Disclaimer! I do not own Vampire Diaries or its cast! Alex is mine, and I ask that you not use her or her story!

Mystic Falls, 1864

Alex

I watched him go, the Confederate Army Soldier who took my heart with him. Damon would leave for training, and he would not be home for quite some time. I prayed that he would return safe and whole, and that battle would leave him unscathed. It was spring now.

I did not see him again for two years. By then, I knew him to be lost to me. The letters had ceased a year ago, and before then they had started to dwindle in length-distant and cold. Yet when Grandmother spoke of his return, I raced to the carriage station.

I had dressed in my finest, a ribbon at my neck, smile touching my lips. It was all for naught. Damon stepped out of the carriage, my breath had caught, and then my pulse began to pound. Stepping out from behind him came a young woman, her smile as beautiful as a painting's, and her eyes as dark as night. Something cold clutched at my heart and I quaked. Damon smiled at her, a smile once that would have left me breathless. The woman took his arm, and he led her away, his eyes glancing over me as he passed.

It was his eyes that stripped away my resolve. They were blank as they passed over me. I saw no tenderness in them, I saw no soft remembrance. I saw no love.

Present

His hand clasped around my wrist, vice like and cold. Glass eyes glinted, and Damon demanded answers. I couldn't hear him, not with the rushing sense of 'danger' in my veins. The magic rose, fierce and protective and sprang from my skin into Damon.

He dropped like a stone.

'Release him now!' part of me screamed. The rest of me, the magic in me, hissed 'No!' I could feel the sharpness in my smile as I watched him crumple. The magic screamed to kill him, and kill him so he would stay dead. He deserved it, an eye for an eye. And then, damn the gods, I remembered.

Mystic Falls, 1862

The cabin was warm, the sizzle-snap of the fire the only sound in the parlor room. It wasn't the fire keeping me warm though. It was the arms around my waist and the teasing breath on my neck that sent heat spiraling down my spine. We had no will to leave this place, while outside winter claimed the countryside. Here in Damon's arms, it was the sweet embrace of early spring.

His fingertips touched my cheek, lifting my eyes to meet his. A serious smile touched his lips and in the firelight his eyes gleamed, the dark waves of hair falling across his brow in a boyish fashion. He was charming and handsome. In the amber glow of the firelight, he took my breath away.

"Alexandria," he whispered, fingertips teasing against my cheekbone.

"Mm?" I cocked my head to one side, curls sliding down my shoulder. He caught one, wrapping it around his finger. A serious expression played on his face. For a moment my pulsed jumped. What was he thinking of, that made him so somber and decisive?

His hand cupped my cheek, smooth and soothing. "I love you Alexandria."

My breath caught. "W-what?" Did he truly just…My heart was fluttering like a hummingbird.

"I love you."

Present

I released him. The magic screamed to kill him, and I should have. Damon needed to die, or I would never get out of this hell hole of rebirth. But I could not bring myself to do it. Jesus, why did I need to have morals now!? Once he had loved me. I released him, my anger barely controlled. "Make me." I hissed, and ran before the magic could take me again.

I did not make my way home from the Salvatore house. As soon as Damon was down—writhing in pain, I was out the door and running. The nerve spell would give me minutes before his vampire body began to rework the fried endings. So I ran, heart racing and deafening, magic still blazing through my veins and mingling with adrenaline into my own personal energy drink.

Gods, he knew! How?! It involved magic, it had to. Where did he have a witch hiding? I would not be so ill prepared again, but the question remained. I knew Mystic Falls had just become far more dangerous—for myself and Da'. There was the matter of Damon Salvatore knowing my identity, yes. But there was also the matter of the magic thrashing through my body. It had never felt like this, so violent and wild. Not until I attacked Damon. This change held nothing good within it.

For a moment there, I had felt out of control. Why?

It was not the question burning through me though. It pained me to admit it, but I knew Damon once had loved me. He had broken me, he had killed me for the Goddess's sake! But once he had loved me. I had thought I was beyond caring. Now, now I was wondering…

Please, Ceridwen, don't let it be so. I couldn't love him again.

I wouldn't.

Damon

"Damon!? Damon, what the hell happened?!"

Stefan's face appeared in the dim circled of my vision. He was concerned, if I been able to move, I would have punched the concern from his face. That was a problem, as right now my limbs felt like concrete and a buzzing was spreading through my fingertips. I could smell the sage scent of Alex still in the air—the smell that had appeared when she tased me with magic.

"Come on." Stefan took my arm and somehow shouldered me to the couch. He offered a decanter of blood, and even that was hard for me to swallow. I felt like a horde of bees had stung my tongue and throat. "I take it you were correct?" Stefan finally asked.

I blanched. "More than I wanted to hope."

He arched a brow in that annoying manner of his. "Alexandria Conner, alive and back in Mystic Falls." Stefan paused, tapping his fingertips together thoughtfully. "Do you know why she's here?"

No, not really. But the look she had given me had read murder. I figured it was as good a guess as any. ""No, but I could bet it isn't anything good. After all, she knew us before we knew her. Judging by the zap she gave me, her witchy family taught her some tricks she didn't have in eighteen sixty two. She had to at least have a guess about what we are." My bet—she knew a lot more than I was comfortable with.

Exhaling, Stefan gave me a hard look. I pointedly ignored it, staring at the A Positive in my hand like it was the most interesting thing in the world. He seemed to be waiting for me to say something. Another sigh. He was getting good at the whole brooding thing. It worked for him. "Well what are you going to do about it?"

Good question Stefan. I rose, sipping the blood before casting him a smirk. "What I normally do."

"And that is?" he asked, sounding worried.

"Whatever I want to." I shrugged, flashing him a grin before heading outside. I found myself at the crumbling stone bench where Alexandria had sat the summer of eighteen sixty two. Despite my cocky reply, I knew Stefan had cause to worry, and so did I. 'Alex' was the new rogue witch in town, one with a very good reason to exact a vendetta on our little family here.

That thought in mind, I settled onto the worn bench and stared at the robin's egg blue sky. Clouds were on the horizon, and all that crap about bad omens had me thinking: Something was coming….

I didn't have time to worry about it. There was a pissed off ex to contend with—before she somehow managed to turn me into a toad…or worse.

Whew...had writer's block for waaaay too long. Sorry 'bout that!

"Don't You Remember" - Adele