Author Note: There is a flashback scene in which some may find disturbing. Also I need an opinion from my readers, do you want more updates sooner with shorter chapters or would you prefer a longer chapter with a slightly longer delay between chapters?

Damon POV

The shame of being a small child with the brain of at least a teenager will never get old. I hate it and I want to be normal, or at least as possible for a five hundred year old vampire. I do not want to wear this ridiculous outfit that Bonnie selected with an abnormal amount of the color blue and stripes. Seriously a striped shirt is fine but I do not need matching pants and socks. I also didn't need Mutt to continue to stare at me every two minutes I mean really is he slow? I am like this for however long and I am in a child's body big fucking deal, I am still Damon…right? As I thought about this more I started wondering, what if they get sick or taking care of me and I never change back. Will I live forever unable to take care of myself on my own and being passed around each time with the person getting more annoyed with me until they just leave me? What would happen to me, I don't feel human and I don't feel like a vampire anymore.

These thoughts continued to plague me because although Elena fawned over me as she fed me a bottle filled with some sort of milk that although the taste wasn't pleasing, it grew on you, there was no graunetee that she would always feel this way. To be honest these thoughts made it so that I wasn't very hungry and had only finished half of the bottle that Elena was holding and already I know that eating more would make me sick. I stopped drinking and pretended to fall back asleep, maybe she would be more forgiving if I was asleep.

I was holding the fork in my small hand slowly pushing food around on my plate hoping he wouldn't notice. The woman he had in his company seemed overly fake nice to me when she had arrived and smelt strongly of exotic perfume. She was not Italian but some sort of European with pale skin and large grey eyes with mousy brown hair. Her waist was tiny and she had Father wrapped around her little finger. Had she not insisted that I be at the table I would have been locked in my chambers upstairs. It was by shear chance that she had seen me being ushered upstairs by one of the servant girls in charge of making sure that I stayed out of Fathers sight expect for when a public apearence needed to be made, meeting one of Father's woman friends was not one of those times. Regardless the woman, Maria, ordered the servant girl to bring me to her. Maria had tilted my face to look at hers and had gushed over me begging Father to allow me to remain in her presence for Dinner. Father had obliged and the servant girl rushed me upstairs and dressed me in a pair of seldomly worn dinner clothes. I had sat silently as watched as Maria indulged in wine as she ate and lost interest in me. Father on the other hand had kept a diligent eye on me, threatening that I must eat all that was on my plate. I knew what would happen if I did not obey and ate until the mere thought of food was enough to make my stomach churn and having to stare at it until I was dismissed was work enough itself. Maybe Father wouldn't notice I pushed the food around my plate and this seemed to be working for a little while until Father caught on.

"Maria I think it is time for little Damon to get to bed don't you think?" Father suggested his eyes darkening.

Maria's words slurred together and one of the women that was waiting patiently against the wall to attend to our needs stepped forward and escorted me out of the dinning hall and to my rooms. As I climbed the stairs I started to shake and once I was being undressed it was becoming increasingly difficult to resist the urge to vomit. I laid down and waited. Not more than an hour passed and my door crashed open, standing in the doorway was Father, his dark clothes swirling around him.

"Boy are you aware that I refuse to waste money on food you do not eat?" His cold voice wrapped around me.

I nodded cringing.

"Then why did you not finished your plate?" Father demanded his strong hand grabbing my face and holding my head in place so that I was forced to look at him.

" I am sorry Father. I could not eat anymore otherwise I would be sick." I answered quietly hoping that was the answer he was looking for and would leave.

"Is that so? Well, I don't believe you. In fact, I think it is time you finish now." Father's voice was scaring me.

A servant carried a platter in and set it in front of me.

"Well aren't you going to eat?" Father questioned me as he stood over me.

