Gravity

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone from The Vampire Diaries.

Another big thanks to Mara_A_Miller for being my beta again for this chapter! If you haven't already, go check out her published story Head Over Hoof! It's available on Amazon! :)

August 3rd 2013

Saturday 6:00pm

Santa Cruz, California

His name was Enzo and I had a bad feeling about him from the moment I met him.

He greeted me with a smirk, a smirk that held a lot more danger than those Damon has ever given me, even back when we hated each other.

Damon found Enzo hitchhiking by a gas station somewhere in between Nevada and California five days ago and he's been with us ever since. The two of them seemed too have hit it off immediately, which I was surprised at because we've driven past so many hitchhikers on the road so far and Damon never once gave them a second thought as we drove right by them.

Apparently, Enzo is looking for his runaway ex-girlfriend named Megan. When he first explained the story about what happened between him and Megan, I truly felt sorry for him and thought that maybe I had misjudged him. He explained how she was an addict, and he felt guilty because he was the one who introduced her to party drugs in the first place. Except Megan became unpredictably addicted, and soon her drugs of choice were getting stronger and stronger and Enzo didn't know how to stop it. After almost a yearlong battle to save her from herself, he found out that she was sleeping with her drug dealer behind his back. The two of them broke up and not long after he found out from her sister that she had fled their small town in Wyoming. He's been looking for her ever since, a tip off from a mutual friend suggesting that she was heading towards the west coast.

But my sympathy towards Enzo didn't last long, because not even a few hours later I saw him spreading out a line of cocaine along a discarded CD in the backseat of our car.

What made things worse? Damon didn't even flinch.

"Look, it's not that big of a deal." He said, much to my disbelief. "We don't know him enough to judge. Let him do his thing."

So we supposedly don't know him enough to judge, and yet Damon seems to trust him enough to let him continue to travel with us.

So, here we are five days later in a tiny motel room that barely fits the three of us. Thankfully, Enzo is sleeping in the car, but that doesn't make this situation any better because he still hangs out in here for as long as possible.

I roll my eyes as they both burst out into laughter, Damon throwing a card down onto the table with a grin and Enzo groans in defeat.

I huff to myself and continue to flick through the same magazine that I have been reading for the past two hours.

I look back up when the smell of smoke hits my nostrils and my eyes tighten in a glare when I see a cigarette hanging loosely from Enzo's lips. "I don't mean to be rude, Enzo, but can you take that outside?"

The tone in my voice is clear that it wasn't really a question at all.

Enzo smirks and rises to his feet. "Sure, sweetheart." He winks at me on his way out and I roll my eyes and look back at my magazine.

I feel the bed shift but don't look up, not even when Damon's hand lands on my lower back.

"You know, you could be a little nicer to him." Damon tells me. I scoff and ignore him. He sighs loudly. "Elena," he lets out a breath. "I know that you probably don't agree with a lot of the things that Enzo does, but he's going through a rough time. Just like us. Surely you can understand that?"

"Exactly." I agree and sit up to face him. "A rough time, just like us, except we aren't using it as an excuse to take drugs."

He closes his eyes and takes a breath for a moment. "You can't blame the guy for wanting to escape from real life for a little while, can you?"

"Why are you defending him so much? You've known him for five minutes. Why is he so different?" I ask the burning question that has been bothering me for the last five days.

Damon stays silent for a moment and looks down towards the bed. "Honestly?" he winces slightly and looks back up at me. "He kind of reminds me a little bit of how I used to be, before you came along."

I blink, surprised.

"He's all alone, Elena. It's different with us; we have each other to rely on. Enzo has nobody on his side. I can't explain why but I trust him, but I do." His hand soothingly runs up and down my back. "He's just lonely."

I stay silent and Damon leans forward and presses his lips to my forehead.

"I told him that I would help him find his girl. I need to do something good, just once. This whole situation," he moves his hand around the grotty motel room, "needs to mean something and helping Enzo find Megan is something that I feel would be a worthy cause to make up for at least some of the crap that I have pulled."

I frown and sit up. "It does mean something, Damon." I press my hand against his heart. "We are stronger than ever." A smile creeps onto my lips. "We're going to get married," his lips twitch to match my smile. "That is what makes all of this worthy, not helping some guy you barely know."

