It's finally going down! DE is happening! 4x06 was by far the bestest episode ever! (Yeah, yeah, I know; 'bestest' is not a real word, but try describing the most awesome way to describe Delena finally having a real shot and you'll come up empty. Hence, bestest!)

Yeah, and I also learnt not to post a chapter around a TVD episode because nobody would bother reading or reviewing. Everyone would be too busy talking what went on in the episode to care. Except for a handful of you who did care enough to leave me some awesome review! I love each and every one of you. Truly. SQUEAL!

Oh, a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are celebrating it! I don't celebrate it because I'm Asian but I just want to say that I'm thankful for all the wonderful support this story has received and the most amazing friends I've gained through this website and on Twitter. Seriously, I would trade my real life friends for all of you and that's something because I happen to love all my real life friends. Cheers!

A Woman's Worth: Chapter Six

Damon's POV

Twenty-one days.

For the mathematically challenged, that's three freaking weeks since I reluctantly left her house, holding onto two separate balls of fur, the remains of the bear formerly known as Mr. Cuddles. That bastard mutilated our bear! What kind of sick psycho would harm a stuffed toy and take his insane– and unfounded – jealousy out on another person? A person as sweet and innocent as Elena?

"You're doing it again. You're pretending that the steering wheel is his neck again, aren't you?" the now familiar voice came from the backseat of my car, my prized possession, a 1967 Chevy Camaro. If it was for any reason other than Elena Gilbert, I would have been seated in my macho vehicle with my somewhat less macho wingman, Alaric Saltzman, at this moment. But since my buddy would most likely frown with disapproval at my plans for the day, I had to find a back-up wingman stat. That was the only reason the blonde with the annoyingly shrill voice was in my car in the first place.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry," I muttered, releasing my tight grip on the leather as I relaxed my fingers, cracking my knuckles before I turned to my partner-in-crime. If someone had told me weeks ago that I would be sitting in a car with Caroline Forbes, parked on the side of a road and munching on popcorn, I would have laughed in their face and probably thought they were nuts. But now, she was the only person whom I had the most in common with; Elena.

We both care about the girl so much that I learnt to tolerate the blonde's high-spirited ways if only to have someone else to talk to about the particularly stubborn brunette. No one else could possibly understand the worry and fear I felt for her, the one girl I was powerless to help. The girl whom I wanted to save so badly and yet didn't want to be saved. It took every ounce of control I had left to leave her bedroom three weeks ago without her in my arms. Caroline and I had bonded over the weeks because she felt the same.

"No need to apologize. I constantly find myself fantasizing about introducing a meat cleaver into that monster's head myself, but I figured with the blood and the gore and my fancy dresses….he's just not worth the dry cleaning bills, you know?" Caroline shuddered violently, making her thoughts about messing up her ridiculously expensive outfits known. I found myself completely in awe of her sometimes, with her unflinching loyalty to her best friend and her constant upbeat attitude about anything and everything around her. In fact, her enthusiasm was downright contagious!

"So, no blood and no gore?" I pretended to ponder for a moment and then turned to her with an 'Ah-ha!' expression. "Should we poison the fucker or just push him off Wickery Bridge?"

"I vote for poison; it's much less of a hassle and we don't need to drive anywhere. We can just do it right now, even! Besides, Mason's a good swimmer and nobody ever drowns in that river. It's like the most undrown-able river ever," she said in all seriousness, as if discussing the various methods of murdering someone was an everyday occurrence. Come on, how could I not love this girl? In fact, she'd be perfect for –

"Look! There's Elena!" she gasped suddenly, effectively halting me in mid-thought. What? She mentioned the E-word!

