Phantom Cruise- Chapter 4

Once again, I own nothing except this increasingly darkening plot...I really hadn't planned it this way, but I like where it's going so I'm going to stick with it.

Thanks for coming back for chapter 4!

Those of you who got the teaser, it totally sucked and I'm sorry about that.

After I finished the chapter, I realized there were some much better snippets I could have sent out than the one I originally chose, but whatever- I'll do better in the future.

Enough rambling...more A/Ns at the bottom. See ya there ;)

Chapter 4
~Stefan~
2 Days after Chapter 3 / Day #3 on Phantom Cruise

"I knew we shouldn't have come here," I told Elena defeatedly. 

"Not after Damon told us he was coming, too."

She tried to comfort me by rubbing her hand soothingly against my back and while it was nice, it wasn't doing anything to help quell my anger at Damon. "Stefan, you don't actually think Damon did that on purpose, do you?"

"Think?" I shook my head. "I know without a single doubt he did it on purpose. I just don't know why. Something that is ultimately to his benefit, I'm sure." Elena scooted closer to me on the bed, laid her head on my shoulder while wrapping her arms around mine as I sat on our bed, legs spread apart, leaning over with my elbows resting on my knees. She sighed. "You know I love you, right?"

I just looked at her because that was obviously the prelude to something I didn't want to hear. And of course, I knew she loved me. But with Damon around with all his fun and charm and unparalleled skills of manipulation, one never knew how much love was or wasn't enough. She took my silence as a cue to continue. "So, don't get upset with me when I say this, but maybe….maybe you're being a little too hard on Damon. He's been doing really well lately. Not killing people just for fun and you have to admit, he's toned the manipulation down a lot from when he first came to Mystic Falls. He's really trying to be better, Stefan. I know you see that," she said earnestly.

Admittedly, I did see it. I just knew my brother too well to think that it would last. I hated that I felt that way because I wanted nothing more than for Damon to reclaim his humanity, to have the relationship we had before Katherine. I wanted to be brothers again. But that couldn't happen when I would be forever running behind him cleaning up his messes or looking over my shoulder to see if he was coming and what destruction was trailing behind. I nodded my head seriously, while looking between my knees at my clasped hands. "I see it." I didn't add the part about how I didn't believe it would last, but I didn't need to. I'm sure Elena heard it in my voice, saw it in my face. I guess I was wearing what Damon would refer as "the brooding forehead."

"So tell me again what happened starting at the beginning. Maybe there's some logical explanation and we're just missing it," Elena suggested.

"All I know is I saw Damon walking with the crowd to take the ones that were fighting back to their rooms. They took Edward first and I didn't see Damon when they came back by to go towards Bill's room."

"And Alice?" Elena asked.

"You were inside helping to clean up some of the debris from the fight. You know, before The Wizard of Oz came back and decided to magic everything back in place." I managed a small smile there and continued. "Alice and the doctor, Carlisle and his wife, were beside me. Carlisle asked Alice to send word when she knew something about Edward, she agreed and said something about not being able to see, which I didn't understand." As a vampire, we have beyond perfect vision so it just didn't make much sense.

"The doctor and his wife retired to their room which left just me and Alice outside on the deck. She didn't say anything the whole time. She was just staring straight ahead so I asked her if she was okay." I stopped here, trying to make sense of things and also because this felt like it was turning into a really long monologue.

"And she said?" Elena asked.

"Nothing."

I looked up her and continued. "She didn't say anything. She just stood there staring straight ahead with this blank look on her face."

"Where was the rest of her family?" Elena wondered.

"I was wondering the same thing. I knew she was there with another vampire, a blonde one, but I had no idea where he was and before I could go looking for him, it was like whatever trance she was in was over and she took off." I shook my head and raised my hands in a what-was-I-supposed-to-do motion and kept on with the story we'd already briefly gone over once before, but never had time to dissect because of all the commotion from recent events. "She was so fast. But I caught up with her eventually and when I did she was with Damon. He had his arm around her and she was in one of those trances again, but Damon was whispering to her. Like he was trying to soothe her or something. And she was talking back, but I couldn't make sense of what she was saying."

