You Lost Me

Chapter Four - Unexpected

Damon was intrigued by Carla. She was a nice distraction being a hurricane in bed but that wasn't what made him keep her around. He wanted to know why he couldn't bring himself to feed on her. He didn't compel her after their first night together and still he couldn't feed. It never crossed his head to test his theory by trying to feed on someone else. He was more concerned about Mason Lockwood. Although the werewolf said he didn't want to reignite the war between the supernatural creatures, Damon's feeble attempt to kill the mayor's youngest brother didn't work well for his own good.

To say Mason was enraged was an understatement and Damon didn't want an even more enraged wolf around him. At least he was thankful that both Katherine and Elena have taken breaks and didn't disturb him anymore. While he had no idea why the vampire went MIA on him he knew Elena's appearances at the house diminished due the fact that she and Stefan has broken up. The brunette would rarely come to the house but today seemed to be one of those days when she actually showed up as she and Stefan supposedly remained friends after their sudden breakup.

Elena thought Damon would have any sort of reaction to her fake break up with Stefan but at least to her he never voiced anything. Not even the eventual joke. He totally dismissed it and Elena was honestly stopping being surprised by it. It was clear by now that he wasn't playing or faking anything. He cut her off of his life and maybe for good.

But as she entered the boarding house, to wait for Stefan and Alaric, she didn't expect to cross with someone wrapped around a towel coming from the kitchen.

"Hey Katherine" the girl greeted and Elena didn't know what to say. Katherine was still a secret to most people and a vampire was supposed to get her accelerated heartbeat, right? She couldn't control her pulsation as she knew a woman in those garments meant only one thing: Damon was sleeping with someone.

"Actually my name is Elena" she offered simply and appraising the girl barely covered body and her pretty face she felt something inside of her burning.

"Oh, so I guess I met your sister instead. Damon and I bumped on her the other day" she offered as an explanation.

"Are you new in the city? I don't quite recognize you and you know how Mystic Falls is, everybody knows everybody" Elena tried to gather some information but she felt like she couldn't breathe. The girl was sleeping with Damon and apparently he was taking her out as they met Katherine outside the house. Immediately Elena looked for a bite mark, just like Caroline had when Damon was seeing her but this girl in front of her had a perfect neck and most of her body was exposed and there wasn't anything that even resembled a bite mark.

"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Carla. My grandmother is Mrs. Flowers, do you know her? She's sick and I'm here to take care of her for awhile. I just graduated from college and I'm not sure what to do about my professional life now, so I thought small and peaceful Mystic Falls could help me to have some clarity" the redhead offered her hand for Elena who shook it weakly.

"Yes, I know Mrs. Flowers. Is she better now?" she doubt her demeanor didn't show how uneasy she felt but she wanted to get more information about Damon's girlfriend. It only made sense that she was his girlfriend if he wasn't using her as food and brought her home and walked with her around the city.

"She's yet to show any progress but I have faith she'll get there" Carla actually sounded pretty sad about her grandmother's fragile health condition.

"I'm sorry" the brunette offered honestly.

"Don't you think this apple is taking you long enough?" both girls heard Damon crying out from upstairs, leading Carla to roll her eyes.

"He has such an appetite. Nice to meet you Elena" she smiled to the high school student and left.

"What took you so long?" Damon asked Carla as soon as she entered the bedroom, dropping the headphones he had on. He had to admit the girl had the best iPod collection he listened. They had pretty much similar tastes. It seemed like forever since the last time he really listened to music. He used to do it a lot before coming to Mystic Falls drama.

"I met Elena, Katherine's sister downstairs. God I didn't even ask if she wanted to talk to you. Maybe you should go check on her" Carla said as she sat by his side in the bed. She liked to spend time with Damon. They'd see each other once or twice a week and he never asked her for more or made many questions. She explained him her grandmother condition and how she should avoid leaving at nights as they were the worst for her.

She didn't make any questions either. She has met Stefan a couple of times but although Damon didn't mention anything she could catch some tension between the brothers. But she didn't care. Although they never said a word about what they had it was clear to Carla that Damon wanted to keep things casual just as much as she did and the sex was good, actually the sex was divine and she really needed the distraction after having to take her grandmother to the emergency room so constantly. Mrs. Flowers has been adamant about being at home but still there were some weeks when she slept most of her nights at the hospital.

"They're not…" Damon started but realized he'd make a huge mistake if he said Elena wasn't Katherine sister. To the world that'd be the only explanation left. "Close"

"Yeah but she seems nice unlike her sister. I don't know Katherine was just weird, if you ask me" she laughed a little remembering of how Katherine has tried to kiss Damon, even though he was with her. They didn't hold hands or showed any PDA because sex buddies definitely didn't do it but still the brunette seemed just too jealous.

