"Elen---Anna, pleasant seeing you here," Damon went from a full on run to dead halt once he got into the living room. It was not, in fact, pleasant to see Anna at all, not even the slightest bit. She had Elena pinned against the wall, a stake to her heart and apparently had previously shot Elena three times in the stomach with wooden bullets. Across the room Ben had Jeremy trapped in a headlock and waiting for Anna's commands.
"Bet you don't think vampires are cool now huh?" Damon said to Jeremy, trying to play it off like this scene didn't effect him, that it didn't make him want to rip Anna's head off for just laying a finger on his Elena. Ugh, I sound like my brother he thought.
"Where's Pearl?" Anna demanded, threatening to drive the stake through Elena's heart without a single hint of remorse.
"I think this little party is crowded enough," Damon snidely remarked.
"Don't toy with me Damon, its not cute," Anna shot back cruelly. "And you know what else isn't cute?" She took her free hand to push one of the wooden bullets deeper into Elena's stomach. Elena let out an agonizing groan of pain, just what Anna had hoped for so that Damon could hear the real pain his girlfriend was in. "So let's try this again, otherwise you'll have two dead girlfriends. Where is Pearl?"
"Stefan is out looking for her," Damon replied dryly. He was pretty well practiced in acting like nothing affected him unless it was directly happening to him.
"Then call him," Anna wasn't impressed with his nonchalant attitude with all this. Pearl meant everything to her and she was in complete panic mode now that she couldn't find her. Pearl was pretty conservative with her diet typically but after being locked away in a tomb for over a century could temporarily change anyone. The cops and a select few people were aware of the presence of vampires, so if Pearl got a bit reckless there was a terrible chance that she'd get killed. That was something Anna just couldn't let happen.
"Call who?" Stefan asked, completely clueless to what he'd just stepped into. He looked around and couldn't believe what he saw. "What's this all about?"
"Anna's feeling all maternal for Pearl," Damon said while rolling his eyes.
"If I don't see Pearl soon, I'll kill Elena," Anna threatened, finally verbalizing what her actions had already said.
"Calm down," Anna said gracefully as she entered the scene. "I was just getting a bite to eat," she laughed.
"Oh goodie, family reunion," Damon said with his fake happy cheerful voice.
"Pearl!" Anna shrieked in happiness. She dropped Elena and flew across the room, clinging to Pearl. "I missed you!"
"I missed you too," Pearl responded, patting the top of Anna's head.
While they had their proper reuniting, Damon and Stefan ran over to help Elena, who was now hunched up on the floor. Damon rolled her over so he could hurry and pull the bullets out of her.
"Go figure, the first time I ever get shot is when I'm 'dead'," she used her fingers to make air quotes around 'dead.'
"Hold still, this is gonna hurt," Damon warned as he got ready to pull the first bullet out.
"Damon," Stefan gasped. He was taken back, Damon shouldn't have told her it was going to hurt, that's not what he would have done.
"What did you want to do this?" Damon joked as he finished pulling out the final bullet.
Stefan watched the whole thing, each bullet being pulled, Elena grabbing Damon's hand on the second one, Damon helping her up and holding her for a minute. Stefan felt like he'd been the one shot now, right in the heart. He couldn't stay around them any more; just those little gestures killed him to see. It was too painful, too fresh. The reason why she chose him was still unclear to him too.
"I—uh—I'm glad you're okay Elena. I should go," Stefan said quickly. Trying as hard as he could to get out of there fast, he didn't even wait for a response. He just turned around and immediately went for the door and left.
"I should talk to him," Elena finally said out loud, she'd been thinking it all night. Knowing that it had to be done eventually. She went to go after him but Jeremy's voice broke her concentration.
"You too, Elena?!" Jeremy exclaimed, finally breaking free from Ben's hold. He couldn't believe it, his own sister was one of them. How was he supposed to feel about that? They certainly didn't teach coping with this stuff in school. Maybe they should, it seemed like the town was swarming with them.
"I can explain," Elena tried pulling him to the couch so they could talk, but he kept flinching away from her every time she got close. "It was an accident."
"You accidentally turned into a vampire?" He repeated, not believing a word of it. "I don't really believe that, sis."
"Should we scrub his mind?" Damon asked.
