A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all of your stunning reviews! :):):)
In case you wondered, no, I'm not trying to check if there's a limit of words per chapter on this site lol I'm just determined for this story to have 22 chapters, but I don't want to rush it, hence chapters being triple-length lately. I hope you don't mind ^^
Dear "no no no": It's like you don't know me at all ;)
Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.
Chapter 19
"I'm sorry, but what are you waiting for? Come on, make haste. We have to go. We only have..." In an elaborate gesture Klaus pushed back one of his handcuffs and looked at his watch, "about forty minutes to cross the city line." He smiled, clasped his hands behind his back and looked between Hayley and Elijah with a cheerfully questioning look on his face.
"Are you serious?" Hayley asked with a grimace, her voice sharp.
"I have to admit," Elijah started slowly, shifting his eyes from Hayley to Klaus, "that I'm failing to see how we're supposed to defeat the witches here while not being here?" He extended his palms and put a mockingly confused expression onto his face.
"Exactly," Hayley agreed with a huff. "What's the use of them being powerless if we won't be able to be here and do anything to them? This 'plan'," she said, making quotation marks with her hands, "makes no sense."
Klaus rolled his eyes. "Now we only have thirty-nine minutes left, but I shall repeat since your minds are apparently preoccupied with other important matters, I'm sure," Klaus said and his eyes lost a glint of amusement, but only for a second, "and therefore unable to process new information at an average speed. Let's try again." He drew a dramatic breath. "A certain old acquaintance of ours will transfer, with the help of a chapter from our sorely missed mother's spell book, the magic-blocking spell from Mystic Falls to New Orleans in..." Klaus trailed off to consult his watch, "thirty-eight minutes. All the witches here will lose their magic, werewolves won't be able to turn and all the vampires and hybrids who stay in the city will, sadly... or not so sadly, die." Klaus flashed Elijah and Hayley a complacent smile. "In other words, we're getting our home back."
"Yes," Elijah said, rising smoothly to his feet. "You see, Niklaus, that's exactly the part we don't understand." He glanced at Hayley who propped her head on her elbow and was looking at Klaus with impatient exasperation. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be no logical connection between getting ourselves banished from our home and getting our home back."
Klaus sighed. "I'd explain it to you in greater detail, but if we don't leave in... thirty-seven minutes, we all will be dead and then there truly will no longer be any logical connection between us and anything else."
"What about Marcel?" Hayley asked, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest.
"I left him a voice message."
Elijah stifled a humorless smile. "That's very thoughtful of you. Hopefully it will cross his mind to check his phone before he dies in... thirty-six minutes?"
"That's not my fault he didn't pick up when I called," Klaus said with a shrug.
"Yeah, how rude of him," Hayley said, squinting.
"Are you ready or do you need to go get something before we go? A purse? A jacket?" Klaus paused before he continued with a smile flickering across his face. "A rattle? A plush toy?"
Hayley was looking around the room in annoyance, but then she froze and her eyes darted back to Klaus.
"You had such troubles understanding the first part of what I was saying that I didn't get a chance to move on to the second part and tell you that Hope is safe and sound and apparently wrecking a little havoc in Mystic Falls and perhaps it will be possible for the aforementioned acquaintance of ours to place a protection spell over her-" Klaus trailed off when after shooting him a disbelieving, frustrated glare Hayley stormed out of the room and out of the house, heading straight for the car.
"You could've started by telling her about that, you know," Elijah said evenly.
"Let's go," Klaus said, ignoring the remark and glancing at his watch once again. "I'm supposed to be on a duty rotation," he added with a small smirk and then also made his way toward the door, before Elijah had a chance to ask what he'd meant.
xxxdelenaxxx
"Well, that was an interesting experience," Alaric said with a sigh, watching the plane take off and disappear into the pale blue horizon. "I've never hijacked a medical plane before."
"Technically, they readily agreed to help us," Jeremy observed with a brief smile, assisting Damon in moving the stretchers to the side of the road.
He wondered if it was just his impression fueled by the latest events and those six months of living without actually feeling alive or perhaps there really was something different about the sky, the grass, the trees, the soil near home. Jeremy smiled to himself, thinking that it wasn't just Bonnie and Damon who were coming home. It was all of them.
"Which was quite shocking, considering how boring that compulsion speech was," Damon muttered, glancing at Bonnie who slumped down onto the grass nearby with the pages from Esther's grimoire in her hands.
Jeremy chuckled under his breath and Alaric shot both him and Damon an offended look. "If you have something to say, just say it."
"Your voice did sound a little robotic," Jeremy said with a small grimace.
"And you don't need to use 'please' and 'thank you' multiple times in every single sentence," Damon added and then turned around.
