I do not own Vampire Diaries

Anastasia had created a fireplace last night because she was feeling cold, she would have made herself more warm just by willing herself to be, but she loved looking at the fire, the movement of the flames somehow calmed her, it helped her to go to sleep, she had sat on a coach she had created in front of the fireplace, all the while humming a lullaby to her little angel. After a while, she went to bed and cuddled next to her baby who had already fallen asleep.

During the night, Stefan and Damon both hear the sound of a scream and they immediately knew who it was, they vamp sped to her room, and were admittedly shocked to find each other there at the same time. They hardly cared though as they opened the door to see Anastasia writhing on her bed with the most painful expression on her face screaming, "No!" over and over again. They noticed Liana was awake and was trying to make her mother calm down, and as they were about to go forward to do something, they saw Anastasia calming down slightly before she finally gasped awake.

"Mommy, you had bad dream again." Liana said tearfully.

"It's okay baby, I'm fine, go back to sleep." Anastasia said as she caressed her daughters cheek.

"Will you be okay mommy?" Liana asked her mother.

"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine, just go back to sleep." Anastasia said gently.

"Okay mommy." Liana yawned before she went back to sleep though her brows were furrowed slightly and Anastasia frowned at that before she had a sudden idea. She pulled the blanket over her baby, kissing her forehead before she held her face in her hands and thought about something her baby loved. Sofia the First was one of her favourite cartoons so she played out a whole dream of that in her head so she wouldn't have a nightmare like her. Unbeknownst to her the brothers were standing still in the doorway watching as her eyes flash gold. They then heard a tinkling laugh from Liana who smiled adorably as she slept and they noticed Anastasia smiling in satisfaction, apparently she can do what they could, giving other people dreams, except this one was a good one from the looks of it. Anastasia laughed at her little angel as she giggled in her sleep, she wouldn't be waking up any time soon, she then got off the bed and walked towards the balcony this room had. She was so stuck in her thoughts about the nightmare that she had just had that she hadn't noticed the brothers walking a little closer in the room, though they both stopped as soon as they heard her begin crying silently, what should they do now? They didn't have to do anything as they then heard her beautiful voice again, though this one didn't sound as happy as the other one she sang today, a far cry from it actually. (I want you here – Plumb)

"An ache
So deep
That I can hardly breathe
This pain
Can't be imagined
Will it ever heal?" The pain in her voice was obvious to the brothers but which part of her life was she talking about?

"Your hand
So small
Held a strand of my hair
So strong
All I could do
Was keep believing
Was that enough?" They immediately understood what she meant by this, she was talking about her firstborn. They had thought it was a miscarriage or something, they hadn't known that she had held her baby in her hands, how was she still so strong?

"Is anyone there?" When she said this, the break in her voice told them both exactly how alone she was feeling to have suffered so much by herself, even her friend hadn't been there from what they heard and her father obviously wasn't, so who did she lean on?

"I wanna scream
Is this a dream?
How could this happen
Happen to me?" They heard her cry out the lines as if in literal agony as she clutched her stomach as if willing her baby to appear and it nearly brought tears to Stefan's eyes as Damon tried to control the emotions she threatened to bring out of him, it was really hard to even watch because she was literally showing all the pain she was feeling, the pain she hid day in and day out that made it so hard to even notice what was going in her mind. They suddenly noticed then how the once clear sky began to become cloudy as rain poured down from the skies to match the tears falling from Anastasia's eyes.

"This isn't fair
This nightmare
This kind of torture
I just can't bear
I want you here
I want you here." Anastasia sang the lines from her heart, the longing and absolute anguish in her voice was clear for them to see and they didn't know what to do, should they leave, because they really couldn't take it anymore or should they stay, not wanting to leave her alone? They chose to stay as they watched her cry in the rain, it was beginning to storm now, they could hear the thunder in the distance.

