Briana's POV

I can't believe I'd done it.

Fessed up. Downright lectured him. And then, while I was walking down the hall, I'd finally said what I've been waiting to say for so many years. Granted, I'd basically started crying in the middle of it, but Damon needed to know. I couldn't bare the thought of him living his undead life having sex and draining the humans dry and lusting over the girl who would never chose him. He needed to experience the things he never got to do as a human or a vampire. To know what it's like to be friendly and settle down, get a girlfriend and take her to a theme park or sky diving and then mourn her when she dies or put his blood in her and kill her. Forever in love with a girl who loves him back. He didn't need to be this poor excuse for a bad ass in an Italian-cut leather jacket with the apple of his eye on the arm of his brother.

I sat down on the couch and spun my cup around the air, swirling the scarlet blood into thin vodka. The scent made my nose twitch. But the sound I heard made my ears twitch. It was soft as a sigh, the sound of impossibly fast steps across the floor. At that second Damon walked into the room, but I knew it hadn't been him. For some off reason, he'd walked at a human pace, thump, thump, thump, the soles of his feet padding softly on the rugs.

"Look, Briana-" he cut off abruptly. His head tilted slightly, like a dog hearing someone walking up the steps of his front porch. I gasped.

"Hello," said the girl. She looked different than the last time I'd seen her. Her fine brown hair was cropped short and she seemed thinner, more run down. Then again, the last time I'd seen her she hadn't been running for her life with Trevor. I stood up slowly and drew her attention to me. "Annabelle?"

"Hi, Rose." I stared at her, feeling my sadness crushing in on me, the walls closing in. I couldn't breath correctly. "I go by Briana now."

We didn't even bother staring at each other, trying to see how a roundabout of five hundred years had worn us. We just went straight for each other. I felt like I was in some cheesy movie, how every second running for one another felt like slow motion, every memory rushing through my mind at hyper-speed. When I found her beaten and bruised, Trevor fussing over her and not knowing what to do. He never really had known what the correct thing to do was; he helped Katherine, after all. There were two men standing over them, fists held high and ready to rip their heads off or their hearts out. I took pity because Rose had looked so sincerely sad that I just couldn't leave her there. I attacked the two men and bit them, a sweet venom slipping past my lips and into their bloodstreams. They'd dropped almost immediately.

But what I was focusing on, right now, was hugging Rose to me like I had no other problem in the world.

"Ho-how are you alive?" I asked, patting her up and down as if she might disappear. "Five centuries away from the Originals?" Her eyes became full and I put a hand to her face desperately.

"We knew what we were doing." She sobered almost suddenly, her shoulders drooping. "We used to. Trevor's dead." My hand fluttered against my mouth, not sure what to do. It was all too much.

"Oh, Rose, no. How did it- what- what happened?" And then Damon interceded, sounding stern and... careful?

"Elijah happened, Briana. Elena said he tore Trevor's head clean off," he said, his voice triumphant and sharp. It stung me, but it enraged Rose.

"Oh, don't sound so happy about it, Salvatore!" I started putting things together. Elena said. Meaning Rose and Trevor were there when Elijah was.

"You tried to give the doppelganger to Elijah!" I accused, and she nodded guiltily. I gestured to Damon. "So, you two know each other then. Considering Damon had the joy of running a stake through my brother's heart." I shot him a glare and he looked away.

"You two know each other?" he said to me in disbelief. "Do you know every evil vampire that happens our way?" I stooped my hip and put my fist on it, seeming like an angry mother.

"Actually, yes, Angel, I either know of or know the vampires that wander into this Godforsaken town, and Rose is not evil. She is one of the few who actually knew me. She took your precious girl because she's been running away from my family for longer than you've been alive, so if you've got a problem with her," I walked right up to him, placing my face in his, "take it up with me." He stepped back, hands raised, but danger was glinting in his eyes.

"Hey, hey, Briana, calm down. There's no problem, here. She only," he shrugged, "you know, stole my brother's girlfriend and then left us for dead at the hands of the man with perfectly styled hair." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, since Alaric and I are your only friends, what if, say, someone just came along and severed Stefan's skull from his spinal chord?" He winced and pinched his lips, trying to keep composure. "Yeah, it'd hurt. What are you doing here, then, Rose," I directed at Rose, who had collapsed on the couch with the amount of grief overtaking her.

"I just-" she cleared her throat and tried again, "I just need somewhere to stay. I've been hiding in the shadows for five hundred years; I have no home." I sighed and smoothed down her hair.

"No!" exclaimed Damon, and we both looked at him coolly. "No way, she is not-"

"Oh, shut it, Angel." I ran up to him and caressed his cheek, placing a peck of a kiss there. He looked at me, his stiff gaze softening. "Who knows? You might actually like her." His face more than showed his doubt.

Looking towards the ceiling in exasperation, he blew out, "Fine. You can stay in the room connected to Briana's," my thoughts flickered to the creaking old door in the side of my room, "but I'd really prefer you didn't try anything stupid while you were here." His smile was slick and he cocked a brow. She was in his face quicker than I had time to register.

"Why? What're you going to do- what did you call him," she turned to me, "Angelface?" I smiled and stifled a giggle, nodding. She turned back to Damon. "I'm older, stronger, smarter-" He leaned in close, their faces impossibly close.

"And out numbered," he bit, grinning like a diseased, wicked clown. His hand closed around mine and he put his lips to my ears, ignoring the woman nearly chest to chest with him. "Thank you," he whispered, and I knew it wasn't for anything that had happened here downstairs. Gently, he kissed my cheek and ran off up the steps.

When I turned back to Rose, she was giving me an odd look. It was a cross between bemusement and curiosity, her usual hint of despair hiding behind her words every time I'd seen her amplified drastically. I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off.

"Angelface?" she poked. I laughed.

"Don't tell me he's not one of the prettiest young things you've ever seen." I elbowed her softly and picked up the half-full blood bag that I had been planning to add to a glass of rum later, to try the taste. "I've just had the joy of knowing how angelic all of him is." I swore I heard him laugh. Was he eavesdropping? Of course.

"You slept with tall, dark and dangerous?" she said breathlessly, sounding like a bubbly preteen. "Way to go, 'Briana', it's about time you had some fun." I handed the bag to her and she nodded gratefully.

"He's not that tall! And yes, it was about time." If you consider hiding in the shadows for a thousand years and finally getting it on with somebody I'm moderately (okay, really) attracted to 'finally having fun;, then yes. I've finally had fun.