Author’s Note: This was written for ‘Spankvent’ over on the LiveJournal Group spanking_world. It’s a ‘Vampire Diaries’ fanfiction that takes place after Season 3 Episode 1 and during Season 3 episode 2. Specific spoilers for both episodes. This is how the episode would have gone if I’d been writing it. The prompt was: “The Vampire Diaries - post 3x01 - Damon told Elena to stop looking for Stefan because it was dangerous, but she didn't listen.”
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, and I’m not making any money from this story.
Warning: Non-consensual spanking of an adult
Checked Out
Elena listened intently to the silence on the other end of the cell phone, hoping that Stefan would say something, and praying that he’d taken her words of encouragement to heart. She heard the soft click of him hanging up, and took the phone away from her ear. She stared at the screen that told her the call had ended, until it became blurry with her tears.
Not wanting Jeremy to hear her, she set the phone down on her dresser, closed her bedroom door, turned off her light, and climbed into bed where she could muffle her crying into her pillow.
Her eighteenth birthday had sucked. If this was what adulthood was like, she didn’t want anything to do with it. She hadn’t wanted a party in the first place, but Caroline had insisted. Then she’d asked for a small party, but Caroline had basically invited the entire school to come drink and party at Damon’s house. She’d seen her little brother smoking pot again even though he’d told her he was done with that.
Then she’d found out that Damon had been searching for Stefan behind her back. He’d been lying to her for months, and keeping vital information from her. She’d confronted him, and he’d told her Stefan was the one who’d been leaving a trail of bodies because he’d flipped his switch. But she refused to believe that. Then Damon had had the audacity to tell her… no, to order her… to stop searching for Stefan because he was a lost cause. She had to bury her face in the pillow at that thought to keep the sobs quiet.
If that wasn’t bad enough, after the party when she’d gotten home, she’d found Alaric packing up his stuff. The one adult that she thought she could count on, the one who’d been sleeping on their couch all summer so she and Jeremy wouldn’t be alone, he’d up and left her. He’d given her a depressing speech about not being any kind of role model, and then told her she would be better off on her own now that she’d turned eighteen. Elena couldn’t help but wonder if she’d pushed him away by asking him to talk to Jeremy about the pot. Wishing she could take it back, she cried even harder.
To finish off her horrible day, she’d gotten the silent phone call from an unknown number. She knew in her heart it was Stefan, and told him to keep having faith that things were going to work out, but right about now, she needed someone to tell her that. The love of her life was out there somewhere with that murderous psychopath, Klaus, and being forced to kill humans left and right, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She put a hand on her necklace. The one Stefan had given her. She’d thought she’d lost it, but Damon had found it and given it back to her today. That had been the one and only bright spot in her entire day. She held it close and prayed that Stefan would eventually come home to her.
# # #
The next morning, Elena woke up to a bright sunny day, and told herself that nothing could be that awful on such a cheery looking morning. She forced herself to stop wallowing in self-pity about the day before, and to focus instead on what to do next. She clasped her necklace in her fingers and felt a renewed sense of purpose. She was going to find Stefan, and she was going to make her friends help her out, even if they didn’t want to. It was a Saturday, so she had all day to work on it.
After getting ready for the day, she grabbed her phone and went to speak with Sheriff Forbes. The older woman discreetly tracked the phone call Stefan had made, and gave the address to Elena. Once Elena saw how close Stefan had been, she immediately went to see Alaric.
After banging on his apartment door for several seconds, a sleepy looking Alaric answered.
“You’re not who I was expecting,” he said, buttoning up his pants.
She walked in and said bluntly, “I need you to tell me everything you and Damon know about Stefan.”
Alaric pulled a shirt on and said, “Did you miss the part where I checked out of all this?”
“I’m just asking for information. I know Stefan is in Tennessee. He’s four hours away. If you know what he’s doing there, you have to tell me.”
Alaric sighed and shook his head. “It’s dangerous, and pointless. Damon told me that Stefan flipped his humanity switch, so even if you could find him, it wouldn’t really be him anymore. You’re better off staying home and staying out of this mess.”
“I can’t do that, because I’m not the kind of person who checks out.” She knew that was a bit of a low blow, but she didn’t care. She was tired of people telling her what she should do. “Stefan would never give up on me, and I’m not going to give up on him, and I’m sure he didn’t flip his switch, because he called me last night.”
“He called you?”
