Guilty Until Proven Innocent
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Summary: Recently released from prison for a crime she didn't commit, Elena returns to Mystic Falls to clear her name to the people who matter, one of whom includes a blue eyed, raven haired man who once stole her heart, but will he listen to her after believing for two years she was the sole reason his family fell apart? DE. Angst aplenty.
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Chapter 11
You Want Me Down on Earth But I Am Up in Space
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"This is by far and away the worst plan ever."
Elena stepped out of her bathroom feeling uncomfortable as hell in the outfit Rebekah had fished out for her from her own stash. She was dressed in a mini skirt so short that it revealed just about the entire length of her legs, whereas the top half of her was clad in a violet corset top that clenched her ribs so tightly that she found it near on impossible to breathe. Dark boots finished the outfit, the kind that had a weapon for a heel, the leather squeaking so loudly it could've been used as a sound effect in a theatre.
"You look so... unyou," Rebekah said, but from her tone of voice it wasn't an insult, more of an observation.
"Gee, duh," Elena retorted, fidgeting restlessly, the boots continuing to squeak loudly, her entire body screaming at her to get it all off and fast. "Dressing me as... this is not going to fool Damon into thinking I've moved on. It might convince him I've had a complete breakdown, but nothing else."
Rebekah frowned. "I see your point." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I still think that outfit would be a really good way to shock the stuffing out of the good citizens of Mystic Falls but perhaps you're right about it sending the wrong message across. I did come with a plan B, and a good thing too." She threw Elena another outfit and winked at her. "Try this on. I think this is the one."
With a hefty sigh, Elena retreated into her bathroom and spent a few moments shuffling the first outfit off. There were squeaks and groans and a general cacophony of uncomfortable noises before she managed to fling the attire back in Rebekah's direction, reaching for the second ensemble with not much hope that this next outfit would be any less...revealing than the first.
In a way, she'd been right not to pin her hopes on anything too sophisticated.
But the outfit was still unbelievably stunning, and it would serve its purpose perfectly.
It was a black dress that scaled down her body gracefully, the material bunching up in light ripples, a deep slit down the side giving the whole piece a classy yet sexy vibe to it. It had a deep v-shape around the collar allowing a little cleavage to show but at the same time keeping her breasts concealed enough that it didn't treat any potential visitors to the exhibition to anything more than a sneak peek. The material felt as soft as silk, and she ran a hand down the length of the dress, smiling to herself because she'd not had chance to dress up and feel this good while doing so for a long time.
When she'd escaped for a while with Jeremy and his friends, she'd not bothered to dress up really. Caroline had always taught her that the way you dressed gave off the vibe of the night, and that what you wore was almost as important as what body signals you gave off to achieve a good night out. If you dressed casual, that was all the night would be. If you dressed like you wanted a one night stand, that would inevitably be the outcome you achieved.
Likewise, if you wanted to knock someone off their high horse, you had to dress like you wanted to kill, and Elena was pretty damn sure that was the effect her outfit was going for.
"Beautiful," Rebekah commented, whistling with appreciation.
"What's beautiful?" Jenna asked, walking into the room.
She stopped to give Elena a once over and smiled, whistling like she was a frat boy cruising past a gaggle of sorority girls.
"I see what you're going for, and I approve," she said with a smirk. "I have an entire rack of clothes dedicated to getting revenge on men who have wronged me." She peered down before gesturing to her breasts. "Of course I have this rack as well, which when on display also does the same trick..."
"Jenna!" Elena shrieked, blushing with embarrassment. "Too much information!"
Jenna grinned. "What? It's not like you don't already know my methods for dealing with cheating and/or lying scumbags."
"I know, but still. You're my aunt! We have to have some boundaries," Elena said, without much conviction, all the while holding back laughter. "Besides, I thought you would've dumped the outfits now that you're with Ric?"
"Oh, I dump guys not dresses. I'm not an idiot," Jenna replied. "Anyway, Ric might be the first decent guy I've dated in forever but he's still a guy. He'll mess up somehow and I've got an array of I-told-you-so outfits ready to flaunt in his face whenever that occasion arises."
"I love you," Rebekah proclaimed, looking like she'd found her soul mate in Jenna.
Looking slightly surprised at Rebekah's vehement response to her otherwise candid statement, Jenna gave a mock bow.
