A/N: So sorry it took so long to get you this next chapter. I made it extra long. Longer than any yet! I had a two weeks of stress with my job as a childcare provider and the government here trying to shut down private homes that care for kids to push them into the public run facilities. But the public ones have huge waiting lists so it been so much stress helping families find care for my part time clients and am now limited to only being able to care for full time clients. So two single moms I felt horrible having to say I couldn't watch their kids anymore. Anyway. Its all been figured out now and I can finally think again to write.

So I gave you a very Delena-lishous chapter full of just them even in the flashback! Enjoy and review and tell me what you think. Things are heating up and I hope you can feel the emotion. I had mentioned a night at the prison that Damon cannot remember due to trauma related memory loss and I am now revealing that to you from ELena's POV. Also it was very much time for him to come clean about his past and his reasons for being in the prison. So if any from the CIA point of view still isn't clear, please let me know.

I am behind on my reading and reviewing other amazing authors on here too so I need to get to that next. Check out my beta's delenadreams incredible stories, Mariah April May just posted a new chapter of The Scandal that I have no read yet, scarlett2112 has new chapters for Tomorrow and This Isnt What We Meant, VitsAsh has a new chapter in Stumbling Upon, deepwater1978 just finished Kiss Me or Kill Me with a bang and there are more great authors to check out that love Delena and are keeping them alive past the show.

Love you all. Thank you so much for all the reviews and favorites and follows. Keep them coming.

Have a great weekend!

Elena's POV

It felt strange when I woke up. I didn't remember right away where I was. I could feel the rain still lightly dripping onto my already soaked hair, the drops making their way between the fabric of the jacket around me to my bare skin underneath. I felt a hard smooth chest under my cheek and could hear the soft deep breathing of the man holding me.

Damon

I blinked away the water from my eyes and tilted my head up from where I was nestled in against his shoulder. His breaths were slow and deep against my face and I could smell his manly scent as he breathed in and out so rhythmically. His eyes were closed, but not tightly, more relaxed as if he might be in a peaceful dream and not facing any horrors that could be made worse in his head.

At that moment I realized I hadn't had any nightmares while I slept in his arms at all. I didn't even know how long it had been since I had slept without the fear of watching my whole family die. The scenes were on a constant replay in my mind whenever I closed my eyes. But finally not tonight.

And it was all because of Damon.

I nuzzled my head down in the crook of his arm again, my hands resting around his naked waist. He was so warm, his skin so soft and his presence soothed any fears that tried to plague my mind. He felt like peace in the midst of frightening all out war.

My every breath pressed my skin against his again, the fullness of my breast to his muscled chest. It felt so strange and yet so perfect. My white lace bra was the only barrier between us as he held me against him. I tried to slow my breathing and closed my eyes to sleep some more, but my mind felt very awake from everything we had already been through.

He had kissed me as we were crashing. That had been the most passionate kiss I had ever experienced in my young life. I had been so scared, my mind reliving every aspect, every detail of the horrible day I lost everyone I loved. I felt him clinging to me, his body wrapped tight around me, his legs between mine to hold me protectively in the seat as the plane spun and tumbled out of control.

As we kissed and felt his arms around me I could remember my brothers arms around Anna. They both were caressing her belly and the little life that they had created that never got to be born. I could see my mother's fear, her looking back and forth between Jeremy and me and Dad, like she did not know how to be there for all of us at once. My dad had been so strong. I could see him fighting tears in his eyes as I tried to help our mother into her parachute that she never got to use. How I was the only one that was pulled up to safety as the plane crashed I had no idea.

Aaron too I remember just looking at me like he knew it was the end for us. Little did he know that I had already promised myself that I was going to give him back his engagement ring at the end of our family vacation and break his heart. He had been so kind and loving to me and I thought I loved him back. I thought I knew he was the one. But the closer we got to our wedding, the more trapped I felt. I didn't feel the joy and exuberance of him as that man. It was more like I liked the idea of falling in love, happiness and forever and the fun of planning my wedding that I had dreamed about since I was a little girl. I wanted love so much. I thought I had found it with him, but it felt wrong. It wasn't passionate; like I could never live without him. Sure I grieved after the loss of him and everyone else but not in the way that I thought I would.

I wondered why I had been spared too. Was it to meet Damon? He seemed so unlike who I thought I would end up with and yet everything with him was exactly what being with Aaron wasn't. Just laying and snuggling against Damon's warm body right now and my heart was pounding like a 13 year old girl after their first kiss. I knew he was different and I wanted to explore that, as wrong as it was to fall in love with an inmate. But he was more than that. There was more to him than just a man in prison.

I sighed, burying my nose against his skin inhaling the scent that was just him. He smelled of the fresh rain that was still falling all around us, mixed with prison issue body wash that all the men used. But combined with his own scent he was intoxicating and I could not get enough. My arms curled tighter around him, pulling him in more against me.

"You have no idea how much I want to know what you are thinking Beauty."

I nearly jumped since his voice had rumbled against my ear resting on his chest. My head tilted up to be met with lazy, half open blue eyes. "Damon," I breathed, just loving the sound of his name.

I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to understand all that he promised me he would tell me about him. So much didn't make sense. And yet I loved him without even knowing the whole truth about him. I already loved the inmate; the man in chains. The man that walked into my infirmary a month ago with his head hanging down. I already wanted to smooth his raven dark hair from his cheek that day. I had no idea how the attraction could have been so intense so quickly.

"Elena," he whispered, his lips in my hair as he spoke as I felt a smile grow on his kissable lips. "Now that we have established who is who is here, how about you tell me what is spinning in that pretty little head of yours." I shivered at just what the feel of his lips against my head could do to me.

His mouth turned down into a frown before I answered him. "What's wrong? Are you still cold?" The look on his face was so damn adorable.

I shook my head, smiling at him wondering what he would do if I had said yes to still being cold. Offer me his shirt that was hanging loosely open on him? "No baby, I'm perfect."

His frown melted away to reveal a dimpled smile as he pulled me closer, his arms tight around my back. "You were shivering. Are you sure?"

