A/N: all were curious about how things will be going between Damon and Katherine, and I don't want to keep you in the dark much longer. So here' the 'End of the Affaire'... and finally, Damon's perspective, which I particularly enjoyed writing!

ELENA

The weeks following our somewhat surreal nightly ordeal passed strangely devoid of anything supernatural. We went back to our classes as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened. Everything was back to how things had been at the beginning of the semester, or at least almost. A certain Dr. Salvatore had left college, and his seminars had been taken over by Dr. Saltzman. For all I knew, Damon had moved back to Fells Church.

Alys had left town with him, feeling that she needed to keep an eye on things. She hadn't wanted to stay in the boarding house all by herself now that Damon was gone. Although she had promised to keep in touch, I hadn't heard from her since, and neither had Stefan.

"Don't worry, she'll call eventually," he reassured me, noticing that I had become downhearted and low-spirited ever since the boarding house was vacated. "They probably have a lot on their plates handling the situation with Katherine. Just give her some time."

I knew he was missing her, too, though having me close and being finally able to be with his family again seemed to fill the hole Alys had left, at least to some degree. Everything considered, Stefan was doing much better than a few weeks ago. He was a lot less sensitive to blood now, and had even managed to quietly excuse himself from class once, when a girl suddenly had gotten a nosebleed.

Jenna and Alaric were still going steady, and he had become a familiar presence in our house. He had turned out to be a good influence on Jeremy as well, who had taken a bit of a hit on hearing that Alys had left town. Ric shared his interest in sports, gaming and pool, and would take him out on a guys' night from time to time. He had even managed to get Jeremy interested in history, which, combined with his sudden interest in literature and poetry, made him almost a bit nerdy.

Caroline was still dating Matt, but I wasn't sure at this point if he would be making it over her three-month dating record. They were fighting a lot more now than they used to, but Caroline was really making an effort to listen to him and even compromised every now and then.

I tried not to think about Damon and Katherine too much, though I couldn't help wondering how things were going between them. Not knowing was bad, but picturing them happily together was worse. Every time my thoughts wandered to Fells Church, it made me feel an irrational stab of jealousy and even unjustified anger directed at Katherine. No matter how often I reminded myself that she hadn't done anything to deserve my wrath, that she was just a poor girl who had been saved from a horrible ordeal and given her life back, I found myself blaming her for my misery at the loss of my friends.

I hoped that Damon had found happiness. I truly did, even if a small, begrudging part that I wasn't exactly proud of was hoping that he wouldn't find it with her. Given that nobody knew about the tender feelings I had started to grow for Damon, they all blamed my feeling of loss entirely on Alys's absence, and I was more than willing to accept that as an explanation for my slight depression. After all, Damon's and my encounters had never exactly been comfortable or companionable, but often disturbing, irritating at times and always emotionally exhausting. Add to that the paranormal complications, all the threatening and potentially dangerous situations, and one could indeed wonder if I could really be so masochistic as to miss that. And torturing myself with 'might have beens' was as useless as crying over spilled milk.

While part of me wished that someone would call already, even if it was just to confirm that Damon and Katherine were a happy couple, part of me wanted to stay in denial and pretend that I was better off trying to forget all about them.

So when one evening the display of my buzzing phone finally showed Alys's number, I felt a weird mixture of hope, relief and a hint of disappointment.

"I'm sorry that I haven't called earlier," Alys apologized. Her voice sounded strained. "Things here have been – kind of crazy around here."

"I'm glad you're calling at all. It's great to hear your voice!" I was a bit surprised by the sudden moisture in my eyes. "Geez – I'm getting all sentimental over here. I really missed you!"

"I missed too. And Stefan."

"So how are you all doing?" I asked, wiping my eyes and avoiding to inquire about Damon in particular. "How is Katherine?"

Alys sighed. "We're all coping, more or less. For her, it has been an awful lot to take in. Almost everything comes as a shock to her."

"I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like... waking up and finding that the world has moved on by 150 years..."

"We're trying to feed her information as slowly as possible, but too much of it is simply staring her in the face. It's good that Damon brought her to Fells Church: At least her immediate surroundings are somewhat familiar. Except for the bathrooms, that is. But she quickly took a liking to those..."

