A/N You guys have overwhelmed me with your kind reviews! I can't say 'thank you' enough. Sorry for the cliffhanger last chapter. This one doesn't have one, so you're safe. For now! *evil laugh* Hope you like it. As usual, please let me know by clicking on that little Review link at the bottom. I'll try to respond to as many as I can.

Chapter 10 – Further Lost

Stefan came to a stop just past the edge of the clearing as, in shock, he saw Elena's body intercept the stake meant for Damon. It plunged into her upper right chest with a horrible soft, wet sound.

"Elena!" he shouted and began to run to her. Behind him he could hear Bonnie screaming.

Stefan halted in his tracks. First things first. They needed to deal with this big vampire, whom he assumed was Wheeler, right the fuck now.

"Bonnie! Migraine, please – now!" He heard her mutter a couple of words softly in Latin behind him. Hopefully the witchy aneurysms wouldn't affect himself and the other vampires in the clearing as well.

Wheeler groaned, clutched the top of his head and crumpled to his knees beside Damon and Elena.

Stefan leaned in close beside the incapacitated vampire's ear and whispered, "I know this doesn't mean anything to you, but I need to tell you that I'm sorry for what I did to your girl. If I could go back in time and change things, I would. But I can't. Now your revenge is a threat to the people I care about, so I have to finish this." He wasted no further time – he quickly plunged his fist through Wheeler's back and up under his ribcage to tear out his heart. It was all over in about two seconds.

He glanced over his shoulder to find Katherine right there beside him, but she was focused on Elena.

"Stefan, she's losing too much blood. She's dying. You want me to donate? Mine is the strongest," she offered.

He just nodded at her, in shock as to how everything had gone so fucking wrong, so fucking fast. Katherine knelt before the unconscious girl and carefully took hold of the protruding end of the stake that was pinning her against Damon. With one swift tug, she tore it straight out and tossed it aside. Stefan grimaced at the wet, sucking sound of it and the sight of all the blood starting to flow copiously from the wound. Katherine applied pressure with one hand and smoothly tore open the wrist of the other to put it to Elena's lips. From what Stefan could tell, it didn't seem like Elena drank, but Katherine pulled away after less than a minute and gave him a quick bob of her chin to assure him that she did, actually, get some blood in.

Stefan walked over and began to gather Elena up into his arms. He tried to steel himself against the strong allure of all that sweet blood – her blood – covering pretty much everything in view. He glanced at his brother, who also seemed to be drenched in Elena's blood, and realized that Damon was awake, through incredibly weakened. Which meant there was a good chance he had witnessed exactly what had happened. Stefan thought that would play out in one of two ways, depending on how he chose to interpret the situation. Knowing his brother, he probably wasn't going to react to any of this very well.

He paused on his knees with a still-bleeding Elena in his arms. "Damon, you OK?" he whispered.

Damon groaned, then struggled and failed to sit up. His hooded eyes never left Elena's slack face.

"Ric," Stefan called. "Need your help over here, buddy."

Alaric was soon kneeling in the dirt beside them, his now recovered crossbow in one hand.

"Can you take care of my brother - help him up and get him to the hospital? I'm going to run Elena over there right now."

"I'm on it. Go. We'll find you later. Take care of our girl there." Alaric tenderly touched the side of Elena's face with the back of his hand for a second. Over the past year and a half she had become like family to him, as well as a good friend. He didn't know what he'd do with himself if she died on him, too.

Stefan sped off with her at vamp speed, with Katherine and Caroline right on his heels. He certainly hoped that one of them would be back to dispose of the dead vampire's body later. Right now the remaining humans had more important things to deal with. It looked like it would just be he and Bonnie hauling Damon's ass back to the car.

He turned back to his friend on the ground, who seemed to be in shock. "If anyone can help her, it's them, Damon. She's in good hands. She'll be fine."

"My fault," he roughly choked out. "Always…my fault. Need to…stop…saving me..."

Alaric gave him a look of compassion and then shouldered him up for the long struggling walk back to Bonnie's car.

Caroline stroked Elena's hair on her lap in the backseat of Alaric's SUV and tried to focus on pretty much anything but the enticingly strong scent of all the freshly spilled blood. Her tears were blurring her vision - she was well aware there was a huge chance her friend might yet die.

