"Where's Caroline?" Damon asked his brother once he made it to the field.

"She took the crops to the market."

"You didn't go with her?"

"She wanted me to stay with you and keep working she took Bonnie she should be back later."

Damon nodded and got to work.

-S-S-S-

"How was your day at the market?" Damon asked as he took off his jacket and pants for bed leaving him in his shirt and boxer shorts.

"It was okay. Andie was upset that I charged six cents for a basket of apples instead of four. And there were other complaints, but everyone seemed… It sucked! Okay, there was so much whining, and everyone kept sending dirty looks like if it's my fault that the prices are raised. I mean it kinda is but it's not my fault! Gosh, we barely managed to sell half of what I took. What are we going to do?"

Damon sighed as he went to sit next to her. "I talked to Mason he said he found a restaurant that we can take our eggs to. He also got in touch with the butcher and said we could sell him one of our cows, but I'm not sure if its best they want it for $8 I told him we won't sell him for less than $12."

Caroline wrapped her arm around him and put her head on his shoulder. "That's great. Who knew Mason would actually be helpful?"

"Mason's alright."

"I'm sure it's just, maybe you can cut back a bit on the drinking. I'm not saying you have to stop we both know you won't, and I don't want you going behind our backs, but just cut back a bit. How about a beer every other day? One glass of scotch maybe three times a week instead of an entire bottle?"

Damon sighed and moved to his side of the bed.

"Maybe, I'll think about it."

Caroline shook her head and laid on her side facing him.

"Okay."

"She wants you to stop on drinking?" Elena said scandalized as she took out a cigarette and lit it bringing it to her lips.

"Not stop. Cut back."

"Which means stop."

"Yeah well, that is obviously not happening."

"What about the farm?"

"It's fine." He said dismissively as he swiped the offered cigarette in her hand and took a puff.

"Sore subject," Elena said taking it back.

"How's your writing?"

Elena tutted, "It's alright. I was wondering if maybe you'd take me to that spot near the pier."

"Sure." Taking the cig back. "When are you heading back to The City. It will be a full week of you being here tomorrow."

"Counting the days?" She said a little flirt in her tone.

"Maybe." He replied flirting back.

"I don't know. But a while longer definitely, Jer still hasn't given up the pipe dream."

"Would it be so bad to let him go?"

"He'd leave me."

"Well didn't you leave him by coming here?"

Elena scoffed and got up going for the bottle of scotch in one of the drawers needing alcohol if they were going to delve into that conversation.

"It's not the same. I'm here for a while. He wants to leave forever."

"I think you can handle yourself just fine. He could always come and visit or vice versa."

"Yeah unless he's dead because he got an arrow sticking out of his chest or a bullet to the back of the skull."

"Ah… see this is progress," Damon said nodding for her to fill him a glass as well not that he needed to tell her.

"What do you mean?"

"You aren't afraid of him leaving you. You are afraid of him dying and never seeing him again."

Elena's eyes widened as she realized he was right and finished her glass before reaching for the bottle to refill it.

"You should take me to the pier tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?"

"Yeah, unless you don't want to."

"No, I'll take you I said I would."

"Perfect."

Damon nodded before looking out the window sun had gone down a few hours ago. "I should get going I'll pick you up tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it I know where your place is. I can meet you there and then we'll go to the pier."

Damon froze on his way to the door. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Umm… alright what time will you be there?'

"Well, I want to go stargazing so say 10 P.M.?"

"Alright, I'll meet you by the stables."

Elena gave him a look but nodded as he left.

Damon made his way up the stairs as quietly as possible and groaned as he saw the light on coming from his bedroom.

"Hey." She whispered nodding towards the baby asleep in the crib.

"Hi?"

She sniffed the air and made a face, "Were you smoking?"

"Uh yeah…"

Caroline sighed and pointed to the bathroom, "You should brush your teeth. You haven't smoked since Stefan and I were in high school."

"So?"

"What made you start up again?"

"Look sometimes a man just wants a smoke. Okay."

Caroline's eyebrows rose, "Did you just raise your voice at me?"

Damon just growled and grabbed his brush and paste after a minute he spit out the water and went to bed.

"I didn't mean to raise my voice. I'm fine." He said placing a peck on her lips.

Caroline grimaced at the taste, "If you say so."

Next Day

Caroline looked at Stefan waiting for him to answer.

