What Are Brothers For?

Damon was laying on his bed, a book in his hands. He was trying to read, as it had been somewhat of a long time since he had last really done that, but he was finding it hard to concentrate. His mind kept wandering to Elena and Stefan and what they had told him. Not for a moment did he think about the fact that he had broken an Original's neck or that he had slept with Rebekah. It was taking a toll on him that he didn't like nor was he used to.

Knowing that his baby brother would be downstairs, he decided to go and talk to him. Bothering Stefan always seemed to take his mind off things.

"Brother." He greeted Stefan as he walked into the living room.

My entire body froze, not even caring if the pain was still lingering. "What the hell do you want?" I bitterly asked, not even bothering to come in eye contact with him. I winced as the pain on my side grew with every word I spoke.
Brother?! How the hell could he call me that after seeing Elena's face, dampened with the tears that I had missed fall moments before. He had slept with the Original Bitch that had, not even 48 hours ago, tried to kill Elena, again. Damn, something must have been messed up with his wiring.

A slight bit of concern for his brother passed Damon's mind before he quickly covered it up with his usual cold-blooded facade. He smirked at Stefan's words. "What do I want?" He repeated his brother's words, raising an eyebrow. "Right now, I want to talk to my baby brother."

Damon sat down on the couch in front of the one his brother was occupying, a smirk still on his lips.

I growled at his response, before wincing once more. I could tell that he saw that I was clearly not okay. "Fine. Make it quick." I bolted out as I held my side, trying to cover up the spot so Damon didn't see it. "And don't call me baby." I winced again, clearly the pain wasn't going to go away.

Though Damon could tell that there was something wrong with his brother, he tried not to show any sign that he actually cared, mostly because he didn't want to admit to himself that he cared, especially not after both Stefan and Elena told him he cared too much.

"Oh, don't worry, baby brother, I won't call you baby brother anymore." He told Stefan, smirking even more.

Rolling my eyes, I tried to get up. As soon as I stood, I fell back onto the couch, "Dammit!" I scolded my body, not noticing that I had let my hand slip away from covering my wound. Wincing, I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself.

Finally, Damon had no choice but to acknowledge that there was something wrong with his brother. He couldn't even get up and he had a wound on his side. He was in a lot of pain.

Damon didn't know what to do. His walls were fighting the rush of emotions that were hitting against them, but they couldn't keep them all out. He could feel a bit of worry, enough worry to make him rush to his brother's side and put a hand on his back, making almost no pressure on the skin.

"What happened, Stefan?" He asked, his voice calm and controlled even as he fought a war inside his mind.

I dropped my head low, so my eyes came in eye contact with the floor, "Nothing." I quickly covered my wound, trying to make it seem that nothing was there at all.
I could feel his presence and the vibe that he was giving off was one of worry, his usual cockiness now replaced with calmness.
I slowly closed my eyes once more, trying to alleviate the pain. One thought kept bouncing through my mind, 'Why hadn't I healed yet.' It had been nearly an hour since it happened, so why wasn't this healing?
I slowly lifted my shirt to the point where you could see a corner of the wound. It looked bad and very deep. Dried blood from before was quickly replaced with the oozing red liquid that was now coming out. Yuck.

Damon knew better than to believe his brother. Like him, he hated getting help, so he could have a giant, never closing wound and he would still be 'fine'. But he wasn't too worried until Stefan lifted his shirt and Damon could see the how bad he was hurt.

To say that the wound was deep would be an understatement. There was blood running out of it in alarming rates. Well, alarming rates for a vampire.

But what puzzled Damon the most was that the wound hadn't healed. Just in the little time Stefan had been in the living room with Damon, it should have already closed, or at least started to do so. It most definitely shouldn't be bleeding. Whatever had hurt him had to have been infected with some kind of toxin Damon didn't know, a toxin that was able to keep vampires from healing, like a werewolf bite.

Knitting his eyebrows, Damon gently lifted Stefan's shirt more so he could see the full extent of the wound.

