A/N - Hello all my lovely followers. So, I as wrong last week, now we have two more weeks to wait for the rest of season 6.
I have been pretty busy with school starting back up and rehearsals for my school musical, so I hardly had any times to write this chapter, but somehow I got it done in time for all of you. I hope you like it!
And don't forget to review. I'm really excited to see what you all think of this new chapter.
Elena took in a deep breath as if she hadn't been breathing for a while. She let it fill her lungs and took pleasure in the simple act of breathing. After a moment, she scanned her surroundings.
She was in a car, low to the road, so it wasn't any type of minivan. The road in front of her was two lane and straight, pretty empty. Out the window to her right were fields and fields of crops, flying by.
But the real kick, was the driver. "Morning sunshine." Damon said with a stupid smirk on his face while throwing her a glance.
Elena sat up. How had she gotten here? She could remember the dinner at the Forbes, Elijah threatening to kill Caroline's mom and him demanding Max. She remembered the dinner ending and heading out to her car. And then Damon had called her name and she turned around and . . . nothing. The next thing she remembered was waking up in this car.
"What did you do, Damon?" she said frantically, sitting up in her chair.
"I killed you." He answered nonchalantly.
She grinned her teeth. "You what?"
He glanced over at her again. "Killed you. Snapped your neck. But it's fine, I knew you would come back."
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but the anger kept burning inside her. "And why did you deem it necessary to kill me?"
He shrugged, not even taking his eyes off the road this time. "I didn't think you would want to come on your own accord."
This statement made her realize that she had no idea where she was. "Come where? Where are we going?"
"The Duke Campus." he replied.
"Why?"
"Research."
She rolled her eyes at his vague, quick answers. "What are we going to research?"
"Werewolves, vampires, the original family, doppelgangers, anything else we may need to know about in the future."
"Right. Of course." She said, crossing her arms. She glanced out the window for a moment, watching the tall stalks of corn fly by, before she came up with another question. "So why did you need me to come along?"
This made him pause. So she wasn't going to get a two syllable, vague answer this time. He turned to face her. "Because, you aren't the worst company in the world, Elena." She rolled her eyes, facing out her window again. It may not have been two syllables, but it was still vague.
Caroline looked around at the sea of students flowing through the hallway. How could they continue about their day as if nothing was wrong, as if her best friend and a friendly acquaintance were not missing?
Caroline and the others had searched all night. They had tried Elena and Damon's cells and even resorted to asking random strangers if they had seen their friends. They had had no luck. It seemed as if the two of them had dropped off the face of the Earth.
Students walked around her as she slowly made her way towards her locker. She was exhausted from the long night of searching and hated the fact that she had to go to school. She didn't want to be sitting in a classroom all day, she wanted to be doing something.
"Hey, Care." Matt said, startling Caroline out of her thoughts. "What's up?"
"Oh, hey Matt." She responded, deciding to ignore his question. She didn't feel like making up some lie about how she was fine and dandy. She reached into her locker, absentmindedly grabbing her textbooks for class.
Matt leaned against the lockers next to hers. "You've been avoiding me." It wasn't a question.
She shook her head. "No I haven't."
"Yes." He side, not letting her off easy. "You have."
She stopped fidgeting with her books and looked up at him. "Look Matt. You're right. It's just, I've been dealing with some stuff lately, and it's been a long night and I'm sort of really worried about something, so could we please not do this right now?"
"Why won't you tell me anything?" Matt asked, growing annoyed.
Caroline looked towards the ground. She hated having to shut Matt out and lying to him, but she would hate it even more if he were to find out what she really was and looked at her like a monster. "I do tell you stuff." She said, desperate to find a way out of the conversation.
"Not anything important." Matt replied. "You're right Care, you have been going through something. I've noticed because you hardly talk to me anymore. And when you do, you act differently, distracted. I want to be there for you while you go through whatever this is, but you just keep pushing me away."
Caroline didn't respond. She knew he was right. Her new life as a vampire had forced her to drive him away. "I know." She said. It was probably best that she give in. She didn't want to lose him for good. "Matt, you're right. I have been pushing you away. But I'll change now. I'll be better. I'll see you more. Please, give me another chance."
Matt narrowed his eyes and Caroline knew he was trying to decide whether or not to believe her. Finally he answered, "Okay. I'll give you another chance."
Stefan arrived home. He knew he shouldn't hope that his brother would be home, but he couldn't help it. He was worried about Damon. "Hello?" hey called into his house.
At first, there was no answer. After a moment, a female voice echoed through the house. "Hello Stefan."
He quickly stepped into the living room. "Elena?" He asked hopefully. If she was home, then Damon was probably home and they were both safe.
The girl stepped into the room. "Not Elena. Sorry to disappoint." Stefan sighed in frustration as his heart sank. "Although, I've heard my twin is missing?" she continued. "Is that true?"
"Yes. Do you know where they went?"
"No. My sister hates me, remember?" Katherine replied snarkily.
"Yeah, I remember. And Damon didn't tell you anything?" Stefan asked. He knew that perhaps he was showing his hand prematurely, but he had suspected that there was something going on between his brother and Katherine for a little while.
