Author's Note: I just finished watching The Murder of One and I really wish Elena had been the one to rescue Damon, so I went ahead and re-wrote it that way :-) My story is within the show canon, this scene takes place after Stefan, Elena and Matt manage to stake Finn and before Sage attacks the Salvatore boarding house and the gang figures out the whole line dies if an Original dies.

Warning: I'm trying something different here, this is just a gap-filler replacing the section between the gang staking Finn and when Stefan and Elena have their heart to heart at the end of the epsiode, I'm not really changing the direction of the show, just giving Damon and Elena some more alone time. I will not be resolving anything, and it will be ending abruptly and perhaps unsatisfactorily for Delena fans. It's basically still leading into the show's upcoming roadtrip ep S3E19.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think of my little experiment :-)

Part 1 of 2

As he came back to himself slowly, Damon opened his eyes warily, surveying his surroundings. Hours must have passed since Rebekah had brought him here, the sun no longer shown through the windows, leaving the room blanketed in darkness.

Damon wasn't certain how much time had elapsed since his capture or even if he was actually conscious at this moment, he had been hallucinating on and off all afternoon. In between the searing pain shooting downward from his wrists and radiating throughout his entire body and the fog clouding his brain, Damon became dimly aware of a voice speaking somewhere nearby.

Under normal circumstances it would have been a simple task to use his highly-developed hearing to eavesdrop, but right this minute his muddled brain was not cooperating. He wondered fuzzily if Rebekah had drugged him with something special in addition to merely bleeding the vervain from his system during their extended torture-session. Trying to fight through the pain, Damon willed himself to focus, attempting to pick out the words that Rebekah was saying.

"That's not possible!" she shrieked from several rooms away, the words reaching Damon's ears only due to the raised volume of her apparent hysteria.

Damon could hear Rebekah pacing angrily as she spoke, the vibrations of her heels on the marble floor assaulting his over-sensitized nerves and causing him to wince with every step she took. It was hard to make out anymore of the conversation over the excruciating pain.

"I'll be right there" she yelled angrily as she ended the call.

Suddenly, Rebekah was speeding in his direction. As she appeared in front of him, gone was the casual look of the woman who had been enjoying the infliction of slow and calculated pain all day. Instead, her eyes now held a burning fury and Damon swallowed hard at the look of utter mayhem swirling like a tsunami in the green globes.

Rebekah gave him an appraising stare before glancing to the sideboard where various sharp implements lay carefully arranged for her use. Ignoring the knife she had favored all day, she grabbed a wooden stake, approaching him quickly.

"If this is true, Elena will die SO slowly . . . ." Rebekah promised, shoving the stake into his belly with such force that the other end stuck out his back ". . . . that THIS will look like a day at the beach" she sneered, leaving the stake where she'd plunged it and speeding out of the house furiously.

Damon could hear the car engine start and the tires peel across the pavement as she pulled out of the driveway. He waited until she was gone before letting out an agonized yell. The wood was burning him alive from the inside but he refused to give Rebekah the satisfaction of seeing him sweat.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed as he hung there helplessly, it could have been only a minute as he could barely remain conscious as the wood weakened him from within. Just as the increasing darkness threatened to take him, Damon felt himself jerk awake - he had heard something. He listened carefully, willing himself to concentrate . . . footsteps, but not the sharp painful click of Rebekah's heels, these were the soft footfalls of sneakers. Damon recognized that sound, he knew who they belonged to even before he saw her appear, he knew everything about her. Forcing his eyes open, he lifted his head weakly. The light from the hallway illuminated her silhouette as she crept quietly (or tried to) into the room.

Elena couldn't stop herself from gasping audibly, her breath catching in her throat as she saw Damon hanging from the ceiling. On the drive over, she had tried to steel herself against what she might find, tried to prepare herself, knowing Rebekah would not have been kind. Now, as she entered the darkened room, Elena found herself wholly unprepared for the sight before her.

The room was filled with the metallic smell of blood - Damon's blood, it assaulted her nose as she entered. His body was still covered in it, dried rivers of blood streaking down the expanse of his chest. Even though the wounds themselves, having been inflicted over many hours had healed quickly, the evidence remained, staining his skin a dark crimson. Damon was hanging from chains attached to the ceiling, trapped by two metal traps - each piercing the flesh of his wrists, leaving him suspended in place. As she moved closer, Elena saw a wooden stake protruding from his stomach.

