A/N: Thank you so so SO much for your awesome reviews! :]:]:]

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

Chapter 7

"They're not here." Elena shook her head in frustration as soon as she ran into the hotel room only to find it empty.

"Well, it's not like they could get here as fast as we did," Damon pointed out with a reassuring smile, following her inside and closing the door behind them.

He glanced around the room, wondering how their home looked like. Were they living together? If so, what was their bedroom like? Was it bright, well-lit or crepuscular? Was there a hardwood floor that glimmered in the sunlight or a fluffy carpet that encouraged scampering barefooted around the room?

Unlike just yesterday, today thoughts of home were no longer uncertain and unsettling. Instead, they ignited a warm feeling that was radiating from his chest as he was watching Elena walk toward the window and push the heavy curtains aside.

"You're right," Elena nodded with a sigh, only after a moment realizing that he wasn't merely trying to comfort her, but that he was actually right. Bonnie and Jeremy couldn't get to the hotel at the vampire speed.

"We should probably give them an hour, maybe two," Damon continued, walking up to Elena and sliding his hands all the way up from her wrists to her shoulders. She turned around with a faint smile. "But if they won't show up, I'll go back there to see if-"

"No!" Elena interrupted him, grabbing his hands and squeezing them in hers. "I'll go and you'll stay here," she said with an involuntary hint of panic in her voice. She knew it wasn't going to work in the long run, but at least for the time being he wasn't going to participate in any of the supernatural madness if she could help it.

Damon widened his eyes at her. "Elena, that's out of the question."

"Exactly. You won't be going back there. It's not safe," she said in a hasty, definite whisper that he found completely endearing and a little amusing, although it was also heartwrenching, because he suspected where it was coming from, that it had something to do with his "death" and that the mere mentioning of it was breaking her heart, emotions clearly visible in her eyes.

"It's even less safe for you," Damon said with a small, soothing smile, twisting his hands so now it was him grasping hers.

"No, as a vampire I'm stronger and faster, so it's actually less dangerous for me," Elena insisted and an image flashed across his mind, too quickly for him to make sense of it, but he was quite certain it was a shred of memory: Elena zooming to him and knocking something out of his hand, landing on top of him on the bed and pointing what looked like a crossbow at his chest. She looked serious, but he was grinning.

"They wanted to hurt you," Damon said, using the hold he had on her hands to tug Elena toward him.

"They won't," Elena said softly and her tone triggered another image. Damon glanced at their intertwined hands that also seemed reminiscent of something.

"I can't lose you."

"You won't."

"I can take care of myself," Elena continued, slightly thrusting up her chin. "I had a good teacher," she added with a smile and Damon narrowed his eyes at her and then without a warning picked her up from the floor and carried her to the bed.

"I'm not going to change my mind," Elena declared in a rigid tone, just in case he was planning on using some unfair persuasion methods and was going to mistake her leaning her forehead against his cheek with willingness to compromise.

"Is that how we'd solve our disagreements?" Damon asked with a sly smile, turning his head and capturing Elena's lips in a fervid kiss before sitting her down on the edge of the bed.

Elena bit back a smile. "We were working on trying to find different ways of dealing with our disagreements."

"'Working on trying to find'," Damon repeated, smirking. "Sounds like we were failing something terrible." He cupped her cheeks in his hands and pressed a soft kiss to her lips when she laughed. "Don't go anywhere," he said with a wink and then turned around and disappeared into the bathroom.

Straining her ears, Elena wrinkled her forehead and then smiled to herself when she heard the sound of water filling the bathtub.

"Time out," Damon said, sauntering back into the room. "You'll take a hot bath and relax. No thinking about any problems for half an hour." He bent on one knee in front of Elena and tugged one of her shoes off her foot.

"'Step away from your life for five minutes'," Elena said, watching him in silence, their trip to Georgia flickering across her mind. Damon glanced up at her. "You said that when you kidnapped me and we went to Georgia together."

Damon widened his eyes at her, taking her other shoe off. "I kidnapped you?" He asked, Elena's cheerful expression making him smile despite the slightly disconcerting choice of words.

