Until The End - Damon Salvatore (2) [DISCONTINUED]

11- Things We Lost in the Fire

There was no doubt that the Phoenix Stone played tricks on your mind. When Damon woke up, he thought he was at the beginning again, and was ready to reset the stone. Anything to get more time to talk with Lily, to get more time with Amelia. He attacked everyone when he woke up, despite Stefan's attempts to calm him down. Once he realized, he healed each of them, until Caroline injected him with vervain to knock him out. 

Until they knew he was coping, they needed to keep him down, so he wouldn't hurt anybody and do something he'd later regret. So, Stefan and Candice chained him to the staircase by the entrance, giving him enough vervain to keep him down a few hours. While Stefan slept, Candice sat on the stairs keeping watch, just as an extra precaution. The younger Salvatore was wary of the idea, since Damon had almost broke her neck when he woke up, but she insisted. 

She knew he needed the sleep. 

And, it gave her time to think. When they were in the Phoenix Stone, while trying to help get them out, she had other problems added to the ever growing list. She sat on the stairs, with a newspaper open in her lap, rereading the story she found days after the boys were stabbed. Something that so far, only she knew about, and had no time to look properly into. Between pulling Stefan out, and helping him through his post-hell trauma, to now getting Damon back... 

She was surprised she had time to breathe lately. 

"Oh, yup. I saw this coming." Damon's voice sighed, his chains rattling as he stirred. 

Candice quickly moved the paper to the side, and got to her feet, leaning over the railing to look at him. "Damon?" She asked cautiously. 

He smirked weakly in her direction. "Candy." 

Immediately, she rolled her eyes. "Haven't missed that nickname." 

"But you have missed me." He countered, making her roll her eyes once again. "I think this is what some would call development between us."

"Stefan!" She called out, remembering his earlier instructions. "Stefan, he's up!" 

"Yeah. Yeah, I heard you." Stefan's tired voice called back, as he joined them in the hallway. 

Damon rose a brow at him, become unsure of how calm his brother looks. "No vervain this time? We switching up the menu?" 

The younger brother shot his head, a wary smile on his face. "Nah. I just wanted to make sure you had chance to calm down." 

"Oh, I'm calm." Damon assures him, then raises a brow as his brother remains silent. "No, no, no. You're gonna say to me. You're gonna say to me, I screwed up so bad. I nearly killed all of our friends because I thought I was stuck in a fake hell-world." 

"You don't have to explain." Stefan tells him, his expression growing grim. "It wasn't your fault. It was a honest mistake, you're getting a pass." 

The confusion remains on Damon's face, not believing any of it for a second. It wasn't like Stefan to let him off this easily. "Wait. You skipped a bunch of stuff. First, I'm supposed to say I see the error of my ways, and then you tell me that that's not good enough, and then you judge me harder. And then I say something mean, but true, that totally throws you off balance."

Candice and Stefan exchanged a look, before Stefan knelt down in front of the raven haired man, looking him in the eyes. "You came out of the Phoenix Stone but you thought you were still inside of it. Everybody understands."

"Just take it, Damon." The Evans girls urges him. 

He looked between the pair, in utter disbelief of it. "Oh. That's pretty generous, considering I just stabbed your pregnant girlfriend in the chest..." His eyes went from his brother to Candice. "And tried to snap your neck."