Brace For Impact

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"

-Helen Keller

Enemy Mine Said the Motley Crew

Chapter Seventeen

Brief Recap:

Matt was done with his shift at the Grill and was en route by the time the call disconnected. Elena heard Damon mutter "what a relief that the Quarterback is coming" from beside her, but her thoughts had drifted in a new direction.

Damon liked to ruin things for himself before he even gave them a chance. He did not believe he deserved such simple comforts like friendship and love. He pretended he did not care with everyone out of some misguided self-torturing plan. Was that what he was doing with her, why he kept fighting her at every turn since her humanity came back? Why would he do that now when the sire bond was gone, her humanity was back, and they could finally be together? It made no sense, but Elena found that "Damon logic" did not always appeal to her sense of reason.

As Elena pulled into the Salvatore boarding house driveway, she was left with two sureties. One, that Damon was driving her away out of some ridiculous sense of self-preservations. Two, she was not going to let him get away with it again.

The first thing he noticed was that there were too many cars packed in the Salvatore Boarding House driveway.

Damon stopped the car outside and observed suspiciously. "Well, let's see," he turns his head and begins counting on his fingers with overdone confusion. "There's the Wicked Witch of the West, that's one, and Vampire Cheerleader, that's two, and of course," he shudders melodramatically, "Quarterback brings it to three. Stefan's car is inside the garage and mine is here obviously. Why are there two others?"

Elena was peering at one of the foreign cars intently. "I know that car," she admitted. "But you're just not going to like who it belongs to."

Damon used his hearing to listen in on any conversations inside the house and went rigid when he realized who the two uninvited party guests were. "You have got to be kidding me."

Damon and Elena walked through the door without knocking, and everyone assembled inside turned to them with varying expressions of surprise and irritation. It's my house, Damon thought annoyed, they act like I'm the one who shouldn't be here.

"You know," Damon said turning to Elena with a scowl, "I was not actually speaking seriously when I said we should invite the crazy twosome with a penchant for torturing me."

Rebekah scoffed from her relaxed place sitting across the room. Her arms thrown over the back of the couch and she looked the very picture of comfort to Damon. In my house. "That was one time, darling. Surely you're not still holding a grudge. If anyone should be mad, it should be me with you. After all, you did just steal the cure from me."

"Stole the cure," Damon spoke slowly, emphasizing each word differently as if he were trying to discern the meaning somehow. "Hmm, interesting perspective. I remember that a little differently. But they do say the memory is the first to go and you're like ancient, Blondie Bex."

"Well," she drawled standing up, "The perks of being that old outweigh my memory issues. You know, I must be so old because I'm forgetting what exactly they are. Greater strength than you? Greater speed than you? Oh, and maybe the ability to kick your ass? Yeah, since I can't remember, let's test it, shall we?"

Damon was not sure if he were up to another billion year old, immortal creature kicking the crap out of him. Once per day was plenty, thank you very much. Luckily, the other billion year old, immortal creature chimed in with amusement.

"Oh, little sister, don't pretend the quest to become human was not another one of your whims that fade quickly."

"I wouldn't know how quickly they would fade, would I, Nik? You always ruin everything before I could ever enjoy them!"

"As much as I need more family drama in my life," Damon cut in throwing a glance at an exasperated Stefan, "Why don't you take your issues to Jerry Springer and get the hell out of my house."

Stefan seamlessly intervenes, "Damon, I called Rebekah-"

And Caroline adds because these two cannot help but finish each others' sentences nowadays, "-And I called Klaus-"

"Because she has as much of a reason to want to bring Silas down as we do-"

"And Klaus could actually help us here, it's not as if he wasn't already trying to kill him."

"Yes, great, because working with them has never come back and bitten us in the ass before," Damon sneered sarcastically. He looked around at the people congregated for agreement. He found none. "Oh, come on!"

Bonnie spoke up tiredly from her position on a chair by the fireplace. She didn't look at him, or anyone, "I don't like it either, but I want Silas gone. He's the greater evil now. If I had it my way, I would never have anything to do with Silas ever again."

Damon laughed awkwardly in an obviously fake way, "Yeah, about that…"

Elena grabbed at his arm when he did not continue. Her nails dug into his skin through his shirt and she spoke furiously and fiercely. It was actually kind of hot but probably only because Elena was doing it. It would be annoying as hell if Katherine or Rebekah did it.

"You said that there was no way Bonnie was going to stay out of it in the car. That Silas said something to make you think that. Tell us."

Damon glanced at Bonnie as Elena spoke. He almost expected Bonnie to deflate upon hearing that yet another unkillable thing wanted her for some reason, it would make sense after everything she had gone through lately. Instead, Bonnie straightened up and seemed to grow angry at the revelation.

Good. "So Bonnie is Qetsiyah's descendent, and Qetsiyah is the original woman scorned who cursed Silas and killed his other woman or whatever, everyone knows that though, right?" At the blank stares from everyone but Bonnie who was there when Professor Creepy admitted she was related to Qetsiyah, Damon nodded, "Okay, great, glad we're on the same page."

"Just keep going, Damon," Elena said beside him with a nudge.

"Right, so when Silas grabbed me and then proceeded to threaten me and poke me full of holes," He watched as everyone took in the information. Rebekah smirked, and Stefan raised his eyebrows and sighed as if this were so hard on him. Klaus had the audacity to laugh loudly at the prospect of his pain. But it was Klaus and completely unsurprising.

"Well, Silas told me to bring him Qetsiyah's descedent, i.e. you, Bonnie, and a new cure for vampirism. I got the feeling that he wants you to lower the veil to the Other Side, so he can reunite with his one true not Qetsiyah love. And also bring back all the thousands upon millions of really pissed off supernatural creatures in the process."

