A/N: Huge thanks to everyone who's been commenting on my story so far, and huge thanks also once again to my wonderful beta Dreamthrower, who keeps encouraging me with her flattering reviews and her diligent work on the outstanding chapters! Not only did she and her passion for grammar make sure that this story actually sounds like reasonable English, but reading her novel inspired me to continue writing and finishing my own story in the first place. "Fallout" is an entertaining read (especially because of her sense of humor, that becomes evident even when correcting grammar ;) ), and made me swoon over Damon all over again. She really sketched him out nicely. So for some nights with Damon as we all love him (reading about him, I mean!), check it out!

BONNIE

It didn't take long for Caroline to hunt Damon down. Just two days later, while Elena and I were sitting in her room to plan for the party on Friday, Caroline came bursting in, her face beaming all over.

"Now, you're not gonna believe this: His second name is Gabriel, he spent the last two years in Florence, Italy, and he is a Gemini. He has studied History and is now going to do some research in the university archives for his Ph.D. His favorite color is blue and his favorite author is Anne Rice." She looked like the cat that got the cream – extremely pleased with herself.

Elena and I exchanged a gaze. Then I looked dubiously at Caroline. "Did you get all that from spying on him, searching his garbage or did you finally manage to corner him for an interrogation?"

"It took a lot of personal effort and patience and required hanging about on the town square a lot, but he eventually showed up there again. We had a coffee together."

"Did he give you a good explanation for his inglorious disappearance from the party?"

"He said that with the look on Elena's face, he had not wanted to mess with her and decided to give the two of us a chance to talk, first. Later, he got an urgent message and had to leave." She turned to Elena and gave her an I-told-you-so look. "You scared him off."

Elena shrugged. "Well, that's good to know: If I can manage to scare him, you can tell him that I will do so again in case he treats you badly."

"Thank you very much, but I'm a big girl. I can watch out for myself."

Elena sighed. "Here we go again! Will you never learn from experience?"

"Stop being such a smart-ass! You're no exactly an expert on the male species, if I may point that out. I have a good feeling about him."

"Yes," Elena said dryly. "It's called 'lust'".

Fearing that the two might get into a fight over boys all over again, I decided to steer the discussion away from that touchy subject. "Sometimes, it's hard to decide whether to listen to your gut feeling or your own better judgement", I said in defense of Caroline, but also in regard to my own internal dilemma. It must have sounded rather cryptic, because Elena frowned. "Shouldn't those be the same?"

"In an ideal world." I was getting slightly frustrated and unable to keep it hidden. "Unfortunately, sometimes things aren't that easy. At the moment, I'm getting all confused signals, and it's impossible to distinguish between what's foresight, insecurity due to my own shortcomings, the so called inner voice or my rational mind that's advising me to stick to the facts." I didn't mention that I was getting these confusing signals mostly from Stefan. I still felt dubious about him, although the evening at the Grill had totally won me over. There was more to him than just good looks: He was polite, patient and definitively a very good listener. Just like Matt, he had an air about him that promised safety and protection, and that didn't chime at all with my psychic voice that screamed 'danger'.

"Wow. Anything to do with your mind powers and the comet?"

"Probably. I don't know. I just have a feeling that events have been put into motion that are beyond our control."

"Well, if they're beyond our control, there's nothing we can do about them, anyway." Elena pointed out with slicing logic. "So why worry? We just have to go with the flow and see where it's taking us."

ELENA

A couple of days later our secret plan for Caroline's surprise birthday party had been neatly brought on the way. All the relevant people had been invited and agreed to come, food and drinks were organized and Tyler and Matt had agreed to put up decorations. I had seen neither Stefan nor Alys since Saturday. They had left for a three-day-hiking trip from which they had returned only yesterday evening. I hadn't had a chance to invite them to the party yet, and was hoping very much that this time, they both might agree to come. Besides, I was dying to see Stefan again, which was so totally not like me.

I went by Dr. Daniels's house as soon as it was late enough for an unannounced morning visit. Walking up to the house, I didn't see a car in the driveway and briefly wondered if they had not gotten back yet. Before my hand had reached the bell, though, the door was suddenly pulled open. Taken by surprise, I looked up and found myself face to face with Damon.

