Damon and I ran over to Elena's overturned car. She screamed as Damon dropped down to the pavement to look in the window.
"How ya doing in there?" Damon asked.
"Damon?" She asked in disbelief and confusion.
"You look stuck." He noted.
"It's my seatbelt… I can't get it." She was in tears by now.
"Shh, shh, shhh… Let me get you out of here. I want you to put your hands on the roof. Just like that. Beth, come here and make sure she doesn't knock herself out when I release her." Damon said. I dropped down beside him, ignoring the rough feeling of the pavement. I reached into the car, holding onto Elena's shoulders to hold her steady.
"One…two…three." Damon released her seatbelt. I caught her as she started to fall against the roof. Damon pulled her out of the car and picked her up.
"Are you okay? Can you stand? Is anything broken?" Damon asked worriedly. I hopped off the pavement and walked around him to look at her. She didn't seem hurt, just shaken up.
"Uh-uh." She muttered. Damon put her down. She started to fall and Damon caught her, kneeling down so he could hold her up as she sat down. I kneeled beside her.
"Whoa, you're fading fast. Elena, look at me, look at me!" Damon told her.
"I look like her…"
"What?" Damon and I asked in unison. She fainted, going limp in Damon's arms. He sighed, a sound of confusion and worry.
"Okay, well… Upsy daisy…" He picked her up again and then slowly stood up. He headed off down the road and I jogged after him.
"Where are you taking her?" I asked.
"She might be fun to have with me. We're going on a road-trip. You coming?" I had no idea what he was talking about. But if Damon hurt Elena, Stefan would be devastated. I sighed. I guess I was playing babysitter…
"Sure. Why not?"
"Morning." Damon said to Elena as she woke up several hours later. We were in his car, driving down a road in Georgia.
"Where are we?" She asked, looking around and suddenly wide awake.
"Georgia." Damon told her.
"Georgia? No, no… No, no we're not in Georgia. Seriously, Damon, where are we?" She asked, looking around again. He looked annoyed now.
"Seriously, we're in Georgia. How ya feeling?" Damon asked.
"I…I…" Elena sputtered.
"There's no broken bones... I checked." I told her, leaning forward from the backseat. She jumped at the sound of my voice, just now seeing that I was in the car with them too. She looked slightly relieved that I was there too but then her expression turned back to worry.
"But my car…there was a man…I hit a man… But then he got up…Who was that?" Elena asked, looking between me and Damon.
"That's what I want to know." Damon said.
"Where's my phone? Okay, we really need to go back. Nobody knows where I am… Pull over. I mean it, Damon. Pull over! Stop the car!" Elena demanded.
"Oh you were so much fun when you were asleep…" Damon complained. He pulled over and Elena climbed out. She started to trip and Damon sped vampire-speed out of the car to catch her. She looked at him strangely when his expression turned to concern. I climbed out of the car and went over to them.
"I'm fine. We have to go back." Elena told him.
"Oh come on, we've already come this far!" Damon complained.
"Why are you doing this? I can't be in Georgia. I wrecked my car. I have to go home. This is kidnapping!" Elena protested.
"That's a melodramatic, don't you think?" Damon asked.
"You're not funny! You can't do this! I'm not going to Georgia!"
"Well, you're in Georgia." I corrected her.
"Without your magic little necklace, I might add. I can very easily make you more… agreeable." Damon told her. I glared at him.
"Damon…" I warned.
"What are you trying to prove?" Elena asked. Then her phone rang. Damon had taken it and now had it in his own pocket. She looked at him questioningly.
"That's my phone." She pointed out. He pulled it out of his pocket.
"Mmm… It's your boyfriend. I'll take it." He answered it. "Elena's phone."
"Where is she? Why do you have her phone? Is she okay?" Stefan asked worriedly on the other end.
"Elena? She's right here. And yes, she's fine."
"Where are you? Let me speak to her!"
