Hey, so this is a short one-shot that just popped into my head, I hope you like it. (:
Eighty-four years and one hundred and twenty-six days had passed since he took his last breath and left this world. For Elena, each day felt like a lifetime, every minute filled with aching in her heart and emotions that left her crippled on the floor, wreaking havoc in her body. But she couldn't end it, because she made herself a promise. And she meant to keep it.
Their search for the cure was coming to an end; the little vial containing the liquid for Elena's salvation was theirs. Damon said that she'd better drink it on the spot, not hesitating, because in the end something could always go wrong. Elena didn't listen to him, wanting to savour the moment; she wanted to do it surrounded by her friends – Caroline, Bonnie, Matt, Tyler. But the person she wanted to witness the important event the most, was Stefan.
She should have listened to Damon.
They hadn't known Stefan's whereabouts; he had been MIA for half a year, after Elena had got her emotions back and had chosen to stay with Damon. She understood why he left, felt his pain; she would have done the same.
One day the vial with the cure had appeared on the doorstep, with a small letter attached to it – For Elena.
Elena had known that it was from Stefan. "He did it." She had thought when she examined her freedom from the vampire curse.
"Drink it, Elena, what are you waiting for?" Damon had stood right next to her; his blue eyes had been filled with worry, dread even. She had known that he didn't want her to do it. "Isn't this what you wanted?" he had asked.
"Yes, but I need Stefan to be here." Had been her response and she didn't even flinch when she saw the pain flashing in Damon's eyes.
Eventually, they found him – Damon begged him to come with him, back to Mystic Falls because Elena herself couldn't face him, not like that. She knew she was selfish, wanting him to be there, but it was because of him that she was being set free. She needed him, and as much she tried to hide it, she never truly did succeed in it and Damon knew that, but he chose to ignore it.
Stefan finally agreed. When he entered the boarding house, all Elena wanted to do was to run to him and hold him tightly, but then she remembered that she couldn't do that. She wasn't his anymore and that realization hurt more than she wanted to admit.
He gave her a small, sad smile.
"Thank you." She mouthed to him, tears stinging in her eyes.
Stefan only nodded, never saying a word to her.
She watched with jealousy when Caroline entered the room and threw herself into Stefan's arms and how Stefan gave her a genuine smile. She watched with jealousy because it wasn't her Stefan was holding so tightly, it wasn't her Stefan was so happy to see. It wasn't her.
Damon came to stand beside her, taking her hand. All Elena wanted to do was to yank her hand out of his, but she didn't, instead she gave Damon a smile which didn't reach her eyes.
Finally, the whole gang had gathered together to be there for Elena. She looked each and everyone in the eye, thinking how lucky she was that she had friends like them, she thought how unfortunate they were for having a friend like her. How unlucky, for all she ever caused was pain and misery to them, yet they still stood beside her.
"This is it." She said and took the cure in her hands, holding it out for everyone to see. Elena's gaze stopped on Stefan who was looking at her as well. For a second she could recognize the man he once was, before she broke him, before she destroyed him.
She started to open the vial.
"Stop." A voice echoed through the room and when she raised her head to see who it was, the cure was snatched out of her hands.
Everyone was suddenly alert, ready to attack the intruder.
"Isn't this a marvellous picture." she drawled, her accent emphasising every word.
"Rebekah." Damon hissed.
"Everyone's here to witness poor, misunderstood Elena becoming human again, how disgusting." Rebekah's eyes roamed over everyone, and then stopped on Elena. "Do tell me, please, what has Elena done to deserve this more than, let's say, Caroline? Or Bonnie's mother? Or...me?"
"Rebekah..." Stefan warned, inching closer to the blonde woman.
"Relax, I'm not here to claim it for myself. I have realized how pathetic human life can be...let's say that my eyes have been opened and I no longer want it." She twirled the cure in her hands. "But I do know a person who wants it and deserves it, way more that Elena does."
And with that, she sped over to Stefan and forced the cure down his throat. Then she was gone.
"Stefan?" Elena screamed, running over to him. Stefan was unconscious, but she could hear his heart beating. "Stefan, please, please, wake up." She begged him, taking his hand into hers; it felt strangely warm to her.
