Hinting Beneath the Shell

"Her Four Days Before"

She tore down the highway going eighty-three in a sixty-five. The radio was cranked up to the max so that she could still hear the music over the whooshing of the air passing by her open windows. A half-full bottle of Pepsi rested in the driver's side, cup holder next to an empty bottle in the other one. She had stopped to purchase the drinks about twenty miles back and had sucked the liquid down a little too quickly. Elena needed to pee. Badly.

The girl spotted a rest sign and sped up to reach the exit. Unfortunately, she was so focused on getting to her destination quickly that she had failed to spot the cop car to the right. Pedal pushed to the floor of her car, Elena flew by the cop car.

Flashing red and blue lights in her rear view window claimed her attention. She slowed down, praying that the cop was going after someone else. He got closer to her bumper and she decided today was just not her lucky day.

"Shit," Elena snapped as she pulled off onto the side of the road. She was mere feet from the pull off to the rest stop and she stared at it longingly.

A knock on her window pulled her focus in that direction. She pressed her thumb into the button to open her window and put her best smile on.

"Good evening, officer," She said in a cheerful voice, thankful that she had worn a low-cut blouse.

"Miss, are you aware of how fast you were going?" he asked in a serious tone, but Elena hadn't missed the appreciative once over he had given her. Hook, line and sinker!

Dropping her head bashfully, she prepared a reply. When she was ready, she lifted her head to reply, but before she could utter the words someone else had cut in.

"You will go back into your car and forget that you pulled anyone over. When you get in your car, I want you to spill coffee on yourself. You just stopped to clean yourself up."

Elena's head snapped toward the occupant of her passenger's seat.

"Damon," she growled warningly.

"Shoo," he said to the op, flicking his hand in dismissal.

"What are you doing, Damon?" Elena growled.

He cocked an eyebrow and replied, "Saving you, of course!"

Elena rolled her eyes, before starring at him petulantly once again. If she were standing, she probably would have been tapping her foot against the ground in an attempt to diffuse her climbing anger. As it was she was sitting in a car, with an unwelcome Damon, on the side of the highway about to explode.

"Why are you here?" Her voice had dropped an octave.

He scrunched his brows into a searching look as he met her eyes. For sevela moments - possibly hours as far as Elena was concerned - he silent starred into her. She felt her body freezing up as she lost herself in those blue orbs. Only her heart was moving. It beat against her chest like a bowling bowl knocking down pins.

With that smile that made Elena's heart skip a beat unpin his face, Damon shrugged. In an obnoxiously nonchalant manner, he said, "Fall break."

"You're not in school, Damon. You can't be on fall break."

"Yet here I am," he quipped.

She cracked a smile before squashing it. How easy it was to fall into that comfortable, verbal volley with him! And how quick her heart reminded her of the moment he left out her window, the taste of his mouth still fresh against her lips. She shouldn't do this with him. She couldn't do this with him.

"I thought you said you were done playing games, Damon," she said, quietly and coldly, throwing his own words back at him.

For a moment a rush of something gusted across his eyes. It lasted for barely a second before disappearing, leaving his face to fall back into the typical, cocky expression that was so characteristically Damon.

Barely missing a beat, he replied, "Have you ever noticed how much you say my name, Elena?"

She opened her mouth to snap back a quip, but shut it when nothing came. A blush crept across her cheeks as she struggled to deny his words to herself.

"Do you like the way it tastes sliding out of your mouth?" he added smugly.

She rolled her eyes and execrated toward the rest stop. When she looked out her rear-view mirror the cop who had pulled her over was scrubbing viscously at a coffee stain on his shirt. Elena frowned, but continued forward. She didn't like it, but she couldn't do anything about Damon's escapades. She also couldn't do anything about his presence in her car.

'Damn, Damon,' she though before putting the frustrating conundrum that was the tall, dark and handsome vampire aside. She had more pressing things to focus on at the moment. She still really, really, really had to pee.

Elena had spent three days with Damon and, much to her surprise, it wasn't that bad. They had kept on the move, stopping only to sleep at several bed and breakfasts on the way, which they took turns paying for. Elena hadn't had a destination in mind and Damon seemed alright with that. She had simply been enjoying the feeling of being on the move and he had revealed in that shared sense of freedom. Most of the time was spent in companionable silence, but they had each taken pleasure in the occasional verbal sparring they couldn't stop even if they wanted to. Elena wasn't sure that she did.

At some point they had stopped at a carnival. Damon had beat the test your strength game, shocking the man tending the game and all the onlookers. After, he had allowed Elena to choose a prize and after some deliberation she pointed to a fist-sized, stuffed bat. She had, much to Damon's annoyance, named him Dammie. This had prompted a conversation about whether or not Damon could turn into a bat. Much to her disappointment, had assured her that he couldn't. Later that night, however, he had surprised her by transforming into a raven at the two-bedded motel room they had rented that night.

The girl was shocked at how intrigued she was by Damon's ability to shift into an animal. It was magical and she swore that she could feel the power ebbing off of him during the transformation. Damon was equally bewildered, albeit for a different reason. It was the first time he had allowed a human to touch him in that form, which he had a good reason for never doing before. Becoming an animal left him physically vulnerable. Somehow, however, he knew he was safe being like with Elena. Even from behind the mentality of a bird, much to his surprise, Elena had a soothing affect on him.

The unlikely pair hadn't known what they were doing on a road trip together. They didn't understand why they were choosing to spend so much time alone together. They didn't call it anything. Friends was enough of a title to stand behind right now. It was simple. Not complicated. They both needed that.

It was on the fourth day of their trip that the saying "all good things must come to an end" reared it ugly head. One phone call was all it had taken to damage the sense of peace Elena and Damon were sharing.

"Elena, it's Jenna and Jeremy," Stefan had said, avoiding all of the pleasantries she wouldn't have appreciated. He had even gone as far as to call her from a pay phone, knowing fully how very unlikely it was that she would answer a call from his cell.

She had listened to him explain concepts she didn't want to understand about bodily damage and hospitals and unstable conditions, wanting increasingly to hang up and chuck the phone out the window. Damon had grabbed her hand and held on tightly, while she attempted not to spontaneously shatter all over the passenger seat. The vampire - privy to the entire conversation that had destroyed Elena's already fragile world - was grateful that he had convinced her to let him drive today.

Damon slid into the left lane of the highway and made an illegal u-turn. Elena ignored him, her mind and heart solely focused on getting back to Mystical Falls. She stared out the passenger window as the scenery flew on by - indicative of the dangerous speed Damon had pushed the car to go. The girl was too worn out to chastise him. She really only had enough strength for one thought.

'Please let them live. Please let them live,' she prayed silently to anyone who might be listening.

A/N: Oh no!

I'm sorry its taken me longer to update. I know where I want this story to go. I've even considered a sequel, but getting to the end is proving to be just a little difficult… :/

Read and review please. I need reviews to stimulate the creative flow. ^_^

~ Lucine Raven