Quick update this time! I think I've been pretty good about typos so far but I apologize for any. Please enjoy

Though Lovers Be Lost

Chapter 7: The Return

The Cave

Elena POV

I emerged from the tunnel to find a relieved Damon waiting for me. I was just as relieved to see him. Thank god he was able to handle the rest of those things by himself. After fighting off countless numbers of Shadow Demons in the cave and successfully finding the Amulet I voiced my opinion of what should happen next.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

Bonnie had the Amulet safely in her jacket pocket. "I couldn't agree more," she said. "Let's hope there's no more of these ugly things lurking around."

"Be ready just in case and keep your weapons out." Damon added.

We headed back toward the entrance of the cave as quickly and quietly as possible. We could see the entrance ahead of us but it was barely visible because…the sun had already set. No. How was that possible? How long were we in that cave? We got closer to the entrance when a few creatures jumped in front of the entrance, blocking our exit.

"Oh crap." Damon said to himself

"Damon! Behind us!" I yelled back at him. We were trapped on all sides. Shadow Demons in front of us and behind us, and cave walls on either side. And this time they had their own weapons. They must have regrouped and waited to trap us here.

"What are we gonna do?" Bonnie cried out.

"We stand our ground and do everything we can to make it out of here alive." I said before looking over at Damon. His eyes were wide with worry and he shook his head. "We can do this Damon. You take the front, I'll take the back."

This time he nodded. "Here we go."

Damon was the first to attack. He approached the group at the entrance swinging away with his sword. I turned around and started defending myself against the others. A few creatures from the front began shooting arrows at us from inside their cloaks. Thankfully they were a crappy shot…probably because they had no eyes. I just kept fighting with all I had. Bonnie was beside me fighting too. She didn't have the strength or speed but most the creatures were focused on me and Damon, which gave her a slight advantage.

"Ahhhh!" I heard Damon cry in pain so I quickly looked over to find an arrow in his shoulder.

"Damon! Are you okay?!"

He pulled it out and kept swinging. He would heal in no time. "Yeah I'm fine just stay focused Elena!" Just as he said that 3 more arrows were shot into his body, pinning him against the wall.

"Damon! Bonnie, help him, please!"

Bonnie went over and tried to pull the arrows out but they were so embedded in the stone she wasn't strong enough. "Ahhh! Damn it!" Damon cried in pain. His eyes never left me though. He was watching my every move to make sure I was okay in handling what was left of the creatures. "Bonnie. You have to keep fighting. Help Elena…please!" Damon urged Bonnie to leave him. She got up and rejoined the fight while Damon kept trying to free himself.

We were putting up a good defense for so long, but it finally started to become too much. I saw two of the creatures heading towards Damon. He was still trapped and defenseless. "No! Hey! Over here!" I yelled at the Demons approaching Damon but they kept moving towards him. "Damon you have to get free! Come on!"

"Elena just keep fighting, don't worry about me! I love you…keep fighting!"

Just when all hope seemed lost, a blade flew through the air striking both Demons through the neck. Damon looked over at the cave entrance to see Varro standing there. "I know you said you didn't need my help but…"

"Varro, thank you for not listening to our cocky asses." Damon said with a smile before Varro ran over to pull out the arrows. "Ow! Damn those hurt like hell."

With the added reinforcement of Varro the last few Shadow Demons cowered and disappeared into the woods. I drew my attention to Damon. I ran to his side and knelt beside him. He was leaning up against the cave wall.

"Damon, oh my god, are you okay?" I said while checking his injuries. He was already starting to heal. I was running my fingers through his hair. "I thought you were a goner." I had tears of relief flowing from my eyes as I kissed him.

"I'm fine." He said softly. "You were amazing back there. Definitely lived up to your reputation."

"I'm glad you are so proud." I kissed him again before helping him up. "Varro, thank you so much. I don't know what we would have done if you weren't here."

"Like I said before, I owe you three everything. Now lets get you to that stone circle before those last few creatures come back."

We made our way towards the circle. It was dark and the remaining Demons could return at any moment. I could see it in the distance. "There it is!"

We approached the circle and paused just outside of it. "So how does this work?" Damon asked me.

"The witches said as soon as we bring the Amulet into the circle it should activate the return spell."

