A/N: I loved writing this episode, well, I love writing most of them but this one was exceptionally great so I hope you all enjoy it. Don't forget to feed me, in the form of reviews. I love those. I do not own TVD.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't
So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of the road
And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope
It's always darkest before the dawn"
I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night after I took Elena home, probably because all I could hear in my mind was "Where were you, Damon?" and all I could see every time I closed my eyes were the tears in hers. 'Course I'd have probably slept a whole lot better if I'd just stayed with Elena but she didn't ask me to and I didn't offer. Instead I came home to douche-bag central where fortunately enough for him, Stefan was nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately, he's back now. And his breakfast is ruining my good rug. Honestly I don't know why I bother with these things; they cost way too much money to keep getting destroyed like this.
What in the? Twister, really, Stefan? It's like, 9am. "Hey the two brunettes on the staircase owe me a Persian rug" – "You mean they owe us a Persian rug? It's my house too brother" uh-huh, but you are not the one who pays for the damn things. Oh hell, I don't even care about the fucking rugs that much, I'm just beyond angry with my brother and waking up to disturbing half-naked twister in my living room is so not how I wanted to start my day. It's like 1864 all over again, except worse, and with board games.
"Oh, would you like a spin?" uh no I'm all good thanks. "Is this what Klaus had in mind when he compelled you to protect Elena?" –"These ladies are helping me be all that I can be" oh right, you mean, an arrogant asshole then? Christ Stefan we're not in the army, we're not at war. Or, maybe we are.
God I hate Ripper Stefan. At least in 1864 he still had his humanity. I know, I know, I wasn't exactly the picture of humanity and sanity when I first got back to town but this is Stefan we're talking about. And he's acting like, well, like me. The me from before, and it's not a good look on him. And on top of everything else it's hurting Elen-who the hell is at the door?
"Where's Stefan?" some blonde comes barging into the house. "Who the hell are you?" and please, do come in. "He left me here, my brother actually left me here" oh no, this must be the other bloody Original. "You're Klaus's sister?" – "Rebekah, pleasure I'm sure" well isn't she a charmer?
"Which one's my room?" oh hell no. "You're not staying here" good, I'm glad to see my brother didn't shut out all of his common sense when he flipped the switch. She turns to me but I'm just shaking my head "rude. Both of you, I'll see to it myself" No. Not cool.
"Well I guess she's staying here" fabulous. Go ahead, make yourself right at home. Fucking Originals.
Katherine. I need to talk to Katherine. She's not returned any of my calls and now I've got more Originals to deal with I could really use and update on the Mikael situation.
"He's a little bit out of commission" she tells me when she finally answers the phone. "He won't eat and I've tried everything. Gravediggers, mourners, mice, rats, bats, he's just...not interested" what the? Fuck does he eat then?
"Well try harder. We need him to kill Klaus so I can de-rippify Stefan before he destroys my house" – "Fine. I'll give it another shot" good, too many problems are piling up without any solutions in sight. Yeah, Katherine really needs to sort out this Mikael situation.
Elena. I want to talk to Elena, that'll make the first half hour of this day a lot more bearable.
"Hey. Are you checking up on me? Because I'm fine" yeah I'm sure, but we'll stick with your story for now.
"Yeah, uh, so you might not wanna come here for a while. We have a new housemate. Barbie Klaus" maybe I could just go live with Elena, Ric and Jeremy for a while. That would solve a problem.
"Rebekah? She's living with you now? Why?" no no, she's not living with me, she's living in my house. Big difference.
"Because she's stranded, apparently Klaus left her in the dust after I name dropped Mikael" really feeling the brotherly love there. "What about Stefan? What is he up to?" huh, well it took longer than I thought for her to bring him up, colour me impressed.
"Uh you know Stefan, journaling, reading, shaping his hair" – "Come on Damon I can handle it. What?" em no, really don't want to get into this conversation.
"Is that the bell? Uh ring, ring, don't wanna be late" yeah. I'm not really sure how to tell Elena that her...boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend? Whatever, is playing twister with half-naked sorority girls and generally just being a dick to anything that walks or talks.
Apparently though, she managed to find out all on her own. Stefan turned up at the school to 'look after' Elena, although I don't much like his version of 'looking after' her. She wants us to do something about him but honestly I don't know what to do. But I go to her, of course I do. She calls, I come, remember?
She's working out at Ric's apartment when I get there, "What are you gonna do, bench press a vampire?" – "Do you understand what's happening right now? Stefan called me a human blood bag. He's a completely different person" yeah, I kinda picked up on that.
I come up behind her and press a little of my weight on the bar, "What are you doing?" helping. "Come on Buffy" – "Damon stop it" she drops the weight and I catch it before she crushes herself.
