A/N: Just remember you wanted the story to go longer. I could have wrapped it up HEA at the end of the next chapter but this was the way I saw it going in order to be more of a mid book finale.
Stefan's POV
Stefan opened his eyes slowly, feeling pain everywhere. He growled pushing through every stab from the wood in his already nearly dead body to focus in front of him. He had heard screams and cries and then just nothing anywhere. He blinked away the blood from where he could feel it was dripping down his face from a gash on his forehead. What happened? Where was everyone?! All he remembered was hearing this loud sound just echoing around him and then pain. Nothing but pain all over his body.
He had curled himself into a tight ball as close to the ground as he could be and cried out as the make shift stakes ripped into him. His eyes finally cooperated with his brain and squinted to peer around him. He could just barely make out a figure just laying on the dock unmoving. He saw long dark hair covering their face. Elena!
"Elena!" he called out, praying she would hear him. He could not even hear his own voice, the explosion had been so close to him his ears were ringing loudly not allowing any other sounds to come through. Everything felt hazy and he swung his head around as if he was moving in slow motion. His movements were stiff and heavy and he cried out again trying to get her to hear him.
There was so much smoke just pouring from the burning cabin and making the air thick, acrid and hard to see anything clearly. Where was his brother?!
"Damon!" he tried to scream but his throat felt so clogged with blood and the inside of it seemed to be swollen up, preventing him from hardly being able to take a breath.
He bent one of his arms, and recoiled in shock as he took in the number of wood pieces that stuck out of it, as more of his blood seeped out of all the wounds. His other arm was more or less under his body when the wood flew at him and so there was none in that arm.
Stefan's groans turned to cries of pain as he grasped first one then two and more and more till he had ripped out all the pieces. But he felt more in his back that shifted every time he moved his arms and tears flooded his eyes as he reached and pulled out the ones he could reach. He was amazed that none of them had penetrated his heart at all. The closest one being through him and he could feel it scraping the back of his heart before he twisted around enough to yank it out.
He needed to go to her. Elena had to be okay! He lifted his head more pushing the blood away from his forehead. "Elena!" he screamed out, but just like before he could not even hear his own voice. He was ready to drag himself forward to go to her when the second he moved his legs he felt more pain and turned his head far enough around to see more stakes sticking out of the back of his legs. He had been in so much pain that he had not even felt those ones till the muscles around them tried to move and they shifted in his body.
Twisting himself around as much as he could to pull them out still did not work. He could not reach all of them. He snarled at his weakness in frustration and pulled himself long the ground anyway. "Elena!" he called out again and let out a sigh of relief when he finally saw her moving.
Oh thank God, he thought and closed his eyes as the spasms of pain in his legs overwhelmed him. Stefan saw her stand up, looking like her body was shaking and she fell back down almost immediately. From what he could tell she did not appear to have any wounds from the wood in her. Damon would have shielded her, he was sure and taken the brunt of the stakes himself…
Stefan looked around more now just knowing what must have happened. If his brother protected her from the flying weapons then he would have likely had so many hit him. And not seeing him anywhere could only have meant one thing...he was in the water...possibly dead already. Oh God!
He saw her start to scream and look around frantically, no doubt for his brother. Her mouth was opening, her face contorted in absolute dread as she leaned over the dock and cried out what he could only assume was Damon's name over and over.
Damon! Stefan called out in his head. They had had their connection just minutes before the explosion and now there was nothing. Damon please answer me!
Stefan could still not hear anything in his head or otherwise; not the fire raging behind him, or the terror filled cries of his brother's fiance, or even his own grunted and groaning as he pulled his body toward her. She did not seem to have heard him calling her at all and had been crawling on her hands and knees as her fingers gripped the edge of the dock as she leaned over it.
"Damon! Baby please!" He finally heard her as some sounds started to get through the loud noise in his head. Elena's voice was cracking with emotion like she was sobbing as she called for him. He watched her lean far over as she kept crying out his brother's name.
