AN: After watching the latest episode, and after talking with my lovely beta (thanks, Mariah, you're the best), this one-shot was begging to be written…from Damon's POV. We think that it'd be a stellar (and angsty) twist if, when Damon returns, that Ric is unable to compel Elena to remember her feelings for Damon. ~Kate

Note: I highly recommend you listen to Gabrielle Aplin's "The Power of Love" because it was all I listened to while writing this one-shot. Also, I'm super nervous about it because it's written in a tense that I'm not all too familiar with, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Everyone has memories that stand out more than others. A picture is nice, and sure, it tells a thousand words and all that jazz, but memories…well…they carry a little more weight. And believe me I've lived long enough to have a two ton cache of special ones.

There's the memory of Katherine's revelation that she never loved me. Hurt like a bitch at the time, but it opened my eyes to the waste of a non-life I'd been living. Dark hair with matching eyes and a smirk that rivaled mine nearly drove me insane on multiple occasions. I call this one special in a learn-from-your-mistakes kind of way.

I remember the exact moment my humanity switch snapped back to the ON setting and it hit me like a brick to the face. I blamed Lexi back in '77 for reminding me of everything shitty in my life, but she'd never been the problem. I was the problem, and the first step to solving one is admitting there IS one. I eventually found my way back to Team Good…okay, well it's still a work in progress but I think I deserve an A for effort.

Then there's the day that I met and immediately fell in love with Katherine's descendent. Looks like she could be her twin but she's a spitfire with eyes that shine brighter than the damn stars in the sky and a smile that threatens to knock me on my ass every time it's directed at me. Yeah, she's a doppleganger, but the difference is that her heart isn't black with hate and all things nasty.

And then there's the worst day of my life.

Bonnie and I both made it back to our loved ones. Jeremy and Bon-bon's reunion caused my stomach to roil, but when I saw Elena again? Nothing, and I mean nothing, will be able to describe that moment.

She didn't know I was looking, didn't have the slightest clue that I was standing there, frozen solid and unable to move a muscle. I'd imagined what I would do when I saw her again in a million different ways, whether I'd go through all out with sweeping her up into my arms, dipping her into a romantic sloppy kiss, or if I'd simply touch her cheek, give myself a minute to believe that she was real, or maybe…you get the point. Lots of scenarios, but never once did I bank on being stunned motionless at seeing my girl again.

I'd always thought Elena was a looker, long legs and doe-like eyes that always saw right through my bullshit, but in that solitary second of laying eyes on her everything was magnified ten-fold. She was literally the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, bar none. I mean, my fucking eyes welled – it physically hurt to look at her, and I didn't have a fucking clue how I'd survived 4 months without my very own, personal ray of good in my life.

But then she looked at me, and that light got snuffed out like a candle that had been burning too long.

I'd spent God knows how long imagining the expression in her eyes at seeing me again, but all I got when she finally realized I was standing there was a wary emptiness. Something else lingered there too but I couldn't focus on it long enough to figure it out. All I knew was that was not Elena, my Elena, staring back at me. That wasn't my girl. That wasn't the girl who'd crossed over to the Other Side with me and refused to leave my side.

I didn't know this girl. And I'll admit it…I was scared shitless.

"Elena?" I remember my voice sounded strangled, barely audible – even for one of our kind. I couldn't help it, something was strangling my vocal cards with an iron grip and I'm pretty sure that thing was fear.

"Damon?"

I broke. Not a damn thing. No bright eyes, no smile, just a look of confusion and a small tilt of her head that might as well have been a wooden stake to the heart.

She didn't recognize me. Not in the way that mattered.

"You're alive," she stated with a quiet gasp of surprise and what the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn't spin her around or ambush her with kisses like I'd wanted. I couldn't tell her how much I love her like I'd wanted.

The instant I took a tentative step toward her, she took a step away. I reached out to her, and she stared at my hand with wide, wary eyes like I was a stranger and she was the child I was trying to trick into getting in my car. It was clear that she knew who I was – the voice I'd missed so much had said my name…but this Elena did not like me. This Elena could barely tolerate the sight of me.

But after agonizing seconds, it clicked.

My jaw went tight and I couldn't restrain the bite in my tone. "What happened to you?" I demanded, vowing then and there that whatever happened, I'd make it right. Her brows dipped, and she looked over my shoulder while biting her lip…a nervous habit I'd always loved but in that moment hated more than anything I'd ever hated in my hundred-plus years on this planet.

"Damon."

I whipped around so fast that the world spun, but I locked onto Ric. His jaw tightened and I knew whatever the hell she had done – he'd helped. I could see it. He looked at me, but not at me. And then he looked at Elena.

And I remember losing it.

"What the hell did you do?" I choked out in a pathetic attempt at a snarl and he gave a helpless shrug that really made me want to sock him.

"I –"

"What the hell did you do, Ric?" I forced my voice to be stronger, louder, knowing it wouldn't change anything about the situation but needing to control something - even if it was just my fucking voice.

"He helped me."

That voice was a bullet through my non-beating heart and I slowly turned around, surprised to find her a blur in front of me. I hadn't planned on some big, tear-filled reunion – at least not on my part. I'd pictured Elena being the mess, not me. And yet…

"Helped you how, Elena?"

It was her turn to look guilty. She shuffled back and forth, and I was pretty sure if she kept rocking her foot into the ground she was gonna leave a hole in the carpet.

"I don't remember loving you," she finally admitted, meeting my eye for a fleeting second. "He compelled me to forget."

Months ago, when we'd been splitsville, I probably would have rejoiced at hearing those words. But not now, not after weeks upon weeks of not being able to hear my favorite voice…it was almost enough to make me take my ring off. To snap a piece of Ric's old furniture and drive it into my chest.

