Brace For Impact

"Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn."

- Mahatma Ghandi

Rise From the Ashes

Chapter Fourteen

Brief Recap:

The Mayor proved his own idiocy once more by ignoring her, "Damon Salvatore, we have tried to approach this civilly, but you have left us no choice."

Damon just looked at him incredulously. What was wrong with this guy? Between him and Abby, it was a wonder that Bonnie did not end up dumb as a doornail.

"These guns are filled with wooden bullets, so stand down immediately. We won't hesitate to use them," the Mayor continued firmly.

"It won't make any difference," Damon said. Wooden or metal bullets, it did not matter. Both would kill him easily as he was now.

Unfortunately, the Mayor thought he was insulting their remarkably questionable competence. "You like being a wise guy, huh? Well, how do you like this?"

Then Damon jolted back in pain as the wooden bullet pierced his stomach.

Damon fell back as the second bullet embedded itself into his thigh. This is just not my century, he thought with a wry smirk.

Damon lay on the ground and felt a sense of déjà vu. Almost a hundred and fifty years ago his own father had shot him and he had fallen back to the ground much like he was positioned now. Though, his father actually had a reason for shooting him he supposed. He still did not know what the hell was stuck up Bonnie's psychotic dad's ass.

The pain washed over him as he drifted in and out of awareness.

"Oh god, what the hell?" Matt exclaimed as he rushed forward. He was looking horrified at the bleeding Damon on the floor. He frantically pulled out his phone and started to dialing. "Dr. Fell? Can you come to the Grill? It's an emergency! Da-"

Matt was abruptly cut off as the Mayor strode purposely across the room and yanked the phone out of his hand. He hung up ignoring the buzzing from the other end.

"Son, I understand your fear, but it is misplaced here."

"Wait, give that back! I need to call Elena and Bonnie!"

"There's no reason to involve my daughter or anyone in this. The monster will be fine-"

"No, he won't, you don't understand! And he's not a monster-"

Mayor Rudy Hopkins was shaking his head steadily, "This creature does not deserve your defense. He has done unspeakable things."

Matt scoffed, "I'm not defending his personality or actions, I'm saying you don't understand. He is literally not a monster."

They were talking in circles. Matt was poorly conveying his meaning, and the Mayor was completely missing his point. While they were speaking, Liz had approached Damon's gasping body slowly and curiously.

Matt was well on his way to freaking out. "What the hell am I going to tell Elena?" She had just seen Damon "die" a few hours earlier, and Matt had seen firsthand just how distraught she had become over it. How much more death could she handle? Matt may not understand the absurd attraction, but he knew Elena really cared about Damon. "What did he even do to bring this on?" Damon had done so many awful things since coming to Mystic Falls, and no one had ever just shot him to his knowledge.

Mayor Hopkins straightened up. "He was guilty of threatening a public official: me. He vowed to harm me should I not comply with his demands."

"With all due respect, Mayor Hopkins, he kind of talks like that to me every time I see him. I don't take it seriously, he always talks to his brother like that, too." Matt seemed confused among all the chaos. Damon was far from his favorite guy, but Matt appeared intent of justifying Damon's typical tactless behavior. Or maybe he just was so accustomed to it that it seemed strange for someone to complain. Matt scratched his head absentmindedly, "Actually, I don't think I've ever seen him actually be nice to someone before."

"That hardly seems like the type of person you should defend then," Mayor Hopkins responded dryly.

"I'm not defending him. You don't understand what you just did. This is going to destroy Elena and she just lost his last family member. And Damon's kind of horrible, but you just killed him! While he was unarmed!"

"These creatures don't need standard weapons, and it takes more than a quick shot to keep them down." The Mayor was completely ignoring him, and Matt was at a loss of what to do.

"Forget that, we need to call 911!" Matt ran his hands through his head more and more furiously.

"Rudy," Liz cut in tentatively, "Look," the Sheriff indicated to Damon with her head. Her hands were pressed firmly into his stomach wound. As she spoke, Damon began coughing up blood. It dribbled down his chin uncontrollably making crimson trails line his jaw and neck. Liz pushed harder down on his stomach, adjusting her position over him for better pressure.

