Hi y'all. It's been a while.

I'm just gonna say this straight: I fucked up. In 2014, an opportunity to publish fanfiction as LEGITIMATE FICTION came into my life, and I took it. I pulled down stories and put them on amazon, and after it was done, I couldn't get out of the contract. No matter how much screaming we did about the US only clause, there wasn't anything we could do. Then a miracle happened: the publishing division CLOSED and all of us got our rights back!

So I'm putting the stories back where they belong:

HERE.

For free.

Content Ratings restored.

I'm so sorry. I was selfish, and blind, and I know a lot of y'all are pissed off. You have every right.

MBT will be fully restored, original author notes and all. For Unthinkable, Sounds of Tomorrow, and Birthday Girls Love Boys Night, I'm gonna get you as close as I can, but some of my files are missing. Karma, I guess. I'm not even gonna tweak punctuation or anything that's going to embarrass the living fuck out of me and the writer I am now, because this was where we started. Where *I* started - clumsy and figuring it out, and with your endless support.

I couldn't have gotten to where I am today without you. And I'm so sorry I took these stories down.

Warning about Auto In: DOWNLOAD THE HELL OUT OF IT! It's being reworked as an original fiction, but I'm changing the gender of the main characters, and at some point, if push comes to shove, I may have to pull for copyright because so much is being kept.

Again: DOWNLOAD AUTO IN! I don't care – PLEASE! Keep it as it is now, because it is in a phoenix state, and I want you guys to be able to have BOTH: The original, and the re-roll with a new plotline.

Thus concludes my long apology, and without further ado:

Your story.

-goldnox

Chapter 1: Graduation Gift

I swirl the amber liquid in my glass, absently watching as the firelight seeps through the crystal and flicks geometric shadows on the carpet. The bourbon floats over intricately embedded rivets, and I feel and hear the weight as it sloshes and churns.

It's too quiet. There's no one in the house but me.

It didn't use to bother me so much. In fact, I enjoyed it. But the last few months have been loud. Arguments between me and my brother, me and Elena, Stefan and Elena, Elena and everyone. Opinions and decisions and threats and plans in a tsunami of conversations and visitors and slammed doors.

But they're all gone now. The veil is back up and Ric disappeared before I could even hand him his glass. Stefan is off to bury Silas, then he'll keep driving until it doesn't hurt to come back. The rest of the Save-Elena-Squadron is off on their own, probably celebrating with their parents over their compelled diplomas.

Elena left too, back to the school to see Jeremy one last time. I probably should have gone with her, but I know she wanted to be alone. And I wanted a moment with Ric, to celebrate that it really happened. I finally got the girl.

She'll be back, but I'm still counting the minutes, listening to the silence that I used to love and now loathe. I'd rather hear her laugh, jabbering away like a chipmunk on crack while on the phone with her friends. I'd even take listening to her scream and huff and stomp her foot before she slaps the shit out of me because I almost died again and refused to take the cure. Well, not the one that didn't come packaged in the hybrid asshole I'm not allowed to kill.

Anything is better than silence.

I jerk and jump when my phone lights up and vibrates across the table in front of me. Thing scared the shit out of me, it's so damn still in here. I glance at the name and smile. It's Elena.

I prepare myself for tears because her brother is gone, again. I'm secretly praying like holy hell she didn't flip her switch. There are only so many humans I can pretend to kill to turn her back on, and we're running short on rings.

"Hey."

"I need you to come to the school, and bring my car."

No crying, she just sounds shaky. Okay, that's fine. Understandable even. But there's only one reason we would ever need Elena's gas-guzzling tank of a vehicle instead of my beloved Camaro, and that's for hauling bodies. Which is why Stefan has it, but she doesn't know that.

"Who am I bringing it for?"

"I'll tell you when you get here."

Fuck, who did she kill?

"Just hurry. Please, Damon."

"I'll be right there," I tell her and I'm already out of my seat, pulling my keys out of my pocket.

I'm at the school in record time and when I pull up, Elena is standing outside under a tree. There's a body lying at her feet.

"Are you hurt?" I ask as soon as I have the door open, smelling her dried blood on the wind and even in the dark, I can see massive clots of it on her white dress. Right over her heart.

"I'm fine, I promise," she says as I blur to her, taking her face in my hands and checking her over. There are streaks of red on her forehead and lips, a spot on her neck where it looks like she was stabbed, but they're all healed. No signs of werewolf toxin or vervain or anything else that could cause her more pain.

I lock my muscles and heart, making myself look into her eyes.

She's there.

