The next few days went by in a blur for Damon. A blur of campaign events, daily calls with Elena, yelling at Matt and Jeremy about the laundry, and refereeing between Rebekah and Caroline during the last couple of prom planning meetings. He threw Rebekah out of his house after a particularly heated discussion over finalizing the play list for the DJ ended with Rebekah breaking one of the kitchen chair legs off, and staking Caroline in the stomach with it. Thankfully, that was the one meeting Melody Fell hadn't attended. Damon wasn't keen about mopping up Caroline's blood from his brand new kitchen floor, though, and he told Caroline and Matt that he was done hosting these meetings. They'd have to do their final one at the school.

Jeremy's dog arrived in a crate on Tuesday, and peed on Damon's favorite rug within the first five minutes of being inside the house.

"He's just excited," Jeremy said. "Don't eat him."

"Not going to eat him. Don't like the taste of golden retriever. But I do like the taste of teenagers, so you should probably start running, like, now."

Wisely, Jeremy and his dog managed to stay gone the rest of that day.

Three days since Klaus had reached out to summon his runaway minion. And yet, there was still no word from Katherine.

On Thursday morning, the day of the election, Damon came up from the cellar and paused on the threshold of the living room.

Katherine was laying across the arms of a chair, reading a magazine. She looked up at him. "Did you bring me one?" she asked, indicating the blood bag in his hand.

"No. Have your lackey Matt do it."

"Ah, so we figured that out, did we?"

"Yes, Katherine. Kind of a dead giveaway when he started spouting off at me with crazytalk after you left. Surprised you came back, by the way." He looked upstairs, where he could hear someone moving around in Stefan's room. "I assume you brought my brother home as well."

"I did. We weren't really leaving for good, you know. I just told Matt that to make you freak out a little."

"Yeah, well, it kind of worked."

"I can see that. You look a bit overworked, Damon. Life getting you down?"

"No, Katherine. Just you." Damon poured his blood bag into a glass, and then brought the glass over to the couch with him. He took a sip from his glass, as he looked steadily at her. "I assume you made sure your witches were tucked away safe before coming home."

"Yes, Damon. Far out of your reach."

"Well, that's just swell. Have I mentioned to you lately just how much I enjoy everything about you, Katherine? Oh wait, I couldn't have, because you fucking ran away." He finished his glass of blood, and then added, "Coward."

"Oh, please, Damon. Not a coward, Just smart. Smarter than you, anyway."

Damon gave her a salute with his empty glass. "Well, hello there, brother," he said, without turning around.

"Damon." Stefan crossed over to the drinks cart and made himself a drink. "Want one, Katherine?"

Katherine smiled at him, "Please, lover."

Damon cleared his throat, and then stood up. "Well, it's certainly nice to have the family back together again. Have to run, though. Getting elected mayor in a few hours."

"Best of luck, Damon, and I mean that most sincerely," Katherine said, reaching up to accept a glass from Stefan.

Damon gave them both a nod goodbye, before saying, "Oh, and by the way, Stefan? Don't eat Jeremy's dog, okay? He's strangely attached to the hairy thing, and I hate watching the kid cry. Although," he added, "if he pisses on my rug again, I'll run him through the blender for you myself."

As soon as he was in his car, Damon called Bonnie. "We're back on, witch."

"Katherine came back?"

"She did, indeed. Pretending of course, that she wasn't returning just because Klaus scared the fuck out of her."

"So what's the plan? The tomb has been spelled, and the trap is ready to go."

"Esther didn't give you any trouble?"

"She did. But we're good."

"I'm impressed, Bonnie. Good for you, showing that Original bitch what's what." Damon paused, thinking rapidly. "I don't want to do this today. I'm going to be involved in electiony things all day long and I can't see any real opportunity to do it. We could try snatching her out of bed in the middle of the night, maybe. But I'd rather not do that with Stefan around, if there's any way to avoid it. He'll fight like a motherfucking samurai if we drag her right out of his arms. I don't want to wait too long, though, and risk the chance that she'll bolt again."

"So we do it tomorrow?"

"Yes. Let Caroline and the others know that they need to be on alert. As soon as I think we have an opening, I'll text everyone."

"Will do. Caroline's not going to be happy if this interferes with prom, though."

"Tell Blondie I said to to suck it up."

