This is a longer chapter, and I'm really wanting to know what you're thoughts on this story! Please review! Hope you like it 3

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Start me up

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Emma woke up later than she usually did and lazily got out of bed and into the bathroom. Before she got into the shower, she looked at her phone screen and there was a message from Alaric saying that he and Jenna would be having lunch at the Grill, and that Emma could meet them there after the memorial.

She took a long shower, thinking about how crazy the previous day had been. She quickly put on simple jeans, a pair of black boots, a yellow jumper and a leather jacket. Emma picked up her bag and left with wet hair. The girl walked to the memorial plaza and saw Jeremy standing alone with his hands in his jacket pockets. She approached hercousin.

"Hey, Jer!"

"Hi, Emma" Jeremy replied smiling "Good to see you again outside of school".

"Sorry about that", Emma commented, "It's all been crazy, especially with the whole vampire thing". Jeremy stared at her wide-eyed. "I know about vampires, Jer. I even must confess that I thought you would be the one to tell me".

"I wanted to tell you, Emma, I swear", Jeremy hastened to explain, "But since everything involves Elena, I didn't feel entitled to..."

"It's okay, really" Emma smiled at her cousin, stroking his shoulders. Turning her eyes back to the memorial crowd, she recognised a figure she hadn't encountered in many years, and frowned. "Is that John?"

Jeremy snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, he came from God knows where" the boy explained. "Just hope he doesn't come with that anti-vampire bullshit". Emma raised an eyebrow.

"Is he a vampire hunter or something?" she asked, and Jeremy shrugged. "The only thing more ridiculous than John Gilbert is John Gilbert thinking he's Van Helsing himself".

Jeremy let out a laugh, and Emma turned to her cousin.

"I know he's your uncle, but I never liked him".

Emma had never liked John. When she was younger, John had little patience for the children and teenagers in the house, while he enjoyed exercising authority over everyone in the family. Her picking on the man only increased when Jenna took legal custody of Jeremy and Elena. Apparently, the aunt had been forced to take on the responsibility of raising two teenagers while John went on living his life with no strings attached. He was, at best, a big jerk.

"I'm meeting Jenna for lunch, do you want to come along?", Emma asked.

"Actually I arranged to meet Bonnie", Jeremy replied, his cheeks flushed. Emma smiled at her cousin and winked one eye before saying goodbye. The girl made an effort to pass well away from where John was, and walked to the Grill.

Arriving at the place, she soon spotted Jenna and Alaric talking seriously about something, and she was almost absolutely certain it was related to the man she had made an effort to ignore. Jenna opened a shy smile as soon as she spotted her niece, and indicated a chair that was leftover at the next table. Emma pulled out the chair and sat down between Alaric and Jenna, who were facing each other.

"Are you guys sure I'm not interrupting a romantic lunch?", Emma questioned and Jenna huffed.

"Any romantic lunch plans went down the drain the moment John set foot in this town", the older woman replied.

"About that... What the hell is he doing here?" Emma asked, and noticed when Jenna stared at Alaric with a raised eyebrow, indicating that she expected him to answer her questioning.

"Well... John is Elena's biological father", Alaric replied.

"WHAT?" Emma shouted, and soon turned to the nearby tables and apologized. She turned her attention back to her aunt and her co-worker. "Elena's biological father? I didn't even know Elena was adopted! How absurd is that? He's the father of his brother's daughter. What????"

"Exactly", Jenna huffed and took a sip of her drink. The woman glanced quickly at the Grill's entrance and rolled her eyes. "Speak of the devil..."

"Jenna, Alaric" John's voice rang out behind Emma, who couldn't restrain a grimace, which almost drew a laugh from Alaric. "Emma, it's good to see you".

"I disagree", Emma replied, and Jenna pressed her lips together, forming a line, as if to hold back a smile.

"You always thought you were better than you really are, didn't you? Ever since you were little", John replied in the same tone.

"Well, I'm not the mother of my niece, so I believe that puts me a few steps above you, doesn't it John?" Emma replied, finally turning her face and facing the man with a smirk.

