A/N: Thanks for the amazing reviews and to shortybabygirl2009 for yet another great review. Sorry that this chapter took so long to get out. I've been busy with life, as you all probably are also. Oh, and before I forget, I want to send out my love to fallenfairy4 again because she inspired me to finish this chapter even when I didn't think I would ever get it out. And in your free time, go check out her naughty little drabble 'Animal Attraction.' I really enjoyed it!

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Mistaken Observations: What Have We Started Here?

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Elena left Caroline's house quickly after that; she didn't think she could handle anymore of her drunken babblings. Caroline had said- even if her words were a bit distraught and slurred- that she had some master plan behind her even better plot to get Stefan back into Elena's arms. Elena had sighed at this. Drunken people always thought they had the best ideas. That was how most of the human race got themselves put in jail, for God's sake. She would have to tell Caroline that one day. Granted, she probably wouldn't listen, but when did she ever?

Sleep together. Elena shuddered at those words. If she separated them and put them into discrete categories, they could be completely innocent- maybe even a little tedious-, but if she put those words along with her name, and then added 'Damon', it just became a big catastrophe that no-one would know what to do with. Those words were not supposed to blend together in her unfolding predicament, and Elena was quickly regretting even entering Caroline's house in the first place. She wasn't ready to face the cold reality of the blonde's words.

Elena sighed, setting her sights on the light peeking out from under Damon's door. She opened it with sore, stiff fingers, dropping her purse on a nearby bench, and trying to shake off the feeling that she was spending way too much time with Damon in general. This wasn't what she considered 'polite company' anymore. They were both on relying on each other more than she cared to admit.

When she had driven away from Caroline's house, her full intent had just been focused on maneuvering her car to the boarding house without falling asleep at the wheel. But once she had entered the house, she suddenly had this burning need to just talk to someone. Under normal circumstances, she would have just turned to Bonnie, or Caroline, or maybe even Aunt Jenna. But with Jenna dead, Caroline clearly intoxicated and no help at all, and all the pressure that was already being put on Bonnie, Elena couldn't find the heart to talk to anyone but Damon.

What did that exactly say about her? Was she really that needy or did she just need an excuse to talk to Damon without feeling ashamed for it?

"What's wrong with you?" Damon asked, seeing Elena enter his bedroom with a muddled expression gracing her features.

It was a loaded question to say the least, and it wasn't something Elena could just effortlessly answer. "I don't…know." She sat down at the foot of his bed, chewing over her thumb nail before opening her mouth again. "Is it possible for a vampire to go critically insane?"

Damon stared at her, bemused. "Have you met me?" he stopped to squint at her. "Please tell me you're not actually referring to me. I didn't even do anything this time."

Shaking her head, Elena brought her fingertips to her temples. That alcohol had not done her any good. "Nothing, you didn't do anything. It's Caroline. She said something absolutely ridiculous tonight. I don't know whether she was actually being serious of if she was just extremely drunk."

"Oh," Damon smiled and it was a bit forced around the edges. "Well, it is Caroline. You never really do need an explanation when it comes to her."

Elena didn't even have the energy to defend her friend. She slowly nodded her head like she was agreeing with him. In all honesty, he did have a point. Caroline did tend to spout out random bits of information when she thought it appropriate.

"Care to tell me what she said?" Damon asked.

Elena froze on her spot of the bed. Caroline told her not to say a word about it to him. Actually, she had said something along the lines of 'And if you tell him what I just said, Elena Gilbert, I will not hesitate in ripping your throat out.' Apparently, it was all part of her plan that she was so hell-bent on setting in motion. Caroline didn't have to worry though. It wasn't like Elena was going to tell Damon either way.

Elena grimaced. "Sorry. I'm not supposed to tell a soul. Caroline would eat me alive if she found out I told you anything." She looked at him closer, "In plus, I don't even have all the details. I guess she has this plan or something. It's a completely insane plan, but like you said before, it is just Caroline. She thinks it's brilliant."

Damon snorted. "What is it with vampires these days? They think that just because they can live forever, they somehow have all the answers in life."

"Not funny, Damon." But she still couldn't help the tiniest of smiles to stretch across her lips. She looked down at his lap suddenly, a glittering object catching her eye. She pointed to it, "What's that?"

"I was hoping that you would know. I found it on the doorstep this morning." Damon explained. "It looks like a necklace, but for all we know, it could be part of some dumb-ass trap Klaus has set up for us to stumble upon. Wouldn't be the first time."

