Chapter three is here! Enjoy. And boy is this fandom active. Nearly fifty reviews from just the first two chapters? You guys rock. And the S4 finale! I'm so happy. Can't wait for S5.

Elena's smile faded into a look of confusion. Nobody spoke, but the atmosphere of the hall had changed dramatically at her mention of Damon's name. Her mother's face had once again drained of color, and her father had straightened up, eyes flashing. Elena glanced at Damon and saw that his eyes had narrowed slightly. But the next second, everything was back to normal.

"It's nice to meet you, Damon," said Grayson. "But it's getting a little late for company, don't you think, sweetie?" he added to Elena.

"Damon was just going," she said, still frowning at both her parents. They stepped aside to make room as she and Damon walked the rest of the way to the door, which she opened.

"See you around, Elena," said Damon. He shot one last brief glance at Miranda and Grayson before heading out.

Elena shut the door behind him, then turned to face her parents. For several seconds, they merely stood frozen, but as soon as Damon's car engine started up outside, they both rushed at Elena with expressions of concern that bordered on panic.

"Are you okay, Elena?" said Miranda, staring at Elena's neck and running her hands down her shoulders and arms.

"Mom, I'm fine!" said Elena, shrugging her mom's hands away. She felt like a five-year-old who'd just been caught doing something dangerous.

"What happened?" said Grayson.

"Nothing," said Elena. "What's going on? Why are you freaking out?"

"Elena, can you remember everything that's happened since you met him?" said Miranda, talking over her.

"Of course I can!" she said. "What are you talking about?"

"Are you sure?" said Grayson. "Are you absolutely sure you remember everything? Think carefully."

"Why wouldn't I remember?" said Elena. "What, do you think he bashed me on the head or something? My memory is fine!"

"Tell us, sweetie," said Miranda. "Tell us everything you've done since last night."

"Okay, I played Pictionary with you guys, I went to bed, I got up and talked to you and Aunt Jenna, I went to the library to write, I went to cheer practice, I broke up with Matt, I went to Bonnie's, I went to the Grill to get dinner, I came home, and then Damon got here and we ate dinner and watched The Princess Bride with Jeremy, and then you got back," she rattled off.

"And you didn't have any strange dreams last night?" Grayson pressed.

"No!" said Elena. She made a face. "Or, I don't know. Maybe? No stranger than dreams usually are."

This seemed to satisfy them a little. Some of the tension eased from their bodies, and they stepped back, giving her more space. "Did he say what he wanted with you?" asked Grayson.

"What do you mean, 'what he wanted with me'? Look, I swear I was only crying over Matt. Damon didn't do anything."

"What was he doing here?" said Miranda.

"I bought him a burger to pay him back for the ride last night, and we watched the movie. Why are you acting like he broke in or something?"

"Because he's dangerous, Elena," said Grayson harshly. "You need to stay away from him."

"Dangerous how?" said Elena, frustrated. What on Earth was going on? "He didn't do anything!"

"You have to trust us," said Grayson. "If you run into him again, call us immediately."

X

Damon raised the crystal to his lips and swallowed another mouthful of bourbon as he paced back and forth in front of the enormous fireplace in the parlor. So much for lying low. He had thought that his nephew had a healthy sense of self-preservation, but apparently not, or he wouldn't have told the Gilberts that he was a vampire. The only reason Zach was still alive was that he hadn't returned to the boarding house yet. If Damon had known he'd be causing him so much trouble in 2009 when it was so crucial that he stay off the Council's radar, he would've just killed him along with all those boarders in 1994.

The Gilberts had tried to hide their reactions to hearing his name, but he'd heard their heartbeats quicken, had smelled the fear rolling off them in waves as their eyes flickered back and forth between him and their daughter.

Bigots. He hadn't done anything to Elena, nor did he plan to. He could easily have made a move at any point during the last two evenings, and now that she had invited him into her home and almost literally thrown herself at him, it would be even easier, but he still had no intention of hurting or toying with her. Maybe it was just that she looked like Katherine, or that he was so close to getting Katherine herself back, but the thought of using Elena's emotions against her held no appeal.

The more time he spent with her, the more intrigued he became. He had accepted almost instantly that just because she was the physical double of Katherine didn't mean they had anything else in common, but the differences continued to astound him. Where Katherine had delighted in capturing the hearts of both Damon and his brother without caring how much it could hurt them, Elena was so selfless that she was almost as heartbroken over her breakup as the boy she'd dumped.

Katherine might've played a payback game like the one he and Elena were playing, but she only would've done it to see what she could get out of it. Elena seemed to enjoy it purely as a fun way to ensure that she wasn't getting more out of this friendship than he was. And that was a marvel in itself—that this girl truly wanted to be his friend.

