Damon POV
Girls take forever... it took Stefan and I about five minutes to pack...the girls though...they couldn't do anything quickly. We finally left Mystic Falls at eight o'clock that night. The three hour drive from home to DC was fairly quiet. I had been hoping that the three of them would let loose and I would be able to feed off of their energy but instead Bonnie and Elena sat in the back seat and spent the whole trip writing notes to one another. Stefan of course was no help, I do not think he looked inside the car the entire way.
"Five more minutes and we will be there." I told them once we came into view of the Washington Monument.
"Where are we staying?" Bonnie asked...the first thing said the entire drive.
"I was thinking the Hay Adams...I hear they have pretty nice rooms and it is close to everything." I answered.
"Inst that where the President stayed?"
"Yeah...it is like a big deal and people have to make reservations months in advance." Bonnie answered.
"Damon?" Elena droned.
"Well don't you guys want to stay somewhere nice?" I said turning around and smiling at Elena.
"Well I guess if you are going to be friends with vampires you may as well enjoy the perks." Bonnie said as she stretched and sat up in the seat.
"Damon how are you going to get enough rooms for all of us?" Stefan asked me.
"Come on Little Brother you don't honestly think we need a billion rooms do we? We just need one." I answered.
"Uh we cant all fit in one bed." Bonnie replied sarcastically.
"Really that is what you are going to get hung up on? How much time are you going to be spending in the room? We only have a couple days here and I doubt any of you have even seen any of the stuff here."
"Okay well we need a room with at least two beds then." Elena answered.
"Well, I was thinking the Presidential Suite but if you guys want two smaller rooms...."
"How many beds are in the suite?" Elena asked me.
"Just one but there are two couches and the place is big enough I am sure we can get a few cots in them too."
"Damon why don't we just get a regular room...they all have couches don't they."
"Fine, fine...be party poopers. The lowest I will go is a junior suite." He said as he pulled his car into the garage.
"Stefan you babysit while I go arrange our room and then we can go explore and find something to eat..."
"Oh No I am not watching you eat!" Bonnie exclaimed.
"I didn't mean that silly witch...I brought some of that in the cooler in the trunk...and I was going to stop by the Red Cross building or maybe the Hospital tomorrow to add to my supply."
"Gross Damon...just hurry up." She told me with a roll of her eyes.
Elena POV
For the first time in my life I am out of Mystic Falls... I mean... I have been out of the town to go to the city to shop and stuff but it was always either with parents or something never totally on my own. I think it is the first time for Bonnie too. And then to be in DC. The Nations Capital! It was so exciting and I couldn't even imagine all the information that Stefan and Damon would know about everything having lived through most of the nations history.
"Where did you girls want to go while we are here?" Stefan asked as soon as Damon entered the hotel.
"Well it is like midnight...there isn't anything open now is there?" I asked.
"Well no, not technically but we..." Stefan started.
"Taking a lesson from Damon now are we Stefan?" Bonnie said teased.
"I just through you ladies would like a midnight showing of some of the monuments thats all." He tried to explain.
"Stefan you need to lighten up and have fun. Give Damon a chance. Act like a teenager and have fun with us." I begged.
"Elena you know it is hard for me." He said as he stepped towards me.
"Stefan... please for me just try. He will let you in when he is ready and I think this trip may help him. I don't think it is easy for any of us to just relax and open but we don't have secrets. Not anymore and we are bonded together whether or not we like it so we need to make this work." I said leaning against the car.
"Rooms all set." Damon said with a grin practically ear to ear. "What should we see first? The Smithsonian? Monuments? A bar?"
"I am pretty sure we don't need a bar at midnight. Why don't we start at the mall and show Elena and Bonnie all of the monuments while there is no one there?" Stefan suggested.
"Can we go to Arlington?" Bonnie asked.
"The Little Witch hasn't had enough of cemeteries? I am not going there." Damon growled.
Oh...the Civil War...hmm maybe by the end of the weekend...I kinda wanted to see that too. "Why don't we start with the Washington Monument? Can we really go in it at night?"
"Doll we can do whatever you'd like." Damon said as he hooked his arm through mine and Stefan's. I quickly grabbed Bonnie's hand and we were off.
As we walked past the White House Damon kept commenting on how things were so different now than the last time he had been there. I wanted to ask when that was but knew if he was willing to share he would just come out and say it. There was no point in pushing and making him grumpy.
