A/N: Wow. Officially ninety reviews. And here I thought that this would just be a one-shot… Silly me :)

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Mistaken Observations: Innocence Corrupted

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"Hello, brother."

Elena recoiled at the sound of Stefan's voice that echoed into the cold night air. Only, it wasn't really his voice at all, and Elena quickly hoped that maybe Damon had made some sort of mistake. Surly it couldn't have been Stefan knocking at their door in the very middle of the night, sounding every bit like a tarnished soul that was in the fiery care of the devil. That voice, the epitome of an emotionally dead man, was the sound of someone who had been corrupted of their innocent youth, and had been robbed of the only thing that kept them truly sane. And Stefan certainly didn't sound well-balanced in that instant. But maybe he liked it that way. Why wouldn't he like it if Klaus was the person who told him he had to?

"Klaus is just as lonely as the next person. He doesn't have any family, and he probably felt obligated to ruin my brother in the perfect staged moment. But one thing I really don't get is why he puts all that misery on himself. The bastard killed his own family, for God's sake. All he has to do is rip the stakes out of the poor suckers, and then ba-boom… they magically come back to life, and he can give my sorry ass of a sibling back."

If Elena hadn't felt like the whole world was suddenly swallowing her up in its mighty mouth, she might have given away an anxious laugh. A couple of weeks ago, Damon had made it his duty to tell her his theory on why Klaus had brutally taken Stefan away from them.

At first, he just gave her simple answers: "Because he's a dick," and then he went into further detail: "Because he's a dick and because he doesn't know what to do with all the rage and guilt building up inside of him. So, he probably thought, 'Hey, why not put the youngest Salvatore on a complete binder, and watch as he mutilates hundreds of innocent people?'"

Elena had never blamed Damon once for what he had told her. She mostly didn't because he was completely right. Klaus was lonely (not that it had given him an excuse to take Stefan) and severely emancipated people had a tendency to go a little bonkers after a long period of time. She also couldn't blame Damon because he was a smidge more than drunk at the time.

That's all they ever really did anymore. They talked about their pain, got drunk to deal with that newly brought up agony, and then slept it off for a good twenty-four hours. And then they repeated that action a couple days later.

It was sad, really.

In front of Elena's searching eyes and fidgety muscles, Damon stood rigid. The only thing that was able to convince her that he was still alive was the fact that she could see his breath in the winter air, and that the tendons in his neck looked strained. It seemed like he was scared to death of the image that was being projected in front of him.

Terrified that this maybe was real, and not just a dream like she so desperately wanted it to be, Elena buried her head into Damon's shoulder blade. Maybe if Stefan wasn't aware of her existence, he would leave the house as quickly as he had showed up. She soon realized that there was no such luck.

All was silent for moment, maybe a little too silent, and even from behind Damon, she could see that Stefan had craned his neck so he was looking right at her.

"Well, hello there, Elena."

Elena felt bile rise in the back of her throat, and by some force unknown, she managed to hold back the scream that frantically wanted to rip free from her airway. That thing was not Stefan. That monstrosity had the same colored eyes as Stefan, but they were dead, and crazy, and frantically looking over her body like she was something to play with, and then to be consumed from the inside out. That Stefan-impersonator was rid of all his conservative clothes that Elena had gotten so used to see him wearing. In their place were torn, bloody, and filthy pieces of cloth that somehow looked like they were just getting in the way. The worst part of his demur seemed to be his hair. It was tousled like it had been ravaged by a girl that was desperately trying to fight for her life.

Elena knew that the girl hadn't won with her pitiful attempts. They never did, according to the news.

Elena never thought that she would have ever seen her boyfriend like he was some sort of sick abomination. But who was she kidding? Stefan wasn't her boyfriend anymore, just like Damon didn't see his brother before him. All Stefan seemed to be was a cold, calculated murderer. There was nothing else she could convince herself of besides that.

Stefan gave off a wicked grin, pulling his head back until he was once again obstructed by Damon's body.

