Alright, this takes up right where the last one left off, only it's back with Damon now. If anyone's wondering why I'm updating so fast, it's because I have a job now and I'm going to start next week, so I'm getting the chapters I already have typed out on here so you can enjoy them. LOL

Now, it has come to my attention that some of you guys like making fan art and such. I'm completely open to people doing that and putting it up on my profile if you want. All you have to do is PM me with the link and I'll put it up and give credit to whoever did it. I have four of them up on my profile page already. Maybe five, I really can't remember. LOL. I was just letting you know I have no objections as long as you give my story credit for the inspiration and all. And I'm not strictly set on who Rebecca would look like. I just know she's not a barbie doll stick figure person. If you've read the story you know the things that stick out about her, so you can just use whoever you want as long as there's long honey blond hair and striking green eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Damon was still healing from the five bullets that had recently been removed from his body, and he was slowly becoming annoyed because Logan wouldn't stop yapping. Granted, Logan talking was way better than Logan shooting him, but . . . Damon wasn't really in the mood to listen . . . He'd been shot.

"Why am I so overly emotional?" Logan asked, sitting down a few feet away from Damon. He actually sounded half-sane now. "All I can think about is my ex-girlfriend. I wanna be with her and bite her and stuff."

"Well, you probably love her. Anything you felt before will be magnified now. You're gonna have to learn to control that."

"What about walking in the sun? I'm a morning person. You can walk in the sun, which, by the way, is pretty cool. The Council would never suspect you. That's not in the journals. Come on, man, you gotta tell me. How can you walk around in the sun?"

"Who turned you?" Damon asked in return.

He was not going to tell this idiot his and Stefan's secret. And what, did Logan think that the Council would welcome him back with open arms? He was a vampire now; the town wouldn't care that he was one of their own, they would turn their collective back on him now. Hell, Liz was the one who had buried him.

"How do you walk in the sun?"

"Who turned you?"

Damon could do this all day - it would get boring, but if that was what it took to get an answer . . . He needed to know how many vampires were in this town and where they were holed up so he could get rid of them before they caused trouble, and before Rebecca could get hurt.

"You know, I've been really nice so far, but I will kill you," Logan threatened.

"Then you'll never know," Damon pointed out.

Logan stood up first and Damon followed shortly after, mostly to show that he could. It was a na-na-na-na-na-na thing.

"You're not answering my question," Damon said.

"You first."

"It seems we're at a bit of an impasse then, doesn't it?"

"I have things to do. People to kill. I guess I'll be needing a little head start."

And so Damon was shot three more times, this time in the chest, and he was down on the ground, in pain again.

Meanwhile, outside the warehouse, Rebecca had arrived just in time to hear three gunshots. It made her jump because she hadn't expected it at all. She knew Damon was inside and she knew Logan was too. What did a vampire need a gun for anyway? Wasn't the super strength, super speed, and fangs enough?

He had really inconvenienced her earlier with the pain and the fainting and all. And then . . . why wasn't she fainting now? Why wasn't she feeling the pain now? Was Logan the one who'd been shot this time? Or was it because . . . because she was here now, close to Damon, ready to help him because he needed it?

She'd borrowed Damon's car without permission because she hadn't had her own, and she'd called Stefan to ask him to take her place at the Career Fair because she just knew Damon was in trouble again. Stefan hadn't minded taking her place because Elena was going to be at the fair anyway, but he had wondered how Rebecca knew Damon was in trouble. Rebecca hadn't answered because if she'd told Stefan then she'd have to tell Damon and she didn't want Damon to know.

Rebecca watched as Logan Fell came out of the warehouse and she gasped. Seeing him in her head and seeing him for real was a completely different experience. Again she wondered how he'd become a vampire.

Logan spotted her almost as soon as she'd seen him. She noticed he did have a gun on him, and he was reloading. She didn't know if he knew about her secret or not so she proceeded with caution.