Elena nodded her agreement. "You don't think it could contain vervain like mine does, do you?" She absently fingered the pendent sitting at her throat. Damon was the first to be informed that she didn't wear it because of Stefan anymore. She now wore it purely for her own protection. That, and the fact that Damon told her if she ever took it off, he would personally force it back on her himself.

"I have no clue," he handed it to her, "Does it look witch-y to you? Do you think it's bad to have around here? I've been staring at it so long now, I can't even tell anymore."

Shrugging, Elena turned it over in her hand. It was cold to the touch, and an old, rusty shade of gold marred it. Whatever it was, it was most definitely old.

"Doesn't look life threatening," Elena grimaced, "but if it's another one of Rebekah's pieces of jewelry, then I don't want it anywhere near me." There was nothing worse than a jealous vampire, especially if that vampire was an Original.

"I don't know," Damon put on a mock-serious expression, "I think you should wear it out and parade it around in front of her. That way, we'll know if it belongs to her or not."

Elena lifted an eyebrow. "And if it does belong to her?"

"Then it will make for one hell of a girl-fight. It's a win-win." Damon shrugged his shoulders, sagging deeper into the headrest of his bed. Suddenly, he sniffed the air around him. "What's that smell?"

Elena looked around her. The only thing that she could smell was the freshly-showered aroma that was wafting off of Damon. For someone who was trying to resist temptation, he sure was making her work hard for it. This had now become a full-time job. "I don't smell anything," she shifted uncomfortably. Was she the one that smelled? That would have been embarrassing. She had taken a bath that morning.

Damon looked at her curiously, his blue eyes almost glimmering in the light projected by his bedside lamp. Before she had time to react, he ever so gently moved forward from his spot, leant it, and took a deep whiff at her neck.

She sat perfectly still, hoping he wouldn't notice how her heart seemed to speed up from the contact. It was wrong, she knew that, but he looked so roguishly handsome and she had never even smelt something that good before in her life…

"That must have been one hell of a conversation, Elena." He relocated, ever so gently, away from her neck, "You reek of alcohol; you didn't steal from my stash, did you?"

Who in their right mind would have been dumb enough to do that?

"No, of course not. Caroline just had some lying around, and I just had a few sips," she shrugged, "Nothing to get too worked up about."

"But, you don't even like drinking," he said, "except for maybe that one time in Atlanta. I don't even think that counts."

"You know Caroline," Elena tried to laugh it off to the best of her ability. If she pretended like the conversation between her and Caroline meant absolutely nothing, then maybe Damon would leave her alone about it. "You can't really get through a conversation with her without wanting to rip your own hair out. I thought some alcohol would do me good. "

The thing Elena didn't want to admit was that Damon's closeness had more of an effect on her than she would have thought possible. Why was she all the sudden seeing him in such a new light? He was basically the same person. He was still devilishly good-looking, with a short temper, and an unkempt wit that was hard to tame.

He was still Damon; he hadn't really changed at all, but maybe she had.

She shivered at that thought. They had always been dangling on the fine line of 'friends' and 'enemies.' But, now, it was like they had to anchor on to each other just to stay afloat. They were fighting the same battles in this war between semi-good and complete evil. And how was it that she could find faith and hope and belief in the bad brother? In the past, he had been nothing but a bother in her life, someone that needed to be disposed of or banished from Mystic Falls. She had almost let Stefan kill him one night. How would things have been different if he had actually died? Would Klaus still have gotten what he wanted in the end? Probably, because it seemed that people with higher power always got when they wanted. Everybody would just be too scared to interfere.

Maybe this was all because Damon simply wasn't the bad brother anymore; he was just Damon Salvatore, the man who let himself love another and was eternally damned in return.

In this moment, Elena tried hard not to notice how complicated her life seemed to have become. But, still, none of this was going to keep her from searching for Stefan. Yes, her life was crazy, and yes, sometimes she did just want to throw in the towel and be done, but nothing good ever came to the quitters or the deserters.

If Stefan- the real Stefan- was even in there behind that maniac façade, then he had to realize that she wasn't going to wait forever. She couldn't love a ghost of a person; it wasn't possible. She wouldn't allow it to happen because that wouldn't be living at all. Her life was short, and his was however long he wanted it to be. She was going to wait it out for as long as she could, and if she ever did find Stefan, he had to come to understand that there was a chance that he was going to lose her. It was painful, but it was also true.

She just hoped that Stefan would even care about that. After all, he could just walk away and never look back at her again. Maybe he would just want to continue his way of life like it didn't exhaust him at all.