"I guess your little girlfriend over there is afraid of me. I wonder why that is." Stefan's mocking and sinister tone reminded Elena greatly of what Damon used to sound like before he had changed.

Noticeably, Elena blanched at Stefan's choice of words. Girlfriend? Did he really believe that she had been going around with Damon while he was gone? What kind of girl did he take her for? He should have known that she was still hoping there was some redeemable part of him left in there, and that if there was, she was going to try and forgive him.

But it wasn't possible at this point. That part of Stefan was just gone.

"I don't know what you mean, brother," Damon spat out the word like it was something vulgar and disgusting, and Elena snapped out of her revelations.

She still couldn't see his face, but she imagined that Stefan had given Damon a knowing look when he said, "Sure you don't. Of course you would have no idea what the word 'girlfriend' even means."

Damon gave off something that closely resembled a growl. It caused Elena to a shiver and grit her teeth, but all Stefan did was give off a hideous laugh.

"She doesn't seem that strong now, does she?" Stefan nodded towards her. "There she is- your little savoir- and all she's doing right now is hiding behind you like some sort of coward. She's not the big, bad warrior you thought her out to be. "

Clenching her teeth, Elena moved away from behind Damon, standing beside him, and moving her hand until it was hovering near his. She wasn't going to pretend that she wasn't scared, because she was- desperately so- but she wasn't going to let Stefan have the satisfaction of knowing that he was causing this scene of terror. He didn't deserve it; he didn't deserve anything anymore.

It was one thing to look at Elena like she was something to be used, but it was a completely different thing to call her a coward. She was anything but, and she had worked hard for people to see her like she was as strong as anybody ever had been.

Damon seemed to relax as Elena stood beside him, and she reveled in the fact that she had such an influence on his attitude towards things. She remembered that there was a time when she hated that she could do those things to him, but now she was comforted by the fact.

In a steely voice, Damon squinted his eyes, cocking his head to the side, and giving Stefan a questioning look. "Was there something you wanted, or did you just come by to try and kill me again?"

Stefan put a hand on his torn scrap of a shirt, placing it near his cold, un-beating heart. "You wound me, Damon. Why would I, your own brother, try to murder you in cold blood? We both know that I can't do that even if I wanted to."

Damon crossed his arms, shifting his weight. "And why is that? It didn't seem to stop you before."

Elena wanted to close her eyes and curl into a ball at Stefan's answering smile. It made her skin crawl, and a thin line of perspiration lined her forehead despite the iciness in the air.

"Because Klaus still has plans for you. Surly you haven't forgotten that already."

Elena felt her calm façade slip from her face. Her fingers curled towards her side, her breath hitching in her throat as she struggled to swallow. She stonily swiveled her head towards Damon. His face remained impassive, like Stefan hadn't even said anything in the first place, and it briefly looked like he had lowered his eyes in defeat.

Petrified, Elena looked towards the door, her ex-lover lounging in the frame like it was the most ordinary thing to do.

She felt her world tilt to the side, and her stomach heaved as her heart jumped into her throat.

"Now," Stefan clapped his hands, stepping forward, "Who's going to invite me in?"

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"What are we going to do?" Elena ran a nervous hand through her hair, pacing in front of a window, the moon highlighting her features to its best advantage.

Here, in Damon's room, they had both decided that letting Stefan into the house had been one grave mistake. Sure, he could have walked through the door without an invitation (this was still partly his house,) but Elena was sure that he just wanted to add to the unfolding drama by asking Damon if he could enter. Who knew the Stefan Salvatore would be so theatric? It must have been the added flair of Klaus coming in to play.

"This was never supposed to happen," Elena harshly half-whispered into the thin air. Stefan could still hear them, even if they were safely tucked away in another room, she was sure of it, but that wasn't going to stop her from venting her frustrations. "He was supposed to stay out of town, and leave us the hell alone."

Those words were also something that she never imagined herself saying. But, her world had been turned upside down in a matter of seconds, so whatever she said almost always came out as the opposite.

