A/N: Well, this update has a lot going on, but I hope it all works. I was really excited to write this one, and to continue to the next update as well.
Thank you for all of the reviews. I never in a million years would have thought that this story would gain so much interest :D
Please let me know what you think!
Two weeks. Two weeks ago, Elena had reported herself and Gregory for embezzling money from investors for Gregory's Coffee. Elena had been taken to jail for the night until a hearing could be done the next morning. The judge had agreed to let Elena out on bail, which Damon had put up for her, and a court date was set for three weeks after the first court hearing. Elena was to stay in town and to make sure to attend the court date or face more jail time.
Gregory was at the first court appearance too. He had been arrested without warning and then got out on bail the same day that Elena had. If looks could kill, Elena would have been dead. Gregory had hired Seattle's best defense attorney, but Elena was pretty sure Gregory was looking at jail time no matter what the lawyer came up with.
For now, Elena was a sitting duck. She knew she was not welcome at the Salvatore building, even if Damon had told her she could still work there. She hadn't been sentenced yet, so she was still free to work. Clearly though, Stefan wouldn't have been as welcoming as Damon.
Elena hadn't seen Bonnie since she had dropped her off at the airport. She figured Bonnie knew exactly how Elena had treated Stefan and probably wanted nothing to do with her anymore. Elena didn't blame her.
Elena had also called her aunt Jenna to explain the situation and Jenna had cried, then immediately offered to come to Seattle. But Elena had declined her offer, promising to keep her updated.
Jenna was worried though, because Christmas less than was a week away, and Elena wasn't able to fly back home. And with the current circumstances, Elena didn't want Jenna, Jeremy or Alaric flying in for Christmas.
Elena had lied, telling her family she was going to spend Christmas with Stefan, Damon and Bonnie. She hadn't told her aunt about how horrible she had been to Stefan and how they were no longer a couple. But Jenna was much more likely to stay home if she thought otherwise.
Speaking of Stefan, Elena hadn't seen or spoken to him in two weeks. Not since she lied to his face and made him think she was just using him the whole time. He hadn't come to her first court appearance. Every day, her guilt ate away at her, but she figured it was better this way. Stefan didn't need to be a part of her legal proceedings. He needed to know he was free to move on.
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Bonnie walked into Stefan's apartment to find it a complete disaster. From where she stood, she counted three holes in the wall. There were pizza boxes on the floor along with empty bottles of beer and vodka. The place was a mess, and Stefan was the tidiest person she knew. Clearly, he had been letting the place go the past few weeks on account of him being moody and depressed. He would have never admitted it though.
Bonnie could hear the TV on in his room and went to investigate. She hadn't seen much of him lately. He went to work and ignored Damon. Stefan didn't return anyone's phone calls either. So everyone just sort of left him alone. But she was worried about him. Bonnie loved him too much to watch him slip away into his own darkness.
It was different this time she noticed as she walked towards his room. All the other times when something bad had happened, like when his mother had an incident or when a girlfriend left him, he was angry for maybe a few days, and then he was sad and gloomy. But this time, it had gone on far longer than was healthy. "Knock knock" Bonnie said, tapping on his open bedroom door. He was lying on his bed watching some fishing show. "I came to see how you were holding up" she said softly, letting herself in.
Stefan's eyes never left his TV. "You came. You saw. Now get out" he told her neutrally, having no desire to talk to her or anyone for that matter.
"Stefan" she said softly. Although his words had hurt her, she didn't show it. Because she knew how badly he was hurting since his breakup with Elena.
"Just get out Bonnie" he told her, his voice strained some like he was holding back a lot of anger.
She ignored his request, choosing to walk around to his side of the bed and sit down close to him. She grabbed his hand and held on tight when he tried to rip it away from her. "I'm worried about you" she said, her voice full of fear and worry.
"Don't be" he said, leaning over some to see the TV because she was blocking it.
"Don't shut me out" Bonnie told him, looking at him as he looked away from her. He continued to ignore her. "Hey" she said, placing her hand on his cheek. He sighed and finally looked at her, though he wasn't happy about it. "I am so, so sorry about what happened with Elena" she told him. "I know that she hurt you, and I don't blame you for being angry" she told him.
