"She's not here," stated Elena, exiting the bathroom in Emily's room. Stefan's brows furrowed.

"Uh, hang on," he tells, upon catching what sounded like a phone alarm ringing. He exits the room completely,

and heads to Damon's, either assuming he knew where she was, or that she was there already. Elena follows after him, wondering where Emily could be.

She is unaware the adjacent room is Damon's, so the sight she is presented with when Stefan switched the lights on was not one she was expecting, neither was Stefan.

Damon was leaning over Emily to shut off her annoying phone alarm. He obviously saw them, and was taken off guard at first, before he was amused with the looks on their faces. "Well, hello," he greeted slyly. Emily shifted from being curled up against Damon's chest at the noise, and saw he was looking at the doorway, before down at her. Suspicious, she rolled onto her back, her tired eyes squinted at the two figures several feet away.

When her vision adjusted, and she noted who they were, she shot up, her head hitting Damon in the face. "Ow!" he exclaimed, despite it not hurting that bad. She whirled her head to him in shock, and quickly placed a hand on his cheek.

"Sorry!" she apologized profusely. The look in her eyes distracted him more than the pain, till she turned away and faced her sibling, and his, again.

She scurried out of bed and approached them. "Elena! What are you doing?" she asked, a nervous smile on her lips as she brushed a hand through her tangled hair and glanced between the two. Stefan looked to be hiding a smirk as his face was declined to the floor. Damon grinned at the thought of what the duo was thinking had happened as Elena continued to go: "Uh, uh," till she spoke. "Bonnie…gave me the daylight, thing." Between her index finger and thumb, Elena held up the ankle bracelet Emily had remembered to remove before leaving with Damon to…turn. "She said it would go with anything, so she exchanged the vervain in your bracelet with, uh, the gem," Elena explains uncertainly as Damon approached the group.

"An ankle bracelet?!" he asked in shock. Emily took it from her, and kneeled down to wear it. "You kept your vervain in an ankle bracelet?!" he repeated. Stefan was also slightly surprised.

"Yeah, I thought it was smart," she stated, getting up again. Damon considers it, and nods as she jogged back in haste to the closed-curtain window.

"Kinda hot too," he commented, facing her back as she walked.

She pulled open the heavy curtains, bright sunlight beaming into the room, and causing her eyes to squint shut,

but she didn't care.

She smiled widely.

Yes, she wasn't allowed in the sun for just the previous day, so she couldn't exactly tell why it felt so rejuvenating. Perhaps it was the ability to stand in it without the background fear of getting burned, a good notion she needed amongst the many more concerns.

Suddenly, she was out of their sight, followed by a sweeping rush of air from the room, out the door.

They looked to the hallway to find it empty, and started after her to where they assumed she had gone.

The front door was left open, and she was just a few feet out, soaking in the sun, the warm air, the cool rush of wind, listening to birds sing in a blissful feeling.

She laughed out, and faced them, who were at the door's threshold, all but Elena, slowly, curiously approaching her.

Emily zoomed towards and engulfed her in a tight hug. Elena was taken aback, but not un-pleased. Emily's heightened excitement and strength had her literally lifting Elena off the ground and spinning her in circle, causing the younger Gilbert to laugh as well. Damon and Stefan were fairly content with a joyful sight for a change.

XXX

"So. You slept with her," Stefan comments as he prepared coffee for all in the kitchen.

"Hehe, no," Damon replies with a smirk as he approached the counter with a change of clothing and snatched one of the coffee mugs.

"Really?" Stefan asked, audibly not convinced.

"You know, it wouldn't be your business if we did. And do me a favor. Stay out of it," Damon sternly tells.

"Out of it?" Stefan slyly asks.

"Anything Emily-related. Just stay out of it."

"Okay. But I just need to clarify that, giving her the wrong ideas, getting her upset, causing her to lose her trust in you," Stefan tells, approaching Damon and speaking seriously as the latter rolled his eyes. "She loses control. She kills people, and I can't stay out of that," he tells. Damon eyes him menacingly, annoyed with the fact that he wanted to negate all of Stefan's negative outcome assumptions, whilst refusing to flat-out admit that he wouldn't in any way hurt her.

XXX

"So. You slept with him," Elena stated, stood beside Emily in her bathroom as the latter brushed her teeth at the sink.

"Uh, uhh!" Emily exclaimed in a muffled voice.