That reminded Elena of what her mom had said to her when she came home one day, crying because she had failed one of her numerous math tests. Her mother had said to her, "Do you want to know what the hardest thing in life is, Elena? It's living. Because you are alive right now, you are accomplishing something most people cannot. Try not to stress so much about the test, sweetie. You can always take it over." And then she had kissed Elena on the forehead, gave her a snack, and told her that she loved her more than life itself.

Elena could never figure out why her mother would say something so utterly depressing to her when Elena herself was only about eleven and a half. Later on in life, she just figured that her mom was going through one of these mid-life crises' that kids sometimes talked about. It never really crossed her mind that maybe her mom wasn't happy all the time. It made Elena feel selfish to always make her mom put her needs first. And now she was dead, so there was nothing she could do to make that up.

But, her mother had made a valid point. She was living through this. She hadn't given up, and she was willing to keep trying. Wasn't that worth anything? Wasn't she accomplishing the greatest feat in life?

Elena shook herself out of all her memories. She was starting to make no sense at all. She was supposed to be worried about other things right now, not about her mother- even if that did sound a bit harsh- and all the things that she could have done differently as a kid. Sure, she had made numerous mistakes, but what kid didn't?

In short, she was just supposed to be worried about Damon, and what she was going to do with Caroline's 'plan.' Was there really anything to do? She could always just say she slept with Damon, but wouldn't Caroline catch on too quickly? Surly she would tell that Elena was lying to her. It was hard for Elena to forget that she was a horrible liar when Damon would constantly remind her. Maybe Caroline was just joking or maybe she was just too drunk to realize that what she was saying was completely not the right thing to say.

Caroline was just one of those girls that didn't have a filter implanted in their brain when she was born. When she wanted to say something, she was sure as hell going to say it. Elena partly admired that because she could never be that bold, and then she also hated it at the same time.

Elena bit her lip as Damon watched her closely. He looked like he could almost guess what she was thinking about. She had always thought he could read minds when she first met him (she wasn't really clear on what a vampire could actually do), but then she soon just realized that Damon got her more than anyone else seemed to. It was almost as if they were on the same intellectual level. They never really got along with each other- until now- but they always seemed to know what the other person was thinking. It could have just been that Elena was an open book, and that sometimes Damon wasn't too good at conveying his emotions either, but something in her gut told Elena otherwise.

"Are you sure there isn't something you want to talk about?" Damon asked, inching closer to Elena.

She unconsciously resisted the urge to scoot away from his advancing body, looking anywhere but his waiting face. Why did he have to smell so good?

"Nope," she smiled, "nothing at all."

But Damon didn't look like he believed her at all and this was also expected. She would never get away with anything if Damon was around.

"You know that you can tell me anything, right?" He spoke quietly, almost as if he could believe what he was saying. "I think it's safe to say that we trust each other enough."

It would have been so much easier to deny any sort of lingering attraction between them if he was just a jack-ass all the time. Why did he suddenly have to be so noble?

She jumped off the bed when Damon put his cold hand on her knee. She didn't think she could take any physical contact at that moment. "I think I should just- I'm just going to…goodnight, Damon."

That was how most of their conversations ended now. Elena would come into Damon's room, they would talk for a while, Damon would say something that basically expressed his undying love, and Elena would rush out with a painful 'Goodnight, Damon.'

She wished there was something innocent enough that could show just how much she really did care for Damon. When he said things like 'I will always choose you, Elena,' she never knew how to act. She was supposed to be with Stefan, and she felt that if she even acknowledged the fact that what Damon said warmed her to the core, then she would just be going against anything she ever worked up to.

There was no part of her that wanted to walk out of his room, but that is exactly what she did. What she wanted to do was go and confess everything Caroline had said to her and spill it to Damon. That was what he deserved. But, how would she know how Damon would have reacted to her confessions? All she could guess was that it wouldn't end well.

Damon smiled over at her when she rushed over to his door. Elena quickly wondered if he would ever stop faking that same smile. They both knew quite well that he didn't mean it one bit.

"Yeah," Damon simply said, "Goodnight, Elena."

And then she left, slamming the door behind her and proceeding to make a make-shift bed on one of the couches downstairs.

Even after all of this, she still couldn't find the heart to sleep in Stefan's bed.

She tried not to turn around again and ask if she could sleep in Damon's bed, and the only thing she could think about as she strained to fall asleep was, 'Why did he have to be so tempting?'

But, too find that reason, she would have to do some deeper digging. She didn't think she could do that, but she was going to die trying.

First, she just had to find the heart to do it…and maybe even betray Stefan along the way.

Why did that sound like such an appealing task, anyway?

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"What are your feelings towards Damon?"

Elena shifted uncomfortably in her seat, watching in front of her as Caroline checked her manicured nails.

