Anybody seen my baby?

.

Damon threw the third dart at the center of the target and, in celebration, drank the sixth glass of bourbon. The vampire heard Elena snort in the background, having finished her minute-long monologue about how close Jeremy was to Tyler and how much it bothered her.

"... Alaric agrees with me about this", Elena continued. "But Emma is getting on my nerves! She doesn't seem to think that Tyler being friends with Jer is a big deal, and John just follows her like a puppy".

Damon rolled his eyes and picked up the bottle he had left on the table. He opened it, considered pouring it into the glass, but ended up drinking the contents straight from the spout. Elena reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, and the vampire instinctively pulled away from her touch.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked.

"What makes you think I'm not okay?", Damon mocked, turning to Elena after missing the darts.

"Well, you're as moody as Emma, and you're not glued to each other like you used to", Elena grumbled.

"We were never glued to each other", Damon replied, defensively. Elena arched her eyebrows.

The truth was that Emma was kinda ignoring him. He had called her a few times, and although she had picked up, she had been dry. Polite, but dry. And that was getting on his nerves. She answered everything he asked, she greeted him and even engaged in some small talk when he came over to the Gilberts' house, but it wasn't the same. She was distant. There was a wall between the two of them.

He didn't apologize for the Lockwood Mansion fiasco, and she never came to him again. If Damon was honest with himself, he could admit that this distance hurted him, that he missed her. But he wasn't honest with himself, and he tried to convince himself that this distance was actually good. Stefan was gone with Katherine and in possession of something Klaus wanted, and that meant basic math: without Stefan, without Katherine, and without Emma, all that was left was Elena and Damon. This was his chance.

"Damon…", Elena tried to speak, but the vampire stopped her by putting his index finger to her lips.

"We were never glued to each other, she was getting on my nerves anyway", Damon replied. "I'm all yours now, princess".

Elena crossed her arms and glared at him.

"You're daydrunk. Not your most attractive look", the girl complained.

"Oh, so what's my most attractive look?" Damon grinned, leaning towards Elena. The girl's cheeks grew hot and she shook her head.

"I didn't say you were attractive or have an attractive look at all, just that this is my least favorite one".

Damon smirked, and tried to answer Elena, but the girl suddenly widened her eyes, and the vampire felt a dart flying a few millimeters from his ear until it hit its target. Quickly, he turned around and faced Klaus, who was staring at him with an expression that denounced that the Original was not in a good mood.

"Sorry, not sorry, for the interruption", Klaus greeted. "But I noticed that my sister is missing and was wondering if one of you might know her whereabouts".

Elena's expression gave away that the girl knew, and Damon mentally cursed. Klaus, who let nothing go unnoticed, grabbed the vampire by the collar.

"Care to tell me where she is? Tell me and I might even forgive the fact that your brother took something of mine and let him live".

"Like I care about Stefan...", Damon huffed, rolling his eyes, which only made Klaus even more pissed. The original brought his face closer to Damon's and stared deep into his eyes. Green on blue.

"Tell me where Rebekah is".

"At the cellar on the Boarding House", Damon spat, feeling helpless as he couldn't resist the compulsion.

"And where is your brother?", Klaus asked again,

"Damon!" Elena tried to warn him not to share any information, if he had any. But Damon had nothing. He didn't know where Stefan was, and he honestly didn't have the slightest pretension of knowing.

"I don't fucking know".

Klaus then released the vampire, who loosened the collar of his shirt. The Original flashed a mocking smile at Elena and then at Damon.

"Send Emma my regards, I quite like that one", Klaus teased, before turning away and leaving the Grill. Damon angrily picked up his bottle and threw it against the table, shattering the piece of glass and drawing a surprised gasp from Elena.

The vampire compelled a waiter to clean up the mess and reached into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone. He walked to the door determinedly.

"Damon!", Elena called out, and the vampire merely turned to her and asked her to stay where she was. He left the Grill irritated and dialed Emma's number. The number called, called, called, but no one answered.

"Fucking shit!" he exclaimed loudly as he hung up the phone, but just then the device vibrated. A message could be read on the screen.