"Hello Elena!" he said, smiling. "How nice to see you again!"

It was a common phrase of civility, perfectly acceptable. And yet the innocent greeting seemed to carry a hidden meaning that escaped me. I would have put it somewhere between meaningful and naughty, flirty and challenging. Or maybe it wasn't what he said - it was what I believed I could see flashing in his incredibly intense eyes.

"Uhm, – hi, Damon," I replied, slightly befuddled. "Ah – is Stefan in?" In my confusion, I completely forgot that it was Alys who I should have been asking to see – at least for the record.

"I'm sure he is – somewhere. Please, do come in..."

I almost stepped back at his invitation, which definitively was absurd. But there was something about him that put me on alert. "Thanks, but no. I was just stopping by to ask whether he and Alys will be in town for the weekend. We'll be having a spontaneous birthday party this Friday."

"Whose birthday is it?"

"Actually, my friend's: Caroline... It'll be a surprise party for her, down by the lake."

"Hm. I'm sure that's going to be a surprise..." Damon said, frowning slightly. "She and I had a date for Friday."

"Really? How strange, she never mentioned it..."

"I sure hope she didn't forget it..." He looked at me from underneath long, dark lashes. I realized that his eyes had the most unusual color. A very bright, vivid blue with shades of green, almost iridescent. I returned his captivating gaze, momentarily not knowing what to say. "Well, then – why don't you take part in the conspiracy and make sure that she'll turn up at eight?" I finally suggested, fairly sure that this was the appropriate thing to do. Caroline would be thrilled. The plan would work out perfectly that way.

Damon smiled again. "I do love conspiracies! It'll be my pleasure!"

I managed to tear my gaze away. Looking over Damon's shoulder, I saw Stefan coming to the door. His looked a trifle alarmed. Damon didn't even turn. "Hi, Stefan", we both said with one voice.

"Elena..." Stefan said with a frown. "What are you doing here?" It wasn't exactly the kind of greeting I had been hoping for. For a moment, I was at a loss for words.

"Actually," Damon said, giving him a wide smile, "Elena just invited me to her friend's birthday party on Friday. She was hoping that you and Alys wanted to come, too."

That didn't precisely sum up our actual conversation and seemed to perturb Stefan even further. His frown deepened as his gaze flew from me to Damon. For some reason, he was unhappy to see him and me talking, which was only increasing my own discomfort. I shouldn't have come.

"Damon," Stefan suggested, in a clear invitation to leave, "Would you please call Alys and tell her that Elena is here to see her?"

"Sure!" Damon readily agreed, turning his head backwards to the hallway again and shouting: "Alys! You've got a visitor down here!" With a prankish expression he then looked back to us, adding – as if the thought had just come to his mind: "Actually, I think she's not in. I saw her leave the house about half an hour ago."

"Thank you so much for telling us!" Stefan said, sourly. "Come, Elena. I'll drive you home. I think Alys might have gone to see Elijah at the hospital. We could stop over there on our way."

"Great. Nice meeting you again, Damon."

"Very nice meeting you again, Elena. See you on Friday!" He waved us goodbye with a smirk that made my hair stand on edge.

"I'm sorry about that", Stefan apologized when we sat in his car and headed down the driveway. So he had realized that he had been acting strangely.

"Just what was all that about?" I enquired. "You didn't seem happy that I was talking to Damon..."

"Damon is... well, let's say I don't really know what to make of him. And I sure don't like the way he acts."

"You can't have known him that long..."

"I don't. But I trust Alys's judgement, and she thinks it's safer to keep him at distance. And so does Elijah."

"Why does he allow him to stay in the house, then?"

"Out of politeness... He's Alys's brother, after all. But there is a reason why Alys and he don't get along. Damon is... up to no good."

"How fitting. Caroline did it again. She always falls for the wrong guy. Someone who's just after her looks and thinks she is easy to get."

"Is she?"

I sighed. "I'm afraid so. At least, she has already been in a couple of short-term relationships. It's not that she loses her heart every time, though. I sometimes suspect that to her, it's a sort of competition about who gets the most attractive guy available."

