A story set in the current fourth season that is deep moving and character building, but never strays from continuity and is very much like an actual episode of the show.
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Elena used her thick heeled black motorcycle boots to kick at the form of Damon who lay unconscious on the ground wearing his civil war uniform.
Elena looked down at him clad in her tight fitting black leather jacket and a black open collared shirt with tight fitting black pants. "Wake up you Reb."
"Elena wha?" Damon looked around to see he was in a clearing surrounded by a copse of trees.
"Well what do you know, it's working." Damon stood and brushed himself off. "You're pretty good at this for a noob."
"I'm controlling your dream really easily, in fact. I not really trying, you seemed to just hand over the controls to me." Elena paused. "Huh…"
"Whattaya mean, huh?"
"It's strange I never thought I would be able get inside your head so easily you're always so..."
"So what?"
Elena shook her head. "Nevermind. Look I know that I'm supposed to stay away from you, to help break the sire bond hold you have over me, but if there's a chance I'll be able to help you remember what happened to this magical magnifying lens, we might be able see my brother Jeremy's full tattoo without him having to kill any more vampires."
"You say the last time you remember seeing this magical lens was back during the civil war, so I'm going to mentally retrace your steps via this dreamscape…"
Elena turned and looked around the clearing they were in. "Uh, where exactly are we? Or more importantly when are we?"
"1864 and if I remember correctly we are not in a good place, we'd better head for the cover of those trees." Damon pointed. "Before we get spotted."
"Spotted?" Elena looked around. "By who?"
"Yankee cavalry do regular patrols around their flanks while the Union Army is on the march."
"Why in the world am I wearing this?" Damon pointed to his Confederate Grey uniform.
"You're a soldier isn't that what you're supposed to wear?"
"Not when I'm scouting out Yankee positions, I dressed in civilian clothes." He looked up at Elena. "Um, is that my jacket?"
Elena patted down the black leather of her jacket. "It's like yours I guess. I like your jacket; it's a good looking jacket."
Damon raised a brow, and then continued walking. "We shouldn't be spotted if we keep off the main paths, I left the rest of my scouting group camped out just up a ways."
Two young and thin teenaged boys huddled next to the fire. They held the collars of the grey military coats together for warmth.
"Lieutenant Salvatore will kill us if he knew about this."
"I don't care about his stupid rules, without a fire the cold will kill us, besides the Yankee army is miles away. Nobody will see us."
Suddenly a bucket of water was hurled upon the small fire covering the boys in its spray.
The two looked up at Damon with the bucket in his hand. "What do you think you're doing? I could've spotted you a mile away."
Damon tipped up his hat revealing an angry expression. "I told you about lighting fires."
"Um, actually sir your instructions in that regard were, um, kind of vague." The older boy ventured.
"Vague? You know well and good there was no bonfire vanities, um, I mean vampire diaries…"
"No damn fire vagaries." Damon shook his head in exasperation. "You got me so mad I'm tongue tied."
"There is a gigantic column of the union army encamped just over those hills." Damon pointed into the distance.
"Oh." The boy looked down guiltily.
"So we're all going back toward our lines and report that fact."
"Report back?" The older boy moaned dejectedly.
The younger one added. "Ain't we ever gonna fight 'em. It seems all we do is run."
Damon put his hands on his hips authoritatively. "Running keeps you alive, and the last thing I'm about to do is let you two get killed for a lost cause."
"Why you always gotta say that Lieutenant." The older boy looked at him deeply pained. "It ain't no lost cause, war's a long way from over. There's a lotta things could happen yet to turn things around."
"Ha, you wanna bet. Tell you what…" Damon pulled out a wallet and removed several bills from it.
Then he brazenly tossed them up into the air. "I bet you a bazillion Confederate dollars that we don't stand a chance of winning anymore."
The paper bills floated down around them.
"Hell, the mere fact that you boys are even allowed to be here is proof we're on our last legs."
"What's that supposed to mean." The elder boy yelled.
"Kid how old are you and don't tell me 16. Because I know that isn't true Mark. Just as I'm sure your recruiting officer did."
Damon turned to the shorter boy. "And you Matthew, I'd be surprised if you're not wearing diapers."
He turned to Elena. "Neither of them should be here."
"Sir, you can't tell anyone sir." Mark looked at him pleadingly.
"Oh don't worry; the military brass doesn't really care. They look the other way when it suits their purpose, like we all do."
Elena stared at the boys with pity. "My God, they're so young what on earth compelled them to want to go to war."
Damon raised a brow. "So Matthew, you wanna tell the lady why you're such eager beavers."
Matthew replied. "You know them Yankees killed my brother, sir. I don't care if the war's a lost cause. Before it's over, I wanna kill me a Yankee for what they done to John."
"Ah revenge enacted upon someone affiliated with the perceived crime."
The boy looked up at him confused.
Elena turned to Damon. "And the other one?"
Damon kicked at the boot of the slightly older taller youth. "What's your excuse Mark? Revenge for a fallen family member?"
"They killed my brother too and my pa, but that's not why I'm fighting."
"I've heard that many families were left with few men after the civil war but this, it's terrible." Elena shook her head.
"Yeah I guess, I really didn't have time to dwell, what with getting shot at." Damon smirked.
"You fellows are probably wondering who this is." Damon beamed. "Fellows this is Elena."
"Sir? Are you feeling ok?"
"Yeah sure why?" Damon shrugged his shoulders.
"Cuz yer acting like Luke used to just before he got killed."
"Luke?" Damon furled his brow. "He went crazy and started shooting at invisible Yankees."
"Why would you think I…"
"Well sir." Matthew said sincerely. "He was your real good friend, you two snuck out of camp to go drink hooch together all the time."
"Then after he got that head wound he started acting all crazy and different." Mark added.
"Yeah that's what got him killed." Damon nodded with downturned eyes.
"Well we know how close you two was, we all miss him. Grief can make a fella kinda crazy."
"But I'm not crazy, I may be dreaming all this but I'm not crazy." Damon said with exasperation. "She's right there. Short girl, dark hair, really hot…"
"They can't see me." Elena bit her lower lip.
"They can't?" Damon stared ahead blankly. "Oh."
He raised his index finger purposefully. "So I'm hopping through the timespan of my own lifetime, with a guide that only I can see..."
He nodded. "You know this is very familiar for some reason."
He turned back to the boys. "Well just imagine that there's a really cute short brunette sitting next to me, explain to the nice lady why you like me were fool enough to enlist."
"Ok sir." Mark looked at him quizzically. "For all of us here in the south, to protect our way of life."
Damon smirked. "Protect our way of life?"
He turned to Elena. "He means so we can keep our slaves."
"A farm don't run without labour. We had a good business, and father always treated the Negros well. But when General Sherman and his Union army came through, they all up and left."
