DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything that you recognise. All rights go to the CW, and the amazing L. J. Smith, and all others who contributed to the creation of this brilliant saga. Please, oh please, do not sue me.

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Emma's POV.

"Em. Leave a message. I'm clearly too busy to deal with you at the moment. I'm sure I'll come to your rescue if necessary but to be honest, it might provide a well earned break—"

BEEP.

I hung up my phone, a little violently, beeping out the rest of Damon's annoyingly careless answering machine.

He's going to hell.

He's the scum of the earth.

He's the worst guardian ever.

"I want emancipation." I declared dramatically to the empty library. "I want out. I don't need him. He certainly doesn't need me. He's just one big pratt."

They deserved each other.

Honestly, I wasn't even trying to hide my bitterness. Damon. MY Damon was dating Caroline Forbes. Caroline Forbes being the shallow, selfish, bimbo blonde who had both introduced me to my new life and ruined it in the course of two weeks.

He's going to hell.

The answering machine message was specifically for me, since I was the only one who had his phone number. He had more than one phone, I was sure of it, but the sleek expensive blackberry that he purchased when I started high school had become the 'Emma' phone. It was the only number of his I had, and I could only call it if I needed his express help.

In this case, I didn't need his help.

I needed to kick his ass.

Since he wasn't picking up the 'Emma' phone, however, I decided the next best thing to venting to Damon about Damon, was venting to Cameron about Damon.

He's dating a girl in my damn class. She's MY age. E.

I had sent my furious text message to Cameron only minutes ago, but already my brilliantly loyal best friend—who had been proven right in all his opinions of my creep of a guardian—had texted back.

What a slut.

Cameron always knew how to make me feel better.

Now, granted, it was rather childish of me to be so angry with Damon for dating Caroline. Well, actually, it was true jealousy and I knew it. Cameron probably knew it. But my argument that I was so angry with Damon because Caroline was my age was just pure hypocrisy.

I meant really, though—the nerve of Caroline to walk right up to me and threaten me to stay away from my Damon. Not that she would be facing much resistance. After finding out just who his little lady friend was, I had no urge to go and see him. I would be staying as far from Damon as was possible.

"Are you alright?"

In my own personal bubble of fury, I didn't even notice that someone had pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down. So I jumped, when I heard Stefen Salvatore's voice.

"Wow." I exclaimed, slowing my suddenly beating heart. "You came out of nowhere."

Stefen smiled slightly. "I apologise," he told me quietly.

I liked Stefen, I concluded in my head. He was quieter, and subtler than his arrogant ass of a brother—and I could work with that. Also, he wasn't dating an eleven year old, which would have been the equivalent of the age difference between Damon and Caroline.

The hypocrisy bells continued to ring in my subconscious.

I ignored them.

"Don't worry," I brushed off his apology. "I should have payed attention." I tried not to let my confusion as to why Stefen Salvatore was sitting opposite me show on my face, as I braced my hands on the table. "What can I do for you?"

Stefen smiled sweetly at me. I noticed, in my peripheral vision, that Elena and her friend Bonnie were standing a little way off, whispering to each other while they watched Stefen talk to me.

I attempted to ignore them.

"I was wondering how you know my brother?"

Ahh. Well.

I was very unsure of how to approach that question.

Damon had very clearly told me that he didn't want Stefen getting mixed up in the mess that was Damon and I. And, to be honest, if what Damon had said about Stefen was true, then I wasn't sure I wanted him getting mixed up in it either. Then again, Damon was dating Caroline Forbes, so I pretty much hated him right now.

In the end, my bitterness got the better of me and I leaned into the table.

"Uhm, I'm pretty sure that Damon doesn't want me talking to you." I told him simply.

Stefen didn't really react in the way I thought he would. He chuckled slightly, shook his head and looked down at his folded hands on top of the table.

"Of course he doesn't…" he said, resigned. He looked back up at me, curiously. "You're not going to tell me are you?" He asked.

I sighed. "I've found over the years that it's usually better to go with what Damon asks me to do." I sighed. "And even if I happen to be super pissed at him, right now, I would feel like a bit of a traitor if I chatted to you about his dirty laundry out of spite."

I shrugged, reaching for my books that I had piled up on, and stood. "Sorry I can't help," I apologised, even if I didn't know exactly what I was sorry for, or what I was supposed to be helping with.

Stefen went with it, though.

"No problem." He said, standing as well.

