AN: Big thanks to anyone who reads/faves/tweets/reviews this story and to my Beta tsukikomew. You guys are precious!
Chapter 4 -Weird Magic Witch Mojo
"And you are absolutely sure it is him?"
"Yes, Bonnie," Elena assured her friend yet again. "We are. I already suspected something when he told me his name. And both Stefan and Damon confirmed it. It is him."
"Well," the witch concluded. "Then Stefan was right. Whatever happened... it was magic, and a powerful spell at that."
Elena had been explaining everything that happened to Bonnie for the last half hour, having to repeat over and over again that the cute little boy in the arm chair was really Damon's younger self. Her friend seemed to have an exceptional hard time believing it and kept mumbling something about the balance of nature and the practical impossibility of time travel over and over again.
And yet, there he was. In flesh and blood sitting in the parlor of the Salvatore Boarding House was a very young, very human mini-version of the one Damon Salvatore.
The older version was still firmly placed next to his alcohol cabinet, emptying one class after another of his Bourbon and silently listening in on their hushed conversation. Stefan was doing the same, bar the drinking, and was standing next to the fire place, his eyes moving back and forth between the girls and little Damon.
The boy was positively confused about what was going on around him. He hadn't forgotten the comment about Bonnie being a witch and now he kept sneaking glimpses at her every few seconds. He was obviously torn between the natural fear of everything unknown and his childlike curiosity. Though, comforted by the fact that Lena seemed to trust that woman, his curiosity definitely prevailed. He couldn't understand what the two females were talking about, but no matter how much he perked up his ears, he couldn't make out one single word. He was starting to get frustrated and the little pout on his lips was the best indication for that.
He was, however, quite sure that he was the topic of their conversation. He might be young, but he had always been quite perceptive. And now the little guy couldn't help the feeling that his presence in their home wasn't the most welcome circumstance for them. And if there was one thing he surely didn't want, then it was being a burden to anyone... that was really the last thing on his mind. He was brought up to always be helpful and polite to his elders, to respects them and not cause them any unnecessary displeasure or trouble on his account. His mother had always praised him for being such a good, well-educated boy. She'd always been proud of him.
Most of the time, he was very well-behaved, modest and by far not as spoiled as some of the other children he knew. Unlike some of the boys and girls he grew up with, he didn't need someone's attention to keep himself entertained at all times. He was quite capable of occupying himself.
He loved the huge gardens that belonged to their property and, even more so, he loved the forest that lay beyond it. Whenever his father could spare some time from work he used to take him to go hunting or hiking with him. They had explored huge parts of the woods together but as he got more familiar with it he started to go on a lot of adventures all by himself.
After all he was almost seven whole years old now. He was a big boy.
"Lena?" he silently asked, causing all four pairs of eyes to turn in his direction immediately. He squirmed a little uncomfortably. "I don't want to be of any trouble to you."
"Oh, Damon," Elena exclaimed sympathetically, rushing over to his side. She sat down on the armrest of his chair and gently put her right arm around his small shoulders. "You're not causing us any trouble at all."
Well... maybe that wasn't entirely true; but then again, it wasn't exactly his fault. It was their current cluelessness concerning his very presence that was troubling them, but you could hardly blame the little guy for that. If anything, he was the one who really was in trouble.
"We're just trying to figure out how you got lost in the forest and where your parents are... but until then we're gladly going to take good care of you, I promise."
He glanced at her skeptically, a look she was more then used to from his older self but which seemed utterly unfitting on his boyish face. "But, Lena, I really don't –"
"You're not going to be a burden to any of us... Damon." The deep, calm voice that interrupted him – adding his own name more like an afterthought – came as a shock to all of them. Vampire-Damon hadn't said anything in a very long time; to Bonnie those were the first words she heard from him so far, as he had been unusually quiet and pondering the whole time.
Even now his voice sounded strikingly unfamiliar to all of them. It held a tenderness, a form of unquestioning and complete understanding for the little boy's sorrows, it almost seemed like it didn't belong to Damon at all. Not the Damon they knew, anyway.
