A/N: I am reposting this chapter. I received a couple of PMs that part of the chapter didn't load correctly and I have fixed it. Sorry for any confusion.
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Chapter 13
Elena was exhausted after just a couple of laps up and down the hallway. I took advantage of her needing a nap to leave her with Alaric and Stefan, so I could to feed, shower and catch up on some sleep myself. When I arrive back at the hospital, its late evening and no one is around except for Alaric.
"How long has she been asleep?" I ask nodding my head at Elena as I slip out of my leather jacket.
"Only about a half hour. She insisted on walking the halls again and forced herself to do twice as much as earlier in the day. I suggested she take a break, but…" Alaric runs his hands through his hair.
"Her stubbornness wouldn't let her" I finish. Looking at Alaric, he seems exhausted. In dating Jenna, he never signed up for all of this, but I give him credit for sticking around.
"Go home, Ric. Take tomorrow off, help the munchkins with the research, and give yourself a break from this place. Stefan and I can stay with her during the day." I offer. Can't have the guy dropping dead on me from a heart attack or exhaustion.
"Elena'll be home soon. She needs us even more now that she is awake. But I will at least leave for the night." Alaric stands up. "I'll see you in the morning." Alaric waves over his shoulder.
Groping through my jacket pocket, I pull out a book to occupy the time since I can't talk to Elena anymore without risking waking her up. After a few hours of reading I hear a whimper and look up to see Elena's face scrunch up. Damnit, another nightmare.
"Elena, wake up." Elena starts thrashing her head around.
"I won't leave, I'll stay" Elena whimpers.
From the previous night, I anticipated she would start swinging soon and I caught her wrists before she could connect a punch. "Elena, it's a nightmare."
"I'll stay" she shouts struggling again to try and hit me.
"Elena, wake up" I say more loudly.
Elena bolts up in bed shaking and I quickly let her go putting my hands up in front of me. "D-Damon?" She blinks a few times at me, tears threatening to spill over.
I pull her into my chest. "It was a nightmare. You're okay."
"I'm okay. I'm okay" she repeats softly. I stroke her hair and she clings to my shirt. We stay this way for a while, the room silent except for the sounds of us breathing. Eventually I feel the grip on my shirt loosen and Elena sits up. I adjust the bed so it is more upright and she leans back.
"Sorry about your shirt, it's all wrinkled now." Elena looks at me sheepishly.
"The shirt will survive. Do you want to talk about it?" I really don't know if she'll open up about her nightmares, but she needs to talk about this stuff before it eats her alive. Even my insensitive ass knows that keeping emotions inside after such a traumatic event can't be healthy. I'm a pretty crappy listener, but if she is willing to talk then call me Mr. Sensitive. This girl has me totally whipped.
"I think something was going on with the hybrid in the cemetery" Elena says. That is not what I expected Elena to say when I asked about her nightmare.
"Some of the things he and Tyler said were the same like I was 'his' and they both called me 'love.' Even though their voices are different, the cadence of the speech was identical. Could something have taken him over like Tyler?" Elena asks her brow furrowed as if deep in thought.
"In this town, anything is possible, but that little hybrid bastard still has a death sentence hanging over him. I may have let you talk me out of killing Tyler for the time being, but that little asshat Griffin will not be spared. He still cornered you when you were out running with Alaric and helped bloodjack you." I am desperately trying to keep my anger at bay.
"It feels weird that you say all of those things." Elena shakes her head. "Do I even want to know what else you saw?" Elena asks warily.
Settling next to her on the bed I pretend to be deep in thought. "Well there was this one memory of you kissing some red headed woman in black lingerie. Oh, wait maybe that's one of my fantasies." I look down at her and wiggle my eyebrows.
"Damon" she says in disgust, but I can see the slight pull at the corner of her mouth as she tries to keep from smiling. "Seriously, what was it like?"
I sigh. "It was like being a ghost, I guess. I could see the events taking place, but I couldn't touch anything or change the outcome. What you saw, felt, thought in that moment was how I experienced things." I explain softly.
"You knew what I felt and thought?" Her eyes grow wide.
"Yep" I pop the p sound. "You have quite the complicated little brain there Miss Gilbert." I tap her temple with my index finger.
"Oh." She pauses for a minute and I can hear her blood rushing causing her face to turn red. She must be remembering some of the naughty thoughts she had of me. "Spill Damon. What memories did you see? Did you see anything really embarrassing?" That was a rather abrupt ending to the discussion of me hearing her thoughts. She seems a little too eager to discuss the memories right now. Avoiding and deflection to a new topic. She really has been hanging out with me too long; she's picking up my techniques.
