Addie's world stopped. One beat. Two. Three. She could feel her heart slamming against her ribcage. She felt herself loudly tripping over her feet as she stumbled backwards. Klaus' hand was at the small of her back, helping her keep balance.
Worried that her noise might have drawn the attention of either Damon or Elena Addie quickly fled down the hall. She was aware of Klaus easily keeping pace with her. Wanting nothing more than to escape, she headed towards the sounds of the party. Everything passed by in a blur as Addie moved as fast as she could to her car.
"Addison!" Klaus cried as she tugged impatiently at the locked door handle. Either she ignored him or didn't hear him as she pulled more insistently. "Addison, stop!" he ordered in a firm voice. The grip he held on her wrist was just as firm but had a gentle element to it.
"Let go!" she exclaimed, trying to pull away from him.
He obliged, asking, "Do you even know where your keys are?"
"Give them to me," Addie demanded, angling herself slightly towards him. He hummed as if considering the idea. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at him. "I want to leave. I'm done with your game. Give me my keys, Klaus."
"You can go. I'll even give you your keys but I don't think you should be alone," he decided, walking around to the passenger side as he used the remote to unlock the Jeep.
Addie groaned and banged her head against the window. She just wanted to escape; she didn't want to play nice with Klaus. Scowling, she gathered up her dress, opened the door, and carefully used the running boards to climb up into the SUV. As she settled in Addie grumbled, "Two rules: don't talk and don't touch the radio."
He gave her a wide grin as he held out the keys. Without hesitation she snatched them and started the engine. Automatically she headed for the highway out of town, no particular destination in mind. She'd been driving for half an hour, focusing on nothing but the road, when the muffled ringing of her cell broke the silence.
The melody rang louder and crisper as Klaus pulled it from his jacket pocket. Glancing at the caller ID he told her, "It's Damon."
Her grip on the steering wheel tightened, her knuckles turning white. Addie didn't want to think about Damon. She definitely didn't want to talk to him. Through gritted teeth she hissed, "What did I say about talking?"
Addie was a little disappointed when Klaus simply quieted her phone and returned to looking out the window. A part of her wanted to pick a fight with him, to find a reason to yell and scream and channel all the conflicting emotions inside her somewhere. Instead she bit the inside of her lip as her eyes burned. She would not cry in front of Klaus.
Fifteen minutes later her phone went off again. Klaus glowered at the device, "Do you want to answer it? It's Damon."
"Shut up!" she barked, surprising herself with how loud she was. Addie's hand trembled with anger as she held it out to him. Her fingers clenched around the device as he set it in her palm. She pressed the button to silence the phone but not to reject the call. Damon would just get pissy if he knew she was screening his calls. He had no right to take up an attitude with her.
She had to silence her phone once more five minutes later. As quickly as it began to ring again, Addie knew Damon was calling back as soon he had gotten her voicemail. Again she ignored the call and again the phone began to ring again. Scowling, she muted the device again. Damon had probably gotten back to her house and realized she wasn't there. That was a good thing, a very, very good thing. If he was going to be such an idiotic, horrible, stupid, foolish, lying, hurtful dick around her, he probably shouldn't have told her to keep a gun loaded with wooden bullets under her mattress. She hadn't wanted to shoot at him when he'd pushed her into it but the idea seemed particularly appealing at the moment.
"Are you ever going to answer that?" Klaus groaned as her phone went off again. "It's really annoying."
Her eyes drifted from the road just long enough for her to unlock her phone so she could power it off. Let Damon enjoy not knowing where the hell she was and her phone suddenly shutting off. Or he simply wouldn't care and was just calling to inform her that he was in love with her sister.
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" she hissed. Her hands tightened around the steering wheel so much that her nails dug into her palms.
As they passed through Charlottesville, Addie figured she'd better come up with some idea of what she was doing. It was already ten o'clock. Wherever she went, however far she went, she would inevitably have to make the return trip. It also seemed unlikely that Klaus would stay silent for the entire trip, which was a shame. She didn't want a car trip with Klaus. She didn't want to think. She didn't want to worry about return trips. She just wanted to drive. She just wanted to drive until the vice-like grip on her heart lessened and her lungs expanded so she could breathe properly.
Pointlessly continuing north on US-29 it was. When the signs for Interstate 66 east to Washington, D.C. appeared forty-five minutes later, inspiration struck. The drive was just over an hour away.
"The Capitol? You wanted to see the Capitol?" Klaus questioned in disbelief as they passed the White House.
"No, not quite," Addie mumbled, feeling a little less grumpy as her favorite building came into view. She pulled into the parking next to a white marble building. The stone matched the nearby Capitol, Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court but the architecture was much more simple. Addie knew the simple, rectangular building atop a set of stairs was quite deceptive. The interior designs invoked Tudor England with oak paneling, ornamental floor tile, and high plaster ceilings.
After a brief internal debate, Addie decided to take off her heels. While the idea of walking on the ground was very unappealing, the shoes were painful and an sprained ankle waiting to happen. She gathered up the cumbersome dress and climbed out of the Jeep, jumping slightly to land over the curb and in the grass.
"Why did you pick such a dress with so much poofy stuff?" she demanded, brushing her hair out of her face.
Klaus chuckled as he shut her door and took the keys she held out to him. "That's not poofy. You should have seen some of the other ones I considered. Though, you know all that material is called tulle. There are only a couple of layers of it."
"Frankly, I don't give a damn what it's called," she replied simply. The grass was soft and cool beneath her feet as she moved towards the building.
"Ok. I hate to break the obvious to you but I think the place is closed. Notice how all the windows are dark?" he remarked patronizingly.
Addie stopped abruptly and jabbed a finger into the center of Klaus' just, poking him with each word, "Be nice." She dropped her hand and continued walking. "Or else I'll revert to the 'no talking' rule."
"You wouldn't be talking to me if you didn't want to talk. I know that much about you, Addison."
"Shut up, Niklaus."
"Where are we?" he asked, ignoring her.
She knew what he meant but she wasn't exactly in the mood to answer obvious questions. Smartly she quipped, "You recognize the Capitol but you don't know where it is?"
"Ha ha. This particular building we are walking towards? What is it?" Klaus snarled.
