Wha... what is this? I am actually updating less than 24 hours after the previous Chapter? This cannot be!

But it is my fellow Delena fans! Already, thank you SOOOOOO much for you kind and supportive reviews. They mean an awful lot. So much so I penned up this chapter last night and this morning as a big, whopping thank you. It's pretty dramatic, but hey, what's The Vampire Diaries without a little drama eh? I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope it shows. It's the big one...

Enjoy...

DAMON'S POV

Damon felt Stefan's hold slacken as they watched Isobel continue to gush large amounts of gasoline around the room. She told Stefan to keep him place while she exited the room for a minute or so and then she came back in to douse his classroom a second time over.

They were both speechless, which left Damon to wonder if Stefan was in on this particular part of Isobel's plan... judging by the shake in the kids' stance and his unsteady breathing, he had no idea that Isobel had planned on doing this little fireworks display.

Knowing that time was precious and most likely running out, Damon forced himself to speak.

"Why are you doing this Isobel?"

This made her stop, her body slightly bent over from chugging liquid around the room. Her face, although unclear through the darkness, stared directly at Damon. It freaked him out a little, but he knew he needed to continue. What did he have to loose in this situation?

"I mean... all of this just because I don't want to be with you? Fair enough you can hate me and be disgusted by my relationship with Elena, but you gotta admit that this is a little extreme."

He spoke calmly and carefully. The sarcasm and cocky attitude completely stripped away. He went to move forward but Stefan reminded him of the cold blade still wielded before his neck.

Isobel straightened her body and walked towards them. Even Stefan flinched behind Damon. It was, to say the least, a disturbing sight to see her dark figure stalk over to them until Damon could see the deranged look in her eyes. She was past the point of no return.

"You wanna know why? I'll fucking tell you why..." she growled through clenched teeth, causing spit to hiss between them onto Damon's chin and lips. "All my life I have been let down by the likes of you, always treated second fucking best to the prettier, skinner girls that parade around like the sunshine glows from their assholes. I've given my heart, body and soul to men in the past but have been treated like shit on the bottom of their shoes in return. Used, abused and tossed aside like I'm worth nothing. But with you... Damon..." she reached up, passing the blade at his strained neck to stroke his face tenderly, "you were special. I saw you and I knew you had to be mine. I wasn't going to let you go. Not for anything. I just knew we were meant to be." Her voice had turned into a faint whisper, enough to hear the distant sound of the dance continuing on through the night. Damon could see in her watery eyes a calmness take over. Maybe she was seeing sense?

"Isobel..." he started, but she cut him off.

"But then discovering you were fucking one of our students, a little girl, over the likes of a woman like me..." she looked down at herself then, judging her body and shaking her head sadly. "That was the final nail in the coffin to my self-esteem and belief in that you could love me as much as I loved you... and I can't let you get away with that Damon."

She then threw the last slug of gasoline over Damon, the liquid splashing deep into Damon's mouth and into Stefan's eyes behind him.

A taste so vile and indescribable erupted in Damon's mouth. Whether Stefan had released him, or because he'd doubled over to cough up the vile tasting liquid that sloshed into his mouth he didn't know. But he was subconsciously aware that he was free to move around, and so staggered away as much as he could before violently coughing and heaving once more.

"I-Iz..." he choked, clutching his throat, feeling his windpipe become somewhat restricted and his throat become painfully dry, leaving him unable to speak.

"This wasn't part of the plan!" yelled Stefan from somewhere in the room, sounding very much in pain himself. "Isobel what do we do now?"

"We?" came Isobel's voice, the struck with a chord of laughter afterwards. Damon turned to look over his shoulder to find Stefan cradling his right eye and Isobel standing a few feet away, savouring every moment before her. "We aren't going to do anything Sweetie. You've done your part, but I don't see much reason for you to walk out of this either."

The smell of gasoline was overpowering in the room by now. Isobel tossed the empty container into the corner of the room. Then silence, a terrible silence followed that Damon couldn't bear any longer.

It didn't require any noise when fumbling around in a dress pocket for a light.

"Wa-ait" Damon choked, leaning over a desk and reaching out to Isobel in a somewhat pleading manner. The burning in his throat and chest wasn't easing.

"You're acting crazy Isobel! Put the light down! I didn't know it was going to go this far!" bellowed Stefan, although to Damon it sounded like he was crying. Crying for his life.

As Damon attempted to negotiate one last time, he coughed up blood into the palm of his hand. It didn't particularly phase him. He focused on breathing, swallowing, Elena. Breathe, swallow, Elena. He coughed again and this time his damaged airways felt clearer. From his slumped angle on the desk he pushed himself into a standing position, looking forward with his bloodshot eyes to find Isobel, lighter in hand, flame flickering back and forth.

