Chapter 7

Damon felt weak and miserable. His throat felt parched but it wasn't water that he wanted. He felt cold...even though he was technically dead, he felt colder then normal coldness should feel. That was when he realised that he was chained up and in a cell...something in the basement of the house they were living in that Zach and Stefan had cooked up between them. Very clever of Zach really, to have managed to grow a whole load of vervain when in the rest of the area it hardly grew at all.

He gave a tug on his chains that cut into his wrists and struggled to sit up. He blinked a couple of times to clear his vision and it reminded him of the time that he had woken up after the spell Bonnie cast...it seemed a long time ago now.

Ok so how was he going to get out of this one? He needed blood of some kind. Any kind really. The old Damon had lured Caroline to the house and got her to release him but he sure as hell didn't know what he was supposed to do now! Well...he would have to make Stefan see that he had changed.

He still didn't know exactly why Stefan had done this to him. He'd been as good as an Angel since he'd arrived back in the past...no reason to suspect him of anything. Why was Stefan being an asshole for no reason at all?

"Hello Damon," there it was, that soft and cold voice that he knew so well. Stefan was good at controlling his emotions . In the future, he shut off his emotions completely. Elena had tried to reason with him and she had tried to explain things to him in the tomb, about how things were between Damon and herself, but he wouldn't ever listen to her...he was so busy listening to Katherine. Katherine had made him shut down and tune everything out.

This was the beginning of that coldness and he had to give Stefan a reason to feel human other then Elena. He had to make them both stronger against Katherine's games she had played and he had to start now.

"Stefan," he replied, trying to sit up. "Stefan, please. You know what will happen if I don't drink blood. I don't even mean human blood...you're diet will be fine for me."

"Without blood you will die," Stefan said simply with no sympathy in his voice. "You'll dry up and mummify and that will be that. It didn't have to be this way Damon."

Damon smiled. "It had to be exactly this way. But I don't understand why this time. I mean...you have no reason to suspect me of anything."

Stefan narrowed his eyes slightly . "What do you mean by this time Damon? And that is part of the reason me and Zach have you trapped in here for the next fifty years. We don't trust you. There haven't been any killings yet but there is some reason why you're here in Mystic falls and I'm going to find out. And at the Founder's party I...I heard Elena talking with Bonnie and Matt. She started saying that she had a dream about you..."

"She did?" Damon whispered with hope suddenly flaring up inside of his heart.

"She wouldn't say what the dream was about. But I don't understand why she would be dreaming about you at all Damon. The necklace I gave her is full of vervain...you can't influence her."

Damon felt as if he'd been slapped in the face. So that was what this was really about. Things he hadn't even done yet and Stefan's paranoia. "Why do you automatically assume that I would influence our dear Elena. She should always be free to make up her own mind."

"Because you always want what you can't have Damon. It was like this with Katherine and now you are after Elena too. Why can't you just leave things alone? Leave me alone?"

"Because then you're life would be beyond boring little brother," Damon coughed suddenly, his throat so dry. He was so hungry. "But you have to want to believe me I guess Stefan. I'm not here to play games with anyone...I'm not Katherine. I'm not here to kill people. Believe it or not I've changed...and I want to make things better. You won't believe me because you've spent so long hating me. We've spent so long hating each other but...you have to believe me. When we were alive we shared the same blood and family name hasn't that got to count for something? Please believe me Stefan."

Stefan hesitated reaching out with the key to unlock the door. He wanted to so badly believe his brother he really did. But none of it was making sense...there wasn't any proof that Damon had really changed just his word and that had never been enough before. But it was a good speech even he had to admit that. And there hadn't been any mysterious deaths since Damon had arrived in town.

"I want to believe you Damon," Stefan was still hesitating. "You have no idea how much I want my brother back. To believe that you're not the complete monster you make yourself out to be. But you know that I can't just trust your word. I want to make a deal with you."

Damon couldn't believe that he was hearing this. "Stefan, anything. I'll do anything. And I promise that you'll understand everything soon it's just...you'll have things to worry about soon and this isn't the right time."

Stefan decided to let that comment slip past him. It was comments like that that were confusing him but he didn't think Damon meant any threat by it. In fact if he didn't know any better...Damon almost sounded concerned.

"Well," Stefan slowly unlocked the cell door. "I will let you out. But I won't give you back your ring just yet."

Damon nodded, rubbing his wrist gratefully as Stefan unlocked the chains as well. "You won't regret this brother, I promise."

"I hope not," Stefan answered him quietly.

...

