a.n.: Takes place right after "Blood Brothers". Hope you all enjoy.

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2010

It was late evening when Damon and Elena finally arrived at the Boarding House. They took their time walking there together, enjoying the crisp air as the sun set.

'Past' Damon met them at the door with a wave and a smirk, "Hello Elena and hello…me. Why don't you two come inside?"

"Where are Stefan and 'past' Elena?" Damon inquired as he took a seat in front of the blazing fire.

"Stefan's been having some issues with his blood lust lately, though I'm sure you two know about that already. Elena is with him though so hopefully they will be here shortly."

"I'm not sure if I want them to come…" Elena muttered, hoping both Damons would understand what she was talking about.

"Elena, you have to get this out of the way eventually," 'future' Damon reassured her, taking the seat next to her as the other Damon fixed himself a drink.

"Would you mind fixing me a drink as well?" Damon asked his past self, only to be given a glare in response.

Damon sighed before turning his attention back to Elena who seemed to be anxious by the way she was chewing her lip. "Elena?"

"I…sort of ran into my past self at the dance, Damon. She knows I'm here."

"Yeah…"

"How am I going to explain this to her?"

"Well, she is you so you'll know how to address things with -"

Elena cut him off, throwing her hand in the air with a sigh, "But that's the problem. I'll know how she'll react to this, especially if I tell her about you and me."

"And by you and me, you would mean?" 'past' Damon smirked as he twirled his drink in his hand.

Elena stood up as she glared right at Damon and marched her way across the room, "You said earlier we needed to talk, so let's talk."

"Right now?" 'past' Damon choked on his drink at her forwardness while 'future' Damon smirked in amusement.

"Yes, Damon – right now," she demanded, folding her arms over her chest.

"How about we discuss in private, maybe upstairs…so Elena and Stefan don't just walk in?"

Elena looked back at Damon on the couch and when he just shrugged at the two, she followed 'past' Damon up the stairs to his room.

As she entered, Elena tried to with hold back a shiver when she looked at his bed.

"When you left here the last time I said some things and I should, at the very least, apologize to you but I also need to get things off my chest and to make you understand."

Elena nodded with a sincere smile as she took a seat upon his comforter, patting the spot next to her, "I'm listening."

Stefan and Elena entered the Boarding House quietly, hands interlocking after their whole ordeal and Stefan feeling like a renewed and better man.

Damon looked up from his drink and the book he happened to pick up, "Hey, you're here," Damon announced, standing from the couch as the couple entered the room.

"Yea, we are," Stefan replied with a skeptical look.

"Just didn't expect you to come home so soon," Damon muttered as he watched Elena head towards the stairs, "Where do you think you're going?"

Elena turned around on the landing to give Damon her usual glare, "I know this is your house as well, Damon, but it's really none of your business. Besides, I'm just going up to Stefan's room. Good night."

Damon battled with himself if he should go after her, though his room wasn't close to Stefan's – but still, what if she overheard them talking in his room?

"Damon?" Stefan called out to him, probably wondering why he was staring at Elena.

"I..I'm fine, just a long couple of days, you know."

Stefan nodded before he turned to Damon with an intense stare, "Thank you."

Damon tried to keep his eye from widening as he realized where Stefan was going. The he racked his brain; trying to remember the conversation they had all those years ago.

"You're back on Bambi blood and I'm the big bad ass brother again, all's right with the world," giving his usual smirks as he continued to drink his scotch but marveling just how wrong those words sounded now.

"No, I mean it," Stefan stated, as he took a seat next to Damon, "Thank you for…helping her take care of me."

"You brood too much," Damon replied, words falling out of his mouth so naturally, "Everything in this planet is not your fault. My actions, what I do, is not your fault. I own them, they belong to me. You are not allowed to feel my guilt."

"You feel guilt?" Stefan questioned.

Damon had forgotten how weird it was once between them and how much of an arrogant prick he was himself. "If I wanted to…" Damon muttered, not sure he was sounding like his cocky self, "It's there."

Stefan nodded solemnly before getting up and Damon sighed, knowing what he was about to say wasn't what he was supposed to, "Stefan."

