There's a bit of a time jump in this chapter, I explain it a little more at the bottom :)
You could name any two people on the face of the earth, and Damon would sooner spend the afternoon with them than the company he was actually forced to have.
Taylor Swift and George Bush.
That gorilla that speaks sign language and one of those terrible actors in what passes as vampire movies.
Hell, he'd even take Klaus and someone else at this point, because surely even he was better than two catty exes.
"This is where you've been living?" Rebekah asked in disbelief as Katherine led them into some suburban home. It definitely wasn't her style.
Katherine didn't answer, she just walked over to a bookshelf and began pulling books off the shelf. She opened up a hidden safe and dug around inside.
"It's not here." She said nervously.
Damon rolled his eyes and made the sound of a buzzer signaling a wrong answer, "Nice try, where is it?"
"It was right in there, I swear!" She defended herself.
He looked to Rebekah, "You go look upstairs, I'll check down here."
She nodded and went for the stairs, meanwhile Damon began moving around the living room, looking for any hiding spots. This was Katherine they were talking about. Chances were, she hid it in plain sight.
"Gotta say it, Katherine, this place doesn't suit you." The pale blue walls and cream colored furniture screamed soccer mom. "Fabricated family photos on the walls and a fish tank too." He mused.
She crossed her arms, casually watching him inspect the house, "How do you know it doesn't suit me?"
He smirked over his shoulder, "Because I know you, Katherine."
"Maybe you don't really know me." She pointed out.
He snorted, "Is that what you told Elijah to keep him interested? Don't kid yourself, you're a selfish bitch and always will be." She looked unfazed, unsurprisingly, so Damon mused, "Now, if I was an ancient witch's talisman where would I be?"
"How do you even know what it looks like?" She countered.
"Because Silas's number one fan happened to accompany us on the trip." Damon answered easily. Shane knew about the talisman, but had no interest in it. It was a wood and metal carving of some sort of ancient rune, tied onto a leather necklace and hidden in a box. "Nifty little trinket, wouldn't you say? Maybe if I was your age I'd be able to tell you what it meant. Now, knowing that it's a necklace, I could guess that you'd keep it in a jewelry box, but that's too obvious for hiding it in plain sight. Besides, it came in a box, which is a little old to fit this house's decoration. But you know where it wouldn't be strange to find an old box—let's call it a treasure chest—in here?" Katherine's eyes widened and Damon smirked, "The bottom of a fish tank. Not to mention the lack of fish. I thought you were better than that, Katherine."
Rebekah reappeared in the room then, having heard the entire conversation, and Damon rolled up his sleeve to retrieve the box. However, the water singed his skin the second it touched and glared at Katherine, "Vervain? Really? It's a shame. Now I have to ruin this place."
He tipped the tank over and it crashed to the floor, the toxic water spilling everywhere and the glass shattering while Katherine scowled at him. He picked up the box, which only stung his fingers a little bit, and smiled evilly at her, "It's been a pleasure doing business, Katherine." Looking to Rebekah, he added, "Now let's get out of here before her glare turns us to stone."
It wasn't as hard as you'd think to follow Katherine to Elijah. As soon as Damon and Rebekah left, that's where she went.
Unfortunately, Damon couldn't stop her before she snapped Elena's neck.
He was carrying her lifeless body back to the car now, with Rebekah walking at his side, nagging his ear off about the talisman.
"What are you going to do with it now?" She asked, feigning innocent curiosity.
Damon mentally rolled his eyes, "Destroy it. Hide it. Give it to Bonnie. Who the hell knows. All that matters is that Klaus doesn't have it. So you can rest assured that he won't get it, because neither of us want that disaster that would ensue."
"Destroying it would be best. You have no idea the power that my brother could wield should he ever obtain it. Actually, I know of a witch that would be happy to destroy it for you."
He snorted, shifting Elena in his arms and unintentionally making her head loll into the crook of his neck, "And give you the talisman? Nice try. We're done here. You can go."
She silently glared at him as they turned the corner and his car came into sight. "How do I know you won't hand it over to Klaus the next time he threatens one of you?"
"Because I'm going to destroy it. He can't threaten me for something I don't have." Damon pointed out.
"What about before it's destroyed?" She argued.
"What's your deal?" He asked through narrowed eyes. "Why do you want it so bad?"