"Yes Damon I'm sure. You just umm." Oh how could I say this? "Your lips against my skin was kind of making me shiver. In a good way," I added.

His lips curled up more. My head was still tilted so I was looking up in his eyes as I lay tucked into his body. "Oh," was his very in depth and insightful response. I almost giggled at him looking tongue tied by my answer.

"You feel so good," I mumbled and gave him light kisses along his jaw. His eyes fluttered closed and I felt his arms slid down to cradle my hips from on top of the leather jacket he had draped over me.

I meant every word. He did feel SO good; safe, warm, soothing and just everything I needed right then and possibly forever.

A groan came up his throat just as my kisses made their way from his jaw, to the side of his lips until I pulled his chin down and devoured his lips with mine. His mouth opened to my seeking and eager tongue looking for his. I pulled myself up more, my core pressed against him through my jeans as my arms wound around his neck.

Kissing Damon was like nothing I had ever felt.

His hands moved up my sides till they cradled my head, tilting it to deepen the kiss. I moaned into his hungry mouth as his hands tunneled through my hair, holding my head tight to his.

"Mmm Damon," I whimpered breathlessly. I buried my fingers in the wet black strands of his hair, holding his head in place for me to explore his mouth deeper, my lips eager for more of the taste of him.

I felt his hips push up ever so gently against me straddling him as we kissed and my hips thrust down feeling that same pull to be closer. My fingers cupped the back of his neck before my flat palms spread down over his bare chest.

"God Elena," he breathed out when we took in some much needed oxygen. He just stared at me, his eyes sparking in the moonlight as the rain ran in trails on our exposed skin. I trembled again as his hands cradled my face, his thumbs stroking my cheeks as his fingers dug into the hair by my ears. His forehead fell to rest on mine as we just gazed in each others eyes. "I love you so much," he whispered into the air between us.

I inhaled sharply at the intensity of his gaze, seeing the blue in his eyes so deep and dark with lust at that moment. My hands slid back up his bare chest and under his wet shirt, tugging it off his shoulders and down his back. "I love you too," I said softly.

His eyes widened, likely at my boldness before he reached down and tugged the leather jacket off my own shoulders to fall down behind me. His hands rubbed down my arms, gently taking both of my bra straps with them as he crashed his lips back onto mine as his arms moved to tighten around my bare back.

My heart was pounding so hard in my chest as he explored my back, my sides, his hands rubbing past the sides of my breasts before settling down gripping my bare hips just above my jeans and tugging me harder against him on his lap. "Mm mm," he purred, as his kisses went from my lips to the shell of my ear. My nails dug into his biceps as he sucked my ear lobe into his mouth and I whimpered against his cheek.

His breath was panting out of him as he pulled back to look at me again. "You..." he tried, maybe not knowing what words to say as his hands massaged the skin of my hips in between his fingers. "You have no idea what you do to me, Beauty."

I smiled and he smiled back at me before wiggling his eyebrows sexily. "I'm serious, Elena." And I knew he had to be; the way he looking at me with so much love in his eyes. "And I've decided that Beauty is my favorite nickname for you," he said kissing the tip of my nose.

I could not stop smiling. I loved the sound of him calling me Beauty. "Does that make you my Beast?" I teased. I ran my fingers through his longish dark hair. "You even almost have the hair for it. And those eyes. God Damon, your eyes are such a rich deep blue right now, just like the Beast's. That was one of my favorite movies growing up."

He laughed and kissed my forehead before he stuck out his lip in a cute pout at me. "I guess I could be your Beast. I am the bad guy here, just minus the chains and the prison orange and of course the fur and paws." He chuckled again.

I pulled at his one hand that I knew he still had the cuff on. "Not minus all the chains, baby," I reminded him. I knew he had tried a couple times since we got to the island to get them off but the damn handcuff refused to budge. So it hung from his wrist as a glaringly clear sign that he was still a prisoner despite changing into normal clothes and not being on a plane to be put in prison for life.

It reminded me that he had promised he would tell me everything once we were away from the plane and safe. Maybe this wasn't safe enough but I didn't want to wait anymore. I wanted, no I needed to know who I had fallen for. How much worse could the truth be? I didn't want to admit it but I was nervous.

"Damon, you said once we were safe..." He was already nodding at me knowing what I was asking. He leaned forward and I felt his hands pulled my bra straps back up and the jacket back over me shielding my already wet skin from more rain. I did the same thing helping get his shirt back up on his shoulders, knowing too that there could be plenty more time for kissing later. I was so anxious to hear what he was going to say.

He lifted me gently enough to lay on his lap with both legs to the side as he held me back again in the crook of his arm. Damon rocked me back and forth and it seemed he was looking for the right words to say. "I know that what I am about to tell you is against agency policy, but screw it. I just cant keep you in the dark anymore Elena. I can't. It has hurt me so much to lie to you."

His expression was mournful, pleading like he was scared that once he had told me the truth I would reject him. "It's okay Damon. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you," I looked up in his eyes.

"You don't know that," he replied quickly, his voice low. "I want to believe that this won't change anything but whatever happens I just know I need to tell you. You of all people involved in this deserve the truth."

I ran my hand up and down his arm as he talked and tangled our fingers together. He smiled as he looked down at our entwined hands and lifted them to kiss my knuckles tenderly. "I don't want to lose you baby," he whispered, his lips on my skin.

"I trust you Damon. Just please tell me," I coaxed him, my eyes soft on his as I smiled and pulled our hands so that I could kiss his knuckles too. My brown eyes never left his as I saw his eyelids flutter as my lips brushed across the back of his hand.

"Okay." He sucked in a breath and I braced myself and had no idea what for. "I work for the CIA Elena."

My eyes must have looked twice their size the way he was looking at me. He was studying my expression maybe fearful of me pulling away from him at the truth. CIA? "Okay, um, wow." I cleared my throat seeing his desperate gaze on me. "I uh thought people only said that in the movies."

He chuckled lightly, pulling his hand out of mine only to re-tangle our fingers together again and again like nervous habit, not that I was complaining. Any way we were touching felt amazing.

