Lights, blurring.

Voices, slowly fading.

Wind, shooting cold.

Body, growing numb.

Pain, so consuming,

she could barely breathe.

"Emily, no! Come on!" Elena exclaimed, tears streaming down her face as Stefan attempted to feed her his blood.

Behind them, was Fredrick, the vampire who'd kidnapped Stefan, and had gone after them to halt their escape, and kill him.

They fought back,

and with the branch he would've ended Stefan with, he drove into Emily, who was coming at him fast.

"Stefan, it's not working!" Elena cried, looking at her sister's bleeding side-wound. Stefan breathed out heavily, also starting to panic. It had thankfully stopped raining minutes ago, making easier to commune.

"I'm too weak. I can't…" he grimly confesses, forcing his blood into her mouth as she lay limply on the ground.

Unsure what else to do, Elena, who was the reason Fredrick was vervained and out cold, calls out loudly: "DAMON!"

XXX

Stood outside the house, and wary of the multiple approaching vampires, with Alaric, who'd come for the girls, by his side, Damon hears Elena's distant screams calling him.

His heart jumps, and surely the group opposite him heard it too, all but Alaric, who Damon then firmly grabbed, and zoomed off with towards the car.

There in a minute, Damon releases Alaric, who falls in shock and unbalance against the car, then turns to the calls of help.

He freezes.

"Damon, I can't heal her!" Stefan tells, looking to him anxiously. Gathering his wits, Damon rushes forward to her side.

"What the hell happened?!" he exclaimed, getting to his knees and pulling Emily protectively from Elena's arms and into his. He looks her over in urgency, and identifies the wound's location, barely listening as Elena explained:

"He just came out of nowhere, and tried to kill Stefan!" Hearing so, Damon looks up at them, who were crouched opposite him. Then he looked about where Elena was pointing. He sees a body, and grows wary. He then looks and sees Alaric approaching them worriedly.

"Alaric. Make sure he's dead," Damon tells. Alaric acknowledges his request, and nods, heading to do just that with a stake in hand. Damon's gaze falls on Stefan, who seemed to be in pain and discomfort as he stole starved glances at Emily's bleeding side. "Elena. Put Stefan in the back of the car," he instructs. Elena, who was overwhelmed with her sister's state, as though can't process the order. "Now!" he yells, snapping her out of it. She gets to her feet and pulls Stefan up with her as Damon averts his full attention to Emily, who was struggling to keep her eyes open.

He hastily bites into his wrist, and cradles her head against his shoulder. "Come on," he encouraged, tone tainted with concern and fear. She moaned tiredly, unable to move accordingly. Damon fixed his wrist against her mouth, blood pouring from his wound into her. She seemed to gain some strength back, as she was able to grasp his arm for support. "There you go," he uttered, smiling lightly in relief.

From behind him, Alaric stood and watched in amazement as Elena, who had seated Stefan in the back seat, rushed back towards her sibling, and raised her shirt to check.

The wound was closing up…

For a very short minute, everything Alaric believed about vampires bearing nothing but death,

faltered.

"What did you do?" a woman demands. Opposite the group, stood Pearl, Anna's mom, and her remaining group of tomb vampires behind her and amongst the trees in the night's darkness. All but Damon grow very wary.

"Me?! Your merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my brother, and now this!" he exclaims, glancing at Emily, who was meekly recovering. Pearl takes this into consideration, notices that three of those present were human, and Stefan seemed just barely breathing within the car beside them. She inhales from frustration.

"Trust me. The parties responsible for this will be dealt with," she says.

"Our little arrangement doesn't work unless you learn to control them," Damon spits. Pearl gulps in guilt.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," she confesses. Damon scoops Emily off the ground, he pauses before walking to the car to give Pearl a final word.

"Well, it did. If I had a good side...Not a way to get on it…"

XXX

In the car and on the road, Damon feels a great deal of icy wind, and looks to see that the window beside Emily was not there at all. Furious that even his car was busted, Damon's attention is more attracted to the girl balled up in herself from the cold. He shrugs off his jacket, able still to keep a hand on the wheel, as he then put it on her. "Elena," he called for help. She quickly leaned forward from the middle seat behind, and assisted him in covering up her sister from the cold.

"Thanks," the older Gilbert muttered.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Alaric worriedly asks from behind Damon's seat.

"She'll be fine," he confidently replied. Emily glanced at him with uncertainty in her eyes, and he knows immediately what she's thinking.

Now was not the time nor place to discuss this, but her mind seemed sternly made up.

