Chapter Text
In the century Enzo walked this earth, no one has ever called him a bad performer, he was a wonderful con man.
So when the next call came, he was perfect. A little snip there, a little faux sympathy here and he sold it.
Paired with Valerie's contribution of silence par one common question, which everyone had attributed to her terrible social cues.
There was no room for doubt and it was a decent information grab.
Lockwood and Donovan had reached, the elusive mystic falls gang was back in throes.
He could tell they didn't entirely believe or support the conclusion they had arrived at. Which was possibly thanks to Caroline.
They had convinced the group they were on their way and their last contact with the Salvatores implied that they were too.
Both of which were false.
Damon would probably not answer for a while, but the ruse was well and alive now.
He doubts Damon would cut contact altogether, no, his acquaintance was far too sentimental, about bridges and fire.
He wonders where that sentiment was in the 50's for a moment then decides he does not want to deal with it now.
(He'll throw a quip later when he wants Damon to apologise, again.)
Valerie clicks her pen, incessantly, it's kind of nice to hear an erratic rhythm instead of one which came with precise necessity. So he doesn't tell her to stop, until she herself does to turn and look at him.
"What do we do now?" She asks, of all the things.
Enzo shrugs, hell if he knows, "you tell me. You got any ideas?"
"We need to cloak them" Valerie states, "I doubt they've had the mind to drop off the supernatural radar" she follows with established disappointed of Damon's everything basically.
Enzo just hums. He has had a lifetimes worth of other people's business. Especially heretics.
"I'll give him a call" he tells her, "we should be able to rendezvous."
~
Damon keeps his mind occupied with useless chatter playing on the radio as he drives back on the precious miles they covered in a hurry.
He looks over at Stefan, who's still out of it. He ponders if he should roofie his brother with some vervain, so that when he finally thinks... about.. everything he will have absolute silence.
He decides against it, Stefan's been through enough.
That thought coos into a disastrous train and he wonders what he's gonna do now.
His fingers grip steering wheel and his teeth grind against each other, painfully.
He doesn't know if he's sad or angry or desperate or devastated or pissed off. Maybe all of them, maybe none of them.
He forcefully stomps down the trickle of fear creeping up his spine.
No time for that now, even if everything is too much and he just wants to pull over and breathe for a fucking minute.
When Enzo finally calls, he sighs with relief.
There is a beat before Enzo speaks, "where are you?"
"I don't know" Damon bellows, "just driving back."
There is another beat, "how far are you from Montgomery?"
Damon has to check, "an hour give or take."
"Wonderful" Enzo replies, "there's a motel 4 clicks to the city's west border. We will meet you there."
Damon thinks for a moment then he simply says, "okay."
He knows it's a rendezvous, Enzo has a witch, one whose speciality is cloaking, he doesn't need to be a genius to join the dots.
Damon's recently desiccated muscles are tired of this. He ran from Rayna immediately after he woke up, then he chased after her, then he chased after his dying brother, then he chased after Sociopathic Vamp who body jacked his little brother, then he chased after hope which turned into a chase for answers.
Joke's on him however, now he was running away from all of it. His friends.
He looks over at Stefan. He doesn't look peaceful at all. He does look like he's sleeping.
His skin's pale as is norm since the past century. It's also pasty because of the temporary astral misalignment and then the realignment.
His hair is falling into his face, covering his eyes.
Something tight grips Damon's dead heart, something old and sad.
He has this sudden urge to flick Stefan's hair from his face.
He ignores it.
~
They arrive at the Motel and decide to feed while they wait. Between him and Valerie, they barely finish one blood bag.
Strange, where has his appetite gone?
Damon arrives faster than he calculated him to reach, he parks his car, exits it and looks at them, he doesn't greet them.
He looks around in a habit that Enzo realises is just settling in.
Then moves to the passenger's side and opens the door.
Valerie makes a profound sound of indignation. Enzo just clicks his tongue. Damon picks his brother and vamps towards the motel.
