I'M BACK, BITCHEZ.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything that you recognise. All rights go to the CW, and the amazing L. J. Smith, and all others who contributed to the creation of this brilliant saga. Please, oh please, do not sue me.

xXxXx

Emma's POV

"I need you to get me some blood."

You know, in all my life, I couldn't quite recall ever being truly speechless.

There was this one time. Back at home home, when I'd spent the entire day out with Lily, I remember walking through the mall, with three bags of new clothing that I'd used Damon's money to buy. I had bought this cute new skirt that didn't look too slutty, in my opinion, because I was a judgy kinda gal who tried not to be that person people like me judged. Lily had bought a bunch of ass-fitting jeans and were both had our fair share and new, low cut but demure t-shirts and we'd been chatting about them when we'd seen Cameron.

Out with a girl.

Honest to god, I couldn't quite remember I time before that when I hadn't thought Cammers was well and truly gay.

So Lils and I had watched as Cameron had seduced Brianna Wallace from about thirty metres away, and both of us had been unable to come up with anything to say about it.

And even that. Even that complete and total shock that I'd felt when I watched Cameron seal the deal with a kiss and realised that he wasn't riding the sausage train couldn't even begin to compare to how I felt now.

"What?" I demanded when I regained control of my voice.

"Blood." Damon urged. "I need you to get me some blood."

I was initially only made angrier when Damon lunged forward. His hands latched around my shoulders and I shouted out in surprise, attempting to take a step back. I felt his teeth scrape against my neck and jerked backwards slightly—not oo far thought. It was only then that his grip on my shoulders faltered and he fell to his knees, however, I realised that he hadn't in fact lunged at me.

He had collapsed on me.

"Jesus," I had said quickly, my eyes widening to their limits as I watched him. He was still swaying slightly, his arms awkwardly in the air—seemingly stuck there after they had slid off my shoulders. Automatically, my own arms had came up; holding him at the chest, and making sure he didn't fall any more.

I quickly realised that that position wasn't going to work. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to lift Damon and pull him further inside.

So I'd staggered backwards, my feet moving as far as they could before my knees buckled under his dead weight. I fell to my knees to face him—pausing only to reach out and push the door close behind us.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Damon had just moaned incoherently.

This was not good, I concluded instantly. His head had fallen into the crook of my neck and he seemed to be breathing heavily. His fists were clenching—like he was in some sort of pain.

"Damon." I said frowning at what I could see of his head. "What happened?"

Again, he groaned.

Our conversation continued in this fashion for a good couple of minutes, before he finally managed to mumble out a good response.

"Stefan..." he groaned.

I inhaled sharply, my heart rate increasing as I lifted my hand and pressed his head closer to my own neck—clutching him to me. He groaned—I could only assume it was from the pain.

Stefan?

Stefan did this?

"Oh, bubee," I said with a pout, forgetting my anger.

Damon managed to find the will power to lift his head and glower at me for the nickname. I grinned at him, pleased that he could still hear me. His head rested back at my neck.

"Don't—call me—"

"—yeah, yeah," I interrupted him. "Shut up and get on the bed."

Ignoring the shivers than ran up my spine following that particular sentence, I worked on hauling his head away from my shoulder. He lifted it slightly, with more difficulty than when he'd glared at me, before letting it lull back in its original position. I frowned at the pressure on my neck as he inhaled again, loud enough for me to hear. "Come on, big guy," I persisted, trying to once again push myself to my feet. "Help me out here."

He pushed, his feet taking some of his own weight. His action helped me, as I hastily stood and pushed. The result was him falling away from me, and landing with a harsh thud on my bed.

He'd let out a raspy "ouch" before letting his head lull back onto my pillow. Moving around hurriedly, trying to make him more comfortable and not having any real idea of what to do. So, I reverted to my old ways and asked.

"Uh," I said frantically, eyes darting everywhere except towards Damon. "What do—what do I do? Damon?"

Which brought us to this very moment, because when he'd stopped moving, opened his eyes and stared me down, saying "I need you to get me some blood," my brain pretty much when into break down.

"Why the hell do you need blood?"

There could still have been some sort of real explanation for all of this. Some sort of, uhm, reason why Damon needed blood to get better that was totally rational and that didn't instantly make him some sort of psycho.

"I'm a vampire, Em."

Right. So Lachlan had gotten to him. Somehow... Damon had been brainwashed. And right Lachlan was trying to protect me from Damon who obviously had to be a vampire.

Of course, I didn't really have any time to think of options because Damon was somehow from the bed, to right in front of me (swaying however unsteadily) and I screamed.

"Emma. I need some blood. And I need you to get it for me."

