So this chapter is kind of different, a little back story with a kind of daydream memory sequence from Damon's perspective. I hope you all are enjoying so far, I've got a lot more written down so I should be updating soon. Please let me know what you think so far, the comments have been a huge boost. I really appreciate you all who take the time to review.
Chapter 3
As Damon sat in the abandoned living room alone, he thought about what brought him to this point. All the battles and deaths and pain would always haunt him. He found himself daydreaming back to the day this really all began.
-Damon Narrating Memory-
It wasn't really in my head until that day. What was I supposed to do? I've never been in a situation like that before. I guess I had thought about how much Bonnie meant to me, but I never imagined for a second that she would want anything other than friendship with me. I never even allowed myself to imagine what we would look like. Yeah, we were close. I was still with Elena, it was supposed to be Elena. I tried to be in it, and I was trying to go through the motions until that day.
Well, I guess like most days we have, this one started off normal and ended with people wanting us dead. Most of us already are dead, if you really want to go there. Bonnie had only been back in the land of the living less than a month and already she was in mortal danger. If there's one thing about this Mystic Falls group, it's that we always end up fighting for our lives from some Baddie gone crazy. Well this specific douche had plans to capture our women. Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie. As in most situations dealing with us, of course they had less than sinister plans for them once they captured them. Government lab testing sounded to be the outcome. Horrific.
It has always been "Protect Elena." Ever since our group first came together, we have done most everything for Elena. It should have been simple just to stick to the plan, especially for me. It just wasn't this time.
As I lay there on the ground, very injured from the arrows through my stomach, but alive, that I realized I had one shot left, and I could only help one of them. Stefan and Caroline were nowhere to be seen, but I'm sure he got her out, I actually have never been more certain of anything. Stefan chose to save Caroline that night, could have chose Elena like always, but he chose differently for once. I was happy for him, and maybe just a little jealous, funny how I'm always jealous of Stefan.
On my left side a fair distance away I can see Bonnie, unconscious on the tar being picked up by a couple men, obviously intending to get her in the back of the van parked nearby. She is almost gone; I have to help her. Quickly I look to my right and there is two guys holding down Elena with vervain ropes and she is obviously beyond weak. As they also begin to pick Elena up and carry her toward a different van, I realize I have to choose. Do I choose my best friend? Do I choose my lover? It doesn't make any difference that Elena is a vampire and Bonnie is a witch, that's not what his choice is about. It isn't tactical it's personal. Who can I refuse to let down? I look quickly at Elena and her eyes meet mine, pleading in precious half seconds for me to help her.
As I make my choice I'm up and killing my targets as I hear the van spin out on the other side. I saved one, but I also let one go, let her down. As I picked up the body of my unconscious witch, once I had her cradled in my arms I knew I was in huge trouble. Bonnie might kill me for letting Elena go. Stephan and Caroline might as well. What was I supposed to do? Let Bonnie be taken and tortured again? Maybe killed again? I couldn't handle that. Figures Matt saw the whole damn thing from his place on the ground across the yard. I should have compelled him to shut it.
"Wait. You saved me and not Elena?" Bonnie partially yelled at me; that look of utter defiance on her face. I thought for a second maybe she was holding back tears, but I never know what is really going on with Bonnie Bennet.
"Don't you dare ask me to apologize for it Bon Bon. I made a choice. I'll still get Elena back for you somehow." I responded, obviously my foot was permanently inserted in my mouth.
"For me? What about for you?" She asked with nervousness in her voice. I could tell there was something behind it all, but I can't ever really tell what it is. She's an enigma wrapped in a mystery, but no matter how confusing it gets, I can't think about anything but wanting to understand her.
"Well yeah, I mean for everyone. Duh." I replied trying to cover my mistake.
"Damon, what is this?" She asked sternly. She always could see right through me.
"I'm not rightly sure, but my heading has obviously shifted." I sarcastically replied, another façade' to cover my truth.
"Why would you choose me? You must have had a perfectly good reason." She pushed. She always pushed, and I usually always cave.
"I do. I just can't tell you what it is." I said deflating myself down onto the couch.
"Please Damon. I need to know." Bonnie replied, not giving an inch.
I would probably have never told her. She's too good for me and I was supposed to be with Elena. Well, for quite a while I have believed that maybe prophecy wasn't just a joke. Maybe she really was meant to be for Stefan. Or just simply, not meant for me. I'd give Bonnie the truth this time, at least partially, because she deserves it, and deep down I need her to know.
"It's always gonna be you now Bon. Not sure where and when it twisted exactly, but it did." I responded getting lost in her eyes so as not to look away in shame. She could never love me. As a friend sure, but not in the way I wanted, the "truly, madly, deeply" kind of way. So I would never tell her the real truth, but the moment I let Elena go, I was making a choice in my heart as well.
