Previously in "I'll Still Be Here", Elijah and Hayley confess to each other that they're attracted to one another then kiss to seal the deal, while Klaus tells Caroline that Hayley is pregnant with his child, but he doesn't have any romantic interest in her.
Chapter Three
Jeremy stepped into the Grill and immediately spotted his friend and co-busboy nearby, making out heavily with April. He was happy for his friend, but it made him wander…would he ever get to have what he once had with Vicki, Anna and later Bonnie? Sighing heavily, he decided not to think about it, even though such a thing was going to be easier said than done, and went to get changed for his shift.
Meanwhile, a brunette that was around the same height as April walked into the Grill and glanced around to look for anyone that could help her. Her name was Allison and she was completely and totally lost. Jeremy came out of the locker room and saw Allison standing there. "Hello. Can I help you with something?"
"Yes. Actually, you can. I was just coming into town and I noticed that you had a Help Wanted sign out front, and wanted to ask…are there any positions still open?" she asked. She was suddenly so nervous, especially after she saw the color of his eyes, which turned her knees to mush, complete and utter mush.
Jeremy nodded. "Why, yes, we're hiring. In fact, we haven't taken that sign down because we don't want to discourage any new prospects."
She smiles. "That's good then. But, is there some kind of form of application that I need to fill out?" she asked.
"You should probably ask the manager and somewhat owner, Matt Donovan. He's over there, sitting with the brunette," Jeremy said, pointing out the couple still caught up in each other.
Allison looked in the direction of the couple Jeremy was pointing to. "I really don't want to interrupt them." She looked at Jeremy again. "Do you think maybe you can give me an application? I know you're not the manager, but I really need this job."
"Whoa, whoa, easy, why are you so desperate?" She began to hyperventilate and then tried to calm her breath down, but when that didn't work, Allison found herself falling forward, swaying on her feet. Jeremy caught her before she could fall onto the ground. "Hey, easy there," Jeremy said. "I don't want you to get hurt, especially not before you start working here."
"Someone…already hurt me," she rasped out before letting her eyes drift shut. She became a dead weight in Jeremy's arms, but he thought quickly and lifted her into his strong arms, carrying her bridal style into the back, where he laid her down on a bench in the employees' locker room.
Matt came in just then, having seen Jeremy bring Allison into the locker room. "Jeremy, what happened?"
"I honestly have no idea. One minute she was fine and the next, she was fainting dead away. I caught her before she could fall to the ground," Jeremy replied. He looked up at his friend. "She also mentioned that someone already hurt her, but I don't know what she meant."
Matt nodded. "Well, the good thing is that you caught her and brought her in here." He raised an eyebrow. "What did she come here for? Did she say?"
"She saw the Help Wanted sign and came in to ask for a job."
His friend nodded a second time. "That's good then. I'll get that application she was probably asking for and bring it to you to give to her," he said before disappearing toward the office to the Grill, where he went through filing cabinets then found what he was looking for. Matt turned around to leave and found that April had closed and locked the door, shutting them off from the rest of the Grill 'world'. She'd also lowered the sleeves of her cardigan sweater to entice him and make his blood boil just a little bit.
Matt felt his heart pound when he saw her like that, growling in frustration as he also felt his member respond to what she was doing. "April, I…"
"Yes, Matty, what is it?"
"You're teasing me," he said, stepping closer to her then captured her lips with his in a forceful, demand-filled kiss, his tongue plundering deep and mingling with hers, dancing with it in a tango filled with desperate caresses. April moaned against his mouth, feeling the heat rise between them, like it did the first time they were intimate.
"Matt…" she whimpered when he broke off the kiss to lower his head to her jaw-line and then down into her neck, open-mouthed kisses that stirred her desire to the surface as she tried to keep it from doing so.
Matt smiled against her neck. "Mm-hmm, that's my name."
"What if we get caught in here?" she asked in a soft murmur.
