Take a chance on me

Disclaimer: The characters and other things from The Vampire Diaries don't belong to me. Credit goes to the rightful owners.

Chapter 11: Hours, minutes and seconds

16 hours left

"I haven't forgotten what he's done Elena," Bonnie said, holding Elena's hand as she sat by the bed, "but I can't help but believe he really loves you."

They had moved Elena and Katherine into one of the bedrooms of the Salvatore boarding house. They lay asleep, peaceful and no traces of the chaos that led to their comatose state. Bonnie gripped Elena's hand tighter, and tried for the hundredth time to will Elena awake only to find no magic is strong enough for such a feat. Silent tears fell down Bonnie's cheeks as she spoke to Elena once more.

"I don't know if you somehow heard it, or something, but Damon...he protected Jeremy, even if it meant risking your life. For once, I saw him put what someone else wanted before his own selfishness. You bring it out in all of us, Elena. Whether or not we want to hear it, you're the voice of reason that pulls us back from crossing lines we should run away from." Bonnie murmured softly to the peaceful Elena.

"You have to wake up, otherwise who's going to stop me from killing Damon?" Bonnie said with a tearful smile, "I'm close to darkness, Elena, and I can't shake it. You've seen it...how I can lose control. I need you to keep me sane and remind me I'm not that kind of person. I need you. We need you."

12 hours left

Caroline crept slowly into the room, shutting the door softly behind her before pulling a chair in between the beds, facing the wall instead of the two women who lay still as death.

"Oh wow, she's still scary even when she's asleep," Caroline whispered, taking a deep calming breath before continuing, "Here goes. Katherine? I don't know if you can hear me...I hope you can. I don't have anything to threaten you with to add weight to my request but I'm asking anyway. You killed me, so I think you owe me this. If Elena isn't waking up because you're holding her hostage or something, then please let her go."

Caroline smiled and turned to look at Elena, "There aren't many people in this world who will keep putting up with neurotic and insecure best friends, and a vampire one at that. Katherine, she saved my life and kept Damon from staking me. So now I'm begging for her life. Please, if you really meant what you said about her being your good, kind, human side then you know the world needs someone like her. Please, let her go."

She paused, waiting if it would work but they remained unmoving. Caroline sighed and moved closer to Elena, clutching her hand, feeling her pulse.

"Well, you're still here, Elena, and I feel your blood flowing...not that I want to drink or anything. I wouldn't...you know that right?" Caroline said, "Look, Elena, you need to wake up. Please?"

Caroline smiled and continued, "You know you've got two hot boys waiting for you—that's got to be a good reason to open those eyes of yours right? But I have to warn you, from personal experience and all, Damon's a jackass. But Stefan, he's really, really nice. I bet the bunnies and squirrels even volunteer to give him blood since I'm guessing he asks nicely before he...you know...drinks. Damon, on the other hand, uses and abuses anyone as if there's no tomorrow."

She sighed resignedly, "BUT I'd have to be blind not to see he's trying so hard to change. I'm not saying the jackass is completely gone but he's fighting it...for you. You have to admit, it's pretty sweet. Romantic even. It helps me believe, not soon but that someday, I'll be able to be a better, uh, vampire... for Matt."

"See, Elena, you're not going to want to miss Damon winning Most Improved Vampire of the Year," Caroline pleaded, "Or me getting back together with Matt minus the drama queen moments. With psycho Greg dead and since Katherine will inevitably book herself a one-way ticket out of town, we can be normal teenagers again...well, for the most part. Please, Elena, we've got a whole future to look forward to. You can't miss it."

10 hours left

"Is this how it felt when you were waiting for me to wake up?" Jeremy asked quietly from Elena's bedside, "It sucks."

"I hated you for the secrets you kept and for thinking that you were protecting me by not telling me the truth. Sometimes I still do, you know? Because you're always still trying to decide for me, thinking you're keeping me from danger that way when you can just let me help you. I'm younger Elena, but I'm not a kid anymore."

Jeremy closed his eyes and pulled Elena's hand to his forehead, speaking as he did so, "I'm not Uncle John, but keeping me in the dark won't help me from eventually become like him—an ignorant fool who hates things he doesn't understand. He doesn't get that all this stuff about vampires and magic isn't black and white. There's so much grey that it's hard to tell between good and evil...but it's not impossible. And nothing is absolute. They're like me—they fall, they get up and they move on. They ask for forgiveness. Sound familiar, Elena?"

He let go of her hand and leaned back in his chair, "I'm sorry, for making it difficult for you since Mom and Dad died. I'm sorry I didn't try harder to be better but I'm getting there. I'm learning. But I still need my sister. You have to wake up...please."

Jeremy stood up, opened the door then looked back at his sister's sleeping form, "Don't be afraid to forgive him, Elena. I know you already said you did, even admitted you loved him but I know you. There's still a part of you that sees things in black and white like everyone else in this town, the council. Wake up, please, and take the risk to see the world for what it is...maybe then you'll truly understand why you want to forgive Damon completely even when it doesn't make sense. And just maybe, you'll understand me too."