I quickly turned back to the front, looking at where she was pointing and true enough, it was her. Except she looked nothing like the girl I met in a hospital and far from the girl I left in her bedroom. She was much too skinny now, her clothes looking drab, hanging loosely off her body. Her hair appeared lackluster and her face was gaunt and pale, as if she hadn't seen sunlight in days…weeks even. I should know because I had been watching, from afar for three weeks, and I barely got a glimpse of her aside from the times when she stepped out of the house with Mason, just long enough to catch a ride with him to college and back. Although in this week, she never even left the house at all!

"Do you think she's sick? Or hurt?" I automatically whispered, as if the object of my attention could hear me from across the street, five houses away. That was where we were parked, by the way. My Camero was a regular sight in that neighborhood by now.

"Probably, yeah," Caroline agreed, her eyes squinting into the brightness. "That would explain why she skipped all her classes this week. Should I go say 'Hi'? I should, right? I'm gonna go say 'Hi'." She made a move to unlock her side of the car door, but I hastily stopped her.

"Wait, if you go out there now, she's going to know that we've been watching her!"

She turned back to flash me an incredulous look, tossing her wavy blonde locks over her shoulder. "So, when you asked me to come along to keep an eye on Elena, you actually meant 'keep an eye on Elena'? Because I don't think that you've blinked even once since we started this stakeout mission of yours." She blinked at me with her wide blue-green eyes as if to prove a point. Now that she mentioned it, my eyes were getting dry and blurry. "Are we supposed to sit here all day, eating donuts and drinking coffee like a couple of lame detectives while we wait for her to suddenly and miraculously come to her senses?"

Okay, she had a point. She had a very good point, but I was in no position to meddle in a victim's affairs if she didn't want me to. And Elena made it clear that she didn't want or need my help. So, I was forced to lay low and keep a lookout. As a matter of fact, Ric would be proud of my sense of control since there was nothing more that I wanted to do than to fling open my car door and sprint over to rescue my tiny damsel.

"Don't forget the popcorn, the muffins, the chocolates, and the double-stuffed Oreos you brought along," I reminded her drily, my eyes sweeping over the backseat with disgust at the sight of the discarded wrappers and empty boxes surrounding her. "Did you mishear stakeout and think picnic?"

"So I eat a lot when I'm bored," Caroline exclaimed defensively, rolling her eyes at me as if I should have known that. "If I don't get out there and do something about Elena, I'm going to be fat and it's going to be all your fault when I can't fit into my dream wedding dress someday. Besides, I really have to pee!" And with that, she ignored my protests and stormed towards her best friend who was emptying her mail box and was about to turn back towards the house when Blondie approached her.

I stared powerlessly as the scene unfolded in front of me, as the two girls saw each other for the first time this week. I experienced a moment of panic when I saw Caroline's eyes widened in shock and then made to grab Elena's face, just before the frail-looking brunette flung her hands away and hurriedly retreated towards the main door. Care shouted something after her, stopping Elena in her tracks, but then Elena shook her head sadly and made a reply before taking another step towards the door again. The persistent blonde grabbed her arm to stop her and I could see Elena wince at the contact.

I was out of the car before I realized it and my feet were carrying me to her, to the girl who haunted my dreams every night and occupied my thoughts every moment of the day, driving me crazy with worry. Her name left my lips before I could stop myself and in that instant, Elena turned her tortured gaze to me, stopping me in my tracks at the amount of pain I witnessed there. The look in her eyes almost brought me to my knees; such terrible sadness in them that my heart broke for her. She shook her head and mouthed the words, "Please, don't." The next moment, she was gone, back through the door that separated us, hiding behind huge walls that she had built around herself.

I slumped in defeat against a nearby tree that was at the halfway point from my car to her house. Every single cell in my body was desperate to beat down the door so that I could get to her, to see her and to talk to her. But at the same time, I knew that I had to respect her wishes, even though she was self-destructing every moment she remained at Lockwood's side. I couldn't understand why, why she didn't want my help when it was clear that she wasn't happy in her life with Mason. The agony that I saw in her eyes was eating at her, one day at a time, and I feared that it would gnaw away until there was nothing left of the brave and courageous girl I met at the hospital. Lockwood was going to break her spirit and there was nothing I could do about it.

