Title: Almost

Summary: Elena and Damon have been friends with benefits on and off for several years. What happens when one of them wants more and it's too late?

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being made from this work.

A/N: I know! I know! This chapter took forever! I had job interviews and my last TVD convention to blame so hopefully you can forgive me because you're going to hate me all over again when you reach the end of this chapter…

Huge thank yous go to my amazing beta and proofreader! If you haven't already I suggest you read Claiming Hearts and Spaces by Morgan (morvamp) because it's officially finished and it's completely wrecked my soul with its perfection. I don't know how she does it! xx


Shock. There was no other word to describe what she was feeling as Bonnie's words hit her. She couldn't believe it. The Damon she was with tonight wouldn't do that, wouldn't hook up with Katherine again of all people. He couldn't possibly disrespect her that much. Especially when they hadn't gone a day without each other. That would mean he'd been doubling up. Was that even possible?

In a last ditch effort to settle her building anxiety and out of respect for what she was feeling, Elena reasoned, "She's lying. She has to be."

"She's not, Elena," Caroline said, placing a sympathetic hand on her arm.

It was Bonnie who drove the point home and shattered any hopes of a future with Damon.

"I saw the text messages, Elena. Pictures. I even double checked the number to make sure they weren't fake. He was meeting up with her when you had to go home or after school. He's been lying to you this whole time."

It was all true. Bonnie had made sure of it before. There wasn't a single shred of hope to cling to, a state of denial to stand in. Damon had been hooking up with Katherine — the one person making her life at school a living hell — and doing it on days he was with her. The player she had once thought was long gone was back with a backstabbing vengeance. Though backstabbing was probably not the right word. It wasn't painful enough. Each sentence Bonnie said was like a dagger right to the heart.

"I can't believe he would hook up with her," Elena breathed, her eyes straight ahead and her mind a million miles away. She thought back on every jab Katherine had been throwing at her since that fight in the cafeteria. Katherine had turned everyone against her, tried to trip her and badmouthed her as she tried to make it through a school day. She did all of this with the knowledge that she was hooking up with Damon, too.

Katherine Pierce may have been jealous that Damon was hooking up with Elena, but it wasn't because she wanted him, too. It was because she wanted him all to herself.

And at this point, she could fucking have him.

"This is such bullshit," Elena stated, more firmly. The truth that she was being forced to deal with still felt like a pierce in the heart but it was also somehow filling her up with this freedom and absolute indifference. She hadn't asked Damon to be faithful to her, hadn't asked him to only be with her. There was only one thing she asked of him as a friend—not to double up his hookups. And he had broken that one rule in the worst way possible. It made backing away from their arrangement and her ultimate feelings a whole lot easier.

"Just screw him, Elena," Caroline stated. "Well, don't actually screw him because he doesn't deserve that anymore, but you know what I mean."

Elena slammed her hands on the steering wheel and put the car in drive and started heading down to the beach. She wanted as much distance between her and Damon as possible before she did something stupid like go to his house and beat the crap out of him.

"Do you want me to drive?" Bonnie asked, warily.

Shaking her head, Elena said, "No. I'm okay. Well, I'm not. But driving is keeping me calm."

"As long as that calm doesn't drive us off a bridge."

"It won't. Just get my mind off it." She released a sigh, letting the stress and anger roll of her back. It could be put on hold for now. This weekend could be used to put it out of her mind and figure out what she wanted to do about it after. For now, she had a weekend of fun planned with her girls and the last thing she needed was more drama to ruin it. "Tell me how prom went."

One shared glance between Bonnie and Caroline was all that was needed before they both launched into stories of all the fun she had missed.


The mood in the car was much different when they pulled up to the hotel. The girls were laughing, music was blasting, and they were all having a great time. The hour long drive had been filled with stories as Bonnie and Caroline both gushed about prom. Caroline's version was a fairytale; filled with stolen kisses and spending the whole night on the dance floor in Stefan's arms. Bonnie's night, while filled with dancing, had been peppered not with kisses but deep conversation. Jamie and her talked about everything and really connected; and while they had held hands and touched all night, he hadn't kissed her until the very end of the night when he dropped her off.

When every detail had been dissected and properly gushed about, Caroline pulled out a CD from her purse and the rest of the drive had been spent singing out-of-tune to their favorite songs and show tunes until they finally pulled up to their hotel on the boardwalk. All three girls exited the car with smiles on their faces as they grabbed their bags and the cooler and headed to check in.

