Fighting Free

Chapter 20

"You killed him!" Someone else started screaming as well, just a bit more coordinated than you were. It was Rebekah, who was kneeling next to the still body of your friend. She had her finger in his neck, searching for a pulse she clearly couldn't find.
"Have you realized what you did, Kol? You killed him!"

Even Kol looked shocked at the man who was lying at the floor.
"I didn't mean... he can't be dead! I wasn't..." He didn't finish his sentences. He only did something when Rebekah came at him, trying to punch her brother for killing Damon. He flung her out of the way and you saw her crash into the wall before she crumbled at the ground, moaning.

Somehow you were glad to hear it. That meant she wasn't dead. Just like Damon wasn't. Just like Damon couldn't be.

"ENOUGH!", someone roared. Elijah... you would never forget the shock on his face when he looked at the still form of Damon who was lying on the ground, blood slowly pooling out from under him.
"Haven't you done enough damage, Kol? Wasn't it enough to shoot an unarmed man? Call an ambulance, little brother, or so help me God, I will never look at you again!"

"Don't.", Mikael interfered. "You don't set the rules here, Elijah. I am still your father and no matter what, I will be the one to deal with Kol later, not you."

"No." Elijah suddenly stood up to Mikael, making himself taller than he was. He looked impressive. "I've done long enough what you want. I have believed your story about Niklaus for a long time, father. I could not imagine my own father lying to me about something that big. I have shunned my brother for it for all those years he has been in prison and needed someone to believe in him and for that I am sorry..." He glanced at Klaus who nodded, standing up a bit straighter now he knew his big brother was on his side.

"I still wished he would have told his side of the story.", Elijah continued. Even Mikael seemed unable to interrupt him now. "But when I see right in front of me what you are capable of... who can blame him? I don't know what you have said to him, how you have threatened him, but you are the wrong party here, father. Not Niklaus. Not Y/N, who was the first one who dared to challenge your truth. So this is how we are going to do it. You are going to untie Y/N, now. We are going to call an ambulance for both Rebekah and Damon and I hope by everything that I hold dear that it won't be too late for that poor guy. Out of respect for my father, respect that I shouldn't have anymore, but can't shed completely, I will give you twenty four hours to come forward yourself and tell the complete truth before I will do it. Is that clear?"

"Look at you, growing up.", Mikael mocked. "Maybe you're forgetting I'm the one with the gun here. You are quick to believe a bunch of stories some stranger whispered in your ear to discredit me."

"Look at you, father...", Klaus finally said. "You call me the villain in this play, but there you stand... holding an innocent prisoner. An innocent whose only crime is that she dared to love me. You are the one holding the weapon, just like your accomplice. Aren't you ashamed to drag your youngest son into this? We're the villains in your story, but we haven't shot someone just for being a friend. We haven't hurt a family member for wanting to help someone. And before you start accusing me again... I did not kill mother. You know that and I know that as well. I have just been so afraid of you that I have never dared to contradict your story. I thought there must have been some truth in what you said. I thought that without me that never would have happened, but I can see it now. It was all you. And I'm done with it."

"Please call someone for them... please..." No matter how proud you were of Klaus that he finally dared to stand up to his father, no matter how grateful you were to Elijah for standing up for his brother, you couldn't keep your eyes of Damon... You wanted him to live and with every minute this took, with every minute Mikael might blow your brain out if someone did something he didn't like, Damon's chances of survival diminished. If those chances were still there.

"What do you want father?", Elijah finally asked. "Shoot us all? First Y/N, then Niklaus and eventually me? Rebekah? Silence us? This will come out... you have gone too far now."

That made Mikael lower his gun and you breathed out in relief. The elder man looked at Kol.
"Come on son. Let them solve this..."

Kol followed, still looking shocked at the body he had dropped. Elijah put a hand on his arm.
"You don't need to come with him. If you're sorry, there must be some way to arrange this."

But Kol shook away the hand, looking at Elijah with fiery eyes.
"Traitor...", he just spat out before following his father and disappearing. Elijah immediately ran to Rebekah, checking on his sister.
"She's alive! I'm calling it in right now..." He was already on his phone when Klaus started to untie you frantically and the moment your hands where loose, you dropped on your knees next to Damon, not daring to touch him out of fear that you would make the damage greater.
"Please still be alive... Please still be alive..." You barely noticed the tears streaming down your face out of fear that he would be dead. That Rebekah had been right when she hadn't felt a pulse. When Klaus squatted down behind you and put his arms around you, you leaned back into him.
"He can't be dead... he was just here for me. He told me to break it off, to get out of this family, but I couldn't. And now... Please tell me this isn't happening? Please?" You started to cry for real now and Klaus was just holding you, stroking your hair, being there.

"I wish I could say something to diminish your fear, love, but I can't... I don't know if he's still alive... I just know he was set on doing this. He didn't want to stay behind, not when we asked him to. He cared for you, Y/N. He really did..." He continued talking to you, even when you didn't hear all the words. His voice was enough.

Not to calm you down... you wouldn't calm down, not until you know what had happened with Damon, but to keep you sane. As sane as you could be after being tied up by some psychopathic monster for hours and seeing your best friend being shot before your eyes because he was there to rescue you. Finally you heard the sirens coming and paramedics suddenly flooded the room.

They looked at the chair and the ropes with a frown for a moment before kneeling next to Rebekah and Damon. First thing they did was check Damon's pulse, but they looked even more worried after that. Carefully they turned him around, hooking him up on some kind of equipment, but that didn't give a heartbeat either.
"I'm so sorry... he's gone..." The woman paramedic actually seemed sorry to have to say it.
"Are you okay?", she continued while she looked at your wrist.

You shook your head.
"He's dead? No, no, no, no... he can't be dead. He can't be! He had nothing to do with all this! He..."

"Shh..., darling..." Klaus was holding you more firmly while you were trying to get out of his arms.
"Can you please check on her?", he asked the paramedic who now knelt beside you, checking your wrists and putting some kind of stinging fluid on it.

"I'd like to check you out in the hospital, ok? Can you put her on the stretcher?", she asked Klaus.

You were still mumbling that you didn't want to, that you wanted to stay with Damon when you felt yourself lifted and put down on a stretcher where they fastened you with some bands. You were still holding Klaus' hand, he refused to let go of you.

Elijah suddenly appeared as well.
"Rebekah is going to be fine they're taking you two to the hospital, I'll stay here until the police comes and I'll join you as soon as possible. Niklaus... do you ride with her?"

"I will not leave her, Elijah... please, be with us soon? We will need you..." Klaus was convinced that Elijah had to be the one staying behind. He was the only one who could give Mikael the twenty four hour deadline they had promised him, even when he did not deserve it.