Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I just like playing with the timelines and adding my own spice to them.

All I Need Chapter 26: Revelations

Something is wrong.

Damon can already feel that sense of dread coiling in the pit of his stomach as he approaches the boarding house. Stefan greets him at the door, his lips pressed into a thin line and that brow furrowed up high into his hero hair.

"We have a problem," he says simply.

Damon rolls his eyes. "Duh," he scoffs. "I figured as much by the texts blowing up my phone as I was sealing Katherine into the tomb to rot."

"She's still there?" Stefan asks.

Damon narrows his eyes. "Of course she is!" he replies testily. "Why would you even ask that?"

"Sorry," Stefan says. "It's just…Tyler triggered his curse."

"What?!" Damon exclaims in disbelief. "How the hell did that happen?"

"Katherine compelled someone to go after Tyler, and he accidentally killed her."

Damon curses under his breath. "So now we have another wolf to deal with?"

Stefan sighs. "It…it gets worse."

"How much worse?" Damon asks, already dreading the answer.

Stefan averts his eyes, looking very, very guilty.

Damon frowns, feeling that knot in his stomach coiling even tighter. "You didn't just call me back to deal with a werewolf problem, did you?"

"Elena's missing," Stefan confirms.

FUCK!

Damon thinks back to Katherine's words.

"Elena's in danger. She's the Doppleganger; she needs to be protected."

He needs a drink.

Or to kill someone.

Or both.

Whoever has her…he'll rip their heart out.

"I thought she was going straight home!" he says, trying not to lose his composure right now.

"That's what we thought…but Jeremy called asking if she was here, thinking maybe she went to find you. He tried her phone and there's been no answer. We think Katherine might have had someone abduct her to use as leverage in case…well, in case she needed to barter for her freedom."

His heart feels like lead in his chest. This is his fault. He should have been with her. This never would have happened if he'd been with her.

"Why didn't Jeremy drive her home? Or Bonnie? Or you? Or Blondie? Why the hell would you take even the slightest chance in leaving her alone after what happened?!" he explodes.

"Look, I get it," Stefan says, trying to remain calm. "Believe me, I know better than anyone what you're going through, but right now we need to figure this out and come up with a plan."

"Oh, I have a plan!" Damon growls. "I'm going to set Katherine on fire, put it out with water laced with vervain, and then set her on fire again until she tells me which one of her lackeys kidnapped my girlfriend!"

"We don't even know for sure it was Katherine," Stefan points out.

"Who else would be behind this?!" Damon snaps.

"I don't know," Stefan frowns. "But if she's not behind it, then I think it might have to do with who she's running from."

Damon feels ice cold fingers of dread grip him tightly. "She did say something right before I shut her in," he says, suddenly putting the pieces together. "I thought she was lying!"

"What did she say?" Stefan asks.

"She said that Elena's in danger," Damon replies.

"And you didn't think to ask her to elaborate?!" Stefan cries, incredulously.

"Everything she says is a lie!" Damon replies defensively. "It wouldn't be the first time she's used Elena as a bargaining chip and I thought she was just trying to talk me into letting her out. I didn't think she was serious!"

"Then I'll go talk to her!" Stefan says.

Damon shakes his head. "No, that's the last thing we need to do right now!" he snaps. "She'll just try to negotiate her release, which you'll be dumb enough to give her, and then she'll break free and kill us all!"

"It's Elena!" Stefan points out. "If she knows anything…"

"Katherine's not going to tell either of us dick!" Damon snaps. "And even if we do manage to get her to talk…how much time will we be wasting in the meantime? We don't know where Elena is, who took her, or what they intend to do to her! And I don't actually care who took her or why they took her, I just care about finding her as fast as possible before this horrible, stupid day gets even worse!"

"Okay, but how are we going to do that?" Stefan asks. "If Katherine is telling the truth…"

"FUCK!" Damon shouts, slamming his fist into the wall.

"I take it you told him?" Caroline appears in the doorway, followed by Bonnie and Jeremy.

"Yeah, Stefan told me how you all are colossal idiots!" Damon snaps irritably.

"Seriously?! Focus on the big picture!" Caroline rolls her eyes. "We don't have time to play the blame game right now! Whatever Katherine's planning, it's big, and you guys pissed her off and now Elena's missing, and Tyler's triggered his curse…All that matters is that we figure out what else she knows before things get worse."

