Keeping Secrets
Ch. 10

Katie and Damon were about to walk out the door of the boarding house to go to the fifties dance when Damon's phone started ringing. He answered it and after a few minutes hung up. "We have to make a pit stop on the way to the dance." He told Katie as he opened the door for her then walked out behind her. "A vampire got into Elena house and tried to attack her."

A few minutes later they pulled up to Elena's house and let themselves inside. They all migrated to the living room and Katie plopped down in the armchair near the couch.

"We're pretty sure it's the same guy she hit with her car. He's been stalking her every since." Stefan said as he and Elena sat down on the couch.

"How did he get in?" Damon asked as he walked over and nudged Katie silently asking her to get up.

"He was invited in." Elena answered looking like she was in a slight state of shock.

"He posed as a pizza delivery guy last night." Stefan added as Damon sat down in the chair and pulled Katie down to sit in his lap.

"Well, he gets points for that. Did he say what he wanted?" he asked as he ran his hand up and down Katie's thigh.

"No. He was too busy trying to kill me." Elena popped off.

"And you have no idea who this is?" Stefan asked with a pointed look at Damon.

"No." Damon answered with a scoff and Stefan just kept looking at him. "Don't look at me like that. I told you we had company."

"You think there's more than one?" Katie asked looking over her shoulder at Damon.

"We don't know." Damon shrugged.

"Damon, he was invited in." Stefan pointed out again.

"Then we go get him tonight." Damon said as if it were the obvious plan then looked at Elena. "You up for it?"

"What do I have to do?" she asked skeptically.

"Let your boyfriend take you to the dance." Damon answered and noticed Katie picking at her cuticles so he grabbed her hands in his stopping her. "We'll see who shows up."

"That's a bad idea." Stefan argued.

"Is it though?" Katie asked. "I mean, supposedly you guys live for the hunt and if he's been stalking her like you say he has then he'll know that she's going to the dance and he'll be there when she does." Katie pointed out. "All you two have to do is be ready for him."

Elena and Stefan seemed to think about it. "Until we get him this house isn't safe. Or anyone who lives in it." Damon added. Stefan and Elena were silent. "It's worth a shot."

"I'll do it." Elena said then grabbed Stefan's hand. "I'll be with you two. I'll be safe." Both of the guys were looking at Elena making Katie feel as if she wasn't even in the room.

In that moment all Katie could think about was the fact that no matter what everything always seemed to be about Elena. Rather it was human guys or vampire guys everyone seemed to want to hurt her or be with her. Either way it's all about her and it always made things awkward for Katie. "Okay, so, let's go catch a bad guy, or whatever." Katie said in an attempt to break the silence making Damon cut his eyes up at her with a smirk.

Damon opened her car door for her then shut it behind her and got inside himself. "Are you up for this? It could put you in danger too." He asked.

"Yep." She sighed. "Anyone, including vampires, mess with my friends and they mess with me." She said as she buckled her seatbelt.

"Slow down there cowgirl. Let Stefan and me do all the hard work. You just keep those observant eyes of yours peeled for the guy." He told her with a laugh in his voice.

"Can I ask you something?" Katie asked and Damon nodded and hummed. "How does the whole invitation rule work with the boarding house? Since you and Stefan are the only ones living there and you're technically dead can any vampire just walk right in?" she asked making Damon knit his brows together.

"I didn't think about that before I asked you to live with us." He commented more to himself than her. "A living person's name has to be on the deed to the house for the rule to apply. After that any human inside the house can invite a vampire in."

"So I'm not safe at that house?" Katie asked with a frown.

"Just because vampires can get in doesn't mean you're not safe." he said as he reached over and grabbed her hand. "I got you." she smiled at him and gave his hand a squeeze.


They walked into the dance, Elena on Stefan's arm and Katie on Damon's. "Come on." Elena jerked her head to Bonnie and Caroline headed their way from where they had been on the dance floor and the four girls met up at one of the tables. "Having fun?" Elena asked them.

"No, but this," Caroline motioned to her yellow outfit and super curly pinned up hair, "took about two hours. So I'm at least staying for half that."

"What's Damon doing here?" Bonnie asked seeing Damon and Stefan standing behind Katie and Elena, looking around.

"Um," Katie started awkwardly, "he's my date."