"Liz," Damon mumbled, his eyes glazed over making Matt question whether or not Damon was really aware of what was going on, "If you wanted to get close to me, all you had to do is ask." Damon's words were slurred with effort and his body trembled under some unseen tension.

Liz smiled at him tolerantly, "Well, how about I ask what happened to you in the last couple weeks? Will you answer that?"

Damon made a gurgling sound as he spit up more blood and murmured something that sounds like, "I'm a sucker for brunettes," before he seemed to lose consciousness.

Matt grimaced. Damon was as good as dead. He was killed not for any of his real legitimate crimes but because of a miscommunication that resulted in an accidental murder. He watched as comprehension dawned on the Mayor, and the deputy seemed to be panicking in guilt over having aided in killing a man. This was such a mess. He was about to demand someone with a phone call 911 again when Meredith Fell burst through the door.

Elena was enjoying the tentative peace with Caroline. She had been worried that her blonde best friend might hold her recent actions against her for a while. No one could hold a grudge that Elena knew like Caroline could hold a grudge.

Elena smiled hesitantly and linked her arm with Caroline as they always used to do when they were kids and needed to be close enough to be in "emergency gossip distance" as a ten year old Caroline had dubbed it.

"You never know when we're going to hear news that will change our lives," Caroline's eyes had widened dramatically, "Like what I heard from Dana in math about a certain blonde haired hottie succumbing to Elena Gilbert's charms."

They had giggled into their huddle because oh my god, Matt liked Elena. He liked liked Elena. This changed everything!

Elena sighed at the memory. Her giddiness had faded so much with the reality of her life, but at the same time, moments like this with Caroline made her feel that she could still partially grasp that simpler time.

And with that thought, Elena spontaneously turned to Caroline, "Let's get Bonnie before we go to the Grill. Matt's working now, and we can play some pool and get some food as we try to find a way to keep going on through this craziness."

Caroline beamed at her, "I like the way you think, Elena Gilbert."

And Caroline's natural enthusiasm was contagious. Elena's uncertain smile melted into something genuine, and she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She could do this. Her friends had not abandoned her, her humanity was back and had not caused her to fall into a pile of despair, and everyone left she loved was alive and well. Maybe things were finally looking up.

Caroline knocked on Bonnie's door twice. When there was no response for another couple seconds, she grew impatient and started knocking again to a specific beat. Elena could not help but let out a laugh when she recognized the beat of "Call Me Maybe." Only Caroline, Elena thought fondly. Caroline threw her a grin in response.

The door opened and a distracted Caroline almost whacked Bonnie on the head by accident.

Bonnie smiled uncertainly as both her friends froze guiltily, "You know, I heard you the first time."

Matt felt torn as he watched a grim faced Dr. Fell check over Damon's condition. He should call Elena. He should let her know that Damon's life hang in the balance because Elena deserved to know. And so did Stefan, Matt should call him as well. But the thing was Matt could read the stressed lines on Meredith's face as she monitored Damon's pulse and probed his still body.

Damon was breathing heavily with such audible strain that Matt doubted he was getting any air in.

"What happened, Matt? I don't understand," Liz was still applying pressure to the still bleeding wound, but she was focused on him for the time being.

Matt figured there was no harm telling them now, "Uh Damon took Elena away to New York because she was kind of going crazy, but it turns out that Elena had orchestrated they go there, so she could get revenge on Katherine. Damon found her and tried to stop her but somehow got cured in the process. I don't really know, it's all very… weird." At Liz's disbelieving look, "Yeah, you should probably ask Caroline. I think she knows more than I do."

"Caroline knows? Why wouldn't she tell me?" Liz now looked hurt, but Matt could not bring himself to really care. He could only imagine Elena's reaction. After last night, she would lose it.

"Umm Damon was trying to keep it quiet, I think she, Elena, Stefan, and I were the only ones who knew."

"I did, too," Meredith spoke absentmindedly still concentrated on her patient. She paused and grimaced, "He's going into shock, even if we had an ambulance here, I don't think he would live long enough to reach the hospital."

"Check his hand," Matt pointed out helpfully, "If he still has his ring, we just need to find someone supernatural to kill him before he dies."

Matt ignored the confused cries from Mayor Hopkins and his deputy as Meredith dutifully looked over both of Damon's hands.

