A/N: As usual, the finale of the Vampire Diaries has made me write another fanfiction. This is one take on what happens to Elena after the finale. I'll post another, and maybe one after that if I'm so inspired. Basically 2 or 3 different oneshots with the same theme and VERY different outcomes. I have once again used a poem's title, which I think is very pretty so here it is for your enjoyment:

The wondrous moment of our meeting... by Alexander Pushkin

The wondrous moment of our meeting...
Still I remember you appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.

In hopeless ennui surrounding
The worldly bustle, to my ear
For long your tender voice kept sounding,
For long in dreams came features dear.

Time passed. Unruly storms confounded
Old dreams, and I from year to year
Forgot how tender you had sounded,
Your heavenly features once so dear.

My backwoods days dragged slow and quiet -
Dull fence around, dark vault above -
Devoid of God and uninspired,
Devoid of tears, of fire, of love.

Sleep from my soul began retreating,
And here you once again appear
Before me like a vision fleeting,
A beauty's angel pure and clear.

In ecstasy my heart is beating,
Old joys for it anew revive;
Inspired and God-filled, it is greeting
The fire, and tears, and love alive.

Maybe if I had met you first. Why didn't he tell her? Because it shouldn't have changed anything. It didn't change the essential thing, that she loved Stefan. So why did it feel as though her choice might have been different if Damon had just told her that he was the Salvatore brother who found her first? The truth was she wasn't sure. Both of them were right for her. Stefan was the one who held her when the world seemed like it was falling apart, but Damon was the one who pushed her to glue it back together. She did love Stefan, that much she knew, but if she let herself she could love Damon too, one day.

One day. She had a lot of those now. Here she was transitioning into a vampire, and all she could do was think of the Salvatore brothers, about things that she had said, and things she hadn't. She'd told Damon she had made her choice, but she hadn't told Stefan, and now she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to. Maybe it was because he was the one who had broken the news to her about the transition, maybe it was because she didn't have room to deal with love right now with everything else on her mind.

Yet it was all she could focus on. It was the only thing that made sense, though it was one of a myriad of problems that carried from her human life to her immortal one. Klaus was dead, which meant that he wasn't the one who had created the Salvatore blood line. It also meant that Rebekkah was out for her blood. Elena hung her head in her hands. Nothing was ever going to be sane again!

"You're alive." Since Stefan had left her alone to deal with her thoughts, the words took her by surprise, but not the person who spoke them. Damon stood in the doorframe, drinking her in like he hadn't seen her in years.

"Yup," Elena said, wiping her hands on her jeans and trying to sound nonchalant, "and thirsting for blood."

"You have to complete the transition." His eyes turned to steel, letting her know that this was not a request.

"Stefan's going to teach me the vegetarian diet."

Damon nodded, clearing his throat before he said, "good."

"I thought you would make fun of me," Elena admitted.

"I'm just happy you're not dying today, Elena. You can eat anything you want."

She chewed her lip for a moment before crossing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around his neck, "I'm glad that wasn't goodbye," she said, remembering their phone call.

His hands found her back and pushed her closer to him, but he didn't say anything. He was afraid that words would ruin the moment, would make her break away and act on the choice she had made, the choice for Stefan, but she didn't seem to have any interest in ending their embrace. Eventually she trembled against him, trying to hold in sobs.

"Shh," he murmured against her ear, "you don't have to worry…about anything."

He was letting her off the hook, she knew. He was telling her that she didn't have to worry about her choice, that he understood, but she didn't. She couldn't let him go, not now, not ever, so how could she possibly have chosen Stefan?

"I know what you want," she whispered against his neck, trying to ignore the spark of electricity that ran through her as her lips brushed against his skin, "just like you knew what I wanted."

Damon went rigid. She remembered, of course she did. Now that she was becoming a vampire his compulsion would wear off. He breathed a sigh of relief, his last lie to her was washed away, for better or worse.

"I bet you do," was all he said. Elena didn't know what else to do. She felt exposed, confused, raw, and all she could do was cling to Damon and wonder what life might have been like if he had never compelled her to forget, if he had saved her from the water and breathed new life into her as Stefan had.

They stayed like that for a long time, until she heard another set of footsteps and was finally forced to put some distance between them. He kept a hand on her arm and she didn't shrug it away as Stefan came into the room. If the younger brother was confused by what turn of events might have occurred while he was away he hid it well, though this was certainly not what he thought he would come back to when he had decided to give her space.

Elena eyed the blood that he carried with him in a vial as though it were diseased.

"This is it then," she breathed heavily as she looked from one Salvatore to the other, eyebrows raised.

Stefan nodded, handing the blood into her shaking hands. She took the cap off and let the copper scent fill her nostrils, take over her senses. Soon she forgot that she was in the hospital, forgot Damon's grip on her, or Stefan's concerned eyes. All there was was the blood in her hands and the burning thirst that clenched at her throat, choking her. She felt the veins at her eyes throb, and her vision tunnel. She tipped the blood back and gulped it down quicker than humanly possible, because she was no longer human, she was a vampire.

She wrinkled her nose when it was over. It wasn't that she had consumed blood, that didn't disgust her now, it was that Damon was right, animal blood was truly awful. All the same, she wasn't about to drink human blood, bagged or otherwise. She had seen too much to give in to that temptation.