Katherine swiveled around in the passenger seat to look back at her. "I don't know if this makes either of you feel any better or not, but if she does die, she will come back. I got a teaspoon or two of blood into her back there. It's not much but it will be enough."

Caroline swallowed thickly. "Thanks, Katherine. For trying to help." She knew Elena didn't want to be a vampire, but maybe, just maybe she would eventually agree that it was better than being dead. And she would help her friend out, of course, having just gone through her own transition little more than a year ago. Elena would choose to transition, wouldn't she? Not like Caroline's dad. A shudder passed through her at the horrible memory of his recent passing. She knew with confidence that she would be there for Elena, and support her no matter what.

Stefan was driving like a maniac and before long they pulled up at the E.R. entrance of Mystic Falls Hospital.

Hospital Day 1

Elena is dreaming. She's fully aware that she's dreaming but she has no inclination to try to wake up.

It's nice here. She feels no worry or danger or sadness. Just peace. There are pretty colours and soft music and light breezes over her face and she is confident that everything and everyone is OK. She feels the most content that she has felt since she was a little girl.

Sometimes she hears voices. Sometimes she recognizes the speaker and it excites her and makes her want to connect back, but she's always unable to. The voices never last very long.

She tries to concentrate. Right now she can hear her best girlfriends Bonnie and Caroline arguing about something. Something about her. And blood. She attempts to focus on the words but they are fading in and out and could be speaking Greek for all she can tell. Then they fade away.

Later she recognizes Ric's voice come swimming through the swirly, beautiful soup of her mind. He always speaks so calmly, even when he is sad. He sounds sad now. She wonders why.

Then he is speaking with Stefan, whose voice is so low and garbled it's like he's underwater. Or maybe she's the one that's underwater. It's hard to tell. Then they are gone.

It seems like she is alone now, but she knows that she is not. She's never alone. He is here, with her, always.

Hospital Day 2

Damon sat at her bedside in the tiny hospital room with her small, clammy hand clutched in both of his large ones. His body had completely healed, but hers had not. Katherine's blood had helped to some extent but Elena still hadn't woken up. Her poor, frail body was hooked up to dozens of tubes and sensory wires attached to monitors. There was a wide, padded bandage across her chest. Damon had been listening since he'd first arrived and her heart rate was always very slow, with the occasional short burst of rapid patter before subsiding again. The doctor had told them that her condition was a kind of a self-induced coma to deal with the trauma, and that she would come out of it when her body was ready for her to. Or she would pass away. No one knew for sure.

It was very late and her friends and family had finally gone home to get some sleep. Jeremy had arrived that morning from Denver and had spent a good portion of the day at the hospital, wandering in and out of this cramped room. He had many questions, none of which Damon had answers for. Eventually Alaric had convinced him to return home with him.

Damon had barely moved for the last 48 hours, except when the nurses had asked him to. He'd listened patiently to Stefan's explanation of what had happened. How he and Katherine had made a plan to lure Wheeler away from himself and Elena by them leaving town together. They had convinced Bonnie to perform a cloaking spell for Elena and, in theory at least, it all should have worked fine. Then Katherine had gotten word from one of her trackers – and why was he not surprised whatsoever that she employed trackers? – that Wheeler was back in Mystic Falls. They'd gathered Caroline and Ric and the group of them had hunted him down, supernaturals and humans with weapons, alike.

Unfortunately they'd found him about thirty seconds too late.

Damon still couldn't believe that Elena had put herself between him and a stake. And nearly died for her efforts. He shuddered as the reality screamed at him. Quite likely she could still die from it. Katherine's blood was no longer in her system and Caroline was itching to inject Elena was some of her own, as a back up plan. But he knew, no matter what she'd been trying to tell him before the accident, that she did not want to be a vampire. He just needed her to wake up - even if it was only for a moment so that he could say goodbye. As she was right now, he could speak to her as much as he pleased, but he doubted she could hear his words. Mostly he kept silent and still. The only parts of him that moved were his fingers stroking her hand.

If he'd thought there was a hope in hell that God would listen to him, he would have prayed.

It seems to be night, where she is. She does not feel cold. She doesn't feel any sense of temperature at all. Everything she sees is still beautiful, even in the semi-darkness. Deep blues and velvet purples and rich burgundies surround her. She can hear classical music in the distance. It sounds like an overture. It's haunting and lovely.