"Is he dead?" Matt asked, frowning.
"No. His heart is beating, I can hear it." Damon was the one to give him an answer.
Tears were now falling freely from Elena's eyes. Not because she was sad that she didn't get the cure, but because she didn't know how it would affect him.
"Elena." Damon's hands found his way to her shoulders. "He'll be okay."
"I want to be there when he wakes up." She whispered, and she was. Elena stayed by Stefan for two days, while the cure was changing him, destroying the vampire side of him. Not for once did she leave his side. When Caroline offered to take up her place, she refused. When Bonnie said that she could stay with him for a while, she refused. She needed to be beside her.
Stefan opened his eyes in the middle of night.
"Stefan?" Elena hovered over him in an instant.
He is disoriented and his head is pounding, and his lungs are screaming for air. He feels like himself, but at the same time, different, more alive. Then he recognizes the worried eyes that are looking over him.
"Katherine?" his tone was full of surprise. She was supposed to be dead. Then dread set in the pit of his stomach and all he wanted to do was to get as far away from her as possible.
"No, Stefan, it's me!" she tried to reason with him, letting go of him, making more distance between them.
"Stay away from me!" he yelled, and ran out of the room.
Elena stood in the middle of the room, going over and over his last words – "Stay away from me. Stay. Away. From. Me." Then she broke down, hysterically crying. Stefan didn't know who she was, she didn't recognize her. He thought she was Katherine. She lost him.
Damon barged in the room. "Elena?" he kneeled next to her, brushing her hair off her face. "What happened?"
"He doesn't remember me." She sobbed, breaking down bit by bit until there was nothing left of her, only a shell to be stomped over, to be destroyed.
Stefan never came back to Mystic Falls. He didn't want to meet Elena or anyone from Mystic Falls for that matter. The past 5 years of his life had been erased like they had been written with a pencil. The only one he was willing to talk to was Damon, who respected his brother's wishes and left him to live his new life; his human life.
Elena left Mystic Falls shortly after graduation. She never returned, never even thought of going back there one day.
Damon didn't stop her either.
He realized that his life would be wasted trying to love a woman who would never love him back the way he wanted to be loved. Her heart had always belonged to his brother, and even though it was painful to admit, he understood the necessity of being able to do one right thing, for this once. For her. For Stefan. And over time, the wound that was Elena Gilbert, healed.
For fifteen years she searched. She looked for herself she wanted to say to herself, but deep down she knew that she was looking for him. Stefan.
She found him in a small town, working as the local doctor. She couldn't help but smile at the memory of him telling how his dream was to help people. He was finally living that dream.
Elena contemplated going to him, showing him that she wasn't Katherine; that she'll never be her, but her plans were stopped.
A woman walked over to Stefan and when he turned around, she swore her heart broke into million pieces over and over again.
There it was.
His smile.
The smile he only had shown to her in their happiest moments. The smile she missed so much.
She watched him embrace the woman in his strong arms, she watched him kiss her with a passion she had once known. Elena watched him as her world crumbled to dust. She wanted to break every bone in that woman's body, she wanted to make her suffer for taking Stefan from her, but she couldn't.
Elena couldn't take his happiness away. She had done it once. She could not do it again.
Elena watched how they walked hand to hand to a schoolhouse. She watched with amazement when a small boy ran towards him and how Stefan took him into his arms and twirled him in the air, laughing all the way.
She watched how Stefan had everything she ever wanted him to have. What she had wanted to have with him.
For 60 years she watched him. Sometimes she could have sworn that he looked back, his eyes glued to the spot she was currently hiding, but every single time those eyes left her too quickly.
Stefan died peacefully in his bed, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. It was a sunny day, with a soft breeze that sang a sad melody to Elena's ears.
Her watch ended, but a new one began.
She made herself a promise – a promise that she will forever protect Stefan's family, that she won't let any harm come to them.
It was her way of repaying him, what she had once done to him and she fully intended to keep that promise.
Every single day Elena visited his grave and every single day she placed a white rose next to the headstone.
There were days she saw a dark-haired man standing by Stefan's resting place, but she never went and talked to him.
Every day she visited his grave and every day she whispered to him – "I love you, Stefan, never let that go."