Gravity

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone from The Vampire Diaries.

I had a close call with this chapter - my laptop broke last night but I managed to system restore it and it seems to be working okay for now! *fingers crossed*

April 7th 2017

Friday 3.00pm

Central Virginia Regional Jail, Orange VA

It was eerie being sitting here on the other side of the table. I shift uncomfortable, suspiciously, as I eye up the guards surrounding the visitation room. I was never placed here but these kind of rooms all look the same regardless.

Cold, hollow and lifeless.

I try to remind myself that I'm a free man. I can get up and leave whenever the hell I want and nobody would be able to stop me. The painful nip of handcuffs catching the skin of my wrists is something that I will hopefully never have to experience again.

I jump slightly when I hear the familiar clanging of cell doors banging in the background. The door opens slowly and soon a line of prisoners make their way into the room. Some have wide smiles on their faces as they greet their families, others look nervous, some just look completely indifferent.

I see Zach swagger in last, he looks a little different from the last time I seen him all those years ago in the back of a cop car.

He looks rougher. He looks thinner.

He looks weaker.

I smirk.

"I figured it wouldn't be long before you paid me a visit, kid." he pulls out his chair, I ignore the familiar scrape against the concrete floor. "Come to gloat?"

I shrug. "Gloat, brag, show off my new found freedom. However you want to put it." He tries to stay casual but I see the wave of anger flash in his eyes.

"I haven't been sentenced yet." he reminds me coldly, a hint of warning in his voice and I smirk.

"What does that matter? You can't get out of this one, Zach. You were caught red handed. You don't even have my Dad's financial backing anymore to get you a half decent attorney."

"I have friends in high places."

"You mean in Mystic Falls Police Department?" I question him amused and he stares at me long and hard silently. "Oh? You haven't heard?" I chuckle. "After you got arrested the cops ceased all of your belongings. They raided everything you own. They found the officers who were on your payroll and they've been stripped of their badges. You have no one left on your side. You're all alone."

His jaw clenches. "You're a smug son a bitch, you know that? I think you're forgetting that it wasn't that long ago that you were sat here in my shoes."

"Right, because of you." I snap at him angrily. Years of built up rage and fury is starting to catch up with me. "You set me up! The first mistake I ever made in my life was trusting you. I'm your fucking nephew and you ruined my life all because of a girl?"

"You did that all by yourself. I gave you a chance but you chose that whore over your own family! After everything I did for you!" he hisses at me coldly and I take a deep breath to stop myself from punching his smarmy face for referring to Elena as anything other than perfect. "I couldn't trust you! I don't know what secrets you would tell her - shit that would get me and your own father locked up! She's a Gilbert!"

"It's just a freaking surname!" my voice rises and I see a guard in the corner of my eye send me a warning look. I try to calm myself down. "It means nothing! I may have believed it did once upon a time, but guess what? I grew the hell up!" I lean forward in my chair. "You threatened her, Zach! I loved her and you threatened her life!"

"What was I supposed to do?" He snarls. "You turned yourself in! I was happy for you to stay on the run - I even tried to help you get out of town! But oh no, you couldn't leave her behind, could you? If you had just stayed away none of this would have happened!"

"So this is my fault now?"

"You should never have turned yourself in!"

"I did the right thing! I couldn't live as a fugitive for the rest of my life. You made me plead guilty because you're a coward. You would rather threaten a teenage girl than accept responsibility for your own actions. You sitting here right now Zach proves that you're not untouchable. You never were. None of us were. We may have had money, we may have had connections and friends in convenient places but guess what? That all went away the second the money did. You preach on and on about loyalty but your own version of it is so fucked up. Look at you now, your loyal trusted friend Will put you here. Next time you should know better than to trust a crack head with your secrets."

"Look at you all high and mighty. You think you'll last playing the good old all-American citizen? You won't! You'll get bored and you'll miss that craving you have in your blood to be impulsive, to make bad decisions, to break the rules. It's who you are Damon. Do you really think you'll be able to be get a normal job never mind be happy in it? You may have been exonerated for murder but you still have a record for assault and evading arrest. Nobody will hire an ex-con and you'll realize soon enough that I'm right - that I've always been right."

