Chapter 17

The automatic doors dragged open along the worn track. Clenching his jaw, he forced himself to keep at as normal a pace as he could. As he crossed the threshold, his eyes scanned the room but, not unexpectedly, didn't see Ric in the waiting room. If she'd still been in surgery, he would have been out here with the rest of the families and patients who were waiting to be seen. Ric's absence should mean she was out.

Please let it have been enough, Damon thought as he crossed the hall to the check-in desk. The receptionist glanced up, noticing his approach. Her blank expression turned to one of obvious interest in an instant. Damon smirked, knowing it would only make her swoon more, and almost relieved he wouldn't have to mess with compelling this one.

"Good evening," the woman said with a smile. "How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for someone. She was brought in a while ago for surgery," Damon explained.

"Oh, the neck wound. That was pretty awful, poor girl," she said, frowning slightly. Damon didn't think she sounded that upset about it, though. Honestly, it probably wasn't the worst thing the woman had seen. They were in at the emergency room. Her tone still bothered hi.

"Yes, uh, Sarah," he said, glancing at her name tag. "Could you tell me what room she's in?"

Again, her smile faltered; though this response seemed more sincere. "I'm sorry, I can't give out that information to non-family members."

Guess she wasn't going to be that easy after all. Damon leaned against the desk, fixing her with his gaze. She fell into the compulsion easily. Weak mind, he thought. "Tell me what room she's in."

Slowly, Sarah returned to her computer, looking through the patient listings. "Room 112. Head straight down that hall and take the first left."

He set off without a word. He needed to see that nothing had gone wrong.


Two hours earlier

It had all come down to luck, if that's what it was. They'd been lucky to notice the discarded shoes by the edge of the road. Lucky to have run into the missing pageant girl, who was stumbling her way up the embankment. Damon ran past her, following the stronger scent of blood that led further into the woods. He wasn't sure what he expected to find. Maybe a guilt-stricken Stefan covered in the girl's blood. What he hadn't expected to see was a near lifeless Gwen slumped in his brother's arms as he fed from her.

Damon had frozen. It was Elena's desperate scream that pulled him and Stefan from their distractions. He'd snapped out of his shock, and tried to talk his brother down. He could tell Stefan was too far gone, though. He wasn't used to feeding on human blood. He was frenzy with thirst and couldn't be reasoned with right now. There was too much guilt, too much fear, and the hunger was too strong. Damon thought he could restrain him, but Stefan was unusually fast in his current state. He sent Damon flying into a tree, dropping Gwen to the ground in the process.

As Elena begged Stefan to stop, Damon took a moment to assess Gwen's state. He was still about ten feet away from her, but could tell she was in bad shape. Her breathing was extremely shallow and her pulse was slowing each second. For the fist time, he saw the bite on her neck. It was too messy. Her neck was so torn up that the Founding Families might actually believe it was animal attack this time. Damon knew Gwen didn't have long; they needed to get Stefan under control right now.

Stefan, who's attention had been torn between Elena and Gwen, was suddenly clutching his head in both hands, groaning in pain. Having known his fair share of witches, Damon recognized a spell when he saw one. He spun around to see Bonnie standing a few feet behind them, staring unblinkingly at Stefan. She held him in her gaze for at least fifteen seconds, causing him to actually double over from whatever she was doing to him. When she finally released him, Stefan was panting but free of his blood-driven mind. Shame and guilt consuming him, he took off into the forest.

Deciding to worry about Stefan later, Damon had rushed to Gwen's side. He knew instantly that she had lost too much blood. Even if they called an ambulance, she'd die on the way to the hospital. Thinking fast, he instructed Bonnie and Elena to call the ambulance and get Ric. When they objected, he promised to follow with her, explaining that she needed medical help if she was going live. Elena left first, more willing to believe Damon, but Bonnie hesitated, staring at him a beat longer before following Elena back toward the road. After just witnessing her latest display of power, Damon made a note to not underestimate the Bennett witch.

