Comments...I need comments...what do you guys think??
Damon POV
This was the second time I had helped a witch. Bonnie needed me to read the gibberish with her or the spell would not work...it took two privileged individuals to be able to do a spell that strong and have it work. The only reason I was able to do it was because of the spell that Emily cast over me made it so I had to protect her family and a part of protecting her family was ensuring that no one ever found out they were in fact witches.
The spell in itself lasted only a matter of seconds but it felt like a century. The pain of losing Katherine made it difficult to concentrate but I needed to in order to help Bonnie...and I had to help Bonnie—she had helped me, and Sheila had given her life to help me. The effort put forth to conduct the spell caused my emotion to run raw I could not keep the tears from spilling from my eyes. I could not look behind me to see Stefan or Elena's reaction but I could see the fear and sadness in Bonnie's face as she read the words in the book; I could feel; but not see both Stefan and Elana.
I was the only one who knew what would happen but I knew that the three of them were prepared to be banded together for the rest of history. I felt it before I said it—the spell worked and we were swept up in a whirlwind gust before the flash of light brighter than anyone could imagine flashed and then it was dark..and still...too still.
"Is it over?" Bonnie asked me as she set the book down.
I nodded my head. "What happened?" Stephen asked as he took a slow step forward towards Bonnie and I...to where Sheila had been placed initially.
"Try and hurt me Brother." I said taunting him.
"The four of us are bonded together now aren't we?" Elena asked as she moved towards Bonnie and took her hand. She is a quick one...it took me almost two decades to figure it out.
"The sun is coming up we need to get back in before someone sees us." I reminded them as I picked up the green journal and placed it gently in my pocket. In reality no one would see us there and even if they did it wouldn't matter, there was physically nothing we had left to hide.
Elena POV
The spell took a lot out of both Damon and Bonnie; they had been tired and stressed over what had happened in the last couple days and the spell just added to it. They both struggled to walk back to the boarding house even though it was the closest place to the bridge. Bonnie followed Stefan into the living room and sat down on the couch while he built a fire in the fire place.
Damon hung back like he wasn't part of the group and didn't fit in with us enough to feel welcomed. I looked over at Bonnie and then back at Damon and I heard Bonnie whisper. "Come sit...please." As she looked towards Damon.
He came in and sat down on the leather sofa across from Bonnie and I, and watched as Stefan built the fire. "Has anyone slept in the last forty-eight hours?" Stefan asked sitting down next to me.
He already knew the answer so no one answered him. "Bonnie there is a room upstairs if you want to go lay down." Stefan told her.
"Come on Bon I will show you." I said as I took her hand and led her up the stairs with Damon and Stefan left alone in the living room.
"Elena am I safe to stay here?" She asked me as she closed us into the room I showed her.
"Bonnie right now I don't know of anyplace safer." I said as I pulled out a pair of sweats from the dresser and passed them to her.
"How often do you stay here Elena Gilbert?" She asked with a smirk on her face.
"After Anna I didn't want to stay at home." I tried to rationalize.
"Oh...but do you actually stay in this room or do you stay with Stefan?" She asked pulling off her jeans and slipping into the sweats.
"I am rarely alone in this house...but it isn't always just with Stefan. When Stefan had to leave I stayed with Damon."
"What happened with you and Damon... a couple months ago you hated him and then you disappear for a weekend and come back friends? It is a little weird."
"Weird is an understatement. I said as I rolled my eyes and grabbed another pair of sweats out and pulled them on. "After Atlanta I dunno...Damon and I just..."
"Atlanta? Wait...what?" She asked confused...I hadn't told anyone other than Stefan about Atlanta.
"Well when the other vampire..."
"What?!?!"
"Can I tell my story?" I said smiling. It felt good to have girl talk again. "When the other vampire totaled my car Damon was there...he saved me and I'm kinda fuzzy on the details but I woke up in the front seat of his car on the way to Atlanta.
"Car accident Elena? When was that?"
