Elena saw Damon standing far off by a tree looking alert and angry. His hand was clenched into a fist and it was resting on the trunk. Make that resting on an indent in the trunk.

"Damon, where are we?" Elena asked warily. "What happened?" She brushed herself off the best she could. Some dirt stains remained, but she left them alone. Damon had yet to answer. He was looking around almost desperately, but in a more observant fashion.

"Damon-" Elena started.

"I heard you. I'm just not sure yet." Damon calmly interjected. His voice was way too controlled. Elena did note that Damon was on edge. Panicky, but not trying to show it. He just had to get his bearings.

Damon had an inkling of their location, but wanted to dismiss the thought as it was impossible. There was no reasonable explanation for going transporting-yes, that was the word-from the mansion to the woods. No. It didn't just happen. He was trying to keep from shaking. Now he knew why he had felt like crap moments before he was sucked away from his drink back at the house.

"We are definitely not in Mystic Falls. The air is too...clean and the woods are so...thick. It's like we stepped onto the island from LOST." Damon observed. Elena made no comment. When he finally looked at Elena, he asked. "Are you okay?" She definitely looked fine to him, but wanted to be sure.

"I'm-" Elena started, but stopped. She quickly jerked herself to make sure she was okay. Nothing broken, nothing hurt. "-fine. I think." she paused, eyeing the hole in the tree. "Are you okay?"

"Physically? Of course." Damon replied quickly, still not entirely focused. His head suddenly snapped to the right. "Elena, come here." When she made no move, he added with a hint of urgency, "Please no questions."

She took a step forward. "Why? What's wrong?" she was confused. Damon rolled his eyes at her questions, yet looked torn with disbelief and skeptisicm. His eyes were narrowed and his hair was a mess and full of leaves and a twig or two. His posture was...poised for action. Elena quickly walked to Damon and stood by his side. She looked where he was looking. It was the empty woods.

Just as Damon growled it, she saw it. "Vampire."

...

Elena felt Damon's body tense. "Stay here." he instructed in the same tone as when he told her she couldn't help to rescue Stefan when he was kidnapped and tortured by the tomb vampires. She hadn't listened before so Damon didn't even know why he was giving her this warning now. And Elena, much to Damon's surprise, merely nodded.

Damon rushed over to the vampire and punched it. It flew back twenty feet before it hit a tree.

Elena didn't listen to Damon. She was trying to break off a tree branch so the vampire could be stabbed. So far she had managed to get a branch halfway off and the two vampires had yet to notice. She twisted the sturdy branch-which helped enormously-but the stubborn skin refused to break. She looked back over to the two fighting vampires. Damon had the vampire in a chokehold, but it kicked Damon and broke loose. Damon stopped it in its path toward Elena.

Elena readjusted her grip, deciding to try to pull the branch off. She pulled and...nothing. She moved her hands closer to the break and pulled again, it worked, but only a little. She brought her hands down, shook feeling back into them, and rubbed them quickly. Skin and bark mix as well as paper and water or football and shopping. She grabbed the branch again and lifted her feet off the ground, using her weight to her advantage. It broke after she bounced three times, but she didn't catch herself in time and landed on her booty.

"Ow." Elena squealed, "Oh great." She had gotten a scratch, but it wasn't severe.

Both vampires, faces demonic, started shouting and snarling. Elena turned toward the sound, but couldn't see them anymore. She looked around nervously in case any more vampires were to appear. She jumped when she heard leaves crunching behind her. Elena whirled around, huge branch in hands, to find nothing. Elena was breathing heavily with fear, eyes darting every which way.

Then a squirrel ran across her field of vision, making the same crunching sound. Elena breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly someone grabbed her wrist. She screamed.

"Hello, pretty," cooed the vampire menacingly, "You look delicious." He roughly caressed her neck.

The vampire was blown aside as Damon rammed into him, a blur of black. Damon had his hands on the vampire's neck and appeared to be trying to choke him much like he had done with Isobel. Elena was shoved to the ground, but unharmed.

"Don't you EVER touch her again!" Damon threatened, his voice roaring in a reserved tone. His fangs extended as he bit into the vampire's neck. The vampire screeched and cursed and yelped, then he painfully pried Damon from his neck and threw him.

Elena heard a ripping sound, and saw Damon fall. The vampire had nailed him in the gut with a rotted branch. Damon groaned as he wrenched the splintering branch from his body. Elena-stick in hands-rushed the vampire, intending to stab him. He turned around and snarled, then laughed harshly at her pathetic attempt. He ripped the branch out of her hands and threw it aside. He procedded to close in on Elena, his fangs extending.

Damon appeared with Elena's stick in his hand. "Bad move," he hissed to the vampire as he prepared to thurst the branch into him.

The clouds parted, revealing the sun's warm rays. The vampire dropped as though he had taken a bullet to the chest as his skin burned opened. Elena turned her head, not wanting to watch the continually decaying features of the dying vampire.

