A/N: I have been working on turning this one-shot into a full story over the summer and holding onto it so I wasn't juggling too many stories at once. But clearly it's time to start posting it before it ends up any more AU than it already is. Obviously, the show actually creating an Original named Rebekah complicates things for this story (that's what I get for trying to choose a name that made historical sense!), but I've decided to keep my Rebecca as is. Obviously she has a very different history from the character on the show - she has been dead for 300 years, not just since the 1920s, and most importantly, she has never had any interest in Stefan! (Why does every female character on the show have to be in love with Stefan? I don't get it. But I digress.) Do let me know if you think it is too confusing to keep the name "Rebecca," however.

This story will have a bit less action than my other stories (although there will be some, of course). It is more of a character study and love story with a focus on the relationships. I should probably also mention that I killed off an awful lot of characters in the first chapter since I intended it to be a one-shot, but amazingly there are still plenty left for a story. TVD has a lot of characters! I very much appreciate all feedback and reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of the characters from the show. I do own Rebecca, who I consider a distinct character from the Rebekah on the show.

Chapter 2

Elena was confused. She had brought Stefan upstairs as soon as she could, hoping that he could somehow reach Damon and get him to wake up, only to find Rebecca lying beside Damon on the bed, holding his hand and no more awake than he was. Scared, she had called for Elijah, but the Original hadn't looked particularly worried at the sight. He had simply touched Becca's arm and stepped back.

Then suddenly Becca had opened her eyes, and a second later, Damon had followed. He had smiled at Becca and made some cryptic and nonsensical comment about a bikini. Part of Elena wanted to throw herself at Damon and either hug him or hit him for scaring her, but her hand was locked in Stefan's and the bikini comment threw her off – although it was Damon, so she probably shouldn't even be surprised that he would wake up from a coma thinking about girls in bikinis. Ultimately, she just stood there looking at him. "I'm really glad you're okay, Damon." And then, because she couldn't let him off too easy, "And don't scare us like that again, okay?"

Damon's voice sounded weak. "I won't as long as Stefan promises not to make any more deals. You need to work on your bargaining skills, little brother."

Stefan smiled. "And you need to work on your rescuing skills."

"Yeah, you know that's never really been my thing. I've always been better at causing trouble than getting people out of it." But Damon smiled as he spoke, and Elena wondered if there was a chance things might go back to normal now. Whatever normal had become.

•••••

Finally Damon was left alone to lie back on his bed and wonder what he had gotten himself into. Or was it back into? He felt like crap, and he didn't think he would be moving any time soon. Luckily Becca reappeared a moment later with a glass of blood.

He took it with a hand that shook. "You could have warned me that I would feel this bad." Weak was really the operative word, but he didn't want her to think he was weak.

She perched on a corner of his bed. "You will be fine. You just need a bit more time, and blood. It was rather hard to get you to drink while you were unconscious. And besides, I was trying to talk you into coming back, not out of it."

She had a point, he thought, and at least the blood was microwaved just the way he liked it.

Becca continued to talk while he drank. "Elijah is going to be traveling to visit our siblings, help them get settled. He wants me to come." Damon kept his face expressionless. It would be just his luck for her to convince him to come back and then leave him with Elena and his brooding brother. He had been surprised that Becca – that anyone, really – had cared enough to ask him to live, and he had made a spontaneous decision to follow her back (Damon was nothing if not impulsive, after all). He knew that, over the months of chasing Klaus, it had been Becca who sought out his company and helped him hold himself almost together as he and Elena engaged in their little dance of flirtation and avoidance and recrimination. And he was surprised by just how much he didn't want the other vampire to leave now. Her next words gave him hope. "But I think I will stay here."

He tried to play it cool. "I'm glad. Apparently I need a nurse." Then inspiration struck. "Elena has a costume you could borrow." Yep, the image of Becca in a naughty nurse costume would fuel his fantasies for a while.

"Why would I need a costume?"