"Not the first time a woman has said that to me just FYI," she informed them, waggling her eyebrows, heading out towards the door, adding, "I'll leave you girls to it. Don't do anything I wouldn't!"
"We'll be in for a very boring night out if that's the rule we're going by! There's nothing you won't do if there's alcohol involved." Elena called after her, laughing as Jenna cackled all the way down the stairs.
"You need something doing with your hair too," Rebekah mused, tugging at Elena's hair thoughtfully. "Has Damon ever seen it in any other style?"
"I've had it curly once or twice," Elena admitted. "I've never really been much more adventurous than that."
A wicked smile uncurled Rebekah's lips.
"Do you trust me?" she asked, innocently enough, although there was a mischievous flare to her eyes that instantly alerted Elena to the fact that what would follow this particular dress up session wouldn't be particularly pleasant.
Rebekah, after all, was the kind of woman you burned down the neighbourhood with, and you had to be all in every step of the way. Elena found that kind of refreshing in a friend, especially considering what happened with Bonnie and Caroline. Even now, thinking about them gave her a sensation close to heart burn; she missed them and hated them with equal fervour, depending on her mood.
She shook off this temporary cloud of gloom, and smiled, electing to adopt a just-go-with-it attitude.
"I do. What did you have in mind?"
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"So, for a family party this isn't so bad, right?" Rose asked, running her hand through Damon's soft black locks.
He grimaced.
"My mother and my brother aren't here, so technically this isn't a family party ergo yes it is that bad," he retorted, before he exhaled sharply. "Sorry. I've got that damn announcement in my head. What was the man thinking, printing it? It was complete bullshit!"
"I thought it was sweet," Rose said, her brow creased as if she couldn't figure out what was really driving him mad. "The wording was cheesy as hell, and I think the majority of it did sound like it had been made up, but if this announcement is your father's way of making peace with you, who are we to judge?"
"My father never gives gestures of peace or goodwill." Damon took a long gulp of his bourbon, his expression still as sour as a lemon. "He does things like this to send a message, or to manipulate me in some way. It's always been the old man's style. This is his way of trying to entice me back in. If I refuse, I'll bet you a thousand bucks he retracts it, or runs a smear campaign against your family or something... He always does it to the people he doesn't like, or thinks might ruin the Salvatore reputation."
Rose looked as if she was going to say something, but evidently let the thought go, instead settling for leaning against him, feeling his entire body shake against hers, the agitation pulsating through his chest like a strong wave.
There was only a select few who'd been invited to this party, and Damon, frankly, cared for none of the people who'd shown up, aside from Rose of course. His father had turned up, given some speech about the fact they needed to set aside their differences and work together, and whilst they'd momentarily locked horns - as always - on the matter of him returning, his father had surprisingly - and suspiciously - retreated on the matter, insisting he'd give him time to think the offer over. He now was in the corner of the Mystic Grill consulting with some of his business associates over a deal they were trying to close.
Trust his father to bring business to a party - his own son's party at that.
Damon fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"I'm going to go freshen up," Rose said, pecking him on the lips. "Try not to bite your father's head off if he does come over to talk again, okay?"
"No promises," Damon grumbled, but he squeezed Rose's hand, their silent code for saying I'll try.
He watched her walk away, her body sashaying its way through the evening crowds until she was out of sight, and then he dropped his head in his hands, his entire body relaxing. For some reason, he always seemed to be tightly wound around her, particularly since Elena had come back into town, and there was no explanation as to why he felt that way. He wasn't starting anything back up with his ex-girlfriend - hell, he wanted nothing to do with her - but it was like having the two loves of his life in the same universe, let alone the same town, had this effect on him where it felt like his heart was being clawed into. It wasn't so much that he panicked at the thought of them meeting - he'd made his history with Elena as clear and concise as possible with Rose before they became serious, so she knew what she was getting herself into - but he didn't like the idea that one could influence the other. It spelled bad news.
Damon would never know what made him turn his head at that particular moment. It could've been the sound of the door opening, or the fact the song in the background changed to Black Velvet, an old but classic song, or if he'd been a die-hard romantic he might've even suggested it was just the fact his entire body was conditioned to follow her, even if their relationship had been burned to ashes. Either way, he turned and what he saw made his jaw slacken to an almost cartoon style degree, his heart pounding like he was on the precipice of losing his virginity all over again.