"Now we got no one to run the place with pa and my brother dead, the whole farm is laying fallow." Mark gritted his teeth. "We just can't let them take everything from us."
"Slavery is dead and gone forever or at least for our lifetime." Damon shook his head. "There is no going back to our way of life. That life is dead."
Damon put his hand on the boys shoulder. "It's a fact, you better get used to it."
A female voice added. "He's right. You'd be wise to listen to him or you might end up as dead as your father's plantation."
Damon looked up in alarm. "Katherine?"
She wore the grey Confederate uniform and her mass of hair was hidden under her hat. "I thought you said you led large group of men not two little boys."
"Well we're not with the rest of my platoon, we're scouting."
"Ah so you're a boy scout troop leader then?"
"You're a girl." Matthew observed.
"Just like you were talking about before sir." Mark added
"Very observant little types, I guess my clever disguise didn't fool them."
Damon turned to Elena. "I remember now that's why my memories about these events are clouded. Katherine compelled me to forget, when I became a vampire, those memories resurged but they still became muddled."
"Katherine what are you doing here?"
"Well I figure I might need your help when I attack the Union Army just yonder." She pointed over the hills.
She crouched down before the boys seated by the extinguished campfire, and brandished a large bowie knife in each hand, holding it by the blade and offering up the handles to the boys. "Looks like y'all are gonna get to kill a Yankee after all."
1864 - Earlier that year. The crowded road outside Atlanta…
"This is fortunate." Katherine smiled at the numerous numbers of foot travellers around them. "With this many refugees on the roads, we'll have plenty to eat, it's so easy to blend in in such a massive crowd.
"I don't know, more people to deal with just means you have to deal with more people. You know it's in our best interest to keep separate from them." Pearl slapped at the shoulder of her daughter who was smiling playful at one of the younger Union soldiers milling about.
Annabel turned impatiently. "Yes mother you've already told me not to play with my food."
"Uh, uh." She turned and nudged her mother pointing up the road. "Up ahead they're singling people out."
A soldier approached them. He eyed Katherine suspiciously.
"Excuse me but I'm afraid you'll have to come with me."
Katherine stared into his eyes.
"You have no interest in us; we aren't the dames you're looking for…"
"You aren't the dames we're looking for…"
"I should move along."
"Move along, move along…"
"See." Katherine smirked. "No one will stop us."
"Hey stop that one." A Union officer ran toward her.
He grabbed her while two other soldiers moved to surround her.
She looked at him, her eyes constricting narrowly.
"You want to let me go."
"Oh I'll let you go, but I'll want a few items from you first."
She looked toward him with incredulity.
"You want to let me go now." She repeated.
"No, I'll let you afterwards, that's how it works. Don't worry I don't want to hurt you, but I will have those diamond earrings you're wearing."
He plucked it from her ear as the other two soldiers held her by the arms.
He brought up a magnifying glass lens to his eye and stared down at the earring in his hand.
"Exquisite cut, something told me you'd really have the good stuff."
"You're robbing me?"
"Robbing you? Heavens forefend no, I'm merely foraging supplies from the surrounding countryside. Besides you can't rob a thief. You southern ladies pretending to be so cultured when everything you've got has been earned on the backs of your negro slaves."
"What else you got?"
"Katherine." Pearl shouted as the Union officer grabbed the purse in her hand.
"Well, well if that ain't a fine piece. Full 24 carats for sure." The Lieutenant grabbed the chain around Pearl's neck and pulled it off.
Pearl looked up at him staring menacingly.
Pearl looked over to Katherine, the blood rage seeming to swell in her eyes. Katherine merely shook her head no slightly and motioned with it to the large group of Union soldiers loitering around them.
The Union officer took her arm and moved his magnifying glass to the arm bracelet she wore.
"To Katarina Petrova with love, 1492. My god this is a Holbein original it's priceless."
As he ripped the bracelet from her, he looked down at the ring on her finger.
"You wear such expensive things and yet for a ring you wear a worthless trinket a child could make with seashells."
Katherine's handmaiden Emily sneered at the Union officer derisively as he dumped the contents of Pearl's bag on the upright wooden barrel next to them.
The gleaming white stone that resembled a bar of soap thumbed out as well as several other items.
He picked up a bound bundle of paper money. And thumbed through the bills. "That's a hell of a lot o' Yankee dollars? What would your fellow southerners, say if they knew about this I wonder?"
"Well, it's yours now I gather." Katherine said sarcastically as she started to put the items back into the purse. "Well now that you've taken all our valuables, are we free to leave?"
"Hold on now." He grabbed her hand that was about to drop the moonstone back into the purse.
"What's this?" He pried the moonstone from her hand and brought his lens up to it.
Immediately his eyes widened as he looked through it.
"Well not all your valuables I see."
"I don't exactly know what this is but I'm sure it will fetch a pretty penny."
Katherine bent over to him menacingly. "You may think you've won. That's there's nothing a poor defenceless woman like me can do but submit. But you won't get away with this I promise you, you'll see me again."
Elena turned to Damon. "That lens, the one Katherine describes the soldier using? The one that prevented his compulsion, that's the one, isn't it?"
Damon nodded at Elena then turned to Katherine.
"So that's it, we're going to go after the whole Union Army because they stole your jewelry?"
"Not the whole army just the ones who took my stuff." Katherine explained. "They're encamped a little ways off from the main army, they don't want to draw too much attention from the top brass to the supplies they're carrying with them. They're divvying them up to send out on the next train north."
"How many of them are there?" Damon questioned.
"Oh hundreds of men." Katherine waved at him dismissively.
Damon's eyes widened. "You must be jesting Katherine! I can't be sending these boys out against those odds."
"Oh don't worry Damon, we won't have to kill all of them."
"Look I don't care, most men wouldn't fire at you because you're a woman." Damon pointed at the two youths. "But they won't care how old those boys are, they'll shoot them no problem."
"And they'll do it because boys can shoot you just as well as a grown man can. I've seen that myself."
Elena interrupted him. "And a woman couldn't?"
Damon turned from Katherine to Elena. "That's not what I… It's not that a woman couldn't; it's just that they wouldn't."
Katherine smiled at him. "I would, but I'm not like most women I guess."
"No Miss Katherine, I don't suppose you are…" Damon smiled at her spellbound. "You really are one in a million, I don't know of another gal as worthy of my affections or for that matter who would come up here to the front looking to do battle."
Damon grabbed Katherine by her shoulders. "I'd do it gladly. I don't really want to die but if I have to then I really can't think of a better way than to help you get the Yankees who robbed you, but I can't let those two boys die."
"Then you'd better think of way to prevent them from getting shot, because they're helping me."
"Come on Damon. While I know your brother would never put those boys at risk, you're different, that's why I'm here with you." Katherine smiled at him seductively. "You know how to take advantage of your opportunities even if you have to take chances."
