Chapter Three
After Elena had left with Stefan's keys, the brothers had looked at each other and Stefan had nodded, giving his older brother the permission he sought. Damon had followed Elena out of the hospital and made sure she got to the car without incident. Knowing Damon he might even have followed her all the way to the Gilbert house. After Elena's threat, Stefan was sure his brother would give Elena the time she needed to speak to her brother and say her goodbyes. Three hours.
Stefan had found a wheelchair for Dr. Fell and taken her upstairs. He tried to look relaxed and confident as he wheeled a groggy and occasionally groaning Meredith through the wards. He found an empty room with a vase of wizened flowers in a vase on the window. Stefan quickly tossed the vase on the floor, laid Dr. Fell beside the broken glass and called for help. The nurse happily believed Stefan's story of the poor Doctor falling while carrying a glass vase and cutting her neck.
Stefan stepped to one side, allowing a doctor and several more nurses into the room when Meredith's weak hand caught hold of his ankle. She was trying to say something but her breath was coming in gasps and she seemed to be having difficulty forming words. Stefan stepped back from her hand. Her eyes still sought him out. "Damon…" she muttered. He heard her clear as day with his vampire hearing. The doctors were now starting to look at him suspiciously but he was certain he looked as anxious as everyone else in the room. Of course he wasn't concerned with Dr. Fell or any allegations she might make against Damon. All he could think about was Elena, out there all alone.
"His blood…," Dr Fell continued as her colleagues manoeuvred her into the wheelchair that was conveniently left in the corner. "Damon's blood," her voice was little more than a whisper. Maybe he heard her wrong. "Damon's blood," she repeated. "Sorry… I'm sorry." Stefan gripped the bars of the hospital bed to keep himself standing. This couldn't be happening, not after everything he had done to win Elena back. She had forgiven him for every horrible thing he had done to her and her friends. He couldn't lose her like this. He was willing to give up Elena if she chose Damon, but if Dr. Fell was right she might not have a choice.
He walked out of the hospital doors in a daze and Damon was already there. The Camero was parked directly outside the door, in the no parking box. Stefan took a deep breath and sat into the car beside his brother. Damon immediately put the car in gear and drove off at speed. He headed in the direction of the boarding house without an argument. Elena's threat had more of an impact on his older brother than Stefan had thought possible. He was giving her the space she needed.
"One of us should go to the Gilberts," Stefan stated.
"Caroline's there. She's bringing Elena to the boarding house." Damon's voice was calm. As they turned onto the main road out of Mystic Falls, Damon put his foot down. Stefan sighed at his brothers antics and let it go.
Tonight wasn't the time to work through one hundred and fifty years of accusations, denial and recriminations but Stefan knew it had to happen soon. Whatever decision Elena made, Stefan felt like he was already watching a slow moving car crash. The Salvatore brothers had been pitted against each other their entire human lives, so it should have been no surprise when they died and continued fighting. Damon had blamed him for Katherine dying. One hundred and fifty years and it was all going to happen again. He was responsible for Elena's death and now if she chose to become a vampire, Damon would turn her against him. And it would be so easy for him now.
Only Dr. Fell and he knew the truth but Damon would eventually recognise the new connection he shared with Elena. He couldn't get his brother to leave now, that would never work and it wouldn't be a permanent solution. Maybe he could talk to Elena, prepare her for the side effects. Maybe she wouldn't dump him the second his brother suggested it. Stefan took a deep breath as his brother pulled up outside the boarding house. Damon had bounded out of the car and strode into the house before Stefan had time to remove his seatbelt.
He followed Damon into their home. Closing the door behind him, he heard Damon's heavy footsteps upstairs. Stefan climbed the stairs slowly, listening to his brother's flurried movements. It sounded like he was running between rooms. Stefan frowned as he followed his brother into one of the disused bedrooms. Most of the bedrooms had been gathering dust since the Salvatore boarding house closed down in the fifties, after a number of boarders mysteriously vanished.
But it looked like someone had started to decorate this room and just couldn't be bothered finishing. Maybe Zach had tried his hand at redecoration. The furnishings were covered with protective sheets and clustered in the centre of the room. Even the floor was littered with plastic sheeting, dotted with the same lilac paint that adorned the walls. Damon was gleefully pulling the sheets from the dresser, wardrobe and bedside tables. All of the furniture looked old and none of it matched but someone had hand painted everything cream. Stefan's mouth was open in shock. It was obviously a girl's bedroom.
Damon pulled the sheets off a similarly painted wooden bed frame. Stefan noticed that the mattress was still in its plastic. Damon finally turned to face his brother. He wasn't smiling but there was a look of excitement in his eyes that scared Stefan. "So, do you think she'll like it?"
Stefan responded with another question. "Did you do this?"
Damon snorted. "Me? Paint? No. Andy found this place You know reporters always snooping around."
Damon began to pull up the plastic sheeting that covered the floor, revealing a soft cream carpet underneath. "So do you think Elena will like it?" he asked again.
