Chapter Twenty-Nine

Damon and Rebecca filled Stefan and Elena in on the vampire problem, and she and Damon both felt it would be easier if Stefan and Elena stayed out of it. Rebecca just hadn't wanted to keep things from them. She might tell Bonnie herself because Bonnie would be able to handle it better. It had been two days since the Career Fair and things had been quiet, thankfully; Rebecca got some of the peace she'd wanted. She'd taken the portrait of Damon's mom to get it restored in Richmond. Her dad had suggested either a museum or an art gallery.

She didn't know exactly how Damon would react, but she did know he had loved his mother and had resented his dad for removing her things from the public eye. Damon probably wouldn't say it, but he would appreciate the gesture, Rebecca was sure. She was planning on giving it to him whenever she got it back. It was rightfully his, after all.

Rebecca had been training again, and she found it simpler now that she had placed Diana in the business category of her friends catalog. If Diana could even be considered a friend. Friends don't usually make plots that can get other friends killed. They had moved past the physical stuff - though she still trained to up her endurance - and had gone on to weapons training. Crossbows and things like that.

Two days after Damon and Rebecca filled Stefan and Elena in on the vampire situation . . . Elena found out that she looked like Katherine - exact carbon copy, only Elena wasn't an evil bitch monster of death. On top of that, though, Elena had a vampire stalker.

Rebecca, being the type of person that tended to not be happy because the people she cared about weren't happy, took it upon herself to help Elena with her problem; the stalker one, not the Stefan one. That was none of her business, though she was a little pissed that Stefan hadn't told Elena before. And Stefan hadn't even told her, Elena had found a picture of Katherine from 1864.

Elena had been at the boardinghouse and she had slept with Stefan before she'd found the picture. That was what was really wrong with Elena; she didn't understand why she and Katherine looked alike and she didn't know what she was to Stefan now. Was she just a replacement? And why had he slept with her without telling her?

Not only that, but Bonnie had freaked out when Rebecca had said someone wanted the tomb open, and now Bonnie's powers were going . . . well, they weren't going anywhere because they weren't working at all now.

So she had a distraught Elena and a scared little Bonnie to deal with. Elena was actually staying with Rebecca because Stefan hadn't been invited into Rebecca's house, and Stefan really wanted to talk to Elena. Plus, Rebecca couldn't watch Elena all the time if she wasn't there to watch. Stefan was going crazy with worry and he was anxious to explain about Katherine, which Rebecca thought he should've done in the first place. Stefan even cornered Rebecca at the library to see if Elena was okay. She wasn't accepting his calls.

"She's hurt and confused," Rebecca said bluntly. "And you need to leave her alone. She'll come to you when she's ready."

"I just . . . I need to explain."

"Explain what? You lied to her, Stefan. Or omitted the truth, anyway. She's mad at you and you deserve it. Now, I have to go, I'm meeting Jeremy here. I'm helping him with a paper."

Rebecca had received her diploma already, so she didn't have to worry about her own tests or anything. She went upstairs and went into a work room and automatically knew there was a vampire there. In broad daylight - a day walker who wasn't Damon or Stefan.

"Great," she muttered.

She would've ignored the feeling if it hadn't led her to Jeremy, who was talking to a dark haired girl. A girl that was a vampire. Rebecca saw the girl stiffen slightly, but, other than that, she'd given no hint that she knew Rebecca was there.

Rebecca's phone vibrated and she saw it was Elena calling. She hit ignore - she didn't want to talk about Stefan. The phone vibrated again, only this time it was Damon. Well . . . she could watch Jeremy and the vampire from here.

"Hello?"

"Ha, I knew you'd answer my phone call."

"What?"

"You ignored Elena's and you answered mine. She's giving you a death glare, by the way."

"You're with Elena?" She sighed. "You didn't let her leave the house, did you?"

"Nope. I'm here. I'm giving her vampire lessons."

"You're what?"

"Teaching her about vampires, since Stefan won't do it."

