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Damon's POV
As she collapses into his arms, he lowers her to the ground to check her over. What the hell had his stupid brother done this time? Nothing seems to be broken, she's just in shock, now what to do with her? Sighing, he mutters, "up-see-daisy," and lifts her up as he turns and leaves the wreckage. A few feet away he looks behind him at the car and decides that it cannot stay where it is. Sighing again he sets her down carefully on the grass before moving her car off the road so that it will not be in the way and will not be noticed before picking her back up.
He had been planning to visit his witch-friend Bree in Georgia. Perhaps she would have an idea as to how he could get into the tomb. He had not been expecting to have another person along for the ride, but really did not want to stop by the boardinghouse or her house with Elena in the condition she was in. Besides that, if her last comment before she passed out was anything to go by, it was his idiot brother's fault anyways that she was out on the road in that state as it was.
Even while considering what to do, he is still moving towards his car. Grinning to himself, he decides that he is going to take him with her. They both need a break from his brother, maybe while they are gone she would warm up to him some more.
Upon getting to his vehicle, he carefully places her in the passenger seat and fastens her in before going around to the other side of the car and climb in. The night goes smoothly as the miles pass them by. With each mile gone, he wonders how his life came to be the way it is.
He lives with his brother whom he both hates more than he loves. In a town that tried to destroy him for daring to want to be something other than the worthless son. The girl in the seat next to him looks strikingly like his lost love, yet their personalities are so different that they never blur in his mind. While he normally prefers to hunt and kill to feed, he had been keeping it low key and just using collage girls as lunch without ever killing them, unless you count the little death in the bedroom that his vanity insists on. For over one-hundred years his only goal had been to free Katherine from the prison within the tomb in hopes of finally having someone to make him happy. Yet things never seem to work out.
Sighing, he speeds up just a little and turns his thoughts back to the girl in the passenger seat. She's something different, changing his perspective on how things are and it's driving him nuts. Sometimes he wonders if he should just steal her from his brother if that would eliminate the curiosity about her, but he never does because it doesn't seem right to him.
Half-way through the day she finally begins to stir, the look of confusion on her face is priceless as she becomes aware that she is in his car and miles down the road. Of course, he is sure the fact it is daylight and nothing is familiar probably adds to that confusion.
With a wide smile he greets her, "morning," before turning his attention back to the road.
Slowly, still looking confused she runs her fingers through her hair asking, "Where are we?"
"Geor-gia," he replies, his face going back to its normal serious expression.
"Georgia?" she repeats, "no, no, no we're not. Seriously Damon, where are we?" she shakes her head in denial, still looking around.
Tilting his head towards her he answers her, "seriously, we're in Georgia." For a moment he pauses, looking at her bewildered face. "How are you feeling?"
She starts to answer but cannot seem to get past the "I" so he finally comments, "There is no broken bones, I checked."
For a short period of time neither spoke, he however was waiting for her to get around to asking about what had happened last night and how they got where they were. After all, the last thing she probably remembers is hanging upside down in her car. The array of expressions crossing her face is rather fun to watch, though his facial expression does not change to reflect that. Particularly since he is sure that she would not appreciate him laughing at how she is currently feeling.
The first thing that she decides to ask about is the man and her car, before going into a minor panic trying to locate her phone which is currently in his pocket. Eventually, she asks to pull off to the side of the road because she wants to find her phone and wants to get up for a moment. Once out of the vehicle she doubles over, causing him to rush to her side, a look of concern on his face. Personally, he is not sure what she is so concerned about. She needs to take a break, if only a small one.
The sharp ringing of Elena's phone in Damon's pocket brings the conversation to a standstill. With a smirk on his face, he pulls the phone out of his back pocket and glances at it, in a sing-song voice he says, "It's your boyfriend." He is curious how she is going to respond since she did not seem happy with him for the brief time she was awake the night before.
She just shakes her head, and turns away.
Smirking, he says, "I'll take it," before pausing to answer the send saying, "Elena's phone."
"Where is she?" he hears Stefan reply, sounding worried and concerned. "why do you have her phone, is she okay?"
"Elena?" he replies, "no she's right here, and yes she's," he pauses for a moment to smirk, "fine."
His brother sounds oh-so worried as if he's the problem, it's amusing, particularly since when he asks to speak with her, she shakes her head no again. Trouble in paradise, he wonders, this ought to be good, maybe she will tell me what's wrong while we are here. Before he hangs up on Stefan, Stefan tries to threaten him which just makes him smirk even more. As if.
