AN: Thank you so much for all of last weeks alerts and reviews. Oh My God I'm so excited. 6 days left to the premiere guys. I really hope the writers won't screw this season up and do Delena justice. If not, well then we have fan fiction. No one's better at doing the characters justice than the fans anyway.

So here we go with another chapter of Intertwined.

Enjoy,

Mydarkside975

Chapter 17: New Beginnings

Elena

She was in a café a couple of blocks from work with her laptop on the table in front of her, her hands flying over the keyboard trying to keep up with the stream of words pouring out of her. She was writing an article about celebrities being constantly hounded by the paparazzi. It was a very fitting subject matter considering her current situation and the words came to her without any effort.

She could not stop thinking how creepy it was that the whole time she spent with Damon someone was watching them, taking pictures without them ever noticing. It was such an invasion of privacy. Why would anyone even be interested in celebrities doing mundane things? Because they wanted to see those idolized superhuman beings doing normal human things like themselves, she thought. But still someone like Damon who was not an actor or a musician, he did not sign his life away to the public by choice. He was born into it and forced to tolerate it.

The sound of her phone buzzing pulled her attention away from her thoughts. Her screen flashed a message… from Damon.

D: Hey. Saw those pictures. Are you okay?

That was actually sweet, she thought. He was definitely making progress on not being a dick. Not that she knew if he was trying to.

E: Yeah I'm fine. Just annoyed I guess. You?

She did not have to wait very long before her phone buzzed again and she found his reply on her screen.

D: Peachy…but green is really not my color.

That made her smile at her phone like an idiot so she looked up to check if someone was watching and sure enough a kid, around twelve years old, sitting next to his arguing parents at the table next to hers was staring at her like she was green. She rolled her eyes as her fingers flew over her touchscreen.

E: Really? I thought it suited you.

D: Yeah right, you just liked the donations.

E: Of course I did, Sandra was shocked when I told her how much we got.

D: Maybe we can do it again sometime.

E: Admit it Salvatore, you got hooked to charity work.

D: Yeah… Yeah it was rewarding, life altering and whatnot but I was not hooked to the charity part.

E: Then what?

D: The company.

Did he mean her? Why would he say something like that? She thought she made it clear that she was not interested that way. Maybe she was over-analyzing and he just meant it in a platonic way. Yeah, that must be it, she thought.

E: Well, Wednesday night I'm driving around giving away food to the homeless. If you want, you can come see where the money goes.

D: Yeah why not. When and Where?

She texted him the time and place before she tried to bring her focus back to her article. It was just really hard to wring out sentences that made sense when her thoughts kept churning like that. The strange feeling in her stomach like something was fluttering in there every time she thought about Wednesday night was not helping either.

God, what happened to her? She used to be such a calm and collected person. Now she felt so jittery whenever his name came up. Maybe she ought to stop inviting him to stuff so he did not get the wrong idea and she could avoid the headache but there was this strange feeling that kept telling her to do it. He tried to cover it up but there was something lonely to him; lonely and lost.

Maybe she was being presumptuous. Maybe she had it all wrong. And maybe he had some ulterior motives behind his strange interest in her yet she could not help but feel like she might be the only person in his life apart from his brother who did not talk to him just to get something from him.

Her phone started buzzing again but this time it was Caroline's name flashing on the screen. She contemplated ignoring her then she thought it could be important so she pressed answer bringing the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Caroline."

"Elena, are you doing something important today… like right now?"

"Uh… No… Not really. Why?"

"Great, you're going out shopping with me."

Damon

Three years ago

After that night and the next day's media bullshit, he thought she would never want to hear from him again never mind see him.

He was wrong.

Two days after, she called him. He did not give her his number but she had somehow acquired it anyway and after telling him she did not care about the media stuff, she suggested they go out.

He jumped at the chance and ruining it like the last one was not an option. He told her they could meet in her hotel.

They did. They had dinner with more wine than they cared to remember leaving them with lowered inhibitions and raging hormones. She invited him up to her suite for a cup of "coffee" and as most other stories went; a cup of coffee in her room meant something with less caffeine and more testosterone.

They slept together and it was as crazy and passionate as they both knew it would be.

That was when he decided that nobody; not the paparazzi and not even God himself could keep him away from her.