"I know" he pretended to think that Katherine was crazy by grimacing a little but he didn't want to talk. They didn't talk. Actually they didn't do anything but have sex and fun. Damon couldn't resist bringing her over a few days when his curiosity about not being able to feed on her kicked in or when he was just plain horny. She was good in the deed, one of the very best human partners in his very long list.

"Maybe we should resume where we stopped now that you're all fed" his smile was suggestive and she didn't stop him when he took her by the waist bringing her body over to his and letting the towel fall behind her.

Elena could hear them. She could hear them quite well actually. This Carla girl seemed to be nice but did she have to be so noisy? She didn't hear much from Damon, as she thought she would. After all he certainly knew she was there.

"You know it's not nice to overhear people's intimacy" Katherine spoke after a whiff of wind breezed Elena's back.

"So I guess you should leave as I'm not the one with super hearing" Elena barely acknowledged her and she didn't know why was that as she knew she shouldn't be saying these things to someone like Katherine.

"Yeah, you're right, but you should add super vision to the list because it really helped me to catch Stefan's dark-in-the-morning visits to your house and I must say I really needed my good hear to listen to you… is it always like that between the two of you? You certainly didn't taste the best Salvatore in bed" Katherine sat in Damon's armchair and crossed her legs as she appraised her own nails.

"But still you're going after the not so good in bed brother" Elena kept her banter although a deafening voice in her head told her to just shut up.

"Let's just say a girl like me wakes boys like Stefan, my darling. You should ask him about our sex escapades. That was stuff of legend if you ask me but Damon is definitely an expert. More skillful and resourceful. Why do you think I kept him?"

"Why are you here, Katherine? The brother you supposedly want isn't here and the one you supposedly despise is pretty busy and I'm sure you aren't any interested in me" Elena sighed. She was tired of Katherine's mind games. Always planting doubts, always so sure of herself, always providing so much information about the boys, most of times information that she felt like only she should know.

"The same reason as you. I'm waiting for Stefan" the vampire shrugged.

"When will you get it? He doesn't want anything to do with you. None of them want. It's pretty pathetic to keep stalking them like that. I thought you had a little bit more of self-respect" Elena challenged. More than tired she was losing her nerve with her doppelganger. It was her boyfriend the bitch was going after bluntly.

"And I thought you were a little bit more intelligent" Katherine crossed the room in inhuman speed taking Elena by her throat and throwing her against the nearby wall. She knew she couldn't kill the human if she wanted Stefan in her arms but she couldn't help not hurting the little petulant thing. Who she thought she was to talk to her like that?

The moment Elena felt her body colliding with whatever it had been, she cried out in pain. For a moment she thought Katherine was just going to snap her head.

"What was that?" Carla asked as she was getting dressed to finally leave. After a sex marathon she was exhausted and she wanted to visit her grandmother in the hospital before heading home.

Damon crossed the bedroom in normal speed but the moment he was out of the girl's sight he moved in inhuman velocity.

"So much for hating her forever, Damon" Katherine offered as she leaned in the wall opposite to where Elena's body lied unconscious. Too fragile, she thought looking to Elena's dull frame.

"I never said I hate her, Kat, now you on the other hand can't seem to listen it enough to be convinced. I can't stand the sight of you. Hate doesn't make any justice to how I feel about you" he walked up to where Elena was and took her in his arms, heading upstairs.

"Say Stefan I said 'Hello'" the she-vampire said in a sing-song voice as she left the house.

"Oh my God, what happened?" Carla asked astonished as Damon entered his bedroom again, with Elena in his arms. She was still out and had a deep cut in her head that was bleeding heavily.

"Katherine happened" Damon shortly added before continuing "Can you go to the bathroom and get some first aid kit? It's the one near to Stefan's bedroom" he asked as he laid Elena in his bed.

"Sure but don't you think we should take her to the hospital? It looks pretty nasty" the redhead referred to the cut while Damon was already checking for any broken bones.

"We'll see how she reacts. I've been to med-school once and I guess I still know how to do a bandage" his face was tense as he tried to concentrate in Elena's pulsation, realizing it was too weak for his taste.

"Okay" she agreed and left the room.

Damon quickly bit his wrist and moved it to Elena's mouth. He wouldn't take any risks and he was sure as soon as Stefan arrived he'd make sure that Katherine wouldn't get near to Elena for the next twenty-four hours to prevent Katherine of doing what she did to Caroline.

