Brace For Impact

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger."

-Emily Bronte

Salt in Her Wounds

Chapter Twelve

Brief Recap:

"Don't worry, this one is a hundred and fifty years overdue anyway." And with that, Katherine closed her eyes and moved.

Elena heard a noise but it did not make sense. There was a rushing in her ears and her vision blurred, but she did not know why. Damon had stopped struggling. He was lying limply against Katherine, his head lolled into her neck. It almost looked like he had nuzzled there to kiss her. But he was not making a move to do so. In fact, it did not look like he was moving at all.

Something was bothering Elena. She could feel the niggling awareness return. But it was not like she had merely forgotten something this time, and her brain were trying to remind her. No, it felt more powerful now. The tickling had transformed into a sense of numb emptiness. And still Elena did not understand. Then Katherine released her hold on Damon, and he careened forward.

Damon collapsed to the ground ungracefully. His body was positioned awkwardly, one arm twisted behind his back, a leg prone and bent uncomfortably, and of course his neck contorted in an unnatural way.

He was dead.

The Earth tilted on its axis for Elena.

Abruptly, Elena realized that she had stopped breathing at some point. But with that first desperate breath came gasping and rasping that caused goose bumps to raise on her skin. Or maybe they had been there for a while, Elena could not tell. She could not understand anything anymore.

With the shaky inhalation of oxygen, Elena also became aware of a high pitched noise that threatened to disturb the patrons in the bar less than a mile away. It was a grating, disturbing noise like the dying wail of someone leaving the world too soon.

It was coming from her, right? She was the one dying painfully. Or was she? Elena was dizzy from the rushing in her ears and the constricting of her heart. What was happening?

All she felt was grief. It seemed like the entire world was in mourning to Elena at that moment.

How could Damon be dead?

How could Jeremy be gone forever? Oh my god, Elena thought disjointedly, Jeremy's dead. My whole family is dead. And now Damon, too…?

Everything hurt. Her entire body ached. Even places that Elena knew logically could not feel were weighed down by the torment she was experiencing. It felt like she was bound to succumb under the pressure of the agony raining down on her. It was too much, too much.

"You should have just told me what I wanted to know. You should know better than to test me, Little Elena," Katherine finally spoke unconcernedly. It was as if she was chastising Elena for something minor and not the utter destruction of her life.

"Why? Wasn't taking Jeremy enough for you? Why would you do this? What is wrong with you?!"

"Oh, stop your whining." Katherine marched over to Damon's body and nudged him with her stiletto forcing it to turn over.

"Stop it! Don't touch him!" Elena finally moved towards Damon. She tripped as her vision became distorted, and she felt woozy just from that small effort. She fell to her knees beside him. "What are you doing?" She asked slowly.

Elena's mouth kept moving somehow despite feeling as if she could no longer function. But she could no longer control her ability to speak. It made sense, she could not control anything anyway.

Katherine sighed impatiently. "Well, I think it's clear that intelligence didn't make it to the final doppelgänger. What a pity. For you." Katherine gestured annoyed to something with one perfectly manicured fingernail.

Elena raised her eyes off the ground finally and tried to focus on whatever Katherine was indicating to. Her eyes assessed Damon's still prone figure, which caused her heart to clench in fresh pain. As if it had ever stopped, Elena thought distantly. Katherine's prodding had pushed Damon over onto his stomach in a position that would be horribly uncomfortable if he was still alive. Just that thought caused Elena's face to crumple again.

The new view, however, allowed Elena to see the arm that had been trapped beneath him before and an object glistening in the pale moonlight. "What? I don't understand…"

"Of course you don't," Katherine sighed dramatically.

"Last chance," Katherine gritted out as she adjusted her grip on the still struggling Damon. He froze briefly as she maneuvered him and then started fighting wildly, muffled noises leaving his mouth.

Damon felt her slip something cold and metal onto his finger disguising the motion by making a show of her threat as she altered her hold on him.

No, Damon thought startled as he suddenly became rigid at the knowledge of what she had just done.

He had been unsure before as to whether she would actually snap his neck. It was not unusual for her. She rather liked dramatic, lethal gestures. The only reason he doubted it for a second was because Katherine had saved his life before and this seemed to be a nonlife-threatening concern for her.

Still, he would trust Katherine as far as he could throw her. As a human.

But when he felt her slip the Gilbert ring back on his finger, he knew what he plan would be.

