Authors Note: Hi everyone, I hope you are all healthy in these crazy times. With COVID-19 sweeping the world we all have to do our part to stop this pandemic, so stay safe and stay healthy.

This chapter sort of exploded from what it was originally supposed to be, but my muse went out of control, I hope you all enjoy. Some events are revealed in this one, specifically how things have gone without Damon's presence there, thanks for everyone for has reviewed, favourited and followed the story. As always on with the show….

Chapter 3: Old Lovers Meet

Mystic Grill, Mystic Falls, Virginia

Late Evening

Damon Point of View

Damon was currently sitting at the bar with Alaric, a bottle of bourbon between them and old jokes being shared between them. Damon was surprised by how quickly he had formed a with the man standing beside him in the two weeks since he had come back to town, but after discovering his story he had discovered a kindred spirit. His wife Isobel (who also happened to be Elena's mother) had ended up faking her death and turning herself into a vampire. Alaric thought that she had been murdered when in actuality she had simply disappeared to start her undead life without him. He had chased down vampires desperate for answers and in his quest a string of animal attacks had brought him to town.

Apparently, several months after Alaric had arrived Isobel had blown into town and started to make demands on behalf of all people, Katherine. She had tortured Elena for a device made by John Gilbert back in the 1860's. Damon had asked if he had tracked the vampire down who had turned his wife and Alaric had admitted he had but after finding out the truth Ric simply didn't have it in him for revenge. The story alone was enough to make Damon's head spin, but it had bonded he and Alaric together; they had been both been screwed over by Pierce women. At the present time Ric was just finishing up telling Damon a story which made Damon break out into laughter and almost become a high school teacher just for the entertainment.

"So, what did they say when you caught them in the janitor's closet?" Damon asked leaning on the bar and picking up his drink.

"Well after the girl put her top back on, I just told them to leave. I didn't want to deal with that headache" Ric replied causing Damon to shake his head.

"Awww Ric, you could have had some fun with that. Imagining walking them through the hall and having them explain it to the principal. That guy looks like he would keel over in a strong wind" Damon exclaimed causing Ric to laugh himself.

The door opening drew Damon's eyes away from Ric and he caught site of Elena walking into the bar…but there was something off about her. At first glance it was the hair, Elena's was often straight and uncurled whilst now she sported perfectly manicured curls, her clothing was darker than he was used to and finally the big giveaway for Damon at the moment was the absence of her necklace. When she smiled seductively at him and beckoned him out the door, that was the realization that it wasn't Elena he was looking at but the woman who had turned him, Katherine Pierce.

"Ric get to Elena's and make sure she is safe. Katherine is here" Damon spoke to Ric not taking his eyes off Katherine. Ric's eyes snapped up and followed his gaze, when he caught site of Katherine he swore and got up.

"What are you going to do?" Ric asked as Katherine beckoned Damon with a finger and walked out of the restaurant.

"Get some answers Ric…get some answers" Damon replied standing up and as he was walking, he stopped suddenly and turned back to Ric.

"Call Stefan, get to Elena's make sure she, Jeremy and Jenna are safe…now Ric" Damon snapped suddenly feeling extremely protective of the people he had only known for a week.

Damon didn't wait for a reply as he made his way towards the exit and out the door onto the street. There were several cars going down the street at this late hour and as he scanned it, he caught site of his sire leaning against a tree in the park across the road. Damon sped across the street and came to a stop with the woman he had been chasing for the last 145 years…the woman he thought he had loved.

"Katherine" Damon murmured taking her in, she looked identical to Elena but there were subtle differences he had detected in preparation for this meeting.

Katherine's mouth curved into a seductive smirk and she leaned sensually against the tree hiding them both from the road.

"Hello lover, been a long time. So, Stefan called in the big, bad brother to help stop me from terrorising the human copy of me" Katherine spoke as she fixed Damon with a heated look.

