After the events of the final episode of Season 3...

Part 1- The morning after the accident

Elena slowly opened her eyes. She had a terrible headache and had to shade her eyes from the sun shining through her window. Wait...it wasn't her window, where was she?

As her mind cleared and she sat up she realised that she was in Damon's bedroom- in his bed. The events of the night before came rushing back to her. The accident. The car had gone over the bridge just as it had last time when her parents died. Oh my god...Matt? After a moment of panic she remembered Stefan rescuing him and swimming up to the top with him. She didn't remember how she had gotten out of the car. All she could remember was closing her eyes as her breathing became shallow and the peace that washed over her in that moment.

As she got out of bed she realised that someone else was in the room looking out of the window...Damon. He turned around as he heard her move and she saw the tears running down his cheeks.

"Damon?" she asked "what's going on? How did I get here? Where's Matt?"

Damon looked at her with what could only be described as a heartbroken look on his face.

"He's fine Elena. Stefan saved HIM."

"What do you mean Stefan saved HIM. He saved me too. I'm right here Damon." She walked over to the window and touched his arm. As she got closer to the window the sun felt too bright and she put her hand to her head as it throbbed.

Damon looked at her with that special look he reserved just for her. Brushing her hair out of her eyes and pulling the curtains to shade her from the sun he said "He didn't save you Elena. You're not fine. I'm so sorry."

"What do you mean?" she asked again. As the realisation hit her with a bang she wrenched the curtains open and let the sun spill in. Her skin felt like it was burning; her head throbbed and above all was a terrible hunger. "Oh my god" she said looking at him bereft "I'm a vampire?"

"You're in transition." Damon told her. "You don't have to be a vampire if you don't want to" he told her, tears once again rolling down his face knowing somewhere deep inside that she might make the choice not to complete the transition; and worse knowing deep inside that the best thing for her would be if she didn't. Then he explained what had happened. Meredith Fell had given her vampire blood to heal her earlier in the night before the crash. Whilst she had told Elena and Jeremy that it was just a concussion it had been much worse and she had used her "special" blood supply to heal her. Elena had died in the accident- Stefan hadn't saved her. She had died with vampire blood in her system.

"Where is he?" She choked out, "Where is Stefan?"

"He's gone Elena." Damon told her. "By the time he got back to you and pulled you out of the lake you had stopped breathing. He tried to resuscitate you but it was too late. The ambulance came and they pronounced you dead and you were taken by the coroner."

"I knew because Alaric was about to pull my heart out and he just dropped to the floor. I knew at that moment that I had lost my best friend and the love of my life." He told her the tears continuing to stream down his face. " I drove straight back and came to say goodbye to you. You were lying there on a slab, the life drained out of you. You were gone. Then Meredith called me to tell me about the vampire blood and I took you away and brought you here."

Elena breathed in deeply as she took in what Damon was telling her. "Where did he go?" Elena asked him still thinking of Stefan.

"I really don't know Elena. Matt said he looked around after they pronounced you dead and he had disappeared."

"He doesn't know?" Elena asked him. "He doesn't know about the vampire blood?"

"No." Damon told her "Stefan thinks you're dead."

To be continued...