"Damon?" a soft voice reached my ears and I looked up to find a tear-filled Caroline standing over me. I didn't even realize that I was kneeling on the ground as if I was praying for some kind of divine intervention. "Did you see her? She had a purple bruise at the side of her neck and I'm pretty sure that her arms were injured, too. What do we do?" she asked, looking almost as helpless as I felt. What can we do? How do we help someone who refuses us at every single turn?

"I don't know, Care. I don't fucking know," I breathed out, at a loss for my next course of action. "Did she say anything?" I asked her, somehow feeling that there was a message for me from Elena somewhere during the brief conversation she had with Caroline.

Unsurprisingly, she nodded, two huge tears rolling down her cheeks as she furiously tried to blink them away. "She said to stop trying to save her, that she's a lost cause and we shouldn't try to contact her again. I'm scared, Damon. I'm scared of losing her," she admitted, sniffing loudly while her tears flowed unchecked.

"Me too, Care, me too."

We were back again the next day. To be honest, I thought that the whole incident yesterday with Elena would have made the blonde give up already, but she returned, with even more determination than ever. She even came equipped with a pair of binoculars and a bigger picnic basket, a sure sign of how serious she was taking the stakeout this time.

As if by some unspoken mutual agreement, neither one of us mentioned anything about Elena's request to leave her alone, if anything, it made us even more determined to make sure that she was at least still alive. I parked my car at my usual spot, under a shady tree at daybreak and Blondie joined me an hour later, claiming that she had trouble sleeping. We both sat there, watching as Lockwood left the house with his briefcase and went to work, leaving Elena alone again for the rest of the day. She never came out of the house at all, but I saw the curtains rustling right after his car left their driveway, and I found some relief in the fact that she was, at least, alive.

I never took my eyes off the house, not even for a moment while the hours whittled away, which was why I almost jumped out of my skin sometime after lunch hour when the passenger door opened and a man climbed in, a displeased look on his face.

"Ric?" I gaped in disbelief. Why was he in my car and how did he know where to find me?

"Oh, so you do remember me, do you? I haven't even seen a glimpse of your shadow in weeks aside from your phone call yesterday, and that's all you've got to say to me?" he asked, clearly not happy to see me in this particular neighborhood. Yes, I admit it; I have been AWOL lately and haven't been a good friend. I'd even go so far as to say that I was a crappy one. Lately I'd neglected my two best friends in favor of watching over my charge from a great distance, but this was a matter of life and death. Surely, Ric of all people could understand that.

"Umm, hey, buddy. How's it hanging?" I fake-smiled at him, wondering just how much trouble I was in. I called in a favor after seeing Elena outside her home, asking if Meredith could schedule her for a routine check-up on her previous injury, while at the same time, finding an excuse to have a look at her latest bruises. The appointment was supposed to be for ten a.m. but since I was keeping a very close eye on Elena, I already knew that she had missed her appointment with Mer. Perhaps Mason didn't want her out in public sporting a huge bruise on her neck? That would also explain why she wasn't attending any of her classes.

"How's it hanging?! Damon, what the hell are you doing, stalking your charge in your car and with a teenager in the backseat?" Ric bit out, not amused in the slightest at my pathetic attempt to make small talk. Although, it was hard to take it seriously when someone I dubbed as Tweedle-Dum gave me the frowny face. If anything, I wanted to pinch his cheeks for acting all mature and responsible, especially since I knew how silly he could be.

"I turned twenty-one a couple of months back but thank you for the compliment," Care burst out proudly, her cheeks reddening with pleasure at being mistaken for a teenager.

I grinned in amazement at her carefree attitude despite the predicament I suddenly found myself in; I was caught between saving Elena from herself and being the detached professional I'm used to being in a case like hers. It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, because both options had their own merits.