After ending the call with Bonnie, Damon pulled out and starting driving to the Grill, which was going to be his campaign headquarters for the whole day. As he drove through one of the neighborhoods on the way into town, he was delighted to see Klaus' two hybrids standing outside a house, looking frustrated. Damon slowed the Camaro, and rolled down the window. "Having some difficulties? Anything I can do to help?"

The female hybrid just looked blankly at him, but the male hybrid actually growled. Damon smiled, and waved, and then drove away. Those were two hearts he wouldn't mind ripping out some day. He added that to his mental to do list. Elena seemed to want him to value human life, but she hadn't said one damn thing about hybrids.

It was a very long day, even for someone with super strength and super endurance. It was a successful day, however. Damon swept the vote with 72%. It was surreal to him to be addressed as Mayor Salvatore all the rest of evening after the results came in. The entire Grill celebrated with lots of food and lots of booze, as Damon accepted the congratulations of all the Council members and the rest of his supporters. He was still in a bit of a daze at midnight, when he suddenly realized that he hadn't heard from Elena yet.

Damon went home, worried that not hearing from her meant something terrible had happened. This is what it was like to love the way he did, though. Liz once describe motherhood to him as having your heart walking outside of your body. He didn't feel the least bit parental towards Elena, but that phrase still resonated strongly. She was his heart, and every second that they walked the earth apart, he felt the separation keenly.

She finally called him just as he was getting out of the shower later that night. He answered the phone, while wrapping a towel around his waist.

"Hello?"

"I'm bored, Damon."

"Elena?"

"Yeah."

"You're bored?"

"Yes. Kol is boring me to death with stories about his days in the Ye Olde West. You were a rootin' tootin' gunslinger, we get it. A vampire with a gun, what a stupid idea. Oh, wait, I guess I don't get to say 'to death' anymore, since his sister already killed me."

"Kol is out there with you? In the Berkshires, or did you return to Manhattan?"

"We're still here in Massachusetts. Sorry I didn't call until just now, but somebody pissed off Elijah, and got sent out here to keep me company. Yeah, I know you can hear me, Kol, that's why I'm talking about you. Go away."

"That sucks for you."

"He's lucky I don't just dagger him. I do know where Elijah keeps them, after all. It might be worth risking suicide to do it."

"Why is this a good idea?"

"Oh, Elijah thinks I need a sparring partner. He wants me to 'redirect my physical energies towards a disciplined endeavor', so I'm supposed to be learning tae kwon do."

"Oh yeah, your new routine. Well, you sound pretty chipper. Anything else new since we last spoke?"

"Well, you know that Bart and I do yoga and meditation for two hours a day. That's going really well. After yoga, I'm now supposed to fight with Kol for awhile, which was actually sort of fun today. I'm definitely looking forward to the opportunity to kick his ass on a regular basis. We are are not doing any proper tae kwon do, just what we pick up from watching Korean action movies. We have Netflix here. We watched a lot of movies this evening."

Damon felt a knot of jealousy grow in his stomach. He sat down on his bed. "Huh."

"Oh, and I'm on a vervain regimen, as of this morning. I carry vervain with me everywhere, and if I start to feel overwhelmed or stressed out, I do a shot of it."

"Ouch."

"I know . . . it was Bart's idea. It gives me a little jolt, you know? Just that little bit of something that helps me find a second of detachment and keeps me from snapping the nearest neck or tearing down the nearest hospital. And I mix it with Bonnie's herbs, so I'm getting some medicine at the same time, too."

"Well, at least that bizarre drinking game means that you are on vervain, and Kol isn't compelling you to do freaky things with him."

Elena laughed. "Oh, you're funny. What about you? Anything going on?"

"Um . . . well, I had a thing tonight, and I have another thing tomorrow, so you know. Stuff."

"So specific," she teased him. "I feel like I'm there with you."

"Wish you were," Damon cleared his throat. "So anyway, are you sleeping with Kol?"

"What?"

"Just wondering."

"That's a crazy question."

"Not so crazy. I remember what it was like being newly turned. I was very hot to trot. And I'm guessing it's ten times worse for you, being all fancy Original-like as you are. I am just assuming you're not sexin' up your monkish friend or your overly indulgent papa."

"Seriously, Damon, you should know better. Ugh. Like I would sleep with the guy who beat you with a baseball bat. Twice. Is that what you think of me?"

"I don't know," Damon mumbled, suddenly feeling really glad that Rebekah had ended things.

"Well, I'm not sleeping with Kol. I'm not sleeping with anyone. You are really being very stupid, you know. And I don't want to talk about sex with you."

