After one whole quart of brandy
Like a daisy, I'm awake
With no Bromo-Seltzer handy
I don't even shake

The witch was searching his face and he didn't like it much. Witches were creatures created to kill him, to protect others from him. And yet, here she was, granting him a wish. A wish that she didn't seem to think he truly wanted, or maybe deserved.

'Is that all you wish?' she asked as if she could read his mind.

He nodded yes.

'Yes' he voiced after a few seconds, to make her understand that this was the one wish, if he could have one. 'I wish to be human for three days. Or is that too much to ask for maybe?' The sarcasm crept its way out from his lips before he could stop himself. He was so used to not getting what he wanted anyway, so why should this be any different. His bet was that she would just pull the rug from under his feet soon enough, telling him it was an impossible feat.

'If that is your wish, so be it.' The witch sprinkled some of the ointment she'd blended together on to his face and hands. His skin twitched but he kept still, his eyes dead on the witch's face. If she tried anything at all, he'd have her neck before she'd be able to blink. But he felt nothing and she did nothing. He tried to relax.

'What was that for?' Curiosity getting the best of him.

'That is part of what will grant you your wish.'

He frowned.

'So, am I human now then?'

The witch smiled ruefully at him. Her black eyes scanning his face, making him shiver.

'You know, you haven't changed a bit since I last saw you Mr. Salvatore. It is truly remarkable. I was only a young girl then, but I remember that you helped my mama when life was hard for us. I owe you for that. But this is the only wish I will and can grant you, you know. This is a wish that will never be granted again. So I am going to ask you one last time; is this the only wish you want to come true?'

Damon let out a deep sigh of impatience.

'Yes. Now get on with it. I haven't got all day.'

'Fine. As long as we agree. Now. This spell will come to life tomorrow morn' as soon as you wake up and will cease when you fall asleep on the third night. You will be human. You will have to breathe in air, you will have to eat.' The witch gave him yet another smile that wrinkled the skin around her eyes. 'You will need to use the bathroom.' He gave her a look of distaste. 'In short; all human needs you will feel. And that includes pain.'

'Right, so you said. Now, we done here?' Damon started getting to his feet, but the look on the witch's face stopped him. He sat back down.

'There is one rule not to be broken.'

'As always with a spell, got it.' Damon said, his leg trembling in anticipation.

'You mustn't tell anyone that you're in human form. That will break the spell and you will go back to being what you are supposed to be.'

'What do you mean I can't tell anyone I'm human? Isn't that the whole point in want to turn human again, to be able to let people know?' Damon could feel his jaw tense and a dull thudding where his incisors were aching to protrude. 'No, you're gonna have to change that rule. The only reason…' He stopped himself while shaking his head. He wouldn't give that witch the satisfaction.

'Fine. Whatever. I won't tell anyone I'm human.'

The old Bennett witch took his hand in hers. He could feel the dryness of aging and long days in the sun on her. He tried to pull away but she held him in an iron tight grip. Startled he looked up at her.

'There is no coming back around if you decide to break the spell, boy', she said, inching closer to him from across the table. He was too mesmerized by her to remember letting her know that using words like 'boy' on him usually ended up with a broken neck. Or that he was older than her by at least a few decades.

'When I told you that you would go back to what you are supposed to be, I wasn't speaking of vampirism. That is not what you are supposed to be. You are close to 150 years over your lifespan. If you choose to tell anyone of your being human, you will meet true death at once.'

Damon swallowed hard. The look in the old woman's eyes was hard as steel. She wasn't joking around. He disentangled his hand and this time she let him go.

'Ok', he said quietly. 'I get it now. I'm not gonna make a sound about it.'

'Good.' The witch sat back down and folded her hands on the table. 'So you know what to do now. You go home, drink this liquid just before you go to bed. And when you wake up, remember how to breathe.' She chuckled slowly as he stood up with the small bottle in his hand. He gave her a look of disdain.

'I don't see why you think it's so funny. If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you wanna know what it would be like to be human, if just for a while?' He wasn't going to let her get to him, but he couldn't help it. She annoyed him too much.

'If it had been me, I'd have wanted to die. To choose to live for another three days as human, then to be made back into one of the living dead, I would have chosen true death any time. Life is for the living, Mr. Salvatore, not for the dead. But, just like you have been to my lineage, I am true to my word. I'm granting you this, then we are even.'

She closed her eyes, and Damon took that as a sign she wanted him to leave. He walked silently to the door before turning back to her.

'Erm, just wanted to say thanks, you know, for doing this for me.' He grimaced slightly at himself, not really being used to giving thanks to anyone.

'You're welcome', she smiled and nodded her head, still with her eyes closed.

Damon stood there for a moment before turning, closing the door behind him.

I'm wild again, beguiled again
A simpering, whimpering child again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I

He woke up by someone trying to choke the life out of him. He grabbed at the hands to pry them off, but to his surprise there were no hands there. He opened his eyes, but could barely see anything in the half darkness of his room. He moved over to his side, still fighting to breathe, still fighting to see, when it dawned on him. He was a human now. The spell had worked, for three days he would live, breathe and feel like a human.

Which got him thinking; breathe. He needed to breathe. He stood on all fours in bed, mouth wide open, feeling as if his lungs were exploding.

Breathe in, he thought desperately. Just like you do when you smell during hunt. His nostrils flared from the energy it took him to find the air and pull it down to his lungs. He held it there for a moment or two before he realized he needed to let it all out again.

What the hell!

He was standing like that for a good five minutes until he had gotten the hang of the breathing-thing. Well, sort of anyway. There were still short moments where he forgot himself until that burning sensation came back in his chest and he had to open his mouth wide and gasp for air.

Right. Breathing done. Need to find a light so I can see anything in this room.

He stood up and started for the doorway where the light switch was. He was shoveling his feet, treading carefully forward, but he'd forgotten about the large chest down by the end of the bed. He stubbed his right toe in the chest with quite the force, which left him numb with pain. He tried to let a sound out, any sound, but he couldn't. The throbbing ache that followed was unbearable.

Damon was holding on to one foot with both hands while trying to jump around to the bed with his other. His balance was nothing like it used to. With a loud crash he fell to the floor, using the side of the bed as a slide. He howled like a hurt animal as his elbow took the brunt of the fall.

'You motherfu…' he roared, trying to get himself in to a sitting position. He'd never been happier knowing that Stefan wasn't in the boarding house, or Stefan would've thought there was someone trying to kill Damon. Come to think of it though, Damon wasn't too sure that Stefan would burst in to stop a would-be killer.

Sitting back against the bed, still holding his toe in a death grip, Damon slowly tried to focus on more than the pain and the breathing. He needed to think, but his head felt like a bungled up mess. As he sat there, trying to relax, he realized, he could feel his pulse. Literally hear it throbbing in his ears.

He let go of his foot and stared down at his naked chest. Ever so slowly he placed his hand over his heart. A small sob escaped his lips when he could feel the rhythm at a steady beat. There was only one thought in his head, rhythmically feeling its way to the surface to the beat of his heart.

I'm human again. I'm human again. I'm human again.

This story has been running through my mind for a few weeks now, and i just had to do something about it... It was going to be a one shot, but i changed my mind at the last minute.

To all of you that have been waiting for updates on my other stories; they are in the making. Only a few days left now.

Watch out Damon is coming to an end, so I'm continuing Waking Up when Watch out Damon is finished.

Thank to all of You for Your patience with me... I owe You :)

Vic xxx

Lyrics from: Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald