Chapter 10

Caroline was becoming more and more worried about Elena's reaction to the relationship between Damon and Becca. As nearly as she could tell, Damon was completely (and typically) oblivious to what was really going on, but she suspected that both Becca and Stefan were well aware of the cause of Elena's spiral into crazy. Caroline guessed that Becca would intervene only if she thought that she might actually lose Damon to Elena, and Stefan was long used to some form of sharing Elena with his brother so he was likely to tolerate the situation. But that didn't mean it was a good situation, so Caroline thought it was time for a visit from the honesty police.

She and Elena were having lunch when she raised the issue with characteristic bluntness. "Are you jealous of Becca, Elena?"

Elena looked shocked, but her tone was less than convincing. "No, of course not."

"Really?"

Now Elena sounded stubborn. "I'm not jealous."

Caroline ignored her friend's denials. "Yes, you totally are. I thought you didn't feel that way about Damon?"

Elena sighed and gave in. "I guess maybe I kind of liked the idea that if things didn't work out with Stefan, maybe they would work out with Damon."

Caroline shook her head. "You can't expect Damon to wait around for you, keep him as a back-up plan. That's not fair to him. Or to Stefan. Especially after what Katherine did to both of them."

Elena looked a bit guilty at that. "I know. I guess I just miss Damon, being the center of his attention. As much as I hated it sometimes – or most of the time." She gave a rueful smile. "And I guess . . . I never thought he would move on so quickly. I mean, he waited for Katherine for 145 years, and he gets over me in a few weeks?"

Caroline snorted. "There was nothing healthy about Damon's obsession with Katherine, and you would be the first one to admit that if you were thinking clearly right now. Look, Elena, a little jealousy is normal, but you can't let it rule your actions." Secretly, she thought that maybe it was about time that Elena Gilbert experienced jealousy since it seemed like Elena had always had whatever guy she wanted fall right into her lap. But Caroline was going to keep quiet about that theory. She was trying to learn tact, after all.

Elena sighed again. "I know. And I feel bad about the way I yelled at him yesterday, I do, but . . ."

Caroline cut her friend off. "It would never work anyway, you and Damon. I mean if the two of you got together, you'd be angsting about Stefan and he'd be angsting about Stefan – and both of you would be miserable. Damon's doing the right thing by moving on, and you need to let him, Elena."

"I guess my head knows all of that, but my heart isn't so sure what it wants any more."

Caroline ignored that and pressed on with her next argument. "Plus Damon is, well, insane, and Becca can handle him. She might be the only one who really can." Caroline had already seen Becca stop Damon from engaging in an argument with a kiss or a finger to his lips, and Caroline suspected that maybe the simple fact of having someone love him unequivocally would stabilize Damon. Elena's feelings for Damon had never been unequivocal – in fact, they had always been the exact opposite, and Elena had always demanded that Damon change as a condition of her affections, even her friendship. Damon, in turn, had sometimes accepted that and sometimes fought it, which had made for a rather unstable dynamic of crazy, unpredictable vampire in their midst. Caroline hoped that Becca might make Damon a little less volatile, and at a minimum, it was kind of reassuring that Damon at his worst would not be able to hurt Becca. She knew she would have worried about Elena, or any human, in a relationship with Damon. Hell, she had been there, sort of, and it wasn't pretty.

Elena's delicate features took on a worried look. "I guess so, but are you sure Becca's right for him? What if this is a relationship that even Damon can't handle?"

Caroline sipped her coffee. It was a bit hard to worry about Damon, of all people. "It's hard to ever be sure about that sort of thing, isn't it? But they sure seem happy together, and I don't think Becca would hurt him. And don't you think even Damon deserves to be happy, after everything?" Caroline also liked Becca. The Original sometimes felt like an older sister to her, a cool vampire older sister with whom Caroline could go shopping on Damon's credit card. Caroline had largely given up the pretext that she was teaching Becca anything about life in the twenty-first century on these shopping trips. She had concluded that Damon wasn't going to object as long as she made sure that Becca bought sufficiently hot outfits, and that was easy enough to do. Caroline knew she could just compel her way to anything that she wanted in stores, but she felt less guilty when she had a credit card to hand over, even if it didn't have her name on it. One of these days she was going to have to ask Damon just how he had gotten so wealthy. There had to be a vampire trick to it that she could learn.

