Chapter Text
Damon wouldn't call the whole thing anticlimactic. No, this was just one of those incidents where the mind is on auto mode, you go through the things, get things done. Process them later when it's all too silent.
Like the way his brother's eyes fly open and the panic in them doesn't really settle until he meets Damon's. The way Stefan breathes in a huge bout of air like he's a living breathing human instead of an undead vampire.
He looks at Marty's body and thinks, Stefan must have really hated him if he enjoys being a vampire this much. Damon understands that sentiment for the time being.
Stefan gives his first love her tearful good bye, Damon nods at her, he's sincere. A while later when Valerie's gone, he decides to clean the place and pack up. Go home.
He knows nothing good is waiting for him there, Alaric was still out of his mind, drinking his grief away. It was hard to leave the man who was mourning his wife and unborn kids. Speaking of leaving, Bonnie probably didn't even want to look at him. He had tried her cell when Stefan was dying. She didn't answer. The only reason he even knew that she was in mystic falls was because he heard Enzo mention it when he was on call with Alaric.
Caroline and Stefan too were on the outs, Stefan had told more like shouted at him, actually 'marty' did, that he couldn't risk Caorline after Rayna nearly caught up a year ago, she would have been marked. One thing led to another and he abandoned her.
Little Gilbert was now a hunter, which had truly been a shocker. Elena would be pissed.
Damon sighed, oh and Matt Donovan, he almost got Stefan killed, what was the story there?
He didn't know...
He desiccated himself for 3 years because he knew his friends would be okay, they would be better off.
Now none of them want to even look at him. God he really missed Elena.
Stefan breaks his chain of thought by unceremoniously throwing the jacket and pants Ambrose at Damon, "burn it all" he says like an overlord telling his servants to butter his bread.
Brat!
Yet, a smile more of a smirk breaks out of Damon, it's been a while, "Got the cooties little brother?" he teases. Stefan backhands him as he walks back into the bathroom. Probably to do his hero hair, what with Ambrose dragging it through mud.
Damon rolls his eyes with a chuckle. He decides how he's going to deal with this, compels the receptionist and then compels the paramedics to declare Marty dead by overdose and to forget they ever made this detour.
He's in his car waiting for Stefan to come down, when his phone rings. It's an unfamiliar number, he ponders a second before lifting the call.
"Damon" he hears and pauses, "Jeremy?"
Jeremy breathes on the other side, "Elena called me."
~
"What?" Enzo mirrors exactly what Stefan said 10 minutes ago when Damon relayed everything Jeremy told him, which was not much, in a mad rush like a man out of his mind.
Because he was. His Elena was awake. He cursed himself for desiccating and smashing his old phone and number, he had many enemies, he had to be careful.
For her.
But now she was up in some safe house away from all them, he cursed the timing for her to wake up when they were on two corners of the country.
She had called Jeremy. He chewed out little Gilbert about why he did not immediately dial Damon, or Alaric or anyone.
No one else heard from her.
Jeremy retorts in annoyance, "I did... she asked me why you weren't picking up her calls?"
Then Jeremy said something else and he was too busy cursing himself out.
Like he was now.
"Damon?! Don't phase out on me after dropping something like that" Enzo whispers from the other end of phone. He holds the steering wheel tighter
Stefan's talking to Caroline, or trying to, there's some they're working out while talking about what to do and Damon can't pay any attention to that now.
"Yeah... it all sucks..." he laments, "I'm in Florida... it's stormed in, there's no flights here either."
"And she's in Washington" Enzo notes, "who's going there?"
"Well Jeremy and Ric are in Colarado" he answers. Ric had not talked to him, it was only little Gilbert who did the god's work of communication.
"Isn't Bonnie in Oregon?" Enzo notes again, "Is she dead?"
Damon clicks his tongue, "yeah I haven't heard from her either. She's alive." Little Gilbert and his advantage of hearing back from people. He can hear a click from Enzo, "still mad at you huh?"
Damon shrugs, "she'll come around."
Everything was going to be okay. Elena was awake. Now if only he could just hear her voice once, listen to her talk, see into her eyes, hold her...
His eyes pricked with tears, he blinks them dry immediately, no time for that.
"Listen Enzo" he starts again...
"All ears mate" Enzo snarks but there is warmth there.
"Where are you? Could you find Valerie?" Damon asks eyes straight ahead and with an urgency that he has felt very few times in his abnormally long life.
"I'm in Georgia and Valerie can be found."
~
Damon cuts the call after saying something about how ridiculous his luck was and something about mystic falls.
"What now?" Valerie asks nursing her Vodka sitting across the bar table.
"You heard him" Enzo deadpans nursing his bourbon.