He maneuvered his hands so he could open the passenger door, and gently laid Elena inside before shutting the door and waiting for Rebekah's answer.
He didn't get one.
She was gone.
He rolled his eyes, walking around to the other side and climbing in. Just as he sat down and started the car, Elena began stirring. She rubbed her temples, groaning, "Where am I?"
"The car. Katherine snapped your neck." He explained.
"Bitch…" She muttered. "Did you get the talisman?"
He pulled the box from his jacket, smirking, "I wasn't leaving here without it."
Elena took it from him, opening the top to finally get a look at what all the fuss was about. "Hey, uh, is there supposed to be something in here?"
"What?" He asked, snatching it back from her.
She rolled her eyes, "Nice going genius. You didn't think to check it before ditching?"
"Dammit…" He cursed, his eyes squeezing shut. "Well where the hell could it be? Shit, I even knew it was too obvious for that bitch! Who doesn't put fish in a fish tank!? I thought I finally outsmarted her and found her secret hiding place."
While Elena had no idea what he meant, something about that last part struck a memory.
That woman she met when she first arrived said something about Katherine's secret. Considering nobody else mentioned anything about it, could that have any relevance?
"Can we make a pit stop? I think I might know where it is."
Finding the woman's house proved difficult. Elena only had her scent and the memory of her car to track her down, but after describing her to one of the townspeople they managed to identify her and tell her where she lived.
Elena and Damon walked up onto the porch and rang the doorbell, waiting until she answered.
"Katherine? I wasn't expecting you so late…" She said, looking down at her pajamas. It was dark out, probably around nine or ten.
"I came to talk about that secret I told you to keep. Remember?"
She smiled and laughed a little, "Of course. Hang on, I'll go get it." She scurried away and returned a moment later, carrying a velvet box. "Here you go."
Elena smirked as she opened it, seeing an old looking necklace inside. Damon breathed, "I'll be damned…"
"Thank you for your help. You've been a doll." Elena grinned, snapping the box closed and turning to leave, Damon following her. She threw herself into the car, smiling at Damon, "That's how it's done."
He shook his head, a smile on his face as she handed the box to him, "I'm impressed, kitten. Now, what do you say we pay a visit to Mystic Falls to drop this little thing off with a certain witch that can destroy it, and then we can go anywhere you want?"
Her lips curved into a smile, "I think that sounds perfect."
If only she knew he had no intentions of leaving Mystic Falls once they got there.
Once they arrived back in Mystic Falls, it was quickly made clear that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. After dropping off the talisman to Bonnie under strict orders for her to destroy it, the days turned into weeks, weeks to months, and before any of them knew it nearly three months had passed. The duration had been spent trying to get Elena to turn her humanity back on with little to no success.
Damon felt useless. Every attempt he had at bringing her back to him failed, and it sucked. He couldn't reach her, her friends couldn't reach her, not even her own brother could reach her. She was just existing, drifting through life feeding from whoever she wanted while half of the time not showing her face for weeks at a time. If she wasn't MIA then she was going to school and feeding off of her classmates and compelling herself perfect grades to make up for all of the class she missed. They quickly figured out it was just better if she didn't go to school, but it seemed that nobody could control her when she was like this. She did what she wanted, and she always found a way to keep doing it. That meant that when she got bored of the current scene, she'd take off in the middle of the night to anywhere but Mystic Falls.
But she always came back.
Nobody knew where she went. She could have been in the town right next door or across the country for all they knew. She wouldn't tell them anything either. It was getting painful just to have a conversation with her, which made the need for her humanity to come back all the more urgent.
Her friends and family were losing her, and she didn't care one bit.
Damon still didn't know why she turned her emotions off in the first place. She was least likely to talk to him, he had come to notice. Almost like she was shutting him out specifically, more than anyone else.
It made sense; her emotions were very attached to him, and he probably stirred up all kinds of unwanted things inside of her. He was trying—so hard—to trigger any kind of feeling in her. If he could get a reaction, then he could get her to flip the switch back on. But when she was gone without a trace ninety percent of the time, it made executing his plans all the more complicated.
She was smart. She knew that he had a real chance at igniting some inkling of emotion, so she tried her hardest to shut him out the most. And unfortunately, all of her defenses were working.
He'd even resorted to snapping her neck and locking her up in the basement until she turned it back on.
Needless to say, that had been a bust.