I watched as his eyes went dark, veins extending from his eyes and down across his cheekbones (the same ones I'd fantasized about for so long). His jaw dropped a little, seeing his teeth become the things of story books.

"What the f—?"

"Please, Emma. Please."

I stared at him. The veins retracted and the grip on my arms, the one that I hadn't really noticed because of shock, loosened. "I'm sorry... I just..." he gasped. "I won't hurt you. I promise, Emma. I wouldn't... I couldn't."

I stepped back, letting my back hit the wall gently as I stared at him. My mouth opened and closed a couple of times.

What the hell was this? Did this all mean that Lachlan was telling the truth. Telling me that I was unsafe where I was? That Damon wasn't a safe option for me to be living with?

I couldn't remember a time when he hadn't protected me. Damon was Damon. I'd been angry at him, sad, tired and exhausted by him. But I'd never been truly scared with him around.

Because this was Damon.

I was shaking. It was embarrassing that he could see but I was shaking.

"Em—talk to me." He rasped. He stepped forward.

I pressed myself closer to the wall, and squeezed my eyes shut.

Then it hit me.

This was Damon.

This was Damon.

This was not some monster that Lachlan could convince me was scary (even if he was, just a bit). He didn't scare me. Damon didn't scare me. Damon protected me. And there was no way in hell I was leaving him in this shape, crazy psycho vampire or not.

I still wasn't really convinced he was a vampire.

Because, come on.

Vampire.

"Day—Damon." I coughed, finally getting my voice back and flushing. "Where do I...?"

Damon lurched forward (and I'm proud to say I didn't even wince) and he hugged me. "The, uh, the hospital." I hesitated for a second, before hugging him back. I decided not to even ask how I was going to figure out the hospital thing. I was a big girl. Anyway, Damon had moved, stroking the back of my head with his shaking hand. "Em... thank you. God,"

I pushed him off. 'Yeah, yeah. Get off me." I pushed him slightly. "Lie down and stop exhausting yourself you butthead."

He stumbled backwards, setting himself on the bed and letting his head fall back onto the pillow. I grabbed my keys from the bench, and moved, opening the door.

"Em, thank you." He rasped from my bed.

I smiled at him. "I'll be back soon, Damon. Don't go anywhere."

I pulled the door close behind me and let out a huge sigh. Right. So my guardian was a vampire. That sure as hell explained a lot, as long as, you know, suspended all my beliefs about everything.

But now. I had some blood to procure.

.:.

I ended up getting pigs blood.

It would probably piss him off but in the long run, I had no real idea about blood compatibility and those who drank it. Like, did some blood types taste better than others? Like, could you be an O neg type of drinker, or an AB pos? Or maybe...

God I'm messed up in the head.

In the long run, the butcher shop was only a couple of blocks away from my hotel room. Sure, the butcher had looked at me like I was all kinds of certifiably insane, but I had the blood for Damon anyway.

There was a screech of tires, and I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice it.

But I certainly noticed when two pairs of strong arms grabbed me from behind. I was kicking and screaming before I could think about what was actually going on. The brown paper bag of pigs blood fell, exploding on the side walk and covering my shoes.

A hand was pressed across my mouth and two more sets of hands grabbed at my feet. Then I was lifted into the air and thrown into the back of what I could only assume was some sort of clichéd black van.

I recognised the driver instantly.

"LACHLAN." I roared. "Now is not the time. Freaking let me go."

He observed me with a grim frown. "Emma, I'm sorry. But this time, you don't call the shots. There's been some developments—we got the results from your blood test and there's no way you can stay here."

What?

Wait, what?

"What, Lachlan—what are you doing?"

In the past hour, I'd realised that my guardian (the only man I fully trusted in the world) was a vampire, and I was scared more by Lachlan's look.

It was the last look I remembered, before a smelly cloth was pressed across my nose and my world went black.

How freaking cliché.

.:.

Annndd I'm gone, bitchez...

Right.

I am the flakiest Author in history.

I am SO sorry to every one of my dedicated readers that I left this hanging for so long. I fully intend on continuing, now that I knew exactly where this is going.

So, here's the plan.

This is the LAST chapter of this fic (the Anomaly) which has turned away from its original path (to be its own, multi-chapter DAMON/OC fic). Instead, it will become the PROLOGUE to a better, multi-chapter Damon/OC fic (with name that I have not yet determined). It will involve all the same characters, only a year later, catching up with the television show around end season 2 and start season 3.

That's the plan, and I hope you're all good with it. In a final round of reviews for this fic, you could give me ideas and thoughts—basically tell me what you want to see in go down between Damon and Emma, and the other characters.

Cheers, and again, I'm REALLY sorry,

G.