"I'm supervising detention".

"Are you okay?", he typed in reply and sent it.

"Yes, why? Is everything okay?" she replied.

Damon stared at the message for long seconds before typing his reply.

"Everything's fine", he texted, and then paused. "I miss you", he tapped.

But he deleted the last sentence and decided to text a simple "Be safe".

.

Later that same day, spirits were unusually settled in the Gilbert household. Emma had worked all day and, tired, accepted a ride from Alaric, who ended up staying for dinner. The girl poured herself a glass of wine and watched the unusual dynamic that had developed between her friend and John. Alaric was chopping onions, while John was adding salt to the boiling water for the noodles.

"Brave Heart is one of the best movies ever released", John commented, while stirring the water with a silicone spoon. Alaric snorted and dropped the knife next to the board full of onions.

"Oh, c'mon! It's totally inaccurate. As a history teacher, I resent it".

"I prefer to call it narrative freedom", the older man joked, and Alaric rolled his eyes.

It was weird, but at the same time comforting, to have moments with the two of them that didn't involve the supernatural, imminent danger, or anything like that. It was like having a family. The two looked at Emma, and the girl smiled with a shrug.

"Don't look at me, it's not my kind of movie", she replied.

"Like you have a kind. One time you're watching Grease, and the other you're watching The Exorcist", Jaremy commented as he entered the kitchen. The teenager walked over to the fridge and poured himself a glass of water. Soon after, he walked over to the counter and sat down next to his cousin, who messed up his hair. The boy laughed.

"They definetely should make musicals about exorcisms", she joked, and everyone laughed. Alaric pushed the board and knife to Emma in a silent request for her to cut the carrots.

Jeremy got up and walked over to the stove, opened all the pots and commented on the contents of each. Soon, the three of them were engaged in some cooking topic. Jeremy was more open towards John, seeming to have given in to the man's magnetism as well as Alaric and Emma herself. Truth be told, John wasn't so bad.

Since the big fiasco at Lockwood Manor, Emma had closed herself off again. It was a bad feeling, and a very familiar one. She felt like she was back in England again, when Tom was still alive. Watching everything and everyone, sometimes even participating a little, but without ever belonging.

Since arriving in Mystic Falls, Emma had found a home again in that small town. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere again. But everything seemed to have changed. Emma couldn't tell if it was the nightmares, which were becoming more and more recurrent and depriving her of a full night's sleep, making her sensitive and irritable, if it was the fact that she was so far away from the one person (or vampire) she clung to like a lifeboat, or if simply the whole feeling of belonging had been just an illusion and now everything was returning to normal.

Jeremy had his own life and, although he always showed his affection for his older cousin, his presence was not very recurrent in that house. Alaric spent almost all of his time working, and the few moments he had with the inhabitants of the house, he spent his energy debating with John about some subject. Elena, well... Emma and Elena had their issues, it wasn't an easy relationship. The girl was almost all the time with Damon, which didn't help the older one to want to tighten the bonds either.

And that was where John came in. The man had become her main companion during the time she wasn't working. The two of them talked a lot and often sat in silence in the living room, each reading their own book or doing their own thing. In any case, his presence was comforting. John never picked on her again, never made any comment insinuating that Emma was interested in a vampire who would never reciprocate. On the contrary, sometimes the man even seemed concerned for her. Worried about her diet, worried about her sleeping hours. Emma suspected that he had heard her having nightmares on some nights, but he thankfully never mentioned anything.

"Smells good", Elena commented, walking into the kitchen and dropping her bag on the chair.

"Thank you", John replied, and Elena seemed to regret the comment. Their relationship was by far the most fragile in that house.

"Well, I'm going shower" Elena announced, picking up her bag again. "Damon will be here in an hour or so".

Emma, who hadn't expected to see Damon, fumbled and ended up opening a sizable cut on her finger.

"Shit", the woman sighed, dropping the knife on the board and running to the faucet to wash the cut. She looked away from the blood falling into the sink. John promptly held out a dry cloth for Emma to blot up the blood, which she accepted by mumbling a thank you.

