Damon was on the phone. "Just be by the cars. We can't let anyone see him like this. Too many questions."
He hung up and searched through his address book, swerving a bit as he tried to keep his eyes on the road and the phone at the same time.
"Hey buddy. I need your help... Well, actually, I need her help. She's still with you, right?... Shit, Panama? How long will that take?... Can you send her ahead, like on a plane or something? ... No, stay with the boat... we might need it. We might have to get out of here, a really bad situation. Tell her to bring her stuff... Bullet wound. What, no, I don't want to... Oh, fine put her on...Hey, nice to hear from you too, Doc. I can't really see now, I'm driving..."
He looked over at Elena. "She needs to know how deep the bullet is in and where on his arm it landed, can you talk to her?"
"Yeah" Elena responded and grabbed the phone.
"It's me. I'm fine, just some scratches. Ok, I'll look." She looked over at Nik who was passed out in the back seat. "It's at least an inch into his arm. The top part, about a third of the way down from shoulder to elbow... I don't know, a lot. Like there's a puddle next to him that's about two feet wide. He's passed out. ... I don't know how to do that. Can't you get here faster? Shit, we're here. Stay on the line."
They had pulled into a private parking lot that led directly to the elevator. Stefan, Rebecca and Elijah were waiting with a wheelchair and blankets to cover Nik. They pulled him out of the back seat and covered him, Elijah pushing the chair towards the elevator.
Rebecca started to hyperventilate when she saw her brother. "Is he dead? Is he going to die?"
Caroline had flipped when they got the call. Katherine was physically holding her down back in the room, because she would have caused too much of a scene if she went down there. She was screaming so loud that Katherine had to clamp a pillow over her mouth to keep security from coming up to their room.
Elena handed Stefan the phone. "The Doctor. She can get here soon, but not fast enough. If we don't get the bullet out and close it up, he'll die within the hour."
"We have to dig it out?" Stefan looked a bit green.
"Thats not all we have to do." Elena looked grim. Elijah turned around to face her, his face pale at the sight of his brother.
Elena took a deep breath. "He lost so much blood... We can't take him to the hospital. Stefan, you need to rob a blood bank."
"O positive." Elijah added.
Elena shot him a confused look.
"This isn't the first injury my brother has sustained, and I have a very good memory. He needs O positive."
Stefan looked over Elena. "You look like shit, Lena, you need to lie down, you're injured too. I'll get the blood."
"I'm coming with you" Elijah said.
Stefan tried to protest but he was cut off.
"He's my brother, and I don't trust you to not mess this up. Now who has a steady hand to get that bullet out of him?"
"I'll do it." Damon offered. "Just go."
"No, I will." Rebecca said. "You're useless after what you've been through and Elena looks like she's about to pass out. Take care of her, and I'll take care of my brother."
Damon turned around. She was right, Elena was leaning against the car, clutching her stomach. She had made it seem like her injuries were not that bad, but it was all an act. She was just worried about Nik and didn't want to distract anyone. He nodded and pulled Elena up in his arms, carrying her towards the Elevator.
Rebecca was pushing the wheelchair holding Nik. Stefan gave her the phone, explaining that their doctor friend was on the line. Damon tossed Elijah the keys.
"Good luck" he shouted out as Stefan and Elijah ran towards the car.
"You too." Stefan replied.
They got back into the suite and Damon helped Rebecca pull Nik out of the chair and on to the tile floor in the kitchen area. They pealed the blankets away from him, both completely soaked through with his blood. His cold skin was turning white and tinged with blue.
"Nik, please wake up." Rebecca said.
Damon handed her scissors and they cut his blood soaked shirt off to get a better look at the wound.
"Damon i need you to boil some water, get me towels and Nik's first aid kit from his room. Everything else I need should be in the kit." Rebecca replied, the phone tucked against her shoulder, listening to the woman on the phone list the things she would need.
Damon nodded, laying Elena on one of the couches and scurrying around.
"Katherine!" He shouted "Get out here and watch Elena."
Katherine was already running towards them. She let go of Caroline the second the door opened. She needed to see her sister for herself.
Katherine rushed to Elena's side. "Lena, you scared me. It's ok, go to sleep, I'm here."