"Hello, Logan," she said. She didn't know him know him, but he was a local celebrity. And he'd been Jenna's boyfriend a few years back. She knew him through hanging out with Elena.

"Rebecca Stone. What're you doing out here all alone?"

"Looking for you, apparently," she muttered. She shook her head and gestured to the gun. "You gonna put that down?"

She reached for the stake in her jacket while keeping a keen eye on Logan. When he rushed at her she tossed him away by knocking him back with the palm of her hand. Logan hit the wall of the warehouse and landed on his knees with a thud.

"Ow! You're strong," Logan said. "Pretty sure I'm stronger."

Somehow Rebecca found herself pressed against the wall now - damn vampire speed - while Logan choked her. She glared at him and grabbed his wrist and twisted hard. Within seconds they had switched positions and she had him face first into the wall, arm behind his back. One move and she could break his arm and dislocate his shoulder.

"Seems you made a serious miscalculation, my friend."

Logan laughed shortly. "So it's true. You are the Slayer."

"Duh! Give me the gun and I might let you go."

"No, you won't."

"Okay, no, I won't. But I still want the gun. You probably have many more where this came from." She shoved the stake into his side and twisted, clenching her jaw in self-hatred. This had to be done, she knew that, but she didn't have to like it. "Or we can do it -"

"Here, take the damn thing!" Logan dropped it lightly on the ground and Rebecca kicked it aside.

"Thank you. Now . . . who turned you?"

"I don't know. I woke up dead, alone, and hungry!"

"Hm." She stepped away and quickly grabbed the gun, placing it in the back of her pants. She quickly learned her mistake because a blow landed on the side of her head and she landed back first on the hood of Damon's car. Damon's car, which was metal and not one of the new fiberglass affairs, and it hurt.

"Ow!"

She got up as fast as she could and she was relieved to find that Logan was no longer around. He'd obviously been too injured to fight - or maybe he'd just been too much of a coward. Whatever. Either way, she needed to get inside because there had been three gunshots, and seeing as to how Logan had had the gun . . . Damon had been shot.

First thing she noticed was that it was almost completely dark inside. No windows, very dim lights. She had to use her cell phone just to see in front of her. When she reached Damon he was writhing in pain, trying to get a bullet out of his chest.

"Oh, maybe you shouldn't move," she said softly. She could tell how much he was preoccupied by the fact that she'd been able to sneak up on him.

She noticed there were five other shell casings on the floor around him. Those were the shots she'd felt. Damon was covered in blood and she almost gagged, but she stopped herself.

"Um . . . tell me what to do and I'll help," she offered, kneeling by him.

"You have to use your fingers and dig them out."

Ew, she thought, but she did it anyway.

She watched Damon closely; he was shaking and pale - paler? - and exhausted. She ripped open the shirt so she could see the damage and saw that his normally perfect chest was marred with wounds.

"Logan has to die," Rebecca said, forcing herself to remove one of the bullets from him. "He knows who I am and what I am. He could tell someone."

She felt like crying as she saw the pain Damon was in. It was so bad the veins were starting to show underneath Damon's eyes.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed. "Do you want me to wait or get the other two now?"

"Go ahead. Best to just get it over with."

"Okay."

Rebecca took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The second and third time wasn't as hard as the first since she knew what she was doing now. Once she was done she watched as Damon tried to calm down and regain his breath. She'd never seen him so physically vulnerable and it made her uneasy. She didn't like seeing him this way; this made him seem less immortal, and it hit her that just because he was a vampire didn't mean he couldn't be taken away from her.

"Come on." She helped him sit up and she moved her hair to the side, exposing her neck. "Drink."

"Becca . . ."

"You need to heal. Drink."

