Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).
The boarding house was empty apart from Elena getting ready for her girls night in with Bonnie and Caroline that evening. Damon had given her free reign for her to do what she wanted and the first thing she decided to do a little exploring. She'd spent a lot of time at the boarding house over the last fifteen months or so, however she'd never had the opportunity to really look around. However as much as the paintings and decorations were fascinating, her true goal was to find where they kept their alcohol. Elena knew they had a wine cellar somewhere as Stefan had managed to magically produce a bottle of champagne from her birth year, the day of her first feed, out of nowhere. The thought of drinking animal blood made her shudder as she grabbed hold of the chill box and took it with her downstairs to hunt for the elusive cellar. Eventually Elena came across a chilly room which housed hundreds of bottles of Dom Perignon. Elena smiled picking out a crate of bottles as if she were shopping in a supermarket. Making her way back to the stairs, she passed the fridge housing the blood bags and picked one out for her and a bag of Caroline's favorite, B positive and placing them in the chill box.
Once back upstairs, Elena emptied her booty from the crate and chill box, placing the bottles and bags into the huge Salvatore refrigerator to chill and leaving the empty crate in the kitchen whilst Elena headed up to Damon's room to shower and change. After she'd finished, she checked the time, noticing it was nearly eight, meaning Caroline and Bonnie were due to arrive at any minute.
Elena headed towards the fridge and began packing the champagne and blood bags into the crate as she heard a car pull up outside, which she instantly recognized by the engine noise as Caroline's. Elena heard he car doors opened and closed and two sets of footsteps walking across the gravel. Moments later a knock came on the front door.
"Come in." Elena yelled more for Bonnie's convenience as she knew Caroline would have heard her without the need for shouting.
Elena brought the champagne laden wooden crate into the parlor, placed it down on the coffee table and opened it.
"One for you." Elena said taking out one of the bottles and handing it to Bonnie who gratefully accepted it. Elena turned to Caroline. "One for you." she said as she handed another bottle to Caroline.
"Ooh." Caroline thanked her as she giggled taking hers as well.
"I'm assuming this is for Caroline." Bonnie sighed Bonnie holds up a blood bag.
Caroline went to reach out for it, but Elena grabbed it first checking the writing on the front. "Actually, it's for me." Elena grinned prompting Bonnie and Caroline exchange surprised glances.
"I thought..." Caroline began confused.
"Oh. Are you saying that..." Bonnie began to smile.
Elena put the blood bag to her mouth and began to drink. "Thanks to Damon, I am now a functional dysfunctional vampire." Elena announced proudly.
"That's amazing." Bonnie clapped
"Uh, what do you mean "thanks to Damon?"" Caroline asked in an accusatory manner.
"Well, after we got back from Whitmore College Damon suggested that I should be okay and ready to feed from a blood bag without experiencing the blood lust. So I did and it worked. No more babysitting the newbie vampire." Elena explained proudly with a big grin on her face.
"So where is my least-favorite Salvatore?" Caroline asked sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.
Elena held up her phone and read the text message out loud from Damon. ""Out with Stefan for the night, don't wait up. Brother bonding.""
"Hmm, so you guys check-in text now? What else do you do?" Caroline sneered.
"I know that you're not the biggest fan, but he kind of just changed my life. Would you mind laying off on all the hate?" Elena asked.
"OK, new girls' night rule...no boy talk, yeah?" Bonnie piped up trying to diffuse the tension. "Plus, why talk when we have this?" she grinned as she held up a bag full of a black herbs.
"Is that stoner tea?!" Caroline asked in shock.
"It's spirit tea. It opens up your chi, or whatever." Bonnie laughed as Caroline looked on unconvinced. "Come on, it's not drugs! Shane is helping me do natural magic without having to access the spirits." Bonnie shrugged.
"Mm-hmm." Caroline hummed suspiciously.
"Don't judge." Bonnie chided.
Caroline looked at Bonnie, who stared back at her straight-faced. "OK, fine! I hereby vow not to be judgmental for the rest of the evening! Even if you two are potentially ruining your lives as I stand idly by, it's your choice." Caroline scowled
Elena stood up"I'll drink to that. Cheers." she grinned as Bonnie and Caroline held up their wine bottles while Elena touched their glasses with her blood bag.