I again picked up the fork and put a bite in my mouth the food, although delicious refused to slide down my throat and when it did it felt like a weight had settle in my stomach. The more I forced myself to choke down food the heavier my stomach got until I could eat no more however I still was not done. Father ordered the servant to make me finish. And I was forced to eat more, the servant boy's digging his fingers into my jaw as he made me take another bite. I wanted to cry but I knew that would only make it worse. I simply could not swallow the last bite of food no matter how hard I tried, I was choking and the food would not go down. The servant boy held my mouth closed so I could spit it out and pinched my nose so that I could not breathe until I swallowed, my stomach retched and I start to panic as my lungs screamed for air and somehow my throat allowed me to swallow. The boy released me and I gulped for air as he picked up the tray looking at me with his eyes filled with apology as he left the room.

"See you worthless boy you can eat it all. Be glad that I let you eat." Father yelled his hand lifting my face to look him the eye.

When he released my face my stomach lurched and I vomited. The burning stung my throat and made my eyes water. Fathers face turned beat red and all that I felt was pain flashing across my face and Fathers fingers turned to claws in my shoulder and he drug me through the house. As I tried to get my feet underneath me so that I could run alongside him I started to lose blood flow in my arm and stumbled. Whatever progress I had made to stand was gone as my legs crumbled underneath me and banged against the hard stairs. Father threw me at the feet of one of the servants and commanded that I be locked in one of the servant's rooms until further notice adding another blow to my face for good measure. From there all I remember was being cold and hungry and sore as I was in some half awake and half asleep state.

Apparently my pretend sleep was too good and I had actually fallen asleep, and now Bonnie was holding me and wiping tears from my face.

"Damon, what happened to you?" Bonnie asked her voice sounding also on the verge of tears.

Obviously I couldn't answer her and instead cuddled as close as I possibly could. Elena and Stefan crowded in the doorway. Elena shoving Stefan and swarming Bonnie telling Stefan to leave them alone and go keep Matt company and call Mrs. Flowers and Emerald. I couldn't look at Elena, what if she gave me the same treatment as Father because I wasn't able to finish all of my bottle. That didn't seem to be the case though because Elena took me out of Bonnie's arms and bounced me lightly trying to calm me down. It worked mildly until Bonnie was shoving a plastic teat in my face telling me to suck. I obeyed not wanting to upset her and surprisingly sucking helped and I was able to stop crying.

Elena POV

I swear to god that if this was Emerald's fault that Damon's face was covered in ugly bruises and that his pale skin was dotted in more smaller bruises then so help I was going to kill her. Someone had to be reasponsible for Damon's suffering and it was going to be her. I knew that I should never have trusted her. Emerald had better hope that she knew a way to fix Damon or else. I paced the floor of the entry hall waiting for her to arrive and for world war three to comense.

When her figure finally appeared in the stained glass window of the front door I lunge forward grabbing her and demanding answers.

Elena, release me! You will let me examine Damon and then I will do what I can to get to the bottom of this

I let Emerald go and somehow managed to let her proceed up the stairs. When she gasped in surprise at the sight of Damon's face my anger spiked and Stefan encircled me in his arms. If you say that you do not know what is wrong with him Emerald I will kill you. Stefan's arms tensed.

"Elena give her time to work, I promise everything will be ok." Stefan's velvet voice whispered in my ear.

I struggle more, why couldn't Stefan understand? Everything would not be ok! I could feel Stefan's worry flowing through me so I knew he cared about his brother but why couldn't he see that nothing would be ok so long as some force had been able to cause Damon so much pain?

When Stefan felt me relax enough not to murder Emerald, I rushed forward standing over her should as she unbuttoned Damon's pajamas to reveal his delicate little shoulder covered in an ugly bruise and twisted unnaturally. I shoved Emerald out of the way to coo over Damon and kiss his forehead one of the few areas that was not bruised, and demanded that Emerald find Mrs. Flowers. Emerald obliged, obviously sensing that should she refuse there would be no stopping me from slitting her throat.

While I waited for her to return I focused on Damon, Bonnie locked in her state of shock and Stefan keeping a watchful eye in the corner seem to completely fade out. All that was left was little Damon's pain filled eyes and my body leaned over his as though somehow I would be able to guard him from the rest of the world, as he lay on the padded changing table.