Crying Lightning

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone from the vampire diaries.

A little Damon/Stefan scene in this chapter has been purely inspired by a scene that happens in How I Met Your Mother; let me know if you've spotted it! I'm sure if you're a fan of the show, you will immediately!


I look discreetly down at my phone that is hidden under my desk and sigh in annoyance at the text Damon has just sent me, because apparently he is going to have to stay in Chicago for the rest of this week and maybe over the next weekend and that is something I am definitely not happy with.

I'm still in shock over the bombshell that Damon dropped on me over the phone last night about how much money was left to him and his cousins in his grandparents will, I mean…he doesn't know the exact numbers yet, but what he does know is that it's an insanely large amount of money.

Both he and Stefan agreed with their father that they would keep the news of their new found wealth quiet, which I actually agree with, and although Damon has told me about it, I promised him before he even had to ask that I wouldn't tell a soul. I know that some people react differently to people who get in these situations, it's true what they say, money does change people.

Not me though.

I love Damon just as much as I did before he became a 19 year old millionaire. It really doesn't change anything for me, and I know Damon enough to know that he wouldn't let his inheritance change him either.

I just wish he would come home.

I shove my phone back into my jeans pocket and look up just as the bell sounds loudly signalling the end of class and before I can gather all my books together, Miss Flemming, or shall I say Isobel, is calling my name to stay behind in class.

I gulp immediately, because this will be the first time that we will have been alone since our talk in my house a couple of weeks ago. I've seen her since, obviously, she's my freaking science teacher, but never alone. She's done her bit when I asked for space and so far she's never addressed me directly unless it was something to do with school work.

I notice Bonnie lagging behind the rest of my classmates as they quickly rush out of the room, eager to get out of here to probably spend some time with their friends between classes and I just wish that I could be in there shoes right now. I catch my best friends eye and she sends me a supporting glance which I immediately appreciate before I watch her leave, shutting the door behind her.

"What's this about?" I ask nervously as I stand up, my hand leaning down on my desk beside me. "I have another class soon."

"Elena," she walks two steps towards me but then stops, looks down for a moment before finally looking back at me. "I just wanted to see how you are."

"I'm fine." I answer simply.

"It's been a few weeks now since we last spoke about me…well…about you being my daughter." I cringe immediately at the sentence and I think she notices because she turns her head away slightly. "I was just hoping that maybe we could meet some time after school to talk things through properly."

"What's there to talk about?" I ask seriously. "You told me what happened; I accepted it, and now I'm moving on with my life."

"Elena," she looks at me sadly and I almost feel guilty. "Please."

"I'm sorry but…you've had nearly 18 years to think things through, I've barely had a month, so I'm sorry that I'm just not ready to sit down with you again anytime soon."

"I'm trying my best here, you asked for space so I gave you space, but I know that school is almost over for you and then you will be moving to God knows where for college and I'm just scared that I won't ever get the chance to know you."

I gulp slightly when I notice tears in her eyes and I shuffle awkwardly on my feet. "I got into Columbia." I murmur almost shyly.

"You did? Well done, I was wondering if that letter I passed on to you was good news." I watch as she smiles widely and takes another step towards me. "Elena that's amazing…congratulations."

"Thank you."

"So…you'll be moving to New York then?" her smile fades slightly.

"Yup."

"New York is a lot different to Mystic Falls."

I shrug. "I know, but I'm looking forward to it. Besides, Damon is moving there with me so I won't be alone.

"Oh he is?" she looks surprised.

"Yeah, he's applied to NYU. He hasn't heard back from them yet but I know that he'll be fine."

"You sound confident."

"I am." I state firmly. "I know he's smart enough."

We fall into an awkward silence and I look down at my watch, praying for the time to move faster so the bell saves me and I get to go to my next class.

"I'm sure you'll love it there," she smiles softly at me, breaking the silence and I nod my head, unsure of what else to stay.

Thankfully, time is on my side for once and the bell rings and soon students are piling into the classroom and I cough awkwardly and walk past Isobel towards the door, I turn around before I leave and can't help but feel a little guilty at the disheartened look on her face but I push it to the back of my mind and leave.


"Stefan! Pack a bag brother, we're driving back to Mystic Falls." I grin excitedly as I barge into his bedroom without knocking, an empty case in my hands before throwing it on the floor by his bed.

"What?" Stefan swings around in his desk chair and I can see that he has been doing school work. "Are you serious? That's like a twelve hour drive!"

"Yup." I shrug casually, and pull out a set of keys in my pocket before jiggling them about. "Take a look outside." I smirk and Stefan raises his eyebrow at me curiously before standing up and walking towards the window and opening his curtains and looking out.