He looked between Elena, Stefan, Enzo and Caroline who were all lying on their respective stretchers, still unconscious. Reaching out, he gently took Elena's hand in his and brushed his thumb across her knuckles.
"Especially that it's a bit hypocritical to be overly polite while manipulating someone's mind," Rebekah pointed out with a mirthless grin.
Alaric snorted. "I see I can count on a full board of advisors as to how to be a professional vampire."
"If you don't mind being quiet for five minutes," Bonnie suddenly called out, silencing everyone.
The chapter from Esther's grimoire contained over three hundred swapping spells and although Bonnie had already located the spell necessary for lifting the Travelers' spell off Mystic Falls and moving it over to New Orleans, the spell was written in a codified way, parts of it hidden on different pages and she had to concentrate to put it all together.
Jeremy turned his head, watching Bonnie for a few seconds and marveling inwardly at how easily they moved on to their regularly scheduled supernatural drama without even getting a chance yet to talk about Bonnie retrieving her memories.
He found it admirable, but also slightly worrisome that Bonnie immediately put herself back in the action mode as if she hadn't just spent three months in isolation, leading a rather uneventful and in some ways probably a very nice and peaceful life. Yet she didn't appear lost or wistful. Just on the contrary, she seemed even more energetic. It was almost as if she'd missed magic and Jeremy just hoped that it was really the case, that she was enjoying it because it was, somehow, showing her way home and not because she thought she had to be strong for everyone's sake.
There was also the issue of Bonnie's lack of hesitation in regard to transferring the spell from Mystic Falls to New Orleans. Since it was Klaus' idea, Jeremy expected Bonnie to at least analyze it rather thoroughly before agreeing to it. Then again, moving the spell over to any other town probably carried a similar risk, because there was no way to tell which town was completely free of vampires, so perhaps Bonnie was just being sensible and didn't want to waste time. After all, they had to keep in mind that the Augustines knew where to look for them and Amanda and her father could very well decide to go after them without delay and so as soon as Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo were awake, they had to come up with a plan how to deal with that.
"Alright," Rebekah said, lowering her voice to a stage whisper. "So how do we do it? Who gets whom? They're all going to freak out when they wake up, so I think it'd be best to put everyone in a separate room with one person watching them and being there when they wake up." She stopped for a second and then added offhandedly. "I can stay with him," she said, indicating Enzo with a tilt of her head.
"I hope you speak Connacht Irish," Damon said with a weak, lop-sided smile.
Rebekah narrowed her eyes at him. "Speaking is such a cliché way to communicate."
Damon was about to reply, but Bonnie cut him off, briskly walking up to them.
"It's done. When is Matt coming to pick us up?" She asked with a small sigh, scanning their surroundings and thinking that she'd spent so little time exploring the outskirts of Mystic Falls in the past. She'd do it now. It was so peaceful here. The fields and the forests, so unlike anything else she could imagine – because they were so close to home.
Bonnie looked back at everyone and arched an eyebrow when she noticed that they were staring at her in silence. "What?"
"Well, that was... fast," Rebekah observed tentatively.
"Not that we're complaining," Alaric said reassuringly. "So... who is going to test if it worked?"
"It did work," Bonnie said in a low voice and Jeremy stifled a smile at the apologetic grimace on Alaric's face.
"I think our options are pretty limited," Damon said grimly, his eyebrows furrowed and Bonnie wanted to say something, but then decided to keep it to herself for now. "It has to be either you or Barbie Klaus."
Rebekah shot him an annoyed glare. "Can you stop calling me that?"
Damon shrugged. "Sure." He looked at Alaric again. "It has to be either you or Barbie Dracula."
xxxdelenaxxx
One car wouldn't have been enough, but luckily Matt came to pick them up driving an old-fashioned bus, courtesy of Hope.
"And what color is your Maserati?" Bonnie asked, exchanging a smile with Jeremy who kept her hand clasped tightly in his.
Matt shook his head, stifling a chuckle. "Believe it or not, I didn't do it on purpose. I don't have any babysitting experience. I didn't know what to do, so I just kind of talked a lot about everything and it took me a few hours to realize how this whole thing with conjuring up objects worked."
"So... you don't have a Maserati?" Jeremy asked in a matter-of-fact tone and Bonnie buried her face in his shoulder, her laughter coming out muffled.
Matt sighed. "I'm going to give it back."
"To whom?" Rebekah asked, resting her back against the window and placing her feet on the adjacent seat. "I don't think Hope's going to care about cars any time soon."
"You can give it to me," Jeremy offered.
"You should keep it."
Matt glanced at Rebekah over his shoulder and returned her smile. But then he shifted his eyes back to the road and cleared his throat. "Alright, I'll keep one."
Bonnie and Jeremy gave him amused, questioning looks and then laughed when he said, wincing:
"I might've spent an hour talking about different types of engines..."
