A/N: Well, here it is! Enjoy and please let me know what you think!
It was slow and sensual, the way he kissed her. It was like he couldn't pull her any closer to him, but he needed her closer.
It was just a couch they were laying on, in the middle of a rainy Sunday afternoon. Dinner needed to be started and they needed to discuss a few things before work the next day, but neither could honestly move from where they were.
While neither one knew it, both were thinking about when this would all end. When one would get bored with the other or when lazy Sunday afternoons on the couch together kissing slowly wouldn't be a priority anymore.
"What if we got married?" he had asked, momentarily taking a break from her lips. He still held her against him as he brushed a piece of hair out of her face.
She simply had smiled at him and laughed softly. "When?" she asked, thinking she was playing along.
"Today. Tomorrow. Definitely by this time next year" he had answered, brushing his thumb across her cheek before dipping his head down to capture her lips again, not letting her answer him right away.
"You're crazy" she breathed, taking her chance to catch her breath after he had just taken it away. Again. "We've only known each other a few months" she had reminded.
He smiled softly at her, resting his forehead against hers. "Sometimes you just know when something feels right" he had told her. His honesty had hit her and hard.
They did feel right. Everything about him made her either melt into a puddle on the floor or drive her insane. And that's how she knew he was worth all the effort it would take to make a relationship work. She was excited about it too.
If someone had told her that she would have been the one to screw things up so badly, she wouldn't have believed that for a second.
The first thing she noticed when she slowly woke up was that she was coughing. Her throat was dry and she desperately wanted water. Or something to make the scratching feeling go away.
There was a distinctive smell all around her, like metal had been dragged across pavement over and over again until it made a burning smell. It was nauseating, but she couldn't detect where it was coming from right away.
Her head was pounding. Like someone was sitting over her, hitting her in the head at a steady pace. Every now and then, a sharp pain would appear too.
Her face stung and she didn't know why. But it hurt and she wondered where Stefan was. Why had she been dreaming about the time when he had suggested they get married?
Then there was her leg. Her leg felt numb, like someone was standing on top of her.
She didn't know where she was, or why she was feeling the way she was. But everything hurt. She couldn't ever remember feeling so much at once.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. Elena's eyes adjusted to the dark so she could see around her. For a moment, she stopped breathing as she prepared herself for what she was realizing.
Everything was upside down, because she was hanging upside down. Her seatbelt was keeping her from falling on her head.
Elena looked out her broken window and saw the paved road mere inches from her face. There was snow too. Some on the road and even more off to the side. It was cold. She was cold.
Slowly, Elena turned her head back so she was facing forward again. That's when she saw red splattered all over the dashboard in front of her. Her jeans were stained in red too.
Blood. So much blood. Her blood? She didn't know. But it was all over her. She held her hands out in front of her and they shook violently as she examined all of the blood on them. The blood splatter trailed up the sleeves on her jacket as well.
The blood triggered her memory of the accident. Her yelling stop and the car hitting something before flipping over. Then she froze, hanging there paralyzed.
Slowly, she looked to her left and saw Gregory hanging upside down too, his head turned slightly and his body limp. He didn't look like he was breathing. Maybe he was, but she didn't think so. There was a lot of blood around him too. There was blood everywhere.
A terrified sob escaped her as she turned her head away from him. The thought of a dead person less than a foot away from her terrified her. She braced her hands against the top of the car and tried to maneuver herself out of her seat. She had to get out of there. "Ahh" she gasped, feeling a sharp pain coming from her left leg. She looked and saw that the entire front of the car had caved in and pinned her leg down against the seat. The more she pulled, the more pain she felt. She was stuck. He couldn't be dead. Because she was stuck in the car and she could not be stuck in a car with a dead person.
"Gregory?" she cried softly, reaching over and shaking him. He didn't wake up. The more she tried to wake him, the more convinced she was that he was dead. "Oh God" she cried, truly believing that she was trapped in a car with a dead person. Elena bravely reached her hand over and grabbed his wrist, checking for a pulse like she had learned to do so many times in those mandatory CPR classes she had to take. She could feel a slow pulse. He was still alive, but probably barely. She turned away from him and closed her eyes.
He felt so cold and he would need help soon. She would need help soon.
When she did open her eyes a few minutes later, she remembered that she had her phone. Somewhere. Elena looked around her, but didn't see it. It probably had gone flying when the car flipped. She searched behind her as best as she could, but found her phone lying outside of the car, nearly out of arms reach.
Elena reached her arm out of the window, careful not to run her arm across the broken glass. She stretched her arm as far as it would go, leaning her body as much as she could. She still couldn't reach it. "Please" she whimpered, needing to reach her phone. It was her only hope at getting out of there alive. Tears fell down her cheeks again as she strained her body even more, feeling as though something in her leg was tearing the farther she leaned her body out the window.
