A/N: Time for a sappy, emotional chapter. With shower scene. Hope you like it, and thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own anything except my original characters, who include Rebecca (no pun intended).

Chapter 15

Back at the house, Becca stood under the stream of water from the shower, momentarily lost in thought and more tired than she wanted to admit. She and her siblings liked to pretend that they were entirely invincible – a mystique built over centuries took on a life of its own, after all – but in many ways, they were just very, very old and powerful vampires. And tonight, Becca was tired.

She turned as she felt Damon enter the room. She watched as he stripped off his own dirty, wrinkled clothes, unable to avoid admiring the perfection of his body. As he joined her in the shower, she reluctantly searched for the words to tell him that she wasn't in the mood for their usual shower escapades, but he spoke first. His voice was soft, gently teasing. "Want some help to wash away that dead feeling?" She searched his eyes for a moment before nodding, surprised that, all joking aside, he seemed to share her reflective mood. Then she realized that she shouldn't be surprised, that he had felt something very similar to what she had felt when she thought she might lose him.

Damon stepped behind her and ran his hands down her body. He reached for her shampoo and began to wash her hair for her, and Becca closed her eyes in pleasure at the feel of his fingers massaging her scalp. He worked the soap into her long hair before turning her around to rinse her hair clean. Then he was back behind her, his hands working the tension from her neck and shoulders – and Damon had very talented hands. Next he stroked her scented shower gel down her body in long smooth strokes, and Becca sighed as a feeling of bliss swept through her. It was by no means the first time that Damon had washed her, but there was something different, almost reverent, about his touch that night.

He was kneeling in front of her, working the shower gel over her flat belly and down her legs, his hands tracing the curve of her hips, when she opened her eyes. She watched him silently. His wet hair was plastered to his head and the water glistened across his muscular shoulders and toned chest. She thought it was the sexiest sight she had ever seen, although with Damon that thought seemed to cross her mind at least once a day. Becca smiled even as she spoke to hide her feelings. "You forgot conditioner."

Damon looked up at her with his crooked grin that melted her heart every time. "For a thousand-year old vampire, you're such a girl sometimes. Is that what that mysterious bottle is?"

Becca giggled as he stood up and handed it to her. "I know you know about conditioner." Damon was hardly a typical guy (or vampire) when it came to cleanliness – for one thing, he was inordinately fond of bubble baths. Becca couldn't quite figure that one out, although she wasn't about to complain about any activity that involved getting naked with Damon.

"What did you do before conditioner, anyway?"

"I spent a long time combing out my hair, or I had servants to do it."

"Yeah, I think I draw the line at that. I'd lose my guy card." Becca rubbed the conditioner through her hair, watching contentedly as Damon quickly shampooed his own hair. He had had an even more trying couple of days than she had, she knew, but he seemed composed, at least outwardly. She was always amazed at how resilient Damon was – she had seen it more than once during their long battle against Klaus. Physical pain never seemed to faze him; it was the emotional side of things that could leave Damon reeling. She could tell by the way he had touched her that he had been shaken by the day's events, but they were safe and they were together now. And that was all that mattered to Becca and, she thought, to Damon.

When they finally stepped out of the shower, Becca quickly dried herself off and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her body as she combed out her hair (easily, because of the conditioner – she did like the comforts of the twenty-first century). She watched Damon in the mirror as he wrapped his own towel around his waist. He still looked unreasonably sexy with his black hair damp and now sticking out at odd angles from the way he had toweled it off, his entire torso bare and glistening with a few remaining drops of water. She turned to face him and stepped close to him, reaching up to wrap her hands around his neck. "Thank you."

He smiled crookedly at her again in response. "You're welcome." Then he bent down and kissed her, a long, deep, tender kiss that wasn't at all like the way they usually attacked each other with passion but was somehow perfect for that moment.

