The Choices We Make
DG32173
Sarah: I've seen plenty of fanfics to this theme in the archives, so I'm just adding another one to the pile. I hope everyone enjoys.
DISCLAIMER
I only own what I write. Everything else is owned by someone with a much bigger checking account than mine. This is the only disclaimer for the entire fanfic.
WARNINGS
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE! Rated M for my sanity, not that I have any. Spoilers from 1x13 "Children of the Damned" and 3x22 "The Departed". All mine the rest of the way.
SUMMARY
When Damon gives Stefan the option of either handing over Emily's grimiore or watching him snap Elena's neck to turn her into a vampire, Stefan chooses to toss the grimiore into the fire. Now, all three have to live with Stefan's choice. Damon/Elena
Chapter 1
Choices
"Give me the book or I'm going to snap her neck and you and I will have a vampire girlfriend," Damon snarls, holding his bleeding wrist to Elena's mouth. While Stefan hesitates, thinking over his options, Damon moves his lips to Elena's ear while removing his wrist from her mouth. "I'm completely serious," he say softly. "If he doesn't hand over the book, I will turn you without hesitation."
"He'll choose me," Elena growls without hesitation. "He loves me."
Damon smirks. "We'll just have to see if he loves you more than he desires to keep the book from me," he tells her lowly. "What will you do if he chooses the book?"
"He won't," she snarls.
"He's made his choice, let's see what it is," Damon breathes.
Elena can't help but gulp. As much as she knows Stefan loves her, she also knows just how strong his desire to keep the book out of Damon's hands is. He would not back down until she agreed to lie to Damon, though Stefan knows how much she hates lying and liars. Now it is the moment of truth.
"I'm sorry, Damon. I can't let you open that tomb," Stefan says, tossing the book in the fire.
Elena pales, knowing exactly what this means. She glares at Stefan, letting him see the three emotions waging war within her. She will never forgive him for this betrayal. And for a vampire, never is a really, really long time. "Wrong choice, brother," Damon says, gripping Elena's head and twisting it to the side sharply, successfully snapping her neck. She collapses in his arms. Damon scoops Elena up in his arms and looks at his brother's horrified face. "You made your choice. Now you have to live with it. I don't think our girlfriend will want to go back to you after you chose a book over her humanity," Damon says with a smirk before taking off through the woods with Elena's body.
Stefan sinks to his knees, staring at the spot Damon and Elena had disappeared from. He turns his eyes to the fire, where Emily's grimiore is slowly burning to ash. "What have I done?" he whispers mournfully.
He should have known Damon was serious about turning Elena! He had seen how close the two had gotten since Damon took her on that road trip. He knew how much her betrayal would hurt his brother. He knew Elena hated being forced to lie to Damon. He had stupidly thought that Damon's feelings for Elena would stop him from turning Elena. That backfired in his face! He should of known that Damon's feelings would have made him want to turn Elena to spend eternity with her.
That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the soul-shattering betrayal, heart-wrenching pain, and absolute hatred in Elena's eyes as she glared at him just before Damon snapped her neck. Those were her last feelings for him as a human. And vampirism heightens everything. Including emotions. He has to make things right!
But first he has to find them. He prays that Sheila can do some sort of locator spell. He gets up, only to pause when a glint of gold catches his eye from the spot Damon and Elena had last been. He goes over and picks up Elena's vervaine necklace. He sighs, clutching it tightly. She'll never need this again. He turns and takes off through the woods towards Sheila Bennett's house.
As he mounts the front steps, the door opens, allowing Sheila and Bonnie to walk out onto the porch. "What is it, Stefan?" Bonnie asks, seeing the fear on the vampire's face.
"I made a bad choice tonight, and Elena is paying the price," he says.
"Tell us," Sheila commands.
Stefan takes a steadying breath and tells the witches what has been going on, from Damon telling him and Elena about needing Emily's grimiore to open the tomb so he can get Katherine out through to when Damon snapped Elena's neck and disappeared with her. "Is there any way to track her down magically so I can help her adjust?" he pleads.
