Well, that was a fast update, right?
BUT, it's only so fast, because I'm not gonna be able to update ANYTHING the whole next week, because I'm not actually at home – or anywhere near a computer, as it is.
I hope I'll get to write while I'm gone (even if I have to do it with pen and paper! And copy it on the computer when I'm back) to give you an update as soon as I'm back.
Now: As always, a biiiig thank you for Avecia – she really has a lot to do these past few days, because of me. You are GREAT sweety!
And another thank you, to all my readers and reviewers, you are GREAT.
Oh, and I don't own anything 'bout VD.
Now, on with it, or else I'll ramble you to sleep *gg*
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Two days had gone by since he woke up, and he was this close to just ripping a few throats out and be done with it.
Stupid doctors, trying to find out why he had recovered – and why he'd gotten sick and fell into a coma in the first place.
He was tempted to just tell them that a witch had screwed up a spell and turned him from a vampire into a human… but he figured a mental institution would grate even more on his nerves. So he just let them draw his blood and participated in their stupid tests.
At least they decided those infuriating machines weren't necessary anymore.
At the moment he was in bed (he missed his nice, big, four-poster bed with the heavy curtains, and the soft mattress… this thing was a joke) zapping through the whole of 8 channels. Pathetic.
The only reason he was still here, was because the idea of being alone in a house with his brother was…disturbing.
He acted like the last 140 and a few odd years hadn't happened.
Like they were still just Stefan and Damon, not only brothers, but best friends as well.
And he just couldn't figure out why.
He had expected a rant of how unfair this all was. Damon, getting to be alive, and human again, whilst he was stuck with his fangs and bloodlust.
Christ, as if it had been his idea that that happened.
He was pulled out of his musings, as he heard a silent knock on the door, closely followed by the opening of said door.
He sighed and waited for Stefan's figure of to walk in, but was surprised to see Bonnie instead.
She gave a tentative smile as she saw that he was here, and awake, before she walked in and closed the door behind her.
"Hey. Uhm… Are you….how are you?"
He rolled his eyes, and with a click on the remote, switched the TV off.
"I'm alright. But I think you hit your head; or screwed another spell up.
You're acting nice. Stop it, it's creeping me out."
The witch blinked a few times before she sighed and let her shoulders slump forwards.
She stood there about half a minute, seemingly deep in thought. The she walked over and sat down in the chair by his bed.
"Look, Damon… we both know you're not my favourite person in the world."
He snorted at that, amused at how she put it. Because 'not her favourite person'? Understatement of the century.
Other than that, he kept his mouth shut, curious were she was going with this.
"But as I woke up in the graveyard… The first thing I noticed, was that… was that the grave was still undisturbed. And… she… was nowhere in sight. At first I thought I just wasn't strong enough to pull off this kind of spell but… then I heard something. Someone. You were lying a few feet behind me, on your back. Your eyes were open, but I don't think that you registered anything. You just lay there, and you were gasping for breath, stopping every once in a while.
You were really pale… I first thought that someone attacked you and pumped you full of vervain.
I tried to get you to notice me, but you weren't reacting at my voice, so I slapped you… and your skin was way too warm under my hand. I wasn't thinking about how, as a vampire, you wouldn't have a pulse, so I took your wrist – simple reaction.
But you actually had one.
That was when I realized that I hadn't failed my spell. I just… brought the wrong person back to life.
Because, you know… the spell was for 'bringing to life, what once was dead'. And, technically, you were dead at the time. No breathing, no beating heart… so it somehow targeted you and… here we are."
He mulled that over for a moment, not really surprised at what she had said. He had thought that it was something like that.
"Yeah, well… I already guessed that much. That doesn't explain why you're acting all Florence Nightingale all of a sudden.
Just a short while ago you were perfectly fine with the idea of letting me burn to death…. Otherwise, you would have disabled the Gilbert device. And I don't see what could have happened for you to change your mind. Not really. I have a beating heart…doesn't mean I'm a new, better person now. Nothing has changed."
Bonnie just shook her head, and heaved an exasperated sigh.
"You don't understand, do you? Everything has changed, Damon. You were out of it the whole time… you hadn't seen the way how first your lips, than your whole face turned blue.
It was one thing to let John Gilbert do the dirty work… but to actually be there, and watch someone die? It was horrible. And then you just… every few minutes the heart monitor would flare up, voicing that something, again, wasn't right and you just. Never .woke .up!
Just lying in bed, slowly slipping away. And it was my fault! If I had been a better friend to Elena, maybe she wouldn't have gone to Katherine. She would still be here, and I hadn't tried that spell.
Everything would be fine. But it isn't and… I don't have it in me to hate someone else but me at the moment. Now, I'm here. And I want to know how you are. Because I have to atone, and I have to start somewhere. So, spill."
At first he wanted to laugh at her. Then the feeling to scream and lash out came over him. But that wouldn't last, either. In the end, he just gave in. He wasn't able to shut out his emotions any longer – that option died, the moment his heart started beating again. And to bury them inside could only last that long, before he would just burst.
So he told the witch, Elena's best friend… everything.
How it nearly ripped him apart, arriving in the graveyard, only to find her already dead.
How he never, in all his life, felt so helpless than in the moment were he had to explain to her family what happened.
He told her everything, never once thinking about how he irrevocably ruined his image.
And just like this, there was a fragile, strange friendship between the two of them.
She came back everyday, sometimes to listen, sometimes to talk. When they both weren't in the mood to do either, they just sat there and watched TV or read a book.
They both had lost something too dear to their heart to hold on to petty grudges.
He wasn't sure if he was up to living a human life. A human life, with all its emotions – most of them revolving around the fact that he had lost the one person he thought it would be worth this… complication.
But he tried, anyway. It's what he always had done.
Xoxoxoxoxox
She sat outside of his window once again, careful to not make any sounds or harsh movements.
It started out as the need to know if he would survive. Now she was just curious.
Curious, how he would handle it, being like this. Being what he once saw as prey.
She was surprised that he never, not once, really lashed out on Bonnie.
There were harsh words, sure. But they were few, and far between.
On the day he got released, she was hiding in the parking lot, watching as Stefan rambled on about how he had stocked up actual food and other random stuff.
She noticed how Damon and Bonnie seemed to depend on each other… holding the other upright – figuratively - as if the weight of the whole world would crush them otherwise.
Stefan didn't seem to notice. Just glad to have a chance to have his brother back… his real brother, not this cruel caricature he had been for so long.
Turn the page over, and begin anew. He didn't seem to mind the sarcastic jabs or occasional mocking.
In reality – she could see it in his sad, sad green eyes; he just clung to the last familiar thing in his life.
Because, when it came down to it, Damon was the only thing constant in his existence.
They all scrambled into the car, and soon drove off.
Yeah, Damon was the last thing left for his brother.
Because she was supposed to be dead. At least, the whole world thought so.
And she would see to it that it would stay this way.
Xoxoxoxxoxoxo
I hope you liked this chapter! Let me know what you think – you just have to click on the nice button below^^.
So long,
Zora