You Lost Me

Chapter Fifteen - Secret Plans

Damon and Stefan tried their best to do something but as each day passed they lost hope about finding Elena. Stefan couldn't understand why she decided to face it all by herself. It was insane and absolutely difficult. He remembered how hard it was for him to overcome the first years of being a vampire without anyone around to help him out. Thinking all the things that Elena must be going through was draining him. He'd give everything to just help her through it but she didn't want to be helped that was much clear.

"You should have called me as soon as you found out she left" he mumbled quietly to Damon who was emptying the third bottle of scotch in that day.

"Sorry little brother but you weren't in my list of priorities as I was trying to track her scent" Damon's sarcasm was even more evident. His masks have never been so up and still everyone could see how painful it was for him to know that Elena turned into a vampire and then left to go through all the changes alone.

"I was a phone call distant, Damon. You may have caused this but this isn't about you!" Stefan lost his composure. It's been stressful and while they didn't have to handle with Katherine who mysteriously disappeared, he had to handle with his own guilt. He knew Elena could see right in his face what he and Katherine were doing just before she woke up and the centenary vampire disappearance actually made him more uneasy than her presence had ever made. Damon was also deeply concerned about why the vampire would leave by the same time Elena did. He hoped she wasn't after Elena because the new vampire didn't stand a chance against their sire.

"I know what I did Stefan, you don't need to remind me" Damon answered too bitterly as he filled another glass.

Stefan actually felt guilty for blaming this on Damon. Katherine was a force to be reckoned with. She usually got what she wanted and if she wanted Elena turned; sooner or later his girlfriend would become a vampire. Although Damon had been more reckless than he should, there was nothing the brothers could do to prevent Katherine's plans to come to live.

"Did Bonnie get anything?" the younger brother asked though he knew the moment the witch had any news she'd contact him, maybe even before she contacted Damon if she called his brother at all.

"Nothing. She keeps updating me about Elena still being alive" Damon answered while his eyes got lost into nowhere. It was a relief to know Elena didn't try to kill herself. After a few days he should be convinced that she wouldn't do it anymore but this was his biggest fear and he couldn't avoid being hopeless about it.

"How often is she doing this spell?" Stefan asked concerned.

"Very often, I get many texts by day" Damon answered without thinking. He was exhausted and trying to understand why this was important to Stefan wasn't an option.

"She has to stop" the younger brother said with conviction.

"What the hell?" Damon was surprised as he downed another glass of scotch. He certainly tested his limits to alcohol in the past few days. While he's been drunk before, he was expecting what else the excess would bring to him. Humans got alcoholic comas, why couldn't vampires?

"Bonnie will wear herself down. She may not know the toll witchcraft brings but it could kill her. That's why her grandmother died. Maybe she's already experiencing some side effects" Stefan shared what he's learned throughout the years about witches, though he wasn't that certain about how it happened.

"Not my problem" Damon dismissed the whole situation. He already had to worry about one girl. His brother could worry about the rest of the humankind.

"If Elena regrets her decision and comes back how do you think she'll feel if her best friend died worn down by spells she did to make sure she was alive?" Stefan offered knowing that his brother wasn't really thinking about the big picture. He was surprised by Damon's reaction and that was why they've barely talked in the past week but sooner or later they had to do it and it was better if it was sooner.

"Jeremy thinks Elena won't d kill herself. He's pretty sure about it and the witch seems to confirm his thoughts with every spell"

"But she can't be alone. It's dangerous to herself and the humans around her wherever she is" the younger brother pondered while the older grimaced. Did Stefan honestly think Damon didn't have a clue about what Elena was going through?

"I know trust me" he retorted annoyed.

"Maybe we should go after her" the blond suggested. He'd been thinking about it since day one, but there was one little problem in his plan that Damon soon pointed out.

"We don't have a clue of where she is, Stefan" the drunk brother stated the obvious.

"But this is Elena. We can't just be here and wait until we get any news"

"Don't you think that I know this is Elena? Don't you think that I spend all my day thinking about all the possibilities? She wasn't my girlfriend Stefan or my sister. If you and Jeremy don't have a clue of where she's then I guess we don't have much to do! The world is such a big place to look for someone" Damon threw his glass against the wall in irritation. This situation was killing him although his body was still as alive as possible. He's never felt so powerless and useless like he did those days and it was easier when he only had to deal with his own thoughts. Having a conversation about the obvious problems they had only made him reach the breaking point he'd been somewhat able to avoid the past days.

"She can't be too far from Mystic Falls" Stefan suggested, seeing that his brother was losing his temper – more than commonly usual to Damon.

"For all we know she could be in Australia or in Brazil" he quipped and it was true. It's been days and compulsion could get someone all around the world in much less.

"So we start with Virginia and then Georgia, the Carolinas. We have to start somewhere. I'm not giving up on her" Stefan was adamant. He loved Elena too much to just let it go and sit there waiting for her to show.

"Good luck with that" Damon offered a sarcastic smile as he reached for another glass and filled it.