Just then they passed a large marble slab with the words "Folger Shakespeare Library" embossed on it. Fondly Addie ran her hand along it as she tilted her head towards him in feigned curiosity and mockingly asked, "You mean you can't read this?"
"Ah, of course. I should have known. Every time the guy I love tells my sister he loves her I always retreat to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare," he retorted sarcastically.
"I don't love him," Addie stated vehemently. The words felt wrong in her mouth. It was just so much easier to not love Damon. Well, it would be if she could stop loving him.
"Alright," Klaus placated. "Why'd you pick here?"
Talking to him was probably better than stewing in her own thoughts. Stepping from the grass to the cold, unyielding concrete, she frowned. Perhaps going barefoot was just as uncomfortable as the heels.
"Well," she sighed, climbing the steps towards the door on the east end, "I like Shakespeare. After my parents died Jenna brought my siblings and me up to D.C. as a kind of mini-vacation. I think it was mostly just to escape the whisper and stares from everyone in town. My...sister," the word was like poison on her tongue, "and I couldn't really even be in the same room at that point. While everyone else did all the touristy stuff, I spent my time either here or at the Natural Air and Space Museum."
"You're angry at your sister so you've retreated to another place where you are familiar with feeling angry at her," analyzed Klaus.
Addie shook her head. She didn't even want to think about her sister. "No. You're overthinking it. I just feel... safe here."
"And you were feeling unsafe before?"
That wasn't quite the word but it was close. When Damon had first told her that he loved her, she knew it didn't mean anything. It was just another four letter word people tossed around too freely. But then he started acting as if his world revolved around her. He put aside his desires to put her safety first. Actually, he was very concerned about her safety. Addie was pretty sure he hadn't wanted her to go to London but he had pushed her to do it because he knew it was what she desired. And he had been so hurt and angry when he thought Addie had picked Klaus over him. Still, he had let her curl up in bed with him her first night home with minimal fighting.
That had just been a small fight. They had lot of small fights with a lot of bickering and bitching and pushing each other's buttons for no reason other than the simple fact that they could. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she had pushed him off one too many times. Damon rarely argued with her.
Ignoring Kalus' question Addie walked past the door, onto the grass and right up to one of the long, rectangular windows that ran top to bottom. "See this?" she asked, pointing to the large sculpture of white Georgia marble at the base of the window.
"A bas relief, the details have less depth to them compared to when they are measure to scale of the real thing. The technique retains the natural contours of the figures and allows the work to be view from many angles without distortion of the figures themselves."
"I really don't give a damn about how it was made or what it's called. The interesting thing is what it's depicting," Addie sassed.
Klaus snorted and rolled his eyes, "It's three cloaked women talking to a man."
Her eyes narrowed at him in annoyance. She wasn't in the mood for ignorance. "How astute, Sherlock. It's not just random people, though. It's the three witches and Macbeth from Macbeth." Quickly she moved down to the next window and point to its bas relief. "This old man is King Lear and cowering behind him is his fool. And this next one is my favorite. That's Tatiana, Queen of the Fairies," Addie said brightly as she pointed to a crowned woman with her back to a man as they were surrounded by foliage. "And that's Bottom. Puck, the imp sprite, turned his head into that of a donkey by orders of Oberon, King of the Sprites, and used magic to make Tatiana fall madly in love with him. A Midsummer Night's Dream is probably one of my favorite works by Shakespeare. It's actually one of the few things I've read and actually liked that was supernaturally driven."
"I think you're avoiding your supernaturally driven problem," Klaus remarked, leaning against the building.
"I don't have a problem," Addie quipped back sharply, walking away from him. She frowned as she stepped off the grass and onto the concrete. Not enjoying the feel of the hard cement between her feet she quickly moved to one of the white, marble benches.
She looked so helpless as she put her elbows on her knees and rested her forehead in her cupped palms. After giving her a minute of space to gather her thoughts, Klaus moved to sit very close to her. He lightly shoved her shoulder with his as he taunted, "Denial is the first stage of grief."
"I'm not grieving," she grumbled tensely. Roughly she pushed back at his shoulder. It wasn't like she had lost Damon's love. No, he still loved her; she was certain of that.
"More denial," Klaus pointed out cheerily.
Addie gave him a nasty glare as she looked at him from the corner of her eyes, still keeping her head in her hands. "Why are you here? You haven't made me miserable in a while so you figured I was overdue for my serving of misery that comes with your company?"
"No," he lamented softly. He supposed it was his own fault she would assume the worst of him. Attempting to sound sincere and genuine he continued, "While misery loves company, I don't think it's my presence that's making you miserable. I just came along to support you as a friend."
"We're not friends," Addie quickly corrected. "And I'm not miserable."
"You might want to tell that to you face."
Her lips pursed as she tried to look neutral and impassive as opposed to the scowl she was giving him. Sharply she retorted, "I'm just annoyed that you're here."
"I don't think that's it. A minute ago you were quite excited to show me the sculptures. I think you're upset that the guy you love just admitted to loving your sister," countered Klaus as he rubbed at his chin thoughtfully.
"I already told you I don't love Damon," she mumbled, the words leaving a foul taste in her mouth.
Klaus rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to push it. Whatever she needed to tell herself to make it through this wasn't his business. "Fine," he conceded. "The guy you really, really, really, really like loves your sister."
Damon loved Elena. Damon. Loved. Elena. Addie ran a hand through her hair as she groaned. Barely a whispered she confessed, "Yes. Yes, I'm upset that Damon loves Elena and she feels the same way."
"How do you know that?" Klaus demanded. He had suspected that tidbit of information but he hadn't expected Addie to know it and not have some epic confrontation with her sister.
"Elena told Stefan she feels the same way about him as she feels about Damon. Everyone knows Elena loves Stefan. Doesn't take a genius to use the transitive property and figure out she loves Damon, too. What we need a genius for is to figure out what the hell all of it means," Addie snorted bitterly.
"What do you mean?"
"Stefan loves Elena. Damon loves Elena. Everyone loves perfect Elena. Elena loves Stefan. Elena loves Damon. Do they just become polygamist now or do Stefan and Damon duel for her honor? What the hell happens next?" Addie questioned, tilting her head back, as if the stars held all the answers.