"Well it is not as glamorous as Hollywood portrays it. But it's true baby. I have worked for them for almost 10 years, right out of high school. My first year of University I was approached and I wanted to serve my country so I accepted. There was extensive training for almost the whole first 2 years before I became field ready. My brother Stefan in that time was recruited as well and rose up the ranks faster than I did. He became a special agent in charge of the missions and he is amazing at his job. He is my only hope of us getting out of here and getting rescued. He would have known the plane went down since they knew we were to arrive in Spain in 12 hours."

I stayed silent just taking in what he was saying. He tucked a stray strand of wet hair behind my ear and stroked my cheek. "You with me so far Beauty?" I nodded and urged him to continue.

"I was assigned a mission to recover some mystery tech. I don't know who had it or what their endgame even was with it but it has the power to remotely take control of any airplanes nav systems to use the plane as a weapon." My eyes widened at that as he explained more. "Its like 9'11, but now the terrorists don't even need to hijack a plane and use it to attack innocent people. Its less messy and so much more dangerous."

"Was that what happened? Is that why we crashed here?" I asked him timidly, almost not wanting to know that there were more enemies then just the ones we already were on the island with.

He nodded leaning forward, pulling my head closer and running his lips through my hair, while his thumb stroked the back on my hand gently. "I don't you have to be scared baby." He kissed my forehead. "Part of me would love to tell you everything will be fine. The creeps on the beach will all get re-arrested, my brother will put on his hero hair and rescue us and we will take down the terrorists and clear my name. But that all sounds like a lot to expect." He gave me a shaky smile and I realized he was being real, not all tough and confident like he had been with me in the beginning. He was telling me he couldn't magically fix everything and not just telling me what I wanted to hear.

I squeezed his hand in mine and smiled up at him. "I trust you Damon. I know you will do everything in your power to get us out of here and keep us alive."

He smiled and this time it reached his eyes. "I know, and you are right. I will do all I can to protect you. I know everything sounds overwhelming and hopeless but I choose to have faith. Without that, I have nothing. Its the only thing that's keeping me going."

I smiled back up at him and captured his lips in a quick kiss before pulling back again. "I know together we can get out of this mess. We can survive this." I sat up more in his lap determined to listen more to his story. "So you think the men who hired you used that tech to crash us here?"

He nodded slowly and ran his tongue over his lips which just made me want to dive in to taste him again and again and just forget talking. I realized I wasn't scared of who he really was. If anything I loved him so much more knowing he was not a criminal and instead a hero for our country.

"I can't say for sure because I don't have any proof but yes I believe that is exactly what happened here. The men I was working for undercover used us and this was the perfect way to get rid of us. I was going to testify and my brother had arranged for us in the agency to work together with the Bulgarian government to grant me immunity if I could give them the name of the man that was in possession of the tech we wanted to destroy. I embedded myself enough to get hired to head up a hit for these monsters. Klaus, Kol, were on the team, and Markos and Wes who are both dead were too."

I cringed remembering the man Wes get shot and took his last breaths looking at us hiding in the back of the plane. "They had no idea I wasn't just some hired thug like they were. My job was to plan and execute the hit as a demonstration of the techs power. We were supposed to kill the President of Bulgaria's whole family at his daughters wedding on May 23rd last month.

I gasped at that and Damon's eyes were studying mine. I'm sure he was dying to know what I was thinking then. "I'm okay. Just keep going," I reassured him but I felt a lump in my throat and swallowed hard, scared to know more.

He nodded slowly as if considering my request, his eyes locked on mine, the blue in his so bright and intense.

"Elena just kiss me please," he pleaded his eyes looking glassy. Was he nervous that this was too much for me to take? "I need to know I'm not losing you by telling you all this. You have no idea how amazing it feels to be real with you, no more lies but I just..." I didn't let him finish and as he was talking I twisted my body around more and I gripped his shoulders to steady myself before plunging my lips hard onto his.

His arms came up around my back holding me tight as I deepened the kiss, trying to show him that nothing had changed. He needed me to show him, it sounded like more than just tell him and I was more than happy too.

He had faith keeping him going. Well I had him.

I cupped his face as I heard him moan and my tongue found his and I sucked on it gently as I felt his fingers up in my hair holding my head in place. I pressed my bra clad chest back up against him and whimpered at all the feelings racing at lightning speed through me. How was it that every kiss could be more intense than the next with this incredible man? The more I knew him, the more I loved him and wanted him to be mine forever.

We devoured each others moans and kissed hungrily, tasting, aching and needy for each other. I wondered if somehow I could make everything just disappear around us.

Like the next moment I wouldn't be high up in a tree on an island with dangerous murderers and rapists wandering around free. Instead I would be laying in Damon's bed wrapped up in his sheets as he lay above me, his strong muscled arms at the sides of my head, his fingers brushing my hair from my face as he leaned down kissing me so deeply as he made me his. I could feel his hard body and imagined my nails digging into his bare back as I enveloped him in my warmth. Our foreheads would touch, his ocean eyes fixated on mine. I could see the sweat dripping down his cheek to his jaw before he dove down and kissed me again, harder, deeper as he groaned my name into my mouth thrusting me harder into the soft mattress below me...I felt so close. My feelings spinning wildly as I felt waves cresting as my heart pounded. So close...

Another moan from him pulled me back from my fantasies of us together. Whoa, where the hell did that come from? I wondered. I was having X rated fantasies while I was kissing Damon! Sure it would be amazing to be out of danger, safe and warm behind locked doors with no threats to our happiness anywhere. But that was not out reality right now. As much as I wanted it, I needed to be here for him now in the present and not be longing for the future that we might not get to.

I didn't even know where he lived or where his bed was. I could have imagined us at my apartment with Ian likely staring the newcomer in my life and most likely jealous of Damon snuggling me.

But no somehow my mind brought me to his place. Maybe his home meant safety and security for me more than the paper thin walls and weak locks I had in my apartment. It wasn't even mine, not really.