Elena had walked through the door, a surprising swing in her step as she strode confidently in but it wasn't that which had made everything inside him quiver. Her once long hair had been cut dramatically short to a length just an inch or so longer than a bob, and it had been dyed a stronger, darker brown. She was clad in a short dress that showed so much skin, and emphasised her beautifully long legs - of which he'd always been a fan - and the fabric just sort of...hugged her figure, yet scaled and accentuated her curves at the same time. To cap it all off, she'd gone for a completely different make-up style, using darker eye-shadow and bold eyeliner creating an effect that he wasn't completely at ease with.
Her old make-up style had just been easy and simple: light colours, simple styles, all helping to accentuate what was already there.
The new style appeared to be creating a completely new Elena altogether...and the worst part was it wasn't exactly unattractive. Very much the opposite in fact.
Despite the ring he'd placed on another woman's finger, despite the fact he'd mentally and verbally cut all ties with her, despite the fact his heart had shattered over her, Damon's body still reacted to this visage in the only way it could: by tightening in all the wrong ways, in all the wrong places.
She was with a blonde woman, who had an arm around her and was guiding her inside, the two of them quite chatty, quite happy.
Damon thought he'd known all of Elena's friends, but this was someone clearly new to town, as he didn't even recognise her from Mystic Falls. There had been talk of a new family that had just arrived - the Michaels, or something like that - so she must've been part of that entourage. She was stunning too, but there was something about her that told him to stay the hell away. She breathed attitude and heartbreak, with a dash of vengeance on the side.
He studied the pair of them as they wandered inside, heading to the bar. He noticed how a few of the locals gave Elena an appreciative once over, despite knowing what she'd done, and something inside him clenched possessively.
Stop it, his head warned his heart. You're not involved with her, remember?
It was funny how no trauma or crippling event could ever seem to erase the memory of a person, not deep down. No matter what wrong they'd done by you, or however they'd hurt you, sometimes your heart couldn't help but remember the ways in which it had fallen for someone, and that meant taking a dangerous, sometimes one way, trip down memory lane.
If she'd seen him, she clearly hadn't made any sign she'd noticed. Elena stood at the bar, laughing at a joke he would've been the one telling had things been very differently. He couldn't quite get used to her short hair, and he remembered once brushing it lazily, as she'd nestled herself against him, the two of them watching a rerun of a sitcom, still in the early stages of their romantic relationship, but already so in love...
"Well, that was unpleasant."
Damon flinched at the sound of Rose's voice, much to his chagrin. He immediately switched focus, and looked at her, noticing she looked disgruntled.
"What's unpleasant?" he asked, very much aware of how distant he sounded.
"That girl over there who just walked in just barged past me when I was coming out of the toilets." Rose shook her head, disgusted. "Some people have no manners."
"The blonde or the brunette?"
"The brunette. She had such an attitude problem. Mind you, I recognised her face from somewhere, so maybe..."
Tuning her out, Damon chewed his lip, dying to go over and speak to Elena. Rose had inadvertently presented the perfect opportunity to go over and talk to her without it seeming obvious that he wanted to know what the hell was going on with her, like he still cared. He would go over under the guise that he was sticking up for her, and it wasn't strictly a guise because he was pissed off Elena could be that rude. It was just yet another example of all the ways he'd never really known her. He was surprised as well that Rose hadn't picked up who she was, seeing how all Elena had done was cut her hair and had a make over. But maybe he could take advantage of that.
"Want me to talk to her?" he asked casually.
"No. I can fight my own battles." Rose sighed. "Besides, she's not worth it. I'm used to girls like her, believe it or not."
"At least let me get you a drink," Damon offered. "Same again?" He gestured towards her empty glass.
"Sure. Thanks."
He was already moving purposefully away before she even got the last word out. Elena was deep in conversation with her blonde companion, and her eyes finally seemed to catch his as he reached talking distance with her, and Rose was right about her attitude problem because her face seemed to immediately change. Her mouth scrunched up with contempt, and her eyes glazed over with frost, not to mention the fact her entire body seemed to shift to one side, as if she was about to strike a pose with a hand on her hip.
"You mind telling me where the fire is?" was his first question.
"What?"
"You pushed past my fiancée, rather rudely I might add, so I was just curious as to what emergency might've led you to leave all your manners behind. Or are you still acclimatising from prison?" He couldn't resist getting a jibe in, even though he knew full well he was being a class A dick.
