Chapter 10

Damon ignored the curious stares of the rest of the partygoers and picked Elena up, holding her close against his chest as he walked out of the club.

She was still crying into his shirt, her frail shoulders shaking with heartbreaking sobs. He walked to his car and tried to put her down in the passenger seat but she clung to him, her cries growing more distressed as he tried to move away from her.

Sighing, he scooped her up again and locked the car, setting off for the boarding house at a run with Elena still held securely in his embrace.

He took her into the sitting room and sat down on the couch with her on his lap. He stroked her hair and whispered soothingly until she had stopped crying.

Elena looked around at the boarding house; she hadn't been here since everything had happened. It looked exactly the same as she remembered. It made her heart ache.

"Elena, please tell me what happened." Damon murmured.

She froze, she couldn't understand Damon's angle. He didn't care about her…she knew that. There was no logical reason for him to care. And yet there was the part of her brain, which she was desperately trying to squash, that was saying that apart from him leaving all his actions pointed towards the fact that he did care. No. She couldn't let herself go down that road; it would only hurt all the more when he did something that demonstrated his indifference.

She shrugged, trying to look casual.

"Does it matter?" She asked coolly.

Damon looked at her, shocked.

"Of course it matters, I can't help you if I don't know what's been going on." He replied softly, his eyes deep with unguarded emotion.

Elena looked away.

"I don't want or need your help."

"You may not want it, but you do need it." He paused. "How about you start by telling me where Stefan is."

She struggled out of his arms and went to sit on the other side of the sofa. She wrapped her arms defensively around her knees.

Damon watched her quietly, seeing just how emotionally hurt she really was. Her eyes were lost, however hard she tried to ignore her emotions he could see them all in her dark brown orbs. She was deeply wounded.

She took a deep breath. He wanted to know where his brother was. That made sense.

"I don't know." She said honestly. "He and Caroline left…I'm not sure where they were headed."

Damon looked completely baffled. He had not seen that one coming.

"What do you mean he left? With Caroline? What?" He asked, not understanding.

She sighed.

"I asked him to leave. Caroline went with him." She said simply.

Damon was struggling to get his head around this. Elena had asked Stefan to leave…that didn't make any sense in itself. Elena loved Stefan, why would she do that?

She had managed to get her emotions under control and was staring calmly at the floor, waiting for his next question.

"Why did you ask him to leave?" He whispered.

"He did something that I couldn't forgive."

Damon nodded. He could see that whatever it was that his brother had done was the thing that was really tearing her apart.

"What did he do?" He asked softly, watching her reaction carefully.

She swallowed and stood up.

Damon thought she was going to try and leave, he prepared himself to run after her. He wasn't going to let her be alone this evening; the thought of what she might do terrified him.

Instead she looked at him coldly.

"I'll show you."

She wasn't sure why she was doing this. This would only hurt her more. But as the scars on her arms demonstrated, she had developed a sort of desire to be hurt. She felt she deserved it. She knew that it was sick, sadistic, but she didn't really care.

Damon stood up and followed her to the door.

She looked around at the carless driveway.

"I'll carry you." Damon said quietly.

She hesitated for a second before nodding and climbing onto his back.

"Where to?"

"The cemetery."

Damon paused at that; he couldn't see any good coming of going there. Sighing he took off at a run, arriving a few minutes later and letting Elena slide off his back.

She walked forward boldly in the dark. She knew her way around this place like the back of her hand. Damon followed silently, his mind whirring with possibilities of why she would bring him here.

Elena stopped when she reached a group of four graves, clustered together.

Damon looked down and recognized her parents' headstones.

Elena slumped onto the ground next to one of the other graves. She ran her hands along the stone and traced her fingers along the lettering.

Damon's heart froze when he read the words.

Jeremy Gilbert

1994 – 2011

Beloved brother and friend

Damon felt a wave of sorrow rise up in him; he had grown fond of Jeremy. He was a good kid; he shouldn't have died. It wasn't fair.

He crouched down next Elena, everything suddenly making perfect sense.

He caught sight of Jenna's name on the fourth grave and groaned.

"Oh god." He whispered.

He wanted to reach out to Elena, do something to help her. But he didn't have any words that would take away from this kind of loss.

Instead he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and sat next to her in silence, offering her the only support he could.