**Chapter forty**
Limbo
*Damon*
Elena paced impatiently in the Salvatore living room, as Stefan watched her. He too was worried about his brother and Hailey. They should've been back by now.
Just then, Damon slammed the front door open, carrying an unconscious Hailey in his arms. Elena and Stefan were happy to see them, but judging by the look on Damon's face, they weren't out of the woods yet.
"She won't take my blood." Damon told them bluntly, as he set Hailey down on the couch gently.
"What do you mean? Can't you force her?" Stefan asked, as Elena sat down and pulled her best friend into her arms.
"I can't. every time I try, this happens." Damon demonstrated by biting his wrist and bringing it to Hailey's lips. The bite healed before it could even touch her lips.
"It's like she doesn't want to be healed." Stefan murmured. He tried to heal her too, but the same thing happened.
"What are we going to do?" Elena asked, obviously scared for her best friend.
"Nothing, there's nothing we can do. Hailey's being stubborn, and the only way she's coming back is if and when she wants to." Damon answered, masking his fear and pain.
"So we're just going to sit here and hope that Hailey feels like stay alive?" Elena yelled angrily at Damon.
"You can sit here- I'm getting a drink." Damon said, leaving the room.
Elena glared at Damon's back, before Stefan took her into his arms. Both were thinking about how Damon had just proved how soulless they had thought he was. neither knew that when Damon got to his room, he threw the nearest chair against a wall, breaking it. He was pissed off. at Hailey for being comatose, at himself for not being able to stop it from happening.
But mostly, he was in pain. This was the first time that Damon didn't know for sure if she'd be okay, that his blood would heal her. It was the closest that he had ever been to losing Hailey. He took a ragged breath as his eyes stung, threatening tears. He couldn't even remember the last time that that had happened.
He smashed another chair, and then another, hating himself for being weak enough to cry. To counter this, he broke most of the things in his room, ignoring his pain and preferring his anger. He drain one and a half bottles of whiskey, liking the way the alcohol made his pain seem foggy and distant. He was falling quickly back into his pre-Hailey ways. He almost automatically considered going out and charming/compelling a girl to sleep with/feed on. Then he remembered those green eyes and that sarcastic smirk. He remembered how soft her skin was and the day he confessed how much he loved her.
His old habits instantly fell away, and he was left with was pain. Damon stared at an empty bottle, and then smashed it. At that moment, he swore to himself that he would do anything and everything to get Hailey back into consciousness.
*Hailey*
I woke up, staring up into the cloudy sky, as rain fell down on me. Most people would have hated it, but I loved cold, cloudy, rainy days. I was wearing a purple bikini top, short ripped jean shorts, and the leather jacket I had stolen from Damon. it even smelled like him. y feet were bare and sunk into the cold sand.
In front of me was the lake that my dad, Elena, her family, and I used to visit every summer. The water was wavy and gray, the sand light brown and cold- just like I remembered it. I walked slowly towards the shore, stopping a few feet away as the rain started falling down harder. I sat down, burying my hands and feet in the sand.
I found an unopened bottle of bourbon and a bag of salt and vinegar chips next to me. I rested my chin on my knees and dug into the chips. I felt so at peace here, that I didn't even bother to think about what had happened to me or why I was here. I was at my favorite place in the world, in my favorite outfit, and eating my favorite food. I didn't care if I never left this place.
I closed my eyes, completely blissful. But when I laid down in the sand, I remembered. I was in a sort of coma- I had lost too much blood, and was on the edge of life. I gasped, and opened my eyes again. I was in limbo- I was so close to death. Yet I didn't freak out, and I wasn't fearful. I accepted it. I liked it here. There was no stress, no life or death situations, no heartache, and no lies- only contentment.
It was as if warning bells went off in my head. Somebody was trying to bring me back. I closed my eyes and focused all my powers on stopping it. The warning bells went away, and I relaxed again. I laid down in the sand, and ate and drank. I let all my happy, perfect memories drift through my mind.
I saw myself going to the zoo with my dad when I was five, Elena's sixth birthday party, most days at Elena's family's cabin, the seventh grade Sadie Hawkins dance. There was going to the All Time Low concert with Elena and swearing that Alex Gaskarth smiled at me, my dad teaching me how to drive, getting drunk for the first time with Ava, and my fifteenth birthday party.
After that, my happy memories had a huge gap in them. Then it started off at the day I came back to Mystic Falls. There was meeting Damon for the first time, our first kiss, the sleepover at Caroline's, all the times Damon and I slept together, the day he told me that he loved me… almost all the memories with Damon were happy ones.
I opened my eyes again. I realized what my happy place was missing. There was one thing that this place didn't have, that would keep me absolutely blissful forever.
Damon.
I gulped, my mood darkening. I was leaving him behind. I was leaving Elena, Stefan, all of my friends behind. Then a stereo system appeared near me, and started playing, "All To Myself," by Mariana's trench. Then I was lulled back into an ignorant bliss.
