It's a beautiful day, as Elena and I lay in bed. It's already past summer. That means Elena will be leaving for Whitmore college. The same college where her foster parents met. Ever since she graduated, Stefan's been uncommunicative, while Katherine has been who knows where. Elena shoved the cure down her throat, considering Katherine tried to kill her in revenge and anger. She thinks Elena said something to make Elijah leave back when Elena had her humanity turned off. I understand Katherine keeping a low profile. As a human, she'll die if an enemy finds out that she's human. I know I act like I could care less, but I do care. A part of me will always love her. That's something that I will never admit to anyone, though. The one thing that Elena will have to learn someday though, is that the plus of being a vampire is being able to love one person, while being in love with another person. That's why most vampires have more than one person that they're with.

Several hours later, after making out and having fun in bed, we're in the middle of making out, when Little Gilbert, her brother, comes in after having left a while ago. Elena quickly stops and gets off of me, looking at him.

"Hey, um, sor...I thought you left."

"I did. Uh, five hours ago."

I'm seated on the couch, as I make a motion with my hand for him to go.

"Okay, Well, there's, uh, there's pizza in the fr...," she begins, but Jeremy goes up the stairs. She then turns around, sighing and chuckling.

That night, Elena's taking a bath in my bathtub, as she looks at her phone. As she does so, I'm standing in front of my mirror after having taken a shower, nothing but a towel around myself. Then, when I turn around to look at her, I see that she has her phone against her lips with a look on her face.

"You okay?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I've just got this weird feeling like something bad's about to happen," she tells me.

"Well, it is," I say, as I sit on the edge of my bathtub across from her. "You're leaving tomorrow. You're trading all this for communal showers and a meal plan."

"Can't you just be a normal boyfriend and support me as I attempt to have a normal college experience?" she asks me.

I lean in, my face just inches from hers.

"I'd rather ply you with champagne and spend the night convincing you to stay," I answer her, before we kiss.

The next day, after she goes off to college, I get Jeremy off to school.

A few hours later, I'm at home talking to Elena over the phone, because she wants to tell me how her day has been so far. When she tells me that her and Caroline's roommate is someone that none of us know that's a human, I suggest for her to compel her to leave, which apparently is the same thing Caroline told her, but Elena wants to have a vampire free college experience. Because of that, she wants to deal with the problem a different way. I then inform her that Jeremy has gone to school and everything is okay so far.

"So, you're saying that me being here and you being there. This could actually work," she says, as I follow the sense that tells me that a very familiar presence is in my house. Then, when I follow that presence to my living room, I see a very disheveled, human Katherine standing in my living room.

"Exactly. Listen, I got to, uh, go," I inform her, before hanging up the phone and putting my phone away.

"It's been a long summer, Damon," Katherine greets me. She's obviously been through hell and back all summer.

"Katherine," I stated, assuming why she's here.

"You're gonna have to cut me off soon," she tells me, as she drinks a shot glass of Bourbon from my drinking table. "My tolerance is a joke now. It's so glorious."

"You're miserable," I conclude to her, seeing what a normal human can't see. Besides, we know each other way too well to be able to hide much from each other.

"Please. I'm Katherine Pierce. I'm a survivor," she replies, obviously not wanting to reveal her vulnerability to anyone, let alone me. I may not exactly be her enemy, but in words, I would kill her for all her deeds against me. Truth be told though, I don't know if I can kill a human Katherine. There will always be a place in my heart for her. At least, for the person I fell in love with. I can tell her all I want in words that I'll kill her, but can I do it for real if I have to? I really don't know. She made me into a monster yes, but I'm not the same monster as she was as a vampire. I couldn't kill every person I came across.

"You're a liar," I say, walking towards her. "Your hair's messed up. Your nails have chipped. You're a sad, miserable human being and you want me to turn you. So, here." I bite my wrist and hold it out to her, now standing in front of her. "Go ahead. Drink up. I'll kill you. You'll bite the mailman and you'll be a vampire again."

She takes my wrist, as she debates, looking at it and then me and then my bite again. She obviously wants to, but I don't know what's holding her back. I normally know what she's thinking, but this time I don't know. Not until she tells me.

"Go ahead. Come on," I encourage her, wanting to get her out of my hair.

"I can't, okay?" she says, letting go of my arm. "No one's ever taken the cure before. If I die, there's a good chance I may never wake up."

"And that would be tragic," I quip to her, acting, once again, as if I could care less. I still care, but I act this way towards her to keep my walls down around her. I don't want to get hurt by her emotionally again. She's hurt me emotionally too many times.

She gives me a look when I say that, before she continues, resting a hand on my shoulder, her other hand on my chest.

"And deep down, in that mushy-gushy Elena-loving heart of yours, there's a part of you that doesn't want me to die."

"What are you doing here, Katherine?" I question her, wanting her to just leave and never come back, but the other part of me knowing that she's right. I don't think a part of me could actually let Katherine die. Not when she's only a fragile human.

Before Katherine can answer my question or say anything at all, the home cordless phone I idiotically left on my drinking table rings, so she picks it up and answers it. Then, when she hangs up on the person, she informs me that Jeremy got expelled, so I tell her to leave by the time I come back with Jeremy.