Once the girls had sorted out their issues, they began to get the party started. The champagne began to flow and the music was pumping out loud. Elena and Caroline began dancing on the coffee table in the parlor whilst Bonnie took videos it on her phone. The highlight was when Elena started to vamp-speed around the room with Bonnie attempting to film it whilst drunk on champagne.
Eventually the girls made their way upstairs into Damon's bathroom, which had recently become Elena's favorite room in the Salvatore house. The shower in particular held some very memorable moments. Elena lay down in the empty tub whilst Bonnie and Caroline were sat next to her, all three of them giggling from being buzzed on champagne, dancing and laughing.
"Check this out: vamp-speed video." Bonnie giggled as she handed Elena her phone to watched the video, causing Elena to laugh.
"I look like Superman." she giggled "Watch this." she said as she paused the video at a point where she was vamp-speeding in the room, which showed giant blur behind her due to the speed at which she is running at. She held her phone out to show Bonnie and Caroline."This year's Christmas card." she announced as they all laughed.
"Being a vampire is so weird." Elena laughed. "Oh my God, I love this bathtub." she drooled. "Why don't we come and hang out here more often?" Elena frowned and laughed.
"I'll tell you why. Cooties." Caroline chimed in. "Think of all the germ-ridden skanks that Damon has lured into his den of inequity." Caroline giggled prompting Elena to sit up in the bath tub, feeling offended and slightly disgusted by Caroline's remark. "Okay, I'm sorry. I've been good all night. I am stopping now." Caroline held her hands up in apology.
"No, don't stop on my account. Rip away. I mean, it's only Damon, right?" Elena said sarcastically.
"Well, say what you want about Ripper Stefan, but at least he wasn't a man slut." Caroline announced smugly.
"Come on." Bonnie groaned, even she was unimpressed by Caroline's sly digs at Damon.
"So, what exactly was it about him that made you jump right into bed with him as soon as you met him?" Elena decided it was time to get revenge on Caroline's bitchy comments.
"I didn't know what a sociopathic narcissist he was." Caroline sneered.
"He's always been there for me when I needed him." Elena smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, because he's hoping you'll sleep with him." Caroline scoffed.
"Well, maybe I did." Elena stated confidently, prompting Caroline and Bonnie to look at her in shock.
"You did what?!" Caroline cried.
"You didn't." chided Bonnie.
"Yeah, I did. Look, I know you two have issues with him, but I'm happy, and I wanted to spend tonight with my best friends so that I could tell them about it." Elena said sadly as she got up and out from the bathtub before walking away, leaving Caroline and Bonnie in the bathroom, still in shock.
Elena went downstairs to the parlor and began cleaning up the mess from the party. She was fuming, they were supposed to be her friends and be there for her, be happy for her if she was happy. Bonnie was disappointed in her, she could tell, but she was sure that she'd eventually come around. Caroline on the other hand had been downright rude about Damon. She knew she should have expected it as Damon had warned her she was on the warpath, but Caroline's pathological defense of Stefan was annoying. Especially when she only knew half of the story. Elena was disturbed from what she was doing as she heard Bonnie and Caroline come downstairs to talk to her.
"Elena, come on." Bonnie pleaded.
"Party is over. You guys need to leave." Elena told them.
"Don't be mad, okay? We're just looking out for you." Caroline begged
Elena turned around to look at her so called friends. "Do you think it makes me happy that you guys hate him?" she cried. "I get it. His track record has been kind of spotty but I don't hate him. I can't. He's...I think I'm falling in love with him." Elena admitted
"Ugh, you're not falling in love with him, Elena. You're sired to him." Caroline yelled
Bonnie looked at Caroline in shock, whilst Elena simply raised her eyebrow at her friend. She'd been waiting for Caroline to say something about the non-existent sire bond, although it wasn't Caroline's place to be the one to tell her, and judging from the slightly ashamed look on Caroline's face, she knew she'd made a mistake. However Elena knew that Caroline just couldn't help herself.
