"Will you scoot?" Addie sighed, waving her hand in a motion for Damon to move away from the door.
"I don't think that's a good idea," he said very slowly, staring over her shoulder and off into the distance.
"Damon, it's been a really long night... for both of us. I just want to go shower and get a couple of hours of sleep. Please move," she pleaded.
He shook his head. Something told him that if she left, Addie's anger was just going to fester and he'd have no chance of reasoning with her.
Addie crossed her arms and glared indignantly at him as she warned, "Damon…"
"Upstairs. You can shower and sleep here. We'll talk after you wake up," he resolved, pointing decisively towards the stairs.
"I'm not exactly in a mood to share your bed," she snapped coldly.
Damon had to fight from rolling his eyes. He wasn't exactly in a mood to deal with her attitude, no matter how justified it might be. "I figured. There's still a guest room set up for you. So," he flicked his wrist, shooing her towards the stairs.
Humming, Addie stroked her chin and tapped her lips thoughtfully. "Nope," she popped out defiantly, stressing the puh sound. "Now you," she mimicked his wrist flick.
"I'm not letting you leave," he said simply.
"You have to!" exclaimed Addie, not caring that it sounded like she was whining.
"Eventually. I mean, you do need to go to school," conceded Damon, but his smug grin made it clear he wasn't making compromises. "However, that's not until tomorrow morning. You can choose how we pass the time. I can stand at this door like a royal guard and you can try and make me laugh. Or you could go shower and sleep. Either way, you're not leaving until we discuss what you think you heard."
"What I think I heard?" she screamed, surprising both herself and Damon with how shrill and loud she could get. "I know what I heard! I may not have super vampire hearing but I know exactly what I heard!"
"It's-"
Addie didn't care about what Damon had to say. She didn't want to hear his excuses so she bulldozed over his words with her own. "It's not what it sounded like? It's not what I think? It just slipped out? It-"
Damon used his vampire speed to move behind Addie, her back pressed against his chest. The warmth from her bare, satin shoulders against his skin was momentarily distracting. It just took another earsplitting word from her to remind him to clamp his hand over her mouth. He'd seen Addie hurt. He'd seen her mad. He'd never seen her shriek. It was annoying. Other girls shrieked; his girlfriend did not shriek. But she would, apparently, twist her arms around to sharply dig her nails into his back and scraped them around to ribs.
Groaning softly, Damon nipped at her ear without having to stoop, a definite perk of her heels. Apparently he could get Addie to play really rough, unfortunately it required really pissing her off. She tried to pull away and speak but it just came out as muffled nonsense. He tsked disapprovingly in her ear, holding her closer to him. "Make up you mind, love. Are we playing," he kissed her neck, demonstrating his point, "or fighting?"
Addie's teeth sunk into the flesh of his palm, deep enough to draw blood.
"Fucking hell," Damon hissed. He knew the risk of what he was doing; when he used his hand as a means of silencing her he almost always got bit. She never actually hurt him, though. Clearly he had misjudged how upset she was. All the more reason he wasn't going to let her leave angry. But Addie was tired and when she was tired, she was cranky. His cranky girlfriend who had already broken the sound barrier was not someone to be reasoned with. "That was not nice!"
He felt her try to spit a mouthful of blood into his hand but it just kind of spluttered.
"Mature, Addison, very mature. Interesting twist of events, the human is going to have the vampire's blood on their face and not the other way around. Isn't that ironic?" Damon taunted, having grown a little aggravated himself. "Whether you like it or not, you're staying here until we discuss this. Stop that!" he snapped as she scratched at him again. "I'm also not having this discussion until you've slept, rested cooled off, or whatever the hell you need to do to stop being so ornery." She bit him again. He gave her a quick kiss to the side of her head and brightly said, "See? Improvement already! You didn't make me bleed that time. Now, if I uncover your mouth, are you going to start screaming again."
She kinda felt like doing some more yelling but she was also tired. Soon she'd reach the 24 hour mark for being awake. Damon was crafty; he would say whatever he needed to in order to get her to think whatever he wanted her to think about what he had said. Addie needed to be on her A game and for that she needed sleep. Slowly she nodded.
"Good," Damon said, removing his hand from over her mouth.
Addie wiped her mouth and chin, covered his blood, on the back of her hand as she formally informed him, "I'm commandeering your room and shower. Under penalty of screaming, you shall not enter."
"You can't just seize my room!" he sneered, following her up the stairs.
"Says the guy holding me hostage! And the guy who told his sister's girlfriend he loved her! The rules of what a reasonable person can do obviously no longer applies! You're being an idiot, therefore I'm doing whatever I want," Addie declared superiorly. As she finished, she slammed Damon's bedroom door in his face and clicked the lock into place.
From the other side Damon complained, "That doesn't even make sense!"
Addie ignored him. As far as she was concerned, he didn't deserve an explanation. Balancing herself against his dresser she unceremoniously kicked off the heels of death. That was probably not how she was supposed to treat $800 shoes but she wasn't an '$800 pair of shoes' kind of girl.
"Where am I supposed to sleep?" he questioned her through the door. He'd never been locked out his own room before. Addie was lucky she was his Ads; anyone else and he would have broken the door down and snapped their neck. He didn't want people going through his things or finding anything unsavory. There wasn't anything he wouldn't want Addie to find even if she were the type of person to snoop. It was a really good thing they weren't married, though; he'd probably always be locked out of his own room.
"There are six other bedrooms in this place. Go find one," Addie advise snarkily.
Despite the silky sheets, cozy blanket, fluffy pillows, luxurious mattress, and the tiredness so deep she could feel it in her bones Addie couldn't sleep in Damon's bed. It had never felt so uncomfortable. She had tossed and turned for hours but she couldn't get him out of her head. Even when she closed her eyes she could still smell him. The bedding didn't smell like him; he'd been spending all his nights with her. The soap in the shower she had to use definitely smelled like him. It was like a bit of him was clinging to her. Typically she would have dressed in his boxers and one of his shirts but she had put on her own clothes instead. She really didn't want to be reminded about Damon. Thinking about him meant thinking about what he had said and that led to pain.
Another sob wrecked through her entire body. She really wished she'd stop crying like a big, whiney, overly dramatic baby; it was so Elena. It was also probably a contributing factor as to why she couldn't sleep. She had to keep flipping and switching pillows each time she soaked it with tears, snot, and, thanks to a stuffy nose, drool. She tried to take a deep, shuddering breath.
Damon tucked one of Addie's hairpins from her old room into his pocket after successfully unlocking his door. He really had planned on giving Addie her space, he had, but she'd been crying ever since she got out of the shower. At first it was just little sniffles but it grew into full blown sobbing. He hadn't been eavesdropping or spying on her. His ears just naturally tuned into her whenever she was around.
