Hi, finally I'm back with a new chapter. Sorry it took me so long to update, I got distracted by the new season as well as real life. But, the good news… I've decided to make this story longer than the three or four chapters I'd intended at first, so… no worries, we're not at the end yet.

You'll finally get to know what happened to Damon. Sorry if it disappoints, it's all I could come up with. It's just a side-story after all, my main focus lies on Damon's here and now and how he will resume his life now. Although this chapter is all about the past. Some parts of it I let Elena tell but the essential bit I put into a flashback. I wanted to include Damon's POV and that's impossible if I'd have let Elena recap the events. Hence the flashback. I hope you like it. It turned out way longer than I thought it would (and it also holds some slightly disturbing images of blood, that's why I upped the rating to M. So if you're squeamish, consider yourself warned). I decided to break the revealing flashback in two parts. You'll get the second half of the flashback in the next chapter. Sorry in advance for leaving you with an evil cliffhanger.

Thank you for all your kind words in your reviews and all the alerts and stuff. It's really amazing to write for you all.

Oh, and this chapter deals with some SEASON TWO stuff and now that we've seen it on TV my version of what happened on Founder's Day and afterwards is different. So technically it's AU. Hope you don't mind, I thought of this before Season 2 started.


Chapter Four

Building Up To The Truth

"Oh, you mean," Damon smirked, "you never told him about that night? On Founder's Day? About our kiss?"

Elena blanched visibly. Damon watched her swallow a few times and wondered if… but, she'd kissed him back, hadn't she? Surely they had…

"Damon," Elena stared at him, clearly struggling to find the right words. "Is that the last thing you remember before…?"

He nodded, unable to do anything else.

"Oh God," Elena choked and shook her head. "I'm sorry Damon but… that night… that kiss, it wasn't me." Her voice was soft and gentle and yet the words ripped through Damon like a whiplash over his back.

"It was Katherine."


Damon had heard Elena's words loud and clear. And yet he couldn't understand. What did she mean, it was Katherine? It couldn't be. He'd have known if it had been Katherine that he'd kissed, right?

Elena watched Damon's shocked face in silence, not sure what a reaction to expect from him. God, did he really not remember anything after Founder's Day? Would she really have to tell him about those two weeks that had followed? It had been two of the most terrible weeks of her whole life!

And she remembered Damon had been even worse off back then. He'd been hurt and so angry, like Katherine had broken his heart just a little bit more than she'd already done. And not just Katherine. Elena had done a great deal of heartbreaking herself back then, hadn't she?

And now… it seemed like Elena had no choice but to make Damon go through it again. If she'd be forced to tell him… she was sure that Damon would end up hurt and broken all over again, and it would be her fault.

Just like it had been back then.

She'd done this, it had been her fault.

Elena shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked at Damon once again. He sat there, motionless and shell-shocked, and Elena cautiously took his hand.

"Damon, I'm so sorry," she breathed out and tried to convey the feelings with her eyes as well.

Damon gulped forcefully and then… it was as if a jolt went through him and his eyes closed off from everything. Just like that. He cocked his head to the side.

"What happened?"

"Damon, I…"

"What. Happened," he bit off the words and gave her an intense stare. Elena knew that if it wouldn't be for the vervain in her necklace (she still wore the one Stefan had given her), Damon would have managed to compel her to answer. She lowered her eyes and let out a sigh. Sooner or later she'd have to start talking, right?

"Okay," Elena sighed again. "Katherine showed up at my house on Founder's Day and… she killed Uncle John. When I came home that night, shortly after you'd… you'd met her on the porch, not me…"

Damon's eyes hardened just a tad more. He remembered that night as if it had been yesterday… well, to him it actually had been. He remembered the feelings he'd tried to convey to 'Elena' back then while thanking her for saving him. He'd wanted to tell her the whole truth.

But if what Elena said was true then Damon had spilled his heart to Katherine instead!

That bitch!

He couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever come around to tell the real Elena…

But he couldn't linger on that now because she was talking again and Damon had to hang on to every word.

