Hostage Control

by LittleHandGernade

:::Complete:::Addie's agreed to be Klaus' hostage in order to keep everyone she loves safe. She's left her boyfriend in charge of watching her sister, despite his lingering feelings for Elena and her feelings for him. Damon's jealousy and everyone's expectations are becoming too much to bear. Can they find their way back to each other or is one summer too long apart? Sequel Coming!

16. Chapter 15

"I still think this is a bad idea," Addie muttered as she again walked through the empty space where the locked coffin had appeared only moments before. The physics of it were mindboggling. Did the witch spirits transport the coffin to a new location? It was more than a simple cloaking spell that made it invisible, otherwise she wouldn't be able to stand exactly where the coffin had been.

"Then go," Damon suggested for the fifth time. "I think you being here is the part that's a bad idea."

She stooped down to see if she could differentiate between the usual dirt and grime versus and that might have been smudged by the moving of the coffin. "Me being here is the only smart part of this plan," she said as she rubbed at a scuff mark.

Rolling his eyes, Damon moved from his place by the stair to sit on one of the two visible coffins as he reminded, "This plan was your idea."

"No, no. My plan involved making the agreement with Klaus, without your smartass, provoking commentary and then giving him the coffins."

"Well that was when we only had to worry about keeping Stefan out of here during the exchange. We weren't having to keep Bonnie and her mother occupied at the same time. You know Klaus would demand his family the second you struck a deal. Asking him to wait a few days so we could sneak the coffins to him wasn't exactly an option. In case you haven't noticed, Bonnie's Mommy and Me time is like all the time and it takes place in this room. We're lucky that Elena happened to drag them to dinner and a movie on the same night Stefan heard whispers of a hybrid within 50 miles of town. Would you stop crawling around on the floor?" he asked in exasperation as she seemed to be trying to pry up a floorboard.

Addie sighed and brushed her hands off on her jeans as she stood back up. "And of course you didn't plant the idea of going out in Elena's head or tell Stefan about the hybrid," she retorted sharply.

He held up his hands innocently. "Coincidence is a funny thing."

"It's not a coincidence if you're a maker of the circumstances!"

"Look, we need to get some kind of control over Stefan before he goes postal and drives you off Wickery Bridge. Bonnie and her mom have been trying to open the coffin for nearly a week with no progress and he's getting antsy. I didn't exactly have a choice," Damon said defensively.

"There's always a choice, Damon. Next time, let's not be devious when I have an exam at 8AM the following day. In fact, let's also not be devious on days when I have literally run the length of a marathon. It really does drain me; as such, my mental acuity isn't quite up to par," scorned Addie as she leaned against the coffin next to him.

Wrapping his arms around her waist he tugged her to him and smirked. "Your mental acuity is sharp enough to berate me. You are more than up to the task of going toe-to-toe with Klaus," he argued.

"But I'm apparently not up to the task of handling him on my own," she retorted pointedly. Addie wasn't convinced Damon could be rational long enough to keep from pissing Klaus off and getting one of them killed.

"Au contraire mon amour. You've proven yourself capable of handling Klaus and it is precisely that reason why I insist on being here," he corrected. "I have to make sure you don't get too carried away and start making him feel like we're brow beating him into this."

"Are you saying I'm bossy?" demanded Addie.

Damon's lips twitched as he fought to keep a mask of innocence as he quickly shook his head. "I never said that… today," he tacked on when she stared at him disapprovingly. He tensed as he heard the crunching of leaves outside. Swiftly kissing her cheek he murmured in her ear, "I'm just here to protect you; otherwise, this is all you, Ads. You got this."

If Damon's sudden change in behavior wasn't enough to alert Addie of Klaus' presence, the overwhelming sensation of darkness and the desire to leave were. For once, more out of concern for Damon's protection than embarrassment over being seen so close together she moved to lean against the other visible coffin. They were going to tell Klaus to say he had used Damon against her, while the idea wasn't exactly new and it was how he had gotten her to spend the summer with him, she didn't want Klaus to decide to actually do it again. It was on the exhaustive list of reasons she had been keeping her distance from Damon but then she had gone and screwed all that up when, in a moment of weakness, she'd told him she loved him.

As much as Addie had needed space after Damon had drugged her to come to terms with it and how she felt about keeping him in her life, the distance had also been for his own protection. Addie had convinced Klaus that she had ended things with Damon when he fled Mystic Falls. They had been careful to make sure everyone believed they were still just friends. Rebekah had been a little suspicious, particularly after catching them kissing in the library. Though even after a three hour fight, Addie hadn't been able to persuade Damon to tell Alaric what he had walked in on was just something casual. He kept repeating something about the integrity of her reputation and the bonds of friendship only stretching so far. Bitterly she had hoped that Damon had been forced to sit through the wrong choice, bad idea lecture that Alaric had tried to give her. With the exception of Alaric, as far as everyone knew, Addie had broken up with Damon. Perhaps they had been unwisely close for people trying to hide a romance when she first got back but once Klaus had returned, alive and for good, Addie realized just how important it was that it seem like they weren't together. Klaus liked to strike where someone was vulnerable and they were too obviously each other's weakness.

She knew Damon thought her naive, and perhaps she was, but she wasn't stupid. For some reason Klaus was interested in her in some way. In Chicago he had said he thought there was something special about her. He thought that perhaps she couldn't be compelled but because she had done everything he had asked, most of which she refused to remember, he had wrongly concluded that she could be. Klaus was interested in more than that, though. Rebekah had let it slip that Klaus thought of as the solution to some kind of problem or curse. The blonde had also revealed that Stefan had been ordered to keep her safe and Klaus would dagger Rebekah if she hurt her. Addie was fairly certain she was safe from Klaus for a while but she hadn't shared any of this information with Damon. The last thing she wanted to do was encourage more reckless attempts to kill Klaus.

Addie shoved her hands deep in her pocket to keep them from shaking as she heard the floorboards of the stairs gently creek.

"Addison," Klaus greeted politely with a slight bow as he fully entered the room. Spying Damon his voice hardened, "I was under the impression we were meeting alone."

The vampire snorted and Addie quickly shot him a warning looking. Her way. She waved her hand dismissively at Damon as her attention returned to Klaus. "Ignore him; it's what I typically do. Damon needs to hear this conversation but you and I are the only ones involved."

The hybrid raised a cool, speculative eyebrow. "He's letting you call your own shots now?"

It wasn't only Klaus who was surprised by this. Ever since she had told him she loved him, Damon had pretty much supported anything Addie wanted to do. He was much less overbearing and overprotective; it was nice. The only thing he had demanded on was being present for this meeting but he had surprisingly agreed to keep quiet. She wasn't quite sure how long that was going to last, though.

With a slight shrug and small frown she easily lied, "Not really. However I had already set up this meeting with you when he found out so he had a limited amount of time to run interference. Obviously you would figure out something went wrong if I never showed and there there's a very short list of people who could have prevented me from being here so -"

"Allowing this meeting to proceed is in his own best interest," Klaus finished for her. Bitterly he asked, "This time he had to run interference, I'm assuming it is why I only see two coffins and not four?"

"Yes. I'm not just handing them over to you, though," Addie replied sharply as he caressed the one closest to her.

He stared blankly at her for a moment before grinning predatorily, "I could just kill both of you and take them."

She nodded in agreement. "You could try that but you should know that if you try and remove these coffins without my permission or if either one of us comes to harm you will be facing the wrath of one hundred dead witches." Suddenly the flames of the fifty candles she and Damon had lit around the room shot up. Remaining politely detached she asked, "Understand?"

"What do you want?" growled Klaus. In response, the flames returned to normal.

"Not much. I wanted peace." She quickly raised a hand to silence him as he made to interrupt her. "I know that won't happen until you have your family back, I know. I tried to do that for you, Klaus, but I was," her eyes quickly flashed to Damon and he gave her a barely perceptible nod as she lamented, "prevented. I'm doing what I can. I think we can all agree that Stefan's state of mind is questionable and he should not be holding the power of your family over you. And before you get the wrong idea, do not believe that I am on your side and think you should have your family back. This summer you took me from my family; you deserve to be punished for that and I see no way more fitting than to do exactly the same to you.

"However, Stefan has had your family for almost as long as you held me hostage. In my book we are equal enough that I rather deal with you having your family than Stefan having them. So, I'm offering to give you back half your family on a few conditions," Addie said, sounding smooth and confident. Damon was proud; if it wasn't for her drumming her fingers against her thigh inside her pocket, he wouldn't have been able to tell that she was freaking out.

Slowly, through gritted teeth Klaus repeated, "What do you want?"

Addie sighed heavily and rested her hip against the coffin, "It's Stefan's instability that is proving to be problematic. You understand how he'll want to rip my throat out for doing this. Currently I'm fond of living so I don't want this. So how do I give you what you want and control the beast?"

"You want me to compel him?"

"No; it was a rhetorical question." Was it possible to compel Stefan into who he was before Klaus turned him into a ripper? Addie looked quickly at Damon; they had never discussed the option of having Klaus try and compel Stefan. He barely shook his head enough for her to detect it. "The one redeeming quality of Stefan," she told Klaus, "is that there are remnants of his humanity left. He says he's willing to risk Damon's life to get revenge on you but I'm counting on that not being true."

"That's a child's hope, Addison," he remarked condescendingly.

