Hey everyone here's the next update. It's a longer one, so I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except for the firefighters. ;)

Chapter Nine

Keep still, my Heart

"Mom."

The young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes softly whispered as she saw her mother walk up to her. Elena was in her room, she was five again.

"Mom, it's been so long. I thought you were dead." The young girl said. Her mother sat behind her and started brushing her hair. She started to sing a lullaby to her.

"Baby." Miranda says, hugging her daughter. "I missed you."

"Mommy." Elena says turning around to her. "I love you. Can I stay here with you?" Her mother shakes her head sadly.

"No, baby you have many more years left, it's not time for you yet." She says, resuming brushing her hair. "You need to wake up and get back to your own baby."

Elena turns back around to look at her mother. She's a teenager now.

"What baby?" She asks curiously. "Don't be ridiculous, Ma." Her mother grabs her hand and brings her to the door of her bedroom.

"Wake up, baby. I'll see you in your dreams. It's time for you to wake up." Elena walks through the door with her mother. When she turns around to speak with her, no one is there.

The scenery morphs into the peaceful lake, but soon the lake morphs into a dark forest. The flowers are lilting, water droplets run down them as if they are crying. The moon is a bloody red tint and the trees stand eerily on each side of her. Wake up, an inside voice screams at her, wake up! The scene morphs once again to a bright white room, with people rushing around her.

"She's awake." Someone says. She looks around the room questioningly.

"What?" she tries to say, but nothing comes out. She realizes with horror that she's choking; there's a long tube in her mouth. A doctor takes it out for her. She tries to talk again but her throat is too dry. A nurse passes her a cup of water. He helps her as she sips the refreshing liquid. The doctor does the normal battery of tests on her, including an MRI. When she gets back to her room she croaks to her doctor: "What happened to me?" The doctor looks at her concerned.

"Do you remember anything?" She shakes her head gingerly. "What was the last thing you remember?" She pauses to think about this for a moment.

"Going to school last Monday. It's my senior year." She adds. The doctor looks at her concerned. According to his records she was twenty-two, she had graduated four years earlier. He tells her what has happened to her.

"Sweetheart," he says cautiously, "You have amnesia. I'm afraid you don't remember the last four years of your life." Elena looks at him questioningly, she looked so innocent.

"You'll be hospitalized for the next week and then you'll have to go through therapy and probably see a psychologist every day until you regain your memory." Elena looks as though she is going to cry.

The fire chief was beat, he had stayed the night in the hospital and it was three in the afternoon the next day. Elena's friends had arrived at the hospital in a rush at three in the morning when they had been informed by Stefan what had transpired. Stefan still hadn't gotten back. The chief would have left then, but Miranda wouldn't let him go. She was scared; no child should have witnessed what she had seen. Elena's friends consisted of two girls and one boy. The boy held one of the girls hand, rubbing comforting circles on her back as she cried. The other sat alone; she was unbelievably calm and quiet. John had told them what had happened. The calm one had tried to take Miranda from him, but Miranda would have none of that. It was early in the afternoon and as much as he didn't want to leave the girl alone, he was tired and needed to get to his family. When Miranda fell asleep in the afternoon he gently set her in the calm girl's arms and then left the hospital.

After Stefan had left the hospital he went to Bonnie's house. When she had opened the door to him she looked frantic.

"Stefan" she sighed. "Is Elena with you?" He shook his head sadly and explained to her what had happened. When they were sitting in the living room with Meredith and Matt, Bonnie asked him: "Why would people do that to them?" Stefan looked as clueless as they were.

"We won't be able to find out anything until Damon and Elena wake up."

"What about Miranda?" Matt asks. He had been filled in on the situation that night, when Bonnie had called him in a panic. He had been surprised to say the least, but he was now on board to help his old friend and ex-girlfriend.

"Miranda's fine. She's with the fire chief, John Clark." Bonnie gets up, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"We need to get to the hospital." Everyone had agreed and left in a hurry. Stefan stayed behind, too scared to see his older brother so broken. He had a lot of questions running through his head: how did his brother manage to call to him with his mental voice and why would people want to hurt the two people closest to him? He went into the forest to hunt and to sort out his questions.

Tank lay in a ditch; a dead heap. The demons had been furious, there colleague had ruined there plan. Tank had laughed at them saying it was for fun. They had not agreed. Yes, they wanted to have fun, but now they had to wait until they were out of the hospital; out of the public's eye. They also had to wait until Damon could walk on his own two feet, but they knew a way to speed up his healing process, thanks to the chip. To add to everything else, they probably also found out that demons were after them and not vampires. They had killed Tank for his stupidity and then made a new plan. Soon evil would rise again.

Two police officers entered into Damon's hospital room. One had greying brown hair and looked as though he had eaten one too many donuts. The other one was younger; he looked as though he was a rookie. He stayed behind his older colleague. He was quite short and had blonde, almost white hair with eerie blue eyes.

