Okay, this is something I wrote because one of my reviewers was wondering what was going on in the present while Rebecca was back in time.

Enjoy!

Chapter Five
Companion piece

Mystic Falls, 2009

Uh-oh.

Damon shot up out of bed. Something was wrong.

Maybe it had been a dream but it had been so . . . real. And he hadn't had dreams in a long time, not ones like this, not ones that didn't involve Katherine Pierce. And Rebecca Stone definitely hadn't had the starring role.

But he'd been human and he'd been attracted to her the minute he'd seen her. Her eyes, her smile - he'd fallen in love with her smile.

He'd been introduced to her the day he'd come back while he was on leave from the war. He'd been arguing with Father - of course - when Stefan had brought her in, probably as a way to relieve the tension. Damon knew Stefan hadn't liked it when he and their father used to fight. Damon had felt bad about causing his brother stress back then, he didn't care now.

But that had been the first time he'd seen Rebecca. She'd curtsied like a good little lady but it had been in a teasing way and it had amused him.

She had arrived at the most inopportune moment. People were just starting to complain about animal attacks, when really it was vampires. Of course, Damon hadn't known it right then, so he'd thought the town's people were just superstitious fools.

Rebecca hadn't seemed bothered by it, so maybe she hadn't known it was vampires. She'd seemed content just to spend time with him and Stefan. Maybe she didn't want to know it was vampires. Maybe she was ignoring the problem.

Ugh, I need a drink, he thought. I'm gonna get a drink.

He got out of bed, got dressed and went downstairs and grabbed a bottle of his best bourbon and started chugging. This Rebecca chick was going to mess everything up. Because, despite what he'd told himself when he'd woken up, it wasn't a dream. It was real; somehow Rebecca had gone back to 1864 and his human self liked her.

His human self had liked how she'd carried herself, how she'd been nice to the people she didn't have to be nice to. The servants had loved her, probably would've died for her had they been given the chance.

He remembered how his body had stirred the first time he'd had her in his arms when he'd helped her off his horse. He'd been totally attracted to her by that time. But that was all it had been just then: Attraction. She'd had too many secrets for him to let himself feel much more than that.

"Damon!" It was Stefan, and he sounded disturbed. "When are we gonna talk about it?"

"About what?"

"You know what. Rebecca. She's not here . . ." Stefan said. "I have different memories, so I know you do to."

"Whatever do you mean?"

Stefan scoffed. "Drop the act. We both spent time with her. You were there too. In fact, you forgot I was there, remember. Your words."

Damon didn't answer because, well, Stefan was telling the truth.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Stefan asked. "She doesn't belong there. She could die."

"Everybody dies," Damon said coldly. "Besides, what are we supposed to do? I hardly think Bonnie Bennett could bring her back and if Sheila could've done it, she would've already."

"What am I supposed to tell Elena? She's freaking out and I can't even tell her that Rebecca's okay."

"You're problem, not mine. You're the one who keeps lying to her and yourself about what you are, Mr. I-Like-Torturing-Furry-Animals-So-I-Don't-Hurt-People."

Stefan glared and Damon smirked. "Why am I surprised by how helpful you're not?"

"Because you never learn."

Damon walked away and out of the house. He was regretful that he couldn't bring his alcohol with him.

Jeeze, he'd taken her on a picnic and . . . hadn't even tried to seduce her. He'd respected her and treated her like a woman should be treated and all that other stuff he'd forgotten since he'd become a vampire. They had just talked and told each other about themselves.

She'd said she'd fallen asleep at a friend's house and seeing as to how she'd ended up back in time, he was going to assume that friend was a witch. Bonnie wasn't experienced enough, so that left Sheila.

Why he was at said witch's house was beyond him. Maybe he could chalk it up to curiosity. He wanted to know what spell had been cast and how long it would hold. Yeah, that was it.

He remembered how bad he'd felt when he'd made Rebecca cry - unwittingly, of course; when he'd been human he had never made a woman cry on purpose because, like most men, tears made him want to run the other way. But he hadn't been able to leave Rebecca alone because she was crying because she felt alone. He'd wanted to prove she wasn't.

When she'd kissed him it had shocked him. Women didn't just do things like that back then, not the respectable ones anyway. And Rebecca was respectable, and it had been a thank you for letting her cry and not saying anything about it. But she hadn't said no when he'd kissed her back.