"Is that why you brought Sabrina and Boy Wonder along?" Damon rolls his eyes.

"Bonnie figured that we might be able to do a locator spell to find Elena," Jeremy says, ignoring him and looking at Stefan.

"I can use his blood to pinpoint Elena's location," Bonnie explains. "I just need a map."

"I'll get it," Stefan says, rushing off upstairs to his room.

Damon stares Bonnie and Jeremy down coldly. "This better work," he growls warningly.

"It will," Bonnie replies. "As long as Elena is alive, I can track her down."

"Well then you better all hope she's alive then," Damon says coldly.

"What do you care?" Caroline crosses her arms across her chest. "I thought you were leaving."

Jeremy stares at him incredulously. "Dude! Seiously? You spent all that time chasing after my sister and then you were just gonna take off?"

Damon rolls his eyes. "Is now really the time for this?" he asks.

"Actually he has a point," Caroline chimes in. "Why were you going to leave? I mean, it's obvious you're an ass, but do you have any idea what that would have done to her to just wake up and find out you were gone?"

"I thought I was protecting her, okay?" Damon sighs, exasperated. "I didn't want to screw up her life any more than I already have."

"Little too late for that, don't you think?" Caroline scoffs.

"I never said I was perfect," Damon snaps. "I'm not the hero, remember? And after everything Katherine has done…I just wanted to give Elena her life back! She deserves to live a long and boring human life and me being here is a distraction. Her loving me…it's not going to end well."

"You don't get to decide that," Bonnie points out. "And I'm saying this as someone who actively hates your guts, but you owe her a real explanation, and when I find her you're going to have to sit down and actually discuss this instead of just taking off in the middle of the night and leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces."

"Found it!" Stefan interrupts, holding up the map in his hands.

"Thank god," Damon groans in relief.

He needs to get out of here!

He steps out into the hallway, his heart feeling so heavy.

On one level, he knows Bonnie's right. That's something incredibly annoying about her that has always driven him crazy. But on the other hand, it's obvious they share at least one thing in common…and that's Elena's happiness. He's just surprised that she's taking this particular side of things, because by her own admission, she hates him. So does Caroline, and to a lesser extent Jeremy seems to be tolerating him some days and following him like a surrogate little brother other days.

It's all very surreal. He hadn't thought they would have cared this much. After all, they spent so long trying to keep him away from Elena. Why the change of heart?

Yes, she loves him. By her own admission she said it to him multiple times now and showed it in many creative and pleasurable ways…but…

They don't know.

No one knows.

It weighs on him. He did something…something terrible.

When they find Elena, he's going to have to tell her…he's just not sure if she'll forgive him for it.

Elena winces in pain. Her head is still throbbing from earlier when she'd come face to face with her kidnappers.

The man had tried to bite her, but the woman had shouted for him to stop.

She'd assumed that they were after Katherine, but apparently not. The woman had ordered her to be quiet, but Elena had so many questions. She asked what she wanted with her.

That's when she'd been knocked out cold.

Now that she's come to again, she surveys her surroundings.

The house is old. Really old. Like, the kind of place that people would assume was abandoned.

She remembers a little bit of the drive to get here.

It's entirely possible that she's miles away from Mystic Falls.

Damon…

Her heart aches for him even now. Does he know she's gone yet?

The sun shining outside the curtained windows tell her that it's still early enough in the day that school would be in session, but given the ordeal she had last night…what if Bonnie and Caroline just assume she's sleeping in today?

"How's the girl?" Elena hears the woman's voice echoing from the hallway and strains to hear more.

"She's still passed out," the man replies. Elena recalls that the woman had called him Trevor, and that she'd been furious that he'd attempted to bite her. That was a relief, at least. They obviously need her alive, which means there's still a chance…

"You didn't touch her, did you?" the woman demands.

"Give me some credit," Trevor replies. "So you called him?"

Him? Elena strains to hear more.

"No, I called one of his contacts," the woman replies. "You know how this works."

Elena's heart quickens in her chest. Who are they working for?

She gets up, carefully moving off the couch without making a sound. They're obviously both vampires, and she knows that even the slightest movement might be detected, but being around the Salvatore brothers has helped her get pretty good at sneaking around when she doesn't want anyone to catch on.

"Did you or did you not get the message to Elijah?" Trevor asks, sounding irritable.

Elena tiptoes toward the hallway, straining to hear more.

"They say he got it," the woman replies.