Unfazed, she shrugged, "Well, you have the option of indulging a child's hope and getting two brothers back or walking out of here with nothing." When he didn't respond she assumed he was listening. "The story we all will tell anyone when asked how you got the two coffins back will be that you threatened me with Damon's life if I didn't return them to you. It wouldn't be the first time I did something because you threatened someone I cared about. And you chose me because Stefan's humanity is just a little too questionable when you have someone you know you can manipulate."

Klaus crossed his arms and leaned against the coffin about a foot in front of Addie as he surmised her. "So you're trusting that Stefan won't kill you because if push came to shove, he would have done the same thing?"

"That's the theory. Obviously, as I've said, his rationality is a little questionable at the moment so I will, of course, be taking increased security precautions."

"Like Damon?" he sneered.

"Damon. Alaric. Bonnie. I'll have plenty of people watching out for me," Addie shrugged. Sarcastically she added, "And, surprisingly enough, there might just be the chance that I could possibly defend myself. Wouldn't even be the first time I've staked a vampire."

Klaus considered her for a long time as he stroked his chin in thought. His attention turned to Damon who was watching them with a cool disinterest and wondered, "You think it's enough protection?"

"I said this conversation was between you and me," Addie snapped, moving her head to block Klaus' view of Damon.

"Yes but I know you tend to take your safety quite lightly. He doesn't," Klaus replied simply.

"It's not ideal but it's possible she's in more danger right now. We will know Stefan might be targeting her so everyone will be on guard. Currently, we have no idea what his plan is and the last time he decided to do something she got hurt," answered Damon as soon as he saw Addie's eyes narrow and mouth pinch. They weren't going to fuck up this plan just because she wanted to be a stubborn smartass. He smiled sweetly as she glowered at him.

"Say I upped your security. Just a hyb-"

Interrupting him, Addie scoffed loudly, "This is not a negotiation. I'm comfortable with my security level. You have a problem with it then feel free to continue trying to bargain back your family from Stefan."

"Just being polite," Klaus said innocently. "When do I get the rest of my family?"

Addie shrugged, "I dunno. Like I said, Damon ran interference."

"Mhm," he nodded. "So why don't I just actually kill Damon if you don't give me all the coffins instead of saying that I threatened you? I prefer to be a man of action."

"You can be a man of action but look at the facts: Damon doesn't agree with me handing your family over nor does he agree with Stefan having control over them. Do you really think he's going to tell anyone one where he put them?" she pointed out wisely.

Coldly Klaus suggested, "I could just torture the locations out of him."

"Do you worst and you'll still never know," Damon chuckled darkly.

The hybrid shook his head as his lips twitched into a feral grin, "Oh, no, not physical torture. I've done my research. That would be quite useless on you, wouldn't it, Damon? But pain for Addie would be the epitome of torture for you."

"You so much as look at her in a way I don't like and you'll be fishing Elijah out of the Challenger Deep," hissed Damon, breaking plan and moving to stand protectively by her side.

"Actually at 36,000 feet deep the pressure is approximately 1,000 times that at sea level so he would probably be kinda…" Addie trailed off as she mimed crushing something between her hands. "Plus you couldn't even open something at that depth to quickly retrieve him. You'd have to use like one of those claws in those crane machine games to kind of pick up his body. You would-" realizing they were both staring at her, Klaus with barely controlled anger and Damon in mild amusement, she muttered, "nevermind."

"What do you want?" Klaus demanded of Damon.

He shrugged, "I want you to go along with Addie's plan. If I see any of the extended Original family around town, someone goes in the ocean. Addie's asked for Rebekah as an exception, which I will permit if you can keep her from killing the locals. You have made it clear that you wish to make a home in this town and, you know, you keep your hybrids out of here and that's fine. As soon as you decide you want to leave Addie, everyone she cares about, my brother, and me alone and want to move, then I'll return the other two coffins."

"I need Elena," Klaus hissed.

"Right, your blood bag," Damon snorted. "As long as I hold onto the coffins you'll get one litre every six months provided we stay on good terms."

"Good terms?"

"I don't see why this can't function like any good business deal. You and your family can have any part of the globe, Klaus. We just want Mystic Falls."

Klaus fumed, "What do I get out of this? How is this any better than dealing with Stefan?"

"Guaranteed return of two coffins right now before anything happens to them. Hassle-free hybrid juice as long as you keep hybrids out of town and keep daggers in whoever's in the coffins, so as long as you choose. We all coexist in this town in peace," Addie listed off on her fingers. "Well, we can't speak for Stefan and peace and if you try some new evil scheme we're allowed to react but, you know, peace otherwise."

Not liking the angry shade of red the hybrid was turning, Damon took Addie's hand in his and lend her towards the stairs. Over his shoulder he said, "Stefan can't be reasoned with, Klaus. I have Addie whispering in my ear and she just wants you gone. You'll make a lot more progress working with us. Take the deal."

---

"We drove four hours to go hiking?" Addie grumbled in disbelief as Damon helped slide a backpacking pack onto her back. It was heavy and she had to brace herself from stumbling backwards when he left her bare the full weight of it.

"Not exactly," he muttered as he buckled the straps around her waist and across her chest

She looked expectantly at Damon, waiting for him to elaborate but he didn't as he put on his own pack, much larger and heavier than the one he'd given her. He'd been acting strange since he had suddenly appeared to pick her up from taking the PSAT and randomly declaring that they were going out of town. When she kept asking him why he would only say that they just needed some alone time. He had apparently loaded her car with the packs while she was taking the exam.

"Then why, exactly?" Addie eventually caved and asked.

Damon flashed her big grin as he tug out the case containing her Celestron Omni XLT telescope and held it up in explanation. "There's a meteor shower tonight and Jupiter is supposed to look really amazing."

Slamming the boot door closed, he headed off in the direction of a much traveled trail that led up the mountains and to the campsite.

"I'm fairly certain we could have seen both of those things just fine from my backyard," she complained, following him. "Why did we drive four hours away Damon?"

"I told you," he sighed in exasperation as he held a low hanging tree branch out of her way. "We just need some alone time."

"Thanks," she said softly, gently squeezing his hand as she passed him, Louder she continued to pry, "I don't see why we had to travel four hours away to have alone time and look at stars."

"I wanted to get away from the light away pollution so we could get the best view. Besides, these backpacks aren't just to make a fashion statement, love," Damon grinned, continuing to lead her up the hill.

Addie stopped for a moment as her lips pinched while she watched him move with grace and convinced, Grimly she surmised, "Camping? We're going camping?"

He tried not to snicker at the trepidation in her voice and reassured her, "Don't worry, Ads. I am more than a match for anything we may encounter in these woods."

She gave a small noise of disagreement and disbelief as she continued to follow him. Her reluctance to camp wasn't entirely irrational. That few campers she had heard about had been eaten by a werewolf. Before that a string of campers had been victims of animals attacks, the bodies drained of blood. Of course that had been Damon and Addie really didn't believe he'd do that to her. Glancing to the bright blue sky she tried to remember what phase the moon was in.

Roughly an hour later, when she was just about read to ask Damon how much further they were going to wander into the woods they came upon a large, level clearing of the trees. Moving to the northern end of the bare space, he carefully set down the telescope.

"Jupiter hangs in the southern sky. We will be able to see it best from here," he explained as he looked up at the circular gap between the trees ringing the grassy area.

Her eyebrows raised in slight surprise; Damon had never let on that he knew anything about astronomy any time she went on about it. In the east layers of striated hazy blue clouds hung low in the sky. "You sure you picked the right time to do this?" she asked, nodding towards the clouds.

"Feel that?" he retorted, moving closer to her. His lips twitched in amusement as her brows furrowed with confusion. "No wind. Clouds are miles away and not moving towards us. It also means that the upper atmosphere should be pretty calm so thermal currents won't be deflecting and refracting light," explained Damon with a sense of smugness.

Unknowingly, Addie crossed her arms and pouted slightly. Damon unbuckled the support strap across her waist and chest as he softly asked, "What?"

"Nothing," she muttered, letting him help her take off the heavy hiking backpack.

"Something's wrong. Tell me what," he insisted.

A little more roughly than she meant to, she took the pack from him and snipped, "You know astronomy. It's annoying."

Addie stomped over to a long, dead log, a few leaves already dead for winter crunching under her feet, Next to the log lay a pile of grey and black ash, the remains of what was once a fire. She rest the backpack against the log as she watched a snickering Damon move to the east side of the campsite and remove his own larger bag.

"What's so funny?" she huffed, placing her hands on her hips.

Damon shook his head in amusement as he unstrap what looked like a rolled up tarp from the bottom of his backpacking bag. "You're actually bothered that I might know more than you do. I've got about 160 years worth of knowledge on you."

"But astronomy was supposed to be my thing. I know three things about my life: making music will be my career, ancient Greek and Roman history is the intellectual pursuit I will always be learning about to keep my mind sharp, and astronomy is my guilty pleasure. You can be smarter than me in anything except those three things," Addie declared possessively.

"I'm sure you know more about the actual science behind it all. You'll just have to accept that I'm probably better at reading a sky map or knowing the location of a particular constellation or when a celestial event may occur, you know, the physical stuff. By having stared at the sky for almost 160 years more than you, I think I have a fair claim to knowing that stuff. What's the harm in letting astronomy be our thing?" reasoned Damon as he worked on pitching the tent. From the center of the tarp he had rolled out there was a collection of short poles held together with an elastic cord running through the center. He made quick work of interlocking the poles into each other, eventually making two extremely long poles.