"I went inside and I found John's dead body in the kitchen. And then Katherine was suddenly there with me. She told me that she had great plans for you and Stefan and all of Mystic Fall's and that she would take back what was rightfully hers… and then you suddenly stormed in and she disappeared into the night. You had been still close by and you'd heard me scream, that's why you were there so quickly." Elena looked up briefly. "I didn't know about the… ugh, about what had happened on the porch earlier, you didn't tell me until a few days later."

Damon shook his head as if he was trying, and failing, to remember any of this. He silently pleaded for Elena to go on and she did.

"For the next two weeks Katherine wrecked havoc in Mystic Falls, she killed a lot of people and all the time she walked around pretending to be me. She messed with everybody's head, Damon. It was awful. You were so angry all the time, so hurt. Katherine told you…"

"Told me what?" Damon's voice was nothing but a growl.

"She told you that she'd never truly loved you, that it had all been a game to her and that she'd wanted… she'd wanted Stefan all the time, not you. Never you."

Elena took a deep breath and waited for Damon's reaction. But apart from the frown line between his cold eyes deepening Damon remained calm. Cut off.

Elena didn't know whether she should be relieved or worried by his lack of emotional outbreak. She quickly went on speaking, eager to get it over with: "You were in so much pain back then, Damon. I could see it and I wanted to help you but… you wouldn't let me. You shut me out and I felt so helpless and… it was worse than…"

She broke off, unable to go on for the thick lump that had formed in her throat. Silence settled around them. Damon's head was reeling from it all and he was holding on to his calm only by a threat. He wanted to grab Elena and shake the truth out of her, he needed to know…

But one look at her face and the pain edged all over it, pain she was feeling for him, because of him, calmed the storm of emotions he was holding back with the switch and he was able to take a breathe and let the tension drain away.

"So the bitch came back to play her little games, huh? Maybe I should feel lucky that I can't remember any of it. Can't imagine it to have been a picnic."

Elena choked out a strangled laughter. "No, no it wasn't. Everybody was on edge, especially around me. You were all suspicious of me, thinking I might be her in disguise. And even the people that didn't know about Katherine… they started to act weird around me because she'd been messing with them. Caroline and Matt, Jenna… Everything was falling apart. And Stefan…"

"What about him?" Damon's voice had an edge to it Elena had never heard before. Cold, detached, but at the same time laced with an urge…

She quickly went on: "Stefan and I, we… I don't know, a rift was beginning to form between us. He started acting weird around me, and at first I thought it was because he was afraid I might be Katherine. He was deeply affected by the fact that he'd been fooled twice by Katherine pretending to be me while you'd seen right through her façade…"

Damon looked up sharply and Elena relented: "I mean after that first time when you didn't know yet that she was back. She approached you – as me – a few times but you always knew the difference right away. She never managed to fool you again. Stefan on the other hand… well, even after he knew she was in town Katherine managed to screw with his head. Screw with him."

A bitter edge had seeped into Elena's voice and Damon suddenly knew that she'd meant the last part quite literally. Stefan had obviously slept with Katherine, mistaking her for Elena, and he could only assume how much that must have hurt Elena. No wonder the happy couple hadn't lasted for long after that.

Almost afraid to ask but having to know the truth nonetheless Damon eventually ground out: "What happened to her? Did she…?"

"Katherine's dead, Damon." Elena paused to gauge his reaction. When she saw the hard glint in Damon's eyes she continued: "For real this time. You made sure of that."

"I…?"

"Yes," Elena gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "You killed her."


Jenna looked up from the charred contents of the frying pan when she heard voices drifting towards her through the open backdoor.

A moment later Jeremy entered the kitchen, followed closely by Rick.

"I'm gonna ask Leslie what she thinks about… you know, Rick, okay?" Jeremy nodded in the direction of his aunt and disappeared in the halls. "See you later."

Jenna was about to ask what he'd meant when she felt her husband put his strong arms around her from behind. He leaned in and let his chin rest on her shoulder.

"Hhmm, that smells…" Rick took a deep breath through his nose and managed not to flinch too much. "Wonderful."

"Liar," Jenna laughed and lifted the pan from the flames to place it in the sink. Then she turned around in Rick's arms. "It smells like burnt meat and you know it."

