Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! I hope you have a good day tomorrow if I don't get to update before then. This chapter's update was sped up by all of you voting on that poll and reviewing so thank you very, very much. I'm actually surprised at the success of this story, I had no idea I would continue with it. Enjoy the chapter.

Note: This chapter has been revised. Nothing's new, it's just better writing.

Disclaimer: Chapter 1, please :)

Handle With Care

Since the wretched night of the Historical Society ball, I hadn't seen, spoken, or heard from Damon and Elena. As terrible as that might seem, I felt that it was good news. Liberating. Empowering. I woke up on my own time without the burden of a dark-haired younger sister to pull the blinds on me. I had stopped caring about going home; it seemed completely hopeless to keep digging for a solution that was never going to come. Right now, I was going to live a normal life away from vampires as a normal college student...regardless of the fact that I had a vampire best friend, vampire sister, and vampire ex-boyfriend.

Okay, so in hindsight, my life was far from normal. But at least I was still human...or whatever the hell a Pure Blood was. I had decided, for all intents and purposes, that I wasn't going to worry about that, though. Tessa was a crazy, desperate witch. That's all.

When I rose from blissful sleep, I smiled to myself in bed. Today was going to be a good day. No sister to remind me of my failures; no ex-boyfriend to guilt me into being in love with him. There was only me and my best friend at college trying to lead an atypical life.

So you can imagine my shock when I sat up in bed to see Elena tip-toeing across the floor, as if trying not to wake me up. I groaned aloud and she stiffened when she realized that she'd been spotted.

"Elena?" I asked, finding that my perfect day had been ruined the second I really took a moment to open my eyes. I sighed into my hand and watched as Elena straightened and turned herself towards me. "What...what are you doing here?"

Elena took a moment, but eventually, she threw her hands up in the air and choked out, "I broke up with Damon."

I peered through my fingers and looked up at my sister with surprise tracing my eyes. I tried not to sound happy, but something inside me wanted to...throw a celebration or something. "I'm sorry...what?"

Elena pursed her lips sadly and nodded to the floor. "Yeah...he told me that he's still in love with you, so I broke up with him. It's what we both wanted, anyway." She shrugged, and I just blinked at her while I tried to put the pieces together in my mind. How could...? Why did...? All of a sudden, Elena started to laugh. I looked up at her and waited, watching as she covered her mouth with her hand and snickered through it. "I can't believe you actually fell for that!"

I opened my mouth to ask what the hell was going on, but then it hit me. I let out a deep, irritated exhale and said sharply, "Katherine."

"I knew you were still in love with him." Katherine pointed at me accusingly. I tossed the covers over my body so I could get out of bed. Nonetheless, she continued, "You know, it actually wouldn't surprise me if he is still in love with you. I mean...he's crazy about you. Some could argue that he's more in love with you than he was with me, but...well, I'd beg to differ."

Unwilling to talk about the man who'd smashed my heart into pieces as everyone seemed to think, I moved on. "What are you doing here, Katherine?"

"I need to use your shower."

I looked up to find Katherine smiling, trying to be humanly adorable. I didn't fall for it, but I straightened in bed and narrowed my eyes. "That's it?" She nodded. "Um...yeah. Whatever. Go ahead."

Katherine almost ran to the shower in our room, slamming the door after she'd gotten inside with a hard bang. I rubbed my eyes, trying to uncover the mess of my sister's look-alike, but I honestly couldn't care less. While Katherine showered in water so hot the steam was starting to leak into our room, I forced myself out of bed and got changed, eying the bathroom to make sure that Katherine didn't come out unexpectedly. After that, I started to get to work on finishing up some classwork before I went to my first class of the day, and by the time I was done with that, Katherine stepped out of the shower with a hair-coloring box in her hand. I looked up at her and set my pen down.

"Did you dye your hair or something?" I asked, eyeing her head. But I didn't see any significant change. Then again, my observations in the morning were always impaired by sleep.

Katherine, wrapped in a tight towel, walked towards the full-length mirror by Caroline's bed. Running a wet hand through her hair, she responded, "Or something."

