Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries, the stories, or the characters. I love to have my way with them though!

Notes: Nothing! No notes, just a reminder to review, share, favorite, etc. I need the motivation to finish! It's so close to the finish line on this story! Thanks for sticking around my friends.

When Damon gets out of the shower, the house isn't quite so quiet anymore. The roaring water of a 12-jet Vichy shower tends to interfere with his vampire hearing, so he can't be entirely sure when Alaric came back, but now he knows without a doubt- the sound of Alaric's clunky hunter boots and the sharp scent of his aftershave were unmistakably him. Damon quickly threw on a black sweater and jeans- through his cracked windows, he could feel that cooler autumn air was beginning to roll off of the mountains and into their little town in central Virginia.

Downstairs, Alaric was putting away bags from the store, the plastic rustling around and cabinets opening and closing. Damon wasn't sure if Alaric could've heard his shower running, so there was a slight possibility that he still thought Damon was locked downstairs. While he had texted Alaric, he didn't trust the technologically-illiterate middle-aged history teacher to actually check his phone. To avoid startling a vampire hunter, he made an unnecessary amount of noise going down the staircase in an effort to avoid a stake being thrown into his chest.

"Hello Ric, I see you went shopping." Damon called down before he turned down the landing of the stairs. Even from two rooms away, he could hear Alaric sigh in frustration. When he got to the kitchen, he saw an assortment of blood bags sitting in an open cooler, a bag full of random supplies like chains and duct tape, and a generous supply of snacks and human food.

"I see you got out, Damon. I'd say I'm surprised, but this is what I get for leaving you alone for an hour and a half." His voice was seething with annoyance, but Damon chose not to engage, completely ignoring Alaric's attitude.

"Ooh- Doritos. Did you get some Mountain Dew and an Xbox to match?" Damon grabbed the bag, tossing it lightly in the air before ripping it open and throwing a neon-orange chip in his mouth. He made a show of crunching it as loudly as possible, purposely pushing past Alaric and bumping into him as he walked through the kitchen.

"Damon, you're lucky that I'm not vervain-ing you and throwing you back into the cellar right now. It probably isn't the smartest thing to go out of your way to be an ass. Even more of an ass than usual, actually." He turned to face his friend, his face less hostile than his words.

"Trust me, this isn't my worst. I'm letting you off easy for leaving me in the basement to rot. For two days." He ate another chip, taking his time to lick the powder off his fingers afterward.
"Now, I'm not going to lie, it felt like I was in there for months based on how desiccated I felt, but-"

"Wait, what are you talking about? You go without feeding for that long all the time. Do you think that it has anything to do with Elena being gone?"

"Well, judging to the fact that the cellar doesn't look like the hallway from The Shining, I think this is something else." Damon put down the bag of Doritos, filing through the cooler of blood bags and picking one out.

"So what were your symptoms? You seem pretty fine now." Looking Damon up and down, something seemed a bit off about him, but nothing Alaric could put his finger on. Damon absentmindedly rubbed the blood bag back and forth in his hands, lightly warming it.

"Ok doc, I'll tell you my symptoms. First off, when I woke up I was weak. I don't expect to feel fantastic after sleeping for two days, but this felt like I hadn't had blood in weeks. Actually, I assumed that I had been out for weeks. Side effect of some witchy juju or something, since I had enough stubble for almost a month.

"You get stubble? I've never seen you with facial hair before."

"As a vampire, your body functions exactly like a human, but everything is slower. Except healing, of course." He pointed at Alaric before biting the top of the blood bag, ripping off the top and walking over to the cabinet to grab out a mug. He upended the bag, the thick sound of pouring blood making Alaric a bit uneasy. He walked toward the microwave, punching in the buttons to heat the blood for 57 seconds. Over the years, through trial and error, Damon had found the exact amount of time you had to warm blood for it to reach that sweet, human-body temperature of 98.6. As the microwave whirred to life, he leaned back against the counter, pushing up his sleeves and crossing his arms.