He tried to warn her- Elena, Katherine, any doppelganger who would listen. He did not know if it would work, and he did not want Elena to fall apart. He wanted to let her know what was about to happen, maybe she could just fess up to who this random informant for the hybrid sociopath was.

Damon thrashed to no avail. Katherine had him trapped effortlessly. He even resorted to trying to bite her hand, but his blunt, human teeth had no effect on her unsurprisingly.

Everything played out in slow motion after that. Even Katherine's taunts and faux concern cooed in his ear did not penetrate the rapid sense of calm that came to him from the realization of Katherine's scheme.

A soft kiss graced his cheek belying the intended action to come.

Well, at least we will finally learn if I am too "unnatural" for this thing, Damon thought as everything faded away.

His last view was of a shell-shocked Elena.

"He'll be fine. He's only dead for now, so stop crying already."

Katherine's nonchalant and faulty explanation only fueled Elena's panic. Elena started hyperventilating hysterically.

"Damon's not natural, the ring may not work on him!" Elena managed to gasp out between her strangled breaths.

Katherine paused and her eyes flashed with some deeply repressed emotion before she shrugged. "Well, then he'll just be dead. That would be so sad for you though, only one boyfriend to wait on you hand and foot."

"You- you- you bitch!" Elena was making rasping noises along with her helpless sobs, but she still managed to scrounge up enough anger to spit at Katherine.

She thought she hated Rebekah more than anyone, but she was so wrong. She would let Rebekah kill and maim her over and over again if it meant that Katherine would give her back Jeremy and Damon. And she would never despise anyone the way she did at that moment.

"Just go away!" Elena screeched. She was falling to pieces and just Katherine's presence was enough to threaten the destruction of the last bit of Elena's sanity. If she even still sane, she certainly did not feel like she was anymore.

Elena could not even bear to look up, but the telling whoosh of air informed her that Katherine had finally left. If she were able to feel anything past the pain, Elena would have been relieved that for once Katherine had left her alone.

Elena crawled the last bit of distance to Damon. She righted his body in her lap and clutched his head to her chest.

"Jeremy! Oh, no. No. No. Oh, god, no. Oh god..." Elena could not stop her panicked words that spilled out of her mouth. She had grasped Jeremy to him as if to fend off anyone who would try to hurt him and crushed the thought that came to her in the back of her mind that nothing could hurt him anymore ruthlessly.

"Damon, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry," Elena's voice cracked as she rocked the two of them back and forth. This was not happening. This could not happen to her. Not again. She would not survive it. "Oh, god. No, no, no…"

"It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. You're gonna be okay. The ring will bring you back. It's okay. It's okay. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay, Jeremy. You're gonna be fine." Elena kept on reassuring herself.

She could see Stefan peering down at her- and Jeremy, she reminded herself, he's fine!- with a pained expression. He should not be looking at her like that. She was fine, and more importantly, Jeremy was fine. The ring was going to work like it always did. Everything was fine!

Would the ring bring back Damon? Losing the tattoos did not change Jeremy's fate. Would losing his vampiric abilities be enough to bring Damon back? Or was he still marked as someone supernatural even now?

Could Elena even dare to hope?

She knew better. The ring would not bring him back. Nothing would! How could she allow herself to have hope again?

This was too much. She could not handle it. How was she supposed to survive when Jeremy and now Damon were taken from her?

Elena gripped her head in anguish. "No, no, NO!" Her nails scratched her scalp painfully and caused tiny rivulets of blood to trickle down her neck to join her tears, but she did not care.

Elena could not bear to wait to see if Damon woke up, but she could not stand to leave him. She could not do this all alone.

She fumbled with her phone. Her hands were shaking too badly to grasp it properly, and her blurred vision was only complicating matters. She finally clasped the thing tightly to her chest and froze. Who was she going to call for this? Who was going to come to her side now?

She had all but destroyed her relationship with Caroline, and Stefan had very blatantly sided with her blond former best friend. She knew she should probably call Stefan and let him know his brother might be dead for good, but her mind forcefully dispelled that thought even as it brought a fresh wave of sobs. So no Stefan and Caroline. She would have to call someone else.

What about Bonnie? Bonnie had always been there for her, and she had not spent enough time around her with her humanity off to wreck that friendship entirely. But was Bonnie not kind of unstable now? And Damon and Caroline seemed to think there was a Bonnie imposter running around at the moment. Elena supposed she could not call Bonnie for help after all.