"Really?" Bonnie asked with a grossed out face.

Katie gave her a tight lipped smile and shrugged. "I know you guys don't like him, he doesn't exactly make the best first impression, but I do." She explained.

"Katie please tell me you didn't." Bonnie said, being able to read the look on Katie's face like an open book with large print. Katie blushed and scratched the back of her neck. "Seriously, him?"

"What am I missing?" Elena asked not being able to read Katie as well as Bonnie could.

"Katie and Damon had sex." Bonnie blurted out.

"What?" Elena asked with wide eyes.

"Oh my God. You gave him you're v-card? How was he?" Caroline asked in a rush with a big smile. "I told you he was good." She said with a wiggle of her brows and a knowing smile.

Katie looked over her shoulder at Damon to see him smirking to himself, obviously listening to them. "Can we please not talk about this here?" She asked turning her eyes back to her friends. "Besides it's not like I have much to compare him to."

"But really, him? Katie you could do so much better." Bonnie said making Katie sigh and lean forward to rest her head on the table.

"We're just afraid that you're going to get hurt." Elena tried to explain things.

"I'm not going to get hurt so just stop worrying, please." Katie left her friends and headed over to Damon and Stefan.

"You okay?" Stefan asked at her frown and she just nodded stiffly.

"Her friends don't like me. Go figure." Damon explained with an eye roll. He stepped closer to Katie and placed his hands on each side of her face as she looked up at him and he pecked her on the lips. "They'll get over it."

"I hope so, because I miss when my friends were fun and less judgmental." Katie sighed and grabbed his hands off of her face. "Take my mind off of it?" She asked with a jerk of her head to the dance floor where people were dancing to a slow song.

"Gladly." He told her as he wrapped his arm around her waist and walked to the dance floor. "I thought you didn't like dancing."

"I never said I didn't like it. I just didn't know how to." She argued as he started leading her around the dance floor.

"Well, now you know, thanks to me." He told her with a cocky smile.

She smiled back with a shake of her head. "I'm figuring out that I'd probably try anything if you asked me to." She admitted then frowned as she realized something.

"What?" He drawled suspiciously.

"Am I a doormat?" She asked not looking him in the eyes.

"No." He answered without a second thought.

She wanted to argue with him, but the slow song ended. So instead she excused herself from Damon with the intention of letting him keep an eye out for anyone suspicious while she tried to have a non Damon related conversation with her friends, but Bonnie and Caroline were nowhere to be seen and Elena was on the dance floor with Stefan. So Katie went to the restroom and touched up her lip gloss.

When she walked back into the gym she spotted Damon and Mr. Saltzman standing beside each other talking. Katie waited at a table not wanting to interrupt them. "So what were you and Mr. Saltzman talking about?" She asked curiously.

"He was chatting me up, being nosey. I don't like him." He told her and she gave him a curious tilt of her head.

"Really? I do." She said looking behind him to where Alaric stood talking to Jenna.

"You do?" He asked and she nodded. "How much? Do I need to kill him?"

Katie smirked at him. "Aww are jealous?"

"Well you are in to older guys." He commented.

"No. I'm in to you." She countered then let her smile fall. "Seriously though, I like him. He's a good teacher. One of the few who genuinely cares about his students." She explained. "He actually stood up to mayor douche bag."

"So is that what it takes to earn brownie points with you? Stand up to the assholes in your life." He asked.

"Well, it worked for you. You got the grand douche off my back and offered to kill the mayor so..." she answered with a smile and a shrug. When "My Boyfriends Back" came on Damon held his hand out to her and she took it.

They where dirty dancing, Katie laughing at Damon being silly and handsy with his dance moves, when she saw Elena run through one of the exit doors. "Damon." Her smile fell.

Her serious tone made Damon stop in his tracks. "What."

"Elena just ran through that door. Something's up." she said as she pointed to the door.

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and they headed to the door. They found Elena in the cafeteria the vampire was trying to bite her neck but Stefan came out of nowhere and threw him off of her before he could bite her. "Stay behind me." Damon told Katie as he picked up the broken mop handle off the floor then got the guys attention. "Hey, Dickhead!" The guy looked at him and Damon held his hands up. "Nobody wants to kill ya. We just want to talk."