"What happened? Are you okay?"

Usually Jenna was a decent cook and she hadn't burned anything in years. So Rick assumed something must have distracted her from preparing dinner and, given the high state of her pregnancy, he was naturally worried immediately.

"I'm fine," Jenna assured him with a quick kiss. "It's your son's fault that we won't get any dinner tonight."

"My son?" Rick raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean our son?"

"Oh no," Jenna shook her head. "He's definitely your son when it comes to mischief and being an uncontrollable whirlwind. There's no way he got that from me."

"What did the little monster do this time?" Rick looked around the kitchen. "And where is he?"

"Relax, he's in the play room. And, you know, it wasn't that bad. He's just… well, he can't wait to meet Damon and he's been constantly bugging me with wanting to go upstairs already."

"I'll go talk to him," Rick let go of Jenna's body and turned towards the door.

"Don't be too hard on him, Rick." Jenna called after her husband. "You can't blame him for wanting to meet his godfather, can you? After all," she added more to herself, "I'm more than ready to bust down the door and see for myself that Damon's really back. I still can't believe it."

Rick walked back towards his wife and pulled her into his arms. "I know how you feel, sweetheart. It's hard to believe that he just woke up like that, after all these years…"

"Yeah," Jenna nodded with a smile. "Elena proved us all wrong. She never gave up hope."

"She's stubborn like that," Rick shrugged and then leaned down to capture Jenna's lips in a quick kiss. Then he released her and made his way over to the door again. "I'm gonna go talk to Linus now, okay? Call out if anything… if you need me."

"Sure," Jenna rolled her eyes at his protectiveness. "Now, off with you. Distract Linus for a bit. But, Rick?"

Rick stopped in the doorway and turned back. "Yeah?"

"I promised him he could see Damon later tonight or at least tomorrow. Don't crush his hopes, okay?"

"Jenna, we have no idea how Damon's gonna react to everything and…" he tried to play it light but Jenna had no problem hearing the serious undertone in his voice. "I'd rather keep Linus away from Damon until we know that it's safe."

"Damon wouldn't hurt him, Rick," Jenna assured her husband at once. "He wouldn't."

Rick said nothing but Jenna could see that he wasn't as convinced as she was. She knew he was hoping it was the truth but, Rick being Rick, Jenna knew that her husband wouldn't take any risks. Not with Linus. Not with anybody in this house.

And that was one of the reasons why she loved him so much.


"You killed her."

The minutes had ticked by with neither of them breaking the tense silence that followed Elena's statement. But eventually Damon spoke after taking a deep breath through his nose.

"Tell me everything, Elena."

"Damon," she replied, her voice soft and pleading. "Don't you think…"

"Tell. Me."

Elena let out a sigh and closed her eyes. She'd have to give Damon the truth eventually, she knew she owed him that much, but… recalling the events that had led to Katherine's death and also to Damon's current state… it hurt.

But at the same time Elena felt a small piece of warmth take hold of her. It started in her stomach and grew; she could feel it travel up her veins till it engulfed her heart.

Finally, after all these years, she would be able to thank Damon for what he'd done. Oh, she'd told him a hundred times already, no day had passed in the last five years that she hadn't sat here at his bedside, his cold hand in hers, and had told him…

But now Damon was awake and he would hear her.

Elena finally had the chance to let him know how much his actions back then had affected her whole life. How much his sacrifice had meant to her.

She could finally tell him how wrong he'd been with the last words he'd uttered before…

Elena took a deep breath and risked a glimpse at Damon's stoic face. "Okay, Damon," she squeezed his hand and then scooted closer to make herself more comfortable on the bed. Damon automatically made room for her on the spacious bed. Elena turned so that her back came to rest on the headboard next to his, their shoulders touching lightly, and him allowing that kind of closeness gave Elena enough courage to finally tell the tale.

"We would never have known about Katherine's plans if it hadn't been for Bonnie. You see, Bonnie had a vision when Katherine touched her one day, and what she saw… well, I don't know exactly what it was but it must have been awful. Bonnie said that almost everyone in Mystic Falls was dead, and those who weren't were slaves to Katherine. Her plan was to somehow bind all citizens to her for life with the help of some spell. And of course she needed Bonnie for that."