Either Addie didn't hear him enter the room or she chose to ignore him. Judging by her temperament, he guessed it was the first reason. Curled up on her side of the bed, facing away from him, Addie had the black blanket pulled up around her shoulders but Damon could see them shudder as she gave a hiccuping cry. His stomach twisted in guilt.
The bed dipped as Addie felt Damon join her in it. She would have heard him if he had broken the door down. He must have unlocked it. That dick! She opened her mouth to start going off on him, this time about boundaries, but instead her lungs gasped for air as a fresh wave of tears began to flow.
Damon grabbed a pillow and positioned it so he lay slightly higher than Addie as he curled up next to her, back to chest. He knew better than to say anything to try and soothe her but he reckoned soft hushing sounds were acceptable. She tensed when his fingers brushed her cheek as he moved the hair stuck by tears to behind her ear. That hurt.
Quietly he murmured, "Addie, I -"
"Don't," she croaked, her voice hoarse from crying. "I don't," she had to pause for a shuddering sob, "want to talk."
He couldn't hold back his sigh as he continued to stroke her hair. If Addie had it her way, they'd probably never talk. Damon was willing to compromise; their conversation could wait until she stopped sobbing and had some sleep. He could probably use some sleep but there was no way he was going to be able to relax with her crying. It was ridiculous! She was crying over nothing. He felt so guilty but he hadn't actually done anything wrong!
Damon rolled his eyes and sarcastically replied, "Sorry for trying to keep you alive. Clearly Stefan doesn't give a crap anymore."
Elena scoffed and shook her head. "Now you're mad at me for including Stefan?"
"No. I'm mad at you because I love you!" Damon snapped unthinkingly.
Visibly taken aback by this Elena asked, "Really?"
"Yes, of course. That doesn't mean you get passes to do stupid shit!" She had been so reckless to meet with Esther.
"What about Addie?" she asked, frowning slightly.
He hesitated, baffled by the question. Addie wouldn't have left him out of the plan; she would have trusted that he wouldn't interfere. Although, he never would have permitted Addie to have a private meeting with the Original witch and he would have interfered and they would end up fighting about. If Esther insisted on a private meeting, would Addie have snuck behind his back to go, though? No, not unless someone she cared about was directly threatened. Addie was much more cautious than Elena when it came to supernatural perils. What would he do if Addie had met with Esther?
"I don't know," Damon answered, honest and slow.
"But Stefan…," Elena trailed off in a small voice, her lips twisting into a guilty grimace.
"I am not concerned about Stefan! You think your sister's mood swings are bad? Have you spent a day with my brother lately? Those two are pretty compatible."
She made a look of disgust. "Stefan and Addie?"
Damon snorted humorlessly as he looked up at the vaulted ceiling, "With those two my hands are full. I can't handle complications from you, too."
"Yeah," Elena nodded slowly, "I definitely understand the complicated part."
"So stop causing problems and putting yourself in danger!" he snapped angrily.
"Stop yelling at me!"
"Stop pissing me off."
"I'm not doing anything wrong! Your problem is just that you care too much!" she blurted out, quickly wishing she hadn't.
He did care. A lot. Far too much. More than he ever had before. He'd become so much more connected to his humanity. Unfortunately humanity was strategy's greatest weakness.
"I'm a liability," he muttered in realization. "How ironic is that?"
"That's not what I met," Elena amended swiftly, catching Damon by the arm as he made to walk out of the library.
He brushed her off dismissively. Her words weren't his problem.
Trying to stop him, she called out, "I understand how you feel, Damon. I feel it too."
He highly doubted Elena knew how he felt. Sonnet 116 love was all consuming. Elena did not have that with Stefan. If she had that with Stefan, Elena never would have said she felt the same way about Stefan as she did him. The love he felt for Addie was so much that it drove him mad, literally on occasion. No one could manage to feel that for two people.
Damon curled his arm around Addie's waist and buried his face in her hair. It was odd smelling his own shampoo on her instead of her usual cucumber melon. Even as he held her, she shook and shuddered each time she took a breath. Addie tried to hide her sniffles but Damon knew from them tears were still streaming down her rosy cheeks. She had worked herself up into such an inconsolable state that she wouldn't even listen to him if he tried to tell her what he had meant. He'd seen Addie cry a few times but he had never seen her distraught and sobbing.
He wanted to tell her he loved her but that was probably a pretty bad idea. She'd go off on some rant about how his words meant nothing since he'd said it to her sister. Instead he just laid with her in his arms, hurting, crying and all because of him. After nearly an hour, her sniffles and gasping breaths had subsided. He tightened his hold on her encouragingly. Thirty minutes later she was softly snoring. Odd. Addie didn't snore; it must have been due to the stuffy nose from crying. Poor thing. She couldn't even breathe properly because of him.
Just as he was drifting off, there was a knock at the door, which he had every intention of ignoring. Stefan could answer it.
"I'm not getting that," his brother said from up in his room as the visitor knocked again.
Then they could just leave. Or bang much louder and more insistently at the door, making it clear they weren't leaving anytime soon. He scowled as he slowly moved away from Addie, careful not to wake her. Damon was halfway across the bedroom when he just barely heard her sleepily mumble something about a shirt. Probably for him to put one on, he realized, noticing his bare chest. It was nice to know she was still a little possessive about who he displayed himself to, he thought as he grabbed a black button up from his closet.
Addie considered going back to sleep once Damon left the room but it was curious that someone was calling at the house so early. It was odd that someone was calling at the boarding house at all. It did mean Damon would be distracted dealing with the visitor, in which case she could probably slip out. Quietly, in case Damon happened to be listening for her, Addie got out of bed and slipped on a spare pair of Converse she kept in his closet.
Heading downstairs, Addie froze on the steps at the sound of her sister's voice.
"You should know that Esther is planning on killing her entire family. She's linked them all together with a spell. Whatever happens to one of them happens to all of them," Elena informed Damon.
That was… well, it was a permanent solution to their Original problem. It might not be the best or fairest solution but it didn't involve anyone Addie cared about dying, except for Rebekah, but if she was permitted to live without Klaus to keep her in check, Rebekah would kill Elena in a heartbeat. It wasn't exactly like Elena didn't have it coming after using the Original sister and then literally stabbing her in the back. It was more Elena's fault that Rebekah would kill her than it was Rebekah's. So, if Elena hadn't been such a bitch Rebekah wouldn't have to die. Another person dead because of Elena!
Addie had to wonder just exactly how many people were going to die before everyone stopped protecting Elena and let nature take its course. It wasn't like she wanted her sister dead, it just seemed like Elena was conveniently escaping death through someone else's misfortune at every turn. When would enough be enough? When would they stop fighting the inevitable? It was selfish but Addie wasn't sure she wanted to die for Elena. Jeremy she'd die for in a heartbeat but he wasn't trying to escape some supernatural grim reaper determined to kill him like Elena was. Was there such a thing as grim reapers? She'd have to ask Dam - no, Bonnie about that.