"Doesn't hurt to give me a quick recap..." Valerie smirks and he clicks his tongue, as Damon's be careful floats back. Information was valuable.
"Now, now" he smirks, "are you insinuating that I betray my friend cause you asked."
She rolls her eyes at 'betray,' "a friend you heard not a peep from for 3 whole years." She gulps her drink.
He shakes his head, "you Ms Tulle need to learn to put that water under that bridge."
She hums, "you know" she tips her glass toward him, "I thought that was exactly what I was doing."
He shrugs, mystic falls did have a penchant.
~
Stefan's fidgeting with his phone like he's jonesing. He's about to tell him to shove it when there's a ping and Stefan immediately stops.
He looks at Damon after sending a reply to whoever that was.
"Bonnie couldn't catch a flight she's driving to Washington, Caroline compelled herself a flight from Dallas."
Damon nods, "Great they're all gonna be there" the 'except for us' hanging there is unsaid but it is not unheard.
Stefan licks his lips, looking out the window, "well Matt and Tyler are in Mystic falls... around... I don't know... why did you put her in Washington again?"
"Well we freaked out after the hell stone thing" Damon deadpans, "so we put her in a lockwood property."
Stefan cocks his brows and then nods. Yeah well this was their life.
~
"Elena Gilbert is awake" Valerie's eyes are looking at nothing. Her head held by her finger tips. He looks at her just as he cuts Caroline's call.
"Hallelujah" he says just to be ironic.
"I don't understand" Valerie muses as they were both heading to Colorado stuffed in a car away from the comfort of that cozy bar and wonderful liquor.
"What?" Enzo asks throwing her a momentary glance.
"The spell Kai used on her" she says as her eyebrows are scrunched into deep thought, "there's no way it just dissipated. Something had to null it."
"Something or someone" he adds. "Like who?" She questions back incredulous.
"Bonnie" he shrugs, it's the most obvious of choices.
"I don't think so" she shakes her head. "Why not?" He asks genuinely puzzled.
"It just doesn't seem possible" she elaborates, "that kind of spell asks for a lot, Bonnie didn't tell anyone she was doing anything."
Enzo nods, "well she was very skilled and very pissed off with almost everyone."
"You mean Damon" Valerie rolls her eyes, "she should have told Caroline and Jeremy atleast."
"Well" he pauses, "Caroline's pretty pissed off at you and I'm pretty sure I nearly killed Jeremy once."
Valerie rolls her eyes again and scoffs, "it's still all so suspicious" she muses again, "it's not as simple as it seems."
Oh Enzo knows that, he's no fool.
~
"What do you mean she's not awake?" Stefan shouts, completely out of the loop. Damon's wide eyes are glued to the phone.
It had been a couple hours, they stopped immediately after Stefan's phone rang.
"I mean exactly that Stefan" Caroline bites, "she was sprawled in the foyer just beside her coffin, exactly in the dress and shape we left her in."
Stefan pauses, distraught, not knowing what to say, then he takes a deep breath, "did she even wake up?"
It's more than what Damon is able to get out. His throat is clogged and his eyes burn, everything hurts.
Caroline's voice is soft when she replies, "she did. She moved right. Bonnie is checking her, for magic and you know... I should go..."
Stefan nods, "See you in Colorado."
She cuts the call.
Damon clenches his teeth enough for his gums to hurt for a moment, "if this was just Jeremy's drug hazed dream, I am going to set him on fire."
Stefan presses his shoulder, "you heard Caroline. They probably have a camera in there, they will figure it out."
Damon nods and throws his head down, with all that hope gone, the impeding wait is much more unbearable.
Stefan's hold on him gets tighter, "give me the keys."
Damon shakes head, "you'll crash us into a tree or a lake, we'll be later than we already are."
Stefan just smiles and he starts the car.
~
"What do you mean?" Enzo doesn't nearly sound as confused as he is. They're halfway to Colorado.
"Look it's in the cameras too" Caroline's saying and he can Bonnie and Jeremy talking about a loophole in the background, "she woke up, picked the landline, spoke on the call, then suddenly lights out she just plopped."
What was happening? Why did Elena Gilbert just wake up and then go back into her coma?
"How can that even happen?" Enzo's nose is scrunched in doubt.
"I am telling you" Bonnie cuts through, "she was awake for ten minutes. Then bam the spell got her again."
He meets Valerie's eyes hoping the heretic would have a clearer picture but she's as puzzled as he is.
~
"Are you sure it's not a witch or some new variety vampire?" Damon barks into the phone. He can hear Ric sigh on the other end. They'd been talking about moving her to another safe house after Colorado, among other things...
"Look Damon, no one was invited and this house has been witch proofed..." Ric explains again.
Damon breath is deep snd heavy. Stefan who's driving now looks over at him with worry etched over his eyes. There was a warning for post storm winds blaring on the dashboard.
