Hello. Thankyou for all those who've read and followed and favorited. I don't know you, but I am sending out air kisses. You will feel something on your cheek…. Now!
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Did you?
If you didn't, then let me know. I'll need to eat some chocolate to strengthen my magic. If you did, let me know anyway, I'll send you more of those.

I don't have a beta so no one edited this for me. Feel free to critique.

Much Love.

"And death is at your doorstep, and it will steal your innocence"

A group of doctors had assembled in the conference room of Mystic Falls General Hospital. Their faces reflected the pain and suffering that they saw everyday. If one saw such a group, they would know better than to mess with them, because they had seen so much more than the average passer-by, that they had risen above the silly little things that others glorified and celebrated mistakenly.

"On to the next case now, Doctor Salvatore, ah yes. Please go on."

"Jane Doe. Early 20s or maybe younger. Rape Kit exam shows that there was an attempt but the attacker wasn't successful. Suffered severe physical trauma and blood loss. Concussion led to a brain hemorrhage, put in a medically induced coma. Has not regained consciousness in one week and three days."

"What about her family? Has anyone tried to contact her?" The senior doctor asked.

"She didn't have any ID on her person, neither was anything found around her. We've been unable to find any information about her identity but we're still looking. My interns are looking through missing person reports, I'm hoping they find something."

"And in the case they don't?"

"We withdraw life care. Simple." Another voiced piped in. He looked bored, with dull eyes but shoulders back and head high. He suggested what he had not because he was an insensitive or uncaring doctor but because he thought that on humanitarian grounds it would be better for the girl to be given death. The extent of her injuries was painfully apparent to everyone in the room, they knew that her internal struggle was keeping her from coming back to life and that she without a shadow of any doubt was suffering.

"Elijah, please. We can't give up on her. She hasn't, we can't." It was Damon, who spoke for Jane first.

"Damon is right. She is a fighter. She may not have awoken yet, but her body is healing. It's not much but her brain activity is increasing every day. I've been monitoring her very closely, I can see that she is a fighter. I understand Elijah's premise and I agree that death would be kinder, but we have to support her through this. God knows she is in a world of pain but she's fighting."

Damon looked at the woman who had just spoken, his partner on the case who had been sleeping next to Jane's room while he ran labs and then taking on the watch when he rested his eyes. He mouthed a thankyou towards her.

"We save her. End of discussion. But you have till the end of next week to find me some family or some brain activity of any actual significance, lucid preferably."

Richard understood what had to be done and what should be done and on that note he ended the meeting.

Damon and Miranda stood by Jane's bed silently. Elijah was right but they weren't wrong either.

"We'll need to broaden our scope. Maybe she isn't from around here. Maybe her family isn't around, maybe they're somewhere else. Maybe her friends are too scared to file a report. Damon, we need to do something."

Damon nodded, there wasn't anything else he could say. They were the ones who saw her when she was brought in. It had been an unpredictably slow day and Damon had without thinking wished for a complicated case where he could show off his medical genius but now that this poor innocent girl was lying infront of him and he was unable to do anything but wait, he cursed himself for ever wishing that.

"I have an idea. Why don't we run her photo through the local school databases? That might give us an idea about where she's from. What do you think?"

"Do it. Her bone development shows that she isn't over 21, I would say. So she must have passed out of school quite recently."

"I'll start the search right away." And with a new found purpose he walked out of the room.

Miranda moved towards Jane and took her hand in her own, "We're fighting for you. It'll all be okay, I promise. Just give me a sign whenever you're ready. Show me that you're fighting too. Please." Miranda was shocked at herself that a practical, medical, scientific woman like herself was asking for a sign. She waited for a couple of minutes for any change, hoping against her better judgment, her medical judgment. With a heavy sigh, she touched Jane's forehead and left the room.

(Damon, later that night.)

After almost being thrown out of the hospital by Miranda, I finally entered my house. Dead tired and aching to the bone but my mind was still thinking about the Jane Doe case. The trauma that her fragile young body had endured was traumatizing to even look at; he couldn't even begin to fathom what the girl must be going through.

"Why is the world so fucking fucked up!?" I nearly shouted.

I tried falling asleep for what seemed like forever but it evaded me. So I got up, made a stiff drink for myself and gulped it down with laudanum and went back to my bedroom.

Someone was waving, out on the road, at a distance. I stopped my car and she banged her hands on the bonnet. The image was blurry, like watching an old video coverage, but I know what I heard and what I saw. I know that it was the same girl who was currently lying in a hospital bed fighting for her life. She looked out of breath, and cold. Where was her jacket? Why was she only wearing a tank top and jeans and that too in the middle of nowhere? She was scared and her eyes were big and confused.

"Please help"

She was talking but I couldn't hear anything. Only shouts and cries for help. It was the same voice but like a supernatural movie, it was superimposed somehow. Jane Doe, my Jane Doe was telling me something but I could only hear the background. "Somebody help please! It hurts!" And then the shrieks faded out and the girl infront of me was audible again.

"I was too late. I couldn't help her. So much blood."

And then it was all black. Until I heard, "Elena. My name is Elena."

And then I woke up.

Many apologies for the late update. I got through the college I wanted to go to for my post grad and I have to move to a different city in a week's time. So that and the administrative part took time. Sorry. I'm going to start working on the next chapter right away. The 'laudanum' ref was from the mind of my sister. She has an extensive MB collection.