Elena pauses the footage to rub her temples. The problem with working on a case in a small town is there isn't really much to do most nights and with the economy in a tailspin, the slightest bit of excitement tends to bring the town folks out in droves. A string of fires is no exception.
The home store fire brought nearly the whole town out to observe...and she still has a mountain of footage to process.
Rubbing her scratchy eyes, she focuses on the next person.
Atticus Shane.
Elena sweeps her hair back over her shoulder as she leans in closer to her screen. Enlarging a portion of the image, she looks intently at Atticus. His arms are crossed over his chest. The fire at Falls Park was in close proximity to his house. The fire at the dog kennel was near the high school where he works. Obviously, watching firemen at work is more interesting than classwork especially when the whole school appears to be observing the scene with him. According to Damon, he's happily married to Catelyn and has a young son. In her mind, his presence seems reasonable.
She notes his name on the list of residents who have been on the scene of more than one of the fires but ranks him low on the likelihood of being their perpetrator.
She unscrews her water bottle and attempts to take a drink. Empty. Just like her list of likely candidates. Thumbing through the pile of notes she's already taken, she is forced to admit that being there for the home store fire doesn't seem to have gotten her any closer to solving the crime.
Her fingers tenderly probe the bandages on her forearm.
"It hurts?" Damon is watching her from his seat at his desk.
Elena shakes her head. "I'm..."
"Fine. I know." He raises an eyebrow in accusation. "That's the fourth time you've shaken your arm out in the last half hour. Do you need to see a doctor? It could be infected."
"No, it just stings. See!" Elena raises her arm so he can see there's no excessive redness or inflammation.
Pushing back from his desk, Damon stands. "Liz called. Violet and Billy died from the combined effects of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries."
"Such a tragedy...sadly, I've seen it before." Elena raises her eyes, locking onto his.
"Come on. You need a break and so do I."
"No." Elena shakes her head. "I have to finish this."
"Five minutes." He raises his hands in a "T" time-out sign as he backs to the glass door of his office. "Let's go get some ice cream. The Dippin' Dots truck comes to town every other week."
Damon cracks the door open. "My treat." He waits for her to place her to lock her screen before he pulls his keys out of his pocket. As soon as she steps through the door, he locks it behind them.
"So, things aren't going so well?"
"That's putting it mildly." Elena struggles to relax and just enjoy the cool autumn air, but hours spent in a folding chair have made her neck and shoulders ache.
Damon shoves his hands in his pockets. "Sorry about that."
"It's nothing." Elena smiles at him. Somehow things between them have transformed into...something else. She can feel the electricity whenever she's with him.
Now, things have changed again. Instead of the tiny crackles of energy, the air between them is heavy and charged with anticipation. If she didn't know better, she'd say that a hurricane must be churning just over the horizon.
But it isn't a storm in her path.
It's Damon.
"What flavor?" Damon's words pull her from her thoughts. Somehow they are standing in front of the Dippin' Dots ice cream truck and she doesn't have the slightest idea how she's gotten there. "Elena?"
The freckled girl behind the counter reaches for an ice cream scoop. "Ma'am?"
Elena looks over the flavors. "I would like a medium birthday cake."
"I'll have the pistachio, also medium." Damon points to the green beads.
"Sure thing." The girl pulls two cups off the stack and fills them with their preferred flavors of Dippin' Dots.
Damon reaches for his container and digs his wallet out of his pocket. He hands his ice cream off to Elena, pulls out a ten-dollar bill, and gives it to the clerk. He waits for the change, gifting the girl with a nice tip while Elena takes a spoonful.
Damon leads them to one of the park benches in the shade of an Oak tree where they take a seat. He takes a big spoonful of his ice cream.
"Mystic Falls really is a nice place," Elena remarks and takes another bite.
"It's home. My ancestors helped found the town along with the Lockwoods, The Fells, The Forbes, and a few others." Damon leans back on the bench in satisfaction.
"Really? So, this town is in your blood, literally."