I shrug with a smile. "Maybe so...but at least I'll be out there with my freedom to find out for myself. You're a sad pathetic lonely man Zach; you'll not last ten minutes in here. Good luck and have a nice life." I make a move to stand, he snarls at me angrily.

"This isn't over, Damon!"

"Yes it is. I won..."

"I'll get out of here eventually and when I do I'll come for you. I'll come ruin your pretty little life and you're pretty little girlfriend. This isn't over!"

I laugh. I actually laugh at him. I never knew how pathetic he truly is until now. "Okay Zach. You hold onto that for the next thirty years of your life - that's even if you live that long. See you later." I pause and smile smugly. "Or not."

I motion for the guard to let me out. I ignore Zach's calls after me to come back. I see him be restrained from the corner of my eye and I smile.

I feel like a massive weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I finally feel free.

"How was it?" Klaus questions me curiously as I jump into his car.

I shrug casually. "As expected."

"Did you hit him?" Klaus asks excitedly. "Oh man, please tell me you hit him!"

I chuckle and shake my head. "No I didn't hit him. I really really really wanted to but I would rather not have to go back to prison again in my life time."

Klaus pouts. "It would have been so worth it though."

I laugh and shake my head, motioning for him to drive so we can get the hell out of here. It's a long drive to Mystic Falls and I would rather make it back before nightfall. I have an expensive vintage bottle of bourbon with my name written on it waiting for me in Klaus's liquor cabinet - a guilt laced present from Daddy dearest.

I end up falling asleep on the drive back - the early morning start to get here in time for visitation hours catching up to me. I'm inconveniently awoken from my peaceful slumber by Klaus's rough hand slapping my cheek.

"Oy!" I groan in annoyance, my eyes fluttering open. "Dick."

He chuckles amused and I sit up. I frown confused when I see that we aren't outside of Klaus's apartment building. Instead we are in an unfamiliar car park. Its dark now, which makes it harder to familiarize myself to where he's taken me.

"Where are we?" I ask confused.

He smirks. "Whitmore college baby - it's time to party!"

I groan and lean back against my seat, my eyes slamming shut in annoyance.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously! Now come on Salvatore, wake your lazy ass up. Just because we both didn't go to college doesn't mean we can't enjoy the perks of what college life brings. It's time for cheap beers and even cheaper girls! Let's go!"

I tense when I feel a pair of arms wrap around me from behind. I slowly pull away, turning around and forcing a smile. "Oh hey."

"Hey?" Liam looks at me with a confused smile. "This is the first time I've seen you in over a week and all you say is oh hey?"

"Sorry," I place my hand on his arm. "I just wasn't expecting to see you here tonight. I thought you were studying?"

"Everyone needs a break. It's Friday night, I have the whole weekend to dig my head into my books." He looks at me cautiously. "Elena…why do I get the feeling that you're avoiding me?"

A wave of guilt hits me. "I'm not." The lie falls easily from my lips but the truth is he's right. Ever since I got back to Whitmore three weeks ago I've only seen him a handful of times and even then it was short periods. "I've just been spending a lot of time with Caroline that's all, she's been going through some things."

"Well she looks okay to me." He motions across the crowded room, Caroline dancing with Liv and Jesse like she doesn't have a care in the world. I frown. On the outside she does look okay, she looks more than okay.

"She's very good at hiding her true feelings." And that is the truth. It's been three weeks since Caroline told me she was pregnant and apart from another nervous chat with Bonnie to tell her too she has barely mentioned it since. Much to the both of us trying our hardest to get her to open up about it – or to at least acknowledge that its really happening.

"I'm going to get another drink," he looks down to my almost empty cut. "Refill?"

"Yes please." I smile gratefully, he nods, takes the cup from my hands but not before pressing a brief kiss to my lips.

"I won't be long." He whispers with a smile before making his way through the crowds.

"So, that's the boyfriend huh?"

