The End Of Forever

Chapter 40

Damon was roused from his deep sleep with a harsh, swift, punch to the face.

His eyes snapped open.

"What the-" His eyes widened and now fully alert, he instinctively rolled off the bed, his knees hitting the floor hard to avoid another swipe from the girl laying next to him. For such a tiny lady, she packed a mean punch.

He rubbed his jaw and then ducked again to avoid the thrashing girl.

"Elena-" Damon peaked over the pillow top bed, nearly missing another swipe. It was a double king, she'd been on the other side when they'd gone to sleep but she had managed to roll all the way to where he'd been sleeping.

On her fourth swipe, with his good hand, Damon grabbed her thin wrist gently and pressed it firmly against the pillow he'd just been resting his head on. He pushed himself up off of the floor enough to lean his knees against the side of the mattress and caressed his useless, casted fingers to sweep the sweaty blonde hair out of her face and behind her ear. "Elena. C'mon. Wake up. You're having a nightmare" He said, leaning forward to whisper in her ear.

"Toy box!" She screamed, dislodging her other arm from under her and swinging at his face.

He'd been a vampire for too long. While he may be human now, when awake, his reflexes were still decent and he was able to avoid it and block with his casted hand. He flinched when her arm hit. He'd taken a painkiller that the hospital provided right before he went to sleep, but it was clear that it was wearing off. The bones were still broken and even though it was a weak hit, the cast vibrated on the broken bones like a bell.

He tried to wrestle her other arm down gently with his casted arm, lifting himself even further off of the floor so he was half leaning over her. Both of Elena's arms pressed against safe, soft pillows. "Elena." He said, trying to shake the haze of sleep away. "You need to wake up. You're dreaming."

She pressed against him, her torso not being held down, lifting off of the bed. Damon tried to re-adjust, tumbling slightly when trying to hold both arms down and lifted his leg over her to keep her secure.

"Elena - " He tried again.

Her body stopped thrashing and suddenly went limp below his legs.

Her eyes popped open.

They were completely void of color. There was nothing there.

Just white.

Damon sat back on his calves, lifting his hands off of her arms and holding them in the air as if in surrender. He strained his back and used his now injured knees to lift his weight off of her body but was sure to keep her secure between his legs.

She stared up at him, THROUGH him. Sweat beaded her hair. Her face was whiter than it was before.

Her eyebrows crinkled.

"DAMON…."

It was a whisper, as if she couldn't draw enough air from her lungs.

He leaned forward, checking himself to make sure he wasn't putting any pressure on her small frame.

She tilted her head to whisper in his ear.

"She's ….HELP…..in the toy box." It was strained… as if she was choking.

She was begging.

His bedroom door slammed open, knocking against his wall with a loud bang.

Damon's head snapped up, trying to assess the new threat.

Caroline.

Perfect curls bouncing, in the process of tying her pink frilly robe, with a deeply concerned look on her face.

And Klaus, her new lapdog... apparently, trailing along after her.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked, fumbling with the ties.

Damon averted his eyes after catching a glimpse of pale white skin. It was very clear that she wasn't wearing anything underneath the robe. He did not want to know what the two had just been up to when they should have been sleeping.

Plus, it wasn't anything that he hadn't seen before.

"I don't KNOW Caroline." He said, the muscle in his jaw twitching. "If I knew… don't you think I might have stopped it by now?"

He looked toward them again, but paid attention to Klaus's bare feet on his wood floor instead of staring at Caroline. And instead of paying attention to the thrashing girl underneath him.

Caroline's eyes narrowed, she gave up trying to tie her nightgown and placed her hands on her hips. "I don't know… DAMON. I sure didn't want any kind of sleep tonight. I don't care about helping at all. I guess I'll just go back to sleep while my best friend is screaming her literal head off. Go fuc-"

Klaus grabbed her arm, swinging her so that her head was buried in his shoulder. He lowered his hands to the ties of her robe and tied them for her gently. "Darling, that's enough. I'm sure everyone's still just a little on edge-"

"WHAT'S WRONG!?" Lily shouted, her shoulder slamming into the door jam, swinging the door for the second time, into the antique wood behind it. She looked frantic.

