Happy Sunday, ya'll. I don't know about you, but its the last day of vacation for me before its back to reality. Hope you guys are getting to enjoy the day off, too!

A BIG thank you to everyone who has been reviewing. You guys are ALL awesome and you're motivating me to keep writing this story for you! Thanks for all your kind comments and to those of you who take the time and effort to really analyze the story and discuss it with me - a special thank you :-)

Important: I figured I had better explain my vision of Damon as we get further into this story. I see Damon as Elena's anchor - even before season 4. Being with him, in my opinion, will make her a little more stable, a little less anxious and depressed. He relaxes her and forces her to keep enjoying the little things in life. He jokes her out of her anxiety (a la The Last Dance - 2x18, where he teases her out of being worried) and she becomes more well rounded. So... even though Elena and Damon have a lot on their plates and big decisions coming up and insecurities about their relationship, she's going to be happier and steadier because she's with him.

I also see Damon as a natural caretaker. He needs to be taken care of, too, but his instinct is to be unwaveringly faithful and protective of those he loves. His devotion is limitless. So while Elena will be protective and nurturing toward him and help heal the wounds he doesn't even fully realize he has, its him that will shine as the real caretaker in their relationship. At least in the day-to-day stuff.

Anyway, I hope that helps provide some context as their relationship continues to evolve. :-)

Thanks, as always, to Hannah Taylor1. She's a great friend, beta, and author and this story wouldn't be the same without her!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

XOXO

Elena could hear voices in the living room as she made her way back down the stairs, fresh undergarments securely in place underneath her dress. She'd taken an extra minute to tie her hair back off her face in order to hide the tangles created by Damon's fingers, and an extra couple of minutes to make a symbolic change in the location of her overnight things.

As she walked into the living room, all eyes turned toward her, intensity radiating from Damon and Stefan. Setting that aside for the moment, Elena went to hug her brother.

"Jeremy, you scared me." She chided, stepping back to look up at him sternly, her hands on his shoulders. "It was dangerous to go off with Klaus' hybrids like that. You just killed one of them…They could have hurt you."

"They had something else in mind." Damon crossed his arms, widening his stance in the process. "They made Jeremy here a little proposition."

"What?" Elena looked at each of the guys. "What kind of a proposition?"

"Caroline explained to Tyler why Jeremy killed Chris," Stefan pushed away from the wall, joining in the conversation. "He was upset because Chris wasn't sired anymore."

"He broke the sire bond too?" Elena looked at Jeremy, searching his face for signs of guilt. "Jer… you didn't know."

"I know," Jeremy nodded, "But Tyler thinks they can all break the sire bond if they have enough time. He wants to help them break it."

"Okay?" Elena looked around the room, "What does that have to do with us?"

"Think about it, Elena," Damon spoke softly, moving toward her, "The only way to get Jeremy's map to appear is to kill more vampires. And the only vampires in town that are expendable are Klaus' hybrids."

It started to sink in. "So if Jeremy wants the map, he needs to kill the hybrids…? Klaus would never be on board with that."

"He might." Stefan suggested, "If he's sure that you'll be able to take the cure and give him more blood to make more hybrids."

She shook her head, not wanting to think about that now. "Okay… so what does Tyler want us to do instead?"

"Klaus gave them all the day off yesterday because he was with Caroline," Jeremy plopped down on the couch and put his feet up, "So they got together and convinced me to go with them. They want to make a deal that I won't kill anymore hybrids since they're not just Klaus' minions anymore. Or… they won't be for long anyway. In exchange, when they break the sire bond, they'll help take Klaus down."

Elena turned toward Damon, "So what do we do?"

"If we take Tyler's deal, we'd have to somehow keep Klaus from figuring it out until we can find the cure on our own," Damon shook his head, "There's only about a million things that could go wrong there."

"And if we don't work with the hybrids, then we lose Tyler as our inside guy and maybe Caroline with him. Not to mention we end up with a pack of hybrids after us once they're unsired." Stefan argued.

"Not if they're dead." Damon shot back.