Enzo leads them into a dingy room that reeks and is lit horribly, Damon places his brother on a sod of mattress. Standing beside it.
Valerie sighs, deeply.
Damon mirrors that sigh, "look" he says, his thinning patience quite evident, "he would have got in the way."
"I agree" Valerie says with a shrug.
Damon's surprised for a split second before he is indifferent and angry again.
He motions Valerie to do the spell.
Enzo steps back and the spell takes a couple of minutes. Valerie look mildly plussed at the end.
She takes a deep breath while Damon just looks at her, "now you will be cloaked until I break the spell" she announces.
Damon nods at her or maybe himself, Enzo can't tell, then he immediately turns on him, "now" he breathes and it sounds like a growl, "what the hell Enzo?"
Enzo puts up his hands, loose and lanky, as a sign of peace, "you need to sit down for this" he says slowly, "maybe a blood bag."
He looks at Valerie who is already tearing into one.
Damon growls, "Explain!"
Valerie still tosses him the blood.
~
"What do you mean Bon?" Matt, good old reliable Matt, doesn't sound nearly as confused as she is. They're all spread out in the dining room, like this was half a decade ago, in mystic falls and they were plotting to kill some recently developed great evil.
Caroline bites on her nails, thinking, nails and her hair are the only thing would grow, a morbid fact about how nails and hair grow for a while even on corpses creeps into her mind.
She wonders if one day her hair and nails will stop growing, if they will be stuck in one length and shape for all eternity. Stefan and Damon's hair never changed. Rebekah's hair never changed. Her nails did, although that was probably just nail polish and clip ons.
They never changed, except for their attires, like they're wearing costumes for a play. She wonders...
She stops. Everyone is talking over each other, she takes a breath, it's like old times, it's comforting, partly.
"Why would Lily tie Elena's life to her own son?" she asks aloud and then looks at her friends.
Matt scoffs, "that woman hated them."
"But she tried to make peace with them too" Tyler points out.
There's another myriad that almost brews before Caroline says, "Stefan told me she was driving a wedge between them" Matt scoffs again, Jeremy rolls his eyes and she knows Ric wants to, "she was 'taking away all of their toys'" Jeremy's eyes become hard and Ric stiffens while Bonnie breaths in bellows, "she wanted revenge on Bonnie, she wanted to teach Damon a lesson, she wouldn't have sent Elena into a forever coma. She has no use for it."
Caroline knew she was right, lily wanted Elena away as a punishment to Damon and even revenge on Bonnie, she was human, she would die in a lifetime, Damon probably with her. She had no use in making her sleep forever while Stefan and Damon ruffled her feathers and pushed her buttons.
If there was one thing she knew about Salvatores, it was that they didn't stay apart, no matter how much they hated each other.
Lily must've known that. She did.
Jeremy swallows and there is a mixture of anger in his posture. His family just being collateral in some grand Salvatore game.
A beat passes and the tension in the room thickens, you could cut with a knife and Caroline hates this, all of it.
"Except this wasn't Lily's idea" Bonnie voices, like she's trying out how those words sound together.
Then she looks at all of them, her posture is stiff and her voice is firm, "this was all Kai."
~
"I don't get it" Damon sounds helpless. Valerie, never in all of her life, imagined that there would be a day where she would feel sorry for the Damon Salvatore.
But here it is.
They're confined in the dingy motel, even though it looked cozy if you squinted really hard, Stefan was still out of it. It would have been worrisome if he wasn't recently jammed back into his body, literally.
Also Enzo slipped some Vervain. More than some.
Damon batted an eye, rolled his eyes and then left him to it.
Enzo pats him now, he's sitting on the what appears to be a coffee table a little further from bed. Valerie took the lawn chair.
She sighs. Damon runs his hands through his hair, "Kai was in the prison world with me and Bonnie. He tormented us, tried to kill us and we tried to kill him."
