AN: Thank you for your reviews! Love hearing that you guys are as excited about S6 as I am, and that you're enjoying "Remember My Love." Thank you, Mara and Valérie, for pre-reading and beta'ing this chapter. Y'all are awesome. Enjoy chapter 3! ~Kate
'This place can't be infinite', she said," Damon grumbles, glaring at her and then looking back at the endless view in front of them. They've been walking so long he's lost count of the hours, without any end in sight and he's about to call it quits. . "'Walking anywhere will lead us somewhere', she said." He's already bending his knees so he can sit down when he hears a familiar voice.
"Bonnie."
"Bon?"
"I heard it." He looks at her and her eyes look tearful, hope and relief in their green depths, and he straightens, walking closer to her because while the voice is one they know, they don't trust this limbo they're stuck in, or who may be stuck with them.
"Bonnie."
They look at each other and Damon goes closer still, stepping protectively next to her and preparing, because he isn't sure which direction the voice is coming from.
"Stay close, Bon-bon," he tells her while trying to locate whoever called out to her. Seconds pass when he feels the former witch grab his arm and whisper his name. He bends his head and sees her eyes wide and are once again full of tears – he hates it when Elena cries, and anyone else crying just annoys him – but then he looks up, and there's the source of the voice:
Grams.
Now that he can see her, Damon shoves Bonnie behind him and cocks an eyebrow. "Not quite what you had in mind for your darling, is it, Sheila?"
"I don't understand," she replies. "What are you doing here? What is he doing here?"
Bonnie scoffs. "What is he doing here? What does it matter? What are we doing here, Grams! You couldn't have had this in mind for me, it's…it's completely desolate. I don't like it, I'd rather be –"
"You are," she says softly. "And you're right, child. You should not be here, but because you had to have been touching him," she doesn't even call him by his name, but looks at Damon and he rolls his eyes. "Because you had to have been touching him, it landed you here. This is worse than the other side."
"What the hell does that mean? You're saying it's my fault Bonnie didn't find peace?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"I messed with your plan."
"Yes," Grams nods, though she looks angry she doesn't direct it at him. She's simply being honest. "You messed with my plan."
Damon grimaces, and chances a glance in the little witch's direction before smoothing out his features and shrugging. Girl's still sobbing. "So fix it."
"I can't fix it."
"What?" Damon snaps. "If you're really Bonnie's grandmother, and you want what's best for her then you're going to fix this, Sheila."
"Damon," Bonnie whispers, squeezing his bicep and he shrugs her off. "This isn't her fault…this isn't even your fault. It's just –"
"Bullshit! That's what it is, Bon, okay? It's bullshit!" Damon shouts and storms up to Grams, grabbing her by her arms. "You need to fix this, get us – Jesus, at least your granddaughter – to find peace. Limbo sucks, in case you haven't noticed!" He scowls, panting from his outburst. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"This is the sacrifice I made for her." They hear Bonnie's quiet gasp and Grams merely smiles a sad smile. Bennett witches are all about the self-sacrificing, he thinks. "I can't fix this."
"Do you know who can fix it?" he asks after a long beat of silence. "I'm already bored. I'd like to live out the rest of my…nonliving…days somewhere less, oh, I don't know…Twilight Zoney."
"I overheard something, right before you and Bonnie crossed over," she begins, and he thinks 'now we're talking,' as she continues. "It entails a lot of pain, both physical and emotional, and a few more consequences still, but…I'm sure you'll both find it worth it in the long run."
"What makes you think that?" Damon scoffs. "I doubt it, if it means –"
"You can live again."
Damon waits for the warning signs to start sounding off in his head, but they never come, and when he looks at Bonnie and sees that same look of hope he himself is surprisingly starting to feel, he nods at her.
"Start talking."
Cooper stares at Holly and wonders what the hell he's doing by not stopping her. Something is telling him to leave her alone though, that she's fine to go into a bar all by herself.
Mystic Grill's Grand Re-opening, the sign by the door reads.
He may not feel the need to run in behind her, to make sure that she'll be alright, but he does, however, feel the need to toss back a shot or two, after the shitty day he's had.
They nearly made it to the gas station, when they hit something and their vehicle's rear tire flattened. They had to get a tow truck to come, and shell out more money than they'd thought was necessary to pull the car for ten minutes to the closest repair shop, which happened to be located behind the restaurant they're at now.
A little chat with the receptionist got them a recommendation on where to grab some food since it would take some time to find a decent enough tire to match the rest of the set. The Mystic Grill was it, Mystic Falls' best (and only) bar and grill.
As soon as they set foot in the door, Cooper started to have what felt like hundreds of memories flood his mind. It confused the hell out of him because they didn't feel like his memories. Familiar, sure, but they felt like they belonged to someone else, and admittedly, he envied the bastard. The man he was remembering seemed to have it all, a huge home, a brother who, when he wasn't fighting with him tooth and nail, was fighting for him, and the love of his life in his arms.
And right before the onslaught of images ceased, the girl in his arms looked up at him, and he was floored by who he saw.
The girl wasn't just any girl. He knew this girl. Elena Gilbert. The same girl who'd introduced herself and then disappeared like a clichéd magic trick.
He rubbed his face and walked into the restaurant, and was hit yet again by another flashback as his eyes settled on the bar:
"That was fun…oh, don't look at me like that," he tells the scruffy-jawed man sitting beside him. "I know you hate me. Guess what?" He cups his hand and leans into whisper, "Everyone hates me." The man looks back to his drink, and downs the remains. "But you can't deny, we were bad ass."
What the hell? He remembers a dull throb in his jaw from the sucker punch in response to his comment, and he rubs at it, as if to rub away the pain he felt.
