What Rick was thinking in the brilliant 1x17 scene… which two seasons later is still one of my all time favourites.

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It was late after the end of school, and as Alaric walked down the dimmed corridor he could hear the muffled lash of rain against the classroom windows.

He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing.

He'd spent the past three years of his life on a mission – a mission to avenge his wife. To hunt down and kill the ungodly demon who had taken her from him. When he'd entered that room to kill Damon Salvatore, it was the most alive he'd felt in years.

It had all been for nothing.

Isobel had not been taken. She'd left him.

She was probably still out there.

He hadn't even managed to finish off the vampire, but all his hatred had evaporated, leaving emptiness in its wake. Emptiness and disbelief. He couldn't even summon the will to feel glad that his ring had turned out to have creepy-ass life restoring powers.

What was he in school to collect again?

'Well don't you look…alive.'

Wonderful. The one person in the entire world, bar his wife, that Rick didn't want to see ever again. None other than his erstwhile murderer Damon Salvatore swaggered round the corner, and he looked like he was here to finish the job.

'You can't hurt me,' Rick said. He wasn't intimidated; he had nothing to lose.

'Oh, I can hurt you alright.' Damon wore a smirk so big that the part of Alaric that wanted to punch a hole straight through his face began to outweigh the part of Alaric that was too weary to try.

And then Elena Gilbert ran around the corner.

'Mr Saltzman,' she looked flustered. 'We need your help.'

We?

Jesus. And he'd thought the girl was smart.

He stared between the two of them. There was a look in the vampire's eyes Rick was fairly sure was a threat; well, big deal. Elena's brown eyes were earnest and worried, and she held his gaze.

He was still struggling to possibly comprehend why she was here with a vampire, let alone a psychopath like Damon. He wondered if she didn't know.

Oh, wait. Was she the girl who was… dating Stefan Salvatore?

Yup, she knew. She was definitely an idiot.

He wanted to go home and drink so much whiskey he forgot who he was. But he couldn't just ignore a student who'd asked him for help – and the poor kid looked desperate. Somehow he had a feeling it wasn't just a problem with a dodgy history essay either.

Feeling certain he was going to regret this decision, Rick nodded.

'Tell me what's wrong,' he said.

oOoOo

They stood in Rick's classroom, over his bag of weapons which he had opened out on to the desk. After five minutes the only conclusion that Rick had come to was that Damon and Elena seemed worryingly comfortable around eachother. He couldn't help but feel slightly alarmed for the girl.

'Damon, now is not the time to be the lone ranger.'

'Fine,' Damon's reply dripped with mock enthusiasm, 'Elena, you can drive the getaway car.' He glared at her. 'You're not going in the house.'

'You can't stop me. It's Stefan we're talking about here,' she pleaded. 'You don't understand.'

Damon raised his eyes, and then shook his head patronisingly. 'Oh I understand… I understand.'

Elena was practically bouncing up and down with frustration, and Damon was doing more and more to wind her up.

Rick got the distinct impression that this was their usual state of affairs.

'He's the reason you live,' Damon's voice choked with faked emotion, 'his love lifts you up where you belong.'

'Can you just not joke around for two seconds?' Elena all but yelled, so animated that her hair shook around her face.

'I can't protect you, Elena,' Damon suddenly snarled, voice deadly serious. Elena looked surprised. Rick hadn't been expecting that either.

'I don't know how many vampires there are in there.' He snapped his fingers. 'That's how long it takes you to get your head ripped off. I need to be able to get in and get out.' He stared at Elena with a look Rick couldn't quite fathom. 'I can't be distracted with your safety. Or this will end up a bloodbath none of us walk away from. Including Stefan.'

Elena looked close to tears of anger.

'I know,' Damon said, voice soft. 'I get it. I understand.'

Rick's eyes flicked between them. They continued to gaze at each other, and Rick got the distinct impression they'd both forgotten that he was still there. He'd had that experience with people before, and he knew all too well what it meant.

The vampire had actually sounded as though he was telling the truth. Damon Salvatore sounded as though he actually cared about this girl, this human girl, a girl no different from the many girls Rick had no doubt he killed on a regular basis.

Well, this was awkward.

'If we're gonna go,' he said, 'let's go.'

Damon nodded, and Rick rolled his bag back up. Elena stood despondently by the desk, face illuminated bronze in the glow of lamp light. As they left the room, Rick saw Damon brush her arm.

Maybe he wasn't an utterly cold, heartless bastard after all.

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Well, there's that one… the next ones will be with Bonnie and Caroline, and then Andi, so stick around.

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