"I don't wanna know if Tyler called so, don't even tell me." Just a moment had passed after I shrugged, finding it to be no particular interest of mine, when Katherine and I had been interrupted by an angry Caroline, who stormed into the room like a tornado. She set down a box on her bed as she made her way over to me and sighed. I looked up at her, trying not to feel sorry for her. Caroline had given her boyfriend an ultimatum, and he had chosen the path that she wasn't in favor of. Now, she was in denial. "Do you want to do small appliances or toiletries? I'd compel a cute boy to pack for us, but, I don't want to see a cute boy ever again. Except for Jesse who's, conveniently, not answering his phone!"

"Um...we're moving out?" Katherine asked. I looked over at her and opened my mouth, but Caroline took the words from me.

"Hello? Dr. Maxfield thinks we're vampires?" She continued to pack frantically. "Threatened to expose us? Told us to drop out? Well...except for Madeline because he has some weird, creepy crush on her."

"He's not creepy and it's not a crush," I countered while Caroline shot me a glance. To be honest, I had pretty much let the Dr. Maxfield boat sail; the dude was a psychopath. However, I leaned back in my chair and sighed. "Besides...it's not like I can even talk to a guy without Damon going all...Superman on me, showing up to interrupt us."

"That sucks," Katherine muttered under her breath as she turned around. Caroline looked at Katherine, studying her, while I walked over to the bed and grabbed a book that Caroline had thrown into the box of things. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind, and I dropped my book with a gasp immediately while I turned around to see Caroline pinning Katherine up against the wall.

"How the hell did you not realize that this wasn't Elena, Mads?" Caroline demanded of me as she turned around and stared. I shrugged.

"I knew it wasn't Elena," I defended myself. "She...needed to shower, so I let her. What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" Caroline repeated. "Seriously? What's the big deal?" She turned back around to Katherine and sneered, "What the hell are you doing in our dorm, Katherine?"

Through struggled breathing, the human replied, "I just needed a place to crash."

"What? I loathe you!"

"I'm desperate, okay? Damon kicked me out, Stefan doesn't remember me, and I just spent my last twenty dollars on a meal that I didn't even get to enjoy," Katherine answered urgently, her wind pipe cut off by Caroline's hand.

"Yeah...life sucks, doesn't it?" I murmured in agreement as I turned around and grabbed the book from the box again with a sigh. Caroline scoffed.

"And how is any of this our problem?"

Katherine struggled for a moment, fighting for the air that she was incapable of receiving. I had to give the girl props—she was doing well under intense pressure from the unsympathetic blonde in the room that could snap her neck like it was merely a pencil. "Look at you! Moving out? Giving up? That's very un-Caroline of you." Caroline tightened her grip on Katherine, causing her to choke out, "You need me! Bad."

After a moment of hesitation, Caroline finally released the doppelgänger. The book I was looking over accidentally formed in with my words as I spoke without looking up at them, "Doppelgängster has a point." Caroline and Katherine both looked back at me with raised eyebrows.

"Doppelgängster?" Katherine repeated skeptically. I stood there for a moment, confused, but then I snapped my fingers knowingly.

"Oh! Sorry. Doppelgänger...right." I paused for a moment and wrinkled my nose. "Why does that just sound so...bland?"

"What do you want?" Caroline barreled on, turning back to Katherine with determined eyes.

"A place to stay," said the human with pride. "And Elena's meal card. And I'll help you with Dr...Whoever."

"Maxfield," I filled in for her. "Dr. Maxfield. He's the bio teacher."

"I'm sorry...what?" Katherine scoffed, looking back and forth between me and Caroline. "He's a teacher? You two are scared...of a teacher?"

While Caroline went silent, I held up a hand. "Well...to be fair...I'm not really all that scared of him."

"Right. You have a crush on him," Katherine recalled. I shrugged.

"No, not anymore. Now he's just rude."

Regardless, Katherine ignored me and sighed as she brushed past Caroline with her towel still tight against her chest. "Oh, girls...you two need to take a crash course on Villain 101." Caroline rolled her eyes. "Lucky for you, I have an honorary doctorate. What do you say, roomies?"