Elena took a deep breath and continued: "Katherine kidnapped Bonnie one day and held her hostage. She forced her to prepare and then do the spell. We had no idea where to start looking but then, two weeks after Founder's Day, we got a lucky break. Isobel told us…"

"Isobel?" Damon repeated bewildered. It was the first word he'd uttered in a while.

"Yes," Elena shrugged and a small smile played around her lips. Despite what her birth mother had wanted her to believe, it had become obvious then that there'd been some good, some humanity, in her after all, no matter how small a part that had been.

"Isobel knew of Katherine's plans and she told us where Bonnie was held." Elena waited a second before she revealed: "The tomb underneath old Fell's Church."

"The tomb? Why there?" Damon couldn't believe it to be simple coincidence.

"I have no idea," Elena shrugged again. "But that's where we went to free Bonnie and kill Katherine once and for all."

"We?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me Stefan and I were stupid enough to let you come!"

Elena's lips twisted upwards. "I remember, you were all for leaving me behind, Damon. You'd even have gone so far as to chain me up somewhere or lock me into that cell downstairs. You threatened to do it…"

"Of course I did," Damon smirked.

"But in the end you really had no choice as to take me with you. See, we were kind of short on people who could have gone with. Rick was still in the hospital at the time, recovering from one of Katherine's attacks a few days prior. So was Jeremy, not that I'd have allowed him anywhere near the tomb, mind you. And Bonnie had been taken, so that left only Isobel, you, me and Stefan. We took Rick's entire arsenal with us and made our way into the woods."


Flashback

Night had fallen over the woods around Mystic Falls and the old church's ruins were wrapped in nearly impenetrable darkness. It was broken only by four small torches that gleamed in the hands of the four people standing in a row at the edge of the small hole beneath their feet.

"I don't like this," Damon ground out, eyes flickering around before they settled on the entrance of the tomb again. "It's too quiet."

Elena looked at his sharp-edged features illuminated by the soft orange glow of the torches. He looked tense and she couldn't blame him at all.

They all knew this was a trap somehow. Katherine wanted them here for some reason. Damon had pointed it out earlier in his typical snarky way and Stefan and Isobel had agreed.

Even Elena couldn't deny the fact that this felt like nothing but a trap.

But it didn't matter. Bonnie was down there, held by Katherine, and so that's where they'd be going. Despite recent events, despite their obvious differences, Elena still considered Bonnie her best friend and she couldn't let anything happen to her.

"I don't like this," Damon repeated and shared a quick look with Stefan. Then he shrugged it off and, with an ease only a supernatural being could possess, jumped down into the hole. Isobel followed without a word.

Elena felt Stefan's hand close around hers and she looked up to him. "You don't have to go, Elena," he tried one last time to get her to leave.

"Stefan, we've been over this. She's my friend." Elena wanted to say more but Damon's voice from beneath them, hollow and dark, cut her off.

"You coming? Brother? You don't want to miss all the fun, do you?"

Elena and Stefan shared a look and then, before she realized what was happening, Elena was pulled into Stefan's arms and she felt her feet leave the ground.

Seconds later they touched the stony ground of the tomb's antechamber. The symbol Bonnie and her Grams had drawn into it all those months ago gleamed in the torch's soft glow. Elena looked around and found Damon poised at the heavy stone door that guarded the entrance to the tomb's inner chambers. It was open.

"Where's Isobel?" Stefan asked and only then did Elena realize that her vampire birth mother was nowhere to be seen.

Damon jerked his head towards the door. "She went inside. Didn't want to wait for you two lovebirds to finish making goggle-eyes at each other I guess. Not that I blame her."

Elena rolled her eyes at him but remained silent. Damon knew very well that she and Stefan hadn't 'made with the goggle-eyes' so much lately. Their relationship had been strained, on shaky grounds at best, after what had happened with Stefan and Katherine.

Elena hadn't been able to overcome her disappointment yet. Stefan had mistaken Katherine for her. He'd not realized that it hadn't been her he'd kissed and caressed and had made love to.

How could he not have realized?