"You're a bright boy; prove to me that you're special." Katherine ran her finger down his chest. "That you're one in a million. That you deserve my love."
He kissed her and started unbuttoning her uniform jacket. "Let's get you out of that uniform and I'll show you who wears the trousers…"
Then he stopped and smiled broadly, and began to rebutton it. "On second thought. Maybe I have an idea about how to better our odds…"
Katherine now in her familiar period dress approached carrying a large burlap sack.
"I think I've procured everything we need."
"Good we're all set then." Damon rubbed his hands together.
"Sir with all respect, what you're asking us to do. Well it ain't right. It ain't fair. We ain't like them Yankees, we got honor. We ain't invading their lands and robbing from the civilians." The elder boy Mark protested.
"I guess you're right," Damon smirked. "We aren't doing that anymore since we started losing."
"Go on now for the night but I want you dressed in your camouflage tomorrow morning, that's an order."
Damon unslung the rifle from his back.
Katherine approached rubbing her hand along the barrel. "Why Mr. Salvatore that is a rather large gun you have. Are you compensating for something?"
"As a matter of fact I am, for physical prowess in fact. We can't all have vampire strength."
"This here is part of the reason the south has no chance. It's a repeater rifle; you can fire four shots without reloading."
"I saw a Yankee with one…" Damon held up the gun. "Take out 13 guys in about 5 minutes. There's not anybody in the south that makes something like this."
"Well how did you get one?"
"My father still has quite a few northern business contacts."
"As much as I'm loath to point out my brothers impressive accomplishments to you, I would rather he was the one shooting it not me, he's very good shot."
"When we were younger, Mother cooked the pheasant he killed on many an evening."
Katherine smirked "You and your brother shared a pheasant evening together?"
"Very funny."
Katherine smiled at him. "It is funny, I'd of thought you'd of been more the outdoorsman."
Damon shook his head. "Me, no I've never gotten any joy from killing animals. Might be the fact that I hated gutting them. I'm not normally squeamish but dealing with intestines, that really is filthy business."
"The Yankee I killed, that was a rush, course that could have been cause he was a about to gut me with his bayonet."
"Father took both of us out as soon as we got old enough to shoot, but Stefan really got off on hunting. I'd be more than satisfied coming home empty handed. Say I missed the one that got away."
"But Stefan was never satisfied, the more game he got the more he wanted. He may be a really, really good shot but he gets too caught up in the hunt, that's why I've done everything possible to keep him from enlisting in the Confederate Army. With his skills he'd make one hell of a soldier, if it wasn't for the fact that he'd more than likely take crazy chances and get himself killed, nevermind the fact he'd be shooting at people not bunnies and what that would do to the guy."
"Oh." Katherine said with worry. "That's really too bad. We vampires feel that same kind of euphoria after hunts."
"Yes I suppose Stefan would be problematic if he actually became a vampire. But what are the chances of that happening?"
Elena squinted at Katherine noticing her bite her lower lip slightly when Damon mentioned Stephan.
She looked at over at Damon thoughtfully.
But Damon turned away from her, back toward Katherine.
"You know when I first joined the army I believed in an independent Confederate States of America, but now, I mean, the whole point was a confederacy free from northern industrial business influence so we could do what we were good at growing crops. Whatever our sins might be we weren't despoiling our environment with industrial pollution, like our northern counterparts…"
"But…" Damon held up the repeater rifle. "That lack of industrial progress has a cost. The south will succumb to that progress, whether we want to or not. Our old way of life is gone forever. The sooner we all accept it the better."
"Thanks to you my love, At least I won't have to live to endure our defeat." He took her hand and caressed it then took a knife and sliced it bringing the bleeding hand up to his lips.
"The life I was raised to inherit is now lost to me but you've saved me."
"My God Damon." Elena covered her mouth with her hand as she backed away from them. "Is that part of the reason why?"
"Is it?" Elena looked toward him sternly. "Is this why you let yourself be turned? Because you didn't want to give up your slave owning plantation lifestyle?"
"Hey!" Damon wiped the blood from his mouth as he turned to Elena. "In 1860 I voted for Lincoln, I thought he was right about non expansion of slavery into the new territories. I thought they would phase out slavery slowly, over time."
"But then everything seemed to change overnight. I figured if my old life as a landowning aristocrat was at an end, then might as well make a clean break with it."
Katherine ran her finger across Damon's cheek. "Soon you'll have no shortage of compelled slaves to do your every bidding."
"You mean our every bidding..."
"Yes our every bidding, of course my love." Katherine smirked and shook her head dismissively as she bit into his neck.
Elena folded her arms across from them. She looked at Damon with pity.
"What?" Damon glared back at her, as Katherine sucked at his neck.
"Oh come on Damon if I can see it now, it means you must've back then. You're not that blind."
"You think I was aware all along that Katherine was stringing me along?"
Hearing this Katherine dislodged from his neck.
She wiped the red stain from her mouth. "What are you talking about?"
Damon raised his eyes to hers. "The fact that you don't really love me."
She backed away from him startled at this. "Do you really think that?"
"I..." He shook his head. "I don't know. I do have some experience in using the art of seduction to get what one desires, and you, like me, are very good at effecting all the proper charms and mannerisms, you're the very picture of a perfect southern belle."
"But this, what you feel for me, it's not all just an act right?" Damon looked at her with a pained expression. "It's real?"
"That's what I like about you Damon." She grabbed the back of his neck. "This brash egotistical self-styled ladies gentleman act of yours, it's all camouflage. Not very confident in yourself are you."
"You know I like this side of you. It's pathetic, but I like it." She nuzzled his ear. "You're like a little sad eyed puppy dog."
"Do I really have to tell you I love you to let me have my way with you? Do you really think I'd feed you my blood so as to make you an immortal if I wasn't worried about you dying in this insane war. You know Damon; you can be quite a little girl sometimes."
"You know it can be harmful to impugn the masculinity of us southern men. We can be kinda prickly about that." Damon threw her against the wall kissing at her neck.
He turned behind him to see Elena standing there with her arms folded disapprovingly.
He smirked at her. "You might wanna close your eyes, unless you're the kind of girl who likes to watch?"
"Yes well, since I'm controlling this dream I'm gonna skip the porn parts." Elena snapped her fingers and they were instantly elsewhere.
They stood outside next to a horse drawn wagon. The two young rebel scouts were dressed in women's clothing of the time period. Katherine applied makeup on one of their faces.
She swabbed a brush on the boy's face. "I have to say Damon I'm impressed with your plan of action, unorthodox as it is."
"Unorthodox I say it's downright indecent. We're southern gentlemen were supposed to have more honor than this." Mark frowned.
