Fly me to the moon

Damon Salvatore was unimpressed by the little town he found himself living in. It was small, boring and predictable. He had already met the mayor Mr. Carpenter; he was a fat middle aged man with a fat middle aged wife who lived together in their respectable large home. It was rumoured that they had just welcomed their orphaned niece from England and were currently searching for a rich and respectable husband for her.

It was thanks to this desire to marry off their only niece that Damon had been invited to meet her at their perfect home on the afternoon of June the 3rd 1962. She was rumoured to be a pretty girl, but not his type. She was a blonde for one, he never went for blondes he preferred girls with more of a resemblance to his beloved Katherine. But being a respectable young gentleman with a considerable fortune, as the town believed him to be, he was forced to attend.

The house was spotless to the human eye and flowers were placed strategically around the large rooms to spread their sickly sweet sent evenly around the house. Damon wore his new suit as he knew would be expected of him. He strolled confidently up to the house and knocked smartly on the door. Mayor Carpenter and his wife Marilyn answered the door together with a practised performance of a happy family even though Damon knew that they were both cheating on each other and his Vampire hearing had picked up that the whole town knew about it too.

"Ah, Mr. Salvatore, we were just waiting for you so that we could begin. Our dearest niece Rosalind is waiting to meet you." The mayor smiled at Damon showing off a set of beer stained teeth and moved aside to invite him in. "Please won't you come in." He invited the vampire into his home.

"Thank you mayor, Mrs. Carpenter." Damon smiled charmingly at the couple who both looked dazed. He was led onto the main room where the other town folk were gathered waiting for him so that they could begin introducing the new Carpenter brat. Damon sighed; this would be a long afternoon.

As he waited, he wondered absently what his younger brother Stefan would think if he saw him now. He chuckled under his breath. Stefan was feral at the moment; he had turned off his humanity and was tearing his way across New York last time Damon checked. Who knew sweet, responsible Stefan would end up with the nickname 'The Ripper' he definitely didn't see that one coming.

He was momentarily distracted by a flash of gold and the rustle of a party dress, he casually leaned back so he could see out of the door and down the hallway where the mayor was talking to a young woman in a light blue form fitting dress and long hair that was partly pulled back in a small braid but left to hang loose down the back.

Although he had heard of the third Carpenter being blonde he had to disagree, with his advanced vision he could see the gold's and reds in her hair. It was a captivating colour somewhere between cornfield gold and coppery red. Her blue eyes lit up a coral green in the sunlight and her small but curvaceous frame had a quiet grace that was more common back in Damon's days as a human. She was strangely beautiful, but then again she wasn't Katherine. But it was the conversation they were having that really caught his attention.

"Now Rosalind, please be nice, one of these men could be your husband." The mayor told his niece with impatience.

"Please Uncle Neil; I don't want to be married. Just give me a little time to get back on my feet and I will move out. I am eighteen I can look after myself." She whispered pleadingly back.

"Listen young lady." Her uncle hissed. "You will marry any man who asks, I don't care who. All of these men would make wonderful new relations for us; they are all respectable and most importantly rich. Your aunt and I are being incredibly generous introducing you to the kind of men you would never have been able to meet living with your no good parents. Now you will go out there and flirt with those men otherwise you can forget about receiving any help from me." Rosalind sighed in defeat.

"Fine" she muttered.

"Good" her uncle growled.

Damon went back to mingling before anyone could notice what he had seen. Neil Carpenter entered the room not long after with his niece on his arm. She was smiling politely but she was calm and unfazed by all the pretentious grandeur. Surprisingly Damon liked her already.

He watched her mingle; she was easily smarter than many of the young men in the room. She smiled and answered questions with barely restrained wit and charm. She carefully brushed off any advances without being rude and as far as her uncle knew she was trying her best to find a husband. But Damon could hear the subtle insults she threw at unsuspecting suitors as she gently pushed them all away. At last she reached Damon's part of the room and greeted him.

"Mr. Salvatore, it is a pleasure to meet you. My uncle spoke very highly of you." She told him. He smirked.

"Of course he did Miss Carpenter; he was probably planning our meeting even when he spoke to you about me. I have heard nothing but complements about you as well." He told her. She smirked back.

"Well in that case Mr. Salvatore I can speak to you plainly. I don't want a husband, and I can assume that you wouldn't like to be fobbed off with some distant relative of a semi respectable small town mayor. So I think we can agree to go our separate ways without the pretence of flirting." She smiled and prepared to move onto the next man when Damon reached to put his hand on her arm to stop her.

"Please, Miss Carpenter. I am curious to know, as I expect any man in my position would why you wouldn't want a husband." He asked. She gave him an annoyed look and turned back to face him again.

"It might be considered old fashioned Mr. Salvatore but I would like the chance to marry for love. I would rather marry a poor man I loved than a rich, respectable man I didn't." Damon was surprised by her admission. She wasn't as much like her greedy relatives as he had thought.

"Why don't you take a walk with me?" he asked using a little compulsion to persuade her more easily. He wanted to know more about this strange girl but to his surprise she just shook her head.

"I'm sorry Mr. Salvatore but I have more young men to meet." She apologised. He was too surprised to call her back but he managed to take a discreet inhale of her scent as she turned away. He couldn't smell any vervain. Strange.

Damon was curious about this new development but most of all he was curious about the strange woman who was so unimpressed by riches and status. He stayed at the house, talking with the mayor until the other suitors were long gone. As he expected the mayor took the opportunity to invite Damon to dinner. Damon, of course accepted. As they sat in the mayor's study talking about the local town gossip and drinking whiskey the mayor asked Damon the question which was circling not only his mind but the vampires mind as well.

"So Damon what did you think of my Niece?" he asked hopefully.

"I liked her." Damon replied prompting a muttered sound of victory from the fat man behind the desk.

