Authors Note: Hey everyone here is the new chapter, thanks for all the reviews. So I decided to put the two ideas I had into one; in this chapter we see how everyone deals with the loss of Damon and the effects his absence is having on Mystic Falls.
Damon's absence will be felt by a lot of people, I will be adding one more chapter without Damon around but he should be back around chapter 23 or 24. Amway's this is shorter than the last I hope you enjoy and as always on with the show.
Chapter 21: The Missing Piece
Gilbert Residence, Mystic Falls, Virginia
Tuesday, Early Morning, 2011
One Month After Homecoming
Elena Point of View
Dear Damon
Where do I even start, I guess this is the first time I write in a journal with the hopes someone else will read it one day. It's been a month since Homecoming and I still the pain from that night…the pain of having my soul ripped from my body. One day I hope I'm lying in your arms reading this while you make jokes and tease me for being sentimental but until then all I have this is journal and our memoires.
I guess I should tell what's been happening in Mystic Falls since Homecoming, I guess I'll start with the night itself. You will be happy to know (and between you and me I am too) Kai is dead. Stefan and Caroline had decided to surprise us with a visit that night and I don't think Kai or Cade were expecting it. Neither were they expecting Bonnie to be as powerful as she was or they would have used more power in the spell to knock her out. From what I'm told Bonnie woke up around the same time Caroline and Stefan showed up because they attacked at the same time. Bonnie went after Cade while Stefan ripped out Kai's heart. The spell must have taken a lot out of him because he could barely stand when Stefan ripped his heart from his chest.
After they burned Kai's body and moved you back to the boarding house Bonnie dove into every spell book she could. We didn't sleep for a week, Jeremy and Alaric had to pull us away or we would never have stopped looking. Everybody told me I had to go to school, that you wouldn't want me wasting my life searching for an answer that wasn't there. But they can't understand that you were my life and that without you in it life is meaningless. I refused to give up completely and I joined Bonnie in spending our nights looking for an answer. You'd be surprised to hear but Enzo has been helping us.
When he found out what had happened to you it looked like the life had been knocked out of him. He didn't say anything the night he found out, he simply grabbed the closest spell book to Bonnie and I and started to help us look for answer. I didn't ask why when he turned up at Bonnie's a week later asking to help look for a spell, I just gave him the closest one and went back to looking.
Bonnie has been sleeping about as much as I have, she carries a spell book to school every day and we spend our nights buried in books. When I finally was able to ask her why she was helping she broke down and told me that it had felt like a family member had died but she had the power to bring them back. We broke down together and cried together…Bonnie is the only one who understands what it truly means to lose you.
And now I feel guilty because Jeremy and Bonnie have been fighting constantly lately; she has barely spent time outside of the books and it upsets Jeremy that you would mean more to her than him. That night was the first night I slapped Jeremy since we were kids and told him to get out and not to come back unless he wanted to help. It isn't helping that Enzo and Bonnie have been spending so much time together either, but he's the only one willing to devote as much time as he is.
Alaric has spent almost every night at the Grill drowning himself in bourbon, he hasn't said it, but I know losing you broke him that night as well. He's lost so much and to have his best friend taken it as well was just too much. I can't blame him, and now I understand why you drank so much, it feels like there's a hole…an emptiness in my heart where you used to be.
Stefan has been suffering, he was barely getting his bloodlust issues under control when you were taken away. Caroline told me the other day that he hasn't been sleeping, and he's slipped up several times in trying to get it under control and that he wishes you were here to talk to. He dropped out of school and gave the same reason we gave everyone else why; that you had been in an accident and had moved to Richmond for treatment. Mystic Falls thinks that you were in a car accident (and with the sheriffs help) we fabricated the story that you were in a coma and the doctors were unsure when or if you would wake up.
I wanted to keep you in the house but I was overruled by everyone else, and so we placed you in a coffin…or the others did. I don't think my heart could take the pain of seeing you lifeless in a coffin, but now you're in the old Salvatore crypt. Bonnie spelled the crypt with that many different wards that no-one including me can get within ten feet of the tomb. I know they did this on purpose, because I know that if I could, I would spend the nights by your coffin. How did you do this Damon for so long Damon?
It's only been one month but I don't know how much longer I can go on without having you so close but so far.
"Elena can I come in?" a voice spoke breaking Elena out of writing on her bed.
"Yeah sure come in" Elena murmured trying to wipe the tear from her eye that had fallen during her writing.
Caroline slowly entered the room and shut the door behind her, the lamp from Elena's beside table softly illuminating the room. Caroline took in her best friend and smiled softly at her when she spotted the red eyes and tears that she was trying to hide from her.
"Oh honey" Caroline sitting beside Elena and pulling her into a hug. Elena shuddered for a moment before she broke down in her friends arms, the kindness destroying her defences.