"I waited so long
For you to come
Then you were here
And now you're gone
I was not prepared
For you to leave me
Oh this is misery." Anastasia said as the rain poured down, she sat down and leant her head against the balcony ledge as her knees were bent in front of her, she took something out of her pocket, something she always carried with her, something she never left home without, she never thought about it often otherwise she'd be crying her eyes out 24/7 but she always had it with her, she rubbed the picture softly with her thumbs as tears poured relentlessly down her face, the brothers went a little closer to see what she was looking at and Stefan nearly gasped as he noticed what it was, whilst Damon widened his eyes, it was an ultrasound scan, god this just made this all the more heart breaking.

"Are you still there?" Anastasia asked caressing the photo before she let out a sob and leant her head fully against the railings of the balcony, closing her eyes as she clutched the photo to her chest, crying out the words again. The storm was beginning to become worse before they realised that she wasn't getting wet, how was that possible? There was like a circle around her where the rain couldn't get through and their eyes widened when they realised like their control was attached to their emotions, Anastasia's magic was to hers, but exactly how powerful was she that she had been able to change the weather due just with her emotions, no wonder they had both had that feeling not to feed from her.

"I wanna scream
Is this a dream?
How could this happen
Happen to me?

This isn't fair
This nightmare
This kind of torture
I just can't bear
I want you here
I want you here

God help me
God help me
God help me
Breathe

I wanna scream
Is this a dream?
How could this happen
Happen to me?

This isn't fair
This nightmare
This kind of torture
I just can't bear
I want you here
I want you here
I want you here
I want you here." She sobbed out the last line as she curled into a ball, her head resting against her bent knees as she cried. At this point, the rain was only getting heavier the more she cried.

"An ache
So deep
That I
Can hardly breathe." At this point, Anastasia began crying out fully and Stefan couldn't hold himself back anymore as he wiped a tear from his eye, he went towards her and picked her up, cradling her in his lap, stroking the back of her hair as, when she noticed who he was, began hugging him and sobbing into his chest like she had done before with Ryan. It was weird for him to feel half of his body getting wet and the other dry, just how powerful was she?

Damon just stood there not knowing what to do but for some reason the sight of her in his brother's arms seemed to boil his blood but he controlled his anger, he didn't care, he couldn't, she was just another girl, so he began to walk away. Then he stopped, if he was nice to her, she would learn to trust him and then she might share something about how to get Katherine out the tomb and from what he saw now, she was really powerful and would be really useful with opening the tomb so he changed his mind and walked over and crouched next to them. He really had no idea how to comfort someone so he put a hand on her shoulder and she looked at him with teary eyes.

Despite the reason behind what he was doing, he truly did want her to stop crying, which was weird, normally he's the reason the girl's in tears but this time it was different. God, what was this girl doing to him? He had only met her two days ago and here he was comforting her like they've known each other longer, then he told himself he was doing it for a reason, he needed to get Katherine, he doesn't care about her, he didn't, but why does this girl manage to bring the feelings out of him. He sighed and told himself that just today he'd be nice like he was pretending to be before with her and then tomorrow, he would resort back to being his usual self, no harm done.

He opened his arms slightly and pulled her slightly, away from his brother who looked at him in shock, he turned his head away from him, he didn't care what he thought, this was a one-time thing, it would never happen again, well, until she opened up to him and told him what he wanted to know. Anastasia stiffened slightly in his arms before she gradually relaxed as she carried on crying, she hugged him tighter and he held her like Stefan had done before he stroked her hair as well, it seemed to have calmed her down when his brother was doing it, so he tried it himself. Stefan, all the while, was staring at his brother in shock, he knew it, he knew he had seen something, his brother did care for her, it was the only explanation for him even bothering to show up here when he heard her scream, and for the way he held her now, there was no other possible explanation. He knew that Damon couldn't hurt her right now so he kissed the back of Anastasia's head before he left the room, wanting to give them some room, if anyone could find his brother's humanity, it'd be her. He did listen on though, he didn't trust his brother that much, in fact, he didn't trust him at all but he sort of did trust him with her, for now.

It was a while later that Anastasia calmed down in his arms and coincidentally just as she did the storm began to dissipate as she tried to pull away from him though he held on as he asked, "You okay?"

"Do you want the truth or the lie?" Anastasia said her voice hoarse from crying so much as she rubbed her eyes before she finally escaped from his arms as they sat next to each other.