"Did you think our Rosalind was likable enough to marry though Damon? That is the question." Mr. Carpenter wondered. Damon considered his question carefully with a sip of whiskey.

"I suppose. She was extremely likable. But marriage, it isn't something I've considered in a long time." He confided.

"Well let's hope our Rosalind can make you reconsider." He said.

Dinner was a grand affair as was everything in the Carpenters house. The mayor sat at the head of the table with his wife on his left and Damon on his right, Rosalind sat beside Damon. There wasn't much conversation during dinner but Damon asked to take Rosalind for a walk when they had eaten.

"So Mr. Salvatore I guess you are not a man who is easily dissuaded?" She asked as he guided her towards a small manicured rose garden.

"No, but I'm not just walking with you to get on your nerves you know."

"Well enlighten me Mr. Salvatore why are you walking with me then?" Damon wasn't sure how to answer that so he changed the subject.

"You should really stop calling me Mr. Salvatore if we're going to be friends. My name is Damon. You may use it."

"My name is Rosalind but you know that, don't you Mr. Salvatore?" She smirked.

"Do people always call you Rosalind? it's quite a mouthful isn't it? Don't you get called Rosa or something?" he asked.

"My friends used to call my Linda." She told him.

"Linda? No I prefer Rosa." He decided.

"What so you're going to change my name now?" She asked him with a surprised chuckle.

"You can be your friend's Linda. You are my Rosa." He answered.

"I'm not your anything." she said, her English accent heavy. He smiled.

"Whatever you say Rosa." She rolled her eyes. They reached the rose garden and she sat down on a wooden bench and looked around.

"Sunshine is a lovely change for me. It rains so often in England." She said absently.

"You like it here?" he asked.

"Yea I guess." She smiled smoothing her blue dress as she talked. "But I loved England too."

"So why did you leave?" she frowned.

"Too many bad memories, that and I had nowhere to go."

"What happened to you Rosa?" he smirked at the name. "What drove you away?" he pried.

"My parents died, everyone knows that." She shrugged.

"Elaborate." he demanded. She huffed and muttered unintelligibly under her breath in annoyance.

"They were in a fire," She began with an irritated sigh. "I was staying with a friend and my parents were home with my sister Mary. There was a gas explosion at our house. They burned to the ground and when I got home the house was in ruins and they were gone. So I was sent to stay with Uncle Neil and Aunt Marilyn."

"And how do you like living with your aunt and uncle?" Damon asked her.

"Neil is my Dad's older brother and he has always believed that my parents wasted their lives because they weren't rich and they didn't spend all their time making sure they had a good social standing. They just lived, they were happy and in love. And Mary and I always knew that we were loved. So I suppose it's like living with someone who believes everything you find important is rubbish and everything you think is rubbish they find important. Add that to the constant matchmaking with any rich man in the vicinity and you can describe my life here in detail." She shook her head as if she was shaking off the memories and looked back up at Damon.

"You really are determined to marry for love aren't you?" He muttered almost to himself.

"Yes," She told him honestly.

"Well in that case. I will just have to make you fall in love with me." He concluded. She just rolled her eyes.

Damon spent the evening walking in the gardens with Rosa, they talked about their lives and the things they both enjoyed to do and found they had a lot in common. Besides their shared sense of humour he found they both liked the same books and were both interested in cars and the hippy movement. He was surprised by her taste in music and the fact she had tried some recreational drugs when she lived in England.

Rosa was a mystery to Damon, he had tried multiple times to compel her but it never worked, she didn't even seem to know what he was doing and he could smell no vervain. She was fun and knew how to act out and be stupid sometimes; she definitely knew how to make fun of herself. But she could also be responsible and grown up beyond her years. Her empathy to everyone around her was astonishing as was her unfaltering optimism. They were the same in all the ways that mattered but different enough to make it interesting. Damon could safely say that he had grown fond of the human girl in just one day.

Rosa on the other hand was confused. The man made no sense to her, a rich man who followed the rules of society and yet seemed to have little if no respect for them. He mocked the proud respectable people of the town including himself while somehow coming across as a person living the way he wanted instead of the way that was expected of him. He seemed almost to live on the edge of civilisation, and from what he had said she guessed that when the life he had made for himself got boring he would simply move on. She didn't see why this time would be any different, and yet he seemed to be trying to attach himself to her. He certainly was an enigma.

At the end of the evening Damon walked the human slowly back towards her uncles house, savouring their last moments together before they had to part for the night. Rosalind would not be drawing his name in her journal surrounded by hearts, and Damon would not be wondering what ring to buy her, but in their own ways, they both enthused about their day together when the couple had finally parted. Rosalind sketched a picture of him in her well worn sketch book. And Damon searched the grass verges for a flower the colour of her eyes.

The next day dawned bright, the kind of bright that made Rosalind smile and Damon thank god for his spelled ring. Damon walked towards the mayor's house again and picked a bouquet of blue and green wild flowers from the verges as he passed, trying to find the perfect coral green but never quite finding it. Rosalind sat in the back garden sketching and trying to perfect the face of the man that had so intrigued her the day before.

"What are you drawing?" Said an amused voice from behind her, she jumped and almost dropped her book. She turned to him with a scowl.

"None of your business," She told a laughing Damon, who just laughed even more at her disgruntled expression.

"I was going to ask if you missed me but if your drawings are any indication then you did." He said with an arched eyebrow and a smirk, his laughing now subsided.

"I draw what I see, and as I'm not blind I can unfortunately see you." She told him. He just grinned cheekily and handed her the blue and green flowers.

"For you." He said. She smiled politely.

"Thank you Mr. Salvatore." She said in a polite but detached manor. He frowned.

"I know they aren't from a flower shop but I thought you would appreciate these things." He said annoyed. She sighed.

"I do appreciate it Damon, you must have put a lot of work into this." She told him, resigned.

"What is it then? Why aren't you happy? You should be happy. Girls love being given flowers." He sounded genuinely confused and it made Rosalind smile.