"He wants to talk to you." Damon told her, looking over at her again. Elena just shook her head as she leaned against the car, arms folded across her chest.
"Uh-uh." She said.
"Yeah, I don't think she wants to talk to you right now." Damon said into the phone.
"Damon, I swear to god if you touch her-."
"You have a good day. Bye-now." Damon hung up, a smirk on his face. He turned back to Elena, but kept her phone, tucking it back into his pocket. I took my own phone out of my pocket.
"Give me a minute." I walked a couple feet away and hit my first speed dial to dial Stefan. He picked up on the first ring.
"Beth, Damon has-."
"I know, I'm here with him. Look, I'll make sure that he doesn't hurt her, but we can't come home yet. Damon is insisting on going somewhere with the two of us. Just trust me."
"She doesn't have her necklace!"
"I won't let Damon compel her to do anything, Stefan." I heard Damon calling for me to get in the car so we can keep moving.
"Gotta go." I hung up before he could protest and went to get back in the car.
"So where's my car?" Elena asked after a long boring silence.
"Beth and I pulled it off to the side of the road before we left. I don't think anyone will both with it..." Damon assured her.
"What about the man in the road? Was he a…?"
"From what we could tell, yeah." I told her.
"You didn't know him?"
"Elena, it's not like we all hang out at the vamp-bar-and-grill." Damon told her. He pulled up in front of a bar.
"Where are we? You brought me to a bar? Damon, Beth and I aren't old enough. They won't let us in." Elena told him.
"Technically, I'm a lot older than you." I told her, annoyed.
"Sure they will." Damon told her. We climbed out of the car and walked into the bar. No one stopped us from just walking in. Damon walked over to the bar and the tall African American woman there hopped over the bar to greet him.
"No, it can't be! Damon. My honey pie!" She grabbed Damon and kissed him. Elena looked greatly surprised. I was sure I looked the same.
"Listen up everyone! Here's to the man that broke my heart, crushed my soul, destroyed my life and ruined any and all chances of happiness!" The woman said as she poured shots for everyone. Damon looked oddly proud of himself for that.
"Drink up!" She said. Everyone toasted to my brother as the woman scooted the shots towards us. Damon and I drank while Elena didn't.
"So how'd he rope you girls in?" She asked, turning to Elena and me.
"He's my brother, not boyfriend." I told her.
"I'm not roped in. I'm actually dating his-." Elena started.
"Honey, if you're not roped, you're whipped. Either way, enjoy the ride!" The woman interrupted with a huge smile.
"Okay… So how'd you guys meet?" Elena asked the woman. That's what I wanted to know. I'd never even heard of this girl before now but they obviously knew each other well.
"College." The woman answered.
"You went to college?" Elena asked Damon.
"I've been on a college campus, yes." Damon said, smiling.
"About twenty years ago, when I was sweet young freshman, I met this beautiful man and I fell in love… And then he told me his little secret and it made me love him more, because you see, I had a little secret of my own I was dying to share with someone." She said. Damon leaned in to whisper to us.
"She's a witch."
"Changed my world, you know…" The woman continued. Damon smirked.
"I rocked your world!" My phone rang and I left to answer it. I stepped outside before I answered it. It was Stefan, of course.
"Beth, where are you? I need to come get Elena."
"No, you don't need to come get her, Stefan; we're taking care of her. What did you do to upset her because apparently she's pissed at you?" I asked.
"She saw a picture of Katherine in my bedroom… She knows she looks exactly like Katherine now." Stefan admitted.
"And you kept a picture of Katherine why?"
"I don't know why I kept it, Beth, maybe for memories sake… Look, what do you mean 'taking care of her'?" He asked.
"I mean she's fine and we'll make sure nothing happens to her." I told him. Elena walked past me to Damon's car, talking on the phone. I listened in to just one word to recognize her Aunt Jenna's voice.
"You sure she's okay?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm looking at her right now." I told him.
