A/N: Sorry – didn't expect to get a round of edits last week. I should be back on track to post weekly from here on out. I don't anticipate this being a hugely long story, so we're probably 5 chapters from the end.

Before I keep on going, I have to stop and wish one of DE fan fiction's biggest cheerleaders happy birthday! Daisy, this one's for you.

Warnings: Mature - character death, blood, adult content, language, violence, no Stefan, no Bonnie

A knock sounded at the front door and Jeremy looked up from his pile of textbooks. The one good thing about his current life of solitude was his increased GPA. Ever since Elena moved out, he'd found himself studying for hours every night just to have something to do between dishes and a time he could justify going to bed. The knocking repeated. Whoever was at the door didn't seem to care that it was almost eleven. That was never a good sign.

Jeremy slowly rose from his seat on the couch and approached the door cautiously. Peering out the side window, an unfamiliar man stared back at him. "Jeremy Gilbert?"

Bracing the door with the toe of his boot, he cracked it open an inch. "Kind of late, isn't it?" Now that the door was open, Jeremy could better see the visitor. Standing at least four inches below his line of sight, Jeremy realized he could easily overpower the man's slight build – as long as he was human….and that was always a question in this town.

The man nodded and frowned. "I'm sorry to bother you at this time of night, but it's important. I need to speak with your sister. Can I come in?"

"Who are you?" Jeremy had more than enough experience after living in Mystic Falls the past year and a half to know that nothing good arrives on your doorstep after dark.

"I'm Dr. Atticus Shane." He carefully reached into his pocket and withdrew a business card. "A friend sent me."

Jeremy took hold of the card and studied it.

Dr. Atticus Shane

Spirituality and the Occult

Moreland University

555-123-3344

"Professor of the Occult?" Jeremy stared at the card, half expecting it to burst into flames now that he'd read it.

"I can explain if you'll just let me inside." Professor Shane took a confident step toward the door. A dark shape appeared behind the visitor. Alaric sternly shook his head in an unspoken no.

"I don't think so." Jeremy took a step back and shut the door.

"But I need to talk with your sister." Dr. Shane protested.

"Sorry." Jeremy closed the door and locked the deadbolt, leaving his visitor sputtering on the porch. "What was that about? And why was he looking for Elena?"

"No idea." Alaric's frown deepened. "But I can tell you that he's more than just a professor."

"So this guy shows up on the front porch in the middle of the night, and you never think about calling someone?" Damon poured a glass of bourbon, glanced at Jeremy's shaken appearance, turned to the cabinet, and pulled out a second tumbler.

"Alaric was there."

Damon flinched at the mention of his friend. "And what was he going to do, haunt him to death?"

"You didn't see this guy. I could have taken him." Jeremy answered with the cocky self-assurance of a teenager who'd had to face situations normally reserved for horror movies and haunted houses.

"Still. You should have called someone." Damon handed Jeremy the drink. "If Elena lost you…." Damon couldn't finish the sentence.

"Where is she anyway?" Jeremy winced and swallowed. He turned toward the stairs as if seeking a sign of Elena.

Damon polished off the last of his drink and leaned over the back of the couch. "I wouldn't know."

Jeremy's brow furrowed. "She's still staying with Caroline?" He glanced nervously at Damon. His pulse sped as his discomfort increased. "I mean, I thought. You know. I assumed she'd be here. I mean..."

"Spit it out Jeremy." Damon raised an eyebrow and pointed at the clock. "Don't want to make you late for school."

Jeremy fidgeted in his seat on the couch. He spun his ring on his finger, obviously wishing he'd never mentioned whatever was bothering him. "That night. In Denver."

Damon knew exactly what night Jeremy meant before he clarified his statement. Some nights, those moments replayed on seemingly never-ending loop in his dreams. His fingers threaded through her hair as his other hand cupped her ass. His lips brushed over the smooth skin between her breasts. If the young man sitting in front of him hadn't walked out of their room at that exact moment, Damon was fairly certain the night would have ended very differently.

"Rose." Jeremy suddenly found the bird landing in the bushes outside the picture window very interesting. His cheeks flushed – surprising for a 16 year old boy. "Rose wanted me to tell you that she was rooting for the two of you."

