Caroline's crying when Damon answers the door. His first instinct, as it always is with her, is to call for Stefan because only such a saint can deal with Caroline when she's not fully calm and rational. And this? This is not calm or rational or any other adjective that can be used to describe a person in a controlled state of mind. If she were still human, he most certainly would look her in the eyes and tell her to stop the fucking crying already because it's giving him a migraine.

Of course, little Caroline Forbes is most definitely not human, and looking her in the eyes will most definitely not help, neither will telling her she's giving him a migraine. With his luck, she'd probably just continue her sob fest because it is driving him crazy.

Instead, he allows her to run into his arms—which he assumes she does because he's there, not because it's him, because really, why would she seek comfort in him—and hold tightly. He tells her it's going to be okay even though he has no fucking idea what it is she's crying about since she isn't able to spit three coherent words out at a time. He even rubs her back a little.

Eventually, she calmed down enough to be led to the couch, where she managed to tell him—between sporadic hiccups and more bouts of tears—that her on-again-off-again human boyfriend found out she was a vampire after she healed him from almost dying.

"And he hates me," she wails. "He thinks I did something to his sister and he won't speak to me. I tried explaining. I went over to his house this morning, but he wouldn't even answer the door. He's disgusted and horrified by me and I don't really blame him, but it hurts because I love him so much and—" she keeps going, but this is when Damon realizes that if he doesn't do something soon, Caroline Forbes could be sitting here mourning this failed relationship until next Christmas so Damon makes a decision.

"I'll talk to him," he says, despite the fact that words are still—unfortunately—coming out of her mouth.

Caroline stops talking immediately. "No!" she protests.

If he'd of known that's all he needed to say, he'd of said it a whole hell of a lot sooner, he can't help but muse as he throws on his leather jacket.

"Too late, Barbie," he says, "I've already made up my mind."

He hears her calling his name as he speeds out the door.

-x-

Predictably, the human is at the Mystic Grill on this lovely Saturday evening. Damon wonders for a moment if the guy ever gets a break from his job. Does he still go to school? But the truth is that he doesn't give two shits about the guy really, so he abandons the train of thought before it goes any further and walks right up to him.

"We need to talk," he declares, his tone brooking no argument.

Or at least, it shouldn't brook an argument, but apparently human Matt Donovan defies all the Damon Salvatore rules. The human eyes him up before dismissing him. "I'm working," he says.

"It's about Caroline," Damon tries again, agitation easily showing in his voice.

Matt laughs mirthlessly then. "Well then you can go to hell," he says, "because I am not going to ever speak to her again."

Damon has the oddest urge to just strangle the impertinent boy at that. He grits his teeth and looks into the boy's eyes. "You're going to take your break now and lead me out back," he commands and smirks when Matt immediately leads him outside.

Once outside, Matt crosses his arms over his chest. "Okay," the boy says, the compulsion having worn off, "what is it you need to tell me?"

"Caroline didn't do anything to you're crazy sister," Damon declares casually, eyeing the boy carefully. "She was too human at the time to be involved in such matters," he adds, thinking back on his relationship with Caroline at the time. Such…almost fond memories.

Matt's eyes widen. "What do you know about my sister?" he asks. Damon sees a little bit of Jeremy Gilbert's protective attitude in Caroline's boy toy at the mention of Vicki, and that is the only reason why Damon doesn't outright say he killed the girl. The situation might not be anywhere near the same, but he really doesn't need to repeat his mistakes.

"Long story short? She got attacked then started attacking others. Certain people in this town couldn't let that happen, so she was taken care of. But Caroline was not a part of it, and you need to talk to her because she needs your support in this, not you're ignorance and anger."

Matt's looking at him with the most human expression of anger, confusion, sadness, and curiosity. "Are you one too? Are you like Caroline?"

"That is a whole other story," Damon replies as he resists the urge to roll his eyes. "One Caroline will probably be more than happy to tell you."

"But she—" Matt starts, but Damon shakes his head.

"No," he reiterates. "She's a good girl. A little annoying, perhaps, but she's good, and I will not stand by and let you hurt her, so you're going to speak to her and let her tell you all that she can fit into a few hours talking and you're going to tell her you're sorry for accusing her of hurting your sister because Caroline, she's not capable of that, and you're going to forgive her, because she needs you." Damon hates that he managed to say all of that to a person who will actually be able to remember the conversation later, but compulsion relationships aren't real—he knows that better than anyone—and Caroline needs something real.

Something in that last speech seems to have gotten through the overworked human because he nods. "Okay," he says. "I'll talk to her."

Damon nods. "Than my work here is done," he says, and the two walk back into the Grill.

-x-

Damon passes Caroline on his way out the Grill's front door. She has a very worried look on her face, and she appears frazzled. "What did you do?" she asks him anxiously.

"I told you," he says, speaking to her as if she's a small child, "I had a little chat with him."

"I know you, Damon," she replies. "Your chats don't end well for the recipient of your words. I've been there."

Finally understanding why she seemed so bothered by the idea of him talking to her little boyfriend, Damon assures her. "Don't worry, he's fine. As a matter of fact, he should be right over…there." He points to Matt, who's watching them carefully. "Now go and see if my magical words did the trick."

Cautiously, and giving Damon a bit of a death glare—he really needs to tell her to work on that, it's not quite as effective as she seems to think it is—on the way, she makes her way over to Matt.

"Hi, Matt," Damon hears her say, her tone apprehensive for the first time since he's known her. "I was hoping we could…talk?"

Matt glances briefly over to Damon who nods. "Yeah," the human says, offering Barbie an assuring smile. "I get off in an hour; do you want to wait around until then?"

Damon watches Caroline smile brightly before he walks out the door.

Mission complete.