8 hours left

"I'm letting you go." Stefan said quietly to Elena, his back turned to Katherine, "so you can wake up and not be afraid of hurting me when you find comfort in his arms and not mine. I'm letting you go, even if it hurts, because I still love you."

"It doesn't matter what Katherine said. I don't believe what we felt for each other was just a remnant or a shadow of what we had years before. I know the truth, Elena. We were real. I can feel the truth in that." Stefan whispered with his eyes unfocused and empty, "I didn't spend time with you because you reminded me of Katherine but because you reminded me of what it was to want to wake up every morning and see the future as something more than an endless abyss. You reminded me what it was like to be human but Damon was right though, you're the closest I'll ever get to it. Being with you allowed me to feel again, to love again."

"And I'm setting you free because of that." Stefan said heavily before continuing, "Damon...he doesn't know how to love, at least not the normal kind. You should know that by now. He has a twisted sense of reality and of love that you're going to have to work to keep him from getting too lost. Even if I don't believe he's the man you need, he's the only one I'd ever trust with your safety. Not because he's strong but because at the end of the day, I do believe he loves you."

Stefan smiled sadly, "Do you still remember the night we opened the tomb? We didn't find Katherine then but I think we opened the path to history repeating itself, only this time someone will get a happy ending. I still remember how you called out Damon and got him to come out of the tomb, then how you wrapped your arms around him outside. It wasn't pity. I know that now even if I didn't see it then. You wanted to take away his pain, share it just so he wouldn't have to be so broken. You always tried to fix him or get him out of getting killed, how many times I don't think I'll ever really know but I know that if you wake up now, you'll really save his life."

"Your life isn't the only one on the line here, Elena," Stefan said, "If we lose you, then the Damon who fought to be a better man will be lost forever. He won't come back from this. So, if not for me, please, wake up for him."

Stefan stood up and placed a kiss on her forehead, "I'm sorry, Elena, because I didn't love you as I should have. I spent so much time convincing myself you're not Katherine that I almost missed to know you, Elena, and now I'm too late. Be good to Damon, when you wake up. He's much more fragile than he seems, sometimes more than you."

5 hours left

"I have two guesses why you're still not up," Damon said leaning back into his chair, arms crossed in front of him, "One, you're waiting until the last possible second so that between now and then I get so worried I promise you everything—sun, moon, stars and everything in between. Or two, you're really lost in there and I'll check-in permanently at the heartbreak hotel."

He swallowed the lump in his throat, "Elena, we can't end like this because our story so far only has the tears, fears and bloodshed. We need some fluff written into it and that won't happen if you're in a coma. It takes two for a happy ending, Elena...don't leave me hanging."

"Katherine," Damon said loudly, "I know you're eavesdropping anyway, so listen up. You're an evil, selfish and manipulative bitch. I hate you. But as much as I hate to admit it, you didn't completely ruin my life because you made it possible for me to live to this day and figure out I do have a heart, though it doesn't beat. Give me back my girl, Katherine, and I swear I'll forgive and forget."

Turning back to the woman in front of him, Damon ran a finger down her face, much like he did before he even learned he could love her, "Elena, I promised you I'll get you back, even if you insisted that you won't be able to. I need you to be wrong, Elena. If you really love me, let me be right. Then for the rest of our lives, I'll be the one eating all my words, okay?"

Damon closed his eyes as he took her hand and placed it over his heart, remembering the last time he felt so desperate and she called him out of the darkness of the tomb with just two words.

"Elena, please."

2 hours left

"You think pouring a glass of ice water on their heads will do the trick?" Damon asked his brother who sat on the opposite end of the room by Katherine's bedside.

"Damon, they didn't stay up all night partying or something and are just sleeping in. It's the spell that's doing this." Stefan pointed out.

"Magic ice water then?" Damon tried again, sighing has Stefan gave him a pointed look.

"This is driving me crazy," Damon said aloud, standing up to pace, much to Stefan's amusement.

"What?" Damon spat out, glaring at Stefan.

"Nothing," Stefan said innocently, palms up as he smiled, "You do realize that's supposed to be me right? That role you're playing? The worried boyfriend? And you're supposed to be the calm one, waiting another hundred years for Katherine to come around?"

Damon narrowed his eyes at his brother and sat down but his right leg still bouncing with impatience, "Your point?"

"It's not going to be easy, Damon. This is just the tip of the iceberg. You're going to have to learn to live with the fear of losing her every second of each day."

"I know. Loving someone tends to alert one to that possibility, even if one is not the boyfriend. I'm not an idiot, Stefan. But now that you've pointed it out, why are you a vision of serenity?"

Stefan chuckled softly, "One of us has to keep it together and my diet makes it easier for me to be the one, so..."

Damon raised an eyebrow at his brother, "Wrong answer."

"She's going to wake up, Damon. Both of them will. Katherine will, well, because she's proven herself impossible to get rid of. And as for Elena...she drank your blood didn't she? She's coming back, one way or the other." Stefan said, "Don't look so shocked, Damon. Of course I know about that. You two weren't exactly whispering when you discussed it. She chose you. I know."

