Whilst I figure some stuff out for my Jeremy and Anna story, I thought maybe i could toy around with the idea of Damon and Elena. I guess the story is quite sad at the moment, but hopefully it should pick up.

I think secretly i'm team Damon and Elena!

"Damon, can you call him again?" Elena asked, fear shaking her voice.

Damon sighed, though obliged to Elena, calling Stefan for what would be the tenth time in half an hour. But it was three in the morning, and Stefan should have been back by now. He was starting to get worried about his brother, it wasn't like him to do this- to go out and not come back without telling anyone he would be gone for a while- he was always over precautious . If Stefan didn't answer this call, he would go out and look for him. After all, no one could be trusted in Mystic Falls, not when vampires were concerned, he didn't know how many people actually really knew, or believed in them. For him, there was only one person he could trust and that was the sweet girl who stood rigid and worried across the room. She had refused to sit for the last half an hour, or since it seemed that Stefan wasn't going to answer his phone- always worried for Stefan, most of the time it seemed like Elena was looking after Stefan, not the presumable other way round. Looking at her reminded him of her uncle. Yes, no one could be trusted when vampires were in concern, especially John Gilbert.

Once Damon leaned against a chair, pressing the send button, Elena started pacing the length of the room, and Damon started counting each ring rather absently minded and impatiently. After the twelfth ring, Damon pressed cancel, just before Stefan's voice mail message cut in. Damon looked over to Elena as he put the phone down, a blank look upon his face. Knowing what Damon was going to say, Elena looked like she was just about to burst into tears. Damon was across the room in a flash, his arms holding her close.

"It's okay," he whispered soothingly into her ear, "I'll find him."

He heard her exhale shakily into his shoulder.

"I should come with you,"

"No," Damon replied a little too sharply, "It's better if you stay here Elena. I'll find him much quicker without you," he said more comfortingly.

Elena leaned out of Damon's embrace and looked into the black depths of his eyes then, she nodded.

"Okay," she breathed. "Just please, be as quick as you can."

"I promise," Damon vowed, "I'll be as quick as I can."

Damon put a hand on Elena's shoulder, then the next thing she heard was the front door slamming.

Everything was quiet, Elena went and sat on the leather sofa, any control that she had in Damon's presense dissolving, as she put her head in her hands and wept, praying for Stefan's return. She couldn't no, wouldn't live without him, her soul mate. She shook her head, she wasn't going to think about that, she wasn't even going to consider the possibility, but the brief image in her mind was enough to bring a fresh round of tears.

Finally, the gentle metronome of the ancient grandfather clock broke through her clouded mind, and she peaked at her watch. Damon had been gone twenty minutes. Maybe I should call him? She thought, but them immediately decided it wasn't a good idea, she didn't know where Damon was now, he could be somewhere where a sudden phone call would not be appropriate. But then she thought, what if something happened to Damon too? And any fear that she felt before doubled. Until now, where both Salvatore brothers were in apparent danger, she had never realised just how much both of them meant to her. She placed her hands in her knees, folding and unfolding them, and thinking every minute that went by was like an hour. Elena sat back, resting her head on the back of the sofa and closed her eyes. She thought of the other night, when she had persuaded Stefan to keep fighting, to keep living and how she felt so rejoiced afterwards, knowing it was her physical existence which was Stefan's reason for living. It made her feel so special, in a completely different way to knowing that she was of highest ranking at her high school, that she had a group of devoted friends and that she was madly in love.

Sometime during her reverie, Elena drifted off to sleep awkwardly positioned on the sofa. She fitted restlessly in dreams, that became nightmares, which became scenarios beyond nightmares. Then she woke with a start. Through the window, the sun was almost up, painting the sky in bright passionate oranges and pinks, it seemed almost up lifting. However, randomly out of nowhere, she remembered the old English saying, which she remembered Bonnie had told her one time.

Red sky at night, Shepherd's delight.

Red sky in the morning, Shepherd's warning.

She knew that it normally referred to weather and how that if the sky was tainted with red in the morning, it predicted rain. But 'warning', the thought reverberated across the walls of her mind. In this moment, she couldn't help but be suspicious.

Her worry increased as Damon's absence grew longer. She took out her phone, scrolling down to Damon's number, her thumb hovering over the little green phone. "No" she told herself. Although the idea was so tempting and she toyed with it several times, retaking the phone out of her pocket, only to eventually place over on the side table, completely out of reach.

The lack of sleep made her feel drowsy but she didn't feel like coffee, or a shower to wake her up. She didn't feel like doing anything. Not until Stefan was safe in her arms. Elena rubbed her eyes, intending to rub the sleep out of them, but realised they came away wet with fresh tears that had began to flow. Oh hurry Damon, please. She thought. You promised.

Elena bent over her knees, her dark, thick hair tumbling down to curtain her face, like a curtain at the theatre. When she would lift her head up next, everything would be alright, and happy as it had been before. However, with time continuing to tick by, and still no sign of Damon, that outcome was seeming more and more impossible.

When she did lift her head up next it was to the sound of the lock on the door starting to move. Elena sat up quickly, facing the door. Something was off though. The time it took for someone to open the door to the time it took someone to walk into the lounge wouldn't normally take that long. If it was Damon, and he had Stefan, he would be here, right now, by her side. But the moment seemed to prolong painfully, until she could see a sleek, black shadow about to enter the door.

