NOTE: Thank every single one of you lovely creatures that have read this nugget of a story. The follows and favorites are most appreciated. As are the reviews. I want all of you to know that this is where the story will run off course, it will no longer follow the television timeline, though parts will appear throughout. I will also stop, at this point, of showing the date of any present part (they'll remain for flashbacks, to show how it fits together). Bear with me because I'm fairly certain you're going to enjoy it. (Especially if you never really understood the Damon/Elena angle.)
Damon considered her answer to his question. Her fear, of not knowing what she was, and how she came to be, made sense. Supernatural lives were never easy, and hers less so. At least he'd been prepared for his life as a vampire. She hadn't even known she was immortal until she'd been forced to die and he couldn't imagine how terrified she must have been when she came to.
He watched as she slowly regained movement in her arms, her legs were still unmoving, so they had more time to talk. He wasn't certain she'd stay for long after she was capable of self-sufficiency.
"You didn't date?" He asked, knowing that wasn't the best word for what they were discussing, but unsure of which one would work better. Have sex? Fall in love? Start small, his mind screamed at him.
Jessica gave a quiet chuckle. "No, Damon, I didn't date. Knowing, even as a teenager, what came from dating."
"Tell me about what your mother said about your father." He requested, thinking the answer lay somewhere in her parents' relationship. He was rewarded with the knowledge he was on the right path when he felt her twitch uncomfortably in his arms. "Jessa?"
Clearing her throat, she tried to think of a diversion, but knew that when Damon was fixated on a topic, there wasn't a tactic to shake him. "My papa, he's supernatural, too. Just not the same as Mother and I."
"You've told me as much, Jessa." He said, focusing her on the truth that she was avoiding. "What species, or race, or whatever the hell the classification is for supernatural beings?"
"He's," she started, swallowing hard, "a vampire." The word 'vampire' was barely audible. She knew what he'd assume, from her blurting out her lack of relationship experience. Her face felt as hot as the sun.
Damon's head smacked against the heavy wooden headboard. He had some suspicions, but honestly, he wasn't sure and what she was telling him, made his visions on meeting her seem even more likely and possible. He should be so excited, but honestly, he was terrified. They, he and Jessa, their future, could be REAL.
"Damon?" She asked, turning toward him. "Are you alright?" She looked at his face, the shock, and strangely, fear shined out to her.
She felt like she should let him know that this fact didn't mean that he had to be her partner in life. That she was fine with their friendship going back to how it was before Katherine showed up in their world. Even though it felt like a knife was twisting in her chest at the thought, she would make him see that her hopes weren't pinned on him, regardless of the truth.
Before she could articulate it, before she could make it sound sincere, his vampire speed caught her off guard. His hands turned her fully toward him and before she could make sense of the look in his eyes, his lips were on hers. She didn't think, she didn't question how they went from point A in their lives to this, instead she sunk into the feelings that threatened to overwhelm her. The heat, the lust, and the rightness of his mouth and hers touching in a way that she'd never considered possible. Their hearts pounded, in tandem, and her hands found their way into his silky dark hair. His clutched the back of her head, holding her close, as close as they could physically get. And in that moment, as they let each other feel for the very first time how they felt for one another, the thought of everyone else melted from their minds.
It seemed like days passed when they parted, but it was mere minutes. Looking into Jessa's eyes, Damon felt something he'd never felt before. Not the obsession he felt with Katherine, or the pull he felt with Elena. What he felt with Jessa was a purity, the very rightness of her and him nearly took his breath away.
They looked at each other, and laughed softly. "Damon," she said, breathless, but smiling. "I don't really know what to say."
"We don't need to say anything, Jessa." He said, brushing her curls from her face, memorizing the look in her eyes, the very need in them. "Let's just enjoy it."
His head dropped toward her, and this time she was more prepared. Their lips brushed, and she could feel his curled into a smile. If she had been asked, during any point after 1864 and up to today, she'd say the entire situation was an impossibility. Now, it seemed a certainty. Except, she pulled back and looked up into his eyes as they opened in question, there was a doubt.
"Damon," she said, cupping his face in her hands. "Are you SURE? Because, I swear, if Elena wanders into this room, and you look at her and I slip from your mind again, eternal life WILL be torture for me."
He considered her words and fear gripped him, too. What if it happened again? What if, as she said, Elena came in and took away every moment that had passed since Jessa regained consciousness? If her existence, and the importance of it, left him again. He pulled back and grimaced.
"I won't lie to you, Jessa." He said, taking her hands from his face and holding them in his own. "I'm terrified it will happen again. And I can't even claim that Katherine compelled me, Jessa. Everything I did with her, I did freely." She could tell, unlike his former brag of being independent in following her worst enemy, this confession upset him.
"I've been thinking," she said, squeezing his hands. "What if, what if there's more to the pull Katherine and the doppelgänger situation than simply lust or infatuation?" She could see him trying to understand what she was considering. "Could there be more to the curse than simply the blood to unlock the moon curse?"
He thought about what she was saying, and pulled her back into his lap, and settled once more against the headboard. Jessa listened to his heart beating steadily as she felt the movement come back to each of her legs and then feet. It took time for him to work it over, considering the truth of her conspiracy theory.
"Are you thinking someone cursed the Salvatore line to become obsessed with the Petrova doppelgänger situation?" He asked, as his hands ran through her curls. "Because, I don't want you to give me an out for the betrayal I perpetrated on you, Jessa."
She knew what he was thinking, because she was hoping that she wasn't only doing that as well. "I don't know, Damon, but it seems stronger than simple human or vampire feelings are in place. I've seen you look at both Katherine and Elena and I could swear nothing else matters when their eyes seek yours." She tried to think of a better way to describe it, without using herself in the equation. "Think about when you came home from the war. Not only did you not seek out me to let me know, you literally looked at your own brother like nothing more than competition."
She could tell he was considering her words. So she continued. "You and Stefan were never the closest people, but Damon, even with the fucked up dynamics of your family, you still cared and would have died for him."
He knew what she was saying was true. He had welcomed Jessa's help in their family dealings, but given the chance, he would have protected Stefan from any danger he could have. "She truly had more power over me than I realized." He sounded amazed, even to his own ears. "I was so proud of making the choice to feed from her. That I was man enough to choose to live forever with her."
It hurt her to hear him say it, but she pushed past it. "Damon, I'm not sure, even without compulsion she had access to that type of pull, but what if it's engrained in her very blood." She was warming to the idea, as though it was being proven right deep inside of her. "And, since Elena has that blood…"
They shared an understanding look. The blood, and with it the face that came along, was the link. It wasn't simply giving Damon an excuse for what happened, Jessa knew as surely as she knew her own name, that this was the fact of it. The doppelgänger curse was deeper than anyone had ever considered. And even with this knowledge, Jessa worried that worse was yet to come.