Hostage Control

by LittleHandGernade

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

23. Chapter 22

Addie scowled as she raked the knife down the last six inches of the light wood, pressing harder the closer she got to the end. The knife was barely sharp enough to be effective. She looked up as the miter saw turned off.

"It's too thin. I keep telling you that!" Damon barked in exasperation as he jabbed his brother in the chest with a piece of the old Wickery Bridge sign.

Stefan yanked the wood from Damon, snapping, "Do you want as many chances at this as possible or not?"

"I only need one shot," his brother snarled back. "I'd like it if my stake didn't snap against bone as I drive it into his cold, dead heart. This won't do." He broke the wood in two by closing his first around it.

At this rate Addie figured her stake would be the only one. They had already used up a third of the wood whining about how thick the stakes needed to be. Damon wanted something sturdy. Stefan wanted something inconspicuous. Alaric thought the perfect length meant they had to waste the bottom five inches. Addie just wanted to use the power tool. Damon had been very much against that, certain she would saw her own hand off. She wasn't above denying a small sense of satisfaction when he nicked his thumb because he was too focus on lecturing her.

"Your family milled trees. Didn't you ever hear the expression 'measure twice, cut once?'" Addie snickered as Damon leaned against the counter she sat atop of.

"Don't bring the blade so close to your hand. You're gonna cut it," he warned, not half as amused by her as she was.

"I know how to whittle. I know how to use a knife. I even know how to use a miter saw, which apparently, you do not," she reprimanded pointing the folding pocket knife at him.

"I do, too. I just have a pain in the ass brother who won't let me cut a decent size of wood. And stop playing with that or you're going to hurt yourself. Keep it against the wood," he grumbled.

"Hurt myself?" she scoffed, rubbing the pad of her them across the blade. "This thing isn't even sharp. If it was, I'd be quite concerned about whether my tetanus shot is current," she remarked, noting the rust near the hilt. "Where did you find this?"

Deftly he plucked the knife from her hand. Showing her the handle, he challenged, "One guess."

Wear and tear had created little dents and scratches along the mahogany wood that served as hilt and sheath but she could still make out the embezzled "U.S.A." Addie looked at him with mild surprise, "From when you were enlisted?"

"Mhm," he confirmed.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Damon inquired as he tested the sharpness of the blade against his thumb. She was right; he had let it get dull.

Addie frowned as she watched him and answered, "Why did you keep it? I thought you didn't like your time in the army."

"I didn't. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the toys," he smirked.

"You told me it wasn't a toy when you handed it to me," she countered quickly.

Shrugging carelessly he amended, "It's not a toy for girls."

"That's sexist."

"No," he insisted, quickly pressing the blade into his palm and pulling it back.

"Damon!" Addie cried, feeling uncomfortable as blood pooled in his hand.

He cringed at her tone and quickly rinsed his palm of in the sink next to him. "Sorry. I forgot about the blood thing," he confessed sheepishly, drying his hand on his jeans. He held it up to see, perfectly healed. "That's why it's not a toy for you. You don't just automatically heal."

"Then it's not a toy for humans, not just girls."

"Fine, it's not a toy for humans," he agreed, plucking the White Oak from her hand.

"Stop being such an elitist dick and give me that back," she ordered.

Damon raised a cool, challenging eyebrow at her as he worked at the tip of the stake she was forming. "I'm an elitist dick because I'm not a fan of my very human girlfriend thinking of a knife as a toy? Rational," he nodded.

"You're an elitist dick because you think vampires are superior to humans," Addie corrected with a pout.

"No," he chuckled, setting the objects. He moved closer, cupping her face in his hands. "You are by far superior to me. I'm just little more durable," he winked.

Her fingers curled around the back of his neck as she leaned in until their foreheads touched. "That's not true."

"Did you just miss my miraculous self-healing?" he jested. "Until you can do that, I'm definitely more durable."

"That's true," she consented, pressing her lips gently against the corner of his mouth. He tried to kiss her properly but she quickly pulled just out of his reach. "Not until you admit we're equals."

He inhaled through his teeth sharply and gave her an apologetic grimace. "I can't do that. See, if you were me and I were you, well, I would have already driven this," he picked up the partially crafted stake, "through my heart."

Addie tilted her head from side to side, weighing the validity of his words. "So, I have a little bit more self-control and you have self-healing. We cancel each other out."

"Self-control? That's what stops you?"

"Yes," she nodded. "I know it's a very foreign concept for you."

"Are you kidding? I have impeccable self-control. If I had things my way, It's not so much foreign as it is ineffective. 'Act now, think later' just seems more… practical," he smiled innocently.

"Practical?" Addie scoffed. "Exactly how often does that strategy work for you?"

"Nine times out of ten."

"Name once."

Damon frowned for a moment before smirking. "I definitely didn't think about helping you deceive Katherine before agreeing to it. Had I thought about it, I would have realized what a suicidal mission it was. Had I thought about it, we never would have ended up together."

Her lips pursed as she tried to find a flaw in his argument. She could think of a thousands times his habit of acting without thought had turned out poorly but nothing had gone wrong with that decision. Things had turned out better than either of them had anticipated. That didn't settle well with Addie. She wished Damon would start giving the things he did more consideration before doing them.

"Stop," he sighed heavily, returning his forehead to hers. "Stop thinking about all the bad things I've done."

"I'm not."

"You are, so stop." Damon glanced over at his brother and Alaric as they discussed butchering the sign. Stefan was making a mess of everything. They did not need a bunch of stakes; just one quality one. All he needed was on clean shot at any of the Originals. Everyone didn't need a stake. Addie definitely need one; she didn't need to be getting that close to Klaus.

"Fine. What do you want me to think about?" she challenged sharply.

He supposed he could leave Alaric and Stefan unsupervised for a few minutes. Worst case scenario, the stake Addie was working on would suffice. He took her hand and gave her a suggestive grin. Blushing slightly, she slipped off the counter and followed Damon as he tugged her towards the door. He waited until he heard the buzz of the saw before quickly opening the door and ushering Addie out.

"You were gone when I woke up this morning," she scolded him once he had shut the door.

Damon frowned in confusion. "Huh?" He had definitely not taken her into the hall to start an argument. He had left her a note telling her he would be at Ric's and to come over after she woke up. It wasn't that big of a deal. He hadn't figured she'd want to get up at eight on a Saturday to make stakes.

"You know, I could be mad that you bailed on me for powertools and your bromance but…," she gave a small shrug as she pressed her hand flat against his stomach and pushed him into the wall lightly. Her fingers traced up to his shoulder and grabbed at him lightly for balance as she pushed herself onto her toes and gently brushed her lips over his. With a smile Addie pulled away from him and simply said, "Good morning."

He smiled back at her, relieved she wasn't upset. "I definitely missed my 'good morning' kiss but I figured you'd rather sleep in," he explained, cupping her cheek.

As much as she enjoyed spending time with Damon, the business of stake making was quite dull. Addie nodded in agreement. "You figured correctly."

"That wasn't a proper 'good morning' kiss, though," Damon objected. "This is."

He tilted his head and sealed his mouth over her's. His lips pressed firmly against hers, trying to coax her into a deeper kiss. Addie's shoved her fingers into his glorious, silky hair and clenched it tight, making him gasp softly. She no issue giving him a proper kiss but if he should kissed her first if he wanted to control it. Caught by surprise at her insistence for control, it took a moment for him to respond but when he did his mouth met hers with bruising pressure, lips open, hot and hungry. Determined to get an upper hand, his hands slid down her back and settled in her back pockets. Addie jumped slightly as he gently squeezed, allowing Damon to pull her closer to him.

"Damon!"

"Seriously?" Addie scoffed, breaking away from him.

Dramatically, he exclaimed, "Elena!"

"Ow!" Addie snapped, rubbing at the side of her head. "Wasn't like that wasn't right in my ear," she scolded, loudly finishing in Damon's.

"Sorry," he apologized, quickly pressing a kiss to her head. He tucked his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. He smiled brightly at Elena and said cheerily, "What can I do for you?"

"Seriously?" Elena scoffed, sounding exactly like her sister as she looked meaningfully between her and Damon.

"Damon," muttered Addie, nudging him in the ribs.

Thinking quickly, he snatched the brown bag Elena was carrying and asked, "What did you bring me?" Peering into the bag he sniffed, "Yum. Chocolate muffins."

"They're not for you. They're for Alaric," reprimanded Elena. She reached for the bag but Damon used it to swat her hand away.

"Too bad he's on psycho killer lockdown. His visitation has been restricted," he quipped, catching her hand as she reached for the door.

Elena crossed her arms and demanded, "Why does Addie get to see him?"

"She doesn't. She came to see me," he countered. "That would explain our being in the hall, you know, his limited visitation list."

"Well, you've seen each other," Elena said simply. She grabbed Addie's wrist and tugged, "Let'S go."

"Damon," Addie repeated firmly, not budging.

"Seriously?" complained Damon.

"Yes, seriously! Very, very seriously!" she insisted, stomping her foot for emphasis. "And both of you stop using 'seriously.'"

Elena squinted at her sister and sneered, "You don't have a claim on the word."

"Even if I did, that wouldn't matter to you, would it?" Addie snapped fiercely.

"You can't posses a word!"

"I like it. I use it. Get your own word."

"You only like it and use it because I did first," Elena sneered.

With sibling issues of his own, Damon knew he should be the jast to judge but things between the sisters was getting ridiculous. Before Addie could make a comeback he bluntly observed, "You guys are fighting over vocabulary."

With a scowl, Addie corrected him, "It's not about vocabulary."

"Oh," he mumbled. Then realization hit him. "Oh!" Damon scratched at an eyebrow as he realized both girls were staring at him expectantly. He inhaled sharply through his teeth, "Seriously?"

Addie hit him lightly in the stomach with the back of her hand. He'd come up with an excuse three days in a row as to why it wasn't the right time to talk to Elena. If their little spat hadn't demonstrated just how necessary one was, Addie wasn't exactly sure how else she was supposed to get through to him?

Damon cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Addie, you, uh, want to take these muffins to Alaric?" he suggested, shoving the paper bag into her hands.