Damon patted the wig on the boys head. "Yes that's right we're southern men, proud of our honor and virility. That's why they'll never suspect us. We should be able to ride strait into the Yankee camp.
Katherine pulled the nuns habit up on her head and handed Damon a priest's white collar. "Don't forget your collar Father Salvatore."
"How-come the Lieutenant don't have to wear a dress?"
"Well…" Katherine cupped Damon's chin in her hand. "No one will ever mistake that face for being feminine."
"While you two boys aren't old enough to grow proper whiskers yet." She stroked Mark's face. "Still young soft and decidedly more feminine than Damon."
With Damon at the reins, the horse drawn wagon drove along up to a row of white tents. Various Union Army soldiers milled about.
Damon spoke to the scouts dressed as women behind him on the wagon.
"Look Mark, the only chance the south has is to take down Lincoln, assassinate him or whatever; you cut the head off the snake. But no, the honorable military leadership of the confederacy wouldn't stand for such tactics. You ask me I'd say we're better off letting them take old General Lee in exchange for Sherman."
Mark replied "You'd have us target innocent woman and children?"
"I'm saying that you do what it takes to win nevermind the consequences."
"We're approaching them now; you'll see they're like us; they won't shoot a priest and some harmless women." Mark tried to reassure the nervous younger boy Matthew.
Damon smirked. "You mean we wouldn't hit a white woman."
"Hell, my father used to keep the big negro bucks in line by whipping the women they loved for their transgressions, I hate to say it but it was very effective."
"Big negro bucks? My God, Damon, that's so racist." Elena shook her head.
He turned to face her. "We're slave holding plantation owners; Newsflash: we are bigoted."
"My father's hatred for black slaves was just shy of his hatred for vampires. Stupid ignorant hatred, in a way it made him the type of monster he most despised, he accused the vampires of doing the same sorts of things he did to his slave labor force."
"We used to fight about it all the time." Damon said as he flipped the reins spurring the horses on.
"You didn't believe in slavery?" Elena smiled at him affectionately.
Damon shook his head dismissively. "Oh it wasn't a moral argument on my part. I just figured it was doomed in competition with the free labor system in the north."
"Just think about it. How do you keep a bunch of slaves motived to give you their full effort if they gain no benefit from their labor? The truth is you can't without using extremely coercive methods like the whip that force you to become the bad guy."
"The truth is any slave labor system does not function as efficiently as a free labor system. And to be honest it's kind of un-American. It's one of our core tenants that a person's place in society should be determined by individual merit not inherited birthright."
"But they aren't people Lieutenant, they're barely above animals, what are the negros going to do if we don't look after them?" Mark replied.
"My friend you are about to see how wrong you are." Damon said as he brought the wagon to a halt.
A teenaged black boy approached them with two hares that he dangled by the legs in front of them. "Fresh caught rabbits for sale, I caught 'em myself this morning."
"Really?" Damon smirked. "You shot these with that old flintlock musket you have, I can see the bend in the barrel from here, there's no way that thing's accurate."
"It's not, it don't matter none, I just have to aim a bit off to hit 'em. But you're right I didn't shoot these, I caught 'em in my snares."
"Really? You must know the rabbit trails around this area pretty well then. My brother was quite the rabbit hunter himself. What's your name boy?"
The boy squirmed a little. "Um, Frederic Douglas Sir."
"Yeah and I'm Abraham Lincoln, what's your real name?"
"That is my real name sir, I promise, I'm just not that Fredric Douglas."
"Damon Salvatore nice to meet you." Damon held out his hand to the boy.
Apprehensively the black youth reached out to shake his hand.
The young rebel scout Mark glared angrily at the act.
"We need some help finding a certain person; do you happen to know where a certain Lieutenant Dan is camped out? It'll be well worth your while I promise you."
"Yessir, I can do that sir. No problem."
"Well hop on up here then and guide me."
The wagon came to a halt. Katherine pointed a tent; a uniformed officer stood outside it his hand resting on his sword hilt as he spoke with another soldier.
"That's him, that's the man we're after." Katherine pierced her eyes at him.
"What about his friend?" Damon motioned to the other Union soldier.
"He'll have to go too, I can't take a chance that he might recognise me."
She turned to the two youths in ladies dresses. "Alright ladies, see those two men, you're going to distract them so we can get inside that tent."
"What do you mean?" Matthew asked.
"I mean you're going to use your newfound feminine wiles on them."
"But that's disgusting, it's downright unnatural."
Katherine focused on the two, her eye seemed to constrict as she gazed at them.
"You're going to want to seduce them, as naturally as easily as you would a very attractive woman, like myself for instance."
"You're awful beautiful Miss Katherine." Matthew looked ahead, eyes glazed.
"Yes I am." Katherine smiled back at the boy.
Elena sneered at her. "No you're just awful."
The Union officer smiled. "It's almost done; I've got most of the good stuff crated up so we can put in on the next train north."
He glanced up as two women approached. "Oh hello ladies, is there anything we may assist you with?"
"Wow, you're just so, so handsome. I really love how you look in that uniform. You're cut quite a striking image." Matthew gushed.
"Well thank you Miss that's most flattering of you, and I must say you're rather comely yourself."
The other youth Mark gazed at the Union soldier as if mesmerized. He approached slowly and reached out to stoke the soldier's face...
Then he leapt at him grabbing him and nuzzling at his neck.
The officer looked over at his companion and smirked to himself as he grabbed the other youth in ladies dress by the arms pulling him closer.
Damon sighed as he looked on. "If this gets out, I am so court martialled."
Elena smirked. "With these types of shenanigans you really are looking like a Boy Scout leader."
From behind Damon grabbed one of the Union officers in a choke hold around his neck, he looked over to see that Katherine had done the same with the other man.
"Not a sound or I break your neck." He whispered.
They quickly backed into the large tent behind them.
Katherine removed the habit she wore as she glared down at bound and knelling Lieutenant Dan. "Remember me? I told you, I'd be back."
"Are you mad woman? Do you think some mere girl could walk in here among all of these men whom I command and leave unscathed."
"Good thing I'm no mere girl then." She snarled and her eyes flamed up in veined red, she flared her teeth at him.
"What? You're a vampire? But that's impossible, you walk in the daylight."
"Yes well that's due to this ring which you overlooked simply because it held no obvious monetary worth. Had you run your little magical magnification lens over it, it might have been a different story."
She rummaged through his pockets. "It's not on you, where did you put it? Where is it? Tell me or die!"
"Do you think I'll tell you anything, you're a vampire you'll probably just kill me anyway."
"Well that's just it, I am a vampire which means that even though I'll kill you anyway, you'll tell me anyway." Her pupils constricted as she looked deeply into the officers eyes.
The Union officer pointed blankly to a wooden crate in the corner. "It's in the container with all the other goods I'm shipping back home."
