Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries. Please, don't sue.

A/N: Sorry, guys! This took me a while! But it's up now. Thanks for all your lovely reviews. Please keep those coming! Some heavy subjects are addressed in this chapter, but the plot doesn't really move forward. It's not a filler, but it's not the most exciting chapter either. Just so you know. Oh and 'hell' gets explained a little in this chapter, but it's just the tip of the iceberg! More to come on hell!

And for those asking questions about the People's Choice Awards: Fanfiction won't let me post links, but it's People's Choice (just turn that in one word) and add a . and then the first three letters of the word 'computer'. Ha! Pretty cryptic, huh? And while you're at it, please go ahead and nominate Paul Wesley too. I tend to forget how brilliant he is, but boy did he show me in the break-up scene! He was so good! But let's face it, the entire cast is! Well, you can still nominate until November 5th, so please do that. You know the show and the actors deserve it. ;-)

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Chapter 7:

She had no idea how much time had passed now. The days and nights now impossible to keep apart, causing them to sleep and get up whenever they felt like it. Elena's internal clock was now completely out of control which made her feel uncomfortable and on edge, without really being able to explain it. That little bit of hope that she'd been cherishing for the past few days was starting to disappear too, now more time had passed and nothing had changed. She closed her eyes when she opened the cupboard and was confronted with the inevitable. The last bit of food. She reached out to an apple that was already showing some dark and soft spots, but she took a bite anyway, desperate to get rid of the hunger that had been haunting her for days now.

Damon entered the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"I'm bored." He stated.

"Me too." She nodded, sitting across from him again and taking another bite from her apple.

Damon looked at her and clenched his jaws, showing Elena a heavy subject was about to come up. "…How are we doing with the food-situation?"

"There's some cereal."

"And?"

"And that's it. Some cereal."

"Well, there's a problem. Another one."

"How's the blood?" She finally dared to ask, failing to sound casual. The question had been on the tip of her tongue for days now, but she'd been afraid of the answer.

"Just had the last bag from the fridge this morning."

Elena's head shot up in blind panic for just a second.

"Calm down!" He assured her. "Nobody ever showed you the fridge in the basement? I'm good for now. You're not, however."

She shrugged. "I'll be fine for a couple of more days. Hungry and cranky, but fine."

He nodded slowly. "Probably, but maybe it's time to discuss the big, fat elephant in the room before it gets to that."

"And what's the big, fat elephant in the room?"

He threw her a look, but it took her a second to register what it meant.

"Oh no!" She said. "Not going to happen."

"There's enough blood in the house for both of us to last us a while." He urged.

"It's not going to happen, Damon." She ended the discussion before it really started and she hopped off the chair.

"Come on. You must've thought about it. Even before we got stuck here."

"I haven't. It's not an option."

"Really? Then how exactly did you picture you and Stefan's happily ever after, huh? Please enlighten me."

She sighed as she looked at him. "I haven't thought that far ahead yet, okay? And I'm not starting now. I'll get out of here a human being. Anything else is not up for discussion."

"Anything else being your rotting human corpse that I have to present to Stefan?"

"Don't say that."

"Look…I'm not thrilled at the idea either, but all I'm saying is: think about it. It makes sense. It'll buy us some much-needed time." He shrugged.

"I can't do this, Damon. I can't even think about being in here for that much longer." She admitted.

"I know the feeling. I'm moving if by some miracle we do get out. Never spending another night in here."

"Me neither." She assured him, leaning on the table.

"Huh. Stefan will love that."

"I'll convince him to move too." She solved the problem.

"Great. Maybe he and I can move into a nice little condo together. Makes it easier for us to continue our little ménage-a-trois."

"Damon…"

"Well, that's what it's become, right? What it's always been? It's a little freaky, but it'll continue to be that until you make a decision."

"I have made a decision." She told him, sharply. "A long time ago."

"Yeah…I'm not convinced. With the kissing and all that. You're going to need to do a little better than that."

"Damon, please! I thought the idea was to find a way to hate each other less, not more."

"Oh, you love this side of me! You always have. And it's part of our charm. We bicker. I say something that gets a rise out of you and you can't resist reacting to it. It's how we work, Elena."

Elena turned her back to him after throwing him a look. She absently started to wipe the counter. She was starting to believe that perhaps Damon had a good point a few days ago. Their relationship had always been based on a little bit of hate, that only recently got out of control, but that had always been there. And it was going to be close to impossible to get rid of it. Unless…

"Why did you say that you'd show Stefan my rotting corpse?"

"Oh, come on. I was just trying to make a point…" Damon spoke up.

"No, I mean…It's because you assume that if I die, you get out of here, right?"

