1,076I avoided TVD for the first three years of the show mainly because I thought the title sounded ridiculous. I should have learned my lesson about ridiculous-sounding titles with Buffy. TVD is absolutely fantastic, and I'm glad I caved to all the peer pressure of friends and roommates trying to convince me to watch it.
Anyway, this story. Ever since I got to the S3 finale and saw the infamous "Elena meets Damon first" scene, I've been obsessed with the idea of what could've happened if he hadn't made her forget. I've read a few fics with that premise but I wanted to explore the idea myself. I wondered what tiny detail unrelated to Damon's or Elena's actions I could tweak that would set things off, and killing Elena's cell phone before she could call a ride seemed like the simplest. So everything about the characters and the situation is exactly as it was the night of the bonfire, except that Elena's phone is dead. The characters will be completely themselves, so far as I am able to write them correctly, and the differences from canon will come from how they react to the snowball of changing circumstances.
Even though I started writing this before the S4 finale, I incorporated new backstory information about the characters involved as the show went on. The whole point is to be able to feel like the setup is exactly what it was in canon but one tiny detail kicked off the butterfly effect.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Elena stormed away from the bonfire, needing to put as much distance between herself and Matt as possible. Gradually, the sounds of music and laughter faded to almost nothing. She slowed down, some of her anger ebbing away. She wasn't even sure why she had blown up at him like that; he hadn't said anything new. Maybe Bonnie was right. She had tried being more than friends with him—tried for most of the school year—but it just wasn't working, and instead of telling him that like a reasonable person, she was lashing out. Should she break up with him? She didn't think she could keep doing this, but the thought of losing him completely was too painful.
She heaved a sigh and pulled out her cell phone. She'd tried to use it to call her parents for a ride home when she first left the party, only for the low battery sign to flash and the device to die seconds later. No doubt she would find about two hundred pictures of the inside of her pocket when she recharged it. Again.
She held the power button and waited. She only needed it to stay on long enough to make one tiny call. Otherwise she'd be facing two equally unappealing options: walking five miles alone in the dark to get home or returning to the bonfire and risking running into Matt again. "Come on, come on," she muttered. But though the screen did light up briefly, she couldn't make it dial before it died again. "Ugh, you've got to be kidding me." She shoved her phone back in her pocket and grimaced. A five-mile walk it would be, and she wasn't exactly wearing hiking boots. It would be way past midnight by the time she got back. At least her eyes were adjusting now that she wasn't by the fire anymore.
"Katherine."
Elena looked up in surprise; a moment ago, she'd been sure she was alone on this stretch of road, but now an unfamiliar man was standing a few yards in front of her, staring at her as though he couldn't believe his eyes. "Um…no, I," she said, frowning and looking around to check that he hadn't been talking to someone behind her. There was no one. "I'm Elena."
Whoever this guy was, he was absolutely gorgeous. Early twenties, maybe. Not particularly tall but definitely dark and handsome, with his slightly tousled black hair, angular brows, and amazingly bright eyes. The v-neck and leather jacket were really working for him too, and there was clearly some muscle tone going on underneath.
"Oh." He looked even more confused than she felt. "You…you just look…uh." He blinked and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said, walking closer. "You just really remind me of someone." He stopped. "I'm Damon."
"Not to be rude or anything, Damon," said Elena, shifting her weight uncomfortably, "but it's kinda creepy that you're out here in the middle of nowhere."
"You're one to talk," he said lightly. "You're out here all by yourself."
"It's Mystic Falls," she said, gesturing at their surroundings. "Nothing bad ever happens here." He offered no reply and his expression was inscrutable. She felt a sudden urge to explain what she was doing, so she jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the bonfire. "Got into a fight with my boyfriend," she said.
"About what?" said Damon with interest. He seemed to realize that this was a more personal question than was strictly proper from a twenty-second acquaintance, as he quickly held up his hands and added, "May I ask?"
Elena shook her head. "Life…future. He's got it all mapped out."
He looked at her shrewdly. "You don't want it?"
She shrugged. "I don't know what I want."
"Well that's not true," he said confidently. "You want what everybody wants."
Elena tilted her head and smiled a little. Was he flirting with her? "What?" she said, "A mysterious stranger who has all the answers?"
He chuckled and looked off to the side. "Let's just say I've been around a long time. I've learned a few things." He made a mock serious expression and nodded.