Even when they'd been teasing her brother and her eyes had been bright with laughter and mischief, she managed to be completely different from Katherine. It had been innocent, lighthearted fun for her, so that when her brother was finally out of the room, she had been surprised and completely unprepared for the change in the atmosphere between them. Katherine would have planned it all deliberately, and definitely would not have let him get away with merely kissing her on the forehead.

And of course, Katherine would never have been caught dead showing the kind of vulnerability it took to cry into someone's shoulder, even if it might've helped her get what she wanted. In all Damon's nearly one hundred and sixty-nine years, that had been the first time he'd held a girl while she cried. It had been a strange, though not unpleasant, experience. Still more foreign had been the overwhelming urge to comfort her.

All the same, if Elena knew anything about him at all, she'd be running as fast as she could in the opposite direction. That might well happen sooner rather than later, judging by her parents' reactions to him, but he would enjoy it while it lasted.

Just then, he heard the sounds of a car approaching. He drained the remaining contents of his glass and set it back on the bar. It seemed that his dear nephew was home at last.

It took Zach about thirty more seconds to enter the house after Damon heard the engine cut off. Zach's vital signs betrayed no indication that he knew who awaited him in the parlor, and Damon preferred it that way. He waited until Zach was in the room before making his presence known, stepping dramatically out of the shadows of the fireplace.

"Hello, Zach," he said with a smile that showed his teeth.

"Uncle Damon!" said Zach, taking an automatic step backwards, his heart rate kicking into double-time just like the Gilberts' had. His eyes flickered around the room as though looking for an escape—he might actually have been looking for a weapon, but Damon refused to believe he could be related, even this distantly, to someone moronic enough to do that—and the whole room already reeked of his fear.

"Now, that's interesting," said Damon as he prowled closer. "From the smell of things, you're just as terrified of me as you were the last time I saw you. So I've gotta ask myself why a man smart enough to be that terrified would do something as stupid as telling Mama and Papa Gilbert his little family secret. What, did you just wait until after I left town last time and then tell the whole Council about me?"

"What?" said Zach blankly.

"Yeah," said Damon, still closing in on Zach, who seemed to have decided that it would be pointless to keep backing away. "I was having a very enjoyable evening with Miss Elena and her brother when their parents showed up. They know, Zach." He reached out a hand to clasp Zach's shoulder. To an outside observer, the gesture might have looked friendly, but Zach winced; Damon's grip was tight enough to bruise.

Damon sighed regretfully. "You remember what I said I would do to you if you told anyone what I am, don't you?"

"What?" Zach said again, his voice cracking around the word this time.

"Well, I have to kill you," said Damon, rolling his eyes, "but if you tell me the names of everyone else who knows about me, I'll be nice and make it quick."

"But I never told them!" Zach protested.

Damon raised an eyebrow and Zach's pulse ticked a few beats per minute closer to tachycardia territory. At this rate, he might actually die of fright. But that would only be funny if he finished spilling all of his useful information first. To encourage him to be more forthcoming, Damon let his eyes go red and the veins begin to creep down his lower lids and cheeks—slowly, for maximum effect.

"I swear, Uncle Damon, I never said a word to anyone, not even when the Council was looking everywhere for the vampire responsible for what happened in '94, and I have no idea how Grayson and Miranda found out. Grayson's never mentioned it to me."

"Huh," said Damon, releasing Zach from his gaze, if not his grip, and frowning.

"Please," said Zach desperately, "if you don't believe me, lock me up until the vervain is out of my system and ask me again."

"Oh, I believe you," said Damon. "There's always been something funny about the Gilberts—besides their tendency to go insane, I mean." He turned his glare back on Zach. "But we will be having a discussion later about how you've managed to get vervain in your system even though I made very sure there wasn't any of it left in this town."

X

"Are you sure we shouldn't just tell Elena the truth?" said Miranda.

"I don't want to burden her with all of that until we have no choice," said Grayson. Normally, while they talked, they'd be cleaning the kitchen of any clutter and food debris left by the kids throughout the day, but for some strange reason, it was already spotless, so they merely stood across the island from each other as they conversed. "She isn't like Jeremy, just another Gilbert descendant to carry on the tradition—she's a Petrova doppelgänger. Until she's an adult and ready to live away from home, she shouldn't have to know the dangers that surround her. We can protect her. She should be carefree and happy as long as possible."

"But how will she know to stay away from vampires if she doesn't know they exist?" said Miranda. "Things have been quiet ever since Abby put Mikael down, but we know that Damon Salvatore has a brother, and there could be others."

"Elena will trust our judgment," said Grayson. "We told her Damon is dangerous, and she'll listen."