I tried to shake the shock of her news. "Okay." I glared at Ric. "Then uncompel her. Now."

He dropped his gaze before finding mine again. "I can't."

What little self-restraint I'd held onto was slipping away real fucking quick and, Elena being Elena, stepped in between the two of us, wanting to prevent a fight between two unkillable beings. "He tried, but…we think there's something about Esther's magic that's preventing him from undoing it."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It's like her mind is a VHS tape, Damon." Ric's voice was solemn and Elena was the only reason I kept my hands to myself rather than plunging them inside of his chest and squeezing his heart. "You can't get back something that you record over."

My eyes burned like a sonofabitch, but I managed to keep them from spilling over.

"I'm sorry," Elena whispered and my heart constricted. "I'm so sorry. I know how I felt about you…I have my journal, but –"

"There's gotta be a do-over, somehow." I ignored her because I had to. Otherwise I would have gone nuts. "Ric, you did this. Now fix it," I snapped. "Fix her."

"I'm not broken, Damon." She started crying and I immediately hated myself. Love me or hate me, she'd always be Elena, would always be perfect. "If I'd known you were going to come back, I wouldn't have done it. But I didn't and…and I did…and I have to deal with it. We both have to deal with it. I'm sorry."

Then I must have blinked because one moment she was there and the next she wasn't.

Four miserable months have passed since that night and I've thought about little else. Because of course that'd be just my luck, right? Ric can't compel Elena to remember her true feelings for me just when I make it back to her. Yet another punishment for five lifetimes of pain and misery I've inflicted on the world, which sucks, but where there's a will right?

Elena Gilbert was the best thing to ever happen to me and if she can't remember us – and I'm gonna sound like a sap but I've had a shitty year so cut me some slack – then I'll make new memories with her. I doubted her feelings for me for a long time and when it finally sunk in that she wasn't going anywhere, I reveled in it.

I reveled in us.

I need that.

I need her.

So, we've been trying. It's not that she doesn't feel comfortable with me, she told me she does, but she's having trouble moving past my killing Jeremy. And again lucky me, it's the damn memory that Ric forced her to focus on so that his compulsion would work. He doesn't avoid me, but let's just say he keeps a safe distance when I'm not the one asking for his company.

Elena managed to forgive me before and we became friends. I just have to hold onto that bitch named Hope and give her a chance until our friendship moves to the next level.

God do I hate it that friendship is where we're at again because it took almost two years for her to admit that there was something between us the first time. But we're real. We always survive, and we'll find our way back.

Because if the power of love – if our love – can't overcome this, after everything we've been through…then I'll make good on my earlier words. I'll take my ring off and welcome the sun without meeting another. The only light in my life that I want is Elena and if I can't be with her? If I can't hold her? Then I don't want any part of it. I don't want any part of her. I meant it when I said that I couldn't be friends with her. I'd rather suffer all of the few ways a vampire can die, all at once, than know what it's like to love her and not be able to have her.

I down the rest of my tumbler as a knock sounds on my door. I live in a furnished flat in the city – about an hour from Whitmore College. Apparently Mystic Falls' vampire VIP passes aren't coming back, so I'm doing what I can to make the best of an entirely shit-tastic situation.

If it's Ric here being brave by trying to lift my mood, or one of the Scooby gang to try to get me to solve another problem (apparently Ric's been having a little trouble keeping his fangs to himself with his newest sexy doctor lady), then I'll tell them to shove it because I'm not in the mood to play Savior.

The knocking continues and I'm too annoyed to pretend like it isn't annoying the hell out of me. Throwing the front door open, I find a petite brunette looking back at me, as nervous as she was the day I told her never to hit me again and I got so close to her face that her heart skipped a beat.

"Hello, Elena," I say trying to keep a cool façade because everything inside me is screaming to kiss her but she is so not ready for that yet. Fear pokes me and says she never will be. "Can I help you?"

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, licking her lips as I clear my throat. The memory of licking her lips myself, of tasting them, threatens to ruin my pretend calm.

"I was wondering if you'd…um," she gulps, her anxiety causing my ears to perk like an interested puppy. "Crap."

Nervous laughter bubbles out of her and for the first time since returning to the land of the living, I actually smile.

"You were wondering if I'd…what, Elena?"

"If you'd like to go out…sometime."

My brows jump into my hairline and I feign nonchalance as hope shoves aside the fear stabbing my heart, then grips my hand and squeezes it tight.

"Go out?" I repeat, toying with her because I'm an ass and I need to buy myself some time. "I go out all the time…I mean, I go out on errands, I go out to the bar, I –"

She shoots a pointed glare at me – and damn have I missed that scolding look. "I meant go out with me."

I can't help it. I wiggle my eyebrows and ask, "You mean…like on a date?" I press my hand to my chest in true melodramatic fashion. "Why I never!"

She smiles, her shoulders relaxing and she shakes her head at me playfully. Then she swallows, genuine sincerity in her chocolate gaze when she says, "You told me we could take it slow…and you've been nothing but patient with me, Damon. And I think…" she takes a step closer and I can almost feel her chest against mine. If I could suffocate, then I'd be a dead man because I can't pull any fucking air into my lungs because holy shit. She's gonna do it. She rises up on her toes, her eyes zeroed in on my mouth and then she presses hers to it.

I take it back.

I take everything back.

Someone could light me on fire, throw me outside after yanking off my daylight ring, and stake me because I'd go with a smile plastered on my face.

It's been way too fucking long.

And then she mumbles a few words that cause a combination of laughter and a choked sob to escape my lips.

"I think I'm ready to give us a chance."

…maybe hope's not such a bitch after all.

AN: Thanks so much for reading, & please review! ~Kate