Prologue

This sounds like the beginning of a love story, not the end of one.

She stood away from the door, a door leading to either the love of her life, or more pain she could ever imagine. As Elena got the courage to move her legs, which were weak with fear, she braced herself. Ten years worth of more love, devotion, and pain she had ever imagined. Elena braced herself for the moment of impact if things didn't go her way.

She despised him, he had brought a tremendous amount of pain into her life, but even after everything Elena couldn't forget him. She wasn't able to remove him from her life, as much as she wanted to, and needed to, her was her hope. He gave her a sense of protection and devotion, and tonight, standing in his doorway, she knew she belonged with him. And tonight, there was nothing more Elena wanted then for him to reciprocate her feelings. He loved her once and he could love her again, couldn't he?

He once told her she was it, and that she was the only person in the world he could ever belong with. Whenever Elena doubted the two of them he would remind her of the passion they had, that their bond was unbreakable. But that was before everything, before she left him, before he gave up on her, before all the confusion of life got in the way. But for now none of it mattered, she just needed to spend of the rest of her life with him. He was the one.

Why was it like this? Why is it that something so wrong, can feel so right? This was never suppose to happen, by the age of 27 Elena was supposed to have married him. She should've had a family by now, not begging him to leave his.

But that was right, he had a family now. Why would he come back to her after everything? He had a wife, a very beautiful and successful wife who was pregnant. Elena felt idiotic for even thinking he would come back to her!

Everything was too complicated. Things had always been somewhat complicated, but that was them alright, whenever a complication rose they would always run away, but now it was time to fight. After everything they'd been through Elena had to fight her one last chance. It was now or never.

She walked slowly up to the black wooden door, trying to steady her breath. When she reached the door, Elena rang the doorbell as her hand continued to shake. She turned around, feeling as if her heart was loud enough for him to hear. Elena took a huge gulp of air, now worried to whether or not she looked ok. She hadn't even taken into consideration her appearance, she felt foolish as she started smoothening out her long brown tresses, wiping at the sides of her brown eyes to ensure there were no unwanted tears. For the rest Elena just hoped she looked ok.

After waiting for what had seemed like a lifetime, Elena could hear laughter coming from the other side of the wall. As the footsteps and laughter became louder, Elena silently prayed that this time things would go her way. As the door opened she turned around, trying to appear confident, but Elena's confident facade quickly faded the moment she saw his face. He was utterly shocked.

He had not been expecting this, not now, not ever. As he looked at her all of their memories rushed through his mind. He remembered being completely in love with her, wanting to know every detail about her, wishing they had eternity to spend together. But along with the good memories there were also awful ones. The heartbreak, the pain, and all the lonely nights when he drowned himself in Bourbon, they all came rushing back to him.

"Elena," he choked out. She could see all the emotions running through his mind. He tried to remain strong, keeping his face emotionless, but his eyes gave everything away. He looking simply breathtaking, his raven black hair was perfectly ruffled, his jaw perfectly sculpted, and his body was strong and muscular, but not bulky. Why did she ever let him go? He was easily every girl's dream.

"Damon," she finally said, her voice hallow, and her mind racing trying to find the right words to say. "How have you been?" Elena mentally cursed herself, out of all the things she could have possibly said. She looked at him, feeling as if his blue eyes could pierce through her skin.

"How have I been?" he chuckled with a sarcastic undertone, he didn't understand what she was doing here, but having her try to make conversation was infuriating him. "Well, gosh Elena, I've been doing fantastic!" She felt her heart drop, obviously she wasn't expecting a hug and a warm welcome, but nonetheless it still hurt.

Elena opened her mouth, ready to say something when the sound of Stefan's voice interrupted her, "Who is it? Damon you're missing the game!" He rolled his eyes, the combination of both Elena and Stefan was setting his nerves on fire. "Just shut the hell up, I'll be there in a minute." Damon was definitely not in the mood to play, his mind was too frustrated to be rational.

"Elena just get to the point," he snapped, his jaw filled with anger and tension. Damon was never one to play games, always determined to get down to business.

Elena shuddered; she was scared, this wasn't how this was supposed to go. "I came here to tell you something, to ask you this one important question," she looked at him with pleading eyes, and for a moment he showed remorse, but it disappeared as quickly as it came, "Do you still love me? Can you love me again?" Damon wanted to respond, but he didn't know his answer, he was quickly overwhelmed with conflict. She was the girl he thought he would be with forever, and feelings as powerful as that wouldn't just disappear over night. But after everything that had happened, he didn't know anymore.

But before Damon got the chance to answer Elena continued on, "Damon, I love you," her eyes started watering from all the emotions, "You know I still love you, and I never stopped loving you. You're it for me, you were the adventure when I played it safe, and you were the light when I was in complete darkness. You give me hope and strength. Damon, with you I forget every single thing that's around me. You make me feel alive again. I love you, Damon."

Hearing those words brought him much conflict, he wanted to be able to yes, to know she'd be loved, to never have to see her in pain, but he couldn't. Suddenly everything inside of him had turned to anger.

"What in the world makes you think you can just show up here!" He practically yelled, his face red with fury, his entire body was rigid and tense. As he looked at her he could see her face freeze, she turned pale, not from fright, but from knowing he didn't care about her anymore. "Fuck! It's just like you to do this, you know? Show up right out of the blue, and expect everything to be fucking okay! Well you know what? It is not okay, you do not show up on my doorstep and declare your so-called love and think we'll run away together. You're 27 years old, grow up, life isn't a sweet little fairytale."