"Are you ok?" Stefan asked, looking her up and down. Elena looked at him in return. Stefan would always keep her safe, he would never argue with her, he would let her make her choices and be there to catch her if she fell. Even now when everything was spinning, his focus on her was palpable and intense. He would always be this way, she realized. She could spend the next 200 years beside him and he would love her gently and sweetly, he would be what she needed of him, and she would love him easily.

Her eyes swept to Damon. His smirk was in place as always, but his stare betrayed the passion that was never too far buried. If she chose him, their life would not always be easy. They would fight, he would try to protect her from herself, and she would push against him so hard that they would teeter on the edge of their breaking point. She would hate him, but she would love him all the more intensely for it. He would make her the center of his universe. His love would consume her, and he was right, there was a part of her that wanted that.

But it was only a part. Her eyes pleaded with him to understand as she stepped away and took Stefan's hand. His fingers massaged against her cheek, smoothing away the tear tracks that had etched their way against her skin. She laid her forehead against his as he traced the lines of her face, fresh tears brimming at her eyes. It was the choice she had been planning on making all along, and yet it felt wrong. Her stomach churned as she imagined Damon, who they would leave alone in this place, alone with his thoughts.

With a sudden gasp, her heart constricted and she whipped her head back to glance behind her. Damon was still smirking, though to her it looked more forced than it had a moment before. He nodded as he saw the tears, reminding her that it was still ok, that she was allowed to choose his brother. To leave him behind.

"Please don't leave," she begged Damon, though she was still holding Stefan's hand.

"We have forever, Elena, we'll run into each other again." He was denying her, but there was nothing in his voice that hinted at anything unusual. She shook her head fiercely but he ignored her.

"See you soon, Brother," he said, disappearing in a gust. She hadn't left him after all, he had left her, but she had forced the break, and it made her sick.

Stefan took a moment to appreciate the silence. She could see that it didn't weigh on him as it did her. This was how the Salvatore brothers operated. Absence was in many ways more natural to them than constant presence. For Elena though, Damon was a vital part of her life. Whether he angered her, scared her, or excited her, he was a spark in her life, and she felt a little dead inside as she looked around and did not find him standing there.

"Hey," Stefan coaxed, "I love you."

She turned back to him and tried to soften her expression, "I love you too." She touched her lips lightly to his, the salt of her tears filling their kiss with sadness. She was not lying to him, then why did she feel so guilty, as though she were betraying both of them?

Loving Stefan had been easy when Damon wasn't an option. It should have been easy now. He was perfect. Damon was flawed. It would be easy again, she vowed, but only once she confessed everything. Maybe without secrets the guilt would lessen.

"Stefan," his name was a breath against his lips.

"mmm?"

"I do love you. Know that. Always. But…when we were in Colorado…I kissed Damon." She let out the last part in a rush of words, casting her eyes up to gauge his reaction through her lashes.

For a second, Stefan was still. His breath stalled, and his gaze made her blush. In his eyes was an accusation, though he did his best to stifle it. She blushed, wondering why they had not pulled away if he was angry, but he held her as carefully as always. He didn't push her away. He would never be the one to break them. If they were going to come undone, it would be her doing. She had always known that somehow.

"It doesn't matter," he said finally, pressing his lips to her forehead, "I told you to figure out your feelings, and you did. I can't be upset about how you did it."

"you can," she argued, feeling insane for asking him to be mad at her, "you have every right-"

But he was already shaking his head, "No I don't. It doesn't matter now. You're here." He brushed his fingertips along her arms, making her shiver.

"Stefan, I don't know what life is going to be like 50 years from now, I don't know what I'll want or…" she spluttered to a halt as he caught her in a kiss.

"Be with me as long as this is what you want, as long as you're happy. I can't ask for anything else." She nodded, blushing at his selflessness. She could never be that self sacrificing. She thought of what both brothers had done for her. Damon had left her to be at peace, Stefan was giving her an out. She was asking so much, and yet they gave it to her without question. That was love, from both of them. She hoped that she would live up to it.

She nodded, "alright," she said, "let's go home."

Stefan stepped away, taking her hand as they left the hospital. He didn't know that as Elena walked she searched the halls for some sign of Damon, hoping that he would be there so that she would have time to memorize him. They talked in whispers, neither of them quite sure what the eternally long future would hold…

A/N: I didn't want to devote an entire chapter to an author's note, because those seem rather pointless to me, but I needed to say this (along with fix the spelling of Rebekah's name). I got a review which I subsequently deleted saying that they were annoyed that this was a Stelena fic and they had wasted their time under false pretenses. I have to say that I deliberated what I would categorize this as, but I still dont think I was wrong. The story begins thinking about DAMON. Elena talks to DAMON, worries about DAMON, searches for DAMON. So, while that is not ultimately the choice she makes, the story still centers around their relationship. I don't think that there has to be a happy ending for it to be a Delena fic. In my mind, it just has to focus on the two of them, which this story does despite the presence of Stefan. So, I won't change it. Secondly, I've already decided that if this does become a multichapter fic it will be decidedly Delena (with some twists Im sure). Lastly, don't think that I don't welcome criticism. I do. If you think that I'm wrong about something, you can tell me so. Politely. I am an adult who doesn't need to be reprimanded for a subjective choice I make. In future, if there is an issue simply tell me so and ask me to correct it. I may, I may not, but I will respect your opinion. To that reviewer, I'm sorry that you feel I wasted your time. I hope you don't feel that way in the future.