A/N: I just wanted to say before you start reading that I've been told nobody minds longer chapters. Also given that if you are still reading twenty-five chapters in then chances are you're enjoying it, so this chapter and probably subsequent chapters may be considerably longer than previously in this story. If it gets too boring or blocky let me know and I'll chop them up a bit again. I'm not going to make it seem unnaturally long just for the sake of it though so hopefully that is reassuring? Anyway enough babbling from me, here it is!

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Day With Damon

"Did you know about needing the grimoire to open the tomb?" Stefan asked Elena. The next day had dawned grey but bright with the ring of her cell-phone before she'd even left her bed. Stefan wanted answers.

"Yes, I knew," Elena replied tiredly. Stefan wasn't satisfied with this.

"Elena, if Damon has somehow convinced you to help him then, I beg you, listen to me: don't. No good will come of getting Katherine out of that tomb, and we can't even guarantee that the journal is actually going to help. That Noah guy was no genius." Elena didn't know how to respond to that. She had promised she would help Damon get Katherine back, even if deep down she would rather not see her supposed doppelganger walk away with Damon.

"Damon didn't have to convince me of anything," Elena glanced to her left, where Damon was sat on top of her bed covers, listening to every word of the conversation.

"Elena, I just need to know how involved you are with this," Stefan insisted.

"I'm not involved. He told me about the grimoire before, that's all." She heard him breathe a small sigh of relief. After they had said their goodbyes and hung up, Elena turned to Damon. She was a little surprised at herself for how comfortable she felt around him now. Even so, at that moment he didn't look happy.

"My brother would have you double cross me given the chance," He said viciously, "It's no wonder I have trust issues. I don't suppose you blame him, though, really."

"Damon, I'm not exactly excited to let Katherine and potentially a whole bunch of other starving vampires out, but I know you need her out… to have your chance at happiness, or at least answers. I told you I'd help you and I'm sticking to that. I'll look for the journal today." His irritable expression softened when she said this and he even looked a bit guilty for snapping at her. To make up for it, he surprised her by rolling on top of her, their bodies separated by her duvet, pinning her wrists together above her head with one hand and using the other to hold most of his weight off of her.
"What are you doing?" She asked, giggling as she tried to escape.

"Saying sorry," He replied, kissing her on the forehead.

"What for?" Elena asked, but shrieked when he scooped her up at vamp speed, tossing the covers aside and pulling her so that she was on top of him instead.

"For almost getting you killed. Again." He added, his bright blue eyes shining gleefully, "And for making you lie to Stefan. I know you hate doing it, so… thank you." Elena looked down at him. His dark hair was falling a little into his eyes and she moved it aside. He made no move to stop her touching him and so she took advantage, trailing her hand along his jawline and down his neck to his chest, stopping over where his heart was. She could feel it beating beneath her hand.

"I do have one," Damon joked, but he said this softly, watching her. She was suddenly aware that she was straddling him. It hadn't seemed sexual in any way to her before, but there was a subtle change in the atmosphere then. On cue, Damon moved his hand to her thigh, which was bare except for the shorts she slept in. He trailed his fingers across her skin, causing Elena to shiver pleasantly. Her own breathing seemed loud to her ears and she wondered when he would pull away, like he had when they had gotten overtly close before. But he didn't. Damon sat up so that his face was mere inches from hers, and so his breath washed over her face.

"Elena, quit looking at me like that," Damon told her in a quiet murmur, "You will regret this."

"Regret what?" She asked him. In the back of her mind, the part able to still think clearly even when he was that close, was aware that this moment had arrived out of nowhere. Before this, they had only kissed twice and one of those times they had been drunk. They had never even talked about either incident, and although she had feelings for him…

"Elena." Damon placed his hands on her arms and gently lifted her, plonking her back down on the bed beside him. There was a loaded, heavy pause as Elena returned to her senses, barely able to believe what she had come so close to doing. She heard Damon huff out a breath beside her. "We need to find this journal."

And so they set about their first task of the day. Elena retrieved a box of old family heirlooms from the attack. Mostly it was old letters and photos dating back over the generations of Gilbert's.
"Find anything out about your birth mother?" Damon asked her, surprisingly nonchalant now that they were in the kitchen rather than her bedroom.

"Only that she was a teenager named Isobel, and that she took off a few days after I was born," Elena replied. Even with everything else that had been going on she hadn't been able to think about much else. What had happened to Isobel after she left? Where was she now?

