A/N: Thank you so much for all the awesome reviews! *hugs*

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

Chapter 5

"How is your heart?" Elena asked between the kisses, her voice laced with worry as she suddenly remembered the doctor's warning. "Does it hurt?" She asked, carefully splaying her hand over Damon's chest.

It had only been several minutes, but to Elena's amazement it felt as if the last six months had already thawed in the heat of their reunion, the haze of grief and despair dispersing more and more with every second.

Smirking, Damon grazed her cheek with the back of his hand. "Not anymore," he quipped with a glimpse of mischief in his eyes, leaning in for another kiss.

Elena smiled against his mouth, wishing she could just give him the vampire blood and heal him immediately, but there were too many people around, not to mention the virtual impossibility of explaining to him why drinking her blood would cure his heart disease.

Of course she could compel him and Jeremy was probably right that it would be the easiest and perhaps even the most sensible way of avoiding elaborate and warped explanations until they were safely back home, however, she hoped they could achieve just that without manipulating Damon's and Bonnie's minds.

"Maybe we should sit down?" Elena asked, reluctantly breaking another kiss. She was still worried that she might be unintentionally hurting him and that concern was overriding the fact that it was not only intoxicating, but also fortunate that at the moment Damon seemed more interested in kissing her than asking her a series of unanswerable questions.

Because with an unpleasant twinge of bitter trepidation Elena suddenly realized that she couldn't provide him with any fully truthful answers. Not until she would tell him about all the supernatural circumstances of their lives and that wasn't something that she could divulge in the middle of a hospital garden.

"I'm not that sick," Damon said reassuringly, cradling Elena's face in his hands and brushing his lips against hers. "Unless... you're just trying to politely get me to stop kissing you," He offered as an afterthought, an amused smile flickering across his lips.

Elena grimaced, stifling a laugh and crashed her mouth into his, kissing him thoroughly before drawing back. "I just don't want to abuse you before you recuperate," she whispered, simpering. "Before we go home," she added, wrapping her arms around Damon's neck and leaning her forehead against his. "Do you think we could leave today? I know you and Bonnie have your surgeries scheduled for this week, but I'm sure we could arrange for them quickly enough back home."

Damon shrugged. "We can leave right this minute as far as I'm concerned," he said, sliding his hands into Elena's hair and looking at her with a warm smile that she returned. "Where would you like to go on our second first date?" he asked, his eyes gleaming happily. "Where did we go the first time?"

Elena bit her lip, thinking about the question. "It's a bit difficult to say, because I think we went on quite a number of dates without knowing they were dates."

"You mean we're a best-friends-turned-lovers case?" Damon asked, raising his eyebrows in mock-astonishment. "Really? I managed to pull off pretending I just wanted to be your friend and you actually bought it?"

Elena chuckled, snuggling into his embrace and leaning her cheek against his shoulder. "Well, I was having my moments of unwarranted confusion every time I'd find you in my room in the middle of the night or you'd grab me and kiss me or tell me that you loved me, but other than that, you were being a very good friend," she said, outstretching her fingers and gently placing her open palm over his heart again.

"So when did you decide we could be more than friends? What changed your mind, Elena?" Damon asked, smiling at how saying her name out loud was sending warm shivers up his spine every time.

Elena took a sharp intake of breath at the memory evoked by his question. Then her forehead wrinkled in thought and she was quiet for a few moments. She felt Damon lean his cheek against the top of her head, his fingers threading slowly through her hair.

"Once I was sick," Elena said pensively after a pause. "I was... hallucinating and I almost killed myself, but you jumped with me into the river and saved me. I woke up a few hours later in my bed, in my room and you were there with me and I just felt... I felt like I woke up from a bad dream. A very long bad dream about a very sad girl who was afraid not to be sad." Elena lifted her head to look at him. Damon was looking down at her very attentively, visibly caught off guard and very moved by her words. "I touched your hand and you grasped it so hard and I realized that I didn't want to be sad anymore. And that I didn't have to feel guilty about not being sad." Elena smiled and placed her head back on Damon's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," Damon muttered into her hair, tightening his embrace. "About everything you've gone through," he said in a low voice, his eyebrows furrowed.

Slowly, Elena opened her eyes struck by the realization that had somehow escaped her before.