"What?" Bonnie cried as Elena rolled her eyes.
"No I'm not." Elena simply stated. "You're wrong!" her faced hardened with anger.
Caroline walked down the steps towards Elena."I...Look, I'm sorry that it came out like that, but it's true. Damon's blood turned you. You couldn't feed from animals or blood bags because he told you so. Then he suggested that you try again with blood bags and suddenly..." Caroline went on.
"Caroline, are you sure?" Bonnie asked.
"Yeah. Ask Stefan about it. He can explain it better than I can." Caroline told Bonnie.
"I'm sorry, you talked to Stefan about this?" Elena asked angrily.
"It's not your fault, Elena." Caroline tried to calm her friend down. "Okay, Damon took advantage of you." she said.
"Firstly Caroline, I could feed on animal blood. It just tasted disgusting. You didn't do it for very long did you?" Elena accused a very sheepish looking Caroline who didn't answer. "I only tried the bunny diet to please Stefan." she carried on. "Damon was concerned that if I didn't know how to control the blood lust it might be dangerous for me to be living with Jeremy if he cut himself as I wouldn't know how to control myself. He was right because I nearly ended up killing Matt, Damon pulled me away from him before I drained him." Elena admitted.
"That doesn't mean you're not sired Elena." Caroline offered. "Damon wanted you to control your blood lust before you could feed on blood bags, so you did."
"Okay." Elena changed tack. "Damon told me to kill the Hunter. Last I knew he was still alive. I was too concerned about Jeremy to go after him. That was a direct command from Damon and it didn't do it."
"But we don't know exactly how a sire bond works in vampires." Caroline insisted. It might be more of an emotional tie than the way it affects the hybrids. They are sired because they're grateful to Klaus..."
"Wait, have you talked to Tyler about this too?" Elena shouted.
"I was only trying to get more information." Caroline pleaded, practically in tears.
"Okay, you need to leave." Elena yelled angrily as Caroline just stood rooted to the spot speechless with shock. "Now!" Elena demanded at the top of her voice, as she stormed past Caroline and Bonnie to the front door, gesturing for them to leave.
"Elena!" Bonnie begged.
"Come on!" Caroline pleaded.
"I said leave." Elena insisted, her voice getting angrier by the moment.
When neither Caroline nor Bonnie made any attempt to move, Elena opened the front door in a gesture for them to leave whist she continued to glare at Caroline and Bonnie.
"Hello girls." said a female voice from the other side of the door as Elena turned around and saw two people standing in the doorway who she recognized as the hybrids Adrian and Kimberley, the latter having a grin plastered all over her face.
Suddenly Kimberley rushed into the house, knocking Elena into the wall in the process. She rushed at Caroline and grabbed her by the throat. Whilst Adrian ran in and grabbed Elena who tried her best to fight back and even managed to push him against a wall, however Adrian was older and a hybrid meaning that he was stronger and he inevitably gained the upper-hand over Elena, slamming her into the wall, his hand wrapped around her throat.. Not one to give in, Elena managed to wrap her hand around the hybrid's throat in retaliation. Suddenly the lights began to flicker and break, alerting the vampires and hybrids alike that Bonnie was starting to cast a powerful spell to save her friends.
"Stop!" Kimberley shouted as Bonnie looked at Kimberley whose eyes had turned yellow, causing Bonnie to stop the spell. "One bite from a hybrid and she's dead, remember?" Kimberley warned
Adrian threw Elena to the floor and Bonnie rushed over to help Elena get up. However, when they turned around, they saw that Kimberley, Adrian and most importantly, Caroline had all gone.
"Caroline?" Elena screamed as she and Bonnie looked out of the front door for any sign of Caroline, but there was none.
"I'll do a locator spell." Bonnie suggested immediately, getting the candles set up.
"I'm calling Tyler." Elena announced. "He's dealing with the hybrids, he might know where they've taken her." she added taking out her phone.
