Chapter 13 Getting personal

"Oh dear god. Please tell me this is not happening." I said in a horrified whisper that only I could hear being that there was now a full fledged battle happening on my front lawn with Eric and Damon. I couldn't even move or speak. It was only my eyes that had any activity and they followed the fight that I should have known was coming. It was only a matter of time before Eric and Damon came face to face and I should have expected that this was going to get violent as soon as they officially met each other and here it was playing out before me and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

I could barely make out their forms because they were moving so fast, but at one point I heard a crack coming from across the yard and whipped my head to the side just in time to see Damon go flying into the trunk of a nearby tree. My mouth froze in a partial open position as I saw him crumble to the ground and seeing Eric materialize just a few feet away looking triumphant. But even though Eric was a 1000 year old and much stronger then Damon was, the darker haired vamp was not going down so easily. It only took him a second to regain his footing and once he was back on his feet, he charged at Eric again, this time managing to get the upper hand and shoved the viking back across the lawn before Eric grabbed him by the arm and threw him towards the porch. I barely managed to jump off the steps where I was standing and onto the lawn before Damon's body crashed through the railing of the porch, scattering chunks of wood everywhere. The first thing that went through my head was that with all that wood flying all over the place, there was no way that Damon was going to be ok. But he was, he was dazed and unsteady on his feet but he was ok and I let out a huge sigh of relief to see him fly back off the porch to tackle Eric down to the ground, leaving a 6 foot rut in the middle of the yard.

"What the fuck?" Sookie's voice came out from the direction of the front door as she and Bill came on to the porch to take in the sight of the pile of wood scattered on the floor at their feet and then over to the fight taking place on the lawn. Sookie's face mirrored my own and she looked towards me in shock at the sight of Eric and Damon throwing punches at each other and spilling blood across the grass.

"Stop it. Stop it right now." Bill ordered, leaving Sookie's side and jumping down to the ground to rush over and attempt to separate Eric from Damon. But Bill was the same age as Damon so he couldn't much more against Eric anyway. But that didn't stop him from trying. Both Sookie and I watched as Bill grabbed Eric and tried to pull him backwards away from the other young vampire but much like the last time he went up against Eric in a fight, Bill was sent flying through the air by Eric and my cousin's fiancee was thrown nearly halfway down to the road by the time he came to a stop.

"Bill!" Sookie cried out, hoping over the broken part of the porch and running after him while I could only watch on helplessly as Damon and Eric stood toe to toe and threw their stone fists into each others faces.

"...stupid trespasser.." Eric shoved his fist into Damon's jaw, knocking the dark haired vampire off balance but not by much when Damon came back at him.

"..Whiny little bitch.." Damon sent a well aimed slap across Eric's face that practically snapped his head off his neck and I couldn't help but smile. Eric did deserved to get smacked around a little bit. And since I couldn't do it then why not Damon? But that didn't mean I wasn't taking this fight seriously. And that was why I tried to intervene even though I knew it was probably very stupid of me to get into the middle of two quarreling vampires.

"Eric stop this. I won't have you fighting Damon out on my front lawn damn it." I shouted, charging across the grass and when there was a pause in the hitting, I tried to throw myself in between them and managed to wedge my body in the middle. After all, neither of them would try and hit each other when I was so near by. But instead of it working, it only seemed to fuel their desire to get at each other and Eric grabbed me by the arms and without even looking at me, he tossed me away toward the ground where I landed hard and turned just in time to see Eric toss Damon back against the tree, only this time succeeded in breaking it and it fell in a pile of branches all around him.

"You know what? That kind of hurt." Damon hissed darkly, emerging from the rubble dusting off the shoulders of his leather jacket like it was nothing. "But seriously...is that all you've got?"

"Damon shut the fuck up. You're going to get yourself killed." I snapped at him, this time heading in his direction to hopefully stop this. But much like Eric, I wasn't able to physically do anything because I couldn't even get within two feet of him before he flashed by me and lunged at Eric. I paused in my spot, throwing my hands in the air out of frustration and groaned "What the hell do I do now?"

