More than Friendship
DG32173

Sarah: I don't have anything to say, really. I hope you enjoy the story.

DISCLAIMER
(Checks email) nope, nothing signing the series over to me. So I only own what I write.

WARNINGS
Rated M for a reason. Alternate universe. Damon's viewpoint.

SUMMARY
Damon rescues Elena from an unknown vampire after her car crash. Figuring she wants to get away from Stefan, he takes her with him to see Bree in Georgia. A lucid dream leaves him wondering if meeting Elena might be more than mere coincidence. After she helps him open the tomb only to discover that Katherine was never there, he wonders if maybe he should start looking at what's right in front of him rather than hanging onto the past. Damon/Elena

Chapter 1
Georgia

As I head towards where my car is parked, I hear a car crash. I start running towards it, knowing that there will be at least one person in it. One is plenty for the hunger I am feeling. I freeze when I see the car. It's Elena's car. My hunger vanishes in an instant. Then I see the person she hit start fixing their broken bones and I know it's a vampire. As they start walking towards her I rush forward. They see me just as they reach her car. They can sense how powerful I am and take off. I kneel next to her car and she shrieks, turning away, thinking I'm the vampire she hit. "How you doing in there?" I ask her.

"Damon?" she asks, her voice laced with pain.

"You're stuck," I mutter, standing up. I use my strength to lift the car up some as I use my foot to stretch the frame enough for me to get her out.

"It's my seatbelt," she cries. "I can't … I don't know …"

"Shh, shh, shh," I say softly, kneeling back down. "I'm going to get you out of here. I want you to put your hands on the roof." She obeys without hesitation. "Just like that. Ready?' I ask, grabbing the contraption holding her belt. "One, two, three." I rip it from the car, freeing her to tumble down onto the roof. "Gotcha," I say, gently pulling her out of the car and into my arms. I walk a few steps away from the car. "Are you okay? Can you stand?" I ask her. "Is anything broken?" She shakes her head and I gently lower her feet to the ground. Just as I release her a little to test her strength, she collapses. I quickly catch her. "Woah. You are fading fast, Elena," I say, noticing she is quickly losing consciousness "Elena, look at me." I gently take her chin with one hand while the other arm holds her upright. "Focus. Look at me."

She opens her eyes. "I look like her," she says softly, tears in her voice and eyes.

"What?" I breathe, but she faints. I gently carry her to the ground. I look around, trying to figure out what to do with her. I had decided that I would head down to Georgia and talk to Bree to see if there was another way into the tomb. "Upsy daisy," I say, lifting her into my arms as I decide to take her with me.

I carry her away from her crashed car back to my Camaro, taking my time by walking at human speed. My car isn't far and I like the feel of her in my arms. I quickly check her for broken bones, sighing in relief when I find none. I put her in the passenger seat of my car and buckle her in. I zip around the front of the car and climb in the driver's seat. I start the car and head back to where her car is wrecked, knowing I can't just leave it in the middle of the road. I get out and drag her car completely off the road.

I then get back into my car and start driving for Georgia, knowing that it will be some time before Elena wakes back up.

Several hours later

We are almost to Atlanta when Elena finally shows signs of waking up. I turn off the radio and watch her from the corner of my eye. She looks around then turns towards me. I turn my head and grin at her. "Morning," I say.

"Where are we?" she asks.

"In Georgia," I drawl.

She thinks about this quietly for a few miles. "Why are we in Georgia?" she asks finally. That is not what I expected her to say.

"Well, you were there, all damsel-in-distress. I saved you, you fainted. I figured that since you were not still at the boarding house with my brother, he did something to upset you. I figured that you might need to get away from your problems for a while, and I happened to be planning a road trip," I tell her.

"And you kidnapped me so you could have a companion?" she asks.

"More or less," I tell her.

She shrugs. "You were right about needing to get away from my problems," she says softly.

"I'm surprised you're not putting up a fight," I comment.

"I'm saving the next fight for your brother," she retorts darkly.

