The second hand ticked, ticked, ticked as his finger tapped against the kitchen table. His eyes never blinked and his chest fell heavily with every exhale. He'd been played and manipulated for too long. No more. It was his turn to make the rules and finally end Katherine's twisted game.

If that meant heading to prison then so be it. Anything would be better than flailing around in her suffocating web of manipulation and lies.

While she'd slept, he'd packed his bags around her and smashed up every little thing that meant something to her. The house had been destroyed and he reveled in every smashed piece of crystal, broken expensive vases and vain modeling pictures that now hung limpy and torn from the wall.

White paint dripped from the grand piano and the crackling fire devoured every catalogue and portfolio she cherished.

Her Audi, once a solid red, was now laden with heavy scratch marks from his keys and every expensive dress was slit, chopped and knifed.

He leant back in his chair, a bourbon in hand, and a piece of paper in the other, as he listened to feet smack against the marble stairs as she charged into the kitchen.

"What the fuck?!" She panicked. "What's happened?"

He simply held out the piece of paper - a printed version of the moonbump website. No words were needed.

"Damon," she whispered. "What-"

"I'm done," he said calmly. "I could just about live with the blackmail, Kat, but a fake pregnancy?"

"Damon-"

His chortle cut her off. It scared him just how calm he was about it all. A switch had been flipped and all emotions had finally disappeared. He was dead inside. She'd killed him. Every. Cell.

"What was your plan? Buy a baby? Have a miscarriage?" He carried on laughing. "Really, Kat? Really?"

"It's not a fake pregnancy, Damon," she pleaded. "I showed you the test. I was just curious-"

"Money is a funny thing, Kat. It's amazing what people will do for a little bit of cash. So I called the 'doctor' you went to for the scan and all it took was a few thousand dollars for her to tell me every little thing," he smirked. "How desperate are you? Paying a stranger off the street to pretend to be a doctor, buying fake bumps to try and keep me."

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes. "You're not the prize you think you are, Damon. You think I put in all this hard work for you? Sweetie, it's not you I want. It's what your name gets me and by tomorrow, I won't need you to get what I'll legally be owed. I'll be a Salvatore and what's yours will be mine, like it or not."

"See that's the thing, you'll always be a manipulative little bitch but you'll never be a Salvatore," he gestured to his bag. "I'm out. I'm done."

"But you're not. You'll never leave, Damon, because I have what you don't want to get out. You're trapped."

"About that, go ahead and hand what you have to the police," he pointed to the front door. "Be my guest. Let them put me in jail. I'll happily go to jail to get away from you, but you're not going to do it, are you?"

"You're testing my nerves, Damon."

"Because if you send me to jail, you'll get nothing. We're not married. You're not a Salvatore and legally," he smirked, "I owe you fuck all. The first thing I will do is instruct my lawyer to kick you out, sell this house and everything within it… that I haven't already destroyed that is."

She stood dumb, shocked and confused. Of course he knew she could still go to the police and there was a strong chance that she would, but she was ruled by money and power. If she went to the police, she'd be penniless and she'd have nothing over him anymore.

"And secondly, I'd take you down with me. Not only is blackmail a criminal offence, you're willingly withholding important information which makes you an accomplice," he said. "So, please, go ahead."

"And you can prove this can you?" She asked.

"Katherine-"

"Oh officer!" She mimicked. "I found this in my husband's drawers and I think you need to see it. I think he killed someone. Please, help me! What if he does the same thing to me?"

Damon let out a proper belly laugh, almost a roar.

"Your acting is as shit as your modelling, Kat."

"You're not leaving me, Damon," she shouted. "You might not care about your own life but there is no way you're taking down Alaric and Giuseppe, too."

"I don't care anymore," he shrugged. "If it means living a life without you, I'll take down anyone I need with me."

"You're full of it," she giggled. "You'll be back with your tail between your legs, begging me to take you back. We will be getting married tomorrow at lunch, you and I both know you're all talk."

He pushed up from the table, a smile painted on his lips and lifted his bag to his shoulders. He meant it, if it meant getting away from Katherine then he would go to jail and Alaric and his father would have to be collateral damage.

"I give you until midnight, Damon, to get back here and apologise. If you don't, I'll meet you at the police station," she threatened. "Any questions?

"Yeah, one," he frowned. "When did you get the pregnancy idea? Before or after Vicki?"

"After. It just came to me really, quite genius-like. It kinda fell into my hands." He frowned as she reached into her handbag and pulled out the original pregnancy test and handed it to him. "Hold it, it's real."

"Real expensive?" He scoffed.

"Free. I found it on the bathroom floor the night of the London dinner party," she said. "That assistant of yours, the one who moved to London, came out the toilet, ugly crying of course, and dropped it behind her."