"What are we doing?" came a whisper in Addie's ear, startling her and making her noisily stumble down a couple of stairs. Stefan had a slight smirk as he pointed out, "You kind of just defeated my purpose of whispering."
"Lurky McLurkster wants to be a creep and scare little girls. How nice," Addie sneered back softly and sarcastically.
"Actually, I kind of just figured if you were here and awake, you'd be screaming at my brother. Coupled with the fact that your sister is in the same room, I'm really surprised to see there isn't a nuclear war going on," he shrugged nonchalantly.
Her jaw clenched. This was why she hated siblings; nothing was ever a private matter. Addie gave him a sly smile but her voice was tense and restrained as she retorted, "I was planning on whether I wanted to engage in biological warfare, you know, rat poisoning in Elena's food and extra vervain in Damon's drinks, or if I just wanted to drop an atomic bomb and watch the relationships I have with both of them completely explode. Both sides have their perks."
Stefan frowned in thought. "It might be kinda hard to get Damon to ingest vervain. I mean, he already takes it so he knows his drinks will smell like it but if you add more he might notice the stronger scent."
"I'll cook it into something."
"Could work. Once you get him down, feel free to use the cellar. Now, you realize arsenic poisoning would be fatal to your sister?"
"I'm aware of that," she nodded slowly.
"Both plans are fine. It just depends if you want immediate results or if you can wait for your revenge," Stefan concluded.
Addie loudly banged her head against the banister of the stairs three times before grumbling, "I'm kidding, Stefan."
"What's going on?" asked a very curious and slightly annoyed Damon as he moved into the foyer.
Stefan smiled smugly at his older brother. "We were just talking about you."
"You know, you really suck at the whole diabolical supervillain thing," Addie muttered as she gave him a cold, scornful look.
"Because you're such a master at it?" challenged Stefan.
Not liking the banter between his brother and girlfriend nor the fact that they had undoubtedly had been talking about him Damon interjected, "She has a seven step plan on how to take over Iceland. Addie doesn't need any advice on how to be evil. You hear the great news?"
"What?"
"It's not great news!" Elena objected indignantly. "To kill Klaus Esther has to kill all of her children, including Elijah. He doesn't deserve this."
"Yeah, well, hey," Addie shrugged helplessly, "neither does Rebekah but you know, we gotta kill whoever it takes to make sure we get rid of the guy who wants to protect you for the rest of your life for just a couple of pints of blood in return." Elena opened her mouth but Addie carried on, adding as an after thought, "Maybe we should really reconsider taking him up on that offer. Do you realize you are, like, constantly dodging death? Going into the Human Blood Bag Protection Program might be the safest thing you could do."
Elena's lips pursed as she observed, "You've been crying. Why have you been crying?"
"Your sister wants to hand you over to Klaus for safe keeping and you notice that she's been crying?" Damon quipped. "Do you really think that's the biggest issue right now?"
She tilted her head slightly as she studied him. "Depends. Is it your fault she was crying?"
"We need to act fast if we're going to get Elena into the Human Blood Bag Protection Program. I have a feeling Esther isn't going to wait long before making her move," Addie said loudly, not wanting to be the topic of conversation.
"Klaus is going to die," snapped Damon, "and not just because of Elena!"
"You," Addie seethed as she pointed an accusatory finger at him, "don't get to talk."
"He is the reason you've been crying," inferred Elena. She slapped Damon on the shoulder and demanded, "What did you do to my baby sister?"
"I'm hardly a baby. Stefan, are you backing the Human Blood Bag Protection Program?"
"I didn't do anything!"
"I think you two better not do anything to screw this up," Stefan answered loudly, speaking over Elena, who was about to start in on Damon.
Elena huffed, rolled her eyes and beckoned for her sister to follow her out the door. "Come on, Addie."
Addie mentally blessed her sister. There was no way Elena was leaving without her if she knew Addie had been crying because of Damon. Quickly she scampered down the last few steps after the older girl.
"We weren't done," Damon said firmly, his hand flying out to catch Addie by the wrist as she tried to leave. He wasn't stupid; he knew she was avoiding the confrontation.
Spinning on her heel, Elena scoffed humorlessly as she moved back inside to pull the vampire's hand off her little sister. With an unspoken threat lacing her words Elena told him, "Oh, you are mostly definitely done."
"Addison," he said sternly, crossing his arms as he peered at her with his piercing blue eyes.
Addie tapped her lips with her index finger as she pretended to think. "Toughie."
"You can't keep avoiding this."
"Hey, Elena, how long did I not talk to you when you were in freshman year?" Addie asked her sister lightly, ignoring Damon.
"A good seven months."
Addie nodded fervently as she looked back to Damon. "I avoided her for that long and I live with her. Really, you should know by now that you can't tell me what to do."
Damon scowled as he stepped right up to her, so close that she had to tilt her head back to look at him. He didn't like playing the height card as a power ploy but Addie wasn't leaving him with very many options. "You can't avoid this because I'm not going to let you," he promised. "Really, you should know by now how determined I can be."
"We're leaving," Elena declared, tugging sharply on the back of her sister's shirt before she could reply. A showdown between Addie and Damon was not something she wanted to deal with. Both of them were obviously already overly tense. Thankfully there were no more objections as Addie made her way out the door.
"Neither of you better not do anything to screw this up!" Damon warned after the two sisters.
When she got home Addie had tried to get some sleep but it was too late in the day. Her body was wired to awake at those hours so she suffered through the day feeling miserably drowsy. Of course the second she would lie down her mind would go into overdrive about Damon and Elena. She wondered if that would be preferable to listening to Elena rant about Damon as Elena move animatedly about her room, watching from Elena's bed.
"He was just being so controlling. And then he got mad at me because I had to have Stefan break his neck to keep him out of the way. Then he stormed off all mad and broody and got into a fight! Seriously, Addie, how did you put up with it?" Elena sighed, exasperated.
"Well, we stopped dating so Damon and his little temper tantrums aren't exactly my problem anymore. Unless you plan on dating him, I wouldn't recommend making them your problem, either. He has anger management issues and is more prone to outburst than a two-year-old," Addie answered sassily as she fluffed the pillow under her head and looked up at the ceiling. She didn't want to face her sister. She was mad at Elena for being so interested in Damon. "However," she strongly stressed, "I probably didn't have nearly as many problems with Damon as you do because A) I'm naturally more manipulative than you so I think he tries to control me less. That, or, he's not as surprised when I don't listen so he's not as prone to acting out. And B) I never resorted to actually snapping his neck to get around him. Not answering my phone? Guilty. Bodily injury? Negatory. If you snapped my neck I'd sure as hell be picking a fight with you, not someone else. I say to view the fact that Damon didn't snap your neck in return shows his remarkable progress in self-control from the days when he ripped Bonnie's throat out over a rock."