"A few weeks ago... Stefan and I had a fight...I found a picture of Katherine and I.. well...she looks just like me and Stefan refused to explain and I got mad and left and I guess Damon was out hunting or something anyways he was close and anyway we ended up in Atlantic City where he had a friend I guess but she ended up not a friend and by the end of the weekend we had an understanding of one another."
"An understanding? Elena that is ridiculous you are totally leaving something out. Stefan had a girlfriend who looks exactly like you and...wait...Katherine? That is who Damon wanted out of the tomb..."
"Katherine is the vampire that turned them. She was suppose to be in the tomb with Pearl and all the other vampires but..."
"But she wasn't...and it...ohhh....Damon."
"Damon loved her. Stefan thought he did too but said that his feelings were because she had compelled them and it wasn't real. What Damon felt was real though...at least for him."
"And now Damon doesn't have anyone." Bonnie said as she stretched out the bed.
"Damon has us. Me, you and Stefan." I said "He needs us. For over 150 years he has loved Katherine and everything he has done has been because of her. Now he finds out that she never really cared..."
"All of us has lost someone... Damon and Stefan lost Katherine, and all of their family and friends, I lost Grams...and you lost your parents..."
"Adoptive parents." I blurted out.
"Adoptive?!? What the hell Elena!" She yelled at me, apparently it had been a while since I talked to her.
"I don't really know the whole story because Stefan wont tell me but basically someone came into town and they were really young and she had me and my parents they hadn't been able to get pregnant and so they took me and because Dad was a doctor it was easy..."
"Uh...wow." Bonnie said... "So much in such a short..."
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you Bonnie but it wasn't safe...I was trying to keep you out of all of this...trying to protect everyone."
"I love you Elena. You are my best friend...and the only other people who know about my secret are Stefan and Damon. I guess as much as I hate it we are bonded and Grams wish just made it so we were officially bonded." She said through a yawn.
"Bonnie you get some sleep... I will be somewhere within ear shot... feel free to wander the house when you wake up... the guys said I could read all the books and journals and everything so I am sure you can too...maybe there are answers for you in some of the journals."
"Thanks Elena." She said as she closed her eyes. I slowly walked out of the room and down the stairs. I paused halfway down when I heard Stefan.
"Damon are you going to be okay?" He asked.
"I always am aren't I?" He responded sarcastically.
"Why cant you just talk to me?" Stefan said, he sounded so sad, "we were best friends before Katherine and after all of this you cannot even look at me." He said so quietly I barely heard him.
"Stefan you are my little brother and I promised Mom before she died that I would protect you and I failed. Somehow I failed so horribly that you were turned into a vampire and lost the way of life I was suppose to protect."
"Damon for Christs sake you weren't even ten when mom died."
"Does it matter? I failed. I ruined my relationship with our father. I ruined my relationship with you. I have not been able to protect you..." He stopped his rant, "Elena you can stop ease dropping and come down... I am not going to talk to him like he wants me to."
"Why are boys so stubborn?" I asked climbing down the last few steps and sitting down on the couch between the two of them.
"It makes life more exciting." Damon spat out. He looked like he was going to pass out. All of the emotional drainage over the last forty-eight hours had paid its toll and he looked like shit.
"Stefan you should sleep." I said quietly to him as I laced my fingers within his.
"What about you?" He asked through sad eyes.
"I take care of my family Stefan Salvatore." I said smiling. "I will be up soon. I am all ready for bed at least...wait...when was the last time you hunted?" I asked as I remembered that neither one of them had anything since before we opened the tomb.
"Damon when was the last time you..." Stefan demanded.
"Relax Stefan I had a snack before the spell...I have a supply in the fridge in my room if you don't want to hunt your little fluffy bunny rabbits tonight." Damon said crossing his arms.
"Thanks Damon." He said as he rolled his eyes. "I will be in my room if you need me." He told me as he gave me a pleading look and left the room.
