AN: It seems like you guys are anxious to get to Elena's change, but we still have a way to go and some things to get through before we get there. So, Nessa Lovegood, you don't have to worry about us getting to the end of the story soon, because I don't think we're more than halfway through it yet (and, knowing how I get when I'm writing, it might even be more!). Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter, you guys are really what keep me going on this story! Lots of hugs for my beta, sunshine2006578, and now, let's get on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: The characters of The Vampire Diaries are the property of L.J. Smith and the people at The CW. I'm just borrowing.

Chapter ten

Elena couldn't help but call Jeremy when she was heading home after her finals on Monday. She was extremely curious to find out how his talk with Jenna had gone and the only reason she hadn't called until now was that she hadn't had the time. Also, it would be a good way to distract herself from going over all her answers, which she had a tendency to do after an exam. She had more finals to study for and couldn't get sidetracked worrying about what she might have messed up during the first day.

"I'm surprised you could contain yourself this long," Jeremy answered in an amused voice after a couple of rings. "I was sure you'd call last night to find out how it went. Did Damon tie you down to keep you away from the phone or something? On second thought, don't answer that. I don't want to know, I don't need the mental images."

"Ha ha. I wasn't sure how long you and Jenna would be talking last night, and then I had my first final this morning and I couldn't really get away until now," she replied, not even bothering to try to deny that she had been itching to talk to him: he wouldn't believe her if she did. "So?"

"So … I don't know, it was pretty much what I had expected, I guess. She was a little emotional at first, going on about how much she had missed me, which was kinda nice to hear. Then she did the 'I'm very disappointed in you' speech."

"Oh no." Elena grimaced. "Those are even worse than the 'I'm really mad at you' speeches."

He laughed briefly. "I know, right? But I guess I sort of had it coming. Anyway, she said that she was disappointed that I hadn't felt like I could tell her everything back when I 'disappeared' and I tried to explain to her why I made that decision in the first place, that I didn't want her to have to deal with all of this. I don't think she really thought it was a good enough reason – there was some yelling at that point. But then she said that she was just happy to have me back and that she wanted to leave the past in the past and just enjoy the fact that she would be able to see me again. So it could have been a lot worse. I was expecting her to yell at me at least two times, maybe even more."

That was true. "Did she bug you about coming down to Mystic Falls to see her and Maddy?" Elena wondered. "She mentioned it last night, and when I tried to tell her that you have finals too and that she would see you at my graduation, she looked so disappointed that I told her that she could talk to you about it."

"She did, actually," Jeremy confirmed. "I told her that I have finals this week and that Anna can't really get that much time off from work right now but that, if she wants to, she can come up here next week. I'll be done with my finals by then and we're not going down to Durham until next Thursday."

"Good, she really wants to see you."

"I kinda got that impression too," he replied. "And I'm dying to see her, and Maddy, of course. But, I was thinking …"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe you and Damon could come along?" he suggested. "As a sort of buffer, I don't know. I think things might be a little awkward if it's just us, you know."

"I'm not sure that having Damon around will help much with the awkwardness," Elena objected, and Jeremy laughed.

"Yeah, Jenna told me about the little 'show and tell' last night," he said. "I can't believe Damon did that, no wonder Jenna freaked out the way she did, anyone would have. I'm actually surprised that she calmed down as quickly as she did after that."

"I know, and so am I, to be honest." Elena shook her head, a little amused now that she had gotten over the initial shock. "But it did get our point across. She was really refusing to believe anything I told her up until that point."

"That's true," Jeremy admitted. "Anyway, I know I would feel a lot better if you would come too, and I think that Jenna would appreciate it if you were there, even if she wouldn't ask for it."

Elena considered the idea for a moment. It would be nice to have something to occupy her mind after her finals were done. She knew that, if she just hung around the apartment, she would start obsessing over having gotten something wrong and, eventually, convince herself that she was going to fail everything, and she really wasn't in the mood for a full blown panic attack right now. A trip to New York might be just what she needed. "How about this? I'll talk to Jenna, see how she feels about us tagging along, and then I'll get back to you? If she's OK with it, we'd love to come."

