A/N: I don't own The Vampire Diaries. This is my first TVD fic. This is totally an A/U story. I'm bending the timeline to fit my story just a bit. This idea just popped into my head and would not leave till I wrote it down so just go with it. This is just a fanfic so I'm taking creative license with these characters. It's all in good fun. I hope you enjoy this. Please review. I'd really appreciate it if you all would let me know if this is good enough to continue. Thanks :)

Chapter 1

Mystic fall's resident witch was finally enjoying some much needed down time. The past year had been nothing short of hellish having to deal with Klaus and his hybrids. But now that their motley crew of supernaturals, hybrids and humans finally got rid of Klaus with the help of a newly waken Elijah and Rebekah, things have finally calmed down enough to be considered borderline normal.

Bonnie was taking this rare moment of quite time to read over some of the grimories that she has collected from the Martins, Grams and Emily. It was Emily's grimorie that she was currently engrossed in as she lounges on her bed. She was so wrapped up in her research that when Caroline knocked on the front door the sound had the tiny brunette jumping up in fright. She moved so suddenly that she knocked the large tome off her lap and onto the floor.

Caroline hears the noise and flings open the front door and zooms up to Bonnie's room before the witch could blink. The delicate blonde wants to make sure that her longtime friend is ok. "Caro…you scared me with that loud knock. I was so into reading Emily's girmoire that you startled me." Bonnie watches Caroline blush as she bends down and picks up Emily's spell book.

"Sorry Bon. Sometimes I don't know my own strength." Caroline giggles softy and it's hard to remember just how strong the sweet blonde really is. "Hey what's this?" Caroline points to a yellowing piece of paper sticking out of the broken binding. It must have come lose when it had fallen from Bonnie's lap.

"I dunno…could be another spell." Bonnie shrugs her slender shoulders and gingerly pulls the aged note from the binding. She sets the grimorie on her bed and opens the note. Emily's familiar feminine scrawl is easily recognizable. Bonnie's hazel-green eyes widen when she realizes who the note is addressed to.

My Damon,

I must have written this letter a hundred times and each time I still don't have words enough to tell you all that needs to be said. I shouldn't have run off the way I did after you finished transitioning but I couldn't bear to stay and watch you become what Katherine had set out to make you. If only I had tried harder to stop her maybe things would have turned out much differently. Maybe in a different time and place the moments we shared could have blossomed into something more than just a few heated embraces.

All I can do now is to tell you the truth. The promise I had you make me was not only to protect my line but yours as well. The day I left I took a part of you with me. The child in my womb was just as much yours as he is mine. I write this in hast as I know the council is dangerously close to discovering where I have hidden myself away.

I know you will honor your side of the deal we made and keep my brother and my daughters and our son safe. I hope that someday you will find this letter and know that I have loved you until the last beat of my heart and have mourned your lost just as fiercely.

No amount of Katherine's compulsion can ever erase those memories of our brief time together in those cold winter nights when we were just a man and woman. When the color of our skin did not matter and the monsters that lived in the night were just part of children's fairytales. When we were just Emily and Damon. I hold on to those memories and know that someday you will let your humanity back in and remember what we once shared.

Affectionately Yours,

E.

Bonnie lets the delicate paper slip through her fingers as her mind tries to make sense of what she just read. Caroline quickly picks up the letter just as Bonnie races down the stairs. "Bonnie! Where are you going?" The blonde quickly catches up to her eerily silent friend. She watches as Bonnie hurriedly pulls on her black flats and tosses on a jacket.

"I have to go to my Gram's house." Is all Bonnie can manage to say. She needs answers before she starts to flip out. Caroline tells her that she is going with her and not to try and stop her. Bonnie just nods her head and takes the letter from Caroline's small hands. Caroline has yet to read the letter and has no clue what has her best friend so riled up.

They make it to Gram's house in record time. Bonnie quickly lets herself in while Caroline is stopped at the threshold. "Oh…I forgot. Come in Caroline." Since her Gram's passing Bonnie is now the owner of her grandmother's house. Shelia had left it and all its contents to Bonnie in her will.

The blond cheekily smiles as she steps into the familiar home. Caroline watches as Bonnie grabs a step stool so that she can reach the top of the tall bookcase. Bonnie pulls down a large leather bound book that contains her family tree. The tiny witch hastily flips through the pages until she finds the page with Emily's picture.

Under her picture shows that Emily had two daughters Myra and Hazel with her husband Samuel. Bonnie reads further and discovers that Samuel died from pneumonia shortly after Hazel was born in late 1862 leaving Emily a young widow with two small children. But another passage catches Bonnie's attention.

It seems in the late fall of 1864 Emily had given birth to a son named Solace Samuel Bennett with the father unknown. The child was born a month before the council hunted down the vampires. Shortly after the church fire the founding families found Emily and had her burned for her association with Katherine and the rest of the tomb vampires.

Emily's brother had managed somehow to escape with the three children and raised them as his own. Bonnie's heart is racing as she flips more pages before finding a sepia toned photo of a young man in his early twenties. He's standing with Emily's brother who has aged a great deal. The date on the photo is 1889, twenty five years after Emily's death.

Bonnie can hardly contain her gasp as she studies the photo of Solace Bennett. He's was tall and lean but well-built with wavy black hair. She can tell from the picture that his skin tone is light, possibly lighter than her own. He had Emily's nose and chin but must have inherited his father's piercing eyes and easy smirk.

It was the smirk that had Bonnie's hair on the back of her neck stand on edge. On Solace the smirk was playful not sinister like his fathers but the resemblance was there. Solace Samuel Bennett was the perfect mix of Emily and Damon. This picture was proof that Damon Salvatore was her great-great-great-great grandfather.

