A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews. I am so sorry for making you all cry in the last update. Promise that I will be trying to make the next few chapters happier. Let's just say by chapter 30, we all will be smiling. ;) Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and thank you guys so much for reading my stories. I love you guys for it!

As requested by a lovely reader of mine, this chapter does start out with a flashback. :)

Enjoy!

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Before You Were Mine- Chapter Twenty- Eight

-Stefan-

"Elena!"Screaming her name, I can feel my heart pounding against my chest, the heat from the burning remnants of the fire against the yellow fabric of my turn out gear, the water dripping droplets on to my helmet, I search for her continuously. "Elena!" I scream out her name in desperation, not hearing anything back at all except for the crackling and breaking wood falling around me. I'm trying to avoid it in my mind, the realization that she's dead. I can't think of that, I can't think about losing her.

"Elena, baby if you hear me. Please, make a noise. Anything, sweetheart. Please." I'm begging, knowing that she's probably trapped underneath the large beams that have fallen and that are on fire all around us, the drywall soaked with water and dripping down droplets of water from our hoses down on the piles of ashes. The only thing I can hear is the crunching of broken glass, metal and wood breaking underneath my feet as I step over something in the darkness, listening carefully and stopping in my tracks. My shaking hands hold up a small silver flashlight as I scan the room, continuously shouting out her name. My mind drifts back to the time I was a little boy, being escorted out of my parents burning home as I watched it go up in flames and the firemen treated me for smoke inhalation, I think about her breathing, hoping that she's breathing at all. The smell of gasoline fills the air as plumes of smoke escape up in the sky. The loud wheezing noise of the oxygen tank strapped to my back shakes the memory of my parents dying away as I look around around the room, stopping the minute I look down at the yellow fabric of my protective suit, noticing that I'm still covered in Luke's blood.

The sight of it makes my stomach drop, my heart sinks into my chest and I exhale deeply, tightening the face shield over my chin and face as I once again scream out Elena's name even louder with more desperation and urgency, stopping every once in a while to listen. I don't hear anything for a while, nothing at all. She's dead. Is my first thought, she's dead and I'll never get to see her again or tell her how much I love her, how much I find myself thinking about our future together. Emotions overcome me as I slip off one of my gloves, taking out a picture that I carry everywhere with me. It's of her. It's for her, the one person that has been keeping me together and complete since we lost daniel. Her beautiful brown eyes shining back at me, her smile warming my heart and clouding my eyes with tears as I push forward.

"Where are you?" My voice cracking as I ask myself the question out loud, flashing my flashlight in my hands over the picture as I shout out her name one last time, before beginning to turn away. Taking off my helmet is dangerous, unadvised as everything around me burns and falls apart. The diner is reduced to a pile of ash and rubble, dead bodies pinned and yet to be removed. Over the last hour of searching for Elena and the others, I've given up hope until I hear a faint noise. It's a light tapping noise, almost as if someone's hitting a bracelet against a piece of metal and it's echoing just feet away to myself side. "Help me, someone. Please, help me." She pleas.

Bending down and lifting up a piece of debris, I notice her red apron and ripped jeans, exposing a bit of her tan skinned ankle that's covered in dirt and soot. "Elena!" I shout out her name again, hearing her faintly and softly reply back to me. "I'm here, I'm alive. I'm hurt though, everything hurts so bad." She sobs, groaning out in pain as I move pieces of wood, metal and drywall from off of her body. Her hand reaches out to me as she lightly whispers my name before it becomes inaudible. "Stefan, you found me." Reaching for her dirt covered hand, I grasp on to it with my gloves. "I'm going to get you out of here. Elena, do you hear me? I'm going to get you out of here. Just don't move. You need to stay still and awake. You need to talk to me." I demand of her, hearing as she starts crying, repeating over and over again how thankful she is I'm standing in front of her.

"Elena, you're trapped under a big metal beam and some pieces of wood. Listen to me very carefully, I need you to stay completely still because I need to move it off of you. One the count of three, I'm going to need you to move." I tell her, taking off my helmet just so that my eyes can make eye contact with her without any sort of shield covering my features. I want her to feel safe with me, to feel comfortable as everything else around us falls apart. "Do you trust me?" I ask her, exhaling deeply and noticing the blood gushing from her leg wound, the crimson color seeping into the blue color of her jeans.