"I am happy Damon I just don't like cut flowers." She sighed; she hadn't wanted to offend him. Damon looked surprised.

"You don't like flowers? How can you not like flowers?" He demanded.

"I do like flowers I just… Look Damon everyone gets flowers, you give flowers to your mad aunt when you visit her in hospital because it doesn't cost too much and she will probably never know. It is a token gift. It doesn't really mean anything but at least you can say you gave me something huh? I like flowers when they are alive and growing, not dead sitting on some windowsill. I truly appreciate your gift but I can't pretend to be super excited when I'm not." She admitted earnestly. His face softened and he took both her hands in his.

"Alright Rosa, you win. Your reasoning is fair and I won't get you flowers any more. But do you know why I got those particular flowers for you?" She shook her head. "I was trying to find the flower that was the colour of your eyes but I couldn't find it. I could only find lot's of similar colours." He told her. She smiled.

"In that case thank you. I love the flowers." She said. She laughed.

"Yea, yea, alright. Go and put them in water I'm taking you out for the day."

"You're taking me out are you? I think the idea is to ask a girl to go out not to tell them." He narrowed his eyes at her playfully.

"Will you go out with me?" He asked with mock annoyance.

"No" she said.

"No?" he asked in disbelieve.

"No," she confirmed. "I will let you take me somewhere today but don't think we will be doing this all the time. I do have a life you know." She grinned and then ran off towards the house. Damon let out a shocked chuckle before following her back towards her uncle's home.

Damon led Rosalind through the town and out into the fields beyond. They walked up a large hill through the woods, her too long jeans catching on roots as she stumbled through the trees. At the top, he put down his bag and settled himself down under the shade of a lone Ash tree.

"So what do you think?" He asked Rosa, who was still standing in the sun looking out over the town from this new height.

"Amazing" She breathed in wonder.

Damon's plan was to spend the morning on the hill and then have a picnic lunch and walk home, but he found that with Rosa, he lost track of time. By the time they got back to her uncles house it was dark and her uncle smirked as he saw them.

"Did the two of you have a good day?" He asked them. They only had to smile; the love struck look in both of their faces was enough to confirm his hopes.

Despite Rosalind's protests the Vampire and the human went out together almost every day and soon enough it became a common sight to see them around town together, but the real test of their strange friendship came one night as they cooked together in Damon's kitchen. Rosa (who had finally accepted her new name) was chopping tomatoes for the sauce when she cut her finger.

"Damn it" She swore, holding her bleeding finger and clenching her teeth. Damon backed away quickly keeping in the shadows with his face covered by darkness.

"Damon, are you alright?" She asked as she saw the horrified look on his face just before he was obscured by the dark.

"I'm fine." Damon muttered.

"Do you not like blood?" She asked suddenly realising what might have caused her friend to act this way.

"I said I'm fine." He snapped. She flinched surprised at his harsh tone. "Sorry" he muttered barely audible, but she heard him. She gave a small smile and turned to clean the blood off of her fingers.

Before she had even finished she felt a presence behind her and then Damon's hands appeared with her own gently inspecting her wounded finger. She moved to turn her head and look at him but his hand came up and guided her face back to the sink.

"Are you going to be alright Damon?" She asked lowly, trying not to anger him again.

"I will be." He said. She nodded and bandaged her finger without trying to look at his face again. When she was finally cleaned of any blood he moved away and she slowly turned around to look at him. He was looking at the floor with nothing but a small frown on his face.

"Damon." She said quietly, he didn't react but she knew he heard her. "What just happened?" For the longest time he didn't say anything, and then he looked up at her, the look that he gave her was completely honest and almost desperate.

"I only have one shot at this Rosa." He began. "Usually I can tell people my secret and then make them forget again, but for some reason it doesn't work on you, it never has." She didn't know what to say to that, she was completely confused and he wasn't making any sense.

"What do you mean?" She asked him.

"I am a vampire Rosa, that's why I reacted like that to your blood." Rosa just stood staring at Damon. She didn't know what to say but she was expecting him to laugh at any moment and say it was all a joke. She didn't move and neither did he.

Rosa was a smart girl and she knew that if her friend was lying he would have cracked by now and told her. She thought about what it would mean if he was telling the truth. It would mean he had lied to her ever since they met. But that was to be expected, he hadn't been close enough to tell her at first so he would have only wanted to tell her when they became good friends, even if he had to lie to her until that point. She could accept the lies.

He would need to drink blood. So he was a killer. The thought should have bothered her but she had seen enough death in her life to know that it was just a fact you had to live with. Tigers killed to eat, why would she care if Vampires did too? So the most surprising thing the fact that was the hardest to accept was not that Damon was a vampire, but that vampires actually existed. In that case what other creatures existed too? It was a scary thought, but nothing she couldn't accept for her friend.

Rosa was a loyal person and once she trusted someone, she trusted them completely. And however it had happened, Rosa discovered she had grown to trust Damon Salvatore and being a vampire shouldn't change all that much.

She was pulled from her thoughts as she reached her conclusion. She was still in the middle of a staring contest with Damon, a vampire. The thought didn't scare her as much as she thought it would, he was still just Damon, her friend, after all. So in the end the only thing she could think of to say was.

"Right, well I suppose I should be a bit more careful around knives in the future." Damon blinked twice and then frowned again.

"That's all you have to say? I tell you I'm a vampire and you say that?" He asked shocked and confused.

"Damon, you could be a great big bloody unicorn and I wouldn't care, you are still you. You're still Damon." She explained. He just gaped at her. She sighed.

"Look obviously I have some questions so can we sit down and eat something. I get hungry when I get a big shock." She asked.

"Right, yea sure." He muttered, they sat down and Rosa began to eat. Damon just sat still and watched her.

"So" She said between bites. "What can you tell me about Vampires?" Damon shrugged.