Delicately, Klaus took her hand, interlacing their fingers. "That's their problem. You only need to worry about what happens next for Addie."
"Well," she drawled out slowly, a humorous element slightly affecting her tone, "Addie doesn't want her sister to end up with Damon."
"Why not?"
"Because she's Elena," Addie said, looking at Klaus as if he had asked if the sky was blue. "Damon deserves better than someone who's just going to screw with his head. In the end, Elena will always pick Stefan," she ranted, annoyed that her sister even had the option of picking Damon.
"Anger," he smirked.
Curtly she asked, "What?"
"The second stage of grief."
"Oh, my God," she uttered, her hands clamping over her face in exasperation. "I'm not grieving over anything. To grieve you have to have lost something. I haven't lost anything."
"You've lost Damon."
"First of all, there you go again with your stupid notions of possession. Second - "
"This isn't like that," Klaus interrupted. "You had Damon's heart. I knew the moment I first saw you two together that boy's heart and soul belonged to you. It was obvious in the way he looked at you, touched you."
Addie didn't know anything about souls but she had thought she at least had Damon's heart. She crossed her arms and pouted defiantly, "Damon's heart and soul were never mine to lose."
"Right," he drawled out sardonically. "The thing is, you're hurting now because of what he said but if you were going to be upset over losing Damon, it should have been this summer when you broke up."
Feeling a headache start, she rubbed at her temples. He wasn't even making sense. She had been upset when they'd broken up. And why the hell shouldn't she be upset about the man she was in love with yelling that he loved her sister?
"How about we go back to that no talking rule?" Addie suggested halfheartedly, knowing he would just dismiss her.
"That's why I didn't kill him, you know."
"What?" she demanded, her hand clutching his a little tighter.
"When he picked a fight with me in Chicago, you asked me not to kill him. The only reason I didn't kill him was because when he told me that you guys had broken up, I could see in his eyes that his heart wasn't yours anymore," explained Klaus.
She froze. Could that possibly be true? Had she started to lose Damon that long ago? As the pieces started to fall into place, Addie could feel herself growing red with fury. Snatching her hand away from him, she stuck an accusatory finger right in his face as she darkly hissed, "This is all your fault. It's your fault I was gone for the entire summer. It's your fault Stefan reverted to being a ripper and you took him away from Mystic Falls. You're the one who rigged the scholarship so I would be sent to London. If it wasn't for you, Damon and Elena never would have been left alone together."
"No, no, no, no," he insisted, pushing her hand out of his face. "If you and Damon were meant to be, you would have gotten back together after you returned to two. Elena and Damon wouldn't have continued to grow close and he wouldn't have fallen in love with her."
But they had gotten back together! It had to have been all the help Elena had needed in coping with Stefan that she and Damon had bonded over. Really, Addie couldn't figure out when they would have spent enough time together for Damon to have fallen in love with her. Unless he really had over the summer and he had just managed to keep his emotions suppressed since then. Did that mean he was just using her?
"Elena had Damon hooked from the very beginning. Maybe it's because she looks like Katherine or she just some kind of charm that I don't," she mumbled defeatedly.
Uncertain of how to respond to that, Klaus was quiet for a long time, reflecting in his own thoughts. Eventually his brows furrowed in confusion. "I understand how Elena ended up with bunny munching Stefan but I don't understand how you both ended up falling for the bad guy."
She gaped at him, completely baffled. "In your world Damon's the bad guy? What does that make you?"
"The better bad guy," he stated.
"Better as in 'good' or 'evil?'" she wondered.
"The more evil bad guy."
She nodded slightly. "Ok, at least we're on the same page about that. But it's been a long time since Damon's been the bad guy. It's not like we fell for the guy who planned on unleashing a tomb of vampires on the town. He's changed since then."
"In your world Damon's the good guy?" asked Klaus, mocking her incredulous tone.
Addie shook her head slowly, uncertainly. Damon had the days when he was loving and protective and days when he just took things too far and became overly zealous and too aggressive about protecting her, causing him to make mistakes. "I don't like to label him good or bad. Damon is just Damon."
"Alright but why Damon? Why do you pick him, Addison?"
Addie sighed heavily as she tried to come up with an adequate answer. She'd always known how she felt about Damon but it had always almost been impossible to pinpoint exactly why.
"Because I know he cares about me."
"By that logic you should be picking half of Mystic Falls."
"Hardly," she muttered. "You must be confusing me with my sister. Besides, the way Damon cares is different. He doesn't care about me like a friend would. I can't really explain how it's different, it just is."
When it was clear she wasn't going to elaborate any further Klaus surmised, "So all one would have to do to win you heart would be to care about you as more than a friend."
"My heart is not some object to be won, like a stuffed animal at a crappy carnival game," Addie corrected him unconsciously. His notions of people and their feelings and emotions as objects of possession was starting to get really annoying. Just because he had complete control over his hybrids and could compel anyone not on vervain to his whims and desires didn't mean it was acceptable. "And no, there is so much more to it than just how much someone cares about me," she added as she began to realize more reasons of just why she was with Damon.
"Like what?"
Uncertain of how much she want to expose what she and Damon had to the enemy Addie hesitated, "Well, I feel safe with him."
"So, someone who really cares about you and is powerful," Klaus nodded thoughtfully.
"No, not powerful. Yes, I know Damon will protect me from all things supernatural but I also have to feel safe with him. I had to reach a point where I knew he wasn't going to hurt me," Addie tried to explain. She wanted to avoid using the word vulnerable around Klaus in case it gave him any funny ideas but that was exactly what she had to become around Damon in order to let him in. They both had to break down protective walls they had built around their hearts to make the relationship work. Only, it hadn't.
"Guess that was poor judgement on your call," quipped Klaus.
Addie tilted her head and lifted her eyebrows in confusion. "What?"
Klaus gave a slight shrug as he coolly replied, "What Damon said did hurt you, unless you want to go back to all the denial part."
"If I'll admit that, will you stop bringing up what happened? I really don't want to discuss it," she said tensely, trying to remain polite as Damon's words echoed in her head.
Overly bright he remarked, "Bargaining, the third stage of grief. You're really moving -"
"Stop saying I'm grieving," demanded Addie as she tried to push Klaus away from her as hard as possible. When she remembered how much stronger than her he was, she stopped and scowled at the ground.
