When A Door Closes

"Argh, noo," Elena complained, pulling the doona over her head and closed her eyes.

"Gah. Turn that off," Damon groaned, and before she'd moved the alarm was off and Damon was under the covers beside her. When Elena opened her eyes the vision of Damon hiding under the covers next to her was oddly reminiscent of pretending to go camping with Jeremy when they were kids. All they needed was a torch and to not have hangovers.

Suddenly they were looking at each other and Damon cared a lot less about how rough he felt. He shifted gears rapidly from hating all reality and responsibility with a passion to a happy wonderful disbelief. Her black eyelashes framed her eyes perfectly and her dark hair was mussed from the bed. More importantly her lips were only inches away. Damon cocked a half smile and kissed them, softly and tentatively as if he was still checking he really was allowed to do that. "Good morning sunshine," his warm voice murmured as they parted.

A smile flitted across Elena's lips and lit her eyes for a second before it, and all happiness, died there. "I don't want to do this," she explained.

Thankfully Damon understood what she meant, "We could skip it," he suggested. "He's dead either way. Funerals are for mourners not the dead, Alaric would understand."

"I have to go Damon. Everyone from the school is expecting me, and Caroline, but I need to go. Somehow it makes it real. We've watched him die how many times? And he's always come back to us. I need to see that this is real."

Damon nodded slightly, though he couldn't bring himself to say that he did too. "Mind if we run by my place for some clothes? It'll give me a chance to catch up with my little brother too; he sent me a text saying he needs to talk to me in private about some new information, whatever that means."

"What do you think he wants to talk to you about?"

"Oh, knowing Stefan and his penchant for angst he'll probably threaten to leave town, I'll beg him to stay, we'll have a moment of brotherly bonding and then go off to the funeral happy as lambs."

"Well whatever it is, we should find out, it could be important. You go to the boarding house and see Stefan and get some clothes, pack a bag, you should have of your stuff here, even with the super speed it's got to be annoying not having any spare clothes here, and Jeremy's hand me downs are not exactly your style. I'll go to the funeral with Jeremy, we'll see you there."

Damon gave her a doubtful look.

"I'll be fine, really, you're my boyfriend not my babysitter," Elena insisted. Damon agreed reluctantly, mostly because she'd used the b word and it found it hard to argue with any sentence that was premised on them being a real couple. He gave Elena a peck on the lips and was gone before she could add a, "Say Hi to Stefan for me," which was probably a good thing, because she still wasn't sure if that was being polite or insensitive. Today was not the day to worry about the etiquette of dating your ex's brother.

Two hours later Elena Gilbert arrived at the packed church, Jeremy at her side. Alaric's blood relatives had elected to have a separate service in his hometown the following day. Elena felt a bit strange about his coffin being flown across the country after the service and being buried in some strange place she'd never seen but she couldn't bring herself to fight them over it. His body was the least of what she owed them. Between being the Gilbert representative on the town council and a teacher Alaric had a lot of mourners. The first row of the church was reserved for Elena, her family and closest friends. With a slightly awkward hello to Stefan, Elena sat next to Damon, Stefan sat on his other side, and Jeremy sat beside her, Matt next to him and Caroline and Bonnie next to Matt. A red-eyed Dr Fell sat behind them. Elena and Meredith exchanged nods but neither wanted to try talking and risk dissolving into tears before the funeral had even begun.

"What did Stefan want?" Elena whispered to Damon, knowing of course that Stefan would hear her asking.

Damon put a finger to his lips and gave her a meaningful look. Elena got the idea it wasn't Stefan Damon was worried about overhearing.

Waves of deja vu washed over Elena. Before her parents' funeral she had worried that she wouldn't know what to do, she'd never been to a funeral before her parents, not even for a grandparent. Now with her parents' funeral and Aunt Jenna's under her belt Elena felt oddly experienced in this now familiar process.

It didn't make it any easier to put the words together for the Eulogy but her and Jeremy took turns thanking Alaric for looking after the, praising his teaching, and applauding his strong moral code and brave selflessness. Anyone listening would have thought they were talking about the way he died, but they knew there was so much more to it. Like all funerals it was a sanitised sugar coated version of the truth, but it felt right to praise the man who had become their constant when no one else had been left.

Anger burned inside her when she realised that Klaus and Rebecca were sitting next to Tyler's Mom like any other respectable founding family. Klaus saw that he had caught her gaze and smiled slightly, Rebecca gave her a look that made no attempt to hide her lack of grief. But even Elena knew that it wasn't their fault that Alaric had died. It was the one bad thing in her life right now she couldn't blame on them.

