I had thought that the days of knocking on Damon's Salvatore's door at six in the morning had long since passed for me. Yet, here I was, standing in front of room 508, resentful and pissed at myself that the only solution I had managed to come up with during the last five hours was running straight to him for help.

Oh, and the makers of Visine were big fat liars. My eyes reflected every inch of the zero hours of sleep I had received last night. After Lexi had let her little truth bomb fly, the vast amount of alcohol she had consumed finally caught up to her and she had to be carried back to her hotel room by her other bridesmaids.

And then there I was, saddled with likely the biggest catch 22 of my life. Did I tell Stefan, on the morning of his wedding to a woman he was crazy in love with, that she had deceived him in the worst way? Or did I let him continue on blissfully ignorant only for the betrayal to possibly be repeated again behind his back?

My first thought had been to grill my sister for help, but Katherine was nowhere to be found and I didn't have the time nor the energy to track her down. Eventually, I had come to the conclusion that Stefan's brother was my last resort to spill my guts to and share the burden with.

Before I could raise my hand to drill my knuckles across his door again, it swung open to reveal a pretty brunette with a short, perky haircut, a curious look on her face, and only a white towel for attire.

"Oh," I faltered, taking a step back while my eyes slid over to a double take on the numbers next to the door. "I'm sorry, I was look-"

The unidentified female raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side, her uncertain smile becoming friendly. "Heart-shaped face and doe eyes that Bambi would be jealous of? You must be Elena."

I gaped at the woman idiotically.

"Rose," she offered, taking pity on my bewilderment. "I'm Damon's girlfriend."

Of course it was. In the midst of my exhaustion and trying to decide whether or not to destroy Stefan's life, it had totally slipped my mind that she was coming in this morning. I shook my head slightly, this didn't change anything and it shouldn't affect me in any way.

Pulling myself together, I stuck a hand out and belatedly returned her smile. "That's right, I'm Elena. How did you-"

"Who was at the door?". Damon's voice cut across my question as he appeared behind Rose. Dressed in his boxers and toweling off his dripping wet hair, there were no points guessing what they were doing before I had interrupted.

My cheeks tinged pink and I keenly felt the awkwardness of intruding on the kind of intimate moment between them that Damon and I, had never, and would never, share.

"Cover yourself up," Rose chastised teasingly, slapping Damon gently on his chest with the fondness in her gaze obvious to all. "I'm sure Elena didn't come here for a free show."

"Not like she hasn't seen it all before."

Now I knew Damon hadn't meant it like that. He was no doubt referring to his penchant for stripping after imbibing a sixth beer or a fifth shot. A scenario that I had witnessed too many times to remember.

However, evidently Damon didn't understand woman as well as he thought he did because Rose could have been the most understanding person on the planet and that comment would have still stung. A reference to another girl seeing your goodies while your girlfriend was standing right there wasn't the smartest thing that had ever come out of the eldest Salvatore's mouth.

"Oh come on," Damon scoffed, rolling his pupils when he saw the dual flinching of both Rose and I. "Not like that, obviously."

Ouch. Closing my eyes briefly, I opened them again widely and focused. A witty banter ménage à trois was not why I came here.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out ineloquently, disrupting the uncomfortable silence that had now fallen over us. "I just needed to talk to Damon about some wedding stuff."

Damon yawned widely, his mouth expanding soundlessly before he smacked his lips shut and peered out at me. I knew he was just biding his time in an attempt to annoy me, being an ass in some weird retaliation for our snit yesterday.

"And it had to be at this hour?" he groaned, grinning when he caught my fingernails beginning to dig into my palms.

Screw it. I would work out the Lexi disaster on my own. Throwing a hand up in frustration, I turned and started to walk back to the elevator bank. It took Damon about half the length of the hallway before he caught up to me and I felt his hand lightly hook my elbow, making me face him. Thankfully, he had taken the time to pull on a sweater and a pair of unbuttoned black jeans.

"Ooo, someone is grumpy this morning." He flashed his teeth in way I'm sure he had convinced himself was charming. "If you came to apologize for yesterday, I'm all ears."

The saintly smile he then produced made me want to punch a hole through the dry wall. Apparently his mission to pretend like we were back in sophomore year and the best of friends was still on, acting like the only reason I was pissed at him was because he had used all my good bras to make catapults out of.

"Damon, it is six in the morning and I really cannot adequately express how much I am not in the mood for your bullshit today," I grit out through the gaps in my tightly clenched teeth. "Now, if you care about your brother you're probably going to want to hear what I have to say. So can you, like, not be yourself for at least the next five minutes?"

I may have known next to nothing about Damon Salvatore these days, but one thing I could be sure about would be his loyalty and protectiveness towards Stefan. Sure enough, his brows furrowed and his eyes grew intent. He was finally ready to listen.

