Hostage Control

by LittleHandGernade

:::Complete:::Addie's agreed to be Klaus' hostage in order to keep everyone she loves safe. She's left her boyfriend in charge of watching her sister, despite his lingering feelings for Elena and her feelings for him. Damon's jealousy and everyone's expectations are becoming too much to bear. Can they find their way back to each other or is one summer too long apart? Sequel Coming!

11. Chapter 10

Addie tensed, her arm reaching further up the bed while her leg went in the opposite direction and her hips twisted in a morning stretched. In the night she had somehow ended up at Damon's side with one arm under her head as a pillow, his arm sandwiched in between and a leg thrown so higher over his waist it laid against the bottom of his stomach and top of his boxers. She relaxed with a soft sigh as his cool fingers stroked up and down the back of her thigh. When she went to roll away he gave a grunt of protest, the hand resting at the small of her back pressed her harder into him and his grip on her leg tightened. Reluctantly, Addie complied. It was a very good thing for both of them that he was pretty cool to the touch without any caffeine in his system in the mornings. He liked to snuggled but there was no way she could tolerate it if he was warm. She already got so hot at night that she almost always woke up with the blankets around her waist.

"It's seven. It's the weekend. Go back to sleep," he muttered.

Addie had been watching his face to know that he hadn't even bothered opening his eyes. She glanced at the clock. Technically it was two minutes until seven. How did he know?

Tucking his hand under her shirt Damon sighed dramatically, "Stop thinking; I can feel you thinking. We've finally established a routine. You go to bed at eleven and wake at seven, Monday through Friday. It's Saturday; go back to sleep."

"That messes with routine," she pointed out obviously. Still, if they had finally got her sleep on a regular schedule, they shouldn't deviate from it.

"Addison, I couldn't give less of a fuck about routine right now. Klaus is supposed to be dead. Stefan's completely gone. Last night just sucked. Getting up at seven is going to make today too damn long. I just want to sleep with the only good thing in my life for as long as possible," vented Damon, his voice husky with sleep but still gentle. "Go back to sleep."

"Ok," Addie whispered, relaxing back into his hold. Only it wasn't that easy to fall back asleep. Around eight she fell asleep for forty-five minutes, maybe an hour. She tried to slowly move away from him again around half past nine but the fingers that softly scratched at her back until she was putty in his hands told her she'd been caught. By eleven, she wasn't just bored, she was feeling agitated from having laid in the same position for so long that her foot started to softly shake the bed.

"Ok, you win!" Damon grumbled after a minute of this. "I'm awake, you insolent, impatient, pint-sized brat."

Propping herself up on her elbow Addie made a big show of looking to see how much room was between Damon and the edge of the bed. A lot. They somehow always managed to wind up in the middle. Cheekily she criticized, "Snarky, snarky, snarky. You have obviously woken up on the wrong side of the bed."

He made quick work of pinning her onto her back, his hands buried in the sides of her hair, keeping her head in place, his weight pressing her into the mattress. He could see she was about to tell him off for moving so quickly but he caught her pouting bottom lip between his teeth fiercely, turning her protest into a soft moan. After some tugging and tasting and Damon was sure he'd made his point, he pulled away.

His piercing eyes were darker than usual as Addie stared up into them. His words were clipped and biting as he decreed, "I've more than earned the right to be snarky after last night. And cranky. And bitchy. And surly. And every other damn unpleasant adjective you can think of to describe a foul mood. Understand?"

"And you just expect me to sit here and deal with your temper tantrum," she scoffed, raising her eyebrows up at him incredulously.

"Honestly? No," he muttered, shaking his head in acceptance. "You're too damn stubborn and indignant and proud and sensitive. You'll take everything far too personally and you'll pick pointless fights like you're trying to do right now."

She snorted and scowled, "I'm not picking a fight; I'm just pointing out that you're being a bit out of line with me."

Damon's eyes narrowed into little slits as he fought not to give into her bait. "My point," he said slowly, he voice carefully constrained and neutral, "is that I'm in a bad mood, I don't expect you to put up with it, and, most importantly, I don't want to fight with you, Addie, especially because it will undoubtedly be over something even stupider than usual and it will be an actual fight, not us just bitching at each other."

"You want me to leave," she concluded.

"It's not what I want but it's probably what's best," he mumbled, giving her a chaste apologetic kiss.

"Well," damn he hated that coquettish smile and the way her eyes danced wickedly, "if you don't want me to go; I'm not leaving."

"Today is not a day to be difficult, Addison."

She frowned disapprovingly at him, the playfulness suddenly gone. "Damon, if you actually expect this relationship to work, we are going to have to learn to work with each other and our most formidable temperaments."

"I think avoiding each other when extreme moods strike would be more effective," he muttered, recalling the last occasion he'd been so angry that they'd broken up and both end up miserable.

"It's not exactly like this is the first time I've seen you pissed off."

"And do you recall the number of times you've seen me so angry it's left you in tears?" he challenged, an unspoken warning in his voice.

"Once," Addie said victoriously. She smirked at the confusion on his face. "Clearly you think it's more but I cry because I am the one that's angry. Seriously, the only time you've been so mad that you've made me cry is Chicago. Seeing as I plan on staying with you and not running off with Klaus, I don't foresee that happening. Also, this is completely different than other times you've been upset. Your anger is directed at the world; it's not channelled at me. Suck it up, Chuck. You're stuck with me."

Damon rolled off her and the bed, running his fingers through his hair as he wearily decided, "I need breakfast before further dealing with you."

"Thank god!" Addie exclaimed, standing up and finally getting to stretch properly.

Glad to be out of bed, she quickly made her way to the bathroom and started the process she'd been dying to do since she had first woken up at seven. With a scowl at Damon's mint flavored toothpaste, she reached for her cinnamon toothpaste, careful not to touch his tube. It wasn't a phobia or anything, she just had a touch of obsessive tendencies when it came to oral hygiene. Wet the toothbrush, cover end to end with paste, wet brush again, brush tongue, divide mouth into six sections, divide each section into three areas, brush each area in a circular motion on a slight angle from left to right eleven times. She was working on the first area of her third section when Damon came into the bathroom, a partially filled tumbler in his hand.

"'At's 'ot 'eark'ast," she chastised around a mouth filled with foamy red toothpaste.

Damon raised a cool, challenging eyebrow at her as he meet her ocean blue eyes in the mirror. "It is today."

A crease formed between her eyebrows as she tried to focus on counting and him at the same time. Finishing the third section she spat out just enough toothpaste to sigh, "Damon, you need blood."

"The less blood in my system the less time it takes for me to get drunk. It's simple biology," he shrugged innocently. And enough of the truth.

She paused her ritual to sneer at him, "Your body won't produce serotonin and dopamine, which play a role in your mood, in a normal manner if you aren't eating properly."

"Dopamine and serotonin levels start screwing up when you switch to blood bags," he informed, taking a sip of the scotch. "It's not considered proper feeding."

As she clamped her teeth on her toothbrush, Addie mumbled something that he couldn't make out. Damon knew about her little toothbrushing obsession and was confused as to why she had stopped as he watched her gather all of her hair and drape it over the shoulder furthest away from him. Her intentions became very clear as she tilted her exposed neck to him.

"Ads, I didn't me-"

"I know you would never ask or suggest it. You're not that much of a dick," she scowled, spitting the rest of her toothpaste into the sink. "But I'm also not an idiot. I know why you are constantly obsessing over if I eat. You can claim it's for my health but I think we both know it's mostly because I make Godzilla look like a friendly gecko if my blood sugar drops too low. That's what not eating properly does to me and I don't already have fucked up serotonin and dopamine levels from blood bags."

"No, your chemical imbalance is just because you're not all there."

Addie pursed her lips in thought and shrugged. "Or am I not all there because of the chemical imbalance? Which came first: the chicken or the egg? My point still stands; I'm not dealing with any bullshit, crap reasons for you being a petulant, mercurial dick when there is obviously something I can do to help."

Damon set his glass on the counter and slowly stalked behind Addie. His long fingers curled around her shoulder while his arm snaked around her waist. Gently he pressed his weight against her, lightly pinning her to the sink. His eyes sparkled with a darkness as he brushed the scruff on his cheek and chin along her throat. In the mirror he could see her eyes flutter shut and the corners of his own lips tug up in a smirk.

