Having awakened at one in the afternoon with a massive headache after the bender he and Damon went on last evening, Stefan stumbles into the kitchen to get a bottle of water. He gulps it down, quickly following it with a second one. After taking some Advil, he makes some coffee and walks outside to get Damon's newspaper. He spends most of the afternoon recuperating from his God awful hangover. When the afternoon passes and Damon is nowhere to be seen, Stefan starts to worry. He hurries up the stairs to his brother's bedroom. A little part of him is terrified of going inside for fear of finding something that he doesn't want to find. Did they really drink that much last night that he could have...

Swallowing his fear, he twists open the doorknob and walks inside. He sighs visibly, his shoulders relaxing when he sees the rise and fall of his chest. Approaching the bedside, he gasps audibly when he sees the tortured look on Damon's face. He must be having a hell of nightmare.

"Damon?"

A familiar voice is slowly pulling him into consciousness. He tries to ignore it, he doesn't want to... he wants to sleep forever. There's nothing but pain, both physical and emotional, in the real world. Suddenly the night terrors are gone and he feels strangely calm the moment he sees her hand.

"Damon!"

The voice is becoming more insistent, it's harder to ignore. Is it Frederick? Jasper? When he sees her face, her mouth is moving but he can't hear her. Oddly enough she's pointing to a bright light, it's pristine, unblemished and blinding.

"Damon! Wake up, damn it."

No.

Increasingly frantic because no matter how hard he shakes him, Damon still isn't waking up. Seeing no other option, Stefan releases his grip. "You leave me no choice, brother."

Stefan?

Before he has a chance to react, a splash of cold water drenches him and his bedding in Stefan's last ditch effort to pull him back to consciousness. Damon gasps for air, feeling like a new born baby sucking in its first breath. When he lurches upright, he knocks Stefan off the bed and onto the floor in a heap.

"Thank God you're awake," Stefan blurts out while clumsily getting to his feet. "You slept like you were dead."

Damon doesn't find it funny at all. He's breathing so heavily that he's panting for air as he tries to wrap his mind around what he witnessed. Was it all a dream? It can't be, can it? It felt too real, too concrete, and yet.…

"How…?" he starts, his voice raspy. "How long…?"

Now that he knows his brother is okay, Stefan chuckles. "How long did you sleep? Like the whole day, man? It's almost six."

"A day? Really?" Damon breathes out incredulously, confusion washing all over his face. He looks at his hands, his skin, pinching himself to see if he's corporeal.

"Yes, Damon, really!" Stefan seems to be in a good mood. "You must have been drunker than I thought. Do you even remember how we got back here last night? It was a hell of a ride."

Damon looks at him perplexed. Although he's still soaking wet, he doesn't even acknowledge it.

"Are you alright, brother?" he asks when Damon still looks like he's seen a ghost.

"I guess…" Damon can't find the strength to explain, he feels so numb.

Was it really all just a dream?

He should probably feel relieved, he does, he could have been dead... Alive trumps dead but still. Damon mourns for the ancestor he never met, for the life he lost, for Elena, for his great, great, great, uncle or aunt that died along with her. Although nothing about this is his story, it certainly feels like it was. His heart hurts and his body feels crippled from the experience. Exhausted and tired, he can't even begin to explain how he could have lived the last few months of Damon's life.

And now he needs to accept it was just one drunken night.

"Hey, you're clearly still hungover, are you sure you're okay?" Stefan, ready to leave, sums up the situation. Damon just rolls his eyes in his brother's direction.

"You're a smartass, you know that! And you seem to be just fine. How is that, I've always been able to drink you under the table?"

"I was just as drunk as you were."

Damon eyes him warily. Maybe Stefan is right? Maybe he is finally losing his marbles. He's probably lucky he woke up at all.

"Look, Damon…., What I'm trying to say... is.. I'm glad we talked. And got drunk. It was a good night. Thank you."

Damon gives him a small smile, he can see the honesty and tries to appreciate it. "Yeah?"