Apparently Bonnie had the same question and didn't think about his past before she asked, "Damon when was the last time you were here?"
"1865." He answered as he dropped Stefan and my arms. So much for a fun evening.
"Stefan have you ever been to DC before?" Bonnie asked him as she realized Damon's immediate change in mood.
"Yeah. Not too long ago actually. I met Lexie and a few others here in 1990."
"Not too long ago? I wasn't even alive yet then." She responded.
"I keep forgetting...time just isnt something I usually keep track of I guess."
"What is your favorite thing about DC?" She asked him again.
"I love the air and space museum." He answered as we walked through the grass towards the Washington Monument.
"This thing was only half done when I was here. Everything was just fields and regular houses. A few slave pins but nothing at all like it is now." Damon said quietly.
I took his hand in mine again and squeezed it quickly before I let go. I wanted him to know that I did care and that I loved that he was talking about his past, even if it was not of specific importance...it was something.
Stefan's POV
Getting up into the monument was easy. They only had one guard and a lock that a five year old could pick if he wanted. "Stairs or elevator?" I asked as we walked in.
"Elevator. Stairs take too long." Bonnie said.
"Elevator it is." I said was we walked through the doors.
I watched as Elena, Bonnie and Damon looked from one to the next. "Why is it so hard for us to sustain a conversation?" I asked as we stepped out of the elevator onto the observation deck.
Damon and Bonnie just shrugged their shoulders and Elena just looked at me. Our relationship had changed, or maybe it has always been this way and it just took me that long to realize it. I pointed out the different monuments and memorials and other significant places out the observation windows and then we went back down in silence.
I led them to the Lincoln Memorial where we sat on the steps, "We can't talk because we don't really know each other. We are all from different places, we grew up in different times with different experiences and we are scared to talk about things because it hurts just a little bit too much." Elena said as she stared up in the sky.
"It is hard for me to get close to anyone because I have always let down the people who love me." Damon whispered.
"When my parents died my world was shattered. I still have a hard time making it through the day sometimes and then Jeremy...I need to help him, he is my little brother...but I don't know how to talk to him." Elena said as she leaned back on her elbows against the steps.
"Grams was always the one I could talk to. She was the only one who knew I was different and the one who taught me what it meant to be special and with her gone...it just hurts." Bonnie said as a tear slid down her cheek.
Damon reached over his thumb and wiped the tear from her eyes. "I am sorry Bonnie I needed to get Katherine back so bad I didn't care who I hurt to do it...and she wasn't even in there so it was all for nothing."
"I have always blamed myself for what happened to you Damon. Everything, this whole mess it started with me. It is my fault our mom died, it is my fault Katherine got caught, it is all my fault."
"Well aren't we a happy bunch." Damon said as he bumped his shoulder into mine. "Can we get back to the motel before the sun comes up?" He asked.
"On the way back can we play a game we used to play when we were little?" Elena asked.
"The magic game?" Bonnie asked getting excited.
"Thats the one." She said smiling.
"What the hell is the magic game?" Damon asked.
"No grumpy Damon...this game is very serious...and fun!" Bonnie said as she hopped up.
"Color?" Elena said. A second later she said, "Teal."
"Green." Bonnie answered.
They both looked at Damon and I, "Hello? Color?" they said at the same time.
"Blue." Damon answered.
"Black." I answered.
"Place." Bonnie said. "Swings."
"Woods." Elena.
"The roof." Damon.
"The house." Me.
"Song?" Damon asked, "Sugar Ray."
"Every Avenue." Bonnie answered.
"Howie Day." Elena.
"Blake Shelton." I answered.
"Memory." Elena asked. "3rd grade."
"1994." Damon answered.
"The car wash." I answered.
"Slumber parties." Bonnie answered.
We continued the game back to the hotel. When we got into the room I noticed that Damon had convinced someone to put two roll-away beds in the living room. The bedroom was behind bay windows looking out at the White House.
"Girls get the bed. Me and you are on the cots Little Brother." Damon told me throwing off his coat onto the couch.
"Damon this room is amazing you could totally see into the white house from here." Bonnie said looking out the window.
"We should sleep for a few hours at least before we go check out all the museums." Elena said grabbing her bag from the floor and pulling out her pajamas.