"Someone is stalling going back to sleep, so I will divulge one memory and one memory only and the rest will wait for another day." I wink. Which memory can make her feel relatively happy and want to go to sleep and not result in her wanting to slap me?
"I saw the Miss Mystic Falls competition when you got stuck dancing with me." I lay my head back on the bed getting lost in the memory myself for a minute.
"I don't seem to recall getting stuck with you. I recall you're brother being on a blood bender because of my stupidity in feeding him my blood and you saving me from total humiliation at not having an escort." She smiles. "Despite the chaos of the day I had fun dancing with you."
"I had fun as well" I reply quietly.
Fun and relaxation is something that has been missing from Elena's life for a while. Ever since I saw the memory of her wanting to leave I have been thinking she needs another Georgia experience. A temporary break from her life. "I know you wanted a break from the supernatural chaos."
"I was going to tell you…tell everyone before I left" Elena interrupts with an urgent tone looking up at me her big doe eyes full of remorse.
"I know. We all know you wouldn't just up and leave without a good-bye. Unless I kidnapped you that is. We all understand you wanting and needing a break. When this is all done and we kill whatever new baddie is out there, I think you should get away. Stefan and I have a place in Italy. You, Jeremy, and Alaric should go have a dysfunctional family vacation. Just give the word on when you want to leave and I'll make sure the jet is ready."
"I can't just fly off to Italy." Elena says sadly.
"You can and you will. You need to live Elena, not just exist waiting for the next supernatural crisis. If you can't go for you then go for Alaric. You silly teenagers may be the death of him, oh wait you were." I am waiting for the slap about making light of the time she had to kill Alaric in order to save his life.
"Uhg, Damon." How sad is it that I love her chastising tone. "Wait, you own a jet?" Elena asks.
"No, but I have access to one. And before you ask, it's not through compulsion." I shrug. "Now it is time for sleep." I pull her into my side in a half hug before pulling the blanket tightly around her. I move to get off of the bed, but she catches my arm.
"Don't…please." Her face looks up at me full of fear.
"Do you want me to call Stefan?" I ask. She obviously needs to be comforted so I assume she wants her boyfriend to do it. Plus I am already in enough trouble with my brother; I don't want another lecture from him about Elena.
"No" she says simply.
"It's going to be okay, Elena. I'm not going anywhere. If you want I can help with the dreams." Elena just shakes her head no. Why doesn't she want Stefan? Knowing her it's because she doesn't want him to be uncomfortable being in a hospital. Why does she always put everyone else's feelings before her own? I put my arm back around her and she leans against my shoulder. She snuggles deeper and mumbles something even my vampire hearing can't pick up. A sense of peace washes over me, but as with many of my feeling lately the emotion seems foreign. Ignore the mystery for the now, Salvatore and enjoy the moment. The woman you love is sleeping snuggled against you and this moment may not come again.
Days pass of Elena pushing herself to walk more and more to increase her strength and I laughed at all the times she shoveled as much food down as she could stomach to try and gain some weight back. A little over a week after Elena woke from her coma, the doctor finally discharged her. I think if they had kept her for even one more day, she may have staged a revolt she wanted out of the hospital so bad. The nightmares continued throughout her hospital stay. She continued to refuse my help with them. Even Stefan offered at one point and she refused him as well. I think she had enough of people getting inside her head.
Caroline threw a welcome home dinner for Elena and once done Stefan and I left so Elena could have some girl time with Caroline. Vampire Barbie promised to call if anything happened. Back at the Boarding House I find a bottle of bourbon that will suffice for me to drown myself in and I sit in my favorite chair by the fire. As I raise my glass to my lips my hand starts to shake as an overwhelming sense of fear hits me. My chest tightens making it difficult to breathe just as my phone starts ringing.
"Couldn't go five minutes without thinking about this hot muscular bod, blondie." I quip ignoring the strange emotions flooding me.
"You and Stefan need to come here now. The hybrid just showed up at the door. Elena is here in the house and safe with me." Caroline explains.
"I'm on my way." Growling I throw my glass in the fireplace. A day, she's only been home a day and they are already tormenting her by showing up at her house. What the fuck do they want from her?
"Stefan" I shout. "We need to go. NOW!" I grab my leather jacket and emergency bag of weapons and head out to the camaro. Stefan blurs to the passenger side door.
"What's going on?" Stefan asks.
"Caroline called. A hybrid showed up at Elena's door. She's safe inside, but we are going on a little hybrid hunt." I drop the bag of weapons in his lap.