He shot me an inquisitive glance. "Have you been participating much?"

"No," I freely admitted. "I'm not easily attracted to anybody. Maybe I don't want to be. When you lose someone it stays with you – always reminding you how easy it is to get hurt. So I guess I just try to be careful." I was briefly wondering why I was telling him that. It's not really something you blurted out like this, especially not to a guy who might – or might not – be interested in you. He must be thinking that I was warning him off, while in fact, I was just being honest.

"Cautious is not the worst thing to be," Stefan said. "It keeps people alive longer."

No one could argue with that. Sometimes, a very small part of me wondered if it didn't also keep a lot of fun things from happening. But then – you couldn't easily change what you were, nor erase the things that had made you become what you are. I changed the subject back to Caroline and her party, not wanting our talk get too gloomy again.

"So – what do you think: Is there a reasonable chance we might persuade Alys to come along, too?"

"To a party? I very much doubt it. She doesn't feel comfortable in crowds. It's not that she doesn't like to be with people – it just needs to be a smaller circle."

"You know what? I think we all should be having dinner together – nothing big, though. Do you like to cook?"

"I like eating better."

"Well, then Caroline and I will take care of it." I was getting more enthusiastic about this as we talked. It would probably be a chance to get Alys more acquainted with Caroline and Bonnie, too. But mostly, it would be good chance to get better acquainted with Stefan. "We could do it at our house – just you and Alys, Bonnie, maybe Matt for male balance and Caroline, Jeremy and I."

He skeptically raised his brow. "You call that a small circle?"

"It's just six people..."

"Yeah, you're right. I think I might get her to agree to that. I'll just have to be pushy."

"Jenna will be out of town for the weekend. We could have dinner on Saturday evening. It would be a nice ending for out spring holidays, before we all get back to college."

"You're sure your aunt wouldn't mind?"

"Jenna? No, she's cool. She was a rather outgoing teenager herself, from all I know. She was still very young when she became a mother – and she still is. In a lot of ways, she's more my friend than my aunt."

"I'm glad that you have had people around who care about you." Somehow, he sounded as if it really was. I marveled at his ability to feel compassion.

"How about you? Did the people you live with care about you?"

"They did – though not as much as someone who is family might. But then – you can still feel love, even if the people who love you can't be with you anymore."

Yes, I definitively knew that to be true. I had always felt my parent's love, even after their death, and I knew they had never stopped loving my brother after he had passed away. "Your real parents, are they dead, too?" He nodded.

"For how long?" There was a moment of hesitation before Stefan answered: "I've been living without them for almost twelve years now. It was terribly hard in the first years – it still is, sometimes. But like you said – although you might never really get over it, you learn to cope. Life goes on, and somewhere along the way you regain hope that it might have some pleasant things in store for you, still."

"So you are waiting for them to happen?"

He smiled at me. "I think they already have."

*'*'*'*'*

As we had hoped, our little surprise party turned out to be a full success. When Caroline and Damon turned up, everybody was there, cheering at her arrival. Caroline was beaming with delight. She had always loved to be the center of attention, which maybe was another reason why it had worked out with us so well. I had never felt the need to compete with her on this particular field at all, but much preferred to stay in the background. So I was genuinely delighted at her obvious joy and the success of our joined conspirative work.

"That is so sweet of you, Elena, Bonnie..." Caroline gave us a hug, almost moved to tears. "I had thought this would be a very depressing birthday, with my dad absent and my mom on duty... and now this! Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome. We had fun planning it. And besides, the evening wouldn't have turned out so bad anyway – you had a date with Damon, so don't you dare to fish for our pity!"

"Oh, he is striking, isn't he!" Her eyes were glowing again. "But Stefan makes for quite attractive company, too..." Her gaze wandered to where Stefan was standing – a little bit aloof from the crowd. "I wonder if it is good looks that make you qualify for foster care. They all look dashing together." They sure did. Although their tempers couldn't have been any more different. Damon was clearly enjoying himself immensely, talking to people, making contact, whereas Stefan was simply passively observing, politely answering questions if asked, but not purposely looking out for new acquaintances. I quickly stopped over at the buffet and loaded some pizza on my plate before I strolled over to him, fully able to sympathize with what I thought to be party discomfort.

