A/N: You guys are all so lovely, I am feeling quite a lot better now thank you. I have taken some liberties with the transition/vampirism traits in this story so I just wanted to point out that everything that's 'wrong' in this chapter is all intentional.
So Much For My Happy Ending
My entire personality is killing me – Caroline Forbes
"Caroline" Elena gasps out from behind me. Poor girl just wanted to take a damn bath and now her best friend is a vampire. This is fucking crazy.
"Elena, why can't I get in the house?" Caroline asks in a scared voice as she attacks the invisible blockade ineffectually.
"Caroline, co-"
"Wait goddamit Elena" I shout at her before she can finish her sentence. I turn to face her "I'm sorry just, give me a minute to think okay?" she nods back at me mutely and I turn back to face Blondie.
"Caroline, what exactly happened?" in minute detail please.
"Well uh" Caroline starts and stops a couple of times and then finally gets on with it "Elena put me in the taxi last night and I went home but then she came to my house. Or at least I thought it was Elena so I invited you, her inside and then...ohmygodohmygodohmygod I'm dead! Damon she killed me"
Caroline starts laughing her head off, bending over at the waist and clutching her stomach in peals of laughter. Fuckin' newbie vamps.
"Oh god that's the most" laughter "ridiculous thing that has ever" laughter "come out of my mouth" laughter "I can't be dead" she looks up and the laughter turns to confusion and dry sobs "I'm standing right here. I'm talking to you. I can't be dead. I'm not dead" she looks up at me with a desperate plea in her eyes "right?"
I take a deep breath, close my eyes, count to ten; "yeah 'bout that"
"Damon we have to help her" Elena speaks up from behind me.
"Just a second Elena, Caroline what did Katherine say to you before she...what did she say?" I ask because I can't let her in until I know whether she's in transition or whether she's fully vamped.
"She told me to wait until the sun set and then come directly to you, her eyes went kind of funny like when she told me what to do" well that's something for the plus column I suppose.
"Okay Elena, do the honours" I say with a roll of my eyes.
"Caroline please come inside"
Who knew that vampires could get migraines? I head directly for my drinks cabinet and pull out one of my most expensive bottles of bourbon before proceeding to pour a glass for everyone, even Little Gilbert; I think we could all use a fucking drink right now.
Caroline takes a seat beside Jeremy and then turns to look at him like he's the biggest, tastiest burger she's ever laid eyes on in her life "yeah, Jer you might wanna move kid" I tell him and he jumps up off of the couch and comes over to sit beside me and Elena.
"What's wrong with me? What's happening to me Elena? I'm so hungry" Caroline asks looking at us desperately for answers.
I rub my forehead with my fingers and get ready to say the words 'I'm a vampire' for the second time today but Elena beats me to the punch.
"Caroline Damon is a vampire" Caroline flinches back in her seat and Elena stands up and goes to kneel down in front of her friend. I'm not entirely comfortable with that but it's her best friend and I can have her out of the way in less than a second if Blondie decides to snack on her.
"It's okay; I promise he won't hurt you. Katherine, she's a vampire too, she turned Damon and Stefan a long time ago and well, um..." Elena turns to look at me for help in explaining the next part.
"Yeah Katherine got really fucking busy last night didn't she? Way to come back to town with a bang" I say dryly "Caroline listen, Katherine killed you. You're in transition so you have a choice to make. You either complete the transition and become a vampire or you don't"
Jeremy punches me in the arm "way to give the girl a heart attack man" and I raise my hands in a 'what can I do' gesture.
"She's already dead kid, and to top it off she's quick running out of time to decide what to do" Elena turns and glares at me but again, what the hell can I do? If she completes the transition then I'll help her, teach her how to control herself and whatnot though god knows I do not have time for this shit right now but other than that I can only provide the brutal facts and the facts are that she's dead and about to flick the vamp switch on life or she's not.
"What happens if I don't complete the transition? How do you transition?" Caroline asks getting somewhat hysterical again and Elena reaches up and takes her friends' hand.
"You have to complete the transition Care if you don't then you'll die and you can't die Caroline I won't let you. Damon will help you. I will help you I promise but you have to Caroline please" Elena begs her friend to complete the transition and I prepare myself for another house guest. Possibly cellar guest, depending on how she takes to vampirism, should be a fun ride.
Blondie nods at Elena with tears in her eyes "I don't wanna die Elena please help me" she says and Elena smiles up at her friend and reaches out to hug her but I pull her back instantly "yeah let's not tempt her with your blood sweetheart" I say with a small smile.
"Little Gilbert run down to the basement and grab a blood bag would ya?" I get Jeremy to help me because the kids a bit like me, needs to have a fucking purpose in life. You know I came back to this town with one purpose, that I wasn't even all that confident in and now, a few months later I've landed myself about a hundred bloody purposes.
