Having gotten a rather upsetting call from Alaric, Giuseppe jumps into his car and hurries over to his son's place. It's eerily quiet in the house which worries him. He calls Damon's name and when there's no response, dread begins to creep over him like an icy chill. His stomach is full of lead, his feet like concrete as he moves forward to his son's bedroom.

He feels his heart slamming in his throat at the thought of what he might find. Putting a shaky hand on the knob, he opens it up, it's still pitch dark inside due to his light blocking blinds. He goes directly over to the window and cracks them open. Damon is face down on the bed. Unable to breathe, he stares at his prone body until he sees his chest rise and in a millisecond he's at his bedside.

"Damon... Damon? Damon! Wake up son!"

Slowly, Damon's dream fades into nothingness, yet he can't open his eyes, his lashes are glued together. He buries his head further into the pillow to try to drown out the incessant clamor. When it still doesn't stop, he waves his hand to shush the insistent voice... Is that a hand on his shoulder trying to shake him into consciousness?

"Wake up, Damon, you're late for work but judging by the sight of you, I doubt that you're in any shape to do your job today."

One of his eyes opens a crack but he quickly closes it again. The light is too bright, he'll probably go blind if he keeps staring at the shadows moving about in his room.

"Umm sorry, too sleepy." That sounds weird even in his own head but given that it feels like the USC Marching Band is playing Tusk in his brain, maybe it's not? "Come again?"

"Dammit, Damon, wake up! You need to drink some water and you're definitely going to need a shower. Hey!" Giuseppe barks and rips the covers off.

"Dad?"

"Yes, it's me."

Damon's mind finally starts working. But only a little. The pounding in his skull ebbs and flows like a cold tide, yet the pain is relentless. He's been hungover before but this is... With the movement of one leg, the tell-tale clink of a Jack Daniel's bottle sears his brain like a hot poker, he moans and wants to bury his face under the covers. In his zeal to block out the memories that flickered repeatedly in his mind like a movie reel, he drank till he passed out. His eyes feel like they're going to explode out of his head, his mouth is so dry that his saliva is thick and coating his lips. How did he even get home? He couldn't have driven, could he? He tries again to open his eyes and this time it's not quite as painful. First he opens one and then slowly he opens the other but quickly raises his arm to shield them from the sunlight.

"Thank God, I thought you were dead."

Damon knows he's being chastised, deservedly so but as usual if feels like his dad's affectionate caress instead. After Giuseppe adjusts the blinds a bit more, the corners of his mouth lift slightly, causing his dad to let out a short laugh.

Damon's aware that it's a chuckle of relief that he's okay more than finding anything funny. "Sorry," his voice sounds less like a hoarse croak this time. His throat is dry but before he can do anything about it, dad presses a full glass of cold water into his hand. "Thank you," he rasps and takes a long sip.

Giuseppe quickly gets up and disappears into the kitchen. In only a few short minutes, he returns with a large mug of strongly aromatic, rock gut coffee. Damon moans and gratefully takes it from him.

"Thank you. How did you...?"

"How did I find you? Your partner gave me a call when you didn't show up for work or answer your phone. I tried to call too but I guess the sweet noise you have as my ring tone wasn't enough to arouse you... from this!?" he gestures with his hand pointing at Damon.

Damon groans, running his free hand through his hair, hell even it hurts. "Shit. That damn woman...," he mumbles.

"A woman?" his dad raises his eyebrow. "Are you really telling me that a woman put you into this... condition?"

"Not exactly. The last part I did myself." He gets up, trying to think quickly, figuring out how to make himself at least somewhat presentable and fast so he can crawl into his office and do something... useful with what's left of the day. Now if only he could forget... the whole of yesterday.

"Okay, go ahead and shower. I'll wait and give you a lift. You are NOT driving. There's no way you'd pass a sobriety test if you got pulled over."

His tone means business and Damon just nods before retreating to the bathroom. He feels much better when he resurfaces twenty minutes later, freshly showered and shaved only now starting to feel embarrassment that his father had to drive all the way to his place to find him in such a state. He feels like he's 17 again.

"I..."