"Wonderful," Trevor continues. "And what?"

"So that's it, Trevor," the woman says tersely. "He either got it or he didn't. We just have to wait."

Elena can see them clearly from the doorway now and holds her breath. They seem to be too distracted by their own argument to notice her.

"It's not too late!" Trevor says pleadingly. "We can leave her here. We don't have to go through with this!"

"I'm sick of running," the woman replies firmly.

"Yeah?" Trevor exclaims, sounding frantic. "Well, running keeps us from dying!"

"Elijah's oldschool," the woman says calmly. "If he accepts our deal, we're free."

Elena takes another step past the door, and instantly regrets it as the floorboard creaks loudly.

"You!" the woman snaps. Her heels click on the hard wood as she purposely strides toward her.

"There's nothing around here for miles." Her voice is low and threatening. "If you think you're getting out of this house, you're tragically wrong. Understand?"

"Who's Elijah?" Elena asks, trying to sound less afraid than she is right now.

The woman gives her a withering look. "He's your worst nightmare."

"Alaric sure likes his weapons," Damon muses, eyeing the oddly shaped bottle. "What the hell is that?"

Stefan takes it from him, shrugging. "Oh it's a vervain bomb or grenade launcher or something like that," he says.

"Weird." Damon keeps his eyes focused on the road. This entire drive has been hell, but he refuses to admit it to himself. This is his fault. He knows it's his fault. In fact, there are just not enough distractions and weird vampire hunter contraptions to comment on that will make him forget how much this is his fault. Thankfully, Stefan hasn't brought up last night…yet.

"How much further is it?" Stefan asks curiously.

"About 80 miles," Damon replies, still staring ahead.

"Who do you think took her?" Stefan ponders out loud.

"No idea," Damon shrugs, trying not to think about it. "Someone from Katherine's past. She said she was running from someone. Maybe got the wrong girl."

Katherine's words are still echoing in his head.

You need me. Elena's in danger. She's the doppelganger; she needs to be protected.

They're playing in a loop, over and over.

The road. Focus on the road…

He can feel Stefan's eyes on him. That furrowed brow, that look of pity.

"Damon, it's not your fault," he says.

"Can we not do this right now?" Damon snaps.

"Okay, fine, we won't talk about it," Stefan puts his hands up in mock surrender.

The car is silent and the roar of the engine is the only sound he can hear for several minutes.

But then Stefan frowns again. "So then what's the plan?"

"What do you think?" Damon rolls his eyes. "I'm going to find whoever took Elena and rip their head from their shoulders."

"I mean," Stefan says carefully, "What's the plan after we rescue her?"

"Why do you care, anyway?"

Stefan looks at him seriously. "Look, this isn't easy for me to admit, but the truth is…she's the first woman you've loved since Katherine."

"Katherine's love wasn't real," Damon scoffs.

"But Elena's is," Stefan points out. "And as much as I hate to say it, when you both came back from Georgia I already noticed the change in her. She sees you, Damon. And I think that's why you keep pushing her away…you're afraid."

"Stefan…" Damon says warningly.

"Hey, somebody has to say it," Stefan continues. "I think there's something you're holding back on, and when she got close to you, it scared you even more."

"I didn't break it off with her because I was scared!" Damon snaps.

"No?" Stefan arches his brow. "Then why did you break up with her?"

"Because it wouldn't work between us!" Damon sighs exasperatedly. "I mean, unless she turned…there's a serious shelf life on us being together and besides that, I'm bad for her. We both are! She's in this mess because we came back to Mystic Falls, and now Katherine is back in town and whoever was after her has Elena…You can't convince me she wouldn't be better off if she'd never met us."

"Maybe," Stefan shrugs nonchalantly. "Or maybe she'd be dead right now if we hadn't been here. That night her parents died, I just happened to be there and I saved her from drowning. Are you telling me if it had been you that night, that you would have let her die?"

Damon frowns at the mention of that night. A knot forms in his throat. Stefan doesn't seem to notice.

"Look, all I'm saying is that after we rescue her, it might be a good idea for you both to talk. Tell her what's really going on. I think you owe her that much."

"How about we focus on your relationship drama instead?" Damon rolls his eyes.

Stefan furrows his brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about the whole deal with you and Caroline," Damon says pointedly.

"There's nothing going on," Stefan shrugs.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that," Damon smirks. "You do remember what happened a few days ago to start this whole mess, right?"

