A/N: You guys seemed to like what I put in the last chapter. I'm sorry that I made some of you almost cry, but maybe that was my way of thinking last time. Oh well…here's some more of the story for you.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Damon looked up as Bonnie entered the room. She offered him a cup of coffee, but he turned his face away from her, looking back at Cailee. She wasn't very blue anymore. In fact, she looked almost like herself, dressed in that horribly tacky hospital gown. He knew she would have a fit if she found herself in one of those ridiculous outfits, but that was only if she woke up.
"She's not going to wake up, is she?" Damon asked Bonnie quietly.
"She is," Bonnie said, sitting down on the opposite side of the bed. "The doctors said that she has a good chance of waking up in the next couple of hours."
"They said that hours ago," Damon pointed out, staring at Cailee with a frown. "She was supposed to wake up yesterday and she didn't." He lifted his eyes to Bonnie again. "They've warmed her up to the right temperature and ran tests on her. She's perfectly fine, but she won't wake up."
Bonnie looked down at her hands for a moment. "Damon, Cailee isn't one of my best friends, but she saw me as someone she could trust with her secrets. There were a lot of secrets she didn't want getting out to the world, a lot of questions that she wanted answered and she thought I could be her secret keeper. Damon, she told me that when things were getting really bad, she'd go catatonic and see only the hallucination. She didn't like doing that, but you helped her through it. She told me that you helped her come up with a place she could go when the hallucinations and the voices got too bad for her. A safe place where the voices wouldn't bother her. Not as much."
"The meadow with purple roses," Damon whispered, remembering the world he had helped create with Cailee.
Bonnie nodded. "She told me she liked it there. She felt happy and safe there because you had helped her create it…but she felt wrong going to the meadow sometimes. It bothered her that she went there after she had hallucinations of hurting you or of you saying horrible things to her. Cailee said it made the place feel tainted…"
"Are you getting somewhere with this?" Damon demanded, feeling a little irritated with travelling down memory lane.
"Cailee may be in the meadow right now," Bonnie stated, looking at Cailee. "She's probably there healing from her last hallucination and it must have been a bad one. She looks peaceful…maybe she'll come out of it soon. But whatever the case is, I know she's going to wake up."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Damon, she loves you. All she could talk about when I hung out with her was you. She wanted to make you proud of her when she was having good days. The voices made it hard for her to get close to people because she was afraid of the way they would react when they saw her have an episode…but not with you. She let her defenses drop around you and allowed herself to be herself around you. Cailee wanted to make sure you fell in love with her and not the persona she gave off to other people." Bonnie smiled a small smile. "And if you think that she would let someone like you find someone else, you think wrong."
"Are you implying something?" Damon smirked and looked at Cailee, taking one of her hands in his. "I've got quite a catch with this one. If she goes, I'll follow. She's not going to get rid of me no matter how hard she tries."
"Soul mates…" Bonnie whispered with subdued happiness. "I'm glad for the two of you…but if you ever hurt her, you're going to have me on your ass."
"Was that a threat?" Damon cocked an eyebrow and looked at her.
"It was a promise."
"Does a 'burn at the stake' mean anything to you?"
"Funny. I was thinking a wooden bullet for you." Bonnie smiled at him and got to her feet. "I'll leave you alone with her."
Damon let her get as far as the door before clearing his throat. "You forgot something."
"What?"
"My coffee."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Cailee spun around and around in the meadow, brushing her fingertips against the velvety purple rose petals. The roses had no thorns so Cailee danced through them without a care. She was happy and safe.
"Cailee."
Cailee turned and saw a man dressed in white standing there. It took a moment for her to realize that it was Damon. A small smile graced her lips as she looked at the man she loved. "Damon."
"You've got to come back to me," Damon told her, holding his hand out. "You've got to come back to the real world Cailee."
"Why Damon? Why?" Cailee demanded. "I'm happy here. I can do anything I want, be anything I want. I'm safe here and happy. I don't have to hide myself behind the lies of sanity here." She laughed. "I'm the sanest one here!"
Damon shook his head. Cailee didn't know why he didn't understand that she didn't want to go back. She wanted to stay here forever.