"Well, you saved me from a car accident, I lost consciousness and woke up hours later in your car. I wanted you to drive me back home immediately, but you convinced me to go on a road trip with you instead," Elena explained, her eyes following his movements when he stood up to put her shoes away.

"This actually sounds innocent enough," Damon observed with cautious amusement, slumping onto the bed next to Elena.

"You said you'd checked for broken bones." Elena narrowed her eyes at him in a playfully accusing manner. "While I was unconscious."

Damon stifled a lop-sided smile. "Do you think I did?" He asked, leaning closer and raising his hand to brush a few strands of hair off her forehead.

Elena smiled, leaning into his touch when he cupped her cheek. "No, I think you were just trying to put the image into my head."

"Successfully?" Damon asked, smirking.

"Obviously," Elena said with a grin.

One hand tangled in her hair, Damon gently pushed Elena's mouth against his and kissed her, very slowly, tenderly, his other hand still on her cheek, his thumb caressing the side of her face.

"I wonder when is the uncensored version coming," Damon whispered with a glimpse of amusement in his eyes, tracing the outline of Elena's face with his fingertips when they reluctantly broke the kiss to catch their breaths.

"An uncensored version?" Elena asked with a hesitant smile, her forehead creasing in slight confusion.

"There must be a reason why you kept breaking up with a guy who saved your life, either literally or figuratively, three times, if I counted correctly," Damon said and she could see that he was being humorous, but there was also a hint of sincere curiosity in his expression and Elena began worrying that her plan of only telling him about the good and beautiful things that had happened in the past might be harder to carry on than she had initially thought.

"I didn't say I kept breaking up with you," Elena protested, still looking at him with tenderness that was making his heart race. But he also didn't fail to notice that she tensed a little, not out of nervousness, but out of some immeasurably deep, ardent concern that, somehow, he found even more disquieting. "We both... You broke up with me first, actually." Elena trembled, having drawn too shallow a breath in an attempt to say the words with a lighthearted smile. "To protect me. And then," she trailed off and leaned her forehead against his, holding his face in the palms of her hands. "And then I wanted to convince you it made no sense and you wanted for us to be together again too, but... " Elena caught her lower lip between her teeth, her breathing becoming uneven and for the first time Damon noticed a flash of anger in her eyes in addition to overpowering sadness. "Someone told you I said something that I didn't say," Elena said shakily and straightened up, hastily wiping away the tears as soon as they glimmered in her eyes and Damon scolded himself inwardly for starting a conversation that was so upsetting to her.

"Elena, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." He grimaced, kissing her eyelids before leaning down to look deeply into her eyes. "We don't have to talk about this right now," he said reassuringly. "Although I do want to apologize right now for being an idiot. Well, in case I didn't apologize before."

Elena gave him a questioning look, sliding her hands over his shoulders and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Taking someone else's words for the truth without verifying the truth with you?" Damon explained the reasoning behind his apology with a self-berating eye-roll.

Elena shook her head, smiling weakly. "It wasn't like that. I mean... It's a little complicated to explain, but... I was... away and we weren't able to talk about it," she said evasively. Considering how well he had taken the reveal that she was a vampire, she could probably add to it now and just tell him that she was also a doppelganger, however, she didn't want to bring up Katherine. If there was ever one person that he, or anyone else for that matter, was better off not remembering, it was Katherine.

"Alright. Let's change the subject. Isn't this a little too big for you?" Damon asked with a small, lop-sided smile, catching the lapels of Elena's jacket and helping her wiggle her arms out of the sleeves.

"That's actually your jacket. And I've been sleeping in your shirts," Elena said, smiling back at him and laughing at the smug look that he gave her.

"Well, it's a relief to know this is not my usual style," Damon said, glancing at his hospital clothes. They exchanged joyful smiles and several light, lingering kisses. "So... how did we meet?" Damon asked, leaning a little backwards and gently maneuvering Elena to sit with her back to him, so he could gain the access to the buttons on the back of her dress.

"Well, it's a little-"

"Complicated to explain," Damon cut in, gathering Elena's hair in his hand and brushing them over one of her shoulders.

"Actually, it is," Elena said with a brief laugh. "Because we met for the first time... twice. At least from my perspective," she added with a humorous bite in her voice and then explained how compulsion worked and that he had compelled her to forget their very first meeting.