Bonnie was right to be skeptical. He was pretty sure neither would be thrilled with what he was about to do, especially if it didn't work. Hell, Damon wasn't even sure Gwen would agree if she were conscious. But if he didn't act soon, none of that would matter.

Damon bit his wrist and held the open wound up to her mouth, letting the blood fall between her slightly parted lips.


Present

When he'd turned around the corner, Damon immediately spotted Ric standing in the middle of the hallway and looking through a viewing window. His body language didn't give much away: back ramrod straight, arms folded in front, and jaw clenched. It only told Damon that he was a worried uncle, not what might have happened in his absence. As Damon approached, however, it was became clear Ric wasn't happy to see him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Window shopping," Damon replied drily. "What do you think? You weren't responding to my texts."

"My phone died." Ric's gaze returned to the window, through which they could see a couple of nurses checking over a still unconscious Gwen. "Shouldn't you be managing your brother?"

Damon grimaced, unable to ignore the bitterness in Ric's voice. However, he affected a facade of nonchalance when he responded.

"Stefan is drugged with vervain and locked in the cellar. He's not going anywhere."

Ric grunted, but didn't look convinced.

"How is she?" Damon asked, watching as the nurse took her vitals. She was still unnervingly pale, but the vitals he could see on the screen looked normal.

Rubbing his eyes, Ric sighed. "She lost a lot of blood and they were worried about her neck. It wasn't an easy repair. The doctor said she'll be ok. She'll have a scar, but she should be home in a day or two."

"And there weren't any complications?" Damon asked.

"No — why?" Ric asked, rounding on Damon. "Were you expecting there to be?"

Damon shrugged. "No."

A second later, Ric had shoved Damon into the fall and was holding him in place with an arm across his chest. Well, Damon was letting him think that. He could easily escape Ric's confines, but he didn't. Mostly because there were already too many paying attention to them. He was pretty sure the nurses were only a minute away from calling security.

"There was blood on her mouth. Did you do something? Did you turn her?" Ric demanded, his voice low and angry.

"No," Damon said, pushing the panicked uncle so he was forced to take a few steps back. "No, I didn't. I just gave her enough to get to the hospital."

"Jesus, Damon," Ric sighed, running a hand through his hair. "What if she had died?"

"That's what I was trying to prevent," Damon said defensively. "The bite was too bad; she wasn't going to make it."

Shaking his head, Ric returned his attention to the window. Damon fought the urge to defend his choice more. They would end up circling back to the question he couldn't answer. Her dying with his blood in her system wasn't really the true hard question. That was the easy part; she would have awoken in the transition stage. The hard part would have been her deciding to complete the change or not. But the blood he'd given her had been enough to push her out of danger. As long as there were no freak incidents in the next twenty-four hours, Gwen should be fine.

Maybe he would check in on her after visiting hours, just to be safe.

"What are they doing here?" he asked, barely hiding his disgust as a group of teens led by the newest Miss Mystic Falls approached. She was still in her evening gown. Ric groaned.

"We got here as soon as we could," Caroline began before she was even within ten feet of them. "The parking at the manor was a mess. Is Gwen ok?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah, she made it through surgery all right," Ric said, switching on what Damon assumed was his teacher persona. He was certainly a lot more congenial to his students than to him. "She's asleep, but you can go in, if you want. Only one or two at a time, though."

Caroline nodded and walked into the room, dragging Matt Donovan with her. The Lockwood boy and the third boy hung back, looking awkward. Damon watched the last one, trying to place him. It was a full two minutes before he remembered Gwen had been dating him until a few months ago. Steve or something was his name. She hadn't mentioned him recently. Why was he here?

"You better get back to Stefan," Ric muttered to Damon. "There are more than enough people here."

Glancing back at Gwen, Damon hesitated. He did need to get back to check on Stefan, but he didn't want to leave her unprotected. He managed to convince himself that she would be all right without him. It didn't look like she would be alone for a while, which should prevent any unexpected life-threatening events. He could sneak back later.


Damon slammed the front door shut. The house was empty a part from his vervain-dosed brother in the cellar. A quick check confirmed the door was still secure and Stefan was still asleep. So now all Damon had to do was wait.