"We drink blood, we're immortal, and we burn in the sun."

"You burn in the sun?" She asked confused, she had seen him in the sun loads of times. He held up his hand to show her the ring there.

"This ring is lapis lazuli it's been spelled by a witch to protect me so that I can walk in the sun." He explained.

"Witches are real too right?" she muttered with a chuckle "Of course they are… What about fangs?" she asked making him chuckle.

"When I smell blood or when I want to feed my eyes change and my fangs extend." He told her.

"That's why you wouldn't let me look at you when you smelled my blood." She realised.

"Yes" he nodded.

"What about stakes, do they kill you?"

"Yes, also there is a herb called vervain that stops us from compelling people and it makes our skin burn."

"What do you mean compelling people?"

"Compelling is like hypnotism or mind control, I can look into a persons eyes and get them to do anything for me from letting me drink from them to forcing them to forget all about it when I tell them to. But it doesn't work on you. I never worked out why but it doesn't." He said, she nodded excepting his explanation.

"How do you become a vampire?" She asked.

"You drink another vampire's blood and then you die with that blood in your system." He said.

"Oh" was all she had to say.

Damon and Rosa spent hours talking after that, Damon could now speak more freely about his past without holding anything back, and Rosa felt more at ease with him knowing the secret that she had somehow always known he had been hiding.

He told her about Katherine and how he and Stefan fought. He told her about Stefan's humanity switch and how he was a ripper who Damon was trying to stay as far away from as he could.

The next weeks saw the friends becoming closer and closer, they had known each other now for a full six months and it was clear to both that they were in love. But neither had confessed this to the other. That was until Neil Carpenter decided that he had waited for Damon to propose long enough and he would be arranging a marriage to another young man instead.

He called Rosa into his office one night to tell her, she sat completely still in her chair for a full five minutes before running off upstairs without uttering a word. She didn't come to breakfast the next morning; she stayed in her room all day. The next day Damon decided to call on her as he hadn't seen her and it was unlike her to stay away without giving him a reason as to why.

When he arrived at the house he was greeted by a flustered mayor Carpenter.

"Ah, Damon thank goodness you are here perhaps you can talk some sense into my niece. She hasn't come out of her room since yesterday, not even to eat."

"What?" Damon asked, all at once confused and worried for his friend.

"Ever since she got engaged she has shut herself up in that room of hers, she hasn't spoken a word since." He said worriedly.

"What?" Damon said harsher this time. He didn't ask he just barged past the mayor and up to the bedrooms, he easily found Rosalind's room and without knocking he burst in. Rosalind was pacing by her window, yesterdays clothes ruffled and she looked like she hadn't slept. Damon stood at her door, his eyes wild as she stopped pacing to look up at him her red puffy eyes giving away the fact that she had been crying.

"You're engaged?" Was all he said. They stared at each other for a long moment each hoping to communicate silently the love they felt for the other. Damon spoke first.

"When?" He asked, moving to push the door closed and sit on the edge of her bed.

"I don't know, I didn't ask." She replied quietly.

"Don't you want to choose when it happens? It is supposed to be the happiest day of your life." Damon spat out bitterly. "Who are you marrying anyway? You never said anything before about meeting someone."

"I haven't met him. My Uncle picked him out and informed me of the engagement yesterday." She said. His head whipped up to look at her.

"What?" he asked again.

"I don't know what to do. I can marry whoever my uncle picked out or I can leave and try to survive on my own. Honestly I'm leaning more towards the leave option but I just don't know." She confessed.

"You don't love him?" Damon asked her.

"No Damon. I couldn't possibly love him. I've never even met him." She said.

"But your uncle wants you to marry someone."

"Yes"

"You could marry me?" He suggested quietly. It was her turn to whip her head round to look at him. He was everything she had ever wanted. But she couldn't risk being married to a man who she would always love but who may never love her back.

"I can't marry you Damon. For starters you would never age while I got old and died, that would be weird for starters."

"So you won't marry me because I'm a vampire?" he asked bitterly.

"No Damon, it would be a problem but that's not why I won't marry you."

"Then why?" He asked, a little more desperately than he would have liked.

"Because I wanted to marry for love Damon!" She all but yelled at him.

"And you don't love me." Damon concluded. Rosa sighed and sat down on the bed beside him.

"If you really believe that then your vampire senses obviously aren't as good as you thought they were. But I can't be married to someone who I would always love but would have to be content with getting back only friendly affection from. You may not be able to tell Damon but I do have a little dignity. That and I am not a masochist either." Damon looked at his friend, a girl he had fallen so hopelessly in love with and wondered how she could possibly not know what he felt for her.

"You really believe I don't love you Rosa, after all the time we spent together. You mean the world to me and I can't bare the thought of you marrying someone else. So I will ask you once again. Rosa Carpenter, will you marry me?" Rosa stared at the man beside her unsure of what to believe or what to say. But she decided to take his proposal in her usual understated way.

"Well if you put it like that." She replied quietly. And then he kissed her.

Rosa ran down the stairs almost tripping in her haste to get to the bottom Damon's hand clasped firmly in her own. She ran through the hallway to her uncle's study and knocked on the door. She waited for the quiet "Come in" before entering the dark room, leaving Damon to walk alone to the gardens to wait for her.

"Rosalind, you have immerged from your room, finally." He smiled in relief and let out a deep breath.

"Uncle I wanted to talk to you about my engagement." She said gently.

"Ah, yes of course. What is it Rosalind."

"Is there any way we can break it. You see I want to marry someone else." She told him in her most hopeful voice. The mayor froze for a moment before turning a nasty shade of red.

"What?" He shouted. "No child you cannot break your engagement. You will marry the man and you will not complain as you do it." He boomed angrily.

"But Uncle, I love someone else, I will still marry, just like you want. It just won't be that particular man." This seemed to make the man even more cross.