Enzo and her both listen intently, not because they believe that his reasoning might be true but because they don't entirely believe their conclusion was right.
There was no way to confirm, not from here.
It was a simple linking spell, but she wouldn't be able to discern which two entities were linked without having proper access to the parties involved.
"We left him in 1903, I lured him, played friends with him, Bonnie trapped him" he stresses. His head is down when his voice comes low and despondent, "Stefan had nothing do with it."
She can't see but she thinks he is looking at Stefan, must be her imagination.
"There's no way he would tie it to Stefan" he says with finality.
Enzo taps his fingers on the table's edge, "he was a vindictive bastard mate" he suggests.
"But this was revenge Enzo" Damon argues, "tying Elena's life to Bonnie was the perfect revenge, on me and more so on Bonnie."
Valerie notes that. Enzo looks at Damon and he looks like he's introspecting something.
"It wouldn't be..." Damon reaches for the word, "...poetic if he tied it to Stefan. The bastard thought he had a great sense of humour."
There is a beat, Enzo doesn't look at them, he licks his lips, "it would be funny though."
Damon's head whips to him. Valerie knows, quite certainly, that in any other circumstance Damon would be the one with particular quip, now he looks offended. Like she mildly feels, any other circumstance though, would be funny.
Enzo looks at them, no smirk or snark, entirely serious, "think about it" he explains, "you went to the prison world because Stefan died, you went to get Lily to flip his switch."
"I mean..." he takes an unnecessarily deep breath, "he's a pretty strong catalyst."
"Well he should have sent him a gift basket then" Damon says, all indignant, angry and snarky, "Stefan's the reason that freak got out."
Enzo looks borderline melancholic when he says, "that's not what I meant."
All the scorn and false snark evaporates from Damon's face and it sets into something heavy and hard.
~
"Bonnie" Tyler becomes the voice of reason now, "you told us that Elena's life was tied to you."
Bonnie is grabbing at straws as is, she doesn't mind if she comes off like she's in mild psychosis, she just needs her friends to understand.
"I told you that because Kai told me that" she states, her voice breaking from all the guilt and pain, "he told me and Damon that he tied Elena's life to mine. He said she would only wake up if I died."
"So he lied" Caroline asks, her voice sounds exactly like Bonnie's does. It's tragic, really. Her eyes sting.
"Yes, he did" she says, voice brimming with unshed tears and vulnerability.
No one speaks, so she continues, "Kai was a crafty sociopathic bastard. He was vindictive, he was clever and he was evil."
"I agree" it is Ric who comes in her support, "he knew how to spin plans to suit him as per minute."
"But his target was Bonnie" Matt counters, "we can't just let her do this on the off chance that Kai lied."
Caroline looks at her desperately. Bonnie wants to give into that, but freedom is so near. She had carried the guilt of Ric's twins, of Jo, of Elena... of all of their lives, of Damon. Since the day Elena slept.
It was heavy, it was searing into her skin. She wants out.
"Exactly" Tyler agrees, "you can't just try a spell to wake her up."
"What do we do?" Jeremy asks, and he is too calm for anyone's liking.
Ric holds his shoulder before looking down on all of them, "Call Damon. Tell him."
Bonnie nods. They had forgotten about him while squabbling among themselves. He should know. Kai didn't cast the spell just because Elena was Bonnie's best friend, he cast the spell because Damon loved Elena.
And... because....
He was Bonnie's best friend.
~
Damon leaves the motel and then Montgomery. Before that Enzo doses Stefan again, he was always an enabler, Valerie caresses his hair, running her hands through it, there is something deep and pure on her face.
They agree to not tell each other's whereabouts, decide on a vague ruse, a lie that holds little truth, to pass it off undeterred. Damon shuts off his gps, activates burner phones and sims. Even gets some new untraceable cards.
Stefan is secure in the seat beside him. Out of commission for another hour give or take.
His eyes trail over the dashboard, he remembers Bonnie putting her legs there, just to screw with him.
