If you guys are still reading this story, then thank you so much. I am sorry that I couldn't reply to you all and I am sorry for updating so late but as I promised, I will finish the story. I hope you like it...

She was sitting in the hospital's waiting room, surrounded by white walls. White … color of peace and calm, neither of which she was feeling right now. Her face was stained with tears that she had shed in the past 1 hour, her fists clenched tight to stop herself from losing it and her lips moving in a constant prayer for the well being of the man she loved.

"He will be alright Elena. It's just because of the alcohol. You know how he drinks it like its water." Stefan tried reasoning with her but it didn't have any effect. She just wanted to see Damon, hear his voice, look into his blue eyes.

"Why aren't they telling us anything Stefan? What the fuck is happening in there?" She almost yelled in frustration.

Stefan didn't know what to say. He too like her didn't know what was taking so long.

"Stefan, Elena …. How is he?" They heard Klaus and turned around to find him running towards them like crazy with the rest of the group was behind him, looking very frantic.

Elena got up and hugged Rebecca tightly.

"I don't know…. they won't tell us anything." Elena sobbed as Rebecca rubbed her back.

"He will be ok, it must be something minor." She whispered softly in her ears, trying to calm her down.

Caroline too stepped forward and reached for her friend, but to her shock, Elena pulled back her hand.

"Don't touch me." She growled. "You must be so happy to see him suffering like that. You always wanted to see him suffer like that."

Caroline's eyes widened, the hurt very much evident in her eyes.

"Elena I would never ever hurt you like that. Sure I hate him but I know how much you love him so I would never wish anything bad on him." She said but Elena was in no mood to listen.

"Get out of my sight. I don't want to see you." She growled, turning back towards the room where Damon was taken.

Caroline tried speaking to Elena again but Klaus put his hand on her shoulder, shaking his head, asking her silently to just leave the place for now. And so Caroline left the room with tearful eyes, without further arguments.

"Elena that was really mean. She was here to support you, she was here to be with you and you just treated her as though she was the cause of all this nonsense. It's not her fault that, that man drinks like a maniac." Bonnie chided her.

Elena turned towards her best friend, her eyes burning with rage.

" ' . Bonnie. The person I love is in that room and I don't know what's happening to him so excuse me for not giving two shits about what happens with Caroline and if you are so concerned about her, you can leave too."

Bonnie glared at Elena and stomped out of the place, not giving a second glance at anyone.

Elena looked ate Jeremy who was standing in one corner. When he saw her looking at him, expecting him to follow his girlfriend, he raised both his hands as a sign of surrender.

"I am here to support you sister and I won't leave your side until we know what happened to him." He said, giving her an encouraging smile but Elena didn't respond back. Her mind was fixed on only one thing.

Please be okay baby …. I can't live without you. Just please be ok. Please …

45 minutes later….

The door finally opened and a very tired looking doctor came out.

"Salvatore family?" He asked, looking at the group of distressed people in front of him.

All of them got up and rushed towards him, with hopeful.

"What is it? Is my brother ok?" Stefan asked first.

"He is fine for now. We have given him sedatives. He is sleeping right now so I am afraid you won't be able to see him."

"But what really happened to him?" Elena asked, looking pretty much tensed but a bit relieved at the same time.

"I believe you brother just had a heart attack." The doctor's reply made every gasp.

"Heart attack? He is just 23 years old. He can't have a heart attack doctor." Elena cried out.

"He has myocardial infarction. It's a condition when the blood supply to the heart muscles is cut off due to various reasons."

"Oh my God." She gasped. "This can't be happening."

"Mr. Salvatore, did you brother do drugs?"

Stefan's eyes widened on hearing the doc's question.

"What? No … no, he didn't do drugs. Alcohol? Yes. Cigarettes? Sometimes. But drugs? Never."

"You sure? Maybe he just didn't tell you about it." The doctor asked again, looking at him skeptically.

"I am pretty sure. He has never touched drugs in his entire life. Why are you asking this? I thought you said he had a heart attack."

"We actually took his blood to run some tests for any pathogenic cause but found traces of Cocaine and Amphetamine in it. I'll be conducting some more tests to make sure but till that time, we have to keep him here for further observations. Now please excuse me."

The doc patted Stefan's shoulders and left, leaving all of them bewildered.

"How did we end up in this shit?" Kol whispered, rubbing his face, hoping that he would wake and find out that it was all a nightmare. But unfortunately, it wasn't and they had no idea how to deal with it.

An hour later…..

Elena was sitting on the bench, staring at the same white wall in front of her that was both getting on her nerves as well as becoming her sort of support. Her lips were again moving in a constant prayer, her fists in the same clenched position. She didn't know whether she was a God fearing person in her pre amnesia life, she didn't know if her parents were proud Christians, she didn't know whether she attended the Sunday masses regularly but right now, every cell in her body was praying hard, praying to every higher power out there to make him alright.