"I miss him Caroline…I miss him so much" Elena cried between sobs, her words nearly incomprehensible to the blonde.
"I know Elena, I know" Caroline murmured to her friend softly stroking her back and hugging her gently.
After several minutes Elena finally quieted down and moved away from the blonde. She picked up the journal and placed it on top of her own that was sitting on the beside table making Caroline raise her eyebrows.
"Its…it's for Damon, I thought that if I wrote to him it would make me feel better. And it did I felt like I was talking to him, like I was with him" Elena said in explanation causing Caroline to sigh.
"Elena…do you think Damon would want this for you…for your life to be like this. Just existing and not living?" Caroline asked gently raising her hands to her friend to stop her outburst.
"I'm not saying this to be mean or because I don't like Damon…but because I love you…a lot of people do and its breaking all of our hearts to see you like this. And I might not know Damon as well as you but I know he would want you to live your life…to have fun every once in a while wouldn't he?" Caroline continued causing Elena to look and pick at the bedding.
"Caroline, I know that you mean well but I just…I've lost so many people in my life. Jenna…John… and my parents that by this point in time I feel like I have grieving down to an art form. But…Caroline I feel like…I feel like I'm gonna die" Elena said brokenly finally voicing how she had been feeling since the moment the spell had been placed on Damon.
Caroline looked shocked for a moment now fully realising how much pain her friend was in and realising that there wasn't a thing Caroline could do for her. Caroline hugged Elena again as the tears streamed down her face knowing there was only one person in the world who could make her friend hole and he was gone.
Salvatore Boarding House, Mystic Falls, Virginia
Sunday, Late Evening, 2011
One Month and two weeks after homecoming
Stefan Point of View
Stefan was drunk and he knew it, he hadn't been this drunk in decades, but he had started drinking in the morning and before he knew it he had polished off six bottles of Damon scotch and had moved to his whiskey collection. He had started drinking in a vain effort that he would feel closer to his brother or that by some miracle he would walk through the boarding house doors and yell at him for drinking his precious alcohol.
But Damon had never materialised, and Stefan had continued drinking enjoying the numbing feel the whiskey provided and finally understand why his brother spent most of his time drinking. For Stefan's entire existence he had always known that his brother was out there in the world, that he was alive, and that Stefan wasn't alone. For a century and a half, he could count on his brother to blow into his life and prove that Stefan still had family. But now after Damon and Stefan had started to slowly mend their fences he was taken away by a Warlock and the devil because his brother stood in their way.
It had always been a fear of Stefan's that one-day Damon would piss someone off who was more powerful and now the day he had been dreading for so long had come to past. As the thoughts of Damon being gone entered his mind, Stefan's grip on the glass tightened, not only that but it was at a point where Damon and he were finally starting to mend their relationship. He had seen glimpses of the man Damon was and then by a miracle he had the brother he had always longed for back. And what had Stefan done…he had raged at his brother, berated him for finally being happy instead of trying to get their brother hood back. As thoughts of that night surfaced Stefan stumbled up from the couch and tried to pour himself another drink from the drink cart but after realising he had finished off the last bottle of whiskey he felt a rage well up inside him.
"Ahhhhhhhh" Stefan cried flinging our his hand and sending the empty bottle shattering into the fire place.
"What did the bottle ever do to you?" Carolines voice asked from behind him, causing him to spin and almost fall before he caught himself on the wall.
"Stupid bottle ran out of booze that's what it did" Stefan murmured trying to walk over to Damon's locked liquor cabinet before Caroline vamp sped in front of him.
"You are wasted Stefan, you don't need anymore booze" Caroline murmured softly laying a hand on his chest. Stefan looked down at it for a moment before he stumbled over to the couch and crashed down into it.
"What are you doing here Caroline?" Stefan murmured wiping his face and trying in vein to sober up.
"I was worried about you…I haven't seen you in a couple of days" Caroline murmured as she came and sat beside Stefan on the couch picking up her hand and entwining their fingers.
"I'm fine Caroline" Stefan murmured weakly trying in vein to hide his feelings from Caroline.
Lately it was as if she knew when he was in pain and she was always there when he needed he. Stefan looked into the fire, the alcohol making him more honest than he had been to Caroline in weeks.
"He was happy you know…he even apologized to me and said he wanted to start over…and what did I do? I threw it back in his face…I thought we would have more time…that I could be angry at him. But now's he's gone…he should be here" Stefan croaked out, the tears he had been holding in for so long broke through and he buried his face in his hands.
Caroline moved over to him and softly took him in her arms and started to gently rock Stefan through his tears, they would stay like that until Stefan passed out just after sunrise.