"Well…now that you mention it. The spell was very focused on the whole hating each other-thing. If one of us dies, there's no 'each other', since people usually don't feel anything in death. Why are we discussing this?"

Elena shook her head. "…No reason."

Suddenly Damon appeared behind her, his hand carefully resting on the counter as his mouth moved towards her ear.

"You can't die." He told her softly. "Which complicates the situation. Had any other person on the long list of people that I hate had been in here with me, the solution had been easy."

"…And what exactly do you think happens when you turn me?" She asked, stepping away from him and continuing to clean the counter.

Damon looked at her from the side, frowning. "…You die." He answered her.

Having made her hesitant point, she didn't reply to him as she continued her thrilling activity, avoiding Damon's glance as best as she could.

"…But only for a second. I mean, technically you'll still be dead, but with the walking and talking and everything. But you'll still die. For a second, your feelings will be gone. Could be enough to lift the spell." Damon continued, obviously deep in thought.

"Exactly. Could be." Elena nodded, her voice shaking at the thought. "If it doesn't work…"

"You'll just be turned. Which might be the only option anyway when the food's gone. And you turning is something that would've happened in the long run anyway."

"Damon…that's best case scenario and even that I'm not at all comfortable with. Worst case scenario, the spell will consider it cheating and suck us both into hell. Have you thought about that? It's too big of a risk."

"What other option do we have, Elena?" He asked.

"…I don't know. But this isn't an option. I don't want to be turned. Not now. Maybe not ever."

"Elena…"

"No, Damon. It's not up for discussion."

"I get it. It's a big thing. It's not something I want for you either, but…as a last resort…"

"Well, we haven't reached that point yet. I still feel fine, there's still some food left…"

"But maybe you should try to get used to the idea."

She sighed, finally dropping the cloth on the counter and turning to him. "…Can we not have this conversation right now? Please?"

Damon looked at her, slowly nodding. "…Okay."

"You might have a point, but just the idea scares the crap out of me. I don't want to think about it yet. I'm sorry, but…"

"…I understand."

"And…it needs to be my decision, Damon. If it does get to that…I get to decide. I know you're stronger than me and you could make the decision for me if you wanted to, but…I want it to be up to me and if I say no…then…it's no. Even if the other option is that I die. For real."

"Elena…"

"Please, Damon. I need to be able to trust you with this." She pleaded with him.

"….Okay…" He finally agreed. "…You can trust me."

"Okay." Elena nodded. "Thank you."

She swallowed heavily, before shrugging the bad feelings off.

"Besides…" She continued. "You do know that if you turn me and we get out, you still die, right?"

"Why's that?" Damon asked, spotting a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"Stefan finds out you turned me, he'll hurt you, regardless of his diet. Not to mention if Bonnie found out. She'll kill you before you can even explain, let alone charm your way out of it."

Damon smirked. "But I'll have you by my side, vampire-strength and everything. We could kick their asses together."

Elena chuckled. "I hope so for your sake."

"…Yeah, me too."

-x-x-x-x-

"Tell me about hell." Elena urged, finding herself looking for his company again. She convinced herself it was because she needed a distraction from the hunger, but it didn't really work.

"…Why?"

"Because. Bad stuff happened there and maybe it'll help when you talk about it."

"That's pretty much your solution to everything, isn't it? Talk about it?"

"It could help."

"Hasn't done us any good so far. Why bother? It'll only trigger that panic attack you're on the verge of having." Damon dismissed the idea.

"That bad, huh?" She asked, brushing through her hair and sighing.

"Worse." He assured her.

Elena crawled on the bed where Damon's gaze had moved back to the TV. He was watching some documentary on the History Channel.

"Who hurt you like that?" She asked as she found herself reaching out to him and tracing a finger over his shirt. Starting with his chest, all the way down, to where the wound had been. Naturally, this caused Damon to look up.

"A cute little puppy with a big knife." He shrugged, raising an eyebrow and smirking. "He didn't mean to. He tripped and accidentally stabbed me. Shit happens."

"No more lies." She urged him, throwing him a look. "How did you get back here?"

Damon sighed, turning around to face her. "I don't know and I'm not interested in finding out."

"What happened, Damon? I really want to know."

"I voluntarily jumped into hell which is surprisingly not a place filled with rainbows and sunshine. There were hellhounds and demons, they didn't play by the rules and very much enjoyed ripping me to shreds. Need to hear more?"

"What do you mean they didn't play by the rules?"

"For heaven's sake, Elena! What do you want to hear? How I tried to fight them off, but suddenly found myself chained to a wall where a mad butcher gutted me like a fish?"

"For starter's." She nodded. "Then what happened?"

"I don't know. Next thing I knew I was at the bottom of the stairs. I managed to drag myself upstairs and that's where you found me. End of story."

"You were gone for hours, Damon."

