Elena jerked herself up from the window as she heard the intercom above them calling out that they would be boarding shortly. The voice reminded her to please have their tickets ready and have a safe trip.

She moved around, her hand roaming the empty air as she realized she wasn't still holding Lily's hand. Lily? For a brief terrifying second Elena forgot that Kat had taken her daughter to get ice cream. She relaxed back into her seat, rubbing Damon's chain through her fingers.

She missed him so much. This pregnancy had been harder on her and she felt like she was barely keeping her head above water. They had had so many suppers of cereal or PB and J and Elena had watching way more cartoons with Lily when she had been throwing up so much. This trip had been so great to hear about and yet so hard when all she wanted was to stay in their bed.

And she wanted him...God she wanted Damon…

"Elena," he breathed out...and pulled out his dog tags and kissing them before tucking them safely back against his heart. He was just outside the building where the hostages were and he laid his head back on the cement wall and shut his eyes. "Be with me baby..." he whispered quietly. "Feel me...I need you so much. Be my calm..."

He knew Stefan heard him talk to himself sometimes or talk to her. It helped him and his brother knew it calmed him when things were tense. He turned his head, opening his eyes and nodded at the men and he pulled the door open. He swung his gun around, holding the flashlight up. There was no one there.

Letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding he took a step forward and then other three men fanned out around the empty entryway. He nodded at them to move forward and they had their guns up. His stance was rigid as he crisscrossed his feet through the room and pressed against the wall beside the next door.

Damon could hear voices and even though the other teams had already gone ahead of him, he was as vigilant as if anyone could be around a corner. His team headed further into the middle of the building, climbing the first set of stairs to the 2nd floor.

They arrived at the room adjacent to the one with the hostages on the 6th floor and he saw more soldiers setting up c4 to blast through the locked door. They had already sent in a camera to determine positions and even had men in the air ducts to jump down and take out the terrorists when they were focused on the explosions. He could hear through his coms of the other team on the opposite side on the same floor were setting up their material to blow the door too.

His heart was racing as the he heard the countdown and everyone stayed behind the wall to the stairs.

The explosions hit simultaneously and he felt the foundation of the building shake beneath his boots. The teams raced in and there were shots everywhere. Damon ran in too and squinted at the smoke in his eyes as he let his vision adjust. His back was to the wall, his gun up as he scanned the area for hostiles.

He saw one coming at them and Stefan took the shot as Damon took out another going for a detonator of some kind that he pulled from his pocket. The black box fell from the mans palm to clatter to the floor. He was about to shoot again when a bullet ripped his gun from his tight grip and it went flying into the wall.

Men scattered out in all directions, engaging the hostiles or giving chase to those who were running. Some soldiers were trying to surround the hostages to shield them.

Damon knew they needed to make sure all the hostiles were contained before looking for the bombs but he dove forward seeing the detonator on the ground. The man he shot was crawling toward it, his chest bleeding as he dragged his body. His eyes, dark and beady...glaring at Damon were terrifying.

Damon kept his head down away from more gunfire crisscrossing the room and he could hear the children screaming. He knew people were fighting or shooting around him but his focus was on getting that fucking detonator before the asshole hostile did. His hand closed around the edge of the box, pulling it toward him but he screamed out the next second as the terrorist had slammed a knife in his hand!

The man ripped the knife back out, snarled and slashed at him again. Damon spun his body, grabbing the guys hand to hold the knife back. He kicked him in the stomach, snatching his damaged hand back. Diving on top of him, Damon held tight to the hand holding the knife and twisted the guys wrist till he heard a snap and the knife dropped from his grip.

He scrambled to reach the knife on the floor with his good hand as it got kicked away and heard Enzo yelling at other men to go after the ones running out the back. They were grabbing kids and using them as cover for their escape, the sick bastards!

The man's other hand came up and grabbed at Damon's throat and threw him to the ground, squeezing hard. Damon gritted his teeth, fighting back on the iron grip on his neck. He could see Stefan fighting off a man against the wall and Ric looked to be on the ground and Enzo he saw running toward him to help.

There were men down and Damon could hear on his coms that someone had spotted a wanted terrorist leader in the group racing away. Some men had given chase, racing down the back stairway. The hostiles had spread out and he heard they were trying to shoot their way out the back way of the building with the hostages in their arms and the teams were in pursuit.