"Great, thank you!"

She laughed. "No problem. And now I'm going to go. I'm sure you have something you need to go through for tomorrow, and I'm going to head home and try to not think about the exams I did today." She had gotten to their apartment building by now and paused outside the entrance to finish the phone call. The weather was still very nice for May, and she wanted to enjoy the sun for a little while longer.

"No obsessing!" Jeremy told her sternly. "I know how you get after exams and there's no point in going over every answer again, you know that. What's done is done, just let it go and be happy that it's over."

"I know, and I do try," she defended herself. "It's just … no, I'm not gonna go there."

"Good, keep that up. I'll talk to you soon and, maybe, see you this weekend. If not, we'll be there next Thursday, in plenty of time for the graduation ceremony."

"That sounds good. Bye, Jere."

"Bye, sis."

Elena hung up the phone and entered the building, quickly climbing the stairs while she rummaged around her bag for her keys. "I'm home!" she called out as she closed the door behind her. She knew that Damon would hear it the moment she put the key in the lock, maybe even when she came up the stairs, but it was a habit.

"One day down, five to go," he said, appearing in the doorway to the living room.

Elena groaned. "Don't say it like that, you make it sound like it's ages away!" she complained.

"OK, so how about 'only five days left of your four year college education'?" he suggested instead.

"That's more like it!" She laughed as she made to pass him into the living room, but he caught her by the waist and pulled her closer.

"I don't get a hello kiss?" he asked in a disappointed voice. "We haven't gotten into the old-married-couple rut already, have we?"

He didn't give her the chance to reply, but covered her lips with his in a kiss that was as far from old-married-couple-y as it could possibly get. Even if she had wanted to, Elena wouldn't have been able to resist – and she definitely didn't want to – so she just gave in, returning the kiss and wrapping her arms around his neck.

When he finally pulled away from her, they were both breathing hard. "That was some hello," she noted.

"Happy to be of service," he replied with a wink, and she laughed.

"And I don't think we're in any danger of slipping into a rut," she continued.

"Nah, probably not," he agreed. "Now, if I ask you how the exam went, will you promise to not go into a question-by-question, so detailed I'll be sorry I asked in the first place, bore me out of my mind recap?"

She rolled her eyes at his choice of words and finally succeeded in making it to the couch where she slumped down in a half-lying position, putting her feet up on the table, and let out a long breath.

"I think it went OK," she told him when he had sat down next to her. "I know that there were a couple of things that I missed on the first one, and at least one question that I got wrong on the second one, but overall it felt pretty good. I'm sure I passed both of them, anyway, and I'm going to try very hard not to overanalyze it."

He gave her an incredulous look, eyebrows raised. "I'm sure that'll go just super." There was no mistaking the sarcasm in his voice and she stuck her tongue out at him. But, of course, he was right. He knew her just as well as Jeremy, if not even better.

"Well, the good thing is that I have more finals to worry about, so I honestly don't think I'll start obsessing over the ones I've done until I'm finished with all of them," she thought out loud. "And I have a solution for that too."

"Do tell."

"I talked to Jeremy on the way home …"

"Why am I not surprised?" he interrupted her, rolling his eyes. "No, scratch that, I am surprised – that you managed to wait that long to call him. I honestly expected to wake up in the middle of the night to find that you had snuck out of bed to talk to him."

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him an annoyed look. "Can I continue, or are you going to keep interrupting me?" He pretended to lock his lips with an invisible key that he then threw over his shoulder. "So, anyway, Jenna's going up to New York to see him next week, after he's done with his finals, and he asked if we would mind going with her. He thinks things'll be awkward if it's just the two of them, and I'm kinda with him on that one. Plus, like I said, it'll help keep my mind off things until graduation."