"Give the phone to her." He demanded.
"Don't think she wants to talk to you; otherwise she would have called you by now. She has her phone Stefan. Be patient, kay? Yeah, I'm going to hang up whether you like it or not… Bye." I hung up. Elena hung up on her aunt and then her phone rang again. She groaned. Obviously Stefan… I walked into the bar to give her some privacy.
"Let's just say that I'm descended from Katherine… Would that make me half vampire?" Elena asked as we ate.
"Vampires can't procreate. But we love to try." He popped a fry in his mouth and smirked at her. I rolled my eyes and ate one of my own fries.
"If you were related, Katherine would have to have had a child before she turned into a vampire." I told her, trying to be more helpful than Damon.
"Did Stefan think he could use me to replace her?" She asked us as she carefully picked the pickles off from her hamburger.
"Kind of creepy if you ask me… You don't like pickles? What's wrong with you?" Damon asked. He grabbed the pickles off her plate and ate them himself.
"How can you two even eat? If you're technically…" She trailed off.
"Dead?" We asked in unison.
"It's not such a bad word, Elena. As long as I keep a healthy diet of blood in my system, my body functions pretty normally." Damon told her.
"This nice act… Is any of it real?" She asked.
"Here you go." Bree (the owner and bartender; I'd learned her name) interrupted us, handing a beer over me to Damon. He took it with a smile.
"Thank you."
"I'll have one too." Elena said.
"Hmm?" Damon asked, surprised. I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Time out, remember? For five minutes? Well, in that five minutes, I'm gonna need a beer." She explained. Bree smiled and handed her one too.
"There you go…"
"Ready… Go!" Elena downed her shot faster than Damon or I could down ours. She clapped her hands and did a little dance.
"That's three!" She looked over at Damon and pretended to pout.
"Aw, do you need a bib?" She asked.
"Sorry I can't unhinge my jaw like a snake to consume alcohol, Elena." Damon told her.
"Whatever. Alright, whose next?"
"Elena, you should be on the floor." I told her.
"I'm not even drunk… My tolerance is, like, up here!" She laughed as she jumped up with her hand above her head.
"Yep, you're drunk, all right..." I told her. I turned my attention to Damon as Bree poured another shot for Elena.
"You're explaining this crap to Stefan when we get back, because she'll probably be passed out." I told him. He smirked and drank another shot.
"Where's your girl?" Bree asked. I was sitting at the bar, eating my third or fourth helping of fries. Damon was beside me, still taking shots. We both looked around the bar for Elena.
"She was right back there." Damon muttered. He got up and headed for the door. I shoved another fry in my mouth and followed. I looked around outside with Damon and saw her phone on the ground. I ran over to pick it up.
"Damon." I held it up for him to see when he turned towards me. He ran over and grabbed the phone from my hand. He looked around again.
"Stay here."
"Why?" I demanded.
"She might have just been stumbling around and she'll go back inside. You can grab her there and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. Plus I'd prefer not to explain to Stefan why both his little sister and his girlfriend are drunk and hurt if things go south." I gave him a death look, but went back inside as he walked around the bar. Bree looked surprised as I walked back up to the bar.
"You're…you're not with Damon?"
"No… Should I be?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You were Lexi's friend too, right?" She asked shakily.
"Best friends… How did you know her?" I asked.
"She was my friend too! And your brother killed her! This is just revenge!" Bree almost yelled. Damon… Crap. I turned to get out to him.
"Not happening, honey!" Suddenly pain popped into my head. It hurt so much I screamed and collapsed on the ground.
"I can pop blood vessels in a vampire's brain. It won't kill you, but it'll hurt…" Bree told me as she stood over me. I barely heard it over my own screaming. She kneeled down beside me and the pain in my head stopped. I growled, letting my fangs extend and eyes go black.
"And I think it's time for you to leave." She flicked her hand and I flew out the door, landing hard on the pavement outside and rolling. I stopped myself from another roll and painfully got to my feet.
