Chapter 4

"Action!"

Ian is strapped to a broken chair in a filthy basement somewhere in Eastern Europe. His face is bloody and his clothes are ripped. He is being savagely beaten by two thugs and is watched across the room by Dr. Pavel Wasilewski.

Pavel: Enough! (He holds up a hand to stop the thugs from another blow). Let's see if our visitor finally has any information for me on the whereabouts of an important suitcase, a suitcase that was left in his care not two weeks ago. (Pavel rises and crosses to the severely beaten Ian and slaps him awake). Where is the suitcase Mr. Somerhalder?

(Ian whispers something that Pavel can't hear. He leans in and the camera bears down on both of them.

Ian: I think I left it up your ass.

(Pavel, face red with fury, slaps him hard, then backs away trying to compose himself)

Pavel: Perhaps our visitor needs a little more convincing. (He wipes off the blood on his hands and replaces his handkerchief). Bring out the girl.

Ian: No!

(The thugs leave momentarily and drag a reluctant Nina into the room and remove the burlap sack from her head. Ian is grateful to see she is frightened but unharmed.)

Ian: Let her go! I'll tell you what you need to know!

Pavel: (laughing) Oh, it's too late for that my friend. Now she will suffer as you have suffered, perhaps worse.

(Nina is tied to a beam and her tank top is ripped from her body leaving her in only a skimpy white cotton bra).

Damon tried to remain professional and shift his eyes away from her heaving chest but it wasn't possible. How could such a petite girl have such a large rack? He trained his eyes on her face and concentrated again on his acting partner's shame and pain.

Ian: No!

(The thugs begin beating Nina. Cut to Ian's face, twisted with rage and grief and the sounds of the doctor laughing in the background)

"And...cut!"

Damon popped out of his ropes and sauntered over to Elena.

"Good scene," he said, his eyes roaming her exposed flesh. It was wrong, but he couldn't help himself. She was just so delectable, all trussed up and vunerable.

"Thanks, um, can you untie me?"

"Sure." Damon stepped close to her and untied the ropes holding her bound arms. When they released she fell in a heap in his arms.

"Oh sorry," she murmurred, trying to right herself. She pushed on his chest and straightened up.

Damon tried to pretend he did not just feel her soft breasts against his chest, or how smooth the skin on her arms were.

They stood awkwardly staring at each other, the outside world lost to them. The conversation between them was silent, but spoke volumes. Without uttering a word he told her that he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, how he was amazed by her, by her talent, by her dedication. But more than that, he told her that he wanted her. That there was something between them that was not professional, was not scripted or set down in any sort of orderly way. It was an explosion of passion that only needed the right spark in the right place.

She answered him, mirroring everything he didn't say in her eyes, like how much she wanted him as a man, not as a movie star or someone powerful and bigger than life. Her eyes trailed to his shoulders and she missed that brief moment when she clung to them, wishing she could touch them again.

When he finally spoke it was what he always said to her at the end of the scene, but it did nothing to break the spell they had between them.

"Good scene," he whispered.

"Thanks," she replied, clenching her fists at her side, trying to keep herself from reaching out for him.

Damon, who had been trying for weeks of shooting to stay away from her and her charms, knew he weakening. Every moment he spent with her he felt himself falling hard. No amount of ignoring her helped. He could hear her across the set laughing with Bonnie and Stefan and each time it made him tense up. He couldn't bear to watch her talk to Matt and did everything in his power to make sure they were never alone together. He was starting to feel like a jealous boyfriend, a feeling he had no right to have. But he couldn't bear to see her flirting with anyone else. Those feelings were not the proper co-star or even friendly feelings to have. Those feelings were jealousy and rage.

It didn't help that Katherine was out of the country on a shoot of her own. He hadn't talked to her in weeks as she liked to go incommunicado on sets, immersing herself in her work, inhabiting her character. Damon could never figure out if that was true, that she was that dedicated and Method-oriented about her work, or if she just wanted time to herself.

