The day after Damon and Jessa considered the theory that Elena's blood and face were cursed to make the Salvatore men become obsessed, she was back on his bed, but this time she was wearing her normal clothes. She had the box in her lap and was talking herself into opening the latch and finding out what she was. Damon was downstairs, discussing the weeks' worth of Stefan/Klaus drama. She was excused, seeing as she had more important things to figure out.

The box still felt warm, and she'd been repeatedly tempted to put Damon's hand on it the day before, just to see how the repulsion spell worked. And to be honest, she thought it would be hilarious to watch. She managed, with difficulty, to hold herself at bay. Now it was just her and the box. Sighing, she clicked the latch and opened it carefully. Inside, she found a very old bound book and a letter.

She pulled the letter out first. It was in oddly preserved shape, given that it was over 150 years old. Her mother must be more powerful than she imagined. She opened it and immediately recognized the handwriting. It was from her papa.

My darling, Princess Jessa,

It is with the heaviest heart that I've ever had that I write this letter to say goodbye. Knowing that I will not be witness to your growing older, that I will not hear the word "Papa" from your sweet lips for who knows how long, and that I will have to give your very safety over to a family that I am not completely comfortable with tears at my heart. If I could convince your mother of the absurdity of leaving you behind, I would. I think, and hope, that you know how futile that very thought is.

Soon, I hope, you'll find this letter within the box your mother is planning on leaving for you and I will be given the gift of a letter from your very important hand. I miss you, even as I sit within our home as you sleep fitfully in your room above.

Please, my princess, give your heart carefully to a man that loves you with all the power in his being. I know that learning that this man, whom your mother is absolutely resolute is already within your reach, must first become something that those we leave you in care of believe are monsters. And learning, upon the receipt of this letter, that your papa, the man who first held your hand is of the same cloth, will be painful-know my darling, that the only thing that has made my eternal life worth living is that through my love and life with your mother, you were brought into existence.

Even though I will be at a distance from you, know that it means nothing, for you are and will always be the best part of my very long existence. Knowing that you live, even away from me, will give me joy even as I mourn our parting. Please, understand, this is a necessity. Our leaving is not without regrets, but it is necessary.

And now I end, with this assurance, Jessa, you are and will be the best of all of us. You and whomever is lucky enough to be found worthy of your love, will make the world better and perhaps, safer for all who dwell within it. This I know, even if I lack the surety your mother's power affords her. I love you, Princess. And I will see you again.

Love,

Papa

Her eyes were flush with tears, and she was so wrapped up in the pain of seeing his hand, coupled with the words he left her with, that she didn't hear Damon come into the room. He watched her, and noticed that she'd finally opened her box. The letter in her hand, he could see the writing, but waited until she noticed him before approaching.

Jessa brushed the tears from her face, and smiled up at him. She patted the bed next to her and he sat. He waited to see if she needed his comforting, but she laughed lightly.

"I'm sorry, Damon. I can see I've given you a bit of concern." She smiled and took his hand. "My papa left a letter, and it was simply wonderful to see his handwriting."

He knew there was more, and he waited, rubbing calming circles on her thumb. She glanced at the letter, and then to his surprise handed it to him. He took it carefully, knowing how she must feel about it's sentimentality. He read it and felt a lump form in his own throat. Her father had been a fascination with Damon as a child. There was obviously something different about him, but he hadn't known just what. Learning yesterday that he was a vampire hadn't made his memories of the man any different. And here, he was showing why. Her father was more human than most of the founding family members, including his own father, he could remember.

"Ah, Jessa," he whispered, pulling her to him. She was careful to move the box from her lap. "I hope that your father is going to approve of me." He buried his nose into her hair, and let the smell of honeysuckle that always followed her calm him.

Jessa smiled, and settled in his arms. "Of course he will, Damon. He trusted me with you as a toddler, and now that I'm more durable, I'm sure you'll be the top of his list of favorites."

He pulled back to look down into her eyes. Dipping his head to give her a soft kiss, he pulled back and said, "Even with the whole Katherine situation?"

She could tell he was worried, but she shrugged. "Damon, he knew you were human. I'm sure he'd allow some error of humanity. And regardless, he's my papa, and he'd give me the world. And considering you're my world, ta-da."

