Chapter One: I Know What I Want
Elena opened her eyes. She was cold and wet. She looked around and saw Damon and Stefan looking at her. Only then she realized where she was: a morgue. She got up quickly. She felt strange, different.
Suddenly she remembered everything: her calling Damon, her asking Matt to turn around back to Mystic Falls, back to Stefan, Rebekah in the middle of the road, the car falling off the Wickery Bridge, her and Matt under the water, Stefan saving Matt and then she blacked out. "Wait," she thought, "why am I still alive?" Now she understood. She looked at both of the Salvatore brothers, "I'm in transition, aren't I?"
Stefan looked at her and she knew he was devastated. Since he met her, all he tried to do was protect her about the possibility that someday she would become a vampire. She didn't want it. She wanted to have kids, grow old, and live a long human life. Elena knew that she could die when she told Stefan to save Matt first but she preferred to save him. Stefan said, "Elena, when you passed out last night at your house, you didn't have a concussion, you had a brain hemorrhage and Meredith gave you vampire blood for you to heel faster. When I was saving Matt, as you asked, you drowned. You had vampire blood in your system when you died and now you're in transition."
Elena didn't want to be a vampire, but she didn't want to die. She could still live and learn self control. "This isn't how our lives were supposed to be," she thought. She had to accept it. She will have to learn how to live that way. "I will complete the transition."
Damon was relieved. He didn't want to lose her, but this was her decision and she chose to be alive, to be with them. "No, she won't complete the transition to be with me. She chose Stefan". He was giving up. He didn't want to watch her and Stefan being together forever. When would anyone choose him? When would his pain go away? He didn't want to be in Mystic Falls anymore. He didn't want to live near them. Elena didn't need his protection anymore and with this thought he said, "Well, I'm leaving, Elena. You don't need my protection, you don't need me. So I'll go away, I won't ruin your relationship with Stefan."
She was shocked. "Damon, you can't leave me! You promised me you would never leave me again!" She couldn't bare him going away from her. Now she wasn't so sure about her choice. She would always love Stefan, but Damon was different. In that moment she remembered everything. They met first. They met her before the accident, before everything started. Elena remembered the first time he told her he loved her. It wasn't that time when he was dying. It was weeks before that. Damon came to her room, gave her the vervain necklace, told her he couldn't be selfish with her, he told her he loved her. She was sure now, "I choose you Damon!"