N: I know this was supposed to be the last chapter but I just could not get everything I wanted in one chapter, so I divided in 3. This is the first and there are two more to come. Hope you guys will not hate me for it, sorry. Enjoy!

The million-dollar question

BOARDING HOUSE

It took Damon full five minutes before he managed to recover from his state of shock. A million questions were forming in his head, but the biggest one of all, the one that he desperately wanted an answer to was why? Why would Elena pretend to be Katherine…and be with him? Maybe Katherine compelled Elena just to play with his emotions, just to drive him crazy. The thought of Elena being compelled by Katherine was enough to shake him back to reality and made him jump of the bed.

He was dressed in record time and rushing down the stairs, hoping, praying she will still be there.

He found her sitting on the couch, in front of the fire. The flames were playing in her eyes…but they looked empty, no emotions, and no sparkle. He took a few steps forward, slowly taking a seat beside her. The emotionless expression on her face scared Damon more then he wanted to admit.

"Elena…" he called in a whisper. She turned to face him and give him a fake smile.

"Guess again!" she said.

"Katherine" it was only now that he noticed that she was wearing different clothes.

"Bingo!" she yelled.

His next move had Katherine against the wall and his head in her throat trying to drain the life out of her.

"You sick, manipulative bitch, you just couldn't stop playing your twisted games, could you?"

Damon was fuming with anger and hatred for this woman.

Katherine looked at him surprised for a split second, but as soon as she recovered, the roles reversed and now Damon was the one being held against the wall.

"First of all…" Katherine started, "…you have to stop doing that. You and I both know you are no match for me. I am much, much stronger then you and since you can't possibly finish what you keep starting, I suggest you stop doing it in the first place" She tightened the grip around his throat and Damon growled in pain. "Second of all, I really have no idea what are you talking about and I don't like it" she slowly let go of him and took a step back.

"You know very well what I'm talking about Katherine, you compelled Elena…"

"Compelled Elena to do what? Why would I compel her? Where is she, did she do something stupid? I swear if she did something stupid I'll…where is she Damon, what happened?"

All off a sudden Damon was not the only one with a million questions.

"I don't know where she is, she just took off…"

"Just took off? What did you do, what did you say to her?" Katherine asked, but she did not wait for an answer, she continued "…wait, you thought I compelled her, so the question is what did she do or say?"

ELENA'S HOUSE

By the time Elena entered her room, she was crying hysterically, her sobs making her whole body shake.

She took a seat by the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands. In just a few seconds, she felt two arms wrapping around her. She sensed Caroline's perfume and her soft hair tickling her shoulders and she let her friend hold her tight as she cried.

"Elena, what happen, what's wrong?" Caroline asked in a soft voice, "Shh, everything's going to be ok."

"No, no…nothing is ever going to be ok again…" Elena bit her bottom lip and pulled back a few inches "…Oh, my God, what have I done?"

"Elena, you're scaring me, what happen?" Caroline asked again, her voice full of concern.

"I'm in love with him…" she said so low that even with vampire hearing Caroline didn't perfectly understood what she said.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm in love with Damon Salvatore…" Elena said this time almost yelling.

BOARDING HOUSE

Damon looked at Katherine, replaying her question in his head '…the question is, what did SHE do or say?' He could not tell her that Elena had pretended to be her and he had been stupid enough to fall for it…he still could not believe what had happen. He slept with Elena thinking she was Katherine, but imagining she was Elena…God that sounded so crazy…like fluffy teenage movies.

"We had a fight and she left," he decided to go with a more simple explanation for now at least. It was not Katherine's business anyway; this was between him and Elena.

"Do I look stupid to you, Damon? You think I have walked this earth for more than 500 years for nothing. A fight with Elena would not make you believe I compelled her, and, you guys fight all the time. Let me think…uhhhmm… the fact that you think she's been compelled means that she did something out of her character, something that she wouldn't normally do" Katherine smiled once she figured out "So she finally did it…she slept with you. I was wondering when that would happen."

"You don't know what you're talking about Katherine"

"You might want to zip your pants and tell me that again!"

Damon looked down his pants were perfectly zipped. He looked back at Katherine, she was now fully laughing.

"God, I can't believe you felt for that!" she said ironically.

"I can believe you're going to rely your theories on that!" Damon shouted back.

"Oh, I'm not. It is so obvious, think about it! You come running, chasing after her, your hair is a mess, a beautiful, sexy mess, but still a mess and in top of it all, you believe me when I tell you that your pants are unzipped" she looked at his pants when she said the words. "…you should've seen the expression on your face, when you got caught, it was priceless"

"So, I just had sex, that doesn't mean I was with her"

"Hello, I'm a vampire; I've been one for a while now. I can smell her all over you; you should probably take a shower before Stefan comes back" she took a step closer to him "Can't wait until Stefan find out about this. He'll finally realize that his perfect human is just not that perfect after all"

"So that's why you did it. You compelled her into sleeping with me so Stefan will think she cheated on him. That's low Katherine, even for you."

"Are you deaf or stupid? Actually, no need to answer that, you must be both; since I told you twice I did not compel her. If I got this right, you think that a girl must be under compulsion in order to sleep with you. That's low Damon, even for you…"

Katherine's counter attack hurt him, but he did not show it.

"She won't do that, Katherine, unlike you, she possesses something called morals"

"Oh, come on Damon, give yourself some credit, she just gave in to the temptation. Been there, done that, remember? She felt for the bad boy…"

"You…you are nothing, nothing like her"

"Whatever, I don't really care about the reason she slept with you. I want you to find her, make sure she has not done something stupid. Girls at her age can act very…impulsively, especially in an emotional situation."

Damon started wondering why would Katherine care about Elena and her wellbeing, but he decided he needs to find Elena first and ask questions later.

"Hello, now it's not the time for your day-dreaming, Damon, go find Elena!"

"Find Elena…why, where did she go? What happened?" Stefan asked from the doorway…

N: So I guess Stefan will have to wait until the next chapter to confront Elena…

If you took the time to read the story, you might as well tell me what you think of it, please, leave a review!