OBVIOUSLY: I do not own "the Vampire Diaries," or any of the characters. But damn it, if they needed me to take over, I'd be ready.
Hello, darlings. I'm back in the States and loving my new desktop which is all the more reason for me to write write write (right?). So, while it took me a while to get the ball rolling on this chapter, once I started it took me about two days to bang it out. I'm quite pleased. I hope you guys are too. I don't know about you guys, but I've been watching "Pretty Little Liars," from the producers of TVD, and while nothing could ever fill the gap that TVD leaves when it's on a break... PLL is definitely addictive. I may have to write a one-shot or two for that show. ANYWAY. I know you all were very mature about dealing with Befan last chapter, so here comes some Delena lovin'. And let me say (if I may), ¡qué calor! Enjoy!
Drum roll, please. Let's fire this bad boy up.
The sun's glow was still quite soft when it came through Elena's bedroom window early that morning. All was still in the room... in the house. Just the soft, slow rise and fall of stomachs and chests as those in the house slept.
It had been about a week since the funeral—since Bonnie had gone to stay with her mother at her aunt's house. Stefan had gone with her. Bonnie told Elena that the last time the girls had talked, but that was the day after the funeral. They hadn't spoken since. And Stefan hadn't contacted Elena, Damon, or anyone else in Mystic Falls. "He's hurting," Bonnie had said to Elena.
"I know," Elena had agreed. Now Elena wished that Bonnie and she had been keeping in touch more, but she knew that it wasn't easy for Bonnie to steal away and talk to her. She'd be coming back eventually. The truth was, Elena had no idea when she's see Bonnie again. And she wasn't sure that she'd ever see Stefan again. She tried to push it out of her mind, which wasn't particularly difficult with Damon around.
When her alarm went off that morning, Elena rolled over in bed in the best possible way—onto Damon. It had become a habit that he'd come to stay with her each night. Neither of them could bare waking up apart anymore. "Morning," she mumbled as she nuzzled against his neck.
He wrapped his arms around her. "Morning," he echoed as a smile came to him.
They lay there wrapped up in each other for about ten minutes, rubbing noses and kissing. It was never the kind of activity that Damon would have wanted to partake in, but with Elena, it seemed necessary. He had rediscovered the appeal of sentimentality with her. She'd gotten in the habit of setting her alarm a bit earlier—before Jenna or Jeremy woke up—so that they'd have the time to appreciate each morning.
Finally, she sighed, "Time for school." She climbed out of bed after a moment of playful struggling to break Damon's embrace.
He lounged in bed and watched her as she wandered around her room piecing together an outfit. She set a pair of jeans on her bed, and on top of those, a black v-neck tee-shirt. "Think you might be a little cold?" Damon asked playfully.
"Thanks, Mom," she kidded back to him, though the name felt awkward in her mouth. "I'll have my jacket. I have to shower," she said as she walked toward the bathroom. He cocked an eyebrow at her when she looked back over her shoulder at him. "Care to join me?" she asked with a twisted little smile.
Damon sprung up immediately—in more ways than one—and followed her to the bathroom. "Do you have to ask?" he replied. "So, the black v-neck, eh?" he joked. "I must be rubbing off on you. In more way than one," he added with a classic Damon smirk.
"Ha-ha," she teased back at him before kissing him lightly on the lips. "We have to be quick though. I do have to get to school," she insisted.
He pouted as she turned on the water, but it became a smile within moments. As the water heated up, he cradled her in his arms and pressed his mouth onto hers, prodding her tongue with his and fingering her dark hair. Their tongues danced for a few minutes, lightly at first, then with a more frantic thirst as Elena dipped her hand beneath the shower's stream. It was hotter than she'd expected and it caught her somewhat off-guard.
"Shit," she reacted as she pulled back. Instinctively, she brought the red tip of her index finger to her mouth and sucked.
Damon shook his head. "Allow me," he said as he reached for her wrist. He pulled her fingers to his lips and kissed the rosy, scalded fingertip. Elena stared at his mouth, fascinated, as he gently wrapped it around her finger. His tongue tickled her as it swirled over her flesh and she found herself completely entranced by the whole display. Finally he pulled her finger out again and kissed it delicately before asking, "Better?" She nodded.
