AN: Sorry it took me a while to update! Life is craaaazy! Anyway I really hope you like this chapter! Thanks for all of the love. This chapter is longer than the others and i'm really happy with it. Theres a part told in Stefans POV. I expect reviews! haha pretty please! I'd like to give a shout out to Danica Lynn who i've had the pleasure of talking to recently, read her story Live, Learn, Life, Love, Die, Dust, Gone, it's great! REEEEVIIIIEEEWWWW!

Chapter 16

I am sorry, I am so, for the things you don't know
And as for the things you do, I am sorry for those too
Out of every broken heart, broken rule and promise
I have made a rescue raft and sailed towards you on it, on it

The hurt that the head forgets, the heart will always remember
The hold that the hand regrets, the heart remembers forever

Do you, do you want me?
Do you know how to show, how to show these things?
I just didn't want to have to ask, I just didn't want to have to lose
Least of all people, you

-Do you by Carina Round

Layla's POV

Damon pretends like he doesn't care about anyone but me, I know that's a complete lie. If he didn't care he would not have driven us to Charlottesville and booked a couple rooms at the Hampton so we could all drink and not have to drive back home. He sure as hell wouldn't have played the annoying pop station all the way there if he didn't care about Caroline's feeling.

So Caroline and I are settling into our suite while the Salvatore brothers are settling into there's. I figured I better share a room with Care in case she breaks down later. Damon is none to happy about it since he's only been home one night.

"Hurry the fuck up Barbie! You're a vampire; can't you super speed putting your makeup on?" Damon storms into the room without knocking. Caroline glares at him as she puts on her shoes before her eyes well up with tears and she starts crying all over again.

I wrap my arms around my friend and smooth her hair down.

"Don't be a dick Damon! She's fragile right now." He rolls is pretty eyes and shrugs.

"Yea, yea. Are you two ready then?" We both nod and grab our purses.

We meet Stefan in the hallway. Caroline kind of clings to him, he puts a comforting arm around her shoulders. They're obviously close friends.

Damon appreciatively looks me up and down. A smirk graces his perfect face when he meets my eyes. I'm wearing a pair of dark skinny jeans, a violet top with a black vest over top, and a pair of black flats. It's a pretty simple outfit but apparently Damon likes the tight fit of the jeans or something. My hair is naturally straight for once. He of course looks as hot as usual, black T shirt, dark pants, biker boots, just his go to expensive outfit. No one has ever looked this good in black.

We take a cab downtown to a series of bars. A cab ride with three vampires is really weird. How often do you think vampires take cabs? Caroline and Stefan compel their way into the first bar. Caroline and I drink Amaretto Stone Sours while Damon gets Bourbon and Stefan, Scotch. We sit at a booth and order onion rings.

"It feels nice to be out. It's cool that you brought us here Damon." She barely looks in his direction. The two don't hate each other they just seem to have an odd relationship. I think neither of them wants to admit they're kind of friends.

"It's a good excuse to get out and go somewhere other than that damn Grille." I stifle a laugh behind my hand. Stefan smiles at me knowingly. The other two look at us questioningly. Caroline said thank you without actually having to say it and Damon said you're welcome in that same way.

A good hour later Caroline had drank enough to already be glassy eyed and slurring slightly. I'm trying to pace myself; I'm only human after all.

"I wanna go dancing Layla! Oh my God we could have soooo much fun dancing all night! Lets do it!" I grimace because she squeezes me a little too hard. Dancing? Last time we went dancing things didn't end so well.

"Why not Blondie? This is your show after all." Damon downs his glass. He seems happy. Seems tonight the alcohol is a positive thing for everyone.

We walk a few blocks down to a club. We get in quickly with Damon's help.

"Think I need a snack. I'll be back in a few minutes." He winks and disappears into the flourish of people. It doesn't bother me that he feeds from people, he's not killing them. Yea, my morals are a little questionable. Caroline runs to the bar to grab us drinks.

Stefan and I stand and wait for our friend in a less crowded area.

"When is Elena coming home?" I don't have to yell over the music because of his amplified hearing.

"Tomorrow. I miss her a lot." I smile up at the younger Salvatore.

"You really love her." He nods his head and smiles back at me.

"And you love my brother." My heart speed up and face goes blank for a second.

