Damon sat on the edge of the bed, watching Elena sleep fitfully and mumble incoherently, his waist still wrapped in a towel. Every once and a while he caught snatches of words. The words he heard most frequently were "Mom...Dad...cold." It was the last one that worried him most. Each time she said it he felt her mood darken but she would also grip onto him. She would let go a few moments later only to repeat the cycle over and over again. He tried to soothe her by rubbing her back or sliding his fingertips over her face but she would only shiver violently and moan in a way that made his chest ache. After watching her sleep like this for an hour he couldn't help himself. He finally placed his hand on her shoulder shaking her awake.
"Elena." he said gently trying not to startle her. "Elena. can you wake up?"
She rolled over and this time she did not moan, instead she pulled herself onto his chest as she opened her eyes. "Why is it so cold?" she said.
"Well, I'm always cold." said Damon. "But, you stood with me in an icy shower. That combined with me drinking your blood yet again gave you a wicked case of hypothermia." He brushed back her hair. "Are you feeling ok?"
"Yeah." she said sitting up and pulling the blanket closer around her. "Still a little cold."
"Is that it?" he said looking at her.
"What do you mean?" she said still waking up slowly.
"I mean you talk in your sleep." he said. "And you said... Elena did you dream at all?" He looked at her solemnly.
Elena looked down at her wool covered knees. "Nothing I haven't dreamed before."
"You dream about your parents a lot?" he said reaching to push back her hair but remembering the way she had flinched in her sleep made him stop himself.
"Not a week goes by without me dreaming about them one way or another." She looked up at him. "But I haven't dreamed about the accident in a while."
"Is that what you were dreaming about?" he said.
"Yeah." she said. "I just kept remembering how cold the water was when the car went over." She shivered and pulled her knees into her tighter. "I'd never been so cold in my life. That was all I could think when I was trapped in the car, how cold it was."
"If you don't want to keep talking about it-"
"No." she said. "It's nice to be able to talk about it. Stefan would never-" she stopped herself. "Ask me whatever you want. If I don't want to answer it then I won't."
"Why wasn't Jeremy in the car?" he said.
"My parents were picking me up, Jeremy was home asleep."
"Where were they picking you up from?" he said and he saw her stiffen. "Never mind you don't have to-"
"I was at a party." she said. "I was always at parties back then. I always came home drunk and they would yell at me but I would just laugh." She looked back down to her lap. "I just laughed." She looked back up at him and he saw her eyes were wet. "Well that night I got so drunk even my friends knew I needed help. They think someone might have slipped me something. I was really out of it. I don't even remember my parents coming to get me. The first thing I remember was waking up in the back of the car and both of them were lecturing me but I just kept laughing. It was raining and they skidded into a turn to fast and-" Elena stopped her voice catching.
"You don't have to say anymore." he said grabbing onto her.
"If I hadn't been out drinking, they wouldn't have been out driving during that storm and my parents would still be alive."
"You can't blame yourself." he said. "It was an accident."
"Even if it was," she said. "They're still dead."
"Elena." he said looking down at her. "You can't live your life blaming yourself for something you had no control over."
"I can't help it. And the only reason I'm alive is because of Katherine."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the only reason Stefan saved me is because he thought I might be her. I should have died."
"Don't say that. What would Jeremy have done?" he said turning her face up to his. "If it weren't for you- God you don't know how much worse I would be. Elena you make me want to at least try to be a better person."
"Well here's to trying." she said leaning into him her chin still on her knees. He wrapped his arm over her. He sat watching her stare out the window. After a while he started to run his hands over shoulders. She didn't lean into him but didn't pull away either so he continued sliding his hand back and forth. After another couple of minutes she finally looked back at him her eyes still oddly blank.
"Are you still cold?" he said searching her eyes for answers.
"No." she said quietly. She turned into him kissing him softly. He ran his hand up her neck. He pulled back and looked at her but her eyes were cast downward.
"Elena, I'm sorry I brought it up-" She pressed her lips into him again.