Even Stefan who'd had the chance to know the human Damon – his loyal and protective big brother, the young man who hadn't been tainted by Katherine's games and deception yet – even he didn't know him to be like this. And neither did Elena, who has always been able to see the good in him, the potential behind his "all-bad" attitude and whom he had shown a rare vulnerable side of him.
The both didn't know him to be so empathetic.
He could practically feel their amazement crawling over his skin as every single pair of eyes in the room stared holes into him. It was a disconcerting feeling, triggering instincts in him that screamed at him to run, hide and kill. To do anything to make them stop looking at him like that. It was burdening and plain uncomfortable.
However, he didn't run... or kill. He just tried to hide his discomfort as best as he could, turning his back towards the rest of the room again and focusing solely on his bottle of Bourbon. "We will try to find a way to get you back home..."
The little Damon was looking intently at his namesake's back, trying to figure him out. It was odd, but even though the man seemed to be quite uncommunicative so far, maybe even a little hostile, he didn't think that any harm would come to him from his hands. His presence was strangely calming as much as it was unsettling at the same time.
"It's getting dark," Stefan broke the silence that once again tried to take over. "We should probably figure out your sleeping arrangements for the night." His words were directed at the little boy, as he remembered that his brother never liked it when someone was talking about him – as opposed to to him - while he was in the same room. He smiled slightly.
The little boy looked around the room, locking eyes with all of them for a brief second – except for the other Damon, of course – before turning his gaze to Elena again in the end.
"I want to stay with you," he mumbled silently, but with a hint of finality in his voice.
Elena softly stroked his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said and you could see the truth of her words clearly in her eyes. "But I have to go home for the night."
"Well," Bonnie interfered. She could clearly see the little boy's troubled features. "Why don't you take him with you?"
Elena sighed. "I can't. Alaric is still camping in our living room and... Jenna's stuff..." Elena trailed off. They hadn't been into the master bedroom for a while and they still needed to put her stuff away. Neither of them felt completely ready for that step yet. "Also, I think we should let him calm down a little bit overnight and catch some sleep before we confront him with even more new faces."
Bonnie nodded, understanding her friend's point and silently agreeing with her. The little guy already seemed a bit overwhelmed with everything that was going on.
"He can sleep here," Stefan said. "He can have his own room and... if you want, Elena, you can take one of the guest rooms, too. Technically, this is still your house..."
"That's actually a good idea. But I still need to go home tonight, explain everything that happened to Alaric and Jeremy." By now she almost knew her little story by hard, how she found him on the side of the road and everything that happened afterward; with all the surprising and unbelievable details. "I also want to check the attic; I'm pretty sure my Mom kept some of Jeremy's old clothes up there in some suitcases." She turned to the little Damon and gave him a warm smile, which he couldn't resist to return – despite his aversion to the prospect of Elena leaving. "I'm going to be back first thing tomorrow morning, with breakfast, a duffel bag with stuff for myself and some clothes for you, okay?"
Hesitantly and with a tiny, but quite obvious bit of displeasure, the boy finally agreed. What else could he have done, anyway?
"But you will come back tomorrow morning?" he had asked her then... and yet again for the umpteenth time after Elena had tucked him into one of the big, comfortable beds in the Salvatore Boarding House. He was yawning heartily, barely able to keep his eyes open. But he had to make sure. "Promise?"
Stefan had fixed them one of the guest rooms on the same floor, were Damon's room was and had promised to have the one next to it ready for her by tomorrow morning. Elena smiled softly at the little boy, brushing the dark hair out of his forehead. It amazed her how fast they had bonded. How she already – after only a mere few hours – felt this huge amount of affection and protectiveness for him. But then, he was Damon after all... and she had known him for far longer.
"I promise," she whispered before she turned off the lamp on the bedside table and quietly left the room.
"So," Stefan said to no one in particular as soon as Elena entered the parlor again. "What are we going to do with him?"
"Well, for now he is sound asleep in one of your guest rooms," Elena shared with the group. "He's been pretty tired and I don't think he'll wake up again until tomorrow morning."
Stefan and Bonnie just nodded in silent agreement; Damon however mumbled something under his breath that she couldn't quite make out. But she decided not to bother with that right now, since they had greater things to worry about. And if Damon Salvatore wanted himself to be heard, he surely knew how to.