"You're actually going to defend him for getting into a fight with Klaus' brother and snapping his neck? As if we don't already have enough Original issues!" Elena gawked, her eyes practically bulging out of her skull.
It was difficult for Addie to stifle her groan of disgust and annoyance. How had Damon fallen in love with someone who thought so poorly of him? It would be one thing if Elena was worthy of Damon's love but losing him to someone who didn't appreciate him was just pitiful. She almost felt bad for him. Almost.
"I'm not defending him. I'm just saying that had I been in his place I would have acted a lot worse by snapping your neck. I'm also saying that as far as Damon's little tantrums and outburst go, picking a fight, even with an Original, isn't that dramatic."
Entering from the bathroom Caroline snorted, "What does he have to do for you to consider it dramatic? Damon's a walking mess of trouble." Sympathetically she added to Bonnie, "This privacy spell isn't working."
"When Esther did it there was a whole lot of smoke. She kept the sage burning," Elena recalled.
"Alright," Bonnie muttered, lighting the plant on fire with her mind again. She waved a hand for Caroline to go back into the bathroom. "Try again. But seriously, what is dramatic for Damon, in your opinion?"
"I tend to consider any outburst where he doesn't kill or try to kill someone innocent pretty mild," said Addie.
"That's, like, no expectation of appropriate behavior at all," her sister scoffed.
That wasn't true; there had been plenty of occasions where innocent people had died or almost died from Damon's temper. Addie's eyes narrowed as she stared at the ceiling and icily replied, "That's the problem you're always going to have with Damon. You want to hold him to these expectations of morality while Damon doesn't do expectations. In fact, he does the opposite; if people expect good from Damon, he subconsciously is bad. Or maybe it's consciously. When people expect nothing or bad, that's when he's on better behavior."
"That's so messed up," Elena uttered, plopping on the bed.
It made complete sense to Addie. It wasn't exactly performance anxiety that Damon had but it was akin to it. How could Damon not see that her sister was so not right for him?
"So, off of Damon. Esther came by to see Abby and me this morning," Bonnie said into the stretching silence.
More good news, Addie was sure. "What did she want?"
"She wanted to introduce herself," Bonnie shrugged uncomfortably under the scrutinizing looks of the Gilbert sister. "Abby and I helped bring her back. She's channeling our entire ancestral bloodline for power. I think she thought she was being polite."
"Ok, well, is there a way to stop her from channeling you?"
That time Addie didn't restrain herself from shoving Elena with her foot. Elena had no right to ask that of Bonnie. Bonnie had already been through so much, all for the sake of Elena. She had lost her grandmother. Her mother had kidnapped her. Damon had almost killed her. Klaus had almost killed her. The whole situation just wasn't fair to Bonnie.
"Even if there was, why would I want that?"
Elena stopped glaring at Addie and turned towards her best friend, a pleading look on her face. "I just keep thinking…. Before the sun and the moon ritual, Elijah found a way to keep me alive. Now I'm in exactly the same position and I'm just gonna let him die? It just doesn't feel right."
Why couldn't her feelings for Damon just not feel right?
Caroline entered the room once again, her manner determined. "Ok. First of all, this privacy spell is totally not working. Second, Elena, you are not doing this; Esther is doing this."
"There's no time to change your mind, Elena. He'll be dead by the end of the night," Bonnie told her. At Elena's questioning look she explained, "It's a full moon. Esther needs to harness the energy of a celestial event. She asked Abby and me to join her."
From the armchair, Addie exchanged looks with Elena, who sat on the couch, when there was knock at the door. They both shook their heads at the same time. It was a battle of wills as they stared each other down, both silently telling the other to get the door. Eventually Addie caved as the knocking grew more insistent. Politeness trumped a little spat with Elena.
"Addison," Elijah greeted, smiling pleasantly when she opened the door.
Something was wrong. Something was off. There was a dark mist or shadow clinging to Elijah. He was up to no good. This was particularly unsettling; he had been the only vampire she had never received an ill feeling about.
Trying to play it off as if everything was normal Addie greeted him just as fondly, "Elijah."
"I don't mean to intrude. I was hoping that your sister and you might accompany me. I want to show you something."
No way in hell was she going anywhere with him.
At this point Elena had come up behind Addie and readily agreed, "Of course. Just let me get my coat."
Addie's fingers nervously went to her hair. There wasn't any way she could get Elena out of the situation without it looking very, very suspicious. That might set off Elijah for whatever he was planning. Perhaps if Elena did go with him, though, it would stall him from his ultimate goal, at least long enough for Addie to get help.
"Actually, I'm terribly sorry but I can't. I have a Latin paper and a lot of physics homework on electric currents due tomorrow," Addie said, trying to sound as apologetic and guilt ridden as possible.
Elijah's brow briefly furrowed. He obviously hadn't anticipated a negative response. Her role in whatever he was doing must not have been very vital because soon he was smiling again and waving his hand dismissively. "I completely understand. I'll just have your sister tell you about it later."
"Thanks. Excuse me," she replied with a weak grin before going upstairs, taking them two at a time.
A few minutes later she heard Elijah and Elena leave. Fan-fricking-tastic. The one Original they thought they could trust had gone over to the dark side. Instinctively Addie reached for her phone, ready to call for help. She had gone to the list of her favorite contacts before changing her mind. First, Addie tried calling Alaric, knowing he was at the Grill with Dr. Fell, but he didn't answer. Next, she tried Stefan, though she debated whether or not his feelings of concern for Elena's welfare in the position to care at the moment, but he didn't answer. Addie went back to her favorites and sent a text message.
Addie: I got a bad vibe from Elijah. He's up to something. Elena just left with him. He said he wanted to show her something. He tried to get me to go to but he let it slide when I said I had too much homework.
The response was almost instantaneous.
Damon: Anything else?
Addie: Esther plans on killing her kids tonight because she needs the energy of the full moon. Bonnie and Abby are going to help her. She's drawing on the ancestral bloodline for power. That's all I know.
Damon: Can I trust you to stay out it of this while I handle this or do I need to tie you up and lock you in your room until this is all over?
She briefly hesitated; she didn't like being kept in the dark. However, Elena's life could be at stake.
Addie: Yes.
At least she hadn't had to actually talk to Damon.
Addie had tried to stay out of it, she really had, but when Damon didn't answer her text and all Stefan and Alaric responded with were that they had not seeing Elena since the morning, Addie had somehow found herself in the middle of it.
The door opened before she could even knock. Softly, angrily Damon hissed at her, "Go home."
"What's going on?" she questioned, her brows knitting together in confusion.
"I said I'd handle this. You said you stay out of it," he reminded her , his voice still quiet and furious. "Go home."
"Is she here?" Addie wondered. Perhaps she was interrupting their quality time and that was why he was so upset.
Damon frowned. "I'll get her back."
"Get her back?" she repeated, her voice cracking. "Like she's being held hostage?"