When Stefan nods, Damon forces a smile. "Anytime brother."

Stefan pats his shoulder and then waves at him as he's backing out of the driveway.

Damon wishes his mind wasn't a chaotic mess of memories, past and present, real and fantasy.

He sits on his front steps for more than an hour, staring into space and still trying to make some sense of what he saw, of what he lived through. When he hears a bark, he leans over and tosses a Frisbee to Cooper but the moment the dog runs off, Damon's mind drifts again.

Cooper gets bored or maybe he's a little bit unsure about what happened to his master and starts yelping loudly to get his attention. When it doesn't have the desired effect, he starts poking him with his muzzle until Damon finally responds. "Okay Coop," he laughs then gets up and spurs him to follow.

"I think you're right buddy, we do need to get a little exercise."

They start walking down the familiar path that circles around the lake. At least Cooper knows where he's going because soon enough he's barking at his brother when they're in eye shot of Nik's place. He pulls free and bounds over to the other dog. Damon catches up with him just as Nik comes out on the porch.

"Hey, you two! Clearly you can't get enough of our company."

Damon joins him on the porch. "Hey, Nik."

Niklaus looks at him closely. He can see that something is on Damon's mind but he won't push until his friend is ready to talk. "Something to drink?"

Damon snaps his head, his eyes meeting Nik's as he takes a seat on one of the patio chairs.

"I heard you and Stefan drained the bar yesterday but something's telling me you could use one more…"

"You would be right about that. Thanks, Nik."

Nik gives him another look and disappears inside, reappearing shortly with two large hurricane glasses in his hands. "Here you go, buddy."

Damon mumbles a thank you under his breath.

"Man, you look terrible," Nik grins. "I don't ever remember seeing you this wasted, even after that blitz we went on after our senior prom. Man, my head still throbs when I think of that night." When Damon looks over, he clinks their glasses together, "Cheers."

"I'm not hungover."

"No? You could have fooled me."

They're sipping their drinks in companionable silence, Damon doesn't feel like himself no matter how hard he tries. Watching the dogs frolicking, playing around and running like they did when they were puppies, the quiet simplicity of the moment is helping to calm his shattered nerves. Nik brings his glass to his lips while watching his normally chatty friend. He can't help but wonder what's troubling Damon.

"It must have been some party, although you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard it was Stefan. Don't take this the wrong way, buddy but you look like you've aged 100 years."

Damon flinches at the choice of words. "It wasn't the party. I mean, it was good, but it wasn't it."

"Is it about your research?" Nik's curiosity is picked up.

"Sort of... I'm not sure I want to talk about it..., yet."

Nik finally picks up on the seriousness in his friend's expression. "What happened?" he asks concerned now.

Damon shortly looks at him and gets up. "That's the thing. Nothing. Nothing really happened."

"Hey, Damon?"

"Mayor...?!"

"Drop the formalities son, I'm not Mayor to you."

Damon's genuinely happy to hear his best friend's father. For as long as he can remember he's always called him.. "Uncle Mike. It's good to hear from you. I hope everything is alright?"

"Of course it is. I was wondering..., how would you like to go through the town's archives when you have time? I started to do it but it's proven to be much more difficult and time consuming than I could have imagined. I know that history runs in your blood so... ?"

"I'd love that," spills from Damon's mouth before he even gives it a thought. But once the excitement of his initial reaction begins to wane slight, he can't help but ask himself if he really wants to dig up anything new about Damon and his life? Doesn't he already know enough about his heartbreaking loss and all the things that weren't meant to be? "I... I...," he starts but Mikael interrupts him.

"Good, I'd ask my son, but he has such little respect for our traditions and history. I think you're exactly the right person for the job."

"Thanks. I'm honored that you thought of me. Just let me know when you want me, I'm flexible enough to make time for you."

"You can come tomorrow, I'll be there. As you know, the archive department is abandoned most of the time. You can make it your office until the end of summer. I had a new computer installed down there so you can work on your column at the same time if you need to."