"I think our best shot at finding out what to do with him and – most importantly – finding a way to send him back," Bonnie said, looking at the other three, "is figuring out what brought him here in the first place."
Damon laughed humorlessly, raising an eyebrow at them. "Now, I don't know about you, Three Investigators," Damon remarked in his usual drawl, "but I think this whole situation has weird magic witch mojo written all over it."
"You're right", Bonnie admitted, just barely bridling her usual annoyance at his snarky behavior. "But unfortunately, that doesn't really get us any further in finding out what exactly caused your younger self's sudden appearance." She turned slightly away from Damon, addressing all of them once again. "This could be all kinds of magic... I've read some of the Grimoires we took from the Martin's apartment and, as far as I know – there is more than just one possible explanation for this."
Elena looked at her a little surprised, ironically taken aback by the fact that Bonnie actually deemed this situation "explainable". So far she thought their problem was finding an explanation at all, not picking out the right one among what was obviously a lot of possibilities.
The other two didn't seem as surprised by Bonnie's statement, however. Stefan appeared to be deep in thought, whereas Damon was evidently slowly getting impatient. And – as a commonly known fact – Damon Salvatore didn't do either bored, or impatient.
"Care to elaborate?" he all but snapped at the witch. "Or do we have to worm everything out of you?"
By all appearances, Bonnie tried hard to bite back her flaring temper and – for sure – the quick-witted comeback that was without a doubt just waiting on her tongue to be spat right at him. Her hands were shaking but she managed to restrain herself and not react to Damon's rude behavior. Her voice was strained, though, when she answered him.
"Well... first of all, this is definitely strong magic that much is for sure." She slowly shook her head. "You don't mess with the rules and confines of nature and time so easily. There is the possibility that solely a spell – nothing more than that – was responsible for this, however, if you ask me, that's rather unlikely."
"Why?" Stefan went fishing for more information immediately. Looking at him right now, one could almost believe that he had an idea... that he was onto something. "And what exactly do you mean when you say 'nothing more than that'?"
"Exactly that. No additional... items, if you will." Once again Damon sighed exasperatedly, whereas Stefan just raised an eyebrow, prodding the witch to elaborate. "There is a lot of power needed to perform a spell like that. We're talking "almost killing a hybrid" kind of power. Maybe not quite as much, but … well, you get the picture." Bonnie shrugged her shoulders. "So, if you ask me, there has to be another force involved. Another power source. Something that... channeled the energy."
"Like with the tomb spell? And the comet?" Stefan asked eagerly, almost reminding Elena of an eager student.
Damon just rolled his eyes.
"Exactly", Bonnie nodded smiling. Obviously pleased about Stefan's enthusiasm. "Celestial events and phenomena are one of the things that can deliver a certain... power boost. They're also the most common, since they're quite dependable, can be easily predicted and often occur repetitive." Her voice sounded as is she had memorized the lines from a text book. Or, well, a Grimoire in that case. "That can be a comet, eclipse, solstice, the full moon, a meteor shower, etcetera."
"But nothing of that happened lately. And the next full moon is still about a week away", Elena said, feeling as clueless as before.
"But you said 'one of the things'?" Stefan immediately chimed in, directing his question towards Bonnie. "There's another possibility, then?"
Bonnie nodded. "It is also helpful to somewhat bind the spell to a certain item, where it's supposed to trigger whatever it was cast for under a series of specific circumstances."
Emily's crystal, the Gilbert device, the moonstone... Elena recited in her head and nodded slowly. That made sense. Damon just kept starring at Bonnie, whereas Stefan seemed to be about to recite his own conclusion to the group once again, but got interrupted by Bonnie before he had the chance.
"This way, a part of the power needed can be drawn from another spell, person or substance at a later time. Often these two methods are combined, celestial events and mystic items, like it happened with the Sun and the Moon Curse, or rather the Hybrid Curse; however, they don't necessarily have to be."
"Got an example for that two, Miss Bennett?", Damon drawled from across the room.
"In fact, I do." She nodded towards the hand, in which he held his tumbler. "Your ring."
"The Lapis Lazuli?" Elena asked for clarification.
"Mh-Hm. It would need an awful lot of power to cast a spell directly on a vampire, or any other item for that matter, to protect him from the sunlight. Whereas casting a spell on a Lapis Lazuli stone instead, is fairly easy in comparison."