Katherine bashed the wooden crate open. Out came spilling a large assortment of jewellery, large coined money and gemstones.
"Wow." Damon whistled. "A regular chest of pirate treasure."
Katherine bent down and picked up a large gleaming white gemstone.
She turned to Damon. "Gather it up, make sure you set this aside for me." She handed him the moonstone.
She pointed at the two boys. "Split up the rest and give these two boys an equal cut."
"But that's plunder stolen from our southern neighbors shouldn't it be returned to them?" Matthew asked.
"Well that just what I'm doing, you're southern boys right. Ready to give your all for the Confederacy, only fair that you get a little back for all you've lost. Now that you've got a little pay, how about a little payback?"
"Which of you boys wants to be first to kill a Yankee?"
"You..." Katherine stared at the younger boy Matthew.
"You were the self-professed Yankee killer weren't you?" She handed him the knife.
"They killed your brother right?"
Matthew shook as he removed the longhaired wig from his head. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and looked at the man kneeling before him with confusion.
"Please, please don't kill me I don't want to die please. Have mercy."
Matthew bit his lip in trepidation.
Katherine sneered. "Why should you show him mercy? The Yankees never had any mercy for your brother…"
He raised the knife up to use it.
"Please, I'm sorry I have a brother, I know how I would feel if someone killed him." Tears rolled down the man's face. "But please. It wasn't me. I don't wanna die."
Katherine bent over him. "All Yankees deserve to die, isn't that what you were saying earlier?"
Matthew shook his head. "Maybe I did. But maybe I don't want to kill 'em no more. Maybe it just ain't right to. Leastways not like this."
"Look you're going to kill him whether you want to or not." Katherine glared at him harshly. "He has to die, do you understand."
"I understand, but I don't really want no blood on my hands."
"I'm sorry." Matthew lowered the knife.
Damon looked up to see Catherine's eyes swell up with red rage at this defiance.
"So am I." Damon said as he quickly stepped forward.
The Union soldier's eyes went wide in sudden alarm and then he slumped down forward on top of the boy. Damon pushed him off revealing the blood soaked knife the boy held in his hands was being kept in place by Damon's own larger hand.
The boy looked down at the man slumped at his feet and backed away in horror.
"Don't worry Matthew; the blood isn't on your hands." Damon whipped the blood away from his own hands.
Katherine shook her head at Damon as if she had known all along he would intervene. She handed him a cloth for his hands. "Sweetheart you're gonna have to learn that sometimes you have to just let things go and play out for themself."
"One down, next up." Katherine handed another blade to the other boy.
Damon stepped in front of them "Katherine enough, they're still just boys."
But Mark took the knife. "It's ok Lieutenant, if he had to die then I might as well be the one who kills him, as a Confederate soldier it's my duty and I don't need any treasure to motivate me to do my duty."
The Union Lieutenant sneered. "What is you want? I'm not going to plead cravenly for my life, so just get on with it."
"All right, down to business then." The youth jabbed the soldier in the gut. "That's for my brother."
He jabbed him again. "That's for my pa."
And then the youth went wild stabbing the officer repeatedly and viciously. "And that's for you Yankees coming down here and meddling in our affairs, with your damn emancipation proclamation, they're ours; ours you ain't got no right to take our property..."
Damon stood and watched in horror.
Katherine's eyes narrowed scrupulously. "I figured he'd be the real killer. It's strange but it's always the quiet unassuming types, with deeply felt resentment issues..."
She looked over at Damon confidently. "I expected it all the signs were there."
Damon looked at her dispassionately, then down to the boy who held the dripping blade in his hands. "I admit I didn't expect; I didn't see…"
"Don't feel bad, most men don't, but the ability to size people up quickly can be learned. And you've got the natural talent to be good at it, everything given, you're an excellent pupil." She stoked his face.
Damon smiled back at her. "That's only because I have such a very clever teacher."
She bent down to the blood drenched boy. "Now I need you to carve up their faces until they're not recognizable anymore. Can you do that?"
"With pleasure Miss Katherine." Mark looked up at her.
Elena looked up to see a smiling Damon who gazed down at Katherine with undisguised affection.
She shook her head in disbelief at the sight. "Oh my God, Damon, what do see in her? Really?"
"Well you have to admit she is pretty hot."
"Funny…" Elena raised her brow mockingly. "No I mean it, all I see is evil manipulative bitch."
"Then you're not looking hard enough, or maybe you're looking too hard and seeing only the surface. I like her for the same reason I like you…"
He winked at her. "You're not just beautiful, you're really smart."
"When I was growing up if a girl came from the right family and was very comely like Katherine was she had no end of eminent suitors wanting to be with her. But what struck me about Katherine was that she was no mere pompous southern belle, even though she was pampered and doted upon as if she was a delicate and defenceless female as was the norm at the time, she was the one in control and she maintained control not just because of her beauty and feminine charm but through her wits and guile. That really struck a chord with me."
"Why?" Elena shook her head. "I don't understand did you want to be crafty and manipulative like her or…"
"Look times may have changed some but even today if a woman if born with exceptionally good looks, all she really has to do is wink at the right wealthy man and she's assured of a reasonably secure future. Let's face it if you see a good looking woman in a position of authority or power it becomes natural to wonder if she achieved that position by true merit of her skills at the job or in the bedroom."
"And I was a wealthy aristocrat…"
Elena narrowed her eyes perceptively. "Who got everything handed to him just because of who your father was…"
"I'm a Lieutenant, I hold rank over these two here." Damon motioned to the two youths in dresses. You think I ever went to WestPoint? I just have good family connections."
"Look Katherine's condition, her need to drink blood, to use people like they were property, she has no choice in the matter it's something she needs to do, so she does it."
"I relate to that." He narrowed his eyes. "Hell, I was born to relate to that."
"What do you mean you were born to…?"
Elena peered at him thoughtfully. "You're the first born son; you were the one who was going to inherit your father's slave labor run operations..."
"Stefan was going to up north get his medical diploma at an Ivy League collage of his choice due to my family's connections, but I had to stay and run the show."
He beamed at her proudly. "Baby, I was born to be bad."
The Union soldiers hoisted the stretchers of two covered bodies on to the wagon.
Katherine approached Damon. "I've compelled them, they think those are the bodies of two Confederate soldiers and these two are their grieving widows who've come to identify them and claim their bodies."
She smiled brazenly. "We should be able to just ride right on out of here."
Damon nodded to the teenaged black boy. "Hey Frederic Douglas!"
"Yessir?" The black boy ran up to him.
"You know the area, You'll be able to guide us out onto the main road. "
"Yessir. I'll do anything you need, you done paid me good."
Damon turned to Mark. "You see the benefits of free labor market incentive?"
Mark looked at Frederic Douglas with scorn. Frederic lowered his eyes as he approached. "I'm awful sorry bout yer husband ma'am."
