Chapter 7
Disclaimer: Nothing is owned, only borrowed.
Summary: Set after 3x07. The ghosts from the other side have returned to Mystic Falls and desperate to find a means of killing Klaus to free Stefan from his compulsion, Damon is eager to follow deceased werewolf Mason into the Lockwood Cellar. However, when trouble inevitably finds him, Damon is left with no choice but to ask for help from the people he can only hope still care about him.
Hurt!Damon. Delena if you squint. Damon and Alaric friendship.
Warnings: Moderately graphic description of injury.
Chapter 7
At the sight of Damon's prone form on the couch, Elena gasped, the tips of her slender fingers brushing just over the tender skin of baby pink lips as her hand flew instinctively upward in her surprise.
"Damon, what happened?" the girl took her place near to his side, palms hovering just over his wounds as she examined them.
The vampire winced as he shifted away from her, as if for fear that the mere centimeters between her hand and his torso, for even the slightest fault of movement, would turn to contact.
"I tripped." Damon said, his tone was biting as a wave of misery washed over him a new.
Ignoring his comment, the girl leaned in closer, a frown drawing down her perfectly shaped eyebrows.
"Why aren't these healing?" she asked. Though she did not look up, it was clear that her words were directed at Alaric who had taken to sifting through his closet in search of another jacket to replace the one bloodied and now fallen at Damon's feet.
"Vervain on the stakes." The teacher responded, taking a darkened tan coat off a hanger and casting it over his shoulder before pulling his keys from where they were jammed in his pocket.
"Where are you off to?" Elena asked, watching the teacher inquisitively as he moved toward the door.
With his hand on the knob, Alaric answered, a hint of exasperation in his tone hidden beneath a steady note of resolve. "To retrieve that one's car." He said, his finger jutting out toward Damon. "I can see it in his eyes, he's been plotting to get to it since he woke up."
Elena turned toward Damon knowingly, resignedly.
The vampire shrugged. "She's my baby."
Alaric rolled his eyes, "She's a car."
"Were you really going to try and go get your car? Now? Like this?" Elena asked.
At the touch of anger in her eyes, vampire playfully averted his.
"Maybe."
"Unbelievable." Elena would have punched him had she not the presence of mind to stop herself before she hurt him further. "Immortality aside, I'm surprised you are still alive."
Damon only winked at her as he reached down to the cooler to retrieve another blood bag.
"I'll be back soon." Alaric said opening the door, "Keys over the visor?"
Damon nodded once between swallows and watched the teacher exit the loft, pulling the door closed behind him with a quiet thud.
Elena's eyes lingered on the space where Alaric had stood only moments before, before she ran a hand through her long, brown hair. She turned to Damon who now twirled the blood bag's straw slowly between the tips of his fingers.
"You are ridiculous." Elena shook her head.
"I've been called worse." Damon returned.
A silence settled over the loft, broken only by Damon's occasional slurps and eventually the tossing of the emptied blood bag to the floor where it settled near the previous two.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Damon half smiled at Elena, who seemed to have withdrawn.
"You really don't deserve him." Elena blurted before she could stop herself.
At this, Damon's icy blue eyes, now seeming colder, met her own brown, warm and open.
"Oh, Elena. Ever the tactful one. Always a comfort to have around." Damon's tone was sarcastic but his eyes pierced her like two unforgiving daggers.
"You know what I mean." Elena said, but there was no apology in her tone.
"Oh, I know what you mean." The vampire narrowed his eyes a fraction.
"Don't do that." She warned.
"Do what?"
"You know, that."
"I'm sorry, Elena." Damon said, looking tired. "You're really going to have to be more specific than that."
"Don't act like you're not sorry." Elena said.
Now Damon arched his brow, a controlled gesture, a mere suggestion at the muted anger slowly heating his chest.
"Even you of all people have to admit that you're in the wrong." She crossed her arms over her chest.