"You know, oxytocin, generated from physical contact, is another happiness hormone. I think we should be more focused on that," he murmured, his voice husky and concupiscent.

"Feed, Damon," she instructed, her grip on the toothbrush tightening until her knuckles turned white. "One thing at a time."

His lips ran down her jaw, past her ear, and down her neck, nipping softly. Addie made a very good argument; there was a reason his solution to all his anger could be found in a brainless beauty and alcohol. Fresh blood, sex and booze. A the taste and touch of bliss accompanied by the emotional numbing effects of drink. Then Addie came along. He felt his fangs descend, gently pressing into her skin. Decisively he pulled away, breaking off all contact with her.

"Letting a pissed off vampire feed off of you is acting like an idiot. I'm far more likely to hurt you," Damon snarled, picking back up his scotch. "I know you're not an idiot so don't act like one. Finish brushing your teeth."

Frustrated and annoyed, Addie rinsed off her too brush and used water to swish the last of the toothpaste out of her mouth. The process was never finished; she had lost count and would have to start over. She turned on her heel to face him eye to eye rather than through the mirror. She chose her words very deliberately, cautious of the minefield that was Damon at the moment. It wasn't her intention to trigger a landmine. "First of all, I am the first person who judges whether or not I think you are in a frame of mind where I can trust you with something as sensitive and personal as drinking my blood. Secondly, since you have a habit of almost always saying you're going to hurt me, I'm going to say we go by my judgment because if we look at the record, I've always been right and you've never hurt me. Thirdly, you were extremely pissed off and feeding off of several girls after it turned out Katherine wasn't in the tomb but none of them ended up dead. Frankly, it's a little insulting if you can control yourself with people who mean nothing to you but you can't stay in control when it's with someone you claim to love. Fourth, you know I'm right and you're just being a difficult bastard. Is this really what you want to fight about? I don't want to argue this with you but I will, Damon. Though, I think we would both rather spend the day doing other things."

"You know, considering the mood I'm in, you could at least let me be right," he pouted as he set his drink back down.

"I'm not going to let you win anything, you wanna be right then be right," Addie reprimanded as she sat on the counter.

His lips pressed into a thin line; he should have expected an answer like that. He couldn't just flat out let her best him like that. There had to be some sort of power or control he could exert. His lips twitch upwards before he bit sharply into his wrist, bright red blood bubbling to the surface. Damon conceded, "If we're doing this, we're doing it my way and taking precautionary measures."

---

Relief washed over Addie as she snapped her calculus book shut. Three hours was way too long for a homework assignment. She wasn't even doing extra work like she was in European history or English or Latin. Just the assigned problems took her so long. It would definitely be worth not having to take a math class her senior year, though.

The clock on the stove told her it was just past five. The day passed by fast when you spent nearly half of it in bed. By the time they had actually made it downstairs, it was noon. A little bit of blood had done wonders for Damon's mood; he'd gone from the Grinch to PMSing and having a mood swing every few minutes. It gave her whiplash but Addie chose to see it as improvement. It hadn't made him any less Damon, though. She couldn't resist giving in to his little, well, she wasn't exactly sure what the hell he had meant by putting chocolate protein powder in her chocolate milk. Him screwing with her food was an argument they'd fought at least a hundred times and she couldn't help but feel disrespected every time he chose to ignore her. After that fiasco and cleaning the kitchen from brunch in a frosty silence it had been almost two. Addie decided to continue about her day as if Damon hadn't tried to warn her off about his mood and pulled out her homework. He had gone… somewhere that wasn't the kitchen.

She had entertained the idea of trying to talk to Damon about the previous night and about why he was so upset but she just didn't see the point. It was one of the reasons she had found therapy to be so ineffective. From Damon's worldview, Stefan - There, that was the first point she'd have a problem being understanding about. How had Damon been stupid enough to believe there was any humanity left in Stefan just because he had saved him from Mikael? It had been compelled out! Lights out. Curtain dropped. Scene over! - Stefan had betrayed Damon and that was the sign that he had no humanity left in him. So Damon was having to accept that his little brother had no Jiminy Cricket when he thought Stefan did. It wouldn't do to point out that he had just been refusing to accept the truth the whole time.

Stefan had destroyed Damon's master plan to kill Klaus. Since Stefan was gone Addie didn't really see the need to tell Damon the truth. Even if Stefan wasn't gone, unless he knew she spilled to Klaus, there was still no reason for Damon to know the truth. Not knowing the truth was A)making him accept the reality of Stefan and B)kept him from getting the wrong idea. After Chicago, Addie understood a little better just how deep Damon's jealousy ran. Damon wouldn't understand that he was fate to die that night, either by the hands of Klaus' hybrids when he killed Klaus or by Mikael if Addie could convince him not to kill Klaus. Trying to convince Damon not to kill Klaus was an idea she had never even entertained; even if Mikael wasn't in the picture she still wouldn't have considered it. He'd been trying to kill Klaus since before the breaking of the hybrid curse. If Addie tried to persuade Damon to let him live, in his mind it would be a clear sign that she liked Klaus, that she had fallen for the bad guy again. She'd seen how he'd hurt when she said she wanted to stay with Klaus in Chicago; she never wanted to see that kind of pain on his face again.

The other problem was that Damon wouldn't have seen the problem with dying if it meant keeping her safe from Klaus. Yes, Addie wanted him gone and preferably dead but nothing was worth Damon's life, other than her family and Bonnie. Too many people had died on her. Damon just didn't understand how lost she'd be without him.

Damon was pissed he hadn't been able to kill the big bad hybrid; Addie was not. She knew Damon thought Klaus was a threat to her and while she still didn't trust him, Addie didn't feel like Klaus was out to harm her, at least not any time soon. And he wasn't going after Elena. And he had his own wishes. And while he had mentioned something about Jeremy, he didn't have a weird, stalker-y obsession with him. For the time being Addie was apathetic to his existence.

So, no. Talking to Damon about his problems wasn't a good idea. Maybe that made her a bad girlfriend but she really felt not talking to him was in his best interest. But she had let him simmer and fester in his own dark thoughts by himself for three hours. That should be adequate alone time if she was seriously trying out this whole theory of putting up with each other's bad moods. Addie had no idea where that thought had come from this morning; she couldn't even reason it out to herself. Damon's temper could get nasty and she didn't like to see that. Why hadn't she just left? Though he hadn't really even been that bad.

Getting up, Addie began to wander the house looking for him. He wasn't in the living room. She doubted he was in his bedroom. It was rare for him to spend time just hanging out in there. As expected, he was in the study. She approached in trepidation as she noticed an empty bottle in front of him and how he toyed with an empty tumbler on the armrest as he looked into the fire.

"Still mad at me?" he asked so quietly but so suddenly Addie jumped.

"Uh," she frowned, trying to remember why she'd be mad, "because of the protein powder?" His head barely moved in acknowledgement. She sighed wearily, "No. I was never mad; I just get frustrated when you do that because I feel like you're trying to deceive me and it makes me feel like I can't trust you." Addie sat next to him, taking his hand in hers and gently squeezing. "I hate feeling like that because I know I can trust you." She waited for him to respond but he didn't. Looking at him questioningly, Addie called, "Damon?" He slowly turned his head to look at her but it was as though he wasn't seeing her. "I can trust you?"

He turned back to the fire and lamented, "Why would you?"

Addie bit her lip. In the initial stages of their relationship this kind of response wouldn't have surprised her but she thought, after everything with Katherine and Elijah and Klaus and every time he came through for her, they had finally reached a place where they just accepted that they were right together.

"How drunk are you?" she inquired, finally placing the glazed look of his eyes.

The corners of his mouth twitched in a bitter smile. "You didn't hear the first three bottles shatter in the fireplace?"

"Guess I was more focused on my calculus than I thought," she mumbled, threading her fingers with his. The first bottle she would have probably left him to carry on being angry. With the crash of a second one, she definitely would have come to check on him, his wrath be damned. Concerned and trying to sense his state of mind Addie pointed to the bottle on the coffee table. "Why haven't you thrown that one?"

It was a long time before Damon answered, sounding perplexed, "Because I don't care?"

"What don't you care about?" pressed Addie.

Damon shrugged. Just as he opened his mouth, Addie's phone began to ring. Quickly fishing it from her pocket, she silenced it and looked expectantly back at him but his reverie seemed to have absolved.

"Who's calling you?" he asked curiously. "You hate to talk on the phone. Everyone knows to text you if they actually want a response."