Caroline stood in the doorway, watching. Elena was beat up looking, but she was alive. She waved weakly at Caroline and and rested her head back on the couch, letting Katherine fuss over her. Damon was running around grabbing things, bringing them to Rebecca, who was hunched over a body that was surrounded in bloody rags.
It was Nik.
He looked dead. He wasn't moving, and there was no color behind his skin.
No.
He couldn't die.
He promised.
No.
She was running towards him and slipped on the blood, crashing to the tile floor. She crawled the rest of the way until she grabbed his hand.
It was freezing and still.
"NIK!" she screamed.
"NIK WAKE UP PLEASE"
"NO! NIK!"
A rush of pain hit her. She looked forward. Rebecca had slapped her hard across the face.
"Shut up. You just shut up. If you keep screaming someone will call security and he'll die in prison. Do you understand me?"
Caroline nodded and began crying quietly.
Damon had made his way back to Elena, and he and Katherine were checking her over.
Rebecca was cleaning away the wound when suddenly Nik gasped for air, opening his eyes.
He felt enough pain to wake him up. It was like nothing before. The bullet was too deep. He looked up at his sister and girlfriend, both looking back at him through their tears. He didn't know where he was or how he got here.
He coughed and looked confused at the world around him, unable to form words in his dazed state.
"Nik, I have to get the bullet out." Rebecca said, trying to be calm.
He nodded.
Rebecca was holding some of his medical instruments and looking at the hole in his arm. She felt like she was going to pass out but she knew she was the only one who could do it. Nik felt something sharp in his arm. The pain kept him alert enough to get a few words out.
Caroline was on his other side, holding his hand.
"I'm sorry." He whispered.
"You're sorry?"
"I promised you everything would be fine."
"Nik, stay with me. Please." She cried.
"I don't have enough hands for that" Rebecca barked into the phone.
"Caroline." She called "I need help."
Nik was closing his eyes again. He was slipping away.
"I'm going to push it up and you grab it with this." Rebecca said, handing Caroline a ling pair of tweezers. "Do you know how to sew?"
"Sew?"
"As soon as we get it out I'm going to pull the skin tight and you have to stitch it shut, ok?"
"I can do it."
"Caroline, I need you to focus. I can't do this alone."
"Ok. Got it." she breathed, looking back at his face. He was passed out.
They got to work and when the bullet was about halfway out he woke up again, stirring enough to make Caroline lose her grip on it.
"Shit!" She yelled.
He cried out what sounded like swear words in a language she didn't know.
"Nik, I'm trying to help you, you have to be still." She said between sobs. His pained expression was making her cry and if she kept crying she wouldn't be able to see.
Damon ran over to hold him down. Rebecca had to dig in again to help Caroline grab ahold of the bullet. Thankfully it was in one piece. He screamed out and Damon pushed a towel over his mouth to muffle the noise. Caroline got the bullet and let it drop on the floor. Rebecca had already dropped the scalpel she was holding and was pulling the skin together to close up the hole. Her fingers kept slipping in the blood that was pouring out faster now.
"Hurry, Caroline!" She hissed.
Caroline nodded and began pushing the thread through his skin, pulling it together. It wasn't a neat line, the hole was jagged and way too wide for this kind of thing, but it was all they had to work with.
She knotted the final stitch and fell to the floor next to him. Rebecca took a step away, already listening to the woman on the phone explain what to do with the blood bags once Stefan and Elijah returned with them.
Damon returned to Elena.
The two of them were alone on the floor.
His eyes were only open a tiny bit. He was trying to hold on, but the darkness kept pulling him back.
She pulled herself closer to him, holding herself against his uninjured side, trying to warm him up.
"Stay, please. You can't leave me." She cried.
"I should have said it."
"What?"
"I wasn't sure... what it was.. but I know now."
"Nik you don't have to talk. Just stay with me, please."
"Caroline.."
"Nik, shh, just save your energy. They're bringing you blood. It will all be better, just stay with me a little longer." She whimpered, hoping she was telling him the truth.
"I lo..." He started, but his eyes rolled back and he was out again.
"Nik? No! Nik, wake up!" She cried.
She couldn't wake him. She pressed her head against his chest and listed to his heartbeat. He was still alive but it was so slow. He had lost too much blood and she didn't know how much longer he would last. He might never wake up.
"You can't leave me... not like this... We haven't had any time at all. Please."