"So now he's following you everywhere?" Jeremy asked, annoyed.

"Says you who go on and about with Tyler all the time", Elena replied.

"Well, Tyler's not my ex's brother. No one get hurt because I spend time with him", Jeremy spat in an accusatory tone.

"What's that supposed to mean, Jer?", Elena asked, defiant and offended.

"You know exactly what it means, don't pretend you don't. You go up on your pedestal, talk shit to me like you're a big sis or something, when actually you're the one who always fucks up!"

"Jeremy..." Emma tried to intervene, but the boy seemed to have boiled over like a hot kettle, and the woman didn't know where all that anger had come from.

"Is it Tyler? Has he been poisoning you against…"

"IT'S NOT ABOUT TYLER! IT'S ABOUT YOU!" the boy shouted, and everyone went silent, wide-eyed. Emma held the towel tightly against her cut finger. Jeremy was breathing heavily, panting, and staring at his sister with furrowed brows. "It's always about you, one way or another, right?".

It had been almost a whisper, but everyone could hear it well enough. The boy huffed one last time and left the kitchen like a tornado, walking up the stairs with heavy footsteps that could be heard from the kitchen. Those who were left behind remained standing in place. After long seconds, Emma finally took a deep breath and handed the cloth back to John.

"I'm gonna talk to him", she informed, and the man nodded positively.

Emma checked her finger, which was still bleeding slightly, as she made her way upstairs. She heard the loud knock of Jeremy's bedroom door being closed, and jumped with fright. After calming her heartbeat again, she went on her way and stopped in front of her cousin's door. She knocked three times.

"Jer? It's me, Emma", she announced. "Can I please come in?"

She waited for what seemed like five whole minutes until the boy opened the door. When he did, his face was red, his eyes were puffy, and he was sniffling through his nose. The boy scanned her up and down and his gaze settled on his cousin's finger.

"You need a band-aid", he commented. Emma smiled weakly at him.

"I was hoping you had one here", she replied, and Jeremy let out the air he hadn't even known he'd been holding inside his lungs. His shoulders relaxed and he smiled weakly at his cousin. He knew Emma wouldn't press him and, to be honest, she was the only person he would want to talk to at that moment. So he allowed her to enter the room.

The woman sat on the end of her cousin's bed, while waiting for him to fetch a band-aid from inside a first aid box in the bathroom. The boy returned, holding the bandage between his fingers. He sat down next to Emma and asked her to hold out her hand, which she did. He carefully wrapped her finger around the bandage, securing it as best he could.

"What was that?" Emma asked, once Jeremy had finished the bandage. The boy sighed and looked down, looking embarrassed.

"I don't know what got into me", he confessed. "I'm just so angry all the time! It's like... It's like I can't filter my thoughts before they come out".

"Do you... wanna talk about it?" she asked, and Jeremy stared at her. The boy seemed to consider the offer.

"It's just so much", he sighed again. "Jenna died, I died and came back, but started seeing these... ghosts or whatever. Sometimes they drive me mad, they say things, some are real and some are not. Sometimes I just can't tell the difference".

"What do they say to you?"

"A lot of things, they use me as a therapist I guess", the boy snorted and Emma couldn't control a small laugh that escaped her lips. Jeremy ended up laughing too. But suddenly he got serious and faced her. "I meant it what I said downstairs".

"Jer..".

"I did", he interrupted her. "I see that you're hurt, and I know that part of it is because Damon and Elena are always together. Anna said Elena is using him because Stefan is not here, and I think she's right. Maybe she doesn't even see it, she's not a bad person, but…"

"I get it", Emma tried to reassure him. "And I'm fine. Thank you for standing up to me, really. But things are the way they are, Jer. We can't be like these with each other". Jeremy raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "I know, okay? I know that I have not been the role model here, but if you try, I promise to try too. How about that?"

"Sounds fine by me", he shrugged, and seemed to think long and hard before continuing. "Tyler's been helping me, ya know? He's really not that bad".

