Merry Christmas everyone!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your reviews, favorites, and follows! They seriously keep me writing!

Sorry for another loooong chapter, but I wanted to get the majority of Damon and Lily's back story into one piece and there was a lot to get in. I hope it's a bit of fun and romance; I know it'll be a bit angsty if you like Lily. For those who don't like her, there really is a purpose to sharing their love story with Elena (beyond any angst it might cause with DE) as she continues to learn about love in this story.

Also, quick reminder. This story does not follow show cannon when it comes to the S/K/D triangle. So when that part comes up, I've kinda done my own thing while trying to tie it back to what the show has done. Clear as mud? :)

The next chapter will be Damon and Elena and hopefully the end of their major angst for a while.

I hope you enjoy it and would love to hear what you think!

:)

Chapter 21

"I saw you, you know. You and Damon. In the dreams."

Elena and Lily had resumed their trek through the woods on the Salvatore property. With no fixed destination in mind, they instinctively veered to the right when a fork in the path presented itself.

In silent agreement. In perfect step.

"How much do you know?" Lily inquired, wondering how detailed these dreams of Elena's had been. How many. How often.

"I know you were happy together and completely in love. In fact, I've never seen Damon so happy, so carefree before." Elena answered softly, her heart aching at the memories that were not her own, but somehow felt as if they were. "He was so sure of you, of your ability to make it through anything together."

"Yes, Damon was always so…persistently optimistic." Lily noted affectionately.

Elena paused, lost in thought. Those were not the immediate words that came to mind when she thought of Damon, the self-proclaimed fatalist. It saddened her greatly that in his entire life, Damon's happiness had been so fleeting. That he'd gone from someone who believed that love made everything possible to someone who couldn't believe he deserved to be loved at all.

Oh, how she wanted to change that for him. But how?

Now that he was pushing her away. And especially now that her self-imposed distance was at hand. That thought alone made her question her earlier decision. As did her next. That Damon's only real happiness had been due solely to the woman beside her and that that same woman would spending time in close proximity to Damon...well, she wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

"What else?" Lily prompted.

"Well, I know that…" Pulled back to the conversation, Elena's brows knit as she thought back through the weeks of illusive revelations. "…he'd asked you to marry him, and that he'd built a cottage for you, and...you were having visions." Elena relayed slowly, her gaze shifting to meet Lily's. "Damon knew about them, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did." Lily swallowed hard, that part of her past an uncomfortable subject to discuss, being that it was the very visions she had that tore them apart. "We didn't keep anything from each other." Until the day I did. "Which is probably why we thought we could take on the world and win."

"How does he not remember the two of you?" Elena asked. "Lily, he believes he was in love with Katherine for 145 years."

"That wasn't love, Elena." The harshness of Lily's reply only piqued Elena's interest more. "That was evil's twisted version of love. It's called obsession, and it was forced on him."

"What?" Stunned by the revelation, questions came quickly. "By who? Katherine? Did she compel him and then turn him? Is that why you hate her so much?"

"No." Lily shook her head, guilt and sadness pulling her lips down. "No, I hate myself even more than her for that."

"I don't understand."

"Then maybe I should start at the beginning." Lily stated, preparing to open up a past she often relived, but rarely spoke about.

In part because, in her solitary existence, there had been no one to tell it to. And in part, because she felt it was too precious, too sacred, to share with anyone.

Until now.

"I met Katherine the night Damon saved my life. Actually, we both met her that night. We were young and naive and neither of us had a clue what she was. For months, she pretended to be my friend, our friend." Begrudging admiration tilted her lips. "I must admit, she played her part beautifully - helping plan our rendezvous, giving us a place to meet in secret, supporting our decision to be together, damn what the world would think."

"Why would you need to meet in secret?"

"Because I am a Romani. A gypsy. Back then, even some today, are considered social outcasts. In a time when slavery was common, the only thing that kept many of us from being in chains ourselves was the fact we never stayed in one place too long. As it is part of our culture that we usually don't mix with outsiders, we are primarily a self-contained people. We make our own food and clothes, have our languages and wed within our tribes. It was quite taboo to entertain an outsider, let alone fall in love with one. And Damon, the son of a wealthy landowner, was most certainly one of those."

Intrigued, Elena prompted Lily with a suspicion that had formed from the dreams. "So was it was love at first sight?"

