Its been three months. Three months since I've seen them, since I've held Stefan in my arms or bickered with Damon. Three months of emptiness and longing.

"Elena. Elena!"

I looked up to see Alaric towering over me, his chiseled face showed a look of pity. "Sorry ." As I glanced around the room I noticed all of my classmates had filed out and I was the only student left. This wasn't the first time my daydreams of the Salvatore brothers had captured my full attention. "It won't happen again." I promised while shuffling papers into my bag.

"Wait, stay." Alaric took the seat in front of me and scratched his head. "Its been over eight weeks Elena, you need to move on."

"Are you kidding? You should not even begin to lecture me on how I need to move on. If I'm not mistaken you're still hung up on your vampire wife." I replied bitterly.

Alaric winced at my harsh words and gave a deep sigh. I wished I hadn't brought that subject up but whenever someone mentioned the Salvatore brothers I got defensive. "You're right. I shouldn't have said that. You have to understand that they left to protect you Elena, to keep you alive. I know it's hard, but they had to go."

Three months ago Klaus had come to town and well, long story short the only way to ensure my survival was to have Damon and Stefan far away from me. Klaus thought that Katherine had been killed by Stefan and that Katherine was now me which is why I was able to stay in Mystic Falls.

And sure, I was alive, but inside I felt dead. I had lost my parents almost a year ago and now the two people that had helped me out of that depression were gone.

Stefan had promised to keep me posted here and there to assure that he was safe as well, but I had received nothing. Him, Damon, Katherine - they were all out there somewhere leaving me in the dark. I didn't care about Katherine being gone one bit, but sometimes wondered if Stefan was tempted by her. They did have a steamy past.

The bell rung and I got out of my chair to head to science. Alaric quickly wrote me a pass and I slumped to the other side of the school. It had been clear to everyone that the leave of Damon and Stefan really affected me. My grades dropped, I never wanted to go out. Without Bonnie and Caroline in my life I think I would have gone crazy.

I decided to stop at my locker, I wasn't ready to sit through a forty five minute lecture about the periodic table.

I never thought I'd become like this again. I thought once those two brothers were in my life I would never go back to being depressing, boring Elena.

x-x-x

The rest of the day went by in a blur, I couldn't even remember what had gone on in any of my classes.

While searching through my bag for the car keys Caroline came up behind me and gave me a squeeze. "Hi Elena." She said perkily. "How was your day?"

"Uneventful."

"Oh." Caroline's smile weakened when she heard my unenthusiastic answer. "Want to go to grill later? I just need to feed, but after we can get dinner. Maybe Bonnie and Matt could come along?"

"Sure Caroline. I have to get home." I told her once I found my keys and quickly started the car. I waved good bye to a defeated Caroline and headed out of the lot.

While I was stopped at the red light something came over me, something felt ... different. When the light turned green, instead of making my usual left I kept going straight. I needed to go the Salvatore's house. After the two brothers left I had gone there for two weeks straight, but soon it got to the point where I couldn't be there without breaking down.

I needed to be there though, it'd been two long till I held something of Stefan's or flipped through one of Damon's many books. I arrived at their gorgeous brick mansion and felt a wave of familiarness wash over me. It felt good to be back.

Pushing the massive door open, I took a long breath hoping to keep my emotion intact.

Instead of entering to a room of emptiness, a hand pushed me against the wall and clasped their hand around my neck. For a few seconds I couldn't breath, I didn't even know who was attacking me.

"Elena ... Oh my god. I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I'm sorry."

After collapsing to the floor I looked up into those green eyes. Those green eyes that I had longed to see for three months. "Damon ..." My voice came in a hoarse whisper as Damon stroked my cheek.

"I didn't mean to."

"I know you didn't." My mouth curled into a smile and I reached for his hand.

Damon quickly backed away and a worried look crossed his face. "Why are you here?" His tone had now shifted into anger.

"Why-Why am I here?" I got up and glared at him. "Why are you here?"

Hanging his head in his hands, Damon paced back and forth. "You weren't supposed to see me."

"So you were just going to leave without saying hi to me. I haven't seen you or Stefan in over three months and you weren't even going to visit me!" I yelled at him and inched closer. "Please tell me that's not true. You were going to see me, right?"

Damon shook his head no.

I inched closer and closer. "You haven't been in Mystic Falls for over three months, you realize that, right? I've been waiting for a letter, a sign, anything that you guys were okay. That you realized I still existed." My nose was practically touching his chest now and I was ready to explode with anger.

"Elena ..." Damon placed a hand gently on my shoulders and wiped a tear from face. I hadn't even been aware that I was crying. "Of course we realize you exist. Do you really think we could forget a girl like you? I mean we're not that shallow." He grinned with that devilish grin he always wore and backed away when I went to hit him. "Hey, don't hit me."

"You deserve to be hit."

"Hmm, that sounds kind of kinky."

"Damon!" I yelled and sat down on the couch. "Please be serious."

With a slump of his shoulders Damon sat beside me on the couch. "Okay." He told me as that same worried expression appeared on his face.

Without thinking I embraced Damon and held on tight. I never wanted to let go. "Please don't leave me again. Please Damon. I need you."

I felt Damon's hands wrap around me as well and I knew that he missed me just as much. "Elena ..."

"Please Damon. It's hard enough to not have Stefan here. To not have you as well, it's killing me." I felt Damon flinch when I said Stefan. I pulled back and looked into Damon's eyes. "Is Stefan okay?"

"Yes Elena, he's fine."

"Why isn't he here?"

Damon smacked his lips together and played with the watch on his wrist. "A week ago Klaus caught up to us. We had to split up. Stefan had to go off somewhere with Katherine, but I have no clue where they are. It's too risky to communicate ... I came back here hoping to find some signal that they're okay."

My head felt dizzy and I had to balance myself. What if Stefan was hurt? It would be all my fault. There was still so much about him that I wanted to know. And why was he alone with Katherine? She could easily manipulate him.

"You look pale. Do you want some water?"

"No, I don't want water."

I had so many questions in my head, so many worries.

As nervous as I was about Stefan's well being right now I had to beg Damon to stay with me first. "Damon, please, promise me you won't leave." ...