And Jeremy… she could not. Jeremy could no longer help her or anyone, ever again.

"No, no, no, no…" The mantra raised in volume as Elena's bawling became uncontrollable. She wondered if the words were still distinct enough to be understood. They sounded like contorted gibberish even to her.

Everyone was dead or gone, and she had no one left to call. They were all dead! She was all alone with Damon's body. Damon's body.

Her mind was so disjointed that it took her several minutes of rocking Damon and herself back and forth to realize that there was one person left that might come.

The trembling of her fingers was so violent that she had to hang up and redial six times before eventually the numbers she clicked were right. She had dialed the same number for years, she knew it by heart and every time she called, the person had always coming running to her aid.

Matt was a good guy like that.

The phone rang and rang. Elena was scared that Matt would not pick up. She did not even know what time it was. Would he already be asleep? Or was he just ignoring her call because she had been such a crappy friend to everyone lately?

She would not blame him, she was the worst. Her stupidity and selfishness had cost everyone who loved her their happiness and even Jeremy and Damon's lives. Why was she so useless? The overwhelming waves of self-loathing crashed upon her, and she realized that she was wailing pathetically.

"Hello?" A tired voice called to her from the other end of the line, and she abruptly stilled. She held her breath as she listened attentively. "Elena, why are you calling me at three thirty am?"

Elena could not speak. She felt if she tried the sobs would escape once more, and she would finally fall apart.

"Elena," Matt repeated. He sounded more awake now and concern was coloring his tone. "Talk to me."

Elena opened her mouth to say something, say anything, and all that tumbled out was a weak whimper. And then she was bawling again.

The phone fell from her grasp from the shudders racking through her. She could hear Matt shouting worriedly through the phone.

"Elena! Just tell me where you are, and I'll come get you!"

Elena took a deep breath, grabbed the phone and whispered the address. She hung up without anything else. She could not bring herself to explain everything to Matt. How could she tell someone that she had let the person she cared about most be killed just so she could taunt their murderer?

She could not believe herself. She had basically killed Damon herself. And all the stuff she said to Stefan and Caroline as they tried to be there for her? Or how about how she had completed abandoned Bonnie in her time of need?

She could not do this. She searched urgently for her switch to shut it all out again, but it was nowhere to be found. It felt like her mind was staring at where it used to be only to be met with nothing at all.

Elena sniffled. She should really move further away from the bar. Anyone could come out and see them, and she was in no position to fight anyone off. But she felt so drained. All the grief, the pain, the guilt, all of it had flooded back to her in a moment of incensed agony. It was too much. Elena worried she would never be able to move from this spot again.

The ring would fail to revive Damon, and she would still wait here, withering away with him in her arms.

Steady trails of tears still marked her cheeks and had spilled over onto Damon's pale face. Elena was completely focused on Damon, prepared to pounce at any sign of life. She held the hand with the ring and slowly stroked it with her thumb. It could not bring anyone other than herself comfort now, but she needed enough to continue the action.

Headlights shined down upon her crouched form, but Elena was still paralyzed as she searched Damon's expression. The brightness ceased, and she could distantly hear the sound of a truck engine being turned off and a car door being slammed.

Gravel crunched beneath someone's tentative footsteps. "Elena?" Matt called as he approached her. And then he stopped. Elena did not look up, but she knew that he finally got a glimpse of the scene she and Damon made at the moment.

Elena's head was bent over Damon, and her thumb was frantically rubbing the ring.

Matt took a deep shuddering breath as he closed the distance between them.

"Elena, we should go somewhere else," he spoke softly as he placed a hand on her shoulder. For comfort or to encourage her to move, Elena did not know. Or care really because neither would help her.

"I-" she started swallowing to wet her dry mouth, "I-I can't." It hurt, and her voice broke on the last word.

Matt did not reply for a minute. Then, still wordless, he slumped to the ground next to her.

So much time had passed. The sky now had bright streaks disrupting its cool night.

Elena would have felt uncomfortable from sitting in the same position for so long, but she felt so beyond such inconsequential pains and worries now. Matt kept shifting agitatedly beside her. Every now and then he would yawn, but other than that the two of them were silent.

How long would this take? When had enough time passed to denote it was not going to work?

Damon did not reek of decomposition yet thankfully, but that was the only sign to indicate that he was not definitely gone for good.

"Have you called Stefan?" Matt finally spoke up. At Elena's small shake of her head, he continued, "I'm going to. He should know that… he should just come here."