"I don't want to talk anymore." she said as she pushed the blanket away from her letting the towel pool around her hips. She slid a leg over him straddling him as he slid back over her bed.
She bit his lip running her hand through his hair. He kissed her back but was watching her face carefully. She kissed down his chest and back up the side of his face. As he watched her he saw tears start to roll over her cheeks. "Elena-" he said pulling back. She grabbed onto him pulling him back to her mouth.
"I said I didn't want to talk." she mumbled into his mouth and he could taste the salt rolling into the corners of her mouth. She pushed him down onto the bed and rolled on her back wrapping her legs around him. For a moment she thought he had conceded as he pushed against her tangling his hands in her hair. Suddenly he pulled her face away from his. The sudden jerking startled her so much her eyes sprung open. She saw his pupils were dilated and knew she was about to be compelled even as she tried to close her eyes.
"Elena," he said and her eyes went blank as she nodded slowly. "You are not going to feel responsible for your parents death. You will not forget them or what happened but you're going to stop blaming yourself for something you can't change. You got all that?"
"Yeah." she said nodding slowly.
"Good." he said. "I don't want you to feel anymore pain then you need to. Life is hard enough." She stared at him blankly as he stroked her cheek. "You want some food?"
"Yeah." she said staring at him.
"Good." he said closing his eyes, no longer compelling her. "Come downstairs and I'll make you something. You need some food to make sure you don't get too sick." he pulled on his jeans and headed towards the door.
"I'm gonna get dressed first." she said
"If you insist." He said rolling his eyes and jogging down the stairs. Elena smiled vaguely then closed the door. She leaned against it for a second then shook her head feeling odd. She walked to her closet still feeling a strange nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach. She ignored it pulling open her dresser. She looked into the drawers not really seeing her clothes as she pulled out two random pieces of clothing and tugged them on.
She looked at herself in the mirror studying her own eyes before she turned away heading out the door. As she went down the stairs she was greeted with the warm smell of tomatoes, basil and something else. She rounded the corner into the bathroom where she saw still shirtless Damon stirring something.
"I'd make you coq au vin but your spice rack is insultingly bare." he said turning around. "Thankfully I also know how to make pasta." He said looking up.
"It smells good." She said smiling.
"The secret is to open a jar of Prego and pour it in a saucepan." he said smiling as he lifted up the empty sauce jar.
"I thought vampires couldn't have garlic." She said leaning on her elbows over the island in the kitchen.
"Don't insult me with stereotypes." He said. She walked behind him wrapping her arms around his chest, pressing the side of her face into his back.
"Forgive me." she said standing up on her toes pressing her lips against his ear.
"Fine." he said. She squeezed him and stepped to the side.
"Can I help?" she said.
"You can grab plates. I'm just about done here." He poured the noodles into the strainer he had waiting in the sink as Elena pulled a pair of plates from the cabinet. Damon set the food down on the table as Elena went back to grab glasses. She stood up on her toes reaching for the remaining glasses pressed to the back of the top shelf. He moved across the kitchen pressing into her back and reaching over her to grab them. As he set them down he pinned her to the counter with his hips. She bit her lip closing her eyes as his hands ran under her shirt and up her sides.
"Damon, you said-" he breath caught as one hand ran across her tight stomach, his fingers trailing across her hipbones. "Said I needed to eat." He ran his hands up his ribcage and he felt her heart race.
"I did." He backed away from her as she turned around grabbing the glasses. "That sure was stupid." She sat the table and he sat in the chair facing her. "Well if you must, eat." She smiled as he rolled his eyes. She started eating and soon as she swallowed the first bite she started eating faster.
"I guess I didn't realize how hungry I was." she said between bites.
"Well we have been doing some seriously strenuous activities." He smiled at her. "If you feel too full I can help later."
"Well then," she said finishing the last bite. "Can I have seconds?"
"Mhmm... Nope." he sped across the room the room pulling her out of her chair and pushing her into a wall. "I can only hold off for so long."
