The notes of The Imperial March coming from her cellphone awaken Elena. Her eyes snap open and she groans as she shifts to reach it.
"Hello, Elijah," Elena yawns.
"I just got off the phone with Liz. She said you got hurt. Are you okay?"
"Tattletale! I'll have to have a word with her," Elena scowls as she throws her free arm over her head. "Yes, I'm a little sore but I'll be fine. I've had worse, as you know."
"Take it easy. I know it's hard for you especially but follow your doctor's order. Capeesh?"
"Yes, dad," Elena replies sarcastically.
"Ha ha! Are you any closer to catching this guy?"
"I think I know who it is but I have nothing to tie him to the fires yet. It's all circumstantial. I found a matchbook, cigarette, and rubber band-type device in the wreckage of the home center. My footage shows him in the crowd. I don't even know if this guy has ever had to submit DNA. We might not even be able to match him."
"You're right."
"As soon as I get dressed I am going to go to the site of the most recent fire. Hopefully, I can find something."
"I have to go; Rebekah's here. Be careful and don't overdo it. I don't want to lose one of my best agents." Elijah ends the call.
Elena sets her phone down and snuggles under the covers. She runs her fingertips wispily over her lips as an image of Damon's blue eyes fills her mind. They are like the stars, the way they draw her in to explore the swirling emotion he holds in their depths.
"You might lose me for an entirely different reason," she says softly.
Picking up her phone again, she checks the time. Grimacing as she sits up, she pads across the carpet into the bathroom...
Elena slides her purse onto her shoulder and exits her room. With a hand cradling her injured ribs, she gingerly walks down the staircase. She smiles at Jenna who's busily warming up for their usual morning jog.
"Good morning," Jenna greets her, returning the smile.
"Good morning. I hate to bug out on you, Jenna, but I think my ribs will protest if I push too hard."
Jenna waves her hand. "Please, there's no need to apologize. I know you're under orders to take it easy..."
"I am but I need to get to the building site before it gets contaminated by the people milling around and wandering through the debris."
"Try to be careful," Jenna cautions as she opens the door and follows Elena outside just as Damon arrives to give her a lift.
Jenna raises her hand in a wave and takes off down the road while Elena hops in the truck.
"Here you go." Damon hands her a cup of coffee.
"Thanks." She wastes no time in taking a swallow.
Damon winks as he shifts into drive and pulls into the flow of traffic.
Damon and Elena climb out of his truck. He pulls an equipment case out of the cab. Loaded down, he follows Elena into the building.
"We were lucky with this one. Could've taken out the whole building, but the explosion blew out most of the flame.
On a door edge, Elena notices a small patch of melted, sticky goo. With a penknife, she scrapes a sample and seals it in a glass vial, stands, and walks into the office.
"What do you want me to do?"
Elena, now inside, silences him with an outstretched arm.
"Shhh."
Damon waits for a beat. "What are you listening to?"
She doesn't answer. Her eyes drift over the scorched walls as she speaks softly to them. "You sneaky little son of a b...Come on, tell me what I want to know," she challenges the shadows themselves.
Elena scratches at some soot and lifts a small hand recorder out of her bag. "Heavy smoke stains are observed in the entry room. The demarcation line is high. The fire never got hot enough here to cook soot off. It started somewhere else..." Elena's voice trails as they walk down the hall.
"Less soot here. More heat," she states as they enter a back room. "And very little soot here." she points that out to Damon.
Elena turns to him. "Can you slide that couch out of the way?"
Damon nods and pulls it aside. The lower third of the wall is completely untouched by soot.
"So you were happy here. Warm and cozy and in no hurry..." she says softly into the recorder. "Soot high, clean unburned wall low, indicates slow burn in thermal balance."
"Find me some glass," she mentions.
"Glass?"
"There's some on the sill of a blown window."
Damon hands a shard to her, who turns it over in her palm.
"Glass found in the ignition room is in small, thin pieces, indicating an explosion. Lack of discoloration indicates a long, slow burn. The explosion must have come after." She shuts off the recorder and resumes her one-sided conversation with the fire.
"You little tease... What were you up to you, huh? What made you so mad...or scared?"
Elena looks at Damon before switching the recorder on again.
"It started in this room. Took its time, and hung out... but the air ran out. It couldn't breathe. So it was snuffed. But it wasn't dead... still all that trapped heat, lying low, waiting for someone to open the door and give it that one gulp of air..."
"A backdraft," Damon comments.
Elena nods and turns to look at the wall. A section of plaster is severely damaged. She probes with her penknife. "Finish coat burned away... Severe spawling of rough coat..." She follows the damaged wall down to a melted wall socket.
"This is the ignition point. Dig it out. Carefully."
Damon chops it out from the wall while Elena crouches down, peels back the melted faceplate, and examines the wires. The copper tip is severely melted. She sniffs the plug.
Placing the recorder to her mouth again, Elena continues her examination. "Temperature in this room was about 2000 degrees, but the copper wire in the outlet is melted, which requires 5000 degrees. An accidental short in the plug could have created a spark of 7000 degrees, hot enough to melt the wire and start a fire."
"No it couldn't," Damon interrupts, shaking his head.
Elena shuts off the recorder and turns to face Damon.
"I mean you'd be right with normal wire. But that's gauge ten in that plug - industrial stuff. Who knows why they put it in here but it won't melt at less than 12,000 degrees. Nothing natural short of lightning gets that hot."
Elena just stares, silently prodding him to continue.
"In another life, I was into high-end electronics. I know a thing or two."
"Good to know." Elena gifts him with a smile as she opens a plastic bag and puts the plug inside before turning her recorder on yet again. "Analyze outlet for any traces of flammable accelerants." Elena walks out of the main office with Damon behind her.
