a/n: This came to me while I was writing another one-shot because I'm stuck on "One Thing" again at the moment.

This is set in early Season 6.

Episode Tag: S6E06 - "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"

Summary: /"You're not the only one that gave up." Alaric told him. Gave him allowance, permission, forgiveness. Stefan didn't want permission. He had to earn the forgiveness... and this time, he wasn't going to give up—Even if it killed him./

Chapter Includes/WARNING: Depictions/Descriptions of death and injury, Character Death, Turning.

~The Vampire Diaries ~

It's Always Dark When I Die

Stefan supported them both, practically dead weight on either side of him.

Damon nearly unconscious on his left, fading fast from the fatal gunshot wound to his chest. Enzo disoriented as he drowned on his own blood. Stefan's own feet were dragging as he was losing motor function, his lungs struggling to expand, his chest filling with blood, compressing his lungs.

Stefan hadn't the comfort of an instant death—the musket ball had fragmented, the ball shrapnel embedded in his spine, severing nerves and nicking arteries alike. He'd clawed through the dirt toward Damon, already dead, and waited through the longest minutes of his life to die alone in the dark. He could only be thankful for that now as the anti magic barrier slowly unravelled the magic that had made him whole again.

He lost feeling to the lower half of his body just as the three reached the boarder and they collapsed harshly to the pavement on the other side, groaning and coughing.

Stefan just concentrated on getting a breath in. He didn't want to move, just lay there as his body healed, as the nerves in his spine mended and he could move again, but he didn't have the luxury. Ric was still trapped on the other side of the barrier, slowly dying from the stab wound that turned him into a vampire.

"You're not the only one that gave up." Alaric had told him.

Gave him allowance, permission, forgiveness.

Stefan didn't want permission.

He had to earn the forgiveness...

And this time, he wasn't going to give up—

Even if it killed him.

As soon as Stefan was able to wiggle his toes, he forced himself onto his knees with a grunt, then his feet. Ignoring the painful pricks of pins and needles, he stumble across the invisible barrier. At least he didn't have to contend with sun as his ring was made void.

"Stefan!" he heard Damon lob a curse after him, before cursing at Enzo as the other vampire held him back from going after his brother.

Stefan didn't waste any energy on a response, his sole focus was closing the distance between him and Alaric stranded in the ditch. He'd already tried to kill one of his brother's best-friends, he could let the one he actually liked die when he could do something about it.

30 feet.

20.

10.

Stefan tripped into the ditch.

Alaric grunted, startled, mouth filled with blood. "Stefan, what are you-"

"No time." Stefan grabbed his shoulders and grunted as he yanked Alaric into his lap. "Gotta get across the boarder."

He shuffled back up the small grassy incline to the toward the road, pulling Alaric with him. He knew he was fading fast, but he wasn't giving up this time, he'd push through. Stefan honestly didn't know how he got his feet under him again, but he did, arms under Alaric.

One step at a time.

Just one.

Two-

His legs gave out faster than he liked and he crashed to the asphalt hard, leaving Alaric no other choice but to follow. Black crept into the edges of Alaric's vision.

"Stefan?"

"Sorry." Stefan's breath was laboured. "Can't... feel my legs."

"Not giving up." Alaric said, trying to move, to get up. Reach Stefan behind his head, get across.

"Moving is not a good idea," Jo seemed to appear out of nowhere, pushing him back onto the ground, pressing a hemostatic gauze to his chest wound. Alaric moaned. "It looks like you knicked your descending aorta, gotta keep the pressure. Ambulance is already on it's way, just hang on."

"Gotta... cross the boarder."

"No, you gotta stay right here, let me treat you." Jo insisted. "You can survive this, okay? You just needed a doctor and I'm here now. I'm know what I'm doing, Ric. Let me work!" she commanded and he quieted his protests.

"Stefan..." the only reassurance Alaric had was the laboured breath behind his head.

"It's always dark... when I die."

The silence was deafening.

"STEFAN!" Damon's scream echoed.

"Jo," Alaric pleaded.

"Pressure." Jo grabbed his hands and pressed them against his wound, ignoring his sound of pain.

Jo grabbed her med kit and quickly moved to Stefan, pushing the vampire onto his back. She pressed her ear over his chest and tapped. She cursed. "His chest is filled with blood. Come on, Ric, you need to stay awake. Talk to me," she ordered as she worked on relieving the pressure. Blood soaked her pants as she preformed a thoracentesis. "Ric?" Stefan chest expanded with breath. "That's it, breathe." Jo quickly turned her attention back to Alaric, only to find him without a pulse. She quickly started compressions as she heard sirens closing in the distance. "See? You don't get to just give up now."

~ T V D ~

"STEFAN!"

Stefan jolted awake at the echo of his brother's scream, a sound of pain in his throat at the ignited pain in his chest, a moment of disorientation taking him when he realized he wasn't in the same room as he had been. He remembered the unfamiliar doctor, the needle in his IV.

Tripp was still in the wind, and he was human and paralysed-

His gaze landed on the shadowed figure in his room.

"Hello, brother."

Stefan sighed in relief and slumped back in bed. "What the hell, Damon? You drugged me and moved me?"

Damon was unrepentant as he approached his bedside. "With Tripp Fell still missing, the safest place for you is around vampires. So, yeah. I got your ass outta Mystic Falls and I left Enzo in charge of the manhunt."

Stefan stared at him. "Is that all I missed?"

"While you pulled a secondary Stefan bailout by hiding in Mystic Falls and refusing to be transferred to Whitmore Medical like good ol' Ric so you could wallow?"

Stefan gave him a glower. "You fixed that up well enough, what else have you 'Bob the Builder: Yes We Can!'?"

"Elena and I are back together. Ric's love life is on track. Bonnie sent a message from the Great Beyond. And last but not least on Damon Fixes Everything Revival Tour... Drink up, brother." Damon bit into his wrist and offered it up, Stefan took it gratefully. Stefan licked the blood from his lips, already feeling better. Damon tossed back the blanket covering him. "Well? Wiggle those twinkle toes, Stefan."

And Stefan did. "I'll resent you later if you start calling me that, but not right now." He grinned sitting up, rubbing at his legs, marvelling at having feeling again.

"Oh, you already know that's happening." The vampire agreed. "Now that you're done brooding, time to get out of the dreary dark." Damon pulled open the blinds with flourish, letting a shaft of sunlight fall onto his brother.

Stefan frowned and looked over at him. "I'm human, Damon, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

"Don't worry, Stefan, I'll take care of it. I just got you back, little brother, I'm not going to lose you again to something so trivial as mortality."

And Damon snapped his neck.

f

~ The Vampire Diaries ~