"Oh ho, he must have screwed up big time," I chuckle. "Care to talk about it?"

She's silent for several miles on that one, obviously debating whether she really wants to talk about her troubles with me. "He never told me I look like her," she says finally.

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. I don't need to ask who she's talking about. "Now that's interesting. I thought he would have told you that right after he told you our secret." I glance at her. "I didn't tell you either," I remind her.

"You're not the one who was dating me," she replies. "I don't care what his reasons were. I can't stand being lied to about something that big. No matter what his reasons are, I'm breaking up with him." At that moment, her phone rings in my back pocket. She looks at me in surprise. "That's my phone," she snaps.

I pull her phone out and glance at caller ID. "It's my brother," I tell her, holding it towards her. She shakes her head. I turn it on. "Elena's phone," I answer, driving with one hand.

"Where is she? Why do you have her phone?" he demands. "Is she okay?"

"Elena? She's fine," I say. "She's right here."

"Let me talk to her."

I hold the phone towards her. "He wants to talk to you," I tell her.

"No," she says softly.

I know my brother heard that. I place her phone back against my ear. "Yeah, I don't think she wants to talk to you," I tell him.

"I swear to God, Damon, if you hurt her …," he starts.

"You have a good day. Bye now," I say, hanging up.

"Where are we going?" she asks.

"A little place outside of Atlanta," I tell her. "We're almost there."

She nods and leans back against the seat. "How often did he look at me and see her? How many times did he kiss me and think of her?" she whispers.

"It is a little creepy," I agree, feeling bad for her. I honestly thought that Stefan would have told her that she looks exactly like Katherine when he told her that we are vampires. But he decided to keep it from her, so it's his loss. About half an hour later, I pull into the parking lot outside Bree's Bar.

"A bar?" she asks, raising an eyebrow at me. "I'm not legal."

"It's owned by someone I know," I tell her, getting out. She follows my lead and I lock my car. "She won't care."

I lead her inside and see Bree scrubbing the counter. I rub my hands together as she looks at me. "No. No, it can't be," she says. I grin at her. "Damon?" she asks, hopping over the counter. "My honey-pie," she says, before pulling me in for a kiss. I can practically feel the waves of jealousy emanating from Elena, though I don't know why she would be jealous. Finally, Bree pulls away with a grin on her face. She hops back behind the counter and picks up a bottle of bourbon. She still remembers my favorite drink. "Listen up, everybody!" she calls out. "Here's to the man that broke my heart," she starts, pouring the whisky into five shot glasses, "crushed my soul, destroyed my life, and ruined any and all chances of happiness." She sets a shot glass in front of each of us. "Drink up." I tilt my head back and let the alcohol burn its way down my throat. I glance over and am surprised to see that Elena had done the same thing. "So, how'd he rope you in?" Bree asks Elena.

"I'm not roped in," she starts.

"Honey, if you're not roped, you're whipped. Either way, just enjoy the ride," Bree tells her.

Elena raises an eyebrow. "Okay. So, how did you two meet?" she asks.

"College," Bree says with a chuckle.

Elena looks at me, disbelief written clearly on her face. "You went to college?" she asks with a smirk.

"I been on a college campus, yes," I tell her, taking another shot of bourbon.

"About twenty years ago, when I was a sweet young freshman, I met this beautiful man," Bree says, glancing at me, "and I fell in love. And then he told me about his little secret. Made me love him even more, cause you see I had a little secret of my own at that time I was dying to share with somebody."

I lean over to Elena. "She's a witch," I whisper to her.

Elena looks at Bree in surprise. "Changed my world," Bree says.

"I rocked your world," I correct her.

Bree chuckles. "He is good in the sack, isn't he?" she asks Elena. Elena blushes and I don't bother to tell Bree that she has my relationship with Elena all wrong. "But mostly, he's just a walk-away Joe," she finishes, drinking her shot. "So, what is it that you want?" Bree asks me.

I glance over at Elena and she gets the hint. "I'm going to call Jenna," she says, heading outside to call her aunt.