Watching Damon and feeling useless Addie asked, "Um, what exactly should I be doing? I haven't been camping since I was about 12 and at that point my parents just told Jeremy and me to go play because we kept making things take three times as long," she tacked on the unneeded explanation nervously.

But why was she nervous? Addie knew she was perfectly safe with Damon, from him or any other dangers. There was just something off, something that had shifted in the dynamics of their relationship ever since she'd told him that she loved him. She had only told him that one time but he hadn't asked her to tell him again. Damon kept saying he loved her over and over, each time making her heart beat erratically, her cheeks flush, and leaving her tongue tied with the intense, heated look he said it with; like he knew her every secret. He didn't know every secret but he knew her most guarded; she loved him in a tragic, unconditional matter. Not for the first time Addie mentally scorned herself for trusting her heart and happiness to Damon Salvatore.

"You could gather large rocks and rim the fire pit. Collect wood. Set up the telescope. Whatever you want to do," he answered distractedly. His whole attention was focused on sliding the two poles through tubes of fabric on top of the tent so that they lay like an X. At each corner of the tent there were grommets that the ends of the poles fit into. He connected one tube at the bottom left and the other at the bottom right. Bending each of the poles up enough so that he could connect the unconnected end to its corresponding corner required a little more effort but Damon was pleased with the small, two person tent that popped up.

When he looked up to find Addie slowly removing each leg mount to the telescope from its case as gingerly as if it was made of glass, he knew he would have the fire at a full blaze before she was even halfway done.

---

"You see Pisces?" Damon asked, tracing a "V" shape against the night sky.

"No, Damon, I don't see Pisces. I just see stars, a lot of fucking stars. Do you know why I see a lot of fucking random stars that don't belong in a constellation? Because we are in the middle of freaking nowhere with absolutely no little pollution to bleed away those stars," Addie snapped as she shut off the flashlight and shoved the sky map into Damon's hand. After trying to find Jupiter for half an hour with the naked eye, she was ready to sit back and just watch the meteor shower.

It was easy to brush off her attitude with him when he knew it was just her frustration and pride. She had spent 25 minutes silently determined to locate the planet before grumbling out a reluctant plea for his help.

Not needing it, Damon let the sky map fall to the ground as he wrapped one arm around Addie's waist and pulled her flush against him. To get a better sense of exactly what she was seeing he rested his chin on her shoulder so he was looking at the stars at the same level. He curled his hand with hers so that they were both pointing one finger towards the south sky.

"These five really bright ones that are almost in a vertical line?" he murmured, directing her finger over the stars he meant.

It took Damon running over the invisible line several times before she could see it. "That's it?"

"Not quite. See the star halfway between the first two stars? It's the first star to the left if you look away from the line. All three stars make an obtuse triangle."

"Alright. That's Pisces?" Addie asked eagerly, excited to find Jupiter.

"The left half. Look at the bottom star of the line we made; that's Alrisha. See the little one directly northwest of Alrisha at almost exactly 45 degrees? Now find the bright redish one about 60 degrees northwest to that one. There's a trail of that just barely arch up and come down stretching out to the right," he explained, still pointing everything out as he said it.

She nodded, a shiver running through her at the way his scruff tickled against her cheek. "I see it."

"Good job. Can you make out the five really bright stars that form a circle if you connect them at the last star?" He felt her nod again. "That," he emphasized, tracing the whole pattern, "is Pisces."

"Um… I don't see it," confessed Addie. Damon gave her a puzzled look and she raised the shoulder he wasn't resting on helplessly. "Pisces is supposed to be two fish, I don't see fish."

The constellation was associated with the ancient Greek legend of Aphrodite and Eros, who escapes from the monster Typhon by leaping into the sea and transforming into fish. In order not to lose each other, the tied themselves together with rope, the triangle at one end and the circle at the other being the loops around the fish. However, Damon didn't find it prudent to tell Addie this; she had already been upset about him knowing more about astronomy. It would be pointless trying to explain to her that knowing a few random facts about Greek mythology still meant he knew essentially nothing about ancient Greece.

"Addie, you're trying to make sense of connect-the-dots created by people who believed Venus could determine your personality. Trying to get the logic out of it is a lot like trying to get the logic out of you," Damon lightly joked as he let go of her hand to wrap both arms around her waist.

"I make complete sense… 90 percent of the time," she objected.

"Yes. To you. The rest of us can only follow along with your sense about half the time, usually because you skip a key point of explanation but sometimes because you simply only make sense in a purely nonsense way," he pointed out, gently kissing along her neck.

"You're so mean to me," she whined playfully. The cool October air was settling in around them. Addie tugged the sides of Damon's jacket out from between them and draped the leather around her shoulders as she burrowed into him. Damon wasn't exactly a good source of heat but his jacket could help. "So, we found Pisces. How does that help us find Jupiter?"

Damon pointed to the circle on the right side of the constellation and instructed, "That star on the bottom left? Look south and maybe fifteen degrees west until you see the double stars."

"Found 'em."

"Alright. Now halfway between the double stars and the star in Pisces there is a bright object that doesn't sparkle like a star."

Addie broke out of Damon's hold as soon as she spotted the gaseous planet and moved to her telescope. It was easy to direct the optical tube and the objective lens towards the circle of stars Damon had used as a reference point. The finderscope, with its low magnification and its wide field of view, she was able to fine tune the alignment of the device with a small remote control. Eventually a pink globe centered itself in the viewing frame. She looked through the eyepiece before immediately pulling away. A fuzzy blur wasn't what she wanted.

Carefully she undid the clasp holding the magnifier in place and removed it. From a tray underneath the telescope she pulled out a small black case that unlatched to reveal different sized magnifiers. She tucked the eyepiece back into it's designated spot of 32mm. She hummed contemplatively as she ran her fingers over the different magnifications. The scope's focal length was 750mm; with her best eyepiece she could magnify the view of Jupiter 375 time. Addie removed the 2mm eyepiece and a blue contrast filter to hopefully emphasis the red bands of Jupiter.

Positioning the filter and then the eyepiece, Addie fastened them into place. Looking through the eyepiece, she used the remote control to make sure Jupiter was in the center of the main viewing window. While she had viewed the notoriously red planet several times before, there was something about it that just didn't look right.

As she squinted into the eyepiece trying to figure out what was wrong with the view Addie asked Damon, "Can you get me out the 3mm?"

Damon complied but when he passed the piece to her he said in a puzzled tone, "You're decreasing the magnification?"

"Yeah," Addie muttered, looking to the planet without the telescope. The reason she'd had such a difficult time spotting the planet initially was because of how dim it was compared to surrounding stars. Damon had even used relatively bright bright stars to convey its position. As she swapped out the eyepieces she explained, "I'm zoomed in on Jupiter 375 but it's not bright enough for that so I'm taking it down to 250 times. See, the amount of light from Jupiter entering through the objective lens is fixed. But when I'm changing the eyepiece I'm changing the focal lens. As I increase magnification, Jupiter's light has to cover an ever-greater area of the retina of my eye, making the planet look dimmer and dimmer. Spread it out too much, and it will become too dim to see at all. That's what was happening with this piece." She handed him back the 2mm eyepiece before continuing on in her explanation as she looked back into the telescope.

"Jupiter's surface is covered in thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds. They're not just all jumbled together though; the planet is striated in beautiful different hues that are very distinctive. But magnified 375 times these bands were kind of hard to distinguish because of a lack of light. If an object is dim to begin with, then the right magnification to see detail of a given size and contrast will be different, and almost certainly lower, than for a bright object. At 250 times magnification, I'm getting a pretty good view of Jupiter. Unfortunately the infamous red spot is rotated away from us, right now."

The corners of Damon's mouth pulled upwards as he heard the obvious passion in her voice. He found it so fascinating to watch Addie get so swept up in something she so clearly loved. Her whole attention was focused on that planet countless miles away. After about twenty minutes of just watching her stare at Jupiter, Damon noticed she was shaking a little. And he remembered how she had pulled his jacket around her when he was showing her Pisces.

Damon shrugged off the leather jacket and held it out for her. "Ads." She kept looking into the telescope, not acknowledging that she had heard him. "Addie," he said a little louder and firmer. Either she was ignoring him or she had retreated so far into the recesses of her own thoughts that she couldn't hear him. Damon was choosing to believe that it was the latter as the other option spoke rather poorly about his company if she chose to spend twenty minutes literally staring into space as opposed to talking to him.

Addie hand both hands wrapped around the eyepiece as she had her left eye pressed against it and her right eye closed for maximum visibility. His theory that she had spaced out when he didn't meet resistance when he moved her hands to slip her arms into his jacket but she didn't really make the process any easier. It wasn't that he was growing bored with watching her, that would never happen, but he was becoming restless. Standing behind her Damon rested his head on her shoulder and slipped his hands into her front pockets. That earned him a reaction.

"Thanks for the jacket," she said quietly, tucking her hands next to his.

He lightly kissed her jaw; it was the best he could do with her still staring down into the telescope. "You're most welcome."

"Want to look?" she offered but Damon could hear her slight reluctance to give up the device.

"It's ok; I know what Jupiter looks like. Plus, I already have a better view," he replied, gently tucking away the hair that fell in her face.

"Mmm… you know what Jupiter looked like; not what it looks like right now. It's a gas planet with clouds constantly moving. It never looks the same," she replied smartly.

"You do realize that you are a complete dork, right?" Damon said in feigned concern.