"The truth." Damon answered immediately as he looked at her under the moonlight, she was beautiful normally but under the moon, she seemed to be almost ethereal as she gazed at the sky.

"No, I'm not okay. It's been 5 year since I…since I miscarriaged because of him and the pain is as fresh as if it happened yesterday. I wrote that song after that actually, it helped me a lot at the time." Anastasia said, not knowing why she was sharing this with Damon of all people.

"Wait, because of him?" Damon questioned curiously trying not to dwell on the raw power he had just witnessed.

"I told him that I was pregnant." Anastasia explained with a monotone voice, she was clearly trying to push it all away.

"What happened?" Damon asked trying to be gentle, he could be her confidant and then in time, she would start sharing things with him and he'd get his answers.

"He threw me down the stairs." Anastasia said bluntly.

"He did what?" Damon asked shocked, that means he had literally killed his own child.

"I was a stupid 19 year old girl who thought that maybe with the promise of a child, we could finally act like some semblance of a family, since I was naïve enough to believe he'd never hurt children. I was obviously wrong and I payed for it with my baby's life." Anastasia explained with a break in her voice.

"You were 19?" Damon asked turning to face her surprised.

"Yeah, I had been living with him since I was 17 and no matter how much I wanted to leave him, I couldn't." Anastasia said shrugging her shoulders helplessly.

"You were only a kid, what happened wasn't your fault." Damon said to her, for this he was certain, he could hear it in her voice how much she blamed herself but it wasn't her fault, she had truly just been a kid after all.

Anastasia scoffed before she said, "He beat me for 2 years Damon, and I was stupid enough to think that he might change with the promise of a kid. God I was such an idiot, you know I held off telling him until my stomach actually started showing but I was already so skinny because of the lack of food…"

"He starved you?" Damon asked his eyes wide, trying to ignore the mingling of concern at the back of his mind, he knew that had to be the reason for her being so skinny.

"He put me on the most strictest diet, said he wanted me to stay in shape, I kept on losing weight, so much so that when I actually started showing it was after 8 months. I had only one month left to see my baby so I told him before it happened, I didn't expect him to get so angry, neither did I expect him to push me down the stairs. That night I miscarriaged, there was blood everywhere, it was a boy, my baby boy, you know he looked just like a baby was supposed to look like, he was fully grown, I had to bury him, I went outside, dug the hole as much as I could, hugged him one last time and said goodbye." Anastasia said crying again gasping for breath between the words before she got up and leant against the balcony trying to control her breathing, she did not need another panic attack right now.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Damon said as he stood next to her, after he said that he internally smacked himself, what was he doing here, sympathising with the girl, she meant nothing, he was here for Katherine why on earth was he wasting time with this girl saying meaningless things. She was only a pawn in the grand scheme of things, he needed information on the tomb and she was the quickest route there. Yes, she may be different than most girls he's met but what difference does it make? He loved Katherine and the sooner he got her out the tomb, the sooner he could get out of here.

"It's not your fault I just wish I didn't have to relive every moment whenever I close my eyes. If it's not that memory I'm reliving every night, it's my life with James, if it's not that it's when Aiden died, and if it's not that, it's something happening to Liana as I stand there helpless." Anastasia said shaking her head to clear it.

"Or it's visions." Damon stated.

"Or it's visions." Anastasia sighed as she agreed, she'd much rather prefer the visions instead of the memories but unfortunately she didn't control when she could or couldn't have them.

"Have you had any?" Damon asked curiously.

"If I did, I wouldn't tell you." Anastasia said immediately.

"Why not?" Damon asked her frustrated, he wanted to know if she had seen something but unfortunately he couldn't compel her to tell him anything and apparently she wouldn't anyway no matter how much kindness he showed her. Though there was a mingling question at the back of his mind, about her weaknesses, he didn't know any of them, except for Liana. He had thought because she wasn't a normal vampire, that she could be compelled but he was wrong, there had to be a reason she was the way she was. He noticed that she always wore the same locket every single time and he was beginning to think it had something to do with it, maybe without it, she could be compelled.

"I don't trust you." Anastasia said bluntly, it was the truth.