Now he was intrigued. "She said what?" Of all the messages he'd thought Rose might choose to deliver from the beyond, hearing that she'd chose to give advice about his love life was a surprise.

Jeremy turned back to face Damon, staring him in the eyes without blinking. "She wanted me to tell you that she was hoping you and Elena would make it." Jeremy let out a long breath. "I didn't want to tell you." He ran his fingers nervously through his hair. "After last week…" Jeremy shrugged. "I wish I had."

"You're not alone."

Elena backed away from Matt and cautiously licked the corner of her mouth. She tugged a tissue out of the box on the side table and dabbed at her lips. "Thank you." She swallowed and took a deep breath, forcing herself to regain control over her thirst.

"You're sure that was enough?" Matt's blue eyes studied her with concern.

Elena tried to give a convincing nod. "Definitely." She looked away from the pearl of blood pooling at his wrist. "Thank you." She turned away from Matt and picked up her messenger bag and tugged the strap over the shoulder. "I've got to go."

"Oh, that's right." Caroline nodded. "You have that meeting with the counselor this morning."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Have to discuss my poor attendance record." She pulled her cell phone from her phone and checked for any new mail. Ten hits on her search for "animal attacks" and "unexplained death." She could help with the unexplained part. Stefan had once told her that if she didn't love him, his recovery from his most recent bout with ripper-dom would be at an end. So far, thirty people had paid the ultimate price after Damon kicked Stefan out of the boardinghouse.

"Elena?" Caroline stood inches from her face. Elena hadn't even heard her friend talking to her – not a good sign since she now had vampire senses. She was more distracted than she'd thought. "Will you be okay on your own? I wanted to stay with Matt for a minute."

"Yeah, sure." Elena glanced at Matt. He did seem a little pasty. "I'll see you at school."

"Definitely." Matt nodded encouragingly. "We're right behind you." He waited until she was out the door, and he heard her car rev to life. "Well?"

Caroline nodded grimly. "You're right." She shook her head. "There's no way she's eating enough. I mean, Elena's always been a stick, but I didn't even count to five before she was done."

"What should we do?" Matt put a bandage over his wrist.

"I think we're going to need to talk with Damon."

"How is she?" Damon looked up from the pile of charred werewolves. Exhaust from Tyler Lockwood's car still drifted over the clearing as he left after failing to identify any of the bodies. Sheriff Forbes scribbled one last note onto her clipboard and shook her head, fatigue evident on her face. They'd spent the last hour going over the burned out campsite, and Damon had danced around the subject for as long as he could, hoping that she'd bring it up on her own. Finding the remains of three werewolves not even a mile outside Mystic Falls was troubling, but Damon had other things preoccupying his mind.

"Still has me following the trail of Stefan's latest kills." Sheriff Forbes studied his face with the intensity of a trained investigator. They'd been doing this dance for over a week now. Every day, Damon would find a reason to drop by the sheriff's office and casually work a question about Elena into the conversation. Today was no different, except for the fact that Liz summoned him here, instead of him creating a reason to meet up with her. She gave an annoyed huff. "Why don't you just come by and see for yourself? I think it would do you both some good."

Damon shook his head. "I want to give her some space."

"Pretty sure she's had more than enough space." Liz's phone vibrated, and she turned her back to Damon as she answered it.

Damon walked away to give her the illusion of privacy. In order for him to not hear at least half the conversation, he'd have to be a lot farther away. He had to admit, though, that once he heard the name Elena Gilbert, he couldn't ignore the phone call from the high school….and Liz knew it. She turned the volume on her phone down so low it even defeated his sense of hearing.

"Yes. Thank you. Yes, I understand. I'll be right there." Liz ended the call and gave him a pointed look.

"It's Elena." He didn't even have to ask the question. One look at Liz's face told him there was a big problem.

"The school was calling to let me know she was truant." Liz was already crossing the field on her way to her car. "And I talked to Caroline this morning. I know Elena was on her way to school."

