Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However, I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).

I have replaced all of the chapters up until chapter 10 with modified versions to align them more towards TVD mythology. I have changed the nettle juice to vervain and mystifying to compulsion. The story was not initially meant to be a fanfic, which is why the mythology is different. I will also keep the method of turning the same for this story. Extended mythology is remaining and how compulsion and vervain work will differ slightly because of my story rules. My feelings are that the story is too far away from TVD mythology to really qualify as a TVD fanfic. If you have been reading the story and suddenly notice the changes, I have amended the first 10 chapters. This message will be posted on the first 11 chapters only. I hope this makes the story more enjoyable.

The countdown to Damon's journey back in time had begun. Edmund was due to sail to England from Antwerp on the 4th September and was in a fight the night before. This was the point when Damon was to replace him. To ensure he had time to get everything in place, Damon was to arrive in 1530 on the morning of 3rd September, just to ensure he got his bearings and had acclimatised once more to the sights and sounds of the 16th century. He needed to know how to get to the harbour from the tavern as Edmund's diary suggested he and his manservant Peter, fled the scene and boarded the ship ready to sail early the following morning. Damon was going to need to find a discreet place to hide the real Edmund's body and get himself and his own cargo on the ship without being noticed, which was why he was going back slightly earlier than required.

To ensure smooth passage, Damon would head to Antwerp with Esther and leave modern day on 3rd September 2019. This method allowed Esther to use less magic as the spell would take up a lot of energy. The closer she was to where he needed to be, the less magic was required to do the spell, had they have sent Damon from Dorset, a location spell would have been required to be incorporated into the spell. Performing the spell in Antwerp allowed the spell to be a simple time travel spell without any added complications.

Even though Damon was due to leave in ten days and he had yet to have his surgery or even learn how to use the gadgets he would be taking with him. In the meantime he had been making other preparations in the less glamorous location of a classroom. Despite living through the period, he had left England in 1520 and journeyed around Europe for almost a hundred years before he returned to the England under the new Stuart King of James I. Damon never attended court of any King and moved on to the New World for a while, eventually globe trotting until WW2 when he had finally settled back down in England for his new job. It had been the longest he had stayed in any country and Queen Elizabeth II was the first monarch he had ever been acquainted with, thus Damon had little knowledge of court etiquette. He knew how to dress for everyday life, but dressing for court hadn't been the top of Damon's list. Not only that, but Damon wasn't used to sucking up to people, which was going to be his hardest task as Henry allegedly liked people who flattered him.

To ensure Damon would respond to being called Edmund, he had started to insist everyone around him call him that. He had been used to having different identities over the centuries, thus it appeared to be more of an issue for his colleagues to remember to not call him Damon, the was especially true of Bonnie, but after a few days, the new name began to settle in to those around him.

To ensure Damon knew what would be expected of a Tudor courtier, he had taken to studying 'The Book of the Courtier, an early 16th century book written by Baldasar Castiglione, count of Novilara and an Italian courtier himself. The book was known to have been widely read amongst the court of Henry and many of his well known courtiers fashioned themselves around the idyll set out in the book. For Damon to succeed, he needed to know what everyone else knew, not only in study but in practice. This was not an easy task, nor did he have many people to converse with, as he was the only vampire old enough to have spoken Tudor English. Letters and Patent rolls had become bedtime reading, as were the works of all of the major contemporary scholars who had studied Henry in great depth. It was fortunate a vampire had an excellent memory, but it was still nonetheless tedious work.

To make matters worse, he had to ensure he knew not only the music of the day, but the dances. He and Bonnie had spent hours practising the most popular dances of both English and French courts. Damon was now well versed in the music of Josquin Des Prez, John Dunstable, Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois, although to Damon it all sounded the same; which was from his perspective very depressing. As a result, Esther had allowed on concession for a modern item, which was an MP3 plates stocked with modern music. He would need to keep it in his time chest and only listen to it when he was completely alone and his door was locked from inside, however it was going to be Damon's sanity throughout the entire ordeal, which as the days of training went on, suggested to him, is what this would all become. Just because he'd lived it once, didn't mean he wanted to return. Although he could remember everything, he never truly appreciated the experience. At the time he was a young vampire, coming to terms with his new identity and learning to control himself without the help of his sire. Maggie had provided him with a Blue John ring to help him control his urges and protect him from being killed, but it had still been hard. He was still grieving the loss of Sarah and his child, and he was angry with the world. It had taken Damon almost 20 years to gather some semblance of the vampire he would become, the earlier years were merely a blur and his memories were skewed. He needed to put the past behind him and become someone else for the next two years, which hopefully may help him come to terms with his own past.