"You don't trust any man because of that ex of yours." Damon said to her annoyed that he couldn't get the answers he wanted, what if she did see how to get in the tomb, how would he make her tell him?

"That's not true. I trust Ryan and I trust Stefan." Anastasia countered.

"Of course you trust Saint Stefan." Damon said his annoyance now shown on his face.

"You haven't given me any reason to besides being nice to me now, which I'm starting to think was because you wanted me to tell you what I know. I said before that you'd have to earn it and now you're being unusually nice, what do you want Damon?" Anastasia crossed her arms in irritation.

"Nothing. I can be nice when I want you know?" Damon asked pretending be angry and hurt as he turned and began walking out the room.

"Wait! I'm sorry if I'm being paranoid, you're right, I don't trust people often, men especially." Anastasia agreed feeling guilty for hurting his feelings, he had after all been nice to her.

"It's alright I understand. I'll see you tomorrow." Damon said as he smiled at her trying not to smirk.

"Though I want to say thank you for listening to me." Anastasia said and he nodded at her before turning to leave.

"Wait, I completely forgot, what are you doing with Caroline?" Anastasia asked her stance changing from apologetic to protective.

"Caroline? Why would you think I'm doing something?" Damon asked innocently.

"You're using her as a blood bag aren't you?" Anastasia asked angry.

"If I was, what would you do?" Damon asked challengingly.

"I'll protect her at any cost Damon." Anastasia warned.

"You know you're not like normal witches and neither are you a normal vampire but you have to have one weakness, let me see if I am right." Damon said and she looked at him confused before he vamp sped towards her and ripped her locket off her neck throwing it away from her as she screamed, "No! What are you…" before he grabbed her by the throat.

"You're going to forget about me using Caroline as a blood bag and you're going to tell me every vision you have from now on, now go to bed, you really want to sleep." Damon compelled her hoping it would work but when he looked at her enraged face he realised it didn't so he expected it when he went flying back as he crashed into the wall, he groaned as he tried to get back up but he realised his arms were immobile. He then saw Stefan come barging in the room looking at them both alarmed.

"You bastard!" Anastasia shouted before she stopped when she noticed her daughter stir in her sleep, so she quickly willed something to appear that would make sure Liana wouldn't hear a thing and a dome appeared around her before fading away like the gold of her eyes. She then looked around for her locket, where the hell was it? She looked in the direction he threw it in and gasped in shock before she zoomed over using her vampire speed and saw the locket in the fire. She tried to grab it but she cried out as she got burned by the fire and Stefan immediately went over pulling her hand back.

"What on earth are you doing?" Stefan asked shocked, didn't she knew fire was a vampire's weakness?

"My locket, I need to get my locket." Anastasia said frantically.

"Hey, hey leave it, we can get another one." Stefan said gently.

"No I can't, that was the last pictures I had of them, let me go." Anastasia said before she pulled her hand out of his grasp turning to the flames, she willed the locket to appear in front of her and with a flash of her eyes, the locket, or the remains of her locket appeared in front of her. She didn't care about the burn of her hands as she opened the locket only to see the pictures burnt to ash. She sobbed as she said, "No, no, no, no, no."

"Ana." Stefan said softly as she picked up the ash in her hands crying with tears streaming down her face.

"Don't." Anastasia said before she got up and walked towards Damon enraged who was looking at what he did with only the slightest feeling of, well he didn't know what it was, but it made him feel like he shouldn't have done what he did. He had just calmed her down from crying and then now, only a few minutes later, he was the cause of it. "That's why you were playing nice, you wanted me to tell you what I'll see in my visions, for what I don't know but if you hadn't pulled that stunt right now, I wonder how long I would have been fooled by your nice act. You're a selfish arrogant fool Damon." She snapped at him not realising what was happening until she heard Damon screaming his lungs out writhing against the wall, she was shocked by how much rage she felt but not enough to actually stop whatever the hell her magic was doing.

"Ana." Stefan said cautiously.

