I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of it's characters.

All these money can't buy me a time machine, no
Can't replace you with a million rings, no
I should've told you what you meant to me, whoa
'Cause now I pay the price

Things go back to normal, as normal as things can go, anyways. Klaus is dead, and Stefan is back to himself. Almost himself, Elena notices everytime they get close he flinches. But Damon and Caroline are helping him as much as they can, and that should be enough. It will be worth it is Elena's daily mantra.

Elena pulls into the driveway and lets herself into the boarding house, getting a text from Stefan that says he's hunting and will be back later. Stefan has been hunting almost every day, doing anything to keep control. So she heads up to see Damon, and the way to his room is natural. She opens his door without knocking, and the first thing she notices is that things are missing. His bed and dresser and other furniture are still there, but the personal items are missing; the stack of books on his nightstand, the trinkets on his desk, almost everything. She doesn't know how long she stands there, taking it all in and trying to find out what it all means even though she already knows.

Her feet carry her to his closet, where she pushes his door open slowly. And everything is gone; all his black tshirts and button ups, shoes, pants; everything. All that remains are hangers that dangle eerily, too light on their own without the expensive clothing to hang on them. Elena slinks down to the floor, running her hands through her hair and trying to recall the last time she saw him.

It had been three days ago, when she was coming downstairs from Stefan's room and heading home when she saw him, standing in front of the fire with his ever present glass of bourbon and a blank expression on his face. She had asked him if everything was okay, and he didn't answer her, didn't even look at her.

She should have known he was planning this, should have known that he wouldn't stick around and watch her be with his brother. But he promised her. Promised that he would never leave her again.

Elena doesn't know how long she sits there, tears streaming down her face and trying to ignore the small empty part in her heart.

Time doesn't heal wounds over time, Elena realizes. And really, she already knew that, because she's lost so many people and the only thing that makes it better is having the people you love in your life. Which is minus one. Again.

Months pass by, with no sign of Damon. Stefan has tried to reaasure her, that maybe he'd come back, maybe it was temporary, but it's proved to be wrong. Stefan knows that he should be happy that his brother is gone, thought that he would be, but he realizes with a shock that he's not. Of course, that could be because the woman he loves is often staring blankly into space when she thinks of his brother, but he knows thats not all of it. Damon helped him with the blood, the flip of the switch that Klaus forced on him, and somewhere along the way, they really became brothers again. Sort of.

Her and Stefan kind of drift apart. Not completely, he's still here, which is more than she can say of his brother, but it's like they're not really together together anymore. Stefan saw it in her eyes that day, still sees it in them, she's in love with Damon, and Elena knows that he knows, which kind of means things can't really be the same again. Honestly, things were never the same between them since Klaus died. That thin thread of control that Stefan has hangs in between them constantly, and of course the emotional damage he caused when he was an unfeeling, out of control ass is still there.

One day, Elena starts panicking. It's while she's laying in her bed, she had just woken up from a dream she can't really remember but it nontheless scared her and she tries to think of Damon's face. The panick kicks in when she realizes she can't remember the exact details of him. Of course, she still remembers how devastatingly beautiful he was and how when he flashed her that smile her heart would take off. But she can't remember the exact messiness of his hair and what pains her worse the exact blue of his eyes. But what bothers her the most is that she realized what he meant to her after he left, and now he'll never know.

She picks up her phone and dials his number, which has been on speed dial 2 for so long that she hasn't even bothered changing it. It doesn't ring, doesn't even voicemail.

The number you dialed has been disconnected, please try again later.

She does try again, and again and again until she's crying broken, ugly sobs and throwing her phone at the wall.

Time passes by. Eventually, she has to apply for college, and she automatically sends in an application to Duke. She gets the acceptance letter a week later, and she idly thinks of Isobel and the phrase the apple never falls far from the tree. Stefan had left Mystic Falls about two months earlier, she suspects with Katherine, but she didn't feel the pang of jealousy she expected. He promised to stay in touch and Elena had all but shoved him out the door. She wanted him to be free, to not have to stay with her because she was a big girl. She feels his absense sometimes, but it's not that bad, because she realized that when she lost one she had already lost the other, too.

So she packs her bags and kisses Jeremy good bye, tells him to stay off the pot and to do good in school. Caroline hugs her, and doesn't let go for what seems like forever, but eventually Elena complains that she has to breathe and Caroline lets her go with a teary smile. She tells Tyler to take care of her friend, and Tyler replies with a "Don't worry, 'Lena. I'm a hybrid, remember?" She drives to the Mystic Grill to say goodbye to Matt, who throws an arm around her and tells her to take care of herself.

Bonnie is probably the hardest to say goodbye to, though, and when she starts crying, Bonnie hugs her and tells her that Duke is only a couple of hours away.

"I know, but it just feels like I'm leaving forever." Elena says, sounding silly but realizing it's true.

Alaric drives her there and Elena's thinking about Damon. She remembers when she hated him for killing Jeremy, and gave him the silent treatment in this very same car going to the very same place. Who knew she'd go from hating him to loving him.

When Ric drops her off, she doesn't say anything, just hugs him and doesn't let go until his shirt is stained from her tears. He promises to come visit every other weekend.

One day, a year later when Elena is 21 and in her sophemore year at Duke, she's walking up to the apartment she shares with her friend, Kyla. Kyla was at college mainly for the parties and booz, and Elena tended to do most of the grocery shopping. So while she's attempting to unlock the door while remaining her grip on the plastic bags, the door opens. Kyla takes a few of the bags from her while Elena takes off her jacket.

"Oh, someone's here to see you. You would tell me if he had a brother, right?" Kyla says as she shuts the door behind her. Elena narrows her eyes and walks towards the living room.

And there he is. Leaning against the window frame and staring at her with eyes that are so much better than she remembers. She stops when she sees him, and they both stand there and stare at each other.

"Damon." she says, the corners of her lips tugging into a smile.

They both walk forward until they're standing right in front of each other and Elena stares into his cerulean eyes and thinks, thats where she wants to stay.

Stole that last like from the song Thinking Of You by Katy Perry, kind of. It's a great song.

Anways, what do you think?