Chapter Ten – Square One

Guess what. I'm ill again. It's really starting to cheese me off now, actually...
I've spent two hours making plans for stories – one is one of the Damon/OC stories that features in my poll, and the other is...*drum roll*...a Delena fic. I know, I know...I've always shipped them in the TV show, and recently I've started reading a lot of fics too...mainly by aj81writing, who has done some AMAZING stories. And it's kinda inspired me. Don't worry, not writing it yet...just planning for the future ;)

Here's Damon's story...hope it turns out okay :D Please review with what you think, and also head to my profile to vote in my poll on 'Which Damon/OC story should I write when I finish this one?' Five summaries for you to vote on, so go go go!

*My sister pointed out a massive formatting cock-up in this chapter - my apologies, and I hope I've fixed it now!

Saskia xxx

~Damon POV~

"I don't really know where to begin, but I guess when I left you would be as good a place as any." Square one seemed like a good place to start. "I had received some messages from a friend in Atlanta that Lexi's boyfriend was still majorly pissed at me, and that he was trying to raise an army...but you already knew that." I ran my hand through my hair, standing up and walking over to the window, finding it easier to talk without looking at her. "I wasn't going to worry about it...let them roll on Mystic Falls!...but then we-" I pointed between us. "-got closer. And closer. And I realised I couldn't put you in danger." I swallowed and continued. "I didn't really know what I was going to do, but then I found out that Katherine had heard about the little army thing...and God knows how much fun that sounded like to Katherine. So I left to try and sort it out before it would reach Virginia. I spent months following their trail, trying to work out if Katherine was closer to the army than I was. I only found out just before I came back that Katherine wasn't following them at all...she was following me." I heard a small gasp behind me, and could see Rhia putting her hand over her mouth in the reflection on the window. I resisted the urge to turn around. "So anyway. I was following the army, trying to clean up their messes...it was like changing 100 diapers every day, like taking care of babies. So I sped up, trying to catch them." I paused.

"Did you catch up with them then?" Rhia asked. I snorted.

"I didn't need to catch up with them. They stopped, turned around and waited for me." I smirked.

"And?" Rhia pressed.

"I got beaten up. Badly." I flinched in the memory. I saw Rhia bite her lip, and rolled my eyes. "Calm down, sweetheart, it's not the first time it's happened." She jerked her head up and I saw the puzzlement on her face. Wha...oh. I called her sweetheart. Whoops. "They locked me up, and came back every day to beat me up a little more. They were always careful not to kill me, and fed me every other day so I wouldn't get too weak to stand their attacks. Then one day...they didn't come. Instead, Katherine did."

"What? Katherine?" Rhia was shocked.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it either." I trailed off, lost in memories of more than a year ago...

Flashback

"Hello Damon." I heard a sultry voice call me and I wearily raised my head. I was slumped against the wall to which I was chained, still exhausted from my latest beating

"Katherine?" I squinted at the figure in front of me. She crouched down so her face filled my vision. Her eyes were cruel, but they were smiling. That's never a good sign.

"You seem to be in a little bit of trouble there, Mr Salvatore." She teased. I groaned and looked away.

"Can we cut the chit-chat, Katherine? If you're here to take your turn at the Damon-piñata, go ahead. Don't bother me with that small talk." I snarled, dragging my battered body into a sitting position.

"Damon, I don't do small talk before torture. If I wanted to hurt you, you'd be lying on the floor writhing in agony by now. Or dead." She grinned. "Besides, haven't I hurt you enough already in your 160 odd years?" She caressed my cheek, running her fingers through my hair. I turned my face away.

"Don't pretend like you actually feel bad about everything you've put me through, Katherine, and don't pretend like you wouldn't do it all again if you had the chance." I snapped. She laughed.

"Oh, Damon, you really have gotten much more...feisty since 1864. I think I like you better now..." She giggled.

"Cut the crap, Katherine. Either beat me up, kill me, or get the hell outta here." I groaned as I attempted to stretch my back against the wall.

"Okay, you may be more feisty now, but you're definitely no more fun." She sighed, wrapping her delicate hand around the thick chain which encased my torso and ripping it free. I dropped to the ground without its support, and looked up at Katherine suspiciously.

"What game are you playing?" I asked as I got unsteadily to my feet. She laughed.

"Come on, Damon, when have I ever told you that? " She looped her arm through mine, and I glared down at her.

"Seriously, Katherine. What happened to the...army...whatever...that have been holding me captive?" I was honestly curious now. There was never any point in trying to second guess Katherine's motives, but there was no harm in deciphering what she's already done.