She didn't care about desiccating. She didn't care about the pain he'd been forced to cause her through torture. She didn't care about the temptation of fresh blood nearby, or the confiscation of her daylight ring, or the endless supply of vervain he had pumping through her system.
She didn't care about anything, and that was what hurt the most. Survival was her only priority, and she knew that he would never let her die, therefore all of the torture was moot.
He had no fucking clue what to do. She needed something big; something emotional, something that would force her to feel. Somebody needed to die, or at least come close, just to prove to her that she still could feel despite what she was telling herself.
Putting aside their pathetic failures on the Elena front, the group had been pretty successful just about everywhere else.
Klaus had made one last appearance in Mystic Falls in attempt to threaten the talisman out of them, but Bonnie had destroyed it right in front of his eyes, thus erasing his one purpose for being there. However, Caroline did manage to get under his skin one last time which ended in him permitting Tyler to come back to Mystic Falls once he left. The last remaining hybrid had been forced to leave shortly after Klaus killed his mother because he was out for revenge.
And then there was Katherine, who had showed up around the time Klaus did. She had been snooping around the boarding house for days, acting as a shadow to the brothers while she scoured the place for the talisman. She wasn't too happy about it being stolen from her, but as soon as it was destroyed she bolted as far away from Klaus as possible.
Within the group, it appeared as if Little Gilbert and the witch gave their teenage romance another go. Damon had seen them together in The Grill on more occasions than he would have liked.
He spent his days drinking at the boarding house if he wasn't searching for an answer to bring Elena back, and once the bar at The Grill opened he would head over there and drink some more.
With Elena usually by his side back before all of this happened, he never realized how few people he had in his life.
Actually, without her, he was pretty much on his own.
Ric was dead. Stefan was just as hopeless as the rest of the group, though he had to admit, without Elena around it seemed as if Stefan was hating him less. Small victories, he supposed. The only times he wasn't drinking alone was if Liz happened to stop by after work for a drink and they spent an hour or two talking before she went home to Caroline.
It had never bothered him before, how lonely he was. Because he always had Elena to be there for him, so he never really felt lonely. But now, they could be in the same room and he would feel like he didn't even know who he was looking at.
He missed her. So goddamn much. He was getting desperate.
Now, he had had a lot of terrible ideas in the past, most ending in mass murder. However, this one might just prove to be the worst, which was why he wanted to run it by his brother before even thinking about executing it.
Stefan came walking in the back door, just returning from his hunt. Damon greeted, "Welcome home, Stef. Did Bambi have anything new to say?"
His brother eyed him cautiously, walking towards him. "What do you want?"
Damon's smirk fell, knowing that this conversation wasn't going to happen if he didn't cut the bullshit. Stefan may be an idiot, but he was the only person Damon could trust with this. Ironic, wasn't it? So much time had passed, over a year, in fact, where Stefan was the absolute last person he could trust.
He didn't want to get ahead of himself, but he thought that maybe—just maybe, without a woman standing between them they could repair the shambles of their relationship. Though that was liable to change once Elena's humanity was back on, assuming she'd want anything to do with them.
"It's Elena." He said softly.
As hurt as Stefan was over Elena's choice, he never stopped caring about her. And Damon knew he never would. She would probably always been a sore subject between them, just as had Katherine had been, but Damon dared to have hope that one day they'd be able to talk freely about her just like they could with Katherine.
Stefan's features softened and he sat down, letting out a sigh, "She's a wreck."
"Tell me about it." Damon agreed, sipping on his drink. He was about four in, and would probably need another pretty soon. "Yesterday she tried feeding from Jeremy. She would have too, had he not told her he was ingesting vervain."
Stefan shook his head, "She called our relationship a fling that was never meant to last."
Damon blew out a laugh, "You got off easy, brother. She told me that I wasn't good for anything more than sex. At least she admitted to having a relationship with you."
Stefan wisely didn't comment further. While they had grown closer while trying to help Elena, they weren't quite there yet. Stefan dropped his gaze to the floor and asked, "So what's your plan?"
"You're not gonna like it." Damon warned. "I don't even like it."
"If it gets her humanity back, it'll be worth it." Stefan assured him.
Lifting his drink to his lips, Damon finished off the glass then set it on the coffee table. "Do you trust me with her?"