Elena surely couldn't suck it by herself and the only way Damon could think about getting in down her throat before Carla was back was forcing it down. Sucking some considerable amount in his mouth, he then covered hers with his lips and blew really hard, repeating the process a couple of times just to ensure she had enough blood to recover.

As he moved his face away from Elena's, Carla entered the room with the kit and watched his skilled hands working in the brunette's cut. He did stitches as if he was a professional and she thought just for a moment who Damon Salvatore really was. If he has gone to med-school before what was he doing in Mystic Falls? She knew for sure he wasn't a physician.

"Will she be okay?" she asked again as she saw him discarding the gloves he wore to ensure she wasn't going to get an infection, as he cleaned the cut the best he could before closing it up.

"Yes. Elena is pretty strong" he only said as he stood up to leave.

"I guess that would be Katherine actually. How a girl with such a small frame like her can do this damage?" Carla was impressed by not only the cut and the huge bumping growing around it but also other bruises in Elena's right arm, the one she hit first in the wall and that was also getting swollen.

"I don't know but that's exactly why I said they aren't exactly close. They fell in love with the same guy, that being my brother and I guess girls can go really possessive when it comes to their men, which is why I don't get closer to them" Damon said defensively, stopping in his tracks and looking over Elena again as Carla watched him closely. He tried to sound careless but it was written all over his face how concerned he was about Elena. He's been absolutely careful when he stitched her face and then bandaged her arm. Wiping the blood too softly and when he was almost done she saw as he brushed his thumb in her forehead slightly and quickly, as if hiding it.

"If you say so… I must head to the hospital. Are you sure you don't want to take her with me?" she was actually concerned about the girl as well.

"No, Stefan is going to be here at any moment. If he decides he should take her, he will. I did my part and I guess it's just that Elena is too small. The cut wasn't that deep to knock her out in any concerning way, although I'm sure little brother will take her anyway" Damon resumed his way outside and Carla just followed him, bidding goodbye pretty quickly and heading downstairs as he head to the bathroom to discard the rest of the material and put away the kit.

The moment he heard the front door closing he moved back to his bedroom, taking Elena downstairs and laying her in the couch. He didn't feel comfortable at all keeping her in his bedroom and he knew for sure she'd wake up very soon, thanks to his blood.

He heard when Katherine arrived and he did the best he could to block the doppelgangers voices from his head, focusing in the girl that was riding him. But when he and Carla finished he almost had to keep talking to avoid listening to the conversation going on downstairs but now he wished he had listened. He had no idea why Katherine attacked Elena, especially in the boarding house where she could be helped by any of them quickly.

He didn't expect to react the way he did when he listened to her crying and the clear thud of her body colliding against the wall. He didn't expect to feel the air stopping in his lungs, though he didn't need it anyway. He was sure if he had a heart it'd have stopped at that very moment. What he said to Katherine was true; he never said to anyone he hated Elena because he didn't. He hasn't even tried to do so. He felt nothing for her and that included even hate. But if that was true then why did he feel so desperate like never before in his undead life? Why in the milliseconds that took him to go downstairs his brain had already processed the worst possible scenarios and the felt like he ground under his feet had been taken away?

He didn't have the answers and he wasn't willing to dig his emotions to find out. He knew he wouldn't let Elena die. It has been easy to ignore her and let her and Stefan deal with Katherine but now that he's nearly lost her forever indeed he knew he wasn't as dismissive of her as he first thought and he didn't want to keep thinking about it.

He never wanted his brother to arrive in the house like he wanted in that moment. He didn't want to deal with any of this, he didn't want to deal with Elena but he couldn't leave her alone, especially not with his blood in her system. But like always in his life, Stefan never was where Damon wanted him to be, so he sat in his usual armchair, taking his bottle of scotch with him as he watched her in the opposite couch.

AN: Before you jump to conclusions about where this is heading, I'll warn you that Damon won't be softening. He doesn't like what he sees and he'll do it in Damon Salvatore fashion and that doesn't include Elena at all. He may not want to care about her but he wouldn't let her be killed by Katherine if he was around or dying on her own pool of blood. Let's remember that switch was changed forever by Elena and not caring won't ever like it used to be before her.

Next: road trip. question is, who is traveling? and Elena makes a fool of herself. Question: do you want to have some of Carla/Damon sex escapades to be written or should I keep them only mentioned?

Thanks a lot to shadylady21, BMCullen, EtherealDamon, Dom0, Avecia, niadk, Vampgirl144, Crimson-Kiss17 and Lily for the reviews.

Talk to you soon

Babi