Clearly amused, Lily chuckled then clarified when she saw the look of confusion on Elena's face. "I'm sorry, Elena, you have no idea how ironic that phrase is for me."

"What do you mean?" Elena inquired.

And then Lily proceeded to drop another bombshell. "I was born blind, as all Seers are. It is how we are marked, how we are known. Not to say that every Romani born blind is a Seer, but those who are, are watched from a young age to see who has the gift. There is special attention given to their education and part of our discovery is that we only see when we are finally face to face with the purpose for which we are born. With our destiny. For some, it comes as early as nine or ten years, for others it takes half a lifetime."

"And for you?" Elena asked, suddenly feeling unsettled and not knowing why.

"For me..." Lily's smile deepened and her gaze softened as the moment filled her vision. "...the very first thing I ever saw was Damon's face."

Elena swallowed hard, the impact of Lily's confession hitting her with the force of a thousand boulders. "The first thing you ever...wow, that's...pretty..." Elena ran through a list of adjectives - incredible, amazing, miraculous - none of them quite matching what she was feeling. Fated, unavoidable, inevitable. She gave up trying. "...I'm not even sure what."

Lily noted the distress in Elena's voice, her eyes, and immediately knew the source. "I know what you're thinking, Elena, and you're wrong. You have nothing to worry about."

"No?"

"No." Lily reassured. "Just because Damon is my destiny doesn't mean that I am his."

"But...what if you're wrong?"

"I'm not." Lily confirmed, sympathy radiating from her. After all, if the situation were reversed and she was the one hearing all of this for the first time about the man she'd just realized she loved, she would be full of doubts too. "Look, Elena, I know how all of this will sound, but I've already told you, I know he belongs with you. I've seen it. And as much as Damon loved me, Elena, he loves you so much more."

Elena blinked at the confidence in Lily's eyes. She was struck once again at just how composed Lily was. "How can you be so calm about all of this?"

A wry smile touched Lily's lips. "I've had a few years to get used to the idea."

"But clearly you still love him."

"Yes, Elena, I do. That will never change no matter how much it hurts sometimes." Seeing the doubts and questions still lingering on Elena's face, Lily admitted more than she ever had. More than she'd ever intended. "I confess there have been times that I've wished I knew all of this before Damon and I had gone too far. That I've thought it would have been better for me if I could have stopped us from happening somehow. But most of the time? Elena, I wouldn't have missed loving him for the world."

She considered Elena a moment then offered her a way out. "Look, I'll understand if you don't want to hear any more of this..."

"No." Elena stopped her, courage filtering back into her expression. It was a courage that, oddly enough, she found from the woman standing by her side. "No, I want to know. I need to know." She took a deep breath and prepared herself. She had a strong feeling that what she'd already seen in the dreams was only the tip of the iceberg. "And don't hold anything back."

"Alright. Where were we?"

"You said he saved your life?" Elena prompted.

Understanding Elena's need to know it all better than most, Lily readily complied. "Yes, my family's caravan stopped near Atlanta in the early spring of 1864 to settle for a while, to pick up some extra work. It had been a harsh winter and my father's pride was not such that he would rather see his family starve than get honest pay for honest work, even if it was outsiders' money."

"Because I was lighter skinned than many in my tribe, not to mention somewhat educated, I could blend more easily into the crowds. So, I was sent into town to find work - churning butter, mending clothes, doing laundry, that sort of thing. It was about all a blind girl could do back then. It didn't bring in much, but it helped."

"Then one night I was heading back to the camp after a long day when a group of young men began harassing me. I tried to ignore them, to just keep walking as I'd been taught, with my head high and my course set. But they were ignorant and rowdy and had been out drinking. The more I tried to ignore them, the more agitated they became. They began taunting, pushing, grabbing me. I was one against seven and didn't have a prayer. Before I knew it, I was backed into an alley, fighting for my honor and, who knows...perhaps even my life."

"Oh, my God. What happened?"

A soft smile of remembrance lit Lily's dark eyes. "Damon happened. He came barreling into the middle of it all with a few punches, and a well-aimed pistol. Those boys scattered like the rats they were. Of course, it was at that point that I realized I'd been injured during the attack and was bleeding profusely from a stab wound in my side. I vaguely remember Damon picking me up, and taking me from house to house begging to be let in."

"No one would help?"