Then in the next second he saw her falling, and he screamed out to her but it was too late and with a splash Elena had slipped under the water!
"NO! Elena! NO!" he yelled and fought with everything in him to get to her. He was halfway to the water and she had fallen in at least a quarter way up the dock yet. The blonde vampire felt his muscles all seizing up on him as his throat was closing up more and he could barely take in another breath.
"No, no, no," he whimpered out as more tears started streaming from his eyes. He knew Damon had just saved her from the burning cabin...she could not die now! He whipped his head around looking for anything that could help him!
His eyes fell on the rabid vampire that he had fought with and almost killed. His body was littered with little sharp stakes from the back deck and the cabin. He pulled himself closer, ripping a stake out of its neck before plunging his fangs in deep. He sucked the blood into his mouth as fast as he could and then still focused on the spot where she had fallen in, he crawled forward again.
But his body was too far gone. Blood re-healing his organs over and over all night had reached its limit and he barely felt even an ounce of strength from the fresh vampire blood he had just consumed. He felt the blood in his dry and empty veins seconds before he threw it all back up on the ground in front of him. No, not now!
Stefan cried out in anger that he could not get his body to move more to save her. His muscles felt weighted down by boulders on his back and his head fell back down onto to the grass as he cried. He could feel more liquid seep out his nose and ears and more blood force it way up his throat. He was dying, bleeding out and there was nothing anyone could do.
But then he remembered the vial.
Klaus' blood.
He watched him just put it down on the ground by the dock. He hissed in pain forcing his head up and sure enough the little glass container was still laying in the grass untouched.
Stefan grabbed for a piece of wood that had been in his body and slammed it into the ground in front of him and pulled himself with everything he had forward toward the vial. The cure.
His felt the wood scraping up the inside of his hand but he ignored the pain and lifted it up and stabbed it back into the ground again to pull himself more forward. He held another piece in his other hand and did the same thing using the wood as a brace to bring his nearly prone body along by his arms.
God damn it, if it the last thing he did, he was going to get to that cure and save her!
Damon's POV
His hand pushed and fought, through the water and forced its way to the surface. Grabbing onto the edge of the dock Damon pulled his body up, the pain indescribable as the stakes buried in his back, legs and arms just tore at his soft skin.
His head broke the surface, his dark hair flipped back away from his eyes as he thought of nothing else.
Elena.
Damon fought past the pain, ripping a few stakes out of his arms and reaching one in his back as he saw she was not there on the dock!
He had let go of her knowing he was falling, as the stakes pierced into him all over his already weak body and he knew he needed to keep her safe. She had been gasping for breath and spent already from the smoke and the fire. But in one fast glance he could see she was not there.
"Elena!" he screamed out, terrified. His head swung back toward the shore, and he saw his brother madly waving to him and pointing toward the water.
Ripping the wood from his neck and another from his lower back Damon felt blood seeping out as he squinted at his brother's wide eyes and panicked gestures. He caught her name from Stefan's lips, a frantic whisper carried by the wind and he saw where he was pointing... She had fallen in! Oh God no!
He could hear Stefan calling something else but his mind was already gone, strangled in fear as he dove back under the cold water. Opening his eyes in the murky lake he could not see her. Elena! Please baby. Where are you? he begged in his head. He pushed his way around and kicked himself deeper and still she wasn't anywhere!
Damon felt his lungs aching and he raced back to the surface and gasped in a huge gulp of air. He saw Stefan and it looked like Jeremy was kneeling beside him. He shook his head in answer to their silent plea seeing Jeremy running toward the lake as he dove back in again.
He kicked himself deeper and deeper looking desperately for his love. He needed her more than he needed the air he was quickly losing, as his lungs started screaming at the pain again of his lack of oxygen.
He caught a glimpse then of cloth, black cloth and he swam closer to see her floating practically caught under the dock up ahead! He kicked furiously, ignoring the burn in his lungs till he pulled her out and into his arms, fighting with all that was in him to get them to the surface!
