Chapter Three
"So, I'm liking the new leather jacket," Rebecca told Jeremy as she walked with him down the hallway of the Lockwood mansion.
"It was my dad's," Jeremy said. "I stole it from the closet."
Rebecca smiled sadly. "I don't think anyone would care."
They came upon Tyler, who was sitting in the study drinking from a flask. Well, if there was ever a day to drink . . .
"Hey, look, I'm sorry about your dad," Jeremy said.
Tyler nodded bitterly. "Today's been a big day of sorries from people who really don't give a crap."
"I remember when my dad died I had a house full of strangers tellin' me what a great guy he was. Anyway, I know how hard all this is."
"Difference is, in your case, it was true," Tyler said. "My dad was a dick."
Tyler took another swig.
"Yeah, yeah, he was," Jeremy agreed.
"I found this in his desk." Tyler offered them the flask and Jeremy grabbed it. "He won't mind, he's dead."
"Yeah, you know what? Sure. Why not?"
Things were comfortable until Mason came in and asked what was going on.
"Nothin'," Tyler said.
Mason took a sip from the flask too, which was cool. Rebecca had thought they'd be in trouble - all of them were underage after all. Even if she was a vampire, she was still only eighteen, and Mason didn't know she was a vampire, so he would still think of her as an underage human.
Then Rebecca noticed something off about Mason Lockwood. He . . . smelled funny. Not human, but . . . Rebecca couldn't place exactly what he did smell like. It was just odd.
"So . . . when did you become a mom?" Mason asked Rebecca. He had a smile on his face so Rebecca was fairly certain he was joking.
"She's my sister," Rebecca specified. "But sometimes I feel like her mom."
A few minutes later Rebecca got a text from Bonnie saying Katherine was there at the mansion. Rebecca almost rolled her eyes. Of course Bonnie wouldn't hesitate to call a vampire if she needed help. She texted Bonnie back and said she'd meet up with her in a minute. If Bonnie had met Katherine and was alive to text, then it was obvious that Katherine didn't mean the witch any harm. Yet, anyway.
"Jer, I have to go."
Jeremy looked at her strangely. She smiled at him reassuringly; someone would explain it to him later.
"The Lockwoods have a lot more land than they used to," Katherine said.
Stefan walked with Katherine across the Lockwood estate. He wanted answers; sometimes that meant doing things he didn't want to do. Like talking to a homicidal vampire who was also his ex-girlfriend.
"Possessions of all the tomb vampires brought them all a fortune."
"Yeah, and why did you want them dead? You're the one who turned most of them."
Katherine scoffed. "There's nothing more annoying than a vengeful vampire. Just ask John Gilbert." Katherine covered her mouth with a mocking gasp. "Oh, wait, he's dead."
"You haven't changed at all, have you?"
"But you have. You're stronger, meaner. Sexy."
"Don't flirt with me Katherine. I'm not Damon." Stefan glared at her. "And I haven't spent the last 145 years obsessed with you."
"Yeah, based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise. Though I'll admit it does bother me that you've fallen in love with someone else."
"Oh, I was never in love with you, Katherine. You compelled me, so none of my feelings were real."
"Believe what you want, Stefan. But I know the truth. And deep down, so do you."
Katherine giggled like a schoolgirl.
"The truth? Well, the truth is you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch you've always been. So whatever it is that brought you here . . . why don't you just get on with it and leave town? Because if you don't, I will hunt you down and I will rip your heart out."
Katherine looked hurt; her lips were even quivering. Her eyes were glistening.
"You wanna know why I'm here, Stefan?"
Stefan nodded.
"I came back for you."
"Well, the problem, Katherine," Stefan began, "is that I hate you."
"You hate me, huh?" Katherine suddenly grabbed a metal spike and shoved it into his stomach. "That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one."
She pulled the spike out and then Stefan fell to his knees. He watched her walk away. She was going to leave him there to writhe in pain.
Rebecca decided to drop Chelsea off with her father. If Rebecca ran into Katherine, there would be a fight. Rebecca didn't know who would win, but there would definitely be a confrontation. And either way it ended, Chelsea didn't need to be there to see it. No one so young should witness violence of any kind.
Rebecca was out by the pond now because she'd gotten a text from Damon, who'd gotten a text from Stefan, stating that Katherine had attacked him. Elena was there already and was cleaning a wound on Stefan's stomach. Rebecca grimaced because the wound looked bad.