Elena smiled sweetly at him, the sweetness of the smile marred by a tinge of contempt that spread to her eyes.
She hated him - and he hated that that bothered him.
"Sorry, Damon. I didn't realise she was there. She was such a tiny thing. And a pushover. Not your usual type at all," she quipped, and her blonde companion gave a snigger.
Damon threw a cold look at her.
"Really? Petty, jealous jokes about my fiancée? Have we gone back in time to the fifth grade?"
She flashed an equally cold look back at him.
"I kind of wish we had, because then there would be a Damon there I could actually stand, who actually had the brass nerve to stand up for his girl!"
"You weren't my girl then."
"Doesn't matter. We were friends. I was always yours, and you were always mine, no matter what label we put on our relationship." Elena received her drink gratefully from Rebekah, who was shooting Damon looks so cold they could've been plucked straight from the heart of the Antarctic. "But you know, I'm not bothered anymore. You've made your bed, now I've made mine, so either let's be civil and call this quits, or you're going to be sorry you ever heard my name."
Damon blinked, shocked by Elena's authoritative, even demanding voice.
"Are you threatening me?" he asked in disbelief. "Doesn't that violate the terms of your parole?"
Elena wanted to throw back her head and laugh.
"Fuck you for thinking you can just watch an episode of Law and Order and know what the system's like." She leaned in closer, close enough that she was breathing in his ear. "I'm not threatening you, Damon. Just making you a promise. I'm here to start over, and starting over means forgetting everything you ever were and creating something new. If you don't like who I am now just remember you had a hand in creating this." She gestured to herself. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm here to meet someone."
She slid past him gracefully, her hip bumping against his, and the smell of her perfume hit him like a train going a thousand miles an hour.
It was the one he'd bought her the very last Christmas they'd spent together.
If she was trying to convince him she no longer cared about him, she was going about it all the wrong way, although he was struggling in a haze of memories himself, trying to convince himself he didn't care. If you wore your memories like a cloak, yet cut away everything that made you the person you once was, that didn't speak of someone who'd moved on; it spoke of someone who was trying everything to move on but failing.
Of course, that train of logic flew out of his brain the moment he saw her with the same man he'd seen her with the last time they'd bumped into each other. Jealousy crawled under his skin like a parasite, and it didn't even matter he no longer had the right to feel that way.
Something about Elena made you want to hold her tightly and mark her as yours every which way you could, because you knew it was so easy for someone to walk by and catch a glimpse of her magic and fall under her spell. Hell, he'd been chasing away the unworthy guys who'd tried to date her for years before he'd really understood the reason behind it.
When Rose went up to see what was holding him up, he shook her off and walked out, needing the fresh air and space to work out what the hell was going through his mind.
When he caught a glimpse back at Elena, he could've sworn she'd glanced his way and actually smiled.
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Elena was enjoying Elijah's company. He was charming, sophisticated, and spoke every word like he was savouring it, not to mention he was handsome as sin.
All the same, she couldn't help feel a pinch of guilt that she knew deep down she was using him, although it wasn't quite using him so much as dipping her toes back in the dating scene. If it served to score against her ex boyfriend as well, who was she to deny the pleasure of that?
Damon deserved to watch all the different ways he was losing her forever, and if anybody ever questioned that, she would just describe to them the way she'd not only lost him when she'd first been arrested, when he'd stood back and froze, unable to say a single word in her deference, but that she'd lost him when he'd watched her enter her plea, his eyebrows actually rising in disbelief as if he couldn't fathom why she'd entered the plea of not guilty instead of admitting to her supposed guilt. She'd also had to watch him walk away after the verdict was announced, and there would never be a moment where she could forgive him for not even staying to watch her react. Maybe if he'd held on that extra minute, he might've watched the despair and heartbreak ripple across her face. Maybe he might've felt something inside him scream the truth and that might've been what pulled him out of whatever stupor he'd been under to allow the farce of a trial to go ahead.
She'd never know what he would've done had everything been different.
"Elena, I must leave now, but I would very much like to see you again," Elijah spoke across her thoughts, smiling in that way that should've melted her to the ground but didn't, although it was a pleasant enough smile. "If that's alright with you, of course?"
Turned out Damon's heart-melting smiles had ruined other men for her.
Go figure.