Becca pulled Damon gently toward the bed, both of their towels falling to the floor before they were halfway there. Damon was touching her like she was the most precious thing in the world as she lay back on the bed, his lips and hands worshipping her body. She closed her eyes and let the sensations wash over her, pleasure sweeping through her muscles and leaving her trembling. Damon's voice was deep and a bit rough as he paused to speak. "I thought I had lost you today."

Becca opened her eyes at the tone of his voice. "You will not lose me." She hesitated before she dared to voice her own fears. "But when I saw what they had done to you, how they had hurt you . . ." She stopped, unable to continue.

Damon's blue eyes met hers, dark with passion and filled with uncharacteristic sincerity. "I'm okay. I'm hard to kill."

Becca just nodded, blinking back tears, and Damon was suddenly kissing her again, with more love and tenderness than she thought she had ever felt in her life. He took his time before finally joining their bodies, and he locked his gaze with hers as they came together. At that moment, Becca felt more certain than ever that their connection was far more than a fleeting physical passion. She knew that Damon loved her and she loved him, and they belonged to each other completely and totally.

Afterwards Becca lay facing Damon, her hand tracing patterns across his skin. She yawned, her eyes feeling suddenly heavy. Damon's blue eyes were bright with amusement as he watched her. "What?" she asked.

He laughed his low, husky laugh that she loved so much. "That's what I have to do to tire you out?"

Becca face curled in a smile, and she laughed too at that. After nights in which they had spent hours engaged in wild, passionate sex, it was indeed tonight that Becca felt her body and mind being pulled toward sleep. She justified it quietly. "Healing from a stake to the heart is tiring." Not to mention killing a 700 year-old vampire afterwards.

Damon's eyes and voice were soft. "You can sleep, you know. I've got you."

Becca shifted to lie curled in Damon's arms, and she felt herself drifting further toward sleep. After a moment of holding back, she relaxed and let herself go. She didn't have to watch her own back tonight; Damon would be there. For virtually the first time in hundreds of years (since dying didn't count), Becca fell asleep.

•••••

Damon found himself surprisingly content to lie there and just hold Becca, feeling her body relax even further against his as she slipped deeper into sleep. He knew she liked him, even loved him, and the passion between them was undeniable. But this was perhaps the first time that he had felt like Becca truly needed him. She was always so self-possessed, so self-sufficient. It wasn't surprising given how long she had lived and how powerful she was, but sometimes a guy wanted to be needed. But today with how she had rushed into his arms, the look in her eyes as they made love, the way she nestled against his body as she slept – Damon felt like this powerful, beautiful, just-perfectly-crazy woman actually needed him.

Clearly Becca's body could function just fine without sleep, but Damon was suddenly certain that the reason she hadn't slept in hundreds of years was because she hadn't trusted anyone (and people said he had trust issues). He couldn't blame her, though, knowing that her own brother had killed her – and he could relate. After all, his father had killed him. Damon didn't know exactly what had happened to Becca before her death, bur he knew that something had once broken the carefree, fun-loving spirit that he knew. He was just beginning to grasp the phases of eternal life, the cycles of anger and despair and maybe, occasionally love. He knew Becca had deeply buried scars, far better hidden than his own, and he just wanted to heal her, to make her happy. He had been a fool for considering even the possibility that Elena might be a better match for him than Becca, Damon thought. Becca was perfect, and she was perfect for him.

It didn't even matter that both of them could have died that day, and in fact Becca actually had died and come back to life (which had become a surprisingly common occurrence in Damon's world, but somehow wasn't something you ever quite got used to). In that moment, Damon Salvatore was happy. Over the decades, most of his dreams had been proven stupid and backfired in truly spectacular fashion (everything to do with Katherine came to mind), and Damon had tried hard to suppress his natural inclination to be something of a romantic. But he thought just then that his dream of holding the woman he loved in his arms knowing she felt the same way was actually living up to his hopes – and no, he would never admit to such a sappy thought at any time other than the middle of the night or to anyone other than himself.