Damon took a step towards her, the woman he had been searching for the last century and a half stood in front of him but to his surprise he felt none of the longing he thought he would when he came face to face with her. But there was something that he needed to know, a question that had been burning in him since he awoke in transition. But he also had a plan and for the moment he needed to play up Katherine's impression that Damon was still obsessed with her. He carefully reached into his back pocket with one hand and took a hold of vervain dart he had stashed there, slipping it up his sleeve whilst plastering on a heartfelt expression on his face.

"Very brave of you to come here" Damon spoke carefully moving in even closer to Katherine, stopping close to her forcing her to tilt her head up at him.

"I wanted to say hello, personally welcome you back to Mystic Falls" Katherine spoke, leaning a hand on his chest and squeezing softly

"And what makes you think I even want to see you Katherine?" Damon questioned taking a step to stand beside her.

"Ouch, that hurts Damon we used to be so good together" Katherine replied a pout forming on her mouth.

"Don't pout. It's not attractive on a woman your age" Damon snarked back at her causing her to drop her hand and give him a sexy look.

"I don't remember you being this mean, what happened to my sweet Damon" Katherine asked.

Damon shakes his head and starts to walk out of the park away from Katherine, as he predicted Katherine super speeds in front of him blocking his escape.

"What, no goodbye kiss?" Katherine asks leaning into Damon as he slowly lowered the dart into his hand.

"Why don't I kill you instead? What are you doing here?" Damon questioned.

"Nostalgia, curiosity, et cetera. I missed you lover" Katherine replied.

"I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. What are you planning with Elena?" Damon asked causing Katherine to shake her head at him.

"Trust me Damon, when I'm up to something, you'll know it. Come on. Kiss me. Or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know that you're only capable of one" Katherine spoke leaning into Damon's lips leaving only inches between them and as she inches closer towards his lips.

Damon turns and walks away. She rushes in front of him again and grabs him by the throat and then she pushes him back up against the tree.

"My sweet, innocent Damon" Katherines murmurs as Damon wraps his free hand around her waist.

Damon turns himself around and shoves her against the tree, grabbing her by the throat and then after a few seconds of hesitation he kisses her.

"That's more like it" Katherine murmurs for a moment before pulling him back down to her.

"Okay, wait, brief pause" Damon speaks breaking off the kiss but staying close to her, he admits to himself that he got lost in her kiss for a moment.

"I have a question. Answer it and it's back to fireworks and rockets' red glare. Answer it right and I'll forget the last one hundred and forty-five years that I've spent missing you. I'll forget how much I loved you, I'll forget everything, and we can start over. This could be our defining moment because we have the time. That's the beauty of eternity" Damon speaks actually meaning these words and as he gently caressed her face.

"I just need the truth, just once" Damon continues before Katherine takes his hands and removes them from her face, an expressionless mask falling into place there.

"Stop. I already know your question and its answer. The truth is...I've never loved you. It was always Stefan" Katherines says shattering what little was left of his heart, but in his place grew a resolve and as he felt the weight of the dart in his hand he smirked cruelly at Katherine.

"Thank you…Katherine, you just made this so much easier" Damon replies as his hand shoots and too quick for Katherine to stop, him the needle had broken her skin.

Damon pushes the plunger down and injected a dose large of vervain enough to put a vampire down three times over. Damon smirks as Katherine stumbles into the tree but it disappears after a moment when her head shoots up. The blood vessels under her eyes were crackling and she snarled revealing her fangs at Damon as he grabbed him and shoved him against the tree hard enough for a crack to sound out and Damon to feel several bones breaking in his chest and arm. Damon was shocked and caught off guard by the pain, and in that time, Katherine used that opportunity to disappear from his sight.

"Well…that could of went better…but could of went worse. Son of a bitch, I hate that women" Damon spoke to the empty park sliding down the tree and taking a few moments to gather himself, he punched the ground once to alleviate his frustrations of his failed attempt at getting Katherine.