Not cold or detached, just a little amped from whatever fight she was in and looking relieved that I'm here. For the first time since she called, I can breathe. I lean my forehead to hers and let my other senses bleed back now that I'm not in rescue mode, trying to remember that she already took care of whoever hurt her.

Inhale, exhale. Like it's no big deal. They're dead and she's fine.

I take another breath so I can drown in her shampoo and perfume and I hear it. A heartbeat. She didn't kill them.

"See?" she says quietly, pride in her voice as she strokes her thumbs over my cheekbones. I wonder if she knows how much it calms me when she does that. "Perfectly fine. She, however," she says and tilts her head toward the prey, "is going to have one hell of a shock when she wakes up."

I glance at the "she" and I freeze. It's fucking Katherine.

I must look like some sort of cartoon character because I'm glancing back and forth between Elena and her double lying on the ground, the whole time trying to make myself come to terms with the sound thumping through the air.

I place two fingers to Elena's neck, and her pulse is wonderfully slow. It's just like mine. I look at the body on the ground and it's absolutely Katherine. No doppelganger hijinks, she's fully clothed in a get-up from Whores-R-Us, complete with caked-on makeup and curled hair with no red highlights.

I glance back at Elena and I've never loved those flashes of crimson woven through chocolate more than I do right now.

I crouch down and check Katherine's pulse, and it's quick and strong. She's breathing like she needs to, not because its habit.

"Elena?" I ask because I need to hear her say it.

"I kinda cured her," she says, biting her lip in an effort to hide her mischievous grin.

"You kinda cured her?" I shake my head in disbelief. "You cured Katherine?"

"Well, yeah. What, are you mad?"

Her face shifts into guilty and I don't have an answer, don't know where to start. I'm still trying to decide how I would have felt if Elena had taken it.

I tried to give it to her and she said no, but I figured that at the very least she would hold onto it and after a few years she'd change her mind, like she does about everything. I really wanted it for Stefan, so he could be free of the ripper that haunts him. We should've used it on Silas. But Katherine? That shit never even occurred to me.

"Look," she huffs when I don't respond, "she was trying to kill me and it was either die or cure her so I shoved it in her mouth."

Die or cure her? I'm pretty sure if I was human I would be having a fucking stroke right now because just how close did Katherine come to taking her from me? And not even an hour after she finally tells me she loves me with real, one hundred percent no-confusion-or-sire-bond manipulated feelings? Jesus Christ, who did I kill to deserve that? I don't recall eating any popes or saints, at least that I know of.

"I'm not sorry I did it," she snaps at me, temper flaring and pulling me from the list of people I've ended. "She's human, and we finally have the upper hand. She ruined both our lives and she deserves to die. Don't you want to kill her for what she did to you and Stefan? To Jeremy?"

"I have tried to kill her."

"Good, now we-"

"Elena," I stop her because my brain is on overload and she's talking too fast. "What about you?"

"I already told you I didn't want it. And I offered it to Stefan, he didn't want it either."

"Where the fuck was I when this happened?"

"I don't know," she shouts, pointing at the street-walker image of her I'm still kneeling next to. "Are you seriously mad at me about this?"

"No, I'm not," I say and stand up. No point in obsessing over the coulda, shoulda, woulda's now. What's done is done, and Elena is immortal and chose to stay that way. I don't have to watch her get old or die. Suddenly, forever doesn't feel that far out of reach. "I'm just…shocked. And frankly, I'm fucking impressed."

"Really?" she beams.

"Hell yeah," I tell her, and I mean it. "You kicked Katherine's ass and served her up a lifetime of PMS and wrinkles. Bitch is gonna be miserable, if she even lives long enough to worry about that shit. There's a line of people that are going to be clamoring to get their hands on her, including a certain original that is in the market for a Petrova blood bag."

I laugh for what feels like the first time in months and wish I had some champagne. I would've brought it with me if I'd known this was the big emergency, but fuck it, there's some back at the house. This is like Christmas. I couldn't be happier if Elena had wrapped the slut in a big red bow.

"We can't sell her to the highest bidder," Elena frowns at me.

"Why not?"

"Because we're the highest bidder." She holds up her hand for a high five and I give in, grinning as my hand meets hers. She catches it and winds her fingers through mine, eyeing me for a minute and I do the same, taking in the wonder before me. "What?"

"Nothing," I shrug. "My girlfriend's a badass, that's all."

"Takes one to know one," she smirks and I swear I haven't seen her this happy since it actually was Christmas and she was dangling mistletoe above us.

