Restart (Caroline/Damon Fanfic) *Discontinued*

Chapter 7: Step One

Liz dropped Caroline off at the boarding house on the Saturday afternoon, a couple of hours before they were going to leave to go to the founder's party at the Lockwood estate. She went up to the door and knocked and seconds later Damon opened it and looked at her confused.

"Why are you knocking? You don't have to knock." Damon affirmed and she shot him an amused look.

"I don't in the future." She winked and he chuckled at her cheeky expression.

"You look beautiful." He remarked and she smiled. She was wearing the yellow dress just to annoy future-Damon.

"Thank you, charmer." She acknowledged and he snickered. She stepped inside and he closed the door behind her then they walked in together. "Hi, Zack." Caroline greeted when she saw him sitting on the couch and he looked surprised to see her there again.

"Hi, Caroline, how are you?" He asked politely.

"I'm great, thanks. You?" She queried and he gave her a smile and a nod.

"Drink?" Damon offered.

"Sure, surprise me." She accepted and he winked at her then went over to the cart while Zack watched their interaction with curiosity because Damon was behaving so differently with her in comparison to everyone else. "Oh, before I forget, can I buy some vervain from you?" She bid Zack who looked kind of stunned at she would ask for that in front of Damon.

"Uh… you don't have to buy it, you can just have some." He responded and she smiled at him being nice – she personally thought that Zack was kind of weird but she supposed that having the scary version of Damon in your family when you're only human would do that to a person.

"Thanks." She said sincerely and Zack glanced at Damon who hadn't stopped what he was doing at the cart and Caroline giggled seeing it. "It's not to use on him so he doesn't care." Caroline remarked and Zack's eyebrows furrowed in confusion that Damon was so fine with her being blunt while Damon chuckled knowing that Zack was expecting him to flip.

"Relax, Zack." Damon calmed while looking over his shoulder with a smirk. "She knows how to make vervain darts that we can use on the other two vampires lurking around to incapacitate them." He added and Zack nodded though he was surprised that Damon would fill him in on that.

"Are you going to the party?" Caroline questioned Zack.

"Yeah, I'm going to head there with Stefan. He's apparently taking Elena Gilbert." Zack answered and Caroline nodded just as Damon turned around with two drinks.

"My room or the library?" Damon smirked.

"Well, I'm not going into the bat cave, so library." She smirked back and he laughed.

"I can control myself, you know." Damon teased and she giggled.

"Uhuh." She nodded amused and he chuckled at her expression then the two of them went through to the library and Zack was highly confused all over again that she got away with so much. They sat down next to each other on the couch and Caroline looked at him in contemplation.

"What?" He asked her curiously seeing it.

"Do you trust me?" She examined and he looked surprised as he hadn't expected her to ask that.

"Yes." He replied truthfully because he did and she nodded then pulled out a small vial from her purse and his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of it. "Is that vervain?" He tested and she nodded again.

"Can Stefan hear?" She whispered.

"No, he's out hunting." Damon assured.

"Ever since your dad spiked Stefan with vervain and Katherine passed out from it, she's been drinking vervain every day for tolerance and now it barely affects her at all." Caroline revealed and Damon's eyes widened.