He reached into the shower to test the temperature and toyed with the faucet. "How's that?" he asked. Hesitantly, she felt the spray with her other hand.
"Perfect," she answered. "You can feel how hot it is?" she asked, feeling like an idiot as she heard the words out loud.
He raised his eyebrows. "You're really asking me if I can feel?" he said with a laugh.
She shook her head, slightly embarrassed. "Stupid question."
They stepped into the shower. "I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but most feelings hit me the same way they hit you. I'm just as sensitive as any other guy," he explained. "For example," he said with a grin, and then he pulled her wrist slowly toward his groin. He placed her hand on his length, rock-hard by now, and shivered slightly at her touch. "Did you feel that?"
She barely nodded, the feeling of his smooth cock beneath her hand leaving somewhat incapacitated. "You shuddered," she whispered. He nodded and stepped toward her, closing the space between them as the hot water poured over their bodies.
Damon couldn't bring himself to even think about the fact that Elena had to be at school in an hour. He took a deep breath beside her ear that made her whole body tingle. "I love your hands," he muttered. "Keep touching me." It was intended to be an instruction, but it came out sounding more like a plea. He was at her mercy—a state in which he was finding himself more often than he would admit with her.
She slid her hand down slowly and he closed his eyes in ecstasy. Her fingers brushed past his balls and his breath hitched. He was still anticipating a dominant touch, but she was teasing him, merely tracing lines up and down his length and along his inner-thighs. He bit his lip and his body shuddered once again. "Elena," he whispered. She felt her name on the shell of her ear and it seemed to resound throughout her entire body, quickly followed by the silent echo of, "Please."
Neither of them had any concept of time by that point—or, if they had, they certainly didn't care about it—and Elena wrapped her hand around Damon's cock forcefully. He pressed his face into her neck and groaned. At once she felt the familiar sense of pride in having control, though she had to stop and regain control over herself. She gathered her composure and began to pump her hand slowly. She couldn't do much since the water was proving to be a terrible lubricant, but he didn't seem to mind. He pressed his mouth against her skin to muffle his moaning as she worked his shaft. Damon continued to repeat her name; it was barely a whisper, but she knew it. It made her a little bit cocky as she tightened her grip just enough to push him to the point of total surrender. He reacted as expected.
Damon wrapped his arm around her and held on to the back of her neck, pulling her lips to his but lacking the proper concentration to actually kiss them. He merely let their mouths linger beside each other, just touching. His other hand shadowed hers, resting on her wrist as she pumped a little faster.
"Do you like this?" she asked, using the sexiest whisper she could muster up. He nodded his head, which was still nestled beside hers. Her body hummed. She brought her free hand to the base of his shaft and cradled his balls. He groaned a little more loudly. "How about this?" she asked, whispering right into his ear.
This time his answer was audible. "Uh-huh," he grunted.
But she pretended not to hear. "Do you like it?" she asked again as she squeezed his balls lightly.
"God," he managed to eke out, though he might have preferred some witty retort, "yes." She smiled at the bare, honest response.
"How much?" she asked, this time as though it were a challenge. He couldn't answer at first; he just chanted her name a bit. She cleared her throat as she let go of him. For a moment he was completely lost, but only until she pressed his back against the shower wall. She grabbed his balls once again and then thrust herself against him, pressing her belly against his eager hard-on. "How much?" she repeated with a more severe tone.
He was aching for her. He clenched his teeth and snarled, "Fuck, Elena. So much."
She brought her mouth to his ear and sucked on the lobe gently before whispering, "I'm going to make you come." His jaw would have dropped if he hadn't been gritting his teeth so adamantly. "Would you like that?" she teased even more seductively than before.
He nodded furiously. "Yes."
She smiled, completely unashamed by now of talking this way. No, she couldn't be ashamed in front of Damon. She wanted to bare all to him. There was nothing she couldn't do or say to him. "Good," she continued. "And you're going to let me know how you want me to do it, Damon."