Damon had gone off to track Katherine - Rebecca hadn't leaned that yet; Damon had yet to teach her.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Elena asked.
"Yeah. I'll heal."
"That's not what I meant."
Stefan shook his head. "I was trying to figure her out. I was . . . playing along. I let her get to me."
"Tried to track Katherine, but she's gone," Damon said, coming back. When he saw Stefan with his shirt up and Elena cleaning the wound he said, "Ew, cover up, Fabio. We got a crazy ex on the loose. Better watch out," he told Elena. "Looks like Katherine's tryin' to steal your guy."
"Yeah, well," Elena said, not missing a beat. "Stefan's not the only one she wants. She tried to kiss you, Damon."
"That's not what's happening," Stefan said.
"Isn't it?" Damon asked spitefully.
"I'm gonna go check on Jenna and Jeremy," Elena said. She seemed uncomfortable. "Let me know when you guys are done."
Elena grabbed her purse and stalked off. Rebecca would've gone with her, but she really wanted to know what Stefan and Damon were going to say.
"Katherine's gonna try to play us against each other, you know that, right?" Stefan asked.
"Brother, don't worry," Damon said with mock sincerity. "Our bond is unbreakable."
"We need to stay united against her," Stefan stood up and stared at Damon.
"I thought Elena tried to kiss me," Damon said.
"I know," Stefan admitted. "And as much as I'd like to kill you for that . . . I'm not gonna fight you. And I'm not gonna let Katherine come here and destroy the part of you that is finally, after all this time, willing to feel something."
Rebecca thought that Stefan was making sense. Katherine would destroy Damon - what Rebecca had helped him become - if he let her. And Rebecca was afraid of that. They had come so far together. She didn't want Damon to go back to how he'd been when she'd first met him.
"She'll try to break you," Stefan said. "She'll try to break us. And how we respond to that will define us. It's our choice. So, no, I'm not gonna fight you."
Rebecca suddenly felt tears prick her eyes. God, what if Katherine did want Stefan and Damon back? What if she was here to mess with her and Damon? And Stefan and Elena? Rebecca would kill Katherine before she let her near Damon again. Katherine couldn't have Damon, not again. Not ever again.
Rebecca left with Elena, Jeremy and Jenna - she didn't want to be around Damon or Stefan, not after the argument she'd heard. Elena had made a good point earlier; Katherine hadn't only gone after Stefan. Granted, Katherine had pretended to be Elena when she'd gone after Damon, but still . . . Why had she done it?
That wasn't the only reason she had gone home with Elena and Jeremy. She needed to talk to them about John, about what she had done to John. Plus, she didn't want the ring anymore. It was just a reminder of what she'd done.
Rebecca had basically dragged Jeremy and Elena up to Elena's room. Now she was suddenly very nervous.
"Guys, I have a confession to make." She looked at them both and she knew they knew this was serious. "I killed John." Even though the door was closed and locked, she whispered.
"What?" Elena asked. "When?"
"Last night. When Stefan was bringing Damon out . . . John tried to stop us, so . . . I killed him."
"Good riddance," Jeremy said. "The guy was a dick."
"Jer!" Elena exclaimed. "Don't say that. You don't mean it."
"Don't I? He's the reason Anna's dead!"
Okay, so Jeremy was on Rebecca's side, at least. Rebecca wasn't sure about Elena yet. One could never be sure about the female Gilbert.
"Elena, I'm sorry. I know he was your biological father, but he was a threat to everyone. Me, Damon and Stefan included. He helped Chase kidnap me. He knew what Chase would've done to me if I hadn't fought back, and he helped set it up anyway. But the biggest mistake he made was going after Chelsea and going after Damon."
Rebecca knew that John had been taught to hate them, the vampires. Different circumstances it could've been her trying to get the Gilbert device to destroy all the vampires. But for the grace of having had different parents, Rebecca could've ended up like John. Alone, bitter, filled with hatred.
"Becca," Elena said firmly. "You can't kill someone every time they -"
"Leave her alone," Jeremy said. "She was doing what she had to do to protect the people she loves."
"Jer!"