Bonnie shot to her feet to exclaim, "I can't do that!"

"That's okay, Glinda, we don't need to go into your moral highground, we all know you're the goodliest witch in the world," Damon drawls sarcastically.

Bonnie sent him an irritated glare, "I meant I actually can't. I don't have access to any of Qetsiyah spells. My grimoire doesn't even go back as far as Esther! I wouldn't even know where to begin making a new cure or lifting the barrier to the Other Side. Don't you think I would have cured my mom, Elena, and Caroline by now if I could? I can't do it."

"It's okay," Stefan said comfortingly as he placed a hand on Bonnie's shoulder, "No one is expecting you to."

"Except Silas," Damon injects, "I got the feeling that he really, really expects you to."

"That's not helping," Elena spoke with a shove. "Bonnie," she turns to address her friend, "We'll figure it out. No one will be bringing down the veil to the Other Side, especially not you. Right, guys?"

"If I'm to choose between getting Silas out of my business for good or saving the Bennett witch," Klaus' voice cuts in arrogantly, "Well, let's just say I'm not too attached to the latter idea."

"And, see this? This is why we don't invite you to the parties," Damon retorts.

"Klaus! You are not killing my best friend. Could everyone like cool it with their murderous tendencies for just a second!" Caroline's face is flushed and angry as it usually is whenever Damon sees her. Of course, for once, it is not directed towards him, so he was okay with that. "We need a plan. A plan that for once doesn't involve too much murder and dying, okay? Like the only one who should be dying is Silas. No one else!"

"Well," Klaus begins indulgently, "I may have a few other ideas."

For the next hour, they sat around formulating a plan in between yelling at each other. Until right after Damon decided that the only way to escape the singular misery of this crack team was to fling himself off the nearest building, they decided what to do.

Elena glared at Damon from her perch on his bed. They were probably going to die soon and probably should be focusing on that, but if Elena let that get in the way of her relationships, she would have no friends or lovers. The prospect of her imminent demise grew less and less frightening as it became more and more frequent.

But nothing lightened the fear of her loved ones dying for her. It was every bit as terrifying as it was that day under Wickery Bridge when she held her father's hand for the last time.

The point was she had learned not to allow the likelihood that she would never see another morning take away from things like her love life. In fact, she normally viewed it as a reason to deal with her personal problems sooner.

"Are we going to talk about how stupid you're being?" Elena's voice succeeded in startling Damon out of the alcohol-induced daze he was so fond of putting himself in.

Damon glared at her balefully, "Do we really have the time to do that? I mean if we talked about it every time you thought I was being stupid, then we'd never stop talking about it."

"Well, we don't need to talk about all the many incidents, just the most recent one." Elena took a shuddering breath and decided to be as blunt as possible. More often than not, Damon would talk around his feelings as long as he could and then make an excuse to run away before saying anything worthwhile. "We could talk about how you're acting like an idiot every time I even try to talk to you about what we are now, or, god forbid, kiss you."

Damon stared at her for a long moment with a pained expression. "Look, Elena, I get it. You don't have to pretend to feel the same way about me."

Elena's eyebrows shot up at his response. She crossed her arms angrily, "'Pretend' to feel?" Elena gasped outraged, "You don't get to tell me what I do or don't feel! Only I can do that!"

Of course, her anger only made Damon infuriated as well. "That's right, I don't. But you already did tell me, many times. Trust me, the message was received loud and clear."

He wanted to blame this all on her, but Elena knew the truth, and she was not going to let him get away with it. No more running. Not anymore. "Why don't you just admit what this is really about, Damon? You're still scared. You're running from everything because you think you're unworthy, and it could never happen to you. Well, it is. I don't care about who thinks you deserve what. I love you, I've loved you for longer than I could admit, and I love you so much that I'm willing to fight your stupid, stubborn ass on this over and over again. You know why? Because it doesn't matter if anyone thinks you're undeserving, I can't think of someone who I'd rather love every day and night of eternity. So get that through your thick skull and accept it! Because I'm not going anywhere, and I'll make sure you're not going anywhere either."

"What?" Damon blurted surprised, but he did not get a chance to say anything more because suddenly his mouth as otherwise engaged and there was no time or desire for talking.

Elena had crushed her lips against Damon. She wound her hands up his back to nestle into his hair from the nape of his neck. He returned her passion devouring her lips with even more force. Desiring to get closer, one of them- maybe both of them- hitched Elena's legs around Damon's waist locking him to her. He supported her weight and even began smiling against her lips.

Abruptly, she had to break away because both of them were grinning like fools. She let out a giggle before she could stop herself and was shocked to hear that sound coming from her. She would have thought not too long ago that she was no longer capable of such carefree giddiness.

"What?" She asked cheekily. "Not afraid of the big bad vampire? Who knows? Maybe I'll take a bite," she quipped as she playfully nipped at his throat.

"I'm shaking," he smirked.

"You should be," she whispered into his ear softly and seductively, "Because I'm very dangerous."

"Yes, you are. And I'm tasty, so where does that leave us?"

"I believe," she drawled, pretending to contemplate before she swooped back in to place a kiss at the corner of his mouth and speak against his lips, "right where we left off."

Elena was fine with that.

Yeah, so long time, no see. I've been really busy. Like very busy. And I'm writing a book now, so there's that.

Plus every time I post a chapter, I get like 10 more unfollows and unfavorites. It made me a little depressed and unmotivated to be honest.

I know this is short, but I really wanted everyone to know that I'm not giving up. Besides, this is more of a setup for what's to come. Oh, and fyi that's not the end of the last scene…