"I know he's not", Emma agreed sincerely. "They're worried because he's sired to Klaus. But he, Tyler himself, is not a bad person. Just... Keep safe, okay? Tyler may do things he doesn't want to because of this bond so... Just be alert to the signs and be safe".

"Thank you for trusting me, Emma", Jeremy thanked her with a few tears in his eyes. "It means a lot".

Emma smiled at her cousin and opened her arms, offering a hug. However, Jeremy was unable to accept as they both heard a series of screams, followed by a loud thud.

The two got up from the bed and ran down the stairs. The door was wide open, and as soon as the two got there, they could see John picking himself up off the ground, amidst some of the neighbor's bushes, while Elena was holding the head of an Alaric who was... Well, he was in a bad way.

If Emma said she had never seen so much blood, she would be lying. After all, she'd already seen Damon dismember three men and Elijah rip the hearts out of a few werewolves. But either way, Alaric was in a bad shape. Really, really bad shape. The woman ran over to her younger cousin and tried to help her lift Alaric, who was… Well, dead.

"Is the...", Emma tried to ask.

"Yes, the ring is here" Elena replied, taking Alaric's hand between hers and showing Emma the finger with the ring on it. The girl was crying, horrified.

"He's gonna be fine", Emma assured her. At that moment, unlike the only other time Emma had seen Alaric dead, he simply opened his eyes and let out a guttural scream. The two girls fell back startled.

"Isn't he supposed to wake up healed?" Emma questioned. John was already beside the two, asking for space to put Alaric in his arms.

"I... I don't know. I thought so", Elena replied.

John finally managed to get to his feet, with Alaric screaming in his lap. Emma stood up too and, breathing heavily, took Elena by the shoulders.

"I need you to stay calm, okay?", Emma said to her cousin, who swallowed her tears. "I'll grab my keys and bring the car closer, we're gonna put him inside and go to the hospital, okay? I need you with me".

"O... okay", Elena nodded.

Emma ran into the house, grabbed her keys and got into the car, pulling the vehicle out of the garage singing the tires. As soon as she got close enough, Elena opened the door for John and Jeremy to lay the man down in the back seat.

"Okay, Elena comes with me. You and Jeremy meet us at the hospital", Emma said to John as Elena climbed into the vehicle, sitting in the passenger seat.

Emma started the car and drove them to the hospital faster than would be prudent, but Alaric's screams were making her nervous. He was lurching from consciousness to unconsciousness, in so much pain, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Emma was so immersed in the highway, concentrating on getting to the hospital, that she didn't notice Elena typing incessantly on her cell phone.

.

Damon couldn't say for sure what made him put on his leather jacket and run out of the house as soon as he got Elena's messages saying they were on their way to the hospital. Alaric had been the only one hurt, and he had the ring, so it was obvious that the man wasn't going to die. However, something inside him was restless, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stay home while everyone was in the hospital. Everyone. Including Emma.

The vampire missed her more than he dared admit. He'd lost count of how many days had passed since the party at Lockwood Manor, and he was losing his mind. That fateful night, when he got home and lay down on his bed, he realized that Emma's scent was impregnated in his sheets. So he angrily tore them off and put everything in the washing machine. However, for the past few days he had found himself sniffing the pillows, looking for any trace of her vanilla scent. And nothing, just fabric softener.

Then he would pull his cell phone out of his pocket and search for her number, check when they had last texted, and the result never pleased him. It had been too long and he couldn't take it anymore.

When Damon arrived at the hospital, he saw in the distance Jeremy arguing heatedly with Emma and Elena about Tyler and about them leaving Mystic Falls. He could make it out thanks to his keen hearing, which allowed him to distinguish the voices of the three. Emma was saying that the three of them should leave town, Elena was insisting that Jeremy and Emma leave, but that she would stay. Jeremy, on the other hand, said that he wouldn't leave without them, because they were the only family he had.

The vampire stood in the distance, out of sight of the three, and waited patiently for the argument to end. Damon watched as Jeremy walked out of there with heavy steps, stumbling over a chair on his way out of the hospital. His curiosity grew when he heard Elena sigh and whisper that she was leaving, that she should find Bonnie because the witch had performed a locator spell and knew where Stefan was.