"No, there's only his daylight ring."

"What? He was just wearing it last night!"

Elena was glad Bonnie seemed overjoyed at the idea of girl time at the Grill. Okay, "girl time" with Matt but still.

After they had piled into Elena's car, they had filled Bonnie on everything she had missed recently, and Elena would not forget her comical reaction to Damon's newfound humanity any time soon.

More worrisome, however, was Bonnie's explanation of her recent weeks. She seemed to be suffering memory blackouts and the expression circle had been completed. Elena could not handle thinking about it. She could not imagine the possibility of Alaric and Jeremy's resurrection along with every vampire who haunted her nightmares still long after their deaths. She could not deal with Mikeal, the tomb vampires, Ben McKittrick, Noah, Kol, Gretta, Dr. Martin, Sage, or any of the other supernatural threats she had faced down in the past couple years. Once was enough. She forced all those thoughts out of her mind, she was determined to have one day of relaxation with her friends before facing their usual dangerous drama.

As they approached the Grill, the first thing Elena noticed was Damon's Camaro parked in the lot. Any doubt of Damon's whereabouts vanished at the sight. Typical, Damon, Elena thought affectionately, The bar is always the first stop in a non-crisis. Elena absentmindedly recognized that there were very few cars, but that was probably because it was still early in the morning.

A smile was still lingering on her lips when Bonnie stopped suddenly.

"What is going on?" the witch muttered.

Elena looked to where Bonnie was focused on and froze. There were deputies stationed at the entrance of the Mystic Grill to prevent people from going in.

"Damon's car is here," Elena spoke as her breathing quickened. She had a really bad feeling about all this, "And so is Matt's truck."

"That's my mom's car," Caroline pointed to one of the only other vehicles around, "And isn't that your Dad's car right next to it, Bonnie?"

Elena was out of the car and running before Caroline had finished speaking. The car was still running, but Elena could not care less. Something was wrong, she could tell. And two people she loved were in there, both with the incredible ability to attract danger.

The deputies moved to stop her, and she snarled ferociously, "Move or I'll make you."

"Miss, no one is allowed inside at the moment, if you'll just return at another time-"

"Out of my way," Elena had shoved the asshole out of the way before he could finish talking and barreled through the door.

The sight that greeted her made her stop dead.

The air whooshed out of her abruptly, and she felt as if she could not move for a moment. But only a moment and then she was flinging herself into action.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Elena started hyperventilating. What? How? Why did this keep happening?!

Damon was shaking on the floor with two large patches of red decorating his clothes on his thigh and stomach. And when Elena kneeled down beside him, she found herself in a scarily huge pool of his blood that was still seeping out. "I don't understand. I just don't- what is going on- how?" Elena felt as if her sense of logic had decided to walk out on her. Nothing made sense anymore.

"Mayor Hopkins uhh shot him not knowing he was no longer a vampire," Matt spoke up from behind her. Funny, she had not even noticed him.

Elena started to draw her wrist to her mouth to feed him her blood when she was struck with a painful realization. Damon was gasping like a fish out of water so out of it that he did not even register her presence. She looked at Meredith who shook her head silently. No amount of vampire blood would help at this point, it could only do so much. And he already had a glass of it in his system that seemed to be doing nothing to help.

Still functioning on auto pilot, Elena changed tactics. She may not be able to heal him, but she could still ensure he would come back. Elena frantically fished in her pocket for the eternity ring she had luckily decided to bring along and moved to place it on Damon's finger. Bonnie's dad was human, but she was not. If she could just put it on him and kill him before he died…

"Elena, no!" a voice shrieked next to her ear. Elena was wrenched off of Damon before she could secure the ring on his finger. It tumbled uselessly to the ground beneath her. No, no, no, no, no… What was going on? She looked to the side and saw Caroline had picked her up to draw her away from Damon.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Elena, you can't. Damon's already died twice with that thing. Wasn't the third death the start of Evil Alaric? We can't have Damon running around with a murderous alter ego. His ego ego is murderous enough!"

Elena heard Matt exclaim, "Wait, he's died again in the last couple hours since I saw him? How is that even possible?" But she just ignored him.

