Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).
This story is primarily a season 4 re-write without the sire bond. That inevitably means the story is Delena heavy. That will not stop, but the plot itself is going to require some very careful attention so that I don't lose track of my own changes. Unfortunately I will not be able to continue updating daily because each individual episode is now consisting of roughly 3 chapters and the more changes there are, the longer they are taking to write. Plus I am now having to get a little bit more creative with the Delena smut.
Once I've completed re-writing 'O Come all Ye Faithful', I shall edit and post chapter 11.
I hope you like this chapter.
By the time Stefan and Damon arrived in New Orleans later that evening, it was already dark.. Neither of them had been back since they were last there in 1942. Stefan having left to join the war effort and Damon had left to escape the girl Charlotte who was sired to him. The taxi from the airport dropped them off on Bourbon Street, which was now full of people partying on the brightly lit street. Music was playing loudly, the atmosphere was almost carnival like. Damon and Stefan wandered through the crowd, looking round at their surroundings, taking in the changes over the years and trying to regain their bearings.
"Well, the city is the same. Just brighter." Stefan observed.
"Have you been back here since '42?" Damon asked.
"Nope, not since I shipped off to join the war effort and you didn't." Stefan scolded.
"Somebody had to entertain the ladies who had been left by their menfolk." Damon shrugged as his cellphone chimed indicating the arrival of a text. He took it out and read the message. "Hey, good news. Elena is at the house with the girls where she can't get in trouble." he grinned. "Bad news...I told her to make herself at home and unfortunately she's found the Dom cellar.."
Stefan turned to face Damon. "Yeah, you told her so she does, right?" he asked.
Damon scoffed as he walked past Stefan. "There is no sire bond Stefan, I thought we'd already established that."
"Really?" Stefan asked. "So why the fuck have you dragged me all the way out here, huh?"
Damon turned and looked at Stefan. "You know what Stefan? I get it." he scowled. "I get that you're pissed that Elena dumped your ass because she has feelings for me. Bet you blame that on the non-existent sire bond, too, huh?"
"Yeah, you know what? I absolutely do." Stefan admitted.
"Why, because it's impossible to think she could have feelings for me?" Damon asked.
"No, because it's impossible for her to be so blind that she doesn't see how wrong you are for her." Stefan growled as the two stood staring at each face to face. Damon opened his mouth, momentarily speechless, completely stunned by his brother's scathing remark so he just turned around and walked away.
Realizing he'd gone too far, Stefan chased after him. "Hey, wait, Damon, I'm sorry." he said.
Damon turned to face Stefan. "What did you say?" Damon asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I said I'm sorry." Stefan repeated himself as he and Damon continued walking through the crowds turning, off the corner of Dumaine as they reached Dauphine Street. "I apologize, all right?" Stefan insisted. "As much as I hate this sire bond thing, I shouldn't take it out on you. It's not really your fault."
"Well, don't get all warm and fuzzy on me yet." Damon warned. "I keep telling you there is no sire bond. She's not been doing everything I've asked." They suddenly stopped in front of a small apartment building. "This where the witch lived." he said.
"What, you weren't expecting to find the same exact witch in the same place?" Stefan asked.
"No, but since I couldn't remember where the store was, figured it'd give us a start." Damon explained.
"Maybe there's another place to start." Stefan suggested. "You think Charlotte might be in New Orleans?"
"Yeah, maybe." Damon answered shrugging his shoulders.
"Where was the last place you saw her?" Stefan asked.
"Corner of Bourbon and Dumaine. Kind of told her to count every brick in every building in New Orleans, and I'd meet her at the corner." he paused for a moment. "I was gone by morning." Damon gave a guilty smile as Stefan looked back at him before he turned around and walked away. "Where you going?" Damon called after him.
Stefan turned around to face him, whilst walking backwards. "Corner of Bourbon and Dumaine. See how literal the sire bond is." Stefan shrugged turning around and began to walk away. Accepting defeat, Damon rolled his eyes and sighed before he followed him. Damon caught up with Stefan as they walked down Dumaine until it met the corner of Bourbon Street. "There's no way she's gonna be in the same spot after seventy years." Damon protested.
"So, what are we gonna tell Elena?" Stefan asked changing the subject.
"I already talked to her about it." Damon replied. "Someone had to warn her about Blondie. She agreed with me, there's no sire bond."
"Well, of course she'd agree with you, especially if there is a sire bond." Stefan scoffed.
