Gravity

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone from The Vampire Diaries.

I know what you're thinking, two chapters in one day but I could barely upload in two months?! I know! But, I did split the last chapter in half so I had this one pretty much ready and I figured that I've made you all wait far too long in the past so I shouldn't let you wait any longer for this one! I hope you all enjoy it, it's a big one!

I haven't had a chance to re-read it properly so please ignore any silly mistakes! Thank you!

September 28th 2013

Saturday 1:30am

Portland, Oregon

I feel like I can't breathe.

This isn't happening.

This cannot be happening.

"Damon." Elena is crying, I don't have to turn around to see it. I can hear it in her voice.

I swallow the lump in my throat.

"Help her," Enzo looks up at me pleadingly but I stay frozen. "Damon fucking help her! Do something! Please! Please!" he sobs, his voice is broken. "Please help her! Megan!" he turns back to her limp lifeless body and I know that it's too late. "Megan please, please don't do this! Please don't leave me." He pushes her hair from her face as he begs her, his entire body is shaking. "Please!"

His pleads turn into white noise and everything fades away. I see Enzo's lips moving but it's like nothing is coming out.

It's too late. It's too fucking late.

I feel Elena barge past me and that's enough to spring me into action.

"No!" I grab her from behind, my arms wrapping tightly around her waist as I pull her back against me despite her protests. "Don't touch her!"

"Damon get off me!" she screams between her cries. "Get the fuck off me! Damon! I need to help her! Damon!"

I hold her tightly as she kicks against me. Enzo looks back up at us in despair.

"Don't just stand there! DO something!" he screams at us. "Fucking do something! Call an ambulance! Don't just stand there!"

"Let me go!" Elena kicks me in the shin and I groan in pain but my arms around her don't falter, I swing her around and turn to face her, my hands grip her arms tightly and I see her wince in pain but I don't let go.

"Run!" I tell her firmly, my eyes boring into hers and her jaw drops.

"What?"

"Run! Elena! Get the fuck out of here, now!" I shout at her, my voice rising and I try my best to ignore Enzo's painful cries behind me.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

"Damon!" Elena looks at me in disbelief. "We need to help her!"

"Elena," I hiss through gritted teeth. "She's dead. Now go!" she shakes her head, tears streaming down her face as she whimpers in front of me.

I look back at Enzo who is rocking Megan's lifeless body in his arms.

It's too late. Nothing can be done now. I take deep breaths, my legs feeling like jelly.

Enzo lets out another howl of pain and I can't take it anymore.

It won't be long until the cops show. People on the street waiting to get into the club will be able to hear his cries now.

Someone is going to come around this corner at any moment.

I turn back around; I grab Elena's hand and try to pull her back through the alleyway.

"Damon no!" she screams defiantly.

"Elena!" I snap at her as I try to pull her away. "The cops will be here any second, do you really want to fucking be here when they do?!"

Her eyes widen as realization dawns, she looks back at Enzo who is oblivious to our conversation, his cries getting louder and louder.

"Elena, this isn't just about me. This is about you. Now please!" I push her away from me roughly. "Get the hell out of here!"

"What about you?" she sobs.

"I'll be right behind you! Now go! And avoid the main roads! Go!" I urge her. "Go back to the motel, pack our bags and get ready to go! Go, Elena! NOW!"

She lets out another sob, hesitates for a moment before doing what I say.

I watch her go and turn back around to face Enzo.

I hold back the bile that is resting in the back of my throat.

I did this. This is my fault.

I quickly bend down beside him. "I'm so sorry," my voice cracks and I reach into his pockets despite his protests. I pull out his bag of cocaine just like I suspected and pocket it.

The last thing Enzo is going to need right now is to be charged with possession.

"She's not dead," he sobs, his broken eyes looking at me. "Tell me she's not dead."

I swallow the growing lump in my throat and shake my head silently. I can't answer that question. I lean back up onto my feet and take a small step back.

I'm a coward.

"I'm so sorry," I breathe out before turning on my feet and running away.

The second I get back to our motel room I am greeted with a hard slap across the face.

I deserved it and a hell of a lot more.

"Urgh!" Elena growls with a sob as she slaps me again. "You bastard! You just left them there!"

I barge past her and grab our packed bags, grateful that she at least did what I asked no matter how much she probably hates me right now.