Rebecca felt the tears fall from her eyes and Jeremy was there immediately, wrapping his arms around her. Rebecca hated having arguments where both Jeremy and Elena were involved. Jeremy inevitably picked Rebecca's side and then Elena hated her for a few weeks because Jeremy agreed with her.
"Please don't hate me," she said, her voice muffled because of her face being against Jeremy's chest.
"I don't hate you," he whispered reassuringly.
There was a pregnant pause from Elena, and then Rebecca heard her sigh. "I don't hate you, Rebecca, and I'm not mad. I'm just . . . disappointed. I thought you didn't want to kill anyone."
Rebecca flinched at the word 'disappointed'. Elena didn't hate her, but Elena was disappointed in her. Elena didn't understand that Rebecca was a predator now. It was her instinct to kill someone she viewed as a threat.
"Becca," Jeremy said softly, "come on, let's go to my room."
"Jer . . ." Elena said just as softly.
"No, Elena. All you're doing is making her feel bad about herself." Then more gently, "She's new. She's not going to be able to control herself all the time. I mean, look at Stefan and Damon. They've been vampires for almost a century and a half and they still lose control sometimes."
Once in Jeremy's room Rebecca let loose and sobbed.
"I didn't want to kill him, Jer. You know that, right? I just . . . he couldn't be here and there was no way he could go away, not with the knowledge he had. It had to be done."
"I understand, Becca. You don't have to explain this to me. Okay? I still trust you not to hurt me or Elena or anyone else you care about. You did this for the people you care about."
Rebecca smiled tentatively up at him; he was being sincere.
"I love you, Jer," she said.
He smiled back at her. "I love you too, Rebecca."
"I have something for you," she said, beginning to dig through her jeans pocket. She pulled out the piece of jewelry that she'd taken from John. "This ring. It protects you from supernatural harm. It belonged to your dad. Considering who you hang out with, I think your dad would want you to have it."
She handed the ring to Jeremy, who studied it for a moment. "Ric has one just like it," he finally said.
"Yeah, he does." Rebecca smiled. "John gave his real ring to a girl named Isobel, and Isobel gave it to Ric. Isobel was Ric's wife. John took your dad's after your dad died."
"Why didn't the ring protect my dad? Why is he still dead?"
"What happened to your parents wasn't supernatural. It was an accident," Rebecca said softly. "There's nothing that can save us from that."
"I wonder what he'd think of all this," Jeremy said. "Me hanging out with vampires, trying to become one. Almost killing myself."
"Your dad was a good man," Rebecca said honestly. "And you're still young, still a teenager. Sometimes I wish I could be like that. My teenage life was stolen the minute I found out about vampires. My human life was taken the minute I fell in love with Damon."
"You don't like being a vampire?"
Rebecca shrugged. "I like the speed, the strength. But, no. I have to fight the urge to rip someone's head off if they make me angry. When I'm hungry, I have the urge to tear someone's throat open. I don't like it. The only reason I didn't let myself die when I woke up was because I couldn't leave Damon all alone. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never leave him, not intentionally. So . . . all of this is for Damon, to be with Damon."
Rebecca felt more tears come to her eyes. "I can't tell Damon that. He would only blame himself and I don't want that."
Meanwhile at the boardinghouse, Damon arrived hoping to see Rebecca and Chelsea there. Neither were. He didn't know where Rebecca had run off to. He hadn't seen her since they'd all been at the Lockwood mansion.
He knew Rebecca was feeling self-conscious about Katherine being in Mystic Falls. He didn't know what else he could do that he hadn't already done to make her feel better, make her more secure. He couldn't think of anything he'd done to make her think he'd choose someone else over her, so he didn't know why she felt that way.
Damon poured himself a drink. It would help him mull things over.
Suddenly Katherine was there on the couch. Damon hadn't even realized she was in the house.
"Very brave of you to come here," Damon threatened.
"I wanted to say good-bye," she said.
"Leaving so soon?"
"I know where I'm not wanted," Katherine admitted softly.
"Don't pout. It's not attractive in a woman your age." Damon took a sip of his drink before placing the glass on the table.
"Ouch," Katherine said.
Damon rolled his eyes and started to walk away. He heard Katherine running and wasn't surprised when she ended up in front of him.
"What, no good-bye kiss?"
"Why don't I kill you instead?"
Katherine scoffed.
"What're you doing here?" Damon asked.