"No, no. I don't think I want to go hang out unsupervised with a man who might turn into a psychotic killer with every blink. I mean, even if I did want to, he's under quarantine, per your orders," Addie reminded him, a slightly satisfies smile pulling at her lips. She could do with witnessing this particular discussion. She didn't want there to be any more misunderstandings.

Elena nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I think Addie has every right to know the truth."

Running his fingers through his hair, he chuckled softly, "You're right, Elena; Addie definitely deserves the truth. You deserve it, too. I met you and you took my breath away. I had been dead for 145 years but you started my heart again. I'd be lying if I said my initial attraction to you had nothing to do with the fact that you were identical to the woman I'd spent all that time waiting for. It would also be a lie if I said it had nothing to do with the fact that you were my brother's girl. You were Katherine 2.0. No way was I just going to sit back and let Stefan be happy with Katherine. I swore to make his life miserable. Then I realized you were the exact opposite of Katherine. Everything wrong with her was perfect in you. A nice, selfless, straight shooting girl. Then, you screwed with my head. You didn't just make me think you liked me; you made me think I had a shot with you. It was all a lie, of course. You were so much more like Katherine than I ever believed."

"Then I figured out what love was and realized how superficial everything I ever felt for you was. I have never been in love with you, Elena," Damon admitted unapologetically.

"You-"

He held up his hand to cut her off and continued, "I know what I said. You misinterpreted the way I meant it. I am in love with Addie. I have only ever been in love with Addie. My love for Addie is so pure and strong that it extends beyond her and to the people she loves. I love you in such a way that you are an extension of Addie. She is my heart. Her wants and desires are mine. As much as you two hate each other, when all is said and done, you're still sisters. Addie may hate and resent you but your death would result in a little bit of her dying. That's why I protect you. That's why I can't let you die."

Elena shook her head slowly and whispered, "I don't understand. All this time… these pasts months, this summer-"

"That's my fault," Damon said quickly, earning him a cold glare from his girlfriend. "This summer I flirted with you as a passive aggressive attack against Addie. I thought it would hurt her like she had hurt me. I didn't intend for you to… for anything to happen. We've been together since she's been back. It's my fault you don't know that; I agreed to keeping our relationship a secret. Obviously, I can't do that anymore nor do I want to."

"So you never had any feelings for me?" Elena said slowly, sounding puzzled.

"I lusted after you. It was never anything more than that. It will never be anything more than that. It always has been and always will be Addie."

A resounding smack interrupted the brief silence as Elena's hand made contact with Damon's face. Cursing under her breath, Addie made to go after her sister as she proceeded to stomp down the stairs but something was stopping. Realizing Damon had a tight hold on the back of her shirt she growled, "Let go of me."

"So you can go pick a fight with your sister? Not happening, love," he replied coolly, his grip on the shirt tightening as she struggled to free herself.

"She hit you! She doesn't just get to get away with that."

She broke free of his hold but Damon's arm quickly encircled her waist, pulling her to him until her back was flush against his chest. In her ear he softly hissed, "You don't think I could have stopped her if I wanted?"

They was a very good point. If he could dodge bullets and catch stakes hurdling towards his chest, he could have easily stopped her sister. Bothered by this, Addie grimace, "Why didn't you want to stop her?"

Damon shrugged slightly and answered as a way of explanation, "I was already being a dick."

Addie tilted her head as she studied him as if he were some foreign object. "We apparently have very different definitions of what makes you a dick. I considered that you playing very nicely."

"I didn't have to humiliate her in front of you, Addie."

"Really? Because according to you, I deserved to know the truth," she replied sassily.

"You did. You do," he floundered. "But that didn't mean we need all parties involved for that little chat."

She scoffed, "You call that all parties being involved? You took the blame for the fact that my sister wants to sleep with my boyfriend. Do you recommend I focus my anger from her to you?"

"You could just not be angry and look at it all as one big misunderstanding," Damon suggested hopefully.

Her lips pursed as she pretended to think but then shook her head, slowly concluding, "No, no. My sister, who screwed with my boyfriend's head, then decided she only want him after I had him, then decided that she wanted to sleep with him following our break up definitely warrants me being angry at someone. I mean, my natural choice was Elena but if you prefer I be mad at you…." Addie pulled away from him as she fished her keys out of her pocket. "You know, I'm gonna go think about which one of you I should be mad at. "

"Ads, come on," he sighed, catching her hand.

"Don't worry," she grumbled, snatching her hand back. "I already know which one of you I'm pissed at."

Damon's hand shot out to loop a finger through her belt loop. She'd have a slightly more difficult time getting away than if he just simply grabbed at her. Sternly he said, "I'm not going to let you go off and have a fight with your sister."

"I wasn't going to fight her!" she snipped back defensively. Innocently she gave a small smile. "I was just going to take a bat to her car."

He eyed her suspiciously. Normally he'd take that as a face value joke but he wasn't certain when Addie was kidding or being serious when it came to her sister. Damon let go of her and rolled his eyes helplessly. Addie was going to do whatever she wanted. "Try not to do anything I would do. Better yet, don't do anything without thinking. 'Act now, think later' is a hard art form to master," he lectured.

"You don't think I've thought through the whole bat/car plan?"

"On the contrary. I believe you've thought it down to exactly where on the car you want to hit and in what order."

Addie tapped at her lips as she considered him and teased, "You know, you just might be smarter than I give you credit for."

"It's quite possible," Damon agreed.

"Then again you're counting on an old sign to take down a family of Originals. I do have to question your judgment in that. Even more, you've left Stefan and Alaric alone with power tools and your only way of killing Klaus."

"Yeah, I should probably get back in there," he conceded.

"See you later," she promised, swiftly kissing him on the cheek.

---

Addie leaned against a tree, a good thirty feet away from where Stefan and Damon performed mock scenario after scenario of possible ways to take down the Originals. It wasn't just Damon and Stefan who were craving vengeance; Elena and Caroline were more than willing to participate. Poor Matt hadn't really been given a choice. Addie supposed that wasn't quite true, though. He could have simply refused to take the stake offered to him, like she had. A very dark look crossed Damon's face when she refused to join in on his little scheme. She wondered just how terrible that fight was going to be.

Damon waved his hand at her, motioning for her to join them. Her turned down slightly as she considered. She shook her head no. She didn't particularly feel like encouraging his suicide mission.

"I just need you stand here," he reasoned.

Picking up a rock about the size of her first, she tossed it in the air and caught it, testing its weight. "If you just need me to stand," she aimed carefully for Damon and let the stone soar. He caught it, just as expected. "You can use a rock. I find they tend to move about less than I do."

"I need a human body for visual representation," Damon countered, tossing the stone back towards her. As it flew five feet to her left she knew he definitely wasn't aiming for her.

"You have four perfectly willing toy soldiers. Five if you count yourself. I'm quite content by my buddy Mr. Tree," she quipped back fondly patting at the tree trunk.

Very seriously he objected to that idea. "They're all playing their roles. I can't move them."

This was actually amusing to him, she realized. He hadn't liked being in the military but he like the idea of mapping out battles and strategizing. Perhaps it was the fleeting image she had of a little boy with eyes as blue as the sky and a mop of unkempt dark locks playing with little green army men that made her give in. Reluctantly she went towards the group.

"Where do you want me?"

"For now, here," he said, taking her by the shoulders and moving her to stand with her back to Matt and Stefan with Caroline and Elena directly in front of her. His voice dropped and whispered suggestively in her ear, "Later, we'll see."

Addie flushed to match her red hair. He might have been quiet enough that Elena and Matt hadn't heard but the other to vampires did. Caroline's judging look of blatant disapproval was clear she had.

"You're Klaus," Damon informed her. "Don't move."

This was why he was going to get himself and everyone else killed. They couldn't take on Klaus! Hadn't the failed enough times to realize that?

"In what universe does Klaus not move upon being ambushed?" Addie demanded pinching the bridge of her nose. She did not want to be involved with this. She did not want the stress. Klaus wasn't worth it.

"He's focused on Caroline and Elena!"

"Enough to disregard his personal safety? I think not."

She could hear the scowl in Damon's voice as he moved behind her, "He doesn't need to focus on them long. All we need is a split second of distraction so I can-" he suddenly had both her wrist in a tight grip behind her back and she could feel something shark poking just to the right of her left scapula.

"Brilliant plan," Addie said brightly. "Except you forgot the part where Klaus does this." It turned out hand-to-hand combat with her boyfriend had come in handy. She was easily able to break out of his hold, twist and turn Damon's wrist so the stake hovered over his own heart.

She grimaced as she felt something jabbing into her back again and heard Stefan remark, "That's when I do this."

Her eyes went wide as she looked up into Damon's. His plan was straight suicidal! As if taking on clause wasn't enough of a tempt at suicide, Damon's actual plan involved Klaus shoving a stake through his heart. Had his other ideas been as stupid? She hadn't been paying close enough attention. It didn't matter.

Snatching the stake from Damon she glowered, "You are not doing this."

He watched her walk off into the woods before grabbing another stake from the duffel bag and using it to point at Matt Donovan, "You're Klaus now."

---

Addie stared blankly at the words on her cell phone. She was reading an article on the Northern Lights and solar activity but the words just weren't clicking. She'd read the last sentence four times. It was all Damon's fault. Thoughts of him kept distracting her. Something about his obsession with killing Klaus kept nagging at her.

Killing Klaus, getting revenge against Klaus had always been a constant factor in their relationship since they officially began dating. Addie knew about Damon's obsessive nature and tendencies and so she had accepted his obsession with Klaus as a part of who he was. However, it was odd to think about what their relationship would be like if he wasn't focused on destroying Klaus. Would more of his attention turn towards her? A little more attention from him would be nice but too much and she'd feel suffocated. Without Klaus as a distraction, it was unknown how he would behave. The future of a Klaus-free relationship was distracting but it wasn't the primary thing bothering her.