Thankfully, his phone began to ring as he poured a glass of bourbon.

"Salvatore Clean Up, what mess can I help you with?"

"Haha, not funny," Elena replied, her voice sounding tinny through the phone. "How is he?"

Damon rolled his eyes. In a rare moment of parental authority that was probably brought on by Gwen's attack, Jenna had insisted Elena be home by eleven. Of course, she'd fretted over leaving Stefan, but she couldn't exactly tell her aunt the truth. Damon had promised to keep an eye on him in order to soothe her worry over dear old Hero Hair. He hadn't been worried about Stefan getting out. The door was secure and he had enough vervain in him to keep him out for at least twelve hours. What Damon hadn't realized was that his promise meant he was expected to provide updates on his little brother all night.

"The same as you left him twenty minutes ago: dead asleep."

"Good," Elena said approvingly. "And Gwen? How is she?"

"She made it through surgery. They said she'll be fine in a day or two."

"Oh, thank god," Elena said with a sigh. "That'll help with Stefan. I don't know what he would have done if she'd…."

"Died?" Damon snapped, completing her statement. "Yeah, that would have been just awful for Stefan."

"Oh, Damon, I'm so sorry. Of course, I'm happy Gwen is all right — and not just for Stefan's sake. It's just that — "

"No, I get it," he said quickly. "Listen, if there's any change, I'll call you. Got to go."

He hung up the phone before she could say anything else.


The emergency room was practically a ghost town compared to what it had been a few hours ago. With visiting hours over, Damon only had to keep an ear out for nurse on her night rounds. Not that it mattered; he didn't plan to be here long.

Gwen was sound asleep in her hospital bed while machines beeped steadily around her. Her pulse was normal, beating in a predictable rhythm. She even seemed a little flushed. Gwen was fine. There wasn't any need for him to stay; she wasn't in danger of accidentally bleeding out or anything like that. And yet, he'd been sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chair for the last twenty minutes watching Gwen sleep.

Damon jumped with every tiny muscle spasm, thinking something might be wrong. At one point, he considered venturing into her mind to see what she was dreaming about but restrained himself. She'd been subjected to enough vampire violations for today. An image of her crumpled and motionless flashed though his mind.

"Why didn't you call me?" he sighed. "I told you to call me."

Gwen, of course, didn't respond.

He shouldn't be surprised. Damon rarely understood her actions. Like on the night they met, she should have run as fog surrounded her and it was clear the she was being followed. Instead, she'd thought it was an appropriate time to take a picture. When she found out he a vampire, she'd tried to negotiate with him, showing no fear. Not too mention her determination to help rescue Stefan all to keep her uncle safe.

The girl was clearly insane. He should have known better than to think she wouldn't walk into a dangerous situation without a second thought for her own well-being.

Damon was distracted from his thoughts by the sudden increase in beeps from the heart monitor. He looked up to see Gwen struggling to open her eyes and panicking when she experienced a tug from the IV needle.

"Hey, hey," he whispered gently. "You're ok. It's over; you're at the hospital."

"Damon?" she asked, or tried to as his name came out as a barely intelligible and broken whisper. At least she was able to fully open her eyes, even though she wasn't able to fully focus on him because of all of the painkillers.

"Yeah, I'm here," he said, squeezing her hand.

Her eyes fluttered, but she fought the urge to close them. Slightly clearer, she managed to say 'neck hurts.'

Damon could have laughed at that, but obviously Gwen was still too out of it. "It'll stop soon. You just need to heal. Why don't you go back to sleep?"

She started to shake her head and winced in pain. Damon sighed again; even drugged she wouldn't do anything he asked.

"Where's St-Stefan?" she asked in a hoarse whisper.

"You don't have to worry about him. You're safe," Damon reassured her. "Just go back to sleep, ok? We can talk tomorrow."

Nodding, Gwen's eyes began to close again and Damon glanced away. But then she called his name again.

"Damon."

"Hmm?"

"Thank you."


AN: Thank to Wordspin, mercury30, Queen24824, and all the guests for your reviews on Chapter 16!