"Yes." She whispers softly, as I count out loud and tell her exactly how and what I'm trying to move off of her body so that I can free her. "Good. Now, on the count of three, I need you to push upward with your legs and pull yourself upward. I know it's going to hurt like hell. But, do you think you can do that for me?" Looking over at her, I notice the bruises and blood covering her face as she slowly and carefully lifts up her head while replying back. "Yeah, I can. I can move my legs. So, I know that I can."

Nodding, I exhale deeply, bending down with my knees and pushing upward with my arms, I hear her cry out in pain just as I left the heavy beam off of her body. Carefully, Elena drags her body away from the other fallen pieces of wood and twisted metal as I rush over to her once she's freed, taking my oxygen mask off hurriedly and placing it over her face as I tell her to breath in, slow easy breathes.

I cleaned myself up over an hour ago, sitting in the hallway alone as Damon went to go be with Bonnie. My fingers are curled around the arm rest as I wait for Meredith to come back and talk to me. Truthfully, all I want for her to tell me is that I can see Elena again.

"Stefan." I hear my name being called out as Caroline rushes towards me and I get up, embracing her tightly into my arms as she cries against my shoulder. I'm still covered in dirt, my hands and my face mostly. But, not my clothing because I asked for Tyler to bring me and Damon a change of clothes from our house and he did after he went home to wait on news about who might be responsible for what happened to the girls, Rosie and to Luke.

"What are they saying?" Caroline questions, backing away from me while wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and apologizing that she got some of her tears on my long sleeve light gray Henley shirt, glancing down at my dark wash colored jeans. Caroline shifts her gaze upwards, inhaling sharply she speaks with a tired tone. "I came by because I was with her brother when I heard the news. I take it Jeremy isn't here yet?" She asks me as I nod my head. "He was hear. But, he left to go pick up Anna and I gave him my apartment key so that he could swing by there and pick up his sister some fresh clothes. You know, when Elena wakes up, she's not going to want to be wearing that ugly looking hospital gown.

Caroline giggles a little, sniffling when she nods her head towards me. "I know. She's going to be okay, Stefan." Caroline comments, leaning over to me and placing her own shaking hand over mine that are clasped together.

"She had a heart attack, Caroline. They called her mom to see if they could get a clean blood sample from her. But, her mom's still a damn drunk and a damn user. So, her blood's not pure. They, asked Jeremy too. He donated his for her blood transfusion since they have the same blood type. I was going to give mine. But, the process for checking it takes a while and since Elena lost a lot of blood, they didn't have that much time to wait. Also, Bonnie had a transfusion too. Hers is from her mother, Abby's here somewhere." I explain as Caroline leans her head against my shoulder and exhales deeply.

I haven't showered the smoke or soot off my body, I can smell it in the air around us. Although, I have tried scrubbing off Luke's blood from my hands and my gloves, just thinking about him dying makes my stomach sick as I remember my clothes covered in his blood. My mind replaying the last words he said to me on a loop. "Please, don't ever leave her, Stefan. She loves you, take care of her for me. Promise me that you will."

Shaking the image from my mind, Caroline speaks softly. "Elena's in the recovery room right now, right? We can go see her soon?" She asks anxiously as I nod my head. "We can't see her until the doctor tells us. But, yeah. They're trying to wake her up." I comment, grasping on to Caroline's hand as her and I sit in the hallway, waiting and hoping that they'll both be okay.


Kissing her lips softly, I wiped way the blood from her eyebrow, my tears falling down on to her cheeks as her eyes began to close on me and I knew I was losing her. I clutched her against my chest and wobbled out of the building, rushing towards the awaiting ambulance trucks and paramedics who looked just as confused and out of sorts as I was. "Over here! I got another one!" I tell them, screaming my words out loud as I collapsed on to my knees with her in my arms. Her limp body felt cold to the touch and the life seemed drained out her as I whispered against her ear. "I love you, Elena. Just please sweetheart. Please, stay with me. You need to stay with me. You need to stay with me because I can't be without you. I don't know how do that, be without you. I'm not very good at it." Closing my eyes, I turned her towards them, my lips brushed against hers as one of the guys took her from my arms and with my already bloodied fists, I slammed them against the dirty and damn gasoline soaked ground, yelling into the smoke filled air and up into the darkened black clouded sky when I shouted out in a distraught tone. "You took my parents away from me, you don't get to take her. You do not get to take the girl I love away from me because she is my entire world and I'd be lost without her."

