Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of the vampire diaries: they belong to those lucky people like LJ Smith and the CW...

AN: I know this has been done before, but it's just wishful thinking from my Damon/Elena biased point of view… So I felt like rewriting this scene… for the moment it's a one-shot, but I might do more scenes …

A big fluffy thank you to my wonderful beta Shadowfaxangel, and also to Bibi for her suggestions! You guys rock!

What if Damon hadn't taken the arrow meant for Elena in Bad Moon Rising?

"Argh... " Elena felt a piercing pain in her shoulder. She stumbled back with the force of the impact and reached up with her other hand to feel an arrow sticking out of her flesh.

When the adrenaline of the surprise attack drained away, she felt suddenly faint, black spots dancing before her eyes. As if everything was happening in slow motion, she started to slide to the floor. Before she got the chance to hit the cold stone floor, Damon was suddenly there, supporting her weight. Careful not to touch the arrow, he lowered her gently down to the ground.

Elena felt as if her shoulder was on fire. The pain was excruciating, and she could only take shallow breaths. She moaned and closed her eyes. Vaguely she registered the sound of a scuffle going on near her, and through the pounding in her ears she heard Alaric yell: "That's not Katherine! That's Elena Gilbert! You shot a human, for god's sake!"

Meanwhile Damon crouched next to Elena on the floor. He couldn't care less about what was going on with the girl: Alaric could deal with her well enough… His first priority was Elena. Her face was ashen… Just for a moment, Damon's world consisted of nothing but the rhythm of Elena's heartbeat… In the next moment he forced himself to focus…

He looked closely at the arrow protruding from Elena's shoulder. The bloodstain on her shirt was spreading, slowly but surely. Careful not to hurt her any further, he ripped her T-shirt at the top and pulled it away from the arrow. He winced when he saw it was embedded deeply in her flesh, dark red blood oozing from the wound.

It was weird… 'There's so much blood but I don't have the slightest inclination to feed,' he thought, strangely detached. He didn't even feel the familiar tingling below his eyes and in his mouth that usually heralded the change. He was worried about Elena... and angry at himself for not getting to her faster ... he should have stayed closer to her, so he could have protected her, taken the arrow himself even... it was just that he hadn't really expected anyone to attack them here at Duke...since no one was supposed to know who or what they were...

Alaric walked up to them and dropped to the floor next to Elena. "I knocked her out, I'm afraid..." When he saw the blood, he said, "Oh god, Elena... maybe we should call a doctor?"

Elena weakly shook her head no. "Can't... explain..." she mumbled. Her eyes opened, locked on Damon's eyes and stayed there, begging him to understand.

Alaric looked puzzled but Damon understood immediately. "She means that we can't possibly give a reasonable explanation for all of this... A doctor is sure to alert the police. What are we gonna say? Why, officer, she thought I was my evil twin, who happens to be a vampire... a wooden arrow through the heart at close range is supposed to do the trick, so she thought she'd give it a shot? No pun intended?" His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"But we can't leave it like this! The arrow needs to come out and the wound must be taken care of... It probably needs stitches!" Alaric wasn't convinced.

Elena sighed, and whispered, sure that Damon would hear her anyway: "You do it..."

Damon eyed the arrow. "Are you sure? I suppose you have been ingesting vervain?"

Elena nodded slightly, and Damon frowned. "Normally I'd say you're a smart girl... but now it means I can't take away the pain... it's gonna hurt like hell, Elena, and I'm afraid you've lost a lot of blood... I'm going to insist that you take mine to speed up the healing..."

Alaric looked appalled, and seemed baffled when Elena hesitated, and then nodded. "What? You're going to have him pull out the arrow? You're going to drink his blood? My god, Elena, are you sure about this?"

Damon was all business now, ignoring Alaric's game of twenty questions. "Ric, you're going to have to pull the arrow out. I need to hold her firmly in place while you do it, so the arrow will come right out. Then I'm gonna give her some blood..." Alaric nodded uncertainly.

Damon quickly removed his shirt and held it out to Alaric, who looked at him with a question in his eyes. Damon explained impatiently, "You're going to need something to quench the bleeding after you pull the arrow out. She's lost a lot of blood already...she can't afford to lose more."

Damon settled himself on the floor so he could lean his back against the wall, and they carefully manoeuvred Elena so she was sitting between his legs, propped up against his bare chest.

Thankfully she didn't protest; she just leaned her head against Damon's shoulder, grateful for his presence. It didn't mean she wasn't still angry with him for what he'd done to her brother, but she knew she could trust him with this... with herself. It was a temporary truce of sorts.

The pain was a dull throbbing now, almost bearable, but Elena knew it was going to hurt a lot when Alaric pulled the arrow out. Alaric kneeled in front of Elena, and braced himself. "Ready?" he asked.

Elena didn't answer. It was not like she had a choice, so ready or not... it didn't really matter.

Damon grabbed her shoulders tightly, and Alaric started counting, "One... two..." and pulled. He hadn't waited for three because he knew she would tense and he'd wanted to avoid that. Damon gave him a look of understanding and held on tight. He lowered his mouth to Elena's ear, whispering so quietly Alaric couldn't pick up what he was saying.

Alaric kept pulling, and the arrow came out in a gush of fresh blood. Elena didn't have the breath to scream ... she fainted dead away, slumping against Damon's bare chest. Alaric quickly grabbed Damon's shirt and pressed the waddled material to the wound. While he was doing that, they both heard a groan coming from the other side of the room. The girl was waking up...