*Damon*
Damon had moved Hailey to his bed. Her head was resting on his pillow, and she almost looked like she was sleeping. But she was almost too still, and too pale for it to be really believable. Damon kissed Hailey's forehead, before lying down next to her. He pulled her into his arms, her head on his chest.
Damon focused his thoughts on her. He knew what he had to do to convince Hailey to come out of her coma, and come back to him. He wasn't completely sure that it would work, but it was his only shot.
He tried to get into her head. It would be a lot easier if Hailey let him in, but he could force his way into her mind if he had to. Suddenly, he was at a small beach. The wind was whipping around him, and it was raining. He was shirtless, but the coldness didn't affect him. In fact, it was quite a peaceful place.
He spotted Hailey near the shore and heard music playing on a stereo next to her. She looked beautiful, just sitting there, staring into the lake. He started walking towards her, and she didn't notice him until he sat down next to her. Hailey didn't look surprised to see him though. She smiled at him, as if she'd been waiting for him to join her.
"So tell me, are you the real Damon, or a figment of my imagination created to keep me happy?" Hailey asked him, her eyes not leaving the lake.
"You are unbelievably stupid, do you know that?" Damon said, glaring at the fairy next to him.
"Guess that answers my question." She muttered, draining the rest of the whiskey from the bottle in her hand.
"Why aren't you letting me heal you, Hailey?" he asked in a soft voice.
"I-I don't want to go back, Damon." she murmured, as a pack of coke appeared next to her, and she opened a can.
"Why not? Life's not that bad." Damon lied, because Hailey was the one thing that made his life livable.
"Please." Hailey rolled her eyes. "Life's a bitch, and then you die. You know what? I'm tired, Damon. I'm tired of almost dying every other day, of fighting this freaking war with the tomb vampires that can't win, and I'm tired of worrying about turning out like Victoria. I'm just so damn tired, Damon. I like it here, too. I don't want to go back." she admitted.
Damon didn't answer her for a while. "So you're giving up." He said a slightly harsh voice.
Hailey looked up at him, her green eyes wide in surprise. "No…" she shook her head slightly.
"You're giving up, Hailey. You've stopped fighting, you've given up." Damon's voice rose, as he glared at her.
"I'm not giving-" Hailey started to say, but he cut her off.
"What you're doing is so selfish and weak, I can't even believe that you're the same girl I fell in love with." Damon said, standing up.
Hailey looked like he slapped her across the face with a hot curling iron, but she stood up too. "Is it such a surprise that I lost the fight in me, Damon? I can't take it anymore. I can't take the pain, the fear, I can't take any of it anymore. I'm done, I quit." She exclaimed.
Damon just stared down at her, dangerously calm. "The Hailey Ellis I know would rather die than give up." He told her. At that moment, Damon realized that Hailey was never going to come back with him.
"Yeah well, the Hailey Ellis you knew has been MIA since the Victoria debacle." She said, pushing her hair out of her face.
"Hailey, I could stand here and give you a thousand reasons to stay alive, but I know that you wouldn't listen. So let's try this- I love you. And if you died, it would be like I died. Because as big of a pain in the ass you are, I don't know how I could go on if I lost you. So think about the consequences before you go through with this." Damon told her honestly.
He walked over and pulled Hailey into his arms. He hugged her before kissing her softly, knowing that it would be the last time. "Goodbye Hailey, it's been fun." He said, his mask back on, so that he could try to block out the pain of saying goodbye to her.
And then Damon was gone.
Damon gasped slightly, as he came back to reality. He was all too aware of what had just happened, of what it meant. There were no words to describe how hollow and empty he felt, knowing that Hailey was good as dead. He closed his eyes as he shifted her body off of him. He tried his hardest not to cry.
Damon opened his eyes and kissed Hailey's cold lips one last time, before standing up to go tell Elena and Stefan. He felt dead as he went to go report the news, that Hailey was gone.
Suddenly, Damon heard the best sound he had ever heard. Damon's head snapped around to see Hailey gasping for air. Instantly, Damon had her in his arms, and his bloody wrist was in her mouth. This time, she swallowed his blood.
Hailey's breathing went back to normal, as Damon just held her. He rested his chin on top of her head, and she buried her face in his chest. "What changed your mind?" Damon asked after a few silent minutes.
Hailey pulled away and smirked slightly up at him. "That was the crappiest goodbye ever- I couldn't let you get away with it. Besides, as much as haunting you sounds like fun, I'll be damned if people start to think that Hailey Ellis gives up."
She smirked again, and stood up. Just as Hailey started walking to the door, she added, "Oh, and I would've missed you like hell, too."
She never made it to the door, because Damon had her in his arms and his lips on her before she even finished talking.
~LMF~
A/N: thank you to: colleenrawr, Angelfang, Carrie9586, Samantha meyers, KimmyWSmith, AubreySalvatore, OBSESSEDwithPOWERS, jacquline, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!
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~Abby!