"Will she?" said Miranda wryly. "She's a good girl, but she's still a teenager. I'm not sure we gave her enough of an explanation."

"Then maybe we will have to tell her," Grayson sighed. "But only if something else happens. You've got her on the vervain now, so if he approaches her again, he won't be able to try anything overt without tipping his hand to her."

"Who else should we involve in this?" asked Miranda. "The Council? The Augustine society? We already told Jenna because she's family, so what about your brother?"

"I might tell John, but I want to keep the Council and the Augustines out of it. None of the other Council members really knows what they're doing—they didn't have a clue when Mikael was here, and after that massacre in '94, they couldn't even find the vampire responsible, let alone kill it. Most of them haven't even encountered a vampire before. The Augustines are better equipped and have more experience, but they all have their own agendas. They can't be trusted. The more people who know about Elena, the more dangerous it is for her."

"Maybe Zach knows something," said Miranda.

"I'm going to talk to him at my office tomorrow. Nobody else'll be there on a Sunday, so we won't be overheard."

"Good. And there is someone else who can help us find out what Damon's planning."

"Who?" said Grayson, frowning.

"Sheila Bennett."

"Do you think she'll want to help us after what happened to Abby?"

"Damon isn't an Original; she won't need to tap into dark magic to take him down. We just need her to help us find out why he's here. If he's the only one after Elena this time, we can just stake him and it'll be over. If more are coming, we can get ready for them." She paused, the fierce scowl slipping off her face at sight of the warm expression on her husband's. "What?" she said.

"It's almost worth having this kind of chaos come into our lives to see you in Mama Bear mode, Miranda," he said fondly.

She smiled back and ducked her head a little, but the sweet moment was short-lived. "Almost," she agreed. He walked around the island and pulled her into his arms. She hugged him back tightly. He might love how strong she was, but she doubted very much that she would have that strength if he wasn't at her side.

The phone rang then. They broke apart and Grayson picked up the receiver off the counter behind him. "Hello? Jenna!"

Miranda raised her eyebrows and held out her hand. He passed her the phone at once. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Can you come pick me up?" said Jenna on the other end. Her voice was dull and a little slurred. "I'm kinda drunk."

"Where are you, the Grill?" said Miranda, guessing based on the music and voices in the background.

"Yeah," said Jenna.

"Okay," said Miranda. She felt a little guilty. She knew this was because of the bomb she and Grayson had dropped on Jenna the previous evening. But if Jenna, who was almost out of her twenties, was taking it this hard, then perhaps Grayson was right, and Elena shouldn't have to worry about any of it yet. "We're on our way." She hung up and looked at Grayson again.

"You go," he said. "Damon Salvatore has been invited into our home. He could come back. I'm not leaving the kids here alone."

Miranda nodded and kissed him briefly before grabbing the keys and heading out.

X

Despite the strange behavior of Elena's parents the night before, Sunday breakfast was the same as it always was, with her dad making them all pancakes, bacon, and eggs while her mom prepared her specialty: orange juice from concentrate. Jenna wasn't the only Sommers sister who couldn't cook.

Elena and Jeremy happily dug into their loaded plates of food as soon as they sat down to them. Jenna touched nothing solid, merely taking gulps of V8 between winces. Miranda only drank two cups of tea, and she made everyone else have some of it too before they left the table. Grayson got halfway through his plate before checking his watch and announcing that he had to run to the office for a few hours, a common enough occurrence that nobody commented on it.

When Elena had finished eating and deposited her dishes in the sink, she headed straight back upstairs to beat Jeremy to the shower. Sure enough, five minutes later, he was pounding on the door and yelling for her to hurry. "Why should I, do you have plans?" she yelled back over the sound of the water.

"Yeah, plans to shower with hot water!"

"Use Mom and Dad's shower!"

"No way! All my stuff's in there!"

"Then I guess you'll just have to get here faster than me next time!"

There was another noise that sounded like Jeremy had kicked the door, but he made no further argument.

When Elena left the bathroom an hour later (she might have taken slightly more time than she absolutely needed to do her hair and makeup), she checked her phone for the first time that morning. She found seven new texts from Caroline, three missed calls and two texts from Matt, one text from Bonnie, and nothing from Damon. Still a little annoyed that Caroline's gossiping had led to the incident with Vicki at the Grill, she ignored those texts. With a squirming feeling of apprehension in her stomach, she sat down on her bed and opened Matt's instead.

The first one was tagged from 11:42 the previous night, after the three calls. She'd already been asleep, and her phone had been on silent. The text read simply: "Elena, can you please call me back? I love you."

The second one must've come while she was having breakfast. "Elena, come on, just call me back. I need to talk to you. I don't understand where any of what happened yesterday came from. You said there's nothing I can do to fix it, but I didn't even know it was broken. Please call."

