A.N: Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone that reviewed :) Here's another chappie!

Disclaimer: Still don't own The Vampire Diaries.

Chapter 3

Slurp. Slurrrp. Mmm. Blood. Elena took her time with the blood bag, lounging on a sofa in the main room of the Salvatore Boarding House. Stefan had spent the night at her house last night, so she hadn't had to deal with the whole kissing thing yet. She hoped she wouldn't have to. She wasn't sure she'd be able to resist him.

She missed her life. Missed hanging out with her friends, and going on dates with her boyfriend. Tomorrow spring break ended, and if they were lucky Bonnie would be able to change them back right away.

It won't change the fact Stefan wants to make out with Damon... She tried to get that thought out of her head, but it refused to budge. It only grew and swelled. Is he just playing with my emotions? He seems to sincerely love me, but if he does, why would he-

Elena froze, looking up from her blood bag. Silent as can be, she had only heard someone entering because of her advanced vampire hearing. Before her stood Anna and her mother... Pearl? She swallowed hard. Pearl's eyes were steely and dangerous.

She wasn't sure if Damon could fight her off or not, but she knew for a fact that she- Elena- in Damon's body sure couldn't. Hopefully they weren't here to kill her. Damon would never forgive her if she got his body killed. He also wouldn't forgive me if I made him look like a wimp. She forced herself to her feet. "Nice of you to invite yourself in." Their. Sarcasm.

First chance I get, I have to attack her... Maybe, if I catch her off guard...? I just have to think like Damon...

"Yes, and I must say I'm surprised you don't have a human living with you," said Pearl. "How do you keep out unwelcome vampires?"

Action first, thought second. Elena had a hand around Pearl's throat, as she spat out, "I kill them."

Veins appeared beneath brown eyes, fangs appearing as Pearl gripped her wrist. Pain flared in Elena's arm as it was bent backward, only ceasing when Pearl released her to fall onto the sofa with an ordered, "Sit." Elena did as told, eying the vampire warily.

Pearl started talking as if she hadn't just been attacked. As if they were old friends. "The tomb vampires and I have settled in a Farm House just outside Mystic Falls."

"Wait, they escaped?" asked Elena, nearly getting up again at this. A look from Pearl halted her.

"The witches messed up the tomb spell," Anna chimed in.

"And... all twenty-some of them are living with you?"

Pearl said, "A few left town. The rest are trying to acclimate, like Anna and myself. This town is our home, and we plan on taking it back."

Elena stared for a moment. "You mean like... some big revenge scheme? These aren't the same people that trapped you. That was over a hundred years ago."

"We're not here for revenge," Pearl clarified. "However, I need you to do some things for me. I heard that the Founder's have a secret council, and you're on it." How had Damon ever managed to get on the council? Elena had little time to ponder it as Pearl continued, "I will need a list of all the people on the council and their family members. Also, I heard you're supplying them with vervain. That will have to stop."

Panic only grew with every spoken word. "I'm not just going to do what you tell me to do," Elena said. She couldn't betray her friends like that. She wouldn't.

"If you do, I'm willing to give you the one thing you want most," said Pearl. At Elena's blank stare, she continued, "Katherine."

"...what?" Thank god Damon wasn't here! Who knew what he'd do if he was given this offer? Still, she had to give a Damon-esque response. "How would you even know where she is?"

"Katherine and I were best friends long before we ever went to Mystic Falls," said Pearl. "I know her thoughts and her patterns. I can find her."

Elena really doubted finding Katherine was that easy. "Even if you could find Katherine, you can't give her to me. She's made it clear she wants nothing to do with me, and you know what? I want nothing to do with her, too. If she did she would've shown up during the last 145 years. And I refuse to be your little minion."

Pearl's eyes became piercing, aura dark and intimidating. Elena went to shrink back into the sofa, hoping to become invisi-

White hot, immobilizing pain. She couldn't even scream, voice stuck in her throat, only whimpers and groans escaping. The thumbs shoved in her eye sockets pulled out, leaving her gasping and trembling on the floor, on her hands and knees.

Elena could barely make out Pearl's words through the flaring pain, as she said, "I could rip you limb from limb without blinking, and you know it. I'll be in touch."

Buzzzz buzzzz buzzzz. "Ouch!" Damon winced. The moment he decided to test out the eyeliner pencil, he got a text and poked himself in the eye with it. Go figure. The text could wait for him to rinse out his poor eyeball...

When he finally got to it, he found three messages, all from 'Damon'.

11:08 am

Pearl threatened me. We need to talk.

11:09 am

She poked out my eyes with her thumbs! They grew back, thank God, but it seriously freaked me out.

So complaining about the eyeliner thing was off the list... He winced, regretful that Elena had to deal with all this. He could handle threats and pain. He wasn't sure she could. At least not to that extent.

11:09 am

Please hurry. Tomb vamps escaped. Freaking out here.

That answered that. To the Salvatore Boarding House it was.

He ran right into Anna on his way out. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"She's a friend of mine," said Jeremy, entering the hall from his bedroom. "She's cool."