Stefan POV
He is so full of it. I don't know why he thinks he has to protect me all the damned time. He never gave a shit before, or at least it never seemed like it. Protecting me since I was a baby because our Mother made him promise? Was that why he was always there? Every time something went wrong he was always there...maybe it was because he was trying to protect me. But why?
Why can he talk to Elena and not to me? Why is he to scared to let me in? I know I had hurt him and let him down in the past but... he is my brother and I never stopped loving him.
I looked at Elena one last time before starting up the stairs. I knew she would be safe with him. Three weeks ago I wasn't sure. I still do not know all of what happened in Atlanta after Elena and I had our fight...Elena had a new car when she got back...it didn't smell the same but other than that it was identical; and somehow the two of them were different.
Damon did something on their trip...something to let her in...just a crack...and somehow Elena managed to get herself under his skin. I paused at the top of the stairs to listen to what she said to him; trying to find a way for myself to get in too.
"Why wont he just drop it? I haven't talked to him about anything of importance in over one hundred and forty five years. It is like just because of what happened in the last week he just expects me to be completely a different person." Damon said quietly. It hurt to hear that but it was true, Damon and I had not had a serious conversation since before he went off to war.
"He is worried about you." Elena answered... "Why can you talk to me so easily?"
"You think it is easy for me to talk to you? To trust you?" He whispered. "I can honestly say that this, this talking to you, crying with you, it is the hardest thing I have ever done...ever...its just...it isn't natural to me." He said thick with emotion.
"Does it help to talk to me?" She asked.
He didn't answer but I heard him choke on his breath. He was fighting back tears...I couldn't allow myself to intrude anymore. Elena could help him right now and that was what was important.
I walked slowly down the hall to my room, I stuck my head into the room Bonnie was in to check on her, to make sure she was still sleeping soundly. I didn't turn the light on in my room instead I went over to my desk and lit a small candle.
Katherine's photograph was sitting on my desk staring up at me. It hurt to look at it; when I first came back here Elena only reminded me of Katherine, the way she looked, the way she smelled, the way she composed herself...but the more time I spent with her I no longer see Katherine at all. Elena and Katherine are more opposite than any two people could be.
Damon POV
I don't know how she does it to me...it is like I cannot keep her out of my head. Since Atlanta...I tried to block her out to keep everything to myself but I just cant anymore...when I thought she was going to die...in the car accident something in me just snapped. I couldn't lose her too.
"Does it help to talk to me?" She asked...how the hell was I suppose to answer that? Of course it helped but it also hurt more than I ever imagined letting someone in could hurt.
I hated feeling vulnerable. I was a damned vampire and vampires are not suppose to be weak. That was exactly what I was though. I needed Elena more than she needed Stefan, more than she needed me. Rather than answer I leaned back into the couch and sighed...almost instantly she had her arm around me and I was drawn to her.
"Talk or just sit?" She asked me. That is what I liked about her so much...she didn't want to force me to talk...she just wanted me to know she was there when I was ready.
"Sit." I whispered. I was so exhausted after not sleeping, the spell, and all the emotional shit as a result of everything I couldn't handle anymore.
"You should sleep Damon." She told me gently.
"You should stop trying to take care of everyone and take care of yourself." I said as I looked directly into her eyes.
"When was the last time you slept?" She asked as she completely ignored my previous statement and leaned her head against my arm.
I felt the body heat radiating off of her and it warmed me. "For more than a couple hours at a time?" I responded.
"When was the last time you had a normal nights of sleep...or day of sleep...whatever?" She reiterated.
"One hundred and forty seven years ago." I answered.
"You haven't slept in one hundred and forty seven years? That is messed up Damon." She said as she sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. I immediately missed the warmth of her close to me.
"You asked." I said turning and looking at her.
"Why don't you sleep?"
"I can't."
"Lame answer Damon."
"I haven't felt safe in that long I guess." I answered shrugging my shoulders.
"The war and then Katherine?" I nodded an affirmative. "Do you feel safe now?"