"I don't care! We'll fix it, and Damon will be fine! Let me go! Let me go!" Elena thrashed violently in her grasp. She would take a Damon with split personality over no Damon. And Bonnie would probably be able to stop it anyway, right? She was stronger now! Everything would be fine if Elena could just reach Damon!

As Elena strained in Caroline's faltering grip, she heard a sound that made her blood run cold. It was just a quick exhalation of breath, but it was enough. Elena knew what it meant, she was practically a specialist of death by now.

Meredith checked her watch quickly, before muttering, "Time of death: eleven fifty seven."

Somehow those words made everything real for Elena again, the world started turning again, her vision focused again, and pain encompassed every fiber of her being once more. But only for a second, then a new sensation overwhelmed her.

Rage.

Elena yelled in fury and slammed her heel on Caroline's instep before butting her chin with her head- just like Damon taught her to, she thought distantly. She charged forward and slammed Mayor Hopkins into the wall with a death grip on his throat. How dare he? What right did he have to take away her Damon? How dare he?!

"Elena, stop!"

"Wait, don't!"

"No, Elena!"

"Let him go!"

She heard all the voices from far away but paid them no heed. They were not her target. He was. And she was going to make him pay!

"Why?" she shouted in his face, slamming him against the wall again for good measure and gave him no time to respond before she continued to scream.

"Elena, get off my father!" She heard Bonnie's cry, but she did not care. Did her father leave Damon alone? Did he?!

"How dare you? I hate you! I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU!" And just like that, she was breathing heavily not able to mutter another word. He throat felt sore from her shrieking and her cheeks were wet from the tears that would not stop raining down her cheeks. She wiped at her eyes furiously but to no avail. Somehow her grip on Bonnie's dad had loosened until she was just grasping his shirt.

He looked at her pained, but Elena did not want his guilt. He did not feel bad about killing Damon, only because it hurt her. Damon was just an afterthought to him. That was probably what everyone was thinking actually. Why should she cry so much over Damon Salvatore, the monster? And she hated them more for it. She hated them all for not understanding how amazing and lovable Damon Salvatore is. Was. She did not even know at this point.

Elena slumped to the ground ungracefully suddenly boneless. Was any of this even worth it? Could she go on having lost her entire family and the man she loved? It all seemed too much.

Elena was bawling on the floor at this point, and everyone seemed hesitant to approach her.

"Elena," Caroline started quietly, "He still has Stefan's blood in him, he probably will come back."

Elena pressed the heels of her palms to her aching eyes. Eyes should not be allowed to shed so many tears in so few days. Her hands were clenched so hard that her knuckles had turned white under the strain and it drew attention to the warm metal decorated one of her fingers.

This stupid thing, Elena thought viciously. Her being a vampire had taken everything from her. It brought that moronic cure hunt that had stolen Jeremy and now Damon from her life. She jerked her daylight ring off with violent force and threw it across the room. No more.

"Elena!" That was Matt this time, but she still did not look up. Since she was in the shadows still, the sunlight had yet to make her skin sizzle. But that could easily be rectified. Prying her gaze off the Grill's dirty floor reluctantly, Elena could see a nearby patch of sunlight shining through an open window. She could get to it easily.

Suddenly she was tackled by Caroline again who forced her daylight ring back onto her finger. Ironic, Elena thought vaguely, Since she was the one who stopped me from doing the same to Damon.

"Elena, I know you're upset, but you're not thinking clearly. Damon will very likely wake up a vampire again." Caroline was obviously exerting her full strength to pin Elena to the floor, but she need not have bothered. Elena was limp beneath and could not possibly imagine mustering up the strength to do anything ever again. Caroline continued, "And he'll wake up and wonder where you are, you don't want that, do you? Just take it easy for now, we'll deal with whatever comes when it does." Then discouraged by her lack of response, Caroline let up a little and shook her, "Do you hear me?"

"I don't want to be there when he doesn't wake up!" Elena cried piteously, "I don't want to watch him leave me! He promised he would never leave me! I don't want to see him break that promise!"

"Care," Matt called. Caroline looked to him desperately, and he made a gesture out of Elena's range of sight.

Next thing she knew, Caroline's hands were grasping her neck. And then blackness.