"All this for the cure?" Elena sat down on the couch and leaned her head back. "Either way… Jeremy's doing a lot of killing. A lot of dangerous killing…"

"There's no way out of that part," Stefan said. "Killing vampires is the only way to get the map to appear."

"So why do we need the map?" Elena sat up, leaning forward, her eyes moving to Damon. "Maybe it's not worth it."

The older Salvatore's blue gaze was intense on hers. "It's a cure, Elena. That's a big prize…"

"Is it?" She tried to mentally will him to understand how she was feeling, "My brother kills over and over to get me a cure so I don't have to be a person who kills anymore? How does that make sense?"

"I can handle this, Elena. I'm a hunter." Jeremy sat up, drawing Elena's attention. "This is who I am now."

"It doesn't have to be." Elena shook her head, reaching for Jeremy's hand. "You have a choice, Jeremy. I didn't, and I would never want you to feel like that. You can choose, and as your sister, I'm telling you that I will support your decision either way."

"Elena," Damon sat beside her on the couch, though he was careful not to touch her. Still the new closeness between them was there and she felt slightly more at ease. "There's no other way to get the cure…not anytime soon, anyway."

"I know," She reached over and took his hand, "But I can't ask someone to sacrifice so much for the possibility of getting me something I'm not even sure I want."

Damon's hand tightened around hers, his probing gaze trained on her. "You don't want it?"

"I don't know." She dropped her eyes, wishing she could lean against him. Shaking her head, she let out a short laugh. "I mean no one's really asked me that, have they? Everyone's trying so hard to get this cure for me… Klaus wants my blood, Stefan just doesn't want me to be a vampire…" Glancing up, she met Damon's eyes again, "Even you assume that I want the cure."

"Elena…"

She cut Damon off, standing up, "Nobody even asked me if I wanted it. We're just making plans for Jeremy to kill who knows how many vampires so I can be human and Klaus can make who knows how many hybrids with my blood..."

Emotion was rising in her, magnified as it always was now. Needing room to breathe, she shook her head and held her hands out as though holding all of them off, "I'm not doing this again."

Walking out of the room, she sped up the stairs and into Damon's room, bending over and resting her hands on her knees as she tried to calm the panic that had unexpectedly risen within her.

Everything hinged on her decision. Again. People's lives hung in the balance and it all revolved around her.

Somehow, it was always all on her shoulders and she wasn't sure she could do it this time.

XOXO

Damon sent Stefan and Jeremy away with instruction to not move on the deal with Tyler until he gave them the word. They'd both been hesitant, Stefan to leave without answers and Jeremy to leave without an explanation for the sudden increase in Damon's involvement with Elena. In the end he had been able to put them both off. Climbing the stairs slowly, he approached his room and stood in the doorway, taking in the sight of Elena staring out his window, her arms wrapped around herself.

Lifting his hand, he knocked lightly on the doorframe. "Mind some company?"

"It's your room." She looked over her shoulder with a small smile. "Guess I sort of freaked out down there…"

"Maybe a little." He moved to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her chest and kissing her hair.

She leaned back against him, closing her eyes as her head rested against his shoulder. "Did they leave?"

"Mmhmm…"

They stood quietly for a few minutes. Damon ran his hand over her arm, taking a minute to enjoy the fact that he was the one who got to be with her in these moments now. He'd comforted her before, but this time there were no boundaries between them. He was her support system now.

"So…" He finally murmured in her ear. "I hear you may not want the cure..."

"I don't know what I want."

"You sure about that?" He ran his hand over her arm, resting his chin on her head,

"Not really. You know, I figured you wouldn't want me to take it. I understood why Stefan needed me to… why I might want to. But I thought you would be against it."

He closed his eyes, willing the selfish part of him to take a backseat for this one. "I'm not going to pretend that I don't want you for eternity. I do." Turning her around, he kissed her lightly, "But whether you're human or vampire or werewolf or a… flying monkey, it doesn't change the way I feel about you. Even I know this isn't a choice I can make for you, Elena. If you want to be human again, then this is your chance."