Bonnie's lips are pressed tightly together in a grim line, rage flashing in her eyes. Sheila puts a hand on Bonnie's shoulder, trying to calm her granddaughter. The older witch turns to Stefan. "I'm afraid that locator spells only latch onto the living," she says softly. "The second Damon snapped Elena's neck, not even the strongest locator spell in the world would find her."
Bonnie's anger finally breaks her control. "How dare you say you want to help her when you chose a book over Elena!" the girl snaps. "I'll be surprised if she ever speaks civilly to you again after that betrayal! You should have given the damn book to Damon! It's Elena! You condemned her to an eternity as a vampire when you threw the book in the fire! Right now, I trust Damon to take care of her more than I trust you!"
"Damon can teach her control," Sheila points out, causing Stefan to wince. "She will never be weak around the smell of human blood if he does that. Damon may even teach her how to feed without killing."
"But she never wanted to be a vampire!" Stefan protests.
"You mean you never wanted it for her," Bonnie snarls. "You never gave her a choice!"
"What are you talking about?" Stefan demands.
"You decided long ago that nobody should have to be a vampire simply because you can't handle being one," Bonnie growls. "And you flat out told Elena that you will never turn her."
"How do you know that?" Stefan asks, confused.
"Because she came and cried on my shoulder for hours because she wanted to be a vampire so she could spend eternity at your side," Bonnie informs him angrily. He gasps. "But before she could even get up the guts to ask you to turn her, you broke her heart by saying you'll never turn her. She and I both take that to mean that you love her, yes, but you don't love her enough to want to spend eternity with her. Then she confided in me that Damon keeps dropping hints that he'd be willing to turn her and that she has been attracted to your brother since she first saw him when she went to the boarding house to return your book." If Stefan could pale, he would. As it is, his undead heart slowly crumbles to pieces as Bonnie's continues talking. "The only reason she didn't take him up on his offer was because of all the hate you filled her with against him. When she got back from the road trip with Damon, she told me several things that happened on that trip that I'd tell you if I wasn't sworn to secrecy. As it is, she had seen a side of Damon that I bet you don't even know exists! That's why she became friends with him in the first place. She would definitely have become more than friends if he wasn't so determined to have Katherine back. As it was, she stuck with you for two reasons. One, she loves you. Two, Damon's fixation on Katherine. And tonight, you blew both those reasons right out of the equation! So if they get together, it's your own damn fault! And from what she's told me about you and Damon, I'm actually happy that you blew it. At least Damon doesn't lie to her every time he opens his mouth! At least Damon lets her make choices instead of forcing his opinions on her! At least Damon doesn't try to turn her into someone she's not! At least Damon can understand that the Elena you have been seeing these past few months is not who she really is! Not who she was before her parents died! I hope they do get together! Damon deserves her far more than you do," Bonnie hisses venomously before turning and storming back into her grandmother's house.
Sheila takes in Stefan's shocked and heartbroken expression. "You should weigh your options more carefully than you did tonight," she says softly. "Was getting the upper-hand on your brother worth losing the woman you love? You made your choice. You are now facing the consequences of that choice. If you manage to find her, let her know that Bonnie and I will make her a daylight ring. Goodnight, Stefan." With that, she turns and heads inside, firmly locking the door behind her.
Stefan turns and stares out towards the woods. He can't exactly track Elena's scent, since it will be all over those woods and the town. So how the hell is he going to find her? He has to! There's no way he could ever apologize for being the reason her humanity was taken from her. But given what Bonnie just told him, perhaps what he should be apologizing for is not listening to what she wanted, rather than forcing her to agree with him all the time. He realizes now that he was the one who was molding Elena, not Damon.
He lifts the vervaine necklace to his nose, taking in the floral scent of her perfume, the ocean scent of her body wash, the musk of her own scent, while wrinkling his nose slightly at the irritating smell of the vervaine. Then he stuffs the necklace back into his pocket and takes off, searching for the freshest trail of her scent. He doesn't care how long it takes, he is going to find her. He just hopes he can track her down before she kills someone. He doesn't know what will happen to her if she does that.