Damon sucked in air rapidly as he felt Jeremy splashing closer and helping him carry her to the shore. He fell to his knees, his bloody jeans tearing at the one knee and laid her down, crying out at seeing her lips so blue, her skin almost white.
Not caring about the risks anymore he ripped into his wrist and forced his blood between her lips. She just lay there as the blood slipped from her mouth on both sides. "No! Drink Elena! You have to drink!" he screamed out, as nothing but horror could be felt in the pit of his stomach.
He wasted not a second to give her CPR again. Turning her straight on her back he tilted her head up and listened to her chest.
Nothing.
Fighting the tears wanting to flood down his cheeks Damon focused on getting her to breath again. Jeremy was right there beside him and was mumbling, begging and pleading with her to wake up. The raven haired vampire leaned in breathing in her mouth, and pulled back for her brother to give her chest compressions, strong and firm. One, two, three, more and more.
He felt his stomach in his throat as he just watched her laying there so still. "Elena, my angel breathe. C'mon baby breathe!" he cried and then went back to giving her another strong breath in her lungs. Her chest went up and down as his air went in and then out of her as he could hardly see her face through his glassy eyes. He was stroking her wet hair with his other hand and he watched Jeremy again try to start her heart.
He felt wave after wave of agony rip through his body as he watched each compression on her chest as she lay there just so still. He let out a sob, covering his mouth with his hand as they both looked at her waiting for her to just gasp for air.
Damon leaned down again, his legs like jelly underneath him, his whole body shaking as he tried to reign in his fear and checked again for her breath.
Still nothing.
Giving her another strong breath into her lungs he could hardly pull back before his head fell down, his lips grazing hers as he lay against her cold cheek. "No, no, baby. You have to come back to me!" he sobbed. Sniffling back his tears he turned his head and saw Jeremy again pressing hard and firm on her chest, tears slipping down his cheeks too.
He felt a hand on his and whirled his head around fast to see Stefan, red rimmed eyes and quivering lip as he looked so sadly at him. Damon spun back away from his brother's mournful expression and breathed again into her lungs. Jeremy looked back at him before turning and giving her more compressions and he flung his blonde hair back from his eyes.
Damon just watched them, looking between Elena and her brother and he felt like he was still under water. Every movement he made felt like he was the one drowning, being pulled down into the darkness. He opened his mouth and closed it again just not having any idea what to say he felt so lost.
Stefan reached out his hand to his and Damon stared at his brother as Stefan was shaking his head at him. At first he thought his brother was giving him support but as another minute went by and then another and another till it must have been more than half an hour of him just going on autopilot and breathing in her lungs and pleading for her wake up and she still did not come back to them, he realized Stefan was trying to help him let go.
"NO! No Stefan! She cannot be gone! No!" Damon nearly growled out at him, his vampire face flaring to life for a brief moment. Jeremy had sat back on his knees looking like he had stopped and given up and that made Damon even more angry at both his brother and hers. He pushed Jeremy aside and knelt down, ripping her shirt more open to feel exactly where to give her the chest compressions.
He looked at her face, studying every inch of her. Her wet hair streaked across her forehead, her eyes closed so peacefully, as if she was just sleeping like she would look all curled up beside him. Her cheeks however were ghostly pale against her dark hair, her lips that were normally such a rich pink and swollen from his kisses were blue and looked so much like death.
Elena's neck was smooth and shimmering from the water droplets and he could see the veins where he had plunged his fangs in as his hands clung to her thighs, his head buried in her hair, as he thrust himself into her with the water raining down on them in the shower just yesterday. He remembered what it felt like to suck her essence into his mouth and how deliciously sweet and smooth her blood tasted sliding down his throat. But now those same veins looked empty and dull. They did not pulse with life, her blood.
He kept staring at her as he felt he was moving in slow motion. His eyes fell to her breasts that were pressed up against the thick wet fabric of her shirt, the one he had given her after they had made love in the cave. The soft, full mounds of her flesh shook, straining against the shirt as he pressed down his hands between them before going back up to her mouth again and listening again for her breath.
