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: I worked hard on this one. I really hope you guys like it. I could probably rewrite it over and over again for a few more days just tweaking stuff, but I had to stop before I drove myself completely crazy. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter Six

Elena could see him grit his teeth before he turned stiffly and met her eyes. She could feel that look all the way to her toes. She forced a shaky smile onto her lips. "Welcome home."

Looking at her physically hurt and Damon couldn't understand it. He spent every damn day with her exact double. It shouldn't be this hard just to look at her. Jerking his eyes away, he glared at the fire. "This is not my home."

"Of course it is," Elena's voice shook, but she spoke with conviction.

He grimaced in disgust. Nothing ever changed. Here she was doing the same song and dance. Next she'd be telling him how much she cared about him. Well, this time he had no intention of falling for her bullshit. She could save her big doe eyes and sweet smile for baby brother. Damon Salvatore was done being love's bitch.

"He didn't make me leave," he finally told her. Now seemed like the opportune time to give her a nudge back toward her soulmate. "After that shit in the morgue, you couldn't have made me stick around with super glue. I had exactly two friends in this hellhole and both of them died that night. There was nothing left to keep me here."

"Damon…"

"So feel free to scamper on back to golden boy and forgive him. He came up with the deal, but no one makes me do something I don't want to. If I'd wanted to stay, I would have." He laughed bitterly and shook his head. "I'm pretty sure his granting your suicide wish rendered the deal null and void anyway."

He saw her wince out of the corner of his eye. "I can't regret that Matt lived, Damon. A lot of things went wrong that night, and there are so many that I would change if I could, but as hard as the last year's been, I can't regret Matt being alive."

Damon reached forward to pick up his tumbler of bourbon from the table and lifted it to his lips. "Oh, trust me, I remember."

"Both Matt and I are alive," Elena insisted. "That has to count for something!"

Damon slammed the glass back down on the table and glared at her. "You're not alive, Elena! You're a fucking vampire!"

Her eyes filled with tears. "You think I don't know that? I spend every day fighting the urge to rip out the throats of everyone who pisses me off, Damon. And EVERYONE pisses me off!" She curled her hands into fists and he could see she was shaking from head to toe. "I can't change the past. I couldn't go back and fix it even if I wanted to. I have to deal with now."

Damon leaned back into his chair and rolled his eyes, "how enlightened of you." He cocked his head to the side and smiled at her mockingly. "I truly wish you and Steffy all the best. Now that you've gotten this little bump out of the way, you can forgive him and the two of you can hop back onto your love boat and sail off into the sunset together."

Elena's face crumpled. She bit her lip. "Damon, I know I screwed up. I know I hurt you, but please don't be like this."

Groaning aloud, Damon tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. "Oh, let me guess how this next part goes. 'Damon you can be a better man. There is good in you, Damon. If you just turn yourself inside out and do exactly what I want you to and jump every time I say so, someday you could be almost as good as Stefan.'" He locked his eyes back on hers and smirked. "Sorry, I'll pass."

Elena sighed and closed her eyes. Two tears escaped to trail down her cheeks. "I deserve that. I know I do," she took a deep breath and forced herself to meet his hard gaze again, "but you're wrong. I don't want to change you, Damon, and I certainly don't want you to be Stefan. I like you the way you are and you already are a good man. You're a better man than we ever gave you credit for and I'm sorry it took losing you for me to see that."

Damon snorted. "Whatever. I'm over it." Pushing himself to his feet, he made his way back to the sidebar just for something to do. He needed some distance from her. He couldn't stand to keep sitting that close and looking at her. Those glistening big brown eyes still had a string tied around his heart and he fucking hated it. He might not be able to make himself stop loving her, but he'd be damned if he let her keep using it against him. He'd learned a thing or two about protecting himself from loving Katherine's selfish ass. Distance was his friend.

"Why…" Elena started, "why didn't you tell me you met me first, Damon?"

Damon froze and then realization hit. He mentally groaned. Of course the damn compulsion had worn off. Fabulous. Keeping his back to her, he shrugged. "It didn't matter." Honestly, of the two times he'd compelled her, discussing this one he could handle.