I didn't know what else I was suppose to do. Yelling at them wasn't helping because it seemed like they didn't hear me. Trying to do something either got me tossed away like rag doll or knocked back on my ass when one of them went whizzing by me to attack the other. Even Bill wasn't able to do anything and he was a vampire. He was just thrown just as easily as if he had been human. And now I stood there, watching this go on longer and I knew that if it wasn't stopped soon, then Damon was going to end up dead. There was no question about that. Eric was the older and stronger of the two, there was no way Damon would survive no matter how scrappy of a fighter he was. And there was nothing I could do about it. Well, at least not physically.

I had barely allowed the solution to enter my head before I felt my fingers start to tingle and get warm and one look downwards showed me the beginning of a spark start to emit from the ends of them. I glanced over to where Damon and Eric were pushing each other back and forth and I knew I would have to wait for that split second when they weren't touching each other. And when it came, I was ready. As soon as I saw them separate, I threw my hands out in front of me and a strong beam of white light shot out from both of my hands and raced to meet the two feuding vampires. As soon as it hit them, they were both drawn away from each other and thrown off balance to the point where they couldn't get back up and charge at each other. It should have ended there but it didn't. I couldn't trust that they wouldn't start fighting again the second I stopped using my powers. So I did something that was unprecedented for me and I kept my hands up, directing the light at the both of them to not only initially separate them, but to keep them that way.

As long as I had those beams on them, they couldn't move towards each other and that was a relief for me to know that it was over for the moment. They couldn't hurt each other anymore, but my efforts to hold them back were hurting me. It was one thing to bring up this light to get them apart, it was another thing entirely to keep that power going to make sure they remained distant. And I never tried it before and I never knew how much it was going to take out of me. I was forcing myself to use more energy then I ever had before and it was wrecking havoc on my body. All the strength and power in me was being directed through my hands and fingers, leaving me no strength for the rest of my body to function. I could feel my arms starting to shake and still I would not let go. I couldn't because if I did then the fighting would start and I couldn't have that. I couldn't have anything happen to Eric or Damon. They both meant something to me and if took everything out of me to keep them from hurting each other, then that's what I was going to do.

"Allie, you can stop now." Sookie's voice called out to me as she stood by Eric and Damon with Bill and waved her arms at me to drop my hands. I think she was afraid to come near me because she had never seen me use this much power before and she didn't know if it would go haywire. "Allie, it's ok. They're not going to fight again. Right?"

"Yea...that's right." Eric shot a glare across the yard at Damon who was standing in the exact same fighting stance as he had been when they were battling.

"Of course...no more fighting." But Damon didn't sound convincing either and that was just another incentive for me to keep my powers going. But the longer I did this and the harder I pushed myself, the more my entire body started to shake and my vision was beginning to get fuzzy and occasionally I would see black dots appear. I wasn't going to last much longer.

"Allison, stop it." Bill ordered, the protectiveness from before back in his voice again as he was the only one brave enough to take a step towards me with his hands outstretched. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"No I'm..." I began to protest but I wasn't able to finish because my strength finally left me and my knees gave out, sending me down to the ground. And I was bracing myself for an impact that never came because I felt a pair of arms circle around my waist after I began to collapse and those arms held me up until I was able to turn my head to see who it was that had caught me. And as my eyes landed on his face, they widened considerably. "Godric?"

"Are you ok?" He asked me, concern filling his young face as he got down to his knees and set me on the grass with his hands on my face. "That took a lot out of you. I could feel it."

"I'm fine. Just a little dizzy that's all." I assured him, bringing my fingers to the side of my head where I felt the beginning of a headache start to form and I knew it would be a bad one. My whole body ached and quivered and for a second, I thought I was about to vomit all over Godric. But it passed and when it did, I looked over to where the others were and were relieved that neither Damon or Eric had made a move towards each other. "Oh thank god."

