Hellooo again,

Thank you all again for your lovely reviews. Every little word makes my heart skip a beat. This is my first ever time I've let others read my stuff, so I am thrilled that you like it enough to comment. And that you keep coming back for more... Thank you!

I started this chapter thinking that there would be more revelations at the end, but I think my characters have taken on a life of their own... So guess you have to wait a bit longer.

I do have a favor to ask you guys though. It will be at the bottom of the page. Feel free to help me out, since Rose, Elena and Damon didn't wanna listen to me heheh

(Yea, I'm not crazy, it's just that I write quite freely, so things can change at anytime. It's the same with the videos I make on youtube... anything can happen although I had a certain plan to start with.)

Ok, moving on... will stop rambling now... :)

'Slater, what do you know about humans compelling vampires?'

There was a short silence, then Rose could hear Slater's slightly nervous chuckle, something left over from his human days. Slater was a whizkid, a computernerd and not the most socially adept but one of Rose's oldest friends.

'Have you gone completely mental, Rose? I've never… Humans can't compel a vampire. That's unheard of.'

Slater sounded very amused all of a sudden.

'I think that Salvatore bloke have made you go totally bonkers… Don't tell me you've got it in for him as well. I've told you about Damon Salvatore, Rose. He's trouble. And from what I've understood he's too caught up in the doppelg…'

There was a deep intake of (unnecessary) breath from the other end of the line and Rose could literally hear Slater's brain grind to a halt.

'What is it, Slater?' she urged. 'Is there anything you know?'

'No. I'm just going to have to check something out. I'll call you back as soon as I know. You might actually be on to something, Rose.'

There was a silent click as he hung up on her and Rose hurried to the shower room to quickly clean up while keeping an ear out for the phone to ring, which it didn't, to her disappointment.

She met up with Damon in the library. He was already pouring himself a double and offered her a tumbler. She declined. It might be early evening, but for her it was morning. And she needed blood before she could get any alcohol down.

Damon still looked as on edge as he had earlier on. He'd been really upset with Elena branding Rose as a troublemaker. It had taken Rose a while to calm him down, enough for him to relax back into bed, to get him to tell her about what he had meant by his strange questions on human compulsion.

Rose, on the other hand, had taken Elena's short outburst in her stride. Her bet was that Elena didn't even know how jealous she really sounded, and Damon was too torn up inside to notice the possessive tone in Elena's statement.

But Rose was quite sure that Stefan had sussed out the true meaning behind it all. Whether or not he had wanted to realize what it truly meant, well, that was a totally different type of drama. And Rose was not about to stir any more trouble (no pun intended) than she already had. At least not where Stefan was concerned.

Meeting Damon's eyes she gave him a confident smile, trying to will him into happiness. He was beating himself up over something she couldn't get her head around, and since he wouldn't tell her about it fully, there was not much she could do to help.

At first she had planned on taking him out of town, getting him some young and willing college girls to play with and drink from and then compel the hell out of. But she had decided against it quite quickly.

First of all, it wasn't in her nature to do such a thing. And second, it made her feel a bit ill, just the thought of him kissing someone else.

Rose mentally slapped herself across the face.

She was not going to fall for Damon Salvatore.

Glancing back at him, he gave her one of his rare megawatt smiles, which she could feel all the way down to her toes.

She looked away.

Damn.

As if there was anything else she could do. She was his already; hook, line and sinker. There was no way she would leave him. But there was also no way she could give him the distraction she knew he was craving. So she would give him the second best. And that's why she had called Slater up.

Rose didn't believe for a second that a human, let alone someone like Elena, could compel a vampire. She winced slightly at a thought that just occurred to her, but it had to be processed. There might not have been any compulsion at all, but just mere infatuation, which Damon had mistaken for something else.

There was a twist of hurt deep inside of Rose.

'What's up?' Damon reached for her and pulled her down next to him on the sofa. 'Where's your head at?'

Rose was deliberating whether to tell him about her short conversation with Slater when Stefan walked in.

'I'm taking Elena home. Will you still be here when I get back?'

Damon looked over his shoulder at his brother.

'You know, for the first time I'm out of snide remarks. It is that much of a stupid question. Why would you wanna know if we'll still be here? Scared of boogeymen?'