His father just waves him off. "It's alright son. You've never been one to get into trouble." He pauses for a minute and lays his hand on Damon's forearm. "I always wondered if maybe you were afraid I would abandon you too if you did anything wrong. Even after I married Jenna, you were still so scared of making even the slightest mistake..."

"Dad?"

"While we're on the subject, I want to say one more thing. I don't know if you've ever had doubts or not but know this, even if the DNA test had shown you weren't my son, Damon, I still would have gone through with the adoption. By the time the results came back, you were my son in every meaning of the word... I already loved you too much to ever let you go."

"I'm sorry I scared you."

"It's okay, everyone has a right to indulge in a little idiocy from time to time," he chuckles and his warm eyes scan his boy's body for any signs of harm one more time. "Unless... you want to talk about it. You know you can talk to me about anything."

"Thanks, dad. Really, I do appreciate it. I will, I guess I'll have to. But not now."

"Girl trouble?" Giuseppe's a strong believer in privacy, but now he's a little worried. Damon's not one to be keeping secrets and especially not from him. And he will have to? Is he in trouble... with a girl?

"More like lawyer trouble," Damon mutters and Giuseppe knows he needs to let it go for now. Damon grabs his things, locks the door and follows his dad to his car, sliding into the passenger seat. He quickly puts his sunglasses on, his eyes still feel like shards of glass are sticking out of them.

When he pulls the car to a stop in front of the station, he gives his son a serious look. "You know I'm always here for you."

Damon nods and there's a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

"Promise me you'll be careful?"

"I will, dad. I'll give you a call." It's a promise.

Giuseppe pats his shoulder and lets him go. He watches Damon disappear inside, before turning in his seat again.

A woman? And a lawyer?

He has a hunch about who it might be that sent his son into a booze fueled tailspin. After pulling out of the police station, he heads straight to the exit that leads to The Jungle.

"Enzo I told you I need to focus, please give me one damn hour alone!" Elena yells when she hears knocking at her office door again. She's been edgy and nervous since early this morning and yes, she didn't get much sleep last night either. She's not sure what to do now, about Damon, about Katherine, about anything. Life was much simpler when she could throw all her energy into building the club into the success it is today, the added plus being it was a great way to distract herself from thinking about her brother.

She jumps to her feet when the handle moves but stops in her tracks when it's not Enzo that enters her office.

"Mr. Salvatore...?"

"Elena," Giuseppe greets her and she knows he's smiling as she can recognize the tiny cobweb of wrinkles around his eyes. He's delighted to see her.

Elena immediately feels guilty, it was not just Damon's secret that they uncovered, it was also his dad's... She's caught off guard by the rush of emotions caused by the simple act of seeing him. And then it dawns on her. Giuseppe is 'dad'.

Her own father can't fight for her anymore and right now she feels so alone... She turns to the window to collect herself but then she's luckily pulled out of her reverie by Enzo, who storms into her office with a wild expression on his face.

"Elena! I'm sorry I was away for just a minute and this man..."

"It's alright, Enzo. Mr. Salvatore is always welcome here." She composes herself quickly before her tears fall.

Enzo warily looks at Giuseppe who gives him a small nod. "All right then. I'll make coffee...?"

"Yes, thank you." Elena waits till he's out of the door, then gestures for her visitor to take a seat. "Please, sit. What can I do for you?"

Giuseppe watches her for a moment before he starts talking. "I'm sorry I just barged in here but I was and still am a bit worried about Damon..."

"Damon?" Elena's immediately alarmed. "Did something happen?"

"Not exactly," Giuseppe weighs how much to tell her. He likes Elena. Jenna likes Elena and both of his boys clearly love her. But Damon's not there yet... not ready to trust her enough to offer up his bared soul. Maybe he will never be ready?

"I stopped at his place and he was rather... grumpy. He said something about women and lawyers..." He's not exactly sure why he's asking her but his instinct's telling him this young lady is the beginning and the end of all Damon's current issues, whether they're work related ones or personal.

"Oh..."

