Chapter Forty-Seven

Damon had thought about what Rebecca had said about Chelsea. He was willing to stop the supply of vervain to help Rebecca, but it would take a while. A month, at least, because Damon had given Liz a box full of vervain not so long ago. Plus, they wouldn't be compelling Robert to take Chelsea and leave; they would be compelling him to leave and be happy without Rebecca and Chelsea. Considering the type of father Robert had been before Damon had compelled him to care, that wouldn't be a problem.

It was now Friday, the day of the Miss Mystic Pageant and Damon had gone to the Lockwood mansion where the pageant was to be held; he was to meet her there.

Ric was driving Elena and Jenna there; John was bringing Jeremy. Anna was there already, which was good because Damon needed to talk to her; Rebecca hadn't.

"In the running for Miss Mystic Falls?" Damon teased.

"Sometimes you have to wear uncomfortable heels to blend in," she answered. "Why're you here?"

"Elena needed an escort."

"Uh, Stefan?"

"My brother is . . . temporarily unavailable right now. Like a phone line that's on the fritz. You know?"

"Hm. I remember this event from 1864. I was supposed to enter before everything happened."

"Ahh, nostalgia's a bitch," he said.

Damon remembered this event, too. Of course he'd already been changed and hadn't been able to go, but . . . he still remembered it.

"If you're just gonna mock me, can you move along, please?"

"John Gilbert thinks your mom stole an artifact from Jonathan senior . . . senior back in 1864." Damon said, getting to the point, mostly because Damon hated small talk.

"What are you, his errand boy?"

"I don't know what it is, but I don't want him to have it. If it's something he wants, it can't be good for us."

"I could ask her," Anna said casually, "but you've made it pretty clear that you don't trust us, so why should I even bother?"

"Because you wanna stay in Mystic Falls and John Gilbert's in town making that impossible. Find out where it is, he leaves, and you can buy a welcome mat."

Damon wasn't even sure John had been telling the truth about Pearl having stolen the invention but now Anna knew everything he and Rebecca did.

The time came for the girls to line up at the top of the stairs and for the escorts to line up downstairs. One of the girls from the Fell family came down to meet her escort and then Damon heard two conversations going on at once. Caroline and Elena were upstairs talking and Jeremy and Anna were a little bit off to the left of Damon.

Caroline was complaining about not being able to be with Matt; they wouldn't let him out of work. And Elena was saying she never should've gone through with this; she wasn't that person anymore.

"Uh, no. No, no, no way. You had your chance to drop out," Blondie said. "And believe me, I was all for it because there is no way that I can beat you. But, Elena, you're doing this because it was important to your mom."

Caroline didn't get to say anything else because her name was announced next and she had to come down the stairs. So Damon went on to listen to Jeremy's and Anna's conversation.

"You're gonna miss Elena's introduction."

"I don't care," Jeremy said.

Then Anna said something that really got Damon's attention. "So she has no idea that you read her journal?"

"If she keeps things from me, I'm gonna keep things from her."

"What are you gonna do now? Now that you know everything that she's been hiding from you?"

Up to that point, Damon had thought that if Jeremy ever found out everything it would be because of Rebecca; he'd never thought of Elena's diary being the Pandora's box of their secrets.

"I don't know," Jeremy answered Anna's question. "There's a part of me that's so angry. I mean, she covered up what happened to Vicki and erased my memory, but there's also this other part of me that's glad. I . . . I don't wanna remember Vicki like that."

"As a monster?"

"No, as someone who wanted to hurt me."

"When I met you," Anna said carefully, "you were just a part of my plan to get my mother back. But then things changed. All the time we spent together. I would never do anything to hurt you. Not now, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know that," Jeremy said.

"Miss Elena Gilbert escorted by Mr. Damon Salvatore."

Damon watched Elena come down the stairs; she seemed nervous. He found that odd because she'd yelled at him, confronted him bravely, but now that they were just going to dance she was nervous.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs Damon took her hand like he was supposed to do and walked her outside to the garden area where the dance was to take place. He told her to relax; it was just a dance.

They honored each other - Damon with a bow and Elena with a curtsy - and then the dance began. They flirted with their eyes like they were supposed to and they circled around each other. When they were allowed to touch, Damon slipped Elena's hand into one of his and his other hand went to her waist; Elena put hers on his shoulder and then the dance continued.

I've lost all my trust
Now I'm surely trying to turn it around
Can you still see the heart of me
All my agony fades away
When you hold me in your embrace
Don't tear me down
For all I need
Make my heart a better place
Give me something I can believe
Don't tear it down
What's left of me
Make my heart a better place
Make my heart a better place

They stepped away from each other as the song ended and then Elena smiled softly. She wasn't nervous anymore; she'd relaxed somewhat in the middle and was herself again.

Damon and the other escorts had to lead their dance partner back inside to a stage where they were going to announce Miss Mystic Falls and, once everyone was situated, Mayor Lockwood went up and made a small speech.

"Before I crown the winner, I'd like to offer a personal thank you to all of these young ladies for their efforts to better our community."

There was a customary round of applause.

"So without further ado, it is my honor to announce our very own Miss Mystic Falls, Miss Caroline Forbes."

Elena said, "Congratulations."

"I actually won," Caroline exclaimed.

The blond and brunette hugged excitedly and then Carline received her Miss Mystic Falls ribbon. There was more cheering.

Damon was just glad he could leave now. On his way out he heard the tail end of another Elena/Bonnie confrontation.

Bonnie said, "I told you I wasn't gonna make you choose, but I need to make the choice for myself. Please, just leave me alone."

So Bonnie wasn't going to be much help in getting Rebecca's necklace spelled. It was a good thing he knew more than one witch; that sort of thing tended to happen when one lived for a-hundred-and-sixty-some-odd years. He would just need to make a few phone calls.

Damon was right by his car when Anna and Pearl came out of nowhere.

"A'right, now this is getting weird."

"We're here to talk," Anna said.

"Annabelle tells me you're looking for something I took from Jonathan Gilbert."

"I'm listening," Damon said, stepping closer to the two. Pearl held out a brown piece of cloth that was wrapped around something. Damon grabbed it. "What is it?"

"Jonathan was passionate about his inventions. He confided in me that he had created a detection device meant to track down the town's vampire element."

"That was a pocket watch."

"That's what it turned out to be, yes, but that isn't what I stole. I discovered my mistake when I saw the watch in Jonathan's hand."

Damon unwrapped the thing - whatever it was - from the brown cloth. The invention - if it could be called that - was round and metal and had symbols engraved on the back of it.

"The night they took us . . . it's dial pointed at me," Pearl finished.

"So what is this?" Damon asked.

"I have no idea. But now it's yours."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch. My daughter wants to stay here. I wanna stay here. You refuse to trust us, and for good reason. Consider this an apology."

Damon nodded after thinking about it and not finding any fault with what she'd said. He knew Anna wanted to stay because of Jeremy, and he knew Pearl would stay for Anna, but for them to be safe and comfortable here . . . John needed to leave.

So now they needed to find out what this invention was and why John wanted it.

Rebecca was waiting for Damon and Elena to come back - mostly because she was bored, but also because she wanted to know how the contest had ended.

Damon got there first because Elena had had to go home before she came to the boardinghouse. She'd had to get more clothes. Rebecca didn't know what she was telling Jenna to make Jenna agree to let Elena stay at the boardinghouse, but Elena did get to stay.

All three of them went down to check on Stefan, who seemed to be having some sort of nightmare even though he was awake. He wasn't responding to Damon or Elena, so Rebecca actually slapped him a couple times.

"Wake up!" she said.

"Becca!" Elena said, grabbing her arm. "Don't."

"Why not? We want him to snap out of it, don't we?"

Rebecca saw Damon smirk at that. Damon grabbed Elena by the shoulders to lead her out of the room and Rebecca followed him out.

"I hate seeing him locked up like that," Elena said.

"Well, I couldn't have him running around chewing on people while the town was looking for vampires, now, could I?"

"It had nothing to do with you actually caring about him," Elena said slyly.

"Your thing, not mine."

Now that Elena was safe on the other side of the door Rebecca didn't mind going back upstairs. Damon followed her; Elena followed Damon.

"Why is he like that? All those . . . delusions and . . ." Elena started but trailed off.

"The human blood is passing out of his system. Think of it as a mystic form of DT's. He'll get better," Damon said.

"You've seen this before?" Rebecca asked. "With Stefan?"

"A few times. He hasn't been on the human stuff that long so it shouldn't be but so bad."

Later that night, Damon was laying in bed messing with the invention Pearl had given him. He didn't know what it was supposed to do because it wasn't doing anything.

Rebecca had been taking a shower, but now she came to the bed, a fluffy white towel wrapped around her. He looked up at her and saw she was finger-brushing her hair and looking at him with that look - the one that told him he might want to stop focusing on the object he was fiddling with; she wanted him to focus on her.