Craning my neck to check Rose had gone back inside, I exhaled deeply and proceeded to disclose to him in detail what was confessed to me last night.

Predictably, as soon as the last word of my story had left my lips, Damon's face had hardened and he moved like he was about to storm off and march all the way to the boarding house without a moment of contemplation. This time it was me who grabbed him by the arm.

"Wait, we can't just go in all guns blazing and drop this kind of shit on Stefan without thinking about it carefully."

Damon's eyes flared and he hissed out "And why not? He has the right to know about what his fiancée is getting up to."

"And you may be absolutely correct," I pacified. Without realizing, I fell back into an old habit of soothing him by rubbing a hand up his bicep. "But what if she just made a stupid, stupid fucking mistake and everything they've gone through is for nothing because we couldn't keep our mouths shut. I just…."

The panic began to claw its way up the back of my throat and I shrug feebly. "I don't know what the right thing is to do."

Damon took in a deep breath and his stare flitted around the hallway we were airing our dirty laundry out in. I could tell he had moved on from the hair-trigger action stage and into really considering which way was the best to move forward with.

Carding his hand through his unbrushed hair he nodded. "Fine. Okay, look. I'll go talk to Lexi about it. Make sure I hear the full story from her when she's sober. We can go from there."

The familiar sensation of Damon taking charge washed over me, the power of relief working it's way back into my nerves. Jesus, four years later and I was still somehow relying on him to to fix things. I tried not to dwell on that fact too much.

"Alright," I agreed, biting my lip. "Just hurry, the ceremony is in a couple of hours. Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, I'll be fine. Just do what you need to do here. I'll go as fast as I can but at this rate I doubt there will be wedding."

I cringed at the thought of that befalling Stefan and hoped in typical Salvatore fashion Damon could pull a miracle out of his ass.

"Rose will be okay with you having to rush off?"

Damon began to walk backwards, his mind already out the door and with his brother. "Yeah, sure. I'll make up some story about Stefan freaking out. Won't be too much of a stretch, she knows what a wuss he is. We'll try to keep this between us for now. That means no spilling it to your loud mouth sister."

I tutted but assented with a nod. "Good luck. I'll wait for a phone call either way." And then I was left alone once again, the hall sounding eerily quiet in his absence.

I loitered on the way back, choosing to take the stairs rather than the elevator. Wasn't like I had anything else to do to fill my time. As luck would have it, just as I was turning the corner onto my room's floor the door next to me lurched open and I had to take a side-step to avoid getting hit.

A giggling Katherine exited backwards, her shoes dangling from her hands and a men's dress shirt draped over her shoulders. Alaric's face emerged over her shoulder to kiss her cheek and he froze when he locked eyes on me.

"So this is where you've been hiding?" I asked blithely, really not meaning the question to come out as judgmental as it did. It was just on top of everything else seeing my sister go through another pointless one-night stand, with a close friend of mine, was not something I felt equipped to digest right now.

Spinning around after hearing my voice, Katherine smiled tightly. "Oh the fun police is on patrol." Making sure I was watching, she turned back around and stuck her tongue as far down Alaric's throat as she could manage. "I'll see you later," she promised, patting his chest once and finally detaching herself from him. Walking past me, she hobbled on her crutches away from us. "We don't all have forever to live our lives, Elena. You should remember that. Meet me back at the room."

My mind was way too bleary to decipher Katherine-speak, so I sighed and glanced back at Alaric.

"Nothing happened, Elena," he assured, guilt lining his face. "We just slept together. As in only sleeping."

"None of my business, Ric," I asserted with a tired smile and tried to hide my surprise that Katherine was okay with that setup. And it really wasn't any of my business. They were both consenting adults. I just wished Katherine could find someone that actually meant something to her. Because whatever she might say, the endless line of men was not making her happy.

"You okay?" he inquired, squinting at the bags under my eyes.

Replying as cheerfully as possible, I started to follow the path my sister had just taken. "Just dandy." Before he could ask anymore questions, I gave him a weak wave and walked away.

It took me a good five swipes of the keycard before I was let into our room and I didn't know if I was grateful or not that Katherine was already passed out on her bed. It was probably a good thing, like a shark smelling blood, had she been awake she would have know I was keeping something under wraps.

I spent the next hour on tenterhooks sitting on the side of my bed and twisting my cell in my hands, waiting for it to ring. Finally, just as I was about to go and track him down myself, Damon's name flashed up on the screen.

"Hey," I answered, having no clue which side of the coin his decision would fall on.

"The wedding is still going ahead. Stefan stays in the dark," he retorts, no irresolution to be found anywhere in his voice.

"Oh wow," I stutter. "What in the hell happened to make you go along with that?"

"She did everything in her power to convince me it was the biggest fuck up of her life, meant nothing, and that it would never happen again. And that she loves my brother." He pauses to inhale. "I don't know if I'm buying what she's selling but Stefan is head over heels for her and she makes him happy. Who are we to screw that up at this point in the game?"