“Yes, that’s how I know he’s in Tennessee. Please, Rick?”
With a loud sigh, Alaric started to tell her everything he knew. He told her that Klaus and Stefan were tracking werewolves, and showed her a map of where they’d been.
After they’d gone over everything, Elena cajoled Alaric into coming with her to talk to Tyler, the only werewolf she knew. They met Tyler at the Mystic Grill, and Alaric headed straight to the bar while Elena and Tyler talked.
# # #
Elena’s day was looking brighter and brighter with every decision she made. Tyler had been extremely helpful, and had told her about a wilderness preserve in Tennessee where he knew a pack liked to camp during the full moon. He’d pinpointed it to a ten mile radius on a map for her.
With that map, she truly believed she would be able to find Stefan before the day was over. When she gave Alaric the great news, he simply stared at her for several seconds.
“So let me get this straight,” he said. “You want to leave right now, drive over to this wilderness preserve in Tennessee, and hike around looking for Stefan, who’s still hanging out with Klaus, on the night of a full moon where a werewolf pack is camping. Does that about sum it up?”
“No, during the day before the full moon. We’ll be out of there before nightfall.”
“We?”
“Well, I guess I could go by myself, but…”
He glared at her. “By yourself? Are you insane?”
She glared back. “I’m going, with or without you.”
Alaric closed his eyes for a moment and then capitulated, “Fine. But we’re stopping at my apartment first to gear up with wolfsbane and crossbows.”
“Great.” She pulled her biological father’s magical ring out of her purse and held it out to him. “Wear this.”
Alaric shook his head. “John left that for you.”
“I’m a doppelganger, so it won’t protect me, but it will protect you. I’d feel awful if you went out there to help me and then got killed. If you’re wearing this, you can’t die.”
“Just for today,” he said as he took it out of her hand and slid it on.
# # #
Ten minutes later they walked into Alaric’s apartment together. Elena froze when she saw Damon sitting on one of Alaric’s barstools.
“Thanks, man. I’ve got it from here,” Damon said.
Elena’s eyes snapped to Alaric’s. “You ratted me out?”
“Did you really think I was going to let you go on a suicide mission to find his brother without calling him?” Alaric asked.
“I don’t see why not, since you had no problem looking for Stefan without his girlfriend all summer.”
Alaric shook his head and muttered, “I’ll wait in the car.”
“Wait for what?” Elena asked, but the older man simply walked out and shut the door behind him.
Elena turned back to face Damon, only to find the vampire standing inches away from her. She automatically backed up a step, but he followed her, and then grabbed her upper arm so she couldn’t back away again.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked between clenched teeth, his eyes narrowed dangerously.
She lifted her chin, glared into his eyes and said, “Finding Stefan.”
His lips pressed together with frustration. He let go of her arm, and gestured wildly as his voice went up. “To what end, Elena? What do you expect will happen when you find him? He’ll see you and magically everything he’s done all summer will fade into the background, and he’ll come home and go back to being the doting boyfriend?”
“Of course not!” She didn’t appreciate his sarcastic tone of voice. “But maybe seeing me will make him want to stop killing people.”
“He flipped his switch, Elena! Seeing you is going to make him want to kill you!”
“No,” she said with certainty. “He called me last night. He wouldn’t do that if he’d flipped his humanity switch.”
That stopped Damon’s tirade. “He called you?”
“Last night.”“What did he say?”
“Well… nothing, but I know it was him. Sheriff Forbes traced the call. That’s how I know he’s in Tennessee.”
Damon glared at her again, and said, “How do you know it wasn’t Klaus on the other end of that phone call setting a trap for you?”
“Because Klaus thinks I’m dead!” she said with exasperation.
“And we’re going to keep it that way!” Damon yelled. He took a deep breath and visibly tried to stay calm. “If Stefan hasn’t flipped his switch, do you really think he would want you putting yourself in danger to go find him?”
“No, but if I were in trouble he’d put himself in danger for me.”
“Because he’s a vampire! You’re a human!” Damon shouted.
“That doesn’t matter!”
Damon was quiet for several seconds, and then shook his head. “I’m done trying to reason with you. You’re not going. Period. End of story.”
Elena shook her head, even angrier than before. “You can’t order me around, Damon. This is my life, my decision. I’m going, no matter what you say or do.”
