Chapter 6: Quondam

Feeling utterly useless, Elena was holding Damon's upper body up as he dry heaved almost crying with the effort, leaning towards the side of the bed in case something did come up. His back was arching violently and Elena tried to comfort him rubbing his back now, hoping every round would be the last. Herself drying out of words that she thought could be of any help, she just held onto him, trying to comfort him with gentle strokes of his face, hair and tensed up stomach each time he lay back down for a while.

Alaric came into the room shaking his head, finding them in the exact same position he left them hours ago, "I assume it didn't work," he sighed, "I talked to three people with witch powers and they all tried to help, but I don't think either of them is as powerful as the Bennett witches and therefore not able to break the curse."

"Its all right, Ric," Damon said surprisingly calmly and collectedly, "you just need to let me go into hibernation. I won't feel the pain then."

"It's not a solution," Elena pointed out.

"It might be the only option we have," Alaric said dejectedly, "till we find the answer we're looking for."

"I'm here, baby. It's okay, I'm here," Katherine fleeted in all of a sudden. Ignoring everyone's stunned looks she sat on the bed at the other side of him as opposed to Elena and took Damon's hand in hers.

Damon managed one eyebrow rising up, "what are you talking about?"

"Why are you here?" Elena faced her, in a somewhat antagonistic manner, making a point in continuing to rub Damon's tense muscles just beneath the skin of his belly a little too harshly in her demonstration of possessiveness, making him moan painfully.

Katherine rolled her eyes, "stop that, gods, what are you doing?" She also placed a hand on his weary stomach, "you're missing the point. You can't counteract black magic with massages."

"It relaxed him if you want to know," Elena mumbled, flummoxed.

"Do you know of something that could help us Katherine?" Alaric intercepted before the lookalikes could go into a girl fight over handspace on Damon's stomach.

"If you haven't noticed yet, I'm always around to save the day," Katherine announced, "what you need is magic fingers," she winked at Damon.

"You just said yourself you can't counteract black magic with massages," Elena pointed out.

"Not my magic fingers. The right ones," Katherine pointed towards the door where a semi solid figure of a woman stood.

"Emily?" Damon frowned. The long dead witch wasn't usually good news. Struggling to sit up, he instinctively tried to pull higher on the bed and a few inches further from her.

"My relationship with Emily has never changed," Katherine assured him, "she will do as I ask."

"I am sorry Damon," the apparition said with a strange unearthly voice resembling an echo, "I'm afraid we were siding with the wrong Salvatore."

Damon shook his head and blinked, trying to clear his view, "now I'm hallucinating."

The witch floated closer, "how are you feeling?" She asked calmly, businesslike.

Ric answered instead of a very weary Damon, "as if a stake had been embedded in his stomach, never healing completely and exactly in the way of blood going down."

"Understatement," Damon mumbled. Emily raised her see-through hand reaching towards his midsection, but the vampire turned to his side where Elena was, out Emily's way, "don't touch me."

Katherine rolled her eyes, "it wouldn't kill you to trust me."

"That would be quite unusual," Damon grunted.

"What Bonnie did was not just out of order, but interfered with balance as well," Emily explained quietly, almost emotionless, but not being able to hide some level of involvement, "using blood in incantations opens up dark channels and we already knew we were slowly loosing her. Because a witch created vampires, it is our curse and responsibility to keep them in check as much as possible. Sometimes that will mean forming alliances with some for a common cause," she looked at Katherine pointingly, "and we also had our moments in the past Damon."

"Don't tell me all of a sudden you chose to remember I saved your family," Damon said, not turning away from Elena who rubbed his arm up and down encouragingly.

Emily shrugged, "I never forgot the boy Damon who rescued little rabbits before his father's hunting party could get there, taught all his brother's classmates to read and write along with him and could be found at his mother's resting place if in any doubt about his whereabouts. I didn't wish it for a person like that to become a vampire and you have to admit you did loose your way for a while."

"Let Emily help, Damon. Let me turn some things right at least," Katherine put a hand on his arm, trying to turn the stubborn Salvatore.

Elena looked at Katherine, seeking eye contact with the despairing Bulgarian vampire, "Katherine. The way you hurt him, you can't expect Damon to just trust you like that. Or anyone for that matter," she said apologetically, working on the same cause as the other dopperganger. She took Damon's face in her palm, soothing him by stroking his hair with her other hand while indicating towards Emily and Katherine with her head that they should proceed when Damon relaxed a little into the gentle touch of the love of his life.

Emily half stepped round, half floated through the bed and placed a hand on Damon's stomach so he didn't have to turn. Closing her eyes, she recited some indefinable words as the others looked on expectantly. Elena felt Damon loosen up after a few words, but it took a nailbiting few minutes before she withdrew, nodding towards Katherine, "just let him sleep the rest off now, I've restored his healing abilities," and disappeared the same way she came.

Alaric looked on a little confused, "shouldn't we wake him to eat? Wouldn't he heal better that way? And we would know if the mojo worked as well."

Katherine shook her head, "Emily said no."

Alaric turned to get some alcohol. He wasn't going to point out that the therapist was the culprit's great great grandmother as it would've upset everyone. Whiskey should take his mind off things.

Tbc