her head slowly. She could understand how Elena could be selfish; her selfishness was the reason their parents were dead. What Addie couldn't understand was how Elena could actually want this.
"How do you expect things with Stefan to end?"
Elena blinked in surprise. That wasn't the reprimand or temper tantrum she had expected. "What do you mean?"
"Aside from the fact that all relationships are doom, your relationship with Stefan is fatal. It either ends when he kills someone you. Or Damon kill someone you love, which is probably going to happen any day. Or when you die since he's immortal. Your relationship is all blood, gloom and death," shrugged Addie, saying as if it were completely obvious. "The only way you don't end in death is if you become a vampire…. Although, you have to die for that so that's still technically death."
Her depressed little sister was always a ray of sunshine. Elena rolled her eyes. "I would never turn into a vampire."
"Not even for twue luwve," Addie mocked, fluttering her eyelashes dreamily, "and all that other romantic bullshit you believe in."
Elena shook her head. "I'm seventeen years old. How am I supposed to know if I even know what true love is? Besides, you know me, Addie. I've been mothering you your entire life, not just since Mom and Dad. I'm meant to be a mother. I'm meant to start a family. A vampire life is something I would never choose."
"Hmm," acknowledge Addie, impressed. "I think that might be one of the most enlightened, intelligent thing you've ever said."
"You must set the bar low."
She snorted in response, "I really don't have high expectations of you."
*Flashback, 30 hours*
The tears flowed unnoticed as she called Damon over and over, immediately hitting redial the instant she got his voicemail. Addie didn't need to hear the conversation to know what Stefan was telling Elena; Damon had used the stake. And he was ignoring her calls because he knew livid, enraged, and furious were the first three emotions she identified. She doubted he even considered all the other things she felt, like fear, longing, guilt, passion, and, most of all, love.
"What are you doing?" Addie snapped in alarm as she noticed her sister slow the car down as they almost finished crossing the newly restored Wickery Bridge.
"We have to go back," Elena exhaled softly as she made a U-turn. "If Klaus is the one that turned their bloodline, then they're all gonna die. Tyler, Caroline, Stefan. We have to say goodbye."
Addie shook her head insistently. "No, no. We're going to Damon."
"No," her sister decided firmly as the car began to reach normal speed again. "You and Damon had your goodbye; that's what he told Stefan. That's why he's not answering his phone."
Her fingers tangled in her hair as she tried to figure out what her sister was talking about. Damon had not told her goodbye and that he was off to go and commit suicide. Their last conversation hadn't even been close to a goodbye; it had bordered on a fight without the actual arguing. Addie had explicitly told him she was pissed off at him and he had… he'd let it go. He hadn't forced her to explain herself or pushed her to talk to him or decided that he was going to stick around until she wasn't mad. Damon had left her angry. It had been awhile since he had let them part on bad terms. He'd come to believing in working things out instead of letting them fester. Had he been trying to say goodbye and she had pushed him away?
"Turn around," Addie said softly as a lead weight of guilt settled in the pit of her stomach.
Firmly her sister said, "No."
"Elena, turn around."
"No!"
Damon was going to die thinking she didn't want him, that she was too angry at him. She couldn't let him believe that. It wasn't just that, though. Her parents, Uncle John, Aunt Jenna and even Alaric had all died before she had a chance to say goodbye. If she had that opportunity with Damon, she had to take it. Determined, Addie shoved at the wheel to try and make Elena turn around.
"Addie!" exclaimed Elena, jerking the wheel back in the correct direction.
There was a brief struggle and then….
Addie's eyes flashed open and she gasped for air. Relieving terrifying plummet off the bridge, the submersion into the icy water and the pressure of not being able to breath had startled her out of a disjointed set of memories. She inhaled deeply, relishing in the ability to do so. Her memories had left her with a chill so deep in her bones that even the heated water couldn't cure. In fact, soaking in water reminder her a lot of the drowning.
