Meredith Fell double checked to make sure the room number was right. The suitcase had been a bitch to get through customs, She had to forge all kinds of documents to prove that she was allowed to carry all the odds and ends loaded in there. If the agents checking her bags had been more thorough, they would have probably realized that not all the medical vials contained quite what the labels said they did, but they never bothered to check the details when you looked official enough.

She knocked. Damon opened the door and helped her with the suitcase full of medical supplies.

"My best friend's girl. Stunning as always."

"Save it Damon, I've already agreed to help you. You don't need to grovel."

He led her into the room. She saw Nik on the floor, covered in blood stained blankets, the IV in his good arm leading to a blood bag that was taped up on a floor lamp, his bullet wound bandaged up. Caroline was asleep on the floor next to him, Rebecca passed out on a chair she had pulled close to him as well.

"Wow." She muttered. "And Elena?"

"Over here." Elena said, sitting up from a couch in the other room.

Elena walked over to Meredith and hugged her. Meredith held out Elena's arms and looked her over.

"You look good, considering what you've been through. I'll help with the cuts but they seem to be healing nicely. Did anyone give you antibiotics?"

"He did, actually." She said, motioning to Nik.

"Smart. I'm going to check him out and then I'll be back to you, ok? Are you eating? Do you want something to help you relax?"

"I'm fine, Mere, just go."

Meredith nodded and sat next to Nik. A red halo of dried blood crusted the floor tiles around him. He was unconscious, but breathing. A blonde girl was sleeping next to him, her hand protectively resting on his chest. Her clothes were stained with his blood and the tips of her hair were all matted from dragging through puddles of it. Meredith gently moved the girl's hand aside and listened to his heartbeat.

"Still a little slow, but not bad. Is that the last of the blood?"

Rebecca woke up and hesitantly walked over to the Doctor. "We have one more after that. Thats all."

Meredith recognized the voice.

"You're his sister? The one from the phone?"

"Yes."

Meredith smiled at her. "You did really well. Ever think about a career in medicine?"

Rebecca beamed. "After today, I'm seriously considering it."

Meredith peeled back the bandage. "This is going to need to be opened up again and drained. Fluid builds up as it heals, and you always need to be extra careful with possible infections this deep. I'll need your help with that in a few hours. The IV looks perfect. I'm going to add a bag of saline with some electrolytes and medicine in it once this blood bag finished. I brought some serious pain killers for him too, he'll need it."

Caroline opened her eyes to look at the two women chatting over her.

"Who are you?" She asked Meredith.

"That's Meredith, Ric's girl and badass doctor lady." Damon introduced them. "And Mere, this is Caroline, Stefan's best friend and possibly the girl with the absolute worst taste in men."

"Ric? That guy you're always drunk dialing and chatting on the phone with like a couple of schoolgirls?" Caroline asked.

"Hey. Ric and I are badass, ok? And if you ever want to party on his yacht I suggest you don't compare him to a schoolgirl." Damon protested.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "I don't care about his yacht. I want to talk about Nik."

Meredith looked over the wound again. "I'll have to open it up again before I can say for sure, but it looks like the bleeding stopped, which is good. He isn't at risk of dying from loss of blood anymore, but there's always a risk of a clot, and the infection can kill him easily. He's got a much better chance than he did a few hours ago, but he's not safe yet."

Caroline nodded, tears forming in her eyes. "He hasn't woken up since we pulled the bullet out. I keep listening to his heartbeat to make sure he's still alive."

Meredith nodded. "You and his sister are doing everything you can for him. Him sleeping, that's a good thing. It's giving his body a chance to heal, and he hasn't had anything to numb the pain yet."

"You'll help him?" Caroline asked.

Meredith nodded, holding up a syringe and loading it with a strange liquid. She gave Damon a nod and got to work.

"Good, she already broke out the good stuff." Damon whispered to Caroline.

"What is she doing?" Caroline asked.

"You didn't think we'd be friends with a regular doctor, did you?"

"Do you have any friends who obey the law?" She hissed.

"Do you?" He challenged. He was right, of course, Caroline and him had all the same friends. "Anyway, she lost her license giving patients a little something extra. Helps the healing process, fantastic stuff really, but not exactly legal."

"So she's not a real doctor?"

"Someone ripped up a piece of paper. Big deal. She gets results, and she doesn't talk to cops."