His next task was to reacquaint himself with the sports of the day. Henry was a keen sportsman, known for his prowess on the jousting field. Fortunately for Damon, Edmund was not an accomplished jouster as he had been travelling and was more of an academic type. However there were other sports which Damon would have to learn, or be re-acquainted with. Henry was a fan of Real Tennis, hawking, hunting, riding, archery and fencing. He even tried his hand at wrestling, but after lost a match and his pride against Francis I, King of France in 1520. archery, riding and fencing were activities which Damon continued to enjoy, even in 2019, he had taught Bonnie his skills, although he was never harsh on her. Damon had hunted as a human, and was sure he could easily turn his hand to doing it again. He had never participated in hawking, therefore Damon had spent 2 days with the British Falconer's Club to help him understand the sport. Being a vampire meant Damon would easily take to any sport, and one of the perks of being a vampire was his ability to communicate with birds. Although he was mainly connected to corvids, he was still able to get into the minds of most birds, although it did take a little more effort. This would prove even more difficult after drinking vervain, which was why Esther had provided Damon with his own peregrine falcon, called Perry to practice with. It hadn't taken long for Damon to adapt his method of animal communication for the bird, with whom he had begun to form a close bond with.

It was the last week in August when Damon got the notice he was not to feed for 24 hours, this was what he'd been dreading. A number of years ago, he had been subjected to a number of horrific experiments, although he had consented as he knew it was necessary for his job. Over time, it had been discovered that a combination of vervain, nitrous oxide and either sevoflurane or desflurane, would work to put a vampire to sleep during these experiments. Despite that, whenever he was anywhere near the surgical centre, he became nervous. The memories were horrific, despite him allowing these experiments to happen. Being able to tolerate having organs other than his heart removed were beyond comprehension. Once it was discovered he could be put to sleep, the organs were removed to see how long they took to grow back, which unfortunately for Damon, meant he still had to endure the pain of regrowth under the slower process of as he had been given vervain.

Uncomfortable with what he was about to endure, Damon had insisted Bonnie stay with his during the procedure. Unfortunately for Bonnie, a hungry vampire was a grumpy vampire.

"I don't want to do this." Damon growled. "Isn't there any other witchy way of doing this?" he asked.

"Not one that can travel time." Bonnie shook her head. "The spell needs to be attached to metal, not wood."

"Wood?" Damon frowned.

"Yeah, the sawdust that is inside your head which replaces your brains." she laughed.

"Har, har!" Damon sulked.

"Your real brains were left in your trousers when you turned." Bonnie continued to tease.

"I'm hungry." Damon warned.

"And I've just had a nice cup of peppermint and lemon verbena tea." Bonnie laughed, knowing vampires hated the taste of any plant which was from the Verbenaceae family.

"Bitch!" Damon muttered, causing Bonnie to laugh as he knocked on the door of the medical room.

"Come in." Jo's voice called out from the other side of the door.

Damon and Bonnie entered the office, which was painted in brilliant white, but was brightened up by all of the paintings of farmyard animals all over the walls. Jo had grown up on a farm and was initially going to carve out a life as a country vet, however her skills were noticed by one of her Professor's who happened to be a witch, who referred her to Esther. Jo was talked into becoming a human Doctor and to work for MI666. As there wasn't much for Jo to do most of the time, she also worked at the local hospital in Accident and Emergency, which allowed her to keep her skills up to date. Her boss at the hospital was aware she was a top secret government Doctor and that working for the NHS was her secondary employment, as such her primary employer would always have preferential access to her services.

"If you'd like to take your shirt off and sit on the bed." Jo pointed towards the bed in the corner as Bonnie sat down at the other side of Jo's desk.

"You'll do anything to see me naked doc won't you?" Damon smirked. "Are you her to watch?" he winked at Bonnie who simply rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust.