The vampire made a run for Stefan and Elena who were across the cafeteria from them so Damon threw Stefan the broken handle and Stefan staked him, making him fall to the floor on his knees. "Now do you feel like talkin'?" Stefan asked while Elena looked at Stefan in horror.

Damon and Katie walked over as the guy said, "Screw you."

Katie stood between Damon and Elena, creating a semi-circle around the guy as Stefan pulled the stake out and stabbed him again. "Wrong answer. Why are you doing this?"

Katie looked between Damon and the still unnamed vampire. Damon, staring at the vamp with his arms crossed over his chest sensed Katie's eyes on him and placed his hand on the small of her back comfortingly. "Because its fun." The guy answered and Stefan twisted the stake in the guy's stomach. Elena closed her eyes and turned her head. When she opened them they landed on Katie, standing next to Damon, who smirked down at the guy, while Katie glared at him.

"What do you want with Elena?" Stefan asked.

"She looks like Katherine." The vampire panted out the words in pain.

The four of them shared a look before Damon asked, "You knew Katherine?"

"Aww, you thought you were the only ones." The guy replied sarcastically. "You don't even remember me."

"Tell me how to get into the tomb." Damon said as he dropped his arms and placed his hands on his knees as he bent down and looked the guy in the face.

"No." He guy huffed out. Stefan grabbed the stake and gave it a twist. The vampire grunted in pain. "The grimoire." He stated.

"Where is it?" Damon asked and when the guy didn't give an answer Stefan twisted the stake again. Elena looked away from her boyfriend torturing another vampire and at Katie, seeing that her friend wasn't looking away and instead glared down at him as if torture was no big deal.

"Check he journal." The guy practically screamed.

"Who's journal?" Katie asked stepping up beside Damon earning a look from Elena who was surprised to see Katie joining in with the questioning.

"Jonathan, Jonathan Gilbert." The guy answered quickly so Stefan wouldn't hurt him again.

Katie looked at Elena to see her looking at Stefan with creased brows. "Who else is working with you?" Stefan asked. The guy didn't answer. "Who else is there?" Stefan asked this time raising his voice.

"No. You're gonna have to kill me." The guy answered and Stefan looked at Damon who just nodded his head. So Stefan pulled the stake out, making the vampire groan out in agony then stabbed him in the heart.

Katie just watched as his veins popped up from his skin that turned a grayish blue. "But…" Elena argued making them all look at her, "What do we… How are you gonna find the others now?" she asked, stumbling over her words.

"He had to die." Damon told her.

"But…" she started.

Katie interrupted her. "Elena, he'd been invited into your house. It was him or you. Easy choice." She told her friend with a hard face. Elena just looked between the three of them with wide, worried eyes.

When they heard something outside the cafeteria doors they looked up to see that someone had walked by. "Go." Stefan told Damon. "I've got them." Damon gave Katie a look that told her to listen to Stefan then ran from the cafeteria. The three of them stood in silence until Damon came back. "You two wait here." Stefan told the girls then clapped his hand down on to his brother's shoulder as they walked out into the hallway to talk.

"Are you okay?" Katie asked Elena as she started picking up the mess that Elena had made while fighting off the vampire.

"Yeah…Yeah." Elena answered not looking like she was sure as she started picking up the papers that were scattered across the floor. "Are you okay? You look…unfazed." Elena said as she started straightening the papers on the table.

"I'm fine." Katie shrugged then pulled a grossed out face as she picked up a bloody pencil and tossed it onto the vampire's dead body.

"I'm really worried about you." Elena told her making Katie groan in aggravation. "I'm serious, Katie." Elena stood back and watched as Katie picked up the white folding table that had been knocked over. "The whole time they were torturing that guy you didn't even bat an eye. It's like you've become desensitized to death, to torture, to all of it."

Katie straightened the table. "So what if I have, Elena. Death is a part of life and rather you and I like it or not we are living in a whole new world. One where vampires and witches are real and sometimes torture is the only way to get things done."

"Do you even hear yourself right now?" Elena asked with a judgmental frown. "Being with him is changing you and I'm not sure I like who you're becoming."