"You're not burning! YOU'RE NOT BURNING!" the vampire howled to Damon in agony and confusion, convulsing and rolling and burning on the ground. "How are you not burning?" he screeched, his eyes-or what was left of them-bulging.

Damon held his wound, then moved closer to him and answered in a duh tone, "Because I have a ring." Damon stabbed him square in the heart. It went in like a pin in a pin cushion and the vampire died. Damon breathed out.

"That was...fun." Damon sarcastically remarked as he slumped to his knees. His face was contorted in pain, but he quickly hid it, putting on a slightly irritated face instead.

"Damon, are you all right?" Elena gasped. She rushed over to his side, then realized she asked the wrong question. It was obvious he wasn't.

"Does it look like I'm all right? The bastard staked me...but missed...thank God. His aim was worse than Wile E Coyote's." Damon stubbornly answered.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked as she knelt down.

"There's still...a piece left inside." Damon managed out. He lifted up his shirt, revealing his handsome abs. His hands were digging in the wound, but he couldn't see or feel where the piece was.

"Here, Damon, let me help," Elena proposed in a strange voice. She tenderly guided his bloody hands to where a piece of the stick was still lodged into Damon. He fingers closed around the tiny piece and pulled it out, allowing the wound to fully heal. Only it didn't. It left a scratch. Elena had been leaning over Damon. Her forehead scrunched in confusion. He pulled his shirt down and got up.

"Why didn't it heal all the way?" Elena asked, standing up as well.

"It's fine. It'll heal. Now let's figure out where we are." Damon replied curtly.

"Damon, wait," Elena called as he strode quickly away. Something was wrong, but he was hiding it. Then it hit her. He was weak, hungry. That was why he had been drinking alcohol at the mansion, to take off the edge of the blood craving. Elena stroked her wrist absentmindedly remembering the last time she fed a weak vampire her blood. She didn't want to go through that again. The pain and trouble were great on both sides.

Elena ran forward, afraid to fall behind Damon. She was-well, 'glad' wasn't the word for it-pleased that Damon had paused to wait. She stopped at his side and he just turned away from her. She laid a hand on his jacketed arm.

"Hey, c'mon," Elena coasted. His eyes were distant when he looked at her.

"Elena, hold onto me," Damon instructed, opening his arms.

"Excuse me?" Elena asked a little insulted, taking a step back.

"Just, please, do this for once without asking questions or adding any remarks." Damon said almost tiredly like a parent. Elena warily took the two steps to Damon's arms. His arms encircled Elena. He pressed her quite questionably close to him and gave a reassuring squeeze. She wrapped her arms around him instinctively, basically giving him a bear hug. She could feel his lean, thin-but very well built-body through their clothes. He wasn't as rock-hard as Stefan, just more moldable.

"And up we go," he hooted with a hint of amusement in his voice. And they were in a tree. "Wait here." And he glided down.

"What? Hey! Damon!" Elena objected. "You can't just leave me up here with no explanation!" she crossed her arms and scoffed.

It was use. He was gone. She held onto a branch for support and to make sure she didn't fall out.

"If I'd given you my explanation, you wouldn't listen anyway." Damon-who had just appeared next to her-stated teasingly. "Now if you want to get out of here, I'd make like a mime and stay silent." Then he was gone. He was a few trees down on the ground, staring off into the woods. Elena scoffed, but obeyed. What was wrong now?

"Damon? What're you doing out here?" a very familiar voice shouted. "And what're you wearing? It's ghastly."

"Oh, I was taking a stroll through the woods, much like you." Damon answered nonchalantly. The owner of the voice walked forward. It was a male dressed in white wearing brown pants with suspenders.

"What would Father say of your attire? And where is Katherine?" It was Stefan. Elena gasped. Damon's head turned slightly in her direction, but Stefan didn't appear to hear it. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting this way? And talking so...strangely. Then Elena put the pieces together.

Damon shrugged. "Well, I hope you didn't leave her alone, Damon." Stefan said mistrustingly, accusingly.

"She's...at the house...brother." Damon told him, unsure of how to respond. Stefan turned his back to him and made his way back to the house.

"Thanks...Damon." Stefan called out in Damon's tone. Damon walked over to Elena's tree.

"C'mon. Father expects you to be properly dressed and bathed." Stefan said. He stopped to turn around to make sure Damon followed.

"Always Daddy's little messenger." Damon taunted quietly so Stefan would not hear. "I'll be back," he said to Elena. She didn't hear him.

Damon reluctantly followed Stefan, unsure of the consequences if he were to not follow. Also, he was curious to see the old house again.

Elena was alone in the woods in a tree. She had no idea where she was at-okay, she had a pretty darn good idea. She just couldn't believe it. But how? And why? Her eyes darted back and forth, scanning the woods, seeing if she could see where Damon went.

"I'm back in 1864." Elena breathed to herself. It made sense, though: Stefan's hair and clothes and speech...and the mention of Katherine. She shimmied and grabbed branches and eventually made it down to the bottom of the tree. She shook herself and went off in the direction she had seen Damon go.

AN: Finally! Some clarity!

Thanks for reading!

So...what do you think?