A/N: I planned to update this story next weekend, but the number of story alerts and the fact that I haven't written a special Valentine's Day fic make me do it today. I hope it's a nice present for you all and you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

CreepingMuse, thank you again for the invaluable suggestions, corrections and of course, for beta reading this chapter so quickly. Guys, if it weren't for my awesome beta reader, the chapter wouldn't have been posted today. Now mentally send her love ;)

My gratitude also goes to: a) the reviewers, especially the anonymous ones, because I couldn't send them a private message; b) those who subscribed and favorited - you amazed me a lot!

Last but not least - Happy Valentine's Day! May your dreams of love come true ;)

You don't even know what you've done to me,

But I will be the one to take you away

From all this wasted pain,

If you could just wake up.

~ Evanescence "Disappear" ~

Bonnie's phone rang. It was past midnight, and she wasn't thrilled to be awoken. When she saw who was calling, she was even less thrilled. Damon Salvatore was on the list of people Bonnie didn't want to hear from right now. Actually, his name was number one on the list of people she didn't want to hear from ever.

Still sleepy, Bonnie considered ignoring him, but in a moment she dismissed the thought. She wasn't his favorite person either, and if Damon called her in the middle of the night, it was probably urgent. She felt around for her phone and pressed the answer button.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

"What the hell took you so long? Look…"

Bonnie interrupted him, "Salvatore, I know the concept must be new for you, but some people actually sleep at night."

"I need your help."

"Wh-"

Damon didn't let her say another word, interrupting her in a harsh, barely controlled voice.

"It's about Elena. She died with Stefan's blood in her system, now Klaus has got her and I have no freaking idea of where she is or what he's gonna do with her. Is that important enough?"

Bonnie's eyes widened with terror. It was impossible. Elena was dead or (worse?) turning into a vampire, and she was held captive by the strongest evil hybrid on the face of the earth. Bonnie recalled how difficult it'd been when Caroline had become a vampire – hatred for vampires was so inherent in the Bennetts that it took a lot out of Bonnie to erase it when it came to the blonde.

But it was Elena. Her best friend, her sister, the person who'd been there for her all along, the friend she would never want to leave her.

"I'm on my way," she said.

Damon hung up and started pacing. He grabbed a glass from the table and came up to his stock of liquor, wanting momentary relief from the alcohol. Nothing could truly ease the pain of losing her, but it might help him forget for a minute. Then he put the glass next to the bottles and decided against drinking. He wasn't going to give up. Klaus' "I'm really sorry" stirred up hope that there would be a chance to rescue Elena, and Damon was going to need a sober mind.

He still felt a little weak, and it bothered him. Normally injuries, no matter how bad, healed without consequences, but now it was as if he'd been vervained. But he'd had his neck snapped before, and his state wasn't a priority right now anyway.

When the front door opened and the vampire heard the sound of footsteps, he didn't need to turn around to tell it wasn't Bonnie.

"Getting bold?" he asked, and his voice sounded tense, although he'd intended to sound careless, as usual. Deep down, he was relieved, but rage was overpowering all the other emotions.

He finally turned around and faced Stefan, giving him a glare. No matter how terrifying a veined face, fangs designed to tear flesh, and dark-red eyes full of bloodlust looked, Damon knew that there was nothing more frightening about him than the icy blue of his human eyes when he was angry.

"Look, I'm here to help. I know what I did was wrong…" started Stefan, and Damon already felt his control slipping. In a moment he was standing next to his brother, shouting in his face.

"Wrong? You think 'wrong' covers that? You son of a bitch, you destroyed her life! And like that wasn't enough, you ran away, you just fucking left me to deal with Klaus with a dead girl in my arms!"

When Damon ran out of air, Stefan tried to appease him.

"I wanted to distract Klaus. I hadn't expected him to appear there, and I thought he'd run after me!"