"I think Elena has a lot more important things on her mind right now," Stefan replied
Damon pursed his lips in annoyance and just looked at his brother. "Elena is about to become a vampire," Damon explained. Stefan opened his mouth to argue but Damon didn't let him begin. "Yes, she is brother, because I can't consider the alternative. She is going to turn and then she will have to leave her friends and family while she learns to control her urges – and I don't think you want to lock her up in the basement." Damon was almost smiling now.
Stefan sighed. "You're going to have to black out the window until Bonnie can make Elena a daylight ring," he said pointing at the large bay window.
The brothers set to work, cleaning up the spare room. It was oddly cathartic, having something to do. It had been over an hour since Elena left the hospital and it would be another hour at least before she returned to the boarding house. They pulled the plastic and protective sheets from every surface and Damon threw them into another rarely used spare room. Stefan went looking for spare sheets, duvet and pillows. When he returned with his arms full, the furnishing had been pushed back against the wall but his brother was nowhere to be seen. Stefan began to make the bed with dark brown sheets and matching duvet covers. It didn't match the cream and lilac colour scheme but it would do. He was just finishing up when Damon bounded into the room, with black plastic bags and masking tape. He ignored his brother and carefully began to tape the black bags over the window frames.
Stefan sat on the bed and watched his brother. "Damon, we should talk about this before Elena gets here?
"What is there to talk about Stefan? I have lost Elena once… no twice in the last twenty-four hours," Damon said, turning his intense rage on Stefan. "I am not losing her again. She will turn."
Stefan frowned at that. "Even if she doesn't want to, would you force her to drink human blood?" he asked.
"Force is such a nasty word," Damon whined. "No, I would never do that to our Elena… but you know what transitioning vampires are like. Accidents happen." Damon turned to face his brother and he was smiling now. In his element, flaunting his disregard for life in front of Stefan and just waiting for a reaction. Stefan wasn't going to give him one.
"Ok," Stefan accepted.
"Ok?" Damon asked cocking an eyebrow. "Just like that…"
"Ok, but we both know I'll try to stop you," Stefan admitted.
"There's the brooding Stefan we all know and pity," Damon grinned. This was something they both recognised and understood. It was the posturing and the threats that came before the all out fist fights.
"That's what happens if Elena decided to fade," Stefan explained. "What happens if she decides to turn?"
Damon's incredulous expression made his little brother's lip curve up ever so slightly "She'd drink human blood and become a vampire…"
"Yes... and then what?" Stefan pressed.
"I'd show her all the fun stuff and you'd teach her to track bunnies," Damon
"I was actually thinking the same thing." Damon raised an eyebrow at Stefan words. Okay so maybe they had diametrically opposing visions of what Elena would be like if she turned, but they both wanted to help her. "It doesn't matter what we want Damon, it hasn't mattered in a long time. It's all about Elena and what she needs. Whatever happens we're both going to be right here, with Elena."
Damon's silence was as close as he was going to get to an agreement. Stefan took a deep breath and continued his speech "I think our tug of war over Elena needs to be put on hold. We both care about her – "
"We both love her," Damon corrected. Stefan clenched his jaw at that comment but reminded himself what was at stake.
"– so we should make her transition as easy as possible," Stefan finished.
"What do you propose?"
"It's simple, we stop fighting over Elena."
Damon actually laughed and stepped closer to his brother. "Stefan I'm not going anywhere and I'm not going to sabotage Elena's transformation into our bespoke vampire girlfriend, but you must be going senile if you think I'm going to roll over and let you take what I want."
Damon's words chilled Stefan to his very core, reminded him of all the fears and doubts that he hadn't been able to control since Meredith's confession. Stefan stepped in his brother's way when he tried to walk around him. "I'm not trying to take Elena away from you. I know you're her friend..."
Stefan's superhuman reflexes couldn't have helped him. He was standing too close to his brother and didn't see the fist coming. Damon hit him in the stomach so hard Stefan doubled over. He felt his brother roughly grab him by his neck and he was pulled up sharply to face Damon. This time he saw the fist coming. Damon punched him and he felt his head snap back violently Next thing Stefan knew he was on the ground, dripping blood on the cream carpet and his brother stood over him. Damon didn't say a word. He walked around his brother's prone body and left.
Stefan slowly dragged his body up until he was sitting against the bed. He had tried to reason with his brother and this is where it had gotten him. One hundred and fifty years going around in bloody violent circles. He had hoped to gain some time before Damon or Elena recognised the new bond between them. He just wanted to see Elena in private, explain how this didn't have to change anything. Sure it was all lies, he had no idea how this would change Elena and her feelings about him. It just made him more determined to get to her before Damon realised what had happened. Since Damon was refusing to play nice and already planning on the three of them setting up house, he knew he wouldn't have long before his brother made a move on Elena. He needed a plan but first, he was just going to sit down, breathe deeply and wait for the fuzzy spots to stop dancing. One hundred and fifty years. Why did he never see the first punch coming?