"So we have someone who just torched a pack of werewolves. My brother's on a rampage. And now Elena's missing?" Damon looked to Liz for confirmation. "In other words, just another typical day in Mystic Falls."

Liz rolled her eyes and shook her head. "What are you doing?"

Damon leaned against his car and rapidly keyed a code into his phone. "How many times did we lose her last year?" He paused and smiled. "I have her GPS activated on her phone."

"So you know where she is?" Liz appeared genuinely impressed.

"I've got this." Damon opened his car door as he pointed over his shoulder at the still-smoking bodies mounded behind them. "I'll leave you with….that."

Damon wouldn't have needed the GPS unit once he turned onto the street running between Matt's house and the high school. If Caroline had missed the damaged trees and SUV-sized hole in the vines, she had to be very distracted on her way to school. Exactly what had she and Matt been up to in their car?

He didn't have time to think about that. Of all the ways that a vampire could end up getting themselves into trouble….very few could be life-threatening. Having your car careening out of control into what was basically a forest filled with potential stakes – leave it to Elena to figure out the one way she could really get hurt.

"Elena?" Damon jumped out from behind the wheel of the car and sped down the new path carved into the hillside. "Elena!" His voice echoed into dappled half-light of the woods. School started hours ago. How could a vampire get so badly injured that she wouldn't be able to contact anyone?

He didn't want to think about it.

"Elena." Her SUV rested on its roof at the base of the hill, in a scene all too familiar to him. "Elena?" He crouched on his hands and knees and peered into the driver's side window.

Elena smacked her lips and swallowed. Warm blood trickled into her mouth and she woke with a start. Sputtering, she pushed herself back on the pile of pillows and away from Jeremy's arm. As pain shot through almost every inch of her body, she realized that was a very bad decision on her part. "Jeremy, what are you doing here?"

Jeremy faked a smile. "When your sister rolls her car on the way to school, you get to leave for the rest of the day."

"I mean…here." She glared at the wound on his arm. She never intended to feed on her brother – even if she was desperate. Judging by the throbbing in her side and her head, she had been desperate.

Damon walked into the room, and for the first time, she looked beyond her brother's face and at the surroundings around her. She wasn't in her bed at home. She was lying in the dead center of Damon's bed. Elena glanced at her shoulder….and she was wearing one of his shirts – judging from the way her legs felt – and that was all she was wearing. "Hey, Jeremy. Don't you need to get to work?"

Jeremy seemed to be reacting to an pre-planned signal between himself and Damon. "Yeah." He pulled his sleeve down over his wrist and buttoned the cuff. "Matt said he can come by around ten if you need him."

Damon's electric blue eyes slowly traveled over Elena's face. "We'll let him know." And then he turned his full attention to Elena, ignoring Jeremy as he picked up his jacket and left the room.

"What was Jeremy doing here?" Elena wasn't going to drop the subject. Damon knew how she felt about feeding from her brother. She'd made that abundantly clear after her unique dietary requirements came to light.

Damon settled on the edge of the bed. "He and Matt have been trading off this afternoon. You….needed their help." He appeared pained that there was something he couldn't provide for her. "You were in pretty bad shape. Only you could manage to stake yourself by wrecking your car." He tried to make light of it, but Elena could see the strain still left on his face.

Elena reached out and took his hand, earning a surprised smile from Damon. "You saved me." She pulled him into her side, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

She didn't have to hint too hard. Damon kicked off his shoes and slid to the center of the bed, cradling her head against his shoulder. She leaned up and looked into his eyes. "I'll always save you." He trailed a finger over her cheek, he'd cleaned most of the blood from her face, but her skin still bore a faint pink stain.

"Damon." She flinched as she raised herself up and stared intensely into his eyes. "I need to tell you something." Her face was so close to his that he could feel the warmth of her breath on his cheeks. "It would have made a difference."

"What?"

"That night….you asked me if would have made a difference if you hadn't compelled me to forget." She interlocked her fingers with his and held on tightly. "The answer is yes."

Sorry, I really needed to break it here...so, what do you think is coming next? Reviews make the updates come faster. :-) (Or at least that's the general idea.) Thanks for reading. Once again, happy birthday Daisy!