Still nothing.
Damon was vaguely aware at that moment that Jeremy had stood up and run off away from them but he had no idea why. He had heard voices and yelling but he focused on nothing but her.
His Elena.
He could still feel Stefan's hand on his trying to tug him back but he blatantly refused and pushed him away and growled at him again more forcefully. He breathed again in her mouth, seeing her chest rise but he collapsed into sobs against her neck seeing that she was not waking up.
He had a flash of when he had saved her life way back in May when her parents car went off Wickery Bridge as he pushed himself up again to keep fighting to bring her back.
"Elena damn it! Don't you dare die on me!" he heard himself scream. He could see her there in her cute pink top and tight dark washed jeans just laying in front of him as he fought to bring her back.
She was practically a stranger to him then and he still felt an incredible sense of desperation that she needed to live. Now she was his fiance and the mother of his children and he felt like he was in the same horrific scene as that first day they met. Except now losing her would be losing his very will to keep breathing and he would want to die right alongside her.
He saw himself going back to breath in her mouth again and then backed away. "Elena, come back to me! You can't leave me now! Come back Elena! Fight!"
Damon didn't realize he was saying those exact same things right now, screaming at her to live. To fight to be with him. To fight to keep their little family alive.
And several heart pounding moments later he heard the most beautiful sound in his life as she gasped aloud turning to spit out the water in her lungs. He had been so relieved he did not even see it coming when she brought her hands up clutching to him so tightly and then snaking her fingers around his neck pulled him down to capture his lips with hers. Their first kiss.
Now however there was no gasp of air, no fingers on his neck, no warm lips on his. He sobbed openly against her chest, his fingers tangled in her wet hair, knowing it was too late. He had no idea that the kiss they had shared laying there on the ground right in the same spot just a short time ago could ever have been their last.
"Elena," he groaned as he ran his hands over her body, caressing her hip, running his hand over her thigh and her smooth stomach. He felt her cup his face and he tilted his head to her and she wiped some of the blood from his cheeks and neck before pulling him in and kissing him with more passion than he had ever felt from her.
He saw her staring so deeply into his eyes and even in the subdued light he got lost in her chocolatey brown orbs seeking out the very depths of his soul. He felt the ache of pain and fear as he looked at her, but pushed it back to be there in that minute with her, showing her in all that he was how much he loved her.
"What baby?" he remembered breathing in her ear. He saw tears filling her beautiful eyes as her lips parted and he saw such a brilliant smile light up her face as he stroked her cheek tenderly. "I'm...happy," she whispered, her breath mixing with his, their lips so close. "Right now, in this moment...with you."
Damon's head was pressed against her breasts, her heart right underneath him as he felt the sobs just wrack his body as the soothing rhythmic sound of her heartbeat was not there anymore. There were no sounds from inside her...he choked hard on another sob as he went over what he said in his mind…
No sounds.
He felt himself shaking in grief as he had to know. He did not want to know...but he had to. The tears streamed freely down his face as he slid his head lower to lay it on her stomach, his hands on her hips pulling her body closer to him. He pressed his ear right against her bare skin and prayed and cried but he knew…
Nothing...no heartbeats
Damon let out a wail of pure agony as he gathered her in his arms and sobbed into her hair, her head against his shoulder before it fell down lifelessly onto his arm. He looked down at her pale and empty in his arms.
He already missed her. Every fucking thing about her.
Her smile, her gorgeous brown eyes that melted him with every sultry look she gave him. He missed her laugh and giggles as he remembered tickling her in bed before blowing on her belly. He missed her hand caressing his cheek as he leaned into her touch. He missed her mouth, so warm, so soft and inviting and could lose himself in her kisses for the rest of his life. He missed her little pout when she whined and wanted something from him. Her tugging on his jeans as she wanted so much to be closer to him as he laughed at her when the were making out in the rain. He missed her tongue, all over his body, illiciting such raw, intense reactions from him that no woman had ever done before.