I actually think it's a great idea that she's training, it'll help her feel more in control and that's definitely a good thing. She's fighting back, getting stronger and her inner Petrova is coming out to play, good for her I say.
"What's your plan oh warrior princess?" – "I wanna lock Stefan up, at least until this Mikael guy comes, kills Klaus and the compulsion breaks" – "Compulsion or not Stefan's high on human blood okay? A lot of it" – "We've gotten him off of it before" well yeah but that was a whole other ball game. This is Ripper Stefan, his humanity is gone. He's checked out.
"Then do it for me Damon" anything. "Every single time I look at him I feel like I'm gonna break and I'm not gonna give him that satisfaction" damn right you're not. She starts to turn away and I reach out to take her wrist and bring her hand to my chest.
"What are you doing?" she asks but she doesn't pull away. "Feel that? It's the sternum, solid plate of bone" I take her wrist again and spin her into me so her back is pressed against my chest and my other hand is against her ribs.
"Right here" I slip my hand under her top and god she's so warm and it feels amazing to touch her. "Just below the ribcage, there's a spot" I'm practically whispering in her ear, and she's breathless and her heart is racing. "That's your way to a vampire's heart" I skim my fingers across her skin lightly before pulling my hand away.
"I'll do whatever it is you need me to do Elena" anything. I brush my face against her hair and let her go. Reluctantly. Oh how I don't want to let her go.
"No one's gonna hurt you. Especially not my brother" I'm not even sure she's fully aware of what I'm saying anymore because she's so focused on my lips, her eyes are glazed over and I can still hear her heart racing, and I can smell how turned on she is. And for a second I swear she's going to kiss me because she's coming closer and closer but then she seems to snap back to reality and it's gone. Moment over.
There's a bonfire at the school tonight and Elena is filling Ric and Caroline in on the plan to detain Stefan. "I'll lure Stefan away from the bonfire, then when he's distracted" – "I'll shoot him" Ric finishes.
"Can't Bonnie just juju him or something?" I ask because yeah, I really hate the thought of Elena being Stefan-bait. Again.
"I'm trying to keep Bonnie out of this, I don't trust that Stefan won't hurt her" right, but you do trust that he won't hurt you? I'm sorry; did she miss the part where he fed on her?
"You're forgetting a key player here. Rebekah? Wherever Stefan goes the blonde ponytail tends to follow" – "Which is why it's your job to keep her away" huh? How am I meant to do that? "Last time I checked we were out of daggers" – "So then pre-occupy her with your charm" oh wonderful. So I'm Rebekah bait? Great, just, great.
"Might have better luck finding the dagger" – "Are you ever not gonna be mad at me Ric?" –"Doubtful" dammit I miss my friend okay. Drinking alone is becoming kinda, lonely.
Lockwolf comes to join the take down party and Elena asks him to get enough vervain to keep Stefan incapacitated for a while. "You can't do that to Stefan" huh? "Trust me Tyler it's in his best interest" – "but it's not in Klaus's" uh-oh.
"Why are you acting like some freaky hybrid slave minion?" Blondie asks. Allow me to tell you, because he is a freaky, hybrid slave minion. I grab one of Ric's vervain darts and plunge it into Tyler; yep he's out of it.
"He's been sired, he feels loyal to Klaus because Klaus' blood created him" fucking sire bonds, hate those things. I'm assuming this one is formed of gratitude; it makes sense in Hybrids I guess.
"Loyal how?" Elena asks, "He'll seek acceptance from his master. It's really rare but maybe not so much in Hybrids" vampire sire bonds are different, trust me I would know. Fucking Charlotte. But god I don't even want to think about that right now.
"So how do we fix him?" – "get a new boyfriend" and now I'm done with the teen-drama. All the players are ready so we can get on with the plan, eliminate a Stefan shaped problem.
I find Rebekah roasting marshmallows past a group of rowdy teenagers getting drunker by the second; they know they're on school property right? Still, I guess in Mystic Falls, underage drinking is the least of anyone's problems.
"What? No friends your own age?" Nope I am fresh outta those. "Like you can talk" what is she? Like a billion?
"Is this supposed to be fun? I've been through ten of these" she asks indicating her very burnt marshmallow. I take it from her and peel off the burnt bits "...It's a little rough on the outside, but on the inside, yum" she's actually kinda pretty, for an Original killing machine, but honestly I'm more interested in how Elena feels with my playing bait to Barbie Klaus. I wonder if she hates is as much as I hate the thought of her and Stefan. Nah. Not possible, still, a man can hope.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" because I'm a sucker for Elena and I'll do anything she asks me to?
"You hate me, you should be mean" – "Well I can be mean, if that's what you're in to" – "You're distracting me. Why?" – "Just trying to be a good house mate" – "There's never a fair fight between us Damon" Shit. Ouch. Little bitch staked me, fuck. Ow.