They started going out every night; drinking, dancing and ending up in her hotel room or in his apartment where they spent the night making love, never letting go of each other before dawn when she went on set and he went to the office.

Three months went by like a blur. They were the It-couple of the city. Everywhere they went, the attention was on them whether it was an extravagant event or a quiet dinner. Everyone had an opinion about their relationship. Some were rooting for them and others were dying of jealousy of the couple that had it all; looks, fame and fortune.

No body knew what happened behind all the glitz and glamour. They had no idea that each time one of those tabloids posted a slightly grainy picture showing one of them with someone else, their own personal world war three would break loose wreaking havoc in their lives.

They both had tempers and jealousy was their third companion. Voices were raised and cutting words were flung around but the passion was always stronger than everything else. It would concur all and he never had a doubt that that would be enough.

Elena

"So? What do you think?"

Caroline twirled around wearing a short, red and flowy dress. The fabric was sheer and light and it looked like it was flirting with her skin.

"You look amazing, Care."

"Really?"

She turned from side to side examining herself in the mirror from all angles.

"Absolutely, you should get it."

"You're right, this is it." She squealed clapping her hands together and doing a little victory dance.

Elena could not help but laugh at her friend's overly cheerful mood. They were emergency-shopping for a date with Stefan tonight. He apparently surprised her because Caroline was nothing if not well prepared and usually she would have found her dress weeks before the date.

Back in her regular clothes Caroline stepped out of the changing room with the dress over her arm.

"Thank you for coming with me, Elena. I know it was kind of last minute," she said as they went to pay for the dress.

"You're welcome, Care."

Elena wanted to cringe from the awkward conversation. Things between Caroline and her were far from perfect at the moment but she knew that Caroline was trying to make things better. She could have easily gone shopping alone. She was an expert in fashion and she did not exactly need Elena for fashion advice but maybe moral support. Elena went on all the other shopping trips for all of Caroline's previous dates. It was practically a tradition and she could not say no to her now. It was Caroline, her best friend since she could remember. She could not stay mad at her for long even if she tried.

"I'm hungry. Are you hungry? Maybe we could grab some late lunch or something," Caroline said in a hopeful tone as they walked out of the shop.

How could she ever say no to her? "Sure. Why not."

They found their favorite place; a tiny little diner tucked away from the main stream of people.

They sat at their usual spot by the window; Caroline ordered her usual salad and Elena a sandwich.

"So, how are you doing? What are you writing about at the moment?" Caroline asked nipping at her food like she was not hungry at all.

"About the paparazzi and how celebrities have to tolerate their harassment."

One of her eyebrows shot up warning Elena of what she was going to say next.

"Since when do you sympathize with celebrities?" Of course! She knew it.

"Caroline!"

"Sorry, sorry. I'll stop judging I promise. Keep going please," she pleaded looking guilty.

"That's it I didn't get that far," Elena said taking a bite from her sandwich and wishing that she was better at saying no.

She tried to avoid looking at her friend as she quickly ate through half of her sandwich trying to endure the awkward silence.

"Elena, I'm so sorry about the party, for judging you, for going to Stefan behind your back. I am just so sorry and I don't know how to make it better because I feel horrible when I know you're mad at me. Just… just… Everything I did was because I lo… love you. I ne… never meant to hurt you."

Somewhere during her speech, she started crying and her words blurred together but it was enough. Elena got up from her seat and pulled her friend to her hugging her harder than ever. She did not know that she was crying too until a tear fell on Caroline's shoulder.

"It's okay, Care. I hate being mad at you too." She said wiping at her tears as she let go of her friend and sat back down.

"So you're not mad anymore? We're good?" She asked disbelievingly.

"We're good." She smiled but one hug was not enough as Caroline stood up and pulled her into another hug almost suffocating her in the best of ways.

"I promise I'm not gonna judge anymore. I'm going to be the most open-minded person on the planet." She said sitting back down and grabbing her fork with renewed appetite.

"Just please, Care don't do things for me without telling me first, okay?"

"Of course, trust me I learned my lesson. Stefan even told me it wasn't his brother who put the drugs in the food."

"Yeah I know. Damon said they think someone else did it to get back at him," she said and realized too late what she had said. When she looked at Caroline, she saw the same realization in her eyes.

Crap, crap, crap.

"What? Are you still seeing him?"

AN: Thanks for reading. Please be kind and write a word or two to tell me what you thought.