Elena and Bonnie went into the bathroom together to change, I expected to hear their gossip but Elena turned the water on. It drove me nuts; I couldn't help but pace around the hotel room.
"Sit the freak down Stefan. They aren't going anywhere. You should have learned by now that girls are really all freaks and cannot do anything by themselves so they are just peeing and changing together in there." Damon said as he pulled off his shirt and slipped out of his jeans and into gym shorts.
"How is your changing right here any different than what they are doing in there?" I asked him while I did the same thing.
*Bonnie POV*
"Elena are we really staying in a hotel room with two vampires in DC?" I asked as she closed the bathroom door behind her.
She turned the water on and started to get ready for bed, "They need help as much as we do. I am really worried about Damon...I don't think he is going to sleep at all tonight."
"He may be a vampire but they are both really sweet guys." I told her. "Is there anything I can do to help you to fix them?"
"I am not trying to fix them Bonnie. They are fixing me just as much as I am fixing them. Its messed up I know but I love both of them. And the really messed up part is that I feel as protective of Damon as I do of Jeremy."
"Elena do you think that the four of us will just magically be friends by the end of this weekend?" I asked her as I changed from my jeans to my pajamas and started to brush my teeth.
"Well you and I are already friends and I am obviously friends with Stefan, and I am kinda friends with Damon...so..."
"So this weekend is to make me be friends with the two of them, to make Damon and Stefan friends again and to make Damon friends with everyone?" I asked.
"Why does this feel like some sort of fairy tale?"
"Uh...cuz there are vampires, witches, traveling to new places and love triangles." I answered her.
"Do you think we have tortured them long enough? I can hear Stefan pacing out there." Elena asked as she shut the water off.
I climbed into the bed and laid down. I watched and listened as Elena sat between Damon and Stefan. "Damon are you okay to sleep tonight?" Stefan asked him.
"I was hoping you would just forget about that..." He answered as he looked down at his hands.
"Elena would you..." Stefan started to ask Elena.
"Hey Bonnie, can we all sleep on the bed tonight?" Elena asked me.
"Wait...no...Elena that isn't what I wanted." Damon said staring at her. If I didn't know better I would say he was trying to compel her but I knew that he would never do that to her.
"You know I love slumber parties." I said scooting over to the side of the bed.
"Darn it Elena you don't have to do this." Damon said practically begging. It made me wonder how bad it actually was for him and my heart hurt.
"Damon I want you to lay between Elena and I." I said quietly. I saw Stefan smile at me, a silent thank you.
The three of them came over and climbed under the blankets. It was a king size bed, but we could have easily fit on a twin. We held onto each other, laying close to each other and seeking comfort from one another.
Stefan fell asleep first, with his arm around Elena and his hand on Damon's shoulder. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. Damon was on his back and I was curled around next to him and he had his arm around my shoulders, my head resting on his arm. When I closed my eyes Elena and Damon were staring at each other silently speaking to each other.
Damon was so scared of sleep, of his dreams—his nightmares, his history. I could feel the fear radiating off of him. "Close your eyes Damon. We are right here. We aren't going to go anywhere." She whispered to him.
"Take a deep breathe and relax." She told him.
"I can't Elena. The same damn thing will happen again." He said so quietly I barely heard him.
"If it does we are here Damon. We are here to bring you back." She told him. I felt him shift so that he was now leaning into Elena. She had been correct in saying her relationship with Damon was like it was with her and Jeremy.
She is like the mother figure. A protector. To an outsider the four of us in bed together probably looked like some sick twisted teenage sex act, but it wasn't that at all. I rolled over so that Damon could roll to be as close to Elena as he wanted and I wrapped my arm around him from behind and held him.
He squeezed my arm, I had given myself away, "Why do the two of you care if I sleep tonight or not. I would be just as happy sitting in the window and watching the sunrise."
"I am not sleeping until you do Damon Salvatore." I whispered into his back. When Elena and I ganged up we always got our way.
Elena sat her hand on the side of his face and began to slide her thumb across his eye brows. It took mere seconds before he had fallen asleep. "Thanks Bonnie. But he is right...the same thing will probably happen tonight." She told me.
"What happened last night?" I asked her.
"You will see Bonnie, inside he is like we were when we were babies...only we had our parents to protect us..." She halfway explained.