He missed sharing with her, showing her their first kiss, seeing her parents again, seeing her face when she heard their babies heartbeat for the first time. He missed dancing with her, holding her close, singing to her, another thing he had never done with anyone. He missed waking up with her, only seeing after he had experienced that with her, how much he knew he could not wake up with anyone else for the rest of eternity. This simple, young, human had become everything to him and his heart had soared when she showed and told him he was everything to her too.
He missed her fire, her determination to save everyone else. Her passion to protect them as she would have her hand over their growing babies. He missed her love for her friends and family around them, her kindness; seeing her forgive Stefan and be there for him in his pain as he was dying. Her heart wanting to find a way to save Klaus from hurting them just for the simple fact that her best friend was in love with him. He missed seeing her light up when she hugged her brother, or Bonnie. He wanted so much to be a family with her. How could that all be gone?!
Damon rocked her limp, cold body against him just desperate to not lose her. Any part of her he was clinging to right then. The feel of her in his arms, her hair draped over his shoulder, her soft skin against his rough cheek, her lips against his chest. He could hardly smell the scent that was just purely her. It felt like she was slipping away from him, like sand through his fingers.
Despite his focus on her, he could hear water swishing and see his brother calling to him, his mouth opening and closing like he was yelling at him and pointing down behind him. But he didn't care. He heard nothing at that moment like his mind was blocked off from everything else but her. Nothing mattered anymore.
He fought within himself that this could not be happening. Maybe he was hallucinating from the werewolf toxin? It could not be real! Shutting his eyes tight, as more tears fell Damon just prayed he would wake up. It had to be a dream. The worst fucking nightmare of his life!
But he could still feel her in his arms and he opened his eyes again. She had not gone away. She was still laying there cradled lifelessly in the warmth of his body. Damon bent his head lower, his lips grazing her cheek. His mind was racing, his head exploding with grief and despair that he was thinking maybe a kiss would bring her back to him. Like in the movies when the heroine looks dead and the voice of their love pulls them back from the other side as he prayed he could do right now.
"Baby," he whimpered, his head against hers. "You have to come back." His tears ran down his cheeks and onto her face. "You can't leave me angel. I need you so much. I can't...I can't live without you." Damon gasped in another aching breath. "Please...Elena, please," he begged her, smoothing her hair from her face. He pressed his lips to hers, just aching for her to start kissing him back, to reach her arm back up around his neck tugging on those black curls she loved so much.
But her lips were cold and dry, and devoid of the softness and soothing warmth he craved like nothing else.. He felt another sob as his lips stayed against hers trying to breath his very life into her even if it killed him. He would make a deal with the devil right now to end his life if it would bring his beautiful angel back to this world.
No! This could not be happening! He felt the anger just bubble up within him. He wanted more! More of everything about her. He wanted more time. More fucking time! Why the hell did the universe just love to screw with him!
First he had fallen so hard and deep in love with a woman that was created with the sole purpose of dying for a vampires power and now...now he had lost her and his babies! The children he never dreamed he would ever have with anyone. And now he wanted that, he wanted everything with her.
Everything that he had never imagined in his whole eternal life had just been laid in his lap within the last 2 days and he had reveled in the joy of her love and his childrens birth and life with them. And now his whole world was just gone...Gone like it had never existed for him in the first place.
He was rocking her cold body against him when his senses finally started picking up more sounds around him. His brother had been laying nearly still beside him and Elena and had now had his head down, his eyes barely open as Damon heard him gasp out "Klaus," before his head fell back down.
Damon was horrified at the sight of his baby brother. Stefan had blood seeping from his ears and nose as well as even some from the corner of his eyes as he too was crying for Elena who was still ensconced tight in his arms.