"I'm a happily married woman, thank you very much." Jo told him curtly as Damon removed his grey t-shirt, revealing his slightly tanned and almost hairless body. "Plus I prefer men to look like men rather than a muscular version of a hairless teenager." she added, to which Bonnie snorted loudly, earning her an evil stare from Damon, who climbed on the bed once he'd folded his t-shirt.

"Now what?" Damon asked.

Jo pulled a tube from her pocket. "I need you to spit into this." she told him as Damon looked at her confused. "We'll need your saliva for some of the spells. Might as well get it now." she said, handing him the tube. Damon took the lid off and began to spit into it, trying to fill it as much as he could, all the while Jo was gathering what she was going to need to get him ready for surgery.

Once Damon was finished, he handed the vial back to Jo who stuck a label on it which she'd just written out. "Please tell me you don't want a urine sample." he complained.

"Erm no thank you." Jo laughed. "But we will need a different type of sample, but not yet. Just as long as we get it before you leave."

"What type of sample?" Damon asked as Jo blushed a little.

"We need an ejaculation specimen." she told him as Damon looked at her in horror. "We are going to be creating a spell to help you procreate, one of the requirements is for the dead seed of the vampire."

"How?" Damon asked in a small voice as Jo picked up a large syringe filled with clear liquid.

Jo raised an eyebrow. "Damon, I mean Edmund, you are over 500 years old, I'm sure I don't need to explain the ins and outs of producing that type of specimen. We can always provide you with assistance." she suggested.

"Who's offering?" Damon asked innocently.

"Valerie has got something that can help." Jo explained. "There's also the option of video's and magazines." she suggested. "Hold out your left arm for me." she instructed, changing the subject.

"A magical Viagra?" Damon asked. "Why not the real thing?"

"It would interfere with the chemical makeup of the specimen. I would need to give you extremely large doses of vervain to make it work and you would have to practically overdose on the stuff for it to work and it would be no good." she explained. Jo took Damon's arm and wrapped a blue belt around the top, forcing the veins to show up on the inside. Choosing one, Jo carefully placed the needle at the point where she was going to insert it. "Sharp scratch!" she warned him as she inserted the needle and slowly injected the vervain into his body. "Triple concentrate." she warned him. "It'll make you feel much weaker and the area around the injection site may be sore and bruise." she warned as she took the needle out slowly and placed a cotton bud over the miniscule dot on his arm.

"I'm a vampire." Damon sighed.

"I've just made your body react in a more human way for the next 12 hours." she warned him. "There might be a bruise for a while as you'll be slow to heal." she said. To which Damon removed the cotton bud and noticed the dot on his arm hadn't healed at all. In fact it was not only sore, his entire arm ached, a sensation which filled his body. "When was the last time you had vervain?" she asked.

"Back in the 70's when I volunteered myself to science." Damon replied. "Although I don't remember feeling this crap.

"That's because they gave you a small does at the beginning and mixed it in with the anaesthetic." Jo explained. "I've given it all in one go as we have more than one surgical procedure to deal with. Once it is complete then it will be fine for you to heal. This dose shouldn't last more than 12 hours. Then you will heal normally. We don't want to keep injecting you with it otherwise the healing process will not work as required."

"Whatever you say." Damon yawned. "What next?" he asked.

"We need you to go into pre-op, where we can get you ready for surgery. It will take half an hour for the vervain to completely affect your body, which gives us time to get you into your gown and nice and comfortable before we start." Jo explained.

"And Bonnie?" Damon asked.

"I'll be in theatre, watching." Bonnie's smiled. "I'm fascinated to see whether you have a real brain or whether it is just sawdust up there." she laughed.

Nine hours later Damon opened his eyes. His head felt groggy and his mouth was dry. Most of all he was hungry.

"Shh, don't move." Bonnie warned, she was sat beside him with her phone in her hand. "Your body is still healing and you can't move for another 4 hours, until the vervain is out of your system and your vampire healing has taken over."

"I'm hungry." Damon moaned.

Bonnie put her phone down and walked over to the fridge to get retrieve a blood bag and handed it to him. "Freshly donated from the guys in accounts." she smiled. "Josh was particularly eager." she said with a knowing smirk. "Anything for Damon darling." she mimicked before bursting into fits of laughter. "I guess someone has to fancy you."