"Really? That sounds wonderful, uncle Mike." Despite the melancholy he still feels, he can't help but be a little excited about what he might uncover.

Mikael laughs, clearly satisfied that he managed to get some enthusiasm out of him."Alright then. See you tomorrow?"

"I'll be there. Thanks!"

Damon's not sure why this idea excites him, maybe it's because he's been so enraptured of the subject for so very long and perhaps it's his love and passion for history? Whatever the reason, he wants to know more. And he needs to thank Nik, he's sure he's somehow responsible for this opportunity.

The fog and dust deteriorate his field of vision, he can see nothing except shadows that might be his fellow soldiers. The voices are strangely muffled and Damon wonders if it's just an echo of some battle or if he's losing contact with reality again. Is he dead now? Is this what his dying mind perceived while he was already leaving his ancestor's body? He wants to hold onto the feeling, the need to get down to the nitty-gritty, but it's already slipping between his fingers.

"Damon...," he hears her sweet voice and with that, his eyes slowly open.

Mikael Mikaelson has been more than his best friend's father for as long as he can remember. It's the same as his dad, Zachary, is to Nik and the rest of his siblings. They spent hours at each others houses, he can remember playing hide and seek and other silly kids games. They played baseball on the same team, his dad and Mikael were their coaches. They came in first place that year. The swimming hole down at the lake was their favorite escape.

Uncle Mike has always been his biggest champion when Damon decided to become a history major in college, later specializing in the American Civil War. He wanted to turn his love of history into another love, that of writing. Mikael gave him his first opportunity at his newspaper when he was in high school. He got to do a small column every week on what was going on, sporting events, class projects, plays, concerts that sort of thing. Damon has his first article from the Mystic Falls Gazette framed and hanging on the wall in his home office. He did all that to try to encourage his young skull full of mush as his dad would say once in awhile. He did all of that without trying to nudge Damon in one direction or the other.

He gave him the same support he gave his own sons. His parents never needed to worry when a teenaged Damon was headed to spend the weekend at the Mikaelson home. Damon sucks in a deep breath then pulls open one side of the double doors at City Hall. It's a small town so the building is rather small but it's old, dating back to the late 1850's. The stone work is exemplary. The cornerstone outside memorializes the men who helped to build it and another monument is dedicated to the local young men that died in the Civil War, including one Damon Jonah Salvatore.

When he steps into the Mayor's office, he comes to face with Mikael's trusted assisted, the one and only Honoria Fell. She's older but she's tough as nails and could easily be in a command of regiment and make her men scurry. Damon remembers how scared they all were of her imposing figure when they were kids. Every Halloween, she would dress up like the Wicked Witch of the West and would scare the bejeebies out of them. No one wanted to take the candied apples she made for fear they were tainted.

Damon finds himself laughing under his breath. They couldn't have been more wrong about her, she's really a great lady and very kind too.

"Damon!" She stands up to shake his hand looking pleased. "How are Zachary and your mother? I haven't seen either of them for awhile."

"They're good and thank you for asking. Both of my parents have their hands full with Stefan's upcoming wedding."

"Ah, I heard. Give them my best wishes will you?"

"I will be sure to pass on your best regards. Is he….?"

"Yes of course, you can come in, he's waiting for you."

Honoria peeps inside the Mayor's office to notify him of Damon's arrival and gestures for him to come inside, then she quietly closes the door behind her.

Mikael stands up to greet Damon with a hug. "I swear you look taller and taller," he jokes and for some indescribable reason Damon feels better in his presence.

"Thank you, uncle, exactly what I needed to hear," which is actually pretty close to the truth.

"Come," he nudges Damon, "I have the room ready for you."

The archive is usually a dark inhospitable, dank smelling room, Damon's been there a few times when doing research for some of his articles. But now it's well ventilated, there's more light, florescent ceiling lights and a nice roomy table to spread documents out on, a computer and brand new shelves to put the cataloged papers, photos and other items in order.

"Wow," he turns to Mikael.

"Do you have everything you need?"

