Ten days had passed, the grapevine was buzzing, and it was time for the group to split. Damon was headed back to Mystic Falls. Katherine told Stefan to stay behind and wait for her at the hotel. She wanted to talk to Damon alone. He agreed without argument, saying he would find something to do. She noticed that the courtesy hotel envelope and writing paper were missing, but she made no comment.

Stefan walked Damon out to his rental car. Katherine has just driven away. They stood in the cool night air, facing each other, silent. Finally, Damon shrugged and looked away. "Never know what to say . . . but thanks . . . . and sorry." He looked back at Stefan. "I didn't want this. Any of this . . not the stuff in Mystic Falls . . not you doing this."

Stefan sighed. "I know. I . . I couldn't,ah, it's only ten years. Maybe when we see each other again, we can be friends."

Damon nodded and walked away. Stefan called after him. "I still owe you a sucker punch and a couple of kicks."

Damon, turned, smiling broadly. "You can try and deliver, little bro. You can try."

Stefan returned the smile and shoved his hands in his pocket while he watched Damon get in his car and head out to where Katherine had told him to meet her.

The two vehicles arrived within minutes of each other. Katherine didn't get out until Damon's rental car pulled up behind hers. They looked at each other for a moment before Katherine turned and leisurely strolled out into the meadow they had parked in front of. Damon good naturedly kept pace with her.

"So, you called this powwow, what's it about?" Damon finally asked, his curiosity overcoming him.

"I want you to know that Stefan will be safe with me. I'll keep him on human blood, and I'll make sure he can handle it. No rippers allowed!" She gave an amused chuckle. "Wasn't there a phrase way back when about living long and prospering? He will."

Damon frowned. "Why are you bothering to tell me this? I could care less about Stefan. He made this dumb agreement after I told him not to."

Katherine put a hand on his arm and spun him around to face her. She wore that amused, knowing, taunting smile that he hated to be the butt of on her face. "You're trying to fake the world's best faker, Damon. Really? How come when you take your revenge you take it out on his girls? Wasn't there a Callie Gallagher that actually saved you, but you killed her and not your brother? And was it chance that you killed his best friend, not that the wench didn't deserve to die, mind you? The person he always turned to in times of trouble . . .hmmm! Someone who didn't know better might be fooled into thinking that your aim was to leave him no one else to turn to but you!" Her tone was a little sarcastic when she uttered that last phrase.

Katherine started to count off on her fingers. "And when Klaus took him, who went after him, even though it put the woman he loved in danger? And wasn't there a story about how you stormed a house full of vampires to pull out your little brother?"

"Hmm!" Katherine pretended to think hard to remember something, and counted off a third finger. "Didn't you kill Abby Bennett even though Stefan was supposed to just to spare him? Didn't you step in when Klaus took Elena to try to save the day for your brother? Didn't you refrain from telling Elena you loved her cause you thought your brother deserved her?"

Katherine nodded her head wisely. "Wow, I must admit you are one uncaring brother."

Damon looked discomforted and tried to think of a rebuttal, but nothing came to mind. Katherine thoroughly enjoyed her little victory and started walking again, smirking.

She finally relented, saying, "Okay, Let's say you don't worry about your brother, but I just wanted you to know he'll be fine."

Damon nodded with less than good grace. "Fine," he said shortly. "Is that it? Are we done?"

"No, there's more," Katherine answered, but didn't immediately elaborate.

Katherine and Damon strolled silently side by side. He was suddenly startled to realize that she had stopped and was looking at the moon, a fond smile on her face. He was baffled by it, since he knew her smiles; sarcastic, evil, knowing, superior, sexy. But fond? Just wasn't in her repertoire. She was confusing him.

She stood still, gazing upward spellbound at the sight of that moon, the same exact size as that night. Even the dark clouds flew by just as swiftly. Memories came rushing back to her.

"I have a carriage waiting for you." She nodded, ready to make her escape and then turned. She wasn't able to help herself. She rushed back to the prone figure on the ground and knelt next to him, gently caressing each side of his handsome face.

"I love you, Stefan. We will be together again. I promise you."

She tenderly kissed the lips that were already going cold.

Damon brought her back to the present. "Are you moon struck?"

Katherine laughed and resumed walking, passing him. He caught up, matching her stride. "So what gives?"

"I needed to tell you some things, Damon. Let you know the truth. Clear the air between us."

His eyebrows rose and his eyes rolled. Before he could get a sarcastic retort out, she started speaking in an unemotional voice, walking as she talked, not looking at him.

"I did love you. We were kindred spirits. I recognized it immediately. Troublemakers, game players, high risk stakes takers. I knew you would adapt to the life, and that we would have fun together. We would fight, and carouse, and make love, and cause trouble, and we would never be bored with each other. You were also the most handsome man I think I have ever met in my whole five hundred plus years. Certainly your eyes are the prettiest I've ever seen."

She smirked and shook her head as if contemplating what could have been. "I still love you and I always will," she admitted.

"But not the way you love my brother." Damon couldn't keep a little bitterness from creeping into his voice.

"No, not the way I love Stefan, and that's what I need to explain."