"So to answer your question, yes, I grow facial hair, but I shave probably once a month- maximum. I figured that between dehydration and time, it had been at least a few weeks prison sentence for me. When I woke up, I couldn't hear or smell anyone, so I broke out and drank a few bags of blood to get back on my feet. It wasn't until I decided to text you all that I was up that I noticed that it hadn't been two weeks, but rather two days. I could have freaked out, but I didn't go through all that effort breaking out to stress myself out even more, so I drank some bourbon and took a nice, long, steamy shower." He wiggled his eyebrows at Alaric suggestively before opening the microwave, catching it right before it beeped.

"And that's it? You were kind of tired and weak, and you had five o' clock shadow?" Alaric looked at Damon, incredibly confused.

"Yep." He articulated the 'p'. "Oh, well that and I was a little dizzy, and cold. I don't remember the last time I felt cold but-" Damon took a long sip from his mug, but immediately began to gag. The blood spat out of his mouth uncontrollably as Damon moved to lean over the sink.

"What the fuck did you do to this blood Ric?" Damon's voice barked impatiently.

"Nothing I-"

"Then you picked some shitty, rotten bags then."

"They're from a blood drive yesterday. Are they vervaining the blood again or something?"

"No, it just tastes like hot garbage." Damon spat out the last bit in his mouth. He turned on the faucet, leaning over to drink a few gulps of water to rinse out his mouth. "And here I was, complaining about the supply in the basement that seemed a little off, but this is a thousand times worse. Talk about the grass is greener on the other side." He tried to grin, cracking a joke at Alaric, but his face was betraying it.

Damon looked downright green, like he was about to throw up.

"You really don't look great Damon, want me to grab you a bag from downstairs?"

"Yeah, sure Ric." Alaric walked swiftly toward the basement. Once he was safely alone, Damon took a few sniffs of his mug again. All he smelled was a sour, ferrous scent. Something about it made him feel a bit lightheaded. He shook it off.

Must have just been one gross human.

He reached into the cooler, picking out a bag with a different donor ID and different blood type. B-, his favorite. Feeling lazy, he just ripped off the top, cautiously sniffing the bag. He hadn't thought it possible, but this one smelled worse than the other. Frustrated, he tossed it in the trash, holding his breath while he rinsed out the mug in the sink.

When Alaric came back with a new bag, he was starting to get nervous.

"Here you go- bottoms up." Alaric plopped a bag into Damon's hand. Reading the label, he could see that it was the same donor as the one from this morning.

Not my favorite, but at least it's going to be better than this toxic waste.

He eagerly ripped off the top and took a big gulp before immediately throwing his hand over his mouth and running toward the sink again. This time, he actually vomited- Doritos and all.

"Alright, this is something I don't particularly feel like dealing with now. I'm sticking to bourbon for the rest of the day." He walked into the living room to grab his decanter, Alaric cautiously following behind him. Damon flopped onto a couch, clutching only the bottle.

"You sure you want to drink out of the bottle, after just throwing up?"

"Bold of you to assume that I won't finish this bottle in one go Alaric." Damon held up the decanter to the light, the crystal casting rainbows around the room. He lightly shook it back and forth, showing it was only half full. Alaric resigned himself to the fact that yes, his friend would definitely finish half the bottle. Hell, even with his human liver Alaric could almost give him a run for his money if it was only half a bottle. Damon took a generous swig, the alcohol burning the back of his throat a bit.

"Did you just… wince at the taste of alcohol?" Alaric was growing more confused by the second. Damon however, just rolled his eyes.

"I just threw up. Literally a minute ago. Stomach acid is not something a vampire body is used to. Don't worry about it."

"Yes Damon- you just threw up. You threw up at the taste of blood, aren't you the least bit concerned?"