"Wait is that…" he turns around, his eyes wide in surprise.

"My old Camero? Damn right that's it!" I smirk happily.

"How the hell…I don't understand."

"Well after the whole stealing Daddy's gun fiasco and you know, being involved in a shooting and getting arrested and all that…Giuseppe confiscated it and got it sent over here to stay in the garage in the old cabin in Oak Creek where good old Pops used to go fishing with his war buddies, knowing that I'd never go there to find it." I shrug before a smirk crosses my lips. "Guess who now owns the cabin in Oak Creek?"

Stefan's smile widens. "You do."

"That's right brother!" I grin happily and clap my hands together briefly. "Got a call yesterday asking what I was to do with the vehicle stored there since it wasn't down in the will, obviously, because it belongs to me. So I then got Will and some of my old buddies to drive up there with me first thing this morning to bring it back."

"Does Dad know?" I shake my head as a no. "He's going to be pissed when he finds out."

I shrug casually. "What's he gonna do? Cut me off? Screw it, my probation ends in two weeks, school in a month, and then I can go wherever the hell I want without him and Sheriff Forbes monitoring me or saying a damn thing about it." I throw my keys in the air before catching them again. "So, what do you say? Wanna get out of this joint?" I smirk.

Stefan looks happy for a moment before wariness takes over. "Are you sure it's ok to drive for so long? It's a long way."

"Yes!" I answer immediately, feeling a little offended that he doesn't trust my baby. "That beauty is made of pure steel!"

"Then sure," Stefan smiles. "We gonna leave tomorrow?"

"No." I scoff. "We leave as soon as you've packed, no arguments. I want to surprise Elena and get back to Mystic Falls ASAP, so that means no waiting around!"

"But if we leave now we'll be driving through most of the night."

I shrug. "Less traffic, whatever, come on baby bro, move your ass!" I grin as I leave his bedroom and head back to my own to start packing, eager to get back to Mystic Falls as soon as possible, because I cannot wait to see the look on Elena's face when she sees me back three days earlier than planned.

Plus, we really do need to christen my Camaro.


"So I need help in picking a theme for prom." Caroline gets straight down to business as I sit across from her in the Grill, Bonnie sat beside me looking just as disinterested as I'm feeling.

"Why do we even need to have a theme?" I ask casually but Caroline looks completely mortified by my answer.

"Why do we even-? Elena! Are you serious?!" she looks at me in disbelief. "You've been hanging around Damon too much." She waves me off. "Bonnie, any suggestions, sensible ones please!"

I roll my eyes and Bonnie glances at me a little unsurely before answering. "I'm not sure Care…"

"Urgh!" Caroline groans loudly. "You two are absolutely no help at all! This is why we need to have a Prom committee instead of the Principle just insisting that I should take charge of it!"

"Well, you are Miss Mystic Falls, isn't it your job?" Bonnie replies warily and Caroline just glares at her.

"Oh dear Caroline, are you having trouble planning our prom?" Rebekah approaches the table with a smirk. "Maybe you could use my help?"

"No." Caroline scowls at her immediately. "Nobody needs your help, Rebekah. Besides, it's not even your prom!"

"Well actually, I'm going with Lance as his date!" she replies with a matter of fact tone, Lance being a popular senior and a jock in our class.

"Still no!" Caroline snaps at her.

Rebekah glares back at her in annoyance and I watch her for a moment, thinking back to Damon's words about her the other week when she came back to school and he tried to help her.

If Damon can learn to move past everything that has happened with her family then so can everybody else.

"Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea?" I throw the comment in casually before I change my mind and watch as Caroline turns to look at me in horror.

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah Gilbert," Rebekah looks just as shocked as Caroline, although there is a hint of suspicion in her eyes. "What's your angle?"

"There is no angle." I defend myself and look back at my best friend. "I just think that she'd be better help in organising this thing than me and Bonnie seem to be."

"That's because you don't listen to me, Elena! You spend every second on that damn thing," she reaches over and snatches my phone out of my hand before I can even protest. "Texting Damon, and when you're not texting him you're thinking about him and swooning and pining over him and to be honest, Elena, it's getting kind of boring!"

I glare at her angrily. "I am not swooning over him!"

"Elena," Bonnie joins in with a smile. "You sat completely silent today for an entire hour at lunch with a smile on your face without taking your eyes away from that screen. That's swooning."

Rebekah snorts at this with a smirk and mutters something under her breath and I send her an angry glare. This is what I get for trying to be nice to her?