He had a point. Oh, well. If it was important they would call back. "I didn't check the caller ID. Does it matter?"

"I don't care who you talk to, Addie. It's just weird. Do you really think me that possessive and con-"

He was cut off again by the phone. Addie silenced it again but took the time to glance at the name on the screen. She blanched. Standing up, she quickly put sever feet between her and Damon. She didn't know if he'd seen who was calling or not. Her hand trembled as her fingers ran through her hair. There was no where in this house she could go that Damon wouldn't overhear and she knew the bastard was going to keep calling until she answered.

Putting as much distance between her and the couch, as if it would help anything, she curtly and quickly spoke, "I can't talk right now."

Just as she was about to end the call a dangerous, threatening voice sent chills down her back and made her freeze with a single word. "Don't…. Good," Klaus continued much more jovially, "forgive me for wanting to make sure your boyfriend didn't decide to drug you to death after his little plan was thwarted."

"Shut up," Addie hissed as she watched Damon. His arm was stretched along the back of the couch in a casual manner but she wasn't fooled. He was gripping the tumbler tightly rather than playing with it and he sat as if a rod was keeping his back straight. She'd bet anything that he was listening to every single word.

"We both know you were utterly fucked up last night. That was not some migraine," he retorted coolly, his accent making it sound harsher. "If the truth is as you say, you were drugged before coming to my party, at home. Now, let's think of all the people who might want you drugged."

Knowing everything was pointless with Damon overhearing Addie snapped, "I wasn't drugged. I told you; I stared too long at my cellphone screen and got sick. It happens all the time when I'm working on music. Ask your sister; I was laid up for two days in London because of it."

"We'll get to my sister but wow. So you must have been playing chess for a solid eight hours," remarked Klaus, sounding unconvinced. "Just for curiosity's sake, what were you doing before that? Having a drink with Damon?"

Addie watched as Damon gripped the back of the couch, the muscles in his arm flexing. How the hell did Klaus know that? Damon had… he'd given her the scotch after Elena had daggered Rebekah. He gave her scotch. It was just scotch. Her stomach knotted as a snide voice asked, "But since when does Damon encourage you to drink?"

It was just scotch! She'd watch him drink the exact same thing that morning.

Addie leaned against a bookshelf. She could either yell or be overly polite. Something told her she was going to need her voice for dealing with Damon so in a sappy, sugary sweet tone she replied, "I would really appreciate it if you would refrain from making such unfounded and outrageous insinuations without tangible evidence. Is there a purpose for your call, otherwise I must apologize as I am currently occupied."

"Tri-fold call. Part one, reasonable doubt established. Part two, Rebekah," Klaus said darkly. "My sister never appeared at my soiree last night. It was not possible that I missed her. I don't know why or how or what happened that resulted in her helping you to persuade me to come to Mystic Falls but I know that whether or not she wanted me dead, she wanted Mikael dead even more and she should be relishing in this. Where is she?"

"I honestly don't know," Addie muttered in bewilderment. That was why Damon had given her the scotch; to stop her from being so pissed off that Elena daggered Rebekah. Addie's lips pursed. She wouldn't betray her sister like that but if Klaus asked the right question, well, she'd be signing a death wish to lie to him.

Klaus tsked, "I know you're holding something back, Addison."

"I don't know, Niklaus," she stressed. "I know some people she was supposed to go to the dance with. I'll ask around."

"Tell me who," he demanded.

Addie scoffed and laughed, "Um, hell no. First of all, they're on vervain. Second of all, they're not going to talk to you because you're scary. Third, I'd prefer if their hearts stay in their chest and necks remain properly aligned. I'll find out what I can and let you know. Rebekah's a big girl; trust me, I've seen her handle herself. Part three?"

"Part three, my biggest complication," he sighed. "Have you seen or heard from Stefan since last night?"

"Nope."

"Are you certain?"

"I am fairly certain that I would realize if Damon and Stefan were within shouting distance of each other. It's hard to miss World War III if you're in it," she quipped back sardonically.

"Or when you start it."

She licked at her lips nervously. He was so close to revealing everything if Damon hadn't already figured it out. Hoping she sounded more confident than she felt Addie retorted, "It all comes down to choices, or a lack thereof. You stripped Stefan of his freedom, of his ability to make choices. Now that he has that back and no humanity…. Well, unfortunately I doubt you'll be able to reach him by phone. He's not your buddy from the 20s anymore. The good news for you and bad news for the rest of the world is that he's a ripper. He should be pretty easy to track if you need to reach him that badly. Now, I believe that covers parts one, two, and three, marking the end of this tri-fold conversation."

"Be careful who you trust, Addison," advised Klaus before the line went dead.

Addie silenced her phone before slipping it back into her pocket. Suddenly aware that her palms were damp with anxiety she wiped them on her jean clad thighs. She yelped when a resounding crash split through the silence. Her eyes went wide as she Damon facing her, his arms crossed and his expression unreadable. Her throat felt dry as she looked from the cleared coffee table and to the fire and back.

"Turns out I care. Who knew?" Damon snarled, a mocking edge to his tone.

As she shoved her hands in her back pockets Addie contemplated how she wanted to handle the situation. Run like hell? She was really good at running away from her problems, literally. Running from fights with her parents and sister had led to her finding her stride. Of course, Damon was faster. Play defensively and let him tire himself out? Go on the offensive? Picking a strategy was pointless when she didn't know all the facts, though. Who knew what he had pieced together and she didn't even know if she had a right to be mad.

"Is it true?" she asked softly, refusing to look at him.

He bit the inside of his lip so hard he could taste the blood. It took every bit of control for him not to go to her , begging for forgiveness. The way she said it, the way she refused to look at him, the way her hand ran through her hair. She knew. But he was still pissed and he didn't exactly feel like justifying or explaining his reasoning. He evasively confirmed by demanding what he most wanted to learn, "How does he know?"

Her mouth opened slightly as she sharply inhaled in disbelief, "So it's true."

"I'm not discussing that part right now," Damon glowered. "I'm discussing the part where you tell me how Klaus knows."

Screw that logic. If she wanted a lecture about fraternizing with the enemy, she would have already confessed to everything. Addie mimicked, "I'm not discussing that part right now."

"Addison!" he growled loudly.

"Damon!" she yelled back. Both of them were momentarily stunned by the loudness of her voice. Damon couldn't quickly recall her ever really yelling at him. Into the silence she wondered, "Why do people think using my full name is going to get me to cooperate? It's like the stupidest logic. You want something to go along with you, you placate it, you don't poke it with a stick."

"Now?" he seethed impatiently, running a hand over the lower half of his face. "You're going to do your random ass crap now?"

She giggled, satisfied to be aggravating him, "I'll do my random ass crap whenever it damn well pops into my mind, thank you very fucking much." Suddenly she decided, "Chronological order."

He stared at her blankly and said, "Water fountain."

"I want to argue this in chronological order. The way it should have been done from the start but noooooo. Damon "Mr.-I'm-too-good-for-rules" Salvatore likes to cheat."

"Oh, my god," he mutter, rolling his eyes. At some point she'd get around to explaining that one. Why couldn't they both just yell and scream pointlessly, someone throw something, and then have really hot makeup…. He decided he had to fall for the overly analytical, quirky, virtuous girl; that was why and where he'd made the mistake. And he was screwed. He couldn't charm his way out of her anger. He couldn't use his body to distract her from the anger. And he couldn't simply compel his way out it. He raised his hands up in acquiescence, "Alright. What happened first?"

"Elena shoved a dagger into Rebekah! I left her for, like, three minutes and the next thing I know you're telling me she's been daggered! Did you have something to do with that?"

Damon shook his head quickly, "Hell no. Tell Mikael I daggered his daughter? Face her when someone pulls out the dagger because whether it be in five minutes or five hundred years it's going to happen? Oh, and then, best of all, tell my girlfriend I daggered her close friend when I know it's something that's going to piss her off? I'm not suicidal, Addie. Elena must have kept the dagger when she pulled it out of Mikael and the ashes were in here where anybody could get them. You heard your sister in the bathroom talking about how we couldn't trust Rebekah not to turn on us. While I agreed, I chose to form a plan that didn't involve her; your sister chose to stab her in the back, literally."

"She didn't even have the guts to do it to her face," balked Addie.

"It was a very Katherine-esque plan."