Addie snorted humorlessly, "Because I know a bit about space?"

"No, no. I know a bit about space. You obsess over it," he corrected.

"Are you jealous that I'm more interested in Jupiter than you right now?" she taunted, still never looking away from the telescope.

"No!... A little, maybe."

She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly before saying, "Damon, be glad I'm not focusing on you. You do know about space, obviously. One can safely conclude that you know that Jupiter is the fourth or fifth brightest thing in the night sky, next to the Moon, the International Space Station, Venus and sometimes Mars. However, we are currently in a period where Jupiter is most visible during the early evening, around when we first got here. Instead we went on a hike…. And you forced me to shoot wooden bullets at you. If-"

"That was relationship therapy," Damon interrupted defensively.

"A healthy relationship does not involve people shooting at each other!" Addie snapped, recalling their epic fight earlier in the night.

Damon had decided that her vampire defensive training needed a new element added to it: protection from a long range. He hadn't found her retort about not being able to see fangs from so far away or a vampire closing the distance before she could react very cute. And so Addie found herself holding a 9mm duty pistol with a 16 round magazine of wooden bullets.

Damon pinned large sheets of paper to a tree and had Addie shoot at them from about twenty feet away. He had purposely picked out a gun with minimal recoil and a loud bang. However when he had considered someone being imitated by the sheer sound of the machine, he hadn't anticipated Addie jumping back, cringing with shock every time she shot the thing. While her reaction had been comical for the first five or six shots, Addie fearing the gun was problematic if she were to use as he intended. After a bunch of arguing over the morality and fairness of using a gun in a fight Damon discover that she was really just afraid of the crack that came with the pull of the trigger. Always a believer in facing fears head on he decided to consecutively fire off two magazines into a tree. Addie just barely convinced him not to start on the third when she actually screamed at him that she was about to have a panic attack.

Scaring the shit out of his girlfriend probably wasn't the smartest solution and definitely not the nicest but Damon couldn't argue with the results he got. Whereas before Addie would begin to flinch in knowing anticipation microseconds before she shot, messing up her aim, she now winced after she fired. Damon was really impressed when she proved not to really need much target practice. But that was at stationary objects. In his experience, opponents tended to move and most commonly it was towards you.

"Now I want you to shoot at me," he had instructed, backing up until there was fifty feet between them.

"What?" Addie mumbled to herself, convinced she misheard him.

"I want you to shoot at me," repeated Damon. "I'm going to come at you and you're going to shoot me."

"I am not going to shoot you! Are you mental?" Addie shrieked in disbelief.

He rolled his eyes impatiently and sighed, "You're not going to actually hit me. I'm going to dodge the bullet."

She scoffed and held up the gun, "So you think you're faster than this?"

"Yes."

"You're an arrogant bastard! What happens when you're proven wrong and you don't actually manage to dodge the bullet?"

"I happen to heal very fast," he smirked.

"I am not going to shoot you!" defied Addie, stomping for emphasis.

"Just do it! I'll be fine!"

"No."

"Come on," he coaxed, suddenly right in front of her. In a flash he was fifty feet away again, casually leaning against a tree. "You're not gonna hit me."

"You're damn right because I'm not gonna shoot at you!"

"I think you're just scared," Damon taunted, trying to get her to do what he wanted. He knew he couldn't exactly force Addie into anything; they had ended up breaking up the last time he had tried that. No, Addie did what she wanted on her own terms and conditions but he could push her buttons.

"Yep," she readily admitted, "I am afraid of shooting my boyfriend. I know that's not typically said in relationships but I think it is an unspoken understanding between most couples. I would hope that you would be afraid of shooting at me."

"Of course. You would actually get hurt if I screwed up and hit you."

"Oh!" Addie gasped in feigned understanding. "So you actually don't feel anything if this wooden bullet were to just graze up against your heart and puncture a lung. You heal quickly and you lack pain receptors. So you think I should be ok with shooting at you because you're not going to feel any of it!"

"I don't appreciate your sarcasm," Damon said haughtily, mostly to make up for the fact that he was beginning to understand her reasoning. It was totally illogical, though, because he would be fine.

"And I don't appreciate you assuming that I would risk hurting you!" she snapped indignantly.

"It's different. I he-"

"It's not different because you're going to heal. I don't want to be a part of anything that involves inflicting pain on you, no matter how brief it may be."

He nodded slowly. "Ok, I get that but I don't want you ever getting hurt so that means you learn how to defend yourself and this is part of that. You can shoot at trees all day but you're most likely going to need to defend yourself from something that moves."

"I'm not shooting you."

"Such as shame. Guess I'm not shooting you tonight, either," he said very suggestively.

"Seriously? You think I'm going to change my mind because you're going to withhold physical contact? I think you might be using compulsion a little too much; your natural manipulation skills need some brushing up on. I'm not shooting you," Addie repeated for the fifth time.

She had set the gun on the stump where the extra ammo rested and had turned back to camp when Damon suddenly appeared inches from her, gun pointed at his chest. Quietly he said, "You shoot at me or I shoot me."

"That's not funny, Damon," scowled Addie, glaring at the black machine.

"I'm not joking."

Addie's hand twitched, desperate to move the gun away from him but afraid of startling him and making him accidentally pull the trigger. Slowly she stated the obvious fact, "That's a wooden bullet. Aimed at your heart. You would -"

"Die?" he finished for her, his eyes wide with shock. He glanced down at the gun; maybe the center of his chest hadn't exactly been the best place to point. The dark thought explained why she had gone so pale and grim, though. "I wouldn't do that! Besides, I'm pointing too far to my right to hit my heart. I'll shoot… mmm… I'll do a suffer shot to the gut if you don't shoot at me."

"You're mental."

"So are you. Now, you can either shoot at me and have a 99.99999% guarantee I won't get hurt or I can just shoot myself and there will be a 100% chance that I will get hurt…. I recall you saying something about not wanting apart in anything that hurt me," he reasoned out smugly.

Addie had snatched the gun away from him and sneered, "I'm half tempted to argue that my lack of action would in and of itself mean me not being involved in you getting shot. You'd just be getting shot because you're an idiotic dick."

"Yes but you're only half tempted to argue that," he'd grinned from back by the tree. "The second you see me move, fire."

"How am I supposed to do that if I can't see you move when you flash about? That's precisely why I don't like it!"

"I'll start slower. You know, we could have been done with this a long time ago if you would just stop arguing with me about it."

"Fine," she said reluctantly as she had aimed the gun at him.

It was the longest three seconds of her life as she waited for any sign of Damon moving. Just when she needed to see her eyes burned fighting not to blink. As she strained to hear the rustle of leaves or the snap of a twig only six loud throbs of her heart echoed in her ears. And then she saw the slight lean forward and the raising of his right foot. It felt like it had taken forever for her finger to get the idea that she wanted it to shoot. She tried so hard not to flinch at the sound of the gun but she must have because suddenly Addie wasn't looking at Damon anymore but the smell of ginger, cloves, and sandalwood and the gentle touch at her shoulder told him he was behind her. And the bullet buried itself an inch deep into the tree he had stood by.

"You've got to admit that every now and then I do somethings that you just kinda want to shoot me for," Damon insisted in the present.

Addie scowled as she leaned back into his chest. "At one point I wanted to put a bullet through you for simply existing. Now, no, I'd really rather not shoot my boyfriend. I find the silent treatment sends an effective enough message when I'm angry with you."

His brows knitted together and three creases appeared on his forehead as he pretended to think really hard. Gradually he concluded, "I'm fairly certain you favor the 'berate until blue' treatment."

"No, that's just when I'm annoyed or bothered by you. When I'm truly and genuinely angry at you I use the silent treatment."

He grinned at her like a child who had just gotten away with stealing from the cookie jar. "So, I'm not in trouble for making you shoot at me?"

Her lips pressed into a thin hard line. Eventually she grumbled, "You couldn't have just made my life easier and wanted to be shot at when I wanted to shoot you?"

"You would have killed me at that point so I'm gonna go with no," laughed Damon as he pulled his hands from her pockets to protectively across his arms over her.

Addie sighed, "You think we'll ever want the same thing at the same time?"

"Nope," he admitted certainly, emphasizing the 'puh' sound.

She scoffed and turned her head to look up at him, "You're supposed to be encouraging."

"Yeah but then I'd be lying. You might not always like it, but you're someone who always wants and deserves the truth. The truth is that we are both selfish people who are always going to want more. But we want different mores," mused Damon.

"Ok, I do want the truth but I don't want cryptic clues to figure out. I met my yearly quota of solving riddles when we translated the hieroglyphs in the cave. What the hell are different mores?"

He shrugged. "Could be changing things. Could be fixed things. We both knew when we started this that I want more time with you and you want more of a human life than I can give you. Not that I would ever change my mind or regret my decision but I was an idiot to make some 15 year agreement with you and think I could simply walk away."

That had quickly taken a sour turn.

"What does that mean? You can't simply walk away? Are you gonna become like my stalker or something?" she jested, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, of course not."

"Are you sure? We have discussed your stalkerish tendencies, right? And there was 145 years of Katherine," Addie said in a hushed tone, as if they were discussing something very taboo.

Damon gave a bitter bark of laughter, "The Katherine situation is a perfect example. I couldn't just walk away from her and I was only with her for months and I wasn't actually in love with her and she screwed with my head and she was fucking my brother. I've accepted the fact that I'm going to love you for the rest of my life. I just haven't exactly figured out how I'm going to handle not being able to tell and show you."

