Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

Daddy Issues

"You brought back John Gilbert?" Damon asked his brother incredulously as Stefan and Amelia stood in Stefan's room across from the elder Salvatore. "That was your big 'Save Elena' move?"

"We went to go look for Isobel, and we got John instead." Stefan shrugged. "He said he could help us and...we're desperate!"

"We're not that desperate, Stefan! The guy tried to barbecue me and Claire!"

Amelia sighed. "Look, Bonnie met a witch right around the time that Elena and Claire were taken by Rose and Delia and we got into this whole mess. Therefore, since Bonnie was stupid enough to take it to said witch, we have to assume that the moonstone was never destroyed. Ergo, this stupid sacrifice is still in place and Claire is still at risk of being used as a vampire battery pack."

"And Elena is putting all of her faith into some deal that she made with Elijah to keep everyone safe," Stefan added. Damon paced back and forth, trying to put together the pros and cons. "I mean, do you trust Elijah? I don't trust him. He's an Original; he can't be trusted! It's not like we can just go up and kill him because apparently, he can't die!"

"Still waiting for the part where John Gilbert is the answer," Damon prompted them. Amelia stepped forward.

"Isobel told John about the sacrifice, which makes him useful. He said he knew of a way to keep Elena safe."

"And how do we do that?"

"He's not talking," Stefan told his brother cautiously. "At least, not to us, anyway."

Damon sighed, exasperated, and mused sarcastically, "Great work, you guys! Top notch! As if I didn't have enough problems without Barbie and Ken running around here creating more for me. Thanks."

Without saying anything more, Damon turned to step out of the room. Right as he did, Stefan called him back with his voice as he apologized, "Hey, I'm sorry about Delia."

But by now, Damon was done admitting his feelings flat out to everyone like it was a parade. He turned around with a disgusted look on his face.

"Whatever. I knew the woman for...five minutes."

"And you cared about her after...five minutes, though," said Stefan slowly. "I wonder what that means."

Damon sighed. "It means I care, Stefan."

Beside Stefan, Amelia gasped quietly. "Oh, my God, I did not see that one coming!"

Damon shot her a frown. "It means I'm changing and evolving into a man capable of greatness." The sarcastic venom dripped off his voice and Amelia grimaced at him, realizing his sarcasm and was unappreciative of it. Damon looked up at his brother with a sly smile. "You better watch your back. Because I may just have to go get a hero hairdo of my own and steal your thunder."

Finally, Damon was able to leave his brother's room, and he bounced down the stairs to find Claire walking out of from the hallway leading to the basement with a glass of blood in her hands. She was walking into the parlor, ignoring him, when Damon caught up to her.

"Get your coat," he demanded. She turned around at him and scoffed.

"And why would I listen to your demands?"

"Because John Gilbert is back in town." Claire's eyes widened. "Yep. And you're the only one besides me who knows that this is a bad idea. So get your coat, sugar, we're heading over to the Gilbert's."

"But..." Claire looked down at her blood, and Damon rolled his eyes as he grabbed her glass and downed every drop of human blood before slamming it down on the table behind the couch. Claire growled. "Hey, that was my breakfast!"

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door, where she had no choice but to oblige.

The moment they arrived at the Gilbert house and Elena answered the door, Damon walked through the threshold with a snarl, "Where's John?"

Claire sighed and followed him in. "Hello, Elena."

"Hey, Claire," Elena said, exasperated with Damon's behavior as well as she turned and found him looking all around the house. She said to him, "He's not here, Damon, he left. I don't know where he went, he just..blew in, announced to Jenna that he's my dad, and then took off."

"That's public knowledge now?" Damon asked, concerned. The human shrugged.

"Apparently!"

"Are you okay?" Claire asked, seeing the distressed look on the teenager's face. Elena looked up at her and shifted, uncertain, and eventually nodded.

"Yeah...Jenna's head is spinning, but I'm okay."