"Did you just try and shove me? And cut me off while I speaking?" Klaus asked as he looked down at her incredulously.
"Are we playing a game where we ask stupid questions about very obvious things?" she snarled back.
He snorted, smiling slightly. "And you've implied that I'm stupid. You're the only person who doesn't seem to cower in fear of me. Well, Stefan doesn't but he doesn't count. You don't feel fear when your humanity is fried."
She bit her lip and ran a hand through her hair, uncertain of what kind of answer he was looking for. Was it a good thing or a bad thing?
"I think I like it," he decided, "but it can get really aggravating."
"You can be really aggravating," Addie retorted, knowing she sounded like a five-year-old. After a few minutes of silent reflection she admitted, "After the things I've seen you do, after Chicago, I know how cold, callous and heartless you can be. That guy scares me. I'm not afraid for myself but I am afraid for the people I care about. He's killed Jenna, John, and he would have killed Jeremy if luck hadn't intervened. I don't see the point in fighting him like everyone else does, but when they move to fight, it also shows how scared they are.
"Then there's this side of you. The guy who saved Damon; you didn't have to hold up your end of the bargain in that. The guy who saved Caroline, instead of letting her be collateral damage. The guy who steals my car keys and tags along on my escape from town just to, I don't know, be there for me. I might be terrified of that guy because I have no idea what his intentions are or I might not be afraid of him at all. I have no idea which I should be," Addie trailed off, mumbling to herself in the end.
Klaus interlaced their fingers as he slowly took her hand again. Holding it with the back facing up, he brushed his free thumb along the veins in her hand. When she didn't pull away after a few moments, he softly confessed, "I think his intentions are good. I don't know. He's someone I've never met before."
Klaus with good intentions was a hard concept to grasp. He had always been the bad guy. Addie had no problem labeling him as opposed to Damon. Of course there had been a time when Damon had been the bad guy with less than noble intentions and he converted to good. Why couldn't Klaus? Maybe a reformation wasn't even possible, though. Addie thought Damon's intentions towards her had been good but if that was true, what he said didn't make sense.
"How could he do that to me?" she wondered, quiet and sad.
He didn't have an answer for that. So he pointed out the only thing he did know about. "Depression is the fourth stage of grief."
Addie rolled her eyes; she didn't want to waste energy fighting with him. "Fine, I'm grieving. I think I have a right to. Here I was thinking that Damon still loved me only to have him pull out the rug from under me and find out that he loves Elena."
Klaus shook his head in confusion. "I don't get it Why does it even matter if you and Damon are broken up?"
Because they weren't broken up! They had been in a damn relationship while Damon had been in love with her sister. God, she felt like such an idiot.
"I guess it doesn't but I mean, I still care about Damon. It's not like I want to see him in love with my sister and not because I'm jealous. Elena will always end up picking Stefan. Right now his humanity is screwed up but he has enough sense to be pissed at Damon for making Elena love him. It's inevitable that he sorts out his humanity and the minute that happens, Elena will be with him again," Addie mumbled, upset about her sister's mutual affection.
"If you still care about Damon, why aren't you with him?"
"Because he loves my sister."
"He still cares about you, though."
"Are you trying to confuse me?" she snapped, rubbing at her temple. That headache had gotten really bad. "I'm not going to be his second choice." That was her exact concern when she had first started to get involved with Damon. She should have known better. She should have listened to her instincts then. Really, it was her own fault that she was in this mess.
"But he wanted Elena before he wanted you before. You didn't mind being his second pick then," Klaus countered.
"I wasn't." Damon hadn't wanted Elena anymore, right? "At least it never felt like it." Maybe he had never moved on from Elena. Really, it wasn't much of a surprise that he had picked Elena over her, again. Hadn't he almost died for Elena? Her head throbbed painfully and she scowled, "Why am I even discussing this with you? It's none of your business. If I should be talking to anyone it should be Damon. You're just making things more complicated."
"My apologies. That wasn't my intention," said Klaus. He wasn't sure that what he said was true.
Sighing heavily, Addie pulled away from Klaus as she stood up. It would be close to five in the morning by the time they got back to town. Declaration of love for Elena aside, Addie was almost 100% certain that Damon would be up worrying about where she was and if she was safe. She held her hand out expectantly, palms up. "Keys, please."
Klaus pulled the keys from his jacket pocket and passed them over to her. "Ready to go back?"
She nodded and spoke softly. "I need to talk to Damon. And it's not nice to keep him wondering about where I am."
"I don't get how you're worried about being nice to him after what he's done to you," he said, placing his hand on the small of her back as he let her lead the way back to the Jeep.
"Well, it's not like I'm calling and checking in with him the second we get in the car," Addie said, giving him a sly, devious smirk.
Addie stared anxiously at the old, heavy wooden door her key jingling in one hand and the other running through her hair. It was perhaps best if she just went home and called Damon in the morning, later in the morning. Of course it wouldn't be the first time that his car was at his house while he was at her house. He could be sitting in her room, waiting for her to show up. She didn't think that likely. He had probably done that for the first couple of hours. After that, though, with no sign of where she may have been headed and her phone going straight to voicemail he normally would have turned to Bonnie to do a locating spell. However, he hadn't shown up in D.C., which meant he hadn't gone to Bonnie.
If he hadn't gone to Bonnie, he had turned to alcohol. Addie wasn't sure if it was a conscious thing or if Damon even realized that he been getting better about his drinking but it was still what he turned to when something was bothering him so much he couldn't think straight. And if it was something that had him so distressed that he viewed the situation as a life crisis, the morning new would be reporting about dead bodies. She didn't think her short disappearance drove him to the point of murder. Albeit, he was probably pretty trashed and that made her indecisive about confronting him. A wasted Damon was an overly emotional Damon, in ways both good and bad.
When the door opened, Addie took a wobbly step back in surprise. Had she knocked without realizing it? No, she doubted Damon would have looked as shocked as she felt if he had heard a knock. His hair was a mess, as if he'd been running his hands through it all night, and his cheeks were slightly colored but by no means did he look like the drunk she had been anticipating. Although, his shirt was off. Damon always looked better without a shirt. Perhaps his chest was distracting her from what she should be seeing. Why was his shirt off?