"Do you trust her?"

"Right now, she's the best chance he's got." Damon said grimly.

Caroline just watched, waiting for his eyes to open.

They were all pacing around, waiting for Nik to wake up. Elijah and Rebecca were on the laptop, video chatting with their brother Kol. He kept grilling them for details about Nik and making them promise to call him the moment he woke.

Meredith and Elena were quietly talking in one of the bedrooms. She had warned Damon that Elena's injuries might not all be physical, that there could be some serious emotional damage done by the ordeal. Elena was handling it fine, but she was never one to make a big deal of her problems. She kept it buried.

Damon was on the phone with Ric. He was on his way, bringing the boat up in case they needed to get off the island and couldn't risk being seen in an airport. Damon was joking about the yacht party they were going to have, trying to keep things light.

"Three days? After all that money you put into it, that thing should be able to teleport here... She's fine, doing her doctor thing. Thanks again, Ric. Yeah, see you soon buddy. Bye."

He turned to Stefan. "Mr. I-think-I'm-Indiana-Jones and his I'm-compensating-for-something boat won't get here for another three days. I think when he get here we should all be on that boat and get the hell off this island. No airports and no going anywhere near the side of the island Mason was on. I'm not taking any chances. I'd like to get out of here sooner, but at least we'll be leaving in style."

"Do you think he'll be ok to move three days from now?" Stefan asked, motioning towards Nik.

"Right now, I'm just hoping he'll still be breathing three days from now. I don't want to know the kind of hell that will come down on us if his boss finds out he died doing us a favor." Damon replied.

"Meredith's here. She'll fix him."

"She's not sure if she can. She says if there's a clot, there won't be anything she can do here."

"Not even with the stuff?"

"She already gave him the stuff."

"So what now?" Stefan asked, glancing over at Nik.

"We wait. Once Ric arrives, we book it out of here. If he still needs a hospital by the time we get to another continent, we'll take him. But Mere says, with the stuff she gave him, in a few days he'll either be recovered enough to move around and function normally or..."

"Or what?

"Or he'll be dead."

Stefan looked at Caroline. She was asleep on the floor next to Nik, her hand over his. She wouldn't move from her spot there. He kept checking on Caroline, trying to get her to eat something or take a shower, but she wasn't leaving Nik's side. Over the last few hours he kept hearing her talk to him, as if he could hear her. It was awful to watch. She was so broken.

Elena got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She dried off and looked at the faint marks all over her body. The memories rushed back at her, flooding her mind with images of those faces.

She was right here when he took her. He grabbed her from this bathroom. She had screamed but no one was there to hear it.

She saw his face in front of her again. She could see exactly what he looked like when she put a bullet in his brain.

The blood, the pain, the bruises on her wrist that remained from when he pulled her from this very room.

She didn't know she was crying so loud until Damon ran into the room and found her on the floor.

"Hey, it's ok, you're ok." He pulled her up and brought her back to the bedroom. He tucked her into the bed and pulled the sheets over her, sitting next to her.

"It kept coming back." She said.

"Meredith said that might happen."

"I felt like it was happening all over again."

He looked at her, nothing to say. What could anyone say to that? He just leaned down to pull her in his arms and hold her close.

"I killed someone, Damon."

"He kidnapped you, tortured you. As far as I'm concerned, it was self defense."

"But I still did it. I could have let you, but I wanted to do it myself."

"It's ok. No one can understand what you went through. No one here is going to judge you."

"Am I a bad person?" She whispered.

"No, Lena. You're a great person. You're my favorite person."

"I feel so confused, I'm so afraid of them even though they're dead, and I still feel terrible about what I did."

"It'll be ok, we'll get through this."

"Damon, you don't know what it was like, being taken like that. I thought I was going to die in there. Every time I close my eyes I'm back there. I don't know what to do. I keep seeing him."

He stoked her hair and thought for a minute. Was it Stefan who told him, or was it Elijah who mentioned it? He couldn't remember the whole story but he knew it would give her some comfort to talk to someone who had gone through something similar.

"You're right, I don't know what it's like. But someone else here does. Just give

me a minute ok?" He hesitantly got up and walked out of the room.

Rebecca was sitting at the kitchen table with Stefan, never taking her eyes of Nik, still passed out on the floor.

Damon sat down next to her.