"I killed them." She answered simply. "Now, come on, let's get you something to eat."

End Flashback

"Katherine freed me, and took me on a tour of all the walking blood bags in the city. She got me back up to my usual strength, and beyond. I probably spent about a month with her before I asked myself again what her motives were..."

Flashback

I pushed the dead girl away from me and looked at the woman who had shared her with me. She giggled and leaned over, running her finger across the corner of my mouth, wiping off the blood and then licking it off her finger. I smirked and stood up. We were in the largest foreclosure in town, and there was a pile of dead bodies in the corner. A small part of me felt guilty for needlessly killing all those people, but a bigger part was revelling in the power that being chock full with blood brought. I turned back to Katherine, who had just thrown the dead body on top of the pile and who was now straightening her little black dress. My eyes raked her figure, and she caught me looking.

"Like what you see, Damon?" She said in a velvety voice. I walked over to her and pulled her close to me, one hand on the small of her back, the other round the back of her neck. She giggled, her blood scented breath washing over me.

"Of course I like what I see, Katherine." I murmured, the movement of my lips causing them to brush hers. She giggled, and closed the space between us, meeting my lips seductively. I pulled away after a few seconds, smirking. "But not enough to go there with you, Miss Pierce." I shoved her away from me and she glared.

"Oh, come on, Damon. We both want it. Being a vampire heightens the senses, remember? You can hate more, you can feel guilty more...when you're hungry, you're starving, when you're horny..."

"You're jumping someone else's bones." I shot back at her. She scoffed.

"Sometimes. But...we're both here. We're all alone in this big old house..."

"Alone with the dead bodies."

"...and you want it, and I want it, and you can't deny you feel something for me, Damon. You waited 150 years for me...that can't all just disappear in the space of a few months, can it?" She trailed her finger suggestively up my arm.

"It can, and it did." I turned away from her, taking a glass and a decanter of bourbon and pouring myself a generous measure.

"Nawww, really? I'm not sure I believe you..." She tapped a perfectly manicured finger against her lips. "Oh wait!" She giggled. "I know! You don't feel anything for me anymore...because you love another." She narrowed her eyes, pointing at me accusingly, teasingly.

"Ding ding ding ding!" I said sarcastically, confirming her suspicions, sure that she was referring to Elena. Who, of course, I did love. Did. Past tense.

"How is Rhiannon Parker these days, then?" Katherine asked casually. I dropped my glass, and pinned Katherine against the wall in the same movement.

"How do you know about Rhia?" I snarled, my eyes flashing red. She giggled and pushed me away, the force of her blow sending me to the other side of the room. I dashed back over to her again, standing directly in front of her. "How. Do. You. Know. About. Rhia." I enunciated clearly.

"Please, Damon. Did you really think I would leave you and Stefan completely? I've watched you both over the years. I saw him and that wench Lexi at a Bon Jovi concert in the 80s. I saw you rocking a really bad haircut in the 60s. I was there through his ripper days in the 20s. And I saw you with Rhiannon frolicking on a beach a few months back, practically making the air pink with your gooey-ness." She rolled her eyes, and my heart (figuratively) stopped. "So tell me, Damon, how did you leave her? How did it feel to leave her? When did you leave her? How do you know she's waiting for you when...if...you go back?" I glared at Katherine, whose eyes were playful...spiteful.

"Leave Rhiannon alone, Katherine, or I swear I will rip your heart out and shove it down your throat." I growled.

"Oooh, scary. I've got shivers down my spine..." Her fingers slid onto my chest and I slapped them away. She laughed. "Run along then, Damon. Run back to your precious Rhia. Maybe I'll pay you a visit in a few months...just to see how you two are getting on." She trailed her hand back down my arm and turned away. I left.

End Flashback

"So let me get this straight. Katherine freed you, you spent a month with her sucking people dry, she made the moves on you, and then dropped the bombshell that she knew about me, suggested that she might hurt me, so you left?" Rhia twisted her face in concentration.