"Sorry, where are my manners? My best friend and my so-called boss, Ric Saltzman, meet Caroline Forbes, best friend of the very woman we're stalking," I introduced, pointing my finger at them respectively. Ric appeared to be slightly placated upon learning the identity of my companion, his eyes softening with sympathy for her friend as they shook hands.

"So you're the one who called in about an attempted murder on a stuffed animal?" Ric asked with a wry smile as he studied the blonde. When she nodded, his smile broadened as if he was amused by it and then he turned his attention back to me. "Elijah filled me in on what happened the other day. Damon, you know very well that I don't approve of you being so involved in this case, not to the point of operating a stakeout a few meters down the road from a suspected abused victim's house! You need to take a step back, reassess the situation and find another way to help her. Sitting in a car with her best friend and eating…" he paused, his gaze straying to my other passenger who was busy stuffing her face while aiming her binoculars at a specific house up ahead, "…packets of Ding Dongs is not helping anyone at the moment."

I sighed deeply, trying to make sense of his advice, which was sound in theory, but extremely difficult to heed in my situation. "Don't you think I've tried, Ric? I've tried to stay away, to give her time and to just keep earning her trust but it didn't work. That asshat she's living with basically forbade her from having any contact, and not just with me, but with her own best friend as well! He's turning Elena into a recluse, cutting off her support system and you know as well as I do the damage that will do to her emotionally. She hasn't left her house for a week, Ric, not even to go to college, and the only time she stepped out of the house was yesterday, which Care and I were lucky enough to witness. And when her oldest friend in the world approached her to talk - spying a huge ugly bruise on her neck, by the way - Elena just turned her away, saying that she's a lost cause and asking us not to contact her again," I explained, my grip tightening on my steering wheel once again as the helpless feelings returned. My thoughts drifted back to the look in her eyes as our gaze met, haunting me the entire night and even now.

"She's at the end of her rope, I know it. She feels that she has nowhere else to go, and maybe she thinks that she owes Lockwood something and that's why she's staying. Whatever the reason might be, it's eating her alive and it's killing me that there's nothing I can do about it," I said through gritted teeth and then looked over to the house that kept Elena away from escape…from salvation. "Don't ask me to go home, Ric. Don't ask me to leave her to fend for herself because I can't bear the thought of losing someone I'm in lo- someone I care very much about," I finished, nearly choking on my almost admission.

The silence that followed was deafening. It was as if time had stopped and everything had come to an absolute standstill. And then Caroline started humming the notes of Nat King Cole's song 'L.O.V.E.' while happily chomping away on her third packet of hockey puck-shaped chocolate cakes. I wonder if her constant consumption of sugary goodness was the reason behind her unlimited energy and enthusiasm.

"You're in love?" my buddy gasped in genuine surprise, his round wide orbs focused on my flushed cheeks. I didn't blame the guy for being surprised…shocked even. He had never heard me utter those words out loud in my life. To be fair, it was only half a word, but it was enough to render Ric speechless. Well, almost. "But that's huge!" he went on, still not able to process the thought of me feeling that way about anyone since my previous relationship. I mean, I took a blood oath and everything after calling it quits; it was all incredibly dramatic, not to mention unnecessarily messy and painful. Of course I was talking about the blood oath, not the relationship.

"Well, of course he's in love! Any blind person could see that!" Caroline scoffed from behind us all of a sudden. "You only have to be in the same room as the two of them to be able to feel their sexual chemistry with each other. He and Elena could practically shoot out babies from having eye-sex alone."

Eye-sex?! We do not have eye-sex! Do we?

"Umm, not helping, Care," I mumbled under my breath, now embarrassed that my feelings were apparent for all to see. I have never been more vulnerable in my life.

"So, it wasn't just an inappropriate crush on your charge? You have genuine feelings for this girl? Does she feel the same way?" Man, Ric was being super nosy today. What did it matter if my feelings for Elena were real or not? It didn't change the fact that I was unable to help her get out of an abusive relationship. And if she felt something for me, wouldn't she have found the will to leave Lockwood by now?

