Jewel POV
I stirred slowly and rose drowsily to find Damon passed out at the other side of the bed. I smiled slightly and began stepping from the bed when a frantic knock rang out from the door. Damon sat up, immediately awake, as I stared confusedly at the door. "Come in,"
"Stefan is gone," sobbed a crazed Elena, covering her reddened face with her hands as she gulped air.
"What do you mean he's gone?" Damon demanded grumpily as I raced to Elena. She let me support her almost completely as her knees gave out. We stumbled to the end of the bed and she handed Damon a piece of paper. He read it several times, growling, before showing it to me. In Stefan's script was written
Elena,
Have joined Klaus. Don't follow me. This is for your own good.
Stefan
"What the hell does that mean?" shouted Damon, "And why would he go with the vamp trying to kill his girlfriend?"
"I don't know, but we're going to find him. It's going to be okay, Elena. Damon, call Bonnie and Caroline. Please," I said, rubbing Elena's back firmly and cradling her head on my shoulder. Damon leapt for the phone; he obviously had no idea how to deal with tears.
Bonnie and Caroline were there in an instant, rushing in to take my place so I could help Damon. "What are we going to do?" I whispered hoarsely once we were safely out of the room. I knew Stefan had left to protect Elena, but I didn't know how she'd live without him. I noted that Caroline and Bonnie were herding Elena downstairs.
"We're going to find him," decided Damon. "I'm going to make a few calls. Pack one of my bags," he murmured absentmindedly "Pack for a week, at least," he said. I did as he'd asked, making sure that he had something for any occasion, as well as vervain and a few weapons Katherine had left. I didn't like this at all. Damon came in his bedroom door with a ferocity that made me jump. "Alaric is coming to watch Elena until I get back. Don't let her do anything stupid," he growled. Then, for a moment, something softer flickered across his face. "I'll… see you when I get back. Just stay here and you should be safe. Don't leave the house," he warned, kissing my forehead.
"Hey!" I whispered, pulling him back to me and wrapping my arms around his waist before I kissed him. We stood like that for a few moments, clinging to the illusion that everything would stay the same if we didn't move. "Come back safe," I plead. He nodded before I released him and he was gone.
I went downstairs, where Elena had collapsed in a chair in the library. Bonnie was trying to make her drink some tea. "Hey," I said softly, prompting them all to look up at me, as though I had some answer to this madness. "It's going to be okay. Damon is going to search for Stefan, and Alaric is coming to help out," I hesitated. "It's going to be okay. We'll get him back, Elena," I said, this time with more authority.
Among all the craziness that naturally came in the next few days, Damon was my primary worry. He took to answering his phone less and less, so that by the fifth day I worried that he wouldn't come home at all.
I tapped the silver cover of my cell phone, toying with the idea of calling him. I flipped open the cover and dialed his number before I could change my mind, heart pounding in my ears. I licked my lower lip nervously.
"Hello?" asked a voice I knew well.
"Damon?" I asked. Chastising myself for such a stupid question, I announced myself. "It's Jewel. How're you doing?"
"I'm… It's not… God. I just need to be home. I'm coming home. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll probably be coming in late tonight, but I won't wake you up. I've got to go. Don't tell Elena, I can't talk to her right now, all right?" He asked, aged a hundred years in the past few days.
"Of course. I'll see you then," I said, my voice cracking with worry. He sighed and ended the call without another word.
My hands shook as I sank to the floor. Was Stefan dead? Or worse? What had Klaus done, and why had Stefan left?
I couldn't go down for dinner. Instead I sat on Damon's bed, wondering. It was the wondering that was the worst, I thought. If I knew then it would be final, but letting my thoughts wander like this was torture. Alaric came in around midnight to wish me goodnight and Katherine came half an hour past that. They were so good, such good friends. I really didn't deserve them. I wasn't being of any use to anyone.
Finally, right when I thought my heart was going to stop, a noise outside the door made me jump. I sat erect, barely daring to hope, before Damon came in.
He didn't look good. He needed to shave, he hadn't slept in a while, and if it was possible he seemed thinner. But it didn't matter; he was here, and he was safe.
I threw myself into his arms and kissed his face. Burying my face into his neck I realized that he had picked me up and was carrying me to bed. "What happened. Why didn't you want to talk to Elena?" I asked but he just shook his head.
"I'll tell you in the morning," he said, stroking my cheekbone. I smiled at him weakly.
"It's going to be okay. Damon, whatever it is, it will all be okay," I said, repeating the words that I didn't know to be true. They'd become my anthem, lately. He nodded at me. "You look exhausted. You need sleep. C'mon," I said, pulling him down with me.
He settled beside me and I smiled when I realized that he was already asleep. I stroked his mussed hair and the back of his neck with one hand and his arm with the other until I, too, drifted off.