"This is depressing," she remarked monotonously. There was no way she had the energy to go into a deep, meaningful, bittersweet discussion of the future with the man who, only hours before, had forced her to shoot at him. "And you distracted me. For like the five hundredth time today," she lightly criticized. "I was telling you why you should be glad I was focusing on Jupiter even though it's a crappy time to view it instead of on you."

"I'm over being jealous of Jupiter. In fact, I've got one word that will make Jupiter the last thing on your mind," he slyly grinned.

Addie twisted in his hold to look at him, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What?"

"S'mores."

Burying one hand in his hair to bring his head down and using the other to balance against his shoulders she pushed onto her toes and surprised him with a searing kiss. Damon made a noise of disappointment as she pulled away but he was soon smiling as he saw her beaming up at him like it was Christmas morning.

"If you've got s'mores Jupiter has got nothing on you."

---

"Are you still eating those or are you just playing with the fire now?" Damon reprimanded as he watched Addie twice catch a marshmallow on fire and blow it out only to set it ablaze again.

"Well, we're out of chocolate and I don't like marshmallows so I suppose the later," she surmised, pushing at the ground to get the hammock swinging again. It had been the object taking up the most room in the pack Damon had been carrying. When he had finally popped up the bobble of metal and cloth and she saw it was a portable hammock she couldn't resist asking if he was going to pull a lamp out his bag like Mary Poppins next.

"First of all, I didn't actually expect you to go through five bars of chocolate. Secondly, we wouldn't have run out of chocolate if someone made their s'mores like a normal person instead of replacing the graham crackers with more chocolate. Third, I have never seen you eat so enthusiastically, like your stomach was a bottomless pit, as I just did. You can't tell me you don't like marshmallows. That's what the little white glob in chocolate sandwich was," countered Damon.

The sweet she was currently burning fell off the stick she was using to keep it close to the heat. Her lips twitched as it burst into blue and orange flames. "I only like toasted marshmallows but even then I only like the outside shell when it becomes a light, golden brown. At that point the real middle is still like a regular marshmallow and I don't like it."

Seriously he asked, "Have you ever considered that you might have a problem with food?"

"Have you ever considered that you just have a problem with my quirks and habits," retorted Addie as she held the stick up for him to spear another one of the treats onto it.

"Yes. I've conclude that I do have a problem with them but you should probably have a problem with some of them too. Let me see that," he confessed as he took the stick from her, placed a marshmallow on it and carefully directed it towards the fire. The trick was to toast right at the embers, the hottest part of the fire and where it was less likely to turn into a flaming mess.

"I figure when my body finally rebels against my eating habits then I'll change them. You know, like when I get high cholesterol then I'll worry about eating fatty foods or whatever. Instead of taking preventative measures, I prefer to just treat my body with whatever afflicts it. It's perhaps not the healthiest approach but I figure I'm going to die of something someday. If I die a few years early because I actually enjoyed what I ate then it's worth it," she explained, hoping it would get him to back off on pushing the health food.

Damon pulled the marshmallow out of the fire and inspected it; most of what was white was covered by a soft gold. Between his index finger and his thumb he carefully slid off the crunchy layer of marshmallow and some of what had melted just beneath the surface. "So, it wouldn't be the end of the world if you got diabetes from eating a whole bag of these?" he asked as he held the slightly toasted part of the marshmallow to her lips. Addie took it from him, her teeth gently grazing the pads of his fingers to get all of the melted bits. Spying a string of gooey sugar she missed on his index finger her tongue darted out to get it but Damon was faster. "Mm-mmm," he objected as he sucked the tip of the digit clean. As he stuck what was left of the confection into the fire again he cheekily said, "See, sticky fingers is my reward for perfectly toasting and feeding you marshmallows."

Addie rolled her eyes as she made the hammock swing harder. "I'm supposed to believe that you're feeding me perfectly toasted marshmallows out of the goodness of your heart expecting no compensation but sticky fingers?"

"Mhm," he nodded, holding the next layer of the marshmallow he had toasted out to her.

She watched him skeptically as she ate the treat. Licking some left on her lip she decided, "I don't buy it. There's gotta be an ulterior motive."

"Really?" Damon snorted as he put another marshmallow on the stick and into the fire.

"You're not denying it!" she smirked. He gave her an innocent, quizzical look. Desperately she grabbed at his bare bicep with both hands, making sure to give the sculpted muscle an extra squeeze. Stroking his ego always helped in getting her way. Resting her cheek against his shoulder Addie looked up at him with wide puppy dog eyes and begged, "Please tell me what you get out of this."

"Sticky fingers," he replied casually, making sure his eyes stayed on the fire. He'd be a sucker if he didn't know exactly what she was doing. He knew she was pouting at his answer as he finished roasting the marshmallow and carefully stripped off the outer shell. Damon snickered as he had to bump the sugary mess against her lips a couple of times before she would eat it. And, as if on cue, she gave a pleasurable sigh just before she swallow. He smirked as he admitted, "And I do get that out it."

"What?" she asked confused as to what he could be referring to.

He shook his head in slight amusement as he returned the treat to the heat. Unabashedly he explained, "Every time you take a bite you make this little moan of delight. I noticed it when you were eating the s'mores. You don't do it when you eat just chocolate or anything else, at least not every single bite, so I was wondering if it was your warped definition of a s'more or just marshmallows in general that made you do it. Turns out you really like marshmallows. Or you're just thinking about me naked every time you take a bite."

"I'm just thinking about you naked every time I take a bite," she nodded, trying to sound cool and composed despite the flushing of her cheeks.

"Bit of a role reversal don't you think? I mean, I am the vampire."

"True but I'm dating this vampire who kinda has this kink about being bitten so I have to work on my biting skills."

"It's not a kink."

"Biting has its own paraphilia term and is considered a mild form of sadism. Odaxelagnia is a kink," Addie stated factually.

Damon laughed long and deep. "Why am I not at all shocked that you would know the paraphilia term?"

"Because my sexual knowledge is coming from Mr. Deviant and so it's not surprising that I would want to reference what is the status quo, so to speak."

He chuckled again. "I love how there is no such thing as a rhetorical question for you. You have an answer for everything. My reputation and your overactive imagination is probably generating a lot more perceived deviance in my past then there actually was. Trust me I'm not going to do anything that weird to you. I must argue that since half the population gets off on biting it's not a kink."

"You're quite obverse to it being considered a kink," she noted.

"Frankly, I don't care what you call it. I just don't want you thinking it's something bad or something you should be ashamed of," he told her as he moved them so they were laying in the hammock, the natural bowing pushing Addie against him.

"Mmm… I don't have an opinion on it. Whatever people get up to behind closed doors it's their private business as long as it's between consenting parties and doesn't involve kids. If there's no victim, there's no foul but there isn't a batter so there can't be any home runs. Just because I don't like to swim in the ocean doesn't mean we should close all the beaches on the west coast," she expressed as she tangled herself with him.

Damon stared at her blankly for a few moments. Truly he always strived to do his best in following along with her. While he had gotten a lot better at it there were still times when Addie was just so Addie. He had no clue what she was saying with the baseball metaphor. It was just as much possible as impossible that he had understood what she had meant with the ocean and beaches. He didn't think any of what she had said was important though, at least she wasn't looking at him like it was.

Rather than try to make sense of her nonsense he decided to tease her about what he could understand. Very obviously he moved in for a kiss only to stop short a hair's width from target. Aloud he wondered, "Does what people get up to have to be done behind closed doors? Because technically…"

Addie huffed dramatically as she pulled away from him pouting, "You're a dick. I didn't want to kiss you in the middle of nowhere under a bright, starry sky anyways."

He chuckled as she poked her tongue out at him, "Very mature."

"Thanks," she retorted brightly, resting her head on his chest, "that means a lot coming from the guy who is so mature that he needs to drive his girlfriend four hours from home all of a sudden and keep her distracted all day and night from whatever is really going on."

"Yes, I agree, my maturity level is astounding," Damon replied after a beat in attempts to stall. He didn't want to tell her if he didn't have to.

"Stefan found out about us giving back the two brothers?" she asked quietly.

"Yep." It wasn't a lie but she didn't ask for an answer requiring more than one syllable.

"Who's dead?"

That was a question he hadn't been anticipating. First Elena had suggested Stefan killed the medical examiner and now Addie simply assumed he killed someone simply because he was upset. Had Stefan really strayed that far? Had he really become so much like his big brother?

"Bill Forbes, sorta. Tyler attacked him last night. Dr. Fell used some vampire blood to heal him. When he was leaving the hospital someone offed him with a knife to the chest. He's in transition now. We don't know who did it." And Addie didn't need to know that the stake used on the medical examiner matched the set Ric kept in his car or that the knife used on Bill was from Ric's stash. He didn't want her worrying about psycho killing doctors.

"What did Stefan do?"

"I don't imagine he particularly had any strong feelings about the news, if he even knows," Damon answered, purposely misinterpreting her question.

"Yeah, I don't care about that. How bad was the damage when your brother found out about the coffins?"

"Oh! That! Um...he had already punched me once this morning over something Elena said yesterday. I figured anything you did to protect me would probably end with him showing me my own bowels so I sent him in Klaus' direction and we got the hell out of town," he broadly summarized, talking extremely quickly.

Addie voice was hard and icy when she asked, "What did my sister say?"