"I know," Damon replied, dazedly sitting on his bed.

Elena scoffed. "Is that really all you can say at a time like this? That you know?" She threw up her hands, feeling her mental exhaustion set deep inside her body. "You don't know, Damon. Klaus still wants to use you to fulfill his sick plan of turning you into a hy-"

"Don't say it," Damon snapped back at her, cutting into her rant. "If you say it, you're just going to make everything worse."

Elena closed her mouth, biting her lip until she tasted something metallic on her tongue. This wasn't the time for them to be fighting like petulant children, but it was almost like she couldn't help it. Damon was acting as if he didn't care what Klaus had in store for him.

But, she did. And she wasn't going to let it happen.

"Then what are we going to do about that thing down there?" She sneered, hoping that Stefan had gotten that loud and clear.

"What do you want me to do?"

A silence hovered in the air as she fought for an answer. She wanted Damon to find out a way to fix Stefan, but she knew that was too far-fetched to even contemplate. Instead, she settled on something more reasonable. "I just want him out of this house; I want to go to bed and know that, in the morning, I'm not going to have to deal with all this bull-shit."

Blue eyes stared back at her, and they looked like they were agreeing with her whole-heartedly. "And how do you want me to go about it? Just tell him to get the hell out? You know I can't do that."

Elena started to pace again, moving away from the window. She lowered her voice, hoping Stefan was too pre-occupied with something else to take notice of what she was saying. "I don't care what you have to do. Lie to him, tell him that you'll do whatever Klaus wants if he just gives you two weeks to prepare."

"And what if I do?" Damon asked perplexedly, wondering what master plan she could have possible thought of for their ordeal.

Elena looked at him. He was just sitting there, hands between legs, face fallen. He couldn't be the one to give up so soon, but that was exactly what he was doing.

She cleared her throat. "Then we'll run. We'll get out of this town, and put as much distance as we can between us and this town."

Damon cringed; he knew she was going to say something like that. "Running won't work- it never does. Eventually, he'll catch up with us and make our death one-hundred percent more painful that he originally planned." He did have to admire her willingness to ever give up, though. Stefan was wrong. She wasn't a coward; she was a force to be reckoned with. She had all the plans and actions that she wanted to try out, and all he could do was sit back and try to figure out how his life had turned into a bad sitcom.

At least she was trying to keep them both alive. He didn't think he could anymore.

"I told you before, Damon," she growled over at him, "I don't care. Klaus can hunt us down to his heart's content, but I'm not going to give him what he wants so easily. We're better than that."

"No," Damon intervened, "You're better than that. I'm tired of going after people, and then turning back and running away." He gave her an exceptionally sad look. "That's what I've done my whole life, Elena. I just don't think I can do it anymore."

Elena stopped moving, her hand kneading the skin around her temple. "You said you'd never leave me again. If I want to go, then you have to follow me. That's how it words between us."

"Who says?" And he sounded like he actually had some fire behind the words. "Why do I have to chase after you? It will be like Katherine all over again."

She tried not to let the words bother her, but she still felt the dull ache in her chest to signal that she still cared very much about what he thought of her. "Then don't chase me. You don't even have to follow me. You can just be by my side. We can both fight for something we deserve- to live our life without something trying to kill us every ten seconds."

Damon wanted so badly just to agree with her plan, but he couldn't help but think of the consequences it entailed. Damon knew that if she would have sat down, she would have realized how idiotic her plan seemed, and how it wasn't going to work in the end.

He didn't have the power in him to tell her that they were going to end up dead anyway. To him, there was no point in fighting for something that was already gone.