"We get it," Caroline speaks up before I can argue my case. "You miss your boyfriend, but it's only been two days since you last saw him so can you please just actually give us your full attention for once." I send her one last glare before sighing and giving in.

"Fine." I mutter in annoyance.

"Great!" Caroline beams. "So, prom themes!" she clasps her hands together and I watch as Rebekah slides into the booth beside her and I guess that means she's staying for this.

"How about a fairy tale theme?" Rebekah suggests and I immediately cringe.

"Urgh, no!" Caroline looks disgusted by that idea, thankfully. "That is so tacky and cliché…" she then goes off into a tirade and I sigh and look around the fairly crowded grill, wondering how the hell I managed to get myself roped into this.


Why the hell did I think this would be a good idea?

A twelve hour car ride with me and my brother dearest? Two months ago, this would be my idea of absolute hell, like seriously, the torture I got from Klaus would have sounded more appealing to me than spending time in a confined space with my brother, but I figured that since me and Stefan have been getting along a lot more lately, especially over the past two weeks, we could do this with no problems.

I was wrong.

"Stop changing the station, Stefan! Your taste in music sucks!" And it does, it's even worse than Elena's!

"Shut up, Damon! You've been in charge of the music this entire ride so far!" he sulks and tries to fiddle with my radio again but I swot his hand away and he moves back into his seat in annoyance. "This sucks, why can't you have a CD player like any normal person? No one even uses cassette tapes anymore."

"Because this car is vintage, brother." I roll my eyes at him.

"Old, more like." He huffs before opening up the dashboard and looking at my things inside. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the road.

Three hours down, nine to go.

I can do this.

However, the sound of what sounds like my old cassette player turning on makes my eyes widen in panic and I turn my head to look at Stefan horrified. "What the hell did you just do?!"

"What?" Stefan looks startled by my outburst just as the instrumental start to the song I have grown to detest builds in. A smile crosses Stefan's face. "Oh my god, you have the Proclaimers 500 miles in your car?!" he laughs loudly and I let go of the wheel with my right hand and sock him in the arm. "Oy!"

"You idiot! The tape player is broke; it took me an entire freaking year to get that tape out of there! Well done asshole!" I cringe as the song kicks in, lyrics that I have played over and over in my head, music that I still had in my head when I was trying to sleep every night. "And I didn't choose put this song on, a girl made it for me after I slept with her in sophomore year and it's been fucking haunting me ever since!"

Stefan rubs his arm in pain. "Oh come on, I'm sure it's not that bad." He tries to skip to the next song but 500 Miles just starts to play all over again. "Why won't it change?" he asks confused.

"Because it's broke." I hiss at him in annoyance. "The tape sticks, that's the only song that plays, and now, thanks to YOU, that's all the music I'm going to have playing in my beloved baby for god knows how long!"

"Oh my god," Stefan chuckles and shakes his head in amusement. "This is brilliant!" he lets the song play out and it starts all over again, and sure, he might be amused now but I know it's going to change after hearing the damn song on repeat for another nine freaking hours.


"Elena, have you thought about what you want to do for your birthday yet?" Jenna asks curiously as we sit around the table for dinner.

I sigh and shake my head. "Can we not talk about birthday plans? Or any kind of plans, Caroline has been driving me up the wall all day trying to start organizing Prom, I don't want to think about any kind of event for at least another 24 hours."

Alaric chuckles amused as he digs into his food. "Oh come on, you must be excited. It's your 18th, it's special."

"Besides, your birthday is before prom so that comes first planning wise." Jenna agrees with Alaric.

"I don't know Jenna…it's been such a long weird year, I'm kind of glad to just not be seventeen anymore. A lot has happened, especially in the last couple of months."

"All the more reason to celebrate!" Jenna argues. "Surely you've thought about doing something."

I shrug. Honestly, between the whole Kol and Klaus fiasco, the revelation about Isobel being my mother and then Damon having to go to Chicago, I haven't really had time to think about plans for my birthday.

"To be fair, she has had a lot going on." Jeremy joins in the conversation, probably sensing my discomfort and I send him a grateful smile.

"Ok well all that drama is over with now, so I'm going to make sure you have the birthday that you deserve." Jenna tells me determinedly and I immediately get worried.

"Jenna please don't make a big thing out of this, I literally just want to do something small, with just you guys, Damon and the girls." I sigh. "And Matt." I add as an afterthought.

"Elena…"

"Please." I practically plead with her with my eyes. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Honestly, the thought of turning eighteen right now is scary, and it makes me sad to know that I will be doing it without my parents by my side. My real parents that is, the ones who actually raised me, who cared about me, who loved me.


