Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries. I wish I owned Damon, he's just so HAWT! Or at least Paul Wesley. I do, however, own this story and all the original characters that will appear in it as the story goes on. Thank you.

Chapter 4- Introductions

As Dani was making a grilled cheese sandwich on the stove, a moving van pulled up to the house. Wanting to greet the new tenants since Damon was still in bed, and Stephen out with Elena, she figured that the responsibility to show the new tenants to their rooms fell on her.

Stephen had told her which tenants would be going in which rooms yesterday when she had helped him clean up.

There was a Mr. Henry McGregor, who was a retired firefighter of 75. Stephen had told her that he had moved down to Mystic Falls recently, just like her. He would be the only onr rooming downstairs.

The other tenant was a local lawyer by the name of David Zenna. He owned a small law firm in town and mostly dealt with property law. He would be taking the room next door to hers.

Turning off the stove and putting the hot sandwich on a plate to cool down, Dani made her way to the front door to welcome the newcomer.

She stepped outside to see the van pull up to the door. A large black truck followed and stopped behind it. Both vehicles cut off their engines and both drivers stepped out. The driver of the van was a heavy set man with a balding head and a big black moustache. He waved hello to Dani before moving to the back of the van.

She assumed that the driver from the truck was Mr. McGregor. Since he was a former firefighter, Dani expected a great big hulk of a man to come out of the truck, but she knew better than to believe the romance novels she was so fond of reading. Although, she wasn't disappointed when Mr. McGregor came into view.

At 6'3, with gleaming silver hair and the frame of a grizzly bear, Mr. McGregor pretty much fit the mental picture she had of a former firefighter. Although he was 75, he looked 10 years younger than he was. It was clear that he took care of himself, but then again, she figured that firefighters needed to be in top fit condition.

She watched as Mr. McGregor closed his car door and took a few moments to look around. When he turned to look at the house, he caught sight of her and brought a hand up into the air in greeting. He smiled as he walked over.

"Hello there lass!" He smiled widely as he took her hand in his, his larger one engulfing hers. "I'm Henry, and you are?" His voice was deep and smooth and it came with a rough Scottish brogue. His smile was also charming and boyish. Dani liked him immediately.

She smiled back at him as she said, "It's nice to meet you Henry. I'm Danielle, but you can call me Dani. I'll be living here too."

"Well now, it's nice to meet yeh Dani. Good to know that we'll have a pretty face around here. Yer no the owner are yeh?"

Dani shook her head. "No. The owner is, um… resting upstairs. I'm afraid that he might not be down for a while, so I'll be showing you to your room and helping you move in."

"Thank yeh lass. But I don't have a lot to move, plus I got Jack over there to help. Tell yeh what though, I haven't eaten since yesterday. Think that you might be kind enough to fix me something ta eat? I'd do it meself, but I'm all thumbs in the kitchen," he said chuckling.

Dani smiled, "It's not a problem. How does chicken and rice sound? I can have it ready in an hour."

Henry tilted his head in thanks. "That sounds wonderful lass."

"Great. Just let me show you to your room then."

Dani let Henry in and showed him to his room, which was next to the stairs. When Henry went off to help his friend grab the boxes, Dani went to the kitchen to fix Henry something to eat, and since she was there, she decided that she might as well make his friend something too.

She got some strips of chicken breast from the fridge, some rice from the pantry, the pots and pans to cook it all with, and set off cooking.

About halfway into cooking the meal, Damon made his way into the kitchen. He paused in the entryway when he saw Dani at the stove, her back to him. He watched her for a few minutes as she moved the chicken around the heated pan. She was very fluid in her movements, flipping the strips of meat to evenly cook them on both sides. She let them sit for a bit as she checked on the pot steaming next to the pan.

"I hope that some of that's for me."

Dani jumped at the sound of Damon's voice. As she spun to look at him, her hand made contact with the side of the pot. She yelped with pain as the heat seared her hand.

In the next instant, Damon was beside her, taking her hand to check the damage. He pulled her to the sink, turning on the cold water and sticking her hand under the faucet.

Dani hissed as the water ran over her reddening skin.

"Jeez, if you didn't have any more chicken, you could have said so. No need to burn off you own flesh. I'm not the Merchant of Venice you know."

Dani looked up at Damon with watery eyes. "This isn't funny. It really hurts."

Damon's gaze softened a bit. "I know. I was just trying to lighten the mood." He glanced at her hand. "Here, let me see it."

Dani slowly took her hand out from under the faucet. It didn't hurt as much as it did before, but all the skin along the side of her hand had turned red. Damon gently took her hand in his, turning it over to inspect it. He 'hmmed' before letting her hand go and stepping out of the kitchen. He came back a minute later with a jar and a dry cloth.

Without as much as a 'by your leave,' he set the jar and cloth on the kitchen table and proceeded to pick her up so that he could deposit her beside the jar and cloth. He then opened the jar, dabbed the cloth in whatever was inside, and then took her hand.

He looked up at her, the cloth poised over her hand. "This is a salve that will help with the burn. It will numb the pain and cool the skin so that it will heal faster. I'm just saying this to you now so that later, if something happens, you can't sue me and say that I didn't tell you what it was. So, can I put this on your hand?"

Dani nodded her consent. Damon carefully dabbed the salve on Dani's burn. She gave a light gasp as the cool cream coated her burn. After a few minutes, Damon put the cloth down and gently blew on the area he applied the cream to.

Dani couldn't help but stare at him. He was being so nice and careful with her. The touch of his fingers on her hand was so soft and gentle. The hair on his head looked pretty soft too…

"I use conditioner."

Dani snapped back into reality. "Huh?"

"I use conditioner. That's why my hair looks so soft."