"Only hours, huh?" He asked bitterly. "Let's just say that…the mad butcher was only the last installment of my little adventures in there. The one that did have a happy ending. You don't need to hear more."

Elena closed her eyes at those words. She didn't want to hear them, but she knew he had to say them. To get it out of his system.

"I'm sorry." She offered, softly.

"Yeah yeah, poor, little vampire." Damon replied, sarcastically and smirking at her. "It was no big deal."

She gave him a look. "If you say so."

"I do say so. Cheer up, Elena. Nobody died. Yet."

"And we're back to that." Elena sighed, sitting up straight and looking away. "It's still not up for discussion."

"I wasn't about to bring it up. Just stating the obvious. The sound of your stomach growling is deafening."

"Way to overreact." She told him.

"It is to me." Damon shrugged, nodding to the TV. "I can't even hear what these nice people have to say about Hitler."

"Fine. I'll leave." Elena decided, turning around to get off the bed.

"Don't." Damon objected, reaching out to her arm. "Stay. Sleep. Don't waste any more strength than necessary."

Her gaze went to her arm where Damon's hand was carefully wrapped around it. Then she looked at him and hesitated.

"I won't jump you." He added off her look, smirking. "It'll just be you, me and Mr. Hitler."

She nodded slowly. Damon moved to make a little more room for her. She crawled under the covers on 'her' side of the bed. He'd gone back to watching TV, like it was no big deal that she was going to take a nap in his bed. And then she realized it wasn't. After all this time of being locked up together, driving each other crazy and expressing their feelings to each other, they finally found a way to deal. Instead of pushing each other away, they now actually searched for each other's company. They stuck together. She knew this was a huge step in the right direction and she felt the faint feeling of hope rising up inside of herself again. She smiled slightly as she made herself comfortable in the big bed. She stretched her legs and met his feet halfway.

"Move those feet." She told him teasingly, using all her strength to push them away, but naturally not succeeding.

"Nuh-uh. My bed, my rules." He smirked, not looking away from the TV.

"We're sharing your bed and your feet are on my half right now. Move them. You have all the space in the world on your side."

"I know. But I'm good like this." He shrugged.

"Damon!" She chuckled, sitting up straight and now also using her hands to try and push his feet away. They still didn't move an inch. Damon was grinning, but still focused on the TV.

"Fine." She finally gave up. "You annoy me, I'll annoy you."

She grabbed the pillow and threw it on his chest. She threw him a look, before laying down, her head and shoulders resting on the pillow, successfully blocking his view of the TV. She twisted and turned until she was somewhat comfortable, pulling the covers towards her. She stretched her legs, which now had all the room she needed. She turned her back to him and smiled proudly to herself. Two could play that game. Damon didn't react at first. Right then Elena realized her mistake. She wasn't surprised when she felt his soft hand on her arm, resting there comfortably. He sunk further back into his own pillow, so he was flat on his back now.

"You're right." He then spoke, sarcastically. "I'm so annoyed right now."

"Shut up." She mumbled, but didn't move. "At least you can't watch TV now."

"Ah, bummer. I was so committed to Hitler and his little Nazi minions."

She couldn't help but smile as she teasingly hit him on his stomach. "Whatever. Just know I'm planning on taking a long, long nap. You'll be bored to death."

He didn't reply at first, but it didn't matter. She had no intention of moving, since she really was comfortable like this and she hoped at some point he'd at least get a little annoyed. Her hand moved back and rested on his abdomen, before she closed her eyes. It was just a nap. No big deal.

Elena was unable to see the look on Damon's face, but it was one of contentment as a small smile tugged at his mouth.

"Not a chance." He then whispered.

-x-x-x-x-x-

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when something woke her. She instantly realized she was no longer resting on Damon's chest and was actually alone in the big bed now. She was slightly disoriented for a second.

"Damon?" She called out, slightly unnerved by the fact he wasn't there. After everything that had happened, she just needed to know where he was. All the time. After all, who knew what sick twist the spell had decided to throw their way.

"I'm here." He announced as he entered the bedroom from the bathroom adjacent to it. His shirt was buttoned down, as it seemed to be a lot of the time these days, and a smirk was decorating his face.

"Hey." She started, relief written across her face.

"How was the nap?" He asked, smiling.

"Pretty good." Elena nodded, sitting up straight. "How long was I out?"

Suddenly Damon's smirk seemed to disappear for just a second. She frowned at the sight.

"A while." He eventually replied.

"What's wrong?" She asked, genuinely worried.

"Nothing too bad." Damon then told her, walking over to the bed and sitting down on the edge. "The clocks have stopped working."

