Caroline was standing outside Bonnie's house waiting for Bonnie and Jeremy to come outside, they had each gotten an urgent phone call from Stefan who sounded angry and distraught and Caroline figured that he'd found out about Elena's feelings for Damon, even if they couldn't do anything for him, they should be there. Damon shouldn't be alone. Caroline got the fact that Stefan was mad at Elena. He had no one else to be angry at really, there was no doubt in her mind that Stefan loved Elena but right now he was hurt and he couldn't be mad at his brother. Damon was dying, being angry at him would be completely useless, even Stefan understood that, and so he was angry at Elena. Caroline sat on Bonnie's front porch considering all this. Feeling upset again, knowing that Elena would be heartbroken at all of this, knowing that all they had now was each other. It had always been the three girls, they'd been best friends through everything, absentee parents, divorces and deaths, vampires and witchcraft, there was nothing that could keep the three of them apart but that didn't mean that Elena wouldn't hurt. And Caroline wasn't sure if Elena would come out of it this time. She remembered the nightmares, the midnight calls, the pain that Elena had already been through. The last person in the world who deserved to lose the people she loved was Elena, she was generous and loving, and sacrificial. She didn't deserve any of this.

She heard footsteps coming up the pavement and the familiar scent of Tyler's cologne hit her before she looked up. He smiled at her warmly and Caroline, much to her own surprise got up and shortened the distance between them before she threw her arms around him and her lips crashed onto his. She just wanted to be with him, while she could. She didn't think she was really afraid of dying anymore, she was just afraid of being alone. Damon had been alone for so long and now he had Elena he was dying. The injustice of it gripped Caroline but she felt happy in Tyler's arms. Feeling his hands searching across her back, while one hand snaked up her shirt and the other rested just above her bum. She inhaled the scent of him as he returned the kiss in a slightly possessive way and she reveled in the fact that she was becoming much too hot for comfort, her skin was searing and he was sending her head reeling. When they parted lips it wasn't to separate entirely. Caroline held onto him and closed her eyes as Tyler leaned his forehead against hers, she smiled gently.

It was exactly what they both needed right now, the uncertainty of what might happen next was terrifying her and she thought Tyler was probably more worried than her, he didn't know if he could trust Stefan and Damon, he was the only werewolf in town and being surrounded by vampires and a witch and the council must be beyond disconcerting. But she would do anything to help Tyler, she would leave with him if she had to. She might have to, she wasn't sure what was supposed to happen now but all she knew was that she should hold onto Tyler as long as she got the chance to do that.

"Caroline?" She was brought out of her daze by the sound of Matt's voice when she opened her eyes and turned she saw Matt standing in the middle of the sidewalk staring back at her and Tyler, she wondered how long he'd been there and how much of all this she'd seen. He looked angry though, not hurt. But the sting of his betrayal washed all over her again, as long as she was with Tyler she forgot about being hurt so badly, about the fact that her own family would kill her when they got the chance. And she didn't know what Matt was capable of, how could she ever trust him, he had wooden bullets in his gun. She had no idea how far he would go if he decided that all vampires were evil. She was scared of Matt.

"What are you doing here Matt?"

"I came to talk to you, I figured you'd either be here or at the Salvatore's." He still looked pissed off and Caroline couldn't shake the feeling that she couldn't ever trust him again. No matter what he said. "Look Caroline I-"

"Matt, sorry to interrupt but we really don't have time. If you want you can follow us, we're going to the boarding house." Bonnie came out of the door, she was carrying a duffel-bag and handed it to Jeremy as they came down the porch before she turned to Tyler. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and handed her his ancestor's diary. Matt looked curious but still a little agitated, Caroline decided to ignore it and got into the car with Bonnie. She had expected Tyler to get in next to her but instead he closed the door and then leaned to talk through the window.

"I think Jeremy and I should ride with Matt." He looked at her seriously, ignoring her frown and kissing her on the cheek. Jeremy got out of the passenger seat and Caroline acrobatically moved to the front to sit next to Bonnie. Both girls were frowning severely as they looked into the rear-view mirror and watched the three guys get into Matt's car.

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"Now isn't really the time to be worried about that." Bonnie was clearly unhappy about the fact that Matt knew about her being a witch and Caroline couldn't blame her. "But I don't know. Us, I guess." She shrugged as she turned off the main road to the small, almost hidden road that lead to the boarding house. She was right though, now was not the time to worry about what the guys were discussing, even if it was about the fact that they were vampires and werewolves and Matt was going to go all Van Helsing on their asses. Elena needed them, and best friends, family came first.