Damon tried to keep his expression neutral. He'd talk to Elena about it. For now, he cast them both strange looks and made for the front door.

When Damon entered the Salvatore Boarding House, Elena was immediately before him. He looked up at her, taking in the sunglasses. The tensed features. "...are you alright?" he asked.

"I just had my eyes stabbed out by a vampire's thumbs. I am not alright." Her voice was shaking. "Damon, what're we going to do? What if she comes back?"

He placed a hand on her trembling forearm. If she wasn't a vampire, he'd be worried she was about to go into cardiac arrest. "C'mon, let's sit down. You can tell me what happened." He heard slight sniffling, even as he saw no sign of tears. That could have been a side effect of the tear ducts being destroyed, though. She gave a slight nod.

Once they had resettled on the couch, she began to relay the events to him.

"-and told me to stop supplying the Founder's Council with vervain. I can't do that. I have friends whose parents are on the Founder's Council. Damon, I don't want to do what she says. I won't."

"Bonnie should be at school tomorrow. She'll switch us back and you won't have to deal with Pearl anymore." It sounded good in theory.

"Will you do what she wants?" Elena asked, horrified.

"Of course not," he scoffed. "I won't follow orders because of a bit of pain. I'm not afraid of her." Even if she happened to be a thousand times stronger than him, and could kill him in an instant... Nonetheless, death would be better than becoming Pearl's minion. Elena didn't look any less worried. "Just relax. Tomorrow Bonnie will help us get this all sorted out, and you won't have to worry about it."

"-and you have English last. Can you remember all that?"

As traumatized as Elena was last night, she sure appeared fine this morning. Damon replied, "For the most part. Doesn't matter, since you wrote it down for me." He held up the paper with class instructions, locker combo, relationships, teachers' names, and everything else he could possibly need to be Elena at school. "Besides, it's only for one day. Even if I do mess up, it won't really effect you."

Elena gave a brief nod, anxiety plastered across her features. Damon was still just as taken aback by Elena's emotions on his body as he had been when the switch had first happened. He headed for the stairs.

"Wait!" Elena's shout caused Damon to pause. "I'll drive you to school. So I know you actually went."

Damon raised a brow. "We need Bonnie's help. Of course I'm actually going. I don't enjoy being in your body, Elena." Well, he did, but he much preferred to be in his own. If only so Elena wouldn't have to deal with being a vampire with endless enemies. When she didn't make any continued effort to stop him, he made his way out by himself.

"...Elena? Are you alright?" Caroline observed her friend, who remained fixed to her phone. She leaned over, catching a glimpse of the screen. "...you're texting Damon?" Caroline nearly flinched as brown eyes suddenly locked on her, brimming with intensity.

"Why hasn't Bonnie shown up today?"

Caroline frowned, trying to comprehend what her friend meant. "Because she hasn't woken up yet...?"

Elena's scowl was scary, and somehow made Caroline think of Damon. "It's lunch time. I really doubt she's sleeping in this late."

"Sleeping in?" Suddenly, it all made sense to Caroline. "No one told you?"

"Told me what?"

Caroline backed away from her scary friend. "Bonnie fell into a coma a few days ago. She's in the hospital."

"What?"

"Don't yell at me. I didn't know you weren't told," said Caroline. "I thought her family would call you, too." Elena didn't even glance at her, getting up and making a run for the parking lot.

Caroline sighed, getting up from the picnic table. Maybe she could find Matt and hang out with him.

"Caroline? Have you seen Elena?"

The blond looked up at the sound of Stefan's voice. "Yeah. I told her Bonnie's in a coma, and she freaked out and ran away. Literally."

Stefan narrowed his eyes in ponderment. Caroline liked Stefan. He may disappear and reappear randomly, but he was hot and nice. A rare specimen. He interrupted her thoughts as he said, "Did she tell you where she was going? She won't answer my texts."

Caroline shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe the hospital? Or maybe to Damon, she was texting him a lot." It was only when Stefan suddenly disappeared that she wondered if it had been ok to tell him that. She hoped she hadn't broken the friend code on accident.

She was so still... How had this happened? Elena sniffed, gently placing a hand on top of Bonnie's left one. "What if she isn't the one that did this to us?" she asked, tearfully, the words sounding pitiful and heartbreaking when coming from Damon's body. "Or what if she did, and we're stuck like this forever? What if she never wakes up?" Her breathing was erratic. "What are we going to do?"

A small, yet firm hand was placed on her shoulder, guiding her to look at Damon. His feminine brown eyes were deep and hard to read. "We'll find a way to fix this, even if we have to go find another witch. Besides, the nurse told us she could wake up at any time. And the fact she's passed out just proves to me that she's the cause of this. I'm betting it took too much energy out of her, and knocked her out."

Elena sniffed, wiping a runny nose with the back of her hand. "I hope so. I really do." At the sound of her phone buzzing- most definitely not for the first time that afternoon- she lifted it to her ear. "Stefan?" She cleared her throat, forcing her voice to come out stronger the next time she spoke.

"Is Elena with you? She's not answering her texts, and her phone goes straight to voicemail."