Elena slumped to the floor in front of him while images burned behind his eyes. He saw it all. He saw Elena dead beside him, her limbs twisted at un-natural angles, and her beautiful brown eyes open and staring at nothing. Her chest didn't heave with air, and he couldn't hear her fluttering heartbeat, or the hot blood pumping through her veins. And he could see Klaus looming over him as he stared at the broken child to his left. He welcomed the stake in the hybrids hands, because it meant death. Nothing mattered to him if Elena wasn't experiencing it all by his side, and he couldn't wait for it all just to be done. And then Klaus brought the stake back, and plunged it into his chest, and he never felt happier because, this way, he didn't have to worry anymore. He didn't have to feel threatened when another vampire made its way into town, and he didn't have to feel guilty when a Mystic Falls Samaritan got tangled unwillingly into the supernatural… and he didn't have to feel like ripping his hair out when Elena said that she only cared for him.

Caring was overrated. He was virtually done with it.

Damon coughed as he noticed the various emotions running across Elena's face. He could tell that she had just seen everything play out in his eyes.

Elena spoke in a broken tone. "So that's just it, then? You don't even want to fight anymore? You want to watch me die?"

"No," Damon jumped to his feet, but then he sat down again, not sure what he was going to do anyway. "Klaus won't kill you. You're too valuable, and he needs you for your blood. Death would do nothing but curse him into being forever lonely."

She gave him a disgusted look. "Do you even know what you're saying right now? What Klaus would do to me would be worse than death. He would use me, and rip the blood from me whenever he needs it. And what happens when he's done with me? All he's going to do is throw me away like some useless doll. Can you look me in the eyes and honestly say that is what you want?"

Damon couldn't help but see the logic behind her reasoning's. What was he even thinking? Leaving Elena to fend for herself in the clutches of Klaus would have been the worse act he could ever commit.

Damon shook his head, tendrils of his black hair falling onto his face. "No, I can't. But I don't know what else to do. My brother is down there, probably listening to everything we're saying, and waiting for us to take notes on everything his lying mouth has to say."

"Damon," Elena started, getting up from her spot on the floor and standing before him. "If you care about me, you're going to fight for this. This isn't something we can just brush under the bed and let go. It's now or never. We either run to save our lives, or we go up to Klaus and let him have his way with us. Which is it?"

"Elena-" Damon groaned.

"Answer the question, Damon. If you don't, then I'm just going to walk downstairs and order Stefan to take me to Klaus. Might as well make it short, right?"

He hoped that she could see the horror in his eyes, and that it made her feel better, because there was no way he was going to let her waltz down there alone. Stefan was capable of a lot of things as it was, but if you added Ripper-Douche to the list, it just brought up more complications. And after witnessing Stefan calling her a coward, Damon could confidently say that there was no part of Stefan that cared for Elena in anyway.

She tapped her foot, her eyes flicking to Damon's door. When he didn't say anything for a while, she felt her resolve waver. Did she really have the courage to go down there and demand that Stefan take her to Klaus? She would have liked if Damon was convinced by it, but she wasn't too personally committed.

"Damon?" She squeaked. "You're not going to make me go down there, are you?"

Nervously, Damon licked his lips, and then after another moment of silence, he shook his head. "No, I wouldn't be able to do that. But we are both going to go down there. We're going to listen to Stefan, lie to him, and then get the hell out of this place… if that's what you really want."

Elena almost felt her knees buckle from the overwhelming sense of relief that Damon wasn't going to give up on her. And after a while, the fear settled into her stomach. They were actually going to do it. They were going to lie through their teeth, and try to escape like so many others had before them. She just hoped that they had a little bit more luck than the first couple un-lucky vampires.

"I thought you were going to make me go down there," she let out a nervous chuckle.

Damon didn't smile back at her. He looked like he was thinking of something very carefully. "Were you actually going to?"

"Yes, but only to prove a point. I can't have people thinking that I don't have a strong backbone."

Damon didn't know whether he wanted to strangle her, or beg her until she finally just gave in and kissed him. "No, we definitely wouldn't want that," he muttered, speculating how she always turned their serious conversations into something humorous.

Elena held out her slender hand to him. "Ready to go get ourselves in a heap of trouble?"

Damon blew out a breath. Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore- partners in crime. He thought it had a nice ring to it. He took her hand, pulling himself to his full height. With the best fake smile he could give, he gestured towards his door. "More than I'll ever be."