I had to chuckle at that. Who wouldn't? Running hot water, in my opinion, was one of the best of human accomplishments. "That must be entertaining to witness."

"She is truly fascinated with every device that beeps, blinks or attaches to a socket," Alys said with amusement in her voice. "That is entertaining!"

"How do you teach her about all of that?"

"She spends most of her time in front of the TV. She's enthralled with it, not only because of the moving images. I was surprised how much you can actually learn from it, even by watching soaps and commercials."

I snorted. "Only if you were in coma for 150 years, I guess."

"It's a good way to familiarize her with modern lifestyle, though we have an awful lot of explaining to do... So far, she is thrilled about emancipation, totally shocked that our current president is black and still doubtful as to whether we hoaxed her about the moon landing. Damon bought her a whole chest of new clothes: tops, fitted shirts and skinny jeans – a lot like the things you're wearing, actually. I guess he must have been inspired by your style."

Indeed? I was having mixed feelings about that. Imagining that a copy of me was out there in Fells Church, wearing my style of clothes and kissing the man I had kissed, too... But then, one could argue that I was the copy. After all, she'd been there, done that. She was his first.

"Before watching the soaps, she plain refused to put pants on, and even now, she still thinks that she's doing something incredibly naughty just by wearing 'a hosen'. She also refused to believe that the hair of the news anchorwoman was cut like that on purpose. I could describe the effect Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball' video had on her, it was pretty hilarious. Damon briefly considered blocking YouTube entirely." She paused briefly. "Still, I'm surprised at the speed she's taking it all in. 150 years missed – you would think it was unimaginable to confront someone with cell phones, TV and internet who has barley heard about telegrams."

"It must be hard for her... So many changes, and all comes crashing down on her in a blink of an eye..."

"Yes. Even our language is foreign to her – she doesn't know at least a third of the words, and I feel funny speaking to her like I'm reciting Edgar Allan Poe. She finds it hard to accept that even rich people prepare their own breakfast and do the washing, nowadays, and she refused the blood bags, clearly not believing that blood could be stored outside a human body. I suppose it is not surprising for someone who doesn't know about canned food and freezers at all."

"What has she been feeding on, then?"

"The male guests Damon regularly invites for dinner," Alys said dryly. God. I wondered if they were blood-servants. Or did he just grab someone off the street? I preferred not to ask.

"I have a hard time accepting that, Elena," Alys said in a low voice. "With her here – the things she says to and about Damon... I see why he has become what he is if she was the one who taught him. She has no moral values."

"Well, you had a chance to adapt, change your views with the changes in society. She comes straight out of a time where morals were entirely different."

"Yes. But I can't help feeling that it wouldn't make a difference. I wonder if she had moral values even back then. It's exactly what fascinated Damon about her. Our father was very strict – we were raised to be disciplined and obedient children. When Damon met Katherine, it roused the rebellious streak in him. Katherine always knew exactly what she's was doing, what she wanted, and how to get it. Frankly, I don't like her, and having to look at her face every day, thinking of you..."

"Does she really look like me?"

"There is definitely a strong resemblance, and to be totally honest, it freaked me out. I had a hairdresser come over yesterday. We talked her into getting highlights and a perm. It does go with her pale skin, and it definitely makes any resemblance to you less obvious."

"Does she know about me?"

"So far, Damon has remained pretty vague about how the tomb was opened. He hasn't mentioned you, and Katherine doesn't remember you from that night. "

"So – I take it they're not planning on coming back here any time soon?" I wasn't sure which answer I was hoping for.

"No, Damon definitely wants to keep her as far away from Mystic Falls as possible. It might stir some bewilderment if somebody recognized your likeness. And don't forget Elijah. He'd recognize her, without doubt, and I'm not sure if he'd be applauding on learning that Damon got her out of the tomb."

"Which means that he doesn't know anything about it yet?"

"Damon for sure hasn't told him, and I didn't want to go behind his back." Again, Alys gave a heavy sigh. "Elena, I want to come home."

I couldn't have been happier – or so I tried to convince myself – except maybe by turning back time entirely. But that was a selfish thought. Katherine deserved her second chance, and so did Damon. I had to content myself with getting Alys back, and that surely was ample reason for joy.

