Chapter 9

27 missed calls

Tuesday 9:26pm: Answer your phone

Tuesday 9:27pm: Answer, dammit!

Tuesday 10:33pm: If I'm not allowed to go looking for him, neither are you

Tuesday 10:36pm: Do you really think this is the right time to leave me alone?

Wednesday 12:50am: Come home right now or I'm drinking your good booze. The stuff in the basement.

Wednesday 12:58am: This is what we both wanted and YOU ARE RUINING IT

Wednesday 4:11am: I'm freaking out, Damon. I can't sleep. I know this is my fault. I'm so sorry. Please come back.

Wednesday 4:23am: Where are you? Answer your phone. I miss you.

Wednesday 4:25am: Little. Red. Panties.

Wednesday 4:27am: I am a hungry baby vampire with a daylight ring and if I go on a rampage later I'm blaming you. And I'm starting with Alaric.

Wednesday 5:47am: I can't believe this is happening. Answer your phone!

Wednesday 6:20am: THIS is what I was talking about. 10 seconds of just us and you jump ship. BUMP. Answer your phone answer your phone answer your phone

Wednesday 8:56am: Caroline is here with bagels. She says you didn't call her. Right.

Wednesday 9:15am: You are a fucking liar, Damon Salvatore. I will never leave you again my ASS.

Wednesday 10:02am: Damon, I can't do this without you. Please.

Stefan had outsmarted Damon by not flying out of Richmond. Once Damon finally drove to Washington, his brother was soaring over the Atlantic, he was sure. He bought a ticket for the soonest flight, but it didn't leave until noon the next day so he found a seat at a quiet gate and waited. He stared at the wall and tried to stop thinking about what his departure was doing to Elena. Her calls and texts were killing him, but she had to know it was only temporary. He didn't have a choice; Stefan had backed him into a corner.

Damn Stefan for making this all about him, Damon seethed. Damn him for throwing a hissy fit, for making this melodramatic gesture to prove he was the better man. Damn him that it was working. Stefan couldn't just let Damon be happy, oh no. He couldn't just suck it up and figure out something else to do with himself in town. Damon refused to let Stefan run off to be the martyr, to hide and sulk and silently appear nobler from afar than Damon ever could up close. No, he had to bring him back.

Elijah sat down beside him just as the gate agents started to ready the flight.

"What is with you and airports?" Damon asked, rolling his eyes.

Elijah picked up Damon's phone and scrolled through Elena's texts. "Elena is a very special girl, Damon."

"Don't act like you know her," Damon spat. He was too raw to be witty. Elijah would have to settle for irritated.

"I wish I knew her better. But I haven't been as lucky as you." Damon chafed at Elijah's patronizing tone while Elijah read the texts he couldn't bring himself to look at. "Poor girl. She thinks this is her fault."

Damon fought the urge to snatch his phone back. "She's a martyr, like my brother." A pang of guilt stung him as he pictured Elena taking this on herself. She thought this was her fault? Fucking Stefan.

"Intriguing the way people change. Now that she's a vampire, she doesn't appear to want him anymore. It appears," Elijah insisted, "that she has chosen you outright. I assume Stefan left when he heard?"

He really didn't want to talk about this, but the words spilled out. "I gave her our mother's ring. She took it, he left, end of story. Except for the part where I drag him back and break his nose." Damon's head was a mess. He couldn't even clearly describe why he was going after Stefan at this point. It had seemed rational when he crumpled the note and stormed out the night before. Now he could barely follow his own logic.

"I remember how Katherine changed. She was so flirtatious when I first met her. You can imagine." Damon glared at the planes, willing Elijah to shut the fuck up. "I had vowed, after Tatia, never to love any woman Niklaus chose. But with Katherine I couldn't help myself. I begged her to escape with me, knowing how Niklaus intended to use her, but she wouldn't. Her silly young heart chose Niklaus and his pretended affection. Even then I tried to save her, but she took matters into her own hands. You know the story."

"I don't actually care," Damon muttered. "In case you were wondering."

"Niklaus was enraged. While he traveled to Bulgaria to exact his revenge, he sent me off to find her. I was so hurt by her rejection that I had every intention of doing as he asked."

Damon looked away, adopting the most uninterested pose he could.

"She found me first, to my surprise, and she told me that she loved me."

"Yeah, she does that," Damon groaned.

Elijah nodded. "It was a second chance, Damon. She had changed. As a vampire, her love was as fervent as mine. But could I forsake my brother, who I had pledged to support so long ago? Who I loved? Could I spend an eternity parted from him?" He fell silent for a moment. Damon hoped he was done. No such luck. "I turned my back on her. I broke her heart, Damon, and my brother never even knew the sacrifice I made for him."

"Believe me, Katherine wasn't worth it. She was just lying to protect herself," Damon said, adjusting his shirt as he stood.

"You're wrong. You met her after centuries of hiding. She had to learn manipulation and survival. She wasn't always the devastating woman you knew."

Damon needed to board the plane, but Elijah was still holding his phone hostage.

"Damon, you are lucky. Elena loves only you now and Stefan has graciously stepped aside. You don't have to choose between them, yet you still are. Which of you is the martyr?" Elijah sighed, finally handing Damon his phone. "Or maybe you're just afraid of how much you'll miss him."

Damon's mouth went slack. Bullseye.

Wednesday 12:05pm: Coming home.

(A/N: That may have been slightly off-canon for Elijah, but I've always been drawn to the tantalizing possibility of similarities between the brothers' stories. I just can't seem to stop writing this story. Thanks, as always, for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following!)