Damon tilted his head towards her. "First off, Elena, I have to do nothing. Secondly, I think you are forgetting who I am. Remorse, lamenting, brooding, not really my thing. I believe that's Stefan's area of expertise."
For a moment, Elena did not speak, only staring at him with an expression utterly dumfounded. When Elena had driven over, she had had the full intent of telling Damon exactly how she felt about what he'd done to Alaric, especially now after the teacher had set aside their quarrel to save his life. She'd known that she'd have to approach the subject delicately, though now, in the heat of the moment and in the midst of Damon's unrelenting arrogance, Elena quickly found her composure slipping away.
Unbelievable, she thought, utterly incorrigible.
"Wow, are you serious?" the teen, forgetting herself, shoved the vampire's arm.
"Oww!" there was fire in the vampire's eyes as he angrily jutted his chin out toward her. "What the hell, Elena?" his sentence tapered off into a sound that nearly resembled a whine.
"He saved your life, and you still can't apologize for taking his?" Elena's voice rose and her cheeks colored scarlet. "Are you truly that arrogant?"
"Elena, you need to back off." Damon warned, pushing himself up onto his elbows so that he appeared more formidable despite his weakened state.
"Back off?" Elena's mouth fell open. "You want me to back off, Damon? Are you sure? Because if I do, I don't think you're going to have anyone left at all."
Damon's mouth came open as he prepared to fire a response back at her, but the words did not come forth, and save the involuntary twitch of his eye the vampire drew still. Elena took the pause to brush the hair out of her face. The vampire seemed to shrink before her. His eyes took on a listlessness that Elena had never seen before, and as he struggled to stay propped on the couch, facing her, the girl felt a pang of remorse for speaking so harshly.
He needed to hear it, Elena shook her head, banishing the guilt.
"I hope your listening now, Damon, because in all of your one hundred and seventy six years on this planet, I don't think anyone has told you this." The girl took a seat on the table again. "It's not always the end result or a goal accomplished. It matters the road you take to achieve something. The people you touch. The people you hurt."
"Pretty words for one who can't even protect herself." His voice edged toward a snarl. "It's easy to call others monster when you're sitting pretty, benefitting from every kill I make to keep you safe."
Elena shook her head. "Don't twist my words, Damon. I am grateful for everything you do for me, and I hope that you will not forget that. But, that is not what I mean and you know it."
Damon wrinkled his nose.
"This is Alaric we're talking about. He's been nothing but a friend to you, and the moment he goes against you, you just break his neck?"
"I knew he was wearing his ring." Damon defended, his rasp now seeming even rougher.
"That's not the point. You don't treat your friends like that." Elena added, "Well, you don't treat anyone like that, but that's a matter in itself."
The vampire huffed. "Yes, well you'll have to forgive me, it's not as if I've have much experience with havingfriends." Damon pursed his lips as though the word was sour in his mouth.
Elena shook her head, "Uh-uh. No way. You don't get to use that excuse anymore." She watched him arch a brow. "Because you do have people who care about you whether or not you want to admit it." She paused. "You don't have to protect yourself from us. From me."
She placed her hand on his.
"As difficult as it may be for you to believe, we are on your side."
Damon's wandering gaze found Elena's steady, and she reassured him with a comforting squeeze of his palm.
"But you have hurt Alaric. We all make mistakes, but the only way to right those wrongs is to apologize." Elena finished, her face soft.
The vampire was silent, regarding the girl with wary eyes.
"Now." Damon watched Elena as she moved the bowl of soap water into her lap and took the dripping wash cloth into her hand. "Let's get you cleaned up."
A/N: Dear reader, I apologize for the delay on this chapter as I have been busy these past couple of days training to get my open water scuba license! I assure you, this was a one time thing and I will try to keep updates to every three days at the most. I hope you are enjoying the story. I have truly been blown away by the response so far. I cherish every one of you. Remember to review, follow, and favorite, and heads up for the next chapter coming soon! :)
Side note: The creepy author's notes that you have been accustomed to will return. Soon, my dear reader, very soon. *cackles maniacally*