"Well, we should talk about sex, you know."

"Why is that?"

"Because it's pretty much inevitable that we are going to have it someday, you and me. We've both known that since Denver."

Elena was quiet for a second, and then said, "Inevitable? Is that what you think?"

"Don't you? I mean, we've been talking about love quite a bit, in a serious way. No surprise that I'm crazy in love with you, emphasis on the crazy - so I guess you just have to decide whether or not you are in love with me. Not a prerequisite for sex as far as I am concerned, though. So if you want to skip that step, I'm cool."

"That's not something that has to be decided - Ugh, seriously, Kol? Seriously? Sorry, Damon, but he's been listening to our entire conversation, and now he's making humping motions and kissy faces and trying to take my phone away. It's late anyway. Call you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Okay," Damon said, to an empty phone line.

That girl was going to be the second death of him, he just knew it.

Caroline called him ridiculously early in the morning. "Okay, first off, congratulations on the election, and on getting your brother back. Secondly, no way, Damon. Nuh uh, no way, no how, it's not going to happen, and you are a bastard for even suggesting it."

"What?"

"It's prom, Damon. Prom tonight. Hello? Do you even get what that means, even a little bit? We are not going to do that thing you want to do that I'm not going to specify because I don't know who is near you who could hear this. Just . . . no."

"Caroline-" Damon began, but she cut him off.

"Forget it. I did not bust my ass working to get you elected, only to let you ruin prom."

"You children," Damon sighed. "We had proper priorities back in my day. Would never let a silly dance get in the way of important endeavors."

"You didn't even have prom back then. You probably only had, I don't know, regular old boring cotillions or something. Nothing as monumental as prom. I have been literally dreaming of this day since I was five years old, Damon. I will stake you. I will stake the hell out of you if you get in the way of prom."

"Okay, fine. But I'm not putting it off until tomorrow. We'll do it after prom. Will that make you happy?"

"But that's after prom!"

"Yes, I know, that's what I said."

"No, I mean, there are after prom parties, duh." Caroline sighed. "But okay. I suppose Tyler and I can skip out of the parties for a little while."

"Thank you, Caroline. You're a peach, Caroline."

"Whatever. Now I'm off to get my hair done, so don't bother me for four hours at least."

"Don't you have school? It's a Friday."

"Of course, I'm skipping school, Damon. I have to get ready for prom."

Damon stayed in bed for awhile after getting off the phone with Caroline, his mind racing. There was so much that could go wrong that day. So very much. He was going to have to involve Rebekah, for one thing, and who knew how that was going to go. Damon had given up trying to predict how an Original would respond to anything. He would give Caroline her four hours, but he was wondering if he should re-assemble everyone right after school. Oh, the perils of relying on children with a school schedule to get anything done.

Damon felt a small moment of panic when he heard the front door slam, and Stefan's car start up in the driveway. He ran downstairs, pulling on his clothes as he went. Jeremy was heading out the door with a piece of toast in his mouth, and his dog on a leash.

"Where did Katherine and Stefan go?"

"Mmmfhtdhtd," Jeremy replied, mumbling around the toast.

"Seriously, let's try that again," Damon said, rolling his eyes.

Jeremy took the toast out of his mouth. "Sorry. Katherine said something about going into Richmond to buy a dress for prom. I have to walk Nevada before school, you need anything else?"

"Goddamnit, what is it with this town and motherfucking prom?" At Jeremy's startled look, Damon said, "Never mind. No worries."

"Okay. Congrats on being Mayor . . . hey, does that mean I don't need to worry about parking tickets, or getting caught speeding anymore?"

"No, it means you need to be extra worried," Damon responded, reaching down to rub Nevada's neck and scratch behind his ear. "I'm going to circulate your picture and plate numbers amongst all of the deputies and tell them to arrest you on sight, just for being generally annoying. And for never making your bed. Now get out of here."

Damon wasn't quite sure how he felt about Katherine and Stefan going to prom. It shouldn't matter, since they weren't going to try and nab Katherine until after prom anyway. And if she was actually at prom, that meant there would many eyes on her to make sure she didn't bolt again. So he was going to let it slide, even though he was annoyed at her for imitating Elena at prom on principle.

It was time to tackle his newest responsibility. Mayor Salvatore. He couldn't help but laugh every time he said it, even inside his head. He didn't officially take office until the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday, but he'd promised Carol he would get a head start on learning the ropes.