"Why isn't anything happening?" Bonnie asked. "Maybe it takes some time to begin."

Just as Bonnie said her last word I felt pain shoot through my body. I looked down to find two arrows in me…one that just missed my heart and one in my stomach.

"Elena!" Damon was at my side.

"They're back!" Bonnie called out. "What do we do, we are sitting ducks in here!"

"We can't leave the circle, what if the spell starts!" Damon cried out while dodging more arrows that were shot into the circle.

"Don't worry!" Varro called out to us. "I can take care of them!" He made quick use of his blade and was able to kill the remaining creatures. Shadow Demons should now be officially extinct.

My blood poured out onto one of the stones. The wind suddenly picked up and the stones started to shake. Damon was about to pull the first arrow from my chest when I realized what was happening. "Wait!" I said.

"What? Elena I need to get these out of you, come on!"

"It's my blood. It must be finally activating the spell." My doppelganger blood had many purposes and there was a good chance this spell needed it as well. "I can't heal yet. Leave them in until we get back home. I'll heal then."

Damon looked unhappy but before he could argue anymore, the portal was opening. It was the same swirling motion that I saw when I was laying on the altar for the sacrifice that first brought me here. I was starting to drift off into unconsciousness when everything stopped. The wind and the swirling scenery, but the pain was still there.

I was back in the crypt with Damon and Bonnie. It worked. We all made it back home. Something felt different though, I felt different.

"Elena!" Damon crawled over to me and I realized the arrows were still in my body. He carefully pulled them out. "AHHHHHH!" I screamed so loud that it could wake the dead in the cemetery.

Damon cringed at my screams, "Sorry Elena, but I had to get those out so you can heal…" he stopped short with a concerned look on his face.

"D-Damon? What's wrong? I feel strange. The pain isn't going away.

Damon was examining my wounds but they weren't healing. Why wasn't I healing? "It h-hurts Damon! It still hurts!"

"No, no, this isn't possible." Damon said with fear laced in his voice. "Bonnie she's human! She's human Bonnie, and she's not healing!"

"Feed her your blood Damon!" Bonnie urgently yelled back. I was starting to drift off. Damon tried to bite into his own wrist but nothing happened. His eyes panicked and his voice followed suit.

"I can't! I'm human too."

The Crypt, Outside New Orleans

Damon POV

The love of my life was bleeding out in front of me and there wasn't a goddamn thing I could do to stop it. We were both human now, how the hell did that even happen?

"Elena, Elena stay with me okay? Stay with me." I spoke softly to her as she was drifting off into unconsciousness. I was applying pressure to both wounds but it wasn't enough. I was losing her. "ELENA!"

I didn't know what to do. The seconds were ticking by as Elena inched closer to death…real HUMAN death.

"Damon, what do we do?" Bonnie was crying. "SOMEBODY HELP US!" She was yelling now hoping that someone, anyone in the vicinity would hear her.

"We need to find a vampire that can heal her. Bonnie you need to…"

"Elena?" an old woman's voice came out of the dark.

"Are you Margaret?" Damon asked. "You know what, I don't care, whoever you are we need help. My girlfriend is dying and we need vampire blood to heal her."

"Her friends should be nearby. Their motel isn't far from here." The old woman replied. "It's right up the road."

"Bonnie you have to go! Get Stefan, Ric, or Caroline, or whoever you can! Go!" The urgency in my voice made her sprint out at super speed. "Please hang on Elena. You are going to be fine."

"D-Damon?" her weak voice tried to speak.

"Shh, Shh don't talk. Save your strength."

"We are both human?" she continued.

"Yeah we are. How ironic is that?" I joked with her even now. "You wanted to be human together, grow old together. Well now we can if that's still what you want."

She smiled back at me then, too weak to even talk.

"You just have to hang on baby so we can, okay?" I urged her to stay with me but I could feel her fading. I kissed her lips as I held the pressure tight on her wounds with my hands. I don't know how much longer she was going to last.

The Motel

Bonnie reached the hotel within minutes. It really was right up the road. There were no more than 10 rooms but she didn't have time to knock on all the doors. She just started shouting, "JEREMY! JEREMY!"

Jeremy heard her voice coming from outside and froze. It was Bonnie! It was her voice! He leapt off the bed and opened the door to find her standing there in tears. "BONNIE?!" he ran full tilt and embraced his long lost love.

