Title: Crossing Bridges

Author: the moon and the stars

Category: The Vampire Diaries

Rating: T

Genre: Drama/Romance

Characters: Full ensemble, Elena/Damon

Chronology: Post-3x22

Summary: Elena Gilbert thought life as a human was tough, but she's about to find out that being a vampire is a whole new level of impossible. Especially when her complicated feelings for two brothers are heightened, and an old friend they thought was gone for good returns to Mystic Falls with a new and terrifying agenda… Full ensemble, Damon/Elena. Set post-3x22.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize doesn't belong to me.

A/N: Alright, so after months of planning and hesitating, I finally worked up the courage to write and post this. Why I chose a multi-chapter, multi-character story as my first fic, I have no idea… I must be crazy. Oh well. Let's just say the inspiration struck and leave it at that.

Important note: I've listed this as a Damon/Elena story, but this is truly more of a full ensemble fic with slight Delena-centric tendencies, so be prepared to see plenty of ALL of our favorite characters and pairings! It starts after 3x22 and will include some (not all) events from 4x01 before veering off into my alternate S4-verse. And just to be clear… I'm not writing this because I'm unhappy with the canon Season 4. I've just had this idea plaguing me since forever and I've finally decided to see where it leads. I'm very excited, so thanks for giving this a shot!

Also, a HUGE thanks goes out to The Vampire Diaries wiki pages, which were especially helpful creating these first few chapters and just general fact-checking.

Since I don't want to distract you any longer, I'll save the rest of my babbling for later. Enjoy!

Death is only the beginning - Unknown

Prologue: Reborn

Elena Gilbert jolted awake, gasping, and immediately noticed several things that seemed… off.

First, her throat throbbed with the lingering ache of someone who hadn't had a drop to drink in days, which begged the question: Just how long had she been there? And where exactly was there, anyway? She couldn't seem to remember how she had gotten wherever she was, or even what had happened before she woke up.

Warily Elena sat up, automatically wincing as she peered at her surroundings from beneath her thick eyelashes—which alerted her to Peculiarity Number Two: It was really bright. Too bright. So much so, in fact, that she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open without pain erupting behind them. She had to settle for blinking uncontrollably.

Shielding her face with her hand, Elena snuck a quick glimpse at the source of light illuminating the room, wondering why it hurt so much. But there was only minimal overhead lighting—three long halogen lights dulled by old, dusty, opaque coverings—and yet somehow, her eyes felt as though they were being carved with a high-intensity laser beam? It didn't make sense.

As her vision gradually adjusted, Elena squinted and scoured the room for clues, trying to identify her mystery location. If she could figure out where she was, maybe it would trigger her memories and she could figure out how she had gotten there in the first place. But even after one, two, three quick examinations of the room, Elena realized with mild alarm that her surroundings were completely unfamiliar to her. She had never been there before, and she had no idea how she had gotten there now.

The room was plain, organized, and small, no larger than her quaint living room, and it was bordered by shockingly white walls, ceiling, and tiled flooring. It certainly made up for the lack of overhead lighting; the white-finished surfaces reflected what little light there was, magnifying it, almost as if the designer had tried to keep the inherent darkness from the room simply by painting over it. Elena wrapped her arms around herself, suppressing a shiver. Both the temperature and the atmosphere were chilly, making her feel strangely claustrophobic in what appeared to be a nonthreatening space.

Continuing her inspection, Elena turned around, noting the rows of identical stainless steel drawers that lined the long wall opposite the entrance door. They stretched from the left wall all the way to the right, with columns that nearly reached the ceiling. Elena quickly did the math: There were forty of them. What did they contain?

A nearby flash of silver caught her eye, diverting her attention. Next to her, Elena found a small stainless steel table covered with a variety of sharp metal instruments. Doctor's tools, Elena immediately recognized. It didn't take her long to start fitting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Okay, she though rationally. I'm in the hospital. I must have been in some sort of accident. It would explain her (hopefully temporary) amnesia, and given her checkered medical history, it certainly wasn't a stretch.