"Just shut up Bonnie" he told her, completely fed up with her concern. "Stop acting like you know how I feel. If I wanted a damn therapist, I'd hire a professional" he told her, his voice harsh and his eyes cold.
She winced slightly. He had never told her to shut up before, and that had hurt. She tried to remind herself that he really was hurting, and this was his way of coping. "Maybe you should see a therapist" she said, thinking it might not be such a bad idea.
Stefan got up off of the bed quickly, intent on getting her to leave. Because he didn't want to talk about any of this. "Get the hell out!" he yelled at her, standing by the bedroom door. Bonnie didn't move though. "I mean it Bonnie. I don't want you here" he warned.
"She hurt you, Stefan. It's okay to be hurt, because you love her" she said calmly, validating his feelings.
"Stop!" he yelled suddenly, slapping a class candle holder off of the dresser he was standing next to. It was Elena's candle holder. She had put it there to decorate his room a little more.
Bonnie had jumped slightly. "You can't keep this up Stefan" Bonnie said, nearly pleading as she stood and walked towards him. "You're scaring me" she told him, her eyes glossing over because she was ready to cry.
"Then leave!" he yelled at her. "I don't want you here! How many other ways do I need to say it until you understand?" he asked angrily.
Bonnie stared at him like she didn't know him. She was crying by this point, feeling his pain as if it were her own. Never had she been so afraid for him. "I don't know what happened with the two of you, but you are hurting and you need to find a better way to cope before you do or say things you can't take back" she told him, crying softly.
Stefan just stared at her, breathing heavily because he was so out of control. He knew he was being destructive, but if he cared enough to try and stop himself, then all the pain and all the hurt and all the fear would come rushing back. And that would kill him.
"When you decide you need help, you know where to find me" she told him after a moment. Because no matter what, she would be there for him. She always had since the day she met him. Bonnie wiped at her eyes and walked by him, leaving him standing alone in his room.
He waited until he heard the front door open and then close.
And then he went back to his bed and sat down, turning the TV volume up as if nothing had happened.
His phone buzzed, indicating that he had several text messages waiting.
All were from Katherine.
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Damon loosened his tie as he walked into his room, tired after a long day. He saw that Bonnie was already in bed. He went and lay down beside her, wrapping his arms around her. "You're in bed awfully early" he said, kissing the back of her head as he held her.
"I'm tired" Bonnie told him. Her conversation with Stefan earlier had drained her emotionally.
"Are you getting sick?" Damon asked, touching her forehead to check for a fever.
Bonnie eventually turned around to face him. "I'm so worried about Stefan" she told him sadly. "He's so angry and out of control."
Damon sighed. "He just needs time" he told her, grabbing her hand and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. Damon hadn't told Bonnie much about his conversation with Elena except that he wasn't going to turn Elena or Gregory in.
"I just … I don't get why Elena would break up with him like that" she said, confusion spreading across her face. The Elena she had grown to love would have never hurt Stefan the way that she had. While Bonnie didn't know the details of the breakup, she was fairly certain that it had been a nasty one. "I just can't help but think that maybe Elena needed to push him away, and that's why she was so harsh towards him" she continued. It had been bothering her, trying to figure out Elena's motive.
"Bon, we barely know Elena" Damon said, trying to steer Bonnie away from figuring everything out. Because things were going to work out. Gregory was going to jail most likely and his company was going down with him. Stefan and Elena were over, and with Elena most likely headed to jail too, Damon didn't see the point in trying to expose Elena's true motive to Stefan. He just needed to get over it and move on.
"I know" she said sadly. She knew that they hardly knew Elena. Stefan and Elena had moved so fast into a relationship, but Bonnie just had that feeling that Elena was it for Stefan. She was a firm believer that everyone had someone they were meant to be with. And Elena was it for Stefan. "I was just so sure that they were supposed to be together. He was so happy" she said.
"Stefan will be okay" Damon said, trying his best to comfort her. "You know how he is. He gets in a mood and just needs time to pick himself back up" he reminded her. "And you need to leave him be. You can't go around playing the hero all the time."
"I just worry about him" she told Damon.
"And I love that you are so concerned for my brother, but I'm telling you, once this is all over, the court proceedings and all that, things will go back to normal" he assured her. "Just let Stefan work through this on his own for a little bit."