"Of course it did."

"Elena, I'm not an idiot," Damon told her. "You were trying to soften the blow, trying to make me feel better. Torturing myself and telling you about a meeting you couldn't even remember wouldn't have changed jack shit. You met Stefan and you fell for him instantly. No matter what you felt for me, you never unfell for him." His voice dripped sarcasm as he parroted her words back to her. "I figured getting rejected once while I waited to die was more than enough."

"Oh god," Elena lifted her hand to cover her mouth. She tried to fight back the storm of emotion churning inside her, but it was useless. Biting her palm, she wrapped her other arm around her waist and rocked back and forth.

Damon frowned as he heard her sniffle. He turned to face her in disbelief. "Stop that!" She was practically sobbing and Damon knew that was one thing he couldn't handle.

She blinked at him as more tears leaked from her eyes. "I'm so sorry I did that to you."

Gritting his teeth, Damon rolled his eyes. "I survived. Forget about it." Great, now he was comforting her about ripping his heart out.

"How can I even begin to make that up to you?" Elena wondered miserably. "I can't take it back. I can't fix it."

"Shit happens, Elena. I'm over it." Damon moved back to his chair. "Honestly, you did me a favor. You gave me the push I needed to get out of this town and on with my life."

"But I don't want you out of this town," Elena said. "You belong here with us, Damon."

"Oh hell the fuck no," an angry growl sounded from the doorway. Katherine came storming into the room and confronted her childe. "I don't think so, Damon. Tell me you're not actually listening to my whiny little doppelbitch? I will snap your damn neck and throw you in the trunk! Did you see your room?"

"Oh god, your room," Elena looked desperately at Damon, "I'm going to fix it. I promise."

"Fix it?" Katherine asked her in disbelief. "With what…a magic wand?"

A growl escaped Elena's throat as she jumped to her feet and faced off against her double. "Do you mind?"

Katherine crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, "Not often, but sometimes Damon likes to play alpha male and I do love to indulge him."

Damon sped between the identical brunettes before one of them could attack. He glared first at Katherine. "Behave." Then he looked to Elena. "I have another dart and I will use it. This house has lost enough furniture."

Katherine rolled her eyes and threw up her hands in mock surrender. "Oh no, not the furniture, this time we might trash something of Stefan's."

With effort, Elena ignored Katherine' dig and focused on Damon. "We were talking, Damon. We need to talk. Please?"

Katherine scoffed. Damon sighed and rolled his shoulders as reality set back in. "There's nothing more to say. You're really sorry you hurt poor pathetic lovesick, Damon. I get it."

"NO!" Elena growled as her eyes filled with tears again. She stepped forward and grabbed Damon's shirt in both hands and pulled. "This isn't over. I fucked up and I know it, but I'm not giving up on you." She looked up into those cold blue eyes and realized they weren't going to get anywhere else tonight. Katherine had taken care of that. She glared at the bitch. "You can't keep me away from him."

"Try me," Katherine purred.

Elena reluctantly let go of Damon and stepped back. She shook her head. "You may have a place in his life now, but you don't own him." And she clearly did have a place in his life now. Elena could see the affection buried underneath Damon's irritation at Katherine. Somehow Katherine had managed to work her way back into Damon's heart. It hurt Elena more than she expected to see that. She'd told herself she was prepared to deal with them, but knowing and seeing were two different things. The irony of the situation didn't escape her. She'd forced Damon to watch her with Stefan over and over again. She so deserved this.

Elena tried to meet Damon's eyes and make a connection but he'd already brought the walls back down. She tried to read something, anything in their icy depths. It was pointless. Accepting momentary defeat, she sighed. "I'm going home, but I'll talk to you more tomorrow."

"Can't wait," Katherine said.

Damon prayed for patience. He had two gorgeous women fighting over him and he couldn't even enjoy it because both of them had put his heart through a blender multiple times. He smiled stiffly at Elena. "Drive safe." Once she walked out the front door carrying her wounded expression with her, he turned back to Katherine.