"Alright, then that's what we'll stick to." I felt myself settle on the route we had chosen to take. No going back now.

"I guess I'll see you at the house later." Before he could hang up, he added with his usual obtuseness, "And for christ's sake, get some sleep. You looked like an extra from the Walking Dead this morning."

Thank you so much for that Damon.

Following a quick nap and shower, it all went in a blur as I was thrust from the hairdresser's chair, into the makeup chair, and then into my gown. Thankfully nobody mentioned anything about the glaring addition of the big bow on it. Before I knew it I was at the boarding house waiting to line up behind the bride like nothing was wrong and parade out through the garden which the Salvatore's had spent thousands into making suitable for the wedding.

Lexi hasn't looked at me since I've arrived and I couldn't tell whether it was because of anger at me telling Damon her secret or shame at what I knew.

As we made our way up the aisle between the two sides of rows of white wooden chairs, and I saw the pure happiness shining from Stefan's face, I accepted that Damon and I reached the only outcome we could have taken.

After what seemed like years we reached the white muslin canopy, taking our places under it while the priest started the vows and the soon to be married couple joined hands. My gaze found Damon who was standing on the opposite side to me, next to his brother, and we exchanged subtle nods. Just by looking at him I could tell instinctively he didn't feel right about keeping everything from his younger sibling, but all the same he had pushed his doubts to the side against his better judgement.

The birdsong and light breeze and the frankly droning voice of the priest caused my attention to wander and it was only when a gasp was drawn from the guests that I was snapped back into reality.

Stefan appeared shellshocked as he closely watched Lexi speak. "I just can't do this, Stefan. I love you but I'm not in love with you. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean for it to get this far or hurt you." She fell silent as realization seemed to hit that there was nothing she could possibly say to make this okay.

My heart began to thud in my chest as Lexi's words caused a ripple effect around her. All I could do was pray that this was some sort of sleep deprived mirage because there was no way Stefan was getting jilted right now. This stuff wasn't supposed to happen outside of bad soap operas.

All eyes on her, Lexi wrenched her hands from the younger Salvatore's and ran back to the house holding her dress's train, several of her bridesmaids following behind her.

Then pandemonium hit. Shouting and arguing filled the air and it was hard to believe five minutes ago it was all so serene. Guilt poured into every crevice of me. I could have stopped this. Damon and I could have prevented Stefan's humiliation today but we just let it happen.

It took me around forty minutes to force my way through the mass of people and find the only other person who could understand what was going through my mind right now.

"I knew it," Damon seethed, already loosening the black tie from around his neck. "If I had just-." He shook his head in frustration cutting himself off, "But I didn't want to take this away from him if it wasn't absolutely necessary."

I nodded tightly, bizarrely wishing I could take some of the weight and guilt off his shoulders for him. All he had wanted was the best for his brother. "Have you seen him? How is he?". The stupidity of the question didn't escape me.

"A fucking mess." Damon's eyes searched mine out like honing beacons and I knew it was because he wanted to make sure I was listening closely to what he was going to say next. "He doesn't know how he's going to get through this one. I don't know how he's going to get through it. Stefan's always taken this kind of shit way deeper than most of us. I'm bringing him back to Atlanta with me, he needs to not be around Mystic Falls." Damon sneered " I mean it's not like he can just go back to the apartment they shared and not want to open a vein in his wrist."

I recoil at the imagery. "When are you going?"

Damon's smirk became wan. "As soon as I can bring the limo around. I love mom and dad but they'll make it worse at the moment. I'm just going to get him in the back seat and go." He hesitated. "He was asking for you. You'd deal with everything much better than I could. I'd really appreciate it if you made the trip back with us."

It took me about half a second to choose. For all intents and purposes Stefan was my brother and anything I could do to help I would. Especially as I couldn't shake the awareness that most of the blame fell on me for why we were in this situation in the first place. "Of course I will. I'll tell Katherine and she can follow later with Alaric or something."

Damon checked the time on his phone. "Rose is going to stay and help try to straighten some out of the mess here. I'll meet you at the front in ten?"

"Ten minutes," I confirm.

"I just don't get why she did it. She was so sure earlier and they always seemed like the perfect couple." Damon lapsed his harried planning to look at me like I'd have all the answers.

"I don't know, Damon," I responded weakly. Throwing my hands up, I shrugged "Maybe she wanted the whole Lloyd Dobler with the boom-box deal and instead she felt like she was just getting a best friend."

Damon's scrunched his face up like he figured some out great mystery about me, but before I could ask what he was finding so baffling he nodded once and tapped his phone silently, disappearing back into the crowd.

There really is no excuse and I can't really apologize enough for the delay. Life just got very demanding for a while there. I hope some of you will still enjoy this chapter and I hope you're all well!

Summer x