She put her hand on the back of his neck and waited for him to lean in - she wasn't going to force him. She knew what to expect so she was completely relaxed. In a less desperate situation Damon probably would've eased her into it, but he needed her blood now. He was still gentle, though, when he bit down. Or as gentle as someone could be when they were trying to bite through skin. It wasn't bad, the few seconds of pain the bite caused; Rebecca thought it was well worth it as long as it made Damon stop hurting.

During the bite, Damon monitored her heartbeat very closely. He was hurt, so he needed more than usual so he could heal properly, but he wasn't going to take so much that it would risk hurting her either. He'd made that mistake before; he wasn't going to make it again. He was just glad that Rebecca didn't seem to mind this, didn't seem to be scared of it. Though God knew he'd given her a reason to be. And this . . . this was the moment Damon fell in love with Rebecca all over again.

Yes, he'd waited for her because he'd loved her and remembered her. But he hadn't been in love with her in her absence - he'd remembered how it had made him feel, of course, but it was hard to be in love with something that wasn't there. But now, yeah, he was completely in love with her. He'd seen the best and the worst of her, her kindness, her strengths and her weaknesses. He knew she cared about him, loved him even, and barely even noticed other guys around her. Aside from Jeremy - but she didn't love Jeremy, not that way. She was completely, without a doubt, his. She belonged with him and he with her - they both knew it, both felt it.

They didn't have to be connected for him to believe it. They wouldn't have the freedom to be happy with anyone else.

Once Damon was done, and she felt his fangs retract, she took a few sips of blood from his wrist to heal herself. Damon didn't know it, but he was healing her back too, from where she'd slammed into his car.

She had never told Damon this, but she liked the feeling of intimacy the sharing of blood brought to her. She never felt closer to him then when part of her was in him and part of him was in her. If she had explained that to Damon, he would've had a dirty comment ready and waiting for her.

She stood up shakily and turned around to see if Damon needed help but stopped short when she saw a pile of bodies in the corner of the room

"Oh, God," she muttered, looking away. She had seen this, too, in her head. It was different, seeing it for real.

She wondered if Logan had done this on his own of if he'd had someone with him - the one who'd turned him, maybe. Now Rebecca knew Logan had to die. He'd only been a human for about three weeks and he'd already killed about ten people, if not more.

She forced herself to look once more at the bodies and then she took out her phone and called the sheriff for the second time that day.

"Sheriff Forbes speaking."

"Hey, it's Rebecca. I wanted to let you know I know who the vampire is. Logan Fell. I found him, but he got away. He's staying in one of the old warehouses. I'm looking at a pile of bodies he's built up. It's pretty bad, Sheriff." She shook her head and sighed. "I just needed you to know that I didn't blow you off. I had a very good reason not to show up, but I will be there shortly just in case."

"Thanks for the heads up," Liz said gratefully.

"No problem. See you soon."

She shook herself out of the semi state of shock the bodies had brought on and looked at Damon again.

"Come on, let's get you home. Your car's right outside."

"You stole my car?" Damon asked as they both went out the door.

"No. I borrowed it without permission. I didn't have my car and yours was available."

"Hm."

Rebecca pulled the gun she'd taken from Logan out and handed it to Damon, grimacing at the same time. "Here. I have no use for this. Have fun when you find him."

Damon smirked. "Well, I will now."

Once the two arrived at the boardinghouse they went to Damon's bedroom and he went to the little space that was the bathroom to change while Rebecca found the only shirt of hers that was there.

The time she'd been attacked by Damon was still fresh in her mind - since then Damon had obviously washed her clothes because the shirt didn't have a bloodstain on it. She changed her shirt and threw her other one on the floor in the corner - she would get it later. She had much more pressing issues to deal with.

Damon came out of the bathroom type space shirtless and on the phone. He was being candid so she assumed he was talking to Stefan. She was glad the two were getting along better now; she just didn't know how long it was going to last.

"Logan Fell is a vampire, and when I find him again I am going to destroy him limb by limb." . . . "No, I'm not okay. I was ambushed, I was shot, and now I'm vengeful. Just gotta find him." . . . "You're kidding me. Why the hell is he there?" . . . "Well, I'll be right there."

