A/N: Thank you for all of your reviews and support for this story!
Chapter 8
"What do you mean she caused her fever?" Alaric asks slowly.
"I was trying to get through to her and she started making threats about dying and no else would die for her. She said if I didn't let her go then she would make sure there was nothing left to save. There was a ring of fire, it was all very dramatic" I snark.
Jeremy rolls his eyes at me. "Even in a coma, she's trying to sacrifice herself?" Jeremy groans.
"Elena's kamikaze missions know no limitations" I sigh.
"She's too weak right now. Damon can't go back in until the infection and fever are gone." Stefan interjects.
"Can we afford to wait?" Caroline asks. "The psychopath that hurt her is probably on his way back and we have no clue who he is, when he will take her and what he needs her for."
"Arg! But if I go back in now she might off herself or the strain could kill her." I growl. This is a no win situation.
"We can't risk going in yet. We need to wait for the fever and infection to go away. High fever and seizures could cause brain damage. We can't risk it" Bonnie states.
Stefan and I look at each other and nod. "We wait." This wait is going to kill me.
Later that night, I sat with her. Part of me wanted to yell at her, part of me wanted to crawl into the bed with her and just hold her. "You don't get to give up on me Gilbert. You don't get to give up on your friends and family. We don't know what's coming. For all we know you being dead could be signing everyone's death warrant. Is that what you want? Jeremy dead? Alaric dead? Stefan dead? We're all willing to go to war to protect you but you have to fight. You're scared of everyone dying because of you. Well, we're all scared of you dying and leaving the rest of us alone. You're cornerstone that keeps this dysfunctional supernatural family together."
I reach out and take her hand pulling it to my chest. "You once told me we would survive, we always survive. Staying like this isn't surviving Elena. Its hiding. Elena Gilbert doesn't hide. Elena Gilbert is the strongest person I know and fights with every ounce of her being. I won't let you stay this way. I won't stop until you wake and are back with us, even if it kills me."
We had to wait almost a week for the infection that Elena had developed to resolve and the fever to be completely gone. Luckily there were no more seizures after that first day.
"Time to try again. Bonnie" I glance in her direction as I move to Elena's bedside.
"Damon, are you sure? Maybe we should wait to make sure she is strong enough for this." Bonnie answers.
"Maybe Bonnie's right. We don't want a repeat of her trying to make herself sick" Stefan agrees.
"So you all want her in a coma, vulnerable for whatever new doom and gloom that is coming. They want her in this coma so the coma is the one thing we should be focused on reversing."
"What if she dies while you try and wake her up?" A sound of panic in Jeremy's voice.
"I won't let her." I am slowly losing patience with everyone's wimpy attitude all of a sudden.
"You can't guarantee that Damon." Bonnie warns.
"I'll make you a deal judgey. Something happens to Elena, you can kill me like you've wanted to do since you met me." Bonnie is the key to sending me in and I know she can't pass up a possible chance to off me.
"I'll hold you to that deal."
"Never thought any different" I smirk at her. Please let it work this time. I'm okay dying to save Elena but I won't be able to live with myself if I cause her to die. I send a silent prayer up to anyone that will listen that I don't kill Elena as I descent into the blackness.
Opening my eyes I see I am in the high school gym. Looking around at the crowd everyone is dressed up. It looks like the 1960's. Ugh, the decade dance. I meander through the throngs of high school students and see the memory version of myself scanning the gym while Stefan and Elena dance.
"Caroline's here. They don't know what's going on. We have to tell her" Elena nods in the direction of the main entrance of the gym where Caroline enters with Matt on her arm. I can feel Elena's apprehension and fear. If I recall correctly we were on Klaus watch that night and it all turned to shit because Klaus had taken over Alaric's body.
"I'm on it." Stefan gives the memory version of me a nod, spins Elena away from him and then walks over to Caroline who is on the dance floor with Matt.
I watch myself grab Elena's hand at the end of Stefan's spin and pull her into my arms. How is it that Damon and I always end up as dance partners?
"How are you doing?" I ask Elena.
"Um, freaking out a bit. You?" Elena glances nervously around the gym.
"Cool as a cucumber. Come on, remember the last decade dance? The vampires were all, "ahh!" And you were all, "aahh!"" I throw my hands up in the air in mock fear, making faces at Elena.
"Right. And we won." Elena covers her face for a second then removes her hands flashing a triumphant smile. Not only did we win, but I fought back. For a few minutes I wasn't some weakling that needed her boyfriend to protect her. I was actually proud of myself that night.
"Yes! We did." I grab her hands and pull her close to the memory version of me. I spin Elena and pull her against me.
