Ch. 13

Damon and Elena drove toward the Salvatore estate in complete silence. Every now and then Elena would glance towards the stone cold quiet man holding the steering wheel, or she would feel his gaze hot on her body. It was an insufferable game they played, pretending that what happened, hadn't just happened.

That he hadn't confessed his love for her, and she hadn't walked away.

Pulling into the drive Damon stopped the car and got out in one swift movement. Elena figured he was distracted and exhausted from their day. It had been rather eventful, and it was practically three in the morning. She sighed, lifting her hand to pull her door open, only to find it opening before her. Surprisingly Damon had come around to open her door for her. Elena's icy heart began to melt slightly. She stood and said, "Thank you," quietly looking up and meeting his eyes.

"You're welcome." He replied, swallowing hard and closing the door behind her. He went around to the trunk and opened it, lifting her bag out and carrying it towards the garage.

"Damon wait," Elena said at his back. He stopped and turned slowly looking back at her in wonder.

"You didn't get your bags."

"I didn't grab them." He admitted harshly. Elena hadn't even realized the hurry they had both been in to leave. She felt a sudden shame for pushing him to leave so soon, and for being so hard on him. It amazed her how one act of kindness from him could change her perspective so quickly. That now all she wanted was for the moment to last longer. Her heart was so utterly confused, and she found she couldn't find any words to say to him to make this situation any easier.

"You know before I ruined everything we were actually having a nice day." He said finally, stalling before the steps that lead up to the apartment above the garage.

"It was." Elena admitted, smiling. She suddenly appreciated the normalcy of the situation. She took pleasure in pretending that he was simply a man dropping off a woman from a romantic evening, and it felt right.

"You were a little hard on me though," he said, teasing her.

"Oh I think you've just been spoiled…people tend to treat you pretty carefully don't they?" she said back to him, tilting her head so he knew she was teasing him right back.

"Well…I never thought of it that way, but I suppose if I am truly the worlds only living heart donor I'd be careful with me too." He said with a wink of his eyes.

Elena instantly felt her insides turn warm and her lower abdomen contract. It amazed her that his eyes could do that to her in one single moment.

Breaking the silence and her heady thoughts Damon added, "Those pictures you took, when can you have them back to me by?"

"Tomorrow," She replied automatically. If she had been really thinking she might have come up with an excuse later that they had been ruined. She suddenly realized her anger towards Laura Salvatore and what she had put Damon through. Realizing the pictures themselves were apart of this elaborate scheme to keep her away from Stefan were they not? She soon discovered she didn't want to help her, and so she let him know by adding, "but I don't think I should give them to you."

"Elena, don't be that way. Look, I know you must have your reservations about my family at the moment, as well you should. But I would hate to have wasted any more of your time. You should at least be compensated for them." He stated, acting as if this was a business transaction other than an embarrassing personal struggle between them.

"Ok, fine. I'll develop them and get them to you in the morning. I can have them ready in the study by early morning." She said

"That won't be necessary. I'm going to be at the office tonight and for the remainder of the week. Just come by in the morning," he said looking down towards the pavement.

Elena stilled at his admission of staying at the office. It somehow made her realize that he in fact did not agree with his family either. His will to find distance away proved that alone, along with planning to sleep on a cold couch for a week.

"Sure." she replied, suddenly enraptured with his sacrificial spirit.

"Well goodnight then, Elena Gilbert," he said sticking his hands in his pockets and turning to leave.

"Damon." She said, causing him to turn around and look at her once more. Hope filled his eyes.

"Don't be too hard on Stefan with this merger. It really wasn't his fault."

Sighing Damon stepped towards her saying,"I work in the real world Elena. Stefan has no idea about any of this or about the severity of the choices he's made for this company."

"Hey-I know you work in the real world and you're awfully good at it. Trust me I don't think you've made a wrong move since you were three." She said catching herself smiling at the admission, but willing herself to get to the real reason she wanted him to hear, "But that's work. What about you Damon?"

"What about me?" he said in disbelief, and she knew that no one had cared enough to mention this question to him in years. Always doting on the youngest, and never fully seeing the potential Damon had to give. It made her heart sad, and she stared into his cool ocean blue eyes, quickly wishing she could erase the years of sadness that resided there.

"It was a nice day. Thank you Damon." She said dismissing the conversation and turning towards the steps to her apartment above. Taking each step one at a time she painfully knew she was somehow leaving a torn man with his demons and thoughts.

Reaching the door, Elena was surprised to discover the light still lit inside the home despite the unusual hour of her arrival. When she entered, Grayson was sitting astride an armchair with a lone book held fast in his hand. Elena smiled; the notion of coming home to her father reading wasn't a new one. It was in fact one she had come to rely upon over the years she spent with him. He'd occupied his entire life by living in the stories of his books, and waiting on others, and she loved him more for it.

"Hi there." He said simply looking up from his book and setting down his reading glasses. "Where were you?"

"I was down by the shore with Damon, taking pictures for the Salvatore's."

"Damon." He said, astonished. He began to rest his hand under his chin, the way he always did when he got a particular thought in his mind. His eyes studied hers, and he smirked at her silence, knowing something had happened between them. Judging by his reaction Elena wondered if he had in fact seen Damon's infatuation with her over the years. The way he had seen hers for Stefan and she longed to know it, but dreaded the answer all at the same time.

"There are so many things I love about you dad. One of them is that you spent your whole life waiting on others just so you could have time to read." She said standing beside a bookshelf of his her back to him, feeling tension in the air waiting for her to tell him what had happened.

Turning towards him she confessed, "We had a picnic on the beach and we ate crabs. Damon made them." She said, looking at her father who sat unmovable on his chair in silence. He was waiting for more, and she was going to tell him.

"I used to be so afraid of him." She admitted,

"That's appropriate." He replied simply. He knew how Damon could be too. Unchanging, unfeeling, and cold.

"What was he like as a boy?" she asked, intrigued by the idea that perhaps he had once enjoyed his life, possibly in his younger days.

"Shorter." Grayson said with a straight face, and in that moment Elena knew he had never known love. At least not the way that one should, and her heart broke slightly within in her chest.

"I'm going to bed Dad. Goodnight." She said simply walking towards her bedroom.

"Goodnight my dear." He said watching her retreat into her thoughts.

Closing the door to her room, Elena sunk back against it thinking about Damon. His eyes, his lips, his smile, even his hands. The hands that had held her face, and the lips that had kissed hers softly. The eyes that were filled with adoration, hope, and above all love.

So many things that she had seen from him in one day that he had possibly never experienced within his entire lifetime.

She also thought of Stefan. Of him living for the moment. Taking risk after risk, and throwing his chances away like pearls before swine. Always with a smile on his face.

Both of them were so very different, but one thing they both had in common she realized was that they were both starved. Starved for attention like wanderers in a desert. Always walking but never reaching their true destinations. Not once being fully content with the lives they had. They were famished by the love that they had never received from the two people it should have mattered most to them, their parents. Her anger seethed, and she sat upon her bed wishing with all her might that somehow this merger could be the end of this terrible drought for the both of them. That somehow they would find a way to rise up from the dust stronger than before, but she knew it would take something stronger than the family business.

It would take love.

***********AUTHORS NOTE***************

I am so very happy that I was able to update once more this weekend. I make no promises for another one this week though...life is getting a bit hectic. However, I do see the ending approaching and I feel that you all will love it.

I'm going to ask again...if I make this an M rating will you still read it? lol.

More Damon and Elena scenes to come. I'll let you know that after all the drama they are going to be "backing off" so to speak with the kissing, but that doesn't mean they wont still be falling in love ;)

Enjoy! Read/Review!