Alaric smiled faintly, listening in to the exchange from where he was seating at the back of the bus in a row opposite from Damon, keeping an eye on the four unconscious vampires, the stretchers with Caroline, Stefan and Enzo strapped to the seats and only Elena's one being temporarily abandoned, because Damon was holding Elena in his arms, her head on his shoulder, his cheek resting on top of her head.
"Bonnie said the longer they're asleep the better, because she may figure out the way to bring their memories back before they wake up," Alaric said after watching Damon for a few seconds, the desolate look in his eyes especially visible when he wasn't saying anything and wasn't pretending not to be bothered by the turn of events.
Damon didn't avert his eyes from the window. "Uh-huh," he muttered non-committally, twirling Elena's hair around his fingers.
"You didn't even remember her and-"
"Ric," Damon cut him off, his voice firm, but quiet, tired. "I'm done with obligatory therapy sessions," he said, giving Alaric a fleeting smile.
"I just honestly have no idea why you look like you had an Armageddon scheduled for tomorrow."
"We're home," Jeremy called out.
Matt turned off the engine and when Damon looked out of the window he saw that they were parked in front of the boarding house.
xxxdelenaxxx
When the door closed behind Jeremy, Bonnie looked around the library and sat down on the carpet, scanning the grimoires that Jeremy had helped her place on the floor all around her.
Despite everyone insisting that she should rest, Bonnie was determined to figure out how to break the memory spell first. Because it was a spell, which was a good thing. Not that an ordinary amnesia couldn't be magically fixed, but an artificial one seemed easier to deal with from the get-go.
Bonnie chuckled under her breath at her own musings. "Self-confident much," she muttered to herself and reached out for her grandmother's grimoire. She placed it in her lap and tucked the chapter from Esther's grimoire in between the last page and the cover.
She didn't really have the time to think about what had happened. From the moment when she'd gotten her memories back, through the flight from New Mexico to Virginia, up till when they got settled in the boarding house, she was so preoccupied with the state Elena, Caroline, Stefan and even Enzo were in that she didn't devote a single thought to her recovered memories.
Bonnie's eyes drifted away from the book in her lap and absently followed the colorful patterns on the carpet. It felt both strange and not strange at all and she couldn't quite pinpoint the difference between her emotions from when she hadn't remembered her past and her emotions now. She hadn't remembered loving Jeremy when he'd shown up in New Mexico, but now she was sure she'd loved him all the same the moment she'd seen him in the hospital, even if she hadn't put that feeling into words back then.
She felt as if she came back from a long trip, but she felt refreshed, not awkward or scared. She also felt calm, so very, very calm. And she just wished she could hand some of this inner tranquility over to Damon, because he seemed grimly anxious about the situation and Bonnie knew that words alone couldn't possibly change that.
Turning a page in the grimoire Bonnie smiled again, shaking her head in amazement over the last three months. If it wasn't for the general, not very cheerful mood, it could've been rather amusing, recalling pillow fights, sneaking around the hospital, watching bad movies, drinking multi-vitamin "champagne" and making up bizarre dreams during group therapy sessions.
She wasn't quite sure what had changed exactly, if it was her perception of Damon or perhaps it was just that under different circumstance they both had a chance to look at each other differently. Either way, she didn't want to lost their friendship and hoped that he didn't either.
With a sigh, Bonnie turned another page and then frowned when instead of a tattered sheet filled with her grandmother's familiar handwriting her eyes fell onto one of the loose pages from Esther's spell book that a few moments ago Bonnie had put in one batch on the back of Sheila's grimoire.
But Bonnie's frown didn't last for long and soon it turned into a cautious smile.
xxxdelenaxxx
Alaric knocked on the door once and peered into Damon and Elena's room, meaning to ask if everything was OK-
"Where's Damon?" He asked, shifting his eyes from Elena who was lying on the bed, still asleep, to Jeremy who was sitting in an armchair by the window, his feet thrown over the side of the chair, his computer in his lap.
"Let's see," Jeremy said with a sigh, tilting his head to the side in mock consideration. "From the sounds of it, he's vacuumed this side of the house, washed the curtains, cleaned the windows, cleaned the carpets, so now he may be half-way through polishing the stairs."
Alaric snorted. "Right. Got it. Thanks. How are you?"
"Great," Jeremy said, glancing at Elena. "Playing chess with..." He narrowed his eyes at the screen, "vampsARReal905 and checking on Bonnie downstairs through Skype every ten minutes or so."
"Sounds good. I'm going to go find Damon."
"Yeah, give him your keys. You won't have to do any housekeeping for two months." Jeremy looked up, exchanging a laugh with Alaric before he closed the door behind him.
xxxdelenaxxx
Enzo wasn't sure if he woke up because of the headache or maybe it was the headache that woke him up... And he wasn't sure if that sentence even made any sense whatsoever.