"That's why you closed and locked the door, isn't it? More privacy," he told her before sweeping her into his arms and carrying her over to the desk, where he used one arm after bending down and swept off the entirety of what was on the desk.
Matt then took his shirt off, throwing it to the floor and taking off April's sweater, throwing that to the floor as well, placing her on the desk. "Yes, but I…" she said before cutting her sentence off when his mouth roamed down her chest after removing her bra and closed it around one of the round orbs, sensitive to the touch and aching for only him and him alone to send her spiraling out of control with her desire.
April panted as she felt what he was doing and let out a pleasurable scream, letting him know she was enjoying it. But they were soon interrupted when a loud knocking came onto the office door. "Matt, man, did you get that application? Allison woke up finally and is asking about it," Jeremy's voice came through the door.
Matt then remembered why he had come into the office in the first place. "Oh, uh, yeah I did. Tell her I'll be right there, okay?"
Jeremy nodded. "Okay, I'll tell her."
When he was gone, Matt looked at April. "Mind if we take a rain check on this? There's a girl here who needs a job and I kind of promised Jeremy that I would get an application for her."
April nodded. "Okay." She kissed him. "But, I did enjoy the moment while it lasted."
"We'll have many more moments, trust me on that," he said with a grin, kissing her softly one more time before heading out of the office with the application, going to the locker room and holding the application out to the other brunette.
Jeremy took the application from his friend and smiled knowingly at him. "Let me guess, you and April were having some private time?"
Matt blushed but replied, "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "I just hope that we can get some more information out of Allison in regard to whoever hurt her before she came here."
"We'll probably have to take one step at a time," Jeremy said. "She might not be comfortable with telling us right away."
Matt nodded. "I can do that. I'll see you later, Jeremy," he said, clapping the hunter on the back before turning and heading out of the locker room.
Jeremy then approached Allison and handed her the application. "Here you go. Sorry that it was delayed."
"It's okay," she replied, taking the application from him. "All that matters is that you were able to get it." She smiled at him. "You know, you're kind of cute."
His cheeks turned a bright red. "I should…get back to work," he stuttered out.
"Don't be so modest," Allison said. "I mean it."
"No, really, I should get back to work. If you take that home with you, you'll get it filled out faster. The dinner crowd will be coming in soon, and the noise level won't be good for trying to concentrate," he said.
Allison grew serious then. "That's just it. I…I really can't go home."
"You can't?" Jeremy said. "Why can't you, Allison?"
"Because, mine was burned down to the ground," she replied in a whisper.
Jeremy nodded. "I know how that feels. Mine was burned down as well. Don't ask how, because it'll be too difficult to explain. Anyway, I'm living at the Salvatore boarding house and maybe you can stay there too, since there's plenty of room."
"No. Absolutely not," Allison replied firmly. "There's a Salvatore that was responsible for burning down my childhood home."
"Wait a minute…are you telling me that your name is Allison WHITMORE!?" Jeremy demanded in a low tone.
Allison nodded. "Yes, and I have a long standing grudge against the Salvatore that was responsible for burning down my childhood home. I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about. He's got black hair and blue eyes."
"Damon? Damon burned your house down?"
"Mm-hmm, that's the one. He is the reason I don't go anywhere near the campus, instead choosing to stay in Richmond with friends of the family, taking their last name to cover up my past, my family's past," Allison said.
Jeremy nodded. "I had no idea. I mean, I know that Damon did some horrible stuff in the past, but I didn't know he did that."
"I guess he never told you what went on between 1953 and 1958."
"No, but you might talk to my sister, Elena," Jeremy told her.
"Why would I want to talk to her?" she asked.
"Because, she could talk to her boyfriend about what happened," he replied.
Allison raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really, and who's the guy she dating?"
"Well, you're not going to like my answer," Jeremy replied.
She swore under her breath. "Forget it, I'll just ask around town," she grumbled before standing up from the bench and heading out of the Grill.