"Huh." God, she hoped he wasn't talking in front of Chelsea. Rebecca had left her sister with Elena, so . . . it was very possible that Damon was speaking in front of her. "Speaking of Stefan, tell your brother to leave me alone. He knows Elena is staying with me so he followed me and kept asking me about her. It's annoying but he's not doing anything wrong, so I can't hurt him.

Rebecca looked over at Jeremy's table - he seemed to be having a nice conversation with whoever he was talking to.

"So, uh, interesting news. I met another vampire -" she whispered the V word "- and she was walking around in the daylight, which means she has lapis lazuli on her somewhere."

"Who is she?"

"Didn't get a good look." She wasn't lying; she hadn't gotten a good look, but she was going to. "I'm gonna do some digging and then I'll call you back."

"I'll be waiting."

"Mm-hm."

After she hung up she casually went to Jeremy's table and sat down - he had asked her to meet him there, after all. She finally saw the girl's face and Rebecca realized she knew this vampire from 1864. Annabelle, Pearl's daughter. Pearl, who was in the tomb. Rebecca had thought Anna had been captured, too, but apparently not.

"Hey, Jer. Who's your friend?" Rebecca sounded casual enough, but Anna was eyeing her. Rebecca really wanted to know what Anna wanted with Jeremy. How long had they known each other? Did they like each other?

"This is Anna. Anna, this is Rebecca. She's helping me with my paper."

"Really?" Anna's voice was falsely innocent. "Know much about vampires, do you?"

"You're doing a paper on vampires? I thought you were doing it on the Civil War."

"Well, the journal I found talked about them like they were real. I know it's just crazy but it's really interesting."

"You know, my great-grandfather actually showed me a journal once of an ancestor, and he had written all this creepy stuff about vampires. It was actually really believable," Anna said.

"A journal like Jonathan Gilbert's?" Rebecca asked.

God, but Anna looked innocent. Rebecca had even liked Anna back in 1864, so she hoped that Anna wasn't going to cause trouble. But Rebecca had the sinking suspicion that Anna wanted the tomb open, that Anna had been the one to change Logan. And Rebecca couldn't risk all of the vampires getting out.

"Yes. Exactly."

The last time Rebecca had seen Anna, her dark hair had been straight and it was now in messy waves. Her face was still misleadingly innocent even though she could kill someone in an instant if she wanted.

"Anyway, I really have to get home, so . . ."

Anna walked off and Rebecca excused herself. She met Anna outside the library - Anna had been waiting, obviously.

"What do you want with Jeremy?" Rebecca asked outright.

The two girls were in the back of the library now, so they could talk freely. Only Anna didn't seem to be in a talkative mood.

"I know you want the tomb opened, Anna. What does Jeremy have to do with it?"

"I need his ancestor's journal. I want my mother back."

Rebecca could tell Anna really did want Pearl back and Rebecca felt bad for her, she did, but the tomb couldn't be opened.

"You think Jonathan's journal can help you, that's why you were talking to Jeremy."

Anna casually brought up a fact that made Rebecca's blood run cold. "I just want my mother back. And -" Anna shoved Rebecca against the wall but didn't use enough pressure to hurt her "- if you get in the way of what I want, of me getting my mom, I will take something of yours away. And believe me, it can be done."

Rebecca's eyes hardened. "You touch anyone I care about, I will kill you. You can't free all the vampires, Anna."

A flicker of confusion passed in Anna's brown eyes. "I'm not going to free them. I just want my mother back. The others can stay there and rot for the rest of eternity for all I care." Anna let her go, smiled innocently, and said, "Have a nice day."

Rebecca knew she wouldn't be able to follow Anna because Anna had vampire speed and she didn't.

After Rebecca helped Jeremy she gave him a ride home because she didn't want any surprise attacks from Anna. She really hoped Anna didn't follow through on her threat because Rebecca didn't want to have to kill Anna. Anna was just a girl who wanted her mother back; Rebecca knew how that felt.