"I hear myself perfectly fine and I am changing because I have to. So do you, but you and your boyfriend are exactly alike. Damon embraces what he is and I understand it. He sees being a vampire for what is it and what it means he has to be and do. He doesn't shut it all out and bottle it all up the way Stefan does and the way you're doing." Katie argued as she picked up the rest of the pencils and put them down onto the table. "So I'm sorry if I weirdly feel like I fit into his world, but I'm still me." She walked off away from Elena.


Damon sat in his bath tub, Katie leaning against him. He had a glass of wine in one hand and the other played with the bubbles that had accumulated on Katie's shoulder. "You okay?" he asked then took a drink of the wine and reached around her offering her the glass. "You haven't said a word since we left the school."

"Yeah." she answered as she took the glass then really thought about it. She wasn't okay and she didn't know what to do about it. "I take that back. I'm not okay." She said then took a drink of the wine and made a face at the bitter taste as she handed it back to him.

"Talk to me." He encouraged quietly as he set the glass on the floor then wrapped his arms around her waist.

"According to Elena I've changed since I've been with you." Katie said as she slid down in the water, resting her head on his chest, the water line touching her earlobes. "And she's right, I have, but she seems to think that I've changed for the worse instead of the better."

"What do you think?" he asked looking down at her as he placed some bubbles on the tip of her nose making her smile despite the serious conversation.

"I think…" she blew on her nose making the bubbles go flying, "that I don't know what I think. I've been so wrapped up in helping you find Katherine and enjoying being with you before you find her that I haven't stopped to actually evaluate myself and who I'm becoming." His hands slid to her shoulders and started massaging making her sigh and close her eyes. In that moment she found herself wanting to say I love you and that realization caused her eyes to shoot open.

Her heart started racing and Damon heard it loud and clear. He tried to look at her face, but she sat up. "Katie…" he drawled, his tone telling her to look at him, but she didn't. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She told him with a head shake as she closed her eyes and tried to push away the tears that were forming in them as she tried to slow her heart rate that she realized had tipped him off to her change of mood.

"You're lying to me." He pointed out as he moved her around in the slick water so that she was facing him, but she started down at the bubbles instead of at him. "We don't lie to each other. That's what I love about us. It's why I trust you more than I've trusted anyone in a very long time."

His confession and the use of the L word caused the deep breath she took to be shaky and he grabbed her face in his wet, bubble covered hands and made her look at him. "I…am…a naïve, immature, stupid, idiot." She told him with a shake of her head, refusing to let tears fall as she got angry with herself.

"Are those your words or Elena's?" he asked thinking she was still on the subject of how she had changed since she'd been with him.

"Mine." She answered and he gave her a confused, questioning shake of his head. "I just realized that I've fallen in love with you, Damon." She was surprised when over the course of three seconds his eyes grew wide, he almost looked hurt, then everything about him softened as he grabbed her face and pulled her in for a kiss so full of everything he knew he wouldn't be able to put into words.

It wasn't that he couldn't tell a woman he loved her. He'd lied all the time to women just to tell them what they wanted to hear for most of his life. But he hadn't told a woman that he'd loved her and meant it since Katherine. And he still loved Katherine, so he couldn't let himself say he loved Katie. He stopped kissing her and pressed his forehead to hers as they both opened their eyes. He opened his mouth to say something.

But Katie cut him off, "Don't say it back." she said as she blinked and a tear betrayed her as it slipped from the corner of her eye. "I can handle loving you and not knowing if you love me back when she takes you away from me." she told him as a few more tears slipped from her eyes to land in the water.

"And if I do say it back?" he asked, slipping his hand over her cheek and she closed her eyes at the feel of him

"If you say it back, I won't be able to handle it when you chose her over me. I've already stupidly set myself up for heartbreak. Don't turn a break into an explosion." She pleaded then opened her eyes to stare into his beautiful blue eyes.

"How do you know I'll choose her over you?" he asked as he leaned back and she turned around and leaned against him as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I just do." She shrugged as she slid her hands over his arms.

"That's not an answer." He sing songed as he wrapped his legs around her making her smile the smallest of smiles.

Katie held up her right hand, palm facing up as if she were holding an invisible platter. "Gorgeous vampire who loved you when you were still human and still has you wrapped around her desiccated little finger over a hundred years later." She then held up her left hand that was full of bubbles. "Stupid, human, teenager me." She moved her hands as if they were a scale then raised one hand higher than the other. "Ding, ding, ding and the winner is: gorgeous vampire love of you life."

