The fading sunlight filtered through the wooden blinds, creating horizontally slanting shadows across the oak flooring. Damon sat, staring in a resigned manner at the display of his phone and tried to ignore the dull throbbing in his temple. Some time ago, the calls had begun flooding in. He had screened each and every one of them, and now, as his ringtone began again, he screened another.

He would have to face Grayson eventually, but until Giuseppe called, his phone was the least of his worries.

After his announcement that he could be the one to pull the trigger on whoever was trying to hurt her, Elena had become significantly more subdued and retreated to another room with Jake. Whether it was knowing any one of them would pull a trigger on another's life, or whether it was the thought of anyone killing somebody to protect her, she didn't seem able to accept it.

Damon had let her go. However long she had lived hearing stories of this life, she hadn't lived in the harsh reality of the world she was so deeply connected to. She wasn't as prepared for the outcome of a life being taken.

Another call flashed onto his cell.

He declined it.

Damon leant back against the sofa, and scrutinized the way the slanting shadows were moving with the wind coming through the open window. It was the perfect distraction. The simplicity and enthralling nature of shadows and sunlight distracted his wandering mind for the conclusion he would inevitably come to.

He shook the thought from his mind. Until it came to him, most likely in the middle of the night, he had no reason to go to that part of his mind.

His phone buzzed again. He noted briefly how much he hated that most phones' 'silent' setting was defaulted to vibrate. If he wanted his phone to vibrate like a goddamned earthquake every time he got a text or call he'd set it to that setting.

He debated over finally answering. He had received no word from his father other than a text message saying 'Idiot.' yet Grayson hadn't stopped calling. Surely if he was that desperate to talk to Elena, or yell at him for screening his calls, he could call his daughter?

Damon pressed the answer button.

"Hey Gray." he said in a flat voice.

"Damon." Grayson sounded relieved. There was none of the overbearing father he had briefly encountered.

Damon immediately snapped into life. "What's wrong?"

"Where's Elena?" Grayson asked urgently.

"Why?"

"Damon, where is she?" he snapped, leaving no room for smart-ass comments or deflections.

"Next door." He said, with a shrug, even though Grayson couldn't see his indifference.

"You mean you're not with her?" He said accusingly, his voice steely.

Damon stood up abruptly and made his way to the door. It hadn't occurred to him that Grayson was trying to call him because he couldn't contact Elena.

He walked briskly through the halls of the unfamiliar house until he reached the room he had last seen her enter. "Where's Elena?" he asked Jake, with forced nonchalance.

Jake looked up confused. "She went to talk to you, like twenty minutes ago."

Damon froze. On the other end of the line, Grayson went silent.

"Damon." Grayson said, his voice rough. "Find her."

/

"For god's sake, Jake!" Damon yelled exasperated. "You know her better that I do!"

Jake held up his hands in defense. "I've told you! She disappears all the time. She'll be fine! She ran off to Phoenix and no one heard from her."

"I don't think you get it." Damon hissed harshly. "You do not get what's going on here."

"Then why don't you stop acting like the mysterious guy and explain." He shouted. "I, for some fucked up reason, decided to trust you when Sam didn't. So stop acting like I'm some idiot who can't understand!"

"You can't understand." He snapped, his eyes blazing. "This is deeper than you could ever imagine. Do you think you could use your head and link something together for me?" he asked patronizingly. "Miranda is dead, killed because of unknown reasons."

"Do you think I don't know-?"

Damon cut off his words with a sharp look. "It was pure coincidence Elena wasn't in there when the house went up. There was someone after Miranda before, and it should have ended when she died but now someone is going after Elena too."

"You said so yourself, you barely know her. Her disappearing for a couple hours is normal. Plus, whoever's after her must think she's in Phoenix."

"What part of your thick skull fails to register how much danger she could be in right now?"

"The part that is Elena's best friend and knows she has a habit of disappearing."

"If she's hurt, I swear to god I will rip you apart for making me stand here arguing with you."

"She won't be hurt." He insisted smugly. "If you go out looking for her, she'll get back before you."

Damon narrowed his eyes at the man standing across the room from him. His arguments, although reasonable, were so incredibly naïve he could have laughed. 'Oh, she isn't in danger because they think she's in Phoenix.' He growled and stalked out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

He surveyed his surroundings.