Her anxiety spiking, Addie quickly pulled two towels off the rack as she got out of the tub. She wrapped one around herself and used the other for her hair. Before leaving the bathroom she drained the tub. The candles and familiarity were enough for her to navigate Damon's bedroom. The second drawer in his dresser was filled with her clothes and some of her favorite pieces of his that she borrowed more frequently. She selected a random pair of boyshorts and her favorite set of pajamas: one of Damon's over-price, high-end t-shirts that was far too big and his lucky black boxers patterned with yellow smiley faces.
After she changed, Addie quickly took a brush and a blowdryer to her hair. The loud whirring seemed louder than ever. It was so bad it made her jaw clench and eyes narrow in pain. Barely able to stand the noise, she stopped fussing with her hair as soon as it wasn't dripping wet.
"How was your bath?" asked Damon, grinning at Addie when she came back into the room.
"Not great," Addie admitted. She noticed he had turned the lamp back on; it bugged her. "My brain thinks too much."
He understood what Addie meant; she had a hard time tuning out her thoughts and simply meditating. Her mind was always dwelling on something.
"Sit down. We can talk about it while you eat," he offered.
She climbed into his massive bed and gave him a sheepish smile as she leaned back against his headboard. He gave her a confident smirk as he carried over a breakfast tray and sat next to her. Addie couldn't help but giggle as he settled the tray over her lap. A plate of pancakes decorated with a whipped cream smile and strawberry fangs grinned up at her. Damon made the most delicious pancakes but he knew she didn't like strawberries. Addie was fairly certain he contained to use them because Damon liked that she ended up feeding them to him.
"I had a feeling you would make pancakes."
Damon shrugged innocently, "I know you like them." And it brought him comfort to prepare the first thing his mother ever taught him to cook when he was stressed.
"I do," Addie said softly. Her fingers intertwined with the hand he rested on his lap. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "I also like you."
He gave Addie's hand a comforting squeeze. Typically she was guarded and did her best to hide her emotions. It had been a battle for both of them to learn how to open up to one another. Addie might not come right out and directly say it but it was clear through her actions and word choice that something was wrong and she was searching for reassurance.
Damon gave a kiss to the crown of her head before resting his cheek against it. Just as quietly he remarked, "I like you, too."
Timid and barely audible Addie asked, "Did anything… did anything weird happen when Stefan saved me?"
"What do you mean weird?" he replied stiffly.
"When we crashed I had vampire blood in my system, just like Elena."
"Eat your pancakes, love." There was no point in getting her stressed out about something that might not even be a concern.
Her hand instinctively gripped tighter at his as the sense of fear and foreboding she had been battling became more encompassing. There was a tremor in her weak voice. "What happened?"
"I'll tell you after you eat."
"No, you'll tell me now," Addie said, hoping her voice sounded more confident than she felt.
"Then you might get all worked up over nothing," Damon countered. "Besides, the food is going to get cold."
She sighed impatiently and removed her head from his shoulder. "I've let food get cold before because you wanted to be stubborn."
He cocked a challenging eyebrow at her. "I'm gonna let you think about that sentence and see who appears to be the stubborn one."
"I've never denied being stubborn and that's why you should know that you're going to tell me what happened. Otherwise my mind is just going to think all sorts of crazy things," Addie said, her words becoming more rushed and panicked. They both knew what she meant by crazy things.
"Elena couldn't be saved; she was medically dead," Damon prefaced, emphasizing the difference in the situations. "When Stefan pulled you out, your heart had already stopped. Paramedics were eventually able to jump start it again. Meredith Fell ran all the test and, medically, you're completely fine."
"So... I died?" she murmured in shock. She had known it had been a possibility but she hadn't been prepared to actually hear it.
This would be so much simpler if she would just take a bite of the food. Damon shifted uncomfortably. "Well, that's a relative term. I mean, your heart stopped but it started again."
"Ok, well, I mean relative to transitioning. Technically you're dead but you have a heartbeat! Which makes no fucking sense!" Addie exclaimed, the pitch of her voice higher than usual.
"Hey," Damon said, gentle but firm. He buried his fingers in her hair and tilted her face to look up into his. Her eyes were wide and misty and her lower lip quivered even though she bit at it anxiously. "It's ok."