Gilbert Residence, Mystic Falls, Virginia

A Short Time Later

Elena Point of View

It had been a tense time since Alaric had stumbled through the door, shoving it closed behind him and then making a mad beeline dash for his weapons that he had started to store in the basement once Jenna had been brought in on the supernatural secret. He had shouted at her at to call Stefan and to get him over, which had caused Bonnie and Jeremy to come down the stairs from his room and ask what was happening. Alaric had come back up the stairs a short time later whilst on the phone with Jenna telling her to stay on campus and that Katherine was running around again.

When Stefan had finally showed up Alaric had gathered everyone in the living room and told them that he and Damon had ran into Katherine. Damon was currently attempting to subdue her and after finding this out Stefan had whipped out his phone and started to call Damon to no avail. Elena had felt a sudden rush of concern for the elder Salvatore; though he had only been in town a short time they'd had quickly bonded together and she had come to realise she came to count him as a friend quite quickly. The night where he took her, Caroline and Bonnie out at the Grill and insisted she have a five-minute time out from her life they had started to form their bond.

Something she hadn't admitted to anyone, not even Bonnie or Caroline yet was how attracted she was to him. When he had first entered the boarding house, her breathe had been stolen from her, and it hadn't helped matters that Caroline was constantly saying how attractive she found him. The reason she hadn't told her friends was the attraction went deeper than a mere physical one; Damon seemed to understand her on a level on not even Stefan did and that absolutely terrified her. The conversations between her and Damon were effortless, he seemed to understand when she needed to be pushed and when she needed to be left alone. And now with the knowledge that Damon was out their facing Katherine on his own; she knew Damon was more powerful than Stefan he was still younger than her by centuries and he was facing her down alone.

It hadn't helped when Stefan had explained that his brother had a reckless streak, he often was impulsive and rash diving headfirst into a situation before thinking it through. The thought of Stefan made Elena turn her head and look at him where he stood at the lounge room window looking out into the night for a sign of his brother. Thinking of Stefan sent her heart into a frenzy and not in the way that she enjoyed, the fear she felt at the sight of him still hadn't quite gone away yet.

Ever since the night of the Mystic Falls pageant and she had seen the him lose control things had changed between them. Stefan had been kidnapped by the tomb vampires which had been unleashed by Anna in her quest to save her mother and after a day of torture she, Alaric and Bonnie had been able to rescue him. However, in the escape Stefan had been injured and Elena had fed him her blood in order to help him. To say he had changed after that day was an understatement to say the least, he had lied to Elena and said he hadn't been drinking human blood when he had been stealing blood bags from the local blood bank. Stefan's behaviour had continued to be erratic until the night of the pageant when events had come to a head. Elena had confronted him about his behaviour and even said that he was still on human blood, after the argument Stefan had disappeared and Elena had been left without an escort forcing her to withdraw from the pageant.

She had been humiliated and had travelled over to the Salvatore boarding house with Bonnie who had stopped trusting Stefan since he had been back onto human blood. Elena had convinced Bonnie to stay in the car, which in hindsight had been a mistake. What nobody knew was that Stefan had disappeared with another contestant from the pageant, a girl named Amber and Elena had chosen the wrong time to confront him. Elena had found him with the Amber's corpse in the Salvatore boarding house lounge room and before she had a chance to do anything other than scream Stefan had been on her, his fangs piercing her neck with his mind lost to the bloodlust.

Bonnie had heard Elena's scream and had made it into the house just in time to brain blast Stefan off Elena and into unconsciousness. Elena had lost too much blood and Bonnie had been forced to take Elena to the hospital, the girls had said it had been an animal attack but Jenna already suspicious of Stefan and the events that had been happening in town had confronted her niece in hospital. Beaten and hurt, both physically and mentally, Elena had broken down to her Aunt and the truth of what had been happening had spilled out. The sound of a car pulling up into the Gilbert driveway made Elena shoot up on concern and start to walk towards the front door, but she was stopped half-way there by Stefan.

"Wait, we don't know if its him" Stefan said holding out a hand whilst he listened for a moment before he shook his head and let Elena pass.