"Beth?!" Damon and Elena ran over to me.
"Oh, hey, apparently some evil guy is coming after you." I told Damon, still holding my head painfully. He took my hands away from my head and looked me over, obviously looking for something wrong with me on the outside.
"Yeah, we took care of him… He's gone… What happened to you?" Damon asked worriedly.
"Bree's a witch. And I'm not referring to the magical kind! Did you know she can pop blood vessels in your brain? And she's the one that sent that guy after you, FYI." I told him.
"I'll take care of her… You two should go sit in the car." Damon said. He stormed back into the bar. I took Elena's arm and led her back to Damon's car. She climbed into the front seat and I hopped into the backseat.
"Is Damon always this… protective of you?"
"Always. Ever since I was born… He's eight years older than me and apparently he thought there was an unspoken rule that he had to defend me with his life no matter what…" I told her, leaning back and still holding my head, even though the pain had stopped.
"I never knew that side of Damon existed…" I looked at her. She was shaking her head in disbelief. I crawled over into the driver's seat to look at her.
"Look, Elena, I know you think of Damon as this evil, bad, horrible guy, but he's not… He's hurt, that's why he does what he does. If you saw him when he was human, or even when he was a new vampire, I'd bet my undead life on it that you would fall in love with him, not Stefan."
"Stefan is better than-."
"Than Damon? Don't ever say that, not to me. You think you know my brothers, but you don't. Not as well as I know them. I've known them since I was born in 1848, Elena, and I have been with them through their good times and bad. I won't talk to you about Stefan… I know you love each other and I will not get in the middle of that. But all vampires do bad things. Stefan's a vampire and he has done things he regrets and I regret for him. Damon has too, I won't deny, but they aren't the Good Brother and the Evil Brother. They're my brothers." Damon opened the car door.
"Yeah, you are so not driving my car, little sis." He told me. I couldn't help but notice his hand was bloody, though he was hurriedly wiping it off with a napkin. I doubted it was his own blood…
"Just keeping your seat warm and talking to Elena, big bro." I climbed back into the backseat. He got into the front seat and drove out of the parking lot. Once we were on the road, Elena turned to Damon.
"So why did you bring me with you?"
"Well, you're not the worst company in the world Elena… You should give yourself more credit." He answered.
"Seriously."
"You were in the road, all damsel-in-distress-like… And I knew if I brought you along, then Beth would come to watch out for you. And that meant that I got to spend some time with my little sis as well… And it would piss Stefan off. And you're not the worst company in the world, Elena."
"I used to be more fun…" She muttered.
"You did okay." Damon told her.
"I saved your life!" She said. I didn't even want to know what she was talking about. Between the hang-over from all the shots I did and the whole witch-blood-vessel-popping thing, I was kind of out of it.
"I know…" Damon said.
"And don't you forget it!"
The next morning I lied on the couch in the living room of the Salvatore Boarding House. I was half asleep, but not fully. I sat up when I heard Elena running down the stairs. She came over to me. I saw she was crying.
"What did Stefan do?" I asked, standing up.
"Nothing… He…he found out that I was adopted… My parents weren't my parents and…and Jeremy's not my brother…." She sobbed. I awkwardly hugged her. I had no idea why she was telling me this.
"Did you know?" She asked.
"If I did, wouldn't I be the first to tell you? I'm socially awkward, blunt and… as much as I hate to admit, you are my best friend." I told her. She pulled away from the awkward hug.
"Thanks… Sorry, I just needed to tell someone what I'd found out." She mumbled, wiping her eyes. I nodded understandingly.
"I've got to get home… Thank you for the fun day, Beth. And for coming to look out for me." She said. I nodded again.
"No problem, Elena. Be careful."
"I will." She walked out the door, still softly crying as she went. I sat back down on the couch.
"Well this town gets stranger by the minute…"