I could tell my friend was reluctant to have Katherine handle the whole predicament, but I was fine with it. I threw the book back into the box and straightened. "Sure. Why not? Not like I had any better plans...except to, I don't know, go to class." Not that we ever do that here anyway. I sighed and looked at Caroline. "Caroline?"

After another reluctant moment, Caroline groaned out of defeat. "Ugh! Fine. Fine." She looked at Katherine sharply. "What do you suppose we do?"

"Well, for starters..." Katherine began, shooting me a glance. She cocked her hip in a manner that I wasn't particularly fond of. Her eyes roamed up and down my body, surveying the jeans and t-shirt I had thrown on carelessly. Her eyes finally came up to match mine. "You're going to need to change into something a lot prettier."

With a large, shameful exhale, I walked up to the door of Wes's office and knocked on it tentatively. He was talking into the recorder mid-sentence when I interrupted. I gave him a small smile.

"Madeline." He returned my polite grin. "What...are you doing here?"

Didn't expect to see me after you threatened my sister and my best friend? I almost shot, but I bit my tongue to keep from saying it. Instead, I sighed and walked inside and shrugged. Dr. Maxfield put his recording device down on the table. "I just wanted to come by. You know, maybe talk about last night?"

I could see an expression of guilt crash on his face as he sighed. "Look, I didn't want to get you involved with this...but your sister's a vampire. I know I said you didn't have to leave, but it would probably be best if you did, too."

I felt the heavy effects of the mascara Katherine decided to douse me with when I looked down at the floor and back up at Wes, trying to do what Katherine told me. I probably looked like a Victoria's Secret model gone bad. "But what good would that do me?"

This was purely scripted, and made me want to barf a little bit. Wes was quiet for the longest time as he looked me over and privately thought. I didn't move a muscle when I saw Katherine come up behind him and strategically place a needle in the doctor's neck. He fell to the ground, out cold. Katherine looked up at me and smiled, and the next thing I knew, Caroline walked in with rope in her hands. She picked Wes up from the floor and got him onto one of the lab stools. After she secured him with the cords, I crossed my arms.

"What now?" I asked.

"We wait for him to wake up." Caroline nodded at me as she walked over to Wes's desk and grabbed a pen and paper. I watched as she tried to work something out, and in the midst of it, the bio teacher began to wake up. Caroline peered up over her eyelids and frowned at Katherine. "What did you inject him with?"

"I don't know. It just said to avoid contact with eyes," confessed Katherine as she reached over to grab the bottle she used to inject him with. Her mouth turned into an 'O' shape when she read the label. "And do not ingest...oops." Caroline gave her a signature look.

"Give me that." I snatched the bottle right out of Katherine's hands and looked it over with high intelligence on my part. The answer hit me immediately, and I shrugged while I gave her the bottle back. "It's Etorphine."

"There you go." Katherine shrugged. Beside her, Wes stirred.

"What are you doing, Elena?" he asked weakly. I would've corrected him, but I didn't really care that much. Instead of answering the question, Katherine cut tape from a roll with her fingers and Caroline responded to the tied-up doctor.

"We're draining vervain blood out of your system so that I can compel you to forget that Elena and I are vampires and so that you'll leave poor Mads alone."

"Well, that wasn't a part of the plan," I said, shocked. Caroline looked at me suspiciously, and I ended up shrugging. "Fine. Whatever." It wasn't worth it, anyway.

"Wait, what?" Wes demanded, ignoring me. Caroline hushed him. "You'll kill me!"

"Shh!" Caroline snapped as she scribbled down on the piece of paper in front of her. "I'm just—I'm trying to do some math. Okay...how many liters does an average male have in his system?"

The answer hit me again. "Five."

Katherine agreed with a look of approval, "That's about right."

"Carry the one..." Caroline trailed off.

"Just round up."

Caroline shrugged at Katherine's suggestion and straightened as she turned around at Wes. "Perfect! 4.7 pints!" Caroline tossed me the needle, and I caught it mid-air without impaling myself. Bringing it down to waist level, I walked over to Wes and eyed him curiously.

"Which arm should I use...?" I asked the question to myself, but it was open to all.

"Untie me," Wes pleaded, looking up at all three of us. "I'll fine the vein myself. You will kill me."

