when i am weak

Damon flinched, covering his face as he waited for the bullets to enter his chest. He felt strong hands pushing him back and his spine collided with the opposing wall.

And then heard the body fall, slipping to the floor with a loud thump.

He finally lowered his hands and saw it. Or actually...him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled, facing Nick. He made a mad (stupid) dash for the rifle and slipped. He looked down, realizing he had fallen in a pool of his brother's blood. "What is wrong with you?" he screamed again, trying to grab for the rifle one more time but was too late. There was one final blast and the younger boy fell to the already blood soaked floor.

Damon crawled across the tile, his hands sliding in the blood. The numbers on his digital watch blazed into his vision, imprinting themselves in his brain forever.

11:00

Nineteen minutes. It had taken nineteen minutes for the horror to come to an end.

But a new horror was just beginning.

Damon reached his brother, frantically feeling for a pulse. He felt one, it was there, but weak.

"Stefan...no, no, no. Stefan!" Tears blurred his eyes as he pulled his brother into his arms and yanked off his jacket at the same time, pressing it to the holes in his chest. "Stefan, listen to me. I'm going to take care of you, okay? Because that's my job, watch over my pain in the ass little brother. Stefan? Stefan!"

The pulse was getting weaker. It was stilling to a stop.

"Stefan!"

He was still screaming when the paramedics got there.

"Jesus Christ, here's more," came the voice of one medic.

Damon found himself clinging to Stefan's body even tighter when another fireman tried to detangle him away.

"No! No, you can't have him! No!"

"Easy kid, easy. We're going to help him," said the fireman.

"He's already dead. He's already dead!" His voice was like a child's, pleading with an adult. "Oh, god!"

Stefan was starting to slip out of his arms and placed on his back. The first medic was already pounding on his chest. There was a third medic that was scrambling for the field defibrillator.

"There's no pulse and blood pressure is 60 over 40. He's barely hanging on," said the first medic.

He's alive?

"Keep doing chest compressions. I've got to get a compress on this bleeding before I zap him."

"Feller, get over here and help."

"What about this other kid?"

"He's the shooter. There's nothing we can do for him. Bullet went straight through his brain."

The overlay of voices was starting to make Damon's head spin.

"1, 2, 3, 4. Bag him." There was a gust of air that Damon guessed was heading right into Stefan's lungs. "1, 2, 3, 4. Bag." Another deep puff.

"Okay, clear out." There was another rustle of movement. The larger medic scraped something together and then pushed it directly onto his brother's chest. Stefan's upper body jumped slightly. "Anything?"

"No, nothing. Blood pressure's dropping even more. We've gotta get his heart going or we're gonna lose him."

"Clear!" There was another zap and Stefan's body jumped again.

"Wait a second. There's something."

"I feel a femoral pulse."

"And there's one in the carotid artery."

"Pressure's coming back up. It's 70 over 40."

"Come on kid, you can do better than that."

"90 over 60."

"Bingo."

"He's back."

"Gurney's here."

"Let's get him in the bus."

Damon was watching this through blurry, half lidded eyes. His gaze started to slip away into darkness as he watched the medics carefully lift Stefan onto the gurney and quickly wheel him away, still pumping air into his lungs and desperately trying to keep him alive.

Stefan was alive.

He was alive.

"Hey, kid, you all right?"

Someone had stayed behind to take care of him.

"Kid, you're not hit, are you?"

The one medic that had approached him before was still there. He shined a light in his eyes to which Damon weakly tried to bat away.

"You're all right. You're just in shock."

"Is my brother okay?" he found himself forcing out.

"That kid was your brother?" The medic stood back in surprise. "Shit. Come on, let's get you to the ambulance."

The girl felt a throbbing pain just above her right eye.

She sighed and lifted her hand to rub her temple.

She saw that her hand was stained with crimson blood.

"What the hell-?"

And then it all came back to her.