The beeping machines make my stomach tighten into knots as I wince down at the pain in my hands. Meredith bandaged them up after she noticed that my knuckles were bleeding and they looked like they had a bit of gravel mixed in from the ground that I smashed them against. "It's a miracle you didn't break your knuckles." She had said while rising out the dirt and gravel, not long after mentioning that she had gotten the okay for me to go see Elena.

"She's breathing on her own. But, she's not awake yet. She probably won't be for a few more hours. Although, Elena's alive because of you and you should be proud of yourself. You saved her life." She had told me, walking me to Elena's room and adding in for me to take as much time as I needed with her. The light creaking of the doorknob echos into the room as I close it behind me and glance over to where Elena's laying still, the machines in her room are all making a synchronized beeping sound as I notice her completely still body laying in the bed and tears well up into my eyes. I don't say a word. My weak legs carry me to her bedside, laying my head flatly against her stomach and trying to not break down. I attempt to calm my breathing. However, the moment I turn my head and look at Elena's bruises and cuts on her face, I lose it. It's like a part of me snaps and I'm pissed off at her for not waking up and at myself for not getting to her faster.

Sobbing into the blue blanket and against her stomach, I apologize for everything. Every stupid little thing I ever did to hurt her or to make her cry and I vow that from now own, I'll make it all up to her once she gets released from the hospital. "All you have to do is stay with me. Please, baby. Just open yours eyes and stay with me." I tell her in an anguished tone, continuing to lay my head against her stomach. Slowly lifting up my head, I take her hand under my touch, kissing her knuckles and carefully kissing the hand in which she has an IV attached to it as my gaze lifts. It's a beautiful moment, seeing the one person you love more than life it's self open their eyes and stare back at you. Her eyelids fluttering open as she blinks her eyelashes at me and utters out a simple and soft toned. "Hi."


-Caroline-

"We need to find out who did this, Tyler!" I exclaim angrily, pacing up and down the hallway as I speak into my cell phone, hearing my husband agree with me. "And, we will Caroline. It's just going to take some time." However, the moment I turn back around, my cell phone almost drops to the ground at the sight of her making her way towards me. "You got to be fucking kidding me."

"What is it?" Tyler asks in a curious tone as the cell phone slides against my cheek and I watch her pass by me. "Abby, Bonnie's mother just came into the hospital. But, that's not the best part. Listen to this. Elena's disappearing act of a mother and her husband, John are here too. Looks like they just followed Abby right down the hall with this distraught look of despair on their faces. Babe, I got to go."

"Caroline. What are you going to do?" He asks in a warning tone, telling me to not get in the middle of Elena's family drama. "I won't. Tyler, you've got nothing to worry about. Stefan just left her room a few minutes ago, so thankfully he isn't here yet to see this because it's not going to be pretty."

"Caroline, please don't do anything stupid. Be careful of what you say around them." He tells me as I quickly say that I love him and that I need to catch up to them before Stefan comes back.


"My poor baby girl. Please, Elena wake up." I overhear her mother saying with a set of what look like fresh fake tears upon her cheeks. Her mascara isn't even streaked as much as mine was when I first heard about the accident. I'm sure I cried ten times harder and more than her own mother is trying to do while looking down upon her badly injured daughter. After everything Elena had told me about her mother, I can tell that she's a poison and I want her gone.

"Come to blame the guy who saved your daughter's life? Because you know, they've gotten pretty serious and I don't think it's fair if you did that. Over the past few months, he's cared for her way more than you have." I spit out, crossing my arms over my chest as their heads turn towards me and Miranda drops the concerned mother of the year act right in front of my eyes. "There aren't any cameras or news stations in this hospital covering the accident that took place at the diner or talking about the survivors. So, you shouldn't be here either since we all know that Elena means nothing to you. She told me about the abuse at the hands of both of you and to be frank, I think you both should go to hell for the things you did to her."

Miranda scoffs at my words. "How dare you speak about me like that in front of my own daughter. I'm her family, not you and certainly not some boy she barely even knows and thinks she loves. My daughter is a naive little thing, thinking she knows anything about love. She couldn't possibly love him, it's a delusion." She tells me as I bit down on the inside of my cheek to prevent myself from saying something even more cruel. There's no point in fighting with a woman who thinks that she's the most perfect mother in the world. When the truth is that she only cares for her daughter when it's convenient for her to do so.

