AN: Thank you to all who reviewed to the last chapter. You always manage to put a smile on my face.

What did you guys think of the premiere? I can't wait to see more.

Now on with the story.

Mydarkside975

Chapter 19: Independence

Damon

He handed a couple of bills to the driver telling him to keep the change before he stepped onto the sidewalk. After he got a cab for Elena, he decided to get one for himself too rather than wait for his driver to pick him up.

He was a couple of steps away from entering his building when a male voice called his name from behind. He turned around to find a shabby looking dark-haired man. His right eye was bruised and his nose slanted a bit off-center. It must have been broken more than once, he thought. He knew he had seen the guy before but he could not recall exactly where.

"Yes?" He said somewhat irritatedly waiting for the man to explain his reason for approaching him.

"You don't remember me, do you?" The man said then went on without waiting for a reply; "I'm Tyler Lockwood, the photographer who covered your party."

Of course! How could he forget the guy who sold out his girlfriend and her friend? Suddenly Damon did not feel as inclined to listen to him anymore.

"What do you want?" He asked anyway trying to get this over with.

"The more important question is; what kind of information I have that you most certainly want."

"I'm guessing you still want something in return."

"Yes but it's a small price to pay considering the importance of what I know."

"How much?"

"5 million dollars."

"What the fuck kind of information would I want to pay 5 million dollars for?"

"Information about someone who wants to see you dead or buried alive and he has the means to make it happen, believe me."

XXX

Back in his living room, Damon was pacing the floor contemplating whether Lockwood really knew what he was talking about. He refused to tell him anything before he got the 5 million dollars which meant that he had no way of knowing if the information was actually worth that much. He had to make a gamble.

Then again Lockwood was a photographer and usually they saw things other people did not notice so he could very well have the kind of information, he was talking about. Maybe he saw the person who put the drugs in the food.

Also it was not like Damon could not spare 5 million dollars. The amount was no big deal really, he just did not like to be used and if Lockwood thought he could exploit him then he had another think coming.

His phone vibrated in his pocket interrupting his train of thought. He fished it out of his pocket and looked at the screen; a text from Elena.

E: Home safe and sound. Thanks for tonight. You were great.

For some reason unknown to him, he told her to text him when she got home safely, like he was her guardian or something. He did not expect her to actually do it but now that she did, he felt better about letting her take a cab alone at night. Not that she would have let him accompany her anyway. That girl was too independent for her own good.

He actually admired that about her, though. The kind of women, he was used to expected to get everything served on a silver platter but Elena worked not only for everything she wanted but also to help others get what they needed.

D: Only because I had the best teacher there is.

E: Haha but I didn't need to teach you anything. You're a natural.

D: Does that mean you'll tell me, when you do it the next time?

E: Sure we could always need more help and a talent such as yours is invaluable ;)

D: Great. Goodnight, Elena.

E: Goodnight, Damon.

He could not help but smile to himself. She was cheeky but cute as hell and the best part of his day. The days he had spent between Sunday and Wednesday were nothing short of hell. Memories kept attacking him like he had kept them behind a wall that was finally leaking them back into his conscious mind and he could not do anything to stop them. His usual remedies did not work and the only time he felt safe from his past was the time he spent with Elena.

So he intended to spend as much time with her as he possibly could.

Elena

She was finally in her room after a successful evening delivering food to the homeless. They finished most of the food and they managed to serve everyone who showed up. After returning the van to headquarters, Damon got her a taxi and paid for the fair beforehand. She could not understand his obsession with paying for everything. He was strangely old-fashioned that way and refused to let her pay for anything herself no matter how much she complained. She should have been annoyed about that, really. She was an independent, modern woman and she could pay for her own food and transport but a part somewhere inside of her thought it was sweet.

She grabbed her laptop and her phone from her purse then dumped it on the floor and stepped out of her boots before she crawled onto the bed making herself comfortable. She wrote a text to Damon telling him she was home safely like he had wanted her to. That was another thing that surprised her about him and she could not help but think it was sweet. She tried to bury those feelings deep inside, though because she never intended to act on them. They were mostly an inconvenience to her and she hoped that by ignoring them, they would eventually die off.

God, it was so much easier to dislike him, when he was being an asshole.

Annoying feelings aside, she actually enjoyed the evening driving around the city with him. Between stops, they talked like they had known each other for years. They agreed on a lot of things and when they disagreed, they tried to persuade the other with sometimes legitimate and sometimes completely crazy arguments which made for very entertaining conversations. They did not get into anything too serious though, instead they kept the conversation light and easy.

While they were talking, she was able to relax around him and just enjoy the intellectual connection. When they stopped to give the food, he was just as good at making small talk and appearing open and positive to the people waiting in line as he was to the ladies in designer clothes at the mall. He was born to that kind of work and she hoped that he would actually get hooked so he could keep doing it because he was clearly an asset to the foundation.

