Author's Note: Okay, so I'd planned this to happen later in the story, but Damon decided otherwise. Hope you like it. Thanks to MissSherrie and Elohcin for prereading and catching a few of my oopsies. Not sure when the next chapter will come, but as I have plans to focus entirely on Induction this week, it will be sometime next week at the soonest.

Chapter 12

In my state of distress, work had completely slipped my mind. Thankfully, Stefan and Elena had the forethought to call in on my behalf. After we emerged from the bath, Damon dried me with a gentle touch before helping me into dry sweats and lying back in bed with me, holding me close and kissing my head. I was more exhausted than I'd ever been in my life, and yet I was too upset to sleep, afraid of what I might do next.

It terrified me that I really had freed Elijah in my sleep, my body entirely out of my control. I didn't want to lose consciousness for even a second; worried I might try to hurt Damon, Stefan, or Elena in my sleep. I didn't feel like there was any such compulsion inside me, but I hadn't known about the one that had released Elijah either. Who knew what I was capable of doing? I'd already proven time and again that I couldn't trust myself.

Damon didn't even try to talk, giving me the space I needed to think while just being there for me. I was so grateful, even while worried to death for him. I felt the need crawling under my skin again, like a million bugs trying to break free, telling me I needed to run to save them all…but then again that didn't work because I needed to be here to save them all. It was a vicious loop in my head, making me crazier than I was already feeling.

Damon surprised me when he broke the silence completely out of the blue. "Before you came, we were working on another option that involved the witches. Elijah's witch friend and his son were trying to find the place where a ton of witches were murdered several hundred years ago. Elijah's plan was to have a witch channel the power that their violent death left there in order to kill Klaus. They're still working on it, but we could use it to kill Elijah instead. Then you' be free."

I rolled toward him, resting my head on my pillow as he continued to stare at the ceiling. "No, as much power as Elijah has over me and everything else around him, he's not nearly as powerful as Klaus. If you have a way to kill Klaus, then you have to use it. After I break the curse, he's going to want revenge. You can use it to kill him then before he can slaughter everyone I love."

Damon's head snapped toward me, his eyes narrow and filled with a combination of hurt and anger. "No! I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself either. There's another way…there has to be."

I chuckled without humor before rolling onto my back to stare at the ceiling again. "You keep saying that Damon, but in the end there's only going to be so many ways to do this. We now have three options that might stop this from happening. How many more do you think there might possibly be?"

He rolled onto his side and took my hand in his, tracing the lines of my palm. "AT least one more…always at least one more."

I smiled grimly at the ceiling, musing that the changes in Damon somehow also turned him into an optimist. Go figure.

"I've decided that I'm going to attempt something different…if I can."

Damon shuffled closer, resting his head on his hand while his other continued to caress mine, raising his eyebrows in a request for me to continue.

"If I break the curse once and for all, it will be a free for all on the human population. In the end, it could either completely wipe out or come close to wiping out the human population in the race to create more and more vampires and werewolves. The only way to make sure that never happens and my family is safe for the rest of their lives as well as the generations that follow is to solidify the curse, forever keeping it from breaking. Considering what my very existence is supposed to do to magical things, I think it's possible…if I can only find out how."

"Can you do it without dying?"

I shrugged. "If I can, then I will, but if I have to, then I will."

He frowned down at me, his jaw tensing. "Why are you so willing to leave me? I thought you said you wouldn't abandon me."

My eyes bulged as I looked at his pained blue eyes. I sat up in a flash, moving to lay over him. "I don't want to leave you, not at all, but I have to save you all. It's bigger than you and me."

"Nothing's bigger than you and me in my eyes."

I smirked, shaking my head at him with a sigh. "Love blinded man! Perhaps you need to think of it this way…what do you think it will do to me if I let Elena and her friends die when I could have stopped it? Or if I let Klaus unleash the curse and ravage the world? Do you think I could stand to see that happen? Do you think I'd really be living with that level of guilt?"

He frowned at me, his nostrils flaring. "I suppose not, but I can't let you die. I can't let you go."

I leaned down, finding for the first time since everything happened something that was more important to me than my failings…soothing the one person I loved more than any other. "That's not anything you have to worry about at this moment, and even if I die, I'll always be with you. I can't believe that what I feel for you could ever disappear, even in death."

His eyes were hurting me to watch as they clouded. He reached up to push a strand of my hair behind my ear before teasing his fingers across my cheekbones. "If you die, I'm going to be right behind you, or right there with you. You're not going anywhere without me."

I shook my head at him with a sad sigh. "I don't want you to do that. I would want you to live."

He rolled over, pinning me on the bed as a tear fell on my cheek. "Don't you understand? There is no living without you. All those things you asked about if you didn't do what you feel is our duty and were left behind…that's how I feel about a life without you. I wouldn't be living; I would be dying every day until I was with you again or just gone, but either way, the hell on earth would be unbearable. I lived it once when Katherine was gone, and what I felt for her was insubstantial in comparison. Where you go, I go…even unto death."

I reached up to wipe away another tear before pulling him down to kiss me. When we broke, I was panting into his face. "You know, that was more beautiful than the most heartfelt wedding vow I've ever heard. I love you so much."

Damon's eyes widened before he blinked a few times, cocking his head as he stared down at me before a long, devious smile stretched across his lips. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"What?"

He chuckled at my face as it crinkled in confusion. He reached down to smooth the furrows away before trailing his fingers over my features. "I think…we should get married."

This time my eyes were the ones the bulged in surprise. "Excuse me?"

He just smirked down at me before leaning in to steal another kiss from my surprised lips. "You heard me. We should get married."

