Thank you everyone for receiving my story so kindly. I intended for Alanna to make a rather large appearance in this chapter but it was pushed back to Chapter 3. She will be in Chapter 3 for sure and we will discover more about this mysterious women's past. My second FanFiction which focuses greatly on Alanna will be out within the week. As for this Chapter - I did have some trouble with it and am not entirely happy with my result. So do feel free to be honest in your critiques. As always thank you for reading and I appreciate all favorites and reviews. - Kristen


We pulled up to the cleanest hotel we could find, a Hampton Inn. Jeremy was still with us, waiting for his answers.

Damon went to the front. "Room for two, for Salvatore"

The slender clerk looked up at him and smirked. "Would that be Mr. and Mrs. Salvatore?" She asked.

"That would be Mr. Salvatore and Miss 'you don't need to know'." He eyed her. "The room key if you please?" She glared at me and handed him the room key, clearly displeased with his answer. Watching her eye him like a snack bothered me. He was a person, not a display.

We went to the room, Jeremy in tow. It was simple room. But clean, safe and free of unwanted guests. Jeremy sat down. "Now what I think you two owe me is some answers"

"Jeremy..." I begin, trailing off. How do I tell him about all of this? How do I tell him what I had Damon do to him? Again!

Damon cut in, saving me from explaining. "Things in Mystic Falls aren't going good Jer. The Original witch is alive and she enlisted our help in destroying all her lovely kiddies. After her plan failed, we found more White Oak, which we planned to use to kill all of the Originals at once. They were linked together. If one died they all died. Not dagger dead either. Eternally dead. And after a little run in with Rebekah, Stefan had to trade all the stakes for me, all except one. But we did manage to kill one of the Originals, mind you only one and with him every vampire who traced back to him. A blood line Jer. For every Original we kill every single Vampire who traces back to them dies with them. If we kill them all we kill of vampires completely. That's means me, Stefan, Caroline and Tyler die along with them. So we need to know which Original we shouldn't kill, the one our bloodline traces back to. That's where you come in"

"So you're telling me vampires would be gone forever?" said Jeremy, his tone laced with surprise.

"Yes."

"Then why should I help? My sister would be safe forever if vampires didn't exist, we all would!"

"Jeremy!" I yelled. Horrified he could say that and just disregard Caroline, Stefan, Tyler and … Damon. They didn't choose this life either.

"No Elena's, he's right. If things come down to it, you're right. We should die. We are after all natures' abomination. The undead joys of the world, torturing and bloodsucking the world's free population. But that's not my job, to decide who lives and dies. My job is to protect my town, your sister and my brother. I'm not about to murder a whole species, including myself if I can help it. I certainly don't want to stop being a living undead person. I just want to rid this world of Klaus, for your sister's sake." said Damon, unfazed.

"I know. You may be a dick, but you'd do anything for my sister. I know that. So Why Rose?" Jeremy asked. "What can she do? I never even seen her and she's dead"

"We can only trace Stefan and Damon's bloodline to Rose. Rose turned Katherine, Katherine turned Damon and Stefan and Damon turned Caroline. But Rose died before we she told us anything about who turned her. Please Jer. Try"

He paused and smiled bleakly at me. "I'll try, Elena."

"Rose cared about Damon, use him and she might listen to you. Call for her Damon"

He gave me a bewildered and amused expression. "Elena I don't think it works like that…" Damon said as he eyed me curiously.

I looked at him again. "What harm will it do? Try" I urged.

"Rose?" He called out into the empty air. He paused and looked at me. "Elena wants to fight, just like you wanted. So get down here and join us for 20 questions. He waited a moment, then turned to Jeremy "So, are my women alluring skills strong enough to bring out the dead?"

"Rose is here." said Jeremy simply.

"Were?" Damon questioned.

"Behind you" said Jeremy pointing at the bed.

Damon turned slowly. We looking for someone we'd never be able to see but we looked anyway.

She says "Hi and that you haven't changed Damon".

Damon smiled painfully. "What does she mean? I'm still dashing and devious and mean. I'm still the only one who gets 'Damon humour'. What is she referring to that so gleefully hasn't changed?"

"She says your still pretending not to care and Elena's still teaching you otherwise"

I eyed him. She did really understand him. She meant something too him. I tried to remember her around him but all I could remember was her dying, in his room. Telling me to fight. Telling me he wants to care and that he's running from it and then her slipping away into madness.

"We need your help Rose. We need to know who started Damon's bloodline. We need to know which Original has to survive."

"She says she wasn't turned by an Original"

I gasped. We never once considered there might be more pieces, people involved in this. That it wouldn't be this simple! "Then who turned her. She can tell us that right" Surely she could help us in some way.

