Chapter 4: Al dente

Elena squeezed her eyes shut. She wanted to stick her fingers into her ears too, blocking out every sense, but she couldn't quite find it in herself to do it. No matter how much she tried not to listen to Damon's moans, the sound of his trashing on the floor and Katherine's soothing words, she knew she could not keep herself away forever. Almost literally fighting with herself as she crawled out her designated area slowly once more, she was met by the older vampire's feisty eyes again.

"You're going to waste all the effort at the last moment," Katherine complained, but made no attempt to stop her. Elena could tell that after five more days of starving, it wasn't as much about her still holding onto comforting Damon, but she looked and must've been pretty weak as well. "Are you sure you want to come out when we're all most hungry?"

"I can't stand him suffering anymore. I thought he would go unconscious a lot more and a lot sooner."

"Not long now," Katherine growled irritated, or as annoyed as her whispering, weakened voice was capable of. Elena frowned, not convinced. Damon was lying with his eyes shut, but clearly half conscious sometimes at least, curled up on himself and would not even let Katherine touch his stomach now. The older vampire was relying on rubbing his back instead. "Just make sure the Forbes guy's out of my sight when we get out of here?" She pursed her dry lips together in anger.

"But I know the solution. Just turn me. It'd solve everything. I get to live, you get blood and Bill Forbes would let us out of here once I'm in transition. I doubt he would let me die."

"You want to be a vampire? The girl who shamelessly changes the laws of nature and magic both to stupidly remain human?" Katherine spat exasperated. One thing was certain, her doppelgänger was annoying.

Elena sighed and looked her in the eyes sadly, "I would do it for him."

Katherine nodded at her thoughtfully. She would not let her respect for the girl show, she herself sometimes wished she could be as willing to sacrifice everything for love like her younger doppelgänger or the Salvatores. "I should hope I have enough blood left for that, but you might have to suck it out," she bit into her palm and offered it to Elena, "something like a gulpful in total should be enough."

"No," Stefan crouched closer, startling the women. Elena grabbed hold of Katherine's hand, intent on going through with her plan before anything could stop her so the three of them could drink her dry after. "No, listen," Stefan tilted his head upwards and Katherine concentrated too, "someone's coming," she concluded and by then even Elena could hear the footsteps.

"Could be that Forbes didn't like your little plan," he indicated the camera and stood, gathering his remaining strength for a possible fight.

The door opened and Alaric stepped in, his eyes searching them concerned, "are you guys okay?" As he came prepared, he threw blood bags in Stefan and Katherine's direction, "Forbes' out of commission for the moment," he let them know he was their saviour, then knelt down next to Damon to lift his mouth to another bloodbag. Elena hurried to help him, but it proved to be difficult to get the vampire to relax his muscles enough to get him into the right position, let alone force his lips to part enough for the tube to fit through. Alaric froze at the whimper escaping his friend and looked at the others for some explanation.

"Leave him alone," Katherine reacted to his ex lover's distress as well, but didn't approach. Damon was now surrounded by those important to him in this particular lifetime and she didn't feel comfortable to meddle anymore.

"We need to get him home," Stefan finished his bloodbag at the same time as Katherine and reached to gather his brother into his arms.

"I've got him," Alaric assured him, already lifting the frail body up with Elena's help. The two humans found his weight incredibly easy to handle, sending a sense of alarm through everyone present. In the end, the teacher took to carrying Damon up the stairs all by himself, however Elena remained attached to the concept of keeping hold of Damon's hand the whole time.

"I'll drive then," Stefan succumbed to his fate determined by his state of untrusted and out of control vampire and Katherine flung herself into the passenger space next to him, leaving the back seat to Damon and those who were holding him.

"He needs blood so badly," Elena fretted, "his body's shut down." She urged Alaric to try forcefeeding again. Taking the blood bag from Alaric, she held it to Damon's lips while the vampire hunter used a stake to get the clenched teeth apart. Elena managed to get a few millilitres of the life giving liquid through there, but they soon realised they also had to rub his throat to make him swallow. Nothing seemed to happen for a while all the time as Katherine shot doubtful, but decidedly concerned looks at them from the front. The struggle to make Damon drink continued for another few forceful attempts, but his resistance lessened noticeably with each try till one of his hands uncurled from his rigid stomach he still held and took the pouch himself, swallowing compliantly.

Alaric was ripping another bag open for him when Damon's hand went suddenly back to his belly, blood disregarded. Elena reached out, intending to soothe his cramps as she had seen from Katherine previously, but she could only held him as he was violently sick, whimpers drowned in a warm pool of blood, getting rid of all the blood that his friends had previously managed to pump into him and some more. And under it all, when Elena wiped his mouth clean his lips remained bloodlessly pale.

Alaric looked up aghast, uncomprehending, but he did not dare to urge his dry heaving, trembling, miserable friend of his to drink anymore, "could somebody tell me what's happening?" He had seen Damon so drunk before that even his vampire constitution could only cope with the amount of alcohol consumed by getting rid of it the quick way and that experience even sobered Alaric up pretty quickly, but the current situation was clearly alarming. But to Elena he looked in vain for an explanation, she was almost crying from worry and powerlessness.

"I know what to do," Katherine threw back at them over her shoulder, so on the remaining way home to the Salvatore mansion they had to make do with that promise and Elena keeping a hold of Damon's hand still, but when on arrival Katherine moved to fetch the vampire descending from her bloodline, she unwillingly, but sensibly let go. By the time her and Alaric reached Damon's bedroom, the stricken man was laid out on his bed, with his bespattered clothes removed and his upper body washed. Katherine pulled the covers up to his waist and turned to the humans entering. "Blood bags won't do him any good. He's way past that. He.."

"..needs the real thing," Elena finished the sentence for her, ready for the second time in under half an hour to offer her blood to help him. She looked around for some sharp object to slash her wrist with and found Ric's knife in her field of vision, only it was already it use.

Alaric nodded at her encouragingly, there was no reason why she should be alarmed by him letting his own blood pour into a bourbon glass and fill it. So all her task was now to bandage her teacher's hand as Katherine took the blood over to Damon. "Will that be enough?" Alaric enquired.

"No, it will never be enough, you can't keep him on frozen dinners," Katherine let loose again, never passing up the opportunity to blame Elena for Damon's diet, "but for immediate needs, yes, I think it'll probably be enough. She very gently pulled him into a half seated, half reclining position, "you need to drink this, come on now Damon," she said softly, caringly, with an expression Elena didn't know her lookalike was capable of. Katherine held him with one hand with her body's support, the glass with the other, placing the contained of warm liquid to the younger vampire's lips.

Elena wasn't sure Damon was conscious, but she did notice that he flinched at the touch, presumably still in pain. But he did not fight the hands that manoeuvred him around and the glass rim that touched his mouth. He drank weakly, willingly as his body tool control and acquired what he really needed, his eyes remaining closed the whole time.

Katherine let him relax back onto the pillows when he was finished, handling him just as gently as he had before. "Just rest, Damon." Elena watched biting the inside of her lips. While it was very beneficial for the younger vampire, just like in their cellar, jealousy made it hard for her to see the doppelgänger being so affectionate.

He swallowed gratefully, then he remembered. "Elena?" The name was on his lips the first time he was alert enough, anxiety for the girl's welfare evident in his voice.

It was Katherine's turn to frown in jealousy, but she knew it was better this way. Apart from short relationships, she has been a loner throughout the centuries and she had to be. Anybody around her was always in danger, either from Klaus or herself. "Damon's all yours," she disappeared as she always did.

Tbc