Chapter Forty: Shake Me Down

In my past, bittersweet, there's no love between the sheets,
Taste the blood, broken dreams, lonely times indeed,
With eyes cast down, fixed upon the ground, eyes cast down
I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun
Turn back now its time for me to let go,
Way down had to find a place to lay low,
Lampshade turned around into a light post
Walk around the corner never saw it coming still,
I try to make a move, it almost stopped me from belief,
I don't wanna know the future but I'm like rolling thunder
~Cage the Elephant

He could see her lying curled up on the floor, cheek pressed on the hardwood and hands balled into her chest. Damon would have thought she was dead if it wasn't for her watering eyes and the slight movement of her shoulders as she breathed. Every so often a tear would build up and roll down her cheek. He watched from his normal perching place.

The window was slightly he positioned himself just right he could make it though, opening the window as he went and hopefully not smashing anything. But who knows, he still felt the numbing effects of his consumption of alcohol. So, maybe that wasn't the smartest idea at the moment. Instead he waited, just watching her. She looked like a ragdoll. He'd never seen her so weak.

Focusing his hearing, he picked up on music coming from the cracked open window. It was a low hum of a beat, a man singing from her stereo.

"Leave me alone

It's nothing serious

I'll do it myself It's got nothing to do with you

And there's still nothing that you could do

So come in my cave

And I'll burn your heart away

Come in my cave

And arrest me for my mistakes."

Finally Damon decided to give it a shot and dropped from the branch. He landed on the ground silently and walked directly under her window, cranking his neck up at it. Pulling his body into a crouch, he focused all his power in his legs and shot forward. Easily reaching her window, he grabbed the frame and raised himself up, pushing it open more. Then in one swift movement Damon swung the rest of his body through, and casually sat on the window sill.

He starred at her, Nilly starred back. She'd seen the entire thing but still made no indication of moving. "I have a door, you know?" she whispered.

"Yeah, but I heard that it's not open to visitors," he smiled back, and as if on queue there was a light knocking on her door. Damon stilled, his smile dropping but Nilly made no indication of answering it. Her eyes stayed on him, peeking out from under her bangs.

"Nil?" Elena's voice came from the other side of the door. "Nilly, can I come in please?" There was a pause. Nilin was silent on the floor. "Open the door, please." Still Nilin didn't answer.

Then Damon heard Elena's footsteps fading as they retreated from her room. Damon slid down next to her on the floor and that's when he was hit with the smell of blood. It was light enough to be masked but enough to make his temple pulsate. He looked down at Nilin and spotted her clenched hands.

"Hey, hey. What'd you do here?" he asked softly, reaching for her fists. She let him take her hand away from her chest but it was still balled up, she was squeezing so tight her knuckles were white. Damon pried her fingers open gently and smoothed them back. A familiar ache came to his jaw but he quickly dismissed it and it reseeded back again. Nilin's hand was cover in blood, it looked like she'd been hand painting with it. He could see the cuts in her palm, some deep other appearing to be just scratches. "What happened?" he asked again.

She couldn't hold his eyes now, they darted past him. "I tried to clean the glass up, I didn't mean to break it," she said in that same whispered tone. He looked down at her concerned, and followed her eyes to the other side of the room. A broken picture frame laid on the floor, he could see the red tinted shards of glass around it.

He glanced down at Nilly before he stood up and walked over to her bathroom. A damp washcloth in hand, he went back over to Nilin and pulled her up softly. He shifted her body so she was sitting up against the bed and then he very tenderly began wiping the blood away, cleaning out the scraps of glass in her cuts. Nilly's eyes stayed locked on her opened hand as he worked. Never did she complain or even show any sign of being in pain. Her eyes just stayed down.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, barely moving her lips.

"For what?" he asked as the last of the blood disappeared. She didn't answer him, so Damon stood walking back into the bathroom to dispose of the stained washcloth and find something to cover her cuts with. He returned again, taking the same position in front of her as he grab her hand and wrapped it in an ace-bandage.

"People are dying around me, they drop like flies." Nilly finally answered. "I'm like the damn Black Plague."

He was quiet for a moment, then he tucked his index finger under her chin and brought her eyes up to his. "Don't ever think of yourself that way," he said calmly.

"What other explanation is there for everything that's happened to me?" she asked.

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" Damon asked, sweeping her bangs out of her eyes. "It's how this screwed up, manic world works." There was silence that fellow over the room as he dropped his hand from her hair.

"My dad died," she said slowly her voice building to more than a whisper. The look on her face seemed as if she needed to her herself say those words. He starred at her, the pain in his chest growing as a tear tumbled from her eye. He caught it quickly, feeling her lean into his hand. "Is it my fault?" she asked innocently.

"Of course not," he answered, flattening his palm on her cheek.

"If I stayed and made sure he got better, even if it was for a couple days maybe he wouldn't have…" her voice trailed off as more tears fell.

"If you stayed there any longer you'd be dead, Nilin," he said. "You know that, too." The look on her face convinced him that she was fully aware that she could've died at the hands of Christian in that town, but that she didn't care.

"There was something I could've done, though." Nilly said. "I wasn't even there…"

He sighed, placing his other hand her cheek as well, holding her delicate face in his grasp. "Don't do that to yourself. He wanted you here, he told you himself. That was his final request for you. He wanted you to be happy." Damon said quietly. "In my book he was being dad of the year and it's a hell of a lot more than my father ever did for me."

