AN: What if Elena hadn't been kidding when she said there was still a splinter in her chest? My take on what could have happened (but thank God didn't). It's rated M for the language and guys, this is all pain. You've been warned. ~Kate

"And I'll wait for you on the other side."

Jo's been hacking ever since we left the cafeteria, and while I'm trying my damnedest to ignore it, there's a small, annoying little voice telling me her cloaking spell is taking a lot more out of her than she's letting on.

"You okay?" Elena asks, turning around to look at her and as much as I love her I want to scream at her that we don't have the time. We have to keep moving. She doesn't look convinced, and neither am I, and judging by the way Ric's lady friend keeps swaying, Jo looks like she's gonna drop any second now.

"Yeah," she forces out. "Three people's just a lot more Cloak than two."

And I called it. She drops.

"Whoa!" Since I'm right there she doesn't hit the ground but…

Fuck.

This is not good.

"Why's your nose bleeding?" I ask, but I already know the answer. She's not strong enough to keep the spell up. Shit.

"I have a guess."

Dammit to hell. That voice. I fucking loathe that peppy, ear-grating voice. I look over at him as his gaze sets on his sister. "Magic's hard. Isn't it, Jo?" he teases just as his sister collapses against me for the second time. Ric is gonna be all kinds-a pissed off but I'll deal with him once we get out of this mess. I'll get him to forgive me eventually.

Jo's head is pressed to the side of my face and the smell of blood wafts into my nose, but I can't even think about the hunger right now. "I'm so sorry," she whimpers.

"Don't sweat it," I say into her ear, quiet enough so that Kai doesn't hear. She's got enough on her plate and I don't want her worrying more than she needs to. "I want him to see me while I kick his ass. Now get outta here. Okay?" She pushes against me as if she's trying to get the momentum she needs to escape and I support her until she's able to do so.

And then Elena and I take our stances.

I roll my shoulders to shake out the nonexistent stiffness in them – because this won't be much of a fight and I actually feel a little sorry for the douche (he won't stand a chance). I can't help but smirk. This is gonna be fun.

I look over to Elena, prepared to ask her if she's ready to play but she's gone. It's like she's disappeared. Where the hell did she –

Oh, I am so gonna kick his cocky little ass.

"Where's Elena?" I snap, fully knowing he pulled his little witchy-woo on my girl and if he harms one hair on her head I will be totally copasetic with pulling his spleen out through his nose.

Overdramatically, the kid flares his hands out, looking on either side of him. "Oh," he gasps, "are we not cloaking people anymore?" He grins at me – idiot actually grins at me. "I thought that's what this was." Andddd enough talking.

I speed forward when he vanishes in front of me, a trick that's getting real old real fucking quick. There's a whistle sounding from behind me, and whirling around, I see him waving like the annoying son-of-a-bitch that he is.

There's a broom leaning against a locker nearby and I don't even hesitate to snatch it, snap it in half, and throw it like a spear. It finds its target with perfect precision, right in his chest cavity and Kai's hands fly to the makeshift weapon, his face draining of color as is mouth drops open in surprise. Serves him right. Gagging noises escape him and, fuck, does it feel good to make him suffer. Just as he lurches forward, another Kai stands to his right.

My brow jumps. That's new.

"That's gotta hurt," he says, crossing his arms and shaking his head in disappointment before looking back at me. "I am definitely getting the hang of this."

Confused. My brain's having trouble computing. What the hell is going on right now?

"Cloaking spells, illusions," he explains while waving his hand. "You know, it's all in the same wheelhouse."

Suddenly Kai number one transforms into Elena. Gripping at the stake I threw with gasping breaths. Staggering against a locker with her focus locked on mine.

No. Please, "No," I breathe. Right when Elena falls, my brain gets struck by the biggest migraine of the century. No. Not a migraine. The little fucker is giving me a brain aneurysm. I shout in pain, dropping to my knees and clutching at my head. But just as quickly as it hits me, it ceases.

I crawl over to Elena, who's got her eyes squeezed tight. She's barely moving an inch and I hope to God it's not because that stake is inching its way closer to the thing I cherish most. Reaching her, I cup her face. She's shaking her head and I don't even think, I just reach down and rip the stake out of her chest like a band-aid.

