Damon didn't go to Abigail's after he left Elena's, even he knew that would be in the poorest of poor taste. To leave the woman he just compelled to forget that he was in love with to go to the woman he felt like he SHOULD be in love with, or that he might still be in love with as well - the tangled feelings he felt for Abigail Morgan wouldn't allow him to crawl into her bed after confessing to Elena. He did care that much for her.

While he returns to his own home, Abigail is still collapsed on her sofa - fighting the dreams that are showing her everything that he would assume would break her heart to know. And warning her that the man - that the beast that her parents wanted so badly to keep her from - was heading to Mystic Falls and somehow she felt less frightened by Elijah's impending arrival than she felt unimpressed by Damon Salvatore's loyalty.

Waking up after being brought so low by phantom pain didn't make Abi very pleasant, but luckily Cat was understanding with her grumpiness. Tossing out her ruined dinner, while she refilled his food and refreshed his water, she warned him that the litter was going to have to wait until she got rid of the kink in her neck. Her cell phone was blissfully silent, but she realized that was because she'd failed to charge it, and the silence was due to a dead battery and not because she had no calls.

Growling at herself for forgetting to plug the tiny cord into the tinier slot, she announced to Cat's purring form - his head was buried in his full food bowl - that she was heading for her shower.

"Maybe the massage setting will do its duty and I'll be able to turn my head without wanting to die," Abi was muttering as she went up the stairs to her bedroom.

She didn't hear him come in the house, the water was pounding hot and hard against her body, and she was still tired - falling into a dead collapse wasn't actually all that restful - so she might have even dozed a touch. Her back was to the showerhead, the throbbing beat of the water was rhythmic enough to help soothe both her muscles and her nerves enough to put her into an almost dreamlike state - if only she was in the mood to dream of Damon.

When his body, nearly as warm as the flow of water hitting her bare skin, met hers - her eyes flashed open and she looked up to see him staring down at her. Before he could lower his head to taste and tempt, before he could tease and pull her back into the memories of what they once were - the promise of what they could have been - Abigail straightened her spine and moved away from him. His eyes went slightly wide and his mouth opened as if he thought she had something in her eyes and couldn't tell it was HIM, her lover - and she was safe.

"Damon, get out." From slightly wide to fully, those blue eyes that she'd once thought would be her undoing looked down at her like he thought he misheard. "Now."

"Abi-" His fingers were still sliding along her arms, but she shook him off. "Abigail, it's - What's wrong?" He pulled his hands away from her, but didn't leave the shower.

"What's wrong is that you're still in my shower after I've told you to leave." She stared up at him and waited for him to HEAR her. "Get out, Damon. Now."

"I don't understand, sweetheart." His eyes were narrowed like he was trying to make sense out of the hardest problem he'd ever been confronted with. "I told you I'd be back, that I'd come back to you -"

"You did," she agreed, reaching behind her back to turn off the water. "And here you are. Now leave." Once the water was off, she reached out of the shower to grab the bath sheet she'd hung up before stepping inside. "Or, since you're so hellbent on staying, I'll go." Wrapping it around herself, she stepped carefully out onto the rug. So much for a relaxing shower and finding a path to a better mood.

"Abigail -" Damon followed her to her bedroom, pulling on his jeans as he came. "What happened between yesterday and now?"

Turning with a harsh laugh, Abi confronted his confusion. "Why don't you tell me, Damon. What changed between last night and this moment? What did YOU do last night that would make THIS moment less agreeable for ME?" She watched as it dawned on him, not only what he'd done, but her power, her ability to SEE it - to KNOW it.

"How?" He barely breathed the word, it came out hushed. "How did you -"

Staring at him, Abigail remembered something else Gloria told her - That SHE held the POWER. "My entire life, a lifetime ago - with you, in your childhood home - you watched me SEE things, Damon, and you never questioned it. Not once. But now? Now you want to know HOW?" She shook her head. "I know. That's all you need to know. And because I know, you should leave."

"I -" His eyes, the first of his weapons that he once used to pierce her heart, were pinched and pained. "I never wanted to hurt you."

"You didn't," Abigail was staring straight into his eyes and she knew he could see that she meant every word she was saying. "Once upon a time, Damon, it would have torn me apart - but now?" She shrugged one shoulder. "I'm not even feeling a tiny little sting."

"I do love you," Damon's voice pleaded, and she felt sorry for him. For his wish to hold onto some childish dream - some piece of their past. "So damn much, Abigail."

"That's not true, Damon." She shook her head and sighed. "No matter how much you wish it was." She sat down on her bed, a bed that still had Lily's wedding ring quilt at the foot. "I should probably take this off and give it to you." She ran a hand over the fabric. "It's never really been mine."

"Keep it," his voice sounded thick and she didn't look up to see his theatrics. "She wanted it to be yours."

"Goodbye, Damon." Abigail traced one of the floral rings with her fingertip, waiting for him to finally leave, but she felt him come closer instead.

Damon couldn't go, not without - he leaned forward, breathing in the scent of her - this woman who he knew he would NEVER be worthy of, a woman he'd ruined his chances with at every damn turn - and kissed where a crown should sit on her curls. "Goodbye, Abigail." And then he was gone, promising himself to keep his distance unless she called for him - unless she was in danger.

Abigail didn't cry or bemoan her fate. Why would she? Damon Salvatore was clearly NOT her future. If he was, then he wouldn't have fallen so fast and so hard for not one, but two doppelgangers. Why mourn what wasn't truly meant to be, even if it was all she ever thought she was supposed to have?