I should have left there months ago and not kept dwelling in the past. I had taken over my brother and his girlfriend's little place. Jeremy was an artist and not making much money for them and Anna had been a teacher before she went on maternity leave. I didn't know why but I felt closer to my only brother there. I had even left the room they had decorated as a nursery all alone with the crib sitting there and gifts from baby showers and a swing and rocking chair. I would sit there for ages some nights rocking in that chair and just held a soft blanket to my face and cry for my family.

I had not even realized it but I started crying right then while I was kissing Damon. He must have sensed my change in mood almost instantly and pulled his head back, tilting my chin up to look deeply into my eyes. "Hey my beauty, why so sad?"

I sniffled and drew in some more rain smelling fresh air as he rubbed my shoulders through the thin leather, helped my arms in the sleeves and held me close again. "What were you thinking about?" he prodded gently. "Whatever it is you can tell me. I want to be here for you too, just like you are for me." I smiled at him and he smiled softly back, while brushing a wet strand of my hair back from my cheek.

"Be real with me too Elena. You don't have to be afraid." His head was bent low, his hair brushing my forehead. "I have known I think since the day I met you that you were carrying such a deep pain Elena. Please don't carry it alone. Let me help you." His eyes were wide in the near darkness with just the moon shining down on us.

I sniffled feeling a few stray tears slip down my cheeks. I knew I should tell him. He would understand. I did trust him. I shuddered suddenly feeling a bolt of energy zipping around inside my veins as his head bent more and he kissed the tears away that had dripped down my face. His fingers were in my hair as he guided my head to catch each tear as they fell. "God, Damon," I whimpered, my fingers wrapping around his waist again.

I cleared my throat and sniffled again. "I want to tell you and I will, I promise. Just please finish your story first. I want to understand. And I promise you nothing will change between us. I love you."

Damon grinned widely at me, his expression so peaceful and happy like being here with me was enough to fix everything that was wrong in our lives. "Okay Elena, okay. I want you to understand too I do, SO much." He pulled my head to his and kissed the crown of my head while cuddling me tighter in his arms. "I know I told you we were hired to kill the President and his family?" I nodded remembering his revelations before he begged me to kiss him.

"Anyway as you know from your research that day at the prison. They are alive and well. And I told you I was on the plane. My team wanted us to do it. Just wipe out that mans whole family. They had no idea I was CIA and was just there to track the hit back to the man who ordered it. But of course I couldn't go through with it. All that collateral damage, in the name of retrieving the mystery tech. All those innocent people. There were children there; mother's nursing their babies, grandparents all there to celebrate the wedding. I could see that through the sat images."

"Markos killed passengers and took their identities to sneak us on board the plane. That was hard enough for me. I prided myself in being an agent that did not take innocent life unless there was no other option. Once aboard, he killed the Air Marshal. Wes was in charge of the tech making sure everything went smoothly. All he had to do was plant a device to allow the man on the ground to hack the planes instruments and they then had full control. It was a full airplane, passengers of all ages and races all just trusting the pilot and his control of the plane to safely make it to their destination."

He drew in a deep breath, running his hands up and down my back now covered in the leather jacket. "So I lied. I told the men that hired us that the satellite showed the wedding reception had started early and they were already all there. I lied about the timing when in fact their was no one there yet except the few servers and caterers for the food." Damon sniffled and wiped his cheek.

"Their deaths were on me," he said sadly. "I could not save everyone."

I still didn't understand everything but I saw the pain on his face, the compassion and the loss he must have felt. I barely had comprehended the whole. "I work for the CIA', let alone all this.

"Hey baby," I tilted his chin down to me. As he had spoken of those that had died, his eyes had wandered away from mine. "I know you did everything you could," I looked pointedly at him.

He sniffled again. "I tried. We had a half hour once we gave the times to the men taking control of the plane and I just claimed their sat images weren't accurate and they believed me. Hell I was the leader, getting paid 3 million just for this hit alone and it was only a demonstration." His gaze in my eyes was still so deep, so seeking of my understanding.

"Klaus, Kol, Markos and Wes jumped from the plane and I told them I would be right behind them. But instead I rounded up all the people on the plane before it was taken over from the ground and I got them all to parachute to safety. Then the empty plane crashed into the reception area."

He had done everything he could. If it wasn't for him then all those people in the plane would have died too. Wow.

"The men who hired us arranged a meet to pay us but they never showed. Instead we were met by dozens of cops that had surrounded the area and we almost didn't get away. I was shot and nearly died."

My mouth fell open at that. What? "Where Damon?" I found myself needing to know. He moved me back further off his lap more while still holding me securely in one hand while the other unbuttoned his jeans.

My eyes must have widened still more and he put a finger to my lips. "It's fine baby. The wound was just right here." He folded down the hem of the dark washed jeans to reveal a slight scar on the skin near his hipbone. I ran my fingers across it tenderly before he buttoned the jeans back up and hid the damaged skin. I wondered how many other scars he had hidden.

"It hurt like hell but I survived. Getting shot is never on my list of fun past times.' He laughed and then cringed in pain and I wondered if I was leaning too much on his bruised ribs. But he just held me there and continued.

"I nearly bled out before Klaus and Kol found me. We had all run different directions and once I didn't show up at the rendezvous point they started looking for me. Hell they hated me and blamed me for the mission going so wrong. But they wanted their money, no question there and I was the only conduit to it through the men who hired us. So they saved my life thinking I could still get them their money. They were so wrong."

"By the time we got to an underground safe house it was all over the news and they had our pictures claiming we were responsible for the attempted assassination of their President. So we ran and kept running barely getting out of the country alive. Stefan said the way the CIA was going to get the name of the man at the top of this plot was to follow the money. But with no money exchanged, no bank deposits, no account numbers meant no money trail. Nothing. We had failed."

Damon sighed and I watched his head fall back against the tree trunk. I sat up more in his lap and lifted my hand to tangle my fingers in his hair at the base of his neck. His eyes closed and he moaned almost silently as I saw his throat tighten as he swallowed.

"You didn't fail Damon. You saved all those people from being killed. You are their hero." I tilted his head back to mine seeking out his forlorn blue eyes. "Just like you are my hero," I smiled at him and pressed my lips to his again never get enough of the taste of him. He was shaking now too and I guessed not from the cold. I wanted to hear the end of his story.

"How did you get all the way to the States with so many people after you? How does Enzo fit into all this?" I saw his lip quiver at the mention of his best friend. "Hey, hey Damon," I said grabbing his face, sitting up nearly on my knees that were on either side of his legs. "You said he would be okay right? You can just give him the liquid in that pen and he will wake up?"

He nodded, pulling me back down in his lap. Maybe my closeness helped him too? "I can't let him die. I just can't. Bonnie would never recover."

My face scrunched up at the new name. "Who?" I queried gently.

"Bonnie is Enzo's wife. She is pregnant with their first baby and she's due in only a few weeks." A silent tear slipped from his eye. "She needs him. I have to bring him back to her. I need him too. He and I have been through everything together."

"Wow, that is amazing that Enzo has a family. We will get him back to them, I know it Damon." I tried to sound strong and confident.

"He is amazing," Damon whispered, his eyes still holding so much sadness. "He had been there for me since we met in training for the CIA and we clicked instantly. Always goofing around and pissing off the team leader trying to actually get us to concentrate and teach us what we needed to know. We have always had each other backs and would die for the other." He shook his head and looked like he was trying to pull himself from the past again to finish his story.

"Once we were caught in the States, Stefan pulled some strings with the higher ups to get me protection in the prison. He paid my cellmate to keep the others on my team away from me or any other creep looking to fight, had him to deal with. My brother bought me protection in that hell hole and I have no idea how I would have survived otherwise. As added assistance Stef called in a few favors and got my buddy in as a CO at Maxwell Heights. In there it was just Enz and I against the world."

I stroked my thumb down his cheek slowly. "And yet you still ended up getting hurt despite that protection baby. I'm so sorry. I wish I could have done more." I ran my hand over his still bright black eye that Matt had given him. I reached up and kissed around his eye soothing the bruised skin. He whimpered softly against my head. "I had you Elena for every little cut and scrape. And you staying with me when I was poisoned, and holding me when I was delirious from the burn pain. Your touch, hell just your presence made everything better."

My ears perked up as he mentioned his burn. "You remember?" I asked breathlessly. I had never brought it up at all since that night. It was so clear in my mind and it felt so wrong that I was the only one who remembered such an intimate night.

We lay in the near darkness, the silence all around us as I waited for him to confirm my question. Was he thinking about it right now? All I heard were the sounds of the night creatures making their way around to find food. I nearly thought I had imagined him saying he remembered that night since he was just silent for minutes on end.

"I remember." His sweet voice cut through the silence around us finally.

"You do?" I sat up more and looked into his pained blue eyes.

"I remember, us. That night my first week in prison. I remember everything. You never asked me about it at all. Did you know I had blocked it out? Were you scared I regretted what I did...with you?" he breathed, his chest pounding harder against mine.

I shook my head, remembering too. So clearly….

I was leaving for the day late again. I seemed to never just get out of there when my shift was over. I had nothing much to do with my evenings besides mourn my family, and cuddle Ian. I needed to just get out there again and date. Or maybe just get out of the apartment for awhile. When I was chatting with Kelly on our way into work that afternoon she was gushing about a club she needed to show me. She said there was some amazing men there that I just had to meet.

So here I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror admiring the dress that Kelly and I had shopped for over lunch. She had been begging me for a few weeks to come with her to Club Hybrid. It sounded like a creepy place with that name but I ran out of excuses to get out of coming. The last one being I had nothing to wear.

I smoothed the skirt down of the silky red dress I had picked out. It was blood red, sleeveless and draped elegantly across both my shoulders, showing off the bare skin of my back. It wrapped up with a tie to the side, cinching around my waist and fell lightly down mid thigh. I admired how I looked as I just stared at my refection in the mirror.

The girl in front of me looked sad, tired, and emotionally just not ready for this. She was still mourning her brother and mother and father and even though she had not wanted forever with Aaron she missed him too. How if she felt so broken inside did she expect a man to even notice her, let alone willing to see deeper in her than the surface? Who could mend the shattered and fragile heart that she barely had held together with tape and glue, that was peeling away at every little fearful moment she remembered of the past or even tried to think of any kind of happiness in her future?

I leaned against the sink, gripping it tight between my fingers. The dress made me look much more made up than I was used to. Kelly had played around with her own makeup on me and before she left to go home and change and she gave me smoky hot bedroom eyes, she called it and a splash of clear gloss and light blush. I had to admit I did look hot, as she put it before. I slipped out of the plain jane black shoes I always wore and slid my bare feet into some bright bronzey colored strappy shoes with a 2 inch heel. They made my legs look so much leaner and longer too and I found myself unable to stop a grin from spreading on my lips. Maybe this would be fun?

I leaned down and dug into my purse pulling out my bronze dangling heart earrings and slipped on the arm bangles that Kelly had picked out for me that matched my heels. I was ready. What for...I had no idea. But I knew I could not just stay wallowing in my pain and emptiness forever. I could try to enjoy myself. Try to pretend to be all put together when that was the furthest thing from the truth.

Turning on the tap I ran my fingers through the water and then played with my hair, dampening it enough to pull it back from my face and secure it with a few pins in a loose wrapped up-do with some pieces falling down to the sides of my face. I smiled at my reflection trying to believe I was in fact the woman staring back at me.

Part of me didn't want to meet another man. That part of me already wanted...Damon Salvatore. I had let him hold my hand today, stroke his fingers against my skin. When he had looked at me I just melted into a puddle of aching need in front of him.

Need for him.

If the guard had not called him back and startled us I had no idea what else might have happened. What I might have admitted to him. Would I have told him that I thought about him and waited for the next time I could see him?

But after this morning, discovering what he had done and then him trying to explain away what I had read all about; that he was a wanted terrorist, I knew this thing I felt with us needed to stop. I had to just treat him like another patient. I could not get mixed up with a known terrorist.

