Fifth.

I woke sometime late in the night still feeling the effects of whatever they had laced my tea with. Brushing a few stray hairs out of my eyes I looked up to see Elena curled up in the plush chair across from the bed and the door to the room cracked open slightly. The glow from what I assumed was a night light in the hallway filtered into the room for a few inches before tapering out into the darkness. I could sense someone else in the room and rolled onto my back expecting to see Bonnie but instead finding Damon stretched out over the quilt smiling down at me.

"You know you are cute when you sleep," he said to me as I groaned and rubbed my eyes.

"So I've been told," I replied looking back over at him.

"Someone beat me to that line, huh?" he asked me with a devilish half-grin that only he could pull off.

Yeah, my husband," I retorted, "I was married, remember?" I asked as the smirk fell from his face. "Why are you here, I told Stefan I was fine? You really couldn't have waited a few more hours to check-up on me?"

"Who said I was here for you?" He asked. I raised my eyebrows and looked over at Elena who was still fast asleep.

"How did you get in here anyway? Elena said that you hadn't been invited in."

"I can be very persuasive when I want to." He answered in a loud whisper as he reached behind him retrieving a bottle from the bedside table and handing it over to me. Even in the dark I knew what it was.

"Where did you get this?" I asked, not entirely sure that I wanted an answer.

"Relax, I didn't kill anyone," he assured me, "baby bro has been hunting down Bambi's and stocking the fridge for weeks so I grabbed a few before I left. I figured scrambled eggs probably wasn't going to do it for you in the morning, and this way you don't have to leave the house for breakfast. See? It's win/win."

"Great, thanks. I get out of one house only to be trapped in another." I snapped back, then instantly regretted it. Why was I so ungrateful to everyone who was trying to help me? Vulnerability, that's why. These last few years traveling around alone had left me vulnerable and anxious. I had felt safe and secure when Lexi was alive knowing that I always had someone to turn to, someone I could depend on. Without that I had come to realize that I wasn't as brave as I had thought; that, in fact, I was scared.

I sat up resting on my elbows. "I'm sorry," I told him, "This isn't your fault. I'm projecting my frustration with Katherine onto all of you, and I don't mean to. I just never thought that I would be so unprepared when I finally met her, but she has the advantage, she's been watching me my whole life and I only just laid eyes on her for the first time a few weeks ago. I can't believe that I was foolish enough to think that I had the upper hand."

"We've all made that mistake before," he admitted, "some of us more than others."

I was getting drowsy again, my eyelids begging to close, the pillow calling out to me. "Wait a minute," I said snapping back to attention, "If you are here then whose…?"

I didn't have to finish my thought. "Stefan's taking care of it." He told me smiling again. "Go back to sleep, you're safe."

"For now," I mumbled as my head hit the pillow and I drifted off again.