A/N I know I sound like a broken record, but I have to say a huge 'Thank You' again for all your reviews and favourites and Story alerts. You guys make me smile so much! Can't tell you how much I appreciate knowing your thoughts on my writing. Hope you like chapter 11. More angst, I know. It will all be worth it in the end, promise! Please, please review if you can.

Chapter 11 – Called Out In the Dark

Katherine was pacing a worn track in the floor in front of the fireplace in the drawing room, a tumbler of Damon's top-shelf bourbon clutched tightly in her grip. She paused for a moment by the flames to down it and went over to pour another.

She felt helpless and this nearly foreign emotion was making her extremely pissed off. The angry click, click, click of her heels on the hardwood echoed throughout the cavernous room.

If Elena died, it would destroy Damon. Which would in turn destroy Stefan. Losing her would mess up Stefan too, but losing his brother…well, she didn't even want to think about it. That might not be something he would ever recover from. Not to mention that Elena was the last in the Petrova bloodline. Katherine had to admit that she, too, was atypically emotional about the human girl's situation.

She looked up as she heard Stefan come in. He walked into the room, sat down on the couch in front of the fire and threw his head back against the cushions. She met his tired gaze. "Well?"

"No change. It doesn't look too good right now. In other news, Damon hasn't fed for at least three days and is starting to lose it. It's almost like he's already given up hope."

Katherine joined him on the couch and looked at him worriedly. "He thinks she's dying?"

"Yes. But if I know my brother, he also blames himself for her injuries in the first place because it was his life she was trying to save. He doesn't think he deserves her even if she does pull through. I tried to talk sense into him. I tried. I don't think I got anywhere though." Stefan looked so dejected and frustrated. It was obvious he was anticipating losing both of them.

She didn't know what else she could do, so she simply tugged him to her and embraced him tightly. He didn't pull away this time - he actually clung to her. She didn't get the sense of satisfaction in this act that she'd expected she'd feel when he was finally back in her arms. All she wanted more than anything right now was a way to ease his pain and stop his tears.

Hospital Day 4

She's lying on her back with her eyes closed, listening to the gentle crash of the waves. She feels the warm sun beating down on her skin and a gentle breeze caressing her cheek like a lover's finger. She is incredibly content; she really could stay here forever. Maybe she will. She could just let go and stay.

She thinks she might be on a beach in the Bahamas, where her parents took the four of them for a family vacation five years ago. She had loved it there. Maybe, if she could just open up her eyes, she'd see her mom reading in the shade of an umbrella nearby. Or Jeremy playing frisbee with her dad in the shallow surf.

Concentrating harder, she suddenly realizes she can't hear any sounds of life around her. No children playing, no couples murmuring, no mothers calling their stray toddlers back from the water's edge. Not even the ever-present sound of gulls squawking and diving for discarded scraps in the sand.

She feels for his hand, which is always nearby, always there when she needs it, always there even if she doesn't. For the first time in what feels like forever, she can't find him.

She is alone. Really, truly alone now. Alone like she's never been alone before in her entire life. She opens her mouth wide and cries out.

Damon sat completely immobile on the edge of a rock cliff, about five or six feet from where the Mystic River tumbled off the precipice to become the Falls. His eyes were closed to the immense natural beauty surrounding him and two fingers of his right hand gripped the ring on the middle finger of his left. Not even his fingers moved to twist the metal.

He'd been sitting silently in this spot for a few hours now. He hadn't known what to do and his brain had simply shut off and let his legs take over.

Elena had flat-lined. This afternoon, right before his eyes, her heart had stopped. Damon had been dreading that moment for days and when it had finally arrived, he'd panicked. Before any medical staff could react to the loud, ear-piercing tone of the heart monitor and come to check on her, he had fled at vampire speed. With no destination in mind, with a forcibly empty mind actually, his feet had brought him here.

His phone had started buzzing some time after he's settled onto the cliff's edge. Without glancing at it, he'd turned it off. If he read the messages, it would be true. If he'd stayed at the hospital to face the doctor, it would be true. Even though he knew, it didn't have to be final yet. If he just remained here and shut the world out, he could maybe ignore it for a while longer. Maybe he could even ignore it forever. So he closed down his brain and refused to think; he simply existed. He was as still as the rock he was sitting on.

She opened her eyes and had no idea for at least a full minute where she was. When she finally cleared some of the haze from her mind enough, she realized she was in a hospital room hooked up to an array of monitors. She swiveled her eyes, glancing around, but the room was empty except for her. Where was he?

A minute or two later, Bonnie and Caroline entered into the small room with fresh flowers in their hands. Bonnie gasped out loud when she noticed that Elena's eyes were open. Both girls regarded her with wide, shocked smiles.

"Welcome back, hon!" Caroline gushed, as she slipped into Damon's deserted chair on her right and reached for Elena's hand.