"Godric, I didn't mean to..." Eric tried to smooth things over before Godric addressed him but it was too late. Because as soon as Eric opened his mouth, Godric sent him a glare that was so dark and so deadly that for the first time, I actually was afraid of the normally calm vampire.

"Do not speak Eric. You have infuriated me with your actions and I have never been more disgusted then I am right now." Godric replied coldly, his stare so heavy and lidded that I could see Eric visibly shrink back as Godric helped me to my feet and kept his arms around my waist to hold me up. He then looked back at Eric and shook his head."I am so disappointed right now that I can barely even look at you."

"He started it..."

"I don't care who fucking started it. It never should have happened and if it hadn't been fore my bond with Allison then I never would have gotten here in time to fix your mess." Godric growled, sounding more like an animal then I had ever heard him and it was scary. I had only ever known the calm, composed Godric and to see him turn into this angry creature was just mind blowing. Godric had never tried to insert himself into something that didn't directly involved him. But with Eric being his child and it being Eric who was partly to blame, Godric had no choice but to get involved. He looked directly into Eric's eyes and said. "As your maker, I am commanding you to return to your house and wait for me. I will deal with you later."

"I have unfinished business..." Eric tried to protest again but Godric would not let him get too far.

"Do not make me command you again." He said in such a deadly voice that I know understood where Eric's intimidation had come from. I knew he had to have learned it but to hear it coming from Godric was so weird. But Eric didn't think it was weird and he had no choice but to follow orders and in the blink of an eye, he was gone and Damon was the only one left still looking ready for a fight. Godric turned his gaze down at me and I was relieved to see his normal face was back. "I have to leave and go talk some sense into my child. So please excuse me."

"Yea, go ahead." I waved him off as Sookie reached us and went to grab me just as Godric let go of me and took off down the driveway towards the road to do what he said he was going to do and that was to tear Eric a new one. I fought the urge to smile and turned to look at my cousin who was watching me with concern and I had to alleviate it or else she would cling to me for days. "I'm fine you know. I just need a few minutes for this dizziness to pass."

"You'll get more then a few minutes." Sookie grumbled, motioning for Bill and even Damon to follow her as we headed towards the steps. "Come on, I think we all need to have a chat."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm going to have my ass handed to me?" Damon's voice muttered from behind as we all headed inside the house to leave behind the destruction in the yard and face whatever else was to come of this night.

In Shreveport

"Are you still mad at me?"

Godric could only send Eric a glare as he continued to stomp up and down the length of the living room as he had been doing since walking in the door of his child's home without having even the slightest desire to say anything worth while. He was afraid that if he were to open his mouth now, then something would come out of it that would ultimately destroy everything. And Godric couldn't bear to let that happen, so he kept himself from uttering a single word until he had calmed down enough to yell at Eric without fear of ruining the new found relationship they shared. Occasionally Eric would make a move like he was going to get up and walk out of the room, but Godric would send such a dark look at him that Eric would immediately sit back down without a fight, not used to Godric exerting this much anger and frustration on him. He never had in the past gone to this length and Godric didn't like it when he did, but Eric was so beyond a disappointment right now that he was resorting to what ever he could to get through to him.

"Look I said I was sorry. I got a little carried away and maybe I shouldn't have acted like that." Eric said gruffly, like apologizing was the most tedious task in the world for him. "But I had no choice. The sight of that asshole made something snap inside of me and I had to fight..."

"No! No you didn't. You did not have to start something physical when there was no means for it. Damn it Eric." Godric found himself yelling this when he had stopped moving and much like he usually did these days involving Eric, he had the immense desire to rip his hair out. That's the point his child had driven him too. "When I told you to fight for her, I didn't mean get into a battle with Damon on her front lawn! What in God's name is the matter with you?"

"He was trespassing on my territory. And Allison is my territory." Eric shot back, not a lick of fear in his eyes. "I claimed her a long time ago and he had no right to try and go there to take her from me."