"Now, do you think that I believe you'll be here the whole day drinking yourself mindless, Damon? I know you care about her. I know you more than care about her and it's pretty clear that she also cares about you" it was Stefan's turn to be sarcastic and also share some of the thoughts that was driving him crazy. He couldn't understand why Elena put her life in such danger because of Damon. He didn't even know Damon was planning to leave Mystic Falls and if he knew he was probably going to try to prevent him from going as they still had a battle in the city. Nobody knew what Katherine was planning and she didn't look like she was stopping any time soon. He needed Damon to help him protect Elena but he also needed his brother around. Those months they've spent together, in the closest to a truce they'd ever been since they became vampires, made him see that he didn't made his brother drink that girl's blood without a reason. He didn't want to be alone and after 145 years, Damon and he finally reached some understanding and it was nice to have Damon around, even if they didn't have any situation to take care of.

"I've tried Stefan! The many hours that you didn't see me drinking my ass I was looking for Elena, in the woods, in the nearby cities. In every single ditch, alley and hole. I've been through all of them" Damon confessed what he's been hiding from everyone else. It wasn't because he didn't want them to know he cared enough to do it. He hid it because he wasn't ready to share his failure of doing the one thing that mattered for him. He could fail in anything else and while it'd scratch his big ego, it wouldn't cause him any damage. But not being able to find Elena broken him all over again. He caused all this and he should be able to fix it as much as possible but he failed.

"Then tell me which cities you got covered and we'll go to the next ones" Stefan determinedly said. He could finally see through Damon's walls and as he's suspected before, his brother was trying to fix this. It'd surprise Stefan if the truth was that Damon just drank the problems and ignored the dangerous Elena was going through, especially with Katherine gone.

"Everything within seventy miles" he said defeated.

"We'll find her" the younger brother encouraged the older one.

"I'm sure you'll do" Damon smiled bitterly and sarcastically

"Deep down she knows this is not your fault" Stefan tried to assure his brother but Damon wasn't buying it.

"I'd already lost her before she died, I don't think letting her being killed made her change her opinion" and although it was supposed to be filled with sarcasm, Stefan easily caught the undeniable pain behind those words.

"No, you haven't. I know you both said it to each other but I just don't know how you couldn't even see that it was just impossible" the blond vampire shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked to leave the house.

"And why is that, little brother?" Damon quipped, smirking a little.

"Because to some extent and in some way you both already loved each other when you snapped Jeremy's neck" Stefan said with a bittersweet smile and seeing the shock written in Damon's face he turned and left but then came back and punched his brother square in the jaw, actually surprising Damon and leading him to fall over the beverage cart, glasses and bottles breaking down on the floor "And that's for kissing my girlfriend twice, even if you were fooled once. I'm going to the north" and then Stefan was gone while Damon held his jaw, that was hurting but he only muttered "I guess that was overdue" and then stood up to change into clean clothes as people wouldn't be willing to tell him if they saw the girl in the picture when he was smelling scotch from head to toes.

She took her time. A few days were much needed time to breathe before facing off her biggest fear. She collected as much information as she could; given the limitation to actually find reliable information about vampires anywhere. She got all the facts she needed and everything seemed so hard to understand and even to believe but she was ready to finally face him again. There was so much to be told between the two of them and she surely didn't know where to start but she finally took her way to the boarding house. It was a long walk but it didn't bother her. It gave her a chance to think things over a few more times and even rehearse what she had to tell him, it wasn't like she didn't have all time in the world to mind a walk. She hoped he was the one to open the door because if it was Stefan she was afraid she'd turn on her heels and run away. Her resolve wasn't that strong. She just couldn't take it anymore. It was just too much and at each step she took towards the mason the more nervous and tense she felt.

She was afraid of what he'd tell her but she could always count on Damon's honesty. He was bluntly sincere and she knew the moment she told him everything that was going through her mind that he wouldn't lie or deceive her. She honestly expect him to be like this but she couldn't be sure about it anymore, after all being a vampire changed a few things that she might had taken for sure before.

She could already see the beautiful old house in the horizon, it was a beautiful site and such a beautiful construction, she tried to distract herself and enjoy the beautiful surroundings for the first time. She has never really paid attention at how amazing this place was. Too bad that she was just using it as a distraction to her turmoil of thoughts.

She finally took the few stairs towards the front door and taking a final deep breath she knocked on it. It was odd to wait for someone to answer, she thought as the door didn't open immediately. Actually most of times she didn't even need to knock at all, Damon disheveled figure would be just there opening the door and motioning for her to enter but it actually took a few seconds before the door finally cracked open.

It seemed like it was her lucky day as he, not his brother, opened the door, except he didn't look careless as usual. Actually he looked wrecked and the sight of him broke her heart.

He was surprised to see her standing there in front of him. It was like she was the last person he expected to see and he couldn't imagine why she'd come after him so many days after the ominous day.

"Hi Damon. We need to talk" she softy whispered, offering him a sweet smile.

AN: small cliff to end this chapter. any guesses who's there?

I'm happy you guys (or some of you) understand why there's a lack of Delena interaction at this point. I'll make up for it, I promise. So Damon has been looking for her and Stefan finally got some things out of system. He wanted to blame Damon but being the good brother he is, he just can't. But it doesn't mean he likes Damon trying to kiss his girlfriend.

So the search for Elena had started before and now it'll be intensified... unless of course, that's Elena at the Salvatore Boarding House's door.

Thanks to jacks-peapod; Avecia; Carina1988; xLoveRyanx; bluestriker666; Vampgirl144; mayghaen17; ; WhiteLine-Turned-HurricaneGirl; kat; MsMaeve18; Rowhana; Lily; damvampsal21; tsukivamp and BMCullen for the reviews, I guess you can imagine how happy I'm with so many :D

Talk to you soon

Babi