Matt stood up, his back cracking as he retrieved his phone from his pocket. Elena could hear Matt relaying their location as she had done for him earlier.

Not long thereafter, Stefan appeared out of nowhere. Did he run here? Did she care?

"What… happened…?" Stefan froze.

Matt alternated glances between the two of them. When Elena did not even bother to even lift her head, he turned towards Stefan reluctantly. "I don't really know. Elena called me about two hours ago and told me to come here."

"Why didn't you call me? What happened?" Stefan voice raised in anger.

"Katherine killed him," Elena mumbled. "She wanted to know who Klaus' secret informant was."

"Why did she-" Stefan cut himself off and took a deep breath through his nose, "Why would she do that? Didn't you tell her?"

Her silence answered for her.

Abruptly Stefan grabbed her and tore her off of Damon. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Elena started crying in earnest again.

"Oh, great. Now you can feel." Stefan was shaking, in rage or pain, Elena did not know. His hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white under the strain. "And you still didn't even bother to tell me? You called Matt instead!"

"Hey now," Matt stepped between them trying to play peacemaker. "Everyone just needs to calm down. We don't know anything for sure yet," but his voice betrayed his belief. Matt had lost some of the hope he had preached to Elena just weeks before.

Stefan rounded on him even as he kept his grasp on Elena's upper arm. "Don't-"

They were interrupted by a sudden gasp loud enough to startle the three of them out of their argument. The gasping quickly transformed into coughing as Damon fell to his side and tried to get himself on his hands and knees. His fingernails raked in the gravel beneath them.

Damon hacked uncontrollably. What the hell had happened to him? He groaned as he collapsed to his side. His eyes were tensely clenched afraid that should he open them there would be obnoxious light to burn his retinas. He felt like shit, worse than any hangover ever.

How did he get here again? Suddenly his memory kicked into gear, and he remembered the psychotic bicth's master plan. As if he needed another reason to hate the devil spawn.

So that's what it feels like to be brought back with magic ring power, Damon thought dizzily. Maybe if I'd known I wouldn't have been so quick to make Ric relive it. Maybe. Okay, probably not, but still…

His thoughts remained unfocused and convoluted as he struggled to get his bearings. I'm going to be sick.

He reluctantly opened his eyes to face the startled faces of his brother, Elena, and the Quarterback.

The sight gave him pause. Okay, Stefan and Elena he understood, but who the hell had invited Matt Donovan to his temporary funeral?

"I know I'm pretty to look at and everything, but the three of you look like you've never seen an alive dead person before," Damon quipped. He stopped for a second and blinked rapidly before he finished, "Which I know is not true."

"Damon," Elena gasped and in a second she had detached herself from Stefan and blurred over to grasp him in her arms.

The grip was too tight and his body protested weakly. "Ooomph, I assume haven't been gone too long, so when did you become the She-Hulk?"

Elena did not respond. Instead, she continued to ruin his shirt further with her tears.

She had trapped Damon's hands, so he could not even begin to extract himself or comfort her. Damon just sighed into her embrace.

Well, Damon was not a positive person by nature, but he was very glad he was not spitting up blood like Ric before he went all H. P. Lovecraft Re-animator on everyone. And he could not remember a conversation between his Mr. Hyde and the Original Bitch, so there was that.

After a few minutes of crying and awkwardness, he broke the silence.

"Can we go home now? I never got to finish my drink earlier."

Matt had taken his truck over, so he left on his own with the hopes of getting a couple hours of sleep before his shift at the Grill. Stefan had run to them, but Damon and Elena had both driven, which left an awkward moment where the tension that had all but disappeared earlier returned with a vengeance. Stefan and Damon had taken Damon's Camaro home, and she had driven back by herself.

Stefan was no longer visibly angry with her, but he also seemed to have no desire to spend time with her. It hurt Elena to see what had become of her relationship with him and only fuelled the guilt pooling in her gut. But it had not surprised her, things had been tense between them for a while. Actually, if she were being honest, Elena would admit that things had never quite been the same since Stefan had come back from Klaus.

Damon was the one acting strangely though. He seemed reserved, which was not a word she would have ever attributed to Damon not long ago. What had happened? Was he mad because she basically got him killed? Maybe she should apologize, but apologies had never been Damon and her thing. They just instinctually knew the other so well that words were almost never necessary to bridge a gap between them. In fact, even when apologies were uttered, it did not change anything. Damon and Elena were all about actions, not meaningless syllables.