"It is. I did leave for college. I went to school at NYU and lived in New York with Katherine. Our apartment was near one of the Ladder Companies. I've always been enamored with firemen so I dropped out of college and went to the academy. I worked in the city for a couple of years. She hated my hours and the danger. Although my job wasn't our only issue, she packed up her bags and left. It wasn't an acrimonious split; we just grew apart. I came back to Mystic Falls when their long-time fire captain retired."
"You didn't like the Big Apple?"
"I did. But, too many people. Crime grew out of control. An acquaintance of mine was murdered for $25... The job here opened up a couple of months later and you know the rest."
"My family was murdered in a home invasion. I survived by playing dead."
"Oh, Elena." Damon takes her hand and gives it a squeeze.
Elena has a distant look in her eyes. "It was a long time ago...My best friend, Caroline's parents took me in. They got me a great counselor. I still get melancholy on the anniversary but I'm happy with my life now. Their deaths are the reason I went into law enforcement and joined the FBI."
"I'm sure they're very, very proud of you."
"I'd like to think so." Elena smiles at Damon and takes another bite of her ice cream.
Damon leans against the edge of the table as he waits for Elena to place the Advil bottle back in her purse. He stares at her notes and waits for her nod of approval before picking them up. Flipping through the pages, he reads the names as he looks over her notes.
"Is there anyone in town not on your list of suspects?"
Elena shrugs her shoulders. "Everyone seems to come out to observe the fires..."
"It's a small town..." The words die on his lips as another siren screams to life.
Damon tosses Elena his keys and runs outside, jumping into the cab of the fire truck as it starts to back out of the station.
Damon, followed by his men, walks up to a frazzled security guard pacing outside of the structure.
"Where is it?" he asks.
"Don't know. There are alarms going off on three different floors."
"Perfect." Damon acknowledges him and they climb into the elevator. It's cramped on the way up with the bulky coats, helmets, hose rolls, and the tangible nervousness that always goes with this kind of fire.
"How do we know if the floor's going to be on fire?" their probie, Olivia asks as she bounces from one foot to the next.
"If it's hot when the doors open, don't get out," Damon explains as he watches the elevator display.
The elevator stops and the doors slide open on the upper floor. There is no howling blaze, not even any noise, but enough hanging smoke that Damon can't see his hand in front of his face. They fan out gingerly onto the floor, looking for the fire.
Slowly, carefully, they feel their way through the haze.
"It's here," Damon states as something snakes past the walls, whispers, and whines as it shivers up and over them, and then silence.
Ric attaches a hose line to the building standpipe. "These gigs give me the creeps."
"Let's wait for a backup, Damon. We can get the Fells Church department to give us a hand," Evan remarks his eyes darting.
"We're early on this one, it hasn't even broken out yet."
"But, Damon, we're one man short."
Now on the hunt, Damon shakes his head no.
"Want to learn something?" he asks Olivia.
"Absolutely!"
Damon and Olivia take the lead, their axes gripped like shotguns. Ric backs them up with a charged hose line.
"Evan, go with Stefan and check the other side."
"It isn't safe, Damon. Don't split us up. Not with this one."
"What the hell's the matter with you? Why are you so squeamish today? Did you come back too soon?" Damon doesn't give him the opportunity to answer. "I haven't got time for bullshit right now."
"We should wait for the Fells Church engine to arrive..." he protests.
"Goddamn it, Evan! Just do your fucking job!" Damon yells.
With a stricken look on his face, Evan takes a crew down in one direction with Stefan while Damon and Olivia slowly feel their way in the other.
CRACK
Everybody spins around in terror but there's nothing visible.
"Oh, you're so very sly, but so am I..." Damon mocks the fire as he looks at Olivia. "...Listen to it... you can tell when a wall cracks which way it's gonna jump... you can hear the doors breathe if they're hot..."
Olivia looks confused. "I don't understand."
They come to a side door. Damon runs his hand down the jam and feels for heat. Then he steps back, takes a deep breath, and crashes the door down with one blow of his axe. He concentrates on the sound of the fire above him then abruptly turns and busts down another door.
