Damon POV
"Lets walk." She said grabbing my hand and pulling me up off of the step. I looked at her wondering where she wanted to go, why she wanted me to go with her. I allowed her to lead me as far as the cemetery.
"Elena what the hell are we doing here?" I asked her. Instead of answering she led me further in, in to the new section of the cemetery. She led me to her parents grave and sat down.
"This is where we met." She whispered. "I was scared of you. You were a dangerous jerk." She told me as I sat down next to her. "I thought that because that was the only side of you that you allowed people to see. Now I see you and I'm not scared in the slightest, you can definitely still be a jerk though."
"Quite the pep talk Elena." I said leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees with my chin resting against my arms.
"Damon do you trust me?" she asked me after a few moments of silence. I stared at her, I did not know what to say. If I trusted her it meant I needed her, if I didn't it meant I didn't have anyone who I could trust...
"I have not trusted anyone as much as I trust you in the last century...but..."
"No buts Damon. You either do or you don't so stop being a chicken and talk to me." She said jerking on my arm and spinning me around to face her.
"It hurts." I whispered.
"You are scared." She told me leaning closer.
"I can't." I said as I scooted back away from her.
"You need to." She told me as she put her face inches from my face.
"Why do you care?" I asked looking away...
"Because you are my..."she started to say but I interrupted her...
"Boyfriends brother." I spat out.
"I was going to say because you are my friend Damon...Friend as in someone you care about." She said as she firmly put her hands on my chin and jerked my head so I was looking directly into her eyes.
"Oh." Was all I could say. She forced me to stare at her for a few seconds before letting go. I looked down at the ground again and asked, "Elena, why do you care? I have been nothing but a jerk, I have kidnapped you, attacked you, threatened you, used you as collateral and yet you say you are my friend. What the heck is wrong with you?" I really didn't understand how she could care for me the way she did.
"I wish I had an answer for you Damon but I don't. I just...I need you. I feel connected to you somehow and I cant really explain it but it is there and I am here with you and I feel like I can talk to you about stuff and I want you to stop being so scared and I want you to talk to me too." She said as tears filled her eyes.
"Your parents grave." I said looking at the gravestone.
"Adopted parents." She whispered.
"I followed you because I could feel your pain. Then I saw that you looked exactly like her...then I knew Stephen fell in love with you. He told me from the beginning you were different. I didn't want you to be different. But..."
"Why are we so screwed up?" She asked me with a small smile.
"Elena I can't do this. I know what the logical thing to do is but I have never been able to do the logical thing. I always act with my heart. My heart for over a century has been with Katherine and tonight I found out that was just one giant lie. She never loved me. She never cared about me...I lost the relationship I had with Stephen because of her. I gave up life as a real person because of her...and for what? What the hell was the point of it all?"
"You are a good guy Damon. Fucked up, but deep down you are a good guy."
"That is a bunch of crap Elena and you know it. I am a murderer. I have done nothing but hurt people and for what? For Katherine, a girl who never really gave a shit about me."
"You did what you had to to get to Katherine. People do crazy things for the people they love." She said smiling at me.
"What like pity their boyfriends messed up older brother?" I said frustrated. I hate talking about emotional crap...it hurts to much.
"For Christs sake Damon I dont pity you. I care about you...and in case you havent noticed there is a big difference."
"Elena why do you care? Seriously why? I dont get it. You risked your life for me tonight and I really just do not understand why you would do that after everything I have done."
Elena POV
"Damon I am here with you because I care about you. How many times do I have to tell you that? I dont know how else to explain it."
"But why Elena? No one has ever cared...I thought Katherine did...but...and Stephen but I screwed that up...but it is different with you." He said as his eyes filled with tears. When he noticed that I noticed he turned his head away from me.
"Elena dont." He said when I scooted closer to him and started to put my arm around him.
"Damon stop being an ass. I can see that you are hurting so why wont you just let me be here for you?" I asked. A centuries worth of pain all boiled and rolled into one independent scared self righteous butt head.
"I dont know how to let someone be here for me. I have never had that...Don't you get it Elena? I have never had someone here for me...never had someone try to understand me." He said allowing a single tear to slide down his cheek.
I crawled around so I was kneeling in front of him and wiped the tear with my thumb gently sliding it down his chin. "Damon you cant hide anymore because there is nothing to hide behind."
He fell into my arms and I felt the tears soak into my shirt. We sat there, on my parents grave as he cried out all of the pain he had held in for over a century. I continued to hold him long after the tears stopped flowing. He needed someone to love him for who he was and he had needed that his entire life. Neither of us spoke, it was surreal the levels of pain and emotion he held inside.