And then I dive in. My fingers dig deep and I hate that I'm hurting her, but I know that wood doesn't feel too good either. I feel the first few splinters and I don't know how they missed her heart. No fucking clue.

"You're okay," I tell her as I grab what I think is the last bit. "I got it."

As soon as I pull it out, she lets out a long moan, taking in heaps of air like she can't breathe it in fast enough and all I can think about is how I nearly lost her. She cries in pain, her face morphing back into one of pain.

"What? What's wrong? Did I not get it?" I ask, my voice jumping a fearful octave and she shakes her head, wincing in pain, sending my heart into my throat. "What?"

Wide eyes, she manages to say, "There m-must be another splinter s-still s-stuck in my h-heart."

"What?" I ask angrily. "No!" I got it all! I didn't feel anything else. I got it all but dammit she's still in pain so what other possibility is there?

I dig back in, determined to find the thing that could very well take her away from me. "No, no, no, no, no," I utter and that's when I hear the quickening of her breaths. She's hyperventilating again and if she keeps doing that her heart will pump more, harder, and if it expands with that splinter in there…

"Hey-hey, look at me." My voice is quick but thankfully, even. I'm panicked to hell but she doesn't need to know it. I nod, willing her to believe me as I tell her, "I'll get it."

Her face scrunches up in pain, baring her teeth while she tries to keep from moving around too much and chokes out, "If there's anything," I dig a little deeper, "anything you need to say…" she says through the pain and my heart plummets through the floor.

"What?" I croak. I'm gonna find it. "I'll find it, Elena."

"…Now's the time," she whispers, her fingers touching my thigh. Just when I think I find it, she gasps loudly and the splinter that was right at my fingertips moves farther away from me and further into her.

"Come on! No!" I snarl, feeling it just out of reach before the worst thing I can ever contemplate taking place actually happens.

Suddenly she stills and my eyes snap up to hers, watching them frantically search mine as grayness begins to wash over her skin. "Elena, no," I beg as shudders rack through her and the light in her brown eyes fade. I think I hear hurried footsteps approaching but I can't really tell because the only thing I'm aware of is the only thing that matters, the thing I've just spent several minutes trying to save. The thing that's no longer making a damn sound.

"Perfect timing," I say, somehow managing to keep an even voice even though my sarcasm falls flat on its face. Maybe I'm in shock. Maybe that's the reason I'm not going completely ape-shit right now. Or maybe –

"Elena?" Ric asks and there is zero mistaking the concern in his voice. The guy considers her as family, like she's his own. "Are you okay?"

"Nope," I answer for him, scooping her up into my arms and cradling her against my chest. The tears are there but there's not a chance in hell I'm letting them loose now. "I'm taking her home."

"Damon?" Jo asks, her voice – albeit stronger than it was when I last saw her – weak.

"What happened?" Ric demands, grabbing my shoulder when I try to move past him. Why I didn't just think to zip out of here I'll never know…or hell, I can just blame the numbness creeping inside me. Seems like reason enough to me.

I glance over at him, not able to meet his eyes and it's like I can feel the moment he realizes she is the farthest thing possible from okay.

"Let me take her home, Ric."

He doesn't respond, but the hand gripping me disappears.

That's when I finally get the hell out of there.

Later...

I know she's gone.

Doesn't stop her from looking like she's sleeping.

I changed her out of the bloody rags she was in and into a shirt I'd grabbed. It was one of the many she'd left at my place the night before the Mystic Grill went "kaboom."

Before we decided on our little kamikaze mission, Elena and I had discussed moving out of the boarding house and into a place we could call our own. The house never really felt like mine anyway,; I'd always felt like a guest and Elena had sort of always been a guest and we just wanted a place to call ours. We ran into a problem – obviously – with my being sent to a prison world and then another with my best friend wiping my girl's slate clean.

It was a stupidly slow process, but I'd eventually gained her trust back, and it seemed like we were finally moving in the right direction. That we were finally making progress.

My eyes burn and I clear my throat as if that'll fight the insistent tears away as something strikes a chord with me.

We.

I've gotta stop saying that.

There's no "we" anymore.

I run my fingers up and down her ashen forearm and flinch at the coldness. "Elena…"

She'll never wake up.