Once she got to her own house she saw that her dad had a bag packed - he'd been waiting for her to get home.

"Uh, where're you going?"

"I have this conference thing in Richmond to attend. It's an all weekend thing so I made reservations at a hotel. Since Elena's here I figured you'd want to stay."

What Robert probably meant was that she would want to stay because Damon was there.

Rebecca nodded and handed the car keys over. "A'right. Stay safe."

She watched her dad drive away and then she hurried into the house. Damon was sitting in the living room and Elena was in the kitchen talking on the phone. Rebecca pointed toward the kitchen and Damon mouthed the word Stefan.

"Ah, hopefully they work it out or call it quits for good, because him following me around asking me to 'please talk to Elena' is bugging the hell out of me." Without even stopping to breathe, Rebecca said, "And you and I need to talk after Elena goes home. I found the vampire who wants to open the tomb."

"Who?"

"Annabelle. You remember her?"

"Of course."

"Yeah, well, it's her. She wants her mom back." Rebecca looked toward the kitchen as Elena came in the living room. "Did you work it out? And where is Chelsea?"

"No, we didn't, and Chelsea is at the store with Tina. Baby food, I think." Elena sat on the couch beside Damon, and Rebecca was pleased to see that Elena didn't fuss about it. "Stefan promised no more lies, and now this."

Rebecca nodded. She thought Elena could sometimes be a drama queen, but this - this - she got.

"When you told me that Stefan had explained about Katherine I thought that meant he'd told you this too." Rebecca sat on the floor and leaned back against Damon's legs. "If I had known you didn't know, I would've told you myself."

"How'd you find out anyway?" Damon asked.

"A picture from 1864. Found it on the table in Stefan's bedroom."

Rebecca hadn't told him that. That would've been going against the friend code that she had with Elena and Bonnie.

"Hm."

The first questions that popped into Rebecca's head were: Why did Stefan have a picture of Katherine? Why would he have kept it? Why would he have wanted to?

"Do you know how I'm connected to Katherine? Why do I look like her?"

"My guess would be you're probably related," Rebecca said. "Somehow."

"Did Stefan think that he could use me to replace her?"

"It's kinda creepy if you ask me," Damon said, and Rebecca hid a grin by looking down.

When Rebecca could control her face again she looked up and repeated what Stefan had told her. That the resemblance was what had drawn him in but that he loved Elena. It had nothing to do with Katherine because Elena wasn't like Katherine.

"And you're prettier," Rebecca added on her own.

"What? We look exactly alike."

"There are subtle differences," Damon said.

"Like?"

"Your smile is wider, your eyes are the same color but yours are warmer, and your face is thinner," Rebecca said. "And you're not a raging bitch."

"What am I supposed to do? I can't just . . . ignore this."

"So don't," Rebecca said. "Stefan messed up, he knows he messed up. I think guilt is its own punishment right now."

"And no one does guilt better than Stefan," Damon said.

"Talk to him, ask him what he knows," Rebecca said. "Make him talk to you. If he loves you like he says he does then he'll talk to you, okay? He'll tell the truth."

"And she's tired of having to babysit you all the time," Damon teased while also telling the truth.

"I am not!" Rebecca denied, though, in all reality, she sort of was. She hated having to be on guard around Elena all the time.

Elena, though, didn't get mad. Apparently she'd either begun to tolerate Damon or she'd learned how to tell when he was being serious and when he wasn't.

"Why don't we go out?" Rebecca suggested. "I mean, having fun is just what you need, Elena. We can go somewhere Stefan won't find you. You can loosen up and think about it in the morning, okay?"

"Uh . . ." Elena looked uncertain and Rebecca nodded encouragingly. The brunette relented and smiled. "Fine. Where do you wanna go?"

Rebecca looked at Damon, who arched a brow, and she said, "Can we go back to that club? Dance, drink, have a good time. You can piss Stefan off because Elena's hanging out with you . . ."

