Okay, here's another small glimpse into Damon's thoughts in 2009 as he's remembering all this new stuff with Rebecca in it. He's still a little conflicted I think. LOL. But he wouldn't be Damon if he wasn't.

Chapter Six
Companion piece

Mystic Falls, 2009

Damon and Rebecca were dancing in the gardens of Veritas. Damon had learned to dance a long time ago; it was part of his upbringing. They were just having fun, twirling and touching chastely.

Rebecca made him feel alive with just a touch of her hand, with just a smile at something he'd done or said. He could make her happy and she could make him feel like nobody else could.

He could see himself being with her for the rest of his life. They could go wherever she wanted; if she wanted something he'd see she got it. If things kept going the way they were maybe he would ask her to marry him in the future. Not in the near future, of course, but sometime . . .

Damon was in bed again and had been dreaming again. That was mostly how the memories came to him, in his sleep. Well, he was still a vampire so Rebecca obviously hadn't changed that. Yet.

His human self had been completely happy having Rebecca there with him, but vampire Damon knew it was doomed to fail. She couldn't stay there. She had to come back some time and then . . . His human self would be devastated. Rebecca was playing with him with her shy smiles and small kisses and it wasn't fair and he couldn't do anything about it but wait for the hurt to come. Because he would no doubt feel it, or remember feeling it.

It. Wasn't. Fair.

He knew Rebecca couldn't tell his human self the truth, and it was probably smart for her not to have, but still . . . Rebecca had to know they couldn't work. That she couldn't stay with him. So why was she getting closer to him when she knew . . . When she knew she'd have to leave sometime?

But she really was blossoming into a beautiful woman while with him - or human him. And was helping human him learn to really care - unselfishly - and vampire Damon didn't like it. Because he could remember how it felt to be genuinely cared for by a woman and it pissed him off that it wasn't Katherine doing it. Though Katherine was still there in his thoughts so obviously having a vampire slayer around hadn't kept Katherine from coming to Veritas too.

Damon felt odd every time he gained a new memory. He wondered if that was what making someone remember something with compulsion felt like. He wondered if when he compelled someone to forget him biting them felt as odd as that. Did they sense that that memory shouldn't be there, or that they had forgotten something important?

Ugh, who cares?

Damon remembered the night he'd found out Rebecca was a Slayer. His ass of a father had used it to corner her into helping even though he could tell she had wanted nothing to do with it at all. He knew now that Rebecca had killed at least one vampire but she'd taken no joy in it.

It had been self defense if her story was anything to go by.

She'd given him a choice; he could've walked away and she would've understood. But he hadn't. He'd gone with her to her bedroom and listened to her explanation. He had tried to believe her, but he had kind of thought she was a little crazy. She'd been honest though, and she'd had to know his vampire self would remember, which meant she hadn't minded him knowing. She might have even wanted him to know just in case she did get to come back. She'd told him she wouldn't know what do without him.

But that had been then.

It had been a month since Rebecca had been . . . missing. Everyone was still worried but they had stopped looking. People probably thought she was dead, what with the animal attacks and all.

Damon's memories included Katherine now, but as he'd thought . . . his human self didn't even really notice Katherine Pierce. Yes, he was civil and he noticed her beauty, but he wasn't interested.

His human self had noticed that Rebecca seemed a bit off since Katherine had arrived and he didn't understand it. Vampire Damon did. Rebecca could feel that Katherine was a vampire - she'd been able to sense him too when he'd met her, but she hadn't known what it had been. It had been new to her. But other than that, there was Elena, who was Katherine's doppelganger.

Rebecca was still nice to Katherine whether she knew the girl was a vampire or not. But Damon guessed that was just Rebecca. Katherine seemed to get along with Rebecca okay, but that could've been an act. Katherine had been good at manipulating people to get what she wanted.

With his human self absorbed in Rebecca, it had left Katherine to give all her attention to Stefan. And he didn't like it, Damon didn't. Not the one from the present, anyway. It was supposed to be him and her, not Stefan and her.

He remembered the time he and Rebecca had gone swimming and he had been shocked, his human self had. Again, women didn't just undress in front of people back then. That was when Damon figured out Rebecca Stone was a tease. She gave all these shy smiles and innocent looks; well, she may have been innocent but she definitely wasn't naïve. She knew what she was doing when she'd looked back at him to see if he was going to follow.

He'd followed, of course. And had gotten splashed for his efforts. Rebecca had obviously seen he was nervous - how embarrassing - and had done it to make him feel better.

One thing that had changed because of Rebecca was that Damon had actually told his father that he wasn't going back to fight in the war. Originally Damon just hadn't gone back, he hadn't told anybody anything. He'd actually lied and told everybody he'd still been on leave.

One thing that hadn't changed was he and Stefan playing football, sort of, with Katherine. Damon had chased her for fun and Stefan had joined in. Rebecca had allowed it without complaint. Most girls were more possessive and jealous.

Like Caroline Forbes, Damon's flavor of the week. She was a total ditz, but she was also food. She talked too much for his liking and sometimes he actually compelled her to stay quiet; he was surprised it didn't kill her to not speak. Damon understood about having to tolerate her now.

So far he'd only fed from her twice and the morning after would've been amusing if it hadn't been annoying. The plan had been to feed and make her forget, but she'd attacked him, so . . .

He had chosen her because she was desperate for attention and he was hungry; also he had no worries about forming attachments with this one. He'd kill her if he had to put up with her for more than an hour or two.

Damon remembered the dance he'd escorted Rebecca to. He'd danced with her most of the night except for the few times he'd switched with Stefan. Stefan had asked permission and Damon hadn't minded as long as he had been able to dance with Katherine. Turnabout was fair play.

He, however, hadn't been okay with that Lockwood guy dancing with her; he hadn't allowed that. George Lockwood had been gross and obscene in the best of times and he'd been drinking that night. There was no way he'd been about to leave Rebecca with him. Not to mention all the Lockwood's had been notorious for their tempers.

Rebecca had shined that night and she hadn't even noticed. She'd been more worried about noticing him. Except for the few dances she'd shared with Stefan - and most of that had been spent teasing him about his two left feet - she'd been entirely focused on him. And he'd liked it.

He still sort of liked it or the memory of it anyway

As I said, Damon is conflicted. He doesn't know whether these new memories are a good thing are not because he's not sure what's gonna happen. I know this was short, but that's because I didn't need to cover EVERYTHING that had happened in the last chapter, just the key points.

Hope you enjoyed!