Wait. What?
How the hell can he remember something that never happened?
"I can't believe that asshole," Holly snarls in a harsh whisper, bringing him out of his bizarre waking dream, and he watches as she crosses her arms to match her cross mood as David and Allison walk into the Mystic Grill – with their arms looped around each other's waists.
She has every right to be pissed off, he thinks, considering Dum Dum has been leading her on and sneaking around with her best gal pal behind her back. He hadn't realized it until he caught them macking on each other in the backseat when Holly was in the restroom, and since he had the role of Best Friend, Cooper couldn't not tell her.
Well, he could have. But it would have been the ultimate Dick Move on his part.
He knows it isn't his business, he debated on even telling her, but since Holly's feelings are his business, it made the decision easy. She and David weren't really official, but the feeling of being screwed around on doesn't suck any less, he ventures, considering the look of betrayal on her face and the way David had been making her feel like he'd been preparing to ask her out.
He's never felt rejection and doesn't plan on it either – relationships have never really been his thing to begin with.
"You're not mad at Barbie?" he asks, still trying to shake off the feeling that the man in his memory seems stupidly familiar, but he can't seem familiar because he's not him. He can't be.
"Oh, I'm livid at Barbie," Holly answers, still gritting her teeth with her green eyes blazing. "And they can look for their own ride home for all I care. I'm done with them."
"Who would've guessed? You hold grudges." Holly glares and he snickers, leaning in to say, "Don't worry about it. They deserve it. Dum Dum's lucky I'm not messing up his already deformed face."
She smiles for the first time since he told her the news and she says, "I don't even care if you call him that anymore."
"Ha, well, I never cared." He grins and she rolls her emerald eyes. Cooper and Holly step through the doors of the Mystic Grill and are immediately greeted with a "Holy shit!" and a "No way!" and he wonders when this day is going to end, because it needs to.
He grabs Holly and whispers, "Can we go now," even though they've been there ten seconds and she glowers at him.
"No."
"But –"
"I'm hurt, hungry, and I don't feel like finding another restaurant so let's just eat here."
"Fine, bossy pants." He can't blame her, he just likes teasing her. He's about to say something else when a husky voice interrupts him.
"Damon?!"
He frowns and looks up at a blonde guy staring at him with wide blue eyes and he thinks that either everyone within a ten mile radius of this town is off their fucking rocker, he's got a twin he doesn't know about, or he's actually who they're saying he is.
But that isn't possible.
It can't be.
She's been doing a little better, satisfied with the knowledge that her suspicions were right, that Damon isn't dead. He's just…not Damon anymore…and it hurts, but she won't let him go. She can't. He keeps sneaking back into her thoughts and she knows that the real Damon, the Damon that doesn't remember, would be begging her to fight, to try to bring him back to her, to knock him senseless in every mental, emotional, and physical way possible until he remembered. He'd be telling her there has to be a way, to not give up on him when he's just underneath the surface.
Because after all, she did see it.
Amidst all the confusion Damon…Cooper must have felt upon meeting her for the "first" time - drawn together eyebrows, a lost look, and a slow shaking of his head - she was sure she'd seen it.
For a brief second, Elena had caught the tiniest glimpse of recognition in his oceanic gaze and while it pained her that it had evaporated as quickly as it appeared, once she'd calmed down after destroying the house long enough to realize it, she knew he could be brought back.
Ric thinks she's crazy, Jeremy is sympathetic and as desperate to help her bring Damon back as he is desperate to bring Bonnie back, and Caroline and Stefan…
They arrived a few hours ago, and she explained to them her thoughts on the situation, but she can't help but see how much their relationship has grown in the last few weeks. They've seemed to have gotten a lot closer since that fateful night where more worlds than just her own had been flipped upside-down.
Stefan may have flicked his humanity switch, but he still hovers protectively close to Caroline, which both baffles and amazes her, because while his "Care" setting may have been switched off, apparently it's still emitting enough emotion to want to take care of her, even when he feels he can't really take care of himself.
However, he doesn't seem to care in the slightest that there may be a possibility to bring his brother back. Caroline, apparently, has been trying everything in her power to bring Stefan back in the emotional sense so that he'll care enough to actually do something about it.
Elena won't stop until she succeeds though, even if she has to do it on her own. He promised, and she's going to help him fulfill it. She just needs to figure out how.
"Elena?"
She looks into the mirror, and sees Jeremy in its reflection. Jeremy, the boy who turned into a man faster than she could blink. The brother who fights with all he has in him, for her and with her for as long as she can remember.
"There's nothing more important than the bond of family."
She remembers saying those words to Damon, before she allowed herself to acknowledge the growing feelings she had for him.
"Yeah, Jeremy," she says quietly, wiping an errant tear away before turning around to face him.
"I just got a phone call." He rubs at his neck, looking a little dazed, and there's a combination of confusion as well as happiness – an emotion she hasn't seen from him in months – in his brown eyes. "It was Matt."
"What did he want?"
She doesn't mean for it to sound as indifferent as it does, but she doesn't bother to correct her tone. Matt was once one of her best friends, but after her family, Caroline, Stefan, and everyone supernatural was forced out of Mystic Falls because of the Travelers' spell, she hasn't kept in touch with any of her old life.
"He's working at the Grill today, and he just called me to tell me that Damon and Bonnie are in Mystic Falls."
With those words, Elena suddenly grabs her keys, with a new priority at the forefront of her mind:
Find Liv and Luke.
AN: So, this story is definitely going to be 4 chapters, as well as an epilogue. Hope y'all enjoyed. Reviews are love! ~Kate