"Actually, she does. She loves 'this boy' very much and I know that he loves her even more. Mrs. Gilbert, with all due respect. My friends and I have become more of a family to your daughter than I think you've ever been since she was a little girl. Hell, my mother has been even calling every hour to check up on her progress. Personally, I don't remember hearing about you calling once in the last few months since Elena moved out of your house and now suddenly, here you are." I look at Miranda as if she's some sort of disease, a parasite that is so damn hard to kick. But, once you do kick it to the curb, you start feeling a million times better and that's how I see her relationship with Elena. She's been doing better these last few months without her mother. Yes, she's had a few slip ups. But, she's been better and she doesn't need Miranda in her life right now or maybe ever again.

"I won't stand for this disrespect young lady." Miranda tries to scold me as I hear a heavy set of boots behind me, his deep and tired voice echos into the room. "I think she said that Elena would be in a way better and healthier atmosphere if you both left, now." Tyler demands loudly, watching Elena's mother's eyes widen as she tugs on John's jacket and they begin walking out of her room, turning back to stare at Tyler and I with a sense of disgust on their faces.

"She's my daughter and I should be allowed to see her whenever I please." Tyler shakes his head, laughing a little as he closes the door in their faces before he says directly to her face. "She might be your daughter, Miranda. But, she should want to see you when she feels ready. It shouldn't be forced upon her. Creating a relationship with you. Because frankly, Elena has been doing amazingly well without your influence and as her new family, we'd like to keep it that way."


-Damon-

"Eating alone isn't much fun." I comment out loud, taking a seat beside Stefan as he picks at his food, I haven't seem him since he disappeared. But, after leaving a sleeping Bonnie alone with her very worried sick mother, I knew that I needed to go in search of my brother. He's staring past me and out the window as he places his fork down and puts his hands underneath his chin. "I'm sorry for yelling at you." He says, finally meeting my gaze after a few minutes of silence between us and an awkward staring match.

"You were right though, I did lie to you after the fire that killed mom and dad. Stefan, I lied to you. But, it was only because I was trying to protect you from being hurt the way I was. We were just kids and I didn't know what else to say. I told you that they were going to be okay because I wanted to believe that myself..." My voice trails off as I place my hand down on to the table and hear him hesitantly clear his throat before he says in a soft voice. "I know you did. But, it wasn't okay. Damon, we lost our parents and we never really dealt with it. You know, while I was in the hospital and in my coma, I saw mom. She told me to hold on to my life, she told me to keep fighting because I needed to get back to you. I know I'm a pain in your ass most of the time." Choking back his words, my little brother places his hand over my own and grips his fingers against mine when he adds. "But I love you so much and I'm thankful for you. I want you to know that. I want you to know that I'd never want to change that. You're my brother, for as long as I live, you'll be my brother and my best friend."

Exhaling deeply, my fingers curl around his as I get up slowly and so does Stefan. We're standing near the table as his food gets cold. I can see the tears in his eyes as he probably see's the glazed over expression of pain and sorrow in mine when I embrace him tightly, whispering into his ear. " Well, all you got to do is stick with me and you're going to be one of the best damn young men and firemen that this station has ever seen. Just make sure to stick with me, kid. Don't ever forget that no matter what happens, I will always have your back. I'm may be your partner at work. But, above all of that. I'm your brother first and foremost. And, Stefan and no matter what happens in our lives, I don't want you to ever forget that if you ever need me. I'll be here for you, day and night. But most importantly, don't you dare forget that I love you and that will never change between us."


A/N: Caroline Lockwood is such a little queen! :) I love writing her so much in this story, standing up to momma Gilbert like that! :') Did any of you enjoy the Stefan and Damon scene?

Next up: We will be getting a better look into Bonnie's life through the eyes of her mother, Abby. Caroline will be on a quest to become a police officer as soon as she can so that she can help in putting the pieces together at whoever burned down the diner. Stefan and Elena share a very sweet and touching moment. And, Bonnie and Damon finally set a wedding date while talking about their future together.

Reviews are always appreciated. So, please leave me one. :)

-More To Come!-