DISCLAIMER: The Vampire Diaries do NOT, in any way, belong to me but to their respective owners.

A/N: I'm back in the TVD waters. I don't blind myself that I was the only one who tried to rip all of my hair out of my skull when the finale of the third season ensued. I mean, seriously (as Elena would say xD), why does Damon always, and I mean ALWAYS, has to be left hanging?

So in this series of one-shots (if you guys happen to like the first one, I'll write more of them) Damon leaves Mystic Falls, pissed because Elena is now a vampire. Let's see just how well she copes with that fact xD.

Thanks for stopping by; read, review and above all, enjoy your stay :).

If weeks ago she had known what she knew now, some things would have gone a completely different way but alas, now it was too late.

When she opened her eyes, entering the world of immortality for the first time, he was there. Yet, not the way she would have liked to see him. He wasn't smiling and his eyes weren't gleaming mirthfully just because he decided that it was going to be a good day. That charming grin of his was not tugging at his lips and one of his brows wasn't lifted in mock attitude of her silly comments.

She didn't hear his masculine laughter emerge from his lungs and she didn't get to feel his hand on her shoulder.

He was sad, disappointed and angry. His arms were crossed over his broad chest and the look in his eyes was cold. And the moment she came back to life, he turned his head towards his brother, standing on the other side of her laying form, nodded in recognition and left.

Had she known he was leaving for good, she would have said something. She would have gotten up and ran right after him. She would have grabbed onto his body and begged him to stay because losing him was the last thing she ever wanted.

But she knew neither of those things. For those crucial moments, she was ignorant.

She pulled onto the Salvatore Boarding House driveway, not really sure how she felt about it.

She hadn't seen Damon since he left the hospital yesterday without as much as a single word. And she was dead curious as to what he had to say about her transformation. It was more than obvious that he had not been exactly thrilled about it or at least that was what she gathered in those quick seconds before he stormed off.

So, instead of calling him and play 20 questions, she drove to the house.

As she spent yesterday, surrounded with all of the possible people from Mystic Falls, answering every quirky question and then talked her condition through with Stefan, she felt no need to announce her arrival. Besides, she knew Damon had his whims but a day of solitude probably cooled his fiery temper down.

Locking the car, she casually strolled towards the entrance door, rang the bell and prepared herself for a snotty greeting from none other than the eldest of Salvatore brothers.

Whatever was buzzing around her mind in those moments though, was interrupted by the click of the door knob.

"Elena?"

Stefan was standing in front of her, his hair adorably messed up, t-shirt wrinkled. He had a somewhat sour smile on his lips and a thoroughly surprised look in his eyes.

"Stefan?"

She didn't exactly want for his name to come out as a question but he didn't seem to notice the slip as he leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss on her lips.

"Come in." he said, stepped aside for her to enter and then closed the door.

"How are you feeling?"

She shrugged, following him to the parlour, curiously looking around herself, trying to use all of her heightened senses to somehow locate Damon.

"I'm fine for now, but I'm guessing that's because of the blood I consumed yesterday, right?" she answered with a bit of a delay while Stefan poured her a glass of lemonade and sat down on the sofa, staring, scrutinizing her face.

"Yeah, it is. No animalistic attacks on your conscience so far?"

He tried to be funny and it was the first thing that somehow seemed off to Elena. She didn't want to have any doubts about him or make comparisons in her mind, but Stefan really wasn't the one, talented for humour. Unless he was with Damon; then he could do anything.

"No, not yet." she then smiled back and was about to ask where Damon was when a horrifying pain shot through her temples. She bent over in pain, grabbing her knees in support. Stefan, letting his glass fall to the padded floor and the liquid spilling all over, rushed over to her side.

"Elena? What's wrong?"

"My head. It hurts." she panted, trying to sooth the blunt stabbing by doing so. He gently took her head in his hands and looked her in the eyes, concerned beyond belief. She was dead now; it wasn't possible that the pain from the haemorrhage she experienced still as a human would somehow transfer itself onto her vampiric form.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" he suddenly barked, only now noticing the switching shapes of her dark pupils.

"What?" she breathed but was otherwise not able to say anything else.

"Please, give it back." she begs while he holds her necklace out of her reach.

"I just have to say something." he says, closing the distance.

"Why do you have to say it with my necklace?" she's frightened.

"Well, because what I'm about to say is probably the most selfish thing I've ever said in my life." he reiterates, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Damon, don't go there." she pleads.

"I just have to say it once. You just need to hear it."

They stand so close, staring at each other.

"I love you, Elena." he finally admits, like he just realized it for real himself.

"And it's because I love you, that I can't be selfish with you. Why you can't do this. I don't deserve you. But my brother does."

He leans in and kisses her forehead while she closes her eyes. Then he cups her face and she can hear the pain in his voice.

"God I wish you didn't have to forget this."

She doesn't understand what he means.

"But you'll do."

A tear escapes his eye; the pupils spread and then narrow again.

The necklace is resting around her neck, he is gone and she remembers nothing.

"Elena! Talk to me!"

She sees Stefan's lips move. She hears the sounds coming from his mouth yet she doesn't really understand them. The pain from her temples is gone and instead replaced by an uncomfortable knot in her stomach.

"Stefan? I need to talk to Damon."

He looks trapped. Like someone who was forced to do something he would otherwise love to avoid at all costs.

"I just remembered something." she apologetically adds.

"Damon isn't home." Stefan states.

"Okay, then I'll call him."

"You can't. His phone is in his room."

"Damon never forgets his phone."

"He didn't forget it. He left it on purpose."

"Why?"

"Elena, Damon is gone and he's not coming back."