Well folks, sorry it took me so long to get this one out. Last friday I was feeling really off, having a lot of trouble breathing. It basically felt like someone was punching me in the right side every time I tried to take more than a shallow breath. So the nursing home/rehab facility I'm at right now called in the traveling x-ray folks and I had a chest x-ray done. Got the results a few hours later. Guess who has pneumonia! That's right, this girl! *sigh* like I don't have enough health issues going on. Well, I'm finally starting to feel better, so here's your latest chapter of Will You Remember Me?

~J

Elena, Jeremy and I arrived at the school as darkness fell. It was clear that Caroline had done a stunning job on the Halloween theme, the school looked spooky as hell. I laughed when Jeremy, dressed normally, but with the hood of his hooded sweatshirt pulled over his face, jumped and scared some kids. Elena smacked him lightly, but she was laughing as well.

As we walked, Matt showed up, dressed in a bloody doctor's scrubs, matching Elena's bloody nursing uniform, both from the year before.

"You went with last year's costume too, huh?" he asked, smiling at her.

Elena shrugged and nodded, "Yeah. I didn't know that I was coming till an hour ago."

Matt nodded in understanding. "Me neither." He turned to me and his eyes went wide, "Wow, Clara, look at you!" he said, and I couldn't help but blush and smile back at him. "Thanks, Teddy." I said, as I brushed a hand down my long white skirt. Pre-Coma me must have loved Halloween as much as I do, because this costume was stuck in the closet with a big "Halloween!" sticker on it.

Pre-Coma me had decided, apparently, to go as Athena, and I have to admit that Post-Coma me loved it as much as Pre-Coma me must have. The outfit consisted of a gold-colored collar around my neck done in the shape of an owl with outspread wings. The wings and body of the bird stretched from my throat all the way over my breasts, the ends of the wings clipping behind my neck. Under the collar, ivory-colored satin created a long, shift-like dress, attached at the shoulders with gold clasps, another long panel of the satin creating a cape that flowed from my shoulders to the ground. Just under my bust, and again at my hips, small golden chains were wrapped to give the dress dimension. The dress had slashes on both sides from mid-thigh to ankle, making movement easier. Gold-colored, knee-high gladiator sandals, a spear tipped in gold (that I was using to help me walk instead of carting around it AND the doomstick!), and a rolled-up scroll with golden ends and wrapped with a gold-tasseled cord finished the outfit.

I'd curled my hair into long ringlets, and I'd pulled them on top of my hair in a very loose bun, and through a headband/crown of golden olive branches woven together. Though the bun held the hair tightly on top of my head, some of my curls spilled down my back, others laid along the side of my face. My makeup was very light colored. Golden yellow shadow, thin black eyeliner, and mascara to make my eyes seem more open and wide. A peachy-pink blush on the apples of my cheeks. No lipstick, just a clear gloss. My ears help tiny teardrop shaped diamonds that dangled from little gold chains attached to small citrine studs. Three small gold stackable rings, the center one with a tiny owl on it, were on the middle finger of my left hand. On my right hand, I had a gold ring with a tiny citrine cabochon on my ring finger, and a small gold ring with an engraved floral pattern on my thumb.

I smiled as Matt shook his head again to clear it at the amount of effort that would have gone into a costume like that. Then he turned to Jeremy and his complete lack of effort. "And you're going as...you?" he asked Jeremy. Jeremy refused to answer, turning his back on the two of them and scowling. I stuck my tongue out at him and he reached over and tugged gently at one of my curls. "You do look pretty spectacular, Clara," he whispered to me, and I smiled back at him.

"He's not talking to me right now. We got into fight," Elena told Matt.

"Yeah, I got into it with Vic too, when she got home. I'm trying not to smother her tonight, but part of me didn't wanna let her out of my sight," Matt said, sounding upset.

"She's here?" Elena's voice raised in fear.

"Yeah, you can't miss her. She's a vampire."

I admit it, I couldn't resist a smirk at her sass. A vampire dressing as a stereotypical vampire. I loved it. I know Damon would have gotten a kick out of it. Suddenly Elena's stressed out voice caught my attention again.

"Where did Jeremy go?"

"Elena what's the matter?" Matt asked.