We park in front of the house and Stefan heads inside to check on Elena and talk to Caroline as I search around the perimeter of the house. I meet Stefan on the front porch.
"It was one of the hybrids from the surveillance pictures." Good. I have been itching to kill them anyway. Stefan and I search the neighborhood for over an hour before returning to the house having found no sign of any hybrids.
Elena is sitting on the couch cross legged ready for bed, a cup of tea in her hands. Stefan sits next to her. "Are you okay?"
"Fine. He can't get in the house. We're all on vervaine so he shouldn't be able to compel us. We're okay." She says firmly. I wasn't certain if she was saying it to convince herself or the rest of us.
There's a knock at the door. Everyone tenses ready to tear apart whoever is on the other side of the door. Hearing a heart beat I open the door with a flourish. "Please do enter witchy." Bonnie scowls at me as she walks past.
"I have a spell that should help with our hybrid problem. It will offer extra protection to the house and for Elena." Bonnie sits down on the floor and places her grimoire on the coffee table.
"What is it?" Jeremy asks.
"I can place a magic barrier around the house and surrounding area that will alert us if anything supernatural crosses the barrier. It won't keep the supernatural out but will give us advanced warning that they are close. We set the barrier for a few miles radiating out around the house." Bonnie explains. "If anything crosses the barrier, we will be alerted and have some time to prepare to fight or flee."
"Isn't here a spell that could keep them out entirely?" Stefan asks.
"I can spell the house but then Elena would be trapped inside like when we tried to keep her here when she tried to take off with the moonstone." Bonnie frowned.
"We are not doing that again. I won't be a prisoner" Elena pipes up.
"Don't get all broody. One set of worry lines is enough" I smirk motioning my head at Stefan who rolls his eyes at me.
"If the alert goes off every time something supernatural crosses the barrier how are we supposed to help protect her without tripping it ourselves?" Caroline asks.
"When I cast the spell I can have it ignore all supernaturals that we want to freely cross the barrier while any other supernatural entity, vampire, hybrid, werewolf, witch, will trigger the alarm." Bonnie looks at Caroline.
"What is the alarm?" I ask moving sit on the back of the couch.
"Oh, right. Everyone put one of these on." Bonnie pulls a handful of metal disks on leather strings from her bag. "If the alarm is triggered these will grow hot."
"I'm already excluded from triggering the barrier since I am setting the spell, but for the rest of you I need blood." Bonnie pulls out a silver knife and a small bowl from her bag. Stefan stands up and crosses the room to stand next to me and Caroline. The three of us hold out our hands and Bonnie makes quick work of slicing each of our palms before squeezing some blood into the bowl. Alaric throws us each a towel.
"Okay, Elena. You're turn." Bonnie turns to her.
"Why?" Elena asks.
"All supernaturals. That includes doppelgangers."
"Oh, right." Elena glances quickly at Stefan and back to Bonnie before holding out her hand. I watch Stefan while out of the corner of my eye, I watch Bonnie cut Elena's palm. The smell of her blood floods my nostrils and I see Stefan close his eyes as he picks up on the smell himself. He steps forward slightly. My body tenses ready to pounce if he moves another inch. He stops and turns heading into the kitchen. A wave of sorrow hits me. I turn to look at Elena. Her eyes are downcast and she lets out a slight sigh. Alaric pulls out a first aid kit and moves to the couch to bandage Elena's hand.
Bonnie closes her eyes and chants for a few minutes. "Done."
"Thanks Bonnie." Elena got up and gave Bonnie a hug. "You're a good friend." I hear her whisper.
"I'm going to bed." There is a chorus of good nights as Elena crosses the room. I watch Elena as she slowly heads to the stairs. She places her foot on the bottom step and looks down the hall to the kitchen with a look of sadness on her face. She looks at the living room again and I catch her eye. She gives me a small smile and runs up the stairs. I stare at the stairs listening to Elena settle into bed.
"Drink?" Alaric asks snapping my attention away from Elena's breathing and steady heartbeat indicating she is already falling asleep.
"Definitely." Alaric heads into the kitchen and I follow and we find Stefan leaning against the counter eyes closed taking deep breathes.
"Okay, there brother." I eye him suspiciously.
"Fine" he answers curtly.
Alaric rummages through cupboards for a while before sighing in pleasure. He sets a bottle of whiskey on the counter and reaches for three glasses. I pour a shot for Stefan and slide it in his direction.
"Drink up, Stefan. It does a body good." I pour a shot for myself and Alaric.