Man, apparently I need to work on my seduction skills. Although, seemed to work out well enough on Elena earlier, so maybe not.
I need blood, gotta go home. Once I'm all healed up and re-energised I'm debating whether or not to go back to the bonfire or wait for them when they show up.
"Give it to me I can do it" – "No let me do it. Elena you almost got barbecued, least I can do is apply first aid" so...yeah. While I was at home recovering from being staked, Elena was nearly burned to death in Ric's jeep. Something to do with ghosts and witches and a bunch of other crap I wasn't really paying attention to because I was still trying to recover from the 'nearly burned to death' bit of the story.
"There" I dab the antiseptic on her scratched face and it probably stings but she doesn't even flinch. "You played your part of the plan really well tonight" huh, she sounds a little huffy about that.
"Oh yeah?" – "Yeah you had Rebekah drooling all over you and your marshmallows" jealous. Definitely jealous. God how I love it.
"Yeah before she skewered me" because I was too busy thinking about you to pay any real attention to her.
"Thought you were too drunk to notice" – "I was faking most of it" – "So was I" and the air around us starts to feel thick again but at least this time we're not in my brother's room and if I just step a tiny litt-
"Ready to get going Elena?" No! Dammit. You have got to be kidding me man. People have the worst timing around here. Okay, think positive thoughts Damon.
"Great work tonight Ric, sorry about the car man, bummer" and yeah, he's definitely still not talking to me. Maybe if I buy him a new car we'll be cool again.
Elena turns to look at me as she leaves and damn. I don't know what's going on with her, in that pretty little head of hers, with us, between us, but there's abso-fuckin-lutely something going on. And hope springs eternal, even for me.
Who the hell knows? Maybe I do have a shot with the girl after all.
Dear Diary,
After Damon dropped me off at home last night I couldn't sleep, every time I closed my eyes all I could see was Klaus compelling Stefan to shut out his humanity and Stefan biting me. I wish Damon had stayed, but he didn't offer and I couldn't ask. Instead I asked Alaric to start training me. I am tired of being weak and defenceless; it's time to fight back.
Today was our first day back at school, it's the start of our senior year and it's also exactly one year since Stefan and I first met. I told Caroline and Bonnie that I'm ready to put it behind me, new year, new life, but I'm not. I'm not ready at all. I'm going to fix Stefan, somehow. We have to bring him back, the real him. He's a completely different person now; he called me a 'human blood bag' today!
So I called Damon to ask him to help me, I asked him to help me lock Stefan up until Mikael comes to kill Klaus, I asked him to do it for me because I feel like I'm going to have a nervous breakdown if we don't do something. And then, he took my hand and put it on his chest, and then he took me in his arms and his hands were on my side, and he was trying to tell me the way to a vampire's heart but I couldn't concentrate properly.
His fingers were moving across my skin and it felt incredible, and he was speaking so softly it felt like he was caressing me from head to toe and I literally had to bite my tongue to stop myself from moaning but then he took his hand away and I wanted him back. God I wanted him back, I wanted him everywhere, I just wanted...Damon.
And then he was talking and I didn't really catch much of what he was saying because I was so distracted, it's like I was burning, there was so much desire and god I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to kiss him desperately and I nearly did! I can't believe it. But then I stopped because I can't do that. I had to stop.
At the bonfire, I was jealous watching Damon 'get his flirt on' with Rebekah, even Stefan could tell that I was jealous, although I denied it of course. It was my stupid idea after all, and I think now I understand, at least a little bit, why Damon hates the thought of using me to trick Stefan.
But I had to try something, and locking Stefan up seemed like the best idea. But of course it all backfired horribly. At least Stefan caught me when I fell, I guess what I did was risky but I really believed that he would catch me, if only because he was compelled by Klaus, and he did. Catch me.
And I swear, for just a second, it was the real Stefan. I saw it, I saw him, in his eyes, and I know he's still in there and I won't give up on him. But yeah, it all went downhill from there.
We put Stefan in Ric's jeep and then there was fire. So much fire, Ric couldn't get through it and I couldn't get the door open. I thought I was going to die and Stefan along with me. But he woke up and kicked the trunk open so we could get out and we went back to the house so I could see Damon.
I feel bad for him; I think he misses Ric, being his friend. Although I definitely didn't miss the look on his face when Ric interrupted us earlier, but it was probably for the best. Damon was taking care of my scratches and there was all that electricity in the room again and that's twice in one day that I nearly kissed Damon.
That I wanted to kiss him. But I can't. Everything is so messed up right now and I can't go there with Damon. We need to concentrate on fixing Stefan.
Elena