A/N: Pumping this out before the new episode airs. Enjoy the latest chapter everyone, and most importantly embrace your imminent deaths as we watch 4x07 - I have already written my will.

Word: Letters
Set: Mid-season 2

Chapter Fourteen – Letters

Elena still wasn't used to being in Damon's room. She'd only been in there a couple of times - when she was looking after a dying Rose - and if anything that made her feel even more uncomfortable. It was Damon's territory, and while she was his friend again, she was very out of her element.

Really, she felt that she shouldn't be in there. She wasn't even doing anything productive. Stefan and Damon on the other hand had their noses buried in the Johnathan Gilbert journals, trying to figure out the location of the secret witch house. Elena had been helping, but got bored just as quickly. She'd already read a couple of the journals at her parents' lake house and didn't want to continue. Reading about her boyfriend murdering the author does that to a girl.

Elena sighed loudly, rolled over and rested her chin in both of her hands. "I'm bored."

"I'm Damon," he replied sarcastically.

Elena rolled her eyes. "That has to be the first time I've ever heard that, Damon."

"Why are you bored?" Stefan interrupted them.

"I don't really want to read journals all afternoon, as hard as it might be to believe," Elena explained, rolling off of Damon's bed and onto the floor. "I'm never getting up again though."

"So you're going to spend the rest of your life lying on the floor next to my bed?" Damon questioned, that sarcastic tone still in his voice. Not once did he look up from the journal in his arms.

"Basically. I could live under your bed, Damon." She proceeded to roll underneath it. "I have so many problems."

Damon dropped the journal and leaned over the side of the bed, looking under it. "Elena, get out from under there."

"Never. Hey, look at this!" Elena gently picked up a very old-looking box. It looked very precious, and Elena was at a loss as to what this was doing underneath Damon's bed.

"Damon? What is this doing here? You should have it somewhere special." Elena crawled out from under the bed and knelt next to Damon to show it to him.

Damon frowned. "It usually is somewhere special. Why is it...Katherine," Damon groaned. "She's probably just messing with me again. It's normally in my wardrobe."

"What is it?" Stefan asked, now too interested.

"It...it's just a box," Damon said, prying it carefully from Elena's grasp. "I'll put it away."

"No, you go back to your journals and I will put it away. But you have to tell us what it is," Elena took it back easily.

"It belonged to my mother. It's one of the few possessions I still have of hers," Damon explained quickly, watching the box intently.

"Oh," Elena mumbled, staring at the box with a new-found awe and respect. Elena knew very little about Damon and Stefan's mother - she'd never asked Damon about her and she knew that she had died a few days after Stefan's birth, so he obviously couldn't remember her. What little she did know was that Damon was very close to her, and that Stefan was close with his father. She'd asked why, but he didn't seem to know; only knowing that Damon was never the same after her death.

Elena held it more carefully now. "Where do you want me to put it?"

"In my wardrobe, somewhere safe." Damon said simply, his voice holding no emotion that would betray him. Elena nodded and quickly stood, walking over and into Damon's wardrobe.

Once she disappeared from view, Damon and Stefan both went back to reading the journals and deciding not to talk about the box. Elena on the other hand, was fascinated. As quietly as she could, she opened it, her curiousity getting the better of her. Inside were various bits of paper, a few odd trinkets that Elena assumed were very important to Damon and a few other things that Elena didn't want to touch.

"Elena? While you're in there can you grab the other journals and bring them out here?" Damon called out to her.

"Yep." Elena replied, immediately looking around for them. Once she spotted them, on their own shelf at the back of the wardrobe, Elena moved over to it and set the box down, carefully closing the lid. Picking up the last three journals, Elena walked back into the main room and over to the bed. Damon and Stefan each took a journal and Elena decided she may as well keep the last one.

Collapsing on the floor by Damon's fireplace, Elena set the journal in her lap. It looked exactly as the others did - old, worn and leather-bound. Just as she was opening it though, she noticed something on the floor by her feet. Frowning, she leaned over and picked it up. It was a couple of pieces of parchment.

Leaning back against the wall, Elena unrolled them and was immediately interested. The opening lines on both of them said "Dearest Damon".

Elena swallowed and looked up at the bed where Stefan and Damon were still reading. They hadn't noticed her with the letters, so she pulled her attention back to them. She knew she shouldn't read something like this, as it was basically a diary, but unfortunately she was too curious that day. The first one read:

Dearest Damon,

I saw the most beautiful horse today - a pleasant-looking black one, just like your Jack. Jack is far more handsome though, do not worry yourself. The horse reminded me of you though, so I found myself writing you a letter. How are you? How are things at home? Your father and I believe we shall be home within the next few days, but I do not know if this is true. Mr. Lockwood has kept him quite occupied as of late, and I fear he will try and keep him here.

I long to return to you, but I do not feel well enough to travel by horseback and the Lockwoods' two carriages are almost always in use. Mr. Gilbert tells me that he has found a way to heal me, which sounds like very good news to me.

I hope you are being a good boy and are keeping up with your studies while we are away. I know you are, but your father worries.

I will write to you very soon, my son. I love you.

Mary

Elena sighed quietly. She knew that Mary must have been away with her husband because she was ill, which saddened her. Maybe that was one of the reasons why she hadn't survived giving birth to Stefan? Because she was too sick to recover afterwards?

Curious to read the other one, Elena began reading straight away:

Dearest Damon,

I have good news, my dear. I found out today that I am to have another baby, which means you will soon have either a baby brother or sister! Oh, I am excited for you! Mr. Gilbert says that it would be best for me to stay at home and recover throughout my pregnancy, so we will be home in a couple of days. It won't be the same as it has always been though, because your father has ordered for a couple of doctors to accompany us.

It's nothing to worry yourself about though. I will still be able to garden and cook, and if you want I will be able to teach you how to play the piano. I know you've always wanted to, and you might as well start learning right away.

Your father says to tell you that you need to tell the servants to put up new curtains in our room. I know not why, but I assume it is to help my recovery. If you can, see if they can get any green velvet curtains. I do adore that shade.

I will see you very soon, and I love you.

Mary

Elena tucked the letters into the journal carefully. Damon must treasure these letters - it sounded to Elena like they were the last written things to him from her. Poor Damon, she thought as she looked up at him, sighing again. Mary sounded like the nicest person in the world, and Elena was sad to even think about her. She wished that she could see a picture of her - to put a face to the kind words.

A/N: I'm sorry if you are really into history and get annoyed with the letters D: I don't know how to write like they did, and I don't exactly know the schedules of fairly upper-class families back then. That being said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did please leave a review :)

Get ready to die in a few hours (lol that sounds ominous). LET THE GAMES BEGIN! /Bane. Hehehehe