By the time she finished reading it, she was in tears again. Her finger hovered over the call button, but she couldn't press it. Instead, she opened a new text and began a reply. After ten minutes, her phone's drafts folder was full of apologies and explanations, but she still hadn't sent Matt anything. Eventually, she gave up and checked the text from Bonnie. She'd see Matt at school tomorrow. They could talk then.

"Is everything okay? How was dinner with Damon?" said Bonnie's text.

Instead of texting back, Elena hit the call button.

Bonnie picked up on the second ring. "Hey," she said. "Are you doing better today?"

"A little," said Elena. "I managed to get all the way through breakfast without thinking about Matt once…but then I read the texts he sent me since yesterday."

"Oh, no," said Bonnie. "I'm guessing he's still in the denial stage?"

"Yeah."

"What about you? Any regrets?"

Elena sniffled. "As bad as I feel for hurting Matt, no. I know it was right."

"The rest will get better soon," said Bonnie. "So…what about dinner?"

"It was really fun," said Elena, managing a small smile. "Just what I needed. Except…." She bit her lip.

"Except?" Bonnie prompted.

"I might've tried to kiss him," said Elena, wincing.

"You did what?!" said Bonnie. "And what do you mean, you tried?"

"Damon stopped it. I guess he knew I was in crazy rebound mode, and so he didn't let it happen. He kissed me on the forehead instead and let me cry all over his expensive shirt."

Elena heard a dreamy sigh on the other end. "That's so sweet," said Bonnie.

"Don't make this harder," said Elena sternly. "I'm still trying to just be friends with him."

"Good luck with that," said Bonnie, unable to completely mask the derision in her tone.

"Well, there's another reason that could be hard," said Elena.

"What?" said Bonnie.

"My parents met him. As soon as he left, they freaked out and told me to stay away from him."

"Did they say why?" asked Bonnie incredulously.

"Not really. They just kept saying he's dangerous and asked me a lot of weird questions about whether I can remember everything that happened since I met him."

"Why would they be worried about your memory?" said Bonnie, sounding just as perplexed as Elena felt.

"I have no idea!" said Elena, frustrated. "I mean, I didn't even drink at the bonfire before I left, and I haven't taken any blows to the head or anything since then. I don't understand why they're acting this way. It's not like Damon is a complete stranger—his family goes back as far as ours in Mystic Falls."

"So…does that mean you're going to hang out with him again anyway?" said Bonnie with a hint of teasing slyness reminiscent of Caroline (though if it had been Caroline, it would've been more than a hint).

"Well, I have to see him at least one more time," said Elena ruefully. "I have to apologize for trying to kiss him."

Bonnie laughed. "Elena Gilbert, even when you're being rebellious, you're not doing it to have fun. I'm pretty sure you're a saint."

"Anyway," said Elena, but she was smiling. "Do you think tonight would be good for girls' night?"

"Sure! My place? Several hours earlier than necessary so that you have an alibi?"

"Bonnie," said Elena. She fidgeted with a loose string on her blanket for a moment. "Yes," she said, screwing up her face.

Bonnie laughed again. "Okay, I'll see you tonight. Want me to call Caroline?"

"Go ahead," said Elena. She'd rather not, but she was going to be in trouble with Caroline already for missing seven consecutive texts without responding, and she still had no intention of even reading them.

When she got off the phone with Bonnie, she discovered she had another new text. She assumed it was just Caroline again, but checked anyway. To her delight, this one was from Damon.

"Did you manage to convince your parents that they should let you run off with me to Vegas?"

Elena grinned and started to reply at once. "Nope. So it looks like we'll just have to be really sneaky about it."

She wondered if this exchange was entirely a joke to him, or if he was seeing the other layer she was. The whole eloping to Vegas thing was obviously a joke, but her parents' disapproval of their friendship was not, and if it was going to continue, they would have to be sneaky about it. She frowned. But he didn't know about her parents' disapproval anyway, and his next text pulled her out of these thoughts.

"How do you plan to boost your score today?"

"Can we forget about the score thing for one day and just hang out?" Almost immediately after pressing send, it occurred to her that he might not appreciate this more serious turn, but his reply banished her worries.

"Sure, but I'm picking the location."

"Is it a location that would go with apples and peanut butter and banana sandwiches?"

"I thought you didn't want to put today on the score sheet!"

"I don't! It's just for in case we get hungry."

"Fine then, little Miss Overprepared."

"Mock all you want. You won't be complaining when you get hungry and there's something to eat."

"Touché," he said. Then, "Meet me at Wickery Bridge around noon? We'll be taking my car to the real destination."