Amused, she decided to play along. "So, Damon, tell me. What is it that I want?"
He squinted at her as if he'd be able to see the answer if he just looked close enough. "You want a love that consumes you," he said, drawing a few steps closer. "You want passion and adventure, and even a little danger."
He came to a stop barely two feet away. His eyes were so beautiful it was hard to believe they were real. Elena wanted to be able to describe them exactly when she wrote in her diary later tonight. Pale blue irises set off by darker blue rings at the edges and framed by thick, black lashes. They seemed to hint at some vast, barely contained energy and a few dozen secrets at least. She was already getting lost in them. "So...what do you want?" she said, trying to keep the banter going but unable to stop her voice from faltering.
His mouth opened and closed. She'd clearly taken him by surprise with her question. Soon enough, however, a charming smirk stole over his features. "For now, I want nothing more than to see the lovely Miss Elena safely to her destination." Before she quite realized what he was doing, he caught one of her hands and brought it up to his lips.
Elena felt herself blushing and her smile widened into a grin. "I'm not sure I should hold you to that. It's a five-mile walk to my house."
"Ah," he said, releasing her hand. "Phone die before you could call a ride?"
"Yep."
"I'd lend you mine but, like my car, it's back at my place about a mile up the road."
She let out a little laugh. "You mean you walked here?"
"It's pretty country," he said, shrugging. He stepped to the side and swept an arm out in the direction she'd been walking before he turned up. "Shall we?"
"I guess I'll just have to channel my inner Elizabeth Bennet," she sighed as they started walking. "After all," she went on in her best British accent, "what is one mile of good road? A very easy distance, I should think. Certainly easier than five."
Damon laughed. "If you're Elizabeth, who does that make me?"
"I'll let you know," said Elena slyly. He was no Mr. Collins, that much was obvious.
For a minute or two, they walked in amiable silence. Every ten seconds or so, Elena would sneak a glance at Damon, her blush and his smirk returning whenever he caught her in the act. They were just about to start across Wickery Bridge when he asked, "You wouldn't happen to be related to any Pierces, would you?"
She frowned. "I don't think so," she said. "My last name is Gilbert and my mom's maiden name is Sommers, so if I am, I guess it's more distant than that."
"Gilbert, huh? As in one of the renowned founding families of Mystic Falls?"
She smiled. "Yeah, actually. My parents are really into that stuff. How do you know about it?"
"Well I'm a Salvatore," said Damon, splaying a hand over his chest. "I haven't spent a whole lot of time in town lately but I've got as much family history here as you. There's a good chance my uncle Zach knows your parents."
"Wow," said Elena. Whatever small amount of unease she might have felt about agreeing to get a ride home from a virtual stranger was gone at this revelation. "Yeah, he's friends with my dad. I never knew he had a nephew."
"He's not one to brag," said Damon, shooting her a cocky smirk, at which she grinned and rolled her eyes. "But he has two nephews, actually."
"Does that mean you have a brother or a cousin?"
"Brother. He's a few years younger than me. Still stuck in that brooding, tortured teen phase. You wouldn't like him."
Elena giggled. "Is he in town too?"
Damon shrugged. "Couldn't tell you. We had kind of a falling out. Haven't seen him in a while."
On the surface, his attitude seemed indifferent, but Elena thought she could hear something else in his tone. "I'm sorry," she said.
"You don't even know the circumstances," said Damon. Now he sounded amused. She got the impression he didn't believe she could actually care about his relationship with his brother.
"Well I know I wouldn't like being on the outs with my little brother," she said. "Jeremy can be a major pain sometimes, but I love him. We don't spend as much time together as when we were little kids, but still…."
"Stefan and I were best friends when we were kids," said Damon. There was definitely a wistful edge to his tone now.
"What changed?" said Elena. She glanced over at him in time to see a rueful smirk slide over his features.
"What else? We fell for the same girl."
"That doesn't sound like fun," said Elena with a wince.
"Oh, it wasn't, believe me."
"You two fought over her?"
"We would have, if either of us had known that she was dating us both at the same time."
"She was sneaking around behind your backs?" Elena gasped. How could anyone do that? Especially to a pair of brothers?
"By the time we realized what she'd been doing, it was too late to do anything about it."