I meant every word I said to Elena though; I wouldn't change it for the world. This is my life now and yeah it'd be nice if it were a bit more fucking peaceful but it is what it is and if I get to be with Elena then I'll take an eternity of problems and it'll be fucking worth it.
Jeremy comes running back with the blood bag and I pour it into a glass for Blondie, nothing wrong with being a civilised vampire.
"Here" I pass her the glass but keep my hand on it to stop her from drinking it just yet "drink it slowly. I know it's hard it'll be the hardest thing you'll ever do in your life because there is nothing that your body craves more than what's in this glass but if you're going to handle this then you have to start right. So please, for me, and my sanity, sip it"
I give her instructions and let go of the glass and to her credit and my absolute relief she downs half of it in one go and then starts to sip. Poor girl looks utterly terrified and it's only gonna get worse. She starts to shriek her head off when the fangs pierce through her gums and then she drops the glass in her hand sending blood splattering all over Elena which is just, great.
"Elena, go upstairs and take your bath sweetheart, I'll look after Caroline don't worry" I tell her and take a seat beside Blondie who is now screaming in pain with big fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Elena takes off upstairs and Jeremy looks completely lost "Jer go get some more blood for Caroline, bring two bags up please and then get some fucking rest. It's a brand new day tomorrow" and then I turn to Caroline and push the hair back off of her forehead.
"Hey, hey I know it hurts but you're okay. You're gonna be fine I promise. Look at me; I am going to help you. It only hurts the first time and it'll be over soon. Just concentrate on me, look at me, breathe it out" I sit and work Caroline through her pain and when it subsides I give her a new glass of blood and take one for myself and we practice control for an hour or so until eventually she drains it all and I take her down to the cellar.
"It's not exactly the Ritz but I need to sleep, desperately and I can't let you stay up there with Jer and Elena in the house when you're only two hours old so you're gonna have to stay down here, at least for tonight. I'm really sorry that this happened to you Blondie, I'll come down and get you first thing in the morning and we'll work on the control and practice being around living folks so you can get out of here okay?" I let her into the cellar, at least there's a camp bed for her to sleep on, blankets and stuff but I still feel like a dick when I pull the lock shut.
"Damon?" she calls me back when I've closed the door "yep"
"Thank you for...everything" she says quietly.
"No problem Blondie" I reply with a sigh and head back upstairs to have another glass of bourbon before heading up to the bedroom. Figure Elena's probably sleeping by now and for a change I am deathly tired. This day has gone on for way too long and way too much has happened. If I can just get one decent night's sleep then hopefully whatever tomorrow brings will be easier.
To my surprise I find Elena sitting up in bed writing in her new journal when I walk into the bedroom. This morning, I gave her that this morning. I cannot begin to tell you how long ago that feels. "Hey" she says softly with a smile when she looks up at me "hey back" I peel off my clothes quickly and hop into beside her and she puts the journal down on the bedside table before scooting closer to me.
"How is she?" she asks and starts running her fingers through my hair, I lean my head back against her hand "she's surprisingly well controlled for a baby-vamp. I had to lock her in the cellar though, I can't trust that she won't flip out during the night and I need to sleep Elena" she leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead "hey I know, you've been amazing today, you've been amazing every day, thank you Damon" she says and drops another kiss to my head before resuming her work in my hair.
"How are you even still awake?" I groan and then moan softly when Elena's fingers tug gently and her nails run along my scalp; feels so fucking good. "I was waiting for you" she replies quietly.
I open my eyes to look at her because I know it's been a hell of a bad day for her too "you gonna be okay?" I ask her "mmm, yeah I'll be fine. I just didn't want to go to sleep until I knew you were okay" she says and I lean over and give her a sleepy kiss.
"I'm fine and I think Blondie's gonna be fine too so don't worry too much about her. Let's get some rest baby" Elena reaches over and switches off the bedside light and then curls herself around me and blissful sleep finds me in seconds.
I wake up around eight in the morning and I feel incredibly well rested, it just goes to show what a night of sleep wrapped around Elena can do for a man. Speaking of Elena, she is not in our bed; she's nowhere to be seen in fact.
I listen to the sounds of the house for a minute and figure out that she's downstairs outside the cellar door talking to Blondie so I lie back down and give myself five more minutes of rest before getting up to face whatever today plans to throw at us.
Elena wanders into the room a little while later, apparently I fell back asleep again because it's now almost nine and I feel like shit for leaving Caroline down there without any blood or anything. Elena climbs up on to the bed and hands me a mug "good morning" she says sweetly and plants a little kiss on me. Girl brought me breakfast in a cup, blood and coffee just the way I like it. I'm pretty convinced she's a saint. "Thank you" I reply before taking a drink.
"I gave Care some too, I hope that's okay but I felt really bad for her and I wanted to let you sleep so I just poured some into the coffee and she promised to sip it" Elena bites her bottom lip anxiously as she tells me that she helped her friend and it's all kindsa cute. I reach out and pull her lip away from her teeth and run my thumb along it softly "that's good I was just feeling like shit for leaving her down there without any anyway" I tell her and she gives me a big smile.