Damon tried to forget how nice it had been. There was an innocence to Rebecca and even his human self had felt it. But they had fit together, his wildness with her serenity. In that moment, Damon had felt like he'd found the place he'd belonged, and vampire Damon could remember it. He didn't want to remember it, but he did.

So yes, Rebecca was going to ruin everything. Damon had waited 145 to get Katherine back; he was not going to change his plans because of one human girl. She was an extraordinary human girl, but she was still just human. Well . . . Maybe slightly more than human since she was a Slayer, but . . . still. The point was still the same.

Rebecca was not Katherine.

Katherine or not, Damon had still liked how Rebecca had listened and not judged. But he had been human then; there was no way she wouldn't judge him now, not after everything he'd done all in the name of love. He'd shut his humanity out so he could survive and get to the point where he could bring Katherine back. He wouldn't have survived this long if he had felt as much as he had when he'd been human.

Finally, he knocked on Sheila Bennett's door. He did not expect to be invited in and that wasn't what he wanted anyway. He just wanted to know when the spell was going to be broken and how long Rebecca would be gone. He needed at least an estimate so he would know how much Rebecca could possibly mess up.

If Rebecca was still in the past when Katherine came into Damon's life . . . it was very possible Damon wouldn't notice Katherine at all. It was true Damon could go from one woman to the next, no problem, but if he was spoken for he wouldn't stray. He was very loyal. If Rebecca was there and made her feelings for him clear, which she had . . . Damon would not hurt her that way.

"Mr. Salvatore."

The woman who opened the door was thin in the extreme and . . . somehow knew who he was even though she'd never met him. Whatever, he had no time for that mystery. He had another one to deal with.

"You know why I'm here, I take it."

"Rebecca Stone?" she asked innocently, brown eyes twinkling.

"Yes," he seethed. "You bring her back now."

"I can't. I didn't cast the spell. She did, accidentally. The spell can't be broken until she gets what she wants."

"Well, what is it that she wants?"

"Since she didn't mean to cast the spell, she probably doesn't even know. She'll know when she finds it."

So it's not me? Damon thought moodily realizing it was completely irrational since he didn't want her anyway. But she was with Damon in that time period, so he thought he was justified in thinking that.

"Did you know where she would be sent when she cast the spell?"

"Nope, she could've ended up at Woodstock for all I knew."

"Hm." Damon chuckled. "Still probably would've met me."

"A less pleasant you," Sheila said, smirking. "You can leave now."

The witch slammed the door in his face.

"Well, that was rude," Damon muttered, but walked away nonetheless.

Damon was screwed. It had been a week since he'd started remembering things about the past-that-shouldn't-have-been, which meant it had been about two weeks since Rebecca had been gone. The sheriff had put up flyers around town because she was a missing person. Elena and Bonnie and even Caroline had helped. He knew Stefan had tried comforting Elena in the only way he knew how, by lying to her. Rebecca would be okay, maybe she'd come back and everything would be fine. Okay, so maybe that wasn't a complete lie, but it was omitting the truth, so it was technically still a lie.

Damon had taken to secretly going to Rebecca's house at night. He couldn't go in, but he wanted to make sure Chelsea was okay. It was stupid and he knew he shouldn't because the girl was not his responsibility, but the part of him that was remembering Rebecca in a way he shouldn't knew how much Rebecca loved her sister. If Rebecca wasn't here to take care of her . . . Well . . . Yeah.

As he'd thought, he was screwed. Robert was still not being a dad, but Chelsea did have Tina. But the baby was always crying. He'd heard she was teething, so that was probably why. Painful, painful, painful. They should give her something to chew on; it would make her feel better. Or didn't they have medicine to make her gums numb or something? He was sure he'd heard of that.

Or Chelsea might just be missing her sister/surrogate mother.

Damon wasn't the only one who needed her to come back home.

Okay, as you can see, Damon's thoughts are askewed. He's not sure what to think of Rebecca going back in time, but he knows she's going to mess everything up because he's already doing OOC things. Or he thinks they're out of character. LOL. Anyway, I know this is short, but this was just an overview of what Damon's feeling - gasp - and thinking.

Let me know what you think? Really, I wasn't sure if this was how he'd react or not, but I was sure he wouldn't take it sitting down.