A/N: I'm completely overwhelmed with the response to the first chapter of this story! Thank you SO MUCH for all of your amazing reviews :]:]:]

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

Chapter 2

"But we can track them! Like the last time-" Caroline trailed off when Alaric theatrically dropped Elena's and Jeremy's cell phones onto the note they had left for him.

Stefan glanced between the phones and Alaric's resigned face before shifting his gaze to the floor with a grim expression.

Caroline grimaced, shaking her head in frustration. "Did they at least explain what the hell they're up to this time?"

Wordlessly, Alaric placed his fingers on the sheet of paper in front of him and rotated it toward Caroline and Stefan. Caroline took a brisk step forward and looked at the note. "Please understand." was all that the note was saying.

Caroline briefly closed her eyes and sighed. "So what are we going to do?" She asked, resorting to annoyance in order not to give in to worry. She looked between Alaric and Stefan who both seemed irritatingly unresponsive.

"Understand?" Alaric offered mockingly with a shrug, although his eyes were far from mocking.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and gave Alaric an exasperated look. "So we're just going to sit here and hope they'll be fine?" She asked in agitation. "Last time they paid some charlatan twenty thousand dollars, so he could cut off pieces of their lungs with a magical knife and perform a magical ritual, even though the guy had spent eight years in jail and nine years in a mental institution, and I learned all that from the first results page after searching for the first three letters of his name."

"Nineteen thousand," Alaric said, squinting. "He offered them a discount."

Caroline grimaced. "They're going through the denial phase, I get it. But don't you think this is going too far? It's been six months. Maybe there is something really wrong with them. Maybe... They need help," Caroline said with a desperate expression.

"So what are you saying, that they're crazy?" Alaric asked in an openly dismissive tone.

"If they were crazy, they would've told us where they were going," Stefan suddenly spoke up, causing Caroline's head to turn rapidly into his direction. He gave her a weak, mirthless smile. "We can't take away the only thing that keeps them going, Caroline," he added in a hushed voice, his eyes brimming with sadness.

"Which is what?" Caroline asked with a frown.

"Hope," Alaric said hollowly, leaning back in his chair and meeting Caroline's gaze when she looked at him. "They're not ready to let go of that."

xxxdelenaxxx

The flight to Italy was long and exhaustive, but neither of them managed to fall asleep either on the plane or earlier during a prolonged layover after their first connecting flight.

They drove to the hotel in silence, both of them confined to their respective exhilarating memories braided with grief, a bizarre, paradoxical inner world providing solace and causing excruciating pain.

They had been in it before, together, when their parents had died. Maybe that's why, how they understood, without any need for words or explanations. Once again, they had silently, soundlessly descended into this comatose state between life and death that made it possible to live despite being dead and not die despite being unable to live.

The only difference was that now they had hope. Or something resembling hope, sometimes Jeremy couldn't define what it was, because he thought hope ought to feel light, bubbly and bright and this feeling that Elena and he still had was heavy, austere and dark.

It was past midnight, but despite not sleeping in over 48 hours, Jeremy was lying wide awake on his hotel bed listening to Elena, curled up in a ball on the adjacent bed, sobbing quietly into the pillow.

Eyes fixed on the ceiling, Jeremy threw his arm above his head and sighed. It was the most curious and heartbreaking thing that he realized only now: that Elena was crying in her sleep.

But he wasn't going to wake her up. Ric, Caroline or Stefan probably would, but that's because they didn't understand. Or they did understand, but didn't want, didn't think it right to act on this understanding. Mourning could be interrupted, but never stopped. Comforting words couldn't make grief go away. Telling someone to stop crying couldn't stop the tears. Lack of tears didn't mean someone wasn't crying.

Jeremy rolled onto his side and looked at Elena's back, her hunched shoulders shaking from the sobs. He didn't think vampires could lose weight, but she seemed smaller and more fragile than several months ago and it reminded him of when they had been going to preschool together, back when he had felt like a big brother, before Elena had realized that she was one year older and had unceremoniously and forevermore taken over the realm of being the older sibling.

"Why are you not sleeping?"

Jeremy blinked, refocusing his gaze in the darkness and noticing that Elena had turned around on her bed and was now lying on her side and looking at him.

Jeremy shrugged and sighed. "I can come up with better dreams when I'm awake."