Grimacing and groaning under his breath, Enzo pulled himself up to a sitting position, his entire body feeling incredibly heavy, his breathing labored. He felt as if every part of his body hurt.
But of course it did.
He rubbed his eyes and blinked them open, recalling falling off the cliff and hitting the rocks below, the sound of the sea roaring in his ears, the last sound... No, not the last. The last being the sound of the waves dwindling into an unpleasant, deafening, jingling noise growing louder and louder in his head-
And then it stopped and he couldn't remember anything beyond that.
"Hello there."
Enzo's head snapped up in the direction of the voice and his eyes widened in complete bewilderment at the sight of a girl plopped on a couch near the bed. She was beautiful, was wearing a shockingly short dress and was holding a weird, tiny bottle of colorful liquid in her hand, applying the color on her nails with her other hand.
Enzo stared at her and after a few moments of silence during which Rebekah was giving him mildly amused glances from under her eyelashes, he finally blinked and forced himself to look away from her and take a look at the room he was in.
He was definitely not at home, but where he was... he had no idea.
"You probably don't remember me," Rebekah said with an exaggerated sigh, putting the nail polish away and narrowing her eyes at Enzo. She gracefully rose to her feet and gave him a radiant smile. "I'm Rebekah."
xxxdelenaxxx
"Did Stefan wake up?" Damon asked when he saw Alaric approach him with a frown on his face.
"What are doing?" Alaric asked, ignoring the question and glancing at the bucket of water and a cloth in Damon's hand.
Damon blinked. "I'm cleaning the banisters." He turned away from Alaric and resumed his work. "No one was doing anything here for six months. You have no idea how dirty the windows were."
"Oh, come on," Alaric said impatiently, snatching the cloth out of Damon's hand and dropping it into the bucket. "What are you so worried about?" Damon said nothing and just continued looking the other way with a gloomy expression on his face, so Alaric continued, his tone stern, but his eyes full of concern and the faintest glimpses of cordial amusement. "Don't be ridiculous. That Miss Mystic Falls dance four years ago? There was already something going on between the two of you. What is your problem right now?" Alaric shook his head, giving Damon an exasperated look.
"I can't lose her again," Damon whispered tonelessly, his eyes fixed on an unidentifiable point in space.
Alaric looked at him in silence for a second before he said in a voice devoid of both humor and feigned sternness. "When have you ever lost her?" Damon's eyes darted to him in genuine surprise and confusion and Alaric smiled faintly, but then resumed his former tone. "Go be there when she wakes up. I'm going back to Stefan," he added and turned around, heading back into the hallway.
Damon looked after him with wide eyes for a longer while before he moved-
And accidentally knocked out the bucket, causing the water to cascade down the stairs when an ear-piercing scream echoed across the house.
xxxdelenaxxx
"I'm telling you! Elena tried to kill me!"
Caroline was standing in the middle of the parlor, waving her hands in all directions and shouting out of sheer frustration, because for whatever reason Matt didn't seem to care.
"Caroline, no, no, she didn't. Can you sit down? I need to explain to you what happened," Matt continued in a soothing voice, trying to calm Caroline down, but apparently to no avail.
"What's going on?" Damon asked, walking into the room and shifting his eyes between Caroline and Matt.
Caroline whirled around. "You?!" She exclaimed, her eyes widening in indignation. "What is he doing here?!" She asked, whirling back toward Matt and giving him an accusing glare. "What am I doing here?!" She shouted, looking around the room. "I don't remember leaving the hospital!"
"Caroline-" Matt started again.
Damon rolled his eyes. "Where is Klaus?" He asked with a grimace.
"Who is Klaus?" Caroline asked impatiently.
Matt gave Damon an annoyed look. "I can handle her."
"Well, it doesn't look like you can," Damon deadpanned with an artificial, sardonic smile.
"Handle me?! What is that supposed to mean?!" Caroline shouted, but then something caught her attention and she gasped, grabbing the rim of her blouse. "I don't remember buying this," she whispered, horrified. "This is not mine! And did you even hear what I said?!" She continued before Matt had a chance to cut in. "Elena tried to choke me to death with a pillow!"
"Erratum," Damon interrupted, squinting. "It was Katherine and she actually succeeded. Now carry on with the rest of the story," he said, waving his hand at Matt and making to leave, but as soon as he turned around he collided with Stefan whose eyes widened in surprise and relief at the sight of his brother.
"Who is Katherine?" Caroline asked with a grimace. "I don't know any Katherine. It was Elena! I know whom I saw!"