Elena cleared her throat. "Caroline?"

"Sorry." She tried to make up for her lapse of attention. "How are things with you and Stefan, anyway? That must be part of the problem . . ."

Elena sighed. "He just seems really distant lately. And he doesn't even seem to want to touch me anymore. I don't know if he's scared that he'll lose control or if things are really just over between us and we're just hanging on out of habit. You know?" Her voice got quiet. "And I don't even have anywhere to go if we break up."

Caroline suddenly felt nothing but sympathy for her friend. "Oh, sweetie. You know you can always come live with me if you have to. It would probably take my mom a few months to even notice. Ric would take care of you, too. You know that."

Elena laughed shakily. "Your mom would notice. Your house isn't that big."

Caroline grinned. "I don't know. She still works all the time. And besides, we'll be going away to college soon, and we can go to the same school and be roommates so that I can keep blood in the fridge."

Elena's smile at that was a little steadier, and Caroline felt a sense of relief. She hoped she had gotten through to her friend.

•••••

Damon was sitting in the library reading when Elena found him. He ignored her as she entered the room, but she approached him anyway. Her voice was tentative. "Uh, Damon? Can we talk?"

Damon finally looked up, curious despite himself. "It depends. Are you going to yell at me for no apparent reason again? Because . . ."

Elena cut him off. "I'm sorry about yesterday morning, Damon. I shouldn't have said those things to you."

Damon nodded, slightly surprised. Elena didn't usually apologize to him. Of course, usually he was the one who owed her an apology, not the other way around. "Apology accepted." He hesitated a moment before continuing. "What was that all about, Elena?"

Elena's voice was small. "I guess I've kind of missed you lately."

"I've been right here."

Elena shook her head like he was missing the point. "I mean, you've been so busy with Becca that I kind of felt like I lost my friend. And I've lost so many people, Damon."

Damon felt like one of those cartoon characters with the light bulb above his head. Suddenly it was all starting to make sense. Elena was jealous of his relationship with Becca. Except that was completely unfair, after everything. "You don't get to do that, Elena."

Now it was her turn to look puzzled. "Do what?"

"Try to make me feel guilty for finding someone to be happy with. You chose Stefan – over and over again."

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, Damon. I'm just trying to explain how I feel."

Damon's voice changed to an exaggerated falsetto that was meant to be an imitation of Elena. "'I've lost my friend.'" He returned to his normal voice. "Please, Elena. That was exactly what you were trying to do, whether you know it or not." As she stared at him, looking hurt, he barreled on. "Are we even friends, Elena?"

The hurt look got worse, and Damon felt a surge of guilt. "Of course, we're friends."

He refused to back down just yet. "Really? Because most of the time, I don't get the impression that you even like me. Unless you want something from me – or if I'm dying." Becca, on the other hand, showed him that she liked him and enjoyed his company every day. And she didn't want him to change.

Elena looked at him with utter sincerity, her brown eyes huge. "Of course, I like you, Damon. I just know that you can be a better person, that's all."

Damon rolled his eyes. He had known that something like that was coming. "That implies that there's something wrong with the person that I am now, Elena."

Elena raised an eyebrow. "You do kind of have a tendency to randomly kill people."

Damon sighed. "My kills aren't random, Elena. Just because you can't see the higher purpose, doesn't mean there isn't one."

Elena scoffed at him. "Really, Damon? A higher purpose?"

Damon had to concede that might not have been the best choice of words. "Well, okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, although I think survival could be considered a higher purpose."

Elena gave him another one of those superior, admonishing looks that seemed to be her favorite way of looking at him. He wondered if she had learned it from Stefan. "You don't have to kill to survive, Damon. You can use blood bags – or even animal blood."

