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.

Author's Notes: This chapter takes place during the season finale of Vampire Diaries, only I mixed in Dani into it. Hope you like it!

Chapter 7- Founder's Day: Part 1

Dani cursed as she tripped over the hem of her dress for the fifth time that morning. It was ten o'clock and the Founder's Day parade would be starting in an hour. People were bustling all around her as they set up and prepared the floats for the parade.

Presently, she was trying to avoid Mrs. Lockwood who had been trying to corner since she arrived. The annoying woman was scurrying around somewhere right now, telling someone what to do, or ordering someone to move a bunch of chairs, or eating a pie that she baked from the fingers and toes of small children. Just the sound of her voice gave her goosebumps.

Grabbing a handful of sky blue cloth, Dani lifted her longs skirts as to avoid tripping yet again. Her plan didn't turn out quite the way she wanted since she seemed to miss picking up some of the hem, which her foot was kind enough to find.

Stumbling forward, Dani hit her bonneted head against something. Looking up, she saw that it was a person.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you. Are you ok? Jeez, this dress…"

The man smiled at her as she righted herself. "It's not a problem, really. Are you alright though? Seems like you have your hands full."

Dani looked down at her blue regency styled dress. The dress was free flowing until it came to her bust, where it cinched itself neatly to show off her curves. The style was simple, yet elegant and it kept her cool under the sun.

"It's just that this dress isn't mine you see. It was made for a pregnant woman, so the front of the dress is longer than the back, and it's a little difficult to walk around in it without tripping."

The man chuckled. "Yes, I see that." He looked at her face, studying. "Aren't you the new English teacher at the high school? The one who's living at the old boarding house?"

Dani blinked in surprise. "Why, yes I am. I'm surprised that you knew that."

"Well, my niece and nephew are Elena and Jeremy Gilbert."

Dani's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? I didn't know that Jenna was married."

Chuckling, the man was about to answer when a voice behind Dani answered for him. "He's not."

Dani turned to see Damon. She smiled in greeting. Damon walked up to them and put an arm around Dani's shoulders. Confused at the public display of affection, Dani looked up at Damon with her brows raised.

"If you do that, you'll get wrinkles."

Pouting, Dani lowered her brows.

Smiling, Damon turned his attention to Jonathan Gilbert. "Jon, so good to see you out and about. How are you enjoying Founder's Day? I hear the cotton candy is to die for."

Jon smiled back at him humorlessly. His gaze fell on Dani once again. "Like Damon said before, I'm not married. Jenna is my sister-in-laws sister. My brother was Elena and Jeremy's father." His hand reached out, palm up. "I'm Jonathan Gilbert."

Dani clasped his hand in hers and almost immediately had the urge to let go. She couldn't quite say, but there was something about Jonathan Gilbert that she didn't quite like. Maybe it was the way his eyes shifted, like he was just pretending to be nice and polite with her.

She smiled anyways. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Gilbert. My name is Danielle Court." She didn't bother telling him to call her Dani. She felt like she didn't want this man using any familiar terms with her.

Shaking her hand firmly, Jon looked to the side at Damon. He gave him a small smile, which Damon returned with a glare. Letting go of Dani's hand, Jon moved back a step, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well, I hope that you enjoy Founder's Day Ms. Court. I most certainly will." With a nod of his head, he walked off.

Damon watched him go, his hand tightening on Dani's shoulder protectively.

"You don't like him, do you?"

Damon looked down at her. Her face was upturned to him, her brown eyes curious but careful. He turned his body to her, putting his other hand on her other shoulder so that he had her full attention.

"Dani, listen carefully. I don't want you around that guy alone. If you ever see him walking down a dark street, walk the other way. He doesn't like me, and it's not a stretch to say that he might try to hurt me through you."

Dani took out a small note pad and a pen from her small purse. She flipped to a blank page and scribbled something down, mumbling, "Warning…Jonathan…Gilbert…"

Damon chuckled and flicked the brim of her white bonnet. "Smart ass."

Dani grinned as she tilted her skewed hat into the right position. "Takes on to know one."

Damon snorted. Taking note of her dress, he gestured towards it. "What with the dress?"

Dani looked down at herself and pinched some of the fabric, fanning the material out. "This death trap? It used to be Mrs. Lumley's. She was originally going to march in the parade, but with the baby due in a few weeks, she can't strain herself too much. Mrs. Lockwood made me give her my measurements so that a seamstress could fix the dress for me. Thing is, she just fixed the top half so it fit me. The front is too long because it's made to cover a baby belly, which I don't have."