It was good enough for her.

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"Well, there you two are. I was starting to get worried. Did you forget about me so soon?"

Stefan's contemptuous voice billowed into Elena's ears as she sat down next to Damon. Stefan didn't sound worried at all, and it made her wonder what he was really thinking. She figured that it had something to do with getting Damon to follow Klaus' illogical orders.

Damon barked out a snarky response, keeping his jaw clenched. "And how could we ever forget you, dear brother? It's not like you haven't been off on a world-wide killing spree with your master, or anything."

Elena put a cautious hand on Damon's arm. The last thing she needed right now was to see the two brothers get in a fight to end all fights. Her and Damon needed to stick with the plan, or else they were all doomed.

When Elena straightened back out, and both her hands were neatly folded in her lap, she saw Stefan's face flash to hers. He gave her a shrewd look. It seemed to her that he was saying, "I was right to be concerned about you and Damon. The second I leave town, you can't keep your hands off each other." Elena shifted in her seat. Everything she had been trying to deny about her and Damon was quickly rushing to the surface.

She almost started to feel guilty, but when Stefan's mouth curled up into a repugnant smile, she felt the sensation completely vanish. She wasn't doing anything wrong; she was just trying to stay alive. And in order to stay alive, she needed Damon by her side.

She kept her gaze on her trembling hand, and then quickly closed them into fists. She wasn't going to show weakness. "Let's just jump right into this, shall we?" She didn't wait for an answer as she glared at Stefan. "What are you doing here and what do you want?"

"I can't visit my own brother and girlfriend without you thinking there is some secret motive behind it?" Stefan lounged back into the leather couch, placing his hands behind his head.

"No," Damon cut it, "You can't. So either tell us what you're doing here, or get out."

Stefan pouted. "Fine, if you want to do this the easy way, then we will. I will be more than happy to suck all the fun out of it."

Elena and Damon both nodded simultaneously, but Damon looked a little more bitter.

"Klaus has a proposition for you, Damon." Stefan pointed a finger in his direction, wagging it gently like a callous parent. "And I think we both know what happens when Klaus doesn't get what he wants."

Damon tried to hold his irritation it, but it proved difficult. "And what exactly would that proposition be?" He knew exactly what Klaus wanted from him, but he decided to play dumb. It would buy him time, after all.

Stefan chuckled, causing Elena's finger nails to cut into her palm. The sound of him laughing set her on edge like it never had before.

"Oh, come one, Damon. Let's not play idiot of the day here," Stefan drawled. "You remember that little game of fight 'till the death we had a while back?" He watched as Damon stiffened, keeping his mouth shut. "Of course you do. That's not something you could easily forget unfortunately. And let's not let the detail of why Klaus made you do those things fade away."

"We get it, Stefan," Elena scowled, tired of the game that he was playing, "Klaus wants to turn Damon into a hybrid. What we really want to know is why he thinks he can get away with it. Why Damon? And why right now?"

Stefan lifted his shoulders in an act of saying he really didn't know or care. "Because Klaus wants what he wants. You can't control what a selfish vampire will do in order to get that done." He sent a glance over to Damon, and then smiled. "Damon would know all about that, wouldn't you, Damon? After all, you're the most selfish vampire I know."

Elena turned her head to look at the vampire in question. He kept his own eyes on Stefan. "What is he talking about, Damon?"

Damon bit the inside of his cheek, waited a moment to make sure he could actually talk, and then he raised his eyebrows. "I have absolutely no idea."

Stefan tsked. "Sure you do, brother. The only reason you're keeping Elena around is because you love her. You don't care what she feels. All you care about is what you want. If that's not a selfish vampire, then I don't know what is."