He had no idea where to go next. He sighed, and set off in the direction of what looked liked civilization.

"Jake, you don't get it." Elena murmured softly to her best friend.

"Then explain it to me." He retorted emotionlessly.

"I can't, Jake, it's so much deeper than you can imagine." That was true at least. She was in way too deep, and the last thing she wanted for anyone to be going after the people she loved.

Jake sighed in defeat and leant back against the kitchen counter.

"I'm gonna go talk to Damon." She announced after a long period of silence.

"Because you can talk to him and not to me." He spat bitterly. His eyes were hard and cast in the strange shadows the glazed windows cast.

Elena shook her head and pushed herself up of the chair she was sitting in and walked out of the kitchen.

She paused before entering the room she kept hearing a phone go off in. She pull of the front door was all too tempting. She could slip off, just for a half hour or so. She hadn't been properly alone by choice since the ride around L.A right when she got her bike.

Her hands twitched. She missed her bike, it felt like she hadn't ridden in months, and considering she'd been spending her days in a motorcycle club, and falling asleep at night beside the President's son.

She smiled involuntarily at the thought of Damon as she made her way silently out of Jake's apartment block. Some how, they had become close over the past few days, and as fast as everything was happening including them and their father's, all she wanted were a few easy days, where everything was predictable and boring.

The ten minute walk into town was cut down considerably by cutting through old shortcuts with the ease only some one who lived here had. She found herself standing outside the familiar pub she used to spend her typical weekend nights in. Elena grinned and pushed open the door and weaving her way through the crowds to sit comfortably at the bar.

"Hey Benny." She said cheerily, waving at the bartender.

Ben's mouth dropped open.

"Elena." He breathed out. He stood shocked for a moment, but the moment he recovered she was being pulled into a bone-breaking hug. "God, Elena, I'm so sorry."

A strange sensation washed over her.

Her mother. She closed her eyes, crushing guilt pounding down on her. She hadn't even thought about her in the past days and now, she wasn't feeling sad. She was just numb.

"Elena?" Ben asked quietly, nudging her shoulder gently. "You okay?"

She snapped herself out of her reverie and made sheepish eye contact with Ben. She nodded and forced a smile on her face. "Yeah."

Ben opened his mouth to say more but before he could get a word out, loud hollering from further down the bar interrupted him. He scowled nastily as he headed towards them, muttering under his breath.

"Hey gorgeous." A sleazy looking drunk said boldly from behind. "Where's your boyfriend at?"

"Bathroom." She said simply. She had had way too much experience with dealing with these types of guys.

"Well that wasn't smart was it?" The drunk suddenly didn't seem so drunk anymore. His dark eyes were gleaming wickedly as he moved closer to her.

"Now why would your boyfriend leave you out here all by yourself?" Another snide voice asked her from the other side. She tensed, looking desperately at Ben who was still dealing with the guys at the other end of the bar.

"I think you're alone." The first voice said. The speaker was a dark haired man, with gleaming black eyes. "We saw you walk in. Didn't seem like you were with anyone."

"Although, the bartender might want a piece of you." The second man noted. "Especially after you were flirting with him like that."

Elena shifted uncomfortably in her seat and stared at the wood of the bar. She was safe, she was safe, she kept repeating in her mind. The bar was crowded tonight. They wouldn't try something too drastic.

"Come on, baby, don't play so hard to get." One of the men cooed patronizingly, as he traced the line of her spine. She flinched, repulsed by the desperate lowlifes behind her.

"I suggest you back off." Ben said coldly, from right in front of her. She gasped in relief.

The men's eyes narrowed as the sized up Ben. Apparently, Ben's stereotypical jock build and intimidating expression overruled a pointless bar fight. They backed away, and went about harassing a group of girls on the other side of the bar.

"Sorry." Ben said regretfully. "Those other guys were ordering non-stop. I didn't see these ones till right now."

Elena shook her head, faking an easy smile. "It's fine. I think I'm gonna head back though. I'll call you soon, okay?"

Ben looked uneasy, but he didn't stop her from hastily paying him and rushing out the crowded room into the crisp night air.