"Look who's here", John stated in a debauched tone, ignoring the girl's acidic comment. Emma looked towards the entrance of the Grill and saw Elena and Damon entering the place. The vampire's eyes immediately met Emma's, but he quickly looked away and turned to face John. Elena held the vampire's arm and the two seemed to argue about something for a few seconds before Damon finally walked over to the table with his famous smirk.

"John, buddy", Damon greeted, and somehow Emma knew he was being cynical, "How have you been?"

"I've been all right, Damon", John replied in the same tone. "It's good to see you".

Damon smiled and greeted Jenna and Alaric with a nod before inviting John to light some candles in memory of the young dead who were being honoured that day. Emma noticed that he didn't even look at her, and wondered if the others had noticed as well.

Damon was ignoring her, and it hurt.Rationally, Emma knew that Elena had known him for quite a while, but that didn't stop her from feeling sad to realize that the vampire seemed to enjoy Gilbert's company while making no point of addressing her. Then, as Elena walked away towards the bar to talk to Matt, Emma turned her attention back to the glass of water Jenna had ordered for her.

Damon did his best to ignore Emma for the entire afternoon they spent at the Grill. He couldn't look her in the eye because it reminded him of the cathartic moment he'd had the night before. He had killed a woman with the same eyes as her. By God, he had called his victim by the name Emma before burying his fangs in her neck and sucking her dry. Despite this, he couldn't keep himself completely oblivious to the woman's presence. Although he couldn't look her in the face, he could still make out her heartbeat, the smell of the shampoo she'd used, and most importantly, her almost complete silence since he'd entered the place. The last one was what bothered him the most. Emma wasn't usually quiet, quite the opposite, she was always loud, always had some pertinent or acidic comment to make. Her silence bothered him.

Damon's eyes were fixed on his drink, but his ears were attentive to his surroundings, which was why he turned around before Jenna could even open her mouth.

"Damon Salvatore, this is..." Jenna announced, but the figure right in front of the vampire needed no introduction.

"I know you. The news lady", he replied, smiling falsely at the reporter.

"Yeah, Andy Starr. Nice to meet you" the woman extended her hand to Damon, a big smile plastered on her face. He could tell she was quite excited to meet him, and heldback the urge to roll his eyes. "Can I buy you a drink, Damon?"

"My glass is full, Andy. Thank you", Damon replied, and stood up from the bar, turning his back on the woman. Unconsciously, he searched Emma with his eyes, but couldn't find her. Elena, however, was at a high table right in the centre of the Grill, and it was to her that he walked.

"You totally blew her off" Elena commented, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm steering clear of all women at the moment", Damon replied.

"You didn't have to be rude", the girl scolded him.

"Trust me, it's in the best interest of women everywhere" the vampire pointed out, and took one last sip, emptying his glass of whiskey. He looked around again, and finally visualized Emma coming out of the bathroom. From where he was standing, she couldn't see him, and for some reason, he wanted her to see him. He wanted her to confront him, because he simply didn't find himself brave enough to take the initiative.

Damon would never admit it, and he would never apologize for it, but he didn't want to leave things the way they had turned out the night before. He set his glass of whiskey down on an empty table and walked over to a spot where Emma could see him.

As soon as Jenna ran into Andy and the reporter commented on her interest in the mysterious Damon Salvatore, the older Sommers wasted no time in assuring her friend that she would introduce her to the man. Emma felt rather uncomfortable, especially as she noticed Alaric studying her, as if looking for signs that she was bothered by the fact that Jenna wanted to introduce a woman to Damon.

Indeed, Emma had been bothered, but not as bothered as when Jenna had commented, before getting up from the table, that if Damon liked Andy, he would leave Elena alone.

Emma racked her brains trying to identify if she was more bothered by Damon and Andy or Damon and Elena. Or simply the fact that the vampire pretended she didn't exist. Snorting in irritation, she excused herself and headed for the bathroom.

Once she'd washed her face and taken a few deep breaths, she left the bathroom and spotted Damon not far from there. She took a deep breath and walked over to the vampire.

"Is your plan to ignore me completely?", Emma asked, crossing her arms. Damon rolled his eyes.