"Well, you thought wrong," said Damon, a little calmer. How do I treat my brother if he risked his life for me more than I can remember, but ruined the life of the woman I love, the one I trusted him with?

Damon heard a car pull up and assuming it was Bonnie, he took a step back, saying, "We aren't done yet."

Bonnie flung the door open and slammed it once she'd entered the parlor. Her burning dark eyes scanned the room, stopping at Stefan. He raised his hands, surrendering.

"I know. Trust me, I know. Let's save Elena first and then you can give me a lifetime of aneurisms," he said.

"Sounds like a plan to me," commented Damon. He had to do something immediately, and it wasn't just for Elena's sake; it was for Stefan's, too. Damon knew himself, and he knew that in his current state he was prone to violence that he would probably regret later. "Business now, feelings later."

"First of all we have to find Elena," said Stefan, and Damon bit back a snarky comment about his brother's wisdom.

"I can do a locator spell," suggested Bonnie, "but I need her blood, or the blood of her-"

"Jeremy's blood, to be more exact. Let's go rough up baby Gilbert?" said Damon. "Okay, I know, I've compelled him and supernatural problems are the last thing he needs now. We have Elena's blood here, right, Stefan?"

Damon pointed at their jackets, smeared a little with dark red right where they'd pressed Elena to their chests. Stefan rushed upstairs to get a map.

"The hospital?" asked Damon in disbelief, staring at the map of Mystic Falls.

"It's smart. It's not like Klaus wouldn't compel the whole staff to do his dirty work," said Stefan. He stuffed blood bags from the fridge into his pockets so Elena could complete her transition.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Damon urged, but Bonnie stopped him.

"Before we go, I need you to promise that you'll follow my every order. Since Klaus needed her human blood, and Elena would have already started transitioning, she is probably going to be under a spell of some sort, and if you so much as stand in the wrong place at the wrong moment, the consequences may be dire. Got the picture?"

"Yeah," said Damon. "Loud and clear. Now let's go."

It took them less than ten minutes to get to the local hospital. Stefan and Damon would have searched it at the vampire speed if it weren't for Bonnie. She was the one walking first, ready to prevent either Salvatore from doing something reckless. Damon was shocked that the compelled hospital staff didn't do a thing to prevent them from breaking in. Given the amount of bad luck in our lives, we can never take anything good for granted, he thought grimly. Suddenly, he stopped.

"She's in there," whispered Damon, smelling the familiar scent of blood. He was about to rush into the room, when Bonnie intervened.

"Stop!"

It was Bonnie's serious voice, and Damon froze in his tracks, as much as he wanted to run to Elena's side, grab her and get the hell out of there. Stefan put his hand on Damon's shoulder, cautious. Damon shook it off, glaring at his brother, but he had more important things than fighting with Stefan on his mind.

"What's the problem, Bonnie?"

"Stay away from Elena," answered the witch, her voice harsh.

Damon stared at her.

"Now, in the middle of our Save Elena operation you're going to bring up your witches-don't-trust-vampires prejudice?"

Bonnie ignored him and walked into the ward on her own. She raised her hands and did what looked to Damon like just a weird movement above Elena's body. His heart was breaking at the sight: Elena was completely drained of blood, her face was white with a bluish tinge, and she was wearing a light gown that left her arms bare and covered only a small part of her legs, revealing her injuries. Damon clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay where he was.

"There's a spell on Elena," said Bonnie finally. "It was keeping her body intact, exactly in the state she was once they'd started draining her. It makes sense, because Klaus needed her human blood. He had to slow down her transitioning. It's a good thing, actually. It means Elena's technically dead only for several minutes. We have a chance to bring her back. As a vampire, of course." Bonnie looked at Damon, then at Stefan.

"So what are we waiting for?" asked Damon impatiently.

"So you need to stay away until I figure out the spell." Bonnie didn't bother to hide her annoyance. Damon couldn't really blame her. After all, her best friend was about to become a vampire, and on the rescue mission she was accompanied by her two least favorite people (if he even thought they were people).