There was a slight sneer on Damon's lips. And it was easy to see that he enjoyed that the none-snide remark turned right into a snide remark after all.

Stefan ignored his brother's jibe and turned to Rose.

There must have been a devil sitting on Rose's left shoulder, because without thinking she stood up, saying;

'I'll take Elena home. You boys need some time alone in your own house. I've been hogging Damon for days now. Besides, Elena and I have some girly bonding to do. With both of us dating a Salvatore brother and all.'

She peeked over at Stefan. 'Well, almost dating, for now anyways.'

He smiled at her, but the smile didn't really reach his eyes.

Rose walked up to him, ignoring the furious look that Damon gave her. She knew he felt as if she was betraying him.

'I wouldn't hurt her, Stefan. I would protect her with my life, just like the two of you.' She nodded towards Damon. 'You all are the only family I have now. And Elena is a part of that family.'

She looked him straight in the eye, not even blinking. The lie rolled over her tongue so easily, it wasn't until later she realized that maybe; it wasn't a lie at all.

There was a sound from the doorway and they all turned around. Elena was standing there, pale as a sheet. She was nervously tugging at the sleeves of her dark blue cardigan.

'So, Rose is driving me home.' Her lips barely moved, and then she just turned and walked towards the front door.

There was a deafening silence in the car as Rose and Elena headed back to town and Elena's house. After a few minutes Elena turned towards Rose with a defiant look on her face.

'So, you might as well get it over with.' She frowned slightly at Rose's quizzical face. 'Whatever you want to talk to me about.'

Rose continued to drive in silence for a short while longer, until she could see a smaller exit road ahead where she parked the car. She kept the car running so they wouldn't sit in complete darkness. Not that she would have minded, but she thought Elena might.

'What is it you think I want to talk to you about' Rose countered. She was a bit curious as to what Elena would say. But she was disappointed.

'You overheard me tell Stefan that I think you'll do more harm than good in regards to Damon.' Elena's chin turned up defensively. 'I'm not going to apologize to you. If it weren't for you, he'd never have started drinking from humans again.'

Rose let the little mishap slip her by. She knew that the real reason to Damon's relapse was in this car, for sure, but it wasn't her. And she was looking at it right now.

'Well, no, not really.' Now it was Elena's turn to look surprised.

'When did you last see Damon, until today?'

Elena seemed to search her face for some hidden answers. But met her eyes squarely.

'A few days ago. Why?'

'Where did you meet?' Rose could sense that Elena would clam up very soon; there was a silent warning in her eyes.

'Not that I think it should matter to you, but I saw him at The Grill. Only for a few minutes though.'

A light flickered in her dark eyes as a realization hit her.

'Rose.' Her facial expression softened just a fraction. 'I'm not trying to… You don't need to feel…' Elena seemed to have a hard time expressing herself all of a sudden and to Rose's knowledge of Elena, that didn't happen often.

'I have no interest in Damon, Rose.' Her eyes flickered away from Rose's in that instant, making the lie that more obvious.

Rose couldn't help a small smile reaching her lips. If there hadn't been a sliver of heartbreak in that short sentence, it would have amused her to no end telling Elena a piece of her mind. There were times that Elena was using the fact that Damon harbored feelings for her, and Elena had to be aware that she was doing it. Everyone was aware, even Damon, yet he would walk over fire for this tiny little human. Rose felt a sneer lurking and was actually glad that the car was dark enough for Elena not to fully see her facial features.

Rose had a mission to accomplish, all for Damon, for his sanity. Or insanity; whichever way one preferred to see it.

'I know you don't, Elena. That's not the reason I'm asking you.'

The short pause of silence made Elena look up at Rose again.

'I'm asking because of Damon. He seems to think that he has done something to you without your consent.' Rose shook her head slowly. 'And without his own consent. It's absurd even saying it out loud. But you care about Damon, I'm certain of it, by what you told Stefan earlier tonight. And that is the only reason I'm actually asking you this.'

Rose took a deep breath before continuing.

'I'm not asking because I think that you would somehow, want Damon.' She hesitated slightly before speaking again. 'He's just bent on thinking that he has hurt you, but he doesn't want to talk about it. All he's said is that he did something to you without being fully aware of doing it. So, all I'm asking is; what was it that he did?'