Elena apparently wanted more details than that. "What did you hear?"

"She just kept saying random words over and over." I paused to remember all the bits and pieces I had heard. "Blood. Something about blood. She said 'she's his singer' a few times and something about 'all over'. I understand it perfectly now, but I didn't really get much out of that at the time." Who would? I thought.

"And Damon? What was he doing while she was saying all that?"

"Just holding her, rubbing her arms. He said he would help her. Then, he saw me and handed her over to some big blonde guy who just happened to be walking by. He didn't look like he really knew what to do with her any more than I did." The memory of him standing there with that uncomfortable, lost look on his face with his arm around a distraught little vampire pixie was pretty humorous, but I didn't think now was the time to be laughing about anything. Especially not after the tragedy of the evening.

I knew Elena would ask what Damon said so I didn't pause for long in the telling. I replayed it over again in my mind while I told Elena the rest of the story.

"Damon, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Little Brother," he said in his casual, taunting kind of way. "When that poor girl ran into me, she was a mess in a trance and then I see you following behind." He raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Elena not putting out enough, Stefan or did you just get tired of trying not to eat her?"

I didn't find his attitude funny in the slightest. "I don't have any trouble not eating Elena," I replied before I thought about how horribly inappropriate that sounded.

Damon just smiled wickedly. "Well, maybe you should hand the reins over to a real man. The woman has needs, Little Brother. I'm sure I could persuade Elena to-"

"Elena is not a horse and history will not be repeating itself where she's concerned," I interrupted with distinct finality. "So why don't you skip all the sarcasm, the snide comments and tell me what's going on here," I commanded.

Surprisingly, Damon's face immediately converged into a serious expression. "Are you a complete idiot or am I the only one who can put two and two together? Did you hear what she was saying?"

"I heard a little. Nothing I could make sense out of. Stop being so cryptic - we're wasting time."

"The pixie-"

"Alice," I interrupted.

"Whatever- she sees things. Has visions. She was having one just now and I'm pretty sure I know what it's about."

It all made sense after that. Her trance, why she ran away. "Damon, I think she was having one before she ran off. She got this blank stare and - "

"Yeah, yeah, that was a vision. Did she tell you what it was?" Damon asked intently.

At this point, I really believed he actually wanted to help her. "No. She just took off."

At that moment, we heard Alice's soft, silver voice screeching loudly for the blonde vampire to let her go. He held tightly to her and when she resisted, as a reflex more than anything else, he held her tighter, not allowing her to get away. "I need to go, he'll kill her! He's killing her! Edward, STOP!" Alice screamed in futility while Damon rushed over to calm her down.

"Alice! Alice, listen to me. Where is she? Where's Bella?"

"Room one-oh-nine," Alice breathed.

Damon disappeared and I was left with a hysterical Alice and the fake vampire police. "You can let her go, you know," I told him. Alice was calmer now and stopped resisting his hold on her. "Eric, you're going to let me go in seven and a half seconds." She said it with such confidence that neither of us doubted it. Eric's only response was a slight amused smile before he let his hands drop from her arms.

She looked at me and demanded that I run and assist Damon in any way that I could while she went to find someone named Jasper and the rest of their family. She assured me that Damon would make it in time, but that he would need help convincing Edward of what was to be done because "Edward doesn't trust Damon" she said. She darted away before I could ask her exactly what it was that was supposed to "be done". I didn't waste any time, though. Leaving behind a confused Eric, I went straight to the room Alice indicated at lightning speed to find the door busted through, compliments of my brother, a beyond distraught, inconsolable Edward and a dead human.