She breathed in deeply and began walking back to Jake's. She had stayed out longer than planned and all she hoped was that neither man had noticed her absence. She was shocked at how dark the night had become.

"Where's your boyfriend now, baby?" an all too familiar voice said triumphantly from behind her.

She froze dead in her tracks, an unwelcome fear uncurling in her stomach.

"Girls like you shouldn't be walking home in the dark." The other of the two men from the bar spoke next, breathing disgustingly close to her face. She cringed away from his breath, gasping loudly when he grabbed her and pushed her against the rough brick wall.

"And why's that?" the other man said, laughing maliciously. "Why do you think that is, sweetheart?"

Elena choked back a sob; the harsh reality of what was happening sinking in slowly.

"Nothing?" the first man said sadly, his alcohol soaked breath was making her gag. "I'll tell you then."

He moved closer to her, his callous hand moving roughly against her skin as her cheek grazed lightly against the wall.

"Because things go bump in the night."

Damon cursed pointlessly as he roamed the dark streets of an unknown city. Now, he was lost and he still hadn't found Elena. He scowled as he imagined Jake smiling smugly with a proud "I told you so." if he finally found his way back there and Elena was sitting there, safe.

How did the night get so dark? The night had crept up on him so quickly he had barely registered it, and now in the darkness broken only by the soft orange streetlamps he had lost all sense of time and direction.

Somewhere ahead of him he heard two male voices laughing spitefully. He hoped they weren't going to fight, because then he'd have to break them up before getting directions to somewhere he could call a cab.

He followed his ears, and walked cautiously towards the voices. Somewhere among the malicious tones and cruel laughter he heard a gasp of shock and pain, and his heart dropped.

He walked faster. That was no man's voice. That wasn't two guys going after another guy – that, he could handle. That was two men, going after what sounded like a girl.

He ground his teeth together and broke into a steady jog as the woman choked back a sob. He blocked out the words the men were saying and turned another corner until he came across a scene that would make any other man's stomach churn.

He knew that girl.

He sprinted towards the two men, and used the force from him running to throw one of them against a brick wall. He growled, shoving him against it and punching him with everything he had. And again. And again.

The unspent rage he had from resisting Sam's fight earlier came back and added fuel to the fire. He dropped the guy to the floor, leaving him knocked unconscious. Adrenaline was coursing uncontrollably through his veins.

"Look baby, someone came to join our show." The other man whispered into Elena's ear.

Damon's stomach churned and his heart turned to stone. The man was holding Elena's cheek against the rough brick wall and whispering crudely in her ear. She choked back another sob, unable to see more than the wall in front of her.

She thought he was there to hurt her too, he realized with a shock. Damon flew at the man pinning her and held him up by the throat against the wall.

The second the man's hands weren't on Elena anymore, she dropped to the ground and curled herself in a ball, burying her face in her knees.

The man's face was slowly turning blue, his eyes bulging almost comically out of their sockets. He forcefully rammed the man's head against the wall, and released him to lie beside his buddy.

He crouched down beside Elena, keeping his distance from her. He would not hurt her, ever, he promised himself.

"Elena." Damon whispered softly. "It's okay." Elena didn't move. There was no reaction in her body at all. "Elena?" he asked, tentatively reaching out to touch her shoulder.

Her head snapped up immediately, locking her terrified wide eyes onto his. "Damon." was all she managed to choke out before tears began spilling down her cheeks and she buried her face in her knees.

Damon didn't hesitate in wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to him while he crouched against the wall.

"It's okay. You're okay." He murmured continuously into her hair, stroking it as he did so. "I promise. You're okay."

Elena clutched to his jacket like it was a lifeline. He surveyed her body quickly. All her clothes were still in place – they hadn't touched her. They hadn't touched her, he repeated mentally to himself in his own personal mantra.

In the distance he heard voice approaching. Relief kept coming to him in short bursts. First when he found her, then when she was safe and unharmed, then when he heard people approaching – they would call someone for the men he'd hurt and now, when a yellow cab screeched to a halt in front of him and two drunken girls stumbled out and made their made hysterically to the house behind him.

He hailed the cab quickly and climbed inside, still holding Elena against his chest.

The cabbie raised his eyebrows in shock as Damon nodded to him in greeting.