Damon realized that half his meaning had been lost in cultural translation and of course it was the dirty half. "Uh, it's hard to explain. Never mind." For the first time in a very long time, Damon was in no way prepared to flirt shamelessly with a beautiful woman. He was off his game because he had just woken up and his whole body hurt. Yeah, that was his excuse.

She glared at him. "Maybe I should ask Elena? Or is it a male thing? Should I ask Elijah or Stefan?"

Damon tried to picture either Stefan or Elijah in that conversation. He burst out laughing and couldn't stop. "Fuck, don't make me laugh. It hurts."

"I did nothing. You made yourself laugh. I do not even know what is funny." But apparently his laughter was contagious because she started laughing too, and he thought that the house hadn't heard laughter like that in a long time. And over the next few days, it was Becca who helped Damon as he slowly regained his strength. He tried to convince himself that it was just as well that she never showed up in the costume.

•••••

After that Damon and Becca settled into a routine that differed from the previous few months largely in the absence of an urgent quest to kill Klaus. They went to the Grill to drink and play pool and darts, usually with Ric. Sometimes Elena or Stefan or Caroline wanted to come too, and then they usually went somewhere else since Elena and Caroline wanted to avoid the Grill. Too many memories, they said, and everyone could sympathize.

Damon taught her to use a computer and drive a car and various other skills to survive in the twenty-first century. Elena or Caroline stepped in when they didn't consider Damon to be qualified to serve as a tutor, although in his opinion far too many of those so-called lessons required borrowing his credit card. By all accounts, Becca adapted to modern life remarkably well.

They celebrated the one-month anniversary of their defeat of Klaus at a bar in nearby Fells' Church. Becca and Caroline sat at their booth, watching Damon and Stefan playing pool across the room as Elena cheered on Stefan. Becca's eyes followed Damon's lithe, graceful movements until her thoughts were interrupted by Caroline's slightly breathy voice. "What's it like to live forever?"

Becca turned her attention to the young vampire. She thought for a moment before she spoke. "It is lonely."

Caroline looked distressed. "Didn't you have friends . . . before Klaus killed you? Like other vampires, witches, even humans?"

Becca didn't want to think too much about the past. "I did." She stopped there.

Caroline refused to take the hint. "What happened to them?"

Becca shrugged. "They died." Once again she didn't elaborate.

Caroline, being Caroline, pressed on. "Even the vampires?" Becca nodded, and Caroline looked nonplused for a moment before asking another question. "Was there a special guy? Someone you loved?"

"A couple of times. I never had much time with any of them. The last one was a woman, though." Becca thought of the last person she had truly loved, centuries ago. Areinh had been beautiful, with fiery red hair that matched her personality. And she had been passionate, intense, impulsive, reckless, and brave, and those characteristics had gotten her staked only twenty years after she and Becca had met. Becca had slaughtered every vampire involved in Areinh's death, and she had put aside her emotions after that. Becca thought sadly that she had forgotten the sound of her lover's voice, and she realized, as her eyes fell on Damon again, that maybe she had a type after all. There had been many men and a few women since Areinh, but none that she had truly loved. She held a small hope that a certain sarcastic black-haired vampire might change that story.

Caroline looked completely flabbergasted. "You're a lesbian?" The blond vampire's gaze flicked to where Damon stood by the pool table. "But I thought . . . " She stopped.

Becca wondered when she had become so transparent. She smiled to cover her consternation. "I do not discriminate. When you live long enough, you . . . try everything. I care less about my partner's gender than who they are." She found it funny how the people of the twenty-first century thought they were the only ones who had engaged in sexual experimentation.

Caroline was looking at her curiously. "I suppose that makes sense." She hesitated before asking another question. "Have people changed much? What were men like, back then?"