He bowed and went to climb onto the wagon.
But Mark grabbed him and pushed him against it. "It's all your fault, all of it's on account of you."
"Hey…" Damon grabbed Mark by the shoulder and pulled him back. "Hey, let him go and climb up in your seat like a good girl."
He turned to Frederic. "Sorry she's just, um, grieving."
Frederic nodded expressionlessly as he climbed up onto the wagon.
The wagon stopped and Frederic hopped off the wagon. "You take that road south and you can't miss it."
"Thanks for all your help Frederic." Damon said as he reached into the pouch filled with loot and grabbed a large gold coin to lob at him.
"By golly is that real gold?" He bit into it and his eyes lit up.
Damon pulled the reins and started the horses up again.
He looked down at the big bag of loot at his feet and his eyes curled in amusement.
He pulled back on the reins. "Whoa."
"What are you doing Damon?" Katherine sat up. "Why are we stopping?"
"Just a moment." He grasped his rifle and jumped down from the wagon.
"Hey Frederic!" Damon waved at the boy in the distance.
Frederic trotted up to him quickly and Damon ran to meet him.
Catherine looked behind her as Damon and the boy talked, Damon handed the rifle over to the boy who took it apprehensively.
Then he ran back to the wagon and climbed on board.
"What was that about?" Katherine inquired.
"I figured I might as well give the boy my gun for hunting; I don't plan to be using it anymore anyhow."
"What do you mean?" Mark asked.
"I mean I quit, it's over, I'll resign my army commission and go back home to Mystic Falls."
He turned to the youths behind him. "And you two are going to do the same."
They stood outside of a row of shops in a small town, the two boys dressed normally again in civilian clothing.
Mark yelled at Damon in exasperation. "We can't desert. We'll be court martialled and shot."
"Look you're not going back to the war. Take your share of that money use it to start a new life back home. As far as army command will be concerned you boys are officially dead."
Mark shook his head. "You can't expect me to give up the fight for the cause."
"Don't you get it the cause is lost. And you two really being dead won't change that. So unless you've got twenty slaves I'm not aware of…" Damon pointed at the body draped under the white sheet. "That body is now officially yours."
"Twenty slaves? What are you talking about twenty slaves?" Elena interrupted.
"Didn't pay attention in history class I take it?" Damon winked at her. "It's about the draft; anybody who owns twenty or more slaves is exempt from military service."
"Really?" Elena raised a brow.
"Caused huge dissention in the ranks, I got some heat from some of the men because of it. Luke made a point of standing up for me, even though his family was as poor as they come. He told everyone that I'd stay and fight to the very end, that I was too honorable to use my status to escape army service."
Damon looked down. "Good thing he was dead by this time."
"Talking about Luke reminds you of Alaric doesn't it?"
"Heh, now it does, it was the other way round before Ric reminded me of Luke. Hell, I must have told him more stories about Luke and me in the war than anything else."
Damon smiled wistfully. "Funny thing is Ric used to love hearing it; I guess it figures with him being a history teacher and everything. He could never get enough of the civil war stuff."
"Still by the time Luke got killed I myself had more than enough of the war, I wanted out, I wanted to be with Katherine."
Damon shouted down at Katherine from atop the wagon. "I'll take these two bodies back to our main encampment, tell them I lost more soldiers under my command and resign my commission. Wait for me at the inn until I return and we'll go back to Mystic Falls together."
"You know I can travel much faster on my own and I'm sure Stefan is getting lonely by now." Katherine teased him.
"Please Katherine. Don't leave without me." He flicked the reins and the wagon surged ahead.
Elena sat across from him as they drove along.
"So does she?"
"Wait for me? What do you think?"
"I think she probably went home to Stefan and left you behind."
"And you'd probably be right except for one thing. Let's fast forward a little."
Damon opened the door and saw Katherine seated at a table.
"Ah you waited for me."
"You didn't give me much choice; you left with all my jewelry. It's the very reason I came out here to see you."
"Not the only reason I'm sure." He smiled as he bent down to kiss her.
"You have it?"
Damon opened the bag and pulled out the moonstone. "Here's what you asked about."
Her eyes lit up as she clutched the moonstone. "Good, good."
"And I found this; it's beautifully crafted and inscribed on the back, to Katarina Petrova with love. Katrina Petrova that's your real name not Katherine Pierce."
"Well we all must assimilate if you don't want to be conspicuous. Let's say I want to keep Katarina Petrova well and buried in the past."
She frowned as she looked in the bag. "This is empty; Where's the rest of it?"
"About that…" He looked at her slyly and smiled.
Her pupil constricted as she glared at him angrily. "Tell me Damon, what did you do with the rest of our treasure?"
"I gave it away…"
"What? To whom?"
Earlier…
Damon ran up to Frederic Douglas. "Frederic, good. Look I'm not really a priest..."
The teenaged boy looked at Damon confused.
Damon continued. "The truth is we're Confederates and we broke into the Yankee camp to steal from them. Or more precisely steal back from the Yankees."
"Anyway we just killed two of them and when the rest find them missing they'll wonder what happened and they'll probably find out about us, and find out that you helped us."
Frederic's eyes widened in fear.
Damon continued. "You see it doesn't really matter that you've been helping these Yankees and catching rabbits for them and stuff, they'll turn on you. They might even kill you."
"But I don't wanna see that happen, I wanna help you. I don't rightly know why but I do. So you take this here rifle and head north, far north, right up to Canada. Do you know where that is?
"I wanted to go up to Canada before the war but I don't need to no more."
"You think so? You think anything's really changed? That Yankee army's going to go home and if you stay here it's going to be full of people just like Mark."
Frederic squinted confused.
Damon added. "People like my lady friend, the one that attacked you; Canada is ruled by Queen Victoria in England. And they freed their slaves long ago. And Canada's still untamed land, great for hunting. A good shot like yourself could really strike it rich. I hear there's a lot of money in the fur trade."
He handed Frederic the rifle. "Here, take this and leave here, as quickly as you can, just make sure you check your rabbit snares before you go. Promise me."
Now…
Katherine glared at Damon in exasperation. "You gave it to Frederic Douglas, you left my treasure in that boys rabbit snare?"
"You're not angry with me are you? It's not like we actually need any of it."
She looked at him dispassionately for a moment as if puzzling him out, then a slow wistful smile came to her lips. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and patted the side of his head.
Elena looked on at the pair of them sympathetically.
Katherine took Damon's hand in hers. "No, I'm not mad."
"But you need to forget you ever helped me get this moonstone." She held up the white stone. "I don't want you inadvertently mentioning anything to Pearl. As far as she is concerned the Union army still has it."
"I want you to forget everything that's just happened." Katherine's pupil narrowed and she grabbed Damon by the chin and looked into his eyes. "Ok darling?"