Suddenly he is there, a few feet in front of her. For a second she is elated at the sight of his flawless face. But then – oh! Her heart breaks. She has never seen him look so sad. She wants to go to him and comfort him, but for some reason she cannot.

She hears him speak softly to her.

"Elena, please come back. You've got to come back."

She tilts her head at him, uncomprehending. Come back where?

"I love you. I don't know what I'll do if you don't come back." His voice breaks and she sees tears start to trickle down his cheeks, just before his face crumples in despair.

Confused, she wants to reassure him that she hasn't gone anywhere. She reaches for him. But he has already disappeared.

Hospital Day 3

Stefan arrived for a visit in the early evening. He nearly bumped straight into Caroline as he was entering the main doors of the hospital. As soon as she saw him, she pulled him aside.

"I'm worried about Damon. He barely moves, he barely speaks - he just stares at her. It's a little creepy. I'm also pretty sure he hasn't fed since before we found them in the woods." She held Stefan's gaze, more apprehensive than usual.

She had a good point. If Damon was starving himself, intentionally or otherwise, it could end up being very dangerous to any nearby humans before much longer.

He sighed, "I'll speak with him, Caroline. Thanks for the head's up." He squeezed her shoulder in reassurance as she turned to leave.

With a freshly compelled blood bag in his hand, Stefan walked into Elena's room five minutes later. The two brothers locked eyes over her immobile body. He knew things weren't looking so good.

Tossing Damon the bag, Stefan said, "It seems you need a little pick-me-up."

He caught the bag in one hand and laid it on the floor beside him. "Later." His voice was rough.

"When was the last time you fed, Damon?"

His brother paused for a second, thinking. "I don't remember. Not that long."

"Really, brother? It's been at least three days, hasn't it?"

Damon seemed a bit surprised at this. "Yeah…maybe it has."

"Drink up. You're of no use to her if you're weak, blood-starved and ready to drain the next nurse that walks in."

His brother shot him a glare. "I will. Later."

Stefan dropped the subject and sat down with his elbows braced on his knees. "How's she doing?" he questioned softly.

Damon raised his eyes from her face to meet Stefan's and fiercely gritted out through clenched teeth, "She's fucking dying, that's how she's doing! And there's not a goddamned thing I can do about it." His voice cracked a little and he looked away.

Stefan visibly flinched. His brother was barely holding it together. "Did you or Care give her any blood today?"

"No. It's not what she wants, Stefan."

"Are you sure about that? It's better than dead."

"I can't make that choice for her. Not again. You more than anyone should know that." Damon sounded nearly broken.

They sat quietly with her for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

Eventually Stefan spoke softly. "We're leaving, Katherine and I, as soon as…" He waved one hand toward Elena's pallid face. He didn't need to finish his sentence.

Damon gave him a skeptical look, "You're leaving with Katherine? Really? You always were a sucker for punishment, weren't you?"

Stefan's face was stoic. "I love her," he murmured.

His brother scoffed, "Well goody for you. Too bad you didn't think of that a couple of years ago." He rolled his eyes. "I'm glad someone around here gets to ride off into the sunset. Until she grows bored of you, anyway. Good luck."

Stefan didn't take the bait. They quietly resumed listened to the regular beeping of the monitors, the soft gurgle of the fluids being pumped in and out of Elena and her very slow, steady heartbeat.

After a while, Stefan broke the silence again. "She loves you, you know."

"Who, Katherine?" Damon's voice dripped with bitterness.

Stefan rolled his eyes. "No, Elena."

Damon met his gaze again and shook his head once, emphatically. "She doesn't. She cares about me. Obviously, she's attracted to me. But she does not love me. She can't. You saw to that." He paused for a moment. "It doesn't matter. I'm the worst thing for her anyway. She'd be better off without me."

"Don't be a fool, Damon. She needs you as much as you need her."

His brother just shook his head and lowered it into his hands. "Isn't it time for you to go off and find Katherine, brother? I'll text you if there's any change."

"OK. I'll go. Promise me you won't go all self-destructive again and do something you'll regret, Damon? Drink the blood." Stefan left the room.

No one saw Damon's shoulders start to shake as low sobs overtook him.