She wanted to see him laugh again, she wanted to see his cocky smile again, hear is deep rich voice, see him walk, talk, eat … she just… she just wanted him. But she didn't have the strength to look at him lying on the bed again, with all the tubes attached to his perfect body. She didn't have the strength to see him struggling with his breath, she didn't have the strength to stand and cry in front of his window anymore, in short …. She didn't have any strength left in her for anything.

She felt someone sitting beside her on that bench but still she didn't remove her eyes from that white wall, in a fear even a small lack of attention might cause Damon some harm. It was stupid she knew, but somewhere in all this chaos, this white wall had become her friend, her deity and somehow she had attached Damon's life line to it, thinking that if she concentrated hard enough on that blank wall, the love of her life will be spared.

"Elena, listen to me carefully please." Stefan whispered in her ears but she didn't respond.

"Elena please, please listen to me." He pleaded again but still she didn't budge.

Oh God help me…..

"Elena I am going to tell you something important. Listen to it carefully please because it is associated with Damon. Get up and tell everyone that you are going for a coffee and then when you reach the coffee machine, you'll find room 342 right next to it. Knock on the door 4 times ok? Do it please, it can save Damon's life."

Stefan saw Elena's eyes lighten up.

"You promise?" she whispered back with a broken voice and Stefan nodded in response.

"I'll go now. And then exactly 5 minutes later, you'll get up and do whatever I told you just now. Don't tell anyone OK?"

"Yes." She whispered back.

Stefan patted her head and got up, with a hope in his heart that everything would get alright soon.

4 hours before the knock….

Shane was sitting on a rusty, worn out looking chair that was creaking under his weight. The room he was in too looked as though one loud noise and everything would fall apart. The yellow paint on the walls were chipping and falling down, the roof was leaking and every furniture in the room was old enough to be burnt and used as fire wood.

He had been sitting on that creaking chair for the past 20 minute in a hope that it wouldn't break and make him look like a fool in front of 30 odd people in that room and so far, it was doing a phenomenal job.

But it wasn't really the chair's fault. This was after all one of those old Government buildings that were constructed back in the 80s and over the years had somewhat turned into a haunted mansion because the government forgot about its maintenance. Its employees too looked old enough to be his grandmother's grandmothers.

As expected, he soon got bored looking at the old wrinkling faces and trying to guess their ages and his eyes started wandering and got stuck on a very very ugly looking painting hanging on the adjacent wall. In fact, ugly would not really be the correct term. He should call it psychotic and creepy. I mean, it was after all a painting of two animals of different species fucking with another bird watching them from the hiding. Yup, definitely the painting of the century. Da vinci would be proud.

The door in front of him suddenly opened, breaking his concentration from analyzing that 'thing.'

"Mr. Shane, we have found it. Please come in." The very same man who he had the pleasure of talking with in the beginning peaked out of the room with his enormous belly and gave him a toothy smile.

He definitely fought in the Civil war.

"Oh drat, I was starting to like this place." Shane said with his eyes still on that painting.

"You like that painting?" The man asked and Shane nodded.

"I was hoping I could meet the talented person who painted this picture which looks like a lion fucking a donkey with an eagle, I believe watching keenly, hiding behind the leaves on the tree."

The man laughed which sounded like a group of hyenas having a party.

"You are very much lucky sir because the talented painter is standing right in front of you."

That explains lots of things….

"Congratulations sir. Now how about we take a look at those documents. I am in a hurry."

Mental note: have a background check on this man.

He entered the room and found a huge pile of papers waiting for him on a table.

"You are telling me that after 30 minutes of waiting, you got this for me? How am I suppose to find what I am looking for in this trash?" Shane growled, swallowing his urge to beat the crap out of that man with his own painting.

"No no sir, the information you are looking for is right here." He said, pulling out a green folder from the pile, holding it triumphantly as though he was holding the key to the Atlantis. "I was in a hurry to tell you that I had found the information so I forgot to clean the mess. You see we have records here more that 90-100 years old so finding things get a bit tricky. There were no computers in those day, we had to rely on our hands and brain unlike today's generations who can't do anything without clicking on those mouse." The man gave out his throaty laugh again.

"Wow, we have so much to learn from you lot. Now can you tell me how many days after the birth this information should be filed?" Shane asked, studying the papers carefully.

"It depends on the parents you see. Some prefer to do it themselves on the very same day through the hospital, some wait for a few days. But it had to be done within 15 days." The man answered.

"And it should be filed in the same city the person was born in?"

