Previously:

Damon stopped smiling as he pulled her closer to look at the source of her pain. He pulled the sleeve down further...uh oh!

"What the hell?" he asked, staring at the weird mark on her shoulder where the bite had been.

"What?" She asked, trying to turn her head enough to see it, but she couldn't. They looked at each other for a long time..

What now?

NOW

Damon had made a few phone calls moments after finding the strange mark on Rose's shoulder from the bite, he let Stefan know as well. Of course it was not like anyone knew anything. Rose too had sat down with a few books, laptop, and some other items she always kept in her car while researching the supernatural...but nothing had turned up. They both knew it was a dead end, but never said it aloud.

"How you feeling?" Damon asked, walking back into the room.

"So far not too bad, but for the first time in years I feel tired."

"Well maybe you should try sleep?" Damon suggested.

"I don't really sleep much..." Rose told him. And she didn't, she still had dreams of her childhood, the deal, and sometimes that she really did go to hell instead of getting saved...so she just tried to avoid sleep most nights.

"Well it couldn't hurt, maybe you can save your strength."

Damon sat down next to her on the sofa. He sat his glass of bourbon down and leaned all the way back on the couch. Rose glanced at him, and he gave her a smirk. She finally decided to lay back against him. He was right, she needed rest. He looked around for a second, just to make sure no one was here...after all he had a reputation to keep, he really didn't want to be seen 'snuggling' on a couch with Rose. He definately wasn't going to admit that he kind of liked it, but those thoughts left him quickly as thoughts that she was probably going to die since there didn't seem to be a cure out there. He figured he'd let her rest a little while, and then he would go out and try again.

Rose moved a little again, even now she fought sleep. Damon finally decided to try another tactic.

"So, you told me how Lexi saved you...but since I don't really know much why don't you tell me what you were like..before."

Rose hesitated. She never talked about her past...but she somehow found herself answering him, and honestly for once.

"Would you beleive me if I told you I'm nicer as a vampire than I was when I was human?"

"Um...alright I'm not answering that one." He said, laughing.

"The things you you said about Katherine...I honestly was almost that bad. I made some wrong choices when I was young...and then I changed. I only looked out for myself, manipulated people, used people."

Damon nodded...he couldn't say anything to that. He wasn't exactly a good guy either. Thing is, he wanted to know why. Rose may look out for herself, may run away...but she was a pretty decent woman compared to many of the women he'd met.

"You know that's not nearly enough...what happened to you? Come on, I know I'm not one to talk, but they say confession's good for the soul blah blah blah..." Damon trailed off.

Rose looked down. Damon wanted her to tell him everything about herself, she got it. She just didn't think she could tell him about her life before...about the deal, her father's abuse...she tried telling one person and had been betrayed, could she trust Damon with this?

Right...she was dying, again. It's not like it would matter anymore anyways, why not tell him. She wouldn't have to live with it.

"Okay." She agreed. "Damon can you not say anything until I have finished?"

He didn't answer, just nodded. So she continued.

"When I was fourteen, I trusted someone who I shouldn't have back home in England. I'd spent years with a secret I could not longer deal with...let's just say my father was not a good man, and was a little too 'affectionate' towards his daughter, I'm sure you can figure out the rest. I met a girl who said she could help get me free, and I trusted her. I ended up being manipulated into making a deal...and it turned out she wasn't exactly human."

Damon almost spoke, but changed his mind. He just sent her a questioning glance.

"Obviously you're aware of the supernatural, but there's much more out there than just vampires, witches, and werewolves...this girl was a demon, well was possessed by a demon. I had no idea at first, but I made this deal anyways...I didn't find out exactly what freedom meant until my father and stepmother were killed in a car accident the next day. I confronted her, told her I didn't understand how this was what I agreed to...and then she explained that I had 10 years free of him, and then I would be joining him in hell."

To say Damon was shocked wasn't nearly a good enough description. Was she being completely serious? Demons? He looked at her directly in the eyes...and while he couldn't compel the truth out of her he knew by looking into her eyes that what she said was the truth.

Rose waited a minute before continuing. She went on to tell him about spending the next several years trying to research demon deals, and that she couldn't find a way out. Rose went into pretty good detail of what happened when she was 18, about meeting a hunter and also meeting Lexi. This hunter, Cole, had gave her a ton of knowledge of the supernatural world...and then that same hunter was really a demon who ended up trying to kill her.

"So instead of using what I knew to hunt down the demons, his betrayal had hurt me enough to make me stop giving a damn and I used my knowledge to sell things on the supernatural black market. I didn't care who got hurt or caught up in my trades...I just cared about making contacts and money, hoping that I could gain enough leverage to be able to trade or buy my way out of my deal."

Rose stopped for a while. Damon finally spoke.

"It didn't work though..." Damon commented, but did not judge.

"No...I thought it was going to, but the demons changed every deal i tried to make with them to free myself. In the end it was too late, I burned too many bridges to get help, and was too stubborn to ask for help in the first place."

She could tell he was a bit confused, so she finally broke down and told him all about how she'd met the Winchesters, manipulated them a few times, worked with them then irritated them until she made the worst decision she could have made and stole the Colt from the boys. Rose let Damon in on how much Dean had hated her after that. Yet she hadn't felt guilty until the moment she learned Dean needed that gun to save himself from his deal. Rose finished by explaining the final day where Dean had found her, nearly killed her, and then left her for dead after finding out she was supposed to kill Sam. Rose was near tears as she remembered that day, and Damon actually found himself feeling for her. How had Lexi managed to find and save her with only minutes before her deal came do? She'd been through a lot, even though she'd been a bitch he didn't blame her. It wasn't all her fault after all...it's like she was meant to fail, and yet then here she was.

"I didn't deserve it" Rose practically cried. "I didn't deserve to live, and now here I am. I got a second chance, and you know I don't regret it Damon. I don't regret coming back here." She wanted him to know that. She didn't want him to think that she would regret or blame him for her getting bit.

Rose drifted off into sleep after her confessions, Damon was glad it worked...but he was sure he couldn't handle any more drama or emotions right now, so he gently stood up making sure Rose didn't wake up.

He went down and got a few blood bags for when she woke up, he was sure she'd need it. Then he got himself a drink.

Just outside of Mystic Falls, old Motel.

Dean pulled his impala into the small motel. It was late(technically morning already) and he and Sam would need a little rest before getting to work on the vampire(or werewolf?) problem. They'd head over to the police station later in the morning.

End Chapt.