I freeze. My eyes wide and my heart starts pumping furiously against my chest. I slowly turn around to see Damon standing right behind me.

"Damon," I breathe out his name in shock. "I…I…I didn't expect to see you here." I swallow the lump in my throat.

"Neither did I but…" he holds out his hand to the side of his mouth and whispers "I was kidnapped." He smirks and I can't help the little giggle that escapes my lips.

I haven't seen or heard from him since he sent me away at the bar three weeks ago – basically telling me that he never wants to see me again. Honestly, I was heartbroken. It's been so hard just being here knowing that Damon is out there…living his life…without me.

I push the thought to the back of mind, wandering now why he's even bothered to come talk to me. But I decide not to question it. Instead I'm going to take advantage of his change of heart, however brief it may turn out to be.

"Let me guess…Stefan?" I ask with a smile.

"Worse, Klaus."

"Ouch."

"Well I'm here now so I may as well make the most of it. Besides, who am I to pass up free booze?"

"I've never known you too." I tease and he chuckles, however his smile quickly fades and I frown confused. Before I can ask him if he's okay I feel a hand on the small of my back.

Shit. Liam

"Hey," he smiles coming up to my side. "I couldn't find the beer or the vodka so I got you a chardonnay? I hope that's okay?"

I see Damon's lips creep into a smirk as Liam passes me the glass. I hate chardonnay and Damon knows it.

What college party has chardonnay anyway?

"Yes," I smile at Liam and take the glass. "That's perfect, thank you."

The three of us fall into an awkward silence for a couple of seconds before Damon clears his throat. "Sorry, let me introduce myself…hi…Damon Salvatore," he pauses, the smirk still on his face and I frown for a moment because this is something I haven't seen on him in a long time.

It seems like he has his spark back.

"Elena's ex-boyfriend." He finishes and my heart stops.

Oh God.

"Liam…" he shakes Damon's hand cautiously, a confused frown crossing his face. "Wait…Damon…"

"Damon." Damon confirms looking far too amused right now.

Oh God. If the world could swallow me whole right now I would let it.

"As in the ex who is serving a life sentence in prison… Damon?"

He looks at me questionably and my mouth opens and closes. "Uh…right yeah um…"

"That would be me." Damon cuts me off. "Turns out these life sentences just aren't what they used to be."

I shift awkwardly on my feet and Liam looks at me questionably.

"So…" Damon continues and clicks his tongue loudly. "This is a little awkward, right? The ex meeting the new guy. How you feeling about that?" he questions Liam who just looks at him totally agape. "Threatened? You shouldn't…Elena and I…we're... friends now? Right Elena?"

I frown at him confused. I'm pretty sure the last conversation we had was Damon telling me exactly why we couldn't be friends.

"Right." I glare at him in annoyance but he doesn't seem to care.

"I don't feel threatened by you." Liam replies, his voice cold and defensive.

Damon's eyes twinkle. "Confident," he turns to face me. "Sexy."

"Damon!" I hiss at him in warning.

"Well, I'll take that as my queue to leave." He pats Liam hard on the shoulder. "Nice meeting you Liam," he turns to face me. "Great seeing you again, Elena." He winks at me before stepping away but not before turning back around. "Oh and by the way – Elena hates chardonnay. See ya."

My mouth drops open and I feel hot. Far too hot in this crowded party. Liam turns to face me and I can tell immediately that he's not happy.

"I think you owe me an explanation." His voice is hard, different.

I nod slowly and agree. "Yeah…" I breathe out nervously before moving back. "Not here…come on."

"Well, that looked pretty intense." I roll my eyes as Stefan approaches me. "I thought you were staying away from Elena?"

"That was the plan." I admit simply – and it's true. I had full intention of staying completely away from my ex-girlfriend, even when I first arrived here at this lame college party and saw her chatting with Bonnie. I told myself to stay away.

Yet, the moment I saw her with that douchebag she is calling a boyfriend these days something inside of me snapped.

It was like I was compelled to go over there.

