**Chapter thirty seven**

Their first fight

*Hailey*

"I'm hungry." I said randomly, in the passenger side of Damon's Camaro.

"You ate like three hours ago." Damon said, and I shrugged.

"Doesn't change the fact that I'm hungry."

He sighed, before pulling into the parking lot of a diner. I smirked to myself, as Damon opened my door for me, and we walked into the diner, his arm wrapped around my waist. The diner was surprisingly busy as we walked in, and a young girl with dark blonde hair seated us. She was nice enough, and she had the decency not to check out Damon in front of me. I could respect that.

She looked familiar though, our waitress. Her nametag read Julia, and my frown increased. She seemed familiar, her name and her face. Julia took our drink orders, and then left us. I frowned after her.

My eyebrows were furrowed, as I took out my phone and typed in her name and searched for her picture. I didn't know her from around school or town. Maybe it was from the bar, or a party. But it was bugging me, and I needed to find out.

"Are you stalking our waitress?" Damon asked, sounding amused.

"I know her from somewhere. I think it's from an article, but I'm not sure." I said, my eyes glued to my phone screen.

I hid my phone when Julia returned, completely oblivious that I was, in fact, stalking her. She gave me my coke, and stiffened suddenly when she came close to me. I frowned, since it looked like she smelled something. Did I smell or something? I took a shower, though granted I didn't do too much washing during that shower.

When Julia laughed, I returned to my stalking. Damon just sighed, and shook his head exasperatedly. It shouldn't of have surprised him by now, my craziness. But then he watched our retreating waitress with pursed lips.

"There's something off about her." He declared.

I gasped, as I came across a missing person's report for Julia Mason. She went missing in California, in 1992. I must've seen a flyer or something when I lived there. That's how I recognized her.

What was shocking though, was the fact that the Julia in the report was sixteen when she went missing. The picture along with the report proved this and the face was identical to our waitress'. She would've been around 34 right now.

Julia our waitress didn't look a day over seventeen.

"She's a vampire." I breathed.

Damon instantly grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the booth. His grip on my wrist hurt, and I tried to pull away, but he was too strong.

"We're leaving now." He growled, his grip tightening. I whimpered slightly; if he tightened it anymore he would break my wrist.

Despite the looks that we were getting, and how people were muttering about how abusive Damon seemed, he dragged me out of the diner. "Damon, you're hurting me!" I finally exclaimed when we reached the door.

He let go, and I rubbed my wrist. "We don't know if she's working for the tomb vamps." I argued, as Damon stared with regret at my wrist.

"I'm not taking any chances with you." He said in a false calm voice. Then he opened the door and gestured for me to walk through it.

I raised an eyebrow, but walked silently to his car. The sun was setting, casting a bloody red color to peak out between the breaks in the clouds. As I got into the passenger seat, I noticed a flash of blonde hair and saw Julia staring at us out of the window, a stony expression on her face. Either she was bitter because we just dined and dashed, or it was because she just lost the opportunity to turn Hailey Ellis and Damon Salvatore over to her bosses.

I didn't say anything to Damon, but he could tell that I was mad at him. he sighed after a few minutes of silence and gave me a pained look.

"What did I do now, Hailey?" he asked.

"You act like I'm not capable of taking care of myself. But I've been doing that for seventeen years, Damon, and I'm still alive." I argued, glowering at him.

"I think your handful of near-death experiences begs to differ." He said dryly, and I glared at him.

Damon sighed, before saying, "I almost lost you a few days ago, Hailey. I'm not going to let that happen again."

It was sweet, but the stubborn, independent part of me was still pissed off. "I'm perfectly capable of defending myself." I argued, narrowing my eyes at him.

Damon sighed, exasperated. "Hailey, these are vampire, some even stronger than me. I'm not questioning if you can handle your own in a fight, but if they get one good hit-" he stopped suddenly, but I knew what he was going to say.