I frowned, disappointed. "Seriously? You doubt my skills to find a vein? I get it, I'm no vampire, but..." I trailed off and groaned. "This is exactly why I hate teachers!"

"Give me. It's not my first rodeo." Not like I had much of a choice because Katherine came and grabbed the needle anyway, which she took and turned to Caroline. "Can you get me one of those tubey-things and...uh...some tape?"

Caroline walked oer to get the tube and I got the tape from the table and handed it to Katherine as well. Katherine stuck the needle into Wes's arm and taped it down with what I handed her while Caroline gave her the tube. The doppelgänger put the tube onto the attachment on the end of the needle and the blood from Wes's body began to drain, which she collected into a large beaker.

"Oh, my God," Caroline breathed, astounded. "It's totally working."

"Ta-Da!" Katherine smiled and looked at Dr. Maxfield, almost patting herself on the shoulder. She grabbed a scalpel from the table and waved it in front of Wes's face in a taunting manner, trying to scare him into talking. I stood idly by, watching as the vicious Katherine somehow got her way. "So...Doctor. You tell me. Who else knows about us?"

With the scalpel next to his jugular, it wasn't hard to imagine that Wes was petrified. Regardless, he seemed to mask it well. "If you were going to kill me, you wouldn't have gone through all this trouble." His eyes locked with mine. "You should've made them leave like I told you to. They're onto you. All of you."

"Who's they?" I repeated, crossing my arms.

"The people you want to expose us to?" Caroline suggested, her tone unusually light. "The secret society thingy that you belong to?"

"There's a gathering today at Whitmore House," Wes choked out. "They're using it to suss out potential candidates." He looked up at Katherine. "They were going to invite you until they started suspecting you were a vampire. Same with Madeline, but then they realized that you were a conflict of interest."

I looked around the room and narrowed my eyes. "So...wait. All we have to do is show up there and that rules out any chance that we're vampires?"

Katherine smiled in agreement. "We convince them that Elena Gilbert isn't a vampire and that's it." She snickered and removed the scalpel from Wes's throat. "Done."

"They'll never let you in and a vampire can never get past the threshold," Wes warned. Caroline, Katherine, and I were all thinking the same thing—it was a good thing we weren't vampires and that Katherine bore the same face of my younger sister.

"I think I'll survive." Katherine turned around at me and smiled. "All right, sis. I think we need to get changed. We have a party to get to."

"I feel ridiculous," I mumbled miserably to Katherine as we walked up to the Whitmore House, all dolled up to put on the show of our lives as the Gilbert sisters. Katherine wore a girlish flower-printed dress with her hair pinned to the side all innocent-like. She had gotten it from a box of Elena's things that I am ninety-nine percent sure my sister hadn't touched in years since it didn't really scream "Elena Gilbert". I had found a cream-colored dress that was apparently mine, though I had never seen it before in my life. The blue streak in my hair still stuck out, but I had shaped my hair so that I didn't look like some gothic chick right out of the looney bin.

"Well, no wonder." Katherine scoffed as she glanced at the dress I was wearing. "Didn't Damon buy you that dress?"

I widened my eyes as we walked up to the door, completely alarmed. "What?"

Katherine shrugged and fixed her hair until it was perfection. "Yeah...wasn't it for your birthday or something like that?" She snorted. "God, that man is so hopeless."

"Katherine!" I shrieked, hitting her arm. She flinched from me, pouting. I wasn't sorry for it one bit. "Why the hell didn't you stop me from putting this damn thing on, then?!"

She frowned. "Well...you're wearing the locket, too, right? Wasn't that some symbol of your undying love for each other?" She rolled her eyes and I swallowed as my hand unconsciously floated to the locket around my neck. "I don't know why you'd be upset about some stupid dress."

"I'm trying to move on," I told her seriously, but Katherine didn't take it that way. Once I said the words, she looked at me and practically scoffed in my face. "What?"

"I'm sorry..." Katherine trailed off in the midst of her laughter. "But...you moving on from Damon? Yeah! Okay! When pigs fly." Shaking her head out of humorous disbelief, Katherine turned to the door of Whitmore House and knocked on it to cease our conversation. I frowned, but didn't say anything more about the matter. Besides, I only kept the locket on for protection against vampires—the vervain that was inside was what kept me from being compelled. Was that so illogical?