"Relax I'm not going to kill your oh so previous brother. Just teaching him a lesson." Anastasia said before she cut the curse after half a minute as Damon breathed heavily still stuck to the wall. "You burnt the only two pictures of my mother and brother that I have to remember them by, you tried to make me forget about you using Caroline as your own personal blood bag, you were pretending to be nice to get information from me and then you wonder why I have a hard time trusting men. Be glad I didn't do anything worse than that because James is the last man on earth that will ever even think of using me, you understand?"

Damon glared at the girl before him, he had felt his heart being squeezed slowly and as it was being squeezed he felt as if there were needles digging in and it got more and more painful, he was literally screaming, he's never felt such pain before, it was excruciating. God, he still couldn't even think properly but he did know that right now, he couldn't even be bothered to feel even an ounce of remorse for what he did except for the fact that it hadn't worked.

"I said do you understand, unless you want me to make myself more clearer." Anastasia said trying to control her anger.

"I understand." Damon gritted out the words before Anastasia scoffed and knocked him out cold, she didn't know how long that would last, she didn't care though.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Stefan asked internally cursing his brother for screwing up.

"He tried to compel me, again, he ripped off my locket, I don't even know why, he had already tried before and it didn't work." Anastasia said confused as she left Damon sticking there.

"Because he might have thought the locket held vervain, it's a poisonous plant to vampires and if worn or consumed by a human, they are immune to compulsion so he might have thought that since you have all these other powers on top of being a vampire, you might be immune to vervain and are therefore wearing it, which will prevent compulsion." Stefan tried to explain his brother's point of view, he had left him for only a few minutes before he heard a scream and a crash from the room, how could his brother have messed up already and here he had thought that he wouldn't hurt her, guess he was wrong in his assumption after all.

"God, I hate him, I hate him Stefan, they were the only pictures I had left and now they're gone." Anastasia said with tears in her eyes.

"Are they?" A familiar voice said from behind them and Anastasia gasped as she turned alongside Stefan.

"De-Alexander." Anastasia said still shocked.

"Miss me?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"How did you…What are you doing here?" Anastasia said as Stefan looked between them in confusion, how had the guy got in her room?

"Huh and here I thought you'd be more happy to see me." He pouted before he pulled something familiar from behind his back. "Now I suppose this is going to stay with me."

"Wait, is that…Did you…How?" Anastasia said completely surprised, she hadn't realised than in her shock, she had accidentally let go of the knock out spell on Damon began and he woke up looking at what was happening in confusion, who the hell was that guy? And what was he doing in Anastasia's bedroom? Despite what had happened, he still for some reason hated when she was with another man, it just irritated him for reasons even he didn't know, especially when they were as hot as him, which was a weird thing to say but it was true and it was irritating, why couldn't she find less dashing men, it would certainly make him feel better.

"You're asking all the right questions, though you might want to finish them first." Alexander said smirking at her.

Anastasia rolled her eyes before she vamp sped over to him to grab it but he vanished from in front of her and appeared behind her and she looked wide eyed at that before the locket dangled in front of her face.

"Looking for this?" He said teasingly before he moved it out of her way when she went to grab it and he then said, "I'll give it you if you give me…hmm…oh I know, what about… a kiss?"

"Wait, a what?" Damon couldn't help but pipe up with a glare on his face directed at the man who was now smirking.

"I said a kiss, do you need your hearing checked?" He said to the guy still hung up, he wasn't feeling too happy with him despite what he knew, what he did now was infuriating, Anastasia was not to be messed with, he hated it when anyone did, and it wouldn't end well for them at all.

"Must be his old age, it's probably taking a toll on him." Anastasia added her two scents as she glared at Damon before she turned back to Alexander. "Why a kiss, can't you just give me the locket?"

"I may like you Anastasia, and you may be my favourite being on this earth but that still doesn't make me nice." Alexander said with a smirk and Damon nearly growled at the thought of them being together before he shook of the feeling, there had to be something wrong with him, he had only met the girl two days ago and whilst she was intriguing, that didn't exactly warrant what he was feeling, well trying not to feel.

"Please?" Anastasia said her puppy dog eyes on full display. Alexander immediately turned away.