"Well, hell, you know I'm in."

Even Elena had a small smile for that one.

An hour and a half later the three were at the club and, since this wasn't a date, Rebecca was dressed casually. Jeans, T-shirt, and a jacket. Elena had had a drink or two already but Rebecca stuck with soda - she remembered what had happened the last time they'd come here. She would stay sober this time.

Being with Elena when she was tipsy reminded Rebecca of times before Elena's parents had died; Elena had been more fun then.

Damon, Elena, and Rebecca danced together on the floor - with Damon in the middle. Sometimes Elena and Rebecca would dance without Damon, back to back with hips swaying from side to side. Sometimes one girl would swirl the other one and they would laugh and go back to dancing back to back.

Damon watched the two girls from the bar and thought idly that he was glad Rebecca was having fun with Elena. Rebecca wasn't happy when she and her friends were on the outs. And Elena had lightened up because of the alcohol flowing through her system; she even seemed to be getting used to him. Which meant Rebecca would be happier because . . . Damon knew that most of the friction that had been between Rebecca and her friends was because of him. He also knew that Rebecca had known that and she'd still chosen to be with him. She'd risked her friendships for him . . . to be with him.

Rebecca suddenly sat beside him without Elena; Rebecca said that Elena had said that nature had called. Rebecca ordered another soda and began sipping, waiting for her dancing partner to return. Damon noticed that her face and neck were flushed from exertion and he had to keep himself from moaning at the sight.

"So . . . are you sending me home tonight?" Damon asked, smirking.

Rebecca smiled and looked up from underneath her lashes.

"I was under the impression that no on could send you anywhere. You either go or you don't depending on whether or not you want to." Then more seriously, "You can stay if you want. I'd like you to stay, but Elena will be there - I can't send her home when she's drunk."

"Well, she's not gonna be in your room, so I'm sure she won't be a problem."

She looked at him suspiciously. "My rule still stands, you know."

"I realize that. Your mind jumped ahead, not mine. You just assumed I meant -"

"You did; you just didn't say it."

Damon shrugged, giving her that one. Couldn't hurt to try, right?

"I'm gonna go check on Elena . . . see if she fell in." Rebecca shook her head and chuckled. "She's drunk, so it's very possible."

That was the beginning of how she'd found herself outside with Elena and another vampire. Rebecca had stepped into the ladies room, found Elena being sort of attacked by the vampire. She'd tried to help, but she couldn't without endangering Elena, so they both ended up being dragged out of the bathroom window. She'd had to be knocked unconscious because Rebecca wasn't going anywhere without a fight.

When she woke up they were in a dark place . . . and the vampire was making sure she was okay.

"Uh," she groaned. Why go through all the trouble of kidnapping her if he was just going to make sure she was okay?

"I'm sorry. You weren't meant to get hurt. I'm not here for you."

"Mm." Rebecca found it hurt to move her jaw to talk. She wasn't tied up, though, so she reached up and touched it gently. Nothing was broken, just bruised. "Elena?"

"I'm here," came a timid response. "I'm okay. He's not here for me either."

Rebecca sat up and began trying to make out things in the dark. She saw Elena wasn't that far away.

To the vampire, Rebecca said, "What d'you want? Who are you?"

"You and the girl will be fine. I'm not here for either of you." Damon. He was here for Damon? "I'll come back for you after I'm done."

"No," Rebecca said, struggling to get her bearings. "No. Leave him alone."

She was yanked to her feet and it jarred her a little. "Don't make me hurt you."

"Then don't hurt him. Take me, but leave him alone."

"You . . . you love him."

Rebecca didn't answer because it was obvious. Then he jerked her forward, making her head burst with pain.

"Then come with me. He took something from me; I'm going to take something from him, and I'm going to make him watch."

"Elena!"

"I'll come back for her."

"No. If you hurt me, you won't be alive to come back for her."

