A/N: I know! It's been like a year. I'm so bad. I lost all motivation for this story, but I'm really trying to finish it, so I can focus on my other story. It's been a busy year, but I'm going to try to do better. Unfortunately, not a lot happens in this chapter, but I felt I needed to get something posted to you guys. I think there will be at least one more chapter, then an epilogue. Please read and review! Thanks for waiting!

Chapter 12

Damon woke slowly, consciousness returning in bits and pieces. He was acutely aware of a sharp pain in his neck and winced. He felt more than heard the presence beside him, but the pain of his neck bones fusing back together dulled his self-preservation instinct. If someone was finally going to put him out of his misery, now was the opportune time.

"It's ok, Damon. You're ok," a familiar female voice said.

Pulling himself gingerly to a sitting position, Damon rolled his neck from side to side before focusing in on Bonnie. She was kneeling beside him in a room that looked and felt much more like the dungeon room you would expect a thousand year old sadistic vampire to have. Dank and dirty brick walls enclosed them, complete with chains hanging from the ceiling and a persistent dripping noise coming from somewhere in a corner.

"Are we still in Klaus's house? I thought he renovated?" Damon asked Bonnie as he took in their surroundings. "Remind me not to hire his construction crew."

Bonnie shrugged. "Maybe he left this part alone on purpose. It adds to Klaus's fear factor without him even having to lift a finger."

"That's just conniving. And ingenious. I think I might be a little in love." Damon fluttered his eyelashes for emphasis.

"Says the vampire with an actual jail cell in the basement of his creepy mansion in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, what is it they say? We hate in others the things we hate about ourselves? Can't the same be said for love?"

"We don't have time for this, Damon," Bonnie scolded, pulling a folded, yellowing piece of paper from the sleeve of her shirt.

"Sure we do. We have all the time in the world, Bonnie, because as long as I'm down here, I'm not up there impregnating Elena with Matt Donavan's little swimmers. What's that?" Damon asked, indicating the paper Bonnie was now chanting over, curiosity finally getting the better of him.

Bonnie put her finger to her lips then pointed at the door, then she hunched back over the paper and continued chanting softly. As Damon watched perplexed, he allowed the tiniest bubble of hope to well inside him. Even though he couldn't imagine what it was, it seemed Bonnie had a plan after all.

o-o-o-o-o

When Klaus had twisted Damon's neck in the hallway as easily as if he were breaking the neck of a chicken in the farmyard, Elena had felt her fear turn absurdly to relief. First, she was relieved that Klaus had not killed Damon. A broken neck was nothing to a vampire, and quite frankly, Damon had to be used to it by now. Second, it granted her a reprieve, even if it was a temporary one. Klaus wouldn't move forward with her impregnation without Damon because it just wouldn't be as fun without having them both there to torture. This must be what a prisoner on death row feels like during a temporary stay of execution, Elena thought. Nothing was certain, but now there was hope.

While Gideon removed Damon from the hallway, the doctor continued to guide Elena to the little make-shift hospital room. Elena was instructed to change into a hospital gown and to relax on the bed. She was given a scratchy sheet to drape over her legs.

Elena thought back to her two other gynecological visits. It had been beyond awkward, but Elena was grateful. She had been able to get on the pill to help with cramping and acne; therefore, she had not had to worry about getting pregnant when she and Matt began fooling around. The irony was not lost on her now. After Jenna died, Elena had never gone back. She had started dating a vampire and didn't see the need to renew a prescription for birth control when she could not get pregnant. Thus, the only thing she could remember about the visits was how cold everything was, from the air in the room, to the metal of the instruments, to the doctor's hands during the perfunctory breast cancer screening. She was cold now, too, but it was more a cold dread than the actual air temperature. Being in this room and seeing the instruments again made it all more real.

Klaus refused to leave her alone as she changed. "I've had the pleasure of seeing it all before, Elena. No need to be shy," he had gloated, but still, Elena had turned her back to Klaus as she slipped out of her shirt and bra and into the hospital gown, all the while racking her brain for some solution to this nightmare she found herself in.

Elena had barely finished the awkward process of tying the hospital gown, when there was a commotion outside the door. A shout, followed by several loud thuds. Klaus wasted no time in striding purposely toward the door. No fear, she noted.

Before Klaus reached the door, Stefan and Elijah burst through, and Elena found herself reflexively, if not absurdly, covering her chest with her arms. The two men together were able to off-balance Klaus long enough to push him against the wall. Stefan had his hand pressed tight to Klaus's chest. Elena scrambled to leave the room, determined to find Damon while she still had the chance.

In the hallway, Elena turned and came face-to-face with Caroline. "Oh, thank God!" the blond yelled. "Let's go. We have to find Matt." Caroline grabbed her hand and they began running down the ornate hallway.

o-o-o-o-o

"Where are they?!" Caroline near growled in frustration. They had checked every room on every floor and only run into hybrids that Caroline had to stop and fight. No Matt. No Damon. Note even Rebekah. Then Elena had an idea.

"I think I know how to find them," she said, grabbing Caroline's arm and stopping her from tossing another book from Klaus's library shelf. Caroline had had the idea that their might be a secret passage that appeared when pulling a secret, disguised lever. Elena thought she had seen one too many movies.

Caroline glanced at her curiously as Elena closed her eyes and concentrated. She had to come up with something quick so her imagination went to the first thing she could think of. She dreamt herself sitting at Klaus's desk, hair in a bun. Pencil skirt. White, button-up blouse. Pen behind her ear. Glasses. Every inch the librarian. They were in a library after all. And when she pictured Damon strutting to her across the room, suddenly he was there.

"Elena," he breathed, rushing to her, kissing her quickly. "Are you ok?"

"For right now," she murmured quickly, as she started undoing her buttons. If the fantasy didn't remain sexual, she could lose it. She didn't want to risk it. "I need to know where you are, Damon. Caroline and I are looking for you," she explained as she shrugged off the blouse completely.

"Naughty girl," Damon whispered as he slid his hand down from caressing her head. His calloused hands sending tingles of pleasure through her as it made its way down her neck and shoulder to her breasts. He swept his fingers lightly over her hardened peak and they both groaned in pleasure before he pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

Elena could barely concentrate, nearly forgetting the whole purpose of this endeavor. She squirmed in his arms. "Damon," she admonished. "Focus. Where are you?"

Damon removed his hand from her breast but continued to message her shoulder blade while holding her firmly against him with the other hand. He took a deep breath. "Best I can tell is, we're in a dungeon. It's dark and dank and drippy. Definitely below ground. I wasn't exactly conscious for my trek down here, Elena."

"Who is we? Is Matt with you?" she asked hopefully.

"No, I'm awkwardly hard and I suppose currently catatonic in the presence of your best witchy friend, Bonnie. Luckily for me, she's a little too preoccupied at the moment to notice." He nuzzled Elena's neck for good measure and she shivered.

"Ok, we're coming to find you." She kissed him once more before dismissing the fantasy altogether. Elena recapped the basics to Caroline, only now realizing she shouldn't have been able to make a connection with Damon without him being in the same room. She briefly allowed herself to wonder about that, being glad that it hadn't been an issue, when Caroline shot up suddenly, grabbed Elena's hand, and headed toward to back door.

"I think I know where they are!"

In the dungeon, as he returned to himself from the fog of the fantasy, Damon realized he may not want to be found, not with Klaus's compulsion still sitting heavy on his chest.