"Damon?" Enzo approaches him as he enters the Emergency Department. He accompanied Elena to have her arm looked at. As soon as her brother- in- law arrives to take her home, he'll have to go to the station to begin filling out reports. There'll be no sleep for him tonight.
"I thought you might need a good cup of coffee," Enzo hands him a Starbucks Venti-sized Americano.
"Thanks Enzo, I'm just waiting to see Elena for a moment before I head back to the station. We'll need the police divers and a crane in the morning to pull that vehicle out of the water and retrieve what I assume are two bodies. Elena said the driver accidentally got capped when she was struggling with Maxfield for the gun."
"Damon?" his brother walks into the waiting room. "Enzo how are you?"
"Good Stefan, glad you were here tonight."
"How is she?" Damon interrupts, taking a long swallow of his coffee.
"She wants to see you," he leads Damon through the double doors and into Elena's exam room.
Elena looks up when she hears the curtain slide open. "Hi."
"Hello," he looks at her arm with a long row of sutures. He steps aside when nurse Ari returns to wrap it with kerlix.
"I just wanted to say thanks for saving me. I know what I did was probably stupid..."
"Probably?" he furrows his brows at her.
"It worked didn't it? He's dead or at least I hope he is," she looks at him somberly.
"We were close to arresting him, Elena. He could have killed you," Damon looks at her sardonically.
"He didn't though..." she starts, her words dying on her lips when Nik whips the curtain open and whooshes past Damon as if he wasn't there. Immediately, he wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her close, gently rubbing her good arm. Despite the heaviness in her stomach, she sinks into the warmth of his side, appreciative of the simple gesture.
Damon curls his upper lip to keep himself from speaking. His mind is whirling with thoughts that only make him assume the worst. The feeling of jealousy is slowly growing into his skin, filling his blood making his eyes go dark, and his mouth becomes a straight line. When he clears his throat, Nik separates from her slightly.
"I need to get to the office. We'll need to get a statement from you at your earliest convenience."
"If they let me out of here, I'll come down tomorrow," Elena looks up at him.
"Alright," he nods. "Goodnight, Elena, I'm glad you're going to be alright."
"How did you let this happen?" Nik glowers at Damon.
"Don't Nik," Elena interrupts, "I'll fill you in later."
With a nod to her, Damon departs, pulling the curtain closed behind him.
The coolness of the early morning is deceptive; the sun has barely risen as Damon makes his way towards the docks. After parking his car, he catches Enzo stopping to light up a cigarette. Together they jog to the police boat. He greets their divers, Brady Williams, Lexi Branson and Maddox Jackson, shaking each of their hands. With a nod to the boat captain, it pulls out of the harbor and into the open ocean towards the break in the causeway where the Range Rover went into the Gulf.
Damon sticks his hands in his pockets. It's chilly this morning but he can't deny that early mornings are their own reward. The city buildings are silhouettes against a crimson sky and the air smells of the ocean. There are no drone of cars, there's only the cry of the gulls as they fly around and dip down on the sand to get morsels of food.
The sea, perfectly calm, is like a peaceful lake, and its soft murmurs are scarcely audible. The waves seem to sleep. A line of darker blue marks the curve of the horizon. Sitting down on the edge, Damon sticks his hand in to feel the temperature, knowing their divers are going to have to go into frigid water. It moves softly around his outstretched fingers, caressing coolly, eddying in its wake. He pulls it out and watches the drips. They fall as if snatched by gravity to the salty ocean below, each one swiftly haloed by ever-growing rings, distorting the otherwise calm surface. In the breeze his wet hand is cold, yet his back is being warmed by the early morning sun.
Captain Silas throws the anchor over when they reach the area of the dive. The causeway carries traffic over Galveston Bay and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The original causeway was built in 1912 and carried both rail and auto traffic. The auto traffic was transferred to new causeways built to the west in 1939, leaving the original bridge for rail traffic. That route was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
The causeway was damaged by Hurricane Harvey last year and they have made a lot of progress with the repair. Damon has to wonder if the driver willfully ignored the construction barricades or if Wes forced him onto it with his gun? He watches as the divers put their oxygen tanks and gear on and with a thumbs up, they drop backwards over the edge of the boat and into the depths below.
Damon stares into the water, hoping to see something but it's futile with the poor visibility. "Thanks," he nods when Enzo hands him a cup of coffee from his thermos. He takes a sip, his thoughts drift to Elena, he doesn't know if she was discharged last evening or if she was kept overnight. He'll have to call her if he can string five minutes together. When bubbles begin appear on the surface, he puts those thoughts aside and focuses on the water. Moments later Brady rises with the body of a Wes Maxfield and within moments the other two rise with the body of the other man. With an impassive look on his face, Damon stands back while the other crew members lift the remains onto the boat and store them in body bags.
With the bodies safely on board, Captain Silas radios the crane operator to the location of the submerged vehicle, then the anchor is lifted and the boat heads back to the harbor to meet the awaiting coroner's van for transport to the police morgue.
Damon stares at the horizon where the sea meets the sky with only an occasional glance at the two body bags. In this job he's seen death over and over, a corpse is simply a corpse unless someone who loved them enters the room. That's when the atmosphere changes, when they start to feel the trauma. Mostly they deal with it later with macabre humor - the hit and run victim is "roadkill" and the stabbing victim is a "pin cushion." It isn't that he and his men don't care, it's more that they have to find a way to do their jobs and still function as spouses, lovers and parents...
Several hours later, Damon takes the stairs downstairs to talk to the coroner, Dr. Josette Laughlin. Rapping on the door frame, he enters when one of her staff opens it.
"Hi Damon," Josette appears at the threshold of her office, gesturing for him to join her.
"It's been awhile," Damon shakes her hand then takes a seat. "How's the family?"
