Chapter 9

Elena groans at Katherine's escape as she lies prone in the middle of the road. She was so close. She should've known killing Katherine wouldn't be that easy. It was never easy. Killing that traitorous bitch required all their resources, so Elena isn't sure why she even tried. She just saw an opening and took it. Of course, her decision to attack had nothing to do with Katherine's nasty comments. Elena is too mature to be goaded into attacking a vampire 300 years her senior, especially in her weakened condition. So yeah, it was a coincidence.

Either way, she's now lying on the pavement covered in blood with only a trucker's button-down shirt covering her nudity. When a breeze tugs at the long cloth draped over her upper thighs, she considers climbing to her feet. But her severe hunger and pale complexion reminds Elena that she was far too weak to pick a fight with Katherine. Judging by the sandpaper feel of her skin and her pounding headache, she's one step away from desiccation.

Stupid time portals, she mutters to herself before glancing at the Salvatore brothers to find them gawking at her. They lie at the edge of the road where Katherine left them. Stefan climbs to his feet a few yards away and stares at Elena. She wonders at his odd response but attributes it to the confusion of time travel. On the other hand, Damon rushes to pop a dislocated knee into place and set a broken femur. Elena rolls her head along the ground to look at Damon and offer him a weak smile.

"Hi."

"Hey," Damon says after gritting from the pain of his healing leg.

"Elena?" Stefan says. She lifts her round doe eyes to meet his conflicted green.

"Yeah, it' me."

"You're a vampire. From the future." Stefan slips a hand to his forehead and takes several deep breaths.

Elena bites her lip as her brow knits in concern for him. She has to admit that time travel is the most ridiculous thing she's come across. But the anguish in the younger Salvatore's eyes forces her to realize that it's not the time travel with which he struggles. It's the vampire part. Katherine's comments from a few moments ago ring in Elena's ears.

'She's not going to turn for you. We all know that much. So maybe Caroline will tell you about your great love and how you watched Elena age into a withered, old woman before she died in your arms.'

"You thought I was dead? What did Caroline tell you?" Elena cringes as she struggles to sit up. When she collapses back onto the pavement, Damon rushes to her side.

"You okay?" he asks. Stefan jumps from his daze to stand next to her, opposite of Damon.

"I'm hungry," she says.

Damon pauses at the sight of her almost naked and covered in blood. Her hair is disheveled and much shorter than he's ever seen it, but the look of relief on her face is one of the most beautiful things he's seen in a long time. Damon smiles at the realization that a vampire Elena means she'll be around forever, even if it's at Stefan's side.

Two hundred years with Elena Gilbert. Damon rejoices at the concept while Stefan struggles with it.

"Looks like you already ate someone." Damon raises a teasing eyebrow and motions to the blood-stained shirt.

"You killed someone?" Stefan asks.

Damon frowns at his little brother. Does he know Elena at all? And honestly, who cares if she killed someone.

"She's starving, Stefan. When Caroline appeared, she drank two teenagers and a blood bag before she felt normal," Damon says to Stefan, then he turns to Elena. "How much blood have you had?"

"Just a very large trucker. I didn't drain him. I just took a bite and stole his shirt."

"So you attacked some poor sap while you were naked?" Damon wiggles his eyebrows at the visual, and Elena giggles.

"Ow, don't make me laugh."

"I'm guessing from your near desiccated and pant-less state, you just recently landed on this side of a time portal," Stefan says with a gentle smile.

"About an hour ago. I'll admit that I was disappointed when the trucker told me the year. I was hoping for a cheerier decade." She lifts her arms to Damon. "Help me."

Damon leans away from her in surprise. Elena has never turned to him for help when Stefan was available. Her casual request unsettles him, but not enough to pass on the opportunity to hold her. Damon scoops Elena into his arms before Stefan has a chance to argue. She snuggles against his chest as he walks toward the boarding house, and Stefan follows with a quiet frown.

"I heard Katherine mention Caroline. Where is she?" Elena asks in a muffled voice against Damon.