"Cailee, if you don't come back soon, you'll never be able to come back," Damon told her sadly. "You won't wake up in my arms or have another one of my kisses. We'll never see Paris, the Northern Lights, or any of the wonders of the world that you wanted to see."
"But Damon, I'm happy here…" Cailee's smile slipped off her face as Damon crossed the small distance that stood between them. "In our special place…"
Damon touched her face, gently cupping it with his right hand. His ring was warm against her cheek. "Cailee, you were happy with me. Weren't you?"
"Yes Damon. Of course I was."
"I want to show you the world…I want to show you to the world…I want to grow old with you and remain eternally youthful with you…but I can't do any of that unless you come back to me. Come back to reality."
Cailee looked up at him, feeling suddenly very tired and sad. She turned and looked out at the purple roses, fluttering under a gentle breeze. "Will I ever be able to come back here?"
"Yes, but not for long. You always have to come back to me…"
Cailee sighed¸ turning her eyes up to the heavens. The breeze was blowing in soft white clouds, obscuring the sun. Soft rays of sunshine peeked out from between the clouds and touched her face gently.
"Damon, I won't last long if I go back," Cailee whispered, looking at him once more. "The next episode…I won't be able to handle it as well as this time…and the vampires that keep coming to our town, won't let me pass on by without taking a nibble…You could lose me forever in violence…" Her eyes softened, growing a littler sadder. "Wouldn't you rather lose me in peace?"
Damon shook his head and pulled her to him. Cailee closed her eyes and rested her cheek against his chest, listening to his faint heartbeat, remembering hers in the moments she had laid in the cold, dark hole. Was she still like that?
"I won't lose you," Damon told her, his words soft to her ears. "I won't let anyone steal you away from me. Not another vampire. Not God. No one will take you away from me…because I…I love you, Cailee."
Cailee opened her eyes and looked into his. She saw how watery they had become and she didn't like that. It worried her, scared her even. She had never seen Damon cry, he was always the strong rock that she could count on in the bad times. But to see him showing this weakness, this human weakness was bizarre.
"Damon, don't cry," Cailee whispered, touching his face. "I'll come back with you because I love you…"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Elena and Stefan walked to the room where Cailee had been sleeping. The bed was empty and the chair beside it was abandoned. Elena turned and attracted the attention of a passing nurse.
"Excuse me," she said. "We're looking for the girl that was in this room. A girl named Cailee?"
The nurse checked her clipboard and shook her head. "Her husband came and got her."
"She's awake?" Stefan asked.
"Not that I know of," the nurse said. "Excuse me, I have to go."
Stefan watched her walk off before looking back at Elena. "He fed on her. I could smell her blood in that room even over the scent of bleach…"
"That doesn't make sense," Elena muttered, awkwardly shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "He loves her and he knows that she's unconscious…Why would he take blood from her?"
Stefan's eyes narrowed as he realized what was going on. "He's going to turn her."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Damon gently cradled Cailee in his arms, dancing with her slowly. She was coming in and out of unconsciousness, never fully waking out of it, even with his blood in her system. Her face was that of someone at peace as he danced with her around the room.
Her eyes fluttered open for a moment and locked on him. "Damon…" she sighed, her voice sounding tired.
"Good evening Ms. Cailee," Damon whispered, smiling softly at her.
"It's time…right?" Cailee asked quietly.
Damon nodded, his smile faltering and falling in a second. "It's time…"
Cailee smiled a wan smile at him, closing her eyes. "Okay…just let me say goodbye…"
Her eyes stayed closed and she made no other sound. Damon gently laid her on the bed, her hair serving as another pillow for her head. It tore at his heart to see her looking so peaceful before the end. His hands shook as he gently cupped the back of her head and cupped her chin with the other hand.
"Forgive me," Damon whispered, breaking her neck with a horrible cracking sound that made his stomach clench painfully.
Cailee stopped breathing. She stopped moving. She stopped doing everything. He couldn't hear her heartbeat anymore. She was dead…
"Forgive me, Cailee," Damon breathed, tears falling in a never ending river down his face as he gently touched Cailee's cheek. "Forgive me…"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A/N: And so, Cailee dies. But is this really the end of her? We shall see once I get the next chapter going. Until then, read and review! ~ Scarlet