From behind Addie Stefan suddenly appeared, saying, "I can't find her anywhere."
Damon gave his brother a seething glare at his horrible timing before reluctantly moving aside so his brother could enter. Addie decided to use the opportunity to dart past him, as he knew she would.
Addie almost bumped into Stefan, who had come to a halt at the entrance to the living room. Moving to see around him, she bit her lip nervously. Elijah sat by the fire. She felt Damon's arm wrap protectively around her waist as he came to stand next to her. Scowling, Addie pushed him away.
"Hello, Stefan. How is that homework coming along, Addison?" Elijah inquired amiably.
"He has Elena," explained Damon.
Elijah held up a solitary finger and clarified, "Actually, she's with Rebekah. As you can imagine, my sister is just dying to tear her throat out. So, if you want to save Elena's life, I need you to help me stop my mother."
"Completely reasonable request," Addie nodded. After all, it was Elena's blood that had linked all the Original siblings together and put Elijah in such a predicament.
"If we knew how to do it!" Damon exclaimed. "Sorry, Addie, but I'm a little," he held his index finger and thumb a small distance apart, "embarrassed to admit this but when it comes to killing thousand year old resurrected witches, I'm a little rusty. But if you know how to do it, please, do share."
"And completely a dick," she noted, smiling pleasantly at Elijah.
Elijah gave her a small smile before acknowledging Damon's mini rant. "Yes, unfortunately, even when killed my mother doesn't seem to want to stay dead. Not with the spirits of nature at her side."
Pointedly Stefan asked, "So, what are we supposed to do?"
"The witches that released my mother, she's drawing her power from their bloodline. That line needs to be broken."
"Broken?" Addie and Stefan said simultaneously.
"Yeah, he means," Damon made a cutting motion with his forefinger over his throat.
"Um, no," Addie scoffed humorlessly. They obviously weren't going to do that.
Damon looked at her in confusion. "It's that or your sister dies."
"So, we get to decide the Bonnie and Abby's lives are worth less than Elena's?" she challenged. "I don't think so. Ever notice how everyone is always bending over backwards to save Elena? And every time someone dies? Ever think the universe might be telling us something?"
"You want to let your sister die?" Stefan snapped sharply.
Addie shook her head slowly. "No, no. I just think we need to explore other possibilities before we jump to killing more people to save Elena."
"Fine. What exactly do you expect us to do?" Damon sighed impatiently, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Suddenly there was a loud crash and something was constricting around Addie's throat. She was being moved through the air and then she wasn't. She was sitting. She blinked several times, stars blinding her as she struggled for a breath. The pressure around her throat wasn't just suffocating, it was painful.
She heard primal, animalistic growling and then the sound of cloth ripping and flesh squelching. Her vision cleared to reveal Elijah right in front of her, one hand around her throat, the other hand in Damon's chest cavity. From the look of anguish on the younger vampire's face Addie guessed Elijah was holding his heart.
"I expect you to kill," Elijah said, his voice dangerously soft and threatening. "If Elena's life alone is not incentive enough, know that I will kill Addison, as well."
"Don't," Addie choked out, her eyes pleading as they met Damon's.
Looking at her, he nodded once before speeding out of the house. Was that nod meant for her or Elijah?
As far as being held hostage went, Elijah was probably one of the nicest captors. He had apologized for hurting her, scaring her, and even using her as leverage. He was just doing what he need to do to save the lives of the ones he loved and his own. Addie could understand that. She just wished his solution didn't involve killing the people she cared about.
A couple of hours had passed with no news from Stefan or Damon. It was close to 8:30 and Addie could feel her anxiety rising as she walked in circles around the spacious living room. They had to find a solution where everyone lived; it was the only option. While Elena might be fated to die, it wasn't exactly like Addie wished it up her sister. But Bonnie and her mom definitely didn't deserve to die just to keep Elena and Rebekah alive. She didn't exactly care about anyone else. She didn't like either option presented to her; Damon needed a new plan.
Elijah gasped loudly, drawing Addie's attention. He was double over in the wingback chair, slowly turning grey, desiccating. To himself he mumbled, "Something's wrong." Elijah fixed his eyes on Addie as he ordered, "Don't move," before flashing off into the night, leaving the door wide open behind him.
"You know, you'd think by now people would get the message that I'm probably not going to listen to them," Addie mused aloud as she picked up her keys off the end table and left the house.
Something had obviously had happened; whether it was a success or failure on Damon's end, she wasn't sure. Typically, she would wait to for him to come back to the boarding house but Addie didn't particularly feel like talking to Damon about anything besides the situation involving the Originals. However, she knew Damon; he'd brush that topic quickly aside for what he wanted to talk about. Addie wasn't certain she wanted to hear why he had fallen in love with Elena, or how, or when, or whatever other crap he wanted to say about Elena. It didn't matter. It didn't change anything. She wasn't ready to accept that her boyfriend had fallen in love with her sister again. She wondered if they need to have the official break-up conversation or if him confessing his love for someone else already just kind of implied that they were done.
When she got home, Addie headed up to her room, determined not to think about Elena or Damon or anything supernatural. It was a lot of unnecessary drama that she just needed some distance from every now and then. Thousand year old witches resurrecting and a whole family being killed in a single strike and power from ancestral bloodlines was just a little too much for her to handle on top of the drama of reality. While neither made logical sense, Damon falling for Elena seemed much more reasonable than resurrecting those who've been dead a thousand years. Addie rubbed at her forehead as she leaned against her bedroom door. Figuring out her life was like trying to solve a 1000 piece puzzle that was some ambiguous shape, with every single piece painted solid black. She liked puzzles but really complicated one made her really frustrated.
Needing a distraction, she decided to take advantage of the quiet house and take a bubble bath, after a quick shower. There was no persuading her that taking a bath was nothing more than sitting and washing in your own filth if you didn't shower first. And lakes and oceans were swimming in fish waste and pollution. Pools were only acceptable if there was so much chlorine that it made her eyes burn. Addie didn't have an issue with germs or being dirty, it just didn't make sense as to why people would want to expose themselves to health hazards. As the tub filled, she poured in a cap full of the strawberry scented liquid. A thin layer of bubbles formed. She allowed her inner child to take over for a moment as she turned the half-filled bottle of bubble bath upside down, completely emptying it. The bubbles quickly formed, rising high above the rim of the bathtub.
If she got and the tub and just soaked, Addie knew her mind would wander to unpleasant places. Instead, she set up her phone to playback an audio recording of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories of Sherlock Holmes. At least in those everything made sense. She turned the volume all the way up on her phone and left it on the counter, the reader's deep, soothing voice filling the tiny space. Addie winced as she stepped into the bath, slowly lowering herself. The water was scalding; but, it did loosen up the muscles in her legs, which she hadn't even noticed were tense. Balancing on those damn heels all night had been more brutal than hours of endless running.