"That's…"

"I know," Damon agreed, cocking his head slightly.

Her eyes narrowed and both of their guards went back up. She pointed at him accusatorially, "You blocked me from going to Rebekah. From helping her. From dealing with my stupid sister."

"Yes, I did," he nodded fervently. "You were completely irrational with anger at Elena and when you get pissed at your sister there's almost no point in dealing with you for a good two hours."

"Whether I'm rational or irrational is not your call to make!"

He chuckled darkly and challenged, "What would you have gone and done."

"First I would have pulled the stake out of Rebekah's back," she sneered.

As soon as she finished Damon snapped his fingers. "You just killed your sister. What's the first thing Rebekah's going to do when she wakes up? Get revenge. You plan to undagger her with Elena right there? Brilliant, Addie."

"Fine," she barked. "I don't do that. I deal with my back-stabbing sister!"

"And how are you going to do that? Are you going to fight her? Then Stefan's going to come after you because he's compelled to protect her. He's probably going to snap your neck before I can even reach him. But let's think positive and say I'm able to intercept him before he can even look at you. Unfortunately he's compelled with no humanity and I'm a man fighting to save the girl I love; it's going to be a nasty fight. He can't stop until he's stopped you. I have to kill my brother.

"Or are you going to yell and scream at her? You two can go at that for hours without noticing your standing in the middle of the circus. Meanwhile, while all this fighting and arguing is going, do you remember the important thing that's happening? We're waiting for Mikael to show back up! He comes back and it's a fucking nut house he's going to know something is up and he's going to find out Rebekah's been daggered and - " he snapped his fingers again, making Addie jump "-we are all dead."

With a sinister smirk Damon gleamed, "Enlighten me, Addie. What rational way were you going to handle that situation?"

The longer she stared at him the thinner her lips got as they pressed into a hard line. Eventually she snidely remarked, "So, of course the obvious thing to do is to drug me instead of saying 'hey, everything you're thinking of doing is a bad idea.'"

"You don't see yourself when you get this upset over your sister! You would have said, 'The first idea is perfect. Let's let Rebekah rip her throat out.'"

There may or may not have been a brief second when Damon was describing what would happen that she entertained the idea of pulling the dagger out to still be a valid option. Still, he drugged her and Addie was pissed at him. She scowled, "God forbid you explain to me that I've gone insane when you could just drug me."

He groaned in frustration, tugging at his hair. Losing his temper he rushed out, "That's exactly the problem, Addie. You go crazy. You reach this state where you can't be reasoned with and you're there for at least two hours. I did not have time to deal with that, to deal with you. I crushed one of your anti anxiety meds into the scotch. It was supposed to make you really tired and I figured you would just sleep the anger off and I could deal with you in the morning. I never thought it would make you sick."

A lead weight settled in Addie's stomach as she listened to Damon. The French toast and chocolate milk from brunch were threatening to make an unsightly return as those three words played over and over in her head. But they weren't just in Damon's voice. Elena. Her mom. Elena. Jenna. Elena. Damon.

Ready to run, Addie quickly adopted a cool, nonchalant attitude as she leaned against the door frame of the library. Discretely she tried to critically watch Damon. She wanted to see the jaw dropping moment, to see when the pieces all fit together. He'd dumped a bucket of ice cold reality onto her and he deserved the same. Slowly and clearly she explained, "He knows because he saw me last night. I went to the Lockwood's. I told him you were working with Mikael. I told him about Katherine posing as Elena. I told him I couldn't stop you but there was one person that could. I told Klaus to use Stefan against you. Your plan being ruined, the fact that Klaus is still alive, it's all because of me, Damon."

Addie bit her lip at the confusion on his face; it was taking him too long to figure it out. Two plus two equals four. Simple. She shook her head and turned from the room. Her steps became longer and more purposeful the closer she got to the door. His words were still ringing in her head, clouding up her brain. She hadn't realized how suffocating the house had been until she stepped into the cooling night air and her lungs expanded. Once she heard the door latch close behind her, she off into the increasing darkness.

Easily she ran the trail she and Damon had beaten into the ground during their runs; ten miles of sharp twist and turns that would eventually take her to the house she grew up in. It wasn't home anymore. Damon was but now he wasn't either.

Addie shook her head, her feet striking the ground harder and faster. She didn't want to think; that was why she was running. Echos of voices and the words drowned out the sound of the night and she moved swifter, desperate to get away from them. Still, each step punctuated another word over and over.

Deal. With. You.

---

Damon stared down at his phone willing the device to light up. He checked his text messages again, just in case she had texted back but his phone never registered receiving a new text. No, still just the list of ones he had sent after she had suddenly vanished.

6:15

We are not about to play hide and seek. Get back here.

6:23

Ok. I give up. I've searched the whole house and can't find you. You win. Where are you?

6:25

I'm not amused. Can we act like we're adults and have a grown up conversation?

6:40

Damn it, Addison. Are you even in this house or are you just having a good laugh at me ripping the place apart

6:45

If you left, that's fine. I just need to know where you are.

6:48

Ads, I screwed up. Big time. I know. I'm sorry.

6:54

Please, Addie. Say something. Anything but the silent treatment.

7:00

You have until 7:30 before I start asking people if they've seen you. You know that's going to lead to a whole world of questions that you don't want. I suggest you answer me.

He was just about to call her when a loud, persistent banging came from the front door. His eyes rolled up as he thanked whatever deity that she had just forgotten her keys. The apology was ready to fall off his tongue when he open the door. "I'm s - you're not Addie," he frowned as he studied a very angry looking Elena.

"No," she retorted shortly, "I'm not. She's about half a foot shorter, has blue hair, stays here and just ran in the house having a damn panic attack. What do you know about that, Damon?"

"She's at home," he muttered to himself, dragging his hand through his hair. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign because it meant familiar is comfort or if it was a really bad sign because he knew how badly she hadn't wanted to stay at home.

Elena glowered at Damon and barreled in past him. "You're missing the import detail of running in with a full blown panic attack. Eyes bulging with fear and is it because of the choking sensation or the fact that it feels like her heart is about to be crushed? We don't know because she's hyperventilating and can't talk. Then there's also the shaking so bad she couldn't climb the stairs. And it's Addie so who the hell knows what kind of horror is going through her head. But it doesn't take much for me to guess that it involves you."

"Why would you think that?" Damon sneered defensively.

"Because if it wasn't you she'd be running to you. What did you do to my baby sister?" fumed Elena.

Damon paced the living room, trying to think. Elena would kill him if he admitted to drugging Addie. Besides, it seemed as if Addie had left before she could get properly upset. If Elena said she'd stormed in as a hurricane of destruction and rage, then it might have something to do with the fact that he spiked her drink. No, she'd left because she'd been bothered about why he did it; which he didn't understand as it made sense as a logical course of action, morally reprehensible but logical.

Sinking into the couch he sighed in defeat, "Honestly, Elena, I have no clue."

"Well, that's a lie."

"I don't know," he stressed. "We were arguing-"

"About what?"

"That doesn't matter; it's not whatever this is about. We-"

Elena scoffed in disbelief, "Seriously, Damon? She leaves in the middle of an argument and you don't think it's over whatever you were arguing about? Do you not understand women at all? What were you fighting about?"

"That's between your sister and me. I know Addie and it's not over what we were arguing about. She would have stayed and bitched me out if that was the case. She didn't though; she just disappeared," he trailed off, staring at his hands. Why stop and tell him what she had? Damon hadn't even started trying to figure out why she told Klaus. He was stuck on why she confessed.

"Ok," she huffed, "maybe it is over what the argument was about if she just suddenly disappeared. My sister is… strange and sometimes a word or a phrase will be enough to make her snap. For example, you don't ever tell her she's acting completely normal. You'd think this would be a good thing because it means she's not in one of her moods but no, she flips and starts having an identity crisis because being abnormal is her normal and, well, it's confusing to explain. Did you say something that might have upset her?"

His hands covered his face as he tried to think of exactly what he had last said to her. "I don't know," he whined. "We were," he stopped, shaking his head. "Nevermind."

"What?"

"I don't want to make things worse between you guys."

"If you were discussing how my sister hates me, it's a quasi-mutual feeling. It's not unlike you and Stefan, just, while you guys have gotten better, we've gotten worse. At the end of the day, she's still my little sister and I'm still tempted to kick your ass for whatever you've done," Elena smiled slightly.