Or at least she looked dead at first glance. Her skin was pale and colorless and her whole body looked limp laying across Edward's lap. I could just see the minuscule and irregular rise and fall of her chest as she was just barely breathing. If we waited much longer, she would undoubtedly die. After surveying all this, I realized there weren't any bite marks anywhere on her body. So what exactly happened to her? It didn't appear that Edward had bitten her, at least not anywhere that I could see.

I had forgotten that Edward could read minds and he looked up at me with his tortured eyes, looking absolutely lost, desolate, and nodded to her lips. I could see a small red puncture mark on the bottom half. "I just kissed her…" he whispered, with so much pain it was unbearable to witness. "…couldn't stop…." I heard him mumble. I thought of Elena. How I would feel if it was her laying there. Instantly, I tried to reason with him.

Let me help her, I thought. I can help her.

I walked slowly towards the bed, showing Edward in my mind what I planned to do and how it would heal her.

Damon stopped me. "She's lost too much blood. It'll kill you to save her." He beseeched me with his icy blue eyes; I knew what he was saying and I nodded my head. It gave me such hope for Damon. I thought in that moment, that we were almost real brothers again, or at least that there was hope that we could be.

I silently asked for Edward's approval and he said fervently, "anything. I'll do anything to save her."

"Elena, I thought he was helping her. Helping me. All he was really doing is helping himself. Once again, it was part of one of his master diabolical plans. I should have known."

"How could you know that, Stefan? Damon's right, it would have killed you. And as much as I love that you wanted to help that girl and as selfish as this sounds, I'm not willing to lose you so that someone else could have their happily ever after."

I couldn't say anything to that. Would I still have risked my life knowing that I might not recover, that I might not see Elena again? Probably. Because I'm trying to overcompensate for being an unnatural, blood-drinking, evil creature of the night.

"Why don't you let me talk to Damon? We don't even know his side of the story…"

"You're still looking for a logical explanation aren't you? Why are you always so quick to defend him?" I yelled, shooting off the bed and turning on Elena. I wasn't really angry with her. I was angry with myself for getting sucked into Damon's shit again, for thinking he could show compassion for another being besides himself.

"I'm defending him because I saw him today. While everyone else was busy trying to skewer him and serve him on a platter, I saw his face. He was heartbroken, Stefan. He was just standing there, taking all of it- everything everyone said, the accusations- he just took it without a word. Whatever he did, he did for a reason. But at the same time, he seemed…okay with it in a way. And did you see Alice? She didn't say a word! She knew what was going on and she didn't tell anyone. That doesn't make sense- I'm just saying there has to be a reason. A good reason, I mean." She was breathless after her tirade and she looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes, begging me to understand.

"You want there to be some good in Damon. I get it," I said lifelessly. For some reason, it hurt a little that she obviously wanted that so badly. I couldn't stop myself from wondering, selfishly, why it mattered to her so much. Yes, I was an insecure bastard.

She looked at me with a pained expression because she picked up everything I wasn't saying so easily; she just knew me that well. I couldn't stand for her to hurt in any way and to know that I was part of the reason that look ever came across her face. Elena was good, selfless and I knew she would always do the right thing which is exactly what she was trying to do now.

"Go. Talk to him."

After Elena left the cabin, it was pretty dark and I couldn't stand to stay in the room all night worrying. Even I have my limits when it comes to brooding in my own self-loathing, so I went out to one of the various bars on the boat for a drink. And no, I don't mean blood- we can still drink alcohol and it helps with the cravings. How convenient, right? I have a built-in reason to be a drunk that actually coincides with my desire to be a better person. Figure that one out.

I was just enjoying the smooth, amber liquid when Sookie rushed up to me. "Hey, Stefan!" she exclaimed happily. "How are you? Everything alright? I know that stuff with your brother had you pretty upset." She sounded genuinely concerned.

I could feel my forehead wrinkling up in confusion when Sookie tapped her skull. "Sorry- in emotional situations, I have a hard time tuning everything out. I didn't mean to pry," she explained. I had forgotten she was a telepath like Edward.