I lifted my hand to rest on his forehead, "Who exactly are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?"

"I'm your mate who thinks we should make it official and tie the knot. It's not like we're not already bound for the rest of our lives…why not do it the traditional way?"

I stared at him, shaking my head slowly. "Am I dreaming again? Did I drift off to sleep and now this is some crazy, exhaustion induced dream?"

He chuckled, moving to pin my legs and arms to the bed as he hovered against me in a slightly more dominant fashion. "No, and you're beginning to make me self conscious with all these doubts about the reality of my offer."

I smirked up at him, "What, no ring? No bended knee and bouquet of roses?"

He narrowed his eyes at me before jumping up and disappearing into the hallway. Less than a minute later, he was back with a handful of wildflowers from behind the house. He walked back into the room as I sat on the side of the bed, kneeling before me to present me with the bundle of damp flowers.

"For you, Miss Gilbert. Please forgive their dampened state, for I picked them fresh just for you."

I reached out to take them, smiling at the colors he'd managed to bundle so quickly. "Thank you, Mr. Salvatore. What do I owe the honor?"

He smiled up at me, looking so young as his eyes sparkled and danced. From behind his back, he brought forth a small velvet box.

"Forgive me for being so forward, Miss Gilbert, but I have pined for you since the first day I saw your beautiful eyes. My every thought is of you and I would like nothing more than to make you mine for the rest of our days. Will you do me the honor of being my bride?"

He cracked open the hinged box to reveal a thin gold band etched in swirling patterns that appeared to be fading slightly. Above the band, a small clear diamond sat with large prongs curling up over the top edges to hold it securely in place.

My hand flew to my mouth. "Damon?"

He smiled removing it from the box and tossing the velvet cube aside to take my hand. "This was our mother's, the stone coming from a mine right here on the family's property. It's been locked away in a family safe in the house since her death, long before we were changed. I don't think Stefan will mind if I give it to you, considering…"

I shook my head slowly as I stared at the tiny, delicate ring. "Damon, it's too precious. I'm afraid I might damage it."

He smiled up at me, holding the ring at the tip of my left ring finger. "Is that your only argument against my request?"

I blinked into his shining blue eyes, my heart pounding in my chest. I didn't know how he managed it, but he had pushed away all the darkness that had surrounded me since the day before just by loving me.

I nodded, tears welling up in my eyes. His smile got brighter as he slid the thin band onto my hand. It shocked me that it actually fit, looking far too delicate for my hands, yet it almost seemed to belong there once Damon slid it home on my finger.

"I know it's on your finger now, but I really need to hear the words from your mouth." Damon teased from the place where he still knelt on the floor.

I squealed before jumping into his arms and knocking him to the floor. "Yes, yes, I'll marry you, Damon."

He captured my lips with a searing kiss and we didn't get back up off the floor until nearly an hour later, having joined and savored one another in every way that we could.

When we did finally leave the bedroom again to go find food in the kitchen, I felt calmer; Damon's love and blood flowing through my veins settled me. Somehow, it felt like Elijah couldn't touch me when I was filled with Damon. I wasn't sure why…

Stefan and Elena came home from school to find us curled up together on the couch, our left hands twined as Damon slowly rubbed the band of my ring. Damon smiled up at them, raising my hand toward Stefan.

"I hope you didn't have plans for this, little brother, but I couldn't exactly ask my girl to marry me with no ring. I didn't think you'd mind so much since it was Bekah."

Elena's eyes grew wide before she ran over to me with a huge smile, hugging my neck before examining the ring.

"This looks antique. Was it a family heirloom?"

Stefan walked over with a sad smile taking my hand and kissing the ring, making Damon stiffen slightly below me. He congratulated me sincerely before turning to Elena. "Yes, it was our mother's and I think it is fitting for Bekah to get it, considering what she means to Damon. It was supposed to be passed down to Damon's bride anyway as the firstborn."

I thanked him before turning back to Damon with a smile. He kissed my forehead before turning back to Stefan and Elena.

"Do we dare bring up what happened this morning?" Stefan asked warily.

I sucked in a breath, my chest aching at the memory as I nibbled my lip before shifting and nodding.

"Elena and I discussed it today and we wondered if it would help at all if you started drinking vervain. It might help fight off the compulsion."

I sighed, shaking my head. "Nope…won't help. It doesn't stop Original Compulsion in a normal person, much less me. Although…" I turned to look at Damon speculatively. "I don't know if it's really a difference or if it just feels like it, but when I have Damon's blood inside me, it doesn't seem like there's any room left for Elijah's compulsion, if that makes any sense."

Damon narrowed his eyes in thought, a spark igniting behind the blue and I knew some smart comment had popped in his head. The hint of a smile played at his lips, but to his credit, he managed to keep it in. Finally he smiled and shrugged, but I was pretty sure he'd put some sort of puzzle piece into place, though I had no clue what it could have been. He took my hand again, resuming the slow, soothing stroking of the etched gold band with his thumb as he resumed the conversation with Stefan and Elena.

Elena and I shared supper while the boys talked over glasses of blood. I had never been a nervous eater before, but I felt ravenous as we ate, even going to the fridge to unearth more food. Actually, I'd had an increased appetite for a few days. I wrote it off to all the extra sex, but as I took a bite of a juicy blackberry, a fruit I'd never cared for before, I began to wonder if it was a sign of another change in me. The days were creeping onward toward that date that I hadn't brought up yet with the group, the date that seemed to taunt me like the sharpened blade of a guillotine. In eight weeks and two days, I would be turning thirty. We had eight weeks and two days until something big was going to happen, one way or another.