"Oh my god" she whispered, tears filling her eyes.

Elena rushed across the room toward Damon, forgetting to be silent momentarily as fear overtook her. She needed to get the stake out. It was nowhere near his heart, but it was weakening his ability to heal. Wrapping one arm around his waist for leverage, Elena struggled to pull the stake from his stomach while keeping him from swinging away from her. Damon looked down at her with glassy unfocused eyes as she struggled. Elena couldn't tell for sure if he was even aware that she was there. She struggled for several minutes, but the force Rebekah had used to drive the stake in combined with the fact that Damon's body was swaying precariously prevented Elena from getting the leverage she needed.

"Elena" he gasped weakly, groaning in pain as she struggled to remove the wood from his belly.

Damon had been feeling cold, really really cold and then he had felt her arm curl around his midsection. Elena's head rested beside his shoulder, her hair falling in silky waves across his skin, tickling it as she pressed herself against him. He was vaguely aware that she was struggling, trying to keep from jostling him, but the tantalizing smell of her strawberry shampoo distracted him from crystalizing his thoughts any further than the pleasant tingling spreading warmth through his skin.

"Hey there" she murmured in reply, still concentrating single-mindedly on the task at hand.

This was not working, not matter how hard she pulled, she wasn't strong enough to dislodge the stake. Finally, Elena decided she would have to get Damon down first and then use gravity to help her with the wood.

"Rebekah . . . " Damon trailed off, his head lolling lifelessly to the side as Elena released her hold on his waist.

"She's not here right now" Elena tried to murmur soothingly, grunting from the effort she had expended on the stake as she turned her attention to his wrists "She went out for a bit"

Damon merely nodded, too weak to protest as the entire room seemed to spin around him.

"Boy, you really did it this time" Elena observed, standing on her tiptoes as she reached for the release of the trap that held his left wrist "Women do not appreciate being treated like disposable playthings, Damon" she chided as she pried the lever loose.

Damon winced in pain, sucking in a huge breath of air he didn't technically need as Elena released the trap, freeing his one arm but leaving all his weight now hanging on the other temporarily. He could feel the cold metal teeth shredding his muscles and tendons as he hung suspended.

"Are you lecturing me?" he asked in surprise, his own voice like sandpaper against his throat. He was a little more awake now, enough to be slightly indignant if he let himself.

Elena was currently trying really hard not to pass out, trying to distract herself from the horror of seeing Damon like this, so helpless and vulnerable. She was trying to remember how mad she was at him right now, trying to give herself the strength to pry him loose by talking about anything but what was actually happening right now.

"Your lothario ways were bound to catch-up with you eventually" she observed, trying for indifference but silently cursing her own weakness as several tears streaked down her cheek.

Damon could hear the crack in her voice as she spoke, Elena was scared. She was pretending to be brave, but she was terrified right now. How had he been so distracted that he hadn't noticed the pounding of her heartbeat before this, so loud it was threatening to explode from her chest?

Elena tried her best to support Damon's weight, bracing one arm under him as she reached upward with the other, releasing the catch on the second trap and allowing it to spring open, dropping Damon to the floor. Elena did her best to break his fall, crumpling under his weight, landing them both on the ground. Damon writhed in agony, coughing up blood as he fell, spitting the crimson liquid onto the marble beneath them.

As he looked up at her, Damon could see the tears glistening in Elena's eyes. It seemed, he was forever making her cry.

Elena grabbed the wooden stake again, this time with both hands, successful in pulling it from Damon's body. "We need to go" she whispered, kneeling behind him and pushing him to a sitting position "Can you stand?" she asked nervously, this was taking entirely too long.

Struggling, Elena was able to help Damon to his feet and leaning heavily on her shoulder, they rushed down the hallway toward the patio door that Elena had used to sneak in to the house undetected. As they stumbled into one of the many drawing rooms, Damon's strength gave out sending both he and Elena crashing to the floor once again.

Elena leaned over him with concern in her eyes, placing her hand gently on his cheek, her face so close to his. It was an intimate gesture, too intimate and suddenly Damon realized what was happening - - Rebekah was teasing him again. This was all a dream, Elena wasn't really here at all. In reality, Stefan would never have let her come alone and risk herself to save his life. And why would Rebekah have left him alone at the house in the middle of her fun? He was an idiot, she'd fooled him again.

"It's another trick" he mumbled incoherently, his heart falling as he lay his head back against the floor in defeat.