While Damon had been talking Rebecca had gotten a cool washcloth because she'd noticed that Damon still had blood on him and, even though he had drank from her, his wounds hadn't fully healed. He'd lost too much blood and he hadn't been able to get enough from her.

Damon looked extremely uncomfortable with the care she was providing, with the very genuine show of affection she was delivering, and he swallowed back the emotion it pulled from him. She knew he wasn't used to being taken care of so she smiled at him hoping to remove some of the tension he had suddenly built up.

"Nobody's here, Damon. They'll never know about his. You'll still be the bad-ass vampire that nobody should mess with."

He sat there stiffly while she took care of him, all the while feeling pathetic. He was supposed to be taking care of her, not the other way around. Call it part of his upbringing or whatever . . . woman weren't supposed to have to save their men.

"Do these still hurt badly?"

"Not so much; they'll heal. I just need a little more blood. I'll get it in a minute."

"You have some here?"

"Blood bags in the fridge."

"You get dressed. I'll go get it."

Damon did as she asked even though it was sort of in his nature to rebel - obviously that whole nature vs. nurture thing was coming into play here and because of Rebecca's nurturing, it was becoming part of Damon's nature to at least take what she said into consideration.

Within minutes, Rebecca was back with a glass and two blood bags. She looked a little awkward standing there, so Damon took them from her.

"Uh . . . I was going to heat it, but I didn't know if that would ruin it." She smiled softly. "98.6, right?"

Damon's breath hitched at the fact that she'd even given any thought to that. He liked fresh blood, which was warm, and she'd considered heating this just for him, because he liked it that way.

"This is fine." He smirked. "FYI, if you're going to heat blood, use the stove. Microwave causes all kinds of trouble."

She smiled, grateful for the information. She really hadn't known what to do.

"So, are these leftover from Lexi?"

"No, these are actually mine. Got them a few days ago. Human blood without the humans."

"Huh. You really do listen to me after all."

"Please. I did this to keep the Council off my back," Damon said in an offhand way.

"And you'd rather I not be angry with you," Rebecca said, smiling. "You were miserable that day in the car until you realized I was going to forgive you."

Rebecca didn't wait for Damon to contemplate that she found him that transparent. She just grabbed his arm and told him he could eat on the way.

Rebecca and Damon got to the school just in time for Stefan to tell them that Logan Fell had taken off with Caroline. Matt had told Stefan and Elena that Caroline had gotten a ride home from him.

"Yeah, they won't be reaching home," Rebecca said.

"We can track them," Stefan said, and she was surprised that he automatically included Damon in that.

"Okay, well. I'll stay here so I won't slow you down. If he shows back up here I'll give you a call."

With that, the brothers were off. Rebecca stuck close to Elena and they caught up. She learned that Caroline and Matt were hanging out; she learned that Jeremy and Tyler had been fighting again; she saw the new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman.

"Is he another Tanner?" Rebecca asked.

This Alaric was kind of cute in a way. He had a sort of boyish look to him even though he was a teacher. He was maybe in his early thirties. All Rebecca could tell from the distance she was observing from was that he had dirty blond hair styled in soft spikes. And his body was built like an athlete.

"He's actually pretty nice," Elena said. "He's helping Jeremy catch up. Jenna likes him."

"Oh. Okay.'

Rebecca sat down on a chair that lined the gym wall. Elena sat beside her and placed a hand on Rebecca's shoulder.

"You okay? You seem a little tired."

"Uh . . . yeah." Rebecca wondered if she should even continue, but she didn't like keeping things from her friends, so . . . "I gave Damon some blood. He was hurt, Elena, bad. He wouldn't have been able to get home without it. One of the reasons I stayed here was because I have his blood in my system. Um . . . you know if anything happens while it's there . . ."

