You Are My Life

Remember the Things You Felt

~ Damon ~

After getting the werewolf or hybrid or whatever that thing was away from Mallorie, Damon lost it in the woods. With the sun completely set, Damon was out of his element. He needed to be on high alert with his head on a swivel. He wasn't reliving that death spiral from the last werewolf bite, even if the kiss with Mallorie had been nice.

It seemed like he wandered for a half hour before anything happened. The sound of one twig snapping behind Damon caused him to turn and look. The attacker was mistaken in thinking that would be enough to distract him, though. Damon turned as the hybrid they had chained to the tree ran at him back in human form.

He came at Damon with enough force to knock him to the ground, but Damon popped back up. Though there was a lot of ferocity in the hybrid's swings, they were slower than Damon expected and very erratic. It wasn't hard to dodge them. 

Damon took an opportunity to grab the hybrid around his middle and drive him into the ground. The hybrid wasn't as weak as Damon expected. He kicked up, sending Damon flying back. In a fluid motion, the hybrid was back on his feet in seconds. Damon matched his pace.

As an intimidation technique, the hybrid jumped over Damon's head with little to no effort. Wanting this to just be over, Damon grabbed onto the hybrid's shoulders. The hybrid grappled with Damon, too. It took all the strength Damon had to keep the gnashing teeth of the hybrid away from his neck. He wouldn't die.

Just as Damon was feeling like he would never outlast the hybrid, someone ripped the hybrid's heart from his body. With one last gasp, the hybrid fell to the ground. Stefan stood in front of Damon with the freshly removed heart in his hand. They both caught their breath for a moment.

"Fancy meeting you here." Damon looked at the dead hybrid.

"What part of 'don't follow me anymore' got lost in translation, Damon?" Stefan tossed the heart over to the hybrid's body.

"Might want to take it up with your girlfriend," Damon said, sick of broody Stefan. "You don't want her chasing you, I'd stop with the late-night phone calls."

Stefan shook his head. "I didn't call her."

"Sure you did." Damon eyed his brother and truly saw him for the first time. Klaus was doing serious psychological damage to Stefan. He was mentally tearing himself apart inside. "She's not gonna give up on you."

"Well, she has to." Stefan raised his arms in exasperation. "Because I'm never coming back." Those words hit Damon like a vervain-covered brick to the stomach. "Why don't you get her home? See if you could keep her there this time."

Damon nodded weakly. If he could find a way, Damon was going to kill Klaus.

*****

~ Mallorie ~

"Damon and Stefan are both out there somewhere." Mallorie gazed out into the dense forest. "And here we are sitting in this damned car. Can't we do something?"

"No," Ric said. "Let the vampires fight the hybrid zombie mountain man. I'll take care of keeping the humans safe."

"I thought you were checked out of taking care of people." Mallorie crossed her arms.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ric glared at her in the rearview mirror. 

"Elena told me about your moving-out speech." Mallorie returned her gaze to the woods. "Real classy. They need you and you need them. Jenna has been their aunt a lot longer than she's been your girlfriend. You can't just walk out."

"I know what you're doing. Don't. There doesn't need to be a lesson here," Ric said.

"You're better at it than you think, you know?" Mallorie met his eyes in the mirror again. This time Ric looked away.