Elena, feeling hot around the collar, tugged at her ratty tank-top. Stefan was going into unbridled territory, and she tensed at the sensation. If she wanted to talk about all that love stuff, she would go talk about it if and when she wanted to and only with Damon. The one thing she couldn't stand in a person was them assuming they knew someone else's emotions. Stefan didn't know what Damon was thinking, or how he felt about her. Stefan didn't even own his mind anymore, so who was he to tell Damon off like that?

"Damon is the least selfish person I know." Both males in the room stared at her, and it took Elena a moment to realize that she was the one that said it. She cleared her throat, jutting her chin out in her yeah-I-said-it expression. "If you really want to see someone selfish, then you can just go crawling back to Klaus. I think he'll be more than happy to tell you just what it means to be egotistical."

A momentary mask of surprise spread over Stefan's face, but he quickly composed himself with another slow building smile. "Well, don't you have some fire stored up in that tight, little body of yours. Damon's a lucky man." He leaned in closer to Elena. "Has he fucked you yet?"

Something snapped inside of Elena, and this time it was Damon that had to hold her back. But that still didn't stop her from running her mouth in her blind haste. "You fucking bastard!" She shrieked, struggling to get away from Damon's strong hold on her arms. "You loved me! Don't act like this means nothing, because it means everything! I waited for you every night, hoping that you would come back and just be okay. But that was wasted, wasn't it? You care for nothing but yourself, and the number of girls you can slaughter in one night." She had to stop, catching her breath and finally managing to sit still. Damon let her arms go, and as soon as he did, she did something both disgusting and childish. She spit on Stefan, putting every ounce of frustration and hatred behind it. "I hate you, and I hope I never have to see your face again after this. All the love I thought I had for you is gone."

The silence was deafening as Elena sucked in a breath, and her guilt was almost an impediment. Why did she say those things? She had just been so mad and there was no way she could have kept it in anymore. Why would Stefan say all those crude things about her body, and accuse her of sleeping with Damon? Why was he acting as if he never even loved her?

Damon had never acted that bad. Maybe she had been wrong all along. Maybe Stefan was never right for her, and maybe this was the real him. Maybe she had been blinded by something false all along.

Elena momentarily felt something warm on her cheeks, and before she could reach out her hand to feel what it was, she realized her eyes were swimming with tears. She had wanted to stay strong and fight her emotions like she had so many times before, but her body was emotionally and physically exhausted, and she knew that it was no use.

"Mmm, interesting," she heard Stefan say.

Elena only sighed this time, not able to quake up enough rage to scream at anyone anymore. "What?" She snapped at him.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how ironic it is that you're exactly like Katherine."

Disgusted, Elena left the room.

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Damon found her an hour later, lying face down on his bed sheets. Her hair was spread out around her, and her ankles were crossed in a lazy state. He couldn't tell if she was asleep, so he didn't say anything.

When Stefan had said all those horrible things about her, Damon had wanted to do nothing but torture his brother until he was crying his own blood. But he knew he couldn't, because Stefan had information that he desperately needed to know. And after forty-five minutes of back and forth banter between the two of them, he finally had his answers.

Yes, Klaus was coming to turn him into a furry, blood-thirsty mess. No, there was nothing he or Elena could do about it. Yes, if they tried to run, they would be hunted down and flayed alive, and no, Klaus did not want him just for his own personal amusement. There was a reason, but Stefan wouldn't say anymore on the topic.

He had left before Damon could ask any more questions. Where he had actually gone, Damon didn't know. He had probably gone running back to Klaus like the sucker he was- which unfortunately meant that Elena was now going to want to run. And they had about two weeks to do it.

"Klaus will come by in two weeks and make sure that you haven't run and that you are still alive. You are no fool, brother. I know you won't flee from your problems," Stefan said.

"And what if I do run? What can you possibly do to stop me?" Damon tried to keep his cocky smirk plastered on his face, but he felt it wavering.

Stefan shrugged. "If you run, then you run. There isn't anything I can do about that. But mind you that you won't be able to run forever, and the more you run, the more I chase."

"And what about Elena? If we both run, what are you going to do with her if Klaus catches us?" Damon was afraid of the answer, and all that followed it. If the answer was something horrible or involved Elena getting hurt, then the deal was off. He wasn't going to run if her life was on the line.

