Something About You

Prologue

Elena Gilbert was tired. She had had a hell of a night. Scratch that, a hell of a week, of a month, of a summer… looking for Stefan all those weeks had been hard but facing him at that bar's parking lot had been even worse. She knew until some point Damon was trying to protect her from the truth, though sometimes it seemed like he felt just tempted to rub it in her face. Her boyfriend, actually ex-boyfriend after their latest meeting, wasn't the Stefan Salvatore she knew anymore.

When they went to her family's lake house all those months ago, that now seemed like years, she had been shocked to read her ancestral's words about the man she knew and loved for his compassion, kindness and humanity. The man described by Jonathan Gilbert was nothing like the man she dated for almost a year and that didn't start to cover the man she would know later by reading his own journal. When she read the journals in the lake house it came to her as a shock but she had a lot of things going on to really give it a thought. Despite all the other problems she had back then it didn't change the fact that she felt, yet again, deceived. There were parts of Stefan's existence that he hid from her and they weren't the sort of thing a boyfriend was entitled to hide.

She started realizing that a lot of things she thought she knew weren't exactly what she was led to believe. She was well aware that Stefan killed for reasons that didn't include defending his life or someone else's. She knew when he first turned he probably ended up killing people because the urges weren't easy for a newly-turned vampire to control. She had a chance to witness Caroline going through the exact same thing, except that the blond wasn't alone, she had Stefan to help her and friends to support her while she learned how to control herself. One of the many things Elena was led to believe was that Stefan went through this time during his undead life alone.

But still Elena couldn't have thought of the lengths her ex-boyfriend went through to get human blood. Some of the things she read in the newspaper's clipping she found in Damon's bedroom were barbarous. She finally understood why they called him the ripper and reading some of the information she later collected with Liz made her stomach turn. She actually threw up after reading the reports she received by e-mail. And when Stefan was somewhat violent with her just a few days ago she finally realized he wasn't the man she loved so profoundly. As if that disappointment and deep pain weren't enough, she had to deal with the Salvatore brother she had on her side. But the nature of her problems with Damon couldn't diverge more from the ones with Stefan, and the reason was still the same: her assumptions about who he truly was couldn't be more wrong.

They never acknowledged the night when he almost died in her arms. Not in a serious way anyway, as Damon of course dropped a few comments about the deathbed kiss, quipping with sarcasm and sometimes even disdain. She knew he thought it was a pity kiss and she never corrected him on his own assumption because that was what she wanted to believe too. That had to be the only reason why she brushed her lips on his. After all it had been quite the juvenile kiss, childish even, lacking any passion or lust, but it was filled with strong emotions of losing him for good. The thought of losing him terrified her and while she said she liked him then, just the way he was, the following two months revealed even more about who Damon Salvatore really was.

Two months when she only had him around. Of course Jeremy, Alaric and Caroline didn't leave like Bonnie but the one person that she depended on to a certain extent was Damon. Alaric was drowning in his grief over Jenna, Jeremy started working at the grill and he was distant, reticent and too distracted. She didn't expect anything different from someone that, just like her, had been dead before coming back to life. Something like that certainly changed one's perspective. Caroline was more present but still she spent an incredible amount of time with Tyler. And that left her spending most hours of her days with Damon. Of course they had an agenda, they weren't just hanging out. They needed to find Stefan. But their agenda didn't stop them from getting even closer to each other. She didn't realize when the banters started but he had been the one thing that helped her face another day. Another day when she didn't have any other family but her brother. Another day when she felt guilty about her aunt's death. Another day when she didn't have Stefan by her side. Another day when she was left with her thoughts of what he could be doing with Klaus. Another day wondering what was really caused by Klaus and what was just Stefan.

Yeah, the only thing she had to hold onto was Damon. And being around him so much, depending on him to put a smile on her face against all odds, seeing how he tried to do his best to be there for her, showed her a Damon she didn't know yet. But somehow it didn't surprise her. It was as if she was expecting all those new little things she knew about him. It was as if she knew she could still be the girl she didn't recognize for more than a year, even if only for a brief second. What surprised her though was how he never used what happened between them in his deathbed to make things awkward. He did the best he could to hide from her who Stefan could really be. If she was honest with herself, a part of her expected Damon to use Stefan's heinous actions and distance against his younger brother. But Damon was an honorable person by definition, he just spent too many years ignoring every single trace of his humanity, bad or good, that he was used to using people and to taking advantage of every situation. That was why she thought he would take advantage of everything going down between her and Stefan. She more than thought it, she expected it, and sometimes she almost believed she actually hoped he would try to put her against Stefan. But once again Damon surprised her. If anything he tried to spare her from knowing who her boyfriend turned into. He never made a move on her, like she expected, although they had been alone many times. She was vulnerable and he knew it but still he was on his best behavior. Even the flirting and cocky comments slowed down. Actually it completely disappeared. That was until the night he went to her bedroom, again, and demanded to know why she changed her mind about leaving the mountain. But that wasn't flirting. That was his best way to cope with what was going on. And a way for him to make sure she wouldn't forget how she felt about him while Stefan was gone. That didn't count as flirting. That wasn't the kind of thing Damon usually did to make her uncomfortable. That counted as honesty, something she was always proud to have offered, but now she felt like it vanished from her dictionary. At least when it came down to Damon.