Elena stood up and started walking slowly towards the shadow, she didn't register her footsteps and she had forgotten how to talk. And then Damon walked into view with an expression she had only seen a person being tortured wore in movies. It was pure pain and tear tracks were staining his cheeks.

"No," Elena choked, suddenly finding her voice. "Please no, no Damon, no."

She stumbled blindly towards him, sobs wrenching from her throat, and his arms caught her, and held her so close, like she was the only thing in the world that mattered, because she was, she was all he had now.

"I'm sorry, I am so, so sorry," Damon repeated over and over, clasping her closer and rubbing her back.

Without giving them permission, Damon' s eyes welled up once again. He buried his face in her neck, not once thinking about Elena's taboo blood millimetres away from him. For an immeasurable amount of time, that was how they stayed, until quietly, Elena let go of Damon, and silently walked to her room.

In her room Elena lost all sense of time. Laying on her bed and staring at her wall, she stared at the shadows that moved across them, her only knowledge that outside her personal hell, time was still moving. Elena neither cried nor spoke, like she had no existence, and that was the thing, she didn't want to exist anymore, not without Stefan. Although at times Damon's image flashed into her mind, she couldn't quite bring herself to care for what he was going through. As far as Elena was concerned, Damon was never as close to Stefan as she ever was.

One night, there was a quiet knock at the door, loud enough to shatter the protective mental wall that she used to block out any reality. It was Damon. She noticed that his face was paler than usual and his eyes had a reddish tinge to them and dark circles underneath. His hair seemed lanker and had no shine, which seemed to be the same for his skin, for it had a greyish colour, it didn't gleam. He looked like he hadn't fed for days, then she realised that neither had she.

In his hands was a tray of food and a glass of water. He walked over slowly, placing it on the side, not saying anything.

"I don't want it," Elena said, croakily, finding her voice. "Just take it away."

"At least have a drop of water Elena, you look like death." Damon said it with no emotion.

Obligingly, Elena sat up slowly and took a sip of water. Then Damon walked over to Elena's bed, and sat on the edge. Elena didn't cringe at the sudden closeness, there was something inside of her that made her want to be comforted. Hesitantly, Damon placed a soft hand on her cheek, wiping away a tear, then he started to talk.

"Elena, " he paused, as if he didn't want to say what he was going to say, "we need to leave,"

Elena didn't reply but a little crease formed between her eyebrows.

Damon caressed her cheek softly. "Elena, whoever killed Stefan is still here- and they want you,"

Elena choked on her water. "What?"

"There's someone who keeps asking to be invited in, they appear as a salesman, a window cleaner, it's the same person but that's not important , they want to get in and kill you. And Elena, I am not going to let that happen. It's not safe for you here anymore. We need to get on the road."

Elena closed her eyes. "Damon, I- I don't feel like going anywhere right now."

"I know Elena, I know. But I'm not losing anyone else," Damon said, looking into Elena's eyes.

Elena sighed. "Then before I go anywhere, I want to know what you have done with Stefan's body, I want to know what happened to him and I want to know who killed him,"

Elena barely registered the words coming out of her mouth. She didn't want to speak them, yet she desperatly wanted to know. It was a desperate attempt to bring peace, although she was almost certain that she would never be able to live peacefully now, not with Sefan's face a permanant memory engraved in her mind.

This shocked Damon, Elena's sudden thirst for information on Stefan. As far as he knew, Elena was doing everything physically and mentally possible to keep Stefan out of her mind. He noticed that Elena had hidden the pictures of her and Stefan, that she wasn't wearing any jewellery that Stefan had given her, it was like Stefan had never existed in this room.

Elena grew impatient, waiting for Damon to start explaining. "Please, Damon,"

"Stefan was tricked into thinking he could become human- like that's possible. I found him in the grave yard, staked. Then I watched a group of vampires take him away. I-I recognised some of them, they were from the tomb. I guess it was their idea of revenge. I w.."

"Damon, don't. Don't carry on,"

The truth was piercing Elena's heart like a knife. "It was my fault," she whispered.

"Elena, of course it wasn't your fault."

Elena was trying to fight back tears now. "If I had never gotten involved with him, he would never have wanted this, he would be alive,"

Damon wrapped his arms around Elena and held her close. She buried her head in his shoulder whilst he stroked her silky hair. "Don't say that," he repeated, "don't say that."

Elena snuggled tighter into Damon's chest as she felt a wave of ease encase her in a tight bubble.

"What are you doing, Damon?" Elena mumbled.

"I'm making it easier for you for a while, my sweet,"

Elena suddenly tensed a flair of anger building up, she ripped herself away from him.

"But I don't want to forget, Damon. I want to remember everything! Don't you dare take my thoughts away from me without my permission, Damon Salvatore!"

Elena got up from the bed, wiping tears from her eyes and tucking her hair behind her ears, and stomped over to her closet where she kept a travelling bag. Unzipping the bag, she went over to her draws and took out handfuls of underwear. Then out of her closet she threw several pairs of jeans and some t-shirts into the bag. From the side, she collected her wash bag then finally, she collected her coat from the back of her chair, all the while Damon remained on her bed watching her in slight bemusement.

Elena slipped on a pair of shoes and walked over to the door, opening it.

"I'll be waiting in the car," she said coldly in Damon's direction, "I suppose you want to pack some things too,"

Elena left, slamming the door behind her.

Hope you liked it. Tell me if you want me to write some more. :)

Aimee