Disclaimer – I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note – Sorry for the delay folks, I was having a hard time wrapping this up. Just one more chapter and this one is done.

It was odd being at work after spending the last thirty-six hours in Damon's arms. After they had tasted one another in the kitchen yesterday morning, he had dragged her back up to her room to do it all over again. They spent the afternoon talking in bed and the evening playing in the shower. He had loved her so often and so thoroughly there was now a distinct and pleasant ache between her thighs. Damon had reluctantly left her this morning to restock his blood supply and to confirm that Stefan had in fact cleared out of the boarding house.

As Elena plodded through the first half of her shift she began to realize how much she disliked her job. When she had started working there, her job had been her lifeline. Something to keep her busy and keep her mind occupied, lest she fall into that yawning chasm of grief that was always nipping at her heels. Working at the The Grill helped her function. Maintain. The difference now was with Damon in her life, she no longer felt she was on the edge of despair and as she looked around she began to see the place for what it really was. A restaurant that had once been lively and charming had become somewhat rundown and dreary. Had the tables and chairs always been this worn? As yet another rude customer snapped at her, Elena began to wonder why in the hell she was still there.

During her afternoon break, her phone rang and she smiled as she picked it up. "Hello, Caroline."

"Where have you been? I've left you, like, five messages."

Elena winced. "I'm sorry, I know. I've been….out of it lately. I've been with Damon."

"Really? So, you guys worked out your issues?"

Elena could practically hear her grinning through the phone. "Yes, we did." She was grinning too as she said, "I love him, Caroline."

She had to hold the phone away from her ear as Caroline's high-pitched squeal of delight threatened to pierce her eardrum. "I knew it! I knew you loved him!" Calming down, she sighed, "I'm so happy for you Elena."

"I'm happy for me too."

"Well, you can tell me everything that happened tomorrow at registration. I thought we could head over to the campus together, sign up for our classes and then go grab some lunch."

She had completely forgotten about registration. School just seemed so distant somehow; the start of the new school year had snuck up on her. "That sounds good. I'll pick you up at ten?"

"Perfect. And I want details, Elena! Juicy ones. And pictures if you have them," she added with a laugh.

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. "I'll see you tomorrow, Caroline." She put her phone away with a smile and went back to work.

With an internal groan she noticed a table full of guys settling into her section. It was always the same with this particular group - a beer-fueled lunch where they made crude passes at her and left a lousy tip. She dreaded their weekly visits.

Plastering on a fake smile, she went over to take their orders. One of them tried to catch her eye with some casual flirting and one openly leered at her as they ordered sandwiches and a pitcher of beer. Usually, she was able to ignore the looks that men gave her, but not today. Today it made her temper flare and she had to bite back the harsh response that immediately sprung to her lips.

Glaring at the guy whose eyes were fixed on her chest, she muttered, "I'll be right back with your beer."

As she filled a pitcher behind the bar, she tried to calm herself, not quite sure why she was reacting so strongly. She took a deep breath and returned to the table, setting the pitcher down. When she leaned forward to place the glasses on the table, Elena felt a set of intrusive fingers brush the back of her exposed thigh in an unwanted caress that ended just beneath the cotton of her back shorts.

Pulling back sharply, she snapped. It was the guy who'd been ogling her and Elena caught his fingers and twisted them backward brutally, "Don't. Touch. Me.," she ground out as he yelped in pained surprise and tried to wrench his hand from her grip.

She flung his back at him and turned away, hearing him mutter to his friends, "God, what a bitch."

For a fleeting moment she wished Damon had been there to see what happened. That asshole would have touched her and instead of his hand, he would have pulled back a bloody stump. It was a petty and juvenile thought, but it made her smile as she untied her short apron and placed it on the bar, now more than ready to end her waitressing career.

Walking back into her manager's office, she was beaming as she tendered her resignation. Effective immediately. She picked up her purse from the back room and glided out the front door, feeling almost giddy as possibility unfolded in front of her.

Elena was sitting on the floor in her parent's walk-in closet taping up another box when her phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, she was grinning as she answered it. "Hi."

Damon was all business. "Where are you? I went by The Grill to see you but you weren't there."

"I'm at home. I quit."

"What?"

Elena could tell he was pleased. "Yep. It just didn't feel right there anymore. It was almost….depressing being there. So, I quit." As she talked to him she opened another box and began filling it up. "How did everything go today?"

"Well, the Mystic Falls blood bank is now running dangerously low on AB negative and Stefan's room has been cleared out."

"Good," she spat, still fuming over everything Stefan had done.

"Now that the small talk is out of the way we can discuss something important." Damon's voice dropped into a lower register, the baritone vibrating in her ear as he drawled, "What are you wearing?"

Laughing she retorted. "It's four o'clock in the afternoon! Isn't it a little early for one of these phone calls."

He tsked softly. "It's never too early for phone sex, Elena. Tell me what you're wearing."

Glancing down at her boring t-shirt and shorts combo, she decided to mess with him. "I'm wearing a black corset, fishnet thigh-highs and five-inch black stilettos." There was a shuffling noise on the other end of the line and then nothing. "Damon?"

Warm breath ruffled the fine hair at the nape of her neck. "Liar." She shrieked and dropped her phone as Damon's arms slid around her waist as he laughed.

Her hand slapped over her heart. "How did you get in?" she asked breathlessly.

"When I changed your locks I pocketed the spare key." He tugged at her black t-shirt with a smile. "Is this mine?"

She flushed a faint pink, but her voice was unrepentant. "It is. You loaned it to me when I was sick and I kept it."

Knowing that she had taken his shirt home with her after that awful night made him grip her more tightly. "It looks better on you anyway." he smirked as his fingers slithered under the soft fabric and landed on her bare skin. Tucking his chin over her shoulder he nodded at the boxes in front of her. "What are you doing?"