"Guess I'm just not in the mood." Damon raised his eyebrows and took another generous gulp of alcohol. "Now, onto more important things. Where is everyone else, and how did I get stuck with one babysitter while Elena gets three?"

"Bonnie and Stefan are on their way to Atlanta following a lead for a witch that might know something about familiars and vampire sire bonds. Elena and Caroline are- now this wasn't my idea- on a girl's trip to Charleston."

"A girl's trip? I get locked in a basement and blondie takes Elena….. on a girl's trip? I, for one, am completely insulted. I can drink mimosas and eat brunch with the best of them." He took another swig. "Plus, I'm fantastic at gossip."

"The only reason we indulged her idea was to see if you and Elena were still experiencing the physical effects of separation, which, in my opinion you clearly are. I just got off the phone with Caroline who claims Elena is fine, but maybe since you're supernatural you're more sensitive to the magic involved. I mean, Elena wasn't exactly coughing up her insides when you stayed behind in New York, so maybe the effects are just muted for her." Alaric leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Look Damon, to be honest, none of us have any idea what's going on. The only one with any idea is Bonnie, and ever since she interrogated you and Elena, she's gone a bit silent. I don't know what you told her, but the second she was finished she was packing her bags to go to Atlanta."

"So wait, why did Stefan go to Atlanta with Bonnie instead of staying with Elena? Let's be real here, the main reason you all are going through this is because sweet, innocent Elena went off the rails and dumped her one true love Stefan, so wouldn't he want to swoop in try to win her back? Champagne, roses, all of that romantic whatnot? It doesn't seem like him to run off with BonBon and leave Elena in the hands of the homecoming queen. I mean Caroline isn't the most responsible person in the world. Seems a little negligent to me." Damon's voice had turned bitter as he gulped down more alcohol.

"Are we really back to this Damon? The jealousy game? Ok, you want the truth? Yes, at the beginning we were trying to get the real Elena back, and yes, of course we all thought she would run back to Stefan, but now? I don't know. This shouldn't be a surprise to you, but Stefan doesn't really want to be around either of you right now. Elena started to act a lot more like herself once we weaned her off your blood, but she didn't exactly… reset to her factory settings. Stefan tried to talk to her, but she pushed him away, like actually pushed him and stormed out of the room, kinda weird. So yeah- he's sticking with Bonnie and just doing the one thing he can to help you two that won't hurt him anymore- getting to the bottom of this weird soul bond."

"Huh, so the hero left Gotham, but didn't hang up his cape." Damon had a thousand yard stare, trying to digest that his brother all but gave up on Elena. He should be jumping with joy at the revelation, that he wouldn't have to fight a jealous brother anymore, but at the same time he felt… guilty.

"After all of that, I don't want to hear any more of this Elena could never want me, I'm the scorned brother destined to be alone so I'm going to act out and rebel shtick. She's her own person- remember that. As much as I hate to admit it, you have a real shot with her this time. Don't fuck it up by acting like a dismissive, callous douche bag."

The room was silent, save for the sound of bourbon sloshing each time Damon took a sip. Alaric finally spoke up, his voice almost a whisper.

"I know you love her. You're not the best with your feelings, and I know that people doubt your intentions, but I'm your best friend. You want what's best for her, and deep down, I know that you want to be your best for her. So don't screw it up buddy."

"Ok Caroline, we've had brunch, we got pedicures, can we go back home now?" Elena whined as she trudged through the cobblestone streets, weighed down by bags full of clothes that Caroline made her buy.

"It's girls weekend not girls 21 hours. Plus, tonight I figured we could go to a couple bars! You can put one of your new dresses on, I can do your hair again…"

"We did all of that last night-"

"Ok then, fine. We can stay in, order pizza, and read the new book I bought you."

"You bought me… a book."

"Yes Elena, when is the last time you read something. Remember how much you used to love reading? Sitting in your window seat? Writing in your journal…. You know, all that moody, boring introvert stuff that I could never understand."