Better question: what the hell was Rebekah doing standing next to him in her emerald green ball gown? Her makeup wasn't fresh or anywhere close to perfect; she hadn't attended the ball like that. How did she end up at the boarding house in - no. Addie shut that train of thought down. She couldn't see where it was headed but she knew it was about as pretty as Stefan eating someone's head off their body.
As Rebekah walked past Addie with a smile she whispered in the younger girl's ear, "I want your sister dead for stabbing me in the back. I haven't quite decided what I want to do about you."
Because fucking her boyfriend when she hadn't even had anything to do with Rebekah being daggered wasn't enough payback? Addie looked over her shoulder but the Original had already disappeared. She scoffed, "Was that a threat? Did she just threaten me?"
"Where the fuck were you, Addison?" Damon fumed, grabbing her by the wrist and yanking her inside of the house. "What the hell happened?"
"Hey, hey, hey!" she protested, stumbling in the stilettos. "Enough with the pulling or I'm going to break something!" Once she regained her balance she crossed her arms defensively and gave Damon a challenging look. This was one of the reasons she was glad he hadn't been waiting at her house; it was very likely that their conversation was going to get very loud and there were more people to eavesdrop at home. Plus she didn't want to argue about Elena knowing her sister could overhear everything they said. Undoubtedly Stefan was in the boarding house so she pushed her anger aside for a moment and offered, "Would you be more comfortable discussing this in your room?" Where the sound machine was. They'd probably have to turn on the shower, too, if they didn't want Stefan to overhear them actually fighting, though.
"No! I don't give a damn about where we discuss," he spat the word out like bile, "this."
"Ok, well, you're not the one wearing shoes that are so uncomfortable and such a safety hazard that they should be illegal," she said, noticing his bare feet. It was annoying how he still had a good five inches on her.
Damon chuckle was dark, bitter, and humorless, "Fine, Ads. Where do you want to do this? You've been doing whatever the fuck you've wanted all night; why stop now?"
"And you've been doing whomever the fuck you've wanted all night," she shot back, heading for the library.
A hand curled a fist full of silky dark locks as Damon clutched and tugged at his hair in frustration. Why did she have an attitude with him? Sharply he demanded, "What are you even talking about?"
"Oh, come on! Give me a little credit," she steamed. "Please tell that there is some very simple explanation for all of this. That you've gone off vervain and she compelled you. That some spirit has possessed or some other supernatural nonsense. Hell, I'll even take that you've just simply gone batshit crazy."
"You think I slept with Rebekah?" he asked in disgust.
"And I suppose now you're going to deny it," Addie muttered to herself as she dropped into the couch.
He gawked at her for a moment before deciding, "No, I'm not going to deny it because I shouldn't have to deny it at this point. If there is any part of you that truly believes or even questions if I slept with her, we've got some serious issues."
"Yeah," Addie said gravely as she nodded, "our issues definitely stem from whether or not I think you slept with Rebekah."
Damon dragged a hand slowly down his face. How the hell was this happening? She was the one who ran off and he was the one getting yelled at. It made no sense. And now suddenly Addie was questioning if he was being faithful to her? What was that all about? They spent an entire summer apart and she didn't question that but this one night? He needed a drink.
"What's with the sarcasm?" he asked tensely as he poured a measure of bourbon from the crystal decanter into a glass.
Innocently she replied, "I'm not being sarcastic."
"I know you, Addie. I can tell when you're trying to manipulate or control a conversation with sarcasm." She glanced up at him briefly before returning to unfastening her heels. Damon drank from the glass to keep from swearing. Silence was just another tool she employed to get what she wanted. "Fine," he growled He wasn't going to play mind games with her when he was already pissed off. "You want to tell me what tonight was all about?"
Not really. Addie didn't like having Damon mad at her. She placed her shoes to the side and sat up slowly. She stared at Damon for a couple of moments before saying, "I don't know what you're talking about." Really, there were several things about that night that he could be referring to. She was like 99% sure she knew what he was referring to but, hey, she wasn't a mind reader.
Damon glared at her but she didn't flinch as he anticipated. She knew damn well what he was talking about. She wasn't playing smart if she thought making him explain just what he meant was going to help her cause at all. The barely restrained anger could be hear in his words as he glowered, "I left you at home. I call you from the party a couple hours later and you don't answer your phone. Ok. It's just one call. You probably were in the kitchen or something. I try again when I leave the party. No answer. I'm a little concerned but I'm sure you'll be fine when I get back to your place. Except you're not there. And you're not at my house. And your car is gone. And everyone one I ask hasn't seen you since before the ball. So where the hell are you?
"And then I remember our first date when I said I would never trust you with a car because you'd go out for a drive one night and just decide to never turn back and you agreed with that statement! So I know you have a car and you might have decided to run away and nobody knows where the hell you are or where you might be headed. Now my calls are a little more frantic; they're all going to voicemail. But I know you don't like being distracted by phones while you drive so maybe that's just why you're not picking up. Maybe you'll get the message that it's urgent and pick up. But no! Suddenly your phone is off. It's going straight to voicemail. There is no way of reaching you. You know everything that's going on in town, you know how much danger everyone is in. You wouldn't just suddenly make yourself unreachable in case of an emergency. That means someone else has decided to turn off your phone. Someone else is with you. Who the hell else is with you? I've already spoken to all of your friends. That leaves it to be some unknown mystery person. Do you know the varying degrees of dangers unknown mystery people come in? And you want to know who's right at the top of the list of murderous, unconfirmed mystery people? Dr. Fell, who just so happened to not be at the party but does have access to your house, where you were last seen," Damon vented, his voice becoming louder and louder.
Addie pressed her lips into a thin line to keep the corners from twitching into a smile. She was grateful she managed to sound completely unphased and nonchalant as she told him, "You read way too much into my habits of answering my cellphone. That's a very active imagination you have going. Sometimes I don't answer my calls and choose to turn my phone off because I'm ignoring you and it's as simple as that."
She had been ignoring him on purpose? What? Why? That wasn't the point.
"Ads, you can't just up and leave without leaving a note or something and you definitely can't do that with Klaus!" he stressed loudly, trying to impress upon her how concern he'd been. She was obviously taking it as a joke so far. "Also, when the villain says come and meet me, you go and hide!"