"At least this way I know you'll be with me forever Damon" said Isobel, her voice fragile and broken. Damon knew she had tears rolling down her face.

Then the door to the classroom opened...

All what followed seemed to occur in slow-motion before Damon's eyes. He couldn't recall trying to shout out Bonnie Bennett's name as she took in the dark sight before her. But he remembered trying to dive over the several rows of desks that blocked his path to Bonnie as she charged over to Isobel in a desperate attempt to tackle the lighter from her hands.

"BONNIE! RUUUN!"

Isobel slammed the young girls body into the wall and then dropped the naked flame to ground...

ELENA'S POV

"Wow..." said Caroline, for once, lost for words. "That's just... wow."

Elena had somehow managed to condense her entire journey with Damon into a bitesize story than lasted only a few short minutes. Everything from their first encounter, Mr Saltzman's discovery at the log cabin, Isobel's black-mailing, her running away with Damon that very evening... Caroline knew it all and still hadn't formulated a proper sentence in response as she and Elena sat at a quiet table away from the madness of the party.

"Care please say something... anything" Elena said, grasping hold of Caroline's hands that were clasped in her lap.

Caroline sadly looked up to her friend, "I'm sorry you felt you couldn't tell me anything Elena," she said, almost tearfully, "I've behaved rottenly towards you. I'm a sucky best friend."

Elena laughed silently and brushed away one of Caroline's tears.

"I forgive you. And now you know... what do you think?"

"I think it's total madness, that you're insane, crazy and completely stupid... yet it's so horribly romantic how could I not support you?"

Elena instantly threw her arms around Caroline and they shared one of the most painfully squeezed yet elated hugs. Finally something positive had happened this evening. As Elena withdrew from Caroline's arms, she drew her thoughts back to her biggest concern.

The whereabouts of her boyfriend and best friend.

"What's taking them so long?" said Caroline, taking the words right out of Elena's mouth.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, I know it's not good" Elena said, feeling the deep rumble of fear burn in her stomach.

It had been at least twenty minutes since Bonnie had left them. Elena promised almost everyone that she would stay in the dance where she would remain safe. But she couldn't stay any longer, the wait was driving her mad. Before making her move, she and Caroline checked their phones. Elena had no calls and no messages. Neither had Caroline. So that was that, Elena kicked off her high heels, gathered her dress and wordlessly made her way to the exit Bonnie had left from.

"Are you sure you don't wanna stay and wait?" called out Caroline from behind her.

"I have to find them Care, I think something terrible may have-"

Elena gasped as her way out was blocked by Alaric. Reindeer jumper jokes all but forgotten.

"And where the Hell do you think you're going?" he said forcefully, folding his arms across his broad chest.

"They're in danger Ric, I know they are" Elena said, trying to move around him but Alaric blocked her path.

"I told Damon I would keep you in my sight."

"But do you have any idea where Damon is? Or Bonnie? Stefan? Or Isobel for that matter? Waiting around is doing no one any favours Ric. We have to go and find them!"

She stared up at her older friend pleadingly, seeing him conflicted from Damon's word over hers. Finally he stared hard into her eyes and sighed heavily over the thundering music.

"I'll get the car. Ten minutes."

"Thank you!" Elena said, wishing she could hug the man but all the while remembering where they were. Without checking if Caroline was following she darted to the fire exit, bursting through the door into the night to find the two people she cared about most in this world.

DAMON'S POV

Flames. Heat. Smoke.

Damon knew he was still in classroom E6. And he knew needed to get the hell out of there. Fast.

Somehow rationality hit him like a train at full speed. He dropped to the ground, momentarily amazed that the carpet he was sprawled on hadn't been doused in gasoline and that he hadn't already burned to death. The rumble and roar of the flames were so loud he couldn't tell if he could hear screaming. He prayed to God that he couldn't as his painfully bloodshot eyes searched for survivors...

But surely it was a fluke that he was alive right now. Surely the place should have exploded? Or maybe he was dead. Was this some weird out of body experience?

A cry for help told him otherwise.

Damon crawled his way along the floor to the sound of screaming. The heat on his back was unbearable. He wanted to look, to see if his back was on fire but he didn't dare. He carried on to the screaming of fear. To the frightened wails that belonged to Stefan.

"STEFAN!" he cried, his throat convulsing with blistering pain but the adrenaline powered him through to call again as he reached out his arm to grab ahold of his student. "STEFAN!"

"I'm here!" A hand grabbed his and Damon wasted no time in dragging them back in the direction he came from.