A slow, cruel smile radiated onto Stefan's face, and Damon felt his stomach roll. "Then Klaus will use her until she is no longer needed. And then she will die."

Damon cringed, and there was a small part of him that just wanted to beg at his brother's feet. He couldn't do this; he couldn't risk anymore of Elena's well-being. "And how will she die?" It was a horribly revolting thing for him to ask, and a part of him really just needed to know… for closure reasons only.

"You will be compelled to kill her. What else did you think would happen?"

Damon thought that he had never wanted to throw up so much in his entire life.

Damon sighed, looking at Elena on his bed, and shaking himself from his ghastly conversation with Stefan. Running would entail that her life would be over… and by his hand. She would never grow old, have a beautiful family with mini Gilberts running around, and she would never be happy.

She would just be gone.

As Damon ran a wearied hand over his eyes, he saw Elena shift from her position. She wasn't sleeping, he realized.

"You okay?" She asked.

Barking out a harsh laugh, Damon sat down next to her and took her smooth foot in his hands. He traced around the delicate ankle bone. "Never better. What about you?"

Part of her mouth quirked up in a useless smile, and he could see the water bordering her lower eyelashes. "Just peachy. Why wouldn't I be okay if someone basically just called me an evil, conniving bitch? It happens to me all the time," she stopped to punch Damon's pillow. "What did Stefan say when I left?"

He was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to tell her so bad that it physically hurt him. If he told her, then maybe she wouldn't want to go on a wild goose chase. But if he didn't tell her, then she was going to go on a wild goose chase, and she would wind up dead.

He was about to tell her everything, but somehow the words got stuck back in his throat, and all he ended up muttering was, "Nothing. He didn't say anything except that Klaus is coming in two weeks."

She nodded, and there was a very faraway look in her eyes. "Oh," she whispered. "And what happens then?"

Damon swallowed. "It doesn't matter, Elena. Nothing bad is going to happen to us."

"Right," Elena snorted, "Because it works every time we try to convince ourselves of that. Stefan was right. We're all just going to end up massacred." She jerked her leg away from Damon's grasp. "But he was wrong about one thing."

"And what is that?" Damon moved away from the bed, stripping his black shirt off that had just been put on earlier that night.

Coughing, Elena felt her face flush, her breathing getting oddly heavy. "I'm not like Katherine at all," she swallowed as she watched the muscles in Damon's back ripple, "I'm worse."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Damon quirked an eyebrow, giving off an awfully sexy stretch. "Last time I checked, you made sure that you and Katherine were nothing alike in any way besides your looks. What changed your mind?"

You are, Elena thought. You and your body, and your flirty glances, and the way you smell, and stretch, and the way you smile. All of that is getting to me, Damon. I'm about to give in, and do whatever I want with you. And that is why I'm everything like Katherine. I can't resist, just like she couldn't.

"Elena?" Damon waved a hand in front of her face, and then recoiled when he saw the look in her eyes. Her pupils were dilated, her face flushed, and her pink tongue peeked out to lick her dry lips. She looked, to his extreme amazement, like a sex deprived fanatic.

And as soon as her lusty look appeared, it vanished, and she looked as miserable as she had before.

"Damon, I have to tell you something."

He was hesitant to answer, and still a little shaken up from her wanton expression, but he quickly responded. "Okay, what is it?"

A million thoughts ran through her head all at once- things like: this is the biggest mistake of my life, and what is he going to think of me when this is over, and what is going to happen when I tell him all of this?

She took a deep breath in.

"I have to tell you about something Caroline said. It was her plan."

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A/N: I was originally supposed to finish and post this chapter last night, but I went to go see Breaking Dawn (sorry Vampire Diaries.) Is it wrong if I really like both Twilight and Vampire Diaries? Hope not, otherwise I'm screwed.

Hope this chapter didn't put you to sleep, and make sure to review!