4. Try.

He was ready after a few days. Pack had recovered from their hangover and was waiting for him to tell them what to do. He came to the kitchen, took some food, and ate, Other Salvatores gave wolves, boys, and Mariella food, as Damon was in deep thought, he was all the time perfecting that scaffolding, because when most of the memory would be on, feelings would flow, one memory to next and that would attract more chips.

So scaffolding should be as comprehensive as possible and Damon had dug deep in those memories, good and bad, too. They had found her older memorial stones, with bittersweet feelings, and even though they had almost broken his heart, Damon had persevered and put those feelings in there too. There would be loose feelings in there too, to attract memories, and once he could see what was forming, he might help that memory form. He could not think of the future, not yet. Not until the baby existed in his arms and she would be fine. Then the future would may forward. 

After he had eaten and everyone was still waiting for him to react or act, he said, "Number two will be pack leader until I am done with Mimi, we will move to Chicago, and I take Mimi into our room, there are memories too. I shall not be disturbed in any way, and this takes what it takes, so patience is required. This is a hard time for us all, and my goal is to bring her back. After that, we will see what this pack life will be like."

His voice was firm. There was no room to argue or ask him anything. He had said how things would be and that's it. His word was the law as it should be. 

No one said anything, and everyone was ready to move. Damon texted Magnum that he could deliver Mimi to Chicago, not in that coffin, and once he got Mimi fixed, he would ask about that coffin because it had been Mimi's backup plan for some reason, and he was curious why she had built personal crematorium for herself.

He would not ask about that to Magnum, but it would be up to Miss herself to explain that to him. He felt like there was so much in Mimi that he just did not know; he did not know her as well as he knew Mariella. There were always her secrets, her reasons, and her stubborn refusal to share her soul. She would not share that even with Charles, not fully, and it somehow made Damon a little sad, because he had felt how wonderful it was to share one's soul with another and he would have wanted Mimi to feel it too. But then again, this whole mess would probably keep her in her shell and deep. Hurt, broken, and not belonging to him. Not anymore. 

He had thrown her out, in the worst possible way, taken everything from her. She was nothing for him, not even a vampire wife. He had broken the bond that was supposed to be unbreakable. 

They went by the portal room, and Magnum was there waiting. Mimi in his arms. Pain that tore through Magnum hit Damon too. Even though he was an ancient telepath, sometimes human emotions surprised him. Magnum was not human, not a mere mortal anymore, but not exactly supernatural yet. And he felt for Mimi so damn deep. All of those decades, those times in bed, they had some relationship again, one that he had no idea. And that seven years. There were some very deep feelings there. Damon was thinking someday about turning Magnum into a hybrid, maybe. 

Damon looked at Magnum and scroll in his arms. Wrapped in a sheet, as he saw her first time not in that coffin, Damon kept his expression, gestured with a soft grunt Magnum to follow, and led him into the door of that room. He did not say a word. He did not trust that his voice would hold. That week in that cellar, when Mimi was lifeless in his arms, was so damn clear in his mind. He then opened the door, letting Magnum inside, and Magnum put Mimi in bed, leaving the room and locking the door behind him. 

Now there was no one else, just he, his desperate attempt to bring her back. He could not even think of her name because this was so overwhelming. Damon walked to the bed, crawled into a suitable position, and took bedsheets from the old Chicago bedroom. This room was the same place where that original one had been and somehow it felt wonderful. He reached over and took Mimi in his arms, looking at her vacant gaze, feeling her skinny, bruised body that would require quite a workup. He let those tears come.

His voice was a sobbing whisper, his tears flowing, "I am sorry, baby, I will fix you, I will, you can trust that. My fault. Why do I have to be a stupid idiot? My baby, I will get you back."

He sobbed and pleaded, letting his emotions burst out from his soul like a giant wave of soul-deep anguish and pain. Only then he would be able to focus, but now he had to feel. He cried and tried to purr, but no purr came out.

Time had no meaning when he cried over losing her. He felt this pain in his soul and nothing at that moment, not even Mariella, could have helped him. This pain was too much, and he swore to himself that if he somehow could not do this, he would not want to exist and he understood so freaking well to boys and wolves. Their animal form was their sanctuary, shield from this pain. Mimi's body was alive in his arms, but her mind was lost and soon it would be time to start to work. He hoped he could be strong enough for her. To get her well.