"What do you want Sabrina?"

"Still with the nicknames Damon? You'd think being near death would make you see the error of your ways." Bonnie replied to the vampire in their usual banter. Elena had been sobbing downstairs and she had no doubt that Damon could probably hear it. Giving him a sense of normalcy was the least she could do though it wasn't instinctual. As much as she disliked being around vampires there was something about seeing Damon like this. It disturbed her, not as much as it did Elena but still. Damon, although technically dead, had always been so full of life.

"Oh just let me indulge myself while I still can." He gave her one of those grins and cringed while he moved.

"You've indulged plenty, now sit up." She pulled him, he was mostly dead-weight, she realized that Damon was a big useless lug at the moment, he was really sick. He was really dying and she needed to do what she could. There was no guarantee this would work at all, in fact Bonnie was seriously doubtful about it, especially being this close to Damon. She could feel the energy, whatever it was that made him alive, it was draining from him. Even worse it seemed saturated with something that she couldn't explain, like she could see or feel some kind of poison that was coursing through his being. She hadn't expected him to flinch so badly when she touched his chest, all she had done is put her hand on his chest to steady him while she fluffed up the pillows but he'd cringed and was now doubled over in pain as he cried out. Bonnie let him lean into her side and waited for it to pass, feeling increasingly worried. There was no doubting the fact that he was dying. She looked from the one Salvatore brother to the other, Stefan was standing at the side of the room, arms crossed, he looked severely beaten. Bonnie thought he shouldn't be here for this, it would break him just as much as it would Elena, they were brothers. They'd been brothers for over almost two centuries, as much as they hated each other, two centuries was a long time to live with each other. To lose that kind of a relationship in the course of a few days would be devastating. Bonnie couldn't think of what would happen to her if something happened to Elena or Caroline. She would break, kill herself, or just wither away. She wouldn't live through it.

When Damon finally settled Bonnie felt guilty for having to prop him up against the pillows, he should be laying down she thought, but the spell in the diary clearly said what had to be done. Bonnie still didn't think it would work but she had to try, being around Elena and Stefan only made her more determined to try, even if she didn't like Damon.

"Don't look so worried Bonnie. I'm not." He groaned as she finally leaned back and found that he was okay.

"Well you should be."

"Why are you doing this?"

"You know why." She said stubbornly, he shouldn't be asking her that in front of Stefan. It was for Elena, it was all for Elena's sake, her sanity. Caroline had been right, Bonnie had thought maybe her slightly manic friend was exaggerating but Elena was crushed and she wouldn't recover from this. She was grateful when Jeremy came in with Tyler and the duffel-bag. They had arrived later clearly, Matt must be downstairs, but she just needed Tyler, and probably Jeremy should be in here to help if anything went wrong.

Bonnie watched Damon carefully as she started putting everything in place, all the candles, the room was already exceptionally dark, the Salvatore house had been made in a dark wood that was beautiful but imposing and at night it made everything seem pitch black. Tyler and Jeremy lit the candles since she wanted to save her strength for this entire thing it was complicated and it seemed overly difficult, she was undoubtedly worried about what it would do to her system so shortly after she'd been fighting an original. She was undoing something that had been ingrained into vampire DNA by a curse thousands of years ago. The last thing she did was take Damon's hand in hers, and he actually smiled at her reassuringly, she didn't need to be a witch to know that he was saying goodbye to her. Damon, like herself, seriously doubted the effectiveness of this spell. He turned his head to his younger brother then and looked at him more seriously.

"Stefan. If this doesn't work-"

"Don't even Damon, I'm not going to be the one to kill you."

"Yes you are. If this doesn't work, I don't want to be laid up in here screaming my lungs out for hours. You put a stake through me before that you hear me?" It was an order, from an older brother to the younger. And Bonnie watched Stefan struggle with it, torn between his brother's dying wish and the love he bore for him. In the end Stefan just turned around and hung his head as he walked out the door.

"That probably won't be necessary you know." Bonnie turned to speak to Damon as she wrapped the long slender silver chain around Damon's infected arm. He looked at her curiously and nearly crushed her fingers when the pain surged through him. Damn him and his vampire strength. She had expected that, werewolves were allergic to silver bullets, putting silver to a werewolf bite could clean the wound for a little while and help ease the pain, but not before it gave the person a burning sensation.

"What do you mean?" He wheezed when he was alright, but Bonnie wouldn't let go of his hand, out of compassion plain and simple. She didn't think it was right that Damon seemed to be all alone in this. Even though he was the one who had forced the two people that cared the most out of the room.