That's all Elena has to say and he thinks his instinct is correct. Elena isn't just any beautiful girl. She's spirited. Courageous. Smart. She's also young and he can see she had to grow up faster than she should have. Everyone knows about the Gilberts. The parents that died when she was barely an adult. She had to take over the family business because for some reason her parents didn't believe her older brother was up to the task. Is it possible that Damon could be right? Does she have it in her? To commit murder?

"Elena, it's written all over your face that you know what's going on with my son. I'm not one for prying secrets out of anyone, let alone my kid's... I'm just worried about him. Promise me, if he's in some kind of trouble you'll tell me before it gets out of hand?"

The urge to tell him everything is too strong. She looks at him for a few minutes, Giuseppe doesn't try to break the moment. And then she just lets it all spill out. She tells him everything about Elijah finding Katherine, bringing her here, she doesn't try to escape her role in all of it, including her motivation for doing so. She tells him about yesterday and how Damon stormed out of her house. She has no idea she's actually telling him so much more!

He's 'dad'. And dads just know.

Damon walks into the station with a full cup of hot coffee in his hand. He takes a long pull while walking into his office. It's been a few days since his dad had to drag him out of bed. Still, he doesn't feel any better. He's jumpy and constantly looking over his shoulders, half expecting to run into Katherine behind every corner. From what he remembers about her, he knows he won't be lucky enough that she'll give up and climb back into whatever hole she crawled out of.

He's strictly forbidden Ric to ask about his late morning and Luka was smart enough to pretend he didn't notice anything amiss. He still has yet to call his dad but he's not sure what to say to him. How does he begin to explain that the sister he's hated for as long his he can remember has suddenly turned up, ready and willing to turn his life upside down all over again. His parents don't deserve to be thrown into the snake pit but he knows he won't be able to avoid them forever.

The case is another matter. He's supposed to be working on it, diligently so, but he can't go to see her. He knows he'll have to. Soon. But he's so not ready.

"Any progress?" chief Jordan barks at the door of his office.

Damon slowly raises his head, buying himself time. "Ehm, not exactly. We're trying to go through some of the earlier witness testimony, evidence both real and circumstantial just in case we might have missed something. It doesn't hurt, maybe it'll lead us to door number three..."

Ric gives him a skeptical look and Luka's shoulders tense but Connor seems to be satisfied. He mutters something under his breath and disappears into his own office. Damon pretends not to notice his partners' reactions and buries himself in the files again.

There was a time when he was full of self confidence, certain of his actions and believed he knew what was right and what was wrong. Was it arrogance? Are there only bad guys and good guys in this world? Did he really ever believe that?

"What's wrong, buddy?" Ric's calming voice interrupts his musings.

He looks up and notices Luka's gone, probably taking a lunch break or something. He sighs and thinks about what to tell him. Ric concludes that he doesn't have an answer but then...

"Have you ever felt that you've missed the boat and the chance to jump on is already gone?"

"Huh?"

"You know, the feeling that you screwed up so royally that it can't be fixed?"

Ric give a short laugh. "Many times. Believe it or not, buddy, sometimes I feel so panicked that the only thing that makes sense is to poison myself with alcohol. In those rare instances, it's the only way to beat back the hopelessness. At least I can forget about it for several hours. Is that what's happened to you?"

"Not exactly but yes, the desire to forget was and still is there."

Ric grins and throws a crumpled piece of paper at him. "Did it work?"

"Nope," one corner of Damon's mouth lifts, his sense humor is still there, Ric notices.

"It never does, buddy. It comes back and knocks you on your ass all over as soon as you come to your senses."

They are silent for a few minutes when Ric lets himself be heard again. "Was it... is this about Elena Gilbert?"

"Why do you immediately suspect her? Do you think I'm no longer competent to lead Jeremy's case?" Damon answers with a question.

Ric looks surprised but thinks about it for a few moments. "... Why would you immediately jump to that conclusion? Do your... feelings for her... are they clouding your judgement?"

"There are no feelings, Ric," he dismisses, both of them knowing it's not the whole truth. "But still, I'm not sure anymore. I've made some mistakes. And now... I'm not even sure I can identify which actually were mistakes," he admits.

