Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with TVD. I wrote this in my disappointment with the S5 finale. Although, I have complete faith that there will be a reunion between Damon and Elena in S6.
The Journey Home
The stars are brighter than he remembered them being, or maybe he just never really took the time to pay attention to them lately. His days of lying in the middle of the road stopped not long after returning to Mystic Falls. Back then it had given him a way to unwind and process the things going on in his life, meeting Elena had changed that. He became preoccupied with her and started to care less about time to himself and more about his time with her. Although, the non-stop flood of evil trying to take over the town and their lives was not only old, but was starting to wear down on all of them. However, nothing in the past was as bad as this. He had never seen her so broken, not even when Stefan had his heart ripped out of his chest three months ago, not when Jeremy died, not when Alaric was gone. He completely broke her, and it let him see just how much she was in love with him. He knew exactly what she must have gone through in the last few months. He had at one time thought about what he would do if he had lost her and he had come to the morbid conclusion that he would rather join her in death than be without her on earth. Although, she was much stronger of a person than he, she had lost so many people but at some point he knew she wasn't going to be able to take the weight of the heavy heart she carried.
His fingers clench at the loose dirt under the palms of his hands, the grit felt good against his skin, allowed him to know this was real and that he was alive. Somehow they had ended up back here, in the forest where they had left behind the people they held dear. He feels weak and finds it hard to muster up the strength to get to his feet but uses her as his muse to try to get back to town, or whatever was left of it.
He stumbles slightly through the dead leaves and reaches for a tree, leaning on it for support as he tries to steady himself. His body was heavy again, not like it had been in recent months. Looking up at the sky, he studies the moon and direction, trying to gauge what time it is. He concludes it's close to eight-thirty, meaning he wouldn't reach home for another hour or so on foot. There was no faster way than old fashioned walking due to his non-existent strength. He was completely vulnerable to anything that may try to attack him, but he'd cross the bridge if it presented itself.
"Bonnie!?" He says as loudly as possible. He knew she was somewhere, but not exactly sure where. There had been a bright light before darkness took him and he wasn't sure if they would end up together or where they would even end up. He realized it may have taken her longer to come to, seeing as he wasn't even sure how long he'd been out before he opened his eyes for the first time in his second life.
"Bonnie?" He continues to weave in and out of the large trees, stopping every now and then to gain some strength back in his legs to continue. "Shit." He says under his breath.
"I'm here." Her voice cuts through the forest quickly as the sound of breaking branches under her feet fill his ears. She emerges a moment later, hugging herself from the cold air. Without hesitation he removes his jacket and hands it to her. To say their relationship had changed over the past few months would be an understatement. They had gone through something profound and they had done it together. Any past grudges had been released when they had found peace.
"I hope you woke up somewhere softer than I did." She says as she takes his leather jacket from him and slips it on. It's about two times too big for her, but he knows it will do her well.
"Honestly, it doesn't even matter. What matters is we woke up." He says as he shakes his head and leans over with his hands on his knees. "I really need a drink. I'm dying here." He tells her. "We need to get home."
She nods and immediately walks over to him, putting her arm around his back and supporting him as they push away from the tree and start the long hike back to civilization. He allows her to support him, but tries hard not to hurt her, knowing she was probably just as tired as he was, except she wasn't going through starvation. After a few minutes they reach the road and decide to stay on it incase they're passed by any motorists willing to help.
"Damon, how are we going to do this? I mean, they think we're dead. This isn't something you should just surprise someone with."
"What other option do we have?" He groans. "No matter how we break it the shock is always going to be there. Why not do it in grand fashion?"
She laughs slightly. "I'm glad to see you haven't lost you're knack for theatrics."
"I'm not saying we have to throw it in their faces. But come on, we beat the odds; your Grams somehow got us back here. I'm never going to understand it because it's beyond my knowing as to how we could possibly be let go from being at peace."
"Maybe they realized we had more to do." She shrugs.
"Maybe." He says.
As they draw nearer to town he is suddenly stopped by an immense pain in his stomach, which causes him to double over and clench the area it's radiating from. As he pulls his hand back he sees blood and they both immediately know there's no going back.
"The spell is still over Mystic Falls, Damon. There's no way they're still here."
They immediately turn around and start walking back the way they came and slowly the pain starts to subside, the wound healing with ease, leaving only a trail of blood on his shirt. The last thing he needed was to lose more precious blood, something he was already starving for.
