❝a few threats here and there never hurt anybody❞ 

ELENA GASPS AS SHE TURNS AROUND, COMING FACE TO FACE WITH A GLARING DAMON.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Elena echoes, watching his eyes going to where Rose was walking up behind them. "You called him?"

Rose sighs. "I'm sorry, Elena."

"You said that you understood,"

Damon rolled his eyes. "She lied,"

His blue eyes looked down at Elena, who looked as if she was going to argue back, but they were all silenced when the human strutted up to him with a wide grin. "Damon Salvatore."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at Rose. "Get rid of her." Rose follows his order and drags the girl away as she fawns over his presence and he rolls his eyes. "You're leaving."

"No."

"I said you're leaving. We are leaving."

Elena shakes her head stubbornly. "I'm not going with you."

"You don't get to make decisions anymore."

She scoffs, holding her hands out frustratedly. "When do I ever get to make decisions? You and Stefan do that for me. Now this, this is my decision."

"How is Stefan going to save your life while you're out making decisions?" He asks, fed up with her annoying stubbornness.

"You're not listening to me, Damon, I don't want to be saved. Not if it means Klaus is going to kill every single person I love."

Damon rolls his eyes and laughs humorlessly. "That's the only time I've ever agreed with anything you say, and I can't even do anything about it anymore. Get your ass out the door, before I drag you out. Now." Damon grabs her arm and she wrenches away from, swinging a fist at him. He catches it before she hits him and glares down at her, squeezing her hand dangerously tight.

Elena groans in pain when her bones start to creak under the pressure, and tries to pull her hand away from Damon. "Never do that again." He snarls the words into her face and she flinches backwards, still gasping in pain. "Or I will kill you."

He lets go of her, pushing her away like merely touching her has burned him, and walks towards the bedroom Rose had shut Alice in.

A few minutes later, he walks out and stares at the two girls determinedly. "It's time to go. Alice is soundly sleeping and won't remember a moment of this horribly stupid day."

Suddenly, the doors burst open and Damon snaps his head over to the intruders. He groans under his breath, seeing the three men standing there. Damon looks at Rose with wide eyes, silently warning her, and she pulls Elena back despite the doppelgänger's resistance.

"We're here to meet the doppelgänger."

Elena attempts to step forward and Damon rolls his eyes. "Thank you for coming,"

"I will break your arm." He shoves her backwards towards Rose and turns back to Klaus's lackeys with an arrogant smirk. "There's nothing here for you."

Before he can blink, Damon watches the man closest to the doorway fall with a crack of his neck. He sighs when he sees Elijah standing behind him, and groans under his breath. "Great. And now you're here."

Elijah speeds in between the other two and eyes them annoyingly, before shooting his glare towards Damon. "Do I need to kill you again?"

Elijah rolls his eyes and they land on one of his brother's minions. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Elijah." He smirks as the man's face drops into one of recognition, fear filling his eyes.

"We were going to bring her to you, for Klaus. She's the doppelgänger. I don't know how she exists, but she does. Klaus will want to see her."

Elijah ignores his words. "Does anyone else know that you're here?"

"No."

His smirk widens, almost a smile if not for the calm threat obvious in his stance. "Well, then, you have been incredibly helpful." In a quick movement, Elijah plunges his hands into their chests and pulls their hearts out, dropping them carelessly on the floor.

Elena gasps in shock from behind Damon, who huffs at the dramatics. He flutters a wave at Elijah, who simply glares and disappears nearly as fast as he'd come.

Damon looks over his shoulder, noting Rose's disappearance. He looks at Elena and shrugs cockily. "Are you ready to leave now?"

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"Thank you for bringing me home."

"I didn't have much of a choice. Your ride left you and I'd get a lecture from Stefan if I left you stranded."

Damon eyed Elena's porch, scrunching his face up in disgust, unable to truly prevent it.

Elena shakes her head at his ire for Rose, and shrugs it off. "She was just scared. She didn't mean to run."

"Yes, she did." Damon snaps, eyeing Elena like she was stupid. "She's been running for 500 years."

Elena ignores him in favor of recalling the Original. "I can't believe Elijah's alive. Why do you think he killed those two vampires and just let us go?"

The vampire rolled his eyes. "If I had a dollar for every time Elijah's behavior made me question his sanity."

Elena frowns confusedly at his words, but walks towards her front door silently. Damon stops her, wrenching her back around to face his glare. "What you did today was incredibly stupid."

"Actually, the only thing that was stupid was that I got caught." Elena pulls her arm away from his grip, glaring up at the vampire. "I don't question why Stefan, or you, or anyone else tries so hard to save me. You shouldn't question why I would try to save all of you."

Damon squints his eyes. "I don't need you to save me, Elena." He bites out, still practically snarling down at her. "No matter if you're dead or alive, I'll still be here. Stefan will get over you eventually, and I think I have a better chance of living to see that day than you do."

Elena's face drops and she steps away from him, trying to put distance between him and his harsh words.

The front door swings open, and Damon's glare shifts to Jeremy. "What? What is it?"

"It's Stefan."

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Damon hurries down the stairs to the tomb, rolling his eyes when he hears Elena yelling out for Stefan. He grabs her by her shoulder and pushes her against the wall outside of the tomb before she can run inside of it. "Don't you dare."

"How could you let this happen?"

"Me?" He asks disbelievingly, staring down at the doppelgänger angrily. "I was too busy rescuing you from your crazy kamikaze mission to have anything to do with this!"

"You didn't even have to go after the moonstone in the first place." She bites back, still staring at him with teary eyes at the news of Stefan's inevitable fate in the tomb.

"You don't know what I had to do! It was the right call,"

"Right call? How is any of this the right call?" She shoves against him, grunting in annoyance. "Damon, let go of me! Damon!"

"Are you done?" He lets go of her and backs away, quickly stepping in front of the tomb when she moves to go in. "Don't."

She sighs out frustratedly, and goes to leave the tomb, but Damon calls out to her and stops her in her tracks. "Let's get one thing clear, Elena. You pull something like this again and I'll be the one to kill you."  

She turns away quickly, not bothering to stop her tears this time as she runs back into the woods, away from Damon and his bitter words.

With a roll of his eyes, Damon turns towards the open tomb. "Of all the idiot plans, Stefan,"

"Yeah," Stefan nods, smiling sarcastically at his brother as he approaches.

"I'll find a way to get you out."

"No, that's alright. I'll, uh, I'll handle myself."

Damon narrows his eyes at his brother.

"Bonnie has the moonstone. Work with her, try to figure out how to de-spell it."

"You martyr yourself into a tomb and I get partnered with a semi-competent witch. Wonderful."

Stefan huffs a humorless laugh, glancing down at the dirt covered ground before he looks back up at Damon. "Keep Elena away from here."

Damon scoffs. "Yeah, cause that'll be easy."

"Promise me. That no matter what happens to me, you'll protect her."

Damon smirks, eyeing his brother's solemn face. "Promise."  He pulls his hand up from his side and wriggles his fingers. "Fingers crossed, brother."

Stefan watches his brother go warily, sighing to himself when he hears Katherine approach him. "That right there was the biggest mistake you've ever made."

Stefan ignores her, and walks past her further into the tomb. But he knows, deep down, that she's right. He just doesn't know if they're thinking about it in the same context. He hopes they aren't.

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author's note; crazy that i was writing this book before covid started... 

edited and published; 9.23.21. 

- liz