In sight of the town, Damon asks: "Where do you want me to drop you off, Rick?" Acknowledging that apparently Damon was talking to him, Alaric replies:

"Uh, any where's fine. The Grill," he decides.

Damon drops him off, and not ready to part with the Gilberts just yet, drives the rest to the boarding house.

XXX

"How are you feeling?" Elena asks Emily, who was seated on the couch in the Salvatores' living room. Damon had guided them in, and left to 'get something.' Elena helped Stefan up to his room, and had gone down to give him privacy, and check on her sibling.

"I'm fine. It's completely gone," Emily replies with an assuring smile as Elena took to her side. Elena nods, reassured, then inhales and shakes her head.

"I'm so sorry, Emily…If I wasn't so-"

"Elena-"

"reckless, this never would've-"

"Elena."

"You almost…" Elena is unable to even finish the sentence, pursing her lips as more tear glistered in her sad, brown eyes. Emily's heart clenched. She scooted closer to her and placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Elena, look at me," she tells. Elena, reluctant with shame, complies. "I'm fine. Everything is gonna be fine. I promise."

"…How?"

"Just trust me," Emily assures her.

Assures her of what?

Elena didn't know.

Did Emily?

Did Emily know what she was promising, what she was doing, what she was intent on doing…

to keep that promise.

In spite of not knowing, Elena was partially calmed by her sister's words.

The sound of heavy footsteps on the stairway diverts their attention. They see Stefan, fully dressed, attempting to climb down in slight struggle, and Elena rushes to her feet to help him. Emily, who stubbornly refused to act disabled, rose off the couch to help as well.

"Stefan, you should be resting," Elena caringly said as she put his arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah, I just…" he looks to Emily, and pauses, a conflicted look in his eyes. "I wanted to thank you," Emily raises her brows in un-expectance, "and to apologize, for what happened to you."

"Stefan," she shakes her head in dismiss. "I know for a fact, you would have done the same for me," she smiles.

She may have known Stefan for a short time, but he was easier to read then his brother. He was a genuinely caring person, ready to help those in need.

Stefan smiles back, visually still weakened by everything that happened to him. "Of course," he told.

"Hey," Damon calls, approaching them. He makes eye-contact with all, momentarily pausing on Emily, who seemed physically stronger as she stood, before he faced Stefan. "I left you something in the kitchen. Couldn't find any squirrels, but I ran into a fox. Should do, right?" he smirks sarcastically. Stefan smiles, warmed by his brother's efforts.

"Yeah. Thanks, Damon."

"Yeah, whatever," Damon brushes off. "You just stop getting your ass kicked."

"We should, probably get going," said Emily. All turned to face her in reluctance. "Let Stefan rest," she says to her sister, who then nods in confirmation.

"Yeah, you probably need to rest too," Elena said. At that, the brothers decide against encouraging them to stay.

"…Okay. I'll drive you," Damon says.

"No. You should stay with Stefan," Emily declines.

"No, it's late. You shouldn't walk home. Let him drive you," Stefan tells, getting off Elena and leaning against the stairs, trying to stand up straight. His tired form greatly gets to Damon, who clenches his jaw from tension. Emily shakes her head at Stefan, as she faces Damon again, and sees the worried look in his eyes towards his brother.

"Damon," she softly called. He averted his gaze to meet hers expectantly. "Please stay with him, at least for today, just in case," she says, setting a small sense of concern within him of what might happen if he left. Stefan was about to argue against that, even though he and Elena were also made worried by her words. Then Damon dug out his car keys and faced Elena.

"Can you drive?" he asks.

"Yeah," she nods ethically. He hands her the keys.

"Damo-" Emily was about to decline him offering them his car, when he cut her off by resuming:

"Make sure you put her to bed, and keep her warm. She lost a lot of blood," he instructs. Emily sighs at him ignoring her, but is content with his caring tone, even if it was masked by a certain firmness.

"Okay…and thank you…for saving her life," Elena tells.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to, if you'd had just stayed pu-"

"Damon," Emily cut him off, smirking. "Will you just…take a compliment?" she mused, placing a delicate hand on his chest, causing him to immediately shut up. "Thank you," she uttered sincerely, causing his gaze to soften, and his chest to ache. She then faces her sister. "Come on," she beckoned, removing her hand and heading for the door. Elena kissed Stefan goodbye, and he smiled warmly at her, before she left as well.

The door shut behind them, but Damon's confused tension did not reside. He caught Stefan's gaze, who was smirking at him knowingly. Damon ignored it and said: "Come on, prick. Let's get you some vegan lunch." He hauled Stefan off the stairs and towards the kitchen.

XXXXX