She felt a strong arm pull her away from him. She was powerless to fight it. When his eyes closed it was like all the life had left her.
Damon was pulling her away, he placed her on the couch next to Katherine. Elena was asleep, her head on Katherine's lap.
"They're on their way, ok?" He said to her.
She just nodded and cried into Katherine's shoulder. Katherine put one arm around Caroline and kept the other one resting on her sleeping twin sister. Damon sat on the floor next to the couch, holding Elena's hand.
Rebecca was fumbling with some tubes and needles and finally managed to get an IV in Nik's arm. She put down the phone.
"I've got it all set up. I just need the bags now."
She was calm on the surface, but she was terrified. Her brother was dying right in front of her and all she could do was wait. If he didn't get more blood in his system soon, his organs would start shutting down. She moved the bloody towels away from him and sat next to him, constantly glancing up at the door. Elijah only had a few more minutes until it would be too late.
Stefan was driving faster than he ever had before. Elijah had the bags in his lap. They managed to grab eight without being caught and he hoped it would be enough. He had no idea how these things worked. Stefan's phone buzzed and Elijah grabbed it.
A text from Damon.
Hurry. He doesn't have much longer.
They reached the private garage under the tower and Stefan let Elijah out of the car right next to the elevator.
Elijah was running down the hall, holding the bags. Stefan must have texted Damon when he parked because there he was standing in the hallway. Elijah threw one of the bags at him and Damon caught it and threw it to someone standing behind him. Elijah kept running towards them.
When he got to the room he saw Becca holding the bag up, already attached to a tube and dripping into Nik.
"Damon, find something to hold this up with." She shouted.
Elijah was blown away. His little sister had kept her cool and handled it all. She was so much stronger than he ever gave her credit for.
Damon rigged the bag up against a floor lamp so it could drip down into his IV.
"She says this should take about twenty minutes to a half hour to empty into his system, and we should put the second one in as soon as this one empties. She said to keep going until his heartbeat's back to normal." Rebecca said.
Caroline had brought a pillow over to go under Nik's head and put some blankets on him, trying to keep the little heat he had left in. She was at his feet, watching Becca intently through bloodshot, swollen eyes.
Elijah sat next to Rebecca.
"What do we do now?" He asked.
"We wait." She responded. "And hope he wakes up."
Elijah watched Rebecca attach the third bag of blood. She chucked the emptied second bag on the floor next to the first one. It had ben over an hour and he was still asleep. At least he had two more pints of blood in his system now, and more on the way. Rebecca had assured him that the fact that his heart was still pumping and his body was accepting the blood meant that he wouldn't die from loss of blood, but she knew there were lots of other things that could still kill him.
She leaned against Elijah and watched Nik. He wasn't stirring at all. Caroline was asleep on the floor next to him, her hand resting on Nik's chest. Even in her sleep, she needed to confirm that he was still alive.
Stefan came back over and sat next to Elijah and Rebecca.
"Becca, you're covered in blood." He said, tucking her hair back behind her ear. There was blood matted in it and smeared all up and down her arms.
"I'm covered in blood? Look at him." She motioned to Nik.
"Go take a shower, get some rest. I'll stay with him. I promise I'll get you the second anything happens." Stefan said.
Rebecca looked hesitantly at Elijah. He nodded in agreement.
"I'll stay here as well. You need to get that blood off you. Go."
She agreed to go take a shower, but she was stubborn enough to insist bringing a blanket back out so she could sleep near Nik. There was no way she was leaving his side any longer than she had to.
Elijah watched Rebecca go. Stefan noticed how soft and worried he looked when he watched Nik, and how his expression hardened when he glanced over at the girl next to him.
"Wow, you really don't like her, do you?" Stefan muttered, watching Elijah glare at Caroline.
"Figures you'd jump to her defense. And of course I don't like her. She's the reason he's in this condition."
"Like you were so friendly to her before?"
Elijah's eyes narrowed. "Don't you have any tact? You're with my sister, she's with my brother, and yet you expect me to be nice, knowing the two of you are sneaking around behind both their backs?"
Stefan laughed. He actually had the audacity to laugh in Elijah's face.
"Oh my god. Sneaking around? Gross. Oh god." He wheezed out, clutching his stomach. "Are you high? Like are you actually on something?"