A crease formed between Damon's eyebrows as he briefly considered how Addie might react to him discussing their argument with Elena. He'd deal with that when it came up. "We were more discussing how unreasonable she becomes when she let's herself get mad at you, specifically when you daggered Rebekah."

A speculation to her sister's current state tickled at the corner of Elena's mind as she skeptically questioned Damon, "She didn't interfere with that like I expected. How'd you keep her from doing that?"

He shrugged, evasively answering, "I know how to deal with her."

"Please tell me you did not use that with her," she moaned, rubbing at her forehead.

"What?"

"'Deal with you.'"

Damon paled. His voice came out harsher than he intended, "What if I did?"

Elena gave him a slight, marginally sympathetic shrug. "Then it's a good thing you're already broken up."

"Is that like one of those trigger words?" he muttered.

"Worse. It didn't really mean much when I used it when she was about eight and we started to not get along. I think the first time it ever really bothered her was when one time when our mom used it. Addie was maybe fourteen; I know she'd been dealing with the mood swings for about two years but they were still calling it depression. I don't remember what it was about but Mom and Addie got into this huge argument on the way home from school; they were always fighting." Elena stopped and twisted to face Damon. "Don't tell her I told you this."

"I'm not going to lie to her," he answered slowly, uncertain of what she was getting at or why it mattered.

She nodded, "I know. I'm not asking you to. There's just no reason to bring up the fact that we talked. If she asks, though, of course you'll tell her the truth."

"Ok."

As if the interruption hadn't occurred, Elena continued on, "You know how Addie's moods can flip in a heartbeat. By dinner she was all excited and blabbering on about some new sneakers. My mom was still upset with her from the argument in the car. I guess after two years she'd had enough of the emotional roller coaster or had a really bad day or something but she just snapped and yelled, 'Go to room, Addison. For the life of me I cannot deal with you like this.' It was a shock for everyone. Addie actually did what she was told without any arguing.

"I've used it a few times since then and not in ways to be proud of. Jenna never knew the story of what happened with Mom but she gave Addie another 'can't deal with you' in a moment of exasperation over the summer."

"But… your mom and Jenna, Addie got over it," Damon pointed out hopefully.

Elena cringed. "She lived with them; she had no choice. And even then, she still didn't really get over it. She was always a more controlled, restricted version of herself around them after that."

"So, I'm screwed?"

She considered him carefully. The part of her that had just witnessed her little sister having a panic attack wanted to tell him yes and to stay away from Addie. However, she hadn't spent a single night at home since she had come back from Europe. For some reason she felt more comfortable with Damon than at home, even though they had broken up. He was still good for her, current panic attack aside.

"You might have a chance of recovering things if you talk to her now that you know where you screwed up. I don't know, though. I can't predict my sister. I think it all comes down to exactly what you said and how you choose to handle the situation."

---

Blank brown eyes of a nameless face stared up at her, the expression set into one of horror and pain. The unkempt beard and short, matted mousy brown hair told her it was a male. Her eyes broke away from his face, desperate to find why he had died with such an extreme look of terror. Where his neck should have been something had seeped into the concrete floor, staining it a dark red. But that had to be a mistake; necks didn't just disappear. Her eyes swept over the patch over red, searching for the rest of his body but it wasn't there. Frantically she looked around for the rest of the man as her throat began to burn and her breathing changed as panic began to fill her.

She stumbled backwards in alarm as she spied a headless body clothed in rags a few feet away, another red stain where the neck should have been. A yelp of surprise escaped her as she stepped on something and it rolled out from under her foot. Looking down she began to scream when she saw that she had stepped on another bodyless head, this time one with long, dull blonde hair.

Addie jolted straight up in bed, her breathing labored, her tank top clinging to her back with sweat. She dragged a shuddering hand through her hair as she glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Waking up at seven on a Sunday had never been such a relief. Laying back down on her stomach she grabbed a pillow and dragged it over her head. Sleeping with Damon had kept the nightmares of the summer at bay but she supposed she'd have to find a way to cope with them again.

Her breathing gradually evened out and the terrible images slowly faded away. It was then that she became aware of just how sore and exhausted she felt. The soreness she understood; it had been around a quarter to nine when her body had began to relax from the tensed, clenched state of her anxiety attack. Even she was reasonable enough to take her medication if an attack lasted longer than fifteen or twenty minutes but it was with Damon. And he had drugged her with it.

Addie groaned, tossing the pillow aside. She didn't even want to think about that or the implications of it. All she wanted to do was to be distracted from anything having to do with Damon. The fair amount of homework she had left for history and English should prove to do the job. Except, she groaned again, all her school stuff was at the boardinghouse.

An overwhelming urge to kick and pound her fist against her bed like a two-year-old having a fit on the floor overcame her and she gave into it. So what if she was too old? She was in the privacy of her own room and she was frustrated and it did make her feel a little better.

How was she going to get her stuff for school? She couldn't ask Jeremy to get it; he had already wanted to go after Damon once she had calmed down and she'd had to spend twenty minutes convincing him not to. Alaric, who had never witnessed her have a panic attack, had to continually be reassured by her brother that he should not call 9-1-1 or take Addie to the emergency room as it would only result in things being worse. He had done the only thing he could think of to do besides emergency help and vented and cursed and swore about Damon. Addie had a feeling if she asked him to get her things, there would be a physical altercation. There was no telling how that would turn out. If she asked Elena it meant her sister would talk to Damon and she'd owe her a favor in return. Both those thoughts left her with a bitter taste.

It was only a quarter past seven. If she cut through the woods she could make it there by a quarter 'til eight. Damon would probably still be asleep. Sighing, Addie rolled over and tugged her phone off the charger and checked it for any missed messages. It was unlikely anyone had texted her in the middle of the night but it was a habit. She hadn't looked at it since Klaus had called though and there were a ton of missed text from Damon.

Wait.

She looked back at her nightstand and held up her charger, looking at it, stupefied. It was one of the things she had left at Damon's. Had he brought it over? It wouldn't be the first time he sneaked into her room in the middle of the night. Her eyes scanned the room as she wondered if he had brought the rest of her stuff. In her desk chair was her backpack, a piece of paper on top of it, held in place by what looked like her set of keys. Hesitantly, she moved to pick it up.

Ads,

We really need to talk about what happened. Especially because I don't exactly know what happened. You were there and then you weren't. I can't figure out why you walked away from an argument you could have easily won.

Then there's what you said before you left. I can't even begin to process that as I'm too hung up on hashing out the first part of why we were arguing.

Please, when you're ready, come back to me and let's deal with this together. Don't leave me wondering and letting my imagination run rampant as I imagine all the worst case scenarios too long. We need to work this out. I miss you.

All my love,

Damon

Damn right she could have easily won that fight! He drugged her! He drugged her because it was easier than taking the time to reason with her. Than dealing with her! A familiar tightening started in her chest. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't dwell on what he had said. Drugging her was a complete breach of the trust he'd earned and she needed to remember that. His reasoning, even if she could understand it, didn't make it permissible. He'd made her sick! He was completely careless and could have done a lot worse. She didn't know much about relationships but she knew enough to know that was not an appropriate way to handle a conflict.

Anxiety replaced with anger and indignation Addie yanked open the zipper of her backpack and tugged out her Latin textbook and laptop. Yes, the least he could do after drugging her was bring her stuff over so, no, she was not going to feel any sense of gratitude towards him for it. She dropped the objects on her bed and headed towards the bathroom. Her teeth needed to be brushed before she could start her homework. Thankfully there would be no sulky vampires to interrupt her routine, unlike the previous morning.

---

Damon tugged up the rope ladder leading to the attic and pulled the lever on the ceiling access door to close it. It felt heavy but the inside panel also had a layer of carpeting of covering. The odd entrance probably had something to do with how the attic had been converted into a recording studio for Addie for her 12th birthday. Or as she put, her dad's present for the rest of the family as it meant they no longer had to hear her drums. To her father's credit, he hadn't heard any music until he's opened the hatch. Now that he was in the attic, ricocheting drums layered with electric guitars and a piano almost drowned out the sound of his own thoughts.

He'd never been up here; Addie's music was a world so intimate and personal to her that the closest he'd ever gotten to it was hearing the two songs she could decide between for the London College of Music scholarship application. He would have respected her space, kept his distance, and not disturbed her but it had been four days since she had walked out on him. She was ignoring his calls and texts and had never respond to his note. It left him very uncertain of where they stood or if there was even a 'them' and he just couldn't handle it anymore.