He moved into her space again, grasped her upper arm and leaned in close. Furiously calm he said, “I will tie you to a chair, and hold you hostage for a week before I let you get yourself killed on this suicide mission.”
There was no doubt in her mind that he meant every word, and she knew he would follow through with his threat. Her frustration and anger came bubbling up to the surface, and she reacted without thinking. Her hand made contact with his face in a loud slap.
Silence filled the room for several seconds. He kept his eyes on the floor instead of looking at her. She could tell he was livid but she didn’t care. She said with a furious calm of her own, “I’ll never stop trying to find him, no matter what you do to me.”
His eyes snapped to hers. “No matter what I do to you?” He slowly shook his head. “You have no idea how far I’m willing to go to keep you safe, do you?”
After two years of putting up with his brand of protection, she had a pretty good idea. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll find Stefan eventually, one way or another.”
A grunt of frustration came out of Damon, and he started towing her to the kitchen table.
“Damon?” she asked with a hint of worry.
“I should have done this the first time you went on a suicide mission.” He turned one of the kitchen chairs around, sat down in it, and yanked her face down across his lap.
“Ah!” she gasped in surprise as she found herself staring at Alaric’s kitchen floor.
He wrapped an arm around her waist, and started smacking the seat of her jeans.
“Damon!” she screeched, “Let me go!”
“Promise me you’re going to stop looking for Stefan, and I will!” he said, still spanking.
“No!”
He started spanking even harder, and muttered, “Stubborn.”
“Ow! Damon, stop!”
“No,” he said firmly while continuing the assault on her rear end.
She kicked and squirmed to get away, even though she knew it was futile. “I hate you! This won’t change anything! You could beat me every day, and I wouldn’t stop looking for Stefan!”
Damon’s hand stopped landing. “Beat you?” he scoffed. “I would never beat you, Elena, and if you think this is a beating… on second thought, let’s hope you never know the difference.” He used both hands to reach under her and unsnap her jeans.
“What are you doing?!” She put both hands back to try to hold onto her jeans.
“Spanking you. Obviously.” He easily yanked the jeans out of her hands, and pushed them down to her knees.
“Damon!” she put her hands back on his thigh to try pushing herself away without success.
“Nice panties,” he said while rubbing his hand over her scarcely covered rear end. “Unfortunate choice for a spanking though,” he noted as his hand moved to the unprotected skin on the lower half of her bottom.
“You have no right!” She tried to push herself off his lap again, but he easily held her in place.
“When has that ever stopped me?” he asked before raising his hand up to continue spanking.
“Owww!” Elena yelped and kicked. The pain was much more intense without the protection of her jeans. “Damon stooop!”
“No, you stop, Elena!” he yelled sounding almost desperate. “Stop. Trying. To. Get. Yourself. Killed.” He slapped the uncovered area of her ass hard to punctuate each word.
“Owww! I’m not!” she yelled while ineffectually slapping at his ankle in frustration.
He shook his head, clenched his jaw, and started spanking her thighs.
“Aaah!” Her body flailed to get away from the pain for a couple of seconds and then she lost the struggle to stay angry, and simply started to cry. Loud heaving sobs came from her chest.
Damon’s hand stopped mid-swing, and his frustrated and determined expression slowly melted away into one of remorse. He sighed and started rubbing her pink rear end. “Okay,” he said gently, “it’s all over.”
“N-No it’s n-not!” she stuttered out through her tears.
He turned her over, so she was sitting in his lap, and pulled her into a hug. “It is. I promise.”
She clutched his shirt with both hands, and pressed her face into his chest. She couldn’t stop the words that started tumbling out of her mouth in between gasps for breath, and she wouldn’t stop them even if she could. “Nothing will be over until Stefan is home. He’s out there alone and hurting, and he needs our help. You and Rick keep hiding the truth from me, and treating me like my opinion doesn’t matter. You decided to give up on Stefan because you think he flipped his switch, but he didn’t. Rick decided to move out because he thinks he’s a bad role model, but he’s not. He said I could handle things better on my own, but then when I tried to handle things on my own, he called you. You keep telling me to stop looking for Stefan, but I can’t give up on him, because that’s not who I am. I don’t check out on the people I love, and you can’t spank that out of me!”
He held her close during her rambling, but then when she was done, he put both his hands on the sides of her face, and pulled her away from his chest so he could look into her eyes. She could see the sincerity in his face as he spoke.