Stefan sighs. "That…wasn't supposed to happen."

"Is that what you told her? No wonder she was giving you the cold shoulder earlier."

"We're friends," Stefan repeats.

Damon arches his brow pointedly. "I saw how protective you were of her yesterday after her run-in with Katherine. Not to mention the way you winced earlier when she told us she was going to help Tyler with his little problem."

"I just care about her and don't want her to get hurt," Stefan says.

"Okay," Damon puts his hands up in mock surrender. "Fine, be in denial…you know, it probably doesn't matter anyway with her rebounding and getting all cozied up to Tyler Lockwood now."

"What happened with Caroline…I was in a bad place and I had a momentary lapse in judgment, and she's still getting over Matt. We were both vulnerable, it happened, and we both regret it. As for Tyler…She just has a good heart and wants to help him through his transition."

Damon rolls his eyes. "We're already dealing with enough without having to be worrying about house-breaking a new puppy that can kill us on the next full moon."

"We're not killing him, Damon," Stefan says firmly, as if he can read his mind.

"Why not?" Damon shrugs. "He's a dick."

"Because he didn't choose this," Stefan sighs. "It's not his fault, and he doesn't even know what's happening."

"So what's your plan then?" Damon asks, arching his brow. "Because where I'm standing, this is a bad idea just waiting to happen."

"Caroline said she'd help him, and I trust her judgment," Stefan shrugs.

Damon rolls his eyes again. "Oh she'll definitely help him," he says. "In case you forget, she has a weakness for bad boys and if you're not interested…" He shrugs nonchalantly. "But hey, do what you want."

"You know, it's funny how you're giving me relationship advice right now when not even twenty four hours ago you were running as far from Elena as you could get?" Stefan points out.

"And yet, here I am," Damon replies. "So what does that tell you?"

"Sure," Stefan shrugs. "If she's in danger, you'll rush to save her…we both will…but what about after? When she doesn't need saving…are you going to stay?"

"You know, I think I liked it better when you were pissed at me for stealing your girl," he mutters under his breath.

"Why are you so afraid?" Stefan asks.

"Why are you?" Damon counters.

Stefan shakes his head. "No," he says. "We're not going to talk about me right now. Damon…as your brother, I am telling you that the whole reason I let you have her without a fight, it wasn't because of Caroline. Honestly, I don't know what's going to happen and I'm not really worried about it, but with Elena…You need her far more than I do. She's changed you, and now you're scared and that's why you ran. That's why you broke it off. It's not because you're bad for her, it's because you don't think you deserve her."

Damon's jaw clenches. He feels that stabbing in his chest again, and he remembers the words he said to her that night. The night Stefan doesn't know about.

"That's the problem, Stefan," he says. "I need her, I love her…but I don't deserve her. Not after what I did."

"You've done a lot of horrible things," Stefan points out. "She's forgiven you for every single one of them."

Damon shakes his head. "She can't forgive me for this though," he says.

"Why not?" Stefan presses.

Damon sighs. "Because…in order to forgive me, she'd have to remember it first."

He sighs, defeated. It's time to finally come clean.

Author's note:

Whew! That's a pretty good cliffhanger to stop at! Now, here's the thing…I'm skipping ahead again in the timeline for this re-write of "Rose" to the best part! So if you want the filler stuff, here it is: Elena finds out she's the one to break the curse, Elijah shows up, Stefan and Damon show up, and the battle ensues. Instead of the annoyance of Elena running to hug Stefan, she did run to Damon. Also, Stefan told Damon to tell Elena his secret. Now…to address some things from the last chapter…

Why did Damon run?

I have a theory that Damon has a disorganized attachment style, which is why he really pushes Elena away whenever she starts getting close to him, but he also fights SO hard not to lose her. I also believe Elena has/had an Anxious Attachment, which was why she clung so hard to Stefan and then later Damon, and nearly destroyed herself after he left. There's lots of evidence for this considering everyone Elena loves ends up dead at some point, and Anxious Attachment is triggered by severe parental abandonment. Attachment styles are also NOT set in stone; they can shift depending on what traumas happen in your life.

Back to Damon's side of the connection…

The thing with Disorganized Attachment is unless you live with it, or you are with someone who has this rare attachment style, it's very hard to understand it because behavior is often very contradictory depending on what gets triggered and in what context.