"She wasn't turned by an Original but there is only one more person in this bloodline, only one more chain in the link. The oldest vampire outside of The Originals, Alanna"

"Alanna, who we just happened to let go after saving my ass today" Damon turning to Jeremy. "Of course that's who we need" he said as he rolled his eyes.

"She said she would help us Damon. It's only one more person. And she isn't dead. She is alive and well and willing to help. I said trying to convince him and reassure myself. He didn't move or say anything. "Damon…"

"What Elena. We're going in circles. We get an answer, beat a bad guy and then go back to square one and start all over again."

"We're going to call her and she is going to help us and we are going to be ok" I turned to Jeremy. "I think you should come with us Jer. I think you should come home. With Kol here you are no safer here than in Mystic Falls. At least you would be with us and we could protect you. But it's your choice"

"Elena… My compulsion makes him not want to think of Mystic Falls, I told him not to think twice."

"Then undue your compulsion and let him choose."

Damon got up slowly and eyed Jeremy "Forget everything I told you about Denver. Speak freely and tell us where you want to be"

"Elena I never really wanted to leave… so I want to come back"

I hugged him. "I know Jer. I know. I am so sorry. I just wanted to protect you" I turned to Damon "We both did" I closed my eyes and was hit with a memory from the Mikaelson ball. Of Damon trying to get me to leave -desperately trying to get me out of there. Even after I had Stefan break his neck, even after I betrayed and hurt him. I was so angry with how controlling he was being but I did the same for Jeremy. I took away his choice to protect him. He was trying to do for me what I did for Jeremy. Keep me alive. I looked up at him and he smiled slightly. Jeremy disengaged from my hug.

"What Jer?"He looked unsure. "What?"

"Rose has something to say" He looked to me. "She says she's proud of you Elena and that you'll be ok" He turned to Damon. "Tell Damon I'm rooting for him and Elena"

Damon looked surprised at her words. I'm rooting for you and Elena. Those words were so surprising. Coming from the dead vampire who I'm sure felt something for him and to have someone say they were rooting for Damon, with me, over Stefan. That would have meant the world to him and to me... I didn't know what anything of this meant to me. He turned with a sad smile gracing his face. "Thank you Rose… for everything" his mask was cracking into pieces.

Jeremy looked between us and got up. "I'm going to go and get my stuff. I'll be back tomorrow morning"

"Jer I don't think that's…"

"It's fine Elena." He said cutting in. "Alanna took Kol. I'll be fine until morning. Good night." I watched him walk out the door wondering when my brother became so strong. We just turned his world upside down, again, and he wasn't cracking.

Damon still hadn't said anything or moved since hearing Rose's message. I didn't know what to say to him; about the message, about any of this.

"You want a drink?" That's his 'go to' coping mechanism. It'll help.

"I don't think soda's going to cut it tonight Elena." He said with the hint of a smirk returning to his face.

"That's not what I meant. I think we both need something stronger. And that's why there is a bar, well sort of." I got up and reached into the tiny fridge where there was tiny bottles of liquor. I handed him one.

"Thanks." I sat down across from him, studying his face. He avoided my gaze and swirled the liquor in his cup, a blank expression on his face.

"Damon. You need to talk to me. You can't keep shutting me out like this. You need to talk." I urged. I didn't care how much deflection he was going to attempt. We were talking. Here and now. In this hotel where no one was going to interrupt us or see his facades slip. But me.

"I need to talk. What about Elena. What is it I'm keeping from you?" Stage one, angry deflection.

"You need to tell me how you feel and you need to stop villianzing yourself. You need to stop pulling away."

"Says the one who's been pushing."

"Yes. This is partly my fault. I betrayed you. I hurt you. I said something awful. I didn't mean it! I watched you break in front me and I didn't stop it. I did that and I'm so sorry. Then I was so angry about Rebekah, about Bonnie's mom. I didn't want to forgive you. I wanted to be mad at you. Because if I was mad I didn't have to think about the questions I was too scared to answer. I was overwhelmed, Damon," The tears were stinging my eyes but I wasn't done. "Then Ric happened and Stefan started to break though...I just pushed it all aside. Thinking I had all the time in the world to fix it later. But you almost died! There wouldn't have been another chance to fix it!" I was shaking a little, caught up in my own tirade. But he heard me, he really heard me. He put his cup down and looked at me with a soft expression in his eyes.

"Elena, that's enough. I forgive you ok. It's alright. I'm not mad, I never was."

"Yes you are! You are mad, you should be. I know what you've been doing. You thought I didn't want you, that I just wanted Stefan back. And you saved Stefan and villianized yourself to solve the problem you thought your love was. Didn't you!"