I raise my glass but before it reaches my lips I again feel tightness in my chest. The sensation is so jarring that I actually have to grip the counter causing Stefan to give me a weird look. Then I hear a whimper. I reach out with my senses and I see Stefan doing the same thing.
"Please don't" Elena cries in her sleep.
I start to take a step towards the stairs, but Stefan glares at me and takes off for Elena's bedroom.
"What's going on?" Alaric asks watching Stefan head down the hall to the stairs.
"Elena's having a nightmare" I answer downing my shot.
Suddenly I realize why many of these emotions I have felt are so foreign to me lately. The emotions aren't mine. They are Elena's. I storm down the hall finding Bonnie at the door putting her coat on to go home. I grab her by the labels on her coat and pull her towards me so we are inches apart.
"What did you do to me?" I growl.
Before anyone can react my head erupts in pain forcing me to let the witch go. I feel like someone is driving hot stakes into my brain and my legs give out at the intensity of the pain as I claw at my head in hopes the pain will end.
"Bonnie stop it" I hear Alaric yelling through the haze of pain. My head finally feels like it's not going to explode and I stagger to my feet.
Bonnie glares at me. "You lay a hand on me again and I won't stop until there's nothing left of your brain. Do you want to spend eternity in a vegetative state?"
I growl fists clenched at my sides trying to decide if she can make good on that threat.
"Damon, what the hell are you talking about?" Caroline steps between me and Bonnie.
"Elena's motions. I can still feel them." I can't fucking belief I didn't realize this before. I have the worst luck with witches.
"What?" Caroline looks at Bonnie her eyes wide. "Oh, Bonnie. What did you do?" Caroline gently chides.
"I didn't do anything. It was a side effect of the spell we used to wake Elena up." Bonnie crossed her arms and continued to glare at me.
"But you knew this would happen before you cast the spell, but decided to hold back that little detail. Am I right?" Alaric raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. If I wasn't so fucking pissed I might have laughed at how much he looks like a scolding dad. Bonnie looks at the floor under Alaric's scrutinizing gaze and nods her head.
"That's why you insisted it was me that went in, isn't it?" The way she kept hesitating when she explained the spell I should have known there was more to it then she let on. I already tried to kill Bonnie once when Elena still thought I was a psychotic ass and she barely forgave me. I doubt she would ever forgive me if I actually succeeded in killing her best friend. Fuck! I hate being the better man.
"We all know how you feel about Elena, Damon. You need to feel the pain that you cause and move on from her" Bonnie says through clenched teeth. I know I've hurt everyone in this room in some way, but for Elena's sake I have tried to make amends. Now I am wondering what the point was.
"Whether or not I have feelings for Elena is none of your concern" I hiss at her. First my brother, now the witch bitch has to give me a lecture about my feelings for Elena. How can I make snapping Bonnie's neck look like an accident so I don't get staked by Elena or Alaric in my sleep?
"Elena is my best friend, Damon, and I don't want her to hurt anymore than she already has. I just want her to be happy." Bonnie throws her hands up in exasperation.
"Do tell, judgey, what will make Elena happy? Because I haven't been feeling sunshine and rainbows from her these days." I lean against the wall and glare at her.
"She was happy with Stefan once. At least Stefan will walk away when it's time for her to have a normal life, to get married, have kids, a career. You were supposedly in love with Katherine for 145 years and stopped at nothing, hurt whoever you wanted to try and be with her. Now it's Elena you think you love and you'll do whatever it takes to get and keep her. You're so selfish you'll turn her even though she doesn't want to be a vampire. You don't know how to love Damon. You obsess and destroy those you supposedly love." Bonnie rants finally out of breathe.
Why can't anyone get that all I want is for Elena to be happy? Everything I have done over the last year, while at times impulsive, has always been to keep her safe and give her a chance at a life. No one sees that. They see I'm the evil brother, which is true. Even when I was human I was the lesser of the Salvatore brothers. I know better than anyone that I can't give Elena a normal life. I often have wished to be human again so I could give her all of things that I can't give her in being a vampire.
"But Bonnie, Elena and" Caroline gives Bonnie a confused look.
"Shut up Caroline" Bonnie interrupts glaring at her best friend.
Ignoring their interaction I focus on Bonnie. "Reverse the spell or Elena's sadness will be guaranteed as she will be short one judgmental friend." I growl.
"I can't. Once you entered her mind, the connection was made and can't be undone." Bonnie shoves her hands into her coat pockets.
"How long will it last?" Alaric asks putting a hand gently on my shoulder.
"It's not permanent, but I don't know how long it will last." Bonnie turns towards the door.
"This is fucking fantastic" I mutter.