A few minutes later right as I was starting to doze off Damon started to thrash around. Elena gently tightened her grip on him and whispered, "Come back...it is safe here..." It absolutely broke my heart.
Stefan woke up and took his arm off Elena so that she could focus fully on Damon. He began to cry out, instead of calling out for Katherine like I assumed he would he was cried out for his mother. Stefan's eyes popped open in shock and before I could blink my eyes he was out sitting on the balcony with his hands covering his eyes.
I looked at Elena and she nodded at me. I got up and followed Stefan while she held Damon. I sat down quietly next to him on the deck and leaned into his shoulder. "I was two when our mom died. Or...I think I was two. No one would ever talk about her to me. I guess after I was born she never was quite right. I think she got sick when I was born and just never came back from it."
"Damon was there. Have you ever tried to ask him about it?" I asked gently.
"I did once...right before he left for the war. He said that she died and how she died didn't matter."
"Stefan do you think Elena can help Damon?"
"If she cant I don't think anyone can. Elena is like..."
"Stefan you need her too."
"Damon needs her more. He has needed someone to love him since I was even born."
I heard Damon cry out in agony and wanted to run in there, our heads both jerked around to see what happened and Damon has bolted upright and Elena climbed on top of him and wrapped her arms around him and he cried out in pain. He was awake, as in no longer dreaming but he wasn't the full awake Damon that is the smart ass I had come to know; he was stuck somewhere in the middle and he needed to find his way back.
"What is it like for you?" I asked him.
"What? Being in love with her? Being a vampire? Having a brother so broken?" Having hurt everyone I ever got close to?" He answered.
"Stefan you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and totally realize all the things that are good."
"I try...it is just hard with all the craziness these last few weeks...like before I came back to Mystic Falls things seemed better, happier...they weren't but things were just easier somehow."
"Did you like it better?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Elena." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I would give my life for her. She just...I dunno she just gets it somehow." He tried to explain. I didn't need an explanation though, I had known Elena since we were in diapers practically and knew what a great person she was.
Damon POV
I was there again, in her bedroom. Dad was out at the bar again, the maid with Stefan and I was with her. I held her hand as she took her last breath. It should have been our Father with her instead of me, he should have protected me, instead he blamed me. I had let her in. I didn't understand then...I do now. I let her in. She didn't kill our Mom, but all of the visits...it was too much on her after she just gave birth to Stefan. I didn't see the signs then...
"Damon you are safe here....come back to me..." I heard her sweet and pure voice calling me...another nightmare. Bonnie wrapped her arm tighter around me but it didn't help, I couldn't do it...I called for her, for our Mother...I knew it wouldn't do any good but I felt like I had to. I didn't have my eyes open but I felt the breeze as Stefan ran out of the room.
I clung to Elena, she was my safe place, she didn't know what she was saving me from but she knew I needed to be saved. Bonnie followed Stefan out and I snapped. I needed my Mother...I needed to get to her...
"Come back here...Its safe here..." I heard her, the next thing I knew I was upright and she was on top of me with her arms wrapped around me. I collapsed against her and she slowly laid me back down on the bed.
"Damon look at me." She said as she put her face centimeters from mine...I didn't have a choice but to look at her.
"What happened with your Mom?" She asked me.
"The vampire that turned Katherine. It was too much for our Mom to be her regular." I whispered. "Stefan doesn't know."
"You were with her when she died." She said...it was more of a statement than a question. I nodded my head. "She knew what she...and she made you promise to protect Stefan but then you had to leave for the war..."
"I came home as soon as I could but it was too late. Katherine had come to town the week before I got home...Stefan was so in love with her. Our Father was obsessed with vampire hunting...he didn't see that Katherine was a..."
"You wanted to get rid of her but instead you fell in love."
"Its totally fucked up right?" I said at an attempt at a smile.
"I think I can understand the concept of falling for a vampire." She said with a smile.
"How can you be so calm?" I asked her.
"Damon can you not hear how fast my heart starts beating whenever..."
"I don't mean like that Elena...I mean like with our history...it is like not a big deal to you...like it is normal or something."
"Well I guess I just accept it...and it is totally not normal for my boyfriend and one of my best friends to be over 150 years old..now are you going to go back to sleep?" She asked me as she laid back down.
"Elena when are you just going to give it up?" I asked her as I leaned back against the head board.
