A/N: I don't own Vampire Diaries or any of the canon characters.

So wow yeah.

I'm getting that you guys are pretty ticked off at how I had Damon and Elena interrupted after stepping off the elevator. Now if you've been following me for a while you know that I'm not always a hearts and flowers kind of writer and I like little plot twists, but I always come through with the Delena in the end, no? Okay, here you go but remember… be careful what you wish for…

"But you just saw her two months ago?" Damon demanded, his hand squeezing threateningly against his windpipe.

"Yeah." He croaked.

Damon released him, a stunned look on his face. The other vampire backed away, giving us both a strange look before taking off down the corridor for the exit to the stairs.

"Damon? What's going on?" I asked, approaching him hesitantly. "I thought Katherine was dead?"

It was like watching the man crumble and fall apart from the inside out, Damon fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around my middle, he clung to me; his shoulders shaking as he wept openly. My hands went to his hair, holding him close as the storm of emotion swept through him. "She was never there…" He whispered over and over again until he lost all words.

Somehow I got him into the hotel room, and he went straight for the mini bar, pouring himself a double and downing it like it was water.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" I said carefully, he was already volatile enough without alcohol adding to his bad judgment.

His only response was to refill the glass with a tiny bottle and reach for another.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm not really in the mood for sharing time, thanks." Damon made no effort to hide the bitterness in his voice, gulping another swallow of the liquor and I could smell its bite in the air.

"Maybe this is good news? If she didn't die then maybe you can find her?" I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but it seemed important to give him that bit of hope. Back in those days all I knew about Katherine was that she had sired both the Salvatore brothers and loved both before she was killed by the townsfolk. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have suggested he watste a single second on trying to find her.

The glass was emptied again and refilled mechanically and he still refused to look at me. Maybe I reminded him of Katherine too much in that moment? "Oh come on Elena. I think it's pretty obvious she doesn't want to be found; otherwise she would have contacted me a long time ago." His jaw twitched as he said this, and Damon gripped the glass so hard, that it shattered in his hand.

"Jesus Damon…" I was instantly at his side, washcloth in hand as the blood started to drip from his cut hand.

"Leave it." He pulled his hand from mine but I wasn't about to let him get away so easily. Using my own vampire speed and strength I caught his arm and forced his hand open again to survey the damage. Sure he was strong enough to pull away again if he wanted to, but this time he let me take a look at it. There were several large pieces of glass embedded in his flesh as well as a myriad of smaller shards. The scent of his blood filled my senses, but I did my best to clamp down on the wave of desire it sparked within me.

"Hold still." I ordered, swallowing as I picked out the biggest chunk of glass and tossed it in the garbage. For the next quarter of an hour I tended to his hand, meticulously pulling out each tiny piece with the tips of my fingernails. Damon stood there, an inscrutable expression on his face; he never even winced when I dug deep.

"There, I think I got the worst of it." His wounds were already starting to knit together and I placed a soft kiss to the center of his palm, licking my lips as I came away with just a taste of his blood.

Damon didn't even look at me, he simply flexed his hand open and closed and then moved past me without a word of thanks. He sank into a stupor, sitting on the edge of the bed, unresponsive to my words or touch. Eventually he let me pull him to a more comfortable position on the bed and cover him with a light blanket. I wasn't sure what else to do for him in that state and I almost even considered calling Stefan to let him know what had happened and ask him what to do now.

I paced agitatedly in the room, unsure what to do in the face of a despondent Damon. He paid me no mind, his eyes open and unseeing. Finally, having worn myself out, I slipped onto the bed beside him, switching off the lights to try and get some rest. Part of me was afraid to fall asleep for fear I'd wake to find him gone.

The next thing I knew it was some time later, and Damon was pulling me into his arms, his face pressing into the crook of my neck. "Why did you have to leave me? I would have done anything for you." He said miserably.

"What?" I gasped in the darkness.

"I didn't care that you wanted to play with Stefan too, I saw it for what it was. I didn't even mind about your games. I wanted this; I wanted to share everything with you." He continued to hold me tight, but I came to realize it was Katherine he was talking to, not me. His voice was just a little slurred, from alcohol or sleep I wasn't sure.

"Damon, this isn't real. I'm not her." I said softly, gently stroking his hair and cradling him to me.

"It was real for me you know." He sighed, and I felt him start to relax under my gentle touch.

"Shhh, I know it was." I whispered, wondering at the emotion I heard in his voice. It called to mind the rough need I'd heard in his voice in the alley, but I didn't think he cared for me nearly as deeply as he cared for this Katherine. With a pang I realized that I was a little jealous of the place she held in his heart; a place I could never hope to occupy as long as he kept those walls up. In that moment I made up my mind that if I ever came face to face with her I'd give her a piece of my mind for damaging him like this.