"Wait, Damon," she tells me, and grabs my arm. "There's someone chasing me."

I turn and look at her.

"Then run. Run far away," I tell her, as I try to get past her without using any vampire abilities on her.

"Damon, you don't understand. I have enemies everywhere. What happens when word gets out that I'm a human? I can't protect myself. I'm weak. And I'm slow," she says, revealing her vulnerability to me at last, even though I saw it the moment I first saw her in my living room. "Do you have any idea what it's like to run in heels? I have blisters, Damon! Please, just…help me," she adds, pleading to me, as she rests a hand on my shoulder again.

I silently look at her, knowing that she's right. I know that the right thing to do, even though I might just regret this, is to protect her with my life. Preferably, without having to drag Elena into this mess.

"Fine," I say, not knowing if it's a promise or not. Then I leave to go find Jeremy.

When I find him after taking a trip down to the principal's office, he's at a table at the Mystic Grille having some dinner.

"One day. You had one day to not screw this up," I remind him, as I walk up to the table.

"Leave me alone, Damon."

I sit down across from him.

"You're lucky you didn't put one of those idiots in ICU."

"Says the guy that once killed me," he reminds me.

"Yes, in the privacy of your own home away from prying eyes unlike you, who went all hunter in the middle of a hallway. You got expelled, genius," I reply.

"Does that mean I don't have to go back to school?"

"I compelled Principal Weber into a very generous three-day suspension. Elena does not need to know about this. Finish eating. Meet me outside."

I get up and turn around to see what appears to be a visitor in town. I don't know why he's in town or who he is, but he gives off a little bit of Klaus vibes, which I don't like. Klaus was horrible when he first came to town. If this guy is anything like him, we have to watch our backs.

"Hello, Damon," he greets when I'm having a drink at the bar, obviously knowing my name, even though I don't know him.

"You have me at a disadvantage. You clearly know who I am, but I don't know who you are," I reply, concerned that someone I don't know knows me.

"Adrian Belikov. I know a lot about you, but don't worry. As long as you don't get in my way, you don't have to worry about me coming after you. I'm here for Katherine. Not you or the boy over there. Now, if I were you, I'd tell me if you know where Katherine is," he replies.

"She's been missing all summer. What can I say? I've been preoccupied with someone else," I reply.

"Fair enough," he replies, before leaving. It seems that he thinks that I don't know where she actually is. However, I know exactly where she is.

I finish my drink, which is when Jeremy comes up to me.

"What did he want?" he asks me, which is when I tell him everything, from Katherine showing up to the little information I got from this Adrian person, figuring that Jeremy might be useful if I need to protect Katherine. And if Adrian wants Katherine badly enough, then I want Katherine more than Adrian does. Especially, if Adrian is an old enemy of Katherine's.

When I get home with Jeremy, Katherine is running down the stairs, a robe on, apparently having been taking a bath when he'd tried to attack her, and Adrian is heading down the stairs with a scratch, which is obviously healing, considering he's a vampire. I grab my keys and toss them to Jeremy, before telling him to take Katherine and drive as far away as possible. I then face Adrian head on, but it appears that he's a little stronger, which means he must be at least a little bit older than I am. That means that we're up against someone Katherine turned before she turned the two of us.

When I find where they are since Jeremy wasn't answering, I see that Jeremy is going to be okay, since he's getting out of the crashed car. I then send Jeremy off to go somewhere safe, before looking at the black wolf, as it tears into Katherine's door to try and get to her. I know it's not a werewolf though, so if it bites me, I should be okay. Katherine, on the other hand, is only human. Being a vampire, I can tell that it's a vampire in animal form. Since it's after Katherine, I can assume it has to be Adrian.

I look around and see an iron rod on the ground, so I pick it up. I then blur behind the wolf, using the iron rod to hit it, just as it bites her. Then, before he can recover in his wolf form, I stab it into his heart, killing him.

"That's for Katherine," I tell him, before he dies. I then concentrate on the next problem at hand. An injured Katherine. Then, in an instant, I'm at her side of the car, which is open due to the vampire I just killed. I then rest a hand on the side of her face, looking at her injuries. There's blood on either side of her head, which from my past human years I know could mean a possible concussion. I can also see that the bite from the vampire in wolf form opened up an artery. Other than that, and the bite on her thigh from Adrian, she's not too badly injured. However, she has lost a lot of blood. I take my hand away and slide a hand under her. I then sit behind her and gently sit her against me, hoping that I can help her. I then bite my wrist, putting it to her lips, making my blood go down her throat to try and heal her. "Come on. Stay with me, Katherine."

After my blood heals her, I take her back to my place and lay her gently down in my bed. Tonight was very close, which makes me realize that Katherine was frighteningly right earlier tonight. Her being human is the worst thing that could happen. I don't want to admit it to anyone else, but I've just proven to myself tonight that I don't want Katherine to die. I also proved to Katherine that she can probably turn back into a vampire, since she can still digest blood. She'll realize it when she wakes up. For now, someone has to be on guard duty for her. I can't have more of her enemies coming to town or my house.