"Nostalgia, curiosity, etc."
"I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. What're you up to?"
Katherine shook her head. "Trust me, Damon. When I'm up to something, you'll know it." She moved closer to him. "Come on. Kiss me, or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know that you're only capable of one."
Damon turned away from her, but she grabbed him and pushed him to the floor. He hit the wood hard and grunted at the impact.
"My sweet, innocent Damon," Katherine purred.
Her hand stayed near his throat but she wasn't actually choking him. Damon reacted to the woods Katherine had said because Rebecca used to call him that. She still sometimes called him My sweet Damon.
Damon flipped them over so he was on top. He did choke her. He glared down at her and she smirked up at him. Katherine brought her hands up to Damon's face and yanked him down for a kiss. Damon wasn't used to someone using a kiss as a distraction - he was the one who usually pulled that trick; he may have even invented it - but when he realized what was happening he pushed away from her, letting go of her throat. He got up and put as much distance between them as the room would allow.
That was when he noticed Rebecca standing in the archway of the parlor. She didn't look happy. In fact, she looked down-right pissed.
"Becca . . ." he said. Which part had she walked in on. The kiss, or what had happened before the kiss.
"Aw . . . did the girlfriend get a good show?" Katherine sneered, standing up.
"Shut up, Katherine," Damon snapped.
Rebecca had arrived home to a very bad sight. Katherine had been on top of Damon, on the floor. She'd called him "My sweet, innocent Damon" and Damon had flipped them over. Neither Damon nor Katherine seemed to notice Rebecca had even been there. Rebecca had almost growled at Katherine, had almost gone to the brunette to stake her right then, but she hadn't been able to move. Another part of her had wanted to see what Katherine was going to do and see how Damon would react.
Rebecca had felt her heart stop when Katherine kissed Damon, but when Damon had shoved away from her, Rebecca smiled. He'd done that without knowing she was there. It didn't matter what Katherine wanted . . . because Damon didn't want her back.
Then when Damon had realized she was there he'd said her name so softly, and had looked so vulnerable and scared, like he thought she would blame him for the kiss, but Rebecca had seen Katherine force the kiss.
"Hello, Katherine," Rebecca said. "What're you doing here?"
"Well, I was trying to seduce Damon, but - "
Rebecca growled at the brunette and flashed forward and grabbed Katherine by her hair. She tossed the brunette across the room and onto the floor. Rebecca didn't give her time to get up; She wrapped a hand around Katherine's throat and held her down.
"He's my sweet Damon," Rebecca hissed.
Rebecca's voice was muffled because her face had changed and she had to talk through her fangs.
"You're gonna stay away from him or I will kill you." Rebecca made it clear that she was promising, not threatening.
It wasn't until Katherine tried to move that Rebecca realized that she was stronger than Katherine. Katherine realized the same thing at the same time because her eyes widened and she began to struggle harder to get free.
"Wait a minute," Damon said. "I have a question. I just need the truth. Just once."
Damon had been watching the cat fight getting ready to start and didn't know if he should lend a hand or not. Rebecca seemed to be holding her own fairly well. Damon had been surprised when Rebecca had shown up and he'd been glad Rebecca seemed to understand that the kiss and everything that had transpired afterward hadn't been his fault.
Damon had almost grinned when Rebecca claimed him in front of Katherine. Rebecca had never been the outwardly possessive type but now . . . she was, he guessed. He didn't hate it. As long as she didn't get too out of hand with it . . . he didn't mind it.
"I already know your question," Katherine gasped out. "And it's answer."
Rebecca looked at Damon and then at Katherine. What was going on? Rebecca didn't understand what was happening.
"Damon?"
"Let her up, Becca," Damon said softly.
Rebecca had trouble listening to that particular request because it was Katherine he was asking her to let go.
"Please," Damon said.
She loosened her grip on Katherine's neck, and the brunette pushed her away. "The truth is," Katherine said, looking at Damon, "I've never loved you."
Rebecca still didn't understand why this conversation was taking place. What did it matter if Katherine had never loved Damon? She'd compelled him to be with her.
"It was always Stefan."
To the casual observer, the brunette actually seemed genuinely sorry for having hurt Damon's feelings, but Rebecca didn't think Katherine could feel anything real.