"I'm glad you're alright, really glad you decided to keep living."

Stefan frowned as he stood right in front of his brother, "You're going to say something about your always present threat of a lifetime of misery for me?"

"Hmm," Damon mused as he tried not to wince, "That's kind of overrated now. Just know I don't hate you, not completely anyway, Stefan. Besides, we have…we will have bigger and badder things to worry about."

Stefan was just about to ask what Damon was talking about until the sound of shattering glass reverberated through the walls.

Stefan and Damon rushed upstairs to be greeted by a strange scene. Elena was leaning against the hallway wall with her back turned towards them, glass fragments scattered along the hardwood floor. Yet, Elena's attention was focused on the door in front of her with another Damon standing in the door frame, protectively in front of another Elena.

The whole situation had Stefan questioning his own sanity. First Damon tells him he doesn't completely hate him and then he was seeing doubles of his girlfriend and brother.

"What is going on here?" Stefan asked with frustration clear in his voice as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"When I first saw you at the dance…I thought you were Katherine – you had to be but now…how can there be two Damons?" Elena gasped out, trying to come to a reasonable answer herself.

"I think it's best we go downstairs and…tell them everything," 'future' Damon suggested as he looked worryingly towards Damon and Elena standing awkwardly in the door way.

"I don't think we can explain this…not all of it." 'future' Elena muttered as she stepped in front of 'past' Damon, holding herself close as she tried to avoid the intense gaze from Stefan and her past self.

"Well, I can explain this to Stefan with 'other' Damon's help," 'past' Damon finally spoke as he continued to linger in the door frame of his bedroom.

"And what about me?" 'future' Elena turned back to stare at him in confusion.

"I think…or well, 'we' think it's probably best if you speak to yourself in person," 'future' Damon informed her, causing both Elenas to stare at him in disbelief.

Stefan and the two Damons made their way back to the living room, with a strong possibility of all three of them fixing themselves a stiff drink.

Elena wished she was with them instead of in Damon's room sitting on his bed while a pacing younger version of herself stayed silent for a couple minutes, every now and again shaking her head as she rubbed her temples.

"You're not Katherine?" she finally asked even though the question wasn't one of the necessary to ask.

"No, I'm not. I'm…well, this is going to be hard to believe…"

"I just learned vampires exist and my birth mother is one of them…I think I can handle anything."

'Future' Elena rolled her eyes before taking a deep breath, "I'm an older version of you sent here by Bonnie…from the future, and the second Damon out there is a future-version, who came to get me."

"You're right, that is hard to believe. And, wait,…how long have you been…here?"

"Here in this time? A couple weeks now. I was here right before the tomb was open."

"Did you know about the tomb vampires?"

Elena resisted rolling her eyes again, this wasn't the questions she needed to be answering but what could she do? The whole conversation felt surreal at the moment.

"Yes, I did…"

"And you didn't tell us about them?" Elena bit out as she cut her other self short.

"I told Damon…things haven't been easy since I came here. You have to understand that."

"No, I don't. You know of things that have yet to happen or so you claim. You could have stopped them!"

"Things like what? Shelia dying? Vicki turning? Look, this is not the conversation we need to be having right now, there are more important things to deal with."

"No…I want answers."

"And you'll get them…some of them- just not from me and not now."

"But you should have the answers I'm looking for…If you are who you claim to be."

"I am!" Elena practically jumped as she stood up from the bed and in front of her younger self, "But things happen at a certain time for a reason…it all does. So we need to focus because Damon and I need to…"

"You can't be me. You must be Katherine," her past self cut her off once again, much to Elena's growing annoyance.

"Why? Why do you keep insisting I'm Katherine? What? Do you want me to tell you some long past secret or memory to convince you? Because I don't have time for this…"

"I would never act this cruel...and I would have never slept with Damon." Her future self stated his obvious disgust at the idea.

Elena paused as she looked back at her past self once again, like some freaky mirror. "How do you know that? Were you spying on us or something?

"No…I just happened to come across you two on my way to Stefan's room when I heard you two talking…" 'past' Elena didn't even bother finishing her sentence, her judgy eyes already fixed on the imposter.