"Damon, we need to keep going" Elena encouraged, slapping his face gently as she struggled to pull him back to a sitting position.

"Rebekah is messing with my mind" he said, mostly to himself as he swayed back and forth on his knees as Elena attempted to pull him to his feet "You're not really here"

Elena hadn't seen Damon making this little sense since the werewolf bite, he was fighting her now as she tried to help him stand and it was really scaring her. She didn't know where Klaus had gone and she was certain Rebekah would be back to kill Damon once she confirmed that Finn was dead, they didn't have a lot of time.

In his delerious mind, Damon wondered how far Rebekah would let him take this little fantasy before pulling the rug out from underneath him. Deciding to test Rebekah's limits, he pulled Elena down to her knees in front of him. His wrists had healed themselves partially now, but the pain still remained. Ignoring their protest, he threaded his aching hands through Elena's long tresses, pulling her face to his and kissing her passionately. As long as Rebekah was screwing with him, at least he could enjoy it while it lasted.

Elena's mind reeled as Damon kissed her, it was the last thing she'd expected in this moment. She didn't know what he was doing - he was feverish and weak and it seemed as though he thought she were a dream right now. Something about the way Damon was kissing her was so raw and needy, he wasn't being careful as he had on her front porch, this was passionate and dangerous and part of Elena could feel herself getting swept away by the currents of electricity that were passing between them. Elena didn't know what to do to snap him out of this daze, he was pulling her close, trying to climb inside her skin with her.

"Damon we have to get out of here" she pleaded, trying to pull away but he wouldn't let her go.

"Don't leave me" he begged his voice small, like a child, and it was almost her undoing. When he let himself actually feel, Damon could be so heart-breakingly irresistible.

Elena needed to get Damon's attention, needed to bring him back to reality, but even in his weakened state, he was far stronger than her physically, every time she tried to pull away he fought her, brought her close again. Finally, out of desperation, Elena did the only thing she could think to do . . . she bit him, hard on his lower lip, hard enough to draw blood.

Damon pulled back in surprise if not pain, clarity in his eyes for the first time since she'd arrived. Elena felt guilty instantly for hurting him more than he'd already been hurt, but she had needed to snap him back into reality.

"Damon, this is not a dream" Elena insisted, looking deep into his eyes. She could see suspicion reflected there.

"We killed Finn - - Stefan, Matt and I" Elena explained, "I got to use the crossbow" she bragged, a little proud of herself.

Damon blinked several times in rapid succession, trying to focus on what Elena was saying, his eyes drawn to her lips, watching their movement as she spoke.

". . . but Klaus threatened Jeremy, so Bonnie had already reversed the spell that was linking the originals, so only Finn died" she continued "the others are expecting Sage to come looking for revenge pretty shortly, so we don't have much time to get you out of here" she concluded.

It was bad luck and terrible timing and that was exactly what convinced Damon that Elena wasn't actually a figment of his imagination - - their luck really was this bad, they could never catch a break when it came to killing Klaus.

"Damon, I need for you to help me" she ordered, her voice taking on an edge of desperation as she tried to help him rise once more "I can't carry you by myself"

Damon felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Knowing that Elena was real was almost worse than believing she was a dream - it meant she had been foolish enough to sneak into Klaus' house to rescue him. Terror consumed him as he imagined what Rebekah would do to her if she found them here.

"Elena, I'm too weak, just get out of here" he protested feebly.

"Damon, I am not leaving you" she insisted, her voice steely "If you don't help me, Rebekah is going to come back here and kill us both"

Something sparked inside of Damon at her words, she was so damn stubborn that it was infuriating at times. There were other times when he found it utterly charming, but he would never admit that to her. In this situation, he knew she spoke the truth; Elena wouldn't leave him and Rebekah would kill her, and slowly in her grief over Finn.

Damon gathered his strength and stood shakily. Using Elena for balance, he leaned heavily upon her shoulder as she led him across the conservatory, out the french doors and across the garden, through the hedgerow to where her car was parked. Damon groaned audibly as she dumped him in the passenger seat, trying to be as gentle as possible but failing miserably in the attempt.

As Elena slipped the key into the ignition she could see the LED display on her phone flashing angrily at her - - 10 missed calls! As she navigated away from the curb, the phone began to buzz again with another incoming call - Stefan.

tbc

Please let me know what you thought of part 1. Part 2 will hopefully be finished this weekend.