"Are you alright?" Stefan breathed out and threw his arms around Damon who widened his eyes at Alaric when he appeared right behind Stefan, extending his arms in a hopeless gesture. "Where are we?" Stefan asked, drawing back and looking around the room. "I can't remember-"
"Stefan! Mr. Saltzman!" Caroline exclaimed, leaping toward them and grabbing a handful of Stefan's shirt, hoping that maybe at least he'd pay attention to what she was saying. "Elena tried to kill me! "
Stefan looked at her, blinking rapidly at the strange impression that there was something familiar about the girl's eyes, about her voice that he couldn't quite place. Then he looked down at his shirt and realized that there was no blood on it...
"I'm sorry, Miss... I'm not feeling quite well today... Have we met before?" Stefan asked carefully, confused by an odd, unyielding feeling that he should know who she was.
Caroline let go of him so violently, Stefan almost lost his balance and tripped to the floor.
"Seriously?!" Caroline shouted in aggravation. "If this is some kind of a prank that you're all playing on me, let me tell you that it is not funny!"
"What's going on in here?" Bonnie ran into the room and then grimaced, quickly getting at least a vague idea as to what was going on.
She looked at Damon who would've probably been more amused by the commotion if it wasn't for his apocalyptic mood that Jeremy had been making fun of all day.
"Bonnie!" Caroline cried out, wincing. "Elena tried to kill me! And I don't remember how I got here from the hospital, I most certainly didn't buy or put on any of these," she said, gesturing to the clothes she was wearing, "and I have no idea what I'm doing in this house!" She finished, shooting Damon a glare. "I'm going to call my mom," she added as an afterthought, glancing right and left.
"That's not a bad idea," Damon said with a brief smile that earned him another glare.
"I'm not talking to you!"
"I actually don't think that's a good idea," Bonnie said, wordlessly widening her eyes at Damon who simply shrugged. "I think we should just all calm down and stay here until I figure out what to do."
"What to do about what?" Caroline asked impatiently.
Bonnie sighed.
"You lost some of your memories," Matt said, hoping to at least get a few words of explanation in before the tension would escalate. "You forgot the last... three years.
"What?" Caroline whispered, blinking.
"Before you start thinking that's horrible, Stefan forgot the last 148 years, so cheer up," Damon cut in, before Caroline managed to say anything more.
"I... what?" Stefan asked, staring at Damon in utter bewilderment.
"I was trying to explain that," Alaric muttered with a strained smile.
Caroline shook her head with a humorless, slightly hysterical smile. "This can't be true."
"Good day. And I'm afraid this is true."
Everyone looked at Enzo when he walked into the room with such a calm and polite smile on his face that it contrasted greatly with the general, nervous atmosphere and actually was a little disconcerting.
"As strange as it sounds," Enzo added, giving Caroline a reassuring look when he noticed that the girl was about to panic. "I was also very surprised when I woke up," he continued in the most ridiculously compassionate tone and to everyone's surprise Caroline seemed to calm down a little. "But fortuitously, apparently something can be done about it. At least that's what my wife said."
Bonnie tilted her head to the side, her face scrunching up in confusion. She wished she could just go back to the library, because she was getting really close to finding a solution to their memory predicament, but if everyone started running amok it was not going to be possible any time soon.
Damon slowly raised his eyebrows. "Your wife?"
Enzo gave the man with the black hair a friendly smile. "Yes, she said she had to go check up on someone, but she'd be back in an hour and I'm sure she'll be able to explain it better then."
"I'm pretty sure I can explain it well enough," Bonnie cut in and then shifted her eyes to Caroline for a second and whispered in the most convincing tone she could muster. "I'll find a way to get your memories back. But right now I just need you to not freak out, OK?"
Caroline grimaced, a small, frustrated moan escaping her. "So it's true? I forgot three years of my life?!"
"Excuse me, Rebekah told you she's your wife?" Matt asked with an incredulous smile that Enzo didn't read as menacing even if it was probably the most menacing smile Damon thought Matt Donovan was capable of.
Enzo looked at Matt, his forehead wrinkling in confusion, as if it just hadn't occurred to him before to doubt this fact. He seemed to ponder the question for a second before he cleared his throat and admitted cautiously with a baffled frown flitting across his face. "Not in so many words..."
"Well, luckily we have a historian with us," Damon spoke up when due to general consternation the room fell silent, "so why don't you take our time-travelers on a field trip," he said, glancing at Alaric who nodded quickly with a sigh, "complete with a few lectures on modern morality-"
Caroline yelped and Damon trailed off when Matt suddenly punched Enzo who was back on his feet surprisingly fast although his smile was gone.
"I demand satisfaction!"
Bonnie covered her mouth in order not to laugh, because as unfunny as the scene was, Enzo's tone and stance was hilarious, especially compared to the way she remembered him.
