Angel

"Memories seep from my veins"

"Well" huffed Katherine "that went well."

"Really Katherine? What did you expect?" Damon rushed up behind her and wrapped his hand around her neck. "What. Did. You. Expect? What in the name of fuck possessed you to start with that?" he demanded.

"Da-am-on—ca-n't-bre-athe" Katherine gasped out. Damon tightened his grip on her neck but before he could speak again Bonnie spoke up.

"Damon, let her go" she said gently.

Damon held on to Katherine for a second longer before letting out an exasperated sigh and throwing her to the other side of the room.

"Katherine what the fuck?" he growled at her. "Why did you do that? I thought you were try-"

"Damon for god's sake shut up" Katherine cut in with a fierce look on her face. She spun around and waved her hand at him as if shooing him away. "I have a plan. I know what I'm doing so stop being so melodramatic."

Damon flushed with anger and started striding towards her again so she raised her hands in surrender and started backing away from him.

"Damon – wait" Bonnie began before turning her attention to Katherine. "It probably wasn't the best idea to start with that" she said "we can all see she's not coping, how do you think she's going to react to this? She's just going to be even angrier with you if or when you eventually get her to listen!" Bonnie was definitely softer spoken than Damon was but she managed to get his point across all the same.

Katherine let out a sigh of exasperation. "I said..I have...a plan. I said..I know...what I am doing" she ground out. "Honestly, you'd think you two would have a little more faith in me." she ended her speech with a little hurt expression which Damon recognised all too well as being totally fake but still he had to give her credit for trying.

He barked out a laugh and strode over to where the girls were standing. "Faith? In Katherine Pierce? Have you met you?" he sighed and sank down against the wall.

Damon had no idea what possessed him to trust Katherine in the first place. Maybe it was just the sheer desperation to get out of this hell-hole and back to Elena and for some twisted reason the fates had sent fucking Katherine of all people to save the day. He had no idea whether Katherine really did have a plan, he didn't know if she was being honest, he didn't know what her motivations were she was really rather quiet about the entire thing, all he knew was that she said she was there to help and dammit if he didn't let himself hope just a little bit. After the stunt Katherine had just pulled with Elena though he could feel that flicker of hope diminishing a little.

"This has to work Bonnie. We have to get out of here. She needs me" Damon finally spoke up. "I need her" he whispered more softly under his breath. He knew both Katherine and Bonnie heard him anyway he just didn't care.

"Right, well. Here we go again" Katherine said to Damon and Bonnie before appearing in Elena's room once again.

Damon knew that he was lucky in this sense, he could watch what was happening, he could see Elena, hear her; it was better than nothing. It was better than what Elena had. Damon was truly scared for her, there had been moments in the last 3 months when he had almost fully believed that she was going to do something drastic but thankfully something always seemed to stop her, he wasn't sure what it was but he was beyond grateful that it did. The past 3 months had been agonising for him, having to see Elena suffer day after day, hour after hour, and being unable to do anything to help her. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hide her from the world until she was okay again, he wanted to kiss her and caress her and lie beside her and make love to her and..'God' he thought to himself with a groan 'this is not helping'. Instead of thinking Damon focused on what was going on in Elena's new bedroom.

Katherine stood gazing down at the sleeping girl in the bed. Elena was tossing and turning, tears running down her cheeks. Katherine blew out a huff of air and set to work.