"Oh no, Sookie, it's fine. I'll be alright. Thanks."

"Well alright then. Listen, have you seen Bill? I can't find him anywhere. When he woke up tonight, he just left without a word." I shook my head apologetically and wondered briefly why she just didn't use her powers to reach out and find him.

"Oh it doesn't work like that. I wish. I could have found him so much earlier that last time he-" she caught herself and stopped abruptly, changing the subject. "I can't read Bill's mind. Or Eric's. Or any of the vampires I've met in Bon Temps or Shreveport. I don't know what the difference is between the vampires I've met here and the ones there. I would have said it's because you have more of your humanity, but that can't be true can it? I mean, Bill's plenty humane and look at Damon! All the horrible things he's done? Sure, he feels bad about a lot of 'em, but he'll never tell anybody and-" The liquor was kicking in and I'm sure I was, however unintentionally, making a face - an amused, drunken face.

"I'm so sorry. I know you don't want to hear about that, but I ramble when I'm nervous."

"It's quite alright. You've heard all my woes. Tell me yours," I suggested. She looked tempted, but still unsure.

"It can't hurt, can it? You have better chances of finding Bill if you stay in one place than you do wandering around. Have a drink." There was a shapeshifter leaning on the bar to my left staring at a couple of sirens near the stem of the boat. Damn, those wicked little things are everywhere, I thought as I snatched his drink and slid it over to Sookie.

She eyed it with defiance, grabbed the shot and sat down on my right. "I normally don't do this, but it's a vacation, right?" I noticed she had the cutest southern accent before she smiled and threw the shot back like a pro. I raised my eyebrows and smiled in surprise.

"What?" she asked innocently. "I work in a bar! What do you expect?" she laughed.

I laughed with her, glad for someone to talk to and ordered her another shot.

~Elena~

I knocked on the door quietly, knowing Damon would hear me. When he didn't answer I knocked louder and called, "Damon! I know you're in there. Let me in."

I didn't realize I was leaning so close to the door until it flew open with Damon standing in it's place. His face was inches from mine and we hesitated before speaking, the proximity catching us both off-guard. When we finally did speak, it was at the same time. "Sorry," I breathed while Damon said, "come in, then" and moved off to the side sweeping his arm out in a gesture of welcome. I ignored the fluttery feeling I got when his body was so close to mine and stepped inside his room.

This was the first time I'd seen it and it was a lot different than mine and Stefan's room. Damon seemed to have a red and black theme going on in his. Black leather furniture with red accent pieces, black bedding with red trim and so forth. Damon himself was wearing his usual all black from his hair right down to his boots. He blended in with the darkness of the room; almost matching it.

I turned around to face him when I heard the door click and I shouldn't have been surprised. He was right behind me again - something he knew I hated, but still insisted on doing anyway. There was a small intake of breath, but I didn't gasp like I used to, perhaps because I was almost used to it. Damon shook his head mockingly. "Looks like I'm losing my touch," he sighed and touched his index finger to the tip of my nose before walking around me to pour himself a drink. The tiny gesture, that brief connection of skin, felt like a shock of electricity to me, but I didn't move. I didn't give anything away.

"Damon, we need to talk."

He made a pained face and feigned falling to his knees. "Nooo! Elena, you never, never ever say those words to a man. You don't know the fear they inflict upon our delicate egos." He contorted his voice to match the mocking expression he wore on his face.

"Give it rest. I didn't come here to listen to your sarcasm. We really need to talk about this," I said seriously.

"About what?" Damon shot back.

"You know what. Why did you do it, Damon?"

He looked down at the floor, took a sip of his drink and strolled casually over to his leather couch. He plopped down with a sigh, not spilling a drop of his favorite scotch and looked at me with those piercing blue eyes. I was quiet, waiting for him to speak. When he finally did, true to form, he got right to the point. "It's what she wanted. I just gave her what she wanted."