X

When Elena descended the stairs a few minutes later, a backpack containing only keys, phone, and wallet so far slung over her back, she could hear her mom and aunt talking in the kitchen.

"I appreciate you telling me, I really do," Jenna was saying, "but I need some more time to process everything, and I don't see what use I can be around here anyway. You and Grayson seem to have it all under control."

"We don't have anything under control," said Miranda grimly. "We don't even know why he's in Mystic Falls yet."

"Still," said Jenna, "you've known about all this for years. Since we were kids. You have some clue how to deal with it."

"I know," said Miranda. "Things have been quiet in Mystic Falls for so long that we thought there was no reason to burden you with this. But now it's happening and we wish we'd prepared you better." There was a pause, and then she said, "Have you thought about what you'll do when the semester ends?"

"Not really," said Jenna. "I was planning on coming home, but that was before. I think I might check with my landlord if the apartment is still open for the summer."

Elena didn't understand what they were talking about, and she stayed very quiet and motionless halfway down the stairs to listen. What was it that had them so worried—worried enough that Jenna was reconsidering her plans to stay the summer with them like she usually did? Who was this "he" in Mystic Falls? The only "he" new in town that Elena knew of was Damon, and though her parents had completely spazzed about her spending time with him for no apparent reason, he couldn't be worth this kind of DEFCON 1 behavior, could he? It had to be someone else.

"What are you doing?" said Jeremy's voice right behind her. Elena jumped and almost lost her footing on the step. Jeremy didn't wait for her answer, but kept going down the stairs past her. His hair was still wet from his own shower. Shooting an annoyed look at his back, she followed him.

As soon as she and Jeremy were in sight, Miranda and Jenna stopped talking and changed the subject to something much more trivial. Jeremy plopped down in front of the TV and turned on his X-Box, and Elena grabbed the stuff she needed to make peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

"You heading out?" asked Miranda when Elena began to bag the sandwiches instead of eating them.

"Yeah," said Elena. "Bonnie and I…and possibly Caroline…are having a girls' night, but we're going to have a picnic first."

"Why'd you say Caroline's name like that?" said Jenna, who was now sipping from a tall glass of water. Her winces were less frequent than they had been at breakfast, but not entirely gone.

"Because Caroline's the reason every single person in Mystic Falls High and the rest of the town in general already knows I broke up with Matt," said Elena. "It even got around to Matt's sister, who really ripped me a new one when I ran into her at the Grill yesterday."

"Do you regret your decision?" said Miranda.

"No," said Elena, grabbing two apples from the fridge and dropping them in the bag with the sandwiches. "I feel awful for Matt, but I wouldn't take it back." She zipped her bag up. "I'll see you guys later."

X

Elena made it to Wickery Bridge almost exactly at twelve o'clock. Damon was already there, his car parked at the far end of the bridge, standing outside it and leaning against it with his arms folded over his chest. The leather jacket was back, this time over a dark blue version of the black shirt she'd ruined last night.

"So where are we going?" said Elena without preamble as soon as she got out of her car.

"Ah-ah-ah," he chided, waving a finger at her. "It's a surprise. Not, you know, a big surprise, because we're not keeping score today, but I'm still not going to tell you."

Elena pursed her lips, though a grin was tugging at them. "Fine," she said.

He smirked and opened the passenger door of his car for her. She slid in, dropping her backpack on the floor at her feet. While he went around to the driver's side, she poked the radio on. All she got was static, so she twiddled the knob until she found a station, which was playing a country song.

"No," Damon groaned as he got into the car, dragging the word out into several syllables. "What are you playing on my radio?"

"Country," said Elena. "You don't like it?"

"No," he said, looking appalled by the very suggestion. "Classic rock, thank you." He adjusted the dial accordingly and put the car in drive.

"Country's not that bad," said Elena over what sounded like a Van Halen song.

"Oh yes it is," said Damon as he pulled out onto the road. "If country music is good, then why do the singers only ever sing about their breakups? It's a cycle. They write awful music that drives away their dates, and then their depression gives them more material for new awful music to drive away more dates. The entire genre these days is one big pity party. At least they had a broader range of things to complain about back when it was the old country ballads."

Elena burst out laughing in spite of herself. "Hey, no," she said, "you have to admit that some country is at least good to dance to. Country swing, and stuff?"

"No, no," said Damon, shaking his head. "If you want swing, big band is the good stuff."

"You mean like fifties swing?" said Elena, her eyes widening in delight. "You know how to dance like that?"

"I'm a man of many skills," said Damon, flashing her that smirk again. "I should take you swing dancing sometime," he added thoughtfully, his eyes back on the road.

"They still have dances like that?" she said.