Damon watched Elena walk away. Rationally, he wanted to follow Elena and find out about Stefan, find out what his brother held against Klaus. But then he smelled that damn vanilla scent, mixed with the tobacco scent of her cigarettes, and his legs just took on a life of their own. Before he knew it, he was walking towards Emma, who was leaning against the hospital wall, head down, in front of the reception desk.

The girl was wearing jeans with a thin, black sweater tucked inside. Her hair was tied up in a bun that would come undone at any moment, and her cheeks were flushed. He could hear her heartbeat and the blood pumping to her cheeks.

"Hey, dolly", Damon announced his presence, stepping closer to her. Emma lifted her face, and he hoped she would smile at him, showing that everything was okay. But she just stared at him as if surprised that he was there. She watched him lean against the wall next to her and kept her eyes on him. Damon noticed the band aid on the woman's finger. "What happened here?"

"Alaric threw himself in front of a car to save John", Emma answered quickly in a whisper, as if she was vomiting the words, and clutched her crossed arms even tighter against her chest. "Klaus compelled him with Tyler's help. Jeremy confirmed. Apparently, the call was supposed to be for Jer. So feel free to tell me that I was wrong and put everyone at risk, including the one person I am legally responsible for".

Damon stared at her impassively for a few seconds. He wanted to tell her she was wrong, but he also wanted her not to be so far away, and if he wanted to have her close, he would have to swallow any comment. And she looked so tired. Was she sleeping? Was she having nightmares?

The vampire carefully leaned close to her, pulling her by the hand and undoing the position she was in. Emma looked surprised. He brought the girl's hand up close to his own face and showed her the bandaged finger.

"I mean here", he said, stroking her hand. Emma frowned.

"Cut my finger", she replied, and her voice faltered mid-sentence. Damon stared at her with his ice eyes and felt himself melt under her hot, attentive gaze. She was serious, and he could almost hear the gears turning inside her head. And he knew he should fix things.

Emma was confused. She couldn't understand how Damon could go from hot to cold so quickly, how he could be a fortress that formed around her to protect her from the world and at the same time be the backhoe that brought that same fortress down in a matter of hours.

Damon was confused too. Sometimes, he wanted to listen to the advice Rose had given him a long time ago and just give himself to Emma for once, because he trusted her, and because, considering the state he had been in the past few days, he couldn't live without her. She was a force that pulled him close like a magnet. But at the same time, a stubborn part of him kept his feet stuck to the ground, unable to run to her. He was stuck in place, metaphorically speaking. He couldn't take a step forward, but he was also too weak and selfish to take a step back.

And every time that thought invaded his mind, he remembered when Katherine had accused him of being like her. Accused him of keeping Emma as a puppet while he chased Elena. And God, it was true. He knew it was true, and the thought chastened him. Why didn't he just let Emma go? Why didn't he push her away if he didn't want her? 'Because you want her, badly, fervently' the little voice in his head answered. So why the hell did he want her so badly, need her so badly, and couldn't just hold on to that once and for all?

"He's free to go home", John's voice interrupted them, and Emma jumped with fright, scooping up the injured hand that was still between Damon's hands. The vampire looked up at the man and gave him a begrudging nod. John repeated the gesture. "Shall we go home?"

"Yeah, sure", Emma replied. "Is he gonna stay? Do we have to sign something?"

"Alaric's staying. That Doctor, Meredith I think is her name, won't let him out tonight", John replied and Emma nodded. John indicated the door with his head and Emma turned to Damon.

"Bye, Damon", she said and turned her back on the vampire, who remained standing against the cold hospital wall.

Emma drove in silence to the Gilbert house. Jeremy was in the passenger seat, and John was ahead in his own car. As soon as she parked, she informed her cousin that she would be in in a few minutes, remaining inside the car. When she saw the boy finally enter the house behind John and shut the door, Emma finally let the tears she had been holding back since they left the hospital run down her face like a waterfall, and collapsed.