Elena just hoped it would end soon. The car ride without him was already torturous enough, and after tonight, Elena never wanted him to leave her sight again.

Elena pulled up and parked in front of the Salvatore boarding house in time to see both Stefan and Damon exit the car.

Predictably, Damon made a beeline for his drink cart as soon as he passed the threshold inside. Stefan on the other hand just went upstairs to sleep without another word.

The house was quiet. It was almost six am, and most of the town was still asleep. Elena sat on the couch closest to the running fireplace and stared into the flames distractedly.

The clinking of the glasses ceased, and Elena looked up to Damon as he approached her. He paused for a moment as if debating where to sit before finally settling in beside her. He left a sizable amount of space between them though, and Elena could not fathom why.

The tension in the room was still palpable. Elena had felt awkward around Damon now. They had always been so honest with each other, but he just felt distant now. It was not the cold Damon that arrived in Mystic Falls with an agenda, and it was not the hesitant Damon who worried her feelings were borne of the sire bond. Elena felt as if Damon was resigned to something. He was still there for her, but it seemed as if he were stressed in her presence for whatever reason.

Elena had an idea. She stood up abruptly breaking the tentative stillness that had encompassed the room before and reached her hand out to Damon.

"Would you care to dance, Mr. Salvatore?" Elena's lips quirked in a teasing grin that felt unfamiliar from disuse but so right all the same.

Damon stared up at her. He appeared to be fighting a smile of his own with the reluctance she sensed from him. His smirk won out as he took her outstretched hand in a comforting grip. He drew her near and whispered for just the two of them. "Who am I to deny a lady? I'm not sure you can keep up though."

"I think we both know how well I can keep up with you," Elena replied cheekily. She still felt the misery swirling inside of her, but for now, just being in Damon's presence was enough to keep it at bay. She knew it would not last, but she would take what she could get.

Damon pulled her into his arms and rested one of his hands lightly on the curve of his back. His other had sought her hand to intertwine their fingertips.

They started swaying to the music of the quiet room, and Elena finally felt Damon relax in her hold.

She caught herself, as she had so many times before, staring at his lips. Their noses brushed as she found herself inching forward unconsciously. And judging by Damon's hooded eyes, she was not the only one. She realized that all pretenses of dancing had been dropped at some point, and now the two of them were completely still as the held each other.

Elena tilted her head up to close the distance between them. For a moment, it seemed Damon was going to meet her halfway when suddenly he pulled back with a joking smirk.

"I think it's time for bed. Dying just about killed me, you know how it is."

Elena looked at him confusedly. The restraint was lining his posture again, but he had been so calm not a second ago. So whatever it was that was bothering him was not a change in feelings. It almost looked like he was fighting his feelings for her for whatever reason.

"Yeah, it's late," was all she said. That was a problem for the morning anyway.

They climbed up the stairs in silence. At his doorway, he stopped and indicated towards the room that was officially hers. "Well, sweet dreams and don't let the bed bugs bite. Or don't bite the bed bugs, whatever works for you."

He made to leave, so Elena quickly grabbed his arm and tugged him back. He fell back against her chest-to-chest and looked at her in confusion. "Can I stay with you?"

She did not want to be alone with what was sure to be a night full of memories of her lost loved ones. And she did not want to leave him alone for a second. She was scared that if he left her sight, he would disappear without a trace.

Something in Damon's gaze finally softened, and without a word, he held the door open and gestured for her to enter. Damon threw her a shirt that probably cost more than her she had in her entire bank account and stripped off his own silently. She quickly removed her own clothes and donned his shirt. She noticed that strangely enough Damon was purposely not looking at her as she changed. What was going on with him?

They climbed into bed together as the weight of the day finally took its toll. Within minutes, all that sounded in the room was steady breathing.

And if at some point in the night they somehow wound up in each other's embrace, neither complained.

So that was very emotional, right? Hope it wasn't too much, but I felt Elena would have a strong reaction to getting her humanity back and possibly losing Damon at the same time.

The chapter was a little different than my usual ones. The first draft was going to end with more action and danger, but I thought enough is enough. Leave the endless depression and death to Julie P. haha. Hope you liked it anyways.

Thanks for all the reviews. I loved hearing the- 99% off base- theories of what had happened last chapter. It's ridiculous but the reviews seem to fuel my inspiration since I always worry I'm wasting my time with something no one cares about xoxo