As if summoned by his thoughts, his moment in Elena's sun was clouded by a screech from the back of the set.

"Where's Damon?"

Damon turned to the sound and saw Katherine pushing her way through the set to him, throwing off the arm of a PA who was trying to stop her.

"I'm his girlfriend dammit! Let go of me! I have a right to be here!"

Katherine wrung herself from the PA's grasp and marched onto the set, in a moment taking in the tableau of Damon and Elena standing a little too close to each other and sizing up the situation accurately.

She gave Elena a look up and down, judging her on her outfit like it was something she would wear in regular life. "Oh hi," she said sugar-sweetly. "You must be Elena. Stefan's told me so much about you." The way she said it made it clear Damon had never mentioned his beautiful co-star.

"Nice to meet…" she was cut off on her introduction as Katherine turned abruptly to Damon and threw her arms around his neck. "Oh my God, I've missed you so much! Mexico was awful. All I did was sweat for two weeks straight! And the food, oh my God, I can't tell you how much I wanted a cappuccino and a proper croissant! Can you take me out for dinner tonight? I know this place in Santa Monica that is getting all this buzz!" She took Damon by the arm and led him away from the set. Damon didn't look back.

Elena, stood, frozen in place for a moment, until a set construction guy told her he had to strike the set. She moved off the set towards the dressing room when Stefan fell into place beside her. He smiled at her gently and she got the impression he had just witnessed everything that had just happened but was too nice a person to bring it up.

"So, we're having cast party tonight at my house if you're interested," he said casually.

"Oh? I thought cast parties were for the end of the shoot."

"Well, we're a happy bunch. We have lots of parties. Especially since you and Damon are heading out tomorrow for Bali and leaving the rest of us in boring ol' LA. God! I wish I could get stranded on a desert island sometime!"

Elena had almost forgotten about the impending trip. A skeleton crew was traveling to the South Seas to film the couple's escape and re-capture on an island. It was also when they would film the sex scene that Elena had been trying to for the length of the shoot to put out of her mind.

"A party sounds great."

"Perfect. See you around nine." Stefan walked off just as Matt walked around the corner of her trailer.

Matt waved frantically to her. "Hi there! I was just looking for you!"


Elena smoothed the shiny fabric down trying to cover a bit more of her legs. The red spaghetti-strapped mini-dress seemed like a good idea when she was getting dressed, but now she felt too exposed, like she had left the house in her underwear.

She'd picked it out for a few reasons, and maybe a few more that barely registered on her subconscious. One, it was the first date she'd had in years and she wanted to look fabulous. What girl wouldn't. Two, well, two started to fall into that best-not-think-about-it category of not being intimidated by Katherine sprinkled with a heavy dose of hoping-Damon-noticed-her.

She shouldn't have worried because when she and Matt arrived at the party, the famous couple wasn't present.

"I think they went out with Katherine's friends," Stefan said, unprompted when he took her jacket. He whistled at her outfit. "And my, look what's he's missing. Well, that means I get you all to myself."

"Hey, what about me?" Matt said from behind him as they walked towards the patio. "She's not even your type!"

Stefan turned to him but kept Elena's arm tightly in his. "So true, my dear Matt. It is one of those times I wish I swung both ways, but ce la vie!"

He released her and she went to Stan awkwardly by Matt. The patio was full of people, both in and out of the pool. Caroline was being chatted up by Klaus, one of the movie's producers. The way she had her arms crossed in front of her chest made Elena think he wasn't having too much success in the pickup. Bonnie was sitting on the diving board with her boyfriend Luca and she waved madly when she saw Elena.

"You brought a swimsuit, right?"

"No," Elena said, walking up to her. "I didn't realize it was Beach-Blanket-Bingo party."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "All of Stefan's parties are Beach Blanket Bingo. We should have told you. Oh well. Anyway, you look great." She spied Matt over Elena's shoulder. "Are you here with Matt? Oh my God! Tell me!"