Despite the way the drive had started—filled with anger towards Damon—the thoughts had happily been left behind in Mystic Falls. Damon hadn't texted her, for which she was thankful, and she preferred he kept it that way. She wasn't sure if Katherine was going to be at prom weekend but maybe the two of them were off somewhere together. Maybe that was the real reason for his quick departure during their movie. Elena would never know and she wasn't about to spend her mini-vacation wondering about it.

With her girls by her side and her worries way back in her hometown, she knew this weekend was going to be amazing.

What she hadn't expected was him.


"You better hurry up, little bro, or you'll be late for prom weekend," Damon sang.

Stefan rolled his eyes as he shut the trunk of his red speeder. When Stefan had texted him during his date with Elena, he had no other choice but to leave. His little brother needed him and as much as he hated running out on Elena like that, family came first. Stefan had managed to get himself into a brawl with an old boyfriend of Caroline's after dropping her off. Damon rushed out of Elena's house and helped out his brother. The whole situation mellowed out pretty easily when he showed up.

Needless to say, Tyler Lockwood wouldn't be bothering his baby brother any time soon.

He had wanted to text Elena and apologize, but he didn't want to come of too clingy. Instead, he helped his brother pack up his things and gave him some shit before he hightailed it out of there.

"Last chance to tag along and follow Elena around like a lost puppy."

Damon shook his head and gave a solid punch to Stefan's right shoulder. "Says the guy who's riding down solo just to follow his girlfriend."

"At least I made it official," Stefan jibed. "Speaking of which, when are you taking the leap with Elena?"

"You really want to be having heart to hearts on the woes of my dating life right now?"

Stefan's mocking smile turned serious as he nodded. "Yeah. Why not?"

Damon gave a sigh and leaned against his brother's car. The trunk was slammed now and his brother came around to lean beside him. The truth was after everything that happened tonight he had wanted to come right out and lay it all out there and say screw the consequences. He just didn't want to ruin the moment. It had all been so perfect and she had brought out something inside of him he had never felt before. How could he ruin that by asking if she would be his girlfriend?

"I don't know, Stef. It's getting harder not to just take the jump and ask her. But then I hear a story about what Andie or Kat did to her in school and I stop myself. It'll only make things worse. She's only got a few weeks left. We can wait a few weeks."

Stefan crossed his arms over his body and seemed to be studying his feet. This relationship was supposed to work the other way around - with Damon being the beacon of advice to his baby brother. But in a lot of ways Stefan was the mature one.

"I think if you keep letting other people dictate when you can be with someone, you're never going to be with them. There's always going to be obstacles. You just need to be with someone worth overcoming them with."

And that was why Stefan was the mature one.

"And what kind of obstacles do you and Blondie have?"

Stefan let out a bark of a laugh. "Do you not remember having to stare down Tyler Lockwood and his cronies?" His arms fell to his sides and his hands slid into his pockets as he kicked the toe of his boot into the gravel. "With the exception of an ex-boyfriend, we may not have many obstacles, but I'm sure we will at some point. Everyone has them. But I'm willing to fight for us and fight for her."

"How did you get so old and wise?"

His brother gave him a slap on the shoulder. "You'll figure it out. In the meantime…"

"I'll talk to Elena when she gets back."

With a sigh, Stefan said, "Forever the procrastinator. I, on the other hand, have some place to be and I don't feel like waiting much longer."

The two embraced in a hug and Damon whispered, "Have fun and wear a condom!" as his brother got in his car. The look on Stefan's face was precisely what he had been aiming for and with a hearty laugh; he shut his brother's door. With a wave, he watched his brother back out of the driveway and disappear from his view.

He knew he had to talk to Elena and take this thing to the next step. At the least, she deserved to know where he stood. He just didn't want to ruin her weekend. So he decided to wait until she got back. It could wait a few days.

What could possibly happen in a few days?


When the girls approached the front desk, big smiles and full of laughter, what they hadn't expected was the sight in front of them. Stefan and Jaime and a few of their friends were crowded around the desk and Stefan was deep in conversation with a man whose back was to them. From the looks of it, the conversation was more of an argument as Stefan was in the man's face and his body was ridged with tension. When the bell hanging on the door alerted the room of the girl's presence, all eyes immediately fell on Elena. Stefan's eyes were full of worry as the man in front of him turned around.

Suddenly, Elena was face to face with the last person she expected to see.

Nik.