Damon walked into town hall feeling pretty good about the upcoming day. The building was a bit empty, since it was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, and his footsteps rang in the hallways. Carol greeted him at the door to her office, soon to be his, with a smile and a hug.

"Oh, Damon. You have no idea how relieved I am about how this all worked out."

"I do know, Carol," Damon responded. "But don't think that you are off the hook, you know. I'm going to be on the phone with you every day with so many petty problems and questions that you are going to want to block my calls. You'll have to walk me through just about everything."

"It'll be my pleasure." She indicated her office with her head. "The Sheriff is already here, let's get started."

During the course of many meetings, Damon's enthusiasm began to wane. So many stupid problems. Little things, like the fact that teenage hooligans kept knocking the heads off the parking meters on Main St. and stealing the quarters. Or that Mr. Cuddy on Littlewater Road had filed over 300 complaints with the town about his neighbor's dog shitting in his yard. Or that the town was going to have a hard time paying the cost-of-living raises that the firemen wanted this year, because they had spent so much money training police deputies on how to handle vampire problems. That right there was a dumb expense, and made Damon shake his head.

First off, he'd find out from Jeremy and Matt which of their moronic classmates were knocking the meters to flinders, and he'd compel them to stop it. Well, after the vervain was no longer in the town's water supply. He made a mental note to make sure the water supply was vervain free as soon as possible. Then he was going to let Stefan eat Mr. Cuddy's neighbor's dog. And hell, he would just pay the firemens' wage increase himself. But spending $20,000 to train incredibly inept deputies to take down vampires, which they hadn't a hope in hell of ever doing? Totally ridiculous. That was a line item he was going to strike as soon as Tuesday rolled around.

He kept taking notes and nodding his head, and saying, "Sure, got it, not a problem," but his mind was still half on what was going to go down later that night. He couldn't help it, he was just worried. So many things could go wrong.

Damon called Rebekah during a lunch break. He paced around the entryway to town hall as he waited for her to pick up, giving a quick smile to a couple of civil servants who were viewing him with curiosity. No surprise that they were curious. He knew he was the hottest (soon-to-be-officially) mayor Mystic Falls had ever seen.

"Hello, Damon."

"Need a favor from you, my favorite blonde girl." He kept his voice too low for any passersby to overhear.

"Really? Your favorite? I even outrank Caroline?"

"Of course. Caroline doesn't let me do that thing you let me do. That automatically makes you my favorite."

"I don't let you do that anymore, Damon."

"Semantics. Anyway, do you want to help me, or not?"

"I suppose so, if I must. Although, it's your fault, Mayor Salvatore, that Klaus is so irritable today. He's going to be hell to live with until he gets over that dumb election." Rebekah sighed. "What do you need?'

"I need you to help keep Stefan occupied tonight while me, Caroline, and Tyler take down Katherine and shove her into a vampire trap inside a tomb."

"I feel like I've been missing something."

"Well, you kinda have been. Short version, Katherine put a nasty dark spell on Stefan to make him think he's in love with her. We need to stash her somewhere until the vervain leaves her system, and then you can compel her to tell us how to break that spell. Simple, right?"

"That complete and utter bitch."

"I know it breaks your tender heart to see her misuse Stefan like that. So, we can count on you?"

"Wouldn't it be better if I handle Katherine, while you and your little friends handle Stefan? She's only five hundred years old. I can take her down without a whimper, you know."

"Actually, you are right. That is a better plan." Damon hesitated, "So . . .?"

Rebekah sighed again. "Yes, Damon. It would be my pleasure to put Katherine inside a dark hole somewhere. And this doesn't surprise me in the least, you know. She's so trashy. I never could figure out what you Salvatores saw in her."

"Believe me, I've been wondering that myself lately. Okay, keep your phone on and I will text you later when it's all about to go down."

"We aren't going to do this tonight, Damon. It's prom. It'll have to be tomorrow."

Damon choked back a laugh. "Really, it's prom tonight? I had no fucking idea. I'm not going to ruin your prom, Rebekah, but I would like to handle Katherine soon after prom, if that is okay by you."

Rebekah sighed, again. "Fine. But I'm not messing up my dress or my hair until long after all of the pictures have been taken."

"It's a deal, Blondie Becks. And if you get bored with your quarterback's dreamy blue eyes, hit me up for a dance tonight."

"Oh, Damon. You are way too old for prom. That's just disturbing."