Damon looked at her for a moment, a slightly skeptical expression on his face. "I don't know," he then said. "Are you sure having me around will make Jenna less uncomfortable?"

"Not completely," Elena admitted. "But I'm going to talk to her about it first, make sure that she's OK with it."

He nodded. "Well, if she is OK with it then, sure, we can go with her."

She reached out to squeeze his hand gratefully. "Thank you."

"No problem," he waved it off. "But there are other ways of keeping you from thinking about your exams, you know."

She could tell, from his tone of voice, where he was going, but pretended not to understand. "Really? Like what?" she asked innocently.

A smile, halfway between seductive and predatory, spread on his face as he traced the contours of her lips with one finger. "Oh, I'm very good at distractions."

She had to swallow once to be able to answer; she knew very well just how good he was at distracting her. "So that's what that was before?"

He leaned in closer, pressing a kiss to the skin just below her ear. "Maybe," he mumbled, his breath tingling her skin. Then his tongue trailed along the edge of her earlobe, and she really had to focus to be able to think straight.

"I think you might have to … show me."

Sure enough, her finals didn't cross her mind even once during the rest of the day.

The following Sunday, Damon and Elena left Durham at seven in the morning, since the drive to New York via Mystic Falls would take over nine hours. Jenna had been thrilled when Elena had offered to go with her and Maddy to see Jeremy. She had also claimed that she didn't have a problem with Damon coming along on their trip and when Elena had pushed the subject a little she had said that it would be good practice, being around him for eight hours in a car. She didn't want to be nervous when she saw Jeremy, and surviving an eight hour drive with a vampire should convince her that they could control themselves. Elena was glad, since this showed that Jenna trusted Damon, at least to a certain extent. She hoped that after the five days they would spend together Jenna would have gotten over the last of her doubts.

Jeremy had offered to let them stay at his and Anna's place, but it wasn't really big enough to accommodate five adults and one child and, even though she hadn't admitted it, Elena didn't think that Jenna was all that comfortable having Maddy sleep in an apartment with three vampires. As for Elena, she wasn't all that keen on staying with her brother and his girlfriend either – she and Damon never did when they went to New York – since vampires had annoyingly good hearing … When it had been decided that they were going to stay at a hotel, Damon had insisted on picking up the tab for the trip and had made reservations for them at the Four Seasons.

"Is this some kind of attempted bribe?" Elena had asked when Damon had made their reservations; there was really no reason to stay at such an expensive hotel.

"Maybe I'm feeling a little nostalgic," he had replied, winking at her, and she had remembered their first trip to New York, almost five years ago. It hadn't occurred to her when he had suggested the Four Seasons, but they had stayed there back then too. How could she have forgotten that?

"Really?"

"I even got us the same room."

So the butterflies that were occupying Elena's stomach when they left Durham only partially had their origin in Jenna and Jeremy's impending meeting; part of her was very excited to be going back to New York, back to the very hotel room where everything – her life, really – had started years ago.

When they had left Durham behind and were on the highway, heading for Mystic Falls, Elena scooted over in her seat so that she could lean her head against Damon's shoulder.

"Tired?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her.

"A little," she replied. She had been so worked up after her last final the night before that she hadn't fallen asleep until closer to one thirty in the morning, and they had gotten up at six. "Thank you."

"For what? Dragging you out of bed at an ungodly hour?"

She ignored his sarcastic remark. "Just … everything. Putting up with me these past couple of weeks, with the studying and the finals. The thing with Jenna, I know that you didn't have to put yourself through that and that you did it for me, and it means a lot. And now, with this trip. I know I probably don't say it often enough, but I really appreciate everything you do for me and all the sacrifices you make. Your life would probably be a whole lot simpler without me in it."