Damon took his scaffolding, put it in the creature's mind, cast the spell in memory after memory, so long as he could hold those spells up and running, and waited. He could only hold on to 15 memories at the same time, and there were so many. But this would be a start, this would help. Slowly, one small chip moved, came closer, and was absorbed into the memory, then another. The pace was very slow at first; the chips were extremely small, but they were absorbed in the memory. Slowly but surely.

Damon held Mimi in his arms, stroking her and fixing her mind. He used as much of his power as he to reach all over this black void in her mind, trying to push those chips closer to the memories. It was hard work and took a lot out of him. It was like he would try to harness a sandstorm using a butterfly net.

He had to focus on this, not was time to hate, to rage, but by god, he wanted to do something about Nick and Angelus, something very nasty. He focused on chips in her mind.

Those chips were so small, but as he used his feelings as an attraction to them, he lured them closer. Got a few of them always combined, so chips weren't quite so small, not all of them. No one came near them. He remembered how he had first reacted to this room in the wrong way, but now, this was their place. He would put Baby right and fix her mind. Someday they will have a wonderful time here. 

There would go the time that would go. He sat in bed, Mimi in her arms, memory after memory splintered in her. When one memory got ready, all the chips were there. That memory came to be, started to play in her mind and he could feel her, ever so slightly.

He had his feelings fully open all the time in her mind as he got those chips coming into memories. There was always some new memory waking up and then there was a feeling already. He could kind of feel her, but only in those memories, not really her active mind. He fed her magic, kept the spell on, and didn't even notice when Mariella cannulated him and put the feeding IV in, but he wouldn't let anyone touch Mimi, even though she weighed a maximum of 19 kilos, a skeleton. Now was not the time to put the body back together, as now he was putting Mimi's mind back together.

Mariella stood in the doorway. She was tired; she was worried, and she had done so much work with getting boys back together. Damon had been putting Mimi back together for two months, and now Mimosa was seeing a future where Mimi was involved. Mariella was tired and irritable, but her days had been full as she had kept the other salvatores together, keeping them from falling into despair and self-loathing.

All the others did fuck, except number four. He refused to fuck, and he had gone into the living room, get a lot of booze, and started to drink. When Adam had said to her that this had been what this Damon did, always when Mimi had had some kind of trouble when he could not help, or it had been his fault, this one had started to drink. Never gone fucking. Time for that might come later.

Mariella was curious because there she had a whole new Damon, one she did not know who he was and how she could help him. Adam said bluntly that she couldn't. This one belonged to Mimi and he might react violently if irritated. So Mariella had no way to get this to stop drinking, not yet anyway.

She had fucked whoever she could to get something a little better and then moved on to the next crisis, likewise; the wolves had taken care of the four after she had gotten the boys back, and slowly the future looked a little better.

She had first started on Demon. He had been lying on the ground. His lust was all gone, he was all depressed, in his feline form. He was not aggressive, but sad, not reacting or eating. So Mariella had gone in, sat on the floor, taking him partly in her lap, starting to just stroke him, talking to him, and fixing his tanks. She had put her lust on his fur, let it soak in and into his tanks too, getting him fixed. It had taken a few days, and she knew Lepard would not be this easy. 

Lepard had gone feral. This meant he attacked anyone, did not recognize really anyone, and was a very dangerous creature and they had managed to secure him in one room. Mariella had told them not to go in there, she would fix him after she would get Demon in shape.

She stroked Demon, talked to him, filled his energy tank, and took out energies that he had gotten from Mimi, including her super powerful raw lust, which she had manipulated with her rage and willpower over the years, so it was super strong. Mariella put them in separate tanks and once Mimi would be fine, she would give them back to her. 

Mimi had given her energies away. Mariella had found it out. Mimi had in her last moments emptied all the rage, all of her energies into stones and then given them to everyone. But Damon had not touched those stones but boys had, and that, with the loss of her, had messed them up and properly.

Now what had then messed up Lepard was Mimi's rage and she had given lots of it. Mariella sighed in her mind and it would be one lesson for Mimi to learn to whom to give her rage. Damon would be the best candidate, not Lepard, because his rage was strong enough without Mimi's boosting it on, and Lepard had given into Mimi's rage, going feral. This would be properly something that Damon would have to teach Mimi in a way that sinks in one go.

Mariella cursed these lessons, where Mimi always paid such a heavy price, and she knew that somewhere in between, there would be an enormous explosion. The Salvatore rage would surface when Damon would get himself together and see what Mimi was going through.