"I tell you we're on the run from Stefan and the most important part of the story is what your sister said?" He had been thinking of a way to avoid that question all day.

While the relationship between Addie and Elena was always strained Damon didn't want to add anymore tension, especially with Addie living at home. Before he and Addie were even involved, he knew he was a sensitive subject between the two sisters every time Addie got annoyed or bothered by his brief interest in Elena. When Elena started noticing Addie and Damon together, she started to show a little more interest in him. Addie became extremely pissed off with her sister for getting up Damon's hopes when she knew Elena would choose Stefan in the end. Eventually he realized which sister he really wanted but it had taken him a really long time to convince Addie he was over Elena and only wanted her. They reached an odd limbo state of peace with Stefan and Elena when Damon and Addie officially got together. That calm had broken when Stefan left with Klaus. Addie had become, in Damon's opinion, more jealous. Since Addie no longer snooped through her sister's diary neither of them really knew where Elena stood.

However, Damon wasn't stupid. Perhaps flirting with Elena all summer had been a really bad decision in hindsight. And despite Addie coming back, he had noticed Elena kind of attaching herself more to him. Partially, in her defense and why Damon couldn't really be bothered by what Elena was doing, as far as she knew he was single. To the public he and Addie were not a couple utterly and completely in love. While going after your sister's ex wasn't exactly cool, Damon couldn't judge because he had done far worse.

"Not the most important part but definitely the most interesting part," Addie replied mildly.

"I don't exactly know what she said. You'd have to ask Stefan or Elena." And it was true enough. He only knew that Elena said something along the lines about caring for him the same way she cared for Stefan. Too surprised by the blow Damon had missed most of what Stefan had vented.

"Have you heard anything since you sent him to Klaus?"

"A thing about being in the middle of nowhere is spotty cell reception. I've missed a couple calls. A few texts did manage to come through. Klaus enjoyed being the one to tell Stefan. There were the expected ones from my brother. He doesn't mention you at all, which is good. Although, he said I'm going to have one hell of a party to clean up after so I'm reckoning that's not so good for my house," Damon reflected.

A chill ran down Addie's back that had nothing to do with the cold. "Your poor Persian rugs," she said sadly.

"It all comes back to being Klaus' fault. The sooner we stop him the sooner I can stop worrying about house decor," he sighed, grateful to be on exactly on the same wavelength as her when he really needed her. "I'd consider today a win for us."

"We fled town from your brother who glocked you over something my sister said which means it's probably something that I should be upset about. We define 'win' very differently."

Damon frowned; he didn't want Addie thinking that just because Stefan was jealous she should be. "You realize if you get upset about it you'll be taking emotional cues from someone who can't control their own."

"Because you can control your emotions? Please, share this profound, new wisdom that absolutely nobody else knows how to do!" she retorted sardonically.

"Fine, Ads. Copy Stefan. Be angry with your sister for a reason you don't even know. It completely made up in your head, just like blaming her for everyone who has ever died."

Addie bit down on her tongue to keep from responding right away. Once she played out the probable conversation in her head she allowed herself to speak. "We are the only two people around for… I don't know how far. But cell reception is crappy and we're four hours from home. I really don't think -"

The rest of her words were drowned out by a loud clap of thunder. As if a dam suddenly released sheets of rain poured from the sky. The fire hissed and sizzled as the water beat down the roaring flames. Addie and Damon fumbled over each other as they scrambled to get out of the rocking hammock.

"The clouds aren't moving towards us. It's not going to rain," Addie scowled in a mock imitation of Damon as she stared up at the sky, holding up the back of his jacket to protect her face. The clouds in the distances when they arrived had slowly moved their way overheard, becoming darker and denser.

"Just go to the tent before we drown," he grumbled as water rolled into his eyes. Damon would have simple moved and ignored her pointing out his error but with the dwindling fire on one side, the hammock on the other and Addie in front of him, a direct path to shelter was blocked.

They took off at a light jog to the grey and black dome. Thankfully the roots of foliage and compact earth was still absorbing the water and they weren't slipping and sliding through mud. Damon made quick work of the zipper at the top of the flap that could be opened and they clamored in.

"Always thought it would be a brilliant idea to go camping in the middle of the rain," she mumbled as she slipped off Damon's jacket. It had managed to mostly repel the rain. Unfortunately, everything the jacket hadn't covered, including her shoes, was soaked.

The sound of rain pelting the thin waterproof tent would have drowned out what she had said to the human ear but Damon caught it.

"Well, when it said there was a 10% chance I figured that was a pretty safe bet. If it did rain I thought it would be a few sprinkles, not the beginning of 40 days and 40 nights of flooding," he said defensively.

"You're a fucking genius," she glowered.

"And you're extra bitchy because you're in wet clothes," Damon replied with a sweet smile. "Don't worry. I'll blame nature and not you for anything you may say."

"Or you could blame yourself for deciding to camp when there was a chance of rain," Addie snapped irritably.

His lips pursed as he considered this. "No," he determined, "this one's nature's fault. See, when I decided to go camping with a 90% guarantee that it wouldn't rain. Ninety percent is considered an 'A,' which is above and beyond expectations. My decision was almost as close to perfect as you can get. Nature is the one who threw everything off balance by deciding to rain."

Damon had to resist the urge to smile as Addie's eyes had grew more and more narrow the more he talked. She crossed her arms and inhaled deeply; he could see the twitch in her jaw. Her patience was almost at its limit.

"That makes no sense," she said flatly, trying to control her emotions.

"So when I don't make sense I'm wrong but when you don't make sense you're right? That doesn't make sense, Addison," he chastised, being comically serious.

"I'm right because I'm right! It's not my fault if you can't make sense of it!"

He sighed as he nodded in begrudging agreement, "How can I possibly argue with that logic? I should know that you're always right."

"Yes, you should," Addie grumbled irritably as she ran her fingers through her wet hair, trying to dry it.

"You are being so rational right now," Damon laughed.

"Shut up," she scowled, hurling his jacket at him. "We're camping in the middle of the fucking rain and I'm soaked. I've earned irrationality!"

"But I haven't earned the right to not make sense? I'm even more soaked than you are!"

Her eyes bugged out at him incredulously. "It's your fault you're soaked!"

"Because I made it rain?!" It was just too much fun irritating her.

"Because you decided to camp with the possibility of rain!"

"Ohhhhh!" he nodded. "Yeah, I can see how me being soaked is my own fault."

Addie's lips pinched while Damon's twisted into an impish grin. She did not find him nearly as amusing as he found himself. When he started unzipping the tent, allowing some rain to enter, she was certain he had gone mad. If he wanted to go romp around in the rain that was fine with her, as long as he zipped the tent back up, which he did. Just as soon as it had closed he was opening the entrance flap again.

"What are-"

"Needed this," explained Damon as he dropped the backpack she had carried to the ground and sealed the tent again.

"Anything in that is waterlogged," she retorted smartly.

He shook his head slightly, water dripping from his hair as he silently chuckled; she was cute when she was moody. Sometimes. Damon knelt down and opened the bag. "It's waterproof, love."

Unable to criticize him she huffed, "Don't suppose you have a towel in your mini magic carpet bag?"

"Unfortunately not. I've got something to make you feel a little better though. Dry clothes."

"You spent all that time arguing with me instead of giving me dry clothes?!" she shrieked.

Damon pulled one hand from the sack and rubbed at his ear as if her volume had hurt to hear. "Ow."

Pouting slightly, she crossed her arms and mumbled, "Sorry."

He gave her a quick, reassuring wink as he began to unpack the bag. It was a good thing he'd packed his lucky, black and yellow smiley face boxers that Addie loved; perhaps they would put her in a better mood. He handed her the boxers, a pair of red boyshorts and a forest green John Varvatos tee. On a whim he'd reluctantly agreed to go underwear shopping with Addie since she had a greater interest in his underwear collection than he did and she didn't like when he wore red cotton boxers. For himself he had packed a pair of plaid black and white, silk ones she had picked out on that shopping expedition.

Addie raised both her eyebrows at him when he didn't move after a few moments of pointedly staring at him. "You expect me to change in here? With you?"

Her modesty was endearing but a little impractical at times. He cocked an eyebrow at her and replied in the same tone, "You expect me to go out there?"

After listening to the rain beat at the tent for a few seconds she sighed in defeat. "Fine. Just don't look!" she ordered sternly, pointing a finger in his face for emphasis.

"If I promise not to look can I change in here too or do I have to go outside, which would completely defeat the purpose of putting on dry clothes?"

"Then we'd both be naked… in the tent… at the same time…," Addie frowned.

"Yeah but nobody's looking at anything so it doesn't really count," Damon argued before smirking and teasing, "Well, you didn't promise not to look. I won't ask make you promise that; that'd be like depriving a man of water in the Sahharah."

"Your ego is the size of Mount Everest," she muttered, toeing off her shoes and leaving them by the tent entrance as to not track the bit of mud that had gotten on them through their temporary shelter.

Addie moved to a back corner of the tent, as far away from Damon as possible. Sodden and making her feet feel frozen she quickly peeled off her socks. Damon's jacket had protected the sleeves of her shirt but her damp hair had made the back of it slightly wet while the front was stuck to as she hadn't had the outer garment closed. She stripped the shirt and her bra to put on the shirt he had given her. It smelled like him and it was dry; Addie already felt a little better. And she hadn't even removed the clingy, disgusting skinny jeans. Once she peeled those off, which was not an easy task as they seemed to stick to her when wet and put on the dry boyshorts and her favorite pair of Damon's boxers she wasn't nearly as upset with him. She was still cold though. Damon might not get cold and would be fine just sleeping in his boxers but she was human and a victim of the elements.

