There was a moment of disorientation. Then Elena realized her aunt was trying to wake her up.
"Mmmf, wadda you need ?"
"Sorry to wake you, dear, but your medication is ready. Are you in a lot of pain? "
Elena nodded, she did hurt. It seemed as if her whole body was throbbing one way or another.
"Here you go, take two for pain and here is the rest. "
Elena looked at the four pills, morosely wondering if one was 'The Day After, Pill.'
She popped them in her mouth and quickly chased them down with water.
She looked about her room. Stefan was standing quietly in the corner, looking at her with pain and concern in his eyes.
"Do you all mind? I think I will rest for a while again, I am tired."
"Of course."
They filed out through to door and closed it after themselves.
Once they had left Elena reached under her bed for her diary.
She felt confused somehow, there were fragments of dreams chasing themselves around her head. She wanted to write it all down, to somehow make sense of what had happened.
She pulled the pen out of the spine where she had last left it. Opened the pages to a fresh page and looked down at it, she tapped her pen nervously, where to start? What to say? Did she even really want to put down this horrible incident? That would make it more real somehow. She was just not ready for it.
She sighed deeply.
Dear diary.
Something terrible has happened. Something so terrible I am not even going to detail it.
Bonnie is hurt, they say she is unconscious, but no one can find the reason for it. Her grandmother seems to think she will be fine, and I am inclined to believe her.
I was in the hospital for a day or so.
At first I was frightened when I woke up; I did not know where I was or how I had gotten there. Everything seemed to hurt. Even my brain hurts sometimes.
I reached the point today that I had to leave; I just could not stay there in that place any longer. I left early, aunt was displeased with me. And even though Stefan saw me and picked me up she still seems upset.
I am thinking that Stefan had been sitting there in the parking lot for a long time, just waiting to be of help. But he was too late.
I am home now, I still hurt all over. And I am afraid of the dreams I will find if fall asleep again. My last was horrible, but then ended with Stefan waking me out of it and holding me, at least I think it was Stefan, who else could it have been?
Then there was a fight in the end of my dream…
My mind keeps whirling, I feel as if I am about to explode.
What do I do?
I am getting tired and feel dizzy. It must be the pain medication. At least the pain is not quite as bad.
I do not want to be alone, but I fear contact with people even more. Why?
Elena put down her pen and sighed. Then her head grew heavy and it seemed to require a lot of effort to breath.
She slid down into her bed and pulled the covers over herself. She hoped she did not dream again.
She could tell that it was late when she woke up, the sunlight was gold and the shadows long. There was a discrete tapping at her door.
"Come in."
"Elena, are you hungry? I have some soup waiting."
Elena shook her head slightly, she still felt foggy and dull somehow. Then suddenly changed her mind.
"I will be right down."
She pulled her hair in a pony tail and slowly walked down the steps, gritting her teeth at every step. The discomfort was growing worse now…
It was a relief when she got to the bottom step and could shuffle into the kitchen slowly.
There was soup and oyster crackers at the table, why were they called that, they did not look like oysters, they looked more like stop signs.
Elena looked at the table and hesitated, then walked over to the cabinet and got a mug, pouring her soup into that, she had trouble aiming it right into the cup so some splashed onto her feet and down on the floor.
She swore softly to herself and grabbed a dish towel as she slowly bent down to mop it up.
"I'll just get that for you." The cloth was pulled from her hands and Damon was quickly mopping it up.
"What are you doing here?"
Elena's voice was flat.
"I am cleaning up your mess, what else does it look like? Though, I should be grateful that you have moved on to throwing soup on the floor instead of me. Just out of curiosity, what did the floor do to you? Did you trip walking in or something?"
Her aunt showed up in the door,
"Elena, look who is here to see you…what happened?"
Elena sighed, "I just spilled some soup is all. Nothing to worry about. Sorry about the mess."
No, it is fine, thank you so much for helping, Damon. Here Elena, sit down and have your meal."
Elena hesitated, then turned to Damon,
"I, I heard that I was awful to you last night, I am sorry for that, I really do not know why, it must have been the meds or something, I mean, I do not even really remember it…"
"Please, Elena!" Damon waved his hand at her dismissively, "I knew the whole time it was not you acting that way, I mean, we both know that the real you would never do anything like that." He raised an eyebrow and gave her a half smirk.
"Whatever,"
"Elena, here, sit down at the table and eat." Urged her aunt, not understanding the tension in the room, but feeling it none the less.
"No thanks, I would rather stand." Elena muttered, looking at her feet.
"But dear, the nurse said you were to rest as much as possible for a couple of days, they do not want you exerting yourself and pulling the stitches."
"I said I am fine!"
"Elena…"
How could she tell her? How did she say, 'sorry, it is nothing personal, but I would rather stand than be sitting on that wooden seat'?
It would be hard to explain it if Damon had not been standing right next to her rinsing out the rag in the sink. But as it was, it was impossible, and unnecessary, Elena realized with a burn of shame. He was looking at her out of the corner of his eye, and the look of rage mingled with frustration told her plainly the he had gotten what she could not say, even if her aunt did not.
This was too much to bear; she made a motion to put the cup down and was preparing to rush up to her room when Damon's arm, cool and firm, was around her waist.
"I think what Elena was trying to say was that we were going to go on the porch and wait for my brother to show up."
Elena's breathing stopped for half a second, and then her heart sped up to twice the normal speed. She flung Damon's arm away from her and almost ran to the door. The pain did not matter as now, only the desire to escape was important. She ignored the slight huff of air Damon let out as she pushed him away, nor did it register to her that she had spilled her soup down his front in her escape.
A few seconds later he followed her onto the porch. Naturally fastidious, he would have liked to gotten changed into new clothes. But here he was. And he might as well stay; it would irk Stefan to see him with her again. The night was beginning to creep over the sky, a frog croaked and somewhere in the bushes a cat rustled.
Elena was standing by the porch rail, silent. He moved to the porch swing and sat, listening to the chain squeak gratingly every move he made.
She stood there, unmoving till headlights swept over her as Stefan pulled into the drive. She took a step forward, then slowed to a shuffle again as she attempted to go down the steps.
Stupid girl, Damon thought, she was just hurting herself more. Then she was in his brother's arms and he was carrying her up the steps, chiding her for exerting herself.
Damon stood up to make his presence known, but Elena did not even notice, the world had ceased to exist when he picked her up.
"Did you rest well? " Stefan asked tenderly.
She nodded.
"Yes, quite well, but I am still a little tired I think. Which is weird because I just now got up…"
"You are over exerting yourself." he said protectively as he set her on her feet near the door.
"You should not even be out here!" He cast a glare towards Damon as he held open the door for her. A tiny crease of a smile played around his mouth as he noticed Damon's clothes were once again wet from soup.
Damon stared into the night, and then wheeled off the porch. After he was gone Mr. Custard slunk out from the bushes. He could not put his paw on it, but the thing that smelled of soup could not be trusted, he was sure of it!