Mystic Falls, VA~ Late January 2010

Abigail refused to focus on what happened in the car with Damon or the pain welling up inside her heart. She had a goal and she needed to take care of it. She had made a promise to her papa after all.

She walked through the field that she'd been dropped off beside, feeling the closeness of where she'd grown to the age of thirteen. Allowing her intuition to guide her, she found herself entering the thicket of trees. She followed it onward to another clearing. Here, she realized was where the house had once stood.

Her papa had said she would find what she was searching for in the place they'd last said goodbye. The library, obviously. She moved forward, feeling a pull drawing her on. Allowing herself to be led, she moved easily through the overgrown grass. Stopping when the pull ended, she looked down, trying to find the place it could be hidden. Kicking the grass aside with the toe of her shoe, she felt something harder than packed dirt.

Abigail stooped down, using her hands to move along where her foot had felt the difference. There. Was that a piece of wood? Using her fingers to pry upward, she freed a small wooden chest that was embedded in the grass and dirt. Smiling she headed back to her new home.

She had managed one goal. Now she could go home and try to find out what she was. Then, if she found time, she could have a cry over Damon. The best way to deal with her emotional blockage, was to simply set a plan and keep to it. She hoped.

Damon was brooding. Stefan noticed. Elena noticed. Ric noticed. No one knew what brought it on. He'd left the house at noon, been gone for hours, and returned in what everyone saw as misery.

"Damon," Stefan asked, standing in the open doorway of his brother's bedroom. "What happened to you today?"

Blue eyes shooting daggers at him, he grimaced. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with, brother. Shouldn't you and your girlfriend be contending with her parentage or your urge to rip apart coeds?"

Stefan's return glare made him feel vindication. "Sorry, too soon? Still trying to pretend you're not ready to go on a full on blood bender?"

"Why is this always your answer when you've been hurt?" Stefan asked turning away. "Lashing out at everyone else and being a dick?"

Damon waited until Stefan was gone from his view, then he reached into the drawer in his bedside table. Inside held something no one knew about. A silver frame holding a photograph he'd talked Abigail into having made before he joined the war. Her small smile, the fall of her hair, and even in the washed out color of the photo, he could see the green of her eyes. This was as close as he'd ever get to her again. The urge to throw the frame, to smash and destroy it came and went. His destructive tendencies may be overwhelming, he would never relinquish this treasure.

So wrapped up in his hidden treasure, he didn't notice Elena watching from the doorway. Gazing forlornly at the silver frame that he'd pulled from the drawer next to his bed. That she saw the pain, the human pain in his eyes, made her want to see who's photo the frame held.