But where were all the people? The doctors, nurses, other patients? And that's when Elena noticed the distinct lack of windows in her room. No visual access to the outside world whatsoever, which struck her as highly unusual. Wouldn't the staff want to be able to see their patients? And why wasn't anyone with her? Why was she left all alone?

Desperate for answers, Elena fumbled around for the call button that she knew from previous experience would send a staff member to her room to check on her. They usually kept it close to the hospital beds for easy access… but where was it?

It wasn't until then that Elena realized: She wasn't in a bed.

Her hands tightly grasped the edges of a cold, flat, metal table long enough to support her when she had been lying down. The hard surface was wreaking havoc on her lower back; why hadn't she noticed sooner? And what kind of hospital gave its patients such uncomfortable accommodations, anyway?

And then, without warning, the truth hit her all at once. Hard.

Her makeshift bed, the rows of drawers, the windowless room, the lack of people.

But it couldn't be. It was impossible. She couldn't be where she thought she was… could she?

No, it was just—no. It was too tragic, not to mention ridiculous! But it was okay, it wasn't true, it couldn't have happened, not to her, not to Elena, not after everything she had been through, there was just—there was simply no way that she was actually—

But she was. Deep down, Elena knew that her suspicion, churning wildly in her gut, much as she dreaded to face it, was the truth. And there was no amount of denial, no amount of desperation, begging, or rationalization that could change it.

Elena felt the panic settle in, take root, and spread mercilessly through every inch of her body as she finally acknowledged it to herself: She wasn't just in the hospital; no, she was somewhere much more specific. Somewhere she definitely didn't want to be. But instinctively she knew it was where she belonged.

The morgue.

And with that, the memories came flooding back in full force.

Elena was trapped, immobilized by her seatbelt and paralyzed by shock as she grasped the urgency of her situation. Water rapidly flooded the vehicle, slowing her movements as she tried in vain to open her passenger side door. Lying next to her in the driver's seat was Matt, unconscious, leaving her completely on her own and at the mercy of her growing fear.

Fear for Matt, and for herself; fear for the loved ones that she would be leaving much too soon; fear for her unfulfilled hopes and dreams and possibilities that dwindled away as quickly as the water level rose in Matt's truck.

Elena greedily sucked in a lungful of air just as the water swallowed them both completely.

So this is how it ends, she accepted, defeated.

Even amidst the chaos, Elena couldn't help thinking how fitting it all was, the irony. She was supposed to die here, under Wickery Bridge, with her parents all those nights ago. Fate had intervened once. She doubted she would be so lucky a second time.

But fate did intervene again. Just like before, Stefan came to her rescue. Except this time, Elena was determined to repay the favor given her by her father. Her dad had insisted that Stefan save her first, letting himself and his wife drown in place of their beloved daughter—a request Stefan had obliged without hesitation. He had saved her life that night, and in their time together since, he kept saving her over and over again in more ways than one. She could never thank her dad enough for giving her a second chance at life.

It was too bad she never got the "living" part quite right. Her parents had been part of the Founder's Council, which swore to protect Mystic Falls against vampires, against the very beings that Elena invited into her life with open arms. If her parents had been alive to witness her choices firsthand, would they be honestly be proud of her? Would they be proud of someone who showed compassion to those they believed to be monsters? Would they understand? Or would they be disappointed to see a daughter that let them down, horrified at how far she had strayed from the Gilbert family legacy?

Would they regret sacrificing themselves to save that Elena? The version of their daughter they never got a chance to know?

Elena may have failed her parents before, but in that moment, as she swept the haunting memories of the past behind her, she vowed that she could at least get it right this time. That's why when Stefan came to save her once again, she knew what she wanted to do. What she had to do. Her dad had saved her once, and she had been living on borrowed time ever since; and now, faced with the same choice that he once made, she couldn't think of a better way to respect her parents' sacrifice than by using it to save someone that she loved this time.

With grim determination, Elena frantically gestured for Stefan to save Matt first. Initially he resisted, automatically reaching for Elena's seatbelt, but she was unyielding. Matt first, or nobody.

Elena finally saw the acceptance form in Stefan's eyes before they clouded over with what she assumed was grief—she wasn't sure, it was hard to tell through the haze clouding her vision and her mind—before grabbing Matt and dragging him to the surface. As she watched the pair fade away into safety, she had never felt greater relief. And she had never felt more alone.