Elena snuggled her cheek into the pillow. "Me too," she whispered shakily.

The hotel room was perfectly silent for a while, the silence interrupted only by occasional sounds of cars passing by below.

"When did you fall in love with Bonnie?" Elena asked suddenly in a hushed voice. "I mean," she sniffled, brushing the tears off her face with the back of her hand, "do you remember a moment, that moment when you thought... felt that something happened, and you weren't sure what, but something happened, and a part of you knew nothing would ever be the same after that."

For a few moments Jeremy's eyes wandered aimlessly around the dark room. "That day when Rose took you to Elijah. After Bonnie managed to teleport that note to you. She told me that magic was wearing her out, but she didn't want anyone to know. She said she felt all alone, that without her Grams and her parents she was all alone in this. And I told her, I said... that I was often feeling all alone too," Jeremy said with a mirthless snort. "It wasn't what I wanted to say. Or maybe it was. Either way, I just remember that feeling, so strong, that sudden, abstract feeling of certainty that she'd never feel that way again, even if she didn't know that yet. And it just made me so happy. That conviction that she'd never feel alone again and it was even kind of amusing that she didn't know that yet, but I did, and I wanted to tell her, but then this made no sense whatsoever, so I didn't. It still kind of doesn't make sense," Jeremy added as an afterthought, a weak smile flitting across his face.

"It does," Elena said softly.

"OK. Your story," Jeremy said, adjusting the pillow under his head. "Keep it PG."

Elena chuckled brokenly, her gaze drifting off into the distance. "The Miss Mystic Falls dance," she said quietly after a long pause. "I was walking down the stairs and there was no one there and then suddenly he was there and... I felt like I should be surprised... but I wasn't. I felt like I should be disappointed or upset... but I wasn't. And we danced and I thought... it's all wrong, but it feels so right and I can't hear the song, but I know it's the most beautiful song I've ever heard... and I thought, it's just a silly pageant dance, but I feel like it's the happiest moment of my life. And then he let go of my hand and I realized... that it was over, and it hurt in such a strange, strange way." Elena trailed off and for a moment the only sound in the room was her uneven breathing.

Then all of a sudden Elena burst into tears, her voice breaking as she was uttering the words at a hysterical speed, losing breath in between the syllables. "I wasted so much time. So much time! I was fighting it for so long. Why was I fighting it? And I said so many hurtful things. And all those stupid break-ups!..."

Jeremy jumped out of his bed and leaped toward Elena, pulling her into an embrace. "Come on, you know this kind of thinking doesn't lead anywhere."

Elena buried her face into Jeremy's shoulder, a muffled, heartwrenching howl escaping her and Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut, tears burning his eyelids. For a longer while he just held Elena, letting her cry, trying very hard not to cry himself, not to scream, because he feared that if he ever allowed himself to start screaming he'd never stop.

"Do you think it will work this time?" Elena finally asked, her voice hoarse from crying, her lips barely moving as she spoke.

Jeremy was staring pensively into the empty space of the dark hotel room with unseeing eyes. "It's a good lead," he said with conviction. "Bonnie's cousin gave us this address. This witch here knows all about the Other Side. About all different kinds of Other Sides, different dimensions, apparently, and she can talk to those who... who..." he swallowed, "who are there. So even if it won't work all the way, I'm sure we'll make some good progress."

Elena nodded and brushed the tears off her cheeks with the backs of her hands.

Over and over again.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Surprise!" A dark-haired girl appeared in the doorway with a bright smile on her face.

A dark-haired man on a hospital bed suppressed a laugh and shook his head with a lop-sided smile.

"Aren't you inseparable." A girl with short, strawberry blonde hair who was sitting in a chair next to the bed straightened up and shifted her gaze between the two dark-haired people.

"I woke up in a great mood today," Bonnie announced happily, jumping onto the bed next to Damon and taking a glass of water out of his hand. "Is that this new, enhanced water?" She asked, giving the other girl a questioning look. "Because it has a weird aftertaste," Bonnie said, taking a sip and grimacing for emphasis. "Yes, it does," she confirmed, giving the glass back to Damon.

Amanda slightly widened her eyes at Bonnie, a glimmer of surprise flashing in her eyes. "Really?"