"Sitting here with you?" This time she nodded. "Yeah."
Elena POV
"This is the first time in one hundred and forty seven years? Sitting with your brother's girlfriend..."
"I told you I was messed up." He said on the defensive.
"It is sad Damon. It makes me sad." I tried to explain to him.
"Dammit Elena; I don't want you to have pity on me!" He said as he quickly stood up and stalked up the stairs.
I followed behind him as he tried half heartily to shut me out of his room. He sat down on his bead with his knees drawn to his chest in a very defensive position. I sat down on his bed and stretched out laying down on his pillow.
"Elena what the hell do you think you are doing?" He asked me quietly.
"You said you wanted me to sit with you. You said it was the first time you felt safe in a really freaking long time so why are you all pissed off?" I asked him already knowing the answer. He was scared as hell and hated feeling vulnerable...well I wasn't about to let him shut me out again especially not if it was the first time he let someone in since...well...basically forever.
"You cant spend every night with me Elena so what good does this do?"
"Nor would I want to." I said sticking my tongue out at him.
"I don't get you." He said laying his head down on the pillow next to me. "But thank you."
"Damon will you promise me something?" He looked at me questioningly. "Damon promise me you will try to let Stefan and Bonnie in too." I said running my fingers through his hair. It was oddly intimate, not romantically intimate...I don't know how to explain...I just felt connected to him, protective of him.
He was lying next to me on the bed staring at the ceiling. "I will stay with you until you fall asleep." I told him.
"Falling asleep isn't the problem." He said as a tear slipped out of the corner of his eye and dropped on the pillow.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" I asked him.
"Elena I cannot and will not ask you to do that."
"Damon do you want me to stay with you?" I asked him again.
He nodded his head. "I am going to go tell Stefan I will be staying in here. I am also closing your blinds because there is no way I will be able to sleep with the sun up now." I said as I stood up.
When I got to the door I turned around, "You better be in here when I come back."
"I'm not going anywhere Elena." He said as he watched me walk out of his room.
Stefan POV
I could hear everything through the walls here...it was a trick I had learned years ago. My room was vented in a way that I could hear everything throughout the house but no one could hear things from my room...it was one of the reasons I chose it.
"Elena you can stay in there with him." I told her when she walked through my door.
"You sure it isn't too weird for you?" She asked me as she sat down on my lap. She saw the photograph of Katherine. "I hate her for doing this to you guys."
"I am fine Elena." I assured her. "It is Damon who is messed up...and more messed up than I always thought. I didn't know he hadn't slept in that long...I just always thought he slept when I was away or something I didn't know he didn't sleep at all."
"Stefan.." She started.
"I am fine." I said as I pulled her into me for a quick embrace. "Damon needs you right now. If you can be there for him now maybe he will let me in too maybe it will make us a family again." I said having a hard time hiding my emotion.
"Will you let me tuck you in at least so you stop staring at her picture and get some sleep. Bonnie will probably be up in a couple hours."
"Elena that is ridiculous." I told her.
She stuck her bottom lip out and made an incredibly ridiculous pouty face. I rolled my eyes at her, "Will you tell me a bedtime story too?"
"Just do it." She as she stood and crossed her arms.
I got up and walked over to my bed and crawled under the blankets. "Elena will everything be okay?" I asked her as I closed my eyes.
"We will get through everything together that much I can promise you." She told me as she kissed me slowly and softly. She then pulled the blanket up over my shoulder, whispered that she loved me, kissed me again and walked out of the room. "Sweet dreams Stefan."
Would things really be okay? Would anything ever be normal? Hell, Damon and I are vampires, Bonnie is a witch...Elena is the only one with the option for normal...but she doesn't really...she was born without that option...she just doesn't know the whole back story.
I heard Elena walk back into Damon's room and heard the blankets rustle as she climbed onto the bed. She didn't say anything and just went in and I assumed lay down on the bed next to Damon. Everything felt so familiar and yet this time it was totally different.