As though she knew what he was thinking (and maybe she did – who knew what an Original could really do), Becca snuggled even closer to him, tangling her naked limbs with his and practically crawling on top of him. She gave a little sigh in her sleep as she nestled her head on his chest, and Damon groaned softly as the sound sent a wave of desire through him. He loved the way she cuddled with him shamelessly and was always touching him, as if she couldn't get enough of him, his skin, his touch. He couldn't get enough of her either, and if he hadn't known that Becca sleeping was apparently a once-in-five-hundred-years (give or take) occurrence, he would definitely be waking her up for sex right now. Instead, he just tightened his arms around her. But Damon was just as exhausted as Becca, and a few minutes later, he too drifted off to sleep.

•••••

Becca stirred slightly in the dark room, waking to find herself in Damon's arms. He was asleep, but he murmured her name possessively as she shifted. Becca let him pull her back against his body, not wanting to wake him. She lay there, contentedly listening to the slow, steady beating of Damon's heart. Her thoughts drifted inexplicably to the paradoxes of vampire hearts, reanimated through dark magic and the predatory act of drinking human blood, forced to spend eternity pumping the stolen blood of others through the vampire's body. Becca was well aware that there was nothing right or natural about it, but she had lived as a vampire for so very long that it had become all she really knew.

But what was truly broken about the hearts of most vampires, Becca thought, was not their physical functioning but their ability to feel, to love. And that was the thing about Damon. She knew that he had turned his emotions off for a long time, but she had never seen even a vampire feel as intensely as Damon had in the months that she had known him. Broken as he was, she had never seen a vampire capable of loving so intensely. So Becca listened to the steady beat of Damon's heart that she knew had been shattered and pieced back together more than once, and she marveled that he had trusted her with it. Eventually, his heartbeat and soft breathing lulled her back to sleep, still in his arms.

•••••

Becca woke up again thoroughly relaxed. Damon was still holding her against him, and she sighed in pleasure at the feeling of his body twined with hers. The pale morning light of the room told her that they had slept in.

She heard Damon's low morning voice and felt it rumble through his chest. "How did you sleep?"

She smiled. "Very well. I had forgotten what sleep feels like."

She could hear the answering smile in his voice. "Gonna try it again?"

"Yes, as long as I have you to watch my back." She stroked her hand along the soft skin of his chest.

"I'm not going anywhere." Damon seemed no more inclined to break the relaxed mood of their morning than she was, and Becca was happy about that.

"Good." She gave another contented little sigh. "I could stay here forever."

Damon chuckled. "That works for me." They lay in peaceful silence for a few minutes before he surprised her. "I love you, Becca."

She hadn't expected him to say that. Damon was much more comfortable with conveying his feelings through actions rather than words. She had thought that he loved her, because of their blood bond and because of how he touched her, but it was still nice – really nice – to hear the words. "I love you, too, Damon." She thought then of just how long it had been since she had heard those words or said them.

Damon felt the change in her mood through the bond between them. "What is it?" His voice had deepened with concern.

Becca flipped around to face him, wanting to look into his eyes. "It has been eight hundred years since I have said those words." She felt tears in her eyes.

Damon's blue eyes glistened, too. He smiled crookedly. "No one has ever said them back to me and meant it."

Becca shrugged, the casual movement designed to conceal both the pain she felt for him and her secret happiness that those other women's foolishness had left Damon free to love her. "They were fools, and their loss is my gain." She shifted forward and kissed him fiercely. When she finally pulled away, she smiled at how Damon's ice blue eyes sparkled with all the fire and passion and humor that she loved so much.

A/N: And another author's note, since I consider this the emotional half-way point of the story, although I'm hoping it won't take fifteen more chapters to finish it! Updates may slow down a little since I need to get the plot in order over the next few chapters and I should probably do that before I post them. You can look forward to a lot more movement on the plot coming up, plus a lot more emotional angst for Damon and Becca to deal with (because as much as I like writing these two just being happy together - poor Damon never gets to be happy on the show, after all - the story needs more drama than that). Of course, reviews help motivate me to keep writing!