"Will you listen to yourself? You keep saying that she's yours and yet you have not done anything to be worthy of her choosing you. You want her? Then do something about it. But do not start an unfounded fight and behave like a god damn newborn." Godric retorted, resisting the urge to run over and shake his progeny, doing that would not solve anything and could just make things worse. "Why do you always have to do this? Why do you always have to behave in the most inappropriate ways?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's just been instilled in me since I was turned." Eric sneered, sitting back and crossed his arms like a toddler. "Maybe I don't know any better."

"Oh do not give that crap about not being able to change how you are. It's not a genetic trait, its a choice. A choice that I allowed you to be too comfortable with over the years." Godric hissed, knowing he was partially to blame for how Eric had turned out because he was supposed to have been more firm on his progeny to be more open to other things, but he hadn't done a very good job. And now Eric was too far set in his ways and Godric wondered if that could ever change. "You have to stop..You have to change at some point. Or else you're going to become even more bitter then you are now."

"I think you shoulder some of the blame for that." Eric scoffed, his blue eyes following Godric across the room. "For a long time you taught me the right way to deal with things was by violence...

"I taught you wrong and it's time to change. I don't want this kind of life for you. I don't want you to be this unhappy, angry vampire. It's no way to live. Trust me, I would know." Godric pressed his lips together, memories flooding his head that he did not wish to relive so he pushed them away. "I don't want you to end up like me."

"But there's nothing wrong with you." Eric protested, his pale forehead wrinkling into a frown. "So who cares if I end up like you?"

"I care! I care a lot damn it!" Godric exclaimed, whirling around and kicking at the leg of a nearby table until it collapsed, spilling a pile of books everywhere. "You have a chance to be happier then I ever could. You have the opportunity to be with a woman that you love and you're pissing away your energy by starting fights with another vampire instead of using that energy in trying to romance her."

"I already told you the romance thing is not my thing." Eric said with such vigor like he was so determined to keep himself from ever reaching the point of vulnerability and Godric was just so annoyed at his attitude that he threw up his hands and stomped out of the room.

"Eric, don't take this personally...but please, shut the fuck up."

25 minutes later

"You guys don't need to hover over me. I said I was fine and I am, so back off already." I told the three figures that had gathered around the sofa where I was sitting and waved my hands at them to show I was fully able to function without hurting myself. "The dizziness passed a while ago so you don't need to treat me like I'm terminally ill."

"You just scared the crap out of us. We've never seen you display that much power before and we didn't know what kind of damage it would to do you when it weakened you that badly." Sookie explained as she sat on the couch across from me with Bill and watched me with all the attention of a first time mother. "I can't believe you were able to sustain that power in such a concentrated state for so long. It couldn't have been easy."

"Oh you have no idea." I agreed, running my fingers through the ends of my long hair as I pulled my knees up close to my chest. "But I had no other choice. Something had to be done or there was going to be vampire guts all over our lawn."

"She's got a point there." Bill commented, looking at me with a small smile. "I wasn't able to do anything to stop the fight and Godric didn't arrive until after it was over. And if Allison hadn't done what she did, then Eric very well would have ripped Damon's head off."

"I should have known he would react that way." I shook my head, feeling like an idiot for not being smarter about the situation and keeping Damon inside the house. Then maybe this never would have happened. "Eric has the worse temper and it was bound to come out like this at some point and unfortunately it happened tonight."

"You know it's not your fault right?" Damon's hand landed on my shoulder as he spoke up for the first time since the conversation began and I turned towards him to see him smiling at me. "It was my fault."

"And Eric's. Let's not forget him." Sookie reminded everyone, as her dislike for Eric was in full swing tonight.

"I second that." Damon agreed quickly, forming a bond with Sookie just from this mutual dislike of my ex. "But despite what happened tonight...I don't regret it."

"Are you serious?" Bill countered with a frown. "You and Eric both caused damage to the house directly and to Allison indirectly. How can you not regret that?"