"Are you sure it was not a ghost possession or something?" Damon asks again, if it was a ghost he was gonna find a way to slowly kill a ghost.
"Look Damon, there was nothing weird in the cameras and Bonnie says it wasn't a ghost" Ric answers with certainty.
"Oh so Bonnie's a psychic now?" Damon snarks in frustration.
"Damon" Ric's voice is soft, he might not have earned Ric's forgiveness, but they were still friends, "it was her, it was Elena."
It was....
His Elena.
He nearly had her back. Just for the grand scheme to snatch her away from him again. He didn't even get to hear her voice.
"Then why" he whimpers, "why did she go back?"
~
Bonnie's tears roll down her cheeks and land on Elena's knuckles, Elena doesn't move to wipe her tears, she doesn't get up to hug her, doesn't whisper soothing nothings to her, she doesn't wake up.
Caroline wraps an arm around Bonnie and cards through Elena's hair with her other hand. She sighs. She was so happy when Ric called her. She had been so alone this past year. Her fights with Stefan, her fussing over Bonnie, her usual disgust of Damon and so much more. She wishes she could tell it all to her.
That they could be just three friends cuddling on a bed and gossiping like nothing else mattered, once again, just one more time.
It had always been the three of them and now it will never be again.
Bonnie lays her head on her shoulders, "how could this happen?" She sobs. Caroline's own tears burst out.
"We almost had her Care" Bonnie continues through sobs, "why would the spell do this?"
"Something did this to spell" they both turn around to see Jeremy standing at the door, hands in his hoodie, looking exactly like Elena's scrawny little brother from all those years and looking completely different at the same time.
He walks up to them, "something broke the spell for those 10 minutes" he continues, "But that would mean..." Caroline trails off, not wanting to complete it.
She looks towards Bonnie, "I feel fine" Bonnie stresses, "nothing happened. I wasn't even sick."
"Did you try a new spell or a voodoo thing?" Jeremy asks.
Bonnie shakes her head, "No, I've been asking around, looking through books... but" she looks at Elena, "Kai told me there were no loopholes.... any magic would backfire and kill her."
"So it wasn't you..." Caroline trails, "but someone must have done something at the exact same time to break the spell."
"And undid it..." Jeremy mused aloud. The other two looked at him.
"Yeah" Caroline's eyebrows knit together in concentration, "it must have been a coincidence. Elena was here all alone and she was unharmed."
Bonnie perked up, "'maybe it was a celestial event. A special one... it could be our loophole."
"I'll look up if there were any celestial events" Jeremy bounded out of the room. Their eyes trailing him.
"Care" Bonnie turned to look at her, "wasn't Valerie a Gemini witch?"
~
"A celestial event undid a gemini spell" Valerie repeats incredulous, "and then re-did" Enzo adds only to be ignored.
"This Kai kid is the lousiest Gemini witch I have ever seen" she harrumphs.
"What celestial event has that kind of power anyway?" Enzo asks wondering aloud, "did the sun let out a bloody solar flare while we were in that bar?"
Valerie rolls her eyes, "Hilarious" she drawls, "If anything happened, it was the storm."
"And would a spell channel a storm?" Enzo asks looking at her.
"A spell no" she answers, "a witch yes."
Enzo nods to himself, he thought as much.
"But storms are as common as vampires" Valerie continues, "if you were smart enough, you could channel one" she trails off, "every week or something."
"Yeah if Elena Gilbert's sleep were to be broken by a storm" Enzo theorises with a lazy curiosity, "then she would have woken up a long time ago."
"Although..." Valerie clicks her tongue, "why did she go back to sleep?"
"Maybe the spell weakens when there is a storm" Enzo shrugs.
"Kai was a gemini witch" her voice is haughty as she counters, "he was the coven leader. It would be a bloody joke."
Enzo shakes his head, curse him for hoping luck would finally turn for one Damon Salvatore.
~
"Just a storm" Caroline's voice rings with disbelief. Jeremy's been at this for 3 whole hours. Yet there was no cosmic event, no mystery meteor shower. Just their sucky life.
"So what she woke up when there was a storm and went back to sleep after the storm was gone?" Jeremy asks, his voice is loud and he sounds like he is going to cry. Poor kid!
"That makes no sense" Bonnie interjects as a form of comfort and direction, "spells don't work like that. A storm cannot undo and redo the curse" she emphasises with her hands, "unless it kills me and revives me."
Yeah no one laughs...
Ric clicks his tongue, he's been mostly silent through out, Caroline feels sorry for her former teacher, he looked better when he was actually dead, "a witch could have done, a coven maybe, probably was an accident."