"Why would I do that?" Damon asked with an incredulous frown, proceeding to unbuttoning Elena's dress while she marveled inwardly once again on how well he was taking all the supernatural details of their lives.

She hadn't handled them that well when she had been first confronted with all those unthinkable truths. But perhaps the circumstances were less dire now. Or perhaps it was his feelings for her that were stronger than any abstract sense of confusion or anxiety.

If there was a way to return his memories to him she'd do that in a heartbeat, because she knew that he'd rather know the whole truth. That would be real. But how real was the truth that would just be a collection of stories told by people who weren't there at all or weren't there for him in his darkest moments? What was she going to give him? A list of events in chronological order? A list of people he killed? A list of facts? What facts? Deprived of context, deprived of emotions he didn't remember, what kind of facts were these? He'd just feel even more guilty, more sad about everything.

Damon's warm hands weighing heavily on her shoulders shook Elena out of her reverie, but when she opened her mouth to answer his question, he whispered some hushing words into her ear, and only then she heard that someone was apparently knocking on the door.

Elena turned around. "Jeremy has a key, but maybe it's just housekeeping," she said very quietly.

She tried to stand up, but Damon shook his head and silently asked her to stay while he'd go see who was at the door.

Elena rolled her eyes and then grabbed his hands and clutched them to her chest. "Just so you know, we committed a suicide together, so we're kind of past these kinds of arguments," she whispered, pressed her lips to his in a quick kiss and rose to her feet.

Blinking in wonderment at just how many more near-death experiences their biographies contained, Damon reluctantly agreed for Elena to accompany him to the door. They soundlessly made their way toward it and when Damon looked through the door viewer he frowned at the sight of an unfamiliar figure. It obviously wasn't Bonnie or Jeremy. The man didn't look like a hotel employee either. Damon didn't remember seeing him at the hospital, however it didn't mean that it wasn't where the man came from or that he wasn't just sent by someone from there to find them.

Elena tugged on Damon's sleeve, demanding access to the door viewer, but when the stranger put one of his hands in his pocket while using his other hand to knock on the door again, Damon noticed a gun tucked under the man's jacket and that was enough to quickly make him decide what to do without giving Elena a chance to see who was at the door.

Gently but decidedly pushing Elena away from the door, Damon opened it very suddenly in one, abrupt movement and without wasting a second, he punched the stranger in the face. The man dropped unconscious to the floor.

"I don't know if it's a good idea to stay in this room or even in this hotel," Damon said, already trying to decide what they should do next.

Elena leaped toward Damon and peered into the hallway, her eyes widening slightly at the sight, a look of apprehension on her face turning into a look Damon couldn't interpret right away.

"Your best friend would probably say that this was an impressive punch," Elena said in the most even tone she could muster. Damon looked at her, almost smiling at the comment, but then he was a little caught off guard by the expression that appeared on Elena's face. "If he was currently conscious and could talk," she added.

Damon stared at her for a second in bafflement and then shifted his eyes back to Alaric. "You mean..." Elena nodded, stifling a chuckle. Damon sighed. "Well, I hope he's not much for holding grudges," he said, bending over to pick Alaric up from the floor and carry him into the room. "And that he wasn't very attached to the shape of his nose."

Elena laughed under her breath. "Don't worry. He's a vampire. He'll be fine," she said reassuringly, closing the door behind them.

xxxdelenaxxx

"There must be a way out of here!" Caroline huffed in frustration pacing around the attic and examining every part of it.

"This room is under a spell, in case you missed that part," Marcel said flatly, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"She said she's controlling Mikael," Stefan muttered, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. Caroline gave him a slightly impatient, questioning look. "It means he isn't as invincible as he had been. He can't be, if a witch is controlling him."

"Well, yes, great, perhaps this time around he can be killed with a regular stake instead of a fancy one," Caroline said, slumping onto one of the chairs. "How is that of any help?"

"Mikael was asking us about a baby," Stefan asked, following several different trains of thought at once. "Do you know what he might've been talking about?"

Camille and Marcel exchanged grim looks.