That happened to be something he was very good at. When Rebecca was near enough he pulled at the towel until Rebecca let it slip away from her body. Needless to say . . . Damon forgot about the device and trained his attention to the goddess in front of him.

She took his shirt off slowly and brought her mouth down to meet his. Her lips were soft and warm. She continued kissing down his neck but stopped when she reached his collar bone. Then she looked up at him.

"I'm sorry I've been such a hassle the last few days . . ." she muttered. "I've been acting like I'm not happy being here with you, but you need to know that it's not you."

Damon had never thought it was him making her feel the way she was; she'd made it perfectly clear that she blamed Stefan and nobody else. But if she thought he needed convincing it the form of physical pleasure . . . he wasn't going to stop her.

The next morning Damon woke up in a good mood thanks to Rebecca's glorious hands and mouth and body. He still wasn't used to having a girl make love to him for him. Everything Rebecca had done the night before had been for him, had been to bring him pleasure. It was a good but overwhelming feeling at the same time.

Rebecca was sleeping soundly next to him with Chelsea tucked into her middle; Rebecca had gone to get the girl from her room in the middle of the night. Chelsea wasn't sleeping. She was chewing on her own hand having a good old time.

Damon's good mood suddenly vanished. He remembered the conversation he'd had with Rebecca about giving Chelsea up. He'd said no. He wanted to watch Chelsea grow up; he wanted to see her start school and all that other stuff kids did. Damon even had his heart set on freaking out over her teenage years; he wanted to keep an eye on her when she had her first date; he wanted to kill any guy who dared to treat her in any way that could be considered disrespectful.

To take his mind off of Chelsea, Damon got up, grabbed the device he'd been trying to figure out since he'd gotten it from Pearl, and went downstairs. Elena was already downstairs getting her things together.

"Did you ever figure that out?" she asked, gesturing to the device.

"Nope. Whatever it is, it doesn't work."

"Pearl didn't say anything else about it?"

"She thought she was stealing his vampire compass, but it was a pocket watch. That Jonathan Gilbert was a crazy scientist."

Elena scoffed, but it wasn't her old scoff of disgust. It wasn't humor-filled either, but . . .

"Have you spoken to your uncle lately?"

"I've been avoiding him, actually. That, and I've been here most nights."

"So you're gonna be here again tonight?"

"Is that a problem?"

Damon looked at her, mock-serious. "Yes, you're a complete nuisance."

The brunette smiled and put her overnight bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you later."

After she was gone, Damon went out to get Stefan some bunny blood. He even brought it home so he could put the blood in a water bottle so he could take it down to Stefan.

"Brought you something to eat, 100 percent Stefan-diet approved." Stefan didn't respond or act like he'd heard Damon at all. "You know what'll happen if you don't eat; you'll get all rotting and crusty."

"I'm not hungry," Stefan said.

"Pfft. Of course you are. We're eternally hungry. Take it." Damon placed the bottle between the bars and set it there. "The human blood should be gone by now. Wanna explain why you're still in here feeling sorry for yourself. Come on, drink up."

Damon pushed the bottle into the room and onto the floor. He watched as Stefan looked up at the blood, shook his head, and looked back down.

"Fine, starve. What do I care?" Damon said. He had no patience for Stefan when he was like this.

He went upstairs, heard Rebecca in the kitchen with Chelsea and was going to go in there with her, but his cell phone rang. He didn't recognize the number but he answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"It's Alaric Saltzman."

"Before I hang up, how'd you get this number?"

"That's a mystery. Listen, I've, uh . . . I've been doing some digging on Elena's uncle. You interested?"

"What kind of digging?" If there was information to be had, then yeah, Damon was interested.

"I have an old friend from Duke. He studied criminology there. Let's just say he's become a very proficient digger."

"Well, did he . . . find anything?"

"I had him run a track on John's cell records. He's getting calls from a number; the same number that Elena dialed to get Isobel."

Damon vaguely remembered Rebecca mentioning something like that.

"Isobel knows John. Whatever, we knew that."

"Well . . . that number was disconnected. But he's started getting calls from a new number. I had my friend run a Geo-track. It's an apartment in Grove Hill."

"Isobel's in Grove Hill?" That wasn't far from Mystic Falls.

"I don't know. I thought we could take a look, see what we find."

They were a we now?

"Perfect. Give me the address."

"What, so you can go without me? No, I don't think so."

"I'm not goin' with you. You tried to kill me," Damon said, realizing he sort of sounded like a five year old.

