Author's note: Last night I was staring at a wonderful spoilery picture for about half an hour and then this short one-shot popped into my head. So I strongly suggest that you take a look at the picture I'm talking about, you can find it in my LJ (since I can't put a link in here you'll have to click on Homepage in my profile - sorry). I have no idea about the context the picture belongs to and I guess what they're gonna show us on the show won't be anything like this but… that's what fanfiction is for, isn't it?

This one's dedicated to the cutest girl I just spend a few hours with, three-months-old Phoebe, and her mother (who I have tried repeatedly – but unsuccessfully yet - to make see Delena for what it is: the OTP of VD).

Oh, and of couse I still don't own Damon or Elena or anyone/anything. Just writing for fun.


Revelations In The Rain

It was one of the craziest thunderstorms Elena had ever witnessed. Lightning and thunder had cracked the sky for more than three hours now and the wind had constantly hurled heavy waterfalls of rain against the windows of her home.

The news had warned everyone to stay inside, to not leave the house, until further notice.

Elena hadn't been able to listen to caution. How could she, really, when she knew… she couldn't, that's how.

So here Elena was now, out in the woods, fighting her way through the storm.

She'd dressed in heavy boots and her leather jacket and had taken an umbrella with her. Still she'd been drenched to the bone in the matter of seconds, before she'd even reached the woods.

Water had soaked through her boots and her clammy feet made squishy sounds with every step she took. Mud crusted her boots and the front of her soaked jeans as well. The ground was slippery and Elena had fallen onto her knees several times in her desperate haste.

It was pelting with rain all around her and Elena had trouble seeing more than a few arm lengths in front of her. Her ears hurt from the howling storm, she couldn't hear anything beside the heavy raindrops that fell like rocks onto her umbrella. That and her own heart hammering in her chest, louder and more frantically than ever before.

She had to get to him…

Elena was slowly fighting her way forward, up the small hill from where she would be able to see if she'd been going in the right direction at all, when she suddenly thought she'd heard something beside the storm.

It had sounded like a faint voice calling her name.

Elena turned around, trying to see anything through the heavy rainfall. She noticed she'd come to the edge of the woods, the trees were suddenly thinning and there was a clear gap not far off to her side. But she couldn't find the owner of the voice she'd thought she'd heard.

'I must have imagined it,' Elena thought and turned around again to move further up the hill. A black clad figure had suddenly materialized and stood no three feet away from her, blocking her path.

The shocked cry had left her mouth even before her brain had registered that it was…

"Damon?" Elena gasped and nearly stumbled in shock. But before she could once again fall to the ground an arm shot out and Damon closed his hand in a strong grip around her upper arm to steady her.

"What do you think you're doing out here, Elena?" Damon's voice overrode the storm easily. It sounded angry.

"Damon, I need to… it's Stefan! Some vampires took him and…"

"I know," Damon cut her off. He let go of Elena's arm but took one step closer to her. Unconscious of doing so Elena lifted her umbrella to make him fit under it, all the while staring into his angry face when he continued: "That still doesn't explain what you're doing here! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"No! I'm trying to save him! Damon, I have to… I can't just sit at home while Stefan is being tortured and…" Elena's voice cracked and she couldn't go on. Images of the horrible things these vampires could do to Stefan flashed before her eyes and she had to fight them off or she'd go mad. She knew that they were capable of hurting Stefan far worse than what her naïve human brain could ever come up with.

Elena closed her eyes for a second but opened them again when she felt Damon's hands close around both her arms.

"And you think it's gonna help him if you rush in there to get caught as well? Elena, that's exactly what they want!" Damon's stormy eyes bore into her and he shook her slightly.

"They want you to come! Because once they got you they'll be able to do the worst thing possible to him. The ultimate torture!"

"What do you mean, the ultimate torture?" Elena stared into the face that was only inches away from hers. Damon stared straight back, his face more serious and open than she'd ever seen it before.

"I mean," Damon's voice rose barely above a whisper and yet Elena had no trouble hearing it, the intensity with which he uttered each word slashing like a whip lash through the air. "They're not simply gonna kill you, Elena. That would be far too mild. These are vampires we're talking about here. They're gonna hurt you, badly. They're gonna feed on you, toy with you, rape you, repeatedly. And they're gonna make him watch every second of it."

Elena didn't have to ask how he knew that. Damon knew because he was one of them. He was capable of everything these vampires from the tomb could do to Stefan and Elena knew he had done that, and worse. This… creature in front of her had inflicted more pain than anyone else she'd ever known. And yet…

When Damon continued in his low voice Elena realized that he wasn't talking from experience as one of the inflictors, as one who'd done all this. He was talking like someone on the receiving end of it all. It were his worst nightmares he was voicing.