Grinning in spite of himself, Damon pinched some on the blue fabric himself, picking it off the ground. "So… You keep tripping over it, don't you?"

Dani stuck out her lower lip, and gave him her best puppy dog eyes as she nodded pitifully.

Damon snorted. "You've been practicing that haven't you?"

Dani's sad face instantly transformed as she grinned. She looked at the ground, swishing her skirts shyly. "Yeah…"

"Keep practicing."

Dani punched Damon lightly on the shoulder. After the night when Damon saved her from Leecher, they had gotten more comfortable with each other. It was like they fell back into an old routine that felt natural to both of them, like they had done it before.

They wandered around for a bit until Mrs. Lockwood called everyone to the starting point of the parade. Dani waved bye to Damon and walked to her starting position. For the next hour and a half, the parade marched from one end of town to the other. Dani waved to the people of Mystic Falls, a happy smile on her face. For the first time since moving, she felt like she was home, like she belonged.

Catching sight of Damon in the crowd, she waved at him. Damon smiled and waved back, but Dani noticed that it wasn't at her. She looked forward to the float in front of her, the one that held the Mystic Falls Queen and her court. Elena and Stephen were on that float, waving to the crowd.

She looked back at Damon, her smile gone. Suddenly, the feeling of home didn't feel so great after all.


Dani sighed as she looked out into the crowd that was gathering for the concert. People were setting up the equipment behind the stage curtain. Joe, the bands lead singer, strode up to her.

He clapped her lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about anything ok? Everything is going good. We're almost all set up for the show, and the equipment is all working."

"Let's hope it stays that way," Dani said, giving him a tired smile.

Saying goodbye and good luck to the band, Dani walked off the stage. She sat on a bench across the street where she could hear the concert without having her eardrums explode.

As the band started up and started to play their first song, Dani started to think about Damon and her relationship with him. For the past week, they had found a rhythm in which they were both comfortable. She had shared things with him, little things about her life that she would tell any friend of hers. He hadn't shared much with her, but he had listened, and that had meant something to her. He even remembered what she had said too!

She sighed and looked up at the darkening sky. She knew that Damon was a good man, even though he made crude jokes, pushed people away, and seemed like that whatever he did, it was for his own personal gain, but… She figured that since everyone thought of him as the bad brother, he was simply living up to their expectations. She wasn't sure if that was true or not, she wasn't a mind reader, but she just had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that he was better than he acted.

Not that she would change him in any way. Damon was Damon, plain and simple. He was fun and witty and sexy and smart and… So many other things that she couldn't name all at once. She guessed that what she loved about him. Loved… Dani sat up straighter. Love? Did she love Damon Salvatore? No. Maybe. Yes. Maybe. How could she? It had only been a few weeks that she had known him, and no one could fall in love that fast, could they?

It's not like he loved her. Not with the way he looked at Elena today. She was the one that he was in love with, not her. And who could blame him? Elena was practically perfect with her bright smile, charm, and gentleness. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Elena was good people. It was just too bad that Stephen was dating her. Not that they didn't make a nice couple. They loved each other for sure, but it would be nice if Damon got a chance instead of watching from the sidelines. She hoped that he found someone who loved him. He deserved that much.

The band finished and applause sounded through the square. Dani clapped along with everyone else and stood up from the bench. Suddenly hearing her name being called out, Dani winced when she saw Mrs. Lockwood walking towards her. Dragging her feet, Dani went to meet Mrs. Lockwood halfway, not aware of the figure that stepped out of the shadows behind the bench she was sitting at, nor the blue eyes that followed her down the street.


"Wonderful concert Ms. Court, just wonderful! I have to admit, I didn't think that you could pull it off and was afraid that I would have to get the school band to do the concert!" Mrs. Lockwood laughed while Dani chuckled reluctantly.

"Well, anyway, good job." Patting Dani's arm, Mrs. Lockwood smiled. "Maybe next year, you can take care of the concert again, hm?" Mrs. Lockwood started to walk off before turning back to Dani. "I hope that you stay for the fireworks Ms. Court. It's going to be quite a show!" Waving her fingers in a small 'too-da-loo' she walked off into the night.