"But not nearly as good," he countered. "Trust me, I lived for a century and a half without you, it's not that much fun at all. I mean, sure, not having to take anyone else into consideration and only worrying about yourself is easier but … I don't know, I definitely wouldn't go back. And you and Jenna and Jeremy are a package deal, I've always known that. It's not a matter of putting up with anything, really, and I haven't sacrificed anything to be with you, at least nothing I wasn't willing to give up. Isn't that what the whole relationship thing is about, compromises? I mean, if anyone's had to sacrifice anything in this relationship, it's you."

For a moment, Elena didn't say anything, marveling at the … mature way in which he talked about it. Back when she had first met Damon, she wouldn't have believed it if someone had told her that, one day, he would choose this life over his old one. The first few months after they had gotten together, she had doubted that he would be able to leave behind everything that had been his life, his entire existence, for so long, but he had never given her any reason to think like that, it had all been her own insecurities.

"Thank you for making compromises, then," she said. "And, just like you said, I haven't given up anything that I wasn't willing to. Plus, I'm getting so much more in return."

"What, eternal life and youth? I knew you were only using me for that!"

She didn't even acknowledge his joke. "Well, yeah, that too, but … mostly just you. Forever and ever and ever."

"And then some."

"Exactly." She closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath and just enjoying the moment.

"And you're not worried that you'll get bored with me after a few centuries?" he wondered, trying to sound like he was still joking. But Elena could hear the hint of doubt in his voice.

"Aren't you worried that you'll get bored with me after a few centuries?" she countered. It really was something she worried about from time to time, that he'd get tired of her after a few decades, or centuries.

"Never."

Hearing him say that made her heart leap. "See?"

Jenna and Maddy were ready to go when they got to Mystic Falls and the four of them soon continued on their way north. A little after one in the afternoon, they stopped for lunch at a diner outside Baltimore. When both Elena and Damon had finished, Jenna was still trying to get Maddy to eat, her own food untouched on the plate in front of her.

"Why don't I do that?" Elena suggested, holding her hand out for the fork. "You finish your own food."

"Thanks," Jenna said gratefully, handing over the fork. "I'm used to not getting to eat my food while it's hot, but usually we have the whole day at our disposal: now we're on a schedule."

"Not a problem." Elena scooped up some mashed potatoes on the fork and Maddy obediently opened her mouth.

"Now why doesn't she do that when I'm feeding her?" Jenna complained after swallowing the first bite of her pasta. "It's discrimination!"

"Because I'm your favorite aunt, right Maddy?" Elena said with a smile, and Maddy banged her little hands against the table, mouth open wide for the next bite.

Jenna just shook her head. "Traitor."

It only worked for a little while, though, then a large German shepherd passing by outside the window caught Maddy's attention. "Puppy!" she exclaimed, pointing at the dog.

"I don't think that's a puppy," Elena corrected her. "It's a dog, can you say dog?"

"Dog! Woof woof!"

"That's right, the dog says 'woof'," Elena agreed, holding up another forkful of food, but Maddy shook her head, mouth tightly shut.

"She's probably full," Jenna concluded after checking how much food was left on the plate. "I have some snacks that I can give her in the car if she gets hungry on the way."

"So do you wanna go in the car again?" Elena asked Maddy. "Do you like riding in the car?"

"Unca Dem bi ca!"

"Yes, Uncle Damon has a big car," Jenna translated.

"Maddy go ca aaaah taj."

Jenna laughed. "You wanna go in the car all the time?"

"Wiw Doa."

"Dora's her doll," Jenna explained. "From Dora the Explorer … I think."

Damon was watching her and Maddy with an incredulous look on his face. "How the he … heck do you understand what she's saying?" he asked. "I didn't even hear my own name in there."

"It takes a lot of practice," Jenna replied, cleaning Maddy's face with a wet wipe before pulling her bib off. "And some guesswork. But I don't understand everything, far from it. Luckily, she doesn't need much encouragement; all you have to do is smile and nod if you don't understand her. She gets really mad if you ask what she means, though. Rick does that sometimes and she gets absolutely furious." As if to demonstrate, Maddy started babbling and Jenna smiled and nodded before glancing at Damon. "Not a clue."

