It had been two and a half weeks since Damon had been admitted to hospital and Elena spent every spare moment from work with him. It was December 23rd and Elena was calling to see him, she was now officially on her Christmas holidays. When she arrived onto the ward Damon was currently residing in she smiled, as usual her day fell into place the second she clapped eyes on him. However her smiled slipped from her face when she saw him today.

Damon was lying back into his pillows, his head was facing out the to the window where he watched the snow flurry past. His eyes were dark and hard, his mouth set into a thin line. Elena stood for a moment watching him, this wasn't like him. Damon was always so positive and full of life when she arrived. A sudden fear flooded her stomach as her mind tried to guess what was wrong with him, firstly she thought it concerned his health, possibly a setback in his recovery; she felt nauseous at the thought. She shook that bad thought away and moved to the next, this was when her low self-esteem raised its ugly head, maybe Damon had tired of her, he was waiting for the right minute to tell her that he did blame her for his attack, maybe it was this minute. She continued to torture herself, flashing through possible scenarios for his mood until she was snapped out of it when Damon rolled his head back to the centre of the room and spotted her.

He sat up straighter when he saw her and she placed her best smile on her face and walked into the ward.

"Hey." She said warmly

"Hi there. I didn't know you were coming today." He said

"Of course I was." She replied as she unwound her scarf.

Damon smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" she said brushing her hand across his forehead, "you feel a little hot."

Damon ignored her comment. "Kiss?" he asked

She happily obliged and leaned over the bed to kiss him. His responding kiss startled her; he kissed her seriously, almost desperately until he suddenly broke it off. Elena stood back catching her breath and trying to settle the butterflies that were swarming in her stomach when he spoke.

"Do you know what sucks?" he said in a dead voice, Elena waited for him to go on…

"That I have to ask you for a kiss these days, that I can't just get up to kiss you with my own will, I can't hold you properly because of these…" he raised his arms and showed the IVs in the back of this hands and arm "I can't play on the floor with Jenny or even lift her up. I can't crawl into bed with you and hold you…"

"Damon." Elena said sadly "What's brought this on? You have no idea how much we miss you at home, I can't sleep properly without you."

Damon looked at the ceiling.

"Hey…" Elena said rubbing his shoulder "You need to brighten up, it's almost Christmas! You're coming home tomorrow night and you're going to stay over and we can enjoy Christmas with Stefan and then you'll be back here for a little while to make sure you're 100% better and then you're free and we can go back to living."

"No." Damon said quietly

"Damon." Elena said trying to sound calm "Tell me what's wrong."

Still looking at the ceiling he spoke. "They won't let me out." Then he rolled his head to look at her "they won't let me out on day release."

Elena's heart sank. "What, why? Dr. Kennedy said only yesterday that you were making an incredible recovery and that she saw no reason why you wouldn't be fit to leave for the day…"

"Apparently I have a temperature." Damon said loudly in a flat tone.

"Oh." Elena sighed "And that change things?"

"Apparently so." He said

"Let me go and talk to someone." She said

"Trust me, I've tried all morning." He added

"Hold on, I'll be right back." Elena walked out to the nurses' station.

"Excuse me?" she asked the nurse at the computer "I'm looking for some information about my boyfriend…Damon Salvatore…" Elena pointed to his ward

"Hold on, I'll get Jackie, she's with his ward." The woman said

She returned shortly with a tired looking older nurse. "Ah, you must be Elena? Damon talks a lot about you."

"Yes." Elena smiled "It's nice to meet you, Listen I was just wondering about Damon-"

Jackie cut across her "I'm sorry honey but he won't be getting out for Christmas, it looks like he's coming down with something and we can't as care providers allow him out of our care if we believe he's at risk. I know how much you were all looking forward to it but unfortunately unless he returns to normal by tomorrow morning he won't be going anywhere."

Elena sighed "But I'll take really good care of him, and if he got worse I promise I'd bring him straight back…"

"It doesn't work like that, honey." Jackie said "I'm sorry."

Dejected Elena walked back to Damon.

"Any joy?" Damon asked

"No." Elena said in sulk, she was feeling as bad as him now. She rubbed her eyes self-consciously.

"Hey." Damon said quickly "Don't get upset."

"How can I not?" Elena said in a shaky voice "You're not going to be there for our first Christmas, it's not fair."

"I know." Damon agreed, pulling her onto the bed, he shuffled over and she lay down beside him resting her head on his shoulder. "Look I'm sorry about before, I'm just so disappointed and angry. I miss normality. I miss you."

Elena snuggled in closer to him. "It's going to be fine. If you can't come out…well then we'll just have to come to you!"

She felt Damon laugh under her "That sounds good." He kissed her hair "So let's change the subject. Tell me all about work today…"

So Elena took and deep breath and began filling Damon in on her day so far…