"I know, I know." He nods his head, his hand landing on top of mine that still rests on his chest, "but that still doesn't mean that I don't want to help Enzo. You need to trust me on this, Elena."

I sigh but nod anyway because I do trust him, I trust him more than anyone in this world.

"Okay fine, but if you're going to do this, help him, then you need to hurry it up and just find this Megan girl."

Damon smiles and quickly presses his lips against mine. "We'll find her, and then you and I can run off happily into the sunset together, how does that sound?" he smirks playfully and I roll my eyes and punch him in the shoulder. "I love you too." He laughs with a wink.

"Your girl doesn't like me very much." Enzo comments as we lay back against the side of my car, a bottle of bourbon being passed between us as we sit in the darkness of the night.

I chuckle and shake my head, taking a large gulp from the bottle before passing it back to him. "It's not that she doesn't like you," I amend. "She's just never met somebody like you before."

"Someone like me?" he sounds amused and I shake my head with a smile because he knows exactly what I mean. I glance over at the motel room from where we are sat by the car, the lights completely out since Elena is sleeping soundly. The only noise coming from this deserted lot is the sounds of the crickets and the broken lamppost flickering a few feet from us.

"Elena is from a completely different world." I muse with a small smile, "she was brought up in a world where she believed that your problems could be fixed by talking about it and leaning on people who care about you. She doesn't quite fully grasp the idea of wanting to forget about your problems through other kind of not so healthy methods," I let out a dry laugh "and you snorting a line of coke within hours of knowing her didn't exactly help the situation."

He chuckles and leans his head back against the car. "Yeah, probably not the best first impression." He agrees. "Although it didn't scare you off," he points out.

I scoff. "Trust me buddy, I've seen worse than that. Hell, I've done worse."

"And your lady is okay with that?"

I take another gulp from the bottle. "She didn't really know me then."

"Ah, I see." He smirks and I look at him confused. "One of those, huh?" I raise my eyebrow and motion for him to continue. "You were the bad boy, she was the good girl? She made you into a better person, blah blah blah."

I laugh and shake my head. "Believe it or not, Elena wasn't exactly the good girl in our story."

"No?" he genuinely looks surprised.

"Nope." I smirk and stare at the motel window where she is sleeping behind. "Elena's not black or white. She's…a little bit of everything."

"You love her." He states simply.

"I do."

"And she loves you too."

I nod silently. "Despite my previous behavior. I've not exactly made things easy. I mean…" I trail off, reminding myself that although I trust him, Enzo is still a stranger and I need to be careful on the amount of information I share with him. "I turned her life upside down, more than once." I explain. "And instead of turning her back on me, like she could have so easily, and rightfully, done, she stuck by me, she defended me. She's on my side."

Enzo nods silently and takes the bottle from my hands.

"Everything you've just said," he replies quietly and takes another mouthful of bourbon, "is how I feel about Megan. She's turned my life upside down, more than once but I will never turn my back on her. I'm going to find her, Damon."

"I know." I make a move to stand up, suddenly feeling tired and wanting nothing more than to join my girlfriend under the scratchy cotton sheets. "You know, you should tell that to Elena. Maybe she'll understand you a little bit more."

"Yeah." Enzo muses. "Maybe."

"This is nice." I break the calming silence between Damon and me as we walk along the beach. We've been up super early this morning to watch the sunrise, before finding a nice little café to eat breakfast at. It was nice, and some time with just the two of us was exactly what we needed.

"It is nice." Damon agrees and squeezes my hand tighter in his, both of our sandals hanging loosely from his other hand. "West coast was totally a good idea."

"Agreed." I grin, loving the feeling of the sand between my toes. "How much longer will we be staying here?" I ask curiously, not wanting to bring up the Enzo situation again.

"In Santa Cruz?" Damon replies and I nod my head with confirmation. "I'm not sure. A few days maybe. Any suggestions on where you want to go next?"

"I don't know. Where is Enzo planning?" I reply hastily, my tone snappy and Damon sighs loudly.

"Elena…"

"I know," I cringe immediately. "Sorry." I squeeze his hand and place my other hand round to cover his.

"You know, we had a talk about you last night after you went to sleep." Damon tells me and I press my eyebrows together not entirely sure if this is going to be a good thing or not. "Turns out the two of you have a lot in common."

I scoff immediately. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." He looks at me with a smile. "Believe it or not, the two of you are a little similar."