Her eyebrows raised at those words. She should've known. The ticking of the clocks was one of the few sounds that could be heard when it was entirely quiet in the large house. Now there was a silence and she didn't hear anything. Not at all. She turned around to face the clock on the wall and got confirmation that Damon was speaking the truth. It was 3 o'clock. Just like before she had fallen asleep just now. A little bit of panic started to come to the surface as she realized what this would mean. This was another big step towards going crazy. Not knowing what time it was, not knowing how much time had passed, not having a clue as to whether it was day or night or how long you'd been up or sleeping, it was bound to drive them crazy. And soon.

"What about my watch? I left it in Stefan's…" Elena asked, turning back to Damon.

"Stopped working. Same with the clock on the microwave, yet the microwave still works. Go figure. And same with the little clock on the TV. Doesn't work. Stuck on 3 o'clock."

She swallowed heavily, followed by taking in a deep breath.

"It's no big deal, Elena." Damon tried to comfort her. "We can handle it."

She looked at him. "This is bad and you know it."

She managed to make the words come out without any obvious emotion, when all she wanted to do was scream and cry. This was a big thing, even though it didn't seem like that at first. This was going to be the thing that would drive them insane.

"I brought up the last of the cereal." He changed the subject. "Your stomach is what woke me up from our nap. Time to eat."

Her head turned towards the nightstand where she spotted the small bowl. It was only half filled with cereal, naturally no milk.

"I can stand it for a little while longer." She stated confidently.

"Well, I can't." Damon shrugged. "It's only postponing the inevitable for a little while longer. Eat."

He reached out to the nightstand and held it up in front of Elena. She eyed it with desire, which made her feel silly, but it was true. She was really, really hungry. She never knew cereal could smell this great. She never knew cereal had a real smell at all. Her hand almost automatically reached out to the bowl.

"Enjoy." Damon told her.

She eagerly started to eat, then forced herself to slow down and take smaller bites. That way she would enjoy it more. The cereal, not even her favorite, tasted like heaven. Almost literally. She'd rarely tasted anything so delicious. '

"I have a solution to your food situation. Sort of. But not really." He then interrupted her dinner and awaited her reaction.

She swallowed her second to last bite and looked up at him in anticipation.

"I need you to hear me out first." He continued. "No interrupting."

She nodded hesitantly, before taking another bite. She couldn't interrupt if her mouth was full.

"Starvation is a pretty terrible thing, Elena."

Her eyes grew wide as she instantly swallowed the cereal. "Why would you say that?"

"You said you wouldn't interrupt." He threw back, tilting his head a little and looking at her with an accusing look on his face.

"Well, I didn't know you were on a mission to trigger my panic attack!" She spoke up, momentarily forgetting about the last bit of food in the bowl.

"I wasn't trying to do that! It was only the first sentence. It gets better. Or a little worse at first, but then better."

She eyed him suspiciously from right under her lashes, almost pouting at him. What was he doing?

"Take that last bite. You can't interrupt me when your mouth is full." He added matter-of-factly.

"We'll see about that." She told him, before taking the last bite.

" So…starvation sucks. With the right amount of willpower you might last a month, maybe even a little longer. But you'll literally cease to exist, Elena. You'll grow weaker with every hour. It won't be pretty."

Elena swallowed the cereal. "I can't believe you're saying this when I just finished the last of the food in this house."

"Drink my blood." He then stated. "Just a little bit, every day. You'll stay strong, feel fine. Feel great, even."

Her gaze went up and their eyes locked at these words. '

"…no…" She then muttered unconvincingly. "If I die with your blood in my system…"

"It doesn't have to get to that. If you're so eager to starve and decide you'd rather have that than be turned, then we'll stop. The thing with drinking my blood is that it's going to make you feel fine, but it's not going to solve the issue. Your body is still going to need food, you just won't feel it. Which is the tricky part, because you won't feel it if you're on the verge of death. So we'll stop in time before that happens so my blood will get out of your system. Unless you decide that turning isn't the worst thing that could happen."

Damon took the bowl out of her hands, Elena taking the opportunity to cover her face with them for just a second.

"I don't know, Damon."

"You still get to decide whether you want to turn or not. You just won't have to go through the horrible process of starvation for now. It's a good solution, Elena."

She sighed, thinking it over. An uneasy feeling crept up inside of her as she realized something.

She took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to voice her concern. "…Can I trust you? Will you really let me decide? I mean, I'll have your blood in my system. You could kill me and…"

"Elena." He interrupted her. "I wouldn't do that."

"Even if I decide that I don't want to be turned? That I'd rather die? You'll just watch me die?"

"…I wouldn't kill you." Damon assured her. "…unless you ask me to."

He tried to smirk a little.

"…Okay." She then nodded.

"Okay."

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A/N: More exciting chapters are coming, promise! And thank you all for being such loyal readers! Means the world to me!

Stef