VD: Datherine

No Care In The World

Summary: Set in S5. What if Damon and Katherine were together since the beginning of the show and still very much in love? What if Katherine turned it off, due to losing Nadia? What will happen?

A/N: When Nadia died, she was in her own vampiress body; not human and not in Elena's body.

It was a dark night at the Salvatore boarding house, as Katherine wiped her tears after losing her daughter, Nadia Petrova, and stood up. She had just watched her daughter die, which was the most painful thing a mother could ever watch her child do. She had lost everyone, apart from Damon of course, so, against her saying she liked to say, "I don't turn it off. I deal with it," she closed her eyes, going to turn it off. Damon obviously tried to get her not to do it, but she did anyway.

After she turned it off, she left, which Damon knew meant that she had bad intentions. He had turned it off once in his life time during a time when he thought that she had died with her friends in the fiery Saint Fell's church. He knew that look that he saw on her. He once had that look too. That look he had seen that the others had apparently missed was vengeance. He went to go after her, but by the time he had, she was out of sight. Considering she had just watched her daughter die, he knew who she was going to look for. The one and only person responsible for the death of her daughter; Tyler Lockwood. Sure, Damon didn't much like Tyler, but that didn't mean he was going to let her kill him. Tyler still had people who cared about what happened to him.

As he looked all over town for his sire and girlfriend, he called the only hybrid in town.

"Why are you calling me?" Tyler questioned, since Damon never ever called him.

"You need to get as far away from Mystic Falls as possible. At least until I can get to Katherine. Katherine just turned it off and considering you're the one who bit Nadia, she's after you with a very dark vengeance and very bad intentions. I say get out while you can."

"Thanks for the warning," he replied, before they hung up and Damon continued searching for Katherine, while Tyler headed for the borderline of Mystic Falls as fast as he could. He couldn't believe that it had come to this, but it was one thing to fight against an Original and fail, but another thing to fight a 500 year old vampire who had no emotions on right now and probably was only feeling vengeance.

When Damon had finally found her, she was in the woods and Tyler was miles out of town by now. She didn't know that though, so she was still searching for Tyler. She figured being a hybrid, he'd be in the woods, but she was having a hard time finding him.

She turned around to face Damon.

"I found you," he stated. "You know, you're very hard to find when you have no string attached sort of speak."

"I didn't leave for you to play cat and mouse with me," she replied without emotion.

He went to stand in front of her in a blur.

"I know you just lost your daughter and I'm sorry you had to watch her die, but turning it off isn't the answer. You can't just live forever like this. It'll eat you up inside if you stay like this for too long. I know you don't feel it right now, but you will feel something when you finally decide to turn it back on, or when it resurfaces without you being prepared for it," he answered her.

"You saying you're sorry for her death doesn't fix or help anything," she growled at him.

Despite her sudden hostility at his attempt to sympathize with her and try and bring her back from her darkest place, he rested a gentle hand on the side of her face.

"I really am sorry," he replied.

Before she knew it, everything went black for her from Damon using a syringe to vervain her so he could put her in the basement where she couldn't hurt anyone.

When she woke up, she was groggy from the vervain and Damon was standing outside the locked door of the holding cell in the basement.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you hurt anyone and you will while you have it turned off. I've been where you are before. I turned it off after I thought you were dead. Not even Lexi could turn my humanity back on. Hell, I almost killed her while I had no humanity to guide me. For you, I know this is the first time you've ever turned it off, but whether you want to or not, if you're not locked up, you will end up hurting someone that you're going to regret hurting," he told her.

She gave a growl.

"Don't try to compare your miserable time with mine. You have no clue what it feels like to lose a child."

"True, but I do know what it's like to grieve. I've lost almost everyone who was ever close to me in my life. I can somewhat relate," he replied.

For days and weeks he did his best in trying to bring her humanity back on without her getting the hint that he was trying to do that. He knew her so well, even with her humanity off, that he knew how to keep her from finding out his true intentions until it was too late for her to stop it.

After about a month, he finally got her humanity back on, so he let her out and after she had had enough to eat, they kissed passionately.