But remembering just watching him sleep early this morning and I was already feeling butterflies in my belly at the thought of his peaceful long eyelashes fluttering as he shifted his head, his inky black hair falling in his eyes… Damn it Gilbert! I needed to just let it go.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up. Kelly was ready and would meet me at the club and I texted her back that I was leaving now and thanked her again for helping with my outfit. She sent me the smiling emoticon and I tucked my phone in my purse and turned to head out of the bathroom.

I was nearly bowled over in the hallway by two guards dragging an inmate between them and down the hall to the exam rooms. I heard the man moaning in pain as I rushed toward them dropping my purse on the floor. My head fell to the mans dark thick locks, and I knew it had to be him.

"Damon?" I breathed out.

I knelt on the floor in the middle of the hallway, to cup his face shaking him gently till his eyes stopped moving to focus on me.

"Elena?" he rasped weakly before they fell closed again.

I looked up at the guards that had just stayed where they were as I had stopped them. Cade and Matt had him each by one arm as he hung limply between them. "What happened? The truth!"

I was pissed. I knew the guards loved to lie about prisoner injuries and glaze them over just to avoid the paperwork and the small effort it took to file a report about injuries.

I caught the scent of burning flesh before I even heard their answer. Matt was the one who spoke first. "We found him like this just before last count. He was crawling back through a door by the furnace room. His back is all kinds of messed up Dr. Gilbert."

Damon's eyes were still closed and his head was falling lower almost laying in my lap as the guards leaned him down and I looked over his back. Oh God, his white t shirt was practically melted against his skin! There were three deep long grooves that seemed to be burned into his back.

Pipes...oh god.

"Someone held him against burning hot pipes?!" I yelled out at the guards and they nodded confirming his painful injuries.

"Well call the damn ambulance Matt! He needs surgery like immediately. Who did this to him?!" I demanded as I felt his head hanging down as I held him against my chest.

Matt dialed the emergency number and listened to the stupid automated message."We don't know. We just found him like that. He was obviously where he wasn't supposed to be during tier time and who knows if he was trying to escape," Matt said with almost no emotion. The man was a damn robot when it came to compassion for the prisoners.

"He wasn't escaping." I snapped at him. "Someone is trying to kill him. He was poisoned at supper last night too and could have died if he had not gotten to me soon enough." Damon moaned then as I felt his head move more against my chest. He was awake but barely conscious. "Get him into exam room one," I ordered and they lifted him off me and I saw his half lidded eyes staring at me as he whimpered my name.

"Elena," he breathed out and I followed right after him and helped him lay down. Cade laid him on his stomach so the burn would not rub on anything and he had his head down and to the side as he just peeked out at me with one eye. Matt was still on hold with the nearest hospital. I raced around and prepared to start a central line.

"Damon, I'm right here. Just tell me. How bad is the pain? 1 to 10," I leaned his head to the side enough to check his pupils and ran my hands over his body making sure there were no other injuries added to the wicked burn he had. He looked like he had bruises around his neck like he was held down with someone's hand around his throat to keep his back burning on the scalding hot pipes! His shirt was literally melted into his skin!

Finally the woman on the other end of the call answered and told Matt that there was a huge pileup at the edge of town and that they wouldn't be able to get here for possibly a half hour. I swore under my breath, hearing the woman's voice far too loud through the phone sounding like she could care less too.

I moved to get Damon's attention again. He wasn't answering me. "Damon!" I grabbed his head and shook it watching his eyes weakly open. I looked up then to see the guards still just standing there not sure what to do.

"I'm fine. Get out of here! Just wait for the ambulance and send them right in." I yelled at them louder than I had intended and they both stumbled back out of the room. I was so upset that something like this had happened again to this precious man so soon after his near death from being poisoned last night.

I shook his head again barely getting a response from him. I checked his pulse which was racing and his heart was pounding like a drum as he laid there on my table. "Damon, the pain… Please tell me how much it hurts."

He opened his weak eyes again and I leaned down closer to his lips. "You look...beautiful Elena," he whispered, his lips almost touching my cheek. "The red is so...hot and so... perfect on you."

I swallowed hard at that, as flattering as it was I needed to stay focused. But I did not deny that those two sentences sent shivers down my spine. "Damon the pain, please," I begged already trying find a vein but each time I tried to stick the needle in, his whole body would jump away. I need to give him something for the pain but he was not letting me. He looked like he barely knew what was happening. I could have called a guard in to help hold his arm but I just wanted those useless men to stay the hell away from us.

I tilted his head again and slapped his cheek lightly and got almost no response. He opened his eyes slightly and I swear I saw a smile at the corners of his lips as he saw me.

"I found a way to see you again," he smiled again his face still and relaxed. But he kept moving his arms even with me trying to hold him down and so I opted for inject able pain relief instead of setting up an I.V. I looked again at the gruesome burns on his upper back. Those monsters did that to him! I was livid at what this man had already endured.

I stroked his face again. "It's going to be okay. I'm not leaving you."

To hell with the club I thought, as I kicked off my strappy sexy shoes and after giving him a strong dose of tramadol I got him back up to sitting on the exam table.

"Damon, we need to cool off that burn." I let go of him for a moment and grabbed for a cloth and ran it under the cool water at the sink. I should have done that before already. This blue eyed angel just did not help me think straight no matter how much I tried to deny the attraction. I raced back over to him before he tipped over. "I'm so sorry but this is going to hurt." I cringed in advance of the coldness I was going to put against his scorched skin.

He let out a cry as the wet cloth touched it, and his hands latched onto my arms as if trying to stop me from hurting him and his head fell down to my bare shoulder that the dress had slipped down from exposing more of my smooth skin. I felt his head turn to the side as he laid on me, his lips barely an inch from my neck and I nearly dropped the cloth as I felt him give me light kisses against my throat. "Mmm baby," he purred. "You taste so good," he mumbled into my neck as his arms held mine to not pull him away from me.

Oh my God, his kisses felt incredible and I didn't want him to stop. But then he cried out and I knew the pain must be getting to him and his eyes fell closed again as he was still leaning on my shoulder. Did he even have any idea what he was just doing? He looked delirious.