Now Bonnie didn't appear to be doing anything special, but after staring at Elena for a while, she smiled at the brothers.

"I think I know the spell."

"Well?" Damon demanded.

"Before we think of lifting it, we have to give her both vampire blood and human blood."

"What? Why?" asked Stefan. Bonnie glared at him, but explained.

"We don't know if there's still vampire blood in her system. She died with it, but to be on the safe side, she may need a little. And when we lift the spell, the time that she'll have spent bound by magic will catch up with her. We don't want her too hungry, right?"

Damon sighed and nodded. It made sense.

Bonnie pulled a small cup she used for mixing herbs out of her pocket.

"Who's gonna donate vampire blood?" she asked.

Stefan was about to offer, but Damon's hand grasped his forearm. The younger Salvatore sighed and stepped back. Bonnie came up to Damon as he bit his palm, filling the cup until the witch said it was enough. Stefan handed Bonnie one of the blood bags he'd brought from the boarding house, and she came up to Elena once again. Damon knew that he couldn't even begin to understand how hard it was for Bonnie to turn Elena into a vampire on her own, but that was what needed to be done.

Bonnie put her hand on Elena's chin and pressed lightly. Elena's mouth opened and the witch carefully poured the blood from the cup between her parted lips. Damon's face twitched with sympathy as Bonnie repeated the operation with the blood bag. Bennett looked so miserable that even he felt the urge to comfort her.

"So, how do we lift the spell?" he asked once Bonnie was through.

"Why do you think Klaus didn't remove it? The spell can be undone only by a very specific person."

"Who?" Damon felt he was going to snap if she didn't tell him very soon.

"The person she cares about most."

Damon needed several seconds to process the information. He pressed his lips together and took a deep breath.

"So we need Jeremy, I guess?" asked Stefan.

"This person doesn't have to be a human. It's not humanity that makes the spell work," answered Bonnie. "Actually, that's why I didn't let you in before. If the spell had been lifted, she could have died for good. Now once this person touches her, the spell will be broken. Is anyone going to try?" she asked.

"You think that after what he did to Elena, Stefan can still qualify as that person?" Damon tried to put as much biting sarcasm in his words as possible.

"He could try," said Bonnie. "You both could."

Stefan was already in the ward, holding Elena's hand, and Damon cringed at the sight. He was still far from forgiving his brother. He was terrified, but also a little relieved when Elena didn't react to Stefan's touch. He shook her hand a little, but Elena remained unmoving, lifeless.

"Try, Damon."

He stared at Bonnie, incredulous that she would encourage him to go in. Damon slowly made his way into the ward, came up to Elena and caressed her cheek. He didn't believe that anything would happen, that he was the person she cared about most, but he had to try anyway.

If it weren't for Bonnie's yelp, Damon wouldn't have noticed Elena's body was changing. The cuts and bruises gradually disappeared, the minimum of human blood Bonnie had poured into her brought a little color to her skin, and in a minute her heart started beating – impossibly slowly for a human, the slowest normal for a vampire.

"Damon," she whispered, barely opening her eyes.

He didn't think he had ever experienced this much happiness. Elena was alive, in a way, she was with him, and – he still couldn't believe it – she responded to his touch. He wasn't going to push her now, or even to bring up the subject, but the spell couldn't have lied – Damon was the one she cared about most. He caressed her hair and kissed her forehead, blinking back unwelcome happy tears.

"I'm here, Elena. I'm here. I'll take you home."

With the woman he loved pressed tightly against his chest, Damon strode out of the ward.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please, let me know what you think - every opinion counts ;)

Note: TVD doesn't dwell much on vampire anatomy and the way their organisms work. The most common idea is that their hearts don't beat, but this is how I take Damon's words that vampires' bodies function like human as long as they have blood in their system. I hope it helped if you were confused about this moment :)