"Elena chose me not my lifestyle. She deserves a chance to choose this life without the added pressure of a madman wanting to kill her. If she wants to be cursed with fangs and insatiable bloodlust, then fine but not like this, not now. And Stefan, I'm not shocked that you know. I'm just stunned by the fact that you're not fighting for her, challenging me to a duel to the death or something. Or are you just that happy to find out that I don't have a hollow chest?"

"I love her enough to not make this difficult for her."

"Just like that?" Damon asked incredulously, watching Stefan nod matter-of-factly, "Have you forgotten your entire speech about history won't be repeating itself as far as Elena is concerned?"

"Yes. Will it help convince you if I tell you I'm doing it not just because I want to respect her choice but also because somewhere in the middle of this I realized just how thin the line is between love and hate?" Stefan said staring at Katherine, his gaze softening as he watched her sleep.

Damon was silent for a minute, observing his brother, before clearing his throat to speak, "You never looked at Elena like that—like there's a secret that only the two of you know. Angry, upset or happy, I just realized you always looked at Katherine like she held all the answers."

"What did you see when I looked at Elena?" Stefan asked lifting his head to meet Damon's eyes.

"Longing—even if she were right in front of you, it was almost like you saw her as something out of reach. I assumed it was because of her humanity but apparently it's something else." Damon paused, debating whether to continue.

"Look, Stefan, Katherine never compelled me. I was stupid enough to fall for her all on my own. But you," he said shaking his head, "she messed you up that you can't even tell fact from fiction anymore. Let's simplify, shall we? Any form of compulsion washes away when you turn? Correct? Precisely why sweet little Caroline decided to see how far she could throw me the night she got out of the hospital—because she remembered every despicable thing I did to her and made her do. So, if Katherine really compelled your love, then wouldn't you have been free of her a long, long time ago? If it really was just a mind trick, then why do you look at her now like you remember her kiss? Believe me, Stefan, if you don't care and if you hate her like you say you do, then why the hell are you on her side of the room?"

"This was the only empty chair when I got in." Stefan responded.

"It's not nailed to the floor, Stefan. You can move it or better yet you can just stand. You are also free to leave the room. No one asked you to watch over her." Damon said

"Someone should." Stefan said closing off completely and ending the conversation.

The brothers watched in silence, listening to the ticking of the faraway clock as they waited for a miracle that one of them was slowly losing faith in.

5 minutes left

"Wake up, Elena." Katherine said staring at her double.

"Later. I'm still waiting." Elena said simply.

"So is everyone else. You heard them. Hell, I heard them, talkative bunch. Stop torturing people who care about you. Wake up." Katherine insisted.

"It's only a few more minutes, they can wait." Elena said, her tone unchanged, "How about you? What's stopping you?"

"You. I'm not waking up until you do. I'm going to make sure you don't suddenly decide you want to stay here forever." Katherine said

"Why?" Elena asked, tilting her head.

Katherine smirked and raised one eyebrow at Elena, "It's the least I could do for breaking his heart—give back his girl. Call it an apology if you will, for the last century and a half I allowed him to hope for nothing."

Katherine sighed heavily, "Just wake up, Elena. There's no hurry to turn into a vampire now."

Elena looked surprised, "How did you know?"

Katherine rolled her eyes, "Elena, what other reason would you have to be here and just listen to them when you're perfectly able to wake up at will, if you aren't counting down the expiration of the spell and you'll wake up undead? Seriously? You do realize there's no rush? You can wait a few years, age and we'll finally see how I'll look if I ever got the chance to get older."

"And look older than Damon for all of eternity? Thanks but no thanks." Elena pointed out.

"Fair enough," Katherine conceded with a smirk.

"I have to do this now, Katherine," Elena whispered, "before I lose the courage to not walk away because loving him scares me."

Katherine gave her a tight smile, "Because you're putting everything on the line and you've got everything to lose."

"Exactly." Elena said in agreement.

Katherine blew out a deep breath, "Trust your love. Being one of us is a curse not a solution. If you love him, then just go with that and nothing more. Figure the rest out later but for now, it's going to be enough to keep you from running from what's real. Hurry, you only have seconds left. Wake up, Elena. He's waiting for you."

5

"What makes you so sure?" Elena asked.

4

"I'm not. But you don't have to be sure to know it's worth the risk." Katherine replied

3

"I'm scared. You?" Elena said, an echo of the conversation before the spell was cast.

2

"Terrified," Katherine replied

1

Damon and Stefan turned at the same time when they heard the sharp intake of air behind them, punctuated by a loud gasp and eyes flying wide open.

Elena stared back at them, hand over her heart and mouth hanging in shock as tears fell from her eyes.

And then after the longest most agonizing second of the day, they all heard it.

Beat. Thump. Thud.

Elena's heart was unmistakably beating.

A/N: One to go! Thanks to all of you who have been following this story and I hope you stay with it to the end. Thanks for all the reviews...as always, I love hearing from you