Chapter 2: Trade

Stefan looked up hopefully at Elena as she entered the room, just to be crushed the next moment by her expression. He instinctively scooted closer to his brother on the bed and smoothed down the side of Damon's hair, as if that could've been of any use.

"Caroline says she went back over to Bonnie's as she didn't pick up the phone," Elena started her update while staring at the brothers. Dread kept her from coming closer at the moment, "she jumped up through the window and found Bonnie in some sort of trance surrounded by all different coloured candles. She couldn't talk or as much as figure out what she was doing. Any time she tried to approach, Bonnie threw her back out the window. It doesn't make sense, she at least allowed Caroline close earlier."

Stefan looked up at her at a loss. "So..it's her doing this to Damon?"

"It could be," Elena admitted agonised.

"Stay with Damon, I'm going over," Stefan pulled his hands away somewhat reluctantly from his exhausted, but still audibly whimpering brother.

Elena shook her head, "I don't think that's a good idea, Stefan." She stepped closer to his previous prompting however, "if Bonnie doesn't tolerate Caroline, another vampire will not sway her mind. Let Matt handle it. I called him as I thought he'd be the only person she'd let in. He had nothing to do with last night and he's human."

Stefan looked as if he would've wanted to snap all the furniture in the room in two, but he eventually nodded at her, "all right. Just stay with him for a minute while I get some vervain."

"Vervain?" Elena looked at him uncomprehending.

"It is the only thing I can think of that could ease his pain."

"Wouldn't it cause more pain?" Elena asked worriedly.

"Momentarily. But with the right amount, then it'll knock him out and then at least he won't feel anything," Stefan hurried out the room.

"Damon?" Elena knelt by the bed, it was how she thought she could get herself into the older vampire's field of vision without moving him. He looked so much like when he was dying from Tyler's bite it scared her. She had to remind herself that as far as they could tell, this ailment was only temporary and a result of witchcraft. Only that thought upset her as well. Of course Bonnie had tried to kill Damon before, but that was at a time the witch was at odds with the whole of human bloodtaking vampirekind and not differentiating between individuals, causes and motivations, so the current situation made her angry with her best friend. The conflicting feelings confused her, so the young woman decided to concentrate on Damon instead. If she could comfort him when he had the werewolf bite, she should be able to get through to her so far unresponsive friend. She looked him up and down, trying to figure out in what way she could help. Perhaps instinctively, she reached to his lower arms, stroking and tracing them down to his knuckles, embedded in his abdomen as he curled up. Her fingers ran over his rigid muscles, reaching his belly where she doubled her palm on his, pushing and stroking lightly, letting him know she was there for support. It briefly occurred to her what teasing Damon would give her for touching his lower stomach, she even hoped he would do that right at that moment when he opened her eyes at the contact.

"A stake.." Damon starting saying instead, "inside me," his fist opened and shut, stiffly hovering a few millimetres from his skin, a little away from his bellybutton, indicating the spot.

Elena shook her head slightly, at a loss. Her hand tugged at his, trying to move them away from his belly confoundedly. She was quite sure what Damon said was not true, yet she could not stop herself from checking. It was only with some difficulty that the girl managed to pry one of his hands half an inch away and she slid hers under it, feeling his unscathed bare skin, clean and dry. "You're okay Damon. We're going to fix this," she turned to the entering Stefan trying to take her hand away, but finding that Damon had placed his over it on his abdomen and now her fingers were stuck in a vampiregrip, "Stefan. He's saying there's a stake in his stomach?"

A whole array of compassionate and agonised emotions passed each other on Stefan's face, "he must be feeling like that," he swiftly moved his syringe to his brother's arm and pushed the contents out, "I'm sorry Damon, I'm so sorry." He knelt down next to the bed as well to be eye level with the older vampire and encouraged him to look at him by holding him by the side of the neck, "when you wake up we'll have some sort of solution, we will," he promised while Damon's eyes closed with the added debilitation of the vervain.

"What it we can't, not for a long while?" Elena whispered. Damon's grip on her hand loosened, yet she kept her hand where it was, hoping to give his friend some kinda comfort.

Stefan gave her an admonishing, disregarding look, running his hand over his brother's muscles, sighing releaved. "Do you think he's comfortable enough?" Elena guessed what he was doing. She was herself searching Damon's face for signs of discomfort. He didn't really look like he was sleeping peacefully, his features were drawn and pale.