Given that she still didn't want to live in the boarding house all by herself, she finally moved back into the dorm room with me. As there was no longer any need for hiding and sneaking, things were relaxed between us. Alys still tried to be discreet about her diet, but even if I accidentally caught her sipping on a blood bag, it didn't freak me out anymore.

Things were quiet and peaceful in Mystic Falls again. And if it still felt like something was missing, it was at least a familiar feeling. I had learned to live with it a long time ago. You just have to shove it to the back of your mind, ignore the nagging pain and sense of loss and tell yourself that you're okay. Or that you will be, eventually.

*'*'*'*'*'*

DAMON

"It's been almost four weeks, Damon," Katherine complained sullenly, twisting a lock of her curly hair around her finger. "I'm bored out of my mind! You can't keep me locked up in this house forever."

I couldn't suppress a sigh. We had had this discussion before. More than once, in fact. "I'm not planning to," I still said, trying for patience. It was beginning to wear thin, given that it was being stretched so much lately. "It's just too early. You're not ready."

"Not ready for what? To deal with the word outside?" She let go of her hair and straightened her back, fixing me her olive eyes. "I certainly am. I'm dying to finally see it all for myself, not just on TV. You could take me shopping. It's what girls like doing nowadays, right? We can go to a – what was the word again? A mall! Take me to a mall. I want clothes that actually fit – and I want my own extra brain cells."

"You want extra brain cells?" I echoed a little foolishly, until Katherine pointed to my phone with an impish smile. "A cell phone?"

"Yes," she said, "those are truly great. Just like the computer. It's like carrying around an entire library – fucking amazing."

I frowned at her choice of words. She definitely had watched to many videos. "You're not supposed to say fucking," I chided. "It's not – ladylike."

"No? But everybody keeps saying it on TV."

"That's exactly what I mean, Katherine. It's the real world out there, not TV. Though many people might not notice anymore, there's actually a difference."

"How am I supposed to find out if that's true if you're keeping me under house arrest?" she pouted. "Honestly, I believe you don't even have the right to do that nowadays – not even if you were my husband, which you're not. I'm widowed." She smiled at that. No wonder. Benjamin Lockwood had been an asshole. If she could, she'd probably dance on his grave.

"Please, Damon," Katherine begged, batting her eyelashes at me. "Just for two hours!"

I sighed and reached for my keys. She had been locked up in a tomb for 150 years. No wonder she felt like the ceiling was coming down on her. "Alright," I said. "A short trip to the mall it is. If you behave, we'll even have a coffee somewhere."

She clapped her hands and her eyes lit up in joy. And again I had to marvel at how our roles had suddenly been reversed. She seemed so young, all of a sudden, whereas I felt each of my 172 years.

Before we stepped out of the house, I gave her a pair of my old aviator sunglasses. "Here, put those on. Your eyes will still be very sensitive to the light." Besides, they were slightly irritating me whenever I looked at her. The color was off.

"This feels silly," she complained. "I once had an old teacher who was wearing glasses. Just that they weren't tinting everything brown..."

"Think of it as your jewelry. It's cool."

"And this is supposed to keep me warm?" Knowing that she had spent enough time in front of TV to be familiar with that particular expression, I just raised my brow at her attempt to hoax me into giving a totally superfluous explanation. I wondered briefly how often she had done that just to enjoy a private joke. She finally snapped the glasses from my hands. "Fine. But I still liked rubies and diamonds better."

"Now, come on. Let's get this over with. And try to act – normal."

I opened the door for her and steered her to the car. Just to indulge her, I decided to leave the top open and go at full speed. Nothing compared to the exhilarating feeling of going at full speed. I knew she'd love it. Katherine loved everything that was exciting, forbidden and highly dangerous.

"You have to teach me how to drive," she beamed, when we finally pulled into the parking lot of one of Columbia's larger malls. "This was really fun! I want a car like that!"

"Well, let's get you an extra brain, first."

Shopping with Katherine turned out to be highly entertaining, but also highly expensive. She got her cell phone, an entire new wardrobe and a lot of extra necessities and accessories she insisted a girl nowadays needed to have. It dawned on me then that she had seen far too many commercials, too. After two hours, I was exhausted. Extra vampire stamina was not particularly helpful on a shopping spree.

I managed to talk her into having our coffee break and steered her into a small bar type place that somehow reminded me of the Grill in Mystic Falls. Another thing that was irritating. Lately, a lot of superficial and totally pointless memories kept popping up. And it's not like I had ever liked that stupid, sleepy town.