Just as quickly as Katherine could, she grabbed a container from Damon's stash of alcohol and smashed it into the side of Rebecca's face. Rebecca screamed from the glass cutting into her skin, and then from the alcohol going into her wounds; it burned.
"Becca!" she heard Damon exclaim.
Damon watched as Katherine ran away but he wasn't really worried about her; he was more worried about Rebecca. She was holding her face and her hands were trembling. He knew the glass had cut her because he could see the blood, but he needed to know if any of the glass had stuck in her skin.
He knelt beside her and tilted her chin up. He almost growled when he saw that a few pieces of glass were visible from her cheek.
"Becca," he whispered, pushing her hair back. "Don't move. I'll be back."
She nodded agreeably and Damon took off upstairs and got the first aid kit; he needed the medical tweezers from it. When he got back downstairs, Rebecca was still sitting where she had been when he'd left her. She looked like she was in shock but at least she wasn't crying.
"Becca," he asked gently, kneeling down in front of her. "Hey, are you okay?"
She jumped when he touched her and he jerked his hand back. Actually, it looked more like she'd flinched away from him.
"Becca . . ." Damon said hesitantly. What was wrong with her? Why didn't she want him touching her? She had never rejected his touch before.
"Why?" she asked. "Why did you ask her that question, Damon?"
Oh. She was mad at him because he'd wanted to know the truth about Katherine's feelings for him. He'd wanted to know if anything she'd compelled him to feel had been real for her. It obviously hadn't been.
"I just had to know," he said. "I don't expect you to understand, but -"
"Well, good, because I don't."
Damon looked at her and felt his heart clench painfully because she had tears in her eyes. He hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, but it was true that he'd wanted to know whether anything Katherine had told him in 1864 had been true. But it hadn't been. It wouldn't have made a difference, but he could've found it easier to accept if he hadn't only been a pawn in Katherine's twisted mind games.
"Are we not enough?" Rebecca asked. "Is my love not enough?"
"Becca, don't, okay? My question had nothing to do with what I feel. I just wanted to know how she felt back then. I was always curious."
"Why?" she asked. "What were you curious about?"
"About if she chose me to get at you or for some other reason."
"But why does it matter?" Rebecca asked. "She's a bitch."
"I know that!" Damon snapped, yelling. "But it mattered to me. She used me."
Rebecca blinked, confused. Did it matter whether Katherine felt something for him? It wouldn't change anything. Katherine had still used him.
"If . . ." Damon stopped talking. For the first time ever Damon felt he couldn't talk freely to Rebecca. He didn't know how to put what he was feeling into words. "I don't know how to say this. But I needed the closure, Rebecca. I had to know because I couldn't start to get past it until I knew."
When Rebecca didn't speak after that. Damon hesitantly reached over to stroke her uninjured cheek and was relieved when she accepted his touch.
"Now let me help you," he said softly. "You can be mad at me after." He had to admit, though, that he admired that she was ignoring the pain so she could yell at him.
Rebecca nodded at his suggestion and began speaking as Damon helped her. "I'm stronger than her," she whispered. "She's older than me, so I shouldn't be stronger, but . . ."
"Right," Damon said. "About that."
"What?"
Damon spoke and pulled out the glass at the same time. "I've known you were different for a while." Damon seemed relieved that Rebecca had changed the subject. "You're faster than me. I never mentioned it because it never seemed important. It didn't matter to me."
"Hm."
As Rebecca listened to Damon, and as he was getting the shards of glass out of her cheek, she couldn't help but think that it didn't really surprise her that she was different..
"Well, I was a freak as a human, why not be a freak as a vampire too."
"Hey," Damon said. "You're not a freak. You're . . . unique. You were a vampire Slayer, which means you were stronger than a human. That's magnified. That doesn't mean you're a freak."
Rebecca was in a mood so she ignored his response. It wasn't until Damon wiped her face off that she remembered. She'd wanted to talk to him about something.
"Mason's weird," she said bluntly. "He smelled funny."
"He smelled funny?" Damon couldn't stop the grin from forming because of her words, but he sobered quickly. "Are you okay? You never answered."
"I just walked in on the evil-bitch-monster-of-death trying to molest my boyfriend." Rebecca said dryly. "I'm terrific."
"Becca . . ." Damon pleaded. "Please don't start."
Rebecca grabbed his hand and squeezed. "I also saw you push her away. So . . . I'm terrific."