"No. You will go to your room and you will not come out until you agree to marry the man I have chosen!" He yelled. "I will lock you in if I have to."

The mayor took his niece by the wrist and dragged her up to her room where he locked her safely inside. She fought him all the way.

Rosa collapsed into her room and cried. She wept for her situation, her stupid engagement and her love for a certain Vampire. As she calmed down and stopped her crying rational thought began to return. She couldn't let them win. She had to escape.

Quickly she ran around her room collecting only the things she had bought with her from England and packing them into an old suitcase. When she was done she dressed in an old pair of jeans and a blouse and she opened her window.

"Damon" She called out quietly into the morning. A moment later he appeared beneath her window.

"What happened? Why didn't you come to find me?" He asked her looking confused.

"My uncle wouldn't listen. He's locked me in my room until I see reason." She told him. He looked furious for a moment and then resolved.

"I can compel him to let you go." He offered quickly.

"Why bother Damon, if we stay they will just keep trying to control us, they never do anything that doesn't benefit themselves."

"Well what do you suggest we do?"

"Can you get me out of here Damon?"

"Of course I can."

"We could go anywhere, if we stay here my uncle and aunt will never let us be. We could just leave if that's alright with you."

"Are you sure" Damon asked trying not to let the hopefulness into his voice.

"Absolutely" She nodded. His face lit up into a huge smile and he shot her a wink before rushing off around the side of the building to the front doors.

Rosa waited impatiently in her room, pacing by the window while her suitcase sat on the bed.

Damon easily blurred through the house and snuck past any unsuspecting humans. When he reached Rosa's room the door was locked but the key was gone.

Damon blurred down the stairs and into the mayors study, quickly he compelled the mayor to give him the key and not to worry about his niece from now on. Then he took the key backup to Rosa's room and unlocked the door. When Rosa heard the click of the door unlocking she ran to grab her suitcase and then she ran straight into Damon's arms.

"Come on." He took her hand and led her down the stairs. When they got out of the door they began to run down the street. They ran until they reached Damon's house and Rosa couldn't run any more.

Damon loaded her bag into his car and ran inside to collect his own suitcases. He packed all of the important and sentimental things but he left a lot in the house. Damon packed his cases into the car and climbed into the driver's seat beside Rosa. Then they were off, driving away from the town and towards their new life.

They chose a small town that was a good way away from their old life and Damon bought them a small house on the edge of it. On the drive down there, Damon stopped off at a registry office and compelled some passersby to be witnesses at their small wedding. Rosa bought a pretty white dress and Damon bought a new suit for the occasion. They bought a plain silver wedding band each but Damon gave her a lapis lazuli spelled ring just like his own, just in case…

The ceremony was a small and informal affair but to the young couple it was perfect. When they reached their new home Damon carried her over the threshold and they spent a small honeymoon period locked away together. When they finally got around to properly furnishing their house they made it beautiful. It had a simple but stylish feel and it was a real home. Rosa got a job at a local store despite Damon telling her that they didn't need the money, Rosa simply liked to work. They decided that Rosa would be changed as soon as the house was finished. Damon bought a small radio and a record player so that they could listen to music together, their favourite song became on old version of 'Fly me to the moon' which was the only record they had and they spent many hours dancing together. It became their song. They were never happier.

It was a little while before the house was finished; Damon and Rosa were dancing to their record, humming along and every now and then stealing a kiss. Rosa offered Damon her blood and as always he took a little from her wrist giving her a little of his own to heal her. It had become such a common routine that neither thought anything of it. Damon didn't give her much blood as he knew she would be changing soon and he was guessing she wouldn't die in the short amount of time between now and then. He would have loved to have given her as much blood as he could to ensure that she survived but she told him she could survive a few days at least.

They were so caught up in their dances and kisses that neither vampire nor human realised at first when another vampire appeared beside the house.

Stefan was surprised to see his brother playing with his food in such a way; he was even more surprised that he has managed to get himself invited in to the house. But he supposed that Damon had just compelled the girl. He decided to be polite and knock on the door and as he had hoped the girl answered.

"Can I help?" she asked him.

"I'm Damon's friend from town, can I see him please?" He asked her with a faked politeness.

Rosa thought there was something off about him but she knew that Damon would make some less than likable friends if he wanted a regular blood supply. She rolled her eyes.

"Come in." She said stepping away from the door and facing inside the house. "Damon, it's for you. He says he's a fre…" Rosa couldn't continue because just then the man grabbed her around the neck and held her back against him. Damon came strolling round the corner and froze when he saw them.

"Stefan? What the hell! I thought you were in New York." He asked desperately, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Can't your baby brother visit you once in a while Damon?" Stefan asked with a nasty grin.

Rosa inhaled a sharp breath, if this was her brother in law, she was in trouble.

"Stefan just put her down and we can talk about this." Damon reasoned. Stefan's eyes lit up. So the girl did mean something to his brother.

"Now, now Damon, it's not like you to get so attached." He taunted.

"I swear to god Stefan." Damon warned. "If anything happens to her, I will never forgive you." Stefan rolled his eyes and with one quick flick of his wrist. He broke the girl's neck, dropping her to the floor.

"Now, where were we?" He asked his brother. Damon just stared in disbelieving agony at the human on the floor.

"What have you done?" He breathed, utter despair engulfing him. He dropped on his knees to the floor and sat beside Rosa, he knew she hadn't had enough of his blood to turn but he hoped, if he just sat with her she might wake up. She had to wake up.

Stefan tried to get his brothers attention; he tried taunting him, teasing him, talking about Katharine. But nothing worked. He didn't even flinch, so Stefan sat on a chair by the window and watched as the sun came up.

By morning Rosa still hadn't woken and Damon had lost hope. He was no longer angry with his brother; he had completely passed mere anger. He was furious; his brother would never forget this. As the sun began to rise Damon shot from his position beside what he was now sure was his dead wife, and glared at the man he once called a brother.

