End of Day

It had been a long, long day for Damon. Nothing really terrible had happened, but things weren't going smoothly either. With the Originals around, things never went smoothly, it didn't matter how much Damon wanted them to. Sure, he liked a bit of action, but that was starting to become too much. Every time things seemed to be working out, something happened. Every single time.

With a sigh, he sat down on the couch, a glass of bourbon in his hand. He just wanted that day to end calmly, no surprises...

James had a rough couple of months since he had left Mystic Falls. Fighting his cravings, urges to turn off his humanity and not care about what happened to him anymore, he didn't want to feel pain anymore. But he knew he had to, it was what anchored him to how he used to be, before becoming a vampire. His thoughts continually raced through his mind: Why did I leave, How would they act if I ever came back, and what the hell happened to him that made him want to leave. There were many factors involved, including he did not want to hurt anyone that he cared about as a human, namely Bonnie. She was one of the reasons why he wanted to hit the switch.

James soon strolled back into town, though. Somewhat 'new' set of wheels, '69 camaro SS that he had 'bought' from some guy during his missing months. He knew where he needed to go on his first stop back, though. The Boarding House. His car could be heard pulling up into the driveway with a rather low rumbling sound coming from the exhaust as the car was put into neutral and turned off. The door was soonafter knocked on, as James stood at the entrance waiting for Damon, or Stefan, to answer.

As he heard a knock on the door, Damon knew he wasn't going to have a peaceful end of day. In his experience, when people appeared on his doorstep, it meant trouble. Sometimes the person just wanted to chat and have a drink, and still that somehow turned into trouble.

Sighing again, Damon got up from the couch, his glass of bourbon still on his hand, and went to answer the door, not expecting who he was about to see.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, rather surprised and worried, weirdly enough, for Bonnie.

James stood there for several minutes before he heard someone move on the other side of the door. His arm soon leaned onto the frame outside as it opened, almost instantly noticing the look of shock on Damon's face as he noticed who was there. It took a couple seconds for James to realize what he said before replying back.

"Actually, just got back into town. Thought this would be a good first place to go. What were you doing, anyway, watching some chick flick?" He was about to give a light chuckle before holding it back, unsure of whether or not Damon would allow him inside.

The mess was going to be even bigger than Damon had expected. James was back in town, and that meant trouble, he was sure of it. For him, for Elena, for Mystic Falls and for Bonnie, among possible others. The best, Damon gathered, was to see if he could drive him away. Not only did he not want anymore trouble as he wasn't at all in the mood to have visits. Two points for closing the door on his face, zero for letting him in.

"You thought wrong." Damon replied, beginning to close the door.

James listened intently as Damon spoke, he thought that he would have been happy to see him back and well, seeing as they left on somewhat good terms. As the door began closing, James slid his hand in between the door and the frame to stop it, and wondered what the hell happened when he was gone. His gaze then turned to Damon as he stood there, hand still on the door knob.

"Why not just let me explain?" He asked. James didn't have any idea what Damon was going to do next, whether drive a stake through his heart, or be the somewhat kind vampire that he was when James left and allow him entrance.

In a way, Damon wanted to hear what James had to say. He was curious as to what had happened in his travels. But letting him in would mean that he was welcome, and if he felt welcome he probably wouldn't go away. Maybe having him stay would be that bad, though. It wasn't like they didn't need any help with the Originals.

"Fine, come in." Damon replied, hoping that he wouldn't regret his decision.

James put on a slight smile as he pushed the door open and walked slowly through the doorway into the boarding house, moving his shoulder out of the way of Damon's so they would not collide. He glanced back to him, meeting his eyes.

"You never answered my question, Damon. Were you watching a chick flick?" He asked, again, smile seemed to grow a little bit as he made his way into the living area to pour himself a drink.

Damon chuckled, glancing towards the abandoned TV. He eventually watched some movies, but ever since the whole Originals things began, the only times he had watched it had been with Elena. Good days, but rare days, especially after their kiss.

"Yes." He replied, sarcastically. "And I also like to have lollypops with ice-cream on rainy days."

James sighed as Damon spoke, noting the sarcastic tone in his voice, he didn't even need to use his hearing to deduce what Damon had meant. He soon grabbed a fancy looking glass and poured some bourbon before putting the lid back on and taking a sip. Turning his view back to Damon as he continued to stand near the liquor.

"Ok, enough with the sarcastic chit chat then. What have the originals been up to since I left?"

Damon was about to reply when he realized that he wasn't sure if James could still be trusted. He had been away for quite a while, there was no telling what he could have been up to during that time. But he supposed that there was no harm in telling him what had already happened, as long as he didn't tell him their plan to bring the Originals down.

"A lot of stuff... Now they've found their mother, who was inside a coffin, which Stefan stole from Klaus when he was freed from being bound to him. As you can see, a lot of stuff. Do you want the condensed version or the extended version?"

James took a seat as Damon began to describe the events. Even though Rebekah turned him for unknown reasons, could have been bored, she didn't really stick around for all the details, he continued to not side with her, or her precious siblings. But as news of their mother awakening reached his ears, there appeared to be a look of shock on his face. He had always thought that their mother died way back when. James could tell that there were things that weren't being said, but did not bother to mention.

"Either, it does not very much matter to me anymore. Rebekah turned me, and then left me for dead. I would just like to end her life." He said, with a sly smirk as he took a sip of his bourbon.