Stefan slams his fist against his thigh in annoyance before reaching across and turning the stereo off in a huff and I smirk in satisfaction because I knew it had been annoying him for a while now but he was trying to hold off to get to me.

Too bad I have far more experience in stubbornness than he does.

Even if it did take him another three fucking hours!

Just six more hours to go.

We fall into a silence that I can't tell is awkward or not and I can sense Stefan beside me wanting to say something and I sigh loudly.

"Just spit it out brother, your over-thinking is giving me a headache."

Stefan glares at me but speaks up anyway. "It's Elena's birthday soon."

I frown immediately at his words. "I know."

"I was just making sure…you haven't really said anything about it."

"Why the hell would I take about what I'm doing for my girlfriend's birthday to her ex-boyfriend?" I ask him while rolling my eyes and Stefan sighs and mutters something I can't quite catch. "Besides, I've already got her present." I tell him casually. "Well, her main one anyway."

"You do?" Stefan asks shocked and I roll my eyes.

"Don't sound so surprised will you?" I scoff. "But yes, I got it all sorted right after everything happened with Klaus and Kol."

"What are you getting her?" Stefan asks curiously. "It's her eighteenth, it better be good." There is an edge to his tone, almost like he doesn't trust me to do a good job.

I turn my head and glare at him before a smirk crosses my lips. "I got her underwear." I tell him with a shrug.

"As her main present?" Stefan asks skeptically and I can tell that he doesn't quite believe me.

I'm going to change that.

"Don't pull that face, it's good lingerie, like I'm talking about the expensive stuff, you know? The matching sets."

"You can't be serious." Stefan looks at me in disbelief.

"Why wouldn't I be serious?" I put on a frown and turn to face him briefly. "I think she'll like it. I know that I'll like it!" I wiggle my eyebrows and Stefan now looks horrified.

"Oh god, you're an ass, you know that?"

"What?" I protest innocently. "What did you expect me to get her? A new pair of jeans? A dress? A top? Hell no, lingerie is so much sexier." I smirk.

"Damon…"

"Back off, Stefan!" I put a forceful tone to my voice and Stefan mutters something again and holds his hands up in defense.

"Fine, fine, whatever." He smirks slightly. "Just make sure I'm there to see her face when that's what you give her for her eighteen birthday."

"Hell no, you won't be there!" I glare at him and a look of realization crosses his face.

"Gross! That is not what I meant!" he defends himself immediately and I do my best to keep a straight face.

"It better not have been." I mutter before quickly turning on the radio once more and Stefan groans loudly as the instrumental to 500 miles kicks on once again.

As much as this song is annoying the hell out of me, seeing the look of psychological pain and torture on Stefan's face makes it just that little bit bearable.


I finish adding the final touches to my makeup and glance at myself in the mirror briefly, wondering why I'm even bothering, it's not like the one person I even want to look good for is even in this state.

I stifle a yawn and check my phone, wondering why Damon didn't reply to my goodnight text last night or answer my call but I know that he has been busy these past couple of days dealing with the fallout of the will reading.

I walk over to my bed and finish packing my bag, making sure I have the right textbooks for the day before leaving my bedroom. I knock on Jeremy's door but there's no reply so I'm guessing he's left already and I shrug before running down the stairs, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the dining room table before shouting goodbye to Jenna who is normally in the kitchen at this time of the morning.

I look distractedly for my car keys in my bag while opening the door and stepping onto the porch, letting the door close automatically as I climb down the steps and it's not until I reach the bottom step that I lift my hand and look up and I immediately freeze.

There stands Damon, leaning against his old car with his arms folded across his chest with a smirk on his face, the sun shining down on him making his dark hair look shades lighter.

"Morning beautiful." He grins and winks at me before straightening himself up and I look at him in disbelief from across my front yard.

"What…Damon." I shake my head in astonishment, wondering if he's actually stood there right now or if I'm just imagining it.

His smile widens and I immediately rush towards him, practically flinging my body against his as I wrap my arms around him tightly.

"I can't believe you're here!"

"You really think I could last more than three days without you?" he runs a hand through my hair as I start to press kisses along his neck before pulling back and kissing him hard on the mouth.

He swings me around and pins me against his car, deepening the kiss as one of his hands slips under my shirt, caressing my skin softly.

"I've missed…you…so much." I murmur against his mouth in between hot kisses. I grip onto his black t-shirt tightly while the other wraps around his neck, pulling him even closer against me as his other hand glides underneath my thigh, stroking the fabric of my jeans yet still managing to make my skin tingle.