"Damon," he heard from the kitchen. "Ric's a good guy. Play nice."

He was just about to make a snarky comment about not wanting to be nice, but his call waiting on his phone beeped.

Jeez, I'm popular today, he thought.

"Hold on," he told Ric. Then "What?" he answered.

"I'm just grabbing some clothes and then I'll be right over. How's Stefan?"

"Extra broody. Hold on." He switched back over to Ric. "You drive. Pick me up in an hour."

"Done."

He finished talking to Ric and switched back to Elena. He sat down in his leather chair. "He won't eat anything."

"He has to eat. What's his favorite kind of, um . . ."

"His favorite type of what?" Damon asked, getting a kick out of the uncomfortableness in Elena's voice.

"Type of animal blood that he prefers?"

"Ew, gross."

"Your joking doesn't help," Elena said, though her voice had humor in it now.

"It helps me. Now, hurry up. I can't babysit all day. I have things to do."

"I would say drop dead, but . . ."

"Ha, ha, ha. Stefan likes . . . puppy blood. Little golden retriever puppies with cute floppy ears. That's his favorite."

"Ew." That was Rebecca and she was right behind him. "I hope you're joking. He's not allowed to eat puppies."

Elena had hung up on Damon, so his attention was on Rebecca. She had Chelsea on her hip, one of Rebecca's hands under her sister's bottom to secure her; her other hand held a mug of blood.

"Here," she offered it to him. "Drink. You haven't eaten anything today either."

"Hm," when he took it, he noticed it was warm. "Thank you."

"Mm-hm."

"So . . . about the history teacher. You think I can trust him? He did try to kill me."

"Yes, you can trust him. He's helped save my life twice now. And I think his priorities have changed since he's found out that Isobel wanted you to change her. I don't think he really blames you anymore. He obviously doesn't mind your company or he wouldn't have called you to help him - he wouldn't have offered you the chance to come alone. He would've gone on his own."

"And gotten killed for his efforts," Damon muttered.

"Maybe he needs a friend. The only grown up he hangs around is Jenna; everyone else he spends time with is under eighteen."

"Why be friends with me? I annoy him on purpose."

"He probably knows that." Rebecca smiled. "You, however, are the most interesting person in town. And you can be a very good friend when you want to be. Give it a chance."

Damon sort of snarled his nose up. He didn't trust Ric. The only reason Ric had helped him save Stefan and Rebecca was because Damon had told him Pearl might be able to tell him where Isobel was. But he had listened to Damon complain that one day at the Grill and hadn't said anything about it since; not that he'd seen Ric since then.

Still. . . Damon decided it would be best to give Ric a chance, but he would be ready for anything in case Ric got any ideas.

Elena arrived, worried about Stefan not eating. She knew as well as Damon and Rebecca did what would happen if Stefan didn't eat. So Elena went down to the cellar and Rebecca went with her.

"How're you feeling?" Elena asked, but she didn't get an answer. Elena pointed to the bottle of blood Damon had brought earlier; it hadn't been touched. "Damon says you need to drink that. You need it, Stefan. Can't survive without it."

Stefan looked up. "I don't wanna survive."

"What? Don't say that."

"I'm sorry, Elena. No more. After what I've done, it has to end. I just want it over."

Rebecca felt Elena's tension build, saw her shoulders tighten, and heard her heartbeat quicken. Elena looked at her and Rebecca shrugged. She couldn't help that Stefan was feeling guilty.

"Stefan, you can't just give up. Not after . . ." Elena shrugged. "You made a mistake. That doesn't make you a bad person."

"This is my decision. And you're not a part of it, I'm sorry."

Stefan went back to being unresponsive after that so Elena and Rebecca went back upstairs. Elena sat on the couch in front of the fireplace. Damon leaned on the back of it so he could talk to her.

"You know he's just being dramatic. He's not gonna starve himself."

"Why would he say that?"

"Because he feels bad about hurting Rebecca. It's very typical Stefan martyr stuff."

Elena looked at Rebecca when her name was mentioned. "Could you talk to him? He might listen to you. You know he never would've hurt you if he'd been himself."

"Elena . . ." Rebecca shook her head. "No."

"Please," the brunette begged. "He just -"

"She said no," Damon snapped. "Leave her alone."

"He seemed to be in a lot of pain," Elena pushed on.

"That will pass once he eats," Damon said.

"I didn't mean physical pain."

"I know what you meant. Look, are you two gonna be okay here if I go out? I have to go run an errand with the teacher."

"The teacher? Alaric?" Elena asked. "Are you two friends now?"