"At the house." Stefan says. "She's catching up with you. The human you, I mean. Bonnie and the other Caroline too."

Damon can tell by his pouting tone that his baby brother is not happy about their current situation. Although he's not certain which circumstance bothers Stefan more; the fact that Elena's a vampire or the fact that the older Salvatore is holding her. Either way, Damon is thrilled by this turn of events.

"And the munchkins?" She asks.

"Munchkins?" Damon chuckles. "If you mean the murderous witchpires currently terrorizing Mystic Falls circa 2010, we have no idea."

"What do you mean, 'murderous'?" Elena presses her hand against Damon to look up into his face. He glances down to see the same concerned expression his human Elena projects when someone she loves is in danger.

"He means, they've killed a dozen people within their first day here," Stefan says. He slips closer to Elena and Damon, causing her to shift and face him.

"Oh God, is Caroline okay?"

"She's worried," Stefan says, and Damon smirks.

"But mostly pissed off because Stefan spent the morning torturing her with sunlight."

"What?" Elena wriggles in Damon's arms, much to his delight, so she could find a good angle to glare at the younger Salvatore. "Why would you do that to her?"

Stefan sighs. His big brother is enjoying his mistake far too much. "I didn't believe her claim of time travel."

"Yeah, that's weird one," Elena says. "But you still should've known."

Stefan squirms under Elena's gaze, not used to the weight of her disappointment. Damon smirks at the feisty brunette in his arms. He's very familiar with her death glares and anger, and Damon's happy to watch someone else suffer her wrath, especially his, oh so, saintly brother.

"You know, I think I'm going to like the future," Damon says.

"Of course you will." Elena smiles at his serious gaze.

"Are you going to be as tight-lipped as Caroline about everything, or are you going to tell us what the hell is going on?"

"You find me a few blood bags, Damon, and I will answer as many questions as I can."

With that offer, Damon surges at vamp speed down the road. Elena squeals in delight, and grumbling, Stefan follows after them. Several moments later, they stop at the door of the boarding house. Stefan reaches to open the door for them, but Elena stops him.

"Wait, if I'm in there, then I can't go in there."

"What? Do you want to try to explain that again?" Damon says.

"I can't go in there." She climbs out of Damon's arms to lean against the doorway for support.

Stefan holds out a hand to help her but hesitates. He's unsure how to act around her. This isn't his Elena. His Elena is seventeen years old and human. This Elena is a two-hundred-year-old vampire. Stefan isn't sure she's still the same person.

"I can't be within ten feet of my other self," Elena says, panting at the exertion. She's wondering if fighting off Katherine was such a good idea. If she'd stuck around a second longer, Katherine would have realized how weak Elena was and killed her. Elena's plan hadn't taken into account the possibility that she'd be too weak to actually pull off the heart-snatch technique that Damon had taught her centuries ago. Granted, she didn't do it that often, but she'd done it enough times that it was second nature when necessary. Now though, she'd give anything not to have wasted her strength on the failed attempt.

"Oh yeah, that barrier thing that Caroline ran into." Damon remembers the odd seal preventing the younger blonde from getting too close. He hadn't had a chance to get the details on that before leaving to confront Katherine.

"No, that happens for everyone but doppelgängers. It gets weird with us."

"Weirder than a ten-foot, invisible bubble? Okay. Stefan, why don't you go catch everyone up and make sure that Elena is prepared to give this Elena at least ten feet of space. I'll grab a couple of blood bags. At this rate, you're going to have to rob another hospital," Damon says.

"I think I have a better idea. Why don't I ask everyone but your Caroline to leave? I can fill everyone else in later, after we have a chance to figure out what's going on."

Elena frowns at Stefan as her head pounds harder and her veins scream for blood. "I don't care. Just, please, do it quickly."

Stefan nods and follows Damon through the front door, while Elena leans her forehead against the cool brick of the house. Damon rushes to the fridge in the cellar and grabs two blood bags before vamp speeding back to Elena. He's not sure why Stefan's so antsy about the upcoming Q & A, but Damon's ready to get started. While Elena gulps down her first bag, they listen to Stefan ask everyone to exit through the back door due to an unexpected visitor. When human Elena protests, he promises to fill her in later, and she complies along with everyone else.

