EPOV

After crying for what seemed like hours, my eyes began to dry and I felt Damon lift me from the steps. "Put me down, Damon," I sniffled, placing my hands on his chest and pushing. His grip around my body only tightened and his arms became like steel as he moved to the front door.

"Invite me in, Elena," he said calmly.

I looked up at him. "What?"

His eyes rolled, but he continued to stare straight ahead. "You have to invite me in for me to enter the house."

My mouth formed a small 'O' as I began to understand. In classic vampires tales, vampires were unable to go into someone's house unless a living person said they could. Apparently that wasn't just the case in classic tales. I narrowed my eyes slightly. Why would I invite Damon into my house? Invite a vampire into my house? "No," I answered dryly, my lips pressing into a hard line.

He looked down at me. "You're not going to invite me in?" he asked in an annoyed tone.

"No," I repeated and pushed against his chest again. "Put me down."

With a heavy sigh, he leaned his head down and his gaze became intense. "Elena, invite me in," he said coolly and I could see his pupils dilate slightly. "Now."

My brow furrowed. Who did he think he was that he could just tell me what to do? "No," I said again with fierce finality. "Put. Me. Down."

He moved his head back a little and his brow pulled together in a look of confusion…or shock, I couldn't really tell. We stared at each other intently for several moments before his brows fell and a look of understand crossed his face. "Shit. The tea," he muttered. "Fucking Stefan."

Now it was my turn to be confused. "What?"

With another sigh, he placed me on my feet. "I suppose you don't have to invite me in after all," he answered, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his hip on the frame of the door.

His response did nothing to cure my confusion. "Um…no…I don't have to…" I concurred slowly, not exactly sure what was going on. I turned to the door, which was still slightly open from earlier, and started to walk through. I felt his cool fingers wrap around my upper arm and stop me. I turned to look at him.

"I'll find out what's going on, Elena," he told me, his eyes burning intensely.

I looked down and simply nodded. I shook off his hand, turned and shut the door, all the while avoiding making further eye contact with the man who had held and comforted me for an hour or so.

I turned around to walk into my living room and when I looked up, my heart dropped into my stomach; everything had been turned over, smashed to pieces, ripped apart. My knees shook and I threw out a hand against the wall to keep me upright.

"D-Damon," I tried to stutter, but apparently the air had been taken out of me as well and I barely made a squeak. My eyes burned again, longing for tears to sprout, but I was all cried out and none came. "Damon," I said again a bit more loudly as my breathing hitched and I felt the signs of a panic attack stirring. My eyes were locked on my destroyed living room. After a few quick, sharp inhales, my knees gave out and I fell, clutching the carpet beneath my trembling fingers. I pushed my back roughly against the wall. "Damon!" I shouted, and squeezed my eyes tightly shut as my chest began to burn with the lack of actual breaths. Wheezing sounds escaped my mouth as I searched for the air.

"Elena?" I heard him call out, then the door beside me burst open and a much-needed gust of wind whipped around my face. I gasped for the air desperately. "Elena, let me in," he commanded.

I nodded and brought a hand to my chest, my eyes still closed.

"Elena, you have to say it!"

"Come in," I whispered between inhales. Damon's arms quickly found their way around my torso again and he lifted me against his chest. My body shook with my shuttering exhales.

"It's okay, Elena, breath," he said softly, rubbing up and down my spine with feathery fingers. "Just breath. It's okay."

My jerky breathing began to even out as I stood against his chest and the panic attack began to subside. It took several minutes for me to finally calm down. "Why?" I asked quietly, my mind beginning to go numb.

I felt his head move above me as he looked around. "I don't know," he whispered.

"How did she get in?" I asked, knowing he would know who I was talking about and wouldn't argue my assumption that it had been her who had done this.

He shrugged. "She could've gone to your landlord and said she lost her keys and he let her in. She might've just compelled him to invite her in. Who really knows."

My forehead wrinkled as my brow pulled together and I leaned away from his chest to look up at him. "Compel?"

His jaw tensed and he closed his eyes for a moment; I had obviously wandered into a conversation he didn't want to have. When he opened his eyes, I saw a brief war happening behind them before a defensive, shielded glaze washed over them. "We can compel humans," he said matter-of-factly.

My lips parted slightly and I stepped away so that the only part of our bodies still connected were his hands resting lightly on my hips. "What do you mean, Damon?" Echoes of Stefan's words began to ring in my ears – "It's not your fault, love."

