Images flashed before her eyes. Water. Always water. Her mother lifeless in front of her and her father holding her gaze with regret in his eyes. Flash. A crazed Stefan forcing her blood and threatening to hurl her off Wickery Bridge. Flash. A glimpse of blonde hair and a screech of tyres before water filled the cab. More water. Always water. Flash. Icy blue eyes laughing and dancing in the firelight. Flash. The same eyes but full of sorrow and pain. Flash. A cocky smirk and a sarcastic laugh. Flash. Then nothing. A stretch of darkness and overwhelming silence, broken only by the gentle thud of a heartbeat.
He raced towards the hospital, driving faster than anyone thought possible. He growled as the engine whined in protest, he knew it couldn't keep it up much longer. He swerved angrily to the side of the road and abandoned his car. He could run faster, he could get to her faster than a car.
He counted the seconds, each going painfully slow yet painfully fast. Slow because as each ticked by he was still not by her side, he was still not there. Fasts because with each passing second he knew the life was draining out of her somewhere. Somewhere he wasn't.
He had promised not to leave her, and he wouldn't. He would stay by her side but she hadn't promised not to leave him. She was leaving him. The details were lost on him, no phone call had come through alerting him. Either she was alone or they did not want him to snap. They didn't know he had held his once best friend as the life drained out of him, and with him, the life drained out of her.
He hadn't talked to her since he had left the previous night, Stefan had returned to her. He had insisted. He had seen no room for argument, Elena needed her rock, she had needed the one who had saved her from herself. She needed Stefan – or that's what Stefan had said.
He thought otherwise. She needed someone secure? He could be secure. Sometimes. Whether or not he was wasn't the question, the question was: Every time she was in danger, every time she wanted to risk her life – who had saved her?
He had.
Over the months when Stefan had been on his Ripper tour of the U.S Damon had fought to keep her alive. He was willing to act impulsively and earn her hatred as long as she stayed alive to hate him.
It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
In the distance he could hear sirens wailing as they left to tend to an emergency. He could hear heart monitors beeping insistently as they flat lined. He could hear the low thump of heartbeats, whether strong or faint, regular or erratic. They were there. Their hearts were still beating, families had hopes and chances at goodbyes. He strained his ears to listen for her heartbeat. The one heartbeat that mattered.
It was there. So faint it was overrun by the sounds of others. Her heartbeat. It was their, the once steady rhythm forcing her body to work. It was small comfort to know she was there, he was within seconds of her. He raced through the halls, not focusing on where he was going or the signs on the walls but the slow, sound of her blood pumping through her veins.
It faltered for a second – just a moment, but a moment that had anyone who could hear on edge. He could hear no one else. No comforting voices or familiar heartbeats. No soft breathing – not from her, not from anyone. She wouldn't be alone. She would be surrounded by those who loved her, those without heartbeats. Those who lived, and some had died to protect her.
He caught a glance of a sign on the doors he was about to burst through and his still heart stopped beating and his breath caught in his throat.
No.
As the doors swung open her heartbeat faltered and stopped. He fell to his knees beside her and stoked her hair and pressed his forehead against hers. He knew his eyes gave all his emotions away but the one person who knew that was lying in front of him. He was glad. Glad she didn't have to see his pain or live in his anguish. No tears fell from his eyes, his grief was too deep for tears to help. He knew his brother sat near him, in a similar state.
"Elena." he whispered brokenly.
Of course there was no reply.
"Damon?" A voice came from behind him. One he couldn't bare to hear.
He tore his gaze away from her face and locked onto the sad eyed doctor.
"Damon. When she was brought in here earlier-" she broke off, seemingly trying to find the right words. He moved his gaze away from her and stared at Elena, willing her to be okay.
"-cerebral haemorrhage. I- I- I had to-" his head snapped up.
"What?" his voice wasn't broken anymore. It was just... empty. It was devoid of all emotion.