Stefan brought his gaze to his brothers, pausing before saying, "I used to not trust anyone with you. But now? Yeah, I trust you. Despite everything, I know that you love Elena more than you've ever loved anyone."
Damon nodded, avoiding eye contact. He was never one to know how to take a compliment, if that's what you could even call it.
"Then trust me when I say I want to bring Katherine back into town."
His eyes wide, Stefan asked, "What on earth makes you think that's a good idea?"
"Didn't we already establish it's a terrible idea?" Damon pointed out. "But Elena needs something to make her feel, and if she won't give into any of the emotions we've been trying, then it's time to resort to desperate measures. She's home, right?"
Stefan sighed, "As of now, I believe so. Though that's liable to change any second."
"Go find her, snap her neck, and lock her in the basement. I've got a phone call to make." Damon said, standing up and grabbing his phone. He headed out back while Stefan got into his car and left.
He couldn't believe he was about to do this, but what other choice did he have? Leaving Elena the way she was now was not an option. He reluctantly tapped Katherine's name and listened as it rang.
She answered after a few moments, "Well if it isn't Boy Wonder. Bored of your little toy now that it's broken?"
Yep, he was already regretting this. Closing his eyes, he said, "Green is not a good color on you, Katherine. You really need to get laid after Elijah dumped your ass."
"What makes you think I haven't been? Hiding from Klaus yet again has its perks."
Damon smirked, knowing the hidden contempt behind her tone. She was unhappy. That would make this even easier.
"Speaking of your little predicament, what if I told you I had an offer too good to turn down?"
There was a long pause. So long, Damon would have thought she hung up if he hadn't heard her soft breathing. "If you're playing some kind of joke—"
"I'm not." He sing-songed. "The talisman? Not as destroyed as you think."
"I watched it explode into nothing, Damon, I felt the surge of energy shake the ground." She reminded him.
"It was a fake. Bonnie is an extremely powerful witch, and she faked the entire thing. That wasn't the real talisman." Damon confessed.
"Why?" She questioned.
"Because Bonnie uses expression, an uncontrollable magic that she was struggling with until we got back to Mystic Falls months ago and gave her that talisman. As long as she wears it, Silas's power seems to neutralize her powers. She has more control with it." He explained.
"And you're just going to hand it over, leaving her to spiral out of control?" She asked skeptically.
Damon scoffed, "I don't give a shit about that bitch, Katherine. She can die for all I care. Hell, maybe that'll even get Elena to turn her emotions back on."
"So what's in it for you? What do you want me to do in return?"
He shook his head in disbelief, wondering at what point he lost his mind. "Nothing that you won't fully enjoy doing, that I can promise you." He let out a silent breath before saying, "What do you think about coming back to Mystic Falls for a little torture of your least favorite doppelganger?"
She snorted, "You expect me to believe that I get to torture Elena? That and the talisman is too good of an offer to be real."
"Think about it Katherine." He started. "Elena's humanity is off. We can't torture her because she knows we'd never kill her. But you? You want her dead more than anyone, maybe even Rebekah. She'll believe you're going to kill her. And that fear is what's going to bring her emotions back."
"Let me guess. The catch is that I can't actually kill her?" She tried.
"Bingo. Elena stays alive, you get the talisman."
"And you don't care that I'm going to give it to Klaus? You think after all the trouble you went through to stop me, that I believe you're okay with Klaus having all that power?"
Damon shrugged, "Klaus doesn't want anything to do with us anymore. He's gone. He's in New Orleans with whatever demon child he's having. He lost all interest in us, therefore whatever power he wants to gain won't have any impact on our lives. He can name himself king of the goddamn world for all I care, as long as I never have to see his face again."
Another pause passed, then Katherine said, "You've got yourself a deal, Damon. I'll be there tomorrow."
The line went dead, and Damon prayed he hadn't just made a huge mistake.
So ideally, Elena's humanity would have come back within days of them returning to Mystic Falls. But I felt like everyone really needed a break from the world revolving around her. So while she's off doing whatever she wants, yes, everybody is worried, but there's nothing they can do to stop her. In the three months living like that, Damon and Stefan have been able to begin repairing their relationship. Since Elena is no longer around, they're able to talk without her being the elephant in the room. Other relationships within the gang are evolving as well. Caroline and Tyler are reuniting, Bonnie and Jeremy are rekindling their romance-I don't really go into their relationships because this is a Delena story, but they are happening.