"I'm so sorry Damon. It will help I promise." I lifted him up by the arm not as close to the burn. "You need to help me here. We need to get you across the hall. It's just a few rooms away. Can you do that for me?"

I saw him nod absently, his raven hair swishing against my face. "It doesn't hurt that much Lena. Not now." I let out a breath feeling his lips on my neck again and heard him call me Lena affectionately. He must be in shock from the injury to not be feeling what his burned up skin would have felt like for him. Or maybe kissing me was distracting him from how bad it did hurt?

"Okay, lets go." I swallowed the lump in my throat trying to ignore the shivers his lips were giving me. I held the cool cloth to his back as best I could as I helped drag him down the hall to the staff room. He stumbled and held tight to me as we made our way there. The infirmary was empty and since I had yelled at the guards they looked to be keeping their distance too. "That's it, just a couple more steps," I coaxed him.

"You are so pretty Lena. I love you in that dress," He seemed fixated on me but I least it wasn't on the pain...yet. He sounded like someone who was drunk with no filter. Just raw, honest emotions. If it helped him to focus on me I wanted to do anything I could to ease the agony that would soon find him. Those were deep third degree burns and it could take weeks to heal up.

"Thank you Damon, I don't feel pretty. But thank you," I mumbled back at him as I pushed the door open to the back room behind the staff room and left the light off so that just the dim light from the moon outside the window lit up the room.

He stopped and looked me up and down with glazed over half open blue eyes. his face scrunched up like he had no idea why I would have said that.

"You are...so pretty." His ocean eyes were locked to mine as he lifted his one arm to stroke my cheek and tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. I inhaled sharply at his touch."You look like I've dreamed you would look when I took you out on our date."

Wow, he had dreamed about me? I remembered him telling me that when he got out of this hellhole alive that he wanted to take me to dinner. I had rejected him but the idea was still in his head obviously.

I didn't know what to say to that at all and just continued to lead him forward. It was a large bathroom with a huge glassed in shower that the staff had at their disposal. I pulled him inside, enough to close the door again and leaned him against the counter. I reached in and turned on the water and let the spray warm to a good temperature as I saw him toe off his black boots and I knelt to help him get his socks off.

Standing back up I didn't know what to do. I couldn't peel his shirt off the burn without damaging his skin more. I knew I had to do what I could to cool off the burn. Hell the cloth I had on him was almost hot in my hand. I turned the water just a bit colder knowing it would help sooth his skin.

"C'mon, I'll hold you," I encouraged him softly as he stood almost by himself before I saw him tip forward a bit. I would not be surprised if he was dizzy from the pain by now. I kept my arm around his one shoulder and led him slowly under the spray. He jumped back at the sensation as the cooler water hit his back and the burned skin soaking his blue pants to an even dark shade.

"It's okay Damon. I'm right here. Just hold onto me." I soothed seeing him cringing at the water hitting his back. His longish raven hair was getting soaked and hanging limply around his face and I moved the strands back to tuck them behind his ears. I rinsed the cloth off in the water and gently smoothed it over his burn again, hoping something I was doing was helping.

I held him under the spray but the next moment both his hands went around my arms and he pushed me against the wall under the water. I gasped, dropping the cloth as the water started soaking through my silky red dress and drenching my hair, pulling it from its up-do to fall all around my shoulders.

"I like your hair down better," he mumbled, his head almost touching mine and moved one hand to tug the strands apart. Then he put his hands back up on the wall on either side of my head, his own head bent and his mouth down right by my ear. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, my breasts heaving from the intensity of what was happening. I knew I needed to cool his burn but I did not expect things to feel so sexually charged.

Hell who was I kidding? Damon just looking at me from behind his dark lashes, the water cascading down his face and running down his already tight white shirt made my head spin with need. His shirt was stuck to him like a second skin and I could see his hard nipples clearly through the fabric. His prison issue blue pants slipped lower on his hips and looked glued to his thighs as they became as soaked as the rest of him.

I watched him lean in more, his lips against my ear and I wondered what I got myself into here. The doctor in me knew I should pull away...but the broken empty woman in me wanted this...with him.

"Damon," I breathed, my voice shaking. The look in his eyes was so clear, so dark and clouded with lust.

"I know, Elena. I can feel it too." he mumbled while leaning back down and kissing the shell of my ear before leaning his head still lower and his lips found the bare skin of my shoulder. He tugged the dress sleeve further down my arm and kissed me, sucking my skin into his hot mouth. "The pain, I can hardly feel it with you so close," he mumbled against my shoulder, his head buried by my neck, his hands running up and down my arms.

I had no idea what was going to happen next and every thought terrified and excited me as I stayed trapped against the wall, not even pushing at him to let me go. It felt like I was frozen as he pressed more of his body into me and I swallowed a moan wanting to climb up my throat. Oh God what was this man doing to me? He was a terrorist, a criminal. I should not be doing this.

His voice was so soft by my ear. "Let me heal all your broken pieces like you are doing to mine. Let me put you back together Lena. I know you are just as broken inside as I am. I can see it," he breathed against my skin.

I had no idea what to say to that at all. His thoughts took me totally by surprise.

But then he started crying and I could hardly tell since the water was already running in trails down his face but his shaking against my neck made me see that he was indeed crying. "I can't risk you dying too Elena. It was all my fault that Lexi is gone. They hurt her so much. We couldn't tell them. We couldn't and yet they hurt her right in front of me." He was full on sobbing now in my arms as I held his face in my hands as his tears slipped down his cheeks. "You are too precious baby, I can't let them hurt you."

Nothing he was saying was making any sense. Who was he talking about? Someone had died? He was scared of that person hurting me? What had he been through? He looked like a broken child in my arms and felt his knees buckling as his weight sent us both slipping down the wall to the tiled floor of the shower.

