A/N: New story! I'm planning this on being about ten chapters long, and I already have the first five written so updating depends on the amount of reviews I get. This is set sometime after Season 3, assuming that Stefan and Elena get back together:(they will): I haven't watched the last... probably four episodes of TVD, so I apologize if this isn't up to date with the show. Damon's been gone for four years, trying to leave and give Stefan and Elena their 'happily ever after', until he comes back because Stefan asks him to. You'll see. Chapters will get longer. Enjoy!

I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of it's characters.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" – Ralph Waldo Emerson

~0~

The spacious room was dark; almost pitch black except for the few items that were lit up. The first was coming from the open balcony; lights from houses and street lamps and the Cristo Redentor fled through the white ruffling curtains. The second was the digital clock which sat on the night stand; its glowing green numbers read 3:41 am and cast a glow on the sleeping man beside it, making his alabaster skin seem almost alien-like. The third was a cell phone, which was currently lighting up and ringing, causing the sleeping man to stir slightly. When the man made no response to get up and answer it, it stopped after a few more rings.

But a few minutes later, it started up again, seemingly louder than before in the man's ears. He groaned and damned whoever it was to hell before snatching it and answering it before reading the caller id.

"It's almost 4 am, can't it wait?" he snapped, barely awake and ready to throw the phone across the room when the person replied.

"…Damon?"

He almost groaned. Almost. But instead he sighed and rolled his eyes, lying back down on his back.

"Stefan. To what do I owe the pleasure?" he murmured, already wanting to go back to sleep. That's how boring his brother was.

"Or better yet…" he said before he could reply, "What's so important that you couldn't wait until morning?"

"It is morning… it's only like 9am." He replied, and Damon can just picture him perfectly, sitting in the study, glass of animal blood in hand and eyebrows scrunched together in all his glory perfection.

Damon sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. It was too damn early for this. "Must be the time change." He muttered, mostly to himself.

"You're not in America?" his brother asked. Duh, he wanted to say.

"Obviously not, Stefan. Now tell me what you want so I can back to sleep." He said, eyeing the open window and wondering how long he had before the sun started to rise.

Stefan doesn't answer right away, and Damon thinks it must be pretty big if his brother is actually letting the anticipation go on. Before he can tell him to spit it out, however, he finally replies.

"It's about Elena."

Those three short words send a pang to Damon's chest. All different kinds of possibilities race through his mind; did someone hurt her, is she dead? But he shoos them away at once, and forces his voice to be casual and uncaring when he replies.

"What about her?" he asks, and clenches his teeth together as he waits for his brother's answer.

After another hesitant pause, he says, "She's turned."

He really shouldn't be so shocked to hear those two words, but somehow he still is. Damon knew this would come up at some point, despite Elena's unwillingness to become a vampire, he knew. Either because she was dating a vampire whom she was disgustingly in love with or because she was a doppelganger, it was practically inevitable. And after he left, he knew that it was no longer his business whether she lived or died, because he had no plans on ever returning and as much as he hated thinking about it, Elena no longer needed him, certainly didn't want him. This was the first phone call he had received from Stefan since he left four years ago, and he assumed that he and Elena had finally gotten on with their stereotypical happily ever after.

This time he didn't have to force in the tired tone to his voice, it came naturally and he wondered if Stefan was calling just to rub it in his face. "So? Isn't that what you wanted?"

"It… was an accident." He paused, "But that's not the point. Elena's not handling it well… and I need your help."

Damon sighed and let out a laugh, he certainly knew what that last sentence meant. "I'm not coming back to Mystic Falls, before you ask."

"Damon, I wouldn't be asking if this wasn't serious." Stefan replied anxiously.

"For Christ sakes Stefan, it's not the biggest deal in the world. Get Caroline or Ric to help her out. Hell, even get Bonnie to give her one of those migraine things…" he trailed off, smirking at the image of the judgey witch hovering over Elena.

"You don't think I've tried? You think I wanted to call you, Damon? Well, I didn't. You're sort of my last resort."

"You always know the right things to say, brother." He replied in monotone, and felt a familiar feeling well up inside his chest, the feeling of longing that he had managed to ignore. But this time it was stronger, and Damon could already feel himself ready to give into it.

"Look Damon… if you won't do this for me, then do it for Elena. She needs-"

"Don't start that shit with me, Stefan." He threatened, and heard Stefan sigh on the other line.

"Fine. This is me, your brother, asking you to come help me out." Pause. "Please."

Damon was planning on hanging up, he really was. But his mouth opened on it's own accord and then he was saying "Alright." He sighed, "alright, fine."

He heard Stefan sigh in relief, "Thank you."

He ran a hand through his hair, "One month, I'll be there for one month and then I'm gone again."

"Okay, I understand. Text me your flight info and I'll come pick you up."

Damon agreed and hung up, then groaned at the mess he had just gotten himself into. He wandered over to the open balcony and braced his hands on the railing, eyeing the city he had come to love in the past few years. Rio de Janeiro had been the most unlike place from Mystic Falls that he could think of, and that's why he originally picked it after he had left. There was no supernatural drama going on every day, occasionally he would meet a passing vampire, but that was about it. There was no small town gossip or Mystic Grill, just a lot of unfamiliar people and unfamiliar places. But the best part was that there was no Elena Gilbert.

He sighed internally as he dreaded seeing her again before heading over to the computer and booking the next flight to Virginia.

Thanks for reading, I'd love to know what you think!

-Marlie