"You don't give yourself enough credit." He argued.

She turned in his arms and he dropped his legs from around her. "Shut up and turn my mind off for me." She told him as she wrapped her legs around him.

"Mmm, gladly." He told in a deeper, sensual voice that instantly had her ready.


"You know one of these days you're going to have to actually move in here right?" Damon said as he laid in bed watching Katie pull on one of his button up shirts and a pair of his boxers, her hair wrapped in one of his white towels. "Not that I don't love the sight of you in my clothes, because I really do."

"I'll go start packing tomorrow after school." She told him with a sigh as she took her hair out of the towel and started drying it with it. "I promise. I'm just not looking forward to it."

"Do you want help?" he asked as she stopped drying her hair and disappeared into the bathroom.

"Sure, why not?" she called then came out of the bathroom, buttoning up his shirt as she did.

"No." he pouted, "Don't button it."

"Well I can't walk to my room with it wide open now can I?" she asked not getting in bed with him. "It's bad enough I could run into Stefan dressed like this on the way to my room."

"You're abandoning me?" he asked as he got out of bed and walked over to her where she stood at the foot of his bed.

"I could really use some time to myself." She sighed as she placed her hands on his still nude chest. "Besides, what's the point of having my own room if I never sleep in it?" she asked with a small smile.

"Please stay with me?" he pleaded, poking his bottom lip out like a pouting little kid.

She bit it then kissed him. "I'm sorry…" she pouted back at him. "But no."

He let out an aggravated growl. "Fine." He pecked her on the lips. "Take all the time you need." She smiled as he kissed her long and deep then gently pushed her away. "Good night Katie Cat."

"Good night." She walked out of his room and quietly to hers. She sat down at the desk in the room and slid her journal across it. With a weary sigh she flipped to the next empty page and started writing. "I realized tonight, while soaking with Damon in his freaking awesome tub, that I have made the biggest mistake I could've ever possibly made. I've fallen in love with him, hard. I don't know if he loves me back and I don't want to. If he told me he loves me too then I fear that I may never be able to love again. I knew when we started all of this that he wasn't available. He's Katherine's and he's so enthralled with her and invested in her that I know I will never truly have his heart. Even if I have it now as soon as she gets out of that tomb I'm done for. Hell, she might even rip my throat out when she finds out I've been with him."

Katie paused and swallowed hard. "I think Elena and Bonnie think that he has me blinded. Like I don't know that he's not a good person. He's selfish, self serving and cocky as hell not to mention a murderer. But when he's with me and it's just the two of us he's the sweetest, most caring person I've ever met. It feels like he really cares about me, and maybe I'm fooling myself into thinking he does, but it's so easy to lose myself in him. He's like a drug that I'm addicted to. Even though being with him is going to hurt me I can't help but think it's worth how happy I feel when I'm with him. Yes Elena and Bonnie can pull that feeling down when we talk about him, but then I come home to him and it all fades away."

"Because of him I don't even have to see my grandfather every day. He offered me a room in his home and is even going to help me move here tomorrow. My room here alone could fit half of my house in it. As much I hate that my friends don't like him and Elena and I are drifting apart, I really am happier than I have been in a long time and it's all because of Damon. So how could I not fall for him? It's going to really suck when he gets Katherine out of that tomb. I'm sure after he gets her back they will run off together. Then after that it will be up to Stefan if I get to keep living here or not, but he and Damon mutually decided that I could stay here. So I don't see that changing unless Elena doesn't like me living alone with her boyfriend. But that is a bridge for another day. This entry is getting long and pointless so I'm going to sign off now. Good night journal."

She closed the book and pushed it aside then ran her fingers through her hair. She wasn't sleepy and all her homework had been done. So out of boredom she tore a piece of paper out of her journal and started writing a poem. She didn't do it often, but she was actually good at it. It helped her get her feelings out in a creative manner and get out of her head for a little while.

After writing what felt like half of a song and feeling satisfied with what she'd just written she folded it up and stuck it in the back of the spiral along with some of her other poems. After making sure her phone was plugged into the charger at the desk and her alarm was set to get her up for school in the morning she slid into her bed for the first time since moving there and tried to go to sleep. However sleep didn't come and after thirty minutes of tossing and turning she flung herself from her bed, grabbed her phone then made her way back to Damon's room.