I could see that he was conflicted about the situation; probably more conflicted than anyone else. I wanted to understand and more than that, I found myself wanting to comfort him. He looked so lost and unlike himself spread out on the couch, staring vacantly into his scotch. This wasn't cocky, sure of himself, sarcastic, diabolical-plan Damon. This was someone entirely different.

I walked over to him and stood by the couch, waiting expectantly. He pulled his legs up to make room for me and once I sat down, I pulled his legs back across my lap. I wanted his face to be far away from me on the other end of the couch so he couldn't try and pull that whole movie scenario. You know- the one where we have a little bonding heart to heart and then he scoots really close and tries to kiss me- yeah, so not happening.

"You have to explain it to me a little better than that, you know. I'm not sure I really understand," I told him softly.

"You wouldn't understand. You didn't see her. She was…crying, begging. She was begging me, Elena. And I could sympathize. I tried to reason with her, but I had couldn't. It's the only thing she wanted and if I hadn't done it, she would have found some disgusting, morbid way to do it herself."

"So you killed Bella because she wanted to be a vampire. To be with Edward forever. The way you wanted to be with Katherine." I stated it slowly and calmly, positive that it was the truth. Talking about Katherine was never a happy subject for Damon or Stefan, but the memories seemed to be more painful for Damon being that he was the one who never got over her.

"I even tried to compel her. Obviously, it didn't work. Edward can't read her mind so it makes sense that I can't fuck with it, right?" He laughed bitterly and took another drink of his scotch.

By this point, the words were flowing pretty freely so I sat and listened while he got it all out. "All I wanted was to do the right thing. Like Stefan- he does the right thing all the time. He says the right thing. That's not in me. Anywhere. But I still tried today. And even though I know I gave Bella exactly what she wanted, she's gonna wake up tonight - tomorrow maybe - and realize that it's not what she thought it was gonna be at all. And what am I then?" he asked me. I didn't answer because I didn't know what to say.

"She got what she wanted, sure- but she doesn't know what a big mistake it is yet and when she finds out, it'll be all my fault."

"But I know what it's like to be in her situation and I figured either way, we're both screwed, right? Edward refused to do it and everybody already hates me. I got nothin' to lose." He said it like it was something to be deliriously happy about and started to take the last sip of his liquor.

I reached over and pulled the glass away from his lips. "You're not a bad person, Damon. You can do good things. I know you think it's not in you, but clearly it is." I sat the glass on the table behind the couch, shoved his legs off my lap despite his 'what the hell!' protests and got up. I put out my hand and waited for him to grab it. He was hesitant, but I knew he would take it and when he did I tried to take charge of the situation before he got any ideas or gave me those flirty eyes of his.

"You can't stay here all night agonizing over this. We're going to talk to the Cullen's right now and you're going to help Bella through her transition. That's the only thing there is to do, you know that."

Damon contemplated and tried to argue that he wouldn't be able to do it , that Stefan would be more suited to teaching the girl how to eat chocolate labs than him - and a whole host of other sarcastic jokes - but I wasn't hearing any of it because we both knew that I was right.

As we walked out of his room, I thought again about all the black inside it. And also, about how Damon didn't match it at all.

I know it might not seem like there was a whole hell of a lot going on in this chapter, but I promise all this is going somewhere and I'll relax on all the brooding and soul-searching stuff and get back to more of the funny once we get there :) Unless you guys like that angsty kind of stuff...I do. But I'm also too weird and happy to write it well.

Also, for those of you who are anxious for some Eric/Sookie action- it's coming and it'll all tie in together nicely...or at least I hope so.

*looks nervously about the room*

I'm actually anxious to hear from Jake again, too so we'll probably be hearing about the fight in more detail from his POV...who knows. I don't really have this mapped out. I'm sort of just whinging it.

Bad technique, huh? Oh well, it seems to work thus far :P

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and see if you can guess what's going to happen with Bella! Please feel free to make guesses, share thoughts or ask questions. I always reply :)

Reviews are better than Damon's flirty blue eyes ;)