Damon pulled the cap off the blood bag and drank down the ruby red liquid. It was fairly fresh, probably little over an hour old. Not as good as straight from the vein, but it certainly helped with his hunger. While he was drinking Jo walked into the room with a clipboard in her hand.

"And how is my patient feeling?" she asked.

"Better now I've gotten some blood inside of me." Damon smiled. "Did everything go to plan?" he asked.

"I think so." Jo nodded. "We'll need to take you for an MRI scan in a few minutes to make sure everything is in place. Then you can go home for tonight and rest. Although it would be highly appreciated if you could bring your specimen for me." she smiled, placing a large clear vial on the table next to him. "The mixture we have made will be more potent today as you've had vervain. It is one of the recovery stages when you have had as much as you've had." she grinned.

"Hard on city?" Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Something like that." Jo sighed. "I'll go get the porters and they can take you for your MRI."

"I can walk." Damon offered.

"Not until the worst of the vervain has worn off." Jo said sternly, to which Damon pouted. "For the time being, you need to lay there and recover, otherwise we may need to repeat the process."

That was enough of a deterrent for Damon. Doing this once was bad enough, he didn't want to have to go through the process twice. "I'm all yours doc." he sighed. "But first, I need to pee." he told her.

Jo handed him a white plastic bottle which was clearly designed for a man. "I think we ought to give him a little privacy." she said to Bonnie as they left the room and closed the door, Jo whispered to Bonnie "I give it ten seconds." she smirked.

Damon lifted the covers off him and pushed the gown to one side. It was then he looked down in horror at what Jo was hinting at. "They've shave half of my pubes off!" he shouted. "Couldn't you at least have done all of them to make it look even?" he complained, hearing the laughter of Bonnie and Jo outside his room. "I'll get my own back on you Jo Laughlin." Damon sneered as he settled down to relieve his bladder. He tightened the cap when he noticed something was missing, his Blue John ring. He scanned the floor, but couldn't see it, the desks were all empty. He even held the urine bottle up to the light to see if it had dropped inside. "Bonnie, where's my ring?" he called out, hoping his friend would know.

"Are you decent?" Bonnie called back.

"Yeah." Damon replied.

Bonnie and Jo re-entered the room and Jo took the bottle from Damon. "Vincent has the ring." Bonnie told him. "There was something in Hilda's book about it and a spell was required which was at the request of Hilda. Maggie must have known about the spell otherwise she wouldn't have given you the ring. So don't worry, everything will be fine." she smiled.

"What type of spell?" Damon asked suspiciously.

"It links to the surgery we have performed." Jo explained. "Vincent is downstairs waiting in the control room next to the scanner. He is going to check whether the ring works as Hilda's spell said it would. It is the switch for the camera in your eyes." she added. "You can turn it on and off at will. We can't do that, but we will see if the link has worked. If so you can have it back and we will go through how everything works tomorrow." she smiled. "Now are you ready to go down to the scanner? The porters are outside waiting." she asked.

"Let's get this over with." Damon sighed. And with that, Damon was wheeled down to the MRI scanner.

An hour later he was back up in the room, sat with Bonnie, scanning various social media sites on their phones to keep up with the news and gossip. Vincent appeared at the door with Jo and knocked. Damon and Bonnie looked up to see Vincent's permanent broad smile, he always looked happy and as if he was about to burst into song.

"Good evening Damon,, I mean Edmund, Bonnie." Vincent said in a chipper voice. "And how is our patient today?" he turned to Damon as Jo joined them in the room with her clipboard.

"You tell me, you've seen the scans." Damon sighed. "I just want to go home and go to bed. The smell of hospitals is making me feel sick."

"As long as you don't move for the next two hours, you're good to go." Jo smiled as Vincent pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped on the screen.

"It's ready to try out." he told Jo before handing Damon his blue John ring back. "To operate the camera in your eyes, you need to twist the stone in the ring." he explained.

"The stone doesn't twist." Damon frowned as he took his ring from Vincent and tried turning the stone, which suddenly worked.

"It does now." Vincent laughed, turning his phone to face Damon which was showing a video following the direction of Damon's eyes.