"How many times do I have to tell you, there's no sire bond." Damon growled. "I've already experienced what it's like to have someone sired to me. I know what happens. And trust me, Elena isn't sired or not only would she have killed Connor when I asked her to, she would also have drank my blood if she were."
"Oh, I see. I get it. Bury your head in the sand all you want Damon, but Elena is emotionally sired." Stefan insisted.
"Emotionally sired?" Damon snorted. "Really Stefan? Is this another type of sire bond that I've never heard of before? One you've just made up to make Elena feel better about you trying to save her by putting her brother at risk? Oh, what about you, O selfless one? Are you doing what's best for Elena or what's best for you? Because it looks to me like the only reason you are convinced Elena is sired to me is because you think that by breaking some non-existent sire bond, you'll be able to restore her original factory "Team Stefan" settings." Damon continued. "Has it even occurred to you that there might be a more obvious explanation? Something that happens far more often than a sire bond, although you seem to be convinced that it's impossible for anyone to form any real kind of connection with me. Go ahead Stefan, you bury your head in the fucking sand." he paused, eyes blazing as they both glared each other."I'm gonna go get a drink. Hunt me down when you stop being a dick, and I'll tell you the real reason we're here." Damon announced angrily as he walked away.
As Damon walked off towards the nearest bar, Stefan stood there at the corner, feeling ashamed. He knew that to some extent Damon was right and all of the signs pointed to Elena's attachment to Damon being similar to love. However Stefan wasn't exactly sure how a sire bond worked in vampires and he sure as hell didn't trust Damon to tell the truth right now. He decided to pretend to believe Damon for the time being and in the meantime find out how to break a sire bond. The other alternative was that the vampirism itself could have caused this change in Elena, although it would have only heightened her feelings for the man she was in love with, which she'd claimed was him. If it was the vampirism, he'd have to continue on his search for the cure, consequences be damned. At least he'd know then that human Elena would never run off with his brother. As far as Stefan was concerned, if he couldn't have Elena, he sure as hell wasn't going to let Damon have her. In the meantime Damon had brought him to New Orleans for a reason and Stefan was beginning to become curious as to why. The suggestion of the sire bond had prompted the trip which he'd said was related to Professor Shane. Stefan was confused as to what this Professor could be doing to have his brother travel all the way to New Orleans just to see a witch who'd helped him break a sire bond seventy years earlier. He went to follow Damon to find out.
Damon angrily began heading towards a bar he remembered being close by. He made his way around the corner and began to walk the route down the deserted street, when he heard a noise behind him causing him to stop in his tracks. He turned around to look behind him but he couldn't see anybody. Shrugging his shoulders he turned back around to continue making his way towards the bar. He was suddenly brought to a halt as an unknown vampire rushed at him and threw him to the ground. Damon realized that Stefan must have heard the commotion as he immediately rushed to where Damon was being attacked. Stefan grabbed hold of the vampire and threw her off of him as Damon got up looking stunned.
"What the hell just happened?" Stefan asked
"She kissed me." Damon said, stunned and confused until he saw the face of the vampire in question.
The female vampire stood in front of them was slender with long red hair and large sleepy eyes. Both Stefan and Damon immediately recognized her as Charlotte, the vampire who had once been sired to Damon.
Her face lit up at the sight of her long lost sire. "Damon, I always knew you'd come back for me." she cooed. "I must have counted literally every brick on every building in all of New Orleans." she smiled dreamily at the memory.
Damon stared at her, eyes wide with shock, completely taken aback by her words and actions, he turned to face Stefan, his brother's jaw dropped, his face carrying a look of horror.
"Literally every brick?" Stefan asked not being able to believe what he was hearing as Damon grimaced at her admission.
Charlotte approached Damon and tried to wrap her arms around his neck, but Damon awkwardly tried to back away from her. "Uh, Charlotte...so...um..." Damon plastered a fake smile across his face as he patted her arm, pulling himself away from her. "Please tell me you had a full life and that you've done something other than counting bricks." Damon asked hopefully.
"Of course I have, I'm not crazy." Charlotte insisted as Damon shook his head and smiled uncomfortably, he wasn't sure he could agree with her comment about not being crazy.
"Then why are you still here?" Stefan asked.