"Don't bother." He tried to walk away, but she held him with a grip of steel on his arm.

"It's important that you understand." She was insistent, and he couldn't break her hold unless he wanted a full out battle. He just wasn't in the mood for that right now so he gave in.

Damon shrugged and nodded, looking impatiently away from her. "Go ahead, if it will make you feel better. Talk yourself silly."

Damon was now the one who looked away as Katherine faced him.

Her voice was quiet and sincere. "He was so naïve, so full of love when I met him. So eager to please. So earnest and trusting and honest. Honest, Damon. When he told me how he felt the night of the ball, he spoke from his heart. I remember his exact words to me. I can still quote them." Her voice softened. "I've never met a woman quite like you. I look at you and I see an angel. I touch your skin and my entire body ignites. I kiss you and I know that I'm falling in love."

Damon snorted and mocked. "So my little brother had one poetic moment."

Katherine shook her head. "No, you were poetic. You knew how to flirt and woo. You were experienced. How many woman or girls did you have before me? You were the ladies man."

Damon hunched an aggravated shoulder.

Katherine continued, "No games. He didn't know how to play games at that point. He only knew how to express what he was truly feeling from his heart. You and I played the games. We were experienced in the art and knew how to tease and bait."

Damon watched her face now as she spoke, and it expressed her awe.

"The truth of his love, of his emotion, reached inside of me and found this part of me that was caged away behind this rusty old lock. The key had been lost a long time ago, and no one could find anything that would fit it. That honest, open, naïve love was the key, and it sprung the lock."

She still wasn't looking at him, her eyes were unfocused, seeing something that perhaps was only inside her. Her mouth twisted. "Inside was a frozen shard of seventeen year old Katerina Petrova who only wanted to love and be loved. Who expected to live a normal life. Who thought that she was loved and wanted to return that love. The girl who loved her family and never understood the significance of saving her own life until she came home to find the butchered bodies of her family on display for her.

She turned to Damon, her voice filled with wonder. "I don't know how he did it, but that girl lived again for a moment in the warmth of his love." She shook her head. "No one else has ever touched that part of me, rekindled that Katherina Petrova who once lived, and loved, and danced with life."

Damon looked away from the raw emotion on her face.

"There is nothing wrong with you, Damon, that you couldn't be first in my heart. It has to do with me. Like I said, we're birds of a feather. Birds of prey, and I'm fiercer, but we're too much alike for you to ever be the key."

She reached over and gently turned his face to her, her touch caressing. "But always know that I did and still do love you. Katherine Pierce, vampire, loves you, but what little remains of the human Katerina Petrova can only be reached by Stefan."

Damon shrugged, unable to speak past the lump in this throat.

Katherine's voice changed to her usual half mocking, half playful voice, and she ran her fingers seductively up his chest. "The only reason Elena is still alive is cause I would never hurt you that way."

Damon matched her tone. "And it better stay that way cause I'll know who to come after."

They both seemed relieved to be out of dangerous emotional territory now, back to a semi adversarial relationship they were comfortable with.

"Let's go back." She turned and he followed. As they walked he said, "Take care of him. He's a pain, but he is my baby bro." She squeezed his hand reassuringly before they parted for their respective cars.

She stopped with her hand on the door handle of her SUV and yelled, "Hey."

He turned and leaned against his car, arms folded, waiting to hear what she had to say.

She gave him her best seductive smile. "When you get tired of that ninny come find us. We could all be good together."

Damon laughed and turned to get in his car. "You only have him for ten years. Do you really think I'm going to get tired of Elena in ten years, and he's going to change that much."

Katherine made an exaggerated gesture, holding her hand to her mouth as if she had made a gaffe. In her best Southern belle accent she said, "Why Mr. Salvatore, how silly of little ole me. I just plain forgot for a moment that it was only for ten years."

The mischievous smile on her face as she got in her car alarmed him.

Damon stood frozen, his hand on the handle, watching her car driving down the road, listening to her mocking laughter for as long as she was in range of his vampire hearing.

When the laughter finally faded he got in his car, shaking his head as if he should have known better. Katherine and her games!

Suddenly he smiled that lopsided charming smile that melted most hearts. But it's the games that make life interesting!

He put the key in the ignition, but didn't immediately start the car. He sat for a moment, thinking. His handsome, eternally youthful face hid a psyche that had taken a lot of hits over the years. He would never talk about them. It wasn't his way, but they were there, and when he left himself completely open they were painful.

He probed deep in his mind for the one dealt him by Katherine Pierce. He hadn't checked it in awhile, but he had always felt it as a raised, thick, puckered, still raw, red thing with underlying adhesions. It had been added to by each of her betrayals. He had grown used to the constant pain and pulling over the years. He searched for it now and found it had changed to a thin, white, flat, smooth faded line as if Katherine had somehow shaved it down and rubbed a soothing, healing salve over it. He knew it would always be there, but it would never sting or tug at him again.

He smiled and turned the key in the ignition. It was time to go home to Elena and confront some things. His brother was in good hands. He could assure her of that and help her let go of her guilt. He knew without a doubt they would meet in the future and given time and some work they would become the friends they would have been if Katherine hadn't torn them apart.