"Yeah but why undo it" Bonnie asks again, more distraught, "and how do you undo the accident undoing of a random spell. All in 10 minutes."
"Bonnie" Jeremy holds her gently, "Relax, we now know there's another way, we now know Elena's life isn't just tied to you."
Caroline smiles, genuine and small, then she licks her lips, "Maybe Valerie could tell us something."
~
"Bonnie needs to talk to you" Enzo announces out of habit and for no reason of necessity. This has been a strange day.
Valeri unceremoniously takes the device and begins talking. He looks ahead listening to the conversation.
"You are a gemini too right" Bonnie's voice is desperate and haggard, "was there some niche celestial event or some secret rival coven or anything that could undo a spell like this."
"Covens are always competing" Valerie answers, there's some sincerity behind her monotone droll, "but a coven would have to risk a lot to undo a spell like this. I doubt they would for a stranger. What could they even achieve?" She trails off, "The gemini coven is gone... if there are any left then it was a rogue or a heretic."
Sounds awfully hard to track down, like a thimble in industry waste.
"And no niche celestial stuff?" Bonnie's voice is pitifully hopeful.
Valerie shakes her head, her voice is soft, "there was just the storm, if there was some celestial event I could've at least used it to save Stefan." Then her eyes go wide and she stops, Enzo just looks at her as she continues with no sign of whatever hiccup that was, "if I could, that is..."
They talk for another minute, before she cuts the call. All the while Valerie's posture is stiff and tense.
He turns to her once the call ends, with a faux smile, "so did you let a terrible secret slip or something?"
"You need to call Damon immediately" she says, entirely serious and even more urgent.
He looks at her quizzically, Damon is sure to be cross with a small talk call.
"Enzo" she repeats, "they cannot go to Colorado."
~
"You heard her" Bonnie turns to share Caroline's disappointment. Caroline had just gotten off phone with Stefan, they were way out, they wouldn't be here for hours and that' was her reaching for some optimism.
Jeremy is on call with Tyler, "they'll be here in around an hour" he tells the group and goes back to talking.
Bonnie trudges to Caroline, "there was just a storm" she's angry, "No celestial event, nothing happ-"
Caroline, Ric and Jeremy simultaneously turn to look at her as she cuts herself off and look down
"Bonnie?"
~
"This better be important Enzo" Damon snaps, they had to stop for Gas of all the things and charge their mobiles, grab a bite.. the whole works.
"Where are you?" Enzo asked slowly.
"Nowhere near Colorado" the annoyance in his voice is palpable as he throws a glance at Stefan standing near the registry.
"Do not go to Colorado" there is an urgency in Enzo's voice that he hasn't heard in a long time, "Do not!! Go to a safe house! Cloak yourself and your brother! Especially your brother!!"
"Enzo what are you even-
~
-saying Bonnie?" Jeremy is agitated as he asks the question everyone is thinking.
"No" she said slowly as if he was handling something dangerous and fragile, "it makes sense Jere."
~
"Think about it Damon" Enzo emphasises.
"Elena woke up from her coma yesterday night, out of nowhere, none of us did anything, yet the spell broke" Damon swallows at the recounting but doesn't stop Enzo, "then she slipped right back into it."
"Get to the point Enzo" Damon's voice is weighted.
~
"Nothing happened care..." Bonnie is near hysterical, "nothing, no celestial event, no coven, no voodoo... nothing."
"Except..." it is Ric who adds to the chain.
~
Valerie leans into the phone, tone serious and hard, "when I transferred and bind Stefan's soul to his body, Marty was already dead."
"What?" Enzo can't help but feel sorry for Damon, he licks his lips as he continues, "what does that have to do with anything? What is that even supposed to mean?"
"It means" Valerie continues, "there was a small window where Stefan was actually dead."
~
"Stefan died and came back" Bonnie reveals, "he was dead for a couple minutes."
"What?" Caroline asks refusing to believe what her best friend is insinuating.
"Yes care..." Bonnie's voice is lower now, but she sounds even more sure of it.
~
"Stefan died and Elena came back to life" Enzo repeats and Damon still doesn't find the words for a response.
His legs shake a little and his grip tightens on his phone, he can hear it cracking.
~
"She woke up because he died" Jeremy's hand is pressed into his forehead.
"Kai didn't tie Elena's life to you, he tied it to Stefan's" Caroline has no joy in her voice, it's thick coated with tears and absolute devastation.
~
"What?"
Damon whirs around to find Stefan standing there with the supplies. His eyes are wide and glossy, he knows he heard.
Damon opens his mouth into slit and immediately closes it.
"Damon... what is Enzo saying?"
Stefan takes a step closer, no doubt to take the phone and talk to Enzo himself.
Damon gulps.
Then he snaps his brother's neck.