"He say what he was doing here?" Damon intervened.

The teenager pulled her mug of coffee to her with a scoff. "No. You know, Stefan and Amelia both think that he's telling the truth about wanting to help me."

"You believe him?" Claire asked.

"No. I don't believe him for a second," Elena admitted. Damon narrowed his eyes.

"Now that makes three of us." He looked over at Claire, who crossed her arms and stared back at him, stuck.

"So...what do we do now?"

"Kill him." Without elaborating, Damon walked towards the door, where Claire rolled her eyes.

"Of course. Classic Damon..."

"I'm joking!" he defended himself and turned around to meet the suspicious eyes of two women before him. He paused and confessed, "Okay...I'm a little serious."

"Damon!" Elena shouted at him in a scolding tone. He rolled his eyes as well.

"I'm not gonna hurt him, Elena. I'm the good guy now, remember?"

"Since when?" She scoffed. Elena looked between the blonde vampire and the dark-haired one with curious eyes and gasped. "Wait a second, does this mean...?"

"Not this again." Damon groaned at her. Elena smiled, but Claire was absolutely oblivious. She looked back and forth between Damon and Elena with curiosity.

"Sorry, am I missing something here?"

"Yeah, the part where Elena's going around town with her little pom-poms cheering 'Damon and Claire, Damon and Claire!' And I'm sure there's a nickname she already thought up in her head." Damon gave an irritated look and started towards the door as Claire was taken back, immediately surprised. He opened the door and said kindly, "I'm gonna have a civil conversation with your father, okay, Elena? I will handle it."

And Damon crossed the threshold, out into the daylight, while Claire stared back at Elena with disappointed eyes. "You know, it's kind of sad that you do that in your free time."

Elena scowled. "Just...come on. We're going with him."

The brunette teenager grabbed her jacket from the coat rack and started outside, where Claire was left with limited time to meander as she walked over to the door and pulled it shut, murmuring a sour "okay" underneath her breath as she followed Damon and Elena into his car. It didn't take long to drive over to the Mystic Grill, where Damon decided would be their best bet, and sure enough they walked inside to find John Gilbert standing at a table with Jenna and Alaric. Once inside, Damon sauntered towards Elena's biological father, but Claire yanked him back.

"We're here to get answers, not to turn the town upside down. I don't feel like being barbecued again, if you don't mind. Don't do anything stupid," she warned him. He sighed.

"Yeah, but stupid's so much more fun!"

"Hey!" she barked as he tried to walk forward again, agitated further when she pulled him back yet again. Her voice was soft as she quoted, "'Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that'."

"What the hell are you mumbling about?"

"It's a quote, jackass." Claire frowned at him. "From Martin Luther King, Jr. Why don't you try brushing up on that thing we call the past?"

"I know what the quote is, I just don't know—or care—what the hell it means."

"Oh, my God," she moaned, exasperated with him. Her eyes gave an inevitable roll around the room as she explained, "Just pretend, for two seconds, to be the better man, okay? We have tried being jerks to him and it didn't work. Time to start the other approach. If you can't handle it, I will."

He stared down at her, and eventually sighed. "Fine. I'll handle it." He walked over to John with Elena and Claire trailing him a little ways away, and a bitter smile crossed Damon's face as he exclaimed, "John, buddy, how have you been?"

John bit, playing along with Damon's game. "I've been all right." He spied his daughter with the two vampires, but then looked at Claire and and Damon. "Claire. It's good to see you."

"Pleasure. As always," Claire said sweetly, but had to admit that it was definitely harder than it looked.

"I was just about to sit down with Jenna and Alaric, here." John gestured towards the couple sitting at the table in front of him. Jenna gave him a sour smile.

"No he wasn't."

Things between all of the adults—with the exclusion of Elena who, though handled herself like an adult, was still a teenager—went silent for an awkwardly long time. Eventually, John's lips just turned up into a small, pleasantly feigned smile and he turned on his heel with a kind, "Excuse me."