She held back the tears in her eyes, trying to remain strong, "I know that Damon, but who would I be if I didn't at least try to make this right?" Her voice sounded fragile, all Elena had left was a tiny piece of hope that everything could work out after he had calmed down.

"You want to try to make this right?" he started laughing, "Of course you would. This is just like you. Elena you had a whole damn year to make this right!" He couldn't believe what she was saying, after all this time had she not learned anything? His chest constricted with anger, his eyebrows furrowed together, he closed his eyes for a moment.

"I know that, but every time I tried you wouldn't give me the chance," she desperately pleaded, looking up at him hoping he'd understand. At this moment all Elena wanted was to run away, hide and just cry, but she couldn't. She learned running away always just made things worse.

Damon rolled his eyes, he scoffed before he started speaking, "I didn't give you the chance," he hissed through his teeth, "who was the one that ran away? When things got hard you ran away! I needed you!"

"And I needed time, Damon! I needed to work things out!"

"We could've worked things out together!" he turned around and banged his hand against the wall. Elena had her arms around herself, trying to keep from falling apart, she no longer had the strength to keep the tears from falling. The two stayed in that same position for a moment.

Elena knew they were both on thin ice, that the chances of everything working out was slim, but she had to try, for the sake of her well being, she had to try. "We can still work things out, it's not too late. Damon if you still love me, then we can try to repair our relationship, we can still be together!"

Damon shook his head, he was no longer angry, but filled with pain. "Don't you see Elena? It is too late. Everything has changed. Things changed the day I proposed, it changed when I got married. Elena, it's too late."

"Why did you marry her?" Elena knew she was pushing it, "When you look at her do feel nothing but love? Damon, do you even love her?" He hesitated before speaking. Did he love her? He cared for her, but did he feel compassion and devotion? His answer was simple. No. He didn't love her, but he had to. "Yes, I love her." He mentally slapped himself for lying to Elena, he should've been honest, but that wouldn't accomplish anything. Elena looked at him, hurt by his words, "Do you love me?" Fuck. He mentally cursed. He should have expected this. Damon knew what he was about to say would send her into a spiral of pain, but he still couldn't get himself to say the truth. "No, I don't love you anymore."

That was all it took. Just a few simple words were enough to kill her inside. Elena broke; she no longer knew what to feel. This was all wrong, but it was the truth right? She came here expecting that this would happen. Though no matter what she prepared herself for, it still stung. She simply nodded, and offered a gentle smile.

Inside, Damon could his heart crush, the look on her face brought him an overwhelming amount of pain. He wanted to make things right, but he couldn't say the truth. "Elena, I'm sorry I..." she cut him off. "Damon, you're an amazing person, and you deserve the best in life. I want you to get everything you've ever wanted." She brought her arms around him, embracing him for the last time. She wanted nothing more than to linger a moment longer, to stay in that position forever. But she couldn't, she pulled apart bringing their hug to an end. "I love you," Elena reminded him, and smiled tasting her salty tears, which were now freely falling down her face, "Goodbye Damon."

As Elena turned around and started walking away, she left a speechless Damon to process what had happened. They were both suffering, and Damon wished he could have changed everything that happened in the past 4 years, but he couldn't. He didn't understand how after everything, she still managed to occupy part his heart. Damon returned to his penthouse, preparing for all the questions that were soon to come from a confused Stefan and Alaric. He walked to his bedroom to pick up his cellphone, and started dialing. "Hey, I miss you, come home, don't want to miss the big game, now would you," he smirked, he was trying to convince himself he had done the right thing, "I love you." That was the part of the truth wasn't it? He wouldn't have married her if he didn't love her right? He walked to his living room, avoiding any questions being asked, he needed to forget about her, and according to him Elena no longer existed.

Elena tried to remain strong as she walked away, but she finally let herself go the minute the elevator door shut. She'd been expecting this, she put her feelings out there, and there was nothing she could do to change the past. Elena pulled herself together before exiting the elevator; there were a few curious stares as her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She knew that at this moment she just needed to forget, she needed to forget him, and she needed to forget the past. Elena walked out of the building, hopping into the first cab she saw. She asked the cab driver to take her to the closest bar, which didn't even happen to be 5 minutes away. She paid the man and walked into the bar, sitting at the first stool she could find. "What will it be cutie?" the bartender asked, smiling evidently trying to get laid, "Three shots of your best Bourbon and something that will take all the pain away."

After her first couple drinks, Elena decided she would keep drinking until she couldn't remember whom "Damon" was. After an hour or so, Elena had started rambling to random strangers, she well intoxicated but she still clearly remembered him. "He doesn't know what he's missing. We could've been happy together, but now he gets to be happy, while I'm miserable. Life sucks." She started sobbing as she continued to confess, "We would've still been together," she cried, "Its all my fault, all of this is my fault." Elena understood inside her heart that she had caused all the pain, and that if she hadn't given up and ran away, they would've still been together. "It's all my fault."

Author's note: Hey! So I wrote this awhile back and I had just completely stopped writing it because I didn't feel inspired. But I'm deciding to pick it back up with a new plot that I'm sure you'll love. ;) So basically this is the prologue, so what I'm doing is we're going to find out how Elena and Damon got to this point. I know, I know this probably doesn't seem very original, but don't worry it will be! I'm going to try to post a new chapter every week, so try to check back every Friday! Wish me luck! And please review, I'm open to constructive criticism.