"Emma, I'm not in the mood for that right now", the vampire replied. Emma frowned, and before she could answer, a person walked by with a candle behind her, causing the girl to snort in irritation at the cramped space and simply grab Damon by the wrist, dragging him to a corner of the Grill. The vampire seemed surprised by the physical contact, but said nothing. As soon as Emma released his wrist, he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm sorry about Rose", Emma commented sincerely. Damon tried to search her gaze for any trace of pity, but he couldn't find it. The girl looked at him with understanding.

"Whatever, barely knew her" Damon shrugged.

The vampire made the mistake of looking Emma in the eye, only to find those whiskey eyes staring at him as if they were seeing through his own icy ones. He couldn't sustain her gaze and focused his attention on John, who was talking to Sheriff Forbes. "Are we done here? I have more important things to do", he asked, pretending to be bored. He darted a quick glance at her, and noticed when Emma's entire body language changed.

Her shoulders stiffened, her mouth, though still closed, seemed to relax and curve slightly downward, and her eyebrows, previously almost knitted together, arched in surprise. Emma was upset, Damon knew that. It was the first time he'd ever seen her upset, but he knew that was exactly the feeling that plagued her. The vampire was so used to obsessively reading every line of her face that he liked to think he could decipher her better than anyone else. The girl finally averted her eyes from his and he felt more confident to look her in the face again.

Damon wasn't sure if he was expecting some kind of response from Emma, but he didn't get one anyway. Elena quickly approached the two with her phone still in hand, and had a worried expression stamped on her face.

"Stefan called, it's Caroline. Tyler confronted her about there being more vampires in town and Jules caught her" the girl spewed the words. Damon's eyes widened and he indicated the bathroom with his head. Emma wasn't sure if she should follow the two or not, but decided to accompany them to the bathroom. Sommers wasn't close to Caroline, but she sympathized with the girl, and honestly, knowing that Jules was planning to hurt yet another person in Elena and Damon's acquaintance bothered her.

"Why am I finding out about this now?" Damon asked, once the three of them had entered the bathroom and Emma checked to see if they were alone.

"Stefan was worried you would..." Elena tried to answer.

"That I would what? I would kill him? That's what needs to happen!"

"Tyler is just a kid!", Emma interjected. Tyler was her student, for god's sake. Fine, he was a werewolf, but he was still just a kid. Damon turned to her and snorted.

"A kid who just helped kidnap Caroline" the vampire replied teasingly.

"No, Damon! Not Tyler" Elena pleaded, and the vampire turned his attention back to her. "Do what you need to do to get Caroline back but leave Tyler out of it, okay?"

"Why?" Damon questioned in disbelief that Elena was defending Tyler. "He's a werewolf. He needs to die. I'm willing to kill. It's a win-win".

"Damon, please!" Elena ordered, holding him by the shoulders. Emma switched her body weight to her other foot and crossed her arms. "Too many people are dead".

"You need to stop doing that" Damon replied in a threatening tone, feeling uncomfortable by Elena's touch. The girl released him, but remained staring at him with a confused expression.

"Doing what?"

"Assuming that I will play the good guy because it's you who's asking", he replied in a bitter tone. Elena sighed offended, and Emma stared at her intently. It wasn't the first time the older woman had witnessed Elena try to take the reins of any situation, to take control over the actions of others and even over events that were completely out of anyone's control. A nagging feeling formed in the pit of the young woman's stomach.

"Be the better man, Damon", Elena finally replied, and the door was abruptly opened by John, who stormed into the bathroom like a hurricane.

"Do you mind?" Emma asked the man, glaring at him. Damon watched the scene with interest. Apparently Emma wasn't 'Team John' either.

"What's going on?" John asked, and Emma and Damon both rolled their eyes at the

same time, but it was Elena who answered.

"Nothing".

"It doesn't look like nothing", John insisted.

"Well, guest what? Trust works both ways. Get the fuck out", Damon replied angrily.

"We don't have time, Damon! We need to go get Caroline" Elena whispered loudly, and Emma rolled her eyes. Perfect, tell all in front of John, the fucking dad-uncle-vampire-slayer.

"You're absolutely cut out of this we thing" Emma commented, and Elena glared at her in defiance. The older woman snorted. "For God sakes Elena, you're human and they're werewolves".

"Werewolves? Does the council..." John tried to ask.

"Shut up!" Damon and Emma replied in unison, looking towards the man. The vampire met the young woman's eyes for a few seconds before turning his attention back to Elena.

"I'll take care of it", Damon assured and, turning to John, punctuated, "You wanna be a dad? Ground your daughter. Keep her here".

"No, I'm coming with you" Elena stubbornly, but the vampire had already left the bathroom and John stopped her passage.

"Sorry, but I'm with Damon on this" John said.

"Emma???" Elena tried to ask her cousin for support, but the older woman only shrugged.

"I agree with Damon too. You need to stay here" Emma replied.

Emma watched for long minutes a heated argument between Elena and John until, tired, she ordered John to stay outside the bathroom, and assured him that she would keep an eye on Elena. The man didn't look convinced, but left the place and stood in front of the door from the outside.

"I thought you were on my side" Elena complained.

"I am on your side!" Emma replied snorting.

"Elena, you and I are human. Our presence in situations like this only serves to get in the way. Can you imagine Stefan and Damon managing to rescue Caroline and fighting werewolves if they're worried about keeping you alive?"

Elena knew Emma was right, but she didn't want to tip her hand, so she crossed her arms and braced herself against the sink. Emma repeated the gesture, but on the opposite side of the bathroom. The two remained silent, staring at each other until the older one decided to sit on the floor. Elena repeated the gesture and faced her cousin again.

"You're not into Damon, are you?" Elena asked, and Emma's eyes widened.

"Where did that come from?"

"Are you?" Elena insisted. Emma stared at her with frowning eyebrows and sighed angrily.

"No".

"Good", the younger girl replied. The answer annoyed Emma and before she could think, she retorted the question.

"Are you?"

"What? No, I'm with Stefan! I love Stefan" Elena replied quickly, shaking her head to the side. Emma couldn't help but notice that her cousin avoided looking her in the eye.

Apparently this was becoming recurring that day, and Emma felt that she was being left out of something important, that they were all lying to her. And that bothered her. She chose not to pursue the matter any further. "Can you take me to the Boarding House?"

"Yes, at some point we would have to clear that bathroom", Emma replied, getting up from the floor. As soon as she opened the door, John tried to stop the two of them from leaving. Emma rolled her eyes. "Are you still here?"

"Where do you two think you're going?", John asked.

"None of your business, John", the older woman retorted.

"I'm Elena's father!"

"And that means nothing! Jenna is the legal guardian, not you! Your blood in her veins is irrelevant, what counts is what's on the document the judge signed. Jesus, John, how can you be so dumb?" Emma replied acidly, and Elena's eyes widened in surprise. As soon as they left the Grill and opened the car door, Gilbert couldn't take it and let out a loud laugh.

"I definitely need to have you on my side whenever John decides to show up" Elena commented. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"He's irresponsible. He dumped you for his brother to raise, and when his brother died, he again washed his hands of it and left the responsibility to Jenna" Emma replied, and Elena lowered her face and started staring at her hands. Emma sighed and held her cousin's hands. "Jenna loves you, Elena. It's just... She's really young to have to carry this responsibility, you know? It's not your fault, or Jeremy's. John's the one to blame".

"You're right", Elena agreed, smiling weakly at her older cousin.

"I'm always right" Emma huffed, and Gilbert laughing.

Emma drove to the Boarding House and was not at all surprised to realise that Elena had the key to the house. The younger girl got in front and threw her bag over the sofa.

Emma mimicked the younger girl's gestures and the two sat comfortably by the coffee table, waiting for news of Stefan. The hours passed in a dragged manner, leaving the two's perception of time completely scrambled.

Elena was shaking her foot nervously and Emma was bored, her head thrown back staring at the ceiling.

While Elena was probably dying of worry about Caroline and Stefan, Emma was busy staring at the arabesque details of the living room ceiling while trying to guess what year the house had been built. She wondered why the two Salvatores hadn't modernised that house a bit, since money wasn't an issue. She spent more time than she intended thinking about it when the door opened and Stefan walked in alone.

"Thank God!", Elena exclaimed and ran up to her boyfriend. "Where's Caroline?"

