I don't know how to say "I'm sorry" in a hundred languages but it I did I would put it here. I don't know if anyone is still around and I deserve it if you aren't. If you are, you appreciated more than you know. Life just gets in the way, some stories have aspects that are too personal for the writer, and some things just don't go according to plan. I was going to try to finish this story while school was out this summer but I got behind. I haven't even had a chance to catch up on reading fanfics in months. This is AU so I will definitely not be following the path of the show even though I will still be avidly watching it.

Chapter 5: Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

"I just hate that Ric made you leave town for work two weeks before our wedding," I whine into the phone. It's only been a little over 24 hours since Damon left on a rather impromptu business trip but it's the longest we've been apart since our engagement.

"Lena, I need to tell you something." I would be worried but I can hear the smile in his voice telling me that everything is fine. "Ric lied. This was no business trip. Ric, Stefan, and Klaus were waiting at the airport. This was a surprise out of town bachelor party."

"Why does that not surprise me?" I chuckle. "Although I am surprised that Jenna and Caroline kept it quiet."

"Yes, your little minions were in on the plan. Anyway, I haven't called more often because Ric commandeered my phone. I just got it back from him."

"Well, just don't expect any calls from me while I'm out with the girls tonight," I tease. "We're going to Suite."

"Care to tell me what you're wearing?"

"I've got on my black lace dress."

"The one that barely covers your ass and has little tiny straps that I can easily slip off of you shoulders?"

"That would be the one." I can't help but smirk.

"Damn. You know what that dress makes me want to do."

"Are you going to tell me not to wear it? Because this conversation is starting to remind me an awful lot of a conversation we once had before a sorority function back in college," I tease.

"What's wrong with that. As I recall that was the first night that I tied you to my bed," Damon growled.

"Oh yes, I think I might remember a little something about that," I giggle.

"Sir, is this the way you like it?" An unfamiliar female voice is practically purring at my fiancé.

"Damon, who…" but I can tell that he's pulled the phone away from his ear when I hear him mummer, "Mmmhmm, that's exactly the way I like it."

What the hell? Who was this chick talking to Damon like that?

"Please, sir, I need you to turn it off," comes the same breathy voice.

"Elena, sorry, I'm going to have to go. I'll talk..." and then nothing.

"Damon? Damon?" I call but to no avail. Looking at my screen, I see the call has been disconnected. What the fuck? Who the hell was that and what does she have to do with Damon. Just then my doorbell rang signaling the arrival of Caroline and Jenna. Time to shrug off whatever that was and celebrate my last few days of being single.

"Lena, you want to slow down on the shots?" Jenna asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Hell to the no!" I squeal before tossing back another tequila shot. "Cabo Wabo is my friend! Afterall, if Damon can have friends who call him Sir, I can have liquid friends who make me feel like walking awesomeness!"

"What do you mean, friends who call him 'Sir'?" asks Jenna.

"I mean that I finally got to talk to Damon right before you got to my house. He told me about the guys doing their bachelor party trip thing, very naughty of you to keep that from me," I wave my glass at them, sloppily sloshing my margarita on the floor.

"Yeah, they swore us to secrecy but they'll be back tomorrow," Caroline said.

"Yes, Care, I know. I know that they are off in the great city of New York having a blast right now. Yes, yes, having a grand old time with some little slut who finds it perfectly OK to purr to my fiancé, I repeat, MY fiancé asking if that's the way he likes it and to please turn it off. Did I mention he is My fiancé? MINE?" The floor is now enjoying more of my margarita that I will ever taste.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?" Jenna asks.

"And what did she want him to turn off?" asks Caroline. "That makes no sense. Are you sure you heard that correctly?"

"Oh, I heard it alright. I heard it in her slutty little purring voice. You know, purry like a minx, not like a kitten. I'm a kitten. Kittens are everyday. Guys get distracted by minx."

"Do minx even purr?" asks Jenna. I shoot her a look that makes her mumble, "OK, not the point."

"Again I ask, what would she want him to turn off? That seems weird, like it might explain the whole thing but I'm not sure how."

"Well, Caroline, little miss ray of sunshine and unicorns, if you knew Damon like I know Damon, you'd know that there are infinite possibilities," I grumble.

"Eww, I don't ever want to know as much about Damon as you do!" she squeals.

"Besides, it's a bachelor party get away. Who knows what they are up to…or who! And don't stand there looking all sympathetic at me. Your husband and your boyfriend are with him! Where's that bartender? I need another drink!" Two more margaritas later and I decided I had stewed enough. "You know what, if he can go to New York and act like he's completely unattached, I'm going to have a little fun myself. You guys want to go dance? Because as soon as I have one more shot, I'm going to go see if I can't stir up a little trouble."