That phone call seems to be the turning point because it takes little convincing after that to get her to finish the trip.
Finally she asks, "am I going to be safe with you?"
Immediately he answers "yes," nodding his head once. He knows then that it is just a matter of the distrust and getting past it.
Crossing her arms, she stares directly at his face, "you promise not to do that mind control thing?" All of this is said with a shake of her head.
Again he answers immediately with a "yes" and a nod of his head. He wants to earn her trust the only way to do that is to not manipulate her, which means no compelling her. His expression is serious as he waits for whatever else she has to say.
"Can I trust you?" she asks raising an eye brow.
Nodding towards the car he replies, "get in the car," the entire purpose of this is for her to see that he can be trusted so he is not going to answer that. Instead he will let her decide based on his actions. Walking over to his side, he opens the door and says, "Come on."
The rest of the ride to their destination is spent alternating between silence and conversation about her car and what had happened. When they finally get to where they are going, Elena is surprised to see that it is a bar. At first she comments on the fact she is not legal and won't be allowed in but he disagrees and heads into the bar.
The first thing that happens when he gets inside the bar is Bree looks up to see his smiling face and say in shock, "no, no it can't be." She pauses for a moment, "Damon?"
The years had been kind to her, he decided as he looked her over. She's still a lovely woman.
When she realizes it's him, she jumps over the bar and strides over to in front of him, "my honey pie," she says right before she grabs his cheeks and kisses him, pulling him close.
He can feel Elena's eyes as she stares at them, shock seems to be her number one expression right now as he embraces Bree and kisses her back. A small part of him wonders if Elena is wishing it was her. Several kisses later they finally take a seat at the bar. Bree gives a bit of a smart ass toast as she pours whisky in shot glasses and places them in front of him and Elena. Elena doesn't even get a chance to drink hers before he has downed it along with his.
Pouring another one Bree looks at Elena, "so, how did he rope you in?"
Elena starts to answer, "I'm not roped, actually I am dating…"
Before she has a chance to finish Bree interrupts to say, "oh honey, if you're not roped, your whipped, either way just enjoy the ride," she shakes her head the entire time she is speaking.
Damon is slightly smiling as he listens to the bi-play between the two of them, only adding his bit here and there, often with a smirk. As Bree comments on him being good in the sack, he wonders what Elena is thinking of the conversation or the idea but stays out of her head because he had promised to. Elena steps out for a moment and he decides to discuss with Bree the entire reason that he has come to visit.
The conversation gets them nowhere, according to her there is no way to undo the spell now that the crystal is gone. Some reason though he gets the feeling that she is either avoiding or hiding something because when Elena was with them Bree had no problems touching him, now that Elena has stepped out, she's avoiding physical contact which makes him wonder what she is hiding. Oh well, he figures, he'll get an answer soon enough.
As the conversation wavers he hears Elena's phone go off outside and listens in on her conversation with his brother.
"Elena, is that you?" the concern is still heavy in his voice.
"I'm here," she replies, though her tone implies that she is not happy.
"Where are you?" Stefan demands.
Before he can go any further she stats, "you lied."
At which point he interrupts whatever else she was going to say in order to plea for her to wait for him to explain the situation. Her response is fast and angry, pin pointing in on him, yet sounding like a question. Stefan tries to talk her into telling him where they are at but she will not break away from the situation with Katherine, when he goes to beg her to listen she finally hangs up.
As he listens to them, he moves outside so when she hangs up with his brother, he can fast move to behind her, inquiring politely, "are you okay?"
Sighing, she looks down then back at his face, snappishly commenting, "don't pretend to care. I know your gloating inside."
She walks back into the bar first while he stands by his car and thinks. He has been trying to show that he does care, at least in some small way. It must not be enough time yet, oh well the trip is not done yet. When we get back inside she is in the restroom so he orders them some burgers, fries, and pickles. She gets out of the bathroom just as the food is set down and glances at him slightly shocked.
"Burgers?" she inquires, looking at the plate in front of her seat and then his.
"Yep, if I am going to take you out for a bit to relax, I might as well make sure you get something to eat too." He answers, downing is drink.
After eating a fry she finally asks, "let's just say that I am decent from Katherine, does that make me part vampire?"