"Stefan, how did you get this?" Damon asked.

I lowered my eyes to where he had lifted up the shirt. "I-I was just walking through the woods, hunting. And all of a sudden, this person appeared. It was Klaus, at least I think it was him." I shuddered at the memory, "His eyes were red and looked like he was someone else." I winced as the pain grew, "He said something about past and revenge. Then he pinned me to the ground and staked me." I couldn't understand any of this. First with who I thought was Klaus, then getting staked, and now, not healing. "Damn, you don't think that there was a substance on that stake that is keeping me from healing, do you?"

Damon sighed. He wouldn't lie, not about something like that, but he himself didn't want to believe that there was a substance that made it impossible for vampires to heal. If that was the case, then they had to start researching, and, by the time they figured something out, it could be too late.

"What have you been drinking, Stefan? Animal blood?" Damon asked, his last hope that it wasn't anything worrisome clinging to those last two words. If he was drinking animal blood, then maybe, just maybe, his healing abilities were impaired.

But Damon knew that it was a long shot, and he was ready for the worst. If Stefan had managed to save his life when he had a werewolf bite, he could help him out with that. Or so he hoped. Damon mentally sighed, frustrated. He was supposed to be the uncaring brother, the one who could kill without blinking, but there he was, worried about Stefan. It wasn't something he was used to.

I sat still, thinking about the last time I had fed. Was it animal blood? Shit, it wasn't. I was at the Grill when I saw a girl accidentally cut her finger on her steak knife. I went baserk and somehow convinced her to go outside with me. Once outside, my fangs extended and I fed from her.
I bit my lip, "No, the last time I fed was from a human."

Human blood. The last time Stefan had fed he had fed on human blood. Damon felt a sudden chill run down his spine, but he ignored it. That was no time to go all emotional.

"Then there must have been some kind of toxin on the stake. How much blood have you lost?" Damon asked Stefan, trying to keep himself objective.

I looked at my veins, seeing that they were turning a light blue, "A lot." I brushed my finger over the veins, feeling them getting smaller. Panic set in.

Damon had to close his eyes to get a grip on himself. Though he might have spent over a century making Stefan's life miserable, he didn't wish any harm to come to his baby brother. He knew very well what would happen to Stefan if he lost too much blood. He wouldn't die, but he would mummify, and the process was far from pleasant.

Glancing at the wound one more time, Damon supposed it wouldn't be long before Stefan was completely drained. He had to act fast. He started to mentally make a list of all thing he could do, both to slow down the bleeding and to investigate what was happening.

"Stefan, try not to move too much and stay laid down with the wound facing up." He ordered his brother and, not even waiting for a reply, ran to the Boarding House's gigantic library and got some books, coming back to Stefan in less than a minute.

I gently layed down on the couch, doing as he instructed, keeping the wound facing up. As soon as I layed down, he was gone, into the library I guess.
As soon as he came back, his arms full of books, I couldn't help but read the titles and ask, "Why did you buy those?"

Damon was glad to see that Stefan had obeyed him and was laying down on the couch, his wound facing up. He set the books he was carrying on the floor and plopped himself down on an armchair facing Stefan.

"I didn't. They are from Father's secret library, the one we found when we were kids, remember? I put all his books in the normal library. I think he got these when he started suspecting that Katherine was a vampire." Damon told Stefan, a smile almost appearing on his lips as he remembered the good times he had spent with Stefan when they were young. Against his better judgement, he wished they could be like that again, have a relationship like the one they used to, but he didn't think he could ever totally forgive Stefan or let his walls down.

I slowly nodded as a flood of memories came rushing into my head like a flowing river. When we were younger, it was more of a 'who can find this book' game. But the more I thought about it, the titles that I read on the books weren't what society would call 'normal' books. They had titles like, 'Witchcraft in Virginia' or 'Vampirism'. I shuddered at the thought of two boys flipping through those books, thinking that it was all just part of the game.
"Yeah I remember." I had a far away look in my eyes.