The room was cramped, even for an attic, and odd. Except for where the access hatch was, there seemed to be two floors. The bottom floor was carpeted and the original floor but on top of it and spaced every few inches where thick beams of of some kind of sponge-y material on which a thin platform of more carpeted wood sat. It was like a floating floor but the ground was hard and the black material didn't seem to sink in like he had expected when he stepped onto the raised floor. On the carpeted walls and slanted ceilings sets six columns about 18 inches tall of more black foam were randomly spaced. In one corner was a full drum set with four microphones set up around it and one hanging directly above it. There was a bass with two different sized amplifiers and and a pre amplifier. Pushed against the wall opposite of him was a full sized digital piano with foot pedals, a huge layout of buttons and two cords running from it to the brains of the room. Damon had no idea what the box with a million knobs, switches, and buttons did but he expected all the wires leading out of it connected to instruments or microphones. He knew the three large screens were connected to a computer that allowed Addie to mix everything together. And his ears could attest as to what the large speakers that flanked the screen were for.

He angled himself so he could watch Addie, every so often getting a glimpse of her expression as she swivelled on a rolling stool. Why wasn't she in a more comfortable plush desk chair like she had in her room? The bright screens reflected off her face, which she leaned in so close to the tips of her nose was merely inches away from them. Her eyebrows knitted together like they did when she thought hard. Between her teeth was just a sliver of her lower lips and he could tell from how her chin set that her jaw was clenched. She rolled the chair to the right a few inches, inclining her head towards the speaker and then she did the same as she rolled closer to the left speaker. Her eyes flickered across the three screens and Damon could see her barely move the mouse. She repeated the process of listening. He tried to detect a difference but though he couldn't. The broad grin on Addie's face suggested she did, though. How was that even possible? His hearing was far superior to hers. The music stopped and Damon was about to announce his presence when it started up again. A simple piano melody and mellow drums cut through the air. It definitely didn't sound like the same song as before. A chill ran down his spine as the sound smoothly shifted into what he had heard before, except this time there was a voice. Her voice.

I see a flicker in the lighting

Coming from behind an open door

I see a silhouette lining

I can't help but moving towards

It's such a dangerous display

I'm closing in on a dark, black alley

I throw myself into the flames

I'm burning, I'm yelling

Come and get me

So I guess it's my fault, put me on the stand

I said that it was suffering and grabbed you by the hand

And you were there in front of me telling me to stand down

But I couldn't let go now

Just a glance and you took me

There in a heartbeat

I was in the dark and you found me

Crawling at your feet

I couldn't get out

You see, you got me

You got me hostage, hostage

But there's no need for holding, holding

You got me hostage, hostage

But you know I wanted you to hold me

I spent so much time pretending

Pointing fingers at you

In denial, it's so easy

Blame the pain on somebody who knew

You knew just how to save me

But you didn't now, did you now?

Instead you took me by the heartstrings

And I let you tear it out

So I guess it's my fault, put me on the stand

I said that it was suffering and grabbed you by the hand

And you were there in front of me telling me to stand down

You got me hostage, hostage

But there's no need for holding, holding

You got me hostage, hostage

But you know I wanted you to hold me

And if you hold me down I'm not a fighter

But if you could let me down slow

I don't plan on fighting this flame with fire

I just need you to let me go

(Complete song can be found at youtu.

be/HFzaTncFr1A )

By the time the song had ended Damon's hands were shoved into his pockets to keep from balling them into fist. Furiously in a deathly whisper he hissed, "So, you saved Klaus because you like, want Klaus,"

At the sound of Damon's voice Addie's blood turned to ice. Slowly she spun her stool to face him. Horrified and embarrassed she quietly uttered, "You're not supposed to be in here." Noticing a tear and darker patch surrounding it on his black t-shirt she added, "And you're covered in blood again. You're always covered in blood."

"I'm not supposed to be in here?" he bellowed, grateful for the soundproofing. "Of all our fucking issues your biggest problem is that I'm in here! Seriously, Addie!"

If he was in the room it meant that she had to face him and face all their issues, which she was not prepared to do. Were he gone, she could continue pretending as if there was nothing wrong. It made perfect sense to her that him being there was her biggest problem. Of course she couldn't just explain that to him because that meant dealing with her odd sense of logic and perception.

"Why do you think I want Klaus?" she asked in befuddlement.

"I just heard your song and you saved his life!" Damon yelled, too distressed to control the volume of his voice.

Addie looked at him quizzically. The song wasn't even vaguely romantic; it was about pain and solace. She shook her head. "We must have listened to two different things."

His jaw tensed and he snapped, "Was or wasn't that song that song about Klaus?"

This was the number one reason she hated sharing her music; she hated explaining it. It was too intimate. At one point she might not have minded sharing with Damon but not anymore and especially not this song; it was too complicated. She gave him an easier answer to deal with than the truth.

"Sort of."

"And you want him to hold you!"

"No!"

He pointed an accusatory finger at her and stressed, "You said it."

As her foot tapped impatiently Addie crossed her arms. She huffed, "No, I didn't."

"You just said the song was about Klaus!"

"Sort of. That part is about you," she flushed.

Damon made for a retort but faltered. His mouth opened and closed several times before he said, "I don't understand."

She shrugged. "I'd say 'sorry' except I'm not. You understanding isn't my problem."

He bit down on his tongue to keep from spouting out the first thing that came into his head. What the hell did that mean? Did that mean she didn't care if he thought she liked Klaus? Did she like Klaus? Were they over? Or was this all because she was pissed at him?

Sighing, he dragged over the piano bench and sat across from her. Elena had said something about her being more reserved and less of herself after the "deal with you" incidents. Damon felt Addie would have normally explained it to him. He just had to convince her to do that.

"Make me understand," he pleaded, reaching for her hand. A sharp pain pierced his chest when she flinched away. "Addie, I need to understand this. I don't understand anything happening between us right now. I'm lost and it's killing me." He could read the anxious hesitation in her wide eyes. "Love, please. Explain it for me."

Reluctantly she mumbled, "The night I asked Klaus about coming back to Mystic Falls has just been on my mind a lot. I learned there is so much more that he know about what I am that he won't say. I learned that Jeremy has the possibility of becoming something. And I decided your flames are like the sun and his are like a wildfire. There was just a lot that happened that night that kept filling my head so I decided to write it out."

Suddenly Addie's ocean blue eyes narrowed at him and she scowled, "And then you happened. I've been trying so hard not to think about you. Every time I start to get you off my mind and I find a second of sanity, you come creeping back in. I was writing about that night with Klaus and then somehow you end up in there. Then I'm able to shove you out again for like half a nanosecond. But there's you and Klaus and the drugging and the blackmailing and the anger and the pain and it's all just screaming chaos in my head. Writing is the only thing I can do to shut the volume off and what comes out is good but lines blur and there are parts where I can't tell what is Klaus and what is you and I realize some of it is actually both of you."

She still only made sense in her own little world. With great struggle Damon managed to keep his voice gentle as he asked, "How can it be both of us?"

Addie's brows furrowed as she saw the direction he was heading. He wasn't going to like it. Defensively she pouted, "You're the one constantly worried about me falling for the bad guy again because I've done it before. Clearly you must see similarities between the two of you if you're worried about that."

"What part of the song is about both of us?"

She scoffed humorlessly, looking helplessly up at the ceiling, "He used everyone I care about to geographically make me his hostage this summer. You've got me so fucked up that I'm your emotional hostage."

"What?" gaped Damon. "Ads, I would never… how do you even figure that?"

"You drugged me and I'm having a hard time staying mad at you. What you did showed a complete lack of respect, broke the amazing amount of trust I had in you and breaks my heart but I still…," she trailed off, shaking her head. Addie looked at him imploringly, begging him to understand. "I barely sleep because I have nightmares when I'm not with you. I haven't eaten because the thought of it makes me sick. My homework isn't getting done because I can't focus on anything but you."

"You still care about me," he murmured in relief.

She shrugged noncommittally. Of course she did but she couldn't find an argument to make that count for much when she couldn't trust him.

"Why did you leave?" he inquired earnestly. Elena had told him but he needed to hear her say it. It needed to be voiced and clarified if he wanted to fix things.