"You're good at this." Elena smiles. I forgot what a good dancer he is and how fun it is to dance with him. He seems to have a knack for making me laugh even when our world is crumbling around us. He reminds me that I used to be fun.
"I've got moves you've never seen" I do my eye thing at her and Elena laughs. I can feel her fear and apprehension lesson a bit. I spin her again and she continues to laugh. I bet he does have moves I've never seen. He's probably fantastic in the bedroom. Okay, not an appropriate thought for my boyfriend's brother.
At least I can give her a few moments of forgetting about the hell she has been thrust into. I'm sure hanging out with Stefan is safe and comforting but sometimes you just have to let go and lose yourself a little. Not exactly Stefan's forte. Her thoughts about me in the bedroom are a nice little ego boost, not that my overinflated ego needs it. I'm so whipped I would give anything to show her what I can do for in my bed. I need to stop thinking like this.
The gym fades away and Alaric's apartment replaces it. Elena is doing bench presses as the memory version of me enters the apartment.
"What? Are you going to bench press a vampire?" The memory version of me quips.
"Do you actually know what's happening right now? Stefan called me a human blood bag. He's a completely different person." Wow, even if I couldn't feel her anger her body language screams how pissed she is. The look she is wearing is usually reserved for me when she is mad at me. It's a little refreshing to see it directed at my saintly brother.
Great, now I'm being a douche and pushing the weight down as she tries to push it up.
"Umm! What are you doing?" Elena cries. The anger is ebbing a bit and frustration fills the void.
"Helping you out." I smirk.
"Damon!" She grunts trying to push the weight back up.
"Come on, Buffy!" I mock.
"Stop it!" Why do I put up with his crap? Oh, right because the bad-ass vampire somehow became my best friend and is the only reason I haven't gone completely insane with the whole Klaus and Stefan ripper fiasco.
Elena lets go of the weight and I catch it placing it on the rack.
"Like one obnoxious Salvatore isn't bad enough." I know he is just trying to lighten the mood, but I don't think I can handle our usual banter today.
Elena slowly pushes herself into a sitting position and I wander over playing with the weapons on the table across from her.
"You called. I'm here. What's your plan, oh warrior princess?" I pretend to prepare to stake someone.
"I want to lock Stefan up, at least until this Mikael guy comes, kills Klaus, and the compulsion breaks." Elena explains.
"Compulsion or not, Stefan's high on human blood, Ok? A lot of it." The smile leaves my face and I become serious.
"You've gotten him off of it before" she pleads pulling her hair out of her pony tail.
"This is different. It's not a stint in rehab, Elena. His humanity's gone. Lights out. No one's home."
"Then do it for me, Damon. Every single time I look at him, I feel like I'm going to break. And I'm not going to give him that satisfaction." Elena stands and steps towards me. A weight pulls on me. It's the weight of her despair. I'm being horrible to him by asking him to do this, but I can't live like this. I feel trapped, seeing the man I thought I loved as a soulless shell of himself.
Elena looks down and starts to turn away and I grab her hand placing it on my chest. "What are you doing?"
"Feel that? It's a sternum. Solid plate of bone." The memory version of me explains.
I whip her around pressing her back against my chest and move my hand below her ribcage. "Right here, just below the ribcage, next to the spine, that's your way to a vampire's heart." I say softly into her ear. Breathe Elena. I can't think when he's this close. I feel like my skin is on fire, damn this stupid whatever it is between us.
I remove my hand from Elena's back. "I'll do whatever it is you need me to do, Elena." He is always there for me. Supporting me and being my rock, my friend and asking nothing in return.
Elena turns to face me. "No one is going to hurt you. Especially not my brother." Her eyes shift from my mouth to my eyes. It would be so easy to kiss him right now. Stop it. Damon deserves better than loving me. Loving the doppelganger ends up in heartbreak or death. Look at what's happened to Stefan. Stupid feelings. I wish I had the vampire switch and could shut them off. It's all too confusing.
What does she mean I deserve better? She is the best of us. Always has been and always will be. Hearing all of these internal thoughts from her is killing me. I don't know how I am going to be able to handle seeing her with my brother knowing that her feelings for me were strong enough to leave her confused. I need her to wake up so I can get out of her head before my undead heart gets crushed even more.
Alaric's apartment dissipates and I find myself back in the blackness again. Searching in the distance there is a small shaft of light and I see Elena with a hybrid pinning her to the ground.
"You're too weak to protect them. You're human and fragile. Everyone else dies to save and protect you because you can't take of yourself." The hybrid growls in her face. Another fear.
Elena shakes her head tears streaming down her face. "I am weak. I want to protect them, but I just put them in harms way leading them to slaughter."