Jeremy watched Allison leave and couldn't believe what she told him. Her last name was Whitmore, and he also couldn't believe Damon never mentioned that particular event in his past. He guessed that it had to do with the fact he never liked to talk about certain parts of his past, but it still bothered him that Elena didn't know about it.
At the Boardinghouse…
Damon was going through some old photographs of him and Stefan when they were children, before everything happened when his cell phone vibrated on the nightstand beside him. Leaning over, the vampire picked it up and read the text message, which was from Jeremy, silently then glanced out the window into the distance. Sighing, he dialed Jeremy's number. "You have terrible timing, Jeremy."
"I know, but I found out you did a terrible thing in the past."
"I did a lot of terrible things. You're going to have to be specific."
"Even in the years 1953 to 1958, when you were where…?" Jeremy asked.
Damon was shocked. He had forgotten about that, or least he had tried to. "How the hell did you find out about that? I never told anyone about that. Hell, STEFAN doesn't even know about it!"
"You remember Aaron Whitmore, the kid that Elena befriended at college? His twin sister showed up. Her name is Allison, and she actually remembers what you did, from what she'd heard," Jeremy replied.
Damon growled when he heard that last name. In a tone laced with bitter sarcasm, he said to Jeremy, "Yeah and I'll bet that made for an interesting conversation at the dinner table."
"She hasn't seen her brother in a long time, Damon. So, she doesn't really know that he's friends with my sister or anything like that. Allison has been in Richmond since she was little," Jeremy told him.
"Good for her," Damon said, the sarcasm still in his tone. "It keeps her as far away from the big bad vampires as possible."
"Damon! This isn't funny, okay!?" Jeremy growled. "She doesn't know about vampires, or any other kind of supernatural creature, so you can cut the sarcasm!"
Damon raised his eyebrow. "She doesn't? Then, how the hell does she know about me if she doesn't know about vampires?"
"She told me that she only holds a grudge against the Salvatore that burned down her childhood home. No mention of the word vampire in that sentence, now was there?" Jeremy asked in a frustrated tone.
"It may not have been mentioned, but it may have been implied," Damon said. "And I burned that house down for a reason, Jeremy. Your little friend, Allison, comes from the family that used me as a guinea pig between 1953 and 1958. Do I regret it? Hell no. Would I do it again? You bet your ass I would, because you know by now that if you push me, I WILL retaliate…in spades!"
"Damon!" Elena's voice hissed from the doorway of their bedroom.
Damon turned to see Elena standing in the doorway. "I'll call you later, Jeremy." He quickly hung up the phone and met his girlfriend's eyes. "How much of that did you hear?"
"Only the part about you burning down some girl's childhood home," she replied. "Damon, what's going on? Is there something you're not telling me? You know you can be honest with me."
"It was a long time ago, Lena. Back before I even came back to Mystic Falls," Damon told her.
"Still, I'd like to know," Elena said. "You were always honest and upfront with me, which is why I chose you over Stefan. I know that it was a long time ago and you think you're protecting me by keeping it from me, but I'm a big girl, Damon, I can handle it. Whatever it was, you can tell me. I won't judge you, Damon, you know that." She approached him and gently took his hand in hers, squeezing it. "Just tell me."
Sighing, Damon eased her until she sat next to him. "Back in the years 1953 to 1958, I was one of the Augustine vampires, when they had funding from the Whitmore family to have their experiments on the campus," Damon told her.
Elena squeezed his hand a little tighter. "Does Stefan know about this?"
"No, I never told him," he replied. "At the time, we were estranged, so the odds of him coming to save me were slim to none." He sighed. "It was during that period that I met another vampire named Enzo, who was kept in the cell next to mine. He gave me most of his blood rations to help me with my getaway. I also gave him some of mine so that he wouldn't desiccate."
"Then what happened?"
"I finally did make my escape when Professor Whitmore held one of his demonstrations," Damon said. "Thanks to the extra blood Enzo gave me, I was able to overpower him and kill him, as well as everyone else in the room. During my massacre, I set the place on fire. Enzo begged me to help him, but the bars of the cage were laced with vervain and I couldn't bend them. So, I turned off my emotions and left him there."