Charlotte turned to look at Stefan. "You know when someone breaks up with you and there's a song that reminds you of them?" she asked. "First, you hate it." she continued as she placed her hand on Damon's shoulder and began to caress it. "But then it brings back all the good memories of them. Counting the bricks is my song and I've been playing it for decades." she added dreamily.
"That's a really long time stuck listening to the same song." Stefan said dryly as he watched Charlotte place her arms back around Damon's neck making his brother ever more uncomfortable.
"Yeah, heh.." Damon gently grabbed her hands from around his neck and pulled them away as he tentatively patted them between his own hands. "Well you know, in the plus column, you know New Orleans better than anyone in the world." Damon smiled sweetly. "Which is really nice, because we need your help finding someone." prompting Charlotte's face to drop slightly.
"Who are you looking for?" she asked as she went to try and stroke Damon's shoulder again. Damon glanced over her shoulder and gave Stefan the 'help me out brother' look, which Stefan ignored.
"Do you by any chance remember an old witch who lived here back in the forties, she lived on Dauphine Street." he asked, gradually turning he and Charlotte in a circle before slowly backing away towards Stefan. "Her name was Valerie LaMarche."
"Sure. I know her store." Charlotte smiled. "Do you want me to take you? It's not far from here." she offered.
Stefan and Damon looked at each other before turning back to Charlotte who was once again approaching Damon. "That'll be great. You just show us the way." Damon grimaced back as they followed the female vampire down the deserted street.
A few moments later the lights of Bourbon Street appeared and the crowds started to thicken out once more, causing both Stefan and Damon to breathe a little easier knowing that they were no longer alone with Damon's psychotic ex who was clearly still sired to him. They may both be vampires and stronger than her, but her words and actions had left a bad taste in both of their mouths. One that they wanted to be free from as soon as they could get away.
They finally arrived at a small store called Nandi's. Damon told Charlotte it would make him very happy if she were to stay outside the shop, a few doors away which was exactly where they left her, whilst Stefan and Damon attended to their business. The sire bond worked perfectly as Charlotte happily waited outside for them whilst they entered the shop she'd led them to. Inside the store there were masks on the wall, jars littering the counter with goodness knows what pickling in them and the shelves filled with bottles of what could only be presumed to be potions, possibly whatever a 'Nandi's Special' was, as advertised by the blackboard behind the counter. A middle-aged woman, who Damon surmised must be Nandi, came out from the back of the shop to serve them.
"Can I help you, gentleman?" Nandi asked.
"Hi. We're looking for a witch. Sorry, no time for pleasantries." Damon said rudely.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand." Nandi replied seemingly confused.
"Look.." Damon said pointing at the blackboard behind the woman, where "Nandi's Special" was written on it."Nandi, is it?" he asked. "Let's skip the part where you pretend like you don't know what we're talking about." Damon looked over at Stefan who raises his eyebrows acknowledging his brother's statement. "We need information about the type of spell that could break a vampire sire bond. Now, there was a witch here named Val. Ring any bells?" Damon asked.
"She was my great-grandmother." Nandi offered.
"She had a grimoire and it had a spell." Damon told her. "Val told me that the spell was what she called 'dark magic'." he explained. "She told me that money was not what she wanted in payment. Instead she needed me to sacrifice twelve human souls so that she could cast the spell."
"A sacrifice? You brought me here knowing that the spell to break a sire bond required a human sacrifice." Stefan asked angrily.
"Well, I was hoping the recipe had changed." Damon shrugged as he looked at Stefan. As far as he was concerned they weren't there to kill anyone as Elena wasn't sired to him.
"Look, there's no magic like that here. I sell herbs and homeopathic remedies and dress it up with a little witchy-woo-woo for the tourists, but I don't practice." Nandi told them.
"Okay, fine, listen, just tell us where we can find someone like your great-grandma who can break the sire bond and won't flake out on us like old Val did." Damon asked.
"There's no one. All of her stuff is gone...the grimoires, her journals. We lost it all during Katrina. If a spell like that ever existed, it's gone for good." Nandi explained.
Damon scowled. "Let's go." he told Stefan before they left the shop, the bell tinkling as they exited the door.
"What now?" Stefan asked as Damon began walking down the street he and followed.
"Witch is lying. Doesn't practice magic, my ass." Damon scoffed
"Human sacrifice? Did you really think I would go for this?" Stefan cried angrily as they approached Charlotte who was sitting on the footsteps of the nearby building.
"Extreme circumstances called for extreme measures." Damon shrugged.