Suddenly, a woman opened the door and stared at both me and Katherine with confusion. "Miss Gilbert..." She used the term universally, looking between me and Katherine.

Katherine raised her eyebrows. "You know me?"

I elbowed Katherine in the stomach and laughed, causing the woman to look at me. I knew who she was—Katherine didn't. "Diane Freedman! I hope you don't mind us dropping by..."

Diane raised her eyebrows. "I...I didn't realized you two would be joining us."

Katherine gave a look of false alarm and turned to me. "Madeline? Did you forget to RSVP?" She gasped dramatically. I bit down on my lip hard and looked over at Diane, who was waiting for an explanation.

"Right. That's just...that's just so unlike me," I said, practically through gritted teeth. Katherine kept her smile on tight for the woman at the door. "I'm sorry, Ms. Freedman...I guess I've just been so busy with school and everything."

Diane gave us a weak smile and stepped aside. Her next words were clearly avoiding the warm invitation into the Whitmore House. "We just started the tea."

Katherine and I both walked in with ease—Katherine played it a little more prideful than Elena would ever be—which almost stunned Diane at the door. There was no doubt in my mind she thought, for sure, that we would be stuck at the threshold. Or, rather, "Elena" would.

"Got any food?" asked Katherine impolitely after we stepped inside. Her eyes roamed around for a food table somewhere, but she didn't wait for an answer from Diane. She waltzed off into the main room to grab something to eat, leaving me with the awkward situation. I laughed nervously and Diane and I shared eye contact.

"Sisters..." I explained vaguely. Diane nodded, still shocked at how "Elena" was able to get inside. Trying to avoid the awkwardness, I took in a deep breath and turned to go after Katherine. I found her eventually, chomping on the hors d'oeuvres like a madwoman. I walked up to her briskly and hissed, "Seriously, Katherine?"

With a mouthful of food, she looked up at me carelessly. "What?"

I rolled my eyes in distaste, but she continued eating. While she shoved food into her purse, someone walked beside her and watched as Katherine barreled food into her mouth again without mercy. The kid had blonde hair...blue eyes...and oddly reminded me of Wes, as much as I hated to think about it. Deciding to break the ice, I sighed. "I apologize for my sister. She's a bit of a cavewoman."

I looked down at Katherine pointedly, who just shrugged. "Are you two the sandwich police or something?"

The boy across from her laughed. "I'm just trying to figure out why Wes told me to stay away from you..." Katherine stopped eating, clearly confused, and I wasn't under any impression that I was supposed to know this guy, myself.

"I'm sorry...do we know you?" I asked with much hesitation. The boy looked up at me and opened his mouth.

"Um...no. I know Elena, but I don't know you. I'm Aaron," he introduced himself as he stuck out his hand. I took it gracefully, but the thought to give him my name slipped my mind. "You're...Elena's sister, right? I think I saw you at the Historical Ball."

"Yeah..." I trailed off skeptically. Deciding to further my interrogation, I asked, "I'm sorry, you said you know Elena?"

"Yeah." Aaron looked over at Katherine and glanced over her head. "You changed your hair. It's..."

"Aaron! Duh. Hi!" Katherine said quickly, avoiding the compliment. She laughed, trying to cover it up. The human swept her eyes across the room and whispered to him, "So...what are you doing here? Are you a part of the secret society?"

I hit her arm, causing Katherine to frown. "Elena!" I laughed awkwardly. Aaron looked up at me with a raised eyebrow, but I just brushed it off.

"Ouch," Katherine snapped, cupping her arm. I just squared my jaw at her, but didn't get a chance to respond before Aaron interrupted.

"Wait...the what?" he asked, confused. I was starting to realize what a terrible idea this was.

Katherine looked back at Aaron and dropped her voice. "Oh...you know. The society?" She winked. I rolled my eyes at this, finding it completely out of Elena's character by a mile. She really sucked at impersonating my sister.

"I...still have no idea."