Everyone watched John walk away from the table and towards the small memorial set up in the Grill to honor those lost in the town of Mystic Falls since death seemed to wreak havoc on the entire population, obviously due to the high population of vampires and supernatural creatures in the town. Damon and Claire exchanged a second-long look and Damon walked away from her in the direction that John had gone, trying hard to listen to what she had asked him earlier. He watched as John lit up a candle with a match.

"So, John, rumor has it you know a lot and won't say anything," Damon started, coming up behind the Gilbert.

"How do I know you can be trusted, Damon?" he countered. "Originals can compel vampires. And according to Stefan, that's why Katherine is still in the tomb—because an Original has compelled her to stay there."

Damon struck a match on the matchbox he had picked up from the table beside him. "Only because all the vervain had left her system. Stefan, Claire, Amelia, and I on the other hand, are chocked full." He blew the match in John's face and smiled as the smoke enveloped the presence of his enemy.

"You guys are drinking vervain?"

The vampire shrugged. "It's an acquired taste. I don't see that magic little ring on your stitched finger, so if you know something about Klaus, you better start talking or I will kill you in your sleep."

It had turned from a light-hearted comeback to a threat in mere seconds as Damon whispered the words venomously in Uncle John's ear. The tough human didn't flinch and watched as Damon took a step back and stared coldly right into his eyes. John sighed.

"Now, is that any way to convince me that you and I are on the same side? First, I need to know that I can trust you, Damon. That I can count on you. Then we'll talk."

"Is everything okay between you and Damon?" Elena asked tentatively as she and Claire stood at one of the tall tables just outside the platformed bar. Claire was drinking a strong dosage of scotch and Elena had a glass of water in her hand, deciding to take the more human route. Claire looked up from her drink, confused.

"Yeah. Nothing...worse than usual. Why?" She cocked an eyebrow as Elena shook her head immediately.

"No, I just...well, with everything that happened with Delia and you being in the tomb, I just assumed that...you know, there was something...different. You knew about Damon and Delia, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I knew." Claire sipped her drink frustratedly. "And I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it."

"Were you jealous?"

Elena watched as Claire's eyes blinked for a moment and reopened to face Elena with a disapproving look. "Don't even start, okay? I already got yelled at by Damon last night...though, I'm gonna be completely honest and say that it was a little blurry because I probably had a blood-alcohol level most humans would die from." Seeing Elena's expression, Claire realized that the human didn't get the answer she was waiting for. Claire sighed heavily before beginning again. "Look, my relationship with Damon is complicated, but Damon had nothing to do with me being angry at Delia. I'm just tired of pathetic women sauntering into my life looking for ways to destroy me."

Elena looked behind Claire, off at the bar, and was silent for a very long time before she titled her head up and noted, "So...that doesn't make you jealous?"

Claire looked behind her to find a young, blonde-brunette haired woman who stood beside Jenna Sommers being introduced to Damon at the bar with a glass of freshly poured bourbon in his hand. She felt terrible about it, but she couldn't help her oversensitive ears from hearing the young woman, whom she recognized from the television news, ask, "Can I buy you a drink, Damon?"

Though she knew it was wrong of her, Claire realized that Elena's question happened to be one that she didn't want to answer for fear of admitting the truth in the back of her head. Collecting herself, Claire turned back to the human expecting to find Elena standing across from her with a wide-eyed grin, triumphant over her win. Instead, Elena was gone, and Claire found the human distracted by some friends that she found a few paces away. Sighing, Claire walked over into Elena's earlier spot while downing her scotch and she caught sight of Damon giving the hopeful human an apologetic smile and walking away from her. Surprisingly, Claire found that he walked straight up to her instead.

She pulled her glass up to her lips and mumbled, "Wow. Way to blow a girl off."

"I'm steering clear of all women at the moment."

