"So you already got an invite into the Gilbert home for a play date, that's great, cutie pie. Of course you can go tomorrow, what time do you need to over there. I need to make sure to keep Stefan occupied while I have the babysitter take you over. I don't want him to accidentally run into you," Damon said, tucking me in as I was slowly drifting to sleep as I let out a whine.

"I don't want the babysitter to take me, I want you to," I whined with tears coming to my eyes, already hating this stupid trip back home and it was just the beginning; I was scared that this was going to be just like last time I was home in Mystic Falls where he ignored me for that bitch, feeling a meltdown coming on as I rubbed my eyes to keep them from falling which Damon saw right through.

"Shh torta cutie, it's alright, it's alright. Don't cry, neonata, you know I would love to take you on your very first play date, but if our brother was to come looking for Elena and you were there with Jessica, it could be bad. I wouldn't be able to protect you, amore, I haven't been invited in yet. This is just the way that it has to be for now. Do you understand, cutie pie," Damon said, soothing me before a meltdown exploded.

I just nodded my head, still hiding in his chest, "Scusa, fratello maggiore," I mumbled into it and if it wasn't for the fact that he was a vampire with vampire hearing, I doubt he would of heard me, feeling him run his hands through my hair and knew exactly what he was doing; that was one of his ways of getting me to sleep though hasn't done that since my nightmares of Stefan went away.

I may understand why he couldn't come with me, that didn't mean I had to like it either and hate that doppelganger already; she was already changing his priorities and she hasn't even met him yet because if it wasn't for her, he would gladly be taking me tomorrow, but because of her, he couldn't come and it was going to be Katherine all over again.

"It's alright, cutie pie, don't worry about it. I know you are just tired and cranky because of it, it's way past your bedtime and you should of been asleep a while ago which I know that is my fault, I'm sorry. I should of put you to bed before going over to the boarding house to mess with Stefan. I promise no more late night adventures that interfere with bedtime," he said as I lifted my head and gave him a frown.

"I am not cranky and I am most definitely not tired. I don't need to go to bed and can stay up as late as I want," I said, while Damon was just giving me an amused look and I let out another yawn, giving me away and it was no surprise that he wasn't taking me seriously, especially when I was already half asleep and somehow laid me back down in the bed without realizing it.

"Alright, enough excitement for one night. It has been a very long night and I know that you want to be well rested for your play-date tomorrow and if you are a good girl tomorrow, maybe I will take you to the comet festival for a while and buy you a treat, but no ice cream. I know that you had some earlier, signorina though we will discuss that tomorrow. Night-night, cutie pie," he said, tucking me back in where my sheets got loose and handing me my stuffed rabbit.

Uh-oh, he knew about the ice cream I had with Jessica without his permission, and I doubt that I was going to need to remind him about that, it will probably be the first thing he mentions tomorrow and if it wasn't for the fact that I had to get invited into the Gilbert home, I probably would not have been allowed to go on my play date; how does he always know.

I pouted, giving him my puppy dog eyes which he just smirked at, "Will you be here when I wake up, Dami," I said, probably sounding like a little girl and it was no wonder he treated me like a baby, I sounded younger than nine at times, not caring that I will mostly be getting a major time out when I woke up or not, just needing reassurance that he will be here, knowing he was probably going to spend the night at the boarding house.

His eyes softened from the amused one, leaning down and kissing the side of my face that brightened my eyes as Damon was not one to kiss goodnight, but took in the affection as he leaned towards me, "I promise to be here, even promise to have breakfast with you, so get some sleep, alright," he told me before he pecked my nose as I smiled, finally closing my eyes.

I wanted Damon, but he was too busy torturing Stefan and keeping him distracting to notice how scared I was to be going on this play-date as the 'babysitter' knocked on the door of the Gilbert house, not talking to me as usual as my brother compelled her to because apparently he didn't want me to get too attached to them, in case he had to get 'rid of them' though he usually switches babysitters anyway.

Though I was also excited about this play-date as this is the first time that I actually had a friend that was not a witch or knew of my vampire status and liked the idea of just having a regular friend to 'play' with and forget all about vampire problems, even if I didn't know the first thing about playing; it was hard when I was always on the road with Dami, there wasn't enough time for me to just play.