"I can tell you do. You look at him in the same way I do Elena. You'd do anything for him. You have no idea how happy that makes me Layla. He needs someone to love him, someone to treat him well. And you're a really great person that I'm glad to call my friend. I know Damon acts tough, he's always kept himself protected and closed off. But that's only because of how hurt he is. He used to be such a caring guy. It might sound strange but please take care of him. Don't hurt him. I don't think he can handle any more pain." It's actually heart warming to hear Stefan say this. He really loves his brother. They have had plenty of problems but they're still brothers when it comes down to it.

"I won't hurt him. And you're right…I think I do." He knows what I'm talking about. I don't like admitting how deep my feelings for him really are. And I sure as hell will not be telling him how I feel anytime soon, it would ruin all we have.

Caroline appears with shots for all of us and Damon materializes out of no where. We clink our glasses together before drinking them.

The elder Salvatore grins down at me before moving down for a kiss. I stop him with a hand to his chest. He looks confused then hurt. I reach out and swipe the small streak of blood from his lip with my thumb, a remnant of his meal. His expression turns dark as he brings my thumb into his mouth and sucks the small amount of blood from my finger. Something about the darkness in his eyes and the feel of his tongue on me has heat shooting straight to my center. He must know the effect he has on me. He pulls me with him into the crowd of writhing bodies.

I'd danced with Damon one other time and it only lasted for about a minute. Dancing with him is amazing. I don't have a care in the world when I'm dancing and sharing something I love so much with him is fantastic. Sure it's more grinding than anything, but its fun. I'm sure we look like quite the pair, even now in the darkness and flashing lights I can see the envious looks of other women. And the fact that he wants me makes me feel powerful. His hands are grazing the exposed skin on my hip; I can feel his steadily growing erection against my ass as he pulls me against him. His breath is hot against my ear.

"You have no idea how much I want you right now." I shiver at his heated words and he pulls me more firmly against him to show me exactly how much he wants me.

"Damon…" My voice escapes in a pained whisper. I want him just as much, too much. God I wish I had met him a few years ago. If I would have met him before everything that happened to me I would have happily been in bed with him already. I would be more fun, I wouldn't cry so damn much. I wouldn't be scared to tell him how I feel. It's not fair.

He spins me to face him, I barely have a moment to look him in the eyes before his lips are molding to mine. His tongue dances with my own and I'm lost all over again. Nothing has ever felt as good as this. The way he touches me sets me on fire, I've never had that before. That's how I know this is real; this is more than either of us want to admit. He pulls away with glazed eyes.

"You know I'll always protect you, that I'll never let anyone hurt you, don't you?" His eyes hold that sincere gaze that he hardly ever lets show. Why would he ask me this?

"Yes." He'd kill anyone who tries to hurt me, I know this. It makes me feel safe and terrified at the same time. It makes me realize exactly how abnormal our relationship is. Normal boyfriends don't kill the people who harm you.

"Good." His lips are on me again, all over my lips, my neck. He's kissing me hungrily, like he wants to devour me. Does he know I'd let him?

The song changes and we're suddenly dancing again. He has that soft secret smile only I see. I want to tell him I love him, I feel like I'm going to choke on the words if I don't say them. So I do the only intelligent thing, walk away. I tell him I'm getting something to drink.

I rush to the bathroom and splash my face with cold water. I have to steady my beating heart, my racing breath, the heat coursing through my veins. He's intoxicating. I don't know if I can control myself with him. The face in the mirror is unfamiliar. The reflection there is something I haven't seen in years, it's happy, it's in love.

I leave the bathroom to find my way back to Damon but am grabbed roughly onto the dance floor, far from him. The man seems a little too strong. He looks cruel, cold.

"Let me go asshole!" He smiles like the Cheshire cat and chuckles darkly.

"You are a feisty one." He tries to move my body with his.

"I am not dancing with you! If you don't let me go my boyfriend is going to seriously hurt you." He laughs again but doesn't let me go.

"Trust me, I know. I'll probably be dead in just a minute so before Damon kills me I better give you the message I was sent to give you." I'm officially scared and confused.

"What message? Who the hell are you?" His mouth opens to speak and the next thing I know I see a hand sticking through his chest. His body slumps to the ground, I'm left staring speechless into ice blue eyes. Damon is holding the mans heart in his hand. Even this is too much for me, I feel like I may be sick.

"Get rid of him Stef." The younger brother is behind the elder; he grabs the body and zooms away. Now I'm angry, furious in fact.

I storm out of the club and onto the sidewalk with every intention of walking back to the hotel. Of course Damon is in front of me in a flash. He takes one look at me and arches his eyebrow.

"Why are you pissed?" I push past him but again he's in front of me. Stupid vampire!