"How am I supposed to be the person I used to be?" She looked up at him, worry etched into her pretty features. "I'm different, Damon. I can't… go back to being the same as I was before I was different. It's not like I would forget all the things I've done and felt since I turned…"

"I don't know," He pulled her close, holding her against his chest, wishing he had something better to say. "But you know… even if you don't want the cure, we still have to look for it."

She moved back, looking up at him. "Why? For someone else…?"

"Maybe," He shrugged, lifting a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, "Or just to have it. Klaus wants it and that means we need to control it. Not him."

Her eyes slid closed and she leaned back against him. "So Jeremy…"

"Still has to get his map. He's a hunter." He cupped the back of her head in his hand, hating to force her to face reality. "Hunters… kill."

Squeezing her eyes shut, she attempted to block out the world, "Can we just erase the last hour? I just want five more minutes to feel like I did when we woke up this morning…"

He could feel her soft lips press against his neck and reciprocated in kind, letting his lips graze over her skin."I'm not sure I can actually erase time…" He leaned back and kissed her before picking her up and laying her on his bed, "But I can definitely make you forget your own name…"

She hummed low in her throat, arching against him as he moved on top of her. "We shouldn't…"

Reaching underneath her, he unzipped her dress for the second time in the last twelve hours. Kissing her sweet, soft skin, he slowly undressed her, watching her eyes flutter closed as she yielded to him.

"Look at me, Elena."

She complied, her hooded brown gaze meeting his.

"Don't think about anything." He pressed his lips to her stomach, "Just let me make you feel good."

Her silence was all the permission he needed. He kissed her, drawing her in, seducing her with everything he had as he began to work his way down her body. She stretched languidly beneath him, her arms sliding up over her head in a gesture of total surrender.

A genuine happiness he'd almost forgotten was possible filled him and he channeled that back into her, his heart expanding with each of her soft sighs.

XOXO

Elena was having trouble keeping her eyes open. Her entire body was sated and warm and curled next to the man she loved. Somewhere in the part of her mind that still worked, she knew they needed to get up and face an impatiently waiting reality, but he felt too good and she kept losing her resolve to move.

"You okay?" He kissed her shoulder as he drew her back more securely against his chest.

"Better than okay," She smiled into the pillow and wriggled her hips against him, "You're too good at this. I'll never be able to keep up."

Pulling back, he gave her a strange look. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Flushing, she shrugged lightly. "You know… 160 years of experience vs. my two boyfriends worth of experience? I've never learned how to do… stuff. Matt didn't know anymore than I did and Stefan…" She paused, feeling awkward."

"And Stefan…?"

"He was always content with sort of a… set procedure." Squeezing her eyes shut, she rolled away from him. "I can't believe we're talking about this. Let's change the subject. There's a vampire cure, right?"

He laughed and pulled her naked body back to his half clothed one, moving her beneath him just enough to allow him to prop himself up over her. His long fingers traced the line of her jaw. "Elena…"

"I don't know how to have hot vampire sex." She blurted the insecurity she hadn't been aware of until just now, her gaze searching his. "And even though I think everything we've, you know… done so far has been amazing, I know you're used to more than that and I just don't want you to get bored or…"

"Enough." The stern tone to his voice startled her into silence. He kissed her hard. "Don't ever say or think anything like that again, Elena. Not unless you want to make me mad."

"Damon…"

"I mean it." He brushed her hair back from her face, looking at her with an odd mixture of intensity and tenderness. "I'm not ever going to get bored with you, Elena. Not if we had sex the exact same way every time for the rest of our existence."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Everything you do, every look you give me, every single time you touch me, I want you. When you love the person you're sleeping with, you don't have to be able to play twister against the wall. It can be fun and we'll try it…" He smirked down at her, "We'll try it a lot. But you're already the best sex I've ever had and its going to seriously piss me off if you don't get that."

In spite of herself, she smiled. "I'm sorry?"

"Good." He leaned down and kissed her softly, "You should be."

"Damon?"

"What?"

"I love you, too."

He smiled down at her, "So I've heard." Sliding off the bed, he reached over and scooped her up, cradling her in his arms. "Now, come on. Time to get up."