"That would be lovely," Elena said, smiling back at him, wondering if he saw the broken girl behind the smile and whether he was in some way second guessing his offer.
They exchanged details of when they were free, made sure they had each other's best contact details, and then Elijah raised her hand to his lips, kissing it gently before saying goodbye to his sister and then departing.
"So, that went well," Rebekah commented slyly. "You pissed off Damon and got my brother interested in dating again." She looked smug. "I should go into the revenge matchmaking business."
"You'd have a very small niche of people to work with," Elena remarked drily.
"It's a bigger market out there than you'd think. I could call it Spurned Hearts."
Rebekah sounded like she was joking, but Elena wondered if there was something deeper to what she was saying. Since she'd left prison herself, Rebekah hadn't held down a job, and she was just as much of a lost cause as Elena was. They were very similar people, who'd both been broken by the people they'd loved, the people they'd trusted. The only difference between the pair of them was that Rebekah didn't have her ex still in the picture, still haunting her, taunting her with his happiness.
Elena's night had been a mixed bag of results, but she decided that the best way to get over Damon would be to help Rebekah move on with her life. Maybe sorting someone else's mess out would help her clear her own. As much fun as it had been to dress up, to cut away the old Elena - quite literally, in the case of her hair - it was still a case of playing pretend. The bitterness, the heartbreak, the misery was still compacted inside her chest, but she'd at least found a way to contain it... for the moment.
"Okay, you've found me some action, let's go and find you some," she suggested, scanning the bar for potential victims.
"No. No way, I'm done with men!" Rebekah protested. "I'm done with dating in general, actually."
"That's the exact line you always say right before you meet the love of your life." Elena folded her arms, looking smug. "If How I Met Your Mother taught me anything, it's that relationship disasters are a positive thing. They tell you what you're not looking for and points you straight to your soul mate."
"Ugh. That show." Rebekah rolled her eyes. "If my dating life spans to the equivalent of nine seasons, please do me the decency of putting me down. I refuse to spend even a quarter of my life chasing a decent man who won't break my heart. It's not worth it."
"Men never are, but you're not chasing a man, you're chasing love. For all you know, the love of your life could be a woman."
Rebekah considered that. "Hm, fair play. I half hope it is. As bitchy as women can get, they come with much less baggage." She raised a glass. "Here's to chasing love wherever it may fall from."
"And to our well deserved happy endings," Elena added, and they clinked their glasses together, both hit with the same burst of optimism that maybe things would be okay.
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After Rebekah had abandoned Elena for the extremely hot, if slightly gawky looking guy she'd found staring at her half the night, she found herself not really knowing what to do, or where to be so she'd wandered around the bar for a bit, noticing even those who'd begun their descent into intoxication still shied away from her, not really knowing what to do or say since she was the local pariah - at least for the time being.
Damon had long since retreated, and his fiancée had, after much cursing under her breath, gone after him. It surprised Elena that she didn't feel anything about the fact they seemed to experiencing a setback in their relationship, other than perhaps a twinge of guilt. Despite the new hairdo, the emboldened attitude, she couldn't completely become a whole new person. It just wasn't right to sacrifice basic decency and compassion for the sake of one-upping Damon in a contest of who-is-more-over-who.
Now, she sat outside nursing a glass of wine, musing over her next steps. She felt Giuseppe's presence before she saw him, and the entire night suddenly took a sinister twist.
He hadn't really aged much since she'd seen him, but then again he'd always looked old and decrepit, and she'd put that down to his vile personality and the lack of a compassionate nature, even towards his own children. He stood beside her, also nursing a drink, and he wore an expression that she couldn't decipher, yet she wanted to slap it off him all the same.
"It's been a while since we've last spoken," he stated, his voice cool and authoritative as ever. "How have you been?"
"Don't pretend you care," she shot back, her hands clenched into fists, her brow squeezed so tightly, she could've passed for forty with all the wrinkles her skin had bunched up into. "I know you don't give a damn about me. You never have."
"Very well. I shall dispense with the formalities." She felt his cold gaze on her like she was a deer trapped in front of headlights with no way out. "I want you nowhere near my son, or the rest of my family come to think of it."
Elena had to refrain from rolling her eyes.
"Don't worry, I have no plans to go near Damon ever again. Don't pretend this is just because of my going to prison though. You've never liked me, and I've never understood why," she retorted.