He felt the detonator in his hand, as the man held his arm down so Damon could not move it as he held him down kicking and fighting. His hand felt like it was on fire, the man was bending his arm back so bad he thought it would snap. Enzo had been shooting at another terrorist, while grabbing one of the little kids and shielding them behind him. He had thrown his knife at the man choking Damon trying to help him too at the same time. It hit the enemy in the shoulder and Damon ripped it out, lifting it to the man's throat.

Damon gritted his teeth, fighting the pain on his throat, forcing his eyes to stay open as his vision swam in front of him. He was hardly getting any air. He raked the knife across the mans neck just as he felt him wrench the box from his bleeding hand and flick the switch.

Damn it!

His blood sprayed out over Damon's face and he pulled the guy off him, reaching for the detonator. He held it up seeing the timer at 57 seconds and counting! Fuck!

There was no time to dismantle whatever it was. They needed to get the hell out of there!

There were windows but with kids they were too high up to jump. Damon did not even know where the bomb was or if the timer was for both.

"Get everyone out. The bomb has been activated. Repeat. The bomb is active! 50 seconds till detonation!" he yelled through his com.

He stood up and ran to the group of kids and the very wide eyed young lady teacher. "Everyone out now! We need to run!" He saw the numbers counting down and Stefan motioned to them and started to lead them to the hallway and down the stairs. Enzo grabbed Ric and hauled him onto his shoulders unconscious. The kids ran as fast as they could. Damon scooped up what looked to be the smallest little boy and raced down the stairs. The young teacher had a little girl in her arms too and was holding the hands of another young boy.

He was panting, his breath echoing in his ears as they ran. He heard an explosion further away and yelling through his com that one of the terrorists just blew himself up taking with him anyone too close from the team chasing them. Damn it!

Damon knew it was close and they were almost to the ground floor. Enzo had let people pass him as he carried Ric and Stefan had come racing back and grabbed another little kid that was at the back of the group.

They were crossing the ground floor and Damon saw the timer was at the last 5 seconds. He yanked the door open and kids poured out, running to the front doors.

The explosion blew stones up, blasting one whole outer wall apart. The bomb had been under ground. The floor started to crack, the stone shifting under his boots and suddenly he was falling, tumbling down and holding tight to the little boy. He felt his body slam against a wall and could barely make out through the dust and debris that there was a space under where the floor must have fallen down into the basement.

Damon scrambled under the stone flooring, pulling the boy with him and as more kids fell tumbling down he grabbed them and pulled them under the solid sheltered area. Triangle of survival, he remembered and getting as close to a solid surface to avoid the falling stone and cement might be their only chance. He screamed for Stefan as more rocks crashed down and backed up more to avoid them hitting him. His body turned away from the opening, holding the kids back, his body between theirs and the falling rocks as darkness swallowed them up...

Damon coughed and gasped out, opening his eyes in the near darkness. He felt pain, all over his body and then a numbness settled into his muscles. He coughed again and tried to turn his head. His neck worked and squinting he could see a little better. He ripped a piece of his tank top off to wrap tight around his hand that was still bleeding from the knife wound and looked around more in the near darkness.

He felt movement in front of him and he realized two of the kids had moved closer to huddle in against his chest, their little arms around him. He heard quiet sobs against his body and breathed a sigh of relief at the sound. At least some of them were alive. He had no idea how many kids he had pulled under the overhanging stone flooring as the rocks fell.

There was a pile of rubble just in front of him and squinting in the darkness he saw a blonde head partially under it. "Stefan!" Damon choked out. "Stefan, wake up!"

His brother moved. Thank God. And lifted his head. He was trapped under more cement and wood beams it looked like.

Damon could see the faintest light from further ahead of Stefan. There were rocks piled up but the tiniest light was coming through.

"Stefan can you move?" Damon called out and rubbed the little kid's backs that were pressed against him. "Its okay. We are going to get you all out of here. Just keep breathing okay?" He had no idea if the little kids understood him but hoped he knew he was trying to calm them down.

