Brace For Impact

"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away."

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Men

Chapter Five:

Damon debated his next move for a few minutes. He did not want to. He really did not want to. But he had wracked his brain for any alternatives and came up with nothing.

It was possible that Elena was in no danger and she was safely tucked away in some café, sipping hot cocoa and laughing about what a pathetic sap Damon is. But he did not have that kind of luck. And it was Elena, which ruled out the possibility of anything good coming from this. Not all her plans failed, but her track record was pretty shitty and he did not trust it for a second.

He was growing desperate. He compelled the people at the concierge and the doormen for information but none of them knew where Elena had gone.

Which brought him back to his incredibly sucky idea.

Angrily, he pulled out his phone. As it was ringing, it occurred to him how likely it was that the person on the other line would ignore him. The fourth ring rang in his ear and he had all but given up when a sultry voice purred in his ear.

"And here I thought you would be still pouting since I killed Elena's kid brother."

Damon gritted his teeth and tried to quell the anger coursing through him. He took a deep breath and cut to the chase, "Where are you?"

"Why should I tell you? You'll take the first flight out here to drive a stake through my heart on some misplaced noble desire to avenge the sweet maiden Elena." Katherine's voice was noticeably more bitter now. It occurred to Damon that Katherine was probably not happy with having driven one more wedge between him and her. Or maybe it was about Stefan and her. Yeah, that had to be it. The answer to most things was usually Stefan anyway.

"Actually," Damon drawled purposely casual, "I'm trying to save your useless ass." There was a pause on the other side of the line. If Katherine was anything, she was a survivalist. Now she was just weighing the likelihood that he was lying.

Another beat and then she finally spoke. "Now why would you think that I am in danger?"

"Because your little stunt back on The Island of Doctor Moreau has made you even more enemies if that's possible."

Incredibly, Katherine started laughing. "You think I'm scared of my little doppelganger? I can wipe the floor with you, she wouldn't stand a chance." She was being dismissive but Damon knew better. Katherine took any threat to herself seriously and she was still on the line for a reason.

"She would if she help from someone older and stronger than you. This isn't just about Jeremy, it's about the cure," Damon sneered. If there was ever a more pointless endeavor, he did not know it. Except maybe trying to free this bitch from the tomb.

Damon had thought about it for a while. What could cause Elena to run around New York behind his back? The only reason she would do that would be if she thought he would try to stop her from doing whatever it is she was going. He briefly thought that she was just out drinking from people but disregarded that theory quickly. She had not been shy about feeding on people before in front of him. He saw no reason she would try so hard to get rid of him for that.

That left Katherine. He did not see what else she would be trying to do through this convoluted plan. Leading him to New York, pushing his buttons so he would leave her, and sneaking off? It was all too thought out. She picked a specific destination after all.

And with Katherine came the question of how Elena would have ever found her. He had contacts, Stefan had contacts, Katherine had contacts- Elena did not have contacts. There was no one besides himself and Stefan who could feed her information. And he did not know how to track Katherine anyway. That left someone older than him with a need to find Katherine. That left only two candidates that he could think of who knew Elena. Since he figured that Klaus would never go to Elena about any of his plans and that if he had found Katherine, she would just be dead. That gave him the answer.

Someone who was impossibly connected through age, who was after the cure, and, most importantly, who would reach out for companionship.

"You like your chances against Elena and a vengeful Original? Because I can tell you from experience that Rebekah is a bitch when she's on the warpath. Just tell me where you are. I have no interest in killing with you now, I have my own problems."

There was another pause. Damon thought she might have hung up. Then she told him plainly, "New York."

That was all the confirmation he needed. But before he could tell her anything more, he heard a crash from the other line.

"50 Central Park Street," she said and hung up before he could gather what was going on.

Shaking off the sad irony that he was rushing off to save Katherine again, he sped off in her direction. He was close, he would be there in minutes. So why did he have such a bad feeling about all of this?

Damon found the hotel easily. He tried to concentrate on his plan but he was finding it difficult.

All he could think was what Elena had said and why she had said it. Did the fact that she told him those things to sneak out mean that she did not really mean them? Or were they true but the execution was just because she wanted to get rid of him.

He could not stop the feeble hope in his chest and he cursed himself. This was his problem, he saw the signs and held out stupidly despite them. He knew Katherine's feelings for Stefan in 1864, he knew she was not as interested in him as he was her, and he knew she chose to turn Stefan, too, despite promising him that she would not. He saw all of that and what did he do? Waste a century and a half devoted to her! Hell, he spent fifty years celibate for her. He should have known better, he should know better now.