Doesn't stop me from talking to her like she will.

And I do until I'm interrupted by my fucking cell phone ringing. I glance down at the screen and see Ric's name flashing on the screen.

"What," I say hoarsely. I haven't cried a single tear yet, but my voice sounds like I've been doing nothing but that.

"We got him," he replies. "I should've told you at the school, but I found you and El…and we got him, Damon."

Just like that any ounce of grief I've been feeling shifts into one that feels so much better. One that I know exactly what to do with.

"Great," I smirk, forcing down the lump in my throat. "Be there in ten."

Damon's sitting there. He's been just sitting there, watching me and waiting for me to come back to him.

I'd do anything to be able to.

I thought the Other Side had been destroyed months ago. Or maybe it still is. Maybe I'm in a different kind of limbo, but it feels the same as the Other Side. I mean, I can see everything. Everyone.

They just can't see me.

It's actually kind of funny. The second that splinter had finally worked its way into the center of my heart and I literally felt death sweeping over me…it all came back.

Every memory that had been compelled away had all just come rushing back, in wave after wave after wave and I wanted to scream at Damon before my end came that I had remembered. That I remembered being us, loving him with more passion than I thought I ever possibly could.

I look at the clock and it reads 8:00 pm. He's been staring at my body for hours. Just staring.

He reaches out and touches my grayish arm and as soon as he touches it, I jump.

…I felt that.

Like he was actually touching me, I felt his touch. It's cruel how I can't touch him and have him feel it, but he can with me. Whatever world this is, contact is a one-way street.

"Damon," I whisper.

"Elena," he says and my hand flies up to my mouth to stifle a sob I know he won't hear. I won't be able to stop if I start.

His phone starts ringing and he grits out a curt greeting, listening in and I wish I could hear the voice too. Apparently with death comes renewed humanity because I can't hear a single word coming from the other line.

Just then, a cruel, pained smile creeps along Damon's face and chills run up my spine. I know that look. I wish I could stop him, but I've tried making contact and it hasn't done a damn thing for me…or for him. If I could just let him know that I'm here, with him, then he wouldn't have to feel the crushing guilt I know he was experiencing before he let in one sole emotion, hatred, take him over.

I'm afraid for him.

Kai is powerful. We've faced evil before, but his is unrivaled and with his matching abilities…I'm terrified that if Damon goes up against him, he won't make it out alive. He seems so eager though, and as he flies out of the room, I panic. He can't just leave to get himself killed. I focus on him, and in the blink of an eye, I'm with him again. He's already at Jo's apartment, storming inside of it.

"Where's your brother?" he growls, rushing up to Jo and staring her down. "Where the hell is he?"

She gulps, but Ric comes to the rescue as he takes a protective step in front of her – the way Damon always does…did with me. "She's not to blame for this, Damon."

"Of course not," he snaps. "However, Thing 2 is. Now…Where. Is. He.?"

"Over there," she says quietly while pointing to the couch on the far wall.

"We put him on ice."

Ric inhales heavily, swallowing thickly, before approaching Damon – who's just flashed over to my killer and intimidatingly hovers over him. A hand goes to his arm, doing something that Ric has learned with Damon, just as I had. Contact is a way to ground him.

"Don't touch me," he hisses, breathing hard and his jaw clenches tight. "I'm gonna make him pay for what he did to her."

"I hope you do," Ric says. "Both for Elena, and for Jo. If you kill him, she won't have to merge."

"Win-win," Damon smirks, though the spark that's normally in his oceanic eyes isn't there.

Before I can even register what happens, Damon is yanking Kai up by his stolen Timberwolves shirt collar and sinking his fangs into his neck, shooting him into consciousness and making him cry out in pain. There's a way of making a bite pleasurable, but I know Damon. Pleasure is the last thing on his mind. He's out for blood.

Kai clutches at Damon's arms in a feeble attempt to fight him off, or conduct some counteractive spell, he's letting out a guttural, horrible sounding gasp…and then his lifeless body is dropping to the ground. Damon's holding Kai's heart in his hand, his lip curled in disgust and the farthest thing from satisfaction on his face. He looks like he's going to be sick. He shakes it off though, and crushes the heart until it's nothing but a bloody mess in his hand.

