Title: Love's Fool

Summary: Elena made her choice and Damon kept up his end of the deal. He left Mystic Falls more than a year ago and he hasn't looked back since. Now the Original stake has gone missing and suddenly they need him again. But Damon has no intention of playing their whipping boy anymore and this time he has a powerful ally on his side.

Spoilers: Everything through the S3 finale.

Pairings: Delena is the plan but you never know. I'm not the biggest Elena fan at the moment.

Disclaimer: If I owned Vampire Diaries there would be a lot less of Damon getting left to die heartbroken and alone. As it is, I can only hope to vent my frustration by punishing those characters responsible.

Note: Just to clear it up, Damon and Katherine are not currently involved in the story. They have been traveling and living together. They are more like family and best friends at this point. They are each other's home. That doesn't mean they couldn't become involved later if the right circumstances present themselves. I honestly don't know if I'll go there or not. It depends on if I feel like Elena can redeem herself enough to deserve another shot with Damon.

Chapter Two

If nothing else, the girl was thorough. There wasn't a usable piece of furniture in the room. Damon fought back his instinctive reaction to lash out and exact revenge for the deliberate personal attack. What was he going to do? Kill her brother…again? It wasn't even the furniture that really bothered him. Sure, she'd shredded his mattress, his pillows, and what looked like every piece of clothing he'd neglected to pack, but he could handle that. What really burned him was that she'd torn apart his books. He couldn't bring himself to dig through the wreckage and verify each and every one, but he could see the torn pages littered throughout the feathers, cloth, and shards of broken wood. What the fuck did she think he'd done to deserve this?

Damon turned away from the scene before him in disgust. They were just things. They could be replaced…mostly. He grabbed his suitcase and rolled it with him toward the bathroom. He could really use that shower now.

In direct contrast to the connecting room, his bathroom and shower were spotless and in perfect condition, no stale air, no mildew, not a single speck of dust. The towels and washcloths were fresh and fluffy. Damon could even smell the fabric softener on them. He refused to allow himself to delve too deeply into the observation because if he found out that Stefan and Elena had been using his bathroom together, he really would start snapping necks.

Damon stripped off his clothes and stepped into his luxury shower. He turned the water on hot and moved under the spray. He'd really missed his shower. If he could have boxed it up and carried it with him when he left Mystic Falls behind, Damon would have. Letting the steaming water pound the knots out of his back, Damon tipped back his head and wet his hair. With his eyes still closed he reached instinctively for the shampoo holder and grabbed the bottle his fingers landed on. He opened the top, squeezed some into his palm and returned it to the holder. Rubbing his hands together to make it lather, Damon ran his fingers through his hair and over his scalp. The smell reached his nose a second later. It was flowery, girly, and obviously not something he would ever purchase.

Damon froze as his blood boiled over. He opened his eyes and cut them toward the shampoo holder. Herbal fucking Essences? Seriously? "DAMN IT, STEFAN! IS NOTHING IN THIS FUCKING HOUSE SACRED?"

If his brother had any reply to that, Damon didn't hear him. Instead he focused on breathing in and out and not exploding into a destructive rage. At this point, if he made it out of this shithole without killing everyone in his path, he'd deserve a metal from fucking Gandhi.

Half an hour later, Damon made his way downstairs. He was clean, wearing fresh clothes, and ready to face the masses. If he could keep his temper in check after seeing first-hand the destruction left in the wake of the bomb that hit his room, he could handle just about anything.

"Stefan, you have to give her some warning," Damon heard Caroline's voice for the first time in over a year. It was still like nails down a chalkboard. Sometime during those brief miserable weeks he'd been dating the formerly-dumber blonde, Damon's body had become programmed to wince at the sound. He hadn't reached the parlor yet, but he could clearly hear Blondie's conversation with his baby brother taking place inside. "If she shows up and just finds him here…"

"I'm not telling her over the phone, Caroline," Stefan's voice sounded dire with foreboding. "We'll deal with her reaction when she gets here. It's been over a year. She has much better control over her emotions now."

"Are you joking?" Caroline said. "Tell me you're joking."

"She's dealt with it, Care. She let him go and put him behind her."

"She smashed every personal effect she could get her hands on!" Caroline hissed.

"That was the newborn rage…"

"That was an Elena Gilbert hissy fit," Caroline corrected him. "I know you didn't have much experience with them, Stefan, because you didn't know Elena before her parents died. But trust me, that girl knew how to throw one mean shit fit back in the day and they've definitely made a comeback since she sprouted fangs."

"She's right, Stefan," Bonnie's voice joined the mix, "you need to warn her or we're going to be cleaning up pieces of furniture and crystal again. If you don't want to handle it over the phone, then go catch her before she leaves her house."

"I can't do that," Damon could hear the reluctance in his brother's voice, "it turns out we have bigger problems than dealing with Damon being back in town. He brought Katherine with him."

"He WHAT?" Blondie screeched.

"Of course he did," Bonnie voice dripped sarcasm, "because adding that psychotic bitch to the mix will make this situation so much better."