"I don't know how much," Stefan admitted, "but I'm sure it'll be better for him this way," he assured her. Still, both of them kept their eyes on Damon, finding it hard to tear themselves away from concentrating on his wellbeing. So they both jumped a bit when Elena's phone rang.

Elena pulled her hand finally away from Damon's stomach reluctantly to step over to her bag she dropped carelessly on the floor on entry and quickly glanced on the caller id before answering, "hi Matt. Could you talk to Bonnie?"

"Yes," Matt's reply sounded heavy and rather dejected, "well, she is kinda talking to me, kinda not. I'm going to go back to try and get through to her in a little while, I just wanted to let you know what you're dealing with. Elena, she's got some other magic book with her, its not the grimoire she's usually using. Some other things seemed off as well, like the pentagram was weird, but I knew for sure there was a problem when I saw the blood and the voodoo doll."

"She's using black magic.." Elena realised with some dread, and Stefan's eyes became intense and care-laden even more. "Ask him what she's doing with the voodoo doll," he said stiffly, barely managing to contain himself.

"I've seen a stick through the middle and some other randomly," Matt answered having heard the not so quiet question. Stefan winced, it all made sense completely. "This is bad, Elena," her classmate continued, "if all the supernatural wasn't lousy enough, she goes dark," Matt humphed in the low spirits he always was in these days. "But don't worry, I think I can get through to her. I started to remind her of our childhood when none of us knew about magic and it looked like she mellowed a little at the nostalgia, but then I made the mistake of mentioning Caroline and something flickered in her eyes, I don't know what, only it could have not been good cause she started stabbing the doll and ignoring me again."

"Matt, every time Bonnie stabs that thing, Damon is in excruciating pain. I don't know how much of that he can take."

"I assumed that much. Look, I'm sure it looks worse than it is. You know fine well vampires can take a lot." He tried to comfort his once girlfriend.

"Matt!" Elena reprimanded him while Stefan looked like he was going to jump on the phone.

"I know, I know, don't worry, I'm on it, I'll let you know how it goes," the young man promised.

"Why would he, or Caroline for that matter be motivated enough?" Stefan held his hand out for the phone stiffly, with an unnerving expression that suggested he'd not take no for an answer.

"I'd wish for nothing more than for all vampires, witches, werewolves and the like not to exist. But as it stands, its not only that I cannot ignore what my friends are, but its also that at the moment I also feel like I owe Damon. He saved my life at the Mikaelson ball."

"At the ball? When?" Elena frowned, a little distracted from the cause by the new information.

"On the balcony when Kol attacked me. I don't think he liked a human near his sister."

"Oh," gave Elena, realising the reason why Damon left the way he did. She looked over at the unconscious vampire guiltily, feeling the sorrow of how he was judged for things unfairly. "Matt, listen, if you don't get anywhere with Bonnie, I'll come over as well. I know she didn't want to see me, but if its vampires she's irate with at the moment, maybe she'll accept a shoulder to cry on."

"Matt," Stefan finally grabbed the phone out her hand, "what I'm giving you, any of you, is till the daybreak. Any minute later and your beloved Bonnie is dead," he spat, eyes gleaming a redish tint in fury. He disconnected and handed her back the phone with a stony face.

Elena's hand was shaking a little when she automatically pressed a button to get her phone back to the home screen image. Stefan's wore the same expression of vengeance she knew from his ruthless antiKlaus obsession and it scared her on so many levels it was hard to contemplate. She had no illusions, her ex boyfriend meant every word of what he had said and any more of Bonnie's gimmicks could make her lose both of them forever. It was only when he climbed back onto bed to take the unconscious Damon's head into his lap that his features softened somewhat and Elena dared to address him, albeit with a shaky voice, "is there anything I can do?"

Stefan gave a barely noticeable headshake and Elena hovered, hesitant, "do you want me to go?" She bit into her lip at her ex boyfriend's hard face, "I'm not sure if I could be of more use to Matt.."

It was when she almost turned and left when Stefan finally answered at length, "stay. He would want you here," he waved his hand vaguely in the direction of Damon and the bed, "stay, Elena. Please."

The young woman nodded, sitting down on the other side of Damon from Stefan. As he was holding his older brother in his lap, Elena took Damon's cold hand instead, squeezing to let him know she was with him if he was capable of sensing that. She at least hoped he would be able to tell the two people who were trying to give him comfort were those he cared about the most.

Tbc