"Do you hear anything, Damon?" Stefan's voice brought Elena back to the present. "I can't."

"Not a peep," Damon shook his head and turned to face the door. "The witch must have done some mojo to cut off all sounds, even from vampire-hearing. Maybe she's learned to cast a bubble…"

"Shut up, Damon!" Elena suddenly had enough of his sarcasm. She was tense and his joking did nothing to ease it. "What do we do now?"

Damon stared at her intensely. "Now we go kill the bitch."

And then he vanished through the door.

Stefan followed immediately and Elena made the silent rear. She held on to Stefan's hand and stumbled after him through the tunnel until he suddenly stopped. She nearly clashed with his broad back. It blocked her from seeing anything and so she whispered urgently: "What is it? Stefan?"

At least that's what Elena was trying to ask. But… no sound had left her lips; no word had reached her ears. She couldn't hear her own voice. Panicked Elena tried again.

"Stefan? Stefan, I can't hear… Stefan!" She tucked at his arm and he turned around eventually.

Gesturing wildly Elena tried to make him understand that she couldn't hear anything. None of them could apparently.

Elena and Stefan stared at each other, trying to communicate through looks alone, until suddenly a small pebble smacked into Stefan's head. It bounced off and fell to the floor without a sound. Stefan turned around and found Damon staring back at him, an impatient look on his face.

'Get over it already,' Damon's expressive eyes seemed to say. 'Come on, we have a witch to rescue and a vampire bitch to kill!'

Not waiting for an answer, not that there would have been any, Damon continued walking down the tunnel, torch held close to his head. Elena and Stefan followed.

The tunnel made a turn to the left and then suddenly opened up into a cave-like chamber. It was the same chamber Damon had weeks ago thrown the spare blood bag against the wall in agony when he'd realized that Katherine wasn't in the tomb. A small stain of dried blood was still visible running down the stonewall.

But neither Damon nor anyone else was giving the bloodstains any notice now. Their eyes were all glued to the middle of the room and the gruesome sight in front of them.

'Oh my god, Bonnie!' Elena gasped in shock, still with no sound whatsoever coming from her lips.

Five torches were stuck in the ground, each marking the point of a pentagram just like the one in the antechamber. Bonnie crouched in the middle of it, or rather lay there, half on her knees, half with her body flat on the ground.

She was covered in her own blood. It spilled freely from several wounds on her naked form, there wasn't the smallest part of unmarred skin visible. Blood was running out of her nose, her ears and even her eyes. She was crying tears of blood.

Bonnie's face was barely recognizable under all the blood and what had once been her lips now resembled nothing but bleeding pieces of flesh.

And they were moving constantly.

Bonnie, despite the pain and agony she must be in, was chanting an unheard spell. Constantly. She couldn't seem to stop.

Elena quickly hid her face in Stefan's chest. The sight was too much.

But she couldn't look away for long. Something tore her eyes back to the sight of her broken and bleeding friend on the ground. Tears started to spill from Elena's eyes and she made two steps forward, completely unaware of doing so, until Stefan grabbed her arm and pulled her back to his side. She struggled against his firm grip, she needed to do something, help Bonnie somehow, but Stefan's strong arms encircled her and wouldn't budge.

Over Elena's head Stefan sought out his brother's face.

Shock and grim determination was written all over it and Stefan could read Damon's thoughts as if he'd heard the words actually spoken out loud.

'She's as good as dead.'

'No, we can still save her, Damon. We have to!' Stefan's eyes seemed to plead.

And then, although the deafening silence around them never once broke, both vampires could hear Bonnie's voice loud and clear inside their heads.

'You can't. There's no way to save me. But you can save everybody else.'

Damon and Stefan shared a confused look as if to make sure they'd both heard the witch's attempt to communicate telepathically with them. Then, in complete unison, they stared at Bonnie again.

'How?'

'You have to kill me!'


TBC

I know, I know. You want to kill me right now, don't you? For leaving you with the most evil cliffhanger possible. But the rest of the chapter is already written and it won't take me too long to get it ready for posting. It was simply too long to put it all up in one go. Please don't hate me too much, it won't take as long as before for me to update, promise! In the meantime, tell me what you think.