Perfect Match

Chapter 17

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Elena woke with a jolt, surrounded by nothing but darkness. She must have fallen asleep while keeping Stefan company. Her head, which had previously been pressed against the sheets, began to throb with an upcoming migraine. What time was it anyway?

Letting out a heavy sigh, she reached over to place her hand in Stefan's. When she did this though, the action chilled her to the bone. His fingers were ice cold. She frowned, quickly releasing his hand and heading into the hallway to find a nurse.

But no one was in the hallway. "Hello?" she asked. Her voice echoed. "Anyone here?"No response.

She exhaled in aggravation, rolling her eyes and heading back into the room. Elena slowly flipped on the light in hopes of finding a set of blankets in the closet. Luckily, she came across a white, linen sheet past the door and quickly rushed to cover Stefan up. It was kind of ridiculous, how every little thing seemed to worry her when it came to him; she had to admit, after the accident, she'd been scared out of her wits.

Elena slowly covered Stefan with the sheet, her eyes scanning over his body as she did so, a tiny gesture that allowed her to watch out for any new bruises or signs of bleeding. But when her gaze landed on his face, her heart lurched.

His colorless eyes were open. Not moving, or blinking; just... open. And empty.

And that was when she turned around and noticed the straight line on the heart monitor.

Elena let out a blood curdling scream.

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"Lena!" Bonnie was frantically shaking her shoulders.

She gasped, jumping in the chair she was sitting in, desperately looking around. "Stefan!"

Bonnie frowned. "He's okay, Elena... You were just having a bad dream. He's okay, I promise..."

Quickly catching her bearings, Elena's gaze fell on the sleeping Stefan across from her in the ICU room. His chest was barely rising and falling with every intake and exhale of breath, but rising and falling nevertheless. She let out a sigh of relief. "What if he doesn't wake up, Bonnie?"

"He will. You heard what the doctor said."

She clenched her fists. "It's been three days."

Sighing, Bonnie placed her hand on Elena's shoulder, staring down at her friend solemnly. "Let's get you home, okay? We can come back later. You haven't been out of here in over 24 hours."

She reluctantly tore her eyes off of Stefan. "I... What if something happens while we're gone?"

Bonnie pulled Elena up. "Then the nurses will take care of it. Come on. Damon's still here... if Stefan wakes up, he won't be alone."

Finally, Elena agreed. After all, Damon wasn't going anywhere, that was for sure. He hadn't even left the hospital once in the past three days, surviving off of the small duffel bag that Mr. Saltzman had dropped off.

She walked past him on the way out, but didn't bother speaking to him. Damon hadn't really been in the friendliest of moods for the past few days; Elena figured that he got confused, considering he was so bent on proving to everyone that he didn't care about anyone but himself. But yet, there he was, eagerly waiting for the moment to arrive when his little brother would finally open his eyes again.
Elena was shocked once they finally got outside. Only expecting to see cars and valets in front of the lobby, she was quite surprised to find an entire crowd in front of the doors. There were men holding flash cameras, women with microphones, and people frantically scribbling onto notebooks as she walked outside. There was an endless echo of, "Elena, Elena, Elena!" as she tried to make it to her car.
"Elena, is it true that this was an attempted suicide?"