Damon was going to kill Klaus. Or Klaus was going to kill Damon. The latter seemed far more likely. Even if Damon did succeeded, Klaus wasn't an active threat. He wasn't doing anything to anyone. He hadn't taken anymore of Elena's blood to continue increasing his hybrid army. His hybrids were out of town. He wasn't trying to kill anyone. He wasn't hurting anyone. While Klaus not appearing to be up to something was a suspicious factor, it wasn't enough to warrant killing him, in Addie's opinion. Damon was essentially going after Klaus and all the Originals unprovoked. He was going to kill them in cold blood.

That wasn't particularly new behavior for him, though. He had killed a lot of innocent people. But Addie had never stood by and condoned it. Yes, she'd forgive him for the little outburst of uncontrollable emotions where he decided to just eat people but that was different. He at least tried to fight those impulses. She knew he did it for her. He stuck to blood bags because he knew she wasn't particularly comfortable with his snatch, eat, erase philosophy.

She wasn't just going to let him kill off an entire family that posed no active threat. It would be hypocritical of her to judge Klaus and his family on their past actions when she forgave Damon for his. The Originals posed as a risk factor but that wasn't enough to simply murder them. Damon proved he was beyond a risk factor with his little killing spree in New York.

Lost in thought, Addie didn't hear the door to Damon's bedroom open. Frustration rose in Damon as he saw Addie stretched out on his bed, casually scrolling through her phone. Dropping the duffel bag with extra stakes on the ground he scolded, "You basically ignored me."

Addie looked at him in surprised and had to think for a moment to what he was referring to. "No, I responded. Taking your stake and leaving was a valid response to your request that I pretend to be the guy you want to kill. I played along up until I realized just how incredibly stupid your plan was. I don't want to be involved in your plot to kill the Originals. Responding with an answer you don't like is not the same as ignoring."

"All of this is for you, you know. "

"I know," she placated as she left the bed and moved towards him. It wasn't all for her, though. It was his twisted obsession. If it really was for her, he wouldn't be putting himself and everyone else she cared about in danger just to kill Klaus.

"You're not supposed to be here," he reprimanded, looking down at her as she undid his crossed arms.

Annoyed, she huffed, "Because Klaus might show up? Damon, he has bigger interests than me."

"You don't know that. If he wants to use you in the future, the smart thing to do would be to capture you now. Being in a house that he can get in without any protection makes that extremely easy for him."

Instead of hugging him as she had planned, Addie decided to inspect the duffel bag he'd brought in. If he was just going to lecture her, she wasn't in the mood to be close to him. "I don't want to fight about Klaus with you," she muttered, unzipping the bag. That was one of the few reasons she supported Damon's efforts to kill Klaus. She was tired of him being a source of tension between them.

"Then stop being careless and giving such little regard to your safety," he snapped quickly.

Frowning, she pulled out a White Oak stake. Somehow she thought it's seem special but it looked just like all the other stakes she'd seen in Alaric's collection. It was an ordinary stake, just like the one she had taken from him earlier. She checked to see how sharp it was as she countered, "I'm not going to spend my life walking on eggshells because you're paranoid."

"Paranoid? Are you forgetting that he nearly cleared Jeremy just to make a point?"

"You actually did kill Jeremy because Elena rejected you!" Addie shot back snidely.

Damon rolled his eyes. "He was dead for, like, a second! Klaus made him take off that magical ring before trying to run him down. Then he would have been as dead as a doorknob."

"That's what you intended to do! You got lucky that Jeremy was wearing the ring. Of course, when you killed him you pushed him closer to turning into an insane psycho killer like Alaric."

Unable to argue that point, he demanded, "Why are you protecting Klaus? Why are you defending him?"

"I'm not," she sighed heavily, running her fingers through her hair. "I just don't want you doing this. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'll be fine," Damon insisted, plucking the stake from her hand.

Addie rolled her eyes as she watched him place the stake in a pile of wood by the fireplace, carefully covering it with the logs. "Did you learn nothing from hiding the moonstone in a bowl of rocks?"

Satisfied it was hidden well enough, he stood back up and smartly shot back, "I learned my girlfriend likes to take very important objects, hide them from me, and allow me to think that doppelgangers are responsible for taking the objects."

"Katherine still went through the bowl of rocks. Had I not taken the stone, she would have," she point out indignantly.

"Not my point. You," he pointed an accusatory finger at her, "still took the rock."

"Not my point," she mimicked, fighting a smile. "Hiding a wooden stake in a pile of wood is obvious and predictable."

"Is not," he muttered. Damon glanced around the room and wondered, "Where's the one you took from me?"

Addie shrugged innocently. "No clue."

"You better be lying and simply trying to annoy me. We can't afford to lose any of the stakes," he warned her.

She opened the top drawer of his dresser and pulled out the stake. Poking him lightly in the stomach with it she said, "Here."

He raised a cool, mocking eyebrow at her. "And you have the nerve to insult my hiding spot?"

"If I was trying to hide it, do you really think I would stick it with your socks, boxers, and whatever drink you fancy as a nightcap? You're constantly in and out of that drawer."

"Fair enough. I want you to keep that, though. The next time you decide to go running to Klaus, try stabbing him instead of cuddling up to him," he grumbled tartly.

"I wouldn't have any reason to go near him if you'd just remind your female companions to keep their clothes on instead of suggesting sex," she retorted. Her voice was too cold for him to believe the sweetness that laced it to be genuine.

"On second thought," Damon remarked, matching her cheery tone, "I'd rather you have absolutely no excuse to go near him."

"Fine by me," Addie muttered as she tossed the stake onto his bed. "You might have everyone else convinced that it's a brilliant idea to drive a stake through Klaus but I'm not."

"Do you have a better suggestion?"

"How about anything but a suicide mission?"

Sardonically he bit back, "Your confidence in me is greatly inspiring."

Quickly Addie pointed out, "When have you ever gotten the better of him? Had the upper hand? You are physically out matched. Mentally, he's just as paranoid as you. He's not going to let his guard down. You have five targets to take him out and you choose to go after the greatest threat? That's just stupid. You killing him is personal, not strategic. If you were playing smart, you'd go out and find Finn! I'm sure he'd gladly drive a stake into his own heart if it meant taking down his siblings. You accuse me of being reckless but I'm not the one blinded by my emotions. You're going to get yourself killed, Damon."

Repeating his words from earlier he maintained, "I'll be fine."

She shook her head in disbelief, scoffing, "You can't be arrogant enough to actually believe that."

"I've got this, Ads. As far as Klaus knows, Rebekah burned up all that was left of the White Oak. He's not going to be expecting me to kill him. This time, I do have the upper hand," Damon reassured her, reaching up to cup her face.

Addie stepped out of his reach, frowning. "If this is just about making sure Klaus is dead, why can't you go after an easier target, like Finn? I'm sure Rebekah would even be more unsuspecting than Klaus."

Slightly petulant, he rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "What do you want to hear me say? That this is personal about killing Klaus? That I want the satisfaction of seeing the life go out of Klaus' eyes?"

"I understand that's what you want but I don't get why! What's your deal with Klaus that's so big that you have to kill him directly? What's so damaging to your pride that you have to go and risk your life by being stupid?"

Damon ran his finger through his hair as he struggled to find the right words. "The way he is with you, it's not right. It needs to stop."

"How he is with me is my concern, not yours," Addie snapped harshly.

"But you're not acting concerned about it. You're my girlfriend, Ads. It is my concern if he is a threat to you or treats you inappropriately."

She opened her mouth to retort but Damon held up a hand, motioning for her to stay silent. He could hear the front door and floorboards creak ever so slightly. In exasperation he sighed and mumbled to Addie, "This is why you're not allowed here. Someone's in the house."

"And you're automatically certain it's someone evil," she muttered softly. Sarcastically she continued, "You're definitely not paranoid. It's not like it could just be your brother, who happens to live here."

"Stefan's with Alaric," he informed her curtly. Moving to his bedroom door he pleaded, "Just listen to me for once and stay here, please?"

Addie rolled her eyes dramatically and sat down on his bed. His paranoia was getting out of hand. She held her hands up in surrender, agreeing, "Fine."

Damon gave her a strained smile before silently slipping from the room. Addie buried her face in her hands. She always thought Damon's paranoia of Klaus strolling right into the boarding house and attacking was a bit extreme. Damon might be foolish enough to try that with Klaus, and essentially had in his plan with Mikael, but the Original hybrid was not that obvious. She'd never consider either to be stealthy or subtle but there was a certain elegance Klaus had that Damon lacked…. Or perhaps it was just Klaus' accent that made everything he said sound more elegant…. No, Klaus definitely kept an air of mystery about him that Damon didn't. Or was she just better at reading Damon?

Addie gripped at the roots of her hair in frustration. She didn't want to think about Klaus. She didn't want to think about Damon. She just wanted to not think. Why was that so complicated?

She tensed as she heard a loud clatter from downstairs. Apparently Stefan or Damon had done something the other didn't like. When she didn't hear any more sounds of a fight, Addie reconsidered that it was marginally possible that Damon might have been right to have been paranoid for once and someone had come into the house. But who? The whole reason she was ruling out Stefan was because he and Damon were on a similar playing field if they chose to fight and there would have been a lot more noise. There was just one crash, though. That was a pretty short fight. Whoever Damon had fought, he was either a lot weaker or a lot stronger. Though, she wasn't entirely convinced that he hadn't just made up the fact that there was someone in the house so he could simply go and throw something because he was getting annoyed with her. It wasn't like she was particularly pleased with him and his stupid need to kill Klaus, even if it meant getting himself killed in the process.

Addie stretched out on the bed for several more minutes, waiting for Damon to return to the room. When he hadn't come back in half an hour, she decided to scout for him. It was stupid for them to be arguing over Klaus.

"Damon?" she called out, slipping out of his room. When he didn't reprimand her for not staying in the room like he had wanted, she frowned and continued down the hall. She said his name louder as she descended the stairs. Spying the entry table crumpled into a heap of broken wood and the cracks in the wall Addie sighed, placing her hands on her hips, "Lovely."

It was always promising when there were signs of a struggle. She had thoroughly convinced herself the crash she heard before was Damon shattering crystal decanter into the fireplace. She continued to search through the house, checking every room for him. As she checked the cellar, Addie had to conclude that Damon wasn't at the residence. She tried calling his cell phone several times but there was no answer. Seeing his car in the garage she went back to considering whether his paranoia hadn't just been extremely obsessive for once. There was obviously a fight and Addie felt pretty certain it was safe to label him as missing.