"Pretty much, yes." I turned and walked back to her, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I came back as soon as I could, just in time to watch you throw yourself off a cliff." She hung her head. "I don't think you have any idea what I would've done if I hadn't been able to save you. I don't think that I know what I'd've done." She bit her lip, looking at me guiltily. I smirked. "And then you decided to pull a me, and run off. Did you know that at one point I was certain that it was Katherine? That she'd made you leave me that message, and then took you off, to kill you or worse?" Her eyes widened at my angry tone and I inhaled deeply to calm myself. "I was...not in a good place. I'd drink myself to oblivion every day, and gorge myself every night. And I hated that I'd let a human do that to me." Her face fell. "In the end I left. I couldn't stand being around Elena, and there was nothing here for me anyway. I hopped from town to town, doing pretty much what you did only with a lot more drinking and a lot more sex." I snorted at her uncomfortable squirming. "And then one day as I left my latest meal in bed, I decided to come back." I finished simply. She looked up at me, her dark eyes huge.

"Why did you decide to come back?" She asked quietly. I turned away, unable to look at her doe eyes as I hammered the final nail in the coffin.

"I decided there was no point in spending the rest of eternity moping over a human who left me, and whose life would be over centuries before mine, and that I should at least go back to where I was wanted." I stated matter-of-factly. She gasped. "I'm sorry, but that's the truth." I returned my gaze to her just in time to see the tears spill over.

~Rhia POV~

"I decided there was no point in spending the rest of eternity moping over a human who left me, and whose life would be over centuries before mine, and that I should at least go back to where I was wanted." He deadpanned. I couldn't stop my shock from showing on my face, and I gasped, tears filling my eyes. As he turned back to me, they spilled over. I furiously wiped my cheeks and put my face in my hands, too ashamed to let him see me cry. I was expecting it, but...did he have to be so...impersonal?... about it? I felt a hesitant hand on my arm and feebly tried to shake it off. It didn't work.

"Rhia, why are you crying?" He asked gently. "I'm sorry, but that's how I felt. I wasn't in a good place, and I thought that you'd want me to get on with my life and just...I'm sorry." I looked up at him with angry, tear-filled eyes.

"Over a human who left you? Why did you specify human? Why not someone? Or person? Or hell, even girlfriend?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Because that's what you are! You're a human. I'm a vampire. You're the prey. I'm the predator! Don't you see, Rhia?" Damon snapped, his hands gripping my upper arms slightly uncomfortably.

"No, I don't! You never had that problem before! Before it wasn't 'You're human, I'm vampire', it was 'You're Rhia, and I'm Damon, and we're in love!'" I pushed him off me, and stood up, fully planning on walking into Jeremy's room and staying with him. The moment I reached the door, Damon was blocking it, and my hand which had been going for the door handle was now on his chest. I glared at him. "Move!"

"You're Rhia. I'm Damon." He said slowly. "We were dating. You were my girlfriend. I was your boyfriend. We were happy. We loved each other. Then the world got in the way. I left. You left. We broke each other's hearts. And now we're back in the same small town, where we can't spend the whole time avoiding each other, or arguing. And now...we're starting over. As friends." He took the hand which was resting on his chest and shook it. "Hi there. My name is Damon Salvatore." I studied his face, trying to find the loophole, and I found nothing but sincerity. I snickered. "What?"

"You're being ridiculous, you know that, Damon?"

"Well, your reaction was ridiculous. I thought it was worth a shot." His hand was still holding mine. "Now play along." I giggled again and he glared at me, but it wasn't a harsh glare. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm Rhiannon Parker." I said, blushing slightly at the sheer absurdity of our actions. He grinned.

"May I call you Rhia?" He asked politely, my favourite half-smile making its way onto his face.

"I suppose so." I tentatively smiled back.

"Friends?" He asked. I considered the word.

"Friends." I agreed, laughing. We were back...not quite to square one, but it was better than all else. He suddenly wrapped his arms around me in a (friendly! FRIENDLY! Down, hormones, down!) hug, and my stunned body didn't react straight away. His thumb moved in small circles on my back and I put my arms around his waist, leaning into him, relaxing against his body. He rested his chin on my head.

"I've missed you, Rhia." He said.

"Missed you too." I mumbled into his chest. A thought struck me and I held myself closer to him. "Is Katherine going to come for me? What are we going to do?" I asked in a small voice. He pulled away, holding my face between his palms.

"Don't worry. I won't let her hurt you." He answered sincerely, his ice blue eyes burning into my soul. He brushed my now dry hair back off my face and leant forward, kissing my forehead slowly. I closed my eyes as his lips touched my skin, and shivers went down my spine like lightning. He pulled away. "Good night, Rhiannon." And then he was gone.

Argh! Personally, I was quite pleased with that one, what with the flashbacks and all, but now I've gotta work out how Katherine's gonna show up and be scary! *hangs head* why did I do that to myself...why? WHY? I'm joking; I've been planning a Katherine appearance all along...

Review?