"Back then, people were incredibly superstitious and often afraid of their own shadow let alone the sight of an injured gypsy girl in the arms of a panicked soldier." Lily explained. "It took him several tries, but he finally found someone to open the door to us."

"Katherine." Elena surmised.

"Katherine." Lily nodded her confirmation. "She helped him save my life that night. Later, of course, I realized how."

"She fed you her blood."

"Yes. And then she compelled me...us...to forget that I'd been injured as badly as I had."

"And Damon?"

"Damon was...Damon." There was that smile again. One that Elena was quickly recognizing as reserved for thoughts of him. Soft. Wistful. Full of remembrance, and heavy with emotion. "He was gentle and protective and more invested than a mere stranger should be. He found out where I had obtained work and came every evening to walk me to the edge of the woods, where he left me with a promise to see me the next day."

"I knew it was wrong to let him. That it could be dangerous for both of us, but despite everything I knew, everything I'd been taught about outsiders, I couldn't quite resist him." By the dreamy look in her eyes, Elena knew Lily had been transported back to a time when the world belong to her, and she knew it. "I was...so enamored by him. Right from the start. His kindness, his sense of humor, his passion for life...everything about him fascinated me. Thrilled me. I'd never met anyone like him before, nor had I ever received the kind of attention that he gave me. Frankly, it scared me. How intensely I felt toward him in such a short time. And that he could know me so well so quickly? Well, that frightened me even more."

"Why would that frighten you?"

Lily cast a curious glance in Elena's direction. "You know how hard he is to resist. Do you really need an answer to that?"

Elena smiled knowingly and shook her head. "No. No, I guess I don't."

Picking up where she left off, Lily shrugged her slender shoulders. "So, I did what I was conditioned to do. What you yourself have done. I tried to deny what I was feeling and pushed him away. I did everything I could think of to dissuade him from meeting me. I told him who I was, how being seen together was borrowing trouble for both of us, how my father would kill him if he even suspected we were talking, but he just said that because he'd saved my life, it was now his to protect."

"Despite everything I told him he saw right through me and continued to show up every evening. I have no doubt that had I truly meant it, Damon would have left me alone to regret my decision." Lily chuckled suddenly as a memory danced through her mind. "In fact, I actually thought he did once."

"Why? What happened?"

"I'd presented him with a list, an actual list mind you, of why we couldn't be together. And then he patiently waited until I was ready to accept that what we could have together was so much bigger than anything I could possibly fear."

They had come to the edge of the woods, where for the past two weeks, he had delivered a reserved and demure Liliana Castille safely, then parted ways with her. And as he'd done each day before, Damon gallantly bent over Lily's captured hand, brushed his lips against the warm skin then gave her a wink and a smile.

"Tomorrow? Same time, same place?" Damon quipped, then turned, not really expecting an answer.

After all, for the past two weeks, she had made no promises, had given no assurances.

"Actually..." Shoulders squared, Lily called to him then waited until a surprised and intrigued Damon had turned back to her. Unnerved but determined, she pulled in a shaky breath as if trying to gather her courage then stepped up to him and presented a parchment, her accented voice soft and wavering. "Here. I made a list."

"Of?"

"All the reasons you should stop coming to see me."

"Did you now." Damon stated, his lips quirking at the corners and eyes dancing with amusement before flicking to the paper separating them. Curious, Damon took the folded page, opened it and read all that she'd written.

He was impressed. It was a lengthy list.

When he finished, he silently re-folded the paper, stuck it in the pocket of his overcoat, tipped his hat to her and turned again to leave.

"Wait." An unsettled Lily unconsciously rushed him, anxious to know his reaction to what she'd so painstakingly drafted. "Are you not going to say anything?"

Damon considered her a moment.

The flush of her cheeks, the uncertainty in her eyes. The hope. The fear. She was waging a battle with herself and wasn't quite sure which side she wanted to win.

Looking beyond the scared, dutiful daughter delivering the expected warning Damon saw instead the woman so full of untapped life and unfulfilled dreams. The woman who thrilled with silent delight as he'd regaled her with stories. The one whose lips had curled into amused and flattered smiles when she thought he wasn't looking. The one that often stood at the edge of the woods gazing after him, hoping that just once he would turn back to look at her. And when, each night, he did, she was the one whose blush and fiery gaze told him all he needed to know.

He simply wasn't ready to let go of that woman. No matter what the dutiful daughter said.