"So now he's smoking too?"

"Yes!"

"Did you talk to him about it?"

"Yeah. He said sometimes a man just wants a smoke."

"Damn. Okay. Maybe you should talk to him. Convince him to stop."

"He won't it's the same with the drinking."

"Tell him you don't like it."

"He knows."

Stefan nodded," When was the last time you spend some time together just the two of you."

"Well, we already see each other every day?"

"Obviously. I mean when was the last time you talked about something other than work."

"A while, I guess. But I mean we don't really have much to talk and now with me going back and forth…"

"And since you two… you know?"

Caroline gasped and made a face hitting him on the shoulder.

"You are disgusting Stefan Salvatore."

"That long," Stefan said seriously which she glared.

"It hasn't been that long."

Stefan gave her a doubting look and she sighed, "It's only been six days."

"So practically a week. No wonder you're both frustrated"

"Yeah. Hey! That's not true. I am not frustrated."

"Fine, not frustrated, stressed then."

"You're stressed too."

"Yeah but unfortunately I don't have someone to help me with that issue you two do. Besides you two used to go at it like rabbits. Well more like walruses or elephants based on what I heard.

"We do not sound like elephants or walruses!

"Sure."

The pair looked at each other…3…2…1 and burst out laughing.

"Okay. Okay, so you're saying Damon and I should have sex, but how is that going to fix the smoking?"

"It's obvious! Smoking, no sex." Stefan said seriously for a minute before they both started laughing again.

"Can you take Bonnie tonight?"

"Tonight? Uh wow fast. Okay yeah, I can totally do that. What time?"

"Seven. I'll make dinner for the two of us- "At Stefan's scandalized look for being left out of dinner "I'll make something for you and Bon too, just eat at your place."

"Gotcha. Okay, I'm going back out there."

Damon had just finished rowing back from the city he had taken the eggs to the restaurant Mason had told him about and made a deal to start selling most of their vegetables after the winter season. As he finally made it to shore, he got out and tied the boat.

"Well, you look all tired out," Elena said making her way down the path.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you."

"I thought we were meeting later?"

"Yeah, but I bumped into Caroline and she said you had gone out to the water, so I thought why not show up sooner."

"You talked to Caroline?"

Elena nodded. She had bumped into the blonde at the B&B.

"What did you tell her?"

"Nothing much I asked her how she was doing. She asked me about my book. We ended up talking about work and she said you were going to The City."

Damon nodded.

"So, are we going or?"

"I should head home we can go after."

Elena frowned and brought the basket from behind her back, "I brought food and booze. Besides the way I see it, we are both already here. Why wait and come back?"

Damon didn't look convinced and she sighed, "If we go now you can actually be back to your house at a reasonable time and won't have to sneak in."

Damon sighed giving in, "Alright, let's go and I don't sneak in." Sneaking would mean I'm doing something wrong I just make sure to get in quietly to not disturb anyone. Yeah, that's it.

Caroline had just finished cooking dinner and was putting food on a plate for Stefan to take along with Bonnie when the door opened.

"Hey, I'm here for food!"

"And Bonnie."

"And the little babe. Where's Damon?"

"He should be back soon"

Stefan nodded, "Well that smells delicious, can't wait to try it."

"I'll go get Bonnie," Caroline said turning off the gas stove and heading to her room.

Stefan looked around and took a piece of the chicken from the plate she served and popped it in his mouth when he noticed the bottle of wine.

"Here she is. You are going to stay with your uncle, and you are going to be a very good girl aren't you." Caroline said rubbing her nose with the babies before placing a kiss on her head and passing her to Stefan. "You sure you can carry both her and the food?"

"Don't worry if something happens, I'll save the food…Bonnie. I said, Bonnie." Stefan said laughing as Caroline looked unamused.

"If I see a bump on her head or any bruise on her…"

"We'll be fine. This isn't my first time taking care of her. So, where'd you get the wine?"

"I stopped by the B&B."

Stefan gawked, "You bought wine from Lockwood?"

"Well yeah. I'm a former Sheriff's daughter, no one else will sell to me."

"Good point."

"Yeah anyway shoo. Damon will be here any minute. I need to finish getting ready."