Half an hour later Elena and Tyler were both on their phones as they made their way through the woods near Pastor Young's old farm. They'd left Bonnie behind because they knew the quickest way to get stable where Tyler suspected they had taken her was if they vamp-speed there. Also Bonnie had wanted to try to find their friend through a locator spell just in case Tyler was wrong. Elena hung up on a very distraught Bonnie who had just told her the spell hadn't worked. Tyler, however was still on the phone to his werewolf friend Hayley, the one who Damon had wanted to know about. If the circumstances were different, she'd question him herself to find out what they were up to.
"I get it, Hayley. I'll find them and I'll get them in line." Elena hear Tyler insist as he hung up on his friend.
"Bonnie says no luck with the locator spell." Elena told him.
"They've gotta be here. They're not dumb enough to risk getting caught by Klaus in town." Tyler pointed out.
"Well, what do they want with Caroline?" Elena asked as she stopped walking prompting Tyler to turn and face her.
"Kim is trying to prove that she's the Alpha." Tyler explained. "If I can make her submit, the pack will fall in line and we can finally get them free of Klaus. You'd think they'd play along with how much they hate him." he grumbled.
"But Adrian doesn't, does he? I mean he's still sired to Klaus." Elena frowned.
"Being sired doesn't mean you feel differently about someone. I hated Klaus but I still did everything he said. The bond affects how you act, not how you feel." Tyler informed her only to be interrupted by the sound of Caroline's piercing scream.
"Caroline." Tyler cried as both Tyler and Elena looked at each other in horror before running towards origin of where the screams were coming from, which looked to Elena to be some sort of run down stable.
Elena and Tyler ran inside the barn to find Caroline's tied up against some iron rods, her hands in shackles. Kimberley was pressing down on the chains which was the reason Caroline to shout in pain. Once again Kimberley cracked Caroline's wrists causing Caroline to scream in pain once more, prompting Tyler and Elena rushed towards them.
"Stop! Stop it, Kim. Caroline's with us. All right? We're all on the same team." Tyler commanded holding his hands up.
"She's on your team, not mine." Kimberley told him sarcastically, as slowly the barn began to fill up with more hybrids. Once all of the hybrids had entered the barn, they made their way over to Elena and Tyler and restrained them while Kimberley continued to torturing a screaming Caroline. Although Elena knew she couldn't do anything against her captor, Tyler managed to free himself from the grasp of the two hybrids who were holding him back.
"Stop it! Stop!" Tyler shouted.
"Ease up, Kim. Klaus won't like this." Adrian chided.
"That's a very good point. Do you think he'll like this?" Kimberley asked sarcastically as she picked up a stake, showing it to Tyler and the rest of the hybrids.
"Kim! Don't do it. I swear to God!" threatened Tyler as Kimberley lowered the stakes towards Caroline's heart, with a smirk on her face.
"No, wait, wait, wait, wait. If you really want to hit Klaus where it hurts, then torture me instead. He's fixated on keeping me alive. You want real revenge or not?" Elena piped up, seeing it as a chance to distract them for long enough and hoping Tyler got the message that this was the time to attack.
Kimberley hesitated for a moment, eyeing Elena with suspicion, however she gradually lowered the stake, got up and moved toward Elena. Grabbing Elena by the throat, Kimberley got ready to kill her just as Tyler managed to get himself free from the hybrids who were holding him back. He grabbed Kimberley, sticking his hand in her chest and grabbing her heart, causing Kimberley to gasp in pain. The other hybrids began moving over towards her as if they were trying to protect her.
"Stay back! I'll rip her heart out right now!" Tyler warned, commanded the pack to back away. The hybrids stopped and didn't make any more moves towards Tyler and Kimberley, leaving them to fight it out.
Tyler at looked Kimberley dead in the eye. "Kim put you all at risk today but I'm not gonna hurt her. I'm not Klaus." he said looking around at the other hybrids. "I don't kill and torture my own friends to get what I want. Now, we broke the sire bond, but if you want to be free we have to work together. No one can step out of line. Now, you're either with me or you're against me. Submit. Submit or you die." Tyler instructed them.