"Are you dressed?" Addie asked as she folded her set clothes into a small pile.

"Hoping for a show?" he teased as he pulled out a plastic shopping bag from the backpack to place their wet clothes in.

"Not as much as you're hoping to give one. Are you dressed or not?"

"Course I am."

"Please tell me you brought blankets," she mumbled as she deposited her clothes into the bag he held out to her.

"Two person sleeping bag," he smirked, waggling his eyebrows at her as he set the bag in a corner by his muddy shoes.

She merely nodded at him. Sleeping with Damon was something she enjoyed because it kept her cool. Curling up with him on a cold night was fine when they were in a heated house but not when they were out in the woods with only a tent and sleeping bag to keep her warm.

Damon could sense Addie was still annoyed as he pulled out a compactly packed sleeping bag. He pulled it out of the compression sack holding it together and rolled the large, mummy style bag out, filling up the entire tent. Before he began to blow into one of the inflatable pillows he packed he dared to ask, "You're in dry clothes. Why are you still…." Wisely he stopped talking. Any time he said she was bitchy or in a bad mood it just made it even worse.

"My hair's still damp. And I'm cold," she whined, knowing she sounded like a petulant child. It was his fault she was both wet and cold, though.

He plugged the inflation piece to prevent air from escaping the pillow and tossed it to Addie. The sleeping bag didn't open like a bag but rather had a hole on the front of the bag for a person to slip in through. When they laid down, only their face would show and they wouldn't lose so much heat from their head. Damon jutted his chin towards the hole, implying she should get in to keep warm. She did that while he rummaged in the bag again.

In a refined, snooty voice Damon said, "I believe cheap Tennessee Whiskey may help the lady." With lavish gestures he produced and displayed a bottle of Jack Daniel's as if it were an expensive treasure. "It will dilate your blood vessels and bring warm blood to your skin."

"First of all, it's bourbon. Secondly, not all of us have gazillionaire money to spend on alcohol. Jack Daniel's is what the common people can afford that isn't swill. See, I can drink that and enjoy it rather than feel guilty about not building a well in Africa and having a $7000 shot. Thi-"

"The difference between you and me is that you're a good person and feel guilty. I'm the bad guy who would eat the people building the well, wash them down with a $7000 shot, call my girlfriend to tell her Jack Daniel's isn't bourbon but Tennessee whiskey swill and consider it a good day," Damon interrupted contemplatively as he waved the bottle in her face.

"It would actually be a very bad day because your girlfriend would get into an argument with you about how it's a straight bourbon made in Tennessee and whether or not it is swill is not the point. Jack is not to sip and savor for the flavor. You drink Jack for it's effects. Normal people drink $7000 shots in tiny sips to enjoy the flavor and smoothness. Third, she's also going to have something to say about you killing well diggers. Fourth, it's rude to interru-"

Purposely, holding back a cheeky grin, he interjected, "Now if I'm drinking a $7000 shot I'm definitely going to be noticing the taste. I might night savor it but I'm not going to choke it down like Jack. When something hits around $300 a glass it usually starts to get a decent taste." Now he began poking her in the stomach with the bottom of the bottle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my boyfriend the alcoholic," Addie announced, snatching the bottle from him if only to stop him from pestering her like five-year-old.

Damon gave her an innocent grin and shrugged. "It helps keep me from killing well diggers. Actually, let me see that," he mumbled as he took the alcohol back. He'd been in such a rush packing that morning that he'd forgotten blood bags. It hadn't been until Addie's second s'mores sans graham crackers that he noticed a faint tickle under his skin. That feeling, hunger, had grown into an aggravating itch, particularly in the back of his throat. He uncapped the bottle and drank until the irritation in his throat soothed. Just as the alcohol allowed the blood to flow more freely through Addie, it would do the same to the blood in his veins, taking the edge off until he could feed.

"It's rude to interrupt. Fourth, really? You actually brought alcohol out here?" she said, determined to finish her list of grievances.

"Mmm, my thought was 'we're out in the middle of nowhere so what the hell are we supposed to do besides drink for entertainment' but clearly that's not how you're thinking so I should probably abandon that ship of thought." He tapped at his chin as he tried to guess at what she might be thinking. "This is such a serene and calm place that drinking would just ruin the beauty and naturally intoxicating effect of nature"

Rolling her eyes, Addie took the bottle back from him and took several swallows. Her face scrunched up and she shuddered as she handed the bourbon back to him. Sipping was tolerable but gulping burned like hell. When the stinging finally stopped she looked accusatorially at Damon.

"You're trying to get me drunk. I'm in the middle of the woods with vampire who's trying to get me drunk. I'm a genius," she mumbled.

He held his hands up innocently and insisted, "I'm not trying to get you drunk. I only told you to drink to make you feel warm. I realize I might have overlooked a crucial human element in my haste to get you away from Stefan. I apologize. I've been trying to think of a solution but… we're stuck in this tent until the rain stops. Unless you want to get wet again. I know you'd rather be cold."

"It's not like I'm freezing," she muttered. She took another swallow before handing the drink back to Damon. As she watched him cap it she could see a sag to Damon's shoulders and his brows furrowed. Forgetting that she might get cold had made him really upset with himself. "You'll still snuggle with me, right?"

He shook his head slowly. "I'm not exactly loaded up on caffeine. We both know I'll just make you colder."

Addie tensed as a loud rumble of thunder shook the ground beneath her. Her fingers played with her hair anxiously. The rain she liked but not the thunder. Damon could read the displeasure on her face and caved.

"Fine, Ads," he grumbled before inflating the other inflatable pillow he'd brought. He had been so caught up in making sure Addie was safe in case Stefan decided to murder her that he had completely forgotten about the chilly October night. Damon tossed his pillow next to hers and slid into the sleeping bag next to her.

She curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest as he stuck both his hands behind his head. Her arm curled tightly around him at the clap of thunder. Enjoying the sounds of the rain she softly admitted, "The Jack made me feel a little warmer. Thank you."

"And put you in a better mood?" he asked hopefully.

Defensively she retorted, "I was wet." More gently she added, "I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault it's raining."

Damon chuckled and kissed the top of her damp hair; it smelled like the forest and rain. "I shouldn't have kept pushing your buttons. I'll admit; this wasn't exactly the romantic night I imagined."

"Sleeping on the ground in the middle of nowhere is romantic?" she scoffed.

"Under the right circumstances. A clear sky with shooting stars, a warm fire, you and me getting a long. I just figured us alone, spending some quality time together, it might…" he trailed off, exactly unsure of how to explain what he was hoping for. He hadn't said anything to Addie about it, especially because it had been something she'd feared, but things had felt different since she said she loved him.

The growing, awful silence that seemed to fester was thankfully broken by the ringing of Damon's phone. Thankful for the distraction he sat up and fumbled in the silence for the glowing screen. Looking at the caller ID he considered declining the call but that would likely only raise suspicion with his girlfriend.

"What?" he answered sharply. Addie frowned as she watched Damon tense slightly. "Slow down," he ordered the person on the other end of the line. "What happened?... Who did it?... How can he not know?!"

Addie pushed herself onto her elbows and concernedly asked, "What's going on?"

Damon simply shook his head and held up a finger; he'd tell her in a minute.

"Is he still dead?... I know there's something wrong with the ring but I'm four hours away. Get Caroline to do it…. Oh. Get Stefan to do it then…. Yes he will…. He'll do it…. He's just having a hissy fit because he lost his coffins. He'll stop long enough to help you…. No, he'll do it because it's you!..." Damon sighed impatiently and ran his hand through his hair, the annoying little habit he picked up from Addie. He shook his head helplessly as he said in a defeated voice, "Look, Elena, Alaric could awaken before I'd get back. He will die and bleed out. Make Stefan do this for you unless you want to lose another family member. He still loves you. You can get him to do this for you."

"What happened?" Addie said softly as he tossed his phone to the side none too gently.

"Dr. Fell attacked Alaric and left him bleeding to death. Elena killed Alaric so he would come back to life since the ring protects him against supernatural creatures and she's a doppelganger. Oh, and Bill Forbes died rather than transitioned," he grumbles as he flopped onto his back. He pushed the air pillow and rested his head on the ground.

Addie stroked soothingly at his stomach; it was odd how much like a dog he was: loyal, loving, playful, protective, sharp biter, and he loved to be petted or stroked. Be it his hair, his chest, back, or arms, Damon loved the feeling of being touched. His eyes fluttered closed wearily.

"I thought you said he didn't know who attacked him."

"She was angry with the M.E. and offed him. She saved Bill to kill him, knowing he would come back to life. She knew about Ric's ring being able to bring him back so she probably thought if she killed him he'd come back to life. Maybe she's something supernatural and he would have. Maybe she's just a psychopath who wants to kill and figures that it's probably safest to "kill" vampires, which is why she was trying to turn Bill, because if they report being murdered it's not very believable. Same thing with Ric. How much more proof do you need that it was her? She kept her identity hidden from him so she can keep playing with him," Damon ranted, rubbing at his face.