"Bonnie your back! It worked! Elena brought you guys back!"

"She did Jer." Bonnie was a mix of so many emotions. She was deliriously happy that she was back with Jeremy but terrified that Elena was dying back at the crypt. "We need your help though. Something happened when we came back. Elena's hurt and she and Damon and are both…human. We need vampire blood and fast."

"Elena's hurt?" Jeremy ran to Alaric's room and banged on the door. "Ric! Ric! Wake up man!"

Ric opened the door. "What is it Jeremy?"

"You need to get to the cemetery right away, there's no time to explain."

With that Ric sped off down the road and in a matter of seconds was in the crypt. The sight of his newly resurrected friend brought him joy that was short-lived when he saw the desperate look on Damon's face as he looked down at Elena.

"Ric, thank god. She needs your blood. Now."

"Good to see you too buddy." Alaric said before biting into his wrist to let the vampire blood flow. He brought it to Elena's lips.

"We'll hug it out when Elena is alive and well, okay?" Damon said anxiously. He took his hands away from her wounds and they had stopped bleeding which was a good sign. Elena was still unconscious but it seemed to be working. His hands moved to her face, stroking her hair and her cheek, willing her to come back. "Come on Elena, wake up."

Caroline and Jeremy eventually made it to the crypt. Elena was still unconscious on the floor and Margaret was still in the room as well. "Oh my god." Caroline said walking in. "What happened?"

"Elena was shot right before we returned. We needed her blood for the spell so she insisted to wait to heal until we got back. Enter the complication that when we came back through, we turned…human." Damon explained, still stroking Elena's head.

"Any previous magic has been undone and turned you back to your original forms." Margaret explained.

"That means I'm a witch again?" Bonnie asked hopefully.

"Yes dear, you are." Margaret said back. "It's an honor to meet a Bennett Witch in the flesh."

The conversation was interrupted by Elena taking in a gasp of air. "Elena?" Damon said helping her sit up. "How do you feel?"

"I'm better I think. I feel…healed. Are we… really back? All of us?" Elena said hopefully.

"We are. Thanks to you." Damon smiled and kissed her deeply. After their lips parted he helped her to her feet and everyone was embracing as they were all reunited. Elena's thoughts went to Margaret. She pulled Damon aside. "Hey give me one second, I'm going to talk to Margaret."

"I want to come with you, if that's okay." Damon asked.

"Of course it is. If I have my way you will never leave my side again." Elena said with a smile.

They walked hand in hand over to Margaret who was lighting some candles in the corner. "Margaret?" Elena started, "I just wanted to thank you for all of your help and also…tell you that your brother…"

Margaret's eyes widened with hope and excitement. "He was there wasn't he? You saw him?"

"We more than saw him Ma'am," Damon explained. "He was our friend and he helped and saved us many times over."

"He is happy Margaret. He has a life and a family and he wanted us to tell you that. So you can finally be at peace with what happened to him all those years ago."

Margaret was crying now. "Oh thank you dear. Thank you so much." She hugged Elena before leaving the crypt to find her sisters. She wanted to tell them the news of their brother no doubt.

"So," Elena turned to Damon and he put his arms around her waist. "We are both human now." Damon looked down and wouldn't meet her eyes. "Are you okay with this?"

Damon looked up at Elena. "I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. But I do know that I am back. We are together and happy and safe. That's all that matters to me right now. We can talk about the H word later." He pulled her into another kiss before Ric interrupted.

"Are you guys ready to blow this pop stand and head back to civilization? The Mikaelson's have invited us to a party in honor of your return. Caroline already notified Klaus of your success."

"Does he know Elena's human again?" Damon asked concerned.

"Yes, but he can be trusted now Damon. He has more important concerns than making hybrids. He has a daughter on the way and he has…changed." Caroline said.

"I hope your right blondie." Damon said back. "Alright lets go. I could use a good party."

That's it for a few days guys. I'll be going away for the 4th of July weekend so I will post the next chapter early next week. Sorry for the wait! SO…Elena and Damon are human! Are they both going to stay that way? Can Klaus really be trusted? Bonnie is a witch again! Will they ever be able to rid Mystic Falls of the Traveler curse? All will be revealed Please review!