Katherine straightened and smiled, never once breaking her pulled-back lips. "Either you're clueless or you're very good at keeping secrets," she praised. After this, though, she suddenly started to fall into a coughing fit. I waited for her to recover, but she wouldn't.

After a while, I bent down just a little and whispered, "Katherine?" But she turned away from me and then, in the blink of an eye, she took off in the other direction. I stared after her, completely astounded, but also in another awkward situation. Aaron looked back at me from watching Katherine leave.

"Quite a sister you have, there." I looked over at him reluctantly, deciding that it wasn't a good time to go after Katherine just yet. She was having some problems...problems that I'm sure I didn't want to worry about.

"Yeah. She's a freaking pony ride," I grumbled and turned around to reach for the food laid out on the table. But before I could get to them, my phone started to ring. I answered it immediately without looking at the Caller ID since I was sure I would get yelled at by someone for having my phone on ringer. "Hello?"

"Madeline?" Oh, great. My day just keeps getting better and better.

"What do you want, Damon?" I sighed heavily. Aaron tapped my shoulder and I turned around at him with raised eyebrows.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, detecting the annoyance in my tone. I nodded at him assuringly and covered my phone with my hand.

"I'll just be...a second," I promised before I turned to take the call somewhere else. When I put the phone back to my ear, I instantly heard Damon's voice.

"Who was that?"

"No one," I lied. Damon's unimpressed look immediately flashed through my mind and his next words predictably corresponded with them.

"Didn't sound like no one."

"Well...you're right. It was someone. I just don't are enough to tell you who it was."

Damon took in a deep breath, obviously displeased with me. "Whatever. Where are you?"

"I'm with Katherine. We're investigating the secret society thing that Jesse told me about."

"With Katherine?" Damon repeated, his voice unmistakably angry and high-pitched. I nodded and crossed one of my arms over my chest, even though he couldn't see.

"Yes, with Katherine. Unlike you and Elena, she's actually fun."

"You're impossible!" Damon hissed, frustrated. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes this time. "But I need you to get the hell away from there and go back to the house. Stefan, Audrey, and Elena are all trapped in Tessa's house, Jeremy and I are with Silas, and the last thing I need is for something bad to happen to you, too."

Well, I missed all the fun! "What the hell is going on, Damon? W-Why—?"

"I will explain everything when I get back," Damon rushed out, breathless. I closed my mouth and decided to listen to him, for once. "But...please. For me. Just go back to Mystic Falls and stay inside the house until I can come back. Don't go out for anything—just stay there. Can you do that for me?" I paused, taking a moment for myself. I wanted to say no, but Damon's voice was persistent and full of genuine concern. Somehow, I could deduce that. All of a sudden, he barked, "Madeline?"

"Yes. Yes," I found myself saying after he shouted my name to get me back to reality. My head bobbed up and down without my knowing. "I'll...be at the house when you get back. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine."

"Okay..." I didn't believe him, but I had to. Without warning, his name spilled out of my mouth. "Damon?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful." With that, I hung up the phone without another word to say to him. Slipping it into my purse, I walked over to Aaron, who was still waiting for my return. Upon it, he smiled, and I gave him a polite one back and just rushed out, "Listen...I've got to run. Family stuff. But, uh, can you do me a favor? If you see Elena, can you tell her that I went back home and that there's nothing to worry about?"

Aaron raised an eyebrow at me, but eventually nodded. "Yeah. Sure."

"Thanks," I said gratefully and slipped past him to return to Mystic Falls.

Minus the time it took me to drive all the way back to Mystic Falls, I had only been waiting for an hour when a car pulled up at the house. I stood up hearing it, and after a minute or two, Jeremy walked into the house with an exhausted expression on his face. Upon seeing me, though, he sighed out a breath of relief.

"Oh, Mads. Good. At least you're okay."

I nodded and walked up to him. "What happened? Are you all right?"

Jeremy nodded, but let out a deep exhale. "I feel like crap, but yeah. I'm okay. It was a long day. Damon said he'd explain everything to you...he'll be in soon." I tried to give him a look of understanding, but truth be told, I had no idea what happened and it kind of worried me. This was what being out of the loop felt like—though I shouldn't complain, I asked for it. "I'm gonna go get a drink."