Who would want to pick a fight with Damon? Dumb question. Who was brave/stupid enough and strong enough to pick a fight with him? Rolling her eyes and sighing Addie pulled out her cell phone and reluctantly dialed.

"Addison! How wonderful it is to hear from you," Klaus answered cheerily on the second ring. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Where's Damon?" she snapped sharply. Addie frowned as she eerily reminded herself of her mother demanding to know where her laptop was whenever she got grounded.

"How should I know if you don't know?" he challenged innocently.

Addie scowled as she dropped into one of the wing backed chairs in the study. "You're the bad guy. The bad guy always knows things."

"You know, your labels are starting to hurt my feelings," he remarked, feigning disappointment.

"Well, I suppose you could try un-earning a label," she postulated. "You can start by telling me where my boyfriend is."

"Other than the fact that I'm the bad guy, what makes you think I know where Damon is?" wondered Klaus.

Addie snorted; it really wasn't funny that she found her boyfriend being taken as unsurprising. It was just the dark irony that surrounded her world ever since Damon had come into it. "There was an… incident at the boarding house. Suddenly, Damon's disappeared. Now, I'm sure there's a long list of enemies but I thought it would be more logical to go through them based on geographical relativity rather than a specific alphabetical order. You happen to be the closest."

He clicked his tongue and spoke slowly, as if considering her words, "I don't know about that. Have you tried asking the broody vampire he lives with? Elena did fall in love with Damon. I'd hate Damon if I were Stefan. There's also the vampire hating alter ego of his best friend, the ex-vampire hunter, that you should consider. Really, I think those two are far more likely to do damage to Damon than I am."

"You said hearing him speak makes you want to kill him."

"Operative word being want. Frankly, darling, Damon's just not worth the effort."

Imaging the stake hidden in the pile of wood upstairs, she smiled slightly. He might be stupid and he might be reckless but he was right; Klaus was letting his guard down if he really thought Damon wasn't worth the effort. She mildly warned, "You're underestimating him."

Klaus gave a harsh bark of laughter, "Rebekah burned all of the old Wickery Bridge. Damon's nothing but a sulky child at this point. He thought he could kill me and now his last possible means of doing so has been destroyed. If he wasn't of use to me in protecting you, I might possibly feel bad enough to kill him out of mercy and put him out of his misery."

"Or he'll just become desperate and team up with the Original Bitch to kill you." A brief silence passed before Addie realized, "I mean the Original Witch Bitch, obviously."

"Yes, because my sister now, also, qualifies as an Original Bitch because she slept with Damon," Klaus clarified. She could visualize his stormy blue eyes rolling at her.

"She wishes she slept with him. Turns out Damon merely suggested the idea of having a threesome and Rebekah and Sage were more than happy to go along with the idea without him," she informed him coolly.

He scoffed, "And Damon was just an innocent bystander? Don't tell me you believe that."

"He may not be as innocent of a bystander as I would approve of," Addie conceded, "but he can't lie to me. He didn't touch either of them."

"So, it's ok and not cheating because you guys weren't technically together and he didn't touch them," snickered Klaus. "I think you're just splitting hairs over what's acceptable behavior because you don't want a valid reason to leave Damon."

Addie's lips pursed as she twisted around in the chair so that her feet were where her head should be and her head dangled upside down. "Isn't the fact that Damon is Damon enough of a valid reason? If you can't leave someone for being a narcissistic, self-serving, sociopathic serial killer what can you leave them for?"

"That would be enough for a normal person but not you. You, darling, are tragically flawed, tragically broken. Your self-esteem is so non-existent that you need someone else to have it for you. For some unfathomable reason, you've decided Damon is that person. Damon can be as deplorable as he wants as long as he doesn't sully his respect for you. You'll make any excuse for his behavior as long as -"

"That's not true," she snarled, cutting him off. "I don't need Damon for self-esteem. What I need from Damon, what I get from Damon, is something you know nothing about. When it comes to love, you know nothing, Niklaus. The self-esteem of a man who daggers his family members out of fear of betrayal can't be that great. You are a proud man but you have no confidence. You don't believe you're worthy of devotion. You fear no one will ever accept you the way I accept Damon," Addie rambled off in anger, surprised by how much her words actually made sense.

Klaus guffawed and sneered, "Your loyalty to Damon is ever wavering. You accept him when the mood suits you. When it strikes your fancy, you betray him and run to his enemy. I have a vast army of hybrids with unquestionable loyalty!"

Yes, his brainwashed army. That was good company for him to keep. Scowling, she snapped, "I called you to find out where my boyfriend is, not a free psychoanalysis. Do you know where Damon is or not?"

"Haven't the foggiest," he answered, quickly reverting to a charming manner.

"Meaning you know."

"Why do you assume I'm lying?"

"Lying is part of the requirements for being a bad guy," Addie emphasized, as if it were obvious.

He made a soft noise of indignation and countered, "I'm taking your advice and trying to get rid of the label."

Running her fingers through her hair until it brushed the floor, she sighed, "So you really don't know?"

"What's in it for me?"

"Little piece of advice, don't try and get something out of everything when you're trying to lose a bad reputation," she grumbled distastefully. Klaus' request wasn't surprising but she hadn't decided on a response. There wasn't much that she could offer Klaus, if he was telling the truth. Of course, he could simply be lying and all she could offer him, the stakes, would be lost for no reason.

"Well that's just boring," he muttered, appalled.

"Yes, well, being labelless can be tedious. Do you know anything about Damon or not?"

Cryptically he answered, "No but I could."

Addie rolled her eyes; she didn't want to play his stupid games. Obligatory she asked, "What do you mean?"

"If you think Damon's gotten himself involved with trouble, it would be a lot quicker for me to use my vast resources to check with the many people who may have an axe to grind with him than it will be for you to call up everyone he's ever met. Besides, bad guys lie. If you simply demand to know if they've seen Damon, you might not get the truth. To get the truth, you need a little force. I can help you find Damon," Klaus offered. Addie couldn't help but feel there was a sleazy edge to his voice.

Firmly she declared, "I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"Even if it meant saving Damon?"

She was beginning to feel dizzy from laying with her head upside down. That was a complex question. She shook her head and said to convince herself, "Damon's not in that kind of trouble. There is no need for force."

"Suit yourself. Spend the next 50 years searching for your lost love."

"I didn't say I didn't want your help," Addie admitted, reluctantly. "I just don't want anyone hurting anyone. Force isn't necessary."

"Fine," Klaus sighed dramatically. "Force makes things faster but we'll do things your way. What do I get out of helping you?"

Annoying, single-minded vampires. She seemed be a magnet to them. "Didn't I just give you advice about that?"

"Yes but this is business, not me being evil. See, the time and resources I use on Damon are valuable. He's -"

"Have you ever heard of just doing something nice for a friend?" Addie interrupted wearily as she sat back up correctly.

The other end of the line was silent for several seconds. Eventually Klaus said, "Friends is a strong word to describe our relationship."

"It's a figure of speech. Are you going to help or not?" she whined, quickly growing frustrated.

"Damon might only be a sullen child now that the White Oak has been destroyed. However, he won't pout for long. Damon will spend eternity looking for a way to kill me. I doubt there's a way but…. You warned me about Damon knowing about the White Oak because you felt I didn't deserve to be blindsided. Can I trust that I won't be blindsided in the future?" he proposed.

Addie felt a chill of disgust run down her spine. Talk about making a deal with the devil. She scoffed bitterly, "You mean tell you when my boyfriend plans on killing you so you can kill him first?"

Klaus considered this before reasonably presenting, "What if I offer not to kill Damon unless he comes after me? You know, like self-defense."

Her nose scrunched up in distaste. She didn't fancy the idea of being forever in Klaus' debt. What if he actually did do something he deserved to die for? Carefully she worded, "Fine. The next time Damon comes to kill you, I'll tell you if you help me find him. I feel like since it's you I should also mention that I want him found alive."

"I figured that. So, you'll only guarantee telling me the next time he tries to kill me?" he caught, mulling over words.

"It will be a heads up on more than Damon," she admitted, trying not to give too much away. "One warning for a little bit of your time is more than a fair trade."

"So, there's already something planned?"

"Are you going to help me find Damon?"

Klaus was silent for a few minutes as he contemplated. "I've decided that I'm going to find Damon to satisfy my own curiosity. Whether or not I tell you if I've found him depends on if your information is valuable enough."

"I never said I had information," Addie said, too quick and innocent.

"And you never said you didn't. You tell me what's already planned and I'll tell you where Damon is."

Incredulously she exclaimed, "So you do know where he is!"

"No but I'm going to find out," he replied. Addie could imagine the smug, taunting smile on his face.

Having a feeling he had ended the call, Addie checked to see if they were still connected. Klaus had, indeed, hung up on her. There was something about Klaus that was particularly irksome. However, she did feel a little more at ease. There was no doubt in her mind that he would definitely find Damon, assuming Damon didn't simply show back up at the boarding house first, which he probably would. Damon's overprotectiveness and paranoia was apparently contagious.

"What happened here?" called a disgruntled voice through the house.

Addie scrambled out of the chair and into the hall to join Stefan, who gave her an accusatory glare. Throwing her hands up defensively she said, "Don't look at me. That," she gestured to the broken table and cracked wall, "is the work of your brother and some unknown party."

Obviously exasperated, Stefan over enunciated each word, "Unknown party?"

"I have no clue who. Damon heard someone come into the house, got all paranoid, made me stay in his room while he played the hero, and there was a crash. When I came down thirty minutes later no body was here," Addie explained dismissively, trying to appear much less concerned than she felt.

Stefan's brows furrowed, bother by this information he asked, "Have you tried calling him?"

"He didn't answer. But it's Damon; he's probably out burying the body of whoever it was," she shrugged. She didn't exactly want Stefan and Klaus searching for Damon. If they ran across each other, it was unlikely the encounter would end up pretty.