Damon had arrived at an old abandoned gas station. The connection between Rebecca and himself had led him there - damn useful, it was. She was in trouble again - what was it with that club? Every time they went there something bad happened. It was cursed.

Damon showed up right as Rebecca was being shoved out of the building by some man. Obviously a vampire or he wouldn't have gotten the jump on Rebecca so easily. Rebecca had a bruise on the side of her face and her eyes were slightly unfocused - she had a concussion. Great.

"You're going to want to let her go," Damon stated simply, already thinking of ways to end this horribly stupid situation.

"Damon," Rebecca said, and even her voice sounded weak. He knew it was just the head wound but it still worried him.

"It's okay. You're gonna be okay."

"No, she's really not."

The guy bit into his own wrist and forced Rebecca's mouth open so the blood would go into her. Rebecca considered not swallowing but she realized that she needed to heal in case Damon needed help. And . . . why was this guy giving her blood? He was planning on killing her, wasn't he? Did he want her turned, then?

Damon, however, was furious. Whatever this guy was up to, whatever he wanted, it didn't amuse Damon at all.

"Who are you?" Damon asked. He was just going to keep him talking until he could come up with a plan. One that didn't involve Rebecca dying and coming back as a vampire. Because he was sure that was what this guy was aiming for.

"That's perfect. You don't even know. You killed my girlfriend."

"I've killed lots of people's girlfriends," Damon said, but he didn't find it funny. Seeing the predicament he was in . . . it wasn't funny at all. "If I killed your girlfriend leave her alone and deal with me."

Rebecca finally got it. Lexi. This was Lexi's boyfriend, and he'd heard about Damon killing her, of course.

"How did you find us?" she asked. "Did you . . . were you in Mystic Falls?"

"Saw him leaving your house, followed you here. I knew I could draw him out with you. And I drew you out with Elena."

Rebecca closed her eyes and got her thoughts together. They'd been played - both of them. And this vampire . . . he had every right to want revenge, and Rebecca was sure if it had been any other person besides Damon she would've let him have it. But she couldn't . . . not with him.

"I'm sorry about Lexi. I liked her and . . . Damon shouldn't have killed her, but hurting him won't make it right. It won't bring her back, so I'm sorry."

Thanking her Slayer training she brought her leg up and kicked high enough to reach over her own head and to the spot the vampire was. She realized she didn't know the name of this guy, and she figured that it was better that way.

As soon as she was out of his grasp Damon blurred up to the guy, Rebecca got a stake that had been strapped to her calf, threw it to Damon, and then the vampire was no more. Problem solved, Rebecca fell to her knees and began vomiting. She couldn't help it, really. Her head still hurt even though she had blood in her system. Or she had had it. Now it was on the ground in front of her. It obviously hadn't settled well - maybe because it had been forced on her.

Ew, she thought.

Before she could even get her breath back her world swirled and then faded to black.

Damon, having watched with worry as Rebecca had rid herself of the vampire blood in her system, blurred to her side as she fainted.

Uh-oh, was his first thought. It seemed Rebecca had finally succumbed to the stress she'd been feeling lately. She was lucky she'd only fainted; Damon had thought she'd been heading toward a breakdown. Add that in with her previously existing head wound and then the fighting and she'd become physically sick.

Damon knew Rebecca would wake up when she was ready, so he picked her up and went to the building Rebecca had come out of. Elena was still in there. Damon could see just fine even in the darkness. Given this was an old building, there was no electricity.

"Elena?" She was on the floor and she wasn't hurt at least. "Watch Rebecca, okay? The vampire is gone, but I have to go get my car so we can get out of here."

Elena nodded in his direction and agreed vocally. "Just hurry back."

As he raced back to his car he found he had a dilemma. The vampire tonight had come after Rebecca because of him, because he'd killed someone and had pissed off someone else. He'd pissed off a lot of people in his life, which was why he didn't like to leave people alive; they would always come back for revenge.