Damon huffed out an exasperated breath, which made all the heads turn back towards him immediately.
"So, just to be clear about that, Judgey. You're saying that – practically – all it takes is a fairly averagely talented which wishing upon a shooting star, accidentally holding her magic wand, and all of a sudden we're stuck in some weird crossover episode of "Back to the Future" and "The Twilight Zone". Awesome... just awesome. So much for power in the wrong hands and -"
"Well, it's not that easy, Damon, obviously," Bonnie interrupted him vigorously, her cheeks flushed with anger. "Otherwise there would be much more wishes coming true in this world. Every stupid birthday or dandelion wish, but that..." The room fell eerily quiet as Bonnie suddenly stopped mid-sentence, her eyes becoming wide as saucers. A gust of air left her lips. "Wait a minute..."
Elena exchanged a both worried and intrigued gaze with Stefan, before they spoke up at the same time. "What? What is it, Bonnie?"
The witches head snapped to Elena in a quick motion. "What did you wish for today?"
"Wh-What?" Elena responded completely bewildered. "What do you mean?"
"The car," Bonnie explained animatedly, gesturing wildly with her hands as if that was all the information Elena should need. She sighed exasperatedly when she saw that her friend still looked like what she was saying was all Greek to her. "When I picked up your eyelash. In the car... and when I told you to make a wish. What did you wish for?"
Elena's now insecure gaze lingered on Bonnie for a few seconds, just starring at her. Then, quickly, it darted over to Damon, then Stefan and finally back to her friend. Damon was strangely reminded of a deer caught in the head lights or facing its predator. She seemed uncomfortable... and that was exactly what she felt like, as she had the room's audience's full attention now.
Everybody was looking at her with expectation, bewilderment, curiosity... and quite possibly even accusation. Or did she just imagine that?
"Bonnie," she started to mumble evasively. "That was just a stupid... wish on an eyelash. You don't really think... I mean, we did that all the time when we were younger and nothing ever happened. So why..."
Bonnie slowly shook her head and Elena immediately fell silent. "But that was before I came into my powers, Elena." Of course... of course it was. "And I'm still quite strong."
Elena could do nothing but nod at that. Truth be told, she had almost expected her friends answer... it made perfect sense. After all, there was no way that she could not realize how her wish could have possibly led to this.
I want the old Damon back.
That seemingly meaningless episode in her car earlier this day could definitely be the explanation they were searching for. Even though it still seemed rather impossible to her since it was just an eyelash wish after all...
"So?" Bonnie pressed carefully. "What did you wish for?"
Elena shifted uncomfortably. "Well, after our conversation at the Grill... I was going to come here to talk to Damon right after I dropped you off, remember?" she asked hesitantly. Her main focus, however, was not on her friend, but on the dark-haired, blue-eyed vampire in question. She kept stealing quick glances at him, trying to gauge his reaction.
"Yeah, I know," Bonnie stated, following her gaze for a second. "I remember. You were... worried."
She just nodded again. Damon's eyes – now unwaveringly fixed on her – seemed to get more intense and penetrating with every passing second and she could practically feel its weight pushing down on her. It made her feel... guilty.
"I knew that it was not going to be easy... I knew that he..."
"You don't have to talk about me, like I'm not in the same room, Elena," she got interrupted by Damon's velvety voice. He didn't exactly seem angry at her... just a little irritated and annoyed. "And stop being so damn shaky... whatever you're about to say, it's not like I'm going to bite your head off."
His unadorned straightforwardness hit her unexpectedly and it did nothing to calm her nerves... or alleviate the guilt she was feeling.
Whatever situation they were faced with now was more than likely her fault... it was due to her wishes and she was scared of what he might think of that... and what he might do. And – more than anything else – she was ashamed that he just saw right through her. How she had lost her formerly regained trust in his ability to keep his calm. And his believe in her. Lately, she had grown unsure of their relationship's stability again... and she felt bad, that he had to notice that now, even though it might have happened because of his behavior in the first place.
Cautiously, she locked her eyes with his blue ones, pleading for him not to judge her... to understand what she had been thinking when she made that wish. What she had been feeling.