All the teenagers of Mystic Falls High School seemed to be there, having fun washing the cars to raise money. Caroline, Bonnie, Matt and Elena and Stefan were all there doing their part for the community. Caroline was in her element giving people orders and taking their money...so much so that Bonnie had to laugh. She hadn't actually had this much fun in a while. Except for that bitch that kept trying to steal Caroline's thunder and run the show. Elena and Stefan seemed deep in conversation and she had just finished comforting Matt over Elena. She wasn't sure how she felt about spending all this time with Matt lately. She enjoyed his company and on the rare days when he was in a good mood he did make her laugh and he took her mind off the dull school days she had to get through. She looked forward to seeing him every day and with all the weird stuff going on in her life that she hadn't been able to explain and was having a hard time keeping to herself she was glad she had him around to keep her sane and normal and from completely freaking out.

But he was so on the rebound from Elena. There wasn't a minute that went by that he didn't mention her name briefly...if it was to ask Bonnie's advice on something or if he was pissed off at Elena it didn't matter. And most times she didn't mind playing agony aunt but she wished Matt would see her as a person...not just someone's shoulder to cry on. But there was no way she would go there while he was on the rebound! It was one of life's many rules. Don't go after your best friends man, don't fall for a married guy or someone who turned out to be gay. And don't fall for rebound guy either. But sometimes she just couldn't help feeling...something.

"Hey we need you to wipe the path over there." Oh no, though Bonnie trying to look for a reason to run and hide somewhere but she couldn't find an excuse. Here's the bitch again.

"Technically it's wet so it's clean!" she shot back.

The girl shook her head with a smirk on her face that made her look ugly in Bonnie's opinion. "It needs to be dry."

Bonnie held the broom in her hand for a second looking down at the wet puddle in front of her, feeling rage and anger and resentment boil up inside her. And then it all seemed to explode out of her like a bomb going off. She felt her eyes glaze over and she could see and hear people but they seemed so far away. The fire started slow at first, then building up to engulf the car in front of her which luckily was going to be washed and had no one in it.

She only snapped out of it when she felt someone shaking her by the shoulders. "Bonnie! Bonnie!"

"Stefan?" she whispered shakily. "Did I do that? Did you see me do that?"

Stefan nodded. "You where in some kind of daze. I think you did do it."

"Please don't tell anyone. Please."

Stefan nodded and Bonnie ran of terrified beyond belief and nearly in tears. But Stefan wasn't the only one who had seen. While He had been getting people out of the way, always playing the hero even if he got hurt in the process, Matt had seen Bonnie's glazed over eyes. At first he had though she was in shock but then he had heard what she had said to Stefan. He just didn't have a clue what it all meant and for now he would choose to remain in blissful unawareness of anything. It had been an accident. There were bigger things to take care of now, like comforting all the people that had nearly been burned and trying to tell the firemen what had really happened. He was sure he could come up with a reasonable explanation...he was good with cars.

...

Damon was bored and restless trapped in the boarding house without his ring. He was beginning to regret making this deal at all. Stefan had told him that Elena new about them being vampires. He was out there giving Elena the great trip down memory lane and filling her mind with all sorts of bullshit about him no doubt. Warning her against him. At first she hadn't handled things well at all which would be expected but then she had agreed to listen to his brother. And he wasn't even there to explain to her that he'd changed like he had planned to. It was killing him that he would have to wait...or rely on Stefan.

Several other things that he knew...Mr Tanner, their most horrible and annoying history teacher had died from a heart attack. Yes, very surprising for a gym teacher as well and someone who was a big fan of football and exercise. But you know what they say about fate having nasty things planned for some people. Maybe he was getting punished for being such a mean bastard in the first place. He was destined to die and Damon had nothing to do with it.

Also Zach had left town because he couldn't deal with Damon being free to roam around the house as he pleased and he thought that Stefan had gone soft in listening to him when he had lied and tricked people before. Damon couldn't blame him really when that was what he had been like.

Jeremy and Vicky's relationship was hitting new levels of vomit worthy moments according to Elena and he was glad he wasn't around to see the benefits of his good work if they were like that.

He needed to find his ring though. He just needed to see Elena again. What Stefan had told him about her dreams had given him hope that things were not lost forever between them. She wouldn't be dreaming of him if she didn't think he was attractive in some way right? If he remembered rightly Stefan and Elena would be breaking up any time this evening because she couldn't handle what he was. He would have to tread carefully of course and not damage all his hard work with Stefan. But any chance from now on to play the white knight he would take.

He would prove to Elena again that he was worthy of her love and that he would do anything for her. He could feel the future changing and shifting with every action he took although he still remembered the main horror show parts of it. Which was why he hoped what he had done now was enough to start things changing more.

TBC