Bree hops back over the bar and follows me to a table away from the other people in the bar. "I need a way of getting in the tomb," I tell her softly.

"I told you the way," she replies.

"Come on, there's got to be another way," I say.

"After all these years, it's still only Katherine," she says. I shrug. "How do you know she's still alive?"

"Well, you help me get into that tomb and we'll find out," I tell her.

"I already did, twenty years ago, remember?" she says. "Three easy steps: comet, crystal, spell."

"There's a little problem with number two," I growl. "I don't have the crystal.

"That's it, Damon," she says. "There is no other way. It's Emily's spell."

"What about new spell, new crystal, that overrides Emily's spell?" I ask with a smirk.

"It doesn't work that way, baby. Emily's spell is absolute. You can't get into that tomb."

I swallow hard. I get up and turn to the window, watching as Elena starts to come in only to pull out her phone, look at it, and scowl ferociously. I focus my hearing on her and listen in as she answers it.

"Elena, is that you?" my brother asks.

"I'm here.'

"Where are you?"

"You lied."

"Not until I explain, please."

"So, you didn't lie?"

"Just tell me where you are so that I can come get you."

"How am I connected to Katherine, Stefan?"

"I honestly don't know."

She scoffs. "And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"It's the truth. Listen…," he starts. But she hangs up on him.

I rush outside to stand behind her. She turns. "You okay?" I ask.

She closes her eyes. "No."

I put an arm around her shoulder and lead her back inside. We return to our seats at the bar and I order us burgers and fries. As soon as Bree puts the plates in front of us, Elena takes the top off her burger. "Let's just say that I'm descended from Katherine. Does that make me part vampire?" she asks me.

"Vampires can't procreate. But we love to try," I tell her with a smirk. She just gives me a look. "No. If you were related, it would mean Katherine had a child before she was turned," I tell her, eating a fry.

"Did Stefan think that he could use me to replace her?" she asks.

"Like I said, it's kinda creepy, if you ask me." I glance at her plate and see that she had taken the pickles off her burger. "Come on. You don't like pickles? What's wrong with you?" I ask, taking her pickles.

"How can you even eat if technically you're supposed to be …?" she starts.

I glance around. "Dead?" I whisper. "Come on, it's not such a bad word. As long as I keep a healthy diet of blood in my system, my body functions pretty normally," I say, taking a bite of a fry.

She chuckles. She opens her mouth to say something when Bree walks over with my beer. "Here you go," she says, handing it to me.

"Thank you," I say, taking it.

Elena looks at it for a second. "I'll have one, too," she says suddenly.

"Hmm?" I murmur, looking at her in surprise.

"I used to drink a lot before my parents died," she says softly as Bree hands her a beer as well. "I figured I might as well drink while we're away from adult supervision."

I hold my beer towards her and she clinks hers against mine before taking a long swallow.

Several hours later

Quite a few of Bree's regular customers, Elena, Bree, and I are on our third round of bourbon shots races, though Elena and I have been drinking all afternoon. "Ready?" Bree says, holding her glass in her hands. "Go!"

We all tilt our heads back to drink the shot as fast as possible. Elena's glass hits the counter first, for the third time in a row. Elena does a little dance. "That's three," she gloats, turning to me. "You need a bib," she teases.

"Sorry I can't unhinge my jaw like a snake to consume my alcohol," I tell her, wiping the alcohol off my chin while grinning. Drunk Elena is a hell of a lot of fun.

"Whatever," she chuckles. "Alright, who's next? Another round, Bree?"

"Honey, you should be on the floor," says the blonde next to Elena.

"I am not even drunk. My tolerance is like way up here!" she says, raising her hand and jumping. I just grin at her enthusiasm. Suddenly, she shocks me by leaning over and planting a kiss on my lips. A kind of fire races through me before she pulls away. "I wanted to do that for a while," she tells me, grinning at my dropped jaw.