Damon flinched, trying to ignore the damage to his bedroom.

Enzo followed quickly along behind her.

Elena had quieted and stilled; Damon was thankful. He stared at the four vampires gathered around their bed.

Exhaustion melted his bones in an instant. He let some of his weight rest on Elena and hung his head, his hair falling in front of his face. "While I appreciate everyone's concern. I'm pretty sure it was just a nightmare." He adjusted himself, trying to take some of the weight off of his injured hand. "You can all go back -"

Elena shrieked, bucking Damon off of her violently, him falling to the side not able to safely keep his balance. Caroline rushed forward, grabbing Damon's shoulders and helping him to stay upright on top of Elena.

"Elena, dammit… wake up!" Damon shouted, awkwardly shaking her shoulder with his one good hand and using his casted hand to balance precariously above her. She wouldn't stop screaming and no matter what he did, she refused to wake up.

"Enzo, go and wake up Bonnie." Damon ordered, not knowing what else to do, worried that this was more than a simple nightmare. He'd done everything short of slapping her and he really didn't want to do that. The body that he held in his arms already looked so fragile as it was. Her creamy thin neck had a good chance of snapping if he did.

Sure, Elena had many nightmares in the time they'd been sleeping next to each other over the past few years (And the times he'd sat outside her window that he would never admit to anyone) - she had plenty of things to be traumatized about. But never in all that time, had he heard her scream so loud and be unable to wake her up.

Enzo nodded and zipped away from Lily's side. Lily held her hands over her mouth, terrified at the look of panic on her son's face. She wished there was something that she could do to help but with all her vampire strength, this was not something she could help with and she felt awful.

"Elena." Damon said forcefully into her ear, shaking her again. Her screams had gotten even louder and this was the first time he was happy that he WASN'T a vampire because damn, that would have hurt his ear drums. He stroked the back of his good hand over her cheek, hoping to reach her. "Baby, come back to me."

Elena's eyes popped open and she jolted up from the pillow, her forehead connecting with Damon's. "Ow... " She muttered, rubbing it and laughing a little. Why did that action seem familiar to her?

She looked around, surprised to see Lily, Klaus and Caroline all lined up on the side of the bed. "Um... " She laughed nervously. "What's going on?"

At her question Bonnie came into the room, Enzo and Jeremy following closely behind her. They met eyes and Bonnie smiled. "Oh, good. You're awake." She glared over her shoulder at Enzo. "I can go back to sleep now."

He held up his hands in front of him in defense. "Hey, Damon told me to wake you up. Wasn't my decision. You can take your anger out on him." He said, stepping around her and making his way to stand next to Lily.

Damon's entire body deflated as he threw himself onto his back. "It's all good. Everyone can go back to sleep now." He muttered, rubbing his hand over his face.

Eyebrows crinkled, Elena pushed herself up from the pillow. "What happened?"

Caroline smiled gently at the girl, still feeling weird about seeing her friend in another person's body and lowered herself onto the bed. She reached out and brushed her hand across her shoulder. "You were screaming. You must have had a really bad nightmare. You wouldn't wake up." Her hand dropped to the bed and covered Elena's, noting how clammy it was. "Do you remember what it was about? You were saying something about a toy box. That's kind of weird."

Damon shifted so he could try to see what Elena's reaction would be to Caroline's question. Should he mention the white eyes? Probably. Was he going to right now in front of everyone in the room? Probably not right now.

Elena shook her head, confused. "I just remember a living room I think." She closed her eyes, trying to piece together what little she remembered from the dream.

Everything was jumbled. But she felt like it was very important.