I smiled one last time at him, a little awkwardly, before turning to make my way from the library. Stefen's voice halted me.

"Oh, Emma—it's Emma right?"

I refused to be put down by the way he didn't know my name, and just nodded. "Yeah, it's Emma."

Stefen looked apologetic, and I predicated that he might try to apologise again, so I held up a hand before he could.

"Don't worry about it," I smiled grimly. "What did you want?"

"Just…" he hesitated, "…stay away from Damon, alright? He's a bit…" he faltered here, then inhaled sharply. "Just stay away."

I felt a momentary pang of anger at being told to stay away from Damon, before I remember what Damon had said about his brotherly relationship with Stefen. I blew it off, and nodded with a slight smile.

"You don't have to worry about that," I assured him. "As far as I'm concerned, Damon's currently a self-absorbed pig." I smiled at him, before turning on my heel and walking out of the library, avoiding Elena's eye as I walked past her.

xXxXx

The Salvatore Boarding House,

"Have you sorted out a plan yet?" Zach Salvatore asked his uncle nervously. It was dangerous, he knew, to be talking about something so secretive in the place that Damon lived, but they honestly didn't have anywhere else to discuss it.

Stefen nodded.

"I have. I know exactly how I'm going to get the vervain into his system, unless we get lucky and we strike gold with the scotch."

They weren't going to get lucky with the scotch. Stefen already knew that much.

But it was probably better for Zach's health and strained mentality to think that sedating Damon wasn't nearly as difficult as it was in reality.

He too was looking nervously around the mansion. His senses were stretched out, waiting for any sign that Damon had returned home early. There was a boundary from which Damon would be able to hear them talking. Stefen waited warily for any sign of movement at that boundary, ready to shut Zach up with a single motion.

"What about… the other thing? Did you figure out who the girl is?"

Stefen nodded, finally deciding it was safe enough for him to talk without Damon being in hearing distance.

"I did."

Zach looked impatient, as Stefen didn't expand further. "Well?" He snapped. "He's controlling her? Why is he controlling her?"

Stefen didn't quite know how to put it. He wasn't even sure he really knew himself.

He knew that Damon knew her. They had some sort of relationship, enough for her to be angry with him and not be worried about the consequences. He had seen that much when she had jumped into his car after he had dropped Caroline off at practice. Elena had her suspicious too—Caroline was one of her close friends, and to the normal eye the relationship between Damon and this girl seemed to be something more than platonic.

But Damon already had Caroline. Where was the necessity in having two girls on the inside?

Stefen also knew that Emma Hamilton hadn't responded at all to his compulsion. Granted, it wasn't as strong as Damon's—but it usually had some effect, even if it weren't successful. The came out dazed, but remained true to Damon's compulsion.

If Emma had been compelled to stay with Damon then she would have been angry, or offended even, for him to suggest that she stay away from him. Emma hadn't even flinched. Instead, she had raised a sarcastic brow and acquiesced to his request.

"That's the thing, Zach," Stefen said to his nephew, cryptically. "I don't think he's compelling her."

Zach looked confused, and honestly, Stefen didn't blame him.

The only way that a human could resist a vampire's compulsion was vervain. As far as Stefen knew, there were no outstanding old families by the name of Hamilton, so there was no way a family member was giving it to her to ingest.

But Damon was against vervain. To the point of attempting to eradicate its existence wholly in the Mystic Falls area. If he was aware of someone with vervain in their body, he would kill them.

So it was fair enough to believe that Damon didn't know.

Which would mean that Damon had never drank from Emma Hamilton.

Which would mean that Damon was with Emma Hamilton for a completely new reason, that Stefen had no idea about.

Which meant that Emma Hamilton was certainly more dangerous than she seemed.

xXxXx

So, as I have had some requests to show you guys the other POVs of other character, I thought it would be interesting for you guys to see what Stefen is thinking of Emma and of Damon at this point. Also, I like writing Stefen—because he's amazingly complex and it's interesting to delve into his broody, angsty, devilishly hot character.

Thoughts? Emma and Damon: is Emma too complicated for her own good? Is her crush on Damon a little disturbing? Stefen: was he in character, did he react well enough to Emma. Emma: is she too much of a Mary-sue for you guys to deal with? Is she too selfish? Is the vervain thing running too thin?

Be not worried, Lachlan will make another appearance soon, as well as more Damon—he's been unfortunately absent for the last while hasn't he?

Please review and give me your thoughts.

G