"I guess I really don't need more." she said the wind knocked out of her. "No matter how many times I see it I can't get used to that speed."
"What about the fangs?" he said looking down at her. Elena couldn't be sure but it didn't seem like he was just bantering. It felt like he really wanted to make sure.
"The fangs," she said. "Are damn sexy." She rocked her hips against him running her hand up his back. It seemed to catch him off guard and he fell forward bracing himself over her.
"Do you have any idea what you do to me?"
"I have some ideas." she said her eyes flicking down to the waistband of his jeans.
"Get your mind out of the gutter." he said. "That's not what I mean." She looked up at him surprised by how open he looked.
"Tell me."
"I never thought that after Katherine I could love anyone again. Not like that." Elena's eyes dropped at the mention of Katherine. "I spent over a hundred years looking for her, or someone that made me feel like she made me feel. But there was no one. I thought I would spend the rest of my life looking. And then I saw you." The way he said the last sentence made Elena blush and Damon felt the heat radiate from her.
"Did you think I was Katherine?"
"At first I did, but after watching you for about five minutes I could tell it wasn't her. She may be a good actress but-" he stopped stroking Elena's blushing cheek. "God Elena you have this... I don't now the right word for it they all sound so stupid. Light? Warmth? I don't know. But I could tell it wasn't Katherine."
"Then why did you stay?"
"I wanted to know why you looked like her. After a couple months with you, you've already started to change what Katherine did to me. You make me feel like the person I was before I knew her."
"I wish I could have known you before you knew Katherine." she said.
"Why?"
"I wish I could have kept you from going through all that pain. I know you and your brother used to be close and I wish you two didn't fight so much. And you have this pain behind your eyes. I wish I could take it away."
"You're starting to." he said. "I hope you'll let me stay long enough take some more away."
"I hope you'll stay too." She laid her hands on his back pulling herself into him. "Can I tell you something awful?"
"Try me." he said as he held her.
"Right before he told me he was the one who saved my life, I was planning on ending things with Stefan. I think he could sense that because after he told me I felt like I had to stay, like I owed it to him. Does that make me a terrible person?"
"No." he said "It makes you sympathetic. Now unless you still feel in debt to Stefan I have several ideas for the two of us." She smiled up at him.
"I like the sound of that." she said. She leaned into him kissing his chest and leaning into him. "Actually, I like anything that comes out of your mouth."
"Well then lets get back up to your room." he said pulling back from her. "Unless you want me to take you on the kitchen table."
"As amazing as that sounds, Jenna could be home any second." she said. She kissed him swiftly and took up off the stairs. Before she cleared the first four steps she saw a blur pass her and she saw Damon standing at the top of the stairs leaning on the wall his arms crossed over his chest.
"It's cute how you think you can outrun me." he said tilting his head.
"A girl can try." She said as she met him at the top of the stairs. He swept his hands behind her knees picking her up and pulling her into his chest. She laughed and threw her arms around his neck. He pushed through the door and set her down on the bed crawling over her. She wrapped her legs around him as he kissed down her neck. She looked up at him as he pulled back, smiling.
"What are you so happy about?" he said looking down at her.
"Well, you."
"Of course." he said.
"I don't know... Maybe it's just finally ending things with Stefan but I just feel, I dunno, lighter." She closed her eyes and sighed. "I think it is you. You just make me happier."
"Good." he said. "You make me pretty damn happy too." He rolled onto his back and she settled over him straddling his hips. She tucked her feet underneath her and she bit her lip. Damon crossed his arms behind his head looking up at her. Elena crossed her arms over her chest and pulled the shirt over her head shaking her hair loose as she threw the shirt to the floor. She leaned down to him kissing him gently. He ran his hands up and down her sides. "I will never get tired of running my hands over you."
"I'll never get tired of your hands on me." she said moaning. As she did his fingers dug into her back and he pushed her into him. She ran her hands over his abs. "Do you have to wear shirts?"