Damon and Olivia creep along the hall.
"Lotta smoke, but it isn't rolling...that means it's hiding... staying sleepy..." He bangs down another door and ducks inside to look for people.
Olivia readies her axe before another door, gathering her courage as Damon exits the room he was checking.
He sees Olivia raising her axe.
"Did you check the door for heat?"
Olivia doesn't seem to hear him and she raises her axe to strike a blow.
"Liv?"
Committed now, Liv comes hard at the door.
Damon sees it for just a millisecond. Small tendrils of smoke edge lazily around the door...then suck back in.
"Liv!" Damon yells and rushes for her as her axe smacks the door.
A whine behind it builds and roars and howls.
Damon reaches her just as the door explodes outward hurling them against the opposite wall. Shrieking tongues of flame shoot out of the doorway.
Olivia screams in terror.
Metal creaks as if unseen hands are tearing it apart overhead. Almost half the roof comes down and falls on top of them. Water pours through what was left of the ceiling in an attempt to douse the blaze.
Damon winces as he realizes there is a fair amount of glass raining down on them as well.
"Help! We need help here!" Liv screams as she crawls out from under the rubble.
Miraculously, Ric hears them. Jagged metal tears into his gloves as he pulls a beam off the pile. He sighs in relief as Enzo and Stefan come to his side to help. Thirty minutes later they pull Damon free from the pile.
"Liv? Where's Liv?" Damon tries to roll onto his back but is stopped.
"Liv will be fine. You got the worst of it. Now lay still." Ric takes hold of his shoulder to hold him still while one of the EMTs puts a c-collar on his neck.
"The roof came down on top of you." April the EMT leans closer and peers into his eyes. "Does anything hurt?"
Damon's eyes squeeze shut as he fights back a wave of nausea. "A ceiling collapsed on me, everything fucking hurts!"
"You're lucky to be alive." April and the men load Damon onto the gurney and rush him to the waiting ambulance.
Elena sighs and tries to focus on the clock on the wall. Almost one o'clock in the morning.
"Coffee?" Stefan approaches Elena.
"No. I just wish we'd hear something, anything."
"My brother..." His words are halted when Dr. Bennett appears.
Everyone jumps to their feet and approaches her.
"How is he?" Elena blurts out.
"Damon's a lucky man. No broken bones. No internal injuries. Just cuts, bruises, and a few stitches. Much to his chagrin, I'm keeping him overnight for observation." Sheila rolls her eyes.
"Thank you, Sheila." Stefan sighs heavily.
"You can all go home now. If nothing arises overnight, he can be discharged tomorrow."
"Do you need a ride to the boarding house?" Stefan asks Elena.
"No, I have his truck. I think I'm going to stay here."
"I have a feeling about you two." Stefan winks at her as he walks away.
"Can I see him?" Elena asks Dr. Bennett once the others depart.
"He's been given some strong pain medicine. I don't think he'll wake up until morning," Sheila explains when they reach his room.
"Thanks." Elena nods to the woman as she pushes the heavy door open. She steps to Damon's bedside. Gingerly, she brushes a strand of hair off his face to see a line of sutures along the hairline.
Elena looks at the scrapes on his cheek and several on his arms. She turns and looked gratefully at the bedside chair. Has it been less than 12 hours since they shared ice cream?
Picking up a blanket from the foot of the bed, she collapses into the chair and tucks the blanket over herself. She falls asleep almost instantly.
"Ow."
Elena has no idea what time it is when something wakes her up. She sits up and notices Damon tossing in bed.
"Fuck, that hurts." comes in a hushed groan.
Elena frowns and slides her chair next to the bed. She gently rubs her fingers over his forearm. As he settles down, she drifts back to sleep with Damon's hand in hers.
Thank you all so much.
Chapter title: Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins.
Dippin' Dots is an ice cream snack invented by Curt Jones in 1988. The confection is created by flash-freezing the ice cream mix in liquid nitrogen. The snack is made by Dippin' Dots, Inc., headquartered in Paducah, Kentucky.
Have a wonderful day.