So instead, he complimented her with a smile. "You have lovely penmanship, Ms. Castille." He tipped his hat once more. "Good night and…sweet dreams."

The next evening, Lily walked home alone.

And the next. And the next until bitterly endless days had stretched into a week.

She spent sleepless nights of frustrated tossing and turning. Her days dawned to only darken her already foul mood. Nothing she ate tasted right. Nothing she wore felt soft against her skin. No amount of layers could chase away the chill that was settling in her bones. Though the sun was high in the sky, her world had somehow turned a solemn gray.

As she sat churning butter, her mind drifted to Damon. His dimpled smile, his infectious laugh. As she absently mended uniforms and dresses she would never be able to afford, her thoughts filled with the color of his eyes, the way they danced and sparkled with life whenever he made a joke or tried to tease a smile out of her.

All in all, she'd spent the whole of one week, completely and utterly miserable. And without the promise of Damon to greet her at the end of each day, she feared she'd made the gravest of errors by turning him away. It was a mistake she instinctively knew she would regret for the rest of her life.

Until the day she was given a chance to right her wrong.

Lily stepped out of the shack where she'd been assigned her day's work, her heart heavy and her expectations low. She'd taken three steps when she heard his voice.

"Vivir con miedo es como vivir en medias."

Lily spun around, her heart suddenly thundering in her chest, her smile bright, her dark eyes sparking with life.

"Do you know what that means?" Damon asked pushing himself away from the side of the building, where he'd waited for her, unseen.

Lily nodded, unable to stop the breathlessness of her answer. "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

Damon took a slow step forward. "Do you agree with the sentiment?"

"Yes." Lily's dark head bobbed and her smile widened, despite her attempt to capture it between her teeth.

"And do you understand that to live a full life, one with passion and joy, that risks and dangers may be faced?" Taking a few more steps, the distance between them was closing.

"I understand."

Damon pulled the list she'd handed him the week before from his pocket and slowly unfolded it, like it was a trap ready to spring. "You know what's missing in all of this?"

Unable to find her voice, Lily swallowed hard and simply shook her head.

"What you want." Damon's intense gaze met hers. "If it's a life half lived, then I'll go away, as you've asked. But if you want..."

The rest of his well-planned argument was lost in a kiss that caused him to stumble back a step and took his breath away.

"I want you, Damon." Lily whispered breathlessly as she pulled back moments later to look into his dazed eyes. "No matter the cost."

The smile that spread over Damon's lips was slow and endearing. Victorious and bright.

"Then these..." Damon waved her list in front of her. "...mean nothing." His eyes bored into hers, searching, finding, knowing. "While this..." He gently took her face in his hands, as a soft thumb brushed against her smiling lips. Damon's eyes sparkled like jewels as a slow smile spread through his entire being. "...this I would die for."

"I guess you could say that's when he officially began to court me. Of course, we both understood what we were facing if we wanted to be together so we took our romance underground."

"What do you mean?"

"Everything between us became a secret. We didn't speak in public. We didn't walked side by side. The times we spent together were fleeting moments stolen in the middle of the day, or clandestine meetings at Katherine's, who provided us with carefully woven cover stories. And since we couldn't really be seen together and do the normal things that couples did back then, Damon devised alternative ways to show me the depths of his feelings. It was amazing actually how he could take the most ordinary things and make them...unforgettable."

"Like what?"

"Like..." Lily thought a moment, then brightened with an example. "...flowers, for instance. He could never give me a bouquet that I could proudly display because it would generate too many questions from my father, my brothers. So, he gave me a garden instead."

"A garden?"

"It wasn't really mine of course, but every time I walked by it I remembered what he said to me the day he took me there."

"Psst. Psst."

Lily's head snapped up at the now familiar sound. It had been three weeks since she'd declared herself. Each day had brought more happiness than the last. Because of Damon and the spontaneous moments he conjured.

Smiling, Damon waved at her from the window, motioning her to come outside.

Lily glanced at the stern matronly supervisor that oversaw the laundry shop and shook her head, indicating now was not a good time for a break. Miss Potter had been on a rampage and the girls of the laundry had made a solemn pact not to further poke the beast. Lily shooed Damon away then returned to her duty of scrubbing and rinsing.

"Psst. Lils." Gaining her attention once more, he held up his hand, fingers spread and mouthed, "Five minutes. I promise." When she made no move to join him, Damon's smile morphed into a determined line as he once again mouthed his intentions, complete with appropriate hand gestures. "One, two, three...I'm coming in."