"I'm sorry but when was the last time you saw me taking drugs?" I question him defensively and he smiles silently. "That's right. Never."

"Okay, so not that similar." He chuckles, "but he's never going to give up on Megan, just like you never gave up on me. It would have made your life so much easier if you just let me leave Mystic Falls on my own, if you just cut your losses at the time. Heck, it would be so easy to just turn your back on me right now, to just hop on a train back to Virginia, but you didn't."

"Of course I didn't, Damon." I tell him firmly. "I would never, I love you and we're in this together. You know that."

"I do." He agrees softly, before tilting his lip up with half a smile. "Enzo feels the exact same way about Megan, the only difference is she left without him knowing. He wants to stand by her, just like you're standing by me."

I stay silent as I think about his words. If Damon had left Mystic Falls without me, in trouble, I have no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't just give up on him. That I'd find a way to bring him back or to go and be with him.

"I suppose I never thought about it that way." I muse quietly and Damon smiles, unlinking our hands to wrap his arm around my shoulders and bringing me closer to him, my arm automatically draping around his waist.

"I know he's different. I know he makes bad crude jokes and does some questionable things that you don't agree with, but at the end of the day his intentions are good." He presses a kiss to my temple and carries on. "Anyway, enough about Enzo. I hope you haven't made any kind of secret plans tonight, you know, like a date with Ben or Jerry or a movie night in, because I am going to take you out."

My smile widens. "Like on a date?"

"Yup. A date, you in?"

I laugh and nod. "Fine, I'm in."

"Great! I'll pick you up at eight," he winks at me and I giggle.

"I'll need your number to text you my address." I play along happily.

"No need beautiful, I have a special ability that will lead me right to your door." He pulls away and moves in front of me, his hand reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. I frown confused as he pulls out some notes and hands them over to me. "Go walk into town and get yourself a pretty dress, no, a sexy dress." He wiggles his eyebrows playfully. "In fact, get yourself some naughty lingerie too for dessert."

"Damon!"

"I'm serious!" he chuckles before pressing a kiss to my forehead. "Go on off you go."

"What's the special occasion?" I ask him suspiciously.

"There's no special occasion. I just want to take you out, is that okay?"

"I suppose so."

"You suppose so? Hell, we can stay in if you want? Maybe watch a movie with Enzo." He smirks and I immediately shake my head.

"No, no. Date night sounds good."

His smile widens. "Great. Now off you go, and don't disappoint!"

I laugh and leave a quick parting kiss to his lips before walking along towards the boardwalk that leads to a few clothing stores. "Like I ever!" I look back at him over my shoulder and my stomach flutters with butterflies at the grin on his face.

"You sure you don't want me to help steal you one?" Enzo mutters discreetly as he stands beside me in the jewelry store.

"No." I reply immediately, frowning at him in a mixture of disbelief and annoyance.

"Oh come on Mr High and Mighty, I know stealing isn't beneath you."

"Not when it comes to this." I eye up the dozen rings that are securely stored inside a glass cabinet, my eyebrows scrunched together as I struggle to choose the right one.

Enzo sighs loudly and points his finger onto the glass. "What about that one?"

I glance and immediately shake my head. "No."

"Jesus, Damon." He grunts in annoyance. "Why so picky? This is the fourth jewelry store we've been too and you haven't been happy with a single one. Just pick a nice ring with a diamond or two, that's all girls care about." He informs me casually.

"It needs to be the right one." I argue while scanning the various rings. "It needs to be perfect."

"They all look the same to me."

"Well good job I'm not spending my last few hundred dollars on you then, isn't it."

"Oh yeah, and how is that going to work out for you anyway? Hey Elena, here's a pretty engagement ring, PS, I spent all of our money on it and now we have no money for a motel, gas or even food. Happy engagement!"

I turn to face him in annoyance. "Why are you here again?"

"Um, you asked me to come."

"To help, and this isn't helping."

"I'm just trying to make you be realistic about this. Do you really think Elena cares about the cost of the ring on her finger?"

I stay silent because no, of course I know she won't care, because it's Elena and she's not into material things, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to spoil her, that I don't want to do this right.

"I thought you said you'd already proposed to her anyway." Enzo continues.

