Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or any of the Vampire Diaries Characters

My apologies for not writing for such a long time and for the tense mistake at the end of the last chapter.

Damon awoke the next morning, regretful for having scared Elena in his exhaustion the previous night. Elena, he turned her name over in his mind as he located her. His heart must have literally twisted in his chest. She was without makeup, and the result made her look different but the same. Damon decided she was still the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen by far. And that was including Katherine.

This wasn't the only thing that had crushed him. She had somehow in her sleep managed to end up with her head on his lap- he was in a sitting position. He stared at her for a few minutes before he built up the courage to reach his hand out for her face. No one had ever looked so small and fragile to him before. And yet she still managed to scare him more than anything in the world. He barely touched her skin on her cheek, as he'd done so many times back when she was in high school. Not that she had known about that. She hadn't wanted him back then. She wanted- him.

Thinking about Stefan was not his favorite thing to do. He'd broken Elena's heart and run off somewhere and was now on human blood. Although it had been shocking for Elena, it wasn't really for Damon at all. His fingers had begun to twirl her hair around themselves.

Elena woke with a start. She had been dreaming about dancing in a ballroom with someone she couldn't quite focus on the face of. The mystery man had dipped her gracefully before leaning over her. The man touched her face so gently it was almost imperceptible at the same his face was revealed. Damon. He grinned as he saw her recognition and then slowly inched toward her face. All she could see was the abysses of his eyes…

Her own eyes opened. She was looking at the living room sideways. Then her surroundings came to her and she blushed violently. "Morning," Damon said. She sat up. "I'm sorry…" she started. "Don't worry about it. You were asleep. I'm used to very conscious girls throwing themselves at me." She frowned and he regretted the comment. "I meant-" "What's for breakfast?" she interrupted and left the room.

When Damon reached the kitchen, Elena was munching on a bowl of cereal she had poured herself. He suddenly felt hungry- in a different way. He went to the fridge and got out one of the many blood bags he had between there and the basement. He drank it quickly and then sat at the table.

There was a silence for a few minutes. "Well this could get boring," he said. "I told you not to stay," she reminded him. "Don't say that. I'm just going to find out who this guy is. You have a computer?" he asked. "In the office on the top floor to the right." Damon went to the office at vampire speed and got impatient waiting for the computer to turn on.

When the screen lit up, Damon went to a search engine and simply typed the name Jason Black. The name not being unusual, there were 2,000 results. He began his research, narrowing it down to the Jason Black's that had substantial amounts of money or power. After an hour he printed out his results grimly and came downstairs.

"What did you find?" Elena asked him while doing the dishes. "Well he could be this kick boxer…" Damon joked, "Or he could be a legendary multi-millionaire who was supposed to be dead ten years ago." He threw his finding on the table. She wiped her hands on a towel and looked at them. "There have been quite a few sightings of him. Human resources though. Many think he's a ghost haunting them. The man was like head of his own mafia organization. Killed thousands. He didn't have to work a day in his life to get all that money. My guess is that he still is in the organization."

"What interest could he have with me?" Elena asked. "Well…you are important in the vampire world. He could have an interest in you for trophy reasons, considering your background of avoiding capture, or maybe…"

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe he knows someone that does know you."

"Like Katherine?"

"One of many options."