"Dam-" She tried to start before I cut her off. I couldn't hear it right now.
"It's ok Bon. You don't need to say anything. I'm real sorry. I'll go figure out what to do next. " I said as I quickly made a break for the door. I needed to get out. These feelings were going to be the death of me. What is wrong with me? I have never been that honest with a woman, and why don't I feel like killing people all the time anymore? I used to do it for fun, but now I only do it defending my family. My family.
"Damon Salvatore you get back here this instant." Bonnie said in that tone of hers that scares me just a little, always has. I don't fear harm from her, but I know that tone has always had bite.
"Come on Bonnie, What?" As I had turned around slowly she decided to jump at me for a hug, or what I at least thought was a hug, until somehow I ended up maneuvering her face right in front of mine, and she didn't stop it. I could feel her breath on my chin and hear her heart beating out of her chest. Her heart is racing.
"Thank you, Damon." She moved aside and half whispered in my ear before she brought her face back, giving me a kiss on the corner of my lips, pausing there for a couple seconds. When she pulled back so I could see her eyes, she gave me a smile, and that smile lit up my soul. She had me in every wicked way possible, and I was silly putty for the first time in my life.
As Damon came out of his haze, he could hear that he was no longer alone. Vampire Barbie was probably coming to chew him out.
"Why are you brooding? I thought that was Stefan's gig." Caroline asked as she walked into the living room where Damon was pacing in front of the fireplace. He was a different Damon now, so he decided why the hell not, Caroline always seems to have everything figured out.
"I'm not brooding. It's just. What if she remembers everything I've done and can't get past it. She should probably be protecting that kid from me." Damon said openly, forgetting that he wasn't a sharing person.
"I know you aren't exactly my favorite person in the world, but do you really believe that?" Caroline asked, sounding somewhat taken back by how open he was being with her.
"I don't know. I'm not a great guy. She deserves a great guy. Some epic love to sweep her off her feet and make her happy forever." Damon replied.
"You're not the same guy that did those things. None of us are the same people we were, we've all made terrible mistakes. And you two obviously have an epic love to look forward to throughout the centuries to come." Caroline said confidently. She always did have a way of forwardly being honest yet comforting at the same time. It was a gift that Liz had as well, it was one of the reasons Damon was so close with her.
"How do you know that? You heard about the true soul mates thing? Who knows about all that stuff, maybe its not what they think." Damon defended. Even after Bonnie said ok to being in a relationship, or he was sure that was what she meant by it all, he still tried to find reasons for her to discard him. He's never been so childish in his existence.
"Because I'm smart. Why do you think you've always been drawn to the Bennett witch line? You've been waiting for her. Something inside you was drawn to her even before she didn't exist. If that's not epic I don't know what is." Caroline finished. He had always kind of wondered why he kept his promise to Emily. He didn't much care for her, and he could have just stayed away, but he never did.
"If that's true then how come I didn't notice right away when I saw her?" Damon asked. He wondered when Caroline could have possibly started believing that he was good for Bonnie, or even worth talking to for that matter.
"You were blinded by jealousy for your brother and a possibility for redemption with Elena. You were being asshole Damon then. You couldn't have seen it until you did because it wasn't meant to be until then. She couldn't have seen it then either, she needed to meet the real Damon first." Caroline replied honestly, not sugar coating anything.
"Who is the real Damon?" He asked nervously. He wasn't sure people would accept who he really was, and he had been covering it up for a century and a half.
"You know who he is stupid. Bonnie deserves the real Damon." Caroline finished sounding awful threatening before she turned to walk out the door. The real Damon would say something, something he always wanted to say.
"Thanks Blondie." Damon said shyly before she got to far away. "You deserved better from me. You all did. I'm sorry about, you know, everything."
Caroline paused before turning around with a smile on her face.
"See, that's why we like the real Damon. You're not the bad guy you make yourself out to be. I forgive you Damon. Who knows maybe now since you are in love with my other best friend, you and I could actually be friends?" She finished with a hint of sarcasm, but Damon really did want to be friends. She was good for his brother and he wanted nothing but the best for Stefan after everything he put him through.
"You'd really want to be my friend after everything I've done?" Damon asked uncertainly.
"Everybody makes mistakes. Do right by Bonnie, and keep being this guy, and I think I might enjoy being your friend." She replied.
"Thanks. You too Blondie. I'm really glad Stefan found you. He deserves someone special." Damon finished choking on the last words because they sounded so unnatural coming from him.
"Thanks." Caroline responded with a heartfelt smile. "Bonnie does too, and so do you." She finished and exited out the front door.