I didn't respond, but I was still bothered. Damon could tell, and the argument ended there. I didn't really know why I was upset, but I was. I didn't want to seem weak, and it seemed like that's what Damon thought I was.

"We should've stayed." I said suddenly, and Damon stiffened.

"No way in hell." He said firmly, and I glared at him.

"We could've taken the vampire on Damon, one less in the ranks of the tomb vampires. But no, that's not for itty bitty fairies like myself to handle." I said bitterly.

"Exactly." Damon said, and I glared at him.

"I've killed vampires before, Damon. I'm not human! I'm a badass fairy who is more than capable of taking care of herself!" I exclaimed.

"You act like you're indestructible, Hailey. You're not. You don't understand how easy it would be to kill you. Just snap of your neck, and your dead." Damon said harshly.

"No, it's not that easy. Victoria said it herself, that fairies are a pain in the ass to kill." I shouted, as Damon drove down my street. "So unless the tomb vamps managed to get ahold of that knife, I'm good."

"That's not going to happen, because that thing is at the bottom of a very deep lake right now." Damon said bitterly.

"Exactly, so why are we even fighting right now?" I asked, breathing hard due to all the shouting.

"Because you can still die, Hailey. Unless I get proof that you are absolutely indestructible, that there is no possible way for you to die, I'm not going to stop protecting you." He exclaimed, as we pulled up in front of my house.

"I don't need you to protect me, Damon," I muttered, getting out of the car. "Thanks for the ride."

"Hailey-" Damon sighed, but I was already in my house, and slammed the front door hard.

I didn't want to lose my independence in our relationship, that was my biggest worry. That was why I was making such a big deal out of Damon being overprotective over me. he was just trying to protect me, and I knew that, but I could protect myself.

I half expected Damon to follow after me, but then I heard his car drive away. I knew that he was giving me time to cool down. I walked to my room, and slammed that door too. Ellie was excited to see me, and I scratched her behind the ears as I sat down on my bed.

"Hey familiar," I smiled slightly.

"I know that he's just trying to keep me safe, but I'm used to keeping myself safe." I told her, feeling my anger die down.

Ellie meowed once, and curled into a ball in my lap. I sighed. "I was being unreasonable, wasn't I? even a tad too bitchy, right?"

Ellie meowed again, and I stood up. "I have to go apologize to my boyfriend, Elle. I'll see you later."

I didn't have a car, but I could walk to Damon's. so I climbed out of my window, and scaled the wall. I jumped down, and it stung a little, but I walked it off. I started off down the road, and soon it was pitch black outside. I got a little freaked out, as every little sound got amplified in the darkness.

I suddenly heard a loud snap behind me, and spun around with my arms raised, but no one was there. "Damon?" I asked hesitantly. Was he just trying to scare me?

There was no answer, but I was suddenly hit in the side by a rock, hard enough to leave a bruise. "Ow!" I exclaimed. "Damon, you're actually freaking me out now. This isn't funny, come out."

The answer was silence, and I knew that it wasn't Damon. he wouldn't purposely scare me like that. "I'm not your little boy toy, Miss Ellis."

I spun around, and saw a smirking blonde feet from me. Julia.

I backed away from her, my hands raised and ready to strike. "Are you working with the tomb vampires?" I asked, praying that she couldn't hear the fear in my voice. Despite the argument between Damon and me, I had never faced a vampire who wanted to hurt me by myself before.

"You mean those jackasses throwing a tantrum? Hell no. I don't work for anybody, Miss Hailey Anne Ellis. But I do have somebody who's just as interested in you. Zane is much more together than those losers. And he's dying to meet you."

And with those words, Julia threw me against a tree and knocked me out.

~LMF~

A/N: thank you to: jacquline, SomebodyWhoCares, Stefanie, Carrie9586, vdemily, MissMusic89, and Kelsey for reviewing!

Review please and thank you!

~Abby :)