"It doesn't taste any different to me," Damon said with a shrug.

"It does taste different," Bonnie insisted, playfully pushing Damon toward the edge of the bed to make room for herself and snuggle right next to him.

"It's amazing that you can tell the difference, Alice," Amanda said in a light, friendly tone that didn't quite match the wary intensity with which she was watching Bonnie. "No one else seems able to tell. Even my dad and he's very sensitive when it comes to all things edible and drinkable," she added with a laugh, trying to hold Damon's gaze when he looked at her.

Bonnie propped her head on Damon's shoulder and Damon stifled a smile at Bonnie's apparently successful attempts at being obnoxious enough to make their doctor's daughter leave the room, even though Amanda had been very nice and hospitable to both of them ever since the moment they had woken up from coma with no memories - after being found in the woods with no documents.

"I don't like the name Alice," Bonnie said with a dramatic huff that reminded her of something... someone... She wasn't sure, but she was sure it was something she was mimicking and not her own invention.

"Well, if you don't like it, you should pick a different one," Amanda offered with a thin smile. "It's been three months since you woke up and you're yet to tell us your name."

"That's because I don't remember my name," Bonnie retorted in a hollow voice, looking away.

Damon's smile turned into a frown and they both fell silent.

"I know, I'm sorry," Amanda said quickly, shaking her head in sincere embarrassment. "That's not what I meant. I didn't mean it that way. I meant-"

"We know, it's OK," Damon said with a reconciliatory smile, surreptitiously poking Bonnie, so she'd say something too, but she either was or pretended to be too lost in gloomy thoughts to speak.

"I'm sorry again. I'll... go talk to my dad and then check up on you later," Amanda said with a small smile, squeezing Damon's hand before standing up.

As soon as the door closed behind Amanda, Bonnie briskly sat up and turned around, so she was sitting on the bed facing Damon.

"So here it is," she started, resuming her cheerful tone without blinking. "We talked about this in my individual therapy session today. The newest theory: we've been raised as siblings and I'm having some overprotection issues and that's why the idea of you dating someone makes me extremely upset, even though I'm not jealous of you. What do you think?"

"Brilliant," Damon said in solemn voice, nodding decisively.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him and smacked him with the side of her hospital robe. They both laughed and then fell abruptly silent when someone knocked on the door. Bonnie widened her eyes at Damon when the person on the other side asked if he could come in.

Pressing her hand against her mouth in an exaggeratedly panicky gesture, Bonnie dived under the bed cover, trying to lie next to Damon as still as possible and stifling a giggle when Damon called for the visitor to come in while repeatedly hitting the bed cover with his open palm in an attempt to flatten it, which obviously wasn't possible.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to ask..." A young, light-haired patient with an immobilized hand peered inside. "Have you seen Alice today? I've been looking for her everywhere."

"Nope." Damon shook his head. "Haven't even sensed her spiritual presence nearby today."

The man smiled. "I see. Thanks." With another smile he closed the door behind him.

Bonnie waited a few more seconds for him to walk away and then pushed the cover off her, gasping for breath in an exaggerated manner.

"You might want to cut the number of suitors by half," Damon suggested matter-of-factly. "At least until the surgery. You need a healthy heart to handle all that."

Bonnie jumped off the bed with a smile and sat cross-legged on the chair next to the bed. "Not funny, actually," she said, dropping her smile. "He kept following me all day yesterday! He made me a sandwich and he signed up for my therapy group even though he doesn't need one!"

"He likes you."

"He is crazy!"

"Yeah, obviously."

Bonnie blinked and only after a second laughed, pulled a pillow from under Damon's back and hit him on the face with it. Damon snatched the pillow out of her hands and was about to return the favor, but the expression on Bonnie's face stopped him, her eyes glued to a solitary white feather that drifted from the pillow to the floor.

"Isn't it weird that we have the exact same heart disease, even though we're not related?" Bonnie spoke after a pause in a slightly detached voice, still oddly mesmerized by the feather, making an effort to tear her gaze away from it.

"In the context of being found together with no documents, waking up from coma at the same time and having the same type of amnesia, I'd say... moderately weird," Damon offered with a wink.

Bonnie smiled weakly. "Oh, I almost forgot," she exclaimed, rising to her feet and searching her robe pockets, producing a phone out of one of them and dangling it in front of Damon's face.

