Damon walked to the door and slammed it shut behind Katherine. The door broke in a jagged half from Damon's strength when it collided with the doorframe. Elena flinched, but didn't move. She was used to his temper.

He turned around to look at her with angry tears lingering in the bottom of his eyes. Elena read his face: he was angry, but also hurt, and that was when Elena realized how much power Katherine still had over him.

She took a step towards him and placed her hand gingerly on his arm, but he yanked it out from under her.

"Damon, you can't let her get to you like this!"

"100 years, Elena!" Damon shouted, "I chased after that creature for 100 years and she never loved me!" Damon paced around the room.

Elena listened to him and felt her heart crumbling. She hated that he was still this caught up on his ex.

"Damon!" Elena caught his attention and he stopped pacing. "Listen, Katherine Pierce is the most horrible, damaging, soulless creature to ever inhabit this Earth. I actually believe that Klaus of all people is better than her." Elena paused, "You need to get over her, and what's she's done to you!"

"What can I say, Elena?" Damon spat out, "I'm damaged goods! I'm sloppy seconds!"

"Stop it!" Elena ran over to him and grabbed his hand. He tried to pull it away, but she held onto him. He placed his hand on his heart with her hand on top of his. "Do you feel that?" Elena looked at Damon, "That's your heart. Your good heart. You're not 'sloppy seconds' or 'damaged goods' to me, Damon." She placed her other than on his cheek to comfort him the same way she'd done many times before. "Do you know what you are?"

"What?" Damon asked her. His hard façade was breaking down as he stared into her milky brown eyes.

"You're the man that I fell in love with, the man that I can't imagine my life without. The one who makes me feel alive, even when I'm dead; who makes me burn with either desire or rage, but either way I feel invincible. You caught my heart, Damon. No matter how long it took or the circumstances, you have me. Isn't that enough for you?" Elena's eyes pleaded with him, hinting that his answer to this question would determine the fate of their relationship.

"More than enough," Damon sighed. Elena smiled and pulled him down to her lips. She kissed him once, twice, three times. They were happy and relief-filled kisses, short and sweet.

She pulled away and was relieved to find that they both had giddy smiles plastered on their cheeks.

"So," Elena made a clicking noise with her mouth, "We seem to have another problem…"

"The bitch knows." Damon said and Elena nodded.

"But!" Elena exclaimed, "We do have something to our advantage."

"What's that?" Damon asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and swaying her back in forth. Elena instinctively wrapped her arms around his waist.

"She still doesn't know that the engagement is a fake."

Damon cocked his head to the side.

"You're right."

"Yeah, she just thinks that we're sneaking around behind my fiancé's back."

"Speaking of your fiancé," Damon said, "Katherine has your necklace which can prove to be problematic..."

Elena furrowed her brow.

"Which necklace?" She asked, genuinely forgetting.

"The one that Stefan gave you…remember?" Damon asked.

"Oh, right!" Elena said and Damon laughed.

"Damn, Elena," Damon responded.

"What? I forgot about it!" Elena defended.

"Exactly," Damon stated.

"It's not my fault."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, you distracted me with your bad boy charm." Elena joked. Damon smiled.

"My bad, I guess I'll lay off then," Damon unwrapped his arms, but before he could fully remove himself from her, she grabbed him and made him hold her again in the same way.

"Hey now, I'm not complaining."

"So, what were you saying before you got really cute?" Damon asked, leaning down to kiss her nose. Elena bit her lip to keep from giggling like a stupid teenager and blushed.

"Katherine doesn't know it's a fake, which means that we can still manipulate the situation long enough to make her stay in town."

"Right, but you realize that to keep the odds stacked in our favor we have to fix one thing that could potentially be a lose canon if left unchecked." Damon stated.

"Agh, don't say it—."

"We have to tell Stefan."

A/N: Review please!