"Look, I don't know how I feel about her, okay? All I know is that she's a young woman who's in trouble, and I'm just trying to help, just like I've tried to help many other victims before her. And yes, my methods may be unorthodox and may not accomplish much, but at least I'll be near enough to help her if something was to happen. It sure as hell beats pacing the carpet off your house or mine, waiting for a phone call from the hospital, or worse, the morgue," I deflected indignantly, tired of having to defend my actions whilst trying to protect an innocent. As far as Ric was concerned, I was simply doing my job the best way I knew how.

He pursed his lips as he stared intently at me, as if he was trying to decipher something on my face. Then, his next words threw me off-guard. "Despite my better judgment, I'm going to help you. We're going to get Elijah in on this and have his guys keep a lookout on the house, but in the mean time, I want you, and you," he flashed a pointed look at the blonde behind me, "to go home and take a break, get cleaned up, eat and pee, or whatever, and then we will reconvene tomorrow morning and put together a plan to get Elena out of that house. I'll recruit Mer in on it as well, since she's her physician and has every right to schedule a follow-up appointment. I gather from your surveillance that you already know that Elena didn't turn up at the appointment this morning, right?"

I nodded, and a feeling of immense gratitude and brotherhood with Ric filled my fear-filled heart. At least there was a plan, nothing solid as yet, but still, a glimmer of hope on the horizon. It was the inactivity that made me restless more than anything, but now that I had my two original wingmen on board, I had no doubt at all that this rescue mission would be a success.

Elena's life depended on it.

General POV

Caroline Forbes went home in a jovial mood, her spirits lifted following the car scene between Damon and his friend earlier. It felt good to be a part of a team, especially for an important cause like this one. She was never picked for anything; not for sports since she thought that sweating was a mortal sin, not for games since she was such a control freak over the rules, and certainly not for rescue missions, since her life wasn't cool like that. But this time, she was a part of a mission to rescue one of the most important people in her life; her best friend. Mostly though, the idea of being surrounded by hunky guys was a major boost to her ego.

That was why she was grinning and humming the Nat King Cole's song to herself as she let herself into her house and proceeded to the kitchen with her picnic basket, not noticing the presence of her boyfriend sitting comfortably on a couch in the den.

"Where have you been all day, Care? Did you forget that I was picking you up after class?" Tyler questioned heatedly, immediately rising to his feet upon seeing her. Her eyes widening in surprise, she whirled around to face him in bewilderment.

"Oh God, did we have plans today?" she asked, clasping her palm over her mouth guiltily before she hurriedly sauntered over to the annoyed man, wrapping her arms around his torso as she flashed her best innocent expression on him. "I'm sorry, Ty, but something came up and I forgot."

"Oh really? You seem to be awfully forgetful these days. Did that 'something' have anything to do with Elena again?" Tyler seemed to be unimpressed even when Caroline nuzzled into his chest the way she usually does whenever she's feeling particularly playful.

She shrugged in a noncommittal way, unwilling to give anything away since she knew that he was firmly on Team Mason, which was the losing team so far in terms of members. Team Mason only had one, well two, counting Elena. "Don't ask if you don't want to know the answer, Ty. Anyway, we can still go out if you want. Just let me freshen up first, okay?" Without waiting for his answer, she planted a peck on her unyielding boyfriend's lips and hopped over to her bedroom, leaving behind the almost full picnic basket and her purse at the kitchen counter.

Tyler eyed her unattended purse and made his way into the kitchen, keeping an eye out for Caroline's return as he slipped her phone out. His jaws clenched as he scrolled through her text messages and call history, not liking what he was seeing at all.