Bonnie didn't like Damon's approach, but the alternative was to go back to Stefan and get yelled at. "Okay" she reluctantly said.
"I'm going to go and make you tea" he told her, brushing her hair behind her ear.
"Wait" Bonnie told him, grabbing onto his arm to stop him.
Damon smiled down at her, giving her a gentle kiss. "I'll be right back" he promised, trying to get up and leave again.
"I need to tell you something" she said, sighing as she did. She had waited long enough and at this point, she didn't think there would ever be a right time to tell him. Elena was in the midst of a trial for embezzlement. Stefan was as out of control as she had ever seen him. And no one was talking to anyone hardly. Life was a mess, yet there would be a baby whether they were ready or not.
"Okay" Damon said, settling back down next to her. "Should I be worried?" he asked. There had been so much tension between the two since she had gotten back from California. Honestly, he hadn't been so sure that Bonnie would come back to Seattle because of how upset she had been when she left.
Bonnie looked at him sadly. "I don't know" she told him. On the one hand, a baby was such a blessing. On the other, they weren't ready.
"You know you can tell me anything" Damon told her, grabbing her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. She did tell him everything whether he wanted to hear it or not usually.
Bonnie looked him in the eyes for a moment, reassuring herself that telling him right then was the right thing to do. "I'm pregnant" she told him. She paused for a moment, watching his reaction. He really didn't have one. Not at first. He just sort of … stared at her blankly. "Damon?" she asked after a moment.
He blinked and then sat up. "Pregnant" he said, testing the word. "Are you sure?" he asked, looking down at her.
Bonnie sat up too and nodded. "I went to the doctor to confirm it" she told him.
"I'm going to be a father?" he asked. Bonnie nodded, still unsure of his reaction. But as soon as he smiled, she felt so much weight being lifted off of her shoulders. He grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her quickly. "We're going to have a baby" he told her, unable to hide his excitement. "Why would you ever hesitate to tell me something like this?" he asked, searching her eyes.
Bonnie had the saddest look on her face when she answered him. "Because our family is a mess" she told him. "Stefan is heartbroken and angry and Elena is probably going to jail. This isn't what I want our baby to know" she said sadly.
And Damon could see just how tortured she was about this. She was right. It wasn't fair to bring a baby into the world when everything around them was falling apart. And it wasn't fair to Bonnie to expect her to focus on being pregnant while she had so many other things to worry about. Damon slowly brought Bonnie into a hug and kissed the side of her head. "Families aren't perfect" he reminded her. "But we'll figure it out" he promised her.
Bonnie sighed. "I guess" she answered.
He felt a deep sense of guilt hearing her say that. Like she didn't believe him. And he had been to the one to set things off, having found out about Gregory embezzling. Maybe he needed to make things right. For everyone.
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Elena checked her watch and saw that it was nearing six at night. She was out walking around Seattle, admiring the Christmas lights and decorations that the city had put up. Christmas was in a few days, and it made her sad to think she would be spending it by herself. She couldn't leave the state to go back home and she didn't want her family to come and see her either. It had been a real struggle to get Jenna to agree to not come, and it had taken a lot of help from Alaric to make her see that Elena just didn't want to be around anyone when things were so messed up. It might not have made sense to everyone, but it was what Elena needed. Jenna still didn't know about the breakup either.
So when Elena's phone rang and she saw that it was Damon, she almost didn't pick up. But he had put up her bail money so she wouldn't have to spend time in jail until the next court date. "Hi Damon" Elena said, trying her best to not sound depressed.
"I need you to let go of your current lawyer and meet with my new lawyer" he told her, not bothering with a greeting.
Elena sighed. "My lawyer is just fine, Damon" she told him. Either way, she was screwed, no matter who was her lawyer.
"Trust me Elena. My guy is the best of the best. Better than Gregory's too" he said, needing to one up Gregory in that department too.
"I appreciate the offer, Damon. But I'm not switching lawyers" she told him. "Look, I have to go" she told him, needing to get off the phone with him. Because she didn't want to talk about any of this anymore.
"He's miserable, you know" Damon told her suddenly, and it cut into her like a sharp knife. She hadn't heard from Stefan since she had told him she only used him to get back at Gregory. "I get what you were trying to do, Elena. But it didn't work. He's not going to move on" he said, taking back his own words that he had told Bonnie earlier. "I think you should tell Stefan the truth. Tell him why you turned yourself in and why you broke up with him" he told her. Because Damon needed things to be better for his family. For Bonnie and the baby. For himself too.