"You mean that thing you did to Jenna? Are you gonna make me forget too?" Jeremy was getting more freaked out by the minute. He didn't want to forget or have someone messing around in his head.
"No, you have the right to know," Elena admitted, feeling terrible for throwing all of this paranormal stuff on him. He was just a kid; he shouldn't have to deal with all this. Nobody really should. But they were over there heads in it with no sign of light now.
"I think you should leave," Jeremy said, practically from the other side of the room again. "I've---I've got a lot to think about."
"Okay," she said a little bit heartbroken. She was hoping somehow he'd find it in him to understand.
"Come on," Damon grabbed her hand and started walking out the door like everyone else had already done.
Jeremy wouldn't look at them as they left. He couldn't tell if he was pissed at them for hiding everything, terrified that everyone he knew was pretty much dead, or violated that someone could toy with his head at any time.
When they got outside, Elena saw Stefan take off into her backyard. She figured that while she was already pretty down about her brother, she might as well do the other task that was going to depress her more.
"Hey," she said turning to Damon, "I'll meet you back at your house. I've gotta find Stefan."
Damon sighed a little bit but just shrugged it off, "Have fuuun," he said in a sing song voice just before he took off—vampire speed.
"Stefan," Elena found him sitting on the ground in her backyard. "Can we talk?" She asked kindly, sitting down next to him on the ground.
"Yeah, sure," he replied reluctantly.
"Its about Damon and I. . ." she trailed off completely unaware of exactly how to address this.
"It's okay," he stopped her before she could say anything else. He didn't want to hear her explanation, he already knew it. "You guys are good together," and he meant that. He didn't want to admit it or believe it, but it was clear as day.
Elena didn't know what else to say, nothing in her mind seemed right or appropriate any more. She should have known that Stefan wouldn't have been mad.
"I know it's cliché but. . .I don't want things to be awkward between us and you always rushing out. Do you think. . .we could be—"
"Friends?" He finished for her. "I'm taking it one step at a time, Elena," he pushed his hand through his hair just for something to do. Being so close to her and alone made him want to prove to her why he was better than his brother, but now wasn't the time. He was, however, working up a plan in his head to win her back. The three of them had all of eternity together now; the tables were bound to turn in his favor again eventually.
"Mkay," she tried not to sound disappointed, she really wasn't at all. He was trying to be fair and that was more than she really deserved.
"Welcome back," Damon greeted Elena at the door to his room. He'd been dancing around his room, shirtless, and drinking his favorite scotch just before she got back. He grabbed a bite on the way home and bottles some of it for Elena, he figured that was the nice vampire boyfriend should do.
"You started the party without me," she forced a smile past her exhausted state. All she really cared about now was curling up under a bunch of covers and sleeping for days.
"Here have a drink, it'll help," he already poured here a glass and handed it to him.
"I guess one glass wont hurt," she laughed, raising her glass like she was toasting and then downed the glass in one go. The liquid slid down her throat, warm and soothing, but not exactly what she was craving—which at the moment was sleep more than anything.
Damon wasn't willing to let her sleep yet, he was hyped up on everything that happened during the day. He grabbed Elena's glass and put it on the table for her so she had both hands free, dancing with stuff in hand was never fun.
She wasn't fully into it though, just swaying from side to side just to humor him.
"Sorry, Damon," Elena apologized as she sat down on his bed and took her shoes off. "I'm exhausted though. Maybe just a little nap," she'd already weaseled her way under the covers.
"Fiiiine," he flopped down on the bed next to her and perched himself up, resting his head on his hand. "But you owe me."
"I owe you?"
"From earlier, reemeeember," he teased, taking his finger under her chin and bringing her face closer to his.
"Oooh yeah," she closed her eyes, ready to kiss him when she felt the presence of someone else in the room. Please don't be Stefan, she thought as she looked to the foot of the bed.
"I told you I wasn't going away," Isobel stood at the foot of the bed, her arms crossed and looking like she was on one hell of a mission.
Damon threw his arms up and sank into the bed in defeat. "Did Stefan invite you in?"
She just nodded but kept her eyes fixed on Elena. "Why did you ask me about my kid? What do you know!" It was more of a demand than a question, and a threatening demand at that.
Depending on what happens in tonight's episode on the Vampire Diaries, I'll decide how much farther I'll take this fanfic. I'm thinking the next chapter miiight be the last, not 100% sure.