Knowing full well Damon Salvatore was not above carrying out his own threats, Lily sighed her acquiescence, gained Miss Potter's reluctant permission to slip out of work on the pretext of needing an excursion to the outhouse and met Damon at the corner of the building.

"You crazy fool. You're going to get me into trouble." Lily whispered her mock irritation against lips that had just set hers on fire. When Damon merely chuckled, Lily growled her impatience. "Well, what it is? What's so important it couldn't wait?"

"A surprise." Damon handed her a blindfold. "Here. Put this on."

"Damon..."

"It'll be worth it." Damon winked. "I promise." Once the blindfold was in place, he planted a solid kiss on her lips, grabbed her hand and led her carefully through a few back alleys and to the side of a stately manor not far from the edge of town. They were sheltered from view by the thick shrubbery lining a gated, square shaped garden full of glorious roses, sculptured shrubs and luscious wildflowers.

"You can open your eyes now." Damon whispered in her ear after removing her blindfold.

Lily blinked against the sun and made an obvious observation. "It's...a garden."

"Prettiest one in town."

"But..."

"Has won several awards from what I hear."

"Yes, but..."

"It's yours."

Confusion clouded her eyes. "Really? Because I would think it's Mrs. Butler's as it is clearly on Mrs. Butler's property and contains her prized roses."

"Oh, Lils." Damon chuckled as he turned his laughing eyes on her. "My sweet, naive one. Don't you know it doesn't matter who owns the property a garden is on if the flowers themselves have been coaxed into an agreement with another?"

She tried, and somehow managed, to keep a somewhat stern expression on her face. "Are you saying this particular garden has done such a thing?"

"Indeed, I am."

"And who coaxed them?"

"Me, you silly goose." Damon quipped, playfully tweaking her nose.

A dark eyebrow rose in challenge. "And what exactly has the garden agreed to do?"

"Why...exist for you, of course." A grinning Damon declared with flare. "Now, it does demand a bit of work on your part."

"Oh? And what must I do to have it exist for me?"

"It's simple really." Turning her to face the garden, Damon wrapped his entire being around her. His arms at her waist, his chin on her shoulder, his warmth caressing her skin and melting into her bones. "Every time you walk by, you must look at the garden and think of me."

"And by doing this the garden will..." Leaning back against him, Lily let her fingers link through his as she prompted him softly as if trying not to disturb the butterflies landing so delicately on a nearby hydrangea bush.

"Remind you that every flower holds a thought of you. Every petal a caress. And in each vibrant color lives a promise that one day we will have our own garden. One day, we will live as one, free and open to be the love we feel..."

"And that was just the beginning." Lily's smile widened. "He would leave coded messages for me in a mural he painted on the side of a building I passed each day to work. Messages that let me know when it was safe to meet at Katherine's for an hour, or if we were really lucky, maybe even two. Or just to let me know he was thinking of me."

Surprised by all the new information filling in the blanks of Damon's past, Elena couldn't help but ask, "Damon can paint?"

"Oh, yes. He's quite good." Lily confirmed. "And he's a talented musician as well. A fact I learned when he spontaneously wrote me a song one evening. It became our signal of sorts. Every time I heard him whistle that tune, I knew where I was to meet him."

"I...I had no idea."

"Well, how could you? It's a part of himself that he's hidden for years."

"But why would he do that?"

"Because artists of all types - painters, poets, musicians - lay themselves bare emotionally when they experience their art. And, as you know, Damon flipped the switch long ago and only recently found his heart again. And that, Elena..." Lily's warm gaze settled on the young woman walking by her side. "...is because of you."

A sense of pride welled up in Elena's heart as a slow smile lit her from the inside out. Suddenly, all of the doubts and fears that had assailed her began to shift and fade. And hope rose up to fill their place.

She would find a way to get to him. No matter what. She'd come too far not to.

"How did it all go wrong?" Elena suddenly asked.

The smile slipped from Lily's face and in it's place was a sadness so deep, Elena regretted the question.

"Lily, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..."

"No." Lily stopped Elena's apology with a brave smile. "No, don't be sorry. You need to know."

She paused a moment and looked around, realizing they had nearly come full circle. Not yet ready to go back to the boarding house, Lily sought a different refuge. Within moments, another bench presented itself and Lily broke off of the main path to settle into the stone curve, grateful for it's support. She waited for Elena to join her before beginning the final chapter of her tale.