Matt, on the other hand, didn't look amused at all and was quite ready to hit Enzo again, but Alaric held him back.
"Yeah, well, sadly, duels are démodé these days," Damon said, grabbing Enzo before he managed to pounce at Matt.
"Regardless, we should probably try a reconciliation first," Alaric offered, giving Matt an expectant look, but Matt ignored him and just continued glaring at Enzo.
"What's going on in here? You're going to wake up the dead, pun intended," Jeremy said, running into the room and smiling at his own joke that unfortunately no one seemed in the mood for. He looked at Bonnie who gave him a small, exhausted smile.
Damon only fleetingly glanced at him, but then abruptly turned around to face him. "Did Elena wake up?" He asked a little breathlessly, his eyes widening.
Jeremy shook his head. "No, not yet. I just heard everyone shouting-"
Damon gave Jeremy a disbelieving, slightly irritated look before he wordlessly stormed out of the parlor.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Klaus said gleefully, strolling into the room and glancing indifferently after Damon as he ran past him and then rushed up the stairs without sparing him a glance. "It's nice to find everyone in good health." Klaus glanced around the room before focusing his attention on Caroline and Stefan. "However, it is awfully stuffy in here. You should open the windows. Let some fresh air in."
Caroline stared at Klaus unblinkingly, very much caught off guard by the appearance of another stranger, although she wasn't quite sure why it affected her so. Stefan shifted his confused gaze between everyone, still trying to understand what was going on. Was some of his memories also lost? That'd explain why he didn't recognize anyone here except for Damon.
"Yeah, as soon as all the corpses are out I'll do just that," Jeremy muttered, narrowing his eyes at Klaus who smirked in response.
"I'm going to take this cue," Klaus said with a twinkle in his eyes and turning around, he wrapped one of his arms around Caroline and the other one around Stefan, effectively startling them both. "What would say to a little trip? I have a helicopter waiting for us."
"A helicopter?" Stefan echoed uncertainly.
"Oh, come on, Stefan. You must've at least heard the word," Klaus said conversationally. "I believe it was coined in 1861."
A baffled smile began breaking onto Caroline's face, but then she quickly checked herself. "Who are you?"
"We'll have plenty of time to talk about that on our way to Paris."
Caroline's eyes widened almost to the point of no return. "Paris?" She whispered, instantly forgetting her previous question. "I've never been to Paris! I've never really been anywhere," she added with a small, nervous laugh and a flicker of a stunned, wistful, thoughtful look passed across Klaus' face, but he brushed it off and smiled again. "Have you been to Paris?" Caroline asked, leaning forward and peering at Stefan who looked completely befuddled.
"Alright, I really don't think that's a good idea," Alaric cut in with a mirthless grimace. "Bonnie's working on a spell that will restore their memories-"
"And I'm sure it will take her a considerable amount time," Klaus cut him off in a no-nonsense tone, "so I don't see why we can't take a trip in the meantime."
"I don't see why not either," Caroline consented enthusiastically and Alaric exchanged a worried and indecisive looks with Bonnie.
"Very well," Klaus said with a smile, beginning to walk toward the door, his embrace causing Stefan and Caroline to walk along with him as well.
"What's a helicopter?" Stefan asked in a low voice, blinking.
"I'll go with them," Alaric said when Klaus, Caroline and Stefan left the room.
Bonnie nodded. "That's a good idea," she said with a sigh. "And I think you should go check up on Meredith," she added, shifting her eyes to Matt. "Rebekah probably went to her to see Hope and if Klaus came here alone it probably means he'd dropped Hayley and Elijah there and-"
"And that's way too many unpredictable people per square mile," Jeremy finished for her and she smiled.
"Gladly," Matt said, making sure to glare at Enzo one last time before leaving the room.
"That went smoothly," Bonnie said when the only person left in the room besides her and Jeremy was Enzo who was standing in silence, apparently lost in thought.
"Yeah," Jeremy said with a smile. "Anyone wants an espresso?"
"What year is it?" Enzo suddenly asked, something not adding up in his thoughts, his good mood changing into a more anxious one.
"He wants a double espresso," Bonnie murmured, shifting her eyes from Enzo to Jeremy who smiled. "With bourbon."
xxxdelenaxxx
Elena could feel the sun rays in her hair as soon as she woke up.
Or at least she expected the sun rays and the thought seemed odd to her... but only a little.
Slowly, Elena opened her eyes, and as soon as she did, the memories of last night came rushing back to her.
The accident. The bridge. The water. Cold, so cold, so dark and yet... somehow, the panic couldn't quite make its way to her consciousness, because there was that abstract, warm sense of safety spreading from her chest, through her entire body, all the way to each of her fingertips.