He was interrupted from responding by the ringing of his phone. He held up a finger, signaling for Addie to hold on as he answered, "Hey, Elena….I just got home. Why?... Ex-girlfriend? Guy's been in a coffin for the last 900 years."

Rapidly, pieces clicked together in Addie's brain as she listed to the one end of the conversation. Damon had told her how Rebekah knew to burn the wood from the old Wickery bridge. Sage had slipped into his mind during their sexy shower scene. Sage didn't want Damon killing the Originals because she had some obsession with Finn, who was stuck in a box for 900 years. Frantically she tugged at Stefan's arm and hissed, "It's Sage."

Stefan's green eyes widen, dread briefly flickering in them. "Listen to me, Elena," he commanded. "Do not do anything, ok? Sage is a very old and very powerful vampire. You stand no chance against her."

As Stefan spoke, Addie's phone had begun to buzz. She checked the screen before slipping outside. Quickly she walked over to her Jeep and got in it, starting the engine as an extra measure. Right before it went to voicemail she answered, "An update already?"

"Didn't I say I could find out faster than you," Klaus remarked superiorly.

Addie waited for him to elaborate but when it was clear that he wasn't going to she pushed, "So, what did you find out?"

"Well, all I really had to do was ask my sister as to where he was."

"You knew all along, didn't you?" she accused loudly, irritation nagging at her.

"I had my suspicions but I didn't actually know anything," he said coolly. "If you want your boyfriend back, I suggest you tell me what plan he is up to, otherwise I'll let Rebekah keep him chained up in bear traps. See, she gets quite vindictive when she is used."

Addie sighed heavily, resting her head on the steering wheel and running her fingers through her hair. The dark red strands fell around her face as if to shield her from the outside world. Surely Klaus was exaggerating about Rebekah having Damon in bear traps, though, she could see her friend doing something that extreme. Damon would be livid if she told Klaus about the stakes and the plan though. There was only one way to win both sides and it required precise timing.

Softly into the phone she said, "Give me a little while to think about it."

"I wouldn't take too long. She'd bleeding him of vervain to compel him. There's no telling what she'll make him do," Klaus warned, before hanging up on her again.

The engine of her car shut off as she got out and went back into the house. Telling Klaus Damon kept a bit of White Oak wasn't going to be enough to help him get Damon from Rebekah. A crossed Rebekah played mean and dirty. She'd do whatever the hell she wanted with Damon unless the one person she feared told her not to. Addie was going to have to pay big if she wanted Klaus to help her free Damon. Handing over stakes big. Damon would not be happy about that. Though Addie sincerely doubt he was very fond of being Rebekah's play thing.

"Was that Damon?" pounced Stefan, as soon as she walked in the door.

The corners of her lips twitched slightly as she considered, "In a way."

He eyed her warily as he was eerily reminded of his brother. They spent far too much time together. "What's that mean?"

"The good news is that I found him. The bad news is that Rebekah's having her kinky way with him. I mean, even as a torture device I don't see the appeal of bear traps but whatever floats your boat. Who am I to judge?" Addie tacked on mindlessly, giving a small shrug to indicated that she didn't really care about what other people did. Remembering her point, she refocused, "The better news is that I have a plan. The slightly less bad news is that you have to be as crazy suicidal about this revenge plot against Klaus as my neurotic boyfriend."

Stefan frowned thoughtfully. "What are you thinking?"

"You're having my sister follow Finn and Sage, yeah?"

"Obviously."

"Lure them into a fight. Stake Finn and the rest of the Originals go down and Damon's freed," Addie proposed.

Stefan shook his head. "No, it's too risky. It's broad daylight. They're in the middle of town. We couldn't do it without being seen."

Addie crossed her arms and scowled, "Then how do you suggest we save Damon?"

"Damon's not the issue right now. We're sticking to the original plan; see an opportunity and take it. We'll worry about Damon after we take down the Originals," Stefan said decisively.

An angry heat flared up in her cheeks. He was just as thick-headed as Damon. Inhaling sharply she sternly corrected him, "No, you're sticking to the original plan. I'm saving Damon. I'm not going to just sit by and let Rebekah torture him while you wait for the perfect moment to attack. He doesn't deserve to go through that!"

"You know what he would want!" he snapped back, his volume slightly elevated, just as hers had been by the time she'd finished.

Rolling her eyes, Addie laughed humorlessly, "I don't care about what he wants. He doesn't care about what I want. We both do whatever the hell we want to do. That's just how our fucked up, dysfunctional relationship works."

With that, she left him, storming upstairs and into Damon's room. The door was quickly shut and locked behind her. If Stefan wasn't going to play by her rules, than she didn't want him catching on to her plan because he would definitely try to stop it. Addie grabbed the duffel bag Damon had brought home with him and scoured through it. Matt, Alaric, Caroline, Stefan and Elena all had a stake, leaving five in the bag and the one on the bed made six. She wasn't going to be able to get Stefan's stake but Klaus didn't know how many stakes there were, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Reluctantly, she called the person she knew would choose saving Damon over the plan.

"What do you want?" Elena answered, irritation lacing her voice.

"I need your help." Quickly she added, "Before you say no, you should know that it's for Damon?"

Snidely her sister retorted, "You mean the guy that loves you?"

Guilt twisted Addie's stomach in knots. In a small voice she said, "I know that doesn't change how you feel about him. Elena, Rebekah has him."

---

Addie was feeling fairly confident about her plan to rescue Damon as she knocked on Alaric's door for the second time that day. Silver tongued Elena had easily convinced Matt and Caroline to give her their White Oak stakes. Addie had been half expecting some kind of blackmail from Elena to get the three stakes from her but she had just met Addie and handed them over without saying a word. Apparently they weren't speaking to each other, which was fine with Addie.

"Hey," greeted Alaric, opening the door with a big smile on his face. He moved to the side and gestured for her to enter.

Her thumbs tucked into the pockets of her jeans as she went in. She always felt kind of awkward when she was alone with Alaric. Maybe it was the fact that he essentially killed her. Maybe it was that she'd seen her history teacher post-coitus with her aunt, in his boxers eating Chunky Monkey. Maybe it was how he was stepping in as some pseudo-guardian. And while she knew they didn't go into deep details, maybe she was uncomfortable around Alaric because he was Damon's best friend and their relationship was a topic of conversation.

"So, this plan of yours-"

"This isn't a social visit. If you're going to try and talk me out of it, save your breath," Addie interrupted defensively.

Alaric nodded understandingly as he leaned back against the counter, crossing one foot in front of the other. In a tone of civil neutrality he replied, "I'm just making sure you can handle it."

"Well… I'm handling an active grenade. As long as I don't pull the pin out and piss it off, I should be fine," she retorted smartly.

"If you won't let me go for you, I think you should let me go with you," he argued. "It's what Damon would want."

"No," Addie drew out slowly, "Damon wouldn't want me doing this at all. He'd want me sitting in a corner while everyone else got themselves killed trying to stake an Original"

"Alright, well, he'll kill me if I let you go in alone."

Addie rolled her eyes as she moved in closer to Alaric, "Isn't this exactly what you've both been training me for? How to take on a vampire on my own. Odds are that if I go alone, it won't come to a fight. I bring you and your arsenal and it will. I'd be in more danger if you came with me."

"It's Klaus; you're in danger either way. You need someone to protect you," he countered.

"Why? Because you guys are crappy teachers and all the ass kicking and mock scenarios have just been for fun? Why bother training me against vampires if you don't think I can handle it? Was it all just to humor Damon?" she demanded. It irritated Addie how incompetent everyone thought her.

Alaric took two steps towards her and curiously inquired, "Do you even feel bad about what you're doing?"

"No," she answered without hesitation, "I'd betray Damon's plan if it meant saving him every time."

"You should feel bad about saving any vampires."

The octave drop in his tone was her first clue something was amiss. It was just enough of a warning for Addie to spring back on her toes as Alaric lunged for her. The knife he'd whipped from behind his back slashed through air, slightly upsetting his balance but he was quick to recover. She turned to run for the door but he was able to reach out just enough to catch her wrist and yank her back, making her almost stumble into the knife.

"Let's see how good a teacher I am. You escape, my self-defense training worked, at least against a human. You die, I finally teach you not to play with vampires," Alaric taunted, twisting her arm and bending it behind her back.

Addie curled the hand of her free arm into a fist and decided to turn into Alaric, before he popped her shoulder out of place. She was so short that the only decent place to land a punch was right under his jaw. The sound of his teeth clashing together made her cringe. Her wrist, which he had twisted up, he sharply snapped down. Addie's vision went fuzzy as a white-hot, searing pain radiated the length of her arm. Not letting go of her arm, Alaric reached across her to turn her back to him again. Figuring the pain couldn't get much worse, Addie tore her arm from his hold and threw her palm up under the elbow of the arm reaching across her. She didn't hear a pop but his hand was ripped from her shoulder. While she had managed to get his hand off her, Addie had forgotten about the knife he was holding, which tore through her shirt and left a three inch gash at the top of her shoulder. It was a dirty move but she brought up her knee and slammed it into his groin. Damon always said only losers fight clean. While Alaric didn't topple over in pain, he was stunned long enough for her to make it to the door.

She didn't stop sprinting until she was in the car, when she finally looked back to see if Alaric had followed, which he hadn't. Her left arm still throbbed in pain so she rubbed at the stitch in her right side as she gulped down air. She was fairly certain she'd just broken a personal record for track.

Addie leaned back against the headrest and laughed through choked back sobs. Of course she would get Alaric psycho killer alter ego. His typical self had tried to kill her. His crazy self was definitely going to try. That was one stake she was not getting back. She glanced down at the sleeve of her shirt. Prior to visiting Alaric it had be white, not blood red. Nor did she have a gaping gash. Nor was the elbow of her left arm swollen up to the size of a softball. Even if she changed and figured out some kind of bandage for the continuously weeping wound, it would be obvious that she had been in a struggle. She didn't have time to try and make a cover up about one less stake. If Klaus wanted Alaric's he could get it himself. Addie was fairly certain that Klaus would agree to ten stakes. For her. If she pouted and begged. She might have to work up a few tears.