Claire couldn't help herself. She set her glass down and let a smile crawl up onto her lips as she joked, "What? Something wrong with..." She pointed downwards, indicating the punchline of her joke, and Damon watched her bite back a laugh as he shook his head at her.

"There's nothing wrong with that and you know it." She chuckled to herself and watched as Damon's face suddenly went serious. "I'm just taking a beat right now. Trust me, it's in the best interest of women everywhere."

She stared at him blankly. "Wait a minute, you're actually serious? Where is Damon Salvatore and what the hell have you done to him?"

After a moment, the corners of her lips turned up lightly and Damon took a sip out of his bourbon just as her phone rang. In the back of his mind, he looked at her and watched as she obliviously ignored the fact that he stood in front of her, his eyes focused on every single inch of her face with a painful look of love in his eyes that she would never understand unless he told her. Frustrated, Damon downed his entire glass and Claire answered her phone nonchalantly.

"What's up, Stef?" Damon turned his head at her and waited as she talked to Stefan. Her eyes lifted up to meet Damon's and she wore a genuinely concerned expression on her face. "Damn it! Okay. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Claire hung up the phone and slipped it back into her pocket all while Damon asked impatiently, "What happened?"

She grabbed his arm and pulled him with her to the back of the Grill where the bathrooms were, knowing it wasn't safe for him to completely explode in the middle of the town's memorial location. Once inside the restroom, she checked the stalls and made sure there was no one inside before turning to Damon with a exhausted look on her face.

"Promise you won't freak out."

"No." He widened his eyes. "Just tell me what's going on."

"Fine." She crossed her arms over her chest and started to pace. "So...here's the thing. Caroline told Tyler she was a vampire. Before you freak out, she told Stefan and Amelia and they gave her enough grief for it, okay? I only found out when Elijah released me from the tomb."

Damon growled, "And let me guess, werewolf boy took a chomp at Vampire Barbie?"

"No." Claire swallowed thickly. "Jules captured her because she wants Tyler unharmed. She figured Caroline was the best way to get that."

"Why am I just finding out about this now?"

"Because Stefan was worried that—"

"That what? That I would kill him?" Claire nodded with an obvious look in her eye. "Well, of course! That's what needs to happen."

"What's the point in killing Tyler?" Claire snapped at him as she stepped forward angrily. "Our focus right now has to be on Caroline. We have to get her out of there and you need to restrain yourself from killing 'werewolf boy', okay? He's a friend."

"He's a werewolf. He needs to die, I'm wiling to kill; it's a win-win—!"

"Damon!" Claire interrupted him, reaching forward to grip his shoulders tightly. He froze as she stepped closer impatiently and gave him one of the softest looks he'd ever seen her use. "Listen to me. Just this once, okay? She's my sire, and I need you to control yourself so we can get her back. Tyler has nothing to do with this."

Things were silent between them before Damon hissed, "You need to stop doing that."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Stop assuming that I'll play the good guy because it's you who's asking." His voice was cold and heartless and stepping back, she removed her hands from his shoulders realizing that she might've gone too far. She wasn't an idiot—she kissed Damon, he kissed her back, and he'd made it clear that he wanted it again. But she didn't think that he would perceive it as manipulating in such a drastic time. Her blue orbs met his coldly.

"I don't expect you to be the good guy, Damon." Her hands clenched into a fist as she stared at him hardly. "I just expect you to get your shit together and do what I say for once so we don't all die. Think you can handle that?"

Before he could respond, the door of the restroom burst open to reveal Elena walking through, interrupting the middle of the intense stare down. For a moment, she looked flushed for interrupting, but in the next she could see the urgency of the situation. After hesitating, deciding whether or not to walk out, Elena took a tentative step inside.

"What's going on?"

"Blondie's been kidnapped."

"Amelia?" Elena gasped.

