Thursday, February 6th 2014

Elena smiled at Damon as he let her into the boarding house. "Thanks! Is Stefan here?"

"He left twenty minutes ago," Damon replied.

"Mind if I still come in? I have something I want to drop off in his room. He left it at my place last time he was over." She wanted to scream at herself to shut up. Too many details in someone's story always point to a lie. She was telegraphing her deceit, and she knew it.

Luckily for her, Damon was too distracted to notice. "Go ahead."

Elena thanked him and then went up the stairs to Stefan's room. She then started carefully shifting through his things, not looking for anything in particular but hoping to stumble onto something.

When she got to the nightstand by the right side of his bed, she pulled it forward, stuck a clunky-looking wireless listening device to the back of it, and tried to carefully return it to its original position. The device she installed had an eight-day battery, which was why she was doing it now.

February thirteenth was coming up, and she thought Stefan might be "romantic" and bold and bring Caroline to his place for sex.

"And what is that?" Damon asked, leaning in the doorframe, startling her. She hadn't realized that he was there.

She spun around and tried to collect her wits. She refused to make the mistake of talking before she thought things through first. Pausing, she latched onto his love confession and the truth —at least part of it.

"I think Stefan is lying to me."

"That doesn't answer what that is."

Elena stood and brushed imaginary dust from her knees. "A listening device."

Damon was pleased to discover that Elena was distrustful of Stefan. "What are you listening for?"

She frowned and let out a long sigh. "I'm being paranoid," she lied. "So I didn't want to tell you. I don't even know if I can trust you lately with the crazy stuff you've been saying."

"You think I'm lying?!"

Elena shook her head. "I don't think you're lying, and that's why. I believe it's possible that you just might love me. Which means you would have a personal reason for wanting me to break up with Stefan."

She then leaned over and pressed a button on the device to get it to start recording. Once she straightened up, she placed her pointer finger over her lips to tell him to be quiet and then pointed out the door.

Once they were downstairs, Damon said, "And yet you trusted me at that moment. You're spying on him."

Elena shrugged, feigning indifference. "And if he's not lying to me, he won't know I spied on him." She then eyed him with fake weariness. "Unless you plan to tell him," she challenged. Deep down, she knew he wouldn't say anything. She could always count on him.

Damon reached out and dared to cup her cheek in his warm hand gently. "I'm here for you. I don't want you thinking you need to go through anything alone."

Pulling back and putting some distance between them both, she said, "Apparently, I'm stronger than you think I am. I don't need rescuing."

He disagreed, but he didn't dare mention anything about the last day of twenty-four. Instead, he pushed in a different direction: "Needing someone and having someone are two different things. I'm here, even if you just feel like talking."

Elena turned from him. The intense looks he had been giving her had gotten to her lately. "Don't tell him I was here."

"Stop," he said desperately. "I won't, but…" he trailed off, knowing he had to be careful. She was still dating his brother. "Do you want me to tell you when he leaves the house? You can check the listening device each day."

She turned back to him and shook her head. "It will be fine. I'll pick it up on the fourteenth."

His look grew stormy. "When you're here for Valentine's Day in his bed?!"

"No." Elena laughed at him. "Just because I haven't told you my plan doesn't mean I don't have one."

"Right! Is Valentine's Day really that important to girls, and is it better to have a man than to be single?!"

"I'm not holding out for Valentine's Day!" Elena said, exasperated. "What I'm doing is being strategic, Damon. I've got this. 'I don't start shit, but I can tell you how it ends.'"

"Yeah," he said, frustrated. "'Don't get mad, get even.' I get it, but come on! Let me help."

Elena just laughed and asked, "Since when were you a Swifty, Mr. 'Vigilante Shit?'"

"You are," Damon replied, his tone softening. "I notice things because they matter to you."

Suddenly, Elena remembered why Damon knew that song. When Midnights came out, she and Bonnie would sing that song together on evenings when they drank too much vodka. Damon had a habit of always being there at times like that. The problem was that none of that had happened yet. Still, it was Damon who looked shocked and slowly asked, "Wait, how in the hell do you know that song?"