A/N: I apologise for my lack of updating. I've been having some technical difficulties. If you remember, I told you I have a good few chapters already written so it was just a case of updating on here during my exam period however my laptop broke and my chapters were gone. I used my desktop instead and rewrote them and then that broke. So now I'm on my mother's old laptop and it's tiny and has no MS Office and I'm using Word Pad and it doesn't have spell check or anything. I've tried my best so if they are mistakes (there's bound to be a few, I am human) then I am sorry and would you be ever so kind as to tell me them :)

So, someone asked if Morgana was a supernatural. Well, I'm afraid she is completely human. Sorry if that has spoiled it for you and if you were waiting for some big, epic reveal where she confesses her true nature to Damon. The vampires and Emily are the only the only supernaturals in this, so far.

I will try to update more frequently but I do have to rewrite the chapters again and it is hard to do it over again for the third time. I am also working on coursework and exams are approaching again but I have not forgotten this. Believe me, I want to write this as much as you want to read it.

Also if you could just check if I have my dates right, that would be awesome! :D

Enjoy!

~1845~
~19 years ago~

Aldrick Devereux took his wife in his arms and buried his face in her sweet, dark hair. She wrapped her small arms as far around his broad chest as they would go and squeezed as hard as she could. She pressed her face against the soft cloth of his shirt and he felt her tears soak through. He tried to ignore the growing pain in his heart and focused on the good that would come by doing this. The good that would come to him.

"You must leave?" she asked again, her voice muffled.

"You know I must," he replied, sighing deeply. His thoughts filling with the desire for someone who was not his wife, a lust for someone who was taken already, claimed and marked as another's. "It is only for a few days, Adrienne. Then I will return to you and stay with you for as long as you will have me."

It took another fifteen minutes of assurances and whispers of love and adoration, promises of returns and forever before she let him go. He watched her tearful face from his carriage window and the guilt and shame of what he was doing engulfed him. He stopped the carriage and hurried back to her, lifting her in his arms for one last, tender kiss before he embarked on his betrayal.

The carriage drew upside outside the expansive mansion, it's stone as white as the clouds above. No one was there to greet him on the steps and he silently made his way to the mahogany door, his driver placing his bags beside him.

"You have the next three days to yourself," Aldrick said, reaching into his pocket for his money bag. "Do as you wish with your money but I expect to see you here at the correct time and date. I do not want a repeat of last time."

The driver nodded stiffly and dashed away before his embarrassment could creep any further up his face. Aldrick took in a deep breath and could feel the pain stabbing at his heart again. He knocked loudly on the door, an effortless task for his strong hands. His knock could be hear reverberating throughout the entire house, it being so large and empty now. Aldrick only waited a few minutes before the door opened slowly and bright, ice blue eyes framed with long lashes peered out.

He grinned and his guilt was washed away by the sheer joy in those eyes. the door was thrown open and a beautiful woman stood in the doorway, barely dressed. Aldrick's dark eyes raked over her entire body, taking in her raven black curls and her creamy white skin, her long, bare legs and her tiny waist. His eyes rested on her chest, full and volumptous, he was reminded of why she glowed with an inner light and why her eyes with ringed with black smudges that were not her make-up.

Gabrielle Salvatore's red lips turned up in a sultry smile and she grabbed his hand, pulling him into the house.

"Giuseppe is away for four days," she said, quickly. "The staff have been dismissed for three. We have the entire house to ourselves and we can do whatever we please."

She wasted no time in taking him upstairs, her quick feet dancing across the steps and hallway and he tried to move as graceful as her but he only stumbled and tripped, his powerful build not made for such light steps.

"Where is he?" Aldrick asked, as he dropped his bag Gabrielle's bed. "Surely it is not time he had his own bedroom?"

Gabrielle smiled serenly and lay down on the white silk sheets of her marital bed. She propped herself up on one elbow and fixed her bright eyes on Aldrick.

"He is growing up faster than you would think," she replied, pride and love in her voice. "Soon he will be walking and talking and running and then he will be a man. A good man."

Aldrick shift uneasily as she continued to speak about her son, Damon. He was almost six months old now and her first child with Giuseppe. If he saw Damon at all during his stay it would be a physical reminder of what he was doing, his betrayal and the hurt he would be bringing to the people he cared most about.

"Are you going to stand over there all night, Aldrick, or will you join me here?"

She stretched out one hand and stroked the sheets in front of her, her eyes darkening with lust. Aldrick needed no further temptation, his fingers ripping off his jacket and undoing his shirt, all thoughts of everything else vanishing in an instant.

"You are not speaking to me again, Amelie?" Morgana sighed and covered her eyes with her arm. She was lying on the warm grass under the Virginian sun in the Salvatore gardens, her room becoming too hot to sit comfortably inside. She was wearing the thinnest summer dress she owned to try and keep cool and had done the same for Amelie before dragging her outside to enjoy the sun.

Amelie was some five feet away, sitting upright on the soft grass, picking at it with her long, slender fingers. She refused to lie down and relax, instead remaining diligent incase her mistress needed anything, despite Morgana's assurances that Amelie need not wait on her every whim.

"I wish you would tell me what is wrong," Morgana continued when Amelie remained silent. "I am beginning to wonder if you even want to remain here with me. Your attitute since we arrived at the Salvatores is frankly appalling. You have been argumentative and cold and distant and I cannot think why. You do not sleep in the servants quarters, your room is as big as mine and furnished the same. The chores you do for me are little and barely of any effort and you walk the halls as almost a free person. I cannot understand why you are anything but happy."