"No." Claire sighed heavily. "Caroline. But we're handling it. Just stay here and make sure you stay alert just in case Jules decides to have a backup victim."

"Elena—" John followed Elena to the door of the bathroom and, once he was standing next to his daughter and observed the annoyed Claire and Damon inside of the restroom, he stopped and cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Elena bit at him.

"Doesn't look like nothing," he countered.

"Yeah, well guess what, John?" Damon snapped at him bitterly. "Trust works both ways. Get out."

"We don't have time for this." Claire brushed Damon's shoulder and moved towards the door. "We need to get Caroline back."

"I'm going with you," Elena called after them as Damon moved out of the door following Claire's pursuit. She tried to step forward but Damon sharply turned around and blocked her way.

"No, you're not. Claire and I will take care of it." He looked up at John. "First dad duty? Ground your daughter—keep her here."

"Damon—" As Damon and Claire both, without wasting another minute, fled the Grill, John blocked his daughter from leaving as if he had any parental rights over her at all.

Damon and Claire found Stefan, Amelia, and Tyler in the middle of the woods where Stefan said to meet them for the exchange Jules wanted. Jules stood across from them in a powerful stance, acting like she owned the world when, really, all she owned was the ratty trailer behind her. Claire and Damon could hear Stefan's persistent negotiations, and when they finally came out into view, Damon spoke first.

"My brother, the Peacemaker." He and Claire stepped up to Tyler's side. "Since Stefan and his girl got here before us, I'm gonna let them try this their way before I resort to my way...which is a little bloodier."

"Give us Caroline, Jules," Claire warned.

"Let go of Tyler."

"Give us Caroline," Damon groaned at her, looking up at the sky to note, "Without a full moon, it's not an even fight and you know it. We will take you."

Jules smirked. "I'm not so sure about that, tough guy."

She brought her fingers to her lips and whistled loudly through them, which caused all the vampires to look around and note every single one of the werewolves that came out from the trees. There had to be at least more than eight, each equipped with armory to kill a vampire. No matter who gave up who first, all of them knew that every single non-living person within twenty feet would die. Jules cocked her head at them.

"Let's try this again. Give us Tyler."

"You heard her. Go," Damon hissed softly at the werewolf. Stefan reluctantly let go of Tyler and watched as he walked to Jules's side safely. As the four vampires expected, no one moved an inch to get their friend from inside the trailer, where she was presumably being kept. One of the werewolves beside Jules was the first to speak.

"Which one of you killed Mason?"

"Uh, that'd be me," Damon announced. Claire turned her head at him.

"Damon, what are you doing?"

"Relax," he assured her cockily. "They won't be able to kill us."

"Boys!" the werewolf shouted at those surrounding them before pointing his stake at Damon. "Make sure that one suffers."

Damon swallowed. "We can take them."

Stefan inhaled sharply. "I don't know about that."

Claire hissed beside her, "You're a fucking idiot, Damon."

Amelia gulped and looked around her nervously. "Anyone else doubting the history of vampires right about now? Because I certainly am."

Right after she said the words, Damon was the first to initiate the fight. He lunged at Jules, causing each of the werewolves to attack their own vampire. Claire, Stefan, and Amelia were all separated as they were attacked from all angles by way of fire or wooden stakes in their enemy's hand. Claire didn't stop to blink before hitting or kicking the crap out of the men who attacked her, ripping their hearts from their chests or using the stakes they wielded against her to kill them, instead. But there were too many on her and she realized quickly that her friends around her were also losing gradually. Stefan was staked in the back, Amelia had a werewolf come up behind her while she used a supplied flamethrower to warn off her enemies, and said stealthy werewolf managed to get her to drop the tank to the ground and began to fight with an equal match. Damon was shot in the chest by Jules with a wooden bullet gun and even Claire, herself, who watched as Caroline came out of the trailer covered in her own blood was pinned up against the metal frame of the mobile home by Jules with the bullet gun to her back, was unable to help because of her own attackers—two men who had her down on the floor and one who was just about to rip out her own heart. Right as she struggled to kick, the werewolves restraining her suddenly started to scream, backing away and clutching their heads in pain.