She gaped at him incredulously and shrieked, "I'm trans-"
"Shh," interrupted Damon, pressing a finger to her lips. "I don't know if you are transitioning. You could be panicking for no reason."
Addie looked long into his eyes, trying to take comfort from his steady gaze. He was uncertain but he didn't look afraid. Her lips pursed into a thin line as she fought to gain control over her fear.
"How are we supposed to figure it out? Have me drink blood and hope I don't turn into a vampire?" she bit acidic.
The words stung but not because of her anger, which he new was directed at the situation and not him. He knew Addie didn't want to be a vampire and he had accepted that. At least he was trying to. Addie would not want to complete the transition process; she would rather die. It still hurt to hear her say so.
"Eat your pancakes," he repeated. "If you're transitioning, they'll taste awful."
Addie frowned skeptically. "That's it? It's that simple?"
Damon nodded. He didn't need to know that he had been trying to evaluate based on her temperament and other signs because then she would ask for his opinion. They didn't need to make it complicated.
Her hand shook as she picked up the fork and cut into the the top pancake. She didn't want to become a vampire. She didn't want to have to fight a bloodlust like Stefan. She didn't want to battle her emotions amplified ten times; she had witnessed Damon lose to his too many times. She didn't want to fight a predatory instinct to kill. She didn't want to live forever, always stuck at sixteen.
She didn't want to die.
She didn't want to die.
"How long would I have to complete the transition?" she wondered as she stared down at the food.
"I don't know. Typically a person has 24 hours. Obviously you've gone longer than that. However, you also didn't follow the normal process of dying so I don't know how that would mess with the timing," Damon admitted.
"I could die at any second, then?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. You would start feeling weak and…. Choosing not to transition isn't a quick, painless death."
A single tear rolled down Addie's cheek as she set the fork back down. "But you could make it one?" He opened his mouth to respond but the words got caught in his throat. When he didn't answer she looked up at him hopefully and softly pleaded, "Damon, please."
Dragging his hands offer his face, Damon got up and walked away, keeping his back towards Addie so she wouldn't see the tears he wiped away. "Someone could make sure you didn't suffer."
"But not you," she understood solemnly.
"I can respect that you don't want to transition. And I am so goddamn helplessly in love with you that I'm not even going to ask you to go through with it to be with me because I know it's not a life you want. The only thing worse than losing you today would have you eventually hating and resenting me because I pushed you into being a vampire. Addie, I am willing to lose you without a fight but I am too selfish to be the one to kill you," Damon said firmly He refused to look at her, though; if he did, he would cave.
"You wouldn't be killing me. You'd be replacing suffering with peace," countered Addie.
He shook his head to himself; he knew she would argue that. "I'm not going to discuss this when we don't even know if you're transitioning."
Addie stared down at the food uncertainly and whispered, "I don't think I'm ready to know if I'm dying."
Damon's fingers ran through his hair anxiously; he wasn't ready to know either. They still had to know. "You can either find out now and if you are transition, you will know how to make the most of your time. Or we find out you're not and we don't have to worry about this. Or you can not find out for sure and we can keep waiting for you to start feeling like you're going to die and be in a perpetual state of anxiety and limbo until then. Of course, it's possible you're not transitioning and we'll be waiting for nothing for forever."
"I really don't like when you use logic," she grumbled, picking up the fork.
"You're the only one who ever gets to be rational?" he challenged with a teasing, crooked grin.
"I don't like when you use rationality against me," Addie rephrased before shoving a small bite into her mouth.
A/N: If you have made it to this point, yay! Thank you for reading! Resist Control is third in the Control Series, following Invisible Control (season 1&2) and Hostage Control (season 3). Together the two previous works were published over two years and are almost 800k words. I do not expect my readers to remember everything as I don't remember everything. Resist Control is written in a manner that enough background information will be provided to answer any questions that any newcomer to the series may have and to remind veterans of anything important they might have forgotten.
Please comment, favorite, and follow if you are interested in hearing more of Addie and Damon's story! I would love to hear from everyone, particularly new readers.