"Well, it's good that you stayed here then."

"Yeah. I'll be glad when I can go home and sleep, though."

Meanwhile, Stefan and Damon had found Caroline. She had a very bad bump on her head. Damon had told Stefan to get Caroline home and, surprisingly, his brother hadn't argued. He could get used to this Stefan.

Logan was on the ground in the middle of the road. Damon had shot him four times already, and it made him feel better.

"Payback's a bitch, isn't it?"

Logan had apparently been talking to Sheriff Forbes because her voice was coming from Logan's phone in his car. Damon let her know Caroline was okay and then told her where he was so she could come. Then he got a tire iron from the back and turned to a still writhing Logan.

"I'm gonna try this one more time," he said. "Who turned you?"

"I told you I don't know."

"This tire iron here could take your head clean off. Is that your final answer?" He took a practice swing and got the satisfaction of seeing Logan flinch.

"How can you side with them?"

"I don't side with anyone. You pissed me off, I want you dead. Who turned you?"

"I don't know!"

"Oh, well, then you're screwed."

Damon began to swing, but then Logan said, "Wait! I do know!"

"You're lying." Granted, the guy had a good reason to lie.

"I'm not! There's someone else here, a vampire. She wants to get into that tomb underneath the old church."

Damon shook his head. "That's impossible. The crystal is gone. The tomb can't be opened."

"There's another way to break the spell."

"Hm." Now they were getting somewhere. "Who is she? Why does she want in?"

Logan shut his mouth and refused to speak so Damon actually used the tire iron to take Logan's head off. Logan mummified just like any other vampire would have if they'd been killed; only Logan's head had separated from his body.

Liz showed up and thanked him for helping again and then he loaded Logan in the trunk of Liz's car.

Back at the school Rebecca finally relaxed when Stefan got back and said that Caroline was safe at home and wouldn't remember anything except for Logan taking her home. Stefan had compelled her - or whatever was the equivalent of what Stefan could do. Caroline had been knocked unconscious, courtesy of Logan Fell. Damon was taking care of Logan as they spoke; Stefan had been responsible for getting Caroline home.

"So I can go home?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah, everything's good."

"Okay. I'm just gonna take Damon's car. I'll park it down the street from my house so he can pick it up later."

She told Elena good-bye and headed out to Damon's car but she was stopped by Jeremy, who had a bloody nose.

"What happened?" she asked, taking him by the chin and moving his face so she could see better. "Tyler?" She'd known they'd been fighting but . . . Jeeze. "He hit you. Recently."

"Yeah. I tried to talk to him, just to talk, and he hit me."

"Hm. Tyler needs me to kick his ass," Rebecca muttered. And she probably could now, if she really wanted to.

And this . . . this was why her and Tyler would never have worked out. He liked to hit things, or people, a lot. Tyler had a serious temper and sometimes it was over the stupidest stuff.

She noticed when Jeremy looked at her like she'd grown an extra head. "Don't even think about it. You'd get hurt. I really don't think he'd care that you're a girl. Don't start anything with him."

"Well . . . that's all the more reason to kick his ass." She dabbed the blood away with the sleeve of her jacket. "Do you need a ride home?"

"No. Jenna's here somewhere. Probably hitting on Mr. Saltzman."

"The new history teacher? Yeah, I saw him earlier. Elena said he's helping you catch up?"

"I'm doing an extra credit paper. Civil War in Mystic Falls. I found an old journal of an ancestor, Johnathan Gilbert. He's kind of a freak show. Jenna said he wrote fiction. Vampires, demons and the like."

"Vampires? Really?" Her voice rose higher with the false casualness she'd wanted to give off, so she cleared her throat to play it off. "Uh . . . Anyway, I'm extremely tired, so . . . I'll see you around, Jer. If you need help with your paper let me know. I learned a lot from Damon. His family was around back then too."

"Damon? Stefan's brother?"