Maybe she was finding her way back with honesty by driving there? She thought about apologizing, she thought about demanding an apology. She thought about lecturing him for what he did to Caroline's father. She thought a lot of things but the one she couldn't brush off of her mind were Caroline's words. 'What does it say about me?' 'It says you're human.' And because of those words she felt herself being drawn to the Salvatore boarding house although she didn't have a clue of what she would say to the man she couldn't admit she was attract to. How could she admit it if every time any thought about Damon crossed her mind, she made a silent mantra remembering she had a boyfriend? She kept repeating to herself that Katherine broke their bond. Neither of them ever gave her too much detail about what their relationship used to be before Katherine. But even when she had saw the worst from both of them, when it came to the other, she had also seen faithfulness, concern, care and love. They seemed to be on each other's throat when Damon came to town but it didn't take a lot of time for her to start catching the genuine feelings they had for one another. And that could be summed up by only one word. Love. And she knew she was one of the reasons why they were making small progress to let the other know how they felt. She couldn't make the same mistake Katherine did. The vampire's words still echoed in her head even months after she uttered them. It's okay to love them both. And Elena actually agreed. She loved them both, to a different extent, but still she loved them both. The problem wasn't loving them but breaking them apart because of her love. Nothing in the world was worthy it but still she had to repeat it over and over again in her head to suppress certain thoughts.

As she approached the boarding house she felt herself growing anxious. His car was there and she still didn't know what she was going to say. Maybe she should just go back to her house and forget completely about what her best friend told her. There was a reason why she didn't want to even think about what her relationship with Damon became. And he was back into his jerky behavior killing Alaric and trying to kill Caroline's father. Yeah, lecturing him seemed like the most appropriate thing to do. The only thing Elena seemed not to notice in her own behavior was that she couldn't be away from Damon. He was the only constant thing she had in her life right now and even if she was trying to ignore how he got under her skin, or his bad actions in the previous night, or looking forward to lecturing him, one thing went unnoticed by the high school student: she needed to be around him, no matter the reason. It was the one thing to admit that he had become the closest person to her. Actually admitting that was pretty easy. He felt responsible for Stefan leaving with Klaus and he still felt bad about trying to turn her into a vampire. Of course he would do everything in his power to bring Stefan back and fix them. He wanted to redeem himself from all the bad things he did to both of them. But especially Stefan. Damon loved Stefan more than he had loved Katherine… or me, she dared to think. And Stefan proved he felt the same way about his brother over and over again. So it only made sense that Damon would be the closest person to her when she made the mission of her life to find her boyfriend and fix him. But admitting to that was entirely different from admitting she needed him there.

Making a decision to lecture him yet again she approached the front door and knocked, although she didn't use to do it anymore. But somehow she wanted to show him that things changed between them since he started being reckless again. But seconds passed and lost in her thoughts she only realized seconds probably turned into minutes when another batch of ideas crossed her mind.

Are you trying to show me I should be the one apologizing, Damon? That's childish, she thought as she knocked on the door yet again. This time she paid attention to her surroundings and thinking that maybe he was showering again she just decided to enter the house but then something odd happened: she realized the door was locked. It wasn't like Damon to lock the door. Actually she couldn't remember a time she ever came to the boarding house to find it locked. As she moved to look through one of the windows her cell phone rang in her purse and she stopped her actions and tried to find the device among the many other objects in her bag.

"Where are you?" Bonnie asked after Elena answered the phone.

"At the boarding house, why? Did you make any progress with the necklace?" Elena caught the anxiety on her friend's voice followed by a heavy sigh and cursing. Bonnie rarely cursed and that was enough for the straight haired brunette to know for sure something was wrong.

"What happened Bonnie?"

"Apparently Katherine did. I was sitting at the Grill and you came by, or at least I thought it was you and you asked for the necklace and I gave it to you but then I turned to the waitress serving coffee and when I looked across the table you weren't there anymore. I found it odd, especially because there were a lot of people around us for you to just disappear like that. I didn't think about calling you then because I was still shocked about Jeremy's problem…" the witch explained the events but when Elena heard her brother was having any sort of issues she interrupted her friend.

"What happened to Jeremy?"

"It seems like he can see his dead girlfriends. And they're able to talk to him and even touch him. I don't know if they're spirits or ghosts but the witches told me there would be consequences when he was brought back to life," Bonnie explained.