The way she was talking to him was getting him off nearly as much as her hold on him. "Elena," he groaned.
"You've gotta want it, baby," she insisted. For a moment, he opened his eyes and caught her gaze. Her big, chestnut eyes were gleaming with something so characteristically Elena. They sparkled with vivacious humanity and in that brief moment Damon truly realized how very different from Katherine this girl was, and in that brief moment Damon realized how much more Elena meant than Katherine ever had.
He needed her so badly. "Oh, Elena," he panted. She nodded her approval at him. "Suck," he pleaded, only able to manage one word at a time. "Please," he begged with a hint of desperation in his voice.
She smiled as she looked at him; he was practically helpless. It reminded her of their first night together, of how he'd laid everything out on the table, unashamed and honest. She couldn't help but comply. Elena dropped to her knees and swallowed his length. It was all Damon could do not to scream her name as she gulped down on him.
Elena felt his whole body quiver each time her mouth went down and she knew that he wasn't far. She released him just for a moment and took him into her hand again as she gazed up at him with big, round eyes and asked, "How's this?" with more feigned innocence than he could bare. He nearly laughed.
"You're… kidding…" he gasped as she wrapped her mouth around him again. God, he loved this girl. He pulled himself out of her mouth and she gave him a curious stare. He lowered himself, careful not to move too fast since he would probably have lost his footing, to sit on the floor of the tub beside her. It was a moderately sized bathtub; there was just enough room for the two of them. He lay back and pulled her on top of him, kissing her desperately. "I want to come inside you," he told her as he took hold of her hips.
"Damon," she whispered as she let him guide her. He took his cock in his hand and found her opening, not giving her more than a moment before pulling her down onto him. She gasped as he entered her but she had clearly been just as turned on by her domineering performance as he had. He slid in effortlessly and she immediately began riding him determinedly. It only took seconds to bring her as close as he was. "Oh, Damon," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm… I'm…"
He nodded, egging her on. By now he was doing more work than she was—his strength was lifting her up and down at an incredible speed. "What, Elena?" he urged her to say the words.
She let her head fall beside his as his hands continued to bring her hips up and down. "Damon, I'm gonna… I'm coming," she whispered huskily into his ear.
He loved hearing her say it. "Come on, baby," he pushed her so she was sitting upright again and he could see her face. "I love watching your face when you come," he grunted. "You close your eyes but I always watch you," he added. She blushed, but it was fleeting. She knew what he wanted to hear.
She met his gaze with sultry eyes, still breathing heavily as he picked up the pace and bucked his hips against her. "I love…" she began, "the way you look when fuck me." He threw his head back and clenched his jaw. He bucked against her even harder and groaned as she spoke. He could hardly take the way she was talking. He'd heard so many women talk dirty before but coming from Elena the words were nearly as erotic as the actions. "…And right before you come inside me."
Their eyes locked. Neither of them even wanted to blink, they just stared each other down as they neared release. They struggled to keep quiet so that Jenna and Jeremy wouldn't hear them, but it wasn't easy. All at once, her body began contracting—tightening and shaking as he brought her down even harder yet. Her mouth hung open and her eyes grew wide, and he smiled at the sight. She came in waves until she finally went limp and collapsed onto his chest, but he wasn't done yet.
"Oh god," she muttered, the aftermath of her orgasm intensified by his continued thrusting. She closed her eyes, exhausted as the water sprayed onto her back and Damon pumped into her.
"Fuck!" he groaned a final time as he pushed up and froze, spilling his come inside of her. He held onto her tightly until his body relaxed and he let her lie on top of him, the water growing cooler now, though neither of them really cared.
"You're…" he began apprehensively, unsure of how to word the sentiment so it wouldn't make him sound like a pig. He wanted to say you're the only woman to whom I've ever been glad to turn over the control, but he figured she'd prefer to not be reminded of the many, many women who had come before her. He finally settled on, "I love handing the reins over to you." She cocked her head to the side questioningly. He whispered in her ear, "That never really happens to me. I love control. Don't get me wrong—I love being in charge with you," he smirked, "but I can't even explain what it does to me when you're in control."