Kimberley fell down on her knees and Tyler knelt down with her, keeping his hand in her chest and his grasp around her heart.
"I'm...I'm sorry." Kimberley cried as Tyler finally removed his hand from her chest. Kimberley began to gasp and catch her breath as Tyler stood up and looked down at Kimberley. He then looked around at the other hybrids and one by one, they all began to get down on their knees, submitting to Tyler and showing him the respect of a pack Alpha.
Elena returned to the house, leaving Caroline to come back with Tyler as they needed time to talk. When she arrived, she found Bonnie sat waiting patiently in the parlor as Elena opted to use Damon's bathroom, which she preferred instead of the one on the ground floor. As she walked back down the stairs she saw Caroline coming back into the house. They look one look at each other for a moment before Caroline rushed up to Elena, hugging her.
"I'm sorry!" Caroline apologized as she squeezed so Elena tightly that she was unable to speak. "Okay, if you don't start hugging me back this is gonna get really awkward really fast." Caroline said worriedly.
"You've got my hands pinned down." Elena managed to choke as if she were running out of air.
"Oh." Caroline giggled as she took her arms away from around Elena for a moment before wrapping them around her again, this time without pinning her arms to her side. Elena immediately responded by wrapping her arms around Caroline as they hugged each other tightly. "I'm a jerk." Caroline admitted. "I promise to never again judge ever."
"Just please don't tell Stefan about me and Damon." Elena pleaded as they stopped hugging each other. "I promise that I'll tell him. I just...I need to figure out some stuff first." she explained.
"Of course." Caroline smiled rubbing Elena's arm, a gesture of support.
Just then Bonnie entered the room from behind Elena. "You guys friends again?" she asked, noticing their smiles she joined in. "Thank God." she said, a huge smile erupting on her face.
"Well, she saved my life. In spite of me being the nasty, bad witch." Caroline admitted smiling.
"Thankfully we had our good witch." Elena grinned. "You know, your hottie-creepy Professor really knows his stuff, Bonnie."
"It's been baby steps but he's helping with a whole new kind of magic." Bonnie told her proudly. "He calls it Expression." Elena raised her eyebrow at that piece of information. This was what Damon had asked her to find out from Bonnie. She'd forgotten to ask her with all of the surrounding drama of the evening's events, but now she didn't need to as Bonnie had already volunteered what Elena had wanted to know.
After Bonnie and Caroline finally said their goodbye's and headed home. Taking one look at mess in the parlor Elena decided it was too late to start tidying at that moment, she was too exhausted, instead she would tackle the cleaning up the next day considering she'd have plenty of time before Stefan and Damon would be back home from their trip. With that in mind, Elena headed up to Damon's room, removed her clothes and crawled into Damon's bed, drowning herself in his comforting scent.
The next morning Elena decided to make a start by cleaning up the champagne bottles from the sleepover from the previous night. She was almost done in the parlor when suddenly her senses picked up Damon scent alerting her to the fact that he'd just walked into the room. Elena's stomach began to do back-flips by his mere presence, she wondered if she'd ever get over her reaction to just being around him. It baffled her how she'd managed to fight her desire for him for so long, because even when she was a human, he had the same effect on her, however, now she knew how he could make her feel, and combined with her heightened senses as a vampire, her reaction was significantly heightened, he had the power to turn her to a quivering mass of nerves. Trying to play it cool, she didn't look over at him, even though it was obvious she knew that he was there.
Damon quietly leaned against the door frame, deciding to let Elena make the first move as he watched her, wondering why she was ignoring him.
"Hey." Elena finally said getting up after putting the last empty bottle in the crate.
"Hey back." Damon replied as he continued standing there, still a little confused by her behavior.
"How was your night?" Elena asked as she turned around to look at him.
"Awful. Yours?" Damon admitted.
"Same." Elena complained.
"Elena, um...we need to talk..." Damon sighed as he walked towards her.
"I know that Caroline and Stefan are or were still convinced that I'm sired to you." Elena interrupted. "I tried to explain to Caroline, but I don't think she believed me. Did you manage to convince Stefan that I'm not? she asked nervously.