"If you know where to look," said Damon. The Van Halen song ended and one by Bon Jovi started up. Damon made a face and switched the radio off. "Of course, the vast majority of the people who go to these things are middle-aged and overweight," he added, "but I don't mind holding a monopoly on the sex appeal at a party."

Normally, Elena wouldn't find such displays of arrogance and conceit attractive, but Damon layered it with just enough sarcasm to make it clear that his ego wasn't truly that enormous, so she merely snickered. "Be nice," she scolded, smacking him lightly on the arm. "And since I assume this will be when we're back to keeping score, how am I supposed to top swing dancing?"

"That, I'm afraid, is your problem. Unless you want to concede defeat."

"Hah! Like I'd give up that easily."

A couple of minutes later, they reached the old quarry at the edge of the city limits, and Damon pulled over. "Here we are," he announced. Once again, he was out of the car and opening her door for her before she could even reach for the handle.

"It's been a long time since I've been out here," she said, grabbing her bag and getting out.

"Me too," said Damon. The way he said it made it seem like there was some private joke to it, but she was too preoccupied to think much of it.

"So, um," she said as they started walking over towards the water. "I'm sorry I tried to kiss you."

Damon snorted. "Don't apologize. I happen to enjoy it when beautiful girls try to kiss me."

"Damon!" said Elena, jabbing him in the ribs with an elbow. "I'm being serious."

"Pfft, so am I."

"Stop it! I had this whole speech planned, and you've got to let me say it."

"Okay," he said, holding up his hands in surrender, though he still looked amused. "I'm listening."

Elena took a deep breath to give herself a second to gather her thoughts. "It shouldn't have happened. I didn't mean for it to happen, and I'm glad you stopped it. I told myself I wasn't going to be your rebound, but then I turned around and tried to use you as mine. That's why I'm sorry. I want to be your friend. I hope I didn't screw that up too bad."

"People who want to be my friend are way too few and far between for me to make a big deal over something like that." He looked at her sideways. "Why do you want to be my friend so badly anyway?"

"Does there have to be a reason?" she said a little incredulously. "We hit it off Friday night and I didn't want that to be the end of it. You obviously didn't either, or you wouldn't have texted me yesterday."

"Don't pout," said Damon as they came to a big fallen log near the water's edge and sat down. "I'm a cynic, remember?" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and waved it at her, his eyes twinkling.

Elena blushed, remembering what she'd put in instead of her name on his contacts list.

"Speaking of which," he said, "you are a terrible faith in humanity coach, you know?"

"What?" said Elena indignantly. "How come?"

"I'm not saying you don't practice what you preach. I've only known you two days and I'm already pretty sure you have the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met."

"Then how does that make me a terrible coach?" she said, frowning.

"Because right now, it seems like that big heart of yours is only bringing you pain."

Elena pulled her feet up onto the log too and hugged her knees, looking away from him. "How else should I feel a day after I broke the heart of someone I love?"

"Are you kidding?" he said. "You should feel fantastic!"

Elena opened her mouth angrily, but Damon kept going.

"Elena, you had the guts to get out of a relationship you knew was going nowhere, and it was a clean break. Despite what you and your ex may feel now, that was the best thing you could've done for both of you, so don't beat yourself up so much."

The anger that had flared up in her seconds before was gone now. Elena merely watched Damon as she considered his words. "Is that what you wish Katherine had done?" she asked quietly.

His expression hardened. For a long moment, she was worried that she'd crossed a line with that, but then he finally answered. "There's nothing I want more in the world than to know if it was me or my brother she really loved," he said, staring out over the water. "If she chose Stefan, it would hurt like hell, but at least I'd be free." His smirk came back, but there was something forced about it. "Of course, ideally she'd choose me."

"My mom said I was setting Matt free," said Elena. She felt the all too familiar burning in her throat again. "But he deserves so much better."

"Don't go there," said Damon. "The only thing he deserved from you was the truth, and you already gave him that. Someday, someone else'll come along who wants to give him all that boring future stuff you don't want with him, but your work is done. If you focus too hard on that guilt, you might start to confuse it with regret. Just let it go."

X

Zach was so nervous that even the sound of the door closing behind him as he entered Grayson Gilbert's doctor's office made him jump.

"Zach," said Grayson, who was waiting for him beside the vacated reception desk. "I'm glad you could make it." He frowned, looking Zach up and down. "You look terrible."

"I shouldn't be here," said Zach. "I only came at all because Uncle Damon left the boarding house a while ago, but if he finds out I talked to you—he nearly killed me last night because he thought I was the one who told you about him. I managed to convince him otherwise, but how the hell did you already know?"

"The Gilberts have always known things the rest of the Council has no idea about, the Salvatore family secret being one of them," said Grayson. "Now, the reason I asked you to meet me here. Do you have any idea what Damon is doing in Mystic Falls?"