"Did you kill those 12 people in 1942?" Stefan asked.
"Absolutely, I did, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it meant a clean slate with Elena, that's if she were sired to me." Damon replied adamantly. "Which dear brother, I'm sure even you are beginning to see that Elena isn't sired when you compare her to..." he nodded in Charlotte's direction and raised his eyebrows. "Let's just say if Elena was sired to me, then either she or Connor would be dead right now. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"Hmm." Stefan frowned.
"Are you gonna help me good cop...bad cop this witch or not?" Damon asked as he whistled for a taxi as he got inside the taxi, Stefan followed, leaving Charlotte waiting for the to conclude 'their business' as they made their escape to a nearby bar.
Damon ordered a bottle of whiskey with two glasses as he and Stefan found a booth bar for them to sit at so they wouldn't be disturbed. The French Quarter in New Orleans was notoriously run by a vampire called Marcel who had his minions everywhere, so a noisy bar was exactly what they needed to ensure the wrong ears wouldn't pick up on the conversation they were about to have.
"Okay Damon." Stefan sighed. "You've had your fun. Are you going to finally tell me why we're here?" he asked.
Damon looked about checking there was no one around, listening into them talking. "This conversation brother." Damon warned. "Goes no further than you, me and this bottle of whiskey. No blabbing to Blondie, right?" he asked.
"And Elena?" Stefan asked.
"She already knows a lot of it. Hell she was the one to help me piece it together." Stefan raised his eyebrow at Damon's comment. "Elena and I were talking for a long time last night, and this particular subject was something that we paid particular attention to." he told him.
"Go on." Stefan sighed.
"Do you believe in coincidences" Damon asked, pouring him and Stefan each a generous amount of whiskey in their glasses.
"Depends." Stefan replied. "Sometimes they're genuine. What are you getting at?"
"Let's start from the beginning. Pastor Young blew up the farm and killed twelve people." Damon began. "Sound familiar?" he asked with an expectant look on his face.
Stefan thought about Damon's comment for a moment, trying to find anything that could connect Pastor Young to their trip to New Orleans. "You killed twelve people in 1942?" Stefan asked realizing the common denominator.
"Bingo!" Damon grinned at his own genius. "Now according to the phone records of Pastor Young, which were brought to my attention by the Quartback, the Pastor's guidance counselor appears to have been none other than our own Professor Shady."
"Interesting." Stefan raised his eyebrows, slightly impressed by his brother's deduction skills. "Go on."
"Now this is where it gets interesting." Damon continued. "Pastor Young's little suicide mission coincided with the arrival of not only Professor Shady, but our lovely hunter and Tyler's little werewolf friend." he added.
"Hayley?" Stefan asked raising an eyebrow as Damon nodded back, smiling whilst pouring them both another drink. "What does she have to do with this?" he asked.
"Good question brother." Damon replied. "Right now I have no idea. But I've asked Elena to quiz Blondie on what she knows." his face dropped.
"Why didn't you ask me?" Stefan asked, hurt that Damon had asked for Elena's help above his.
"Because we're not in a good place right now." Damon explained sadly.
"Well, if you had've asked, I could've told you that Hayley is helping Tyler break the hybrid's sire bond. Nothing more sinister than that." Stefan explained, trying to curry favor with Damon.
"Okay, fine." Damon sighed. "I just thought whatever it was might be at odds with your current objective."
"And what's that?" Stefan asked, he had a feeling he knew what was coming.
"The cure!" Damon simply stated. "For a change, Elena's lovely doppelgänger blood wasn't a factor in our current crisis, but between you, Klaus and Professor Shady, that appears to have now changed."
"What made you think that whatever this was, wass something to do with the cure?" Stefan asked.
"Because our resident hunter also appeared on the scene about the same time." Damon took a sip of his drink. "And I might have had a quiet word with the Professor."
"Let me guess." Stefan groaned. "You threatened to rip his heart out unless he flat out admitted to mass murder?"
"Yep!" Damon smiled smugly. "We had what can only be described as an enlightening conversation." Stefan shook his head in anticipation for the rest of the story. "It turns out that to find the cure the Hunters mark must be completed, which is now old news. As you already know, for that to happen he needs to kill vampires. According to Professor Shady, there are only ever five hunters in existence at one given time. If one dies, they are replaced by a 'Potential', someone who can see the mark. Good news, we have our own resident potential in Mystic Falls, bad news, it is none other than Little Gilbert." Stefan sat listening intently to Damon's story whilst continuing to sip on his drink. "Now as I have mentioned a number of times, Elena is not sired to me, which turns out to the best news ever as I asked her to kill Connor. Now what do you think would have happened if she was sired to me and had actually killed Connor?" Damon asked.