"I don't have any friends, Elena."

"Hey!" Rebecca exclaimed.

"Girlfriends don't count. You have to be my friend by default," he said, smirking.

"You're default friend could find a new bed to sleep in if you put her in the default category again."

"I'm so sorry," he muttered sarcastically, slipping on his leather jacket. "You should stay up here. You shouldn't be down there by yourself."

"I'll be fine," Elena said.

"You know, you're very trusting of him, given the circumstances," Damon said, heading to the door.

"So are you," Elena said, stopping him in his tracks. "Otherwise you wouldn't be leaving."

"I won't be long."

Rebecca heard a car outside - Ric's probably - so she got up and followed Damon to the door. She kissed him quickly and wished him good luck. If John was involved in this, he might need it.

After Damon left, Sarah came downstairs. Rebecca wasn't sure, but she thought the girl was a little intimidated by Damon. Either that or she had a crush on him and was avoiding him because of it.

Rebecca went to get Chelsea, who had been in her crib in the space Damon had prepared for her; Chelsea had her main room upstairs for night time when everyone was asleep, but she also had a smaller room for day time. It was easier that way, and Rebecca was content with letting Chelsea be alone for awhile to sleep . . . as long as Sarah wasn't downstairs. But since Sarah had come out of hibernation, Rebecca wanted Chelsea close. Just a precaution.

Things were fine at the boardinghouse for the first thirty minutes after Damon left. Then Elena wanted to talk to Stefan again, so she went down to the cellar. She told Rebecca to stay upstairs so she could talk to Stefan alone and Rebecca had agreed.

All she heard from Stefan was, "You shouldn't be here."

"I know," Elena answered. "You know . . . hurting Rebecca . . . that wasn't you."

"Oh, it was absolutely me," Stefan replied. "That's who I am, Elena. A monster, a predator."

"That's what the blood makes you."

"The blood brings out what's inside of me and if you think any differently, then you're an idiot. I wanted to drain every ounce of blood from Rebecca's body."

"No, No, you can't scare me off."

Rebecca thought Stefan was right; Elena was an idiot. Stefan sounded agitated and she was still down there, badgering him to talk.

"Why would you risk it? Why would you come in here?"

Rebecca was instantly alert. Elena had gone into the room with Stefan? The brunette must've been deliberately quiet so Rebecca wouldn't know what she was doing when Elena had unlocked the cellar door.

"Because I did this," Elena answered. "This is my fault. I'm the one who made you drink the blood."

"All you did was expose me to who I really am," Stefan said, sounding semi-sane at least.

"This isn't you."

"Stop saying that!" Stefan yelled. Then, "Don't get any closer."

"I'm not gonna let this happen to you, Stefan."

Rebecca left Chelsea with Sarah, insuring Sarah that she would kill her if she hurt Chelsea in any way, and raced down to the cellar.

"Stefan, I'm not gonna give up on you. I believe in you."

All Rebecca saw then was Elena in the room with Stefan, the door unlocked and open. Then she heard Stefan growl out, "Stop!" and Elena was shoved out the door and into the wall. Stefan came with her and pinned her there. He didn't do anything but keep her there, but Rebecca wasn't going to take any chances, so she rushed over to Stefan and wrestled him back into the cellar room.

"Have you lost your mind?" Rebecca asked. "Don't you ever touch her like that again!"

Rebecca noticed that Stefan had tears in his eyes and they spilled over onto his cheeks. He had shoved Elena; he was so unstable he'd hurt the one he cared about the most.

Rebecca leaned closer to Stefan so Elena wouldn't hear what she was going to say. "Damon's brother or not, I will kill you if you don't get it together."

She shoved him onto his cot and then locked him back up. She should dose him with more vervain, just to be on the safe side.

Rebecca went to Elena, who had pretty much collapsed onto the floor from shock, and helped her back up.

"Damon told you not to come down here. You should've listened." When Elena was back on her feet Rebecca began leading her upstairs. "Are you okay?"

"Why is he like that? Damon drinks human blood and he's not like that."

"Yeah, but Damon isn't used to drinking from animals, either. He's spent his time learning to control that part of himself. Stefan's been avoiding it."

Rebecca thought it was time to explain to Elena how Stefan had been at the beginning of his vampire life.

"Come on, Elena, we have a lot to talk about."

Okay, so I know this is a little different from the show because of Stefan having attacked Rebecca and Damon having to escort Elena to the pageant. But this was the only way I could seem to make it work for me. LOL

Let me know what you think!