Elena woke up to chaos.

Oh, the world must be ending, she thought distantly. What a nice change of pace, she added sarcastically.

Stefan was bellowing loudly disturbing her peace. She just wanted to go back to bed, why did he have to wake her up?

She shifted to face Damon's side of his bed in the hopes that she could get him to shut his brother up when she was faced with a far more gruesome looking Damon that she anticipated.

Across the room of the Grill, Damon lay completely still. His eyes were opened partially and dried blood had marked paths from his lips onto his neck.

All lethargy that had overtaken Elena immediately disappeared. She remembered what happened in a rush and sat up fast enough to make her head spin. She could see Stefan ranting and raving at a defense looking Mayor Hopkins. Bonnie had positioned herself, so she could step in and defend her father should things escalate violently but she did not look like she agreed with him. In fact, her beautiful face was marred with distress. Caroline was next to her mother and Meredith perched on the stools at the bar sipping some warm beverage. All the deputies had disappeared. And Matt was- right next to her apparently.

"Hey, Elena," he started gruffly, "Sorry about that. We were just worried about you. You had us all pretty scared."

Elena just nodded. She felt numb all over. It was not the peaceful numbness that came with the switch, but the standard numbness of shock. And Elena feared her time with that bliss would run out quickly. "How long have I been out?"

"Just a couple hours," Matt said, and then he added unsurely, "Caroline said Damon will wake up soon." If he's going to were the unspoken words to finish that sentence. "Care called Stefan. He's losing his mind and furious at Mayor Hopkins. Bonnie's trying to keep the peace, but I think even she is rattled, you know? How are you feeling?"

Elena could not answer. How was she feeling? The words "like hell" fluttered within her mind, but she pushed them away.

"You come into town, turn everything around, and go around shooting people without even checking to see if they will be okay? Where do you get off?!" Stefan was visibly enraged, but Elena could not agree more, so she just watched the growing confrontation silently.

"Your brother was a menace and a threat to this town-"

"Really? You've spent so much time here that you know that? Did Sheriff Forbes and Dr. Fell agree with that assessment?" Stefan indicated to the two very uncomfortable looking women at the bar.

"They would have if asked, I'm sure." The women in question were silent. They were not ranting about Damon's greatness, but neither of them even so much as glanced at Mayor Hopkins though. In fact, Elena saw Liz run her hand over her face and shake her head soundlessly. She knew that neither of them would agree with Mayor Hopkins here.

"Oh, and what about your own daughter? Does she agree with your opinion? She must have thought he was a huge menace when he was determinedly searching an entire island just to make sure Bonnie wasn't left behind just a couple weeks ago! Or when he fed her his blood to save her life a couple months ago when she was attacked by a vampire! I'm sure she agreed then!" It was funny, Elena thought, Stefan really only defended Damon when everyone else was against him. Most of the time, he preferred to ignore his brother's nobler aspects. How typical.

Bonnie's dad looked at little unsure now, but he barreled on anyway, "Now, you're just making stuff up to defend your dangerous brother."

"He's telling the truth, Dad," Bonnie muttered uncomfortably, "Damon was the one who found me and brought me home those weeks ago." Elena knew logically that she had seen weirder things in her lifetime than Bonnie defending Damon, but it still seemed too surreal for her. She supposed that just like how Damon pretended he did not care for Bonnie, Bonnie pretended she still hated Damon.

But none of that mattered because Damon was dead.

Stefan laughed humorlessly, "I'm glad you really researched the man you hunted down and killed before going after him!"

"Now wait a second," Mayor Hopkins started when he regained his bearings, "Don't act like he was blameless here. I saw with my own two eyes-"

They would never know what he saw with his own two eyes because a now familiar to Elena rasping sound cut him off.

It was the most heavenly noise Elena had ever heard.

Damon coughed and looked around at the unusual group around him blearily. "Well, sorry to keep you all waiting. I see you started the party without me though. Does anyone have a drink?"

And that's the next chapter! I really hope some people are still enjoying this because I keep getting unfollowed and unfavoritied, so I know some people are losing interest

I can't make promises on my next update since my school year is ending, and I have finals. But if you review, it inspires me, so please click that button and let me know how you feel!