"What do you mean?" said Elena, pulled out of her thoughts of what kind of woman would be so heartless as to string two brothers along like that.
"There was a fire," said Damon. "She didn't make it out."
"Oh my God, that's so awful," said Elena quietly. "Are you okay?" she asked, reaching out and touching his arm.
He stopped walking and looked down at the fingers brushing the sleeve of his jacket. She let them fall back to her side and watched his face closely. His eyes met hers. There it was again—that disbelief that she could care so much about the troubles of someone she had only just met. "It was a while ago," he said.
It was obvious to her that whatever this girl had done to him and his brother, he had been very much in love with her. He stuck his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans and started walking again. Elena followed suit, trying to think of a more neutral topic to discuss. "So why would you think I'm related to any Pierces?" she said, remembering his earlier question. "Was it about the girl I remind you of?"
"Katherine," he supplied. "And you don't just remind me of her, you could be her twin. It's kinda freaky."
"Well, they do say everyone has a double," said Elena, trying to shake off the unsettled feeling she got at the idea. But then she looked around at Damon sharply as something clicked together in her brain. "She's the girl, isn't she?"
"The girl who wrapped me and Stefan around her little finger?" he said. "Yep. That was Katherine."
Elena fell silent as she considered all of this.
"I thought I'd run into her ghost when I saw you," he went on, some of the bewilderment he'd shown in those first few moments coming back into his voice. "But I can already tell that the similarities pretty much end with looks."
"Really?" said Elena. She was surprised that he wanted to keep talking about anything Katherine-related. Maybe he'd just never had a chance to before. "What was she like?"
"Very selfish, crafty, and manipulative—all of which I'm sure you already worked out—but also very…fun, confident, and unpredictable. I'd never met anyone like her before." There was a soft, faraway look in his eyes, but it quickly dimmed into something much more solemn. "I'd do anything to get her back."
"Even after everything with your brother?"
"Stefan hated her after he found out the truth, but I got past it. If I had another chance to be with her, I'd take it in a heartbeat."
Elena was still a little incredulous of the idea that he could forgive Katherine and love her so much in spite of everything, but even if it didn't make sense to her, she could see that he was sincere. "I'm sorry you lost her," she said.
He looked around at her with an eyebrow raised. "Come on, we met less than twenty minutes ago. If you keep saying stuff like that, I might start to believe that you actually care."
"Well maybe I do," she said, ramming him playfully with her shoulder. "Don't be so cynical. Is it really such a crazy thought?"
"Maybe not," he said with a retaliatory pretend shove, his eyes dancing. "I just haven't seen a lot of it. People are usually too wrapped up in themselves to give a crap about anyone else."
She shook her head, still grinning, and shot him a look that he didn't miss.
"Oh, no, I saw that," he said, waving a finger at her.
"Saw what?" she said innocently.
"You're about to make it your personal mission to restore my faith in humanity," he accused.
She let her mouth fall open in mock indignation. "I am not."
"Well that's good," he said with a pompous little nod that had her suppressing another giggle. "Because I'm a lost cause."
"You don't believe that," Elena scoffed.
Damon chuckled. "Sure I do. I've known me a lot longer than you have."
"Okay, so advantage Damon on that, but it doesn't automatically mean you're right." She was rapidly losing her ability to treat this conversation like a joke. "Give me a chance to prove it to you."
He stopped walking for a second time. "You sure you want to start down that road?" he said, piercing her through with the full intensity of his gaze. His voice dropped to something that was nearly a growl. "What if you find dangers there? Dangers you never dreamed were possible."
His eyes flared slightly and her pulse quickened. She was visited by the fleeting thought that maybe the secrets those eyes promised were frightening, dark, and disturbing things that ought to remain hidden, but she immediately dismissed the idea as ridiculous. She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side. "I thought you said danger was what I wanted," she said, raising an eyebrow in challenge.
Whatever he'd expected from her, it obviously hadn't been that. He goggled at her for a few seconds before letting out a laugh—a real laugh that set his eyes alight and changed the shape of his face to make him even more gorgeous than he already was. Despite the funny things that was doing to her insides, Elena beamed in triumph.
"I like you, Elena Gilbert," said Damon decisively when the laughter finally subsided and they started walking again. "And you've got a deal, just don't say I didn't warn you."