Claire, confused, sat up straight and watched as all the werewolves dropped around her. Instead of dwelling, she spotted Caroline and flashed over to the blonde vampire to make sure she was okay. Caroline turned to her with a shake of her head.

"What's happening?" Caroline asked. Claire looked at the scene, all of the werewolves writhing in pain on the ground from a seemingly invisible problem.

"I-I don't know."

"What the hell's going on?" Tyler murmured. From the shadows of the trees, Claire, Damon, Stefan, Amelia, Tyler, and Caroline watched as a witch came out with his hands pointed down and his eyes focused on the magic he exerted. He looked up at them all once the werewolves were all down.

"Elijah made a promise to Elena," the witch said. "I'm here to see it's upheld. You need to go. Get out of here. Now."

And, though all the vampires were confused out of their own minds, they all heeded the advice and fled.

Claire walked up with Caroline to the front door of her home, trying to be as quiet as she could. Caroline looked both physically and mentally drained, and she knew what kind of a toll it could have on a person to be locked up and tortured.

"Is your mom home?" Claire asked softly.

Caroline shook her head. "No. She's at work."

"Do you want me to come in?" She tried not to push, but it wasn't really working. "I can make some tea for you. Maybe spike it with a little vodka? That always seems to do the trick for me—"

"Claire, I'm fine." Caroline unlocked her door and turned around at her with a soft smile. But Claire didn't believe her, she just saw the look on Caroline's face and knew that it was all wrong. She leaned against the threshold and bit down on her lip.

"Caroline, you don't need to pretend that you're okay." She nodded quietly. "It's all right to feel a little pain or...or anger, especially after what happened to you tonight. Trust me, I've been there. That fear that you'll never be okay, even though you know you're fine now, it's not a good feeling."

The younger vampire swallowed thickly. "I'm okay, really. I'm not...I'm not the Caroline that I used to be before, I can handle myself."

"I know." Claire smiled at her. "My blood made you. Regardless of the fact that it's a King's blood and everything, no sire of mine will ever be weak. And you handled yourself the best you could today."

"Could I have gotten out?" Caroline asked in a low voice. Claire raised an eyebrow at her. "If your blood is supposed to be the strongest...if I'm supposed to stem from that blood, does that mean that I could've gotten out tonight? Before you, Stefan, Amelia, and Damon came to get me from Jules?"

The blonde shook her head. "I have no idea. I'm not all that clear on how it works and I don't think I'll ever be clear on it. All I know is that we're supposed to be able to fight at a level one hundred times our age." She paused with a small grin. "Give or take a few years."

Caroline laughed for a moment, but it came out pained. Claire felt immediately unsettled, but Caroline didn't give her a chance to push further. "All right, well I just...really want to go shower, so...good night."

Claire was reluctant, but inevitably nodded. "Okay. Good night."

But there was something still shaking her. She knew Caroline wasn't okay—she could just feel it within her, like a mother with a child. Caroline was clearly not her child, but in every vampire aspect, she really was. She thought of her that way, anyway, and she felt extremely bad for not being around Caroline more often. She wanted to be there, but with everything going on between the wolves and John Gilbert and Klaus, she couldn't find the time. But one thing was for sure; she wouldn't let Caroline be alone. Not after what had happened to her.

Claire turned up at the Gilbert house, where she came to the back door instead of the front sensing that Elena was in the kitchen with John Gilbert. She waited until John had gone away from the kitchen, giving the two of them the time that they needed before knocking on the door and earning the doppelgänger's attention. Elena turned around, wiped a few stray tears out of her eyes, and walked up to the door and opened it with a relieved smile.

"Claire. Good, you're okay. Is Caroline...?"

