"NO!"
Elena screamed in pain. This couldn't be true; someone was playing some sick joke on them. It was not possible… Only it was true.
Stefan carried Damon's lifeless now body. His skin had turned gray, the veins more visible. There was a stake stuck in his chest, in his heart.
Damon was dead.
Elena knew Stefan was devastated now, she saw it in the brief moment her eyes met his, but she couldn't bring herself to think about him. The shock and pain were too overwhelming.
She approached Stefan, who was standing still with his brother's dead body in his arms. Elena looked at Damon's face. Even now, he looked so painfully beautiful. She gently caressed his cheek, ran a finder through his hair. He looked so peaceful…
Stefan and Elena were both looking in Damon's face, when Anna spoke.
"I'm so sorry. I… I saw how John staked him, and I wish I could have helped him, but there was nothing I could do.. The vervain... I'm sorry, Stefan."
Stefan replied in a barely hearable whisper.
"It's not your fault."
Elena closed her eyes, took a deep breathe and brought herself to speak.
"Jeremy should be home soon. You can go see him, he'd be glad to know you are ok."
Anna nodded, and then left. Just then Elena realized Bonnie was gone too, but she couldn't care less about her in that moment. The only person she cared about right then was dead.
Elena and Stefan kept standing there still, not knowing what to say or do. Stefan heard the deputies coming to check what happened. Even though he felt like he didn't have the strength to do it, he said to Elena:
"The council is coming. We need to go."
Elena nodded.
"What are we gonna do?" she quietly asked.
Stefan sighed.
"I wanna bury him next to our mother. He would have wanted that. You don't have to come, I can do this on my own."
"I want to."
Stefan and Elena stood there, staring at the place where they just buried Damon. Both hadn't cried even a single tear. Both haven't said a single word so far. They just stood there. A crow flew behind Elena and alighted on the tombstone of Damon and Stefan's mother, where now Damon laid too. In that moment, Stefan stretched his hand and took Elena's hand in his and squeezed it.
"When I saw him down there with a stake in his heart, my first thought was to just… let the fire take me. But… I knew he deserved more than to burn down there to ashes. I owed him more."
Elena didn't say anything, she couldn't bring herself to speak, and she didn't know what to say. So, she just held Stefan's hand tighter. He then embraced her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. She held him back just as tightly. She felt a few tears drop on her shoulder. She wanted to say something to comfort him, but she just couldn't.
Neither one of them knew how long they stayed like that. They were interrupted by Elena's phone.
"You should pick up, it's might be important."
Elena felt like nothing could be important. Not then. Not after… But she picked up after all.
"Elena, where are you? You have to come home; I have to tell you some things."
"What is it, Jenna? Please, tell me both you and Jeremy are ok."
"We are. But, Elena… Your dad's building… There was a fire…"
The mention of the fire cut Elena like a knife in the chest.
"I know, Jenna. It's ok. Please, I don't wanna talk about it."
"Ok, but please, come home. It's late and it's not safe." and with that Jenna hung up.
Elena knew she had to go. Besides, she felt like she couldn't do it any longer without crying. But she was not going to cry.
"Jenna's right, you should go home. We have no idea if all the tomb vampires were in the fire. Please, be careful. I… I can't lose you too…"
Elena caressed his cheek, completely understanding him.
"Will you come with me?"
"I wanna stay here a little longer. Just call me when you get home safe."
She nodded and turned around to go. She then stopped, and turned back to him.
"I love you, Stefan."
She turned around again and started walking, not waiting for him to reply.
Elena didn't know how managed to end up at home. Her legs took her there like on magic, because her mind was completely closed. She didn't think nor did she feel anything. She was just numb, empty. But somehow, she ended up in front of her house. She looked and saw Bonnie sitting on the porch, obviously waiting for her. She turned her look from Bonnie and was ready to pass across her, but Bonnie stepped in front of her.
"Elena, please. I'm sorry I lied to you. If I could go back I wouldn't have done it…"
"But you can't undo it, Bonnie. I trusted you to help me protect the people I cared about. I trusted you. Damon trusted me. And you let me down, and because of that I let him down. And now he… So I don't care if you are sorry, Bonnie. You can't fix this."
"I really am sorry, Elena. I don't know how I will even look at Stefan again. I know you have no reason to believe me, but I didn't want this…"
"Then why did you purposely lie? Never mind. It doesn't matter if you wanted it or you didn't. It happened and there's no going back. All I want from you is to leave me alone, for a while at least. I will come to you when I am ready. But right now, I don't wanna see you or talk to you. So, can you, please, let me just go home."