She gripped her phone tight and closed her eyes, willing the lump in her throat and the tears in her eyes to vanish. She wasn't going to divert from her plan. "Goodbye Damon" she told him, hanging up.
The lump was still in her throat as she continued walking, needing to find her car and go home. Her intent had been to hurt Stefan to push him away, but if Damon was right and Stefan wasn't going to move on, then her plan had been poorly thought out. But she had been desperate and that was all she could think to do at the time.
As she walked, she could feel someone approaching her. In downtown Seattle, there was no telling who you would run into at night. When she turned around to confront whoever it was, her heart dropped immediately. Even a mugger would have been a safer bet than Gregory. His deadly eyes nearly paralyzed her. "We need to talk" he told her.
Elena swallowed past the still ever present lump in her throat. He was angry. She knew that when she saw him in court a few weeks ago. He had been completely blindsided by her, turning them both in for embezzlement. She was actually surprised he hadn't confronted her sooner. "Not without my lawyer present" she told him, backing up a few steps.
He didn't seem pleased with her answer. "You are a deceiving, manipulative little bitch, you know that?" he told her.
"And you're a liar and a thief" Elena challenged. "Guess we're not that different after all" she added.
"You think I'm going to lose my company because of this?" he asked her. "You have no idea what my lawyer and I have in store for you" he told her.
"We'll see" Elena told him, stepping away from him again and turning to cross the street to find her car. She was a little worried that there was no one around, but she also knew that Gregory wouldn't be stupid enough to do anything to her with the upcoming trial.
But she began to doubt herself when she felt his hand on her upper arm, turning her back around to face him. And he was mad as hell. "I wasn't done talking to you" he informed her. She tried not to show any fear, but it was becoming harder when he had such a tight grip on her arm and he was standing over her. "Let's go for a ride" he told her. From that close, she could smell the alcohol on his breath. He had been drinking.
Elena shook her head. "No" she told him. "Let me go" she warned.
"Shut up Elena" he said, pushing her forward towards his car parked along the street.
"Stop!" she begged, feeling completely overpowered by him. "Gregory, let me go!" she told him, attempting to use her free arm to swing back and hit him.
He shoved her into the outside of his car though and she felt her head collide against the window. Not hard enough to shatter it, but hard enough to put her into shock just long enough for him to get the door open and shove her in. She immediately tried to open the door and get back out, but he had the child safety lock on, and the only way she was going to get out was if she could get to the controls on his side of the car. Panic immediately set in as he got in the car and started it up. "Sometimes you make life harder for yourself than it needs to be Elena" he told her, pulling away from the curb. She quickly buckled herself in.
Elena reached her fingers up to her head where it was throbbing. When she pulled her hand away, she saw that there was blood on her fingers. Not a lot, but enough to prove that she had been shoved pretty hard into the window. "Where are we going?" she asked, as calmly as she could.
"That's not important" he told her, heading for the freeway. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest that she wondered if he could hear it. Probably not. He never paid attention to her that closely. Once they were on the freeway, she noticed that his car accelerated. Much faster than the speed limit. But he didn't seem to care. "You and I both know that embezzling was what made us reach the top so quickly" he told her, accelerating the car even more. "We didn't hurt anyone Elena. They all got their money back and then some" he added.
Elena watched him take out a bottle of whiskey from down by his feet and take two drinks from it. "You've been drinking" Elena told him. She had been right earlier when she had smelled it.
He let out manic-like chuckle before taking another drink. "Drinking clears my mind" he informed her. "It makes me remember what I really want in life."
"Gregory, pull over" Elena told him. She wasn't sure how much he had been drinking, but if the half empty bottle of whiskey was any indication, she shouldn't have been in the car with him driving.
"You've got nothing to worry about" he told her, drunkenly brushing off her demand. "You need to relax, Elena. Enjoy the ride, because you will be behind bars for quite some time" he said, taking yet another drink.
Elena reached over and grabbed for the bottle, but he wasn't giving it up. He swerved dangerously close to the guardrail as he fought Elena off. She immediately let go and dug her hands into her seat, preparing for them to crash.
