A/N: Just a quick drabble...thingy. Set after Damon takes Elena from the hospital but before we see him hand her the drink.
She's groggy, but awake and that's the important part here. Elena clings to that as she fights the sedatives still in her system. The colors of the quilt, thrown over her shortly after she was placed on the couch by her dark knight (and she'll never admit aloud that she's ever thought of Damon in those terms), are out of focus, but they become clear if she tries and that's...good. She'll take good.
"I'm sorry." It's not until the words leave her mouth, soft as she runs one hand over the cloth covered line of her leg, the other tucked beneath her as she half sits and half lays in the warm cocoon of fabric, that she realizes she'd spoken. She feels safe here, it's a nice albeit foreign feeling.
"Don't be," comes the lazy voice of her would-be hero, although she hardly every thinks of him in those terms. "No one knew he'd be back so soon. So really,-"
"No," she breathes, pausing to take a moment to hate how weak her voice sounds. She tries again, "No," going for firmer and ending up just throwing a shaky edge into the slightly louder negative. "I'm not apologizing for that."
She pauses again, running to fingers lightly over the edge of the quilt and getting distracted by the feel of the fabric before pulling her thoughts back. It's harder than it should be, like being sick and knowing that the bottle of pills is just on the side of the room but unable to muster the energy to get to it. Her thoughts fight her, wanting to fall back into their muggy state and she has a brief flash of insight, that maybe the sedatives are making her talk, say thoughts she would have beaten back before they fully formed before, but the new thought is snatched away by the fog in her veins and drugs in her mind. "I need you," she confesses, previous insight forgotten.
The vampire she's talking to goes still, something she only half notices as the sudden lack of sound fills the air. "I tried to change you." Dark eyes blink heavily as she struggles to gather her thoughts. "Make you what I wanted you to be, but I need you," another pause as she gives up the fight, letting the words flow, "as you are. You're...brash. And impulsive and...dangerous." She pauses, and doesn't realizes she's breathed out "very dangerous" before she begins again. "You saved my life. Because you're...you." Her head feels heavy as it turns, looking towards the unnaturally still man of the other side of the room. "You're Damon. I need you to be you."
He lifts his eyes to look at her and she wonders what he sees. She doesn't even know what she wants him to see, not anymore. His eyes are pale though, and she forgets what she was talking about as she stares at them and wonders. He smiles, that nearly sarcastic smirk of his lips that's dangerously sexy that never reaches those oh so pale eyes and she closes her own as she surrenders to the fog and sleeps. She's safe here.
A/N: I'm posting this for some not so selfish reasons. I have several things to finish and post and some just waiting to post (all from different fandoms). However I lake the motivation to do so, reviews give me the motivation to write and publish, so yeah, hit the button. :P