"Caroline, you need to take me home. NOW." Bonnie opens the door and runs for Caroline's car.
Caroline grabs her coat and looks at me sadly. "I'll talk to her. See if there is anything she can do. I'm sorry." Caroline runs after Bonnie.
I hear Blondie ask what the hell Bonnie is up to with Elena's feelings and I tune them out as I won't want to hear anymore about how much Bonnie hates me.
Jeremy looks at me briefly before dropping his eyes and mumbling something about going to play video games. From his body language I am guessing he is in agreement Sabrina the teenage bitch on some level.
Stefan comes down the stairs. "What is going on down here? I had to practically restrain Elena upstairs to keep her from coming down here." Stefan looks around at me and Alaric as we are the only ones left in the foyer.
"Nothing." I just shake my head. No point in giving Stefan any more ammunition against me plus none of this is his fault. He's the good brother. It's no surprise everyone is happy that they are back together. Everyone is probably breathing a sigh of relief that she never came over to the dark side.
"Are you staying?" I ask angrily looking at Stefan.
"Yeah, I'll stick around. " Stefan heads back upstairs to Elena's room.
"Damon, do want a drink?" Alaric asks. He's worried I'm going to go do something stupid. I'm tempted but I'm too exhausted.
"Nope" I saw popping the p. "I'm heading out for a night on the town." I pause at the door listening to Elena toss and turn in her bed. I blur out the door to my camaro. Placing the keys in the ignition I can't seem find the stregnth to start the car. I just sit in the solitude of my car and watch the house. How long I sat there contemplating my miserable existence I have no idea, but I see Stefan leave the house and blur away in the direction of the Boarding House.
Worried about leaving her unprotected I exit the camaro and circle around the house leaping to the roof and sit outside her window. I listen to her toss and turn for a while and then I hear her get out of bed. Figuring she is going to the bathroom I am surprised when the window swings open.
"Still just doing your part for the neighborhood watch?" Elena asks with a slight smirk.
"You know me, always looking out for the health and well-being of others." I quip.
"You don't have to hang out on the roof all night. You can come in." Elena pulls her sweater tightly around herself and sits on her bed. I crawl through the window and I sit down on the window seat closing the window behind me.
"Why did little brother, go home?" I look at her to gage her reaction.
"He needed to hunt" she said quickly.
"Uh, huh. " I study her for a minute as she pulls at the comforter not meeting my gaze. A bit of trouble in paradise? It's been a rough day for her so I decide not to push. If I push on this she may push on what happened earlier. I have no idea what Stefan told her and I don't want to fight with her right now.
"Why aren't you having a date with the sandman?" I raise an eyebrow at her.
"Can't sleep." She shrugs. "I think Alaric is downstairs watching a movie. I was going to go down and join him. Interested?"
I can deny this girl nothing. "Sure."
We head down the stairs and Alaric is slumped in an arm chair drink in hand. He looks up at hearing footsteps on the stairs and shakes his head when he sees me. "Can't you use a door like a normal person?"
"What would be the fun in that?" I hop over the back of the loveseat and smirk at him as I land softly on the cushion.
"Why did I know you would be making an appearance when your brother left?" Alaric gets up and heads to the kitchen.
"Someone has to help protect your sorry ass" I call after him.
He returns drink in hand and holds it out to me. "Dick." Alaric mutters as I take the drink and smirk at him.
"What are we five?" Elena asks sitting down on the loveseat next to me.
Alaric and I look at each and just shrug and return to our drinks. We sit and watch some awful war documentary that Alaric had started watching. So bored. As I sit there cursing Elena for talking me into a movie something gently hits my shoulder. I look down and see Elena is asleep and fell into my shoulder. I smile at the peaceful look on her face and gently tuck her hair behind her ear.
I look up and see Alaric studying me. "I'm sorry about Bonnie not telling you about the repercussions of the spell. It was cruel."
"Elena woke up and I am getting in touch with my inner eighteen year old girl. Who didn't win in this scenario?" I swirl the remnants of my drink around my glass before finishing it off. "Sleeping beauty needs to go to bed." I pick Elena up bridal style and walk upstairs setting her gently on her bed and pull the blankets over her.
I see a chair next to Elena's bed that Stefan must have been using earlier and sit down. I tip the chair so it's resting against the wall and close my eyes. Elena stirs and I feel her grasp my hand.
"Thank you" she mumbles and a sense of safety and peace envelopes me and I now know it's from Elena. Knowing she has a moment of peace around me makes all the hatred from her friends and near death experiences worth it.
A/N: Please review!