Elena had to come up with a good excuse if Caroline was going to give in and let her go home. She felt trapped in a nightmare of toxic positivity, getting dragged behind a steam train of girl time. All she wanted right now, more than anything, was to be in her room, by herself, writing in her journal.

"Well, if you want me to read, why don't we go home so I can catch up on my reading for English class. Someone signed me up for AP Lit, so I'm really behind."

"I signed you up for literature because you were too busy being a runaway to sign up for classes, so I signed you up for all of mine! Plus, if we want to go to college together, we should take all the same classes- no slacking for you."

"Right, but you changed my schedule after I came back. I actually was signed up for all the easy classes. You can't compel my way through an AP Exam you know." She pouted, narrowing her eyes at Caroline.

"Ugh maybe I thought that having a bit more responsibility would make you want to stay in school this time Elena." Caroline's voice became shrill as she stopped in her tracks. Up until this point, Elena had just been following her a few paces behind, but with the sudden stop they were now face to face. Elena wanted to argue back, use some of her newfound confidence, but this was Caroline she was talking to. She already lost so many people, she can't lose Caroline too, especially over just caring too much. At least, now that she's off Damon's blood she had a bit more restraint and was able to pull herself back. Secretly, she missed the way he emboldened her like that.

"You're right. So let's get back." She reached forward, putting down her bags and gently putting her hand on Caroline's shoulder. Elena smiled, half genuine, half in an attempt to get out of this situation. "Seeing how much you care today, seeing how much fun we can have just… being normal teenage girls- it makes me want to go back home and try to get back to that. Enjoy our senior year, graduate. Plus, who knows how much drama might come our way. If I get back on track, maybe when it all hits the fan later we won't completely fail out."

Caroline smiled at her. Elena really pulled at her heartstrings.

"Elena, you're going to make me cry. I can't believe I finally got through to you. " She dropped her shopping bags too, pulling Elena into a stiff hug. "Ugh, of course I'll take you back. We can get right back to work- I'll make sure nobody even remembers you were gone." She pulled back, grabbing Elena by the arm, linking at the elbows. "Come on, let's go back and get on the road right away. If we go now, we can maybe be back for dinner, get a good night sleep and spend all Sunday getting you ready for Monday!"

Caroline and Elena were on the road less than an hour later, Caroline's compact SUV filled to the brim with brightly colored bags full of new clothes. Elena kicked her feet back on the dash, grabbing her iPod out of her purse and reaching around the console for the aux cable.

"Hey! I made a whole playlist for this trip-" Caroline whined.

"Yes, and we listened to it all the way here. It's my turn now." Elena smirked. Tired of all of Caroline's feel good girl music, she picked something completely opposite of Girl's just want to have fun. "But, in the spirit of girls' trip," Elena sighed, trying not to roll her eyes. "I'll still pick something road trip worthy…."

The familiar chords of Caroline's least favorite song started to bop through the speakers as they sped back off toward central Virginia.

Where it began, I can't begin to knowing

But then I know it's growing strong…

"Elena! No! You know I hate this!" She squealed.

"I think Sweet Caroline is the kindest form of revenge I can get for curling my hair." The girls giggled as Elena queued up some actual music for the rest of the journey.

An hour in, they stopped for lattes at a cute cafe before heading right back on the road. Caroline powered on until they were about an hour away from Mystic Falls.

"Oh Elena, now that we're getting closer to home- now, don't hate me for this, I know you're tired of me asking- but do you feel any different?"

"The answer is still no Care- that's good, right?" Elena stared at the window, her feet on the dash as she leaned back. She had actually been relaxing pretty well before Caroline brought back up the withdrawal sickness. "But, why are you asking? I felt fine yesterday too."