"Ok." Damon gazed back at her blankly.
She reached up and kissed him.
He kissed her, and then drew back from her as he ran his hand along the back of her black leather jacket.
"Elena?" Damon stared down at the leather jacketed Elena standing where Katherine had been. "What are you doing?"
"Oh come on." Elena smirked. "Technically you're still dreaming, it's not like I'm really kissing you."
"But you still haven't broken the sire bond you know what that means."
"Sorry, it's just that at that moment you really were kinda irresistible, and I figure I might as well fill in some good bits before I end this dream."
Damon sat up from his bed in alarm. He turned to see Elena lying on her back beside him lying on top of the covers. She was fully clothed wearing a plain open collared black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black motorcycle boots.
She curled her hands behind her head smugly as she turned her head on the pillow to face Damon. "Bet you were dreaming about me."
Stefan stepped into the room seeing the pair of them curled up together on the bed. "Either of you two want to explain to me what's going on?"
Damon pleaded with exasperation to his brother. "Oh come on Stefan it's not like we slept together, slept together, well… that is, at least not last night."
Stefan frowned angrily at him.
Elena shook her head at him. "Damon, bad subject to bring up, you're not helping…"
"That's the whole point; helping." Damon smiled innocently. "Elena was helping me uncover my memory."
"And she couldn't have done that with a nap on the couch…" Stefan frowned. "She had to sleep all night in your bed?"
"What can I say, it was long dream." Damon shrugged his shoulders.
"Look…" Damon poured his brother a drink. "Now that we know who I gave the magnifying lens to we can track them down."
"Or more precisely track down their descendants." Elena came up to them carrying a portable lab top in her hands.
"I think I've found them." Elena turned over the laptop.
On screen was opened to a webpage advertising: Frederic Douglas Furs, established 1866.
"They're up in Canada." Elena pointed out.
"So who else wants to take off to the great white north?" Damon beamed.
Stefan examined the bears head attached to the skin. "My, my, that's a very nice pelt."
Behind him a sign was hung on the wall, Frederic Douglas Furs Inc. established 1866.
They were inside a large store with racks of different fur coats making up the aisles Damon perused the racks while Stefan and Elena stood at the empty counter.
"Damon mentioned that you were quite a good hunter when you were younger."
"I was…"
"Strange, it doesn't really mesh with being a doctor."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean how you feel about animals, hating and wanting to kill them."
"Whoa, I don't hate animals what are you talking about? What did Damon tell you?"
"Yeah…" Damon interjected. "Stefan was a regular James Herriot, Stefan used to help the stable master deliver the newborn calves and everything."
Elena shook her head as she gazed as the bears head. "But if you like them how can you kill them so easily?"
"Elena, you grew up in a different time, so you might not understand. But it wasn't like you could go to the corner grocery store and get your select cuts of meat; this is before the refrigerator was created. If you wanted fresh meat there was only one way to get it."
"I don't understand why you're so bothered by this." Stefan frowned at her. "You know I've done things far, far worse."
"As a vampire, not as human being. I might not have known what that difference really meant before but I do now."
"And the bloodlust, that I understand at least…"
"Tell me Stefan, I just want to know, how you can look at a living breathing being like that…" Elena pointed to the bears head.
"And think wow, what magnificent creature, and then blam!" She mock fired a gun. "Want to blow its brains out?"
"It's a reminder that it's all impermanent, I guess."
She looked at him with skepticism.
He threw up his shoulders in exasperation. "I dunno. I don't what to tell you Elena, you're a girl, and be it as it may, very few women hunt, or like hunting, just like most girls don't go for hard-core physical sports, like boxing."
"So it's a man thing?"
"No, it's not that…" He sighed.
"It's like there's nothing that tastes as good a fish you've caught, of a rabbit you've bagged yourself." He stoked the bear's head gently almost lovingly. "The truth is I never ever hated any of the animals I killed any more than I hated any of the people I killed. If anything I loved them."
"You loved them?" Elena looked over at Stefan as he absently ran his hand along the bear rug.
"Elena…"
"No I think I understand. I may be a girl, but I am a girl vampire. I understand the hunt part now, even if I don't get the kill part."
"Stefan." Elena lowered her eyes. "I don't know if I should tell you this but…"
"If it's about Damon."
"It's about Katherine."
"Oh." He took a step back in apprehension.
"I think it bothered her a lot, that turning you into a vampire would release the darker aspects of your personality."
"Really?" Stefan raised his brow sceptically.
"She needs you to be better than her. I think the reason she fell for you is that at heart you're really good guy."
Stefan crossed his arms. "And you think this because?"
Elena paused hesitantly. "Because that's the reason I fell for you."
Stefan stepped closer to her, but Elena put a hand on his chest to prevent his approach. "Despite what she's done, Katherine really loves you."
"Elena, Katherine is not capable of love. Not real love."
"Everything I saw in Damon's dream tells me otherwise."
'Why are you telling me this? About Katherine?" Stefan furled his brow. "Why are you suddenly on her side?"
"I'm not on her side I just think you need someone at your side."
"Yes, I need you at my side."
She looked over at Damon who was casually running though the racks of fur coats, he posed conspicuously before a mirror modeling a long fur he had just put on.
Stephan noticed Elena watching Damon. "Elena what you feel for Damon might not be real; you haven't broken the sire bond."
She looked at Stefan sadly.
"Or have you?" He squinted slightly.
"I don't know, I feel different after being in his head controlling his dream. I've been thinking what about what this sire bond really is, and I've come to the conclusion that's it's not all that different from the bond you feel with your parents."
"When you're young you don't really have your own view of the world you adopt your parents point of view. As you grow and gain new knowledge your views start to change and you may start to challenge a lot of your parent's beliefs. Look at how differently from your father you and Damon felt about vampires."
"But no matter how wrong you might think your parents are you never stop loving them."
The saleswoman approached Damon who was posing in front of the mirror wearing another fur coat.
"That looks quite good on you." She commented.
"Everything looks good on me." Damon ran his hand along the fur.
"Well you could easily model that coat."
"Yeah I guess, but the runways probably the only place I'd get to wear it. I live down south. Weather's a little too warm for this, maybe if I was Siberian."
Damon took off the coat and turned to her. "We're not really here to shop, we're looking to track down a certain Winifred Douglas, she apparently owns this establishment."
The lady reached out her hand for Damon to shake. "Winfred Douglas at your service, although people just call me Fred."
"Fred I'd like to ask you about an ancestor of yours, the man who started up this business after the civil war in fact. Your great, great, great grandfather Frederic Douglas."
"Really? You're in luck, I just happen to be really big into my family's genealogy, and I've researched Frederic extensively."
"Did you know that he financed the company initially with money he claimed was given to him by a Confederate officer?"