When her fingers touched the banged up phone, she carefully dragged it closer to her until her hand firmly grasped it. The screen was cracked some, but she could still make a phone call. She took note of the time. She must have been passed out for nearly half an hour if she remembered the time of the crash correctly.
It was hard to dial the correct number when her eyes were clouded with tears. But she did it. She held the phone up to her ear and it rang five times before going to voicemail. She hung up and redialed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Stefan pulled his phone out of his pocket reluctantly and saw that it was Elena calling. He ignored her call. And the next four times she called right after that. He tossed his phone back onto his desk. "Who is that?" Damon asked, hearing his brother's phone ring out. They both were still in Stefan's office, preparing for a conference call the next day. Stefan had forgotten how much work prepping for conference calls was, seeing as how Elena had been doing most of them.
"No one" Stefan grumbled. He went back to his computer and began typing away. He needed a distraction now that Elena was suddenly on his mind again. That was a lie. She had been on his mind since she said she was only using him and then walked out on him. No matter what he did, he couldn't stop thinking about her, and it was pissing him off.
Damon's phone rang out and he looked at the screen, thinking it was Bonnie. It wasn't though. He accepted the call, somewhat confused. "Elena?" he said, wondering why she was calling him back that evening after practically brushing him off earlier. Stefan tried not to seem interested, though he was annoyed that Elena was calling his brother. Did she not understand that he didn't want to talk to her? Stefan was well aware that Damon had bailed Elena out of jail and had been talking with her thus far to support her through the court proceedings. Stefan wasn't happy about it.
The sound of Damon's voice was comforting and in that moment, that's what Elena needed. She felt so alone with Gregory passed out next to her. More importantly though, Damon could give Stefan a message for her. That is why she had tried calling Stefan. She needed him to know something very important. "Tell Stefan I'm sorry" Elena cried, gripping her phone tightly, sobbing as she did. Damon's eyebrow rose as he tried to understand her. She was crying too hard for him to hear her. "Tell him I didn't mean any of it" Elena cried, though her crying was turning into gasping sobs that he really couldn't understand. She was shaking so hard by this point, probably from a mixture of the cold and how scared she was.
She hadn't expected Stefan to pick up his phone and talk to her. He didn't want anything to do with her anymore, and she didn't blame him. She had wanted that, actually. So he wouldn't wait for her while she served her time in jail.
"I can't understand you" Damon told her. There was more crying sobs that he couldn't decipher and he was sure that she was trying to say something else. He pulled the phone away from his ear and held it out towards Stefan. "She's really upset and I don't know what she's trying to say" he told his brother. Damon was at a loss for what to do. Sometimes Bonnie cried like that too and Stefan was the only one who could understand her. It was like a skill he possessed or something.
"Not my problem anymore" Stefan said, pushing Damon's phone away. He just plain didn't care anymore. Or rather, he didn't want to care anymore. Elena had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want him in her life. That she never had. So, for all he cared, she could go crying for someone else.
"Stefan, you need to talk to her!" Damon nearly yelled at him. Damon was worried, and when he got worried, he didn't handle it very well. Stefan continued to ignore him though. "There's things you don't know" Damon told him. There were a lot of things Stefan didn't know, actually.
That seemed to get Stefan's attention, though he still hesitated to take the phone. He glared at Damon who encouraged him again to take the phone. Finally, Stefan took his brother's phone. "What Elena?" he barked into the phone, dead set on being angry and standoffish with her.
Her heart nearly stopped when she heard his voice. Though, it only made her cry harder because she could hear him, yet he wasn't right there next to her. "I'm so … so sorry" she cried hysterically into her phone. Stefan had to pull the phone away slightly because she was so loud.
He sighed. "Are you drunk Elena?" he asked. Maybe she had been drinking and that's why she was so emotional. He had seen her this way once before. He wasn't going to feel sorry for her though and he sure as hell wasn't going to rush to her side to help her.
Elena ignored his question though because she had so much more to say to him. "I didn't mean to hurt you" she continued to cry. Stefan closed his eyes, feeling his heart begin to ache, even though he didn't want it to. He didn't want to care about her or why she was so upset. "I need you to know that Stefan. I love you so much, but there's … God there's so much blood. It's everywhere and I just …"she cried, trailing off and completely changing the subject without even knowing it.
Stefan's eyes shot open instantly. Although he could barely understand her hysterical crying, he did and he knew she had said there was blood and a lot of it. "Elena, what happened?" Stefan asked, suddenly feeling like there was more to this situation than he first had thought. Something wasn't right.