"Heck!" Maddy exclaimed, pointing at Damon and laughing.

"Good thing I censored myself at the last minute," he noted, shaking his head. "She's like a sponge, picks up everything."

"Tell me about it." Jenna rolled her eyes. "I said the S-word once a couple of weeks ago, and it was all she would say for days. A little hard to explain to the people at the daycare center, let me tell you."

Elena laughed. "Doesn't she pick up words from the kids there?"

"She does. One day, she kept going on about 'Millie' this and 'Millie' that, and I had no idea what she was talking about, since we don't know anyone by that name and there's no kid at daycare called that either. Turned out one of the kids had gotten a kitten that was called Millie. Took us days to figure that out. OK, I'm done, let's get going!"

They were soon on the road again and, after a few bathroom breaks, they spotted the New York skyline in the distance a little before five in the afternoon.

"God, I haven't been here in ages," Jenna said. "I've missed it, the big city life. Chinese food in the middle of the night, Gorilla Coffee, CBGB's, lazy Sundays in Central Park."

"You've been to CBGB's?" Damon wondered, meeting Jenna's eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Of course!" she exclaimed incredulously. "There's no way around CBGB's when you live in New York, especially if you're dating a guitarist."

"I was there when it opened," he told her. "And several times after that. The Ramones, Blondie, Velvet Underground, Joan Jett and the Runaways. Great club."

"I know," Jenna agreed. "I can't believe it closed down."

"Yeah, that sucked. But, on the plus side, the John Varvatos store that's in the building now has kept a lot of the old décor intact. It's almost like being in the actual club, and the clothes are a nice bonus. When did you live in the city?"

"After I left Mystic Falls," Jenna replied. "Or 'fled', if you want to be picky about it. I was sick of the small-town life, everyone knowing absolutely everything about everyone else, and New York is pretty much as big as it gets, so it felt like exactly what I needed. I loved living here, I really did. It was right for me at that point in my life. But, turns out, I'm a small-town girl at heart. I couldn't imagine living here now, especially not with Maddy."

"Yeah, I can see your point."

"Have you lived here?" Jenna asked, sounding curious.

Damon nodded. "A couple of times over the years. The first time was right after the turn of the century … the last one, that is. Then again in the forties and the seventies, which was when CBGB's opened, in 1973. I've been back a lot since then, of course, whenever I've had the chance."

"You must have so many memories," Jenna mused out loud. "I mean, I think I've done a lot of things in my time, and you've been alive for … a hundred and forty years longer than I have."

Damon laughed. "Yeah, the memories do pile up."

"What's your best memory?"

Damon gave Elena a long look before replying. "The last five years."

Jenna laughed in the back seat. "OK, that's a little cheesy, but I'll buy it."

AN: OK, a bit of a time jump in this chapter, I know. I just wanted to get on with the fun stuff, the things that will move the plot forward, so I decided to do just that! The conversation with Maddy at the diner was inspired by real life: I have two friends with small children right now, and it's fascinating to watch them when they're just starting to speak – I understand absolutely nothing, but their mom gets everything. And I didn't just put it in there because I felt like it: there will be a follow up in the next chapter … And some interaction between Jenna and Damon: I decided to give them some common ground so that they would be able to bond a little. Since we haven't found out where Jenna went after she left Mystic Falls when Logan dumped her (at least I don't think so, and my beta doesn't remember it being mentioned on the show either – if it has, I hope you'll be able to look past it) I decided to let her have lived in New York. Then CBGB's was pretty much a given, and it was a funny coincidence that it had been turned into a John Varvatos store, since Damon's supposed to like his clothes, so I decided to put that in the chapter too. OK, now I'm done. Let me know what you thought about the chapter!