"Yes, that's necessary. It is done to keep the population count in check, count the immigrants and the emigrants. Plus, many people like to register their name twice, for illegal purposes of course. Through this, we can prevent that. So it's like killing two birds with one stones."

Shane gave out a big smile.

"That's very smart. Now, I need one more favor from you. Can you find if Elena Gilbert was registered here too? And sooner this time? I have some urgent work."

"Can I get her birth date?" The man asked, searching the shelves again.

"Ummmmm, Feb 20, 1990." Shane answered looking at his phone.

"Just wait for a minute ….. hmmmmm…..nope." The man shook his head as he climbed down the ladder. "She is not registered here."

"You are really very smart, doing all this without the computer." Shane said, looking at the file in his and carefully. "Can I take these folders with me? I'll need my team to analyze them."

"Oh you can't do that sir. You can read it here but you can't take them with you."

Shane sighed.

'Look, I am FBI. I need this information. This man is dangerous, so you better cooperate with me, or else I'll have to arrest you on the grounds of protecting a criminal and I really liked your painting so, don't make me do it."

The man gulped.

"Fine, but you have to fill out this form, FBI or not." He said, handing him a paper.

"Now we are talking." Shane grinned, filling out the details. "Now can you kindly step out of the room please? I would like some privacy here."

The creepy man huffed, mumbling to himself as he stomped out of the room.

Shane just shook his head. He took out his cell and dialed a number.

"Did you find anything?" He asked the person on the other side.

"Great… and do one more thing. I am texting you a number and I need you to find everything about it ok? Every call made, every call received, even the text messages. Everything. I am on my way to the bureau. I'll catch that bastard soon."

He cut the call, grabbed the folders and left the room immediately.

He can't hide now. I have to go to the station and collect the evidence before I inform everyone about it. God give me strength ….

An hour before the knock….

The taxi driver looked at the man sitting behind him suspiciously. In the span of 40 years, he had come across some pretty shitty people and this man definitely fit the description.

He had come running out of the airport and then jumped in his taxi and demanded him to take him to the city hospital immediately. Plus he definitely showed the obvious signs.

Shady aviators … Check

Leather jacket …. Check

Constantly staring at a thick file in his hands … Check

Constantly looking out of the window … Check

Constantly looking at his phone … Check

Sweating like a pig even though it's freezing outside…. Check

Ok he knew his check list was crap and that it didn't apply to everyone but with this guy, his gut was screaming that he was definitely up to something and he had worked with the mobs enough to know that he should trust his gut instincts.

"Are you alright sir? Should I turn off the heater? You are sweating too much." He asked in a hope to get him talking and pick some information. Being involved with some pretty sick bastards back in his day, he could smell the crime and criminals and damn it still ignited that fire within him.

I am alright. Can you speed a little please? My friend is pretty sick and is in the hospital." He said in a deep voice.

The driver smirked.

As if I haven't heard that one before.

"So you are from?" He asked again.

The passenger gave out a sigh.

"Mystic Falls."

The driver chuckled.

"Never heard of that place."

"It's a small town. How much longer will it take?"

"Another 30 minutes pal. This is New York, not your small town. Traffic here moves slower than the snail."

The man grunted and started flipping the pages of his file again.

"I am sure your friend is alright sir. What's your name again?"

"I didn't tell you."

The driver grinned.

"Forgive me for asking. I am just trying to make small talks here to pass the time."

The passenger scoffed.

"Why don't you do something for me? Get me to the hospital in another 15 minutes and I'll tell you my name, my address and my purpose of being here plus the name of my boss and my mission because I know you have heard about the hospital story one too many times."

The driver gave out a huge smile.

"Now you are talking dude. Hold on." He turned the taxi around and took a right turn into a small dark alley and after driving for another 5 minutes, he again moved left and reached a small road. 2 rights, 5 lefts and 8-9 minutes of driving later, they reached a broader road.

"We keep driving and you'll get to the hospital in no time. Now tell me who you are working for? Reggie Dwayne? Wait no …. He is almost out of business. It must be Handerson. He is king of nightlife here and you certainly look like the man he would employ." And much to the passenger's dismay, he kept chatting and chatting until they reached the hospital.

"Here is your hospital."

The passenger got out of the vehicle and gave him the money.

"Keep the change please." And then, started walking towards the hospital door.

"Hey hold up." The driver shouted. "You didn't tell me about your mission."

The passenger turned around and smirked.

"I asked you to take me to hospital in 15 minutes. It took you 18 minutes, so you won't get anything from me. But I'll tell you my name. It's Alaric Saltzman. Find out whatever you want. Have a good day."

"When my eyes meet his gaze as we're sitting here staring at each other, time stops. Those eyes are piercing mine, and I can swear at this moment he senses the real me. The one without the attitude, without the facade"
― Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry