Mystic Grill in Present day Mystic Falls…

Alaric sat in his usual seat at the bar as he contemplated on his recent encounter with Isobel. He had been searching for two years and she finally just shows up. After she had threatened him, he'd thought about just going home and locking his door. Alaric turned his glass of bourbon around and around until he took the last remaining sips.

"Rick! Got another round left in you?" Damon came to the barstool next to Rick and sat down.

"I was just about to leave." Alaric said with a harsh undertone. Damon's presence only intensified the memories of Isobel and he rather not talk about her right now.

Damon encourages Alaric to stay. "Oh com' on Rick."

Alaric looks over at Damon. Damon seemed slightly paler than usual and thought about whether Damon has eaten anything lately. Alaric realized he never gotten over the fact that Damon was a vampire and that he turned Isobel into the heartless thing he talked to recently. He still felt that Damon was simply a nightmare that came to haunt him at his favorite bar.

"Don't you have anything better to do than to bother me?" Alaric asked defensively.

Damon takes a swig of his bourbon before flickering his eyes toward Alaric. The tension Alaric felt began to dissipate as another man in an old-fashioned grey suit walked up to them. Damon seemed to ignore everything except for his drink.

"Damon! Never thought I'd see you drowning in liquor like your old man?" The man seemed to know Damon and Alaric was alarmed when Damon stood straight up and stepped back from the bar.

Damon stood motionless in contempt toward the man. His eyes were fixed and calculating on Guiseppe's movements as he sat leaving Damon standing in between Alaric and Guiseppe. Guiseppe simply drank the rest of what lingered in Damon's abandoned glass.

Alaric asked the unacquainted man, "Who are you?"

"I'm Guiseppe Salvatore, a respectable family name from Italy. My parents came over from Florence, Italy." He answered Alaric with more information than Alaric asked for but then turned to talk directly to Damon. "You are supposed to be in the Confederate Army, boy. Why the hell are you not in uniform?"

Damon continued to stare blankly at Guiseppe and made no attempt to respond. Alaric had never seen a vampire so anxious about being around a human before. However, he hadn't met many vampires until now.

Alaric knew that Guiseppe shouldn't be here considering Damon and Stefan became vampires back in 1864. He remembered reading Isobel's research when she was a professor at Duke University. His thoughts came back to the present situation and watched Damon carefully.

There were people still in the grill who would notice a vampire attack if they see one. Damon's eyes suddenly became darkened with unnatural veins and red blood-shot sclera. As quickly as Damon's eyes changed they became normal again but the look of hatred still captivated his body.

Alaric couldn't believe what he was seeing and was doubtful that he could do anything from stopping Damon. Guiseppe now did not seem to notice Damon at all and frankly ignored him.

Guiseppe quickly finished two or three glasses of liquor before turning to Damon. "Well?"

Guiseppe obviously wanted some answers to why Damon was not in uniform even though Alaric knew that there was no Civil War going on in Mystic Falls. Without a moment to spare Guiseppe's manner changed from civilized to a forceful demeanor.

"I asked you a question, damn it?"

Damon answered at last, "The Civil War ended ages ago. You need to leave, father." Damon spat the name out as if it were diseased. Damon's voice would have sent a solider to his knees.

Guiseppe scowled menacing at Damon and punched him without remorse and restraint. The people around the grill were now engaged in their confrontation. Damon surprisingly did nothing to stop Guiseppe or to fight back. He just took the punch as if he felt nothing.

Damon's face was now tilted to one side but he regained his dignity rapidly. He stood tall and his eyes kept switching from blood-shot to normal instantly. Alaric was sure Guiseppe would have noticed it too but either did not see the changes or discounted them.

Alaric was dumbfounded to see Damon walk away and down from the bar. Guiseppe followed Damon as if to antagonize him further.

"You are as lazy and useless as you have always been, Damon. I should beat it out of you, as you were a child. Don't think I can't still break your arm and squeeze some sort of responsibility into your head." Guiseppe smiled absently as if remembering the event as if it were recently.

Alaric couldn't tell what happened next but one minute Damon was standing with his back turned and the next he had Guiseppe pinned up against a pillar. Alaric fleetingly left the safety of his stool to try powerlessly to mediate the struggle.

Damon's fingers were wrapped around Guiseppe's neck and Guiseppe was gasping for air. Damon's eyes were darkened with rage and redden whites of his eyes. Alaric was relieved to see that only Guiseppe and himself were able to see the transformation.

Damon seemed to become pastier than before and his fangs gleamed in the reflection of Guiseppe's eyes. Alaric was faintly aware that Stefan and Elena had walked in only minutes before but was too enthralled with Damon and Guiseppe to care.

Damon's wrath controlled his voice like a puppet, "You are not supposed to be here. This is not your town and I am not putting up with your bullshit. I am not 12 years old anymore. And I am sure as hell not going to be your little whipping boy. Go to hell, father." Damon's grip strengthened before letting go of Guiseppe.

Guiseppe sunk to the floor and past out before falling completely to the floorboards. Damon hung his head in irritation as he past a concerned Stefan and Elena. Damon went out the front door of the grill and Alaric couldn't help himself from going after him. Stefan and Elena went over to assist an unconscious Guiseppe.

Alaric stepped out into the front entrance of the grill only to find that Damon had disappeared. Alaric took a few minutes to look around to see if Damon was anywhere to be found but found no sign of Damon. The town was eerily quiet and Alaric felt a sense of dread. Damon went out hunting and was not coming back anytime soon.

"Hey, where did Damon go?" Elena asked making a feeble attempt to hide her anxiety.

Stefan was carrying Guiseppe by his arm over his shoulder and looked at Alaric. As if they were in a shared telepathy, they knew that Damon gone and unlikely to see him anytime soon. Alaric was angry with himself for letting Damon out of sight but what could he have done. Someone out there was going to have a very bad night in the arms of a rampant vampire.

Stefan had obviously missed the first half of what happened when he asked, "What happened?"

Alaric sighed heavily before answering, "Well…It started off okay before Guiseppe started getting hammered. Damon seemed as if he seen a ghost from a nightmare. Then Guiseppe roweled Damon up with questions about him not being in the Civil War. After that, it all went downhill."

"Was Damon abused?" Elena asked horrid-shocked at the idea.

Stefan set a limp Guiseppe down on one of the benches. "I honestly don't know. I was just a child when we both lost our mother. My mother and father used to get in terrible fights but I never was around to see or hear them. Damon was always in the middle of every fight; everything was just too hazy for me to remember. I remember some time after she died Damon fractured his arm. He told me that he had fallen downstairs. There are other times but Damon was good at keeping things from me."

Alaric put his hands on his hips in response but said nothing. He hung and shook his head in disbelief. Elena stood with her mouth opened and with disgust. She rung her hand through her hair to try and regain her composure.

"Oh my God." Was all Elena could say.