"I won't if you won't." Elena stood and shimmied out of her jeans as Damon pulled off his.
"Well, we'll see." she said. He pulled her down onto the bed wrapping his arms around her. She moaned as he pushed her into the bed. She bit his shoulder gently kissing up his neck and sucking on his earlobe. "God, I have never gone this many times in one day."
"I may have forgotten to mention how drinking vampire blood increases sex drive." he said between kisses.
"Convenient." she said pressing her lips against his.
"I've always thought so." he said reaching around and unclasping her bra. "God, you're beautiful." They removed the last of their clothes and he laid over her looking down at her.
"What?" she said. "Is something wrong?"
"No." he said. "It's just I imagined this scenario so many times it's hard to believe it's really happening."
"Well, it is." She said. She smiled up at him and he kissed her gently running his hands through her hair and gently pushed inside her. She gasped into his mouth and dug her nails into his back throwing her head back as he licked up her neck. "Oh God, I don't think I'll ever get tired of that."
"I know I won't." he said. He pushed against her and she moaned arching her back. "I'll never get tired of hearing that either." He pushed her arms over her head pining her wrists to the mattress.
"Don't stop." she said as he pumped in and out of her.
"You don't have to ask." he said. "I'll never stop. I'll never stop wanting you." He sped up his thrusts as her moans grew louder and she held him closer. She slid her wrists out from under his slackened grasp and pushed against the bed, rolling him onto his back. She rocked her hips against him as he moaned against her and she grabbed onto the headboard trying desperately to press him deeper.
"Damon," she gasped. "I need you, I need more." She gasped against him as he dug his long fingers into her hips driving himself deeper.
"Whatever you want." he said smiling at her cries as she fell forward her palms gripping frantically at the headboard as she tried to keep steady.
"How do you always manage to do that?" she gasped her head thrown back.
"Do what?" he said running his hands over her breasts as she moaned again.
"Every time I think I'm finally catching up with you, you push me farther then I thought I could go."
"As long as you're willing to keep going with me, I'll keep taking you there." he said.
"I'll go wherever you take me." she said breathlessly her eyes clenched shut. He rolled her on her back and she gasped again. "Bite me." she gasped.
"That's not really a good idea." he said. She moaned exasperatedly and he smiled. "I just don't want you to pass out again. Plus I think you're getting a fetish for biting."
"Just from you." she said. "I don't want anyone else biting me."
"That's good because if I find someone else's bite mark on you, I'll rip his limbs off. You're mine."
"I'm yours." she moaned wrapping her leg around him. "I'm yours." He pushed into her one more time and she screamed gripping onto him. He grinned down at her cries of ecstasy slowly pushing himself deeper into her. She moaned louder as he released himself inside her. She pulled herself up to him moaning until she finally fell back onto the bed panting as he laid next to her.
"That's right Elena." he said running his hand over her face. "But, I'm yours too." She pulled herself into his chest.
"What do you mean?" she said still gasping for breath.
"I mean that I'm not just saying I own you." he said stroking her hair. "I'm saying you've got me too. Anything you need from me, you've got it."
"All I need is you." she said. "I don't need anything else." She laid against him for a few minutes then she looked up at his face. "What are we going to do tomorrow?"
"Well I was thinking we could try it in the shower again-" he said running his hand down towards her hips.
"That's not what I meant." she said catching his hand just as it dipped below the sheets."I mean tomorrow when I have to go to school and face Stefan all day. I don't know how I'm going to get through it."
"You want me to come to school with you?" he said.
"Could you?" she said readjusting herself into him pressing her cheek into his bare chest.
"Sorry I won't go through high school again even for you."
"Fine." she said. "I'll figure out a way to make it."
"I'll do what I can to help." he said.
"Like what?" she said sticking out her bottom lip looking sullen.
"Don't pout, I've got a few ideas."
"Like what?" she said sitting up on her elbows.
"You'll see." he said.
"So do you want to go again?" she said crawling over him.