Damon took over from Alaric pressing the shirt to Elena's shoulder and gestured with his head to Alaric to go and take care of it. Alaric nodded and made his way over to the other side of the room. He hauled the girl up and disappeared with her outside.

"Elena... come on, my angel, wake up!" Damon knew she was still out of it, so he felt entitled to use an endearment she would never accept from him when awake. He could hear her heartbeat, slow and steady now, so he wasn't that worried anymore. Once she'd had his blood, she would be as good as new, but she needed to regain consciousness first...

With his free hand, he stroked the hair out of her face and over her other shoulder, marvelling at its softness. With her so close to him, he was enveloped in her scent. He inhaled deeply, just to savour it, enjoying the contact. If she stayed angry with him because of the incident with Jeremy, this might well be his only chance to hold her in his arms... His fingertips ghosted over her neck in a slight caress…

He noticed when her breathing changed in rhythm, and knew she was drifting back to consciousness. His lips to her ear, he murmured, "That's it, Elena, come back to me... I will make it all better soon..."

At first Elena felt a strange sort of contentment when she floated up from the dark. Gradually she became aware of feather light touches on her skin that felt like butterfly wings … She blinked open her eyes, feeling a bit disoriented. Why was she on the floor …? Then reality came rushing back. She moaned when pain washed over her in a sudden wave.

Damon's voice murmured close to her ear, "Hold on, Elena. You just need to take some of my blood and you'll feel better in no time..." She felt his slight movement when he lifted his wrist to his mouth and she heard his fangs slicing his flesh. Then his arm appeared before her face, twin punctures dripping blood.

She hesitated for a moment: should she really be doing this? … If only Stefan had come along instead of his brother… she wouldn't have minded drinking his blood so much (she thought)… mostly, she wouldn't feel so unfaithful then… because she really felt as if she was betraying Stefan by accepting Damon's blood…

A sudden burst of pain in her shoulder made the decision for her. Beggars can't be choosers, she reasoned… Besides, she would swear Damon and Alaric to secrecy… it was better if Stefan would never find out about this...

With her good arm, she brought his wrist closer to her mouth. She would just have to take a few sips... no biggie… Come on, Elena, you can do this, she thought to herself. Just think of it as drinking medicine: if it tastes bad, that just means it's gonna work...

She closed her eyes and her mouth latched onto the tiny wounds in his wrist before they could close up again. She started sucking, a bit hesitantly at first…

When the first drops of blood hit her tongue, her eyes flew open again... Damon's blood didn't have that metallic tang of blood at all... in fact, he tasted ... kind of sweet … ! She didn't remember that from the one time he had forced her to drink some of his blood! But she didn't really have the time to notice much back then …

She swallowed... and took a firm hold of his arm to get better access. She had to really draw the blood out now, because the wounds wanted to close up, and she wanted more... more of him…

Damon felt Elena's initial hesitation, and then suddenly, she was greedily sucking his blood. It was an incredible sensation... Of course he was well aware that the taking and giving of blood could be an extremely intimate and sexual act, but he'd thought that the circumstances would lessen the impact in this case. He'd never been more wrong... The fact that Elena was really giving herself over to the sensation of drinking his blood was incredibly arousing... he shifted a bit, uncomfortably aware that his body's reaction was impossible to conceal...

The pain in Elena's shoulder seemed to dim and then it ebbed away almost completely... Instead a languid heat spread through her body, making her limbs deliciously heavy. Her eyes slid closed when heat started coiling low in her belly. She felt tingles all over her body … and Damon's arousal pressing into her lower back ... She snuggled closer to him, her mouth still on his wrist, sucking all the blood she could get… and sighed, hearing his answering moan behind her ...

Damon pushed his body flush against hers, his free arm pinning her firmly to him, as if he wanted to pull her inside of him. He bent his head slightly, and nuzzled Elena's neck. His lips and tongue explored the nape of her neck and right below her ear… How did he know that that always made her feel weak inside? She tilted her head slightly to allow him better access... His cool breath tickled her ear, causing her to shiver…

He just couldn't help it: he started grinding slowly but insistently against her… And Elena was mortified to find that she was pushing back in time with his movements, and sucking his wrist in the same rhythm… but his obvious excitement was an incredible turn-on for her…

"You need to stop, Elena," Damon breathed in her ear. "You've had enough…" He had been trying to pull his wrist away from her mouth, but unconsciously she had grabbed onto it with both hands and was holding on for dear life. His blood tasted so … delicious…too good to let go…

She had to make herself deliberately relax her hold. Closing her eyes, she dreamily licked all remaining traces of blood from his wrist. Damon's head fell back and he groaned… She felt him shudder, trying to regain control. "God, Elena, you're killing me here…"

They were so absorbed in each other that they didn't hear Alaric coming back. He walked silently into the room and stopped abruptly, feeling like a peeping tom... because there was no doubt in his mind that he'd intruded on a profoundly sexual experience for both Damon and Elena... there was no mistaking Elena's flushed face and erratic breathing, nor the expression on Damon's face… Alaric backed out of the room again in silence. He would come back later ... and make a lot more noise...

AN: For those of you who are familiar with the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, this scene is a little wink to one of my favourite Sookie/Eric moments in Club Dead…

So, did you like it? Please review! Shall I do more? Suggestions are always welcome!