His memories were gone. All the sad, tragic, devastating moments of his life – were gone. All the pain and disappointment and guilt – everything was gone. He didn't have to be burdened with them anymore. Instead, he could just be that person he had once told her he was in 1864.

And even if one day he'd regain his memories, he'd always remember this time, this time right now, this time that was starting today, when all he knew was only how much loved, how wonderful, how happy he was.

Elena smiled to herself with silent resolve. If there was a silver lining to this amnesia situation, that was it.

xxxdelenaxxx

"This is a really, really bad timing," Caroline whispered through her teeth, shaking her head in irritation.

"Yeah, we're definitely going to miss our flight," Stefan said with a resigned sigh. "And there's not even a chance for a refund."

Caroline bit back a smile, drawing reassurance from his humorous attitude, although she wasn't entirely certain if it was him being fearless or perhaps he was just in such a good mood that even the idea of an impeding death wasn't going to ruin it.

They were chained up to massive armchairs, waiting for Mikael to come back. He was talking on the phone in the other room, but for some reason they couldn't hear him, which probably meant that he had a witch on his side and that wasn't making the situation any better.

"How is he even back?" Caroline muttered, pulling on the chains, but they barely moved despite her using all of her vampire strength in an effort to break them. "I hope Elena and Jeremy didn't bring Silas, Quetsiya and Katherine back too while they were at it."

Stefan frowned. "Do you think this has something to do with Damon and Bonnie coming back?"

"Who knows? Maybe they opened some kind of a portal and all kinds of evil weirdos sneaked back in." Caroline rolled her eyes. "What does he want anyway?"

"Well," Stefan smiled sourly, "at least that's easy to figure."

"Is it?" Caroline asked dubiously, giving him a questioning look. "Do you think he's here for revenge?" She asked, struck by the thought.

Stefan shrugged. "If it wasn't for me Klaus wouldn't have succeeded in killing him."

Caroline's forehead wrinkled in thought. "It looks more like he wants something from us," she said, squinting into the distance.

"We could sell him the boarding house," Stefan said after a pause.

Caroline glanced at him with a confused frown. "He wouldn't be able to move in."

"Exactly," Stefan said with a sly smile.

Caroling stifled a laugh. "I see you're still in a great mood."

Stefan looked at Caroline, his smile turning wistful. He tilted his head backwards and sighed. "My brother died to bring me back from the dead," he said, his voice growing quiet and serious. "He...died. And now he's back. He's alive. He's going to live." Stefan laughed under his breath and Caroline smiled at him warmly in understanding. "I think in the mood I'm in today, I could befriend all Batman villains," Stefan added matter-of-factly.

Caroline chuckled. "I think befriending Mikael would be quite enough. Unfortunately, I'm afraid his mood today is probably a little too sinister for that."

Stefan smiled, but then the door opened and Mikael came back into the room regarding Stefan and Caroline with steely eyes.

"Where is my daughter?" He asked abruptly and squinted, because the surprise that appeared on both Stefan's and Caroline's faces seemed utterly sincere.

"Rebekah?" Caroline widened her eyes at him and laughed mirthlessly. "So this is what it's all about? You're looking for Rebekah? How the hell can we know where she is? We're not exactly friends. In fact, she kind of killed my best friend, so I really couldn't care less about keeping tabs on her."

Caroline rolled her eyes, but Mikael didn't seem too convinced.

"I know she's here. I've been tracking her."

"If you know she's here then why you're asking us where she is?" Stefan asked in a mockingly cautious voice. Caroline stifled a smile.

Mikael ignored him. "Let's try a different question. Where is the child?"

If they seemed a little puzzled before, now Stefan and Caroline looked positively mystified.

"Where is what?" Caroline asked, wincing and shaking her head in complete bafflement.

Stefan's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I think now you've officially lost us," he said slowly.

Mikael shifted his eyes between them, a trace of irritation in his voice. "You really don't know anything, do you?"

"Exactly!" Caroline exclaimed with a huff. "Can we go now? We have a plane to catch," she said impatiently.

Mikael grimaced sardonically. "You may be useless as far as providing information is concerned, but perhaps your usefulness as leverage will be more impressive."

xxxdelenaxxx

Jeremy thought he was feeling perfectly calm - up until the moment when the door actually opened and people began walking out of the group therapy session.

He was standing near the wall opposite to the door, unable to form a coherent sentence in his head, his eyes latching onto every person that would emerge from the room.