When she was fully submerged in the water, Addie rested her head against the bath pillow and let her eyes slip shut as she got lost in the story being told to her. There was the one about the snake that traveled the vents to kill its victims. And the one about the murdering horse. She was halfway through the story about the six Napoleon bust when the recording suddenly stopped. Addie's eyes flew open in alarm; there was no way that her phone had died.
"Get out!" Addie exclaimed as she saw Damon standing at the vanity, her phone in hand. She hadn't even heard him come in. Self-consciously she sunk lower into the water and made sure the heaping amounts of bubbles effectively covered her. Damon obviously had other plans, as he pushed himself to sit on the edge of the counter. More firmly she barked, "Leave!"
"I'm sorry that it's come to this but it seems like cornering you where you won't leave is the only way I'm going to get to talk to you, especially after tonight," he finally said, his voice unusually grim and serious.
"Oh my god! Have you not heard of privacy? Personal space? I put up with your boundary issues but this is too far, Damon! You need to leave," she yelled, pointing at the door. Not only was she naked, she didn't want to talk to him.
Sighing, he leaned back, resting his weight on his palms. "I get that you're upset and I get why but I'm not leaving until I get to say my piece. Now, to be fair, I'm not going to stop you if you try and leave."
"This is not some competition of wills! This is not something up for discussion! You crossed a big red line when you came in here and you need to back the fuck up," snarled Addie. She wasn't up for playing games with him.
Damon nodded in agreement as he acknowledged, "I know I crossed a line but I'm desperate and you're stubborn. But, I'm stubborn too."
"Get out!" she repeated frustratedly.
He ran over his face as he reminded himself to remain patient and calm. No good would come from both of them getting worked up. Reasonably Damon pointed out, "The sooner we get this little talk over with, the sooner I'll leave."
Addie's lips pressed into a thin line as she considered this. Sharply she snapped, "Did you kill Bonnie and her mom?"
"I'd rather not discuss tonight first."
"That's the only thing I'm interested in discussing. If you're not going to discuss that than I'm going to leave. You don't have me cornered like you think."
The urge to roll his eyes was strong but Damon resisted. "I know when you're bluffing, Ads."
"First of all, you don't get to call me that anymore. Secondly, you said you love my sister. If you really think I'm at a place where I care if you see me get out of the bath, you're delusional. I am not bluffing. I don't care what you think anymore," Addie retorted icily.
Damon ran his hand through his hair. She was taking what he said a lot worse than it actually was. On the one hand he could understand why she was acting so hurt and betrayed based on the way she was interpreting things but on the other hand….
"You can't quit on us. You can't just give up on me because of this," Damon suddenly realized as he recalled her promises. "You get to break up with me if I drug you again, which I have not, or if I cheat on you, which I also have not done. I have been nothing but nauseatingly committed to you and only you."
Addie leaned her head back against the bath pillow and let her eyes drift shut. She had promised Damon that. She had given him that guarantee that she wouldn't use him like Katherine or string him along like Elena. She wanted to be fair to him; but, what about being fair to herself? She deserved to be better than someone's second pick.
"One last time before I leave I'm going to give you the chance to tell me what happened tonight," Addie decided. She couldn't handle sorting out her feelings and promises at the moment.
"Well, first Alaric tried to dagger Kol to take them all down but that didn't work out so well. Elijah pushed up the deadline to right away instead of 9:06. We didn't really have a choice but to follow his plan," Damon admitted reluctantly. He really hoped she wasn't going to flip over what he had done.
"You killed Bonnie and Abby?"
"Bonnie is safe," he quickly reassured her, hearing the crack in her voice. "We had to break the bloodline by just killing one of them. I… well, I thought turning Abby into a vampire was better than having her dead dead. So, I fed her my blood and killed her. She couldn't be a servant of nature and a vampire at the same time."
Through gritted teeth she hissed, "You had no right to make that decision for her."
"She can still choose not to feed and die!" Damon said defensively. "I had to stop Esther. Vampire was the best option I could come up with in five minutes."
"You didn't have to do anything," Addie spat out in disgust.
Damon snorted bitterly as he shook his head in disbelief. She just didn't get it. "Addie, I had to stop Esther because I could not risk Elijah killing you. I'd rather you be alive and hate me than for you to be dead."
"You don't just get to kill people or make life altering decisions for them just to keep me alive! I told you not to do it, Damon, and you couldn't even respect that!"
"No, Addie, I'm damn well never going to respect something that could result in your death!" Damon bit back, his voice rising to meet the level of hers, unable to keep his cool any longer. "You are everything to me. My sun rises and sets with you. You are the reason I do the majority of what I do and I like the person you make me want to be. But no matter what, I'm still always going to be that selfish dick that you first met who is always looking out for himself. I will always put your safety above your happiness because the only way I know how to function anymore is by knowing that you are ok."
Addie stood up and quickly snatched the towel off the closed toilet and wrapped it around her. She noticed Damon avert his gaze and felt slightly less mortified but was mostly too annoyed with him to feel much else. Bubbles still clinging to her legs, she stormed past him, declaring, "I'm not having this conversation."
Damon just barely caught the door before she slammed it in his face and pushed it open. Pleadingly he implored, "Just answer me this: why-"
Addie quickly cut him off as she rummaged through her dresser for clothes, "Leave, Damon! You said you wouldn't stop me from leaving so I left. There was a bit of an unspoken agreement that you wouldn't follow me, don't you think?"
"I'm not in a particularly agreeable mood so I'm ignoring that agreement," he retorted flippantly.
Just as coolly she bit back, "You're putting me in a particularly foul mood so I might just decide to ignore those promises I made to you."
His lips pursed as he thought. Finally he conceded, "I don't have an argument against that. You always win these arguments because I'm the one who wants something."
"No, no, no," Addie corrected, her voice patronizing and sweet. "'I want you to leave. I don't win until you do that."
"Fine. I'll go but know I'm only going because you're winning this argument just like you have every other one: I have more to lose if I don't back down," Damon scowled, closing the bathroom door.
How could he possibly have more to lose? She lost him. What loss was greater than that?
His hand was warm in hers, his fingers rough and calloused. She looked down at him; he looked peaceful with an arm casually thrown over his eyes shielding them from the sun. He also looked like an idiot. She couldn't explain why he wore a loose fitting, white, linen shirt. It was a button up, like most of his shirts, but the collar was much more open exposing more of his chest than usual. The sleeves weren't pushed up like usual but actually cuffed at his wrist, though she could barely tell as the shirt was so loose there. The shirt was odd but the wool pants and suspenders were bizarre. She wasn't sure if the clothes or the hair, unstyled, longer and curling slightly, was more surprising.
"Of course," she grumbled in disgust as she looked down at herself. Only in her worst nightmare would she be dressed in a pale blue dress with white lace, a giant hoop skirt, and matching white boots. She even had a lacey white sun parasol.