"She's fine. Well, relatively speaking." Claire looked down at the piece of jewelry in Elena's hand. "What's that?"

"Oh..." Elena turned back into the kitchen, almost as if reliving the conversation, but then she turned her eyes back to Claire and sighed. "Did you hear?"

"Yeah. I just thought I'd be polite about it."

"I don't believe him," Elena insisted in a hard voice, shaking her head.

"That's okay," Claire admitted softly. "I don't believe him, either. The guy set a building on fire and nearly burnt me and Damon to a crisp. I'll never trust him. But...that's because he's not my father. Biologically speaking, anyways."

"I know I should trust him," the teenager mumbled under her breath. "But I don't."

Claire shook her head. "You know, we have far more pressing issues than John Gilbert anyways. Believe me, my sister and my best friend are never going to hear the end of it. But I need your help."

"With what?"

The blonde took in a deep breath. "Caroline."

A while later, after Elena and Bonnie had packed what they needed to and the three girls went over to Caroline's house, Claire walked up to her front doorstep alone and knocked on the door. Caroline emerged from her bedroom, seen through the door window, dressed in a black robe with her hair wet from the shower she'd said she'd take. As Caroline walked to the door, Claire smiled and waited patiently.

"Hey," Caroline greeted her. Claire did as well with a soft voice. She could hear the sniffles in Caroline's and knew that she was doing the right thing. "What's going on?"

"I was worried." Claire threw her hands up warmly. "I can't help it, I'm a worrier. Most of the time."

"I'm fine," Caroline insisted with an uncertain laugh. Claire shrugged, and she knew how it felt to not want to admit her pain, and so she nodded.

"All right. Well, that's good. But just in case there's that one percent chance that you're not, I brought you something." Claire turned around and waited as Caroline watched Elena and Bonnie come up on her front step and step into her house. Elena nodded slowly.

"We're gonna slumber it."

"We haven't done it in ages," Bonnie added. Caroline began to cry, softly but surely, and gave a grateful look to her two friends before they pulled her into a group hug with Caroline in between them. Elena lifted her head from the hug and watched Claire on the porch step smiling at the three of them.

"You want to join us, Claire?" Elena asked quietly. Caroline lifted her head as well hopefully, but an invitation wasn't Claire's intention. She shook her head politely.

"I've got to get home. Feed a little. Damon took my breakfast this morning." She looked at all of them with sweet eyes. "Have a good night, you three. Stay out of trouble."

"No promises," Caroline laughed through her half-sobs and watched as Claire walked off the porch and into the night, leaving the three teenagers in the middle of Caroline's foyer still embraced in a hug.

"I can't believe you called me." Andie Star scoffed as she felt Damon's wet lips on her skin. The two sat in his bathtub, covered in heaps of bubbles from their combined bubble bath. His lips kissed her neck and sensually found her earlobe, where he could feel her shudder as he nibbled at it. "I thought I was being way too forward when I had Jenna give you my number."

"I like a woman who knows what she wants," Damon confessed. Andie smiled.

"Mm. Thank you." He smirked. "So what do you want, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome?"

"I'm not that tall." His eyes widened teasingly. Andie chuckled at him and he kissed her cheek before leaning back in the bath, the water shifting under his naked body in which every exposed body part was covered in bubbles. He sighed. "I need a distraction."

"You can booty call me any time you want."

Damon leaned out of the tub and grabbed the glass of wine he set on his bathroom floor. "See, the thing is, Miss...Sexy-Reporter-Girl, I have a problem I need help with. It's really messing with my mind."

Her lips turned down, trying to feel bad for him. "Oh. Tell me about it."

He was silent for a long time and eventually, his blue eyes snapped up to meet hers and he threw his hand up frustratedly. "I'm in love with a woman I can never have. The saddest part about it is that I did have her...a long, long time ago. But I lost her and now...now, I'm afraid I'm going to do the exact same thing."