I couldn't stop myself. Honestly, I'm surprised I managed to stay so composed. Seeing another guy kissing Elena was worse than I could even imagine. I wasn't prepared for it but instead of wallowing, my body and brain had different ideas.

It was the first time I've felt like my old self since I turned myself in to the cops all of those years ago.

I kind of liked it, in some weird twisted way.

"I don't blame you for going over there. Liam is a bit of a douche."

I smile amused. "You know him?"

He pauses. "Um…not really. He's friends with my roommate. He comes over sometimes." I watch as his eyes drift around the room, a small frown on his face.

"You okay?"

"Ahuh." Stefan blinks out of his trance and turns back to me. "Just eying up the talent." He smirks and I chuckle. "You see anyone you like the look of?"

"Nope."

"Oh come on, Damon!" Stefan practically whines at me. "Look around, there are plenty of hot single girls around here."

"Jesus you sound just like Klaus."

"Well he's right. You need to start living your life again."

"It's not that simple, Stef."

"I know." He agrees. "But learning how to have fun again should be the way to start, right?" he presses his hand against my back. "Come on; let me introduce you to some people."

I let him pull me over to appease him however I know that at the end of this night I will be in my bed alone dreaming about beautiful brown eyes with the cutest smile.

The talk with Liam didn't go well, not that I expected it too. He wanted to know why I had kept Damon's new found freedom a secret from him.

I told him that I didn't want to stress him out, he has some important exams and I didn't want to add to that.

His reply was why would Damon's return stress him out if he had nothing to worry about?

I couldn't give a truthful answer to that question.

He left shortly after that and I didn't even bother to follow him. Instead I headed back to the party – I told myself that it was to find Caroline, to make sure that she's okay.

It has nothing to do with a set of intense icy blue eyes.

When I returned I found her talking to Stefan, however judging from the carefree smile on his face he was still in the dark about Caroline's pregnancy.

I made my way over to one of the self-made bars and poured myself a strong drink of vodka. I cringe as the burning sensation slid down my throat.

"Klaus is here!"

I turn around to see Caroline approaching me with a look of annoyance on her face. I look at the red plastic cup in her hands and my eyes widen.

"Care-"

She cuts me off immediately. "Jesus, it's lemonade, Elena." She rolls her eyes at me before continuing. "Can you believe that Stefan was the one who invited Klaus? He knows that he's my ex! Why would he do that?!"

"I don't think that's your biggest problem right now, do you?"

She groans loudly. "Can we please not talk about that right now? Here of all places!"

"You don't seem to want to talk about it at all. You're in denial."

"I'm not in denial." She replies stubbornly.

"Yes you are. Have you told Stefan yet?"

"No."

"You need to. The longer you keep this from him the worse it's going to get."

She runs her hand through her blonde hair nervously. "It's not that simple…I…I don't even know what I'm going to do…adding Stefan's opinion to the mix isn't going to make it any easier."

"He still needs to know, Care." I offer her sympathetically. I cant even imagine what she is going through right now.

"You're right." She sighs loudly. "I know that you're right, Elena. I just…I'm in college…I still have another year left until graduation. Now I might not even make it."

"You'll graduate, Caroline." I tell her confidently. "No matter what happens, that is the one thing that I'm sure of."

She smiles slowly, shyly almost, before she clears her throat and looks at me. "I saw you talking to Damon earlier…"

I let out a loud breath. "So then I'm guessing you also saw him introduce himself to Liam."

"Yep." She smiles sympathetically.

"I wanted the ground to swallow me up whole."

"Yeah you looked like it too." She smiles and I shake my head.

"Damon…he was different…last time we spoke he seemed so…exhausted. He basically said he wanted nothing to do with me but tonight…"

"Tonight he saw you with another guy and that changes things. Trust me."

I gulp, trying to push past the thoughts of what that might mean.

"I think I need to break up with Liam." The words leave my lips bluntly and Caroline's eyes widen.

"Elena…"

"It's not fair to him…I can't…he doesn't deserve to be with someone who is only half into the relationship."

"I thought you loved him?"