Bennet House, Mystic Falls, Virginia
Friday, Early Morning, 2011
Two Months After Homecoming
Bonnie Point of View
Bonnie sighed and rubbed her eyes once from where she sat in her living room putting the current spell book down on her table in her lounge room which was currently filled with scattered papers, open spell books and dirty dishes. Bonnie was glad that her father only came to visit every now and again or he would be making her life a lot more difficult. Bonnie caught sight of Elena on the sleeping on the couch a spell book slipping from her grasp. Bonnie got up and suddenly realised that the sun was up…she had been up all night again.
As Bonnie walked over to her friend and took the book from her hands and placed on the table with the many others. Bonnie sighed as she looked down at Elena; Elena was putting on a brave front but the nights where Elena was too exhausted to go home Bonnie would hear he friend mumbling in her sleep calling desperately out for Damon.
"Damon you're here" Elena murmured in her sleep smiling unlike she ever did when she was awake.
A stab of guilt and longing went through Bonnie at the sound of Damon's name; she didn't understand her reactions herself but it felt as if a piece of her had been torn away. Not like a lover but more a brother had been lost, and it shocked Bonnie to her core. She hadn't realised how close she and Damon had become in the short time he had travelled back in time or how much she herself had come to rely on him.
As she walked into the kitchen memories of the precious few nights with Damon and Elena flashed through her mind; Damon was a lot of things to Bonnie, at first he was the energy, then he was a reluctant ally and now he was someone who Bonnie realised she couldn't live her life without. He had embedded himself into her life and she never realised how much she took for granted…and it wasn't just the fact that Damon was willing to die for Elena or Bonnie or anyone of their friends.
It was the little things she missed; his sarcastic smile, the way he could always turn any dire situation funny but most of all she missed the way she made her feel. As they had become friends it was like a missing piece of life that she didn't know was absent had been returned. As memories assaulted Bonnie's mind the tears gathered in her eyes and started to fall. A knock at the front door broke Bonnie out of her depression, making her way towards the door whilst wippinng her face she opened it coming face to face with Lorenzo St John.
"Hello love I come bearing coffee" Enzo said holding up a tray that held three cups of coffee causing Bonnie to smile at him.
"Thanks I really need this…long night" Bonnie murmured moving aside to let Enzo enter the house, he passed her a coffee before he walked into the lounge room.
"You didn't sleep again?" Enzo asked as he placed the tray on the table and looked at Elena who was still mumbling Damon's and smiling in her sleep.
"No I thought I found something…but it turned out to be a dead end" Bonnie murmured putting her face in her hands. A sudden warmth on her shoulder caused her to look up into Enzo face who was smiling softly at her.
"You will Bonnie, when you set your mind to something you will do it…something I learned about you over the last couple of months" Enzo replied causing Bonnie to smile in response before it disappeared from her face.
"What's wrong?" Enzo asked as Bonnie looked down at her hands again.
"I wish Jeremy had as much faith in me as you did Enzo" Bonnie murmured standing up and walking into the kitchen whilst Enzo followed close behind.
"Mini-Gilbert, Elena's dweeb of a brother why wouldn't he believe you can do this?" Enzo asked taking a seat at the kitchen table as Bonnie plopped down in her chair and looking at Enzo for a moment contemplating whether she should tell him.
"He doesn't think there's a way to break the spell…and he's not happy with how much time I'm spending looking for a way to break the spell. I haven't been the best girlfriend the last couple of months" Bonnie murmured the guilt from neglecting Jeremy creeping into her voice.
"What, doesn't he understand what's happening to his sister?" Enzo asked in disbelief looking over at Elena from his position in the kitchen.
"Yeah he does…but I spend all my free time looking an answer when there might not be one. I mean Damon told Elena that at the time he travelled back Elena had been in the sleeping spell for four years…and I'm not closer to an answer" Bonnie spoke in frustration.
Enzo looked undecided for a moment before he stood up and sat in the chair Bonnie softly pulling her into a hug.
"You will find an answer Bonnie, you will, and we'll bring him back" Enzo murmured to her as she softly started to cry, guilt finally pouring out of her in her tears. After a few minutes Bonnie was able to look up at Enzo, noticing not for the first time how handsome he was or how her heart seemed to betray her when Bonnie was with him like this. She'd told herself that she only felt this way because Enzo was a link to Damon, but deep down the warmth she felt from when Enzo would hold her or touch her hand didn't feel anyway like she did around Damon…or even Jeremy for that matter.
End of Chapter Note: So, what did everyone think, as we can see there definite consequences to Damon's absence with the biggest being the effect it is having on Bonnie and her relationship with Jeremy.
Now I'm not Jeremy Bashing but he was quite immature up until season 4 when he became a hunter and had to grow up, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and as always leave your thoughts on the story with a review.
