Thanks for your reviews/favourites/follows :D Sorry the update is late, I'm on holiday in Cyprus :p Merry late christmas! :D

Jess: Thanks for your review :) Writing a nearly Ripper Stefan is way different to how I normally write him. I hope I characterize him right :p

victoria: Thank you for your review :D

Enjoy!

Chapter 2 (DAMON'S POV):

Damon could think of a million places he would rather be than sat across from Jeremy Gilbert, with a stake pointed at him.

"Come on, you can do it. Just think of happy thoughts – like Bonnie's lurve."

Jeremy let his head fall in his hands. "It's not that easy."

"Why not? It worked with Elena."

Elena's brother raised his head from his fingers and said in a venomous tone. "She's not a big, bad vampire."

"Ooh I'm so scared." Damon really wasn't. This boy was how old? 16? Against a centuries-old vampire? No chance.

Even if he was a hunter.

"You should be."

Before Damon could grace that remark with a smart response, they heard frantic banging on the door.

Heads snapping up, Damon got up and told Jeremy to wait there.

Opening the door, he was met with the sight of an energetic Caroline.

"Blondie." He flashed a strained grin. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He did not expect her to rush at him, fangs out and snarling.

He told himself that had she been invited in, he would have been totally prepared to throw her off.

"Caroline?!" Damon's head snapped round to a wide-eyed Jeremy, standing behind him, clutching the stake in a too tight grip to possibly be comfortable.

Damon raised his hands to both of them and said in a calm voice not fitting the scene. "Okay, no one wants this unknown situation to blow out of proportion, so Blondie," he faced a still snarling Caroline "snap out of it, and little Gilbert" he turned to the stake-wielding Jeremy "uh…go to your room."

"Go to my room?!"

"Well, unless you want to tell your sister you killed 1 possibly 2 of her greatest friends because you haven't fully learned to control your hunter instincts yet…I suggest you leave, now."

Jeremy still stood there, undecided. Damon added in a bright voice "Or, I can break your wrists so you aren't tempted to stake us."

Jeremy blinked down at his fists, seeming to only just realise what was in his grip.

Forcing his hand open, he let the piece of wood fall, then, with one last long look at the vampires, went up the stairs.

"Close call, Blondie." Damon turned back to glare at Elena's most irritating friend. Was it just coincidence that Klaus, of all people, fell for her?

"This had better be serious."

She glared equally back at him. "Oh, it is."

(CAROLINE'S POV):

"Stefan knows you two are still together."

As Caroline expected, he was annoyed more than anything else.

"Why did you tell him? I've let her go! Now he's going to get all upset and retreat into himself, as he always does. I'll talk to him, he'll understand…" He stopped talking as he studied her expression.

She tried to hide it, but she couldn't help it. Her nature was to tell people the truth!

"What aren't you telling me?"

Oh no. His expression stayed blank, but he stepped over the threshold, while she simultaneously took a step back.

"Oh…well… I don't think that's going to work this time…"

He continued to stare silently back at her, giving no response. She decided to go on the offensive.

"You can't expect me to be able to lie to everyone I hold close, so he wanted to let me know how important it is to trust family, and I'm sorry, but you're his brother and all you do is lie to him, about letting her go, having sex with her, probably knowing about the sire bond and – "

His expression turned deadly. "What?"

"'What'? Seriously? 'What'? You expect me to repeat that?"

"What else did you tell him about me and Elena?"

He eyes looked like they were barely fighting back violence.

"That…that you and Elena were still together and" Oh…and that "and…that you guys slept together – Elena told me! She – she told me…"

"How did he take it?" He face was so pale…Did he actually care about his brother's feelings?

"Not well…Umm… he – he really wasn't well. I haven't seen him this bad since…since – "

"Since the Ripper. Or close to it."

Caroline was not prepared for Damon's reaction. Upset, maybe. Put-out, maybe. Angry, yes. But fear? No…

"He was still emotional, right?"

Caroline nodded.

"Okay, okay. That's good. Sort of." He rubbed his eyes, and she had never seen him look so young before.

He continued speaking. "Tell everyone to stay away from the Salvatore house tonight, I don't want anyone making things worse. You'll have to keep Jeremy company for tonight as well. I'll deal with this."

"No offence, but I don't think you can make it better…"

"I'm his brother."

"Huh, should have thought of that earlier. Two nights earlier."

His look turned venomous. "Keep your nose out of our business. I would kill you, but I have more important things to worry about than you."

Then he was gone, Caroline just being able to pick him out further down the road in the darkness.

"Save him" She whispered. She got a determined reply back.

"That is the Salvatore legacy."

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