"He wants to find Klaus' baby," Marcel said, raising his eyebrows in humorless amusement at the stunned expressions that appeared on Caroline's and Stefan's faces. "The witches want the baby dead. The baby is part-witch, but there's some prophecy that says it will bring destruction to all the witches."

"Wait. What do you mean 'Klaus' baby'?" Caroline asked with a mirthless snort, rising to her feet and giving Marcel a little questioning, but predominantly irritated look, as if she was suspecting him of wasting their time by making up some ludicrous stories.

"And Mikael cares about all the witches' well-being why, exactly?" Stefan asked doubtfully, prompting Marcel to ignore Caroline's question.

"What do you mean 'Klaus' baby'?" Caroline repeated, too baffled to get angry about her question being ignored and just changing the addressee of her question.

Camille opened her mouth to provide her with some kind of a reply, but Marcel cut her off, answering Stefan's question instead.

"He's struck some deal with Davina," Marcel said with a small shrug. "But... Davina wouldn't hurt a baby," he said with conviction, a deep frown appearing on his forehead. "I really don't know what exactly is going on. Klaus tried to pretend that the baby died, but somehow the witches found out the truth, that Rebekah took the baby to safety. But I don't think even Klaus knows where she went," Marcel added and Stefan's eyes narrowed at the mentioning of Rebekah's name.

"Rebekah," Caroline echoed, glancing at Stefan and making an effort to concentrate on the situation, even though her mind was still preoccupied with processing the news. She didn't think anything could trump Bonnie and Damon coming back to life, but apparently there was no shortage of shocking and impossible things that could happen.

Marcel shifted his eyes between Caroline and Stefan. "Do you know where Rebekah is?"

"No, we don't," Stefan muttered with a frown. "But if she was near where we live, as Mikael suggested, we might know whom she went to visit."

Caroline snorted bitterly. "That wouldn't be the cleverest thing to do."

"Why?" Camille asked with a worried frown, taking a few steps toward her.

"Well, let's just say the person in question isn't very... omnipotent," Stefan said with a small, sour smile. "He wouldn't be able to help her much."

"He's the most trustworthy person ever, but he's human," Caroline clarified, glancing at Camille who acknowledged the explanation with a nod. But then Caroline suddenly straightened up. "However," she continued after a pause, swirling around to face Stefan, her expression bright, "he's currently living in a very safe place where no vampires or witches can harm anyone."

Camille and Marcel exchanged questioning looks, but before they had a chance to ask for an explanation, the door opened and Davina walked inside, followed by Mikael - and Klaus who looked jaded and upset and Caroline frowned in grim amazement at seeing, for the first time ever, not a 1000 years flickering in his eyes, but 365 000 days edged into every feature of his face.

xxxdelenaxxx

Blinking his eyes open and seeing a blurry outline of a glass filled with amber liquid, Alaric's thoughts drifted from a vague sense of déjà vu to the realization that it was the first time in his vampire existence that he was feeling something that could be only described as a regular headache.

"I was going to offer you a long-winded heartfelt apology, but Elena said you'd find it suspicious," Damon said with a brief, strained smile, extending his hand with bourbon in it.

Alaric sat up, massaging his forehead, his eyes fixed on Damon as his vision was swiftly becoming clear again, the headache ebbing away. He took the glass from Damon's hand, but then almost immediately put it down on the table, rose to his feet and pulled Damon into a strong hug.

"It's good to see you," he said with a grimace that quickly turned into a smile.

"Thank you," Damon said, smiling at Elena who was watching the scene with a happy grin on her face.

There was a trace of something unfamiliar in all of this, Damon suddenly thought, although he couldn't quite place where this impression was coming from. He could, however, pinpoint what it was. It wasn't the love, warmth, kindness of others that felt unfamiliar. It was his reception of it. He felt completely comfortable with embracing all of it, accepting all of it, and it felt very new, rejuvenating.

"So why did you punch me? Were you expecting a paparazzi or something?" Alaric asked when the three of them sat down. "Oh, and by the way, you and Jeremy are grounded," he added, widening his eyes at Elena.

Elena smiled, but then her smile faded a little as she quickly filled Alaric in on everything that had happened since their arrival, including the lack of certainty that Bonnie and Jeremy made it out of the hospital unscathed.