Maybe James could be trusted, after all, but Damon wasn't about risk it all on one assumption. He had tried to kill Klaus before, and his little brother had ruined it. He still blamed himself, though. This time they would manage, he was sure of it, and he wouldn't ley anyone or anything bring the plan down again. One time had been enough for him to learn.

"Would you?" Damon asked, not really expecting an answer. "You left, say, right after Stefan? Then you must know about the hybrid bite and all."

James continued to sit in the chair, sipping away at his drink as Damon spoke. There was a sense of trust amongst his words, although he could not be sure. He still sensed that there was something that was going non-spoken. He turned his head to look at the 150 some year old vampire standing by the door still, holding his glass above the arm of the chair.

"Yes. I trusted her, but she ended up abandoning me when I needed her the most. It would give me no greater pleasure then to drive a silver dagger threw her heart." He said, another smirk erupted as he heard mention of the hybrid bite. James had heard of those creatures before, half wolf, half vamp. Originated with Klaus. But he had never heard of the hybrid bite much, just that it was even more lethal then a wolf chewing out on a vamp.

"What about it?" He asked to the topic of the bite.

Damon was glad he had been able to change the subject. He wasn't sure how much information could be revealed, even as he heard James clearly saying that he would like to kill Rebekah. There was no telling how much of that was a lie, if any of it was a lie at all.

"Turns out that a hybrid bite is even more deadly than a werewolf bite. Maybe it all happened after you went away, I'm not sure." Damon said, knowing that whatever James knew about hybrid bites he hadn't learned when he was in Mystic Falls.

Taking another drink out of the glass, he turned his attention to the blazing fireplace as the flames could be seen eating through the wood that had been placed in there before his arrival. After listening to Damon speak, he knew that he needed to mention what was being withheld.

"What are you not telling me, Damon?" He asked, looking down into his glass as the alcohol swirled around. "Do you not trust my words?"

"How could I?" Damon asked, taking a seat as well. Telling James that he couldn't trust him was going to be harder than he had initially thought, that was obvious. He had imagined that he just say it to his face, but that wasn't quite the rhythm things seemed to be taking, especially because of what James had said about Rebekah. "You were turned by an Original and you were gone for a very long time! How could I just trust you, James?"

His hand continued to swirl the alcohol in his glass for several minutes before halting. Head turning to face Damon once again as he sat down in a seat that was located just to the front-right of himself, and proceeded to take another sip of his drink.

"I was only gone for a few months, it wasn't years or anything like that. I told you my reasoning behind my intentions of wanting Rebekah dead, or atleast, unable to do anything." He told Damon as he set his drink down on the table that was located to the right of his chair.

"With all what's happening here, months is a lot of time." Damon replied. In the last couple of months, too much had happened. People had died, fights had been lost and won, lives had been put at risk and then saved in the last possible second, just too much to be remembered and too much for anyone, especially the inhabitants of Mystic Falls, who thought their city was calm and peaceful, to believe.

"How can I know you're not lying? For all I know, you just said all those things to get me to tell you secrets, things the Originals want to know but can't."

It could have been true, months were a long time for humans, they aged with the coming months, vampires did not. "Well, see, that is the part I need catching up on." He told Damon, he felt himself getting a little agitated, but was able to keep it buried as he took another sip of his alcohol.

"I guess you will just have to trust me." He said, followed by a smirk, and then a rather unnoticeable wink in Damon's direction.

"Why would I have to trust you? I can just keep my mouth shut and not tell you anything." Damon stated, his eyes not leaving James for a minute, searching for any sign that he couldn't be trusted, any movement that gave away something. He didn't want to keep on acting on suspicions, he wanted solid facts, evidences.

James vampiric eyes began showing as they seemed to become filled with blood and the veins surrounding began to show themselves as he glanced up to Damon, and sat back in his chair, drink continued to sit on the table beside them.

"But there are things to tell, then." He said, "Or I presume there is, the way you are speaking." He told Damon, as he reached for his glass again to take a sip. The hunger seemed to arise again, but if Damon wouldn't confide in him any information that he was withholding, chances are he would not offer James anything to 'drink'.

"There are always things to tell when it comes to the Originals, you know that." Damon replied, taking a sip of his drink.

He had seen James' eyes becoming bloodshot and the veins around his eyes appearing, but it wasn't until he noticed that he seemed to be drinking a little more than he was before that he realized that his guest was hungry. "I have blood bags in the basement. I could go get them, if you want."

As James set the empty glass back on the table, he looked to Damon. Eyes were still blood-like and veins were still popping out of his skin underneath his eyes. "I can agree with you on that point. But, I was stating the truth about Rebekah." He said, another sly smirk came over his mouth as his canine fangs remained inside, retaining their original length.


"yea, if you could." He said, muttering 'please' under his breath, knowing full well Damon could hear. It wasn't that he did not want him to hear, but he was not accustomed to such words since becoming a Vampire.

"Do you have any proof?" Damon asked, getting up from his seat to go get some blood bags. It had been a long time since he had shared a glass or bag of blood with anyone but Stefan. It would be interesting to see how it played out.

His own veins were burning for some blood, but still he didn't hurry. He wanted to hear James' reply before he went down to the basement. Damon didn't trust him enough to allow him to accompany him down to the basement, where all the vampire slaying weapons were kept.