"I will never forget this. I will never let you forget. I will follow you for the rest of forever making you suffer as I have suffered. You will pay for killing Rosa, and you will keep paying for the rest of your life.

Stefan smirked and blurred out of the window knowing his brother would soon follow. This would be fun!

Darkness was all Rosa could see, and then she heard a voice, Damon's voice.

"You will pay for killing Rosa." He said. She wanted to shout, to tell him she wasn't dead but she had no strength, she was so thirsty. She had so little blood in her system that the change had only just managed to happen. Rosa dragged herself up off the floor to see the sun shining in through the windows, Damon and Stefan were gone.

She remembered what Damon had told her about the change and she knew she had to feed soon or she would die, she was still transitioning.

She hauled herself up with a strength she didn't know she possessed and ran into town. She found the first human she could and drank them dry, and then she sat behind a wall and cried for the man she had killed, cradling his body on her lap. She took him back to the house and cleaned herself up. Then she sat on the front step and waited for Damon to return. After two days she still hadn't moved but she had come to realise he wasn't coming back. She left the body in the house and set the whole thing on fire, they would think she died in there and she could search for Damon in peace. Then she ran to the town. She stole what she needed and took off for New York in case he had followed his brother back there.

Damon chased his brother to the town he was busy ripping apart and hung around annoying him for a few days. It was a week later that he returned to his old home, where Rosa died.

He was shocked to not only see their house burned down but two empty graves in the churchyard.

'Damon and Rosalind Salvatore loving husband and wife, died in a terrible accident cared for by every one of their neighbours.'

They thought they had both died, he realised. But how had the house burned down? What did this mean?

He realised again that this didn't matter and he knew he had to leave before he was seen.

Rosalind searched for Damon and Damon followed Stefan, taunting him at every turn. He never let him forget what he did and Rosa never stopped looking.

Damon Salvatore was as always drinking. His best friend Rick was sitting beside him in mystic grill and his brother was with Elaina and her friends at a table not far away Damon loved to flirt with her, to make Stefan fear losing her to him just as he had lost Rosa to Stefan. He thought of her often although he spoke of her little. But today was the day. It was their wedding anniversary and Damon was determined to get drunk. Rick, as always noticed his unusually purposeful drinking.

"Is everything ok Damon?" He asked quietly as Damon downed his third scotch in as many minutes.

"Everything's great Rick why wouldn't it be?" Damon asked a sarcastic edge to his voice.

"Do you want to talk about it?" his friend asked with concern that still reminded Damon of the last person who was concerned about him.

"It's a long story." He said. It was true after all; it had been almost fifty years since Rosa had died. He still missed her as if it was yesterday.

"I have time." Rick pressed. Damon sighed.

"It is my wedding anniversary alright." He said it slightly harsher than he meant to and he saw Stefan flinch out of the corner of his eye, he smirked.

"I didn't know you were married Damon, I thought Katherine was the only one… well you know." Damon sighed.

"I got over Katherine years ago, I married someone else. We were happy, blissfully happy." He told his friend memories floating through his mind.

"What happened?" His friend asked.

"She died." He said shortly.

"God Damon, I'm sorry." Rick said quietly.

"Don't be it wasn't you're fault." He muttered.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"What is there to talk about? We were happy, but as always the golden boy had to come and ruin it all."

"Stefan? What does he have to do with it?"

"He killed her."

"What?" Rick spluttered.

"We were dancing, in our house and Stefan stopped by to annoy me. It was back in his ripper days. She was supposed to be turned when the house was finished. I can't remember why, it was just what she wanted. But Stefan saw that I actually liked her so he snapped her neck. She didn't have enough of my blood in her system to survive. The townspeople put up a gravestone for us. Rosa was always loved by everyone everywhere she went." He said.

"I'm so sorry Damon, I never knew." Rick shook his head. It always surprised him the amount of pain and loss his friend had suffered. At the hands of his own supposedly perfect brother more times than not.

"I promised Stefan I would never stop making him pay for what he did to her. That's why I follow him around all the time. In case you wondered." He said his dark humour making an appearance. He chuckled at nothing in particular. "I admit I did turn my humanity off for a while after that, but Stefan the golden boy did things I never would. Rosa would be proud of my restraint." He muttered the last part lost in thought. He missed his Rosa so much.

Rosa sat at a bar scanning the crowd for her next meal, searching for Damon had become a full time job these past fifty years. She hadn't stopped to rest since she started. There had been times when she had gotten close, she had almost caught up to him but he had moved on before she could find him. How Stefan sniffed him out that day she had no idea.

Scanning the bar she spotted another vampire, he was tall and blonde haired and he was looking right at her. She slid down off of her bar stool and made her way towards him.

"I wanted to hunt here but if you were here first I can move." She said quietly as she reached him. He looked surprised for a moment and then he smirked.

"Don't worry I'm sure we can both hunt here without a problem." He said. She smiled at him.

"Thank you." She said.

"You are from England?" He asked, his accent matching hers. She was surprised for a moment but then she smiled.

"Originally yes but I haven't been back there since I was human." She told him. He nodded.

"How were you changed then?" He asked.

"I loved a vampire, he loved me. You can guess the rest of the story."

"He changed you and left you?"

"No, his brother killed me and he didn't realise I had enough blood in my system to change. He was gone by the time I woke up. I've been searching for him ever since." She told him.

"Really? Well, that is quite a story." He said in surprise.

"I suppose so." She shrugged. "What about you, how were you changed?" he smirked.

"I wasn't really, I'm an original." He told her proudly.

"Really, I haven't met an original before. Well it's nice to meat you. I'm Rosalind." She introduced herself.

"I'm Klaus." He smiled and kissed her hand. "Who is it that you're looking for Rosa? Maybe I can help." She winced at the nickname but smiled hopefully at him.