Damon shuddered. Now she was even starting to sound like Saint Stefan. "I am not drinking animal blood. Why are we even talking about this anyway? I haven't killed anyone in . . ." He paused, thinking. It really had been a while. "Way too long."

"You act like that's a bad thing."

Damon sighed. "Look, let's just stop, okay, Elena?"

"Okay. I don't want to fight with you, Damon. Can we just spend some time together again? Please?"

Damon smirked as a thought occurred to him. "I know. We'll double-date."

Elena flinched, and Damon felt a bit pleased at this confirmation of his theory that she was jealous. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Fine. We'll . . . hang out, or something." He wasn't sure why he had agreed to that, given the way their relationship seemed to be going. But maybe they could get back to where they had once been. There had been a time when he had thought that Elena understood him better than anyone else, and he did miss the moments they had had together.

Elena gave him a soft smile, her eyes and voice now warm. "Good. I'd like that." Damon was reminded that he had once thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She turned and left with another small smile.

As Elena's steps moved away up the stairs and her scent faded from the air, Damon slumped onto the couch, staring blankly into the fire. For so many months, he wanted nothing more than for Elena Gilbert to acknowledge that she had feelings for him, and for many more months, he wanted nothing more than for her to choose him. He had thought that he had shut that door forever, but Elena had just nudged it open again and he didn't know what to think. Damon wasn't quite sure where his love for Elena had come from, other than the snippets of compassion that she had shown him at a time when he had almost forgotten that such a thing existed, but he guessed that he had thought that they might balance each other. Damon knew Elena could be fun. He had seen it, once or twice, and he wanted to bring that out of her. And in return, she could help keep his darkness in check.

But now . . . now he had Becca, and he couldn't remember ever being happier than he had been over the past week with her. Becca accepted him in a way that was almost totally unfamiliar to Damon. She understood him, and she liked him, and her passion seemed to be a perfect match for his. He thought they had something special. But he also thought that Elena needed him. She needed him to protect her, and she needed him because of all the people that she had lost – and Damon had always been a sucker for a damsel in distress. Becca, on the other hand, was one of the most powerful beings in the world. She had adapted almost seamlessly to the twenty-first century, and she was always confident and self-possessed. She had shown him the occasional moment of vulnerability, but did Becca really need him? Would she ever need him?

Damon knew that he had fallen hard for Becca, and he thought that she felt the same way. But what if he was wrong? He had a long history of making a fool of himself over love (it was kind of the story of his life), and what if there was something he was missing, something that Stefan and Elena could see and he couldn't? But then there was the blood bond that let him sense what Becca was feeling when they were together, and it sure seemed to match what he was feeling. And it wasn't like Elena was ready to choose him. She was still with Stefan; she just wanted Damon back in her orbit, focused on her. Damon shook his head, suddenly feeling decisive. No, he was done playing that game. This time he could make the choice, and he chose Becca. Or he thought he did. He buried his face in his hands, thoroughly confused. Shit.

•••••

Damon walked out his front door, car keys in hand. He was headed to the Grill to meet Ric. He suspected that Amaya would be there, too, and that Ric had requested Damon's presence so that he could get to know the witch without the pressure of a real date. After Elena had messed with his head earlier that day, Damon needed the distraction. And with Becca out of town, he certainly didn't have anything better to do, so he was looking forward to teasing Ric all night.

Damon paused on the steps, senses suddenly alert. Something was off. Before he could pinpoint anything, however, another vampire had slammed him back into his own front door and buried a stake in his stomach. Damon gasped at the pain, doubling over. A second later he felt a prick in his arm and a concentrated dose of vervain burned through his body. His legs gave out entirely, and he crashed down onto his front steps. Damon struggled to hold onto consciousness, but the pain swamped his mind and he fell into blackness.

A/N: Time to step up the action on this story, and in my stories that often means Damon in trouble. Thanks for reading and please review!