"Stefan!" he tried again and his brother weakly groaned and turned his head toward him. He hadn't made it under the stone shelter like Damon and some of the kids had. He had been right in the open when the bomb blew apart the building.

Damon felt dizzy and felt blood at his lips. His head hurt and he wondered what else was broken or damaged. Damon tried to stay awake but felt his eyes closing as everything went black...

When he woke up, it was to the sound of a little girl crying. Damon blinked and saw more light. Some of the stones had been moved from where the little bit of light was before.

"Damon! Stefan!" a voice called out.

"Enzo! Are you okay? Is Ric okay?" He choked and tasted more blood at his lips and felt up his head to a gash on his forehead that had dripped blood down his cheek. It was dried blood by now, leaving Damon to wonder how long he had been out.

"Damon! Thank heavens man. I was worried no one was alive down there. The whole place could come down on you guys. We need to get you out of there."

He coughed again but felt more dust in the air tickle his lungs more causing more coughing. Damn it, he felt like shit. He reach up and tied a bandana from his pocket around his nose and mouth. He passed another one, ripping it in half to the kids pressed against him for them to put it to their faces.

Stefan had moved more and managed to pull his body to sitting in the small dark space. Damon turned his body pushing stones away and knelt down in front of him.

"Damon! The kid I was carrying is alive. Barely a pulse but she's alive. We need to get them out of here."

Damon nodded silently and grunted, pushing a few smaller pieces of cement to fall the other way and off brother's legs. Stefan dragged his body to standing, passing Damon the little girl. She was practically limp in his arm and coughed weakly. He held the bandana to her face telling her to take more deep breaths.

They practically tripped on another body. It was the teacher and she too looked to be alive but barely breathing, a bad gash to her head and her one arm was under some heavy rocks. It took both the brothers to lift the cement block off her arm as she woke up screaming in pain when the pressure was released. They started passing the kids up and out the hole to Enzo and Damon helped the young lady up, getting her steady on her legs and passing her to Stefan to lift out to the surface.

Damon could hear more shifting and the stones were cracking above them, making more dust in the air. The brothers passed the kids that Damon had hid in the stone shelter one by one up across the room and up to Enzo and the men helping above ground. Damn it they needed to hurry!

The last child was huddled in the corner under the stone and was shaking her head, crying that she could not move. Damon bent back down and crawled under the overhang to reach his hand to her.

"C'mon sweetie. You need to grab my hand. We are going to get you out of here but you have to help me." She was curled up into herself in the darkness, shaking her head. She could not have been older than 6 and had tears streaming down her face.

Damon had no idea if she even understood him, but he offered her a soft smile and motioned her closer, stretching his hand closer. Slowly she moved forward and grasped her hand and Damon had carried her, limping from the rocks that had hit his legs as he made his way to Stefan. Together they passed her up and out of the hole above them.

Enzo yelled down to wait and that the men up top were bracing some of the rocks, to make it more stable to climb back up. Everything had started to shift when the teacher made her way out and both the brothers were much heavier than she was.

Stefan turned back to him and Damon saw him tear open his uniform and lift up the white tank top. Damon nearly gasped out at the blood he saw pooling under his skin in his stomach. Stefan pulled it back down, a knowing look in his eye. He was bleeding internally...for God knows how long already.

Damon bit back tears as he motioned that Stefan should go first. He needed a doctor badly or he might not make it. They nodded to each other silently both aware of how dire everything was.

Stefan turned back to him. "Damon, get back under that stone piece. You don't need to out in the open when I start climbing to the surface. This whole place could come down in seconds and at least then you have some protection from the falling rocks.

Damon nodded and they looked at each other before reaching out and hugging fiercely, both with tears in their eyes. Damon grabbed his brother by the back of the neck and nodded slowly. They heard Enzo call back down to come quickly. Stefan spun his weak and battered body and started to climb the debris and stones. Damon pushed him up as far as he could reach, his hands under his boots before he went back to the protected area. Enzo's hand was out as he yelled at him to hurry and reach up.

More cracking could be heard all around them and the stones shifted from his weight on them and Damon's eyes widened seeing the cement pieces weaken. "Stefan hurry!" His heart was racing and he felt such a huge sense of dread. He remembered Elena being so scared the last time they talked. She couldn't describe it but she had been terrified then...and now he felt it too.