"Yeah, she's here. Probably just busy freaking out over her comatose friend." There. Almost managed sarcasm, despite the anxiety pulsing through her.

"Keep her company until I get there. She shouldn't have to be alone right now."

"You want me to-"

"I know you care for her, Damon. Do this for her." The line went dead.

At Damon's expectant look, Elena explained, "Stefan's on his way. You might want to look a bit more depressed."

"You might want to look a bit less depressed," he replied, even as he fixed his expression into one of sorrow.

Elena rubbed the tears from her eyes, taking deep breaths. He was right.

The door flew open, Stefan immediately approaching Damon-in-Elena's-body as he entered the room. "Caroline told me. I got here as soon as I could."

Elena was distracted from her own misery by Damon's behavior. Somehow, he managed to have tears rolling down his human cheeks, big doe eyes deep with emotion as he clung onto Stefan for dear life.

"What did this to her?" sobbed Damon. If Elena didn't know better, she'd think he was being sincere. "Why is she in a coma, Stefan?"

Stefan tightened his embrace on 'Elena's body'. Elena couldn't help but be touched by the display. Stefan mouthed a 'thank you' to her.

"C'mon, I'll drive you home," said Stefan, guiding Damon out. Damon clung onto Stefan the entire time, keeping up the act of traumatized teenager; protecting their secret.

Or is he? Elena grimaced. What if Damon was really just doing it because he wanted to touch Stefan? She had been the one to suggest Damon reciprocates Stefan's touch, but it had been with the thought that he'd be forcing himself through it. Not that he'd be looking forward to it- enjoying it even.

With a thought-plagued mind, she headed to the Salvatore Boarding House.

Stefan paused for a moment outside the Boarding House door, listening intently. Determining his brother was inside, he entered. He followed his ears to his own room, pausing at the doorway.

"Damon" lay on his back on Stefan's bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Damon?"

Damon sat up, eying Stefan with confusion. But there was also... pain in those brilliant blue orbs. What was wrong with his brother? Was he remembering Katherine again? If so, why was he so quiet? Pain plus Damon usually equalled catastrophe, blood, and/ or carnage. "Weren't you going to spend the night with Elena?" Damon asked.

"She wanted to be alone tonight," Stefan informed. He treaded with slow, cautious steps towards his brother, waiting for him to start acting normal any moment. "What's going on with you? You aren't acting like yourself."

Damon cringed. Very un-Damon-like. "You noticed."

"And...?" Stefan pressed. Blue orbs were suddenly locked on him, intense and inescapable.

"The truth is... Bonnie cast a spell," said Damon. He paused, looking like he was thinking hard.

"A... spell? On you?"

"She cast a spell... to make me human. But instead, it just ended up messing with my head."

"That would explain a lot of things," Stefan admitted. From Damon's foreign expressions, to the way he ran to the hospital to see the comatose Bonnie, it helped Stefan put some pieces together.

His brother abruptly got up, making for the door. "As nice as this brotherly chat is, I've got better things to do with my time." It was like a switch had been flipped. The sad, desperate gaze had changed into indifferent cockiness. To do such a 180... Bonnie's spell really must be messing with Damon's head.

"I can't let you go out there like that. You're unstable."

Damon raised a brow. "You think you can stop me? On your diet of woodland creatures?"

Normally Stefan would know he stood no chance. But with this whole spell thing... He didn't fully understand it, but clearly it messed with Damon's emotions. If he could find a way to use that against Damon, he'd have a chance.

Damon must have taken Stefan's silence as a sign he had given up, continuing on his trek to the front door.

The sound of snapping wood filled the air, as Stefan slammed Damon up against the wall. Blue eyes flared with fury, Stefan yelling out in pain as a broken chair leg entered his abdomen. Doubled over, he grasped the wood in his right hand. The blood made his grip slippery. He chanced a look up, taken aback by the look of worry on Damon's face. There really was something wrong with his brother...

Yanking out the wood, he immediately stabbed it into Damon's abdomen, pressing the blue-eyed vampire against the floor and twisting. How much time did Stefan have before Damon regained his senses? Judging by the rapidly changing expression on his brother's face, not much. He had to do something. Something that would help keep Damon in his weirdly-weak-emotional-spelled-state... Something that would give Stefan the upper hand... But what? What had made Damon react strangely in the last few days?

When the struggling faded, Stefan knew he had made the right choice. He had a hard time thinking beyond that, as Damon returned the unexpected kiss. Stefan's head swam with pleasure as arms wrapped around him, holding him closer.

It felt... different than he remembered. Gentler. Sweeter. It didn't feel like Damon at all. He couldn't place it, but somehow, it still managed to feel familiar... He couldn't help but welcome the strange embrace, his body recognizing the way it was being treated, despite the fact Damon couldn't have ever done such things before... Damon had always been so rough.

The way Damon nibbled on his lower lip was so different, and yet...

A sudden shove sent him flying, crashing into the sofa. He forced his eyes to open through the pain, looking around. Damon was gone.

A.N: Hope you enjoyed! Please review :)