"If this spell doesn't cure you, it will probably kill you. You'll exert yourself so badly your body will just give out." She explained, it was the same reason that she couldn't do powerful spells at a time, she wasn't even sure if Damon's body would last through the entire spell. When she'd read about it in the journal that Tyler had given her the only thing she could really compare it to was an exorcism ritual, and when did those ever go well? That was why she was seriously doubtful of the authenticity of the spell, and whether or not it would work. It could simply be a trick, like the dagger, and actually just kill Damon. But there were easier ways to kill a vampire than this.

"Well then, let's get this over with."

"You didn't tell me you were going to have to change Tyler!" Caroline was actually mad at him. She knew how much pain he was in when he changed on a full moon, and now he was going to be forced to change into a wolf during a regular night, and Bonnie had informed him that it was going to hurt as bad as the first time. Caroline didn't want him to go through that.

"Caroline we don't have a choice, I bit him, I have to be a wolf during the ceremony. My blood is what helps undo this."

"We don't even know if this will work. What if it backfires, what if you get hurt?" What if you die? Caroline didn't utter that last question but it flocked through her mind incessantly and it wouldn't leave her alone. Why the hell hadn't he said something before?

"Caroline. I have to do this." He said steadily, lowering his voice and pulling her over to the side so they could talk more privately, which was ridiculous since everyone in this room had super hearing or could guess what it was they were talking about. "I have to make it right. Or at least try." She sighed then, still angry but she wouldn't risk not trying, she couldn't do that, not to Elena. It was already bad enough that they were watching Damon die, but to just let him die, without trying to save him was completely out of the question. If it had been Tyler she would want someone to do the same thing.

They went upstairs with Jeremy, Bonnie would need his help if anything went wrong and Caroline was bound and determined to stay through the whole thing even if Tyler thought she wouldn't. She hadn't seen Damon yet, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she walked into that room. Damon's usually tall and muscular frame seemed to have diminished, his skin was grey and gaunt as if he was already half-dead and the brightness in his eyes that always made him look so mischievous and slightly dangerous was gone. It was just gone.

"Holy shit man!" Matt appeared from somewhere behind them, Caroline hadn't even realized that Matt had followed them up the stairs but at the sound of his voice Damon looked at them. Caroline put on her bravest face and moved through the room while Tyler started shedding himself of his shirt and pants, only wearing his boxers. Caroline was always good at pretending everything was fine, that was her strength, she could crack a joke at the worst of situations.

"What's wonderboy doing here?" Damon started but then coughed severely and Caroline turned her head, in part to look at Matt but mostly just so Damon didn't see her flinch at the pain in his face. Matt handed the journal to Bonnie and smiled nervously around the room.

"You left this downstairs." He said to Bonnie and then moved to go outside.

"He just came to point out the fact that you look like crap." Bonnie said casually as she walked over to Damon's desk and he let out a wheezing laugh. Clearly the idea was that they pretend nothing was going on for the meantime at least.

"That bad huh?" Damon leaned his head back against the headboard and frowned, he was clearly in a lot of pain, his hand was gripping the sheets and Caroline instinctively took it in hers, her fingers could withstand his vampire grip as he held onto her hand now as if his life depended on it. Elena had said that Rose had been screaming and crying but Damon had always been more of the suffer in silence type of guy.

"No, not unless you count the sweat and the weird grey colour you're turning." Caroline remarked lightly, joking was always her strong suit, she could pretend that there was nothing wrong. She could definitely do that, even though he was holding her hand and he was clearly burning up, his temperature was all wrong and he was dying. There was no doubt in her mind that Damon was near to death. God he looked like he was death. He snickered again and turned to look as Bonnie handed Caroline a big glass of blood and nodded towards Damon. Caroline held it to his lips and got him to drink it completely, she didn't think it helped though, he didn't look at all better.

"You ready for this?" Bonnie said in an undertone to Tyler while she had him drink something too and he shrugged when he was done. Caroline noticed that there were little silver chains linked all around him and she didn't want to even think about what they were for.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Caroline had never noticed how terrifying Bonnie could be when she was working a spell, this one in particular seemed incredibly gruelling, and Bonnie didn't look like herself, all the flames in the little candles had swollen to an abnormal size and as they did the temperature in the room became sweltering. Caroline held onto Damon's hand who squeezed every now and then as the pain surged through him but they weren't even at the worst part yet. Bonnie was muttering her spell that forced Tyler to turn and he was screaming over the sounds of her chanting, this was really creepy, since the only light in the room was coming from the dozens of candles spread across Damon's bedroom floor. The minute Tyler had changed Damon was the one who started screaming, there was yelping coming from the grey wolf that was Tyler but Damon's screams were by far the worst thing that Caroline had ever heard in her life. He was in agonizing pain, he had to be if he was clutching at Caroline the way he was.