"She's fine, I just dropped her off at home" Stefan replied, matching the girl's hug.

"She's pretty shaken up, so I was wondering if you and Bonnie wouldn't like to keep her company. You know, girl's night. I think it would be good for her".

"That's a really good idea, Stef" Elena agreed with a smile. "You're the best, you know?"

At that point, Emma decided to leave the house and leave the two at ease, it was awkward to witness couples' emotional exchanges. It seemed invasive. Emma walked to the front door, but before she left she decided to turn to the two and offer them a ride to Caroline's house. Stefan, however, assured her that he would take Elena and that Emma could rest easy.

The couple left behind Emma and she waited for the two to get into Stefan's car before finally getting into her own. As soon as she turned on the headlights and the car's ignition, her phone rang. The young woman stuck her hand in her pocket and reached for the device, but didn't recognise the number on the display. Turning off the car's engine again, she answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" the voice on the other end asked. Emma arched her eyebrows in surprise.

"In front of your house" she replied and the connection dropped. Or Damon hung up, she couldn't tell. She tried to dial the number again, but it dropped straight into the voicemail. Before she could try dialing the number a second time, she heard two knocks on the window and turned around startled. Damon was standing outside the car.

Emma then took a deep breath and pulled the key out of the ignition, opened the door, and stepped out of the vehicle. The vampire watched as the girl crossed her arms and braced her back against the already closed car door and stepped in front of it. He was fully aware that he was quite close to her, but she didn't seem to mind.

"How did you get my number?" she asked curiously.

"Alaric" Damon replied, and looked away from her. She frowned and waited for him to continue, but he remained silent. Okay, he had asked Alaric for her phone number, but that still didn't explain why he had called her.

"Damon?" she questioned, and the vampire finally stared her in the eye and didn't look away. Emma couldn't decipher his expression, he seemed to be fighting an internal battle where all sides seemed to lose. Emma restrained the urge to bring her hands to his face.

"I killed someone" he confessed, but Emma didn't understand and let her head fall slightly to the side like a puppy.

"I'm pretty sure you've killed a lot more than just someone" she replied, and he frowned, never stopping facing her.

"No, I killed someone last night. A girl. She looked like you, had the same eyes" he confessed. He didn't know why he was confessing this to Emma, but the words simply left his throat and, at the same time, relieved a weight he was carrying on his shoulders.

Emma didn't move, but uncrossed her arms. Damon took another step forward and propped his palms on the roof of the car, keeping Emma between him and the vehicle. The girl didn't look scared, but she was definitely confused.

"Did you kill her because she looked like me?" she asked, and Damon sighed. Emma couldn't tear her eyes away from him, and he was trying to cling to the differences in the look on her face to the look on the victim's face from the night before. He was trying to cling to the fact that Emma's whiskey eyes didn't convey fear.

"I don't know, maybe" he whispered. Damon didn't know how to answer that. He'd been asking himself that very question since morning. He had laid down on the highway already with the goal of making a victim, but everything went out of control when he realized that the girl, whatever her name was, had Emma's eyes. He was torn, he cogitated letting her go, cogitated compelling her to forget she saw him and having her drive non-stop until she got home. But still, he buried his teeth into her neck and didn't stop until he sucked out the last drop of her blood. Emma took a deep breath, feeling the air falter halfway through the inhale.

"Do you wanna kill me?" she asked, and he frowned, staring at her in confusion.

"No", he shook his head to the side. God, he didn't want anything to happen to her, which was weird. What did she have that he couldn't stay away from? What did she have that he needed her so badly? Anyway, he didn't want to kill her. He didn't want to hurt her. He wanted to... He didn't know what he wanted.

"Okay" she replied, and he frowned.

"Okay?" he questioned, somewhere between confused and incredulous. She smiled shyly and nodded positively. Damon remained confused, but when Emma brought her right index finger to the middle of his eyebrows, he couldn't restrain a small smile forming on his lips. The vampire raised his left hand and gently held Emma's wrist, keeping her index finger there longer. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and felt his own expression soften. When he opened his eyes, he released the woman's wrist and watched her drop her arms beside her own body.