"Forgot how nosy I use to be," Elena muttered, "We just had sex, it was just a quickie, anyway," Elena stated simply, added a silent 'that time' in her thoughts.

"Why would I ever dare sleep with Damon? I'm with Stefan. I love Stefan and I always will," the past version stressed as she pointed to her heart as if her 'future' self cold never understand.

Elena managed to not scoff at how she was acting right now. Was this how she really was when she was younger? Of course, she remembered being so stuck in her ways that it took her dying and the deaths of others to finally break her out of it.

"It's Damon of all people; he's just some loose womanizer. Did you fall for his so-called charms or something? You can't possibly love - "

"Oh, grow up!" Elena stated bluntly to her past self, even though she wanted nothing more than scream at her instead. She was ignorant and naïve, immature and inexperienced.

"You have this stupid notion of how love is supposed to be!- but it's not. And I know for a fact you're not thinking about your future with Stefan because of what will come up when you do. You get old and he doesn't, but you don't want to think about living forever or having to make that choice. And while you try to figure that out and stay blindly loyal to Stefan, Damon gets hurt over and over again in the process. It's not like he doesn't despise himself enough without everyone adding to it… but you don't care because despite everything he's done, all you can see are his mistakes."

Elena had to take a breath after her rant before she could finish, "Saddest part of all is that…you are the only one he would ever bare his soul to, the only person he would want to change for – to make himself a better man – for you more than he could ever do by himself."

After she finished, the younger Elena looked upon herself with a mixture ranging from hate and fear to confusion. The two seemed like nothing alike and 'future' Elena couldn't wait to get back to her own time. Thought, she had a strange feeling her past self felt the same way.

'Past' Elena tried to unclench her fist as she finally gathered her thoughts, "Stefan, Bonnie, and I help you and… 'future' Damon get back to your own time, but as of right now, this conversation is over." And with that she marched out the bedroom door.

Stefan stared at the two versions of his brother, not sure what to make of the whole ordeal. The one he had been talking to earlier revealed himself to be from the future, of all cliché places, while the other one, the present version of Damon, was upstairs with 'future' Elena. They had informed him of the current situation with the future versions of Elena and Damon – though he felt like they were leaving him in the dark about more than what happened upstairs.

"So, are you going to tell me what you and 'future' Elena were talking about upstairs? What Elena possibly walked in on?"

Silence was his only answer and it seemed, for some unknown reason, neither one was willing to talk about it. Stefan wanted to try to ask more questioned until he heard the soft padding of converse making their way down the stairs followed by the rush of another set of shoes.

Elena watched as all three sets of eyes turned to stare at her and her past self. Both Damons watched hungrily with adoration, while Stefan just sort of stared between the two with some confusion, especially as the older version like she was some stage show oddity. The look seemed to go unnoticed by both women, even while the younger version walked straight to him to give him a fierce kiss without so much as a word before pulling herself closer to his side. 'Future' Elena just looked away, stealing a glance at the two Damons.

Everyone in that room knew so many things were going on in that house and being left unsaid.

~Ѱ~

Thank you for reading!

Response to reviewers and readers:

Some of you have been asking some excellent questions and believe me when I say I am ecstatic that so many of you are thinking about this and pondering the outcome. Sadly, I can't exactly answer your questions without giving away spoilers and ruin the story.
Such as:
Is 'past' Damon going to forget Elena when she goes back to the future?
How does 'future' Damon not remember anything happening in 2010 with 'future' Elena?
Wouldn't the two Damon's (as well as the two Elena's) meeting cause a paradox?
Is 2014 going to change when Damon and Elena get back?
etc, etc, etc.
All I am going to say about the ending is that it all has to do with the spell. The story isn't dealing with time travel as much as it is dealing with magic.

One question I can answer – Is what Elena did consider cheating? Physically – no, emotionally – yeah, kind of.

I do think one question you guys should be asking is why does Damon seem to be keeping his calm in 2010, even when confronted by his past self? Of course, I can't answer that one either.

If I say anything more, then I'll give too much away.