I put my arms around him too, careful to not touch the burn as the water kept soaking it and hopefully soothing the pain. He just lay on his knees curled up on the floor, crying into my neck as I held him. "Shhh," I cooed. "Its okay Damon. No one can hurt me. You don't have to be scared for me." I rocked him in my arms, my body curled into his as the water poured down on us. He just lay there for what seemed like a couple silent minutes, neither of us saying anything.

Suddenly he whimpered and I wondered if the pain of the torn apart muscles and nerve endings was breaking through his shock.

He pulled himself up to standing again. "No! Leave her alone! Hurt me! Torture me! Just don't please!" he begged as if there was someone right in front of him. I stood back up beside him and nearly jumped out of my skin as he slammed his fist against the tiled wall. "NO! Stop! Please stop! Don't hurt Elena!" he yelled out his whole body shaking, his eyes tightly shut.

I grabbed his face in my hands terrified of where is mind had gone. Had he switched out what really happened to him and the other woman with me now?! "Damon! Listen to me. It's Elena. I'm right here with you. No one is hurting me."

I saw a flicker of understanding as his eyes flew open and his hands went up to feel all over my face like he was blind and could distinguish me by touch alone. "You're here? You are okay?" he whispered breathlessly, his chest heaving.

"Yes Damon, I'm right here. I'm okay." I saw him smile at my reassurance as his eyes closed in what looked like utter relief. I was totally taken aback by his next movements as his hands that had been on my face, curled back behind my neck and into my soaked hair as his warm lips just crashed into mine.

Shock was all over my face as I felt his lips massaging mine, his tongue sliding across the seam of my still closed lips and he let out a small moan as if begging for entrance. I barely knew what I was doing I was so lost in all the sensations of him. His breath against my mouth, his tongue teasing my lips, his fingers in my hair cupping my face, his hard body pressing me against the wall.

I opened to him and he breathed my name into the kiss as he hungrily delved in. Oh God, what was I doing? I felt his hot tongue, exploring every inch of my mouth, his lips hard on mine. He tilted my head going in still deeper sucking my tongue into his mouth as my hands clung to his shoulders and slid up around his neck playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.

I had barely grasped that we were kissing when I felt his hands leave my face and the next second curl down under my thighs against my bare skin under my dress. He lifted me with ease up and into his arms, pushing me against the wall as he ravaged my mouth like a man starved.

His hands splayed over my naked thighs squeezing the flesh between his long fingers as I wrapped my legs around him. How he was not crying out in pain from the burn I had no fucking clue as I felt him thrust his hips into mine.

He pulled his mouth back off my lips to look deeply in my eyes. There were no masks on now, no hiding, no fake toughness or cocky bravado...just naked desire, as glazed over deep blue met chocolate brown.

"I want you," he whispered. "More than I have ever wanted anyone."

My head fell back as I closed my eyes taking in the weight of his confession. What was I doing? This was crazy!

He buried his head against my neck and started kissing down my throat and down the valley between my breasts. My dress was still relatively where it should be even with the long drapy sleeves down both my shoulders as it still covered my heaving chest just barely exposing the fullness of the top of my breasts. The dress did not allow for me to wear a bra so I felt so dangerously exposed to his exploring mouth.

My arms wrapped around his head, my hands in his hair as I felt his tongue licking the skin between my breasts. "God, Damon," I whimpered, pulling on his hair. The feelings this man had unearthed in me in these stolen forbidden moments was far more than I ever experienced with Aaron or any other guy I had dated. I felt like I was flying...every touch from him felt like heaven.

Just then there was a frantic knocking on the bathroom door and he released me and I slid down the wall to my feet just as the door swung open, the lights nearly blinding us as two paramedics raced into the room totally oblivious to what had been happening only moments before. I just stood back as they helped him out of my arms and onto the stretcher. I moved forward adjusting my dress and mindlessly gave the paramedics his info and fell back into doctor mode.

He reached for me, his one hand out and wide open looking for mine and I clasped it between both of mine, my body still thrumming from all his touch and kisses. What the hell had just happened between us?

"They will take good care of you Damon. Just hang in there and I will be right here when you get back," I promised. I cringed inwardly as I saw the one paramedic grab his hand away from mine and slap a cuff around it, securing the other cuff to the metal stretcher. That hurt me to be reminded that he was still dangerous to the rest of the world and could be in prison for a long time. We had just been so close, with no chains, no cuffs, nothing trapping him up like an animal.

I leaned back against the counter, my fingers gripping the edges as I watched him being rolled away from me through the staff room and into the hall. The door slammed shut behind them as I just stood there alone taking in all that had happened… How the hell could I treat him like just a patient after that?!

"Elena! Damon!" I heard a voice calling. I snapped out of my thoughts of the past as I recognized Ric calling us. His voice sounded far away from us being all the way up in the trees.

Damon passed me a look of confusion as he untangled himself from my arms and bent lower. "Ric! We are up here!" he hissed out. The pilot jerked his head up and saw us.

"Thank God you guys are okay. I woke up a few minutes ago and Caroline was gone! I looked everywhere and I have no idea where she is! We have to find her before the cons do Damon. I don't even want to think of them getting their hands on her!"

Damon looked back at me and gently kissed my lips before he moved to start climbing down the tree and helped me down after him. Once we were on the ground he grabbed a panicked Ric by the shoulders. "We need to stay calm. Elena, why don't you go and look after Enzo and Ric and I will find your friend. Okay?"

Ric and I both nodded to him and with one more kiss to my forehead he looked deeply in my eyes. "We will be right back okay Beauty. Just stay with Enzo."

I nodded numbly my head till full of all that had already happened and watched both of them head off into the darkness. I let out a deep breath and turned toward the cave.

Everything would be okay right?

A/N; If you liked even a little of it please review. I'm so eager to hear what you guys thought of that intense chapter and all the yummy Delena.

What do you think happened to Care? Did you love the flashback of that hot shower scene? What do think the next day will hold? What was your favorite part of this chapter?

Next time... We see from Caroline's POV for part of the time what happened to her. Damon and Elena look for fresh water, a waterfall to play in maybe? Will they run into any surprises? Damon can give Enzo the liquid to wake him up. What will he say about what happened to him?

Till next time!