Amelie sighed and did not answer Morgana, choosing silence over some of the more hurtful things she had in mind. She would like to voice her opinion as clearly as possible but she in danger of overstepping the boundaries between servant and mistress and no matter how many times Morgana told her she was family and she was her best friend and sister, Amelie could still feel the weight of servitude on her shoulders and she hated it. Morgana was eighteen years old and capable enough to look after herself and if it weren't for Amelie's own family at home who needed the wage Morgana gave her, she would have not come to the Salvatores with her. Amelie was nineteen years old and she wanted to still enjoy life while she had it. She wanted to meet a boy and fall in love, get married and have beautiful children. She didn't want to watch Morgana do it, which seemed highly likely now she'd met and befriended Damon Salvatore.

Amelie ripped a chunk of grass from the soil and threw it away, venting her rage at the life Morgana had that she didn't.

"Amelie," Morgana's voice had a pleading tone and it annoyed Amelie. She glanced at the girl and saw she was sitting up, her pretty face set in concern for their friendship.

"If I want to talk to you, Morgana, I will speak first," Amelie hissed, dropping her eyes back to the grass. "For now, I wish to sit here in silence until you give me another meaningless order to fulfil."

Amelie didn't look at Morgana again so she missed the hurt expression on Morgana's face. She did however see the girl rise and walk off, heading in the direction of the Salvatore mansion. Amelie didn't feel an ounce of regret at her words, still too filled with anger and resentment to register the effect they would have on Morgana. She continued to pick at the grass, strand by strand, and would only return to Morgana when she had sufficiently cooled down enough to be able to stand doing as she was told.

Morgana's bare feet squashed into the grass as she hurriedly made her way across the lawn, trying to get to her room before the tears spilled over. It was silly to cry over Amelie's words, they would be barely hurtful in someone else's opinion, but to Morgana they cut deep. Amelie was her only friend here, besides Damon, and she was the only person she could confide in, yet Amelie had the growing resentment for her that had never been there before and she did not know what to do about it. Amelie didn't want to talk about it, she couldn't force her to and they would go around in this endless circle until one of them snapped and something bad was bound to follow.

Morgana knew how she could solve all of this. But how could she without risking a hell of a lot? She wanted nothing more than to sit Amelie down and explain the whole entire mess her father had left her in, not choosing to tell his one last secret til he was almost shaking hands with death, and then leaving it to Morgana to decide when it was best to tell the secret to the world. As if Morgana was the right person to make that decision. It was her father's, not hers, and yet she'd still been burdened with it, a heavy weight in the centre of her chest that pressed down hard whenever she saw Amelie. She'd tried to lessen that pressure but none of her attempts had worked so far, only succeeding in adding more pressure.

Her head bent and walking as fast as possible, Morgana didn't see Damon until she'd smacked right into him. She stumbled backwards, rubbing the top of her head where she'd hit his muscled chest and apologised for her clumsiness. He dismissed that instantly when he caught the sheen of unshed tears in her dark blue eyes and the sadness etched on her face. His warm fingers wrapped around her hands as he gazed into her face to determine what was wrong.

"It's nothing," she said, simply with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "You do not need to worry, Damon, I am perfectly okay."

He was not convinced and his own ice blue eyes showed this. He took her arm, linking it with his and set off in a random direction, taking her with him. She glanced up at him in surprise and he grinned at her.

"If you are perfectly okay then you do not mind walking with me," he said, wryly. "We can talk, if you wish."

"Open the window, Emily," Katherine said, lazily, trying to act human in the heat that was spreading throughout the house. It didn't affect her as it would a human but she had to keep up appearances. She rolled onto her side, throwing an arm around a bare-chested Stefan who was sleeping off her latest feeding. His neck was still bleeding, but it was a slow trickle, almost healed. She resisted the urge to drag her tongue across his neck, licking up every last drop. Four hundred years and blood still controlled her.

"You may not have to worry about Damon anymore," Emily called over, a smile on her dark face. "I think he may have moved on."

Katherine sat up and shot Emily a questioning glance. Emily gestured to the window and stepped away swiftly as Katherine moved with vampire speed. Her sharp eyes quickly found Damon and her, if her heart was still beating, it would have skipped more than one beat at seeing the sight before her.

"Is that the orphan girl?" Katherine questioned Emily, not taking her eyes off Damon. "Giuseppe's goddaughter?"

Emily nodded. "Yes, it is. It has not taken her long to capture Damon, has it?"

Katherine's lips turn up in scowl and her eyes began to turn crimson as her temper flared. Emily took a step back, watching the blacks veins surface on Katherine's beautiful face.

Out in the garden, Damon and Morgana were lying together on the grass, too close for Katherine's liking. She didn't know what they were speaking about, their voices unaudible mumurs from the distance but she could see the relaxed and joyous expression on Damon's face and equal happiness in the orphan girl's. There was no denying that those two were comfortable with each other in a way that Katherine would never have with him. He was at ease with her, he wasn't on his guard. Look how vulnerable he was to attack with his arms behind his head. His neck was open and begging to be bitten!

But Morgana wasn't a vampire and he didn't need to fear an unexpected attack. As for her, she was so trusting and naive, it was almost laughable. It wouldn't take much of an effort on Damon's part to get her into bed. Katherine calmed when she thought of this. He was only looking for a replacement for her, not for a life-long partner.

And as she lay back down nexr to Stefan and caressed his cheek with one finger, she couldn't deny the jealousy that had rose at the sight of Damon with another girl.

Reviews would be lovely :D