She had tried to get Mimi a cannula, too, but Damon had put so much psychic pressure on her she didn't dare interfere. She had gotten Damon cannulated and given him food and fluids, but not Mimi. But that time would come, and Mariela didn't even know how this was going to play out yet.

She sat down on a sofa, remembering how hard it was to get Lepard back together. She had gone to that room five days after she had gotten Demon back to be his seductive self and she had put wolves to care for him and salvatores who were in the mood few of them were and she had noticed number two sitting with four and drinking. 

The room had been dimly lit as she stepped in, smelling the danger clearly. Psychic pressure was almost overwhelming at first, and then she felt Damon shielding her thoughts. Lepard's low growl had come somewhere from that dim space and she had flicked the light switch, so the room was lit properly. And she could see him, growling with his ears to his skull, his teeth exposed, growl and hiss coming from his mouth. Mariella sat in the middle of the room. She took Lepard's favorite brush, the one that Mimi used to brush him with, and she waited. 

She spoke casually, like this was a normal situation. "Come on, let me brush you a bit, your fur is all messy, daddy is putting Mimi back together, trust him but he can't focus on her while you push so much psychic pressure in my mind so he has to protect me, so he can't help Mimi now. You want him to help her? Get her back."

The cat was silent, and the pressure disappeared from her mind. The cat slunk a little closer, Mariella reached into her pocket and took out her secret weapon, a little spray bottle, and called with her magic a few big cardboard boxes. She sprayed it a few times into a cardboard box and put it closer to that feline. it was super strong catnip. 

Lepard smelled that and then got into the box, starting to squirm and wriggle, letting the catnip take an effect. Mariella crept closer, starting to brush him again, fixing his tanks, taking Mimi's rage away from him, his own was blown wide open and his mind was a mess. This took time, and several times, Lepard almost attacked her. She kept talking to him, knowing that he would need a lot of unpacking at some point with her and Damon, too.

But her goal was getting him out of this feral state, so wolves could manage and help him just a bit. All the time Mariella felt every Salvatore, their desperation, longing for Mimi and so many fears that Mimi would not get better. But she had to focus on Lepard now. It took five days for her to get him calm enough so he was not attacking her and he recognized her. It was time for the next phase then. 

She changed into a female leopard and got in position, raising her backside, putting her tail aside, and went near Lepard. He was not willing, not at first until Mariella pushed him, flooding her lust for sex straight in his fur and letting it soak in. She knew that this would be a rough ride but she could take this and once worse was over, wolves had their hands full with this one. But she needed to get him to fuck her and brutally, too. 

She felt him coming closer, taking her scruff and then mating with her, doing it fast and efficiently, fine. Mariella started to wriggle, fight back, and for real, so Lepard had to use more force to keep her still, and then finally he got brutal. He started to fuck her in earnest, with force, brutality, and passion.

Mariella took it all in and this was most of the time quite damn painful, but there was little pleasure too she was taken the most animalistic way possible. Not even Damon had ever been this rough with her, and she started to slowly enjoy it. She was a kind of adrenaline and pain junkie as well. With pain came the pleasure and with pleasure she felt like she would explode.

After three days, she called wolves in this play too, making them irritate Lepard as well, so he began to fuck them too. And roughly. Mariella stayed there for a day to see that wolves could take him and there was no setback. This had been so fucking close call so she did not want him to revert into a feral state.

She rose from the couch where she had sat and thought about the last week with Lepard. She had showered and gotten herself odorless so she would not upset Damon and soon it was time for her again to try to support Damon and then all the others, too. She felt their need, their desperation, but number one was always her priority.

Then she was ready to go again and see where Damon was getting Mimi into shape. He used so much of his energies and powers, his feelings. And Mariella was now loaded up with Mimi's rage, her energies and she went in, giving an enormous pile of them to Damon. He could use them too, on himself and on Mimi too.

When she got in the room, Damon was smiling at Mimi and purring. It was still very soft, barely audible, but he was purring.

He lifted his gaze to Mariella and said, "She exists. She is aware, not much, but she is.."

Mariella said, "Wonderful, dear, will you let me cannulate her?"

He pulled Mimi tighter in his lap, shielding her and putting pressure on Mariella's mind.

She said, "Fine, I won't touch her. I just changed your nutrition. Here are her energies and her rage too. She had given these to boys, drove them mad, and I got them back, so use them."

He just nodded and Mariella got in her mind that she should leave there. So she left and went to tell everyone good news, hoping that things would get only better from now on.