She giggled and said, "I think I have an idea." She nipped at his shoulder and left another kiss on his lips before standing up to wash her hair. He stood up too and they lathered each other up playfully, helping each other to rinse every last trace of soap from their bodies.
Finally, they turned the shower off and Elena stepped out and began to dry off.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the bedroom door. "Elena?" Jenna called.
Elena put her finger to her lips and whispered a soft "shh" before answering. "Just a minute, Jenna. I'm just getting out of the shower."
"Can I come into your room?" she asked.
Damon looked at her and mouthed the words "my clothes." "No!" Elena called. "No, the bathroom door is open—just, hold on a sec."
She mouthed back to Damon. "Just stay here." She wrapped a towel around her head, put on her bathrobe, and walked into her room, closing the bathroom door behind her. She kicked Damon's jeans and shirt under her bed, giving the place a once-over before answering Jenna. "Okay, come in."
Jenna opened the door slowly. "Everybody decent?" she asked with her hand over her eyes. Elena was nervous at first—was Jenna joking, or had she heard? She took a subtle sigh of relief when Jenna brought her hand down and smiled a playful grin. "So… I was thinking you could go in late today… Maybe we could talk for a little while?"
Elena raised an eyebrow. "Must be pretty important if you're willing to let me skip school."
Jenna mulled the thought over. "Well, yes. It is important." Elena sat down on the window seat. Jenna settled herself on the bed while Elena silently prayed that she didn't smell Damon on the sheets, though she probably could have written it off as the lingering smell on Elena's clothes. But she stopped worrying when Jenna spoke again. "I did a little digging and found out what I could about your birth mother." Elena couldn't bring herself to respond. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to," Jenna reminded her.
Elena took a deep breath. "No," she said softly. "No, I want to."
Jenna nodded. "I snooped through the records at your dad's practice and found a file… A record from the night you were born. A girl named Isobel Peterson."
"How do you know that's even her real name?" Elena wondered.
"That's what I was thinking. A pregnant teenaged runaway… Probably wouldn't use her real name. So I plugged it into Google."
Elena continued to breathe deeply. "…And?"
Jenna smiled weakly. "I think I found her. I searched for Isobel Peterson, Grove Hill High School. And I found a Trudie Peterson… and… an Isobel Flemming."
Elena frowned slightly. The name… the one she'd been waiting for. It seemed to lack the impact she'd been expecting. "Isobel Flemming," she repeated, still disappointed by the absence of resolution. Damon, on the other hand, did not suffer such disappointment. The name sounded familiar when Jenna said it, and he worked it over in his mind, trying to pin an identity, a person to it. And just as Elena repeated it, he remembered. His jaw dropped and he sat down on the edge of the tub. He shook his head before letting it fall into his hands as he kept listening.
"Do you know where she is?" Elena asked.
Jenna shook her head. "But I found Trudie Peterson's address. Maybe you and Stefan—" she paused awkwardly. "Or… you and whoever… Could go visit her. She doesn't live too far."
Elena nodded. "Isobel Flemming," she said again, nearly under her breath. Still, it cut Damon like a knife. "I wonder—"
Jenna cut her off. "Elena…" she began. "I don't know anything for sure, but… Well, Alaric Saltzman, he was married to a woman named Isobel when he lived in Virginia."
Elena bit her lip. "Well, that's… slightly awkward."
Jenna's head fell a bit. "Alaric's wife died a few years ago."
Elena shut her eyes as though she wanted to shut out the world, to unheard what she'd just heard, to unlearn what might be the truth about her mother. Of course, Damon knew the truth. And he was worried that, to Elena, it might be even worse than the theory she'd just been told.
"Are you alright?" Jenna asked, walking to Elena and placing a hand on her shoulder.
Elena put on a brave face and a pseudo-convincing smile. "I'm fine," she nodded.
Jenna frowned. "Well, you don't have to hurry off to school. Just take your time. I'm sorry, Elena." Elena nodded again. Jenna handed her a folded piece of paper. "Who knows what the real story is though, right? Maybe Trudie can help you." Elena took it.