Bonnie doubled checked her Gram's line and discovered that Shelia had come from Solace's line and not his half-sisters Myra and Hazel. Bonnie wants to throw up and light something on fire all at the same time. This could not be happening. Bonnie was positive that the universe could not possibly hate her this much.

"Bonnie what the hell is going on here? You're tearing through these books like a crazy person." Caroline is seriously worried about Bonnie. She's never seen the usually cool and collected witch flip out.

"I need answers Caroline." Bonnie grabs the mystery letter and photo before practically running to her car with Caroline close on her heels. The tiny witch is ranting lowly to herself and Caroline is terrified that the blue Prius is going to go up in flames at any moment. Bonnie is driving so recklessly that Caroline is actually happy that she is immortal at this moment.

The tiny blue Prius skids to an abrupt halt in front of the Salvatore's boarding house. Bonnie hops out the car with the keys still in the ignition and the door wide open. Caroline is left to turn off the car and shut both doors as Bonnie stomps her way into the boarding house.

"Damon!" Both Stefan and Elena jump at the loudness of the tiny witch's voice. Neither has ever seen her pissed this much and both worry that Damon is finally going to get his ass lit on fire for real this time.

Damon on the other hand slinks like a panther down the stairs and smirks at the irate witch. Suddenly his mind flashes to Emily. Bonnie and she are so much alike that it sends a sharp pang in his black heart. Damon quickly pushes those memories back into the deepest corner of his mind hopefully never to surface again.

He puts on his best smirk and Bonnie's eyes flash hot. It's so similar but different from Solace that it has her head spinning. "You know judgey if you wanted to bask in my glorious presence all you had to do was call. You don't have to come stomping in here like a crazed Bieber fan." Damon invades Bonnie's personal space and twirls a dark chocolate curl around his finger.

"Explain this!" Bonnie glares at Damon while shoving the letter and picture roughly into his chest rumpling them both slightly. Damon gives her a bored expression as he lazily takes the letter and picture from Bonnie's small fist. He opens the letter and immediately his jaw tightens and his eyes narrow.

Damon's throat is suddenly dry and his heart is pounding loudly in his ears. He glances quickly between the letter and the photo. "Where did you get this?" His voice is low and menacing. "Where. Did. You. Get. This." He grabs Bonnie by her slender neck and leans down till he's peering into her hazel-green eyes. "Tell me now." Damon's voice is hard and cold.

Bonnie clutches Damon's wrist trying to ease the tension on her throat. She wants to give him an aneurism but the look in his icy blue eyes stops her. She can see the hurt, the pain, the regret swirling around like a perfect storm.

"It was hidden in the binding of her grimorie." Bonnie chokes out as the two of them are locked in some kind of personal bubble. Elena, Stefan and Caroline watch them with matching confused looks.

Damon lets go of her throat and slumps down on the bottom stair of the staircase. Caroline catches Bonnie as she coughs harshly trying to catch her breath. The blond glares daggers at a hunched over Damon. His head is in his hands as he fights the overwhelming rush of feelings and memories.

Too many lost moments flash through his mind. The first time he saw Emily, the first time they spoke and the first time he dared to kiss her. It was too much and he wanted to flip the switch so badly but the only thing keeping him from doing it was the picture of his son. His son.

Stefan crouches by his brother and takes the crumpled photo from his hand. Something flashes in his eyes and Bonnie notices that he doesn't seem so surprised. He knew. He knew and kept it from the both of them.

"I tried…I tried to save her. She was so stubborn and told me that it was her destiny to die and that I needed to keep her babies safe. I was such a fool." Damon laughs bitterly and Bonnie has never seen him so broken. Not even after he discovered Katherine wasn't in the tomb. This was different and Bonnie realized in that moment he truly did love Emily.

"Damon you can't blame yourself. You did your best by saving your son's life. It's not your fault you didn't know about him. This was all Katherine's doing." Stefan tries to reason with his brother. Stefan doesn't know how much more heartbreak his brother can take before completely giving up his immortal life.

"I held him once when I took Emily's family into hiding. He was so tiny. I should have known he was mine. I should have known." Damon slams his fist into the railing of the staircase violently. The old wood groans and cracks at the force of his fist.

He looks at Bonnie and he can see his mother's emerald eyes staring back at him. He should have known. Damon swallows roughly as he watches Bonnie rub the soreness from her tiny neck. He hates himself even more now. The elder Salvatore brother can't help but think that he manages to destroy everything good in his life.

The tiny brunette standing in front of him wants answers but he doesn't know how to give them to her. Damon's not sure if he's strong enough to let that part of him surface again. All those memories he's tried to bury with blood and booze hoping to dull the ache in his chest they cause.

"Start from the beginning." Bonnie's voice is low but firm. She's not leaving without answers. She glances at Damon before walking into the living room and taking a seat on the large leather sofa. Elena and Caroline are still confused as Stefan ushers them out of the boarding house. Caroline protests but Stefan knows what Damon and Bonnie need now is privacy.

Damon reluctantly makes his way over to the wet bar and pours himself a double shot of bourbon. He takes a deep sip as Bonnie watches him patiently. The vampire is oddly nervous for the first time in a long while. He takes a seat across from his great-great-great-great granddaughter and runs his hand through his longish black hair before he begins his tale of a forbidden love affair. A love that defied all logic. A love he shared with Emily Bennett.

A/N: Please Review. Next up a flashback to how Damon and Emily got together and how Katherine ruined their romance with her evil plans.