"You don't say?"
"Yes well he was still a youth when he first arrived at the end of the civil war. He was an excellent tracker and marksman and was able to gather a large number of pelts. But instead of just selling them to the main trading posts he got together with a native girl who sewed them into coats, hats, all the types of things you see around you."
"So then he used some of the money that this confederate soldier had given him to buy passage on a freighter for him and his cargo. He took his product overseas to England where he was able to get the patronage of some of the members of Queen Victoria's royal family."
"Once word got out that he was supplying the royals with furs everybody wanted his coats, we still ship most of our goods overseas to our European outlets."
"Do you happen to know if there's anything left of the treasure given to him by that Confederate officer?"
She pointed at the wall. "That's everything that's left."
There in a display case covered in glass was the rifle Damon had given Frederic as well as a large round magnifying glass.
"Eureka I have found it." Damon smiled as he looked at the display case which contained a picture of an older Frederic Douglas.
Elena approached behind him. "You really are happy about this, aren't you?"
"Yeah now we can grab this thing, decipher Jeremy's tattoo and maybe get you back to your old self."
"That's not what I mean, you're happy that things turned out so well for Frederic, that you were able to help him."
Damon scoffed. "What can I say, I have a dream, that one day our nation will rise up and fulfill the promise of its creed that all men are created equal."
"I'm hardly the poster boy for civil rights Elena, don't make this into more than it is."
Elena grabbed him and looked him in the eyes purposefully. "Damon, you wouldn't have turned out like your father. If the war had never of happened and slavery wasn't ever abolished and you never met Catherine and you took over from your father like you were raised to, you still wouldn't have been like him. If Abraham Lincoln hadn't of freed your slaves, you probably would've.
Damon turned away from her and looked down shaking his head. He intoned sarcastically. "Yeah sure, I'd have been the good guy. Right…"
"You know Catherine was right about you. You're all bluster and ego on the outside, but deep inside your really do lack confidence in yourself."
Damon smirked. "Maybe I just know my limitations."
Damon smashed the glass on the display case and removed the magnifying glass.
"Hey you can't do that." Winifred the saleswoman screamed.
Stefan stepped in front of her, to fend her off. "It's all right Winifred."
"You know I'm surprised Catherine wasn't angrier at me for giving this away." Damon held up the magnifying glass. "Considering its value."
"Angry?" Elena shook her head at him. "Damon I recognised the way she looked at you when you confessed. I know how she was feeling at the time because it was so close to what I was feeling. She wasn't angry with you, she was proud of you."
She reached and took the magnifying glass from his hand.
"There's another reason besides Jeremy's tattoos that I wanted to find this mirror. Bonnie says it reveals hidden magic, makes clear the mystical connection between objects, and people."
Stefan interceded between them. "So you're thinking it will reveal just how linked Damon is with you because of the sire bond."
"Or if I even am linked with Damon because of the sire bond anymore. Something's changed and I can't help but think that the love I feel for him is real, and true."
"Elena you know how the sire bond effects people. Let's face it you're becoming more like him all the time. You're even starting to dress like him, that's not like you; you've always been one to march to your own drum."
"Maybe I am playing my own drum; maybe you can't see that because you're out of step to the beat."
Elena grabbed Damon's arm and curled onto it. "But Damon can keep up."
Elena turned back to Stefan. "But then unlike you he always did enjoy dancing with me."
Stephan's mouth gaped open, clearly wounded by her words. He turned away from them.
Elena approached Damon and placed her hand upon his chest. "You know you told me once that I should've met you back in 1864, that I would have liked you back then. Well you were right."
"Getting inside your head, seeing your humanity without you coving it over and camouflaging it with your mix of humor and apathy." She stoked his face as she gazed at him. "To see you clearly, not shrouded in darkness it was very illumining."
"I think I finally know you Damon." She reached over and kissed his face gently. "And I think I love you now because I know you."
Stephen looked on in abject horror at the pair.
Damon said nothing but looked back at his brother guiltily.
Elena took the magnifying glass and held it to her eye as she looked at her image in one of the store mirrors.
She saw herself clearly in the middle dressed in her familiar sneakers surrounded on one side by Damon and on the other by Stefan.
Slowly Stefan's image began to fade and as he faded he became angry his eyes swelled up red and sharp teeth protruded from his jaws.
She and Damon were left alone in the image. However her hair was no longer strait but now had a wave to it; she no longer wore the simple sneakers but the motorcycle boots and leather jacket that the Salvatore brothers favored.
And then her face began to morph into that of Damon's face. They stood side by side dressed similarly in black leather and both had their eyes fare up blood red and sharp canines emerged.
Suddenly Elena was left alone in the mirror but the image that greeted her was not her image but Damon's.
She reached up to touch her face, yet when she looked in the mirror it was still Damon's face she saw, yet it was unmistakably her painted fingernails and hands that ran across that face.
Elena screamed. "No, no, I'm not him. It's not just because of him. It's real. It's real."
"It's real, God damn you stupid piece of junk." With angry force she threw the magnifying glass at the mirror and they both shattered into a million pieces. A flare of light seemed to emanate from the impact as the magnifying glasses magical energy was unleashed.
Damon turned to Elena in shock. "Elena what did you just do? We needed that magnifying glass for Jeremy?"
Elena looked over at Damon in shock. "I had my feelings badly hurt and so I reacted violently and impulsively without regard to the consequences for anyone including myself."
"Elena?" Damon asked pleadingly.
She turned away from Damon shaking her head in worry, "I have to go. I have to be away from you."
She reached over and stoked his face gently. "I'm so sorry Damon."
"I may know you now, understand you like I never could before; the problem is I don't know myself anymore…" Tears fell from her eyes as she kissed him lightly on the mouth.
Then she pulled away from him pulling the black leather jacket off of her like it was contaminated.
"I need to go. I've got to leave you, I'm sorry." She said as she walked away.
"I know, its ok." Damon turned to his brother. "Stefan can drive you home."
She turned toward the exit. "Let's go."
Damon grabbed her arm. "Elena stop."
"Let go of me Damon, I have to go." She turned away from him visibly distraught, tears still steaming from her face. "You know I have to go."
"I do, but Elena we're in Canada, in winter, you can't go outside without a coat you'll freeze to death."
He gestured behind him to the racks. "Whatever one you want, my treat."
Almost blindly still wiping tears from her eyes, she clutched at one of the coats on the rack and turned to Stefan. "What kind of fur is this?"
"That? If I'm not mistaken that's simple rabbit fur..."
"I guess you'd know." Elena grabbed the coat and pulled it on.
"All these bunnies died to keep me warm..." Elena patted at the fur of the jacket as tears streamed down her face
"Why does everything die for me?" She said as she exited through the door outside.
"I have a dream." Magnus Parvus