"What's that, dear?" Damon asked lazily, giving her hand an affectionate squeeze.
"I'm dreaming," Addie mumbled as she took in her surroundings. The were at the lake inside the quarry; more specifically, they were on the bank where Damon had completed his transition into a vampire.
He hummed contently and agreed, "Yes, every moment with you is like a dream."
"I'm having a nightmare," she corrected.
Damon finally uncovered his face and looked at her curiously, his eyes squinting in the sun. "This is a nightmare? What's a good dream?"
"Right now? Anything not involving you. Really, I'd much prefer a nightmare of Klaus and Stefan than have you torment my subconscious. You do enough of that during my waking hours," Addie scowled, tossing his hand aside and crossing her arms in a pout.
He snorted in disbelief, "You'd rather relive the crap you saw this summer than enjoy a nice summer day with me? How do you know you're not having a good dream and your attitude is just making it a nightmare?"
"There are a million reasons I know this is a nightmare, none of which have to do with my attitude," she snarked back. "I don't travel through time in good dreams; it's not logical. I'd never wear this in a good dream. You wouldn't be present in a good dream. And I always have a - nevermind. I don't know why I'm explaining myself to you. You don't deserve any explanations. No, you're a figment of my subconscious. I don't need to explain myself to myself; that's just redundant."
Slowly, he sat up next to her and finished, "You always have a nightmare when you don't sleep with me?"
"I really need to get over that needy and dependent habit. It's disgusting," Addie spat, picking up a rock and throwing it into the lake.
"I don't mind," Damon grinned, nudging her shoulder with his. "You're so… independent. I'm not use to that. I come from a time where men did everything for women. It's nice to know that I can do something for you. Plus," he continued, his voice dropping as if he were whispering a secret, "you're not the only one who sleeps better. I don't sleep as well without being tangled up with you. I don't sleep for as long and I wake up a lot during the night. It gives me peace of mind knowing that my heart is safely in my arms"
Addie took a deep breath and sighed loudly. She didn't want to talk to Damon. She didn't want to hear him say sweet things. "When in 1864 are we?"
"What?"
"Obviously we're back in time. I'm just wondering if it's before you met Katherine or after."
"What does that matter?"
"I'm wondering whether or not my subconscious believes you're just naturally a dick or if she just really fucked you up that bad," Addie explained, desperate for a change in topic.
"You really think one person could shape someone so much?"
"Honestly, I don't know what to believe when it comes to you, Damon," she admitted, looking to the sky as if it had the answer.
"Perhaps this isn't a nightmare but a chance for you to figure out what you truly believe and how you really feel."
Addie gave him a dirty look and scoffed, "Apparently I believe you don't really know me because if you did know me you'd know that dealing with my emotions, particularly when it comes to you, is a nightmare."
"It's only a nightmare because you're afraid of the truth. You already know the truth," he replied cryptically.
"I do? Well, please enlighten me, Yoda, because weak is the force in me," Addie replied, imitating the Star Wars character.
"You use humor to run from the truth."
She nodded as she reflected, "You're right. The smarter thing to do would be to run from you. And since you're human and not on the Varsity track team, I could probably outrun you."
Damon shrugged his shoulders slightly, as if he was only mildly interested in her idea. "You could try that but the truth always catches up to you. And I'm not bound by the laws of space and time in your nightmare. Don't you think I could just teleport to where you run to."
"That would be cheating," Addie whined. "Besides, that's not possible; there's no teleporting in 1864."
"I've never played fair. And I think your subconscious has proved that anything is possible by sending us back to 1864 and making me human," he countered.
"Why can't I wake up?" she demanded. The whole time she had been commanding her body to but it just wasn't responding. Usually she could wake up from the nightmares.
"Because you haven't faced the truth."
"Well, I have to wake up at some point. My alarm will go off for school. I don't have to face the truth," she argued.
"True but will it feel like you're only stuck in this dream for minutes or will your subconscious torture you and make you feel like you've been here for decades?"
"You know, I'm naming my subconscious Ingrid. Ingrid has already proven that she's a sadist bitch by stick me here with you," Addie scoffed. After a second her brows furrowed in confusion. "Wait, if Ingrid is part of me does that make her a masochist?"
Damon laid back down, tossing his arm back over his face. "I'm just going to enjoy the warmth of the sun while I can still feel it. Though, I feel like we might be here for quite a bit. When you decide you want to talk, let me know."
"Dick," Addie muttered under her breath, realizing she never got an answer about if he had met Katherine or not.
What truth was she supposed to be figuring out? What truth did she already know? Could she weasel it out of flirty, sweet Damon or did she have to be blunt and direct about it? Why wouldn't her damn alarm clock just go off? It felt like she had been stuck by the lake for hours.
"Do you even know the truth or are you just tormenting me?" she eventually demanded, giving up on trying to figure it out on her own.
Damon moved his arm, light blue eyes meeting dark ones. Softly he confessed, "No and the idea of learning it terrifies me."
Addie threw her hands up in the air, groaning in frustration. "If you don't even know the truth how the hell am I supposed to figure it out? How do I know when I know? How do I even know what it's about? This is so stupid!"
"The truth is something you fear."
"You already told me that but how do you even know that?" she demanded.
"Your instinct is to run from problems. Figuratively and literally. When we met that night in the rain on that road, you were running from everything. It was easier for you to run than it was for you to take control of your life. Now, I don't know if it's just that you don't want the control or if you're afraid of it or if you're tired of it or what but you're running again!"
Frowning at him, Addie crossed her arms and sassed, "You happen to be a very opinionated part of me. I disapprove."
"Love," Damon chuckled wearily, "all of you is opinionated."
"Well, not all of me is so blunt about it," she quipped back.
He snorted, "No but all of you is almost completely blind to subtlety."
"You know what? I hate you as much as I hate the real Damon," Addie decided, her everys narrowing as she glared at him.
"You don't really hate me."
"No," Addie conceded, "but I hate that I love you."
Damon was quiet for a long time, mindlessly tugging at the strap of his suspenders. "How can you hate the type of love you have?"
"How can I like it? It makes me vulnerable to everyone, especially to Damon. He hurt me and now I'm still left loving him. My feelings for him haven't changed. That's probably not very healthy. Even before he hurt me I knew that I hated loving him. That's why I only ever told him I did that one time. Well, technically I told him twice but it was all kinda clumped together," she explained softly, very intent on picking blades of grass.
"That's it? You hate loving me because it makes you vulnerable and you still feel the same after I hurt you?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"There's more but I can't really describe it. I hate feeling like I need you. I hate missing you. I hate that you don't feel the same."
Not understanding, he shook his head in confusion. "How can you think that I don't feel the same?"
Addie gave a small shrug. "I used to think you did. Well, actually, I used to think you loved me more than I love you. You didn't kill Katherine for me. You were determine to stop the sun and the moon ritual for me. You put up with all my ridiculous attitudes and quirks. You actually understood me. You pushed past all my fears of commitment to try and make us work. You were invested in me, in us."