This question, one she had been trying to avoid for quite some time now, was what she had been wondering for the past five days.

Clucking her tongue, Elena reached out to take some bread of its plate. "What do you mean, Caroline? I don't have any feelings for him."

She hadn't meant to make it sound that harsh, but Caroline's questions were starting to become more and more personal. And why did Caroline have to be so observant in the first place?

Caroline crossed her arms, huffed, and squinted her grey-blue eyes. "I can just see the denial rolling off you," she threw up her arms in a dramatic state, "I'm your friend, Elena, and that means that you can tell me stuff, even all of your hot brother drama."

"But there's nothing to tell." Elena ripped off a piece of her steaming bread, plopping it in her mouth and also giving something for her fidgety hands to do. "Damon is just a friend, and I think I've probably told you that about a million times now…not that you seem to notice anyway."

"That's only because you never seem tell me the truth," Caroline leaned forward, putting her elbows against the creamy white table they were both sitting at, "If you would just cut your bullshit and tell me what you guys do when you're not trying to save Stefan, then I would not have to ambush you every time we go out to eat."

Elena tried to contain her eye roll, but when Caroline gave her an angry scowl, she knew that she hadn't succeeded in doing so. "Don't be so melodramatic, Care."

Caroline's middle finger twitched, and Elena smiled in response. The blonde didn't look too happy. "Well, then don't be a bitch, Elena."

"Come on, Care. What do you think we do in our spare time? Make love by the fireplace? No."

Caroline snorted, giving Elena her best snobbish look. "Yeah, you wish," she said quietly, "Look, I know that all this drama with Klaus is bound to mess with your head a bit, but it's time to face the facts, Elena. You are living with an insanely hot man who is willing to risk his life for you."

And there she goes again, Elena thought, defending Damon like it was life or death.

Caroline was on a roll now. "And your life is short, so I don't think you should be spending it looking for someone who doesn't even want to come back."

At this, Elena rocketed it up and out of her chair, pointing an accusing finger at Caroline. "You need to listen to me loud and clear, Care. I have listened to you talk about Damon like he is God's gift to women for about three months now, and if I have to hear about how you think we should get it on one more time, then I am pretty sure that my head will explode."

Caroline pressed against her chair, a hurt expression ruining her pretty face. "I didn't mean it-"

But Elena wouldn't let her finish. "No, let me just say this Caroline, because you are obviously not going to leave me the hell alone if I don't." Elena took a deep breath, preparing the words that were going to be pouring out of her mouth. "Yes, I do realize that Damon is good-looking, okay? Any women with eyes would have to be blind not to see that. And yes, I do know that I can't wait on Stefan forever. Sooner or later, I am just going to give up and there is no use trying to convince myself otherwise. But does that mean I am going to turn to Damon for comfort? Probably, and once again, there is no way to avoid that. Damon is just going to be there. The sooner you come to see that, the better things will turn out."

Elena stood in one spot, huffing for breath as other people watched her curiously. In front of her, Caroline was staring at her wide eyed, mouth gaping.

"What?" Elena said self cautiously. "What did I say?"

"Did you really just say that you were going to end up with Damon when all of this is done and over with?" Caroline shook her head like she was trying to clear it, causing her blonde curls to bounce around her face.

"What?" Elena couldn't help the small squeak that left her lips.

Did she actually say that or was Caroline just putting words into her mouth? Surly she just didn't say that Damon was going to win in the end. In fact, no-one was going to win in the end. She wasn't even a prize to be attained in the first place!

"No," Elena rubbed at her temples, trying to rid the ache in her skull, "I didn't say anything like that, Caroline."

"Yes you did, Elena. There isn't any other way a person could take those words out of your mouth." Caroline stood up, and this time it was Elena that was having the finger pointed in her face.

In her mind, Elena was rewinding what she had just recently told Caroline. She had talked about how she wasn't really going to wait forever for Stefan, and how Damon was always going to be there, and how she was going to turn to him for comfort, and then that was it!

"…And I can't believe that you have been lying to me this whole time…" Caroline was still yammering away, but Elena didn't have the patience to listen anymore.

With one more heated look towards Caroline, Elena ripped open her purse, threw ten dollars down on the glass table, and strode away. Even though she was turned around, she could still feel the eyes of many innocent on-lookers and even Caroline's own pair of heavily made-up eyes on her back.

And so she did what any normal, eighteen year old with an attitude would do; she held her head up high, stuck her nose in the air…and tried not to let the tears escape her eyes.