"I need you to talk to her." He said.

"Me? Why?" Rebecca asked.

"I heard about uh... What happened a few years ago... You were in Budapest with your brother Kol."

"Oh. That." She replied.

"Elena's having a lot of trouble dealing with it. I'll never be able to help her work through it as much as someone who's been through it."

Rebecca got up. "Of course. I'll talk to her." She poked through the cabinets for a bottle of wine and a few glasses. Stefan raised an eyebrow at her. "Trust me" she said. "We're going to need it for this conversation."

Nik was running down the white hallway. Her voice kept getting clearer, closer to him. It was getting brighter. The doors that shook, the screaming noises of every evil deed he's ever done were all pulling away, further out to the sides. He stumbled a bit as the ground below him shifted.

Caroline was holding his hand. She watched Meredith come over, check the IV, peak at his wound, and nod at her. Nothing had changed much, he was healing slowly, but he was stable.

She smiled down at him.

"Nik. You have to wake up, you have to get better. You promised me. And you made me promise to go on that stupid date. You can't go, There hasn't been any time. I need more time with you. Please wake up."

The hallway wasn't a hallway anymore. It was a consuming, blinding light. He couldn't see anything. The light was everywhere. He couldn't tell which way he was going. All he could do was run to her voice. He felt the world turn on it's side. He wasn't running anymore, he was flat on his back. The light faded into darkness and he felt something warm holding on to his hand. There was a familiar sweet smell in the air. He was certain he was dead, but at least he was able to take some reminders of her with him. He let himself be enveloped in that familiar smell, the familiar feeling of the way she held his hand, the sound of her voice. He could see flashes of light, shapes moving above his closed eyelids. He briefly wondered if this was death itself, or just another dream. Are your eyes ever closed in your own dreams? Can you open them in a dream? Would it be an endless cycle of white hallways and dark rooms?

His eyes opened. She was there, looking back at him.

"Nik?" She gasped, hardly believing that he was opening his eyes again. They had been closed for so long.

"Caroline?" He asked, looking confused. His voice was scratchy and weak. "Am I still dreaming?"

"You're awake! Nik, you scared me! I thought you'd never wake up." She was crying again, but there was a huge smile on her face.

"Hey, don't cry." He tried to reach up towards her, but he felt a massive pain in his arm and a tug on the other one where the IV was. "Ow. Oh shit, that hurts. I guess I really am awake."

She curled against him and tried to be gentle when she wrapped her arms around him, avoiding his injured arm. He carefully rested his good arm on her back.

"I thought I lost you. You were so cold and pale. You could have died."

"I love you." he said.

"What?"

"I should have said it before, when you did. I love you."

She kissed his cheek "I love you. You know I do."'

He nudged closer and kissed her gently on the lips. She kissed back fervently, feeling happiness rush through her. Moments ago she was unsure if he would ever wake again, but here he was. She had him back.

"I love you." he said again, this time focusing on her eyes. He was deadly serious. When he felt the life slipping out of him in the back of that car, it was the one thing he had wished he had done differently. He needed to makes sure she knew it now that he had the chance. If he fell back into darkness or bright light again, at least she knew.

She was crying and smiling at the same time. It was all so much. "I love you too."

"Even with this chunk missing from my arm? I'l probably have a nasty scar forever."

"I like guys with scars." She eased herself up to look around the room. Elijah and Damon were sleeping on the couches. She could see Katherine, Meredith and Stefan sitting on the balcony. The door was closed, so they hadn't heard Nik wake up.

"He's awake!" She called out.

Elijah snapped up. Damon woke up looking confused but he quickly realized what Caroline was talking about. He banged on the door to the balcony. "He's awake!" He shouted.

"Awake?" Stefan asked.

"Awake!" Damon shouted back.

They were scrambling out of their seats to get inside.

Rebecca poured a refill in both of their glasses. Elena smiled and clinked glasses with her.

"To surviving." Rebecca said.

"Surviving" Elena smiled.

"You'll come to me if you need to talk about it again, right?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah. Thanks. It really helped to talk to someone who's been there."

"It'll get better." Rebecca said. "Until then, you just have to fight through it. And I'll be here for anything you need."

"Thanks." Elena said. "I'm sorry. Your brother... it's all because of me."

"No. He chose to go in there. Mason was the one to cause this. None of this is your fault."