Elena goes over to the pool table and starts playing a game with the blonde, but a few minutes later I hear her phone ring. I take the time to go over to the bar and relax. But as soon as I sit down, Bree says something that makes me regret not listening in. "Hey, where's your girl?" she asks.

"Hmm, she's right back there," I say, turning to the pool tables. Only I don't see her. I look around, and then look at the door. I get up and head outside to check on her. I start to worry when I don't see her outside. I look down, see her phone, and know she's in trouble. I sniff the air and I smell her scent, but also the scent of someone I don't recognize. I grab her phone and follow her scent around a warehouse next to the bar.

I spot her on a ladder. "Damon, no," she cries, fear in her voice.

I stop only to have a vampire rush forward and bash the back of my knees with a baseball bat. I cry out in pain as I collapse. The guy uses his full strength to swing the aluminum bat on me again and again. "Ow! Ow! What the hell?" I cry out.

The guy vamps away only to return and start dousing me with gasoline. "No!" Elena cries out. The guy turns his vamp face at her.

"Who are you?" I manage to gasp out as he pours more gasoline on me.

"That's perfect. You have no idea," he snaps.

"What are you talking about? What did he do?" Elena demands.

He turns to her. "He killed my girlfriend," he says. I try to put the pieces together to figure out what he means. "What did she do to you? Huh? What did she do to you?" he yells at me.

I figure it out then. "Nothing," I say.

The vampire tosses the gasoline can away. "I don't understand," Elena says.

"My girlfriend went to visit Stefan. And Damon killed her," he says, turning to Elena. "Got it?"

I try to get up, only for him to kick me in the head. "Lexi?" Elena whispers. "Lexi was your girlfriend? She told me about you. She said that you were human."

"I was," he says.

I don't see what he's doing but I have a feeling he's pulling out a match. "Lexi turned you?" Elena asks.

"If you want to be with someone forever, you have to live forever," he says, looking at Elena as I turn my head around. Then he turns and kicks me in the face again.

"She loved you," she says. "She said that when it's real, you can't walk away."

"Well that's a choice you're not gonna have to make," he growls at her.

"Don't. Don't. Please don't hurt him," Elena begs.

I hear the guy strike a match and know that I might very well be on fire soon if Elena can't talk some sense into the guy. "I'm doing you a favor," he says.

"Lexi loved you. And she was good. And that means you're good too. Be better than him. Don't do this. I'm begging you," she pleads. I can hear the tears in her voice, though the smell of gasoline overrides any other smell. "Please."

The guy pulls me up to his face by my jacket and I stare into his vamp face. Then I'm flying through the air and hit a metal wall at least ten yards away. I fall to the ground and groan.

"Thank you," I hear Elena whisper.

"It wasn't for you," the guy tells her softly. Then he's gone.

I hear Elena run up to me and feel her kneel next to me. She helps me into a sitting position, though it's very painful. I groan as I realign the bones in my legs so that they can heal properly. "Do you need blood to heal?" she asks softly.

I look at her in surprise. Is she actually offering her blood? "I'll heal without it, but it'll take longer," I tell her truthfully.

She holds out her arm. "Drink mine. I don't want to see you in pain," she says.

"You're actually offering me your blood?" I ask incredulously.

"I just said I was," she says.

"Stefan will kill me if he finds out," I tell her.

"He has no right to meddle in my business anymore. I don't care what his reasons are for hiding the fact that I look like Katherine, I am still breaking up with him. I can't handle being in a relationship with someone who won't tell me the truth. If he tries to kill you, I'll stop him."

I look in her eyes and all I see is honesty and trust. "If I'm going to drink your blood, I might as well do it right," I tell her, pulling her closer to me. I bury my face in her neck, kissing her pulse before I bite down. She lets out a moan of pleasure as my fangs pierce her skin. The second her blood hits my tongue, I am amazed by how magnificent it tastes. I have never had blood that tasted this good. I feel my body healing rapidly as I feed from her. As soon as my body is healed, I retract my fangs. I slowly run my tongue over the bite mark to both seal it and lap up the rest of the blood. Finally I pull away and look at her.