Basically it's a combination of both having this overwhelming desire and need to be loved (Anxious), but then at the same time a deep and visceral fear of being fully loved and accepted (Avoidant). That is why Damon couldn't handle it when Elena told him that she chose him EVEN after he felt he didn't deserve to be forgiven.

People with this attachment style have experienced a lot of inconsistent messages around love, and often suffered extreme abuse and neglect that led to them both needing to be loved (because they were so deprived of it) but also they attach to someone who couldn't love them and instead used their innocence against them to hurt them further (sound familiar?).

So here's the thing: Damon grew up being extremely protective of his brother because their father was a horribly abusive asshole and actually burned Damon with a cigar (and likely also did worse to him) and Lily Salvatore was clearly narcissistic to think that it was okay to punish Damon by taking all his toy soldiers away from him when he wouldn't confess to breaking something of hers (I forget what it was, but I've actually seen this behavior of a parent taking such revenge out on a child for a minor infraction).

So Damon had NO ONE to protect him, AND he felt this deep responsibility to shield Stefan from the worst of it. When Lily "died", Damon was already a teenager and likely sought out the company of other women to fill that void. He was also drinking at that point.

People with Disorganized Attachment also tend to seek out love/sex to fill a void inside themselves from the wounding of not feeling fully loved and accepted in childhood. Damon started out wanting love. He likely couldn't find the "right" girl, because Avoidant and Disorganized attachers also have a pre-occupation with finding "The One" while Anxious attachers will also latch onto anyone who shows romantic interest in them.

Enter Katherine. She's absolutely "perfect" because she knows how to become whatever someone needs her to be in order to manipulate them into falling for her. Narcissistic people are chameleons in romantic entanglements; Katherine fits the definition of this. People with insecure attachment styles such as Anxious, Avoidant, and Disorganized (which again is the combination of the two) are often easy targets for narcissists and the sad thing is that this leads to even MORE pain.

So Damon then found out that the woman he'd loved had also turned Stefan; she hadn't been faithful. That HURT, but Damon was determined to get her back and to overlook all the red flags IF Katherine would love him. When she delivered that crushing blow, that was a HUGE trigger. This then leads to Damon lashing out when Elena rejected him right after that.

Now, in contrast, Elena knew who he was, what he'd done, could see the pain in him that he didn't want to admit was there, and she still accepted him. That was both a relief for him (finally, someone loves him unconditionally!) but it also triggered him because up until that point all he's known is false love, abuse, and rejection. He has gone his whole life not knowing that a love this pure and accepting can actually exist. He wants it desperately, but when he actually has it…it's scary.

Additionally, he loves Elena so completely that the thought of accidentally hurting her or holding her back in life is horrifying to him. He would rather be without her than have her one day resent him. So after Katherine's little stunt, he panicked even more. He also can't face what he's done. He can't bear to see that pain in her eyes, knowing he caused it, and so he ran.

Combined with Elena's anxious attachment style where she would often push him WAY past his limits and not fully understand (yet) why he was pushing her away and fearing that she would lose him too, they kept triggering those wounds.

The ONLY way out of this cycle is to move toward secure attachment, which is trusting that the love is there regardless, and no longer fearing the other person will leave OR that they'll hurt you the way you were hurt in the past. You have to TRUST it. Secure attachment is a baseline of TRUST.

Additionally, when someone is truly worth it, and they're your True Love, there is no running. There's no escape. You have NO CHOICE but to heal that attachment wound, and that takes BOTH people willing to hold that space to do that work, and it's NOT easy. The love is the easy part. You just feel that. It's everything ELSE that needs to be worked through, and that leads to my second part of how I see this dynamic…

I also share BadBoysAreBest's theory that Damon and Elena are also Twin Flames. If you look this up, it's a deep soul-bond and the whole point of the connection isn't JUST to be in love and live happily ever after, but it also triggers every single wound until you heal.

What did Elena and Damon do for each other? They fucking triggered the shit out of each other's wounds, but they also never stopped loving each other the whole time. In fact, they wound up healing those wounds because they didn't want to hurt each other anymore and couldn't run from their connection no matter how much they tried.

You can read the book "You Only Fall In Love Three Times" to see what I mean. It's the final part and it pretty much explains everything.

Anyway, whether you agree with my theories or not, you can't hate me anymore for separating them because the next chapter is the last, and you know what I promised in the final chapter…

Enjoy,

~Temptress Kitten