She thought about their first stop and his brief encounter with Mama J. She did not hear what she told him but judging by his mood afterwards, it must have been something unusually strange. She had known Mama J since she first started at HIH. Sometimes she appeared normal, sweet and clearheaded but then her demeanor could change for just a moment and she would say something completely bonkers, then return to her normal sweet old lady self like nothing happened.

Beware of blue.

What kind of warning was that? Did she just have to avoid anything blue? It was last Christmas. She was with Caroline giving away food, blankets and warm clothes. She was winding a scarf around Mama J's neck when she grabbed her hand and whispered that sentence in her ear. Then she just thanked her for the scarf, wished her a merry Christmas and started rolling her chair away.

Afterwards she kept thinking about her words trying to make sense of them with no luck. Finally she decided that Mama J probably was not completely healthy, mentally and pushed the whole episode out of her head. Now she was reminded of it again and her mind kept returning to it like she somehow had the knowledge in her head just outside the grasp of her conscious mind.

xxx

She was scrolling down a job-listings page reading all the available job adverts trying to find something suitable for her résumé. She had been at this for quite a while applying for available journalism positions and sending unsolicited applications to magazines and papers but nothing had yet panned out. She was not even contacted to do any job interviews.

She could not give up though. Journalism was her dream and she could never give up on it. She could not even entertain the idea without feeling a pang of guilt in her chest. Her mom used to tell her that giving up on her dreams was like giving up on life. She was the one who encouraged her to write and she used to buy her nice pens and pretty leather-bound diaries.

She remembered when her mom used to sit down with her own leather-bound books writing her novels. She used to say that writing with a nice pen on a nice piece of paper would inspire you. She only used a computer when it was absolutely necessary. Elena used to think her mom had a different brain than regular people for her to be able to make up so many stories.

She put her laptop aside and got off her bed walking to her little bookcase by the window. She let her hand run along the backs of her paperbacks landing on the last one. Gold letters on a white background read; Call of Sky by Miranda Gilbert. It was a fantasy book about a people who lived in the sky, kind of like angels and it was her favorite of her mom's novels. She had read it seven times already and she was reading it again, her bookmark – a picture of her and her mom – had a permanent home between the pages.

Whenever she missed her mom, she liked to read a few pages and she felt like she got closer to her somehow because those were her words on the pages and if she was never going to hear her speak them again, she could at least read them.

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts and she noticed the wetness of her tears on her cheeks. She brushed the backs of her hands along her face to remove any trace of her previous state of mind before she called for whoever it was to come in.

Caroline opened the door slightly and stuck her head through the opening. "The movie is on, Elena. Are you coming?"

"Just a second, Care,"

"Okay, but don't keep Channing waiting too long."

"Fine," she said laughing as she went to her dresser and grabbed some shorts and a camisole.

They were watching Magic Mike in PJ's tonight. Bonnie's shift started late tomorrow and Caroline and Elena did not need to be at work early so they decided on a girls' night with shirtless Channing Tatum and a giant bowl of popcorn.

Damon

Three years ago

"I've let you carry on with that girl of yours for months now but enough is enough."

Giuseppe was gracing him with his presence in his office. They were rehashing the fight of the month… the last three months actually.

"People are starting to wonder. Mr. Clarks asked me the other day if there was a wedding coming up."

"Maybe there is."

Giuseppe turned his head shooting him his most disgusted look.

"This is no laughing matter, Damon. Our name is on the line and I need you to end it, now."

Damon was amazed by his audacity. He always gave himself the right to order him around like he was one of his servants.

"I am dead serious. I love her."

His father's stare intensified and the veins in his temple were visible like they were going to pop out any minute.

"You listen to me, Damon. No son of mine is going to marry an actress. She's a gold-digger and a whore."

Damon felt his words like a punch to his guts. His hands clenched into fists and he shook with the effort of holding himself back. He wanted to punch him so bad. "Mom was an actress. She was not a gold-digger or a whore." His voice was like ice and he hoped that it would cut through him the way he had just gutted him.

"That's it! If you marry that girl, you are not getting a single dollar from my money."

"You know what? I don't need your damn money. Actually, I quit." Just like that he brought his life down around him like a house of cards and he felt good. He felt like he could breathe for the first time since his father stepped into his office…

Ha! He did not have an office anymore. In fact, he did not have to stay there for even one more second. He was free to leave.

"What did you just say?" His father looked like he saw a ghost and maybe he did. Maybe he saw his soul reenter his body, when he uttered the key words to his freedom. He was never going to be his father's marionette anymore.

The first thing he did was undoing his tie and throwing it on the desk before he walked with confident steps to the door.

"I said; I quit." He did not wait for a reply as he opened the door and left this godforsaken place, hoping to never see it again.

AN: Well this time you got a whole bunch of information. Thanks for reading. Now what did you think about the chapter?

Do you think Tyler really knows something or is he just money-hungry?

What do you think about Damon's habit to pay for everything? Is it sweet or old-fashioned?

Please don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts. They make such good inspiration.