A/N: I just wanted to explore how Damon and Elena might handle the situation with the cure. I'm also incorporating some filming spoilers for 6x20! If you guys like the story, let me know and I'll keep going. There would probably only be one or two more parts!

Thanks for reading!

"Will you go somewhere with me this weekend?"

Elena was thrown off-guard by how uncharacteristically tentative Damon's voice was. "Why wouldn't I? Why do you sound so weird?" She wished they were having this conversation in person instead of over the phone so she could see his facial expressions.

"Well, I'm not exactly proposing a weekend at the lake. I want to take you back to 1994 for a couple of days."

"The prison world?" Elena blurted incredulously. "Why in the hell would we go back there?"

Damon sighed. "It's hard to explain, but there are some things we need to talk about. Something I need to tell you. And I just…" his voice trailed off for a moment before he continued, "I want to tell you there."

"Okay?" Elena said, still confused, but willing to go along with his plan. "You sound really serious. Should I be worried?"

"No!" Damon was quick to answer. "Not worried. Nothing is wrong, I promise."

"Okay," Elena said, a little less anxiously. "So, you'll ask Bonnie to take us back?"

"I already talked to her about it, actually. She's going to zap us over there and wait at her Grams' old house until we're ready to go back."

"Right then," Elena said in agreement. "I'll see you tonight."

"You both ready?" Bonnie said, looking back and forth between them. Seeing them both nod in assent, she began the spell.

Once they were transported, Bonnie looked around warily. "I hate this place," she muttered. Raising her eyebrows at Damon in a clear 'You Owe Me!' expression, she mouthed "good luck" before nodding at them both and gesturing toward town. "I'll meet you at my Grams' house when you're ready to go back."

"Are you finally going to tell me what this is all about?" Elena demanded as soon as they were alone.

Damon grabbed her hand and started leading her toward town before nodding. "Yeah, let's go."

Elena took one last look at the empty plot where her parents' graves would one day stand as they left the cemetery.

Surprised when Damon walked past the road leading to the Salvatore house, Elena glanced at him. "We aren't staying at home?"

"In a manner of speaking," Damon said. "We're actually headed to your old home."

"Is that why you brought me back here? To see my old house?"

"That, and the old Mystic Falls. Your house is still standing. Your parents' graves haven't been dug. All the people that have been killed by vampires in the past few years are still alive. I know we can't see them right now, but this place represents the past. A version of the town that doesn't exist anymore."

As Damon spoke, they reached the Gilbert house and settled down on the porch swing. "Before I tell you why I made you come here, I just wanted you to remember how things used to be. How innocent the town was before the tomb vampires were released. Before Stefan and I moved back. Before Katherine, the Originals and everything else that has happened. When you were a normal high school girl living in this house with your brother."

"Damon…" Elena started, trying to decide how she felt about the turn the conversation was taking. "Why does the past suddenly matter so much? We can't change anything."

Damon jerked at Elena's statement and she met his gaze in astonishment. "Damon! What is going on with you?"

Meeting her eyes, he turned to face her and grabbed both her hands in his. "What if you could change things, Elena? Get back a piece of the past that you've lost?"

"I…don't…" Elena shook her head in confusion. She could tell from his expression that Damon was deeply serious about whatever he was saying, but she had no idea what he was trying to get across.

He blew out a breath before continuing. "Remember when we convinced the nutjob to help us contact Bonnie on her birthday?"

"Yeah…" Elena said slowly. "She was upset, and Jeremy went back to save her."

"Right," Damon nodded. "But before that, we talked about getting her to see the atlas with my notes on Nova Scotia."

"So she could get the headstone," Elena said quickly, starting to lose her patience with the conversation.

"And you asked me what made me think of Nova Scotia to begin with, remember?"

"Yeah, so?"

Damon smiled sadly. "Not an hour went by in this place that I didn't think of you. Being here, at your house, made me wonder how much better off you'd have been if you'd never met me or my brother. You'd probably still be living here with Jeremy…and hell, maybe even Jenna."

"Damon," Elena interrupted. "What the hell! Why are you talking about all of this?"

He squeezed his eyes shut for a few tense seconds before releasing one of her hands to reach into his coat pocket. "Because Bonnie knew why I wanted to go to Nova Scotia, and she brought me a little souvenir from her trip."

Starting to get an idea of where this was heading, Elena jerked out of the swing. "Damon…" she said warningly as she backed away from him.

He smiled sadly at her as he held out his hand. "The cure," he said quietly.

Elena stared at his hand like it was a snake about to strike. "I don't even – I can't believe…" she said haltingly, her voice faint.

"I can't either," Damon said grimly, his expression unreadable.

Finally meeting his gaze, Elena's pupils were dilated with shock. "You were planning to get that for me? You want me to…?"

Damon shrugged. "When Bonnie first handed it to me, I wanted to shove it down the garbage disposal. This damn thing haunted me when you first became a vampire, and apparently it's the gift that keeps on giving."

"So why are you even telling me about it?"

Damon sighed. "Because, Elena. I'm a selfish asshole. I spent the better part of a century and a half not caring about anybody but myself." He stood up as he spoke and walked toward Elena until he was standing directly in front of her. As he pressed the cure into her hands, he continued in a soft voice, "But what I want doesn't matter, not when it comes to you."

"Damon," Elena whispered, unable to say anything else.

Still meeting her gaze determinedly, Damon managed a weak smile. "You didn't want to be a vampire, Elena. This isn't the life you wanted for yourself. You wanted to grow up, have a career, get married with kids and a picket fence and the whole human experience." Damon waved his hands in the air. "Now, you can have all of that back."

"But what about you? And Caroline and Stefan?" Elena shook her head, still in a great deal of shock.

Damon shrugged. "What about us? Taking this doesn't mean dying. We'll all still be here."

Elena took a few steps back, trying to wrap her head around what was happening. "So you actually want me to take it?"

"This isn't about me," Damon shook his head. "This is about you and having the chance to get back the life you deserve!"

"So you brought me back to 1994 to shove the cure in my hands and send me on my merry way?"

"I brought you back here to tell you that the normal, human life you thought was gone forever is actually possible again!" Damon snapped.

"Most of my friends are supernatural, Damon! I was a doppelganger even before I was a vampire! I'm pretty sure a normal life was never in the cards."

Damon scrubbed his hands through his hair. "What do you want me to say, Elena?"

Staring at the cure in her hands, Elena sighed. "I want you to tell me why you're really doing this."

Damon growled under his breath and paced impatiently for a few moments before finally exploding. "I'm doing this because I love you, Elena! I fell in love with you when you were human and obsessed with my brother. And I've loved every version of you since! When you turned, when your emotions were off, it didn't matter. Even now that we're standing here and you don't even remember going through any of that with me, I still love you. All I've ever wanted is for you to be happy. If that means you taking the cure, then that's what I want for you." He looked at her desperately.

Staring back and forth between Damon and the cure, Elena stepped forward and reached out to touch his cheek. "Damon," she said softly, her voice deep with emotion. "I can't believe you'd actually…" her voice trailed off and she staggered back a few steps.

Damon reached out to steady her. "Elena?" he asked in concern.

She gripped his arm. "Do you hear that?" she asked breathlessly.

…It was my birthday…It was the most selfless that he's ever been…I knew how much it hurt him, but he did it…for that moment, I loved him…

The last thing Elena registered before passing out was Damon's worried voice asking "Hear what?"