"You know I do." he said. "But, how about we do something that doesn't include a bed."
"You want to do it in the shower again?" she said.
"Why do I feel like you're using sex as a distraction tool?" he said. "I mean I'm not saying I haven't done that before just, what's so bad you've resorted to it?"
"Tomorrow." she said. "The longer we spend in bed the less time I spend thinking about it." She leaned down to kiss him but he caught her shoulders.
"What if we find another way to distract you?" he said.
"What are you getting sick of me already?" she said half joking but he could hear the nervous lilt in her voice.
"Never." he said rubbing down her back. "But, I don't want mind-blowing sex to be your only coping mechanism. You'll get dehydrated." He said lifting his eyebrows in mock concern.
"Well, what do you have in mind?" she said.
...
"This feels so conventional." said Elena sitting on her couch as Damon handed her a bowl of popcorn.
"What, you don't like conventional?" he said as he sat next to her.
"No just it feels kind of odd having an old-fashioned movie date with the vampire brother of my ex-boyfriend after his ex who happens to be my doppelganger shows up."
"Yeah just because we don't have a traditional life doesn't mean we can't have a traditional date."
"I guess not." she said. "But if we watch Twilight the irony might be too overwhelming."
"God I would not watch that movie under the threat of vervain."
"Then what are we watching?" she said settling into his chest as the credits rolled. "Dracula? Queen of the Damned?"
"Why do you think I sit around watching vampire movies?"
"I don't." she said. "I just think it would be funny.
"We're watching Gone with the Wind." he said.
"I haven't seen that yet." she said.
"Well I lived it." he said. "Seriously, I think I recognize some of the outfits from parties."
"Well I know it's one of those movies you're supposed to see." she laid into his shoulder and took a handful of popcorn. "So did you seriously live like this?" she said watching the sequence revealing the extravagant house.
"Yeah." he said. "But you knew that, you've seen the Boarding House."
"I know." she said. "I guess unless you've seen it full of petticoats you can't get the full effect."
They sat watching the movie with Damon filling in the scenes with anecdotes of his own life. She laughed at his spot on imitations of Rhett Butler and they snuggled between bites of popcorn. "Oh this is my favorite part." said Damon. Elena watched as Scarlett pranced around in yet another dress and bonnet. She watched as she swayed her way over to Rhett and leaned up to kiss him. He pushed her away and as he started to speak Damon chimed in with him. " No, I don't think I will kiss you. Although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how."
Elena looked up at him. "Do you think I should be kissed often?" she said.
"Yes." he said. "And I think I know how."
"Well then," she said. "I think I need kissing badly." She smiled leaning up to him as he kissed her softly. "But just to be sure I'm nothing like Scarlett am I?"
"No. You are much hotter then Scarlett." he said. She kissed him again smiling. After a few minutes they sat back and continued watching. Damon watched as she laughed at Rhett and Scarlett's antics and as her eyes welled up when the war began. As Scarlett began to cry he pulled her into him resting her head on his shoulder as he mouthed Rhett's lines over her again.
"I've loved you more than I've ever loved any woman and I've waited for you longer than I've ever waited for any woman." He looked down at her. "You know that's how I feel about you. I've waited more than a hundred years to find you."
"Well I can't say I've waited that long." she said laying into him stretching her legs out on the couch. "But I've waited for you for a long time too." She pressed her back into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. As the movie continued she laid into him and he stroked her hair. She closed her eyes for a few moments reveling in the serenity of the moment.
"Elena?" A voice cut through the serenity as her Elena's heart jumped and turned around and saw Jenna standing in the door way of the kitchen holding several shopping bags. "What's going on here?"
Oh cliffhangers... I'm so mean. Sorry this chapter took me so long to post but I've been sick and this chapter had me stuck quite a few times. I hope the length will make up for the shortness of the last one. I've gotten so much support for this story and I am so greatful for all of it! Jasmin-Rose-Melati your reviews kept me going when I thought I was gonna die. Please keep posting reviews and comments and reading my other stories!