Damon was walking up the front steps, still healing from the short confrontation with Katherine gingerly, the blood bags he had drunk were still doing their job of healing and he wasn't one hundred percent when he felt a warm body collide with his causing him to cry out in pain.

"Damon, are you ok?" Elena murmured backing away slightly still holding him in her eyes concern lighting up her face.

"Yeah, I'm good, just my pride and ego are busted…plus an arm and a couple of ribs but I'm ok. Better than, huh who knew getting hurt could come with such good benefits" Damon replied wiggling his eyebrows indicating the hold she had on him.

She shot away and almost went to smack him when she saw him favouring his right side, his arm curled up to his chest. She rolled her eyes and turn to walk back into the house to find that Stefan was standing there watching their movements with a blank look on his face.

"You've looked better" Stefan spoke as Damon started to walk up the stairs with Elena trailing closely behind him.

"Yeah well my plan didn't exactly work out did it?" Damon said sarcastically as he walked in the Gilbert house and took a seat in one of the chairs.

"What the hell were you thinking Damon?" Stefan questioned angrily as Damon sat up and looked his brother in the eye.

"I saw an opportunity to take Katherine out and I took it…by the way thanks for telling me about her high tolerance to vervain. I stuck her with a needle full and all it did was slow her down" Damon replied matching his brothers' tone while Elena shot Stefan a dark look.

"Stefan didn't tell you she's drinking vervain; original vampires can compel other vampires. You should be drinking vervain as well" Elena spoke whilst continuing to shoot daggers at Stefan making Damon raise his eyebrows.

"That would have been useful information to know" Damon replied sensing the tension rise between Elena and Stefan.

"Yeah, well I didn't know you about your stupid plan either" Stefan replied causing Damon to gasp in mock outrage.

"Hey, I don't have bad plans…just poorly executed awesome ones" Damon replied shifting again causing him to cry out in pain and Elena to move and sit beside him.

"You're still hurt" Elena murmured wanting to reach out and touch him, but she knew that Damon wouldn't accept that…and because Stefan was still standing in the room.

"I'm good, just need to rest and catch my breath. Wanted to make sure everything was ok here first" Damon replied causing Stefan to stand up.

"Ok…I'm going to check on Caroline. I'll see you back at the boarding house…I'm glad you're ok brother" Stefan murmured clasping his brother on the shoulder, Damon smiled at his brother who swiftly left the house, the door slamming shut caused Elena to turn to Damon.

"Ok, enough with the 'I'm fine', let me see how badly you're hurt" Elena murmured causing Damon to give her a look.

"I'm fine Elena, really I had a couple of blood bags on th-agghh what was that for?" Damon cried out midsentence as Elena poked him in the ribs and after his cry, as Elena raised her eyebrows in victory.

"Yeah, you're fine. Take off your shirt or I swear I will vervain you" Elena cried out as Damon wiggled his eyebrows in her direction.

"If you wanted to see me shirtless all you had to do was ask" Damon replied leering suggestively at her. She merely continued to glare at him causing him to sigh and sit up, he unbuttoned his shirt but as he came to the bottom he realised he wouldn't be able to remove the shirt without her help or else he would be in immense pain.

"Help a guy out, will you?" Damon asked causing Elena to reach for him, both chose to ignore the way Elena's hands shook as she reached his shirt and helped him get it off.

"Oh my god" Elena murmured as Damon's torso came into view, Elena tried to control her breathing and the tears that sprang to her eyes

The right side of his chest was completely bruised black but as Elena watched his skin was healing before her eyes, the skin turning back to its original colour. His right arm she saw was at a wrong angle, it was bent midway and she realised it had yet to heal…he had only drunk two blood bags before rushing over. She reached out slowly and softly placed her hand on his bare left shoulder causing him to sigh and to her shock relax slightly at Elena's touch.

"I'm ok Elena, it'll heal" Damon murmured reaching up and grabbing her hand, he squeezed it softly before he removed it and started to put his shirt back on.