"Fair enough," said Elena wryly. "What kind of time frame am I working with here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you just visiting your uncle or are you in Mystic Falls to stay?"
"Oh, I'll be here at least a few months." He shot her a sideways look. "Think that'll be long enough to cure me of my anti-social tendencies?"
"Should be," she said.
"You're very confident for someone who just met me."
"And you're very easy to talk to for someone who claims to be incurably anti-social."
Damon laughed again. "Uh-oh, maybe I'm the one who should get out while I still can."
"Nope," said Elena. "Too late for that. You already agreed to the deal."
"Oh well," he said. "Figure out which character I am yet?" She frowned and was on the verge of asking him what he was talking about when he raised a warning finger at her and added, "If you tell me I'm Elizabeth's repulsive cousin, the deal is off."
"Oh yeah!" she said. "Pride and Prejudice." She cast him a thoughtful look. "I don't know. I think it's a toss-up between Mr. Bingley and Colonel Fitzwilliam."
"No, not them!" Damon cried, clutching dramatically at his chest and turning his head away in a grimace as though she'd wounded him.
"I don't see why not," laughed Elena. "Elizabeth got along great with both of them."
"It still doesn't fit," said Damon. "Bingley is a spineless puppy and I distinctly remember that Fitzwilliam is not handsome. I'm not settling for anything less than Darcy or Wickham."
"Then you'll just have to wait a while longer for me to figure it out," said Elena, eyebrows raised and nose in the air. Damon definitely had a bad boy vibe, so she could see why he'd like the idea of being Wickham, but she didn't want to cast him as the villain. And as much as the idea of him as the Darcy to her Elizabeth made her heartbeat speed up, she reminded herself forcefully that under all the jokes and banter, he was still mourning his girlfriend—a situation made even more complicated by the fact that said girlfriend happened to look just like her. She would not let herself go there. He needed a friend, not a rebound girl.
At last they arrived at the Salvatore boarding house. Elena had seen the place a few times—there wasn't much in Mystic Falls she hadn't seen—but she'd forgotten how huge it was.
"Doesn't look like anyone's home," said Elena, observing all the darkened windows.
"I think Zach had some errands to run," said Damon. "Anyway, it's probably a little late for the tour, so if you just want to wait out here, I'll run in and grab my keys and pull my car around."
"Okay," said Elena, smiling.
Before she had a chance to feel nervous about where she was, he was back, driving a light blue classic convertible around to where she stood waiting. She was about to get in on her own when he hopped out and quickly walked around to open her door for her. The old-fashioned gesture made her smile. Matt did stuff like that all the time too, as did her dad, and her mom was currently attempting to drill the habit into Jeremy.
"Alright," he said once he was back inside the car. "Where am I taking you?"
She rattled off the directions to her house and off they went. For some reason, the ride felt more awkward than the walk had been. Elena suddenly became aware of the possibility that she might have inconvenienced him with this little adventure and was determined to make up for it. "So, uh," she said when they were about three quarters of the way there, "You pretty much rescued me tonight. Think I could return the favor by buying you dinner sometime?"
"Return the favor?" he scoffed, and immediately the weird tension was broken. "Elena, I'd never turn down an offer for free dinner, but if you're gonna make this about keeping score, then you'd better be prepared to lose. I'm very competitive."
Elena grinned. "Challenge accepted."
"I've already warned you about me once, but I'll give you another chance," he said. He tossed her his phone, which he must've grabbed when he went in for his keys. "So either put yourself in my contacts or don't. I won't check it until I'm back home."
Elena rolled her eyes and flipped it open. "Nice background picture," she snickered. It was a photo of his car.
"Hey, this car is my baby," he said, patting the dash. "What else would I use as my background picture?"
Maybe a picture of Katherine, she thought, but said nothing as she found his contact list. It was extremely short, not even taking up the entire screen. The only names on it were Bree, Lexi, Stefan, Will, and Zach. She had barely finished putting her number in when Damon pulled up in front of her house. Once again, he managed to get out and around the car to open her door before she could so much as reach for the handle. He then proceeded to hand her out as though it was a carriage rather than a car, and she giggled when he used his grip on her hand to spin her around.
"Why thank you," she said.
"The pleasure was all mine," he replied cheekily, bending to kiss the back of her hand like he'd done when they first embarked on their journey.