Caroline sat bolt upright with a scream, looking wildly around her. She could hear a pounding and realized that the double doors to the rec room were chained shut. Somebody was trying to get in.

"Oh, my god!" A scream settled in her throat and she cried out when she saw the bodies around her. Some were rousing, some were already up and around, trying to get the doors open from the other side, aiding fallen classmates, etc.

She wildly turned her head and saw her.

Lexi.

And half of her head was missing.

Caroline's world went black once again.

"Hey, honey, are you okay? You all right?"

She felt her world starting to become brighter. Red splotches danced across her line of vision and she moaned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you hit? You've got a lot of blood on you," said the voice.

Caroline struggled to focus on whoever was talking to her. "Blood? What do you mean, blood?"

And then she saw the fluid coating her hands and shirt. She quickly swallowed a scream, everything slowly coming back to her.

"Where's-where's Lexi? Where is she?"

"Lexi? Is she your friend?"

"Yes. She was—"

And then she looked wildly to her left and saw a gurney being lifted up. The body was covered with a white sheet and hanging down was one arm with a very familiar white mood ring on the middle finger.

"No! Lexi, no! Oh, God, no!" She started to thrash against the paramedic, hot tears sliding down her cheeks. "No! No, no, no!"

The paramedic tried to grab her arms. "Get that sedative over here!"

"No sedative! No! God, no! Lexi, I'm so sorry! Lexi, I'm sorry! No!"

There was a prick on her arm.

And then nothing.

It was havoc.

That was the only word that Damon could come up with when the paramedic practically carried him out to the ambulance.

People were running around, nothing was in an orderly fashion, there was screaming, crying, and blood.

Oh, there was lots of blood.

"He's the brother!"

Quickly pulled out of his stupor, Damon was shoved into the ambulance that was carrying his brother. As soon as the doors were shut behind him, they took off like a bullet out of rifle.

"Stats are dropping."

"Pressure's dropping too."

"Damn it, I can't get this bleeding stopped."

"He's going into v-fib again!"

"Paddles, now!"

There was a tinny of a knob being turned. And then a surge of electricity followed by clear!

A steady beat came out of the machines and Damon breathed a sigh of relief.

"If he does that again, we're not going to be able to bring him back."

"Harper, shut the hell up."

Damon glanced sideways and could see that the medic that had spoken was looking between him and the other one.

"Sorry, kid. He'll be okay."

Damon ignored him. "Just keep him alive," he whispered, staring at his brother's face.

Damn it, Stef. Why the hell…?

It should be me laying there.

The dark skinned woman lifted the basket of laundry up and carefully eased it onto the kitchen table. She dumped it out and grabbed the remote, pointing it at the television.

"Breaking news report. A college campus shooting as taken place at Colby University. The suspect is down and there have been at least a dozen deaths and even more people wounded—"

Bonnie clicked the television off and grabbed her phone, totally forgetting about the laundry that still lay on the table.

Damon.

Nah, Damon was okay. He was smart. He would have heard the shots and gotten the hell out.

Or, he could have been incredibly stupid and tried to be the hero.

Either way…

"Hang on, Damon," Bonnie murmured to herself, furiously dialing his cell number as she ran out the door.

Short update. I wanted to show the immediate aftermath and Damon, Caroline, Bonnie's reactions. Damon is in shock and he's taking everything in a blur while Caroline is freaking out. I couldn't leave Bonnie out since she is Damon's girlfriend so I had a short reaction from her at home finding out about it.

For any Daroline fans out there, there will be a lot of Damon/Caroline scenes coming up because Stefan's 'out of the picture' for the time being, as well as Caroline/Bonnie friendship. Damon's going to have a hard time dealing with what Stefan has done for him sense Nick wanted to kill him, not Stefan. So lots of angst for anyone who likes it.

Anyway, thanks for all the reviews for chapter one. I would love some more!

Have a safe and blessed weekend everyone.