"I don't get the joke." Elijah sniffed.
"You are something else, you know that?" Stefan smiled. "Caroline and I have never ever been like that. Never will. I love her, but that's just gross. She's my family."
"Family?"
"Yeah. From the day we met, we bonded, became really good friends. But that's all it's ever going to be. No matter how much Damon wanted the two of us to get together, neither of us ever saw it like that. Now, she's like my sister."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I need you to. I'm in love with Rebecca. Only Rebecca. I'm not going anywhere."
"She doesn't love him." Elijah looked down at Caroline.
"How can you be so sure?" Stefan asked. "Look at her. She hasn't let go of him since he came in here."
"I always knew it would end this way." Elijah said sadly. "He's been so careful, even with the most dangerous jobs. But now, he lets his emotions come back and it destroys him. All it took was someone telling him what he's wanted to hear for so long."
"What?"
"Our father didn't love him. Our mother... she couldn't show that she did. Once they were gone, my siblings and I remained a bit distant with him. My brother was not loved so he became something unlovable. His heart hardened, he learned to kill without feeling anything. Once we came back into his life, he was shut down, he didn't need our love anymore. He had learned to live without it."
Stefan nodded, letting Elijah continue.
"Why is she doing this?" Elijah asked "I don't know how she got him to let her in, but he's there. Why did she have to play with him?"
Stefan shook his head. "She's not playing a game. I know after your experience with Katherine, you probably have your reasons for being suspicious, but trust me on this. Caroline really cares about Nik. I think she loves him. And we might have fought her on it at first, because of who he is, but she's my family. That means that all of us are going to learn to live with him and make him feel welcome. That's how things work with this group. Hell, between him and Rebecca, you're basically in it too."
"How charming." Elijah sniffed.
"Hey, we're not so bad." Stefan protested.
"I don't want to be anywhere near a group that includes Katerina."
"Katherine was horrible to you. I get that. But right now, you have all the power. She's terrified of you and all mixed up seeing you around because at the same time she did care about you, in her own psychotic bitch way."
Elijah rolled his eyes.
"Just... Kat's not all that bad. You might want to just talk to her."
"I'll consider it. After my brother recovers. If he recovers."
"Hey, he's going to get through this, ok? We've got a doctor on her way. She'll get him back."
Rebecca walked back in the room covered in a blanket. Elijah caught the look in Stefan's eyes when he spotted her. It was all true, everything Stefan had said. There was no way to fake the way he looked at her. He glanced back at Nik. Caroline had woken up and she was tracing her fingers along his chest, whispering something in his ear. Perhaps he had judged her too harshly. Elijah had walked in prepared to hate this band of misfits, even before he found out Katerina was one of them. Now he was seeing all the love they had for each other and how much they cared for his siblings. He had spent his life looking out for his brothers and sister, would it really be so bad to have some more people around who cared about them as well? He vowed to be nicer to them if Nik made it through this. At the same time, he swore to himself that if these people let Nik die, he would tear every last one of them to shreds.
Nik was walking down a white hallway. There were so many doors. He saw one swing open and a small child ran across to another room, slamming the door behind them.
He looked behind him. The hallway stretched out in both directions. How did he get here? He rubbed his arm where the bullet wound was, but there was nothing wrong with it. He pulled up the sleeve of the white t-shirt to look at his arm, but it was fine. There wasn't even a mark.
He looked down at himself. White shirt, white linen pants, bare feet walking along the white carpet. He didn't even own white pants. Where had they come from? He didn't know this place.
The little child was giggling behind the closed door. He opened it. Becca was jumping on a bed, but it wasn't the Becca he knew today. She was eight again.
"Nik, Nik, watch me jump!" She shouted.
He moved closer, smiling at her. She reached out her hand to him.
When he touched her he was jolted away from the room into another one. His kitchen, all those years ago. His mother was on fire.
"Nicky, please."
The first life he took. He didn't have a choice. She wanted him to end it.
His father's bloodied face. The taste of his blood as it splashed back at him. Pulling Becca out of the house and running.
The first time he met Emily Bennett.
"I know you've taken a life. I can see it in your eyes. No one can change that. I'm going to teach you how to do it well and how to make more money than you can imagine doing it."
The first job. The lurch in his stomach when the man begged and pleaded.