Stefan gave her a once over. She had changed from her pair of overalls and flannel shirt which she used when she was out working, to one of her nicer dresses. It was pale yellow flowy and went down to her calves showing off her ankles and black heeled shoes. The heels were only two inches, but she was just going to stay home, and she doubted they would be on for longer than dinner.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you, now out." She said blushing then jokingly shooing him out.

She still had to put on her lipstick and eye makeup. She was going to do a soft brown eyeshadow with some goldish glitter. Some black eyeliner and her brown-nude lipstick.

-S-S-S-

"So, this is it?" Elena said clearly not impressed.

"It's nicer at night when the stars are out."

Elena nodded as she opened the basket and set out a blanket for them to sit on. She then took out two beers opened them and passed him one.

"Thanks," Damon said reaching for the bottle

"No, problem. I made sandwiches too they're just ham lettuce and mayo. Is that alright?"

Damon nodded, he was hungry, and he was never picky about food. "That's fine." He said reaching into the basket for the sandwich and unwrapping it from the napkin.

Elena moved closer to reach for the other one and set it down as she turned to look across the water.

"It's a beautiful sunset."

The upper sky was a nice bluish-purple blending with an orange. The sun was a little lower than eye-level with the city skyline ways back. Then when you looked at the water you could see the reflection of the sun distorted by the waves. It was really beautiful. She wondered how the white of a full moon would look on the waves.

Damon noticing Elena had quieted turned to look at her. She was wearing a pale pink dress that went a little above her knees with a white coat and brown sandals.

"You look beautiful, today."

Elena turned from the sight to look at him. "Just today?"

"Take the compliment." He laughed and shook his head taking a bite from the sandwich.

"Thank you."

He nodded and leaned back enjoying the sight.

-S-S-S-

Caroline sighed as she sat and started tapping her fingers against the table. Damon should have been back by now. The sun had already set and now the food was luke-warm.

Her stomach growled and she gave in eating a bit of the rice on her plate before stopping and kept tapping. Where was he?

-S-S-S-

"I got a letter from Jer." She finally spoke as the sun was finally hidden from view.

"That's good?"

Elena shook her head no. "He's leaving."

Damon's eyes widened and reached for her hand to offer some comfort. "I'm sorry."

Elena smiled and moved closer laying her head on his shoulder. "It's not your fault."

"Still sorry."

Elena nodded closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she could smell his cologne and he was wearing an outfit similar to the one he wore the first two times she saw him. A Suit, tie, dress shoes, coat.

Damon let out a breath as he reached for her back and started rubbing circles there.

"Are you going to see him? Say goodbye?"

"I don't know. I don't want him to go."

"I know he's your baby brother, but he was going to leave eventually. That doesn't mean he doesn't care for you or that he'll stop."

"You practically live with your brother. You aren't the best to talk."

"True, but I wasn't always here. I left and came back."

"You did?"

"Yeah. Around the time my father died. The only reason I ever stuck around was because of Stefan. He needed me. But when dad died, I knew he would be fine, so I left. I was gone for three months before I gave up and came back here."

"Why?"

"Well I left to see if I could make it on my own, but I came back because I missed not being alone. I missed Stefan too. Maybe Jeremy will come back. Maybe he just needs to see that he can be his own man all on his own."

Elena turned to look at him and their eyes caught then she leaned and kissed his lips gently. Damon closed his eyes for a moment savoring the soft pressure on his lips before a picture of blonde hair and blue eyes flashed behind his eyes and he pulled away.

Elena looked a little surprised as well. She knew she had wanted him and that there was something between them, but the plan had always been for him to make the first move, not her.

She stared at him for a moment her mouth open slightly not sure what to say.

A/N

So yeah don't hate me things are picking up for Delena. Ya'll knew it was gonna happen still kinda sucks though. They're bonding and poor Care getting stood up. Yikes wouldn't want to be Damon.

Anyways I want to thank everyone who is following its a small few but yall are great and I hope you guys are liking the story.

Welcome newcomer: Cheerygirl014 thank you so much for favoriting/ following you're awesome!

Also shout out to daroline everytime I get a review from you I get so happy so thank you! And I'm glad you watched the film I know it's not most people's type of film since its way old school but I really liked it and I hope you did too.

Anyways please let me know what you guys think?

Next Update will be in present time and will be posted on October 24 (that's 3 days from now lol we have officially passed the half way point of the story. Yay!)

That's all for now.

~Agent C.