He dropped his hands from my sides. "I don't know how to better explain it to you," he responded in a snide tone.

I stepped back again and felt my heart picking up speed. Damon had compelled me. I hadn't wanted to have sex with him. He…made me? "You raped me," I gasped quietly.

The defensive shield fell quickly and he shook his head. "No," he said sternly. "I absolutely did not." He took a step forward and I matched it with a step backward. "I didn't have you do anything you didn't already want to do."

"But I…" – I didn't want to have sex with him – "I didn't…" – it had felt so right, though – "I'm with Stefan…" – I had thought of Stefan, hadn't I? – "I…couldn't… No…" I shook my head as the thoughts spiraled in my mind and things started to get blurry as my body and mind decided it couldn't handle anymore and took it upon itself to shut down. With one last blink, the world went black.

DPOV

I watched in near slow motion as she began to sway with each word spoken. I saw her knees trembling and could hear the pace of her heart. I saw her mind struggling to grasp the situation and fail miserably. As she made her way to the ground, I found my arms wrapped around the girls' small body for the third time that day; protecting her, comforting her, holding her.

I lowered us to the ground and her hair was sprawled across her face as she lied haphazardly across my lap. I looked down at her and watched my hand wipe away the brown locks.

What was happening to me? When she had thought I raped her I…I instantly wished she had a stake in her hand and was plunging it through my chest. I wasn't that much of a monster…was I? I didn't force her to have emotions for me. I had only forced her to confront those emotions. No, I didn't think that was at all morally or ethically correct, but, really, when had I ever done anything morally or ethically correct?

I lifted my eyes to the destroyed room in front of me and a spark of anger ignited in my chest. I didn't know what kind of game Katherine was deciding to start, but I was sure it wasn't one she wanted to play with me. I didn't know what she had done earlier to make Elena so upset, but this was obviously just the icing on the cake. I looked back down at Elena and mentally vowed to her that I would shove said cake down Katherine's throat and choke her with it.

I closed my eyes and suppressed a groan. Why was I so adamant about protecting this girl? Was it because I just wanted a reason to kill Katherine and being able to say "I was protecting Elena" was a fucking fantastic excuse. I opened my eyes again and looked at her. No…that wasn't the reason. I genuinely wanted to make everything okay for her again.

Earlier when she had thrown her fit, I let her get it all out up to the point I knew she might end up just hurting herself if she continued. I wanted her to be the one to allow herself to confront her emotions for once. I was glad to see her finally breaking down; not staying strong just for the sake of others. And to be honest, I also wanted her to get it out because I wanted to be berated by her. Masochistic, I know. As much as she hated me, I hated myself more for bringing all of this into her life. Of course Stefan had really started it all by being with her in the first place, but my appearance in their lives obviously got the ball rolling.

When she was pounding her fists against my chest, it was almost like the thrumming of a heartbeat and I reveled in the feeling. When she was at the peak of her anger, the thrumming was quick and hard. When she was starting to weaken, it slowed and I could barely feel it anymore. For the first time, I was able to actually feel her emotions without just seeing them or hearing them. I definitely felt more empathy than before for her. I was finally able to see how Elena worked – she let everything build up until it exploded.

I watched her breaths come and go evenly. Everything about this girl was changing me. She was on my mind more often than not and I almost felt like I cared for something. I almost wanted to pick her up and carry her to Eden Prairie, Minnesota – often ranked one of the nicest cities in the U.S – just to get her away from all of this craziness. I knew, however, that if it were Katherine doing these things to her, there would be nowhere Elena could move to get away from it.

I looked back to the room and sighed. There was no way Elena would be able to live here with the place like this. It was damn near squalor without everything being strewn about. And honestly…there was no way I would let Elena live here by herself period if Katherine was out there.

I scooped my arms underneath Elena's body and stood up with her. I had a feeling when she finally woke up, she would be pretty angry at what I was about to do.

SPOV

I paced across the faded rug in the parlor of my house as my mind searched for a reason I could go to Elena without it seeming like I was just showing up to check up on her. I thought about upstairs in my room. Maybe she had left something and I could simply be "returning it."

As I was about to turn to go check, I heard the front door open and heavy footsteps walk across the wooden floor. I went toward the sound and rounded the corner to find Damon…holding an unconscious Elena?

I didn't waste time using human speed to get over to them. "What's wrong with her? What did you do, Damon?" I asked angrily, pulling Elena from his arms and into mine.