"Now." Emily commanded.
The shot rang out.
"Good work. Now the tedious part, disposal."
He helped her lift the body and when he touched it he was jolted to another scene.
The first time he saw his siblings in months, they were all still getting over the loss of their mother and the knowledge that their crazy father was on the run.
Kol had hated him back then.
"You're the reason I don't have parents! You did this!"
Rebecca begged him not to leave. Elijah just kept his distance.
Another moment. Holding baby Henrick and making faces to get him to laugh.
Another day. Finn promising to come back as he walked out the door. He never did.
His father's shaking hands, holding the paper that confirmed everything. "You're no son of mine. You have no father. No one would ever want you. All your mother sees when she looks at you is her own shame. You're an abomination."
The apartment the cries were coming from. The rotting body on the bathroom floor. Robbie hiding in a corner, shaking and half starved.
The look on Jimmy's face when he brought his son back to him.
Robbie and Caroline splashing around in the pool together, laughing as they all went down the water slide on that big tube. Joking with him. Pulling his hands to the next ride. Falling asleep together that night.
Caroline.
The first day he met her at the pool "I'm not interested."
Her rolling her eyes at him in the hall, shaking her head at that stupid line he used at the club. Her fighting him every step of the way.
The night she sat on the bathroom counter while he bandaged her knee.
Her running into his arms, bruises all over her face and neck. The way she held tighter to him when he promised to keep her safe.
Later that night, her hands under his shirt, pulling it off.
Sitting on the beach with her, smiling, laughing.
Her looking up at him right after he killed Mikael. Only fear left when she looked at him.
"I don't want to go with you."
"I hate you."
"You're a liar and a murderer."
"Why can't you just leave me alone?"
The gradual change in how she looked at him.
"Be careful."
"You're back."
"I don't hate you."
Robbie came along and she saw something else.
"You'd be a good father."
"He trusts you"
"He thinks you're a super hero."
The memories were all spinning around, melting together, one scene flashing into the next. At first they were childhood, family, the moments that made him who he was. But as they went on they were all her. She was in every one.
Mikael flashed back again. "No one cares about you anymore, boy. You have nothing. No one."
Walking into his apartment and finding the dog dead. His neck severed, a warning from Mikael.
A hushed phone call from Elijah, warning that he thought he saw Mikael. A more frantic one from Rebecca when Mikael found her walking home from school. The feeling of him closing in.
Mikael standing over Caroline, about to slit her throat.
Mikael standing next to his mother's burning body, that day again, the one that replayed on a constant loop in his mind.
"No one will ever love you."
His mother "Nicky, please."
"You did this. You killed her."
"No one will ever love you."
"Nicky Please"
"No one will ever love you."
Mikael faded away. It was just her now.
She was pacing around the room.
"I need to say something."
Back in the grass along the highway. She was always pacing around, fidgeting, always moving. She couldn't stand still.
"I want to be with you too."
He remembered it, but it was like he was back in the moment. He rushed towards her but everything started to fade. Before he could reach her he was alone again, in the all white hallway.
"I love you."
It was her voice. This final piece of that last memory. Mikael had been wrong. He found someone who cared about him. Someone loved him.
He felt tired and unsure of where to go. There were so many doors. Was this heaven or hell or something else entirely?
"Nik."
It was a soft voice. Her voice. She was saying something else but he couldn't make out the words. It sounded so far away. He took a few steps forward but it got quieter. He looked behind him. the hallway stretched on as far as he could see. This was the way he came from and he was unsure if it was wise to turn around.
"Nik."
Her voice again. He walked back in the direction he came from. He took a few more steps to be sure, but it was certain. Her voice was coming from that direction. He ran.
"Nik, I need you to wake up. You can't leave me. Not now..."
Every step pulled him closer to her. The hallway kept stretching out further in front of him, it seemed like it would never end. Some of the doors he passed shook and banged. He heard the voices of people he killed, people begging for their lives behind each of them. Mikael shouting at him. Elijah screaming about his terrible influence on their younger siblings. Kol yelling about missing their mother. Rebecca screaming for him from that dungeon she was locked in when she was taken. They kept reappearing behind the doors he ran past, trying to distract him, get him to turn around, but all he could focus on was the voice coming from the distance in front of him. He ran to her voice.