"What's going on, Stefan?" Caroline asks from inside the house. Damon notices when Elena stands a little straighter while fidgeting with the blood bag. She takes a deep breath and bites her lip.

Is she anxious about seeing Caroline? Damon wonders.

"Elena is outside," Stefan says.

"My Elena? That's not possible. She wouldn't come here." Caroline's tone grows angrier with each word, and Elena flinches. "No, the Elena from my time line didn't bother to come home when the entire world was in danger. So there's no way that she's here to help me. I'm just her sister and best friend."

Damon rolls his eyes at the typical Caroline dramatics; obviously that hasn't changed in the last two hundred years. But Elena snarls at the blonde's barb and charges into the boarding house. Caroline is waiting in the foyer, and the flood of sunlight from the open door scalds her face. She blurs into the living room with Elena in pursuit, and a screaming match for the ages echoes through the mansion. But Damon only half listens to the argument because he's only just realized that Elena is wearing a daylight ring. Actually, she's wearing two. One on her left ring finger and the other on her right. When he glances at Stefan, Damon can tell he's noticed as well.

"When are you going to let that go, Caroline?" Elena says. "I'm here to help you."

"Really? That's the only reason you're here?" Caroline asks in a tone that indicates she knows it isn't true. "Let me guess, when Bobby realized a portal was open and I was nowhere to be found, he called Damon and Stefan. And naturally, Damon called you because we all know there's only one thing that can convince you to come home. Too bad this isn't the century you were hoping for."

"You're right, it's not. But I'm here, so I'm going to help as much as I can."

"No," Caroline says through clenched teeth. "You wouldn't even answer the phone when I was begging for your help, Elena. So I've learned to make do without it. Go back to your beach house and drink yourself into oblivion. I've grown accustomed to seeing you once a year for Christmas dinner. Let's not change anything now."

"Damon and Stefan are looking for Hope. She's the only person that has a prayer of stopping the girls. When Damon called, they were in New Orleans tracking down Klaus. So it's going to be awhile before they can get here, Caroline. Whether you like it or not, you need my help."

"Well they aren't going to find them," Caroline says. "Hope and Klaus are here helping Jo and Lizzie."

"All the more reason for you to accept my help," Elena says. "Come on, Caroline. You know I love you and the girls."

Caroline frowns at Elena's imploring expression and remembers the wonderful friend and sister Elena used to be. But that was before. Now Caroline knows better than to rely on the brunette. The last fifty years has been hard on all of them, but Elena refuses to move on. Instead, she wallows in her sorrow, using alcohol as a band aid and lashes out at anyone that tries to help. Damon has been the only one able to reach her, and that's only recently. Although he's claimed she's doing better, Caroline still doesn't trust Elena.

"No."

"Fine." Elena yanks the ring from her right hand. "What should I do with this?"

Caroline falters upon seeing the extra daylight ring. She'd been so focused on Elena's surprise appearance, Caroline hadn't noticed it.

"You brought me a daylight ring?"

"I thought you might need it, but if you don't want my help," Elena says, closing the ring in a tight fist.

"Give me the ring, Elena."

"You basically just called me a selfish bitch. If that's true, why should I hand this over?"

"I don't mean to interrupt this fascinating cat fight," Damon says. "But how did you get the rings here? I thought you said nothing from the future could survive the portal. You know, 'Terminator' rules."

"Only items covered in flesh, so I put them in my mouth."

"If it's that easy, why didn't you do it?" Damon asks Caroline.

"Because I didn't have time to stop and think about it. I was rushing, remember?"

Elena offers the ring to Caroline. "Here. Bobby made this for you. He figured you might need it. So it's yours whether you let me help or not."

Caroline snags the ring from the brunette and slips it onto her left ring finger. She admires it for a moment before glancing back at Elena. "Thanks. But I don't want your help, Elena."

"Then I'll just hang out here," she says. "I need a shower anyway."