Elena? No, he thought, Elena wouldn't have taken a pregnancy test, let alone have a positive result and not tell him. Katherine was playing with him again, he knew it.

"So you're saying Elena Gilbert, my old assistant, dropped this test and you chose to steal it and claim it as your own?" Damon rolled his eyes. "How do you come up with these lies?"

"Oh this ain't a lie, Damon. It's probably why she ran off to London, didn't want anyone to know she got herself knocked up by some lowlife she couldn't stand."

He looked down at the blue and white stick in his hand. The two lines suddenly appeared bolder and darker. His heart stopped. He noticed his hand started to shake as his heart began to beat again, slowly at first and then all at once.

Elena was pregnant. Was that why she ran off to london? He thought. Was it his? Of course it was his, Elena wasn't the type of girl to sleep around with more than one man.

"She was going to tell me," he mumbled to himself. That night by the lake, she'd called him there to tell him something but he'd cut her off to announce Katherine's pregnancy. She never wanted to tell him that she didn't hate him, she was going to say that he was going to be a father.

"So what's your plan, Damon?" Katherine's shrill voice snapped him out of his memories.

"I'm going to be a dad," he smiled and slipped the pregnancy test into his back pocket.

"What?"

"You were so focused on Vicki that you were fucking blind and ignorant to what was going on right in front of your eyes, in your bed, in the car you love to ride in, on my desk. I can continue if you like?" He snickered. "I never fucked Vicki, Kat. I was in a relationship with Elena for nearly a year. So while I may not be having a baby with you…"

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"Looks like I am having a baby with her and thank god for that because having a child with you really is a fucking death sentence."

"You were screwing that tramp in my bed?!" She hissed. "You knocked her up?"

"I love her, Kat."

"You loved me once."

"No," he shook his head. "I've never felt for you the way I feel for Elena. If what I feel is love for her, what I felt for you was barely even tolerable. And I've constantly chosen you over her out of fear and I'm tired of it."

"I'll go to the police," she said. "You're done for, Damon Salvatore."

"Do it," he laughed. "Because you really are getting nothing now. The only person I am legally obliged to support is my unborn baby. You are now broke and homeless."

"Damon!"

"Goodbye, Kat."

Leaving the front door open behind him, hoping that she would break as she watched him leave, he threw his bag into the boot of his car and climbed in behind the wheel. He rested his head back against the headrest and finally took a breath. There was so much to process.

He'd finally left Katherine and he was sure that she was going to go to the police. She'd want the last laugh, so he knew it wouldn't be long until the police were searching for him. But he couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't pretend and play a part in Katherine's movie for much longer. If that meant going to prison, then he just had to bite his tongue and accept it.

And Elena. His Elena was pregnant with their baby. The thought made him smile. Knowing the woman he was so desperately in love with was carrying their child was enough to make the vile memories of the past few months dissipate into thin air.

Of course he wished she'd told him to begin with but he understood why she didn't. He knew she'd meant to and that was her plan all along, but the Katherine pregnancy bombshell changed it all. There was no anger, just a bit of sadness that she'd had to deal with it all alone and all he could wish for was that she'd continued with the pregnancy and that everything was okay.

He shot off down the highway towards the airport for the next flight to London.

He dialled her number but it kept going to voicemail. He needed to hear her voice and tell her that he knew, that he was coming for them and that although he might be hours away from a prison sentence, he chose her. He'd always choose her.

She couldn't help it. She kept looking up at clocks and her phone, watching the time go by, knowing that the moment she was dreading most was closing in. He would be saying 'I do' soon. In fact, in less than 12 hours, Damon would be a married man. She tried to focus on her Uncle John and all his stories but Damon just wouldn't leave. She'd filled up John's itinerary with things to do and see in hope it would keep her mind busy. It didn't work.

It'd been a long day of reminiscing when she should have been, but everything reminded her of Damon and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling that she should have done more to help him.

"It's nice to see you taking on a new adventure," John said as they sat down at a cafe inThe airport. "I was worried, but London suits you. I think you made the right decision, Elena."

"Can you tell mom that?" She laughed.

"She just wants to be a part of your new life. She's going to be a grandma, she wants to be involved."

"I know," she smiled. "I've promised her that I will go home before the baby is born for some mother daughter bonding."

"Good," John said and reached for her hands. "We're so proud of you and that baby will be very loved."

She glanced down at her phone more times than she could count as John told her stories of his time with the police. It was nice to have him visit, he was always like a second father to her and she truly cared for him. While Grayson was warm, caring and open, John was tougher and brutally honest - but everyone needed a bit of that once in a while.

"Are you okay, Elena?" He frowned. "You're very pale."

She pressed her hand against her belly where a sharp stinging sensation had been bothering her all morning.

"Yeah, just a bit uncomfortable that's all," she said.