"How do you know about that?" Addie demanded, eyeing him suspiciously. "I thought I was kidnapped by the murderous Dr. Fell."
"That's what I thought at first," he explained as he poured another drink. His brows furrowed and creases formed on his forehead as he pretended to think. "Then I started to put the pieces together. My first clue was the giant gift box and red ribbon Elena found on your coffee table. My second clue was when I put together that nobody had really seen Klaus at the ball after toast. My third clue was Rebekah. I wasn't fucking her. I was trying to find you," he said short and curtly.
"Yes, I see how that requires your shirt coming off," she noted sourly.
Damon stopped his pacing and braced his hand again the top of a chair, with the other he pinched the bridge of his nose. Weary he lamented, "Clearly there are much bigger issues between us than how my shirt came off. I'm not even going to explain myself and not because I shouldn't have to but because I feel like you're just not going to believe me because you want to believe I had sex with her."
Addie rolled her eyes and haughtily replied, "Why would I want to believe that my boyfriend had sex with my friend? Do you hear the words you say? You're talking like a mental patient;and I know because I was one."
Maybe that was it. Maybe Klaus had drugged her and nudged her sanity switch a little off center. Or perhaps, in some twisted logic that only made sense to Addie she was completely rational in being pissed at him. Now, how that blew up to epic proportions over the matter of a few hours was another special little thing about Addie but no doubt Klaus helped in setting her off. He wasn't even going to comment on the mental health part. Ninety-nine out of 100 days she would laugh it off or make a joke at her own expense but he felt like he'd just be making the pit he stood in deeper.
"I don't know why you would want to believe it but I also don't know why you do half of what you do," Damon rebutted defensively. "For example, I cannot come up with a single reason why you would willingly run off with Klaus! So, while I'll glad you're back safe, you can obviously see why I'm pissed."
"He was more like a stow away." Addie reflected, unable to come up with a better word but not wanting to go into details of the situation with Damon. Smirking, she threw his own words back at him, "Besides, you're gonna be mad at me no matter what I say because you want to be mad at me."
Damon scoffed, "No shit, Addie. There is no excuse for you taking off with Klaus and not letting me know!"
Seeing a flaw in his logic, her nose and eyes turned red as fake tears threatened to spill down her cheeks. With just the right amount of defiance and vulnerability she countered, "What if he forced me to? What if he threatened to kill you?"
"You find a way to reach me! My life isn't worth you putting yours in danger!" he stressed, his voice full of annoyance.
"What if he threatened to kill Elena?"
"He needs her alive for his hybrids; it's a bluff."
"Jeremy?"
"We sent him away just so Klaus couldn't kill him! There is no excuse!" Damon yelled, his glass shattering in the fireplace as he did so.
That was an intense, new level of anger from him. Addie knew she shouldn't push him further but she couldn't help but wonder, "What if it was Stefan he threatened to kill?"
He inhaled and exhaled slowly as he sat next to her on the couch. How could she not get it. Both his hands cradled her face, gently lifting it until her shimmering eyes met his. Firmly he told her, "No excuse. It's not your job to protect Stefan. That's my job."
"So it's ok for you to protect my siblings but not the other way around? Is that because your misogynistic or you just think I'm helpless?"
That was a trap. She wasn't exactly helpless but Wonder Woman she was not. He'd play it safe. "Stefan's lived lifetimes. You guys haven't even lived one. It's a matter of what's fair."
"How was Rebekah a clue?" she challenged, throwing him a curveball. She could at least check and see if he had a ready answer for that. If he did, he probably wasn't lying. Whether or not she thought he had actually slept with Rebekah, she had yet to decide. If she'd been asked her twelve hours ago if he loved her sister she would have said no with 100% certainty. Addie was second guessing all her judgments about Damon.
"Well, she confirmed my suspicion of Klaus sending you a package, this dress, to be specific," he said, picking up a layer of the skirt. "Klaus was going to lure you to the ball. She didn't know why or what he was going to do with you once he got you there. When she last talked to Klaus he had told her you were on your way. However, she didn't see either one of you again. That left two possibilities; you changed your mind about going and Klaus was either killing you for doing so, or hunting you down to kill you or Klaus intercepted you at the ball and took you somewhere," Damon explained. Abruptly he got up and walked around to put the coffee table between them, growling, "I thought he forced you somewhere at best and then to just open my door and see you standing on my porch like nothing happened! And you were ignoring me? Were you trying to piss me off?"
She hadn't considered if she had been trying to get some kind of payback on Damon for what he had said. It was possible, she supposed. Addie recalled the sound of her heels on the marble tile as she skittered out of the doorway after Damon professed his love for Elena. Skeptically she asked, "So, you didn't see me at the party?"
"Addie, any notion of peace that the Mikaels want to have in this town would have become a bloodbath if I had seen you there, in that dress, with Klaus," he stated clearly.
She had told Klaus just as much. Still. "I'm not something you get to be possessive about, Damon, girlfriend or not."
He snorted, "Yeah, uh, I've gotten that message. That wouldn't be why I was fighting him."
"Then what would?"
Damon tapped at his lips with a long index finger as he thought. His words had to convey the intention without insulting or embarrassing her. That was easy when you could be subtle but Addie was painfully naive in these situations and bluntness wasn't always the most polite form.
Delicately he phrased, "While that is a very beautiful dress and you look exquisite in it, it's completely inappropriate coming from Klaus."
"But you giving me a $50000 Jeep when we weren't dating is completely acceptable. Makes total sense," she bit sarcastically.
Damon rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. "It's not the price. It's not even that it's specifically from Klaus. It's inappropriate coming from anyone because it makes you look too good. Well, I could possibly get away with considering I'm your boyfriend."
Addie nodded, her expression very serious. "That's logical. You know, how dare Klaus pick out a dress that's flattering on me. Next time, if he doesn't get me a garbage bag, I'm gonna slap him."
He shook his head impatiently. "Let's try this in reverse. Why did Klaus not send you a garbage bag to wear?"
"Because even though my closet isn't fancy, it is a step above a garbage bag."
"So you could have found a dress?"
