Before You Were Mine

Chapter Forty-Seven

Before You Were Mine- Chapter Forty-Seven

....6 Months Later....

Damon

"Where is she?" I shout out, bursting through the double doors into the hallway of the firehouse and into one of the spare rooms as she watches me pull the covers off of her tried and aching body.

"Leave me alone, Damon, I'm not leaving! Just leave me here." Elena shouts at me, rolling on to her side as she feels me slowly place my hands onto her shoulders while she winces from the pain.

"You're coming to the one place you've been coming to for the last six months since Stefan's death. I get it. But, you think those guys in that office care that you lost your fiancé, Elena? Do you think they care that I can't go into a burning building anymore without having flashbacks of that day and of my brother dying in front of my eyes? That I can't sleep at night because I wake up with nightmares of Stefan and my wife has to soothe my cries? That when I need to go out into the field that I sit in the fire truck instead with a full blown panic attack! They don't give a damn that we lost him, Elena! They have case files filled with unsolved crimes and investigations on fires that still need to be solved. They could care less about your theory of a man who went missing in a fire, without a trace because they've already ruled it out to be an accidental death!" I shout at her, watching as she turns towards me, eyes covered in tears. Barely being able to see me in front of her as she pleads for me to just leave her the hell alone. "Please, Damon. Don't say that! Don't. I just want answers! I want to know that he didn't die in vain. Please, Damon...I can't go back home. I can't live without him!" She sobs, watching as I lean down in front of her while gently placing my hands onto her scrapped up knees. She'd been praying hours earlier, sitting on the cold concrete and praying that her pain would go away. I can tell from the red dots on her skin that she'd been knelt down on the carpet while placing her hands onto the cot in front of her. She would never admit it to me. But, I know that she was praying to bring Stefan back home and that her theory of him not being dead was right.

"He's gone, Elena! Stefan is gone and he is never coming back to us! But, he put me in charge of taking care of you and his kids! What do you think my brother would think if I didn't take care of you or them...Hmm? That I'm the only one who can put two and two together and realize that ever since you've been hanging around with Matt that things are different, you're different! So, let me handle Matt and let me help you stop showing up here! You spend nights away from your kids because you think that showing up here and asking Tyler's bosses about what happened to my brother will help you get closer to the truth. It won't. So, just stop it already! Those kids need you. They've already lost one parent. They can't lose you too!" I urge her to clear her mind and come to find some reasoning, hearing as her breath hitches at the sound of Matt's name rolling off of my tongue.

"Don't worry about Matt, he's just a friend. Damn it! He's not the problem here, those assholes who won't tell me anything are! They keep saying that Stefan's death was an accident and that it's a closed case. But, we both know that it wasn't. Damon, I know that you know it wasn't!" She cries, feeling as her breath hits my cool skin and I lean into her, embracing her gently while she sobs against my shoulder and mumbles against my shirt in soft tone. "This is the only other place I have left of him. I just came to the station to be closer to Stefan, to remember him...Please, Damon..Please. I can't go home. I have nothing to go home to anymore. I have nothing! Whenever I look at our kids, I see Stefan. I can't sleep. I can't eat and I can't take care of my own children without someone helping me 24/7, waiting for me to crack. Because they know I miss him, Damon..I miss him so much and I'm tired, I'm just so tired. To be honest, I can't live like this anymore."