Then his eyes fall onto the rearview mirror, he remembers Elena touching up her Makeup as he drove her to college.
He's a sentimental fool really... every friend of his, nearly every enemy of his has driven the Camaro.
Then he pauses, thesaurus, this was not the Camaro he bought in 66. Not the one he drove to New York in 70s, not the one he drove to Illinois to torment Stefan, not the one he drove to Mystic falls to bury the hatchet.
He blew that one up.
Stefan built this one for him, it was a pre christmas gift.
He swallows. Touches his steering wheel the way he did that night, like he's touching it for the first time again.
Then his phone rings.
His chest aches when he looks at the Caller ID.
He pulls over because he cannot do this in a running car.
"Damon" Bonnie whispers from the other side, something in his stomach drops, again.
"Hey" he tries for a quip, decides against it, "I'm on my way."
A lie!
Her tone doesn't change, it's filled with desperate hope and sounds like it belongs in a tragic wives' tale, "I found something."
"What?" He hopes his voice sounds just right, there's a a part of him that thinks she's not the only one who is listening.
"I think" her voice breaks into a lump, "Damon... I don't think Elena is tied to me."
".... What?" The absolute shock in his tone is not an imitation. He hadn't anticipated this now.
It breaks a dam in Bonnie, the words flow from her, heavy from all the pain she's been hiding, "I think Kai lied to us... you know how crafty and evil he is. I think he lied to us... hoping you would kill me for Elena to wake up or that I... I... would kill myself. Or that you would wait for me to die and I would live my entire life believing I would never see her. All because we believed him Damon."
She cries in between and it breaks Damon's heart. He swallows a lump of his own as she continues,
"But now we know... I know... we don't have to live like this. Me, Elena, you... all of us, we can live our lives together. We can be happy. Jeremy can live with his sister. Me, Elena and Caroline can go through life together. You and Elena can start a family Damon, you don't have to wait 80 years. You can do it now, you can be with her, you can be happy."
Damon looks on straight ahead. Every word she says pierces a stake in his heart and twists it. All the things he had imagined, all the things he had hoped, all the things he had dreamt. Right here... within his reach.
Damon could just reach out and hold his future, his forever.
He doesn't say any of it to Bonnie, he only asks, "how Bonnie? What are you saying?"
She goes silent for a bit, "I think" she says slowly, "Kai tied Elena's life to Stefan."
Cold spreads across Damon's chest, ironically. He forgets to breathe. Bonnie is saying something about finding a loophole, cause Stefan's a vampire, they can't wait till he dies but they could find a loophole.
Damon knows that if he agrees with her, all the pain in her voice will be replaced with hope. He knows they all really needed this one win. That Bonnie needs this, she would be happy. Elena would have a chance to live her life.
He says, "What Bonnie? That is impossible."
"Damon" he can hear her devastation, it's like thousand feet fall into a deep pit. His eyes sting.
"I know you miss her as much as me Bon" he drives it home and hopes his faux finality is not too harsh, "but that is just impossible. Why would Kai even do that?"
"Damon" she whispers and it's a ghastly void of a thing, "please y-"
"No Bonnie" he cuts her off, "It's impossible. I am on my way. We'll figure it out."
She doesn't know it's a lie with an empty promise, it doesn't matter to her either way. She cuts the call.
Damon hangs his head clutching the steering wheel as tears finally spill out of his eyes. They're somehow hot against his pale skin. He falls back into the seat as they roll down his cheeks and his eyes dry.
"Damon" he hears a low groan.
He turns to see his brother awake, "stef.."
Stefan looks around once and then bashes Damon's head into the steering wheel.
"What the hell?"
~
"You heard him" Matt says solemn and stone faced, "why would Kai do that?"
Caroline takes a deep breath. Bonnie had been borderline catatonic. But there was a weight on Caroline's chest, soft smiles, giggles, kisses, hugs, promises, this crushing weight.