Damon nods excitedly.

"I trust you, Damon, and I know I don't need to say this but I'm going to anyway, as the Mayor and not your uncle. I expect everything to be sorted meticulously and placed in proper order. I want these relics of our town to be available for generations to come. That's why I want you to scan them into the computer while you're doing it. That way should there ever be a fire or something and we lose these treasures, at least we'll still have the computer records. I believe you have enough information here to write a whole series of books on the Civil War but that's for you to decide of course."

Damon is touched but when he tries to express his gratitude, Mikael just waves him off.

"It's alright son. If you find that you're lacking, something you need, let me know. And if you find anything interesting, something that's been hidden for a well the better part of a century and a half, don't hesitate to give me a ring. Perhaps the town can profit from you work too. If you need a break, there's a break room down the hall with a coffee pot and a fridge. It's full of soda and ice water. I repeat, if you need anything, you know where to find me," he heads to the door, where he stops for a moment.

He looks over his shoulder at Damon. "Oh, and that box under the window. Those are artifacts and treasures that Honoria managed to collect from some of the families. There's no doubt in my mind that they'll open up a whole new world, you have never seen them before, I guarantee it."

Damon knows he means founding families, he's excited for what they were able to find. He thanks Mikael again and watches him till he closes the door, shutting Damon off from his world. Damon steps back and looks at the daunting task before him. He shakes his head, slips off his jacket and after he rolls up his sleeves, he gets into work.

It's been a pretty exhausting day but Damon finally feels like he's come up with a plan that is going to make this job a little bit easier. A lot of the documents are in no order at all aside from being categorized by year but inside the files, the dates are a miss match of disorder.

He now knows more about Damon than he ever had before. He hopes that he can somehow test his theory about his surreal experience. It felt so real, so true but how could it be? He's alive and breathing in 2018, it couldn't have been real but what if... what if some unknown phenomena made it possible, a modern day Philadelphia Experiment?

Damon drops his face in his hands for a few seconds, no matter how hard he tries to come up with a plausible explanation, he's left grasping at straws. He stands up to stretch his limbs a bit, his eyes raking over the room.

This job is going to be so much more work than he originally thought but this stuff is what he lives for. Stefan and Nik too have teased him that he gets hard over stuff like this. Although he laughed at them, it really wasn't that far fetched.

Although he barely made a dent in the job today, he wasn't entirely unsuccessful either. Honoria's box was a treasure in and of itself. It is filled with photographs, letters, written notes, recipes and other things that would be meaningless to some but to Damon, they're as valuable as The Hope Diamond. As he was carefully looking through the box, he found a few photographs with Damon, one of the Salvatore family and an old poster advertising a town event. He's going to have to look more closely at them later.

He drives home after a tiring day. After having an ice cold bottle of beer, he strips out of his clothes and steps into the bathroom, relaxing with a long and refreshing shower. By the time he steps out, he feels almost normal. Almost. He definitely needs to shave, so he ignores the warring voices in his head and focuses on the routine itself. He starts to spread a dollop of shaving cream on his face when his eye happens to catch a glimpse of something that shouldn't be there... not to this extent anyway.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Damon is stunned to see a large scar on his left shoulder.

Thank you all so much. I don't have words enough to truly express how grateful Eva and I are for all that you do for us. Thank you for loving Damon and Elena as much as we do, for all of your incredible reviews, the follows and the favorites... Really, you're all amazing and beautiful people, thank you.

Philadelphia Experiment: The Philadelphia Experiment story is one of time travel, teleportation and deep-rooted conspiracy. Officially it's a footnote in US history with the true story of events obscured by rumors spanning decades. As the story goes, during the deep days of WW2, a US Naval Destroyer, the USS Eldridge allegedly vanished from the waters outside of Philadelphia, only to reappear instantaneously hundreds of miles away.

And Eva, I love you dearly, thank you.

Chapter title: 'Alone' by Heart.

Please have a look at 'November Rain'.

Have a safe and wonderful day. Until next time.