"Back when?" Becca's response was automatic. Caroline either hadn't thought about her question or hadn't thought much about the past (should she blame Alaric the history teacher for that?). "People are taller now." She thought for a moment before offering a real answer. "I have hardly been alive again long enough to say if people have changed. I suppose that they are not so different." It was her turn to hesitate before deciding to continue. "Many men that I knew over the centuries were . . . uncomfortable with a woman who was stronger than them. Especially male vampires. One of my sisters chose to conceal her strength, to pretend to be less than she was. I could not do that."

Caroline sounded indignant. "And you shouldn't have to. Men suck sometimes."

Becca smiled at that. Caroline had an irrepressible spirit, and she liked the young vampire, even if she was very, very young. She found herself speaking further before she thought about it. "Klaus killed all my friends, before he went after me. He spent decades eliminating them one by one, very carefully, making sure to cover his tracks. I never guessed what was happening until it was too late, and I do not think Elijah did either. Klaus wanted to isolate me and rob me of my will to fight. When he finally came after me, I did not want to survive badly enough – I hurt him, but in the end, he prevailed."

Caroline stared at Becca with wide eyes. "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

Becca's response was interrupted as Damon and Elena returned to the booth. Damon slid in next to her. "A decisive win for the side of evil. Stefan's buying the next round of drinks." He was smiling, but it was an angry smile and his voice was bitter. Becca could see the tension in his strong shoulders, and she suppressed the impulse to touch him and knead that tension from his body. She respected Elena for her strength and determination in the fight against Klaus, but too often she didn't like the way Elena – and Stefan – treated Damon.

Elena's face had clouded at Damon's words. "You're not evil, Damon. You know that's not what I meant."

Damon's voice still held suppressed anger. "Sure I am. Big, bad vampire, remember? In fact, look around you, Elena." He gestured around the table. "All of your friends are vampires."

Elena's eyes flashed with annoyance. "Just forget it, okay Damon?"

"Fine." Damon turned away from Elena and focused his gaze on Becca. She met his ice blue eyes and saw the anger fade from them only to be instantly replaced by concern. She knew that he could read something of the emotion of her conversation with Caroline in her eyes. His gaze flicked quickly to the blond vampire before returning to focus intently on Becca. "Are you okay? What were you girls talking about?"

Becca smiled at him. "I am fine, Damon." She ignored his other question, not wanting to continue the earlier conversation in front of everyone. Or anyone, although she hoped she might share some of it with Damon one day.

Damon held her gaze for a moment longer before seemingly deciding against prying. She knew he was attempting to change the mood. "Where's Stefan with those drinks? We're supposed to be celebrating tonight, remember?"

Becca filed her memories back where they belonged and smiled at him. "Yes, we are." She thought that she was ready to try again at emotions – even love. She just wondered if Damon was. She would wait for him if she had to, though. Damon was worth waiting for; she was certain of it.

•••••

Damon leaned back in their large booth and tuned out the chatter of Elena, Caroline, and Stefan. Instead, he watched Becca as she headed to the bar for more drinks. He knew that he was no longer hyper-aware of all things Elena and that, of late, his eyes and his focus were on Becca more often than not. This, he thought, was a good thing because Elena had made her choice clearer than ever when she had jumped right back in Stefan's arms when they got him back from Klaus. And Damon had had enough. He was moving on.

He knew Becca had been upset about something when he had gotten back to the table earlier, and he felt bad that he had been too caught up in his latest argument with Elena to realize it right away. Becca was usually lighthearted and fun (and Damon liked that about her) so most of their serious moments over the months they had known each other had been in response to some crisis of Damon's. He had wanted to comfort Becca tonight, but he thought that she wasn't so different from him in preferring to keep her emotions private – if not suppress them altogether. And as Elena constantly reminded him, Damon was bad at being a good and caring person even when he made the effort (which he admitted that he didn't always), so he figured that he would just make a mistake if he tried to be there for Becca.