"Where to?" the old driver asked, concern seeping into his rough tone.

Damon leant his head back against the headrest and began stroking Elena's hair again. He could tell she wasn't asleep. Her breathing was fast and irregular, and her heartbeat was too frantic for her to be peaceful right now.

"Just take us to the nearest hotel." He answered wearily.

Damon trudged wearily through the halls of the hotel he had been taken to and gently nudged the door open – a hard task when carrying someone in your arms. He glanced around the room automatically, taking in the outdated décor but other wise comfortable looking room. He placed Elena on the bed softly and crouched down and cupped her face in his hands.

"Please say something." He begged her futilely. Anything was better than this never-ending silence.

"Like what?" Elena spat out, finally showing some emotion.

"Something like that did the trick fine." He smiled ruefully and tucked her hair behind her ear. She flinched away from him slightly. His fingers froze next to her ear when he saw the flash of fear go through her eyes.

"Go away." She said quietly.

He scowled. "No."

"Go away!" she repeated louder, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Please just leave me alone." She pleaded, her voice shaking dangerously.

"Elena. I'm not going anywhere." He said stubbornly, pushing himself up from his crouch in front of her and sitting slowly next to her rigid body on the bed.

"Why not?" she asked, her voice painfully steady.

"You have serious issues with talking to people." he stated dryly.

"Then stop trying to talk to me. I don't want to talk to anyone."

"Well," he smirked, "I'm not one to be discouraged."

"Damon." She said, her voice slightly muffled form the way her face was buried in her knees. "I don't want to talk. I don't need to talk."

"You do." He insisted. "God, Elena you do. You need to talk about what happened tonight and what happened with your mom. What good do you think will come of you bottling it all up inside?"

"More good that will come from opening up to someone."

"Elena." Damon almost yelled exasperated. "Do you even understand what could have happened tonight?"

"Yes Damon! Believe it or not, I'm extremely aware of what could have happened!"

"See!" he snapped. "You can't handle it by yourself!"

"There's nothing to handle! You stopped them!"

The anger seemed to ebb away all at once. "They could have raped you, Elena." He forced out through gritted teeth. The words tasted sour in his mouth.

Now, all her anger seemed to ebb away too. Elena slumped against him in defeat, burying her face firmly in his chest. He sighed in relief and his held her tightly as he moved backwards to lean against the headrest.

He didn't know what else to do other than to sit there, holding her, until she was ready to talk.

Eventually, her breathing even slightly, and although she was still awake she was finally content in his arms.

He felt something damp against his shoulder and almost laughed at the shock. The Elena he had grown to know had never showed any sign of letting what happened to her get her so emotionally.

Damon cupped her face in his hands and pushed her away from his chest so he could inspect her face. He wiped away the stray tears with the pads of his thumbs and sat both of them up slowly and pulled her to her feet.

"You should take a shower." He said casually, trying to act like he wasn't affected so strongly by the small brunette in front of him. She raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Y'know," he continued as normally as possible, "So you can get changed and sleep."

"Nothing to change in to." She said quietly, fidgeting with her nails.

"So sleep in my shirt." He replied easily. For a second he debated if she could deal with it before he simply decided to go for it and ripped of his light grey V-neck t-shirt and threw it at her. "There. Problem solved." He winked cockily at her and leant back against the bed, his hands clasped casually behind his head.

To his delight, Elena burst out laughing and picked up the t-shirt from where it had landed on the floor and chucked her leather jacket on a chair across the room. She flashed a quick, genuine smile at him before disappearing into the door that led to the bathroom.

The second the door had swung shut and the shower turned out, Damon rolled over and buried his face in the pillow, letting out a loud frustrated moan into the fabric.

Elena Gilbert would be the absolute death of him.

Elena swung the door shut quickly and reached over to turn the shower on. She sighed loudly and leant back against the door. Her head was a mess right now. She had no idea how she should be feelings but she was fairly certain that after what had almost happened tonight she shouldn't be standing in a bathroom fantasizing about Damon Salvatore. She groaned as the inevitable picture of him shirtless sprang into her mind. How was it possible for one man to be so sinfully good looking? Surely it wasn't fair to the rest of the male population?

