Hey guys! Sorry about it being later than I said, and it is also a wee bit shorter than usual. I hope that's okay with you lot! I've been busy studying for tests!

Chapter 4

Damon walked home with a spring in his step. He wanted to find someone and scream "I kissed Elena Gilbert!" before walking calmly away. He could find no one and so settled for running all the way home with a grin on his face. He decided to text Stefan, even if he didn't know if he would ever receive it.

Bro, I just kissed Elena Gilbert. You were right all along, I did like her.

Damon smiled before sending it. It would be a long night, he had to remove his mom and also be away from Elena at the same time. He decided to start digging a grave out the back door next to his dad's plot. Damon and his mom had done that when his dad had died in his sleep, and it had taken a couple of hours before they had finished. It would take him forever by himself.

Elena almost ran home. She wanted to sing at the top of her lungs, dance around in circles. But she would resist and just run home and tell her mom. She did want to tell Bonnie, this was a moment when she couldn't believe her best friend was gone. It was her first kiss and she didn't really want to go into details with her mom, that would just be awkward. As she swept into her house with a huge smile on her face her mother raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you so happy?" Isobel wondered out loud. She didn't think that anything would make her daughter smile that wide considering the circumstances.

"Oh, nothing." Nothing could remove the smile from Elena's face. Isobel grimaced when she turned around. She recognized the look, it was the same smile that had been on her face for a week when she had first met Elena's father. It was love. And there was only one person Isobel could think of that would cause a look like that for Elena; it was Damon.

Isobel didn't know what to do. She didn't want to give her daughter an awkward conversation involving what Elena should do next… but it seemed like the only thing to do at that moment.

"Elena," she started. "Just because the world is possibly coming to an end doesn't mean you have to do anything you're uncomfortable doing…"

"What on earth are you on about?" Elena asked, confused.

"Uh, you don't need to have Sex with Damon." Isobel mentally scolded herself. That was not how she wanted that to slip out.

"Excuse me?" Elena done a double take. "What did you just say?"

Isobel blushed. This was not going how she thought it would go. She thought Elena would nod and say 'I know, mom. No need to tell me.' But, no. Elena seemed shocked by the whole topic. Maybe Isobel had misinterpreted her daughter's smile.

"I, uh, you see, eh, you looked quite, um, happy?" Isobel asked it as a question instead of a statement.

Elena's eyes widened in horror as she realised why her mom had thought that. Was it awful that her own mom thought she was sleeping with a guy because the world was ending? She thought yes.

"No, no! No…" was the only word that Elena seemed capable of saying. "Oh, no, no, no. You have it all wrong! I only kissed him, that was all!"

"You kissed Damon?"

"How do you know it was Damon?" Elena demanded.

"I watched the way you two acted together yesterday, I may be old but I'm not blind," Isobel joked. She was not actually that old, just in the early stages of her fortieth year, which she herself considered to be young, unlike Elena.

"What about us yesterday?" Elena frowned.

"The way you looked at each other, I don't know. It was as if you really liked each other and now it is apparent," Isobel shrugged. "But please promise me that you will be sensible."

"Mom!" Elena moaned. "I'm not going to run off and sleep with him! I'm not that stupid."

"Good," Isobel smiled while Elena huffed. "How was school?"

"It wasn't bad," Elena sighed. "but there was a noticeable difference in how many people were there. Bonnie didn't turn up." She started to tear up again.

"Oh, honey. We knew it was inevitable. I'm actually really surprised we have survived this long," Isobel told her while pulling her in for a hug.

"I know, but it's just so hard without her."

"Yes, that's how I felt when my best friend died, you know that…"

"Uh huh."

That night they didn't talk much. Elena sat in Isobel's arms in silence while her mom played with her hair. It was the most peaceful moment they had ever shared and Elena cherished it with all her heart. It was as if both of them knew what was going to happen, and they wanted to appreciate every moment they spent together. They both went to bed happy that they had shared those moments, each drifting off into a deep undisturbed sleep.

Damon was restless the whole night. He tossed and he turned and he stayed awake. Nothing could settle him. He didn't like being alone in the huge house and even though he should have been extremely tired with all his physical exercise, he just couldn't sleep. His bones ached, his head pounded and he was covered in a thin layer of sweat. Sighing, he forced himself up out of bed and he ventured through the house to look outside. He stood leaning against the doorframe, letting the cool air caress him. He watched the full moon above him, it was a really beautiful night. He wished Elena was beside him, looking at the moon with him.