Tears began to spill quicker from her eyes. He wiped them away as she spoke. "I can't do this anymore. Its too much," she whispered, sounding so broken. "I don't want to feel like this anymore."

Without thinking he pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. Nilly rested her head on his chest, her hand clutching his shirt as she began to cry. He held her as tremors shook her body. Then he noticed her irregular breathing again.

"You need to relax Nilin," he murmured in her ear. He felt her trying to take a deep breath, it came back out as a gasp. Damon ran his hand up and down her back, evenly coaxing the breaths out of her. She was able to take a deeper lungful of air as her sobs quieted into whimpers.

She gasped slightly as he stood, taking her in his arms with him. Damon placed her on the bed, smoothing her hair from her face. He pulled at the comforter on the other side of the bed and threw it around her. Nilly starred up at him with half closed eyes. He laughed slightly.

"When was the last time you slept?" he asked, the corners of her lips twitched up slight. Not a smile, but getting there.

"I can ask you the same thing," she replied lazily.

He smiled down at her, and slowly pressed his lips on the top of her head. "Get some sleep, Nilin. I'll check on you tomorrow," he promised.

He went to leave when her hand reached out and grabbed his, her touch sending an electrical current through him. "Can you stay? At least until I fall asleep?" she asked softly, her eyes already straining to stay open.

He smiled at her as she scooted over on the bed. Damon slowly lowered himself next to her on the edge of the bed, turning on his side and leaning his head on his hand. He reached behind him to her nightstand and pressed a button on her stereo, causing the CD in there to play again. The music started up softly as he turned back to her.

Her smile grew slightly, turning on her side as well to face him, as her hand stayed clasped to his in between them. "I love this song," she mumbled, yawning. She started to hum to it, pausing each time another yawn came to her lips. He watched her fight her sleep off as she drowsily mumbled to the song.

"And I wonder if you notice

The days I'm not around

And I'll it up someday, someway, somehow

I'm crazy for you baby, can't you see?

And I'm wondering if you're crazy just like me?"

Little by little her eyes closed, her breathing slowed and her heartbeat evened. Her face looked so peaceful, and he had another moment where he couldn't find a single similarity between her and Katherine. He lightly brushed her bangs out of her pale eyelids. She wrinkled her nose in her sleep, shifting towards him. He froze, his hand barley touching her forehead as she curled herself closer to him.

Nilly let out a sigh in her sleep, and he couldn't help but smile down at her. He watched as she slept, completely memorized by each of her little unconscious movements. Running his hand delicately through her hair, he laid there as she slept and retreated from her pain for a few hours.

"No! Stop!" she yelled, waking abruptly and startling herself. Her vision was blurred and fear shot through her. She could feel hands on her as she struggled to get away.

"Shh… It's me, I've got you." A strong familiar voice said.

"Damon?" Nilly whispered, ceasing her struggles as she blinked, trying to focus on him. Her room was dark and she could barley make out his outline as he pulled her closer to him, both sitting up now.

"I'm right here," he spoke softly, allowing Nilly to slow her breathing as he ran his finger down the side of her cheek calmingly.

"Damon," she whispered once more, leaning her back on his chest as her head rested on his shoulder. His hand combed through her hair, somewhat getting snared in her curls.

"You okay?" he murmured into her ear, sending chills through her body. She nodded slightly against his shoulder. "Mmhm, nightmare," she mumbled, closing her eyes as his fingers trailed up and down her arm.

"About what?" he asked in a hushed tone. Nilly swallowed hard trying to focus on speaking.

"I was in this meadow," she said tiredly and felt Damon pause for a moment, before he continued tracing the inside of her palm. "Just standing there in the middle of this tall grass," she continued getting flashes of her dream. "Suddenly you were behind me, calling my name. I started to walk towards you but you disappeared. So I turned around and I saw my dad. He was yelling at me but he was too far away and I couldn't hear what he was saying." Nilin explained, dreamily. "So I started running towards him. He was pointing and yelling for me to turn around and-" her voice cut and Damon hushed her, wrapping his other arm around her tighter.

"And I saw you," she continued softly. "You were running towards me when suddenly Christian appeared an- and he staked you…" her voice faded away as a shiver ran through her body making her shudder. Damon must have felt it because he pulled her comforter closer around her.

"It was only a nightmare, though," he murmured in her ear. "You can't get rid of me that easily." Nilly smiled in the dark, nuzzling into her blankets more, her eyes drooping slightly.

"What time is it?" she yawned. She felt him shrug behind her as his fingers began drawing circles on her forearm. "I thought you'd have left my now," she breathed sleepily.

"Like I said you can't get rid of me that easily," he whispered, his voice sending chills up her spine and cranking up her heart beat. "Now go back to sleep," he urged, his voice alone making it hard to stay awake. Nilly felt him press his lips to the side of her head as she leaned in to him more.

"Good night," she mumbled as she snuck off to sleep again.

"I'll be right here." Damon's voiced promised as she faded into the darkness.

Author's Notes:
Oh glorious Mondays, how I despise them. I hope you had a fantastic weekend, though. Here's the next chapter, showing the aftermath of the events before. Tell me what you guys think! Thanks so much for the recent reviews. I love hearing what you guys think, so keep them coming!
See you guys Friday!

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