She hurriedly stripped her clothes and stepped under the warm jets of water. The muscles she didn't even realize were tense instantly began to relax as she closed her eyes and tipped her head back to allow the water to wash over her face.

The memories of the night began trickling into her relaxed state of mind and immediately, the small shower cubicle became too small. She could still feel their hands on her, and their horrid, pungent breath on her face.

She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, refusing to let tonight go deeper than it had to. She was fine. They had been stopped. Damon had stopped them.

Her mind, of course, pictured him shirtless again. She sighed and relaxed once again under the stream of water. Damon Salvatore: the perfect distraction. She massages the free shampoo into her hair and washed the rest of her body with the sweet smelling soap, that smelled like vanilla and jasmine.

She reluctantly switched the shower off and stepped out of the confining cubicle. She spotted a short towel hanging on the towel rack and decided, if Damon was her distraction from reality, she might as well have some fun with it.

With the towel wrapped securely around her, Elena unlocked the door and made her way into the main room. She glanced at Damon's back, with definitely lived up to her expectations after seeing his chest. His hard muscles rippled as he rolled over and opened her eyes to look at her.

Damon groaned slightly and rolled onto his back to face the ceiling.

"You'll be the death of me. I swear you will." Damon said teasingly as he stared at the ceiling, occasionally meeting her eyes and trailing down her mostly bare body.

"I'm just looking for my cell." she replied innocently, wandering over to the chair to grab her mobile from where it had been sitting all night in her pocket. She met Damon's eyes, thoroughly amused by the desire displayed in them, and winked sweetly before retreating to the bathroom to slip on his shirt.

Standing in the bathroom, towel drying her hair with painful slowness, she let her mind wander back to the man currently lying, half naked, in the bed she was sleeping in tonight. She smirked and slipped her underwear back on, with Damon's grey t-shirt on top.

She moved silently from the bathroom to the bed, and slipped in quietly and rolling over to face Damon, starting slightly when she came face to face with his piercing eyes.

"You're mean." He pouted sadly. "You like to tease don't you?"

She grinned at him, letting herself lose the dark memories from the past week in his eyes. "It's always fun."

"It's not just fun for you though." He pointed out reasonably. "I'm not stupid. I've known you long enough to tell you three things that you gotta deal with, Elena." His tone was kind, with just a hint of the arrogant, cocky Damon underneath but no matter how kind he was she didn't want to be told how to deal with things.

She glared at him and didn't say a word.

He glared straight back. "You refuse to talk to anyone. Why can't you just talk to someone?" he shot out straight away. "What's stopping you?"

"I don't need to talk to someone!" she insisted darkly. "What makes you think I do? I can deal fine, by myself." Damon acted like she hadn't replied.

"That was number one. Number two: you act like nothing has happened to you, Elena." Damon said, his tone was pleading now. All he wanted for her was for her to be okay. "And things have happened to you, bad things and if you don't talk they're just gonna build up and build up until you let it get on top of you!"

"I'm dealing." She snapped at him through gritted teeth.

"No." he said forcefully to her. "You're not. At all."

"Are you done?" she said, glaring at him. "I'm tired."

"Again, no. Number three: you deflect everything. You use whatever you can as a distraction and honestly Elena, if you don't start growing up and accepting what's happened to you I don't want to stick around and watch it take you over."

Damon abruptly reached over her and snapped the light out, plunging them into complete darkness.

Elena didn't reply for a long time, and by Damon's breathing he was still awake. Her mind was raging an internal battle with itself. She knew he was right. She deflected, she distracted and she denied everything. She glared at the faint outline of him through the darkness. He clearly wasn't shy about speaking up when the occasion called for it.

She wanted to hate him.

He'd walked into her life literally days ago and suddenly it seemed like he knew her better than anything. He had made her question everything about herself. All her deep-rooted beliefs about how she should handle everything life threw at her, even her old life and what it had been and what it had meant.

The sighed in defeat and rolled over to face him and leant her head comfortably against the very edge of his chest. She felt his sigh too. Slowly, the arm he had been resting his head on came down to rest lightly on her back and ever so gently pull her closer to him.

Slowly, as she drifted into sleep Elena came to a conclusion that scared her as much as it made her smile.

Damon Salvatore was either the best thing for her–

Or the worst.