"It doesn't matter."

He shook his head, frowning. How could she possibly think that? "Addie, everything you do matters to me. I've been losing my mind not knowing if you were ok these past few days. It's why I'm here. I know I said to come to me when you're ready but I can't stay away that long. Talk to me." It didn't matter if he sounded like a desperate, pathetic idiot. That was exactly what love was.

"You drugged me because you didn't have time to deal with me," she whispered, staring at her hands. "What happens when you get tired of dealing with me?"

Damon pulled the rolling stool until she sat right in front of him, ignoring the way she winced when he got close. He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, his fingers gently brushing her cheek. His hand and heart fell as she leaned away from him. Crestfallen he bemoaned, "Why can't I touch you?"

Inhaling sharply Addie forced herself to meet his piercing ice blue eyes. She had to be firm about this. Slowly she said, "You drugged me. I don't trust you, Damon."

He cocked his head in confusion. The not trusting him made sense but touching her? "You think I'm going to hurt you or something?"

"No."

"Then what is it?" She didn't answer him. Running his hand through his hair he sighed, "Addie, I made a mistake. I've been replaying that incident over and over and trying to think of what I should have done. The truth is that I have no idea. I know that the right answer is that I should have talked to you and reasoned with you. However I also know that would have taken a few hours; I've tried it before. Mikael showed up within half an hour, without knocking. He would have heard me trying to reason with you over his daggered daughter. So, as we all would have ended up dead if I pick the right answer, I can't say that it's what I would have done. It is, in fact, exactly why I said I didn't have time to deal with you. It wasn't that I didn't want to do the right thing but I didn't have the time."

Damon shook his head, unable to help a soft chuckle. "Love, the only person I can think of that's more stubborn than you might be myself. Mixing your medication into scotch and then getting you to drink it was wrong, really, really wrong. So, after thinking about this the only alternative I can come up with involves tying you up and gagging you. I can't let you move because you'll undagger Rebekah and she'll kill your sister. I can't let you talk because you're going to talk about Rebekah being daggered and Mikael is going to kill us all when he overhears that."

"The only reasonable solutions you see involve me either drugged or bound and gagged!" Addie cried incredulously, holding her head as if the two thoughts were enough to make it explode.

He quickly held up his hands in a defensive manner and quickly pointed out, "I never said either option was reasonable. While taking my ties from fashionable neckwear to nifty wrist restraints and crude gag was one possibility, I don't exactly think that was the moment to introduce some light BDSM into this relationship."

"Damon!" Addie shrieked, coloring bright red.

"Or maybe it was," he shrugged, smiling coyly. Oh, it was so wrong to play with her but, well, it wasn't as easy to embarrass her as it was before and she just looked too adorable when she blushed. Foregoing his awful attempt at an apology he teased, "Or perhaps it's just the thought of using my ties in such a lascivious manner that has you all hot and bothered. I noticed when Stefan asked to borrow one that you know not only knew the brand but also the price range of my favorite tie. Considering your fashion knowledge is essentially nonexistent, that is fascinating information. Are you that well-versed in all my neckwear or just my ties?"

Through gritted teeth she mumbled, "I don't like you."

"No, you don't," Damon quietly agreed. The corners of his mouth twitched imperceptibly. He couldn't tell if she was more embarrassed or livid. All he knew was that he ached to kiss those pouting lips. "You really don't like me right now," he murmured, unable to look away. Lightly, he added, "You still… care about me, though." He was smart enough not to aptly say that she loved him.

Her eyes were hard and icy as she softly challenged, "You ever question why that is? Or just how far you can push me before I simply stop caring? I'm really considering both of those right now."

Instantly he sobered. Addie was clearly not in a mood to be messed with. Somberly he admitted, "I question why you care every single day. Every day I wonder if today is going to be the day I go too far and screw it all up… Is that today?" Damon's breath caught in his throat as he desperately reached out for her hand, ignoring how she flinched.

"No," she grumbled sharply, snatching her hand away from him. Addie rolled her chair back a few inches. She needed to keep space between them to keep a clear head. It was unsettling to see Damon anxious and afraid. She bit at her lip to keep from comforting him. Reminding herself to stay firm, she told him, "I've told you I'd only break up with you if you cheated on me or hit me, otherwise I believed in working out our problems. I never fathomed that you'd drug me or else I would have added that. I suppose it's my fault for assuming you were above that. In case the situation and the severity of what you done is unclear and you're ever stupid enough to consider drugging me again, I will let you know that it's now on the list of reasons that I will break up with you."

"You're not leaving me?"

She suppressed the pull at the corner of her mouth as she glared at him. "Not today…. That doesn't mean I'm not still pissed off at you."

"Completely understandable," he grinned.

"Stop smiling."

"Sorry."

"You're still smiling."

Damon tried to frown and look properly chastened but failed. He shrugged apologetically. "I've been thinking I've lost you since you walked out on me. That's not happening. I can't help it."

"Whatever," muttered Addie, turning back towards her computer.

At this his lips fell. His eyebrows knitted in confusion. "That's it?"

Her back straightened as she tensed. She kept her voice flat and neutral as she said, "What do you expect? Should I yell and scream? Is that going to make you feel any more sorry about what you did?"

"You're still angry."

She sighed in exasperation, "Of course I am."

It wasn't like Addie to just drop something if she was still upset about it. He expected something. "Well aren't we going to like, I don't know, talk about it or something?"

"What's that going to change? You see what you did as justifiable and believe you had no other choice. You're not going to change your mind. I just have to deal with the fact that you're an idiot," mumbled Addie.

His hand dragged through his hair as he fought to keep his patience. That explained why she'd dropped it. "God, Addie. I want to deal with you. Yes, you drive me ten types of crazy but I love you. I am a stubborn idiot and I'm not going to change my mind but we can still fight about it."

"Fighting with you would be pointless."

"Our arguments rarely have a point," Damon noted dryly. "Plus, just because it won't change anything doesn't mean you won't feel a little better after it." When she ignored him he added, "Or you can pout like a child, which is truly pointless."

"I'm not pouting," she snapped, very whiny sounding.

Damon's lips twitched as he studied her. As if he were talking to small child he placated her, "Of course you're not."

Addie whipped around in her chair, glaring at him. Indignantly she huffed, "Don't patronize me!"

"Then act your age."

She looked at him incredulously and scoffed, "Pot. Kettle. Black."

"Yes, well, I'd be rather dull and dead-like if I acted 170-something," he retorted smartly.

"Or, you know, God forbid you act like someone who's lived enough lifetimes to learn some maturity."

Damon tilted his head at her as if he didn't understand her point. "Again, dull and dead-like."

"Forgot I'm dealing with the king of irrationality," she scowled, tapping at the keyboard.

He stretched out, barely hooking his fingers under the stool and yanked her until the stool rolled in front of her again. Addie tried to move away from him again but he stuck his foot in the way and gave her a challenging look. When he was convinced she wasn't going to try and roll over him to get away he curiously wonder, "That's a fair point. Why do you deal with me?"

Addie's brows furrowed and she slowly shook her head. Baffled she tried to explain, "I don't deal with you. Do I choose to tolerate or put up with some annoying aspect of you from time to time? Yes. That doesn't make you some kind of problem that I have to deal with like a broken toilet or a clogged drain."

"You are so random," Damon uttered, his lips curling into a small smile. A commanding finger lifted her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. "Addie, I'd be lying if I said you weren't sometimes a complication and sometime I have problems with you but you are never the problem. You can give me a headache but you don't make me want to rip my head off. Klaus is a problem. Katherine is a problem. My humanity depraved brother is a problem. You just drive me ten types of crazy. Faulty plumbing just drives me one type of crazy," he winked. "When I say I have to deal with you it's not a bad thing. I'm lucky I get to do that. It's actually something I thoroughly enjoy doing except when you're doing something that puts your life in danger because…"

She crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly as he trailed off. Not amused but interested in where he was headed with his horrible attempt at what she thought was an apology Addie prompted, "Because?"

Crossing his arms Damon mockingly mirrored her expression. He wasn't going to test and see if she was up for verbal sparring again but he couldn't just let her sass him without some reaction. Carelessly he shrugged, "Because when you're in danger I get scared. All I want to do is focus on getting you safe; that's the only time I don't enjoy dealing with you. Being unreasonable about your sister and Rebekah when Mikael could show up at any moment was dangerous. I didn't like dealing with you in that one particular moment. Otherwise, I love dealing with you." Remembering what she had first asked him he added, "It's not something I'm going to get tired of. Understand?"