"Well, didn't you forget? You didn't have any of Damon's blood today. That single drop Friday morning was the last you had, and you seem fine. I don't want to jinx anything, but I think it's over! Vampire blood can't stay in the system for more than 24 hours, especially such a small amount as a single drop. You, Elena Gilbert, have officially survived vampire blood detox!"

"Huh, I guess you're right." Elena wasn't quite sure how she felt about it, but she knew she didn't want to talk about it any more. She really had meant it when she said she just wanted to go back to normal, if normal was even something relatively achievable anymore. "With that reassurance, I'm going to take a quick nap. We're only about an hour away from home, right?"

Caroline clicked the mute button on the stereo.

"Don't say another word Elena. Get your beauty sleep- you deserve it!"

Elena readjusted her feet on the dash, leaning her head against the car window and letting her eyes drift closed. She was relieved Caroline dropped the questioning so quickly, hoping that it meant that the worst of her consequences of rebellion were over. As she fell asleep, she half smiled, her shoulders relaxing and her mind feeling at peace.

Wheels squealed, the smell of hot rubber filling the air in the car. Elena jolted awake the second the airbags deployed, her consciousness not lasting long before the force of the crash knocked her out. Her body limp, the seatbelt barely held her as the car rolled sideways off the curved road and into a ditch.

Caroline watched helpless, trapped in the driver's seat by the airbag as the car flipped over and over. She wanted to bust out, and lean over to grab Elena, but she couldn't even tell up from down, her free arm grasping hopelessly at empty air. Elena's face was lifeless, shards of glass lodging themselves in her face each time another window shattered. Tears streamed down Caroline's face, streaks of heavy black mascara bleeding down. She hadn't seen the other car coming, not even with her heightened vampire senses. A huge pickup truck had t-boned them at an intersection right before a hairpin turn. The location of the wreck couldn't have been worse. They were in a secluded rural area about 30 miles outside of town, where the sides of the road dropped off directly into a 20 foot ravine. As glass, smoke and branches flew past her face, she cursed herself for every part of the situation she could have changed. Maybe if she had driven faster, slower, been faster at reacting, had a different car, they wouldn't be toppling off of a small cliff. Even though the entire fall only took about half a minute, for Caroline, it seemed to last forever.

The car finally stopped moving, resting upside down with the back of the car wrapped around a tree. Finally able to break out of her seat, Caroline punched the airbag and ripped off her seatbelt. As fast as she could, she did the same for Elena, dragging her out of the open car window and resting her on the forest floor. Elena's feet had been resting on the dash, and when the car crashed, the airbag immediately crunched them sideways in an unnatural motion. As she saw her laying on the ground, she could see that at least one of her legs was clearly broken at the knee.

"Elena," She started lightly slapping her in the face. "Elena wake up. Please, wake up." She could hear that her friend's breath was shallow, her heartbeat slow. Elena had a gash in her forehead and a piece of glass lodged in her neck- thankfully just missing her jugular. Blood was still pouring out of her at record speeds, almost as fast as tears were falling from Caroline's eyes.

Caroline clamped her teeth in to her wrist, immediately pressing it onto Elena's mouth. Usually, humans would instinctively begin to suck down the blood, its taste slightly sweet. She could tell that Elena wasn't swallowing it, her wrist beginning to heal before Elena even drank a single drop. She bit in again, this time making a deeper gash before squeezing her wrist, making sure enough went down Elena's throat to force her to swallow. Angling Elena's head up a little, she rubbed her throat, sighing when she felt Elena finally swallow. She waited a few seconds before removing the piece of glass from her friend's neck, giving the vampire blood some time to work in her system.

"Sorry about this Elena, but it will hurt a lot less while you're passed out than it will when you're awake."

With a click, she set Elena's legs to at least be straight, figuring it would help the vampire blood heal the broken bones easier. The girl scout first aid badge was finally coming in handy.