He wanted to say more but his phone chimes from his pocket. He pulled it out and smiled as he walked away to take it.

His flight to LA had been delayed by two hours, so she'd agreed to sit with him and wait.

She took one final glance at her phone. There wasn't long to go until Damon was a married man. A father. She let herself wonder how many days there'd be between hers and Katherine's due dates. Their babies would grow up so close in many ways but so different in others.

"So," John sighed as he sat down at their table. "Sorry about that."

"No problem, is everything okay?"

"It appears I need to cut short my L.A trip. Mystic Falls council has asked me to be the one to reopen Wickery Bridge," he said.

"It's been closed?"

"Yes, they finally got round to making it safer for cars to drive on. They've put up speed cameras, CCTV and proper railings on. It's about time, don't you think?"

"How come you're the one to reopen it?"

"I put a lot of work into petitioning and campaigning for the safety of that bride to be improved," he sighed. "I think they want to appear as if they were listening to public concerns."

"Oh," she smiled.

"And I was the investigating officer of the night of that hit and run. You remember - a family went over the bridge."

Of course she remembered. It was hard to forget when the father of her unborn child was the man to hit the car and drive off. What an awful twist of fate that her uncle was the man investigating the crash.

"A terrible thing," she said. "So when do you need to go back?"

"Tomorrow. Well, there's no point in me going to LA now, is there? I might as well go find a flight to Atlanta."

"Are they doing anything to honour the family that went over the bridge?"

"No," he shook his head. "That family left Mystic Falls years ago."

"I don't blame them. They must have awful memories," she shrugged and sipped on her water. "Poor kid."

The pain in her stomach gradually worsened before spreading into her lower back. She shuffled around on her chair, trying to get comfy but the pain didn't want to subside.

"Well from what I've heard, the lad is doing really well. He's got a scholarship for an Ivy League."

"His dad would be so proud."

"He is," John said as he poured some milk into his tea. "His father actually runs a popular blog now and the mother is teaching. Lovely family. Very lucky."

Elena took her bottle from her lips and set it down. She watched her uncle very intently as he spoke. The family was doing well. The son was at college, the mother was teaching and the father, the father that Damon told her was dead, ran a popular blog.

"Are we talking about the same family?" She asked. "How many people have gone over that bridge?"

"What are you on about, Elena? I thought the baby brain didn't kick in until the last trimester," John laughed.

"You said the family were very lucky. I don't see anything lucky about death."

"Death? Nobody has died on that bridge, Elena, and thankfully it's safe enough now that they shouldn't."

Her lips began to tingle as a wave of nausea washed over her, but she shoved it to the side. The story as she knew it, a family lost a father that night and Damon had spent a huge chunk of his life feeling guilty and allowing himself to be blackmailed because of it.

"I was told a man died that night," she stuttered. "That only a child and a woman survived. Barely at that."

"Well you were told wrong," he said. "I think the worst damage was to the mum's ankle and even then it was only a sprain. They were very lucky. Nobody died, Elena. Don't believe everything you read on the internet."

"Nobody died?"

"No," he laughed. "In fact, they're a very happy family living somewhere in Chicago."

A horrible cold sweat came over her and all of a sudden, she couldn't breathe. Everything that Damon had been through, that they had gone through as a couple never needed to happen. Katherine was lying and holding a promise of nothing over his head. He was innocent in all of this.

Damon never killed anyone. The only thing he was guilty of was driving away from a crime scene and while that was bad enough, he didn't take a life as he truly believed. If anybody had taken a life, it was Katherine. She'd stolen his.

"Elena?" John questioned. "Are you okay, love?"

"I need to make a phone call," she panicked. "I'm sorry, uncle John. I've got to go."

Before he could say anything, she grabbed her bag and ran from the cafe. When she got outside and finally got a signal, she called his number. He wouldn't be married yet, there was still time to save him. He didn't have to spend the rest of his life with that monster and if she could save him, she'd do all she could. It didn't matter that Katherine was pregnant, Damon could fight for custody. None of that really mattered as long as Damon was safe and away from Katherine.

His phone went straight to voicemail each time. She tried Ric but he never answered. She even tried Lily, but her phone was switched off.

She ran back towards the desk, ready to buy a ticket out to Mystic Falls. Maybe she could get there just before the wedding, stop it and tell him. Tell everyone what a vile creature Katherine was.

As she got to the desk, a cold sweat fell over her and her heart began to race. The stabbing pains she'd been feeling all day worsened until she felt as if every bone in her body was breaking. She curved over and gripped her stomach as her body trembled.

"Oh my gosh," an older lady said as she came to stand by Elena's side. "You're bleeding, dear."

She looked down at her grey trousers now soaked in red blood.

Then everything went black.

A/N - No DE but some big bombs dropped! Next chapter up on Saturday.