Flames. Flames were everywhere and Damon could feel himself swaying in and out of consciousness, succumbing to the powerful inferno around them.

"No..." he growled, staring down hard at the carpet just inches from his eyes. He wasn't giving up. Not just yet. He squeezed Stefan's hand. The boy squeezed in return.

Through the onslaught of smoke Damon looked up, barely able to hold his gaze through the black smoke and singeing heat towards the red/orange flames that licked and snapped fiercely around the doorway.

"Stefan!" he coughed, trying to look back but the heat was too much everywhere. It was all becoming too much. A few more moments and they would surely die. In a nano-second he mourned the realization he did not have the time or strength to look for bonnie. Whether Stefan could hear or not, Damon shouted only once "Exit. Straight-forward. NOW!"

Damon released Stefan's hand. Staggered to his feet and burst his way through the flames into the hallway.

He was on fire.

Damon didn't know how long it lasted, but the next thing he knew he was on the floor. He rolled back and forth, back and forth. Then his hands pulled and tore away the shirt from his burning body. A world of darkness and a dizzying void followed until he was eventually being hoisted to his feet. Images faded in and out of his vision; the floor beneath his staggering footsteps, the flames growing around them, then the opening of a door. These images were paired with smells and sounds. The stench of fuel, the touch of long hair and the scent of sweet shampoo. The yelling behind him and the sound of a door slamming shut.

Then he was on the floor again, sliding bare back against a cabinet and panting desperately for air. Hot. So hot. Cool. Cold. A gentle soothing taste blanketed his throat. Milk?

He coughed with surprise and felt a steady hand on his shoulder.

"Drink Mr Salvatore," she said sternly.

Reality slowly came back to him. Slowly and painfully. Damon soon realized they were in the Faculty Lounge, hence how Bonnie Bonnett raided the refrigerator of it's milk supply to sooth his gasoline and smoke tainted throat and stomach. She must have seen him struggling to breath before Isobel set the place alight and put two and two together. Smart girl.

His weary eyes travelled over to Stefan who was sat opposite him, legs raised to his chest and elbows resting on his knees as he gasped for air. He watched Bonnie scurry over to him, checking to see if he was alright also.

Finally Damon felt as though he could begin to take charge once more. Poor Bonnie was in bits, her smoke and slightly blood stained body winced with shock and pain as she made Stefan drink some water from the cooler.

The cooler.

Damon got to his feet. A horrendous pain blitzed through his right leg and arm but he refused to stop and inspect the damage. If it was as bad as it felt, he knew he would crumble at the sight of it.

"Mr Salvatore what are you-"

"In this situation Bonnie," croaked Damon, his voice incredibly weak he noticed as he grabbed several items of clothing from the small cloakroom and proceeded to douse them with water from the cooler, "I think it's okay that you call me Damon."

"Okay Damon," she breathed, "what are you doing?"

"Putting these under the doorway" he explained, limping his way over to the door where smoke was slowly beginning to curl and wisp under the gap. A terrifying reminder that it was reaching their location. He stuffed the sopping wet material under the gap, but he still knew it was going to do very, very little to help.

He glanced down to his two students. Bonnie's shakes had subsided and Stefan's breathing seemed to have evened out. Damon glared down at the stupid boy by his feet, wanting to give him a good kick in the leg and to scream some sense into his head. The kid looked up at him, crying with fear and shame at knowing he was one to help cause all of this chaos.

"I'm sorry, " he sniveled, coughing up phlegm and snot bubbling at his nose, "Please, I'm so sorry."

"Quit your whining and get up to your feet," Damon spat. "Now."

"I... I can't" Stefan whimpered, squeezing his eyes closed and flopping his head back against the cabinet.

Damon reached down, grabbed the insolent little shit by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet. He cried out in pain, but Damon didn't give a rats ass.

"Damon be careful!" sobbed Bonnie, the poor girl shaking once more.

"Be quiet," he told her, then looking back to Stefan whose eyeballs were bulging from their sockets. "Are you listening?"

Stefan frantically nodded.

"We have around 5 minutes until those flames are in this room. Are you going to help me get Bonnie through that window, or are you going to continue to sob like a 3 year old whose pissed his pants?"

Damon watched the teenager glance up at the one, small window in the far right hand corner of the room. It would need himself and Damon to hoist Bonnie out of there. There was no way either of them would fit. But at least they could get her out to safety.

"We'll need to find something to break it," Stefan dumbly suggested. Damon smacked him on the arm in a way a proud father would tell his son 'job well done.'

"Neither of you will get out of that window," Bonnie said, stating the obvious as Damon unhooked the fire extinguisher from the wall. " I can't leave you both here!"