Memories of their year long relationship flashed like photographs across her eyes. Fighting matches that were so close to becoming physical, all the times he put her down and told her she wasn't as pretty as her friends and every time he convinced her to be with him instead of out with her friends. All his manipulation and abuse culminating into one final moment of him banging down her bathroom door, spitting out splinters of wood until finally it all stopped and the reality of her situation came crashing down on her.

She had finally escaped him and lost herself in Damon. The last thing she had expected was for him to show up here.

"What are you doing here, Nik?" Elena managed out, though every fiber in her being was begging for her to run. She was crawling back into her shell, fighting against the flight response and begging her body to fight.

His eyes raked over her body until they met hers. It was only then that he spoke. He gave no hint of whether or not he approved of how she looked and Elena hated herself for caring. She suddenly felt self-conscious and inferior and it pulled her back from every step forward in her own self-worth that she had managed since leaving him.

"Did you forget that none of you are over eighteen? You kind of need me to check in."

Elena's eyes widened. She had completely forgotten the whole reason her friends had these rooms to begin with. It had been Nik who had booked the two rooms; one with two twin beds and one with a queen. The queen bed had been meant for them, but judging by his friend, Kol, beside him, the two of them would be taking the room.

"I forgot."

"I thought you did."

The silence stretched between them, suffocating her. She hated feeling like this, like she was slowly reverting back into who she was with him. The way he said that single phrase resembled a parent scolding a child and it reminded her that it's how he'd always made her feel. Like she was wrong. Always, always wrong.

Thankfully, Caroline piped up beside her and stopped her from falling back into old habits. She had been moments from apologizing and thanking him. "You're not planning on staying here, are you?"

Nik's eyes finally moved from Elena to someone else. It was like finally being able to breathe. Elena didn't have the weight of that gaze on her, judging her and having her wanting to be worthy. She hated feeling this way. It seemed that she hadn't exactly come as far as she thought. She had simply lost herself in someone else.

Someone—who it seemed now—wasn't worthy.

"I didn't take an hour drive at two in the morning just for kicks. I'd might as well enjoy the weekend."

Caroline marched past him to the front desk where the manager stood looking bored. "Please tell me his room is nowhere near ours."

The manager, an elderly man in his late sixties, looked down at the booking and in a bored voice said, "Are you the twin beds in this booking?" Caroline nodded and he continued. "You're room is three floors below theirs."

"Thank God!" Caroline breathed. She snatched the key from the manager, who had snagged it from its hook while talking. With a quick turn towards Nik and fire in her eyes, she pointed a finger into his chest and said, "You stay the hell away from Elena. You hear me? You forget she even exists this weekend."

Bonnie, who had remained quiet during the whole ordeal, stepped in front of Elena and glared at Nik. "Just listen to her, Nik. Don't ruin this weekend for us. You've done enough."

Elena couldn't find words. She just wanted to break down from the amount of stress coursing through her. Between what was going on with Damon and now having Nik here, she just wanted to scream or cry or some combination of them both.

Still, she watched as Caroline gave one last pointed glare before she grabbed Stefan's hand and pulled him towards them. Bonnie grabbed hold of Elena and led her towards the elevators and the whole room seemed to follow.

"Are you near us?" she heard Caroline ask.

There was silence, followed by some shuffling, until Stefan said, "Right next door actually."

"Good."

As they entered the elevators and Stefan and Caroline stood in the front as all their friends entered, Stefan mumbled, "Should I tell Damon?"

And that was when Elena found her voice. "No. Damon doesn't get to know what's going on in my personal life. He didn't care to share what was going on in his."

Stefan twisted to face her before addressing to both her friends, "I'm missing something, aren't I?"

"Yup," Caroline answered. "Don't ask. Your brother is on my shit list right now."

"I told him not to procrastinate," he mumbled to himself.

"What?" Elena questioned.

"Nothing."

And she couldn't get any more out of Stefan because just when she was about to ask, the elevator dinged and they all went to their respective rooms. Caroline spent a few minutes outside with Stefan while Bonnie and Elena got settled. The two girls decided to share a bed and let Caroline have her own just in case Stefan decided to join one night.

"Do you want to go to bed?"

Elena shook her head. "Not really. I'm too wired to sleep right now."

"You want to head to the beach? We can try to stay up for the sunrise."

With a nod of agreement, they headed out of the room and asked Caroline and Stefan to tag along. As they crossed the boardwalk and headed to the beach they began to catch the beginnings of the sunrise lighting up the sky. They all took a seat on the sand, with Caroline nestled between Stefan's legs, and just waited.