Elena opened her mouth in an attempt to speak, but her throat was parched and all that came out was a low rasp. She flicked her eyes toward the water cup on the table. Bonnie got the hint and quickly placed the bent straw between her dry lips.

She shot her friend a thankful look as she took a small sip of the lukewarm liquid. Finding her voice, she whispered hoarsely, "Thanks…where's Damon?"

Bonnie looked surprised for a moment. "That's odd. He's been in here pretty much constantly. I'll go have a look for him." She got up and went out into the corridor.

Caroline leaned over so that her lips were close to her friend's ear. "Elena, before a nurse comes in here and sees you're awake – can I give you some blood to heal you further? You might even be able to get out of here tonight if I do."

Elena noted that she'd waited until Bonnie had left the room to offer. She gave Caroline a grateful nod and her vampire friend quickly dropped her fangs, tore a small hole in her wrist and pressed it against Elena's mouth.

By the time the nurse arrived with Bonnie hot on her heels, she was trying to sit up.

While Elena was being examined, the girls got busy outside the door to her room texting everyone about her improved condition. Before fifteen more minutes had passed, Alaric, Jeremy, Matt and Stefan had joined them in the main hallway of the small hospital. Damon was still nowhere to be found.

Stefan walked across the hospital parking lot to Katherine's convertible and jumped in beside her. She had decided to remain in the car while he went in to see Elena and the others, assuming her presence might not really be needed at this particular happy moment. She could tell by the expression on his face that not all was as well as she'd assumed it would be after he'd received the message about Elena's awakening.

"What's wrong, Stefan? Is she not OK?"

"She's fine, actually." He flashed a brief, relieved smile. " But there's one problem still. My pain-in-the-ass brother appears to have gone missing. For the first time since she was admitted, he's not in her room. He's not in the hospital at all and his phone seems to be turned off."

She gave him a confused look. "Why would he leave? Do you think he knows she's awake?"

"Elena says he wasn't there when she opened her eyes. So, no, it doesn't seem like it." He turned to look at her. "What I really want to do right now is find five minutes to say goodbye to her alone and then get the hell out of Mystic Falls for a decade or three. However, I can't get on with the rest of my life until I know that Damon is OK. I'm worried he may have fallen back into full self-destruct mode again because he's convinced himself she's better off without him. You understand I have to find him, right?"

"Of course," she replied. "I'd expect nothing else. I'll help you and then we can leave this hick town in the dust, OK? Paris, here we come! I need a new pair of Louboutins."

He wasn't smiling, so she relented. "So…any idea where he may have gone?"

Stefan sighed. "None whatsoever."

The doctor wasn't prepared to give Elena the all-clear to go home yet without running more tests and another overnight in the hospital, but Caroline had taken him aside for a minute and, like magic, he suddenly became more agreeable. Ah, the benefits of compulsion.

Elena shot her friend a grateful smile and stood up, fully dressed in the clean clothes Jeremy had been thoughtful enough to bring her from home. She was worried about Damon, though. They told her he hadn't left her bedside the whole time she was there, so what had made him disappear shortly before she woke up?

Her friends were taking her to the Grill for a late supper, as she was surprisingly ravenous for a recently recovered coma patient. After that she just wanted her own shower, her own pajamas and her own bed. She also wanted a certain blue-eyed vampire to share it with. Where the hell had he gone and why wouldn't he answer his phone? This didn't seem like him. Stefan had texted her a few minutes ago assuring her that he'd find his brother, so she tried to push the worry to the back of her mind and celebrate her health with the people that she loved. Most of them, anyway.

It was now full dark and a crescent moon had risen in the clear starry sky above the trees. Damon wasn't appreciating the beauty of it though. He still sat with his eyes closed in exactly the same position on the edge of the cliff. The roar of the cascading waterfall next to him filled his ears and he focused entirely on that sound to keep his mind blank.

He'd been doing this for hours. Vampires can become quite adept at being completely motionless for indefinite periods of time. Maybe it's because their hearts don't beat and they don't need to breath if they don't choose to. They don't need to swallow, they don't need to blink – all those things they simply do out of habit and to help them blend in. Damon didn't know about other vampire's motivations, but he had continued to do all these things because they helped him feel more human. Sometimes he missed being human even more than he missed his mother, and that was really saying something.

Damn it, he just realized he'd allowed himself to start thinking again. But it was too late now. These days thinking about his mom always brought him back to thinking about Elena. It was a shame she would never get to meet his mother. Not only did they each possess great beauty, but the two were also a lot alike in personality as well. They were both strong willed and stubborn and fiercely protective of those they loved.

And they were both lost to him forever.

Damon stood up suddenly. He moved back a step and, with as much force as he could muster he hurled himself off the edge of the high cliff wall.

A/N Sorry for the 2nd "cliffhanger"! (or lack of, considering! lol) Hope you can forgive me! We're in the final stretch now...