"I did, but I didn't do it properly and I did it without a ring. What kind of asshole proposes to his girlfriend without a freaking ring?" I mutter somewhat bitterly. Yes, the moment was special, yes Elena agreed to marry me, but that still doesn't mean that I could have done better.

"Why are you being so obsessive about this?"

"I'm not being obsessive."

"We've been shopping for almost three hours! You are literally picking at every detail, trying to make sure that everything is perfect. That's obsessing."

I let out a frustrated grunt and turn on my heel and walk out of the store without a word. I hear Enzo call my name behind me but I ignore him, walking out into the hot California air.

"Okay seriously, who's got your panties in a twist today?" Enzo catches up to me as I walk hurriedly along the sidewalk.

"Just drop it, Enzo!"

"Damon come on man, what's wrong with you?"

I come to a standstill and shake my head in frustration. I'm angry, but I'm not angry at Enzo, I'm angry at myself.

"I just wanted to do this one thing for Elena, just one normal thing! I want her to have a damn engagement ring on her finger, but I can't even do that right!"

"Who cares? She loves you, you love her. She said yes, what else does it matter?"

"It does matter!" I snap back. "It matters because she deserves the normalcy. It's bad enough that she can't even call her friends to talk to, or her Mom. I can't give her the wedding that she deserves, so the least I could have done is get her freaking proposal right."

Enzo stays silent and takes in a breath. I'm reminded that, although he's realized that Elena and I are running from something, he's not quite in the loop of why. However, he doesn't mention that, instead his eyebrows twitch together and a distant look takes over in his eyes.

"Why can't you see how lucky you are? I'd give anything to be with Megan right now. I'd propose to her with a freaking Haribo ring if I knew she would still say yes, just like you know that if you did propose to Elena with a freaking piece of candy then her answer would still be the same. It'd still be yes, because she loves you and more importantly, she's here. She's by your side. Who needs a damn ring to prove that?"

I swallow the guilt and nod slowly. "I'm sorry," I mumble quietly. "You're right."

"I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve a ring, of course she does. However, you've said yourself that you're not exactly in the best position to do it right now, so instead of blowing what little cash you have left, why not just save some aside and get her a ring when you actually have the money to get the right one."

"I just feel like I'm not doing enough, like I'm not giving her everything she deserves." I speak out the thoughts that have been bothering me, the insecurities that have be unwillingly running around my head for the past few weeks.

Elena deserves the best and it's times like these when I don't think that I can deliver.

"You know that's not true, Damon. I may not have known you both for that long, but it only took me about five minutes in your company to see how happy you make her. Trust yourself more. All of this negative insecurity? It's not an attractive look, trust me, I've been there myself and look where it got me."

I stay silent without a reply and let his words sink in. Deep down, I know I'm being ridiculous, and if Elena even had an idea of this she would no doubt give me a back slap up the back of my head and call me out on my idiocy.

"Have I told you how beautiful you are looking tonight Miss Gilbert?"

I giggle and hide behind my wine glass as Damon throws yet another compliment in my direction. "Maybe once or twice." I reply, my cheeks heating up unintentionally.

"Why are you blushing?" he smiles widely, a laugh escaping his lips.

"I'm not blushing!"

"Yes you are!" he chuckles and pushes some hair behind my ear as he rests his elbows on top of the table. "You should learn how to take a compliment."

"You're throwing them at me every five minutes, I'm learning!"

Damon laughs again and I can't stop the smile from creeping onto my lips at the sound. I take his hand in mine and bring it to my lips, pressing slow soft kisses along his knuckles.

"Thank you for tonight."

"You're welcome." He grins and when the waiter comes over and asks if we'd like dessert I immediately shake my head in protest. "Are you sure?" Damon looks over at me with a smirk. "I know you always save room for something sweet." He winks at me and my mouth parts open in a little shock before I quickly recover.

"I'm sure, I can't eat another thing." I place my hand against my stomach to express how full I feel while Damon politely asks for the bill.

It's not until the waiter comes back and Damon opens up his wallet when I look over at the cheque and my jaw literally drops.

"Damon!" I hiss at him in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell me how expensive this all was?!"

Yes, I can tell just by being in the restaurant that it's a nice place and the quality of the food proved it but the total bill is looking more expansive than even some of the restaurants we visited in Vegas.

"Sssh," he waves me off and counts out the notes he's pulled from his wallet. "None of that now."