"Hm," Damon hummed ominously. Elena looked up at him, a photograph in her hands.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. What's that?" He asked, pointing to the photo. Elena looked down at it. It was a man with dark hair and a beard. There was no date written on the back and so she shrugged and showed it to Damon. "That's Johnathon Gilbert," He recognised. Elena looked back into the box. Underneath the photo there was a smaller, wooden box. Elena took it out and opened it up. The first thing inside that she removed appeared to be a muzzle of some kind.

"What is all this stuff?" Elena said out loud, curiously. Damon's eyes lingered on the muzzle but he didn't say anything. Seconds later, Jeremy entered. He looked a little taken-aback to see Damon but he didn't question Elena's choice of company.

"What are you guys doing?" Jeremy asked, taking a seat the kitchen counter.

"I was feeling sentimental and decided to go through some old stuff. Dad kept this family journal from years ago and I was wondering if I could dig it up," Elena replied to her brother.

"Johnathon Gilbert's journal?" Jeremy said, and Damon's head snapped up to look at him immediately.

"Yeah, that was it. What do you know about it?" Elena inquired, doing a better job of masking her interest.

"I used it for my history report on Mystic Falls' supposed supernatural history." Damon's eyes narrowed a little at this. Elena stomped on his foot to get him to snap out of this mood; she knew it didn't hurt him at all but it seemed to bring him back to where they actually were.

"That was for school?" He questioned, "Anything interesting in there?"

"Nah, I mean none of that stuff is real, obviously. I think the guy just liked to write and ended up believing his own stories," Jeremy laughed, shrugging.

"Where is the journal now, Jer?" Elena wanted to know. She could feel her heart pounding with anticipation, but was a little shocked at the answer she got:

"I gave it to Mr Saltzman. He wanted to see it."

Elena dragged Damon out of the house soon after. He looked as if he'd quite like to snap somebody's neck and she would rather the victim of his rage wasn't her innocent younger brother. Damon stormed over to her car and waited impatiently for her to catch up. As soon as the door was unlocked he jumped in. Elena started the engine and they set off.

"That guy just keeps cropping up everywhere," Damon growled, "First he's some kind of vampire hunter, second of all he refuses to die, then I had to chase him away from the cafeteria last night. Now it turns out he has the freaking journal." He thumped his fist against the dashboard. Elena looked out of the corner of her eye to check he hadn't left a dent in her new car.

"Mr Saltzman seems nice." She stated, "He killed Logan and besides, he hasn't told anybody your secret." Damon's jaw set but his more overt annoyed habits stopped as he mulled what she had said over. Finally, he nodded.

"He hasn't told, you're right. But what does he want with the journal?" Glad he seemed to be calmer now, Elena shrugged.

"I don't know, but we'll get it back off of him." Elena was convinced that nobody else could possibly know about the tomb beneath the old church yet. She only hoped that he hadn't reached that part of Johnathon Gilbert's journal thus far. Was that why Alaric wanted the journal, or was he just interested in the supernatural history of Mystic Falls like he told Jeremy? They stopped outside the Grill. They knew that Alaric frequented the place now. Damon got out and checked, then came back to confirm Alaric was indeed in there.

"He'll never hand me the journal. You'll have to do it." He told her bluntly. Elena nodded. "Just remember, it's a family heirloom and so forth."

"Damon, it'll be fine," Elena responded firmly, then left him in the car to head into the Grill. She grinned at Matt as she entered as he cleared a table nearby, but she had already spotted Alaric sat on a stool up by the bar. Steeling herself, she walked forward.

"Hi, Mr Saltzman," Elena said brightly. Alaric seemed to take a moment to register she'd even spoken. He looked up from his drink.

"Oh hey, Elena, how's it going? You know I'm sure I told you all on my first day to just call me Rick," He added, and Elena realised that Alaric wasn't completely sober, despite it being early Sunday afternoon.

"Sorry, Rick," She grinned, "I was just passing through and Jeremy told me you still had Johnathon Gilbert's journal. I was wondering whether you were done with it, only Jeremy's talking about it kinda piqued my interest." Elena sincerely hoped she sounded casual enough, but she had been aware all along of a massive flaw in their plan: she had been seen far too many times in the company of the Salvatore brothers. Alaric knew what they were and he was unlikely to want to hand over anything that she might want to use to help vampires- especially if he found out about the ones in the tomb that they might accidentally set free.