"We had a plan. We were going to run away together, go to Savannah and get married. Katherine knew someone there who would do the ceremony without asking too many questions. Since we were both of age, we didn't anticipate too many obstacles on that front, but we didn't want to take any chances. Once married, we planned to send word to our families and then, after an appropriate amount to time, we would go back to Atlanta and start our lives together in our little cottage in the woods. By that time our love would be legally consummated, and no one, not even our fathers, could separate us. We knew there would be a huge fallout on both sides, and we were prepared for it."

"What we weren't prepared for was an unexpected visitor that showed up in my camp two nights before we were to leave." Suddenly agitated, Lily began playing with the ring hanging on the chain around her neck, her dark eyes clouded and distressed. "Remember how I said that Seers are discovered when their blindness disappears?" Lily waited for the nod of Elena's head. "Well, news of my sudden sight had reached the Vanguard, a small group of counselors who are meant to guide a Seer's training. They had come to take me away and made it very clear that I had no choice in the matter."

"What? But how could they just take you without your consent?"

"They are very powerful people." Lily commented softly, her gaze distant and hard. Her lips, tight with a disdain that filtered through her voice. "Of course, I refused to go. I didn't care about destinies or prophecies or this...Vanguard. All I cared about, all I wanted...was to become Damon's wife."

Lily swallowed hard, as her gaze faltered hiding the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes. Heart breaking all over again at what she knew was to come, Lily couldn't find her voice.

"It's ok." Elena soothed as she reached over and covered Lily's hand with her own. "Take your time."

Lily nodded and offered Elena a grateful smile. She pulled in a ragged breath and blinked back the tears. After a few moments, she continued, more in control of her feelings.

"The next day I tried to find Damon, to tell him what was happening, but he was out running errands, making plans for our departure. As he'd already left the Army, I had no way of getting in touch with him except through Katherine. He'd moved into her place for his last remaining days in Atlanta, so I stopped there and told her that I needed to see him, that it was urgent and he should meet me at our cottage at midnight."

"Instead of staying awake as usual when I had plans to meet Damon, that night, I fell into a deep sleep and had a vision that was so terrifying that I immediately ran to Aryiola, the oldest sage in our tribe. She'd often guided me as a child and I trusted her wisdom, her honesty. I told her everything I had seen in the vision and asked her the meaning of it all. It was then that I found out my true destiny. And Damon's."

"After that, things got very confusing, very quickly. You see, the Vanguard had been watching me the entire time. And listening. I was told I had a decision to make - either embrace my destiny and let Damon go or meet him and watch him die."

"Oh, God. Lily, that's...that's..."

"An impossible choice." Lily finished for Elena, her voice thick with emotion. "I know."

"What was the vision?"

"Damon was on a path with a fork in the road. On one lane, there I stood, waiting for him with open arms. On the other...was you. Of course, at the time, I knew nothing of doppelgangers or that one day there would be a girl that was identical to the friend I already knew..."

Horrified realization hit Elena. "Katherine. You thought the girl on the path was Katherine."

"I gave him up because I believed it. Because to do anything else would result in his death. And I would rather have him alive and with someone else than dead in my arms. For you see, that was end result of my vision. For choosing me on that path, Damon lost his life. Over and over, that image haunted me until I chose to let him go." Shaking her head, Lily's lips began to quiver as tears coated her voice. "They didn't even give me a chance to send word. I was packed into a caravan within an hour, each turn of the wheels taking me further and further away from him."

"For two days we travelled. And for two days, I tortured myself with thoughts of him, of how he would think I'd abandoned him, that I no longer loved him. I tried to figure out how I could reach him, how to tell him,if I should even try. I didn't even know where I was. The difficulties of breaking free seemed insurmountable." Lily paused her rush of words and wiped away a tear that has slipped down her cheek.

"And then, a miracle happened. I had a another vision. A path that would lead me straight to Damon appeared to me so clearly, so vividly. I took it as a sign that I should fight my way back to him. And so I did." Sniffing back the tears that refused to die, Lily's gaze settled on a far distant past that still haunted her. "But it was too late. I found out that in my absence, Katherine had betrayed me, and Damon was already gone..."