"I don't understand either" Tyler repeats, "why would Kai tie Elena's life to Stefan's."
Bonnie's voice is small when she speaks, but there is an impending doom that attaches itself to her words, "Because it would be the perfect plan."
"What?" Jeremy speaks and it comes out hoarse.
Bonnie sighs and she sounds cold, "I am mortal" she explains, "maybe Kai expected Damon to kill me, maybe he expected Damon to choose me. I would die either way. Kai tied Elena's life to Stefan. If Damon killed me, Elena wouldn't wake up, he would have to live with the guilt and loathe of killing me and also losing Elena."
Caroline holds a hand to her chest, trying to steady herself.
"If I die of old age, in 80 years I drop dead and Elena still doesn't wake up. Damon wouldn't know what to do. No one would. Stefan is immortal, in theory, he would never die, Elena would never wake up."
She looks up at Jeremy. But it is Tyler who is standing near Ric, who completes it, "Damon would never figure it out. Unless someone kills Stefan. He wouldn't know."
Matt isn't looking at any of them, when he adds, "even if he knew, Damon would never kill Stefan."
Caroline's heart sinks.
"We need to call Damon" Bonnie says to herself.
"No" Jeremy stops her. He looks like he did when he wanted to kill them all.
~
"What the hell?" Damon mirrors Stefan, he isn't knocked out just buzzed and hurt and irritated.
"What did you do?" Stefan demands as Damon throws himself back in to his seat. Giving his tendons and neurons some air as heals.
Stefan looks around, in the car, out the window, at himself, backseat. Then he searches for his phone . He rumbles around and when he can't find it, he turns to Damon again, "Damon where is my phone?"
Fully healed now, Damon picks up his phone throws it out and closes the window. Stefan gapes at him.
"What are you doing?" He shouts, "Damon..."
"Saving your life" Damon shouts back and starts the engine.
~
"No" Jeremy repeats darkly, "let them come here, it is better if they're unaware."
"What is?" Caroline asks. She gapes at her friends, "what are you gonna do Jeremy?"
Jeremy looks down. Bonnie holds him, "Jere listen to me. Damon loves Elena. He will always do right by her. He would never let her rot for eternity."
Jeremy doesn't shout but his eyes are angry when he speaks, "she is my sister. I don't have an eternity, I only have now. It's not about Damon. Elena is my only family."
"And stefan is his" Caroline's eyes are wide, "but he would never pick him over Elena."
"He doesn't even know Jere" Bonnie placates, Caroline drops her head.
"Look" Matt holds Jeremy, "this is going to amount to nothing." He is looking at Caroline when he speaks, "Let Damon come. We will tell him and deal with what happens."
For some reason Caroline doesn't believe him.
~
Enzo answers the phone quite lazily, as someone who is not aware of anything that is happening.
"Enzo" Alaric greets formally but there is more of an edge and it dials Enzo's senses up.
"Where are you?" Alaric asks.
"Well like you asked" Enzo begins, "I checked out mystic falls, crypt , boarding house and all. Nothing fishy."
"That's good" Alaric replies, "listen do you know where Stefan and Damon are?"
"Last I spoke to them" Enzo answers, "they were on their way, they should be getting there soon. A bit after us. Three or four hours, give or take."
"That's great" Alaric's voice is monotone.
Enzo cuts the call and immediately pulls out a burner phone.
"They know" Valerie murmurs behind him, in a slight panic.
"No they don't" Enzo contradicts.
"They will" Valerie counters, "very soon."
"Oh that they will love" Enzo agrees sending the message.
(THEY KNOW.)
~
Damon swears loudly looking at the message.
"Damon" Stefan calls, confused and pissed off, "you believe Enzo?"
He somehow manages to stress all three words.
"Yeah" Damon snaps, "you should too."
Stefan huffs, "you seriously believe that Kai tied Elena's life to mine?"
"Maybe" Damon answers.
"Maybe?!" Stefan asks incredulous.
