AN: Quick thanks to Valérie for being my beta. You rock so hard, and so do those of you who reviewed! Anyway, here is the second chapter!
Enjoy! ~Kate
White. Nothingness. Cold… and not a damn thing resembling peace.
"Bennett, where the hell are we?" Damon asks once as soon as he can see her in the absolute nothing. This place feels like a freaky episode of The Twilight Zone.
"I'm not sure." He looks at her and watches an expression of uncertainty flash across her face. "This isn't…this can't be what Grams meant. She's wrong...this...can't be right."
"What are you babbling about?"
"She said she ensured my peace…that she found hers because she made sure I'd find mine, but…" The witch shakes her head, perplexed. "This can't be what she meant. We've been here less than five minutes…and this is definitely not peace. This is miserable."
"Kudos to Captain Obvious," he grumbles, narrowing his eyes at the blank…everything. "Any clue how we get out of here?"
"Can we get out of here?"
"What do you mean, 'can' we? We sure as hell better be able to!"
"I don't know. We could try walking?"
"Walking," he deadpans. "Where do you propose we go? And in which direction?" he counters, throwing his arms out. "Because look around you, Bon-Bon! There isn't exactly a yellow brick road to follow."
He knows she can't help this either, and that he's being overly harsh and snappy, but when he's upset Snarky Douchebag is his default setting, his coping mechanism. He's anxious to get back. Even if it isn't back to Mystic Falls – he could care less about that town – he just wants to get back to the real world. A world where he can touch and see and hear everything.
A world that has Elena Gilbert in it.
God, he misses her. He isn't sure how much time has passed since he told her goodbye, since he pretended that he'd found peace with his final words to her. He knows now that it was nothing more than that: Pretense. He meant every damn word he said to her, couldn't bear not telling her how he felt one last time. He had to touch her smooth skin, look into her tear-filled eyes and express with brutal honesty what she meant to him… And it would have been enough, if those really had been his final as it turns out, he's still here.
Wherever "here" is.
"I guess if we walk…anywhere…it'll lead us somewhere." Bonnie places a hand over her face like a shield. The whiteness is so bright: it's like freshly fallen snow on the sunniest day of the year with the sunlight reflecting off of it, blinding anyone who looks at it. "This place can't be infinite."
"I sure as hell hope not."
His stomach is rolling for two reasons:
One) Because something is telling him that they're going the wrong way, but he isn't sure why because the GPS is telling the driver that they're going the right way and,
Two) Because the driver sucks at driving.
"Sanders, how about you let someone else take the wheel?" he asks his friend while the other two passengers nod their heads in agreement. "Unless, you know, you want to be scrubbing vomit out of the back seat for the next month or so."
"Not happening," Holly says brightly, flashing her white smile and locking eyes with him in the rearview mirror. "My car, I drive it."
"Me too," Allison looks over her shoulder and at him with a smile. She's hot, with her shiny blonde hair and big, blue eyes – he'll give her that, but she's been pissing him off since they pulled out of the driveway. "And I'm next."
"I don't think so, Barbie," Cooper snaps, only to pause at the familiarity of the phrase. He's used it before, he thinks, but not with her...he thinks. He shrugs off the feeling, because that's exactly what Allison looks like: a plastic doll that's too perfect to be real, causing guys to break their necks to get a better look and turning all the ladies' eyes green with jealousy. "If you drive, the contents of my stomach will definitely ruin the interior of this car. My mouth won't be to blame."
"Dude," David laughs. "Too graphic."
Cooper shrugs. "It's the truth."
Allison speaks up and turns around in the front seat to face him completely. "Cooper, I sent you a text."
He never even felt his phone vibrate. "Huh," he smirks. "You don't say."
"Aren't you going to check it?"
He narrows his eyes as if he's thinking about it before pulling it out of his pocket and looking down at his phone. He looks at the date and right below it is a green box with a text from an unknown number. He holds the phone up so she can see it.
"This is you?"
"Why don't you open it and find out?" she tosses back, no hiding the lust in her eyes and David whistles, muttering a chuckled "Damnnnn," under his breath, but it's loud enough that Cooper can hear it. He rolls his eyes at both of him and opens the message:
There's a lot I'd like to do with that mouth. ;-)
His brows shoot up to his hairline and he looks at Holly instead of Allison. Desperation is the least attractive quality out there, and he isn't sure why, but an incredible feeling of guilt washes over him at reading the brazen text. "Good to know." She winks at him and he looks away, out of the window and into the dark.
It's another few hours of trying not to puke in Holly's car before the gas light on her dashboard dings. "Uh oh," Allison sings and Cooper yawns, before rolling the stiffness out of his shoulders. "Looks like we're going to have to continue on foot from here."