"I..I've gotta find him. We've gotta find him. Come on, Clara!" she called to me. I nodded and hurried after her as quick as I could while using the help of the spear-now-secondary-doomstick.

As I wandered the halls, I thought heard something rather loud as I walked toward the doors leading to the bus parking area. I opened the door just as Jeremy and Vicky were making out, but then I heard Jeremy start to panic.

"Okay. Yeah. Ow. You're taking that costume a little too far. What? What is it? Vicky! Vicky, what the hell?! Oh, my god. No! stop! Vicky! No! Ah!"

"Jeremy!" I cried out, running towards him, Elena right behind me, screaming at Vicky. "Vicky, no!"

As we reached the two of them, Elena had stopped to pick up a plank and hit Vicky with it, and I grabbed Jeremy away from her. Then Vicky grabbed the collar of Elena's dress and threw her into a pile of garbage. I winced and cried out Elena's name, as I heard a snap of wood. Suddenly Stefan was there, holding Vicky against the bus.

"Vicky!" Jeremy yelled, just as Vicki managed to push Stefan away and disappeared.

"Go. get inside. Go!" Stefan commanded us, and Elena and I grabbed Jeremy and ran towards the semi-safety of the school building and a populated area.

As we reached the building, Elena tried to open the door, but Vicky appeared as quickly as I could blink, and tossed us all back, grabbing Elena and sinking her fangs into her shoulder. Elena screamed, and before I knew what I was doing, I was shoving a piece of my broken spear through Vicky's body. At the same time, Stefan stabbed her through her back.

Suddenly my ears went deaf, my eyes went blank as shock zipped through my body. The next thing I heard was Jeremy screaming for Vicky, and Stefan was holding Jeremy back from Vicky's grey, dessicated body.

Elena, holding her bleeding side, looked to Stefan, "Get him out of here!" she cried.

As Stefan walked away, helping Jeremy to the car, he took out his phone and made a call. I assumed he was speaking to Damon. As they walked away, Elena and I held hands and sunk down to the concrete of the parking lot. Elena looked over at me and we both started crying. We almost lost our little brother tonight! Then she sniffled. "You saved us, Clara," she said, which only made me cry harder. They were my family, I'd do anything to save them, but my heart, and my mind, were both a little broken by this, having to kill another being.

Suddenly Damon was there. "You should go. I got this," he said.

Elena stood and glared at Damon. "You did this. This is your fault!"

"You confuse me for someone with remorse," Damon said, letting his eyes go dead. Elena reached out, pushing him and then trying to slap him, but he grabbed her hand and stopped her. "None of this matters to me. None of it."

"People die around you. How could it not matter? It matters, and you know it," she said, and managed to hit him, this time.

Damon's entire face darkened. "You need to leave. Your wounds are bleeding and you need to leave," he said, his tone very angry.

Elena glared at him the entire time she walked away. She looked back at me, wondering why I wasn't following. "I'm going to help Damon clean up. I'll meet you back at the house," I said quietly, surprising both of them. She nodded, understanding my need to do something for the girl that I'd killed, even if she had been trying to kill us.

As Elena walked away, Damon turned to me. "You didn't have to do that, Little Gilbert. I can take care of this," he said.

I nodded, tears still dripping from my eyes. "I know," I sniffled. "But I killed her, Damon. I struck, before Stefan managed to. She was going to kill us, and I killed her. And it still feels so wrong," I said. "But I'll help you with the body, it's the least I can do for her." I said, wiping my tears away, leaving smudges on my cheeks.

Damon looked at me, that faraway look in his eyes, as if I were a great, strange puzzle. "You are so much stronger than anyone gives you credit for, Clara. Go sit in the car, It'll be easier for me to carry her myself." He said, and I nodded. I walked over to the Camaro and sat in the passenger side, buckling myself in. Within moments, the trunk slammed shut, making me shudder. Then Damon was in the driver's seat, flipping the ignition on, and turning on the heater, as a chill had begun.

"Damon?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah," he asked, turning to me, his eyes flicking to the road every few seconds.

"Jeremy hates me now," I said, and started crying again. I felt the car pull over, and heard Damon's seatbelt unbuckle.

"What are you talking about, Clara? That boy loves you. You're his favorite sister!"