---

Addie strained to hear sounds of horror as she waited for someone to answer the door at Klaus's manor but it seemed as normal and superfluous as ever.

When Klaus opened the door, Addie notice the quick look of surprise on his face. As charming as always he beamed, "Addison! It's wonderful to see you. Although you look a little…."

"Like crap? Yeah. I ran into a little trouble while collecting your payment. I'm here to deal," she replied curtly, holding up the duffle bag in her right hand. Her shoulder burned with the movement but it was a lot less painful than whatever was wrong with her left arm.

Klaus ushered her in and quickly guide her with a hand on the small of her back to a small study off on the right side of the foyer. It wouldn't do to have her see Damon in the hall just to left of the foyer.

"Want me to heal those up for you?" he offered as he shut the door behind them.

Addie hesitated briefly. She had no doubt of her answer but the fact that he would even ask was shocking and appalling. She wanted things to go smoothly so she tried not to sound too insulted, "No, thanks. I have my own vampire for all my healing needs."

"Well, it's gonna be a while before Damon can heal as he needs to do some healing of his own first," Klaus said coolly. "Though, maybe he will heal you first. Isn't suffering for the other basically what you guys do?"

"I don't recommend trying to understand our relationship. I barely understand it. Now, I tell you what's being planned and you make Rebekah give Damon back now. Right?" Addie said briskly. She wanted to get this over with before Klaus changed his mind and to stop Damon's suffering.

Klaus nodded.

"You better not double cross me because you really owe me tenfold for this. In fact, when Damon kills me for doing this, I'm going to come back and haunt you" she grumbled, unzipping the duffel back. She pulled out a stake and handed it to Klaus to inspect. "Rebekah burned the bridge but she didn't burn the original sign. With the last of the White Oak Damon fashioned eleven stakes. Nine more are in this bag."

"That only adds up to ten," he said curtly as he rifled through the bag and counted for himself.

"Yeah, Alaric's alter ego decided he wanted to kill me when I tried to get his stake." She tried to play on his ego and make no big deal of it, "I figured you could get one measly stake from one pathetic human. I'm, like, 99% certain it's hidden in his apartment."

Klaus gave her a cool, calculating look. "How do I know you're not lying just to save Damon?"

"That's exactly why I wouldn't lie. If I lied to you, you'd kill him." Guilt ate a hole in her stomach as she thought about Stefan's twelfth stake. Klaus wouldn't really kill Damon….

He continued watching her intently.

Addie wished she could cross her arms but there was no way she was getting her left arm to bend that much. Instead she settled for exhaling loudly and rolling her eyes dramatically. "Look, Damon gave everyone and their brother a stake and told them the plan was see an opportunity on any Original and take it. I just got back all these stakes and the way I see it, I'm saving your entire family's ass. All one of them had to do was call up Finn and ask him to be a kabob."

"You didn't get me all the stakes," he said coldly.

"No. Getting the stakes wasn't in our deal. Our deal was for me to tell you what was planned. I went above and beyond because I don't think you guys deserve to be treated like pigs in a slaughter house. Now, be a man of your word and give me Damon," she retorted sharply.

Klaus nodded and motioned for her to follow him. The first thing she saw was Rebekah, wiping her hands on a towel, all of which were blood free. That was a good sign.

"Addie?" the other girl said in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

Before Klaus could answer, Klaus jumped in, "Afraid your time with Damon has been cut short, little sister. Addie's paid to have him back."

"Nik, he's my plaything not yours! You can't decide that," whined Rebekah.

"He's a person, not some toy," Addie snapped.

Addie came to an abrupt halt as the hole of guilt was suddenly overflowing and threatening to make it's way up her throat. She had seen Klaus and Stefan do far worse to people but this was Damon, her Damon. On the ground was a clear tarp to protect the flooring but most of it was covered in pools of blood. His shirt was mostly undone and there wasn't an inch of skin that wasn't stained red all the way up to his neck. His arms were extended up into the air so that they made a "V" and that was the most gruesome sight. Razor sharp teeth of bear traps clamped into his wrist, keeping the wounds open, preventing him from healing. The sleeves of his shirt had been rolled back and rivulets of dark blood were visible, the wounds actively weeping. His head bowed forward, as if the effort of holding it up was just too much and all she could see of his face was one cheek, far paler than usual. The only thing that convinced Addie that Damon was still alive was the fact that his knees hadn't buckled….And he wasn't human; he couldn't die from exsanguination.

She tried to move past Klaus to free him but he held an arm out in front of her, blocking her. Emotionless and detached he told her, "Not so fast. I'm not going to just free him on your word alone."

Addie turned her attention from Klaus to Rebekah as the hybrid walked over to Damon. Klaus was going to do whatever he wanted; the best she could do was yell at Rebekah. "How the hell could you do this to him?"

"He used me," the blonde shrugged. "Tit for tat."

"He didn't torture you! He didn't hurt you! He led you on! You can't tell me you haven't led a guy on before! I've seen you do it! None of them ever tortured you! And you're supposed to be my friend. Friends don't sleep with other friends' love interests," Addie vented furiously. Damon wasn't the only one she was upset with over the whole three-way situation.

"Like any of those guys could torture me," Rebekah smirked. "You weren't using Damon. A guy like him needs to be used, He was going to sleep with someone else sooner or later."

Addie opened her mouth for a rebuttal when a cry of pain of pain reached her ears. Damon was dragging his wrist through the traps, making the gouges in his skin deeper. Klaus' lips had curled in satisfaction. "Stop it!" Addie demanded, rushing over to the men. "The deal was no one gets hurt; that includes Damon."

"Alright, you can stop," Klaus said, waving his hand disinterestedly at Damon. At Addie's scornful look he explained, "I had to make sure the vervain was out of his system."

Damon's head drooped again but his eyes turned up enough to glare at Addie. She was almost intimidated by the ice cold rage glistening in them. Addie was surprised when Klaus moved to free Damon.

"Turns out you didn't lie to me. Eleven stakes and your psychotic friend has the last one," he commented as he pressed down on the springs of the trap on Damon's right arm, freeing him.

Addie rushed to Damon side as the entire right side of of his body slumped forward. He groaned in agony as his left wrist had to suffer more of his weight. She ducked under his arm so it draped over her shoulders. She bit her lip and her eyes watered as Damon's left arm was released and she had to quickly wrap her arm around his waist to support him. The cut from Alaric added an acute stabbing to the constant throbbing when she moved her arm too much in any given direction.

"Nik!" Rebekah whine before storming off.

He waved a hand towards the foyer as he dismissed them, "Our deal is done. You're free to go."

Addie tried to walk away but Damon didn't budge. Encouragingly she whispered to him, "Come on." She tried again but he still didn't move. It seemed to be taking all of his strength, just to remain upright. "A little help?" she asked Klaus snidely; it would just be one more thing for Damon to bitch about later.

"My deal was to give Damon back to you. I never promised I'd help get him home," Klaus retorted before walking off down the hall.

She waited until Klaus had disappeared before trying again. "Come on, Damon," she urged, pulling him closer so that more of his weight rest against her, which unfortunately included her cut. His limp left hand kept brushing against her swollen elbow, making it sear. She tried to move again but Damon wouldn't move. Addie took a deep breath, the tangy, metallic scent of blood making her stomach churn and looked up into Damon's face. His skin was nearly translucent, his lips faded. If it wasn't for the storm of wrath brewing in his light blue eyes he would look like a corpse. For once his anger was a comfort; Damon was alive.

He was wrong if he believed he had exclusive ownership over being pissed off. Through gritted teeth Addie hissed, "You are not the only one that's hurt. I know you're probably not in a mood to heal me, so I need medical treatment. Problem is that I can't get any until I know your ass is ok. Not moving because you want to act like a stubborn child and dig your heels into the ground to show how angry you are is not something I can deal with right now. Act like a reasonable adult long enough for us to get out of here. Now, come on."

Addie swallowed hard as bile rose at the sound of Damon's shoes as he shuffled along on the tarp. The was a squelching sound as his shoes slipped through his blood. She focused back on the marble floors, trying to block out everything that reminded her of Damon's blood and pain. As they moved he relied more on her for support making her knees quake as she fought to keep them from buckling at the pain. A third of the way to the door. Halfway to the door. They only had a quarter left when Damon stumbled. Addie was able to keep him from falling down but not without crying in pain as tears flooded her eyes. She had to use her left arm to catch him and her elbow did not appreciate that.

At the sound of her gasp, Damon screwed his eyes shut, blacking out his sub-par vision and focusing on sensing Addie. It was so hard. He was so damn infuriated with her. He didn't even want to be near her. The lasting he wanted was her help but Addie needed his and that's all that mattered.

Draining a vampire of blood had a similar effect to desiccation. Vampire eyesight was equal to that of raptors and eight times more powerful than a human's; in his current condition Damon doubted he could tell a fine distinction between the grass and the road if he tried to drive. His sense of smell, on the other hand, was magnified in his dehydrated state. Addie's blood always smelled intoxicatingly sweet but it was overwhelming. She was covered in blood; he had made out the stain on her shirt. It was only when he fell against her and felt the cloth of his shirt quickly warm as it absorbed her blood that he realized she was actually bleeding. His hearing was barely equivalent to a human's; it wasn't strong enough for him to access anything about her heart or breathing. He couldn't tell how much blood she loss. He could just hear soft whimpers of pain.

Damon reached into the deepest part of his heart to find the strength to get Addie to safety. Addie always came first. She was his priority. What was it all worth if he couldn't save her? She defied him, betrayed him. Still, it was all for Klaus. Klaus made some deal with her. Klaus was responsible for her being injured. Addie had gotten into some kind of trouble the Damon wasn't able to save her from because Klaus had manipulated her into a life threatening situation. Damon was sure as hell going to kill whoever hurt Addie, but he was going to put Klaus through a world of misery before he finally killed him. Klaus had played on her innocent, good-hearted nature and got her hurt. It was one thing when Klaus was playing the sensitive, studly pool boy with a strong shoulder to cry on to try and win Addie but if he wanted to be the rich prince of maleficence, that was another thing entirely.

