A/N: I have to admit I was intrigued by the few small glimpses of Andie's real personality we were able to see in the show, and the fact that Damon was hurt by her death means he had some kind of feelings for her, so. Here's my take on that.
~ Little Pieces of Nothing ~
He is trying to do the right thing. He is trying so very hard not to completely fall apart.
He needs a distraction. A roadblock to throw in the path of his self-destructive spiral.
He finds one.
She is beautiful and fierce and he refuses to entertain the notion of being with her, at first. He knows he will destroy whoever he chooses to sacrifice on the altar of his own unraveling mind. Whoever's heart he uses to stitch his own back together will end up a broken shell of herself in the end - figuratively or literally.
He tries to pick someone else, anyone else. But once she's made her interest known, he can't get her out of his head. So he chooses her.
He compels her, uses her, feeds on her, plays with her like a doll.
His brother's taunting words your fake, compelled girlfriend stick in him like a cactus spine.
Whether intentionally or not, he lets the compulsion slip.
Underneath the layers of his control, she is still herself - a woman who knows her own mind and goes after what she wants. She is confident and sassy and not afraid to tell him off. And for some reason what she wants is still him.
He could have loved her, he thinks, if he wasn't so broken himself. If he knew how to have a healthy relationship in the first place, maybe that's what he could have had with her. But he is broken, so broken that he doesn't know how to do anything but destroy others in an effort to put himself back together again.
Her death is cruel, and what hurts the most is not his brother's betrayal, but the knowledge that had they met under different circumstances he could have fallen in love with her for real. Instead, all he had was an unhealthy attachment to his human plaything.
She is a pawn swept from the chessboard, shattered on the floor. A broken toy.
He will eventually forgive his brother for this. He doesn't know how to do anything else.
~oOo~