Elena had no illusions about Stefan returning for her in time. She could already feel her lungs straining from the lack of oxygen and knew she had only seconds left before she lost consciousness.

At least I won't die in vain, she thought with the last of her resolve.

And she truly believed that—until Jeremy's face floated to the forefront of her mind. Elena loved her brother more than any other person in the world, and she hated that he would be left without a family. He deserved so much more than the misery she had brought into his life when she started associating with vampires. But maybe with her gone, he would finally stand a chance at having a normal life. She hoped Matt would look after him. He was always so good to her brother—a true friend.

She hoped Bonnie would look after Jeremy too, and not just for his sake. They both deserved to be with people that made them happy, and despite the obstacles they had faced as a couple, Elena knew some day they would find their way back to each other. She also hoped that Bonnie never lost her conviction. Although the two of them had butted heads several times this past year, Elena had always admired her friend's unwavering sense of right and wrong, and she secretly wished she were as morally strong as Bonnie was.

For Caroline—because Elena refused to believe that her friends' lives ended with Klaus; he must have been lying—Elena hoped that she never lost her love of life. Her ability to inspire happiness in those around her was such a gift, one that their sad little town certainly needed in such turbulent times. Her optimism perfectly balanced Bonnie's realism, and Elena truly hoped that despite their different natures, they would always be there for each other as best friends should. And perhaps when the pain of Tyler's death wasn't so fresh, Caroline might meet someone else worth sharing her eternal life with. She deserved that much at the very least.

As for Stefan and Damon… More than ever, Elena dearly wished that she hadn't followed in Katherine's footsteps and repeated her past mistakes—inadvertently making both brothers fall for her—because when Stefan and Damon thought Katherine was gone forever, it nearly destroyed them. As if stringing them along wasn't bad enough, now Elena was leaving both of them for good, just as Katherine did. But maybe Klaus was right—maybe without Elena tearing them apart, they could mend their relationship and move on with their lives. It was the only thing that gave Elena any sort of comfort from the heartache that hurt so much worse than dying.

And maybe, just maybe, without the resident doppelganger acting as a magnet for trouble, Mystic Falls would finally find peace from the world of the supernatural.

Her final thought before embracing the dark was that she fiercely hoped, despite everything, that her parents would be proud of her.

Suddenly oblivion didn't seem quite so terrifying, and Elena knew she was finally ready to die.

As she felt the pain slowly recede, death almost seemed comforting; welcome, even…

Blackness consumed her, a stark contrast to the piercing light that would greet her when she unexpectedly returned to the land of the living.

When she began her new life.

A shocked gasp tore itself from Elena's raw throat as she recalled those final moments. Suddenly feeling as trapped as she was in Matt's truck, she took several deep breaths in a desperate attempt to regain some sense of control, superficial as it was. But not even the steady rhythm of air moving in and out of her lungs could do anything to alleviate her boundless anxiety.

In fact, it did nothing to satisfy her whatsoever. Literally, nothing. Breathing seemed more of a habit—a chore, even—than a physical necessity. It was by far the most unsettling insight she had had about herself since she woke up alone and disoriented.

It didn't make any sense, until—

I don't need to breathe anymore, Elena realized with horror. Because… because I'm dead.

And of course she was. Funny how the most ridiculous answer ironically turned out to be the most logical one, and in this case, it was also the correct one. Every peculiarity, every recovered memory, every one of her instincts… they all pointed to the same conclusion. Stefan didn't save her in time. She didn't make it out of the water alive. She died. It was so obvious. Why else would she be in the morgue?

But if she was dead… then that meant…

Elena gasped. Oh my God. I'm… in transition?

No. I can't be turning into a—

But she had already left panic behind, leaping face-first into full-blown hysteria.

—Vampire.

Elena opened her mouth and screamed.

A/N: And that's the prologue! Thanks for giving my fic a chance, and I hope you like it so far. If you do, stick around, because we're in for a long journey ahead of us! Chapter 1 is pretty much finished, so see you soon for the update!