"If he doesn't wake up, I'll always feel like I did this."

"He has to wake up." Rebecca said. "He just can't... I've already lost two brothers."

"Two?"

"My brother Henrick died when he was a baby. I was only eight, so I don't remember him that much. Finn was my oldest brother. He left a little before that. I don't know where he is or if he's even alive. He's just gone. He didn't want to be part of our family anymore."

"I'm sorry."

"Our parents are gone too. It's just the four of us, Me, Nik, Elijah and Kol. They're all that's left. I can't lose him."

"Meredith is a great doctor. And you did an amazing job with him too."

"I've always worried that his job would catch up to him like this... I'm still not ready for it."

Elena nodded. "Sometimes I think it's a miracle that my sister hasn't gotten herself killed, doing what she does."

"Just because I like you doesn't mean I'll be nice to her."

Elena laughed. "You don't have to. Believe me, I get it."

"It's funny how you two are twins yet-" Rebecca stopped to listen. "Whats all that yelling out there?"

Damon burst into the room. "He woke up!"

Rebecca squealed and barreled out of the room.

Meredith had finally gotten everyone to back away. Even Elijah agreed to finally put the laptop down, ignoring Kol's protests from the other end. Now Caroline was sitting at his side holding his hand while Meredith was on the other side, opening up the bandage.

"Alright, looks ok, but I'm still going to have to go in."

Nik made a face.

"I know, it'll suck, but I need to re-clean the wound, reduce your chances of infection and clots, and make sure there's no contaminants left in there."

She rummaged through her bag and opened up a smaller container holding a large syringe and a bottle of a clear liquid.

"What the bloody hell are you doing with that?"

"Numbing the area. Unless you'd prefer to feel everything?"

"No.. uh.. go ahead. With the needle." He said, eyeing it warily.

He winced a bit at the first shot but hardly felt the second one. Meredith waited a few minutes for it to sink in, than began taking out the stitches.

She was delicately scraping something away from the wound, dabbing bits of sterile cloth at it, dripping tiny bits of liquid from a vial. He and Caroline stayed perfectly still, waiting for the news.

"Alright, you're looking not so bad. It hit a big artery, that's why you lost so much blood, but your sister managed to pinch it shut when she sewed you up, and it's already starting to heal. It ripped through a lot of muscle, but that'll recover as well. You don't have any signs of infection yet, but I want to keep an IV in you for another day before switching to just pills."

"Is he going to be ok?" Caroline asked.

Meredith smiled. "I can't promise anything, but right now it seems like a full recovery is very likely. He'll be exhausted for a while, need plenty of rest, and continuing to take antibiotics is very important."

Caroline nodded seriously.

Meredith was re-stitching his wound. "Don't pick at this." She warned him.

"What?" he asked.

"You look like a stitch-picker. No scratching or scrubbing at it either, if it itches, too bad. And don't try to lift anything with that arm for a while. You can move it a little now, but don't go crazy. You can walk around, just don't do anything too strenuous."

"Yes, Doctor." He muttered.

She looked him over again. He was still in the nasty bloody rags from a few days ago, laying on the kitchen floor with his IV bag taped to a lamp.

Meredith gently pulled the bag off the lamp and handed to Caroline. She was rummaged through her bag and pulled out a clip.

"Here, use this to hold it above his head. He needs to wash up and get into a real bed." She called Elijah over to help them pull Nik up and get him into one of the bathrooms with a tub. Nik had trouble standing at first, but once he gained his balance he could walk fine. Caroline stayed close to him just in case.

"You got it from here?" Meredith asked Caroline, checking the IV again.

"Yup. I'll call if I need any help."

"You." Meredith pointed at Nik. "No getting up fast or sudden movements. And don't get those stitches wet."

He nodded and Meredith closed the door behind her.

"Alone at last." He joked.

Caroline smiled and checked the water temperature. She rummaged through the bottles and poured one under the faucet.

"Tell me you're not putting bubbles in there."

"They're fun." She smiled.

"I'm not a child, Caroline."

"Do you have any idea how many times I've walked in on Damon in a bubble bath?"

"I'd think you'd learn to knock after the first time." He smiled.

"Half the time it was in my own bathroom! I swear the guy spends half his day jumping in different showers and tubs."