Elena looked utterly confused by Rose's words. She slowly lifted her hand and pushed her hair behind her ear. It was such a delicate movement. Rose could see the pulse beating hard on Elena's neck, and she could hear a slight increase of her heartbeat. But when Elena looked over at Rose again, her eyes were cold and her face had closed up.

'We talked of nothing of importance. It wasn't even a proper conversation. He insulted me and asked me to leave so I left.' She looked out the windscreen. 'I'd like to go home now, please.'

Elena's heart was beating hard and fast. When Rose left she rushed up to her room and quickly closed the door. She ran over to the window to double check that it was closed and locked. Not that it would matter if any supernatural creature wanted to get in, a small glass window was no match for them, especially if they had already been invited.

She sat down on the small seat in front of the window and tried to count her own pulse to slow down her heart rate. She wasn't succeeding very well. She didn't know where to start, or how to loosen up the tangle of thoughts in her head.

Subconsciously she reached for her necklace, filled with vervain.

So, it hadn't been a dream at all. Damon had been in her room that night.

The thought of it made her heart race even faster. There was no way he could have been in her room without her waking up. He couldn't have taken her clothes off without her noticing, but that was a small and meager comfort. He still must have been in her room, during her dream. His scent had been all over her; the masculine and slightly heady scent of his aftershave mixed with his naturally sweet aroma. And that meant that he would have seen her as well, seeing her lust.

The blush reaching Elena's face was almost unbearable, she felt clammy all over at the thought of Damon watching her touch herself. But there was also an excitement brewing deep inside of her. An excitement she tried very hard to put a damper on. Elena tried to force her mind back to the matter at hand. Damon had been in her room while she slept. He might, or might not have seen her, she shuddered at the word, have an orgasm. She remembered falling asleep while writing her diary. It wasn't that late at night, and he could have come in at any time between... the deed, and her falling asleep.

She knew that her head was rambling. She knew that she was trying to cover up the fact that he might have seen her at her most vulnerable.

All of a sudden she felt angry. At him. Talk about overstepping his boundaries.

Not that any of it seemed realistic in the slightest, but since when was her life realistic? She had a best friend who was a witch, a boyfriend who was a vampire and an old schoolfriend who had turned into a werewolf. This was not the time for realism.

She closed her eyes for a second, trying to get some perspective on her thoughts, then re-opened them; and there he was. Blue eyes piercing hers. Silent face carved in stone. She let out a small gasp and tried to squeeze herself into the corner of the window seat.

'Elena.' He spoke her name so gently, had she not seen his lips move, she wouldn't have heard him at all. A wave of heat crashed through her veins and landed in between her thighs. Elena's legs started shaking and she was happy that she was sitting down or she would've crumbled to the floor like a pile of ash. She opened her mouth, trying to speak. But his whole being seemed to crowd her space, press the air out of her lungs and force her to silence.

Damon took a small step towards her, one hand outstretched in front of him, as if to let her know he wasn't going to hurt her. She looked into his eyes trying to sort out her confusion. There was a depth in his eyes that took her breath away, and she knew that if she looked for too long she would disappear. She would melt into him, into his arms and be lost forever.

'You.' Elena shook her head. The fact alone that he was here in her room should really confirm that there was something real and true about what she had been thinking, but her mind seemed to have stopped functioning properly.

'You were in my room.' She was making a statement rather than asking him. The sad look in his eyes and his hand falling down to his side confirmed as much.

'But how? How can I not remember? And what were you doing here?'

Elena stared at him, feeling the heat of embarrassment again reach her face.

'What did you see?' The harshness in her voice made him flinch.

Damon opened his mouth, but closed it again. He was looking at her with eyes so sad and so dark. His face lay in shadow but for a moment she thought she could actually see a tear in the corner of his eye. She put it all down to trick of light playing on his face. Damon Salvatore shedding tears, he possibly couldn't.

'There is so much I should tell you, Elena.' His voice was barely a whisper stroking her skin. 'I'm so sorry. For everything.'

Now, I have two ways this could go. And I wonder if you'd like to help me...

Do you guys think Damon should fess up? Or should he maybe let a misunderstanding lead Elena astray a little...?

:)