Chapter 20 "Maybe…Just Maybe…"

It had been three days since Elena nearly died right in front of Damon's eyes. It had been three days thus Damon had categorically refused to leave her side. He was practically living at the hospital. Caroline and Stefan had been staying at Damon and Elena's house, taking care as much as they could of William and Sophia. They were worried sick about Damon who was becoming more and more dark and gloomy as the days passed by with no sign of Elena waking up. Stefan was taking care of business while Caroline was doing her best trying to be the best godmother possible to the children.
There she was, listening to Sophia chattering while she drove both the kids back home from the hospital. This had been their routine for the past three days and Caroline could see the fear and worry over the children's face. Elena had still not wakened up and she could see Damon struggling with words while trying to reassure the kids that all will be fine. He was losing hope himself clearly. And every night, she would see him watching his children go away, struggling to fight back the tears that were threatening constantly to fall. And Caroline was completely devastated to see her friend like that. He loved Elena, appreciated Damon and simply adored the kids. And she loved Stefan and she knew it was killing her man to see his brother that broken.
-

Damon looked at his sleeping wife and felt desperately hopeless and powerless. She was still not waking up and as the doctor had told him, though her state had been stabilized, she would still be considered critical as long as she would not show any sign of response to the treatment.
Damon wondered how they came to that point… He needed her yet, all he had done was push her further away till the point of her fighting for her life in that hospital bed.
Damon sighed and put his head on Elena's stomach. That was pretty much that close he could get to her. He needed to fall asleep feeling her close to him. He let his tears flow silently, wishing and praying for her to open her eyes and look at him.
Slowly, he started falling into a slumber and his eyes closing slowly. He felt a swift movement of the fragile body he was clinging to and felt a soft and warm hand through his hair. Damon's eyes snapped open and he brusquely looked up only to be met with those beautiful but tired doe eyes looking straight into his icy blue ones.

He blinked a few times, wondering if he was dreaming or hallucinating.

"Damon…" he heard her soft voice whisper and he reveled in hearing it.
Needed to know it was reality and not some twisted images of his imagination, Damon threw himself in Elena's neck crook and continuously whispering through his sobs "I love you…I love you too much to lose you ever again."

As doctor Fell examined Elena, Damon watched from outside the room, all the while speaking on the phone. It was late at night and he knew his kids were probably still asleep but he needed them to know their mother was awake and wanting to see them. He felt so guilty for keeping Elena from meeting the kids all the days she had been back that he felt the deep need to rectify that. He had been a fool and he knew that it was not going to be easy to get his wife from trusting and forgiving this time after what he had said and done and how he had behaved. But Damon was determined to make his family whole again and he certainly was not going to take the risk of losing his Elena again.

Two more days passed by. The kids spent a lot of time with their mother and William had clearly forgiven his mother for leaving them and didn't seem to want to be apart from her too long. Sophia would always snuggled up to her mother and would end up falling asleep right there, leaving Damon the task to carry her back to the car. He would always be complaining about that but Elena knew better. She knew Damon was silently beaming at those little situations as it was the closest they were at being a family again.

She watched silently as Caroline busied herself packing her things up. The doctor had allowed her discharged and ever since, Elena had been strangely silent. She was still unable to walk without walking sticks so she was quite useless when it came to packing up.
Her mind was elsewhere though. She had no idea where she stood with Damon. The last days, they had been effectively evading the question and though she spoke nothing about it, his words before her accident were still fresh and resounding in her mind.

"We don't need you here!"

She was brought out of her reverie when she heard his manly voice speaking.
"Caroline, it's okay. Thank you but I think I got it from her."

She looked up and saw him slang the bag containing her things on his shoulder and smiling lightly at her, he pushed her wheeling chair, leaving Elena even more confused.

"Damon…" she started once outside the hospital but she froze instantly when she felt herself being scooted up by his strong arms and place gently in the backseat of his car. The warm feeling of his embrace made her feel tingles she had forgotten about. She closed her eyes and though her mind were warning her against it, she allowed herself to beam in that short instant of feeling his warm and strong arms protectively holding her.
She had to fight the urge to pout when she lost the closeness she had had with him. She looked at him with questioning eyes, and was met with those icy blue eyes she often used to get lost into.
"Let's get you home wifey."