Sure, I played a few times during recess with the rest of my class and was slowly starting to get the hang of this playing thing, remembering the few times that I had 'played' while human with some of the other girls that I had been forced by my father to play with though most of them been stuck up snobs and wasn't as enjoyable, but playing dolls was going to be a totally knew experience for me.

I know my brother just wants me to be an innocent nine year old child, but Dami also doesn't know what happened to me all those years ago or the extremes that Father went to, just so he could take my childhood away from me and break me, not to mention the profit he made off me and every time I try being a child again, I remember what my father did to stop me from being one and don't know how to without thinking about what he did; I wish I could tell Damon, but I can't bring myself to even speak of it.

Though to be honest, I wasn't sure how to go back to being a innocent child after what happened or even how to forget as according to Stefan, had told me back in 1864 to get over it and that it wasn't that big a deal; it easy for him to say, it wasn't him that it happened to and I desperately wanted to tell Dami, but I just didn't know how.

The door opened and some boy answered the door and it was probably Jessica's brother, Jeremy that she told me about, "Oh, you must be the girl that my sister won't stop talking about. Come in. Yo Jess, get your little ass down here, your friend's here," he called as I could finally pass over the threshold, smiling innocently and pulling on my cute little girl act, as Jessica came running down the stairs; wow, excited much.

Damon sometimes takes advantage of me being this 'innocent little girl' that could do no wrong and who would expect a little girl as a vampire, so why he likes to play me off as this little girl, even dressing me all up in cute little dresses and pigtails; I hated the dresses though I didn't mind the pigtails, I never liked dressing in fancy dresses, I liked simple; I had a feeling I was going to be dressed up more, remembering those dumb parties back when we were human.

I shifted uncomfortably in my turquoise dress, hating that Damon made me wear it and still didn't understand why I had to wear this dumb party dress, when I was just coming over to play dolls though I think I remember something about him saying that he wanted me to make a good impression so that I will be invited back; I don't remember, I was tuning him out half way through.

"Ally, you're finally here, I brought out all my dolls for us to play with. I remember you said that you've never played dolls before, but don't worry, I'll show you how, it's real fun, almost as fun as hide and seek. Oh, this is my brother, Jeremy, he's watching us while Aunt Jenna in town, she's helping set up for the comet festival tonight. I'm actually allowed to go, are you going tonight," she said, pulling me upstairs so we can 'play'; I still felt unsure about all this little kid stuff.

I followed her into her room which was really and I mean really pink that made me want to vomit and had to keep myself from making a face as it looked like a bomb went off in her room as Dami would say and covered everything in pink, even her carpet was pink; I hated pink after years of being forced in pink dresses with bows that made me sick by my father, I despised the color, just because I was a girl, didn't mean I had to like pink though Jessica obviously did.

"I know, it's really pink. It was my mother's doing and she wouldn't let me change it. She wanted me to stay her baby, probably why I still get treated like a three year old instead of eight" Jessica said, rolling her eyes as she saw my obvious distaste for the color and couldn't help but feel sorry for her because it must suck being treated as a toddler.

"That must suck. If it makes you feel any better Damon sometimes treats me like a baby, but lately he has been obsessed with this old girlfriend that he used to have. I think he wants her back and she was always real mean to me when he wasn't looking, I never told him. He was never the same after she left, almost like he gave up being my parent and he is the only parent I ever really knew," I said, sitting on the floor, dolls forgotten.

Jessica looked at me sadly and could see the pain in her eyes, "I miss my parents and I couldn't even talk about it because every time I want to mention them, Aunt Jenna, Elena and sometimes even Jeremy yell at me to stop talking about them. I need to talk about it but they don't want to talk about either," she said, grabbing her stuffed cat, hugging it close.

"I never knew my mom, she was sent away before I was old enough to remember and Damon doesn't like to talk about her too much. It brings back too many painful memories for him and losing my father didn't bother me too much, but he didn't deserve to be missed. I told you how he used to hurt me, he also let some of his friends hurt me too. Damon doesn't know," I said sadly, leaving out what he really did to me; there is still time to save her childhood and I wasn't going to destroy it, like Father destroyed mine.

Jessica grabbed hold of my hand, giving me comfort in a way that no one has ever done and because Dami doesn't know, I couldn't seek his comfort, "Is that when you went to live with your brother," she asked and wished we could stop talking about this and should never have brought up my parents, they only brought up bad memories.

"Yeah, but he was my parent long before they were gone. I always went to him, even when my father was still alive which always seemed to piss him off and that was always a plus. After Katherine came around, it was like he didn't see me anymore and stopped being that for me and even now, he wants her back so bad, he forgets all about me. I miss the old Damon, the one that actually took notice in what I would do. Can we play now? I don't want to talk about this anymore," I said, afraid I was going to start crying.

If I was being really honest, I was actually angry at Damon as all he has done in the past 145 years was obsess about getting Katherine back, and completing his transition was probably the only time that he has actually put me first; sure, he's there but also isn't there at the same time and can only name a handful of times, when he has really been my parent; I often wondered what he would do if I was to go missing and if he would stop his obsession with Katherine long enough to come find me.

"Sure, come on. What do you want to play? Dolls? Barbies? We can do dress up if you want, I have tons of play clothes and by the way, I love your dress, it's the cutest ever. I have a doll house we can play with or if you want, we can go on the swings outside," Jessica said, rambling and pulling me over to her dolls that were everywhere, literally.

"Damon doesn't want me to get my dress dirty and I already got in trouble with him because of the ice cream we had yesterday; don't even know how he found out," I said, recalling how I spent most of the morning in the corner for that ice cream fiasco and one thing Damon hates, is me getting my dress dirty when my job is to look cute.

"Oh, Aunt Jenna had called him after we left the grill to let him know, sorry. Elena saw us having ice cream and told Aunt Jenna about it and she is real strict about having sugar before bed, and my sister is still mad about what you called her and wanted to get us in trouble. If you makes you feel better, I got spanked with corner time every night for the rest of the month. How much trouble are you in," she asked as I picked up a barbie and looking through her barbie clothes; wow, does she have a lot.

That explains a lot, because I was wondering just how Damon found out about the ice cream when I knew he knew he had spent most of the night in the woods feeding; that doppelganger is a bitch for sure and don't know what Stefan sees in her, she is worse than Katherine, but she can have Stefan though the minute she tries to get her in claws in Dami, I was going after her, whether I got in trouble for it or not.

"I didn't get spanked or anything if that is what your asking and Dami doesn't really spank anymore, not since Katherine. Though did get a major timeout this morning and I'm not allowed to have any ice cream until further notice. My brother is real strict about having sugar without permission, I have ask first. I'm lucky he is still letting me have a treat at the festival tonight," I asked, brushing the barbie's hair with the doll brush; what was the point, why not use a real brush.

"Lucky, I get spanked all the time by my aunt, my sister, and even my brother which is not fair. Half the time my sister hits me just because she can and knows that Aunt Jenna won't stop her, giving her some excuse. If my parents were here, they would never have allowed that. I wish I had a brother, like yours. Do you have any other siblings or is it just Damon," Jessica asked, making me flinch, making a mental note to tell Damon to compel her aunt about her treatment.

"I have another brother who just started high school, but we aren't close and to be honest, I hate him. So when Damon and I moved back home, we didn't tell him and he still doesn't know I came back home with Damon, we haven't been staying with him. His name is Stefan Salvatore, I think your sister knows him. Damon said that he has a thing for her," I told her, knowing she would have met him and wanted to cause trouble for him and didn't want Jessica trust him either; he was bad.

"Wait Stefan Salvatore? He's the other brother, I met him the other day when Elena brought him home, they woke up with all their talking and he seemed nice. Wow, who would of thought he isn't nice. Don't worry, I won't tell. I can get Jeremy to kick his ass for you, he is always looking for a fight these days. I'm bored, want to play a trick on my brother," she asked and couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"Hell yeah, let's do it," I said, tossing the barbie to the side and following her out of her room, to go play prank on her brother; maybe having a friend 'my age' will be a good thing, I sure hope so, but I still didn't like her sister.

Torta Cutie: Cutie Pie

Neonata: Baby Girl

Amore: Love

Scusa Fratello Maggiore: Sorry, Big Brother

Signorina: Young Lady