She leaned back against the solid wall of his chest, her fingers slid over the cardboard box in front of her. "I thought it was time I started going through my parents things. I just haven't been able to face it until now." When she had stepped through the front door after leaving the restaurant, Elena saw her home through fresh eyes. It wasn't her family's home anymore. It was a shrine to what her family had been - a mausoleum that had remained frozen in time for three years.

"Do you want some help?"

"Sure." She handed him a box. "I thought I'd start small and box up their clothes so I could donate them."

Damon kissed the side of her neck and stood up, pulling a handful of her father's dress shirts off the bar in the closet. He started pulling them off the hangers as his eyes flicked over her face. "Lots of changes today," he said with his eyebrows raised.

Elena stopped packing and met his eyes. "I don't want to live in the past anymore. I need to move forward and I can't do that if I keep holding onto all of this," she said, gesturing towards the closet and her parents perfectly preserved room. "And the job…well, I was never really cut out for waitressing anyway," she sighed. "I took that job because I had to do something other than wander around this house all day. But when I got there today, it was like…like I had just opened my eyes and I'd missed the last three years of my life. I don't want to waste another day," she finished quietly.

Nodding, Damon settled beside her and started filling the box. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she smiled occasionally when folding one of her mother's blouses. Something in her had shifted; he could see it in her eyes. They were so different from the first night he had seen her. She was happy now.

She was happy with him.

Elena watched Damon sleep as she sat on her window seat, her legs pulled up and her chin resting on her knee. After they'd finished packing up her parent's closet he'd ordered them Chinese food and they had tried to watch a movie. Ten minutes into it they both had become far more interested in each other than what was happening on screen and Damon had stripped her bare. The memory of his hooded eyes, watching her from between her thighs as she gasped and moaned made her quiver. Turns out Damon's tongue was just as talented as his fingers, if not more so.

Her lips curved up as she saw his hand reach across the mattress, looking for her. Not finding her, his eyes popped open and found her. "Why are sitting over there?"

She smiled at him. "Can't sleep."

He trailed a hand down his chest, smirking when he saw her eyes following the movement. "Need me to tire you out again?"

"So cocky," she chuckled.

He raised a brow at her as his smirk grew more pronounced. "You got that right."

Elena laughed and threw a pillow at him which he deflected easily. She left her spot at the window and sat next to him on the bed, her face becoming serious. "I'm supposed to register for classes tomorrow."

His fingers skimmed up her thigh as he searched her gaze. "And…?" he prompted.

She shook her head and huffed out a breath. "I don't know if I want to go back to school right now."

"Then don't go," he shrugged.

"It's not that simple, Damon."

"Actually, it's exactly that simple." He sat up, holding her hand. "If you want to take some time off, Elena, there's nothing wrong with that. You can always go back."

He had a point. Elena nodded but kept her eyes on their intertwined fingers. "How attached are you to Mystic Falls? I mean, I know this is your home and-,"

He cut her off. "Mystic Falls is just where I live, Elena." The intensity in his eyes made her stomach flip and she nodded as he pulled her close. "You're my-,"

She silenced him with a kiss, "I know," she whispered. "I feel the same way, which is why I'm not feeling so attached to this place anymore." She pulled back to look at him. "Before I met you, this house and my job…my routine was all I had. But now it all seems so insignificant. Like I've been sleeping for years and I'm finally awake. And now that I'm awake, I want to do something. Anything."

Damon liked where this was going. "What have you got in mind?"

Smiling now, she relaxed against him. "Well, my parent's both had life insurance policies and I've never touched that money. I'd like to use some of it to travel, see the world. I haven't set foot out of this town since I was sixteen."

"Where do you want to go?" His lips coasted over the skin of her neck as he spoke.

"Everywhere!" she said excitedly as the idea picked up steam in her head. The possibilities were endless. She'd always wanted to see London and Paris. Rome. She'd never even been to New York City. Her muscles tensed as she turned to face him. "Do you…?" she trailed off as she looked at him hopefully.

In a flash she was on her back and Damon's welcome weight was pinning her to the mattress. "Yes," he said firmly as he kissed his way along her jaw to her ear. "Where you go, I go. I'll even let you drag me to Siberia if that's what you want."

Her hands wound around his waist and her nails dragged along the corded muscles of his back. "I won't drag you to Siberia," she moaned as his hands slid beneath her shirt. "I was thinking France or Italy maybe, to start."

"I have a house in Italy." He pushed the fabric higher and kissed the sweet curve beneath her breast. "We can start there."

Her fingers tangled in his hair and she tugged lightly making him look at her. "You have a house in Italy?"

"Mmmhmm. Outside of Genoa. It belonged to my father." Her fingers released him and he bent his head, planting hot kisses along her collarbone.

Her head dropped back as his mouth blazed a trail over her throat and down her chest. "What else don't I know about you," she breathed out as her back as her hands gripped his shoulders.

He smirked as his hand trailed down her abdomen and her hips arched in invitation. "Well, I'm an excellent cook, I speak four languages, I'm a great poker player and I hate country music," he told her between kisses. "And I bet I can make you come in under a minute," he smirked as he plunged two fingers inside her.

Elena sucked in a sharp breath as she pushed herself further onto his hand. "No you can't," she defied him even as her traitorous body rolled beneath him eagerly.

"Watch me." He feathered a kiss over her parted lips as his eyes grew darker. "I love you."

Her eyes flipped open as she pulled him closer with a smile. "I already knew that."

Damon huffed out a laugh as his lips settled in the hollow of her neck and his hand picked up the pace.

He won the bet with thirteen seconds to spare.