"His name is Damon, Damon Salvatore." She said. Klaus's eyebrows shot up.

"Damon Salvatore, so it was Stefan who killed you?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes, do you know them?" She wondered.

"Yea, I can take you to them." He answered. Her whole face lit up.

"Really?" She asked with a cautious kind of hope that she hadn't felt in years. He chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Sure, but first, please let's eat. I'm hungry." When they had both compelled their dinner into an alley and finished up at the bar, Klaus took Rosa to his car and started out towards Virginia.

"Tell me about your time with Damon?" Klaus asked as they set off.

"There really isn't that much to tell." She shrugged. Klaus turned slightly to look her in the eye as they stopped at a red light.

"Tell me anyway." He demanded using compulsion to get her to open up. But she surprised him.

"There really isn't a lot to say." She said, completely unaffected by his compulsion.

"How did you do that?" Klaus asked in wonder.

"Do what?" she asked.

"You resisted my compulsion." He told her.

"Oh, right, for some reason I can't be compelled. Damon could never compel me even when I was human." She said. Klaus was surprised but he kept his musing to himself.

The journey was long, it took a few days to get to Virginia but in that time Klaus and Rosa found that they got on well. Klaus told Rosa about Caroline and how he was trying to make her fall in love with him. She wasn't surprised that Damon had treated Caroline so badly. She knew he had been really hurt by her death.

"You should just spend time with her," she suggested when he asked her advice on how to seduce his crush. "When I was human Damon said he would make me want to marry him, even though I didn't want to marry any of the young men my uncle introduced me to, but Damon was persistent. We spent days together as just friends and the more I got to know him, the more I fell in love. In the end I had no choice but to love him. You just have to be yourself and be kind to her, if you are right for each other you will fall in love, and if you don't then obviously she wasn't who you thought she was." Klaus considered this for a moment.

"I suppose so, you are very wise for someone so young." He complemented her. She laughed.

"I was nineteen when I was changed, I'm forever a teenager. It can be very annoying." He laughed with her.

When eventually they entered the town of Mystic falls the two new friends sighed in relief, they were both anxious to get back to their respective lovers.

Damon was lounging around the Salvatore boarding house drinking Bourbon and watching Stefan and Elaina moon over each other. Bonnie and Caroline were sitting on the floor doing homework and Jeremy was sparring with Rick. After his heavy drinking the other night Stefan had been avoiding him, Elaina was as usual clueless. She was so much like Katharine that Damon believed her and Stefan deserved each other.

"Elaina and I are going to the grill." Stefan told him hesitantly as they headed for the door."

"Hmm" Damon grunted uninterested.

"We're taking Caroline with us."

"Huh"

Stefan sighed and left the house. He couldn't be bothered to deal with his brother when he was in one of his moods.

Klaus pulled up at mystic grill and climbed out going around the car to hold the door open for Rosa. She smiled at him. They walked into the bar and saw that it was mostly empty. On one table sat a group of three people one of which Rosa immediately identified as Stefan. The other looked exactly like a picture of Katharine Damon had once shown her.

She must be the doppelganger Klaus had told her about, Elaina her name was.

The third was a bubbly blonde and by the look Klaus was giving her she must be Caroline.

Klaus strolled over to the table and pulled out a chair next to Caroline. Three heads snapped up to look at him.

"Klaus?" Caroline said with suspicion. "I thought you were leaving town for a few days." Klaus grinned at her.

"I missed you, so I came back." Caroline kept an unaffected air about her but Rosa could see her heart melt when Klaus admitted to missing her. She grinned.

"Hello Stefan." She said from behind him. Three heads snapped to look at her now.

"Do I know you?" he asked her, confused. She chuckled.

"I'm looking for your brother." She didn't beat around the bush.

"Damon? What for?" he wondered.

"Can you please just tell me where to find him?" She said in a demanding voice.

"He's at the Salvatore boarding house." He told her.

"Thanks. Oh, and Stefan…"

"Yes?"

"Can I talk to you for a moment, in private?"

"Umm," He didn't look sure.

"It will only take a minute, we met once before but I doubt you remember me, I just wanted to repay you for what you did back then." She smiled sweetly. Klaus smirked.

"Oh, ok sure." Stefan got up and Rosa led him down the small dark alley beside the bar.

"So, how do I know you?" Stefan asked as she turned to face him.

"I met you back in the sixties, sixty three I think it was." She replied. Stefan winced, thinking back to those times.

"Oh," He said uncomfortably.

"Yea. Oh. You killed me Stefan Salvatore." Stefan looked worried.

"What? I'm sorry I didn't mean…" But before he could finish she had stabbed a stake through his stomach and walked away.

Klaus met her out the front with a worried looking Caroline.

"You went easy on him I hope?" Klaus said as she walked out from the darkness of the alley and towards them.

"I didn't kill him if that's what you mean?" She smirked.

"What did you do?" Caroline asked genuine concern lacing her voice.

"I staked him in the stomach, he should recover pretty quickly." She told them.

"What? Why would you do that?" Caroline cried.

"Stefan killed me Caroline; I went easy on him really." She explained softly.

"Stefan? Stefan killed you? Are you sure it wasn't Damon?" she asked.

"I'm sure." Rosa stated. "Damon tried to save me. Stefan and Damon were quite different back then; they seem to have swapped rolls here." Caroline nodded quietly and Klaus wrapped an arm around her.

"Do you want to borrow the car?" Klaus asked.

"Yes please, where is the boarding house anyway?" Rosa wondered.

Klaus and Caroline gave her directions and Klaus handed over the keys to his car with threats of a staking if she scratched it. Before she knew it Rosa was on her way to the Boarding house, to Damon.