Fifteen minutes later, a newly showered and changed Caroline reemerged into the kitchen, smiling at the motionless jock as she entered. "I just need a little lip gloss in my purse and we're good to go," she told him, oblivious to what was about to transpire in her own home. She searched through her purse for the item and finally noticed something that was missing. "Hmm, where did I put my phone?" she mumbled to herself.

"You mean this one?" asked Tyler, his darkening eyes trained on her. "The one you've been using to communicate with your secret boyfriend?"

Caroline's already pale complexion turned ashen at his accusation, her heart dropping to her stomach at the thought of what he'd found. Even though she wasn't having a secret affair, she was still hiding something pretty big from him, something that he wouldn't understand, especially if it involved his uncle.

"You looked through my phone? Gee, whatever happened to respecting a person's privacy?" she retorted sarcastically, reaching her hand out to snatch back her phone, only to grab at air as Tyler hastily moved out of reach.

"Don't turn this around on me! You're the one arranging secret meetings and having long chats with this Salvatore guy. How long has this been going on, huh? Since the hospital visits?"

She shook her head hurriedly and went into full defensive mode. "I'm not cheating on you, if that's what you're insinuating! And I also don't go checking up on you either, so give me back my phone, you doink!"

"Oh yeah? Well, this phone proves otherwise, so I think I'll hold on to it a little bit longer, if you don't mind," Tyler waved her phone triumphantly and then proceeded to read from one of her messages to Damon. "'Oh, here's one of your outgoing messages; 'Hey, Starsky. I'll be there, just need to pack some nourishment for later. See you soon!' to which he replied, 'Take your time, Hutch. I'll be at my usual spot, just make sure you're not seen by anyone.' If that's not sneaking around behind my back, then I don't know what is."

Caroline released a groan, weighing her options at this point. If she came clean, she would risk letting Mason know that he was being watched and he could very well take it out on Elena, but if she didn't, she would be accused of having an affair with Damon and that would be all sorts of messy, especially where Tyler's concerned.

"Okay, it has something to do with Elena but I can't tell you because then you'd be mad at me for meddling again, so you're just going to have to trust me," she blurted out in a rush, her words stringing out one after the other without a beat.

Tyler gave a humorless laugh and bit his lower lip, studying the blonde with a head shake. Then, without any warning, he threw her phone at the wall right behind her, narrowly missing her ear by inches, causing her phone to smash into pieces at the impact. "Trust you? You're running around in Mystic Falls with some guy, talking to him dozens of times over the phone and you want me to trust you without some kind of explanation other than 'It's for Elena'?"

"What the hell, Tyler?" Caroline screamed, her fingers buried through her hair onto the sides of her head as if unable to believe what just happened. Her boyfriend just threw her phone against a wall. Did that just happen? "You did not just smashed my phone! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? I put up with a lot of things with you; all your drama, your incessant chatter, your constant need to watch The Notebook over and over again, but I'll be damned if I put up with your bullshit after being caught red-handed with another guy, especially not after you've been with him the whole day today, having a damn picnic!" In the midst of his temper tantrum, the next item that ended up scattered on the floor was the picnic basket, along with its contents. Then, he charged at his stricken girlfriend, grabbing her by the sides of her arms and shook her hard, taunting her, daring her to deny it.

"Let go of me! Let go of me, you psycho monster! You're just like him, like Mason," she yelled, struggling wildly against his firm grip, and then a loud slap resonated through the kitchen. A stunned Tyler held his stinging cheek with one hand and retaliated by backhanding Caroline with another, sending the petite woman crashing into the kitchen counter where the picnic basket was placed earlier. Her cheek was red from the impact and her eyes were livid as she turned to face the man she thought she would marry one day.

"Get out!" she bit out in a low growl, straightening herself up to glower at him.

Whatever it was that Tyler expected from her, those two words definitely didn't cross his mind, judging from the shock that appeared on his face. "You're kicking me out? You're not even going to attempt to defend yourself?"