With Katherine she compelled us both to love her and do whatever she wanted. Elena is putting herself third to both me and Damon. She truly cares for us as people, she doesn't care we are vampires, she doesn't care that we were both in love, or thought we were in love with a psychotic bitch of a vampire. She only cares to make us happy. That we are safe, that we feel loved. It is absolutely amazing to me how selfless and makes me fall even more in love with her. I only hope that she is able to help Damon to truly know and understand what love actually is.
Damon POV
I felt her climb into bed as she laid down next to me. She didn't speak she didn't wrap me in a hug, she just climbed up and crawled under the blanket next to me and was there with me. For the first time in one hundred and forty seven years I closed my eyes feelings safe. For the first time in one hundred and forty seven years I fell asleep feeling safe.
When I woke up three hours later sweating and thrashing around feeling as though someone were trying to kill me she was there. She immediately wrapped her arms around me despite the danger to herself trying to wrestle a vampire. "Come back to me Damon. Right here, right now. Relax and breathe." I heard her whisper. It took me a minute to realize that what I was seeing was a nightmare and my reality was there with her.
"Breathe Damon." She said pulling me towards her. "You are safe here." I fell into her breathing in her scent and finally breathing. "Go back to sleep Damon. I'm not going anywhere." She told me.
I started to shake, my whole body was wracked with emotion. I curled myself onto and around her and held as tight as I could. "I'm not going anywhere." She whispered into my hear, "We will get through all of this together. I promise you Damon things will get easier."
It hurt, I saw myself laying in the trenches in the Civil War having to murder people who were trying to kill me. I didn't know these people and yet it was my order to destroy them. I had never shot a gun before the war. I saw myself crying as the rain pored down on my face washing away the tears and the blood. I was truly alone in the world for the first time.
The first chance I had I ran away. I ran home to Stefan. I needed to see him, my little brother, the picture of innocence. When I got home though he was no longer the young boy he was when I left. He had grown into a young man. A man who relied on our father. I left him so he sought comfort and reassurances from him. Things were different between us when I returned home. He no longer confided in me; perhaps it was because he had nothing to confide in, but it hurt.
Then Katherine came, I attached myself to her because she cared. She wanted to hear the horrors I went through, she wanted to be my great protector. She confided in me her greatest secret and I fell deeply in love with her because she was the only one I had to rely on. Watching her be taken away in the carriage was the lowest day of my life. I went to the bridge and jumped off. Only I forgot I had her blood in me; rather than ending my life I ensured that I would live on forever.
In all of my years I cannot pick out a single happy, joyous moment that has not been tainted by the events that unfolded.
She held me until I was able to calm down once again; I knew that Stefan was right outside my door as soon as he heard me thrashing around. I waited for him to come in; to tear Elena from me, to protect her from me, but he didn't. He sat outside of the door and I could hear him sob. I knew then that I needed to open myself up to them all, not just to Elena. I needed to trust.
I held onto Elena as tightly as I could until there were no tears left to cry. I held onto her long after I was able to regulate my breathing once again. She never asked what my nightmare had been about; not because she didn't want to know, but because she knew I would tell her when I was ready.
Eventually, with the help of her running her fingers through my hair and up and down my back I relaxed and fell back asleep.
Elena POV
He eventually fell back asleep with his body so closely attached to mine it felt almost as if we were one person. He clung to me much like a child clings to their mother. I held him and reassured him as much as I could. I did not know what his demons were but I knew he needed strength. He needed to get through these next few hours to prove to himself that he was strong enough and that he could do it.
Not long after Damon fell back asleep Stefan stuck his head in; I could tell he had been crying, something I had not seen him do either until today. I started to move to go hold him but he shook his head and pointed to Damon. Then he slowly walked towards me and kissed my forehead.
He reached his hand down and put it on Damon's shoulder, "I love you Damon. No matter what I never stopped loving you." He whispered before turning around and walking out of the room. I dozed off and on as I held Damon. I never did close the curtains so sleeping was nearly impossible for me. I watched the clock as it struck three pm. Damon had been asleep since eight that morning, seven hours. About six when you take out his nightmare.
