Finding Elena

Bonnie was relaxing at home when she heard the knock on the door. She saw Elena on her doorstep and opened it immediately.

"Elena. Come on…" She was cut off by Katherine.

"I'm Katherine, Bonnie. And I need your help."

Bonnie took a step back in shock at what she had almost done. Then she realized who had stopped her.

"Why did you not let me finish?

"I told you I would only ask you to protect Elena. I will not attempt to enter your home unless provoked. But I need you to help me find Elena as soon as possible. She is in danger."

"You know she is in danger but don't know where she is?"

"I know the general direction, Bonnie. We need to leave immediately. Can you search for her while riding in our car?"

Bonnie nodded. "It would help if I had something of hers."

Katherine held up a shirt she had borrowed from Elena. Bonnie took it and went inside to get a few items which she brought out with the shirt. She followed Katherine to her car. There was a large man – probably a vampire – in the driver's seat.

Katherine sat in the front passenger seat. "I'll let you have the back. Is there enough room?"

"Yes." Bonnie said as she entered the car. "You know Elena will not like it if I am attacked."

"Yes I do," Katherine as the car started moving. "Anymore than I will like it if Elena is hurt because of any delay caused by you."

Bonnie looked into her cold eyes and nodded. She started her chants, thinking the car was traveling much too fast.

But Will he Do It?

Stefan was alert. He briefly considered entering the tunnel and going to the house to verify what he had been told by Isobel. He quickly discarded that idea. If he were to enter the house, it would be with as much sunlight as possible. Instead he blocked the tunnel with everything he could find. It was probably futile, but it would delay anyone else leaving that way. And it would tip him off because of the large amount of noise someone would have to make to leave the tunnel.

But burn the house down? What if there were people who lived there?

He sat where he had first seen Isobel. It was a good vantage point. Scanning the rest of the area, he saw a couple of small, detached buildings – one looked like a garage and one a storage shed. If he was really going to do it, he could probably find something flammable in one of those. And there was the damaged car.

But before he would consider this, he had to be sure. He went next to the house, and walked around the house slowly, concentrating on any sound he heard from the inside.

What little he did hear convinced him that Isobel was right. There would be a lot more noise coming from humans.

He was now officially on board. He began to look for flammable material to put around the house.

Quiet Time

Damon had stopped again. He hadn't spoken to Elena in what seemed like forever, and she was not sure what to do. She knew she would not be able to stand it if this was the way it would be between them.

She was standing next to a tree, but not leaning against it. She was getting stronger. She had only tried standing, not walking. So she tried that for a little bit. It was not terrible.

Damon was back-tracking a little. He did this from time to time. When he was speaking to her, he had told Elena that he was trying to obscure the trail he was leaving behind – even though it wouldn't work very well. It was difficult, very difficult to hide one vampire's trail from another. But he would do what he could.

Mostly they were just moving away from the farmhouse – in one direction or another. Elena had no idea where it was in relation to them. She did not know how far or what direction.

She did know that Damon was doing everything in his power to get her away from the danger. He was doing everything he could to protect her. She had only told him the truth. It was what he had demanded, and what he deserved. But seeing his reaction, and feeling what she was about his reaction, she was wondering if what she had said really was the truth. She was starting to doubt herself. Had she been telling herself she needed to figure out things with Stefan just to convince herself? What had she not figured out by now?

All Damon had ever done lately was help her. He never questioned her actions or her motives. He never mentioned disapproval of her pledge to Katherine as Stefan had, he just helped her when asked. She had ignored Damon's calls before. Stefan had ignored her calls at times. But Damon always took her call.

She had come to completely trust him. She recalled that when she had faced him in the past, he always had perfect control around her. When she was bleeding and hitting him, he stood there and took it. Then he convinced her to leave because it was too dangerous for her to be near him under the circumstances. Stefan drank some of her blood and totally lost control of himself.

Maybe she had spoken too quickly. Maybe…

He was back and she was in his arms again, moving.

"Damon, please talk to me."

He didn't. He just kept running.

The Trail

Isobel was hopeful. She was able to follow the vampire's trail without difficulty, which meant she could use all the speed she had.

And she wasn't seeing much of Damon's trail. This was good. She knew that the hostile vampire would not be covering it up. Damon was hiding it and doing it effectively. The other vampire would have to look for and find it. It would slow him down, giving her time to catch up.

She only wished she know how much of a head start he had.

The Finding

"Got her." Bonnie said. "Go South."

The driver made a completely unsafe u-turn, even leaving the road briefly, to return to where he could go south.

"How far?" Katherine asked.

"I can't be sure – not too close. A few miles, maybe. But we're going fast enough to cover them quickly."

"Can you tell how long before we have to leave the road?"

"No. I don't know where the roads are. I can only see as the crow flies."

"OK," Katherine said. "get us a close as you can. When it seems we are going away from her, we'll go on foot. Please follow us and keep her in your sights. If she moves, you need to let me know. We're faster than you and may be very far from where you are, but I'll be able to hear you."

Bonnie nodded and returned to her spells.

The Decision

Damon put Elena down again. She thought he was going to back-track again. She grabbed his arm as he turned from her.

"No, Damon. Not until you say something to me. Anything."

"He's getting close." Damon said, but he did not try to get out of her grasp.

"I'm sorry, Damon. I'm sorry if I said something that hurt you. That is something I never, ever want to do. Please, just tell me what you want from me. Anything."

Damon shook his head. This was not the time or place. Only Elena would think it more important to talk than to get away from a vampire trying to kill her.

It seemed the only way out was to give her what she wanted.

"I want a chance with you. A real chance where you are talking to me, thinking about me. Not thinking about Stefan or anyone else. Not spending your time with him or worrying what he will think of you if you do this or that. I want a chance where you only consider me. An up or down vote on just me."

"OK. I understand. How can I show you that it is happening?"

"I don't know. Figure out a way."

Elena looked at him and decided. She put her hands around his neck, pulled his head down and kissed him. He was not resisting.

But suddenly she was pushed aside – roughly.

'What have I done?' She thought to herself as she tried to recover from her stumble. She turned to look at his expression, but he was not there. She heard a collision and followed the noise.

They had been found. Damon and the other vampire had collided to start the battle.