She smiled innocently. "What?"

He cocked his head to the side. "You have to get your kicks taunting the baby vamp?"

She leaned forward against him and ran her nails slowly and seductively down his chest. "Well, if someone would just keep me otherwise occupied…"

He grabbed her hand to stop its descent. "I'm not that easy, Katherine."

She smirked. "Yes you are."

She had a point, but still. "If I wouldn't fuck you alone in another state, I'm not about to start under the same roof with Stefan. He's already crying in his room, I'd rather not put him on suicide watch."

Katherine paused briefly then rolled her eyes. "I don't even want to know." She drummed her fingers against his abdomen. "But back to the point, that is not just any baby vamp. That is my whiny little doppelbitch. We've been back less than twelve hours and she's already blubbering all over you. I'm not about to stand by and watch you backslide." She pinched him hard with her nails.

"I can handle Elena."

She cocked her head to the side. "You use to say that about me."

Damon laughed despite himself as he thought back to the earlier strategy session. "I still do."

She smiled back at him and opened her mouth to reply when Elena's panicked voice cut through the air.

"DAMON!"

He was out the door and at her side before she'd even finished his name. He looked her over, but didn't see any damage. Irritated with himself for jumping to the rescue, Damon frowned. "What?"

Elena pointed to her car and Damon finally noticed a strange symbol carved into the door. It had obviously been cut into the paint with something sharp, but it was traced over with blood. It looked like four straight lines slashed through a half moon. Elena shivered. "It's the same as the earth marks."

"I've seen them before," Katherine stepped forward to look closer and Damon realized both she and Stefan had joined them. "It's dark magic, blood magic, obviously. It's a symbol of witch justice. The symbol itself is powerful enough to draw disease into a human household. Won't do shit to us, but," she locked eyes with Damon, "it will broadcast a magical signature to any witch in the area."

"Human household?" Elena's expression turned stricken. "There's a mark outside my house! Jeremy!"

"Magically induced disease," Katherine told her irritated, "the ring will protect him."

"What about Matt?" Stefan wondered. "We haven't found a mark outside his house, but he spends a lot of time here and at Elena's."

Katherine shook her head. "It's based on ownership, not on proximity. It was their way of protecting innocent bystanders."

"Thoughtful of them," Damon reached forward to run his finger over the symbol. When he pulled it away it was coated in blood. "It's animal, not human."

Katherine smiled spitefully at Stefan. "You're the expert, Lover. Exactly what critter are we dealing with?"

Ignoring her, Damon turned back to Elena. "They targeted you, Elena. You need to stay here."

She was already shaking her head no. "They've targeted all of us. I'm going home. Jeremy's there alone and at least I can try to protect him if something happens."

"Damon's right, Elena," Stefan tried to reason with her. "You can get Jeremy and bring him back here with you."

"I'm going home, Stefan," Elena told him stubbornly. "I'm not going to let them control me. They've been pulling stunts like this for weeks." Stepping forward, she yanked open the door to the car and climbed in. "I'll call Bonnie and see if she wants to sleep over."

Stefan sighed and nodded. "Okay."

Katherine made a face. "God, you're pathetic."

Damon stood and silently watched as Elena cranked the car and pulled out. Then shaking his head at his own stupidity, he groaned and starting walking toward the road.

Katherine stared at him in disbelief. "Where the fuck are you going?" Damon ignored her and kept walking. She glared after him. "Tell me you're not going where I think you're going?" When he still refused to answer her, she threw up her hands in disbelief. "You have got to be fucking kidding me! You're BOTH pathetic!"

Damon smirked back at her over his shoulder. "Maybe but you're stuck with us anyway."

"I should have turned Anthony Fell!" With a huff, she spun toward the house. "And I'm drinking all the bourbon I just bought your stupid ass!"

"What's that matter, Katherine?" Stefan taunted her. "I thought you liked to share."

Her eyes flashed fire as she spun back to face him. "Go suck a bunny."

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