"Mm-hm."

Jeremy grinned playfully. "You two an item now?"

"Stop teasing. But we're together, yes."

"Ooh, have you kissed yet?" he made his voice higher, pretending to be a gossip queen.

"We have kissed a lot. Now stop it. I mean it."

"I wondered what was up. You've seemed happier lately."

"He's fun. It's hard to not be happy when he's around. And Damon is very complex, but . . . I think he's happy too. For the most part."

"He better be happy. You spoil the people you care about. And he better not take advantage of you."

She tried to imagine Jeremy going after Damon for hurting her and almost shuddered. Best case scenario, Damon would let him land a few blows because Damon would think he deserved it. Worst case scenario . . . Well, she didn't want to think about it.

Later that night Damon came by Rebecca's house to tell her about Logan, that he'd been disposed of. When he told her about the tombed vampires she just groaned and said, "Not tonight, Damon. Please. Too many problems, not enough head space."

Damon smiled and didn't say anything else about that; he knew what she meant because he'd felt that way himself hundreds of times.

He didn't plan on spending the night - the door was broken in for some reason, but when he asked about it she didn't say anything; she looked away and he knew she was hiding something from him.

He was seated on the bed with her, and Chelsea was sitting between them. Damon knew he'd been - and sort of felt bad for - ignoring Chelsea, but . . . he didn't know how to act with children; he had no experience with them. What if he did something wrong or hurt her or something. Humans were fragile anyway, but especially babies.

But Chelsea didn't seem afraid of him. In fact, the girl was playing with his fingers. Well, the finger that had his ring on it anyway. The baby was babbling about things and was repeating things they said. They were just words, but they sounded like coos. Baby talk.

When he saw Rebecca looking at him letting Chelsea play with his hand he almost took his hand away, but making Chelsea cry would not have been the least bit helpful.

"She can say your name too, if you want her to." Rebecca smiled. "Well, not your full name, but the first part."

"She can say Damon?" he asked.

"Well . . ."

"Day," Chelsea said, repeating the word she heard.

"She says that instead," Rebecca said. "She sometimes says it on the nights you don't come. I think she's gotten used to you being a part of her life even though you don't do anything with her."

Damon looked at the baby girl anew. He'd barely paid attention to her and yet . . . she liked him being here. She wanted him around.

"I'm not . . . good with children. I've never really . . ."

Rebecca picked Chelsea up and put her on his lap and Damon froze for a second. "Becca . . ."

"It's easy. Just pick her up."

"Up!" Chelsea repeated, holding her arms up like she was demanding to be held. "Up!"

Okay, okay . . . he could pick a baby up. How hard could it be?

He put his hands on either side of her, under her arms, and lifted. He brought her to him slowly, and Chelsea seemed to know how important this moment was because she didn't move much. Things were good and he thought he could get used to it - maybe. She was so . . . little and vulnerable and he really could hurt her without meaning to.

Then she said his name again, and she giggled. It seemed Chelsea had been waiting patiently for him to do this. Damon didn't know what to think about that. And now she was giggling in his arms, like she was laughing at him for taking so long and making such a big deal about it.

"You know, this totally ruins my tough guy image."

"I won't tell," Rebecca said softly, smiling.

Then . . . Chelsea pulled his hair. It didn't hurt, of course, but, hey . . . Both Rebecca and Chelsea got a kick out of a baby besting Damon Salvatore, but Rebecca wisely didn't say anything out loud about it. Damon did say they would have to get her out of that. And, yes, he'd said they before he'd really thought about it.

But taking care of Chelsea became a they thing that night. Rebecca didn't have to do it on her own.

Okay, this is a little shorter than my previous offerings, but . . . oh, well. I honestly don't know how Damon would be around a baby, so I just went with him feeling a little awkward and uncomfortable because that's one thing he doesn't have any experience with.

Leave me a review? Hope you enjoyed the chapter!