I ignore her cries as I walk back out of the motel room and shove the bags in the trunk of the car.

"Get in." I order her abruptly.

Elena looks at me in complete disbelief. "Elena, I'll give the cops twenty minutes before they show up here! We need to be long gone when they do!"

She stands still, defiant in the motel doorway.

I clench my jaw.

"Fine! You fucking stay here then!" I snap at her angrily, knowing that I shouldn't be taking this out on her. She has every right to be mad.

Every right to hate me.

I get into the driver's side, my body sinking in relief as the passenger door swings open and Elena jumps inside, slamming the door hard after her.

I pull away immediately, the car screeching in the quiet night as we speed away into the darkness.

"Open up!" I shout in frustration as I continue to bang my fist against the front door. "Bennett, I know you're in there I saw your ugly curtains twitching!"

The door soon swings open and I'm met with raging dark eyes.

If looks could kill, I would be ten feet under right now.

"What do you want, Stefan?!" Bonnie hisses at me through gritted teeth.

"Did you know?!" I bark at angrily and she glares back at me.

"Know what?!" she snaps.

"About Caroline and Klaus!"

She looks at me puzzled, her face full of accusation. "What are you talking about? Caroline and Klaus? There is no Caroline and Klaus!"

I roll my eyes at her assumption and shake her head. "Did you know that they've gone AWOL out of town, presumably to look for Damon and Elena?!"

"What?!" she shrieks in disbelief and I guess that answers my question. "You're joking, right?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?!"

"I knew Caroline went AWOL on Thursday from school and skipped Friday but I just assumed she was with some boy…Tyler or something. I even covered for her with her Mom!"

"Yeah well it obviously didn't work because I got a visit this morning from the sheriff and Detective Gilbert demanding to know where they've gone!"

"Well I don't know!" she snaps defensively.

"Yeah, clearly!" I snap back. "Fuck! I swear they better not lead the cops right to Damon's door!"

"So what if they did?" Bonnie glares at me. "It's about time he faced responsibility for what he's done."

I glare at her. "Damon didn't do anything!"

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah so you keep saying, the whole town knows what he is capable. I just wish Elena could see it too."

I grit my teeth. "You know nothing."

"I know enough." She hisses back. "To be honest, I don't even care about your brother. All I care about is my best friend, so yes, I do hope Caroline and Klaus lead the police right to their door if it means that I get my best friend back home and safe and away from that sociopath." She tells me before slamming the door in my face.

My fists clenches as I slam it against the door after her.

I'm going to kill Klaus for this.

"We're lost!" Caroline throws her arms up in frustration.

"We're not lost!" I argue as I make another left turn. So I may not know exactly where we are but that doesn't mean that we are lost.

We reached the borders of Oregon about two hours ago, thanks to me driving through the night, much to Caroline's dismay. I pointed out that she wasn't the one who had to pay for two motel rooms last night because she wouldn't sleep in the same room as me!

"I saw a sign about twenty minutes ago saying Portland was the next exit…you drove past that exit! We're lost!"

I ignore her and reach over to fiddle with the sat-nav. I used the zip code that Damon gave me and so far we were heading in the right direction.

Until of course I missed the exit.

"Just give this stupid thing a moment and it will re-route us." I smack it impatiently for good measure.

"Well it's not going to work if you break it!" she snatches it from my grip and pulls it from its holder into her hands. "This is why men should never multitask." She scolds me as she looks down at the screen. "Keep driving for the next mile and take the next left and we will be back on track. You're welcome."

Caroline was right, of course, and soon we were back on route to being reunited with our best friends.

The closer we get, the more nervous I feel, which is quite ridiculous really because I have nothing to feel nervous about. I think Caroline is feeling the same because I have barely heard a peep from her in the last hour and that is an absolute record for her, trust me.

"Do you think Elena will be happy to see me?" Caroline finally breaks the tense silence as we get even closer to our destination.

"Of course," I glance at her briefly before returning my eyes to the road. "You're her best friend."

"I was her best friend. It's been nearly six months now. That's a long time." She sounds worried.

"It's not that long. I'm sure she's been missing you just as much as you've been missing her." I try my best to make her feel better but honestly I'm not very good at the whole comforting thing.

"I don't know," she frowns. "I was crappy friend to her in the weeks leading to her leaving town."