"And thanks again for the rescue," she said more seriously as she handed back his phone. "See you soon?"
He smirked. "It's a definite possibility."
X
The last few years had been quiet for Zach Salvatore—almost quiet enough for him to relax and pursue some kind of a normal life. But not quite. There was still and would always be the threat of his uncles, which was why he had severed any social connections outside the Founders' Council, why he was secretly growing a crop of vervain in the cellar of the boarding house, and why even the slightest noise was always enough to rouse him from sleep at night. Consequently, when the distant sound of the front door opening reached his ears where he stood making dinner in the kitchen, he was immediately on high alert. The intruder revealed himself a second later to be his uncle Stefan. Zach did not relax.
"Zach," said Stefan. "I hope I didn't startle you. I wasn't sure you'd be home."
"What are you doing here, Uncle Stefan?" Zach asked warily. His gaze was drawn to the small, dark stain on the collar of Stefan's shirt.
"Just passing through," said Stefan. "I wanted to see how things are in Mystic Falls, see how you are."
"All good," said Zach curtly. He was relieved to hear that his uncle didn't plan to stay long. He swallowed. "What about Uncle Damon?"
"The last time I saw my brother was when he killed all your boarders and sent the Council up in arms," said Stefan, a mixture of anger and sadness on his face. "He could be on the other side of the planet for all I know. I haven't exactly been keeping track."
Zach nodded stiffly. Stefan finally seemed to realize what was bothering him. "Oh," he said, lifting a hand to touch the spot on his collar. "It's from a deer, Zach, I swear. I've just been out hunting in the woods. It's been decades since I fed from a human."
His eyes were wide and earnest. After a few seconds, Zach relaxed. "Good to know," he said with a feeble smile.
"If there's nothing you'd like me to do for you," said Stefan after an uncomfortable pause, "I'm going to head out now. Don't hesitate to contact me if something comes up." Zach blinked and Stefan was gone, leaving behind a slip of paper bearing his cell number on the counter. It was the same number Zach already had. Maybe Stefan assumed Zach had lost it after five years without a word from him, but the silence had been very deliberate.
X
Just as Elena was closing the front door behind her, her mom came into view walking in the direction of the kitchen with an empty popcorn bowl. "Elena!" she said, surprised. "Is the bonfire already over?"
"No, I left early," said Elena. "I didn't think you guys would still be up." The big frosted glass doors between the front room and the family room were closed but Elena could still hear three other excited voices in the family room. They hardly ever went to bed after ten but it was midnight now.
"It's been a close game and we wanted to wait up for you," said Miranda.
Elena ducked her head. "I'm sorry I blew off Family Night," she said, following her mom into the kitchen. "Matt and I got into a fight and I didn't want to stay." Somehow that wasn't as troubling to her as it had been half an hour ago.
"Hey, Elena!" chorused her dad, brother, and aunt from where they sat around the Pictionary easel.
"Hey," she said, waving. They all returned their attention to the game.
"You could've called us," said Miranda, frowning. "We would've picked you up."
"I tried," said Elena, rolling her eyes, "but my phone died." She tossed the offending device on the kitchen island.
Miranda's frown deepened. "You didn't walk the whole way back, did you?"
"No. I started to, but then I ran into someone—did you know Zach Salvatore has nephews?"
Miranda's hands, busy pouring more kernels into the popcorn maker, froze. "Really?" she said. "I had no idea."
"Yeah," said Elena, plonking onto a stool. "I ran into the older one, Damon. We ended up walking to the Salvatore boarding house because it wasn't too far, and then he drove me home." Her brow furrowed when she caught sight of her mom's face. "Mom, are you okay?" she said.
Miranda had gone white as a sheet but she didn't seem to have heard the question.
"Mom?"
"What?" said Miranda. "Oh, I'm fine, sweetie. There's just something I'm going to need to discuss with your dad, is all."
"Elena!" Jenna called. "It's about to be my turn and I could really use your help over here!"
"Hey, why should she be on your team?" Jeremy protested. "Then it'd be three against two!"
"Well maybe we need the extra help when you got all the artistic talent in the whole family," said Jenna.
Elena laughed, hopped down, kissed her mom on the cheek, and went to join the game.