"What? Since when he's seeing them?" Elena asked shocked and she started once again moving around the boarding house, looking through the windows trying to see Damon or something that would explain why the house was locked, especially if his car was parked outside.

"Since that night," Bonnie simply said knowing a lot of things had happened that night and not wanting to provide more details to avoid bad memories for both of them.

"He never said a word to me," Elena said and just then she realized how she had been neglecting her own brother. Of course Jeremy was more distant than usual but she didn't try hard enough to be closer to him. She was too lost in her mission to rescue her boyfriend that she completely forgot that her brother maybe needed her just as much.

"I guess he didn't talk to anyone," Bonnie offered, although she was completely oblivious to the battle Elena was having inside.

"But what does it have to do with Katherine?" Elena asked confused, already forgetting about the rest of the morning's description Bonnie went through until she mentioned Jeremy.

"Did you meet me today?"

"No, of course not," Elena answered thinking maybe Bonnie was also seeing things.

"Then she did and she took the necklace with her," the witch clarified and Elena stayed quiet for a few seconds while still spying inside the Salvatore house. There was a half full tumbler of whiskey and Elena knew Damon better then to know he wasn't one to waste his liquor like that… unless he was interrupted.

"I guess that's not the only thing she took with her," Elena whispered as she put the puzzle together in her head. Katherine was back, Damon was gone but his car wasn't. And for some reason she didn't want to face yet, her heart skipped a beat inside her chest and she felt something that resembled her too much of one thing: desperation.

Elena's suspicions of Damon's departure were confirmed when she called him over ten times and he didn't answer. Neither did he answer her texts asking where he was. She even risked exposing herself asking in one of them if he was with Katherine, but not even that convinced him to answer her back. It reminded her of when she tried to contact Stefan just after Katherine delivered the cure but she couldn't. What if Damon didn't leave but was taken against his will or blackmailed to leave? Which possibility was worse? Knowing he was forced to leave and consequently being in danger or was it worse to know that he willingly left with the vampire he loved during almost his whole existence? Elena knew what the answer to that question should be for more than one reason and that's why she stopped thinking about it. She was afraid what the genuine answer would be and again what it would say about her.

That didn't change the fact that she missed him around. When Stefan left it felt like there was a big hole in her life and somehow Damon filled some of that space. But now it felt even worse because Damon had always had his own space in her life. Now not only was the part that Damon filled wide open and empty again, but his own place was missing. And Elena never felt so alone in her life. Her parents weren't there anymore, nor was her aunt, or her boyfriend. And neither was the one person she had been the closest to for the last eight and a half weeks. Sixty-one days. And yeah, she was counting, although she didn't know why she was doing so. She kept saying it was because of Stefan and she truly believed it started like that. But the truth was she didn't have a clue of why she kept doing it. And the more times than she wanted to admit, the following thought on her mind after doing the math was the kiss.

But now Damon wasn't there. And the worst part was that he wasn't even alone. She was positive he left with Katherine and feeling more negative than usual, she thought he left on his own accord. And it made her heart ache. Did he prefer to spend time with Katherine rather than stay with her? Was it so wrong that she didn't want him to go on killing sprees? Especially when it involved one of her best friend's father? Didn't it cross his mind that she already had her fair share of that with Stefan? Did he need to go there too? Was it really that hard for him to understand that the only reason she needed him to be on check was because then she would be too? She felt like she was going to crumble at any moment. She was reaching her limit but maybe because she always kept going on, despite the terrible things happening around her, people may think she doesn't have a limit but she does and without Damon it seems to closer than ever.

And that was when realized she needed him. She realized she needed him there because if she reached her limit with him gone she didn't know for sure if someone would be there to catch her. No one was as close to her these days as he was and she needed him, not anyone else. And that involved an apology. She called his number once more, knowing he wouldn't pick up and that eventually she was going to be sent to his voicemail. And that was exactly what happened.

Where are you? I need you here. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm pressuring you to be someone else. Stefan is already on a killing spree and that's the exact reason why I don't need you to be Stefan. I don't want you to be like Stefan, not the person he's now, not the person he was before. I know that this is not fair to you. And I know I keep asking you to be a better man, but what I said that night was true, Damon. I don't need you to be anyone else but you. I need you and nobody else. I'm sorry. Elena.

AN: So here is my new canon piece. It's set on season 3 at some point after 3x05. The next 2 or 3 chapters will be mixed with things I wrote on my own and Delena scenes from episodes 6 through 9. I plan this story to be very on character with the show, which means I won't turn Elena for example because I don't see the show doing it. It'll probably be a slow burning but I think faster than the show. I won't focus too much on the rest of the cast and I'll definitely don't write too much about the supernatural stuff going on around them, especially the ghosts storyline - which I hated - but you can count on plenty of DE moments.

Now some reviews would definitely be welcome and if you want to suggest anything you'd like to watch in the show, let me know.

Thanks a lot to Daniela for being my beta to this chapter.

xoxo

Babi

Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.