"The Hunter would be dead and would have been replaced by Jeremy." Stefan said slowly.
"Ding, ding, ding." Damon waved his hands. "Jeremy would have gone Connor 2.0 on us with an urge to kill every vampire in sight, possibly starting with his sister. So you were right, killing Connor is not an option." he admitted.
"Glad we agree on something." Stefan groaned rolling his eyes.
"There's more." Damon continued, causing Stefan to sigh. "Professor Shady is teaching Bonnie magic. She was visiting him when we crashed her visit to Whitmore College. Now you answer me this, how can a non-magic person teach a witch magic when the said witch involved has no access to the spirits?"
"He can't." Stefan shook his head.
"Well he is." Damon frowned. "He also told me that to access the cure, we would require the services of a Bennett witch. Now both you and I know that something has to fuel a witches power."
"Oh and you think maybe he's using human sacrifice?" Stefan asked raising an eyebrow.
Damon nodded. "And that dear brother is why I brought you back to Bourbon Street. I wanted to know what type of magic was used when Valerie LaMarche asked me to sacrifice those twelve people back in 1942."
"Well the problem is that Val is dead." Stefan told Damon. "And her only living relative is her great granddaughter who claims not to be a practicing witch."
Damon scoffed. "Great granddaughter and not practicing my ass, I remember Val having a daughter, her name was also Nandi." he grinned raising one eyebrow. "She was there when I asked for Val's help to break the sire bond. Meaning, that even if she doesn't know how to break a sire bond, she'll know what type of magic her mother used for that type of spell."
"Which clearly didn't work as Charlotte is still sired to you." Stefan glared at his brother. "So what are you intending to do about that?"
"Leave?" Damon suggested.
"Damon. You need to do the right thing by her?" Stefan insisted.
"Okay." Damon groaned. "I'll ask the witch if she can offer any practical advice. If she can't help we either leave her here or I rip her heart out, which as much as I don't want to do, it might be kinder than her staying here, miserably pining after me for all of eternity. We can't take her back to Mystic Falls" he said giving Stefan a pointed look. "I say, let's just get out of here, sort this mess out and get back home." he said suddenly getting up and walking out of the bar. Stefan quickly gulped the rest of his drink down and followed as Damon whistled for a taxi to take them back to Nandi's store.
The doorbell tinkled as the Damon walked into the shop once more. Nandi, with her back turned to him, was doing some work inside the shop front itself when the bell alerted her to his presence behind her. She turned around and looked at Damon.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped.
"Calling you out. You're not Val's great-granddaughter. You're her daughter." he snapped. "You're 80 years old. You don't look a day over 50. You're a practicing witch." he added.
"Get out of my store." Nandi scowled.
"Give me what I want." Damon insisted as he started to walk towards the witch. Nandi turned around and glared at Damon, her monster crippling magic aneurysm pouring out in waves directed straight at him as he suddenly crumbled to the floor clutching his head in both of his hands as the pain took over whilst he could feel the pain of his blood trickling down the inside of his spine.
"I gave you a chance to leave with your life." Nandi shouted as Stefan suddenly appeared from the back of the store.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. We don't want any trouble okay? We just - we just need your help. That's all." Stefan pleaded.
"I told you there's no one here who can help you. The kind of magic my mother practiced, it's unnatural. Witches don't even call it magic. We call it Expression!" Nandi spat as she stopped giving Damon the magical aneurysm.
"Is that like black magic?" Stefan asked.
"Worse." Nandi explained. "Channeling the power of human sacrifices calls on darkness that can't exist on this plane without swallowing it whole. She sold you a bill of goods about breaking the sire bond because she wanted access to that power and you gave it to her when you killed those twelve people."
Stefan headed over to Damon, helping him get up from the floor. "Are you saying there's no spell?" Damon asked.
"The bond can't be broken with magic." Nandi told them. "A vampire only bonds to her sire when she has feelings for him before she turns, human feelings. Vampirism only heightens those emotions. You want her free?" she asked. "You have to set her free. Tell her to live her life without you and never think of you again, to stop caring about you, and then leave her. That's the only way around the sire bond."