"Like hell we will," Cooper growls, leaning forward and cursing when he sees the orange icon that's lit up. "Dammit, why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I forgot. We were playing games to pass the time and you were sound asleep. You should have reminded me!"
At this moment, he has no idea what the hell he was thinking when he wanted to shack up with her. She's an idiot. "Yeah, because it's the passenger's job to pay attention to the gas gauge. Brilliant reasoning there, Al."
"Relax, Coop," Holly warns, rubbing her tired eyes. She looks at her phone and says, "There's another gas station about ten miles away from here. We've got enough gas left for twenty miles so it's not that big of a deal."
"I don't like things out of order, and I don't like unnecessary stress."
This time it's his friend's turn to roll her green eyes. "You're the one stressing unnecessarily, Jackson."
"Yeah, well," he grunts, "I'm surrounded by idiots." She glares at him and he smirks. "Except for you, of course."
"You choose to be surrounded by them."
"Touché, little bird. Touché." He reaches over and ruffles her dark hair and Holly squeals, batting his hands away when Allison suddenly screams, and has everyone jerking forward by slamming on the breaks.
"What the hell?"
"Drive much?!"
"Allison, what's wrong?"
Everyone in the car is hollering and complaining about the sudden stop, but the blonde does nothing but point straight ahead. All eyes turn to look out the windshield and standing there in the middle of the headlights is a five-foot-seven brunette, who looks like she can't quite believe what she's seeing.
She's just standing there, completely frozen, opening and closing her mouth several times and Cooper wonders if she's about to pass out with how white she's turning while staring at their car.
There are two things now screaming at him inside his mind, fighting for his attention. The first is warning him that if he gets out of Holly's car, his life will never be the same (the same feeling he got when he agreed to join these people on this stupid road trip), and the second is a feeling of rightness, an inexplicable pull towards the woman standing in front of his friend's vehicle.
It's the latter feeling that wins out, and he reaches for the door handle just as someone grabs his arm. "What if she's a serial killer?"
"What if I knock you in the face?" Cooper nearly does just that but instead goes for simply shaking the offending limb off. He climbs out of the car and approaches the frozen figure in front of him. She's still not moving or speaking or…hell, is she even breathing? "Hey," he says, absently noting the husky turn his voice has taken. "You okay?"
"I'm…" the dark-haired girl blinks, and he thinks he sees tears brimming in her eyes. The sight causes an unexpected pang in his heart. "I'm not sure…is any of this real?"
His lips twist into a pout and his brows dip in confusion. "Uh…I'm pretty sure you're not dreaming…so…I'm gonna go with yes?"
One second she's five feet in front of him and the next her arms are locked around his neck in a vice and holy hell this girl is strong for such a tiny thing. "Breathe," he gasps out. "Can't breathe!" Instantly his windpipe is free and he takes in a hefty gulp of air, wrapping his hand around his neck to rub the soreness away. "If that's supposed to be your thanks for not running you over…you're thanking the wrong person."
"Damon," she cries, her sobs mixing with laughter, and he's effectively baffled at this reaction. Her smile nearly knocks him on his ass, though her tears are killing him. He wants her to keep smiling at him like she is, but wants her tears to immediately cease...he feels an unbelievable familiarity with her though he shouldn't because he doesn't know her at all. God, he's so confused. "Damon, I knew I'd find you…I just…I don't – I –How did you do it?"
"How did I do…" he starts before he grimaces… "Wait a second, what did you call me?"
"Damon." She says again, her voice still filled with laughter as her hand reverently reaches up to touch his face. It feels so good to have this unknown girl's fingers touching his cheek that it takes him a while to grasp the extreme weirdness of the situation. When he finally does, it suddenly freaks him out. Especially when she's calling him by a name that definitely isn't his. "God, I've missed you so much."
"Um," he laughs shortly and looks over his shoulder, seeing Holly getting out of the car, along with Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber. They're taking their time making their way over, but they're moving toward them. He looks back to the brunette. "Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but there isn't anybody here with that name."
"Cooper?" Allison calls and his jaw ticks. The girl's eyes dart to the blonde and he wants to kick himself without knowing why. He hasn't done anything wrong, hasn't done a damn thing but stand there like a log. Still, he feels like he just betrayed her.
And as he stares into the girl's doe-brown eyes, he hates the fleeting look he sees in them: her heart is breaking. He hates knowing this as much as he hates feeling like he should know this woman, but he doesn't.
He keeps his eyes trained on the brunette, even as he answers Allison's query, "Yeah?"
"Are you going to just stand there, or what?"