He smiled at her assertiveness. "You are amazing, Jessa Warren." He kissed her again, before replacing her on the bed and standing up. "And because you're already amazing, I'm going to let you study." He pointed to the box. "If I know you, that book is going to be devoured and then there's going to be no stopping you."

She smiled up at him, and pulled the box with the book still inside to her. "Thank you, Damon. And just so you know, if I'm amazing, it's because you came into my life and helped me find myself."

The words were on both of their minds, three words that would change everything. Were they ready? Sharing a smile, Damon left her to concentrate on her mother's journal, and she took a breath she didn't know she was holding. Eventually the time would come, they both knew, when there wasn't a hesitation, and that's the turning point, but for now, they could focus on their individual parts in the world they occupied. She to learn who and what she was, and he to figure out if he could fight an obsession he feared.

While Damon gave her unfettered access to the quiet of his bedroom, he paced the study, attempting to figure out how to fix the seemingly unfixable. How should he go about saving his brother, and severing the ties that seemed to bind Stefan to Klaus? He kept pacing, even as he felt the presence of Elena. The answer had to be here, somewhere, for him to find.

"Damon?" Elena said, calling attention to the very person he was most afraid of. She watching him steel himself to face her.

"Yes?" He asked, trying to look past her shoulder, until Jessa could focus on figuring out if there was some supernatural pull to Elena, he was determined to not let down his guard.

"Is Jessa alright?" She asked, and he realized that no one really knew if she'd recovered, they'd been so wrapped up in each other. She'd left very late the night before to go to her house to gather some personal supplies and returned while everyone was out or asleep.

He didn't look directly at her, turning and answering as he began his pacing again. "Yes, she is. She's upstairs looking into some family documents." He could hear Elena let out a long breath and realized her worry wasn't feigned. Well, he knew she was different from Katherine, even Jessa knew. He still didn't trust himself to look at her. "Thank you, Elena, for asking."

She sat heavily on the chair nearest the threshold of the study. "I like Jessa, Damon." She said it as if trying to assure both him and herself. "She's a good person, who stayed when I know everything about Mystic Falls felt like torture. And she saved my best friend, and if I'm being honest, me."

He kept his head down, stopping and thinking a glass of bourbon would be welcome, but somehow he knew Elena wasn't finished.

"She could have easily outed me to Klaus in Chicago. She could have done so many horrible things in retaliation for what Katherine put her through. She didn't, and for that, I can't express enough gratitude." She stopped and stood up. "I'll leave you to your pacing, Damon. Just let her know, please, that I'm grateful that she's well."

Damon nodded, still averting his eyes. "I will," he considered his next words, then shook his head. Calling out to her, "Elena, she's upstairs in my room. She could probably use a minute of something other than what she's dealing with right now."

He could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "I'll run up then. Thanks, Damon."

Damon listened as she left the room, and let out a sigh. He'd gladly continue to avert his eyes around Elena until they could figure out if he was somehow cursed to become obsessed with her, but it was irritating. He let the image of Jessa fill his thoughts, and he smiled. Irritating, but ultimately worth it.

Jessa was reading the journal her mother had written and left for her. The beginning was a little confusing, but as she read, the truth of what she was started to form.

In the beginning, for lack of a more original start, there was nothing. No life existed on this plane we now know as Earth. Before the world was divided by races, and species, there was just a pool of bubbling fluid. More than mud, less than ocean, and from that pool I grew. The light was low, and the land indistinct. I waiting by the pool, hoping that something like me would spew forth, but nothing came. I knew, as though gifted with knowledge enough to live and grow, that I must leave the pool and learn what this world held. And so, began my journey of life.

The opening was confusing, was this in the hand of Jessa's grandmother, or was her mother saying that she was the first of whatever they were? Did no other living being exist at the point that her mother sprung forth? She continued to read, and the understanding grew within her. She wasn't part of a line of powerful beings. She was the Second of the "line".

The eons passed quick as a blink and eventually my solitude was broached by new beings. They looked like me, but I could sense that they held none of the strength and magic that my form held. Later, I learned of myths from the Greeks, and when I heard the story of Prometheus and his being punished for giving humans fire and through the light knowledge, I realized that I suffered from the same urges to help humans, and in doing so, was punished as well.

The powers I was created with, they are those that all supernatural beings are possessing of, to an extent. I could see, hear, and smell better than those humans that came forth from the same pool as I did. My strength, when tested, was far more than even their strongest male. And, the magic that could create and control elements far surpassed anything the humans dreamt of being capable.