This time she was serious and she seemed to have gotten over her mad spell. Maybe she'd realized how ridiculous it had been. That it didn't matter what question Damon had asked Katherine; he loved Rebecca and he'd just been curious about Katherine.
"Anyway," Rebecca said, redirecting the conversation. "Mason smelled funny."
"So you said," Damon replied, amused. "Funny how?"
"I don't know. I couldn't place the smell. But he didn't smell human, if you know what I mean. Like, he's not someone I'd wanna chomp on. He didn't smell appetizing."
"Well, we know he's not human," Damon said. "The device wouldn't have worked on Tyler and Mayor Lockwood if they were human."
Rebecca had let the Katherine thing go for the night. She didn't want to argue with Damon anymore, not about Katherine anyway. Katherine wasn't worth it.
Before Rebecca and Damon went to bed Rebecca got a call from Elena asking her to come to the school the next day. They were having a carnival there tomorrow and they needed all the help they could get.
"Of course I'll be there, Elena." What with Caroline in the hospital, they didn't have the carnival-planning queen on hand. Rebecca would be needed. "Bright and early, promise."
"Okay, good."
Rebecca didn't know how Elena could have gone from being disappointed in her to wanting her help, but . . . there it was. What Elena didn't know was that Caroline had come to Rebecca a while back asking for her help. The carnival needed an entertainment act, so Rebecca had volunteered herself. She would sing and dance. Caroline had helped choreograph the dances for her.
When Rebecca finally went to bed, she felt a distance between her and Damon that had never been there before. Katherine was going to ruin what she and Damon had if they let her. If Rebecca let her. Rebecca and Damon were basically on separate sides of the bed. The gap between them seemed much larger than just a few feet. Damon had never given Rebecca a reason to think he'd felt love for anyone else but her. Fondness, maybe, for Elena and sometimes even Stefan, but no one else. And she still didn't understand why he'd needed to know about Katherine's feelings for him, but she knew he didn't like Katherine at all.
Slowly, Rebecca inched her way toward Damon and when she reached him she slid her hand into his to intertwine their fingers. She squeezed his hand and tensed until she felt his answering squeeze.
"Are you mad at me?" she whispered. "I didn't mean to make you angry earlier."
"I wasn't angry; I was frustrated. I've never had to explain something to you before. You usually just get me."
"Oh. Sorry."
"No, I just . . ." Damon turned on his side so he could look at her. "I shouldn't have expected you to get it. You've never been used by anyone, never been compelled to think you love that person."
"Well, no, I haven't. But you could explain it to me. Please? So I'll understand."
Damon thought about it. How could he explain everything to her in a way that would make her understand?
"Okay. Hypothetically . . . Imagine me and you before the time traveling spell."
"Okay . . ."
"Back then, before the spell, before us, imagine I had compelled you to be with me, to think you loved me. How would you feel?"
"Angry," Rebecca said quickly, instinctively. "And used."
"Exactly. But imagine wondering whether or not any of it was real. If you found out it was real for me wouldn't it help you forgive me?"
Rebecca stared at him for a few seconds. "You were trying to find a reason to forgive her? If she . . . If you'd found out she'd compelled you for some other reason than her using you against me, you could've forgiven her?"
Damon looked a little uncomfortable. "I could've tried. But she doesn't deserve my forgiveness and she doesn't seem to want it."
"That's because Katherine doesn't care about anyone but herself, Damon."
"I realize that now," he admitted.
Damon began stroking her side tenderly. He watched as she smiled softly and he smiled himself.
"I never meant for her to come between us, Becca. I never meant it that way."
Rebecca nodded and let her eyes flutter shut. "It's not all your fault. I'm just not . . . secure when it comes to her. Because of . . ."
"Because you think she'll keep coming after me," Damon finished for her.
"Yeah."
Damon wanted to remind her that he wasn't the one Katherine had been trying to kill for the last few month, but . . . now wasn't the time. She was really upset about the situation they were in. Reminding her of that particular detail wouldn't help at all.
Okay, here's my next offering. Damon may seem a little OOC in this chapter with the forgiveness and all, but remember he's different - a little - because he's actually got the girl he wants and he didn't wait 145 years just to have his heart ripped out. So that's my reasoning behind his OOC moment.