It took way too long for Elena to wake up. After frantically calling Alaric and Stefan, she held Elena tightly to her chest, shaking at the thought that her friend might not wake up. The vampire blood healed all of Elena's wounds, and her legs seemed to fuse back together, but she wasn't sure how vampire blood would heal a concussion- or worse- brain damage.

So when Elena's eyes fluttered open, Caroline cried in the happiest way possible.

"Elena, I'm so glad you're ok." She smiled, stroking the hair out of Elena's face and kissing her friend on the forehead. "Don't worry. Alaric is on his way, we're going to get you to the hospital."

Alaric and Damon were still on the couch an hour later, Damon having completely demolished the bottle of bourbon as they mindlessly chatted about nothing. After the heart-to-heart, they had fallen back into their normal, best friend banter.

"I'm just saying Ric, you really should try getting out of this small town sometime. There are much better places to be a moody alcoholic- trust me."

Before Damon could digress into a tangent about his year and a half in Barcelona, they were interrupted by Alaric's phone ringing. Normally, Damon loved to eavesdrop, but he was currently too tipsy to care about paying attention to a human's phone call. After a few seconds, Alaric hung up the phone.

"There's been an accident." Alaric's face was completely white. "We need to go get Elena and Caroline."

Damon sat up immediately, his head swimming at the sudden movement. Somehow he felt a bit drunker than usual, but his concern for Elena was sobering him up quickly.

"Is she ok?" Damon blurted out, his face becoming severe.

"I don't know. Caroline says she won't wake up. They're about 30 minutes outside of town." Damon stood up, wobbling a bit on his feet. "And uh- I'll drive."

"Ok but you better go fast grandp-" Before he could finish the sentence, Damon collapsed, his entire body going limp and the life draining from his face. Alaric was torn between going to get Elena and helping Damon, but ultimately helping the human won out. After all, he was Elena's guardian. Right before he left, he hoisted Damon onto the couch, resting his head on a pillow.

"Don't worry buddy- We'll deal with you next." He patted Damon's cheek roughly before rushing off and grabbing his keys.

He managed to get to Caroline and Elena in 20 minutes flat, doing at least twice the speed limit the entire time, crossing his fingers he wouldn't get pulled over. Pulling his car over to the side of the road, he put on his hazard lights before hopping out and making his way carefully down the ravine. His boots slipped as he walked down, catching himself with his hand and scraping it on a branch. With the adrenaline of worrying about Elena, he didn't even feel the pain.

"Caroline I got here as fast as I can." He called out as he approached the girls, Caroline still hunched over Elena's body. The sight of the car, mangled and upside down put a pit in Alaric's stomach, but even from a few feet away he could see that Elena's eyes were half open and she was breathing.

"It's ok, I gave her some of my blood- she just woke up." Caroline gave him a half smile.

"I brought some bandages and pain medicine anyway, but it looks like at this point all of her cuts are almost healed. Come on, let's get her to the car and to the hospital as fast as possible. Well… not too fast."

Alaric bent down to pick up Elena when suddenly Caroline stopped him.

"Vampire strength, remember. We can't have you go hurting your back and getting you out of commission as well." She looked at him with kind eyes.

"Hey, Elena, we are taking you home, back to Mystic Falls, ok?" Caroline whispered as she lifted Elena lightly. Her eyes were half open and glassy, Caroline unable to tell if she was really conscious or not. As they walked to the car, Elena went a bit more limp as her eyes fell closed.

"She just passed out again." Caroline called after Ric.

"Care, she just survived a disastrous car wreck. And she survived, thanks to you. If all she does is pass out, I call that a victory."

At that very moment, 30 miles away in the empty Salvatore Boarding house, Damon lurched forward, gasping for air. His heart raced as he realized he was alone, that Alaric had gone to get Elena without him, and he couldn't stand the idea of not being there with her. His heart kept racing, almost like panic. A sweat broke out on his forehead and his stomach felt sick. As his breath quickened he realized- this isn't how a vampire's body reacts to stress.

This is how a human's body does.