"You have to" Damon said, smashing the window with an almighty crash, flurries of glass danced and bounced back against his naked torso and onto the floor beneath him. The cool night air felt magnificent against his overly-heated skin. As he handed the extinguisher back to Stefan, he heard a voice from outside.

It was her voice. Screaming his name.

ELENA'S POV

"DAMON!"

Elena could barely believe the sight before her eyes. The English Department was almost entirely engulfed in flames. The worst pain she'd ever felt, and she had only experienced it once before when her parents died, completely over took her body as she collapsed to the cold, dirty ground.

She tried to get back to her feet but she felt violently sick, unable to coordinate her body. A soft hand curled around her. It was Caroline talking frantically on her cell to the emergency services.

"Please hurry! There's people inside!"

Elena once again tried getting to her feet. She stumbled closer until she felt the heat of the fire against her skin. She needed to get in there to save Damon, to save Bonnie, she needed them to be alive or what was the point in living without them?

"Damon! Please God answer me, DAMON!"

She ran around the outskirts of the blazing building. Her naked feet cut and grazed on the concrete ground beneath them. She screamed and cried out their names over and over with no response. Nothing except the cruel rumble of the deep and heavy flames that kept her lover and friend imprisoned.

Eventually she found a room that the flames hadn't reached. Of all the rooms it was Mr Saltzman's. Dark and empty, a complete parallel to the towering inferno the rest of the building had become. Elena frantically looked around her feet, brushing her tangled curls of hair from her eyes to find anything that could break a window.

A large plank of wood, why it was there who knows, but it was and Elena was quick to try and use it. She used all the strength she had to smash the glass but she could barely make a crack. Bang. Thud. Crack. It was no use.

"Elena get away from there!" shrieked Caroline, barging her body into Elena's and tearing the wood from her hands.

"I have to get in their Caroline, Damon and Bonnie could be burning to death!"

"Elena you'll be killed!" Caroline screamed, hauling her friend away from the windows.

"ELEENAAAAA!"

The two girls abruptly stopped.

"Was that..."

"ELENA OVER HERE!"

"DAMON!" tore Elena's voice through the night as she ran alongside the building and around the corner. She thanked the Heavens above their heads that they were still alive. There was hope yet.

A black coat was being dangled from a small window. A very small window. Elena dashed over, almost tripping over her freezing toes as she latched her hands onto the sodden material that had been soaked in water.

"I'm here Damon! I'm here for you!"

DAMON'S POV

Damon closed his eyes and smiled at the sound of her voice on the other side of that wall. In all honestly, he could have burst into tears with relief. She was safe from Isobel. She was going to be okay. Knowing that gave Damon that extra push.

"Elena, baby, can you hear me alright?"

"Yes," she said, clearly crying with joy and hope "Yes, I hear you!"

"I'm in here with Bonnie and Stefan" he said, feeling his voice breaking up. He began to cough violently, his chest damaged from the mouthful of fuel mixed with smoke inhalation. A bad combination. "Stefan and I are going to lift Bonnie up to get her out - do you understand?"

"I do..." she said, momentarily trailing off "but what about you?"

Damon didn't answer and quickly turned back to find Bonnie and Stefan ready and waiting, a haze of smoke clouding around their bodies. There was no more time to waste.

"Lets get you out Bonnie,"

Damon reached out his hand which she took hesitantly, Stefan stood opposite him.

"I can't" she said, beginning to sob once more, "I'll never forgive myself for leaving you both here."

"Bonnie you have to go. Now come on"

"No, I can't leave..."

Without listening Damon nodded over to Stefan who nodded back in affirmation, and they hoisted her body upwards. Damon held her steady by her hip and the base of her foot, as did Stefan though with a little more difficultly. As Bonnie reached the window, Damon glanced over to the door of the Faculty Lounge. Greyish smoke was billowing thicker and heavier around the hinges and gaps of the door. The soaking clothes barrier at the floor now rendering useless.

"Hurry it up Bonnie, that's it girl" Damon said supportively.

He watched Bonnie begin to ease her petite body through the small window, flinching as her hands became embedded in the few fragments of glass Damon didn't manage to clear.

"Come on Bonnie, we've got you!" yelled Elena. Someone else must be with her. He hoped Alaric, he hoped someone trust worthy, he...

"Damon the flames!" Stefan cried.

With one last push, Bonnie was up and out. They had saved her.