Damon glanced at the occupants in the room and was surprised to see that Stefan wasn't among them. Even on a diet of animal blood, his brother should have heard what was going on and it was very unlike him not to come down.

He rolled his eyes, realizing the problem.

"Did any of you happen to notice if Stefan had any blood after his earlier donation?" He asked, pushing himself up with a groan. He looked towards Lily, but she just shook her head. Damon's eyes shifted over to Klaus.

"I don't believe he did. Rebekah and the bus boy took that other girl back to our mansion and the last time I saw Stefan he was going upstairs. He didn't make a move to go to the cellar." Klaus said.

Caroline glanced at Klaus over her shoulder. "If we're going to be together, you're going to actually have to learn everyone's names."

"Together?" Elena said, her eyebrows raising in surprise. Caroline laughed and Bonnie joined in, moving forward to sit on the bed alongside her friends.

Damon pushed himself off of the bed. "And that's my queue to leave the ladies alone for some girl talk." He glanced over at the clock realizing it was still in the middle of the night. "You have 10 minutes while I get some blood over to the idiot. And then I expect the room to be cleared out so we can go back to sleep."

He made his way to leave and noticed his mother hovering, unsure if she should leave or stay. He patted her on the shoulder as he passed. "Go chat with them, make some friends." He said, low enough for just her to hear. She sent him a grateful smile and crept towards the girls now giggling on the bed.

Damon left the room, Klaus, Enzo and Jeremy quickly filing out behind him.

Elena struggled to pay attention to the conversation in front of her. She really was interested to hear how Caroline and Klaus had ended up together, but her dream kept nagging at the back of her mind.

There was blood. A LOT of blood.

And her father's picture.

And the other Elena. Begging her to do something.

But she couldn't remember WHAT.

"And he's being so GENTLE it's amazing - I mean, I guess I'll have to be some kind of stepmother now. Hope is so adorable, and so well behaved for a little baby. I wonder if she's going to call me Mom when she can start talking. I'm too young for that! Well… I guess I'll always look too young for that -" Caroline's voice invaded slightly.

"Caroline." Elena said, her eye's snapping to her friends.

Startled, she stopped talking. "Yeah?"

"You said I was talking about a toy box?" Elena asked, still trying to wrap her head around everything.

Caroline felt insulted for one quick second before she remembered to check herself. Clearly now wasn't the time to be gossiping about boyfriends and new relationships. It would be better when they were all rested, and her friend was in the correct body and the Salvatore's mother not listening in. It wasn't that Lily was weird, per say. She was just way too quiet.

The gossip would also be WAY better with tons of alcohol.

They'd need to plan a real girl's night, without Damon putting a time restriction on it.

"Yeah." She said, realizing she'd let her thoughts run away for a moment. "You were talking about a toy box. And then you said that SHE is in the toybox."

"What DO you remember from the dream?" Bonnie asked, leaning back and resting herself against the pillows. Trying to think of a spell she could do to see the dream herself. There must be something that she could do.

Elena was silent for a moment, staring at the ceiling. "I woke up on the couch. I think it was the other Elena's house. Everything was normal. I was me. The other Elena was there. And then there was a lot of blood everywhere. My father's picture was there, I think he had something to do with them." She bit her lip. "Elena wanted me to do something, but I don't remember what it was."

"Maybe it WAS just a nightmare?" Lily spoke up for the first time. "The last few days have been very trying for you. Maybe with some rest and things back to normal, you'll be able to get past this?" She suggested.

Elena shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I really think there is something I need to do."

"I can try to take a look into your mind or something?" Bonnie suggested, reaching out her hand to grasp Elena's. "Maybe there's something I could catch in there? I don't know if it will work but if you concentrate really hard, I might be able to pick up on something."

Nodding, Elena folded her fingers with Bonnie's. "Sorry to interrupt your story Caroline." She apologized, her lips twisting into a grimace. "I do want to hear all about it, I promise."