Swinging his head around toward the sounds beside him he could not even feel his own pain right then at all from how much the poison had ripped apart his insides. Blood dripped down from his nose and he reached up to wipe it away as his eyes found those of their enemies and his rage burned in him. His normally deep blue eyes were as black as a demons as blood flooded the whites of them and he felt his breathes growing more rapid as he glared at him.
Damon's control was snapping fast like he was hanging outside of a plane and all the straps started to rip one by one till he was falling, and falling seeing nothing but hate and madness at the loss of the love of his life.
"YOU!" he seethed and he actually saw Klaus looking down away from his fiery eyes to lower to Elena's lifeless body, his expression wrought with disbelief and shock at what he was seeing.
The last strands of Damon's sanity were shattering to nothing as his glare deepened on his face, staring at the Original monster that took her away from him. Damon shakily pulled her closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead as his anger twisted with heartache inside him. He laid her down in front of him, stroking her cheek tenderly before his gaze snapped back up to Klaus who had his hands up in a sort of surrender as he backed away.
"Damon," the bastard opened his mouth. "I'm so.." But Damon did not let the words, his weak-assed apology leave his lips and he attacked him, his body racing with adrenaline! The dark haired vampire leaped on the 1000 year old monster and grabbed the collar of his jacket and slammed his head down against the ground again and again.
At first Klaus did not appear to be fighting him and let Damon rage on him. Damon grabbed for a stake that the ground was littered with and started stabbing the evil creature as Klaus put his hands up blocking the blows before tossing Damon off him like it was nothing.
Damon flew back at him in an instant. "YOU did this!" he screamed out at him. "She would be alive if it wasn't for you!"
Klaus this time ducked out of the way and it looked like he was still processing what had actually happened. His eyes were wide and he looked as shocked as Damon had first been.
"No, its not possible," Klaus breathed out.
Damon lifted his head from where he was leaning against a tree trying to catch his breath. "She was human dick! What did you THINK was going to happen when you lit the cabin on fucking fire with her and my babies in there?!"
Klaus opened and closed his mouth, looking like he was trying to find the right words. "I didn't..." he started to say again still shaking his head back and forth. It hardly seemed Damon's anger at him was even phasing him and he looked a million miles away.
"Like hell you didn't!" Damon snarled at him, his fangs out, his eyes black. "There is NOTHING you can say! She is gone! My Elena is gone!" He was growling again, his eyes seeking her again but he felt his grief at seeing her so still and so, so pale nearly bring him to his knees again.
Damon glared venomously at Klaus, spitting out his words. "In what reality does my beautiful kind and selfless human deserve to die and YOU get to live? If there was a way to fucking kill you I would have torn you to shreds already for destroying my family!"
Swallowing the anguish he felt flooding through every vein, he focused on his rage. If he let his agony over losing her overtake him there would be nothing left of him. He already felt like his own heart had been ripped out. So instead he pushed it down and leapt at Klaus again and grabbed for his heart!
The Original grunted in pain, falling onto the dock behind them and pried Damon's hand out of his chest, his blood rushing from his body before it healed. Damon stood up, his legs still shaky and felt things freeze for half a second as he stared at his hand all covered in Klaus' blood.
The cure. The cure was right there in his hand, dripping down his fingers.
He stared at it in wonder like it was treasured strands of spun gold. But he knew now he didn't want it. There was no life without her.
Then he looked to his brother, seeing him just laying beside his love. Stefan's starkly white face against the blood seeping from his ears and nose was wet with tears too and he looked like he could hardly lift his head. He was about to go to him, to give him the cure and the chance to live since he himself wanted nothing more than to curl up beside Elena and breath his last.
But as he took a step toward him he felt a hard body slam into him and he lost his balance and they both fell back into the water!
Klaus had barely showed any emotion as Damon had screamed at him but now as the black haired vampire whipped the water from his face Damon saw anger and sadness in the Originals eyes too as he felt himself grabbed up by the collar of his torn shirt and held up out of the water as he shook him. "I didn't light the cabin on fire!" Klaus hissed at him. "She wasn't supposed to die!"