"The lake house." Damon says as he puts his arm around Bonnie's shoulders once again. "They have to be there, it has to be outside the range of the spell."
"Well, we'd better start walking."
It takes them a little over an hour to finally find a ride going in the same direction, which cuts down their traveling time drastically and allows them both to rest. They're dropped off at the end of the driveway and they both utter a thank you before the car drives away, Damon having a bit more to be thankful for as he was able to compel a drink out of the driver. He was starting to feel better every passing moment as the blood coursed through his system and finds he has the strength to walk under his own power without the support of Bonnie.
They walk down the gravel drive and just as their about to walk up the front steps, he stops. Her cries aren't anything like the last time he had seen her, these are soft and withheld and as he turns around he can see her silhouette on the moonlit dock. He turns back to Bonnie and the understanding between them is instant. Bonnie quietly enters the house as he makes his way back down the steps. He nears her cautiously and even though he knows that she can hear footsteps, she doesn't turn around.
"Please, just leave me." She says softly in a broken voice. "Just let me be."
She seems somewhat irritated and he immediately imagines that everyone in the house had been trying to get her to move on, which she obviously wasn't ready to do. Elena didn't give up easily on the things she believed in. She was so beautifully stubborn when it came to the people she loved. It was a trait he admired and one that also infuriated him sometimes. He never wanted her to be in danger, but she always insisted on going along for the ride when it came to anything that involved those she loved. She always wanted a part of the action, which meant he always had to worry for her safety. She was acting just as he thought she would, she was withdrawn and plagued by her own thoughts and denial. They were two of a kind when it came to not letting things go.
"Never again." He says softly.
Even from ten feet away, he can see her body become rigid in the darkness, her sobbing halts for the time being and it takes only a short moment for her to turn her head around to look at him. The wet trails of tears down her cheeks glisten in the moonlight and he has a hard time finding the courage to just stand there. She had shed too many tears for him and because of him. Elena wasn't ever a girl to him, she was always a woman. The moment she lost her parents she became a woman and lost the years that most people have fond memories of, the times where adult problems weren't a problem at all. Somehow, they always were for her and he knew exactly what that felt like.
He takes a step forward and it causes her to stand from the wooden bench. She's facing him fully now, with her arms crossed holding her sweater closed in the cool night breeze. She starts shaking her head as he keeps taking steps towards her and when he finally comes to stand in front of her she starts crying again.
"This isn't real." She says shaking her head.
"Baby, I can assure you I'm real." He tells her as he raises his hand to her cheek and brushes away at the tears with his thumb. Her eyes become wide and he pulls her into his arms, holding her tight against him. Her body is shaking as the sobs take over her once again. "I'm so sorry. I never meant to break your heart."
He's not sure how long they stand there, but he feels blessed for every moment. The way she melts into him lets him know she was still his, she hadn't let him go one bit. Her hot tears are now running down his neck and soaking into his shirt, but they feel good to him, because he can actually feel. He presses a hard kiss into her hair and rubs soothing circles on her back as she continues to cry. She pulls away from him slightly to look at him she raises her hands to his face, running them along his cheeks and through his hair as if she still didn't believe him, or she had just forgotten what it felt like to touch him. He grabs one of her hands and presses it to his chest, over his heart. The faint beating brings a smile to her lips, even through her tears.
"No more good-byes." He tells her.
"You completely broke me…" She says softly.
He's silent, not knowing what to say. It was true, he knew without a doubt that his death had brought her the most sadness since the loss of her parents. Nothing came close to how torn apart losing him made her feel. There was something unspoken between them that no one knew about, something special they shared that the no one quite understood. Most people hated him and turned their back to any sort of friendship he may have offered, she never turned away. She always tried to make him a better person, tried to keep him sane and bring out the good that she knew was in his heart. Funny, she had finally done so, because the reason all this came about was because he made the decision to save Liz Forbes instead of following Elena through the woods. He had made an unselfish decision that didn't evolve Elena for once, but instead, another. Truth be told, if he had the choice presented to him and knew the consequences, he wasn't sure he'd make the same decision.
"I know."