"So, what do you want to do with your loot, Gilbert?" I sling Katherine's limp body over my shoulder and catch Elena glaring at me. "Don't start," I tease, "you gonna drag her to the car?"

"I dragged her from the hallway," she grumbles.

"By her hair, I imagine?"

"Maybe."

I chuckle and take her chin under my thumb, lifting a kiss from her lips. "You're hot when you're jealous."

"Just shut up and drop her in the trunk already," she snaps but can't hide the smile she's fighting. "Where's my car?"

"Stefan's on Silas duty," I tell her and she nods.

I plop the bane of my existence in the trunk without ceremony, as requested by the love of my life, and I have half a mind to just keep the bitch locked in here until she bites it but I'd never get the smell out. Back to the cellar she'll go.

I shut the lid on her and I don't even have my keys back in my pocket before I'm thinking about all the ways I'm gonna reward Elena for this once I get her out of that white dress and into my bed.

What a great fucking day.

"Elena…"

We both turn towards the voice that shouldn't be here. I instinctively step in front of Elena and shield her because I don't know if Silas is free or if the veil dropped again, but there's no fucking way that's Jeremy.

"Elena, get in the car and go," I tell her but she doesn't move. "Elena, go."

"Jeremy?"

Shit. She's not listening, not calculating. All she sees is her brother and that's why nothing has ever been more dangerous than that crusty old morphing son of a bitch.

"It's me, Elena," he smiles at her, then nods at me. "Hey, Damon."

"Stay the fuck back."

"Damon," Elena scolds.

"Elena, Jeremy is gone. Think about this. Get in the car," I growl at her, never letting my sight leave the figure walking towards us.

"Dude, it's me. Bonnie did a spell when she put the veil back up and she brought me back."

"Then where is she?"

"She…left. To go see her mom."

That was a bold faced lie if I've ever heard one. "How convenient."

"Damon, it's me. I swear."

"Oh, you swear? That's great. Take one more step and you're fucking dead."

"Damon!" Elena yells behind me, but I don't care. I'm not letting her get attacked for what, the fourth or fifth time today? I've lost count. Great sign.

"Elena, it's me," he pleads.

"Don't talk to her, don't you fucking look at her!"

"Jeremy, if it's you, then prove it," she says quietly behind me.

"Okay. You're adopted. We're actually cousins, but you'll always be my sister. Even though you got this asshole to compel me to go to Denver and then you made out with him when you came to get me. Which was awesome, by the way," he says and rolls his eyes. "Anything else?"

"Yep," I say without hesitation. Silas knew a whole bunch of shit when he pretended to be Stefan, and I don't know what the limits are on his mind reading ability but we're gonna play this for a while.

"Fine. I broke my arm at the lake house where Damon took me when I learned how to be a Hunter," he says and turns to me. "Though you were a total dick the whole time about it. And Kol compelled you to kill me, but you didn't. You helped me run from you, and when you came close you begged me to kill you instead."

"Keep going."

"Jesus, you're paranoid."

"You have no idea," I scowl at him and he shrugs, indifferent.

"You compelled me to forget Vickie's death after you turned her, and you offered to compel me after Anna died, but I said no. You love my sister, and for some God-forsaken reason she loves you too, even though you snapped my neck."

"Damon…" Elena says and inches around to my side.

"Not yet," I tell her, wrapping my arm around behind me so she's locked in my grasp.

"He's got some serious trust issues," Maybe-Jeremy says to her then looks back at me. "Which isn't surprising, considering everyone thinks you're a dick. Including your best friend, Ric, who's a ghost but I can see him because Bonnie brought me back to life after Sheriff Forbes shot me." He stops and puts his hands in his pockets, staring at his shoes. "You feel responsible for my death."

"I do not," I scoff and his head snaps up, sporting the stubborn grin that I get at least three times a day from his possibly-sister.

"Yeah, then how come you're always hanging around my grave in the middle of the night when you think no one's-"

"Go hug your brother before I kill him again," I snarl and don't hold Elena back when she runs around me.

She slams into him and he rocks back on his heels, and I catch the uptick in a pulse that's coming from where he's standing.

Holy shit. The kid is back. Bonnie actually did it.

But that doesn't explain why she's not here, and Jeremy can't lie for crap. Something's wrong with the witch.

He smiles at Elena and I can see her wiping tears from her eyes. I'll get the truth out of him later.

"Damon, it's really him," she glances back and smiles at me. "You're alive," she whispers, holding her hand over Jeremy's heart.

He looks to me and I can't help but smile at him.

He's the best graduation gift that I never could have given her.