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As Elena lay down on her sad excuse for a bed, she tried not to let that particular memory fill her eyes with unwanted water. That had happened about three days before they both decided to make-up and get drunk at Caroline's house. And even then, Caroline had to go and tell Elena to sleep with Damon. It was just further proof that nobody would ever be able to change the mind of Caroline Forbes.

Actually, Elena thought tiredly, sleeping with Damon doesn't sound too bad right now.

Of course, she wasn't actually going to sleep with him in the literal sense. Maybe he wouldn't mind sharing his bed with her…

Elena sighed, throwing her many blankets off her body. Now that the idea was implanted in her brain, she knew that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep without doing it in the proper bed.

The only sound that rang throughout the large house was the soft pitter-patter of her bare feet on the floor and her own furiously beating heart. Why was she suddenly so nervous? And why were her palms sweating and her cheeks so flushed? Was this about what Caroline had assumed about her and Damon?

Elena furiously shook her head, pounding harder than necessary on the stairs up to Damon's room. This was all just too ridiculous. She had never been one to let what other people say influence that way she acted, but this seemed to be an exception to the rule.

As Elena turned the knob to Damon's door, she found herself almost laughing. No matter how hard she tried, she almost always found herself crawling back to him. What was wrong with her? It had only been about an hour since she had left him, and here she was again, practically drooling at his feet.

Elena entered his room, watching with practiced eyes when his chest delicately moved up and down with each passing breath, and how his bare chest gleamed lightly in the moonlights path.

She almost stopped and fled when his bed creaked under her additional weight and Damon moved faintly, but when everything calmed again, she slipped in between his covers. But try as she might, sleep would not come and she was left looking at Damon's sleeping form.

And she tried not to, she really did, but she couldn't stop the thoughts of what sleeping with Damon would be like. It had to be because she was seriously sex-deprived or something because the thoughts wouldn't stop rolling in, even if she scrunched up her eyes as tight as they would go.

She imagined the sweat smell of sweat and the way their skin would slide against each other's, and the way moans would reverberate against the walls and make their way back to her ears. She imagined it all to an almost extreme point of detail. All the things that Caroline had told her over the first year she had known Damon seemed to come careening into her, too. Every suggestive comment anyone had made about Damon, or anything Damon said about himself evenly replayed in her mind. She felt like she was going insane.

"He's like sex on a stick, Elena." She knew he was.

"He is good in the sack, isn't he?" She imagined that he would be.

"Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible? Yes, he was all of those things.

"And right now, you want to kiss me." She didn't know why she hadn't at the time. It all came back to Stefan.

All of these things, to an extent, were true, and that just further proved exactly how much power Damon Salvatore had over her. Maybe there was no more room to deny it anymore. And that could have been a good thing because denying 24/7 was exhausting, and it was a bad things because she wouldn't know how to act around him anymore. All of his little flirty comments and flashing eyes were going to chip away at her armor until it wasn't even there anymore. That is what scared her most of all.

So here, in this dark room with the man in question beside her, was where she was admitting her feelings for him. She wasn't the only one in the world that was resistant to his charm. He did get under her skin just like he did to any other breathing female, and she did admit that one look at him caused her stomach to stir and her breathing to become a little heavier. So, yes, she was physically attracted to him, but would that ever be enough? Would he ever be enough?

As the full force of her realization hit her, Elena felt her tear-ducts fill to the brim. She hoped that Stefan, where ever he was, knew that she was betraying him. And the malevolent part of her hoped that he felt guilty for ever leaving her. He should have known that this was going to happen eventually. She was already sleeping in Damon's bed and letting him touch her more often when she wouldn't have before, and she was getting advice from friends on what she should do to handle this.

They were already more of a couple than her and Stefan ever were.

That thought was almost enough to send Elena over the edge, and she jerked in her spot, breathing hard. Her eyes flittered over to Damon when he rolled over to her, eyes wide and white teeth luminous in the night air.

"What the hell are you doing, Elena?"

She wished that he wouldn't have spoken at all. His voice- all husky and warm- caused her thoughts to drift to other indecent activates that had her head swimming in something closely resembling the beginnings of lust.

And the only thing she could manage to think was that there was no possible way that she could resist him anymore.

It wasn't possible…

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A/N: Oh, God. That was so ridiculously hard to write that it wasn't even funny. This chapter was more of a filler and that was why it probably seemed to painfully boring. The main point of it all was just to show you that Elena is slowly and surly falling for Damon and all of his glory. Oh, the horror, Elena. How will you ever go on?

Please try and lift my spirits about this chapter and review! (And yes, I am talking to you Miss. Peri!) lol ;)

Oh, and Happy Halloween!