Bolstered on blinding rage, he did his best to straighten back up on his own. He lightly squeezed the bicep of Addie's uninjured arm when he was ready to move again.

"Ow," she accidentally blurted out. The pain from her elbow was radiating the length of her arm and his touch, though gentle, only exacerbated it. Still, Addie was trying to be as strong and supportive as possible, which meant not showing signs of weakness. Damon was weak enough for both of them. And they were in enemy territory, vulnerable. Quickly Addie said, "Let's go."

They trekked on sluggishly in pain but neither dared to stop until they reached the passenger side of Addie's car. It was hopefully far enough away that Klaus wouldn't be able to eavesdrop on them from inside the house. Damon leaned against the Jeep to support his weight and held out his bloody wrist to Addie. Almost simultaneously she held her's up for him.

Addie shuddered and struggled to keep from vomiting as her boyfriend's mangled wrist was shoved under her nose. Mangled. His wrist was still gouged open and oozing dark red blood. She could hide the panic and concern in her voice as she pointed out, "You're not healing."

Damon's lips pressed into a thin line as he didn't respond immediately. He wanted to just ignore her but the fear in her voice hurt him worse than the bear traps. "Vervain on the traps. It just needs to be rinsed off. I'll be fine," he mumbled. When Addie just looked at him doubtfully he snapped, "Drink."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Damon, you can barely stand up. You're nuts if you think I'm letting you lose anymore blood."

"But you expect me to drink from you?" he retorted sharply, his eyes flashing to the wrist she kept moving closer to his mouth.

"Yes," she said simply. "I don't look like death personified; you do."

"You're bleeding, Addie. You need to be healed," he grumbled. He didn't have the strength to argue this with her because she wanted to be ridiculous.

"I can wait. You need your blood more than I need it at this moment," she told him gently, continuing to use obvious logic rather than resorting to fighting.

"You are in pain."

"So are you."

Trying to appear stronger than he felt, Damon used the car to push himself up straighter. "I'm not feeding from you, Ads."

"I'm not moving until you do," she quipped back, not caring if she sounded like a petulant child. Logic didn't work if he decided to engage in a power struggle, anyways.

Damon nodded in agreement. "Fine. I'll grow stronger as I heal, at least a little. And you'll grow weaker as you bleed out. Then I'll just force you to drink my blood."

Unable to argue with reason she jutted out her lower lip and mumbled, "That's not nice."

"No but I'm not going to let my girlfriend die because she wants to be stubborn."

Addie lowered her wrist from his face. She wanted to run her fingers through her hair but she knew the movement would hurt. She worrying at her lip as she thought. Eventually she decided to just take him back home. As she walked to the other side of the car she remarked, "Just remember that's exactly why I did this; I wasn't going to let my boyfriend die because he wanted to be stubborn."

---

Addie's comment had only left a thick tension between them. In the car, the matter of who was being healed first wasn't momentarily a non-issue, leaving them with the elephant in the room - Addie had given away their means to kill Klaus. Damon was so livid he couldn't even come up with the words to begin arguing with her. Addie simply wasn't going to approach the topic unless he did. Sixteen years of avoiding her problems had worked; she didn't see a reason to pick that particular moment to change her strategy.

As Addie was unbuckling her seatbelt, Damon spoke up as he presented his wrist to her again, "Drink. Go home."

"I get that you're mad at me but I'm not drinking from you or going home until I see that you're healed," she replied, just as coolly.

"Drink," he repeated sternly. Frostily he informed her "I won't be offering again as I am no longer talking to you."

Her eyebrows briefly shot up in surprise before she remembered who she was dealing with. Damon was not known for being the most grown-up person. It was questionable whether her whining and pouting or his silent treatment was more mature.

"Lucky for me there's these magical people called doctors who can heal me," Addie retorted as she got out of the car. She briefly watched him to make sure he could manage on his own. When it was clear he could, she-offhandedly remarked, "Of course, there's no shortage of vampires that would be willing to heal me. And a certain hybrid."

Damon scowled after her as she marched to the house. That was simply an obvious attempt to annoy him. And it worked. Why wouldn't she just let him heal her and go home? Was she trying to start a fight to get the inevitable over with? He didn't know how to verbally express how he was feeling. While he couldn't find the right label for it, he felt similar to how he did after the initial shock of realizing Katherine wasn't in the tomb had set in. He'd handle that with a lot of meaningless sex and a lot more alcohol. Somehow he doubted that would work with Addie.

"Can you please just go get in the shower," she softly pleaded as he followed her into the house. "I just can't take the sight and smell of you covered in blood."

Addie felt a wave of relief when he didn't argue and just headed upstairs. In the kitchen Addie picked up three blood bags; it was the most she could carry in one hand. Her next stop was the study. The alcohol Damon kept in crystal decanters were his typical drinks. The ones he kept bottled in the liquor cabinet were for special occasions. On the mend from being drained of blood definitely fell into that category. Addie reached for one of his better burbourns when pain burned through her arm; she forgot about her elbow. A single tear leaked out but she quickly dropped the blood bags to brush it away. She couldn't cry. Not now. If she let the pain make her cry then she would have to cry about it all. She couldn't handle her mind replaying images of Damon chained up, the sound of his pain, seeing him so weak. She just wanted to forget all about it.

As the pain subsided, Addie was able to focus on her immediate problem. She couldn't use her left hand.

After a quick glance around the room gave no other inspiration, Addie used her teeth to grab the very edges of the blood bags. Ugh. Nothing but love could have her handling blood in such a manner. She could help but roll her eyes at the ridiculous things she did for Damon as went to his bedroom.

As soon as she could she dropped the blood bags on the bed. She jumped in surprise when she turned around to find Damon standing the doorway of the bathroom, still clothed except for his shoes. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be in the shower," snapped Addie, annoyed that he had startled her. The water was running, after all.

His head tilted slightly as he moved towards her, considering whether he was going to answer. No. Addie knew he was upset. If he started venting, she'd start defending herself and become even more convinced that she was right. He hadn't gotten through to her with arguing. Perhaps silence would be deafening, though.

"You know, that was meant for after you take your medicine," Addie lectured as he took the bourbon from her, uncorked it and downed half the bottle in one swallow. She gave him a pointed look and held out a blood bag as he peer at her over the bottle. He cocked a challenging eyebrow and took a defiant gulp, leaving a quarter of the bottle left. Rolling her eyes she tossed the blood back onto the bed. And conceded, "Fine. I get it. You're a big boy. Will you please go take a shower? Seeing you all banged up is distressing. So, unless your intention is my mental anguish…"

He exhaled loudly as he screwed the cap back onto the bottle and discarded it on his bed. She could be so dramatic. He couldn't look half as bad as he had when he need her to practically drag him out of Klaus'. Damon placed one hand on the small of her back as he pressed the insole of his foot against the back of her shoe and gently kicked at the front with his other. Addie knew what he was implying and he knew she was about to make a smartass retort. He didn't want to deal with that when he couldn't make smart comments right back at her. His scowl successfully deterred Addie from saying thing and she stepped out of a blue low-top Converse and then a red low-top Converse. Hell if he knew why her shoes didn't match; it was something she had started while he was in New York. He nudged at her socks and she toed those off as well.

The confusion was plain on Addie's face. Damon gave her a dark, provocative smirk as he gently tugged on the front of her shirt and slowly walked backwards into the bathroom. He was making his intentions clear. He was giving her every opportunity to back out. He wasn't Klaus.

While Damon Salvatore hardly needed any pretext to lure his girlfriend into a shower, he figured a desire to see to her physical health and comfort was a nobler cause than most. His vision had improved enough for him to get a halfway decent look at the cut, sort of. The plain white v-neck she wore was two sizes too big and had probably come from her brother's closet. The sleeve fell to almost her elbow but starting from the middle of the bicep to where the shoulder began to curve there was a clean tear in the fabric. It looked like it was made in one movement with something very sharp as there were no signs of hesitation or fraying. The entire sleeve was saturated with blood. From what he could tell, the shirt had settled so that the extra fabric of the sleeve was covering her injury, sopping up blood. Pulling bloody clothes off was never particularly comfortable and it was downright painful if it was being peeled off wounds. Things were always easier when stuff got slippery.

Addie's face turned as scarlet as blood stained shirt as she followed him into the shower. Her eyes fell to his feet; they were a safe zone with no blood contamination. When she saw him open the shower door and step in fully clothed, she looked up at him, puzzled. While still alluring and suggestive, his grin was much less dark than initially. There was a nervous, tickling sensation just beneath her rib cage as she followed him in, uncertain of his intention but knowing she trusted him.

Damon had been shielding most of the spray from the four shower heads with his back to keep from soaking the bathroom but as she joined him he stepped fully under the hot stream. When he could finally catch Addie's elusive dark blue eyes he held up both his hands in clenched fist. He made a point of showing her the water wash his wounds clean. Bright red water running down his forearms eventually turned clear. He doubted Addie was aware of that she got a crease between her eyebrows as they pulled together when she concentrated or how the corners of her lips turned upward for the briefest moment as he quickly twisted his heels wrist around as proof that he was fine. That wasn't good enough for her; Addie had to critically scrutinize every bit of skin on each one. While seeing her so concerned made him feel loved and special, he still didn't like to see her upset.

"No!" Addie exclaimed, dropping the wrist she was examining to catch the one he was moving towards his mouth. She tried not to react to the stabbing pain that shot through her shoulder at the movement. "Damn it, Damon," she huffed in exasperation. "You just healed. Give yourself a minute to get some strength back."

His shouldered squared as he straightened up and pierced her with his most approving look. She snorted; she didn't need him to speak to get that he thought that she was being ridiculous. It didn't matter. As if explaining to a small child why they couldn't have cookies for every meal Addie slowly said, "If you bite yourself, you are just going to lose that blood. I know it's a small a mount and you'll heal right back up but you look like shit still."

Addie briefly humored him by participating in his stare down of wills. Her eyes stung as droplets of water fell into them and she quickly ended the game in favor of blinking. It wasn't like she had anything to lose. She couldn't resist rolling her eyes and shaking her head at just how childish he was being with the silent treatment. He growled in frustration, pushing the dark, wet locks off of his forehead. The movement caused his shirt to shift, exposing a patch of skin that was still red.

