Chapter Text
Damon slept deep underwater, floating within, floating in nothing. No sight, no sound, no thought, feeling weightlessness, and nothing. Sometimes there will be an occasional memory, of a beautiful woman in tears, of a warm hand patting his shoulder, of green eyes crinkling in laughter, but they all fade into nothing.
Then.
There was something, a feeling of water, of air, of the ground. There was the sound of a warm voice calling for him.
"Damon."
There were memories, of green grass and football, of hugs and burning throats, of pain and fire mixed all together. A man yelling, a woman screaming, a decision made.
Then there were feelings, of grief and sadness when thoughts were comprehended once again, of loss when he remembered the past long gone.
"Damon," they both call.
And there was light as he slowly opened his eyes, two blurred shapes coming into focus. Of blonde hair and a serious face, of green eyes and honey-colored skin.
He mumbles a name, "Bonnie?"
"Damon," his brother called, his voice low. "We need you right now."
Damon fought the nothingness, fingers and toes, hands and feet, arms and legs, and so on. He struggles to get up as the shapes moved away. He slowly turned his head to the side, to look at the shapes better till they become less shapes and more people.
His brother he came to recognize first, the serious face, the usual frown marring his lips whenever he looks at Damon, looking like a high school student and not a day older. Stefan's expression softened when he caught sight of the jarred and confused face of his brother. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he greeted.
Then Damon looked at the other, and she wasn't Bonnie. The grief returned tenfold at the thought that she's already dead, so he looks over at Elena's coffin, still shut tight. "Is Bonnie—"
"Not yet, Damon," he looked up at Stefan when he paused, catching sight of the pain that flashed through his face before it was replaced with serious determination. "But she's dying, she wanted to see you before she goes."
Damon closed his eyes at his words, remembering his once best friend. He wondered if she forgave him for what he did. He looked once again at Elena's coffin, thoughts running on how he didn't want to face Bonnie. He once again remembered the last time he saw her, how angry and pained she looked at him when he told her he's leaving, how a few days before that, he caressed her sleeping face lovingly as she slept on his bed. "How many years passed?" He asked.
When he looked up, he caught sight once again of the girl with Stefan. She looked in her teens, the same age as Stefan pretends to be, and he wondered what she's doing with them. She was staring at him with emerald eyes, filled with coldness with hints of curiosity in her gaze but her face still stiff. Her attention was unnerving and she seemed a bit familiar but for the life of Damon, he can't ever recall meeting someone like her.
"21," Stefan answered, returning Damon's attention to him. "21 years since you desiccated."
Bonnie didn't even get to 50. The simple fact hurt him and he felt a small bit of regret with his decision to leave them. Anger coursed through his blood when he looked back at Stefan. "What happened? Didn't you protect her?"
Stefan's gaze turned cold upon hearing his words. "Like you didn't?" He replied stiffly.
Pain flashed across Damon's features before he snarled and shot out of his coffin. "I did this for you two!" He yelled.
Stefan shook his head at him, the frown back. "Listen, I don't want to argue about this for now. Bonnie wants to see you."
It was like a slap for Damon, causing him to snap out of his rage. He dumbly stood there as he watched Stefan address the girl next to him.
"Bea," Stefan called for her and touched her shoulder lightly, and she looked at him with a brow raised in question. "Why don't you go ahead first? I'll take care of this."
She gave a quick glance at Damon, her gaze oddly resentful before her face smoothed out as she turned around to head out of the room. Damon's eyes followed her form confusedly and curiously, wondering if he knew her or he did something to deserve that. "Who's the chick?" he asked.
Stefan glanced at Damon from the corner of his eye. He briefly hesitated before he answered, "Bonnie's."
"Bonnie's?" Realization immediately hit him as he looked once again at where the girl disappeared. A number of feelings emerged on his chest, conflicting senses of loss and jealousy, followed by the crushing feeling of sadness and defeat. Of course, obviously, Bonnie would move on and live her life, fall in love with another man and have children. He knew that when he decided to desiccate himself but the knowledge that she did still hurt. "I see," he simply replied as he tried to push down all that he felt.
Stefan didn't comment on his reaction, he merely shook his head as he went ahead of Damon. "Let's go, brother."
It was night when they got back to the road where the car was parked. It wasn't Damon's Camaro but a completely different car that Damon has never seen before but would agree with his brother's tastes. The girl was nowhere in sight but he could hear the faint rumble of an engine. He looked down the road in front of the car and saw the girl straddling a black bike ahead of them, her helmeted head turned to the side and the tinted glass raised up to watch them from the corner of her eye.
"Damon, if you please," Stefan dryly called from within the car as he leaned down to look at Damon from the open window.
Damon flashed over to the passenger side, annoyed with his brother's orders. "Don't get your panties in a twist, Stefan," he scathingly said as he sat on the leather seats. He looked ahead of him to see the girl putting down the helmet's glass as she revved up the bike. She sped away quickly down the road without waiting for them.
Damon stared in the direction she went to till she disappeared from his sight, just as Stefan was starting the car. He looked away out the window when she was gone and not a word was exchanged between him and his brother.