A/N: To all of my amazing, faithful readers: Don't lose hope. I promise that you shall not be disappointed. I will not undo everything now that the spell has worn off of Elena. Damon is not going anywhere. Stefan is truly not destined for Elena (not in THIS story anyway.) Stick it out, I promise to make it worth your while. Thanks lovelies.

---

War Between the Vanities

And right now there's a war between the vanities
But all I see is you and me
The fight for you is all I've ever known
So come home…

Come Home by OneRepublic

---

Elena had made up the guest bedroom. It had originally been a place intended for sleep for whoever might need it- namely Stefan or Damon since Jenna obviously wouldn't allow either of them to sleep with the girls that night. But two hours after Bonnie had explained the spell she had cast on Caroline- the spell that had also been cast on Elena, the young Gilbert girl found herself locked in the room alone with only her thoughts as company. She had refused to allow anyone passage into the room, although several had knocked multiple times. Elena felt used and betrayed and more alone than ever. That her friend had put a spell on her had never occurred to Elena as the reasoning behind her feelings for Damon- but now that it was staring her in the face, she could no longer deny it.

And finally, all of the pieces fit together the way they should. The reason that her feelings for Stefan disappeared so mysteriously just when she was getting ready to tell him not to leave. It also explained why she had been so willing to… she cringed… hop into bed with Damon.

Oh god. She had lost her virginity to her ex-boyfriends 'evil' vampire brother. That had to be some sort of new personal low. But it didn't feel that way.

In fact, she didn't regret anything that had transpired between herself and Damon. As much as she thought about going running back into Stefan's ever-present arms, there was just no way to do that anymore. Her feelings for Damon were real and she could no longer deny them the way she may have a week ago. And, the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to deny her feelings for Damon. True, she had been under Bonnie's mystic feeling removal spell, but it had opened her eyes to something she had been hiding from for so long. Without Stefan as a roadblock, she had been able to explore her 'darker' side, along with her attraction toward the elder Salvatore. To say that she was Katherine all over again seemed redundant, but right now, she truly felt that way.

There was something mysterious about what drew her to each of the brothers. There was Stefan, who was kind and considerate. He never did anything without thinking about the repercussions first and he truly cared about her. And then there was Damon. The elder Salvatore was deep and passionate. He brought with him a sense of danger and excitement. And although he never explained that he would protect her no matter what, he had proven it on several occasions. He made her laugh and beyond his constant sarcastic jokes, Elena was finally beginning to discover something real.

As much as Elena chastised herself for doing exactly what Katherine had done one hundred and fifty years ago, she was not going to allow herself to befall the same fate. She would not continue to lead them both on in hopes that they could all be one big happy family. She wasn't that naïve or selfish to think that it could work out that way. Elena knew better. This begot the hardest part. Deciding whether or not she was going to choose one and break the others heart, or whether she was going to allow herself to see neither of them in the hope that all three of them could move on and put the horrible situation behind them all. She wasn't sure she could make that decision. At least, not tonight.

Tonight she had other things to worry about. Like making sure that Caroline and Bonnie stayed safe from the vampire that was coming after them. Because Elena was positive that this would not be the last time she would see the tall, muscular, blonde man that had assumed she was Katherine and then tried to feed on Caroline. Correction- he did feed on Caroline; he had tried to kill her. And thank god Damon had been there to prevent that. She was sure neither Caroline nor herself would be breathing right now if it hadn't been for Damon.

Stefan, after learning everything that had transpired over the last several days, had informed everyone that he had needed to take some time to himself and that he was going to try to compile the few photos he had from the 1860's and would bring them back for Caroline and Elena to look through. He was hoping that they would be able to place the man that recognized Elena as Katherine and at least know who to look for in the coming days.

Elena glanced at the clock in the room. It was 5:16 in the morning. She had successfully gotten zero sleep that night, and although she knew it would grate on her nerves terribly during the day, she also knew that sleep was out of the question. Too much was rolling around her head right now to sleep.

The knob on the door jiggled before whoever was trying to get in gave up. Elena felt her heart leap up into her throat, but she knew that it would have only been Stefan or Bonnie or Caroline. They would have respected her privacy there. Damon would have come in regardless of the lock, and no other vampires had been invited into the house. There was a slightly comforting thought in that, at least.

"If you're going to lock yourself in, kitten, you might want to make sure the windows are secure as well."

Elena fell back against the bed. Yes, of course. She should have thought of that.

"Would it have stopped you?" She asked.

"Probably not. I would have used the door but I didn't feel like having you complain about the broken doorknob."

Elena rolled her eyes. "How sweet," she said flatly.

"I came to check on you," he explained, sitting on the bed beside her.

"Is that so? Are you sure you didn't come to make sure I wasn't going to go crying back to Stefan that you took my womanhood?"

He grinned. "That, my dear, you gave me quite freely."

Elena scoffed. "Damon, just admit it. You came to make sure that I am not planning on getting back together with Stefan now that my feelings for him have resurfaced."

His eyes darkened. "I suppose the thought that I was worried about you never actually occurred to you?"

"Why would you be worried about me?"

"You've been through a lot the last couple of days. We can't have a mental case on our hands. Not when there are homicidal vampires on the loose."

Elena's eyes fell and she sat up and looked at him squarely. "Damon, what am I going to do?" As soon as the question left her lips she regretted it, because she knew that she didn't want to seem so torn to him. She had a bad feeling that he would use it against her.

"You're going to call Stefan, tell him that he lost and that he can move on." He leaned in closer. "And then you and I are going to lock ourselves in this room…" he ran his hand up the length of her thigh and smirked.

"Damon! Not funny."