Lily pulled up a chair, spun it around and sat down. Her discerning gaze fixed on the face of the woman that had once betrayed her. It was a risk even opening herself up to Katherine, to show her even a hint of weakness. But after 145 years of believing one thing, she had to know the truth. "What you said earlier...about releasing Damon from your compulsion. Did you mean it? Was that the truth?"

A knowing smile tilted Katherine's lips. "Ah. I should have known it would be about Damon."

Disgusted with herself for even giving this a try, Lily started to stand. "You know what? Just forget it."

"Yes."

The answer stopped Lily in her tracks. Her eyes met Katherine's and in the moment she knew Katherine was indeed telling the truth.

"Yes, I released him. He was free to follow his heart."

Lily slowly sank back down onto the chair and leaned forward. "Tell me then. What exactly happened back in 1864?"

"You know what happened."

"Yes. Damon and I were in love, we were planning on eloping, then you decided you wanted him for yourself."

"Well, that's certainly one version." Katherine smirked. "I seem to recall you abandoning him. In fact, as I remember it, you disappeared without a word... "

"That was not my choice. I was forced to leave. That's why I fought my way back to him. But you'd wasted no time in making your move, even though you knew I was in trouble. By the time I returned, he was already back in Mystic Falls and under your compulsion." Barely checked anger was seeping through Lily's every word. "Why did you do it?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Katherine chuckled. "What you and Damon had was real. After years of watching humans destroy each other with their lies and betrayals, you two gave me hope there was still something pure in this world. I may have turned it all off centuries ago, but even I recognize true love when I see it. So, yes, I wanted it for myself. And at the first opportunity, I took it. I took him. I had no idea you would make it so easy for me." A harsh chuckle broke the silence. "You were so naive, so trusting. Leaving him alone with me, hours on end. Did you never doubt his loyalty to you? Or wonder what we could be doing together behind your back?"

Lily's chin lifted defiantly. "No. I didn't. Because he loved me. And you were my friend."

Lily's confidence deflated Katherine's hubris and prompted a grudging confession. "Well, you were right about him at least. I did everything I could to tempt him, sans compulsion. All he could think about, talk about, was you." Katherine paused, lost in thought. "Truth is, even under compulsion, he was never completely mine. There was always a part of him that was elsewhere. I can only assume it was because of you."

"Is that why you let him go?"

"In part."

"Why else?"

"I met Stefan. And he loved me, no compulsion required."

"I should have known like would take to like." Lily's insult bounced off of Katherine without injury. "If you found what you wanted in Stefan, why did you still feed from Damon? And he from you?"

"Because by the time I realized that what I had with Stefan was real, the game had already begun." Katherine's lips tilted in a knowing smirk. "The boys played so nicely with each other, no vampire in her right mind could have resisted."

"Right. I forgot to figure your mental instability in all of this." Disgust took over Lily's expression. "What happened then?"

"All hell broke lose. The Mystic Falls Council attacked and I had a decision to make. Stefan, Damon or both."

"You chose Stefan."

"And let Damon go."

"But it backfired because he was killed in the raid."

"Actually, no." Relishing the new information she was giving Lily, Katherine practically purred her answer. "He was very much alive the last time I saw him. In fact, releasing him and watching him walk away was the only redeeming thing I'd done in...centuries. I told him everything I knew, Lily. He was going back to Atlanta to find you. I hoped he would. I truly did. But, I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

Lily bit back a caustic retort and focused. "If he didn't die that night with Stefan, how did he turn?"

"That's a question I've asked myself a thousand times. Along with why he was so obsessed with me all of these years."

"And?"

"There's only one thing that makes any sense. One person actually."

"Who?"

"Lexi."

"Lexi? But why would she have turned Damon?"

"For insurance."

"Insurance. For what?"

"Not for what. For who."

"Klaus?"

"What better way to keep tabs on the doppelganger that got away than to compel a newbie vampire into thinking she was his one great love? It was quite clever really. By attaching the love he felt for you to me, Lexi ensured a constant vigil over my resting place until it was time to resurrect me. The only flaw in her plan? No one ever knew that I'd found my way out of the tomb before it was sealed. And poor, obsessed Damon spent the last 145 years of his life pining away for a girl he never really loved."

tbc...

p.s. The Spanish line that Damon quotes to Lily is from the movie Strictly Ballroom, but is also supposed to be an old Spanish proverb. I just wanted to be sure to credit it properly.