"Sure...sure," I agreed and watched as he walked off somewhere else to satisfy his thirst. I watched him leave and soon after, Damon walked through the door hesitantly. I sighed seeing him, convincing myself that it was an involuntary reaction. I was too afraid to say anything for fear that he was gonna...bite me or something for hitting him the other night, but instead of anger, I saw a flash of relief flood his face upon seeing me.

"Madeline..."

His voice was breathless as he walked over to me and—shockingly—pulled me into his arms. I was stunned, to say the least, and found myself stiff for the first few seconds that he held me. Instead of wasting the only moment when I actually didn't despise him, I relaxed into the hug and pulled my arms around his neck. Damon pulled me closer, as if finding some kind of comfort within me. I buried my head into his soft shoulder, finding that same relief. It was...nice, but also wrong.

"You okay?" he whispered after a while.

I knew that we had to pull away at some point, so I was the first one to do so. "I'm fine. Despite your opinion, Elena's doppelgängster is actually nice-ish."

Damon raised his eyebrows at me and I could tell he was purposely trying not to laugh.

"Doppelgängster?" he repeated.

"I thought 'doppelgänger' was too boring. And overused," I added. A playful smile appeared on Damon's lips.

"What, did you spend some time with a gang over the summer or something?"

"Or something," I said with a sigh. He nodded and I immediately changed the subject. "What...happened tonight? Why was it so important for me to come home? Was I really in danger?" I interrogated.

Damon let out a deep breath. "Well...Tessa was going all witch-crazy and I couldn't take any more chances. She wanted me to kill Silas or Elena would die. The second your name slipped off her tongue, I knew she wouldn't hesitate to take you for more motivation. Figured here would be the safest place."

I gulped. "Well...did you kill Silas?"

"No. Amara drank from him and I don't know where Silas is. Now, we have Amara and we need to protect her before she gets herself killed," Damon presented in an amused tone. I raised my eyebrows.

"Amara...as in the very first doppelgänger?" Doppelgänger folklore wasn't that hard to brush up on when your hometown was infested with them.

Damon smirked. "I thought it was doppelgängster."

I frowned, but found myself laughing. "Shut up! I'm actually trying to be serious for once."

"Oh, I know you are." He grinned widely, and it only made my lips curl up into a smile. It was like he was contagious around me...something I couldn't explain by simply applying the study of biology. Eventually, Damon's gaze dropped, he slipped his hands into his pockets, and sighed heavily. "So...uh...we should talk about what happened at the Historical Ball."

I knew that was going to come up. Suck it up, Madeline. "I'm sorry I hit you, Damon. I was angry and...and...well, you don't really help that situation very much, you know."

"Well, don't do it again," Damon snapped, his voice colder than I thought it would be. I bit down on my lip and cleared my throat, realizing very quickly that it was over. The Damon I liked was gone and in his place was the one that I didn't care for. I turned from him and walked into the parlor, desperately trying to avoid him.

"Fine. I said I was sorry," I muttered, not really in the mood to keep the conversation going. I sighed, but when I stepped forward to sit down on the couch, I felt myself bump into someone. Within seconds, I looked up and found Damon's cold hands around my face. I was startled—flabbergasted, really—to find him so close to me.

"No." He swallowed hard, and I could see the pain in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Madeline. I never apologized for hurting you." He looked down at my lips as if it were an involuntary reaction, and I knew he could hear the rapid pounding against my ribcage. "So...I'm sorry."

And so we stood like that, frozen, for moments at a time. That was until we were interrupted by Jeremy, who walked in with a glass of water in his hand. Damon's eyes flickered up to look at the intrusion and I turned out of Damon's grasp so his hands were returned to his sides. Jeremy just stood there, speechless. Desperately, I tried to cover up the not-so-platonic touching.

"So...Damon told me that you guys really did have a long day," I said, changing the topic. "Are you sure you're good, Jer?"

"I'm fine." Jeremy looked behind me to stare at Damon with cold eyes, and I bit down on my lip and looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Uh, where's Elena, Audrey, and Stefan?" God, they completely slipped my mind. "Did Tessa release them?"