That was the first night I ever spent in bed with Damon Salvatore. Well the first night I could remember; there had been that one day when I'd woken up in his bed, but that hardly counted in the near comatose state I found myself in during the daylight hours. Eventually I drifted off to sleep, still holding him. It was still an hour or so from dawn when I next awoke and realized that Damon was lying beside me watching me sleep.

"You look so much like her." He said softly when he noticed I was awake.

He seemed calmer now but just as deep into his own thoughts. "What was she like?" I hardly expected him to answer me but to my surprise he did.

"Beautiful. That goes without saying." A smile touched my lips at the compliment I felt he was directing at me. "But cold, heartless. I could never tell what she was thinking. She was always two steps in front of me, dancing just out of reach. I always thought if I could just catch up to her… but hell, even when she let me catch her, I never really possessed her."

"Is that what you wanted? To possess her?"

Damon was silent for a few moment; searching for the right words. "I needed to, she was in my blood, and mine was in hers. It drove me crazy to see her play her fucked up games, playing me against Stefan but I always took her back. See I was convinced that she was just fucking with him, it was me she really wanted."

I was silent, but I reached up to sift my fingers through his hair as I had the night before. It was unfathomable to me to think of someone deliberately pitting the brothers against each other. As it was, I was already consumed with guilt about my waning feelings for Stefan and my growing attraction for Damon.

"You know I had almost found a way to get into that tomb? Here I was, planning and scheming to get in there and free her." He gave a disgusted shake of the head. "What a joke that would have been on me, huh? Go through all that effort for nothing? I guess I'm glad I found out like this, in a small way it makes me less of a chump." He added bitterly, and I could see the anger start to reclaim him.

"Don't, don't do that." My fingers gave up their purchase in his hair and slid down to his chin, tilting his face towards mine. "It's okay to have feelings Damon, you loved her; of course this hurts."

"I'm tired of hurting." Damon said coldly, the emotion draining from his voice. He was slipping away from me, reverting to whatever corner of his mind he felt safe in and it killed me to see those walls come up again, twice as thick.

"Damon…"

"Save it. So she's alive, BFD. Who needs the bitch?" He pulled away from my touch, rolling away to sit up on the edge of the bed, facing the wall.

I didn't understand how he could sound so devoid of feeling after expending such raw emotion, but it scared the hell out of me. It reminded me of how he'd acted when I'd first met him; cold, ruthless and utterly unpredictable.

Scooting to sit next to him, I laid a gentle hand to his shoulder. "Damon, don't pull away from me; I'd like to help you if I can."

"Yeah? I don't need your pity, Elena." He snorted.

"It's not pity." I grumbled, scrambling to my feet and standing in front of him to get him to look at me. Okay so there was a little bit of pity involved, but there was more to it than that.

"What you're gonna save me from myself?" Damon quirked a brow. "I don't need saving Elena, I'm just fine. Better than fine actually, better than I have been in a long time."

Uh oh… I didn't like the sound of that. "Damn it Damon, why do you have to be so difficult?" I demanded.

Damon just laughed derisively. "Aw, is the intervention not going as you had planned? Sorry to disappoint you sweetcheeks, but my days of following you around like a puppy are over and done with."

"Don't punish me just because I look like her." I returned, "I know she hurt you, but that doesn't mean you have to pull away from me too."

"I forgot, that's your specialty." He said cruelly. "Isn't that right, Elena? Sure you'll toss me a bone when you're feeling bored or lonely, but the moment Stefan crooks his finger you'll always come running."

"Is that what you think this is?" I gasped, truly hurt that he thought that was how I felt about him. Maybe I hadn't really had time to sit down with myself and figure out just what my feelings were for Damon, but I knew enough to know that I wanted to be there with him. Otherwise I never would have agreed to come up to the hotel with him, and it had nothing to do with boredom or loneliness.

"Just face it, you're a tease Elena. Admit it. You like to get me all torqued up just to prove you can but you never intended to soil yourself with me."

That was it, I was done. "You're an idiot you know that?" I wasn't going to stand there and defend my reasons for being there with him, I'd never been anything but real with him; he was the one who liked to play games. Spinning on my heel, I turned away from him and stalked to the door, half expecting him to call me back at any moment.

But he didn't.

And when that call didn't come, my hand hovered over the door handle wondering why not? It came to me then; Damon was pushing me away deliberately. Why, I could only guess, but the real question was; was I going to let him get away with it?