They spent the time talking; each one of them talking about everything but Nik's arrival and Damon's betrayal. As she watched the dawns ray's chase away the night, Elena could think of nothing but. This night had gone from amazing and perfect to downright awful. With it finally coming to an end, promising the beginning of a new day, she found herself focusing not on the drama but on the people around her.

She couldn't let a boy - or two for that matter - ruin this last getaway with her friends as high-schoolers. Before she knew it they would be graduated and headed for college and she had to focus on making those memories count. That's why when the sun peaked over the horizon she put her arm around Bonnie and the four of them hugged close.

Maybe there was a way to salvage this weekend after all.


The weekend had gone by in a blur. It was their last night at the beach before the ride back to reality in the morning. They had spent the weekend tanning on the beach and playing in the ocean and their nights at the arcade and walking the boardwalk. Their last night had been spent at a party held by one of their classmates who had a house nearby and everyone in the graduating class was there. When the party had become too much, Elena had excused herself and told her friends she would meet them back in their room. They had tried to tag along or convince her to stay but she pleaded with them to have fun and they let her go. She couldn't ask either of them to stop having fun with their boys just because she had boy problems of her own to deal with.

She just wanted one moment alone to prepare her thoughts for what tomorrow would bring. She hadn't talked to Damon all weekend and hadn't seen hide nor hair of Nik. It had allowed her to have fun and push her worries aside, but with the threat of tomorrow looming over her she knew she needed to deal with her emotions now.

She knew she had to confront Damon about Katherine. He could've chosen any other girl to be with and of all people he had chosen her. The anger burning inside of her over that fact was intense. She hated the idea of him running to Katherine after being with her. Even worse, knowing he still came to her despite spending time with another girl. She wanted to hurt Damon the way he had hurt her.

And that was when she saw Nik.

Elena hadn't noticed him at first but then his belligerent mumblings caught up with her. He was leaning against a lamppost in front of the hotel slurring his speech as he tried to call out to her. She wanted to leave him there, keep walking to her hotel and lock herself in her room, but the compassionate side of her couldn't do it. Nik was a mess. She could get him back into his room, leave him with a bucket to puke in and plenty of water and Advil so something bad didn't happen. No matter what he put her through, he didn't deserve to die.

Somehow despite his whining and fighting, she got him inside his room. She had to fish for his room key much to his amusement but the moment the door opened, he collapsed on the bed. After rolling him onto his side, she took of his sneakers and placed the trash bin from the bathroom at the side of the bed. She filled up a cup of water and placed it on his nightstand and went to leave the room only to hear him call out: "Stay."

It may have been the sadness in his voice or the way his hand reached out for her and fell limply to the floor, but something inside of her stupidly felt for him despite all he had done to her. She could at least wait until Kol came back. At least then she wouldn't be leaving him alone.

So she decided to stay.


Elena let the hot water cascade down her body, trying to wash away the mistakes of last night. She wasn't sure how it happened or how she could have let it, but it did and now she hated herself. After deciding to stay, Elena had made a makeshift bed out of two chairs and an extra pillow. Nik had fallen asleep and she had tried to focus on the TV and wait for Kol to come.

Sometime around three in the morning, Nik woke up and told her to get in the bed, promising he wouldn't touch her. Seeing as she was so uncomfortable, she conceded, but not before making a makeshift wall between the two of them of all the spare pillows. She kept her back to him and tried to be as far as possible from him on the large bed. At some point the wall had been breached and she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

She had sex with Nik.

With images of Damon and Katherine together playing in her mind, she channeled her anger into thinking this was the best way to hurt Damon. Now she knew it had hurt her more because she had ex-sex with a guy who abused her. A guy who she never should've shown an ounce of kindness to last night. It was probably his plan all along.

When she woke up in the morning she slid out of his arms and rushed for the shower. Now she was trying to scrub away any remnant of last night to no avail. She just had to get out of there and get back to her own room and as far away from Nik and this room as possible. Turning the shower off, she wrapped a towel around herself and stepped out of the room.

Nik was standing by the open door dressed only in a pair of briefs. The bed was still a mess from the night before and now she was stepping out wrapped only in a tiny white cotton towel. To whoever was standing on the other side of Nik, it was obvious what had transpired here. Elena looked towards the open door and standing there wearing a satisfied smirk was none other than Katherine Pierce.