"It's a phone," Damon said, squinting. "That allows you to call people. If you know any people you can call."

Bonnie pursed her lips, shooting Damon an annoyed look before breaking into a smile again. "There is a guy on the 3rd floor who's doing that big hospital selfie project. And by the way, I really like the internet. This may be a clue."

Damon tried to stifle a laugh, but failed.

Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "There's nothing to laugh about. Every time I'm at the computer I get that-"

"Feeling," Damon cut in, still snickering.

"Yes," Bonnie said with purposeful seriousness. "Who knows maybe my parents are world-famous hackers who work for the CIA," she added, thrusting up her chin.

"Or," Damon said with a smile, "you're just like 95% of people your age and you like the internet."

Bonnie intensified her glare. "Why do I consider you my best friend again?"

"Because you don't have any other friends?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes, biting back a chuckle. "How is your leg?" She asked, lightly patting Damon's bandaged knee.

"Dr. August said I can try walking tomorrow with no props of any kind," Damon said, widening his eyes at Bonnie.

"At last! That's great!" Bonnie said joyfully. "We can have a race to the cafeteria," she said directing her attention back to the phone in her hands. "Now. The selfie project. Everyone is supposed to take a selfie and then all the selfies will be put together and made into one, huge picture that will go viral," she concluded, beaming.

Damon groaned, sliding down on his bed and pressing the pillow onto his face. "That's so lame," he said in a muffled voice.

"It's so not lame," Bonnie protested. "Besides. Someone may see it and recognize us," she said quietly, stealing a glance at Damon who didn't say anything and didn't move, but she was certain he was considering her words. Narrowing her eyes at him in a small, amused smile Bonnie said in a nonchalant voice. "Maybe your Dream Girl will see it."

Giggling, Bonnie dived to the floor to avoid being hit by the pillow. "Any progress?" She asked, picking the pillow up from the floor and refusing to give it back. "Did you finally get to see her face?"

"No," Damon grunted. "And I don't want to talk about that."

"Why?" Bonnie slumped onto the bed, giving Damon a serious look. "There's nothing wrong with having dreams about the same person every night. In fact, that's rather romantic."

"Yeah, especially if it's not a real person," Damon muttered with a frown.

"You don't know that," Bonnie said with a shrug. "She may be totally real."

"Or she may be the personification of hope that someone out there has been searching for me for the last six months," Damon recited with a mocking grimace.

Bonnie waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "You should switch therapists. I told you that a month ago. OK. Whatever. Selfie time!" she said, positioning herself next to Damon and extending her hand with the phone in it.

"And how are you going to caption it?" Damon asked, tilting his head to the side and smiling artificially into the camera. "The Nameless Non-Twins?"

Bonnie squinted into the distance, thinking about the question for a moment. "Remember that movie we watched yesterday?" She asked suddenly getting the idea.

"What movie? No," Damon protested in a whiny voice, remembering.

Bonnie snapped the selfie and shrugged. "Tell me if you have a better idea. Personally, I think Bonnie and Clyde sound pretty cool."

xxxdelenaxxx

The small, murky apartment was curiously located underground, brick corridors left bare, illuminated by numerous candelabras sprawled against the walls and casting eerie shadows over the uneven floor. Even without looking at them, Elena had a strange impression that the shadows were watching them, the atmosphere of what seemed more like a crypt than an apartment taking its toll on her.

"We thought we could at least talk to them," Jeremy said in a desperate, pleading voice, his eyes boring into the witch's eyes as he was trying to make her understand, because, judging from a complacent expression on her face, he was afraid that she didn't.

Elena was sitting very still, looking at the witch with tears in her eyes. "Our friend's cousin told us you can contact anyonewho..." She drew a breath, trying to steady her voice. "No matter where they are, no matter if they found peace or... are somewhere else-"

"You misunderstood me," the witch spoke in a quiet, but firm voice, gracefully raising her hand and silencing them both. "I said that I can't find them, but not because I can't find them," she paused, while both Elena's and Jeremy's faces clouded with confusion. The witch smiled, shifting her gaze between them and something in the woman's eyes sent warm shivers up Elena's spine and made the distraught frown slowly vanish from her face even before the witch completed her explanation. "I can't find them, because they are not dead."