Dani glanced at her watch. It was a quarter to 12, and from the way her eyelids kept drooping, she figured that she ought to be getting home. She was exhausted from the day's activities, and she would like nothing more than to cuddle up in her sheets and go to sleep.

She was a bit surprised to see Damon standing behind her when she turned around. "Hey. I haven't seen you since this morning. Did you like the concert? Are you going to stay for the fireworks, cause I'm heading home so…"

Damon didn't answer her, just looked at her with an emotion swirling in his eyes that she couldn't place. His face was grim and tight, and something about his body language seemed off.

She moved closer to him and put a hand on his arm. "Damon? Is everything ok?"

Her touch seemed to snap him out of his thoughts. His face softened a bit when he looked down at her. He removed her hand from his arm and squeezed it before letting go.

"You look tired," he said. "You should go home. I'm gonna stay for a little while longer and make sure that Henry and Stephen get home ok."

Dani nodded. "Ok. Last time I saw Henry, he was walking into the Mystic Grill."

"Kay." Damon raised his hand and cupped Dani's cheek unexpectedly. Dani felt her heart speed up at the soft touch. "Damon…"

"I'll see you at home, ok?" To Dani's disappointment, his hand slipped away from her cheek. He smiled at her before stepping around her and walking away. Dani stood there on the street for a moment before mentally slapping herself. She must have been really tired because for a second there, one, tiny, miniscule second, she thought that Damon was going to kiss her. She snorted. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.

Dani found her car, got in and started the engine. Taking one last look at the happy crowd behind her, Dani drove back to the boarding house.


As Damon watched Jon stake Anna through the heart 25 minutes later, his thoughts turned to Dani. When he heard her talking to herself on the bench, he figured that she was getting all sentimental over their new buddy-buddy routine. But when the conversation with herself got more…emotional, that's when he realized that he had some feelings for Dani that went a little beyond friendship.

He thought she was cute, and funny, and smart, and many other things. What he liked most about her though were her quirks. The way she talked to herself without realizing was one of them. When she was cooking she hummed, when she was listening to a song in the car or on the radio she mouthed along with the lyrics, and she never hid what she was thinking. He just had to look at her face to know what was going through her mind.

Jon had now grabbed a can of gasoline and was sloshing the thick liquid over the other vampires and the floor. As he made his way up the stairs, he coated the steps with gasoline as well. He lit a match when he reached the top and let it fall so that the fire covered the steps, moving down to consume the immobile bodies near the stairs before spreading further.

Trying desperately to get up and escape, Damon turned on his stomach. His vision was fuzzy and his limbs felt lifeless and detached. All of his senses were dulled. He looked around for a means to escape and caught sight of the Mayor of Mystic Falls rousing to consciousness in front of him.

What the hell was he doing here? He wasn't a vampire, that was for sure, so why was he down in that hell hole with the rest of them? He noticed that blood was dripping from the Mayor's ears, which meant that he had somehow heard the tone that had made the vampires pass out. Which meant that he was something else other than a vampire, but what?

He didn't get a chance to find out though because the Mayor got himself killed when he fell into the lap of an angry vampire only minutes later. Literally.

The fire roared around him, and that was when it sunk in that Damon might actually die there. In a way he was relieved that he was going to die. He had been alive for so long, he had wondered many times what it would have been like to die. But he was also sad. Sad that he wouldn't be able to see tomorrow, or that he wouldn't be able to tease Elena or Stephen again, but most of all, he was sad that he wouldn't be able to see Dani again.

He couldn't say that he loved her, but he would have like the chance to try it out with her. He would have liked the chance…

Suddenly, he heard his name being called out. He looked up to see Stephen making his way toward him. He couldn't believe it, he almost laughed. Good old Stephen to the rescue!

Stephen helped him up and they speeded their way out of the flaming basement and into the cool night air. Elena rushed over to his side. He saw Bonnie standing to the side, looking at them quietly. He would deal with her later.

After a few minutes, Damon batted away Stephen and Elena's worries as he regained his strength. He stood up and stretched.

"I'm fine you two." He turned to Stephen, looking him the eyes. "Thanks."

Stephen nodded.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

Damon turned to Elena and flashed her his trademark smirk. "Yeah, I'm fine. Now, I need to go and take care of something's, so I'll catch up with you later. See ya." He was gone before either could say anything to stop him.

As Damon raced off, he thought about what he was going to do next. Like he had said to Elena and Stephen, he had some things to take care of first, and then…he would go find Dani.