Damon nodded. "Elena called. They should be here any minute now." He walked over to his ridiculous display of bourbon bottles and brought out two glasses. "Who wants a drink?"

"I do." Jeremy sighed and put the water that he had retrieved down from the kitchen on a coaster. "I need something way stronger."

I frowned. "Aren't you seventeen?"

Jeremy gave me a pointed stare. "It's been a long day, Mads. Give me a break?"

But I understood completely where he was coming from. Jeremy took a glass from Damon, sat on a chair across from the couch, and Damon poured another glass that I assumed was for him. I sat down in the middle of the couch opposite of Jeremy and Damon walked over to me and sat dow. He extended his bourbon glass to me, and I looked up at him in confusion. He tilted it again, indicating that I should take it. With slight reluctance, I sighed in defeat and took the glass while Damon drank straight out of the bottle. Before drinking, I sniffed the alcohol and shrugged, downing it in a gulp. It burned all the way down my throat and Damon glanced over at me with curious eyes as I passed him the glass so he could pour more. He snickered, but obliged.

That's when Elena, Audrey, and Stefan came in. Elena walked straight into the parlor, looking angry and tired. Audrey looked over at Damon and the rest of us.

"Uh...do you guys mind if I stay here tonight? It's late and...I don't have a car." Audrey shot a knowing glance to Elena, who scoffed. I was confused, but drank the bourbon out of my cup regardless. Again, it burned.

"Sure thing, Red," Damon agreed, taking a gulp out of the bottle. Audrey nodded and we all watched as Stefan and Audrey reluctantly went up the stairs together, though I got a strange vibe. "Stefan Salvatore sleeps in his own bed tonight. Does that mean he stopped hating us or did the power of the doppelgänger universe push him into the car with you?"

Elena sighed. "Well...he, uh, saved my life. And Audrey's." This, she spoke bitterly. "I'll take that as not hate and the fact that this universe crap doesn't exist."

"So Stefan and Audrey are back together?" I filled in.

Elena shrugged. "Who knows?" she expressed glumly.

"Victory in a day, otherwise married by failure." Damon tilted his bottle towards me, and I bumped my bourbon glass with it. He then held it up to Jeremy, who was drinking the same alcohol. We all threw our heads back and drank.

"We couldn't get Bonnie back," Jeremy defended himself from the wrath of Elena's gaze. "I get a pass."

"Did I say anything?"

Jeremy shrugged too, and everything went silent before he spoke again—and it wasn't to us. "No! No, I won't, because...it's not."

"Okay..." I trailed off, raising an eyebrow at my brother. He sighed. "Err...are you okay over there, Jer?"

Jeremy threw his hands up, frustrated. "Bonnie's here. She wants us not to worry."

Immediately, Elena straightened and looked around the room...which was pointless because we couldn't see her, anyway. "We're gonna keep trying, Bonnie, okay? It's not over. We've dealt with much worse."

"Well, Silas is MIA and out and about. Which is pretty bad." Damon rose from his seat as he laid the bad news on all of us. "And Amara has been cured, which is even worse because now, she's easy to kill. So the fate of the Other Side, where Bonnie currently resides, rests on a living, breathing, human being that we now need to protect."

In a cheerful manner, Damon rose his bottle and toasted to the air before knocking back a swallow. But nothing about this was cheerful. Absolutely nothing.

"We need to protect?" Elena asked, confused.

I turned to look at her. "Yeah. You didn't know? Damon has your doppelgängster." Elena stared at me blankly, as if waiting for me to elaborate. I frowned. "Seriously, Elena? Not even a smile? Nothing?" She raised her eyebrows and shrugged, and I took a sip out of my alcoholic beverage. This woman didn't have a single comedic bone in her body. None.

When I looked up from taking a sip from my drink, I could see the edge of Damon's smile at my joke. I smiled back, happy that someone found it worthy enough.

Today was a good day. The question now was: what would tomorrow bring?

I don't know, I thought that chapter was a little boring. What I wanted to do was separate Damon and Madeline for a little while, but at the end, I would bring them together again. This is going to keep happening for a little while, but...well, I'm totally not changing the fact that DE broke up in 5x10 so...you'll just have to wait 'til then to see what happens.

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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