"Woah, that is cool." Bonnie said excitedly. "Actually seeing the world through the eyes of Damon Salvatore."

"Edmund Spicer." Damon corrected her.

"I keep forgetting." Bonnie rolled her eyes. "But yes, this will be how Edmund Spicer views the world in 2019 and 1530." she turned to Damon. "I can't believe we'll finally get to see and hear Henry VIII. It will also explain why he thought Anne was the one."

"This would be a great idea to go back in time and find out the answers to unanswered questions. We could find out what really happened to Marilyn Monroe. Maybe we should go back a little further next time and find out if Richard III really did kill the Princes in the Tower." Damon joked, however Bonnie's eyes lit up. "I was kidding." he quickly said, knowing Bonnie was of the opinion that Richard was innocent while Damon was convinced he was guilty.

"It does open up ways to get answers from history." Bonnie diplomatically agreed.

"The only problem is that Damon is the only one who can find out." Vincent sighed.

"What?" Damon frowned.

"The ring was made specifically for you, it is the only one. From what we've found so far in her grimoires, she never documented the original spell, she only gave us the spell to unlock the magic inside." Vincent explained. "Nobody else can time travel and record the world like Damon can."

"Would you like me to explain exactly what we did during surgery to allow you to be able to record the images?" Jo intervened. "That way you will know where the devices are and to ensure they are kept safe."

"Yeah, sure." Damon nodded vaguely.

"There are 2 microchips in each eye. Each eye has a camera linked to the ring, the other will be explained in due course." Vincent said. "There is a chip in your brain to allow for communication and there are 2 microphones attached to each temporal bone to pick up the sound. They are also activated by the ring as they work in conjunction with the camera."

"Great." Damon nodded. "I'm a walking Steven Spielberg, where's my Oscar." he added sarcastically.

"I really think it would be a great idea to go back in time and find the answers to some of the greatest questions..." Bonnie started.

"And who is going to fund these expeditions?" came Esther's voice from behind Vincent and Jo. "I hope you won't be expecting the British taxpayer to pay for these little pleasure trips."

"I could set up a GoFundMe account." Damon suggested. "I'm sure there are plenty of notable academics in the world who would love to find out the answers to all of their research."

"I doubt it." Esther shook her head. "Think of all of the amount of money these historians make with their documentaries, arguing their case for their unproven theories, just like Richard III. Someone will end up with egg on their face and their books would be unsellable. Do you really think they want to know the truth?" she asked. "Al scholars start out seeking the truth, but along the way, some become convinced by their own truths and what their truths can gain them, that they have no desire for the real truth to be known."

"That's like most things in life." Bonnie nodded.

"Luckily we have so much information on Henry, that we can paint a fairly good picture of his character." Esther went on. "He isn't a divisive character like Richard III. Some truly believe Richard murdered his nephews to take the crown, others believe Richard loved them dearly and that there were people with just as much motive as he had to get rid of them. However, unless the government have a pressing desire to know what happened to Edward and Richard, I don't think we will go into that just yet. Maybe one day we will find out the original ring spell and see if we can replicate it. At least we have an easy access to the Blue John caves these days." she smiled, turning to Jo. "Is he ready to go yet?" she asked.

"I just need to run a few normal health checks and he should be good to go." Jo smiled. "I just need five minutes privacy." she added, and with that the room quickly emptied. "I just need to take your blood pressure, heart rate and your pupil reaction." she told Damon as she got out the blood pressure monitor and wrapped the sleeve around his arm.

"Why?" Damon asked.

"You should be returning back to your normal self shortly. Your blood pressure, heart rate and pupil reactions are normally very different to that of a human, while it would be very human-like if you're not ready." she explained as the sleeve expanded on his arm and gradually let air out, allowing Jo to take a reading. She turned on her tiny torch and shone a light into his eyes, which felt like he was being blinded. "Vampire reactions!" Jo smiled. "You're ready to go home. But before you do, don't forget we need a sample for tomorrow." she handed Damon the small container and a little plastic bag with containing a purple tablet. "Have fun." she laughed as she left the room.

Thank you all for your kind reviews. They are always appreciated.

If you like this story, please like, follow and/or review. It helps motivate me to get the chapters written and published quicker.

Mandzipop.