"I didn't think you enjoyed history that much," Alaric noted.

"Oh, well… not really, but it's family history. It was important to my Dad and I thought…" She trailed off, looking down at her feet, trying to look sad. It wasn't exactly a lie; her father had always tried to capture her and Jer's interest in the Gilbert family's history, but Elena wasn't exactly in the mood for pleasing her late father at that moment given that he had lied to her. She glanced up through her eyelashes and was surprised to see Alaric looking guilty.

"Elena, I'm sorry," He sighed, "The journal went missing."

"What?" Her heart was in her throat.

"It was on my desk this morning and then it wasn't." Elena frowned. If Alaric was telling her this, he must have determined that she didn't know who'd stolen it.

"Oh…" Elena swallowed. Damon was not going to be pleased at this news. She wasn't sure if he could hear from outside but she didn't want to take the chance.

"I did manage to make a copy before it disappeared," Alaric told her this in a very low voice, apparently thinking along the same lines she was. Without thinking, Elena grabbed his arm in relief, though it was also tainted by panic now because she had no idea who had the original journal, "I'll give it you in class."

"This is a bad idea." Damon had driven Elena all around the town until night had fallen. Tomorrow was too late in his book, especially now the original journal had gone walkabouts. They would have to break into Alaric's place and take the copy now. Elena, obviously, didn't like this plan. "What if we get caught?" She asked.

"We won't," Damon rolled his eyes. They had parked under cover of some trees not far from Alaric's place. Luckily it was such a small town that it was not hard to find out where somebody lived. Elena had shut off the engine and was sitting with her arms folded, looking anxious. Damon leaned over to her and turned her face gently so that she was looking at him, "We won't," He repeated. She sighed, but nodded. Alaric had not returned from the Grill yet. He would likely be very drunk when he did.

"Jenna was telling me his wife died. They never found out what'd happened to her, because they never found her body," Elena said, "It's sad that he's just… alone." Alaric's wife had been called Isobel. By pure coincidence- or at least, Damon told himself it had to be coincidence- Elena's birth mother went by the same name. But it was a common name, that didn't mean anything. Isobel was just some crazy parapsychologist who asked him to turn her. That was all he knew or cared about. Still, Damon knew what it was like to have the one person you loved go from your life- he had lost Katherine.

"How do you do this?" He moaned to Elena, rubbing his eyes.

"What?" She asked, non-plussed.

"You manage to make me feel guilty for every bad thing I've ever done just by… being you. Ugh."

"Well you're about to add breaking and entering to your list of bad things," Elena reminded him. Damon laughed, stepping out of the car then zipping over to open her side.

"That's cute," He told her, "You think this is my first time."

Things in Alaric's place went as smoothly as they could have hoped. Elena touched nothing and Damon found the photocopy of the Gilbert journal sitting nearly on top of Alaric's otherwise cluttered desk. This seemed reckless to him given that he'd somehow lost the original mere hours before. Still, it helped make his job easier and so he took the copy and they snuck back out. Fleeing back to Elena's car, Damon immediately began shuffling eagerly through the pages. It was a while before he found a direct reference to the tomb, but as he began to read he got a very bad, very uncomfortable knot in his stomach. He turned to Elena.

"Who else knows about this journal?" His voice sounded cold and dangerous even to his own ears, "Did Jeremy show anyone other than Alaric Saltzman?"

"I don't know, I…" Elena began.

"Find out!" She shrinked away from him, looking frightened, and Damon caught sight of his reflection in the rear-view mirror. The veins around his eyes had come to the surface and were standing out aggressively against his pale skin; he looked like the monster he was. Elena was fumbling with her phone and he grabbed it off her. He flipped through the numbers and pressed call on Jeremy's name. The younger Gilbert picked up after a few rings.

"Hey Elena," He greeted who he thought was his sister quite cheerfully, "How's your day with Damon?"

"Hello, Jeremy," Damon said.

"Oh," Jeremy paused, "Hey man, what's up?" Elena was looking at Damon apprehensively.

"I need you to think about this question very, very carefully," Damon told him slowly and clearly, "Did you tell anyone other than Mr Saltzman about Johnathon Gilbert's journal?" Why hadn't he asked this question earlier, Damon wondered?

"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?" Jeremy asked, sounding a little exasperated. This only shortened Damon's limited temper even more.

"Who else did you show it to?" He compelled down the phone line.

"Only Anna," Jeremy replied, his voice automatic and monotonous.