"Bleeding on the brain. I-" she looked away, her eyes wide with regret. "She needed my help, Damon."
She left the room only pausing slightly at the door, her eyes begging him to understand the implications.
"She needed my help."
It clicked. She had helped her. She had healed her with vampire blood. He froze internally. His blood. This was worse than the original outcome. This explained the absence of people. He had lost her, only for her to come back and be torn away from him again.
He cupped her face with his hands and leant his forehead against hers once more.
"I love you." a single tear escaped the iron-strong grip on his emotions. He dropped a kiss on her forehead and used his thumb to wipe away the drip on her cheek.
"Wake up." he whispered to her. He just needed a goodbye, just a few words to tell her how much she meant. To tell her everything.
"Wake up."
A shuddering gasp escaped her lips as she struggled to control the rage of emotions that washed over her.
She felt a tight grip on one of her hands and strong hands cupping her face.
Her eyes flew open and she was met with icy blue ones. Her breathing steadied to a normal pace as she locked onto his gaze.
The grip on her hand tightened and as she turned she was met with a pair of worried green eyes. She vaguely registered the difference in their gazes. Each was anguished, wallowing in a private sorrow but the pain in Damon's... It was deeper, as if it went right through him to the very core of his soul.
She sat up and looked around, her breathing coming faster as she processed where she was.
She gently freed her hand from Stefan's gasp and pulled her knees up to comfort herself. She felt damp, as though she had been out in the rain too long. Why was she damp?
The lake. She hugged her knees tighter to herself refusing to cry. She buried her face into her knees.
Three times she had been on that bridge with a chance of death. Three times too many. Too many times in her short lifetime.
Despite her protests tears leaked out her eyes and soaked her jeans. She felt an arm wind around her shaking form and pull her close. She breathed deeply, trying to focus. Someone dropped a kiss on her temple as their hand stroked her hair.
She turned her head and pressed her face against something warm, hard and clad in leather. Damon's arms tightened around her as more tears escaped.
Suddenly, she pulled back.
"The car. The bridge. Rebekah. Matt." her words tumbled out of her mouth incoherently as Damon's hands reached out to cup her face again.
"Elena. It's okay. It's okay. Matt's fine."
She nodded, as she battled to keep the flood of emotions under control. "What happened to me?"
She was almost scared of the answers. The look in Damon's eyes told her it wasn't good. Only one possibility became clear to her. She raised a shaking hand to her face to cover one of Damon's.
Stefan rubbed soothing circles on her back as she fought to keep her words in. If she said it, it became real.
"I- I-" she couldn't make her mouth form coherent sentences, only a jumbled string of words fell from her mouth. "No-"
Damon shared a look with Stefan, their faces set in a grim line.
"Elena, come here." Damon's voice was soft and gentle. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into the hollow between his neck a shoulder. His arms held her tightly as one of his hands slowly stroked her hair.
He slowly leant back and took her face between his hands. She was so close she could see the tears clinging to his eyelashes.
"You're gonna be fine. I promise you. You're gonna be fine."
She repeated it over and over to herself like a mantra. If she said it enough times it would come true.
"Damon-" she managed to choke out. Her throat seemed to have stopped working. "What happened to me?"
His eyes were so full of pain it broke her heart just a little bit more. His anguish seemed to radiate out through his eyes overwhelming those who cared enough to look.
He stroked her cheekbone with his thumb with eyes so full of regret she almost wanted to comfort him to take away his pain.
"You died, Elena."
Hey! New Story!
Woo.
Okay, I have I think three other stories with the first chapter written but I'm going to leave those in the works until I get up to chapter 5 done. Let me know what you think of this. I'll try my hardest to make it different from 'The New Life' and I do have some ideas to take it in a completely different direction.
This is the only chapter written so far for this fic so you'll have to bear with me until I get it started.
I'm going on holiday for a couple days tomorrow but I'll be back Thursday afternoon. Share the love guys, read me other stories!
-E