"No," said Zach. "Uncle Stefan was here the other night, but he left right away and told me to call if I needed anything."

"Stefan was here too?" said Grayson sharply.

"He shows up every few years, but he never stays," said Zach. "And either he's a really good actor, or he had no idea Uncle Damon was in town. He said it's been fifteen years since he last saw him."

Grayson relaxed a little. "Good. It'll be easier if it's just one of them."

"Wait," said Zach, alarmed. "What'll be easier? What are you trying to do?"

"Whatever I have to do to protect my family," said Grayson. "Damon's been invited into my home. He was there alone with my children for nearly two hours last night." He looked at Zach without speaking for a long moment. "I understand if you want to stay out of this. But you are very mistaken if you think that telling your uncle about this conversation will make things easier for you."

X

Elena still seemed very preoccupied with her emotional self-flagellation over dumping this Matt guy. Damon wondered what it would take to get fun Elena back. He glanced over at her as they both ate the sandwiches she'd brought. Peanut butter and banana didn't exactly hit the spot for him, but it wasn't bad.

At first, it looked like she was just staring into space, but then he realized that she was watching something. He followed her gaze to a small flock of ravens flying over the trees at the side of the quarry. Soon, they started dive-bombing each other, playing what almost looked like an aerial version of tag, and Elena laughed.

Damon smirked and chose one of the birds on which to focus his will. This trick was a lot like compulsion, though in some ways easier and in other ways harder. Easier because animal minds were simpler, harder because words had little impact on them, so he had to be able to translate whatever task he wanted the creature to perform into images, instincts, and impulses.

The flight pattern of the chosen raven, a male that was just slightly larger than its peers, faltered for a second and became much less complex as Damon's mind latched onto it. Before he tried to command it, he took a few seconds to strengthen the connection by exploring its thoughts and memories a little. In doing so, he found something that nearly made him forget his plans for entertaining Elena.

The bird had seen his brother.

Two nights previous, while he, Damon, had been walking with Elena to the boarding house, it seemed that Stefan had been hunting in the woods near the bridge. The raven had been roosting in a tree with its little flock when a creature that looked like a man but moved like a shadow had appeared and plunged razor sharp fangs into the neck of a deer. The raven and its flock had all taken flight in alarm, but had later returned to the deer's corpse, which they'd been feasting on ever since.

"Damon?" Elena's questioning voice penetrated his and the raven's combined reminiscing.

He shook his head a little and looked around at her without releasing the bird. "What?" he said. "Sorry, lost in thought."

She laughed. "I just asked if you saw the way those two crows grabbed onto each other's claws and spun around in the air," she said.

"Oh. No, I must have missed it," said Damon. "And they're ravens, not crows."

Elena was looking at him, so she didn't see when his raven broke away from its fellows and dove into the cover of the trees. A few seconds later, it came flying low out of the edge of the forest towards them on their right.

"Look over there," he said, pointing to where the raven had just landed on the ground about ten feet away. "I think he wants a friend."

"More like he wants some of our food," said Elena. She hopped down off the log and moved a little closer to the raven. "Hi, bird," she said. "Want some of this?" she held out her apple core, which still had a fair amount of fruit on it. The raven tilted its head to the side and hopped closer, then opened its beak and let out a low croak.

"That's it, come on," Elena cooed. "How do you know it's a raven, not a crow?" she added to Damon.

"Crows are a little smaller, and their beaks aren't curved like that," he said, sitting back lazily and watching. He wasn't even controlling the bird anymore; it found Elena quite fascinating enough on its own not to bolt—something they had in common.

By now, the raven was pecking at the apple core Elena had set down in front of her, and she was grinning. "Do you think it'd be safe to try and pet him?" she asked hopefully.

"I am not the one you want to be taking safety advice from, but I say go ahead."

Elena rolled her eyes at him, then turned to face the raven again, held out her hand, and whistled a couple of notes. The raven definitely liked her now; offering the food first had been a good strategy. Who needed compulsion anyway when you had big brown doe eyes like hers? Katherine sure as hell hadn't needed it with him.

"Damon, I did it!" Elena squealed in delight. He felt himself smiling at the sight of her stroking the raven's feathers while it repeatedly opened and closed its beak, looking as though it was quite enjoying the attention.

"Nicely done," he said.

"You should try," said Elena, now lightly scratching the beard of feathers under the raven's beak.

"Nah, I think he'd get jealous if I got too close," said Damon.

Elena snorted. "Suit yourself. He needs a name, though, don't you think?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Edgar," she said decisively.

Damon burst out laughing.

"I'm serious!" she said indignantly. "Don't listen to him, Edgar," she told the bird. "It's the perfect name for you."