"You had started to shut me out again lately; you were closing yourself off again and... while I might have understood your reasons... I didn't want it to happen." She took a deep, steadying breath, feeling her voice grow stronger now, gradually. "I was worried and I wanted to be able to talk to you again like I had been just a few months ago. I wanted it to be like that again between the two of us." She was looking at him intently.
"So", Bonnie chimed in carefully, watching the pair just starring at each other for several seconds. "What did you wish for?"
Damon hadn't shown any reaction to Elena's confession so far. It wasn't like he didn't already know all these things... they did somewhat talk about it earlier, after all. He was well aware that Elena was practically mourning and longing for their past closeness and easiness. But now all these feelings had gotten a completely new severity... suddenly they meant so much more than they already had.
And Elena knew as well that this moment had somehow become a defining one for them. Whatever happened after she told him what exactly she had wished for, was most likely either going to make them or break them altogether. This was going to determine the recoverability of their entire relationship. This could be her last chance...
Not averting her gaze from his in the slightest she finally spoke the words aloud they were all waiting for.
"I... I wished to have the old Damon back."
For at least a minute it was totally quiet in the parlor of the Boarding House. It seemed, like all of them were silently thinking about what Elena had just revealed to all of them... and what it meant. Damon seemed even more unmoving and unreadable now, then he did before and Elena found that really unsettling. The only thing about his face, that showed at least the slightest hint of emotion, was the deep crease that now resided between his eyebrows. He was not looking at her anymore, instead he was starring off into space.
Stefan's stance was quite similar to his brothers... and again it was Bonnie who finally took the floor and asked the questions all three of them were pondering on right now.
"Is that all?... Is that all you wished for?"
Elena frowned a little bit, thinking back to the moment in the car when she had blown that little piece of hair of her friend's finger and what exactly she had been thinking. Slowly she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I... might have been a little more specific," she let on silently. "I don't remember it perfectly, but I'm pretty sure... that I wished to get the old Damon back... the one without his defenses."
And there it was... their explanation. The reason why this, and not any other old Damon had been brought back to them. To her.
She had wished for a defenseless, unguarded version of him, someone she could talk to again, someone who wouldn't hide himself or anything else from her... and then she met the boy. Suddenly she found herself faced with his seven year old self.
As soon as Elena's mind started to register what that really meant... what it said about Damon – and not just the one standing next to the liquor cabinet right now, but also the one sleeping peacefully in a bed upstairs – she found herself frowning right along with Bonnie and Stefan, who had obviously come to the same conclusion.
"Well," Stefan mumbled quietly, "I guess we found our explanation." His gaze was locked on Damon; however, he didn't seem to actually see him. It appeared like he was looking right through him, at something way beyond Damon that only he could see.
"But... but that would," Elena stuttered shakily. Her eyes flitted to Bonnie briefly, as if she was looking for reassurance. "That would mean that... you were only about seven when you started to..."
"Could you all just stop starring at me like I'm your latest circus attraction?"
Now he seemed livid. This was just too much. Damon felt like someone had just stripped him naked – not in the literal, but a metaphorical sense, which made it even worse for him. Without being aware of what they were doing, Elena and Bonnie had just laid bare a part of him that he'd been trying – fighting – to hide for over a century now. They ignorantly unearthed something that went so deep... and now it felt like his profoundest and most secret emotions just lay there, in the middle of the room, for all to see. Like a piece of meat, tossed into a cage full of lions, just ready to pounce on it and tear it apart until there was nothing left of it. Until they got through every inch and every fiber of it, savoring and dissecting it to the core.
He could only barely keep his calm enough for him to turn around and silently head upstairs to his room, ignoring all the 'Damon's and 'We didn't mean to's being called after him. Fortunately – either for him or them, he wasn't exactly sure – they had the good sense to not come after him and just leave him the hell alone. He couldn't take their inquisitive stares, the pity in their eyes or any of their comforting words right now. He didn't want them.
Right now he just had to be by himself for awhile; to lay in his bed in a Bourbon-induced sense of calmness and figure some things out for himself, before he could face the rest of the world again.
The rest of them... and – above all – himself.
So, what do you say? Seems like the gang finally figured it out, huh?
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