He shakes his head, finishing his bite in his mouth, "vampires can't procreate, but we love to try." His tone is flirty and he smiles at her rolling her eyes at him. "No, if you were related, it would mean that Katherine had a child before she was turned." In between each word he takes a bit of a fry.
"Did Stefan think that he could use me to replace her?" Elena asks chopping down on a fry in frustration.
"Kinda creepy if you ask me," he replies in between bites. To lighten the mood, he reaches over and steals her pickles joking saying, "come on, you don't like pickles, what's wrong with you?"
A slightly confused look crosses her face as she realizes he does not require food, "how can you even eat if," she pauses for a moment, leaning closer, "technically you supposed to be…" she trails off.
He glances around with a conspirators look as if he is looking to see if anyone is listening, "dead?" he whispers to her. Switching to a normal voice he continues, "it's not such a bad word, as long as I keep a healthy diet of," he pauses for a moment to look at her, "blood in my system, my body functions pretty normally." He shrugs, tossing another fry in his mouth.
She just smiles at his flippant answer and shakes her head. Staring at his face, she inquires, "this nice act, is any of it real?"
Part of him is annoyed she keeps questioning him, but he totally gets it. After all, she normally hangs out with his brother who never has anything good to say about him so why would she expect him to do something nice. "Mmmmhmmm," he finally answers, refusing to say more because he will not justify himself to her.
While she is still staring at him, Bree sets a new bear down in front of him, and she startles him by saying that she'll take one. Maybe she can relax if given the chance. The next few hours are spent with the two of them talking about whatever takes their fancy and playing shot games. Several hours later a guy walks into the bar, as he passes Damon, he senses that there is another vampire nearby. Instead of giving his hand away and knowledge of the other vampire, he continues to watch Elena who is still relaxed.
A few minutes later, he heads to the restroom for moment while Elena plays pool. When he returns from the restroom Bree asks him where she went. He looks around for a moment then hears that her phone outside on the ground. Curious, he walks over and picks it up, listening carefully he determines where she is at.
Just as he approaches, he hears her warn him but it's too late, he has already been caught in the trap. Another vampire rushes up and busts his knees, making him hit the ground in pain. For a moment he stops at which point, he asks, "what the hell?" as the other vampire fetches a can of gasoiline and dumps it all over him.
Elena climbs down from where she was placed and approaches to the two vampires, trying to figure out what's going on. For a moment Elena and the other vampire go back and forth, before she finally manages to convince him to be better than Damon and speed walk away.
Elena rushes over to his side, to help him back up. He shakes himself off after a minute and asks her to wait in the car while he grabs his coat and says goodbye. A combination of the pain in his legs and the smell of gas has his pissed off so he returns to the bar.
By the time he confronts her, he has his anger under control, but he can smell the fear coming off of Bree when she spots him.
Swallowing, she lies, "good to see you again Damon."
He raises an eye brow, inquiring calmly, "no kiss?"
She swallows again, stating, "I am full of vervain, I put it in everything I drink."
"And your telling me this why?" he asks sardonically.
Her voice almost breaks as she says, "Lexi was my friend," she pauses, "how could you?"
She turns away, but with his supper speed he is back in front of her. He can hear her heart racing as she says, "the tomb can be opened."
He shakes his head once, snarling, "You're lying…"
Before he gets any further, Bree interrupts saying, "Emily's grimoire, her spell book, if you know how she closed the tomb, the reversal process will be in her book. You can open that tomb.' Her voice is fast and babbly, fear causing her to stutter.
Advancing on her, he queries harshly, "and where is this book?"
She steps back, answering him, "I…" she begins stuttering worse, terrified because this is not the nice Damon that she is dealing with.
"You have no idea," he says as he backs her against the wall.
Shaking her head she pleas, "I am telling you the truth."
Using a gentle caress to the side of her face he replies, "And I believe you, my dear, sweat Bree. That's why I am sorry." Just as he finishes speaking he rips her heart out and lowers her to the ground. He does not take well to someone trying to kill him. Without missing a beat, he cleans his hand on her, walks over to his spot, and grabs his jacket. Calmly, as if nothing is going on he strides out of the building and to the car.
At the car he glances at Elena and asks if she minds them stopping for a bit, he wants to get cleaned up. She says she does so he finds a decent hotel to get a room. While she rests on the bed he grabs his spare outfit from the car and showers considering everything that had happened today. By the time he is done with his shower, she is fast asleep so he gets comfortable in the chair, contemplating the affects she is having on his life.