"Hmm let's think. Maybe because you just ripped a man's heart out in front of me! He was trying to tell me something, he said he had a message for me! Who would want to send me a message?" Damon swallows, his expression changes slightly. He knows something.

"What aren't you telling me?" He tries to put his jacket around me but I let it fall to the ground. He rolls his eyes.

"In case you haven't heard I'm not a nice guy, never have been. I have plenty of enemies Layla. He was just a lowly vampire sent by someone stronger to threaten you to get to me." He was a vampire!? I don't believe Damon's story for some reason, I can read him fairly easily.

"You're lying. Why are you lying? What was he going to tell me that you don't want me to know?" My voice is getting louder the angrier I get. He pulls me to an alleyway, probably to avoid a scene.

"I'm not lying to you. Just drop it ok?" He wont look me in the eyes. I want to slap him like I did the first time we were in an alley together.

"I am not going to drop it! You are lying! I can tell, I know you." His whole body goes rigid, now he's pissed.

"You don't know shit! If you want to be a bitch then go right ahead. Next time I'll just let someone kill you since that's obviously what you want. Actually there wont be a next time, I'm gone! Fuck this!" He turns on his heel, I blink and he is indeed gone.

It takes a minute for all of that to process, for my anger to turn to hurt. I slide down the wall behind me and cry. I know him well enough to know he's going to do something stupid. He really is going to leave me. I pushed him and I shouldn't have. I stand and make my feet move towards the hotel, I need Caroline, I hope she's there.

Stefan's POV

My brother is the biggest idiot on the face of the Earth. He lets every emotion get the best of him. I didn't mean to listen in on his conversation with Layla. I was going to confront him and ask him why he killed that man back there. Layla knows him well, she knew he was lying just like I did. Damon has always been easy to read, even when he was human. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. You always know when he's up to something, when he's hiding something.

It's no surprise that he ran away when confronted, that he pushed Layla away. It's his defense mechanism, its all he knows. I really hate compelling people, it's wrong to take away someone's free will. But I compelled someone into letting me use their car so I can follow my brother to wherever it is he's headed, I'll give them their car back. I call Caroline to let her know I'm going after Damon. She says Layla has cried herself to sleep. She wouldn't tell her what happened. She just said she was stupid and screws everything up. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that she has some deep seeded confidence issues; she's just as hurt as Damon is. That's frightening. We've accumulated our pain over lifetimes, she's only twenty two. I have no idea what has happened to her but I'm sure Damon does, and that must draw her to him. That and the fact that she's every bit as stubborn as him, she seems fearless at times. She's fun and beautiful and challenging, just what he needs. But you can tell she's always holding back. She is constantly on the verge of breaking down.

I'll never exactly know how Damon feels. When it comes down to it I've never really been rejected like he has. Our father, Katherine, Elena, they all chose me. I feel more guilt than he can possibly imagine. But I'm still selfish enough to want Elena to myself, because I love her. She was made for me. And I think Layla was made for Damon. SO I have to stop him from screwing it up. I can't let him run. It takes a little over an hour for my brother to stop at some dive bar, probably here to drink his fill of both booze and blood. Any human unlucky enough to run into him right now is dead.

I jump out of my 'borrowed' vehicle and run towards the entrance. Before I reach it I get stabbed through the stomach. I groan and fall to the ground. My brother is above me, looking murderous.

"Why the fuck are you following me?" Even after all this time I get a little scared of my brother when he's like this. I'm always scared I wont be able to pull him back.

"You need to go back to Layla." I pull the large stick out of my stomach with a loud grunt. He laughs humorlessly.

"The fuck I do. She doesn't want me back there. Why don't you go pick up the pieces, you're good at that. Want to take another girl from me Stef? I already fucked up. It was inevitable really. It's better I take off before I hurt here anymore." I get to my feet and shake my head. He's so stupid.

"She loves you Damon. Leaving her, that's what is going to hurt her more than anything." His eyes go wide. The rage vanishes, leaving vulnerability, something I haven't seen on his face since he realized Katherine wasn't in the tomb.

"She can't love me Stefan. I don't get the girl, remember?" I make sure to keep eye contact with him. I really need him to listen.

"You already have her. So stop acting like an asshole and go apologize. You're only going to screw things up if you don't go back to her and say sorry. Jesus Damon even if you don't mean it just say it. I refuse to let you throw away something this important. You can be happy. All you have to do is stop acting out like a damn child! When it gets tough you suck it up and talk it through. You don't get to run away and go on a killing spree, not anymore. Not when all you've ever wanted is right within your reach. She wants you. There's no catch, you don't have to change who you are, she loves you just the way you are." I swear I see tears well up in his eyes. I can't remember the last time I saw him like this. He swallows and the glassiness in his eyes disappears.