Smiling, Caroline patted her friend's head. "Don't think a think of it. But you do owe me a real girl's night after all this. We have a lot to catch up on." She muttered, thinking about her own apology to Damon. It was something she would have to discuss with Elena as well. And about Tyler. And realizing she needed to do a complete amends tour….

"Wait." She said, a thought breaking through. "Klaus may have mentioned that Elena - well, the other Elena - has a creepy little sister. Is she young enough to fit into a toy box?"

Elena scowled. "Margaret isn't creepy, she just kind of…. knows things." She said, thinking of the adorable little girl. "But yes, she's very young and could easily fit into a toy box. That makes a lot of sense."

But who would want to hurt the little girl?

Why would she be hiding in a toy box?

Elena thought back over the last few days, trying to piece together every little thing that had happened that would put the girl in danger but couldn't think of anything.

Bonnie gasped, unclasping her hand from Elena's and standing up. She turned towards Lily.

"Lily...who helped put you in the prison world? Who were the whistleblowers?" Bonnie asked. Elena didn't realize it, but she'd projected everything quite clearly to Bonnie. EVERYTHING.

Lily, taken aback, was confused. "I don't see what this has to do with-"

"THINK! Kai said that they were going after the whistleblowers first. BEFORE they went after the Gemini coven. WHO PUT YOU THERE?" Bonnie asked.

"They're called Guardians." Lily said, also pushing herself off of the bed. "But there is nothing you have to worry about for anyone here. They had almost died out even when we were around, I highly doubt that there are any more left."

Elena struggled to get off of the bed, pushing Caroline over with her slight weight and almost getting tangled in the sheets before her feet touched the floor. She searched frantically for her shoes, not caring that she was still in her pajamas.

"What's wrong dear?" Lily asked, trying to calm the girl.

"We have to go. I have to go get her." Elena said, slipping into one sneaker, not bothering to find socks.

"What's going on?" Caroline asked.

Elena shook her head, struggling to put on the other sneaker.

"Elena's in the body of a Guardian right now." Bonnie answered for her. She went to the door. "I'll go get my things. I'm coming with you."

Elena reached out to grasp the sides of Lily's shirt. "How can you tell? How can you tell when someone is a Guardian and when someone is not?" She realized that it didn't matter. She didn't know a bit about what being a Guardian actually meant, but she knew that little girl was special.

"The heretics can tell. They can smell them." Lily grasped on to her future daughter in law's hands. "So, if you stay here, they're going to come here for you." She realized instantly that she was in danger and that if Elena stayed in this body that they would find her much more quickly than she'd anticipated.

"I don't care if they come for me! They're going after Margaret!" Elena said, pulling her hands from Lily's and running out of the room.

So... it's been a while. I'm truly sorry for that.

It's been a wild ride. I can say that much. But I should have made this a priority but it's been difficult.

We moved out west, hated it and moved again last year during this crazy pandemic. Not back to NY though. We moved... well, to Mystic Falls. lol

And we both work at Mystic Grill. So... if you're ever in town, just know... if you're drinking a blood bag from Mystic Grill, my husband made that for you! And if you have vervain that says Dzigns By Gem on it... that's made by me. (Along with the name bracelets in the store, Damon's highjacked blood vials and a few new things coming to the store soon like Klaus's blood, Lapis necklaces to keep you safe from the sunlight and Moonstone necklaces to break whatever curses you lol)

Stop by some time and say hello. If you're interested in the vervain straight from Mystic Falls, let me know on my facebook page and I can send some to you or something.

I wanted to go in to detail about all the craziness over the last few years, but I decided not to and to keep this short-ish.

I WILL finish this. Soon. There's only a few more chapters to go. And I also have a sequel in mind but I'll be sure to finish it before I start posting.

Last week we had to take a road trip up to NY from GA and then back again. The entire time, I tried to focus on this instead of other stressful things. It helped. A lot.

Love you all. I will update again soon, I promise.