"How could you let this happen?" A familiar voice demanded sharply.

Damon looked up and met chocolate brown eyes. How different she is, Damon thought distantly, remembering how meek she used to be. His eyes drifted back to the still form on the hospital bed. Elena, her fair hair greasy and cheeks hollow. Comatose, as good as dead. How had it happened again? Blood. Screaming. That's all he could remember.

"How could you let this happen?" Bonnie shouted, tears in her eyes. He stayed silent. He had no answer. Her small hand connected with his jaw. He didn't resist, letting his head snap to the side. That should have hurt, he thought. So much effort, I almost wish I were human so she could have the satisfaction of seeing me in actual pain. Then she was in his arms, sobbing.

He buried his face in her hair, reveling in the warm scent of strawberries. It was so refreshingly different from the scent of quarantined hospital wings. No trace of the smell of dead skin on linoleum floors.

"This isn't normal." She cried.

"But we deal." Damon commented, running his hands soothingly through her curls. "It's not normal, nor conventional. But we deal."

"This is the only way Elena could have died. A car wreck." Was that what they thought had happened? Bonnie giggled insanely, her petite form shaking. "So mundane. After all we've been through. After all, you can't take Elena from a fight. You had to take the fight from her. Elena-"

He hated hearing her name said that way. So full of adoration, admiration. "Bonnie." He said softly and she paused.

"It wasn't an accident." Bonnie stated.

"I know." He answered an unheard question. It was a therapeutic chain of events, he added in his head. This would bring them closer, like all deaths do. He would be her solace, her escape. And in that he would find redemption.

After all, he had needed an added incentive for killing Elena.

This is based on the song Camisado (Relax, Relapse) by Panic! At The Disco.

This is the scent of dead skin on a linoleum floor
This is the scent of quarantine wings in a hospital
It's not so pleasant
And it's not so conventional
It sure as hell ain't normal
But we deal, we deal

So what'd ya think? I know I completely missed the meaning of the song but the song was just the inspiration that got me writing. I also know I've been gone a looooooong time. But my sanity was being questioned, issues within the family and friends that were in rough times. Writing just became unimportant. But now I realized how much I missed it and how much my fingers itched to write.

Written with love,

HC