"Lena, I think you've had enough to drink. Don't you want to just head home?" Jenna, ever the mother hen was trying her best to bring me to heel.

"If you are tired, you can head out. I can always call Jeremy to pick me up if I need a ride." I grab my shot glass, toss it back and hop down from the stool where I have been sitting. "Toodles," I wave my fingers at Jenna and Caroline as I head out onto the dance floor. A group of guys are standing on the edge of the dance floor and I pull one of them out on the floor with me as I walk by. In no time I feel his hand sliding around my waist and the other on my hip pulling me closer. My new friend spins me around, wrapping an arm around my waist, pulling my back flush against his front as he moves my hair to the side and runs a hand down the side of my body. I close my eyes, lost in the music that is pumping. The club is loud but I have no question of whose voice I hear when someone says, "What do you say you get your fucking hands off of my fiancé?"

"Damon! What are you doing here?" I gasp, shocked to see him staring down my dance partner with enough vitriol to frighten away the scariest of men.

"Sorry, man, I didn't know. We were just dancing," the nameless guy explains.

"Well, she's leaving so you'll need to finding a new dance partner." He didn't need to say anymore. The venom shooting from his eyes causing the poor guy to shrink into the crowd in a effort to find safety.

"I'm not leaving," I stomp my foot like a petulant child.

"Oh, you are," and with that Damon lifts me in a fireman's hold like I weigh no more than a feather.

"Put me down!"

"I'll put you down when I am good and damn well ready," the anger obvious in his voice.

"You're being a caveman!" I am pounding on his back and my fists are bouncing off like he can't even feel them.

"And you're acting like a drunk sorority chick."

"Oh, well, I'm sorry if this isn't the way you like it," I spit back cattily. "Caroline and Jenna will be looking for me."

"Caroline and Jenna left after pointing out your floor show back there," he growls. I can feel the cool air hitting me now that we are outside. "Now, I'm going to put you down if you can promise not to go running back to your new friend." Damon slides me down his body, making sure I feel every hard inch of him on my way down. My feet have no sooner hit the ground than I draw back and slap his cheek making his face snap to the side. He slowly turns back, looks down at me and breathes in and out slowly as if he is trying to calm his temper. "What the fuck was that for?" His voice sounds like gravel.

"That was for whatever the fuck you did with little miss purry voice!" I cover up my eyes and sigh. "I should've stopped drinking earlier. I cannot sound angry enough when I am this drunk."

"You definitely should've stopped drinking if you even remotely think I did anything with anyone! What in the hell are you talking about?" Damon has me pinned between him and the passenger door of his car.

"I heard her, Damon. Don't try to cover it up. You couldn't get off the phone with me fast enough!" I feel the tears starting to pool in my eyes and hate that they are going to reveal how easily he can break me. "After all of this time, I actually believed that I could be enough."

"Turn off the waterworks, Elena, you know you are all I want. I still don't know who you are talking about," Damon looks at me in equal measures anger and bafflement.

"When we were on the phone, I heard her! Stop acting like you don't know who I am talking about!" I shout.

"Heard who? What exactly do you think you heard?" Damon's voice has risen just as much as mine.

"I heard the girl asking if that was the way you liked it and calling you sir! What exactly were you doing to her that she needed you to turn off? Was it the same thing you did to me last weekend?" I have pushed right passed hurt into being snarky and am met by enraged silence.

"Get your ass in the car. We're going home." Damon's quiet voice is much more menacing than his shouts could ever be.

"No." It didn't seem possible that Damon could move any closer or sound any more frightening but he can.

"Get your ass in this car before I pick you up and toss you in there myself. We will finish this discussion at home." He opens the door, waits for me to get in, and slams the door hard enough to make me jump.

As soon as we are in the garage, I jump out of the car and run in the house. We haven't spoken a word the entire ride home and all I want now is to make it to the guest room and lock myself in before Damon realizes what I'm doing.

"Where do you think you're going?" He's taking the steps two at a time as I curse my decision to wear stilettos.

"I'm going to guest room," I spit back.

"Like hell you are! We are going to talk about this and we are going to do it now!" He steps in front of me so that I have no choice but to turn into our bedroom. Grabbing the door, I try my best to slam it in his face but he catches it easily and backs me up against the closet door.

"Fine, you want to talk? Talk! Tell me all about your last bachelor hook up! Was she good? Judging from all of the bossiness and her calling you sir, I guess she appealed to your more dominant nature?"

"Would you just shut up already?" Damon is towering over me with his hands on his hips and, if I weren't so angry and hurt, I would find his raw anger sexy as hell.

"You're the one who wanted to talk," I mouth back.

"I'm going to talk and you are going to listen! You want to know who the woman was that you heard? She was a flight attendant…on the early flight that I got because I hated being away from you. I had ordered bourbon neat, she brought it on the rocks. I asked her to change it and you heard her when she brought the right drink to me. And what she wanted me to turn off? My phone which died before I could tell you good bye because Ric has had it and I didn't have time to charge it since I was in such a hurry to get to the airport to get the flight to get home. To you. Any other questions?" All I can do is shake my head. "You don't have any smart ass come backs? No more rants?" I just shook my head again. "I can't believe you actually thought I could do that to you. You are my life. The last time you got the crazy idea that I was cheating on you, you ran away and I didn't see you for 10 years. I would never do anything to hurt you. I would never disrespect you by violating your trust like that. I would say that it was like a slap in the face for you to think that I would actually do something like that but you've given me a slap in the face tonight and I can assure that this hurt a hell of a lot worse."

"Damon, I'm so sorry," I whimper, running my hand up his chest to cup his cheek but he catches my hand and grasps it in his hand.

"You didn't look sorry when you were grinding on that guy on the dance floor. What were you planning to do? Were you going to pay me back by doing what you assumed I had already done to you?"

"What? No! I was going home with the girls!"

"Really? That's funny because they told me you said for them to leave, that you'd just call Jeremy if you needed a ride home."

"Oh shit!" I gasp. I had said that. My tequila haze had long since faded and what seemed like a good idea at the time now painted a very different picture. "I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Are you thinking clearly now?" Damon asks as he runs his fingers through my hair and places them on my shoulders. I shudder a breath and nod. "Good because I'm going to explain something to you and I'm going to be crystal clear so there are no questions and no confusion next time you question my dedication to you." He brushes a kiss up my neck and across my lips, "This is mine." He glides a possessive hand down my body, "And this is mine." Using a finger on each hand, he makes short work of sending my dress floating to the floor leaving me in my heels and black lace panties. He drops a nip and kiss on each pebbled nipple. "And these are mine." He spins me around, grasping me around the waist and grinding his hardness into my ass, "And this is mine. So you will understand that, when I saw you in this same position on the dance floor with another man, that I got damn jealous and angry as hell. Lena, I will never cheat on you. I will never knowingly hurt you. But understand this, if I ever see another man's hands on you like I did tonight, I will not stop until I make sure he can never lay a finger on you again. Because you, Elena Gilbert, are mine. Do you have any questions?" I feel his lips skimming up my neck and whimper a no. I am putty in his hands now and he knows it. "Good." He kisses my neck and his hand that has been on my waist moves lower. "God, Lena, you drive me insane. I don't know why you don't trust that you are all I'll ever want and all I'll ever need. Maybe I need to do a better job of showing you." I hear his pants unzip and hit the floor as he pushes me against the door, pins my hands above my head and slides into me from behind. It's not slow and sweet, it's hard and fast and just what we both need to wipe away all of the hurtful things that I've said tonight. He pushes me over the edge quickly and on his final thrust says, "I swear to God, Lena, you are mine, I love you and don't you ever forget it."

The next morning finds Damon and I wrapped in each other more than we are wrapped in the sheets. When Damon sees I'm awake, he says, "Morning, beautiful. You OK?"

"If we're OK, I'm OK," I answer.

"If you can forgive my caveman nature then I guess we are fine," Damon answers.

"You're not a caveman. Well, most of the time," I smile softly. "I'm sorry that I hurt you. I heard her and jumped to conclusions. And my behavior at the bar was just wrong. I hope you know I would have never gone anywhere with that guy."

"I just hate that you even thought that you had any reason to be upset," he sweetly kisses my forehead. "I've come to a conclusion."

"What's that?"

"All bachelor parties should be outlawed. They just start fights. I'm going to advise Ric against it which he'll hate since I am a much better party planner than he'll ever be. Although, I must say that going to see the Knicks was a pretty sweet way to celebrate."

"Oh my God!" I gasp and bury my head under the sheet.

"What?" Damon sits up alarmed.

"I can't believe I slapped you!" I sit up flush with embarrassment.

"Come here," he wraps his arm around me, pulling me into the safe cocoon of his arms.

"Does it hurt? Are you ok?" I ask, probing at his cheek.

"It felt kind of like being nudged by a puppy," he teases. I know that he's exaggerating but I appreciate the thought.

"I'm so sorry," I kiss his cheek softly.

"I'm sure you'll think of some way to make it up to me," he grins.

AN: This chapter is a bit rough and touches on the insecurities that she dealt with in the past. It may seem strange to dredge that up at this point but believe me when I say that if you deal with those types of insecurities, they don't just disappear. They have the tendency to rear their ugly heads at the darnedest times. They will be OK. :) Thank you so much for reading! I really do appreciate you folks and I'm sorry I haven't responded to each individual comment and PM. I figured while I had time I needed to update. Thank you, thank you , thank you!