She used the light of her phone and the moon, coming through the opened windows of his room to find her way to his bed and slide between the sheets. "You just couldn't stay away could you?" he asked and she could hear the cocky smirk in his voice.

"You've spoiled me." She admitted as she snuggled into his side and he wrapped his arm around her. "I can't sleep without you now."

"Mmm, good." He hummed as he kissed her on the cheek. "I hate sleeping alone."


After school the next day Katie called her boss and told her she wouldn't be able to make in to work and told her why. Luckily her boss liked her and understood. So Katie drove to her grandfather's house and saw a truck with a trailer attached to it was parked in front of the house. Damon stood on the front porch waiting for her and her grandfather wasn't home. "What's with the truck?" Katie asked as she walked up the porch steps.

"You didn't think we were going to make a thousand different trips in your car did you?" he asked as he watched her walk up to the door and unlock it.

"I honestly hadn't thought about it." she answered as she pushed the door open and went directly for the stairs.

"Okay, then let's get to work." He said as he clapped his hands then rubbed them together as they headed to her room. She started packing the books that lined her headboard while Damon started on her closet. After a few hours they had half of her room packed and Damon had started taking the clothes out of her dresser when he found two thongs. "Mmm. When am I going to get to see you wear one of these?" He asked holding up a hot pink thong with the words "Spank me, I've been a bad girl." written on it. It still had the tag on it.

"God, I forgot about those." She said with a smile as she grabbed a light blue lacy pair and held them up. "They were a gag gift from Caroline freshman year. She knew she'd get a reaction out of me because I was supposedly such a prude." She rolled her eyes. "So you like thongs?" She asked as she took the pink one out of his hand and tossed both of them into the box with the rest of her underwear.

"Eh, it all looks the same to me. I just wanted an excuse to spank you." He told her with a cheeky smile.

"Who said you need an excuse?" She asked with a challenging smile.

"Katie Finnegan, you keep on surprising me." He told her with lust in his eyes as he leaned down and kissed her. They got back to work packing her stuff and after they had cleaned out everything Damon asked, "The dresser, taking or leaving?"

"Leaving. The only thing left in here that I want is the roll top desk." She said with a point at the desk.

"Really, why?" He asked with a look at the old, ugly desk.

"It was my father's and the only thing of my parents that my grandpa didn't sell." She answered as she walked over and started pulling the drawers out of it so that they didn't slide open while Damon carried it down the stairs.

"Hey, what's that?" Damon asked with a point to one of the drawers.

"What's what?" Katie asked attempting to find what he was talking about.

"This." Damon walked over and took a drawer out of her hand and turned it over revealing a large white envelope taped to the bottom. He took it off and handed it to her.

She took it and peeked inside before she pulled out a stack of papers. "Last will and testament of Bradley and Dorothea Finnegan."

"Is that your parents?" Damon asked as they both sat down on the bed.

Katie nodded. "Being of sound mind and not under duress we hereby state that our daughter, Katie Scarlett Finnegan, be entrusted our estate when she becomes 18 years of age." She read then dropped the papers to rest in her lap.

"Your middle name is Scarlett?" he asked.

"Yeah, like Gone With the Wind Scarlett." She answered numbly then turned to him. "How can I tell if this is legit?" she asked finally turning her shocked eyes to him.

"Let me see." He took the papers from her and turned them over to see a notary stamp on the back of it. "It's legit." He handed them back to her and she put them back in the envelope. "When do you turn eighteen?"

"February seventeenth." She answered as she stood up and tucked the papers into her school bag. "After that I can kick my grandpa out of my house." She said with a smile. "I won't have to live with you and your brother anymore."

"What, you don't like my house?" he asked as he grabbed her hips and pulled her into him.

"I love staying with you, but I can't stay there forever." She sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "As much as I would like to."

"Well, like I said before, you're welcome to stay as long as you want." He told her then kissed her nose. "Come on let's get this over with." He said with a jerk of his head.


With her belongings around in her new room she was able to actually sleep in there alone, but she was woken up in the middle of the night to Damon sliding into her bed and snuggling into her back. "You're not the only one who's spoiled." He sighed before she fell back to sleep.