"Damon Salvatore, I'm officer Young and this is probationary officer Lee. We're here to question you about the attack. Do you mind if we sit?" The older one, Young, asked as he pulled out a chair and sat himself down. Before Damon could make a remark about the red jelly on his black shirt the man started to question him.

"Could you tell us every detail you remember about the attack and what the man looked like?" Lee takes out a notepad and pencil and prepares himself to write down the information. Damon recounts the event to the two men.

"Are you sure it was just one man?" Lee asked giving him a disbelieving looked.

"Dead serious." Damon smiles; it could've literally been the truth if he had actually died.

"You went through quite the ordeal mister Salvatore. Maybe things are a little fuzzy?" Young asks.

"No, I remember quite clearly, it was just one man. I recognized him from the bar I went to the previous night. His name's Tank, he's about 6'4'', 300 lbs, black eyes, black Mohawk with a tattoo of a pentagram. His arms were also covered in tattoos of satanic symbols." He explained, though he didn't divulge them in the fact that the man was a demon. Lee wrote all the information down hurriedly. Young sighs.

"That's quite a detailed description."

"Well, when his fist lands in your face a couple of times, you tend to remember what the bastard looks like." Damon said venomously. The officers looked at him startled.

"If you remember anything else, contact us." Young says, struggling out of his chair. He hands Damon a contact card.

"Sure will." Damon says adding fake peppiness to his voice.

"Thank you for your cooperation. We'll contact you if we get any information." Young leaves the room and Lee follows him like a little puppy.

"Bunch of idiots." Damon grumbles and he settles back into a restless sleep.

VD

"Family of Damon Salvatore." Someone yelled out. Meredith stood up with Miranda on her hip. She cuddled her head further into her shoulder blades. It was eight at night and Miranda had been good and quiet all day, it was almost like she knew there was something wrong. Bonnie and Matt sat sleeping in the waiting chairs.

"Yes." Meredith said. The doctor walked up to them.

"Mister Salvatore is awake; you can go see him now. We'll discuss about his care after your visit." Meredith nodded at the doctor as he led her to Damon's room. When Meredith entered the room, she saw Damon playing with the IV in his arm; he had a permanent scowl on his face.

"Damon." She said quietly. He snapped his head towards her, regretting it immediately as he felt a dull pain begin in his head. He had a bandage on his nose and he was purple under the eyes. His foot stuck out of the blankets; he had a cast on.

"You look like shit." She tells him. He scowls at her.

"You get beaten up by a man and tell me you look peachy." He says sarcastically. His eyes strayed toward the little girl resting in Meredith's arms; she was asleep. All he could see was her black hair and her tiny body. Her arms were lazily resting on Meredith's neck, her hands were fisted. Her feet dangled as Meredith had a hand under her bum. She was adorable. Meredith notices his gaze.

"She's a good kid; quiet too." Total contrast to you, she thinks.

"She's two." She adds. "She looks a lot like her father." She hints. He doesn't catch on, and his face falls.

"Where is her father?" he asks darkly. Meredith looks up at him expectantly. Miranda starts to stir at the sound of voices.

"Momma?" she asks. She looks around curiously. She spots Damon and their eyes lock. She cocks her head to the side questioningly.

"Know whewe momma is?" He stares at her, unable to answer.

"Do you see it?" Meredith asks. His eyes look at her in awe.

"But, but it's impossible. She never told me." He stutters.

"I don't know what happened between the two of you, but Damon no matter how many times you look at her, she's your daughter." He looked furthermore shocked.

He knew by looking at her that he was her father, but hearing it out loud made it even more real. He had never thought in a million years that he would be a father and here she was as living proof to the contrast of that. The first time he had seen her he hadn't really seen her, he had only seen Elena's eyes. Miranda looks up questioningly at Meredith for Damon hadn't answered her.

"Whewe momma?" Meredith didn't know how to answer her. She knew it wasn't her place but she said: "Mir, this is your daddy. Do you wanna sit next to daddy?" Miranda looks around her apprehensively.

"Daddy?" she says looking at Meredith. She nods. She seems to think this over. She had never had a daddy and the children at daycare did. She decided that this man looked alright to be her daddy.

"Okay." She says cheerfully, shrugging her shoulders.

Damon looked scared, Meredith noticed. He had never looked so scared and shell shocked for as long as she knew him. She set Miranda down in a chair next to Damon's bed. She didn't stay there for very long. She got out of her chair and tried climbing up unto Damon's bed. He just watched her as she struggled. He couldn't help her even if he wanted to. Meredith helped her niece up unto the bed. Miranda stared into Damon's black eyes as he stared into her blue ones. She laid her head unto his sore shoulder and then quickly fell asleep. Damon was freaking out on the inside. He felt like his heart and head might explode with this new revelation. Meredith sat next to him.

"Calm down Damon." She says looking up at the heart monitor.

"I…I don't know what to do." He confesses.

"Just let her sleep. Things will work itself out." Damon just stares down at the sleeping child on his shoulder as he too falls asleep. Meredith quietly leaves the room as she feels her heart constrict at the sight before her.

Damon finally found out! Yay! What will he do next? Please review.