"I should go then" she announced, but he didn't move to give her space.

"You could stay" Damon retorted. "To talk, and drink" he hastened to finish the sentence.

"Sounds good" she replied, and he smirked. Damon took a few steps back, making room

for Emma, who locked the car and followed him back inside the Boarding House.

Damon walked over to the drink cart and poured himself a glass of whiskey, and held out one of the glasses to her, who was already sitting on the couch. The vampire plopped himself down beside her right away, and the girl straightened up, sitting on one leg and turning to face him.

"How old is this house?", Emma asked. Damon took a sip of his drink and looked at her, shrugging.

"Pretty old. I am 171, and this house was already old when I was born".

"Oh my God" Emma exclaimed, and Damon stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do you realize that it doesn't matter how old is the human woman you date, you will always be kind of grooming? You are a dirty dirty old man!"

Damon laughed so loudly and with such eagerness that he threw his head back and felt his eyes moisten. Emma laughed along with him.

"You look older than me" he teased.

"I don't look older than you!" she complained. "I look like a fucking 21 year old, thank you very much. Have you seen my skin?"

Damon laughed again and turned to face her, propping his whiskey glass against the back of the couch. The vampire brought his face closer to hers and Emma felt a shiver run down her spine. Very slowly, Damon ran his eyes down her entire face, and he was so close that she felt the tip of his nose rubbing against her temple, and then down her cheek, and finally down to her chin.

"Your skin is pretty good indeed" Damon smirked, she knew that even if she couldn't see his lips. She knew he was teasing her and, fuck, he was succeeding. Damon was

absurdly sexy, all the time, and she was handling it just fine. Until now. It was one thing to watch him flirt, she was used to that and even found it amusing. It was another thing entirely to feel him rubbing the tip of his nose all over the contours of her face, to feel his bourbon breath, the heat emanating from him. Emma swallowed dryly and mentally thanked God when the doorbell rang, causing the vampire to turn away and walk to the door rolling his eyes.

"What do you want?", Damon asked as he opened the door and came face to face with John.

"We didn't finish our conversation" the man replied and walked in even without Damon's invitation, and Emma huffed and stood up from the couch as she heard his voice.

"Oh, c'mon!" she complained.

"Hello to you too, Emma. Always a pleasure", John mocked, and Damon didn't curb his grin when Emma pampered John like a child debauching someone he didn't like. The man turned to Damon again. "I've been thinking, personal feelings aside, I think you and Stefan will do all you can to protect Elena".

Damon walked to Emma's side and crossed his arms, turning to John.

"I agree with that statement" the vampire replied bored.

"So I come bearing gifts", John pointed out, opening his jacket and removing a package from there. Emma stepped forward, curious, and watched as the man opened the package and removed a rather old dagger and a jar of something that looked like flour.

"Doing cocaine now, John?", Emma implied, and Damon laughed through his nose. John rolled his eyes.

"This is how you kill an Original" the man explained, and both Emma and Damon began to show quite a bit of interest in what he was saying. "In this vial is ash from a white oak tree that dates back to the genesis of the Originals. The dagger must be dipped into the ash and then plunged into their heart".

John explained the procedure by gesturing, which ended with the tip of the dagger pressed gently against Damon's chest. The vampire, a little irritated, snatched the object out of the man's hand and proceeded to observe it. Emma leaned over Damon's shoulder and also stared at the dagger.

"How do you know all this, John?", Damon asked what was stuck in Emma's throat. The young woman didn't trust him. Elena's father or not, he was never there, he never cared, and most of all, he hated vampires, Damon among them.

"Isobel. She's very good at finding out things. But, of course, you know that".

"Who's Isobel?" "Where's Isobel?" Emma and Damon ended up asking at the same time. John laughed and the girl could tell the mockery between the notes of his laugh.

"Isobel is Elena's birth mother. Damon knows her well, since he turned her", John replied, and Damon clenched his jaw, directing a lethal glare at the man. Damon knew what he was trying to do. John wanted to pit Emma against him, because it was obvious that he simply wouldn't leave him alone.

"For some reason, none of the information left me surprised" Emma sighed, and Damon didn't let on the relief he felt.

