don't tear me down

All right, so this idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while. I thought about doing a total switcheroo with who had blood in their system at the time Rebekah ran Matt and Elena off the road and it made me wonder, what if it had been Matt instead? What if it had been Matt who had collapsed with a cerebral hemorrhage and Meredith cured him with vampire blood? What if he died in the water instead and woke up in transition with Rebekah by his side?

He was tired. He was too tired to be on the road in the middle of the night.

It had been an interesting two days to say the least. After his 'freak' fainting spell and his short stay in the hospital, Elena and Caroline had taken him home and took care of him. It was not nine hours later when they got the call that Klaus was dead.

Dead.

The damn hybrid was dead.

Caroline rushed off to be with Tyler during his last hours, casting a quick apology to him before leaving.

"You should go be with Stefan and Damon," he said to Elena when he saw her anxious expression.

She shook her head. "No, I can't leave you alone," she said quickly.

"Elena, don't be stupid. I'm fine. Besides, Meredith said it was just exhaustion. You need to go be with them."

"I can't be with the both of them," she said quietly. "Damon is still with Klaus's body. He's a million miles away."

"Then go be with Damon," Matt reminded her. "He is the one you want. Go be with him."

"Matt-"

He reached over and grabbed her keys off of the table. "Don't be stupid," he repeated. "Go be with Damon."

Before he was totally aware of what was going on, he was sitting in the passenger side of Elena's SUV. She had refused to leave him three more times until he brought up going with her so she could keep an eye on him. She numbly gave in after that.

"I just can't believe it," Elena whispered after a while. "I just can't believe that Klaus is gone. I was actually hoping he would make it so I wouldn't lose all of my friends. God, that sounds dumb even as I'm saying it."

Matt chuckled tiredly. "Don't worry about it, Elena."

At that moment, Elena's cell phone rang. "Matt, can you get that?"

"Sure."

He answered her phone and was soon greeted with the sound of Caroline's sobs.

Tyler was gone.

Gone.

He tried to force back the tears as he closed the phone and replaced it in Elena's bag.

"What is it?" Elena asked quietly, already dreading the answer.

"That was Caroline. Um...Tyler's...Tyler's..." The words couldn't even form past his tongue.

"No." That was all that Elena could get out. "No. No, no, no, no!"

"Elena!" His voice immediately calmed her. "Elena, don't."

She sighed, quickly brushed tears off of her face. "I can't help it," she whispered. "I was hoping for a second that just maybe..."

"Maybe Klaus was lying," he finished for her.

"Yeah."

Ever since those vampires had come into town, their lives had been turned upside down. There was so much that had been changed because of them. And he hated every single second of it.

He watched Elena's face as she continued to drive. He could see the apprehension in her eyes and the sorrow etched across her features. Then he knew.

"Elena, you have to make a choice," he whispered quietly.

"What?"

"You need to make that choice right now of who we are going to see. Either we are going to keep heading out of town to find Damon or we are going to turn this car around and find Stefan and Caroline. You can't keep playing this game."

Even as his words hit her conscience, she knew he was right. She couldn't do this anymore.

"Matt, can you get my phone out?" she whispered. "And can you dial Damon's number?"

They were slowly heading back to Mystic Falls.

The only reason they were going back was because of Caroline. She was still there, still with Stefan and with Tyler. She wanted to spend Caroline's last minutes with her and with Bonnie.

Matt couldn't help but feel uncomfortable during the conversation that Elena had with Damon over the speakerphone. They had exchanged 'I love yous' and 'I'm sorrys'. Surprisingly enough, the usual dickhead Damon had understood her reasoning for going back to Mystic Falls. It made sense to him. He also but couldn't help feeling sorry for the elder Salvatore. He was going to be separated from his brother.

"Are you sure?" Matt asked her as she pulled over to the side of the road, preparing to do a U-turn. "Are you absolutely sure?"

Elena nodded, her face pulled tight in determination. "Yes."

"Okay." He set his head back on the headrest. Relief flooded his bones. "Okay."

"How are you? How are you feeling?" she asked him, taking her eyes off the road to look at him.

"I'm fine, Elena," he sighed. "Always the mother-hen."

"Sorry, can't help it."

He chuckled softly before closing his eyes. "Don't worry about it."

Elena smiled before turning her eyes back onto the road. They had less than thirty minutes to get back to Mystic Falls and she hoped that Stefan and Caroline could hang on. Tyler was already gone, Sage had died with two hours after Finn's death. Klaus had died forty-five minutes ago. They had some time but not much.

She began to dial a number on her phone, tapping the keys of Bonnie's cell. She glanced down at the phone for a split second.

And then she heard Matt's scream.

"Elena, look out!"

And then nothing.

It was for such a short amount of time.

But it felt like an eternity.

He couldn't see anything.

He couldn't feel anything.

All he could remember was a flash of long blond hair before Elena had driven off of Wickery Bridge.

He fought the heavy waters, trying to focus his vision in the deep abyss. He could barely make out the dashboard in front of him. And then he began to struggle with his seatbelt.

The damn thing was jammed. It was jammed tight enough to the point where he couldn't even shimmy his legs out.

He glanced over and saw Elena. She was unconscious and blood was pooling around her head in a cloud of wispy smoke. He leaned over and fiddled with her belt, easily able to get it unlocked and her body free. But her mouth was open and she was taking in water by the bucketful.

Hold on, Elena. He furiously worked at his own belt. Hold on, Elena.

Suddenly, a loud pounding on the side window nearly scared him out of his wits. Looking over, he recognized the face of the eldest Original.

Elijah easily tore the door off from the hinges and threw it aside. He pulled Elena from the car and made for ripping Matt's seatbelt off. Matt threw a weak punch at his hand and shook his head, pointing at Elena and then pointing to the surface.

He could see more blood forming around Elena's head and knew that she was hurt far worse than he was. Elijah had to get her to the surface and keep her alive or it was all going to be over. Elijah could come back down for him.

Elijah didn't argue. He shot for the surface, Elena clenched tightly in his arms.

Matt wrestled with his belt again, feeling the blackness starting to overtake him. It was all starting to fade away quite fast. He had had no idea death was this quiet. This domineering. It was just like some people had described to him. It was like going to sleep.

He was tired.

So tired.

The blond girl that was pulling his seatbelt away didn't even faze him.

He was so tired.

"Matt! Matt, don't you dare! Matt, oh, God, I'm so sorry!"

And then...

The gasp that rippled from his body made him want to vomit.

And then...

And then...he was so awake.

Haha! I love writing cliffhangers!

This is going to be an eventual twoshot or maybe threeshot. Sorry, I know it's labeled as matt/rebekah and it's got so much matt/elena in it. But I had to do all the stuff that led up to what happened.

In part two, there will be the aftermath of Matt waking up in transition and also the person sitting next to him when he wakes up. And I'll go into just who's blood it will be that healed him.

I am not a Stelena shipper or a Delena shipper. I wrote Elena choosing Damon but choosing to go back and be with Caroline, not Stefan in the end. I like to think that she didn't forget about her other vampire friend who would have been meeting her untimely end quite soon. I am actually an Elejah shipper so that's why I wrote that in.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I hope to get the next two parts up soon. Reviews are loved, I want to know what you thought.