Heavy in Your Arms

Iced chocolates were made; with fresh cream and home made melted chocolate. Romeo and Juliet was placed in the DVD player so the two girls could glance at Leonardo DiCaprio's gorgeous young looks as they talked about life.

"Hayden…" Elena's head bowed, in an almost shaming way, and she struggled to find the right words. "With Damon—"

"Don't worry; I was drunk, it won't happen again."

"No, it's not that, its just… you've invited him in, now he will come and go as he pleases and he has these moods, that… I just want you to be safe."

She shrugged her shoulders. Did Hayden really mind that? Damon coming and going as he pleased? If it meant she would get sex and company; then not really. Hayden needed those two things to survive, and if it meant he was going to give them to her then so be it. As long as he didn't try and kill her.

"See this ring?" Hayden gestured to the gaudy snake ring on her left ring finger, "My dad's wife enchanted it for me; she's a witch." Elena inspected the ring closely, Hayden's warm hand in her cold one. "It protects me from dying. I don't know how it works, but I know it just does."

Elena looked up into her friend's hazel eyes, "…You've died before?"

"I died when that Ben guy delivered a steel bat to the back of my head. It was why you and Bonnie couldn't wake me up in the bathtub."

Elena was up off the bed and walking the length of the room, her fingers tugging at her hair, "Oh my god, Hayden, this is just… too weird."

"Yeah, but," she nodded her head in agreement before getting up off the bed, "This is a good thing too. It's nice to tell people about this stuff, my lineage, everything."

"All these years, whenever I would think about you, our memories and us meeting up together again, what kind of stuff we would do when we travelled the world together; I always thought you were normal. That you had a normal life – well, as normal as your life could be with your mother in New Zealand – but it turns out you didn't. And now it turns out that my life is anything but normal. And through all of this, I'm just kinda…" Elena struggled to find the right words, "Happy. Happy that I have my best going through what I'm going through. Because it's kind of nice to know I will always have you to talk to."

"What else are friends for, right?"

Hayden's knuckles wrapped on the door to the Salvatore boarding house. She stood outside for a good minute before her already short patience wore too thin and she jiggled the door handle. Her dark brown eyebrows furrowed as she pushed the door open and closed it behind her. Who the hell would leave their door open? Vampires, she reminded herself, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yo! Anyone home?"

After Elena and Hayden's talk the previous night, the two had finally fallen asleep in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't until Julian was picking up clothes to put in the wash when he found Damon's belt. He offered to return it via mail or even himself but Hayden said she would do it.

"Damo!" She cringed. What, she already had a nickname for him? They hadn't even slept together yet.

Well, nearly, but still.

She got a good look around the hallway and living room of the Salvatore boarding house. It was a lot like her house except Hayden had Julian, who actually cleaned and dusted on a regular basis. This looked like two vampires lived here; it didn't look like any living human entity resided in the house.

"Well, well, well," Hayden's head turned violently to see Damon coming down the stairs, no shirt on, "Look who is back for round two."

She scoffed, "You know it doesn't technically count as round two if round one hasn't even taken place."

"Touché."

She bowed, "Thank you. I'll be here all week."

He walked into the living room, Hayden following behind him. "So why are you here then?" He reached the drinks cabinet and poured two glasses of whiskey, passing one to his guest. "If it's not for 'round two.'"

Pulling Damon's rolled up belt from her back pocket; she threw it onto the coffee table in front of her as she fell back into the couch. "Versace. Nice. Didn't think you were that conceited."

He smirked, sitting in the chair opposite the couch; he saw her eyes drifting down his chest. "Says the girl wearing a vintage Rolex."

She looked down at the watch on her left wrist. A peace offering from her father.

"'Touché,'" Hayden mocked and sipped at her drink. "How you holding up?"

Damon's eyes searched hers for a second, before deciding to play dumb, "I don't know what you're referring to."

"Elena told me about Katherine."

His smirk was bitter now, "Of course she did."

"She's worried for you, Damon. So is Stefan."

"Yeah? Well they don't need to be worried about me. I'm over it, she wasn't in there, she never cared about me, she never did. She had 145 years to find me."

The conversation had taken a serious turn, Damon's eyes were dark and his face set with a fury that Hayden never wanted to come across. She hadn't known him that long, but she felt that with everything Elena had told her about him, she had known him her whole life.

She wasn't mad at him for trying to kill Bonnie while she was possessed by Emily, not for killing and turning Vicki – who in Hayden's books deserved nearly everything she got by the way she treated Jeremy – in her own messed up way, Hayden understood why he did it. He was trying to get what he wanted, who he wanted. His love of 145 years. He just wanted Katherine back, and now she wasn't to be found? Hayden couldn't imagine the hurt he was going through. And she forgave him, for everything that he did and everything he might do in the future, because no one could recover properly from a heartbreak like that.

They stared at each other, just drinking and revelling in the silence that came with each other's company. Finally, Hayden broke the silence, "Get your shirt on, Romeo, I'll drive you to the Grill."

His eyebrows rose, "You heard. Will you be buying a ticket then? Trying to get a date with good, ol' sexy me."

She only laughed. It was true, Carol Lockwood had just tried to sell her a raffle ticket earlier that day when she went to pick up lunch from the Grill. Asking who the eligible bachelors were, she recited the list and Hayden only laughed in her face before leaving. Like Damon was 'eligible'.

His fingers danced across his torso and Hayden watched with amusement, "Why would I pay when I can get you for free?"

"'Touché.'"

Hayden hadn't been in town long, but she was surprised when she entered the Grill since it seemed to be at capacity. She sat down next to Elena and Jenna after getting a drink and spent most of the night happy; content with her life and the point at where she was.

Sure, most things supernatural seemed to follow her wherever she went, but Hayden had Elena to talk to now. She didn't have to live in secrecy with her friends or her old hometown. All she really ever had was Julian and now it felt good to be back with Elena. It felt good to have a friend again.

At least, it was all good until Damon opened his mouth.

Hayden watched as the exchange was made between Alaric and Damon, the latter blatantly rubbing it in his face that his wife had been murdered. Little did Damon know that Isobel – Alaric's wife – had actually in fact been Elena's birth mother.

Jenna asked Elena if she was okay before she quickly left the table in tears. "What was that about?"

"Don't worry, I got it," Hayden pushed Elena's aunt into her chair slightly and followed after her. After fighting her way through the crowd, she spotted Elena in tears outside, Stefan trying to console her.

"He killed her?" Elena's asked, "Damon was the vampire that killed her?"

"I don't know, they never found the body."

A sob wracked Elena's body, "Oh my god." Hayden made her presence known by hugging her.

"I know, I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you I just – I wanted to know more."

"I was feeling sorry for him," Elena looked down into Hayden's hazel orbs, "Hoping that this whole Katherine thing would change him. I'm so stupid."

Stefan's head shook, "He doesn't know the connection to you, I thought about confronting him but –"

"Why are you protecting him!"

"You weren't the only one hoping that he might have actually changed."