Horrified, she quickly made work off the few buttons Rebekah hadn't cut off and frantically exclaimed, "Get this - get this thing off! You still have blood on you!"

Taken aback by the raw fear he heard in her voice, Damon broke his vow of silence to make soothing hushing sounds as he helped her take off the black garment. It landed on the floor with a wet smack that echoed off the bathroom walls. He wasn't sure why she cringed at the sound as she stared at his bared chest. He checked to see what was so awful but the only blood that was left was a small smudge just above the waistband of his jeans on his left hip. Damon easily wiped it away.

"Addie, I'm fine," he reassured her, cupping her face in both hands and tilting it up. He inhaled sharply as he met her eyes, wide with fear and pain and grief, filled with tears that would down her cheeks, trying to disguise themselves as water droplets. He'd never understand how her looks could hurt him more than actual torture. "Ads, don't," he pleaded, using his thumbs to brush the tears away.

"You don't," she bit back, her voice cracking. Her vision blurred as the tears came more rapidly. It felt like her lungs were constricting, only allowing for the shallowest of breaths. Despite the hot water raining down on her from every direction, a chill ran through her. Addie could feel her heart slamming into her rib cage, trying to burst out of her chest. She was losing control of her emotions.

Damon frowned, at a lost as to why Addie was starting to have an anxiety attack. He leaned against the wall, the tiles cool against his back and slid a hand to the small of Addie back and pulled her with him. He kept his hand there as he nestled her between his legs, keeping her close as his other hand slipped from her face and into her hair, keeping her face tilted up at him. Trying to distract her from whatever terror going on in her head he questioned, "I don't what?"

"Yo-you… you… you," Addie choked out struggling to catch her breath, "you don't get… get to die." A sob wrecked through her but she managed to get a giant gasp of air. Her anger began to replace her dread. "You've lived nearly 170 years. You don't get to die on me now. Everyone else, they're human, they're fragile. You're a vampire. I'm not supposed to have to see you dead," she said accusingly, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm-"

"No!" she protested vehemently. "You don't get to say your fine or that you're ok. You didn't care if killing Klaus meant you got killed! You're a selfish dick. You didn't care that I didn't want you doing it! You didn't care about anything but protecting me from Klaus!" Addie ranted furiously. Her voice dropped as she curled her finger around the back of his neck, ignoring the pain in her arm, "Nothing he could do to me could compare to the pain of losing you. I love you, Damon."

Addie was right, once again. He had been so caught up in killing Klaus that he hadn't listened to her. He hadn't really considered why she didn't want him going after Klaus. His lips tenderly caressed hers. Addie leaned into the kiss more insistently. It was comforting to feel his lips move in a familiar, reassuring manner against hers. He really was alive and safe; she just had to keep him that way. Something wet brushed against his cheek, which wouldn't be unusual for a shower except for the fact that they were out of the water's spray; Addie still had to be crying. Damon contemplated breaking off the kiss and talking to her but she didn't seem like she wanted to hear his words. He'd temporarily push aside the last of his anger at her to comfort her in the way she wanted.

Slowly he deepened the kiss, allowing the intensity to naturally build. Addie's fingers pressed hard into the back of his neck, desperate to explore his skin. She wanted to let her hands roam over every inch of his arms and chest, just to make double sure he was whole and perfect. But her shoulder and elbow rejected that idea. She'd have to settle for Damon's large, strong hands holding her against him.

Damon broke the kiss, his hand gently cupping the back of her injured shoulder. He hand gone near her other arm; he could see how she her elbow was swollen to the size of a softball and she was taking care not to move it. It was clearly too painful. Pressing the lips to the corner of her mouth he murmured, "Let me heal you."

"Thought you weren't going to offer twice," she sassed, giving him a quick peck. "That was at least the third time."

"We both know I can't stand to see you in pain. Let me heal you," he insisted, kissing along her jaw.

"After you get some blood in you," sighed Addie, tilting her head up, to allow him better access to her neck.

He hummed thoughtfully, allowing his lips to skim to the base of her throat. "Is this you foolishly suggesting I feed off you."

Honestly, she hadn't considered that; she just want him to kiss her neck. It made sense. "You could."

"You missed the part where I said foolishly," he muttered. He licked at bead of water rolling to the hollow of her throat. Rhetorically he asked, "Have you seen your sleeve? You've lost a lot of blood, too."

"It just looks like I have. I feel fine; it's nothing like when we were making me lose blood so I could build up a tolerance to compulsion. You could just drink some of my blood and get all better. Then I would didn't yours and we'd both be fine," Addie explained reasonably, slightly distracted by the tickle of his five o'clock shadow as he nuzzled her neck.

Blood sharing, well, as close as they'd ever get to it since Addie would never be a vampire. Damon could get behind that idea. One problem. "Why can't I heal you first?"

"Because I'm still not fully convinced you're ok," she mumbled sheepishly. She knew she was being a little irrational at this point but she'd come to accept that her anxiety didn't always make sense.

"Even if i didn't have blood, I'd be just fine with a little rest and relaxation."

"I know. I just… you looked awful." Addie hadn't realized just how afraid she had been of losing him.

Damon tucked a lot of hair behind her ear as he studied her. She didn't look like she was suffering from major blood loss and her pulse had been strong and steady under his lips but he still wasn't fond of the idea. He grimaced, "Are you sure you feel fine? I'd really rather just heal you first."

With her matter-of-fact, no nonsense voice she informed him, "There are three options in play: you can drink my blood and then heal me, you can drink a blood bag and then heal me, or I can go to doctor."

"That's so stupid. Why would you spend weeks healing when my blood can do it in seconds?"

"Because you are chauvinistic and stubborn and won't just drink some blood before you heal me."

"I'm more concerned about you than I am about myself. Why is that a crime?" Damon asked, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"You're always the one that's concerned and I'm the one that always makes sacrifices for it. Today we're playing by my rules. But if you want to talk about concern, consider it this way: the sooner you feed, the sooner my pain stops," she pointed out logically.

He buried his face in her neck again to keep her from seeing his eye roll. This was precisely his point. Why didn't she understand that she needed to be healed first. While he felt like crap, he wasn't in pain. Again, Addie was going to get her way.

"You are my greatest weakness," Damon murmured, peppering a trail of soft kisses along the column of her throat. He didn't agree with drink from her when she was injured but it bothered him even more that she was in pain.

"You once told me all love is weakness," mumbled Addie, the hand at the back of his neck trying to pull him closer.

Her breathing increased as he nipped softly up her carotid artery to just below her jaw. There he bit a little harder in preparation, making her sigh softly. She smelled so sweet. Damon hated how eagerly his fangs descended; his body was still low on blood.

"I stand by that statement," he muttered darkly. Love had made her turn the stakes over to Klaus. Damon forced himself to think of something else. He'd be pissed with her after they were both fine. "However, you're also my greatest strength. Ready?"

Addie nodded and relaxed, leaning against Damon. His teeth pierced her skin effortlessly. There was the briefest moment of pain before she felt the pleasure, her body arcing up against him. Hot, sweet, blood exploded into his mouth. It was pure ecstasy. It wasn't that Addie was fresh blood; it was just Addie. He had never tasted something so exquisite and delectable and slightly forbidden. Something about the fact that nobody else could safely drink from her, to know that she was all his, made feeding from her so much more seductive. Addie moaned softly at the gentle pressure of his sucking. She ignored the pain in her arm to move her hand up into his hair, clutching it tight.

As soon as the warmth of her blood flowed through him Damon broke away. It wasn't as much as he needed for full strength but it was as much as he dared to take. Before his fangs had a chance to retract, he bit into his wrist. He shoved it in the small space between their faces and brashly commanded, "Drink."

"Ge, you don't waste any time," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

Sternly he repeated, "Drink." Her lips gently covered his wrist and she softly licked at the bitter, metallic blood. His lip turned up in relief. When he felt her pull away, he instructed, "Make sure you drink enough. The cut is easy enough to heal but it looks like you broke, sprain, or tore something in your elbow and that requires more blood."

Addie gently sucked the blood from his wrist until she could comfortably move both arms to pull his arm out of the way. Looking up at him shyly she whispered, "Thank you.''

Damon pushed the bloody sleeve up her bicep and onto her arm. It looked completely normal. "How's the elbow?"

Smirking, Addie rested said elbow on his shoulder and ran her fingers through his wet, slick backed hair. "Perfectly fine."

"Good," he replied, detached, cool, his guards going back up. "Who hurt you?"

She shook her head in disgust, backing into the stream of the shower, accusing, "This was all just a ploy to heal me. You're still pissed offed."

"Actually it was a ploy to get your shirt off but you healed is a better result than i had originally anticipated," Damon bluntly admitted. He scoffed, "Obviously I'm still pissed off. In fact, I'm still not talking to you and want you to go home. But first I want to know who to kill for hurting you."

Addie through her hands up in frustration. How could Damon go from being sweet one minute to a dick the next? He was so mercurial. He was also loyal. She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "You're not going to kill Alaric."

"Ric!?" Damon spat, half in disbelief, half in rage.

---

A/N: Thank you guys so, so, so, so, so, very much from the bottom of my heart for all your supportive feedback. So, I'm continuing on with the story. I promised to finish it and I will. I'd love to do that by the end of the year but that depends on a lot of different factors but mostly my mental health (which your comments help(yes, I know I need therapy for finding validation and self-worth through you guys -_- I'm working on it)).

I apologize for all the typos and any inconsistencies in this chapter - I tried to catch them.(There isn't an inconsistency in the number of stakes Damon confirms to Klaus and him being on vervain. Damon just decided to act like a five year old so I didn't get a chance to get to that yet.) I've literally been up for 48 hours working just on this. The mind doesn't work as well on no sleep. This episode had to be broken into two parts or else it would be another month before an update.

Thank you all for your comments and reads and sticking this out.

And I had to steal Klaus as the pool boy Addie lusts after from one of the comments. That had my sides splitting with laughter.