"Fine," she grumbled.

"So you're going to keep being your complicated, unexplainable, random self that I love?" Addie nodded and, with a big smile, he moved in to kiss her but she leaned back. Moving back into his own personal space Damon scratched at his eyebrow and sighed in confusion, "I need you to explain your unexplainable self. I don't get this whole thing where I can't touch you."

"It's complicated, unexplainable, and random," she shrugged, giving him a weak, unreturned smile. Her eyes diverted helplessly from him as she struggled to explain, "It's like the rational part of me knows that you would never hurt me. But the rational part of me also thought you would never drug me. Part of me feels like I need to question my judgment because I am obviously making the wrong choices."

"You think you were wrong to trust me?" he whispered, horrified.

"You did drug me."

There wasn't anything he could say to argue against that. His fingers twitched as they rested on his knee. "I've admitted to screwing up. I broke your trust. I ha - I thought I had no choice. Ads, your trust in me wasn't misplaced or wrong. I just made a mistake. I never meant to hurt you. I would never want to hurt you. In fact, I usually go out of my way to not hurt you. I don't do that for people; if they're in the crossfire of something I'm going to do, that's their problem. You're the exception, you're always the exception."

Addie shifted uncomfortable under his intense, intimate gaze. Sadly she reminded, "Remember after the holidays you were still in a funk after the tomb fiasco and I called you for a ride back from my lake house because -"

"It was the least I owed you after forcing you into a road trip to Georgia?" he finished wistfully. There was no way he'd ever forget the night he realized he had something even remotely close to actual feelings for her. "Vaguely."

"We both agreed then that I would be completely stupid to ever fully trust you. I was completely stupid. I'm not… I won't let that happen again."

Damon groaned softly at the uncomfortable squeezing in his chest. "Addie, no," he begged. "I was wrong about that. I was scared. I was afraid of abusing your trust. Then I thought I would intentionally do it but it turns out that I have unintentionally done it. But you don't have to worry this time. I see how bad I've hurt you. It's not going to happen again.'

"That's just it, though. You broke my trust inadvertently. Hell, you thought you were protecting me! It's kind of hard for me to trust you when you can't tell right from wrong," Addie lamented.

"I admitted I was wrong!"

"But you still would have made the same choice again!"

He growled, standing up and pushing his fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends in frustration. Once he'd paced to the other side of the room he turned back to her. His voice was strained as he fought to keep it level, "Why do you insist on living in this world where everything is black and white? Fact or fiction. Truth or lie. There is a scale of 'right' and 'wrong' and drugging you lies somewhere on the 'wrong' end of that scale but it's not entirely wrong. It had the right intentions behind it Addison, it's only because I believe in shades of gray that I haven't lost my fucking mind over what you said right before you left. In case you forgot, me being pissed off at you for telling Klaus everything would be completely justifiable."

Addie gaped at him in disbelief before eventually snarling, "You wanna talk about Klaus? If it wasn't for him ratting you out, were you ever going to tell me you drugged me?"

A pinched, sour smile graced his lips. "Talk about an unfair question. I tell you the truth and you get pissed at me for lying about drugging you. I lie and you get pissed at me for lying to tell you the 'right' answer. I'm gonna be wise enough to not answer that and, therefore, not get bitched at for lying."

"Where's Rebekah?" she demanded sharply. Whether or not he answered the question it still took a lot for her not to go off on him about lying. But at least it meant she could trust him to be honest. Or was he only being honest because she'd catch him in a lie?

"Random! So fucking random! Why does it matter? We're in the middle of an argument and you want to, what? Worry about Rebekah so you can go undagger her? We've already discussed the outcome of that!" Damon snapped. Perhaps he had exaggerated when he said he loved to deal with her. If she could just stay focused…

"Klaus is still," she waved her hand around in the air vaguely as she stood up, letting the motion finish her sentence. "He's suspicious about his sister. I said I'd ask about her."

Damon rubbed at his forehead, trying to suppress a dark laugh. "And you actually intend to report back to him?"

"He's Klaus!"

"And your sister literally stabbed his sister in the back!"

"Then it's a good thing he needs my sister alive to make more hybrids," she replied smugly.

"No, he might not kill Elena for what she did but he'll make her pay. Doesn't killing her sister in exchange for what she did to his sister sound like poetic justice?" Damon hissed. He wouldn't touch her but he did something that he never did and stepped right up to her, using his height to advantage. Fire flickered in her eyes as she tilted her head back to look up at him. "Don't talk to him, Addison."

Addie smiled at him as she gently brushed the hair off his forehead. Too sweetly she replied, "It's ok for you to admit you're jealous."

"I'm not jealous," he glowered. "Klaus is going to kill you. I'm telling you not to do something stupid. I'm being protective, not jealous."

In her eyes the flames of anger turned to daggers of ice. "If you have a few hours I believe we can compile an exhaustive list of the stupid things we've both done and see which one of us is actually prone to doing them. Spending 145 years trying to open a tomb, nearly getting myself killed numerous times, turning people into vampires because I was bored, breaking up with my girlfriend, and drugging my girlfriend are all not on my list. Really, my list consist of dating you once, trusting you, dating you again, and, well, more of you. This doesn't concern you so I'm fairly certain I'll be smart about it."

"You're pretty stupid where Klaus is concerned," Damon said the words flying out of his mouth before he could check them.

"Oh?"

His shoulders sagged wearily at the challenge in her voice. "That's not what I mean. You just make some stupid decisions when he is involved. You provoke and antagonize him. You take him up on the scholarship. You-"

"He wasn't exactly in a mood to hear no."

"-spend the summer with him. You have friendly little chats. You befriend his sister."

"Have you ever considered that I might be the only smart one around here? I'm pretty much the only one who hasn't been royally fucked by him. Maybe playing nice with the narcissistic psychopath isn't such a bad idea," Addie mused.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Just because it worked on me doe-"

She cut him off, shaking her head, "You're a sociopath, not a psychopath. At least I'm like 95% certain you're a victim of your environment between Katherine and the tiny little fucked up bit I know about your childhood. Speaking of Katherine, though, playing nice also worked with that narcissistic psychopath."

"Katherine betrayed us to Klaus!"

"Well, yeah but I was talking about when she first showed up and I agreed to help her do whatever she came to town to do and she promised to get you and Stefan out of town."

"That didn't work! She ended up in the tomb and I'm standing right here!"

"Yes, Sherlock, but she was never going to break her end of our deal. I was the one to screw her over that time," Addie impatiently explained.

"So what? This is all some of your grand master plan?" he scoffed, his light blue eyes wide. "Being nice to the bad guys is how we're supposed to function? Are we all suppose to hold hands and sing the Barney song and kumbaya?"

She snorted at the mental image that came to mind. Tired of looking up at him, Addie sat back down on the stool. As she rolled it back to the computer she retorted, "You couldn't do that even if you tried. I expect you to continue handling him in your scheming ways. My grand master plan doesn't involve you."

"Addie, if you're thinking of taking on Klaus you are going to get yourself killed."

"I'm going to get myself killed if I talk to him, according to you," she mumbled as she unwrapped the cord from around a pair of large headphones. This was growing rather tedious and uninteresting. And she could feel herself growing furious with the lack of respect he was showing her, between the drugging and thinking she couldn't hand Klaus and everything else. Before Addie could say something to cause nuclear damage she put the headphone in place, plugged him in and just before blasting some music told him, "Just go away, Damon. You already pushed me to talk when your note said you'd give me space. I need space. Go away."

---

A/N: Poor Damon hasn't even gotten a chance to respond to Addie screwing him over! Well, Klaus swings by for a visit and all three of them "clear the air," or just making everything worse, next chapter.

On another note, I started in January of 2015 with the Control series having it's own plot line separate from the show at a certain point. I have only watched the first half of the first episode of season seven for a variety of reasons. However, this week I learned from a friend who is obsessed with the show that what I have had planned has kind of happened. I don't know all the details behind it and I'm not sure I want to. The only thing certain right now is that this story, particularly Addie and how she's different, is suffering from an extreme case of an identity crisis. Now I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with this thing. I don't know if I'm going to continue it, scrap it, try and come up with some bizarre new plot trajectory that makes sense. I don't know.