And everything comes down to her...he admits to himself.

What has she done to him?

The insistent irritating tone slowly drags him kicking and screaming into consciousness. He feels around to find his phone where he dropped it last night on his bed.

"Salvatore."

"Damon?"

"Mom?" he's immediately alerted. Jenna doesn't call him often, he suspects his dad is the one who tames her over protective streak. Usually it's his dad who calls... Did something...?

"Relax, everything's alright. I just wanted to know if you're coming to the house this weekend?"

Damon relaxes and falls back against the pillow. "What's going on this weekend?"

"We haven't seen you for awhile. Well, I haven't. And there's something we need to talk about."

"Is everything alright...?" he asks carefully, the whole situation seems a little... unreal, maybe it's because he still only has one eye open?

"We are both alright, so is your brother, I promise. But I do think what I have in mind has been ignored for far too long. Will you come?"

She's all business, he can tell. Still, if she's angry about whatever she's talking about, it isn't affecting the motherly tone she always uses with him. He's incredibly lucky these two people are his parents.

"Okay, I'll be there on Sunday? Lunch?"

"Of course," he can hear she's smiling. "Be on time!"

Damon parks his car in front of his parents' house at 11:45. It's another hot and sultry day and he thinks maybe he'll take Stefan to the swimming pool this afternoon. He hasn't spend as much time with him as he'd like lately. This damn case is consuming him, bit by painful bit. And then he'll probably have the talk with his dad later but he should be able to put it off till after lunch, at least he hopes so. He'll be spending the night anyway, they'll have plenty of time to get into it.

He pauses for a moment then pushes the doorbell. He's not at all surprised to see that Stefan's the first one at the door.

"Damon!" As usual he jumps in his arms before Damon can properly respond.

"Hey little brother, what's up?" Before Stefan says anything, his father walks into the foyer to greet him, taking the wine and flowers he bought for Jenna so he can hold onto his little brother.

"Right on time, good boy!" he hears his mom's voice echo from the kitchen.

"Come, son." It may be nothing, but Damon can feel there's something in the air. He's about to ask his father what's going on when his voice trails off. As soon as he sees who's sitting on the couch, he stops in his tracks, shock and anger quickly burning out of control along every nerve pathway.

"Hello Damon..."

It's the same voice that's starred in his nightmares since he heard it. This is not happening. She's sitting in his parents' fucking living room as if she belonged here and expects him to... what exactly?

Damon looks disbelievingly at his father.

"Damon, take a seat, we all need to talk and go through this with a cool head."

He's never dreamed to hear such nonsense from HIS own father. From the corner of his eye, he can see Jenna coming towards him, her face is telling, she's afraid he'll make a scene. Yeah right, like he's the one overreacting here?

"Really, dad? Cool head? That's rich. I don't even want to know how or why she's sitting here but I don't want to be any part of it." He's about to turn around and leave when his dad blocks his way allowing Katherine to jump to her feet and reach him in seconds.

"Damon give me a chance to explain? Please, don't be angry with your family and Elena..."

Damon tries thinking rationally but the last name coming from Katherine is like waving a red flag in front of the bulls in Pamplona.

"Oh, so it was Elena who planned this small gathering? I should have known. She just couldn't resist," he snaps, tightening his lips together while shaking his head. "She wants not only payback, she also wants to distract me from doing my job. I... I don't... I won't be a part of this. Let me know when she's gone," he gives Katherine a stormy look and once again tries to slip around his father.

"Oh no, son, you need to listen and deal with this mess once and for all. You've been a slave to your past for a long time, too long. And what this lady came here to say is something you need to hear. Don't be so stubborn Damon, you're not a kid anymore and you're strong enough to hear her out."

Part of him knows his dad is right, but he's so damn angry! He needs to leave. He slowly shakes his head 'no' and just like several days ago at Elena's he runs from his parents house, ignoring Jenna calling after him.

That was the last straw. She, will now hear what he thinks about her meddling.