Damon started to stir a few minutes later, much like he did the first time; moaning and calling out. "Damon...wake up Damon..." I whispered to him, "you are safe here. Nothing can hurt you here." I told him. He woke up but didn't loosen his grip on me.
"What do you want to do today?" I asked him at three-thirty after he had still not moved.
"Lay here like this forever." He mumbled. "Thank you Elena." He said as he rolled slightly so he only held my arm instead of my whole body.
"Are Stefan and Bonnie up?" I asked, most likely he could hear them if they were up and doing anything.
"The TV is on downstairs."
"Are you ready to get up yet?" I asked him as I rolled to face him.
"When I am ready will you let me tell you everything?" Damon asked me. "I mean I know it is a lot I don't want you to feel like you have to but I need to know."
"Can you stop talking so I can answer you?" I interrupted his rambling. "Damon we are family and we need to share things. You need to share what happened to you, Stefan needs to share what has happened to him, Bonnie needs to share what happened to her."
"You need to share what happened to you too Elena."
"Right...that...anyway..." I said in attempt to bring the subject back to him. "I am here whenever you are ready to talk."
"Can I talk to you tonight then?" He asked me as he sat up. I nodded my head, "Elena please don't tell them how much of a pussy I have been."
"Dammit Damon stop putting yourself down for being human. Stefan came in here after you fell back asleep. He was outside the door crying when you were. It hurts him to see you like this. He didn't know you were dealing with all of the shit you are dealing with." I told him as I swung my legs out of the bed and stood in front of him with my arms crossed.
"He came in here after I was asleep?" More of a statement than a question. "He told me that he loved me."
"He does love you Damon."
"Can we go do something normal today?" He said throwing a sweatshirt at me. "It is going to be cold down there...Stefan hasn't built a fire yet." He said walking out the door.
Stefan POV
"Lets do something normal today." Damon said as he bounced into the living room followed by Elena in one of Damon's old sweaters.
It was like he was a totally different person. The dark circles under his eyes were gone, the glimmer was back in his eyes. He looked like the brother I lost when I was twelve years old.
"What did you have in mind?" Bonnie asked him as she looked away from the TV that she wasnt actually watching.
"We should go on a trip." Was his answer.
"Have you completely lost your mind Damon?" Elena asked him.
"What? You had fun in Atlanta didn't you?" He gloated.
"You want to go to Atlanta?" Bonnie asked confused. "I thought a vampire tried to kill you there...why would you want to go back?"
"A vampire tried to kill you? You had Elena there?" I yelled. Once again Damon not caring about human life.
"Relax Stefan he wasn't after her he was after me because of Lexi. Elena saved me." He said smiling. So that was what happened...that was the crack. "Anyways...today is Friday and as the three of you are juvenile delinquents and skipping school anyway I say we make the weekend worth it and we go on a trip."
"I could use a break from Mystic Falls." Bonnie said quietly.
"A vacation it is then! Where should we go?"
"I say we should go to Washington DC." I said. I didn't think anyone would agree but it was the closest place I could think of that didn't remind me of Katherine and all of the misery since.
"Ladies?" Damon asked. Elena and Bonnie both nodded. "DC it is."
"I will go throw some stuff together upstairs and then I can take you both home to pack and we can meet back here at five to start the drive?" I suggested.
"Wouldn't it be faster if one of you took me and the other took Bonnie?" Elena asked.
"Sure ya...whatever...I am going upstairs to pack." I said as I climbed the stairs.
"Your boyfriend needs a hug I think Elena." I heard Damon say as I entered my room.
"Don't be a butt Damon." She refuted.
"A butt? Did you really just call me a butt?" He said as the three of them started to laugh.
Comments...I need comments...what do you guys think?? Should I continue? End it? Do you like it hate it? What??? :) I need comments!