And just when he started worrying that perhaps he got the room number wrong, a familiar silhouette appeared in the hallway, her hair slightly longer than he remembered.

Jeremy took a step forward, but then froze, suddenly unable to take another step, overwhelmed by the sense of joy he had fully anticipated. However, anticipating something and feeling it were two completely different things and for a few moments Jeremy couldn't do anything but smile sheepishly and blink back the tears.

Bonnie didn't seem to notice him, her arms crossed over her chest, a strained smile plastered onto her lips as she was looking at and listening to a man next to her, who was talking with a passion about something.

"Bonnie," Jeremy whispered almost involuntarily, his own voice finally shaking him out of his reverie. He could almost feel the wind on his face, that wind that had been slamming against him when he had been running madly through the forest, trying to find her.

"Bonnie!"

He called her name again and thought that his voice sounded as desperate and dismayed as when he had been calling her name over and over and over again that horrible night half a year ago.

And perhaps it was that desperation in his voice that now made Bonnie shudder, her eyes darting to him.

Jeremy couldn't tell what she was thinking. She looked at him, just a casual look of curiosity at first, but then something changed in her face. The person next to Bonnie looked between them in slight confusion.

"Bonnie," Jeremy repeated, not even knowing how his legs carried him across the space between them, so he was now standing right in front of her.

"I'm Andrew, hi," Bonnie's companion said after a moment of awkward silence that fell, during which Bonnie and Jeremy were just looking at each other with wide eyes. "And you are..." Andrew gave Jeremy a questioning look, glancing at Bonnie.

"I'm Jeremy," Jeremy said without averting his eyes from Bonnie. "Bonnie's boyfriend," he added, shifting his eyes to Andrew for a second.

Andrew was staring at him in stupefaction which prevented him from noticing that at first Bonnie looked just as stupefied, but then she quickly regained her composure and to Jeremy's surprise and joy laced her arm through his and confirmed:

"Yep, he is."

"Sorry, I didn't... know," Andrew muttered in bafflement, a slightly hurt expression on his face.

Bonnie shrugged, giving him a small, apologetic smile.

"OK," Andrew smiled uncomfortably. "Sorry. I guess I'll just..." He excused himself and walked off.

Jeremy's eyes darted back to Bonnie, but the smile vanished off his face and changed into a stunned frown, when as soon as Andrew disappeared around the corner, Bonnie let go of Jeremy's arm and took a hasty step back.

"Thanks," she said with an amused, grateful smile. "That was really nice of you," she laughed again and briskly turned around to head down the hallway.

For a few moments Jeremy just looked after Bonnie, blinking in confusion, but then he snapped out of it and rushed after her.

"Bonnie, wait!" He called, quickly catching up with her.

She stopped in her tracks and gave him a questioning look.

"Bonnie, I-"

"OK, my name's not Bonnie," Bonnie said with a brief laugh. "It was just for the picture. I mean, I like it better than Alice, but-"

"No, Bonnie," Jeremy grasped her shoulders and Bonnie widened her eyes at him – and inwardly at herself that her first instinct wasn't to snatch herself free, but rather lean into him. "This is your real name. And... I really am your boyfriend," he added quietly with a nervous smile.

Bonnie stared at him, completely befuddled and Jeremy began worrying that this revelation was more upsetting to her than he could've ever predicted, but then he noticed the tears in her eyes and with a grimace of a smile he pulled her into his arms and felt a wave of relief wash over him when after a moment of hesitation Bonnie hugged him back.

"Wait, my name really is Bonnie?" She asked with a hesitant smile, drawing back to look at him, but not quite breaking their embrace.

Jeremy nodded with a grin.

Bonnie laughed, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. "I guess I'm a little clairvoyant."

Jeremy's mouth twitched and he gave her a radiant smile before hugging her again. "Yeah, a little."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Thank you. I wouldn't have packed so fast without you," Alaric said with a smile, giving Meredith a hug before tossing his suitcase into the trunk and shutting it closed. "And since Mystic Falls is now off-limits to all the species but one, I couldn't even have gone to the boarding house myself at all."

"Well, I could think of better ways to spend my morning than rummaging through my boyfriend's best friend's underwear drawer, but I'm sure Damon will appreciate that you got him his own clothes," Meredith said with a smile and Alaric smiled back at her. "So you're going to meet with Stefan and Caroline at the airport?"