They didn't though. He regained control of his steering and continued on his way. "Well that was close" he smirked, looking over at a terrified Elena before laughing.
Tears welled up in her eyes as fear consumed her. "Gregory please pull over" she pleaded, realizing just how scared she was.
"Why would I do that?" he asked. "I haven't gotten to spend time with you alone in ages" he reminded her, taking another drink from his bottle. "Kinda hard to when you've been playing house with that Salvatore loser" he added.
"Gregory, please" she tried to reason with him. "Just pull over. We can talk about whatever you want, just please, stop the car" she said, pleading again.
"You know what I want to talk about, Elena?" he asked. "I want to talk about how you blindsided me by reporting the embezzling" he said. "Imagine my surprise when I get a visit from federal law enforcement officers stating that I am under arrest for fraud" he said angrily.
Elena could feel his anger building and she knew she needed to somehow deescalate him. "I'm sorry" she said, not sure what else to say.
"You're sorry" he said, laughing like he didn't believe her. "Being sorry doesn't get you anywhere in life Elena. It only makes you weak" he told her.
Elena noticed snow on the side of the road. There hadn't been any snow when they left Seattle. They must have been heading East towards the mountain pass. And he was doing way over the speed limit by that point. Slowly, she reached into her sweater pocket to grab her phone. He was still going on and on about how weak she was and how she would never make it in the business world. But when he saw the light on her phone, he completely freaked out on her.
"What the hell are you doing!" he yelled at her, reaching over her and trying to grab her phone. The car swerved some more and he knocked her phone out of her hand before she could dial. It fell to the floor and she knew if she went down to grab it, he would try and stop her.
"You're going to crash us!" she yelled at him, finally letting her tears silently escape.
"Damnit Elena!" he yelled, turning off of the freeway. When he got to the end of the off ramp, he made a left and continued on his way. "You make me so, angry" he said, and Elena could tell that he was starting to get emotional. "All I ever wanted was for us to build a powerful, successful company" he said, and Elena could see that he was starting to cry now. "That's all I ever wanted" he told her, turning off onto another road. "But you didn't want that, did you?" he asked her. Now he just wasn't making sense. He had fired her. He hadn't wanted her.
"Gregory you have to pull the car over" she told him, doing her best to hide how scared she was.
"I'm not pulling the fucking car over Elena!" he suddenly yelled. She jumped slightly at his angry outburst. Gregory stepped on the accelerator and the car quickly went from 50 mph to 80 mph. The road they were on was narrow and winding and Elena knew right away that they were going too fast. The further they travelled along the road, the more snow she saw. And now there was snow and probably ice on the road too.
"Stop the car!" she told him firmly. He sped up even more just to spite her. "Stop the car!" she screamed at him, bursting into tears. He didn't though. He kept going, swerving as he did because he couldn't focus long enough to keep the car in between the lines. "You're going to kill us!" she screamed at him again, feeling her cheeks burning hot from her tears and her fear and panic.
"Maybe we both should die" Gregory said, crying with her now. "Death would be better than jail Elena" he told her sobbing, staring ahead like a complete madman.
"Gregory please stop! You're scaring me!" she cried out.
"Why does he get you, huh?" Gregory asked, turning angry again. "I made you who you are and then he just comes in and takes you from me!" he yelled at her.
"I'm not with him anymore!" Elena cried, trying to reason with him just enough to get him to stop the car.
"Don't lie to me!" he yelled at her, slamming his hands on his steering wheel.
"Please stop the car" she begged, breaking down completely as she watched the man next to her completely out of control. Her breathing was erratic as she realized just how much danger she was in. He was going to kill them both, and there was nothing she could do about it.
"You want me to stop the car, huh?" he asked angrily. He slammed on the brakes suddenly, and the car threw her forward some.
But that was nothing compared to the fear she felt when the tires were spinning on nothing but ice and the car was sliding sideways.
She couldn't scream. Not when the car ran into the median and spun in another direction.
Not when the car was turning on its side and flipping over.
Not when the top of the car was skidding across the road, resting in the snow-covered ditch.
She didn't scream when the car slid to a stop either.
Because when it was over, everything went black.
A/N: Did anyone expect that to happen when you first started reading this update?
I will go and hide now.