She snorted at this idea, "Do you not know me at all? This is so much worse than I thought if you're confusing sisters."
Damon had no idea what Addie was going off about but if he followed her every random thought their argument would never progress. He just wanted to get to the part where they made up. That didn't mean he wasn't still royally pissed at her for running off with Klaus and not letting him know if she was ok.
"Oh, my God, Addison. It's a simple yes/no question that isn't that ridiculous. You do actually own a few dresses!"
Addie held out her hands, palms up in a questioning manner. "Why are you wasting time asking questions you obviously already know the answer to?"
"I'm trying to make a point!" he snapped, harsher than he intended.
"You're doing an excellent job," she mocked, giving him two thumbs up. Then she bit one.
That was it; that was enough to make Damon give up all pretenses of delicacy. His girlfriend had just given him the Shakespeare equivalent of the middle finger. He was so aggravated that it was not one of Addie's cute, nerdy quirks; it was just annoying.
"The only reason a guy ever dresses a girl up in any manner of clothing or costume is just so he can remove it!" he snarled.
Her lips pursed and arms crossed as she considered how she wanted to react to Damon's little insight into the male psyche. She had three responses, one to the ludicrous idea of Klaus' intentions, one to his own intentions, and one to just how stupid his theory was; the problem was that he'd never let her rant off all three without cutting her off.
Choosing the reaction that left her the most curious, Addie asked, "Is that what you mean to do every time you pick out my clothes or hand me a pair of yours?"
"Uh, no," he scoffed. "I have the struggle of keeping you in clothes."
"Ouch," she muttered, her lips turning into a grimace.
Realizing his error Damon tried to quickly backtrack and rectify. The words rushed out. "I don't mean that how it sounded. It doesn't even have anything to do with you."
Shaking her head, Addie held up a hand to silence him. "This… fight is already messy enough. I don't think we need to add in the reasons why you won't sleep with me." Under her breath she added, "Though, I'm sure you'd have no problem sleeping with Elena."
Again about her sister! Where the hell was it all coming from? It didn't matter; she was right about the fight already being messy. Adding Elena to it would simply make it unresolveable. Trying to do damage control to the failed attempt at damage control he confessed, "Sometimes I think about it." When she looked at him confused he elaborated, "Taking off the clothes I pick out for you. Then other times I simply enjoy looking at whatever feature the clothes I have selected enhance. There is a sexual aspect any time I pick clothes for you."
"Just because there is for you doesn't mean that it's there for Klaus," Addie grumbled. Her nails were suddenly very interesting but perhaps that was simply because she could stare down at them and Damon could see less of her flushed face. She just wanted to get back to arguing with him.
"Alright, I mean this as nicely as possible but you don't know shit about this, about guys," Damon declared bluntly. "If I've learned anything usual from undaggering Elijah it's that Klaus is first still your typical guy and supervillain second. He lusts just like any other guy. Unlike your typical guy, he has an obsessive and fixative nature. You thought I was bad about Katherine? Dude's been wanting her dead for five hundred years. There are really a lot of examples of his fixation but none of them matter because they aren't my girlfriend.
"The obsession I have a problem with his attention to you. When he was Alaric, he didn't treat you right. I love you, Ads, but you can be as frustrating as hell, especially when you don't like someone. By all logic and reason Klaus should have killed you a thousand times by now and yet he hasn't. I'm definitely happy about that, but it means something is not right," he stressed, running his fingers through his hair as he paced.
Addie clapped slowly three times. With zero enthusiasm and complete sarcasm she said, "Bravo! You figured out that he wants me alive for some problem or curse that he thinks I am the answer to in the future. I definitely didn't expect you to figure it out after I've already tried telling you that he wants me alive."
"No, no. This is more than that," he insisted. "I know how Klaus thinks. I've been Klaus. There were times back before we got along that in that moment I thought screw the consequences, it was worth killing you. Consider it a compliment that you know how to get that far under someone's skin."
"Gee, thanks."
"Klaus has those moments too, I know it. I couldn't kill you because in that moment I also knew I wanted Elena and it was impossible to have both. In his moments, Klaus wants to kill you but he also wants you at the same time. That's why you're alive despite constantly provoking him. In the heat of the moment someone doesn't think long term effects, they think short term."
She looked at him with scrutiny, taking in every detail. He didn't appear to be joking or lying. Perplexed she questioned, "Is this some jealousy thing or something?"
"What?"
"You just sound so ridiculous. I have no idea where you would even get an idea as outrageous as Klaus wanting me."
"I'm not making this up!" he snapped defensively. "Addie, you wouldn't notice if a giant, purple elephant were hitting on you. I like that because I don't have to worry about competition but it does nothing for your self-confidence. You have none! Which is not only wrong, it's dangerous. You don't see how Klaus is coming on to you or weaseling his way into your life and you refuse to believe that he could notice you that way."
"Is this a therapy session or are we fighting?" she asked condescendingly.
"If this needs to turn into a fucking therapy session for you to see how dangerous Klaus is then, yes, this is a therapy session," he shot back testily.
Addie twirled a strand of hair around her finger and pointedly looked away from Damon. If she wanted therapy, she'd go to a therapist. She was hardly going to play pretend with him. "You know, you're doing a really bad job as a therapist. You're all tense and volatile. That feeds my anxious personality type. And you're being mean. I should fire you."
His jaw clenched. His remark hadn't been meant to be taken literally. But he was too annoyed to tell if she had taken him seriously or if she was just being a sarcastic smartass. Not entirely sure he wanted to go into a battle so unarmed he tried to steer the course back where it was cut and clear what they were arguing about. "Forget the dress. How did you wind up taking off into the night with Klaus without giving me any heads up?"
"Well, I was at the party. Then I needed to be really far away from it. Klaus had my keys because this dress doesn't have pockets. I could either fight with him for my keys, which I really wasn't in any state to do, or he could sit there silently while I drove. The silent companion idea obviously won," Addie summarize evasively, sinking into the couch cushions, wishing they would swallow her up. She didn't want to confront the real problem. Perhaps she could just be angry at Damon for what he said and they would never have to discuss it. It wasn't really important why, when, or how he had fallen in love with Elena.
"Where'd you go?" He'd get back to the why she left.
"Folger Shakespeare Library."