"Elena. That's enough. Ok" He got up off the bed and came up to me. He was cracking. He looked so torn, so upset. "Someone needed to be able to make the tough decisions. And you needed Stefan. I did what needed to be done. Nothing more. Now stop..."

I pushed him, he wasn't getting my point. "I never said I didn't want you."

"You did Elena. In your own way. And it's ok. You never asked for me to feel what I feel. Hell you didn't ask for me to be in your life at all. You love Stefan; it's always going to be Stefan. And I am your friend. Nothing, not even anything you do, will change that"

"Stefan thinks I have feelings for you." I blurted out.

Shock and then hurt touched his face. I couldn't just let him go with a straight answer. I kept torturing him. "Elena I don't see why he would say that. I let you go, you let me go. You won't choose me; people don't choose me for a reason. I'm not a safe, kind, considerate pacifist who pretends to be human. I'm not human and I can never be again. I'm not the one you love; he is. He just doesn't see it right now. And right now you've been hit with a little too many life and death scenarios and you're scared."

I turned on him again. "Don't tell me how I'm feeling or what I want. You don't know that" I snapped.

"Do you" he said as he looked at me, his face holding more emotion than I'd ever seen. Two words and with them that broken man was there again, standing right in front of me. Wanting to run, run from me and all the feelings I strangled him with. He looked so torn between the vulnerable honesty he showed when he said he loved me and the man who found out Katherine was gone; and never loved him. I did that, I did that to him.

I swallowed. Everything I had been running from was being asked of me. "I don't know what I feel for you. But I have feelings, feelings friends shouldn't have for each other" I looked at him and watched as he face changed. There was hope in his face, hope he couldn't hide but with it was a lot of pain.

He came up to me and placed his hands around my face. What he always did when the world was breaking around us. He then placed a soft kiss on my forehead and whispered "I love you, and you know that. But I don't deserve you, I never did. But my brother does and my brother is the one you want. And just because he is that doesn't mean I'm going to leave or flip my switch. Ok." The words hit me like a freight train. I felt like I heard them before, I felt like he was letting me go. Selfishly I didn't want him to let me go. I needed him. He was so close, so close to being who he really was. Vulnerable and loving, yet fierce and impulsive. He was all those things and more. I had asked him to change, to feel. And when he did I through it back in his face. I had to fix it, I had to fix the pieces I broke in him.

"You don't get to say what you do and don't deserve. That's not fair Damon. You deserve to be happy and free of this"

"Elena, it isn't a choice. It never was. You didn't want me that way, and you still don't now! What Stefan said has you upset. Even as the good guy you didn't want me like you do Stefan and its ok. I shouldn't want this, I shouldn't. And just because I do doesn't mean you have to feel guilty for not giving me what I want. You can't give everyone what they want."

I grabbed his face. "You're wrong" and smashed my lips against his. I let it all go, everyone at home. And just gave in, this once. He didn't respond at first then slowly but fiercely his lips begin pushing against mine. My hands went to his neck, his cheek, pulling him closer. He pulled me up and I was against the wall. My hands were everywhere, as were his lips. They brushed against my neck, my chest and came back up to my face. It wasn't timid, like the night on the porch. It was real; neither of us willing to let it vanish before we had lived out some passion. After a moment he stopped and pulled his face from mine. His hands cupping my face while his thumb gently stroked my chin. "Friends don't kiss like that, do they?" he breathed. His face flooded with heat and emotion.

I smiled at him "No, they don't." I pushed him back against the bed and rolled over. The top buttons of his shirt had been opened. Which I didn't remember doing. He studied me carefully and kissed my cheek. I turned and started at him, my eyes drifting from his exposed chest up to his troubled face. "Why don't you let people see the good in you? Why only me?" He turned to me, "Because I don't want to live up to peoples expectations. I never have, not as a human, not as a vampire and not as a good guy. And disappointing you, over and over, is more than I can take."

I stared at him sadly. And then pushed myself up, and looked over him, my hand finding his face. "Your only human, in that regard at least. But every time you do, you take responsibility for it and atone. That's why I forgive you every time. Let other people see what I do," I kissed his forehead and he smiled sadly.

"Go to sleep Elena. There will be plenty for you to stress about in the morning. But for now sleep." He started to get up off the bed. Surely to respect my space and ensure I didn't kill him in the morning.

But I grabbed his arm "Stay," I said. "I promise I'm asking you to stay in my right mind and won't freak in the morning." He smiled lightly as I seem to have read his thoughts. But he laid back onto the bed, still above the covers. "Good night Elena" He whispered turning to me. I shifted my body to watch him as he looked at the ceiling. "Good night Damon."

May the rollercoaster begin anew in the morning… but for now sleep welcomed me with open arms.