"I have to tell you something…because I need your help." I nod my head.

He tells me everything about the mystery behind Layla. Her abusive boyfriend, her drug addict mother, how their deaths came about. He tells me of her guilt, of her fright. She's scared to let anyone know about her past because she thinks we'll call her a monster. I know she's not, as does Damon. I was right when I though she knew a lot of pain. She's had a hard life. It's sad, it's not right. She's like Elena, she's known too much death, too much pain in her short years. And now her mother is trying to contact her, for what reason? To cause her more pain?

"You can't tell anyone, especially Elena. You and I both know Elena wouldn't judge her but she'd get all sappy and sympathetic and try to comfort Layla. And then Layla will hate me. I just need help tracking that bitch mother of hers down; she already knows I'm hiding something. I can't just take off now." I agree with him.

"You're sure she has bad intentions?" He gives me that infuriating look that means 'are you stupid?'

"You didn't hear this lady. She's a certifiable nut job. She wants to hurt Layla in some way. Either her humanity is off or her psychosis was amplified when she turned. The reason doesn't matter, what does matter is that I find her before she gets anywhere near her daughter. I'm going to rip her god damn head off." He's beyond over protective. He'll do anything for the people he loves. I wish everyone realized this. It took this long for my brother and I to get a long again, it wasn't long ago that I too believed he was a heartless selfish monster.

"I just hope Layla doesn't find out. Killing her mother might be a deal breaker." He rolls his eyes.

"For all she knows her mom is dead. Trust me, this is for the best." Could we ever get some peace and quiet? It's been a while since we've had to protect anyone, kill people, and construct crazy plans. I guess this is normal for us.

"Maybe I can get Klaus on board. I'll think something up to tell him so he thinks this woman is a threat without having to tell him her connection to Layla." None of liked the guy but he was resourceful and sometimes helpful. Always better to have him on your side.

"As long as you don't say a word of the truth. I'm trusting you Stefan. I need her, I can't lose her." Hearing things like that coming from Damon is so strange. It's good though.

"Let's go back to Charlottesville. You need to make things right with her." I'll help him in anyway I can. He deserves to be happy. He's my brother…I love him.

Layla's POV

I hear Caroline speaking to someone. She's saying that they better be there to apologize. I hear her leave the room and then a weight on my bed. Fingers push a strand of my hair behind my ear. I know that touch, it's Damon. I reluctantly open my eyes and look into his. He looks pained and worried. I want to cry all over again.

"I thought you left." He runs a hand through his raven locks.

"I did. Figured I better come back before someone else put their paws all over you." Of course he'd try to avoid seriousness. I roll to my back and sit up in bed.

"Maybe next time you can try to beat the shit out of someone rather than kill them." His lips quirk in humor. His eyes meet mine again.

"Listen closely because you're probably never going to hear this come out of my mouth again." I turn my head to the side in question. He lets out a loud sigh.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you earlier and I shouldn't have left. I'm not used to this but it's no excuse. I don't know to deal with emotions. I've never had to live up to anyone's expectations. I kind of hate that I have to because I don't want to let you down. I think if I say or do something stupid you're going to tell me you don't want me and I really can't handle that. It's easier if I'm the one that pushes you away. I don't want to do that anymore. You make me happy and I don't want that happiness to go away because I'm a stubborn arrogant asshole. So I'm sorry." He wont look me in the eyes again. I think he's embarrassed.

I reach across the bed and hug him to me. God I don't deserve this man.

"I'm sorry too Damon. I shouldn't have freaked out like that, I should have believed you. You were just trying to protect me just like you said you would. I guess I'm just not used to someone taking care of me. It's hard for me to accept that you actually want whats best for me and really do want to be with me." He brings his lips to mine in a searing kiss. It's short but perfect. We both smile.

"How about next time we get into some stupid screaming match I tell you you better not leave or I'll kick your ass?" He chuckles and kisses me again.

"Sounds good to me." I'm suddenly hit with the realization that I have no reason to be afraid of what Damon and I have. It's completely right. He really does care about me. He needs me as much as I need him. There's no reason I shouldn't be with him in everyway possible. He deserves to hear the words I'm scared to say. He needs to know that someone feels this way about him. Saying those words might just save him.

"I love you Damon."