"What changed?"
"You weren't invest in me; you were invest in protecting me. You became my trainer first and boyfriend second. Killing Klaus became your obsession. At first I told myself it was just because you wanted revenge for Stefan but it was more than that. You didn't like Klaus around me but you feared what he might do with Elena. Killing him became more about protecting her than me. And then I realized that you almost died to stop the sun and moon ritual to save Elena from a vampire fate for Elena. I was ok with that fate and asked you not to do anything stupid, like get yourself almost killed. You weren't concerned about me. You were trying to protect Elena the whole time, not just my sister. You didn't kill Katherine because it meant killing Elena. You fell for Elena first. I left for another country knowing that you would always care about my sister. I also knew she had feeling for you. It was stupid of me to think your.. Stronger feelings for her wouldn't return when you two were left alone and her feelings were made obvious. When we got together, you were over Elena; I didn't feel like you second pick. But now I do," Addie ranted, the words tumbling off her tongue quicker and quicker as she spoke, each word with more feeling and animation.
She scoffed bitterly and said disgustedly, "The worst part is that she doesn't deserve you. I know my sister. You're always going to be her second choice. Stefan will be the one she chooses in the end. Elena will never pick you for the same reason she and I will never be close: you're dark, mercurial, and overly sensitive. You act like you're not sensitive but you are, you really are. You'll be the fun little distraction while Stefan's emotions are all screwed up but once he's a real boy again, Elena will go right back to him and you'll be left crush. Elena is Katherine 2.0. They both care about you but you're not there number one. You deserve to be not just someone's number one but their only one. I think Katherine and Elena have made you think it's acceptable for you to be second best or to have to share. That's not how a relationship works.
"Elena's also never going to accept you for you. She'll never understand you. She doesn't know what it's like to have so much anger bottled up inside of you that you're constantly trying to keep in check but it eventually just explodes. I do. Granted, my anger manifests as anxiety attacks and not violent outburst but I understand that feeling of not having control over yourself for that brief moment. Do you notice you have less outburst when we're together and I have less anxiety attacks? It's because we bicker and bitch at each other. We let our emotions out on each other. And do you know why we always make up? Why neither one of us ever has to apologize? Because we know it's nothing personal. We make letting off that anger fun. Elena is not going to fight or bicker with you. With Elena, it's personal. With Elena, you have to apologize."
"Of course I'm upset over losing you," Addie inhaled deeply, finally calming down from her tirade. She wiped away the two tears that rolled down her left cheek. "I want you to be happy, though. If that's not with me, that's ok. But I just wish you had fallen for someone who wasn't going to break your heart."
Damon sighed as he sat next to her, pulling his knees to his chest. In a soft, uncertain voice he asked, "Is that true? Is that the truth? That's what you really believe? How you really feel?"
She stared at her hands in her lap, her vision blurring with unshed tears. In a choked whisper she answered, "Yes."
"I am the world's shittiest boyfriend," he said slowly, stressing each word.
"No," Addie laughed dryly, "You're just my subconscious telling me what I want to hear."
Suddenly she was pulled from the dream, the sound of someone softly repeating her name coaxing her to consciousness. Her eyelids, heavy with sleep, slowly fluttered with sleep. Spying the lamp on her desk glowing she became much more alert. Sitting in the desk chair was Damon, his elbow propped up on the desk and chin in his hand.
"What the hell are you doing?" Addie exclaimed furiously. "When I told you to leave earlier, I meant for you to stay gone. You need to go. Now." He just continued to stare at her intently, his brows furrowed. Huffing in annoyance she grabbed her firmest pillow and hurled it at him, yelling, "Get out!"
Damon made a of noise of peaked interest as he allowed the pillow to hit his face. This argument was the first time for either one of them to get so mad as to throw something. He'd thrown the glass into the into the fireplace when she had been posing what if questions about when it would be acceptable to run off with Klaus without letting him know and now she'd thrown th pillow. It wasn't unusual for him to break a glass or two but he had always had the restraint not to do it in front of her. Just the idea of her with Klaus really set him off. He wondered if it was his mere presence that was setting her off or the idea of him with Elena.
"We need to talk."
Her mouth quickly opened but she closed it, taking a deep, relaxing breath. "Yes," she agreed calmly. "I definitely think we need to discuss bounadries. I literally let you get away with murder but this hole showing up in my bathroom and in my room in the middle of the night is unacceptable."
"I know."
"Then why are you doing it?" Addie demanded, rolling her eyes.
"I gave you space after you found out I was sleeping with Rose. You didn't talk to me for three weeks and when you did decide to again, I had somehow cheated on you even through we weren't together. I gave you space after drugging you. You didn't talk to me for about a month. Then when you start, you go all kamikaze and invite Klaus into the house, hand over our levera-"
Holding a hand up to stop him she curtly cut him off, "I am not discussing anything Klaus related with you."
That was fine; he didn't particularly feel like fighting bout that particular topic at the moment, either. "Whatever. The point is, things go to hell when you cut me out. Not only do I spend weeks in agony, but I know you hurt, too. Also, you end up spending too much time in your own head and start coming up with some wild ideas. I've learned my lesson. If I'm going to give you space, you're going to know all the facts and there aren't going to be any misunderstandings. And apparently, the only way I'm going to get you to talk to me is if I keep crossing boundary lines," Damon declared, not sounding the least bit apologetic.
"I don't think you should get what you want for inappropriate behavior," she decided.
If playing nice didn't work, perhaps playing dirty would. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly, "And I think you are proving exactly why I won't sleep with you. I hardly think you're mature enough to handle the physical aspects of a relationship if you can't even talk through your issues with me."
Addie licked her suddenly dry lips as she thought, "That's one thing I can say that I am honestly grateful and thankful to you for. If I had slept with you, I would definitely regret it. Thank you for doing right by me with that. A lot of guys would have taken advantage of the situation."
Pause. Rewind. What the hell had he done?
"Addie, you say that like what we have is over." She didn't acknowledge him. Nervous, he asked, "Have you already decided that? Is that what you want?"
Several minutes passed by neither of them saying anything. Damon kept getting thrown for loops; whatever he thought might help only seemed to make matters worse. Saying nothing might be his best chance. Finally, Addie managed one word as she wiped a single tear from her cheek.
A/N: Oh I'm just loving writing this. I think the next chapter might be my favorite to write. There is a really big twist but not if you were paying close attention and caught the clue. I'm really excited about it. I will try my best to get it up in less than a week but while most people have 4th of July as a holiday (be safe!). The week is one of my busiest of the year.
As always, thank you guys so much for your comments for your comments and following and adding this to your favorites. I really do take what you guys say in the comments to heart and keep them in mind as I write and they do change things a little. And don't worry, Ipromise I will finish this story.