"You saved me tonight," she says. "Thank you."

"Glad I managed to save someone." He shakes his head. "I'm gonna get outta here. Job's done."

"Damon…" Ric steps towards him and he backs away. No…I know it hurts him, but he needs Ric now more than ever. "You shouldn't be alone, buddy."

"Actually, alone is exactly what I should be."

And then he leaves in a flash.

Jo's hands go up to her mouth, tears falling from her eyes. "It's my fault she's gone," she cries as her boyfriend/my teacher/our friend wraps her up into his arms. "I should have been strong enough…I wasn't strong enough…"

I can't be here right now. They're comforting each other. I'm glad – of course I am – but Damon doesn't have anyone. Stefan was out of town last I heard and…yeah. I need to be with him. The second I focus, I'm instantly there.

In my college dorm room.

He's alone and I figure Caroline's probably with her mom. She doesn't have any idea about what happened to me tonight. Neither does Jeremy.

Oh, my God, Jeremy.

He's just lost the last family member he's got. Soul-crushing pain threatens to envelope me but then I remember Ric. He'll take care of him. I know he will.

Damon takes a seat on the edge of my bed at Whitmore, holding a picture frame. Heart leaping into my chest and a frog lodging itself in my throat, I walk toward where he is and take a seat next to him. His thumb is running back and forth over the glass, my face just underneath it. It's from the day I'd begged him to take a photo with me because he was in a white shirt – he hardly ever wears white – and I wanted proof that Damon doesn't always dress in such gloomy clothes (now though, I'm sure he'll never dress in anything but, ever again).

"I wonder if Heaven exists."

I blink and then look up at him. Those are not the words I'd been expecting him to say.

"Because if it does," he drawls out, "you'd be there. Damned soul or not, Elena, you had the best one in existence and I hope to God – if He exists – that you're there with him. You don't belong in the Prison World…" he makes a face and then changes his tune as he adds, "actually…Bonnie's there. So I take that back. If you're there then at least you aren't alone, right?" He smirks, and it's then a tear cascades down his cheek. The first of the many he'd been trying to keep inside.

I want so badly to wipe it away that I lift my hand to his face, temporarily forgetting that I can't.

"I'm here, Damon," I force away the tightness in my throat. "I'm right here."

He doesn't lift his eyes from the picture, not that I blame him. My entire world collapsed when I thought Damon had died. I'd resorted to drastic measures to feed my addiction that I'd abruptly been cut off from. There was no world for me without Damon. I know exactly what he's going through. I wanted to die. And then a thought strikes me like a lightning bolt.

He wouldn't…would he?

It's not like I could stop him if he did, but I hope he doesn't. The thought of him committing suicide due to heartbreak is something so devastating I can't even think about it for more than a millisecond, but it's still a thought, and a possibility, if Ric or Stefan or even Jo can't convince him otherwise.

"You made me promise you forever, you know."

I glance at him and as my eyes well with tears, I think back to that rainy night, thrilled that I'm no longer left with any gaps. We'd made love on the dock, not caring about anything other than being together after I'd all but demanded that promise of him. When the rain had finally started to let up and we'd put our clothes back on, something had fallen out of his pocket. He hadn't realized it, because while the rain hadn't been falling as hard, it was still falling steadily and he hadn't heard. Water's really the only thing that can dull a vampire's hearing.

Curious, I picked it up, realizing it was a velvet (or rather, a soaked velvet) box. And it was small. I gasped out loud and Damon had definitely heard that because he whipped around and his gaze fell on the thing in my hands. His hands flew to his ass – to his back pockets, more specifically – and he groaned.

"You weren't supposed to find that."

"Oops," I'd answered with a nervous smile, running my fingers over the box and glancing down at it. "So now that I have…"

"Now that you have," he smirked, flashing over to me and snatching it back. He didn't say anything else for a long time, and the rain had almost completely stopped by then.

"I made you a promise of forever," his voice had softened when he finally spoke again, "and now I want you to do the same." He opened the lid and inside was a perfect, stunning princess-cut diamond with little lapis lazuli stones surrounding it.