"Oh come on guys!" Damon groans and pulls away from me and I look over his shoulder in embarrassment to see Ric leaving my house while rolling his eyes.

"Good to see you too, Mr Saltzman." Damon glares at him but I can see the amusement in his eyes as Alaric waves him off with his hand as he walks to his car which is parked in front of Damon's.

"It's way too early to see displays like that." He grins at us and I lean my head against Damon's shoulder to hide my blush as Damon fires back some snarky comment and Ric chuckles before climbing into his car, warning us not to be late for school.

"Why does this always happen to us?" I ask with a groan as I watch Ric's car drive down the street.

Damon shrugs with a smirk and kisses my cheek quickly. "Because you just can't resist this incredible body?" he holds arms out and sticks out his chest but I just roll my eyes and shake my head with a smile.

"You're mean, you know that? Telling me that you wouldn't be home for another few days when all along I'd get to see you today anyway." I smile and play with the fabric of his t-shirt.

He shrugs casually with a smile, his hands running slowly down my arms before landing on my hips. "Well actually, I'm not supposed to even be here but I managed to get my hands back on my other baby yesterday and after spending an excruciating unbearable 13 hours with my annoying baby bro driving through the night…here I am." He smiles boyishly and I can't help the wide smile that crosses my lips before turning around and motioning to the car.

"So this is your other baby is it?" I place one of my hands on my hips and eye the car with a raised eyebrow.

"The one and only." He walks around me before opening the passenger door. "Want to take a ride?" he wiggles his eyebrows at me with a cheeky smile and I roll my eyes before climbing inside, watching as Damon closes the door before running around and getting into the driver's seat before pulling away.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Damon makes a turn that takes us away from the direction of school and I look at him curiously but he just waves me off. He drives down an empty road by the side of the woods before pulling over onto the mud and I raise my eyebrow at him.

"What are you doing, Damon?" I ask confused. "We're going to be late…"

"We're not going to school today." He tells me with a smirk, unbuckling both of our belts before shuffling alongside me, his arm falling on the back of my chair behind me, his other now motioning to the dashboard. "Open it up."

I eye him for a moment before doing so, a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach as I wonder what this could be. I open up the dashboard and just find a load of random junk inside and I turn to look at Damon again confused.

"What am I looking for?"

Damon however just smiles before shuffling some things about before pulling out a letter that has already been opening but has been pushed back into its envelope, and handing it to me. I look down at it curiously but it just turns back to being confused when I see that the letter is addressed to him.

"I found it this morning when I got back from Chicago, I had to go home to shower and freshen up, besides it was too early to come and see you anyway…"

"What is it?" I look at him, starting to feel more intrigued.

"Just read it." He smiles softly at me and I can no longer wait for another second before I quickly remove the letter from the envelope and unfold it.

I scan the words with my eyes quickly and before I know it a wave of excitement takes over me and I turn to look at Damon shocked, to see his smile widening at my expression.

"Oh my god!" I practically gasp. "You got in!"

"I got in!" Damon grins happily and I shake my head in disbelief before flinging my arms around him in a hug.

"I knew you would!" I pull away and look down at the NYU acceptance letter in my hands, granted, there are a few conditions but in the gist of it all, he has gotten into NYU.

"We're going to New York, Elena." He smirks at me, his hand touching my cheek.

I'm too speechless to reply so instead I just crash my lips against his in a searing kiss, not believing the difference an hour makes.

"You know," Damon mumbles against my mouth as his hand slides underneath my shirt. "I feel like I should give the two of you a proper introduction." Before I can even question what he is on about, he pulls me onto his lap so I am straddling him before unbuttoning my jeans and crashes his lips back against mine.

I pull away breathlessly with a smirk and lift up his t-shirt over his head, dropping my head so our lips are grazing but when he goes to kiss me I pull away slightly with a smirk, my hand starting to unzip his pants.

"I think a proper introduction is absolutely necessary."


Yay for Damon!

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! And another big thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter too :)

As I mentioned after the last chapter, this story is coming to a close soon, and I was thinking about what I would do afterwards so I thought I would ask for all of your opinion on something.

I am thinking about doing a little sort of sequel full of one shots that basically show snippets of what happens after the final chapter of this story, basically from any time from a couple of months later to 10-20 years later, it wouldn't be in any particular order, but I would try and show 'memorable' moments.

So, what do you think?

Thanks again for reading this chapter, and the story! You're all awesome and it does mean a lot :) Drop a review or something, let me know what you thought of it.

Until next time!