Elena woke up long after the sun had risen the next morning. She had slept blissfully for hours, and it was wonderful...until she saw the clock on her bedside table. The screen showed 11:55 in bright red numbers. She was late for work. Almost three hours late to be exact. Panic set through her and she ripped out of the bed running straight for her closet. She wouldn't have time to do much except throw on some clothes, brush her teeth, and run a brush through her hair. Damon grumbled from the other side of the bed and sat up slowly.
"Lena, what are you doing?" His hair had a big cowlick in the back and his eyes were still droopy.
"I'm so late Damon. I overslept. My boss is going to kill me!" Elena dug tore through her clothes trying to find something suitably quick.
A lazy smile crept across his face as he watched her.
"What you think this is funny? It's not," Elena rolled her eyes.
"I've told you plenty of times. You don't have to work, I don't understand why you choose to. Plus we have some things we need to take care of today. No time for work. I'm sure your boss will understand."
"No Damon, I have to go. They were counting on me."
"Elena, honey, I'm serious. We have some very important stuff to do today, I'll go and personally visit whoever the hell at your work has a problem with it. Just call and tell them you had a rough night."
"Oh no, I need to check on Mary. I need to find out if she's woken up yet, what she remembers. I'm so stressed out right now," Elena was rubbing her temples furiously. Damon rose from the bed and pulled her over to him.
"You need to sit down and relax. I'll go to the diner. You go to the hospital. Meet me back up here by two and then we will talk about what we are going to do next," Damon offered.
"But what about Katherine. What if-." Damon cut her off mid sentence by placing a finger over her lips.
"Katherine will not anything. She already has you right where she wants you by worrying so much. I'll be close by, so she wouldn't dare come close to you after what she pulled last night. She knows I'd tear her to pieces."
Elena let out a big huff and nodded. She finished getting ready and kissed Damon gently before heading out to the hospital. Once there she located Mary's room and knocked quietly before walking in. Mary laid motionless on the cramped little bed. She looked as if she hadn't moved at all since Elena had last left. She took a seat next to her friend and rubbed circles into the back of her hand with her thumb. Mary's eyes shot wide open in horror.
"You. Please don't hurt me," she whined pitifully.
"Mary, it's me Elena. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm your friend. I came to make sure you were doing okay," Elena spoke quietly.
"No, no you're the reason I'm here. You attacked me. I almost died because of you." The girl shivered.
"Mary I promise that wasn't me. You were coming to see me. A woman named Katherine stopped you on your way to my apartment. She's the one who hurt you."
"I-I think I remember. She looks just like you. Why does she look just like you. Is she your twin? Are you the good one and she is evil," Mary's usual rambling was beginning.
"No. I don't know why we look so much alike, but we aren't related. I've only recently met her. She's not a good person, though. You need to stay far away from her. Anyways, how are you feeling."
"Hungry. My throat is burning. I feel absolutely drained. The light is killing me. I have a splitting head ache. I'm having severe mood swings. I don't know what's going on, but she must've wiped me out good," the girl laughed sarcastically. Elena frowned and was about to offer any help she could give, when the nurse walked in to check her blood count levels. The round woman pulled out a tiny needle attached to a cylinder. She caught her foot on a loose cord coming from Mary's bed and jammed her own arm into the needle.
"aghhhh," she cried out wincing at the pain. A small stream of blood trickled down her arm. "Let me go get this cleaned up and I'll be right back and we will try again," the woman huffed.
Mary's eyes practically drilled holes into the nurse. Her stare didn't break until she was completely out of the room. When she turned back to Elena, her heart felt like it had dropped down into her stomach. Thin web-like veins scattered up Mary's cheekbones. Her eyes were swallowed in a deep, blood-red color with thick black irises taking up much of the once white space. Elena sat completely still. As minutes passed her face flushed back to normal again.
"Elena, why are you looking at me like that? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
"That was just really odd. The nurse I mean. Scary. Hey I'm going to step out and get some water. I'll be back in a couple of minutes." She slowly got out of her chair and walked out into the hallway. Once she reached the waiting room she dialed Damon's number. When he finally answered all she could do was practically word vomit the whole situation in a hushed tone. She told him about what Mary had done, and her symptoms and he agreed to hurry back from the diner and meet her shortly. Elena decided to sit and wait for him in the front waiting room.
After ten minutes of staring blankly out the glass doors she finally caught sight of Damon. She rushed into his arms and went straight into the details of her visit. He simply nodded his head and asked to see her. Elena took him by the hand and lead him to the room.
"Hey, Damon wanted to stop by to see you. Is that alright," Elena peeked her head in through the door.
Mary was in hysterics. She was crying and thrashing around on the bed. "No, don't come in," she screamed.
Damon pushed passed Elena and straight to the young girl. Blood puddled thickly around her soaking into her white sheets and papery gown. It smeared across her face and down her neck. Her orange hair was wringing with it. The plump, old nurse who had been in the room prior was now laid out on the floor drained and lifeless. Elena sucked her breath in sharply as she rounded the corner. Tears fell down her face and she rushed out of the room. She couldn't handle things like this. Damon was trying to console Mary. He knew what had been wrong with her, as did Elena, but neither one expected it to turn out like this. Damon came out of the room and shoved a bag of clothes into Elena's arms.
"This is Mary's things. We need to get her out of here later tonight. I'm going to talk to some of the nurses. It will be covered. Just whenever the sun goes down get her dressed and I'll get her back to the apartment as fast as possible. She can't be around people right now. She's completing transition and is very dangerous right now. Don't be around her without me," Damon spoke hurriedly.
Elena waited out in the hall as Damon set up the arrangements. He had somehow convinced the custodians to come in and clean the gory mess without even batting an eye. There was so many powers that came with vampirism that Elena was starting to lose track. She made a mental note to ask about this later in the night.
Once things had calmed down now all they could do was play a waiting game with the sun. Damon scoured the hospital for blood bags for himself and Mary. Elena's stomach churned as she watched them suck down the scarlet liquid. The sharp iron metallic stench lingered in the room for hours. Mary and Damon talked for the most part about what would happen next. Elena shut herself off and sat away from the two as much as she possibly could. She was used to the whole vampire thing from Damon, but he kept it away from her. Now that it was staring her right in the face she felt..intimidated, and scared.
Was this all her life would be now? Would she be able to handle her best friend now being a vampire too? She wasn't very sure about her life anymore. Things had just been calming down recently, but now this?
"I think I'm going to go ahead and go home. I'm not feeling too well. Very light headed. Just wait here as long as you need, I'll see you when you get back," Elena whispered. She placed a chaste kiss on Damon's cheek and promptly left. This stress was getting to her. Might as well take the alone time while she still could.