Caroline was so focused on Damon's contorting form that she hadn't even noticed that Bonnie had done something to Tyler as she moved over and laid her hands on Damon. He folded in ways that were completely unnatural until Caroline was forced to let go of him and move backwards. There was just no room for her on his huge bed while he was twisting that way. She felt like crying but she forced herself not to, instead she retreated to the space in the room that was occupied by Jeremy who was frowning. Jeremy never really frowned, he was always the happy-go-lucky kid, the kid who made jokes just so he didn't have to think about the seriousness of a situation, Caroline knew because she did the same thing. But now the two of them were attached to what was going on in this room and there was no escaping it.

Damon's back arched in a completely unnatural way and then he was lifted off the bed entirely, Bonnie's hands never left him and he was screaming as if her touch was burning him. At first the screams hadn't made sense but now he was beginning to form words and it scared Caroline more than anything. He was begging Bonnie to stop, begging for her to kill him and Caroline felt the tears come to her. She wasn't crying or sobbing but the tears were running freely down her cheeks as she put a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming herself. She didn't know what to do, she was torn between sparing Damon anymore pain or letting Bonnie finish. If this worked then it would be worth it, she forced herself to reconcile with that but she closed her eyes but then opened them immediately, closing her eyes left only the sound of Damon's screaming and that was somehow worse. She looked through the room instead and focused on Tyler who was still in his wolf form, he was cowering in a corner though and shaking and making that awful whining sound that dogs do.

She wanted to go towards him but then there was the fear of being bitten herself. She hated this suddenly, unsure of why she'd been so determined to stay here, and now she was fastened to this place, forced to stick it out. She felt a sudden relief as Jeremy reached out and took her hand in his, he was still frowning and there was nothing the two of them could do but stand there in their corner and wait it out. So that's what they did for what seemed like hours before Damon's awful pleas just turned to silence and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. It was another long while though before he came back down onto the bed, Caroline knew it was over though because Tyler had changed back, she rushed over to him, just wanting to be close to him. He wasn't as shaken up as she thought he would be, he wasn't shaking or disoriented like the last time, he also didn't seem exhausted as she pulled his clothes over to where he was and pulled him into her arms. He didn't even bother with the hugs or talking he kissed her and pulled her into his lap aggressively and Caroline welcomed it, feeling relieved to have some kind of contact again. But they were torn from their little haven at the sound of Jeremy's voice.

"Christ." That didn't sound good at all and Caroline's heart sank at the words that she knew were coming. She had expected them ever since she'd seen Damon. There was just no way someone came back from that.

"It didn't work." Bonnie was crying, leaning her head onto the side of the bed and holding onto Damon's hand. Caroline was surprised to see Bonnie so upset but she knew that her friend was probably exhausted and drained and way too determined to help Elena to think straight right now. Jeremy saw the same thing as he peeled her away and took her up in a fireman hold and carried her out of the room. Caroline moved over to Damon and felt the tears fall down her cheek again.

She'd seen Damon asleep before, he'd slept in her bed and she was surprised how peaceful he looked now, the wound was still there on his arm, it didn't look like it had healed but his skin wasn't so weird anymore, it looked like marble stone with the delicate lines that were embedded in him. She couldn't comprehend that Damon could die, all the times they'd gotten threats and gotten into fights and battles even Damon had been the one to save everybody. Reluctant as he was to admit that he liked being the good guy, Damon had always been the rock everyone counted on. Caroline looked up from where she'd been staring at Damon's face and then reached for the towel that had been there. She wiped the remaining sweat off his brow and chest and then stood aside quietly as she waited for Elena to come up the steps.

Author's note: Please, please, please don't be mad! I know it's awful to kill off a wonderful character like Damon but I didn't realize it until I had written it and then it just all came spilling out like wordvomit... sorry if you are disappointed but I do so love a tragic ending.

I hope you can appreciate the creative process that went into this... there will be another chapter, so please keep reading and review... especially on this ending...

inspired by Jesus Chris by Brand New

It's all good if you hate me for this...

This isn't the last chapter though... haha have I got your attention?... *evil laughter ensues*

TO BE CONTINUED...