Without warning her hand comes up and strikes him in the face. The noise was sharp in the night air and the sting left behind was welcomed by him. He didn't bring his hand up to touch it. Instead, he kept his head in the direction her hand had forced it, looking down at the glimmering water. He was disappointed in himself, something she had no idea of. To say he was sorry was definitely an understatement, no apology would ever make what happened alright. He isn't aware of the tears in his own eyes until his vision gets blurry and his eyes grow hot. She had never seen him cry, not once, not even at the realization that Tyler's possessed body had ripped out Stefan's heart. So, he keeps his head turned and waits for her to walk away, but she doesn't. Instead, she moves closer to him, almost pressed against him as she lifts his chin with her finger, willing him to look her in the eyes. He does so with confidence when she forces him, not looking away as the look of surprise sweeps across her face. She was taken aback by his emotion, and he only hoped she understood just how sorry he was, since words would never be enough.
"I love you, Elena. I would do anything to take back everything that's happened, but I can't, I'll never be able to."
"I know, Damon." She tells him. "I know you can't. You did what you thought you had to do to protect the people you love. I more than anyone understand that. But, I was being selfish; I didn't want it to be you. After everything we've been through I didn't want it to be you."
"I didn't want it to be me either, baby. But I didn't have a choice."
She nods understandably and closes the distance between them, kissing him tenderly. She begins to relax in his arms and as he pulls her closer, he realizes not even peace was worth missing this, being here with her was his future. She was where he wanted to be, he would always choose her.
He feels a soft breeze against his skin and opens his eyes to find the unfamiliar sight of the wood covered ceiling in the master bedroom of the Gilbert lake house. The warm weight on his chest puts him at ease and he gently raises his hand to rest on her bare waist, pulling her closer to him in between the crisp white sheets. She's resting peacefully, her left hand lying still on his bare chest. As he lies there, he remembers how he was barley able to hold it together as he said good-bye to her. It made him realize that he had taken her and the love she had given him for granted. He had wasted many days not returning it in the same manner she shoveled it out, he promised himself that would never happen again. She deserved to feel appreciated and special, and by God he was going to make her as happy as he possibly could given the crazy lives they led.
His mind is on the ring hanging from the silver chain on her neck, the brilliant blue sapphire shimmering and catching his attention as he made love to her once they retreated from the long awaited reunion downstairs. He had wanted to say something, but she hadn't brought it up, so he said nothing. It had been in his bedside drawer back in Mystic Falls and was something he had actually forgotten about due to how quickly the unseen evil had taken over their home. How she retrieved it, he was unsure of. It had belonged to his mother, and had been in terrible shape until he had taken it in to have it reset in white gold that he had known was her size and was not tarnished. Stefan didn't know of its existence, it had never been something that came up in conversation, and he never planned on making it known to anyone but her. He snakes his right arm up and around to the back of her neck, pushing aside her hair slightly to reach the lobster claw clasp. He carefully undoes it with one hand and pulls the necklace away from her, which causes her to stir and open her eyes.
"What are you doing?" She asks through sleep.
He lays the necklace down on his chest so he can see it better and grasps the end of the chain, pulling it up in the air, leaving only the ring lying on his chest in front of them. He can see her eyes are wide open now. She watches as he plays with the ring under his fingers, turning it and looking at it in the moonlight. His movements are just right to get it to sparkle enough for them both to see its stunning beauty.
"Where did you find this?" He asks.
"Jeremy brought it back from the house. I asked him to get a few things; he found it and thought it was mine."
"It is yours." He tells her. "But it wasn't meant for a necklace."
"Is it a daylight ring?" She asks.
"No." He tells her. She picks it up and tries to slide it onto her index finger, when it doesn't fit she takes it off and he immediately plucks it from her grasp."It's not meant for that finger, sweetheart." He says softly into her hair as he takes it between his fingers and slides it on to her ring finger.
He holds her hand in his and admires how perfect it looks. Her breathing halts for a moment after his actions and she slowly lifts her head off his chest, moving to sit up slightly so she can see him better. The smile on his face must have been contagious, because she immediately mirrors it and leans up to kiss him. He doesn't bother asking, he feared it would only ruin the silent moment they were having. The moment where just looking into her eyes told him everything he ever needed to know and made everything okay. The woman was truly amazing, and how he was ever lucky enough to have found her was beyond him, how he was ever able to find his way back to her was beyond him as well. There was a small part of him that wondered if the universe had always been pointing their paths towards one another. His first 173 years were nothing compared to the life they were just about to start together. The life both of them deserved.