"No matter what you thought I did or didn't do is immaterial now. I am not Elena and I do not tolerate violence! You hit me and that's a deal breaker right there. Now, get out of my house!" she ordered, pointing to the front door and making it clear that she meant it, although, Tyler chose to ignore her.

"But you hit me first!" he argued, massaging his reddened cheek where her palm connected earlier.

"Yes, because you were shaking me and refusing to let go! And also, you wrecked my phone, you ass wipe. Now get out of here before I call the cops on you, and in case it's not obvious, we're so over," she announced steadily, moving quickly to the front door and holding it open while waiting for him to leave.

Much to her relief, Tyler obediently walked over the threshold only to halt just as she was about to close the door behind him. "Just so we're clear, I broke up with you, not the other way around," he informed her, with a smug smile.

"Whatever makes you sleep better at night, loser. Oh, and just so we're clear, your penis is tiny and I faked all my orgasms with you. Buh bye," Caroline waved and proceeded to slam the door shut on his shocked face, banging him on his nose while she was at it. She shook her head at the sound of his yell and promptly burst into tears.

* * * Abuse is a form of bullying* * *

The next morning, Caroline woke up groggily from a restless sleep to the sound of persistent bell-ringing. She ignored it at first, throwing a pillow over her head to block out the incessant sounds, but then the knockings started. Expecting it to be an angry ex-boyfriend, she groaned loudly and then threw on a robe and made her way to the front door, gearing up for a fight until she pulled the door open to reveal an anxious Damon.

"Hey, your phone's not working. Why aren't you ready ye– hey, are you okay? Are you sick?" he asked, his gaze perusing over her attire and her puffy eyes.

"Yeah, I'm sick of Lockwoods," Caroline responded, leaving the door open for him and yawned loudly as she went into the recently cleaned kitchen except for the scattered pieces of what's left of her phone.

Damon followed her into the house without closing the door since he was expecting to leave soon. Joining her in the kitchen, his keen eyes spied the leftover mess on the floor and they narrowed suspiciously. "What happened there?" he asked, pointing to the clutter.

"Tyler happened," she replied drily, and then proceeded to recount the way Tyler had gone through her phone to find their correspondences, leading him to suspect that they were going around behind his back. Damon's expression became angrier by the minute when she told him how he threw her phone and the basket onto the floor, and then he was practically frothing at the mouth when she got to the part where Tyler backhanded her in retaliation of her slapping him. "Then I slammed the door on his face after I insulted his manhood."

"Well, I'm proud of you for standing up to him, really," Damon uttered with a small smile, feeling a weird sense of pride for her courage. "That must have been hard for you to do and I only wish that Elena had the same mindset because even a single assault should not be excused, no matter what the cause may be. She's lucky to have a friend like you by her side, Care," he patted her on the back in a comforting gesture.

Caroline sighed wearily, rubbing her eyes to get rid of the cobwebs of sleep still lingering in her mind. "Well, I could use my best friend around right now, too. I need a hug badly," she whined, thinking of the anti-Lockwood chant they would be saying in her room had Elena been with her right then. They would be going through her photo albums and burning any picture with Tyler's face in them, too.

"Well, I'm no best friend, but what about a hug from a partner in crime instead, Hutch?" the raven-haired man suggested, opening his arms wide enough for the blonde to slip into, the very first time he ever willingly hugged another female other than Elena. At that moment, she was a friend in need, so he provided some comfort to her, as badly as he wanted to comfort Elena in his arms instead and he was simply grateful that at least one almost victim had the strength to walk away from what could potentially be a disaster.

Neither of them realized that at that very moment, a current victim, who had managed to sneak out of the confines of her house to comfort an old friend from a break-up, was witnessing their embrace from the entrance, where the front door was left wide open.

My twitter: cgsa_cher in case you want to talk about silly stuff like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

Thanks to my beloved beta, Kristi (tukct81) for being your usual awesome self. :D Now that you've wrapped up Neverending Progress, I now can harass you with this story all the time! Yee-hah!