Damon opened his mouth and then closed it again. He didn't want to accuse her of lying but, "That tends to be closed in the middle of the night."
She rolled her eyes and huffed, "Obviously. I didn't go in, just kind of walked around, sat and thought."
"Klaus do that with you?" When she nodded he bitterly added, "I doubt he remained the silent companion through that."
"We talked a little. He just… He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know."
"Well did he try anything?"
Addie shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know what you want me to tell you, Damon. He tagged along. He didn't try anything. He wasn't mean. He wasn't mocking. I don't know why he insisted on joining me."
"So he was just being friendly?"
Addie exhaled loud and dramatic, "I'm not stupid, Damon. I'm sure he was up to something; he just wasn't overtly obvious about it. I was too concerned with other things to care about what he was plotting."
"He could have killed you!"
"Didn't we just establish that he doesn't want me dead?"
"That doesn't mean you go out and make friends with him, Ads!"
"You don't have any right to tell me who I can and can't be friends with. Besides, that's not even close to what happened," she objected, dropping her head to the arm of the sofa. After being up all night she was tired and not in the mood to fight with him.
"No, he was just a nice guy! Oh, it's overtly obvious what he was up to, just not to you!" Damon spat, again tugging at the roots of his hair in aggravation.
Addie stared at him for several heartbeats; his chest visibly rose and fell from his heavy breathing and the cords of muscles in his arms and across his chest flexed and twitched with every tense movement. While he was really upset, she wondered just how much of his anger he was focusing on Klaus being with her. Something told her it was the part that they hadn't really fought about, her ignoring him and shutting him out, that had Damon more bothered. But he didn't want to argue about that anymore than she wanted to argue about Elena; it was emotionally draining and it hurt. The pain of Klaus being there Damon could push off onto Klaus but the pain of their own actions against against each other couldn't be redirected.
He sighed, sitting in the chair catty-corner to the couch, "I don't want you alone with him anymore."
"And I don't want you to speak to my sister anymore," she grumbled tiredly. "See how stupid that sounds? You can't control me anymore than I can try and control you."
Again she was bringing up Elena. Klaus must have done or said something to either make her mad at Elena or feel insecure. Damon couldn't wait for the bastard to be dead. Roughly he explained, "I'm not trying to control you. I'm trying to keep you safe."
"We just established that he doesn't want me dead!" Addie repeated in exasperation.
"He doesn't have to kill you to hurt you, Ads," replied Damon, dark and ominous.
"I doubt he's going to kidnap and torture me. He had this entire summer to do that if he wanted to."
"Yeah and just because he hasn't tried forcing himself on you yet doesn't mean he won't! I don't want you alone with him!" he snapped angrily. Why did she have to be so difficult?
"He's not -"
"You don't know what he's thinking. I am not being the overly-jealous boyfriend! Will you listen if it comes from Stefan, an another guy's opinion on what the hell is going on?" Damon tried to reason, rubbing tiredly at his face.
Addie buried her face between the arm and the sofa and groaned loudly This was ridiculous. She tiredly huffed, "Fine, whatever, Damon. I'll stay far, far, far away from Klaus."
"Good."
"I'm going home," she decided suddenly, starting to put her shoes back on.
"Huh? We're not done fighting," Damon pointed out in objection.
"I don't think we ever actually started," she muttered bitterly.
His brows furrowed together in confusion. "I distinctly remember screaming and yelling and broken glass. If we haven't been fighting, please tell me what the hell we've been doing."
"We've been bitching about things that surround what we really should be fighting about."
Addie logic. Addie nonsense. He should have figured. The muscles in his jaws twitched as he hissed, "What should I be arguing about with you?"
"The fact that I scared you tonight. If I had just answered your call…," she trailed off, shrugging.
"You would have still been with Klaus. It wouldn't have made a difference."
"You would have known that he hadn't forced me into any situation and that he hadn't killed me."
Damon's hand went to his hair again, not tugging this time but just running through it, the anxious habit he had picked up from Addie. He was upset with her for ignoring him. Even a fucking text message before she shut off her phone would have been preferable. There was absolutely no reason for her to have put him through a night from hell, especially if Klaus hadn't done anything. But… they had definitely been arguing because he was tired of it. He didn't want to yell at her anymore. He didn't want to keep being mad at her.
"What if I just let that go?" he suggested quietly.
"Let go of the fact that I pissed you off?" Addie said, raising her eyebrows at him. "You can't do that."
"Are you telling me what I can and cannot be upset about?" Damon asked impertinent, doing his best impression of her.
She rolled her eyes. "If you let it go, you're not being fair to our relationship. You deserve to get to say how you feel and I deserve to get to defend myself."
"But if I'm letting it go, it means I'm not mad about it and I'm not holding it against you."
"Subconsciously you will."
"No," he said, shaking his head insistently, "I won't. I don't want to be mad at you, Ads." Standing up, he held his hand out to help her up. He smiled slightly at the familiar feeling of her small, warm hand in his. "I want to be done fighting. I just want to go to bed."
Addie was glad when Damon didn't question why she grabbed her keys before she let him lead her out of the library. When they reached the foyer, her hand slipped from his and she stopped following him, making him turn and look at her curiously.
"I just want to go to bed, too, but I'm going to do that at home. You might be able to let go of why you're mad at me, but I can't let go of why I felt the need to shut you out and push you away tonight."
"Wait a minute," he frowned in confusion. Then he disappeared. He could see Addie wanted to reprimand him for using his speed when she saw him leaning against the door so he quickly blurted out, "According to you this is all my fault?"
"I didn't say that," Addie answered wearily. "I could have chosen to answer my phone, I just didn't."
What was she trying to say? Didn't he just tell her he was going to let this go? Was she trying to start a fight? Certain he was going to regret doing so, Damon asked, "Why didn't you answer your phone?"
"I wasn't ready to talk to you after I overheard you tell Elena you loved her."
Shit. He'd never expected her to hear that. How the hell was he going to fix this?
A/N: Wow. Just wow. Your responses to the last chapter were just so... overwhelming. I was giddier than schoolgirl getting a love note. And then these two don't even wanna talk about what happened! Geesh. Damon screwed up so bad he got his own song. Cut Out - youtu. - be/Ab2wXQznvms