"That's the plan. Hopefully they'll make it on time." He opened the driver's door, but then hesitated for a second. "We've given up. We shouldn't have. Elena and Jeremy were right all along," he said thoughtfully.

Meredith placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly in a comforting gesture. "I wouldn't say they were right. They were just clinging to hope."

"Like we all should have."

"Don't blame yourself. You weren't being idle. You were being reasonable."

"That's no excuse. Especially considering my own biography," Alaric said with a wry smile, but stopped Meredith from saying anything more with a kiss. "I'll be fine, don't worry. As long as there's time to make up for one's mistakes, all's well," he said and they exchanged another kiss and a smile before Alaric got into the car.

Meredith stepped back and wrapping her long sweater tighter around herself watched Alaric drive away.

xxxdelenaxxx

Jeremy told Bonnie a little bit about her family and friends, trying to avoid discussing the circumstances of her... disappearance. He thought it'd be best to wait with discussing that until they got home and he hoped Bonnie would feel the same way, although he could already tell from the cheerful way in which she kept asking him tons of questions that it wouldn't be easy to do without making her suspect that he wasn't being entirely honest with her.

"I wonder if their meeting went as well as ours," Jeremy said with a small smile, looking at Bonnie with bright eyes.

She smiled back at him and walked through the door that he held open for her.

"Well," Bonnie said, stopping in her tracks half way through the stairs and squinting into the distance. "I think it went pretty well," she said with a trace of humor in her voice.

Jeremy followed Bonnie's gaze and inwardly rolled his eyes at the sight of Elena and Damon standing in the far corner of the park, kissing in a way that made him wonder if Damon hadn't somehow gotten his memories back already.

With a brief laugh Jeremy took Bonnie's hand in his and unhurriedly, they made their way across the garden.

"He doesn't kiss all the strangers like that, just so you know," Bonnie announced loudly, to Jeremy's amusement unceremoniously interrupting the moment.

Damon and Elena pulled away from each other and Elena's eyes widened at the sight of Bonnie who suddenly realized that it all actually made sense, just like she had predicted. Jeremy had said that this girl, his sister, was Bonnie's best friend. So it made sense that the idea of her best friend's boyfriend dating someone else was making her angry. It seemed so simple Bonnie was surprised she hadn't thought of that before.

"Bonnie!" Elena leaped toward Bonnie and hugged her.

"Hi," Bonnie said, feeling a little awkward, but also unable to stop grinning at all the heartwarming gestures. For three long months she had never really lost hope that there were some people in this world who cared about her, but at the same time she was haunted by a nagging fear that perhaps there weren't. Now all the fears were gone and all that was left was even more hope and she was excited to go back to the home she had left behind... or had been ripped away from... or...

"How did it happen?" Bonnie cut in, following the train of thought that had sprung to her mind and interrupting Elena who was just introducing Jeremy to Damon."How did we... get lost?" Bonnie rephrased her question in a softer tone, glancing at Damon.

She thought the question was rather simple, but to her puzzlement it seemed to make both Elena and Jeremy rather uncomfortable.

"It's a long story," Jeremy said with a frown that quickly turned into a reassuring smile. "It's a little too complicated to explain in just a few words."

Bonnie shrugged. "So explain it in as many words as you want," she said with an encouraging smile.

Damon looked between Elena and Jeremy who exchanged hesitant glances. Elena bit her lip, the light in her eyes dimming a little.

"I have a feeling," Damon said with a glimpse of amusement in his eyes, giving Bonnie a meaningful look, "that's not a happy tale, so why don't we skip it for today?" He shifted his eyes to Elena who to his contentment looked grateful for the intervention.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at Damon, biting back a comment that considering the circumstances, it might've been be more prudent to wait with make-out sessions until after at least one Q&A session.

"That's a great idea," Jeremy agreed hastily. "Let's go grab your stuff and go," he said in one breath.

Bonnie blinked. "Go where?"

"Go home," Jeremy replied immediately, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Elena widened her eyes at him, already guessing that putting it like that was not the wisest thing to do.

"But we have heart surgeries coming up this week," Bonnie said uncertainly, reluctant to find the behavior of their miraculously found loved ones suspicious just yet, but she was beginning to feel that they were acting a bit strange.