"Come on, Elena. I know how you feel about me. Suppressed feelings for my brother or not. You can't deny the lust in your eyes right now."

"There is no lust in my eyes!" She bit her bottom lip and turned red at saying that as loud as she had. And then she smacked him in the chest.

"See, even now you can't keep your hands off me." He grabbed a hold of her hand and kept it pressed against him.

Elena growled, which interestingly enough sounded far more like a whimper than she had intended it to. "Not now, Damon. Please. This is serious."

"Because you're afraid to hurt his feelings? Please, he has been moody for as long as I can remember. I am sure you can't make it much worse."

"Because I honestly don't know who I feel more strongly about. And I don't want anyone getting hurt- myself included." She eyed him darkly, knowing that he took every meaning of it the way she had intended.

"I won't hurt you."

"You still feed on humans. You've no way of proving to me that you wouldn't hurt me."

"Kitten, just because Stefan doesn't sample the buffet doesn't mean his mouth still doesn't water over the prospect. He's just as likely to hurt you as I am. Probably more in fact, since he's been denying his nature. I know how to control mine." He stroked her hair now, and she couldn't help the cold shiver that ran down her back.

"Did you come here to persuade me?"

---

Stefan came down the stairs at the boarding house and froze. He could hear someone in the house. He silently moved through the foyer and into the sitting room.

"Stefan?" Bonnie called out, looking around the downstairs.

"Bonnie?! What are you doing here? I told you to stay at the Gilbert's."

She sighed. "I know, but with Elena holed up in the guest room and Caroline still asleep I really couldn't stand to be in the house anymore."

"And Damon?"

Bonnie shrugged. "He disappeared a little while ago. I haven't seen him. Probably checking the perimeter or something? I don't know what you guys do…"

Stefan let out a sigh himself. "It's not a matter of what 'we' do. It's impossible to tell what Damon is going to do at any given time."

"I just… wanted to tell you that I-"

"I know Bonnie."

She shook her head, sitting down on the arm rest of the couch. "Please, Stefan. Let me finish. When I cast that spell, I wasn't expecting that it would affect Elena that way. And she's been so secretive lately. I honestly had no idea what had happened. I thought that after breaking up with you she would just be… alone for a while."

"It isn't your fault."

"It is. But thank you."

Stefan's expression softened. "I don't blame you, Bonnie."

She looked up at him with a weak smile. "I really appreciate that Stefan. But what Elena said… about Damon."

Stefan's face contorted in pain. "That is a matter that I will discuss with my brother when this is all over and done with. He should have known better than to take advantage of her like that."

Bonnie gulped. "I didn't mean to make things worse between you two."

"You couldn't have known. And this feud with Damon has been going on far longer than I'd liked it to. It was bound to reach a peak at some point."

Bonnie shook her head. "But that it should be with Elena… Katherine's double… seems ironic but somehow appropriate."

Stefan swallowed hard and then held his hand out to Bonnie. "We should get back."

She nodded. It had been worth it to follow Stefan here. She had needed some sort of confirmation from him that he wasn't angry with her for what she had accidentally done. Stefan was one of the few people Bonnie felt she could truly count on lately- even if Grams wasn't appreciative of that.

"Thanks, Stefan." She smiled, quickly squeezing his hand before making her way back out to her car.

---

Damon laid a kiss on Elena's forehead, allowing his lips to linger there for a brief moment before replying. "That depends. Is it working?"

"Too soon to tell…" she replied solemnly.

He gently laid her back on the bed. "Then I suppose I'll have to try a little harder…" He grinned and Elena melted into a pool of goo. Or at least she felt like she had. It took several quick blinks and deep breaths for her to regain her composure after having lost herself in the memories of the night before. The night before when Damon had kissed, caressed and teased her in all of the right places, and now that she was trying to think objectively about the situation, it was proving impossible.

"Not now, Damon."

"You already denied me morning after sex yesterday. I am sensing a pattern here…"

"I think we have issues a little more pressing here than whether or not I am going to sleep with you."

He rolled over on top of her. "And now? It would be difficult to find something more pressing."

Elena laughed and pushed him off of her. "I'm not joking around, Damon. We really need to keep Bonnie and Caroline safe, find this other vampire, talk about the Katherine thing, figure out the whole brother love triangle thing… and then… maybe we can discuss sex." She paused. "If I pick you."

Elena stood up and pressed a chaste kiss to Damon's lips and then sauntered toward the door.

"Whoa, whoa whoa. What do you mean, if?"

She shrugged. "We'll see, I guess."

He was beside her in the next instant, causing her to gasp when he whispered into her ear. "You know that my brother could never give you what I can give you. What I have given you. Don't be foolish Elena."

She turned around. "And I know that Stefan isn't going to leave me at the drop of a hat when something new comes along. Like say, if the tomb gets opened and you get Katherine back."

Damon ticked up an eyebrow. "Are you so sure about that? Do you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he would, in fact, pick you if given the choice? Don't get me wrong Elena, you two are quite similar in the looks department, and you have a hell of a lot more heart than she does… but Stefan is against turning humans. How long do you think he would stay with you? Until you're 35? 42? It won't be forever Elena, as much as you might like it to be."

Elena felt her heart stop for a moment. "And you? What exactly do you have to offer me, if I choose you?"

"I would give you anything you ever wanted kitten… and more."

---

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the Delena fun. :) I wanted them to have some alone time to talk- even if they didn't really reach any sort of conclusions. Coming up: Bonnie gets a phone call from her college crush. Elena runs into the vampire that tried to kill Caroline. And a one-of-a-kind confrontation between Damon and Stefan. Stay tuned lovelies. And as always- please review. Reviews are love. Just like Damon in my dreams. Leave me a haiku if you love me?