Damon looked to Stefan standing opposite him. He'd turned from a boy to a man in a matter of seconds. The panic seemed to have faded from his dull emerald eyes, a look of acceptance of his fate etched across his furrowed brow. Damon looked over to the door as he slipped on the wet coat he'd dangled out of the window as a sign to Elena. The heat on the other side of the door was almost of a volcanic temperature. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well..." he said to Stefan, looking to him with a lop-sided smirk on his face "We may as well give it our best shot."

ELENA'S POV

As Bonnie came squeezing out from the window high above, Elena and Caroline awkwardly grabbed her so she didn't fall to the concrete below. Limbs tangled and twisted, the girls caught her and tumbled to the ground so she landed on them. Elena desperately clung on to her friend who cried with deep anguish against her chest, gripping her smoke-stained arms around Elena's neck. Elena cried with relief and stroked back Bonnie's hair, shushing her like she were a small child.

"I thought I was going to die. The flames, the burning, she was burning right before my eyes!"

"Sssssshhh" Elena pressed on, feeling the horror tingle her spine at Bonnie's words. She had clearly seen things that were going to haunt her for the rest of her life.

Elena looked up to the now empty window. There was no life emanating from the gap now. Just smoke. Elena felt her heart pound painfully, a cold sweat eloped her shivering body.

"Damon are you still there?" she shouted, feeling so sure that he would be.

But it was silent.

Caroline stepped forward and shouted louder. Still silence.

Elena for a few seconds focused on Bonnie who was still sprawled in her arms. She blinked, feeling the tears squeeze through her closed eyes as she waited for Damon to say something back.

The sound of an ambulance whirred in the distance. Mingling with the haunting sound of the relentless flames that hammered the building before them.

"Damon..." Elena called weakly, feeling herself fall apart "Damon you better be finding a way out of there! Don't you dare leave me!"

Silence drew on... and on... Elena looked up one last time to find flames flicking through the window Bonnie had escaped from only moments before.

There. In that moment. She felt her heart break.

"Come on Bonnie," said Caroline in a smooth, gentle voice.

Elena, stricken with a grief she never thought she would feel again, stared dumbfounded to the ground as Bonnie shifted from her body and into Caroline's arms. Elena felt footsteps vibrate through the concrete towards them but she didn't look up. She just stared to the floor and slowly began to wonder about all the 'what if' scenarios. What if she followed Bonnie in the instance out of the dance? What if she only waited five minutes for them to come back, or even ten? What if she hadn't wasted time trying to smash those windows and came around the corner sooner to give Damon more time to escape?

She continued to plague herself with these thoughts as she felt someone standing above her. Cold tears trailed silently down her face as she looked up to find Alaric Saltzman standing beside her. She broke down quietly as he kneeled down to carefully ease her to her bruised and bloodied feet.

"He's gone" she whispered, staring up into Ric's gentle eyes that she had grown to love. He did nothing except guide her away from the burning building. It was all a blur as they rounded the corner to a horizon of flashing blue lights. Then the screeching tires, horns and yells of the fire department.

Seeing the firemen race towards the building made Elena stop and turn out of Alaric's grasp.

"I want to go with them," she mumbled tearfully.

"Elena, no"

"I want to go..."

She writhed against Alaric as he held her tightly to his body. She was on the verge of pummeling her tiny fists against his chest and stomach out of anger. She wanted to go with them to find Damon. Maybe he did make it out. Maybe he was alive. He could still be alive...

Giving up the fight, Elena blinked her tearful eyes over her shoulder to look at the building.

No one could possibly be alive in there now.

Moments later she and Alaric had reached the crowds of students and teachers who'd finally heard word of the fire. Hundreds of people were there and all shouting for Elena, asking if she was alright. Elena's frightened brown eyes glanced everywhere for Bonnie, for Caroline... but above all for the slightest chance that Damon had made it out alive.

"Elena! Elena!"

She turned to heed the call of her name. It was her Uncle John. She didn't know what to think as she saw the pain on his face be washed away with relief as he darted over to envelope her in his arms.

"You're alright! Thank Goodness you're okay!"

He moved away to inspect her face, not quite believing his one and only niece was alive before him, then grabbed ahold of her once again. Elena felt nothing. She was numb to the core. She simply stared into space over her estranged Uncle's shoulder, looking through the swarming of people and paramedics, seeing the distant figures of firemen dart back and forth to the raging fire. Watching the continuing bustle of people caused Elena to slip into a daydream. It took her several seconds to realize that one fireman had Damon Salvatore lifted over his shoulders.

And as she watched the love of her life be taken into an Ambulance, Elena couldn't hold on to reality for a moment longer, and passed out in her Uncle's arms.

Told you it was dramatic! I hope you all enjoyed it in one way or another and I look forward to any reviews :-)

Anna xxx