He doesn't answer, just honks loudly on a turn.
They're off the main road when Stefan goes, "maybe? You lugged my ass around on a maybe?! Why did you even break my neck if you didn't believe him?"
"Because they will" Damon's eyes are wide and scared like when he was human and he just got drafted, Stefan falls silent, "they do."
~
Hours pass, three or four become five then six. "What is taking them so long?" Ric muses aloud.
"Did they run into trouble or something?" Tyler asks aloud.
"I'll try a locator spell" Bonnie says. Jeremy hums.
Caroline finally cracks. "He knows" she sobs.
"Care?" It is Matt who comes to her, sweet kind Matt.
She sobs louder, "I think Damon knows."
"What are you talking about?" Jeremy asks.
She sniffles, "it's been running on my mind" she explains, "he told us that Lily told him the sleeping spell was her idea. But when Bonnie told him over the phone, he said Kai wouldn't do it."
She heaves with tears, "I wondered why he immediately thought of Kai. I think he knows."
"That bastard" Jeremy swears.
"Clever Bastard" Tyler repeats, "he put the spell on the one person Damon wouldn't kill."
Caroline looks at him in disbelief, "he would never pick him over Elena."
"Oh Care..." Bonnie holds her, sounding just as devastated as she feels, "he would."
~
They're in a safe house, it's on a small garden estate, it's night. Damon's car has been long swapped, safe in a locker.
Now they have an ugly hunk of a car that a corporate would ride.
Stefan looks at him as Damon paces. He is confused but seeing his brother like this is throwing him out of the loop.
"Damon what's going on?" He prods.
"Bonnie will be able to locate us, Tyler has contacts, Matt is in the police, he definitely has contacts" he lists out, "and Ric, he would be a problem too."
Stefan shakes his head.
"We need to lay low Stefan. This is not a Katherine situation but for a while, we need to run."
Stefan's breath hitches, all he did for the past four years was run. With Caroline for a while, with Valerie, truth be told he was tired.
"Damon" he implores, "it's probably just a coincidence."
"Doesn't matter" Damon cuts him off, "it doesn't matter to them. They will hunt you."
Stefan looks down, he breathes, "what if it's not a coincidence."
Damon looks at him and sits down finally, "then we will deal with it."
Stefan looks up, "they could help." Stefan has a bad feeling about this and he really doesn't want Damon to be alone.
Damon scoffs, well... that... was unexpected.
Stefan tries again, "Damon listen..."
"No you listen" Damon rounds back on him, Stefan feels small, like he is six and got caught eating mud again, "Matt Donovan let loose Rayna Cruz because he wanted you dead and you did die."
Damon's voice breaks. Like he's been holding this in for a while.
"You were dead and I sat beside your body" he continues, "Hours, I sat there for hours, alone. You were dead. No one was there. I didn't think of Elena, I didn't think of Bonnie, I didn't think of anyone else in the entire world. You were gone and my world stopped."
Stefan's face softens.
"I get it" he shrugs heavily, "they were just kids, we came. Then things went bump in the night. Well they can blame us for Katherine, for Klaus and everything else that followed."
Stefan looks down and swallows, the familiar sting of guilt and pit of loneliness looming at him.
"They can blame me" Damon doesn't stop, "they can hate me. But I refuse to let them kill you because they are angry at the world,"
Stefan looks up at his big brother. His voice gets low and his eyes shine, "because you are my brother and I cannot imagine living in a world devoid of you."
A minute passes and Stefan stands up with wet eyes, "we'll run."
~
Damon nods.
He knows this is a small victory that things are only going to get harder from now on. But it's always been the Salvatore brothers against the world.
He also knows that this is selfish. That he is doing wrong by people he trusts, people he loves, people for whom he would rip his own heart out without a blink.
A year from now, a decade from now, maybe a lifetime from now, however long it takes, he would break that spell.
But however long forever was, he couldn't kill his brother.