She smiled slightly and began walking towards him. "Now why would you ask that?"
"I was just wondering if you and my brother were . . ." Stefan searched for the right word, "friends."
She reached him and caressed his face. "Why would I chose your bother when you are so much better?"
Stefan didn't know what to say. He knew he should slap away her hand, but she looked so much like Elena . . .
No. He finally snapped himself out of it and stepped past her. "Why are you here?"
She turned around to face him, now annoyed. "I thought we were going to come up with a plan to defeat Klaus."
"Well, Elena and Damon are missing at the moment, so your plan for revenge is going to have to wait."
She sighed. "Ugh, Elena this, Elena that. Why does no one care about me?"
"Because," Stefan said, "You are selfish and manipulative. That doesn't win you very many friends."
"At least I survive." She snapped. Stefan didn't respond. Finally, she threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Fine." She plopped down on the couch. "I'll wait till you find your precious Elena before we make the plan."
"How long do you plan on keeping me here?" Elena asked as she sat down on the edge of the motel bed.
Damon rolled his eyes. "You're not a prisoner."
"You kidnapped me, took my cell phone so I couldn't call home, forced me to help you research anything and everything that could even remotely prove useful in our situation, and now we are stopping for the night at a motel? That sounds like a prisoner to me."
"Well," Damon began, jumping on the other bed and crossing his legs. "You're not a prisoner."
"Then what am I?" she asked, half teasing him, although she was upset he wouldn't let her call Stefan.
"You're . . ." Damon thought for a moment. "You're my research assistant."
Elena tried to hide her smile at his pathetic reply. Instead, she put on her best unimpressed face. "Your research assistant?"
"Yeah." She rolled her eyes and headed into the bathroom to get ready for bed. By the time she came back out, Damon seemed to be out cold. She headed over to her bed and pulled the covers up before reaching up to turn off the light.
"Elena?" Apparently he wasn't as asleep as she thought.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"Why don't you and Katherine get along?"
Elena sucked in a breath. It was a big question. However, as she thought about it, she was probably going to have to tell the story anyway. She rolled over to face him across the aisle between the beds. He watched her, curious.
"It was a few years after I was turned." She began. She told him the story of how she had meet a boy and they had fallen quickly in love. She told him about that night watching the sunset and the magical first kiss. Damon listened to every word, fascinated. She explained how Katherine had showed up with warnings about Klaus and how she had told her sister that she wanted to stay. "Katherine figured out that I wanted to stay because of him and so she . . ." Elena couldn't continue. She realized that tears had sprung to her eyes and as she blinked, one rolled down her cheek.
Immediately, Damon threw the covers off of himself and sat next to her in her bed, holding her head in his hands. He wiped the tears off her face and stroked her hair. It was clear from her tears how the story ended.
She hadn't known how much telling that story would affect her. It had been over 100 years, but as she had talked, all her old feelings of love and hatred came back to her. As she lay there crying, she realized that she had never told that story to anyone before, excluding Lexi, who had forcefully taken it from her. It was too personal. Too raw. Even after a century.
Damon never moved. He held her and comforted her as she cried. She never protested. She felt comfortable and safe in his arms. She breathed in his scent as she cuddled his chest. There was no place she would have rather been in that moment.
By the time her tears finally slowed, they had slid down into her bed. She looked up from her pillow into his eyes and saw nothing but affection. They laid there, staring at each other, both their heads on pillows for an indefinite amount of time.
"Elena." Damon whispered eventually.
"Yes Damon?" She whispered back.
There was another moment before he answered. "I love you."
All at once, Elena couldn't breathe. Those were three words she was never expecting to hear him say. Not to her. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Her head was reeling. She was in total shock.
"Say something." He said. His eyes darted back and forth between hers, no doubt trying to figure out her reaction.
She sat up and pulled her hair behind her ear. "Damon," she finally found her voice. "I'm with Stefan."
Damon seemed to deflate, but he nodded. "I know."
She quickly tried to comfort him. "I just, I can't do that to him. He's your brother."
"I know."
"Damon, I-"
He cut her off. "Do you know what he's been up to?"
Elena pulled back at his suddenly accusing tone. "What do you mean?"
Damon shook his head. "You know all those murders and missing persons? The ones that were probably another vampire, not just some 'wild animal'?"
Elena couldn't see where Damon was going with this. "Yeah. What do they have to do with Stefan?"
"I think he is the one doing it."
Elena wondered if she had heard Damon correctly. "What?"
"The other day, I ran out of bourbon, so I went down to the cellar to get some more and I smelled something funky down there, so I went to check it out and . . . our cellar is stuffed full of dead bodies. Rotting corpses. They've all got bit marks on their necks.
Elena stood up. Trying to put the pieces together. "You think Stefan has been feeding on people and then bringing them to your cellar?"
Damon shrugged, frustrated. "Look Elena. Don't know what to think. But something's wrong and I thought you should know."
Elena nodded, but she was only half paying attention. Was it possible that Stefan was really killing people like that? She didn't want to believe it, but the pieces seemed to fit.