Damon wrenched himself free pushing back from Klaus as they both stood in the water. "Well she did! She's gone!" he screamed out and was about to turn back to save his brother when he realized all the blood had been washed off in the lake when Klaus had tackled him.
Klaus circled him slowly, them both in the shallow water on the other side of the dock, Damon's fists clenching and unclenching thinking the Original was going to leap on him any second. "I wasn't going to hurt her! Or your babies! I just needed to save Caroline!" he cried out.
"And I needed to save Elena!" Damon screamed back just as angrily before turning away from him just not knowing where to go.. Nothing felt right anymore. He could not find his calm. Nothing felt the same without her. She was his calm in everything they had faced. Her tiny body against him, her forehead leaned with his, feeling her sweet breaths on his face. That was his calm.
He barely noticed when Klaus had grabbed him by the back of his neck and slammed his body against the side of the dock. Damon groaned at the impact, his eyes fluttering open and closed. The 1000 year old vampire held him by the throat, his eyes like equal fire on him.
But then there was a whoosh of air and before he could refocus his sore and weak eyes he saw a sharp dagger sticking out of Klaus' chest from his back.
Damon's eyes were so wide as he watched the vampire's face contort in not even really pain but more of anger and annoyance at the object in him. He could see Elijah behind them and as Klaus just stood there he started backing away from him. Was the dagger supposed to kill him? Damon wondered.
He now looked to have his anger focused on his own brother. "Nice try Elijah, but you missed one very important ingredient." Klaus reached back behind him and slowly pulled it out and threw it away onto the grass behind them. "Is that the best you can do brother?"
Klaus grabbed Damon's throat again. "He ruined everything!" he called out to Elijah. The elder original held his hands up likely showing Klaus he had no more weapons. Damon saw him look past him and across to the waters edge behind him...to Elena and he saw him gasp out at what he saw.
"Elena, is she..." Elijah looked back and forth between Damon and Klaus. "How...how long?"
Damon nodded his confirmation of her death, salty tears falling to his lips. "She drowned, right after the explosion." He felt more sobs in his throat and looked back into Klaus' eyes his own red and puffy from crying.
"Just do it," Damon whispered. "Rip my heart out. Let me die." When Klaus just stared at him he nodded blinking away more tears. "Please, I just want to be with her."
"No!" came Elijah's panicked voice a second later. "Klaus release him."
Klaus was shaking his head at them his hand still around Damon's throat and he lowered his other hand to the raven haired vampire's chest. Damon closed his eyes...ready to die.
"No, Damon, please," came a weak voice and Damon realized it was Stefan, not even sounding like himself as Damon saw him try to crawl toward them.
Damon looked back up in Klaus' eyes, his gaze hard and unrelenting. "Kill me...please and then when I am dead...heal Stefan. He never deserved this. Him getting bitten was all my fault." He saw Klaus slowly nod at him like he was willing to honor Damon's wishes and then plunged his hand into Damon's chest as his head fell back feeling the pain course through him.
"Nic, please stop," another voice whispered and Damon cringing in pain forced his eyes open and watched Klaus turn his head to see Caroline standing there beside him. "Let him go Nic," she cried out.
Klaus released Damon's heart right away and Damon fell to his knees in the water. "Caroline Luv," he breathed out. "I failed you. I can't protect you from my father now. I can't stop whats coming." He looked at her so forlornly as she moved toward him.
Caroline clasped hands with him, looking like she did not even care that his one hand was covered in Damon's blood as she leaned her head against his. "What do you mean?" Her eyes looked sad as they searched his.
Damon was still panting kneeling in the water. He just needed it to be over and could not take another minute of seeing her body on the ground. He was damn near ready to sink his own hand into his chest and pull out his heart but he did not feel like he even had the strength for that. He looked around for a stake floating in the water and there wasn't even that anything nearby. What the hell?
Growling he brought Klaus' attention back to him. "Damn it dick, just kill me. I'm begging you."