"Just one more question." Damon asked. "Did you say the type of magic was called Expression?"
"Yes, why?" Nandi eyed him suspiciously.
"Lets just say we're a little concerned that a witch friend of ours might be falling in with the wrong crowd." he told her. "Three weeks ago twelve people died in a gas explosion. I just want to know what we might be dealing with."
"It's the darkest of magic." Nandi whispered. "If she draws too much power from the sacrifices it can kill her."
"How would she draw too much power?" Damon asked, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.
"It depends on the sacrifice." Nandi explained. "Humans will fuel plenty of power for a witch to practice Expression. The more power she needs, the more powerful the sacrifice has to be." Damon frowned confused. "Look, I don't know you and I've already said too much. I shouldn't trust you because you're a vampire. But if what you say is true, you need to get her away from those who are teaching her Expression. Anyone wanting to teach a witch that type of magic is up to no good!" Nandi walked to the door and opened it. "Now please get away from my store." she said as she gestured for them leave.
Stefan and Damon left the store and headed towards Charlotte who was still waiting patiently for them to conclude their business.
"Charlotte." Damon hesitated for a moment. "Come with me." he told her as he took her to a bar called Gillespie's Pub, whilst Stefan stood waiting outside.
"Look Charlotte." Damon squirmed. "I want you to be happy."
"You make me happy." she smiled at him.
"I need to go back home without you." he frowned.
"So, you're just leaving me again?" Charlotte asked.
"No, I need to get on with my life and so do you." Damon insisted gently.
"I don't want to live without you." Charlotte begged as tears began to well up in her eyes.
"If you want to make me happy you will. You just forget about me. You'll never think of me again, and you'll find someone new, and you'll be happier than ever." Damon said softly as Charlotte began to cry causing Damon to frown awkwardly. "Please, stop crying." Damon grimaced.
Charlotte wiped the tears from her eyes and stops. "I'm never gonna be able to forget about you." she whimpered.
"Yes, you are." Damon protested. "And I'm never gonna be happy until you realize that you're never gonna have the life that you deserve if I'm in it." he said as he stood up. "Goodbye, Charlotte." he added before walking out and leaving her alone in the pub. He spotted Stefan who was sitting on a bench waiting for him outside, before getting up when he saw Damon appear.
"How'd it go?" Stefan asked.
"I set her free." Damon replied nonchalantly.
"Must've been hard. Doing the right thing, especially when it's not something you want to do." Stefan sneered.
"Get to the point, Stefan." Damon snapped.
"Well, I mean, selflessness isn't exactly one of your most obvious character traits, Damon." Stefan asked sarcastically.
"Yeah? Well, one of these days you're gonna realize you don't know me half as well as you think." Damon scoffed as he whistled for a cab before turning to Stefan. "Look, I know what you're thinking. You always seem to assume that every decision I make is for selfish reasons which is why I'm no good for Elena. Well that's not true. Remember the last time we were in New Orleans and I told you I'd join you in going to Egypt but I didn't?" he as and Stefan just nodded. "I didn't abandon you. I signed up, hell I was even at the train station getting ready to join you. All because I wanted to spend time with my little brother. But Lexi was there waiting for me. She asked me not to go. She thought that I'd be a bad influence on you, that I'd encourage the ripper side of you. And deep down, I knew she was right, so I decided not to go. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much I needed you, I had to put you first, because you're my brother." Damon finished as he walked past Stefan towards the taxi he'd whistled down.
Stefan dropped his head sadly for a moment before he turned to follow Damon to the cab. "I didn't know about that." Stefan said quietly.
"Yeah, well, next time I'll hang a billboard." Damon snapped back.
"Look, I know it may seem like I'm being unfair about this, like I'm upset about losing Elena to you, and I am. Can you at least accept that?" Stefan asked.
"I know Stefan, I've already been there remember." Damon sighed. "Look, I'll talk to Elena about the cure. If we can find a way to protect Bonnie and Jeremy from the creepy Professor, then she might be on board with going to at least search for it. Then it's up to her if she wants to take it." he suggested.
"Okay." Stefan agreed. "We'll give her the option, and if after all this is over, if she never feels the same way about me as she used to, at least it'll be her real choice. Not one that is influenced by being a vampire." he added.
"The dreaded C - word." Damon shuddered as he got inside the taxi, Stefan followed him, sitting in the back of the cab, heading back to the airport to go back home to Mystic Falls.