"He'll have to watch everything and then, then he'll be forced to do it himself. He may think he's strong enough to resist the torture, to defy them… but he's not. Eventually the pain they inflict on him will be too much and he's gonna give in. That's when they're gonna force him to feed on you, to hurt you. And they're gonna make him force his own blood down your throat so that when they finally make him kill you… you'll wake up one of us."

Damon's hands tightened on Elena's arms but she didn't notice. All she saw was Damon with his wet hair plastered to his head, raindrops running down his nose and chin, pain and fear clearly visible in his pale blue eyes, shining from them like a beacon in the dark.

"The ultimate torture, Elena. Having to live with the knowledge that you hurt and killed the one you love most."

And the second the words had left his mouth Elena realized that he wasn't talking Stefan's torture anymore.

This was his pain, his fear, Damon had voiced here and now.

He'd thrown his own feelings on the line, his feelings for her.

Elena didn't know what to say. She simply stared into Damon's face inches away from hers. His honestly frightened face, for once not hidden behind a mask of sarcastic smugness but completely bare and open for her to truly see him.

All of him and his feelings he'd laid bare for her to see.

It was as if Elena really saw Damon for the first time in her life. And as if on cue the sun had suddenly found a small gap in the thick thunderstorm clouds and although the rain still pelted on a bright ray of light suddenly broke through the trees to illuminate the small spot they were standing in.

It lit up the raindrops on Damon's face until they glistened like diamonds, it brightened Damon's intense gaze, and Elena could do nothing but stare into those sparkling orbs in awe.

"Please, don't do this!"

Elena had trouble connecting Damon's words to their current situation. The revelation of his feelings had thrown her completely and so it took her a moment to understand that he was asking her, pleading with her, not to follow through with her one-girl-rescue-mission that would have been nothing but a sure suicide operation.

Elena lowered her head and closed her eyes for a second. When she looked up again Damon's face once again showed nothing but the typical dispassionate-slash-bored expression she'd come to know so well.

"Okay," Elena sighed at last. With a quick glance to where Damon's hands still held her arms in a steel grip she added: "You can let go of me now, I'm not gonna run off."

"Good!" Damon released her and stepped back a little.

"But we have to do something, Damon! We have to get Stefan out of there, we have to…"

"We don't have to do anything, Elena," Damon lowered his head and caught Elena's eyes. Before she had a chance to voice her protest he went on: "You have to do just one thing. Go home. I'll get my brother out of there, I promise."

"But, Damon, you can't go there by yourself! You need help, you can't even get inside! I could help you, I could, I don't know, distract them…"

"Elena," Damon once again cut her off with grabbing her by the arms and shaking her form. He leaned unbearably close and she could feel his breath on her lips. "You won't distract them, you'll distract me! How am I supposed to think of a plan if I have to worry about you getting hurt?"

Hearing Damon actually put in words what he'd before only confessed between the lines shut Elena up like nothing else. Concern and something else, a certain spark Elena didn't dare to name yet, was written all over his handsome face when Elena fixed her eyes on him.

"Go, now!" Damon growled and, to put some distance between them, let go of her arms.

The umbrella that Elena had been holding over their heads the entire time fell from her hand when Elena suddenly, without a second thought, leaped forward to pull Damon into a quick embrace.

She squeezed his surprised form and her hands found their way around his neck and into his wet hair. Damon's arms automatically closed around her slender form and he buried his face in her hair. Elena leaned into his soaked leather-clad chest.

"Please save him, Damon. And be careful," Elena whispered into the collar of his jacket. "I need you back in one piece."

"You mean you need him back in one piece," Damon could hear the bitterness in his own voice and he felt the harsh sting of true jealousy for possibly the first time in 145 years.

Elena lifted her head and looked at Damon's face through eyelashes wet with what Damon couldn't identify for sure as rain or tears. It could be both, for sadness and joy radiated from her eyes in equal amounts and the steady rain was still falling onto them.

"I know I shouldn't say this, I shouldn't even feel this way," Elena whispered and raised her head to look him in the eyes. "But I need both of you, Damon."

She leaned closer and let her lips brush over his mouth in the briefest of kisses he'd ever received. Damon, too stunned to do anything else, stood there shell-shocked and watched Elena pull away from him. Without another glance or word she picked up her discarded green umbrella and started walking down the hill back in the direction she'd come from.

Back to where she would be safe, at home.

And there she would be waiting, anxious and restless, until he'd saved his brother and had brought him back to her.

But, Damon thought when he finally came out of his stupor and moved up the hill, a small part of Elena would be waiting, anxious and restless, for him as well. A small part of her heart cared for him, worried for him until he'd returned safe and sound.

And that small part of Elena's heart would have to be enough for now.

THE END

Please, as always, let me know what you think. Your opinion and your feedback is what's spurring me on to write more for you.