"Who?"

"She's just this weird girl… I mean, I met her at the library and she helped me out with my essay. She's home schooled so I don't know her that well but she likes to hang out sometimes. She wanted to meet me at the Grill tonight." Damon had a quick decision to make; this Anna person was a previous unknown. She'd be more likely to spill the beans to Jeremy, but if this was the situation he thought it was, Elena would not appreciate him putting her brother into harm's way.

"Stay home tonight. Do not go to the Grill. Do not let anybody in your house and don't answer any calls from Anna. Do you understand?" Damon was compelling him again, and he was satisfied when Jeremy repeated his instructions blankly back to him before they hung up. Elena was staring at Damon, appearing desperate to know what was going on. He looked at her.

"I know where the grimoire is, but I think somebody else does too," He told her.

"Who?" Elena asked nervously.

"I have no idea, but I would put all my money on it being the wrong person."

Elena and Damon looked at each other, both silently debating what their next move should be. Elena was in favour of going straight to wherever the grimoire was to dig it up before anybody else could find out the secrets surrounding the tomb vampires, but something told her that Damon would see Anna as an obstacle. He didn't want anybody else knowing about the tomb vampires. However, Elena had also learned a little something in her time of hanging around with Damon and Stefan and it was that sometimes, doing is better than thinking. And so, bravely, she made up their minds.

"Let's go and get the grimoire." She started up the engine and Damon didn't stop her as she began driving again. "Where is it?" She asked him a moment later.

"In my father's grave," Of course it was. There was no way that a witch's spellbook giving details on how to trap and free vampires could be kept anywhere less creepy than in somebody's grave. But the cemetery was quite a long drive away, right across town, and Elena decided that the drive would be a good time to think.

"Tell me about your father," She said. Damon's hands balled into fists on his knees.

"What is there to say? He didn't have a lot of time for me. It was always all about Stefan." He sounded surprisingly bitter about something which happened so long ago.

"How did he die?" She asked him instead.

"Stefan killed him," Damon replied casually, and Elena gasped: "Oh yes, the White Knight Stefan's record isn't as clean as you might think. I can't blame him so much though. Stefan was in transition and father was bleeding. He lost control and drank his blood."

"And he became a vampire," Elena couldn't imagine ever wanting to feed off her own family, even if she knew she was going to die otherwise. Sometimes she was really grateful to be human because having to struggle with urges to kill people she loved all the time would pain her. She had no idea how anybody could live with it.

"In all fairness, our father killed him. Well, me too. He shot us both dead when he found out we'd been trying to help Katherine and the other vampires escape." Elena's mouth actually dropped open at this news, "Katherine had been giving us her blood for a while though. She knew the town was getting closer to finding them all."

"So you wanted to become a vampire?"

"I thought it would mean that Katherine and I would be together forever," Damon laughed bitterly, "Stefan was compelled to drink though." Elena mulled this over in silence. She wondered what she would do if the Founders Council were to come closer to uncovering Stefan and Damon as vampires and that she'd been helping keep their secret. Would she willingly drink their blood to survive and risked being turned?

They pulled up at the cemetery a short time afterwards. Elena checked her phone before getting out of the car. Nobody had called, but it was getting late and so she texted Jenna: 'I'm staying over at Bonnie's tonight, don't wait up x' She only hoped that Jeremy wouldn't rat on her, though she doubted that he would.

The old cemetery gates were locked at this time of night. Damon told her to close her eyes and hold on, which she did, as he took her by the waist. Elena felt a strange soaring sensation a moment later and opened her eyes to find that she and Damon appeared to be flying through the air. A second later, they landed the other side of the gate, Damon holding her weight off the ground for a second so that she didn't feel so much as a jolt. His hands stayed on her waist for a second and he looked into her eyes.

"You can still back out," He told her. At this stage, Elena was doing more than just helping Damon. She was curious- about the grimoire and even about Katherine. She wanted to know about this woman she looked so much alike, and she wanted to know more about Damon and Stefan's history with her. Even though it went against her morals to risk freeing so many hungry vampires in the process, Elena could feel the guilt slipping away the deeper she became involved. Part of her wondered what was happening to her.

"No, Damon," Elena insisted in answer, "I'm coming with you." She watched as the frown lines on his forehead smoothed when she said this. He took her hand, much to her surprise, as he began to lead her into the cemetery proper.

"I don't deserve a friend like you, Elena." Her heart stuttered on the word 'friend'.