He's still watching her when her eyes darken, and he swears he sees purple lines snaking around her eyes…they look like veins, but he can't honestly be seeing that, can he? Surely the shitty nap in the car and the darkness are making him see things. He blinks twice and when he refocuses, her skin is unblemished and perfectly smooth.
"Or what?," the girl growls before turning back to look at Cooper. He has to admit he secretly likes the way she's looking at Allison – he's too annoyed with the blonde to pretend to be friendly anymore. "Damon...Cooper? Do you…Do you know who I am?"
"Not a clue, but I'm pretty sure I'd like to," he smirks, holding his hand out. "Cooper Jackson."
"I'm –"
"Stunning," he tells her sincerely and he doesn't bother to correct himself, not knowing where the hell that came from but knowing damn well that it's one hundred percent the truth. "Sorry, you were saying…?"
"I'm Elena." He watches her swallow hard and then she thrusts her hand out to shake his with a bright smile. It looks a little too forced to be real, but he slides his hand into hers. "Nice to meet you."
The feeling of their palms pressed together and their fingers wrapped around each other causes him to momentarily lose his train of thought. "No…No, Elena, the pleasure is all mine."
"Cooper?"
He looks over too see Holly staring at him strangely. "Are you getting back in the car? We need to fill it up, remember? No gas? Close to pushing this thing another ten miles?" she looks over his shoulder. "What were you staring at?"
"I think you mean…," he looks back to Elena, but she's gone, as if she was never there. What the hell...? "Who...who cares?" he spins back around, walking back towards the car and throwing an arm over Holly's shoulder. "Let's get you, your boyfriend and the wannabe Barbie doll out of here."
Elena's back at the borrowed house, the sound of her bawling drowned out by the crashes of breaking objects that are shattering because she's throwing them at the wall. She's making sure every item she grabs is made of glass. She wants to see everything break; see with her own eyes what her heart feels like it's doing at this very moment.
How could he not remember? He took one look at her, and didn't even bat an eye. He didn't remember! How could he not remember?
Something had to have been done to him. To both him and Bonnie, because Damon would never pretend like she didn't exist.
"He didn't remember me, Ric. He didn't even remember his own name! And Bonnie doesn't either. How the hell can he not remember?!"
"Bonnie was there?" Jeremy asks, his eyes lighting up for the first time in God knows how long. "How was she?"
"Aside from her not remembering her best friend? She looked pretty good, I guess…for someone who doesn't remember her best friend." She throws her hands in the air and scrapes her fingers through her hair, pulling at it too hard. She welcomes the pain. It's better than remembering the complete lack of recognition on Damon's face. "This has to be something supernatural...a spell…something…" She inhales through her nose and exhales sharply. She does this several times to calm herself down but it doesn't seem to work.
She'd never guess in a million years that she'd find him this fast. She'd gone out to hunt, alone, just like any other night since losing Damon. And just like always when she was on the prowl, she'd been remembering Damon. The sound of his voice, the expression on his face whenever he looked at her. And then there he suddenly was, in the flesh, as though someone had conjured him up in response to her thoughts.
And then she realized she didn't lose him after all.
And now she's going through the pain of losing him all over again.
"You said they're calling each other by different names?" Jeremy asks, bringing her attention back to the matter at hand.
"I don't know about Bonnie. I only know that Damon introduced himself as Cooper Jackson. Cooper Jackson! God, he said he didn't know anyone by the name of Damon Salvatore…I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do now, Jere. Ric, should I go find another witch? Or try to track down Liv?"
"You stay the hell away from her," Jeremy snarls. "She's the reason we're in this to begin with! Had she completed the spell, Damon would have passed through and Bonnie would have been fine."
Elena sends him a sad smile. She isn't sure she agrees with him on that, because she's pretty sure Bonnie wouldn't have been fine (even though she wishes she could have her brother's optimism).
"You said there were other people with them?" Ric says, trying to calm them both down by not so subtly changing the subject.
Elena nods, biting her lip and trying to think back. "Some girl came out of the car and another guy was with them, I think, but I don't know if they know anything about anything, really. I mean, they looked just as confused as Bonnie and Damon did…I don't think they even knew I was there…which is good because I wasn't trying to get anyone else's attention other than Damon's." She frowns and closes her eyes, shaking her head. "I mean Cooper's attention."
"Maybe you could see him again?" Jeremy asks. "Try to jog his memory?"
"God this is like Stefan all over again," she sighs and then her head snaps up. "Stefan! He needs to know his brother is alive!" Elena whips out her phone and searches through her contacts for his number. She hits the dial button. "Stefan," she quickly greets once she hears someone answer. "You won't believe what I…Caroline?"
She watches Ric and Jeremy exchange glances and then look away, Ric pours a glass of amber liquid into a tumbler while Jeremy grabs a pencil and resumes sketching into his drawing pad.