While Jeremy was speaking Elena noticed that some of her classmates now regarded her not only with grief but with fear, some feared the violence that seemed to plague their town, but with a surprise she realised that others feared her and Jeremy. Apparently having buried her parents, her Aunt and her guardian was enough to finally once and for all make it official, there was something just a little bit strange about the Gilberts. A year earlier Elena would have been annoyed but now it was kind of funny. Part of her envied the doe eyed students who had no idea of the real evils that went on in their hometown, but today was not a day for self-pity. Although the grief made her feel old beyond her years her body felt strong and she felt alive.

Damon was like a statue throughout the ceremony, he didn't cry, but he also didn't smile, though his mouth twitched when Elena looked to him for reassurance. Mostly he was as still as a rock, grim and resolute, except for when he noticed her crying and his arm wrapped warmly around her pulling her against him, anchoring her in her sea of grief.

When it was over it felt as if they had been in the church for hours, and it had been a long ceremony, with the principal and Mrs Lockwood both taking turns to speak. Elena was stunned that there hadn't been a single question from the priest about the service but assumed that someone else, maybe the school principle or Mrs Lockwood had taken care of it.

"I hope it was okay, I tried to do my best for him," Caroline whispered hugging her outside, "If there's anything I can do, just ask." Damon has slipped away to do something so Elena was standing with Caroline and Bonnie outside the church. A lot of people who knew Alaric had been living with her had passed on their sympathies to her and Jeremy, knowing he had no other family present, and it was exhaustingly familiar. It was a relief to finally have a moment alone to talk before the wake in the school gym, which Elena hoped to make only a very brief appearance at. At least the principle had offered to hold something at school saving her from having people come to the house.

"Thank you for being amazing so amazing. I know you're still grieving too," said Elena.

Caroline nodded with understanding. She was glad that the distance between them seemed to be closing again. "The more people we lose the more I realise how important it is to hang onto the people we still have."

Elena smiled and nodded and they hugged quickly again. "Definitely," she agreed looking at Bonnie who gave her a relieved smile and grabbed her in quick hug.

"I'm so sorry Elena," Bonnie whispered into her hair.

"It's okay. We have enough enemies without turning on each other. Let's do better at working together from now on," Elena responded. Caroline and Bonnie both nodded. "Speaking of which, has anyone seen Stefan? I think something's going on with him but I haven't had a chance to find out what." She cast her gaze around and to her surprise Stefan was talking with Klaus and Rebecca, and smiling as if they were old friends.

Just then Damon reappeared behind them and slid his arms around her waist. "Hello girls," he greeted warmly. Elena was a little surprised but it was comforting to feel his closeness. She was more taken aback when he steered her head towards him and kissed her rather inappropriately given their context.

"Ah, Damon, don't take this the wrong way, but we're outside of a church," Elena interrupted pulling away.

"What better place to show our love for each other and celebrate God blessing us with each other." That was just strange enough from Damon that Elena could work out something was up.

"Okay."

"What are you born again?" Caroline asked with raised eyebrows.

"Just counting my blessings," Damon smiled. "I never thought I'd be lucky enough to finally win Elena's heart, and even if Ric isn't here to see that I'm not going to dwell. Elena understands, there are some things we don't need to talk about, she just understands, I find she's very intuitive like that," Damon emphasised his words such a way that hinted to Elena that now was not the time to ask questions.

"Well, we're really happy for you guys," Bonnie broke in. Elena could tell she wasn't totally sincere but she knew Bonnie was really trying and that was what mattered.

"We are?" Caroline asked, surprised.

"Yes, as long as Elena's happy then we're happy," Bonnie smiled.

Caroline bit back a comment along the lines of, that'll be the first, but figured it was better to keep the peace.

"Now, haven't we got a school gym to get to?" Damon asked pointedly. Something was definitely up. Elena didn't know why Damon was suddenly so excited about going to Mystic Falls High for the wake but Stefan was still talking to Klaus and Rebekah a few metres away so she wasn't going to ask why.

"Sure," Elena agreed. "I'd hate to be late."

Caroline and Bonnie looked confused but they went along with Elena's act, after Elena whispered to Jeremy that she was getting a lift with Damon the four of them headed off to the wake. Damon took Elena is his car and Caroline took Bonnie in hers.