"Oh I'm not saying a fight was the best way to go about this because it really wasn't." Damon answered back with a shrug, seemingly apologizing but what he said next contradicted it. "But I still don't regret it because I've been wanting to punch Eric for months now."

"At least you're honest. That's got to count for something." I responded, secretly loving the fact that he cared enough about me to go toe to toe with a vampire as old as Eric just because Eric had hurt me in the past. At least he was fighting for me in all aspects.

"Still, as much as I love the fact that someone wasn't afraid to get into a fight with Eric, let's just make it a deal to not have any more fights in our yard." Sookie said to everyone around in the room. "Because if there is another night like tonight, then I don think this house can withstand it."

"Deal."

2 hours later

"Are you ready to finally talk to me for real?" Godric asked a few hours later as he reentered the living room and came to sit down on the same couch Eric had been sitting on since watching his master stomp out in a fury. "Are you ready to tell me what is really going on in your head?"

"There's really nothing to talk about." Eric shrugged, shrinking back against the couch in an attempt to avoid this conversation. He had gone over it enough in his head since Godric yelled at him and he did not really feel like saying it out loud. "You made your point and I'm just going to nod and accept it."

"You know I had every right to say what I said, don't you?" Godric kept his face turned forward as if he too weren't comfortable about having this talk but he was more able to do it then Eric. "Your behavior as of late has been foolish, childish, immature and I'm..."

"Disappointed, yea I know." Eric found himself finishing the thought because not only did it sting to know he had brought out those feelings from his maker, but he was now feeling flickers of disappointment in himself and he hated it. "I haven't really liked myself too much lately either."

"Then why do you continue to act like this?" Godric demanded, now turning his body to face him. "Why can't you just solve your problems in some other way?"

" Because what is the point of trying another way when she is just going to end up picking him in the end." Eric spat this out bitterly, giving voice to the reason he had been so quick to jump into a fight tonight. "We both know she is going to pick him."

"You don't know that for sure." Godric shook his head, rubbing his hands up and down his face. "You don't know what she is thinking so you can't say that she will pick Damon. She may very well pick you. She does love you after all."

"She shouldn't love me." Eric stated, looking blankly at his maker. "I'm no good for her."

"Yes you are." Godric was obviously not going to let him feel sorry for himself. "You may not be the vampire with the best composure or temper. But I can see that you love her. And back in Mystic Falls, I saw that she still loved you. And that hasn't changed even with Damon arriving on the scene. And I truly believe that you two belong together. You just have to make more of an effort and show her that you're serious."

"I can't...I just can't." Eric frowned, knowing his answer was going to seriously piss off his maker but he couldn't help it. He did love Allison and he did want her to pick him. But he just couldn't let himself be vulnerable to her, it wasn't who he was and it wasn't who he would ever be. And he just didn't have the courage to force a change and he had accepted that a long time ago and he had to be ok with it, even if it meant a life without Allison. He couldn't change and Godric knew that. "I can't be weak like that. I don't have it in me."

"It's not weakness to try and win back the love of your life. You know that right?" Godric stared at him so intensely that it was almost like he was looking into his soul. "Allowing yourself to be vulnerable is not weakness. It's a strength, especially for vampires."

"I shouldn't have to try this hard." Eric huffed, leaning forward and glared into the fireplace. "If Damon hadn't come here then I would have already had Allison back. He's ruining everything for me."

"No Eric, you're ruining everything for you." Godric corrected him with a grin. "Damon is doing something that you should be doing. He's not trying to edge you out or pull on over on you. He's just using the opportunity that is being given to him with you not fighting for her. It wouldn't be so easy for him to win her over if you were trying to do the same thing. But Damon knows you're not standing in his way and he's going to win this if you don't do something."