My first mistake, even though I feel no real regret, was giving a young woman magic. I could sense in her an aptitude, that she could, with some urging be well versed in the very magic that flowed easily through my veins. A simple touch, a whispered expectation, and she opened her eyes to a knowledge that I should have questioned gifting her with, but it was a gift that I could not take back. She was the first in a powerful ,line of witches, and she was my first experience acting as Prometheus. Her line, still the most powerful of witches, have seen this gift as such throughout the present. Unlike the other gifts I've since bestowed.

The second came much later, a man worried that his family was unsafe in the world, which was overran with dangerous beasts came to me for advice. During the early times, humans had no fear for the power I welded. Instead, they saw me as a shaman, a distinction that came much later, but the expectations were the same. He wanted his family to be able to harness the same power that the most dangerous beast yielded. And so, the curse of the moon was created. It wasn't thought a curse during those early days, that too was decided later, when the descendants of that man felt that the burden was too much to bear.

And the last, as of this moment, came at the darkest part of my existence. A woman, trained by the very line of witches that I first gifted with magic, came to me and demanded a similar protection to her family that I had granted to those afflicted with the moon curse. Her husband, a controlling and grieving man, demanded magic to solve their dispute with the wolf-people. He couldn't see, and she refused to confess, that one of her sons bore that very curse. I considered the demand, and in it, I realized I could create a stipulation to granting her wants. I could create, with a new curse on her family, although as with the moon curse, it was seen as a gift at the time, my own companion. I could make a species that would act as the perfect answer to my loneliness in immortality. And with that, I created vampire.

Jessa gasped, and looked up. Her mother, the woman who she was realizing she barely knew, had created the very monsters that she always thought were bred in darkness. She looked at her own hands and for once she was truly fearful of whatever it was that flowed through her veins.

She heard someone coming up the stairs and shutting her eyes to collect herself, she realized she could tell who was approaching. The heartbeat and even the slight scent of Elena came to her in a rush and she was brought up short. Her mother did say the powers would be coming in a rush.

"Elena?" Jessa called, letting her know she could hear her coming.

Elena entered the bedroom and smiled. "Hey, Jessa! Damon told me you were awake and feeling better, so I thought I'd say hello."

Jessa shifted her mother's journal back into the box, and moved over so Elena could sit next to her. "I am feeling a little better, just trying to wrap my head around some of my heritage." She gestured to the box.

"Learning anything helpful?" Elena asked, and Jessa could tell she was trying to be a friend.

"Mostly the history of my lineage, so far anyway." Jessa said, giving a sad smile. "And I'm slowly coming into some understanding of my real powers."

Elena raised an eyebrow, and Jessa gave her a small exhibition. She raised a palm and shut her eyes, a blue-green flame appeared in the center. She heard Elena's gasp and breathed out, letting the flame extinguish.

"Fire?" Elena asked, her eyes sparkling. "Or is there a whole lot more?"

"Lots and lots more." Jessa said, laughing. "So how's the real world going?"

It was Elena's turn to smile sadly. "Stefan, and Klaus by default, are heading back. And I think we can all imagine how well that's going to turn out."

"Elena," Jessa said, asking for her attention. "You need to know, I'm working hard to figure out just what else these unknown powers entail, and I will do my best to be sure we save Stefan. Even if it's from himself."

Elena nodded, knowing that Jessa didn't say anything she didn't mean. "So, you and Damon?" She needed a change of subject and thought this was the best one.

"Now, Elena," Damon said from the doorway. "Jessa has never been one to kiss and tell." He admonished, then added with a cheeky wag of his eyebrows to Jessa, "Me on the other hand…"

Jessa grabbed a pillow from behind her and tossed it at him, hard. He nearly fell over from the force, and she noticed with wide eyes. Elena didn't, laughing at the two of them, and focused on not worrying for a moment.

"I have to get going." She said, her cellphone buzzing in her hand. "Caroline demands an audience." Laughing gently, she left with a wave the newly formed couple barely noticed. Damon rubbed his chest where the pillow had hit him. "So, I see you're stronger than before."

"Oh, Damon, if only that were the ONLY change." She shook her head and patted the bed next to her. "Wait until you hear how my mother changed the world."