"Lizzie and Josie are growing like weeds, they're already 5 years old," she hands him the frame that's sitting on her desktop.
"My little niece, Allie too. Of course she has her uncle Damon completely whipped," he takes the picture, "Very cute."
"I think so but I'm a little biased," she sets it back on her desk when he returns it.
"What can you tell me about our vics?"
"Mr. Salazaar was found in the driver's seat. He was killed by 9 mm slug to the head. The trajectory of the bullet shows he was shot from behind. The other body, identified as Wesley Maxfield drowned."
"Shot from behind?" Damon repeats, his eyes focused intently on her.
"Yes, the bullet entered right temporal bone," she points to the area behind her ear.
"Curious!" he glances at his watch. "I need to run, Miss Gilbert should be arriving shortly to give her statement. Thank you, Jo, I'll be in touch," he nods and exits the room, closing the door behind him.
Damon's face is buried in a file when he's alerted that Elena has arrived. He gets up to meet her at the door, his eyes perusing her form and focusing in on her arm that's in a sling. "How are you?" he asks as he extends his arm for her to have a seat. He catches a glimpse of Nik Mikaelson seated in the waiting area. Silently sighing, he pulls a chair out for her then sits down himself.
"It hurts but other than that, I'm fine," she looks up at him, her heart pounding in her throat at being so close to him.
"Do you want a cup of coffee or a bottle of water?" he tries to break the uneasiness in the room.
"No, I'm fine, Damon," she stresses, "I just want to tell you what happened. I'm scheduled to attend a work related conference in Oklahoma City Friday. I won't be available for a few days."
"Alright. Do you mind if I record you? I have to have your consent," he pulls open his drawer to set the recorder, nodding for her to begin.
"Well," she drops her chin for a moment, "You have to understand that Katherine and I were very close. She was five years older than me, still people often mistook us for twins. I used that to my advantage, I called him."
"You called him? At his medical office?" Damon looks at her quizzically.
"I told you I ran into him in Virginia, he slipped a business card in my pocket. I only found it later."
His face is taut as the hand on his lap curls into a fist.
"I told him that his goon killed Elena, that 'she' was babysitting that day...," she goes silent for a moment.
"Elena?"
"Sorry, I arranged for us to meet near the Galaxy Wheel at the Pleasure Pier."
These difficult emotions, she imagines them as a river flowing by her. There is nothing to be done about them, she just needs to stay calm and tell her story.
"You pretended to be your sister?" Damon's eyes snap to hers.
"I did. He was already waiting when I got there, he shoved me into a vehicle and drove past the pier. He parked his car some distance away and then we walked till we reached that building. Next thing I knew his hand was over my face. I don't know, chloroform maybe? When I came to, I was tied up and he was slicing my arm," she unconsciously rubs her free hand over her sling.
"It was damn hard and I was terrified but I realized the only chance I had was to remain in character. Under the guise of having sex," Blush sears through Elena's cheeks and for a minute it feels like her face is on fire. She's certain that his eyes are looking at her, eagerly waiting for more.
"Go on," Damon urges her, trying not to embarrass her anymore than she aleady is.
"I got him to untie me," she sucks her lower lip between her teeth and wipes her clammy palm on her jeans. "I let him kiss me and while he was sticking his tongue in my mouth, I jabbed him in the neck with some Ketamine. He collapsed, I tied him up as best I could then I called you and well, you know the rest."
"Can you tell me what happened in the vehicle?"
"We struggled for the gun, he fired and killed the driver, that's why the car was zig-zagging on the road. I knew he'd kill me so I fought with everything in me."
"Did he force the driver to take the Causeway? Surely you knew of the construction?"
"I wasn't paying attention to that, Damon, I was focused on trying to survive."
"Police divers plucked their bodies out of the water, he didn't survive, you and your family are safe now."
"Is that all?" she asks, her fingertips tapping nervously on her thigh.
"Not quite," he turns off the recorder, walks around to her side of the desk and plants his ass on the edge. "What the hell were you thinking? He could have killed you. I told you we were close to making an arrest."
Words leave her. She stares into those bright blue eyes burning with anger, and her heart falls silent.
"Do you have nothing to say for yourself?" His eyes desperately search hers… waiting.
"When he disappeared, I had to do something," she clenches her fist tightly, until her nails dig into the palm of her hand, but she barely notices. The only thing she is really aware of, is the sound of her heart throbbing against the cage of her chest. She feels her blush deepen under his scrutiny and when Damon pulls her to her feet, he tilts her head to the side and kisses her, his lips demanding. A smoldering heat burns deep within her as his grip tightens. He tastes like November, like hot chocolate on stormy evenings and crisp autumn air.
Then he steps back, putting distance between them. "If you had died, I would never have been able to tell you that I...," the words die on his lips when his office door flies open to reveal Nik Mikaelson.
A heavy silence settles over them, thicker then the uneasy tension in the atmosphere.
Nik gives Damon a death stare, "We have to go," his eyes dart to Elena as he moves next to her and urges her towards the door. As she puts a foot over the threshold, she stops and looks back at Damon.
"If you need anything else, you know how to reach me," she watches the momentary disappointment shadow his previously anticipating expression before he composes himself with nonchalance she knows he's forcing.
"Sure," he states with portraying eyes that suggest it maybe some time before she sees him again.
Losing the strength to face him directly, her eyes fall to Nik and they leave with his arm around her shoulder. Her feelings for Damon have her treading in deep water... His job is fraught with danger - she could lose him at any time - for any reason. Still she's finding it incredibly difficult to ignore the little voice inside - the one telling her that letting him escape might prove to be her biggest regret.
Hope you enjoyed today's chapter - 4 left.
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Chapter title: 'Follow' by Breaking Benjamin.
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