"Mmm… do we have to?" She leaned her head against his shoulder as he carried her toward the bathroom. "Wait, what are we doing?"

In answer, he set her on the counter and leaned in to steal a quick kiss. "You've been doing a lot of cardio," He teased, moving to turn on the tub faucets and test the water. "Seems to me like you need a long…hot soak if you're going to be up for round four later."

"I don't have time…" She made a half-hearted protest, "Jeremy needs me."

He laid a finger against her lips. "We can hold off reality for a few more minutes. Besides, Jeremy isn't in any danger. He'll be fine."

"But the cure…"

"Ah-ah." Giving her a stern look, he shook his finger at her, "Now stop that. We have to find it no matter what, right? You can figure out if you want to take it during the next… however long finding it takes."

"Damon…"

"Elena," His pronunciation of her name was exaggerated, "Nothing bad is going to happen if you take a fifteen minute bath. Think about it this way. If it all goes to hell in a hand basket in the next half an hour, at least you'll smell good."

She rolled her eyes, then gasped as he bent down between her legs to open the lower cabinet beneath her. He fished out a bottle of something and kissed the inside of her thigh before pouring a good bit of the liquid into the running water.

"Damon…" She protested as he picked her up and lowered her into the water, then sighed blissfully as the warmth and the sweet smell and light pressure of the jets entranced her. "Oh…"

"Mmhmm…" He kissed the top of her head, "I'm going to go grab a blood bag for me and find a willing vein for you. Take your time, okay?"

She nodded, closing her eyes and slipping further into the water. "You're too nice to me. I'm already high maintenance enough with my vein feeding and hallucinations and general chaos…"

"Yeah, well… maybe I like maintaining you."

He started to stand up and walk out of the bathroom but stopped and turned, "Elena?"

She forced her eyes to open and look at him. "Hmm?"

"What do you think hot vampire sex means? Just… for my own enlightenment."

"You know," She shrugged, moving so that the jets hit her back in just the right spot, "Tearing clothes off and throwing each other around… biting. Right…?"

She narrowed her eyes at the smirk that instantly broke onto his face.

"What…?"

He crossed to her, leaning down to kiss her deeply, grinning as he pulled back. "I love you, Elena."

She started to respond, but he was already gone. For a half-second she considered going after him and demanding to know what he thought was so funny. Then the jets began pulsing and she lost any motivation to do anything else but enjoy one more moment hiding away from the world.

XOXO

Damon whistled as he descended the stairs into the basement of the boardinghouse. His step was light, his hands drumming the rhythm of the song in his head on his legs. As he turned the corner, headed for the cooler stocked with blood bags, he saw his brother.

Stefan looked disturbingly morbid, leaning over the open cooler, his hands braced on each side. His knuckles were white, his arms tight with the effort it took to resist the siren's call of the blood.

"Stefan..." Damon approached slowly. "What are you doing?"

The younger vampire didn't turn to look at Damon, "I'm trying to think of a reason to go hunt down a deer instead of drinking everything in here right now."

"Well," Damon casually reached in and grabbed a bag, turning it over in his hand, "There's the save-some-for-the-rest-of-us reasoning…"

Stefan just closed his eyes.

Sighing, Damon took his brother's arm and pressed him back, moving to stand between him and the cooler. "You don't want the blood, Stefan."

"Oh, but I do." Stefan started to move around him, but Damon stopped his brother with a hand against his chest.

"Don't make me stop you again," Damon spoke quietly. "The state you're in… you'll binge. And when you binge you go crazy and when you go crazy you kill people. Then the guilt makes you binge more. It's a whole cyclical thing. Spoiler alert, it doesn't turn out well."

Eyes locked, the brothers stared each other down, both ready to spring.

Damon cocked his head, "What's it going to be, brother? Are you going to make me stop you?"

XOXO

Tiny cliffhanger! Time for some brotherly discussions in the next chapter... Stefan's been acting like he's coping, but there may be more brooding behind that crowded forehead than he's been letting on.

You know what to do now! Go ahead and leave me a comment because hearing from YOU will make my day. :-) Thanks for reading!

XOXO