"Nope. I'm not going to fall for that, a kiss or no locket, and don't even think about going for the loophole, no cheek kiss, a lip kiss." Alexander said firmly, they both knew exactly why he was doing this.

"I can't do that." Anastasia said immediately shaking her head, the memories of bruised lips, choking breaths, his hand crushing her windpipe as he forced her to kiss him plagued her mind.

"Can't you. Are you going to let that man control the rest of your life?" Alexander asked deliberately provoking her.

"No." She snapped firmly.

"Well then, you need to start healing Anastasia, first step, kiss me." Alexander said and she grumbled slightly under her breath but she did step forwards as she took a deep breath and kissed him, immediately the memories came rushing back and she pulled away gasping as she tried to get the images out of her head. Stefan looked concerned at her trembling body and he realised what the guy was talking about when he remembered that she had been raped by her ex and even the thought had him nearly losing control, he had never felt so much rage or concern as he thought about what the guy had done to someone as kind and pure as Anastasia and he understood where the guy was coming from, she needed to heal from what happened otherwise she'd be terrified for the rest of her life. Damon, as soon as he saw them kiss, growled low in his throat as he glared daggers at them, he didn't know why he felt like ripping the guy's head off, but he knew that if he could move, he wouldn't have hesitated but when she pulled away shaking, her breaths shorter than before he realised that it wasn't exactly a good thing for her after all and that made him feel better but the reason why she hadn't enjoyed it even a smidgeon made him feel as enraged as before, just not for the same reasons.

"Don't let the memories control you, fight it Anastasia, you're strong, you've always been strong, now show me exactly how strong you can be." Alexander instructed and Anastasia breathed in a few times before she kissed him again, this time she lasted longer but she still pulled away and moved away from him her breaths shorter than before but still better than last time. "See, now when you find someone else to live your life with, remember that you are stronger than the demons that plague your mind, don't give up Anastasia, I rather like you feisty." He whispered the last part in her ear causing her to shiver slightly before he pulled away, trying not to smirk at the glare he could feel on his form from the eldest Salvatore brother.

"I'm never going to have a boyfriend again Alexander, you know what I'm calling you Alex. So Alex there was no point in that kiss because I'm never going anywhere near a guy romantically ever again." Anastasia said seriously.

"We'll see." Alexander said smirking at her before he kissed her forehead and disappeared and she gasped when she felt her locket already around her neck, how had he done that?

"Do you mind letting me down and telling me who exactly that guy was Anastasia?" Damon asked annoyed, seeing her kiss the man, twice, just made him want to rip that guy's head off, for some reason unbeknownst to himself, from her words he knew they weren't a thing and that helped him calm down knowing that the guy had only done it trying to help her heal from what had happened, which he tried not to think about because he felt a rise of emotions inside of him that he couldn't be bothered to decipher or deal with.

"Fine." Anastasia said reluctantly as she released him, though she kept an eye on him wearily.

"So who was that guy Ana? And how did he get in your room and literally vanish into thin air?" Stefan asked curiously.

"He's a friend of mine and all I can tell you is that he's different, like me. The rest is not my story to tell." Anastasia said a little sheepishly, what else could she say anyway?

"You cannot be serious?" Damon asked shocked, that was all she was going to say.

"I am totally serious. Bye bye now. I haven't slept and I am really tired so shoo. Oh and one more thing, you both really need to stop eavesdropping." Anastasia said before she ushered them out the room and thankfully they left, well after she glared at them and threatened them with that spell that she used on Damon, they scurried out after that. Then she removed the bubble surrounding Liana and holding the locket in her hand she opened it to see the pictures inside, her father had thrown away every memory of them and she had only managed to find these two pics and put them in a locket for safe keeping which she was thankful for. If Alex hadn't fixed it for her, she would have been a mess and would have probably taken it all out on Damon, well more than she already had, she was so pissed off by what happened, after having a decent conversation where she thought that he wasn't as bad as her first impression of him had been only to find out that he had only been acting like that to get information from her, she shook her head at that, that was the reason she didn't trust men as much and she was right in doing so she thought before she closed the locket and despite how much she was afraid to, sleep claimed her in only a few moments, she was tired after all.