Stefan scrambled up the stone pieces, his bloody hands gripping the broken cement as he pulled himself up. But suddenly there was louder cracking and stones started falling, more cement shifted and he heard Enzo yelling that they needed to hurry!

Rocks fell, sealing the hole up more and he heard his brother screaming as they heard more crashing above them. Damon cowered under the stone floor as he heard rocks falling and the space getting darker as they were sealed up underground.

The last thought he had of was how much he wanted was to hold his wife right then and cuddle his sweet little girl. Damon felt weak, his body battered from the stones, or rolling and crashing into the wall. His hand stung from the knife wound and his one arm felt so weak he could barely move it. He curled up his body tight against the stone overhand as his eyes stayed shut.

Tears in his eyes wet his face as he cried out, beneath the bandana over his mouth and nose "Elena I'm so sorry. So, so sorry..."

Elena saw Lily running toward her, with Kat close behind as she heard the announcer on the intercom speaking.

"Welcome to all of you," the lady's sweet voice said. "We all at Nashville International are profoundly sorry for your losses. Words cannot express how much."

She felt the tears in her eyes as she reached out and Lily ran and threw her little arms around her mom's neck. Elena picked her up, sitting with her to the side of her huge baby bump.

"On behalf of the Gary Sinise Foundation we welcome you all to the Snowball Express and wish you all a safe trip and hope this trip to Disney World can at the very least be a good memory in the sea of pain you are all facing now. From all of us at American Airlines, we wish you and your families our deepest sympathies and best wishes."

Elena felt the tears falling now as she cradled Lily in her arms. Kat sat down beside her and leaned her head to his sisters shoulder. They started playing 'The Star Spangled Banner' through the speakers and all the people young and old stood up and bowed their heads, taking off their hats, or holding their hand to their chest in reverence. The whole terminal was at a stand still. Everyone either stood or sat in silence.

Elena put Lily down beside her and stood up too, holding tight to her daughter's hand. She twisted Damon's necklace between her fingers and lifted it out from her camisole and kissed it again. The dog tags clinked together as her lips stayed on the metal, her eyes closed as tears streamed down her cheeks.

She bent down and pulled out the picture from her bag. The same picture he always carried with him of Damon and her, laying on the ice rink, this time in the soft green grass with Lily in his arms. Elena unzipped her carry on bag too and pulled out the flag that was given to them at his funeral last week. No body had been recovered but the witnesses said he and his brother had been buried alive in the building came down.

All they had found was his dog tags and his picture in his hand, the rest of the body crushed. The picture was charred around the edges from a fire she was told that had burned the building he was in. It was only still intact because it was clenched tight in his hand, away from the flames.

Elena held the folded up flag against her chest and sobbed more, curling his jacket tighter around her, aching to still smell him on it. To keep him with her. She had no idea how to survive without him. She had to be strong for Lily and their baby. She had to be.

But right now as the music played and she saw men, woman and children all standing at attention, all honoring the fallen soldiers of all the families here, she broke down. She had been strong for days, only crying when Lily was asleep and now the floodgates were open and she could not stop the tears, the gut wrenching silent sobs.

Katherine had lost Stefan too and had mourned in her own way and ran back home, feeling the comfort and love from their parents. She had no children to be strong for, or cling to. Nothing more than memories of the happy times they had as a couple. She wasn't going on this trip and it had been pure coincidence that Elena saw their connection before their flight to Florida was in their parent's home town.

She promised her mom that she and Lily would visit after they got back. This trip was for kids of fallen soldiers and first responders. Lily even in missing her daddy and understanding he was in heaven, had been so excited for the trip that Elena could not say no. She was planning to move back home after for awhile and decide where they went from there.

The room was filled with voices, as more and more passengers sang too, honoring the dead. There were red, white and blue balloons all over in bunches or decorated balloon filled archways, reminding Elena of their skating rink and the archway under which they kissed the first time and got engaged and were married.

Lily looked up as she stood tall beside her mom and had tears in her eyes too. Wordlessly she reached up and Elena put down the flag and bent to pick her up, cuddling their daughter close. "I miss daddy too mommy...so much," Lily whispered against her ear and Elena nodded and rocked her back and forth, holding her up over her big belly.