Damon huffed and folded his arms. "What makes you think it's always me that did something?"

I glared up at him. "It usually is."

He shook his head and walked past me to enter the parlor. "Well, this time it wasn't."

I looked back down at Elena. I could feel her pulse pumping steadily under her skin and I felt a slight wave of relief. "What happened, Damon?" I asked after a few moments, finally being able to speak in a more level tone.

He sat down on the couch. "Who do you think happened, Stefan?"

I closed my eyes. "Katherine," I stated quietly.

"Bingo."

I turned around to face him, shifting Elena so that I was holding her closer to me. "I knew she was upset about the jobs, but I didn't know she was going to get this bad," I sad sadly, looking back down at her.

"The jobs?" Damon asked in a questioning tone.

I lifted an eyebrow and returned my gaze to him. "Yes… the jobs…" I said slowly.

He sat up a bit more straight. "Stefan, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Katherine apparently called and quit both of her jobs."

Damon's jaw went slack for a moment and he sighed an "Oh."

"What do you know that happened?" I asked, realizing this news was new to him. Apparently something else had happened.

He leaned back again. "I went to her place and –"

"What were you doing at her place?" I nearly shouted. I didn't want Damon anywhere near Elena, much less be alone with her.

He held up a hand. "Let. Me. Finish," he said through clenched teeth. "She was crying and she wouldn't tell me why. Now," he continued, drawing out the word, "I obviously know what happened. Anyway, so she went inside and her place pretty much looks like it was the battleground for World War III."

My body felt cold for the first time in a long time. "Katherine was in her home?"

"That's my assumption."

I unconsciously shifted again so that my arms curled up slightly to press her closer to my chest. I looked down at her. "What do we do, Damon?

He was silent for a moment. "We keep her here," he finally said.

My eyes snapped back to his. "She won't want that, Damon." He shrugged. "Damon, she'll hate me if I force her to stay here." Didn't he understand that the last thing I wanted was to give Elena another reason to be mad at me? I was more than in love with her and keeping her hostage was not exactly the way to say that.

He leaned forward so that his arms were resting on his legs. "Stefan, she already hates you. And me for that matter." He let out a humorless chuckle. "She more than expressed that earlier." He shook his head slightly and let out a sigh before sitting back again. "The only way to protect her is to keep her here. At least until we figure out what's going on with Katherine. Then she can leave, never to return again, and all that jazz." His eyes fell from mine to the floor.

My jaw tightened as an odd feeling of…jealousy? washed over me. Damon was absolutely right – there was no other way for me to be sure I could protect her unless I kept her here, but…it shouldn't have been him to come up with this plan. He shouldn't care if she's safe or not. That was my job. That was her boyfriend's job. And he most certainly shouldn't look sad at the fact she may leave and never come back. "Fine, Damon," I started with a small nod. "She stays here…but you leave."

He smirked his obnoxiously cocky grin. "Then how will you protect her if Katherine comes around? You can't fight Katherine and shield her at the same time."

I hated Damon. Once upon a time, I loved him, nearly worshiped him. He was once the greatest older brother anyone could ask for. And then she came along and everything went to hell. She destroyed anything that was ever good about Damon.

I sighed and nodded, knowing that he wouldn't leave and trying to get him to go wasn't worth the fight that would take place. I turned and started for the stairs. I heard him shift on the couch. "Where are you going?" he asked from behind me.

I looked back at him with narrowed eyes. "Why do you even care, Damon?" I finally asked aloud.

His eyes were unguarded for a brief second and the jealousy inside of me flared again. He relaxed into the couch after a moment. "Just want to know where the person I need to be saving is going to be."

I glared at him for several seconds. "She'll be in bed," I responded dryly, then used inhuman speed to reach the bedroom before he could speak again.

Gently, I lowered Elena into my bed and pulled the covers up around her body. Staring down at her, I wished desperately that I could take all the pain away from her. I wished I could be better for her and give her everything she deserved. I wished I wasn't introducing her to a new form of hell on earth named Katherine. I shook my head slightly. Instead of thinking those thoughts, I needed to focus on how I could protect her. I needed to keep her safe. And if I failed…it would be the last thing I ever did. Damon was right. She had to stay here. It was the only way. I leaned down and softly kissed her forehead.

She was really going to hate me when she woke up.

Authors Note: Sigh. Wouldn't we all just love for two exceptionally attractive vampires to be fighting over us? Lol.

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