"Do you think there's... an Augustine Society division in this hospital?" Alaric asked with a frown.

Elena shrugged. "We don't know, but there definitely is a connection. If Bonnie and Jeremy don't get here soon, we'll need to go back there and find them."

"What is this Augustine Society?" Damon asked, looking between Elena who was sitting next to him on the couch and Alaric whose expression became suddenly thoughtful and even sad.

"In short, it's a group of not always bad people doing very bad things to not always bad vampires," Alaric said with a grimace. "They captured you once in the 50s, kept you locked up for five years," he added, but then trailed off, noticing a barely perceptible shake of Elena's head, as if she was wordlessly asking him not to say anything more.

"In the 50s?" Damon repeated with a bemused snort and Elena was once again surprised by the aspect of the situation he was choosing to focus on. "So how old are we?" He asked conversationally, looking between Elena and Alaric.

"We are as old as we look," Alaric said with a small smile, glancing at Elena. "You, however, are 174 years old."

Damon blinked. "Well, it's good to know there is no inappropriate age difference between us," he said after a pause, giving Elena a lop-sided smile.

Elena laughed briefly under her breath.

"She laughs," Alaric said with a smile, although his eyes glimmered with gentle seriousness. "Haven't seen that in a long while," he added in a low voice and Elena drew a sharp intake of breath, looking up at Damon and giving him a reassuring smile when with a worried frown he draped his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the side to her face.

"Stefan and Caroline didn't come with you?" Elena asked in an effort to lighten up the mood, but the question didn't quite work to that effect.

"Yeah, about that," Alaric said with a sigh, searching the pockets for his phone. "We were supposed to meet at the airport, but they never showed up. I've been calling them since then, but with no luck so far. I asked Meredith to check on them and find out what happened."

Having found his phone, Alaric chose the number and brought the phone to his ear.

Damon inched his lips to Elena's ear and asked in a stage-whisper. "Who are Stefan and Caroline?"

Elena stifled a smile, scolding herself inwardly for not mentioning that earlier. "Stefan's your brother," she said, clasping Damon's hand in hers. "And Caroline's our friend."

"I have a brother," Damon acknowledged with a smile.

"They're still not picking up, neither of them," Alaric said, shaking his head at the phone. "I'll call Meredith-" he started, but stopped in mid-sentence when the phone began ringing in his hand. Alaric squinted at the unfamiliar number, but answered the call and after a moment his face brightened in surprise. "Jeremy, where are you?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"Thank you for coming, I really appreciate it," Matt said, letting Meredith inside the house and closing the door behind her. "It's just that I have no clue how to do all this," he added, shaking his head with a humorless laugh.

"Well, the mom must trust you tons if she left you on duty knowing that," Meredith observed with an amused smile.

Matt sighed. "I don't know about the mom, but the aunt apparently does," he allowed, leading Meredith up the stairs.

"Have you heard from Stefan or Caroline today?" Meredith asked, following him. "They don't pick up their phones and I just went to both of their apartments and they're not there. They were supposed meet with Ric at the airport, but-"

"Were they going somewhere?" Matt asked and Meredith stopped in her tracks.

"Oh my God, you don't know anything yet, do you?" She asked with a smile.

Matt looked at her in confusion, but before they had a chance to continue their conversation, the sound of baby crying claimed their attention. They quickly crossed the hallway and entered one of the rooms.

Meredith looked around the room in awe. It looked like a room straight out of a dream. It was beautifully furnished, lavishly decorated and fully stocked with all the imaginable clothes, toys, books and care products an infant could possibly need.

"And you said you needed everything!" Meredith exclaimed in amazement, turning toward Matt with a baffled look on her face, shifting her eyes from a joyously gurgling in her intricately sewn cradle baby girl to Matt.

But then Meredith's bafflement only grew when she noticed that Matt looked thoroughly shocked and was scanning the room with wide eyes in complete bewilderment.

She gave him a questioning look and after shaking his head a few times, Matt said in a low, astonished and even slightly terrified voice. "Three minutes ago there was nothing here."

Meredith blinked. "I thought Mystic Falls was a magic-free zone now?" she said cautiously with a nervous smile.

"Yeah," Matt snorted mirthlessly. "Me too."