Damon watched as Becca shot down two different men who approached her as she waited at the bar. She was dressed casually in tight jeans and a low-cut red tank top. Her shiny blond hair fell in waves down her back, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. He shook his head slightly. She shot down every man who came up to her, to the point where it no longer happened regularly at the Grill because she had rejected the entire male population of Mystic Falls. Damon wondered if she would shoot him down, too. He knew he was hotter than any of those guys (obviously), and he thought that with Becca he would actually get points for being a vampire. But she was a thousand years old, and Damon was afraid that he couldn't possibly be very interesting to someone like that. Worse, he knew that he was monumentally fucked up, and she had to know that by now as well. She had cared enough to want him to live after the fight with Klaus, but what did that really mean, anyway?

Damon shook away those thoughts as Becca returned with their drinks and turned to him. "What is bowling?"

That question threw him. "Uh, it's a game. A stupid game."

"That man said there is a bowling alley just down the street. Can we go?"

Caroline chimed in. "I'm not going bowling in this outfit. Not a chance."

Damon glanced down at his own designer shirt and jeans. Vampire Barbie made a good point.

But Becca was looking at him with big bright eyes. "Please. I want to see it."

Damon sighed. He wondered why on earth Becca wanted to see a bowling alley, unless she wanted a break from the simmering tension between himself, his brother, and Elena. If so, he could get behind that idea. "Fine, I'll take you. But I'm not actually bowling." He gave a distasteful shudder before turning to the others. "We'll be right back."

He and Becca walked out to the street, and Damon saw that there was indeed a bowling alley just a block away. As they strolled down the sidewalk, he wished that he dared to touch her, to put his arm around her or take her hand, but he chickened out and shoved his hands in his pockets. It was too soon, he thought.

A few minutes later, Damon opened the door to the bowling alley and gestured Becca inside. His senses were assaulted by a cacophony of neon lights, loud and slightly scratchy music, and the smell of cheap beer and greasy food. Becca seemed oblivious as she moved forward, looking around excitedly. Damon reluctantly trailed after her. How did he get himself into this again?

Becca finally stopped just outside the lanes where people were playing. She watched for a minute. "So you roll the ball to knock down those pegs? We played something similar in England in the 1500s, but without all of . . . this." She gestured dubiously at the neon signs, ball return machines, and other trappings of the modern bowling alley.

Damon ignored the history lesson. "Yep, that's the game. See, boring and stupid. So can we go back to our drinking now?"

"Can we try it?"

Damon's eye fell on the bowling shoes of the couple nearest to them. He shuddered. "No, absolutely not. I don't bowl."

Becca looked up at him mischievously. "Come on. They look like they are having fun." She grabbed his arm and added, "No one needs to know."

Her gorgeous brown eyes and her touch on his arm melted Damon's resistance. "Okay." He couldn't believe that he had just agreed.

Damon paid for bowling shoes, reluctantly dismissing the idea of compelling his way out of having to wear them, and listened as Becca asked the kid behind the counter for advice in choosing a ball. He narrowed his eyes as the kid's gaze roamed over Becca's petite figure, all too aware of the direction of the boy's thoughts.

"You'll want one of the lighter balls," the boy told Becca. "Look for one where your fingers fit comfortably, and make sure it isn't too heavy."

Damon snorted. None of the balls were going to be too heavy for either of them. "I'm going to need some alcohol for this," he told Becca.

But the bowling alley only sold cheap beer in plastic cups, and Damon grimaced distastefully as he took two such cups of beer to their lane. He eyed the bowling shoes that Becca had left there for him. Humiliating, absolutely humiliating, he thought and rolled his eyes. He must really be falling for Becca if he had agreed to this.

Becca had returned with a 12-pound swirly blue ball, and Damon quickly put on the shoes. At least he found a 16-pound black ball that fit his hand, although he had to steal it away from a guy who outweighed him by about sixty pounds. A quick twist of the man's wrist did the trick, and Damon was smiling slightly as he returned to their lane. Becca toyed with his ball as he put it down at their lane. "Mine is too light, but I could not find a heavier one that fit. The holes were all too big and far apart."

"That's because you have tiny hands." He dared to grab her hand and hold it up against his own to demonstrate. Her palm was warm against his, and he felt a current of electricity run through him as they touched.