Elena drew a breath, relieved, guessing that this was a sign that everything must've turned out OK, after all. They must've managed to get out of the car with Matt. Or perhaps someone had rescued them. Maybe even Rebekah had had some second thoughts and had decided to help them.
But then Elena remembered the bloodline issue and her breath caught in her throat. She frantically searched her mind, trying to remember something more from last night. Who had brought her home?
Home.
With a grimace, Elena tried to understand why the word seemed to evoke some contradictory images: one of dangerous flames and the other of cozily crackling fire.
Contemplating scooting off the bed she stirred... only to notice that she wasn't really able to move and that there was a... visible reason for that.
Her eyes fell onto Damon's face and she stared at him for a few seconds, forgetting to breathe without even realizing it.
Klaus was probably bluffing. Or they'd managed to find another way. Or Klaus had escaped. The last thought was unsettling, but right now she couldn't care less.
She sighed in relief, smiled and leaned toward Damon-
But something was not right.
She was lying in bed... in the boarding house!... In Damon's room. In Damon's bed. With Damon by her side, asleep with one hand under his cheek and his other hand draped over her. Granted he was fully clothed and she was too. However, a brief scrutiny of their attires quickly led Elena to notice that she was wearing something that looked suspiciously like Damon's shirt. It was his shirt. Elena frowned in confusion, her eyes flying from the shirt back to Damon's face. He looked so peaceful, so handsome, so... Her eyes flickered to his lips and she drew a shallow breath, hastily checking herself, completely stunned by a sudden, overwhelming, inexplicable need to kiss him.
Gazing at Damon's lips, Elena tried to understand what was going on. What had happened last night? Had Damon rescued her and Matt? The last thing she remembered was Matt's truck hitting the water, the water filling the car... Stefan! She'd asked Stefan to get Matt out first and he'd had and then... and then there was so much pain and no air to breathe and then-
And then nothing. Elena wrinkled her forehead. Then everything had become quiet and dark and there was nothing to hold on to anymore except that thought, that thought she'd cut short.. that had gotten cut short by darkness: If only...
Elena stiffened and held her breath.
Suddenly, Damon shifted in his sleep and the next thing she knew, his face was buried in her hair, his lips on her cheek, his hand moving from her waist more than a little higher.
And to Elena's further puzzlement, all the disturbing, confusing memories seemed to disappear at an instant and she was left with no sensible thoughts in her. Instead, the only thought left was the realization that Damon's arm was protectively draped over her heaving chest.
Elena stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, afraid to blink, afraid to move in order to not wake him up... or to wake him up... or for yet another reason that she couldn't grasp while all she could think about at the moment was Damon's breath ghosting over her skin and his fingers absently caressing her skin. Yet, this wasn't the most terrifying part. What was much more disconcerting was that she wanted to place her hand over his, run her hand through his hair, touch him, kiss him-
What. Was. Going. On. If he woke up right now, she'd have to make up some silly excuse about having a nightmare, because there was really no rational explanation for her body to react this way. She could hardly catch her breath and she was trembling.
Elena gritted her teeth, beginning to panic. Of course it wasn't like he hadn't made her feel this way before, but never before had she felt so little in control of what she was feeling, never before everything she felt was so intense.
Willing herself to stop drawing those ridiculous, shallow breaths, Elena tried once again to recall the events of last night. But no matter how hard she tried to think about it, the last image that she was able to retrieve was Matt being pulled out of the car and then the water making it impossible for her to breathe...
Slightly tilting her head backwards and to the side, Elena looked at Damon's face, so dangerously close to hers. She looked at his lips and thought it was impossible for her not to remember how she had gotten back home- back to the boarding house, she corrected herself glancing around. It was strange though, Elena thought with a frown, that the two expressions didn't really sound, didn't feel different at all. The boarding house... Home...
Elena's train of thought was interrupted by a random, rather horrifying thought that she'd no idea where it had come from: it had suddenly occurred to her that since Damon was asleep, she could just kiss him and he wouldn't even know about it. So basically, if she kissed him fast enough, she could probably get away with it.
Screaming at herself in her head, Elena inched her lips closer to his just a little... just a little more... It made no sense, no sense at all, but this strange urge was stronger than her. And her heart started beating furiously in her chest when she realized that her lips were about to touch his, that she was a mere moment away from pressing her mouth to his... She could almost feel the texture of his lips under hers-
"Good morning, sunshine."
Elena's eyes snapped to Damon's and she felt completely embarrassed that he'd probably- probably!... that he'd certainly deciphered her intention and was going to taunt her and comment on it. To be honest, she most likely deserved that, because how was she supposed to explain that she'd been trying to kiss him in his asleep? Her mind was blank and all excuses were gone anyway. She immediately started thinking about at the very least a good retort to his comment... but then she realized that he didn't make any comment at all... yet.