"You're telling me we've got two vampire Elenas running around Mystic Falls?" That was Donovan's voice and Damon found himself grinding his teeth in remembered rage. It wasn't the human's fault Stefan had chosen to save him over Elena, but Damon wasn't known for being the rational brother.

"Leave it to Damon to refuse to show up without a hot chick on his arm," Tyler Lockwood sounded amused.

"She's not a hot chick," Blondie growled, "She's KATHERINE! That bitch is nothing but trouble."

"And look who she rolled in with," Bonnie said.

"Look," Stefan sighed, "it could end up being a good thing. Damon has a point. She wants the stake back just as much as we do. She has just as much to lose."

And now that Stefan was defending him and throwing the balance of nature entirely out of whack, Damon decided it was time to make his appearance. He flashed forward to stand in the doorway. "If you superheroes don't want our help, we'll be more than happy to leave you to it."

Caroline spun immediately to face Damon and for just a second he thought he saw her eyes light up, but then she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at him. With her gleaming blonde curls, wearing a pink top, matching mini-skirt, and cream pumps, she looked like a pissed off Elle Woods. "You brought the super bitch with you?"

He cocked one brow. "Like I said if you don't want our help…"

Caroline rolled her big blue eyes, "oh shut up, you know we need your help. But you could have left Katherine on the bottom of the shoe where you found her." She turned and bopped her way over to sit on Lockwood's lap on the couch.

Tyler smiled at Caroline and wrapped his arm around her before turning back to nod at Damon in acknowledgement. "Hey man."

Looked like that twisted love story was still going strong. Damon nodded back at him. He noted Donovan was sitting next to Tyler and looking a little uncomfortable in Damon's presence. He gave the human props for intuition. Bonnie was sitting on the other side of Matt with her hand on his knee in an obvious show of support. Stefan walked around to position himself behind them leaning against the back of the couch and facing Damon. It was as if nothing had changed.

Fabulous, here they were, all comically arranged into Team Stefan and Team Damon. All that was missing was the tacky t-shirts. Unfortunately, the only other member of his team was off somewhere cleaning out Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Damon smirked and cleared his throat in the suddenly silent room. He started to move toward his armchair by the fire, but then paused as he realized it wasn't there.

Looking to the couch he opened his mouth. Caroline quickly shook her blonde head. "Don't ask."

Tyler tried to keep a straight face. "Trust me, man, you don't want to know."

Even Bonnie looked amused. "Be very glad you took your car." Tyler and Matt both nodded in agreement.

Damon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, when he opened them again he focused on Stefan. "Has anyone gotten in touch with Klaus?"

All four occupants of the couch scowled in unison at the name. Stefan shook his head. "Rebekah's trying to reach him, but he won't answer her calls. She called Elijah and Kol. They're going to see if they have any better luck."

"I might be able to convince Katherine to help find him," Damon said. "She didn't spend five hundred years evading him without learning how to track him."

Stefan looked doubtful, "Klaus is the last person Katherine would ever want to help us find."

"We're not inviting him back to town, Steffy. We're just telling him to watch his ass." He paused thoughtfully and walked over to drag a chair away from the wall and out to face the couch. He sat down and leaned back propping his left foot on his right knee. "I'll work on Katherine. You can keep playing phone tag with the Originals."

Caroline made a face. "You'll work on Katherine how?"

Damon wiggled his eyebrows at her and smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Spare us," Bonnie interrupted when she saw Caroline open her mouth to make another comment. She shot the blonde a chastising look before turning her attention back to Damon. "I tried to trace Klaus with magic, but he's basically untraceable."

"He's always got at least a few witches on his payroll," Damon said.

"Exactly," Bonnie agreed, "so any help from Katherine would be appreciated."

Damon smirked at the judgey little witch. "Can I quote you on that?"

Bonnie pursed her lips at him in displeasure before turning to Stefan. "Did you tell him about the earth marks?"

Stefan shook his head, "I told him a little, but I knew you'd be able to explain it better than I could. That's your area of expertise."

"Right," Bonnie took a deep breath and Damon prepared himself to listen to a long drawn-out lecture in witch history. "Back in the old days, and I mean really old like before most of the witch families had even migrated here from Europe, witches used earth marks as both a warning to stay away and a way to expose those they deemed guilty of a crime deserving punishment."

"Umm…" Caroline jumped up off of Tyler's knee before Bonnie could continue and started to fidget nervously. Her eyes danced from Stefan to Damon and then away. "I just remembered I promised my mom I'd run an errand for her this afternoon." She flashed them a mega-watt smile. "I've heard all this before and I know Bonnie's gonna be talking for a while, so I think I'll just pop out and do that now. It'll only take like fifteen minutes." Her smile held firmly in place she walked quickly toward the door. "You guys just keep talking. I promise I'll be right back."

Everyone watched her leave. Damon just shook his head and laughed softly. "I think it's safe to say, espionage is not Blondie's hidden talent."

Both Matt and Bonnie looked worried. Tyler chuckled good-naturedly and tossed Stefan a sympathetic look. "You better get ready."

Stefan winced but then pulled himself together and nodded toward Bonnie. "Let's keep this going. You were saying?"

Reviews are greatly appreciated.