"Then what were you doing in his room? Asleep?!" Emily spit out toothpaste and washed her mouth, before taking note to leave the sink on as she spoke.

"I was…" she started, shaking her head as she approached the towel by the door. She wiped her face, and heard Elena turn off the water. "No, keep it on," she told, rushing to do so.

"Why?" Elena asked in confusion.

"So they can't hear us!" Emily stated. Elena was surprised by the strange fact. "Look, I…was having trouble sleeping, and he…"

"Had sex with you," Elena finished for her. Emily eyes her in bewilderment.

"We did not have sex!"

"What, so he just, offered to comfort you to sleep?! Emily. He's expecting sex as compensation," Elena knowingly tells.

"He's not like that," Emily firmly insists.

"Are you kidding me?!" Elena mocks in disbelief.

"Not with me," Emily cuts her off. Elena calms down, and eyes her sympathetically, upset with what she thought was her sister being played. "Look. Twice before, we shared a bed, and he didn't make a move. It's not abo-" Emily heartedly tried to explain, as though needing to confirm it even for herself, when Elena cut her off in shock:

"Twice?" Emily sighed tiredly, reluctant to go into details, but somewhat reassured that the rushing water from the tab kept them 'safe' from future embarrassment or awkward conversations with the Salvatores in the kitchen.

"The night he…found out Katherine wasn't in the tomb, and…a couple days after that," she says. Elena stares at her for a long moment.

"You just…Slept together?"

"Yeah."

"…Wow. You. Guys are…really weird," she furrows her brows. "So. What? What does this mean, exactly?"

"I don't know, and honestly, I don't wanna ask. I think it'll…freak him out, and I don't wanna lose…whatever it is we…have," Emily confessed with an uncertain tone.

Whatever it was they had.

Damon was…He wasn't, some regular encounter, some regular guy. Putting aside that he was a vampire, he had the ability to affect Emily intensely. Everything that had occurred between them, every memory she had of him, was so strong, every time he made her laugh, every time he made her mad. Every talk. Every kiss.

Did she want more? Probably since the day she'd met him. "But," she sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose, "I also know he's…not ready to get into anything serious…" She wouldn't risk losing what they already had, regardless of appropriateness, to try and see where things were going. "It's too soon, so just. Please don't bring this up in front of him. Or talk about, any of this." Elena processed her request. She looked displeased with the way her sister was handling her… 'love life,' or whatever category this fit into. Even so, she nodded in compliance.

XXX

The girls rejoin the boys downstairs, entering the kitchen. Seeing so occur, Damon walks out. Away. Wherever else he wasn't involved in a conversation where both Stefan, and the annoying, dramatic version of Katherine were.

Sitting at the dining table and discussing school with Stefan for a moment. As such, Emily half-heartedly listens, glancing every now and then at Damon, who was in the living room with a glass in hand, stood opposite the window, just standing. 'God, he's gorgeous,' her mind uttered in synch with her aching chest.

He looks at her.

Her heart jumps, and for a moment, she can't look away. "Emily," Elena calls, snapping her out of it.

"Y-Yeah?" she replies, giving her full attention whilst hoping she hadn't been caught staring.

"I said Mr. Saltzman called me after class, and gave me a copy of Jeremy's extra credit paper. He wrote about the vampires of Mystic Falls," she warily said. Emily's brows raise, and Stefan's furrows. Hearing what was said, Damon approached them as well. "Yeah. He said Jeremy made it very clear that he didn't believe it, but…"

"But what if he does. That would be a problem," Damon states, pulling the chair next to Emily and residing in it, making her heart jump yet again. He was grateful he was too stubborn to let Stefan's earlier words affect him. He still sought the older Gilbert's company, and was also delaying the inevitable question regarding the nature of their relationship, not caring enough to give it a label.

Hearing her voice beckons his full attention. "I can. Try talking to him. I'll go to the hou-" Damon cuts her off.

"Whoa, whoa. There's no going home till I say so." Emily faces him, taking a moment to acknowledge his decline.

"But she's fine. She-" Elena starts.

"She won't be when they're by themselves and the thought of blood suddenly crosses her mind," he smirks grimly. Emily tenses up, and Stefan is always displeased with the way his brother chose to explain things.

"But, we were just alone upstairs-"

"For five minutes," Damon interrupts her again. Elena glares angrily at him, wondering what the hell Emily saw in him.