"Thank you, Jenna." Elena sat there as Jenna and Jeremy made their way out of the house, and Damon walked out of the bathroom. He didn't know what to say. He wanted to take her into his arms and carry her away to somewhere that all of this wouldn't matter. He reached under the bed and pulled out his clothes. He got dressed before sitting down beside her on the window seat and kissing her on the cheek. "I guess you heard everything," she said.
He nodded. "Are you going to talk to this Trudie person?" he asked, though he was silently screaming at himself to tell her the truth.
"I think I am," Elena replied. "Hopefully she'll be able to help me." They were silent for a moment and he put his arm around her. "Will you come?" she asked.
Just say it. Just tell her. Don't lie to this girl, he told himself. But it's not what he said. "Of course," he said.
A few hours later, Damon parked Elena's car across the street from Trudie Peterson's house. She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. "Aren't you coming?" she asked him.
"I don't know if it's such a great idea," he said.
"Why?" she inquired suspiciously.
"I don't know, I just don't. I didn't want you coming all the way out here alone but actually talking to her… don't you think it's something you should handle?"
"I guess," she agreed hesitantly. "Don't go far, okay?"
"Of course not," he assured her. "Just around the block a few times." He kissed her on the cheek and watched her walk up to the house and knock on the door.
He drove away before a blonde, meek woman answered it. "Can I help you?"
"Trudie Peterson?" Elena asked her. Trudie nodded. "You went to high school with Isobel Flemming?"
Trudie's eyes grew wide and then she smiled softly. "You're her daughter." Elena nodded. "Wow," she marveled at Elena. "I see it."
Elena was relieved. For once, she was being told she resembled someone other than Katherine. "I'm sorry I just showed up here, but I really didn't—"
Trudie shook her head. "Don't be sorry. I understand," she explained. While she was kind, she also seemed nervous. "I'm just making some tea," she said as she motioned into the house. "Would you like some?"
Elena nodded. "That would be great, thanks." Trudie backed into the house and Elena stepped inside. It was then that the woman seemed to relax a bit. Elena raised an eyebrow, but shook it off. Let's not jump to conclusions, she told herself.
"Have a seat," Trudie offered, pointing to what seemed to be the dining room table. Elena sat down and waited as Trudie wandered into the kitchen. She came back a few minutes later with two cups of tea. "It's hot," she warned.
"So," Elena said, stirring some honey into her tea. "You and Isobel are friends?"
Trudie smiled. "We were. In high school, we were inseparable—like sisters." She stood up and retrieved a yearbook from a shelf, and laid it open in front of them. "We told each other everything—well… almost everything. One thing I never could get out of her was, who your father was."
Elena nodded as she stared at pictures of a young Isobel Flemming in her cheerleader's uniform. "Where is she now?"
The woman shook her blonde head. "I don't know. After she left to have you, I never saw her again. She contacted me a few times, but I could never quite track her down. She was always good at keeping secrets. I was the only one who ever knew she was pregnant," she said softly. "At least, that's what she told me." They sat there rather uncomfortably for a minute. "You haven't tried your tea," Trudie commented nervously.
"I'm sorry," Elena said. She brought the cup up and inhaled. Trudie was fidgeting with her napkin and watching Elena's lips, and at that moment, Elena realized why she was so skittish. She sipped the tea. "That's an interesting taste," she noted. "What kind of tea is this?"
Trudie relaxed and glanced back at the photo album. "Just an old herbal remedy."
"Vervain?" Elena asked.
Trudie looked up uneasily again. "I'm sorry?" she asked with forced casualness.
Elena turned her head to the side. "You know, don't you?"
"It's getting late," Trudie said as she closed the yearbook and stood up from the table. "You should probably be getting home."
"Wait," Elena protested. "You know!"
Trudie shook her head. "I don't know anything. Please, just… just leave me alone. I don't know…" She walked Elena to the front door hurriedly and glanced outside. She saw no car and turned to Elena. "How did you get here?"
Elena looked down the street and saw her car cruising slowly down the road. She pointed. "I got a ride from my boyfriend."
Trudie grew pale. "You brought someone else to this house?"
Elena was confused. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to come alone."