But this . . . this was his fault. He'd put Rebecca in danger because of his stupid scheme to throw suspicion off of himself. He still wasn't willing to leave, though. Stefan probably would've, but Damon wasn't Stefan. Damon knew what he wanted and he finally had it - he planned on enjoying it while it lasted, while Rebecca wanted this with him. He'd enjoy it until Rebecca realized what a mistake it was, being with him.

Back at the gas station, Rebecca awoke just as Damon came back inside. She got up with his help and found she felt really out of whack. Her head was pounding and she was shaky and she still felt a little nauseous.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Elena asked uncertainly.

"She'll be fine," Damon said. "That guy fed her his blood and it made her sick."

"But . . . she's drank your blood before. What's the difference?"

"Well, obviously I taste better," Damon snapped. "I don't know, Elena. I think she was feeling sick before because of the head injury. Then the fainting spell. She's just feeling weak."

She was feeling weak or else she would've been mad that they were talking about her like she wasn't there. She also would've told Damon not to talk to Elena that way; she hadn't done anything wrong. But she also knew Damon was worried, and a worried Damon could quickly become an angry Damon because anger was easier to deal with for him.

"Can we go home?" she asked.

Damon picked her up again and she looped her arms around his neck.

"Yeah, we can go home."

"Okay, good. Did you get -"

"He's in the trunk."

"Oh. My head hurts."

"Well, obviously the blood didn't heal you all the way. If you still have a concussion you shouldn't sleep, at least not until you get home."

But her eyes were already drooping and he had to jar her awake. Hopefully she wouldn't get angry - but if she did, she'd get over it once she felt better. He put Rebecca in the backseat of the car and then told Elena to get in with her and keep her awake.

He would've given Rebecca blood from him but it seemed a little pointless seeing as to how she'd just thrown up. If it wasn't going to stay down there was no use in trying to make her drink.

Once they got to Rebecca's house Damon put her in bed and gave her water to sip - if that stayed down they would try the blood. Elena made sure he had everything under control and then made her way to the guest room.

Chelsea was already asleep and Tina wasn't a problem because it was late enough for her to be in bed too and Damon had compelled her not to be nosy.

"You said you wanted to talk about Anna," Damon said. "And you can't go to sleep, so talk."

"Mm . . . she threatened someone, no one specific. She said if I get in the way of her plan to get her mom back that she would take someone away from me."

Rebecca tried to sound invested in the conversation, but she couldn't. Her head was hurting, she felt like she was going to be sick again and she just wanted to sleep.

"She was with Jeremy - she thinks one of Jonathan's journals will help her out. She brought it up to Jeremy and I figured it out."

"Do you know where she's staying?"

"No." Rebecca shook her head, jarring it, and winced. "Ow."

She realized that it wasn't the outside that hurt; it was on the inside and that couldn't be good. But she didn't complain - pain was a part of life and she would have to bear it.

"Anna took off with her vampire speed and I don't have that, so . . ."

"Right."

Too keep herself awake Rebecca watched the Resident Evil series, and Damon found it amusing that Rebecca had to cover her eyes at some parts. She couldn't watch a man get sliced into pieces, for instance. The second one was fine, but during the third one she had to recover her eyes when the birds attacked and pecked someone to death.

By the time the third movie was over Rebecca was sound asleep; she'd shown signs of outward swelling, which meant there was no inward swelling, and so he just let her sleep. But he did remove her necklace and, feeling only a little bit of guilt, compelled her to swallow his blood even though she was asleep.

Okay, so a lot has changed here. For instance, Elena didn't have a car accident. And Damon didn't have to save her and he didn't have to take her to Georgia. Damon didn't have a need to go to Georgia in this because he's not trying to get into the tomb. And then Lexi's boyfriend died here when he didn't in the show. I just figured I'd put him out of his misery. He became a vampire for Lexi and now that Lexi's dead . . . rather than being miserable for the rest of his life, I just made them kill him.

Anyway . . . leave me a review, let me know what you think.