Allowing a tiny smile to appear on his lips, Damon turned his attention to the book he had picked up. He needed to find something about the toxin that had been on that stake. He was sure there was something on those books that would help him save his little brother, he just needed to look hard enough.

But it didn't matter how hard he looked, he couldn't seem to find anything in any of the books. He sighed and scrubbed his tired eyes with his hand.

"Stefan, I can't find anything! There's no mention to anything like this in any of this stupid books!" He exclaimed as he threw some of the books he had already looked through agains a wall.

OOC: I hope it's okay that I did a time jump.

I almost jumped when he threw the book, which is odd, I haven't jumped from a sudden action since I was turned. I looked down at my wrist, seeing that the veins were now a very pale blue. I sighed knowing that if I told Damon now, he would too start panicking, maybe even more than myself at this point.
I could feel my eyelids getting heavier as the seconds ticked by, my head felt heavy, like my neck couldn't support it anymore, I could barely move an inch. I felt frozen in my spot as I helplessly layed there on the couch, wondering how this would end.
'Don't fall asleep,' I kept telling myself, 'Don't fall asleep.'
I fought the urge for moments before finally I told myself that I could wake myself up, so slowly, I closed my eyes.

Damon started to get very worried as Stefan didn't say anything. He got up, a few books falling from his lap, and made his way to his brother, hoping against hope that he wasn't passed out.

He almost gasped as he saw his little brother's eyelids closed shut. That meant time was almost up. He would soon mummify. He was though, glad that he was asleep and therefore probably free of the pain. With a worried sigh, he sat down on the ground and started to think.

There had to be some mention to that toxin somewhere. And then it came to him. The internet. Everything could be found on the internet, even the craziest of crazy stuff. He brought his laptop to the living room and sat down, throwing slightly worried glances at Stefan.

But before Damon started looking for information on the toxin, he decided to try something he was almost sure wouldn't work. He walked over to Stefan, bit into his wrist, and let the blood drip into Stefan's mouth, not caring that most of it was spilling on the couch. That was when he saw how Stefan's veins were turning a pale blue. Closed his eyes again, forcing himself not to let his emotions break through the very high walls he had built.

He only hoped he would get some result from giving Stefan his blood. His little brother was running out of time.

I felt as if I was in a comatose state. Once I felt that I had had enough sleep, I tried hard to open my eyes, finding that I couldn't. Panic was now set in full throttle. I began running in circles, yelling in this dark dream.

Suddenly, I felt a cool rush slide down my throat. What was that? I stopped running (in the dream) and stood still, thinking over the possibilities.

"Damon." I told myself. It was the only logical reason.
I continued to lay still on the couch, my eyes closed shut, weakling mumbling, "Damon," over and over again. Feelings of being lost and scared rushed through my entire body, creating a spark in my head to tell my that I had to wake up, I must.
Very weakly, I cracked my eyes open, "There isn't much time left."

Damon smiled slightly as Stefan cracked his eyelids open, but the smile was wiped off his face when he heard Stefan tell him that there wasn't much time left. He had known that, of course, but he had hoped it was only his imagination, that Stefan still had a lot of time.

"I know." He replied, almost having to force the words out of his throat. He had never thought he'd feel that way again, that he would be so worried, so sad. Even as he tried to block out his emotions, they seemed to keep fighting their way back into his mind. He had to keep cool, he knew it, but he wasn't being able to do that very well. "I can't find anything Stefan, I'm trying, but I can't."

I numbly nodded as I felt a small amount of the pain fade away. My side was still throbbing from the pain.
I tried to lift my hand to touch the wound but found that everything was frozen and weak. My veins were still very pale blue.
"Damon, what if there is no cure?" I glanced up to his eyes.
I inhaled sharply and sighed, "If I don't make it, make sure Elena is safe." I kept my eyes locked with his, showing him that I was dead serious.