"No, I want you to go home."

"Sorry, but you're stuck with me." Elena moseys on over to Damon's stash of bourbon. She picks up the decanter to sniff it and grimaces at the smell. She's never really developed a taste for bourbon, but it's better than nothing. She pours a drink and takes a sip.

"Argh. You are infuriating. You've being hanging around Damon way too much," the blonde says, triggering a smirk from Damon and a frown from Stefan. "Fine, just stay out of my way."

Caroline makes it halfway to the front door before she pauses to look back at Elena. "Maybe you should spend your time here with Jeremy and Jenna? Even Alaric."

Elena pauses mid sip and nearly chokes on the alcohol. Dumbfounded, she stares at Caroline, and the older vampire smiles. Caroline leaves the house, and Elena sets her glass down.

They're all alive. I can see them and talk to them, Elena ponders. But they're not my family. They belong to this time line's Elena, who is still human and, from what I gathered from Katherine, still dating Stefan. This isn't my world, and this Jeremy, Jenna, and Ric are not my family. But still…

"Well that was interesting." Damon takes the glass of bourbon Elena set on the table and drinks it. Lost in her thoughts and comforted by his proximity, Elena leans into him and rests her cheek against his shoulder. Damon's stomach flips at the intimate touch, and he grows still, afraid to breath and break the trance. Stefan, on the other hand, darts his eyes between the two and crinkles his nose.

"You should shower and change your clothes. I'm sure Elena has something lying around."

Stefan's voice breaks through her thoughts, and Elena glances at him. She doesn't notice or acknowledge her odd behavior toward Damon. Instead, she nods her head and quietly leaves the room.

"Drink?" Damon asks Stefan and pours himself another.

"Yep."

As Damon hands Stefan a shot of bourbon, he hears a shower upstairs turn on and both brothers pause. "Is she…"

"Yep," Stefan says with a deep frown. Damon grins at the thought of Elena Gilbert using his shower.

An hour later, Damon walks into the kitchen to find Elena standing on a chair and rifling through a cabinet above the refrigerator. Half of her torso is hidden within the cabinet as she struggles to find something. Damon hopes she never finds it because the sight of Elena at the moment is heart stopping.

"Is that my shirt?" Damon asks, and Elena jumps in surprise. She yanks her head from the cabinet and smiles down at him.

"Yep, so are the boxers."

"I don't own any boxers."

"Yes, you do. They were in the back of your closet, still wrapped in their original packaging." Elena snickers before returning to her task of searching the cabinet.

"What are you looking for?"

"Cupcakes."

"We don't have any cupcakes," Damon says as though the idea of two bachelor vampires owning cupcakes is more ridiculous than time traveling vampires.

"How long was Caroline locked in this house with nothing to do?"

"I don't know. I think most of her day was spent in torture with Stefan, so maybe an hour?"

"Plenty of time to make cupcakes," Elena says.

"Why would Caroline make cupcakes? Is she hosting a 'find my murderous children' party? If so, I must have lost my invitation." Damon, enjoying the view of her in his oversized clothes, slips in next to Elena's tan legs on the chair.

"They're not murderous, Damon. They just aren't themselves without their humanity." Elena's voice echoes from within the cabinet. "Everyone does stuff they regret when their switch is off."

"Have you?"

"Of course," she says, and he's blown away by her causal answer. "At least their collateral damage is confined to a completely different world, unlike mine."

"I can't imagine you'd do anything too terrible, even without your humanity."

"You'd be surprise. I tend to burn down houses and drop classic cars off of freight ships into the middle of the ocean." Elena flashes a guilty grimace.

"What? What car? My car?"

"Ah ha. I found them." Elena pulls out a small tray of cupcakes, perfectly decorated with white icing.

"How's that possible? We don't have the ingredients for cupcakes in this house, do we?"

"It's Caroline, she can do anything." Elena giggles as she hops down from the chair to set the cupcakes on the counter next to the empty sink.

"If she made those, there would be dirty dishes."

