Chapter 19: I keep falling apart, and I want to carve out my heart…
Elena keeps her eyes glued on the door whenever she's awake, but he doesn't come.
She asks a nurse on the fourth day she has been awake if he's come to visit her and the answer she receives is negative.
Damon… doesn't care.
It doesn't matter to him if she lives or dies. And that absolute realization is bitter and unacceptable.
Her father finds her sobbing quietly in her pillow. He doesn't ask the questions she knows he has, doesn't give her empty words of platitude, just holds her hand and lets her cry it all out.
He is the kind of father she would've adored as a child, been mad at as a teenager. Jeremy calls her every day to complain about the guards that follow him everywhere discreetly because their dad is a "control freak".
Jeremy has had a lot to say about everything, especially their dad. He loves the fact that they are children of a man who scares billionaires shitless, but also thinks that their dad was an idiot to believe Isobel. She thinks their dad loves arguing with Jeremy just as much he loves reading to her. It's a daily thing.
She asks for her phone on the sixth day she's been awake and the moment she's handed the thing she opens it eagerly only to find no new messages, calls or voicemails from Damon.
There is nothing to show for one and half months that she spent knowing Damon Salvatore.
She keeps the phone nearby in case he calls and keeps her eyes on the door in case he visits, but all of it is in vain.
There is no sign of Damon Salvatore and her heart hurts more than her broken body.
~UV~
Her father notices the signs. He is an astute man, and she's agitated and forlorn in turns most of the time over Damon's absence for him to not notice.
"Is something the matter, baby bean?" He asks as he puts down Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban.
She is always baby bean and Jeremy is Jeremy. She doesn't think he even realizes it.
"Baby bean?"
Her mind wanders a lot. She seems unable to focus on one thing and she has heard doctors tell her father that it's a temporary side effect of all the drugs they have been pumping inside her.
"Has someone… come to visit me?" She asks in halting words. Maybe Damon came and the guards didn't let him enter. It could happen, couldn't it?
"Does this someone have a name?" Her father questions gently.
"Damon," She mumbles.
He stays silent for a long time. And his silence is answer enough.
She didn't matter. She doesn't matter. She will not matter to him. Ever.
She is a jumble of emotions and she doesn't know what to feel. Somedays, it hurts too much to think how he left her there, tears on her cheeks and vomit on her clothes, like a fucking exhibit of ruination. And then some days she doesn't feel anything at all when she looks over at her phone and sees nothing from him.
It's been a week and three days when a strange man walks inside her room.
Wow, this dude works out, she thinks as she eyes him. He's tall, not tall like her dad, but tall enough. She can see the muscles beneath the shirt he wears. He has dark brown hair and green eyes and Elena thinks he kinda looks like a TV doctor when she notices his white coat on his arm.
"Hello, Elena!" He says as he takes the chair by her bedside and she can do nothing but mutter a startled hello.
"I am Dr. Mason Lockwood and I am here for your counseling session."
She's pissed.
Her dad… he went and…
She can understand why Jeremy yells so much. She rather feels like yelling herself. It's another matter that she is physically incapable of doing so right now.
Her dad is a mother hen.
She doesn't know what to say to the handsome dude.
He doesn't seem to be in a hurry and he's fiddling with his phone and it irritates Elena.
He is here to look inside her head, know her fucking feelings. Why isn't he doing it then?
She is too miffed to start a conversation and he apparently just cares for the money. She will tell Daddy to…
She gasps at that line of thought. She didn't know she was that person. That "I am gonna tell my Dad about you and he will kick your butt" person.
She's turned into… Draco Malfoy for heaven's sake.
The hour passes in the same vein. She's busy with her thoughts and he with his phone and when the time is up, he gets up and bids her a good day before walking out of the room.
She's beyond pissed.
She's going to have words with her father.
~UV~
But her father doesn't come.
Afternoon turns into evening and there's no sign of him. Elena is starting to get antsy and she's about to call him when the door opens and in walks a girl. Kol is steps behind her.
They're arguing.
"I told you she needs rest, Bonnie. You can-"
"But I am bored, Kol and I wanna meet Mr. Rhen's daughter," She whines.
"Bonnie-"
But before Kol can reprimand the girl, Bonnie is bounding near Elena's bed with a sort of energy that Elena has always found fascinating.
"My apologies, Ms. Rhen," She hears Kol say. "We will be out of here in no time."
But Bonnie has taken a seat near her bed and she looks at Elena as if Elena is some interesting puzzle.
"Do you like BTS?" She asks and Elena hears Kol groan and mutter, "not again".
Elena has heard of BTS, but she never had time to properly cultivate hobbies. She shakes her head.
Bonnie's eyes get this excited gleam that frankly scares Elena a little, but Bonnie is whipping out her phone and talking a mile a minute about someone named Jimin and Elena can only look at this sixteen year old in fascination.
Kol excuses himself after a minute or two and Elena finds herself watching pretty boys dance on screen in synchronization, and she forgets for four minutes that she's angry at her father and heartbroken over Damon…
~UV~
"How did she take to Bonnie?" Alaric asks as he turns the pages, going over the recent Cacciatore, Salvatore-Mikaelson merger.
"You know Bonnie and her love for BTS. She had already made Ms. Rhen listen to a song before I walked out of there," Kol says with a shiver and Alaric laughs.
"She's gonna throw a tantrum about Mason, isn't she?"
"She's your daughter, Mr. Rhen. I would be surprised if she didn't, " Kol remarks as he turns the paperweight on the flat surface of the table.
"How much shares do we own in Cacciatore?" Alaric asks as he puts down the file.
"Enough to hurt Salvatore, sir."
"Hold on to them and start buying up more."
Alaric picks up his cane and is about to walk out when he remembers something.
"Send a cheque of two million dollars with a flower arrangement to Salvatore."
"Anything specific for the message, sir?"
"I will skin him alive and feed him his balls if he even thinks about crawling back in my daughter's life."
"Word for word, sir, or do you need me to phrase that diplomatically?" Kol asks to confirm.
"Fuck diplomacy, Kol. He should be grateful I am leaving him alive."
Alaric walks out of the office leisurely, thinking about taking a detour to the bookstore before he goes back to the hospital.
It would be prudent to buy Stephen Hawking's "The theory of Everything" as a peace offering.
~UV~
So, Bonnie is into kpop. I am much more an Epik High girl myself, but I know Bonnie is into BTS. I just know. And Mason just kinda stumbled into the story? Damon's redemption arc starts from upcoming chapters. Just hold on for the ride.
And fan fiction being fan fiction has decided that it doesn't want me to see reviews.
Still stuck on Je sais pas danser.
And I have started a new kdrama, "Was it love?" It's a love pentagon! Yeah, you read that right.
Inscrutable are your favours, my readers! I love you all very, very much…