Edgar croaked and bobbed his head.

"See?" said Elena. "Two against one."

"Hey, I wasn't objecting," said Damon. "I just think it's funny that you'd go for the obvious Poe reference."

"Maybe he just looks like an Edgar," she said airily. She stroked Edgar's feathers in silence for a moment. "Do you think he'll remember us if he sees us again?"

"Of course he will," said Damon. "I'm completely unforgettable."

"Damon," said Elena in exasperation.

"What? Did I say you weren't?"

"Not the point."

"I do think he'll remember," said Damon, more seriously. "Ravens are very smart birds." It was why he preferred them as spies when he had the choice. Most animals were too simple-minded to do anything complicated, but ravens were so clever that it might've seemed eerie to someone who didn't drink blood to survive. Humans tended to be creeped out by them even without knowing that bit of trivia. The fact that Elena was happily stroking this one's feathers and had actually named him raised Damon's opinion of her another few notches.

Apparently her fearlessness went even further. As Damon watched, she succeeded in coaxing Edgar into using her left forefinger as a perch, and she stood up, still stroking him with her free right hand. "Sure you don't want to pet him?" she asked, walking back over to the log. "I'm sure he'll let you." She looked at Edgar. "This is my friend Damon, Edgar. Don't let the whole bad boy exterior fool you, 'cause he's actually pretty awesome, and I'm very glad I met him."

Edgar was bobbing his head as if in agreement. For a few seconds, Damon could only stare at Elena in awe. She meant every word. She was, of course, still woefully under-informed about him, but he couldn't help feeling moved by the sweet, sincere sentiment all the same. He slid off the log and stood up straight. "Bad boy and awesome are not mutually exclusive, you know," he said, stretching out a hand to pet Edgar too.

"Maybe," said Elena, "but it would be much harder to be friends with you if you were all bad boy."

Damon chuckled, but didn't reply, focusing his gaze on the bird again. While Edgar had taken to Elena almost entirely on his own, Damon very much doubted that he would have given him the same calm reception if not for the mental link he'd forged. Animals, particularly the clever ones, tended to have much better instincts about danger than humans did. Damon withdrew his hand, and Edgar cawed and rustled his wings. There were a few answering caws from the ravens still in the sky.

"Ready to go back, Edgar?" Elena asked. She ran her fingers over his feathers one last time before holding her left hand out away from her body and above her head. Edgar flexed his clawed feet for a second, then spread his wings and took flight.

"That was incredible!" she cried, bouncing on the balls of her feet, her face shining with glee. Even Damon's superhuman senses and reflexes couldn't prepare him for what she did next, which was to launch herself at him and throw her arms around him. Like when she'd cried in his arms, for him this was another first. He stood there in shock for a moment before returning the hug.

"I'm so glad you brought me out here," she said as they broke apart.

"Maybe I'll do it again," he said, smiling and beginning to head back to the car.

Elena bit her lip and looked down as she walked next to him. "About that," she said. "My parents kind of might've forbidden me to hang out with you."

"Oh really," he said, amused. "And was this before or after you spent the last couple of hours hanging out with me?"

"Obviously before," said Elena, "but I decided I don't care. They talked to you for all of two seconds and then decided based on that that I can't be friends with you. They've never done that before in my whole life, not even with some of the creeps Aunt Jenna has brought home."

"What makes you so sure they don't have their reasons?"

"Their reasons don't mean much to me if they aren't sharing them," Elena snorted irritably. "And why are you playing devil's advocate anyway? Do you want me to shun you?"

"Course not. See if you can get them to tell you, though. I'm curious."

Poor Zach. He's just getting threatened by everyone, isn't he? And it kind of cracks me up that Bonnie is actually pro-Damon (not sure how long that'll last, though). About the swing-dancing thing, those of you who've read my Buffyverse stuff might remember that it's my favorite style of dancing and that I can't resist making the awesome vampire characters really good at it and eager to use that knowledge to impress their lady friends. I did a lot of research on ravens and crows for this chapter. Apparently it was crows in the books? But the bird they used in the show looked much more like a raven (I found an interview with Ian in which he said it was actually half and half), and ravens are way more awesome anyway, so I don't care what's in the books or what Bonnie said in the show; I'm using ravens. Hold your skepticism if you don't think a wild raven would actually let a human pet it; I found several youtube videos that prove otherwise. Just go search for "how to pet a wild raven" on there and the right video should pop up at the top of the search. Things are heating up with Miranda and Grayson's plans to protect their family now, and that should come to a head in either chapter four or five. And how long will Damon be able to resist using his knowledge of Stefan's recent whereabouts to screw with him? I don't think it'll be very long at all, do you?