"Alright, I don't need a picture." He grumbled. He tried to get his pants off but it was proving difficult with one hand attached to an IV and the other arm half numb and bandaged up.

"I got it." Caroline moved over and helped him undress then steadied him so he could step into the tub.

"I don't think this is quite what you had in mind when you kept trying to take my clothes off yesterday." He smiled.

"Three days ago." She said. "You were out for close to three days."

"It only felt like a few minutes." He eased himself into the tub.

She sat on the edge of the bathtub and swirled her hand around in the water. "You looked dead when they brought you in here. Your skin was so pale and cold. There was so much blood, and it just kept coming out."

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry."

"I thought you were gone."

"You can't get rid of me that easily."

"Nik! Be serious!"

"I am serious. Now get over here and kiss me."

She hesitantly leaned towards the tub a little more. "Nik, If I lean over any more I'm going to fall in."

"I'm half crippled, come a little closer." he said innocently.

She hesitated, looking down at the bubbles, then back at his bandaged arm.

"I can't reach. My arm." He pouted, playing into her sympathies.

She carefully got a little closer and his good arm gripped on to pull her to him.

"Nik! Don't!"

Splash

Caroline was in. The water was up to her stomach, but the splash from falling in had gotten her soaked from head to toe. She wiped the bubbles off her face.

"If you weren't seriously injured right now..."

"You'd what?" he smiled. "Give it your best shot."

She splashed him and smiled.

He smiled back and let his eyes travel over her drenched body.

"You know, you really should get out of those wet clothes" he suggested, looking her up and down, not wanting to miss any detail of how her soaked shirt clung to her.

"Even now, you're pulling stunts like this? I thought you'd be all tired and weak."

"I feel great. I don't know what that stuff was that she gave me, but it's like... I feel really good."

"She must have loaded you up with morphine."

"No, it's something else. It's like I can feel it healing. Anyway, I didn't know if I was going to survive it. But I did, and the first thing I saw when I woke up was you. How could I not be happy right now?"

She waded closer to him and held him tight. He hugged her back with his good arm while his injured one rested on the edge of the tub. When she broke away he trailed his fingers across her collar bone and shoulders. He looked at her face. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. He traced his thumb across her eyelids, trying to make what made her cry go away. He felt a tear slip from her closed eyes as he touched her face.

"Don't cry. Everything's ok now."

"I can't turn it off. I still can't believe you're ok."

"It's not a big deal. Just my arm. My left arm even. You don't need to..."

"Not a big deal? You almost died! I don't think I've cried so much in my whole life as I have these past few days. You didn't stand a chance. If is wasn't for Rebecca being able to pinch the blood vessel shut right away, or Stefan and Elijah stealing blood for you.. If Meredith didn't pick up the phone right when she did... Any one little detail and you could have been gone forever."

"Rebecca operated on me?"

"I helped a bit, but yeah. She scraped the bullet and fragments out, held your arm so I could sew it shut, she got your IV in, she was amazing."

"You had to sew me up again?"

"It was a lot bloodier this time."

"And the blood bags? Elijah really robbed a blood bank?"

"He and Stefan did it together. They snuck in and got the stuff without causing a scene, thankfully. The last thing we need is another run in with the law."

"Wow."

"You seems surprised."

"I just never would have imagined my siblings would do so much for me. And Stefan. He doesn't even know me, to risk so much..."

"They're your family, and they really love you. You're lucky to have them."

"You don't think your family would do the same?"

"My actual family, like my parents? No way. We don't speak. But my new family, Damon, Stefan and Elena? Yeah, I think they would."

"There's blood in your hair." He said absently, and splashed a bit of water to rinse it out.

"Your blood." she said. She pulled off the wet clothes she had fallen in the tub wearing. He noticed dried blood all over them. She hadn't showered or changed since he came in. He had felt her presence when he was out, but it wasn't a hallucination. She was really there.

"You were there the while time." He said.

"They couldn't tear me away."

"I thought I heard you. I was in some kind of dream. I kept hearing your voice."

"You did?" She said. "I kept talking to you. I hoped you could hear, even though they all said you were passed out and it didn't make a difference."

He cupped the sides of her face with his hands. "You make all the difference. I think your voice is what woke me up. I heard it in the distance and kept trying to get closer. If you weren't there... I don't know if I would have fought so hard to get back. Everything is different because of you."