"Now, what you are going to have? A coffee? Or a snack?"

Katherine leaned closer, mischief in her eyes. "Why not?" she asked. "The man behind the counter looks appealing..."

I gave a crooked smile clapped the menu shut. "A coffee it is."

"Wait – let me see the menu," she begged, "just out of interest. This is fun! I've never been to a public eating place before. It has a very decadent feeling to it... just as if we were doing something truly outrageous and indecent!"

"Believe me, having a coffee in plain daylight is not even close to indecency. I think most people don't even know how to spell that word anymore. If you wanted to do something incredibly indecent, we would have to make out right here at the table."

She threw me a meaningful gaze from beneath lowered lashes. "Just so you know, Mr. Salvatore: I wouldn't turn down your advances even if they seemed a little out of place. We haven't really been 'making out' at all, not even in private."

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. "Well, let's take it slow, Katherine. I only got you back. It may seem like yesterday for you, but for me, it's been a lifetime ago."

"You were always such a gentleman, Damon," she sighed a little regretfully. "Decent, good and proper. I see that hasn't changed at all."

Another thing that last happened a lifetime ago – a woman calling me decent and a gentleman. When I had been anything but in the last 100 years. Elena would have a ball.

"Damon! Will you have a look at that!" Katherine's voice tore me out of my moment of reverie.

"What?"

"Are those the prices? Oh, this is outrageous and very indecent, indeed! Three dollars for a cup of coffee? Quite an impressive inflation! Or has that anything to do with the abolishment of slavery?"

I winced. "Keep saying things like that in public, and you'll reaallly get into trouble!"

"Why?"

"Well, slavery is still sort of a touchy subject. Some of the black people are still pissed with the whites because of it."

Katherine sighed. It was probably one of these times where she realized once again that 150 years could be something of an eternity. She had an awful lot to learn, and she needed me. And that was pissing her off. She had never liked depending on anybody. It was making her feel weak and vulnerable. At least in her time and with most men, she had known how to turn it into an advantage.

"Are you going to help me cope with all of this?" Katherine asked, giving me a look from underneath her dark lashes that was probably meant to convey innocence and helplessness and appeal to my protective instincts. Yet her light green eyes somehow failed to pull off the doe-eyed look.

"Well, I can't just let you run around all clueless and bewildered, now, can I?" I asked back in a light tone, evading an answer.

Katherine frowned. My reluctance to fully commit to her had obviously not escaped her notice. "You seem changed, somehow," she remarked. "I can't really put my finger on it. Maybe it's an effect of changed time, culture and manners. But – you seem a little distant."

"I'm sorry if you expected differently. It's not that easy. For me, it was a very long time ago." I felt the difference in our relationship just like she did. It was not what I had expected, either. Not that I had expected anything. Truth speaking, I hadn't been thinking much ahead of the moment when I got her out of the tomb. If I had, I might have realized that it wouldn't be possible to pick up things exactly where we had left them. "A lot of things changed."

I wasn't referring to society or technology, but she was oblivious to that. "Then teach me, Damon. Teach me about this new time as I taught you about your new life back in 1862. Do you remember? We were so in love with each other. We should never have separated."

But we had been separated. And I had gone on living, whereas for her, time had stood still. I kept reminding myself that it wasn't her fault things had turned out that way. But it wasn't mine, either. Yet I felt an obligation to her. I had to help her to get her life back on track. Only then we'd see what would become of us.

*'*'*'*'*'*'*

A couple of weeks later, I finally had to admit to myself that Katherine and I were not going to become anything. I felt like I didn't know the woman anymore who had taken residence in my life again, and of course, that could only mean that I must have changed considerably at some point over the last 150 years. It couldn't be her, although she seemed to be a different person than the one I had fallen in love with.

Whatever fascination Katherine had held for me in 1862, it was gone now. Of course, she was still beautiful, but she was way too aware of it. Coquetting with her looks as she was made her beauty seem like a tool and rather superficial. She was still smart and witty, but, as I realized soon, she mainly used her cleverness to turn any situation to her own advantage and always tried to get the best out of it for herself. She still had a strong will and didn't care much for anybody else's opinion, but her drive for independence didn't leave any room for closeness.