She made soft hushing sounds and pulled his hands from his face so she could look into it. "We'll push Dr. Fell to number one on the to-do list as soon as this rain stops. I'm pretty sure we'd be flooded out if we tried to drive right now. Let's just not go killing anyone who might be able to kill us. She might be supernatural and we might need a special way to kill her. Or she could just have really good skills. I mean, Alaric's a great hunter but if she hurt him that bad she has to have skill. We already know she has stealth from when she vervained you. I don't want you getting hurt, Damon."

"I'll be fine."

"I tell you that all the time and you don't believe me so why should I? I wouldn't know what to do if something happened to you," she admitted in a whisper.

Damon groaned and threw an arm over his eyes. Addie ran both her hands up his chest and to massage at his shoulders, the muscles slowly relaxing under her touch. He was very clearly distraught and she had an idea what was upsetting him.

"We really can go back, Damon," she told him. "We could be back before Alaric wakes. You could save him."

"Stefan'll do it if Elena just has the balls to ask. He still loves her. And he feels guilty about the bridge incident. He doesn't want to see her hurt any more than she already does. Alaric will be fine," he uttered, uncertain if he was reassuring her or himself.

"You don't just get to sit here and pout if you don't want to do something about it," she decided, stopping her shoulder massaged to rest her elbow on his chest and rest her chin in her palm.

"I'm not pouting. I'm not worried about Alaric," he lied so she wouldn't worry.

"Then what's bothering you?" her voice slightly trembling after a roar of thunder.

There was no way he was going to tell her that Elena was bothering him. He didn't want Addie thinking he spent that much time thinking about her sister because he didn't. It just kind of bugged him that Elena turned to him with every little problem she had. He wished Addie would come to him with more of her problems but she buried them. Elena coming to him with problems constantly was just irritating. He suppose he brought that upon himself by always being there for her over the summer. It was fine when he hadn't had Addie around to take care of and worry about but Elena was his brother's girl. Stefan needed to get his shit together and take Elena off Damon's hands before his girlfriend got jealous and pissy.

He decided to go with the easy answer of distraction. Damon cupped her face with both hands and slowly brought her face to his and gently kissed her. "I'm just a little bothered that there has been very much of that today," he murmured.

Addie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. She knew that wasn't the answer to the question she had been asking even if it was a truth. Deciding not to call him on it, she brushed wet hair off of his forehead and reasoned, "That doesn't go very well with arguing, which there has been a lot of today."

"I know but let's just forget that and do more of this," he said quietly, burying his finger in the back of her hair and insistently pressing his mouth to hers.

She turned away from him, frowning. "I'm not going to just kiss you, Damon."

A little more sharply than intended he asked, "Why not?"

"Because you wouldn't let me just kiss away and ignore whatever was bothering me. If I have to confront my issues, so should you."

"It's just been a crappy night, Addie. Am I not aloud to just generally be in a negative move?" grumbled Damon, letting go of her and covering his face again.

"Of course you are," she replied a little coolly as she turned her back to him, using one of the inflatable pillows.

He sighed heavily and fought to keep the annoyance out of his tone, "Don't be like that."

Thunder sounded from the sky and every part of Addie stiffened, even her voice. "I'm not being like anything, Damon."

"Yeah, you are and you have been ever since you said you loved me," he retorted, accidentally letting the last part slip.

After a long, tense silence she curtly demanded, "What?"

Damon pushed a hand through his damp hair. He had to tell her; there was no way she was going to let it go. "It's like you're pushing me away. Like you're…" he trailed off unable able to finish, to say it felt like she was trying to sabotage things between them.

"Me?! You're the one who has been purposely pissing me off and making fun of me for ever telling you in the first place!" she retorted. He had gotten into the habit of giving her a cheeky, sly, knowing smile every time he said 'I love you' that made her feel humiliated each time.

Damon's eyebrows furrowed and his eyes darted round the dark tent quickly as he tried to recall when the hell he had made fun of her. Everything in his world just seemed brighter and better with her having said those words. He'd never make fun of her. Unable to come up with an explanation he finally just asked, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know!" Addie snipped. "The way you look at me when you say it."

"I'm not making fun of you! I've always looked at you like that. You're the one who's reverted back to turning into a tomato and acting all weird whenever I say 'I love you.' You've got the problems with the words. Whatever you think is going on is all in your head!" he exclaimed in exasperation. Of course Addie had flipped out after what she had said and gone all paranoid.

She scoffed, "No, you do it to make me uncomfortable!"

"Why would I do that, Ads? I do anything you'll let me do to make your life easier and better! I specifically haven't brought up what you said even though I'm dying to discuss it just because I know it would be uncomfortable for you. You are the one who has been acting strange and different. Slipping out to run before I wake in the morning. Staying around everyone until you absolutely have to go to bed so we have minimal contact. Addie, you told me you were studying for you stupid test and proceeded to flip through your index cards upside down. You're pushing me away," he finally accused at the end of his defensive rant.

A crackle of thunder ripped through the air, making Addie jump. Damon interlaced his finger with hers and gave a reassuring squeeze, receiving a light squeeze back.

"I was preparing my mind for the super challenge of the exam by forcing it to read upside down," she sassed.

"Dodging the issue in true Addie fashion," he remarked bitterly.

"Yep," she readily agreed.

Damon rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness of the situation. "Fine, Addie. Keep acting like a child. Don't discuss whatever issues you are having with me."

"I will, thank you. Not that I needed your permission."

"I wasn't being serious. You do realize that this is exactly you pushing me away," he chided.

She shrugged the shoulder she wasn't laying on. "Now I'm doing it just to be a pain in the ass."

He scowled. Payback was a bitch. Just as she hadn't been in a mood for his antagonizing earlier, he wasn't in the mood for her immaturity. "Consider yourself a success. You do know relationships end due to poor communication."

"Well, we've lasted this long with poor communication."

"And you'd think our skills would evolve with time."

"Well, this relationship is quite atypical so not necessarily. "

"Sixteen. Sixteen. Sixteen," he lamented repeatedly under his breath. Sometimes he forgot he was dealing with a highly stubborn and occasionally unreasonable teenager.

"Excuse me?" she snapped, suddenly rolling over to glower at him.

"Your age. You're sixteen," he said calmly and casually.

"You're just now realizing that?!"

Damon shook his head, "Of course not. I just have to remind myself sometimes. There might be a few years in age difference and I need to remember that sometimes you may not have the same level of maturity."

Addie blinked several times before confusedly asking, "You threaten to shoot yourself if I don't shoot at you and my maturity is the one in question?"

"Yep."

"Fine. Things have just felt too… real since I told you that. I mean, it was one thing for us to come up with a plan together but for us to actually carry it out together? I honestly expected you to still do whatever you thought was safest for me. And you stopped trying to trick me into eating poison. That was like… more than annoying little quirk you changed for me. And I've admitted these feelings. And you were so happy. And… And… And… this is real. This relationship is… is... an actual relationship," Addie stammered, turning away from his piercing gaze.

Sardonically he quipped, "And before you were a five-year-old who thought her first boy friend was her first boyfriend."

"No," she said slowly, "you are most certainly not my first male friend."

"Wasn't being literal. Your problem is that this feels too real? What does that even mean?"

"If I can only break up with you for abuse, cheating, or drugging me… this could, if you don't end things, actually last for the next 14 years," she mumbled.

"Those are your rules. Addie, this isn't some contract; you can break up with me whenever. I obviously don't want you to be with me if it's not making you happy. Yeah, I'd like you to give me a chance to make you happy again but if that's not what you want then that's fine.," Damon reiterated from when they first began to date. Of course Addie with her her fear of commitment would start to freak as soon as she saw the possibility of their relationship actually going somewhere.

"What if I don't want to stay in Mystic Falls after high school?"

"Then we won't."

"You'd follow me? Leave Stefan behind?" she muttered, surprised.

Damon sighed; he hated how insecure she was. "Of course, Addie. I love you. For me, I have a thousand life times but only 14 years with you. That trumps everything."

That was a lot of pressure. What if Damon ended up not being happy in their relationship?

After she didn't respond and all that could be heard was the occasional grumble of thunder at which they would both squeeze the others hand, Damon as a source of comfort and Addie looking for a source of reassurance and protection, he noted, "You're being very odd with all this pessimistic talk about us wanting different things and an aversion this being serious. Is something more bothering you?"

"No," she said softly, "I just want you."

"You have me," insisted Damon.

"I know but… it just doesn't feel like that sometimes."

Uncertain of what more he was supposed to do, Damon rolled so her back was against his chest and wrapped a protective arm around her waist.

---

A/N: OMG! I love you guys! The responses to the last chapter were amazing and had me glowing for days. I kept going back to them every time I kept feeling down and didn't feel like writing. I haven't gotten a chance to respond but I will tonight/tomorrow. If only every chapter was like that.

I don't expect that kind of response to this chapter. It is a mess. I don't know how it turned into a piece of fluff or whatever. It's a combination of writing on three trans-Atlantic flights, sleeping pills at night that don't work and stimulants during the day to keep me awake. Apparently you can have insomnia and narcolepsy. I'm up at 5AM to finish and post this because I didn't post last week and I want to be fair to you guys but I think it just deteriorated the quality of the writing. It should improve once I move back into Mystic Falls.

Thank you all so much for following, reading, adding this to your favorites! If the mood strikes you, please, please, please, please comment. They really keep me motivated to keep writing, which is what I need right now in my crazy schedule.

And someone wanted more songs to go with Hostage Control so I present Jupiter, originally worked on by the person who the Control series was requested by but passed while I was still writing the first installment. youtu. be/c4bi_Ylcipc