While I held him my thoughts kept going back to Stephen and Bonnie. They had both lost so much; Bonnie lost her Grandmother, the one person who she could always turn to, the one persno who truly understood the things she dealt with. Stephen; he never knew his Mother, his father had lied to him and used him in order to take away the woman that both him and Damon loved. He lost the relationship he had with Damon because he entrusted his father. For the last 145 years he had been living a lone life, never able to live a stable life because of Katherine...and now he thought he would finally be freed from the guilt he felt for the loss Damon had by Katherine's capture...and then she was not there. Our lives, our hopes, and our dreams had all been shattered once again.
Stephen POV
I stood by the window watching as Elena led Damon down the street. I didn't know for sure their destination but had an idea. A neutral location; one that was safe to them both. I knew that Damon would not hurt Elena; in fact I was surprised at how much faith he put in her tonight. In 145 years he had not trusted a single person.
Elena saw something in him, something that I had not seen since before we even met Katherine. Through her eyes I had started to see it too. He had been hurt, we all had been hurt...when would the pain end?
"Stephen?" I heard Bonnie call as she broke my train of thought. I turned around to see her tear stained face. She had been thrown into this mess, a vampire mess because of us and now she had lost her Grandmother. "Will it ever stop hurting?" She asked me as a new bunch of tears began to slide down her cheek.
"You never forget the ones you loved." I said walking towards her. "You learn to live with the pain though and it does get easier."
She sat down next to me on the sofa. "Is Elena safe with Damon?" She asked me looking out the window and seeing them almost to the end of the block.
"A week ago I would have said no...but..." I started.
"Nothing is the same anymore is it?" She asked me as she leaned back into the sofa and sighed.
"Have you told your parents yet about Sheila...your Grandmother?" I asked changing the subject slightly.
"No. I need to...but I cant. Grams didn't want a funeral and that is what they will want for her...to be normal. But that isn't what she wanted."
"You need your family Bonnie." I told her.
"Stephen my family doesn't understand. Elena, you and Damon...you understand. I need to be with you. Not with my family. They don't know what happened, they wont ever know how Grams really died."
"I wish we never had to get you involved."
"Stephen we were destined to have this happened. Grams always said things happen for a reason and even though those reasons may never make sense they happen and we deal with them the best we know how and we stick together with those who have proven to be trustworthy and give those we dont trust a chance to prove themselves."
"Thanks for throwing that in about Damon." I said as I rolled my eyes.
"Stephen you have to give him a chance. He is in pain. That much is obvious just by looking at him. He has been tortured for 145 years... you cant expect him to be all happy and smiley all the time. You never are so why should he?"
"You and Elena...girls in general...I just dont get you! Damon is a murderer. We are both vampires. Your Grandmother just died because we were trying to save another vampire who started this whole mess in the first place and you are both more worried about me and Damon than for yourselves."
"Yes." She said, though she cringed when I mentioned her Grandmother.
"I want to help you Bonnie. Help you do whatever it is Sheila wanted done. I want to protect Elena, to spend my life with her, to live a normal human life. I want Damon to be happy. I want me to be happy." I said as I fought back my emotion as I tried to force the words out.
"I think I may have a way to do that Stephen...I think what Grams wants me to do...what she tried to do...I am not strong enough yet and still need to learn but I think..." Bonnie rambled on.
"You think there is a way to turn us from Vampire to Human again?" I asked surprised that she would even bring that up.
"Bonnie I dont want to ask you to..."
"Stephen shut up. Grams wanted to turn you before all of this happened, when she saw how much you and Elena cared for each other. Grams wanted to help you."
"I cant do it without Damon." I whispered.
"I don't even know how to do it Stephen I just know it is possible."
"What all do we need to do for Sheila?" I asked her.
"I guess take her to the bridge and chant what is in the green book." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"When?" I asked gently.
"As soon as Elena comes back with Damon." She answered standing up and pacing. "Hopefully before the sun comes up.
Damon POV
I am freaking sitting here on her parents grave and crying like a little girl. It just feels wrong, I don't think I have cried since I was six years old and our Mother died. Why is she here with me anyway? I dont understand why she cares so much.
What I really don't understand is how she can figure out what it is that I need without me even knowing what I need. "Thank you Elena." I said straightening up.
"What do we do know?" She said loosening her grip around me but still leaning in close. Closer than she probably should be considering she is dating my brother.
"We go get the witches body and take her to the bridge and Bonnie and I recite the stupid green book until her body floats up and then just disappears." I tell her...it is a little more complicated than that but no need to go into detail when she will see it soon enough.
"Where does she go?" Elena asked me as she stood up and stretched.
"Her spirit goes into those nearby and become like a protective shield linking us together for eternity."