Becca's eyes met his for a long moment before she drew her hand back (a bit reluctantly, he hoped) and launched into one of the few complaints he ever heard her make. "People today are too big. I was not particularly short when I was alive."

Damon could certainly relate to that. "Preaching to the choir," he muttered. Then he stepped closer to her, keeping his voice a low whisper. "But we're faster, stronger, and sexier."

Becca laughed and reached for a beer. "You make a good point." She made a face after the first swallow. "That is gross. Is there even any alcohol in it?"

"Probably not. This was your idea, remember?"

Becca rolled her eyes at him. "Stop whining. You go first. You have done this before."

Damon rolled his eyes right back. He wasn't really whining per se. "Once." That had been a date gone horribly wrong back in the eighties, he remembered with a mental shudder. Bowling hadn't been his idea then, either. He picked up his ball and tried to surreptitiously watch a man three lanes down who clearly knew what he was doing. After a minute of observation, Damon stood a few steps from the lane and held his ball up. He tried to mimic what he had seen and took a couple of steps forward, releasing the ball down the lane. He and Becca both watched as it made it almost to the pins before falling into the gutter. Damon groaned, and Becca laughed. "At least I get another try."

Becca looked at him suspiciously. "Why do you get another try? You are making up these rules."

"Nope." Damon shook his head and pointed at the scoring machine. "Each turn is two tries to knock down all the pins."

"As long as I get two tries, too."

"You do." Damon watched his unwitting teacher again as he waited for his ball to come back. He hadn't gotten the spin right, he realized, as he watched the other man's ball fly down the lane with a curve to it. Damon used his wrist to spin the ball on his second try, and this time his ball took out eight pins. That was much better.

Becca brushed past him as she came forward to get her ball, and Damon caught his breath. Her eyes danced as she looked at him. "I would ask you to show me, but I do not think you know what you are doing."

He gave a low laugh. "You're right. I don't." He couldn't believe that he was actually wishing he knew how to bowl so that he could teach her.

•••••

An hour later, Elena looked around the bowling alley. When Damon and Becca hadn't come back after a few minutes, she had worried until Stefan had pointed out that Becca was an Original and Damon was, well, Damon so it was virtually impossible that anything had happened to them. Knowing those two, Stefan had said with a shake of his head, they had probably just gotten distracted. And sure enough, she spotted them at a lane in front of the door.

Caroline giggled beside her. "Damon Salvatore is wearing bowling shoes. I'd take a picture, except he'd kill me."

Elena giggled too because Caroline was exactly right. She watched as Becca picked up a ball and sent it down the lane for a perfect strike. The vampire turned around and practically jumped up and down with excitement, exchanging a high five with Damon. Elena saw that Damon was smiling, his expression relaxed and warmer than she had ever seen. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head at something Becca said. He looked happy, she thought and felt a twinge in her heart. She had so rarely seen Damon happy.

By silent consensus, they stayed by the door and watched as Damon took his turn, also bowling a strike. Elena shook her head. Trust a couple of vampires to pick up any physical game in under an hour. Becca had never even heard of bowling until tonight, and Elena was absolutely certain that Damon had never spent much time in a bowling alley. She became aware that she, Caroline, and Stefan were not the only people in the room watching Damon and Becca. The two vampires were both strikingly beautiful people, and there was something about the way they were laughing together that drew the eye. Ironically, Elena thought, in that moment they seemed more alive than most of the people around them. They also both seemed oblivious to their audience, and Elena knew that it was totally unlike Damon not to be aware that he was being watched, especially by her. She felt a stab of jealousy and tried to ignore it. She had made her choice.

"We should go get them." Stefan sounded a bit reluctant.

Elena couldn't stop her voice from coming out a bit wistful. "They look like they're having fun." She suddenly found herself wishing that she had come to the bowling alley with Damon and Becca. Even with Klaus gone, fun still seemed to be in short supply in her life.