Bonnie looked at Elena again, and then left. Elena opened the door and Jenna rushed to her.
"Finally! I was really worried. I tried calling Stefan, but his phone is off…"
"Jenna, please, I can't do this right now. Just leave me alone."
Jenna immediately understood that something was wrong, but she knew better than to dig into it.
Elena then looked past Jenna's shoulder and saw John. Disgust, anger, hate consumed her; she passed through Jenna, went to John and slapped him as hard as she could. He looked at her, waiting for her to say something. But she didn't. She just put all the hate for him the gaze she shot him with. Then she ran upstairs to her room.
Jeremy was in his room, sitting in his bed, remembering his and Anna's first and only time together. Right there, in the same bed. He closed his eyes, thinking about the second girl he loved and he lost. The pain he held inside him all the time began burning again. If it could just stop…
Then the answer came to his mind. He went to his drawer and picked the vial of blood Anna gave him. Then he was ready to head to the bathroom, drink it and take all the rest of Elena's sleeping pills she got after the accident and the pain would be over, but right then…
"Jeremy."
He turned around and saw Anna. She was alive, ok. Jeremy dropped the vial on the floor and rushed to her, holding her as tightly in his arms as possible. She buried her head in his chest.
"I thought I lost you…" Jeremy whispered.
She pulled away and looked at him.
"You almost did. They drugged me with vervain and dragged me in your family's old house. Then John set it on fire. I would be dead if it wasn't for Stefan."
"What matters is that now you are here. I'm so sorry, Anna, for everything. We can leave tonight if you want. Just… I want you. I love you."
Anna looked at him shocked at first, but then leaned at kissed him with everything she had in herself. The kiss was long and sensual, and after what felt to both of them like eternity, they pulled away. Anna looked into his eyes and said:
"I love you too. But we can't leave. Not now. Right now your sister needs you."
"Anna, please, not you too. Elena lied to me, she made decisions from me, she kept me in the dark. I can't just forget that."
"She did it because she wanted to protect you. But even if she wasn't right, she is going through something painful now, and she needs you to be there for her."
"What happened?"
"Talk to her. She just got into her room."
Jeremy hesitated. Everything that happened tonight stressed him and he was afraid…
"I will be here when you come back, I promise."
They smiled at each other and then Jeremy went to Elena's room.
Elena closed the door of her room and leaned against the door. She looked around the room and memories came back to her.
She saw him install himself on her bed, taking her teddy. She saw him looking through her drawer. She saw him invading her personal space again. She saw him grin and smirk and do the eye thing as she had called it.
Elena looked at her desk and she saw the photo she got printed just a couple of days ago: it was from the pageant, she and Damon dancing and smiling at each other so genuinely. She remembered the relief and the hope she felt as he stepped in to save her from humiliation, she remembered the electricity she felt between their hands through the near touch part of the dance. She remembered the harmony she felt when she was finally in his arms when they danced. She remembered the way he looked at her, his bright beautiful blue eyes that she felt penetrating her soul. Then she remembered Stefan getting out of the burning building desperate. She remembered seeing Damon's lifeless body. She remembered how she had kissed his forehead before she and Stefan buried him. She remembered how he slowly disappeared into the ground…
Damon was really gone.
It finally hit her completely. He was never gonna come back. He was never gonna smirk again, he was never gonna mock her and Stefan, he was never gonna deliberately get too close to her…
Tears finally started falling and Elena felt like she would never be able to stop them again. She dragged on the floor, crying out all the pain she felt and it still wasn't enough. It would never be enough. He was gone…
"Elena? It's me, Jer. Can I talk to you?"
Even her brother's sudden desire to speak to her again couldn't stop the tears, couldn't stop the pain.
Jeremy could hear her cry on the other side of the door. Even though he was mad at her, he didn't want to see her hurt. Elena was his sister, no matter what.
"Elena, open the door, please, or I will break it and get in. Even though I'm not a vampire like Damon and Stefan, I can still do it!"
Slowly, Elena got up and opened the door. What Jeremy saw then was a vulnerable girl with completely broken heart. And this girl was his sister. He got inside, closed the door, leaded her to the bed, made them both sit and then wrapped her in his arms.
"Shhh, it's gonna be ok, sis. I'm here."