X
Damon returned his car to the spot where he'd parked it around the back of the boarding house, just deep enough into the woods that Zach wouldn't be able to see it from inside. Then, forgoing the use of a door, he simply jumped directly through his open bedroom window. Zach must've finished those errands in the last fifteen minutes; Damon could hear him moving around somewhere downstairs. He tuned him out. So long as his great-great-great-great-great half-nephew's activities didn't intersect or interfere with his own, he couldn't care less about them. Particularly not when there was something much more intriguing to occupy his thoughts.
Elena Gilbert. Damon was fascinated. How could someone look and sound so much like Katherine and yet be so completely different? If she'd looked like anyone else, she'd be wandering around in a daze right about now, lightheaded from blood loss and none the wiser. Well, that or she'd be dead, her body dumped in the woods.
The thought of drinking from her had still occurred to him on and off as they walked to the boarding house, but for the first time in years—maybe even decades—he'd sincerely been enjoying a conversation with another person and hadn't wanted it to end. Sure, there had been the lighter moments of flirtatious banter and he'd heard the spike in her vital signs in response to him at multiple points, but she'd been so…genuine the whole time.
That had been particularly surprising considering who she resembled. At one point, it had almost been too much. A few minutes walking side-by-side and she'd already been trying to pry into feelings he hadn't allowed to surface in a lifetime. There had been a moment when he'd wanted to kill her for it. He'd wanted to show her what he was, terrify that well-meaning sympathy out of her, and drain her dry.
But that had been the moment she'd tossed his earlier words back at him, catching him so off-guard that his murderous intent had vanished as if it had never been.
He hadn't been lying when he told her he liked her. He did. Too much, probably. The smart thing to do would be to wipe her memory of meeting him. She was a Gilbert. Her parents were part of that damn council and he'd allowed her to skip off home with her knowledge of him intact. But what did it really matter? Even with Mama and Papa Gilbert as Council members, nobody in Mystic Falls except Zach knew what Damon was, and he'd made certain years ago that Zach was very aware of how much his survival depended on keeping that secret.
Yeah, screw it. There were only a few months left before the comet returned and he finally, finally got Katherine back. With Elena's company, the summer might not pass quite so agonizingly slowly. And it would probably be easier to get his crystal back with the help of a current Mystic Falls native. Once the time was up, he'd get Bree over here, pop open the tomb, and ride off with Katherine into the sunset. How complicated could that possibly get?
X
At about one in the morning, Jenna was dropping escape popcorn kernels back into the empty bowl and gathering up throw pillows and replacing them on the couch. Typical of the aftermath of Family Night, the room looked like ground zero of a small tornado, and naturally Jeremy and Elena had disappeared upstairs without doing much in the way of putting things back where they went. With Grayson and Miranda working on cleaning the kitchen together, Jenna was left to straighten up the family room.
She glanced over her shoulder at her sister and brother-in-law, but her snarky remark about the rudeness of sticking house guests with cleanup duty caught in her throat at the sight of their very serious profiles and rigid postures. She frowned and continued tidying up, wondering what that was about.
A few minutes later, shortly after Jenna heard the dishwasher start up, Grayson and Miranda both joined her in the now mostly orderly family room.
"Jenna," said Miranda, "before you go to bed, there's something Grayson and I need to talk to you about."
Jenna's insides twisted with anxiety; she couldn't remember her sister ever using such a grave tone before. "What's wrong?" she said.
"Let's all sit down," said Grayson, taking his wife's hand and moving over with her to the couch. Jenna reluctantly sank onto an adjacent armchair, watching them.
For a second, neither of them seemed to know where to begin, but then Miranda said, "Do you remember all those stories I used to tell you?"
Jenna looked from her to Grayson and back again in confusion. "What, you mean the vampire stories?"
So in case it wasn't clear, no, Stefan did not see Elena. He will be out of town until someone calls him back. Also, Grayson has access to all of the Gilbert journals, which is why he and Miranda know what Damon is. And if you recall from S3, Abby Bennett initially left Mystic Falls after doing the spell to desiccate Mikael because he came looking for the doppelgänger—which means that Miranda and Grayson also know all about the Originals and Elena's potential role in the ritual that would break Klaus's curse. They actually know much more than Damon does. I'm pretty sure the only thing none of them knows is that Katherine isn't in the tomb. Isobel and Anna are the only ones who know that. *rubs hands together* This should be fun. Please review! I love reading your reactions!