Katherine Pierce wonders just when she started to care about Damon Salvatore. The options are limited: between 12 pm to 12 am, a 12-hour window. She settles on around 10:30 pm, give or take. The time at which he let her handcuff him to his bed and blindfold him.
She was stunned, to say the least. You would think a spitfire like her had dominated her share of men in the bedroom, right? Wrong. Men, even fellow fighters, took issue enough with her physicality and athleticism. They would not tolerate her dominating them sexually too. Damon was one of the few to hand her the whips to control. That confidence was extremely sexy to her.
Damon rolls his eyes as Kat reams out the Mystic Falls Hospital ER administrative team. She ordered him to the ER to examine his face. Just as an exam room opens, Elijah and Klaus limp through the ER doors. Damon lingers behind for a couple of minutes to catch up. Elijah is the latest victim of Elena's now infamous Superman punch. The men joke about Elena's flawless technique to lighten an otherwise heavy night.
Dr. John Gilbert examines Damon's face. Could this night get any worse? Lucky Damon wins John fucking Gilbert in the physician lottery, of the millions of them on call in the world right now. This is the first time in three years that Damon and John have spent any time together, one on one. Damon tries to look on the "bright" side. Elena has yet to tattle to John about Damon's indiscretions, or Damon would have already had another black eye to even out his face. Not that John even needs any reason to justify violence towards Damon. John probably considers himself the utmost professional in not punching Damon and taking care like a physician should.
Ric pulls his Carrera to the side of the road and bangs his head against the steering wheel. Elena has just asserted that she is joining the UFC in the hopes of fighting Kat for the women's bantamweight belt. Elena has also just asserted that she is refusing to train with Damon, the "insecure misogynist," for the potential fight. Ric grapples with that term. Insecure misogynist. Is Damon one, in light of the new information Elena has learned and exposed to Ric tonight? Damon has no issue respecting Elena as an equal in training. He just has an issue accepting her right to make her own love life decisions, but for her own good. Ric uses his head to honk the horn a few times. He himself has dazzled Elena with a sexist gem of a comment on more than one occasion. He blames his big, fat F- in a first-year women's studies course. He was too busy with Isobel, violating every known Whitmore regulation governing student-TA interactions.
After taking a breather, Ric starts again towards Mystic Falls Hospital. Damon's vision is still blurry, and he wants Ric as his ride home to avoid Kat's supposed girlfriend-like clinginess. Ric doubles over and wheezes with amusement and pride at the sight of Damon's black eye. Girl can hit. "Come on Panda," Ric squeezes out at Damon's pout.
Damon presses a glass of bourbon on the rocks against his eye. The cold comfort is about the only good thing in his life right now. Again, he tries to look on the "bright" side. There is nowhere to go but up after the woman you love deems you an insecure misogynist and punches your face. He grapples with that term.
First, the adjective "insecure." He swallows a swig of bourbon. All indications were that John liked Damon in the past. John may even have loved Damon like a son. At least, Damon had once loved John like a dad. John did what Giuseppe could not and would not. John played with Damon during the summers. John enrolled Damon in Shorin-Ryu martial art classes. John served as Damon's guardian and cheerleader during out-of-state competitions. John let Damon just be. Then one day, John punched Damon and kicked Vicki, and that was that. To Damon, everything was as clear as ice: John had called Damon a "retard" who "shouldn't procreate." How much clearer could John have been with his rhymes and reasons? He had been running a long pity con for years. The rational adult in Damon knows those hateful words were nothing more than repulsive bullshit oozing from an equally repulsive asshole. The fearful child in Damon, who was pelted by his father, wonders if he even deserves love.
Second, the noun "misogynist." Damon swallows another swig of bourbon. Women are magnificent. They can vote, get educations, have careers. They can fight in the ER, courtroom, or fucking steel cages. They can have one-night stands, use sex as a distraction, dominate in the bedroom. They look fabulous naked, with their curves and hard lines and everything in between. They can fall in love with whomever they want. Except with him. Especially not with him. He would make that one decision for them to save everyone the trouble. She would eventually discover her "love" is really pity anyways. Whatever that action makes him, so be it. If you're gonna be bad, be bad with a purpose.
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