"It's gorgeous." He pulls it out of the box but then confusion must write itself on my face because he smiles at me. "It's a daylight ring too? Who'd you get to make it for you – Bonnie's…"

"Bonnie did it for me a long time ago…I told her it was just a backup…she didn't believe me and said it was way too soon. Bennett's a lot of things but an idiot is not one of them," he'd chuckled nervously. I had laughed with him and then he slowly dropped to his knee.

I almost forgot how to breathe.

"And it wasn't like it was a total lie, it was just…hitting two birds with one stone. I get to protect you, and make you mine."

"Damon…"

"Marry me, Elena."

"A lot of things were supposed to happen when I finally made it back to you," Damon says, bringing me out of my all-time favorite memory. He's speaking so quietly that I have to lean closer to hear him. "We were supposed to get our own place. Get married…still feels weird to say that in reference to me but that was supposed to be us, baby."

He becomes a blur in front of me, and I can hardly see through my tears. I had taken off the ring because we had decided to keep our engagement a secret. We weren't embarrassed by any means but we didn't want everyone else giving their opinions just yet. We knew they would come and we just hadn't wanted to deal with it yet.

"I know you think I'll just go on with my life, or that you'd want me to…" he shakes his head. "I can't. I can't imagine what you must have gone through because what I'm going through is fucking ridiculous and it sucks and it hurts like a mother-fucker and Jesus, Elena, how the hell did you do it?"

I bite my lip. He can't hear my answer but he damn well knows how I did it. I ruined us in the process of doing it.

When he finally stands, hours later, I look at the clock on my old nightstand. 11 in the morning. The sun has long since risen and my breathing falters, due to the panic creeping up on me when I see him take a deep breath and glance at his left hand.

He's going to do it.

He props the picture up on the same surface and slides his daylight ring off his finger, before setting it beside that rare moment I captured of him.

"I have to give credit where it's due, baby. I thought I could have been, but I'm just not…I'm not strong enough to survive living without you."

Knowing I can't stop him, that he's decided on how to deal with his grief, I nod. I speak even though my words will go unanswered. "Then I'll be waiting for you."

He walks over to the window and gives the curtains, the ones Caroline had insisted upon putting up, a once-over. "I love you, Elena."

As soon as the words leave his lips and as soon as I manage to say, "I love you, Damon," he yanks the fabric down and a stream of light hits him full-on, instantly setting his skin on fire and engulfing him in flames. He doesn't even make a sound as he burns in front of me, just gritting his teeth, taking the pain until his body disintegrates before me.

I fall to my knees and cry.

A constant stream of tears flow down my cheeks as I mourn the pile of ash in front of me. Every memory, every moment shared between us flashes through my mind at warp speed and yet, it's like I have the time to carefully examine, cherish, and lock away every single one.

My crying ebbs as soon as I hear one voice I never thought I'd hear from again, and my eyes lift.

"Hello, Elena."

Two piercing blue eyes are staring back at me, a heartbreaking smile forming on his face and I launch myself into his arms. "What?" His voice is shaky, pulling me back and eying me up and down as though he can't believe I'm standing in front of him. I can't believe he's here –wherever here is – either.

I choke out the only word I can say to make my mouth work. "Hi."

"You been waiting for me or something?" he chuckles before burying his face into my neck and breathing me in, his arms winding around me tightly and I can't get enough.

I let out something between a sob and a laugh and nod, crushing his neck with my grip but judging by his tightening hold on me, I doubt he cares. "I remember," I tell him and he kisses my throat, making my skin erupt in goosebumps.

"Forever," he says, lifting his face so that he can whisper in my ear. "It's a shit outcome for us, but we've got forever now."

Whatever is happening right now, I'll take it. I don't know how he's here, or how I'm here, or what this place is, but I don't even care. I couldn't care more if I tried. It doesn't matter, we're together. Somehow, after everything, we still managed to find our way back. It's just as he said, we're together. "Forever."

AN: Tissues, anyone? *hands them out to those who need it* Don't hate me! I'm a sucker for "what if" scenarios and this one had WRITE ME all over it. Thanks so much for reading, & please review! Oh, and bonus points if you can figure out which easter egg I planted from one of LJ Smith's books. ;)

~Kate

Song I listened to while writing this story: The Other Side by French for Rabbits