Andie frowned, this time feeling bad for herself. She reached forward and grabbed the wine glass from his hand. "I knew it. I know how to pick 'em. So why can't you have her? She's with another man, I assume?"

"No, actually, she's divorced now." Damon paused. "Well, not technically. Whatever, it was this whole big thing but...that's not the point." He leaned forward and stole the glass back from her and rambled, "The point is that I'm in love with her and it's driving me crazy. I'm not in control."

"What, you don't trust yourself around her?"

"I don't trust myself around anyone, Andie, but the difference is...if I let it slip that I'm in love with her, she'll run. She'll run like a bat out of hell and I know it."

"Why?"

"Because..." Damon trailed off, but he didn't really know the reason. He shrugged. "I don't know why. But she will. And because I can't tell her, I'm...I'm losing my mind. I'm bad, Andie. I do things."

"Ooh," she joked.

"I kill people." The words were cold and emotionless, and the second they were out and Andie realized he was serious, he saw the smile drop from her face almost as if on a timer. Realizing that she was about to scream, run, or do something he wouldn't like, he reached forward and grabbed her shoulder, watching her shift fearfully. His eyes captured her own and he compelled her. "Don't be afraid. You're okay."

Relaxing, Damon leaned against the back of the bathtub. Andie, the fear now drained from her eyes, asked in a small voice, "Why do you kill people?"

"Because I like it," Damon told her simply. "It's in my nature, it's who I am. But then I have to stay together to pretend like I actually want to fight with her and she wants me to be the hero which means I can't be who I am. Do you see the problem I'm having, Andie?"

Andie's features softened. "Well, maybe this is who you are now. Love does that, Damon. It changes us."

He thought about it for a moment, but even a moment was too long. He couldn't take it, thinking about Claire, because if he thought about her, he'd want to give into the bad side of him telling him that he should take what he wanted and suffer the consequences. But the rational part within him knew that it would be the worst thing possible. She wasn't ready. He wasn't ready. He didn't want to ruin it again.

So he leaned forward with an exhausted expression. "Just stop talking. Just kiss me. Be my distraction."

And he kissed her, finding that she was equally as enthusiastic about it as he was, and he tried to let thoughts of Clarissa King out of his head. His lips slid to her neck and he thought, for just a moment, that he could withstand the temptation and not bite her. But that split moment was gone and he realized that he believed he wasn't the hero. He couldn't be the hero, he never had been one. Claire was wrong.

So he drew his fangs, bit into her neck, and reveled in the sweet taste of the rich human blood as it dripped down Andie's shoulder and soaked the bathwater until it turned blood red.

Thanks for reading! Sorry this chapter took me extremely long to get out, I've been having some issues with writing this story lately. But I'm sure I will be able to get the chapter out sometime soon. Please review!

NicoleR85: Thank you. Here's the update. Again, apologies for it being so late.

SomebodyWhoCares: Yeah he definitely has that effect on people! Thanks for reviewing!

grapejuice101: There will be TONS of more drama for Claire and Damon starting from 2x16. I'm excited but first I need to get over these next two episodes to get there. Soooo much fun. Anywho, thanks for reviewing!

Tvd2014: Yeah, I figured it would sort of be really tragic which was what I was going for because I didn't want Rose and Delia to go out of the story without a tragic ending. Their characters really deserved a dramatic ending, which was carried out well in the show but I figured I would do something to the extreme. Yeah, Claire following Damon around is always fun...maybe not for him, but I'm sure it is for her! She loves to annoy the crap out of him, I think it's become a sport. You can definitely see how much Claire actually cares about Damon and he's sort of oblivious to it because he's kind of got this idea of "the last time I told her I loved her she never talked to me again" in his head so he's not really willing to think about the "if" she will actually end up being reasonable about it this time. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

RHatch89: Thank you :)

klandgraf2007: Thanks! Here's the update sorry for the wait on it!