"We have awesome medical care in Virginia," Jeremy said brusquely.

"Yes," Elena confirmed, still hoping that compulsion wouldn't be necessary, but the skeptical look in Bonnie's eyes was beginning to make her think otherwise.

Jeremy gave Elena a pointed look and with a small frown, she took a step toward Bonnie and lightly grasping her forearms looked deeply into her eyes.

"Bonnie, everything is alright. You want to go home immediately and you want to talk about what happened six months ago only once we're there," Elena said, trying not to manipulate Bonnie's mind more than necessary. "You're going to get along with everything that we say until then," she added softly.

Damon watched Elena in slight confusion. He would've just assumed she was being funny if it wasn't for a glimpse of utter seriousness in her gaze and voice.

Elena gave Bonnie a small, slightly apologetic smile before drawing back. Jeremy opened his mouth to reiterate his suggestion that they should hurry, but then, to both Elena's and Jeremy's consternation Bonnie laughed.

"OK," Bonnie said, clearly amused. "That was good. For a moment there I thought you were trying to hypnotize me or something," she laughed again and then waved her hand. "Fine. Let's go... home." She smiled to herself at the word. "But right now let's go to the cafeteria, because I'm starving and I'm sure you didn't have lunch today yet either," she said cheerfully, grabbing Jeremy's hand and pulling him with her toward the hospital building.

Too stunned to object, Jeremy shot Elena a questioning look over his shoulder, but she just shook her head, equally astonished that the compulsion hadn't worked. Both Damon and Bonnie were obviously human, they weren't wearing vervain... why would they? And even if they did, she would've noticed. But apart from Damon still having his ring, they weren't wearing any bracelets or necklaces, anything that could contain vervain.

"Elena, are you alright?" Damon touched Elena's shoulder and gently turned her toward him. Sneaking his other hand around her waist, he drew her back into his arms and the gesture made her smile despite all the troubling thoughts running through her head.

Leaning into Damon's touch when he brushed his fingertips over her chin and cupped her cheek, Elena sighed and frowned, glancing around the garden with unseeing eyes.

"I don't want you and Bonnie to think that we're hiding something from you," she said quietly. "It's just really not possible to explain everything right away. There are so many things... So many things happened-"

She fell silent when Damon placed a finger across her lips. She looked up at him.

"You'll tell us when you're ready," he said, looking at her intently with a warm smile flickering across his lips and in his eyes. "Unless you want to tell me that we broke up and you're just being kind to an invalid."

Elena stifled a smile. "Actually, we did break up," she said after a moment of consideration with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. "Several times."

Damon smirked, a small twinge of worry caused by her words concerning the break-up vanishing upon hearing the count. He widened his eyes at her. "Several times? That's amazing. Why did you keep messing up?"

Elena laughed and Damon grinned back at her.

"We just had a slightly... tumultuous relationship," Elena said tentatively and held her breath when Damon inched his mouth closer to hers.

"Tumultuous how?" He asked, intrigued.

Elena's gaze darted to his lips before flickering back to his eyes. "All kinds of disasters happened to us," she said in a low voice and Damon stilled his movements and looked at her thoughtfully, anxious curiosity replacing amusement. "But we survived them all," she said with a faint smile, tears gathering in her eyes once again. "We always survive," she added barely above a whisper.

They looked at each other in silence for a few moments, before Bonnie and Jeremy began shouting at them from the steps to catch up.

Damon clasped Elena's hand tightly in his and led her toward the building. They didn't speak on their way to the cafeteria, but Elena felt as if thousands of words were emanating just from the way he held her hand in his.

"Let's have a toast," Bonnie proposed, raising a glass of water once they were seated at a small, round table.

Everyone followed the suit, raising their drinks.

"To Bonnie and Clyde," Jeremy said, tipping his glass toward everyone.

Bonnie and Elena laughed while Damon rolled his eyes.

They took sips from their water glasses-

"Elena!" Damon quickly leaped toward her when with a muffled groan she began coughing and choking on the water, her face contorting in pain.

To Bonnie's bewilderment, the water seemed to burn Elena's lips, droplets of water making Elena's skin sizzle, the scent of burnt flesh permeating the air.

Jeremy's eyes flew wide open and he jumped to his feet, his anxious gaze meeting Elena's when she whispered in a strained voice: "Vervain."