She cried harder. "I told him to stop Stefan. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't stop and then … there's glass everywhere Stefan and I … I can't get out. I can't get out Stefan" she sobbed. Because she wanted out of that car more than anything.
She wasn't making sense. She was going from one thing to the next and quite frankly, he was beyond terrified now. He quickly put the phone on speaker so his brother could hear. Damon was already hovering, trying to figure out what was going on. "Elena, I need you to listen to me, okay?" he asked her. He had to get her calm enough to tell him where she was.
"I was lying Stefan" she said, closing her eyes as her crying continued. She couldn't calm down. She was already worked up. "I never used you. I just didn't know what else to do" she cried sadly, needing him to believe her.
Stefan felt that tug in his heart just a little more as he continued to listen to her. "Elena, where are you?" he tried again as soon as her sobs lessened. While he was interested in what she was saying, the important thing was to figure out where she was and to make sure she was okay.
This question only served to upset her even more. "I don't know" she cried out. Because she didn't.
Stefan mentally cursed because her not knowing wasn't going to help them any. "Elena are you hurt?" he asked.
"My leg is stuck" she cried. Then she looked around again and realized she was still in the overturned car. "The car's upside down!" she cried out, feeling the panic take over her once again. Her sobs came back and anything she said, Stefan couldn't understand this time.
Stefan looked at Damon and they both knew. Car accident. "Elena, I need you to slow down so I can hear you" he told her calmly. "You said someone wouldn't stop. Who wouldn't stop Elena?" he asked.
There were a few muffled cries before she answered. "Gregory. He was driving and I told him to stop" she said, getting herself worked up again. She touched Gregory's hand again to make sure he was still breathing. She couldn't feel a pulse. "Gregory?" Elena asked. She shook him hard. "Stefan he's … he's not waking up" Elena said, beginning to cry all over again. "I can't get him to wake up" she said, falling apart on the phone once more.
Stefan's chest felt heavy and he could see Damon's worried eyes looking right into his. "Elena, I need you to listen to me carefully" he said as calmly as he could. When really, he was anything but calm.
"Stefan please help me" she cried, closing her eyes. "Please help me. I need to get out of this car. I can't stay in here!" she cried hysterically. She tugged on her leg a few times and hollered out in pain. It was no use. She was still stuck.
"Elena" Stefan tried again, but she continued to cry.
"I want out of here!" she yelled into the phone. She was in full on panic mode by this point. "Please, help me" she cried, placing her hand over her face to try and shield herself from the nightmare she was living. She couldn't take it anymore.
"Elena, I know you're scared" Damon said, finally speaking up when Stefan couldn't gain control over the situation. "But we're going to help you. You need to calm down and listen to us, okay?" he asked her.
"Please come get me" she cried desperately.
If Stefan's heart wasn't already shattered, it was right then. To hear her so distraught and desperate. "I'm going to come and get you" Stefan assured her, earning him an approving look from Damon. "But here's what I need you to do. I need you to turn on the GPS on your phone and get a location for me, okay?" he told her. "And then I'm going to call for help and come and get you" he said slowly.
"I'm so sorry" she said, her crying becoming less intense. It almost sounded as if she were tiring.
More ache in his heart. "I know you are" he told her, not knowing what else to say. "Please, can you turn on the GPS and get a location for me?" he asked.
He could hear her sniffling and a few noises coming from buttons she was pushing on her phone. It took less than a minute, but it felt like a lot longer because he was so worried. She rattled off the exact coordinates that the GPS gave and Damon quickly punched them into Stefan's phone. "That's heading towards Snoqualmie Pass" Damon said, looking at his brother with even more concern. That meant colder temperatures.
"Call 911" Stefan instructed and Damon quickly walked to the other side of the road to do so. Stefan grabbed his jacket and was heading out of the office. "Elena, I want you to stay still. Don't move. I'm coming to get you right now" he informed her, running down the hall. Stefan could hear Damon calling after him. "I need you to hang on."
She cried softly as she listened to him, feeling some sense of relief that she wouldn't be alone for much longer. "I can't" she cried, tilting her head to the side, away from Gregory.
"Yes you can" he told her, beeping his car as he ran outside. "I'm getting in the car right now" he promised, and she could hear the door shutting. Just as he was about to pull out, Damon was climbing into the car with him. They didn't exchange words, but both had a knowing look.
Right now, the company, the finances, the trial, the anger and the stress. None of it mattered. Not when Elena's life was at stake.
A/N: Just to be clear, this does not mean that things between Stefan and Elena are instantly fixed or resolved. I was trying to portray Stefan's reaction while he was experiencing Elena's crisis, thus having him run to her.
But I hope you still enjoyed it nonetheless :D