"Hey. How are you doing?"

"Fine, thanks. I was just about to get myself something to drink. Can I get you something, too?"

"Thank you, later. I'm having my hands full with this."

He looked at my plate dubiously. "Are you going to eat this?"

"Why – it's delicious. You don't care for mushrooms?"

"It's the garlic I don't care for. I, ah, don't like the smell."

"Well, then have some, too, so you won't notice."

"Thanks, but no. I don't like the taste, either. I'll just stick with the beer."

"Looks like the party is a full success."

"Yes. Everyone is having a ball."

"I guess that's the advantage of living in a small town. People don't have high expectations as to the amusements. And knowing that they'll meet only the same crowd as usual makes them more inclined to put up with each other."

"There is definitively an amazing familiarity to this. Do you really know everybody who's here?

"More or less... I went to middle school here, before we moved away. Many of my classmates stayed for college, so it's still more or less the same faces around."

"Who is that guy over there who keeps looking at me so suspiciously? It's almost as if he expects me to do something untoward."

"That's Matt Donovan. I told you about him..."

"Your ex-boyfriend?"

I shrugged. "I guess you could call him that. But I think of him as a friend, now. He's still feeling a little protective about me, though."

"Well, I shouldn't blame him for that."

"He's always had a strong protective streak in him. Probably because of his sister, Vicky."

"The girl who got attacked last week and was in hospital?"

"Yes. Fortunately, she has fully recovered, at least physically. She's in therapy, now."

"Has she ever said what attacked her?"

"She doesn't remember." In fact, Vicky didn't even remember what she had said in the emergency room. "It seems like she has forgotten most of the incident. The doctors think she subconsciously banned it from her mind. Maybe that's for the best."

"Yes, maybe it is. Just hope she's going to be more careful in future."

I sighed. "Unfortunately, I doubt that. She has a knack for finding trouble. Matt is constantly worrying because she's hanging around with the wrong crowd."

"Sometimes you don't figure out who is wrong crowd until it's too late."

"Well, in her case it should be easy enough. They're even wearing scary tattoos all over them to warn people off."

He gave me a slightly bemused look. "You think bad guys always come with warning labels on them?"

"No, I guess not." My eyes caught on Damon, who was just strolling over to us. At least, there was no such thing on him, and yet he radiated danger. I had not been mistaken at the park. Whatever his intentions, this guy was bad ass.

"Good evening, Elena!" he said, smiling warmly. "Thank you for inviting me. It's a very nice party." Okay, so he was a bad ass with manners. That didn't change a thing.

"You don't need to thank me for that. It's Caroline's party, and she obviously wanted you here."

"Well, thanks anyway. For being supportive."

Although I was all for politeness, I couldn't leave that standing alone. He might have mollified Caroline, but he hadn't really appeased me. "Actually, I'm not sure if I am," I pointed out honestly. "That night in the park... you really scared the hell out of me."

"I guess my behavior that evening was incredibly rude. Please accept my humble apologies for that." Somehow, 'humble' and Damon didn't go together in the same sentence. Still, what could I do? He looked genuinely contrite.

"Well, since Caroline obviously forgave you, I guess I shouldn't be resentful. Apologies accepted." Damon smiled as if he had expected nothing less.

"So – Damon..." Stefan drew his attention from me. "Are you enjoying your stay in Mystic Falls so far? I mean – it's a very quiet and peaceful little place, not much to do here. The people like it that way, but out-of-towners might find it boring."

"On the contrary. I've already met some very interesting people. The complexity of relationships in a small town is quite intriguing, too. And it has a lot of history to it. I always like to dig into that." Damon's smile was half-way between smug and mischievous. I had the strangest feeling that they were discussing entirely different matters than the obvious ones.

"Are you going to find work here?"

"Actually, I'm was kind of in-between jobs, so I applied for a position as a research fellow with the faculty of history at Greenville University. Gives me the opportunity to do some research myself." Another wide grin that Stefan countered with a frown.