"As for where she is, let's just say if she accomplishes what she's attempting, Klaus will never set foot in Mystic Falls".

"Yeah, right" Damon replied in disbelief.

"When Elena is concerned, you and I are on the same side" John said and then looked at Emma, "That goes for you too, Emma".The girl rolled her eyes and turned away, heading to the drinks trolley and filling a second glass of bourbon. She stood back until she heard the front door slam, indicating that John had left, and only then turned to Damon.

"You turned Elena's birth mother???" she asked, and Damon frowned.

"You said you weren't surprised!" he defended himself and picked up his own glass and walked over to her, taking the bottle of whiskey from the girl's hands and pouring his own glass.

"Of course I was surprised, I just didn't want to give John the satisfaction" Emma commented shrugging and looking at Damon as if to say 'obviously'.

"And why is that?" the vampire questioned, leaning with his hand on the trolley and again standing practically glued to the girl.

"Because he's obviously trying to pit me against you, or you against me, you choose the order" she replied and took a sip of her drink.

"I'm glad he didn't accomplish that", Damon replied staring at her with those very blue eyes. "Did he?"

"He didn't" Emma assured him. But she still slid under Damon's arm and back onto the couch. The vampire sighed and walked over to her, sitting, this time, a little further away from the girl. "So?"

"She asked me to turn her, and it's not like I knew she was Elena's mother. It was ages ago" Damon explained. "She was Alaric's wife".

"WHAT?" Emma shouted and nearly knocked her glass over. Damon giggled and rolled his eyes. How did she not know that already? How out of the loop was she? "You mean John left the daughter he had with Alaric's wife for Miranda to raise and now Miranda's little sister is dating Alaric, whose wife you turned into a vampire? This is... is... a mess!"

"Mess describes it well" Damon commented in an amused tone.

"I'm going to need a pen and notebook to start taking notes" Emma complained.

"Anything else I should know? Are you Jenna's father? Stefan dated Grayson? Is your ex-girlfriend Caroline's evil twin sister?"

Emma expected Damon to laugh at the comment, but he got serious and stared at his own drink, shaking the glass and watching the amber liquid form a small swirl in the centre.

"You know about Katherine" he commented.

"Not much" Emma confessed and wriggled uncomfortably on the sofa. She had touched a sore spot and felt regretful. "I thought it would be weird to hear about something in your life from someone other than you".

Damon stared at her seriously.

"How much do you know?" he questioned.

"Just that she was your and Stefan's girlfriend and that she is the reason Klaus is coming. But I don't know exactly how she is the reason an Original is coming after Elena".

"She faked her own death. 146 years ago", Damon replied, still staring at Emma. He wondered whether or not he should tell her everything. If he wanted to tell her everything. If he wanted one more person to know what a fool he'd made of himself. However, if he really stopped to think about it, the other people knew only Stefan's version of the facts. About Katherine, about the turn of the two of them. He decided to speak out and if, perchance, he regretted it, he could always compel Emma to forget everything.

"The night Stefan and I died, the Mystic Falls Council locked all vampires in a tomb below the Church" Damon went on to explain. "For 146 years I believed Katherine had been locked in the tomb too, but the bitch was never there. I know this because I opened the tomb not long ago".

Emma watched in silence as Damon swallowed the entire contents of his glass in one go, it was apparent how uncomfortable he was talking about it, but for some reason he was talking about it, and Emma still had many questions. She wanted, badly, to know

more about Damon.

"Who killed you?" she asked.

"My father" he replied bitterly. "He shot us both when we were trying to save Katherine from being taken to the tomb".

"But how did you turn into..."

"She used to fed us her blood. That's how it works. A vampire feeds a human their blood, and if the human dies with the blood in their system, they turn. Of course, once turned you have to feed. Otherwise, you die. Forever".

Emma absorbed everything Damon told her with interest. She tried to form mental images of the things he said, trying to picture everything.

"Did you want to become a vampire?" she asked, and Damon laughed wryly. There it was, the nasty question. The question whose answer Damon kept under lock and key. An answer only he and Stefan knew. He stared at Emma, reading every line of her face, deciding whether or not he could trust her with this information that, while seemingly trivial, was extremely valuable to him.