"What's a few weeks compared to a life long friendship huh?" I reply lightly. "Come on, stop being ridiculous, I'm sure once she gets over the initial shock of us showing up she will be happy to see you." The sat nav beeps to let us know that we have reached our destination and Caroline quickly leans forward.

"There's the motel!" she points and I quickly turn into the road leading up towards it, a pit in my stomach.

We pull up and step outside. I stretch my arms and legs and I pull out the sheet of paper from my pocket from where I quickly wrote down all the details Damon gave me over the phone.

"He said they are in room 319." I look around the motel which seems very quiet.

Too quiet.

"This is creepy." Caroline muses like she is reading my mind and I nod my head in agreement. I eye up the door numbers of the motel rooms and motion to my right.

"Come on, I think it's this way."

When we round the corner I freeze. I suddenly realize why the motel seems deserted.

There's at least four police cars parked outside one of the motel rooms and I gulp nervously because I have a feeling it's the same one that I'm holding the number of in the palm of my hand.

"You don't think that's…" Caroline trails off quietly, her voice barely a whisper.

I swallow loudly, a bad feeling creeping over me. "Yeah." I nod slowly. "I think it is."

Shit.

I'm not sure where we are but I do know that we are still in the state.

Still being in Oregon is something that I'm not best pleased about but I knew that I couldn't drive much further. What happened to Megan may have sobered me up completely but that still doesn't mean that I was fit to drive.

So after a couple of hours of none stop driving, Elena crying silently the whole way, I pulled up at another roadside motel and rented a room.

I slept in the car.

I walk back inside the motel after a few hours of attempting to sleep in the cramped car but not being able to get the image of Megan's lifeless boy out of my mind. Or stop hearing the sound of Enzo's cries in the bitter silence.

I clutch my cell phone tightly in my hand and take a deep breath as I place it back in my pocket.

I hear the shower running and I head straight over to the duffel bag and pulling out my bottle of bourbon that Elena somehow remembered to pack in her distraught state yesterday.

I take a long swig before grabbing a glass and filling it up. The last thing I need to do right now is to get drunk but I need something to numb the pain.

To help fade the memory and the sounds running crazily around my mind.

I hate this.

I hate myself even more.

I freeze when I hear the shower stop and I take a large gulp from my glass before filling it back up, promising myself that this will be the last one.

I hear Elena open the bathroom door and I tense, my entire body on edge of what she is going to say.

I slowly raise my head to look at her. Her hair is wet as it drips down onto one of my old t-shirts that she is wearing, hanging low down her thighs which are covered by an old pair of jeans.

I pour some more bourbon into another glass and hold it out for her. She shakes her head.

"No."

It feels like the first time she has spoken to me in years. I sigh and take a sip of the bourbon myself, reminding myself yet again that I need to slow down.

I feel sick. Nothing is ever going to be the same again. I may not have killed Vaughn, but I did kill Megan. Look at the irony in that? I clutch my glass tightly and down the rest of the bourbon. My hands are shaking as I grab the bottle again and I jump when I feel Elena's soft hand land on top of it. I look up at her, her eyes are bloodshot and she looks tired.

She pulls the bottle from my strong grip and places it back on the table, taking another step back.

A step back away from me.

I don't blame her.

I don't want to be around me either.

My shaking hands have no focus now that Elena has confiscated what feels like my only lifeline and I feel around in my pockets looking for my cigarettes but I can't find those either.

I clench my fists tightly together and stare down at the table in front of me.

"She's not dead," Enzo sobs, his broken eyes looking at me. "Tell me she's not dead."

I clench my eyes shut and breathe slowly through my nose.

"Megan was an addict." I freeze. My eyebrows scrunch together as Elena continues. "She was addicted to drugs, more than one kind, and she was going to take them regardless of the consequences. She wasn't stupid, Damon, she knew exactly what could happen but she continued to take them anyway." She takes a deep shaky breath. "What happened to her was horrible and I…" her voice cracks. "I don't think she deserved to die the way she did. She's so young…she…" she lets out another shaky breath.

"What are you trying to say, Elena?" My voice sounds foreign, like it doesn't belong to me.

"That what happened wasn't your fault." She replies harshly.