"What exactly are you researching?"

"Oh, historical stuff. The town's got a rich history dating back to the founders' days, and it is being kept alive until today. Lots of legends here, too."

"That's true!" I chimed in. "Mystic Falls is small, but it's very proud of its history. There is a Founders' Council up until today, and if you look at the listed members, you'll see a lot of familiar names: The Lockwoods, the Fells, the Mikaelsons ... even my own family."

"That would be the Gilberts," Damon said. He was well informed.

"Yes. My family goes all the way back to my five-times grandfather."

"It is said that history is very alive around here. Did you know that a lot of people in Mystic Falls kept diaries? They all paint a nice picture of the old days. Although the pictures themselves haven't always been nice. It was a dark and dangerous time, back then."

I shrugged. "There was a war. And yes, I know about the diaries. My mom kept one, too, and I follow the tradition."

Before he could respond to that, we were interrupted by Matt and Caroline, who obviously had been looking for us. Hi, Elena!" Matt greeted me, while giving Damon and Stefan a suspicious look. "There you are!" said Caroline, grabbing Damon's arm in a quite a possessive manner. "I've been looking for you."

"Looks like you found me," he responded with a tight-lipped smile. Was it my imagination or did he wear a slight frown? Caroline didn't seem to notice and pulled him away with her, chatting merrily.

"Matt! Have you met Stefan yet? He lives with Dr. Daniels, now."

"Hi. Nice to meet you..." Their handshake seemed friendly enough. They exchanged a few pleasantries, and then Stefan excused himself – probably to give Matt and me a chance to talk.

"It's good to see you here. How have you been doing the last few days? And how is Vicky?"

"She's out of the hospital. I spent a lot of time with her at the therapy center."

"That's good. I hope they can help her."

"Well, I'm not sure. She's been in there for only a few days, but it doesn't seem like she's going to pull through. It's not gonna do any good if she doesn't want to work on her problems herself. There's only so much I can do to help her. – So, what about you and the new guy in town – Dr. Daniels's new foster child? When did that happen?

"We met at the spring break party."

"And you two are already dating?"

"We're not precisely dating. But we might be... He really seems a nice guy."

"But you don't really know him all that well..."

"No, I don't. Yet. Why is it that you sound and act like a jealous boy-friend, Matt? I don't mean to be rude, but it's really none of your business anymore whom I might or might not be dating. We broke up."

"I know. I don't mean to sound jealous. Look – you told me how you felt about us and that it's not gonna work, but it just didn't feel like that for me. You were the one to break up, and I accepted that. But I can't help caring for you, even if you want us to be just friends."

"I know you do. And so do I, just not in a romantic way. I'm sorry about that, Matt. And I'd be even more sorry if that would prevent us from being friends again, given some time."

"I am your friend, Elena. Always will be. And I don't want you to get hurt."

"You can't protect everybody. You have your hands full looking out for Vicky, and frankly, she needs your attention more than I, especially now."

He sighed. "I just don't know what to do about her anymore. How can you help someone who refuses to be helped?"

"You can't. That's the painful truth. All you can do is to let her know that you'll be there for her, whenever she's ready to accept help from you. And I'm sure Vicky knows that. – You know what? I think you should forget about all of this for a while and do something only for yourself for a change – go out, have fun..."

"Well, I'm here!"

"Yes, but only because Tyler asked you to help out with the organization, not because you're really enjoying this."

"You're right. You've always been to good at reading me." He smiled a little regretfully and I felt a pang of guilt. I had never wanted to hurt him. He of all people did not deserve that. "So – how about a dinner with friends, at my house, tomorrow nighty? I'm having Stefan, Alys and Bonnie over and we're missing a guy to balance out proportions. I'd be a good opportunity for you to check out Stefan, so that – depending on the outcome – you could at least lay a small part of your worries to rest."

"I don't know, Elena..."

"Come on, Matt! I'll get your mind off things. And you always loved my homemade lasagna..."

"That's attempted blackmail!" he complained. I smiled sweetly. "Is it working?"

"Yeah, I guess it is!"