So why could he not just cut ties with Elena?

She made herself very clear. His love for her only bothered her. She was only interested in him physically, nothing more. She had just been too nice of a person to tell him so before. The Originals' Ball had not been a case of something coming out wrong; it had been her saying what she really thought but been too scared to say. And then she felt badly about it and had tried to backtrack.

He knew this. He had known subconsciously for so long but had wanted to be hopeful anyway. Lovesick, moronic fool, he cursed himself even as he blurred up the stairs to where he could hear the commotion.

He should turn around right now. He should leave Elena and all thoughts of her behind. Let her get herself killed, it was not his problem.

But he could not and no amount of logic would kill the hope still pulsing through his veins. He could still remember the girl madly in love with his brother, refusing to leave his side as he was dying of a werewolf bite. The girl who panicked at the thought of putting him in danger on those Tennessee mountains. The girl thanked him sincerely for saving her. The girl who wanted to dance with him.

Elena cared. She may not love him but she cared. And she was only running away out of fear. Because if anyone besides Damon himself knew that caring too much could destroy you, it was Elena Gilbert.

So he could not snuff the spark of hope in his chest.

Elena heard Katherine quickly mutter her address and the beep of a call ended as she ran down the hall with Rebekah. Backup, really? What did she have hordes of men she has seduced or compelled to come flying to her rescue? And with that theory came the image of a younger Stefan and Damon and she realized just how much she hated this woman.

She hated being compared to her, she hated looking like her, she hated that she stole Jeremy from her, and she hated what she had done to the two men she loved most left in her life.

Sometimes she had to stretch to channel any potential pain into rage but not right now. They burst in without preamble, shattering the wood of the door easily.

Somehow, in the seconds before Rebekah kicked down the door, Katherine had set the stage to her liking. She had the boxed cure in her right hand, soaked in what smelled like gasoline, a lighter in her left hand, and was perched close enough to the window to throw it out before they could stop her. There was something wrong with the picture though. Not that Katherine would leverage her way out of anything, not that she would use the cure to distract them while she ran away as per usual, but that she had connected the dots so quickly that they were coming for the cure. She had set it all up before she had even seen who, if anyone, was after her.

Did someone tip her off? How? Elena thought but decided she did not care. This was her moment to destroy this woman and she wanted to revel in it.

"Give me the cure," Rebekah stated unperturbed. Sometimes, with how crazy she could be, Elena forgot that Rebekah was a thousand years old and knew that she had power over everyone around her. The confidence with knowing Katherine could not possibly kill her had endowed Rebekah with assertiveness and poise.

"Sorry, I have special plans for this," Katherine replied in a blasé manner. She also appeared self-assured. It was probably because she had an ace up her sleeve. It was Katherine after all. "So why are you wasting my time, little Elena?"

Elena bristled but knew that her own confidence did not come from anything rational like power or cunning. She just did not care. If she were to die here, what would it matter? Elena Gilbert was meant to die so many times over the last two years and she had escaped every time.

She felt a pang in her consciousness over those thoughts. She wondered what Damon would do if she died. He should be glad since she only brought him down, to say nothing of her treatment earlier. She worried he would lose it though. He was far too self-destructive for his own good when it came to her. Unfortunately, just thinking of Damon caused the tingling sensation to return. Elena studiously brushed it aside.

When Elena did not answer, Katherine continued blissfully. "Oh, that's right. You've turned off your humanity. How cute!" she cooed, "Baby vampires always think that can do anything. You're lucky that you have Stefan and Damon looking out for you, you're too stupid to last a week on your own." Something was wrong with this picture and Elena could not figure it out before Rebekah spoke.

"You're stalling, why?"

At that moment, Elena felt someone grab her from behind. Her arms were pinned to her sides by someone far stronger than she. She started struggling pointlessly and noticed Katherine smirking at her from across the room. It enraged her more and she doubled her efforts to break free. She tried to use a move that Damon taught her back when she was still human, she was going to slam her foot on his instep and head-butt her captor's chin. Unfortunately, the arms around her were a cage and the person behind her dodged both moves effortlessly.

"Hold on there, Xena. It's a little unfair to use my own moves against me, don't you think?" Elena stilled at the voice whispering in her ear. She had been panicked a second ago and now she was tempted to relax in his embrace. A wave of peace washed over her against her will and she turned her head slightly to ascertain the identity of her attacker.