"Wait, w-wait, Care, slow down," she says. "What do you mean he's gone? He wouldn't just disappear." Her face falls as she shakes her head in a slow motion. "No, he wouldn't do that…he promised he'd do whatever it took to bring him back, Caroline, dammit! Well, what am I supposed to...how? No, I'm not…"
She pauses to hear her friend's response and the next thing she knows she can't bear listening to another word. Elena throws her cell phone at the wall and it breaks apart into three pieces. "Dammit!"
Great.
Just…great.
"I take it there's trouble in paradise?" Ric asks, taking a large swig of his Whiskey.
"Or is there something wrong with Broody?"
Elena glares at both of them, and then chooses to ignore her non-step-dad's and her brother's new attitude (the one that reminds her so much of Damon). She storms out of the room, but not before saying, "He turned his humanity off. Stefan flipped the switch," and slams the door shut behind her.
Having made it to the gas station before actually having to push the VW beetle, they fill the car and this time Cooper refuses to let anyone else drive. His sensitive stomach can't take any more of the teenyboppers' - damn, there goes that Déjà Vu again - whacky driving. He can't take any more of Allison's desperate come-ons and he can't take listening to the way Holly's humming along to the singer on the radio another second…
"Hol, if I have to listen to one more Katie Perry song, I'm going to lose my shit."
"You're driving which means I get dibs on the radio."
"Fair enough," he grumbles and flicks on the turn signal to head onto another street. Twenty minutes before they finally reach Mystic Falls, and David and Allison are passed out in the backseat. She's resting her head on his shoulder and Holly's clearly not happy about it. Both his and Holly's elbow are resting on the console, so Cooper nudges her. "Stop pouting."
"I'm not pouting."
"You're definitely pouting. Knock it off."
"Well, if you'd have just let Allison sit up here with you, I could be back there with him." She looks over her shoulder at the sleeping dummies and sighs. "I'm not usually like this over guys so I don't know what the big deal is."
"You're in love," Cooper teases. "How sweet."
"Shut up, Cooper. I'm too tired to deal with you tonight." She yawns and then leans her chair backward. "I'm sorry you and Allison aren't working out. I thought you would hit it off."
"She's hot, but weird."
Suddenly he sees a TV screen, a game controller, and a dark-haired teenager who can't be older than sixteen in his mind. Voices flash in his head, one of them sounding a lot like himself:
"Is she hot?"
"Yeah, but she can be kind of weird."
"Hot trumps weird…trust me."
"COOPER!" Holly screams and he slams on the breaks, the car coming to a harsh stop for the second time that night right before it goes sailing into a river. He reaches across and grabs Holly's face. "You okay?" he asks, examining every inch of her and watching closely while she takes a few heavy breaths and stares back at him wide-eyed.
"Y-yeah," she stammers, reaching up and placing her hands on top of his. She looks over her shoulder again: David and Allison are still sound asleep. "What the hell was that? You started to veer off the road, did you fall asleep?"
"No...I," he shakes his head, swallowing thickly and thinking back to what nearly caused an accident. He lets go of Holly's face and he lets his head fall back against the headrest. He didn't fall asleep, he just wasn't paying attention...stuck in some weird daydream that felt like a lot more than a daydream, but that can't be right...
God, he needs sleep.
He hasn't been acting like himself lately. He's been zoning out a lot more, déjà vu has been taking place more and more often, and that girl tonight…he didn't daydream her, did he? He spoke to her. He touched her. She was real. "No, I didn't fall asleep."
He might not have fallen asleep, but he's falling now. Whether it's in love with someone he doesn't know, or he's falling into madness, he's definitely falling.
"Cooper, look."
He looks at Holly, who is pointing at something. It's a welcome sign that reads:
Welcome to
Mystic Falls, Virginia
AN: I'm more certain that something along these lines is going to happen come season 6, especially now that I remember something Damon said to Elena in 5x01: "I plan on forgetting about you the second you walk out that door."I don't know, maybe it's a coincidence…but I think that was skillfully placed there for 6x01. I think the writers knew exactly what they were planning for this season when it came to Damon's fate, even that early on. Now, about the story...
At the start of this chapter we got a flashback to the limbo Damon & Bonnie were stuck in before they found their way out & lost their memories, and depending on the response, I might delve into that a little more. Also, what did you guys think of Cooper and Elena's meeting? It seems that having met her "again," is triggering more memories to his past-life, but obviously he's confused as all get out right now. Guess we'll have to see what happens next. Still planning on a 5 chapter story, but we'll see if Musie sticks to that or decides it needs to be longer.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are love! ~Kate