A Fresh Start (Damon, OC, Klaus)

5. Who are you?

We decided to walk it, it would only take twenty minutes. Myself and Jeremy walked in front, Stefan and Elena behind us. I could hear them talking.

"I told you what happened when he came to the door Stefan, but when we got to the room she was at the window nodding to herself. Damon must have come back to compel her not to let you in. Why would he do that?"

Stefan took a second before answering, "To show his control over me. Damon loves playing games. He's not really bad anymore, but he had those traits even before we became what we are now. It's almost like he doesn't care who gets hurt as long as he gets his way."

We had arrived at the grill and Jeremy was holding the door open for me, before entering however I turned to Stefan and Elena with a blank expression, "You're wrong about Damon. He is a good person."

Without waiting for a reply I entered the Grill. Quietly Jeremy, Stefan and Elena followed me. Matt, Tyler, Bonnie and Caroline were by the pool tables. We joined them and I was introduced to Matt and Tyler. They were all drinking, somehow Caroline was able to convince the bar staff to not ID our group. Jeremy offered to get me a drink, but I just wanted coffee. Coffee always calmed me down and my mind was all over the place today.

My coffee arrived and just as I was about to take a mouthful, the man from main street was there. He pulled the cup from my hand, spilling it.

I scowled at him, "What the hell? Who ARE you?"

He turned to Elena without answering me. "Some friend you're turning out to be."

"What the hell are you talking about now Damon?" Elena sighed.

"Less than an hour ago, she told you how allergic she is to vervain, and here you are letting her drink coffee in the grill."

Elena gasped, "I completely forgot." She turned to me, "Jessica, I am so sorry. All the coffee here has vervain in it. You can't drink it."

I looked at the cup in Damon's hand in disgust, then up at him.

"I don't know how to thank you. Ingesting vervain could kill me... But how did you know I was allergic?"

Damon just smiled at me, "You would be surprised at how quickly gossip travels in a small town."

He stuck his hand out, for a brief second I wondered how anybody in this town knew about my allergy, but I ignored that thought and put my hand in his. He raised it to his lips and kissed the back of my hand, I giggled as he introduced himself.

"Damon Salvatore, Stefan's older, better looking brother, at your service."

Still giggling I introduced myself in a mock curtsey, "Jessica Bird. It's very nice to meet you Mr Salvatore."

I couldn't explain it, but I felt like I could trust this man completely. And for me that was a massive thing, my mother was the only person I trusted wholly. It didn't hurt that he was very good looking. I was mesmerised by his eyes. Those piercing blue eyes that drew me in, eyes that had seen too much, and where distrustful. I found myself smiling back at him.

"So Damon Salvatore, can I buy you a drink? A small thank you for saving my life."

He nodded and we headed to the bar, I ordered two whiskeys. Damon raised his eyebrow at me and I laughed. "Yes I drink an older man's' drink, but I really like it."

Unfortunately the barman wanted to see my ID. Before I had a chance to come up with some excuse as to why I didn't have it Damon leaned across the bar and said something to the barman. The barman poured out the two drinks and we made our way to a booth. I felt so comfortable around him, I couldn't understand why; I had just met the man. He asked me questions about my life. Over a few drinks I found myself telling him everything. Well not everything, there were some things in my past that I was just not ready for anyone to know.

"What about you Damon? What's your story?"

He looked at me, told me he would be right back and went to the bar, I watched as he said something to the barman, who immediately just handed over two bottles. We were both tipsy, well ok, drunk at this stage. Damon arrived back with the two bottles of whiskey.

"Come on, we'll continue this at my house."

He helped me into my jacket and we headed outside to his car. On the way to his house I asked him about the whiskey, "I didn't know bars just handed out their stock."

He smirked at me, "I usually just... get what I want."

Watching him drive for a few moments, I spoke softly, "That must get very boring."

"What do you mean," he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"My mother always told me, 'Anything worth having is worth fighting for'. If you just get everything you want handed to you, how can you truly appreciate it?"

I could see him thinking about what I said. We pulled up outside a very large house. I gasped, it looked like a mansion.

"This is your house?"

"Yes, this is the old Salvatore boarding house. Passed down through the generations, it now belongs to Stefan and me."

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