"I didn't know a vampire bite could feel so good," she breathes.

I smirk, licking my lips. "It was partly because you were giving me your blood willingly and partly because I didn't want it to hurt you," I tell her. I stand up and help her to her feet. She sways as soon as she's standing, and I steady her. "Easy now," I say softly. I scoop her up in my arms.

"What are you doing?" she demands, though her tone is playful.

"I am not having you collapse on the way to the car," I tell her, walking at human speed to my car. I put her in the passenger seat, buckle her in, and hand her phone over. "I'll be right back. I have to talk to Bree about something," I say, trying not to let a hint of my anger at the witch show.

But something she sees in my eyes informs her of what I plan on doing. She grabs my hand. "Don't kill her, Damon," she says.

"She almost had me killed," I snap. "She deserves to die like the traitor she is."

"Please, Damon. For me," she begs. "I don't want to think about this day only to have the awesome memory ruined knowing you killed her."

I pause at that. She had a great time today? I guess I should go along with her and not ruin the memory by killing that traitorous witch. I sigh. "I won't kill her. But I still need to talk to her," I tell her.

She watches me. "You want to find another way to free Katherine, don't you?" she asks. I nod. "I understand. Just don't kill her," she says, releasing my hand.

I head into the bar to see Bree drinking. She turns to me. "We were just leaving, I wanted to say goodbye," I tell her.

"Good to see you again, Damon," she says softly.

"No kiss?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm full of vervaine," she informs me. "I put it in everything I drink."

"You're still lucky that Elena pleaded for me to spare you," I inform her.

Her eyes widen. "The tomb can be opened," she says quickly.

I narrow my eyes. "You're lying," I snap.

"Emily's grimiore, her spell book. If you know how she closed the tomb, the reversal process will be in her book. You can open the tomb."

"And where's this book?" I ask. She stutters and stammers. "You have no idea?"

"No, I don't," she admits.

I put my hand on the side of her face. "And I believe you," I tell her gently. I put my other hand over her heart. "I could easily rip your heart out right now for betraying me. You better find some way to thank Elena for talking me into sparing your life." I leave her standing there, staring at me. I grab my jacket and walk out to my car. Elena looks up as I slide into the driver's seat. "I didn't kill her. And I told her that you're the one she should thank for that," I say, starting the car.

She places her hand on my thigh. "Thank you," she says, exhaustion evident in her voice.

I glance at her as I pull out of the parking lot. "Want to stop at a hotel and head back tomorrow?" I ask.

"Please," she says.

I nod, and head to the nearest one. I'm not at all fond of these cheap hotels, but I'll deal with them when I have no other choice. I stop at the office and head in to book a room. By the time I get back, I can tell that Elena is very close to falling asleep. I shake her arm and she looks at me. "Just a few more minutes and we'll be in the room. You can sleep then," I tell her. I pull the car around and park right outside our room. I turn the car off, get out, and walk around to help her get out.

I lock the car up, grab a change of clothes from the trunk, and take Elena into the room. I tuck her into one of the beds before heading into the bathroom. The reek of gasoline is killing my nose. As the water heats up, I strip out of the clothes I was wearing. Those are heading straight for the dumpster tomorrow. I step into the shower and start scrubbing until I no longer smell a hint of gasoline on myself.

I turn the water off and step out. Normally, I sleep in the nude, but I know that Elena would freak if she woke up and saw my like that. So I grab my boxer-briefs and slip into them. I pick up the clothes Lexi's boyfriend had ruined and put them in a corner of the main room, the one furthest from where I intend to sleep. Then I lay down on the bed I had chosen for myself, close my eyes, and force myself to fall asleep.

Vampires don't necessarily need to sleep, but it is something to do to pass the time. Normally, I sleep without dreams. But tonight, I find myself dreaming of holding Elena in my arms and dancing with her in the boarding house living room. I know it's Elena and not Katherine because of the heartbeat. The dream quickly takes a steamy turn that will leave me wondering just where it came from when my only goal is to free Katherine from the tomb.