Damon sat in his favourite chair, drinking and watching the three remaining guests in his house. He was lonely and bored, although he would never admit it. Things had been hard without Rosa, there were many times when he had considered taking off his ring and walking out into the sun. The silver wedding band hung limply around his neck, where he had kept it since the first time he had slept with another woman. Now, however hard he tried to move on, every woman seemed like the other woman to him; no one could compete with his Rosa. He could almost hear their song playing now. Like a whistle on the wind.

Wait a minute he could hear it.

Damon suddenly shot up from his chair startling everyone else in the room.

"Can you hear that?" He asked as he listened closer to the whistling sound it was coming from the front of the house. Damon made his way slowly to the front door the others trailing curiously along behind him. Slowly Damon opened the door, and the sight on the other side nearly brought him to his knees.

Rosa wasn't sure how to do this, she stood outside Damon's house and stared at it for a moment. Should she knock? She began to whistle their song and she wondered if he could hear her. A moment later the front door creaked open and there standing on the other side, was Damon.

The whistling stopped abruptly as she saw him. She couldn't help the smile on her face as she looked him over; he looked good in his modern clothes. But there was a great sadness about him that hadn't been there before.

"Rosa?" Damon breathed, disbelieve and amazement colouring his tone.

"You know, next time someone dies, you should really check to see if they come back before you run off to avenge them. By the way I staked your brother in the stomach. Sorry about that."

Damon stood stock still for all of two seconds before he launched himself at her. He picked her up and swung her around, laughing joyfully all the while.

"Your alive, you're really alive? It's really you." He muttered as he pulled her close and held her tightly. Just then another car pulled into the drive and Stefan hobbled out glaring daggers at Rosa.

"Damon be careful, she's a madwoman get away from her." He cried, still clutching at his healing stake wound. Damon laughed and nuzzled his wife's neck.

He criedhe

"You really did stake him." He said in awe.

"Of course I did the bastard killed me." She answered. He chuckled and looked up at his brother. He realised with a smirk that he didn't know who Rosa was.

"Stefan, you remember my wife, Rosa Salvatore." Rosa lifted her head from Damon's shoulder and gave Stefan a small nod.

"Nice to see you again Stefan, it seems you are the brother with a human girl this time. Oh how the tables have turned." She smirked. Stefan gulped. Klaus chuckled. Damon was ignoring everyone and looking at Rosa.

"Come inside Rosa, we have a lot to talk about." She smiled as he led her into the house. Damon took up residence on his favourite chair and pulled Rosa down on his lap. The others all filed in and sat around them all waiting for some kind of explanation. Damon and Rosa ignored everyone as they shared small kisses and smiled at each other like lovesick idiots.

Jeremy was amused by the entire situation but Happy that Damon had someone now. Rick was pleased for his friend as he knew how much his Rosa meant to him. Bonnie was annoyed that Klaus was back. Caroline was happy that Klaus was back. Klaus was glad to be back and happy for his new friend. Stefan was annoyed that he had been staked and Elaina was feeling jealous. As much as she hated to admit it she did like having Damon moon after her, even if it was just to get at his brother. But now she knew she had no power over Damon and it angered her a lot.

Stefan cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Not to be a downer or anything but how are you not dead?" he asked Rosa.

"I had a little blood in my system, I almost didn't complete the change but I had enough to get me through, even if it took a little longer than usual and I was weak when I woke up. I think it was less to do with the amount of blood and more to do with the fact I had just been given it before you turned up."

"I thought you were dead." Damon said quietly. "I sat with you all night and then I left, I came back a week later and the house was burned down and they had a grave stone for us in town." Rosa sighed.

"I was so thirsty when I woke up that I drained a man completely. I was so upset; I remember just hiding with the body in my arms and crying. I needed to get rid of the evidence so I burned the body with the house and hoped they thought we died in there. Obviously they did. I never went back; I've been looking for you these past fifty years." Damon held her tighter as if she could disappear at any moment.

"I can't believe you survived, you're actually here." He said. She smiled.

"Congratulations Damon, I'm happy for you." Rick said as he got up and prepared to leave the house, he had no doubt that the couple would want time alone to reunite properly.

"Thanks Rick." Damon said happily. Jeremy joined him.

"Yea I'll be going too, I won't want to be here for the next hour I don't expect." Damon chuckled.

"Maybe make that the next few days Jeremy; it has been fifty years after all." Damon replied. Bonnie got up to go.

"Bye Elaina." She said quickly as she scampered off out of the house after Jeremy.

"We'll be leaving too, see you later Rosalind," Klaus announced standing up.

"Thanks Klaus" She replied. "Good luck with Caroline." Klaus chuckled and Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Are you leaving brother?" Damon asked coldly.

"Why would I, why is everyone leaving?" Stefan asked in his usual clueless way.

"Couple reuniting after years apart! Leave if you don't want to hear us getting reacquainted, if you know what I mean." Rosa told him, annoyed.

Stefan and Elaina left pretty quickly after that. Damon smiled and the couple stood up.

"Wanna show me your room?" Rosa asked. Damon winced.

"Do you mind if we use a guest room? There have been other women while you were… gone." Damon finished unsurely feeling guilty and even angrier with his brother.

"That's fine Damon, I didn't expect you to be celibate, and you thought I was dead for god's sake. So long as you haven't fallen in love with another woman I'm just happy to have you back." She smiled at him.

"There was never anyone else. But I have changed in fifty years. I'm not so innocent anymore Rosa."

"Neither am I," She replied easily. "We are both different but I guess I will just have to make you fall in love with me again."

They both laughed and raced upstairs to find a bedroom.

It was a week before anyone came back to the house and another few days before either Damon or Rosa left the house. They talked and caught up with all the changes of the last five decades, and then they talked about the future and a little house they could buy far away from Mystic falls.

The day came when those plans became a reality and the young couple said goodbye to their friends and Stefan and Elaina, who they both thoroughly disliked. Then they packed their cases into Damon's car and turned up the radio, driving off into the sunset, they smiled at the song coming through the speakers.

'Fly me to the moon'

The End