"The reasons for that are my own," Giuseppe said smoothly. "In an ideal world, you'd have left this town the moment you were released, but then, you never do what's expected of you, do you Miss Gilbert?"
"I find life becomes rapidly boring if you do everything everyone expects you to do."
"The new look suits you," Giuseppe said with a hint of a sneer to his voice. "A trashy look for a trashy girl."
Elena's jaw tightened.
Really? she thought angrily. It's not enough that you undermine me in every other aspect, now you have to insult me?
God, she hated the man and everything he stood for.
"My son was clearly rattled by your presence here tonight," he continued, perfectly aware of her anger judging by the smirk that lingered around the corners of his mouth. "And for good reason, I suspect. Before you arrived, he'd made a clean break, and started over with a woman from a perfectly respectable family, and if anything disrupts that, there will be hell to pay." He straightened his jacket before adding coldly, "I would hate to see that pretty face of yours behind bars again."
Elena stiffened, suddenly aware of a truth that had never quite dawned on her until now, yet it was entirely unsurprising when she actually thought about it.
"It's your fault I ended up in prison, isn't it?" she said, the anger and betrayal causing her voice to catch in her throat. "You framed me, somehow, didn't you?"
"Now what possible motive could I have for doing so?" Giuseppe asked, innocently enough, but she'd seen the truth in his dark, unforgiving eyes. "I think you'll find that accusation has no ground to it."
"Maybe not right now, but I'll find the damn evidence to prove it all the same," Elena challenged. "You're a self-righteous, cruel bastard, Giuseppe, and I always knew you wanted me and Damon apart but not like this... Never like this."
She had to turn away to stop herself from crying.
"Can I ask why?" she said, turning back around once she'd regained a little control. "Why do you hate me so much? You owe me at least that, surely?"
Giuseppe remained expressionless.
"As I said, Miss Gilbert, my reasons are my own. Just know the longer you remain in town, the more...unpleasant your life will become. If you moved elsewhere, you wouldn't have to face the burden of living every day in a town that doesn't trust you. You could start anew. Be someone different."
Elena's face hardened.
"I'm sure you'd love that, so that's really the only reason I need to stay," she snapped. "Stay away from me, Giuseppe, or maybe, just maybe, I'll find the evidence to prove you are the one the town shouldn't trust. After all, what more can you possibly do to me that hasn't already been done?"
She walked away, but as she did so, Giuseppe couldn't resist getting the last word in.
"You might want to think again about taking that offer up, Miss Gilbert. I rarely give people who stand in my way a second chance, and I'd rather not go to the effort of chasing you out of town myself. I prefer to give people the chance to jump rather than be pushed."
She didn't turn back round. She couldn't stand looking at him any longer than she absolutely had to.
"I'd rather be pushed, Mr Salvatore, than run away. As much as my entire body wants to break free from this hell, I know better than to do so. Your son was the one who taught me that to face a bully, the first thing you do is look him in the eyes and show him you're not afraid, give him no weakness to exploit so it takes away his power, and then that's when you fight back. You've already shown me exactly who you are, Giuseppe; please allow me to show you exactly who I am."
And on those words, Elena strode out of sight, angry, betrayed, but not altogether surprised.
A/n: Sorry for the delay in getting this up! Frankly, it's a miracle these days I'm still managing to keep up three fanfics as I have a terrible habit of deleting the ones I know I won't finish. Luckily, the ones I'm intending to finish are my pride and joy and you'll have my guarantee I'll get them finished. This chapter was a joy to write because the words just kept flowing and honestly I just enjoyed writing a different and snarkier side to Elena. I know not everyone will enjoy that, so if you keep reading despite the odd moments you may not like/get, bless you! It's appreciated! Things will remain hostile between Damon and Elena for a while.
By the way, was going to write in the bit about Caroline and Bonnie this chapter but I couldn't fit it in anywhere so that will come next chapter. Chapter 13, to let you know, will be the chapter where we find out what Elena was charged with and it will be a special chapter, and you'll see why, so that's not the next chapter but the chapter after that you'll finally get some answers! Hope you like where this is going.
As you may also have observed at this chapter, Damon has inexplicably hit upon a cold truth which he cannot see the bigger picture behind, so if you've already spotted that little titbit, congratulations because that observation is going to come back to bite him in the ass! See you next chapter. Thank you for all your reviews and just responding so favourably to the story. I appreciate it more than I can ever say!