It would certainly simple up my life to go on home and leave him to sulk there in the dark all alone. It would be light before too long and I had to get back home in time for school anyway, the last thing I needed was to stay there and bear the brunt of his insults while he nursed his bruised ego. It would be the simplest thing in the world to pull that door open and go back to the car; I still had his keys in my pocket. My hand tightened on the door handle.

I turned around and went back to him, standing in front of him while he stared back at me with that infuriating smirk on his face like he was waiting for me to read him the riot act. Instead my hands reached out to hold either side of his face. Slowly, giving him plenty of time to pull away if that's what he wanted to do, I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

Damon's lips parted with a gasp of surprise, but he didn't resist. Maybe he was in shock. I know I was a little shocked at my boldness. This kiss was nothing like the fevered making out in the alley or in the elevator. It was slow and tender, at least on my part. Still, it felt like Damon was holding back a little; kissing me with his mouth but not really into it and I began to worry that I'd made a mistake. Maybe I couldn't reach him? Maybe he didn't want me anymore because of how I reminded him of her?

But then his arms wrapped around me, binding me to him; and I felt him come to life in my embrace. Effortlessly he pulled me back onto the bed with him and rolled, pinning me under his body. All at once I felt that familiar fire spring up between us again and our limbs tangled together as we fumbled to remove each other's clothes. Then there was nothing between us and I shifted beneath him to accept his welcome weight, hands guiding him urgently to let him know I was ready.

The room was filled with our soft cries of pleasure as we moved together, each kiss and stroke on my overly sensitized body carrying me that much closer to release. I don't know if it was because of our blood connection or hell, maybe Damon was just incredibly intuitive, but it felt like I had only to wish for something and he was doing it. There was no awkwardness that came from a first time together. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better and suddenly it was... He was working me into a frenzy and my teeth scraped at his shoulder to keep from shouting with pleasure.

"Do it." Damon panted, his body covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

I knew what he wanted because I wanted it too. My fangs sank into his neck and our moans of pleasure melded together as I drank. Once again I was overwhelmed by the intoxicating taste of him, only this time it was coupled with the feel of him moving and surging within me; it was almost more than I could bear.

And then he bit me in kind, and my world exploded in a shower of sparks as I reached a place I never knew existed. On and on it went and for the space of long heartbeats I could feel his pleasure mingled with mine. We were wrapped together, joined body and soul and I never wanted it to end.

Gradually though the sharp pleasure subsided, and my senses returned enough to realize that Damon had stopped drinking from me, but still lazily lapped at the wound. I did the same, glad to see the puncture wounds begin to heal quickly. My body felt alive and tingly and very, very satisfied and I could see from the expression on his face that he felt the same way.

"Damon…" I sighed happily, reaching up to push the hair back from his brow. God he was beautiful.

"Katherine…" Damon murmured, nuzzling at my neck.

I froze, unable to believe my ears. From the stricken expression on his face, I could tell he had instantly realized what he'd said. With a vicious shove, I pushed him off of me, scrambling to find my clothes and pull them on. How could I be such an idiot? Of course he wanted it to be her. It had always been her.

"Elena wait…" He sat up, a guilty look on his face.

I didn't want to hear it; I didn't want to hear anything. The blood was pounding in my ears and I knew that if I didn't get out of there that instant I might really lose it. Literally shaking with anger and shame, I dressed in record time, and was out the door in record time.

"Shit, Elena I'm sorry, I…" With my vampire hearing, his words reached me as the door clicked shut, but I didn't so much as spare him a backwards glance. I had never felt such humiliation, such misery, such pain… it reached my very core and I was glad my body didn't need oxygen to survive because my lungs hurt and it was hard to draw in a breath as I stepped into the elevator. The same elevator that he'd kissed me so passionately in. I didn't think I could bear it a moment longer.

And then the most curious thing happened.

In an instant the pain and misery faded away, so suddenly that I almost doubted it had ever been there. I noted the phenomenon with idle curiosity and little else. It didn't seem worth dwelling on for any longer and my mind switched gears, patting my pocket to make sure I still had Damon's keys. It was gonna have to be a fast drive back to Mystic Falls to get back in time for school.

A/N: I'm pretty sure no one has had the talk with Elena that explains how easily emotion can be switched off, so that was the assumption I was operating under.

Okay, let me suit up here… there we go, got my armor on now. Go ahead, tell me how much you hate what I just did there. But I couldn't resist the urge to explore what happens when Elena flips off the switch to her emotions and what will be the catalyst to bring them back…

For the record, in my mind Damon was not thinking she was Katherine that entire time. It was just a really awful slip of the tongue after having her on his mind so recently. So he is beating himself up about that big time. Of course Elena doesn't know that! More fun drama to ensue!

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