"Yeah, I think I did. Which is why we need to talk." Damon frowned.
"Why? What's wrong?." Elena asked.
"The plan has changed, Elena." Damon told her causing Elena to frown. "Stefan was so cut up by the idea that you could possibly switch teams to me, he convinced himself that there had to be some nefarious reason behind it. His first choice was because you had become a vampire, which is why he initially started looking for the cure. Then he got it onto his thick head that it was a sire bond, so instead he thought that by breaking it, you would return back to the old factory team Stefan settings. With that option now off the cards, he's back in full 'hunt for the cure mode'." Damon sighed.
"So he actually told you that he was going to start looking for the cure again?" Elena asked.
"Well he didn't outright say he was, but I could tell that's what he was planning." Damon told her. "I think he's convinced himself that you only have feelings for me because you're a vampire, and if you were human again...You'd no longer feel the same way about me." he said quietly. "And I guess he's hoping that if he's right, you'll run straight back into his arms."
"You don't think that as well do you?" Elena asked. "I mean, I know I've changed since I've become a vampire. We all do. You know as well as I do that it doesn't change our feelings, it just heightens them. That's what happened to me, and now I'm finally happy, because I'm with you." she insisted.
"You know what would make me happy?" Damon asked. "To know that this entire time that I've been completely in love with you, that what you actually felt for me, was real, and not just because you're a vampire." he admitted.
"It is real. I know that it is Damon." Elena argued, casting her mind back to what she had been thinking about the way Damon made her feel, only a few minutes earlier when he entered the room. "Are you trying to tell me that you want to find the cure for me too?" she asked as slowly, she kept walking towards Damon until they were mere inches apart.
"I don't want to find it, Elena. I'm not the good guy, remember? I'm the selfish one. I take what I want. I do what I want. I lie to my brother, I fall in love with his girl, I don't do the right thing." Damon argued. "But I have to do the right thing by you, I at least have try and give you the choice. You might feel differently about taking it if it's right there in your hands. And yes, I am worried that you might feel differently about me if you become human again." he admitted sadly.
Elena took Damon's hand and placed it against her heart. "Does this feel wrong?" she asked, placing her hand against Damon's cheek, staring lovingly into his blue eyes.
"Well, if I was a doctor I might be a little concerned." Damon joked, offering Elena a weak smile. "Look Elena, I don't care whether you are human or vampire. I will love you either way. And I would never force you to take the cure. But Stefan and Klaus are not going to stop until they find it, so me not looking is no longer an option." he told her.
"But what about Bonnie and Jeremy?" Elena cried.
"That's why I've decided to help." Damon told her as Elena's face fell. "I can't protect them if I'm being kept in the dark." he explained. "So my plan is to join in with the cure hunt. I told Stefan that I was going to try to talk you into considering taking the cure, meaning I'd help with the search. That way I can keep an eye on Jeremy and Bonnie and protect them. And again, I promise you Elena, I will never force you to take the cure, it will always be your choice."
"So what are you planning on doing to protect them?" Elena frowned as Damon wrapped his arms around her waist, prompting her to wrap hers around his neck.
"Kiss me first and I might tell you all about it." he growled smiling with a twinkle in his eye.
"Well I managed to get some information that you might find interesting." Elena smirked. "So maybe you need to kiss me first." she winked.
"I've got a better idea. " Damon bent his head down and whispered seductively into Elena's ear. "We could go up to my bed and stay there for the rest of the day and tease the information from each other."
"What about Stefan?" Elena asked.
"He can't join us! Even I'm not that kinky." Damon joked.
"I don't mean that." Elena groaned. "I mean what if he comes back whilst we're..."
"Exchanging information about our little missions?" Damon smirked. "Don't worry. He's gone hunting and then he's going to see Blondie, he'll probably want to spill his guts about our trip, paint her nails and get her to help him shape his hero hair or whatever. He'll be gone for hours."
"Okay." Elena shrugged and immediately jumped up, wrapping arms around Damon's neck and her legs around his waist, then smiled, prompting him to vamp-speed them both up to his bedroom as they kissed passionately the entire way.