"No, Damon, don't. You don't want that." Elijah's voice rang out as his eyes darted back and forth between Damon and Elena.
"Yes I do!" Damon hissed and struggled to his feet again more tears in his eyes. He heard Caroline's gasp as she must have seen Elena's body and she let out a cry.
Klaus turned back to him and Damon lifted his head his body jerking, feeling the Originals hand around his heart again.
"Klaus, let go of him now!" Elijah screamed out and there was grunting and when Damon saw them behind him he saw Elijah had grabbed Caroline and had his arm around her, a stake at her chest!
The second Klaus saw what his brother had done Damon saw his vampire face appear, his fangs elongating as he glared at him. "Don't you dare brother!" Klaus spit at him.
"Then let Damon go Niklaus," Elijah's voice was firm and strong as the blonde vampire fought him to get away.
"Nic, please," Caroline was struggling to no avail in Elijah's arms. Her eyes wide and locked on him.
"It will okay my luv," he soothed her. "My brother would not dare to harm you. He knows I would hunt him down till he breathed his last."
Damon could see the love he had in his eyes for her. Seeing it just reminded him that he would never see that again in his beautiful Elena's face.
"Klaus, just do it. After everything you did, just do this one thing for me," Damon gritted out. He knew he did not want his brother trying to talk him out of ending his life or he would have asked Klaus to heal him first. But he did not know how much longer Stefan had.
Things happened fast at that moment and he felt Klaus about to pull his heart out as heard Caroline cry out and the horrible sound of flesh tearing. He watched Klaus turn his head fast but his vision only showed things hazy and slow to him. Damon felt his hearing dull too as he heard Klaus scream out her name letting go of his heart in an instant. He fell back down into the shallow water and turned his head up to the cries.
Klaus was yelling out while clutching a falling Caroline in his arms. And when Klaus turned them more around he could see the Original rip a stake from her body, cursing his brother he hurled it at Elijah catching him in the stomach and he sunk down to the ground too. But Damon gasped when he saw her skin was starting to turn gray and wrinkly. Oh my god!
He started to crawl his way back to his brother and Elena. But as he looked back to Stefan, Damon's eyes bulged and his mouth gaped open and his whole body trembled…
Stefan was looking at him with an empty stare, his eyes unmoving, his breath still as he lay beside Elena. Damon blinked once, twice and his brother did not blink back to him, or move at all! He felt his chest tightening, seizing up as he cried out, his eyes riveted to Stefan's unmoving figure. He could not take anymore. Stefan's green eyes were wide, his arm outstretched toward him as if he was trying to reach him in his last moments. He was gone too...just like Elena.
"NO!" Damon threw his head back and screamed but he could not even hear his own voice as he felt everything around him fading in color and his vision swam. This could not be real. His whole family just gone...
He felt pain, so much pain as he stared at the two most precious people in the world laying so still in front of him. He could still hear screams and Klaus was on the ground holding Caroline as she gasped her last breaths.
Damon could not take it. It was too much. He stood up and blurred away as fast as his dying body would allow. He thought he heard Elijah calling for him but he ignored him. There was nothing left for him anywhere and he just ran. Away from all the horror, all the death and loss and just ran.
None of them saw a flash of brunette hair as someone saw everything before ducking back behind a tree. Another figure had a hood over their head as they nodded to each other before racing away as the fire still blazed behind them.
Review, review , review if you want more.
Bracing for the hate...There is a plan to make this right...
But I am debating after the next chapter to go back to Our New Beginning for awhile and give this story a bit of a break. All the sadness was just so hard to write and I cried while writing this chapter at multiple points of it. The next chapter will fill in a lot of the missing pieces and things make much more sense. It will be the same scenes again from other people POV's. Elijah's, Elena's and even Klaus'.
So if you want more of this story sooner rather than me focusing on ONB let me know by reviewing...
Special thanks to my amazing beta Alaze and my husband too for helping me untangle so much to make this chapter flow. It was one of the hardest ones i have written so far.