“I’m not trying to get you to stop caring, Elena. I never want you to stop caring. But I need you to put yourself on the list of people you care about.” He wiped some of her tears away with his thumbs. “It’s fine that you want to protect and save the people you love, but not at your own expense.”
She gently placed her hand against the side of his face, and entreated, “Please help me get him back. Work with me instead of trying to keep me in the dark, and I promise I’ll work with you to stay as safe as possible while we look for him.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, as if looking at her was physically painful. With a deep frown he said, “Fine.” He opened his eyes again and glared at her. “We’ll go look for Stefan at the wilderness preserve, but once we get there, you are going to follow every single order Rick or I give you.”
“Really?” she asked, looking shocked.
“Yes, really. Don’t make me regret it.” He took his hands off her, purposely looked away from her body, and said, “Get up and fix your pants, having you half-naked on my lap is distracting.”
Scowling at him, she jumped up and yanked her jeans into place. “I’m not the one who took them off,” she reproached him, and then belatedly muttered, “Ow.” She buttoned her jeans and then rubbed at her sore backside and pouted. “That really hurt, Damon.”
He stood and turned the chair back around. “I hope you’re not expecting an apology.” He leaned into her personal space yet again, and said with conviction, “If you ever decide to do something suicidal again without consulting me, I will spank you every day for a week, no matter how much it hurts me…” He scowled and shook his head. “I mean you. No matter how much it hurts you.”
She looked into his eyes for several seconds, and then said softly, “I forgive you.”
“What?”
“I forgive you,” she repeated.
“I didn’t apologize!”
“I know, but I forgive you anyway.”
Damon scowled, picked up Alaric’s bag of hunting supplies, and gestured towards the door. “Go get in the car, Elena.”
# # #
Damon tossed the bag in the backseat of Alaric’s car and held the door for Elena to get in as well.
“What’s this?” Alaric asked once Damon was in the passenger seat.
With an exasperated frown Damon said, “We’re taking her with us.”
“That wasn’t the plan.” Alaric looked back at Elena and opened his mouth to argue, but stopped when he saw her face. “You’ve been crying.”
Elena blushed and looked away.
He scowled at Damon and asked angrily, “What did you do to her, Damon?”
Damon said, “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. We argued, I spanked her, and then…”
“You what!?” Alaric yelled.
Damon glared at his friend and said slowly, “I spanked her. And if you’d been born a hundred years ago, you would have spanked both her and Jeremy by now, so please spare me the lecture. You don’t get any say in what happens to her anyway, Rick, because you, my friend, have checked out. If you don’t like the way I handle things with her, then you’d better check the hell back in.”
Alaric turned back to Elena, and said softly, “I’m so sorry, Elena. Are you okay?”
Elena nodded, wanting this excruciatingly embarrassing discussion to be over as quickly as possible.
“Of course she’s okay,” Damon said, clearly offended.
Alaric’s eyes snapped back to Damon’s. “You, get out of the car.”
“What?” Damon asked.
Alaric opened his door, stepped out of the car, and said, “Get out. You and I are going to have a talk before we go.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Damon got out, and slammed his door shut.
Alaric stuck his head back in to look at Elena and said gently, “Wait right here for just a minute.”
“Rick…” she said, but he shut the door, cutting her off.
She leaned up so she could watch the two men through the windshield. Alaric’s back was to her, so she couldn’t tell what he was saying, but he seemed to be quite animated about it, gesturing wildly with his hands as he spoke. Damon crossed his arms, pursed his lips, and suffered through whatever Alaric had to say to him. Once Alaric was done, Damon said one word. Elena wasn’t much of a lip reader, but it had sure looked like he’d said ‘fine’. Alaric pointed a finger at Damon’s chest and talked some more. Damon held his hands up in a surrendering gesture and said loudly with irritation, “I said, fine! Can we go now?”
Both men headed back to the car, and Elena scooted back. Once they were sitting down, Alaric turned back to her and said softly, “When we get home tonight, I’m moving back in with you and Jeremy.”
“You are?”
He nodded and glared in Damon’s direction. “I’m officially checking the hell back in.”
Elena leaned up and surprised Alaric with a tight hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He hugged her back for a few seconds and then said, “Come on, let’s go find your boyfriend.”
Elena put her seatbelt on, and smiled even though sitting was uncomfortable. She had complete faith that now that they were all working together, they would eventually be able to bring Stefan home.
The End
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