"Elena. He's right…" Emily tells her calmly. Elena faces her. "You'll have to do it. Talk to Jer."

"And tell him what?!"

"Just see if he knows anything, and if he doesn't, then let it go."

XXX

Stefan takes Elena home, and short while later, Damon tells Emily he was making a trip to the bank, along with a few other errands, and that he'd call her a while before returning so that she'd find time to get dressed, that they were going out again, and didn't tell her why before leaving.

But it didn't take a genius to guess. Matter of fact, he'd already told her the night before.

In the time she was alone, and unable to fully process what she'd be required to do, she decided to get explorative. She turned loud music on on her phone, and had it in her pocket to listen to as she half-walked half-danced around, relishing the 'me' time.

Exiting her room, she found there was five other bedrooms aside from hers and Damon's. None of them seemed inhabited enough for one to be Stefan's, and she found that his was apparently in the attic she soon decided to visit. Not wanting to pry, she left before getting a good look.

Somehow for the first time, she noticed the grand piano at one of the corners in the parlor, and wondered if it was just an antic, or if one of the Salvatores actually played. There was the living room they often found themselves in, with the fireplace a great distance from the front door, and most sitting furniture placed around it. There was the kitchen with the center counter, and the long dining table horizontal to the archway that led back into the living room. There was the library, which was huge, and fascinated Emily, despite not being much of a reader herself. She decided she'd spend most of her time there rather than in the room. She noticed, everywhere, fancy, antic décor pieces, mostly oil paintings portraying different dramatic scenes.

The final room is where she warily paused.

It was the cellar.

Last time she'd been there, Damon had threatened to kill someone, perhaps even her if he'd managed to catch her that horrid day before she stormed out the door and into the sun.

It felt like ages ago; it felt like she was remembering a completely different person. She didn't think she could even imagine being afraid of the Damon she now knew, the Damon who'd saved her when Fredrick nearly killed her, the Damon who stayed with her till Anna left the house, the Damon who was there in quite literally a minute when she'd called him and said there was someone in the house.

How could she fear him?

With such thoughts in mind, she regarded the basement as just another room, and went down to get a better look, forgetting completely a very vital detail that would prove a new threat to her.

The cell was first in view, black steel door shut tight. A shiver ran up her spine at the sight of it, and at looking away, she noticed the right side was used as a storage compartment, discarded furniture and the likes stacked atop one another.

Another step in made her freeze.

The smell.

That strong, intoxicating smell

of blood.

Her eyes fell on the freezer at the end of the room.

She gasped, the memory hitting her like a brick to the face.

She remembered seeing dozens of blood bags within it.

She could smell them then. Barely at the bottom of the stairs where she stood, as though only a foot from the freezer itself.

The twisting of her stomach and the urge to approach it caused her to greatly panic, and thoughtlessly zoom up the stairs, out the basement, then even further up to her room, where she shut tight the door and had her back to it as though keeping a monster out.

For about twenty minutes, she attempted to calm herself, not think about it, but it was literally all she could do!

'It's only a few feet away. What could go wrong? Oh, it tastes so, so good. Just one bag,' her hypnotized mind continued to suggest.

She caved, and decided she had to call him back.

She thought she could handle a few hours by herself, but like this!

XXX

Exiting the store, Damon, with his car roof kept down, placed the grocery bags in the back seat, his phone just then ringing. He fished it out of his pocket and immediately answered upon seeing her name. "Yeah?"

"Hey…Uh…How's it going?" she asked, tone nervous. Accompanied with her odd question, Damon's brows furrowed as he got behind the wheel.

"Fiiine. What's going on?" he asked, starting the car.

"Nothing. Just. When are you coming home?" she asked. Damon smirked, admitting to himself that it sounded like something his girlfriend would say.

"Missing me already?" he retorted, getting out of parking and onto the road.

"No…Just…" she grew quiet. No witty comeback? What else was she thinking of? Why did she sound so off?

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. She debated telling him, as though saying it out loud was a bad idea.

"…There's, um…in-in the cellar."

His eyes widen.

'Oh, fuck,' his mind muttered. "Did you go in?!"

"I did, but I…ran back out…I couldn't…The smell…" she replied shakily. Noting her state, Damon asked:

"Where are you now?"

"In my room."

"Okay, stay right-No. Get dressed…I'm coming to pick you up…"

XXXXX