After he was done, he turned around to face her after a few moments and their eyes became lost in each other, his heightened sense picked up on her elevated heartbeat and he saw her moisten her lips unconsciously. The sound of the front door opening caused them to snap out of their daze and they looked over as Alaric came back in and saw the two on the couch.

"You ok Damon?" Ric asked with a small amount of concern in his voice causing Damon to shake his head at his new friend.

"Take more than Katherine to take me out my friend" Damon replied causing Ric to chuckle and start to head up the stairs.

"I better go too, it's getting late" Damon replied standing up, his words however caused her to grab his arm as he went to leave.

"Wait, Damon…can you stay? I'm worried that Katherine will come back" Elena murmured causing Damon to frown at her but also to take his seat.

"Elena…Katherine won't be back tonight; you have nothing to worry about" Damon replied causing Elena to grab his hand and look him in the eyes.

"Please…I feel safe around you" Elena murmured her cheeks burning red from admitting why she wanted him to stay.

"Ok, I guess I can crash on the couch…but you owe me one Ms Gilbert" Damon replied waggling his finger at her causing her to laugh at him.

"Thanks Damon, it means a lot" Elena murmured standing up and going to gather some supplies for him to sleep.

Damon kicked off his boots and shrugged his jacket off as Elena came back down the stairs a pillow and blanket in her arms. She handed them to him and murmured another thank you before she whispered a goodnight and darted back up the stairs, the sound of her door clicking shut reached Damon as he laid out on the couch. After Elena entered her room she quickly went into the bathroom and started her nightly routine, taking a pair of boy shorts and camisole into the bathroom with her. After she changed and brushed her teeth she returned to her room, turning out the lights and climbing into bed. For the next hour Elena tossed and turned unable to find a comfortable position in her bed whilst her thoughts were filled by the blue-eyed vampire currently on her couch downstairs.

Finally after giving up on sleep she decided to venture downstairs and grab a glass of water (she wasn't hoping that Damon was up), as she creeped down the stairs and living room came into sight she saw that there was an old World War 2 documentary playing. Damon's head spun around from his seat on the couch causing Elena's breath to catch as her eyes met his.

"You're up late" Damon murmured as Elena came into the lounge room and stood beside the couch Damon was sitting on.

"So are you" Damon murmured shifting his focus back to the TV, but Elena felt like he was a world away.

"Just getting a drink" Elena murmured walking into kitchen and getting a glass.

When she had filled it, she had walked back into the lounge room she noticed Damon's posture hadn't shifted and he seemed to be lost in his own world. When she had glanced into his eyes, she had seen a glimpse of pain before he had shuttered it away beneath the wall, he seemed to build around himself. Elena knew she should of went upstairs but something compelled her to walk back into lounge room and take a seat beside Damon on the couch, the noise of her placing the glass on the table caused Damon to finally realise he was no longer alone.

"Thought you were going back to bed" Damon murmured looking her way before he turned his attention back to the TV.

"Are you ok Damon…you seem off?" Elena questioned softly causing Damon to snort.

"Yeah I'm peachy Elena…just the women who I loved for the last century and a half never loved me. It was always Stefan" Damon muttered with a large amount of bitterness colouring his voice, his words sent a stab of pain through Elena's heart and for her to reach place her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Damon" Elena murmured leaning down carefully and pulling him into a side hug offering what comfort she could. After a few moments Damon lifted his arm and wrapped it around her squeezing gently.

"Thank you, Elena," Damon murmured rubbing his cheek in her hair for a moment before they both lapsed back into silence.

As they both watched the documentary Elena felt herself start to drift away, before she finally fell asleep, she felt Damon relax and start to let out gentle snores. She should of went back up to her room back she felt safe and warm for the first time in a long time and her last thoughts before she drifted off was that she would sleep for five minutes before returning to bed.

End of Author's Note: Well what did everyone think, please let me know with a review, if you enjoy this story, I currently have another work in progress called a Change in Destiny, feel free to check it out. Stay safe and healthy out there and 'till next time.