"Have you been able to find this…Enzo that you speak of since then?" Elena asked.
Damon shook his head. "No. I thought he was dead."
She nodded. "Well, let's not worry about it right now, okay?" she said, giving him a soft smile.
Damon nodded and smiled at her as well. "Okay." He kissed her softly. "I love you, Elena."
"I love you too," she said then sped out of his arms and toward the closet/bathroom area.
Damon smirked when he saw where she was headed and, taking that as a cue to follow her, he sped over to her, wrapped his arms around from behind and, removing her hair from her neck, began kissing it gently. Elena felt what he was doing and laughed out loud. "Damon, what are you doing?"
He kissed her neck again, smiling against the skin. "What does it look like? I'm being affectionate with the lady vampire I love."
"Well, can we do this…oh, never mind," she said turning around and pulling his head down to crush their mouths together in a passionate kiss, one filled with demand and hunger and desperation. Damon smiled against her lips and returned her kiss, running his hands down her body, sticking them under her shirt and playfully grabbing her breasts and caressing them through her bra, growling as he felt the fabric under his hands. "Damon, please…don't tease me," she whimpered softly.
Damon licked his lips and chuckled. "Oh, no, we can't have that now, can we?"
Taking his hands out from under her shirt, he ripped it open and threw it to the floor, fully intending to buy her more like it, stepping back to take off his own shirt, throwing it to the floor by Elena's destroyed shirt, taking off her bra, and kissing her neck and removing her jeans and underwear, as well as his own, lowering her to the floor and spreading her legs, he stuck his member into her core, thrusting hard and fast into her, feeling her rock against his thrusts just as hard and fast.
Elena threw her head back, her hips rocking against his in the same hard, fast paces he was going in, matching him thrusts for thrust. Damon smirked as he kissed her neck, his fangs popping out and scraped one against her skin, hearing her moan as he did so. Elena then said, "Damn it, Damon, I told you not to tease me!"
"Right, sorry, couldn't help myself." He then kissed her neck one more time before biting her, slowly drinking from her. She did the same in return, biting into his shoulder harshly. Damon growled against her neck as he felt her fangs in his shoulder, thrusting harder against her. He then pulled out of her neck and licked up the excess blood with his tongue. "My beautiful angel…"
"Always," she said with a blood-covered grin on her face.
Chuckling, Damon kissed her lips, tasting his blood on them. Elena returned his kiss, tasting her blood on his lips as well, which was increasing the bond they had as lovers. She then wrapped her legs around his waist, rocking even more, keeping up with the speed of his thrusting.
Two Hours Later…
Elena resumed her earlier task of planning what to pack for the move to Italy, one of Damon's shirts adorning her body as she tapped her fingers on her chin. In the meantime, Damon was in the shower, smiling to himself as he thought back to what happened two hours ago. He always enjoyed it when they were intimate and knew that there would be plenty of opportunities for that in Italy. Once he was done, he climbed out then went to join her in the closet, where he picked out some clothes and returned to the bedroom to get dressed again. Elena then peered over her shoulder, watching him as he dressed, licking her lips. Was it her imagination, or did he look more attractive to her after they just had sex? "You're staring, Miss Gilbert. It's not nice to stare," he said over his shoulder.
Elena blushed when she heard him speak. "I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. For some reason, you seem to be even sexier after we've just been intimate."
"Oh? Is this a good thing for you, or do you like it to be bad?" Damon asked as he peeled his shirt down over his chiseled chest.
Elena bit her lip. Damn him and that perfect body. "Well, I suppose it could be good, considering how deep my passion is for you."
"It is good for me too, because you balance that passion out with the love I feel with each kiss you press upon my lips," he said.
Elena panted then. "It's not hard when my boyfriend is as gorgeous as you."
Author's Note: So, here we are with the next update. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. The next one will probably start with finding Stefan, and will probably have Katherine do the searching. So…ENJOY!