Brave (Damon Salvatore x OC)

Burn it down

At Mystic Falls Hospital Alaric is lying down on an MRI bench about to go into the MRI scanner. Ember, Elena and Meredith are in the control room, preparing to run the scan on Alaric.

"What are you looking for?" Ember asks.

Meredith shrugs. "I don't know. A tumor, vascular anomalies, anything physical that might explain his behavior. If it's medical, I can treat it."

"And if it's not?" Elena asks.

"Then we'll deal with that too." Ember assures her twin."if it's magical, maybe there is something I can do."

"When did you suspect him? That it was Alaric who was killing all of those people?" Elena asks Meredith.

"It was after he told me about his ring. I remembered a story my grandmother had told me about Samantha Gilbert and her secret journal. I don't know if you know this, but we Fells are notorious busy-bodies." Meredith admits.

"But then, why did you protect him?" Ember wonders.

"Because I'm a doctor, I don't like to see someone hurt by something they have no control over. And because when he and I first met I felt like...I don't know, I- I just kind of want to help him." She stutters slightly and blushes.

After the scan, Alaric is in a hospital room getting dressed to leave when the twins come in.

"Meredith says that everything is normal." Elena informs him.

"Yeah, well, everything is normal, because there is nothing wrong with me. I didn't kill Brian Walters, I didn't kill Bill Forbes, and I sure as hell didn't shove a hunting knife into my stomach." Alaric looks down at the ring, which is the only thing he hasn't picked back up. "Or I did and I've gone insane, just like your ancestor who wore that ring."

"I'm gonna try to talk to Bonnie, the rings were made by a Bennett witch so maybe a witch can reverse the damage." She grabs his hand. "Your not alone Ric... we're gonna figure this out."

Alaric hands the ring to Elena. "Take it. I don't want it any more."

Elena takes the ring and looks at Alaric as Damon enters the room. "You ready to ditch this House of Horrors? Oof, you look terrible." He comments.

Ric nods. "Yeah, let me...let me check outta here."

Alaric leaves the room. Elena gives Damon a furious look and leaves too leaving Ember and Damon standing there. "What's her problem?" He asks as he reached out to stroke her cheek and then steps close enough to drop a soft kiss on her forehead.

"50 / 50 toss up on worried about Ric or pissed at you over what she sees as you leading the love of her life down a dark path to murder and mayhem." She shrugs. "My money is one the second one."

...........................

Outside the hospital Elena is walking towards her car as Damon and Ember catch up to her.

"Don't worry about him, I'll take him out for chicken soup, get him a martini, make sure he doesn't kill anybody." Damon assures her.

Elena whips around. "What is wrong with you? How could you just go out feeding with Stefan like some vampire pub crawl?"

"Oh right, I thought we were talking about Alaric, but of course we're talking about Stefan." He looks at Ember. "You were right, I was wrong."

Elena stomps up to Damon. "You think your funny but your not! You stood there and let him feed on an innocent girl."

Ember raises a hand "I thought it was funny."

Damon closes the gap between himself and Elena. "I didn't let him do anything, if you want to get nit-picky about it, I made him."