It was Luca's turn to roll his eyes and disengage himself from Bonnie's embrace. "I think I will leave you two girlfriends to gossip and gush and I'll be manly and get another beer. Elena?" He offered and she nodded yes, a beer would be great. He walked towards the keg and the grill area, where Stefan was in an apron demonstrating to everyone the best way to flip a steak with your fingers.

"You know, I took Stefan for more of the sipping-Manhattans-around-a-fireplace-kind-of-guy, not a grill-meister."

"He's funny that way. Listen, before Matt comes over. What happened with Damon today?"

Elena broke eye contact, looking into the pool. "What do you mean?"

"Tyler said you guys were making major googly-eyes at each other before the Ice Queen showed up."

"No, we were just rehearsing the scene."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh. Sure."

Elena blushed and looked back at her friend. "Ice Queen, huh?"

"One thing you should know, everyone hates her. She's so bad for Damon. He would be a halfway nice guy except she tries to poison every well he steps to. Ugh." Bonnie shivered as if remembering a bad dream. "I wish he could meet someone nice."

Elena didn't respond. Her face was burning and the need to get up and run out of the room was almost over-powering. Why did every mention of Damon cause some kind of physical reaction in her? He was sexy, for sure. And talented. And…Oh God, Elena, she thought, get over it. He has a girlfriend and it's likely you would be the last woman he'd be with anyway. She also needed to remember she was on a date with a very nice guy who didn't deserve to have the woman he escorted pining after someone else.

Matt walked up to the two girls and plopped down on the diving board. "Fifty bucks says Stefan burns his fingers like he did last time."

"Sucker's bet," Bonnie replied and got off the board. Just then, they heard Stefan yell and back away from the grill.

"What an idiot," Bonnie said with a sigh. "I'll go get the burn cream. Really, we gotta tell him to cut this out."

Elena watched with amusement as Bonnie played nurse to a wounded Stefan, who howled and moaned in such pain you'd think he had impaled himself on a stake instead of just flipping one.

"What an idiot." Elena heard repeated behind her and she saw Damon standing there with Katherine beside him, looking every bit the Ice Queen in a blue sequined cut-down-to-there top, tight white jeans and silver platform stilletos.

"I can't believe I dated that guy," Katherine said. "Where's the bar?" Without another word she took off for the far side of the patio.

Damon wasn't left alone for long. Within minutes a bevy of beautiful young women had surrounded him, all making it perfectly clear they'd love to take Katherine's place. Elena saw Damon smile politely at them, but he kept craning his neck around, looking like he was looking for someone.

Then he spotted her and she realized he had been looking for her. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face before he spotted her companion, Matt, sitting a little too close to her, chatting and smiling, oblivious that his date's eyes were glued to someone else.

She saw the mask of fury descend, the slow, creeping, cold seep into his eyes. His gaze traveled over her hungrily, taking in the micro-mini dress, her long legs draped over the diving board, and the heat she saw in them was blazing, but lacked warmth. He was pissed she was here with someone else.

Which didn't make any sense, she thought, looking away. Wasn't he here with his girlfriend? She met his gaze again, hers as stony as his. Her chin lifted slightly in defiance. Whatever was going on with him, with them, had to stop. It was bordering on inappropriate, and Elena Gilbert was never inappropriate.

With a snort of disgust he looked away, the spell between them broken. Elena turned her attention back to Matt, trying to control her ragged breathing and beating heart.

There, she thought. That's that. We'll be co-workers again, distant, but polite. It's better this way.

She tried to ignore the heaviness of her heart as she saw Katherine come back and shoo his admirer's away. She clung to his arm and kissed him wetly on the lips.

He didn't look Elena's way again.


AN1: Oh, the pain, the angst! You know what I like best about writing this? Writing the script for the movie. It's just as cheesy and cliche as I can make it, and man it's refreshing to just write that stuff and get it out of my system. I'm assuming said movie is NOT an Oscar contender.

AN2: Here is your daily reminder to read and review. Thank you for your time.