Elena comes to work despite the fact that it's Sunday and is pleased that everything is running smoothly at The Jungle. Neither Enzo or Bonnie are here so she makes a pot of coffee for herself and settles down to go over the order invoices, pay some bills and email their accountant about payroll. There's also some correspondence that her assistant left on her desk to look over and sign. The distant sound of music echoing from the club isn't distracting, actually she feels quite relaxed after several days of feeling uneasy.

Her conversation with Giuseppe brought her some peace of mind, she knew he would know what to do with the information she revealed. Elijah contacted Katherine that same morning asking her if she'd be interested to meet Damon's adoptive father and she was grateful for the opportunity. What came of their meeting, Elena doesn't know but Katherine did message her with a thank you and that she'd be in touch which seemed to suggest to her that she's okay. The detectives haven't shown their faces here for the past several days so she decided it was time to stop stressing herself to the point of exhaustion.

Her life definitely doesn't revolve around the whims of Damon Salvatore.

She's half way through her stack of paperwork when the office line beeps signaling an incoming call. "Yes," she responds shortly when she sees it's Kol.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Detective Salvatore is on his way upstairs... One of the security guys gave me a call, he had no reason to stop him. I just wanted to give you a head's up."

"Thank you," Elena ends the call. She's dumbfounded, why would he come to her office on a Sunday no less? Should she call Elijah? She doesn't have much time to think about it because barely a minute later there's a short knock..

"Come in!" she calls out but he's already opening the door.

His appearance startles her. He looks ... wild. His blue eyes icy and unmoving, his hair is tousled and the top two buttons on his shirt are open. She can see sweat droplets trailing down his collar bone from where she's seated. She swallows thickly but wears her own ice queen façade, she's not about to let him see how uncomfortable he makes her.

"Detective Salvatore... how can I help you?"

He captures her eyes and comes closer stopping just a foot from her. She fights the urge to sink even deeper into her armchair.

"Yes you can help me. You can stop digging into my past. You will stop invading my privacy, you have no idea what you're doing or the can of worms you've opened up. I am not going to be a pawn in your twisted game of chess. Whatever you told my family, whatever she told my family, I don't care. I want her out of my life and the same goes for you."

He really hates her, doesn't he?

"Listen to me very carefully, I'm not going to spare you. Nothing you can pull out of your little bag of tricks is going to distract me, not even dredging up my past to throw in my face... It won't work."

It hurts. It hurts more than he will ever know.

She didn't become one of Reno's most successful businesswomen by backing down from a challenge. Detective Salvatore won't be an exception. She jumps to her feet to level her own steely gaze at his cocky self, shooting daggers at him mercilessly.

"So you don't like how it feels when it's your life being stripped down and laid bare? You're no different than any of the other people who don't give a shit what you feel about anything. Digging into other peoples' lives is your specialty, detective! You think you know better than anyone else how to interpret every detail of my life and to determine motivations for actions by me or any of your other subjects. You seem to take perverse pleasure in digging for weakness and fears so you can use them to your advantage. You think you know all the answers. You're such a hypocrite. I have nothing to tell you detective. We're done here. If you have any other questions, feel free to call my attorney."

For a fleeting moment he thinks he caught a glimpse of vulnerability in her angry eyes but it's gone just as fast. They stare at each other for several long seconds neither saying another word. The moment is interrupted when her phone rings. Damon raises his chin defiantly, turns on his heels and storms out of her office, slamming the door shut behind him.

It feels like her heart is breaking into millions of tiny pieces.

What has he done to her?

Apologies, I wanted to update yesterday but had an internet outage at my house again yesterday.

'Tusk' is a Fleetwood Mac song performed with the USC Marching Band.

Eva and I want to thank you all so very much. You're such an awesome and incredible bunch. We are truly grateful for all of your support. We do have lots of story ideas to flesh out after we finally put the final dot on the last sentence of this story.

And Eva... I love you to pieces. Thank you for always going the extra mile for our stories...

Chapter title: 'Let the Storm Descend Upon You' by Avantasia.

I did post part one of "Death Is Just a Feeling" on Tuesday. We would love for you to take a look if you haven't. Dr. Damon and Elena as a paramedic.

We hope you all have a safe and an incredibly wonderful day. We'll see you next time.