Chapter Twenty Five:

Saving Hope

"Elena, it's going to be ok." Damon said as he rubbed her arms trying to calm down a crying Elena. "Please don't cry, are you sure you're not hurt?"

"I'm not hurt," Elena tried not to snap at him. "Katherine was the one that got shot."

Damon gave her a lopsided frown. "Calm down, you're scaring, Mikaelson."

"Sorry," Elena stared at Elijah who was sitting across from them looking equally pale. "This must be weird for you."

"Oh, you have no idea." Elijah said, he forced a smile, but it was weak at best. They had been sitting in the emergency waiting room for at least three hours and they still hadn't received any news.

"I know this is probably a bad time, but how did you even get there?" the last thing she remember was Elijah and Grayson tackling Mason to the ground, who had been taken into custody by the police.

"E-Katherine left me a voicemail, I decided to go talk to her personally and I was there when Damon came in," he trailed off. "Well, you can put the rest together."

Another round of silence followed, they had hardly said anything to each other. Elena, Damon, and Elijah were in one part of the waiting room while Isobel, Grayson, and Miranda were in the opposite direction.

Elena couldn't help but notice that Isobel wasn't on her phone and that she and Miranda seemed to be avoiding looking at each other. Neither of the parents had even scolded her for switching with Katherine.

Isobel's cell phone rang and she sighed as she looked at the screen. "Well, the paparazzi has found out, they are piling up by the dozens outside."

Miranda scowled. "Can you tell them to leave?"

"That's what I was just planning on doing," Isobel pursed her lips. "Please Grayson call me as soon a possible when there's news."

Elena watched as Isobel walked away, there was clearly no lost love between Isobel and Miranda.

"Do you want coffee?" Damon murmured. Elena silently nodded as she went towards the coffee machine.

Elena placed a couple of sugar cubes inside her own cup as she stirred. "Don't worry, Katherine is a fighter, she will survive this. She wouldn't dare die without getting an Oscar first."

Elena smiled. "You know I can actually believe that."

"Elena," Damon said. "I know you already seemed to have made up your mind about us, and I know that this is probably not the right moment to ask, but after tonight, after I was afraid that you would die . . . I can't just walk away and pretend that this never happened. I love you, Elena."

Elena looked taken back, her pink lips curled into surprise. She blushed. "You're right this isn't the right time . . . but I love you too, Damon and I don't want to break things up . . . maybe we can work something out?"

Damon opened his mouth to respond when a short doctor said. "Family members of Katherine Alison Pierce?"

Miranda, Grayson, Isobel (who had just scurried in), Damon, Elijah, and Elena pounced on the doctor likes tigers. "Please let me talk," he said over the raised voices. "I'm Dr. Nichols, our daughter Katherine was shot in the chest and in the right leg. Fortunately, the bullets didn't hit a nerve or damaged an organ. She had to have minor surgery to remove the bullet in her chest, but the surgery went sacksful. She will be perfectly ok, she will have to be in the hospital for a few days and be on bed rest for at least a couple of weeks, but she's out of the danger zone.

A huge sigh of relief spread across the group of people. "Can we see her?" Isobel asked.

Dr. Nichols nodded. "She's sleeping at the moment, she's under a lot of painkillers and I would prefer it if only her parents visited at the moment. The rest of you can visit tomorrow."

Katherine woke up slowly, feeling half confused. Where was she? Where was Mason? What the hell happened? Her eyesight finally focused and she realized that she was in a small, cheerful hospital room.

Elena who had been studying her math textbook quickly looked up when she saw Katherine awake. "You're awake! Oh, god Katherine you're awake!" she gave Katherine a tight hug.

"Ow! Elena! Ow!" Katherine whimpered.

"Sorry," Elena said weakly. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore and everything hurts." She winced. "What happened?"

Elena took the next half hour explaining to her twin what had happened with Mason, her injuries, how the police had questioned everyone, and how half of America knew that Katherine had been shot and had a twin.

Katherine winced. "Do they know that we switched?"

Elena shrugged. "I don't think so, but I'm sure someone put the pieces together after you got so behind doing my schoolwork and I fell during the fashion show. Isobel warned that things are going to be hectic for the next few months.

"I'm sorry." Katherine whispered as she looked from the textbook to Elena. "I'm sorry about everything, especially about the mean things that I said to you . . . I was wrong."

"Don't worry about it, I've said some pretty awful things too." Elena gave her a teasing sort of smile. "Besides you took a bullet for me."

"Two actually." She stated laughing, but immediately stopped when it hurt.

"Yeah, the doctor said that you're going to be sore for a couple of weeks."

"Lovely." Katherine said sarcastically. "So do Elijah and our parents completely hate us?"

"I think our parents are more worried and relief than mad." Elena pointed out before she smirked. "And Elijah has been in the waiting room since eight in the morning just wanting to talk to you."

Katherine blushed. "Really?"

"Really."

"So, what are you waiting for?" Katherine raised an eyebrow at her twin. "Help me get my makeup and hair ready."

-End of Chapter Twenty Five-

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