"But I killed Vicky! He loves her. He's never going to forgive me!" I said, as I burst into tears. The next thing I knew, I was wrapped in warm, strong arms, enveloped in Damon's scent, my head on his shoulder. He rocked me gently, and shushed me quietly as I cried, his hand reaching up to loosen my bun, my curls falling down around my shoulders. He ran his hand through my hair, soothing me as I cried. After a while, the tears abated and I sniffled only once in a while. "You're pretty good at this comforting thing," I giggled.

I could feel his lips lifting into a smile. "Well how else am I supposed to get all the pretty girls? Nicholas Sparks was a godsend," he said with a little laugh. I chuckled and punched him gently in the arm.

"Thank you, Damon," I whispered. He hugged me a little tighter before letting me go.

"Anytime, Little Gilbert. But this never goes beyond us." he said, with a fake glare.

"Aye-aye, Captain!" I said, with a little salute. He grinned and started the car as I climbed back into my own seat.

As we pulled up to the house, we could hear what Elena and Stefan were saying.

"Stefan, please. I don't know how he'll ever get past this. I just want him to forget everything that happened," Elena was saying.

"If I did it, there's no guarantee that it would work...Because of who I am. Because of how I live. I don't have the ability to do it right," Stefan told her, a hint of sadness in his words.

"I can do it. If this is what you want...I'll do it," Damon said, as we walked up the stairs.

"It's what I want," Elena said.

"Wait a minute!" I said. "Elena, this is Jeremy. Taking away his memories, this...this isn't right. Besides after all we've learned about vampires, don't you think that it's better that he, that Jenna, even, knows? So that we can take precautions? So that we can be safe?"

"No," Elena said. "Jeremy is in there, nearly comatose, because of what happened with Vicky. He wasn't this bad even after Mom and Dad!" she said, choking back tears. "You don't remember how bad it was, because you weren't here!" she said.

I jerked in shock that she would use the fact that I had been in a coma against me like this. My mouth opened and shut a few times before I stopped and sat down on the porch swing, looking up at Damon and Stefan.

"What do you want him to know?" Damon asked Elena. I buried my face in my hands, struggling to hold back tears. I still felt that this was so, so wrong!

"I want you to tell him that Vicki left town and she's not coming back. That he shouldn't look for her or worry about her. He's gonna miss her, but he knows it's for the best," Elena said. Then she and Stefan sat down on the swing beside me. "Part of me wishes that I could forget, too...Forget meeting you, finding out what you are and everything that's happened since."

Stefan looks incredibly sad. "Is that what you want?"

" Yes, it is," Elena said, surprising me. But then she continued, "Because I don't want it to be like this. I don't wanna feel like this. But I can't. With everything that's happened...I can't lose the way I feel about you."

"It's done," Damon said, returning to the porch. Elena nodded and stood, walking hurriedly back into the house, to Jeremy. I sat on the swing beside Stefan, and reached out, grabbing Damon's hand and pulling him down on the other side of me.

"What about you, Little Gilbert? Do you wish you could forget too?" Damon asked.

"Are you kidding? Meeting you two has been one of the best things ever in my life! I couldn't ask for better friends. You accept my weird, quirky nature, the me that likes to hide as a wallflower, and the me that turns up the radio and sings loudly and off-key as she cooks. And I couldn't thank you both enough for it. You let me, who can't remember almost anything of her pre-coma life, just be me. You let me learn, or relearn sometimes, as I go. You don't push me by saying, "But you did it this way before!" or "But you've always liked this!" or "You would have done this before you had that stupid accident/Coma." You're letting me discover me all by myself. So no, I don't want to forget. I don't want to forget my fine, gentlemanly, insanely funny Steffie. Or my bad-ass, rebel without a cause, hilarious Damon." I said, leaning into each of their sides as I described them. They both leaned over and kissed me on top of the head. "I wouldn't miss this for the world,"I said softly, as I yawned.

I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up later in my bed, Jeremy snuggled into my side, his eyes still puffy with tears. I'm assuming it was Damon who removed the heavy metal collar around my neck, the gold chains from around my dress, and my sandals from my feet, leaving me in just the ivory satin dress. He pulled the olive-branch crown from my head and my curls were laid back on the pillow. I looked out the window, to see the moon high in the sky. I sighed and curled under the blankets, wrapping an arm around Jeremy, and letting sleep take me again.