"He's just so damn aggravating." Eric rolled his eyes at the thought of the younger vampire. It drove him wild with jealousy to think of Allison being anywhere near this jackass. But he couldn't do anything about it because he would just make things worse. So he turned to Godric for guidance. "I hate this Godric. Tell me what to do."

"Eric, you're my child and you know I care deeply about how you feel right?" Godric asked, turning a composed look on him that Eric nodded to for him to go on. And he watched as his maker leaned forward and placed his hand on his shoulder. "So don't get offended by this..but stop being such a pussy already."

Later that night

"I still can't believe you managed to convince Sookie to let me go out with you after the night we had already." I said to Damon as we walked side by side through the dark night towards wherever it was that he was taking me to. He had said when we left the house that he had a crazy idea in mind and refused to give any more clues on the topic except to say that I would love it and I should trust him. So I did and now my curiosity was at an all time high so I had to just keep on pushing him to tell me. "Now tell me where we are going."

"You don't recognize where we are? You said you lived here your whole life." Damon smirked at me, keeping his arm looped through mine so I wouldn't trip over something in the dark. He had a flashlight in his hand just in case but being a vampire, he didn't have any cause to use it and insisted I would be ok with him leading.

"Yea I have lived here but I don't know why you are taking me on the road that leads to the elementary school. It's not like there is anything crazy waiting for us up there." I explained, wondering what exactly he was getting at. He had used the word crazy when describing his plan for tonight and I was having a hard time understanding what that could mean when walking to my old school. "Seriously, what is going on?"

"I thought this would be fun and totally out of character for me." He explained, pulling me to a stop by a nearby chain link fence and nodded across the grass to the structures sitting in the moonlight waiting for us. "We can just hang out and talk."

"On the playground? For real?" I couldn't hide my growing surprise at his odd, yet touching suggestion of sitting around the old yard where I use to have recess when I was a child. I hadn't been back here once since I left elementary school, not even just to play after school was over. And it was quite different to be here as an adult but there was something very sweet about it that made me want to stay here and soak it up. I turned to Damon and grinned. "This is childish, and immature and...totally adorable."

"I can be adorable when I want to be." He insisted, laughing at me when I left his side and headed over to the merry go round and sat down with my feet in the sand to push myself. He came over and took the space next to me, also setting his feet on the ground to lazily move the metal circle around. "And my efforts seem to be making you smile a lot more then they ever have when you were in Mystic Falls."

"That's because you never tried this hard when I was there." I reminded him turning my eyes so I was able to see his face as it caught the moonlight. "Actually, you never really tried at all."

"I will agree with you on that." He chuckled as he leaned back against the bars while our feet dragged through the sand. "I was stupid to not be fighting for you even back then. I shouldn't have waited this long."

"Why did you?" I asked suddenly, needing to understand why he had been so against the idea of trying to make things work between us. "Why weren't you able to tell me how you felt?"

"To be frank, you scared the shit out of me." He replied with no hesitation at all and looked at me with a shrug. "I hadn't felt anything that strong for anyone since I was involved with my maker. And even then, it was different because Katherine was a vampire and you're not. But it didn't make sense for me to be so uncomfortable about being vulnerable with you when you were no threat to me. It's not like you could hurt me."

"In a way I could. Just not physically." I nodded, knowing where he was going with this and shocked that he was opening up to me. "You were afraid of being close to me and then losing me right?"

"Yup. And that's why I told you to leave and that there was nothing between us." He muttered, seemingly lost in his own memories of that night. "As I told Stefan, I would have rather have you hate me and leave instead of allowing myself to really love you and then have you leave anyway."

"I guess I understand that." I sighed heavily, glad that this was making sense now but it didn't bring me any closer to knowing who I was going to pick. Although I was happy that Damon was being open with me, that mean something. So I my head to look at him and did something I wasn't expecting and placed my hand on top of his, causing him to look at me in surprise. I smiled and said. "I'm not leaving Damon."

"Oh yea?" His lips twisted into a smirk as he turned his hand over and laced his fingers with mine before saying "Well I'm not leaving either."