"Damon, we can't afford this." I warn him, part of me wondering if we could get away with a dine and dash. I quickly scan the room for any cameras and plan an exit strategy without us getting caught.

Damon laughs and places his hand on my shoulder. "Elena," he says my name firmly. "Relax. I've got this."

"Damon-"

"Ah ah," he cuts me off with a smile. "I don't want to hear another word." He drops the money on the table and rises to his feet, holding out his hand for mine. "Come on, let's go."

I sigh but take his hand anyway, letting him lead me out of the restaurant. We decide to take the long way during our walk back to the motel and walk along the beach, the only light being from the boardwalk in the distance and the brightness of the moon.

"You shouldn't have taken me here. You do know that I would have been happy with just a burger and some fries, as long as I'm with you, I don't care."

"I know you don't, and that's one of the reasons why I love you." Damon lets go of my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders, my arm immediately finding its way around his waist. "But tonight I wanted to take you out some place special, some place nice. I wanted to wine and dine my girl."

"I appreciate that, but Damon, the money we got from Vegas isn't going to last forever." I reply, hating that I'm sounding like a nag but it needs to be said. "You don't need to impress me, I'm already yours."

"It's not about impressing you, Elena. I just want to treat you right."

"You do." I tell him forcefully, coming to a halt and stopping him with me. I move in front of him and wrap my arms around his neck. I stand on my tip toes and press a slow soft kiss against his lips, pulling back just an inch so I'm able to speak. "I love you, Damon, but you need to stop thinking that you need to make things up to me. I don't know how many times I need to tell you that I want to be here with you before you actually start believing me. Someday, you're going to be proven innocent, and we're both going to be free to do whatever we want. Hell, even if that doesn't happen, so what? We'll move to Mexico or Canada and change our identities," he smiles slightly to match my own. "It doesn't matter, because we'll be together and that's all that I care about. Okay?"

He nods his head, his eyes shining bright under the moonlight. "Okay." He kisses me again and I smile against his mouth.

"Although," I pull back with a grin. "If we do change our identities, you need to make sure you pick a cute last name to make up for the fact that I then won't be Mrs Salvatore."

He laughs and my heart skips a beat.

"I'm sure you'll help me think of something good," he agrees. "Although to me you're always going to be Mrs Salvatore."

I giggle and kiss him again. "Smooth."

"I know," he winks at me and kisses me one last time before I fall back onto my feet and we continue our slow walk back to the motel.

Once we get back we're both surprised to see the car parked right outside of the doorway and we don't even make it into the room before Enzo appears in the doorway with a duffel bag on his back.

"Great!" he spots us. "You're back!"

"What are you doing?" Damon asks confused.

"I got a lead on Megan," he explains with a hopeful look on his face. "Apparently she's been working in some bar in Long Beach." He looks over his shoulder. "I made a start in packing all of our things, so if we leave soon we'll probably get there by early morning."

I glance at Damon in a mixture of dismay and disbelief. He looks at me and then back to Enzo who is already throwing what I now recognize as Damon's bag, into the trunk of the car.

"Enzo we can't go tonight, both Elena and I have been drinking. I can't drive."

Enzo waves him off. "That's alright, I don't mind driving."

"Shouldn't we wait until morning though? I mean, it's almost midnight." I throw in hesitantly, not really in the mood for a long car trip tonight. Honestly, I was kind of hoping that Enzo would be out of the way tonight like Damon promised, leaving the two of us alone to spend some quality alone time together.

Obviously I wasn't so lucky.

"I can't wait," Enzo explains almost frantically, his eyes wide with somewhat desperation. "This is the first solid that I've had in so long. I need to go now." He turns his attention to my boyfriend. "You understand, Damon, right buddy?"

Damon opens then closes his mouth before turning to face me with a guilty expression on his face and I immediately know his answer.

"We were planning on leaving Santa Cruz soon anyway…" he tells me hesitantly and I suck in a breath before holding up my hands.

"Fine."

"Great! We'll leave immediately!" Enzo grins happily, and walks back into the motel to get the rest of our things. Damon offers me a guilty smile but I ignore him and climb into the back seat, slamming the door shut hard behind me.

So much for a romantic night alone.

So, how do you all like the addition of Enzo?

Big thank you to everyone for reading, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who took the time to write a review! I absolutely appreciate it! :)

Thanks for reading, see you next time!