From her view inches away, Damon did not look angry with her. And thankfully he had lost the stricken face from earlier that would haunt her dreams tonight. But she could not help but notice that he was rigid around her. Her heart sunk without her permission in the knowledge that it was because of her.

And then all lingering feelings of guilt left her. He was stopping her from getting revenge. He was protecting Katherine. How dare he?

After overcoming her initial shock at seeing him there, Elena started visibly seething with rage. "How can you defend her after everything she's done to me? After everything she's done to ruin your life?"

"Defend her?" Damon asked incredulously, "That's what you think I'm doing? Did it escape your notice that you entered an all-out brawl between you, Barbie Klaus and the crazy-psychotic slut?" Damon groaned. It did not matter if she were human, vampire, had her humanity, or had no humanity- her self-preservation instincts were abysmal.

Elena was not stupid so how had she completely missed his devotion to her? She appeared to actually think he ran across town in an effort to save Katherine's life. You spend 148 years obsessed and they remember it always, he thought wryly. But, moreover, did she not realize how incredibly dangerous and dumb this was? Katherine could and would kill her in a second. And he would trust just about anyone over Rebekah with Elena's safety

Before she could respond to his questions, Rebekah cut in angrily. "You told him?" She glared at him. As if he were the problem here!

"Of course not," Elena scoffed and it struck him in that moment how at home she seemed among Rebekah and Katherine. But he knew better, she had unconsciously been leaning into him since she realized who was holding her. She may not get it yet, but she was seeking comfort. "I did everything to keep him away, he's just too stupid to stay away!" That's an understatement, Damon thought dryly.

But her words did the trick and he was distracted enough that she was able to finally head-butt him and throw him back into Katherine's dresser. It was wood naturally. A larger piece lodged itself deep in his stomach. He grimaced in pain and looked at the scene before him.

Katherine had made the blunder of watching his drama with Elena unfold, Elena had fallen to the rookie mistake of checking to see if she had hurt him too much, and Rebekah used their distraction to her advantage.

In a second, Rebekah and Katherine were blurring around the room. But Damon did not care, they were not his concern. Elena was.

Elena had seemingly overcome her shock at hurting Damon and dove into the melee without hesitation, confirming Damon's doubts that she had a single survivalist bone in her body.

Having lost her leverage with the cure, Katherine was now frantically dodging while simultaneously looking for a way to leave. That was Katherine's modus operandi after all, never fight people who can beat you. And always have several back-up plans and escape routes planned. Unfortunately, Elena jumping into the fray had thrown her off. But not enough for Elena's wellbeing.

Damon sprang up, neglecting to pull out the stake in his haste, when he saw Katherine prepare to backhand Elena. He intervened just in time to take the hit himself. Unfortunately, at the same time, Rebekah had made a grab for the cure. It was knocked out of Katherine's hands falling beside him. It was so close that when the wooden box shattered at impact, he felt several shards hit his face.

He gasped even with his eyes closed at the pain. Interestingly enough, his nose was overcome with the sweetest aroma when he breathed in. What…?

As soon as he registered that thought, every fiber of being exploded in pain. What was a niggling ache a second ago was now excruciating torture. He wanted to get up, he thought he saw Elena go down, too, from his peripheral vision. But even breathing suddenly seemed like too much effort. He thought he heard Elena cry out in pain but everything was blurring around him and he just let go.

His last thought before blackness overcame him was that he probably should not have gotten up this morning.

When Damon fell down, Elena's eyes had followed instinctively. This was her fault. She felt pained again over her uselessness. He was never supposed to be involved. She had only seconds to dwell on her guilt as Katherine suddenly careened into her because of a powerful blow from Rebekah.

The impact managed to both fracture her nose and dislocate her shoulder thanks to the combined force of Katherine's body and the hand floor she had tried to break her fall with.

Katherine was back up immediately but Elena was still unused to these types of fights. She needed to recover. The pain was pulsating throughout her body. Her nose snapped back into place and she yelped. The sounds of the brawl had stopped. Maybe she could just lie here for a moment.

She focused back in as she realized how weird it was that the fight had stopped. She noticed that Damon was still lying on the ground. He appeared to be unconscious somehow. Maybe one of the other two had snapped his neck?

Both Katherine and Rebekah were just gawking at Damon, too.

Strangely, because Elena was almost certain that she felt nothing for Damon and should not worry over what was the equivalent of a paper cut to a vampire, Rebekah screamed, "No!" Then she started really confusing Elena. She dove to the floor beside Damon and picked up a little rose that Elena had not seen earlier and started sniffing it furiously. It was the most laughable thing she had ever seen. A thousand year old vampire smelling a flower like her life depended on it.

