For reasons neither would ever know, Elena called Tyler after the accident—after she got out of the hospital.
She never called him before, and her name wasn't even programmed into his phone, but he had this feeling, and he picked up and she was crying, and he just…it was Elena. What other reason did he need to drop everything and drive all over town looking for her?
He found her walking barefoot on the side of one of Mystic Falls' back roads. It was raining, and there was water dripping from her hair, her clothes were soaked—she looked like a drowned rat—but he could still clearly see the tear-stains on her face.
"Get in the car, Gilbert," he said when he pulled up beside her. "I'll take you home."
She shook her head. "I don't want to go home—it isn't…it isn't home anymore—not now that they're…."
She started crying, then, and Tyler instinctively got out of his car and went over to her. He reached for her and tried to pull her close, but she shook him off.
"I told you," she said. "I can't go home."
He shrugged. "Let's go, then. I know a place not far from here. We can get out of the rain." He pressed the lock button on his keys and started off in the opposite direction from the road.
"Tyler!" she called, her feet rooted in place.
"Come on, Gilbert," he called over his shoulder. "The storm's only going to get worse."
She didn't need to be told twice, and he heard her feet racing to catch up with his.
He ran, then, and he took her through the grassy field, through the muddy puddles, down to the spot on what he knew to be the edge of the Fell's old property. He ran, with her behind him, until he couldn't hear her sniffling any longer, and then slowed down slightly.
She just got faster, and he had stopped and watched her for a moment. It would be the last time she looked so carefree after the accident, although he hadn't known it at the time.
Finally, she had turned to him. "You were gonna show me something, Lockwood?"
He shook himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah, it's right over there."
He took the lead again, this time with her hand locked in his, and they sat in this little shed on the Fell property while the storm raged outside. Her head in his lap, he felt her breath warm and cool his knee as she breathed in and out. He played with her hair, untangling it as best he could, although that was something he hadn't much experience in, so he was by no means an expert.
He rested his head against the wall and they both fell asleep like that. Him sitting up against a rickety old wooden wall with her in his lap. And in the morning, neither left for hours because they knew that once they stepped foot outside, their world was going to change and they weren't going to get this innocence back.