I run in their direction closing the distance quickly, tackling the hybrid off of Elena. The two of us wrestle and out of nowhere he is wielding a stake. He manages to jams into my shoulder. He quickly pulls the stake out and imbeds it into my stomach causing me to grunt in pain. The hybrid pulls the stake out and aims for my heart. I lock hands around the stake pushing it away from my body trying to wrestle the stake out of his grasp. I manage to knock the stake to the side and the hybrid suddenly jumps up running after Elena who is still on the ground a short distance away. I tackle him before he reaches Elena, we roll over and over and somehow he manages to pin me to the ground. This hybrid is much stronger than the last one. His eyes turn amber and his canines descend. I have one hand clamped on his throat and the other is pinned at my side. He pushes his head toward me snapping his jaw. It's taking all of my strength to keep him from biting me.
"Rip out his heart Elena." I yell at her. She has gotten to her feet watching us struggle just shaking her head.
"I'm too weak." She says softly. The hybrids jaws are now inches from me.
"Come on Buffy. You've been training for months to kick some supernatural ass. It's time to use it before this guy kills me. I can't hold him off much longer, Elena. RIP. OUT. HIS. HEART." I yell at her.
Before I can blink she moves behind the hybrid and plunges her hand in the hybrids back. She pulls back heart in hand blood dripping down her arm. The hybrid's body collapses against me. I push the body off of me and just lay on the ground panting for a minute. I sit up and a groan is forced out of my mouth as the pain from my shoulder and stomach hit me. Glancing up my eyes lock on Elena's.
"Elena, please. Wake up and come back to us." I plead.
She shakes her head and disappears. After a few minutes I push myself to my feet putting pressure on the wound in my stomach to get the bleeding to stop. Looking into the distance I see the hallway and walk until I reach it. I study the doors. There are two locked doors remaining, one on either side of the hallway. Testing the doors, the locks are sound.
"A little help?" I call into the blackness. I'm met with silence. Great, you help a girl kill a hybrid or two conjured from her deepest darkest fears and she leaves you hanging. Sighing, I look between the two remaining doors; I chose the one on the left. I ram my unstaked shoulder into the door over and over until I feel my shoulder dislocate. Grimacing, I stop and force my shoulder back into place with a loud 'pop.' To give my shoulder a break I start kicking at the lock. After kicking the shit out of the door for what seems like forever the door finally gives way. Taking a few deep breathes I move through the door.
I find myself back in the cemetery. I am immediately hit head on by confusion and fear forcing me to bend over and I place my hands on my knees to catch my breath. Elena is pinned to the ground as before but now the shadows are gone and I can clearly see who attacked Elena in the cemetery. I see blonde hair; I circle around so I can see his face. Fucking, son of a bitch. Griffin, the hybrid that cornered Elena when she was running with Alaric. He was going to die anyway, but now the asshole dies slowly and painfully. He pulls Elena to her feet redressing her and blurs away. He's a newbie, nowhere near strong enough to pull off this strong of compulsion. How did he do it?
I am thrown back into the hallway. I walk over to the final door. Knowing that this is the attack that nearly killed Elena, I hesitate. I take a large breathe and ram my shoulder into the door and it dislocates immediately. Shit! I'm not healing as I have been in here so long. I ram the door with my other shoulder wincing as the wound from the stake starts to bleed again. I'm about to make another go at the door when I hear a thud behind me. I turn around and see a sledgehammer.
"Thanks!" I call into the blackness. I seem to have made a little more progress with her subconscious.
Lining up the sledgehammer with the lock, I start swinging. The compulsion is strong. I thought it would only take one or two swings to break the lock, but I lost count after the twentieth stroke. The lock finally gives way when I feel like my arms are about to fall off. Dropping the sledgehammer, I stand in the doorway, close my eyes and step through.
Opening my eyes I find myself on the sidewalk in front of the Gilbert's house. I look up and see Elena on the porch her back to the house and a man with dark hair standing in front of her. I know this is the attack that led to the coma and I will have to watch Elena be beaten to within an inch of her life unable to change the outcome. I can already feel Elena's confusion and her growing fear. I walk slowly to the house.
"I hear you've been a naughty girl. Tsk. Tsk. Thinking of leaving Mystic Falls. That won't do Elena." He says softly.
"We all need a vacation, don't you think." Elena nervously laughs. Why is he staring at me like that? Why are my senses telling me to run?
"You still need to serve a purpose and then I will take you away from all of this." He blurs to Elena gripping her by the throat and pinning her against the house.
"What are you doing?" Elena asks struggling to break free.
He grabs her chin, lifting it so he can stare into her eyes. I step onto the porch and move next to Elena steadying myself to learn the face of her attacker. I turn to face him.
"It's finally payback time, you little son of a bitch" I growl.
A/N: Sorry for the cliff hanger! Please review.