"I…I thought I did…or at least I tried to tell myself that I did but…" I let out a shaky breath. "Deep down, I think I always knew that it was never the same. I care about Liam but…"

"But he's not Damon." Caroline finishes for me and I nod my head guiltily.

"I feel terrible." I confess. "The timing couldn't have been any worse. Liam has a load of pre-med exams coming up and he is already stressing over it…the last thing I want to do is give him a broken heart."

"It's better than stringing him along though, Elena."

"What's changed your tune?" I look at her puzzled. "You love Liam; I thought you'd be mad? Trying to persuade me out of it and change my mind."

"Yeah well, my little predicament right now has changed my perspective on some things." I watch as her eyes stray and I follow her gaze to where Damon is stood with Klaus, a flock of beautiful girls surrounding them and an agonizing feeling slices through me.

I have no right to be jealous but seeing Damon making other girls smile and blush doesn't make it any less painful.

"Does this mean that you're going to go running back to him?"

"No." I answer truthfully. Damon wouldn't allow it anyway. "He needs some time…he needs a lot of time."

"Away from you?"

I shrug, a sad smile on my face. "Yeah. He needs to get his life back on track; he needs to rebuild his relationship with his brother and his friends. I don't want to get in the way of that."

"You still love him." Caroline muses.

"I've never stopped loving him." I answer truthfully. "I've never skirted around the fact that he's the love of my life…I just…so much has happened. So much has changed. We have hurt each other so much and…I was naive to think that everything would be okay. I was naive to think that we could even be friends. He was right when he sent me away during Spring Break. He's always right. We both gave up on each other. I don't deserve him."

"That's not true, Elena."

"It's true. I don't deserve Damon, I don't deserve Liam. I have made such a mess of my life. I'm standing here telling you that the love of my life isn't the same guy as my boyfriend. How fucked up is that?"

"You're going to fix that."

"Fix it? I'm going to hurt someone who doesn't deserve it. Liam has been nothing but supportive and loving to me and this is how I treat him?" I cringe and shake my head. "I should never have even dated him to begin with. If I could go back…"

"If you could go back, you'd do what?" Caroline challenges me. "If you could go back you would buy yourself a crystal ball that would tell you that Damon was going to get out of prison despite being on a life sentence? If you could go back you would buy a lie detector test and force your father to use it when you questioned him time and time again if there was anything you could have done to help Damon and he said no. If you could go back in time you would break into the prison Damon was locked up in and forced him to see you when he rejected your visitation requests? You would hack into the prison phones when he declined your calls so you could talk to him? What would you have done differently, Elena? Hindsight is a funny thing."

I stay silent because as guilty as I feel, as terrible and awful I feel I know that she's right.

I didn't think I would ever see Damon again.

This mess…it's unavoidable. I couldn't have predicted this.

"The second you got in that car with him all those years ago you should have known that this would have all ended badly. However you were blinded by love, by your love for him. There's nothing wrong with that, Elena. I'm not Damon's number one fan…not even close but…there's no denying how much you loved him."

I ignore the fact that she has used the past tense.

"You've done such a 360, you know that, right?" I raise my eyebrow at her suspiciously. "I feel like you're a completely different person right now."

She shrugs. "I'm trying out this new thing right now…it's called being supportive to your best friend…" she trails off before smiling. "Or maybe it's just the hormones and I'll go back to being on Team Liam tomorrow." She winks at me and I laugh. "Now go on…go and sort out your mess. You have a lot of cleaning up to do."

"I know." I place down my drink. It wouldn't be fair to drag this thing out with Liam. "But I'm not the only one."

She sighs and lets out a huffed breath. "Fine. I'll talk to Stefan. Now go." She urges me and I do.

I leave the party without looking back. Caroline's right, my life is a mess right now but it's my life and it's about damn time that I start to clean it up, for good this time.

Sorry not much DE in this one but there will be plenty more to come! They still need to have that big talk they've both been avoiding. A lot of questions that need answering will eventually be answered! But first they both have to sort themselves out individually and separately before they can even begin to do anything else.

Thanks for reading – hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Until next time!