"Again, it's Caroline. I'm surprised she didn't reorganize the entire kitchen while she was waiting for the cupcakes to bake." Elena jumps onto the counter to enjoy the fruits of her labor. She offers one to Damon, and he steps closer to take it.

He leans against the counter next to Elena, fascinated with her joyful ease. She seems happy. Like, more so than his Elena. Human Elena has been in a constant state of sadness, angst, or otherwise serious frowny-face mode since he met her. Only a few times has he seen her offer a genuine smile and laugh. Usually it was because of Stefan, but once it was because of Damon. It was in Atlanta. Elena was almost a different person in ther. She was this Elena. Happy, carefree, and alive. The way she's meant to be. Well, except for the alive part.

Delighted by her excitement, Damon watches Elena devour her cupcake and savor each bite. "I don't think I've seen someone this excited about a cupcake."

"They are Caroline's cupcakes. I haven't had one in forever."

"Because you two are fighting," he says. Elena sighs but remains focused on the crumbs of her cupcake.

"We're not fighting," she says, and Damon's incredulous look makes her smile. "Okay, she's fighting. I'm just not apologizing."

"What did you do?"

"Is that really what you want to ask me? Two hundred years on this planet, and you want to gossip about the latest family drama?" Elena reaches for another cupcake, but before biting into her second treat, she realizes that Damon hasn't tasted his first one. "You're not eating your cupcake. Is something wrong?"

Damon glances at the frosted desert in his hand and back at the brown eyed vampire. He smiles before taking a bite. "I have to admit, these are pretty good."

She grins. "I told you."

Damon finds himself smiling like a fool at Elena for no other reason than that she's happy with him. She's never been openly friendly with him. Sure, she's treated him like a friend and made him feel accepted, but she's never been friendly with him. In fact, right now the other Elena hates him. She said as much just the other day.

'And the answer to your question about our friendship is 'yes'. You have lost me forever.'

But it seems this Elena has changed her mind about him. Somehow, the other Damon earned this Elena's forgiveness. Damon hopes to pick his future self's brain regarding all things Elena as soon as he arrives, since according to Caroline and Elena's argument, he will be showing up with the other Stefan any time. But for now, maybe Elena can shed some light on the subject.

"You know that 'present you' hates me, right? You basically promised to hate me forever."

Elena pauses mid bite and frowns. "What did you do?"

"Shouldn't you remember?"

"You've done several things in the last 200 years to earn an 'I hate you' or two, so you're going to have to be more specific," Elena says with a chuckle.

"Really? Like what?"

"Oh, where to begin. It usually involves you killing someone you shouldn't have. Oh, you killed Jeremy. That's what this is about."

He sighs. "You got me."

"Give her a cupcake."

"What?" Damon raises an incredulous eyebrow. "A cupcake isn't going to convince the 'other you' to forgive me."

"No, but it's a start."

"What did the other Damon do to earn your forgiveness?" Damon nibbles on his cupcake, and Elena's smile falters.

"Honestly? I don't remember. That time of my life is a little foggy."

Damon opens his mouth to ask for more information, since vampires don't usually have memory issues. But Elena stops him in his tracks when she uses a finger to wipe a bit of frosting from his lips and sucks it off her fingertip. She smiles afterwards like it was the most normal thing she could've done. When her gaze meets Damon's dark blue eyes, she recognizes the deep longing building within him.

The sensual caress has instigated a carnal need in him that Elena longs to fill, and she instinctively shifts closer to him. When he responds with a slow in-take of breath, Elena remembers that this isn't her Damon. Her Damon is still in her timeline searching for Klaus and Hope. Sure, she hasn't seen him in six weeks and technically this is still Damon, so rationally, she's not responding another man rather her husband. Before he was, is, her husband.

Nope, Elena admonishes herself. Don't start playing that game. You'll just end up in trouble, Elena.

Elena turns away from Damon's proximity with great reluctance and finds her human counterpart watching from the kitchen door, holding a fresh pair of clothes.

Check out my short story blog at kellyanixDOTcom or my new Fantasy Adventure novel series at kellyanixDOTcom/kajiwarriors.