"Two nights after you sleep all night. Now tell Stefan and Bonnie to come back inside and go back to sleep." She said through a yawn.
Elena POV
We all slept another two hours before Bonnie and I got up. Bonnie sat on the floor of the bathroom while I showered, "Is it safe to talk while one of us is in the shower?" She asked.
"Yah...they cant hear over the water." I answered.
"What happened that Damon is so messed up?"
"Pretty much everything."
"Details Elena?"
"Their mom was killed, their dad blamed Damon. Damon had to fight in the Civil War. He left as soon as he could to come home for Stefan but Katherine was already there. Then all the stuff with Katherine...then like 150 years of him trying to get her back."
"Where does he go when he has his nightmares?" She asked me.
"His past."
"When I have my nightmares they are visions of the future. Are his anything like that?"
"I don't think so I think for him it is like a replay of his memories."
"Do you think he will ever be able to sleep through the night? Stefan gets real freaked out when he flips like he did...I think Damon hid it from him all these years."
"I know Damon hid it from him and I hope it gets better but I dunno...this is like the first time ever he has tried to trust someone."
"I thought he trusted Katherine..."
"Yah...and look how well that turned out."
"Do you think he will ever trust me or Stefan like he trusts you?" She asked me as I climbed out of the shower; I left the water on for Bonnie to get in, and so we could continue our conversation.
"In time he might. You are the one who can tell the future Bonnie."
"What is it like to have sex with a vampire?" She asked me as she stepped into the shower. I about choked; did she really just ask me about my sex life?
"Physically it isnt any different than sex with a human but the emotional connection I have with Stefan...that makes all the difference."
"Do you think I will ever have anything like that?"
"A vampire?" I asked confused.
"Yeah...well...I don't know...it just seems like the four of us are suppose to be a family...so..."
"So you are meant to be with Damon?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Did you see that happening?" I asked her curious.
"Well I saw us transform them and then separately I saw us at a park with little kids...it was weird Elena...like somehow we both had kids but Damon said that vampires cant procreate so that means they weren't vampires anymore."
"Is there a way to transform them back into who they were before?" I asked her as she got out of the shower. She had turned the water off so I had to whisper.
She nodded her head as she pulled up a clean pair of jeans. Once we were dressed we went out and together jumped onto the bed. "Time to explore boys." We said at the same time.
Stefan POV
She is beautiful. I cannot even believe how fast I fell for her. The way that she just rolls with the punches and doesn't judge things until she can understand them and even then she just goes with it. What is even more amazing to me is how she is with Damon.
As much as I have put him down, as much as I have warned her about him; she has proven nearly everything I said and thought about him to be false...or at least distorted. Thanks to her I am now able to spend time with Damon and enjoy it and maybe eventually with her help we will have the type of relationship brothers are suppose to have.
"Where do you want to go first?" I asked as I sat up and threw on a clean shirt. Damon jumped in the shower and was out again before Elena and Bonnie even decided where they wanted to go.
"American History museum." Elena answered.
"Blah blah boring history it is." Damon said as he walked out of the bathroom wearing only a towel...which he promtly dropped.
"Damon put some freaking clothes on." Bonnie said as she threw his jeans at him.
"Oh come on now ladies you know you enjoy it." was his resonse.
I rolled my eyes as I walked with the girls to the door. "Breakfast first?" I asked.
"There is a Starbucks on the corner." Damon said when he caught up to us.
"Is it weird how much everything has changed since...." Elena asked after we ordered.
"Weird no...it was a fairly gradual change not like we went in a time machine from the 1800's to now." Damon quipped.
"Do you ever wish that you would have died back then like you should have?" Bonnie asked.
"Everyday." Damon said as he picked up his coffee off the counter. Before anyone could say anything Elena grabbed her order and followed Damon outside.
"Should we go out there or give them space?" Bonnie asked me once our orders were ready.
"I have no idea anymore." I said quietly as I leaned into the wall. I saw Elena nod us out and so Bonnie and I slowly walked out to join them.
"Well...now that I am done having a pity party as Elena so nicely put it lets go relive all of our memories in the wonderful museum."
"Grow up Damon. Tomorrow we can do whatever you want." Elena told him as she crossed her arms.
"Anything?" He asked with a glint in his eye.
"Anything within reason you ass." Bonnie said as she took his hand in hers and pulled him forward down the road towards the museum.