"Let me drink this and then we'll go get on with everything" I say with a grin "can I let Care out now?" she asks me and jumps off of the bed excitedly.
"Yeah go on then just mind your neck" I tease her, I'm sure Blondie won't hurt Elena and I'd be there in less than a second regardless. Elena bounds off to free her friend and I drink my breakfast in a hurry before taking a quick shower and getting dressed.
When I get downstairs the two Gilberts and Blondie are in the kitchen. Caroline is still drinking from the same mug that Elena gave her an hour or so ago and she raises it towards me in self-congratulations "good, very good Blondie, keep it up". Elena is burning toast and Little Gilbert appears to be attempting to electrocute himself with the plug of the coffee machine.
"Seriously, did your parents teach you nothing?" fuck me. Why the holy hell would I say that? I cover my face with my hand and raise my eyebrows at myself as Jeremy and Elena turn to face me, me and my big damn mouth.
"I am so fucking sorry. I didn't...I wasn't thinking" I say looking back and forth between them.
Jeremy suddenly snorts and Elena starts giggling and then Blondie joins in the laughter as well and within minutes all three of them are laughing their asses off. I am just standing in the middle of the kitchen madly confused. Eventually Elena calms down enough to speak.
"Damon honestly it's fine, people say that sort of thing all the time. God if we took offence every time someone mentioned parents then we'd never leave the house, it's fine, don't worry" she says with a smile.
"Yeah man it's totally cool, besides you're kinda right, our parents didn't really teach us much" Jeremy and Elena share a look that sets off another round of laughter and I'm just grateful not to be in the dog-house. I guess if you don't laugh then you'll cry and laughter is definitely the better medicine in life. Decreases frown-lines and everything, someone should probably tell my brother.
"Okay then well how about before you guys destroy the kitchen you let me take over. I'll cook breakfast" I take the plug from Jeremy and turn the coffee machine back on "why'd you take it out in the first place? Elena already made coffee, see she can do something useful" I say nudging Jeremy in the side with my elbow "I didn't mean to take it out. It was an...accident" sure it was, I believe ya' Little Gilbert.
I turn and direct Elena to a seat and proceed to make stacks of pancakes and bacon and eggs for everyone and someone manage to get through breakfast without saying anything else monumentally idiotic.
When we finish eating I tell Elena to get Sabrina over here and while we're waiting I work with Caroline on her control but honestly I don't think it's gonna be a hard life for the girl. She's taken to vampirism like a duck to water and I am madly grateful that something is proving easy around here.
I know she'll probably kill someone in the long run, there's not a vampire out there who hasn't killed someone and we still have a long way to go. It's all well and good being able to control yourself when you're drinking from a blood-bag but it's a whole different ball game when you're feeding live regardless I think she's gonna be just fine.
When Bonnie arrives we fill her in on all the latest developments and thankfully she takes the news about Blondie with good grace, she's just happy that her friend is still alive, ish.
"Can you spell her a daylight ring?" I ask Bonnie when we've finished updating her on everything. "Yeah I guess I could do that, I just need to find the spell and get a ring" she says with a smile at Caroline "I'll find the spell when I get home Care and then come by tomorrow to drop off the ring"
Bonnie turns to look at Elena and me and gives us both a big smile "Grams thinks she might have found something about the dream spell, she's looking into it so hopefully I'll have some news for you on that front in a couple of days" she tells us and finally, some progress!
"Bonnie Bennett I could just hug you right now" I say and then stand up "come on Jer let's go play some x-box and leave the girls to talk about us behind our backs. Don't worry, I'll keep an ear out and let you know if I hear anything about you" I flash Bonnie and Caroline a grin and give my girl a quick kiss then make my way to the den followed by an eager Little Gilbert. I think we all deserve a day of rest every once in a while.
The next day Bonnie comes round and drops of Caroline's daylight ring and the five of us head to the cemetery to hold a small and brief memorial for John. I don't much like being out in the open like this but I know that Elena and Jeremy need to say goodbye and that's why I insisted on the 'brief'. Elena lays roses for her parents and John and after some quiet tears and hugs we make our way back to the house to waste the day away.
I wake in the dead of night. Sweat pouring from my body. Thrashing wildly against the covers as if I'm caged and fighting to breathe. I can't fucking breathe. I'm dying. Oh god I'm dying. I feel like I'm dying and Elena is shrieking and crying her heart out beside me, gasping for breath. What the fuck?
The dreams. The dreams are back. Oh god they're back but this is no fucking fairytale. This is no happy ending.
She died. I watched her die. I held her in my arms and then I saw her die. I could feel it. I could feel her in my arms. I could feel the weight of her. She touched my face and then she died.