The song came to an end and she saw soldiers giving a military salute. It was all too much and Elena just wanted to crawl back in their bed and cry and dream about him. She had barely slept in their big bed since she had been given the news of the raid and the building that he had been in collapsing with him trapped inside. One of the men that came to her door were his and Stefan's teammate, Enzo.

He had survived the collapse when his buddy Ric had not. Enzo told her that they had tried to get to Damon and Stefan trapped in the basement. But the building collapsed fully before they could get them free and the terrorists had retaken the town, forcing any rescuers to retreat as gunfire and explosions got closer.

The Americans had taken hostage one of the terrorist leaders and they were trying to get back out of the town with him when more and more terrorists flooded the streets coming from the north where they still occupied much of the land there and they surrounded the soldiers and forced them to hand the elder leader back over or die. Enzo said the men had killed him instead of releasing him to them knowing they were all dead anyway and at least they took the leader with them.

The army had lost a great deal of men that night but Elena was told that Damon and Stefan had helped save many of the children and teacher that that been kidnapped. A few soldiers led the kids and young woman to safety before more terrorists got there. If it hadn't been for Damon and his quick actions to get people out of there, no one might have made it out alive at all.

By the time the enemy had retreated and ran to the hills, the building and many others had been set on fire and it was too late. All they had found was the picture and dog tags in his nearly burned up hand that seemed to have forced the items up through a crack in the rocks.

Enzo had not wanted to tell her more than that he had died in the mission, Stefan too. But Elena had begged him to tell her what happened. She had to know how he had been taken from her. Her nightmares if she had not known, she was sure would have been much worse.

Katherine gave her one more big hug as Elena still held Lily in her arms. Elena promised she would be home soon. She packed up Damon's flag back in her bag and made sure nothing else was getting forgotten. People were lining up to board the plane now. The Snowball Express had a whole plane of children and their surviving parents headed to Disney World. It was such an overwhelming gift to the families that were all mourning their loved ones.

They stood in line silently, Lily now standing beside her mom, holding Lumpy tight. Elena wiped her tears, seeing so many others somber faces and offered them weak but knowing smiles. They were all facing the same grief, the same incredible and indescribable loss.

She handed the attendant her tickets and the woman bent and asked Lily if she wanted a balloon. The little girl nodded, her eyes still red from crying too and the lady tied a bright red helium balloon to her wrist.

Elena was just about to step through the door at their gate leading to the plane when she heard her name on the intercom.

"Elena Salvatore, please come to one of the white courtesy phones. You have an important call. Elena Salvatore."

At that she looked up and the woman pointed her toward the nearest phone. She fished her own phone out of her pocket and saw that she had 10 unanswered calls! What was going on? She had left it on silent when they left the house and had not thought to turn it back on. Every call was from the same number...a really long overseas number…

She held tight to her daughter's hand as she made her way to the phone. Lily stood beside her, playing with her balloon as she picked up the receiver.

"Hello, this is Elena," she almost whispered. She felt she could hardly breath as she listened for the reply.

"Elena this is Officer Rudy Hopkins of the..." The man went on to describe being Damon's superior calling on behalf of his detachment. She could barely hear him over the pounding of blood in her ears.

"Ma'am I apologize for pulling you away just before your plane took off but we have some urgent news and I have been trying to reach you for hours."

Elena nodded, gripping the phone tighter not realizing she wasn't saying anything in response. Damon's baby kicked hard right then and Elena let go of Lily's hand to rub her palm over her belly.

"Ma'am are you still there?" the man said in a low very formal voice.

"Yes, yes I'm here," she managed to squeak out.

"Mrs. Salvatore you need to board the plane to Germany immediately. We will be here when you and your daughter arrive. I have already made arrangements with the airport staff to transfer your tickets and suitcase."

Elena had no idea what he was talking about. Fly to Germany?

"Mrs. Salvatore, your husband is alive… Damon is alive."

He's alive. I would not kill Damon, so thank you to those of you that hung on and read till now. I didn't want to give it away at the beginning by saying just have faith and trust me for a happy ending. I wanted to rip you through bunch of emotions and have you think he could actually be gone and then show you he wasn't.

Please review...