Instead, Damon moved his hand from her waist to her face and ran his fingertips down her cheek so lightly and so tenderly that Elena found herself at a loss of words, utterly befuddled... and unable not to lean into his touch. He seemed to notice that, but to her bewilderment, his eyes flashed with something akin to relief rather than smugness.
"How are you feeling?" Damon asked in a low voice that was both concerned, but also straight to the point in a curious, naturally confident way and Elena couldn't quite place the unexpected feeling his tone evoked.
"I'm fine," she whispered hesitantly, slowly pulling herself to a sitting position.
When she straightened up, her face, just barely, but nonetheless became out of reach for him.
Damon's hand dropped onto the bed and Elena couldn't help an abstract twinge of regret over that, but then Damon turned onto his back and clasped his hands behind his head like he'd had that night before the homecoming ball when he'd come to her room.
And he looked at her. With a faint, calm smile, he just looked at her.
"What is the last thing you remember, Elena?" He asked after a pause, tilting his head to the side a little and Elena was both relieved and terrified that her suspicions that something wasn't right were being kind of validated by his question.
There was also something unexpectedly strange, something unsettling, something... addictive about the effortlessly ardent way in which he'd pronounced her name.
"The accident," Elena replied with a frown. "We fell off the bridge... Is Matt OK?" She asked, struck by the sudden thought that maybe Damon was so calm, because he was trying to calm her down before attempting to break some horrible news to her.
To her bafflement, Damon's reaction was a half-bitter, half-amused muffled snort of some sort.
"Damon, is Matt OK?" Elena demanded, beginning to feel really worried.
Her eyes darted to her own hand that was outstretched next to her on the bed and she was under a weird impression that her hand looked restless, as if she was reaching out for something, missing something...
"He's OK, but...you are a vampire, Elena," Damon said softly and Elena's eyes flew wide open.
She blinked. "What?"
Damon grimaced, scolding himself inwardly for just throwing this information right on her. Well, it wasn't like he'd been very diplomatic about it before, but under the circumstances he should've been more vigilant. Unfortunately, he suddenly understood that he wasn't going to be able to be as subtle and cautious toward Elena as she'd been toward him. He already felt like confessing everything to her in one breath. Maybe if he told her the truth right away, she'd believe it, throw herself into his arms and everything would be alright immediately?
Alright for him, he reminded himself. Damon drew a breath, feeling his heartbeat pulsate in his ears. He couldn't stand this. He couldn't stand this, but he had to. It was just that it didn't make sense. Not anymore. It made no sense that he couldn't just take her hand in his, tug her toward him, wrap his arms around her and explain everything in broken sentences between feverish kisses.
"Elena, you... drowned with vampire blood in your system. But before you start wallowing in despair over that please note that it happened almost three years ago," Damon said, planning on a hint of humor, but his voice came out completely hollow and the words didn't sound humorous at all, the memory of that night rushing back to him in all intensity and he suddenly had troubles taking his own advice.
Elena looked at him, her eyes wandering all over his face as if she was hoping to find something in his expression that would counter his words. Damon pushed himself to a sitting position, his hand subconsciously finding hers and closing around it.
"Three years?" Elena whispered with a small, disbelieving frown flitting across her face. "You mean I was... in a coma? For three years?"
"No." Damon shook his head with a weak smile and Elena's eyes flickered to his hand when he touched her cheek. "Just more supernatural complications ensued and... yesterday we had another witchy showdown and as a side effect your memory got wiped out, but apparently only a little."
"A little?" Elena widened her eyes at him. "You're telling me that I forgot three years of my life and that I forgot that I'm a vampire!" She exclaimed and then drew a sharp intake of breath, because she felt like she should be shocked and appalled by this, but somehow she couldn't find it in herself to feel that way. She didn't even feel surprised or upset.
Damon squeezed her hand in a reassuring gesture... and inwardly shuddered when he noticed that Elena's fingers were wrapped around his and that she was holding his hand as much as he was holding hers, although she didn't seem aware of that. She averted her eyes from him and looked around the room with unseeing eyes.
"Well, if that will make you feel any better, as of yesterday, you were kind of OK with that," Damon said with faint smile.
For a second he wasn't even sure if she'd heard him, because Elena's eyes continued scanning the room in a seemingly absent manner, but then she shifted her eyes back to him and asked in a low, simultaneously firm and faltering voice as if she wasn't sure how to ask the question.
"Why am I in your room?"
She didn't sound suspicious or upset and Damon couldn't help feeling just a tiny bit amazed that she even cared to worry about that at all right now, having just been told that she was a vampire.
"It's not my room," Damon replied, holding her gaze and Elena's forehead twitched in confusion, but then she felt hot shivers run up her spine when he added. "It's ours."