Damon parked in front of Trudie's house and stepped out of the car. Trudie seemed to stumble backward. "Is he—" she hesitated. "Who is he?"
Elena tried to calm her down. "He's just my boyfriend; his name is Damon. He's not going to do anything; I promise," she insisted.
But the woman's face remained white. "Just go. Please!" She practically pushed Elena out of the house and closed the door behind her. Damon and Elena heard several locks and a deadbolt.
Damon was worried. "What happened in there?"
Elena shook her head. "I'm not really sure. But she knows," she said.
Damon froze. "She knows about what?"
"She fed me vervain tea and made a point to not explicitly invite me in. Do you think Isobel has something to do with it?"
"I don't know," Damon lied and hated himself for it, but how could he bring himself to tell her the truth when it would break her heart?
Elena glanced over her shoulder to see a strange, troubling man standing in the street a few houses away from them. "Look," she said to Damon.
He nodded. "Yeah, he's been wandering around for a while. I don't think we need to start anything with him. Let's head back, okay?"
Elena nodded.
The ride back was mostly silent. When Damon pulled the car into the driveway of the boarding house, Elena spoke. "You're not taking me home?"
Damon sighed. "I have to talk to you about some things."
She furrowed her brow nervously. "What kind of things?"
He parked the car. "Let's go inside."
She followed him inside and up to his bedroom and he invited her to come sit with him on the bed. As soon as they'd sat down, she asked again. "What do we need to talk about?"
"I haven't been honest with you, Elena," he confessed. He looked into her eyes. "I knew about Bonnie and Stefan." Her eyes widened. "But wait—I only knew for a day or two and the only reason I didn't tell you is because I knew that they needed to. I talked to Bonnie at the wake when I went upstairs and I told her that she needed to come clean. I didn't want you feeling so guilty about hurting Stefan. I'm sorry."
She nodded and rested her hand on his cheek. "It's okay, Damon. You didn't do anything wrong." She sighed. "I miss them, though."
He looked down. "I'm not finished yet."
"What else?" she asked tentatively.
"It's about Isobel."
Elena frowned. She knew that whatever was coming was going to hurt. "What about her, Damon?"
He held onto her hand tightly. "A few years ago, this woman found me. She was so intrigued by vampires; she'd been researching them relentlessly for years. There was just something about her…" he trailed off. This was going to be worse than he'd thought. "You know what I am, Elena. Please try and understand this knowing what I am." She nodded. "People have wanted me to turn them before, but it's not something I do constantly, Elena. Do you understand?"
She nodded again but he could tell there was little faith in it. "I mean it. I don't know how I'd do things if I could go back, but I was trying to help Vicki. I was lost; you know that. And this woman, she came to me, and normally I wouldn't have taken her very seriously. But there was just… She had something. I don't know."
Elena's throat was dry, but she spoke. "You turned Isobel," she whispered hoarsely. It sounded like an accusation. Damon nodded. She swallowed hard. "And you slept with her." He shut his eyes and nodded once again, more slowly.
"I'm so sorry, Elena."
She showed little emotion; she was still working out the reality in her mind. "So that's why Alaric came to Mystic Falls."
Damon nodded. "That's how it would seem." More silence. "Elena—" he offered, but she stood up.
"I should go," she said, but he held on to her hand. "Damon." She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let her.
"Elena, don't go. Please," he pleaded.
"Damon, come on! I just found out that you fucked and turned my mother," she said, raising her voice.
He stood up too now. "Oh, bullshit. You know that isn't true!"
"What? Damn it, Damon what the hell are—" but he interrupted her.
"She's not your mother and you know it." Her angry expression faded into one of confusion. "She may have given birth to you, but she gave you up. Doesn't matter why she did it. You knew your mother. She's the one who took care of you—who raised you. Isobel is just the girl who gave them the chance."
"But…" she tried to protest.
"But nothing. Elena, is Jeremy your brother?" he asked.
She nodded. "Of course," she admitted softly.
"Exactly. And so what if he isn't related to you by blood. He's your family. He's more family than somebody like Isobel will ever be." Her eyes grew sympathetic. "What about Katherine, huh? She's related to you. Is she your family?"
Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "No," she sobbed quietly. "Damon, I'm sorry."
He shook his head and let go of her hand. "Don't be sorry. And don't cry, Elena." He wiped her tears away with his thumbs as he took her face in his hands. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, but I just didn't want to hurt you." He kissed her tearstained cheek and wrapped her up in his arms. "I just love you. You have no idea how much I love you, Elena."
She sniffed and cleared her throat. "How much?" she asked, managing a soft but sincere smile.
He held on to her tightly. "If I told you, you'd head for the hills," he joked, though there was a faint undertone of severity, even fear in his voice.
She touched the tip of her nose to his. "How much?" she asked again.
He placed a chaste, sweet kiss on her lips before whispering against them. "Enough to stay with you forever."
She played the words over in her head as she remembered what Lexi's boyfriend had said. "If you want to be with someone forever, you have to live forever."
"That sounds familiar," Damon replied.
She hadn't even realized she'd spoken the thought out loud. "Isn't that a little extreme?" she kidded.
He released her and walked to his desk, rummaging through one of the drawers until he finally found it—whatever it was. She couldn't tell. It was clenched tightly in his fist. "There's no rush. I mean, you're seventeen. I'm… well, older than seventeen. But you still have some catching up to do."
She couldn't bring her gaze away from his hand. "What is that?" she finally had to ask.
He hesitated before opening his hand slowly. Inside was a gold ring with a quatrefoil set with more than a dozen diamonds. In the center was a beautiful, red ruby. "It's yours. It must be, Elena. I've had it for so long. I never thought I would give it to anyone… until now." She was speechless. The ring was more beautiful than any she'd ever seen before.
"Whose…" she began, but couldn't bring herself to finish the question for fear that the answer might be Katherine.
He closed his eyes for a moment. "It was my mother's. Her father gave it to her before I was born."
"Damon," she sighed so softly it was barely audible. He continued.
"Through all these years, this is the thing that has kept me connected to my humanity… to my past. But now I'm thinking of the future. And I can't think of any future without you in it," he said, speaking more quickly now. "I can't leave you alone, Elena. And I'm never going to. But you can make it official if you put this on." She gazed into his pale, earnest blue eyes. "Someday I'll marry you. You can take as much time as you want."
She could hardly bring herself to speak, but she managed to eke out, "Is this ring… like yours?"
"No," Damon said. "When I marry you—if you want me too—I'll put a ring like this," he lifted his hand, "on your finger. But this isn't about that. Sure, this ring is about eternity, but it's also about humanity. I thought mine was lost forever until I found you."
She couldn't breathe. She couldn't speak.
"I will love you forever," Damon said softly, taking her delicate hand in his. "And as long as I have blood in my veins I'll do anything it takes to keep you."
Elena's mind was racing. It didn't matter that she was seventeen. It didn't matter that she was in high school. It didn't matter that it would affect other people, that it would defy all logic. Reality as she'd known it had long since become insignificant. All she could bring herself to do was nod as he took hold of her left ring finger and gently brought the ring to it.
He smiled as she nodded and slipped the antique ring onto her finger. It was a bit of a tight squeeze over her knuckle. "Sorry," he offered as he pushed the ring on. She shook her head and smiled. "That's not coming off without a fight," he said with a perfect and appropriate Damon smile.
"Good," she replied. She looked down at her hand her and eyes welled up with tears.
Soundtrack Listing for Chapter 10:
"Sleepwalk," Santo & Johnny
Soft glow of the sun - "Care to join me?"
"You Owe Me an IOU," Hot Hot Heat
Damon springs up - water cools down
"Let Me Fall," Alexz Johnson
"Well, yes. It is important." - But it's not what he said. "Of course," he said.
"Across the Universe," the Beatles
Elena knocks on the door - "Let's head back."
"Until Now," River Phoenix
"You know what I am" - "What about Katherine?"
"Time in a Bottle," Jim Croce
Don't cry, Elena - end of chapter
Ahhhh! Right? So! Hit me with those questions, concerns, and dilemmas via that review button!