"Check the wall for burn patterns." And Elena's off to another room where she's popping the molding around the door frame of another room. Underneath it is traces of the same white residue from the other fires. She rubs the white powder between her fingers.
From Elena's pocket comes a plastic flask. She pours a little liquid onto the floor and lights a match.
"In a word, Damon, what are our jobs all about?"
"Fire."
Elena drops the match. A small flame explodes to life.
"It's a living thing, Damon. It breathes, it eats, and it hates."
The flames climb the wall and chew at a corner.
"The only way to beat it is to think like it. To know that this flame will spread this way across the floor not because of the physics of flammable liquids or heat convection but because it wants to."
The flame darts west and licks the ceiling. The fire purrs and hisses as it stretches luxuriously and attacks savagely.
"Some people on this job, fire owns them. It makes them fight on its level. But the only way to truly kill it is to love it a little, just like the arsonist."
Damon stares at the flame. It's like a goblin reaching out for him...
And woosh, Elena hits it with a fire extinguisher. In an instant, the goblin is gone and the genie is back in the bottle.
"What are you two doing?" Chief Forbes asks as she cautiously enters the room. "I always thought the fire department...you know, puts out fires."
"Ha ha, Liz." Damon rolls his eyes.
"I'm teaching Damon a little about my work."
"Have you found anything?" Liz asks as Damon hands her an evidence bag.
"Have your people dusted for prints?" Elena asks as something catches her eye. Before Liz answers, she carefully picks up a book of matches.
"What do you think the odds are that this survived the fire?"
"Somewhere between slim and none," Damon replies, looking at it curiously.
Elena drops it in an evidence bag that Liz holds open for her. "We need to have this stuff examined immediately."
"I'm on it," Liz replies and leaves the building.
"Alright, we're done here." Elena grimaces in pain when she trips on a piece of debris.
Damon catches her before she lands on her face. "Are you okay?"
"Just embarrassed." She feels her cheek grow warm.
"Let's get out of here." Damon wraps an arm around her waist and together they exit the burned-out building.
Once they get back to the station, Elena turns on her laptop and types in her information request.
Determination rattles the pit of her stomach. She purses her lips as she waits for the page to load. In the capacity of her job, Elena has a top-level security clearance. Typing in his name, she's a little surprised that nothing is popping up.
Just as she's beginning to think his information is buried even beneath her reach, a box pops up asking for her security clearance. The muscles in her ribcage tighten as she taps the keys to enter her password.
Instantly, Elena's looking at his unsmiling picture holding up an arrest placard. He's had multiple arrests for petty theft, assault, breaking, and entering as well as starting fires in his youth. He was born in Mystic Falls and sent to attend boarding school in Atlanta. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles and worked at fast food kiosk near the beach. A year later he went to the fire academy. He worked in Dana Point, a wealthy enclave for nearly two years before returning to Mystic Falls and joining its fire department...A little more than a year later these fires started.
The door creaks open. Elena looks up, sighing in relief to see Liz enter the room.
Her eyes widen when she glances at the picture of the man on Elena's laptop screen.
"You think he's the one?" Liz asks as she pulls up a chair.
Elena nods. "Yes, I believe he's our man but we need more than a hunch to convict him. I hope the DNA lab will find something."
"Actually we got a fingerprint on the matchbook. I submitted it to AFIS."
"That's something." Elena hisses as a stabbing-like pain pierces her ribcage. "If you'll excuse me, Liz, I need to get up for a little bit." She pulls a bottle of Advil out of Damon's desk drawer and walks out of his office in search of a cold drink.
Liz is studying the information on Elena's computer when she hears a creak as Damon's door closes with a low snap.
"I wish you hadn't seen that." The man stands stiffly in the doorway, a handgun leveled in her direction. He takes a step to the left to be hidden from view through the glass.
"What do you think you're doing?" Liz asks indignantly.
"You brought her here and now you're going to pay."
"Do you really believe you'll get away with this?"
"I've already killed, what's one more? You know I can do it." He lets the weight of his words sink in. "My truck's parked behind the station. Let's go for a ride."
As Liz throws Elena's purse onto her shoulder, it catches the pencil cup and knocks its contents to the floor. She stoops to pick them up, quickly forming an H for help.
"Leave them." The gun twitches in his hand. "Get up, we're leaving."
Liz narrows her eyes at him and nods.
She hopes Elena's missing purse will be a clue as she walks alongside him and together they exit the fire station.
Elena gives Damon a grin as she comes to stand beside him at the soda machine. "I'm thirsty."
"What's your poison?" Damon teases as he drops some coins into the machine.
"That peach ice tea." Elena points to the bottle and Damon presses the button to dispense it.
He picks up the bottle and hands it to her. Elena pops three Advil into her mouth and swallows them down.
"Are you ready to call it a day?" Damon asks as he massages her shoulders.
"Just about. Liz is waiting for me in your office. I've been doing a little digging on...you know," she adds the last part in a whisper.
"Let's not keep her waiting." Damon presses his palm against her lower back, urging her forward.
His office is unlocked and it's empty. "Liz!" He states aloud as he looks around. His eyes roam the room - from the open laptop to the spread of papers across his desk. Liz would never have left his door unlocked, not with the sensitive information on Elena's computer.
He takes a single step into the room and his heart threatens to stop beating.
"Damon..." Elena's voice trails off when she notices her purse is missing.
He stoops over to pick up the pencils and notices the H. Dangling one from the tips of his fingers, he looks up at Elena.
"Liz is gone."
Thank you, everyone.
I did take some inspiration from Backdraft for this chapter.
Chapter title: Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap.
Have a wonderful day.