Realizing that she had been talking out loud again, Dani blushed. "R-Really? I thought it was naturally like that." She rolled her eyes upward and mouthed, Why me?

Smirking, Damon righted himself. He closed the jar and put the cloth on the counter. "Wait right there," he said before leaving the kitchen again.

Dani watched him go and when he disappeared from sight, she caught a faint whiff of smoke. Gasping as she remembered the chicken and the rice still on the stove, she rushed over to the burning food, turning off the stove. She was about to reach for the pan handle when a hand reached past her and got it first.

"I thought I told you not to move."

Dani gazed up at Damon's scowling face, smiling apologetically. Damon sighed and pointed at the table. Dani walked over and leaned against it as Damon took care of the food on the stove. After he had moved both the pan and the pot to the side so they could cool down, he moved back to Dani.

"Hand."

Dani raised her hand. Damon took out a roll of wrapping from his pocket, and then proceeded to wrap Dani's hand. He wrapped her hand snuggly, and then finished it off with a small safety pin so that the wrapping wouldn't unravel.

"Alright, no strenuous movement from that hand from now on for at least a week. We have to put on the slave every morning and every night so it will heal faster."

"We?"

Damon looked in her eyes for a moment before nodding. "We."

Dani smiled. "Thank you Mr. Salvatore."

Damon grunted. "What were you doing anyway?" He looked over at the stove. "That's a bit too much food for just you."

"Actually, I made a grilled cheese sandwich earlier."

Damon noticed the plate with the sandwich.

"I was making the chicken and the rice for Henry, or Mr. McGregor. He arrived about 20 minutes ago, and I thought that I might make him and his friend some food since they said that they hadn't eaten in a while."

Damon raised his brow. "Really? Hmm, I wasn't expecting him until tomorrow. Don't worry about the food. I'll just order something in for you guys."

"Oh, ok. You don't want to eat with us?"

Even though he was surprised at the invitation, he automatically said, "No thanks."

From the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of disappointment run across Dani's face.

"Alright then. I'll just go tell them that we'll be eating take out," she said, and walked out of the kitchen.

Damon watched her go, feeling something that he hadn't felt in a long while. Guilt. What a pain in the ass. All because he made her disappointed? What the hell was wrong with him? Sighing with frustration, Damon dumped the ruined food in the trash, put the kitchenware in the sink and went to greet the new tenant.

When he walked into the hall, he saw Dani talking with a large man with silver hair and a wide grin. He recognized Mr. Henry McGregor from his interview with him a few days ago. He had liked the man well enough. He was friendly, honest and could be trusted to mind his own business. He walked up to them.

As Dani finished explaining what happened to her hand, Damon's voice sounded behind her. "Mr. McGregor, it's nice to see you again."

Henry looked past Dani shoulder to Damon. "Mr. Salvatore, it's nice to see yeh again too. Miss Dani here told me that you were ordering food for us. Thank you for that lad. Wouldn't want another accident to befall this wee girl here," he said patting Dani's shoulder.

Dani smiled up at Henry and Damon felt a small twinge of jealousy at the familiar way Henry touched Dani. He quickly shook the feeling off. He was about to say something else when he heard something outside.

"It looks like our last tenant has arrived."

"Really?" Dani walked over to the front door and poked her head out. Sure enough, a light brown station wagon pulled up into the driveway. The man that was practically the complete opposite of Henry stepped out of the car. He was a slight man, with thin hair and a pair of round wire-rimmed glasses. His nose was a bit too long for his face and he had the bushiest eyebrows she's ever seen.

"That's David Zenna."

Dani looked over her shoulder at Damon. "You know, you could stop doing that."

Damon looked down at her. "Doing what?"

"Sneaking up on me. Last time I burned my hand and nearly jumped out of my socks. You could give me some kind of warning."

Damon snorted. "Just your socks? I'm getting rusty. Next time I'll make sure you jump out of your pants."

Dani blushed and quickly turned her face away. Was he flirting with her?

Why the hell was he flirting with her? No Damon, bad Damon, can't flirt with tenants. You love Katherine, well used to love. Ever since he found out that bitch was alive and well this whole time, his feelings for her dimmed somewhat. Or rather, they completely disappeared. Since then, he'd gotten closer to Elena and started to develop feelings for her. She was kind, beautiful, smart, funny and she understood him when no one else was willing to. It was Elena that he cared for, not this ordinary little brown bird. He would have to be careful in the future, make sure that he pushed her away so that she wouldn't get any closer to him and vice versa.

Dani opened the front door further and stepped out to greet Mr. Zenna. She found that he was quite shy and quiet but she liked him well enough and thought that they would all get along in the future.


It took until 9 o'clock for Mr. Zenna and Henry to be completely moved into the boarding house. Saying goodnight to them, Dani headed to her room.

When she opened the door, she noticed a jar sitting on her nightstand next to a clean wash cloth. She was confused for a moment before she recognized that the jar on her nightstand was the same one that Damon had gotten the salve from. She walked up to it and saw that the jar was sitting on a note. She took out the note from beneath the jar and read it.

Sorry, but something came up.

You can do this yourself, right?

D.

Dani looked down at the jar, her face a little sad. She shrugged though, pushing her twinge of sadness aside. If he was busy, then he was busy, it was none of her business.

She sat down on the edge of the bed, taking off the safety pin and unraveling the binding around her hand. She took the cloth, opened the jar and applied the cream on her burn. After she was done, she redid the binding and pinned it together. She turned her hand over, admiring her handiwork. Thank God that it was her left hand that was burned and not her right, otherwise, she'd be having a lot more difficulty with things.

Dani put the jar in the little cabinet above her bathroom sink, and rinsed the wash cloth until it was clean. She hung the cloth on a little hook to the side, and then got ready for bed, quickly falling asleep against the soft pillow.