"Goodnight," he said to no one in particular before he closed and locked the door, and headed back to bed.

When he got up the next morning, he had a gut feeling that something was off. He showered, had breakfast and done everything else in his morning routine before school yet he still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had happened. By the time he was ready, he had to run to school to make it on time. He was late by the time he barged through the classroom door, everyone would have been there by now. The classroom was empty. A shock ran through Damon as he scanned the empty classroom. There was no sign that anyone had been there and gone home when nobody else arrived. He slammed the door shut and ran out the school as fast as he could. There was only one word going through his mind. Elena.

Elena had spent most of her morning crying again. This time though, the tears showed no sign of stopping. Her whole body shook with emotion, her sobs tore out of her body with a frightening wail. She was cradling her mother's lifeless body in her arms.

"No, mom. No!" she sobbed into Isobel's hair. But there was nothing she could do. Isobel had passed away in the early hours of that morning, her bed already cold.

"Please wake up… please…" Elena's thoughts were not making sense in her head. At first she thought she could wake her up by shaking her. It didn't work. She tried pouring cold water on her head. That also didn't work. She was down to pleading and sobbing, she had long forgotten her first thought which was 'This must be a joke'. It wasn't, and she knew it.

She had slept in that morning. Usually her mom's fussing about woke her up or the sound of her alarm. She had forgotten to set the alarm and her mom never fussed, but the brain in the morning never really register's that kind of detail. She actually had a shower before she noticed something was wrong. Elena had collapsed to the floor when she noticed that her mom was still 'sleeping'. That was what Elena wanted to call this, 'sleeping'.

It took her a long time before she managed to get the strength to get ready for school.

"Damon done it when his mom died, be strong Elena," she told herself out loud.

When she got out the door she had the urge to run to school, to run away from her mom's body which she had arranged in a lying position on her bed. She had taken clothes and memories in her bag with her, she did not want to return to that house again. At least that was what she hoped.

She started to run, to get as far away from the nightmare as humanely possible. As she ran, she felt herself letting go and with that tears fell down her cheek again. She couldn't see where she was going so she sat down on the sidewalk and sobbed.

"Elena! Elena!" she heard from a distant street. Wiping her cheeks dry, she turned her head slightly to the sound of the voice. All of a sudden, Damon ran past her side, not noticing her on the ground.

"Elena!" He was headed for her house and she didn't want to go back there.

"Damon?" she asked out loud. He didn't here her. "DAMON!"

He stopped suddenly and whirled around to locate the voice of Elena. He thought he was going crazy and hearing things, but no. There was Elena running towards him, her bag swinging on her arm. She had her arms wide open and when she finally caught up to him, she knocked him over as she tried to hug him.

"Ow, that hurt!" Damon complained as he rubbed his head, but he ignored the pain, he was just so glad she was alive.

"Oh, Damon! Mom is dead!" she wailed into his chest. He had guessed as much what with Elena not being there, he had simply refused to believe that she was dead.

"It's alright, everything will be alright now…" he told her in a soft comforting voice, but they both knew that that was not the case.

Elena straightened up and smiled at him sheepishly. "I'm sorry, where are my manners. Good morning Damon, how are you today?"

"Not so good if I'm being truthfully honest. I hardly slept a wink last night."

"I fell straight asleep, no tossing or turning for me."

"Well aren't you lucky."

"I guess I am."

They looked at each other for a few minutes, glad that each other was still breathing.

"I guess we should stick together from now on," Elena said, sighing. "You, me, and whoever else at school that wants to join us."

"That's the thing Elena, there was nobody else at school when I went there, that's why I ran to find you." Elena's eyes widened.

"You mean it's just…?"

"Yes," Damon said blankly. "It's just you and me, pal."

Wondering what will happen to Damon and Elena? Leave me a review and tell me your predictions!

I have some exciting news, for Christmas this year I'm getting an Ian Somerhalder calendar for 2012! You may not find it exciting but I sure do!

Thank you for all your wonderful comments and alerts, they really light up my day when I get an email about them! Bye for now folks!