Chapter Eight

Meredith sank into a chair wearily. She and Bonnie had taken Matt into the kitchen, where Bonnie was now dabbing at the already nasty looking bruise on his cheek with an ice cold compress. Matt was staring straight ahead of him, too angry to speak.

I'm sure this is exactly what Elena needs- all of us to start fighting with each other, Meredith thought to herself sarcastically.

"I'm sorry if this hurts, but we need to get it seen to. It's quite a bad bruise," Bonnie said, regarding Matt in concentration.

Still staring into space, Matt replied, "I should have staked him."

Meredith sighed. "Matt, stop."

He looked at her incredulously. "You're telling me to stop? He hit ME, in case you've forgotten!"

"You shouldn't have provoked him," she replied quietly.

"Why the hell not? Elena doesn't need anymore crap from the evil undead! I don't know why you even bothered to bring him back anyway. He'll do nothing but cause trouble for Elena." He glared at Meredith angrily. Bonnie gulped, and kept her eyes fixed to the floor, still dabbing at Matt's cheek.

Meredith retuned his glare steadily. "I brought him here because he's the closest thing Elena has to Stefan, right now. She does need him, more than we can know. And he has helped her already—she's talking again, isn't she?"

Matt was still angry. "But not to us. Only to him—that thing in there! She'd rather talk to that than us, her oldest friends?"

"Give her time, Matt. She'll talk to us when she's ready. I can't imagine what she's going through, right now, but if we don't let her get over it in her own way then we're not being her friends. We just have to let her know that we're here for her when she needs us."

Bonnie swallowed. "She's right, Matt." She was still patting Matt's cheek with the compress. "I know that's what I would want. Wouldn't you? I mean, she's—"

Matt pushed her hand away suddenly, and leapt up from the table, knocking it over in the process. "What I want is to talk to Elena. But since she'd prefer talking to a vampire, I guess I'm of no use to anyone. So I think I'll just stay out of your way." He stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind him.

Bonnie winced, and then winced again as they heard the front door slam as well. She glanced over at Meredith, who sighed once more.

"Let him be. He'll calm down eventually."

Bonnie looked unsure. "I hope so." She looked towards the kitchen door. "What about Damon?"

Meredith looked over to the door too. "I have no idea. Just—just let him take care of this his own way. I don't think he'd do anything to put Elena in danger, and Matt not being here will probably help."

Bonnie looked at the floor.

"He was right, you know. Matt, I mean. He's of no use to Elena in this mood. Right now, we can't even have him and Damon in the same room together without Matt getting a black eye. It's better for Elena's sake if he just stays away until he calms down."

Bonnie nodded. "I know." She too sighed. "I just hope he does."

Damon closed the door behind him and turned. Elena had walked slowly back over to the couch and was sat on it, staring into space.

"If you're thinking of going back to sitting in silence again, I'm leaving." Damon moved round to the front of the couch, and Elena glanced up at him.

"No, I'm… I'm not," she replied wearily. She looked confused. "What… what did you do to Matt?"

"What?"

"Matt…I heard shouting, and a crash."

Damon frowned. "Oh, the boy. I taught him a lesson." His face was calm. "Nothing for you to worry about."

Elena shook her head slowly. "You shouldn't… he's just trying to help."

"Well he's not succeeding," Damon answered smoothly. "At least he'll keep out of the way now. He was beginning to make me angry." He glanced briefly at his nails. "Plus I'm getting hungry."

Elena didn't react, and Damon looked down at her. Although her skin was still pale, she at least looked a little more awake. There was more life in her eyes, and her breathing was regular if quick.

She caught him watching her and closed her eyes. "Aren't you going to ask me what happened?" She opened her eyes to find him still looking at her. "Aren't you going to ask how I found him? How I knew where he was?"

"I wasn't planning on it, no." Damon sat in the chair opposite the sofa nonchalantly. "Tell me if you want. It makes no difference to me."

She stared at him. "He was your brother," she whispered softly.

He shrugged. "And what happened to him is in the past. There's no point in dwelling on something that's already happened. Don't you think the more important thing right now is to find these vampire hunters before they find us?"

Elena blinked against more tears. "Do you expect me to just forget? Pretend like nothing's happened?" She looked back up at him. "I loved him, Damon."

He sighed. "Yes. So you should avenge him. The sooner we find these people, the sooner you can do that."

Elena's voice was cold as she replied. "And what about grieving for him? Can I not do that?"

He slipped off the chair gracefully and kneeled on the floor in front of her, staring intently into her eyes.

"There's time for grief afterwards."

Slowly, she raised her eyes to his. He was so intent on getting her to understand him that he was actually surprised when she kissed him.

She did it so quickly he almost reacted without thinking, but then he firmly pushed her back from him, a puzzled look on his face.

"Elena, what are you doing?" he asked her gently.

She was about to answer, but then leaned towards him again.

Once more, he held her away from him. "This isn't what you want."

The tears in her eyes threatened to spill over. "Yes, it is."

"No." He looked directly at her. "You want Stefan, and I'm the closest thing."

She stared at him a moment longer before the tears fell, and she was crying again.

He was at a loss for what to do for a moment, until she fell forward against his chest, weeping copiously, her hands grabbing his arms. Slowly, he wrapped his own arms around her and held her.

"I'm sorry, Damon, I didn't mean—" She broke off, and then tried again. "Will you just stay here, just tonight? Will you just hold me?" She looked up at him. "Please? I don't want to be alone." Her tone was almost pleading.

He paused, and then nodded silently. She rested her head back on his chest and he held her.

Author's Note: Okay, I'm gonna apologise for a couple of things. Firstly, I'm sorry if nothing much seems to be happening right now. I promise things start to happen next chapter. Also, I'm sorry if Damon seems a little out of character, I'll try and rectify it. He's not turning soppy, honestly. And thirdly, sorry if this seems like a Damon/Elena fic. I'm not planning it to turn out that way. Okay, apologies over, now for thank you's. Thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed so far, and to those of you who've read and not reviewed- please re-think! I can't improve unless you help me out. Secondly, a special thank you to the wonderful Amylu, who may be anonymous to most people but is actually the most important of my reviewers (no offence to anyone else). Really, I should pay people to write comments like the one she did. So thanks guys!

I'll shut up now, I promise.