Damon watched Emma drop the glass on the coffee table and slide closer to him. Her knee touched his thigh, and her hands made minimal movements, but quite noticeable to Damon. She was deciding whether or not to cross the boundaries of personal space and touch his arm in comfort. The vampire almost wanted to laugh at the mental battle she was surely fighting with herself. He became so engrossed trying to read the girl that a single word escaped his lips, "No".

"Someone made you feed, then" she concluded in a low tone, and Damon stared at her in surprise.

"Stefan" he replied, and dropped his own empty glass next to Emma's glass. She frowned in indignation.

"How could he? It was your choice!" she exclaimed, and Damon couldn't undo his expression of surprise. Emma was taking his side? Of course she was, she still didn't know that he went on to make Stefan's life hell, that he killed without any remorse, that he opened the tomb believing Katherine loved him, that he wanted to kill Stefan more than once because he was Katherine's chosen one. She mostly didn't know that he had fallen in love with Elena, because she was exactly what Damon once believed Katherine to be. Emma certainly wouldn't take his side if she knew everything. "What?".

"I'm not a good person, Emma" Damon confessed. He didn't know if it was some feeling of self-sabotage, or if he just wasn't used to someone taking his side, but he couldn't accept that Emma would accept him so easily, because that was impossible. "It was my choice, so as all the other choices I made. Choices you wouldn't like. I've killed lots of people. Not just to feed, but for fun. Because I simply wanted to. I've opened the tomb and release all the vampires, and that's why Klaus is coming after Elena. Because now he knows that Katherine is alive, and Katherine is willing to give Elena in exchance for her freedom. At the end, it's all on me. I'm not good. I'm not human".

"There you go again with this 'I'm not human' shit" Emma complained, frowning. It was the first time Damon had ever seen her really angry, and she, at the height of her irritation, didn't even realise that she had her finger cocked against Damon's chest, and that her face was almost glued to the vampire's.

"Being human doesn't make you good. A human can be as bad as a vampire, sometimes even worse. Humans kill, humans hurt, humans lie. And they do it for a number of reasons, including the reason that they simply wanted to. You don't have to be a vampire to be a bad person, you really need to open your mind a little further". And with that, she threw herself against the back of the couch and crossed her arms. "And stop frowning as if I said something absurd. I'm right and you know it".

"Emma, did someone ever tell you how completely insufferable you are?" Damon asked, still trying to assimilate everything she had said.

"You're the first" she replied, and he ended up laughing. He laughed like crazy, because it was just absurd. It was absurd that she would accept him so easily. Without all that 'be the better man' or 'act with humanity' crap. Emma simply, and for no reason at all, accepted him. And that was absurd. The girl stared at him strangely.

"You are very, very weird, you know that?" she remarked, and Damon stared at her, still with a smile on his face.

"I thought I was very, very handsome".

"You can be handsome and weird at the same time" she shrugged.

"So you think I'm handsome", he teased.

"Like you need an ego massage", she huffed and looked at her wristwatch. When she saw the time, she widened her eyes and jumped up from the couch, "Oh my God, I have to go home".

"Why?" Damon complained.

"Because I have to work tomorrow and it's already one a.m." she explained, reaching for her purse on the sideboard and opening the door. Before she left, the girl turned to the vampire and bit her lower lip, seeming to think about what she was going to say.

"Thank you for trusting me" she finally said, and Damon frowned. "It's nice to know that I have someone who I can trust, and that this person trusts me back".

"You really shouldn't trust me" Damon pointed out, and propped himself against the doorframe.

"You are really annoying, you know" Emma complained, and reached into her pocket for her car keys. She turned her back and walked towards the car, speaking loudly. "It's not going to fall off your dick to accept that you're cool just the way you are. Asshole".

Damon laughed low and watched Emma start the car and drive off with the vehicle towards the highway. When he closed the door, he still had a smile on his face. And when he returned to the couch and picked up Emma's glass that was still half full and took a sip, he could taste her lipstick mixed with the taste of whiskey. Damon realized it would be a problem to keep relating Emma to the amber drink, because, you see, whiskey was his favorite drink.