"For eternity?" She asked me confused.
"Well, eternity for me and Stephen...just the rest of your and Bonnie's lives but it makes it so that we have to protect you and your descendents." I tried to explain.
"Oh. Cheery." She said pulling me up, "Damon are you okay with doing this? I mean...Katherine and..."
"Katherine...let's not talk about that right now..." I said quietly; "I'm not ready..."
"You will tell me when you are ready?" She asked me as she took my hand in hers. I took my hand out of hers and put my arm around her shoulders. I nodded my head and we walked slowly back to Bonnie's house.
Elena POV
If I can't do anything else productive I can at least be there for people who need someone; to be a good friend. As weird as it is to say it I feel a great deal of affection for Damon. He may be an ass but he needs people to love him and care for him as much as the next guy.
He has saved my life more than once. He sat with me in the cemetery over the summer, he said that my grief drew him to me. We both understand loss, we both understand the fear of the unknown, what it is like to lose yourself through the loss of a loved one. The difference being that I had my brother to help me deal and he did not. I am glad that he can talk to me when he has no one else.
Based pearly on the amount of time we spent in the cemetery tonight and how closely he allowed me to hold him I would guess he hadn't cried since long before he was turned by Katherine. He had to be strong for his younger brother in life; and had to be strong for himself. Putting up a shield and holding it for so long will take a while to let go, a while for him to open up completely...if he ever does.
"Damon will you..." I started to ask him...
"I will talk to you Elena but not tonight...it has already been too much tonight. Even a big strong vampire can handle only so much." He said putting his defenses back on overdrive.
"Are you okay to do the spell with Bonnie tonight?" I asked as we came into view with the house.
"Elena will you stay?" He asked me pausing briefly before he climbed the first step.
"Stay?" I asked confused.
"I need you to stay close." He said as he let go of me and walked through the front door.
I rolled my eyes at him and followed him through the door. Bonnie and Stephen were sitting on the couch in the dark waiting for us.
"Lets get the witch to the bridge." Damon said sarcastically.
"Dammit Damon!" Stephen yelled.
"Guys stop. Now. We have something to do and we need to do it before sunrise. It is 4am and we need to do it before sunrise so pretend like you are grownups and freaking get along."
"How do we get her to the bridge?" Bonnie asked as she stood up with the green book. Lets do this.
Stephen POV
When they came back to the house something had changed. Not in Elena but in Damon. They were only gone for two hours and thirty-seven minutes but he seemed 150 years younger. The way he held himself, the stress in him, it seemed less somehow and for that I was grateful to Elena. Maybe if he kept talking to her he would become human again...well as human as a vampire can get.
"I can carry her." I said standing up and walking into the bedroom.
Bonnie followed me, "She has this cloak...she said it was Emily's. Wrap her in it to carry her." She told me as she handed me the cloak, I remembered it. Emily was wearing it the night that Katherine and Pearl were taken.
"Damon you get Elena and Bonnie there safe and I will take Sheila. We will meet at the bridge in ten minutes." I said as I lifted Sheila out of the bed and carried her out the hallway.
I was Bonnie start to cry as I walked down the steps and disappeared into the woods. I took the long way to the bridge and when I got their Elena was hugging Bonnie with Damon standing behind them with his arms crossed and looking away.
It appeared that if he were to look at them he himself would break down. I hated seeing him so broken, I knew it was good, because it meant he was opening up, at least with Elena but it was still difficult to see him.
Carrying Shelia had been easy. Our souls were connected through our families histories. It hurt to know that we would never see her again, but I knew she would always be around to protect us, to protect our families. I had so many questions to ask Sheila but now I would never get the chance.
She knew our history, she knew why we wanted to open the tomb. She didn't know that Katherine had somehow managed to get away because Emily didn't know. Emily thought that she was sealing Katherine and all of the other vampires into the tomb.
"Lets do this please. It has been a long night." Damon said as he walked towards Bonnie.
"How do we do this?" Bonnie asked.
"You open the book and we read it from cover to cover." Damon said looking at Elena as he said it.
"What do we do?" I asked Damon.
"You stay close." He said still directed to Elena.
"I'm not going anywhere." She assured him.
"Stephen I need you to lay her body down on the edge of the bridge and take six steps back behind Bonnie. Elena you do the same thing behind me. No matter what happens do not move until I say otherwise." He said looking back and forth between the three of us.
We all got into our positions and Damon and Bonnie started reading out of the book. I do not know how Damon was able to read whatever it was that they were reading, or how Bonnie was able to for that matter, but within seconds I saw Sheila's body begin to rise off the bridge.
Comments?? What do you all think???