Stranger still was Katherine's reaction. She had been frozen staring at where Damon lay and now was staring in disbelief at everything in front of her. Then she was by his side, purposely knocking Elena away. "Damon," she whispered seriously as she started shaking him. She put her hands all over him. His neck, his chest, his wounds, nothing escaped her perusal. She was grimacing, twisting her lovely features into something harsher and yet more humane.

Katherine pulled Damon onto her lap and lifted her wrist to her lips before pausing. She seemed to suddenly remember where she was and whom she was with. She dropped her arm back to the floor. Rebekah's odd preoccupation with the flower had dwindled and Katherine seemed to come into herself in a heartbeat.

She looked conflicted for another moment. She kept alternating between glancing at the man in her arms' battered body and the door. Mind made up, Katherine blurred out the door. Typical, Elena thought. She could not even be surprised. When things got bad, you could always trust on Katherine Pierce to run away.

Rebekah let out an angered shriek and followed her. That just left Damon and Elena alone. Elena popped her shoulder back in to place and could not hold back her scream as she did so.

She shook off the pain and approached the still prone Damon with confusion. What was he doing? None of his wounds were that serious, she had seen him recover from far worse.

But he was just lying there in a pool of his own blood. Wait, what? Elena thought with uncertainty. He may not have bothered to take the dresser piece out of his abdomen but he should definitely not be bleeding this much. But her eyes only confirmed that his shirt was soaked through and still was not moving.

Elena approached him unconcernedly, there was no reason to think that a stake to the gut could put down Damon Salvatore. And since there were no greyed veins creeping along his face, she knew he would heal. Still, she felt guilty for getting him into this mess and, worse, she could not shake the feeling of dread since she had seen Katherine's over-the-top reaction.

Just then an incredibly appetizing smell wafted to her nose. One of the hotel guests on the floor must be bleeding. Her face changed without her consent. Her fangs extended and veins shot from her now red eyes. The smell of human blood after she had been injured threatened to unhinge her newbie control. If she could just go quickly, she would return to Damon in minutes more capable to carry him back to their hotel room since he apparently was not up to moving.

As she turned to go do just that, she noticed the smell weaken. She paused. She had drank Damon's blood before as a vampire and as a human. Just weeks ago she had slammed him into the bathroom wall of the Grill in an effort to get more. But vampire blood and human blood tasted different. Vampire blood was far more delicious than animal blood but it still lacked the taste of real sustenance that came with human blood.

Hesitantly, she approached Damon again. She noticed that he was breathing shallowly and his heartbeat seemed slower. It did not make any sense. She felt the jolt of realization. No…

Dreading the confirmation of her fears, she reached toward the wound on Damon's stomach, now taking care not to disturb the wooden stake spearing him. She lightly dabbed her fingers in the blood that surrounded it. She did not want to know. Still, she raised her fingers to her lips with all the reluctance of someone walking to their own execution.

The blood caused ecstasy to shoot through her. It was the most exquisite thing she had ever tasted and yet all she could focus on was the dread and fear coursing through her.

"Damon!" She shouted, shaking him. Then gasped and stopped when she realized what a bad idea that was. She tore into her wrist with such urgent force that her arm was covered in blood as she lowered it to his mouth.

"Damon, answer me!" It was pointless, she was blocking his only was to speak anyway.

She became worried that he had not had enough and ripped into her wrist again with even more violence. She felt herself shaking. This could not be happening.

Finally, she heard a groan through her haze of fear. He was going to fine, she told herself. He was alive and that was all that mattered. Her panic was overwhelming her as she finally removed the stake. She could see him healing, not as fast as she was used to but she would take what she could get. She lifted him up carefully, clutching him to her chest with such protectiveness. The tingling sensation had gone haywire but for once she did not care. Damon still had yet to regain consciousness.

It was unsurprising. The wounds he had sustained were pretty damaging for a human.

Who saw that coming? Since I'm basing this plot on a lot of things hinted at in canon and in spoilers, maybe a lot of people actually. I figure this move might not be popular but it's necessary for the story. A guest reviewer wondered what would bring Elena's humanity back. Having already written that scene, let's just say this had to happen.

Thanks so much to all the people who reviewed. I got less than half the reviews for chapters 3 and 4 than for 1 and 2 and just assumed it was because people lost interest. So thanks for inspiring me! I've got most of the next chapter done. I have a question though, should I continue daily updates? Or should I move to every other day or weekly?