"It wasn't my fault?" I scoff, finally turning to look at her. "Do you hear yourself right now? I sold her heroin, Elena! Me! I may as well of shot that shit inside of her myself! I did this! This is on me!"

She grits her teeth angrily. "We don't even know if that's what killed her, Damon! Okay? Enzo had some too; it could have been from him, hell it could have been from anyone!"

"STOP DEFENDING ME!" I scream back at her, my voice booming around the motel room and Elena takes a step back in shock. "Look at us! Listen to yourself! This is toxic! We are in a toxic relationship, Elena! I just killed your friend and you find someone else to blame!"

"You want me to blame you?!" she argues back, turning back to face me with fire in her eyes. "Easy! Done! You screwed up, Damon! Again!"

"Thank you!"

"You put me in a position where I have to defend you, again!" she slaps her hands against my chest in frustration. "Where I have to bend my morals, again! Where I have to go against every single thing that I believe in, again, because I love you!" she cries at me.

"Well then stop loving me!" I shout back desperately.

"I CAN'T!"

I shake my head, my entire body deflating.

"Well that's the problem, Elena." I look at her miserably. "You told me last night that loving me was easy but being with me was what was hard and you know what? You are completely right."

She looks at me accusingly. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Summer is over, Elena." I look away from her frantic eyes for a moment to regain what is left of my courage before I continue. "This isn't an adventure anymore. I'm a wanted felon, this is my life now but that doesn't mean that this has to be yours. You deserve so much better than this, Elena, you deserve a real life. You deserve a future. I can't give you what you need, not anymore."

She's crying now, shaking her head furiously but deep down I know that she agrees with me. "Damon-"

"You haven't been happy for a while now, not really. We both know it."

"No," she defends herself, her voice cracked. "That's not true. You make me happy, Damon."

"I'm not enough, Elena."

"Yes you are!"

"No." I shake my head. "I can't do this anymore. I don't deserve you and I'm not pretending that I do. I love you, Elena." My voice cracks as tears run down her face. "I love you so much, which is why I have to let you."

"Damon, no." she sobs. "Please don't do this to me. You promised!" she grabs a hold of my hands. "You promised me that this was forever."

"I'm sorry," I whisper, my voice breaking as I feel my eyes start to sting with tears of my own. "I'm so sorry."

My heart stops when there is a loud thud against the door and I let out a laugh of relief.

"It's time for me to finally start taking responsibility for my own actions. I don't want to be a coward anymore, Elena."

"Damon…" Elena trails desperately, her eyes darting to the door. "No. Damon. No, what did you do?" I step forward and kiss her, the kiss is hard and intense, and my hands clutch her cheeks as I slowly pull away and press another kiss to her forehead. "Damon!"

"I love you," I whisper into her ear before pressing another quick kiss to her lips as I step back. She grabs my arms tightly as the banging on the door gets louder.

"Open up!" I hear the gruff sound through the door as Elena's eyes dart towards it desperately. Tears running fast down her face as her entire body shakes in front of me, her head moving from side to side but it's too late.

I made the call.

It's over.

The door is kicked open and soon I am being wrestled to the floor and my arms are forced behind my back. I close my eyes to try and drown out Elena's cries as I hear the familiar sounds of handcuffs being clicked in place tightly around my wrists.

It's been a while.

"Damon Salvatore, I am arresting you on the suspicion of murder, evading arrest, fleeing justice and assault. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." I am hoisted up onto my feet and I look at Elena who is now on the floor sobbing, her hands covering her mouth as she shakes her head furiously.

I'm led outside towards one of the many police cars surrounding our motel room.

"Damon!" I turn my head as I'm being dragged away to see Klaus and Caroline running towards me, and I'm thankful that he managed to receive the text message I sent to him an hour ago on our updated whereabouts.

"Where's Elena?!" Caroline shouts desperately, glancing back at the motel room I am currently being pulled away from.

"Look after her," I plead with him. "Please."

Klaus nods silently, his eyes wide with shock as Caroline rushes inside the motel room to find my broken girlfriend.

I'm shoved into the back of the police car and I lean my head back against the rough leather behind me. I close my eyes and let out a loud laugh of relief.

It's over.

Sorry?

I hope you enjoyed it. I stole a couple of lines from 5x16 but wow how could I not?

Drop me a review, I'm dying to know your thoughts on this one!

Thanks, and until next time!