In short, she was only getting on my nerves. When I suggested to her that we take a time-out so she could go out and discover the world, she first didn't get my meaning. How could she – a relationship time-out was unheard of back then. And even today, I had to admit, it was probably just the coward's way out of a broken relationship that was already beyond mending. I preferred to think of it as letting her down gently.

When I tried to explain, she looked at me with an expression of disbelief and hurt that surely must be fake. It couldn't come as a surprise to her, either. The fact that we hadn't even shared a bed must have told her something.

"But you loved me!" she insisted, still refusing to accept what was plain and clear before our eyes. "You still must, otherwise you wouldn't have brought me back."

I could only stare at her face that once had been so familiar. Her eyes were lacking of warmth. "I thought I did," I said, trying once more to make her understand what I only had found out very recently myself. "I was an adolescent back then. Now I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe it was something else – infatuation, a streak of rebellion against my father, a hunger for adventure..." Alys had been right. I had been obsessed – caught up in my own past, my memories, my longing. Time to face the truth. "It wasn't so much you that I wanted back, as everything else I once cherished. My old life. My self-respect. My humanity. Everything I lost when I lost you."

"Oh – so this all my fault now?" she said, enraged. "You wanted this, Damon! You wanted to be turned, and you surely embraced your live as a vampire. You wanted me! What happened to you that got you so – softhearted?"

Softhearted? That was hardly a characteristic anyone had ever attributed to me. I guess it took a really ruthless person to call another ruthless person soft. I shook my head, trying very hard to remember that this wasn't her fault. She wasn't the one that had changed. I had. With the situation now reversed, the balance of our relationship had shifted. "But I'm not," I said in an even voice. "I've been a heartless person for the last 150 years. Ever since I gave my heart to you. It was entombed with you."

"I gave you my heart, too! And I gave you your life, the life that you're still living. And you enjoyed the power it gave you – just as much as I did! Have you forgotten what it was like? The hunger, the chase, the blood, the fear you were able to put in people's eyes... And now you're having scruples about that all of a sudden? You sound like Elijah, he was such a bore! I thought you were different... daring, devilish, unscrupulous ..."

I couldn't stand to see her face any longer. It seemed like a cruel, twisted parody of what it was supposed to look like. "Then maybe you were mistaking me for someone else all along." I turned my back on her and poured myself another glass of whiskey, wishing I could still drown it all in alcohol, if only for a couple of hours. But while it made for a nice feeling of warmth in my stomach and curbed my cravings for other substances that had the same effect, it couldn't make me forget.

"Now that's quite a disappointment!" Katherine said icily. "If that's how you truly feel about us, we had better end this here and now."

"Right," I consented, relieved that she finally seemed to be on the same page with me. Yet the look she gave me was incredulous, even shocked. "Come again?" she asked, not believing she had understood me correctly.

I turned back to face her, feeling oddly calm all of a sudden. "You heard me. Just leave. The rules of the game are still the same – you can always find yourself some rich dude who kisses the ground you walk on. You're an adult woman. You sure know how to take care of yourself. You always did."

"You're breaking up with me?" She appeared dumbfounded. I briefly wondered if this was the first time ever someone had broken up with Katherine Pierce. If so, I couldn't care less. "Whatever we had was broken a long time ago. I just hadn't realized it before."

"You can't do this – you owe me, Damon!"

Now that really got my hackles up, and I felt my anger rising, too. "I owe you what?" I asked, making no effort to keep the venom out of my voice. "I already gave you over a 100 years of my life, and if you didn't profit from that, guess what: Neither did I! I got you out of the tomb, Katherine, and I gave you your life back. If it wasn't for my pledge to Emily, you would have burned in that church. I saved you back then. We're even."

"Fine then," she finally said with dignity, keeping her cool. I had to give her that – Katherine still had style. "I'm going to leave – until you come to your senses, which you doubtlessly will. You and I, Damon we're one of a kind, and you'll come back to me, because we are meant to be. I'll probably go to New York. Seems like a fascinating place, from all I heard. Don't try to call me any time soon."

And just so she left two days later, in a car that I had bought her and with four suitcases full of clothes and the various trinkets she had amassed in the last weeks. It felt like I was buying my freedom in paying her off. Seemed like a good investment to me.